The Fulfillment of Prophecy
As a person moves about in the church today, there is teaching that the church is approaching the fulfillment of what is called “the end times.” This is taught as being a time when the church will be raptured (a word that does not appear anywhere in the Scriptures-see Learning Activity #70), into heaven and great calamity will come upon the earth. The culmination of this time period is supposed to bring about the second physical appearance (return, presence, parousia) of Christ to set up a physical 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth. The purpose of this Learning Activity is to examine what the Scriptures say about these prophecies concerning Christ.
1. Luke 21:20, 21
2. What do you think is being described by Jesus in the two verses above?
3. Luke 21:22
4. What does Jesus say will take place in the verse above when the events described in verses 20 and 21 take place?
NOTE: If a person is convinced that the events of Luke 21:20, 21, took place circa AD 70, then it follows that you must also accept that all Old Testament prophecy has also been fulfilled! When Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70 the Old Testament would have had to be “fulfilled.” All of the prophecies from Moses through Malachi revolve around the passing away of apostate Israel in AD 70!
5. Acts 3:19
6. From the verse above, when was “the times of refreshing” to take place?
7. When did the presence of the Lord Jesus take place?
8. Acts 3:21
9. What does the part of the above verse that says, “Whom the heaven must receive…” mean to you?
10. What does the phrase “…until the times of restitution of all things…” in verse 21 mean to you?
11. What does verse 21 tell us this “restitution” (judgment) would consist of?
12. Acts 3:24
13. In the verse above, what is it that Peter (see verse 12) said about what the Old Testament prophets had prophesied and the fulfillment of those prophesies?
14. Luke 21:32
15. In the verse above, what did Jesus tell His disciples would happen during the generation of time in which they were then living?
16. Luke 24:44
17. What did Jesus tell the eleven (see verse 33) in the Luke 24:44 verse above?
When a person comes to the understanding that in Luke 21:22, 32, that Jesus spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem in circa AD 70, it naturally follows that you will come to the conclusion that there are no additional prophesies that need to be fulfilled! The time of the end in Luke 21:22 and 32 was when all prophecy would be fulfilled and coincided with the end of the Old Covenant and the destruction of Jerusalem. Everything that Jesus taught and prophesied was entirely fulfilled during the “this generation” time frame that Jesus referred to when He spoke to His disciples in Matthew 24:34. Jesus did not put anything off for some time period that would take place generations into the future. Neither did He create two time periods for fulfillment: one during the generation to whom He spoke, and another time period that would be thousands of years later. Jesus did not make anything obscure about why He came to earth, clearly stating (Matthew 5:17) that He didn’t come to destroy but to fulfill! His mission to be accomplished during “that generation” was to fulfill everything that was written in the law of Moses, in the prophets and the Psalms concerning Himself (as previously noted in this Learning Activity in Luke 24:44). The time of restoration of all things (not in the physical, but rather in the spiritual realm) spoken of by the prophets had come to its consummation at the end of the Old Covenant age!
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