Showing posts with label Luke 21:25. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luke 21:25. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

XVIII. ARE SIGNS JEWISH?


“But are not signs Jewish? Are they not intended only for Israel? And, if so, would not attention to them distract us from our true hope?” A pointed question may convey a true or false thought in argumentation; it may remind of some true and fully admitted principle, or it may suggest the adoption of some fallacy as though it were a revealed truth.

Now, if signs were “Jewish”, indicating the glorious appearing of the Messiah, since there is but one Christ, and His coming in glory is the promise to His Church, they would be of equal significance to us, for they would instruct us as much as they would Jews. But on what ground are “signs” said to be “Jewish”? Our Lord's words are: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas” (Matthew 16:4). “Why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation” (Mark 8:12). To the generation of Israel, rejecting the resurrection of Jesus (“the sign of the prophet Jonas”), no sign shall be given. This unbelieving generation, from which Peter exhorted his hearers to save themselves (Acts 2:40), marked by the same moral characteristics, will not pass away until the things spoken of in Matthew 24 shall be accomplished in the manifestation of the glory of the Lord: and thus signs cannot be for them. “This generation” cannot mean the men then alive merely, for if so Israel would long ago have owned Jesus of Nazareth. “As the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in His day; but first must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:24,25). Unconverted Jews have said from this passage that, if Jesus had been a true prophet, the next generation of Israel would have believed on Him, for it was by that generation He was to be rejected. The argument is legitimate; the only fallacy is that of imagining that “generation” means the men then living. The future generation of Israel shall believe. 

No sign shall be given to unconverted Israel “this generation” rejecting the Son of Man: and any portion of Israel converted is essentially a portion of the Church, even as the Pentecostal saints were all Jews.

But the Lord has promised signs (“there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars” (Luke 21:25), and these signs can only be for His believing people. They are closely connected with our watchfulness. We wait for the budding of the fig-tree. “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh” (verse 28).