Sunday, February 20, 2022 PM

The Coming of the Son of Man as Judgment

Falling down on the job, not doing what God had designed them to do, the meaning of this language. And we're going to continue to look at this passage. And what does it mean when Jesus says that all these things will happen to this generation, will come upon this generation?

So we're trying to understand what that looks like. What does that mean? So Matthew 24, beginning in verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and.

The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven. We read that.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days. And if we're wondering what days are those, we simply have to go back and read earlier in the chapter when Jesus says, when you see the abomination of desolation, which he explains in Luke as armies surrounding Jerusalem.

He tells them to flee Judea, flee the city, because then will occur a tribulation unlike anything that had been seen before. And not be deceived, but to flee Judea and Jerusalem. And then he says immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky.

The powers of the heavens will be shaken. And we read several passages in the Old Testament regarding Edom, and Egypt, and Syria, Babylon, and even Jerusalem in 586 BC. This very same language about stars falling, sun and moon darkening, was used about those great disasters where the world ended for Egypt, or the world ended for Edom, or the world ended for Babylon.

And so we see that this is an expression of the overturning of governing authorities, the the end of a reign for some person of power, the cessation of a system of government. And this is used more than once in the Scriptures as that expression, as that metaphor.

And now we're trying to look at what remains in this text about the sign, and the coming, and the gathering that I mentioned here in this passage. Remembering that Jesus says all these things will come upon this generation.

So I want to start with the coming, because if we understand the coming, we'll understand the sign. So we read that they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

Old Testament Patterns of God Coming in Judgment

So what does this mean? Well, when we read about the coming of Christ, the instinct of most believers is to immediately think about what we read about in Matthew 25, about Christ coming and setting all things right, raising the dead, sheep on the right, goats on the left.

He has come in glory with his angels. We read about the the coming of Christ when all of his people are gathered up to him, caught up with him in the air. That is the coming we think of immediately. And for good reason.

It is packed full of hope. It is packed full of wonderful promises that we should live our lives accordingly every day. But this is not the only time that God has come. It is not the only time that Christ has come.

And we need to understand the use of the term in the scripture. How does the Bible use this term? So we go back to the Old Testament to understand the coming of God. The word in the Old Testament, the word is pachad.

In the Hebrew, it means to visit. And, oh, isn't that nice? Someone pays a visit. But this kind of visit is the kind of visit where the master who owns everything shows up to see if things are going correctly.

Or the master has heard that things aren't going well. He shows up, surprise inspection, and he begins to deal out the judgment. And we see this more than once in the Old Testament. Remember that God came in Genesis 11.

You better remember the story. In the plains of Shinar, the people had gathered together to make a name for themselves and to build a great tower, one that would reach all the way to the heavens. And God came down to see this stumpy little thing that they were building.

And he came in judgment. And he confused their languages and frustrated their purposes. We read that God came in judgment against the enemies of King David. In Psalm 18, we also read in the book of Samuel, we read about God coming down in great power and glory riding on clouds and destroying the enemies of King David.

Let's turn in our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 19 verses 1 through 4. Isaiah chapter 19 verses 1 through 4. The text reads, "...the burden against Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and will come into Egypt.

The idols of Egypt will totter at his presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. I will set Egyptians against Egyptians. Everyone will fight against his brother, and everyone against his kingdom.

City against city, kingdom against kingdom. The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst. I will destroy their counsel. They will consult the idols and the charmers, the mediums and the sorcerers. And the Egyptians I will give into the hand of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.".

Isn't that interesting? God says he will come to Egypt. And this is not a moment where they roll up the red carpet and they welcome the creator of the universe. This is him coming in judgment. That's what it means when he comes.

It's a matter of bringing judgment upon them. And how does he come? He says he comes upon the clouds. Unless we think God is surfing down upon the clouds, it's important to remember that the theme of clouds are often connected with judgment throughout the scriptures.

Notice what happens when he shows up. Does God take a direct hand in the matter? Certainly he is sovereign over everything that occurs in the failure of Egypt, the destruction of Egypt. But notice there are Egyptians fighting Egyptians.

God could have done it differently. He could have come with a kind of darkness that he did in the 10 plagues, in the stories in Exodus. He could have come with a supernatural darkness. He could have come and brought bolts of lightning directly from heaven, inside the darkness, and killed the wicked.

He could have taken a very direct approach in his judgment. But notice how he does it. He sets Egyptian against Egyptian, and the Egyptians start fighting each other. And someone's going to say, the natural rifts in the society of Egypt overflowed with great stresses, and they had a civil war.

And somebody's going to explain it with a very naturalistic way of reading it. But the truth of the matter is, God was the one at work. He came in judgment, and the Egyptians went to war against each other.

And then notice further. Verse 4, he says, "...and the Egyptians I will give into the hand of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.". Not only, as God comes in judgment, does he set the Egyptians against each other in a civil war, but he also brings another king, a foreign king, that comes in and conquers this divided land, and rules over it.

Historians may sit back and reflect about the rise and fall of various dynasties in Egypt, and they'll explain it in all kinds of terms, from the political to the environmental. But what happened? God came.

And then what happened? He set the Egyptians against each other, and brought a foreign king as his tool of judgment against Egypt. Now, we read several passages like this in the Old Testament, where God comes, and he comes in judgment, and uses various means to accomplish his judgment against the wicked nation that is currently his focus.

And I think it's important for us to reflect on that this is the language of the scripture when we read about the coming of God. So, an example in our handout, this place is for you to be wise Bereans, and to search the scriptures for yourselves, and to read these contexts, and see what they have to say.

These are passages throughout the scriptures that talks about the coming of the Lord in specific judgment. And the passages that have clouds as part of the imagery that is used, are underlined so that you can trace that as well.

That's important as we read in Matthew 24, that there's the coming of the Son of Man in clouds. What does that mean if we use the biblical terminology? Not necessarily the cinemagraphic visuals that we might put into a movie, or perhaps what someone would think of in terms of what they would put on a painting, but how are these terms and images used in the scriptures?

And seeing them defined and how they are used there, then we use that and apply the meaning in Matthew 24. Someone may note that the coming of the Lord in the Old Testament is perhaps different from the coming of the Lord in the New Testament, but the language of judgment is always there.

Consider even the coming of Matthew 25. When he comes in glory with all of his angels, what does Jesus do at that great day of the resurrection? What does Matthew 25 says that he does? He says he comes down and sits upon his throne of glory, and then what does he do?

Matthew 25 sets the sheep on the right, the goats on the left, and then what does he do? He judges. You see, even the final coming of Christ is a act of judgment, is it not? So we're being consistent when we see the word coming, or the Lord is coming, to of judgment because that is the theme that is attached to it throughout the scriptures, no matter which one we're looking at.

Every time the Lord comes, every time our Creator comes, there's a kind of judgment that takes place, an evaluation, a consideration. And even in terms of the first coming of Christ, the advent of Christ, when Jesus came and he begins to proclaim himself as God the Son, as the Messiah, here he is the Son of God, what does he want to make sure that everybody understands?

I did not come into the world to judge the world. Why? Because every time there's a coming, there's a judgment, right? That's what they're thinking immediately. Coming means judgment. And so Jesus says, I did not come into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved.

Judgment did come, but not upon us, not upon the the sinners. The judgment fell upon the Son, Jesus Christ, in his advent. So even in his first coming, judgment fell, but it fell upon Christ instead of upon those who truly deserved it, like you and I.

So every time we read about the coming of the Lord, we should think to ourselves, ah, this is attached to the theme of judgment. It's a very biblical way to think. So when we look at this passage, we should not think it's a, the coming of the Lord is only judgment in the Old Testament.

After all, Jesus himself uses this expression to speak to some churches in Asia Minor. So in Revelation chapter 2, in Revelation chapter 2, Jesus is dealing with the church of Ephesus, the church of Ephesus.

And you might recall that the seven churches of Asia Minor, some of them had some things that Jesus was not too keen on. He was rebuking them for. Listen to how he deals with this church, Revelation 2 verse 5.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works or else I will, what? I will come to you quickly. Hang on a second, I thought that's what everybody wanted. This is not being used as a promise of reward and blessing.

This is a threat from the Lord of the church to a church that is not doing right. And he's saying, you better repent or I'm going to come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place. Revelation 2 verse 16, speaking to the church in Pergamos.

Repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth, those amongst their church who were holding to false doctrine. I will come to you quickly and fight. Jesus is using the language of coming, but he's not thinking about his glorious return to raise the dead.

He's using it as an expression of I'm going to come and judge. And one more example in Revelation 3 .3, to the church in Sardis. Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Hold fast and repent.

Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. Hang on a second, I remember that illustration. The thief in the night, right? Isn't that analogy or isn't that imagery only ever used about the surprising return of Christ?

Well, who told Jesus that he could only use an illustration once in one context? Hey, if it's a great analogy, use it again. He says this to a particular church named Sardis. Hey, you better repent or else I will come to you like a thief in the night.

Daniel 7 and the Ascension of the Son of Man

So I think that's important for us to keep in mind as we read what goes on in Matthew 24. When we read about the coming of Christ, we must be careful to read the context about what does he mean when he says that.

So let's read it again in verse 30. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Okay, so where do we find that language in the Bible of the Son of Man coming on clouds of glory? What part of the Bible do we find that in? Oh, it was only a few weeks ago. It's Daniel chapter 7. So we can turn over there in our Bibles.

Daniel chapter 7. Now we've been reading in Matthew 24 and Jesus has been promising that a great judgment would come. He has identified this generation as a perverse generation. He has said that all of the guilt, the blood guiltiness of all the killing of the prophets throughout the generations will come upon this generation.

He has just finished declaring several woes, eightfold woes upon the religious leaders and he has said that all these things will come upon this generation. Yes, the temple will be destroyed. Yes, there will be great disaster, great tribulation, he says.

So we know that what he's talking about is a judgment of God upon the temple, upon Jerusalem, upon these covenant breakers, these very same folks who would soon be shouting, his blood be upon us and our children.

Okay, so he's talking about judgment. Now his coming is a judgment but he uses the language of the Son of Man coming on clouds of great glory. So we read in Daniel chapter 7 in verse 13, I was watching in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven.

Sounds familiar? Remember that Jesus in teaching his disciples has already begun to talk about Daniel. When you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not, let the reader understand.

He's already been talking about this context of Daniel. He comes back to it now. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great glory. He's quoting again from Daniel chapter 7.

Now notice, as Daniel watches one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, what direction does he go? He came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. Which direction was he going in the vision that Daniel had?

He was going up, he was ascending. Now this is the language of the ascension of Christ. And then to him, verse 14, was given dominion and glory in a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away in his kingdom, the one which will not be destroyed. This very same scene is recreated and we see it all over again in Revelation chapter 5.

As John goes to the throne room and sees the ascension of Christ to the right hand of the Father and the very same language is used there. So we know that the language of coming means a judgment. We know that Christ has said that the judgment is coming upon the temple and Jerusalem.

And we know who is bringing the judgment. The Son of Man is bringing the judgment. He's the one who brings the judgment. Why does he get to bring the judgment? Who put him in charge? God put him in charge.

Daniel 7 says so. He ascended to the right hand of the Father on clouds of glory. That's why he's the one who brings the judgment, because God put him in charge. So by understanding what the coming of the Son of Man is in this context, a judgment upon Jerusalem and the temple, then we can understand what the earlier part of verse 30 is talking about.

The Sign of the Son of Man and the Meaning of Heaven

And for this you can flip over to the other side of your handout with the various translations set side by side. Now in this case we have an interesting challenge on our hands because sometimes the translators want to try to make things as clear as they can and so they provide an interpretation more than a translation.

So when we read in verse 30, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Or we read that the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. What are we being told by some translations? They're saying, well in this case when you read heaven, think sky.

They're trying to be clear. However when you read the text, there are various uses of the word heaven in a very close collection of three verses. So which heaven are we working with here? It's all the same word in the Greek, I'm so sorry, but the word for sky, the word for outer space, and the word for in the presence with God in heaven.

It's all the very same word in the Greek. And all three uses are used in three verses. So we read in verse 29 that the powers of the heavens will be shaken and the stars will fall from heaven. The image is saying look out to outer space.

Do you see those stars? Do you see the Sun? Do you see the moon? Then we have the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Well Daniel's identified that in chapter 7 as the heaven of the throne room of God.

And then when we read in verse 31 at the very end that God is gathering his people from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other, well that's the sky. So in these three verses we have all three uses of the word heaven all compacted together.

And now we're left with the question at the beginning of verse 30, which one is intended? Which heaven are we talking about? Is it the sky? Is it outer space? Is it heaven like in the presence of God?

So we have that question that we have to answer. Also sometimes in translation they're trying to they change up the word order to try to make it more easy on the eyes as we read in our English language.

But the word order sounds exactly like this, and then will be revealed the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. That's how it sounds in the original. And then will be revealed the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.

Very close to what Darby translated, interestingly enough. The Geneva Bible translated it that way, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. King James, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.

Even the NIV, then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. The RSV, same. And the TLV, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. Why is that significant? Because if we begin to interpret it and say that well heaven is sky, if the translator does that, the translator takes away from the saint the responsibility to interpret the text for himself or herself, based on the context.

Because they've determined for you how you should read it. I don't think that's legitimate. Okay, so I think the word heaven should be there, first of all. And the word order is very important here. Here's the question.

Is this text saying that the sign that reveals that the Son of Man is in heaven is going to appear? Or does it say that the Son of Man is going to appear in the sky as a sign? Which one is it? Then shall appear the sign of what?

Of the Son of Man in heaven. Just as Jesus then says the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven from Daniel 7. See, he quotes Daniel 7 and Daniel 7, where is the Son of Man? He's where? He's in heaven.

What is the sign that will appear that indeed he is heaven? That indeed he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords? What is that sign? I think it's the destruction of Jerusalem in the temple. Proving that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Of course, you could read it the other way and say, then shall appear the sign in heaven of the Son of Man. Some sign will appear in the sky and that's why it's also been read. I think in context, because Jesus is quoting Daniel 7 and saying that the Son of Man is in heaven, by what sign will the people on in the land know that he indeed is in heaven?

How will they know that? What will the proof be? Well, Jesus gave the proof. He said what the proof would be in Matthew 26 verse 64 as Jesus is on trial and he speaks to the high priest. He speaks to the high priest in Matthew 26 and verse 64.

Jesus said to him, you have said it yourself nevertheless I tell you hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, Daniel 7, and coming on the clouds of heaven, which is an expression of judgment.

They're in the process of murdering him. They're in the process of claiming he is not God the Son, blaspheming him. And Jesus says, you will know the proof of who I am when the judgment comes and you're going to see it.

Like he already said in chapter 24, all these things will come upon this generation. Which brings us to the question of who will see the sign of the Son of Man. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

Who will see that? This is the tribes. The tribes of what? Darby does a great job of translating it. Then shall all the tribes of the land lament. Why does he say tribes instead of peoples? And why does he say land instead of earth?

Well, because the Greek word for tribes is used 31 times in the New Testament and it is always used with the tribes of Israel. It is never used to talk about the peoples of the earth. I checked it this afternoon again, just for my own sake.

So it makes sense that they would translate it as tribes. And the word for land or earth is used interchangeably. Half of it refers to earth, ground, soil, and so on. Half the time it refers to the land of Israel.

But if the word tribes always refers to the tribes of Israel, then it makes sense that the land would refer to the land upon which Israel lives. Who is the one who denied that Jesus is the Christ? The rebellious Jews did.

Who was it who murdered Christ and said his blood be upon us and our children? Well, the rebellious Jews did. And they rejected him as king of kings, they rejected him as Lord of lords, but then when the sign of the Son of Man appears, the tribe of the lands would lament.

The tribe of the land would lament. Indeed they did. They sorrowed in great woe and disaster as their city and temple were destroyed. This is why I think that Jesus is saying that all these things will come upon this generation.

There is no conflict between what he says here in verses 30 and him saying that it will all come to pass in that one generation. And the good news in verse 31, and he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other.

And very often this is connected to the promise in Thessalonians about us being gathered together with the Lord in the air, and we're gathered up together with him in victory. And what a great promise.

We should hold fast to that. But consider that after the destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, the expression that Jesus used to his disciples, if you say to this mountain be lifted up and cast into the sea, as he was pointing to the temple mount, that in the removal of the primary persecutor and obstacle to the gospel of Christ, the gospel did go out to the four corners of the earth, and rapidly so, so that the church fathers by the second and third century were talking about, we're everywhere.

We're at every boundary of the known world, and we are populating your cities, and we are in every place that you could find us. We've only left you your temples, was the jab. So the good news, I think, here is that through the judgment, through the passing away of the Old Covenant, which Hebrews 8 says is obsolete and ready to pass away, through the judgment of God upon Jerusalem and the temple, and they were moving out of the way, God sent forth his angels.

Are they actual angels or his messengers, his gospel messengers? I'm fine either way. God does his work, and he gathers his elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.

I tell you, that is good news for you and I. We are nowhere close to Jerusalem, if you haven't noticed. We are nowhere close to Jerusalem. We are in the farthest end of the earth from where Jesus was giving this talk.

That's good news for us that we are being gathered into the New Jerusalem by Christ and by his gospel. All right, so questions or thoughts about our conclusion of this section? Yes, when they say the word sky?

Yeah. The translators, the translation committee of the New American Standard Bible, in general, holds to a particular form of eschatology, which true Christians can hold and believe, and that's fine, but that influences their translations.

For example, when you get to the Book of Revelation and the description of the New Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit comes and moves John up to a high mountain, and the angel says to John, I want to show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

And John's like, oh, so he turns around looking for a beautiful woman in a white dress, right? But what does he see? He sees a city, the New Jerusalem. That's the bride of the Lamb. And then the description of the city.

One of the descriptions of the city is how it's immense, massive in size, and its height and its width and its length are equal. In the Greek, it's 12 ,000 stadia, 12 ,000 by 12 ,000 by 12 ,000. And in a book like Revelation, when you get to 12s and thousands and so on, there's some significance to that.

The New American Standard translates it 1 ,500 miles by 1 ,500 miles by 1 ,500 miles. That's not in the Greek. It's the wrong number, and it's the wrong use of measurement. But why would they say miles?

Because they're making an interpretation at that point, and not allowing the saint to decide for themselves. Is the New Jerusalem a big cube that's going to destroy all the satellites rolling around the earth?

God must hate satellites, because this thing's going to crush a whole bunch of them. Elon Musk, his whole thing is going to go away. They're just going to run into the walls of this thing over and over and over again.

1 ,500 miles, my goodness. Or should we read it in perhaps a different way? According to the literature of Revelation, 12 ,000 stadia, 12 ,000 stadia, 12 ,000 stadia. So that's a different lesson. But translations, translation committees will sometimes have a particular bent, which is a good example for what we just did with our handout, where we had a bunch of translations next to each other.

If you have a serious question that you want to answer about from the Bible, and you've got a weird-looking verse, it might be a profitable exercise in your study to print out a bunch of translations that are legitimate and lay them alongside one another just to see, and take great benefit from that.

And you might be able to see, oh, wow, all of these seem to read the same, and these over here read the same. I wonder why. But it'll give you some insight. All right, yes. Yeah, the 2020 version. Yeah, so you have basically the 77 edition or prior, but the 95 update was what I used for a long time, and they came out with an even newer one, the 2020, which, you know, that's a terrible year to put on anything.

I don't have great hopes for them selling a lot of that, but all right. Well, according to Jesus, he said that they would see it. That they would see it. Okay, and what he's saying in the context is they're denying that he's Messiah.

They're denying that he's the Christ. They're denying that he is, because he says in verse 63, Jesus kept silent, and the high priest answered and said to him, I put you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.

Exactly. He says yes, but obviously they don't believe it. They don't believe it. So, by what token or sign will it be proven to them that Jesus indeed is the Christ, the Son of the Living God? When they see it for themselves, and he says, and he quotes Daniel 7 and repeats what he said to his disciples already in Matthew 24, that the Son of Man, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven, and the coming on clouds of heaven is a common expression of judgment.

Okay, so Jesus quotes right here what he already said in Matthew 24, so to me it's coming in that generation. How would they receive the proof that the Son of Man was indeed at the right hand of God, King of kings and Lord of lords?

When they saw the judgment coming upon them, what was the judgment? The judgment was the destruction of Jerusalem in the temple. Yeah, so they're going, again, that's a great question. The same question is asked in Matthew 24, right?

So you go to Matthew 24 and in verse 30 it says, in the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. I think the grammar there is switched up. Actually, in the original it says, then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.

What's going to appear is a sign that says that the Son of Man is in heaven. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power, with power and great glory.

So what is said here in verse 30 is exactly what he says to the high priest. It's exactly the same thing. It does. And then you read down in verse 34, he says, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.

And then I'm brought up short. Then like, how is that possible, Jesus? I mean, you, yeah. So we have to take Jesus at his word that the sign that the Son of Man is at the right hand of God will appear, that there's going to be a judgment of God, and that this generation will by no means pass away to all these things take place, in verse 34.

That's been the challenge. The whole challenge of Matthew 24 is caught up in that when we read language that apparently is the end of everything, but then Jesus is making it specific to that generation.

How are we to understand that? And then when we go back and we take up the language of the scriptures from the Old Testament, we find that the language of God coming in clouds of power and glory to judge happens specifically to this city or that city or this nation or that nation.

And even though it was apocalyptic language that sounds like the end of the world, it's a judgment upon that particular place in that particular time. So we see that Jesus is using biblical language to describe judgment, and that explains why it's within that generation and isn't the final wrap-up.

If Jesus didn't say in verse 34 of chapter 24 and verse 36 of chapter 23 that all these things will come upon this generation, I would have no reason to think that. But I'm constrained to Jesus repeating it twice and then doubling down and saying heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

And I'm like, okay, I'm paying attention. You said that all these things will come upon this generation, so obviously I need to understand your words from a different perspective than my own. Which, again, when the stars come crashing into planet Earth, you think it's over.

But how are those, how is that language used in the Bible, right? When you read that the stars will fall from heaven, that sounds like a wrap-up at the end of everything, correct? Okay, then you'll read how that language is used in the Old Testament, and it happened several times over to various nations and cities.

So then how are we to understand it? Yeah, exactly. And it's such a problem that it's often ignored or kind of bypassed, and nobody, sometimes it's taught in a way that is not consistent with what's actually there.

Words are inserted to make it easier to comply. But it's such a problem that it's become a key verse in debates with atheists who point to it and say, obviously Jesus is a false prophet by your own standards, O Bible believers, because he said all these things would take place in that generation, and it didn't.

So obviously your Christ is a false prophet, right? And this has been the argument of people like Christopher Hitchens and Bertrand Russell, Albert Schweitzer, and so on, calling Jesus a false prophet because of that verse and because it's so challenging.

So our challenge is when Jesus uses a plain turn of phrase like this generation will by no means pass away to all these things take place, we can take it as a plain turn of phrase, and we believe that.

And then when he uses apocalyptic language about clouds and stars and visionary material from Daniel 7, we would interpret that according to the literature about what does that actually mean. And although it's challenging, I think it definitely harmonizes when we read how this very same language about the powers of the heavens, about clouds of glory, and so on, how is that language used in the Old Testament?

And that Jesus would be consistent with the use of that language in describing the judgment upon that generation, one stone will not be left upon another. Well, the text says the sign will appear of what?