Chapter XII - The Kingdom of God Coming With Power
From the book by Philip Mauro, The Gospel of the Kingdom

"Three of the Gospels record a prophecy of Christ concerning his kingdom, which, by his express word, was to be fulfiled in the lifetime of some who heard it. Mark's record of it:.Mark 9:1.

Matthew records the same prediction, but with a slight variation of language, the time of the predicted event being stated thus:.Matthew 16:28 "Till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.".In Luke it reads:.Luke 9:27 "Till they see the kingdom of God."

Revelation 1:7 "Behold, he comes with clouds and every eye (every eye back then).shall see him and they also which pierced him (those who pierced Him also saw His second coming). And all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen."

The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. so wiped out the established religious order which dated back to the beginning of the Mosaic Law, that it could never be brought back, thankfully!

The Pharisees, Sadducees, etc. based their lives on the religion they constructed by perverting the Old Testament Mosaic Law. Using this as a control method over others to their hurt and to advantage of the controllers, it just had to go. And it did!

"Have we then the authentic record of any event happening within that generation that answers to this prediction? There were two happenings that claim attention as we seek an answer to this question. Both those happenings were of great importance in the accomplishment of God's revealed purposes concerning his kingdom and both occurred within the time so emphatically limited by our Lord's words. 

"Those two events were, first the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and second, the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish nation by the Romans in A.D. 70. 

"Each of these events may be regarded and without straining at all the meaning of the words, as a coming of the kingdom of God. And each, moreover, may be regarded, in the light of scripture, as a coming of that kingdom with attendant circumstances that answer to the phrase."with power".(Matthew 24:30); circumstances such as were absent during Christ's Earthly ministry. 

"For the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was unquestionably a coming of that kingdom which the apostle.Paul afterwards defined as:.Romans 14:17 "...righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost"..Luke 17:21.

"We recall, moreover, in regard to the phrase."with power", that our Lord, in speaking to his disciples concerning the then approaching advent of the Holy Ghost, had said:.Acts 1:8 "You shall receive power..."

"Power was needed and was promised for the effective preaching of that gospel whereby those who believe it are."Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated.(transferred).us into the kingdom of his dear Son." ...Colossians 1:12,13. This is the gospel which has power and which is....Romans 1:16 "...the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes".

"The appalling destruction of the Jewish nation, their beautiful city and their magnificent temple, which unprecedented catastrophe was described anticipatively by Christ himself.(Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 12).was likewise a most evident and impressive coming of the Son of man."in power".(1Corinthians 4:20).

".....Unhappily the significance of that unprecedented.world shaking event is greatly minimized in the teaching of our day. 

"And my conviction is that, unless one sees the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and the events attending and consequent upon it in their true relation to the whole scheme of God's dealings with the human race in its two divisions of Jews and Gentiles, he will not be able to understand the general purport of.Bible.prophecy. 

"Of the two events referred to above as possible fulfilments of our Lord's prophecy, one occurred within a year of the time the prophecy was uttered, whereas the other lay much farther in the future, about forty years. Nevertheless, some who were standing there, notably the apostle John, lived to see that great work of divine power and judgment, which Moses had foretold:.Deuteronomy 28:49-64 and the like of which had not been."since the beginning of the world"....Matthew 24:21. 

"After much deliberation upon the matter, my conclusion is that, if choice must be made between those two events, it is the one later in date, that is, the annihilation of the Jewish nation, that being the manifest taking away from them of the kingdom of God.(according to the word of Christ recorded in Matthew 21:43).that our Lord had in view when He uttered the prophecy we are considering. I will indicate in what follows my main reasons for so thinking:

   1) "The words."There be some standing here that shall not taste of death"....Matthew 16:28; Luke 9:27 indicate that he had in contemplation an event that lay at a considerable distance in the future relatively to the ordinary duration of human life. His reference to the death of some then standing by would hardly be appropriate with respect to an event that was to happen within the space of a year. 

   2) "But a stronger reason is found in our Lord's Olivet prophecy, which is recorded by each of the three Gospel-writers who record the prophecy spoken at Caesarea Philippi. For in Christ's Olivet prophecy, the desolation of Judea, the siege of Jerusalem, the demolition of the Temple and the worldwide dispersion of the Jewish people, were foretold in detail. Specially is it to be observed that our Lord made use in that prophecy of expressions that are strikingly similar to those used in the earlier prophecy. Thus, referring in the Olivet prophecy.(Matthew 24th Chapter).to the approaching desolation of Judea and Jerusalem, he said:.Matthew 24:34 "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled.".Manifestly the words I have italicized are the exact equivalent of."There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till..."..., Moreover, in each case we have the emphatic introductory clause:.Matthew 16:28 "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.".Furthermore, the preceding chapter records the judgment pronounced upon the leaders of the nation, whereof the closing words are:.Matthew 23:36 "Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation".And then follows his sore lament for Jerusalem, in which occur the words:.Matthew 23:37,38 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kills the prophets and stones them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings and you would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate". These correspondences afford good reason for the belief that our Lord's prophecies at Jerusalem were amplifications of the brief prediction spoken at Caesarea Philippi. 

   3) "But there is yet another reason in support of the view stated above and this reason I regard as conclusive. In foretelling those coming."days of vengeance", in which."all things that were written".were to."be fulfilled":.Luke 21:22, Christ gave his disciples a sign whereby they should know that the predicted days of vengeance were come, so that they might save themselves by flight; the sign being the encircling of Jerusalem with armies:.Luke 21:20.

"And then, in order to impress the lesson upon their minds, he spake a parable concerning the fig tree and all the trees and said:.Luke 21:31,32 "So likewise you, when you see these things come to pass, know you that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all be fulfilled.".Thus we have Christ's own statement to the effect that the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the nation was a coming of the kingdom of God. And this he again coupled with the affirmation that his prediction would be fulfilled before the passing of that generation. 

"In studying the three accounts of our Lord's Olivet.(when He spoke on the Mount of Olives).prophecy, the student should observe that the period designated in Luke's account."the days of vengeance", wherein there should be."great distress in the land and wrath upon this people", is the same period that Mark designates."the days of affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation ...unto this time".(Mark 13:19).and that is designated by Matthew the."great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time":.Matthew 24:21. Does this mean that there is yet another great tribulation coming before the return of Christ who will step in to prevent further destruction?

"The context of the several passages make it certain that one and the same period of unprecedented calamity is referred to in the three passages. 

"Comparison should be made also with Daniel's prophecy:.Daniel 12:1 "...and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.".The close similarity between the language of this prophecy and that of our Lord's Olivet prophecy gives assurance that both refer to the same event. The words of the angel to Daniel refer expressly to the Jewish nation.("the children of thy people" ...Daniel 12:1). Those who were to be delivered in that time of unparalleled distress, those."found written in the book", were, of course, the disciples of Christ, who took warning by their Lord's utterance and fled for their lives when they saw his predicted sign. Happy for them they did not have some of our modern expounders of prophecy to instruct them as to the meaning of this prediction. 

"And particularly it should be observed, as fully confirming what is said above touching both the place and also the time of that season of distress and tribulation, wherein all the prophecies of."wrath upon this people".were to be fulfilled, that the.locality is expressly limited to Judea.(Matthew 24:16).and that the time is expressly limited to.the generation then living:.Matthew 24:34."
 

....continues to Kingdom of God Questions page 4

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