Mohd Amin Yaacob al-Firdaus.Com |
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CHAPTER SEVENContradictions And Errors In The Biblical Text 11.1 Prophet Solomon Died As An Apostate 11.2 Concerning The Number Of Men Of Israel Who Returned From Exile 11.3 The Prophecy Concerning The Coming And Death Of Jesus 11.5 The Prophecy In Hosea “I Called My Son Out Of Egypt” 11.6 Contradiction Between The Saying Of Jesus And John The Baptist 11.7 The Earthquake and the Raising of the Dead at Jesus Crucifixion 11.8 The Second Coming Of Jesus. 11.9 The Prophecy Of Prophet Jeremiah Concerning The Betrayer Of Jesus EPILOGUE
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11.8 The Second Coming Of Jesus.
Matthew reports Jesus saying to his disciples:
“When you are persecuted in one time, flee to the next. I assure you that I, the son of Man, will return before you have reached all the towns of Israel.” (Matthew 10:23, NLT)
Mark also has:
“Jesus went on to say: “I assure you that some of you standing here right now will not die before you see the Kingdom of God arrive in great power.” (Mark 9:1, NLT)
The book of Revelation contains this statement:
“Look, I am coming quickly” (3:11, NLT) Further in verse 20 it says again:
“Look, here I stand at the door and knock” (NLT)
According to Maulana Rahmatullah Kairanawi, on the basis of these statements of Jesus, the earlier followers of Christianity held the firm belief that the second coming of Jesus would be in their own life time. They believed that they were living in the last age and that the day of Judgement was very near at hand. [1] For example, St. Paul of Tarsus expected that the second coming of Jesus would happen in his lifetime. Early in his work as a preacher he talked of 1 Thesssalonians 4:15-18 which says:
“I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. So comfort and encourage each other with these words.”
Commenting on the above issue, Imam Ibn Hazm in his “al-Fisol” says:
“The Disciples had already gone through the cities to which Jesus referred, but they had not seen his second coming or the Kingdom of God that they had been promised.”[2]
Commenting on Paul’s 1 Thessalonians, Humphrey Carpenter, the modern Christian scholar author of “Jesus” said that:
“…but years passed and the glorious event did not occur”[3]
He further states:
“By the time the Gospels were written the prediction of a very swift coming of the son of Man [Jesus Christ]…have proved untrue, and undoubtedly many of Jesus original disciples had died, so that the prediction that some of them would live to see the coming of the Kingdom must have at least seemed open to question.”[4]
[1] Izharul Haq, Part 2, 107 [2] The Muslim View Of Christianity With Special Reference To The Work of Ibn Hazm, 220-221 [3] Jesus (Oxford University Press, UK), 1996, 91 [4] Jesus, 61
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