I want to ask you about Matthew 10:23. What did Jesus mean when he said: "You will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes"? Does this refer to the Twelve or to us living in this time? -- Sergey Glushonkov (Russia)
In Mark 13:30, when Jesus is talking about the end of the age, he says, "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." Well, they're all dead and Jesus hasn't come back! I don't understand this. -- Jessie
We must respect the context of these passages. Jesus is saying that the Twelve (and their Jewish mission in Palestine) will last until the "coming" of Jesus. This coming is not what we usually call the "second coming"; it is a coming in judgment against physical Israel. For more on this, see my paper The Destruction of Jerusalem at this website. Jews were still being converted as late as 70 AD, when through the Roman armies God punished Israel. Note: in the Bible, the Lord often works through foreign armies to discipline or punish a faithless nation.
If this view is correct, the end of the age would be the end of the Jewish age.
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