Wayne Jackson wrote this article that appeared in the July, 1978 edition of The Christian Courier. The paper was published by the East Main Street Church of Christ in Stockton, California and was edited by Jackson.
The late Bertrand Russell of Great Britain was a confessed atheist and a bitter opponent of Christianity. He once wrote an essay entitled Why I Am Not A Christian. A brief portion of that infamous literary production was a blasphemous section subtitled, "Defects in Christ's Teaching." Though Russell actually believed that it was, "quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all," he nevertheless felt that the Christ portrayed in the Gospel accounts was defective; both in character and in the content of His teaching. He contended the Lord's character was flawed because He believed in hell. And he alleged that His doctrine was faulty in that He expected His second coming to occur during the lifetime of many then living. Though both of these ignorant charges can be fully refuted, the latter will be focused upon in this brief article.
Concerning Jesus, Russell wrote: "...He certainly thought that His second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at that time. There are a great many texts that prove that." He then cites Matthew 10:23 and 16:28 as examples.
Russell's problem (in addition to his basic atheism) was of course, that he failed to recognize that words may be used in different senses. They may be used literally or they may be employed figuratively. When one encounters a passage that speaks of a "coming" of Christ, he must by an examination of the context, determine the correct usage of the term in that particular setting. Now, what are the facts of this matter?
First, it is quite clear that Christ did prophesy that He would literally come again (Matthew 25:31). His coming was to be: personal (I Thessalonians 4:16), visible (Acts 1:11), sudden and unexpected (I Thessalonians 5:2-3), glorious (Matthew 25:31), victorious (II Thessalonians 1:7-10) and terminal (I Corinthians 15:24). Now here is a fact of paramount importance. there is not a shred of evidence to indicate that Christ believed His second coming (Hebrews 9:28) would occur within the first century. As a matter of fact, the Son of Man, having emptied Himself (Philippians 2:6ff) of the independent exercise of His divine powers by the incarnation, did not know the time of His second coming (Matthew 24:36). Though He knew not the day nor hour of that great event, Christ did hint that there could be a considerable delay before He would come again. For example, in the Parable of the Talents, Christ represents Himself as a man who delivered talents to His servants to be developed while He was gone into another country (Heaven). In Matthew 25:19 He declared: "And after a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them." It is not correct therefore, to assert that Christ believed in the imminence of His second coming!
But secondly, there were other sense, figurative senses, in which the Lord promised to "come." For instance, in foretelling the persecution which the Jews would inflict upon the early disciples, Christ said: "When they persecute you in this city; flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes" (Matthew 10:23). This is not a reference to the Lord's personal, second coming. Rather, it relates to His judgmental coming upon the Jewish nation in consequence of their rejection of Him! The passage is parallel to Matthew 24:30 which is clearly related to the destruction of Jerusalem, an event to be accomplished in the days of that generation (24:34). Hence it was a disciplinary coming, somewhat analogous to the promises of punitive "comings" to some of the churches in Asia Minor (cf. Revelation 2:5, 16; 3:3).
In another sense, Jesus promised He would "come" with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of His kingdom on the day of Pentecost. Note: (1) in seeking to comfort the disciples in those dark hours before the cross, the Lord promised: "I will not leave you orphans." He then then announced that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit would come (John 14:16-18, 26: 15:26) yet in that connection, Christ declared, "I will come to you." How was Christ to come to them? Not personally, but representatively in the Person of the Holy Spirit whom He was sending. (2) This is in perfect harmony with Matthew 16:28 which depicts Christ as "coming" in His kingdom. Note the logic. The Lord's kingdom was to come with power (Mark 9:1) but the power was to come with the Spirit (Acts 1:8), thus the kingdom was to come with the Spirit. However, as we have already shown, the Spirit's coming was in a sense a coming of the Lord (John 14:18). Therefore, with the coming of the kingdom, in one sense of the term, Christ came; and this is the meaning of Matthew 16:28. No, Christ was not mistaken regarding His coming. Bertrand Russell was wrong; dead wrong. And when you are dead wrong, it's too late to be right!
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