Episode 99: How Literal are the Literalists?

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 99

Gary points out that no one interprets purely “literally,” although many prophecy speculators claim that they do.

Jesus often uses the plural “you” in Matthew 24 and in the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Luke 21: “They will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake” (Luke 21:12; see verses 13-20, 28, 30; Acts 12:1, 20; 25:13, 24, 26).

Now, if you heard Jesus say that all these things would happen to “this generation” while you were standing there listening to Him, and in every other instance of its use “this generation” meant the present generation, and you also heard Him say that when “you” would see these things, what would you conclude? The most natural (literal) interpretation is that it would happen to your generation, and maybe even to you personally (Matt. 16:27-28). Again, if it were a future generation, we would expect Jesus to have said, “when they see … they will bring them … they will persecute them.”

This overwhelming evidence does not phase futurists. Stanley D. Toussaint writes that “the second person plural may be employed of those who are not contemporaries.” (Notice that he says “may be.”) He turns to Matthew 23:35 for support. In this passage, Toussaint argues, “the Lord Jesus referred to the death of Zechariah and says, ‘whom you murdered.’ Obviously Zechariah was killed centuries before Christ.” Note that Jesus makes it clear that He is referring to the contemporary generation of Jews who heard His message of judgment. The “you” refers to them as Toussaint admits, regardless of who murdered Zechariah. It was their generation that “filled up the measure of the guilt” begun by their fathers (23:32). Jesus tells us that “you” refers to them. The “you” does not refer to a past generation of murderers. Nowhere are we told that “you” refers to anyone but them. The burden of proof is on Toussaint to prove otherwise. And since there is a great deal of speculation as to the identity of this Zechariah, it is possible that they had indeed killed him.

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Gary points out that no one interprets purely “literally,” although many prophecy speculators claim that they do. The book of Revelation says in the very first chapter that the book is “signs,” not actual events and beings. In reality, interpreting the Bible “literally” means to interpret what it says in terms of the type of “literature” it is written in, whether historical narrative, poetry, apocalyptic, etc.

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