Why this is not the 'terminal generation'

I hear many people, mostly Christians, referring to the generation in which we live as the “terminal generation.”

What do they mean?

That Jesus is coming back some time before this generation dies off.

While I suspect Jesus is coming back soon, very soon, that does not mean everyone is going to die before, during or after His return. In other words, there is no “terminal generation.”

I think the confusion comes from certain misinterpreted words in Scripture.

For instance, in Matthew 24:14, Jesus says: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

What does He mean by “the end”?

Certainly not the end of life. And not the end of the world. In context, I would suggest He means the end of iniquity, the end of war, the end of unrighteousness, the end of disease and sickness, the end of injustice, the end of poverty and the end of the fallen world we inherited since the Garden of Eden.

That, by the way, is the definition of the “Gospel of the Kingdom,” the Gospel preached by Jesus and the Gospel preached by all the Hebrew prophets before Him, as Peter pointed out in Acts 3. What did Peter call this time? He called it “the times of refreshing (that) shall come from the presence of the Lord.” “Refreshing” doesn’t sound like “termination” to me.

“And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began,” Peter continued.

In other words, Jesus returns to restore the world to the way God intended it to be when He created it – before sin entered the world. Some of those prophets compared this restoration to the Garden of Eden.

Does that sound terminal to you? It sounds like a new beginning to me.

So, why do we talk about the end of the world in connection with the return of Jesus? That’s not the Gospel of the Kingdom Jesus preached. When Jesus taught His closest disciples how to pray, in that short and memorable lesson He twice mentioned His Kingdom, the one over which He would preside as King of Kings. And what did He say? “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

In other words, earth will become like heaven.

When sin entered the world, the Earth became, temporarily, the dominion of Satan. Jesus is going to end that dominion when He returns.

That’s what the Bible clearly teaches.

But many Christians don’t know this. It’s what I call the “lost Gospel of the Kingdom.” It is preached in few churches, taught in fewer Bible studies, written about in few books and discussed at fewer Christian conferences. And we need to bring it back and preach it to the ends of the Earth.

It was the Gospel preached by Jesus and His apostles, and the impact of that preaching turned the world upside down. Imagine what it could do now in a world of instant communication and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 24: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Again, that’s not the end of the world. That’s the end of the fallen world. It’s when the world will be turned right side up.

“The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament” by Joseph Farah is available in both hardcover and e-book versions.

ALSO: Get Joseph Farah’s book “The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age,” and learn about the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith and your future in God’s Kingdom. Also available as an e-book.


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