Defenders Podcast

Why hasn’t Christ returned after two thousand years, and should we expect him in our lifetime? Dr. Craig wraps up his treatment of the timing of the Second Coming with Jesus’ warnings about readiness and Peter’s reminder that with the Lord a thousand years is as one day. He also takes on an honest objection: the Second Coming is simply too otherworldly to believe. His answer might just surprise you!

Did Jesus expect to return within his disciples’ lifetime? A pair of sayings in the Gospels can give that impression. But Dr. Craig points out that Jesus also told parable after parable anticipating a delay before his return: the faithful servant, the ten maidens, the talents, and the sheep and the goats. What do these stories reveal about how Jesus prepared his followers for the long wait ahead?

Did Jesus predict he would return within the lifetime of his hearers? Dr. Craig takes a closer look at two of the most contested sayings in the Gospels, Mark 9:1 and Mark 13:30, and asks what "the kingdom of God come with power" and "all these things" may have referred to in their original contexts. The answer may not be the Second Coming at all.

Did Jesus predict he would return within the lifetime of his first hearers? Some of his sayings seem to say exactly that. Dr. Craig weighs two common answers to this "delay of the parousia" problem, explains why neither satisfies him, and offers his own solution, drawn from a surprising detail in Matthew's account of Jesus sending out the Twelve.

Did Jesus expect to return within the lifetime of his first hearers? Dr. Craig takes up one of the most debated questions in the doctrine of the last things: the timing of the Second Coming. In the Olivet Discourse of Mark 13, Jesus predicts false messiahs, wars, earthquakes, famines, persecution, cosmic signs, and the preaching of the gospel to all nations before the end. Paul adds more in 2 Thessalonians 2, where the rebellion and the man of lawlessness must come first, and in Romans 11, where the full number of the Gentiles comes in before all Israel is saved. Taken together, these texts suggest Christ's return lies far in the future. Yet Jesus also says "this generation will not pass away before all these things take place" (Mark 13:30), and that some standing before him would not taste death before seeing the kingdom come with power (Mark 8:38–9:1), a saying Matthew 16:28 makes sharper still. Dr. Craig sets these two lines of evidence side by side and frames the puzzle he resolves in the next lesson.