Jesus, Bacon, "This Generation" (And WWIII?)

(Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30)

Here we go; finally (and) getting back to this subject. Jesus and the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Back a few chapters ago; "Fall Feasts and Jesus's Baptism" I touched on the idea of Jesus having "fulfilled the law" at the point of his baptism and the subsequent roughly 3.5 years of preaching; I hypothesized is the "fulfillment of the prophets". (On a broader scale I conclude that it all hangs together on the axis point in history being the life of Christ. I.E. the flight into Egypt was just as much a part of fulfillment of prophecy as the resurrection.)

After hearing the podcast about him "fulfilling" (as opposed to obeying) the law and the prophets; I got to thinking about how today it's commonly believed that Jesus observed "the letter" of all these prescriptions of the Old Testament system. Despite the fact we clearly see places in the gospels where he is confronted with accusations of disobedience to "the letter".

It's also seen in places in the Old Testament where people rightfully broke "the letter of the ceremonial law" for the sake of mercy. David and his men ate the show bread in the tabernacle. There's also the instance where Daniel and his companions were given the same meals the Babylonian "king's table" ate and they made a request of only eating vegetables to….. prove a point about diet and health; as they perceived the application of dietary regulations to be related to health.

For example; it is a truth of health practicality, that not eating pork can spare one from parasites that are common to pork. Today we generally deal with this issue by thoroughly cooking pork.

Jesus and bacon?

Now would the inherent risk of eating food gentiles generally ate, be of any concern to Jesus in the context of possibly becoming ill, catching parasites, or what ever the case may be?

I'm not sure it would have mattered much; as it seems likely that Jesus would have gotten sick on occasion anyways. (Following Old Testament dietary regulations was not a guarantee for good health either.)

Needless to say, Jesus was certainly capable of being injured and would have been subject to the possibility of bacterial, as well as what we call "viral" infections etc. Generally a reasonably healthy immune system takes care of these ailments that they don't kill us. And obviously Jesus didn't die of an infection. So, would it have mattered anyways?

Probably not, as Jesus makes the distinction that one is not defiled by what they eat; but by what comes out of the heart. Which goes to illustrate that the unpleasant side effect of illness; is indeed part of living in a fallen world.

"Fulfillment" of the law and prophets verses "obeying" the law and prophets:

I looked up "fulfillment" in Matthew 5:17-18; as this is the verse most commonly sited by those who will say Jesus fulfilled the law by obeying the letter of it. Thus they use this line of thought to justify the notion of looking to; (and "obeying") modern Judaism, as "the correct avenue" to understanding Scripture.

Matthew 5:17-19

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

We have three elements to look at here:

"destroy" and "break" (Same Greek word.)

"fulfill" and "all be fulfilled". (Same Greek word.)

"heaven and earth pass". (Different than the phrase "pass away" used in other verses.)

But let's start with the phrase: "all be fulfilled".

The word "fulfill" in verse 17 is the same word "fulfilled" in verse 18. The word means "to fill up", "accomplish" which in turn is also translated "to end" (bring to termination); or the "finishing" of.

Interestingly, the word "fulfilled" is used in several other passages; most of which are connected to phases like "fulfilled" - "as said by the prophet…."; or "as said in (passage)...". There are even a few phrases "as written in the law…"; (or "written by Moses"…).

There are only two passages in the New Testament where the phrase "all be fulfilled" is used. Matthew 5:18 is one of them. Luke 21:32 is the other. The rest of the "all...fulfilled" passages are qualified by other words such as "all these things be fulfilled" or "all that is written concerning him be fulfilled".

(I'll get to verse 19 "destroy" and "break" in a minute.)

Luke 21:29-32 is interesting because it states:

29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;

("Fig tree" = Israel and "all the trees" = the nations.)

30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.

(The "summer" is the point of the proclamation of the Messiah (who will secure the atonement) is upon them "all" / "the fig tree" and "all the trees". Yet if "summer" passes to "winter"? "Winter" brings the final judgement. Remember "Pray that your flight not be in winter or on the Sabbath….")

31 So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.

(The "fig tree" and "all the trees" are in the "time of summer". The Messiah is proclaiming the coming Kingdom. Which can only be secured once the atonement has been completed in the allotted time of the current cosmos. This is necessary because the coming New Heavens and New Earth is a regenerated material cosmos. It's not "as the souls in heaven" who have not material bodies. The totality of what God created He redeemed. This is why Christ physically rose from the dead - in the allotted time of the current cosmos!)

32 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

This is very similar to Matthew 24:34 and Mark 13:30 where both phrases say "this generation will not pass until all these things be fulfilled" / "done". The Greek word and tense "fulfilled" in Matthew is the same Greek word and tense "done" in Mark. Which is the same word "fulfilled" here in Matthew 5.

Now the translation variants "this generation will not pass" (Matthew and Mark) and "this generation shall not pass away" (Luke) are the same words and tense; but there's one primary particle that's in Luke that's not in Matthew and Mark.

And that primary particle in the Luke passage (which isn't translated into the English) but when it is translated; it's usually translated "whosoever" ("whatsoever", "wherever"). It's the "whosoever believes" / "whosoever confesses" application; being "the whole of those who" (perform action described). This "whosoever" in the context of people; (the root "soever" also references events) is speaking of the elect.

So we have "generation" in Matthew and Mark and we have "generation of the whosoever" in Luke.

Likewise we have "things fulfilled" and "things done" in Matthew and Mark; but "heaven and earth pass away" as well as Jesus's words "shall not pass away" in Luke.

Note the difference between "pass" and "pass away" as well as "this generation" and "generation of the whosoever".

Now we have another interesting nuance of Matthew and Mark "this generation will not pass" couched in the context of "these things". "These things" are specific to what Jesus is describing. Neither of those passages say "all things".

BUT! Take a look at Matthew 24:35 and Mark 13:31. In both those verses we see "heaven and earth pass away"!

All three passages:

Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:32-33 have the phrase "pass away". Verse 32 in Luke is talking about "this generation of whosoever" "passing away". But that same primary particle of "whosoever" is also in Matthew, Mark and Luke describing heaven and earth "passing away".

So what's the difference between "passing" and "passing away"?

One is a temporal "passing" related to Biblical fulfillment in time and the other is the "passing away" related to what only is materially manifest on the other side of the destruction of this current cosmos.

The unredeemed of the world will "pass away"; as well as the works there of. The elect and the regenerated cosmos won't "pass away" but the dross of their failures in the refining of their gold will "pass away". (1 Corinthians 3, 2 Timothy 2)

So yes, we have a notation difference between "pass" and "pass away"; just as we have a notation difference between "this generation" and "generation of the whosoever". My hypothesis certainly appears to be correct; we are running parallel timelines.

Current Events Detour:

Well, now that a "hot war" has broken out between Gaza and Israel and has been officially declared (at least by Israel). Thus "by proxy" from the rest of the Middle East; as well as the western world. Have we entered "the bitter end"?

(I still don't know the answer to that. So I will give it a definitive "maybe".)

Will "one" (The U.S.) "not stand with" (Israel) "the king" because of global economic collapse; or is this another instance of "let's start a war to save our economies"? I think there's the human (and Satanic agenda of total destruction) element of both, going on here. What "better way" to stimulate the economy than by a massive global war effort! That worked back in 1939 right?

(Yeah….)

Obviously it's a very different world in the realm of the potential of the capacity for nations' militaries to destroy each other, than it was in the 1940's. We also have a far larger human population; plus "better" technology and access to information. If this starts a 10 year "hot war" that sparks like brush fires around the world; it's going to be an ugly decade.

Yet if it is "cut short" (such as the tribulation related to the atonement was); we may have far less than the hypothesized decade I've noted in all these "interesting coincidences" in the course of this study.

A few things I'm noticing though; which I'm finding…. "hum… that's interesting"; have got me wondering about the extent of deception that certainly appears to be engulfing the entire earth.

The Mind Virus:

There is a lot of information in this study about the history of Zionism and it's consequences going back into the dawn of the 20th century; but another "element"(s) has popped up that's got me scratching my head.

I've touched a bit on phenomena like "wokeism" and trans gender ideology being part of a certain denial of reality and could those be part of the deception of the "bitter end"? (I certainly don't dismiss that possibility.) But besides Dispensationalism, another phenomenon has hit the church, as well as (I've noticed) the citizen journalist / truth movement; is "flat earth".

Now the irony of this other obvious bending of truth; (I.E. for example, one is not a woman if they have a Y chromosome.) it hasn't been questioned for roughly 2500 years that the planet we live on is a sphere. Obvious things we know can prove that.

I.E. = Water swirls one direction in the northern hemisphere, the opposite in the southern hemisphere and not at all on the equator. (Coriolis affect.) There are constellations and stars in the northern hemisphere that can't be seen in the south hemisphere and vice versa. (I don't care what flat earther's say; you CAN NOT see the north star south of the equator.) And both poles have opposing seasons where there's about two weeks of no sunrise and six months later, two weeks of no sunset. This happens at both the north and south poles.

Those things can only happen on a spherical planet!

But why are all these categories of demonstrably provable lies suddenly so popular? It's nonsensical to basic human intelligence. One could logically argue differing perspectives on history; and even the presentation of what actually are the facts of history. Yet things about the shape of earth can be consistently observably proven; even if one believes things such as the live feed from the International Space Station is faked, or that NASA even acknowledges that the "photos" of objects in space are a combination of plotted data points and artistic interpretation.

These questions have brought me to reconsider what exactly does it mean when "the king" "seeks to change times and laws" (Daniel 7:25) as a possible application of my hypothesis of us running parallel timelines between the 1st century and now. And on top of that is there a literal application of "time, times and half of time" (3.5 literal years)? We can see historically that was certainly the case in the 1st century. John the Baptist to Pentecost was a literal 3.5 years. And overlaying that; we have 3500 years of written Scripture. All these things are demonstrably true.

The conclusion of the 3.5 years came at the end of Jesus's human life. (Which was 39.5 years.) So is it another metaphoric 39.5 years of "trial" from the completion of 13,000 years of the age of the cosmos; and / or the 7000 years from Noah's flood? (Both land on 1988 AD.) Well 39.5 years brings us to 2028. And if the timing of feast days plays anything into totality of the fulfillment of prophecy; it'd likely be the spring of 2028.

If these "interesting coincidences" actually mean anything? Then spring of 2033 (2000 years post Pentecost.) to Spring of 2028; would be "cut short" 5 years. Am I onto something or not? (I have no idea!)

Now "five years" has one (and only one) interesting Scriptural reference:

It's only used as a "stand alone" number in one passage in the Bible. Every place else "five" is in the context of things like: "Person X lived two hundred forty and five years." There's instructions in Leviticus of differing amounts of shekel offerings for people under 5; 5 to 20; and 20 to 65; 65 and over. Beyond that, the only "stand alone" "number 5" is in Genesis.

Genesis 45:

This story is about Joseph sold into Egypt. A famine; which is a total of 7 years commences and 2 years into that famine; Jospeh's brothers come to Egypt to buy food. From there; Joseph tells them there will be 5 years of no planting or harvest.

(Rather eerily familiar of what's going on now in regards to what they are saying / doing with crops / preventing farming and the production of fertilizer. Any relevance? I have no idea! But all this farming nonsense started in 2021 with trying to force the jabbies and the trucker / farmer protests that literally spread through the world.)

Now at the end of the story of Jacob and Joseph; Jacob was 130 years old when he came into Egypt and lived another 17 years; having died at 147 years old. The close of the 130 years was declared as a "great deliverance". (Genesis 45:7) The immediate context being they'd escaped the famine.

Now interestingly, this "7 years" and "famine" idea comes up in other places.

There are previous chapters of this study that explain Zachariah (John the baptist's father) and 1335 days (6.4 years) related to the Herodian dynasty and Jesus fleeing to Egypt. "Out of Egypt I have called my son…" undoubtedly has some reference to the "ultimate Exodus" being redemption. The commencement of the penning of the canon begins with Exodus and the conclusion comes at the end of the Old Testament system.

And "wedged" in the writing of Acts is Herod Agrippa I who is struck down by God for not giving Him the glory. (Acts 12:21) Herod the Great was on one end of this and Agrippa 1 was on the other end; as the final conclusion of the only two Herods who ruled the entire land as solely ruling kings. There's 50 years between the announcement of the angel to John's father to the death of Agrippa I. Agrippa I ruled 7 years.

Yet as far as our current timeline; there's no "50 years" that fit either from 2033 or 2028. But 40 years fit from 1988 to 2028. (Does that mean anything? I don't know.)

1/5th and .5 of an hour:

Here are the only other two applications I could think of / have found related to "a fifth" or ".5".

The "1/5" interestingly is that the Egyptians who sold their cattle to the brothers of Joseph living in Goshen were to give 1/5. of their sale price to Pharaoh in exchange for bread; which Joseph distributed. (Genesis 47:26)

In Genesis 41:34 Pharaoh was to take up 1/5 of the land of Egypt solely for growing crops in the first 7 years; to save up for the 7 years of famine.

The ".5" comes out of Revelation 8:1 where when the angel opens the 7th seal; there's silence in heaven for "about 1/2 hour". (Clearly a reference to the atonement; which I'll explain in a minute.)

Although that translation in the Greek isn't literally ".5" it's "with hour" interpreted as 1/2 portion of the hour. So it's not a literal numeric translation; thus does it really mean ".5 of an hour"? (That I don't know.)

We can determine from the end of Revelation 7 that this occurs about the point Jesus dies and his soul ascends to heaven. Those who "came out of great tribulation" are standing in heaven with "the lamb slain".

Does the 1/2 hour have some reference to a literal half hour that has some application to burying Jesus's body and why it would be relevant to have happened before the Sabbath commences? (That I don't know either.)

It would make more sense to me to conclude that the 1/2 hour would have some application to the time between the "immediately after the tribulation of those days is the sun darkened…." and Jesus's death prior to the onset of the Sabbath. Yet the darkening of the sun was three hours, not 1/2 hour.

So, I've yet to figure out where this 1/2 hour fits into the atonement. It could also apply to the Sabbath between the burial and resurrection (which of course wouldn't have been a literal 1/2 hour either)! We couldn't even say it was 1/2 day because, minimum Jesus's body was 24 hours in the tomb.

So, I'm still at a loss of where this 1/2 hour fits; or what it means. And if it does have something to do with the burial of Jesus's body prior to the Sabbath; why that would apply? I don't know.

But the "1/5th" as related to Pharaoh, holds some intriguing parallels to our current time.

In the narrative in Genesis; the Egyptian people had come to Joseph because the "money had failed". (Interesting; as we watch the US dollar collapse along with all the rest of the global currencies. As I've heard one citizen journalist say: "The dollar is the best smelling turd in the punch bowl; but make no mistake. It's still a turd!")

The Egyptian people sold all of their land to Pharaoh, except for the priests. The priests were told to stay on their land and basically survived the famine by farming it. Whereas the land of Goshen provided meat by Joseph's family being shepherds. (Some interesting metaphors here too.)

The other interesting thing is that Pharaoh moved all the Egyptians into cities! (Genesis 47:21) Doesn't that sound familiar! (WEF and "smart cities".)

Now in the context of this whole "sojourn in Egypt" narrative; in the end, just as the exodus commences; Egypt (the world) is destroyed. Is there a parallel narrative playing out there too? That's wholly possible. If not in a wholesale material realm of "economic tribulation"; then certainly in the context of the condition of this world related to spiritual darkness.

Which brings me back to the initial question raised in this "Current Events Detour" section.

The totality of "woke ideology", trans gender ideology; throw in Dispensationalism, Zionism, totalitarianism and now "flat earth" movements that have emerged / "reemerged" in the past….. 40 years! Another citizen journalist I listen to calls all of this… mixed bag of poop "the mind virus". Throw all of it in there; Covid, lockdowns, "wars and rumors of wars". economic collapse, currency collapse, famine etc.

Will…. someone eventually nuke Jerusalem? Is that literal or another metaphor? (I don't know that either.) We'll see what happens.

"He who endures to the end shall be saved."

One last investigation before I close out this chapter: Goshen?

What does "Goshen" mean?

Now this is kind of a "stab in the dark" too because we have no Hebrew root words to compare / build on. Strong's concordance assumes it is a word of Egyptian origin; (which their guess is as good as mine).

The most appropriate seeming meaning I've been able to find is "land of gathering"; as it is the place where Jacob and his family were reunited. It was also a land of enough substance to sustain them through the famine and also apparently provided resources to the Egyptians (world) as well.

In the Genesis narrative; this is material resource. Of which, we also see in other parts of Scripture that the material resources of the kingdom of Satan are plundered (along with human souls) to be "reappropriated" to the use of the spreading of the message of the Kingdom of God. Which this undoubtedly has some application to the "bitter end" too.

Now how much plenty, or scarcity of resources transpires the closer we get…? (I can't answer that either.) And what does "enduring to the end" constitute beyond not falling into apostasy? (Maybe a question to explore in a future chapter?) Will there be material provision for "enduring to the end"? (Probably on some level; I would assume yes!)

Will He find faith on the earth when He returns? (Luke 18:8)

We do know from what Paul says that there will be a smattering of believers who live through to the "bitter end". (1 Corinthians 15:51)

Yet another intriguing possibility is that if "Goshen" really does mean the land of gathering; on some level, we will see the final end of Paul's declaration that "when the fullness of the gentiles comes in; all Israel will be saved".

Notice he says "saved" not "replaced". The elect of God have never been replaced by anyone; regardless of what kindred, tribe tongue or nation they come from!