[snip]
>RH
>Mark 9:1 -- The Kingdom of God came in power either at the cross, at
>Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out, or initiated with Acts
>2:41
Thus, according to RH, the Kingdom of God is already here. This makes what Jesus said take on a different meaning than what his followers believed he meant: the Second Coming would occur in their own lifetimes.
If Jesus did not mean, by his words, what his own disciples thought he meant, then he did a poor job of communicating.
>Mark 13:30 -- Instead of "the people now living" the greek is
>"generation". Christ seems to have had in mind that generation
>encompassing all people from the first coming to the second coming of
>Christ or so some say.
Note the "seems to have in mind" equivocation in the above sentence.
According to W. E. Vine's "Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words" the word ['genea' transliterated] which is variously translated "this generation," "the present generation," "this present age," "this nation," "this race," (in this specific verse) means: "the whole multitude of men living at the SAME TIME" [emphasis mine].
According to Vine, it came to mean an "age", i.e., "... a period ordinarily occupied by each successive generation, say, of thirty or forty years...." Vine goes on to say: "The word 'genea' is to be distinguished from 'aion', as NOT denoting a period of unlimited duration" [emphasis mine].
In other words, if he made these statements at all, and if Vine is correct, Jesus meant exactly what anyone first hearing or reading these verses would think that he meant -- that the Second Coming would occur within the lifetimes of some of those who were listening to his words at the time that they were being spoken.
(It should be noted that Vine is an authority accepted by most fundamentalists.)
Don