I mean this with all due respect but I think, like many futurists, you are desperate to deny what the Scriptures actually say. Jesus says ALL those things will happen to THIS GENERATION, His contemporaries.
No Jesus does not say that! First He gives us a list of signs that must take place prior to His return. Then He makes a comparison that just as when you see the trees blossoming, in the same way when you see all of these signs taking place, then you will know that the end of the age is near.
You have it backwards! You exclude the literal signs, forcing them into the generation that Jesus was speaking from, when the signs themselves identify the generation that He is referring to. Not only would we have to have fulfillment of all that is written in Matt.24, but you would also have to have all of the seals, trumpets and bowl judgements having taken place, which we haven't. If I could paraphrase the scripture, it would read like the following:
"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near.
So also, when you see all these things, you will know that He is near, right at the door.
Truly I tell you, this generation
(the one where those signs appear) will not pass away until all these things have happened.
Without the signs, you have no fulfillment. What you and others have to do is force those signs as taking place during the generation that Jesus was living in which never happened and still hasn't happened.
Since the majority of the book of Revelation is a detailed account of that last generation and more specifically the last seven years leading up to Christ's return to end the age, then all of God's wrath described from Revelation chapters 6 thru 19 would have to take place, as well as everything mentioned in Matt.24.
That said, one of the signs mentioned in Matt.24 is the setting up of the abomination, which takes place in the middle of the seven and which is still future, because it hasn't happened. We haven't even seen that ruler, the antichrist yet!
Matt 16: 27-28, "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.28 Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
Once again, that prophecy was fulfilled a week after Jesus spoke it when He was transformed into His glorified state:
Some standing here = Peter, John and James
The Son of Man coming in His kingdom = Peter, John and James get a glimpse of Christ in His glorified state. Also stated as "until they see the kingdom of God coming in power" and "Until they see the kingdom of God."
Regarding this phrase "the kingdom of God upon you" I will post it again where it was used elsewhere and did not refer to the end of age:
"But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then
the kingdom of God has come upon you.
So in verse above, "the kingdom of God coming upon them" had nothing to do with the end of the age, but referred to Jesus driving out demons by the power of God. It is the same meaning with "until they see the kingdom of God coming with power" in Luke 9:27-28, Matthew and Mark. It refers to Peter, John and James seeing Christ in His glorified stated, ergo, the Son of Man coming in His glory.
How do you answer these verses? They prove that a future second coming of Jesus is false. He already came back in 70 A.D. just like He promised. There is no answer for Matt 16 according to the futurist paradigm. It proves all futurist eschatologies to be false and as you can see it isn't just one passage that says it but multiple.
You continue to demonstrate that you have no idea of what takes place at the end of the age. To be clear, the end of age is NOT referring to the destruction of the temple, but the end of all human government and the beginning of the Lord's millennial kingdom.
What do you think, that Jesus returned to the earth to end the age sending out His angels to first gather all of the wicked and then the wheat. And after that He went back to heaven, leaving 1900 years of His church here in limbo? That's not what scripture says.
When Jesus returns, the majority of the earths population will have been decimated and all human government dismantled. This is supported by the following scripture, as well the results of the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments in Revelation:
"For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again. If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. "
Great tribulation unmatched from the beginning of the world until now and never to be seen again, would include the flood and any catastrophe's from the beginning of history until now. Though the destruction of the temple was terrible and many died, it pales in comparison to what is coming upon this earth when God begins to pour out HIs wrath. We have no fulfillment of the greatest tribulation to ever take place upon the earth.
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