The lesson of history is that no one learned

Truly. One of the greatest biblical prophecies made by Jesus in Matt. 24:32-34, was fulfilled in 1948 when the Jewish people returned to their Holy Land. What did Jesus mean when he said “this generation will not pass away until these things have happened.”? ( Matt 24 : 34) Surely, this prophecy was about Israel rebirth after its destruction by the Romans two thousand years ago. And the generation that witnessed Israel rebirth on May 14, 1948, is the very generation that should have witnessed the Second Coming of Christ-who came in the person of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, just as Elijah came in the person of John the Baptist. Why didn’t this generation of the 1948 witnessed the coming of Christ? What happened? Why couldn’t this generation saw the glorious appearance of Christ? What can we learn from the first coming of the Messiah of Jesus’ days?

How will Christ return?

A perfect example of this is the Pharisees of the New Testament days and how they completely missed the coming of the Messiah for whom they had so urgently longed. And remember, they were the Bible experts of their day. They were the commentators, professors, preachers, and academic scholars of religious thought. They were the guardians of theological “truth,” very much like Christian educators and theologians of today. The fact the much prepared and chosen people couldn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah makes one wonder and ask why? For sure, it wasn’t because of their lack of faith; they had too much of that. So, how could the Pharisees have so badly messed up and not recognizing Jesus as the Messiah? Their mistaken biblical interpretation, their dogma, their prejudices, and their traditional teaching about the Messiah - all of it - served as stumbling blocks in disbelieving in Jesus as He stood right before them. Could it be that the real reason lies in their mistaken interpretation of prophecies concerning the nature of how the Messiah would appear?

The Pharisees were gazing at the sky expecting the Messiah to magically appear from the sky. Why? Because their scripture says so. Take a close look at the book of Malachi, the last chapter of the Old Testament. Mal. 4:5-6, indicated that, as a sign, God will send them back the prophet Elijah before the coming of the Messiah. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.” This prophecy was the surest sign God gave to the Israelites. Unfortunately, as Jesus warned, this very mistake can possibly be repeated by the Christians, who are eagerly awaiting the second coming of Christ and are armed with same failed concepts, such as the mistaken biblical interpretation about his literal return on the clouds.