An Open Letter to Christians Still Waiting

​Dear fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who adhere to a futurist/dispensational view of the Scriptures,

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Before you decide whether you agree or disagree with me, I’d like to tell you how I got here. I wasn’t looking for a new theology. I wasn’t trying to challenge what I had been taught, and I certainly wasn’t trying to become a fulfilled eschatologist. In fact, I believed the very same things many of you believe today. I defended them.

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Then one day, while reading Matthew 24, I came to Jesus’ words:

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“Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.” (Matthew 24:34)

​I had read that verse many times before. But this time I couldn’t move on. One thought came rushing into my mind, and I literally stopped reading:

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This isn’t about you. This isn’t about your generation. This was about them.

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I remember just staring at the page. Then I started frantically flipping through my Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Revelation, Paul’s letters. Everywhere I looked, I kept finding the same language:

• ​”Soon”

• ​”Shortly”

• ​”At hand”

• ​”The time is near”

• ​”This generation”

​Honestly, it shocked me.

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I reached out to pastors and teachers I respected, hoping someone would show me where I had misunderstood the text. I genuinely wanted someone to explain why I was wrong because I wasn’t looking for a new theology—I was trying to hold on to the one I already believed.

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My dad was a pastor. My aunt and uncle are still pastors today. I love them dearly, and I don’t believe they intentionally misled me. They taught me what they sincerely believed to be true.

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But when I started asking these questions, the responses weren’t what I expected. Some laughed. Some dismissed my concerns. One person I loved and respected even told me I was being oppressed by demons for believing these prophecies may have already been fulfilled.

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That didn’t make me abandon the questions. It made me open my Bible even more.

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For the next two years, I did everything I could to prove myself wrong. Day after day, I stayed in the Scriptures. I kept reading the same passages over and over, asking God to show me where I had gone wrong. But every time I came back to the text, I found the same time statements… the same audience… the same generation… the same context.

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As I continued studying, I also began looking into the history surrounding the first century and the destruction of Jerusalem. That historical context didn’t replace what I was reading in Scripture—it simply helped explain what I was already seeing in the text.

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The deeper I dug into the Scriptures, the more convinced I became that Jesus and His apostles meant exactly what they said.

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Please don’t misunderstand why I’m writing this. I’m not trying to win an argument, embarrass anyone, or attack the people who taught me. Many of them sincerely love the Lord, and I believe they taught me what they genuinely believed to be true.

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I’m not asking you to accept my conclusions because of my experience. My experience isn’t the authority—Scripture is. I’m simply asking you to do what I eventually had to do: open your Bible, set tradition aside for a moment, and let the text speak before anyone else does.

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So let’s begin where I believe we should always begin—with the Scriptures.

​Connecting the Dots

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Let’s begin by asking a simple question: What were the Jews expecting their Messiah to do?

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They expected the Messiah to establish an earthly kingdom, rule from a physical throne in Jerusalem, overthrow Rome, and restore Israel to national glory. In essence, they were looking for an earthly kingdom.

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Now let me ask another question: What are many Christians expecting today?

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Many believe Jesus will one day physically return to earth, establish a literal thousand-year reign from Jerusalem, overthrow the wicked, and usher in an earthly kingdom before creating a new heavens and a new earth where believers will live forever.

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As I began studying these passages, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities. The Jews weren’t wrong because they didn’t know the Scriptures—they knew them remarkably well. They were wrong because they expected God to fulfill His promises in a physical way when His greater purpose was spiritual.

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Could we be making the same mistake today?

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The way many Christians interpret prophecy reminds me of the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus in John 3:1–12. Nicodemus struggled to understand Jesus because he was thinking in physical terms, while Jesus was speaking of spiritual realities.

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I know many of you are probably thinking: 

“There’s no way Jesus has already returned in judgment! The gospel still has to be preached to the whole world before He returns.”

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I understand that objection because I once made it myself. But I would ask you to consider something: the Bible is a Middle Eastern book written by Middle Eastern authors to real people living in the first century.

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Audience matters. Context matters. Covenant matters. And perhaps most importantly… timing matters.

​The Gospel Had Already Reached the World

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One of the most common objections I hear is that the gospel still has to be preached to the whole world before Jesus can return. Did the apostles believe they had already fulfilled that mission?

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Listen to their own words:

• ​Paul says the faith of the Roman believers was “spoken of throughout the whole world” (Romans 1:8).

• ​He says their voice “has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Romans 10:18).

• ​He says the mystery of Christ “has now been made manifest… and made known to all nations” (Romans 16:25–26).

• ​He tells the Colossians that the gospel “has come to you, as it has also in all the world” and was “bearing fruit” (Colossians 1:5–6).

• ​He even says the gospel “was preached to every creature under heaven” (Colossians 1:23).

• ​Near the end of his life, Paul writes that “through me the message might be fully proclaimed and that all the Gentiles might hear” (2 Timothy 4:17).

​Those aren’t my words. Those are the words of the apostles themselves. If we’re going to take Scripture seriously, we have to allow the biblical writers to define what they meant instead of assuming they were speaking about our modern world two thousand years later.

​This Generation

​Jesus repeatedly identified the generation that would witness these events. He didn’t say a future generation thousands of years later—He simply said, “This generation.”

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“Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” (Matthew 23:36)

​”Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.” (Matthew 24:34)

​Mark records the same statement. Luke records the same statement. Three Gospel writers, one audience, one generation. Why do we so quickly explain those words away?

​Who Was Jesus Talking To?

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Consider Matthew 27:24–25. When Pilate washed his hands and declared himself innocent of Jesus’ blood, the people answered: 

“His blood be on us and on our children.”

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They didn’t say on people living two thousand years from now; they said on themselves and their children.

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Then listen to Jesus’ words in Luke 23:28–29: 

“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children…”

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He wasn’t addressing people living thousands of years in the future. He was speaking directly to the people standing right in front of Him.

​The Blood of the Prophets

​Jesus also declared:

​”That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth… Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” (Matthew 23:35–36)

​Luke records the same warning:

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“…from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah… Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.” (Luke 11:51)

​Is our generation responsible for murdering Abel? Of course not. Jesus was speaking to the generation standing before Him. If we move His audience into our own time, aren’t we changing the plain meaning of His words?

​The Time Statements

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This brings us to what ultimately became impossible for me to ignore. The New Testament is filled with statements of imminence:

• ​”The hour is coming…”

• ​”The night is far spent…”

• ​”The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly…”

• ​”The time is short…”

• ​”The coming of the Lord is at hand…”

• ​”The Judge is standing at the door…”

• ​”The end of all things is at hand…”

• ​”It is the last hour…”

​How can we simply sweep these time-restrictive statements under the rug? Were the apostles mistaken? Were they confused?

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I don’t believe they were. They were writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. If they repeatedly said these events were “near,” “at hand,” “shortly,” and would occur within their generation, then I believe we owe it to them—and to the Lord—to ask whether they meant exactly what they said.

​The Coming of Christ

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At this point, many people will say: “But Jesus is coming back physically on the clouds. Everyone is going to see Him.”

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I believed that too. Then I began asking another question: How does the Bible describe God coming in judgment?

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Jesus certainly said He was coming on the clouds. Matthew 24:30 says the Son of Man would come on the clouds of heaven. Jesus repeated the same thing before the Sanhedrin in Matthew 26:64. Luke records the same promise in Luke 21:27–28.

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But here’s the question that changed everything for me: Was “coming on the clouds” ever meant to describe God physically appearing on earth?

​When I went back and read the Old Testament, I discovered something I had never been taught. Throughout the Scriptures, God repeatedly comes on the clouds in judgment—not literally riding across the sky for human eyes to see, but by bringing judgment upon nations.

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Look at the pattern across the Old Testament:

• ​Exodus 14:24–25

• ​Psalm 104:3–4

• ​Isaiah 19:1–3

• ​Jeremiah 4:13–14

• ​Lamentations 2:1–3

• ​Ezekiel 30:1–3

• ​Joel 2:2

• ​Micah 1:3–4

• ​Nahum 1:3, 6, 8

• ​Zephaniah 1:15

​Over and over again, God is described as coming on the clouds in judgment. Yet no one expected people to literally see God riding across the sky. They witnessed His judgment through the nations and armies He used.

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That made Jesus’ words before the Sanhedrin take on an entirely different meaning. When He declared that they would see the Son of Man coming on the clouds, He wasn’t claiming to be a created being floating through the atmosphere—He was identifying Himself as God! He was claiming divine authority to execute judgment. That’s why they accused Him of blasphemy. They understood exactly what He was claiming.

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So I had to ask myself another question: if God’s “comings” in the Old Testament were covenantal acts of judgment, why would I assume Jesus’ coming in judgment had to be understood differently?

​The Great Tribulation

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Then another question began bothering me: Why do so many Christians believe the Great Tribulation is still future?

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Paul tells the Thessalonians:

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“…we told you before that we would suffer tribulation…” (1 Thessalonians 3:4)

​John opens Revelation by saying:

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“I… am your brother and companion in the tribulation…” (Revelation 1:9)

​Notice that. John doesn’t say tribulation is coming someday—he says he is already in it.

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Then Jesus says:

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“Immediately after the tribulation of those days…” (Matthew 24:29)

​If the apostles were already experiencing tribulation, and Jesus said His coming in judgment would occur immediately after that tribulation, then shouldn’t we at least ask whether they were talking about the same period of history?

​The Last Days

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The same pattern appears with “the last days.” Joel prophesied about them centuries beforehand. Then Peter stood on the Day of Pentecost and declared:

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“This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel…” (Acts 2:16–21)

​Peter didn’t say this will happen thousands of years from now. He said, “This is that.” The last days had begun!

• ​Acts 3:24 says the prophets had spoken of those days.

• ​Hebrews 1:2 says God had spoken through His Son in these last days.

​Again and again, the New Testament writers place themselves inside the very period they describe.

​The Kingdom of God

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That eventually forced me to ask another question: What kind of kingdom was Jesus actually establishing?

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Many people are still waiting for an earthly kingdom. But Jesus repeatedly pointed people somewhere else:

• ​The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21).

• ​His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).

• ​Paul tells us to look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen, because the things that are seen are temporary, but the unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

​The New Testament consistently points us away from earthly expectations and toward spiritual realities. That doesn’t make them less real—it makes them eternal.

​New Creation

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The same is true of the new creation. Are we not already new creations in Christ?

• ​Did God not promise to give His people a new heart? (Ezekiel 11:19)

• ​Does Paul not say, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…”? (2 Corinthians 5:17)

• ​Does he not tell us to put on the new man? (Ephesians 4:22–24)

• ​Does he not tell us we have already put on the new self? (Colossians 3:9–10)

​As I continued reading, I found that so many of the promises I had always placed in the future were being described by the apostles as present realities for those who are in Christ. That realization changed the way I read the entire Bible.

​So What Was Actually Passing Away?

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One of the biggest questions I had to wrestle with was this: If the “end” wasn’t the end of the planet, then what was ending?

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The answer, I believe, is found by understanding the covenants. Before we can understand what was coming to an end, we first have to understand what God had established.

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The Old Covenant wasn’t simply a collection of random laws; it was an entire covenantal system. It had a physical temple, sacrifices, an earthly priesthood ministering in a sanctuary made with human hands, and ordinances that pointed forward to Christ.

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The New Covenant is entirely different. Jesus declared:

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“This cup is the new covenant in My blood…” (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25)

​The book of Hebrews tells us the Old Covenant was becoming obsolete and was ready to vanish away. That language is important. It wasn’t describing the end of planet Earth—it was describing the passing away of an old covenant order.

​The Temple

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Then another question hit me: Why would God leave a temple made with human hands, move His dwelling place into His people, only to someday move back into another physical temple?

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The New Testament repeatedly teaches exactly the opposite:

• ​Stephen declared, “The Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands.” (Acts 7:48)

• ​Paul told the Corinthians, “You are the temple of God.” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

• ​Again, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:19)

• ​He told the Ephesians that believers are being built together into a dwelling place for God.

​The direction of Scripture is consistent: God moved from a building to a people. That isn’t a downgrade—it’s the fulfillment of what the temple always pointed toward.

​The Resurrection

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As I continued reading, I realized something else: the New Testament repeatedly describes believers as already participating in resurrection life.

• ​Jesus said, “He who hears My word and believes… has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24)

• ​He declared, “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25–26)

• ​Paul writes, “We were buried with Him… that we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)

• ​He tells the Ephesians, “Even when we were dead… God made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up together.” (Ephesians 2:5–6)

• ​The Colossians are told they have already been raised with Christ.

​Again and again, I found present realities where I had always expected only future fulfillment. That doesn’t answer every question someone might have about resurrection, but it did force me to rethink assumptions I had carried for years.

​The Kingdom & Christ’s Reign

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The same was true of Christ’s reign. Why do so many Christians believe Jesus must return before He can truly reign? The New Testament consistently presents Him as reigning now:

• ​John calls Him “the ruler of the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 1:5)

• ​Paul says God has already placed all things under His feet and made Him head over all things to the church. (Ephesians 1:22–23)

​If Jesus is King of kings now, if all authority has already been given to Him, and if all things have already been placed beneath His feet… then what kingdom are we still waiting for Him to receive? That question changed the way I read many prophetic passages.

​The Last Enemy

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Another passage forced me to slow down. Paul writes that Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10).

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Death is the great enemy Scripture addresses—not physical death, but the spiritual separation from God that Christ came to conquer. The gospel announces that victory. Because of Christ, those who are in Him have already crossed from death into life. That truth shaped the way I understood many passages I had always assumed belonged exclusively to the future.

​The Heavens and Earth

​Eventually I had to ask perhaps the biggest question of all: What did the biblical writers mean by “heavens and earth”?

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Was every reference talking about the literal universe? Or did the prophets sometimes use that language to describe the covenant world of Israel?

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The Old Testament repeatedly uses cosmic language to describe the fall of nations: the sun grows dark, the moon no longer gives its light, the stars fall, and the heavens are shaken—yet the physical universe remained. This is the language of prophetic judgment.

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Once I recognized that pattern, passages like Matthew 24 and 2 Peter 3 began to make much more sense to me. I came to believe that the passing away of the “heavens and earth” was describing the end of the Old Covenant world centered on the temple, priesthood, sacrifices, and Mosaic order—not the annihilation of God’s physical creation.

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That understanding also helped explain why Scripture repeatedly speaks of the earth enduring (Genesis 8:21–22; Ecclesiastes 1:4; Psalm 104:5; Isaiah 45:18). The Bible presents remarkable continuity: God’s redemptive plan reaches its fulfillment while His creation continues to declare His glory.

​So Why Does Any of This Matter?

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You may be wondering: “Even if you’re right, why does any of this matter?”

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For me, it mattered because it completely changed the way I viewed the faithfulness of God.

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For years, I was taught to keep looking for God’s kingdom to arrive, but the New Testament kept telling me it had already arrived. I was taught to wait for Christ to begin reigning, but the apostles proclaimed that He was already reigning. I was taught to wait for Him to receive His kingdom, but Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18). I was taught to wait for a New Covenant age, yet Hebrews tells us we have already come to something better.

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Again and again, I realized I had been postponing promises that the New Testament repeatedly describes as present realities for those who are in Christ.

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That doesn’t diminish our hope—it magnifies it! Our hope isn’t built on wondering whether Jesus will keep His promises. Our hope rests in knowing that He has been faithful to every promise He made.

​Did Jesus Keep His Word?

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As I continued studying, one question rose above every other: Did Jesus keep His word?

• ​When He said, “This generation will by no means pass away until all these things take place,” did He mean that generation?

• ​When He told His disciples, “There are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (Matthew 16:28), did He mean the people standing there?

• ​When Revelation says, “The time is near,” did John mean “near,” or did he mean thousands of years later?

​Those are questions every one of us has to answer honestly.

​An Invitation

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If you’ve read this far, thank you. I know some of what I’ve written may challenge convictions you’ve held for many years. I understand that because I was once in the same place.

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I’m not asking you to take my word for any of this. In fact, I would encourage you not to!

​Open your Bible. Read the passages in their context. Pay attention to who is being addressed. Notice the time statements. Notice the covenant language. Notice how the Old Testament prophets used symbolic language when describing God’s judgments.

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Then ask yourself one simple question: What did these words mean to the people who first received them?

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I believe that’s where faithful interpretation begins.

​My Prayer

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My prayer isn’t that everyone who reads this immediately agrees with me. My prayer is that we all become people who love the Scriptures enough to let them challenge our traditions when necessary.

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The Bereans were called noble because they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether the things they were hearing were true. That should be our example.

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If I’ve misunderstood something, I want to know. If tradition has caused me to overlook something the text plainly says, I want to be corrected. I hope you feel the same way.

​Because our loyalty must never be to a theological system—our loyalty must always be to Christ and to His Word.

​A Final Thought

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When I first read Matthew 24:34, I thought I had found a verse that didn’t fit my theology. What I eventually discovered was something very different: it wasn’t the verse that needed to change; it was the way I was reading the Bible.

​That realization sent me on a journey I never expected to take. It wasn’t easy. It cost me friendships, it brought criticism, and it forced me to reexamine beliefs I had held for years. But I wouldn’t trade that journey for anything.

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Because it taught me something I will never forget: God keeps His promises.

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Not eventually. Not thousands of years after He said they were near. He keeps them exactly as He says He will.

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And if that’s true, then we don’t serve a God whose promises are always just over the horizon. We serve a risen King who has fulfilled His covenant, established His kingdom, reigns with all authority in heaven and on earth, and continues to call people from every nation into the life of His New Covenant.

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To Him alone be the glory.

​Amen.