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Who is the Wicked Generation Jesus Spoke About?

Jesus Christ was rejected by a wicked generation at His first coming. The same consequence awaits those who reject Him in the end at His second coming. Who is that wicked generation He spoke about?

John Gideon Hartnett
10 minutes
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About 2500 years ago, the prophet Daniel delivered a prophecy from God about the future of God’s people. Those people are the true Israel of God, those that love Him. But there are those also whom God refers to as a wicked generation. Nevertheless God sends His Son to make a final reconciliation for sin and from that time onward establish everlasting righteousness through Christ’s sacrifice. The following is the key verse foretelling the future birth and death of the Lord Jesus Christ to achieve this end.

24 Seventy weeks are determined on your people and on your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Daniel 9:24

The phrase ‘seventy weeks’ has been interpreted to mean ’70 x 7′ because the Hebrew word שָׁבֻעַ (shabua), translated ‘weeks’, has the literal meaning of ‘seven’. Therefore with 1 day = 1 year interpretation that means there are 490 years to ‘bring in everlasting righteousness’, which only Jesus Christ could do. That is, from the time of the prophecy’s commencement there will be 490 years pass before this is achieved.

The verses following in that passage, Daniel 9:25-27, give detail to the events around this. The culmination of it is Christ’s death on the cross around 30 AD, where by His sacrifice He paid for sin and brought in the new agreement or covenant (Daniel 9:4) with mankind, all mankind, not just some select group of Jews only. Christ achieves this in spite of any merit or worthiness on the those who receive His grace through faith (Romans 5:8).

See Daniel 9 Prophecy and Daniel’s Seventy Weeks.

In Matthew 24 Jesus speaks of two events:

  1. The destruction of Jerusalem and Temple worship, because it is no longer needed. Christ’s death on the cross was the final sacrifice as payment for all sin;
  2. His return in the Day of the Lord, the final resurrection, with the final judgment and hell.

There we read:

34 Truly I say to you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.

Matthew 24:34-35

Who is this generation?

To answer this question we must understand the use of the Hebrew idiom, in verse 35. It means that it is impossible that the prophecy will not be fulfilled. So because the prophecy relates to not only Christ’s first coming, death and resurrection, but also to His second coming in final judgment on the wicked, we need to understand who He refers to when He said ‘this generation’.

16 But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like to children sitting in the markets, and calling to their fellows, 17 And saying, We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have mourned to you, and you have not lamented. 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a devil. 19 The Son of Man [Jesus Christ] came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a drunkard, a friend of publicans [tax collectors] and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.

Matthew 11:16-19

This is the generation who rejected Christ at His first coming. He called them a generation of vipers or serpents, that is, snakes.

34 O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Matthew 12:34

33 You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?

Matthew 23:33

He is labelling them by their true Satanic nature. These were not just a select few of the Pharisees but those who came to be baptized by John the Baptist were from the multitude in Israel.

7 Then said [John the Baptist] to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Luke 3:7 (also Matthew 3:7)

Christ called them an evil, wicked and adulterous generation.

39 But He answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah: 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he said, I will return into my house from where I came out; and when he is come, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished. 45 Then goes he, and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also to this wicked generation.

Matthew 12:39-45

The wicked generation are those in Israel, who are meant to be God’s people. Christ called them adulterous because they do not seek the Living God as their first love but another god of their own making. Their god is not our heavenly Father but Satan. See Is Jesus’ Father the God of the Jews?

They were evil before Christ walked the Earth in Israel. But they are possessed of 7 times more evil spirits than they were possessed with before their rejection of Jesus Christ as their long-waited-for Messiah.

38 Whoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.

Mark 8:38

The orthodox Jews today reject Christ and His words, written in the New Testament, the record of the new agreement or covenant He signed with His blood on the cross. But they also rejected all of God’s prophets which He sent over the 4 thousand year period before Christ was born on Earth. That includes all those apostles and prophets from the beginning of the world.

49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: 50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

Luke 11:49-50

It also follows that the consequence of rejecting Christ as Messiah also applies to the final generation who are living when Christ comes in the Day of the Lord at the final resurrection of the living and the dead, and the great white throne judgment.

24 For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of Man be in His day. 25 But first must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

Luke 17:24-30

Christ was first revealed in Israel about 2000 years ago, born as Jesus of Nazareth. In verse 30 the Lord is speaking while He was on Earth in His ministry which implies a future action when He is revealed at His second coming at the final resurrection.

The wicked Satanic Jews rejected Him 2000 years ago. So the prophecy also applies to the final generation who reject Him. And the scriptures here tell us that they will be destroyed. It does not say they will be given a free pardon and set up in a heavenly kingdom on Earth as most Christian Zionists believe.

In the final prophecy in the Bible, revealed to the Apostle John we are told the fate of those who reject Jesus Christ and it is not pretty.

6 And He said to me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him that is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7 He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Revelation 21:6-8

The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end can only be the Creator God whom we see in Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3, 14). Those who thirst for the spiritual nourishment from God in Jesus Christ shall inherit all things (verses 6-7). This is the eternal life promised.

But the wicked unbelievers (verse 8) shall be cast into the lake of fire, the second death. That is the final judgment. They are not scooped out of there and set up in a millennial kingdom if they self-identify as Jews. The very idea is an unbiblical fairy tale.

No, only by trusting in Jesus Christ can anyone be saved. That is by the grace of God given us, not my any works of our flesh. Salvation Is For All, Regardless of Race.

Jesus’ first and greatest commandment is to love God; the second is to love your neighbour.

14 Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loves and makes a lie.

Revelation 22:14-15

Those who not make it into the heavenly city and in communion with God are all those wicked and evil ones. They include those of the state of Israel who rejected their own Messiah.

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2 responses to “Who is the Wicked Generation Jesus Spoke About?”

  1. Pets to Go Avatar
    Pets to Go

    Thank you John Gideon for your faithfulness to the Scriptures and to Jesus.

    Christendom has adopted ‘Another Gospel’. It is not sufficient to repent from sin and SOLELY trust in the work of Christ on the cross, but works are ALSO necessary, consisting in support of the modern State of Israel by prayer, financial giving and voluntary service. In fact, the modern state of Israel is not only idolised, but has supplanted Jesus by many in ‘The Church’.

    It is the modern state of Israel that HAS replaced Christ, the very one to whom Moses and all the prophets pointed. TRUE Israel, the SEED of Abraham (singular) was Christ, who was called out of Egypt as in Hosea’s prophesy. True Israel are now those Jews and Gentiles who are ‘In Christ’ and who HAVE replaced Mosaic Israel.

    God is neither a bigamist nor adulterer. He cannot, nor is He married to two wives. He cannot be faithful to TWO Covenants or two wives at the same time. HIs wife whom He Covenanted with at Sinai in the wilderness proved to be adulterous, repeatedly whoring after other Husbands or gods.

    The penalty for adultery was death by stoning which occurred during the siege on Jerusalem by the forces of the Roman Titus in A.D. 70 when huge rocks were catapulted against the city walls forty years after Christ’s Mathew 24 prophecy. THAT event was the End of the Age – the MOSAIC Age as prophesied by MOSES in his song (Deut.32 and Rev.15:3) .

    With the destruction of the temple along with it’s sacrifices and offerings, and the exile of the Jews, THAT wife – ‘Daughter Babylon’, or Babylon the great prostitute who made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, died. The Bridegroom was now free to marry His New Covenant People – those in Christ.

    The New Testament was written during the overlap period of forty years when Mosaic Israel still lived after Christ’s death on The Cross, yet failed to enter the promised land Abraham himself looked forward to and to the HEAVENLY city as we read in Hebrews chapter 11.8-16.

    John the Baptist, the Apostles, and especially Paul, prepared the Bride for her Bride Groom and The Wedding of The Lamb which could ONLY take place AFTER Mosaic Israel, the adulterous wife died! Paul, the great Apostle and Theologian declared THIS: ‘Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; SHE corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for SHE is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem ABOVE is FREE, and SHE is our mother’.

    Paul continued to write: ‘But just as at THAT time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to The SPIRIT, so also it is now. But what does The SCRIPTURE say? “Cast OUT the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall NOT inherit with the son of the FREE woman.” So, brothers, we are NOT children of the slave, but of the FREE woman.’ (Gal.4:22-31) These items attached may be helpful to some:

    Before Jerusalem Fell – Dating the Book of Revelation by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. (Victorious Hope Publishing, South Carolina, 2010).

    The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of The Book of Revelation by David Chilton. Dominion Press, Tyler, Texas. 3rd printing 1990).

    Both books are significant in their implications, including that of overturning the Rothschild inspired Dispensationalist lies that wars, especially those in the Middle East, have ‘Biblical justification’ 

    As a post script, David Chilton’s closing words include these: “By now, I have alienated every known Christian group … Christian Reformed … Protest Reformed Church … premillennialists … postmillennial pietists … Bible Presbyterian Church … Post millennial Arminians (“positive confession” charismatics)”. Currently, and sadly, those who adhere to views I have elucidated along with corresponding views contained in the two books mentioned above and elsewhere, are anathema to Christendom. And yet, we seek Truth!

    Kindest regards Gideon to you and your family. J.

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    1. John Gideon Hartnett Avatar
      John Gideon Hartnett

      Thanks Jane for your input. It is always appreciated. I am interested in that book which dates the Revelation. However I took a non-dogmatic view on the date, in the later period circa 90 AD, in my book “Apocalypse Now”, which I recommend everyone to read. I am sure the label of antichrist was correctly applied to many world leaders in their day, as the Apostle John wrote that “even now there are many antichrists” (1 John 2:18).

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