Second Coming Predictions

            Another problem I found with the Bible was one big unfulfilled prophecy.  I’ve seen my share of unfulfilled prophecies during my life, so this topic is specially important to me.  It’s always the same thing, too.  Visionary predicts disaster that’s alarmingly near, followers frantically prepare, date comes and goes, followers come up with justification for visionary and continue to believe in him, even though they just witnessed first-hand evidence that he is a false prophet.  While reading through Matthew 24, where Jesus describes the signs of the Second Coming, I stumbled upon a problematic verse: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34).  Most Christians, when they read this verse, explain it away by telling themselves that Jesus is just referring to the destruction of the Temple, which did happen in that generation.  However, if he were only referring to the destruction of the temple, which he had predicted at the beginning of the chapter, he would not have said “all these things.”  And yes, Christians, the word “all” is attested in the original Greek.
            Now, it would be great if this verse were just a fluke, but the theme is common throughout the New Testament.  In another instance, Jesus tells his followers:

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.  Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (Matthew 16:27-28)

Jesus always spoke to his followers as if they were the ones who would see the signs of his coming (Matthew 24:15, 33) and that his Second Coming was alarmingly close.  In Revelation 22, he repeats the phrase “I come quickly” three times.  In a world that’s only 4000 years old, I’m not sure I’d call something “quick” if it delays more than 2000 years.  I find it much more likely that Jesus was simply the first of a long list of people who have made false predictions about the Second Coming.  Julie Rowe predicted the Tribulation would start in October of 2015, Marshall Applewhite predicted that the Earth would be “recycled” in March of 1997, Jehovah’s Witnesses predicted the Second Coming would happen in 1975, as well as 1914, Joseph Smith predicted it in 1891, William Miller predicted it in 1844, and Jesus predicted it would happen in the 1^st Century AD.  Dozens of others have predicted similar events since then, and they’re all wrong.