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PROPER HERMENEUTICS AND
THE FOLLY OF THE "TWO CONVERSATION" ARGUMENT
- Part 11 Studying Grammar and the Contextual Flow of The Olivet Discourse to Disprove the Doctrine of Dispensationalism Michael F. Blume © 2010 Michael F. Blume All
Rights Reserved 
One
of the other elements futurists use to claim that there are two
conversations at hand in the three synoptic Gospels is the alleged
privacy and non-privacy of disciples' questions to Jesus, and the
mention that the private questioning took place on Mount of Olives in
two cases, and not the third, implying the third took place at the
temple.
Matthew 24:1-3 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. (2) And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. (3) And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?So the comparison to be focused upon is as follows: Matthew: as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately Mark: as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately Luke: And they asked him THE LOCATION OF THE QUESTIONING. While Matthew and Mark state that the questioning took place on the Mount of Olives, Luke does not say this. Is this indication that the questioning in Luke took place at another location? If this is indication that Luke records a different set of questions than those shown in Matthew and Mark (although the wording in Luke's account is identical to that in Mark's account), then there simply cannot be one and the same conversation noted in each Gospel as I have argued. It is not conclusive, to say the least, that Luke recorded a series of questions that did not take place on the Mount of Olives. Failure to mention the Mount of Olives as the location for the questions in Luke does not mean they were not asked there. Many times one of the Synoptic Gospels fails to mention a detail the others mentioned in any given account. Matthew 24 mentioned the warning of those in flight from Jerusalem to pray their flight be not on the Sabbath nor in the winter. Mark omits the admonition for them to pray their flight be not on the Sabbath. Mark only mentions the winter. Matthew 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:Is that an indication that Matthew's recorded conversation is not the same as that in Mark, which futurists claim is the same? Or is it simply an indication of the same conversation recorded in Matthew and Mark with Mark merely having not mentioned the note to pray they do not flee on the Sabbath? Obviously the futurist claims the latter, as they should. But this is what I claim about Luke's failure to mention the location of the questioning as being on the Mount of Olives. Futurists are really reaching in this issue. If futurists are going to say that Luke's failure to mention the location of the questioning occurred on the Mount of Olives means it did not occur there, then they are focusing on differences of the three gospel accounts to make that position. I claim that differences in the Gospels that futurists point out do not at all warrant us to conclude that there is more than one conversation involved. In Matthew 24:1 several disciples are said to have shown Jesus the temple buildings. In Mark 13:1, ONLY ONE disciples is said to have shown him those buildings. Matthew 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.In both accounts, Jesus responds to the disciple(s) by speaking of how each stone will be overturned. The futurist does not believe the above comparison of verses indicates more than one event when Jesus responded to comments of the temple. The futurist would likely say that Matthew 24:1 does not say the several disciples said, "Master, see what manner of stones..." Matthew only noted that several disciples came to show him the temple. So, when Mark says ONE disciples asked Him, "Master, see what manner of stones..." the obvious conclusion is that both accounts are correct, and each simply mentions something the other did not mention. In other words, several disciples showed him the buildings, but only one of them actually said the phrase noted in Mark 13:1. But futurists do not apply that same logic to the location factor of the three gospel accounts. Had they used the same logic that one gospel simply did not mention the location, although it was the same as was noted in the others, they would not use Luke's failure to mention the Mount of Olives as grounds for two conversations. Futurists agree that all three accounts show the same event when we read of the disciples speaking to the Lord about the temple buildings. Luke's account differs greatly from Matthew's and Mark's. Luke 21:5 And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,But futurists agree that is not another conversation in contrast to Matt 24:1 or Mark 13:1. Although Matthew and Mark did not mention the details of how the temple was adorned with goodly stones, futurists readily agree it was the same little chat that is recorded in Matthew and Mark. But futurists depart from that agreement with us after this point. When Jesus noted that not one stone would be left unturned in response to the disciples' reference to the temple, futurists claim Luke records a conversation that continued to occur while they were still at the temple. But Matthew and Mark do not record that conversation. They claim between Jesus' remarks about the stones being overturned and Matthew's and Mark's record of the questions to the Lord was as much time as it took for them to leave the temple and climb onto the Mount of Olive. This means Matthew and Mark did not record an entire conversation that took place at the temple grounds after Jesus mentioned the overturning of stones that Luke alone recorded. That claim alone should be offkey enough for the casual reader to stop and ask why futurists would make such a foolish conclusion. The entire basis of futurism is nullified if there was only one conversation in all three accounts. Howso? Futurists know that Luke 21:5-24's alleged temple conversation was about AD70 events and not events that have not yet occurred up until our day. If Mark and Matthew are that same conversation, then there is no Gospel account that relates to use anything in our future about the coming of the Lord spoken on the Mount of Olives. Mark and Matthew's words would have also been fulfilled in AD70 if they are one and the same conversation as Luke's record. BACK | NEXT RDTW
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