Hi again Paidion,
Oh dear, hope you don't mind another tediously long answer here. You have the advantage over me, in that you have been posting here for much, much longer than I have, and people have become familiar with your viewpoint over time. People don't know where I'm coming from, so I have to multiply words just to define my position as clearly as possible. So sorry.
A bit of clarification to begin with: there is no such thing as a
translation-type change for the living that was promised for the "rapture". Not in I Thess. 4, nor in I Cor. 15:51-54. Only a change for the physically DEAD was promised. The only ones "raptured" off this planet in AD 70 were RESURRECTED SAINTS. No ordinary living believers were included who hadn't died yet. The group in I Thess. 4 who were called "alive" and who had "remained" behind were composed of individuals who had been raised from the dead already and who had been MADE ALIVE by resurrection. Remember Dorcas, the seamstress, that Peter presented "ALIVE" to her friends after her resurrection? She's my heroine, because she and I are both life-long seamstresses. I even put her name on my car's license plate. If you are interested in this concept of no translation change for the living being found in I Thess. 4 and I Cor. 15, try this link where I chewed on the subject with a few others:
http://www.gracecentered.com/christian_ ... hall-sleep'/
These "alive" saints of I Thess. 4 would include the Matthew 27:52-53 "First-fruits" saints (all 144,000 of them), and any saints raised from the dead by Christ and His disciples during their ministries. Likewise Enoch, who was the only one ever to be translated, but who had not yet ascended as of New Testament days. (Ask me to prove this from scripture, if you want.) Likewise the few examples of those raised by the prophets in the Old Testament days.
None of these ascended to heaven - not even Elijah, if you read the account carefully in the LXX. He never left the planet, but was just transported by the whirlwind to another location on earth. (Ask me to prove this from scripture, if you want.) Christ told Nicodemus that NO MAN had ascended to heaven yet, as of that time (John 3:13). I believe Christ, because He absolutely HAD to be the first one to ascend to His Father in a resurrected body form as the "First-begotten". Until Christ became the "First-born" and opened up the way for His siblings to follow later on, no one could ascend to heaven yet as a bodily resurrected saint. So, all those resurrected saints "remained" on the earth until the AD 70 resurrection, when they were all taken to heaven together.
The Greek word for "remain" in I Thess. 4:15,17 is very specific. The "
perileipo" term, similar to "
apoleipo", implies a type of
reserved status that is set apart for a particular purpose or season of time. That's why the 144,000 "First-fruits" saints raised along with "Christ the First-fruits" had the SEAL of God put on their foreheads. They were reserved for a particular purpose, which Ephesians 4:8-14 spells out for us. That "multitude of captives" Christ led out of the grave with Him were individual saints who were either apostles (meaning "sent ones" - not the 12), or they were prophets, evangelists, pastors, or teachers. All these resurrected individuals "remained" on earth to edify the early church as they served in these various capacities. How else do you think the Hymenaeus and Philetus heresy arose? Those two men presumed that the Matthew 27:52-53 group of resurrected saints was the only past fulfillment of a resurrection event that the saints would ever experience. A discouraging error that Paul had to write against in I Thess. 4 as he described the
second bodily resurrection that would take place at Christ's return in the near future. It was the time when the "alive" and "remaining" resurrected saints would join all the rest of the newly-resurrected saints to meet the Lord in the air together.
Paidion, you wrote that the "2nd century Christian writers viewed the coming of Christ as an event future to their time." That's TRUE. The point is that it's a THIRD coming of Christ, with a final THIRD resurrection in our future. This is according to the OT Mosaic pattern laid out in the three required harvest-feast celebrations of Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. There was to be a resurrection event with the saints' bodies coming out of the dust, timed to occur on each of these festival times of the year, in three stages over the span of fallen man's history on this planet.
The "
First Resurrection" as Rev. 20:5 calls it, was Christ's with the accompanying "First-fruits" saints raised with Him during Passover week (the Matt. 27:52-53 saints).
The
second resurrection took place on Pentecost day in AD 70; exactly timed to fulfill Daniel's 1,335th day (Dan. 12:11-13), matching with Josephus' records of AD 66-70 events.
The
third resurrection for us will be during the time of year when the Feast of Tabernacles would ordinarily have been celebrated. This is why Zech. 14 emphasized this one feast celebration to be remembered AFTER the AD 70 siege of Jerusalem described in Zech. 12-14. The other two feasts aren't ever mentioned in Zechariah 14, because at the close of AD 70's Jerusalem siege, they would have already been fulfilled types by then.
A link where I have written more on this theme of "three harvest-feast = three resurrections is developed here:
http://www.gracecentered.com/christian_ ... rrections/
Paidion, if you are seeking for
physical evidence of Christ's return, look at the landslide rubble fields lying on the slopes of the Mount of Olives that have "blocked up the valley as far as Azal", according to Zech. 14:4-5 in the LXX. Israel is criss-crossed with earthquake fault lines, and the Mount of Olives was literally shaken at Christ's AD 70 bodily return, causing landslide rubble to slump downhill, just as described in Zech. 14:4-5. Uzziah's earthquake rubble layers as well as the AD 70 layers are still lying there, and have undergone archaeological exploration. Did Christ not predict increasing earthquake phenomena in the years approaching His first-century return? There's ample documented proof of increased seismic activity that occurred during this first-century period. How about Abraham's discovered burial cave which is empty? Does that help?
If you are looking for
scripture's evidence of an AD 70 bodily return, I can quote Christ, Paul, James, Peter, Jude, John's Revelation, and the epistles and the gospels. Virtually every book of the New Testament spoke of an imminent return of Christ and the close of the Old Covenant age. In addition,
every one of the OT prophets said at least something about those "last days" of the first century (Acts 3:20-21).
But if you are looking for a parchment fragment, a scroll, an ostraca, or something similar with a written description of someone experiencing the exact day when Christ physically returned in AD 70, we have yet to unearth a copy of the "Jerusalem Daily Herald" from AD 70. Does that prove such a record doesn't exist or was never made? Hardly. How many book-burnings have there been of religious material throughout history? How about documents that may have decomposed naturally? Also, archaeology is an ongoing pursuit of historical evidence, which may yet produce what you are requesting. In the meantime, perhaps God is waiting to see if we will believe what is already written concerning the things He was
about to do back then, without putting Him on the witness stand and demanding He produce hard copy evidence after the fact. "Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed."
You also ask why no 2nd century believers were aware of an AD 70 return of Christ. Even after His own resurrection, Christ didn't display Himself to ALL the people - only certain witnesses chosen before by God (Acts 10:41). In the same manner, Christ also did not promise that ALL human beings on the planet would simultaneously see His return in AD 70, since He was going to descend bodily to the Mount of Olives and gather all His resurrected saints to that single location (not those who hadn't died yet), before returning to heaven with them. This had to occur while the temple and its eastern gate were still standing back then, since Ezekiel 46:1-3's prophecy dictated that the people were to worship in the sabbaths and the new moons at this eastern gate that was reserved for "the prince" to enter. A picture-type of when and where Christ's second coming would occur in AD 70.
Was that mass resurrection event supposed to be visible to the eyes of ALL first-century observers? Not necessarily, because the physical bodies of resurrected saints - just like Christ - have the alternative option of disappearing from sight (Luke 24:31). "The things that are not seen are eternal", we are told, so this has to be an option for eternal, incorruptible, resurrected bodies as well. Call it a "stealth mode" alternative, if you will. The glorified, resurrected body form has traits and abilities it did not formerly have before death, while it was called "corruptible flesh". Christ Himself left His tomb in the evening without being noticed by the Roman armed guard standing just a few feet away - totally oblivious that He had risen. After all, Jesus only promised that SOME would not have died before He returned with His angels to reward his servants. These few - not all -would be witnesses to His AD 70 physical return. The resurrection trumpet is for the DEAD to hear and arise - not necessarily for the living to hear, unless God permitted this privilege.
Spiritual manifestations in scripture were very often selectively revealed to the senses of men. I'm sure you could make your own list Paidion; of Elisha's servant's eyes being opened to see the chariots of God; Balaam's ass seeing the angel versus Balaam's inability; Saul's comrades on the Damascus road hearing a voice, but seeing no man; the people hearing either thunder or an angel's voice speaking to Christ, etc., etc.
Paidion, you made a comment along with quoting Revelation 1:7 to prove that "every eye" on the planet - without exception - is supposed to witness a returning Christ. Look at the language carefully. John said, "...and
every eye will see Him, EVEN" (
kai - meaning "namely", "that is", or "to be specific")
"they who pierced Him. And all the TRIBES OF THE EARTH will mourn because of Him." (the 12 Jewish tribes of the land of Israel). We don't have Jewish tribes in existence anymore, and haven't since AD 70 burned up all genealogical records of them, as Mal. 4:1 predicted. The "every eye" who saw Christ return was specifically the generation who was responsible for piercing the Savior, according to Rev. 1:7. Try this link that spells out my thoughts a little better than I can do here:
http://www.gracecentered.com/christian_ ... 'every-eye'/
For the Clement letter you supplied, dated as AD 97, I guess I would question how that AD 97 date can be confirmed with any certainty. The very tone of Clement's words in that letter anticipate an
imminent return of Christ, which doesn't match any historical events of prophetic magnitude,(such as Christ's return), soon after AD 97. Rather, I should say it was penned
prior to AD 70, with the expectation of Christ's imminent return at that time. Clement's tone is the very same kind reflected in II Peter 3:3-4, written as we know just before Peter's execution around AD 67 (II Peter 1:14-15). Peter was urging faithfulness in his readers, reminding them that it was prophesied that many in those "last days" would be complaining, saying, "...where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." And so it did continue, right up until the Great Tribulation era of AD 66-70. Sounds as if Clement and Peter read each other's diaries and were speaking of the same AD 70 event.
It's not likely any of this will be convincing enough for you Paidion - I'm not that presumptuous - but you may be interested in some internal evidence of scripture I submitted for an early date of late AD 59 to early AD 60 for Revelation's date. It's at this link if you have some free time to burn:
http://www.gracecentered.com/christian_ ... n-written/