:This is a progression of three separate discourses of increasing instruction. (1) Jesus answers their question as he leaves the temple, inside Jerusalem. (2) Later, as he is sitting on the Mount of Olives, outside Jerusalem, Peter, James, John, and Andrew come to him privately, asking for more details. (3) When he has answered them, as he is sitting there, other disciples arrive and ask the same question, and Jesus expands on what he has said. Differences in setting and differences in the words of the three discourses, which cannot be combined as one discourse when taken literally as faithful ''verbatim'' eyewitness reports of what Jesus actually said to them, is evidence that these are three distinct episodes. <br>Many (''not all'') professional biblical textual critics, who read these accounts ''[[a priori]]'' as three separate recollections of '''''one''''' single episode, maintain that the differences are rather due simply to the way ordinary witnesses vary in their testimony, especially two decades after the events, and that while we probably do have the essential teaching Jesus gave to his disciples, they assert that the differences are overwhelming evidence that we have no certainty that these discourses in Luke and Mark and Matthew are Jesus' own exact words. Some strongly suggest that the account in Mark predates A.D. 70 before or during the destruction of Jerusalem and that the accounts of Matthew and Luke are revisions of Mark written long after the fact. Matthew 22:7 which refers to the destruction of Jerusalem by burning, a detail not included in Mark 12:9, is read as a confirmation that Matthew was written after A.D. 70 (NAB, Introduction to Matthew). If this assertion is true, and if it is impossible that Jesus twice repeated and amplified what he had first said to them as he left the temple, then the promise of Jesus to them on the night of his last supper was empty and false, and has not been faithfully kept. See John 14:25-26. However, these textual difficulties are removed on the principle that ''similarity of narrative does not demonstrate or prove identity of event''. These three discourses are not necessarily from the same identical speech spoken on the same identical occasion, in the same identical location, to the same identical person(s), and later remembered somewhat differently.
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"'''Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away before all things are accomplished.'''" <br> "'''Most certainly I say to you, this generation will not pass away before all these things happen'''" <br> "'''Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away, before all these things are accomplished.'''"<small>
:Luke 21:32; Mark 13:30; Matthew 24:34-35
:The overall universal message of the "end times" here, also known as the Olivet Discourse, as first spoken by Jesus to his disciples as they left the temple, and then later outside the city to those who came to him on the Mount of Olives, is to always be ready and constantly prepared for his coming by doing the will of God the Father. St. Paul summed up the same message in Romans 2:6-10. See Ephesians 2:10. <br> It is significant that the wicked are condemned for failure to perform [[corporal and spiritual works of mercy]], not for any failure to be baptized, read the Bible, pray, trust in his salvation by faith alone, and attend worship services at church to "continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name" (Hebrews 13:15-16; Matthew 7:19-23). They are condemned for failure to do good to him in his people who are the members of his body. See Acts 9:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:4-29; 1 John chapter 3. St. James clearly stated [http://biblehub.com/james%202%3A24 (James 2:24) "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."] (See the controversy over [[Infant baptism]].)
:As to the proper interpretation of the particular details of the prophecy, there is no universal agreement among biblical commentators.
:Most understand the meaning of Luke 21:8-36; Mark 13:3-36; Matthew 24:4–25-46 as applying immediately to the coming siege under [[Titus]] and the destruction, first of the Temple itself, and finally of the whole city, at the end of forty years in A.D. 70, when all of that generation was still living, as described by [[Josephus]] and [[Eusebius]]. In this interpretive reading, "The day and the hour" refer not to the destruction of Jerusalem, but separately to the time when
::"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away" Lk 21:33<br>—"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" Mk 13:31<br>—"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But no one knows of that day and hour..." Mt 24:35.
:This interpretive [[Eschatology|eschatological]] reading, fully in accord with the grammatical structure of the Greek text, does not directly refer these words back to what the Lord foretold regarding the just judgment to come on Jerusalem at the end, with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, an end time which was completely fulfilled in A.D. 70. These words about "that day and hour" when "heaven and earth will pass away" are instead read interpretively as a separate statement of universal truth regarding his eternal doctrine and the inevitable ''eschaton'' of the whole Universe, illustrated by contrast with the judgment soon to come on Jerusalem.
:Others reject this immediate context of the divine judgment on Jerusalem and the Jews during the first century, as being instead the great tribulation to come on all who dwell on the earth (Matthew 24:21; context 24:15-31). They strictly connect all of this prophecy exclusively to the Book of Revelation and the time of the ''[[Parousia]]'' of the Lord, when "Heaven and earth will pass away". <br> But because the Second Coming was never fulfilled before the death of the apostles, opposing critics reject this "erroneous" connection with the end-times vision of ''The Revelation to John'' as opening the door of opportunity to sceptics, giving pretext for a false and erroneously facile attempt by unbelievers to demonstrate human ignorance in Christ and prove Him wrong, thus turning a [[Fundamentalism|fundamentalist]] doctrine against itself as proof to "those gullible Christians" that Jesus cannot be God and never was because he has never yet descended from heaven in glory for all to see, and certainly not during the final lifetimes of that whole early Christian generation even into the middle and late decades of the 2nd century of the Christian Era (CE). Many sceptical critics mock Christian hope by saying that the early Christians "waited in vain for the fulfillment of the promise of the Second Coming of Jesus" and cite the undeniable historical fact that this is why some "fell away" and [[Apostasy|apostatized]]. The [[Epistle to the Hebrews]] was written to encourage those who were beginning to lose hope in the promises of Christ and the eternal reward for remaining faithful to the end.
:Still others see in Luke 21:32; Mark 13:30; Matthew 24:34-35 both an immediate and distant application, both the destruction of Jerusalem A.D. 70, and the Great Tribulation of the ''Apocalypse'' (Revelation) preceding the Second Coming of the Lord, followed by the resurrection of the dead and the [[Last Judgment]].
:See multiple commentaries on <br> [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/21-32.htm Luke 21:32]; [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/mark/13-30.htm Mark 13:30]; [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/24:34.htm Matthew 24:34].
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"'''They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, to the day the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.'''" <small>