He is on Earth, fulfilling Zechariah.
Zechariah never explicitly states Jesus is physically on earth.
If that statement is intended to reference Zechariah 14:4 then you should better examine all the passage has to say.
Zechariah 14:1-9
Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.
Notice verse 4 does NOT state, "
on" that day. This is an indication that day is not a literal 24 hour period in which a specific moment of standing occurs that can be measure with a watch.
More importantly, the larger passage
explicitly states the day entails God (LORD, not Lord) taken away from Jerusalem will be divided in front of them. The NAS does not do a very good job here, but the
Greek makes this very clear: the spoils are divided "
in their midst." So this day when Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives is the day when spoils are taken from Jerusalem. The next verse states multiple nations battle against Jerusalem and capture it, plunder the houses, ravish the women, and cut off others from the city.
That is the day his feet are said to stand on the Mount of Olives.
Notice what follows. The Mount of Olives splits and forms a large valley so that half of the mountain
moves north, and half
moves south. The valley extends to Azel, which is to the west of Jerusalem. No one knows the exact location of Azel but general consensus is that it was at the southeast end of the Mount of Olives. The text
states an earthquake happens, and the people flee, and
that is when God comes.
Logically, speaking an earthquake violent enough to split a mountain in two and move the two halves of the mountain apart from one another is an earthquake that would destroy the city of Jerusalem. An earthquake happened in the Jericho rift in 1033AD and destroyed all the surrounding towns. Earthquakes do sometimes create valleys.
An earthquake in Turkey did exactly that but nowhere close to the scale described if Zechariah 14 is taken literally. If the earthquake mentioned in Zechariah 14 is taken literally then the text means when Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives, then the entire city is destroyed. That is what an earthquake violent enough to split the mountain in two would do.
The first rule in proper exegesis is to read the text as written, with the normal meanings of the words in ordinary usage
unless there is reason in the text itself giving reason to do otherwise. Once we realize a literal earthquake like the one described in Zechariah 4 would literally destroy the city, we know the text itself is telling us not to read the text literally. There would be no spoils of the city to capture, not spoils to distribute, and no one living to receive them.
- God, not Jesus, stands on the Mount of Olives.
- Jerusalem sieged, captured, and plundered.
- God king over all the earth, not on the earth.
Throughout the New Testament Jesus is repeatedly reported to be King of all kings, Lord of all lords, High Priest over all other priests, the ruler over all other rules...... and every knee will bow to him as Lord but
they do so to the glory of God the Father (
Php. 2:11).
So, once again, the Dispensationalist view proves incorrect
and untenable, once the passage to which Dispensationalism itself appeals is examined exegetically.
Now notice that
I have interpreted the text. I have never said interpretation is a bad thing, only that eisegesis is not sound interpretation. On this occasion I have endeavored to read the text as literally as possible where the text can be read literally. Because there is a portion that logic dictates cannot be read literally, and interpretation has been attempted using the rules of exegesis. A lot could be said about this
exegetically, because Jesus did previously stand on the Mount of Olives, most notably to expound upon his prediction the temple would be destroyed in Matthew 24. The point here is that Zechariah 14:4 does say the LORD's feet stand on the Mount of Olives, but it is the LORD's feet, not the Lord's feet, and if the commensurate earthquake is taken literally the city is destroyed. It is NOT something that reconciles with Revelation 20.
But it does reconcile with the aforementioned Psalm 110
. Jesus stays enthroned in heaven until his Father defeats all his enemies. The Lord is enthroned in heaven until the LORD defeats the Lord's enemies.
Psalm 110:1
The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
Consistency based on as literal a reading as is exegetically possible and NOT a "consistency" based on repeated inferences and implied readings of the texts that do not prove consistent with the text when read as literally as possible. The word "earth" is used twelve times in the book of Zechariah (look it up and verify it) and not one of them explicitly states Jesus is physically on the earth. The Father comes to earth in Zechariah 14, not the Son; the LORD, not the Lord.
If you study the basics of exegesis and then apply those precepts to reading the passages that you cite, you will subsequently come away with a completely different eschatology than the one posted in this thread. It won't just be different, it will also be more consistent with whole scripture and more consistent with 2,000 years of Christian thought, doctrine, and practice. It will be more orthodox, and not the normative and statistical outlier.
