As he sat upon Mount  of Olives, Jesus was
telling his disciples about the end of the
world and what they could expect just
before that apocalyptic event. They asked
him,

"When shall these things be? and what shall
be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of
the world? "

Jesus Describes His Second Coming

And Jesus answered...For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be...the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.... when ye shall see all these things, know that it (coming of son of god) is near... (Matthew 24:1-34)

Jesus Tells How Soon He'll Be Back

Jesus left no doubt about when the apocalypse would occur: it would be soon.

"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 16:28) ....Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet.......when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.  
(Matthew 24:29-34)

On an earlier occasion, Jesus emphasized the imminence of the end of the world and the arrival of the kingdom of heaven for the Jews:  "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand....Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the son of Man be come."  (Matthew 10:5-6, Matthew 10:23). Thus, the end of the world would come so soon that Jesus' disciples would not even have time to spread the word to all of the Jews in the cities of Israel.   The imminence of Jesus' return was made clear in 1 Peter:  "But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.  (1 Peter 4:7)

Are They Still Waiting?

According to Jesus, he was going to return from heaven during the lifetime of some of his disciples, and his disciples would not even have enough time to spread the word throughout all of Israel before the end of time arrived.  We would have heard about it if Jesus had already returned in full view with angels trumpeting his arrival, and "all the tribes of the earth" in mourning, so it must not have happened yet. Since it is extremely improbable that any of his disciples are still alive and waiting for his return, and since it also is unlikely that the word of the coming end of the world still has not been spread to all the cities of Israel, we think it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus' prediction of his return has failed. Or, perhaps the words above were just put into the mouth of Jesus by cynical church fathers who wished to scare poor, illiterate peasants into believing that they would die soon, but if they wished to have everlasting life they should give their allegiance--and some of their property--to Jesus and his priests.

Peter Writes a Second Letter: "Jesus Is Not a Slacker"

After the church fathers realized that Jesus would not be coming as soon as he promised, they wrote a second letter in which they attempted to smooth the waters of discontent by making up a pathetic story about how the Lord lives in a kind of time warp where earthly years are actually no more than days to him, although sometimes a thousand years is the same as a day. Here are the actual words:

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the days of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise...  (2 Peter 3:8-10)

Thus, the writer is evidently hoping the reader will believe that when Jesus spoke about returning soon, he really meant "soon" in heavenly time, wherein one heavenly day corresponded, perhaps, to a thousand earth years. That would explain, he implies, why Jesus hasn't returned yet. Jesus is not a slacker, he says; it reminds one of Richard Nixon's "I am not a crook" speech.

This explanation seems too unlikely to be acceptable to anyone but the most ardent Christian fundamentalist who believes every word in the Bible is the truth. What about Jesus' statement that some of his disciples would not "taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom"? No matter how time might pass for Jesus, his disciples on earth would still live their lives by an earthly clock and no amount of fiddling with the heavenly time scale would delay their deaths.

Anyway, how did this writer gain this insight about the Lord's special time scale? How come no one else knows about it? None of the gospel writers ever heard anything about time slowing down in heaven. One has to wonder, too, why he did not tell us about it before Jesus' non-arrival became a problem. Why didn't he mention this all-important fact in his first letter?  Furthermore, it is quite evident from the apparently defensive tone of the letter ("the Lord is not slack concerning his promise") that folks were already complaining about having been deceived, so he penned the explanation above to buy some more time.

One last comment about this letter: What was  the writer trying to imply with his words, "Be not ignorant" remark? Was he saying that most smart folks already knew that Jesus really meant he would be a long time (in earth years) coming, and that anyone who didn't keep their doubts to themselves would be considered "ignorant"?

Was the writer telling the truth? We'll never know, but we have good reason to believe that he knew that he wasn't believed, because he put the following in his second epistle: "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitness of his majesty." (2 Peter 1:16)  In other words, he swears that it's not true what people have been saying about the gospels--that they're fables.

The author or the gospel Luke, too, seemed to take pains to reassure his readers who may have become restless waiting so long for Jesus to return.  The following comments are excerpted from the commentary, Who Wrote Luke?

Perhaps because of Jesus' failure to return at the end of the world in the lifetime of some of his listeners, as Matthew and Mark claimed Jesus promised,  the Lukan author apparently glosses over this biblical embarrassment by ignoring what Mark and Matthew had written.  Instead of writing—as Mark and Matthew did—that Jesus said he would return in the lifetimes of some of his listeners, the Lukan author, apparently recognizing that too much time had passed since Jesus' ascension, had Jesus tell a parable about servants who worry because their master is delayed in coming, and who then will be severely punished when the master unexpectedly returns. 

But if that servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful.  (Luke 12:45-46)

The message from the Lukan author, put on the lips of Jesus, is obvious:  Those followers Jesus promised would witness his return are now long dead, and Jesus has not returned, but you dare not lose faith that he will return, for when he eventually does, he will make those who have lost faith suffer greatly. 

If it weren't already decades since Jesus was expected to return, the Lukan narrator would not have had Jesus make such a statement.  This is good evidence that  Luke was written around 130 AD or later, a few decades after the last follower of Jesus would have died, which is probably sometime around 100-110 AD.