Hi, David —

Thanks for the question.

To understand these texts we have to understand the idioms of the time. Yes, this refers to the Second and Final Coming of the Lord, but there is a play on words as well. The idea of a Second Coming is a military notion of that day. A general would conquer a city and establish a rule of law. He would then leave and go off to fight other campaigns with the promise that He would return and execute a judgment on the city if it had, or had not, complied with the rule he had established. So the second coming or Parousia, in the Greek, is linked to judgment.

The word generation means a generation as we understand it or it can also mean a certain age. For instance, Paul writes in Romans about the day of the Gentile or age of the gentile and he goes on to talk about Israel remaining blind to the Gospel until the day of the gentile had been fulfilled. In other words, we were entering an era in which the non-Jews were going to come to Christ as the Gospel was being preached throughout the world, but there would come a day when that age would come to a close and, once again, Israel would be front and center in God's plan of Salvation.

So returning to the Gospels; we are dealing with prophecy, which often times is layered and has multiple fulfillments. In a sense, there was a second coming or a judgment which came upon that literal generation (40 years). In 70 A.D. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed.

Pretty much, from that day forward, the Church no longer considered Herself part of Israel.
The Christian Jews refused to fight along side their brothers to protect Jerusalem from the Romans. The Jews (meaning the established hierarchy) had been persecuting the Jewish believers in the Messiah, so the infant Church was separated from Her nurse, Mother Israel.

If you read the history of the day written by the Roman Historian, Taticus, you will read some pretty bizarre tales of armies being seen fighting in the sky and all kinds of manifestations as Jerusalem was destroyed.

So here we have a first fulfillment of this Parousia or Judgment. A thorough study of Revelation will also bring you to the same conclusion. Much has already been fulfilled once, in and around, 70 A.D.

Now, that doesn't mean we have seen all we will see. Clearly, we are still waiting for the Lord to return. We are closer to that day than ever before and, of course, tomorrow we will be closer.

That said, this is not an either-or situation. Generation means both age and a literal generation.

We've seen one; we await the other.

John