Christ was speaking to those who believed in Him. That’s the definition of “Christian.”
When reading the Bible, it’s important to keep in mind whom Jesus was speaking to and whom the letters (such as Revelation, which was a letter) were addressed to. For example, it would be a bit misleading on John’s part to write that God “will keep ‘you’ from the hour” if he didn’t really mean the people he was writing to.
If you were a persecuted Christian and received a letter containing words of comfort such as the above, would you really think that comfort was meant for someone else in another century?
True. And it would make Jesus a bit of a hypocrite with a touch of masochist to suggest to the first century readers that all these things will take place "shortly" when He really knew they were postponed for thousands of years in the future and had nothing to do with them at all, but rather involved center stage this odd bunch known in some circles as the one hundred and forty-four thousand Jewish evangelists.
GOD OFTEN—IN CHRIST AND IN THE OT
STATED THINGS
FOR THEN
AND
AS IN
A N D
LATER . . .
I call that sort of thing
on of the “BOTH/AND’s OF GOD.”
Sorry this is such a difficult concept for the Replacementarian perspective to wrap it’s convolutions around . . . but I didn’t set the universe up.
And I happen to believe God knows what He’s doing . . .
even hiding some things in plain sight.