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>>when Jesus said "this generation," he always meant the people alive when he said it.<<

That can’t be. The people that were alive when Jesus said those words could not have been the ones who killed Zechariah.

2 Chronicles 24:19 Yet He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the LORD; though they testified against them, they would not listen. 20 Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, "Thus God has said, 'Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has also forsaken you.'" 21 So they conspired against him and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the LORD.…

>>Anyone who has read the scriptures knows that Jesus never said that generation killed Zechariah.<<

Oh really?

Matthew 23:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

>>Therefore, I must assume you are reading from some worthless dispensational talking points.<<

Your pompous arrogance once again raises it’s ugly head.

>>>That can’t be. The people that were alive when Jesus said those words could not have been the ones who killed Zechariah.<<<

I can't believe you don't understand what Jesus is saying. Actually, yes I can. Dispensationalism must spiritualize all time contexts, or their entire house of cards crumbles.

Dispensationalists (and futurists in general) would rather you quit reading at this point. But if you want to learn the TRUTH, don't listen to them on anything in the scriptures relating to time context. They have the most warped time interpretations imaginable! They will trick you by taking obscure passages out of context, and claiming it means something else; for example, in this case!

This is what Jesus actually said. He is explaining why they (Scribes and Pharisees) were just like their bloody fathers. In this first passage, he mocks any claim that they would not have committed the crimes of their fathers:

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets." (Mat 23:29-30 KJV)

In the second passage, he lumps them all together (the fathers and the children) as children of Satan and equally responsible for all the blood (theirs and their fathers;) because they would complete or finish the crimes that began with their fathers. Note the Greek for "fill ye up" also translates to "complete or finish yourselves." So they were, as we might say in today's terms, co-conspirators. They all worked for the same devil:

"Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Mat 23:31-33 KJV)

Cynical Bear wants you to believe I am making all this up; but Matthew Henry, who penned his commentaries in the 1700's, long before the new-age cult of dispensationalism was invented, wrote:

"The sentence passed upon them. Christ here proceeds… To give them up to sin as irreclaimable (v. 32); Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. If Ephraim be joined to idols, and hate to be reformed, let him alone. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. Christ knew they were now contriving his death, and in a few days would accomplish it; "Well," saith he, "go on with your plot, take your curse, walk in the way of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, and see what will come of it. What thou doest, do quickly. You will but fill up the measure of guilt, which will then overflow in a deluge of wrath" [Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V] (my bold)

Therefore, according to Henry, their generation (the scribes and Pharisees: the leadership of Jerusalem) was also responsible for what their fathers did. Jesus emphasized it by stating they were children of Satan (like their fathers, e.g., "ye generation of vipers"):

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44 KJV)

Isaiah prophesied as if the rulers of Jerusalem had made a "covenant" with Satan:

"Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:" (Isa 28:14-15 KJV)

Thus, when Jesus said, "whom ye slew," he was lumping all the co-conspirators together:

"Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." (Mat 23:34-36 KJV)

In summary, Jesus lumped them all together because they were committing the same crimes against God as their fathers, beginning at Cain: namely killing the righteous.

>>>Your pompous arrogance once again raises it’s ugly head.<<<

If you want to know who the pompous really are, go back and read some of our earlier exchanges. I was mostly called a heretic or cultist in those earlier posts. Now I am "pompous?" Any who has been paying attention knows that dispensationalists develop an instant and nasty disposition when anyone challenges the made-up doctrine of their cult.

Philip