The End Times According to Jesus ... Part 2

- Jack Kelley -

"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matt 24:9-14)

The words here are very similar to those in Luke 21:20-24 covered in Part 1, but in Matthew, the focus is clearly the End Times.  It helps to remember that verses 4-14 are an overview of the End Times that cover the period from the beginning of the birth pangs to the 2nd Coming.

Believers will be severely persecuted at the End of the Age (Matthew's version) just like they were at the beginning (Luke's version) and because Tribulation believers are not promised Eternal Security like the Church was, many will turn away from the faith due to the intense persecution.  Just before the Lord's return, the Good News will be preached in every nation to prepare the people of Earth for His coming and to deny them a plausible excuse for rejecting Him, or pleading ignorance.

"So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel-let the reader understand- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equaled again. (Matt 24:15-21)

In this portion, the Lord backed up to pinpoint the beginning of the Great Tribulation, a time of judgment whose very name comes from here (translated in the NIV as great distress), one that will surpass anything the world has ever seen. The Prophet Daniel had written of a time in the future when the Temple would be desecrated by an event he called "the Abomination that causes Desolation" (Daniel 9:24-27) and the Lord was now informing them that this event would trigger the Great Tribulation.

Since Daniel's time, something like it had only happened once. In 168 BC the Syrian Ruler Antiochus Epiphanes (the name means God made manifest), after muscling his way into Israel, seized the Temple and converted it to pagan worship. He erected a statue of Zeus in the Holy Place in his own likeness, requiring everyone to bow down before it on pain of death. The Jews called this desecration the Abomination that causes Desolation, borrowing language from Daniel 9:27. It so angered them that they rose up in arms against the Syrian invaders. The 3 1/2 year long Maccabean Revolt, as it was called, resulted in the Syrians' expulsion from Israel and a Temple cleansing and re-dedication ceremony that's still memorialized annually in the Feast of Chanukkah.

Today, students of the End Times see a frighteningly clear model of the Great Tribulation in the Maccabean Revolt, with a foreign invader calling himself God and demanding worship, a Temple desecration, and unbelievable persecution ending in a 3 1/2-year war of liberation. As we'll see, that's just what the Lord intended in mentioning Daniel's Prophecy.

193 years after the Maccabean Revolt, Jesus spoke of the Abomination that causes Desolation as something still in the future. And a careful reading of his 70 weeks prophecy shows that Daniel placed it in the middle of the 70th week, long after both the Messiah's arrival and rejection, and the destruction of the city and sanctuary. Since nothing like this has happened since the Lord gave His warning, it means that one day soon another foreign invader will muscle his way into Israel, calling himself God and demanding worship. There'll be another Temple desecration, and more unbelievable persecution ending in another war of liberation, only this time the entire planet will be affected, not just Israel. According to Daniel, it will begin half way through the last 7 years of human history establishing its duration as 3 1/2 years just like it's earlier model. In 2 Thes 2:4 Paul expanded Daniel's account, connecting it to the antichrist at the End of the Age. These things confirm that the sacrilege that kicked off the Maccabean Revolt serves as a preview to help people recognize the sacrilege that will kick off the Great Tribulation. (See also Rev. 13:14-17)

There are three factors here that underscore the "Jewishness" of the Lord's warning:

First there will be a desecration of their Temple, second the warning is given specifically to those in Judea, the region of Jerusalem in Israel, and third, there's an admonition to pray that it won't happen on the Sabbath, a day when Jewish law forbids traveling.

Clearly, the Lord was saying that there will be a nation of Jewish people observing His Law in Israel at the End of the Age and they will have rebuilt their Temple prior to His return.

If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect-if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time.

"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. (Matt. 24:22-28)

The Great Tribulation is the most specifically documented span of time in all of Scripture. In one place we're told it's 3 1/2 years long (time, times and half a time; one year plus two years plus half a year as in Rev. 12:14), in another, 42 months (Rev. 11:2) and in still another, 1260 days (Rev.12:6). Use the original calendar for Earth, 12 months of 30 days each for a 360 day year, and you find all three measurements identical from a time standpoint. Moreover, there isn't a single hint anywhere that it will be of a shorter duration. Most scholars who read the passage above literally, conclude that the phrase cut short means that for the sake of His elect the Lord will step in on the 1260th day and put an end to the warfare instead of letting it run to its logical conclusion; the destruction of every human on the planet.

Use the original calendar for Earth, 12 months of 30 days each for a 360 day year, and you find all three measurements identical from a time standpoint. Moreover, there isn't a single hint anywhere that it will be of a shorter duration. Most scholars who read the passage above literally, conclude that the phrase cut short means that for the sake of His elect the Lord will step in on the 1260th day and put an end to the warfare instead of letting it run to its logical conclusion; the destruction of every human on the planet.

"Immediately after the distress of those days, " 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matt.24:29-31)

In bringing the Great Tribulation to an end, the Lord cause the Sun and Moon to be darkened. Then His sign will appear in the sky, and finally He Himself will come in power and glory just as He promised Caiaphas, the High Priest, at His trial 2000 years ago (Matt. 26:64). All the nations will mourn because His appearance rings the closing bell for the Age of Grace. Too late, the people of Earth will realize that He is just Who He's always claimed to be, and they've missed their last chance at salvation.

At His signal, His angels will gather His elect (believers) from all over Heaven to return with Him to Earth to establish His Kingdom. This is one of two vague hints in the Olivet Discourse that there will be a body of believers in Heaven awaiting His 2nd coming.  According to Mark's account, believers on earth will also be summoned (Mark 13:27) to witness His triumphant return.

"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Matt. 24:32-36)

The fig tree is the last to bud, so when it does we know Summer's almost here. Through His disciples, the Lord told the people on Earth at the End of the Age that when all these things begin to happen, it means the end is very near. Indeed, of the 6000-year history of Man, only 3 1/2 will remain.

The Greek word translated generation also means race and can be interpreted as the Lord's promise that the Jewish race wouldn't be extinguished before the End comes. And that's remarkably true. The vicious and oft-repeated attempts to rid the world of Jewish people have all failed, and Israel has risen from the grave after a 2000-year absence to once again become the focus of world attention.

Yet there's also a sense in which the Lord's promise can be rendered, "I tell you the truth, the generation that sees the beginning of these signs will also see their culmination." In other words, they will all be concluded during the lifetimes of those being born as they begin. There's precedent for this too. All the prophecies concerning the Lord's first visit were fulfilled within the lifespan of the generation into which He was born.

Please note that if this view is the correct one, as I believe it to be, the Lord didn't promise that, once they begin, all End Times prophecies would be fulfilled before the next generation is born, but only that they would be fulfilled during the lifetimes of those being born at their commencement. A Biblical generation is nominally 40 years, but a lifetime is more like 70-80 years (Psalm 90:10). The folks who added 40 years to Israel's 1948 rebirth and predicted the Rapture would happen in 1988 were off on two counts.

1) They should have added a lifetime, not the length of a biblical generation, and
2) It's the 2nd Coming that will happen within a lifetime of the first signs. The Rapture could happen at any time prior to that.

If we're still here next week, we'll finish up this series and show you why those who are looking for signs of the Rapture of the Church in the Olivet Discourse are looking in the wrong place. Until then, if you listen closely, you can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah.

The End Times According to Jesus ... Part 1

by- Jack Kelley - The Olivet Discourse is the name scholars have given a private prophecy briefing Jesus gave to Peter, James, John and Andrew on the Mount of Olives. It's recorded in Matthew 24-25, Mark 13-14, and Luke 21. John, while present at the briefing, did not include it in his gospel. John preferred to focus on the time Jesus spent with His disciples in the Upper Room on the night He was betrayed. In reviewing the Olivet Discourse, we'll rely mainly on Matthew's account, it being the most detailed, adding excerpts from Mark and Luke where they add to or clarify the message. And we'll try to stay as close to the Lord's own words as possible to avoid reading any false conclusions into the passage. As Matt. 24 opens, Jesus had left the Temple area and was headed for Bethany, where He and the disciples were staying at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It was two days before the crucifixion. Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. "Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matt 24:1-3) Based on His prediction that the Temple would soon be destroyed, the four disciples had three questions for the Lord. When will this (Temple destruction) happen? What will be the sign of your (2nd) coming? What will be the sign of the coming of the End of the Age? Before we go on, their mindset in asking these questions is critical to our understanding. While the Jews were in Babylon during the 70-year captivity, the angel Gabriel had told Daniel that Israel would be given 490 years from the date they received authorization to rebuild Jerusalem to wrap everything up. (Daniel 9:24-27) 483 of those years had passed. The Temple had been under construction for nearly 40 years and wasn't finished yet. The disciples thought they were nearing the end of the age, and now Jesus tells them that everything will be torn down. There had never been any talk of a Church Age or a Rapture or of the disciples evangelizing the world. We know about all these things from hindsight, but they were probably in a state of great distress when they came to Him. Even after the Resurrection they still didn't understand. This is confirmed by the question they asked Jesus on the Mount of Olives after the resurrection. "Lord, are you now going to restore the Kingdom?" (Acts 1:6) It wasn't clear until James explained it 20 years later at the Council of Jerusalem. (Acts 15:13-18).  He said the Lord was first going to take from among the Gentiles a people for Himself (the Church).  After that He would turn again to Israel. Back to our study. In the Matthew account, the Lord ignored the first question and went straight to question 2. So for His answer to question 1, we'll go to Luke 21 where it's contained. Having begun like Matthew with an account of the End Times in verses 10-12, Luke backtracks to their first question in verses 12-24. "But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm, you will gain life." (Luke 21:12-19) Having told them what the rest of their lives would be like, and that their eternal destiny with Him was assured, the Lord finally answered their question about the Temple destruction. "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:20-24) In what appears to be poor advice, He told them to get out of town when they saw the city being surrounded by enemy troops, an event that took place nearly 40 years later. The objective of a besieging army was to trap everyone inside so the plight of starving women and children would have a discouraging influence on the leadership. Non-combatants were not allowed free passage through enemy lines for this reason. But a strange thing happened in the siege of Jerusalem. After surrounding the city, the Roman army was suddenly told to abandon their position and prepare for an immediate departure to Rome. General Titus, who commanded the army, was the son of Vespasian, a man striving to become the Roman Emperor. Fearing he would need extra help in consolidating his power, Vespasian ordered Titus to bring the army home to assist. But before they could depart, another message arrived saying that all was in order and to resume the siege of Jerusalem. For one week the siege lines had been abandoned. And during this time, Christians who heeded the Lord's earlier warning escaped. Although 1.2 million Jews died in Rome's defeat of Israel, according to the historian Josephus, not one Christian perished in the siege of Jerusalem. The Lord's advice had been sound and even strategically clever. Roman soldiers were paid from the valuables they confiscated in battle, and the Temple was a huge prize. Titus wanted to preserve it, which would have deprived the soldiers of a tremendous bonus. Defending the Temple entrance with his sword raised against his own troops, he watched helplessly as a flaming torch was thrown over his head into the Temple starting a fire. The ensuing blaze generated such heat that the gold plating covering the wooden plank ceiling began to melt and run down the stone walls, seeping into the cracks between the stones. When the blaze was finally extinguished, the soldiers dismantled the ruined walls to get the gold. By the time they had finished, not one stone was left standing on another, graphically fulfilling the Lord's prophecy to His disciples. The Lord's prophecy concerning the duration of Jerusalem's captivity bears another look as well. Jerusalem either ceased to exist or was under Gentile authority from Roman times until June of 1967, when for the first time the Star of David flew over a unified city. This marked the end of Gentile Dominion, and a return to Israel as the focus of Biblical Prophecy, a clear sign that we're fast approaching the End of the Age. Now, let's go back to Matthew 24 for the Lord's answers to their other questions, picking up the narrative in verse 4. Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. (Matt 24:4-9) The coming Church Age would be characterized by the appearance of false messiahs, conflict between nations, natural disasters, and famine. Luke adds pestilence and great signs from heaven to the mix (Luke 21:11), as does the King James Version of Matthew. The comparison to birth pains reveals that while these events would occur all through the Church Age, they would be more and more frequent and more intense as the end comes nearer. Next time we'll look at the clear signs marking the beginning and duration of the Great Tribulation. Until then, if you listen carefully, you can almost hear the Footsteps of the Messiah.

TRUMP VICTORY A PRE-APOCALYPSE THEORY

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity...       

With the surprising election of President Trump last November, many within the Christian community thought that the days of social and political marginalization were finally over. The days of anti-Christian legislation and heavy-handed political correctness were finally going to get their comeuppance. Trump's victory was proof-positive that God had postponed His judgment upon the wayward United States and was giving her one more chance to turn things around.

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

What I fear though is that we are not eyewitnesses to some grand, global revival, but rather, a dark and malevolent reaction against it. As I've stated in previous briefs, it's not that God needs Trump to make the US better, but God is undoubtedly the cause of Trump being in office (Daniel 2:20-23) at this time and place in history. To what ends I am not entirely certain. But he plays a role in this final drama of mankind. We know that the Bible states that the conditions on earth will continue to wax worse and worse until reaching a time similar to the days of Noah and Lot. Both of these periods of time were wrought with violence, wickedness, sexual depravity, greed, and a majority who have been given over to their basest natures (Matt. 24:3-14; Luke 17:26-30; 2 Tim. 3:1-9; 2 Peter 3:3-7).

Events today are spinning faster and faster out of control. Unlike times past where one could point to the troubled shores of Europe and say...war is coming, today there are no safe harbors anymore. There isn't a place on earth today that isn't racked by violence, war, crime, depravity, or corruption. We don't even have the luxury of pointing to some impending sign and say, "it" is coming.

It is already here. We are already in it. We are in the birth pangs leading up to the time known as Daniel's 70th Week. The only luxury the Church has today is the knowledge that we will not be here to see when things turn really bad. The Lord has promised His Church that He will remove them before the first Seal is opened (1 Thess. 1:10, 5:9; Revelation 3:10). How do I know this definitively?

Well, the Seal Judgments begin the period of time commonly referred to as The Tribulation. This title is something of a misnomer though because the real name is the time of Jacob (Israel's) Trouble or Daniel's 70th Week. It last seven years (or a week of years) and has two purposes:

How awful that day will be!
   No other will be like it.
It will be a time of trouble for Jacob,
   but he will be saved out of it...
...I am with you and will save you,'
   declares the Lord.
'Though I completely destroy all the nations
   among which I scatter you,
   I will not completely destroy you.
I will discipline you but only in due measure;
   I will not let you go entirely unpunished.'                                                                         Jeremiah 30:7, 11

Jacob here is referring to the nation of Israel in the corporate sense. Since there are still nations on the earth today and given the context of the rest of the passage, one could easily deduce that this event is yet future. But some out there are still confused about whose wrath this belongs too...so God clarifies this for our benefit to ensure that there is no confusion over who is doing and who is receiving as Revelation 6:16-17 makes so abundantly clear:

They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?"

A quick check on learning:

Who opens the Seals?

Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the executor of the wrath. It is His wrath He unleashes.

Upon whom do the Seal Judgment's affect?

Those who dwell on the earth are the recipients of said wrath.
What does the last Seal Judgment do?

It triggers the first Trumpet Judgment.

Assessment

As mentioned in a previous article here, I proposed that President Trump would have an even tougher time from the start than President Bush did in his last few remaining years in office. I look at the world through a particular worldview, and I speculate based on both perfect and incomplete knowledge. The perfect knowledge is God's word. The incomplete knowledge is my understanding of the timing of how things play out. So to my imperfect knowledge, there are four seemingly paradoxical situations to contemplate when considering where we are in light of our Lord's return for the Church:

Because there would be a sense of normalcy on earth, His coming would catch the world and many within the Church by surprise (1 Thess. 5:1-5; Mark 13:32, Luke 12:30, Rev. 3:3, etc.)

But the convergence of so many prophetic events is forcing many to wake up to the possibility that our Lord's return could be near. Even the non-Christian world is anticipating some major event in the next few years.

Imminence, in the sense that our Lord's return is unknowable and could be at any moment, is quickly moving from unknowable to inevitable.

This goes back to my first point in that the normalcy bias is beginning to wear off. (At an hour you think not...)

As a watching believer in these final moments of human history, how are we to proceed? I've often stated that we can't know precisely, but we should generally know when our Lord will return. I did on two separate occasions see President Trump being selected both as the nominee and as the President. I am no prophet, but just made an educated guess based off of where I see things heading. What I misjudged, or perhaps underestimated, is the contempt, vitriol, and violence that would ensue. We had two very "populist" and "nationalist" movements take place in quick succession: BREXIT and the Trump election.

This was quickly followed by three major defeats for both populism and nationalism, which was the electoral defeats of Geert Wilders (Holland), Marine La Pen (France), and Theresa May (United Kingdom). These troubles include a never-ending witch hunt against the Trump administration for any whiff of Russian collusion and obstructionism. Adding to this the incessant attacks by a majority of the media, academia, and Hollywood that are relentlessly calling for resistance (aka...revolution). The icing on the cake is the left's continual refusal to the let the swamp be drained.

What I believe happened is that the Left (democrats, liberals, socialists, communists, and globalists) got lazy and comfortable during the Obama years. Both BREXIT and Trump caught them by surprise and have now woken up their vocal minority of left-fringe lunatics in a way that nothing else could have. They are agitated and dangerous, like caged animals being dragged out of their darkened caves into the light of day. They sense change coming and are furiously fighting against what is coming, spurred on by unseen demonic forces which are guiding their blind hatred.

Conclusion

If it seems like this world is spinning out of control. It seems like evil is getting the upper hand and that good people are getting trampled underfoot by the onslaught of negativism, corruption, and just sheer wickedness. But beloved, it only "seems" that way because God has not allowed us to see what He is currently doing behind the curtain. He is moving and positioning the people and events to fall into place exactly as He sees fit.

God wanted President Trump to win the 2016 election. Not because He wanted Trump to Make America Great Again, but because it would accelerate the hardening of those who rejoice in evil. That may seem over dramatic to say, but considering that one of our two major political parties has the wholesale slaughter of the unborn as a key political platform. If that isn't evil, I don't know what is.

I believe that President Trump still has some role yet to play in this grand drama. That role is somehow intricately tied to the nation of Israel. How and why we do not yet know, but God does. And God is allowing the left to be enraged and violent as ones being 'given over' to a debased mind and a seared conscious. This is described in Romans 1:18-32 and God allows evil men and women to be given over to their sins. It is not that He doesn't want to save them, but He is allowing them to act upon their free will, and by so doing, harden their own hearts just as Pharaoh did his before the exodus.

The old saying is that World War I prepared the land (Israel) for the people, and World War II prepared the people (the Jews) for the land. The Jews have a saying now, 'never again.' What is happening now is like that but in reverse. These final moments of the Age of Grace are preparing the people (the unrepentant) for the Tribulation by allowing them to harden their hearts. Once the Rapture happens, and the Restrainer (the Holy Spirit through the Church) is removed, they will be doomed and damned entering into this final week of years. Paul states that God will send a strong delusion that they will willingly believe, and will be condemned forever (2 Thess. 2:11-12).

Juxtaposed to this, is the great swell of tribulation saints from around the world who no man could count that come to faith in Christ and are killed for that faith. We are witnessing a foreshadowing of that now in the Far and the Middle East and Africa, where hundreds and thousands are being killed for the faith in Jesus Christ by groups like ISIS, Al Shabaab, Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, etc. After the Rapture and to whatever covenant is signed (Dan. 9:27), there will be a final world system that will systematically hunt down and kill all those who do not have the Mark of the Beast.

If anything, what Trump's America represents is that final audacious hardening of the unrepentant before God pours out His wrath on a world in open rebellion against Israel, against His anointed, and His authority. But if the unbelieving world can sense calamity coming, then why can't the church? (Rev. 3:3) It is time to wake up and sound the alarm while there is still light. But if you think things are bad now, one second after the Rapture, the world will enter into a period that Jesus said would be worse than any other in human history. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened (Matt. 24:21-22).

...Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
(W.B. Yeats, the Second Coming, 1919)

Pete Garcia....

THE RAPTURE IS SO CLOSE, SO CLOSE

I am a Family Physician.  Two or three years ago I had a delightful almost-100 year old WW2 veteran as my patient.  Physically he was skin and bones but his mental status was untouched by time.  His eyes would shine with joy!

During one visit, in the context of our current world situation, he stated with great enthusiasm:  "The rapture is so close!  It is so close!  And just imagine, after it happens, there will be nothing left but Democrats!"  I laughed so loudly that my nurse next door almost hit the big red emergency button!

I believe this brave patriot and brother in Christ was spot on.  Please entertain a few conjectures with me!

Our Lord stated: "...this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Mt. 24: 34-35 and Lk. 21:32-33 NASB).

Both Matthew and Luke clarify which generation this is.  It is the generation that sees the fig tree (Israel-and Luke adds: "and all the trees"-i.e. we Gentiles) put forth their leaves.  It is the generation that finds itself at the end of the Braxton Hicks contractions, just as these prodromal (false labor) contractions transition into true labor cramps.

Let's face it, wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, persecutions, false prophets, plagues and solar phenomena have occurred throughout the Church Age.  These are what Jesus calls "the beginning of birth pangs" (Mt. 24:8).  But Jesus stated there will be a "this generation"-a terminal generation, if you will.  But how do we determine what identifies the terminal generation?

As Norman Geisler once said: "A text taken out of its context is a pretext."[i][i] The context is that Jesus was speaking to Jews living in their homeland.  If I might take the freedom to add my thoughts between His words:  "This generation [of Jews in the land of Israel] will not pass away until all these things take place."  It could not have been the AD 33 generation because "all these things" didn't take place then.  So it must be the generation of Jews living in Israel that sees the signs of the end times (i.e "Summer"-Luke 21:30) occurring.

Of all the end-times signs Jesus enumerates, the least obvious may be the most profound:  The re-founding of the nation of Israel on May 14, 1948.  If you were a Jew in Israel at the time of Messiah, being scattered to the four corners of the world would probably not have been foremost on your mind.   But it happened, just as Jesus predicted it would, in AD 70 (Luke 19:43-44; 21:44).

It seems to me that this singular event started the prophetic clock ticking toward midnight.  In it, multiple "last days" prophecies began their fulfillment.  "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?  Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once?" (Isaiah 66:8).  Yes, Israel May 14, 1948.

"For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land" (Ezekial 36:24).   "The establishment of the modern state of Israel indicates this has initially begun"[ii][ii]

So, if May 14, 1948 marks the beginning of the final generation, what exactly is the length of a generation?  If we look to the Bible it gives us an interesting possibility.  "As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years" (Psalm 90:10).  The World Health Organization states that the average lifespan of an Israeli is 82.5 years[iii][iii], (80.6 years for a male and 84.3 years for a female).  It appears that God has blessed the Jews with much strength!

Now for some interesting math:  Scripture teaches that Jesus will take his Church home before the seven year period of tribulation.  Let's say the terminal Israeli generation has an 80 year shelf life.  AD 1948 + 80 years = AD 2028.  AD 2028 minus seven years (the tribulation). Is AD 2021.

There is a danger in date-setting.  Jesus was quite clear that no human knows the day or hour of His return for the church (Mark 13:32).  He did, however, say that when we see the signs of His soon coming we can be sure that "summer is near" (Mt. 24:32).   It would appear that we are on the verge of summer.

This leads to another question:  How much of a generation must be living before one can say that that generation had all passed away?  Does it mean >50% must be living when He returns or can it mean that He could wait until there was just one person left living from the 1948 generation?  It seems to me more likely to be the former than the latter.  Which would mean that truly any day now the church could be called home!

It does appear that we are "so close to the rapture!" to quote my WW2 friend above.  How certain is it?   Jesus said:  "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away" (Luke 21:33).  In other words, the very ground you are standing on now and the air you are breathing is less dependable than Jesus' words.  He will come just as He said He would.  And it appears His coming is soon (Revelation 22:6)!  Maranatha!  Come Lord Jesus!

Matthew L. Rice