Nobody lives more than 120 years. When a person dies, they begin to immediately realize Revelation teachings.
Well that is debatable. But lets just assume 120 years is correct. "Must shortly come to pass" is pretty plain.
Furthermore, this sort of thing occurs often with "scholars" who ignore plain words. Jesus said "this generation will not pass..." I don't know how that can be twisted into something 2000 years and beyond but people do it.