A few decades..?
Hard to tell... I'm more in the “sooner than crowd”
Of course I’ve been expecting it any day for the last 50 plus years.
Every time I think it can't get any more depraved .... wow ..surprise .. surprise.
But surly... it can't get much worse than it is today .. can it?
Here’s something to ponder when you wrestle with the timing of it mentally:
Think of the technology of the Beast System and what that entails:
*Biometrics
*Massive Data Bases (Data Centers)
*Tracking
*Cameras everywhere
*Centralized Control everywhere
Now, while you have all that and refer to Revelation 13 for your technology and also Revelation 11 where the “entire world” sees/observes the Two Witnesses - now think what Musk, Branson, and others are suggesting they want to do in 10 years or so:
*Colonize the moon
*Colonize Mars
*Colonize Space
Now, the phrase “earth dwellers” but usually translated “those who dwell upon the earth” is used 11 times in Revelation. Which means, we won’t get to the colonizing of space/moon/mars by the Tribulation. Revelation (3:10; 6:10; 8:13; 11:10 2xs; 13:8, 12, 14 2xs; 14:6; 17:8)
Reference Thomas Ice:
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=pretrib_arch
Use that as a timing metric and you will come to the conclusion of just how close we are.
That is just my humble opinion.
“it can’t get much worse than it is today .. can it?”
Well, it would seem not.
However, I have many reasons to believe He is at the doors but not quite ready to come for us.
One reason is the prophetic parable in Luke 14:16-24. I believe we are today right at verse 23, “compel them to come in that my house may be filled.”
Pretty much all of Jesus’ parable are prophetic and pretty much all of them are about the Jews “waning” and the Gentiles “waxing.”
This Luke passage is basically a prophetic look ahead 2000 years from Jesus time until now. There are three parts. Part one is the Jews refusal and rejection of the Lord and his invitation to come to Him 2000 years ago (verses 16-20). Part two is God turning from the Jews to the Gentiles for salvation (verses 21-22). Part Three is the dramatic time we are in right now where the unnamed servant (the Holy Spirit) says there is still room for more and there is one last sweep of souls (verse 23). Our merciful and loving God wants to save as many as will come before that horrific day.
So I believe we are about to see a time, although unexpected, of worldwide incoming of souls to Jesus which will delay Satan’s plans for world takeover (Satan has a tendency to jump the gun).