Posted on 07/05/2010 6:39:06 AM PDT by GiovannaNicoletta
More and more as we get closer to the end, people want to see a time line of coming events. Questions about the order in which events will take place, the span of time between them and the likelihood of there being enough time for everything to happen in the time we have left are becoming more numerous with each passing week.
As you know the Bible doesn’t provide this level of specificity. But neither are we left to make unfounded predictions. There are a number of clues scattered throughout the New Testament that take much of the guess work out of things. With diligent study, we can put them together and make some pretty reasonable assumptions.
Romans 11:25
For example Romans 11:25 says Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. I’ve shown several times how the phrases “full number” and “come in” point to the Rapture of the Church. In Paul’s day they were often used in a nautical context. The “full number” was the number of crew members a ship needed before it was authorized to set sail. As soon as the full number of crewmen had been contracted the ship immediately left the harbor to begin its journey.
The phrase “come in” means to arrive at the ship’s scheduled destination. It’s still in use today. People talk about how different life will be for them when their ship “comes in”.
From Romans 11:25 we get the notion that the Church has a full number, too. That’s the number of believers necessary for the rapture. Reaching that number frees us from the constraints of this world and we’ll immediately “come in” to our scheduled destination, Heaven.
Jesus told the disciples He was going to His father’s house to prepare a place for us, and then He’d come back for us to take us there (John 14:2-3). He didn’t say He’d come back here where we are to be with us here, as in the 2nd Coming. He said He’d come back to take us there to be with Him where He is. This has to be a reference to the Rapture. Once He’s done that, Israel’s time of hardening will come to an end and the time of their reconciliation will begin.
Isaiah 17, Psalm 83, And Ezekiel 38-39
Ezekiel said that one outcome of the battle he described in chapters 38-39 is that Israel will be awakened to His presence (Ezekiel 39:22). Since Paul said Israel’s awakening will follow the rapture and Ezekiel said it will be an outcome of his battle, we can assume the rapture will likely precede Ezekiel 38.
None of Israel’s current next door neighbors are mentioned by Ezekiel, even though they’re all antagonists, but the prophecies of Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83 feature them prominently. From this we can conclude these prophecies will be fulfilled ahead of Ezekiel 38 but there’s no way to tell if they will also take place before the rapture.
Acts 15:13-18
A set of parallel clues can bring us to the same conclusion about the relationship between Ezekiel 38 and the rapture. In Acts 15:13-18 James said that Israel was being set aside so the Lord could take out of the Gentiles a people for himself, after which David’s fallen Tabernacle would be rebuilt. The phrase “take out” comes from a Greek word that means to take hold of something for the purpose of carrying it away. It refers to the rapture of the Church.
David’s fallen Tabernacle is the Temple which was destroyed in 70 AD and will be restored. But there won’t be any need for a Temple until Israel is back in an Old Covenant relationship with God. And this will only happen after the Battle of Ezekiel 38. Being back in an Old Covenant relationship means Daniel’s 70th Week will have begun (Daniel 9:27). That means the Age of Grace will have come to an end and the Church will be gone.
Matt. 24:34, Psalm 90:10 and Isaiah 23:15
Based on these verses I believe Jesus said His 2nd Coming would take place about 70 years from the time Israel became a nation again in 1948. (As I demonstrated in “Why The Re-Birth Of Israel Is A Sign Of The End”, it doesn’t make sense to tie Matt. 24:34 to signs that happen just a few years before the 2nd coming.) Adding 70 years to 1948 brings us to the end of 2018. When Daniel’s 70th Week begins, there will only be seven years left until the 2nd coming. That means Daniel’s 70th Week will have to begin 7 years prior to 2018, in 2011.
Other clues indicate the 2nd Coming will likely happen on Rosh Hashanna, also known as the Feast of Trumpets and the Jewish New Year. Because it takes place at the time of the new moon rather than on a full moon, it’s often difficult to determine the exact time of its arrival. For this reason it was sometimes referred to in the past as the feast where no man knows the day or hour. Jesus used a form of this phrase 4 times in the span of 23 verses while referring to the time of the 2nd Coming (Matt. 24:42, 44, 50, Matt 25:13).
Computer projections tell us that in 2018 Rosh Hashanna will occur on Sept. 9-10. But it takes a confirmed visual sighting to make it official and Matt. 24:29 says the moon will not give its light following the end of the Great Tribulation, so no one will know the day or hour of His return until they see Him coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. (Matt. 24:30)
That’s All Folks
That’s as much of a hint as to timing the Bibles gives us. But remember Psalm 83, Isaiah 17 and Ezekiel 38 are all called battles, not wars. If Israel acted without restraint Psalm 83 would likely require only a week or so to fulfill. Isaiah 17 involves only the firing of a missile or the dropping of a bomb. The Rapture of the Church will happen in the twinkling of an eye. God could annihilate the forces of Ezekiel 38 in an afternoon. My point is, this is not too much for Him to accomplish in the time that’s left.
The way the Middle East keeps heating up it’s possible the fulfillment of Psalm 83 and Isaiah 17 could happen very soon. When the Gaza Blockade issue threatened to ignite into a full blown confrontation recently, I thought we were seeing its beginning. But sad to say it’s not if these two prophecies will be fulfilled but when. And from Scripture you can’t tell if they’ll happen before or after the Rapture. They could all happen at once.
But after they do, the Battle of Ezekiel 38 will follow, Israel’s awakening being necessary for Daniel’s 70th Week to begin. This will bring the anti-Christ to the forefront to confirm the treaty that allows for a Temple to be built. In the middle of the 70th Week he’ll claim to be God, kicking off the Great Tribulation, after which the Lord will return to establish His Kingdom.
Over the past few weeks we’ve taken a fresh look at Psalm 83, Isaiah 17, and Ezekiel 38-39. We’ve also shown why the re-birth of Israel has to be the premier sign of the End of the Age. Hopefully, this perspective on how all these prophecies are related will provide the overview we need to understand how very close we are to the End of the Age. Even angels have longed to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12) but you and I are blessed to experience them firsthand.
You can almost hear the foot steps of the Messiah
This belongs in the Religion forum.
Baptist ping
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2018 is the year I had calculated, too.
I’m not so sure a connection can be drawn from the “full number of gentiles” coming in to an instant rapture, then in following Israels’ heart starts to soften towards God. What I think happens is a dovetailing of events, the fullness of gentiles starts to come in as jews’ hearts start to open and somewhere in the mix Christ may come to raise the dead in Christ(and those saints remaining alive) taking his church to heaven with him, but not before the unveiling of the son of perdition as the NT states. After all, the saints will have a hard time not being deceived(’were it possible’ as the Bible says) by the Son of Perdition, which denotes the reality that there are still numbers of saints around to actually note the AC’s rising!
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Which means, if we also go by the Hebrew calendar, the end of the generation is 2017, not 2018.
People have been trying to predict when the end is going to come for years. No one on earth knows, so this has to be put to rest once and for all.
One day someone will predict the “end times” correctly.
Unfortunately, nobody will be around to congratulate them.
Scripture tells us that there will be multitudes who are saved during the Tribulation period. The Church will have been taken out, according to the Bible, before the Antichrist makes his appearance.
The "saints" referred to as being susceptible to the deception of the Antichrist are those who are saved during the Tribulation.
There are scores of verses in the Bible which assures the Church that we will not be going through God's wrath during the Tribulation, but what really finalizes it for me is the fact that during the Tribulation, not only is there no mention of the Church, but the job of the Church, the Great Commission, has been reassigned to the 144,000 sealed Jewish witnesses and to angels.
Where is the Church? Why has the job that Jesus gave to the Church been given to others?
People need to be told about the fact that we are the generation that Jesus spoke of, the only generation in history that is alive to see all the signs Jesus gave for His return happening all at once.
Now those who don't want to hear it are free to not listen and those who don't want to read about it are free to ignore it.
But for those who will hear and will come to Christ for salvation when they are told that time is running out for decisions to be made about salvation, this does not need to be put to rest.
Well, unfortunately for millions of people, this is the generation that is witnessing all of the signs Christ gave for His return happening all at once and, unfortunately for those people, the chances are quickly evaporating to come to Christ for salvation and miss His judgment on an evil, sin-sick world.
There will not be another chance to "predict the end times" correctly. This is it.
Ping!
Ping!
Which means, if we also go by the Hebrew calendar, the end of the generation is 2017, not 2018.
So, a generation is seventy years, now, in the current version of the dispensational scenario? I assume you're using the classic "count from 1948", or has that changed too?
I heard that a record number of Jews are accepting Christ as the Messiah. I have to link but I heard it from someone I think has an ear in Israel.
FWIW, I think we tend to try and fit things into prophecy to keep to a time line. No question the day will come and it sure does seem like it will be sooner rather than later.
Now it remains to be seen whether we, in our limited human understanding, have calculated things correctly, but, going by what we've been given in Scripture, it's pretty natural to do the math and, taken as a whole with all the other prophecies being fulfilled every day, to believe that 2017 may be the end of the generation Jesus spoke about.
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