But I have my own pet prognostication which, I think, does pass the Scripture test. God can work things out in a number of ways we could never anticipate, though, so I never elevate this to dogma.
Perhaps Christ is going to return within a not completely died out generation after the re-founding of modern Israel, as diminutive as it currently is. This might put His return in the year 2028 or thereabouts (for an eighty year generation). Still no day or hour, so we aren’t speculating on something impossible. This also would be about 2000 years, more or less, after His crucifixion (especially if our Gregorian calendar idea of 1 AD is a bit late). Another scripture asserts that a thousand years is as a day. What if this, on the 1 day to 1000 year scale, were to parallel the two days Jesus was buried and on the third day rose again? (He’d rule and reign another 1000 years, completing out the third “day.”)
I honestly can’t say I know. It just hit me as a possibility, and with at least as much credibility as this book has.
a 70 year generation is this year- but back when Christ spoke those words- what was considered a generation average age? not so long ago- a generation meant just 30-40 years or so- I would ‘Assume’ that when Christ mentioned ‘generation’ He may well have meant the ‘average age of a generation’ ‘at the point when Israel becomes a nation’ which would have been around 60-70 years back then I believe’
I don’t put much stock in dates and alignments, secret hidden meanings within text, and this and that really (ala Dan Brown’s idiotic book the davinci code)- but I do say “It’s possible that it could happen in such and such a way- keep an eye out for unfolding events- if nothing happens, then so be it, if the speculations are correct, then we’ll be going home soon and that’s just fine by me”
Again- I’m not a big numbers person EXCEPT for the fact that the bible does seem to be big on the numbers 7 and 70 (Which are the numbers of perfection, of God- Man’s number being 6)- which would SEEM to indicate that we ‘could be’ very close to the rapture- One can hope anyways-
Humorous and a bit serious:
I’m pessimistic about prognostication because it says we don’t know the date.
So whatever dates men try to pick I’ve joked it’ll be none of those.
So all we gotta do is pick a day we’d never pick!
In a similar vein I know how to win the Lottery ... all I’ve got to do is pick 6 numbers that I’d never under any circumstances pick.
See? Easy! *bada*boom*kisk*
Interesting. With regard to the generation not passing away and the 70 year generation, I wonder if the restoration of Israel and the triggering of the 70 years wasn’t at the initial rebirth of the nation, but when Israel captured the Temple Mount in the 6 Day War. Seventy years from that is 2037.
So what if...
The 1948 and 1967 dates give two 70 year timelines, where the 1948 date will be used to help plot the Man of Sin deception and the 1967 date started the countdown to the actual return of Christ?