So it has been explained to me. But it has proven to be not such a clear sign as related to the coming of the Lord. As you may recall, most people who were heavy into the novel dispensationalist reckoning of the End Times back in the 1970's and 1980's took this as a sign that the Lord's coming would be within a generation, which they took as 40 years. Since that didn't pan out, they have had to arbitrarily adjust what is meant by "generation". There is no way to definitely look at these Scriptures and interpret them to say, "This news event points to this, and that news event points to that." It is a moving target because only God has any idea. He will let his true believers, the remnant at that time, know. No formulations will be necessary, and there will be no doubt. We are to be ready at all times.
And I never met anyone who believed the rapture would precede the Tribulation who ever thought otherwise.
I fail to see why people who say we need to be ready for the Lord's soon return are consistently being lectured to do the very thing they advocate as if they never thought that way before.
And it's not just you. It's a wide variety of people.
Belief in the rapture does not mean we think it's an excuse to avoid our responsibility to share the gospel and live godly lives.
It’s a fools errand to date set, which I never advocate. We’re to know the season - and I think we’re in that season. Whether it’s days, years, or decades (highly unlikely) is anybody’s guess.
No, it was not *arbitrarily*adjusted.
Scripture gives at least three different time frames that could be a generation.
There is the 40 years.
There is 70-80 years. (Psalm 90:10)
And there is 120 years (Genesis 6:3)
We just don't know which one it is.
There are also some factors surrounding the establishment of Israel and what that means.
Does it mean the entirety of all the land Israel occupied at it's peak?
Does it include the necessity of Jerusalem being the capital of Israel?
These are factors that we do realize leave the timing up in the air. But it does NOT invalidate the theology of the rapture, the taking of the church out of the world to remove the Holy Spirit's restraining power and deliverance from the Tribulation, the purpose of which is to bring Israel as a nation to accept Jesus as her Messiah, and to judge the unrepentant, unbelieving world.
Since the church, the true body of Christ comprised of believers, is neither of those, then there is no reason for them to have to endure THE Tribulation.