[Note: Many prophecy watchers mistakenly believe that the last generation (as referenced in Matthew 24) began when Israel was reunited into a nation in 1948. Unfortunately there are no scriptures to support this point of view. Even though the regathering of Israel into their land is arguable THE single biggest sign within the last generation. We know that Israel would be reunited during the last generation and indeed would be a pivotal sign, but it doesn't mark the beginning of the generation. Jesus gave us that information clearly, and below are quotes from Arnold Fruchtenbaum in "The Footsteps Of The Messiah":
"...He revealed the single event that will indicate that the end of the age has begun. This sign is said to be when nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom (Matthew 24:7-8). This is to be coupled with famines and earthquakes. It is stated that these things are the beginning of travail. Throughout the prophetic portions of Scripture, the end days are pictures by the word travail, which means birth pain, the pain that a woman goes through before giving birth to a baby.
The key factor, then, is to find the meaning of the idiom "nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom". This idiom, taken in the Jewish context of the day when it was spoken, points to a total conflict in the area in view. This idiom is found in two old testament passages. First is is found in Isaiah 19:1-4:.....In this passage the land of Egypt is in view and the idiom points to conflict all over the land of Egypt...The second place is in II Chronicles 15:1-7...In this passage it is the Middle East that is in view and the idiom points to conflict all over the Middle East.
In the Olivet Discourse it is the whole world that is in view, as is clear from verses 14, 21, 30 and 31. Hence, the idiom refers to a worldwide conflict and this worldwide conflict is the first birth pang, signifying that the last days have begun.
In Jesus' day, the expression nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom was a jewish idiom of a world war preceding the coming of the Messiah...
The first time that such a worldwide conflict occurred was in the years 1914 - 1918 with World War I.
This worldwide conflict that signaled the beginning of the last days was to be coupled with famines and earthquakes. As far as famines are concerned, during the war years of 1918-1919, a pestilence killed 23 million people. In 1920, the Great Chinese Famine occurred, followed by the Great Russian Famine in 1921.
The earthquake factor is even more interesting...between the years 63 - 1896 there were only 26 recorded earthquakes. Most of the world's earthquakes began to occur since 1900. In conjunction with World War I, there were several significant earthquakes: 1905 India - 19,000 killed; 1906 Chile - 20,000 killed; 1908 Italy - 70,000 - 100,000 killed, 1915 Italy - 30,000 killed, 1917 Indonesia - 15,000 killed, 1918 China - 10,000 killed; 1920 China - 200,000 killed; 1923 Japan - 143,000 killed...
The first sign of the first birth pang signifying that the last days of the age have begun was to be a worldwide conflict coupled with famines and earthquakes. This was fulfilled in 1914 - 1918. This also marks the first of the events leading up to the Tribulation period."
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Then the obvious question becomes "what is a generation"? Considering that it began in the era of WWI, and considering that the other various theories have already been disproven (70 years etc), and considering that one meaning of "generation" is a typical lifespan, we are left with returning to Jesus' words: "...as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24:37). Returning to Genesis 6 (aka 'days of Noah') we see the following "Then the Lord said, 'My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal, his days will be a hundred and twenty years." (Genesis 6:3)
And indeed we are living in an era in which a number of people are alive who's ages range between 110-120 years.
So with that in mind, we look at this article from Pete Garcia (and consistent with the above, Mr. Garcia is pointing to the Gathering Up as occurring somewhere between now and 10 years from now, even though he comes to this via a different mechanism...And this is NOT date-setting, it is consistent with our being in the season). Additionally, we know that the "Gathering Up" will have to occur sometime prior to the Tribulation...]:
By Pete Garcia
Ultimately, the born-again believer (spiritually regenerated) would like to have the single, most important question of our life answered. When is Christ returning? To this, I say what Christ said…soon. We are told we cannot know the day nor hour, but we are also told that we could see the day approaching and that we would not be in the dark regarding His return.
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” – Matthew 24:36-37
“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:24-25
“Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.” – Revelation 3:3
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.” – 1 Thessalonians 1-4
As I put in a previous article, we can both know and not know, by the shadow looming over us. Although we don’t know when specifically Christ will return, we know we are now standing in the shadow of the 70th Week of Daniel.
It looms large over us, and the watching believer is joined by the Holy Spirit, with other believers, who sense the nearness of Christ return. In other words, for the believer who is watching and eagerly anticipating the soon return of Christ, we are being reaffirmed by the Holy Spirit who indwells us that His coming is very soon.
So how soon is that?
If I had to wager a guess, I’d say between now and ten years from now.
I’m sure there were people in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, etc. who probably felt the same way. They, in their humanity, could not fathom Christ’s return extending beyond their immediate future. We here in the year 2019, soon to be 2020, feel the same way. We cannot fathom Christ’s return going beyond our immediate future.
I like to think of it as a window of time.
...we are in the last seconds, of the last days, which is why I don’t think we can really push the envelope of God’s patience beyond 10-years. Even escalating this timeline, was the election of the most pro-Israel president the US has ever had since Harry Truman. President Trump, as the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, became the first president to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital. Not only that but by moving our national embassy there, he cemented this decision into policy.
The world, which is currently being run by Satan himself, does not like this. (1 John 5:19). This is why President Trump has the entirety of the globalist, bureaucratic, satanic architecture coming down on his head. They are being steered with this blind, irrational hatred of him, and they do not even understand why. The reason why is that Satan hates Israel, and he will try everything in his power, to destroy them as a nation and as a people. If he can destroy Israel, then he can break/thwart God’s prophetic promise to them, thus, potentially, nullifying his own fate of spending the rest of eternity in the lake of fire.
We know, according to Scripture, that Satan will make four attempts at wiping out the Jewish nation and the city of Jerusalem.
Psalm 83: has not happened yet historically, but could happen at any moment. We’ve seen numerous attempts (1948, 1967, 1973, etc.) already, but there is coming one which will significantly expand Israel’s border for good. This time, they will not yield the land back. Sunni Islam as a religion will suffer a significant, devastating blow.
Ezekiel 38-39: has not happened yet, but we see the chess pieces (the nations) already in position. Nations who historically have always been at odds with each other, are gathering for the first time in what used to be Syria. The nations of Iran, Russia, and Turkey (the three major nations) are staging in Syria under the pretense of keeping the peace. This will change and God will put a hook in their mouths and lead them to war, where He will destroy them. This will put the final nail in the coffin of Islam, as both the Turks (Sunni) and the Iranians (Shia) are overwhelmingly defeated.
Revelation 19: will not happen until the end of Daniel’s 70th Week. At the end of the seven-years (70th Week), the antichrist and the false prophet will lead a final charge against the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant. Christ returns visibly, as He peels the sky apart, and destroys ALL the armies of the world gathered there. See also Zechariah 14:1-15
Revelation 20:1-9: will not happen until the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign on the earth. Here, Satan is released from the bottomless pit for a “short season” and is allowed to persuade those who were born in the millennium, to rise up against Christ who is ruling the world from Jerusalem. Needless to say, this is a short battle, as Christ calls down fire from heaven and consumes them for the last time.
As J.D. Farag once put it, these prophecies have a shelf-life. Psalm 83, Isaiah 17 (destruction of Damascus), and Ezekiel 38-39 are already primed and ready to go.
I don’t see how much longer these things can stay in their present state without falling apart geopolitically.
As much as I believed God used a Trump-presidency to accomplish His purposes (just as He used the Truman presidency), the world-situation is exactly where He said they would be. The world hates Israel and has been coming against it since 1948. The world hates the Trump Administration because Trump enthusiastically supports Israel.
The current reality of a national-Israel being full of Jews, who are back in their ancestral homeland, makes us the first generation in 2,000 years to meet these prophetic conditions.
Although we are overflowing with prophetic signs and markers these days, we often lose sight of just how prophetically significant Israel really is. I say lose sight because we start looking at a lot of different signs trying to determine just how close we actually are. Then we become inundated with information and begin to chase our tails.
It has to come back to watching Israel. This is because if you were born after 1948, you’ve only ever known Israel to be back in her land. However, if you lived before 1948, you understood that the nation of Israel existed only in history books. I’ve often wondered if this is why so many of our great Christian prophecy scholars have already graduated into glory, leaving us young bucks to carry the water. We get enamored with all the technology, signs in the heavens, geopolitics and so on, thus, we know we are near the end, but we forget to do our proper cross-scan (across the dashboard of all the prophetic signs).
The Bible emphatically states that Christ will one day rule from David’s throne, which is in Jerusalem. The Bible emphatically states that Israel will build a third temple. The two previous temples were destroyed; the first by the Babylonians, and the second by the Romans. However, in order for there to be a third temple, Israel had to control Jerusalem. In order the Jews to control Jerusalem, they had to control the land of Israel. In order for the Jews to reclaim the nation of Israel, God would have had to preserve them as a people through 2,000 years of Diaspora.
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