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Imagine yourself hearing or reading the New Testament gospels and letters for the first time as they circulated throughout the Roman Empire. Would anyone in those days have constructed the prophetic wild child that passes for biblical eschatology today with gaps between a number like 70, redefining Greek words like “near” and “shortly” by quoting 2 Peter 3:8, when they were common words of their time?
How about those who first read Ezekiel’s prophecy about Gog and Magog and the use of the Hebrew word rosh (used 600+ times in the OT and means head and chief and not ‘Russia’) and decided that it described a battle far in the future to be fought with space-age weapons, where bows and arrows would be missile launchers and missiles, and referred to an Islamic antichrist? Pop Prophecy has a long history, as this list of Gog and Magog Candidates through the centuries shows from Frank Gumerlock’s book The Day and the Hour.
The Day and the Hour: Christianity's Perennial Fascination with Predicting the End of the World
In The Day and The Hour, Gumerlock spans two thousand years of conjecture on the last days, disclosing the dreams and delusions of those who believed that their sect was the 144,000 of Revelation 7; that the 1290 days of Daniel 12 had expired in their generation; that the "Man of Sin" of II Thessalonians 2 was reigning in their time; that a Rapture of the saints, a Great Tribulation, a Battle of Armageddon were just around the corner; or that a Millennial Kingdom was about to dawn.
Buy Now- Goths (4th century)
- Goths and Moors (5th century)
- Huns (7th century)
- Islamic Empire (8th century)
- Hungarians (10th century)
- Mongols (14th century)
- Persecution of the Lollards (14th century)
- Turks (16th century)
- Mohammedans and the Papacy (16th century)
- Pope and Spain (16th century)
- Native Americans (17th century)
- France (18th century).
When Jesus said, “this generation will not pass away,” does anyone honestly believe that those who heard what Jesus said would have interpreted “this generation” to mean a distant generation was in view? Not based on what Matthew 24:33 states. Why tell them (note the use of ‘you’ throughout the Olivet Discourse) to flee to the mountains, like the way Lot was told to flee to the mountains in Genesis 19, if Jesus was not referring to them? Do you think Lot thought God had a distant generation in mind when he was told to flee to the mountain? No, he fled!
The religious leaders knew Jesus was talking about them: “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. And although they sought to arrest Him, they feared the crowds, since they considered Him to be a prophet” (Matt. 21:45-46). Jesus meant to say, “No, it’s about a future generation of Jews who will be slaughtered during a Great Tribulation because that generation will just happen to be there at that time.”
What do we make of Jesus’ response to the high priest? “You have said it yourself. But I tell you [plural], from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:64). I guess the high Priest was mistaken in not understanding Jesus to mean a future generation when He will come again: “Then the high priest tore his robes and said, ‘He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? See, you have now heard the blasphemy; what do you think?’ They answered, ‘He deserves death!’” (vv. 65-66) I guess Jesus didn’t have time to tell them that His coming was way in the future, and there was nothing for that generation to worry about.
But dispensationalists and those associated with their end-time beliefs always have a prophetic ace up their sleeves when someone shows a nearly unbeatable hand. It’s called “double fulfillment.” But there’s always someone with a “triple fulfillment” card. Dealing off the bottom of the deck is also popular.
I found this comment interesting by someone who rejected preterism and went back to premillennialism after listening to Joel Richardson: “This is what happens when you read the Old Testament on its own terms, without spiritualising & allegorising all the promises made by God to Israel, applying them to the church.”
First, but this is what ALL dispensationalists and their kin do with chapters like Ezekiel 38 and 39. “Those ancient weapons are only symbols of modern weapons because the people in Ezekiel’s day and beyond for nearly 2500 years could not have understood future weaponry.” No matter how many parallels there are with the book of Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah, there’s always “But what about that verse?” One verse can be used to nullify a hundred or more.
Second, the ‘church’ is not something new in the NT. The Greek word 𝙚𝙠𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙖 is commonly used for ‘assembly’ or ‘congregation,’ as in Acts 7:38: “the congregation (𝙚𝙠𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙖) in the wilderness.” The KJV translates 𝙚𝙠𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙖 in Acts 7:38 and Hebrews 2:12 as ‘church.’
The Rapture and the Fig Tree Generation
Since the national reestablishment of Israel in 1948, countless books and pamphlets have been written defending the doctrine assuring readers that it could happen at any moment. Some prophecy writers claimed the “rapture” would take place before 1988. We are far removed from that date. Where are we in God’s prophetic timetable?
Buy NowThird, the promises made to Israel were being fulfilled in the NT, and many Jews understood that (Acts 2:37-42). What dispensationalists must explain is how an eternal covenant can be postponed for more than 2000 years!
Fourth, what will be the result of renewing that long-overdue ‘eternal’ covenant? Millions of Jews will be slaughtered during the Great Tribulation based on Zechariah 13:7-9. Why would God single out a generation that had nothing to do with the rejection of Jesus, based on what we read in Acts 2:22-23? It was that “perverse generation” (2:40) that was going to come under judgment and did. Unlike today’s eschatologists who claim to love the Jews, Jesus warned those of that generation (Matt. 24:34) how they could escape it (24:15-20; Luke 21:20). You never hear Joel Richardson and dispensationalists telling Jews to leave Israel because millions of them are going to be wiped out!