Posted on 05/17/2018 11:32:15 PM PDT by grumpa
Today is the 70th anniversary of the political creation of the State of Israel.
This fact is crucial for American fundamentalists. This is because most of them believe in something their pastors call “the clock of prophecy.” It started ticking on May 14, 1948, or so they have been told by a generation of pastors and authors. But there is a problem. It was not supposed to keep ticking longer than 70 years — the normal lifespan of one generation.
Before I explain all this, I want you to understand that American fundamentalists are almost all dispensationalists. This is called pre-tribulation dispensationalism, and at least 99% of dispensationalists are pre-tribulation dispensationalists. They believe that Christians will be pulled out of history prior to the horror known as the Great Tribulation, which will come mainly on Jews living in the State of Israel after the Rapture.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanvision.org ...
It didn’t happen. So, they expanded the definition of “generation” to 70 years.
But guess what? 70 years has now passed without their expected great tribulation, rapture, and Second Coming.
Time has left dispensationalism empty. What this reveals is that the END has indeed come—not the end of the world, but the end dispensationalism itself. It has failed. Bankrupt. Kaput.
Here's my own article detailing the history of false prophecies of Christians down through the ages:
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=D3BD424B0B25B83F!11257&app=Word
One could say that a “generation” is one degree in the Great Year, which is the Processional movement of the Earth Axis through the Zodiac/Seasons. Thus 25980 years divided by 360 degrees equals 72 years, which is one degree of the Great Year... which of course is also considered the average lifespan of a man/human. Fascinating. Thus perhaps we have to wait until May 14th, 2020. After that all bets are off, of course...
Just my random thoughts late at night.
This is kind of a BS article.
It paints with a very broad brush and is meant to discredit pretty much any and all Protestants based on a handful of high profile books and personalities.
The Rapture happened already.
The four or five people that met God’s standards were brought home and the rest of us were “left behind”.
That’s some thoughts, your random thoughts. 😁🤣
Article seems to be cherry picking. It’s easy to do with protestants as many mistake them for a monolithic body and then if some “church” declares the rapture is on date X using reasons y and z, then all protestants are lumped in with them. Just as the MSM likes to find a racist “church” and portray all protestants as concealing inherent bigotry etc.
[[A generation is widely considered to be 40 years.]]
No it wasn’t- that is a lie- the only reason it was AN AVERAGE of 40 years years ago was because of high infant mortality- Those numbers skewed the total average-
But whatever- typical Christian bashing article
Smugness is always so helpful when trying to get another Christain’s attention
I got raptured, I don’t know about the rest of you.
This generation, which I understand to mean, “this generation who is alive when it happens”, shall not pass away. There are still people alive, who were alive in 1948. Plenty of them. But that’s just me, I guess. I never heard the interpretation that it was a “generation’s” amount of time, which could be 40 years, or even much less. There are generations that are only 12 years apart, in some cases.
Psalms says a generation is three score and ten or a longer life of four score. Truly Israel is fulfilling exactly as predicted in the bible, literally. On top of that the fig tree could mean when Jerusalem was captured in 1967.
God’s timing should be respected, not mocked. It says in Daniel to close up the book until the end when it would be revealed. Denominations write their doctrine and close up their belief like they know all the answers. If you don’t take Revelations literally, why would you take any part of the bible literally? When you see these things look up your redemption draweth nigh.
Not a theologian or claim any special knowledge
It is generally acknowledged that an event related to the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land to form a resurrected State of Israel is the event Jesus is referring to Parable of the Fig Tree as a sign that the time Christ's return is near.
In the eyes of the Lord, is this event the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 or the Six Days War in 1967 when the Jewish people regained control of Jerusalem?
Not a theologian or claim any special knowledge, but in my eyes the restoration of Jerusalem to the Jewish people may be the more appropriate event.
Regardless, Jesus is clear that that we will only know the approximate time of His return, or when that it is close.
Translations of Matt 24:34 vary, but one of the plausible in context translations is , “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass completely away , till all these things be fulfilled.”
In many translations the phrase “completely away” is omitted , presumably because it is redundant in the translation.
However the “completely away” interpretation has some significance because it implies that “general time” Jesus was referring to would be at a time when all but a very few of the generation who were alive to witness the event Jesus was referring to would still be alive.
In other words, Jesus was not referring to specific time frame that defines a generation, he is more likely referring to the literal dying off the entire population of people in the generation of people alive to witness the event he referred to.
In today's world, an age of at least 100 years old, if not older, would probably be a good exemplar of “ not pass completely away”
If one uses an age of 100 years old and the 1948 founding of the State of Israel then before 2048 would be a “general time” but if you consider the 1967 restoration of the Jerusalem to the Jewish people as the event Jesus was referring to then before the year 2067 could be the general time
In this analysis, if we assume Jesus is referring to the actual physical death of all but a few of the generation alive at the time he refers to, then the time frame may be expanded significantly further as many recent modern medical breakthroughs have the potential to increase the life span of this generation dramatically
Never have been a fan of Dispensationalism because I see no logical reason why the generation of Christians alive at the time near the return of Christ should be spared the persecutions and martyrdom visited upon all other generation of Christians throughout the ages (especially when people of our time seem to be more deserving a little persecution for our wicked ways than in earlier times) , but there is not sound scriptural basis to prove Dispensationalism is false simply because a “Prophecy Clock” with an arbitrary 40 or 70 time limit has been exceeded.
WRONG!
It will fall upon the whole world. Certain events are prophesied for Jerusalem, Megiddo and other places in Israel, but the Tribulation will be felt globally.
In fact, Israel will be just about the safest place to be, geographically speaking.
And about the safest people, temporally speaking, will be the descendants of Jacob. Others who, deceiving or being deceived, call themselves Jews, eh, not so much maybe.
Those still living, that have witnessed the birth of Israel are the chosen generation... the Big Guy knows this... when no one is around to remember it, it will be said it never happened...
My two cents...
Go God!
Doesn’t the prophecy state that the generation that witnesses the rebirth shall not pass away before the 2nd advent of Christ? Members of that generation who witnessed the event are still alive. Just sayin’.
Well put. As long as one person born in 1948 is still alive, that ‘prophecy clock’ is still running. How old was that lady in the news recently ... 129 years?
I have no tolerance for either false prophets or smug critics. My faith is based upon Christ’s words as documented in the Bible, not on books or articles written by modern “scholars”.
Why post this to me?
I dunno. I just went outside when I heard a wreck and everyone is freaking out because people just vanished from a bus, including the driver.
I think you just missed the boat.
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