The Fig Tree Has Budded....What is a Generation?

**mikhen7** · January-17th-2012, 12:39 AM

Originally Posted by dave-o

I've never heard of Judaic dominionism so I don't know what you mean by that.

Just a play on words. I meant it to be similar to Reconstructionism.

**dcbrott99** · January-17th-2012, 08:39 AM

Hi, this is my first post here as I just joined the Rapture Forums. I know there are some disagreements about 1948 but here is my 2 cents:

Here are a couple of verses that will help as I make my point:

Luke 21: 23-24-How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the gentiles until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled. (NIV)

Revelation 11:2-Exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. (NIV)

I use these 2 verses as scriptural proof that 1948, the year that Israel was reformed as a nation, is indeed the time that Jesus was referring to when he talked of the Fig tree budding and this generation not passing until all these things have passed. Follow my logic for a moment:

(1) Revelation 11:2 indicates that the Holy City, and more specifically the outer court or court of the gentiles as it is sometimes referred to will be trampled on for 42 months.
(2) A Biblical month is 30 days so 42*30=1,260 days. Days are commonly years in prophecy so the 1,260 days=1,260 years.
(3) Take us to 1948 and subtract 1,260 years and what do you get? You get the year 688 AD. In 688 AD the Dome of the Rock Mosque was built upon what was thought to be the site of the Holy of Holies but since has been found to actually have been in the area of, you guessed it, the court of the gentiles. Thus, it is my supposition that the 42 months referred to in Revelation 11:2 and the Jerusalem being trampled until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled is the time of the building of the Dome of the Rock until 1948 when Israel was reestablished as a nation.
(4) From this, we infer that a generation is 70 or possibly 80 years as referred to in Psalm 90:10 and we get that all the events foretold by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse will occur no later than either 2018 or 2028. Subtract seven years for the tribulation from this and we get that the rapture must occur (if my theory is correct) no later than 2021 but could happen at any time.

I hope that this has helped someone but it is something that I stumbled upon when reading about the Dome of the Rock mosque and was stunned when I did the math and found that it came out to 1948. God bless everyone!

**dave-o** · January-17th-2012, 10:13 AM

Originally Posted by mikhen7

Just a play on words. I meant it to be similar to Reconstructionism.

Opps! I'm not familiar with reconstructionism either...

(BTW, I firmly reserve the right to be wrong

)

**mattfivefour** · January-17th-2012, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by dcbrott99

Hi, this is my first post here as I just joined the Rapture Forums. I know there are some disagreements about 1948 but here is my 2 cents:

Here are a couple of verses that will help as I make my point:

Luke 21: 23-24-How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the gentiles until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled. (NIV)

Revelation 11:2-Exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. (NIV)

I use these 2 verses as scriptural proof that 1948, the year that Israel was reformed as a nation, is indeed the time that Jesus was referring to when he talked of the Fig tree budding and this generation not passing until all these things have passed. Follow my logic for a moment:

(1) Revelation 11:2 indicates that the Holy City, and more specifically the outer court or court of the gentiles as it is sometimes referred to will be trampled on for 42 months.
(2) A Biblical month is 30 days so 42*30=1,260 days. Days are commonly years in prophecy so the 1,260 days=1,260 years.
(3) Take us to 1948 and subtract 1,260 years and what do you get? You get the year 688 AD. In 688 AD the Dome of the Rock Mosque was built upon what was thought to be the site of the Holy of Holies but since has been found to actually have been in the area of, you guessed it, the court of the gentiles. Thus, it is my supposition that the 42 months referred to in Revelation 11:2 and the Jerusalem being trampled until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled is the time of the building of the Dome of the Rock until 1948 when Israel was reestablished as a nation.
(4) From this, we infer that a generation is 70 or possibly 80 years as referred to in Psalm 90:10 and we get that all the events foretold by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse will occur no later than either 2018 or 2028. Subtract seven years for the tribulation from this and we get that the rapture must occur (if my theory is correct) no later than 2021 but could happen at any time.

I hope that this has helped someone but it is something that I stumbled upon when reading about the Dome of the Rock mosque and was stunned when I did the math and found that it came out to 1948. God bless everyone!

Interesting, but Jerusalem was trampled on by the Gentiles until 1967, not 1948. Following the capture of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 AD, Israel did not possess Jerusalem again until she captured it in the Six Day War of 1967. So, based on your theory, that would take us back to 707, not 688. And, as far as I can tell, the notable events in the Middle East in that year were the invasion of what is now south central Turkey by an Arab army of the Ummayyad Caliphate and the first Islamic hospital was built (in Damascus).

We need to be very careful with numbers; we can make them add up to almost anything.

BTW, welcome to RF. I hope you are blessed by the fellowship here.

**Sean Osborne** · January-17th-2012, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by dcbrott99

Hi, this is my first post here as I just joined the Rapture Forums.

Welcome to the Forums dcbrott99!

I know there are some disagreements about 1948 but here is my 2 cents:

Here are a couple of verses that will help as I make my point:

Luke 21: 23-24-How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the gentiles until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled. (NIV)

My question regarding the above Scripture reference is:

Isn't Jesus referring to the events of the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD, as prophesied by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel (Gabriel's 70 Week prophecy found in Daniel 9:24-27) in this verse? More importantly, does not the whole of Gabriel's prophecy include events which occurred in the 7-years between 66 AD and 70 AD, as well as events which would occur just prior to the 70th Week, as well as events that would occur during the first and second halves of the 70th Week - making it a prophecy of both past and future fulfillment?

I believe it is, because in the 7 years between 66-73 AD when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed by Roman Legions the prophecy found in Matthew 24:15 did not come to fulfillment, but will come to fulfillment during the 70th Week.

Revelation 11:2-Exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. (NIV)

Is this verse not specific to only the second 42-month period of the 70th Week, a/k/a the "Great Tribulation" where the Antichrist is running rampant over the whole earth? I think it is, and it is directly related to Matthew 24:15 above as the divisor (the Abomination of Desolation) of the first and second 42 week periods of the 70th Week.

Elsewhere on these Rapture Forums you will find a thread where Revelation 9, 10 and 11 are discussed in detail.

**dcbrott99** · January-17th-2012, 11:28 AM

Thank you all for your insights and welcome to the forums. I appreciate all the insight. I am very new to learning about prophecy (not a new Christian but new to trying to gain insight into prophecy). As someone else said above, "I reserve the right to be wrong".

**SonSeeker** · January-17th-2012, 03:47 PM

Have been following this thread with much interest and have a couple of questions:

The word genea, of course, can be shown from ancient Greek literature to also refer to a "nation", or even an "age". So was Jesus stating that "this age shall not pass away"? Or that "this nation (Israel) shall not pass away?" Or was he indeed speaking of the physical generation and that the prophesies applied, first of all, to that time. Certainly the fall of Jerusalem, the complete destruction of the Temple, and the great world-wide exile, would tend to lend some credence to that interpretation. But, unlike the Preterists, we know that is not the end of all time nor the final fulfillment of God's prophecies because the entirety of Scripture reveals a lot more. For myself, I lean toward the "nation" or "Age" interpretation.

Adrian, as our resident Greek geek, can you expand as to why you lean in this direction?

I understand you aren't trying to convince us, but I (and I'm sure others) would like more information since so much weight is put on the meaning of the word genea, and since this is the purpose of this entire thread. Thanks bro.

Glenn:

24:34 this generation. No one living when Jesus spoke these words lived to see "all these things" come to pass. However, the Greek word can mean "race" or "family," which makes good sense here; i.e., the Jewish race will be preserved, in spite of terrible persecution, until the Lord comes. Ryrie Study Bible.

Are the Jewish people considered a race?

Am asking as I've never seen it as an option when answering a multiple choice question regarding ethnicity. Just askin' bro.

**Sean Osborne** · January-17th-2012, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by SonSeeker

Are the Jewish people considered a race?

Am asking as I've never seen it as an option when answering a multiple choice question regarding ethnicity. Just askin' bro.

Not answering for Glenno, just my 0.2 worth.

Any group of human beings related by common descent or heredity is a race unto itself. In this the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) apply.

Therefore, those who hate Jews because they are Jews are, by definition, racists.