LUKE 21:24 IS PAST, BUT LUKE 21:25 IS FUTURE!
LUKE 21:24 HAS ALREADY BEEN FULFILLED, BUT LUKE 21:25-28 HAS YET TO BE FULFILLED, AND I SUSPECT VERSE 25 MAY BEGIN WHEN ISRAEL IS ATTACKED AT SOME POINT IN TIME BETWEEN 2008 AND 2012 TO INITIATE WHAT IS TERMED THE LAST THREE AND ONE YEARS OF THE AGE OF THE GENTILES.
EXPOSITION OF THE LUKE 21:32 GENERATION!
April 25, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
I recently received a query from Carl Sullivan asking me to explain Luke 21:32. I thought my answer to him might be of interest
to others, especi ally since events in the Middle E
ast seem to be pointing toward a Jihad in Israel in the next few years.
Luke 21:32 – Verily I say unto you, This generation (GENEA) shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
E.W. Bullinger, in his Critical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, states that the Greek word “GENEA,” translated in Luke 21:32 as “generation,” “denotes an age or generation from the point of view of race.”
Luke 21:24 – And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles
be fulfilled.
According to the King James translator’s constructional format, a transitional change in thought occurs with the beginning of 21:25, which begins a description of events at the very end of the “times of the Gentiles,” and not something that was to immediately begin within a short time after Israel was “led away captive into all nations.”
A “generation” was commonly accepted to be 40 years on the Jewish 360-day-year observance cycle.
The “generation” in Luke 21:32 refers back to those of the very “generation” to whom Christ audibly spoke, and, sure enough, that generation did not pass away before it was “led away captive into all nations.” Titus and his Roman Legion began to lead them “away captive into all nations” in 70 AD, and the Emperor Hadrian completed the job following the 132
AD War. So, I believe the “generation” referred to in Luke 21:32 was the Jewish generation at the time Jesus spoke it, and it has already been fulfilled. The “all things” does not refer to the things of Luke 21:25-28, but to the “all things” of Luke 21:24.
However, I have freely speculated since 1967 that some sort of time span similar to a forty year generation was likely to be associated with Israel recapturing the old Temple Mount, and then once again losing it to the one identified as the Antichrist, as the price for continuing to deny Jesus as the true Messiah and God of Israel.
It was not forty years to the day from the time Jesus spoke Luke 21:32 to the time Jerusalem fell, and I doubt it will be forty years to the day from June in 1967 to the time Israel once again loses Jerusalem to Islamic forces, but I have taught for over thirty years that I guesstimated the attack of Antichrist against Israel would most likely occur before 2008. I still believe that is still a possibility, but I must say, based on developments I have observed since 2000, the attack now appears to be more likely at some point in time between 2008 and 2012.
I have listened to several TV preachers make the bold statement that God will never allow Jerusalem to fall again, but I cannot get around Zechariah 13:8 to 14:2 and Revelation 11:2.
Zechariah 13:8 to 14:2 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. [1] Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
[2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Revelation 11:2 – But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
The Gentiles trod under foot the holy city for centuries, and in the Scripture above it appears they will again tread it under foot for 42 months (1260 days) after the Antichrist overruns it in
the coming Islamic Jihad.
Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
The “remnant” will go into the Negev for 1260 days, but will not be eternally “cut off” from Jerusalem, in the sense they will return to take back the holy city some 42 months later.