Not allowing Les to have all of the fun presenting new end times hypotheses for the New Year, I’m going to present another idea. The correlation between the 1948 statehood of Israel, and Sir Isaac Newton’s prediction of 2060 as the earliest possible end of the world.
We’ve shared before about the 120 year age limit established in Genesis 6:3. It’s easy to see how one could make the case for 120 years being the “generation” that Jesus describes in Matthew 24, starting at verse 32:
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.“
– Matthew 24:32-35
It’s also possible to make the case for 40 years, or even 70 years. For today’s “He’s coming soon” theory we’ll use 120 years.
120 years is as fascinating a prediction from the Bible as Goliath’s 9 foot stature. The tallest man ever recorded was 8′ 11.1″. The oldest person ever recorded was Jeanne Calment of France who lived to 122. That’s an amazingly small margin of error for a book written by people in such ancient times.
“Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.””
– Genesis 6:3
So when a highly respected scientist predicts nearly 400 years ago that the end could be as early as 2060, and surprisingly the difference between 1948 and 2060 is just 8 years shy of the 120 year generation of Genesis 6, it’s worth noting. So consider it noted.
Wouldn’t 120 years be the maximum, not the minimum?
Also, should the dating be from the founding of the modern state of Israel (1948) or from the retaking of the Temple Mount (1967)?
40+1948=1988 40+1967=2007 Doesn’t look like 40 is the right number to use for a generation.
70+1948=2018 70+1967=2037 1948 & 70 doesn’t not work because the Tribulation didn’t start in 2011. It is still possible the Tribulation could start before 2030.
120+1948=2060 120+1967=2087 The problem with these dates is given today’s life spans most of the generation would have passed away by then, barring breakthroughs in treating the illnesses of aging.
Great contribution, thank you. Yes, it may well be sooner, but given the “generation will certainly not pass away” quote it seems that one remaining (perhaps like Joshua, or Caleb?) would satisfy the prophecy.
“barring breakthroughs in treating the illnesses of aging” – This has been a fascinating topic for me. In writing “The Life Expectancy Lie” I came upon a lot of info on how many of our apparent “breakthroughs” have been significantly hyped. Many diseases of today were unheard of a few centuries ago. It seems the only true “breakthrough” we’ve really made is the c-section procedure, as it makes child birth significantly less dangerous, but with abortion we’ve sacrificed more children to death than have been saved by c-section. If just 25% of reported c-sections were unnecessary we’ve traded life-for-life via abortion. Yet, 25% is almost certainly far too small. In reality (per a Harvard Magazine, among others) it’s closer to 80% that are unnecessary, per 1970s numbers.
All that to say, if history is any indicator, any “breakthroughs” are bound to come with some pretty rotten trade-offs. So far, nothing seems to have actually extended human lives, at best it can be argued that more people that are allowed to be born last to latter years of prior age ranges. So more grow old, but the old aren’t growing older. It’s a disturbing trade though.
Again, thank you for your contribution. Please share again some time.
I have done a lot of thinking about “What will the start of the Tribulation Period look like, so we will know that the 7 year countdown to the Lord’s Return has started?”
[I was brought up Pre-Millenial-Pre-Trib, but now I am Pre-Millenial-Post-Trib., because that is what I believe the preponderance of Scripture, in context, teaches.]
A few years ago, I started collecting verses and passages about the Tribulation and my notes eventually turned into a book. You can see a preview of it on Amazon (Quick Link to Glenn Tuley’s Book on the End Times).
I’m happy to leave your link here given your contributions, and I will likely consider your book, as I read a lot. I’d sure appreciate it if you’d share a bit of your perspective, or if you’re willing to author a guest post we’d be willing to keep a prominent link to your site here. Maybe you could contribute regularly? We’d really like to get more “comment commandos” interested in posting longer blog articles and contributing them here. Even a few folks don’t constitute enough eyes to keep this from becoming an echo chamber, and we have no interest in an echo chamber. We want to broach the hard topics concerning a Christian’s role in society today.
This is a very interesting take on things. I am glad I found this site.
I have a question, would there be an email address or perhaps forum where I could talk with the people of this website, and ask questions and have conversations? I would be really interested in picking some of your brains on a wide variety of issues, and perhaps I can be sharpened in the process. I anticipate that the dialogue wouldnt work well in this kind of comment format.
Anyways I will add my contribution to this subject.
I believe that the end times will officially begin in the near future. To me it seems like it will begin sooner such as 2020s-2030s.
I personally just get a feeling it really will begin very very soon. One of the things I think could possibly be taken into consideration, is there is a ongoing effort to try to create a colony on Mars(which may be viable in the next ten to twenty years) To me what little I know about the end times, it seems that they will begin before that can happen.
My reasoning is the Judgement is poured out on the earth. While part of the Judgement affects the heavens(outer space), that is not the focus. And since man is the object of Judgement, and the earth the stage, to me it seems if man were on mars, then they would “escape” Judgement.
So at least in my opinion judgement will occur before man can land or live on mars. Now there is nothing in scripture that says this, but it just seems like what will happen.
I would like to conclude with something I heard once on a news channel, that just made me stop and freeze. Essentially it was a host and a contributor having a discussion about what people are looking for in the next president. At one point the contributor said in these exact words “The American people just want someone who will fight their battles for them”.
Now I had just finished reading a book called “The Light and the Glory”(a great read) which explores the ways God influenced the founding of this nation. Many people in the founding of this nation/ its colonies saw this new nation as a “New Israel” or a “New promised land”.
Hearing pretty much the exact words the nation of Israel used in Samuel, and adding it to the comparison of America to Israel, practically begging for a king instead of having God as king, really stuck me. More and more people are turning to look for a “savior” leader who will fix all the problems for them. Which is just a perfect set up for the antichrist, particularily when considering all the mounting issues in the world which will reach a critical mass soon.
I look forward to future articles, and to catching up on past articles.
Thanks a lot Cory. It can be discouraging to write these articles and wonder if there is anyone left that cares.
As you may have stumbled on I personally think the information age is the end-times and similar to Ryan’s article above I do think the “generation will not pass” clock may well be ticking away, so your estimates are well on par with our suspicions.
Jesus clearly wanted everyone to live as though He were coming soon, so speculating about the “signs of the times” is a valuable spiritual discipline whether we’re accurate or not. Worrying about them, that’s a problem, a problem I struggle with. I heard a pastor recently say: “When you believe it’s up to you, you worry, when you believe it’s up to God, you pray.”
Your thoughts about Israel’s demand for a king is right on IMO and came up just a few days ago when I wrote about “Armageddon Islam”.
Also, I don’t think your consideration of settling other planets is out-of-bounds. The other topic we referred to recently is the “tower of Babel”. These are all repeats of vices mankind has previously experimented with. We could certainly get pretty far, some would point to the international space station as proof that we’re already able to live in space, but with my “signs of the times eyes” all I see is human arrogance.
We are so fragile that without technology we cannot survive long even a few inches below the surface of the deep or a few miles above the surface of the earth. Ryan sometimes gets to rambling about all of the Physics he has studied and we both enjoy science as a tool. Yet when the tool gets used against our own Father/son relationship with our creator, we’ve crossed a line. A line that takes our minds off of our creator and puts them on to ourselves and creation alone. The mere brevity of life itself should be enough to set the hearts of men on eternity, but for the godless eternity is a bigger myth than an intergalactic spaceship.
We can imagine red giants, colorful nebulae, and exotic extra-terrestrials. NASA has spurred this along with color corrected imagery as well as many “artist renditions” inadequately described as such. Yet, eternity. Eternity was so difficult to describe that Jesus had to say: “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” – John 3:12
Faith vs. Fantasy. Must they be in conflict?
Finally, I’d like to point out that if you ever have an idea for an article we’d love to have a guest post now-and-then. Perhaps that would be a unique forum for you?
Yes, thank you Cory. Would love to discuss these topics more. I haven’t read the book you mentioned, yet.
The best article about Fig Newtons ever. Get it? Just kidding good thoughts and interesting, I agree He’s coming soon and I agree we can’t know exactly when.
The term “generation” in Matthew 24:34 can refer to age or time, but it can also refer to a nation. Jesus may not have been referring to a specific time period, but referring to the Jewish people and nation that would be formed. If so, Jesus is saying that the Jewish people would not perish from the earth, and would remain a people until Christ’s coming.
In Matthew: When Jesus is asked when He will return he said, ” The generation born when the Jews return to Israel (the fig leaves return to the tree) shall not perish from the earth before my return.” The Jews returned in 1947 and 1948. I believe we are in the end days. I’m happy.