THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES

The “times of the Gentiles” is the period of time that God has allotted for people outside of the Jewish nation to obtain salvation and eternal life. In the beginning God chose certain faithful men to beget for Him a nation that He could call His people. That nation was Israel.

            For hundreds of years God directed the lives of the people of Israel, protecting and providing for them, proving to them that He was God. God desired the worship of these people and wanted them to realize He was the only one who could provide for their needs.

But the Israelites were a stub­born and stiff-necked people. Even after seeing the miracles that God performed for them for hundreds of years, and after proving Himself to them time and time again, they relentlessly turned from His Word.

Because of the rebellious nature of the Israelites, God included in His plan of salvation, to give people of other na­tions an opportunity to obtain eternal life and in doing so, provoke the Israelites to jealousy. So God then included in His plan to turn to the Gentile nations and offer to those people the opportunity to believe His Word and to believe in His only begot­ten Son, as the way to enter into eternal life.

But as God has proven many times, He has a set time for everything to happen. In this plan for offering salvation to the Gentile people, He set a certain time for it to start and a cer­tain time for it to be complete. Yes, there is a definite period of time that the Gentiles have to take hold of this opportunity and the Lord Jesus called it the times of the Gentiles.

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.”

The times of the Gentiles is a set period of time that God has allotted for them to be saved and as will be shown, is a period of two thousand years. Avoiding any previous teaching on this subject that would influence the understanding of this dis­pensation, we will turn to God’s Word as the primary source for the answer, supplementing it with some historical facts only to obtain some relative dates.

At the end of the Gentile dispensation, Christ returns to receive His church, His Bride, those who are in the Body of Christ as a result of having received of His Spirit. This will begin the Millennium, the one thousand years spoken of in Revelations 20:4-6.

Revelations 20:4-6   “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not wor­shipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. {5} But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. {6} Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

In Revelations 11:15-19 and Revelations 20:11-15, it tells of Christ coming after the Millennium is over to pass judgment on those who were not taken during the Rapture and first resurrection. This third coming of Christ marks the beginning of the end of the world as well as The Great White Throne Judgment. Those persons who were not taken in the first resurrection will be judged ac­cording to the deeds done during their life.

Revelations 20:12-15   “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. {13} And the sea gave up the dead, which were in it; and death and hell deliv­ered up the dead, which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. {14} And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. {15} And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

At the time of the Rapture and the first resurrection He will carry away those believers who are in the body of Christ, His Bride, the church of the firstborn, those who have overcome the world and have received the Holy Spirit. After this event takes place, life will continue for those who are left on the earth for another one thousand years. For as it says in Revelations 20:5, this is the first resurrection, the resurrection of the true, born-again believers who will reign with Christ for the next thousand years.

Then it says that the rest of the dead, those that died without accepting Christ and those believers who died without being born again of the Spirit, will not be resurrected until the thou­sand years is over.

So keeping in mind that life will continue on the earth for another thousand years after the first resurrection, those scrip­tures dealing with the destruction immediately after His coming are not talking about the end of the Gentile period, but are de­scribing His third coming after the Millennium is over.

The exact time of the end of the Gentile dispensation and the second coming of Christ is not revealed by the scriptures, but it is possible to get a good idea of when it will occur. And even though the scriptures say that no man knows the day or the hour, they do not say that man cannot know the year or the month. Despite this, what I am about to reveal to you will in no way attempt to pin this time down to the day, or the hour, or the month. With the number of changes that have taken place with our calen­dar over the past several hundreds of years, it isn’t possible to get the time down to the exact year, but it is possible to get close enough to make everyone aware that the time is very near.

One of the keys for unraveling this mystery is the interpre­tation of a prophecy made by the Prophet Daniel. Now Daniel was a Prince of Israel who lived in Jerusalem during the time that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, besieged the city because the ruling king of Israel would not obey him. This Nebuchadnezzar overtook Jerusalem and carried away to Babylon much treasure and most of the royalty of Israel, including Daniel.

The Prophet Jeremiah had prophesied that Israel would serve the king of Babylon for seventy years and had written this down in a scroll some time before Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusa­lem. Because of reading this prophecy of Jeremiah, Daniel knew that the seventy years were coming to an end and thus set his face before the Lord praying for Him to forgive Israel for their iniq­uity. (Daniel chapter 9)

Daniel says that while he was praying, the angel Gabriel came to him and told him: that from the going forth of the com­mandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah shall be sixty nine weeks, and after this sixty nine weeks Messi­ah would be cut off. This message from the angel was given to Daniel in 538BC, but the sixty-nine weeks were not to start until Israel was given the commandment to return and restore Jerusalem.

After extensively studying the history of the Medes and the Persians to get the exact dates of when certain kings ruled and comparing this information with the scriptures, I came to the conclusion this commandment was given to restore Jerusalem by the king of Persia, Artaxerxes I Long­imanus, in the year 445BC.

Since it is obvious that sixty-nine weeks after this com­mandment could not have taken us to the time of the Messiah or Christ, these weeks must be referring to a longer period of time.

It is commonly agreed to by Bible scholars throughout the world that this period of time refers to “weeks of years,” there­by making these sixty-nine weeks to be (7x69 years) or 483 years. This means that from the going forth of the commandment to re­store Jerusalem, to the time that the Messiah would be cut off would be a period of 483 years. But there is something else we must take into consideration here. Bible prophecy always refers to Bible years, which are 360 days long. Our calendar years are normally 365 days long and in a leap year they are 366 days long.

So from this point on, we will refer to prophetic years as Bible years and our calendar years as secular years. When we convert these 483 Bible years to secular years, we get 476 secu­lar years. So that means that the period of time from the com­mandment of Artaxerxes, to the time that Christ was crucified (cut off) was 476 years. Since the commandment was given in the year 445BC, 476 years from then would take us to the year of 32AD, the year Christ was crucified. Now this is a very important date to know and it will be used later on.

We find then, that three questions need to be answered.

1. When did the Gentile dispensation begin?

2. How long is it to last?

3. When is the end of the Gentile dispensation?

Now looking to the Word of God for the answer to these ques­tions, we turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 6, verses 9 and 10.

Isaiah had a vision from the Lord in the year that King Uzziah died, which was in the year 761BC. The Lord gave Isaiah a prophecy for his people about 790 years before it was to take place.

The Lord said in Isaiah 6:9-10: “. . . Go, and tell this peo­ple, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye  indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” So God told Isaiah that He was going to blind the eyes of the people of Israel so they would not understand.

The Apostle John also repeated what God said was going to happen, in the 12th chapter and verses 37 through 40 of his gospel. Now why did God blind the Jews to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah? He did this so the Gentile nations could have an oppor­tunity to receive salvation.

John 12:37-40   “But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: {38} That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? {39} Therefore they could not be­lieve, because that Esaias said again, {40} He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

As the Apostle Paul also said in Romans chapter 11, God blinded Israel so salvation could come to the Gentiles and the blindness would remain until the end of the Gentile dispensation. So the scriptures say that if the Jews had not have been blinded, they would have accepted Christ as the Messiah and the gospel may not have gone to the Gentiles.

Romans 11:25   “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.”

So the answer to question #1 is that the Gentile dispensa­tion started at the time that God blinded part of Israel to the fact that Jesus was the promised Messiah. So the Jews could not have been blinded until Jesus had actually appeared on the scene. Now we want to see when Jesus actually appeared on the scene.

Jesus came to be baptized by John the Baptist in the begin­ning of John’s ministry and was introduced as the Messiah at that time. According to Luke chapter 3, John began his ministry in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar of Rome, which accord­ing to history was the year of 29AD. History has it recorded that Tiberius reigned as Caesar in Rome from 14AD to 37AD. So his 15th year as Caesar would have been 29AD. According to scripture, everything must be verified by the mouth of two or three witnesses. To this end, the following explanation is offered.

It is common­ly believed that the length of the ministry of Jesus was about three and one half years. So if Jesus started his ministry in 29AD, three and one half years later when He was crucified would have been 32AD. Now do you remember Daniel’s prophecy that Mes­siah would be cut off at the end of 69 weeks, in the calculated year of 32AD?

Israel, in part, was blinded to the fact that Jesus was the promised Messiah, just as Isaiah had prophesied, and this blindness in part began when Jesus began His ministry in 29AD. This was the start of the Gentile dispensation.

            There are some who would say that Israel wasn’t blinded to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah until much later, proven by the fact that hundreds or thousands followed Him around listening to Him preach. But remember that Paul said that the blindness would only be to part of Israel and part of them never did accept Him as the Messiah, even at the start of His ministry. And if the Gentile dispensation did not begin at the start of His ministry, then what other reason would there be for the Israelites to be partly blinded at that time

            The whole of Israel as a Nation did not accept Jesus as the Messiah when He began His ministry and His coming ushered in the start of a new covenant. God was no longer dealing with Israel as a Nation under the old Mosaic Law, but was beginning to deal with individuals on a one by one basis. This new covenant was not just for Israel, but for the peoples of the whole world, including the Gentile Nations.

The second question then was: How long will the Gentile dispensation last?

We again turn back to the same chapter in Isaiah for the continuation of this prophecy. In Isaiah 6:11-12 it says: “Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord has removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.”

History tells us that in the year of 70AD, Titus, a general of the Roman army, besieged Jerusalem and the surrounding cities, completely destroying the city, buildings, and walls, killing over a million people and sending thousands of prisoners in exile to other parts of the world. Only a remnant of the poorest people was allowed to remain in the land.

Then Isaiah 6:13 states, “. . . and it shall return (they shall return). So Isaiah says that the Jewish people will be blinded, and the Gentile dispensa­tion will continue until all the people return to their promised lands.

Now for additional information into the length of this period of time, we turn to the writings of the prophet Hosea. Hosea prophesies and says in chapter 6, verses 1 and 2: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord . . . After two days will he re­vive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.”

Now keep in mind that the Apostle Peter, in 2nd Peter 3:8, said that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. And David also in the 90th Psalm said, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday . . .”

Hosea says after 2 days, 2000 years of our time, the Jews will be revived (awakened from their blindness). And on the 3rd day, after the 2000 years has expired, the Lord will reveal him­self to them when He returns and takes His Bride away. Then they will realize that Jesus was the Messiah, but it will be too late for them because the promised Spiritual birth into the Body of Christ will no longer be available. This will end with the rapture and the resurrection of born-again believers.

So the answer to question #2 is that the Jews will be blind­ed and the length of the Gentile dispensation will be 2000 years. God blinded the eyes of the Jews when Jesus appeared on the scene, in the year of 29AD. Even in the beginning of His ministry as a nation they did not accept him.

Now in measuring the 2000 year period that started in 29AD to the end of it we must remember that prophecy speaks of Bible years which were 360 days long and the calendar we use is re­ferred to as secular years which have years 366 days long during leap year and 365 days long the remainder of the years.

Now from 29AD to 2000AD is 1971 secular years. Since the secular year is longer than the Bible year, this same period must contain more Bible years than secular years.

One fourth of these secular years were leap years that contained 6 more days than a Bible year and three fourths of these years were regular length years that contained 5 more days than a Bible year.

            One fourth of 1971 secular years   = (492.7 years x 6 days) = 2956.2 days

            Three fourths of 1971 secular years = (1478.3 years x 5 days) = 7391.5 days

                            TOTAL       =10347.7 days

There were 10347.7 more days in these secular years than would have been in the same number of Bible years.

These extra days would make the period from 29AD to 2000AD longer in Bible years than it was in secular years.

To calculate the additional years these extra days would make, we divide these days by the number of days in a Bible year.

10347.7 / 360 = 28.7 rounded to 29 years

This means that this period of time was 29 Bible years lon­ger than what it was in secular years.

Add these extra Bible years to the secular years:

1971 secular years

  29 extra Bible years

----

2000 = The number of Bible years from 29AD to the year 2000 AD.

If the Gentile dispensation is 2000 years long and the period of time from 29AD to 2000 AD is 2000 Bible years long then the Gentile period must extend to the year of 2000 AD.

From 29AD to the year 2000 AD is exactly 2000 Bible years (360 day years) This will be the end of Hosea’s 2 days and the end of the Gentile dispensation.

Thus the answer to question #3 is the year 2000 AD.

Now the calculations I have gone through are not an exact science by any means. Everything has been rounded off into even years, even though each year is not measured in exactly so many number of days. Also we are relying on historical dates back during the first century being reliable, which they probably aren’t.

And I am sure no one really knows how many adjustments have taken place with the calendars that we use. But this was done for only one reason, not to figure the exact day nor even the exact year of the end of the Gentile dispensation, But to illustrate that the time is growing close at hand and if there is any doubt whether we are ready or not, genuine preparations need to be made to be certain that believers are ready for His return for His Bride.

But let us look at something else that the scriptures might be saying to us, starting with Psalms 90:4. “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” Psalms describes a watch in the night as being like a thousand years with God. Keeping this in mind as we examine some other scriptures, a watch in the night is defined as a period of time when someone is on duty to guard or watch over something. In the New Testament scriptures we are told that the period of a night went from about 6:00 in the evening to 6:00 the next morning and was divided up into four watches. These watches were as follows: The first watch was from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.; the second watch was from 9:00 p.m. until midnight; the third watch was from midnight until 3:00 a.m.; and the fourth watch was from 3:00 a.m. until 6:00 a.m. the next morning. (See Matthew 14:25 & Luke 12:38 which tells of watches #2, #3 and #4) (Watch #1 is assumed.)

In the parable of Mark 13:35, Jesus states: “that the master of the house might come at evening, at midnight, at the time the cock crows, or in the morning.” In this parable He was speaking of His second coming. Then in the parable of the ten virgins of Matthew 25:6, He said the Bridegroom arrived at midnight, again speaking of His second coming.

Jesus said in John 9:4 that He must do the work of God while it was day, for the night was soon to come. This could be saying to us that when Jesus left the earth the night began. If we view the night the same way the Israelites did and divide it into watches, keeping in mind that Psalms 90:4 said that each watch was a thousand years with God, then if the parable of the ten virgins is giving us a clue as to when Christ will return, we should be looking for Him just about two thousand years after He left.

The end of a two thousand year period relates to the end of the second watch, which as was stated in the parable of the ten virgins was at midnight – midnight being the time when the second watch ends and the third watch begins. Or, if we look at the years that have lapsed since the time of Jesus, it would be at the end of the second one thousand year period, about the year 2000 AD.

As I have previously stated, my calculations are not exact for a number of reasons, but we can be certain that the end of the “Times of the Gentiles” is at hand. The return of Christ for His Bride could occur at any time and usher in the last thousand years that we have left.

You of course could dispute this, but why would you want to?

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