This study of
prophetic signs was done by a very scholarly man with years and years of
experience. Please pray before you read and ask God for enlightenment. We need
to know the truth and only the truth.
Please, don't read
this if you aren't interested in taking your time and really study. Too many
want to be entertained as they read. They want excitement, they want the 'wow'
factor, they want something to captivate them and hold their attention. If this
is what you want then maybe you don't want to study to understand… remember
this--
2Ti_2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
A workman. We really
need to work as we are studying. Most people know that studying something by
the very nature of having to study it, means you are diligently learning about
that thing. If you study for a test you are studying to gain and retain knowledge.
We have to study to gain and retain knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
So please, don't
read this expecting entertainment, read it expecting truth.
*
Luk 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.
Luk 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in
the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with
perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring
'An Hour and An
End.' Written by Elder William
Grotheer Adventist Laymen's Foundation.
p 7 -- Chapter III
-- An Analysis of Luke 21:24-25
"The Distress
of Nations" --
Verses 24 and 25 of
Luke 21 are closely associated together. The KJV tends to obscure this close
relationship.
In both verses, the
English words, "Gentiles" and "nations" are translated from
the SAME Greek word. Using the word - nations - in each instance, these verses
would read - "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the nations (eqnwn),
until the times of the nations (eqnwn) be fulfilled. And there shall be signs
in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon earth distress of
nations (eqnwn), with perplexity."
In other words, the ending of "the times
of the Gentiles," or nations is closely associated with "the distress
of nations, with perplexity."
The Greek word for
"distress" is Vunoch which means "imprisoned, in the narrows, or
straits." The added phrase - "with perplexity" (en aporia)
conveys the picture of nations unable to meet the demands placed upon them
financially, or the inability to solve the monetary stress. (See The Vocabulary
of the Greek New Testament by Moulton & Milligan, both articles, aporew
& aporia)
It is an interesting
fact that the same year which marked the closing period of the times of the
Gentiles - 1967 - is also the year which marked the beginning of the financial
woes of the nations.
In a Special Issue
(July 4, 1974) of Myers' Finance & Energy, C. V. Myers wrote: [Gordon
Tether in the London Financial Times (June 28, 1974) noted Myers as being
"the well-known Canadian financial expert."] - It has now been
established over the course of the last seven years - since 1967 - that there
is nothing in this world the international monetary authorities can do to stem
the advance of gold, or to stem the collapse of inflation - or to avoid the
enormous deflation - the global liquidity crunch - and the resulting
depressions. Don't doubt this. The monetary morons have demonstrated it to you
time and again. Fail! Fail! Fail!
For seven years
things have gone from bad to worse; the US$ has been devalued; inflation has
undermined world confidence in money; and now the bankruptcies come.(pp. 2-3)
Again in 1975, Myers
wrote: -- From all that I have observed of international [monetary] conferences
since 1967 I do not believe that any conference is going to come up with any
workable answer. It seems that the situation will just continue to deteriorate.
Only six months ago
we heard every monetary authority in the world shouting, "either we lick
inflation or we are doomed. This is the battle of the century." President
Ford said, we have a war, and we intend to fight this war against inflation. The
way he is fighting the war against inflation is to add a $70 to $100 billion
deficit to the U.S. budget. What happened to all the dire predictions of the
result of inflation?
All brains are
stunned. They see no answer - so now they begin to think no answer is
necessary. Or at least they have decided there is no use thinking about it at
all. Therefore, I can only see as the end product, as I have repeatedly said in
these letters - and especially after attending the big world meetings of IMF -
the answer is a total collapse.
Either the countries
will have to go back to a system which will stabilize the money, such as gold -
or the social order, not only of the United States, but of all the industrial
world, will disintegrate, and from the enormous confusion new governments will
arise after much suffering and
p 8 -- bloodshed,
starvation and horror. Those governments would be dictatorships.
Recently D'Estaing
observed: "The world is unhappy. It is unhappy because it doesn't know
where it is going, and because it senses that if it knew, it would discover
that it was heading for disaster. ... The crisis the world knows today will be
a long one. It is not a passing difficulty. It is actually the recognition of
permanent change." (Ibid., March 11, 1975, pp. 1-2)
In the May 24, 1976
issue of his financial letter, Myers again cites the year 1967 as the base year
for the beginning of the monetary perplexities which have gripped the nations
since then. He wrote - "An enormous war has been going on between the forces
of paper and the forces of gold since 1967 when SDR's were first
proposed." Then he lists a "score card" in the battle between
gold and the paper, Special Drawing Rights:
(1) The IMF recommendation of Special Drawing
Rights in 1967.
(2) The IMF official acceptance of SDR's, 1969,
and the creation of 9.5 billion SDR's during 1970, 1971, and 1972.
(3) Nixon's break with gold, August, 1971, and
the end of the world monetary system devised at Bretton Woods.
(4) The IMF decision to sell 25 million ounces
of gold at 16 auctions over the next two years - thus depleting the
international money system of important gold reserves. (p. 1; see Exhibit #4)
In a letter dated,
April 23, 1976, Myers noted - "Gold is to money what DEITY is to religion.
Without a deity the moral code disappears. Without gold the morality of money
disappears: Morality because money loses its store of value, and the man who sweated
and worked has lost the fruits of his labor, and that is immoral." In
Newsweek (June 19, 1978, p. 21) in an article on the tax revolt, the writer
noted "Since 1967, the value of the dollar has declined 47.6 percent, and
the average American working family is now barely better off in real dollars
than it was a decade ago."
The connection between the sign Jesus gave to
mark the conclusion of the times of the Gentiles or nations, and the beginning
of the "distress of nations" is INESCAPABLE. The fact that we are
living in this very time should cause us to do some very serious thinking.
The Word -
"Until" -- Twenty times in his Gospel and in the book of Acts, Luke
uses the Greek word, acri or acriV, which is translated, "until."
However, in Luke
21:24, and in two places in Acts, the word is combined with the relative, 'ou,
making it an idiomatic expression, achri hou. To understand the force of this
expression as far as, Luke 21:24 is concerned, we need to take time to observe
its use in the book of Acts.
The first instance
of its use in Acts is in Chapter 7. The verse in context reads: - But when the
time of promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and
multiplied in Egypt, till (achri hou) another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so
that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. In
which time Moses was born. (17-20a)
It should be
observed that these verses indicate a "time" when the promise
"drew nigh" and the children of Israel "grew and multiplied in
Egypt, till a king arose" who with his counselors initiated a genocide
program. This program did not begin immediately and it covered a period of
time. In fact, Moses was born in that "time." Here the idiom is used
to indicate a definable period of time by occurring events.
We find the same
indication in the second use of the idiom in Acts 27:33. Paul was on his way to
Rome. Adverse weather conditions had made the voyage extremely hazardous. To
Paul it was revealed that they would be "cast upon a certain island."
All on board had fasted for fourteen days, and when it appeared they were
approaching
p 9 -- land, Paul
advised that they should "take some food." Luke writes that Paul gave
this counsel to all on board "while (achri hou) the day was coming
on." From the time the first faint light on the eastern horizon heralds
the coming dawn until the sun arises dispelling all darkness, the day is coming
on - A BRIEF BUT DEFINABLE PERIOD OF
TIME.
In 1967, the armies
of Israel recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem, yet the capitol remained at Tel
Aviv.
In 1980, the Knesset
declared a united Jerusalem the Capitol of all Israel.
The period which
marked the CLOSING of the times of the Gentiles can be clearly defined.
*
The
"Times" of the Gentiles -
Not only does Luke present the prophecy of
Jesus concerning the fate of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., in the discourse as given on
the Mount of Olives; but also in describing the Triumphal entry of Jesus into
Jerusalem a few days prior, he quotes Jesus saying concerning the city -
"Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee around,
and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and
thy children within thee: for they shall not leave in thee one stone upon
another; because thou knewest not the time (kairon) of thy visitation."
(Luke 19: 43-44) This picture is merely an enlargement of what Luke quotes
Jesus as saying on the Mount of Olives - "And when ye shall see Jerusalem
compassed with armies" (21:20) making it a sign for His followers. In
other words, when Jerusalem was destroyed it had had its day of grace - its
time of visitation.
It is in this
setting then, that Luke reports the words of Jesus stating that the Gentiles
would also have ALLOTTED TIMES(kairoi), and that a certain event would mark the
closing of those times. Even as in the case of the Jewish nation, it does not
mean that all Gentiles will be converted even as all the Jews were not
"converted" to Jesus, the Messiah.
The force of the
concept is the same as stated in Matthew - "This gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then
shall the end come." (24:14) The sign that will mark the time when the
witness has been preached "unto all nations (Gentiles)" has to do
with events connected with Jerusalem's history.
In this case, it is the time when the city is
no longer under the control of the Gentiles.
There is a distinct
parallel in the closing of the time of the Jewish nation/church and the closing
of the times of the Gentiles.
According to the
prophecy given to Daniel, "seventy" weeks of years were set aside for
them.
In the final week,
Jesus came with His last appeal to the chosen people. During His ministry, He
cleansed the Temple twice but was UNABLE to change the course of the religious
leadership. The mid-point of that final week of years was marked by the crucifixion
of Jesus. It closed with the stoning of Stephen in 34 A.D.
Yet time lingered
for the individual Jew who worshiped in the synagogues throughout the Roman
Empire. There they had the opportunity to decide whether they would accept the
decision of their hierarchy concerning Jesus' claim as the Messiah, or whether
they would accept the Gospel that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the fulfillment
of the promises given to them under the covenant.
Then followed the
literal destruction of Jerusalem, in whose fate, "we may behold the doom
of a world that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon His law." (GC,
p. 36)
Jesus gave us as a
prophecy by which we may know when "the time of visitation" is
completed for the nations.
Mercy still lingers
for the individual. But soon to follow is the "wrath" of God poured
out without mercy, WE STAND IN TIME BETWEEN THESE TWO EVENTS.
*
"Trodden
Down" -
The word translated,
"trodden down" is a present participle of the Greek verb, pateo.
p 10 -- The force of
the present tense in Greek indicates that Jerusalem is to be continuously
trodden down till the times of the Gentiles be filled full.
This has been true.
In 70 A.D., Titus
desolated the city, but in putting down the revolt of the Jews in 132 A.D. led
by Bar Kochba, Hadrian desolated it even more so. The city was ploughed over
after its recapture in 134 A.D. From that day till 1967, ONLY GENTILE powers
controlled Jerusalem.
The Greek verb,
pateo according to Thayer's Lexicon, means "to tread under foot,
trample on, i.e.
treat with insult and contempt: to desecrate the holy city by
devastation and
outrage." Arndt &Gingrich in their lexicon (A Greek-English Lexicon
of the New
Testament, p. 640) defines the verb thus: "tread, trample of the
undisciplined
swarming of a victorious army through a conquered city. Its heedlessness, which
acknowledges no limits, causes pateo to take on the concepts 'mistreat,
abuse."' These definitions describe exactly what Jesus said would be the
fate of the city in "the days of vengeance, that all things that are
written may be fulfilled."
(Luke 21:22)
Continuously from the days of vengeance begun by Titus completed by
Hadrian, Jerusalem
has been under Gentile domination and would continue so till the
times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled.
Moulton &
Milligan cite contemporary use of this Greek root word in The Vocabulary of the
Greek New Testament. One source reads - "to tread (patesai) the crops in
the sand." The substantive use was noted in the clause - "One who
treads (patetes) grapes with their feet." (p. 498)
From a detailed
study of Luke 21:24-25, the conclusion cannot be avoided that we have seen
fulfilled before our very eyes a prophecy of Jesus, even as our spiritual
forefathers saw the fulfillment of the other signs which Jesus gave - "And
there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars." (Luke
21:25) To the significance of these signs, we shall devote the next chapter.
*******
End excerpt.
The truth- Jerusalem was under Gentile control from 70AD
until 1980AD.
1980.
1,910 years of being
trodden down.
The prophecy was
fulfilled and it was fulfilled in a way that we cannot deny it, not if we study
and God's word in light of history.
We look at
Jerusalem, the city- Jerusalem, and we know that it has a special place in
prophecy and history. We know that there will be a NEW Jerusalem that will come
down OUT of heaven--
Rev_21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband.
Jerusalem forever
symbolic of God's city.
Jerusalem trodden down upon earth for almost two
thousand years, and then once again it was in the hands of those who are not
gentiles, but Jews. The Jewish people
control Jerusalem and today there is a battle over retaining that control.
Regardless of what transpires we know that as a sign, Jerusalem has played its
part. People who are watching the signs
know that this sign is letting us know that Jesus' return is closer then ever
before.
More tomorrow all by
the GRACE of our LORD>
Please,
pray...pray...pray!
May God help us to
comprehend, to study, to know, to learn and to understand how all of this
affects our lives.
We live in the last
days.
Are we
Christ's? If we are not Christ's then we
are Satan's.
Please let us be
YOURS Christ Jesus our Savior, let us be known by YOU!
All through YOUR
LOVE! Always!
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