The "times of the Gentiles": What? When?
These and other passages prove that God does, indeed, have separate plans for the church and for Israel.
(Notice in this last verse, it says AFTER God takes out the Gentiles, "I will return…" The rest of that passage and context indicates that He will come and finish His work with Israel, after the Gentile church is gone.)
The big questions are: When did "the times of the Gentiles begin," and when does it end? This is a most intriguing subject, for with the answer comes a major clue of the timing of end-time events.
It is probably safe to assume that the term "times of the Gentiles" is synonymous with what some call "the church age," or the age of grace. While hinted at, the idea of the church, a church age, and a Gentile people not under the ceremonial Law of Moses was mostly unknown to the ancient prophets and Israelites, but it was going to mark a pause in Jewish prophetic history. If true, we know that it began on the day of Pentecost shortly after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
Such a start year would also support the idea that Israel’s prophetic clock stopped at the crucifixion of their Messiah. Just before He was killed, Jesus told them, "37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matthew 23:37-39).
The Jews’ house was left desolate from that year until now.
A major question is: What year was that? Opinions vary. Some insist on A.D. 31. Others are adamant about A.D. 33, or other years. I am not certain. Several people I greatly respect are divided between those two years. Let’s assume one of them is correct.
Another question is: "How many years are "the times of the Gentiles?" For reasons I will not explain here, I used to believe it to be 2,520 Jewish years, beginning with the Babylonian captivity in 606 B.C. Converted to Gregorian years, this takes you to A.D. 1878, the very year that the first Jewish settlements were established in what was to later become modern Israel -- the actual planting of the "fig tree."
However, I can see the possibility that instead of 2,520 years, it may be 2,000 years, or two millennial days. That is because of the prophecy in Hosea 6:1-3: "Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2After TWO DAYS will he revive us: IN THE THIRD DAY he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
Scholars admit that Hosea could not be talking about two and three literal 24-hour days, and had to be talking about millennial days, and we know that the Word reveals, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8).
If Israel’s prophetic clock stopped at the crucifixion, 2,000 Jewish years (1,917.3 Gregorian years) plus A.D. 31 = A.D. 2002. Or, if we use A.D. 33, it would be = A.D. 2004. If true, Israel’s prophetic end-time clock may begin again in 2002 or 2004.
But note that it says "AFTER" two days, and "IN" (or on) THE THIRD DAY. It could be one second, one minute, one day, one week or more AFTER 2,000 years, and into the third day. We cannot be certain on this Scripture from Hosea alone. But it does seem clear that we are on the very edge of the fulfillment of that prophecy, the end of the church and Gentile age, and Israel’s final seven years, the 70th week of Daniel.
The year 1967 was a tremendously prophetic year, as that was the year of the miraculous Six-Day War, when Israel captured Jerusalem. I always thought it was the fulfillment of Luke 21:24: "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, UNTIL THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES BE FULFILLED."
However, I am now thinking that the key to this passage may be the crucial Temple Mount, not just Jerusalem. Israel captured the Temple Mount in 1967 but in a conciliatory diplomatic move gave it up right away to Jordan. Looking back, such a decision seems foolish and unwise, but it must not have been God’s timing for the end of the times of the Gentiles.
If this is all true, let’s closely watch the current situation, and see if (or rather when) Israel retakes the Temple Mount. If and when she does, that may truly, dramatically and finally signal the end of "the times of the Gentiles" -- and the simultaneous removal of the church. The way things are going in the Middle East, it could be any day.
###