of Israel, whose hearts have been judged right in God’s sight, will be saved. That will be 100% of the group living at that time. You see, a spiritual blindness will be upon Israel until the “fulness of the Gen tiles be come in.” This doesn’t mean that Jewish people aren’t being con verted to Jesus Christ today. God to day is calling out a people for His name, Jews and Gentiles, who will become the Bride of Christ. This is the Rapture of the Church, when the last person has been added to the body. When the Church age comes to a close, God will begin to judge Gen tile nations during the Tribulation which lasts seven years. At the end of that time, He will judge and re deem the Israelites living at that moment. Some feel the Times of the Gentiles began in about 70 A.D. when Titus, the Roman, destroyed Jerusalem. But most Bible teachers understand this actually started in 605 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar over ran the nation, destroying Jerusa lem, and the temple, taking the Jew ish people into captivity. It was a thorough devastation, completed in 587 B.C. Also of greatest significance is the time when “the Times of the Gen tiles” will end. The famous six-day Israeli war in June of 1967 was thought by some people to be the signal for that cataclysmic end. The Bible clearly tells us, however, that Jerusalem will still be trodden down of the Gentiles during the coming days of Tribulation after the Church is removed from this world (Rev. 11: 2). There have been other carnages committed in the holy land. But such interruptions in history do not vio late the meaning of the tense in Luke 21:24 where the verb gives the idea of a chronic condition of being trod den down. This includes periods of change. Whatever the immediate fu ture of Jerusalem, there is coming a day when the headlines will an nounce that Jerusalem is directly and 29
(Rev. 11:7; 13:1; 17:11). Suffice it to say that he is a real human being who’s chief aim is to oppose God. Many rightly call him the antichrist (I John 2 :22). He will be very active in religious matters as well as in conducting military campaigns. Is there any relationship between current events of our day and the future predictions which Scripture gives us? The Common Market may be the link to a future organization upon which the confederated states of Europe will be formed. All of these things are only possibilities of the eventual p r o p h e t i c fulfillment shaping up on the horizon. We’re ac customed to fast-changing political alignments. Through power struggles a compl e t e ly different picture emerges overnight. Certainly events are moving swiftly. As believers, we need to be watching and waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! P art F our In God’s prophetic timetable, the translation of the Church, made up of all true born-again believers, is the next great event to which we look forward with imminent expectation. Following this will be the Tribula tion period, culminating in seven years by the return of the Lord Je sus Christ in glory to set up His earthly reign for one thousand years. In previous s t ud i e s , we have looked at the rise and fall of four great world empires as seen in sym bolical form in the image of the sec ond chapter of Daniel, and the four great beasts in Daniel 7. In Luke 21:24 we have the state ment “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” According to Romans 11:26, God is once again going to bless His people Israel as a nation. This will take place after the Tribu lation. This group of Jews will have passed through the Tribulation, that awesome period of judgment upon the earth. God will purge out all re bellion (Ezek. 20:37, 38). Only those
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