You might not enjoy an article about eschatology (the study of the end times). You might think that eschatology doesn’t even matter, which is probably true for most believers. But you might want to know more about it. You are confused by the constant predictions of end time events, none of which come true. In 1948 when Israel became a recognized state was that God fulfilling Old Testament predictions Israel that He would one day “restore their fortunes and give them back their land”? What about those verses in the Old Testament that predicted that God would “restore the fortunes of Israel and put them back on their land” (Jeremiah 30:3; Ezekiel 36-37)? Is that literal or could there be some figurative fulfillment of that?

There is a verse that kinda settles it all for me. It is found in what Jesus predicted in Luke 21:²⁰ “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. ²¹ Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are inside the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; ²² because these are days of punishment, so that all things which have been written will be fulfilled. ²³ Woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath to this people; ²⁴ and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.“

We know this is predicting the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans in 70 AD. Luke 21:³² Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place.” That verse makes it clear that the predictions of Luke 21 must be fulfilled within the lifetime of the generation of those he was speaking to. That word “generation” always refers to a period of about 40 years or to the people living withing a period of about 40 years. The same as we use it when we say the “baby boomers’ generation”, or “gen z”. The only event within that next generation that Jesus could be referring to was 70 AD.

But “the verse” that settles a lot of the confusion about Old Testament prophecies is found in Luke 21 in verse 21:²² because these are days of punishment, so that all things which have been written will be fulfilled.” Which have been written where? Since Luke 21 is predicting the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, that must refer to the Old Testament since the New Testament had not been written yet when Jesus spoke this. That means that all Old Testament predictions would be fulfilled by 70 AD. That means that Israel being restored to their fortunes and land had to be fulfilled by 70 AD. But you might object, “Israel was not restored to their power as a nation by 70 AD and they did not get all the Promised Land by 70 AD”, which is true. What that means is that those predictions were fulfilled figuratively, not literally. In Romans 9-11, Paul clearly says that all of God’s promises to Israel in the Old Testament did come true, but that those promises were only made for the remnant of Israel who would accept Jesus as the Messiah and not for the whole nation. The fate of most of the nation was to be judged and killed in 70 AD (Josephus said that one million Jews died). The fortunes of the remnant of believing Jews were restored spiritually with all the spiritual Messianic blessings of forgiveness and salvation. If not, Jesus is a false prophet for predicting that all Old Testament things that had been written would be fulfilled within that generation, in 70 AD.

Some say that all predictions must be taken literally, but no necessarily so. The Bible uses a lot of figurative language. The context determines if a prediction is to be taken literally or figuratively. Malachi predicted that Elijah would come before the day of the Lord, but that was fulfilled by the coming of John the Baptist and not literally by Elijah the prophet coming back from the dead. Jesus said it was fulfilled in John. So the original prediction had to be figurative. Another example is the kingdom of God that was to be established in the days of the 4th kingdom (the legs of iron) of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in Daniel 2. The Jews expected the Messiah to restore the kingdom of Israel to its physical power as in the days of King David. But Jesus, in the days of the Roman Empire, said “the kingdom is at hand”. He also said that some of those he was speaking to would be alive to see him coming in his kingdom” (Mark 9:1; Matthew 16:27,28). So, unless he is a false prophet or mistaken, that kingdom had to be establish in the first century. A literal power oriented kingdom was not established, but a spiritual kingdom, the church, was established. Thus the prediction of the kingdom being established was fulfilled figuratively in the spiritual church that Jesus built.

That explains how Old Testament predictions of “restoring the fortunes of Israel and bringing them back to their land” could be fulfilled figuratively but only for the remnant of believing Jews. That might go against our normal way of interpreting Scripture, but we must accept figurative fulfillment of predictions when other verse demand it. Again, Luke 21:22 demands a figurative fulfillment of all of the predictions about the Messianic future of Israel, the “resotoration of the fortunes of Israel”, i.e. that is only refers to the remnant of Israel who accepted Jessu as the Messiah..

But notice Luke 21:²⁷ And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” This also had to be fulfilled within the generation of those Jesus was speaking to (21:32). So did Jesus come in 70 AD? Yes. If not, then Jesus is a false prophet or just mistaken. He only predicts a “2nd coming” or “coming back” (the parousia) 4 times in the synoptics (Matthew 10:23; 16:27,28; 24:29-34; 26:64 and the parallel readings in Mark 13 and Luke 21), and in all 4 times he predicts that 2nd coming to be within the lifetime of those he is speaking to. There are no predictions of a coming back after their lifetime. He did return in 70 AD to judge the nation that rejected him as the Messiah. If these predictions did not come true just as he predicted, then he is indeed a false prophet, which is what the atheists, Muslims, and unbelieving Jews claim. Most Christians just ignore these verses and say that Jesus’ 2nd coming is still in our future. Or they come up with some theory that Jesus delayed his 2nd coming, but there are no verses to support that. Instead, Hebrew 10:37 For yet in a very little while,
He who is coming will come, and will not delay.” That verse refutes any delayed coming theory!

Again, all this might not interest you at all. But surely you feel the pressure of being told that as a Christian you should believe in Israel and that God has a special place for Israel in eschatology? Or maybe you are just confused about it all and you don’t know what to believe or who to listen to? Or maybe you just don’t want to even discuss or study eschatology, which is fine. But someone needs to defend the Bible predictions in light of their misuse so often. I hope that is all that I am trying to do!

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!!!