How Soon?

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5

Probably the most exciting question in the study of end-times is: “When will Jesus return again?” Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5 that for the Christians—the “sons of light”—the Day of the Lord should not overtake us as a thief. That means that the second coming of Christ should not catch us unawares. God has planted “signposts” of world events to indicate just how close we are getting to that day and hour (Matt. 24:33).

Consider the sign of the fig tree. Jesus referred to the fig tree putting forth its leaves as an important sign marking His return: “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near” (Matt. 24:32). The fig tree is used in the Bible to represent the nation of Israel (Jer. 24). Jesus’ words were fulfilled in 1948 when the nation of Israel was born.
The fig tree has put forth its leaves. Jesus goes on to say that the generation that sees the fig tree blossoming will be the generation that sees His return (Luke 21:29-32).

How many years is one generation? There are many ways of calculating the length of a generation:

(1) After his tragedies, Job lived 140 years and saw four generations (Job 42:16). This would make one generation to last about 35 years.

(2) Matthew 1:17 says that the span of 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus had 42 generations. That would mean that one generation works out to be approximately 48 years.

(3) Another method of calculation is simply to look at Psalm 90:10, “The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years.” That means that according to Psalms, a generation is between 70 to 80 years.

(4) Another way to calculate the length of one generation is to look at the length of time Israel spent in Egypt. God told Abraham that his descendants will be afflicted for 400 years and they would only return to the Promised Land in the fourth generation. Four generations spanning 400 years means that one generation works out to be 100 years.

As such, you can see that a generation can range anywhere from 35 years to 100 years. If that is the case, taking 1948 as the starting year of the final generation, the second coming of Jesus could be anywhere from 1983 to 2048. We are living in the very closing hours of human history. It is “near even at the doors” (Matt. 24:33).

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