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How Shall We Tell The Children?
By Edward Chamberlain

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THE AGE OF THE GENTILES

This present age is actually one age within another, greater age. The lesser of these ages is the church age which started approximately 600 years after the time known in the Bible as the age of the gentiles on the day of Pentecost after Jesus' ascension. The two ages have been running concurrently since that time, and both will end simultaneously upon the return of Jesus Christ when the "fullness of the Gentiles is come in," (Rom. 11:25). The age of the gentiles began around 604 B.C. when the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, took the first Jewish captives from Judah into Babylon. It was around the same time that God told the prophet Jeremiah concerning Judah, "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: For I will not hear thee." (Jeremiah 7:16).

The most unappreciated facts of history concern the things that happened all over the world within a hundred years either side of the time that the Jews went into exile. Let's look at some of the history of Israel in order to appreciate the things which began to happen in history around the time that the age of the gentiles began. God had proclaimed for over three hundred years through his prophets that, because of the rebellion of his people, he was going to send them into gentile captivity, and when that event actually happened some amazing things happened in the gentile world.

Remember that the original nation of Israel became divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in 926 B.C. after Solomon's reign. Scarcely a generation had passed after the Kingdom had become divided when God, in 862 B.C., sent a reluctant Israelite prophet, whose name meant "Dove," (the symbol of peace) to the most religiously wicked and the most politically and commercially powerful city in the world of that day, to tell the Gentile world to clean up their act or face the terrible judgment of Almighty God. This prophet was sent into that kingdom of gentiles that was the very nation that was distressing Israel. Jonah did not want to preach to the people of Nineveh because he knew that if they repented God would forgive them.

Notice the story in the book of Jonah. Eight hundred and sixty two years Before Christ, God sends a man of Israel unto the heathens to preach concerning sin, righteousness and judgment but the man of Israel does not go unto the gentiles until he has been dead in the bowels of the fish for three days. But when he is born again he goes and preaches and the gentiles repent, and sure enough, God forgives them. All of which makes the man of Israel jealous. (See Romans 11:11) In this light, Jonah is both a type of Christ and a type of Israel.

Jesus said that there would be no sign given to the Jews concerning his claim as their messiah except the sign of Jonah. To what sign could he have been referring? Jonah not only typified the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he also typified the begrudging efforts of the children of Israel to realize the promise that God had made to their father Abraham, when He said that all of the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham. It was not until those children of Abraham who were born again under the New Covenant began to preach to the gentiles, that the gentiles were brought into repentance and the children of Israel realized that promise that God had made to Abraham. It now remains that in the millennial kingdom the nation of Israel will itself fulfill the type given by Jonah after they have been dead in the "creature of the sea" for 3 days (possibly 3000 years). Remember, as you go through this study, that the type of Israel was dead in "the creature of the sea" for 3 days because it will become apparent as to what is represented by this sea creature as we continue. Jesus told those children of Abraham that no sign would be given unto them except the sign of Jonah.

Then about 800 B.C., Joel prophesied to Judah telling them of the entire plan of God concerning the Jewish Nation. Joel used a plague of locusts that had recently invaded the land to illustrate what would happen to Judah if they did not always serve and worship Jehovah. Using the analogy of the swarm of locusts, Joel told Judah of the day when they would be overrun by a great and strong people the likes of which the world had never seen and would never see again. Now the most remarkable part of Joel's prophecy is that he identifies the people to whom the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem are to be sold. Verse 3:6 says that the Jews will come under the yoke of the Grecians. The word translated as "Grecian" in that verse is "Javanite" or sons of Javan. Javan was one of the seven sons of Japheth. (Gen.10:2) The sons of Javan are almost universally accepted to be those people we know as the Greeks.

At the time of Joel's prophecy the Greeks were a disjointed people who were in an almost constant state of tribal warfare among each of their many small cities which were hardly more than tribal compounds. And yet Joel says that the proud nation of Judah, the land of David and Solomon, will be one day sold to the Greeks before the Day of the Lord. Today the political philosophy, the science, and the humanism of those Greeks have not only purchased the Jew, but most of the rest of the world as well. In the church age there was also a schism between the Jewish Christians, and the Grecian Christians in the first century of the church age which eventually overwhelmed the Jewish branch of Christianity and probably caused the loss of any original Hebrew Gospels leaving only the Grecian translations for posterity. Today we are seeing Christianity reborn within the context of Judaism for the first time since the early schism. Let there be no further schisms.

Then, around 785 B.C., God sent the prophet Hosea to the nation of Israel to tell them that there was coming a time that he would no longer have mercy upon the house of Israel, and that they would not be not his people, and that he would no longer be their God. Judah was going to be protected for a while, but Israel would be "utterly taken away." (See Hosea 1:4-9.) But even as Hosea told Israel that they were being given up to captivity, he was given a message of hope to deliver to them concerning their future. He said that the number of the children of Israel would be as the "sands of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered," and that one day those descendants would stand in that same place where their ancestors had been told that they were not the people of God, and at that time, they would once again be called the sons of the living God.

God also told them that Israel and Judah would once again be a single kingdom under a single king at that same time. (See Hosea 1:10-11.) Look at Hosea 3:4-5. Over 2750 years ago, the prophet of God told us that the Children of Israel would live for "many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without a pillar, and without an ephod (a covering), and without a teraphim (i.e. without even a false god). But God said that after those things the children of Israel would return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and would fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." Even as you read this, these events are being fulfilled.

Then, in 787 B.C., Amos prophesied to Israel during a period of unprecedented prosperity. But it was a corrupted prosperity ruined by idolatry, immorality, and easy living. Amos told Israel, that God was going to send a fire upon both Israel and Judah because of their many transgressions. A close look at what Amos had to say shows that God was very displeased that his people were using their prosperity to live easily in the midst of injustice and human misery, deprivation, and need: In short they were using the blessings of God to satisfy their own selfishness. For that reason, God told Israel through his prophet, "I will sift the house of Israel (which included both of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah) among all nations." (Amos 9:9).

Then that prince of poets and prophets, Isaiah, prophesied between 760 B.C and about 698 B.C. (Those rationalists who deny that Isaiah was the instrument of the entire Book of Isaiah only do so because they do not believe in the spiritual fact of revelation.) To comment upon Isaiah with any degree of thoroughness is not possible in a Book of this limited size, for Isaiah speaks to everyone of us, to Israel, to Judah, and to the gentiles to whom they were to be given over. We must meditate upon Isaiah until, like Job, our eyes "poureth out tears unto God," and then we may begin to glimpse dimly what the Lord God is trying to tell us in Isaiah 25:8 when he says that, "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces..."

Isaiah told all of us that even though God would visit judgment upon his people, He would never forsake them and that God himself would personally guarantee that enduring everything in this life would be worth the trouble it brings.

Isaiah tells all of us of eternal redemption because of a child that is born out of the children of Israel to a Jewish virgin. Isaiah tells us of this child and his suffering and sorrow and rejection. But Isaiah also tells of this child's ultimate victory over all things when the government is placed upon his broad shoulders. Isaiah tells us of that Prince of Peace of whom Jonah was a type and a sign.

Then Micah began to prophesy from 750 B.C. until 710 B.C. Micah spoke concerning both Israel and Jerusalem, and he said there was a time coming when prophecy would cease in the house of Israel, and Zion would be plowed as field, and Jerusalem would be a heap, but in the last days many nations would come to the house of the God of Jacob to learn of His ways.

Micah predicted the fall of Israel and prophesied of the fall of Judah. In 722 B.C., the kingdom of Israel, whose capital was the city of Samaria at that time, fell to the Assyrians. Micah also predicted that the Daughter of Zion would go into Babylon, but would be redeemed from there. Jerusalem fell to Babylon around 600 B.C. Micah also prophesied that the one who was to be ruler in Israel would come forth out of Bethlehem and that this ruler would be smitten on the cheek by the daughter of the troops which would gather against Israel, and that this ruler would give up Israel and Judah until the remnant returned into Israel.

Then sometime after 661 B.C. the poet Nahum, whose name meant "compassionate," wrote of the coming destruction of Nineveh, that great city to which Jonah had been sent. Nineveh was at that time the capital city the Assyrian Kings. When Assyria defeated the Israelite capital of Samaria in 722 B.C., Nineveh was a royal city of the Assyrian Kings. It would have been very difficult for men of Nahum's day to believe that Nineveh would be destroyed. Nineveh was situated astride of the Khoser River at the place where the river flows from the east into the Tigris River. Nineveh had been a political power since the time right after the great flood. Written records of Nineveh have been found that date to the 21st century B.C. Nineveh had been going concern for around 1700 years when Nahum prophesied of its destruction. It was unimaginable that Nineveh would fall.

In 612 B.C. a confederacy of three Nations laid siege to Nineveh, and using the city's dammed up water supply in the Khoser River, they flooded the city's foundations and walls, dissolving them into the silt and debris of the Tigris River. So total was the destruction of Nineveh that later men thought it to be a myth until its site was uncovered in the 1850's.

As history drew down toward the fall of Jerusalem, two additional prophets arose and proclaimed the imminent fall of Judah. Zephaniah and Habbakuk both prophesied that Judah was about to be turned over to the Heathens. Did you notice that in 325 years not a single prophet had predicted anything but trouble for the children of Israel? Be very cautious around prophets who tell you good things you like to hear. I challenge you to find a single Biblical prophet with a "positive attitude."

From the time when the kingdom had become divided God had repeatedly warned both Israel and Judah that they would go into captivity unless they returned to serve only Him. But neither listened, and God finally told Jeremiah around 600 B.C. to stop praying for them because he would no longer hear intercessory prayer on behalf of the Hebrew people. Now let's look at what happened in the Gentile world around that time.

In 660 B.C. Zoroaster, founder of the Magical Religion of Zoroastrianism, was born. The Magi or wise men of Luke's Gospel were from this religion. In 600 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar carried the first Judean captives, of whom Daniel was one, into Babylon as hostages. The Mahavira, Nataputta Vardhamana, founded the religion of Jainism out of Ancient Hinduism around 600 B.C. The Brahman Monk, Gautama likewise founded Buddhism, out of Ancient Hinduism around 600 B.C. Around 600 B.C. Greece became a democracy. It was around 600 B.C. that ancient Hinduism began its transformation into its many modern forms. Lao Tzu, founder of Taoist Philosophy, was born in 604 B.C. In 586 B.C. Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. Confucius was born in 551 B.C. In 530 B.C. Pythagoras coined the word "philosopher" and developed the Orphic religion in Italy that taught the purpose of life was to purify the soul or risk reincarnation as another human or animal. Rome became a Republic in 509 B.C., and the God that created heaven and earth, and who is in control of history declared that the age of the gentiles had begun!!! Was all of this just a series of tremendous coincidences, or is there really a God who is in control of history? I have made my choice between those two alternatives and have decided upon the more reasonable proposition that there is a God who is supreme over everything, including history. Everyone has to make a choice between those two alternatives. Not deciding is the same thing as deciding against God because that is how we are born. You must make your choice.

God ended the age of his covenant with Israel because of their rebellion from him and from his law. There always has been, and always will be, a Jewish remnant which he has preserved unto himself for the purpose of keeping his promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, just as he preserved Noah and his family in order to keep his promises to the Serpent, and to Adam and Eve. It is important that we understand that the New Testament tells us that the things which happened to Israel are for examples to all who would be disobedient to God's law, (1 Cor. 10:6- 11) and that God would have us to note Israel's mistakes and learn from them. It is also important to note that the Bible is clear that God has not abandoned Israel.

Since God ended his covenant with Israel because of their disobedience, and since the Bible says that God had earlier ended Noah's "world that once was" because of disobedience; there is every reason to believe that he will bring the church age and the age of the gentiles to an end for the same reasons. In fact, we will see shortly where rebellion against God is one of the signs of Jesus' return which will bring this gentile age to a close.

Now return to the 24th chapter of Matthew. Jesus said in verses 32-34 that those who were alive and watching before his return would see "all these things" come to pass when the time came near, even as it was at the door. He said that generation which saw "all of these things" would not pass away until he came back. So what are all of the things of which he spoke concerning his return?

To answer that we will use that 24th chapter of Matthew as a kind of outline and spread from there through the prophetic word looking at what God has told us about the time of the return of Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 24:1 it says that Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. The first thing to notice about this passage is that the site is definitely the Jewish temple. Jesus had just left the temple and the disciples were trying to impress him with the magnificence of that structure -- probably because they thought he had indicated that if the Jews destroyed "this temple," he would build it back in three days, without using hands. (Reference Matt.26:59-61, Matt.27:37-40, Mark 14:57-58, and John 2:19-21.)

Just as the Jewish authorities had declared to Jesus that it had taken 46 years for Herod and the efforts of much of the Jewish nation to restore and enlarge this temple, the disciples also presumed to show Jesus just how much labor had been involved in reworking these magnificent structures. But Jesus told them that there was a time coming when there would not remain one stone upon the other of this great temple and its buildings. Today all that is left from around the site where they were standing is the famous wailing wall, which was not actually a part of the temple, but was originally a part of the western portion of the outer wall that surrounded the outer courts. Where the temple stood then, there now stands an Islamic mosque.

The temple, its buildings and structures, the temple gates and walls, and the city of Jerusalem were destroyed in the year 70 A.D. by a Roman general named Titus. This happened nearly forty years after Jesus prophesied of it. The Romans literally did not leave one stone upon the other in their destruction of the temple. It has been reported that General Titus told his soldiers they could have the external gold plating that was on the temple if they breached the Temple walls. The attack fires from the assault melted the gold and it ran down into the cracks between the bricks. The soldiers took the Temple apart, brick by brick, in digging out that gold. The city of Jerusalem fared scarcely better. The power of Rome was unleashed against Israel because of the incessant rebellion of the Jews against Roman authority.

The Jewish authorities had delivered their King up to the Roman political authority in order to prevent the Romans from coming and taking away their country (John 11:47-48), but for the next forty years there was scarcely a time without some Jewish insurrection against the Romans, until Titus destroyed both the city and the temple, killing over a million Jews in the process, and scattering both the Jewish remnant and the Jewish Nation over the face of the earth.

The Jewish Historian, Josephus, records that persecution of the Jews began during this time in almost every Roman controlled city by citizens who were afraid that if they tolerated the presence of a Jew they would bring upon themselves the wrath of Rome. Sadly, this persecution was continued by many of those citizens even after they were brought into Christendom, motivated by the irrational error that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. If a professing Christian does not hold himself responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, he has not yet repented of sin. Remember always that the Passover lamb was killed by the feast participants and not by the priests.

Matthew 24:2 "And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

It is obvious the first prophecy that Jesus made in this passage has been completely fulfilled and remains so even now. It is also obvious that the disciples recognized this as a sign of the end of the age because they had asked, "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"

As we said above, Jesus did not correct the disciples concerning the end of the age and his return, and so we can understand that the two events are very closely related if not identical. Jesus' answer to that question is recorded in the rest of Matt. 24:4 through Matt.25:46. Every topic covered therein is in answer to the question, "Lord, what shall be the sign of your coming and the end of this age?"

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