What is the Times of the Gentiles?
In Luke 21:24, Jesus speaks of future events, including the destruction of Jerusalem and His return. He says
“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
A similar phrase is found in Romans 11:25, which says, “A partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” Does the Bible tell us what the phrase “times of the Gentiles” means?
For the time being, the majority people of the nations are not given the calling, nor judged yet, that’s why the court is left out and measure not; as in Revelation 11:1-2. The context above already has a hint, “that Israel shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away as captives into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
Hence, during the times of Jacob’s trouble the nations would be given the opportunity to repent as well as given a chance of calling and salvation.
Could the times of the Gentiles coincides with the times of Jacob’s trouble? It seems possible, if not, it could certainly overlap. The fall by the edge of the sword upon Jerusalem could occur when the house of Judah is again taken into captivity under Ezekiel 4; when Ezekiel was made to bear the iniquity of Israel for 390/190 years; where Judah shall bear his iniquity for forty days, for God have appointed them a day for a year.
A narrow context is in Jeremiah 30
6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
8 “‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more be served by him. Jeremiah 30:6-8
So the times of the Gentiles is highly associated with the time of Jacob’s trouble. The southern house of Judah had already returned to the State of Israel, but the northern house of Israel hasn’t returned. That’s about to change.
There is a parallel Scripture on the posterity of Jacob in Ezekiel 36: “the mountain of Israel” this prophecy is concerning the desolation of the United States, the United Kingdom and France; “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys” these are the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg;
— shoot forth your branches; that is, the trees that grew upon them should; the vines, and the olive trees, planted on hills and mountains; these are their colonies: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa; American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands (US); Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Virgin Islands (UK); Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Mayotte, Réunion (France).
For an answer, lets go into the Old Testament, where this phase originated.
Ezekiel 30:3 “For the day is near; even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the Gentiles.”
A cloudy day, of course, precedes a storm. The times of the Gentiles could precede or coincide with the iniquities of the house of Israel for 190 years and the house of Judah for 40 years as given by the Septuagint version of Ezekiel 4: (for a more detailed study, see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline
5 For I have appointed thee their iniquities for a number of days, for a hundred and ninety days: so thou shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Israel. — start with the 10 tribes but end with the full house of Israel; all 12 tribes: end of the 190 years
6 And thou shalt accomplish this, and shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Juda forty days: I have appointed thee a day for a year. Ezekiel 4:4-6 Septuagint. — after the start of the 10 tribes house of Israel and last for 150 years, the house of Judah, the 3 tribes would join in for 40 years.
— from the start with 10 tribes and ends with the full house of Israel with Judah only 40 years: 190 and 40 years: why the difference? Perhaps Judah had undergo numerous pogroms and cleansings whereas Ephraim has none since the day when went captivity and then into apparent oblivion.
We’re now in the Hebrew year 5785 and we’ll need another 215 years to usher the Divine Plan into the Jewish year 6000, the 7th thousand year to start the Millennium as we believe. Of course, this is on the assumption that God’s oracles have been accurately kept since the day Adam was created as the Jewish Orthodox custodians claim.
If we add 215 years to the Gregorian calendar year 2025 we’ll come to 2240 when the 7th Millennium would start. Working backward 190 years will bring us to the Gregorian year 2050.
Perhaps there maybe a 7 years period for Gog and Magog, hence working from the end would total 197 years, which will bring us to the year 2043. Thus could the year 2043 or whereabouts be the start of the house of Israel’s iniquity? So — “thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them;” Ezekiel 4:13 in captivity to start the 190 years?
However, the times of the Gentiles would tend to include the likely 7 years of “Gog and Magog” simply because “Gog and Magog” are Gentile nations, therefore the years of the times of the Gentile should end at the Jewish year 6000.
But how long is the times of the Gentiles?
The Israelites were in Egypt for around 210 years. The Targum clarifies the 430 years discrepancies with the Masoretic Text in Exodus 12:40 as 30 weeks of years, which would be 210 years.
And the days of the dwelling of the sons of Israel in Mizraim were thirty weeks of years, (thirty times seven years,) which is the sum of two hundred and ten years. But the number of four hundred and thirty years (had passed away since) the Lord spake to Abraham, in the hour that He spake with him on the fifteenth of Nisan, between the divided parts, until the day that they went out of Mizraim. Exodus 12:40 Jonathan
Perhaps this 210 years in Egypt could provide a clue of how long the times of the Gentiles would be.
Working backward 210 years from the Jewish year 6000 would come to around 5790; which would be 2030 in our Gregorian Calendar.
Yes, 2030 is just 5 years away!
China, a Gentile nation, has already took a stunning lead in many (37/44) critical technologies over US industries. By 2030, China is scheduled to have its Thorium Reactor operational that could have ‘limitless’ energy to power the country for 60,000 years!’
Just as the British were to have started the Industrial revolutions and gave prominence to the Anglo-Saxons in world affairs some two to three hundred years ago, China would most probably take the lead when the the times of Jacob’s trouble were to take shape.
Second, the yokes imposed upon the Latinos by those who reigned through Manifest Destiny and Monroe Doctrine could have been lifted, or they could at least be on the upward trend of being lifted from the year 2030 onward. And this would coincide with the downfall of Israel ties in with a prophecy by Isaac on Esau after finding out that he had lost his birthright to his brother, Jacob:
“And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother [Jacob]; — that is, under the hegemony and yoke of the Monroe Doctrine since December 2, 1823;
but it will be that when his sons [the endtime children of Israel, led especially by Ephraim, the United States] become evil [such as leading in a global woke rot], and fall from keeping the commandments of the law [a culture of telling lies, swearing false oaths, domestic killings and breaking of God’s Sabbaths], thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck….and then will I kill Jakob my brother,” Genesis 27:41-42 Jonathan
An interesting research paper had been published in December 9, 2021 by McKinsey: Latinos are projected to make up 22.4 percent of the US labor force by 2030 and more than 30 percent by 2060 (Latinos population projected to be 111.2 million by ’60).
Thus, the year 2030 or whereabouts would be an interesting year to watch.
For a close related study, see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline
Joel
A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob 