The gentile times - when do they end?

Ever since Jehovah put Satan in charge of the earth there was trouble for mankind. It didn’t take long for his followers to take over rulership of clans, regions and empires to tyrannize earth’s inhabitants. The divine record refers to those outside Jehovah’s people as ‘gentiles’ or ‘the nations.’ This rulership by the nations over the earth under the guidance of Satan, was only occasionally interfered with by Jehovah, and then without the need for some invisibly established Parousia kingdom.

Jehovah himself had given Satan, and through him the nations, free reign to rule the earth, but only for an appointed time. That is why Satan could offer the rulership over all the earth to Jesus when he tempted him by showing him all its glorious kingdoms. The nations, of course, used their power to persecute God’s people, but often they had a direct mandate from Jehovah to discipline, punish, and even almost exterminate them because of their apostasy.

Jehovah’s people, although promised to one day take over the whole world under the rule of the Messiah, were never actually meant to become a world-power in this system of things that he had ‘leased’ to the nations and their ruler. That way, if Jehovah used the nations to punish his people, they could thereby never said to be trampling upon His sovereign rulership over the earth, since he never yet invested his people with such authority. In fact, before the holy ones receive the kingdom of the world, there will be a final trampling by the nations of God’s people. Are we ready for that?

For this to come about, Satan will give his power and throne and great authority to a supra-national beast, an incarnation of himself as a fiery-coloured dragon, to have control over every nation, and to be worshiped by all those who dwell on the earth. Here is where it means the endurance and faith of the holy ones!

An honest appraisal of the text in Luke 21 verses 20 to 24 reveals that the ‘Jerusalem’ of verse 20, which is to be surrounded by encamped armies of the nations, has to be the same ‘Jerusalem’ mentioned in verse 24 that gets trampled on by the nations, until their appointed times are fulfilled. And it follows that while the ‘nations’ are surrounding ’Jerusalem,’ they haven’t started their trampling yet! Clearly, Jerusalem here in both cases stands for Jehovah’s people, true Christianity as such, if distinct from ‘his visible organization.’

The parallel account in Matthew has the disgusting thing, i.e. the ‘encamped armies’ of the nations, standing in a holy place, i.e. ‘Jerusalem.’ This according to Matthew signals the start of the great tribulation, the nations’ trampling on God’s people, until their appointed time is fulfilled, when Jesus comes on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory to take away their rulership over the earth. That is exactly the appointed time when Jesus, on the clouds of the heavens, gains access to the Ancient of days and is given the kingdom over all the nations together with the holy ones.

Thus the appointed time for the nations to rule the world ends immediately after the great tribulation on God’s people, and during which the nations empower the beast to also destroy all religion that competes with its own worship. Similarly, Daniel 7 informs us that the little horn of the beast made war upon the holy ones and it was prevailing against them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment itself was given in favour of the holy ones, and the definite, or, appointed time arrived that the holy ones took possession of the kingdom itself. This is precisely the end of the appointed time of the nations, and the start of the long-awaited and much misrepresented kingdom presence!

The Watchtower has the same sequence of events, except that, when we adjusted our view to the effect that the great tribulation was yet future, we conveniently ‘forgot’ to mention that this would naturally also transfer all these prophesies, including the start of the Parousia to the future, immediately after the great tribulation! How convenient for those who are well along in years; makes one wonder though what Jehovah thinks of this strategy?

The appointed times of the nations have a dual application of ruling the world at large and of trampling on God’s people during the great tribulation, at the end of which both purposes are fulfilled!