“THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES”

AND THE

CITY OF JERUSALEM

by

Robert Bruce Record

The “Times of the Gentiles” is a Biblical expression of great importance and significance for our day. Yet, how many people really know what it means? Do you know? Do you know when it began?  And when its going to end?

Jerusalem To Be Trodden Down

Let us turn here to the 21^st chapter of the Book of Luke, verse 24, where we find our Lord  talking to the people about Jerusalem, and He said:

        “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 of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

Let me repeat the last part of this verse, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”  This is a very striking prophecy. These are words uttered by our Lord Himself that have been largely misinterpreted and misunderstood, and misapplied, because of a mistaken identity of the people of Israel. Oh, I know, there are some people who think it is impossible for anybody to mistake the identity of the Israel people. But when you understand their history – how that National Israel were divorced and taken captive out of their land to become the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”, and no longer known as “God’s people” (Hosea 1:9-10), it is not to be thought strange that they should lose their identity and be called by other names.

What Was Trodden Down by Whom?

It is interesting to note that this expression, “the times of the Gentiles”, is here introduced in the Bible for the first time. But what did our Lord mean?  Who, or What, was to be trodden down by whom, until the times of the Gentiles ends? First of all, let me ask you this. Was, or has, the old city of Jerusalem been trodden down of the Gentiles? The people here designated Gentiles, must be a people other than Israel, for they are not found to be afflicting Israel.

Not True of Old Jerusalem

Now has the old city of Jerusalem been trodden down by the heathen for the last 1900 years? You know as well as I that until 1948, Jerusalem was just a place to which Christians traveled, to which they made their crusades, etc. Then the old city of Jerusalem, the literal city, could not have been meant here. If you’ll turn with me to Jeremiah 19:10-11, you’ll find that Jerusalem and its inhabitants were to be broken as a bottle that cannot be made  whole again. The literal city was not to be restored. Reading first in verses 1 & 2, “Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people. . . and go forth unto the valley of the Son of Hinnom . . . and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee.” Then in verses 10 & 11, the Lord says to Jeremiah,  

       “Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, And shalt say unto them,

           Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s

           Vessel that cannot be made whole again….”

What is He talking about here? Well, the previous chapter talks about National Israel. They were like clay in the potter’s hand as a vessel that was marred in the hands of the potter, but which had not yet been baked; it could be made over again, But here, the city of Jerusalem and its people (the remnant of Judah known as the Jews) were to be destroyed as a bottle that could not be made whole again. So you’re looking at the wrong place and the wrong people, if you’re looking for the fulfillment of this prophecy in old Jerusalem. It is impossible that the old city and its people should be revived after the “times of the Gentiles” has run its course.

For over 1900 years the old city of Jerusalem has been broken and forsaken, just as God said it would be. National Israel has not been living in it; not even the Jews! The fact is the Arabs have had it in possession for hundreds of years. And nobody bothered themselves with the city to any great degree until the Zionists pressured the United Nations to go in and partition the land in 1948. The Jews, since then have come into control of the whole city.

The Day of the Heathen

Getting back here to Luke 21:24, Farrar Fenton translates this in part: “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the heathen until the times of the heathen are completed.”  Notice he uses the word ‘heathen.’ Weymouth says, “…until the times of the Gentiles have expired.” Now what does that tell us?  It tells us that this “times of the Gentiles” was to be the “day of the heathen.” Then it must be a time of Gentile supremacy. Then it must be a definite period in which the heathen or the Gentle world holds sway in the place of Israel.

America Not Heathen

Now we have to know who the Gentiles are because many people say that America is a Gentile nation. Well, that may be a popular tradition, and a popular teaching, but it isn’t so. We are basically a Christian nation. You can’t be Christian and heathen at the same tome. No, you can’t!  Oh, I know a lot of Christian people say they are Gentiles, but they’re not.

When Did It Begin?

What then is this period called, “the times of the Gentiles?” Obviously, it’s not Israel’s day. It couldn’t be; it’s the times of the Gentiles. The Pulpit Commentary  -- and I refer to it not as an authority, but as an example of a lot of the commentary on this – the Pulpit Commentary says that the times of the Gentiles began with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. “The times of the Gentiles”, they say, “denoted the period during which the Gentiles hold the church of God in place of the Jews who were deposed from that position of favor and honor.”  Now, it is true, that Luke 21:20-24 deals for the most part with the coming destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  And it might seem that verse 24, therefore, has only to do with the literal city of Jerusalem. But, my friend, when we understand ‘who’ Israel is, we see that what the city typifies is the more correct interpretation. Just as the circumcision of the flesh was a type of the circumcision of the heart; and just as the temple, the old literal temple, was a type of the spiritual temple made up of living peoples, so here the old city of Jerusalem is a type of the new Jerusalem, and also a type of the Israel people. It represents the whole nation of Israel.

National Israel, remember, had been taken captive. They were trodden out of their land, and they were to be trodden down for a certain period of years. And this period is “the times of the Gentiles” referred to by Christ in Luke 21:24. It certainly is not something that began with the Jewish rejection of Christ, or, in 70 A.D. as the Pulpit Commentary asserts; but it is something that had been in operation since the time of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.

The Pre-Gentile Period

If the ‘times of the Gentiles’ is a limited, prescribed, period of time, and it is, then what in the reckoning of God, was the period called before there was such a thing? And what will it be called after the times of the Gentiles ends? Have you ever asked yourself that? I dare say, there isn’t one person in 500,000 who has. Let me repeat that. If the times of the Gentiles is a limited, prescribed period of time, and it is, then what, in the reckoning of God (because it was Christ who designated the time of the Gentiles), what was the period called before there was a time of the Gentiles; and what would it be after the times of the Gentiles ends?

The Kingdom and This Christian Era

We need to realize, in answering this, that the Bible concerns itself, primarily, with the building of the kingdom. The seed line from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Abraham, all concerns itself with the seed line preparatory to the call of Abraham and the building of this kingdom --- the great nation that was to come from his loins. We loose sight of all this with our “gap theory” that is so popular in our day. What I mean is, that with the Jewish rejection of Christ, they tell us that Israel was set aside, and there is a great “gap” that the prophets did not see between the first and second coming of Christ. Therefore, Bible prophecy relating to Israel has been suspended these past 1900 years. But what are the facts? The fact is, Israel was not set aside. The New Covenant was promised to, and made with them. Jer.31: 33. And in this New Testament era, God has been preparing Israel (known today as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic, Kindred and English-speaking peoples) for His second coming and for the establishing of His kingdom.

Not to see this, is to be in a state of confusion. The times of the Gentiles, my friend, is that period which began, not in 70 A.D., but with the captivity and divorcement of Israel in 721 B.C., over 700 years before Christ. Before that, history centered in and had to do with, God’s dealing with Abraham and the seed of Israel that came from his loins. Then we might call this period: “The Times of Israel” – though it is never called such in the Bible. And what shall we call this new period when the times of the Gentiles ends? They would have to be “Israel’s Times” again, would they not?

Israel’s Divorcement and the Times of the Gentiles

Be that as it may, when God put away His people and gave them a bill of divorcement, God disowned them. He said, in effect, “you are no longer my wife.” In Hosea 1: 9, He says “You are not my people, and I will not be your God.” This was a serious thing; but it was a fact. It was not to last forever, however, because God was going to take them back again (Hosea 2:23). As Hosea describes this divorcement, he says in Hosea 8:8, “Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure.” They were to become “Gentilized.” As divorced of God and no longer worthy to bear the name of the Lord, they lost the name of Israel and they took upon them other names. Did you know that? Well, that is true. They became Gentilized, they were looked upon as not God’s people. There was nothing about their religious life, or anything else, that characterized Israel; they didn’t obey the law, they weren’t walking with God. These are things generally lost to sight. But this divorcement of Israel marked the beginning of the “time of the Gentiles.”

The Time of Israel’s Transplanting

During this period, God was transplanting His people into their new home. God had told David that he was going to appoint a place for Israel, and that He would “plant them” or see that they got there. Now this transplanting all began with the times of the Gentiles. First, they were carried captive out of Palestine. Later they migrated into Asia Minor, then into the Caucasus Mountains, later still, into Western Europe, and finally they came to this North American continent. Did you know that history deals with the westward trek of this people? Well, that’s a fact. Oh, historians treat of the westward movement of civilization; but they do not see its Biblical significance. They do not realize that this was God moving Israel across the centuries to their new home in the West.

Let us not, therefore, loose sight of the fact that in all of this, unbeknown to the rank and file of mankind, God was carrying forward His Kingdom purposes. And I say to you, this kingdom is not a spiritual something that you identify with the Church, or a heaven above. It is a literal kingdom here on the earth. And our Lord, Himself, is coming to establish it in righteousness. And not to see this, not to believe this, but to go off on a tangent about heaven, is not to know what this crisis is all about. God transplanting His people, as He promised in II Sam. 7:10* was God’s way of bringing Israel to the “appointed place.” Why was God going to do this? Because national Israel would need a new home. Old Palestine wasn’t big enough. They couldn’t become a great and mighty nation in that little land. It’s hardly bigger than some of our smaller states. Therefore, this divorce and subsequent migration all had to do with their great national development in these last days preparatory to the Kingdom Age. Now the question is, can you show the fulfillment of all of this in the people that you call Israel? Can you?

Nebuchadnezzar’s Forgotten Dream

Let us get the historical picture here. Israel had been divorced in about 721 B.C., and the remnant of Judah inside Jerusalem, were taken to Babylon 140 years later. God set forth this period that Christ chose to call, “the times of the Gentiles”, by causing Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to have a dream. Now he didn’t have a dream because he ate too much pie!  He had a dream because it was something that God gave him. Then He caused the king to forget it. The dream was such that it troubled him; and when he awoke, he couldn’t remember it. So he called in his magicians, his astrologers, and sorcerers, and his wise men, and he asked them not only to interpret his dream, but to recall it first. And when they could not do it, the king was enraged and was about to destroy them along with Daniel and his fellows.

But when Daniel heard about it, he went in unto the king and asked for time, saying that he would be able to recall the dream and give its interpretation. Turning, here, to the second chapter of Daniel, we find that Daniel got together with Hananiah, Mishael and Asariah, his companions, and they had a prayer meeting. Verse 19 says, “Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.” The forgotten dream of Nebuchadnezzar had to do with a great image. And as Daniel described it to the king, he said, “The head of the image was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron”, etc.  (Dan. 2:32-33) Now what did this image depict? Well, Daniel tells us. He said to Nebuchadnezzar, “Now you are the head of gold”, and he goes on to describe four kingdoms that were to come. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of the Babylonian kingdom and we know from the, the others are: Medeo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

Now few people seem to realize that coexistent with the divorcement and banishment of Israel from their homeland and their subsequent westward migration, the Babylonian succession of Empires was to run its course; and that this, in essence was the “times of the Gentiles.”

Israel’s Restoration Awaits Completion of Gentile Era

With this in mind, let us turn again to Luke 21:24, where our Lord speaks of Jerusalem being “trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” The truth set forth here is that Israel who was divorced, Israel who had been taken captive, would not be restored or come into prominence again, as a dominant world power until the “times of the Gentiles” had expired or been completed. And when was that? Is there any way of knowing when the times of the Gentiles had been completed? I believe there is. Speaking of “the times: (years) of the Gentiles, a “time” in scripture is a cycle of 360 years, and prophetically speaking, “a time and times and a half time”, would be 3 ½ times, or 1260 years. In the 12^th chapter of Daniel and verse 7, we read:

      “And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river,

        when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him

        that liveth forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall

        have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people.”

Now here you have the expression “time, times, and half a time.” What’s he saying? Well if you go over here to Rev.14: 3, God says, “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” This is a period of 1260 years. A “time” is 360, three “times” and a half is 1260 years. So that seven “times”, or seven “time cycles”, is prophetically 2520.

Times of Gentiles Ended in 1800 A.D.

Now with this in mind let us note something back in Leviticus the 26^th chapter, verse 24, God says to Israel, if they didn’t obey Him they were to be punished. And He says, “Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.”  Now that doesn’t mean much to the average person, but 2520 years from the mid-captivity date of Israel’s divorcement, 721 B.C., brings us to the year 1800 A.D. And of what significance is that? From the fall of Samaria, the capital city of the ten-tribed kingdom in the old promised land, until America’s capital is set up in the new promised land, is 2520 years. Now this isn’t just a coincidence. No, it indicates that the end of Israel’s divorcement had come. And my friend, from that time, this American nation made phenomenal growth and development. Yes, it did. In three generations from the day that we fought and won our independence we had grown to be the greatest single nation of all times.

What was all this about? It was God gathering and restoring His people preparatory to the Kingdom Age that is hard upon us. Oh, to be sure, our religion and our politics and our economics are all tainted with Babylon. These are today threatening us with destruction, and God is calling us to a national repentance. That’s what this crisis is all about. And my friend, not to see this, is to be left without vision, as far as our country is concerned. And “where there is no vision, the people perish.” People without vision will probably be religiously busy, but, heading in the wrong direction away from Christ and His Kingdom.

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• “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in  a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime.” (II Sam.7:10)   This verse is repeated almost verbatim in I Chronicles 17: 9:

            “Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their 

               place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more,

               as at the beginning.”