How Long is a Generation?

A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from Heaven" (John 3:27). I wish to again thank John Zachary for his Holy Spirit- inspired work in teaching the Church the exact length of a generation. He says, "A Generation is Exactly 14,000 Days" ("Threshold of Eternity", p. 42). That was easy to say, but much more difficult to discover.

A word to all Bible expositors. All Christians are given the privilege of feeding upon the Word of God. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). No one is necessary for you to be taught of God. "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things, and is Truth, and is no lie, and even as It hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him" (1 John 2:27). All God requires of you is a heart willing to do the will of God. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:17). However, God designed His Body to help His Body. That's an appropriate means of receiving the expositional help that God intends for all of us. "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13).

Palm Sunday is the day that the Church commemorates the Triumphal Entry of the LORD Jesus. Jesus actually entered Jerusalem on Sunday, April 6, 32 AD (Julian)-- as demonstrated by Sir Robert Anderson in his work, The Coming Prince The very next day-- Monday, April 7, 32 AD (Julian)-- our LORD made a precise statement to the Jews that can pinpoint the exact length of a generation. He said: "Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous bloodshed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation" (Matthew 23:34-36). The Good Master prophesied the death and destruction of the very people to whom He was speaking. They could be labelled the Doomed Generation. Rome would be used by God to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in punishment for their rejection of the Messiah. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" (Luke 13:34).

When did Rome burn the Temple? The Romanized Jewish historian, Josephus, witnessed the actual event. He recorded that it was burned on "exactly the same day it was burned by the Babylonians". Jeremiah the prophet gives the exact date of Nebuchadnezzar's burning of the Jerusalem Temple. "Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, And burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire" (Jeremiah 52:12-13). It was destroyed by the Babylonians on the 10th day of the 5th month or Av 10. John Zachary, in his book, "Scientific Evidence for the Second Coming of Christ", on p. 8, establishes Sunday, August 5, 70 AD (Julian)-- also Av 10-- as the correct date for the destruction of the 2nd Temple.

Inclusive counting of dates means to include the first and last days in the calculation along with all the days in between. How long was it between April 7, 32 AD (Julian), when Jesus predicted the death of his stubbornly rejecting listeners of Matthew 23:34-36, and the August 5, 70 AD (Julian) Roman burning of the Temple? Let John Zachary say it again. "A Generation is Exactly 14,000 Days." Inclusively, there are 14,000 days between the two dates. Moses even confirms this with his statement about the Generation That Perished in the Wilderness. "And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them" (Deuteronomy 2:14). 14,000 days is about 38 years and 4 months.

Armed with this knowledge that a generation is 14,000 days, we again read Jesus' statement about the Fig Tree or Terminal Generation. "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew 24:34). If June 7,1967-- when Israel recaptured Jerusalem's Temple Mount-- is the beginning of the Fig Tree Generation, then 14,000 days later (inclusive) would be the conclusion of the Terminal Generation. What date is the end point of the Terminal Generation? October 4, 2005, or Tishri 1-- the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh HaShanah).

I firmly believe that Tuesday, October 4, 2005 is the date of the Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Tribulation Saints. The Mystery of the Church would be finished. "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the Mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets" (Revelation 10:7). It would also be the day of the Resurrection of the Righteous Dead. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). Traditionally, the Jews identify the Last Trump with Rosh HaShanah. "For the LORD Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the LORD in the air: and so shall we ever be with the LORD" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).