12 In the Fulness of Time

Copyright © 2024 Michael A. Brown

‘When the time had fully come…’ (Gal. 4:4)

‘...the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time…’ (1 Tim. 6:14-15)

      To look for the fulfilment of prophetic scriptures is perfectly normal for those who diligently search the Scriptures and have the Holy Spirit within them.  We know that what God has spoken, he will certainly fulfil.  Furthermore, it is also normal to try to find out the time and circumstances in which prophetic scriptures will be fulfilled, even though these are not necessarily revealed to us.  There is an innate desire and hope birthed within us by the Holy Spirit which causes us to watch, to seek and to search for the fulfilment of the prophetic promises of God.  This inward desire and hope reflect God’s own desire to bring about the fulfilment of the things that he has spoken, and to which the Holy Spirit within us is pointing as we read and study the prophetic scriptures.

      The apostle Peter tells us below how this was true of those in the time of the old covenant who had made prophetic statements under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  These prophets prayed and searched intently and carefully trying to find out the time and circumstances of the fulfilment of the things they had uttered:

‘Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.’ (1 Peter 1:10-11)

      One aspect of the prophetic scriptures that many ancient Jews would have struggled with is that of the length of time which elapses before God acts to fulfil what he has said he is going to do.  They knew that their Scriptures promised that the Messiah would come, but centuries of time passed, many generations were born and passed away, and yet this promise remained unfulfilled.  No doubt many of them became frustrated and questioned God: When will it happen, and how long do we have to wait for it?

      Table 12.1 below provides a simple illustration of the time lapse involved in the fulfilment of several well-known prophetic passages in the Old Testament relating to the first coming of Christ.  It is clear that many hundreds of years passed before these prophecies were fulfilled.  This simple point can be illustrated using many other prophetic scriptures, of course.

Prophetic passage	Pertains to	When uttered (approx..)	When fulfilled	Time lapse
Micah 5:2	birth in Bethlehem	c737 – c696 BC	2 BC (approx.)	700+ years
Isaiah 7:14, 9:6	virgin birth	c742 – c701 BC	2 BC (approx.)	700+ years
Isaiah ch.53	the cross	c742 – c701 BC	33 AD	700+ years
Psalm 22	the crucifixion	c1010 – c930 BC	33 AD	c1,000 years

 

Table 12.1 Time lapse involved in the fulfilment of several well-known prophetic passages relating to the first coming of Christ

      Therefore, God prophetically speaks out his intention to act in specific ways regarding his purposes often hundreds of years, and sometime thousands of years, before his word is eventually fulfilled.  However, fulfilled it certainly is ‘in the fulness of time,’ when God’s right and perfect time comes about:

‘But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman…’ (Gal. 4:4)

      Regardless of how long the Jews had waited patiently and/or in frustration, the time of fulfilment for Messiah’s first advent did eventually come about.  As we can see from Table 12.1, the prophecies pertaining to this had been uttered hundreds of years previously, and so centuries had gone by without any sign of their being fulfilled. However, when the time for fulfilment did come, the Holy Spirit began to intimate to some Jews that this time had finally come, and that the coming of the Messiah would happen in their own lifetime.  For example, we are told of Simeon that:

‘He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.’ (Luke 2:25-26)

      The subsequent verses tell us how Simeon was moved by the Holy Spirit to go into the temple courts, where he met Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus, and he uttered prophetic words about both Jesus and Mary (Luke 2:27-35).

      Similarly, we are told of the prophetess Anna.  She came up to them in the temple at that very moment, and discerned immediately who the baby was.  So she spread the good news, speaking about the baby to many other Jews who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem in fulfilment of prophecy (Luke 2:36-38).

      This is similar to what many Christians are experiencing today in connection with the rapture.  We know that God has promised it will occur, and yet ‘waiting for the rapture to happen’ has certainly birthed frustration and even doubt in the hearts of many believers over the years.

      Regarding the rapture, we are clearly told that we do not know the day or the hour in which it will occur, but we can certainly know the season in which it will occur.  Such is clear in the scriptures (Matt. 24:32-36).  However, the Holy Spirit is now intimating to the hearts of many of those who seek God in our own generation that the rapture is going to happen soon.  End-time events are converging all around us, the globalist Antichrist system is now overtly emerging worldwide, and therefore the time for the return of the Bridegroom for his bride has finally come.  The Holy Spirit within us repeatedly confirms this to our hearts as we pray and search the Scriptures, and so we need to be ready.

      Just as we saw in Table 12.1 that the time lapse between prophetic utterance and fulfilment was a matter of several hundred years, if not more, we can see much the same thing in regard to the fulfilment of prophetic passages which relate to end-time events, including the rapture.  However, in the case of end-time events, the time lapse from the time of utterance or writing to fulfilment is measured not in centuries but in millennia, and it is often around or well over 2,000 years.  This is illustrated using just a few well-known prophetic end-time scriptures in Table 12.2 below:

Prophetic passage	Pertains to	When uttered (approx..)	Present time lapse (still awaiting fulfilment)
Isaiah 11:11-12	return of the Jews (aliyah)	c742 – c701 BC	c1948 onwards, so 2,600+ years, presently being fulfilled
Zeph. ch.1	the Great Tribulation	c640 – c630 BC	2,680+ years
Zech. 14	Second Advent and millennial reign	c520 – 518 BC	2,550+ years
Isaiah 66	new heavens and a new earth	c742 – c701 BC	2,700+ years + 1,000-year millennial reign = c3,600+ years
1 Cor. ch.15	the resurrection – rapture event	c53-54 AD	c1,970 years
1 Thess. 4:16-17	the resurrection – rapture event	c51 AD	c1,970 years

 

Table 12.2: Time lapse involved in the fulfilment of several well-known prophetic passages relating to end-time events

      The rapture, of course, is not a stand-alone event, it is inseparably connected to other end-time events, and so these extensive time lapses are of the same order for the rapture as well.  Therefore, looking at the time lapse figures in Table 12.2 above, for successive generations of believers to have now waited just under 2,000 years for the resurrection-rapture event to occur at the return of the Bridegroom for his bride, seems to be nothing more than par for the end-times prophetic course.

      So to fall into unbelief regarding the rapture, as some do, on the basis that ‘We keep having to wait, and no matter how long we wait it never seems to happen.  So to believe in an impending rapture must therefore be false teaching!’ simply betrays a lack of understanding of the nature of biblical prophecy and its fulfilment.[1]

      As I said above, God speaks out his intention to act in specific ways regarding his purposes often hundreds of years, and sometimes thousands of years, before his word is eventually fulfilled.  However, fulfilled it certainly is ‘in the fulness of time,’ when God’s right and perfect time comes about, and therefore this is also true of the rapture:

‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.’ (Acts 1:7)

‘When the time had fully come…’ (Gal. 4:4)

‘...the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time…’ (1 Tim. 6:14-15)

      We who wait and watch daily and patiently for the impending rapture should draw strength from this.  Just as with the first advent of Christ, God has set a specific time for the rapture which only he knows.  We should not allow ourselves to get frustrated by apparent delay and so lapse into unbelief, saying, ‘I’m getting fed up with this, how long do we have to wait?!’ or as some first-century scoffers once expressed it, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised?’ (cf. 2 Peter 3:3-4).  We are now in the season in which the rapture will happen, and the Holy Spirit is intimating this strongly to our hearts.

      So, just as the ancient prophets did, we should continue to pray and search intently and carefully trying to find out, if not the time (because it is unknown), then at least the circumstances of the fulfilment of the rapture event (cf. 1 Peter 1:10-11).  We should continue to keep one eye on the prophetic scriptures, and the other on the fulfilment around us of end-time events and the signs of the times, watching and praying regularly.  The time when our beloved Bridegroom will return for us in the rapture is drawing ever closer, and so we need to be ready!

 

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[1] I know several believers who, out of frustration and doubt, have rejected belief in a pre-tribulation rapture, and have embraced a post-tribulation viewpoint.  However, these same people are quite happy to continue to believe in the future rise of Antichrist and the tribulation period.  They do not doubt these, even though they are both events that are subject to the same order of time lapse.  This is inconsistent.  The rapture is inseparable from these events, and so it stands or falls together with these.  It necessarily precedes the rise of Antichrist and the tribulation, because believers are taken away from the time of God’s end-times wrath.  There is no reason to doubt a pre-tribulation rapture simply because of time continuing to pass without it being fulfilled.  It will certainly be fulfilled when God’s time for it comes about, just as certainly as Antichrist will then be revealed and the tribulation will take place.  The tension between waiting expectantly for the rapture, and it being fulfilled in God’s own time, is unresolved in Scripture.