Part One

The short answer is when Jesus says they will. Because, quite simply, they only began when our Lord and Saviour declared they would. Not before, and not afterwards, despite supposedly learned theologians wrongly speculating that they began with the Babylonian captivity of Israelites in 660 AD and presenting this assumption as proven fact.

Scripture clearly demonstrates you cannot have a kingdom without the presence of a king. This is why Messiah Jesus preached the “gospel of the kingdom”, that it was “at hand”, to the Jews when He walked among them. It is also why He warned the nation’s leaders that the kingdom would be taken from them (i.e. at his departure from earth, Matthew 21:43).

Fact is He clearly said in Luke 21 20-24 that the “times of the Gentiles” would start after his ascension to glory when Jerusalem was besieged, her people conquered and led captive in slavery to all nations. That took place in 70-71 AD when the Roman prince Titus attacked the city and destroyed it.

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. … and they shall 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.

Bible believers, indeed, everybody, should understand that it is not what nations or people do that determines the pattern of future events, but what God has already decided in his pre-determined purpose for the ages.

Thus, the “times of the Gentiles” began at the expiry of Israel’s 40-year Acts period of probation, the gracious opportunity for them to repent of rejecting and crucifying their Lord and Saviour.

Sadly, they did not repent and thus had the kingdom (Matthew 21:43) taken from them, their temple left “desolate” (Matthew 23:38) and even their ministry to tell the nations of God’s salvation removed and sent to the Gentiles to perform instead (Acts 28:28).

So, when will these times end? The Lord Jesus reveals the answer in Romans 11:25 where He inspires the Apostle Paul to write:

For I would not brethren that ye be ignorant of this mystery (i.e. secret once hid in God but now revealed), lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

It is undeniable that for about the last 2,000 years Gentiles have controlled Jerusalem and largely dominated the world. Romans, Turks, the British and others have indeed trodden down the “holy city”. Even today Muslims deny Jewish people access to the temple site where once Abraham offered his son Isaac in sacrifice because it is now dominated by their mosque.

From this and much other evidence we learn that today God is still working largely to save Gentiles as, indeed, He has for over 2,000 years. It is also a fact that today administration of the gospel that Christ died for our sins and rose again so that ultimately believers can appear with Him in glory, rests in Gentile, not Jewish hands.

It is noteworthy that not since the Apostle Paul has a person of Jewish birth been used as a great evangelist. John Wycvliffe, Martin Luther, the Wesley brothers, George Whitfield, and even Billy Graham, all were Gentiles.

Nevertheless, in a distant time to come Israel will be restored as the lead nation under God. But first the “times of the Gentiles” must end and they will only do so when the sovereign Lord has taken into his kingdom all the Gentiles He has chosen to save.

And, in case you believe, that that will happen any time soon, know that the “times of the Gentiles” continue on beyond the present dispensation of the grace of God and mystery (Ephesians 3:1-5) into the “Day of Christ, the dispensation of the pre-millennial kingdom of God called the “kingdom of his dear Son” in Colossians 1:13.

Surprisingly, in this “day of Christ” when, under the Lord’s rule from heaven, the curse of sin and death is lifted, man fellowships again with God and the earth is restored to its pre-Flood created beauty, a series of Gentile world empires will hold sway for hundreds of years.

That this will be so is clearly prophesied in the Book of Daniel. Of course, it’s true that the empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome really did exist hold sway and have their day in history  but Daniel’s prophecy makes clear that God will ordain ones like them to again rule  the world in the “Day of Christ”, thus  continuing the “times of the Gentiles”.

The key to understanding this is to realise that Daniel’s far-reaching prophecies are set down to be fulfilled in a “time of the end” (Daniel12:9) scenario. Accordingly, Daniel’s prophecy of a succession of Gentile world empires will take place in the “latter days” (Daniel 2:28) and the “hereafter” (Daniel 2:29 and 45).

Both describe what is commonly called “the end time” but which in fact is the next dispensation on God’s agenda, that of the pre-millennial Kingdom of Christ that He will bring into being at his appearing (Titus 2:13, 2 Timothy 4:1).

Moving forward into that new age, the “world to come” as Jesus called it (Matthew 12:32), we find the “times of the Gentiles” still in full force. Indeed the “great image” of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as interpreted by Daniel (Daniel 2:31-45) of a series of Gentile world empires (and individual emperors, such as a resurrected Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus) only comes to pass at this time.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold; the great God (the Lord Jesus Christ)hath made known to the king what shall pass hereafter and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure (Daniel 2:44-45).

 So, we see that after centuries of what in God’s view, is misrule these empires will be broken up and destroyed by the direct intervention of God Himself. The everlasting kingdom of God’s Son will take their place.  But until that happens a thousand years or more hence and a resurrected race of chosen and tested Jews take their place as the restored “Israel of God”, the “times of the Gentiles” will continue.

Indeed, only when God has “taken out” (Acts 15:14) the last Gentile He has chosen to save will they come to an end.

John Dudley Aldworth

Email: johndaldworth42@gmail.com