When the Fulness of the Gentiles Come

When the Fulness of the Gentiles Has Come in

Faith in the reality of Jesus coming again, is one of the most powerful motivators in our lives. When it is sincere and genuine it will motivate us to want to;

• Live a life demonstrating gratitude for His pending return
• Rejoice knowing all things will wonderfully change on earth, to become as it is in Heaven
• Remain steadfast in our faith & trust in Him
• Have hearts bubbling over full of great hope, excitement, and anticipation for His promises

You will find in the Gospels, that Jesus greatly encouraged us to be students of Bible prophecy and taught us that one of the surest ways to know when He is coming, is by studying, understanding, and believing the prophecies in God’s Word.

(Luke 24:25-27), Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

(Matthew 16:1-3), Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

As you study Bible prophecy, much of it is centered around the people of Israel. In fact, Israel is a “key” component to the Second Coming of Christ, according to Christ Jesus Himself;

(Matthew 23:37-39), O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you (Israel) say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

Now, as you read the book of Romans, you will find one of the most powerful prophecies concerning the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus;

(Romans 11:25), For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Let us stop here and consider what this all means;

• Many people of Israel are currently in spiritual blindness to the truth of who Jesus is.
• One day the blindness will be removed by God and the people of Israel will finally see, understand, and believe that Jesus is their Lord too. God in the flesh. The coming King.
• At that time many people of Israel will acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and then cry out “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
• That’s when He will establish His glorious Kingdom on earth, as it is in Heaven. Halleluiah!!

One exciting thing about Romans 11:25 shown above, is that God’s Word tells us when this is going to happen. It is going to happen when the fulness of the Gentiles has comes in.

The purpose of this study is to show you what the “fulness of the Gentiles” is and how close we are to that “fulness” right now!

In order to understand this, we have to look back in time to around 600 BC, at a young Jewish boy named Daniel. The people of Israel plunged into unbelief and rebellion towards God and His Word. They were conquered, their city and Temple destroyed, brought into captivity, and scattered around the known world of that time. God accomplished this through Nebuchadnezzar, the Gentile king of Babylon. Daniel was one of those torn from his homeland, and then brought into Babylonian captivity.

Now stop and imagine. What if you were Daniel? What if you were taken from your own country and brought into slavery in a strange land? What if you found yourself among a strange language, strange customs, and strange false gods? What would be the first thing on your mind?

Many people would want to first be freed and go back home. To be back in their land once again and to look forward to the hope of being under the leadership of the all-powerful Jewish Messiah that is prophesied to come according to their Scriptures. Then never be taken from their homeland and way of life ever again.

And so, Daniel earnestly prayed to the one true God for exactly that. It was then, that God answered Daniel’s prayer in an unexpected way. He revealed it through the disturbing dream that He gave king Nebuchadnezzar. This dream revealed to Daniel when his prayer would be answered. It will come to pass when the fulness of the Gentiles has comes in.

(Daniel 2:1-49), Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him…Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said… “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay… You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all–you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours (silver); then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile… “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him. The king answered Daniel, and said, “Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.”

This is what Romans 11:25 was talking about. When these Gentile, world-ruling kingdoms come to a fulfillment, Christ’s kingdom (the “Stone” that crushes the Gentile world-powers that have oppressed the people of Israel) will come and be the ultimate and final kingdom here on earth.

What AMAZING EVIDENCE that proves the Bible is indeed INSPIRED by God. How could a young Jewish boy predict the next 5 world-ruling Gentile kingdoms with such great accuracy!!!

The Head of Gold

Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Nation (Daniel 2:36-38)

The Silver

The Medes and Persians (Daniel 2:39a; 5:30-31; 6:28; 8:20)

The Bronze

Greece (with Alexander the Great) (Daniel 2:39b; 8:21a)

The Iron

Rome (Daniel 2:40)

The Iron and Clay

The Last Gentile Kingdom Before Jesus Comes with His Kingdom (Daniel 2:41-42)

The Word of God is powerful evidence of God’s ability to foresee the future. What do you think the chances are that someone during the time of Daniel could predict the four nations that would rise to significant power over the next 600 years of history from Babylon through to Rome?!!! He could not. But God certainly could and did. History happened exactly how God first said it would!!!

Those four world-ruling Gentile kingdoms have come to a fulfillment. How close are we to the fifth and final Gentile kingdom before Christ’s return?

• Notice that the first four kingdoms are totally different from each other.
• The fourth kingdom was Rome. The fifth kingdom is Rome and powerful, but weakened internally under divisions.
• Rome ceased to be a worldwide power around 476 AD. That land of the original empire eventually became an area filled with numerous countries who are greatly divided from each other. The USSR “iron curtain” and German “Berlin wall” are examples.
• When will “Rome” become united again, but this time weakened by internal division?
• It seems it already has!

This is a report taken from The Department for European Affairs

The Treaty of Rome and the Formation of the European Union

In March 25, 1957, the Treaty of Rome created the ECC (European Economic Community) when it was signed in Rome by Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. This established the EEC as a common market and customs union among its members. The Treaty also established the Euratom (European Atomic Energy Community), for the purpose of developing peaceful applications of atomic energy. It was signed by the same countries on the same day. Therefore, the two treaties are often collectively called the Treaties of Rome. In 1993 the EU (European Union) was formed. The treaty that had established the EEC remained one of the EU’s core documents, even though the EEC itself was renamed the EC (European Community), and the EC was embedded into the EU. In 2009 the EC was eliminated but the Treaty of Rome that had established it was formally renamed the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In in 1973 The United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland joined, followed by Greece in 1981, then Portugal and Spain in 1986.

History has had many “iron curtain” and “Berlin wall” type of events and wars that have formed sharp divisions between these countries that have come about over the past 2000 years since the “fall” of the great Roman empire. Who could have ever known that one day this area of the world would unite once again as a world economic, political, and military might? Who could ever imagine the it would be Rome once again forming this world power? The answer is, God and His Word as revealed in Daniel chapter 2.

What will be a quick an amazing observation you can do right now, “Google” “The Area of the Old (western) Roman Empire” and compare it with “Today’s Area Of the European Union”. What is amazing is that, the land mass and area are IDENTICAL!

(Daniel 2:1-49), And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile…And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed

One last thing that is of interest concerning all this, is found in the following Time Magazine article concerning the “symbol” they used to portray the unity and power of the newly formed European Union;

Time Magazine (December 9, 1991)

Time Magazine published this article on December 9, 1991 depicting a woman riding a beast as a symbolic representation of this “revived” Roman empire under divisions.

The last world ruling power under the antichrist is described in Revelation 17:3-5 which says:

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Are you ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus and His Kingdom?!!!