Is the Parable of the Fig Tree about the generation that saw the rebirth of Israel?
About every other week I get a email telling me in one way or another that the parable of the fig tree means that all will be fulfilled by 2019 AD. Thus they believe the start of the tribulation or rapture has to be by 2012. There are well known Bible prophecy teachers teaching this today. I am tired of answering questions on this over and over so I am writing my own position on the “Parable of the Fig Tree”. In the future if anyone asks me about it or suggests that the Rapture has to occur within two or three years they will get a link to this post.
I will put the discourse from Jesus about the parable of the fig tree in proper context below so we can also see and consider what Jesus said before and after His parable of the fig tree statement.
Matt 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The whole discourse here is a reply to what the disciples asked Jesus. They asked when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? Jesus then gave them a sequence of events. Scholars differ as to if part of it was already fulfilled in Jesus time, or if it is all yet to be fulfilled, or even if part of the prophecy might have a past and future fulfillment. I take the position that there could be a partial fulfillment in the past but this whole discourse is now about the future.
Lets look at what the passage implies and lets also look at what the passage does not imply. That part of the discourse is in bold print in the scripture passage above.
The parable of the fig tree implies:
When the branch of the fig tree puts forth leaves you should know that summer is near and when you see the signs Jesus talked about you know His coming is near. The other part of the discourse following the parable passage confirms that it is talking about the Lord’s coming for the elect.
The passage also implies the generation that saw what Jesus talked about in the discourse would still be around when the Lord returned, implying that all things would take place in a short period of time of less than one generation.
The parable of the fig tree does not imply:
That the fig tree is Israel, although some believe it is.
That this last generation started when the UN allowed the rebirth of the State of Israel
That a generation is 40 50 or 70 years. More likely all Jesus said takes place in less than a twenty or thirty year period since the generation seeing the signs would also have had to reach the full age of reason to comprehend them. Also, the generation that saw the Lord return most likely would not also be so old that aged brains would forget the data. The discourse does imply that some will actually give up waiting so this period spans more than a few years.
We seem to have false birth pains called the beginning of sorrows, persecution, birth pains and the second coming in this passage. This all could take much longer than just the seven years that most assign to end time things and that also may be why the discourse says that some people will give up waiting. The big clue for me that this is more than seven years is that in the first series of events Jesus makes it perfectly clear that the end is not yet. These are just the beginning of sorrows of this last time generation.
Was Jesus telling his disciples to learn that the fig tree represented Israel’s rebirth? I kind of doubt that, they would not have a clue unless He was referring to the fig tree that He cursed that did represent Israel. If that is true His using the fig tree here with the sprouting of leaves would have to refer to Israel returning to God not the rebirth of a nation that still rejects Him.
“Fig tree” is used 32 times in the King James. Most of the time it is used with other trees and is just describing abundance of food or the lack of it. A few are describing the spiritual condition of Israel but calling Israel the fig tree from those few passages is a stretch. Actually, Israel could more easily be identified with the olive tree in scriptures.
Luke adds a little more than Matthew on this passage and says when the fig tree and all the trees are putting forth shoots you know summer is near. So If Israel is the fig tree who are the other trees that are also putting forth shoots? Perhaps this parable is more straight forward than some like to think. Perhaps Jesus was just saying when you see the things He was talking about taking place on earth this will be the generation that would see His return if they do not give up waiting. Just as when a fig tree puts forth shoots you know that summer is near you can know that the Lord’s coming is near when you see the events Jesus talked about. Perhaps there is no hidden reference to Israel in this passage at all? I do not think we can be dogmatic about it one way or the other.
If the parable of the fig tree is all about the rebirth of Israel like many teach. I would like to know why a still dead tree at the time of these events is putting forth shoots and putting forth leaves? What are the leaves anyway? Ask those who teach this and you will get different answers.
In any case, this passage does not imply the generation that saw the rebirth of the state of Israel is the generation that would not pass away before the Lord returns. It seems to me that Jesus is really talking about the generation seeing all the things that He was talking about in prior versus.
Why do I bring this up? Because some are saying that Jesus has to come before 2019 and the Rapture is before 2012 and that they get hostile toward Christians who do not believe the time is as soon as the dates they set. There was a time when people said that Jesus would have to come in 1988 because it all had to happened within a generation of forty years from the rebirth of Israel. Then when that date came and gone they said that a generation was about 50 years. When that date came and gone they said a generation is a life span of 70 years and that is where some stand now. All of this latest date setting by some new prophecy teachers probably has more to do with their interpretation of pagan Mayan calenders then it does with sound exegesis of biblical prophecy.
Never mind that the latest interpretation of a generation being 70 years logically makes no sense because during the first decade or two of their life people of that generation would have been been too young to observe the events and properly process it. Some others extend the date by saying we should count the generation from when Israel took Jerusalem because taking new territory represented the leaves on the tree. That again is subjective speculation at best. Meanwhile, the whole concept has opened up Bible prophecy teachers to just criticism because some Bible prophecy teachers seem to be straining at gnats and swallowing camels in order to be dogmatic about their own subjective interpretations with date setting.
I do not know when the rapture of the Church will be because that date is always imminent but just looking at the signs on earth that are necessary to fulfill prophecy tells me that the coming of the Lord to set up His kingdom on earth is still twenty or thirty years down the line. If you do not want to wait that long tell it to God because the time is set by the Father. Meanwhile, lets not be so dogmatic about our prophecy speculations.
Date posted: Friday, April 3rd, 2009 12:56 am | Under category: Bible prophecy teachers, Israel, Second Coming, Tribulation period
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Don,
You provide a sound for your argument against popular timelines. I would not begin to think that I personally have a clue as to whether Israel is or is not the figurative “fig tree”, but have assumed, perhaps wrongly, that the consensus is correct. Your arguments do bring up some questions I have, though: Is it possible that Israel is the fig tree, and the other branches could refer to Christians? (After all there are several verses where Jesus speaks of the vines/branches concerning His followers) Also, the argument against a generation being 70 plus years seems a bit loose to me, if only because (in recent past, at least) we are taught history. I myself wasn’t old enough to understand The first man on the moon, Martin Luther King Jr or Kennedy’s assasination, but learned about them all in grade school. Conversly, I am not sure I agree with the issue of old age as many I know twice my age are sadly, twice as sharp.
As for the Mayan Calander, forgive me if i missed it elsewhere…isn’t it possible that the Mayans saw something in the stars that pointed to the potential timeline? I know that the Mayans and other Mesoamerican cultures were heathens and personally I do not believe in nor rely on their supernatural ability to create a fool-proof calendar. However, their natural knowledge of the stars is what intrigues me, and makes me think that they may not be completely wrong. After all, many “heathens” observed a certain star in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago, and obviously several were right about its signifigance. I am just not sure it is wise to disregard all other wisdom just because it is not Christian. (Although of course I understand that we must be discretionary).
I do, however agree with you that no matter where anyone stands on their interpretation, we must not let differences divide. Anyone who arrogantly holds onto their view may perhaps have it right, but in the long run is missing the much larger picture. In my bible the Pharisees are not so loosely defined…
We (Christians) should all be seeking inspired understanding and application over exegeses. I will be the first to admit I have a long way to go. Personally, I’d prefer a longer timetable to allow me to get there.
Hi Betty,
I am not against popular time line speculations. I just do not think we can be dogmatic about them as if we have the truth that everyone else missed.
Christians are branches grafted into the Olive Tree (the commonwealth of Israel) so the fig tree does not fit. Also the vine is a grape vine not a fig tree. I do not think Jesus mixes metaphors. The fig tree is the nation of Israel or the fig tree was just used to communicate that when the generation sees the signs Jesus was talking about they should be ready for His return. Both can be true as well.
Those into the Mayan lore often believe that they were visited by fallen angels or aliens and got their advanced information from them. Even if the information came from angels the angels were given no knowledge of the timing of the Lord’s coming. That might be their time line for end time deception but it is not from God and they can do nothing unless God allows it.
Also, you are wrong to assume that the wise men that followed the star to Bethlehem were heathens. These wise men knew the teachings of Daniel and the Jewish prophets and probably descended from them. They obviously believed in the promise of a Jewish Messiah and they found Him.
What you said in your last paragraph is just plain confused. Christians should not be seeking inspired understanding and application over exegeses. If you do not properly interpret the scriptures you will not get inspired understanding and application.
Don, I agree that timelines should not lead to division among believers.
And I want to add that I am intrigued by the star of Bethlehem, and was long before I became a believer. I guess I assume, perhaps wrongly, that any observer (believer or unbeliever) of this phenomenon would have been affected by its presence in the sky. I know there is speculation concerning the magi who followed the star to Jesus, but I would argue that any person would have been moved to action by such an undeniable sign. However, the difference between the magi and the mesoamericans is the fact that the magi were learned in scripture, and were actively seeking this sign while observing the heavens. I just believe it is possible that the mesoamerican calendars, where they specifically relate to astrological observance, may have some merit, if only from a “written in the sky” perspective.
As for my last paragraph, I am afraid I misspoke…What I meant to say was that our understanding and interpretation of the bible should be sought with the aid of the Holy Spirit and with the intention of seeking its meaning for our lives. The trap of seeking a “rational” understanding and interpretation of the bible that is that it could be tainted by the wrong “spirit”.
I am studying the Olivet Discourse in Mathew and today I got to the fig tree parable. I tell you, I’ve never seen a fig tree. All we have here in Central America are tropical fruits, cereals and pine trees. I began to thought that to fully understand this part I might have to have a fig tree (and maybe, live in Israel),
So I consulted a few biblical dictionaries and I found out that the fig trees have two periods for giving fruits, one in June and and one in August. Also by December, they have no leaves. By end of March and begining of April they give tender leaves and small bud flowers. Since summer or dry season starts on April and lasts until October, the fig tree is a natural sign of the on coming summer.
So when Jesus said: “Learn from the parable of the fig tree”, his listeners knew all this since childhood. I understand that there is a simple parallelism in the redaction:
When the branch of the fig tree summer is near
is tender and pulled forth
leaves
when you shall see all these things know that it is near,
even at the doors
This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fullfiled.
I think he was referring to the fig tree in nature just as he referred to the birds and the flowers in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6:26-28). The signal is NOT THAT Israel comes back to Palestine but that “all these things” occur. And Jesus just talked about the beginings of sorrows and the signs in the sun, moon and stars. The generation that sees this will see the end. Not to say that the generation of Jews that sees the desolation of abomination and flees will see the end of this age and the start of the Millenium.
About the Mayan calendar, there is one in Copan Ruins here in Honduras. They really studied the sky. But I believe in what the Bible says and not in what Nostradamus or the Mayan astromonists say.
Reading my commentary I noticed that the small chart of the parallelism doesn’t show.
It goes like this:
Fig tree changes=summer coming
All these=the end is coming
So it is just a way of saying that when the birth pains start the delivery is near.
Genesis 6:3
And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
What has that to do with the price of tea in China? The Lord obviously was not talking about the lifespan of man being 120 years here because before the flood it was many hundreds of years. Then later God said man’s days on earth would be 70 or 80 years. By the way, a life span is not a generation.
In the fig tree parable context the generation not passing away until all is fulfilled could only be referring to a generation that was old enough to see and understand the first signs that Jesus spoke of. That is why back in the 60’s and 70’s people thought it would all be fulfilled before 1988 because a generation in the Bible generally was forty years.
If as some suggest the fig tree is Israel and those who saw the creation of Israel would not pass away until all is fulfilled then that no longer seems likely. So to keep that concept going people are now doing gymnastics to make infants see the signs so they can get it all fulfilled by 2017. However, it seems to me that people do do fully understand this parable and that is true of many parables.
The generation of the fig tree doesn’t have a lifespan of 120 years?
There is no 120 year life span in the Bible you took a statement out of its context again!
Don, can you give me the verse in the Bible where you said a generation is 70-80 years. I can’t find it. Thanks !
I never said a generation was 70-80 years. The passage that says man’s lifespan will be 70-80 years is
Ps 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Thanks Don, that’s what I was looking for ! I meant to say life-span.
Where can I find Rapture in the Bible?
Thanks,
Jessie
The word “rapture” is not in most translations but it is a valid theological concept like Trinity which also is not found in the Bible. The word “rapture” came from the Latin “rapio” for the two words “caught up” used in the Latin Vulgate translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The word “rapture” has come into popular use today to refer to the Lord Jesus coming for the Church as describe in 1 thes 4:17.
The Greek is harpazo and in English it means “caught up”