In the same prophecy recorded in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; Jesus predicted that the destruction of the temple will not be the end of this age, but only the "beginning of sorrows." We reasoned that if that pattern holds, then something very significant for Israel should take place in the year 2018 because it will be the year in which Israel will celebrate 70th anniversary of its rebirth, which itself was part of Jesus' prophecy about the end times in which we are now living.
"But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." ( Mark 13: 24-31)
The fig tree always symbolises the nation of Israel. When Jesus cursed a fig tree that did not bring its fruit when He was hungry, He was showing that God the Father in like manner will judge the nation for not repenting at the preaching and ministry of His Son, but He was also saying in the above passage that after judgement has passed there will come the time of mercy and rebirth, which is signified by the budding of the fig tree.
From the context of this passage we also inferred that this rebirth was the sign that the Second Coming of the Son of God was nearing, and just like in A.D. 70 came judgement, so 70 years from the time of rebirth will come the redemption or the beginning of the season of redemption in Israel.
We predicted that as the time of 2018 will come closer other signs that Jesus spoke of will be intensifying. There will be more wars, revolutions, more social unrest, more epidemics, natural disasters including more mega earthquakes, and economic shaking or even a collapse.
All of these we are witnessing year after year, since 2008, the year of the so called "Great Recession," from which global economy hasn't really recovered. Then came the "Arab Spring", out of which a barbaric blood thirsty group called ISIS emerged wreaking havoc not only in Middle East, but all over the world. There were couple of pandemics, several mega earthquakes such as in Japan ( 2011) or more recently in Nepal (2015). It is a quite a decade to say the least.
Then there were also "signs in the heavens" such as the four blood moons each one of them falling on a Jewish holiday, and following that is the year of Jubilee, which many are saying begins the last 70th Jubilee cycle during which the Messiah is believed to return.
Orthodox Jewish groups in Israel are preparing to rebuild the temple, which will be The Third Temple, they even revived the practice of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb on the replica of the altar as a sign of their faith that soon the temple will be in fact rebuilt, and perhaps in 2018 something will happen that will bring it closer to reality. I guess we will still have to wait and see for couple of more years. One thing is certain, whether they will rebuild the temple or not, Jesus will return just as He said he would and we might have anywhere from 2 -50 years until that Day if our biblically educated guesses are correct. No one can know the exact Day and hour, but we sure can know the season and are commanded by God to watch the signs and to be ready.
