Welcome to Prophecy Q & A with Jimmy DeYoung!
The three strands of the human family come from 1 Corinthians 10:32. They are the Jews, the Gentiles, and the body of Christ. The Gentiles inhabited the earth for the first 2,000 years of human history – from Adam to Abraham. Basically, Genesis 1 – 11 tells us that there were only Gentiles on the earth.
Genesis 12 reveals the second strand of the human family – the Jews – starting with Abraham. Abraham, as he was called, was summoned out of Ur of the Chaldees, which is present day Iraq. He came up over the Fertile Crescent, followed the Euphrates River, and made his way down into Canaan. By faith, Abraham left, went, and established himself. There were many blessings and promises given to him along the way., some promises that were miraculously fulfilled even while he brought forth the Jewish nation.
Gentiles may have dominated the first 2,000 years of human history, but for the next 2,000 years you have Gentiles and Jews cohabiting on the earth – essentially from Abraham to the Apostles. Then in Acts 2 (the Day of Pentecost), Christians come on the scene; Christians encompass both Jew and Gentile and will exist until the rapture of the church and the coming of the Antichrist shortly after that.
Presently, there are Jews, Gentiles, and Christians on the earth, and God has a plan for all of these folks. When you start to explain Bible prophecy, remember Scripture gives promises to different people groups. If you do that, you begin to understand how to interpret Bible prophecy. It makes so much more sense to you, especially as you read the Scriptures. There’s a real danger today of misappropriating Scriptures that apply to another people group. Some ignorantly (or maybe deviously) misapply the Scripture by assuming biblical promises to themselves at the expense of entire groups of people.
A good example of that: the church replacing the Jewish nation, replacing Israel. But God has made promises to the Jews that He will fulfill just as He has made promises to me as a believer in Jesus Christ when I became a Christian. God has promised me eternal life with Him, and He is obligated to fulfill that promise. If He doesn’t fulfill the promises that He made to the different people groups, then He doesn’t have to keep His promises to me!
Jimmy DeYoung was a prophecy teacher and journalist who travelled the country and the world educating the Body of Christ of the future events foretold in God’s prophetic Word. His goal was to equip Christians with the knowledge and understanding of what God’s Word says will happen someday soon, so that they can make better decisions today. Dr. DeYoung went home to be with his Savior on August 15, 2021.
