Prophecy Center
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Do Jews believe in end time prophecy?

I'm an agnostic and I keep hearing about end time prophecy from Christians everywhere I turn. I realize that Christianity spawned from Judaism but I don't hear end time prophecy from many Jews. I would greatly appreciate it if Jews would answer this question but Christians are certainly welcome.

Public Comments

1. Today is the Sabbath, the EDUCATED jews and most helpful, and observant, are not online right now, ask this tomorrow, and you will def get better answers!

2. Christianity may have been begun by apostate Jews, but certainly nothing in Christianity resembles Judaism whatsoever. All of their doctrines and beliefs are so far apart that they are polar opposites in every way. They are *completely* different. Not even their basic fundamental beliefs and doctrines are anything alike.

Yes, we do have prophecy about what happens in the world before the Messiah comes, and what happens afterwards. We do not have "end time" prophecies because there is no such thing as the earth being destroyed, in Jewish prophecy. Instead, the earth is returned to the state it was in as the Garden of Eden, when the real Messiah comes. Before that, however, there is war, with the West and Ishmael (the Muslims) joining forces to come against Israel and the Jews, etc.

We dont dwell on these things like Christians do. We have been genocided so many times at the hands of Christians and Muslims, yet we still survive, and we know that we will continue to survive.


EDIT: TO FULFILLED: Some of it is not to be taken literally, but some of it is indeed literal, concerning the wars that will happen, how the nations will all rise against the Jews to eradicate us, etc. You might want to learn about the Torah/Tanach from actual Jews rather than just from a class?

3. End times are behind us. They were simply the last days of the old covenant dispensation with its temple practices and rituals. Christians today are caught up in the last days madness and don't understand this is 'traditions of men.' Jesus said His coming would be in that generation, and specifically said some of them standing there wouldn't die before His return. All the signs He gave them happened in the time period leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem (roman jewish war 66-70AD) How so many have missed all these verses speaking of His soon return is amazing. if He didn't return when He said He would, how can we believe anything else the Bible says?

4. Jews understand apocalyptic language is not to be understood literally, but figuratively. Without the knowledge of old testament prophets literary style, it is easy to fall into the literal camp that says the earth will end in catasrophe and be burned up. Truly, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel and others used the same language John used in Revelation (moon turned to blood, stars falling from sky, mountains shaking) to describe God's judgment on a nation, such as Babylon. The earth didn't cease to exist back then, it is figurative language, cosmic imagery. The earth is said to exist for everlasting generations in Ecclesiastes and Psalms.

But it's funny because in the area that the language is literal, many stretch it out to fit their preconceived notions! All the time statements in the new testament are explicit in saying that Jesus would return 'soon, at hand, without delay, would not tarry, it is the last hour,' etc. It even says that Jesus was manifest in 'these last days' and John writes in Revelation that everything the angel showed him was to happen shortly. Can 2000 years be shortly? absolutely not! Especially if God told Daniel to 'seal up' the same prophesy, only 500-600 years beforehand. Since God said it was for a time 'far off,' then to God, hundreds of years are far off! Therefore, one could rationally conclude that 'shortly, soon, at hand, without delay, will not tarry," etc., must mean exactly what they mean, or at the very least, shorter than hundreds of years. We are now 2000 years and counting.

Jesus' return - the nature of it - must be studied in light of covenant. Believing that His coming marks the end of the 'world' makes it a ridiculous notion that He already came, because we're still here! But understood in covenant light, as most Jews know, His coming marked the end of an age, the end of their world back then. We are so far removed from the old covenant, it doesn't even come to mind. So it's hard to fathom how the end of something we are barely aware of could have been so cataclysmic. But it was.

5. I just want to comment on what RC said. He clearly doesn't have very much theological background for the passage he is talking about Luke 21:32 (New International Version)
32"I tell you the truth, this generation[a] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
when jesus was talking to these people, he was talking to the generation of Jerusalem. It wasn't long afterwards, that Israel was again scattered, the temple destroyed, and Jerusalem no longer existed. The Time of the Generation of Jerusalem, was frozen at that point...obviously Jesus couldnt go back to that generation, at that time, if there was no israel there! it is only in the past 60 years that israel has been reformed, and now the clock can begin to tick again for when jesus will again go back to the generation in jerusalem. bare in mind, jesus didnt specifically say what generation, the shortest generation/period of time, would have been the older generation in the crowd. the longest generation/period of time, could have been babies in their mothers womb. a healthy human can outlive 100 these days
. Jerusalem was destroyed approximately 37 years after jesus said this, which means that jesus could come back anytime from 60 years ago, to just a few years in the future...its not a long time.

6. There is much talk of "the world to come" or OLAM HABAN in Hebrew. This could mean an new era on earth, an afterlife, or resurrection in the physical body. In Ezekiel, the bones were made flesh and lived again. In Daniel, the righteous shine like stars for eternity. Daniel is "sealed up until the time of the end" because its second-century author knew people would question why the book of Daniel wasn't there all along with the other prophets. (You'll notice that Jews file it under KETUVIM or writings and not under NEVI'IM or prophets.) Daniel believed that the second century BC WAS the time of the end. The catastrophic apocalypse with the dark sun and earthquakes is a mantra with paranoid apocalyptic doomsayers, but in general, Jews believe that the earth, as it says in Psalms, will endure forever. By the way, that forementioned lack of similarity between Judaism and Christianity isn't true--they are in agreement on YHWH, tithing, charity, the Ten Commandments, resurrection, final judgment, and eternal life.

7. No. It's a Christian thing.
If any Jew tells you otherwise, they're one of the "messianic jews", who aren't Jews at all, just Christians who for some strange reason are embarrassed to admit it.