Could God have given us a 120 year warning?

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.   Matthew 24:37

Jesus gives us a huge clue with this one sentence about what things will be like right before He returns for His bride.  He compares the days we live in to the days of Noah. Of course we all know from Scripture that the people in Noah's time were very wicked. Genesis 6 describes those times.

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 
And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 

We learn so much here about the days of Noah.

• We learn that the fallen angels had mated with human women and produced a breed of giants or Nephilim. 
• We learn that every intent of every man's heart was only evil. 
• We learn there was great wickedness everywhere. 

Sounds like today, doesn't it?  (and yes, we have Nephilim today too. They are hidden. I've done posts on this)
But there's one statement in that passage that sticks out to me.When God says "My Spirit will not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

God was giving Noah a time frame. He was telling him that he had 120 more years before the flood. That gave Noah plenty of time to make the ark and warn everyone. Essentially, the 120 years is a warning period.

Biblical scholars have also speculated that it could mean other things as well.

• We know that God couldn't have meant that people wouldn't live past 120, for a quick perusal of the ages of people after the flood reveals that to not be the case.
• Many have speculated that the 120 can refer to 120 Jubilees, and after 120 Jubilees, God will put an end to all wickedness. A jubilee is 50 years so 120 of them equals 6000 years, which seems to be the length of time God gave for human history.  We are not sure where we are on this 6000 years, but many think we are there or even past it. 

But what about the warning?  If Jesus says that the days before the rapture will be like the days of Noah and He gave Noah a 120 year warning, wouldn't He also give us one? If so, when would that 120 years have started? 

My opinion from study?  It started in 1900. Now, mind you, this is just my opinion, but let's look at the 20th century for a moment. Jesus also gave us a clue as to what things to look for that would mark the "beginning of sorrows"  or the beginning of the events that would lead to the end, or quite possibly the 120 year warning. We find this in Matthew 24

 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for ]all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

So what things would mark the start of this 120 year warning?

• Many false Christs
• Increase in earthquakes, famines, pestilences, and world wars. 
• And I'm going to add that something that Jesus didn't directly reference until later in this passage, but something that had to happen in order for Israel to become a nation in 1948.  Jews would have to start returning to the homeland. 

Let's look at the 1900s and see what we find.

False Christs: Check out this list of Messiah claimants on Wikipedia and note the increase of them after 1900
Famines:   List of Famines worldwide (check out the increase in the 20th century
Earthquakes:

Pestilences:  Interesting list of Epidemics on Wikipedia. Though it appears there were roughly the same number in the 19th and 20th centuries, look at the number who died. For example in 1918-1920 75 Million people died of the Spanish Flu. 30 million have died so far of AIDS

World Wars:  Obviously we've had 2 World Wars in the 20th century, and none before that.

It was the 20th century which would see the budding of the Fig Tree spoken of by Jesus as the major event that would occur before the end. In fact, He said that the generation that saw the rebirth of Israel would be the final generation. That occurred May 14, 1948. 

However the first Jews to travel to Israel to live (then called Palestine and not even a country, but a wasteland full of nomads) set off for their homeland in 1882 from Russia

First World Zionist Congress met in Switzerland in 1897
2nd mass immigration of Jews to Palestine occurred in 1906 , running from Russian persecution

Here's a list of the migrations of the Jews back to Israel, called Aliyah by the Jews.

First Aliyah (1882–1903)
Second Aliyah (1904–1914)
Third Aliyah (1919–1923)
Fourth Aliyah (1924–1929)
Fifth Aliyah (1929–1939)
Aliyah Bet: Illegal immigration (1933–1948)

In 1917, British General Allenby attacked and freed Jerusalem from Arab control.  The sacred city, which had been under Gentile rule for 2520 years was freed on Dec 9th 1917, the first day of Chanuka or Hanukkah

Time does not permit me to go through Jewish history, but suffice it to say that the 20th century was the century in which the Jewish people returned to their homeland and became a nation once again. Against all odds, I might add, and according to prophecy, which had predicted it thousands of years before!  It's truly amazing when you think of it.

Two other things tie into the 1900s being the beginning of the warning. 

1. The Latter Rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  

In January 1901, Parham asked the students at the Bible school to study the Bible to find out the scriptural evidence for receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Using the Pentecost account in Acts chapter two, they concluded that speaking in tongues was the confirmation of receiving the Holy Spirit. Thus the Pentecostal movement began during the first days of 1901 just as the world entered the Twentieth Century. The first person to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit was Agnes Ozman, one of Parham's Bible School students – she spoke in tongues on the very first day of the new century, January 1st, 1901. According to J. Roswell Flower, the founding Secretary of the Assemblies of God, Ozman's experience was the "touch felt round the world," an event which "made the Pentecostal Movement of the Twentieth Century."

2. The Psalms start in the year 1901. There is some evidence to suggest that God orchestrated the Psalms to correspond prophetically to years. Psalms is the 19th book of the Bible so Psalm 1 would connect with the year 1901. Before you think I'm nuts, this comes from a famous theologian J.R. Church, who wrote a book on the subject. I posted about this HERE.  If this is true, then  this would be more proof that 1900 started the 120 year warning. 

If our warning indeed began in the year 1900, and we are fast approaching 2020, I'd say that our warning is nearly over and soon we will enter the ark and escape this place before judgement comes.

Just like in the Days of Noah!