Are we on the verge of a Transitional Generation?
The Five Outpourings of Acts Series: Part 2
As we approach the 2,000th anniversary of the death of Christ, His resurrection and ascension, and the birth of the church, it seems increasingly clear that the fulfillment of the Great Commission, “Go and make disciples of all nations (ethnic groups)”, is rapidly approaching1.
Jesus explicitly links the fulfillment of the Great Commission to His second coming and the end of this age.
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matt. 24:14
While the exact requirements to fulfill the Great Commission are only known in heaven, we may be much closer than we realize or as is commonly thought.
In the last 125 years, since 1900, Christianity has exploded across the global south (Africa, Asia, and Latin America), breaking into thousands of ethnic groups that had historically never heard the gospel. Every tribe and every nation will be before the throne (Rev. 6), and countless new nations have been added in the past century of gospel progress.
House church networks are exploding in the hardest-to-reach remaining places, growing at 22-23% per year among Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. This phenomenon is so prolific that today, over 1 in 100 human beings are part of one of these networks.
Modern technology is returning us to a “pre-Babel” state where we can travel the globe and understand one another across language barriers. This is enabling the spread of both good and evil with unprecedented speed.
2030 is the year we expect every known language to have the New Testament. This is historic. Universal Bible Translation is one of the most easily measurable metrics for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
We know that the fulfillment of the Great Commission is linked to the Lord’s Return. But, how closely is it linked in time? Will He return the day the final tribe on earth sees the Jesus Film?
I think it is more likely that the fulfillment of the Great Commission will initiate an in-between period before the Lord returns. It is possible, and even likely, that the completion of the Great Commission will trigger a Transitional Generation.
What is a Transitional Generation?
A “Transitional Generation” is a generation alive during a major change in God’s covenantal relationship with humanity.
The pre-eminent examples are the Exodus Generation, the Israelites who experienced deliverance from Egypt, received the Law on Sinai, and wandered 40 years in the wilderness, and the Acts Generation, those who walked with Jesus in his life, witnessed His death and resurrection, received the Holy Spirit, and took the gospel to the nations.
Other transitional periods in Scripture include the Fall, the Flood, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Davidic kingship, and the prophetic movement in Israel during the time of Elijah.
Transitional Generations occur when God makes New Covenants with human beings. Think of Adam and Eve after the fall, Noah after the flood, Israel after coming out of Egypt, or the Church after the Resurrection and Ascension.
Transitional Generations are times of heightened supernatural activity. God is speaking and acting in history with visibility and clarity to bring the new things he has promised into being.
Much of the biblical text is focused on transitional generations. Transitional generations are where the action happens in the Bible.
The New Testament writings are entirely in the context of the first, transitional generation of the Church (30-70 A.D.). Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy portray the events of the transitional generation between the time of the Patriarchs and the Law and receiving the promised land.
Transitional Generations contain elements of the old thing and the new thing. When the new gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out in Jerusalem, the early church continued worshipping in the place typical of the Old Covenant, the Jerusalem Temple, combining Old and New. Paul took a Nazarite vow and offered sacrifices in the Temple (Acts 21:26-27) even though He wrote most clearly that God’s temple was now His people (Ephesians 2:19-22). They were not theologically confused; they were a transitional generation.
The Number 40 appears regularly with transitional generations.
The Exodus transitional generation wandered 40 years in the wilderness, waiting to enter the promised land.
The early church transitional generation also lasted 40 years, from A.D. 30 to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Noah’s flood lasted 40 days and 40 nights.
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, his personal transitional season into ministry.
Moses was on Sinai for 40 days receiving the Law.
King David reigned 40 years, 7 in Hebron and 33 in Jerusalem.
Elijah fasted 40 days on his journey back to Sinai. The prophetic movement in Israel was a renewal movement to bring the nation “back to Sinai”, back to faithfully walking in God’s covenant.
Transitional Generations: Promises Fulfilled, Deliverance, Judgement
Prophetic promises come to pass during transitional generations. This means deliverance for God’s people and judgment against evildoers. Biblically, deliverance is accomplished by God’s judgment. They always go together.
The book of Exodus begins with the promised deliverance of Israel from slavery, which is simultaneously a judgment on Pharaoh and Egypt. God begins to fulfill his promise to give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s seed, and yet the children of Israel come under judgment again and again for disobedience. In the New Testament, the promised Holy Spirit is poured out in a city Jesus had declared just weeks earlier to be under God’s judgment (Matt. 23-24).
The salvation and justice of God are both highly visible in transitional generations. God’s salvation for His people comes by releasing judgment on those who are persecuting them.
Biblically, the ultimate example of this pattern will be the return of Jesus Christ to punish the wicked and rescue His people.
The Exodus Generation and the Acts Generation
There is an incredible symmetry between the transitional generations described in Exodus-Deuteronomy and in the Gospels and Acts. I’ll call them the “Exodus Generation” and the “Acts Generation” respectively.
Both the Exodus and Acts generations are 40 years in length.
Both Exodus and Acts are centered around a deliverer and prophetic lawgiver (Moses, Jesus). The Biblical parallels between Jesus and Moses are too numerous to map out.
The “date of deliverance” for both generations is Passover.
The Law is given on the feast of Pentecost; the Spirit is poured out at Pentecost.
3,000 die when the law is given, 3,000 are saved when the Spirit is poured out.
Israel enters the land of Canaan at the end of the Exodus generation. Israel exits the promised land at the end of the Acts Generation as Jerusalem “is trampled underfoot by the nations.”
Ages in Chiastic Structure:
God is a poet. He cares about how history is structured.
One of the most common poetic devices in the Scripture is Chiasm. This is a literary structure where the beginning and end of a story are similar, then the second to the beginning and the second to the end are connected, and so on, in a step-wise fashion. Chiastic structure looks like this:
A
……… B
……………… C
………………………. D
……………… C’
……. B’
A’
Of course, modern films, music, and writing use this device as well. I’m sure you can think of a variety of movies that end where they begin.
The Exodus Generation and the Acts Generation are similar because they are the beginning and ending of a historical Chiasm. Once you see them, it is hard not to notice the similarities and contrasts between these generations.
Could it be that God will once again “close the chiasm” as we approach the Lord’s Return? Could we see a 40-year Transitional Generation that is parallel to the Acts Generation? Is it possible that the fulfillment of the Great Commission could trigger the beginning of this transitional generation? If so, this 40-year period would include the events described in Revelation such as the great tribulation and the emergence of the man of lawlessness and would propel us into the age to come.
What Would Happen in this New Transitional Generation?
Now, I want to freely admit that this is speculation and that the evidence presented is circumstantial. By that I mean, the reasoning is based on patterns in Scripture, not on direct predictions. Nowhere that I’m aware of does Scripture directly predict a 40-year transitional period from the completion of the Great Commission to the return of the Lord.
Normally, I don’t like theological speculation. However, in this case, I think it is helpful to engage our imaginations towards the future. For instance, there may indeed be a transitional generation, but it may be shorter or longer, or it may not be triggered by the completion of the Great Commission, but rather by something else.
However, if we are on the verge of a Transitional Generation leading to the Lord’s return, we can expect that generation to be characterized by heightened supernatural activity to go along with a time of trouble, evil, and God’s judgment, the likes of which the world has never seen.
This final, transitional generation will see the unfulfilled prophetic promises of the New Covenant fulfilled.
They would see Jesus’s prayer in John 17 fulfilled, “let them be one just as We are one, so that the world may know that you sent me…”
They’d see the global church become “pure, spotless, and without wrinkle,” walking in a holiness and righteousness never before seen.
They’d see the fullness of the Joel 2:28 outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh “before the great and awesome day of the LORD.”
They’d see the fulfillment of Romans 11 and Zechariah 12, where the Jewish people will “look on the one whom they have pierced, and mourn as for an only Son,” turning to their Messiah en masse.
Ultimately, the transitional generation, those who made it to the end, would see Jesus coming again in the clouds and the beginning of his rule “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Coda
There’s a well-known prophecy from William Seymour, catalyst for the Azusa Street revival, about a future move of God.
“Sometime in 1910, Seymour just stood up on the stage, took the box off his head, and started prophesying. He said in about a hundred years there would be another revival like Azusa Street. Only this time it would not be in one place. It would be all over the world. There would be a return of the Shekinah Glory and the miracles. This revival would not be with just one person or just pastors. It would be with everybody in the Body. This time the revival will not end until the Lord returns.” (True Stories of the Miracles of Azusa Street, by Welchel and Griffith)
The revival Seymour predicted, a simultaneous move of God around the world that will not end until the Lord returns, is a perfect description of a Transitional Generation.
Are we on the verge of a Transitional Generation?
The events of Holy Week and Pentecost are credibly dated to either 30 A.D. or 33 A.D. We are seeing a variety of efforts to globally recognize the 2,000-year anniversary of the birth of Christianity, most of them focusing on 2033. Pentecostals, Roman Catholics, and Ecumenical Groups are getting ready for this historic anniversary.