Paralleling the First and Twenty-First Centuries

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5).

• fullness (Greek- plērōma):
  1. that which is (has been) filled
  2. that which fills or with which a thing is filled
  3. fulness, abundance
  4. a fulfilling, keeping

Just consider how different the world might look today if global leaders truly understood how close we are to the end. I’m not suggesting they would need to be card-carrying Pre-Tribbers, but if they were confronted with something undeniable, something that made nearness of the end unmistakably clear.

Would they still govern the world the way they do now? Would wars and civil wars continue to be fought unchecked? Would nations still be locked in endless disputes over borders, resources, and power? Would the elite continue to hoard wealth, amass riches, and retreat into bunkers on remote, exotic islands? Would criminal and terrorist networks still flourish across nearly every corner of the planet?

Of course not.

But they cannot see this ending because Scripture tells us plainly that “the god of this world” has blinded their minds to the truth (2 Corinthians 4:4). They are unable to perceive the true Light—Christ Himself—the Creator and Sustainer of all things, both seen and unseen. If they could see Him as He truly is, they would not be pursuing the very endeavors they are now so relentlessly advancing. Thus, they are trapped in a spiritual darkness, fumbling through it as if they knew where they were heading.

Beyond this present satanic blindness, there is another factor worth considering: nearly two thousand years have passed since Christ’s first advent on the earth. That raises an important question— we know Jesus said the last days would be similar to the days of Noah, and to the days of Lot (Luke 17:26-30), but were the conditions of the world in His first coming meant to mirror our own age in any meaningful way?

Surprisingly, the parallels are numerous.

Paul, writing to the Galatians, tells us that “when the fullness of time had come,” God sent His Son into the world. That word fullness conveys the idea of something being filled up to a culminating point—a decisive moment that triggered Christ’s first coming. Contrastingly, Romans 11:25 speaks of another divinely measured fullness, stating that a partial blindness would afflict the Jewish people “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,” drawing attention to a specific component of that larger timeline: the conclusion, when the completion of the Gentiles being brought into the body of Christ was complete.

With that in mind, it is worth focusing on the similarities between the first century—when that earlier fullness arrived—and our own twenty-first century world. When we do, the question naturally arises: are we seeing enough mirrored conditions that point once again toward an approaching fulfillment?

1. Global and Political Conditions

First Century: A dominant Gentile world power in charge of the world

At the time of Christ’s first advent, the known world was under the authority of Rome, fulfilling Daniel’s vision of successive Gentile empires. Rome unified vast territories politically, militarily, and culturally—hence the saying, “All roads lead to Rome.” This unity enabled rapid communication, travel, and the eventual spread of the gospel.

21st Century: After nearly two millennia of successive Gentile powers rising and falling, a dominant force has emerged once again—one that closely mirrors the Roman Empire in its power, scale, reach, and global influence. The United States of America.

Since the end of WWII, the United States, with deep historical and ethnic roots back to Europe, and whose government is largely based on the Greco-Roman political structure and geopolitical worldview, has been mixed with the Judeo-Christian moral ethos to form the most powerful and stable form of government mankind has yet established on earth. While all roads don’t lead to Washington, D.C., per se, certainly, the US dollar has been the foundation for its global hegemony by becoming the global reserve currency for the last 75 years, and militarily dictates how the rest of the world should behave.

First Century: Rome as a pagan and violent empire

Rome was thoroughly pagan with its Pantheon of gods and goddesses, marked by the normalization of idolatry, the brutality of its treatment of slaves and the conquered, and deep moral corruption in the political classes throughout the Roman Empire. From the coliseum’s gladiator games to the Roman siege, Rome’s foundations were soaked with blood. Ironically, many modern legal and political frameworks trace their roots to Roman systems, despite Rome’s spiritual darkness.

21st Century: The United States, despite possessing a historically strong moral compass, has become profoundly violent in what it tolerates and normalizes. This includes abortion on demand, an unparalleled capacity for destruction in warfare as seen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Vietnam, and the War on Terror, as well as a culture increasingly saturated with violence and moral decay. Although the nation has largely modeled itself on a Judeo-Christian ethos, postmodernism, expressed through revived neopaganism and human secularism, has surged back into prominence, producing an internal clash of civilizations within Western society itself.

First Century: Political turmoil and intrigue

Both Rome and Jerusalem were rife with political tension between numerous competing factions. Roman governors, Herodian rulers, priestly elites, and revolutionary factions (e.g., Zealots) created a volatile environment filled with intrigue, oppression, and unrest.

21^st Century: Since the 1960s, the US has increasingly become riddled with turmoil and intrigue; from the JFK assassination, through Trump’s second term, the US government has become increasingly polarized, swinging wildly between extreme political swings from progressive programs to those of political conservatism.

First Century: A climate of volatility and expectation

Heavy taxation, military occupation, and messianic expectation created an atmosphere primed for upheaval. The first century was rife with messianic expectations, and many Jews longed for deliverance, though often in political terms rather than spiritual ones. They wanted another David or Moses to come and throw off the yoke of Gentile oppression by the Romans, and when Christ came teaching them they must first be a people fit for the kingdom, they crucified Him.

21st Century: With the rapid erosion of our currency’s value, which again, is the global reserve currency, alongside runaway inflation, an expansive worldwide military footprint, and mounting geopolitical strain, both the United States and the nations are beginning to recognize that we are approaching the end of one world order and standing on the threshold of another.

Compounding this moment is the resurgence of messianic expectations across Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and even New Age movements. In one form or another, nearly everyone senses that a dramatic shift to the global status quo is imminent. And much like the first century, most are not longing for the return of Jesus. They are waiting for the Mahdi. They are waiting for Matreya. They are looking for a great man—someone to lead the world out of its present chaos.

2. Prophetic and Biblical Timeline Context

First Century: A long period of prophetic silence

Christ arrived after roughly 400 years of prophetic silence, following Malachi. No new prophetic revelation had been given, heightening anticipation for divine intervention. While no new prophetic revelation came in those “silent years,” there was prophetic fulfillment (Daniel 2, 8, 9).

21^st Century: 2033 will be the 2,000th anniversary of Christ’s first advent, and particularly, the Crucifixion. In this time, there has likewise not been any new prophetic revelation, but rather, we have witnessed the prophetic illumination of what has already been foretold.

First Century: Nebuchadnezzar’s statue (Daniel 2)

From the head (Babylon) to the waist (Medo-Persia and Greece), world empires had already risen and fallen. Rome represents the legs of iron, placing Christ’s first advent near the midpoint of the statue—historically and prophetically. The feet (iron mixed with clay) point forward to a later, divided kingdom yet to reach its full expression. Thus, the second coming would come at the feet, creating a perfect symmetry between the first and second advent.

21^st Century: Christ came at the turning point between BC and AD, marking the shift from the old era to the new. This transition contrasts with the older biblical reckoning of time (Anno Mundi, “from the creation of the world”). In other words, the time before Christ was counting down to year one, whereas we are moving forward from year one.

Anything that puts us beyond the 2,000th anniversary breaks the biblical model since Christ came 4,000 years after Adam, the dispensation of the Church has been two thousand years, and the Bible records one final millennium in which Christ will rule and reign on the Earth over the nations. This models Creation week perfectly, since we see the sun created on the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-19) as the greater light, as well as later references (both literal and implied) to Jesus being the Light of the world (Malachi 4:2, Luke 1:78-79, John 1:4-9, John 8:12, etc.).

3. Spiritual and Religious Conditions

First Century: Apostasy within official Judaism

While God preserved a faithful remnant, institutional Judaism had largely become entangled in legalism, tradition, and external righteousness, often obscuring the heart of the Law for the letter of the law, and trading the promises of a Messiah for a political one.

21^st Century: The Church has been in the Laodicean Era since at least the mid-1800s, which has resulted in a fracturing of Christendom into an explosion of denominations where everyone is doing their own thing, where true faith has been replaced with legalism, political activism, commercialism, human secularism, and eastern mysticism.

First Century: Messianic expectation—but misunderstanding

As we can see, a non-serious approach to the literal fulfillment of biblical prophecy, evident in the way the so-called “experts” mishandled Matthew 2:6, led many to dismiss the Wise Men’s inquiry as they searched for the One “born King of the Jews.” Paradoxically, there were also those influenced by the Septuagint’s misrendering of biblical timelines, which placed the six-thousandth year since Creation around 500 AD. As such, there was a growing messianic expectancy in the air. Still, most were not looking for a suffering Servant who would address sin, reconciliation, and the kingdom of God (Daniel 9:24); they were anticipating a conquering king who would overthrow Rome (Zech 12, 14).

21^st Century: Eschatological understandings and expectations vary just as wildly here in the 21st century as they did in the first century. The primary similarity is that both timeframes saw only a small remnant who still hold to the actual Biblical reality, which will unfold. The order is as follows: the Rapture of the Church, the 70^th Week of Daniel (the 7-Year Tribulation), which is culminated by the Second Coming of Christ, the Millennial Kingdom, the Great White Throne Judgment, and the future eternal order. This is the only way it will unfold because it’s the only order the Bible puts them. Again, the Bible is not a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ book.

4. Redemptive-Historical Symmetry (The 2,000-Year Pattern)

First Century: Two thousand years before Christ, God called Abraham, a Gentile, and set him apart to become the father of many nations, and more specifically, the father of the Jewish people. Through Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob (the Patriarchs), God formed a distinct people, the nation of Israel.

21st Century: It has now been nearly two thousand years since Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. During this time, Christ has been continuously building His church by once again separating a people for Himself (Matt 16:17-19). These people are drawn from both Jews and Gentiles and united into the body of Christ as one.

5. The Gospel is to the Jew first, then the Gentiles

First Century: Christ first came to the Jewish people, as prophesied, because the Kingdom was promised to them (Gen. 12:1-3, Matt. 1:21, 10:5-6, 15:24, John 1:11, Romans 1:16, etc.). The early Church was almost entirely Jewish (or 100%) before spreading out throughout the Roman Empire. However, Jesus also told His disciples that “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (Matt 10:23).

21st Century: In the 21st century, only around 1% of Jews living in Israel are considered “Messianic Jews,” or Jews who believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Perhaps this is why we see the numbers reversed in Jesus ‘Parable of the Sower’ in Matthew (written with a Jewish audience in mind), where those numbers decrease, but in Mark’s account (with a Gentile audience in mind), we see the numbers increase.

“But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:8).

“But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred” (Mark 4:8).

These decreasing returns in Israel are because of that ‘partial blindness’ Paul references in Romans 11:25-30, in that not only would they not understand, but they would be hostile to the Gospel for a time, until the time of the 70th Week of Daniel.

The Church, fulfilling (not replacing) the role meant for Israel (Isaiah 49:5-6, Matt. 21:43), is what caused the Gospel to spread out from “Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

I’m sure many more parallels could be made. If you think of any, leave them in the comments section, and we can continue to grow in the knowledge of our Lord.

Maranatha!

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