Notebook LM AI podcast discussion on my blog.

I have studied biblical eschatology for over 20 years. I have been “waiting for the end of the world” since I was a 13-year-old teenager (not perhaps very healthy for a 13-year-old child’s mind). For some who grew up in Pentecostal families, the disturbing imagery of the Book of Revelation and living in fear of the end of the world may have been a reason why faith has been abandoned in adulthood, and I understand why this may be the case for some. Sometimes the reason can also be due to Christians’ misguided emphases on end times, which create more feelings of insecurity and fear in children rather than the safety and hope for a better tomorrow that adults should provide for their children.

Neither the secular world also does provide this today for our children, who are now suffering from “climate anxiety,” fueled by apocalyptic visions of the future incited by the secular press and public school system. However, my vision for the future has become more positive the clearer I have begun to understand the biblical prophecies of the end times. In Christian eschatology, it is more about hope than despair, a better future for humanity instead of a dark and bleak future. Yet, in my youth (now I am approaching – horror! – middle age), this anticipation of the end perhaps mixed with some kind of teenage angst, as I saw little purpose or direction in my own life.

I became fascinated with the study of eschatology when I read books on the subject, such as Teijo-Kalevi Lusa’s Maailmanloppu 2028? (The End of the World 2028?, Kuva ja Sana, 2002). The book’s argument about 2028 being the deadline for Jesus’s second coming primarily relied on Jesus’s fig tree prophecy in Matthew 24:32-34:

But learn the parable of the fig tree: when its branch is already tender and the leaves come out, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, at the door. Truly I say to you: this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

In the prophetic dispensationalist interpretation, the fig tree is a parable representing Israel, and its budding leaves symbolize the rebirth of the state of Israel in 1948, the greatest miracle of modern times, as foretold in passages similar to those in Ezekiel chapters 36 and 37. The basis for this interpretation includes the fact that trees in the Bible are often symbols of nations, and the fig tree is a symbol of Israel (e.g., Ezek. 31:3, Hosea 9:10, Matt. 21:18–20, Luke 13:6–9). Additionally, in the context of the prophecy, Jesus speaks to the Jews living in Judea, which is the area of present-day Israel, who will witness, in the end times, the abomination of desolation set up by the Antichrist on the Temple Mount.

The dispensationalist interpretation of the prophecy does not exclude the possibility that it also referred to the days of the destruction of Herod’s temple in 70 AD, as Preterism often stresses (since biblical eschatology is known as the principle of multiple fulfillment). In the preterist interpretation of the vision, Jesus is addressing his own generation, saying that this generation would not pass away until all the prophecies concerning the destruction of the second temple and the exile of the Jews had been fulfilled.

If Jesus Himself was around 30-40 years old at that time (Luke 3:23, John 8:57), then at the time of the destruction of the temple, His own generation – that is, the generation born around the same time as Jesus – would have been about 70-80 years old. Many of them would still have been alive to witness the destruction of the temple and the expulsion of the Jews. This indeed corresponds to the description of the average human lifespan in Psalm 90:10:

Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they pass away quickly, like a sigh.

It is important to note that in ancient times, the average life expectancy of people was much shorter than it is today, and it is only in this modern era of advanced medicine that the average life expectancy aligns with the 70-80 years mentioned in Psalm 90. Referring to this psalm, Lusa calculated in his book The End of the World 2028? that if the “generation of the fig tree” was born in 1948, then the second coming of Jesus should occur no later than 80 years later, in 2028. However, there are only three years left until then, and it can already be stated with considerable certainty that the seven-year tribulation has not yet begun, nor has the Antichrist signed a seven-year agreement with Israel that precedes Jesus’ return to Earth. Therefore, Jesus’ return to Earth cannot happen before the year 2032.

The Bible, however, mentions various measures of a generation. The shortest of these is 40 years, which is noted in Numbers 32:13. Based on this, during the Cold War, many prophecy teachers often taught that the Rapture or the second coming of Jesus should occur by 1988 (the year of my birth), since it was 40 years from 1948. However, this has been quite a peculiar interpretation, because firstly, Numbers 32:13 does not state that a generation’s measure is 40 years but that the generation which left the land of Egypt under the leadership of 80-year-old Moses aged so much during the 40 years of wandering in the desert that it was mostly lost before the people reached the Promised Land.

Secondly, Jesus said in 24:34: “this generation will not pass away before all these things take place.” This implies that that generation must already be quite advanced in age, but not so advanced that it would have already disappeared. How could that generation have still been passing away in 1988 when it was just reaching middle age, at which point many are still capable of working or hold significant positions in society, or serve as parents raising a new generation?

The definition in Psalm 90 regarding the limit of 70-80 years is indeed much better. However, there is still the issue that no generation disappears all at once or within a single year. In 2018, when that generation turned 70, many of them had already transitioned into retirement age, and several had become grandparents. At the same time, some representatives of that generation also rose to significant social and political positions. Donald Trump, who began his first term in January 2017, was already over 70 years old at that time. When he began his second term, he was already over 78 years old. Many other significant world leaders fall within the same age range.

Xi Jinping of China is now 71 years old, Vladimir Putin is 72, Benjamin Netanyahu is 75, and King Charles III is 76. Joe Biden decided to end his term at the age of 82, and President Trump has already seriously hinted that he might run for a third term, even though it would require changes to the U.S. Constitution, which limits a president to two terms. However, if Trump were to run for a third term and succeed in winning the election, his presidency would end no later than 2033, by which time he would be 86 years old.

The generation born after World War II, known as the “baby boomers” (because there was an unusually high birth rate after the war), still represents a significant demographic and electorate. For example, in the United States, its current population is distributed as follows:

Generation	Population (million)	Share of population (%)
Largest generation (born between 1901 and 27)	0,44	0,13
Late generation (born 1928-45)	16,5	4,92
Generation of baby boomers (born 1946-64)	70,1	20,93
Generation X (born 1965-80)	65,35	19,51
Millennials (born between 1981 and 96)	72,7	21,71
Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012)	69,3	20,69
Alpha generation (born from 2013 onwards)	42,75	12,76

(These figures are based on estimates for 2023, when the total US population was around 341 million).

This shows that the baby boomers are by no means the oldest generation alive. There are still hundreds of thousands of people aged 95 and over in the United States, making up about one per thousand of the total population. There are still 70 million baby boomers, almost as many as the millennials of my generation, making up about one-fifth of the country’s population. According to the 2022 census, 57.8 million people in the United Kingdom were aged over 65, i.e. born before 1957. This means that the number of people over 75 (the fig tree miracle generation) could still be in the tens of millions.

In a country where elections are often decided by a margin of a few thousand votes, they are still as important a group of voters as younger generations (or even more so because of the higher turnout of older voters). ChatGPT made me the following illustrative table:

📊 Decrease in population by age (USA)

Age group	Estimate of survivors	Attention
80+ years	~14-16 million	Still a demographically very important group
85+ years	~6.7 million	Still significant, but the impact of ageing is starting to show
90+ years	~2 million	Population is starting to thin out rapidly
95+ years	~500 000-800 000	The fall accelerates markedly
100+ years	~89 000 (2022)	Only 0.027 % of the population
105+ years	~25 000	Rare group
110+ years	~300-600	“Supercentenarians” – extremely rare.
115+ years	<10	Extremely rare (only a few in the world)

---

🧠 Conclusion:

Yes – population size decreases exponentially after age 90, and after age 110 the population ceases to be relevant. People over 110 are biological outliers, no longer a statistically significant population group.

So if by “the fig tree generation” in Matthew 24:32-34 Jesus was referring to the generation born in 1948 or before 1950, that generation will not be gone by 2028. Rather, we can say that the gradual disappearance of that generation begins in 2028. But it is not until the age of 95, i.e. by 2043, that their numbers begin to drop so low that they no longer constitute a statistically significant population group (all human individuals, of course, still have the same dignity before their Creator, regardless of a person’s age or statistics). The Bible also mentions the 120-year generation measure:

Then the Lord said: “My Spirit shall not reign in man for ever, because he is flesh. So let his time be a hundred and twenty years.” – Gen. 6:3

Even today, some of the longest-lived individuals may live beyond 110-120 years, but such people are only a handful. Therefore, we cannot speak of a generation in a broader collective sense any longer. For example, today the silent generation (those born between 1928-1945) is generally classified as the oldest still socially significant generation, even though a few members of the greatest generation (those born between 1901-1927) may still be alive. Similarly, the baby boomers (or at least the oldest representatives of that generation, those born before 1950) will have largely disappeared by the time we reach the 2050s. Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ would “miss the train” if He were to return in the 2050s.

Consequently, the return of Jesus and the beginning of the millennial kingdom of peace should take place no later than the 2040s – not at any later time. Following the same logic, the rise of the Antichrist should occur by the 2030s (a century after the rise of Adolf Hitler – the archetype of the Antichrist). However, that deadline is slightly advanced if we consider that the “generation of the fig tree” does not refer to the generation born in the same year as Israel, but rather to the generation that witnessed the budding of the fig tree’s leaves, which is the rebirth of the state of Israel in 1948. So if you were born, for example, in 1940, you were old enough in 1948 to witness that you now belong to the generation that will not see death before the return of Jesus to Earth.

After the year 2040, your generation would be classified as the “lost generation,” as only a few individuals witness history beyond a century. Therefore, the return of Jesus should happen by 2040 at the latest, as our reformer Martin Luther believed 500 years earlier, as I mentioned in my article: Why Did Our Reformer Martin Luther Believe That the “End of the World” Would Come in 2040? And How Did He Likely Get It Right? When I published that article in both Finnish and English just over a year ago, I received feedback from Ramón Núñez, a retired physics and mathematics professor living in Spain, who sent me his book on the same subject, which also presented astronomical evidence as to why 2040 could be a biblically and eschatologically significant year. You can read my own review of Ramón’s book and Ramón’s review of my book here.