In many Bible translations, the Greek verb "mello" is improperly translated "shall" most of the time, especially in eschatological statements and texts, which gives the reader no indication of the contextual imminence.
Holy Spirit's use of "mello" indicates something is "about to be" or "about to" take place; therefore, rendering "mello" with the English word "shall," while implying a future action, lacks any indication of timing, and cloaks the inherent imminence of the original language.
This is of great importance when looking at prophetic texts that use "mello," specifically in reference to the return of Christ, and other 'end time' events. An accurate understanding of "mello" implies that those events were "about to" take place. Since the majority of translators approach the original manuscripts with the presupposition that these events were still in their future, their bias causes them great difficulty in translating "mello" with its "about to" sense in most eschatological texts. The Literal Translations have done much to correct this malady, but even still, some are overlooked. First, let's define the term:
μέλλω mellō: G3195
Thayer: "to be about; to be on the point of doing or suffering something..."
Strong's: "to *intend,* that is, *be about* to be, do, or suffer something..."
Moulton's Analytical Greek Lexicon: "to be about to, to be on the point of,...it serves to express in general a settled futurity...." (p. 262);
Vine's: "to be about (to do something,) often implying the necessity, and therefore the certainty of what is to take place," (under "come");
"mellein with the infinitive expresses imminence." (Blass-DeBrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, [Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1961], 181).
With this in mind, let's consider some examples of the use of mello with various Greek tenses.
Acts 11:28, [Agabus] did signify through the Spirit a great dearth is about to be throughout all the world–which also came to pass in the time of Claudius Caesar.
Would anyone have trouble seeing that Agabus predicted that a severe drought was about to begin, which did in fact take place shortly thereafter?
Acts 28:6 and they were expecting him to be about to be inflamed, or to fall down suddenly dead...
Would anyone argue against the concept that the islanders expected Paul to swell up and/or die immediately from the venomous snake bite?
Acts 24:15 having hope toward God, which they themselves also wait for, that there is about to be a rising again of the dead, both of righteous and unrighteous.
Why then do Christians disagree vehemently with the emphatic statement of Holy Spirit that the resurrection was about to take place? Same word; same tense!
Mat 2:13 And on their having withdrawn, lo, a messenger of the Lord doth appear in a dream to Joseph, saying, `Having risen, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and be thou there till I may speak to thee, for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him.'
Mat 17:22 And while they are living in Galilee, Jesus said to them, `The Son of Man is about to be delivered up to the hands of men.
Who cannot grasp the fact in these two examples, that Herod would promptly send out the posse looking for baby Jesus; or, that the short 3.5 year ministry of Jesus was about to end?
Mat 16:27 `For, the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father, with his messengers, and then he will reward each, according to his work.
Why is there such a terrible hiccup then, in comprehending that the same Greek term, in the same Greek tense means the same thing in the above statement of Jesus?
Acts 17:31 because He did set a day in which He is about to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom He did ordain...
Why then do so many people hyperventilate when Paul said that Jesus' return to judge the world in righteousness was in their immediate future, rather than 2000+ years later?
Acts 26:22 `Having obtained, therefore, help from God, till this day, I have stood witnessing both to small and to great, saying nothing besides the things that both the prophets and Moses spake of as about ←[mello, present participle] to come,
Acts 26:23 that the Christ is to suffer, whether first by a rising from the dead, he is about←[mello, present indicative] to proclaim light to the people and to the nations.'
Mar 10:32 ...And having again taken the twelve, he began to tell them the things about to happen to him.
Would anyone label their brother a "heretic" for pointing out that Jesus explained to His disciples that His crucifixion would take place just over a week later?
Acts 3:3 who, having seen Peter and John about to go into the temple, was begging to receive a kindness.
...or that Peter and John were already in the process of entering the temple?
Joh 12:4 Therefore saith one of his disciples--Judas Iscariot, of Simon, who is about to deliver him up--
...or that Judas, would betray Jesus in just a matter of hours?
Lk 21:36 watch ye, then, in every season, praying that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.'
Why then do folks go literally bonkers when it is pointed out that not only, during the Olivet Discourse, does Jesus state verbatim that all the things He is speaking of will come upon that generation, when they would see Jerusalem surrounded by army camps, but then the nail in the Futurist's coffin is here in the closing statement of Jesus, again, that all the things He has just spoken about were imminent; not 2000+ years later; not some things soon, the rest, two millennia+ later? Same Greek word as in the 3 previous examples; same Greek tense/mood!
Rom. 8:18, “the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory about to be revealed in us.”
Gal 3:23 And before the coming of the faith, under law we were being kept, shut up to the faith about to be revealed...
Col 2:16 Therefore let not any judge you in food, or in drink, or in turn of festival, or of the new moon, or of sabbaths:
Col 2:17 Which are a shadow of things about to be; and the body of Christ.
2 Tim 4:1 I do fully testify, then, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is about to judge living and dead at his manifestation and his reign.
Heb 1:14 are they not all spirits of service--for ministration being sent forth because of those about to inherit salvation?
Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things about to be, not the same image of the things, with these sacrifices which they bring in yearly in continuance never can render perfect them coming thereto.
Heb 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as a custom of certain is , but exhorting, and so much the more as ye SEE THE DAY COMING NIGH [drawing near, Nash]
Heb 10:26 For we--wilfully sinning after the receiving the full knowledge of the truth--no more for sins doth there remain a sacrifice,
Heb 10:27 but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery zeal, about to devour the opposers;
Jas 2:12 so speak ye and so do, as about by a law of liberty →to be judged,←
1 Pet 5:1 Elders who are among you, I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of the Christ, and of the glory about to be REVEALED (apokaluptō) a partaker,
Rev 3:10 `Because thou didst keep the word of my endurance, I also will keep thee from the hour of the trial that is about to come upon all the world, to try those dwelling upon the earth.
To be good stewards of God's word, we must ignore the voices of calculated deceit and obfuscation, and observe the original language in which the Biblical writers spoke and wrote; audience relevance, i.e., the context, both near and remote; the grammar; and, study what this type of language consistently meant throughout the Hebrew scriptures; what it meant to the 1st century audience to whom it was written, based on the fulfilling of all the law and the prophets, every jot and every tittle.