COMING GLORY
A unique way to
identify prophetic events by using
the Bible's Levitical and Jubilee calendars.
See how major world events from Bible times to
1996 fulfilled
Biblical prophetic timetables. |
|
 |
ISRAEL IN PROPHECY:
(RealAudio/Visual) |
 |
| PROBLEMS
& APPROACH |
 |
| CALENDARS & TIMELINES: |
 |
| BIBLE ORGANIZATION: |
 |
| HOMEPAGE |
 |
| bob@olive-tree.net |
"Time"
is the essence in understanding Bible prophecy, but there are
problems. The Bible is full of prophecies concerning things that
are supposed to happen at future times, but only rarely do those
prophecies include dates or time periods which would allow the
reader to know when the fulfillment time has actually arrived.
Thus the reader is frustrated with the task of trying to connect
ambiguous prophetic statements with the proper historic events.
Since a given prophecy is itself often subject to various
interpretations, there is typically much controversy about which,
if any, historic event is the correct one. The problem is
compounded when attempts are made to explain ancient Bible
prophecies in terms of modern-day events.
It
is hard to imagine that prophecies given in a book that
is thousands of years old could really be relevant to
modern times.
Current
events seem to be dictated by circumstances or governed
by the decisions of men, so it warps the thinking to
believe that the God of the Bible is in some way making
them happen.
Past
attempts to make such connections have usually proved to
be false, adding to even greater skepticism about future
attempts.
Such
problems have caused many people to hold the study of prophecy in
an attitude of despair or disgust, yet the Apostle Paul while
speaking of the End Times said, "Do not despise
prophecies" (I Thessalonians 5.20).
Therefore,
the purpose of this section of COMING GLORY intends to show that
Bible prophecy can work, by demonstrating that certain major
world events in modern times have been prophetically related to
the Bible in a way that may be objectively verified. The approach
is designed to allow you to see the broad scope of these
prophetic fulfillments in modern times, without immediately
becoming mired in the detailed interpretation of specific Bible
prophecies. The approach deals only with major events that have
already happened, so they are well documented in the historic
record, and the results easy to verify. The events initially
considered occurred during Bible times, but the list of events is
then expanded to include major world events that have occurred
within the 20th century up to nearly the present time. In this
way it is hoped that the reader will become aware that the Bible
provides a reliable comprehensive record of God's prophetic Plan
for mankind, that we are presently living in the End Times very
near to the Lord's return, and that the present State of Israel
is playing a key role in that timetable.
The
essence of this approach involves the use of "time" to
demonstrate the prophetic nature of certain historic events. The
connections between these events and the Bible are made through
the use of three intermediate "prophetic calendars"
that can be extracted from the Bible itself. When these calendars
are overlaid upon the timelines of secular history from both
ancient and modern times, they serve to highlight time
relationships with the Bible that make apparent the prophetic
significance of certain events within those historic records.
This
approach might be analogous to the use of a ruler to measure the
positions of marks on a sidewalk. If the marks are simply the
result of a careless worker during construction, their relative
positions will turn out to be random. However, if they were
intentionally placed on the sidewalk by someone who carefully
measured their relative positions using the unit of measure on
the ruler, then placing it against the marks will highlight that
pattern.
The three
intermediate prophetic calendars required to bring these patterns
between the historic record and the Bible into focus are
summarized below.
Most people are
aware of the fact that the Jews have a different religious
calendar than the Gregorian calendar commonly in use throughout
the world. Fewer people understand that this Jewish calendar was
not something that the Hebrews dreamed up but was rather one with
special dates and seasons given to them by God in the Mosaic Law.
Only a very few people realize that this same Levitical calendar
also possesses distinct prophetic properties that have governed
Israels destiny throughout their Biblical history.
It is the existence
of calendars like this one that makes the study of Israels
history an extraordinarily fascinating subject. When the
Levitical calendar is superimposed over the secular Gregorian
calendar developed in that section of OLIVE TREE STUDIES titled
REDEMPTIVE PLAN, it will be seen here how God used events in the
history of that little nation to highlight certain future dates
of great prophetic significance. The Lord even used events that
occurred on certain Old Testament Levitical dates to typify
future New Testament events on those same Levitical dates, dates
when Messiah would become the sacrifice for sin, be resurrected
from the grave, and when the new Covenant of Grace would be
presented first to Israel. Moreover, when this Levitical calendar
is overlaid on the 20th century, it will be shown that it
continues to be crucial to an understanding of God's prophetic
timetable for the End Times. Therefore, a study of Israels
past and future is sadly incomplete without spending some time
trying to understand the subtleties of the Levitical calendar as
it defines an integral part of the time metric for God's
prophetic Plan.
The following link
will provide more detail about the Levitical calendar.
The
Sabbatic/Jubilee Calendar is really a part of the Levitical
Calendar, but is dealt with separately here because it provides a
unique method for spanning long periods of time in God's
prophetic Plan. This calendar was to be initiated for the
Hebrews' use when Israel entered the Promised Land at the time of
Joshua. It was based on a system of (seven) seven year cycles
each ending with a Sabbath year of rest for the Land. The
resulting total of 49 years was then followed by a fiftieth
"Jubilee" year that began on the day of Atonement,
after which time the whole cycle was to be repeated.
When such a
Sabbatic/Jubilee Calendar is constructed in this section, again
based on the chronological work done by Edwin Thiele as explained
in REDEMPTIVE PLAN, the surprising result shows that four epochal
events spanning Biblical times apparently fell on Jubilee years,
thereby giving it important prophetic properties throughout
Biblical times.
Moreover, it is
easily seen that if a credible Jubilee calendar can be
constructed for Biblical times, it requires no great mathematical
leap to simply project it into modern times. When this is done,
it will be shown in the Timelines below that it serves to
identify two very interesting years in the 20th Century, and
provides a means whereby time segments can be highlighted when
prophetic events might have been expected.
Just follow the
link to the Jubilee Calendar to study its prophetic qualities in
more detail.
Whereas the
Levitical calendar is based on a 354 day Lunar year, and the
Jubilee calendar conforms to a 365¼ day Solar year, this strange
anomalous calendar is based on a 360 day year in which the twelve
months are all exactly 30 days in length. Such a system for
measuring time was never directly mentioned in the Bible,
although Hebrew records from early Old Testament times do not
show that calendar adjustments were ever required from a 30 day
month, and contemporary Gentile records recovered from other
nations like Persia,
Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, China, Maya, and Peru up till the 8th
century BC, apparently all employed such a 360 day system.
However, those facts alone would be of little consequence to this
prophetic study were it not for the additional fact that the Old Testament period of the
Babylonian Exile was clearly timed according to such a 360 Day
calendar. That fact takes on greater significance when it is
realized that the Babylonian Exile itself had prophetic
overtones. This is evident from a text in (II Chronicles 36.21)
that directly connects the duration of the Babylonian Exile with
the prophetic Sabbatic/Jubilee calendar.
The 360 Day
calendar will play a key role in identifying prophetic events
both in Biblical times and in the 20th Century, so it is very
important to understand the rationale for its use. You may review
the arguments for the employment of the 360 Day calendar in
prophecy by studying the period of the Babylonian Exile at the
following link.
A
"Timeline" is defined here simply as a segment of
recorded history. In this section of COMING GLORY, several
different "timelines", i.e. segments of recorded
history, will be selected for close examination, first from the
Old and New Testaments of the Bible, then from the 20th century.
One or more of the above three prophetic calendars extracted from
the Bible, will then be overlaid on each of these timelines.
Since the calendars themselves are prophetic, they should also
serve to highlight any prophetic events governed by those
calendars within those timelines. In this way, events so
identified may be positively associated with the Bible as being
prophetic. Although this technique does not immediately allow a
20th century event to be connected with a specific Bible
prophecy, it will be discovered that there are many such events,
so that it soon becomes possible to detect patterns with
repeatable time intervals, thereby placing them in the context of
key End Time happenings predicted in the Bible.
If your
reactions are like mine were, you will find these Timelines to be
exceedingly thought-provoking, and at times startling.
The full prophetic
import of the 360 Day calendar does not become evident until we
read about the prophet Daniel's Old Testament visitation by the
angel Gabriel, who informed him of a period of "70
Sevens", i.e. "70 Weeks", to befall Israel. When
this 360 Day calendar is overlaid on the timeline for Daniel's
"70 Weeks" the following link will show how this
calendar highlights the precise New Testament time when Messiah
presented Himself as King in fulfillment of a prophecy in
(Zechariah 9.9). It will also provide a credible basis for dating
the Old Testament prophet Malachi's writing, and for the duration
of the Intertestament period. Nonetheless, the result will leave
the final "70th Week" unaccounted for during Biblical
times, thereby creating an issue concerning the possible time for
its fulfillment.
A detailed
discussion of the prophecy of Daniel's "70 Weeks" is
located at the following link.
| ISRAEL'S
REDEMPTIVE TIMELINE |
Israel's
Redemptive timeline initially makes primary use of the 360 Day
calendar to show how ancient Israel's existence throughout
Biblical times followed a distinct prophetic pattern, in which
several time periods during its history were actually repeated
centuries later. In particular, it shows some intriguing
parallels between the Covenants of Law and Grace, when the
relative timing of each is set side by side.
Then the
Jubilee calendar, originally constructed and tested using
Biblical dates from the REDEMPTIVE PLAN, will be extended into
modern times to highlight the possible Jubilee years within the
20th century.
Once this
has been done, Israel's Redemptive Timeline will also be extended
into the 20th century and displayed in a way that shows a
striking parallel between the 20th century State of Israel and
the Old Testament kingdom beginning with Saul and David. This
relationship is so congruent that it will become evident that the
1948 rebirth of Israel occurred in the precise year required to
reproduce the time pattern associated with the formation of
Israel's Old Testament kingdom. As a result of this congruence,
it also becomes possible to resolve a one year ambiguity inherent
in the above Jubilee calendar for Biblical times, so that the two
specific Jubilee years in the 20th century can be positively
identified.
When these steps
are taken, they will highlight a particular span of time within
20th century history when prophetic events might have been
expected to occur. They will also provide a firm basis for
defining the beginning of the next Millennium from a Biblical
perspective, and even highlight a possible seven year interval
for that final "70th Week" of Daniel's prophecy.
You may
review Israel's Redemptive Timeline, which begins in Israel's
past but then transitions to Israel's present, at the following
link.
| THE
20TH CENTURY TIMELINE |
The Levitical and 360 Day
calendars are particularly relevant in understanding the
prophetic nature of the 20th century. When these are overlaid on
the 20th Century Timeline, they are able to show that a specific
seven year time span within the 20th century was timed by these
calendars to an accuracy of one day, and that those same
calendars have also impacted the precise timing of other major
historic events over a time span of at least 60 years!
The Levitical calendar
highlights certain historic 20th century events in a way that can
enable them to be connected with specific End Time prophetic
texts that appear in the Old Testament.
It will become evident here that
the use of the 360 Day calendar did not end with Biblical times,
for it will also be shown that this particular calendar again
became operative at a specific point in time late in the 20th
century, and that it continues to govern important world events
right up to the present time. Since that point in time also
coincided with the start of the seven year interval highlighted
independently in Israel's Redemptive Timeline, The whole issue of
the timing of Daniel's "70th Week" is again punctuated.
It is hoped that a study of the
20th Century Timeline at the following link will make it
abundantly clear that Bible prophecy is relevant to us today,
while at the same time providing you with a good estimate about
where we presently are in God's End Time prophetic Plan.
Is the Bible really complete and does it reveal a Redemptive Plan that reached an epoch with the coming of Jesus the Messiah? Not only is the answer to this
question a resounding "yes" when it's viewed chronologically as in the above section of COMING GLORY, but it's also "yes" as we will now see when it's viewed from an overall organizational
perspective.
The Old Testament book of Genesis and New Testament book of Revelation, being the first and last, form "bookends" as it were to the Bible, enclosing
all the other books therein. When the two are contrasted one against the other, we discover that the original problem created in Genesis, is somehow solved when we arrive at that final book of Revelation.
BIBLE "BOOKENDS"
The particular organization of the Bible into 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, creates an interesting prophetic curiosity with respect
to the Gospel of Matthew, showing just how He revealed His Plan concerning the Messiah first to the Jews.
TO THE JEWS FIRST
Bible genealogies are typically neglected
items for study, about as emotionally stirring as a telephone
book. However, there is more than meets the eye in Bible
genealogies, for they can provide a contribution of unique
importance to this study of Bible prophecy, and to proof that Jesus was the Messiah.
"GENERATIONS
OF TEN"