Appendix A - The
Importance of 1994
continued
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Forty
Jubilee Cycles for the Gentiles
When
Israel’s thirty Jubilee cycles
ended, God started over. He
wanted to give the Gentiles their
chance as trustees of His
gospel. God raised up a
brilliant young Jew, Saul of Tarsus,
and made him an apostle to the
Gentiles in A.D. 34. As a
result, the Christian church soon had
more Gentile believers in it than
Jewish converts. Because there
is a New Covenant, the Christian
church did not displace Israel; it
replaced Israel as trustee. God
abolished the Old Covenant by
creating a New Covenant. This
redefined Israel. Believers in
Jesus are now the heirs of Abraham.[14]
History confirms that God granted
forty Jubilee cycles to the Gentiles!
(A.D. 34 to 1994) The proof of
this assertion requires three steps:
First, the
Jubilee Calendar could not end at the
cross because Jesus’ death
occurred during the middle of
the seventieth week (A.D. 30 was a
Wednesday year), and from our study
in Daniel 8 we know that the
2,300 days began before the
cross and they continue uninterrupted
until A.D. 1844. This means the
2,300 days are translated (a day for
a year) past the date of the cross,
without interruption, until 1844.
So, at a minimum, we are forced to
recognize that the Jubilee Calendar
with its day/year translation
continued until the Thursday year of
1844. However, the Jubilee
Calendar could not end in 1844.
This brings
us to the second step. The
Jubilee Calendar is divided into
three units of time: (a) a week of
seven years, (b) seven weeks of seven
years, and (c) seventy weeks of seven
years. Since history indicates
that God granted the Jews thirty
Jubilee cycles to the very day, this
indicates that the seventy weeks in
Daniel 9 is one Great Day
(seventy weeks), one unit of time.
The
Great Week
I have
concluded there are seven Great Days
of seventy weeks each. I like
to call this week of seven Great
Days, the Great Week. If this
structure truly exists, the seventy
weeks in Daniel 9 becomes the
Great Day of Tuesday. It is
interesting to note that from the
Exodus in the Sunday year of 1437
B.C. to the dedication of
Solomon’s temple in the Sunday
year of 947 B.C., there are exactly
seventy weeks or 490 years. (I
call this seventy weeks the Great Day
of Sunday.) Then, from the
dedication of Solomon’s temple
to the decree of Artaxerxes in the
Sunday year of 457 B.C., there is
another Great Day of seventy weeks or
490 years. I call this
Great Day, Monday. Then, from
the decree of Artaxerxes to restore
and rebuild Jerusalem to Saul’s
conversion in the Sunday year of A.D.
34, there is another seventy weeks or
490 years. I call this
Great Day, Tuesday. I
believe this information provides
evidence that a Great Week
exists. If so, it would seem
reasonable that there are four more
Great Days to make up the Great Week
since the prophecy describing the
2,300 days does not end until
1844. If we fill the Jubilee
Calendar with four more Great Days of
seventy weeks each, we end up with
The Great Week having seven Great
Days. Each Great Day has
seventy weeks each, totaling 3,430
years. (1437 B.C. –
1994) So, the Great Week for
the Jubilee Calendar began on Sunday,
Nisan 1, 1437 B.C. and it ended 3,430
years (490 x 7) later on Sabbath,
Adar 29, 1994.
Once the
Great Week ends, the Jubilee Calendar
with its weekly template of seven
Great Days expires. This
leads us to an amazing
discovery: All remaining
apocalyptic time periods after 1994
can occur without the translation of
a day for a year. If you can
accept the premise that all prophetic
time periods occurring after 1994
are to be treated as literal units,
then everything stated in Scripture
will perfectly fold into an even
larger calendar called the
“Grand Week,” a calendar
where a day translates into 1,000
years!
The
Grand Week
The Grand
Week is a week of millenniums
totaling 7,000 years. Each day
in the Grand Week represents 1,000
years. When all of the
genealogical records, historical
events, and prophetic time periods
mentioned in the Bible are assembled
together, it appears that the Bible
only speaks of 7,000 years for the
duration of sin. I call these
seven millenniums the “Grand
Week.” In other words, the
1,000 years of Revelation
20 will be the seventh
millennium and during this Sabbath
millennium, Earth itself will rest
from the works of sin. There is
no time period throughout all
eternity, past or future, that
reveals the love of God like the time
He has spent resolving the sin
problem! I do not have words to
describe the grandeur of this
incredible process. I am sure
saints and angels will study the
drama of the Grand Week throughout
eternity.
Full
Cup Principle / Jubilee Language
The final
step to connect the Jubilee Calendar
with Revelation 8:2 concerns
the operation of the full cup
principle as it pertains to
timing. Notice how this
works. God’s patience with
the nation of Israel ended when
Israel violated seventy Sabbath
years. When this limit was
reached, God swiftly raised up King
Nebuchadnezzar to take His people
into Babylonian exile before another
Sabbath year could be violated![15] The
Bible says God exiled Israel to
Babylon for seventy years
because Israel violated seventySabbath
years.[16] After
the Babylonian exile was over, God
granted Israel a second chance with
respect to time. God granted
the Great Day of Tuesday to Israel
using Jubilee language. He used
Jubilee language so that if His
people (who should have understood
the Jubilee Calendar) had been
observing the Sabbaticals, they could
have determined which decree
would start the countdown to
Messiah’s appearing. The
timing of the first advent of
Jesus was not supposed
to be a surprise.
“Know
and understand this: From the issuing
of the decree to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem until the Anointed
One, [Messiah] the
ruler, comes, there will be seven
‘sevens,’ and sixty-two
‘sevens’. . . .”[17]
Many Bible
students do not understand why God
stated the sixty-nine weeks in two
parts. The statement,
“seven weeks” and
“sixty-two weeks” is
confusing when God could just as
easily have said, “sixty-nine
weeks.” Once we understand
the Jubilee Calendar, the reason for
a description of “sixty-two
weeks” and “seven
weeks” becomes apparent.
(Note: The
Hebrew word shabuwa’ translated
as “weeks” or
“sevens” means “the
cycle of the seven” or commonly
“the week.”
Compare Daniel 9:24 with Daniel 10:3.
Millions of people have read the
words in Daniel 9:25 without
realizing what they actually
say. Perhaps the easiest way to
explain this text is to use
interlaced commentary: “[Israel] Know
and understand this: [There
will be a total of four decrees to
restore and rebuild Jerusalem,
however] From the
issuing of the decree to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem [that
will occur during the Jubilee year,
457 B.C.] until the
Anointed One [Jesus,
Messiah], the ruler,
comes [in
A.D. 27], there will be [one
cycle of] seven
‘sevens,’ [a
Jubilee cycle of forty-nine
years. In other words, Israel,
watch for the one and only decree
that will be granted during a Jubilee
year] and [after
that Jubilee cycle of forty-nine
years ends, count off] sixty-two
‘sevens.’ [That
is, count off sixty-two more weeks of
years – 434 years. Then,
watch for Messiah’s
appearing. John the Babptist
will baptize Messiah in the Sunday
year of A.D. 27, the first year of
His ministry and the first year of
the seventieth week.]” [Daniel 9:25, insertions
mine])
Think about
this. God could have granted
any number of probationary weeks to
Israel. Why did He deliberately
choose seventy weeks? God could
have established any time frame for
the appearing of Messiah. Why
did He select “seven weeks and
sixty-two weeks”? Even
more, God could have used the words
“490 years” instead of
saying “seventy
weeks.” God could have
started counting the years to the
appearing of Messiah from a
contemporary event such as the
victory of the Romans over the
Grecians in 168 B.C. or He could have
dated the appearing of Messiah from
the date Antiochus Epiphanes IV
desecrated the temple on Kislev 15,
167 B.C.
The more a
person understands about God’s
timing, the more profound this topic
becomes. I conclude that
God set the time and He chose the
descriptive words “seventy
weeks” for two reasons.
First, a week of years always begins
with a Sunday year. Second,
seventy weeks makes up one
day in His Great
Week. In other words, God
graciously granted Israel one more
“day” to accomplish His
objectives. If God had said
“490 years” instead of
“seventy weeks,” the Jews
would not have been able to determine
which decree “to restore
Jerusalem” God used to start His
count. (There were four
decrees.) The language
“seventy weeks” should have
been a huge clue because the first
day of a week always begins on Sunday
in God’s calendar. It is
as though God was shouting to
Israel’s coming generations,
“Watch for the decree that will
be issued to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem in a Sunday year!”
This is precisely what happened in
the Sunday year, 457 B.C.[18]
(Note: Of
the four decrees issued to rebuild
and restore Jerusalem, only one occurred
in a Sunday year and interestingly,
it was also a Jubilee year.
Since this alignment only occurs
every forty-nine years, Israel had no
excuse for missing the appearing and
ministry of Jesus. One of the
remarkable features of the Jubilee
Calendar is that during the Year of
Jubilee, the land was returned to its
original owners free of charge.
God did no less! He moved the
heart of King Artaxerxes to return
the land of Judah to the Jews free of
charge! He even gave them many
resources to help rebuild Jerusalem.)
To be more
precise, God divided the sixty-nine
weeks into two parts of seven weeks
and sixty-two weeks because He wanted
His people to know and understand
that the decree to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem would not only
occur in a Sunday year, but it would
also occur in a Jubilee year!
Since each Jubilee cycle is
forty-nine years in length, God used
the first seven weeks (the
first forty-nine years) of the
sixty-nine weeks to help Israel
determine which decree was important
to determine the appearing of
Messiah. Every Jew knew that
King Artaxerxes issued the all
important decree on or about Nisan 1,
457 B.C., and as you might expect,
457 B.C. just happened to be a
Jubilee year. Remember, 457
B.C. was a Jubilee year because 702
B.C. is a proven Jubilee year.
It is as though God gave Israel every
hint possible about the timing of
Messiah’s appearance and yet,
Israel’s learned scholars,
pompous Pharisees and pious scribes,
did not have a clue when the actual
time arrived.
The arrogance
and ignorance Israel exhibited at the
time of Christ’s birth is no
different than the attitude of
Christians today. This darkness
cannot be measured. There
is no darkness like stubborn
religious darkness. Jewish
authorities were speechless when the
wise men showed up in Jerusalem to
worship the newborn King. How
sad, you say, but the same problem
exists today. The second
appearing of Jesus is imminent.
Bible prophecy has never been clearer
and more understandable, yet the
books of Daniel and Revelation are
treated by many Christians as though
they are full of darkness, gloom, and
doom. Open your eyes, and you
will see that the darkness is
gone! The book of Daniel has
been unsealed. The rules that
lead us toward understanding the
ways, plans, character, and love of
God are shining brightly! “But
when the
time had fully come,
God sent his Son, born of a woman,
born under law, to redeem those under
law, that we might receive the full
rights of sons.”[19]
Seventy:
A Random or Deliberate Number?
Is the
number seventy important
to God or is it just a random
number? I am generally opposed
to numerology because it is based on
the notion that numbers have hidden
or obscure meanings. Since
there are no defined rules regarding
numerology, it is a nose of wax as
far as I am concerned. It has
taken time for me to come to terms
with the fact that certain numbers
might have special meaning to God,
but I have concluded that from
God’s perspective, the number
seven appears to represent
completion. There are seven
colors in the rainbow. There are
seven continents and seven
oceans. There are seven days in
the week. Jesus spoke seven
times on the cross. In the book
of Revelation, there are seven
angels, seven lamps, seven churches,
seven seals, seven thunders, seven
trumpets, seven heads, seven hills,
seven thousand people, and seven
bowls. Furthermore, God’s
Jubilee calendar is based on
recurring and expanding units of
seven. After reading this
paragraph, I hope you see the
significance to God’s use
of seven.
Unlike God,
man uses many numbering
systems. For example, computers
use a binary system of zeros and
ones, but to program them,
programmers use compilers that
translate ordinary words into binary
numbers. Perhaps the most
common numbering system that man uses
is based on units of ten.
(Maybe ten fingers and ten toes got
human beings going in this
direction.) The nice thing
about base ten is that each time a
count of ten is completed,
the count continues expanding or
shrinking by simply moving the
decimal point one place to the left
or right. It is interesting to
me that God’s numbering system
and man’s numbering systems have
one thing in common. They
express completion at intervals and
in order to continue counting,
expansion becomes necessary. In
God’s case, He translates a
day as a year, whereas man moves the
position of the decimal.
When God
multiplies His “seven” with
man’s “ten,” we find
the limits of divine forbearance and
human completion. In other
words, seventy indicates
that God has gone as far as He will
go and man has gone as far as God
will let him go!
Multiplying seven and ten to
determine completion helps us
understand, in part, why God was
moved to action when Israel
violated seventy Sabbath
years. This seems to be the
reason why God put Israel in Babylon
for seventy years.[20] Again,
the idea of completion helps us
understand why God granted seventy weeks
to Israel. God is just too
deliberate and purposeful for a
person to maintain that God’s
use of seven and ten is random and
meaningless.
God has also
used the numbers seven and ten in two
other ways. First, the annual
Day of Atonement always fell on
the tenth day of
the seventh month.
The Day of Atonement was the most
important day in Israel’s
religious year because God required
Israel to assemble and face His
judgment on that day. It was a
somber day that included
fasting. It was the
annual day of reckoning,
and everyone in Israel was concerned
whether God had accepted their
individual efforts to make
atonement. Remember, the
seventh month indicates that
God’s justice has gone as far as
He will go and the tenth day
indicates that man’s behavior
has gone as far as God will let him
go! So, the tenth
day of the seventh month was judgment
day.
Second, the
great red dragon in Revelation 12,
the leopard-like beast in Revelation
13, and the scarlet beast on which
the whore rides in Revelation 17, all
have seven heads
and ten horns.
The seven heads on these beasts
represent the same thing, namely the
seven religious systems of the
world. The ten horns represent
ten kings (political pawns) which the
devil himself will appoint during the
sixth trumpet. When the time
comes, the seven heads and ten horns
indicate completion –
a world whose leadership is full of
theological and political evil.
A final
interesting point regarding the
numbers seven and ten involves the
Great Week and the Grand Week.
The Great Week consists of seven
Great Days and each Great Day
consists of ten Jubilee cycles
(seventy weeks). Likewise, the
Grand Week consists of seven Grand
Days and each Grand Day consists of
ten centuries (1,000 years).
When we add up the genealogical
records given in Scripture, when we
put historical events in their
rightful places, when we place the
seventeen prophetic time periods
found in Daniel and Revelation in
their proper places according to Rule
Four, the dates and numbers will
perfectly align so that everything
neatly folds into a Grand Week of
7,000 years (seventy centuries)!
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