MASTER
OF TIMING
Page 1 of 2 In this
study, we are going to take a close look at
prophetic time periods and related time study
principles. They are summarized in the following
way:
a.
The operation and importance of the Jubilee
Calendar in Bible history and prophecy.
b.
How the 18 apocalyptic time periods harmoniously
support the Great Week Theory that suggests a
7,000-year history for the existence of sin.
c.
Some apocalyptic time periods are reckoned
in day/year units and other time periods are
reckoned in literal time.
I believe a proper
understanding of prophetic time periods serves at
least two purposes. The first purpose is to
identify our chronological position in Gods
plan, and second purpose is to help each of us
affirm our prophetic faith. These two
purposes work together. If believers can see
where they are chronologically within Gods
great plan to restore the human race to their Eden
home, they will have a deep sense of confidence
and anticipation in Gods timely behavior.
Studying apocalyptic time periods and Gods
scale of time enhances our understanding of
Gods movement and purpose as He deals with
humankind. For me, it is very assuring to know
where we are in Gods marvelous timing. It
has strengthened my faith, even when the current
events appear to be less than dramatic. It is so
easy to grow spiritually careless or negligent
when nothing prophetically significant is taking
place. This is why Jesus repeatedly warned us to
stay on our toes, watching and waiting. I do not
believe the ten virgins went to sleep in the
midst of some great excitement. (Matthew 25:
1-13) The arrival of the bridegroom was delayed
and they all grew bored and weary of waiting
(since nothing was happening). Although nothing
of shocking prophetic importance has happened
since 1798, we should have a great deal of peace
and joy as we reflect upon things that God has
revealed to His children. He who forms
the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals
thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads the high places of the earth
the Lord God Almighty is his name. (Amos
4:13) He [Jesus]
said, the knowledge of the secrets of
the kingdom has been given to you, but to others
I speak in parables, so that, though seeing, they
may not see; though hearing, they may not
understand. (Luke 8:10) Jesus says two
important things in this last verse: First,
Gods secrets are revealed to His children
because they can only see truth through
eyes of faith. Second, Jesus taught many
important spiritual concepts using parables
because they require a level of understanding
that the carnal heart cannot comprehend. (1
Corinthians 2:14) When using parables, Jesus was
able to present wonderful truths for truth
seekers without unnecessarily offending
those people who could not understand.
18
Apocalyptic Time Period
(The word
apocalyptic is emphasized because an
apocalyptic time period is a time period that
belongs to an apocalyptic prophecy. This point is
made because there are other time periods
mentioned in Daniel and Revelation that do not
belong to an apocalyptic prophecy. For a few
examples, see Daniel 4:16; Daniel 10:3 and
Revelation 2:10.) I should point out that
although there are 18 apocalyptic time periods
mentioned in Daniel and Revelation, there are
actually 14 different time periods. The
difference between 14 and 18 prophecies (as I
explain them) is because some time periods are
identified more than once.
God carefully designed
and created the prophetic time periods and each
one needs to be chronologically located on a time
line by students of Bible prophecy. As I said
last month, I take this privilege and
responsibility very seriously. The asterisks
below indicate five of the 18 time periods I
believe were fulfilled prior to 1994. From
my study, I have concluded that the remaining 13
time periods will occur after 1994.
(Note: Please see
the charts on pages 7 and 8 of this document for
the location of each time-period. These 18 time
periods are not to be confused with the 18
Apocalyptic Prophecies. Instead, I am discussing
18 specific time periods.)
*1.
Time, times and half a time (saints persecuted
Daniel 7:25)
*2.
2,300 evenings and mornings (until temple
restored Daniel 8:14)
*3. 70
weeks (determined upon the Jews, Messiah
crucified Daniel 9:24,25)
4.
Times, time and half a time (when completed,
power of the holy people Daniel
9:24,25)
5.
1,290 days (from the end of the daily to the
setting up of the abomination Daniel
12:11)
6.
1,335 days (blesses is the one who waits for and
reaches this day Daniel 12:12)
7.
Half hour of silence (at the opening of the 7th
seal Revelation 8:1)
8.
5 months (length of torture upon those not having
the seal of God Revelation 9:5)
9.
Hour, day, month and year (a precise event when
war begins Revelation 9:15)
10.
42 months (Gentiles trample holy city
Revelation 11:2)
11.
1,260 days (Two Witnesses empowered for this
length of time Revelation 11:3)
12.
3.5 days (bodies of Two Witnesses lie in the
street Revelation 11:11)
13.
* 1,260 days (woman fled into the desert
Revelation 12:6)
14.
* Time, times and half a time (woman fled into
the desert Revelation 12:14)
15.
42 months (persecution of saints Revelation
13:5)
16.
One hour (ten kings join with beast
Revelation 17:12)
17.
One day, one hour (Babylons destruction
begins revelation 18:8,19)
18.
1,000 years (Satan in the abyss Revelation
20:2)
* Fulfilled prior to 1994
Predestination
To predestine
an event or a time period is to decree the event
or time period. Since God is omnipotent, He can
pre-decree an event, a process or a time period
and make it come to pass. While we are discussing
the subject of predestination, I should emphasize
how the Bible presents a balanced perspective on
this subject. God does predestine events;
processes and time periods and each of these
directly affect the lives of the people. (Acts 17:26)
However, the Bible also clearly states that God
does not predestine the eternal destiny of any
person. Rebellion against God or submission to
God is a matter of choice. (John 3:16)
God pre-decreed every
apocalyptic time period and this predestination
has fascinated me for years. Prophetic time
periods remind me of the class bell during my
high school days, signaling that one class ended
and another class began. The bells and chimes
would signal the appointed time. In the same way,
God is like the registrar who set the master
clock before the school year began. (Acts 1:7)
Just as each bell marks the daily progression of
the school year, the fulfillment of each
prophetic time period in the Bible indicates
Earths timely progression toward
fulfillment of Gods plan to restore man to
Eden.
The Father Has Set
Notice this text: He
[Jesus] said to them [His disciples]: It
is not for you to know the times or dates the
Father has set by his own authority. (Acts
1:7) Individuals who do not want to concern
themselves with the timing elements of end-time
prophecy sometimes misuse this text. They reject
the importance of such study and often justify
their attitude with this text. This is most
unfortunate. Look again at the text and read it
carefully. It says two important things: First,
Jesus statement implies that the Father has
set time and dates by His own authority
(omnipotence). Second, Jesus says the
Father did not want His disciples to know certain
pre-decreed events that were in the far distant
future. Certainly, such knowledge would have
destroyed the disciples enthusiasm for
spreading the gospel and their hope in His
promised return. Imagine what would have happened
if Jesus would have told them that he would not
return until after the year 2004? On another
occasion, Jesus said to His disciples, I
have much more to say to you, more than you can
now bear. (John 6:12) Do these
statements mean that Christians will never hear
all that Jesus wants to reveal? Do these
statements mean that no one will ever know the
dates and times the Father has set? Not at all.
There is a time for everything and a time when
every purpose and truth under the sun will be
understood. (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Jesus promised His
disciples that revelations regarding the future
would be coming. He promised, But when
He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you
into all truth. He will not speak on his own; He
will speak only what He hears [from me],
and He will tell you what is yet to come. (John
16:13, insertion mine)
Every student of prophecy
knows that very important information for
Earths final generation was sealed up in
the book of Daniel. He [Gabriel]
replied, Go your way, Daniel, because the
words are closed up and sealed until the time of
the end. (Daniel 12:9) This text
indicates that the time of the end, new
information will come from the book of Daniel.
Indeed, I have found this to be the case. Within
the book of Daniel, I have discovered four rules
that govern apocalyptic interpretation. One of
the rules concern prophetic timing and this rule
unlocks a number of mysteries found in
apocalyptic prophecy. This rule states that God
reckons apocalyptic time periods by the presence
or the absence of the Jubilee Calendar.
God
is Always on Time
Another point that
fascinates me about Gods timing is His
punctuality. God is always on time. Notice the
text: At the end of the 430 years, to
the very day, all the Lords
divisions left Egypt. (Exodus 12:41,
italics mine) Did you notice how the 430
years were measured to the very day?
The next verse always makes me smile, Because
the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out
of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to
keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations
to come. (Exodus 12:42) The words, Because
the Lord kept vigil are most
encouraging. This verse means that even though
generations come and go, God never grows careless
or indifferent about His promises. (Genesis
15:13) On the contrary, the Lord Himself
delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage right
on time, to the very day.
(It is my understanding
that 430 years reach from the day when
Josephs brother has sold him into Egyptas a
slave until the very day of the Exodus.) When one
considers all that God had to do through Moses to
get Pharaoh to let His people go, it is amazing
how God delivered the nation of Israel on the
very day He intended. What does this say about
Gods interest in punctuality? What does
this say about Gods omnipotence?
Captives
for 70 Years
There are many examples
of Gods punctuality in the Bible. Three
amazing Bible stories that build confidence in
the precision of Gods timing follow. God
told Jeremiah that Israels captivity in Babylon
would last seventy years. This whole
country will become a desolate wasteland, and
these nations will serve the king of Babylonseventy
years. (Jeremiah 25:11) And sure
enough, when the seventieth year of captivity had
been fulfilled, the Jews were set free
right on time. Notice what the Lord did: In
the first year if Cyrus king of Persia, in order
to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by
Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king
of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his
realm and put it in writing: This is
what Cyrus king of Persia says: The Lord, the God
of Heaven, has given me the kingdoms of the earth
and he has appointed me to build a temple for him
at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people
among you may the Lord his God by with
him, and let him go up [to Jerusalem].
(2 Chronicles 36:22,23)
Tested
for 70 Weeks
The second story concerns
the appearing of Messiah. God gave this
particular prophecy to Daniel during the
Babylonian captivity, and He actually told Daniel
when Messiah would begin His long awaited
ministry on Earth! He also told Daniel when
Messiah would bring an end to the sacrificial
system that had been used since Adam and Eve
sinned. (Daniel 9:27) This was a conditional
promise that God would establish His kingdom on
Earth if Israel passed the 69 weeks test. In
other words, the exiled Jews must honor
Gods covenant when they returned to their
homeland. The appearing of Messiah after the
passage of 69 weeks was, to ancient Israel, the
equivalent of what we now call the Second Advent.
As recorded on Daniel 9,
God revealed to Daniel that Messiah would appear
483 years after a decree was issued to restore
and rebuilt the ruins of Jerusalem. (Daniel 9:25)
Although God foreknew there would be four decrees
regarding the reconstruction of Jerusalem, the
specific decree that God wanted Israel to use as
a starting point to count down the 69 weeks had a
unique timing consideration that distinctly
separated it from the other decrees. With God,
timing is everything! The Bible record indicates
that four decrees were made. They are:
1.
The decree of Cyrus in 536 B.C. Ezra 1
2.
The decree of Darius in 519 B.C. Ezra 6
3.
The decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. Ezra
7
4.
The decree of Artaxerxes in 444 B.C.
Nehemiah 2
To make it simple, the
third decree is the only decree in
Gods Jubilee Calendar that occurs during
the first year of a Jubilee cycle. This is why
the 69 weeks of Daniel 9:25 is spelled
out as seven weeks and sixty two
week. (69 x 7 = 483 years) The seven
weeks period mentioned in verse 25 is one
complete Jubilee cycle of 49 years (a day of the
week represents one year, so seven weeks equals
49 years). The 457 B.C. decree is the only one
that satisfies this prophecy because it was given
at the commencement of the 21st
Jubilee cycle. God initiated the Jubilee Calendar
at the time of the Exodus.) When 69 weeks had
expired, Jesus appeared at the Jordan Riverfor
John to baptize Him in the first year of the 70th
week (A.D. 27)! (Luke 3) Gods timing is
perfect!
An interesting parallel
exists here. The first year of a Jubilee cycle is
also the 50th year of the previous
cycle. Because this is true, the prophetic
significance of the decree in 457 B.C. becomes
very great. (Leviticus 25:10) During a Jubilee
year, God freely returned the land to its
original owner. Here the parallel can be seen.
God also intended to freely restore the land to
the nation of Israel after the 70 weeks of
years, just in time for the year of Jubilee.
Notice
the Precision
At the very beginning of
the Jewish year in 457 B.C. (Spring, 457 B.C.),
God moved upon the heart of King Artaxerxes and
prompted him to decree that Jerusalembe rebuilt.
Further, he proclaimed that the land of Israel
should be restored to its original owners! Notice
the timing details recorded by Ezra:
I [Ezra]
assembled them [those among the exiles
returning to Jerusalem] at the canal that
flows toward Ahava, and we camped there three
days. When I checked among the people and the
priests, I found no Levites there. (Ezra
8:15)
There by the Ahava
Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might
humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a
safe journey for us and our children, with all
our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king
for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from
enemies on the road, because we had told the
king, The gracious hand of our God is
everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is
against all who forsake him. So we fasted
and petitioned our God about this, and he
answered our prayer. (Ezra 8:21-23)
On the twelfth
day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canalto
go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us,
and he protected us from enemies and bandits
along the way. So we arrived in Jerusalem, where
we rested three days. (Ezra 8:31,32)
this Ezra
came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well
versed in the law of Moses, which the Lord, the
God of Israel, had given. The king had granted
him everything he asked, for the hand of the Lord
was on him. Some of the Israelites, including
priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and temple
servants, also came up to Jerusalem in the
seventh year of King Artaxerxes. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem
in the fifth month of the seventh year of the
king. He had begun his journey from Babylonon the
first day of the first month, and he arrived in Jerusalemon
the first day of the fifth month, for the
gracious hand of his God was on him. (Ezra
7:6-9)
When assembling the
pieces of the story outlined above, the following
information becomes clear. God moved upon the
heart of Artaxerxes to write a decree to begin
rebuilding Jerusalem on or about the first day of
the fist month of Jubilee Calendar. (The first
day of the first month is called Nissan 1. The
Passover lamb is slain on Nissan 14). As
mentioned earlier, this particular first day of
the first month in the Spring of 457 B.C. marks
the beginning of the twenty-first Jubilee cycle
since the Exodus! In other words, the timeliness
of this decree is incredible. The decree was
written on or about the first day of the Jubilee
year and given to Ezra who assembled a host of
exiles by the Ahava Canal by the ninth day of the
month.


4. Time, times and half a
time (Daniel 12:7)
5. 1,290 days (Daniel
12:11)
6. 1,335 days
(Daniel 12:12)
7. Half hour
(Revelation 8:1)
8. Five months
(Revelation 9:5)
9. Hour, day, month
and year (Revelation 9:15)
10. 42 Months (Revelation
11:2)
11. 1,260 days
(Revelation 11:3)
12. 3.5 days (Revelation
11:9)
15. 42 Months (Revelation
13:5)
16. One hour (Revelation
17:12)
17. One hour/One day
(Revelation 18:8,10)
18. One thousand years
(Revelation 20:3)
To his great dismay, not
one Levite wanted to go to Jerusalem. (Does
this say anything about preachers?) Consequently,
Ezra was delayed for more than three days so he
could round up some Levites. Eventually, the
group arrived in Jerusalemon the first day of the
fifth month and after resting three days, Ezra
called a meeting and read the proclamation of the
king.
Note: The 2,300
evenings and mornings (2,300 years) prophecy of
Daniel 8:14 also began at the same time as the 70
weeks, thus the 2,300 years came to an end in the
Spring of 1844. From all of this information, two
profound timing issues surface. First, God moved
the heart of King Artaxerxes to issue the
Messiah decree right on time in 457
B.C. In the same way, God moved on the heart of
King Cyrus to release the Jewish Nation. They had
been held as slaves for seventy years. The ways
of God are beyond comprehension! He can put favor
in a kings heart, even whom claim they do
not serve Him or do His sovereign will! What does
this say about His omnipotence? What does
this say about His punctuality? Second, the Bible
(as well as history) confirms that Messiah
appeared during the first year of the seventieth
week after the 69 weeks had expired. Jesus began
His ministry, right on time, just as predicted. But
when the time had fully come, God sent his Son,
born of woman, born under the law. (Galatians
4:4)
These three stories
the Exodus, the 70 years of captivity and
the appearing of Messiah at the appointed times
give me great confidence that God is very
careful about keeping vigil. Finally, I would be
remiss if I did not share one more example of
Gods punctuality that removes all doubt!
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