Here is some
supporting evidence that suggests
the Jubilee Calendar was
terminated in 1994:
1. If the record of time in the
Bible is reliable, the Bible only
describes a period of about 7,000
years. When a student compiles
the genealogical records in
Genesis, the historical records
of Israel in the Old Testament,
and the prophetic time-periods of
Daniel and Revelation using the
day/year and literal reckoning as
introduced above, the Bible only
refers to a total of about 7,000
years (this total included the
1,000 years of Revelation 20.) I
say about 7,000 years
because Adam and Eve were in the
Garden of Eden for a certain
amount of years before they
sinned and there is also a 20
margin of error in measuring the
elapsed time between Adam and
Jacob. This margin of error stems
from the fact that we cannot know
the exact number of years in 21
generations between Adam and
Jacob. The offspring of each
patriarch was not likely on his
father’s birthday, so a
maximum 20-year margin of error
is necessary. In other words,
Adam may have been 130 years and
11 months when Seth was born.
Seth may have been 105 years and
2 months when Enosh was born and
so on.
2. The idea that the world in its
present form will endure for a
total of 7,000 years has been
around since the 5th
century. I believe Augustine was
the first to introduce this
theory. The theory of 7,000 years
of Earth’s existence has
been labeled “The Great Week
Theory.” This title reflects
the idea that seven days of
Creation week were a pattern for
a millennial week of seven
1,000-year periods. In other
words, God has foreknowledge. He
foreknew the rise and eventual
destruction of sin. Therefore, He
established the seven-day weekly
cycle at Creation, representing
7,000 years from the point when sin
would rise until its destruction.
This idea is supported
somewhat by the fact that the
final prophetic time-period in
the Bible is exactly 1,000 years.
(Revelation 20) Why did God
choose 1,000 years? Are there
other time-periods 1,000 years in
length? The theory suggests that
God specifically defined and
established the 1,000-year
time-period in Revelation 20 as a
necessary measurement of time to
complete “The Great
Week.” Since the devil is
chained and cannot tempt the
nations and since Earth is void
and uninhabited during the 1,000
years, the land will rest from
the affliction of sin during the
7th millennium just as
the land rested every 7th
year in the Old Testament times.
Even more, God Himself will be
able to rest from the sufferings
of sin in His universe. This
theory also has some indirect
substance behind it for the Bible
does say that a day with the Lord
is as a thousand years. (Psalms
90: 4; 2 Peter 3:8) Consider the
fact that both David and Peter
penned their words years before
Revelation 20 was written.
3. Let us assume the following rule
to be true: God reckons
apocalyptic time-periods by the
presence or absence of the
Jubilee Calendar. Therefore,
if you use the day/year method of
reckoning between the Exodus in
1437 B.C. and 1994 because the
Jubilee Calendar is operating and
if literal reckoning is used for
the prophetic time-periods that
occur after the Jubilee
Calendar expires in 1994, then
the 6,000th year since
sin began is sometime between
1998 and 2017 (20 year margin of
error). Do not forget, the
literal time-periods in Daniel
and Revelation that are still
future need to be added to the
1994 date. (1994 plus 1,335
literal days for the Great
Tribulation equals 1998, the
earliest possible date for the
6,000th year). A
couple of unknown, but limited
numbers, also support this
general time frame. First, we do
not know how long Adam and Eve
lived in the Garden of Eden
before they sinned, but we do
know that Adam and Eve were 130
years of age when Seth (their
third son) was born. Let us
suppose (and there is no way of
knowing for sure) that Adam and
Eve lived in the Garden about 100
years before sinning. Second, as
I sad before, we do not know the
amount of cumulative error in the
genealogical records between Adam
and Jacob, but we do know it to
be 20 years maximum. If we pull
all this information together,
the genealogical data, historical
data and prophetic data, we are
able to produce the chart below:
If we subtract
(100?) maximum years in the
Garden of Eden before Adam and
Eve sinned, and add (20?) for the
maximum of error in counting the
generations between Adam and
Jacob, then 1998 appear to be our
first strong candidate for the
6,000th year since sin
began.
Notice the math
used is not precise, but
according to my calculations, the
6,000th year appears
to occur between 1998 and 2017
with the mid-point of 2007 being
the strongest candidate.
Obviously, 1998 is now history
and we are over half way through
2006. Perhaps Adam and Eve were
in the Garden of Eden 80 to 90
years. Maybe my adjustment for
cumulative error is wrong. No one
can say just how long they were
in the Garden nor can we know
what the cumulative error
actually is. We just have to test
various combinations to see what
satisfies a best guess.
Scenario After the
Fall
We do know that
Cain and Abel were born to Adam
and Eve after they were expelled
from Eden. We also know that the
two boys became mature enough to
provide their own
sacrifices. A possible
scenario for this time sequence
could be as follows: Adam and Eve
lived in the Garden for about 80
years before they sinned. After
they were expelled, Cain and Abel
were born, as well as some
sisters. (Cain took one of his
sisters as a wife when he had to
leave home.) When Abel turned 30
years of age (the age at which
one became a priest, Genesis
41:46; Luke 3:23), he began to
offer sacrifices. Cain, the
elder, had been conducting his
own sacrifices since he had
become 30, but he became jealous
of his younger brother Abel when
God accepted Abel’s
sacrifices. Cain evidently became
jealous because God did not favor
the sacrifices of the
firstborn as Cain thought He
should. (Hebrews 11:4; Genesis
4:4) Let us suppose that Cain was
about 40 when he killed Abel who
was about 30. The Bible says that
Seth was born to replace Abel
when Eve was 130. This scenario
allows enough time (50 years) for
the birth of other offspring
(females) as well as living in
the Garden about 80 years before
sin. Obviously, any number
between 80 and 100 years could
easily satisfy this scenario.
4. I am impressed
that God continues to deal with
man using increasing units of
time. I have already mentioned
the first four units of time God
gave Israel. Now consider the
last two:
the Sabbath day
> forty days > 70 Sabbath
years > 70 weeks > 70
Jubilee cycles > 70 centuries
for sin.
If God designed
the termination of the day/year
method of reckoning because 70
Jubilee cycles were fulfilled in
1994, and if the remaining
apocalyptic time-periods are
reckoned as literal time, then
the rest of the prophetic story
fits very easily within a
time-frame of 70 centuries or
7,000 years of sin. Is this
another coincidence? If it is, it
is certainly another marvelous
one.
5. In the light of
the above possibilities, this
last point may be the best point
of all. Read and consider three
separate texts in Revelation
before I present the last point.
I find these three texts to be
intimately related and they are
highly important regarding the
timing issue:
The first text
comes from revelation 8: 2-6: “And
I saw the seven angels who stand
before God, and to them were
given seven trumpets… Then
the seven angels who had the
seven trumpets prepared to sound
them.”
The second text
comes from Revelation 7:1-4: “After
this I saw four angels standing
at the four corners of the earth,
holding back the four winds of
the earth to prevent any wind
from blowing on the land or on
the sea or on any tree. Then I
saw another angel coming up from
the east, having the seal of
living God. He called out in a
loud voice to the four angels who
had been given power to harm the
land and the sea: “Do not
harm the land or the sea or the
trees until we put a seal on the
foreheads of the servants of our
God.” Then I heard the
number of those who were sealed:
144,000 from all the tribes of
Israel.” The last text
comes from Revelation 10: 1-6: “Then
I saw another mighty angel coming
down from heaven. He was robed in
a cloud, with a rainbow above his
head; his face was like the sun,
and his legs were like fiery
pillars. He was holding a little
scroll, which lay open in his
hand. He planted his right foot
on the sea and his left foot on
the land, and he gave a loud
shout like the roar of a
lion… Then the angel I has
seen standing on the sea and on
the land raised his right hand to
heaven. And he swore by him who
lives forever and ever, who
created the heavens and all that
is in them, the earth and all
that is in it, and the sea and
all that is in it, and said,
‘There will be no more
delay!’”
In brief, these
three texts align and say the
following:
A. At a
specific point in time, the seven
angels who stand before
God’s throne are given seven
trumpets. (Revelation 8:2)
Incidentally, I find these seven
angels are given seven bowls of
wrath later on.
B. As four
of the seven angels are about to
commence their destructive work,
Jesus tells them to wait until
His servants, the 144,000 are
sealed. (Revelation 7:2)
C. When the
144,000 servants are sealed,
Jesus cries out, “There will
be no more delay!” and then
the angels with the trumpets
commence with their destructive
works.
From these three
selections of text, I conclude
the following. In March 1994, at
the close of the 70 Jubilee
cycles, probationary time runs
out. God’s patience with
Earth has reached its limit.
However, as Revelation 7: 2,3
indicates, a delay is mercifully
announced. The angels who had
been given power to harm the
Earth are told to wait until the
144,000 are sealed. Later, Jesus
shows the sealing is finished
when He says, “There will be
no more delay!” At that
point, the censer in Revelation
8:5 is cast down (this event in
Heaven is marked by lightening,
thundering, rumblings and a
global earthquake on Earth), then
the angels begin to sound their
trumpet judgments.
These texts bring
us to the question of timing.
When are the seven angels given
the seven trumpets? (Revelation
8:2) Since the trumpet judgments
are end-time events, this would
suggest the angels are given
their trumpets at the end-time.
In addition to this, the trumpet
judgments represent God’s
wrath, although mixed with mercy.
Is there a precedent within
God’s mercy that is related
to timing? Yes! God gave the
antediluvians 120 years. God gave
Nineveh 40 days to repent. God
gave Israel a total of 30 Jubilee
cycles with a special
opportunity/warning during the
last 70 weeks of that time-frame.
Did God grant the Gentiles 40
Jubilee cycles? Perhaps so and if
He did, then a total of 70 cycles
of patience has been granted to
mankind. Has the time come for
God’s judgments? Yes!
“If God does not send
judgments soon,” evangelist
Billy Graham has said, “He
will owe Sodom and Gomorrah an
apology.” Have God’s
judgments started? No. Why? The
Bible reveals that the angels
have been told to wait until the
144,000 are sealed. (Revelation
7: 1-3) My point is that it seems
fair to conclude that the seven
angels were commissioned in 1994
for deeds of great destruction,
but have been put on hold until
the 144,000 are sealed. This
means we are in a waiting period
or a delay that could end any day
now.
Summary
There is no text
in the Bible that says 1994 is an
important prophetic date. There
is no text in the Bible that says
all 18 time-periods are to be
reckoned in day/year units or
literal units or even a mixture
of these two methods. God is the
Author of prophecy and since God
knows the end from the beginning,
I conclude that all the prophetic
pieces in the Bible must be
correctly aligned to obtain a
panoramic view of God’s plan
for saving man. In fact, it is
our privilege and responsibility
to study these matters. I believe
all 18 time-periods are important
and when rightly assembled,
produce a marvelous picture
illustrating God’s tireless
vigil over man. (Exodus 12:42) Do
not be misled on this point, God
is watching over us. Remember,
with God, “Timing is
everything!” In closing,
notice these two verses: “But
when the time had fully
come, God sent his Son,
born of a woman, born under the
law, to redeem those under the
law, that we might receive the
full rights of sons.” (Galatians
4:4, italics mine) “You
see, at just the right
time, when we were
still powerless, Christ died for
the ungodly.” (Romans 5:
6, italics mine) This is the
point: If Jesus were born on time
and died on time, and then it
seems logical that He will return
on time. I believe so. “But
you, brothers, are not in
darkness so that this day should
surprise you like a thief. You
are sons of the light and sons of
the day. We do not belong to the
night or to the darkness.” (1
Thessalonians 5: 4,5)
