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This is a divisive issue. We are emotional and irrational creatures. We laugh at our pets and children when they display immature behavior but have trouble seeing it in ourselves. I think God lovingly laughs at us in the same way when we emote illogically in our limited capacities.
I have spent a life time, and this last year several thousand hours, looking for answers but have not been able to secure a date. I have seen many date setters offer many dates that have come and gone.
On several of God's feast days this year I had hoped, along with many, that one might be right since God obviously has used these days for His purposes throughout history. I still think these days are possibilities but would like to point out that the day Jesus ascended, 40 days after the resurrection, was a day never hinted at in scripture.
I am still leaning toward the idea that these feast days will be used by God in the future more to get Israel's attention than for the church and that much surrounding the bride will continue to be a mystery.
But none of this detracts from the many commands to be ready and watch! I offer as proof that at minimum we will know the general time frame and possibly more as it is right in front of us. This is Paul writing to Jewish Christians:
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25
Without setting a specific date, let's see if we can narrow the time frame using this funnel:
God hides large numbers within small ones. Why? For many reasons but one is to help us see large time frames in prophecy. Maybe one of the most important is how He represents 1000 years as a day.
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
2 Peter 3:8
For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.
Psalms 90:4 (Prayer of Moses)
It is no accident that God set up the creation week as seven days and commanded all to live their lives around this structure. Our calendar still uses this seven day week. This is His master model for all the ages of man.
It has been about 6000 years since Adam and we will soon start the seventh day of man, the Millennium, the 1000 years of God's perfect rule on earth.
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
Revelation 20:6
Note: Read all of Revelation 20 for more references and details.
Paul's companion, Barnabas, also taught this concept in his apocryphal letter:
And even in the beginning of the creation He makes mention of the Sabbath. And God made in six days the works of His hands; and He finished them on the seventh day, and He rested the seventh day, and sanctified it. Consider, my children, what that signifies, He finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this; that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end. For with Him one day is a thousand years; as Himself testified, saying, Behold this day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished. And what is that He says, And He rested the seventh day: He means this; that when His Son shall come, and abolish the season of the Wicked One, and judge the ungodly; and shall change the sun and the moon, and the stars; then He shall gloriously rest in that seventh day.
...when resting from all things I shall begin the eighth day, that is, the beginning of the other world.
The General Epistle of Barnabas 13:3-6,9b
Note: this letter from Barnabas was nearly included in the Bible. It's authorship and integrity was not questioned - only it's worthiness as inspired canon.
There is another use of this 'day' in counting the two millennial days since Jesus came to earth the first time:
Come, and let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.
Hosea 6:1-2
In the chapter entitled 'Exit in 1 mile - Signs in the heavens' I stated that the six solar and lunar eclipses falling exactly on God's commanded feast days in the years 2014 and 2015 are not a coincidence. Throughout recorded history, whenever these special days and eclipses corresponded, major events for Israel and the Hebrew people transpired.
I will not repeat much here other than to say that no other eclipses will fall on any feast days for the rest of this century!
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Joel 2:31
I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
Revelation 6:12a
These astronomical markers were given to us to know His second advent would follow soon after! Seven years before that time frame is now!
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season.
Hosea 9:10
Whenever the Bible uses the fig tree in prophecy it refers to Israel.
Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near - at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
Matthew 24:32-34
Some say that this parable points to the second birth of Israel in 1948. Maybe. I tend to think it was when it regained Jerusalem in 1967. A tree cannot bear fruit when first planted or grafted and the words 'When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves' seem to indicate a young age.
Some think a generation is 70 years but that is really a life span. It seems more reasonable that 48 to 50 years is correct based on the generations in the Bible's genealogies.
Either way, 1948 + 70 = 2018 or 1967 + 50 = 2017, if you subtract 7 years for the Tribulation - we are almost out of time!
Possible Jubilee year alignment (1968 to 2018):
God commanded the Jubilee year as a time of restoration and emancipation - restoring land to its original owners, emancipation of slaves, and the cancellation of debt.
Jerusalem was restored to Israel in 1967. The Jubilee year is always declared on Yom Kippur, the sixth Feast of God, to start the following Spring on Aviv/Nisan 1. Jesus did this in Luke 4 declaring 'the acceptable year of the Lord' from Isaiah 61.
That would have made the Spring of '68 to '69 the Jubilee year. Jesus didn't finish the whole verse and passage from Isaiah. But He will when He returns in 'the day of vengeance of the Lord.'
That would make the Fall of 2017 on Yom Kippur when He would declare it again with the Millennium starting on Aviv/Nisan 1 of 2018. It fits God's ways perfectly to start His millennial kingdom on a Jubilee year.
General signs of the times:
With Turkey essentially changing sides with their recent alignment with Iran, this completes the nation listing for the coming war in Ezekiel 38. Iran's nuclear time bomb is ticking down and Israel will act to defend itself preemptively very soon.
These and many more prophetic current events are happening so fast it is causing our heads to spin. We may see more but nothing else has to happen before the Rapture!
And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Revelation 22:17,20
Let us never forget that more important than the question of exactly when it will occur is that it will occur - and soon! Are you ready?
Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Luke 21:36
Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
Revelation 3:3
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