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Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 2Peter 3:3,4
Although today’s scoffers may not be as vocal as they perhaps they might have been in biblical days, yet they seem to exhibit the same arrogance by their anti-God agenda as that found in Romans 1:22 wherein God says “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…”. God’s promise of turning such anti-God people over to a reprobate mind seems to be manifesting itself in so many of life’s events, and in legally-accepted ways wherein their sin has become the accepted norm of society:
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. / But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 2Timothy 3:1-7 / 13
Never before has America witnessed its citizens’ behavior to be characterized by these scriptures as it is today. But, as this account will show, Christ’s return for His bride is very, very, near, even at the door. If pre-tribulation-believing Christians followed a conventional definition of an 80-year generation period, they would already be in the tribulation, so, apparently, something must be different about this generation. What is different is that God has cleverly disguised the prophet Daniel’s seventieth week by invoking the Jewish lunar calendar to define the “time of Jacob’s trouble” as well as defining the rest of the tribulation period in terms of lunar days instead of solar days.
This article addresses what is unquestionably the greatest mystery and desire of all Christians - the return of Jesus Christ who will receive all believers unto Himself and take them to Heaven immediately before the onset of the seven-year Tribulation period which is described in the Book of Revelation. The basis for the foregoing remarks is laid out in the following scriptures:
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 1Thessalonians 4:13-18 Also see 1Corinthians 15:51-55
These scriptures plainly teach that there is going to be a generation of Christians who will not experience physical death as we know it, but that they will instantly receive new bodies at the sound of “the trump of God”. This is further solidified in that there will be no “sting of death” for them – and neither will their bodies be put into graves!
No end-time events are possible without the fulfillment of prophecies which foretold the emergence of the nation of Israel as a viable nation after their diaspora of 70 AD. So, when Israel proclaimed its independence of May 14, 1948, bible scholars took note and began to try to figure out the meaning of Daniel’s seventy-week prophecy, for it deals with this event.
But - as I show in my book Messiah Prophecies Fulfilled - the first sixty-nine and one-half weeks of Daniel’s prophecy have already been fulfilled with Jesus fulfilling the sixty-ninth and one-half week of the seventy-week prophecy. Therefore, there is only one-half week left to be fulfilled, and that will be accomplished by the return of the prophet Elijah to “restore all things”:
And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. Matthew 17:10-13
That is to say, John the Baptist came also to “restore all things”, and was beheaded. But Elijah will come in the first half of the tribulation and therefore “restore all things” – by this is meant that all witnessing to the nation of Israel for salvation’s sake will end at the end of the first half of the tribulation. The foregoing remarks set the stage for the fulfillment of this last one-half week, but we will see that this “time of Jacob’s trouble” will lie outside the 70th week and will be the events of the Great Tribulation – the second half of the Tribulation period.
Note One-half of Israel will be physically raptured to escape the wrath of the Antichrist (Matthew 24:41), but the other half will stay behind, thus the scripture “the time of Jacob’s trouble”. Revelation chapter 12, and Luke 17:31,35
And, by other scriptures, we see that the tribulation period described in the Book of Revelation will last for seven years. We will also see that these are not going to be the “conventional” solar years in their entirety.
Jesus’ Prophecy At a certain time, the apostles asked the Lord Jesus about what lay ahead to which Jesus told them about events that would include the destruction of the temple in 70 AD as well as those of the entire tribulation period. At this point the reader should read the entire chapter 24 of Matthew in order to get a good understanding as to just what the apostles were asking Jesus. As to all this narrative, the apostles asked:
To which the Lord Jesus answered:
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Matthew 24:34
The culmination of all the foregoing events then forces us to consider the meaning of the word generation because Jesus’ words indicate - or rather define - the time span in which He would finally return to Earth and establish His millennial kingdom. There are three instances wherein God has fixed the time-span of a generation. The first instance is the thousand-year limit on mankind which God imposed upon the human race because of Adam’s transgression - this is obvious when one considers the following two scriptures in conjunction with each other: Genesis 2:17 and 2Peter 3:8
The second instance was God setting man’s life-span to be 120 years in Genesis 6:3. But the third instance is the one which applies to us today:
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Psalms 90:10
So, we conclude that the duration of the generation spoken of by Jesus is that of 80 years, since history has already discounted the possibility of a 70-year generation, as will be evidently clear in the following analysis.
The Nation of Israel The 80-year generation refers to the nation of Israel – but, more specifically - it is referring to the Israelite priesthood. The present-day nation of Israel structure notwithstanding, it was always understood - since its beginning - that the nation of Israel was strictly defined by its priesthood. Moreover, the Lord Jesus received his status as Israel’s High Priest by the Order of Melchizedek by applying His sinless, eternal blood over the dual testimonies in Heaven – thus, Jesus removed the Israelite priesthood from its ecclesiastical prominence when He pronounced its death sentence via the fig tree scenario**:
And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. Matthew 21:19
Because Israel’s present-day national structure does not appear to be that which God had intended for it to be, the best that we can do is to propose for our purposes of analysis that Israel conform to having the following characteristics:
The four characteristics of a nation-state are sovereignty, land, population, and government. Additionally, a national government is the government, or political authority, that controls a nation. At minimum, a national government requires a national army, enough power over its states or provinces to set and maintain foreign policy, and the ability to collect taxes. (Source unknown)
However, we should never have the arrogance to state that this is the definition that God would accept - for in reality - it is God’s place to set the correct attributes as to what constitutes the nation of Israel. Nevertheless, according to historical experience, Israel did become a nation in 1949 according to our knowledge when certain events took place.
Note On 16 February 1949, the First Knesset elected Chaim Weizmann as the first (largely ceremonial) President of Israel. It also passed an educational law in 1949 which introduced compulsory schooling for all children between the ages of 5 to 14.[3] On 5 July 1950, it passed the Law of Return. The first government was formed on 8 March 1949 with David Ben-Gurion as Prime Minister. His Mapai party formed a coalition with the United Religious Front, the Progressive Party, the Sephardim and Oriental Communities and the Democratic List of Nazareth, and there were 12 ministers. Yosef Sprinzak of Mapai was appointed as the speaker. (Taken from Wikipedia encyclopedia)
This information leads us to believe that Israel had its beginning either on March 8th,1949, when David Ben-Gurion became Prime Minister, or on March 10 when the Israeli Cabinet Body was formed.
Note It is well-known that Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, and that many scholars have believed this date as being the birthdate of Israel, but this is not true. As shown in the previous note, God considers Israel’s birthdate as being neither May 14th, 1948, nor that of January 25th 1949. Just when God considers Israel’s birthdate to be is absolutely crucial to determining the start of the 80-year generation of prophecy.
An Unconventional Generation The preceding Note led some scholars (including myself) to believe that the start of the 80-year generation was May 14th, 1948 (the year in which Israel declared its independence) or January 25th, 1949 (the year that Israel held national elections), but history has already proved that such belief is incorrect, for had it been correct, we would already be in the Tribulation period.
What we have learned from all the foregoing is that a nation is not born when it declares its independence nor is it born when it holds its national elections. Even common sense should tell us that the requirement for a nation to exist is the time at which its elected officials take their office and are ready, willing, and able to perform their duties of governing the nation.
A major premise of this account is that the generation which the Lord Jesus was addressing is that of a full 80 solar years. The best proof I have is the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the Messiah Jesus appearing at the 483rd year of the 70-week prophecy, for this fulfillment was based on solar years. Now we can proceed to define this generation:
From March 8th, 1949 to March 8th, 2029, is 80 years If we subtract the seven years of Tribulation, we get March 8, 2022 Therefore, the Tribulation period should have started on March 9, 2022. No Tribulation occurred on March 9th, so something went wrong What went wrong is that the Lord Jesus prophesied that the days of the Great Tribulation would be shortened:
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Matthew 24:22
What this literally means is that the shortened days can be used to extend the days of the seventy-three conventional years and thus preserve the 80-year generation. Therefore, the shorter the number of days during the Great Tribulation, the greater the number of pre-tribulation days that can be added to the days of the seventy-three conventional years, and still maintain the integrity of the 80-year generation.
The foregoing remarks lead us to conclude that the maximum days that we can expect for the entire seven-year tribulation period is 2557 days (365.25x7 = 2557), which started on March 8, 2022. The following Note explains the use of both solar- and lunar-based calendars:
Note As the earth travels around the sun the moon encircles the earth 12 times, but this falls 11.25 solar days short of a 365.25-day solar year - the time it takes the earth to go around the sun. Therefore, one must consider some adjustment to reconcile the solar-lunar year relationship. The Jews have accomplished this by adding an extra month from time to time (see The Day Christ was Born for the details of this adjustment). For this account, we can reconcile the two calendars by simply noting that the ratio 365.25/354 can be used in some calculations below that require usage of both calendars. ev
The solar-based calendar of 365.25 days and the Jewish lunar-based calendar of 354 days will be used in the two scenarios below based on these premises. Since our conventional reasoning has not produced a viable solution as yet (for then we would already be in the Tribulation), some “shortening factor” needs to be appealed to - this factor is one-seventh (or six sevenths) which is based on the Lord Jesus increasing His furnace (the sun’s power) by seven times (Isaiah 30:26) during the Great Tribulation in answer to king Nebuchadnezzar stoking his furnace up sevenfold (Daniel 3:19) with the following result:
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. Revelation 16:8,9
These scriptures then force us to consider the likelihood of an adjusted tribulation period, i.e., that of an unconventional seven years. The following two scenarios emerge to take the scriptures above into consideration, and, remarkably, they both lead to the exact same conclusion!
Scenario I – Seven-year Tribulation period based on our solar calendar 365.25 x 7 = 2556.75 solar days (seven years duration) (365.25) (3.5) = 1278.375 solar days (6/7) (1278.375) = 1095.75 (these are the shortened Great Tribulation days) 1278.375 + 1095.75 = 2374.125 solar days Therefore, 2556.75 – 2374.125 = 183 solar days (these are the “freed-up” days)
Scenario II – Seven-year Tribulation period based on the Jewish lunar calendar 354 x 7 = 2478 lunar days (seven years duration) (354) (3.5) = 1239 lunar days (6/7) (1239) = 1062 (these are the shortened Great Tribulation days) 1239 + 1062 = 2301 lunar days (the 2301 days of the Tribulation fulfills Daniel 8:13,14) Therefore, 2478 – 2301 = 177 lunar days (these are the “freed-up” days)
Converting these lunar days to solar days we get
(365.25/354) = 1.0317797 and (1.0317797) (177) = 183 solar days “freed up”
Note Only a one-seventh factor will produce the 2300-days tribulation time span which Daniel 8:13,14 foretells, and, to be even more precise, we see that 2301/354 produces exactly 6.5 lunar years. That is to say, the tribulation period in its entirety will span exactly 6.5 lunar years. Only God could foretell and bring to pass such accuracy.
The 80-year generation When governments are started, i.e., when a new government begins its function of governing, the Head of Government and/or the governing body must be in place and ready and able to begin its governmental control. Insofar as the nation of Israel is concerned, its duly-elected officials of its first government took control over the nation:
Chaim Weizmann took office as Head of State on February 16, 1949 David Ben-Gurion took office as Head of Government on March 8,1949 First Cabinet of Israel was formed on March 10,1949
Based on this information, the 80-year Israeli generation began either on March 8 or March 10, 1949. And, according to the scenarios above which are based on the one-seventh factor, we see that they both produce the exact number of 183 “freed-up” days – the days that we are familiar with. So, according to the foregoing calculations, the rapture of the Church should take place sometime between now and September 6, 2022. Of course, if the Lord will consider the cabinet formation also, then the date would be September 8. The words of Jesus again:
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Matthew 24:32-34
This fig tree does not produce fruit – it simply puts on leaves, and is yet tender, which indicates that it is a relatively new tree, as that of a new, or first, generation tree. The following information is provided only for the purpose of bolstering the premise that the present generation is, in fact, the generation which the Lord Jesus was referring to in Matthew 24:32-34 above. There are many bible scholars who believe that man is allotted 6,000 years’ existence before Christ’s millennial rule. As an advocate of a young earth, Johanne Kepler believed that the Earth was created in 3977 BC.*** The following time-span segments seem to corroborate the 6,000-year belief:
Adam (3972 BC) to Abraham (1972 BC) First 2,000 years Abraham (1972 BC) to Jesus (29 AD) Second 2,000 years Jesus (29 AD) to Jesus (2029 AD) Third 2,000 years Jesus Christ’s Millennial rule (2029 to 3029) AD
Jesus completed the first 69.5 weeks of Daniel’s seventy-week prophecy and Elijah will complete the last .5 week during the first half of the Tribulation period. Thus, “the time of Jacob’s trouble” refers to 3.5 years beginning with the middle of the Tribulation period. Saved Israel will be in protective custody of God (probably in Petra), having been “physically raptured” by God at the middle of the tribulation. Enoch and Elijah will witness to the nation of Israel for 3.5 years – the Jews who will hearken to their testimony will be physically raptured, but those who do not will have to go through the second half of the tribulation and face the wrath of the Antichrist as well as the wrath of God, hence the reference to “Jacob” instead of “Israel”.
Chronology of the Tribulation period According to the events covered above, March 8, 2022 triggered the beginning of the Tribulation period, and so we would already be in the tribulation were it not that the Lord Jesus has shortened the days of the Great Tribulation – the time period designated as “the time of Jacob’s trouble”. And - also according to the time span of events covered above - as many as 183 days can elapse before the tribulation begins because the actual time of the entire tribulation period is 6.5 years, and not seven years. In sum, although there could be as many as 183 days before the tribulation begins, the Church can be raptured at any time within this time span. The date of this writing being August 4th, 2022, there are at most 34 days remaining before the tribulation begins.
Moreover, the current Jewish calendar year is 5783 AM, and converting these lunar years into solar years gives us (1.0317797) (5783) = 5967 + 7 (tribulation) gives us 5974; this is just 26 years short of 6,000 years. For those who would like to partake of an ETERNAL existence in the New Jerusalem with Jesus and escape the terrifying eternal existence of torment in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:15), make sure that your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life which covers that topic here.
* This account is my own and is not the product of any other account posited by anyone else. Therefore, it should be understood as such, and it is not to be associated with any other person other than myself. Moreover, the Word of God instructs us to rely on the Holy Spirit regarding all spiritual matters, so that I am not necessarily excluding any other belief which might conflict with this account. Moreover, this account is based on the premise that the Rapture will take place immediately before the onset of the Tribulation, a pre-trib assumption. But, if the Rapture does not take place then, it should be understood that it will take place sometime between the beginning of the Tribulation (as noted in this text) and the middle of the Tribulation, the beginning of the Day of the Lord. Let every Christian be persuaded in his own mind as to the veracity of this account - and this is the only disclaimer which I will present regarding this account. ** For an explanation of this, please read The Day Christ was Born and “Sin, the Law, and the Blood of Christ” (thechristianlight.org) *** Johanne Kepler (1571-1630) was a German astronomer/mathematician/scientist Christian who updated Copernicus’ theory of planets having circular orbits around the sun in his Kepler's laws of planetary motion published in 1609,1619 wherein he posited his laws of planetary elliptical motion. See Kepler’s estimate of Earth’s creation date at http://dictionary.sensagent.com/3977%20BC/en-en/
Questions/Comments? Email: comment@thechristianlight.org
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