Dear friends:

Back in the late 1990s, prophecy writer Jim Harman discovered the date of January 23, 1950 as the official date that Jerusalem was declared the capital of Israel, which he believed was the command, or decree, of Daniel 9:25 and a "seven week" or 49-year countdown to what he thought would be the rapture.

That specific interpretation was not correct, but Jim's diligent research was not in vain.  It is surely no coincidence that exactly 49 (7 X 7) years later, to the day, January 23, 1999, an astronomical event happened that is thought to be the largest since the creation of the universe!  On January 23, 1999 a gigantic gamma-ray burst of light took place in the heavens. It was the most violent event ever observed in the universe. This burst reportedly had the power of nearly ten million billion suns.  This must have been a sign in the heavens, perhaps signaling the beginning of a 7-year countdown.

Today I received an e-mail from a very thorough fellow in Florida who has researched this extensively.  He says, "In my search on the Internet, I could find several references to this date (January 23, 1950) but never the document itself.... I called to Jerusalem and spoke with the Archivist of the Knesset. There was no translation into English. That's why I could never find it on the Internet. They sent me the original Hebrew version and I had it translated on tape by a Cantor in Tampa..... (According to the exact wording, he says) It is indeed the Decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, of Daniel 9:25. If one follows the countdown as spoken of through Daniel, we come to 2006."

He comes to 2006 by adding the 49 and 7 years of Daniel 9:25 to January 23, 1950, with the gamma-ray burst in 1999 as triggering the final 7 years.

A post by Jerry Grenough on May 29, 2000, said, "Strange to astronomers but not to Christians, the gamma ray burst of 1999 was beamed directly at the earth, from nine billion light years away. No polarization was noted. No man could arrange such a sign, nor the precision of its delivery.  The gamma ray burster appeared in Bootes (THE COMING SHEPHERD), a decan in the constellation Virgo (THE VIRGIN). That is also significant. The Greek Bootes is taken from the Hebrew root "bo" meaning TO COME. A bright star in Bootes is Arcturus, which means HE COMES. Nekkar means THE PIERCED (i.e, the pierced shepherd). Mizar, guardian, was earlier known as Mirac, THE COMING FORTH (like an arrow). Murphride means TO SEPARATE. This fits beautifully at the Rapture."

By way of remembrance, the brilliant Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern science, believed the wording of Daniel 9:25 referred to both the first and second coming of Jesus.

This is an interesting development and further emphasizes the possible significance of 2006.

Jim