And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Luke 21:24Times of the Gentiles
We have been talking about the 2000 year (or 2002 year) Church Age, also known as the Times of the Gentiles. This verse above indicates that the times of the Gentiles would be fulfilled when Jerusalem was no longer "trodden down of the Gentiles". Whether we like or want to accept this interpretation, we would have to do a whole lot of fancy footwork to disagree that Jerusalem was no longer "trodden down of the Gentiles" as of June 7, 1967 when Israel for the first time since 70 AD, was in control of Jerusalem.But we were expecting the Church Age/times of the Gentiles to be 2,000 years. We won't get there by starting at Pentecost or a little afterward and ending on June 7, 1967. We already know that while the Church could be said to have been born at Pentecost, one could not say this is when the times of the Gentiles began as there were no Gentiles gathered at Pentecost. But yet we also know that Jesus took the message to non-Jews such as the Samaritan woman at the well and the Greek woman who needed a demon cast out of her daughter who said that even the dogs eat the children's crumbs. So that would lead us to examine whether the times of the Gentiles actually began all the way back when the Light of the World came into the World, FOR the whole World, not just for the Jews.
Birthdate of Jesus Christ
What is amazing is that we could actually backcalculate the time of conception for Jesus Christ coming into this world, leaving His heavenly throne to take on a fleshly body, to become the Son of Man with all His authority. We will notice that God appears to have two timetables for measuring years, one made up of 360 days as used throughout the Bible and especially Revelation which we often call the "prophetic" year, and the solar year. If we subtract 2000 (or 2002 just in case) prophetic years from 6/7/1967 we may just get the conception date of Christ. Taking 2000 prophetic years, (720,000 days) from 6/7/1967 (Modified Julian 39648) brings us to Feb 20, -4 Gregorian or Feb 22, 5 BC Julian, Adar 14. Or taking 2002 prophetic years, (720,720 days) from 6/7/1967 brings us to Mar 2, -6 Gregorian or Mar 4, 7 BC Julian, Veador (Adar II) 3. Adding 40 weeks for gestation brings us to either Nov 26, -4 Gregorian or Nov 28, 5 BC Julian, Kislev 28 or Dec 7, -4 Gregorian or Dec 9, 7 BC Julian, Kislev 18. While both of these dates are before Herod's death, generally accepted as being in the Spring of 4 BC, there is more meaning to the Light of the World being born into this World on the 4th day (4 being for flesh) of the Festival of Dedication, the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah IV, first started in commemoration of victory in 165 BC, exactly 40 x 4 years later in 5 BC. This would also be much closer to Herod's death as one would expect God's judgment to come swiftly upon Herod after murdering the male children 2 years old and younger in Bethlehem.Fleshly Trials and Tribulations
As a side note, remember how Jesus told us not to forgive 7 times, but 70 times 7. It would seem that while 7 means completion, 70 times 7 really really means completion. It is also 70 weeks of years or 70 times 7 years that brings Israel's final and complete restoration in Daniel's 70 week prophecy. Likewise if 4 for flesh is multiplied by 40 for trials and tribulations this yields 160 which would really mean fleshly trials and tribulations. For example there were 160 minutes between the time the Titanic hit the Iceburg at 11:40 PM on April 14, 1912 and then sank at 2:20 AM on April 15, 1912. It was also noted previously on Five Doves that the partial lunar eclipse over Israel March 29th, 2006 lasted around 160 minutes, and around the same times, 11:40 and 2:20, except AM instead of PM. So, note that this year while adding 40 days to April 15, 2006 brings us to May 25, 2006, Ascension Day, adding 160 days brings us to September 22, 2006, the end of this Hebrew year.End of Age
What is interesting to ponder is God's use of two timetables, one made up of "prophetic" years, and the other made up of solar years. Based on much extra-biblical evidence it has been come to be believed that the solar year was 360 days before 701 B.C. Some have theorized that a close approach of Mars during the vernal equinox caused the earth to move to a wider orbit, adding 5.242199 days per year.We can take the end of God's times for the Gentiles using "prophetic" years as being 6/7/1967. So what is the end of God's times for the Gentiles using "solar" years and the same timetable? We know that 5.242199 extra days have been accumulating each year since at least 701 BC. Taking the vernal equinox in 701 BC (3/20 Gregorian) to June 7, 1967 is 974,181 days. Now taking this times 5.242199 extra days divided by 360 days per prophetic year to 6/7/1967 gives an additional 14,185.7 days that have accumulated up to June 7, 1967. Adding these days to June 7, 1967 brings us to April 8, 2006.
There are some that would place the actual change of earth's orbit to 365.242199 days per year as far back as 714 BC. Using this to find the range of dates we should keep watch yields the following calculation. (By the way these dates can be easily verified in Microsoft Excel by starting at say 6/7/4967 for 6/7/1967, ending at 3/20/2300 for 701 BC or 3/20/2287 for 714 BC, taking the difference in days, multiply that difference by 5.242199 and dividing by 360, and then adding that to the date 6/7/1967.) The 714 BC calculation yields 978,929 days which when calculated out brings us to June 16, 2006.
Shalom,
Ted Porter
porter@EndOfAge.com