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TWO DAYS EQUALS TWO THOUSAND YEARS?
by Roy A.
Reinhold, revised slightly on December 29, 2001
Many
people have written fantastic treatises, publishing their theories
of how there is a church age of 2000 years. All of these people
count the 2000 years from the birth of Yeshua (Jesus), as if saying
that the church age began when Yeshua was a baby. Yet all will admit
that no one was born again by the Holy Spirit until the prophetic
fulfillment of Pentecost (Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot), when the
Holy Spirit fell on those gathered in the upper room, as a mighty
rushing wind and with flames of fire. One might reasonably ask,
"why the disconnect in recognizing when the church began by the
pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the church age
when counting 2000 years?" On what day did the christian church
begin?
There
is of course no defense for the disconnect! We recognize that those
who have crafted this misleading device may be well-meaning believers,
but with a personal agenda. They wanted and desired the church age
to end when they said it would end. People have fallen into two
camps, the earlier ones used 2000 years of 360 days/year (1971 years
and 108 days of 365/days/year). In which case, the predicted end
of the church age was 1972 (1 BC birth) or 1969 (4 BC birth). Since
the passage of time proved them wrong, the next camp arose, counting
2000 years of 365.25 days/year. They predicted the end of the church
age in 1996 (4 BC) or 1999 (1 BC). [Note: I have determined the
actual birthdate of Yeshua (Jesus) to be September 11, 3 BC in a
5-part article on this website, based on work from the Bible codes
and scholarly work from others. In their methodology of calculating
from the birth of Yeshua, then the church age would have ended in
1997, which it didn't]. The whole framework they worked from is
flawed, by calculating from the birthdate of Yeshua.
One
place in which two days are mentioned is the prophecy in Hosea 6:1-2,
where each day is rightly understood to mean a 1000 years, as stated
in 2 Peter 3:8.
Hosea
6:1-2 Come, let us return to the Lord. For he has torn us, but He
will heal us; he has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will
revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day
that we may live before Him.
2
Peter 3:8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day.
These
verses frame the subject of this article; something wonderful is
going to happen after the 2 days or 2000 years! The starting point
of the count is determined from within Hosea 6:1-2. When Yeshua
(Jesus) was performing His ministry on earth, He taught and healed
people, but He taught the people of Israel in parables and only taught
plainly to the disciples in private. One could jump to the conclusion
that the starting point should be the baptism of Yeshua by John,
but He hadn't fulfilled the promise of Hosea 6:1-2 at that point.
I'm going to show that the starting point for the counting should
begin at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, when people were sealed
by God into His kingdom and born again. After all, John the baptizer
taught openly the following message:
Matthew
3:11 As for me, I baptize you in water for repentance; but He who
is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not even fit to
remove His sandals; He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and fire.
When was the baptism in
the Holy Spirit and fire begun? First,
we need to backtrack momentarily to set the time frame.
Sir
Robert Anderson calculated the 69 weeks of Daniel 9:24-27, from
the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince. Without
going through the calculations myself, because many scholars have
done that already, I'll just say that the consensus is that the
decree was on March 14, 445 BC, and the 69 weeks of years ended
on Sunday, April 6, 32 AD. On the next Sunday, April 13, 32 AD,
Yeshua went to the Father in heaven after the resurrection took
place to fulfill the Wave Offering of the sheaf. 40 days later on
Saturday, May 24, 32 AD, Yeshua (Jesus) ascended into heaven. Finally,
June 1, 32 AD, the Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost (Shavuot
or the Feast of Weeks) to fulfill the prophecy of the Wave Offering
of the two loaves from the spring harvest. Was
that when the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire began, in the
upper room?
Without
discussing why the starting point for our discussion of the 2000
years is not the crucifixion day, the resurrection day, or the ascension
day of Yeshua, I'll just come out and say that it is when the Holy
Spirit was poured out. Israel was bandaged by the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit (referring to Hosea 6:1-2). A certain amount
of Israel were saved, sealed by
the Holy Spirit, and changed from the inside out. The prophecy of
Hosea 6:1-2 concerns Israel, not the church. Therefore,
the rest of that prophecy concerns Israel also,
not the church. With our starting point to count from June 1, 32
AD, we can count the 2000 years.
If
we count 2000 years with 365.25 days/year with the correction implemented
by the Gregorian calendar of leap centuries, we arrive at a date
of June 1, 2032 AD. However, I believe that the same system used
by Sir Robert Anderson, a prophetic year of 360 days/year is
used, then we arrive at a much earlier date.
Multiply
2000 years by 360 and divide that total by 365 and you'll get 1972
years and 220 days. This is equal to 1971 years and 585 days (220+365=585).
We need it in that form because we have to correct for leap years
and leap centuries. 32 AD was a leap year, so we know that there
are 492 leap years in 1971 years, not 493 (1971+32=2003, where 2004
is a leap year). There are 5 leap centuries in that time frame (400,
800, 1200, 1600, & 2000 AD). All of the other century years
are not leap years even though they are divisible evenly by 4, this
is the crux of the changeover from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
So, there are 20 century years between 32 AD and 2003 AD, with only
5 of them being leap centuries. Therefore, we have to subtract 15
from our total leap years (20-5=15) to account for leap centuries.
Subtract 15 from 492 leap years (492-15=477) giving us a corrected
number of leap years of 477. Our final step is to take the 1971
years and 585 days and subtract 477 leap days, because the year
is not 365 days/year but closer to 365.25 days/year. 1971 years
& 585 days minus 477=1971 years and 108 days.
The
1971 years and 108 days is the correct interval of 2000 years with
a prophetic 360 days/year. If we count from June 1, 32 AD without
counting June 1 in 32 AD, we arrive at 17 September 2003 AD. If
June 1, 32 AD is counted, then it's 16 September. I believe that
you should not count June 1, 32 AD and believe that 17
September 2003 AD is the correct day. ADD A TWO YEAR SPACE TO REPENT
and we arrive at 2005. |