Sister Dee, thanks for your reply and comment.

 

You said “Isn't it interesting how there are 49 years left????  One more jubilee period, so to keep with the pattern the Lord shortens by a jubilee rather than another number.”

 

I also thought this might be a possible clue. The word "jubilee" comes from the Hebrew word "yobel" which means "blowing the trumpet". This makes an intriguing connection “The Last Trump” and “The Last Jubilee,” are actually saying the same thing. Even though we can’t draw definite conclusions from information found outside the Bible, this information found in ancient rabbinical writings shows what Jewish scholars believed would be the timing the coming of the Messiah.

 

"Elijah told Judah, the brother of Sala Hasida, 'The world will endure not less than 85 Jubilees and on the last Jubilee the Son of David will come'" (Talmud, Sanh.97b).

 

Alfred Edersheim in is classic work The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Appendix 9, LIST OF OLD TESTAMENT PASSAGES MESSIANICALLY APPLIED IN ANCIENT RABBINIC WRITINGS, also comments on the concept:

 

“On the authority of Elijah it was stated that the world would not last less than eighty-five jubilees, and that in the last jubilee the Son of David would come. When Elijah was asked whether at the beginning or at the end of it, he replied that he did not know.

 

According to my calculations there have been 86 Jubilees since the flood. I also came across this information suggesting the Tribulation would start on the first year of a Sabbatical cycle, 2009 is the first year of a Sabbatical cycle:

 

R. Johanan said: In the first year of the septennate “7 years” in which the scion “son” of David will come, will be fulfilled the statement of the Scripture, And I will cause it to rain upon one city, etc. (Amos IV, 7). In the second year famine will assail it. In the third year there will be a great famine, from which men, women, and children will perish, and pious men and men of good deeds will become few, and the Torah will begin to be forgotten in Israel. In the fourth year there will be scarcity of a kind and plenty of a kind. In the fifth year there will be great plenty and the people will eat, drink, and be merry, and the Torah will be renewed and restored to Israel. In the sixth year there will be thunderings, in the seventh year wars. (Talmud, Sanh. 97a)

 

We can view these events happening after the rapture of the Church and before the Jews accept Jesus as their Messiah.  … food for thought … YBIC Oliver Thomas