If you can tell me when the Jubilee year ENDS I think I can tell you when the rapture happens and the tribulation BEGINS.

This is purely speculation on my behalf and I will not set a date, although I have my favorite candidate and will get into it at the end of the post, but this theory is Scriptural and evolved from my study of a couple of particular scriptures that I will discuss in this post.

Let's look at the first scripture:
Genesis 6:3
And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

As briefly as possible lets look at the possible interpretations of this verse and why they do or don't work.

The possible interpretations I have seen are:
1. This prophecy refers to the length of time given to prepare for the flood.
2. This prophecy refers to the limiting of a human lifespan after the flood to 120 years.
-Or-
3. This prophecy does not refer to either 1 or 2 which both rely on timespans of 120 CONSECUTIVE years - but rather 120 Jubilee years which only occur at the end of a 49 year cycle.  In other words 120 years spaced out every 49 years. 

Maybe it helps to think in the terms of someone who is born on February 29th on the leap year and only has a TRUE birthday once every four years, the other years they have to celebrate it another day.

So theory 3 would posit, that these 120 years occur once every 49/50 years that would equal roughly 6000 years to complete 120 jubilee years/cycles.

But first let's look at why interpretations 1&2 really can't work so that we can focus more on 3.

 In Genesis 5 :32 Noah is 500 years old. In Genesis 7:6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood was upon the earth. At most, the flood took place 100 years after the prophecy of Genesis 6:3 was given- so, since less than 120 years transpired between when God issued the prophecy in Genesis 6:3 and the flood began, interpretation 1 therefore cannot be correct.

As to interpretation two, a very casual study of the bible will show, that while humans generally do not live past 120 years now, it was certainly not the case in the years following the flood and many individuals are recorded in Genesis as having lifespans past 120 years after the flood and the prophecy so this interpretation number 2 certainly cannot be correct either.

Which leaves us with interpretation number 3 that 120 years are Jubilee years which do not occur consecutively but are spaced in intervals of 49 years.

It should be noted before we go any further that the word "strive" in Genesis 6:3 is translated in four other versions, the notable Septuagint which Jesus quoted from, as well as the Syriac, Targum, and the Vulgate as "abide".

So if we look at the Genesis 6:3 scripture with the understanding that "My Spirit shall not "ABIDE" with man forever, " I think it is highly possible that God Himself is giving us a timeline of the 120 (Jubilee?) years.

So this sort of blows the theory that God is waiting on the last sinner to repent and come to Christ out of the water.

We have all heard this before, but if this were the case, this would place the control and determination of timing of end time events in the control of man rather than the control of God.

God would be waiting on man to make up his mind to choose salvation rather than man watching and waiting for God's timing.

It appears to me anyway, that God has spelled it right out there in front of us saying in Genesis 6:3 that there is a limitation to the amount of time that He will allow His spirit to strive with man, be grieved by man, abide with man, and if I may add my own paraphrase - put up with mankind's offenses and garbage!

It seems to me that the 120 Jubilee year cycles equalling roughly 6000 years make the most sense, but no one can argue, a limitation is certainly spelled out in this scripture.

This brings me to my second scripture to back up my theory.

When I read the next scripture I felt like a set of blinders fell off and like for so long I had been focusing on the "trees" of the two separate scriptures without seeing the bigger picture of the "forest" that the two scriptures, combined in context together, can present - you know, the old saying "Can't see the forest for the trees"- meaning missing the bigger picture?

That scripture is:
2 Thessalonians 2:7
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.

I hope the light bulb went off as easily for you as it did for me on this one.  If it's not as obvious to you as it was to me let me help you make a few connections in these two scriptures.

When does the rapture happen?
Without discussing a specific date, we can say for certain that the rapture will happen when the "Restrainer" the Holy Spirit is removed, the One restraining evil and the Antichrist from taking power.

How do we know this is when the rapture occurs? Well logically every true, born again, Christian alive today is a container for the Holy Spirit, and since God won't remove His Holy Spirit from us, His Christian children, when He removes His Holy Spirit, the Restrainer from the world, when the Holy Spirit goes, we go too.

As a side note this also very logically answers the question of who goes in the rapture.

There are so many fear mongers out there saying only the super duper worthy saints out there are going and other Christians deemed not as worthy get left behind - friend, let me tell you, no works are good enough to get you into heaven, and no works qualify you for the rapture either - it's a very simple litmus test - if you have been born again and have the Holy Spirit living in you, you go when He goes.

If you don't have the Holy Spirit in you that's another story - I am sure there will be those that call themselves Christian but who have never really believed it or whatever that just haven't been born again and in that case I can only imagine it's like a balloon filled with helium versus a balloon filled with plain air, when released, the ones with helium fly away, but the plain air balloon ain't going nowhere.

So that's how I see it anyway- just make sure you are born again and if you have the Holy Spirit in you, you'll fly away like the helium filled balloon when we're all released - simple right?

But I digress- back to the subject at hand.

So if we can understand that the rapture happens and tribulation begins when the Holy Spirit is removed, and if we can understand from Genesis 6:3 that God has placed a limit on how long He will allow His Restrainer to strive, abide, and be grieved by us - maybe it's only logical that the timeframe of the rapture also becomes apparent to us.

This is why I opened this post with the statement - If you can tell me when the Jubilee year ENDS I think I can tell you when the rapture happens and the tribulation BEGINS.

I was very excited last fall at the prospect of the end of the Shemitta year and the possible beginning of a Jubilee year.

The prophetic ramifications of a Jubilee year are enormous! Jubilee is all about redemption and freedom - and wrap your mind around this - even though we see the benefits of Jubilee for man, redemption of property, freedom for slaves, etc.  that is just a small part of what Jubilee is about.

Just like Passover ultimately wasn't simply about a lamb dinner and a bunch of Egyptian slaves going free- ultimately Passover is God's way of showing us the cross, and what it means, so it is with Jubilee.

Jubilee is for God too, it's a picture given to man to show what God is about to do, to free His children once and for all from the world and the flesh, and redeem the earth as His own.

That's why I got so excited last fall at the thought of an actual Jubilee year possibly beginning - but the thought only recently occurred to me - if God swore that He would grant 120 years to man to figure this thing out before He finally says "ok enough is enough" and removes His Holy Spirit from this world - would He then remove His Spirit at the beginning of that 120th year or at the end?

Of course it would be at the end of the 120th year not at the beginning - a good example of this to consider is for all us Americans, everyone knows what April 15th means - tax day - and every American knows you have until exactly midnight to get your tax return postmarked before it's considered late.

In other words you have the whole day, and in God's economy being much more honorable than man's, when He says He's giving 120 years, it's not 119 years and 6 months of year 120- it's 120 years in their fullness.

As for speculation- I am anticipating the rapture this fall at the conclusion of the Jubilee year.

Specifically, since the barley was spotted early in Israel, I am anticipating the Jubilee year to end early around the first week in September, not early October as most are anticipating.

However if we are still here in mid October than I will have to wonder if this was a Jubilee year at all - that's the catch in this whole thing - if anyone can know for absolute certain when the 120th jubilee is and exactly when it will end- I think then we could know for absolute certain when the Holy Spirit will be removed and when the rapture will occur, but it seems God still holds those cards pretty close to His vest, so time will tell.

Remnant Navi