May 4, 2024
Dear Brother Gino
Disclaimer:
In answer to your concern about the so-called prophetic year, the term in theology comes from the prophecy of Daniel where the time count is in 360 day years and not solar years as you know. Here is what I think, whether true or not:
Two university students seeking their Phds, researched the sign of Hezekiah, the King. They wrote a thesis to propose how the sun's shadow could have retreated on the sundial a full 10 degrees while he and the prophet Isaiah stood there watching. I am sure that Isaiah was not at all surprised, but Hezekiah had to be elated.
As found in 2 Kings, 20, Hezekiah was a youngish King, and he suddenly was told by Isaiah, the prophet to put his house in order for he was about to die. Hezekiah ranked as a pretty godly king. He turned his face to the wall and wept and loudly complained that it was not fair, for he had served well. Isaiah returned to tell him that God had given him, Isaiah, a message to the effect that He was adding 15 years to Hezekiah's life so that he could finish his kingly work. Hezekiah was a consummate Jew and thus his first reaction was relief, but then suspicion. He asked Isaiah “What sign do you give me that I may believe this?”. (Jesus said the Jews always seek a sign). Isaiah must have asked what sign do you seek? What Hezekiah decided on was this: While the shadow of the sun went forward on the sundial, now make it go backward and he would believe. (My estimate): The sundial was not some little backyard thing, it was the agricultural calendar on the palace grounds consisting of 360 large stones in a circle, which kept tract of the day and hour by the shadow on the rocks. The shadow retreated ten degrees (stones) while they stood there, that being ten days time. So already, the calendar was off.
For this to happen in the natural, the thesis writers found that if a large comet or asteroid were to hit earth on the opposite side of the planet from Israel, at an angle instead of head on, the force could slide the surface of the earth over the molten interior. They proposed that the Gulf of Mexico was formed in Hezekiah's day, gouged out by a heavenly body strike. To support this, they pointed to core drillings from the Gulf that showed comet material was present. (I believe that this is when the Mississippi River came to be, because all of the waters drained into the giant hole, leaving the great lakes and the Mississippi River, itself. It left also the Ohio River which drained into the Mississippi River bed. To support this idea, they pointed to the cliffs of Alton, Illinois, which clearly show the drainage drop in feet per week. The water at one time stretched from Illinois to way across Missouri. Of that, there is no doubt. The Alton cliffs are very high.
Astoundingly, this would imply that before the shadow movement, Hezekiah's year was 360 days per year. It implies that it was this event that pushed the earth into a 365.2419 days orbit. And it makes all of calculations known only to God Almighty.
It also implies that while Abraham, Isaac, David and Solomon “saw” Jesus day, it was the southern cross that they could view. Today, Israelis and us, in the U. S. cannot see the constellation. It looks as if the land mass moved from the southern hemisphere at the 17th parallel to the northern hemisphere also at the 17th parallel. If so, over a period of a few years, spring would become fall in both Israel and all over. It also may be that the change of seasons was so gradual and in the dry largely barren land of Israel, the change was not too noticeable, or perhaps it didn't matter to the growing season. Of course there is no mention of these things in the Bible, so it has to be conjecture. I do not think our calendars are totally trustworthy to tell us to the day where we are. I am pretty sure the Jews are at sea in that regard also.
An example is the days from Adam to Noah. According to Scripture, these total 1,656 years. These years are 360 days because the earth in Noah's day was in a perfect state, being a perfect circular orbit around the sun. If had to be for the ecosystem to work as it did. A perfect world, but the vapor blanket that surrounded the planet and diffused the sun's rays into perfection, was disrupted by the near passage of a rogue planet or huge asteroid or huge comet, dropping the blanket of water onto the earth like Niagara Falls for 40 days and nights. The point is that 360 days per year times 1,656 years equals 596,160 days. If divided by the solar year, the time diminishes to 1,632.32 solar years. So when do we reach 6,000 years of human history? It becomes confusing. It would alter all counts, including those of the Jews. To further exacerbate the problem, the Jews were dispersed all over the known world in 70. It is possible that this dispersion caused a loss of time in some cases. I don't know that, I am just guessing, but it seems reasonable.
The rapture, in my view, will come at the “appointed” time. It is not dependent on a feast or an event day. The Lord called it the “appointed” time. I think it is likely to come on the Summer solstice, because of the signs of the Song of Solomon. But that too, is a guess. No man or woman knows.
Maranatha
Gerry A.