We Have Little Time Left

By James W.                                                                     October 2018

After all the ideas that were presented over the last 4 years for the start of the tribulation, all proved to be wrong, I thought it was time to consider a different approach. I may still be wrong here in this essay, but I and all the others are watching, which is what Jesus wanted us to do. In reading various publications recently, certain things occurred to me that I had not considered before. So I give thanks to the writers who post on this site, and other sites, for such insight. From what you read here, you will see that it did help.

I am going to follow the numbers of days in the various prophetic time frames given in the Bible.  I am not going to assume that the start of the tribulation is predicated upon a lunar schedule, moon phases, the Feasts of the Lord, Sabbath years, or anything else. All I am going to do is to fully focus on Dan 9:24-27, Ps 90:10, Mat 24:32, Mark 13:28, and Luke 21:29-32, and follow where it goes. Also, since Jesus followed the Feasts of the Lord according to the religious calendar, I also will consider the start of the Hebrew year from the first of Nisan in the spring.

Dan 9:24-26 [NKJV]
24 "Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
25
"Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
26
"And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
27
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate."

It was on May 14, 445 BC that Nehemiah was given the order by Artaxerxes to go and rebuild the streets and walls of Jerusalem. This date has been thoroughly established by archeologists, historians, artifacts and documents. Some very good essays on this can be found in the writings of Chuck Missler, Grant Jeffery, Guy Cramer, David Reagan, and many others. http://xwalk.ca/ is also an excellent site to visit. You can read several essays there as X94, X87, X23. There are other good sites as well.

In Dan 9:25 God states that there will be 69 weeks of years, the Messiah will be revealed and after is cut off, that is killed. Grant Jeffery in the article X94, clearly proves that the 360 day prophetic year was in use for a long time. That does not mean the earth revolved about the sun in 360 days. The number 360 was used as a means of easy counting over many centuries. It simplified study of lengths of time. They counted days, not years, because the earth has for a long time taken 365.24219879 days to go almost exactly once around the sun. Referring to a calendar was not useful as calendars changed from empire to empire, century to century, and adjustments to the dates because no calender has ever had a certain celebration as spring to always stay on the same date, because of the decimal part in the time of one revolution in the earth's orbit. That is why we have leap years today, to make a small adjustment for the time of the earth's orbit.

The accuracy of Daniel's prophecies are amazing. They demonstrate the Bible is the book to read and follow. The 69 weeks of prophecy is a perfect example.

Calculating the 69 weeks of years from the decree of Artaxerxes is done this way; 69 weeks x 7 years per week x 360 days per prophetic year yields 173,880 days. Counting those days from March 14, 445 BC, lands on Palm Sunday, April 6, 32AD, EXACTLY. I had seen this before, so I double checked using the US Naval Observatory (USNO), a very good site to use their Julian Date calendar calculator. I also got Sunday, April 6, 32AD.

The Julian Date Calendar is used in Astronomy exclusively, so there is never any confusion caused by historical calendars. The Julian Date calendar started on January 1, 4713 BC. Unfortunately some of the online Julian Date calculators have errors in their design, giving answers that are not correct. The data bases need to include that there is no year 0, that there is a 10 day loss in October 1582 due to adjusting the Gregorian calendar due to date drift, and that every 4 years there is a leap year. There was another change in 1752 to align the calendar that was used in England to the Gregorian calendar used outside of England. It can get very confusing when you really get into it.

Furthermore, there is no leap year in century years that cannot be divided by 400 and get a whole number. For example 1600 AD is divisible by 400 and therefore is a leap year, but year 1700 cannot be divided to get whole number so it is not a leap year. So if you want to check any site if it is good, you need to do some testing. The USNO Julian Date site is; http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.php. This is a site which is accurate. There is another site given later in this essay.

When Jesus was asked about when all these future events will happen He said;

Matthew 24:32-34 (NKJV)
The Parable of the Fig Tree
32 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.
33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near-at the doors!
34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.

Two of the keys is to notice that the generation that sees all those things take place since Israel budded and came to life, will not have passed away.

So now what is the time for this generation? We now go to Psalm 90:10.

Psalm 90:10 (NKJV)
10 The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Israel came to life May 14, 1948. Jesus said all these events must happen within the lifetime of the people (generation), alive from May 14, 1948, to the end of the tribulation. Since Matthew 24 is a prophecy, then I am using the length of the prophetic year in the calculation. A rough observation would show that 70 years is too short from 1948, because we would already be in the middle of the tribulation. So I will go with the maximum time of 80 prophetic years, as in Ps 90:10; 80 years x 360 days = 28,800 days.

Here is an additional Julian Date site to use for modern day calculations. It is called Online Conversion at http://www.onlineconversion.com/julian_date.htm

Calculating the date from May 14, 1948 going forward 28,800 days;
 
Enter the year 1948, May 14. For hr, min, and sec, put in 0.
Calculate. The Julian Date is 2432685.5
Add 28,800 days to that JD, to get 2461485.5. Enter this new JD date.
Calculate. You will get Sunday, March 21, 2027.

THAT WOULD BE THE END OF THE TRIBULATION!!! Jesus said that all these things will happen in the generation that sees the fig tree leaf.

Since it is stated in the Bible that the time of Jacob's Trouble is 7 years, that would be 7 x 360 days to get 2520 days for the tribulation, this gives a hint when the tribulation starts.

Calculating back from March 21, 2027,
Subtract 2520 days from the Julian 2458965.5 Enter this new JD
Calculate. You will get Sunday, April 26, 2020.

THAT WOULD BE THE START OF THE TRIBULATION!!!

Now you can see why I gave the title, "We Have Little Time Left". By leaving out all I could for any personal bias on when I thought things would happen, focusing only on what is said in the Bible, I thought I might get closer to the truth. What if I am wrong? We all have been wrong on something before, but at least we are watching! Jesus said WATCH!

In an earlier post in 2018 I wrote about the Torah verse numbers linking to major years and events in the life of Israel. It was found by the rabbis long ago, that the verse numbers in the Torah starting at Genesis 1:1 to the end of Deuteronomy matched the Hebrew years, for MAJOR events in the history of Israel. Note that the Torah has no chapter divisions from Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy.

May 14, 1948 is the year that Israel came into existence again. 1948 AD is the Hebrew year 5708 which in the Torah is verse 5708 which is Deut 30:5.

Deuteronomy 30:5 (NKJV)
5 Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

The population of Israel today is far larger than 2000 to 3000 years ago.

The 6 day war was in June 1967. 1967 AD is the Hebrew year 5727. The Torah number 5727, is Deut 31:3.

Deut 31:3; The Lord your God Himself crosses over before you; He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua himself crosses over before you, just as the Lord has said.

That is exactly what happened. They expanded their territory and they took Jerusalem.

Moving ahead to 2018, the start of the religious year in the spring at Nisan 1, the Hebrew year is 5779. Deuteronomy 32:20 says this;

Deuteronomy 32:20 (NKJV)
20 And He said: 'I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be,
For they are a perverse generation,
Children in whom is no faith.

This now takes us to spring 2019, Nisan 1, Hebrew year 5780 and Deut 31:21

Deuteronomy 32:21 (NKJV)
21 They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;
They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols.
But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;
I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.

It is interesting that such a verse states that the Jews are angered and jealous at a nation that is not a nation. It is noteworthy the old Orthodox rabbis since the resurrection, and the modern day Orthodox rabbis, still refer to the Christians as a foolish nation! That can only refer to the raptured Christians, Messianic Jews who have accepted Jesus, who are to be taken off the earth to Heaven, while the Jewish non Christians are left behind.

Long ago, God hardened their hearts because of their rejection of Jesus. When the tribulation starts, that will change upon the rapture, on the start of Jacob's Trouble.

There are estimates, with large spreads, that suggest there are anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 Christian Jews in Israel. They have a hard time of it there because of rejection. I see massive irony here. In the Exodus, at Passover, God passed over the Hebrews that had their door posts and lintels splashed with blood. God also passed over the Egyptians who began to follow the Hebrews, because they also splashed blood on their door posts and the lintels. They also were spared the loss of their first born. It was all the other Egyptians who had all their first born of the family die, and the first born of the animals as well.

In the rapture, the Christians who are not Jews, and the Messianic Jews will be raptured while the rest of the Jews will be left behind. That would be a different PASS OVER because now the regular Jews are left behind by being PASSED OVER!! A strange twist of wording and implication.

That will have a very big effect upon Israel at the time it happens. Outside of Israel around the world, there will be great moaning from those ordinary Christians who did not pay attention to the events around them missing the rapture, while non Christians world wide will be celebrating, thinking they are now free of restraint.

Looking at Deut 32:22

Deuteronomy 32:22 (NKJV)
22 For a fire is kindled in My anger,
And shall burn to the lowest hell;
It shall consume the earth with her increase,
And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

It looks like a nightmare has descended upon the world. Crops are burned so that starts the world wide famine. The base of mountains are set on fire, which indicates massive volcanic activity world wide. That will cool the climate creating cold temperatures for years, making agriculture very hard to do, increasing the famine world wide.

So here we are with Deut 32:21 from the spring of 2019 to the spring of 2020. I take the stand that the rapture has to happen before the tribulation starts. If the dates are correct and the tribulation starts in April 2020 then the rapture will have to be before Sunday, April 26, 2020, and who knows, maybe sometime before that date in 2020, or in 2019.

There is no Biblical evidence pointing to any month, date, or day for the rapture to happen. It only points to the span of time from the spring of 2019 to the spring of 2020. It is also still possible we all have not noticed something we have missed so far.

As I said, we have little time left.

Keep looking and praying.
God bless.