Dear John -

As you know, I've offered a number of conjectures based on the idea that Daniel's final seven years will end on Shemini Atzeret which is the 22nd day of Tishri and lands on October 12, 2028.

There are several ways to "back up seven years" to determine when this final seven years must begin.  Most of the possible initial dates have passed; one has not.  That date is this coming Thursday, October 28th.  The reasoning is that seven years would start and end on the same day, in this case Tishri 22, and that a necessary Adar II was neglected this past spring.  If "the barley is aviv" is a Hebrew idiom for "Spica is visible above the ecliptic" then the beginning of Nisan is determined by the stars, and NOT by the literal barley fields in Judea.  I believe this is the case.

God gave the sun, moon and stars for determining day and months and seasons ... AND His feast days.  There's no mention of grain or ripeness or barley fields or Judea in Genesis 1:14.  God brought the Jews back to His calendar in Exodus 12:2 which was long before the Jews ever got into the Promised Land.  If the new year began with an examination of literal barley, what did they do in the wilderness?  I believe they looked at the sky in the springtime, observed Spica in Virgo's hand, and they all knew that "the barley is ripe", that is, that the vernal equinox would occur within 10 days of the new moon.  The folks who do HebCal.com apparently have other ideas.

My previous calculations were based on day-counts, with 1,260 days in the first 3 1/2 years and 1,290 days (includes a leap month) in the second.  Backing up 2,550 days from Tishri 22 in 2028 lands on this coming Tuesday, October 19th as the first day, the day the covenant would be confirmed.  I now think this is extremely unlikely, as it appears to me that the rapture would have to be several days to a week before the confirmation event takes place.  (I hope I'm wrong and we leave on or before Tuesday.)

However, backing up from Tishri 22 in 2028 to Tishri 22 of this year on a corrected calendar lands on October 28, and I'd suggest a rapture a week earlier.  One reason is because it's "as it was in the days of Noah" and the pattern there seemed to be the closing of the door (rapture) a week before judgment fell.

So we'll see.  This would give a final 'week" consisting of 2,541 days, and the "Day of Blessing" on June 24, 2025, two days from the end of the third month and three weeks after Shavuot.

If we're still here in November, I'm out of conjectures.  It will really be "any day now."

We'll see. 

Best,

Steve