ATP said:
As we all know, Jubilee is every 50 years. So, who here thinks 2058 will begin the Great Tribulation.
The great tribulation, as interpreted by John Nelson Darby and his followers (like Cyrus Scofield and Hal Lindsey) is not going to happen according to their well known script. Almighty God has apparently not consulted with either of these men with regard to the fulfillment of His plan for the redemption of man. Proof of this is in frequent updates and rewrites of the literature of each of the gentlemen in question. If they were right in the first place, why do they have to keep revising their publications?
Darby's interpretation did not exist prior to the 1850's. At the time it was an attempt to organize history into dispensations of secular history. It was called Dispensationalism and was a fair treatment until it went too far by attempting to clarify the Millennialist debate. The historic record since that time has resolved most of the differences in opinion regarding ancient interpretations of the thousand year reign of Christ. Most of them were wrong as were Darby's theories and fantasies. Most of it has already been proven wrong - the rest will follow shortly.
The attempt to calculate the length and severity of the End Times in the minds of most Protestant believers is based upon Darby's misconception and as a result are terribly inaccurate as well as flagrantly heretical. Reference to the Year of Jubilee should be sought in the book of Leviticus, not bogus interpretations of the prophecies of Daniel & Revelations as is popular with Hal Lindsey and those like him. (Lindsey's own interpretations have required updates since his first book release in the 1970's. This fact alone ought to give the reader pause to consider that his ideas are at least somewhat questionable. For example, if Lindsay really did believe his original statement that a massive earthquake would destroy most of southern California, then why did he build a house on the San Andreas fault line? He apparently doesn't believe his own rubbish.)
The book of Leviticus, written by Moses, is a list of Hebrew laws and their applications. One of the most misquoted of them are the laws of the Shemitah (pronounced schmee-ta with accent on the first syllable).(1) A recent book published by Jonathan Cahn, author of The Harbinger, provides a somewhat useful introduction to the problem with calculations and observations of shemitah and the subsequent Year of Jubilee. The bottom line of my argument here is that the base line calculations for weeks of years ending with a shemitah year and culminating after seven shemitah's with the Year of Jubilee were forgotten.
Read Leviticus. Moses said that if the Hebrews failed to observe the shemitah and Jubilee years, they would be punished for a length of time equal to the sabbath they did not give to the land. History and the Biblical record state that the Hebrews never observed the sabbath year or the Year of Jubilee, therefore one of God's reasons for banishing them to Babylon was to force rest upon the land at the expense of the Hebrews who denied it. The feast of shemitah's and Jubilee years was never held or calculated and as a result the original Mosaic base day/hour/year was forgotten. By the time of the prophet Daniel, no one knew when these festivals were to be held because everyone had forgotten when to begin the calculations. Daniel even makes a passing reference to it when he speaks of a missing week of years. That week has been misinterpreted to suggest a tribulation period of seven years. The statement by Daniel was a reference to the past neglect of shemitah and its impact on Divine consequences.
By the time of Jesus, the fact of the lost base line of the calculations for shemitah and Jubilee were well known. When Jesus was asked when He would return He gave a cryptic answer. He said that no man would know the day or the hour. It was a reference to the lost calculation of the shemitah and Jubilee. No one would be able to calculate it because the baseline for the calculation had been lost even in Daniel's time.
Jesus statement, therefore was a mathematical one, not a philosophical one. His answer was also curious because He linked it to the Jubilee even though He admitted it couldn't be calculated. He didn't deny it would happen during Jubilee or shemitah, but He did say it couldn't be calculated. Despite His statement of mathematical fact, people have been trying to calculate it ever since. They have failed every time.
Since no one can calculate the shemitah or Jubilee, we must rely on Jesus' advice to watch the seasons. What have we been seeing in the seasons of prophecy?
My basis for considering prophetic interpretations is that all of them center on the nation state of Israel. The real one, not some interpretation that places UK & USA in the focus of events. The Israel with a flag, an army and flesh and blood citizens - not spiritual Israel. You get into all sorts of error when you go that way.
In 1917/1918 the Great War in Europe ended, not with a military victory as our politicians would have us believe, but as a result of a massive killer epidemic that struck Europe and to a lesser extent America. The conflict ended with a mutual agreement to cease hostilities, not a surrender. It was called an Armistice and the cause of it was a deadly outbreak of influenza. The Balfour Declaration was also issued at that time even though the allies did not live up to their promise to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. The period was a horrendous time in history, but not as bad as the one fifty years later; 1967-1968.
Google 1967-1968. There was a paradigm shift in the culture and politics of all nations. The French government completely collapsed. Assassinations were common, the worst of them in America with the deaths of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. In Israel, the IDF seized the city of Jerusalem. It was the first time in 2,000 years that the city was under Jewish administration. To paraphrase a NY Times reporter, 1967-1968 was one ***damn thing after another. Demonic possession was accepted as a theme for popular literature and movies as well as faux spiritual philosophy expressed in musicals such as HAIR. The fortunes of organized Christianity began to fail with the rejection of the last Holy Spirit inspired national revival. The United States experienced a turning point in its war in SouthEast Asia. A lot of nasty stuff happened. Google 1968.
Fifty years on we reach 2017-2018. I'll leave the implications of that year to history, but expectations of 2015 being a major turning point aren't off the target either.
Many major world leaders, such as Vladimir Putin, believe 2015 will be a pivotal year. It will not, however, be the Jubilee often predicted. The autumn of 2015 may yield many major financial reverses across the globe.
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The SDR/XDR currency basket may be revised to include China's Yuan/Renminbi currency - replacing the USD as major global reserve currency. This may be a bad sign for US trade abroad leading to shortages of all sorts of goods in America (as well as food). Revisions to SDR/XDR policy are accomplished every 5 years. The next revision is due in October 2015.
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The BDIY index (Baltic Dry Index) has been flat lined since January 2015. This index is a direct reflection of numbers of ships (dry bulk type, not oilers) available for transport of goods across the ocean. The index is one of the most reliable indicators known for predicting periods of financial boom or bust. Google the boom in ship scrapping industry, especially in India. Consider the implications. Fewer ships = less dry goods transported = shortages. As of this writing it indicates a massive bust within the next 6 to 12 months.
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The US Federal Reserve is considering raising the Prime Interest Rate for all loans in America by at least one percentage point. The action may result in a massive inflationary period. Despite warnings by the IMF, the Fed will issue its decision in September or October of 2015. Pay off all revolving credit and hoard food and money in a secure location other than a bank.
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Rise in cost of fossil fuels continues. Despite the US status now as a major producer of fossil fuels due to new open fields in North Dakota and West Texas, the price at the pump and for propane has increased steadily (due no doubt to taxes rather than actual fuel cost - but it rises nonetheless). Private transport vehicles should be traded for models that have better gas mileage such as hybrids.
There are other factors which make the autumn of 2015 a pivotal year, but it will not be the Jubilee year. I leave the calculation of days and weeks and hours to those who are more adventurous than myself.
and that's me, hollering from the choir loft...
(1) Seven days is a week of days, culminating with a sabbath day of rest in which no work was to be done. A week of years would culminate in a sabbath year or shemitah year in which the land would not be cultivated and many legal and social arrangement would return to previous status. Seven shemitah years would culminate in a 50th year or Year of Jubilee in which many drastic changes were required of the Jews by Mosaic law. The changes were so drastic and wide ranging that the Jews never observed the feast.