Might your position change in another 3 months?

The starting point of the 3430 years is the commencement of Israel’s possession of the Promised Land when Israel first began the counting of the Jubilees. Israel was directed to reckon their Jubilees from the time they entered the Promised Land:



According to scripture this first Jubilee cycle began forty years after the Hebrew’s Exodus from Egypt. When they crossed over the Jordan and first took possession of their promised inheritance the counting of the Jubilees began. In Daniel 9 the Jubilee is fulfilled at the time that God’s people, Jews and gentiles, are liberated from sin.

Several evangelical pastors are saying that this fall marks the start of the final Jubilee. If they are correct then by Daniel 9 that would place the start of the first Jubilee cycle when Israel entered the Promised Land at 1416 BC. ((2015 – 3430 + (- 1) = 1416 BC). An additional year is inserted because there is no zero year between BC and AD.) Does that agree with bible chronology? New studies on Old Testament chronology show it to be a very precise fit.

The prophecy of Ezekiel 4 is familiar to some bible students because it is one of only two places in scripture that give us the prophetic day-for-year principle. But in it’s own right Ezekiel 4 is much more important than we’ve realized: It holds a key to a complete and accurate chronology of sacred history. For centuries bible students and scholars have attempted to establish the chronology of the Old Testament but until now the period of the kings has thwarted all attempts to establish dates with a high degree of certainty earlier than the 8th century BC mainly due to co-regency data that is vague and hard to pinpoint and interpret. Ezekiel’s acted prophecy solves the riddle.

God sent a special warning to Judah and Jerusalem through Ezekiel. The prophecy of Ezekiel 4 was given in 592 BC, 13 years after the first exile of captives to Babylon in 605 BC. and three years before the final siege of Jerusalem which began in 589 and ended in 586 BC with the destruction of the city and Solomon’s temple.1 Ezekiel was told to illustrate the final siege and destruction of Jerusalem by making a model of the city on a clay tablet and laying siege to it for 430 days with each day representing a year - 390 days for the sin of Israel and an additional 40 days for the sin of Judah, a total of 430 years.

Significantly there are 70 Sabbatical years in the 430 year total given in Ezekiel 4, the same number that the scriptures say went unobserved which lead to the captivity of the Jews. II Chor. 36:22, Jer. 25:9-12, 29:10, Daniel 9:2. The question is which years are covered? Given that the vision of Ezekiel 4 is an acted warning of the impending destruction of the city and temple in 586 BC, this is the date for the ending point of that period. If we go back 430 years for the sins of Judah and Israel we come to 1016 BC, the first year of David’s reign.

How can we be confident that 1016 BC marks the start of David’s reign? In I Kings 1 and 2 it tells us that David and Solomon were co-regents for a period of time because, at Queen Bethsheba's request, who was the mother of Solomon, King David proclaimed Solomon king sometime before his death. We can estimate this period at about four years because David solemnly charged Solomon to build the house of God after his death (See I Kings 1 and 2 and I Chor 28 and 29, especially 29:22) and Solomon acted on that charge in the fourth year of his reign when the work on the temple was begun. I Kings 6:1. Since David’s death occurred in or very near to the fourth year of Solomon’s reign we can place the start of construction of the temple at 976 BC. And since, according to I Kings 6:1, the Exodus occurred 480 years earlier, we can place the Exodus at 1456 BC (976 BC plus 480 years) with a high degree of confidence. I'll post the rest tomorrow. In the mean time what do you all think so far?

APL, that the Jubilee is a Sabbatical is clear from the law of the Jubilee. The land was to rest on the Jubilee in the same way it did on the Sabbatical. See Lev. 25.

Sure. It is easy. Just look up "jubilee" in any Bible concordance and find all 19 references to the same (in the KJV) and look at them. They are clear.

For example:



It is clear that the jubilee is the FIFTIETH YEAR (not the 49th). It is also clear that the land was to rest in that year, just as in the sabbatical year before it which was the 49th year.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Your Jubilees will be offset by 40 years if you interpret Ezekiel 4 as you have above. Mark, I would greatly encourage you to study the thread in the "New Light" section here which was begun on this prophecy some years ago already. You will find that the prophecy in Ezekiel 4 is a twin prophecy. There are two times given, and both lead to a destruction of the temple. Twice the temple was destroyed, but their destructions are not a mere 40 years apart in time, as you know. Look again carefully at the prophecy and its interpretation in that thread.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

I'm in good company. Admitting when we're wrong is an essential characteristic of God's people. I don't think I'll be changing my view on this but it would be a personal tragedy to be to be shown I'm wrong again and not admit it. With my Slav etc heredity making a god of my own opinion comes naturally. It's my job to fight the good fight to stay subjected to the Lord and teachable.

I do not see how anyone believing the Bible could accept such a system. It seems like a Pharisaical rule to me. It would mean that the land was returned to an individual no more than 49 years after it was sold, instead of 50 as the Bible says. It is simply not possible to have your cake and eat it too. The Bible says 50. It means what it says. God Himself, who gave the system, said that the reckoning for the next Jubilee started AFTER the Jubilee year. See Leviticus 25:15 where God speaks of the years numbered "after the jubilee." The Bible does not say that the reckoning started AT or DURING the year of Jubilee.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

The above tells us that at the start of the Jubilee, Jesus will come. But, there are three different possibilities on the time of this Jubilee.

1) A millennial Jubilee (start of seventh thousand-year period)
2) A heavenly Jubilee (see quote below)
3) An earthly Jubilee (based on Levitical system)



Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

NO - you have not proven that the year of Jubilee was counted as a Sabbathical year. It had similarities to the Sabbatical year, such as land rest, but there was more.

Ellen White did not consider it a Sabbatical year. As in the sabbatical year, the land was not to be sown nor reaped, and all that it produced was to be regarded as the rightful property of the poor. Certain classes of Hebrew slaves--all who did not receive their liberty in the sabbatical year -- were now set free. {RH, September 17, 1889 par. 15}

Other Adventist Pioneers interpreted the Jubilee a 49 year cycle. The Year of Jubilee corresponded to the end of the preceding cycle and the start of the next cycle. The Jubilee being the 50th year of the cycle and the first year of the next.

Consider what William Miller wrote about the types of Sabbaths (hm - different types of Sabbaths as there were also different types of priesthoods, but I digress):
1st. Is the seventh-day sabbath. Exodus 31:13-17. {1842 WiM, LTSGJ 28.1}
2nd. Is the fiftieth-day sabbath. Leviticus 23:15-16. {1842 WiM, LTSGJ 28.2}
3rd. Is the seventh week sabbath. Deuteronomy 16:9-10. {1842 WiM, LTSGJ 28.3}
4th. Is the seventh month sabbath. Leviticus 23:24-25. {1842 WiM, LTSGJ 28.4}
5th. Is the seventh year sabbath. Leviticus 25:3-5. {1842 WiM, LTSGJ 28.5}
6th. Is the year fiftieth, or jubilee. Leviticus 25:8-13. {1842 WiM, LTSGJ 28.6}
7th. Is the fiftieth jubilee, and may be called the antitype of all other sabbaths. This will take no less than forty-nine times fifty years, which is 2450 years, to bring us to the great Jubilee, of which all others are but the shadows or types. The next question which remains to be settled, is, to know when this time began. {1842 WiM, LTSGJ 28.7}



Hm - 49 time 50 = 2450. According to Green, Miller should have calculated 50 time 50.

Green - do not see how anyone believing the Bible could accept such a system.

Well - there one.

Green - It would mean that the land was returned to an individual no more than 49 years after it was sold, instead of 50 as the Bible says.

No, the Bible says after the Jubilee. Leviticus 25:15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you.

Fifty is not menitoned in Leviticus 25:15. Only after the Jubilee. The Jubilee is the 50th year of the cycle.

You see, people write books as if it is gospel truth only to find nope, wrong again. It is hard to pinpoint when the Jubilee exactly was as you have proven already. And, we just this data for what? Predicting the end of the world? We have enough evidence already. AND we had a prophecy which will mark the close of probation, Daniel 11:45. Have you figured THAT into your calculations? If not, why not?