What in the World is Going On?: Time Tables

The Religious Calendar
The basis for understanding prophecy & God’s Time Table

I can't help but feel extremely sad (as well as frustrated) to know how little the masses know about prophecy. The reason, as I've been trying to build the case for you, is that MAN has continued to try and make up the rules. When God gave us the law he provided a provision for its completion through Jesus. But, because man got involved, various religions developed over time which destorted what God had originally given.

If you haven't already figured this out... I would probably be Jewish. But since I get the whole Jesus deal... I'm a Christian. However, in terms of understanding prophecy you need to come to grips with the fact that the Jews are the chosen people. The gentiles are "grafted in" to his plan and thus you need to think of things from a Jewish perspective if you are to ever understand end times events.

One thing you must learn is that the dates, times and appointments God has provided for us in the Bible are based on the Jewish calendar. If you fail to get a grasp on this calendar, you will never understand prophecy. Whenever you study prophecy, try to think of things from a Jewish perspective.

Did you know that the Jews use a different calendar than the rest of us? They use the calendar that God himself gave to man.

From the beginning of recorded history, the calendar has been used to keep records and predict the time for the changing of the seasons. The calendar provided a framework in which man could plan his work. It was an effective timetable for marking various religious festivals that were to be celebrated at regular intervals.

The "Day"

The Bible's timetable, and thus the festival days, are confusing at first since the calendar has been changed multiple times. The Hebrew calendar is determined by the moon's position (the "new moon" of scripture), while the current Gregorian calendar is based on the movements of the sun. Unfortunately, this confusion has made predicting the date of Christ's return impossible. We cannot know the year of Christ's future appointments but we can know the days and the season. In fact, those who know scripture will understand when the season is... even when it is 'at the door'. The Bible also states that if you are one of light (believer) the day will not overtake you like a thief in the night as it will to those in darkness (unbelievers). In fact, we CAN know the days of prophetic events but we do not know the year ....yet!

God originally designated Nisan (Abib) as the first month of the year. Later, God made Tishri 1 the Jewish "New Years Day". This was in preparation for the fall feasts yet to be fulfilled. It's also important to know how the "day" differs:

Prophecy is still based on the biblical months, so an understanding of that calendar is a must. The 12 thirty day months you should become familiar with are given below. You may want to purchase a Jewish calendar which allows you to follow these months along with our current calendar. For example, the year 2009 on the Jewish calendar says 5769. Unfortunately Jews in the past only counted years that had favorable kings or rulers... go figure! You can begin to see why the margin of error results in a problem with date setting. The accurate current year is somewhere between 5985 and 5999. Review the months below:

• Month 1 Nisan (Abib) March-Ap
• Month 2 Zif April-May
• Month 3 Sivan May-June
• Month 4 Tammuz June-July
• Month 5 Ab (Av) July-August
• Month 6 Elul August-September
• Month 7 Tishri September-October
• Month 8 Bul October-Nov
• Month 9 Chisleu Nov-Dec
• Month 10 Tebeth Dec-January
• Month 11 Sebut January-February
• Month 12 Adar February-March

To further complicate things, God changed the 1st month of the year to Tishri later in the Bible, so simply start with that month and proceed forward to understand the new sequence. This was changed to prepare for the coming fall festivals which are to be fulfilled in the near future. Everything God does has a purpose, even though we might not understand it.

6000 Year Plan of God

God is really incredible! Everything he has designed has purpose. For yesterday, today, and for the future. Time as we know it has been stretched out, but we don't need to get bogged down with the techical aspects of quantum physics again!

God created the earth in 6 days. It is not important for us to know how he measured the day. "A day is as a thousand days with the Lord, and a thousand years as one day". Whether the day was 24 hrs or a billion years is not important. The period of 6 is.

The world was Created in 6 Days, on the 7th Day God called for Rest

Remember, EVERYTHING God does has purpose (past, now, future). This creation plan is a shadow of things to come. It is a picture of His overall BIG plan. He intends on giving man 6000 years to "try and figure it out" but eventually realize "without God, nothing works right". His plan then includes His return to get us back on track. The 7th day represents his plan of 1000 years of rest under His rule and reign back on earth. So, in short, his 6 Day Creation plan is a mirror of his 6000 year world plan.

Now, if we get back to the calendar... we are approaching the Jewish 6000th year. Do you see the significance of this? God is not slack with his appointments with man. On the 6000th year of human history in His plan, God will begin to complete his overall time table.

Back to the Festivals. Don't Freak Out... I know this may be a bit confusing!

The first 4 festivals (or appointments with man, if you will) were fulfilled at Christ's first coming. There was then scheduled a 2000 year period (The age of Grace, or the "church age") and then the clock will resume ticking, and the last 3 feasts will be fulfilled. This age of Grace was a time for the gentiles to really excel and prosper through God's plan of grace. At the end of this period things will return to a Jewish perspective. Keep in mind, this does NOT mean we are returning to the law. We are not condemed by the law but freed by Christ's fulfilling it. Nevertheless, the Jewish Festivals will become "Believer Festivals" and they will have significance in the new millenium after Christ's second coming.

The Jewish (or biblical) calendar is composed of 12 months of 30 days each for a total of 360 days per year. There was also an extra month in the 7th year to allow for a correction due to the sun's rotation. This is why man changed the calendar on more than one occasion to reflect a 365 day year. While this has been beneficial for man, it has provided a great deal of confusion among those who study prophecy. Both calendars are extremely accurate. One is religious. One is secular.

This makes it impossible to know the current biblical year we are in! It also means we cannot know the YEAR these events will begin (that is until Tishri 1, 6000 is here!). At that point, God gives us the exact number of days until His return! We'll be covering these things in detail if you feel a bit lost.

You recall me mentioning I believe we are beginning to enter the period of the loss of prosperity. This is a prelude to the Tribulation period. There will be a 7 year period of trials and tribulation for mankind. It is divided into two parts. Each 3 1/2 years long. This is also referred to in the Bible as "Daniel's 70th week". Here again, the word week is referring to a figure of seven. There are 69 sevens, and a final 70th seven. Sixty nine weeks of years, and a final 70th week of years (or 7 years). DON'T FREAK ON ME YET! I will be covering all this stuff later.

Dan 12:11 11 "From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. (NIV)

In biblical years, 2009 would actually be 6009. However, as we mentioned above, we don't know the exact year and we may be off as much as 15 years. After studying this for about 35 years, it is MY OPINION that the seven year period we are talking of should occur before 2017 if you consider all possible errors in our calendar. The start of that period would be no later than 2010. Regardless if I am accurate or not, it is indeed still very, very close!

Example Calendar: Here is a sample of a calendar in Year 2001. Not all of the Jewish events are listed on it, but you can see how the dates of November and December correlate to the Religious calendar of Kislev. Also note that all months have 30 days. This is essential to understanding Biblical prophecy.

Once we have been able to obtain information on the Jewish festivals, we see (as did all believers in the 1st century) that God kept His promise. He said these festivals were holy. He also said they were rehearsals of His appointments with man. Jesus was sent to fulfill those appointments. And Jesus did so, down to the exact minute. However, no human could be born, live a life, and die on the exact dates (down to the minute) as the Festivals predicted without supernatural direction and advance knowledge of time. Jesus was God in the flesh.

The Jewish day begins and ends at sundown. Thus, all holidays begin at sundown of the day preceding the date shown and end at sundown of the (last) day shown.

Since the Jewish calendar begins with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish year always straddles two years from the civil calendar. In other words, spring holidays (such as Pesach and Shavuot) occur in the civil year following Rosh Hashanah.

An additional note: not all Jews observe two days for holidays shown as lasting two days.

If you recall... only the first festivals have been fulfilled. Here is a sample of Festival Dates for different years. My point in showing you this is so that you understand, we know ALL the dates of past festivals, and we know ALL the dates of future festivals.