Jerusalem is the center of Jewish thought and religion. Its development over the years—culturally, socially, archaeologically—is a marvel to behold. More importantly, it is the city in which Messiah walked and taught during His visitation to earth, and it remains the central focus of prophecy and final events.

After many centuries of Jewish struggle with no place to call home since the dispersion in 70 A.D., in May, 1948, Israel became a nation once again.  However, for nineteen years, from 1948 to 1967, Jerusalem was a divided city.  East Jerusalem , including the Old City, had been occupied by the Arab Legion of Jordan since the War of Independence. The Jordanian troops had decimated the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, blowing up its synagogues and destroying every vestige of Jewish life there. Jewish gravestones on the Mount of Olives had been used to pave roads and build latrines.  Although they promised access to the Western Wall, Jordan had not allowed any Jews to pray at this remnant of the wall that had once surrounded the ancient Temple. Western Jerusalem, on the other hand, was controlled by Israel and had greatly expanded during this period.  Barbed wire, minefields, and concrete walls protecting Jews from Jordanian snipers cut through the heart of Jerusalem from north to south.

The Six-Day War would end all of that, reuniting the Holy City once again.  On June 5, 1967, the Six-Day War began, and through God’s miraculous intervention, by the end of the third day on June 7, 1967, the Western Wall was recaptured.  Israeli troops stood gazing at the Western Wall, wondering if they should dance, pray, or cry.  They did all three!

The Jerusalem Post headline on June 6, 1967, during the Six-Day War read, AIR FORCE WINS SUPREMACY AS ARMY DRIVES EGYPTIANS BACK INTO SINAI AND GAZA.  There is no doubt the Holy One of Israel intervened to push back the powerful Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian forces. Israel’s victory was extremely devastating to the Arabs, who expected victory.  In six days the Arab forces lost almost their entire air forces and much of their armed weaponry.  In all, 11,000 Egyptians were killed, Jordan lost about 6,000, and Syria lost about 1,000. Israel, on the other hand, lost only about 700 fighters.

Although Jerusalem with her holy sites was the central prize, Israel also captured in those six miraculous days of 1967 the Golan Heights, Sinai, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.  The ancient towns of Shechem, Shiloh, Bethel, Bethlehem, and Hebron were now within Israel’s borders.  By June 11, 1967, the Jerusalem Post headline read—200,000 AT WESTERN WALL IN FIRST PILGRIMAGE SINCE DISPERSION.   

In 1967, the fortunes of Jerusalem were restored as prophesied by the prophet Joel.  He wrote, “In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning My inheritance, My people Israel, for they scattered My people among the nations and divided up My land,” (Joel 3:1-2).  The first part of Joel’s prediction became reality during the Six-Day War, when Elohim restored many cities and holy sites in Jerusalem to the Jews. The once divided city was reunited, and the Western Wall was once again under Jewish control.  Forty years later, the gathering of all nations is gaining momentum, when the magnificent work of God will be displayed with speed and finality.

Almighty God designed His final work on Planet Earth to include divine dates of disaster and deliverance, connected in time and place to His annual Festivals.  The Appointed Times & Seasons Calendar shows this correlation in very clear lines. 

Silently and mysteriously since 1967, prophetic time has been on the march.  The world is headed unknowingly and recklessly towards the last great conflict of the ages between the forces of good and evil.  We find ourselves on the doorstep of God’s Appointed Times & Seasons Calendar.  It is time to wake up from our lethargy and into the reality of the day!  

In the last days, Jerusalem will endure turmoil, tragedy and destruction.  The area surrounding Jerusalem’s Temple Mount will be under the control of Gentile armies for a period of 42 months (1,260 days—Revelation 11:1-2; Point 9).  As Balak and Balaam had temporary control over Israel’s fate by 42 sacrifices (Numbers, chapter 22-24), likewise, Satan and Antichrist will gain transitory control over Israel through 42 sacrificial months.

We are advised to study Jerusalem’s final time prophecy related to the three and one-half years. “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem [Point 13] until the anointed one, the ruler [Elijah], comes [Point 16], there will be seven ‘sevens’ [49 days], and sixty-two ‘sevens’ [434 days].  It [ Jerusalem ] will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in [the appointed] times of trouble,” (Daniel 9:25). 

Almighty God has revealed His omniscient power time and again by predicting future rulers, decrees and dates.  Only the Holy One of Israel could have designed the numbered days thousands of years in advance, and set into motion His redemptive plan.  The Appointed Times & Seasons Calendar, illuminating God’s remarkable alignment of timelines and God’s Festival dates, proves that we are nearing final events.  The great prophet Isaiah was instructed to go and warn stubborn Israel, “Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed,” (Isaiah 6:9-10).  This warning applies today to Jew and Gentile alike.  May YHVH open our eyes and minds to the lessons of history, which are examples of things to come!

The 70 Week prophecy represents God’s last days of mercy towards Israel and the city of Jerusalem.  Yeshua warned the generation of His day, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!… you say, If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets… Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town… O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.  Look, your house is left to you desolate.  For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD,” (Matthew 23:29-39).  Within 40 years, Jerusalem was ransacked and burned, and the Jews scattered across the globe.

During the many centuries that followed in the Diaspora, Jews had no country to call their own; nevertheless, Hashem heard their many cries.  “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD; The LORD looked down from His sanctuary on high, from Heaven He viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death,” (Psalms 102:19-20).  El Shaddai heard the cries of Jacob from Hitler’s prisons and gas chambers, and out of the holocaust He gave birth to the final generation.

Seven is the number of perfection and completion, and themes of sevens are found throughout the Scriptures.  Peter asked Jesus (Matthew 18:21), “how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”  The Messiah enlarged Peter’s thinking when He responded that the brethren be forgiven “seventy times seven” [490 times] (Matthew 18:22, KJV).  Jesus likely had the “seventy ‘sevens’ [490 days]” prophecy of Daniel 9:24 -27 in mind.  During the last 490 days of Israel’s history as a nation, God’s mercy will continue day after day even while Judaism is compromising with Antichrist and his spurious religion.  For many years, the Vatican has called for Jerusalem to become a “corpus separatum,” or “internationalized city,” open to people of all faiths, in order to remove it as a political capital for any nation.  One day Antichrist will walk onto the Temple Mount for his own glory, while the prophecies warn and God’s prophets condemn his detestable act. 

We convince ourselves that, had we been alive in times past, we would not have persecuted God’s prophets, nor would we have joined the mob in condemning Christ.  We would have listened to their words of life, even if our family, friends and religious leaders did not.  Today, that test of faith lies just before us.  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it,” (Matthew 7:13-14).  May the people of God respond to the events of the last 70 Weeks with wisdom and prayer, knowing that time is short.

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