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Can
We Know the General Time of Messiah's Return?
Notice
the connection between the Appointed Times & Seasons Calendar and
the Jewish Festivals listed below--festival dates provided by Jewish resources.
You can use this online source, the Calendar
Calculator, to verify the match between the timelines of Daniel and
Revelation and the
Festivals starting at Purim 2012, and ending 3 1/2 years later at the autumn Festival
season of 2015.
The
"times and the seasons" are directly tied to the end of the world, and
God
has provided "very" specific timelines in Daniel and Revelation for
the final work of His redemptive plan.
However, we still cannot know the actual "day or the hour" of Messiah's
visual return. Jesus
said He would cut short the great tribulation--"for
the sake of the elect those days will be shortened," Matthew
24:22--so the day and hour is unknown. Nonetheless, we can know the
time and the season, for no matter what prophetic view
you hold, there is always a timeline involved--whether seven years or three and
one-half years. Therefore, once final events begin, we
can know the general time of God's judgment of the world. The
"thief in the night" in Scriptures is not a reference to a secret
rapture of the church; it is a reference to the final destruction of the wicked,
who cannot escape God's wrath that Messiah will inflict at His visible return.
This is confirmed by Paul to the church at Thessalonica. The saints
"are not in darkness so that this day should surprise" them like a thief.
We are children of light, awake and sober... looking and watching.
The Day of the LORD will not surprise the watching people of God.
"Now,
brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for
you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them
suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But
you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise
you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We
do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like
others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober," 1
Thessalonians 5:1-5
If you believe the timelines of prophecy will
always be locked away, never to be understood... I challenge you to consider this
question: "Why else would
God expose very precise prophetic time periods such as the 1,260 days and 1,335
days in Bible prophecy, if they were not for the benefit of the last-day saints
and the counting of God's prophetic time?" The last generation upon whom the end of the world
will come is promised an increase in knowledge and spiritual insights, and an
understanding of how events will transpire in the final "unsealing" (Daniel
12:4).
Daniel
12:10-12 adds, "Many will be purified, made spotless and refined,
but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand,
but those who are wise will understand." And what will the wise
understand, according to the verse that follows? "From the time that the daily...
is abolished
and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.
Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days."
The wise will understand what the 1,290 and 1,335 days represent. And, the
wise are promised a blessing for waiting patiently through the
days of trial to reach day 1,335. I rest my case on the Biblical evidence, and
common sense. God revealed His prophetic times, for the day would come when they
must to be understood... during the days of their fulfillment.
Ask
your minister, priest or rabbi what the 1,290 days and 1,335 days of the Daniel
12 prophecy represent, and reveal, about God's final plan for Planet Earth. The timelines were
so important to God that He revealed them
through His prophet Daniel for the knowledge of the saints well in advance of
their fulfillment. If your
spiritual guide cannot tell you why they were written down, and when
and how these prophetic days will be fulfilled in the future (or were
fulfilled in past history--even though God said they would be understood at the
end of time), then it
could be that he/she does not understand as much about
Bible prophecy as you might have imagined, or they themselves thought. The
"wise
will understand," God promises; and, He does not lie. The roadmap is clearly
being presented, for the shadow of things to come is about to meet reality (Colossians
2:16-17).
Festival Celebration Dates
-- 2012 to 2015
The
Festival Fulfillment Dates for the 2012-2015 counting period are emphasized in
red. God's lunar and solar warnings that fall on His Holy Days during the final
counting periods are linked in blue, and are precursors of God's great wrath to
come as found in the trumpet and vial plagues of the book of Revelation. All
Jewish holidays begin at sundown on the evening before the date shown. On
holidays marked "*" strict observers do not work. Jewish
tradition has mixed views on the mystical and eschatological meaning of lunar
and solar eclipses. On the one hand, the Talmud (Tractate Sukkah 29a) says that
lunar eclipses are a sign of Divine wrath against the Jewish people for moral
failings, while solar eclipses are a bad sign for non-Jewish nations.
Wed.
21 December 2011 Chanukah
Wed.
8 February 2012 Tu Bishvat
Year 2012
Thu./Fri.
8-9 March 2012 Purim/ Shushan Purim
Sat.
7 April 2012 Pesach*
Sun.
27 May 2012 Shavuot*
Sun.
29 July 2012 Tisha B'Av
Jewish
Year 5773
Mon.
17 September 2012 Rosh HaShanah*
Wed.
26 September 2012 Yom Kippur*
Mon.
1 October 2012 Sukkot*
Sun.
9 December 2012 Chanukah
Sat.
26 January 2013 Tu Bishvat
Year 2013
Sun./Mon.
24-25 February 2013 Purim/Shushan Purim
Tue.
26 March 2013 Pesach*
Wed.
15 May 2013 Shavuot*
Tue.
16 July 2013 Tisha B'Av
Jewish
Year 5774
Thu.
5 September 2013 Rosh HaShanah*
Sat.
14 September 2013 Yom Kippur*
Thu.
19 September 2013 Sukkot*
Thu.
28 November 2013 Chanukah
Thu.
16 January 2014 Tu Bishvat
Year 2014
Sun./Mon.
16-17 March 2014 Purim/Shushan Purim
Tue.
15 April 2014 Pesach* (LUNAR
ECLIPSE)
Wed.
4 June 2014 Shavuot*
Tue.
5 August 2014 Tisha B'Av
Jewish
Year 5775
Thu.
25 September 2014 Rosh HaShanah*
Sat.
4 October 2014 Yom Kippur*
Thu.
9 October 2014 Sukkot* (LUNAR
ECLIPSE)
Tue.
16 December 2014 Chanukah
Wed.
4 February 2015 Tu Bishvat
Year 2015
Thu./Fri.
5-6 March 2015 Purim/Shushan Purim
Tues.
20 Mar 2015 1 Nisan (SOLAR
ECLIPSE)
Sat.
4 April 2015 Pesach* (LUNAR
ECLIPSE)
Sun.
24 May 2015 Shavuot*
Sun.
26 July 2015 Tisha B'Av
Jewish
Year 5776
Mon.
14 September 2015 Rosh HaShanah* (SOLAR
ECLIPSE)
Wed.
23 September 2015 Yom Kippur*
Mon.
28 September 2015 Sukkot* (LUNAR
ECLIPSE)
Sun.
6 December 2015 Chanukah
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the Calendar to read details and explanations)