Mark 13:32 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

From this we may conclude that it will be impossible to know the exact day or hour of Christ's return. However we have some clues available regarding the approximate year of His return. The following are some of the clues as to the nearness of our Lord's return:

Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which God created He had made.

This is the well known creation period where creation took six days and the seventh day was when God rested from all His labors. This seems to be very straight forward yet when other Bible verses are examined, we can draw some additional conclusions from the creation story:

2 Pet 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

This points to another possible application of the six day period of creation and the seventh day of rest.

Isa 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

This is one of the verses in the Bible that is telling us that God is still involved in the creation process. Only this time He is creating the new heavens and new earth which will on the appointed day replace the present ones.

Heb 4:9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.

We know that the book of Hebrews was written to the Jews present to them the reason they should accept Christ. Some of them in the process of denying that Jesus had come tried to say that the prophecies about their savior Jesus were fulfilled by Joshua who led their forefathers into the land after the death of Moses. The name Joshua in the Hebrew is the same as the name Jesus in the Greek. Thus we are being told of a more perfect day of rest which all of us like them long to enter into.

2 Pet 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

This points to another possible application of the six day period of creation and the seventh day of rest. Here we were told that a day in the life of the Lord is as a thousand years so we are looking for thousand year day of rest which we find described in Rev 20:4.

Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Here we find a reference to the promised period of rest that will be a thousand years long. In Gen 2:2 we were told that God rested on the seventh day. and in Rev 20:4 we have a thousand year period which was also referred to as a day of rest in Heb 4:9. This means we could examine the six thousand years prior to the thousand year day of rest.

During the late 1800's there was a Methodist Bishop Usher who did a lot of work on Biblical chronology, or trying to place a date on different events recorded in the Bible. His dates were held in high enough regard that up until the 1960's most King James Bibles had Usher's dates in their margins.

Bishop Usher placed the following dates:

4004 BC  Adam and Eve were created
0004 BC  Christ was born
0027 AD  Christ was baptised
0030 AD  Christ was crucified
1996 AD  End of 6000 year period

With this in mind we can see where we now are living at the end of the sixth 1000 year day of God's creation in preparation of the seventh 1000 year day of rest of His Kingdom set up here on the earth with Jerusalem as its capital and our Lord Jesus Christ as its King.

There are some other clues we could find in the Mt Olivet prophecy contained in Matt 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.

Matt 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

While there are a number of things given to look for, a very special one is found in Matt 24:32 regarding a fig tree, an sign of spring as its leaves begin to bud.

Matt 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh:

The fig tree is one of the symbols for the nation of Israel. In Mark 11:13-14 we have the incident with the fig tree with no fruit and it was cursed by Jesus for failing to bear fruit.

Mark 11:13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not [yet].

He saw a fig tree with no leaves and decided to use it as an example of Israel which had failed to bear fruit for God.

Mark 11:14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard [it].

This was a symbolic rebuke of Israel for failing to bear fruit for God and their punishment for that failure. Thus the fig tree is one of the symbols representing the nation of Israel. there also is the reference to the times of the Gentiles in Luke 21:34.

Luke 21:24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Israel lost her independence in 606 BC when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon attacked Israel and removed their king and appointed one to represent himself.

2 Kings 24:1 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.

Here in 2 Kings 24:1 we read of King Nebuchadnezzar coming and taking away the independence of Israel during his first year in 2 Kings 24:12.

2 Kings 24:12 And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.

Here we read of him coming again during his eighth year.

2 Kings 25:8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh [day] of the month, which [is] the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:

The next time king Nebuchadnezzar came against Israel was in his ninetheeenth year with the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in v9.

2 Kings 25:9 And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great [man's] house burnt he with fire.

The temple was ordered rebuilt by a Medo-Persian king after the 70 year captivity in Babylon ended. Then in A.d. 70, the temple and Jerusalem were again destroyed. This time by the Romans. As of yet the temple still has not been rebuilt some 2000 years later.

Many Bible students today expect the temple to be rebuilt by the Jews only to be captured again with another ending of the daily sacrifice worship there and the building of the abomination of desolation in the Holy Place before Christ returns. The Cyber Prophet does not find Bible support for this view and it will be discussed at length later in this web site.

2 Kings 25:22 And [as for] the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.

The next thing king Nebuchadnezzar did was to appoint another king over Israel whose name was Gedaliah.

Jer 52:28 This [is] the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty:

There is a conflict of one year here between the date here in Jeremiah 52 and the date in 2 Kings 24:12 which says it was his eighth year.

Jer 52:29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons:

There is also a conflict of one year between the date here in Jeremiah 52 and the date in 2 Kings 25:8 which says it was his nineteenth year.

Jer 52:30 In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons [were] four thousand and six hundred.

Thus what we see here as the fourth invasion in the twenty third year of Nebuchadnezzar would be the twenty fourth year which is not mentioned in 2 Kings and 2 Chron. This is telling us that there were four invasions by king Nebuchadnezzar against Israel (Judah). These four invasions were prophesied in Joel 1:4.

Joel 1:4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.

Thus God had prophesied through Joel that there would be four successive invasions of Israel and each would take away more until the vine is stripped bare. This would be the trodding down of Jerusalem in Nebuchadnezzar's nineteenth year which marked the beginning of the times of the Gentiles. This downtrodding of Israel ended in 1967 when Israel regained Jerusalem and said we have returned to our holy of holies never to give it up again.

Actually there are some parallels we can explore between the four invasions which were made by Nebuchadnezzar and the modern day restoration of Israel in 1948 and their winning back Jerusalem. Actually just as there were four invasions or wars lost back then, there also have been four wars won here at the end of the times of the gentiles.

1st Neb    Lost Independence - June 11, 1948 Won Independence
8th Neb    Lost a battle     - Oct 1956 Won a battle and Suez
19th Neb   Lost Jerusalem    - June 11, 1967 regain Jerusalem
24th Neb   Lost Last Battle  - Sept 1973 Won last battle

As you can see above there is a corolation between both ends of the times of the Gentiles. The only conflict is the 4th invasion/war and depending on how the partial years were rounded (either high or low) this too matches.

There is one other thing that we should consider at this time. The calendar used by the Jews in the Old Testament was based on a 30 day month and 12 of them made a 360 day year. We on the other hand have a calendar of 365 days with a correction of one additional day every four years.

Since the Jews followed the Law of Moses which specified certain feasts to be observed so many days after crop harvests, they found that their calendar drifted off over a period of time. They corrected this by adding an intercalary month every few years.

It is of special interest that their corrected calendar with extra months thrown in occasionally matches our calendar with a correction of one extra day every 4 years on a 19 year cycle to the day. Look above and your will notice that the time between June 11, 1948 when Israel became independent and June 11, 1967 when Israel regained Jerusalem is exactly 19 years to the day.

Luke 21:30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.

Here Jesus is using a parable to teach a lesson, the fig tree shoots forth buds and this is a sign to us that summer is near.

Luke 21:31 So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.

When you see these things come to pass tells us that we should be able to recognize things happening related to what the Bible tells us will happen before Christ returns.

Luke 21:32 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

This means that the generation that sees the end of the times of the Gentiles fulfilled and Jerusalem no longer down trodden will also see the fulfillment of the return of Christ. The only thing we are now missing is the length of a generation to be used in our calculations.

Joshua 5:6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people [that were] men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not show them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Thus we have a generation defined as forty years from when the wars occurred with the expectation that the generation (40 years) will not perish until all things take place. The main one to take place we are looking for is the return of Christ.

	June 11, 1948 plus 40 is 1988
	Oct 1956      plus 40 is 1996
 	June 11, 1967 plus 40 is 2007
	Sept 1973     plus 40 is 2013

In other words we can expect Christ's return to occur sometime between today and 2013. Most likely between 2007 and 2013. In any case this tells us that it is time to examine what we expect to happen just before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Web Master: Larry E. Ellison

Last modified on Friday, September 2, 2005

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