If everyone is thinking alike, then someone is not thinking. General George Patton.
This blog is called The M24 Report because it will be based Matthew 24. I have been interested in Eschatology (doctrine of Last Days) since childhood. Soon after I was born, Israel became a nation in 1948, then NATO was formed, unifying Europe militarily, in 1949. Then in 1957, the foundation was laid for the European Union with a treaty called The Treaty of Rome. It appeared that the revived Roman Empire was here and the return of Christ was just months away.
Now we are seeing the unification of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire in the Egypt, Syria and other Middle East countries and as the man said after the clock struck 13, “Wake up, it’s later than it’s ever been before!”
One last thing needs to be in place however. Matthew covers signs in the heaven and that has been largely ignored.
Few chapters of the Bible have called forth more disagreement among interpreters than Matthew 24 and its parallels in Mark 13 and Luke 21. The history of the interpretation of these chapters is immensely complex and hopefully, my blog will wake people up to this untapped lode of future events. I pray that my writings will start a dialog about this last piece of the puzzle of the Doctrine of the Last Days.
I believe that the interpreters who see this chapter as having been already fulfilled are wrong for the following reasons. There are predictions that Jesus made that cannot have come to pass yet, in particular, verses 21 and 22. Jesus says that it will be a time of “great tribulation, such as not been seen since the beginning of the world until this time nor ever shall be.” And “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved.” Those phrases would indicate the intensity of the tribulation far greater than the fall of Jerusalem, the Diaspora or any other event in world history to date
Passages in the Old Testament which cover times of great tribulation have not even come close to being repeated, let alone surpassed, such as Exodus, Joshua’s long day, and the angel of the Lord punishing Israel for David’s sin of numbering Israel. The last is event produced an estimated 5-7% fatality rate in Israel. It would be comparable to the United States losing 15 million people in a 24-36 hour l
Then there is the prolonged day of Isaiah/Hezekiah, when 185,000 Assyrians perished in a single night; nothing in history since the time of Jesus sermon can compare to the scope of those events for depth of catastrophe. Also, verses 29-30 seem to tie tribulation on earth to signs and events in heaven. What does, “the powers of heaven shall be shaken,” mean? And what is the sign of the Son of Man? All these phrases have not come to pass.
But let us look to the phrase, “unless those days were shortened.” This phrase has been largely ignored because the focus for most commentators has been to look at the hours in a day or hours of daylight. However, the answer is right under the noses of the reader of Revelation.
The length of the last half of the tribulation is given three different ways; years, months and days. The Holy Spirit obviously doesn’t want to miss something here. The number of years is three and a half (Rev. 12:14 compare/w Daniel 7:25; 12:7). The number of months is forty two (12 x 3 ½ = 42) (Revelation 11:2; 13). The number of days is 1260. The number of days in 3 ½ years or 42 months in a 365 day year is 1278. The figure of 1260 days is a 360 day year. So what causes the difference between 1278 and 1260?
Many commentators say that a 360 day year is a prophetic year. This is based on the calculations by Sir Robert Anderson in his book “The Coming Prince.” Anderson’s calculations were based on a starting date of the decree of Artaxerxes in 445 BC and a prophetic year of 360 days. Isaiah names Cyrus is the one who issues the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, not Artaxerxes. (Isaiah 44:28). So Sir Robert Anderson’s Calculations are based on an un-Biblical starting date and an artificial year of 360 days. J.R. Church has published an excellent article on Daniel’s 70 weeks in his Prophecy in the News Magazine, December 2007 edition. In it he explains the 70 weeks as based on the Year of Jubilee., with a gap between the seventh and eighth weeks.
For the reasons listed above, I believe that the 360 day year of Revelation 11 and 12 is a literal 360 day year. That means that the earth will be pushed out of its present orbit and into an orbit closer to the sun. That’s what the signs in the heaven and the sign of the Son of Man is all about. Join me as we discover what GOD has in store for planet earth.