When is the "End Time"

Mat 24:3 And as He (= Jesus) sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world? ... Mat 24:36 But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not the angels of Heaven, but only My Father.

• Jesus clearly teached that we do not know the exact day nor the exact hour

"we won't know anything about when the End Time will be"

1Th 5:4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the Day (= Day of the Lord) should overtake you like a thief.

• We need not be in the darkness (clueless) about the time of the end !

• In other words, Paul teached that you can know the approximate time when the Day of the Lord will arrive !

Mat 24:33 So you, likewise, when you see all these things, shall know that it is near, at the doors.

Mat 24:43 But know this, that if the steward of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have allowed his house to be dug through.

• The "time that the thief" come represents is the exact time of the Day of the Lord (when Jesus returns).

• The steward does not know the exact moment of "time that the thief" will come.

• In Mat 24:43, Jesus did say that the steward can know the watch in which the thief will come !!!

you can know the approximate time that the Day of the Lord will arrive !

Mat 24:33 So you, likewise, when you see all these things, shall know that it is near, at the doors.

Mat 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world as a witness to all nations. And then the end shall come.

• Before the actual birth (Day of the Lord), there are "birth pains" that preceeds it.

• People would will claim to be Jesus:

  Mat 13:6 For many shall come in My name, saying, I AM, and shall deceive many.

  And it is happenning... See: click here

• Wars and rumors of wars

  Mat 13:7 And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled. For it must happen, but the end shall not be yet.

  There are wars throughout the history; but I believe that the Bible is "Jewish"-centric; not "world"-centric. In other words: prophecies are mainly focused on Israel.

  After the re-establishment of Israel, there has been a reasonable claim time between 1967 and 2006 (there were "intifadas", but no all out war).

  The recent rise in war activities (in summer of 2006) and Iran's war cries to wipe Israel off the map must be put us on a high prophecy alert state in regard to this prophecy.

• Famine...

  Mat 13:8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be earthquakes in different places, and there shall be famines and troubles. These things are the beginnings of sorrows.

  And it about to happen... The "World Grain Stocks" of 2006 (left over grain from year to year) is the lowest in 34 years... See: click here

  Australia (one of the world's largest exporter of grain) is experiencing unprecedented drought: click here

• The existence of the nation of Israel signals that the end is near:

  Mar 13:28 And learn the parable of the fig-tree: when her branch is still tender and puts out leaves, you know that summer is near.

  The nation of Israel is depicted as a figtree:

  Jer 24:2 one basket had very good figs, like the first ripe figs. And the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Jer 24:3 Then Jehovah said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs are very good, and the bad are very bad, so that they cannot be eaten, they are so bad. Jer 24:4 Again the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Jer 24:5 So says Jehovah, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will acknowledge the exiles of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

• The re-establishment of the nation of Israel signals that the end is near:

  Hosea 3:4 For the sons of Israel shall live many days (as we now know, for almost 2000 years !) with no king, and no ruler, and with no sacrifice, and no pillars, and no ephod, or teraphim. Hos 3:5 Afterward the sons of Israel shall return and seek Jehovah their God (= temple worship) and David their king (= own government). And they shall fear Jehovah and His goodness in the ends of the days.

Daniel 12:4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Clearly, this sign has been fulfilled...

BTW, according to Daniel 12:4, now is also the time that the words of Daniel can be understood...

We must study events that are happening in the world (specifically related to Israel) to unlock the book of Daniel !

2Peter 3:3-6 First, knowing this, that there will come in the last days scoffers walking according to their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.

1Timothy 4:1-3 But the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith... 2Timothy 3:1-9 Know this also, that in the last days grievous times will be at hand. For men will be self-lovers, money-lovers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unyielding, false accusers, without self-control, savage, despisers of good, traitors, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it; even turn away from these.

Dan 2:42-44 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. And as you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mix themselves with the seed of men . But they shall not cling to one another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings, the God of Heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other peoples, but it shall crush and destroy all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

The ten toes represent 10 nations (see also Rev 13:1 - a beast with 10 horns (powers) and 10 crowns (kings or kingdoms).

The common thinking is that these 10 nations is the revived Roman Empire; but there is another possible interpretation: the Islamic empire.

The jury is still out on this one and only history can tell us what these 10 nations will be.

2Th 2:3 Let not anyone deceive you by any means. For that Day shall not come unless there first comes a falling away, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition, 2Th 2:4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself forth, that he is God.

BTW, this is the one sure sign to look for that the countdown to Jesus' return has already begun...

Here is a write up that I found on this teaching: click here

Each day represents 1000 years of world history.

yr. 1 2,000 4,000 6,000 7,000 | | | | |(eternity future) !------------!------------!--------------!-------------! | | | |(Sabbath | | | | |(Day of Lord)| Days of: Tohu Torah Messiah Athid Lavo

• Around 2000 BC (2000 yrs after creation), Moses received the law - this is God's first convenant which foretells God's plan for human salvation (through sacrifice of the Lamb of God).

• Around 1 BC (4000 yrs after creation), Jesus the Messiah appeared as the fulfillment of Gods plan

• Now we are living around 2000 AD (6000 years after creation) and it is the end of the 6th "day"

• The 7th day is Sabbath

  This "day" represents the millenium reign of Jesus as predicted in:

  Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. The second death has no authority over these, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him a thousand years.

Heb 4:3 For we who have believed do enter into the rest, as He said, "I have sworn in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest;" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Heb 4:4 For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested the seventh day from all His works." Heb 4:5 And in this place again, "They shall not enter into My rest."

This "rest" referred to was said to king David:

Heb 4:7 He again marks out a certain day, saying in David, "Today," (after so long a time). Even as it is said, "Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

Therefore, this "rest" must be in the future - not the 7th day of creation. The book of Hebrews indeed tells us that this "rest" is in the future:

Heb 4:9 So then there remains a rest to the people of God.

The Sabbath day is also the Day of the Lord !!!

Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going out of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction. Dan 9:26 And after sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself.

• There is one prediction in the passage.

• The prediction is:
  Time between the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of Christ is 7+62 = 69 weeks

• A common teaching is that this prediction is fullfilled as follows:
  • In 444 BC, the Persian king Artaxerxes gave the decree to rebuild Jerusalem:

    Neh 2:1 And it happened in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine was before him. And I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence before. .... Neh 2:5 and I said to the king, If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I pray that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, so that I may build it. Neh 2:6 And the king said to me (the queen also sitting by him), For how long shall your journey be? And when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time.

  • 69 weeks = 69 x 7 = 483 years

  • 1 year (in Old Testament days) = 360 days

  • 483 yaers = 173880 days

  • If we add 173880 days to Nisan 1, 444BC, we arrive at 6 days before Passover 33 AD when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey.

• Sir Isaac Newton spent more time studying Bible prophecy than developing calculus or law of gravity.

• Newton wrote a very interesting commentary on the book of Daniel that is available here: click here

  Chapter 10 on "Of the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks" is very interesting.

• According to Newton's writing in this webpage: click here, Newton disagreed with the above interpretation:

  Yet threescore and two weeks shall it return, and the street be built and the wall, but in troublesome times: and after the threescore and two weeks the Messiah shall be cut off, and it shall not be his; but the people of a Prince to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, Having foretold both comings of Christ, and dated the last from their returning and building Jerusalem; to prevent the applying that to the building Jerusalem by Nehemiah, he distinguishes this from that, by saying that from this period to the Anointed shall be, not seven weeks, but threescore and two weeks, and this not in prosperous but in troublesome times; and at the end of these Weeks the Messiah shall not be the Prince of the Jews, but be cut off; and Jerusalem not be his, but the city and sanctuary be destroyed.

• According to Newton, Daniel 9 contains predictions of TWO comings of Christ

• The FIRST comings of Christ is fulfilled as follows:

  Now Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in the 20th year of this same Artaxerxes, while Ezra still continued there, Nehem. xii. 36, and found the city lying waste, and the houses and wall unbuilt, Nehem. ii. 17. vii. 4, and finished the wall the 25th day of the month Elul, Nehem. vi. 15, in the 28th year of the King, that is, in September in the year of the Julian Period 4278. Count now from this year threescore and two weeks of years, that is 434 years, and the reckoning will end in September in the year of the Julian Period 4712 (4278 + 434 = 4712) which is the year in which Christ was born, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, Irenĉus, Eusebius, Epiphanius, Jerome, Orosius, Cassiodorus, and other antients; and this was the general opinion, till Dionysius Exiguus invented the vulgar account, in which Christ's birth is placed two years later. If with some you reckon that Christ was born three or four years before the vulgar account, yet his birth will fall in the latter part of the last week, which is enough. How after these weeks Christ was cut off and the city and sanctuary destroyed by the Romans, is well known.

• According to Newton, the remaining 7 weeks in Daniel's prediction refers to the SECOND comings of Christ:

  "Know also and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to cause to return and to build Jerusalem, unto the Anointed the Prince, shall be seven weeks." The former part of the Prophecy related to the first coming of Christ, being dated to his coming as a Prophet; this being dated to his coming to be Prince or King, seems to relate to his second coming.

• In other words, Newton interpretes Daniel 9 as follows:

  Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going out of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks (in the SECOND coming), and sixty-two weeks (in the FIRST coming).

• The countdown to the FIRST coming began after the wall of Jerusalem was completed (that makes sense, because you do not rebuild a city before you erect the wall for protection - that's a practice in the ancient days (such as Rome)).

• If Newton is correct, the count down to the SECOND coming can only begin after Israel has complete control over the entire Jerusalem.

  This happened on June 7, 1967 when Israel captured Jerusalem in the "6 day war" - See click here

  But we do not know how soon after the capturing of Jerusalem, the order to rebuild the city was given... but I would suspect soon (again, we are not given the previlege to know the exact day, just an approximate date)

  Now add 7 weeks = 7 x 7 = 49 ordinary years, and you ends up around in 2016...

Daniel 9:26 ..... The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

Mat 24:34 Truly I say to you, This generation shall not pass until all these things are fulfilled.