Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Bible. We are greatly blessed because You have given us Your Word, and Father we thank You that You have also declared to us things to come. And Father, we pray that You would help us to take warning, to be admonished, to hear and to heed what You are telling us in the Bible, because we know we can trust whatever we read that You are stating. And we do ask that You would help us to trust and believe and to respond in obedience to what we hear, as we do learn from the Bible. Father, we pray for everyone here. We ask that You might bless Your Word and apply Your Word to each one of us, and we also ask that You would help us in all things, that You would prosper Your Word, that it would accomplish Your purpose, and that You might be a wall of fire round about each one of Your children and protect us and also strengthen us in our inner being, strengthen us by Your Spirit, that we could be strong in the Lord and in the power of Your might, and we do ask for that energy, that power source that can only come from You. And Father, we pray now, as we turn our attention to the Bible, that You would graciously help us and guide us into truth. And we pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.
If everyone could turn to Isaiah 23, I am going to read just a few verses here, beginning in verse 14. Isaiah 23:14-18 says:
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste. And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that JEHOVAH will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to JEHOVAH: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before JEHOVAH, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
And I will stop reading there.
I was looking at that this past week, in these verses. It is interesting. I know that I never really understood something here before that I think, now that God has given us more information elsewhere, we can finally understand, and that is this 70 years, which we know is language that God uses in connection with the Great Tribulation, that following the 70 years, after the 70 years, Tyre is singing like a harlot. It never made sense before, because the 70 years typified the Great Tribulation. Immediately after the tribulation, we thought, was the end of the world and the Rapture and Judgment Day. It was all of these things at once, so it just did not fit that Tyre, at that point, would begin to sing like a harlot.
So I would like to take a look at that, but we are going to have to back up and take a look at some other things, and some of them are familiar, but I think that this is going to help us understand Revelation 9. We are going to have a better feel for what God is saying in Revelation 9, if first we just consider some things and back up and review a few things, and then we will come back here to Isaiah 23. This helped me and I am hoping that it will help other people to understand more about the five-month period.
The first thing, let us go to Genesis 7 and begin reading in verse 1 through 6. Genesis 7:1-6 says:
And JEHHOVAH said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according unto all that JEHOVAH commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
So here God is giving us the account of Noah and the time leading up to the flood, and He tells us, and we are pretty familiar with this, “Yet seven days” and He will cause the waters to be on the earth and will destroy every living substance. We know—well, many of us know; maybe not all of us—that this seven days has a symbolic meaning, a spiritual meaning, that God has given it.
For instance, let us go to 2 Peter 3, and I will read a couple of verses there. In 2 Peter 3:5-10, it says:
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
I will stop reading right there.
We have learned that God specifically inserted the verse into this passage, verse 8 of 2 Peter 3, in order to teach us that “one day is…as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” But it is strategically placed because we have discussion of the flood and then, following that, this verse, “one day is…as a thousand years,” and “beloved,” speaking to the true believers, “be not ignorant of this.” That is, do not lack knowledge regarding this, understand this is really what it is saying, do not be ignorant of this one thing. That means that this is a very necessary and needful thing for us to know, “one day is…as a thousand years,” and God doubles it, “and a thousand years as one day.” Right in the middle of the language of the flood and then the language of this world being destroyed by fire, this verse is given.
God is the One who has taught us how to understand the Bible. He is the One who has taught us, His people, the right way of understanding the Bible, that He spoke in parables, that there is spiritual meaning, that we have to compare spiritual with spiritual, Scripture with Scripture, and God expects us not to be lazy but diligent in study. He expects us, as it is His honor to conceal a thing and it is our glory to search it out. That is how God wrote the Bible. Of course, He is also in total control of what we will come to learn and know and understand, because Jesus opens our understanding.
So it is not like there is any difficulty with God hiding things, hiding truths, and then revealing them at a later point; there is no problem with that at all. And so, as God gives us this verse, it is actually a key to our understanding of the end of time. It is one of the keys for our understanding of what God’s plan is regarding the timeline of history and the end of the world.
You know, a couple of other things. It is not unusual for God to say, “a thousand years (is) as one day” and “one day is…as a thousand years.” Remember in Ezekiel 4, where it is referring to Ezekiel who is called the “Son of man,” in Ezekiel 4:4-6:
Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.
That is a total of 430 days—390 on the one side, 40 on the other—equaling 430 years. God is the One who did the math. He is the One who says that this represents that—a day for a year. That is what God says.
We are not going to get into this 430 years, but it can be shown, and it is interesting, that from the going into Egypt until the coming out, it was precisely 430 years, and that from 1877 B.C. when Israel did go into Egypt, which that famine was a picture of the Great Tribulation, until 587 B.C. when Jerusalem was destroyed, which was another picture of the Great Tribulation, it was 1290 years exactly or 3 x 430. And then following that, as God tripled the 430, from one historical event that represents the Great Tribulation to another, you triple it again from 1877 B.C., and you get 3870, 3,870 (3 x 1290) years, which takes you right to 1994 and into another point of our present Great Tribulation.
We are not going to get into that, but the point here is that one day represents a year. And no man made that up. I did not make it up. Did anybody make that up? It says it here in Ezekiel: Ezekiel would lie on his side 390, lie on the other side 40, and a day equals a year.
Let us also go to Daniel 9:24. I hope that everyone is aware, if anybody ever comes to you and says, “Time paths, where do you get that idea? You will not find that in the Bible,” that time paths are Biblical. And God is giving us a time path in Daniel 9.
What is a time path? You pick an event, a significant event in history, and you go from that event to another significant event, you travel the years, and that is a time path.
In Daniel 9:24-25, it says:
Seventy weeks (or sevens) are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand…
That is, do not be ignorant. Do not be ignorant of this one thing.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment…
Now that is our starting point. That is our starting point, “from the going forth of the commandment.” So we have to search the Bible to find out where that is, as Mr. Camping has done in his booklet, 70 Weeks of Daniel Nine, and it very precisely fits. There is a commandment to restore Jerusalem, and that is the beginning point. But, again, we are not interested in the exact timeline here. We are just interested in the fact that God gives us a timeline.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince…
That is the destination. From the commandment to the Messiah is the timeline.
…shall be seven weeks (or seven sevens), and threescore and two weeks (or 62 sevens, totally 69)…
We know that this fits perfectly with the timeline of Jesus’ ministry and going to the Cross, to the very year, and God has laid it out.
And, again, 70 sevens, or 70 weeks, if you read commentaries about Daniel 9, I do not care too much what church or theologian, there are not too many people who really think that it was 490 days, literal days, because that leads you nowhere. How can “from the going forth of the commandment,” which we know was…you see, I do not have the exact date and that is why I am trying to work around it…but “the going forth of the commandment,” which I believe was 458, until the Messiah, was hundreds of years.
Even the least knowledgeable theologian who writes a commentary would know that you have to use years. You have to use years, and most of them do when they write their commentaries on Daniel. But they are wrong; they are normally wrong, if not always wrong, of where the beginning point was of the commandment and how to have it land at the Cross. But still, they recognize a very obvious truth, which is that God gives days or, here, weeks of sevens, that must be assigned years.
This is a time path in the Bible. Anybody who says, “Do not give me that time path stuff. Do not tell me about mathematics. I want to hear the Gospel,” well, God is the One who gives us the math. He is the One who has said that this represents that: a day equals a year in Ezekiel’s case; one day equals a thousand years in 2 Peter, which is a quote from Psalm 90, I believe.
God is setting up the pictures, and He can do what He wants. He can set up whatever pictures He wants to set up. So going back to Noah’s day in Genesis 7, I am going to pick up and continue reading in verse 7. Genesis 7:7-16:
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; they, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and JEHOVAH shut him in.
So that is the historical record of what happened during the flood. As the flood began to occur, God first came to Noah and said that he had a week; he had one week; he had seven days, and then He was going to bring the flood.
I am sure that Noah and his family were busy in preparation during that last week in order to get supplies into the ark, and the animals were coming, and, finally, at the conclusion of those seven days, all the animals that God intended to rescue were in the ark, and Noah and his three sons and their wives [note: the speaker inadvertently said “daughters” here when he intended to say “wives”] and Noah’s wife entered into the ark. And then, God shut the door. He “shut him in.” And it does not really take much for us to see that that ark was salvation; that ark was deliverance; that ark was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So what God really is doing here, and He does it with all Scripture as it is given by inspiration of God, is He is giving us a historical parable. In true history, these things actually happened in the way that God said that they happened. But at the same time, God is painting a deeper Gospel picture that relates to the end of the world.
In the New Testament when we read about the end of the world, how does God try to describe it to us? He says that it will be as it was in the days of Noah or like Lot. That is mentioned a couple of times, where God is relating the end of the world, when the earth will be burned with fire, to the days of Noah. Also, we saw in 2 Peter 3 the language that focused on the flood, then the focus on the end of our present earth by fire, and right in the middle, “one day is…as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” and “be not ignorant of this one thing.”
Well, since we know that God has made that designation and He said to Noah, “Yet seven days” until the flood comes, then, you see, if we did not have an accurate or proper Biblical calendar of history, it still would not mean much to us. It still would not mean much, but God recently opened up the understanding of Mr. Camping of Family Radio to write Adam When? I know that came 30-40 years ago, but that is recent. When we are talking about thousands of years, that is relatively recent.
God opened up his understanding, like He opens up our understanding to any truth, and we find (and anybody who has not read that, I recommend getting Adam When?; it is also in Time Has an End, I think, portions of it that have the calendar of history) it is right here in the Bible. It is right here in Genesis 5 and in Genesis 11, and in other details in other places in the Bible, that God established a calendar.
It is a very simple basic calendar on one hand, where there would be a Biblical calendar reference patriarch. That is a long way of saying that there would be a man who was born in a certain family and God would keep track of time according to that man’s life. That is what that means.
So we read in Genesis 7:11:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month…
Just like this is year 2008, the eighth month, the third day of the month. The calendar that we currently use is based on the life of the Lord Jesus, A.D., Anno Domino, “In the year of Our Lord.” And it is the same principle. It is the exact same principle.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, the flood came. We are not going to try to go through it. I recommend going to www.familyradio.com or writing to Family Radio. You can get those books free. You can read them and check them out, and they are perfectly accurate. It is an accurate timeline of history.
In other words, because of that, we know that the six hundredth year of Noah’s life can be related to our calendar and we can understand that the flood came in the year 4990 B.C. exactly. We know that it was the year 4990 B.C. And if we then say that one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day and go from the flood of 4990 B.C. 7,000 years into the future, if it landed on 1511 or 1611, a lot of people could breathe easier. (1611; is that not the year that the King James came out?) If it landed there, a lot of people could relax. Their minds would be set at ease. But do you know when 7,000 years lands? From 4990 B.C., it is 2011 A.D. 4990; when you go from Old Testament to New Testament, you plus: 4990 + 2011 = 7001. There is no year zero, so it equals a perfect 7,000 years, exact, 7,000 years.
And it just so happens as we are nearing 7,000 years of history from the flood that God has opened up the Biblical calendar of history. He has revealed to us many things concerning time paths that point to 2011 as the end of the world. Many of you are familiar with much of the information that God is giving to His people, as He is opening up the Scriptures that have been sealed up until the time of the end. And now, here we are a very few years away from 2011 and we are given a great deal of information that 2011 will be the end of the world.
Let us go back to Genesis 7, and again, in Genesis 7:11, it says:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
And then, in Genesis 7:16:
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and JEHOVAH shut him in.
So it was on the 17th day of the 2nd month of Noah’s 600th year that God brought the flood and closed the door of the ark. There was a door on the ark and that was the only way that you would shut them in, and He closed the door to shut Noah and the animals into the ark, and that was it.
As far as being rescued from the flood waters, that was it. Once they were in the ark, they would find safety, and nobody else. Everybody else in the whole world and all that had the breath of life, of creatures on land perished and died. It was only these few who were inside the ark, 8 people and animals, that God spared, that God delivered from the flood.
You know, it is interesting that we can go from 4990 B.C. to 2011, but we really have no way of knowing what the 17th day of the 2nd month of Noah’s calendar was. I remember thinking about that for awhile. How can we relate that month and that day to our calendar?
We can do it with the Hebrew or Bible calendar. Like the Feast that was in the seventh month, we can relate it to September/October, or we can relate the Feast of Passover to our April and whatever date it comes to. That can be done, but we do not know anything about Noah’s calendar. We do not know how to relate it. We know that they were 30-day months. We know that much, and if you read Genesis 7 and 8, it becomes clearer that they were 30-day months in Noah’s calendar. And our calendar has varying numbers of days in the months: 28, 30, 31, sometimes 29 in February with an additional day. The Hebrew calendar follows a lunar cycle. It is 29.5, or something like that, but it could vary and fluctuate.
So there was no way of relating this day and month to our calendar. But what we could understand was that 2011 was the end of the world. We did not know when in 2011, but we do know that God spoke of a Feast. Let us go to Exodus 23 and I will start reading in verse 14. Exodus 23:14-16 says:
Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:) and the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
There are three Feasts, and God fulfilled two of them. As Jesus was on the Cross, they were sacrificing the Passover lamb, and “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” was historically filled by the Lord Jesus. The Passover pointed to Him and His death for His people, and so that was fulfilled at that time, the spiritual fulfillment.
Also, Pentecost. In Acts 2, God poured out His Holy Spirit and at that point, 3,000 became saved, and it was the opening bell of the New Testament church period. So Pentecost was fulfilled. That is two of the three.
But the third Feast, Ingathering or Tabernacles, was to be held “in the end of the year,” the acceptable year of the Lord we can understand that to be. And by its language, we know that it has to do with the end of time.
That Feast, we expect, because this is what the Bible leads us to expect, would be observed when God would destroy the world. At the Feast of Ingathering, He would gather together His harvest. He would bring in all of the elect. A t the same time, He would then destroy the world, because there is no more purpose for the world once the elect have been brought in. We know that would be October 21st, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, in the year 2011.
So that is one date that we have had in mind for a long time. It is a date we were looking at before anybody came up with any other ideas related to dating specific days. That date has been in place. It has been there for quite awhile.
But the other thing is, and this is looking at it from a whole different angle, is that in 33 A.D., when Christ went to the Cross, or following that at the Feast of Pentecost and the sending forth of the Gospel into the world, it began the Church Age. And for other reasons totally separate from anything having to do with Genesis 7 or the flood, it was figured out that the Church Age would go 1,955 years, until May 21st 1988.
Now that date has also been in place for quite awhile. 1,955 years breaks down into very significant numbers that I cannot remember. I think that it is 5 x 17 x 23, but please check that out. Anybody know exactly? Well, I think that is what it breaks to.
Anyway, May 21st, 1988, we recognize as the end of the Church Age. God left the church. He allowed Satan to enter in. Satan took his seat as the “man of sin,” and then the Great Tribulation began. It began, and we also saw from the Bible that a period of Great Tribulation could either be 2300 days, 7 years, 23 years, or 70 years. Those are the four prime possibilities.
Actually, a miscalculation was that we thought, back before 1994, that it would be 2300 days. Because of the verse in Matthew 24 that said that the Lord would shorten the days for the elect’s sake, it was figured that it should be 23 years but that it would be shortened to 2300 days. From 1988, it is six years and about four months to 1994 in September. And that was the miscalculation.
God, when He says that He would shorten the days for the elect’s sake, was not referring to shortening the actual length of the Great Tribulation period. And that is one error we made where it led to understanding September 1994 as the end of the world, rather than that 2300-day period as just being a part of and a point of the entire Great Tribulation, which would be 23 years.
Well for other reasons, we have to discount the 7-year Great Tribulation and the 70-year Great Tribulation, even though God uses them as examples. Like in the days of Jacob and in the days of Joseph, there was a 7-year famine that Acts 7 identifies as great tribulation. And in the days following King Josiah’s death (king of Judah), he died in 609 B.C., until 539 B.C., that was 70 years, and that is also a historical example of the Great Tribulation.
But one thing in common though, between 7 years, 70 years, and 23 years, is the number 84. 7 years is 84 months, 70 years is 840 months, and 23 years is 8,400 days. So they all have that common denominator of 84. And, actually, if we go from May 21st, 1988, until a full 23 years, May 21 st, 2011, it is precisely 8,400 days. And that is all separate. That is all apart from anything looking at the flood. And a lot of that has been worked out for years. It has been worked out for years.
You see, then we have an expected end of the Great Tribulation: May 21st, 2011. But we also have evidence that points to October 21st, 2011. And all we know, or used to know, that 7,000 years from the flood in 4990 B.C. would land somewhere in 2011, and then we had these two possibilities.
But someone noticed, and I do not know who (I think I do but I am not sure), but it is actually God’s doing so it does not matter anyway, but someone noticed something very important and very significant. I am going to read it one more time in Genesis 7:11. It says:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month…
That is the day that the rain fell, the waters burst forth, and the flood began, the 17th day of the 2nd month of the 600th year of Noah’s life, the calendar, and we had no way of fitting that with our calendar. But somebody noticed, “Hey, you know what? May 21st in 2011, in the Hebrew or Biblical calendar, is the 17th day of the 2nd month.”
Yeah; that was my reaction, too. Yeah, so? May 21 st, 2011, is the 17th day of the 2nd month in the Bible’s calendar, in the Hebrew calendar, and it takes awhile. It takes awhile. Think about it. Those dates were arrived at completely separate and apart from anything having to do with “yet seven days” and that 7,000 year period. We just knew that it had to land somewhere, but the Great Tribulation ends on that date. And then after awhile, you know, you start saying, “Wow.” “Wow!” “Wow!!”
Man cannot do that. We do not have that kind of ability to precisely arrange dates so that they fall together in perfect harmony where we can see that God is letting us know something. 7,000 years from the flood ends on May 21st, 2011, and the door is shut. The door is shut. Christ is the Door. He is the Ark of Salvation. It is through Him, the only way into Heaven. There is no other portal. There is no other entryway, “For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Only in Christ, and several times the Bible calls Him the Door. And the Door is shut because God has finished His salvation plan. He has saved the last of His elect. And then, at that point, it is time to rapture them.
The interesting thing is, Lord willing, when we get back to Isaiah 23, is the 70 years. But let us look at a verse in Jeremiah 29. There are other verses that maybe next week we will take a look at to see how God uses the language of “seventy years” to identify with the Great Tribulation, but in Jeremiah 29:10, it says:
For thus saith JEHOVAH, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon…
That is, after the Great Tribulation:
…I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
Now remember Guy (Berry)’s study. “The land,” the “everlasting possession,” “inherit the earth,” they are synonyms; they are one and the same. Returning to Jerusalem or Judah is fulfilling the promise given to Abraham that the land will be “an everlasting possession.” “You will go to Heaven,” we can understand this verse to say, “after seventy years.” After the Great tribulation, immediately, on the dot, May 21st, 2011, the believers, the children of God go to Heaven.
But, now let us go back to Isaiah 23. In Isaiah 23, Tyre and Tarshish are pictures of the corporate body, the corporate church, and it says in Isaiah 23:14-15:
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish…
We know how God uses “ships” to identify with the church.
…for your strength is laid waste. And it shall come to pass in that day…
And that is the Day of the Lord.
…that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years…
The entire Great Tribulation period.
…according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that JEHHOVAH will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
Does that sound like Judgment Day? Does that sound like our previous understanding? That the wicked in the church, the unsaved people in the church, after the Great Tribulation, they are now going to be like “an harlot” and “commit fornication with all the kingdoms” on the earth? How does that fit? How can that be?
Well, at the same time, we know that after 70 years, we return to “the land.” And after 70 years, at the end of 70 years, “Tyre” begins to “sing as an harlot” to the whole world, to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Well, you see, May 21st, 2011, and October 21, 2011, are two solid dates, and they are five months apart. They are five months apart. We were close; we almost had it. But five months apart, so how do we reconcile it?
Well, I did not put this verse here, and I do not think that Mr. Camping put it here either. But in Genesis 7:24, it says:
And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
The exact same chapter where God says that the flood occurred on the 17th day of the 2nd month, which is the arrival point for 7,000 years, May 21st, and then in that same context, the waters prevailed five months, October 21st, 2011.
Now it is 153 days of our calendar, but please, let us give God a little leeway here. He is working with three different calendars and making them jibe precisely and harmonize perfectly. Actually, it is more amazing that He is using our calendar which has different days, and yet He still comes up with an exact five-month period. It is precisely five months, five months.
And if we go to Revelation 9:1-5, it says:
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth…
And we can identify “locusts” and “scorpions” with false prophets, and we can do that through comparing Scripture.
…and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Five months, and I never realized that this was referring to after the Great Tribulation. For five months unsaved people who identified with Christ, they were professing Christians, are going to “sing as an harlot.” In other words, to sing in the Bible means what? If you are singing, what is the spiritual meaning of singing? It means to prophesy, to declare the Word of God.
As God visits Tyre or Tarshish and she is going to sing like a harlot to the nations of the world, it means that she is going to prophecy after 70 seventy years. And here is a five month period where locusts, which are likened also to scorpions, are going to torment men five months, because they have been left behind. The Ark has sailed. The Door is closed. Salvation is over.
May God have mercy on anyone here who is not yet a child of God. May God have mercy that we do not find ourselves left, that we do not find ourselves banging at the Door or crying out to God, “Lord, Lord!” “Lord, Lord!”
Okay. We will stop here. Let us close with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your Word, and Father we pray that You would help us to follow Your Word, to honor You. We are able to honor You as we obey from the heart. It is the only way, but we need a heart that is pleasing to You, so we ask that You would give that heart and allow us to honor You and to do Your will and to do Your bidding, and we ask that You would help us to be humble as You are opening up Scripture that has been sealed and it is easy, it is the natural reaction for us to resist, for us to think, that no, of course we know what happened at the Cross, or of course we know about Hell, or of course we know about no man knowing the day or hour, and these teachings and these doctrines that You are opening up. But, Father, we pray that we would be humble so that we would not resist the Holy Ghost, that we would not refuse what Thou has sanctified. And, Father, we pray that You would help us to be bent and broken towards Your will. And we ask, Father, for Your blessing upon the rest of our time here and this day, and may Your perfect will be done, we pray. In Christ’s Name. Amen.
Chris: If anyone has anything that you would like to comment on or a question that you would like to ask or a verse that you would like to look at, you are welcome. Just raise your hand if you are on Paltalk, and then we can take it that way.
By the way, we have been asked by someone that anyone who is to have a question, if they could come to the mic so that they can hear on Paltalk and for some other reasons.
1st Question: Noah’s calendar, that is the Biblical reference calendar, that is not the Hebrew calendar?
Chris: That is a good question because I do not know if I said that we cannot know Noah’s calendar. So when we find out that May 21st in 2011 in the Hebrew or Biblical calendar is the 17th day of the 2nd month, it does not mean that it is the actual day precisely that Noah and the flood came 7,000 years earlier, but it is God identifying May 21st as that day. So for all intents and purposes, it is that day, but it does not necessarily have to be the same day that took place in the days of Noah.
Alright. Anybody else?
2nd Question: How do we get around those men who “have not the seal of God in their foreheads”? Will there be elect still left who will have to endure the five months?
Chris: No. I do not understand, and I do not try to claim to understand, all of the language in Revelation 9. But we know that when it is referring to “those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads,” these are those who are unsaved. All that is left upon the earth will be the unsaved because God has raptured, He has taken up all of the believers. They have gone back to “the land.” They have returned to Heaven, and that will leave only the unsaved people on the earth.
We can imagine tens and tens of millions of people, the “great multitude” that God is saving who will come out of Great Tribulation, being taken up. Now this is a supernatural occurrence. It is a supernatural thing. And it is true that in America, it will not be as many as in other nations. But still, there will be some here who will be taken up on that day. And in other parts of the world where the “first shall be last; and the last first,” or in the Arabic countries, there will be many more, or in China or in India, in these places where tens and tens and tens of millions will be taken out of the world because God saved them. So that is going to be very obvious to those who are left behind.
And so, they are going to wonder, “What is going on? What is happening?” And, of course, the earthquake that is worldwide as the graves have been opened and God resurrected His people who were in the graves. That is, He brought up their bodies to life. All those who were not alive were resurrected in the sense that they were risen, which is what to be resurrected means. It does not mean that they have any conscious existence. They were just risen from the dead, and their bodies or bones or ashes are all over the place, and there will be many dead at that time.
Actually, I was looking at a verse in Amos 8 that relates to that, where it says in Amos 8:2-3:
And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said JEHOVAH unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day…
Now this relates to Isaiah 23 where it speaks of howling and singling like an harlot.
And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord JEHOVAH: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
So there is a connection here with Isaiah 23, after the 70 years, where they are singing as a harlot and there are also many dead bodies in every place, as God has opened up the graves and now He is making all of the wicked recognize, or at least God is recognizing, and the principalities and powers are recognizing, the terrible shame of sin that the world fell into and man was guilty of.
Alright. Anything else?
3rd Question: You were talking about 4990 B.C. Does this 4990 B.C. compare to our day and 2011? Is there a connection between the two?
Chris: If you have a piece of paper and just do a simple math, write 4990 + 2011. It is 7001. We minus 1 because there is no year 0, and it is exactly 7000 years.
In some ways we can feel sorry, in many ways, for the people today who just happen to be living at the end of the world. There was 13,000 years. There has to be an end-time generation. We qualify in every respect. The world has been multiplying sin and the churches are wicked like never before. Everything that the Bible speaks of regarding the end of time is in place, everything. And so, here we are, and, you know, we are just a few short years from 2011 and it is the end.
4th Question: The 17th day of the 2nd month of the 600th year, what is the connection to that?
Chris: As far as the 600th year of Noah’s life? Well, it is interesting that God destroyed the world by a flood after 6,023 years; it was exactly. 4990 was 6,023 years from creation.
I think that there is significance in that. I do not want to get into that right now, but we can see how 600 relates to 6000, and that could be one thing that is in view.
5th Question: Sometimes people tell me that we cannot know the day or hour. So we have to tell them that maybe we do not know the day or the hour, but we do know the year and the month, right?
Chris: Well, we know the day. We know the day. Remember what we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2, where it says:
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
And that is where they get this idea, “Well, you do not know when the thief is coming, and nobody knows the day or hour.” But look, if we keep reading, 1 Thessalonians 5:3-4 says:
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
You know, God tells us this in many places, and this would be a good time to look at some of these verses. For instance, in Amos 3:7, it says:
Surely the Lord JEHOVAH will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
So before God destroyed Sodom, He went to Abraham. Abraham had foreknowledge that He was going to destroy Sodom, and so he could intercede on behalf of Sodom, in a sense, or on behalf of Lot. And then before Sodom was destroyed, God went to Sodom in the Person of the two angels—actually, it was God Himself—and forewarned Lot and his family so that they could run out of the city and they could flee for their lives.
And so, again and again, before God does something, like a major judgment, He reveals His secret unto the believers, “His servants the prophets,” like we read in Ecclesiastes 8:5. It is interesting that Mr. Camping has been mentioning this so many times when actually this had come up in the past, but I think it impacted him like never before. Ecclesiastes 8:5:
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.
Do you see what God is saying? To discern is to understand, as Daniel 12 says. These things are sealed up till the time of the end. The wicked will not understand, but the wise will understand.
Who are the wise? The believer is wise because Christ is Wisdom and He dwells in our heart, so we are wise. And God is in control of truth, so He causes His people to see the truth of His Word.
But, however, if we go to Jeremiah 8, and this is in keeping with 1 Thessalonians 5, it says in Jeremiah 8:7:
Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.
So we have churches all over the place that are professing to be God’s people and they say, “You cannot know the day or the hour,” and they would mock at the idea that we were just talking about: 7,000 years, one day is as a thousand years. And God says that even these animals that He has created know something about their particular times, “but My people know not the judgment of Jehovah.”
And so, God fully expected what we are seeing today, where many say that we cannot know the day or hour. But we just keep learning. The true believers keep learning about these things, and we are getting more and more precise. It is getting more and more accurate, where God has got it down to the very day of May 21st.
6th Question: Revelation 19; as Revelation is unraveling, there are still many things about Revelations that I have not heard anyone ask questions about over the radio station. Of course, I listen almost every night. But, anyway, Revelation 19:20, it talks about the beast and the false prophet were taken alive and cast into the lake of fire. Okay, so is this on the last day?
The other question I have is in Revelation 19:21:
And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse…
Is this the remnant of the church or the remnant of all of the people who are unsaved? Are they cast into the lake of fire on the last day, which is October 21st?
Chris: Well we know that is true for all of the unsaved of the world, when God burns up the world and He destroys the earth and the universe, like we read in 2 Peter 3. Let me read this. It is not too far back. 2 Peter 3:10, where it says:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
“The works” have to do with professing Christians, with those who claim to be born again but they never were. And so that is the lake of fire, when God destroys everything, and He destroys all of this creation, including all of the wicked, all of the unsaved, burned up and gone forever. Like we were reading in Psalm 37—cut off, destroyed—all of that language fits. At that point, their bones, their ashes, their corpses, and whoever was alive on that day, all removed forever.
You see, God created the world and allowed sin to come in in order to display His divine characteristics of love and mercy and graciousness. And so sin has been present ever since and God is saving His people and He is being greatly glorified in His salvation plan. But, however, everything else that is out there, all of the principalities and powers, are all pure and holy and perfect, without sin, even though they are different from us. And as God is putting this on display in allowing this world to fall into sin, it accomplished His purpose, and there is no need to create another place called “hell” to cast off wicked men, to punish them forever and ever and ever.
Actually, that would fail to glorify God, that would distract and take away from the glory of God. Why would that be? Because the Law of the Lord endureth forever. God’s Word and His commandments endure forever.
So if anybody is in “hell,” gnashing on God with their teeth, and we know that means they are angry with Him, they are blaspheming Him, and, of course, this would be man’s reaction. He is still unsaved. He is committing fresh sin, fresh sin. He is transgressing the Law again and again and again into eternity. There is sin; there is rebellion in God’s domain of all of His creations. There is a place called “hell” where rebels are continuing to rebel and sin and transgress His Law.
Just think, if there was a king and this king had a rebellion. There was like a civil war, and some rose up in his kingdom. And, yet, they were put down; the rebellion was squashed and they were all thrown into prison. In prison, they were whipped, and whatever, but they were in prison. And then while in prison, they are starting to rail on the king. They are starting to call him names, “It is not fair of you, king, to put us in this prison,” and on and on and on.
How long would an earthly king put up with that kind of rebellion from these rebels who were worthy to die because they rebelled against him? Is he going to house them indefinitely?
No. He is going to command, “What are they saying? They are gnashing on me with their teeth? Off with their heads!”
Why? Because at that point, at the execution, they cease to be. The sin stops, and now there is quiet. And that is what is going to take place at the end of the world. The sin is now removed, and that takes place when God destroys a sinner.
7th Question (continued): Chris, the other part of this question is, He separates the beast and the false prophet, He separates them from the world, so I am just trying to figure out why does He separate them? Are they going to be punished earlier or sooner? In many of the chapters, He separates the beast and the false prophet. He puts them together, you know, as if they are going to get some kind of a harsher punishment or something, but they are going to hell. So my question is are they all going to be burned on that same day? Why did He separate them from the rest of the world?
Chris: Well, look at Revelation 20:10:
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are…
So I do not understand that. But “the beast” is Satan’s name for the Great Tribulation. He is the false prophet, and he is also the devil. So God is using language, different names to describe the one being, the adversary, Satan.
8th Question (continued): In other words, the beast and the false prophet are one being?
Chris: Yes, the same as the devil. The only thing that I can think of is that it describes various aspects of Satan’s rule. Like he is identified as being different kings, as in says in Revelation 17, “And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come.” I do not understand why the beast and the false prophet are already in the lake of fire. But I am sure, as God wills, we will begin to understand.
Alright, let us close with prayer.