2007?
2007?
In December of 1998 the modest booklet "Elijah Must Come" was published. In that I recorded that "in 1980 the greatest evangelical scholar of his time, Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Westminster Chapel, London) declared, ‘To me 1967, the year that the Jews occupied all of Jerusalem, was very crucial. Luke 21.24 is one of the most significant prophetic verses. (Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.) It seems to me that that took place in 1967 - something crucially important that had not occurred in 2000 years. Luke 21.24 is one fixed point. We sometimes tend to foreshorten events, but I have a feeling that we are in the period of the End.’"
In "Elijah Must Come" I then observed that "later in the same passage of Luke (v32) the Lord speaks of His return and the preceding and accompanying signs, ‘Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things (Jerusalem restored to Jewish government and the Son coming in a cloud with power and great glory) take place.’"
"The reason I have plotted a line on the chart (p4 ‘God's Countdown’) from 1967 to 2007 is because the Bible teaches (Numbers 32.13) that one generation is 40 years. I am not prophesying that the Lord will necessarily appear that year, but I am just letting Jesus’ prophetic time-line fall where it will."
(In 1967 during the 6-Day Middle East War, in the course of defeating its neighbours’ aggressive attempts to extinguish its existence, Israel took possession of east Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. That part of the city had previously been occupied by Jordan since the 1948 War of Independence. It had certainly been a very long time since Jerusalem had been the capital of a united Israel...during the reign of King Solomon.)
But the above is not the only prophetic time-line to land on 2007. Approximately half a millennium before the birth of the Lord Jesus, the extraordinary prophet Daniel was granted a startling series of revelations concerning Messiah. In Daniel 9.24-27 one of these is "packaged" in a time-frame of "seventy weeks" or "seventy times seven". Much greater minds than mine have wrestled with this passage. Nevertheless, it is quite remarkable what is revealed on a 490-year prophetic time-line composed of seven portions, each of 70 years.
If one begins such a time-line in the Old Testament era in 420BC at the time of Ezra’s reformation (and Malachi’s prophecies), then the 490-year span ends in 70AD with the destruction of Herod's Temple by the Roman Legions of Titus. 70 years before that the Lord was born, and 70 years before that, Rome conquered to govern Judea and Jerusalem. Also worthy of our attention is the fact that in 175BC (the mid-point of this time-line)the Syrian Antiochus IV Epiphanes took possession of Jerusalem. In 169 he violated the Holy of Holies. In 167 he stopped the Biblical sacrifices and had an altar built there to honour zeus. (Daniel 9.27?)
If you construct a similar time-line in the New Testament era, you might well consider beginning in 1517 when the German theologian Martin Luther sparked the Protestant reformation with his 95-proposition debate with the Roman Catholic Church.
This 490-year span ends in 2007.
Of note along the 70-year divisions of this line are,
- 1727...John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards, both leaders of the 1st Great Awakening, were ordained to the ministry. The "Golden Summer" of revival among the Moravians took place on Count Zinzendorf’s property.
- 1867...William Booth launched the "Salvation Army" with 10 workers. Hudson Taylor’s struggling China mission was united through the death of his 8-year-old daughter Gracie. (She died praying for the salvation of idol makers.)
- 1937...Billy Graham preached his first sermon. David du Plessis began to prophesy a great revival among the historical Christian churches. (This was fulfilled by the Charismatic Renewal Movement in the 1960's.)
At this present time I am inclined to say little more than, let such time-lines fall where they will. I am content to leave others to declaim on the finer points. Perhaps at the very least I may be permitted to encourage you in the shadow of a fast approaching 2007, to pray with me the ancient and wonderful prayer of abandonment of St Anselm (England, 12th c),
"Do You yourself (Lord) in kindness dispose of me, my thoughts and actions, according to your good pleasure, so that your will may always be done by me and in me and concerning me."
And also Charles de Foucauld's (20th c) prayer,
"Father, I abandon myself into your hands, do with me whatever You will. Whatever You may do, I thank You."
Footnote: I probably do want to underline this at least concerning 2007 and the years immediately following. The outstanding features of the above time-lines are events concerning,
- Israel receiving her Messiah.
- The world receiving its Saviour and King.
"He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul and be satisfied...My servant will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53.11)
"You are My Son...Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession." (Psalm 2.7-8)
