Route 66:24 When Nobody Listens

Jeremiah had a problem, God wanted him to warn a nation that didn't want to hear him. Nevertheless, when he was told to preach, he obeyed God. Almost all the prophets in the land were telling the king and his court just what they wanted to hear. When Jeremiah pointed this out, he was ostracized and even imprisoned. But with his friend and secretary Baruch, he persisted.

His message was simple, but blunt: "It's too late for repentance, judgment is coming and will last for 70 years." He told the people to not resist the force of the Babylonian army, but rather to go obediently into exile for a multi-generational stay. When he was offered a safe place to stay by the occupying regime, his countrymen kidnapped him and brought him to Egypt.

There was hope in his message, though. God would always have His remnant among national Israel and Judah. This small percentage would be the foundation of a universal, worldwide assembly of those who believe God for Who He says He is. God will always work within the inner person of all those who truly believe Him. This truth was displayed in the New Covenant, which was an extension of the Old to those outside of the commonwealth of national Israel.

Route 66:22 Trial and Triumph

While touring the ancient plain of Shinar, we might as well visit the foremost prophet of the time.

Before the future queen Esther was born, a young man named Daniel was already in the court of a previous king, the great Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The king had thought himself to be supreme, only to be first praised and then warned of his folly. He came around only after being humbled by God.

Unlike his grandfather, Belshazzar never came to his senses. His only recorded meeting with Daniel was right before Persian forces took the city. Before he had been killed, the king had promoted Daniel, who soon was to serve under Persian kings.

As pagan kings looked on, Daniel and his friends stood for God in spite of the rules laid down by the king. Neither fire nor hungry lions could prevail against them.

Their message was clear, God is in control. Dreams and visions made it clear that God knows the future and will not let anyone get in his way to stop His plan.

The lesson we can take away from the recorded history of God's people is that He will honor those who honor him. All others survive due to his good will.

Day 2,189,153

Sometimes, I think I might have OCD.  I got to thinking about the "exact day" in history that I might be in.  That lead me to the "Julian day" used in astronomy.  It is based on the exact number of days, based on the Julian calendar starting on January 1, 4713 BC.  Since I choose to use the Autumn equinox, September 20, 4004 BC as the day of creation, I have to make adjustments for my "day count."

My first problem is the apparent adjustment of the length of the months and years.  In the prophecies found in the writings of Daniel and John, it appears that years were only 360 days long in the beginning.  The genealogies in Genesis 5 seem to show that the Great Flood began on the 17th of the 2nd month of the 1656th year of the world.

With months measured by even lunar cycles of exactly 30 days each, there would have been 595,847 days before the flood.  Then, things changed during the Flood event.  The month the flood began the moon apparently got about one and two thirds percent (1/60) closer, shortening the months to 29.5 days each. That cycle brought the time inside the ark to just over 365 days.  And so, a new length of year had begun.  The fraction of a day took time to be added, but by the time of Julius Caesar, the period of 365.25 was accepted as standard.  A leap day was established for every four years and the Julian Calendar was established.

Pope Gregory had to have the calendar adjusted in the 1500s to take into the account that the 0.25 was slightly wrong. Century years that weren't divisible by 400 were exempted from the leap year rule, so 1600 and 2000 were officially shorter after that.  Retroactive changes were made to discern exact dates before that; but one day in 400 years didn't seem like much anyway.

Adjusting to the new lunar cycles, month two would be counted as 29 days, followed by 10 more months or 295 days to the end of AM 1656.  Seventy days later, Noah would step out of the ark.  However, moving to the later Roman Calendar, the date the Flood began must be calculated.  Day 17 of the second month would be day 47 following September 20th.  That works out to November 7, 2347 BC. At this point, probably at sundown, the door was closed and the catastrophe began. We cannot know the co-ordinates on the earth where this happened, but we know it ended somewhere in western Asia (40s N, 30s E).

To synch with the system used in astronomy, let's say this sunset was at UT-2, or 18 hours into the day as measured from the International dateline. As the global calendar is "reset" the remaining days of 2347 BC are filled with rain fall and rising waters.  The rain stopped December 17, and the new year began 15 days later.  The count of new days had begun as 2347 BC ended on day 55.  2346 BC, when added to AD 2016 is 4362 years. Because there is not year 0 on the Gregorian calendar, year 1 BC was a leap year, leaving each 4th year before that to be counted as one less than it is.  The first "leap year" after the flood would have been 2345, the year of the birth of the first child in that new world.

UPDATE: I erred by seven days.  I apologize to those who may have read this blog today, February 10, 2016

Now, for the count.  There would be 1090 leap years measured on the Julian calendar, but adjusted to the Gregorian calendar, there would be a loss of 10  of those days to the years "divisible by 400" on an absolute count (with no Year AD 0) for 1080 leap years.  And so, the calculation to the end of AD 2016 would be 55 + (4362*365) + 1080. That adds up to 1,593,265 days. Add in the pre-flood days, and you reach 2,189,112.  And finally, today, February 9, is now February 10 at the probable starting place.  Adding 41 more days, we are in day 2,189,153 since the beginning of the earth.

Doing a quick calculation, I was floored to find that we are nearing the end of the "Prophetic Year" 6081. By this time next week, it will be AM 6082! Since this project divided history at the flood, assuming the apparent change in the length of the year, I don't think this number means anything prophetically.  Elsewhere, I have shown that September 11, 2001 was "exactly" 2000 "prophetic years" from Pentecost of AD 33 (or perhaps AD 30). So I won't go too far with that.

However, just for the fun of it, adjusting the old "original calendar" to the new lunar/solar calendars, we are in the middle of year 5993. Let that soak in.  By Gregorian figures, year AM 6000 would be 6.4 years from now. If your are a purist, I suppose AM 6001, based on constant years, would begin the seventh millennium, so perhaps we have a few months to get ready for the apocalypse.

On a lighter note, if the year did not change its length because of the Flood, 1656.8 years works out to 604,850 days.  Adding that to the Gregorian days after the flood we come to 2,198,122 days. That would be near the end of Prophetic Year 6106, or early in Gregorian year 6018. Either way we would be safely into a "golden age."  One can get rather silly if one is not careful.

So many options! I guess it is a good thing we were told that we cannot know the exact dates based on looking at the calendar.  Though the stars and the moon were designed to show us "times and seasons," the "signs of the times" will most certainly be here on the earth.

Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

So reads the headline in the NY Times. Anyone reading this within a week can read the article here. For others, just contact me (I made a copy), or better yet, just do a search for more info.

The gist of the article is that a first century BC record speaks to the suffering servant AND the resurrection "on the third day" even as Jesus taught less than a century later. One scholar, Mr. Israel Knohl, of Hebrew University. Sees in it confirmation of his "iconoclastic" theory that Jesus and his followers just "made up" all their theology from existing literature at the time.

It is hard to tell who will most upset - the unbelieving "New Testament scholars" that insist that any prophecy that is too specific MUST have been inserted after the fact, or insecure believers who think that the ANY attempts to "reconstruct" Christianity from previous documents (such as the dead sea scrolls or this tablet from the century before Jesus) threatens the truth.

To unbelievers, the evidence is dangerous to their pet anti-supernatural theories that explain prophecies as after the fact inventions. Other unbelievers, like Knohl, try to shake our faith by pointing to all the "evidence" that our beliefs are all eclectic myths based on the political and religious expectations of the day in which they were written.

If this tablet is authentic - and it appears to be - what does it show? Does it strengthen our faith or weaken it? Well, it shows that the belief in the resurrection was strong - even to the point of expecting it "on the third day." It further shows that the disciples should NOT have been shocked at the possibility that Jesus would have to die before he could conquer the Adversary.

However, the disciples saw Jesus as more than a political rebel. Their Messiah was by nature a religious leader. They even saw him as GOD'S anointed, even as the Son of God! How could he be defeated by such base folk as the Romans, much less the Sadducees who ruled the religious courts of the day (and denied the resurrection). The Pharisees, on the other hand, would have seemed to be allies -- IF they had not been so corrupt in their orthodoxy.

And so, when Jesus used established interpretations of the prophets, applying it to himself, he was not "inventing" anything. The writers of this text were looking at the same scriptures, applying them to a different person, nearly a century earlier. Jesus just happened to be RIGHT!

Nothing I write here will convince an unbeliever that Jesus rose from the dead. This is a conviction that comes ONLY from God Himself. However, when unbelievers such as Mr. Knohl try to use this to disprove our sacred scriptures, then I can at least post an alternate view!

"New Bagdad" or a new Babylon?

This week I saw a news streamer mentioning a "New Baghdad" proposed as the center for the government of Iraq. I have searched the web and have only found mention of the section of the city called Baghdad Al Jadidah ("New Baghdad"). However, I am sure that such a secured place, surrounded by moats and/or soldiers would suffice in the present distress. Plans for the city have been optimistic in the past, and certainly could be constructed.

However, I have long thought that the "solution" for the unrest in the "ancient" capital of what is now "Iraq" would be to move it to a much more ancient site: Babylon! In a recent article I found, this idea seems to have the backing of none other than the United Nations itself. The recent execution of Saddam Hussein brought back mention of what HE had attempted there. He had rebuilt some of the walls with new bricks bearing his own name. He had also built a palace there which is now used by the US military.

It would be an interesting fulfilment of ancient prophecy if such a construction did take place, though not on the present site. Jeremiah 51:62 seems to indicate that such ruins are permenant! However, the plan is still in the works with those that have little regard for the word of God. On the other hand, a "New Babylon" could easily be built NEAR the ancient site. It is in such a new city that a more secure capital could be constructed. If that happened, Baghdad could be abandoned or even destroyed. And THEN a literal "Babylon the Great" could arise as a "wonder of the modern world."

The symbolic "Babylon the Great," as I propose the USA is in these latter days, would seem to be the necessary power structure making the literal fulfilment a possibility.