The Lord's Jubilee: Eye to Eye in 2020?

Lately, I have been learning about the Jewish Year of the Jubilee. Most people are familiar with the Ten Commandments requirement to observe the 7th day as a day of rest. However, in addition, the Law of Moses required that the Jews observe every 7th year as a Sabbatical year when they would not plant their fields but leave them fallow. Additionally, after every 7 Sabbatical years, a special 50th year called a Jubilee was to be observed. During this special year, Jews were to forgive all debts, release all prisoners, and return to the lands of their inheritance. Part of the blessing of the Jubilee year was the prevention of generational poverty. Observance of the Jubilee allows newer generations a fresh start.

It is unclear if Jews observed Jubilee years consistently. In fact, I believe the Lord says that one major reason for the scattering of Israel was their refusal to observe the Jubilee. I am sure allowing your fields to lay fallow for 2 consecutive years would be a great trial of faith. However, the Lord in the OT promised Israel that in the 6th year before the Jubilee, they would be blessed with a harvest 3 times larger than usual to cover them until the harvest during the 9th year. This promised increase proceeding the Jubilee is akin to the Israelites gathering twice the manna prior to the Sabbath.

After learning about the Jubilee, I was astonished to learn that since the time of Adam to approximately 2000 ad, there has been 119 Jubilee years. In fact from Adam to the time of the Exodus, there was 50 Jubilees. That is a "Jubilee of Jubilees." From the Exodus to the Second Coming, there will be an additional 70 Jubilees making a total of 120 Jubilees. In fact from Adam to Abraham was about 40 Jubilees. From Abraham to Christ was about 40 Jubilees, and from Christ's first coming to His Second Coming will be another 40 Jubilees. Again, 120 Jubilees which corresponds to Gen 6:3 when Christ says that the Holy Ghost would strive with man upon the Earth for 120 [Jubilees].

Gen 6:3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

It turns out that that these 120 Jubilees until the Second Coming of Christ corresponds with the promise that the 7-thousandth year of man's existence upon the Earth would be one of peace and rest. Christians refer to this period following the Second Coming of Jesus Christ the Millennium. Peter taught that each thousand years was as a day to the Lord. Therefore, since the time of Adam who left the Garden of Eden some time after 4000bc, some time after 2000ad should begin the 7th-thousand year period.

2 Peter 3:8 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.

That said, we are not told, when exactly Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. But we are given other clues. The key to finding out when this 120th Jubilee of the Lord is to begin. In D&C 77:7 we learn that the 7 Seals described in Revelation correspond to the knowledge revealed to man in each 1000-year period. Therefore, according to this definition, the 7th seal opened in the year 2000 ad. John in Revelation then tells us that after the opening of the 7th seal, there would be silence in the heavens for the space of half an hour. 1/2 hour in the Lords time is 20.8 years. If the trumpet is to sound from heaven that heralds the Lord's 12oth Jubilee, then we may expect this to be fulfilled in the later end of 2020. This sounding of the trumpet from heaven to announce the Second Coming is not to be confused with the sounding of the 7 trumpets on Earth that warn of the Tribulation preceding the Day of Judgment/Wrath; both of which precede the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Rev 8:1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

Trying to work out the chronology of the scriptures is an almost impossible task. There are about as many theories on Bible chronology as there are are years between 4000 bc and now. When it comes to dating, tt is unclear exactly what kind of calendar system was to be used. Some prefer a 260-day calendar, others use a 264-day calendar, and still others stick with the traditional Hebrew lunar calendar. And then it is even less clear when it comes to the question of leap years, and leap months and how these calendar systems would correlate with our current Gregorian Solar Calendar.

The reason why working out the chronology of the Bible is so difficult is that we are told that Satan would seek to "change the times and the laws". This is the major reason why scholars can never settle on any dates in the Bible such as Christ's birth for example. I have seen dates ranging anywhere from 10 bc to 10 ad. Again, knowing Satan's obsession with numerology, I am always suspicious of triple dates like Artaxerxes decree to rebuild the Jewish temple in 444 bc, or Alexander the Great conquest of Persia in 333 bc.

Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws:

Calendars aside, the real key to knowing where we are in God's timeline only requires identifying one Jubilee year. Knowing just one Jubilee year will give you the rest. And I believe God gives us an several unmistakable Jubilee years. One such Jubilee year is given by Daniel 9 (one of many fulfillments) which foretells the destruction of the Jewish Temple by General Titus in 70 ad. The Roman Siege of Jerusalem beginning in 66-67 and the martyrdom of Peter and Paul correspond with Daniel's prophecy that Satan would be an "Abomination of Desolation" in the midst of a 7 year tribulation period.

While 70 ad is a better example of cursing than blessing. Modern scripture gives us another unmistakable Jubilee year. According to Acts 3:21, Peter makes reference to the Second Coming on the Day of Pentecost by referring to the Lord's Jubilee as the "times of restitution of all things". While this scripture unmistakably refers to the Second Coming of Christ, LDS know by modern revelation that this scripture also refers to the First Vision in 1820 by Joseph Smith. Accordingly, I believe 1820 marks a Jubilee year. Not only was there the First Vision in 1820 but that year also marks the end of the Spanish Inquisition.

Acts 3:21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Possible Recent Jubilee Years:
70 AD Destruction of the Temple (Another fulfillment of Daniel's 70 weeks)
1820 First Vision, End of Spanish Inquisition "Time of Restitution of All things"
1870 EDICT OF POPE NICHOLAS III, ending of the Roman Ghettos.
1920 Prohibition, League of Nations begins, Protocols of Zion published, Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate for Palestine confirmed by League of Nations.
1950 "Law of Return" or the Commandment or Law set forth that called for the Gathering of Jews to Israel granting any converted or native Jew citizenship. (Beginning of another of Daniel's 70 weeks).
1970 End of War of Attrition following 6-days war.
2020 The Lord's Jubilee? "Time of Restitution of All things"

Now some would point to other dates as Jubilee years. In reference to Daniel's 70 weeks. Some like to subtract 3 years and insist that Jesus Christ was born in 3 bc, Daniel's 70 weeks start with the Declaration of Israel as a state by the UN in 1947, and consider the 6-days war in 1967. Again 3 years short. But there is a very important reason why I don't go along with these dates. One is because I have a picture which I may post, showing King Farouk, President Gamul Abdul Nasser, Muhammad Anwar Sadat as members of a Freemason lodge in Cairo. What this tells me is that both the top Israeli and Muslim leadership are in bed together and much of what is going on in the Middle East is Staged. And this explains why the temple mount is divided and there has been little hope for peace in Israel.

Another reason, I do not go along with 3 bc as the birth of Christ is that not only does this date, which is popular amongst scholars, go against D&C 20, and James E. Talmage, but it also goes against Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, how opened April 2, 2000 conference by saying the conference marked 2000 years since the birth of Jesus Christ.

"Now 2,000 years have come and gone since His birth in Bethlehem. Surely, this is a time for remembrance and recommitment." -April 2, 2000, General Conference, Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley.

But the biggest reason I do not like 1967 as a Jubilee Year is that if every 50 years is a Jubilee, then the 120th Jubilee begins in 2017 as opposed to 2020. The problem with being early, is that Satan could likely try to convince the world that the Abomination of Desolation set up in the Jewish Temple is something other than what it really is. For example, in 66-67 ad, the Abomination of Desolation had to due more with the Seige of Jerusalem and the crucifying of thousands of Jews on the walls of the city, then with the offering of a goat or a pig or whatever on the temple alter. The Lord cares much more about his children then what a few disrespectful men kill and burn on the alter. I believe the Abomination of Desolation has more to due with genocide and depopulation than anything else.

Already, the majority of the Christian world has a very negative perception of the Jews rebuilding their temple in Jerusalem. Most Christians have been convinced that the rebuilding of the temple will precede an antichrist figure taking over the temple and ruling the world from Jerusalem. The long and short of this is, that I would be concerned that a pre-programed over-reaction of the world against the Jewish temple in 2017 could end up being more of an abomination of desolation than whatever the initial concern will be in 2013.

Finally, setting the date of the Lord's Jubilee in 2017, after only 3.5 years of tribulation instead of a full 7 years of tribulation may lead some to say Christ "delayeth his coming". Like 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon, there could be a date in 2017 that will come and go causing many elect to doubt, and fall away.

We hear again and again that "no man knoweth the day nor the hour". However, in context, the point was made that the hour Christ was referring to in Matt 24: 36 was referring to when the "Heavens and Earth should pass away" at the end of the Millennium and not the Second Coming of Jesus Christ at the beginning of the Millennium. Instead, Matt 24 says that the Second Coming would be like the days of Noah. Noah was given a clear prophecy that when Methuselah died, "His Death Shall Bring" the flood that would immediately follow.

Matt 24: 37-38 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Dan 9:23 therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. . . know therefore and understand.
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
Isa 46:11 yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
1 Thes 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Matt 24:32-34 Now learn a parable of the fig tree [Israel restored as a nation]; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, [That] generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Matt 16:3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring, O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

In Daniel 9, the prophet talks about 70 "weeks", or "weeks of years". "shâbu‛ı̂ym" or "shabua" is the hebrew word used for "weeks" or "sevens." The word "shabua" can have several meanings. First, it can be interpreted to refer to a 7-year period of time. Therefore 70 "shabuiym" or 70 "weeks of years" = 70 X 7 = 490 years. So, from the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem to the destruction of the temple and the 2nd Diaspora would be 490 years.

However, "shabua" has another meaning. It can also refer simply to the "feast of weeks". "Feast of Weeks" is one of the original Mosaic Feast days given in the Law. So, using this interpretation, this passage can refer to 70 "feasts of weeks" or 70 years since there is only 1 "feast of weeks" each year. In this sense, Daniel's timeline also refers to the time of the destruction of the temple following the birth of the Savior. Christ was born 1 BC, and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Also many Apostles were killed in 62 AD. And in this same sense, some are looking forward to another 70 year period following the creation of the State of Israel beginning wih the "Law of Return" in 1950 and ending with a grand event 2020.

In conclusion, I am not saying for sure that I know what will happen in 2017 or 2020. But, while I know that the Great Day of the Lord is drawing closer, I know that I don't trust the 2017 date that is being put out there right now. But, when thinking about 2020, I can't help but Remember the words of Isaiah who promises that the Lord's people would see "eye to eye" when the Lord brings again Zion. Hey who knows, maybe hindsight will really end up being 2020 after all.

Isaiah 52:8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye (20/20?), when the Lord shall bring again Zion.