To Honor Jesus Christ, Glorify God, Encourage Believers, & Warn All
Est 11-09-2003 Changed 05-27-2007
 

This information is offered with the hope that YOU can come to KNOW the Lord personally.

At this point let's pause to understand that Daniel's 70th week, which we already know to be 7 years in length, consists of 7 years of 360 days each, 12 months of 30 days each, on the Jewish prophetic calendar.  This fact is clearly revealed in that from 14 Mar 445 BC until 6 Apr 32 AD is exactly 173,880 days.  The math follows.

14 Mar 445 BC the date Artaxerxes commanded the temple to be rebuilt
  6 Apr 32 AD    the date Jesus Christ entered the city of Jerusalem
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173,880 days = 69 "weeks" x 7 years x 360 days each
  
Quoting from The Coming Prince we read the very words Jesus uttered on 6 Apr 32 AD (praise God!!!):
                                                                        ---
No student of the Gospel narrative can fail to see that the Lord's last visit to Jerusalem was not only in fact, but in the purpose of it, the crisis of His ministry, the goal towards which it had been directed. After the first tokens had been given that the nation would reject His Messianic claims, He had shunned all public recognition of them. But now the twofold testimony of His words and His works had been fully rendered, and His entry into the Holy City was to proclaim His Messiahship and to receive His doom. Again and again His apostles even had been charged that they should not make Him known. But now He accepted the acclamations of "the whole multitude of the disciples," and silenced the remonstrance of the Pharisees with the indignant rebuke, "I tell you if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." (Luke 19:39, 40)

The full significance of the words which follow in the Gospel of St. Luke is concealed by a slight interpolation in the text. As the shouts broke forth from His disciples, "Hosanna to the Son of David! blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord!" He looked off toward the Holy City and exclaimed , " If thou also hadst known, even on this day , the things which belong to thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes! "[4] The time of Jerusalem's visitation had come, and she knew it not. Long ere then the nation had rejected Him, but this was the predestined day when their choice must be irrevocable, – the day so distinctly signalized in Scripture as the fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold thy King cometh unto thee!" (Zechariah 9:9) Of all the days of the ministry of Christ on earth, no other will satisfy so well the angel's words, unto Messiah the Prince."

4 [I purposely omitted his references to the revised Text because he is wrong] And the date of it can be ascertained. In accordance with the Jewish custom, the Lord went up to Jerusalem upon the 8th Nisan, "six days before the Passover."[5] But as the 14th, on which the Paschal Supper was eaten, fell that year upon a Thursday, the 8th was the preceding Friday. He must have spent the Sabbath, therefore, at Bethany; and on the evening of the 9th, after the Sabbath had ended, the Supper took place in Martha's house. Upon the following day, the 10th Nisan, He entered Jerusalem as recorded in the Gospels.[6]

The Julian date of that 10th Nisan was Sunday the 6th April, A.D. 32. What then was the length of the period intervening between the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the public advent of "Messiah the Prince," – between the 14th March, B.C. 445, and the 6th April, A.D. 32? THE INTERVAL CONTAINED EXACTLY AND TO THE VERY DAY 173, 880 DAYS, OR SEVEN TIMES SIXTY-NINE PROPHETIC YEARS OF 360 DAYS, the first sixty-nine weeks of Gabriel's prophecy .[to Daniel]
                                                                         
                                                                               ---

Daniels 70th week last 7 years of 360 days each, or a total of 2520 days.  Each year is 12 months of 30 days each.  This is a total of 12 months x 7 years or 84 months.

Therefore, one half of the 7 years is 3.5 years, 42 months, or 1260 days.  Once Daniel's 70th week commences the two witnesses will begin their testimony.  Anyone present will know that there are exactly 1260 days until the witnesses are killed.  At the middle of Daniel's 70th week, the Gentiles will occupy Jerusalem (at the time of the death of the witnesses).  The Gentile occupation will last 42 months.  There is no opportunity for any " thief in the night " coming of the Day of the Lord.  Therefore, the Day of the Lord must begin BEFORE any of these events can occur (or at the exact same moment as the witnesses begin their testimony, the later being the most likely).  Once the two witnesses begin to testify, there are no more surprises.

There is an event that precedes the Day of the Lord .  It is known as the Rapture .  The Rapture could be at the exact same instant as the beginning of Daniel's 70th week or a little before Daniel's 70th week.  For the purposes of those left behind, the Rapture and the Day of the Lord will be inseparable events.  The Rapture will come and it will be followed "shortly" by the clear visible signs of the beginning of the Day of the Lord .  We will deal with these signs shortly.

While considering the topic of the persecution and martyrdom of tribulation saints, look at WHEN these saints are killed.

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes , and palms in their hands;
 -- Revelation 7:9

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes ? and whence came they?   -- Revelation 7:13

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes , and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.     -- Revelation 7:14

When Jesus spoke of the abomination of desolation of Daniel, He said, when you SEE the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place, THEN, shall be great tribulation .  See Mathew 24:15-21.  See also Daniel 9:27.  Of course, since the abomination occurs in the middle of Daniel's 70th week, this means that great tribulation occurs in the second half of the week.  Since the martyrs come out of   great tribulation , then, the 5th seal occurs primarily in the second HALF of the tribulation.  Consequently, the 5th seal is describing a time in the second half of the tribulation.  This means that the seals do not precede the trumpets and vials in chronology, but, are representative of the entire 70th week of Daniel, the tribulation.

In this regards, before we look at the 6th seal, remember that we discussed the fact that once the Day of the Lord starts the people will realize that it has begun.  This can only be true if there are certain visible signs.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and  hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne , and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
-- Revelation 6:15-17

Look at this verse in the old testament:
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.   
-- Joel 2:31

When does this occur?  BEFORE the great and terrible day of the LORD come.

Now let's return to our discussion of the seals and describe the 6th seal.

Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?

In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

One contradictory aspect of the new strategy is that, in Iraq, most of the insurgent violence directed at the American military has come from Sunni forces, and not from Shiites. But, from the Administration’s perspective, the most profound—and unintended—strategic consequence of the Iraq war is the empowerment of Iran. Its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has made defiant pronouncements about the destruction of Israel and his country’s right to pursue its nuclear program, and last week its supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on state television that “realities in the region show that the arrogant front, headed by the U.S. and its allies, will be the principal loser in the region.”

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