Revelation watch: Day 20

God's calendar

Date-setting in the End Times

It's one thing to set dates when it comes to our views of events in the End Times. The other is to determine which calendar best represents the divine timing of those events. If you look at Wikipedia's list of known calendars, you might become dismayed at the potential differences people can come up with in trying to interpret dates from or in the Bible.

There are literally dozens of historical and cultural calendars from around the world. Some had days in the week that ranged from five days as in the Korean calendar to the 13 days the Aztecs used to define a week. Regardless of how many systems were created to count days, to delineate seasons and to mark days of religious significance, most calendars in use were lunar, solar or lunar-solar and seasonal, according to Wikipedia's information.Calendars

The calendars of most interest to Bible scholars include the Gregorian (in wide use today), Julian, Jewish or Hebrew, Coptic, Enoch, and Torah (Creation) calendars. Many dates in the Bible, in the Old Testament, reference dates according to the scholars' interpretation of the Hebrew calendar.

For example, in chapter 1 of the Book of Jeremiah, the author provides a time-frame for the prophet's work and for the events he predicted that became part of Israel's history:

Jeremiah 1:2-3 (NLT)- (2) "The Lord first gave messages to Jeremiah during the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah. ³ The Lord’s messages continued throughout the reign of King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, until the eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah, another of Josiah’s sons. In August of that eleventh year the people of Jerusalem were taken away as captives."

The Book of Ezekiel stands apart because the prophet Ezekiel in some cases recorded the month and day of several of his visions, according to the New Living Translation (NLT):

Ezekiel 8:1 (NLT) - "Then on September 17, during the sixth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, while the leaders of Judah were in my home, the Sovereign Lord took hold of me." 

Without trying to develop a dissertation of which calendar we should apply to the future prophecies in the Book of Revelation, we've touched on enough highlights to understand why Bible interpretation for future prophecies can be challenging. 

Which calendar - if any of these mentioned here - would God use to alert us to an important divine event? In a previous dream, I saw "March 19" in front of me clear as day. The year was not included. I asked myself, 'is it a future date of some significance?' 'Is it purely symbolic?' I looked up the day in the regular (Gregorian-based) calendar on the wall. But I also had to wonder, March 19 according to which calendar, assuming this was a prophetic message?

It seems to me that the Lord would use something we are familiar with. I am not knowledgeable of the ins and outs of the Enochian or Torah calendars, for example. [March 19 of 2020 came and went without anything unusual about it, that I know of. Next year?]

The sovereign Lord has His calendar, and things will happen when He decides. Because of His mercy, He will warn us - just like he used Jeremiah to alert the people - so we can repent and be prepared spiritually for His return. One thing is certain. Jesus said He is coming back and He will!

Shalom!

Faith Today Christian Ministries/Exalting the Name of Jesus!

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