The Year 2000 and Israel
Several Very Significant Milestones Have Just Passed.
Is There Prophetic Significance?
By Ken Raggio
This third millennium A.D. is going to be more than interesting. It is an epic unfolding.
It has been 2,000 years since Jesus Christ came and went. Literally hundreds of Bible prophecies speak to this time frame.
Most prophecy students believe that we are on a "seven day" prophetic schedule (each day representing a thousand years). The six thousand years of human history that have already passed (from the creation of Adam and Eve to the present time) corresponds to six days. This millennium is likely to be the seventh day Sabbath in which Jesus Christ will rule the earth for 1,000 years (called the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ).
It truly appears that the year 2000 was a likely threshold that is right on the verge of that last thousand years.
The nation of Israel crossed an interesting threshold at that time. According to some observers, December of 1999 marked the nation of Israel's 70th Jubilee, marking 3,500 years since Joshua led the children of Israel across the Jordan River into the Promised Land (based on the controversial 360-day Jewish year, which includes 12 lunar cycles.)
Since the days of Moses, a jubilee was to be marked every fifty years. The year 2000, according to some calculations, was the seventieth jubilee.
The number seventy marks the number of "the days of our years," according to Psalm 90:10. This suggests a possible end of days.
Israel moved into the Jewish year 5760 on Rosh Hashanah, September 11, 1999. If, by reason of strength, their generation reaches 80 years, that would be around the year 2009. Several powerful figures on the world stage, including US President George Bush, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and others, fully expected to see the resolution of the Middle East crisis in 2008. Now that Barack Hussein Obama is in the White House, we can expect to see a radical new Middle East agenda with lots of surprises. We know from scripture that when "peace and security" are finally reach, "then cometh sudden destruction," according to the words of Jesus Christ.
On January 23, 1950. the Knesset voted the "Jerusalem Proclamation" into existence, declaring Jerusalem to be the capitol of Israel. Curiously, that would have been the 69th Jubilee if the 360-day year theory holds true.
Modern Israel celebrated its "First Jubilee" in newly-regathered Israel in 1998, but that was not a true Biblical jubilee year. According to some calculations, the year 2000 actually marked "the days of our years", or
seventieth jubilee.
President Bill Clinton traveled to Norway to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO leader Yassar Arafat. One of the most significant issues on the negotiating table was the final status of Jerusalem. On September 29, 1999 David Levy, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel, addressed the 54th General Assembly of the United Nations and closed with an impassioned declaration, "United Jerusalem, under the sovereignty of Israel, remains and will remain forever the capital of the State of Israel."
But according to an Associated Press article on 11/3/99, "The two Mideast leaders, who met with Clinton at Oslo on Monday and Tuesday, did not resolve or even take up the Palestinian demand for a state, for a chunk of Jerusalem to establish a capital or where final borders will be drawn." However, Arafat "left no doubt he expects to establish a state on virtually all of the West Bank and Gaza and - an even more controversial demand - with its capital in Jerusalem."
There are many hot topics to be resolved in the Middle East crisis, but none hotter than Jerusalem. We appear to be headed for a very volatile show-down in coming days.
The Bible teaches us that there will be a SEVEN-YEAR COVENANT signed between Israel and the antichrist organization. It is called the "Confirming of the Covenant," and is seen in Daniel 9:27, "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
This seven-year covenant (the last week of Daniel's 70-Week prophecies) will be broken in the middle of its term (3 ½ years), and the Mark of the Beast will be enforced at that time.
The Middle East is right now a powder-keg ready to blow. Israel's neighbors are all filled with radical Muslim extremists who are vowed to the destruction of Israel. The international community (the United Nations and the so-called "Quartet," implementing the "Roadmap for Peace," are working round-the-clock to establish a new Palestinian state, taking in the so-called West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. They are also attempting to force an agreement giving the Muslims East Jerusalem. All these are extremely volatile matters, and are ultimately setting the stage for the great battle of Armageddon, in which Jesus Christ will return with all His saints to execute His enemies and establish Jerusalem as the capital of his 1000-year Kingdom.
