You successfully added to your cart! You can either continue shopping, or checkout now if you'd like.
Note: If you'd like to continue shopping, you can always access your cart from the icon at the upper-right of every page.
Note: This blog post is part of a series titled "Time & Prophecy." To view all parts, click the link below.
I have found many more examples of Cursed Time than of Blessed Time in Scripture and in history. No doubt this is due to the fact that men and nations find it difficult to stay on Blessed Time. The rebellious nature of fallen man is such that they tend to degenerate without any sign of repentance.
The Israelites themselves were born out of Egypt on Blessed Time, having been redeemed with a lamb according to the law in Exodus 13:12, 13. Their Passover lambs represented Jesus Christ, and so they were justified (even in ignorance) by the blood of Christ Himself, for when they put blood on the door and lintel, it was a simple act of faith.
Yet when the twelve spies gave their report at Kadesh-barnea on the 50th Jubilee from Adam, the people as a whole lacked the greater faith needed to enter the Kingdom. The purpose of the Jubilee was stated in Leviticus 25:10,
10 You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
By “property,” it was understood that God was speaking of one’s inheritance in the land. But it was also about a change of status from slave to free man. In the case of the Israelites, God had redeemed them from bondage in Egypt at Passover, and they began their journey to “return” to the land which God had given to them (Canaan).
Having been formed into a Kingdom at Mount Sinai, they built a tabernacle in the wilderness and dedicated it a year after leaving Egypt (Exodus 40:2). A month later, they marched to Kadesh-barnea, where they made their fateful decision on the 50th Jubilee. Their lack of faith, however, turned the Jubilee into a Day of Atonement. Instead of rejoicing by faith on that day, they turned it into a day of mourning and weeping (Numbers 14:1).
Afterward, this became a day of fasting so that they would repent of their lack of Kingdom-entry faith. Keep in mind that they were all justified by faith in the blood of the lamb. They were “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38 KJV). The issue at Kadesh-barnea was not about justified believers; it was about a higher level of faith by which they might enter God’s rest—the third Sabbath.
This is an important lesson for the church today as well. By definition, the church is composed of those who have received justification by faith in Christ, but this does not mean their faith is sufficient to enter the Kingdom. One must increase one’s Passover faith to a Pentecostal level, so that by hearing His voice and by having the Spirit of God write the law upon one’s heart, one’s faith may increase to the point where there is no longer any fear of giants in the land.
In my view, fear must be replaced by love. Believers must grow in faith through all three feasts in order to become spiritually mature. They cannot say, “I have my ticket to heaven, so that is all I need.” That is like leaving Egypt, being baptized at the Red Sea, and then building a house on the shore of the Red Sea. The journey is longer than that.
Judged Time (434 years)
When the Israelites refused to proclaim the Jubilee at Kadesh-barnea, God would not allow them to enter the land at that time. Because the twelve spies had searched the land for 40 days, God told them that the nation would have to remain in the wilderness for 40 years (Numbers 14:33, 34). In other words, they would have to remain in the wilderness for another 38 years (Deuteronomy 2:14), for they had already been in the wilderness for nearly two years.
Therefore, when Joshua finally led them across the Jordan 38 years later, they entered the land late. As I have shown earlier, their calendar, dating from the Jordan crossing, differed by 38 years from the Creation Jubilee calendar. They would indeed begin to keep a calendar that marked time by seven-year cycles, but these Sabbath years did not align with the Sabbath years on the Creation Jubilee calendar.
Entering the land late meant that the nation was on Judged Time, which is a cycle of 434 years. Judged Time applied to late obedience. It is not as bad as being on Cursed Time, yet neither is it Blessed Time. Though Joshua himself was an overcomer and a type of Christ, he was unable to lead them into God’s rest (Hebrews 4:8, 9). They received only a lesser form of rest that was illustrated by the fact that their Sabbath rest years were only partially in compliance with the Creation Jubilee calendar.
Yet even then, as we will show later, they never kept their rest years nor Jubilees—not even on their Jordan calendar.
Late obedience meant that Israel’s case would be revisited after a grace period of 434 years. A study of chronology shows that this turned out to be the 40th year of King Saul, who died by his own hand during a battle with the Philistines (1 Samuel 31:4). Saul, being the king, represented Israel as a whole. If he had repented personally, he would have set the example for the whole nation to repent. Perhaps, then, Israel would have won that battle and Saul’s dynasty might have been established indefinitely.
But this did not happen. Saul, who was crowned on the day of wheat harvest, or Pentecost (1 Samuel 12:17), and who began his reign as a godly king, ultimately became a rebellious king. In 1 Samuel 15:26, we read,
26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
Saul’s rejection of the word of the Lord set the prophetic pattern of the church in the Pentecostal Age (33-1993 A.D.). Each year in the life of Saul represented another Jubilee cycle in the history of the church from the days of the apostles to 1993, a cycle of 40 Jubilees.
In fact, by comparing the events of church history with the events in the reign of Saul (where dated) shows that there was a direct correlation between them. For example, Saul was rejected in the 18th year of his reign, and this correlates with the 18th Jubilee cycle of the Pentecostal Age (882-931 A.D.), when the corruption of the Roman church reached a crescendo of immorality and debauchery. Roman Catholic historians (bishops and archbishops) later called this era “the golden age of pornocracy” (rule by fornicators).
Though Saul himself was rejected by God in the 18th year of his reign, he continued to rule for another 22 years for a total of 40 years (Acts 13:21). The NASB erred in its translation of 1 Samuel 13:1, telling us that Saul reigned 42 years. They should have complied with the biblical record in Acts 13:21.
The point is that when Israel’s Judged Time cycle came to an end, it coincided with the death of King Saul. Saul paid the penalty for Israel’s refusal to enter the land at Kadesh-barnea. Even as the Israelites had rejected the word of the Lord at Kadesh-barnea, so also did Saul follow their lead in rejecting the word of the Lord. Hence, he was judged for his own sin personally, but also as a representative of Israel as a whole.
Prophetic Implications
The Roman church in the 18th Jubilee cycle (882-931 A.D.) was rejected and would not have an enduring dynasty of popes. Instead, the “church” that Christ was building would be comparable to King David. David was crowned on the 59th Jubilee from Adam, making him a prophetic type of the overcomers. The overcomers are the sons of God who qualify to rule with Christ during the Tabernacles Age to come (commonly called “The Millennium”).
In other words, the church of the Pentecostal Age has been disqualified to rule in the age to come for the same reason that King Saul was disqualified. On another level, the church has had the same problem seen in the Israelites who, at Kadesh-barnea, lacked the faith to enter God’s rest. This does not mean that the church lacks Passover faith, nor even Pentecostal faith, but only that it is too full of fear to enter the Kingdom.
Each individual and each denomination is different, of course, and God will treat each in His own way, as only God can do. Yet the result of this lack of Tabernacles faith is that the church as a whole will not rule and reign with Christ when the first resurrection occurs (Revelation 20:6). The first resurrection will be limited to the overcomers, and the rest of the dead will not be raised until the end of the Tabernacles Age when all who remain in the graves are raised and summoned to the great White Throne (Revelation 20:11, 12).
Jesus spoke of this general resurrection in John 5:28, 29, telling us that both believers and unbelievers will be raised at the same time, though each group will be judged differently. The unbelievers will be judged by “the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14, 15), while the church will “suffer loss” and yet they will be “saved yet so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15). The fire is not literal but is a metaphor for the “fiery law” itself (Deuteronomy 33:2 KJV). Every judgment of the law, including restitution payments, are an application of God’s “fire.”
As you can see, studying the basic principles of prophetic timing in prophecy not only gives us raw data about a proper chronology of history, but also teaches us many aspects of prophecy that most people miss. Those who have ears to hear these things have a big advantage over other Bible teachers who lack the revelation of Cursed Time, Judged Time, and Blessed Time.
Note: This blog post is part of a series titled "Time & Prophecy." To view all parts, click the link below.