The divine plan is set forth progressively in Scripture. Genesis gives us the foundational patterns from the first creation to the new creation. The basic truth of all truths is set forth in the first verse, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
This establishes the basis of God’s sovereignty and the fact that He owns everything. Hence, He has the right to do all that He does in history, and He has the right to be worshiped and obeyed. Further, because He is not a sinner (i.e., one who fails to reach a goal), He will succeed in the end, no matter how bad things look.
We are called to have faith that God is able to perform that which He has promised to do (Rom. 4:21). Our faith is demonstrated by our level of rest in the midst of chaos. Our lack of faith is demonstrated by our level of fear. We walk either by faith or in fear. Most are somewhere in between, as we grow spiritually.
The Big Picture
Individual circumstances easily become so important to us that we lose sight of the big picture. This, combined with an unclear understanding of timing, tends to keep people in confusion and doubt. Every generation faces such problems, including our own.
If we pick up the story at the time that God called Israel out of Egypt in the days of Moses, we read about Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness, preparing to enter the Promised Land. Our Promised Land is different, of course, being greater than a bit of land on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. To enter the promises of God means to inherit the piece of earth and dust which is our own body. We have been promised a glorified body (Rom. 8:23), of which Canaan was only a type and shadow.
Israel’s land inheritance in Canaan did not succeed, because it was based on the Old Covenant and the vows of men. After years of apostasy alternating with occasional repentance and revival, the time finally came for judgment. First Israel was judged, then Judah. Together, the judgment was complete, as both the scepter of Judah and the birthright of Joseph-Israel went into captivity.
Judah returned from Babylon because the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem, but Israel never returned to the old land. Judah’s exile ended after 70 years, but Israel’s exile remained. Both, however, remained in captivity, for even Judah continued to be subject to Persia, Greece, and Rome.
The tribulation was long-term, bringing us to the present time and the current troubles that we see in the earth.
The Tribulation
The tribulation is properly dated from the beginning of Jerusalem’s captivity to Babylon. It began in 604 B.C. when the city capitulated to Babylon to avoid destruction. A secondary date is 586 B.C., when the city and its temple were destroyed.
Yet we will focus on 604 B.C. to avoid confusion.
The captivity was to be for “seven times,” which turned out to be 7 x 360 years (2,520 years). This was the time allotted to the world empires prophesied in Daniel 2 and 7. There was a brief time—just one century—during this time when Jerusalem enjoyed independence from 163-63 B.C.
Thus, when the 2,520 years (from 604 B.C.) ended in 1917, the “beast” empires had actually ruled only 2,420 years. For this reason, to fulfill the judgment contract that God had made with Babylon and its successors, another century had to be given to Mystery Babylon. Hence, the time did not run out until 2017.
They Refused to Let Them Go
If Babylon had released the world from its slavery in 2017, they might have gotten away with all the wealth that they had accumulated from the labor of their slaves. But God had a different plan, because He had no intention of letting them get away with all their abuse of the people. He hardened their hearts so that the leaders arrogantly believed that they could rule the earth forever.
Jeremiah prophesied this in Jer. 50:33,
33 Thus says the Lord of hosts, “The sons of Israel are oppressed, and the sons of Judah as well; and all who took them captive have held them fast, they have refused to let them go.”
In response, God says in the next verse,
34 “Their Redeemer is strong… He will vigorously plead their case so that He may bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.”
That court case was adjudicated from 2014-2017, with the final deadline falling on the eighth day of Tabernacles, October 16, 2017. (This was decreed on October 12 but came into effect on the 16th.)
The divine decree, witnessed by many of you here on earth, makes it impossible for Mystery Babylon to continue its rule indefinitely. Yet because they have resisted and thereby have disobeyed the divine decree, they will be brought to judgment and will lose all the wealth that they accumulated over the centuries.
The Pattern of Pharaoh
To understand the divine plan, we must learn the mind of God through many biblical stories and even personal experience. God’s redemption in our time is similar to His redemption in the days of Moses.
Israel had been in bondage to Egypt for a long time. The time had been established prophetically to be 430 years from the promise given to Abraham (Gal. 3:17; Exodus 12:60). It was also 400 years from the birth of Isaac, the “seed” of Abraham (Gen. 15:13; 21:12). It was also 414 years from the birth of Ishmael, as I explained in Secrets of Time, chapter 5.
Hence, it was decreed in the divine court by the will of God Himself that the time of Israel’s slavery was to end in a particular year that is dated in at least three ways. When the time drew near, God sent Moses to deliver Israel.
God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand that he release the Israelites. But He also told Moses, “but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go” (Exodus 4:21).
In other words, the will of God for Pharaoh was to let them go, but the plan of God was to delay the release until ten plagues had destroyed Egypt.
God did not intend to let Egypt keep all the wealth that it had earned on the labor of the Israelites. Why? Because Pharaoh was ungodly and arrogant. Furthermore, the law commanded that when slaves were released, they were to be given provisions “liberally.” Deut. 15:15, 16 commands,
15 When you set him free, you shall not send him away empty-handed. 16 You shall furnish him liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you [i.e., from the slave’s labor].
Egypt, being ignorant of God’s law, had no intention of blessing the Israelites with such provisions, but God caused them to give the wealth of Egypt to their slaves that were being set free (Exodus 12:36). The law was enforced to override the will of Egypt by the stronger will of God.
Jeremiah says that this same pattern was to be repeated in the case of Babylon. We have no biblical record of how this may have been fulfilled in the days of Ezra, except for the provisions that the King of Persia gave to rebuild the temple. The decree of Cyrus is given in Ezra 6:4, “and let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.”
This decree had been ignored, so the work ceased for many years. Finally, however, they appealed to Darius the Great, a later king, who read the decree of Cyrus, ratified its contents, and then added in Ezra 6:8,
8 Moreover, I [Darius the Great] issue a decree concerning what you are to do for these elders of Judah in the rebuilding of this house of God: the full cost is to be paid to these people from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces beyond the River; and that without delay.
We see how the funding was delayed, but in the end, God moved the heart of the king of Persia to fulfill His will. God won His case when He pleaded the cause of those who were released from Babylon, and, as with Egypt, He released the slaves with liberal provisions.
Releasing the Slaves Today
Once we learn the mind of God and know His ways, we can safely say that God is treating Mystery Babylon in the same way today. Babylon should have released the people by declaring a Jubilee over the earth. However, the rulers of Babylon were too arrogant to do that. They did not care that their allotted time had expired in 2017.
We published this notice to Babylon as early as 2014, giving them a 3-year notice. I have no doubt that the spies of Babylon read it. Hence, they cannot claim ignorance as an excuse. But they thought they could defeat God.
From the divine perspective, God again hardened the hearts of the Babylonian kings in order to strip them of their wealth and power. God’s intention is to transfer authority and wealth to God’s people. Again.
Hence, since 2017 we have found ourselves in a great battle between good and evil. The government of Mystery Babylon is resisting the transfer of authority to the saints of the Most High (Dan. 7:22). We expected that, because God revealed that to us beforehand, just as He had revealed it to Moses while he was yet in Midian.
Passover to Tabernacles
In the days of Moses, God freed Israel at Passover. They were then led across the Red Sea (celebrated by the wave-sheaf offering) to Mount Sinai. There God spoke the Ten Commandments to the people, and they were instructed to keep that day as a new holiday (Holy Day) that was later named Pentecost.
The people remained at Sinai for a year and a half, during which time they built the tabernacle just in time to keep their first Passover in the wilderness. A few months later, Moses led Israel to Kadesh-barnea, where they sent the 12 spies into the land. They returned, carrying the first-ripe grapes (Num. 13:20, 23, 26). It was September, and it was the 50th Jubilee from Adam.
Yet because the ten spies gave an evil report, and the people believed their report, they turned the Jubilee into a Day of Atonement, thereafter celebrated by fasting and repenting for refusing to enter the Kingdom.
Under Moses, Israel failed to inherit the Promised Land. If they had had faith, they would have succeeded, and the feast days would have been fulfilled. It was God’s will that they enter the Promised Land at that time, but it was not the plan, for they could not inherit under the Old Covenant. Instead, they entered 38 years later under Joshua, a type of Christ, who is the Mediator of the New Covenant.
We today are following this pattern, except that we are ready to enter the Promised Land under the leadership of Jesus Christ and His New Covenant. For this reason, we will succeed where Israel failed. We will receive our Jubilee.
I suspect that Passover of 2021 will be the time of release from Egypt, followed by an outpouring of the Spirit through Pentecost, and finally in October of 2022 we might “enter the Promised Land” on some level. This is still an early view, of course, but when we pass some of these watch dates in the next few months, the view will either prove out or not.
The church has already spent its 40 years (Jubilees) in the wilderness, so I do not believe we will have to wait another 40 years. To me, it appears that we will follow the short pattern that Israel would have done under Moses if they had had faith in the promises of God.
If this pattern does not unfold this year, then perhaps we may see it next year or perhaps later. But my sense is that it will begin in 2021. Time will tell.
The Rapture
When Jesus prophesied about His second coming, He said in Matt. 24:37-39,
37 For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
He then continued in verses 40 and 41, talking about how one will be “taken” and the other “left.” The context shows that the one who is “taken” is the unbeliever that will be taken by the flood. The one who is “left” is the believer who survived to inherit the earth (as with Noah’s family).
Unfortunately, the blind church thinks the opposite will occur. The book, Left Behind, is all about how they see the church being “taken” and the wicked ones “left” to face the Antichrist. That, of course, is precisely the opposite of what Jesus said.
We see the feast days as being prophetic of Christ’s comings. The Spring feasts prophesy of His first coming; the Autumn feasts prophesy of His second coming. What many call “the rapture” is actually Paul’s description of the eighth day of Tabernacles, when the saints are caught away to the throne of God to be presented as the sons of God on the eighth day, according to the law (Exodus 22:29, 30).
They will then be manifested to the world the same day, according to the pattern of priestly consecration (Lev. 9:1). If one wishes to call this a “rapture,” so be it. The word is from the Latin, rapto, and it simply means “caught away.” It is the equivalent of the Greek word harpazo. But the eschatology set forth by rapture teachers is based largely on an ignorance of the feast days.
See my book, The Rapture in the Light of Tabernacles.
The Nephilim
I say this only to lead into another aspect of the days of Noah. The reason for the flood was on account of the Nephilim in Gen. 6:4. Whatever one’s view is of these Nephilim, it is clear that humanity was corrupted to the point that a new start was needed.
Unfortunately, even after the flood wiped out the original Nephilim, another incident took place that spawned more Nephilim. Gen. 6:4 says, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days [i.e., the days of Noah]; and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them…”
Because of this second incident, Nephilim (giants) ruled the land of Canaan and Bashan for many centuries. Moses fought them and took their land on the east side of the Jordan River just before Joshua led Israel into the land. Sihon and Og were giant kings that were killed by Israel.
A few centuries later, another giant, Goliath, was a champion of the Philistines (1 Sam. 17:4). He had a brother named Lahmi (1 Chron. 20:5), who was killed by Elhanan. Another unknown giant was also killed by David’s nephew (1 Chron. 20:6, 7). Verse 8 says,
8 These were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
The point is that there were giants long after the flood. The original giants were the cause of Noah’s flood. The secondary giants were never fully destroyed. They simply married “normal” people and soon lost their great height and appearance. After many generations, they soon could not be distinguished from “normal” people.
Yet Satanism and Witchcraft today still honors those who claim to be descended from the Nephilim. They boast of their heritage, and these have risen in power as rulers of the present Babylonian world order. These are the modern Nephilim that we must deal with “as in the days of Noah.”
The “flood” today is the flood of the Holy Spirit, by which we are more than conquerors. The fate of these who are part Nephilim will be decided by God Himself. The flood is our main precedent, along with the battles under Moses and David.
The Two Floods
The stated purpose of Noah’s flood is given in Gen. 6:17,
17 Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath [ruach, “breath, wind, spirit”] of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.
The flood removed “the breath of life” from all flesh, essentially by drowning them. There is also a prophetic angle to this, where God removed His Spirit from them. He also planned to bring about a second flood to restore the breath of life to mankind. Hab. 2:14 says,
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Just as the waters covered the earth to remove the breath of life from all flesh, so also will the knowledge of the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. I conducted a scientific experiment years ago to measure the precise portion of water that covered the sea. I concluded that it was very close to 100 percent.
Therefore, I concluded that the earth will be covered about 100 percent by the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. In other words, all mankind will be filled with the Holy Spirit when the latter-day flood comes.
But God has not chosen to cover the earth all at once. He has broken it down into three portions, which are prophesied in Genesis 8. At the end of Noah’s flood, he sent out a dove three times.
The first dove returned, having found no resting place (Gen. 8:9). On the second occasion, the dove returned with an olive leaf (Gen. 8:11). On the third occasion, the dove did not return (Gen. 8:12).
These three occasions prophesied of the Spirit coming first at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:20) but found no resting place, because the people ran away in fear (Exodus 20:19). Then at the upper room (Acts 2:1) the Spirit came again and found a small group of people who had overcome their fear of hearing God’s voice. These were like the small olive leaf that the second dove had brought to Noah.
The third occasion is yet to be seen in the earth. When this dove is sent forth, it will not return without filling the whole earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
The earth has a glorious future. I am not Mr. Doom and Gloom, because I do not preach the bad news of the Old Covenant and its failed method of salvation. I believe Isaiah’s “good news” (Isaiah 40:9; 41:27; 52:7; 60:6; 61:1). The Hebrew word is basar, which has a double meaning: flesh and good news.
If we believe the gospel of Christ, we are eating His flesh as He taught us in John 6:53. This is a New Covenant gospel that is sure to succeed. Therefore, it is the good news that God has promised to save the earth and all mankind by the flood of the Holy Spirit—the third dove.
What was begun at Sinai will be completed in our time.
