Many scholars believe that in 2007 CE, the earth is approximately 6007 years old. However, the Orthodox Jewish calendar tells us that in 2007 CE, the earth is really only 5767 years old. If we subtract 5767 from 6007, we see a difference of some 240 years between these two calendars.

 

 

 

The difference is approximately 240 or 241 years, since the calendars begin at different times of the year. But if there is 240 years difference between these two different calendars, then which one is right? And why would this question be important?

 

This question is important because if the year is 5767, then Yeshua was not the Messiah. However, if the year is 6007, Yeshua really was the Messiah. Further, an analysis of these things will show us what Scripture really teaches about the Abomination of Desolation.

 

As we explained before, the Apostle Kepha tells us that a day in prophecy is as a thousand earth years:

 

Let us apply this ‘day for a thousand years’ principle to the seven day Creation Week in Genesis.

 

 

 

If a day in prophecy represents a thousand earth years, then the seven days of the Creation Week are symbolic of a seven thousand year plan for the earth. At the end of these seven thousand years, Yeshua will come, and the earth will be burned up in fire (2^nd Peter 3:10-12).

 

Interestingly, we can also see a picture of the Messiah in the Creation Week. Yeshua is symbolized by the spiritual light that Elohim created on the first day.

 

 

 

Since the sun was not created until the fourth day, the ‘light’ that Yeshua represents here is not visible light, but spiritual light. 

Yochanan also tells us that Yeshua is the spiritual light of the world.

 

 

 

But in addition to being the spiritual light of the world, Yeshua is also symbolized by the sun that was made on the fourth day. Nazarenes, Christians and Orthodox Jews all agree that the sun is symbolic of the Messiah.

 

 

 

Some Christians have suggested that since the sun is symbolic of the Messiah, it is OK to worship on the day of the sun (‘Sunday’), and on the Roman solar calendar (the Christian calendar) in general. However, since Yeshua said He did not come to do away with the least part of the Torah (e.g. Matthew 5:17-19), it would be wrong to think that we can worship or rest on any other days than the ones which are specified in Scripture.

 

However, what we need to realize is that if:

 

 

 

Nazarenes, Christians and Orthodox Jews all agree that the Messiah was to be born at the four thousand year mark, in fulfillment of the creation of the sun at Genesis 1:14-19 (above). And, if we add up the ages of certain people in the Tanach (the ‘Old’ Covenant), and add up the reigns of the kings, we get an age of the earth that is very close to 6007.

To read the full study and verify the details of the chronology, please see ‘About the Missing 240 years,’ at www.nazareneisrael.org, on the Free Studies page. What the article shows is that the exact number cannot be arrived at, because the ages of persons recorded in the Tanach are rounded down to the whole year. For example, Adam is said to have fathered Seth when he was 130 years old.

 

 

 

It is highly unlikely that Adam was exactly one hundred and thirty years of age, to the day. That is, it is very unlikely that he was 130 years, 0 months and 0 days old when Seth was born. Rather, he was probably somewhere in between 130 and 131 years of age. In correcting for this kind of error, we come up with a total age of the earth somewhere within 2.5 to 6.5 years of 6,007 years, which is highly statistically significant. The age of the earth according to the Tanach is within 0.1625% of the 6,007 year total, which is very accurate, and this suggests that Yeshua really was the Messiah.

 

In contrast, if we take the present year of the Jewish calendar in 2007 CE (5767) and subtract the number of years from Yeshua’s birth (2007), the Jewish calendar tells us that Yeshua was not born in the year 4,000, but in the year 3760.

 

In the Jewish mind, that Yeshua was allegedly born in the year 3,760 completely disqualifies Him as being the Messiah. A birth age for Yeshua of 3,760 is 240 years off of the expected 4,000 year total. 240 years is too great of a discrepancy to be a fulfillment of the 4,000 year birth age stipulated by Genesis 1:14-19.

 

However, when we start to dig into this question of the exact age of the earth, what we find is that the Jewish calendar is inaccurate. Rather than calculating the age of the earth by adding up the dates in the Tanach (as we do in the study, ‘About the Missing 240 years), the Jewish calendar is determined by a separate tradition.

 

What is this separate tradition? It is an official rabbinic chronology found in a book called the ‘Seder Olam’ (‘The Order of Eternity’). 

 

Scholars disagree as to exactly when the Seder Olam was written. Some date it to about 169 CE, while yet others date it to around 240 CE. In either case, it was written more than a hundred years after Yeshua’s death, burial and resurrection.

 

Most scholars agree that the Seder Olam is not accurate, and there is also general agreement that a few parts of it have been re-written many times, in an attempt to correct some fundamental errors in the text. However, the text even as it stands today is not correct.

 

Most believing scholars also agree that the Seder Olam was written in order to justify subtracting 240 years from the rabbinical calendar, so as to prove that Yeshua was not really born in the year 4,000 (and hence, that He was not really the Messiah). But how could the Jews decide to subtract 240 years from their calendar? And why did they do it?

Since they also study prophecy, the rabbis expected the Messiah to be born in the Hebrew year 4000 (0 CE). However, the Jewish conception of a ‘messiah’ is that of a great military leader who vanquishes Israel’s enemies, and brings the people back to the Torah. Since Yeshua did not throw off the Roman army (but was killed), and since many people misunderstood His teachings (that the rabbinical customs in the Talmud were not part of the Torah), the rabbis did not see how Yeshua was the prophesied messiah. For this reason, they continued to look for a great military leader.

 

In the original Hebrew calendar year 4133 (133 CE), about a hundred years after Yeshua’s ministry, there was a man by the name of Simon ben Cosiba. Simon ben Cosiba’s was a great military leader, and so his name was later changed to Simon Bar Kochba (Simon, son of the star) due to the rabbinical belief that he was the messianic fulfillment of Numbers 24:17.

 

 

 

The Jews had been suffering under Roman occupation even in Yeshua’s day, but when the Romans outlawed physical circumcision and forbade the Jews to come to Jerusalem more than one day a year, the Jews rose up in violent protest. Whereas the Jews had never before been successful at throwing off the Roman yoke, Simon ben Cosiba unified the Jewish forces, and brought them together as one army. 

Simon ben Cosiba won several key decisive military battles against the Romans. So powerful was the Jewish revolt, and so great were the Roman losses that the Romans committed twelve Roman legions against the Jews (which was something like a third to a half of the Roman military at that time). Even with half of their military committed to the fighting, the Romans were still badly outnumbered, and they took heavy losses. They did not dare to fight on the open battleground, but took to a ‘scorched earth’ policy that over time eroded the Jewish ability to fight.

 

Because of his military successes against the Romans, the leading rabbi of the day (Rabbi Akiva) declared that Simon Ben Cosiba was the messiah. However, since the rabbis were aware that the Messiah had to be born in the year 4,000 (0 CE), the rabbis decreed that 240 years had to be subtracted from the Jewish calendar. This was done in order to make it look like Shimon Ben Cosiba was fulfilling some of the prophecies over the Messiah in Daniel 9:24-27. At the time of the decree, the year changed from 4133 to 3893 overnight.

 

Modern Jewish scholarship acknowledges that the Seder Olam is inaccurate. Under the heading ‘Seder Olam,’ the Encyclopedia Judaica tells us that there is some “significant confusion” in the author’s calculations, including several places where the amount of time attributed to the ‘Persian Period’ was ‘compressed’ from ten kingships, to just four.

 

Although Yose b. Halafta was probably not the author of the Seder Olam (in that he is quoted by the author, and is even derided by the author for making incorrect statements about the chronology), it is nonetheless instructive that modern Jewish scholarship admits that the Seder Olam’s chronology was changed.

 

 

Just what exactly is the Encyclopedia Judaica saying? 

 

The ‘Persian Period’ lasted approximately 185 years, and spanned ten kingships. It started in 516 BCE, and lasted until the conquest of Judea by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. This equates to 185 years.

 

 

 

In contrast, the Seder Olam tells us that the Persian Period lasted only 34 years, which is 151 years short.

 

 

 

This is just one example of the kinds of ‘compressions’ and ‘inaccuracies’ found in the Seder Olam.

The author of the Seder Olam ‘compressed’ 151 years from the Persian Period, and even more time from other periods, for a total of 240 years of ‘compression.’ As a result of this, it made it look like Simon Ben Cosba (Simon Bar Kochba) fit the prophecies over the coming of the Messiah much better than Yeshua did.

 

Simon Bar Kochba was ultimately defeated by the Romans, and killed. Ironically, even though he was proven to be a false messiah, the rabbis still refuse to correct the 240 year subtraction.

 

The year in 2007 CE, however, is not 5767, but 6007. One additional advantage of knowing the correct year is that we can understand what Scripture really teaches us about the Abomination of Desolation.

 

In addition to the ‘thousand years for a day’ rule, we are also told that a day in prophecy can sometimes symbolize one earth year:

That one prophetic day sometimes symbolizes just one earth year also helps to give us just one more witness as to why Pre-Millennial Return Theory is wrong.

 

Classical Pre-Millennial Return Theory tells us that the Messiah Yeshua was supposed to return in the clouds in physical form in 2000 CE. According to the classical doctrine, that means that the anti-Messiah was also supposed to come to power three and one-half years before that (i.e., in 1996 CE), so that the earth could have three and one-half years of tribulation before Yeshua’s triumphal return in the clouds.

 

According to classical Pre-Millennial Return Theory, the anti-Messiah was also supposed to build an “anti-Messiah’s Temple” starting in 1996 CE. According to Pre-Millennial Return Theory, this “anti-Messiah’s Temple” was supposed to have been the prophetic fulfillment of the Abomination of Desolation that is spoken of by the prophet Daniel.

 

 

 

But did the anti-Messiah come to power in 1996 CE? And did he build an anti-Messiah Temple in Jerusalem in 1996? 

 

No, he did not: and yet somewhat amazingly, many people still claim that the anti-Messiah will do that very soon. However, if they would stop for a moment, they would see that this is impossible. But why?

The Abomination of Desolation must have been set up long before 1996 CE.  Why? Because the ‘days’ in Daniel 12:11 represent earth years, according to the pattern shown in Ezekiel.

 

 

 

When Daniel 12:11 tells us that there would be 1,290 days in between the time the daily sacrifice was taken away until the Abomination of Desolation was set up, what Daniel really meant was that there would be 1,290 earth years in between the time the daily sacrifice was taken away, until the Abomination of Desolation was set up.

 

 

 

If Yeshua was born in the year 4000, then in 1996 CE (when the anti-Messiah was allegedly supposed to come), the earth was already 5996 years old.

 

Since the earth will only last for 7,000 years, in 1996 CE there were only 1,004 more years until the earth would be destroyed.

 

 

 

However, Daniel 12:11 requires 1,290 years in between the time the daily sacrifice is taken away, until the Abomination of Desolation is set up. 

 

 

 

For there to be 1,290 days in between the time the daily is taken away and the time the Abomination of Desolation is set up, the daily sacrifice could not have been taken away any later than 1710 CE (prior to the American Revolution).

 

 

 

However, as we already saw, in 1996 CE there were only 1,004 earth years remaining. Therefore, had an anti-Messiah ‘taken away the daily’ at any time after 1710 CE, there would not have been enough time left to fulfill Daniel 12:11.

What we need to realize is that the establishment of the Abomination of Desolation cannot be a future event, because that would force the earth to go beyond the 7,000 years allotted to it in prophecy. Therefore, the ‘taking away of the daily sacrifice’ and the setting up of the Abomination of Desolation can only be past events.

 

There were actually three different Babylonian attacks on Jerusalem, but the one in which the daily sacrifice was taken away was in 597/596 BCE, under the reign of King Yehoiachin.

 

Second Kings 24:10-14 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, captured Jerusalem in the eighth year of his reign. Secular history tells us that the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was approximately 597/596 BCE. Verse 13 tells us that not only did Nebuchadnezzar’s forces take away all of the priests, but they also took away all of the utensils used for serving in the Temple, which meant that the priesthood could no longer offer up the daily sacrifices (and therefore, the daily sacrifice was taken away).

 

 

 

The daily sacrifices were ‘taken away’ in 597/596 BCE, when Jerusalem fell. Notice, then, that Daniel 12:11 (above) tells us that from the time the daily sacrifice was taken away (in 597/596 BCE), there would be 1,290 days (i.e., 1,290 years) until the Abomination of Desolation would be set up. Therefore, to discover when the Abomination of Desolation was set up, all we need to do is just to add 1,290 years to the date that Jerusalem fell (in 597/596 BCE).

 

 

 

An inscription in the Dome of the Rock claims that construction was completed in 691/692, and most Muslim authorities have accepted this as the official completion date. However, other renowned Muslim historians such as Sibt b. Al-Jawzi have argued that this date was inscribed prematurely, and that the work was not totally completed until 693/694 CE.

The Dome of the Rock is the perfect fulfillment of the Abomination of Desolation. From a Hebraic standpoint, it completely defiles the Temple Mount, making it impossible to re-establish the correct worship until it is destroyed. In effect, then, the Dome of the Rock makes Israel’s worship ‘desolate.’

 

Then in Daniel 12:12, we read about a blessing that comes to those who wait until the 1,335 days (i.e., 1,335 years).

 

 

If we add 1,335 years to the date that the Dome of the Rock (i.e., the Abomination of Desolation) was actually completed, we come to approximately (+/-) 2028 CE.

 

 

 

2028/2029 is a date we already recognize as being highly significant in prophecy. Ezekiel was told to lie on his left side for 390 days; each day symbolizing a year that the House of Ephraim was to remain in exile:

 

 

 

Again the ‘day for a year’ rule holds, so that the House of Israel (Ephraim) would not stay in the Assyrian Dispersion for just 390 days, but 390 years. 

 

However, there was also a catch. Leviticus 26 tells us that whenever we do not obey all of His commandments, then He will set His face against us, and punish us.

 

 

 

Then verse 18 tells us something special. It tells us that if we are not performing all of His commandments at the end of our time of punishment, then He multiplies our punishment times seven. This is not seven more times, but a total of seven times.

 

 

In Nazarene Israel, we spoke about how YHWH used the Assyrian Empire to take the northern ten tribes of Israel into the Assyrian Diaspora, in fulfillment of the punishments prophesied in Ezekiel 4:4-5 (above). It is easy to think of this attack against the northern House of Israel (Ephraim) as being one single event, but that would be overly simplistic.

 

While Satan has always been bent on the destruction of Israel, the king of Assyria (Tiglath Pileser III) was probably not so much consciously intent on punishing the House Israel for YHWH as he was upon expanding his own empire. Much like the Greeks and the Romans who came after him, Tiglath-Pileser III was probably just seizing and holding what he felt were important economic and strategic pieces of ground, in order to expand his empire. 

 

The military history of the region is complex. However, secular history informs us that Tiglath-Pileser began his incursions into the Northern Kingdom of Israel in approximately 738 BCE, and that there was a series of successive campaigns over several years. However, historians also agree that the year 734 BCE was highly significant, in that it was the year that the Mediterranean coastal strip fell, including the city of Gaza and most of Philistia.

Whenever the Assyrians conquered a piece of land, their practice was to deport the inhabitants of that land, and then re-settle the ground with others from the Assyrian Empire. There were numerous incremental deportations, but if the Assyrians made a major landmark deportation in 734 BCE, then 390 years later would bring us to 344 BCE.

 

 

 

As we explain in Nazarene Israel, the problem was that when our forefathers went into captivity, they did not take the punishment to heart. They did not begin keeping the Torah. Rather, after they were re-settled they lost their identity as Israelites, and began to think of themselves not so much as Ephraimites, but as Assyrians. This was witnessed by the fact that they no longer kept the Torah, no longer spoke Hebrew, and no longer lived in the Land of Israel. Thus, they lost their identity as His people. This is very similar to how many families in America and the rest of the ex-British Empire used to be very religious and devout, but their children have fallen away from the faith.

 

Because our forefathers did not begin keeping all of His Commandments when the time of punishment ran out (in 344 BCE), our punishment was multiplied times seven (for a total of seven times). Thus, the total years of punishment grew from 390 years, to seven times 390 years, for a total of 2,730 years.

 

When we add 2,730 years to the time of the Assyrian deportations of Gaza and the strategic Mediterranean coastal area (in 734 BCE), we find that the new end of Ephraim’s dispersion comes to approximately 1996 CE.

 

 

 

As we will see below, 1996 CE is a highly significant date, in that it marks the beginning (but not the completion) of the end of Ephraim’s dispersion. That is, Ephraim’s dispersion would ‘begin to end’ at that time.

 

Just as the Jews were carried into captivity in Babylon over a long period of time, and just as the Ephraimites were carried into the Dispersion over a period of many years, so too will the end of the Dispersion take place over a period of time (rather than all at once).

 

The Book of Hosea also witnesses to the end of Ephraim’s dispersion beginning to take place in or around 1996, and ending in approximately 2029 CE. The Book of Hosea speaks primarily to the House of Ephraim. Therefore, speaking of the Ephraimites, Hosea prophesies:

 

 

 

Let us remember once again that a day in prophecy can equal a thousand earth years.

 

If a prophetic day can equal a thousand earth years, then the two prophetic ‘days’ of Hosea 6:2 are really two thousand years, and what Hosea is telling us is that the Ephraimites will be raised up after two thousand years. But the next question becomes, “Two thousand years from when?”

 

The word Mashiach (Messiah) means ‘anointed one,’ and in Hebraic thought, a Mashiach is a divinely appointed leader who brings the lost and scattered of Israel back to the Land of Israel, and to the eternal Torah. As we showed in Nazarene Israel, this is what Yeshua is doing for the Ephraimite people.

 

Scholarship generally disagrees as to the exact year of the Messiah’s birth. However, whether Yeshua was born in 4 BCE, 1 BCE, or 1AD (i.e., the year 0) is not really important to us, as we are not attempting to set exact dates. However, since most scholars now favor the 4 BCE date, let us use that date for this particular computation.

 

Just as Tiglath Pileser’s dispersions of the Ephraimites took place over many years, the Ephraimite movement also has no exact pinpoint ‘start date.’ However, numerous persons active in the Two House and Ephraimite Movements have reported that 1996 CE was a pivotal year in the Two House Movement, in that the numbers of people attending the festivals greatly increased, and that there was also a dramatic surge in interest in that year in general.

Two thousand years after Yeshua’s birth in 4 BCE brings us to 1996 CE, which is the same year that the Ephraimite movement reportedly enjoyed a dramatic surge of interest. 

 

 

 

The dates are not exact, which is why one needs ‘eyes to see’ what is actually happening. However, since the job of a Messiah is to bring back the lost and the scattered of Israel, and to bring them back to the Torah, it only makes sense that the year of the Messiah’s birth would be highly significant with regards to the Ephraimite Movement. 

 

Even if we use the year 0 (or some other year, such as 1 BCE), the numbers still work for our purposes here, because all we are trying to do is to show that some time in the general vicinity of 1996 to 2000 CE, there was a dramatic surge in interest in the Ephraimite and the Two House movements; and that this is directly related to the fact that the Messiah was born some two thousand years before.

 

But if the year of the Messiah’s birth is significant with regards to the Ephraimite Movement, then what about the year of the Messiah’s death and resurrection? One would think that the death, burial and resurrection of the Messiah would be even more significant with regards to the Ingathering of Israel than the Messiah’s birth was. What is ‘two days’ after that?

 

Scripture tells us that the Messiah began His ministry when He was about 30 years of age.

 

 

Most scholars also generally believe that the Messiah’s ministry lasted for some three and one-half years, thus putting His age at His resurrection at about 33-34.

 

 

 

Two thousand years from Yeshua’s death, burial and resurrection in +/- 29 CE, then, give us a third witness to the (approximate) 2028/2029 CE date.

 

 

 

We should emphasize that we are not setting a date for the Ingathering, nor are we even specifying an exact year. The dates and figures we are working with here are ancient, and inexact. While YHWH knows the day and the hour He will bring His people back home, we do not need to know the day or the hour. Like good brides, all we need to do is to know what prophecy says, and then begin preparing ourselves for the day and the hour that He should decide to bring us home. At our level, what we need to know is that we cannot go home until we assemble ourselves as the ‘Stick of Ephraim,’ in order to fulfill Ezekiel 37:15-17.

 

 

However, before we close this chapter, we should also point out that there will also be a second fulfillment of the Abomination of Desolation in the end times, just before Yeshua’s triumphal return.

 

 

 

As we mentioned before, YHWH sometimes inspires Scripture in riddles, in order to keep the meanings of certain books ‘sealed up’ until the end times. 

 

In Matthew 24:15-17 (above) Yeshua is actually telling us that there will be a second Abomination of Desolation set up on the Temple Mount (the Set-apart Place). This second Abomination of Desolation will be set up during the Great Tribulation, which comes just prior to Yeshua’s victorious return at the end of the Millennium. The reason we know this is that there was no reason for those in Jerusalem to have to flee to the mountains when the first Abomination of Desolation was set up in 693/694 CE. This need to flee will only take place when Jerusalem is overrun, during the Great Tribulation at the end of the Millennium.

At the end of the Millennium, Satan will be loosed from his prison, and he will go forth to marshal all of the armies of the world together against Israel in the War of Gog and Magog. In this war, Israel will be overrun, and the Great Tribulation will begin. Satan’s Forces will once again take away all of the daily sacrifices, and an Abomination That Makes Desolate will again be set up on the Temple Mount.

 

 

 

At the end of the Millennium, Satan will be loosed from his prison, and will go forth to marshal all of the armies of the world together against Israel, in the War of Gog and Magog. Israel will be overrun, and Jerusalem will be taken. The Great Tribulation will begin as Satan’s forces will again take away the daily sacrifices, and an Abomination of Desolation will again be established on the Temple Mount. It is at this time that Yeshua will appear in the clouds, and catch His people up to be with Him, and fight against Satan’s forces (and win).

 

 

As we read in Revelation 20:9b (above), fire will come down from heaven, and destroy Satan’s forces. This will happen when Yeshua (who is also YHWH) calls down fire from YHWH in heaven (i.e., YHWH the Father) upon the armies of Gog and Magog, just as He called down fire at Sodom and Gomorrah.

In the Great Tribulation at the end of the Millennium, Yeshua comes to save His bride Israel from destruction at the hand of the armies of Gog and Magog, and then He will take all the wise virgins to the Wedding Feast that is right now being prepared at His Father’s house.

 

May you be among those wise virgins.

 

In Yeshua’s name,

 

Amein.