Make Good Use of God's Reprieve of 100 Years
It is true that we can not know the day and the hour of Armageddon. We have been mislead about dates in the past. As Matt. 24: 36 says, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of the heaven, but my Father only."
What can we discern from this scripture? Is it really saying that nobody knows the day and the hour? Or is it actually telling us the year, while keeping the day and the hour secret? Remember that Jesus said the Father only knew. But Jesus knew at what hour he was about to die. Matt. 26: 45 reveals "Then He came to His disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners."
So Jesus knew when he was to die in the year 33 CE. What can we learn from this? Can we actually pinpoint the year in which that day and hour is to come? With all certainty yes!
Taking the number 2436 from Matt. 24: 36, and applying the rule a year for a day, we get "But of that year and hour..." or 2436 years. Jesus died in 33 CE. This is in partial fulfillment of the prophesy of time, times, and a half times. Time is 1 and times is 2. Adding 1 and 2 you get 3. 3 times 11 is 33, which gives us our partial fulfillment. The number 11 in the Bible represents the number of complete spiritual confusion. Remember it was 11 confused brothers who approached Joseph in Egypt. It was 11 disciples who remained faithful to Jesus, although they were scattered and confused. Also 11, when the digits are summed together, gives us 2, which is the first digit of 2436!
Okay, one might ask, but what about the half times. The complete fulfillment comes when we add back the half times. If we split 33 in half, spiritually, we get 3 and 3. So a half times of 3 and 33 give us 333. Was this 333 CE? Hardly not! This year had not yet occurred when Jesus spoke. It was still some 300 years in the future. So obviously he is talking about 333 BCE.
What event of significance happened in 333 BCE? This was the year that Alexander the Great, prophesied about in the Bible, started his Greek conquest of the Earth as a new world power, replacing the Medo-Persian world power. That world power ended and the Greek world power began. Alexander the Great also died at age 33 just like Christ did! This shows us that we are on the track of finding the real truth of these words. All of these numbers fit together as if a master architect had fashioned them.
If we go forward from the year of the complete fulfillment at 333 BCE the full number of 2436 years we arrive at the year of fulfillment, but of the day and hour we do not know. We must remember to subtract a year because there was no year zero. This gives us the 2102 CE. It is right around the corner! Oh how marvelous that God has given us another hundred years to prepare ourselves and others for that glorious day and hour!Surely we do not want to be caught sleeping or napping as the disciples were in Matt. 26:45. Let us do our utmost to be active during this time of reprieve!
Contributed by Swan