Today is the Gregorian anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount by Israeli paratroopers on June 7, 1967, during the Six-Day War (Jews celebrated Jerusalem Day on 28 Iyyar on the Jewish calendar, which occurred on June 1 this year). It is one of the most important dates in modern history.

The liberation was prophesied more than two-thousand year ago down to the very year, in the Book of Daniel, chapter 8, verses 13-14. 

As an event, it is significant both in terms of current Middle East history and, even moreso, as an event of prophetic fulfillment in biblical history. Its biblical significance was missed by virtually all Christian Bible scholars and Jewish sages at the time (and most still can’t see it), but it has since turned out to be the key for understanding the chrono-specific prophecies in Daniel, specifically, the seven chrono-specific prophecies recorded in chapter 4 and chapters 7-12.

In 1974, the Lord opened my eyes to the significance of the Temple Mount liberation that had happened seven years earlier in 1967. Since then, I have spent the better part of my life using that event prophesied in Daniel, chapter 8, to unlock the remaining chrono-specific prophecies in the Book of Daniel. My book, Daniel Unsealed (see the ”Publications” link above), explains the path of understanding I followed as the Lord led, and reveals what the Danielic prophecies say about the Jewish People, their history, and their God.

As a Bible believer, June 7 will always be one of the most important dates on the calendar for me, although only a few people understand how important an anniversary it is at present. I have no doubt that in the days and years to come, that will change as biblical understanding about the end-time increases.

And, yes, we are already in the biblical period referred to as the end times, which isn’t an instant in which the world ends, but is instead is a period of time resulting in the prophesied consummation events. Make no mistake about it, the Bible is a Scripture of Truth, and what it says about the progression of history will happen as predicted.

Watch and be ready!

I have updated the exposition of Daniel, chapter 9, verses 26-27, which is found in Chapter Six in my book Daniel Unsealed (pages 92-94).

You can view the changes by clicking on … Update to Chapter Six.

According to a religious fringe group in California, the world will end at 6pm tomorrow.

Asked about which time zone this 6pm prediction was based on, the leader of the latest end-of-the-world lunacy said that it would happen at 6pm in each time zone, which means that it will supposedly begin in American Samoa at 11pm Eastern Time and move westward as the earth rotates.

As silly as all of this sounds, millions of people, and especially the media, are giving these predictions of apocalypse widespread attention, and many people are taking all of this nonsense seriously.

Of course, this manmade misinterpretation of the Bible is nothing new in religious circles. For more than three-hundred years, well-respected and well-intentioned Bible expositors have been pushing a manmade 360-day “prophetic year” as the key to interpreting biblical prophecies.

Nowhere in the Bible, mainstream Jewish history, or astronomy is there any mention of or basis for a 360-day “prophetic year” for use in Bible interpretation. The 360-day ”prophetic year” idea is just as erroneous as the May 21, 2011 date for the end of the world.

It’s about time that those who base their interpretations of Bible prophecy on a 360-day “prophetic year” admit that such use is purely a figment of man’s imagination. It isn’t in the Bible!

See you here on Monday.

Seder Olam, the name generally used to denote a work also known as the Seder Olam Rabbah (סדר עולם רבה, “The Long Order of the World”), is a book of Jewish chronology explaining biblical events from the Creation down to the end of the Achaemenid Persian Period and the advent of Alexander the Great in 331 B.C.E., with a brief mention of the later bar Kochba revolt in 132-135 C.E. It was compiled from traditional Hebrew records edited into a single volume by the famous early Talmudist, Rabbi Yose ben Halafta, around 160 C.E. It has 30 chapters, formed into three thematic “gates,” each encompassing ten chapters. The purpose of the work appears to be calendrical, with specific dates given for various biblical events, and with comments that seek to explain the many chronological difficulties found throughout the Hebrew biblical text.

In my book, Daniel Unsealed, I have used selected chronologies from the Seder Olam, mainly as a way of cross-checking the biblical chronology. For example, the Seder Olam says that there were 155 years from the year that Solomon finished building the Temple until the year that Joash renovated the Temple in his 23rd regnal year, and that there were 218 years from the renovation by Joash until the renovation by Josiah in his 18th regnal year, which is known to have begun in 623 B.C.E. Using this information, one can compute that the 23rd regnal year of Joash was the year 841 B.C.E. (623 B.C.E. + 218 years), and that Solomon completed the Temple in 996 B.C.E. (841 B.C.E. + 155 years). This cross-references perfectly with what I calculated from the chronology for the kings of Israel and Judah (and the construction of the Temple) given in biblical text, using the chronology provided in Daniel, chapter 4, to calculate the monarchal period. Thus, the Seder Olam can be used as a cross-check on occasion, although it can never be used as the primary source in biblical interpretation. That role is reserved for the biblical text itself.

In working out the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah for Appendix Six of my book, I have found that the Seder Olam is fairly accurate with regards to its chronological relationships, such as the example about the Temple given in the paragrah above, but not necessarily in its exact dates. For the dates after the Exile, the chronology in the Seder Olam seems to have been subject to error, either accidental due to the turmoil of the times, or perhaps even intentional later on to counter Christian exegesis relating to Jesus. For instance, the Persian Period is shortened to only 34 years in duration (52 years in French manuscripts), probably to accommodate an erroneous rabbinical interpretation derived from Daniel, chapter 9, that interprets that passage to say that the time between the destruction of the First Temple and the Second Temple had to be 490 years. Historians almost universally agree that the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E., but the Seder Olam gives the destruction as occurring in the year 423 B.C.E., a 165-year difference, in this way allowing it conform to the incorrect 490-year rabbinic interpretation about the two Temple destructions. Thus, the duration of the Persian Period has to be  shortened in the Seder Olam to accommodate the difference.

Wikipedia says this: “The traditional dates of events in Jewish history are often expressed in relation to the Gregorian calendar. For example, the traditional Jewish date for the destruction of the First Temple (3338 AM = 423 BCE) differs from the modern scientific date, which is usually expressed using the Gregorian calendar as 586 BCE. Implicit in this practice is the view that if all the differences in structure between the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars are taken into consideration, the two dates can be derived from each other. This is not the case. If the traditional dates of events before the Second Temple era are assumed to be using the standard Hebrew calendar, they refer to different objective years than those of the secular dates. The discrepancy is some 165 years.”

My use of the Seder Olam for cross-checking the biblical chronology is confined mainly to the chronologies provided in the appendices of my book, and, I emphasize again, it is never used as the primary source over the biblical text. However, the Seder Olam can be a useful work for cross-checking chronological details of events and time periods that occurred before the Exile once the overall chronology has been derived from the biblical text.

Updates concerning the reign of Hezekiah (pages 171-176)

The start of the reign of Hezekiah has been changed from early 726 BCE to late 727 BCE. This makes his regnal years span from 727 BCE to 698 BCE, which better fits with the non-biblical data concerning the fall of Samaria. The “extra” year that is opened between the reign of Hezekiah and the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE is accounted for by adjusting the chronology between the end of the reign of Amon and the start of the reign of Josiah. From the Scriptures, we learn that Amon was assassinated by palace servants. The events of the assassination are recounted in 2 Kings 21:23-24, as follows: “And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house. And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.” From this account, it seems that there was a short time interval between the death of Amon and the start of the reign of Josiah, during which time the conspirators and assassins were hunted, tried, and executed by leadership from outside the palace. Apparently Amon was killed before the 10th of Tishri in the year 641 BCE  (the 10th of Tishri being the date used for numbering the regnal years of kings in Judah, thus Amon never saw his third regnal year) and Josiah was installed as king after that date, making Josiah’s acession year begin in 641 BCE while still retaining the end of his reign in his 31st regnal year, his death occurring in late spring of 609 BCE.

1. The reigns of the kings of Judah from Hezekiah to Zedekiah (shown on pages 172-173 in the book) are adjusted as shown on the following file: Regnal Years of Kings of Judah.

2. Hezekiah’s regnal years (shown on page 175 in the book) are adjusted as shown on the following file: Hezekiah’s Regnal Years.

The primary purpose of this blog is to allow discussion of our new book, Daniel Unsealed, which, we  believe, is the most accurate and biblically strict interpretation of the seven chrono-specific prophecies recorded in the Book of Daniel. It assumes that you have read the book before you begin your participation. We invite you to ask questions and share insights about the Danielic prophecies. As we publish more books and articles on other Bible prophecies, we will expand our discussion to cover those prophecies as well. In the meantime, you can ask questions about prophetic Bible passages other than those in the Book of Daniel that you would like to have discussed and explained here. We look forward to your participation.