Here comes the pope, but will ‘chaos’ follow?
Then you have the scheduled arrival of Pope Francis at the White House on Sept. 23 and a first-ever address to a joint session of Congress the next day. Francis is the 266th pope who will be meeting with President Obama on the 266th day of the year, leading one Internet preacher to wonder if “something is being birthed” on that day, since 266 days is the typical human gestation period from conception to birth.
Back on May 21, 2014, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius issued a cryptic statement while standing beside U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington. He said, “We have 500 days to avoid climate chaos.” Going 500 days out from May 21, 2014, brings you to Sept. 23, 2015.
Watch 40-second clip of French foreign minister’s statement on “climate chaos”
The Jade Helm military exercises taking place through mid-September also have given rise to conspiracy theories. Is the government preparing for some major future event that will bring chaos to America?
All of this activity will be topped off by more signs in the heavens, with the fourth and last in a rare tetrad of "blood moons" set to occur Sept. 28 on the biblical Feast of Tabernacles. The Shemitah year comes to a climax on the Hebrew calendar date of Elul 29, which is Sept. 13 on the Gregorian calendar.
Counting off 'sevens' and the road to war
Jonathan Cahn, author of "The Mystery of the Shemitah," addresses Isaac Newton's calculations in the last chapter of his best-selling book.
He calls it the "mystery of the Seventh Shemitah" or the "Super Shemitah."
"Every seven years was the Shemitah or Sabbath year. Every seventh Shemitah ushered in a super Shemitah we call the Jubilee. The hallmark of the Jubilee was restoration," Cahn told WND.
During the Jubilee, God commanded every Israelite to return to their ancestral home. If you had lost your father's land, in the year of Jubilee it would be restored.
"End-time prophecy is based on the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, their restoration to their long lost ancestral home – that’s a prophetic Jubilee," Cahn said. "So could this ancient mystery actually reveal when end-time events are to happen?"
Cahn thinks so.
While records for the Jubilee don't exist, it is known that the Jubilee year must follow the year of the Shemitah. Cahn notes that 1917-18 was a Shemitah year.
"It was in that time that the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the Middle East, and the land of Israel fell into the hands of the British Empire," Cahn said. "The Empire issued the Balfour Declaration which declared that the land of Israel would be a Jewish homeland. For the first time in 2,000 years the land of Israel was given back to the Jewish people. They were restored. Their ancestral land was given back to them – a prophetic end-time Jubilee – and it actually took place in the exact time parameters ordained by the mystery of the Shemitah."
Going forward in time from the restoration of the land in 1917 to the next Seventh Shemitah brings you to the Shemitah of 1965-66. Thus the year after the Seventh Shemitah, the Jubilee, would be September 1966 to September 1967.
That was a big year on the prophetic calendar as it brought the Six Day War.
"On June 7, 1967, Israeli soldiers enter the gates of Jerusalem and the Holy City is restored to the Jewish people – they return to their ancestral possession. And it happens again in the year following the Shemitah and seven Shemitahs after the restoration of the land."
Counting seven Shemitahs from 1967 leads to the Shemitah of 2015. The period of the Jubilee would thus begin in September 2015 and run through September 2016.
"Does anything have to happen during this time? No," Cahn said. "The pattern could stop after the restoration of Jerusalem. But if it did continue, what might we expect? In each of the last two cycles, it has meant a critical war, a war in the Middle East, a war in the land of Israel, and a war that results in a prophetic end-time restoration."
Cahn says he also finds it fascinating that Isaac Newton's interpretation of Daniel 9 would end up having us count 7 x 7 years from June 7, 1967, into the future.
"June 7, 1967, represented the last prophetic restoration and Jubilee. Seven times seven is the equation used to bring one to the next Jubilee," he said.
Counting prophetic years of 360 days, it brings you to Sept. 23, 2015, which is Yom Kippur, the day when the Jubilee begins.
"So Newton's 'riddle' brings us from one Jubilee to the next – and not just to the year but to the exact day, to a once in 50 years day, that could usher in the next prophetic Jubilee," Cahn said.
Mankind returning to Tower of Babel
Paul McGuire, a Bible prophecy expert, speaker and author of eight books including "Mass Awakening" and a new release "The Babylon Code," due out in September, believes the key to cracking the code of end-times prophecy is found in Genesis 10-11 with Nimrod building the Tower of Babel. He believes this same "man can be god" philosophy was handed down by the ruling elites from one civilization to another, making its way to Egypt, Greece, Rome and America and Europe today.
Those who doubt these secretive elite groups had any influence over America need only look at the dollar bill, McGuire said.
"The Tower was built in Ziggurat form, so the tower was really a pyramid structure," McGuire told WND.
"That unfinished pyramid at the top of the dollar bill, that capstone with the eye of the god Horus, this is Freemasonry symbolism. 'Novus Ordo Seclorum' is the New World Order," he said. "So what our book exposes is there has been in existence, arly chastised the religious elite of His day for not knowing, at least, the signs of the prophetic 'times' in which they were living," Gallups said. "Because of their shortcoming in this matter, they actually missed the foretold coming of Messiah. Accordingly, I believe it is supremely important that God's people keep a sober eye upon contextual prophetic interpretations and the current world events that may well correspond to them."
Like Cahn and others, Gallups sees more than just coincidence in the array of convergences leading up to the current Shemitah year and next year's possible Jubilee.
This junction, in the mind of many Bible scholars, kicked off with the return of Israel and the subsequent recapturing of Jerusalem.
"These events were amazingly foretold by Newton as well, some 300 years before they happened," Gallups said. "His predictions included statements about a 'friendly kingdom' that would arise in those days that would help these things to occur."
Many, of course, see the United States, which did not emerge until after Newton’s death, as Newton’s "friendly kingdom."
It has now been 67 years since Israel re-emerged on the world scene, and only 48 years since the recapturing of Jerusalem.
"We are certainly living in a very 'young,' but powerful age of prophetic convergence," Gallups said. "Yet, since those two 2,500-year-old biblical predictions have come to pass, even more last days' prophecies have continued to come like a flood."
Among those predictions Gallups sees are the rise of Islam, the current boiling-point turmoil in the Middle East, terrorism and threats of terrorism sweeping the planet, fears of multiple nuclear holocausts, the growing rejection of Israel by the nations – which increasingly seems to include the United States, "and a Sodom and Gomorrah spirit spreading through the nations - now ardently proliferated by the largest 'Christian' nation the world has ever known."
"Add to these things the fact that we now have an important Shemitah cycle and Super Shemitah cycle approaching this September, as well as the variously calculated predictions of Sir Isaac Newton that also seem to point to September of 2015 as an ominous 'beginning' to even more unfolding of last days’ prophetic occurances," he said.
Gallups points to Cahn's research as bringing many of these convergences to the public spotlight, as well as that of Joel Richardson, who wrote years ago of what is now actually happening in the Middle East, and especially the dramatic rise and threat of ISIS. In the midst of all this, Pastor Mark Blitz has shared with the world his original discoveries concerning the, perhaps prophetic, convergence of the blood moon phenomenon – also reaching a peak with the ending of this year and the beginning of 2016.
"These dramatically aligning factors alone, in my estimation, point to the soberness with which we must approach our mission of Kingdom work in the days in which we currently live," Gallups said. "We must be mindful of the 'signs of the times' in which we are living.
Many will scoff at the claims of the unfolding of end-times prophecy as the Day of the Lord approaches. "But even their last days ridiculing was specifically predicted over 2,000 years ago," Gallups notes. Most, who malign the word of God in such a manner, do not even realize that they (through their mocking spirit and words) are specifically mentioned in the very scriptures they malign! If there ever was a time to be right with our Creator through a biblically born-again relationship with Jesus Christ – it is now."
Prophecy should not bring fear to Christians
Joel Richardson, a Bible teacher, documentary filmmaker and author of the New York Times-bestseller "The Islamic Antichrist," along with "Mideast Beast" and "When A Jew Rules the World," has his own unique perspective on the countdown to the Day of the Lord.
He takes a more cautious view.
"There are certainly some interesting convergences of seemingly significant dates, events and signs. Many are pointing to the completion of this seven-year cycle, known as the Shemitah, as it coincides with the completion of the final four of the lunar eclipses, which coincided with four biblical appointed holidays," Richardson said. "But despite these convergences, I think we need to express caution. Even if we agree that this is pointing to something, what might it be? This is what no one can answer. And the danger is inspiring people to fear, to panic, to anxiety. This would certainly be a wrong application. If it inspires people to repent of sins in their lives, and to get right with God, then wonderful. But I am concerned with the level of fear that it is inspiring in a lot of people, including many Christians. But the Lord has not given us a spirit of fear."
Richardson said he believes Cahn's suggestion that America could be looking at the next phase of its divine chastisement is the most likely outcome of the Shemitah.
"After all, it was seven years to the day from September 11 that the great economic collapse of 2008 occurred. And now we are about to hit the next seven-year point," he said. "So perhaps this is the next installment of God's trumpet blast to this nation calling on us to repent. Perhaps."
But he throws cold water on the theory that the Shemitah or even the Super Shemitah of 2016 could ring in the period the Bible calls the Great Tribulation.
"There are simply some things that must take place first. I fear that many who are declaring that we are there will do damage to the proclamation of Jesus' return in the days ahead," he said. "Peter the apostle said that in the last days, many scoffers would come, mocking the notion that Jesus' return is close. Mockers will mock. But we as responsible Christians should not give legitimacy to the mockers by jumping the gun and wrongly declaring that 'this is that,' that we have entered the final seven-year period. If we do so, we will only be repeating the errors of the 1980s and the infamous book '88 Reasons Why the Rapture will take place in 1988.' The result is decades of cynicism and a rejection of any discussion of the return of Jesus. Yet His return is our hope!"
Before the final seven years can begin, the Antichrist must first arise, beginning as a leader of small significance, and growing in power until he uproots three other leaders, Richardson says. These things are detailed in Daniel Chapters 7, 8 and 11. After he does arise, and grows to the point of establishing a measure of political capital, he will enter into a covenant, or treaty of some kind with the leaders of Israel, Richardson believes, citing Daniel 9:27 as well as Isaiah 28:14-18; 10:20.
"Neither of these two critical signs – the rise of the Antichrist, or the covenant 'with death' can be said to be fulfilled or within months of being fulfilled. They could be just a few years off, but not months," he said. "Despite all of the abiding sense of fear and anxiety, despite the words of many 'prophets,' if the signs on the ground do not line up with the words of the biblical prophets, then all of this expectation means little. I firmly believe that the final seven years before Jesus' return is drawing close, but we are not there yet."
