By COGwriter
Back in 1979, Worldwide Church of God minister Robert G. Morton, gave a sermon The Jubilee Aspect of Atonement.
This article uses a lot of his materials, but with added scriptures, calculations, and insights.
Could there be a link between the Jubilee of the Bible, the millennium, and the return of Jesus?
What about Armageddon?
This article will include some speculations on when the Jubilee might be.
The Day of Atonement comes 9 days after the Feast of Trumpets.
In the Bible we are told that a trumpet was to be blown on specific Days of Atonement to mark the Jubilee year:
8 'And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. (Leviticus 25:8-10a)
The particular trumpet to be blown is a shofar, which is a ram's horn trumpet.
The position of the old Worldwide Church of God was that this was to be blown every 50 years (cf. Leviticus 25:10-11) (some Jews think it should be 49 years).
Every 50 years on the Day of Atonement, God instructed His high priest to get out there and blow a trumpet.
For people in the land of Israel that year would have been very special.
Robert Morton said:
It was a year of excitement. It was a year in which a number of things happened. Interestingly enough, it began on the Day of Atonement.
And it began with the sounding of trumpets. And this, as far as I know, was the only Day of Atonement that trumpets were sounded. And it says you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month in the Day of Atonement.
Shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. Now why was it that God chose the Day of Atonement, the beginning of the Jubilee year and decided that on that particular day, that fast day, the trumpet should be sounded? Well, the reason is very obvious. And that is because God wanted to draw our minds back to the Feast of Trumpets.
There would be something that Christ would start on the Feast of Trumpets that actually would not be complete until the Day of Atonement. And the particular Day of Atonement God had in mind was the day that was represented by the Jubilee year. In fact, the Jubilee year and the sounding of this trumpet on the Day of Atonement actually began what was called the year of liberty, the year of freedom.
Let's look more at what the Bible teaches about it:
10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. 12 For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field.
13 'In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. (Leviticus 25:10-13)
This was not freedom to do whatever you wanted to do. But it was a year of liberty and a year of freedom for all Jewish or Israelitish bond servants.
Notice the following about debt release:
1 At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. 2 And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord's release. (Deuteronomy 15:1-2)
If you owed anybody any money whatsoever for any purpose, no matter what it was, you were released from that debt.
This happened at the end of 49 years, hence the beginning of the 50th year.
The knowledge of the Jubilee was a factor in land valuation as we read:
14 And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another. 15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you. 16 According to the multitude of years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall diminish its price; for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops. 17 Therefore you shall not oppress one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God. 18 'So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. 19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. (Leviticus 25:14-19)
Verses 18 and 19 sound a bit like what will happen during the millennium.
Now to verse 23:
23 'The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. 24 And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land.
25 'If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold. 26 Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it, 27 then let him count the years since its sale, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. 28 But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of Jubilee; and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.
29 'If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year he may redeem it. 30 But if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. 31 However the houses of villages which have no wall around them shall be counted as the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee. 32 Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, and the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time. 33 And if a man purchases a house from the Levites, then the house that was sold in the city of his possession shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the field of the common-land of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession. (Leviticus 25:23-34)
16 ‘If a man dedicates to the Lord part of a field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17 If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. 18 But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money due according to the years that remain till the Year of Jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your valuation. 19 And if he who dedicates the field ever wishes to redeem it, then he must add one-fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall belong to him. 20 But if he does not want to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore; 21 but the field, when it is released in the Jubilee, shall be holy to the Lord, as a devoted field; it shall be the possession of the priest.
22 ‘And if a man dedicates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not the field of his possession, 23 then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation, up to the Year of Jubilee, and he shall give your valuation on that day as a holy offering to the Lord. 24 In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to the one who owned the land as a possession. (Leviticus 27:16-24)
You could return to your own land. And no matter what had been built on it, no matter what had been done with it, no matter how much had been paid for it, how many years in advance, it became your land again at the end of every Jubilee cycle. Of course, this was a perfect system to prevent inflation--particularly if the children of Israel did not produce dross money--which is also prohibited by scripture (Psalm 119:119; Proverbs 25:4; Isaiah 1:25).
One way to bring everything back to its real value again was to have a year of Jubilee in which the land suddenly reverted back to its rightful owners again. In other words, it virtually became valueless again or reverted back to its true value. And the people were required to go back and claim it.
Now let's go to verse 39 in Leviticus 25:
39 'And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. 40 As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 And then he shall depart from you -- he and his children with him -- and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him with rigor, but you shall fear your God. 44 And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have -- from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45 Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property. 46 And you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.
47 'Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger's family, 48 after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49 or his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him; or if he is able he may redeem himself. 50 Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him: The price of his release shall be according to the number of years, from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Jubilee; it shall be according to the time of a hired servant for him. 51 If there are still many years remaining, according to them he shall repay the price of his redemption from the money with which he was bought. 52 And if there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him, and according to his years he shall repay him the price of his redemption. 53 He shall be with him as a yearly hired servant, and he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight. 54 And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee -- he and his children with him. 55 For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 25:39-55)
Because of the Jubilee release, children of Israel were released from being bond servants--they became a free individual again.
Essentially, the jubilee was a reset for society and a new chance for those who had not handled their finances as well as others may have. People would get their ancestral lands back, if they would have sold them. And since it was supposed to be observed once every 50 years, most people who did not die in childhood would have experienced it once or even twice in their lifetime (yes, even three times was possible).
As far as the meaning of the term translated as jubilee, notice the following:
The translation “Jubilee year” results from a mistaken application of cognates (similar words in different languages). In the original Hebrew, the year was called the “year of the horn,” or, in Hebrew, “the year of the yovel.” The Latin for yovel is iobileus, which just happens to sound like the Latin word iubileus, connected to the verb iubilare, “to celebrate.” The English “Jubilee year” comes from the Latin.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-joel-hoffman/five-mistakes-bible-translation_b_1129620.html
Some have suggested that because the jubilee is not observed, that this is perhaps why there tends to be major economic problems every 50-60 or so years. Notice the following:
“Kondratieff long wave cycle (K-wave) was originally used to explain long wave economic cycles. Its originator Nickolai Kondratieff was a Russian economist (1892-1938) in Stalin’s Agricultural Academy and Business Research Institute (“Long Waves in Economic Life” – originally published in German in 1926). Kondratieff’s major premise was that capitalist economies displayed long wave cycles of boom and bust ranging between 50-60 years in duration. Kondratieff’s study covered the period 1789 to 1926 and was centered on prices and interest rates.”
“The 50-60 year cycle of catastrophe and renewal had been observed and recorded by the ancient Mayans of Central America and by the ancient Israelites. Further studies have discovered similar long economic waves from the period of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Kondratieff identified four distinct phases the economy goes through. They are a period of inflationary growth, followed by stagflation, then deflationary growth and finally depression.” http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_02/chapmand062902.html See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kondratiev_wave
How often the children of Israel ever really observed “the year of the yovel” is a question, but there is no question that the modern descendants of Israel have not observed it for many centuries. Hence, this seems to have been an overlooked or even despised portion of the word of God. Yet, notice a warning in Isaiah 30:12-13 to the descendants of Israel:
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
“Because you despise this word, And trust in oppression and perversity, And rely on them, 13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you Like a breach ready to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.
The modern descendents of Israel more and more seem to despise the word of God and to accept practices of oppression (including not following biblical laws related to debt and land distribution) and perversity.
Since Satan will be banished for a 1000 years (Revelation 20:1-3) and this will help result in a type of restoration to the earth, the jubilee year, in a more immediate physical sense, also will result in a type of restoration (specifically of lands and not being in debt).
Robert Morton said:
Now, the Jubilee, obviously, doesn't take very much imagination to understand that the Jubilee pictured Christ's return and the beginning of the millennium. Notice what he says in verse 10. It says, You shall hallow the fiftieth year, one entire year.
You shall hallow it and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be a Jubilee to you and you shall return every man to his possession and you shall return every man to his family. In other words, it was a time of family reunion when people would get together in a very festive spirit.
It was a time when growing families would get together. It was a time when people were free from the worry of debt and problems and difficulties like that. As I said, this picture of Jesus Christ's return to liberate this world to release people from debt to let people return to what rightfully is theirs. ...
Now, people have often asked, well, why didn't the year of Jubilee begin until the Day of Atonement? I mean, if the Feast of Trumpets represents Christ coming back and the year of Jubilee represents the Millennium then why on earth didn't God have the year of Jubilee begin at the Feast of Trumpets? Well, the reason for it is, is because the year of Jubilee or the Millennium can't really begin until we have reached the stage in God's plan that is pictured by the Day of Atonement especially the Day of Atonement that took place on the year of Jubilee. This is why he had trumpets blown on that day because he wanted to take the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement and help us to understand the two are tied together you cannot separate the two. That there is going to be something begun on the Feast of Trumpets that will not be ended or completed until we reach the time that the Day of Atonement is pictured.
And then of course we all know the Feast of Trumpets pictures Christ returning to this earth as King of kings as Lord of lords to liberate this sin sick and dying world to bring to an end an era of oppression to release mankind from the bondage to Satan and from the penalty of generations and generations of sin. We understand that's what the Feast of Trumpets is picturing. But Christ will begin a task on the Feast of Trumpets that actually will not be complete until the Day of Atonement just over nine days later.
Now again people have wondered that if Christ is going to come back on the Feast of Trumpets why is it that God separates the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement by nine whole days? What's going to be taking place during those nine days? I'm not saying that Jesus Christ is actually going to return to this earth specifically on a specific Feast of Trumpets. ... We know the Feast of Trumpets does picture his return.
We basically know what's going to take place on the Day of Atonement but what's going to take place in the nine days in between?
Well, first of all, I do not believe all seven trumpets will be blown on the same day. Furthermore, what will happen is that after the seventh angel sounds the last trumpet, then will be that Christians will be on the sea of glass and the seven last plagues will come:
1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.
2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. 3 They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying:
"Great and marvelous are Your works,
Lord God Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints!
4 Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested." (Revelation 15:1-4)1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth."
2 So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.
3 Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died.
4 Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters saying:
"You are righteous, O Lord,
The One who is and who was and who is to be,
Because You have judged these things.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
And You have given them blood to drink.
For it is their just due."7 And I heard another from the altar saying, "Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments."
8 Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.
10 Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. 11 They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.
12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
15 "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame."
16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" 18 And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. 19 Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. 20 Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great. (Revelation 16:1-21)
After those plagues, Babylon will fall (Revelation 18), there will be the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9), the Beast and False Prophet will be defeated and thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:17-20) and their supporters defeated (Revelation 19:21).
And according to Revelation 20:1-3, apparently on the Day of Atonement, Satan will be bound.
And then liberty proclaimed. For what we could call a thousand year jubilee!
Here are more comments from Robert Morton:
Well it's very likely I don't know how many of you have ever thought of this but it's very likely that the great battle that Christ is going to fight to wreck control of this earth of Satan and his demons could very well last that entire nine day period.
I don't know how many of you have ever thought of that but I'll tell you one thing Satan has absolutely no intention whatsoever of letting go easily. We can tell from various scriptures in the Bible and prophecies that he's going to mobilize every force at his disposal in order to hang on to what he's got. That at that time there are going to be desperate demons along with him who are going to use everything they possibly can to stay in control of this earth ... the great battle of Armageddon is going to take place after Christ's return.
He's going to come back to fight it. It's going to be the last great battle but how long is that battle going to last? Well that battle is going to be fought to break the grips of Satan and his demons on this earth. And brethren for thousands of years now Satan has exploited and victimized mankind a gullible mankind into following his way of life into looking to him as their God and as a result reaping the grim penalty of misery and suffering of fear and mistrust of pain and death as a result of it.
Now before mankind can be truly liberated and set free which is what the year of Jubilee represented before mankind can be truly liberated and set free and before the millennium can really begin before that great time of peace and prosperity can really get underway Satan must be taken care of along with his demons he's got to be immobilized he's got to be neutralized he's got to be deposed he's got to be imprisoned before Christ can really begin to usher in the millennium. Now the world today doesn't realize or nor does it understand the tremendous amount of influence that Satan and his demons have over human activity. And I don't just mean certain human activities but all human activities have been influenced by that great spirit being who palms himself off as the god of this world.
It'll be impossible for the world to be at one with God so long as Satan is still around so long as his demons are still there to influence mankind. Now the Day of Atonement we know pictures this very event and yet it won't be easy for Christ.
Revelation chapter 16 and this is something that happens after Jesus Christ's return. Now up until this point we will have seen throughout the period of the tribulation an increase in Satan's activity. In fact the Bible warns us in Revelation chapter 12 when it says woe to the inhabitants of the earth it said because Satan has come down having great wrath.
In other words there's going to be a tremendous increase in his activity and his attempt to reach the minds of human beings. There are going to be people who willingly will take part in a system. You know the Bible talks about people who will receive a mark on their hands and their foreheads.
That's not just a computerized system designed for population surveillance. I think it will involve that. But it also involves a system in which people will actively and willingly hunt down and seek out anyone who has any knowledge of or allegiance to God whatsoever.
And those people will be hunted down harassed and ultimately martyred unless they change. Now anyone who takes on the mark of the beast is going to be part and parcel of that system. And all that it stands for.
And they're going to be part and parcel of it because they will be influenced by Satan. Between now and Jesus Christ's return we're going to see a tremendous increase in Satan's activity and his attempt to get at the minds of human beings. And an attempt to influence those minds.
And yet after Jesus Christ returns when he finally comes back to this earth you're going to see a dramatic increase even on top of that.
Let's again notice what Revelation 16 teaches:
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. (Revelation 16:13-14)
In other words here even after Christ's return there's going to be a sudden increase in demonic activity and it's going to have a dramatic effect on human beings who will be alive at that time. Fortunately at this time anyone who's going to be resurrected and be in God's kingdom is going to be resurrected already and will be beyond this.
But for the majority of people who are living on this earth this is going to be the most traumatic time in all of human history. In fact various scriptures throughout the Bible allude to it. A tremendous increase in demon activity at that time.
In his sermon, Robert Morton said that Psalm 2 is a psalm about the return of Jesus Christ. Let's look at some of it:
1 Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us."4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
6 "Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion." (Psalm 2:1-6)
At that time that the nations will rage.
This is the same as what we see in Revelation when Jesus returns:
15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" 16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:
"We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
The One who is and who was and who is to come,
Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,
And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,
And those who fear Your name, small and great,
And should destroy those who destroy the earth." (Revelation 11:15-18)
They're going to be insane with anger. In fact people at this time with this tremendous increase in demon activity are literally going to begin to go out of their minds.
Verse 6 shows that Jesus is back there at Jerusalem.
Robert Morton stated:
The battle of Armageddon in which Satan is desperately going to be hanging on to this world he's going to sell himself for the highest price he can get. In an attempt to hang on to control of this world and fight Christ the very last human being he has at his disposal in order to maintain that control. And the tremendous increase is going to cause the people to go into an absolute rage against him.
Robert Morton noted:
In fact, quite this great battle. ...
Christ is going to be able to break Satan's control of this world. And that will be to break his grip on the minds of the human population of this earth. And it's going to take a great deal of effort.
As I said, notice Zechariah chapter 14. ... You know, here's this great spirit being coming down and they're going to turn everything they have on him. And the bullets and the explosions are just going to go right through him and he'll just keep on coming.
In fact, you know, I wonder if you've ever stopped I think I've mentioned this before. As to why it is all the science fiction stories or most of the science fiction stories talk about this great invasion from outer space by you know, by super beings who have weapons that against which human beings have absolutely no defense at all. At the same time the most sophisticated human weapons have no effect on them.
Let me add that there are certain Roman Catholic prophecies and understandings that suggest that some of them will consider that the returning Jesus is an alien from outerspace and/or the Antichrist (see Do Certain Greco-Roman Catholic Prophecies About Antichrist Warn Against Jesus and the Church of God?).
The Bible shows the destruction of the revived Roman Empire of the Beast will be led by Jesus, the Lamb of God:
12 "The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. 14 These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful." (Revelation 17:12-14)
Yet, a doctor of the Roman and Eastern Orthodox Catholics shows Antichrist defeats the monarch's empire:
John Chrysostom (4th century): the Roman Empire will be destroyed by Antichrist. This will happen when the Roman Empire has been divided into ten kingdoms. (Birch, 228)
Clearly, John Chrysostom has confused Jesus with the Antichrist! Sadly, so have many other predictors.
Most people familiar with prophecy are familiar with a battle that will be staged in Megiddo, and although it is not actually fought there, it is normally called "the battle of Armageddon" (the hills of Megiddo/Mageddo):
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." 16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon (Revelation 16:13-16).
Although the Bible shows that God will win the battle against those who stage their armies in Armaggedon, a "Catholic" prophetess claimed:
Anne Catherine Emmerich (died 1824) ... Antichrist will fight a successful battle at Mageddo in Palestine after which seven rulers, from fear, will subject themselves to Antichrist and he will thereafter become lord of the world (Cited in Connor, p. 86).
Commenting on the above, two Radio Church of God authors wrote:
It is almost impossible to see how they could believe this! But there it is!...Compare this with Revelation 19:19. (Hill DJ. Christ or Antichrist. Good News magazine, Radio Church of God, April 1961, p. 9)
Already the clever deception is being spread. Notice this false prophecy revealed well over a century ago: "Antichrist will fight a successful battle at Mageddo [Armageddon] in Palestine after which ... he will thereafter become lord of the world" (Prophecy for Today, p. 71). (Sedliacik RH. Will the World RECOGNIZE the Returning Christ? Plain Truth, April 1965, p. 27)
All who profess Christianity should realize that no matter what any “Catholic” prophecy may say, the Bible is clear that Jesus and NOT Antichrist wins the battle that is originally staged at Armageddon (cf. Revelation 16:13-16 and 19:17-21).
Since the Bible shows that God will win the related battle (see also Revelation 19:19-20) and the Bible never says that Antichrist wins any battle of Megiddo, it seems that Nun Emmerich apparently has misidentified Jesus as Antichrist!
Notice also the following:
11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. (Revelation 19:11-14)
Notice that Jesus and the angels will come down from heaven. While some will consider Him to be the Antichrist, it is likely that others will see this as an alien invasion by extraterrestrial beings.
Robert Morton noted:
And believe me at this time the demons will be in a state of panic. And one thing we, you know we often don't realize is that with Satan's ability to reach the minds of human beings with his attitude with his desires with his lust with his vanity his resentment that any group of human beings that are under his influence and subject to that influence are going to experience the same things that he and his demons will be experiencing. And at that time they are just going to go into absolute blind panic.
And the effect is going to come out in the human beings because they are going to be under that influence. And after fighting an absolute pit battle with all the armies that Satan can muster you know, Christ is going to solve the problem. ...
Christ can break the grip that Satan will have upon human beings.
And that is by you know, breaking down the human beings themselves. This is what is being described over here in Isaiah chapter 2. As I said, I can turn to dozens and dozens of prophecies about this. And these are going to be taking place very probably you know, all this will take place in the nine days between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.
Isaiah was inspired to write:
17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
The Lord alone will be exalted in that day,
18 But the idols He shall utterly abolish.19 They shall go into the holes of the rocks,
And into the caves of the earth,
From the terror of the Lord
And the glory of His majesty,
When He arises to shake the earth mightily.20 In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver
And his idols of gold,
Which they made, each for himself to worship,
To the moles and bats,
21 To go into the clefts of the rocks,
And into the crags of the rugged rocks,
From the terror of the Lord
And the glory of His majesty,
When He arises to shake the earth mightily. (Isaiah 2:17-21)
Robert Morton said:
In other words, brethren, Christ is finally going to get a hold of this earth and shake it, and shake it until every human being is finally brought down to the point where they can't stand, they can't stagger, they can't even lie down. And, and, you know, finally, Satan and his demons themselves are going to be seized.
You know, finally, when Christ has broken the grip of Satan on this world, this is what's gonna happen over in Revelation chapter 20. As I said, it could take him 9 or 10 days. It could take him all the time between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement to finally reach this point.
While those nine or ten days may not be literal ones, we know that Revelation 19 is talking about the returning Christ. It's talking about the great battle that was taken. It's talking about the beast and the false prophet being flung into the lake of fire. And then verse 1 of chapter 20:
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. (Revelation 20:1-3)
Robert Morton said:
Now, can you imagine, just at this point, the dramatic change that's going to take place in this world when Satan's broadcasting his ability to influence people and permeate the world and the air with his attitudes? Can you imagine the dramatic change that's going to take place when it suddenly, bang, just switched off?
Well, there is going to be a rather dramatic change. In fact, this looks to be the time liberty will be proclaimed to the world by Jesus:
1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn, (Isaiah 61:1-2)
Why then? Because:
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4-6)
Liberty will be proclaimed at the start of the millennial kingdom of God. That is where a type of jubilee will come to pass.
Getting back to Robert Morton, he said:
The book of Zechariah says that the Jews also will fight at Jerusalem. And, and it's not until God has taken away and shut off and cut off and totally restrained the influence of Satan that this is going to be possible.
"And then I will pour upon the the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son. It shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first born."
Interesting thing here, the, the obvious thing being pictured here is the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement traditionally has always represented a time of national mourning as far as the Israelites or the Jews are concerned. In ancient Israel, it was a time of national mourning. In fact, this is why we fast on the Day of Atonement, because fasting represents repentance ... and the Day of Atonement to the Jews always was a time of national repentance, the most sober occasion of the year. And it says here on that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem. This is obviously the Day of Atonement being, being pictured here. ...
You can see this is going to be a rather dramatic thing for the Jews because they're suddenly going to realize that, you know, the Christ they persecuted for 2000 years really is the one who is the, you know, the delivering Messiah, and it says the family of the house of Levi, etc. etc. apart and all the families that remain, every family apart and their wives apart.
And then notice we'll go straight on into the next verse because it says "in that day" and it's referring here to the day of Atonement "there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness." In other words, their, their sins are going to be forgiven.
"And if you come to pass in that day," says the Eternal host, "that I'll cut off the names of the idols out of the land." God is going to clean the land, cleanse it of the idols and the images, "and they shall no more be remembered" and notice this, "and I will also cause the prophet and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land."
When? Well, on the day that is obviously being pictured here - the Day of Atonement. God said "I'm not just going to bind Satan, I'm gonna cause the unclean spirit, that the demons as well to go out of the land" and uh, and as I said here, they're going to be fasting because the Day of Atonement is a time of fasting. Fasting represents repentance. It represents self-examination. It represents a time when people begin to reflect on what they have done and what they have been involved in.
And here you, you read here, when you put this together with the other scriptures, you, you, what you're seeing here is a dramatic change resulting from binding Satan and his demons from totally restraining them and, and this is the Day of Atonement that's being talked about.
In fact, the entire subject and what we're discussing really is summed up in the ritual that actually took place on the Day of Atonement anciently. I want to go back ... to that ritual in Leviticus chapter 16. I know for those of you who have been in the church a number of years, you've probably been through this many times. But I guarantee you I can always show you something new in chapter 16 that you haven't seen before.
Now, now Leviticus 16 is, is really picturing a very elaborate ritual.
First of all, the priest himself had to be ceremonially cleansed of sin. And in order to be ceremonially cleansed of sin, he sacrificed a bullock for a sin offering, and the blood of that bullock was taken into the tabernacle, and every single part of the tabernacle was cleansed, ceremonially cleansed from contamination from sin, and even the altars were cleansed. The reason for that is because in this particular ceremony, above all other ceremonies, something very special was being pictured.
And then finally he had to choose two goats. And at verse 7, (Leviticus 16:7), it says, "And he shall take the two goats and present them before the Eternal at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." This is after he had cleansed himself after he dressed himself up in his, you know, in his beautiful white robes in which he actually pictured Jesus Christ, you know, Jesus Christ the mediator.
Jesus Christ has been pictured several in several places throughout this ceremony. First of all, he's pictured in the form of a high priest as a mediator between man and God. Secondly, he's also pictured as the sacrifice for sin. ...
And it says, "And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one for the Lord and the other for Azazel," is how it should read. ... One of these goats stood for Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice for sin. The other goat stood for Azazel. Azazel in Hebrew simply means the one who is to be sent away. ...
You know Satan had spent years, I don't know, millenniums maybe slandering God. This is how he was able to get a third of the angels to follow him. He slandered God. It's the way Satan always operates. It is modus operandi.
We, we've had the same thing happen within the very church of God, you know, slander being used in an attempt to undermine confidence and faith and trust in the government of God in the church.
In the 21st century, few true Christians properly trust the government of God in the church. Slander and satanic influence are factors in that.
Robert Morton said:
... God calls him the devil. It simply means the slanderer. He also calls him Satan, which means the adversary. ... Here in this ceremony he's called Azazel, the one who has to be sent away, sent away into the bottomless pit and in a condition of restraint.
The interesting thing is that Aaron had to do a strange thing here. He had to cast lots on the goat. The reason for that is, is because even Aaron in the office of high priest with all the wisdom he had was unable to choose between these two goats. There were two absolutely identical goats. They had to be perfect, they had to be without blemish and they had, you know, they had to be identical, and only God could choose between them.
Now the Bible pictures Satan as the god of this world. It also pictures him as a great angelic being of light who has transformed himself into this world's Messiah and into the god this world worships.
Then he goes on to verse 9, and it says "And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering." Now the sin offering represented Jesus Christ being offered for the sins of all of mankind.
Now some have wondered why Jesus is shown being sacrificed as the Passover offering which the New Testament specifically teaches (1 Corinthians 5:7) and also here in the Atonement ceremony as Hebrews 9:28 and 10:10 show that Jesus was only sacrificed once.
Why?
Many have speculated, but there could be clues with the fact that this happens before the release of the second goat.
The original Passover only resulted in the children of Israel being passed over for their sins. In this age, those who are true Christians claim the sacrifice of Jesus on His final earthly Passover for paying the penalty for our sins. But real Christians are a small minority of the population of the world (Luke 12:32).
Since the Bible calls Satan "the god of this age" who has "blinded" the world (2 Corinthians 4:4), they have been blinded and have not yet been covered by the sacirifice of Jesus, but this will happen for all who will be called--either in this age or the age to come (Matthew 12:32).
The seventh and last trumpet essentially points to the end of the church age as the church is taken up at that time (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)--that is to be comforting to us (1 Thessalonians 4:18).
But what about others?
Showing the sacrifice, ceremonially, after the church age ends, helps show that the sacrifice of Jesus was not just for those called in the church age.
So, although the Greco-Roman Catholics and Protestants tend to think the atonement was just a past event, this understanding of the Day of Atonement points to a future time--and shows an aspect of God's plan of salvation that most seem to have missed--as does the Jubilee portion.
Jesus took the penalty of sin for all human beings. But it doesn't apply to humans until after God calls us and grants us repentance (John 6:44) and we come to be willing to repent and we come to believe, not only in Jesus, but we believe Christ and we believe God, that is, we believe what They say--and prove it by repenting, being baptized, being granted the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) and actually trying to live as They would have us live.
Now let's look at Leviticus 16:
29 "This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. (Leviticus 16:29)
31 It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. (Leviticus 16:31)
This is ties in with other scriptures, which shows why those who are physically able and not pregant/nursing, fast on the Day of Atonement. Fasting should draw us closer to God (cf. James 4:8).
Notice the following related to fasting:
5 Is it a fast that I have chosen,
A day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,
And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast,
And an acceptable day to the Lord?6 "Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. (Isaiah 58:5-8)
Isaiah is telling us that part of the purpose of our fasting is to help others and to share part of God's glory.
But also notice fasting is intended "To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke." That aligns with the Jubilee liberty proclamation.
Jubilee Claims
When will there be a Jubilee?
From time to time I receive emails from some who think they know when the jubilee year is, despite the fact that history does not clearly record a particular year that the children of Israel actually observed it. There was, for one example, someone who emailed me and claimed that the 50 year biblical jubilee would begin on October 8, 2011. He was upset that I would not proclaim that as he was convinced that was the year. I told him I did not believe that the jubilee period could have began then. One of the reasons is that if God has a 6,000 plan for humankind that should be up within a decade or two and since 6,000 years is divisible by 50, I did not believe that 2011-2012 could possibly have been the year of jubilee.
The Temple Institute seemed to support the idea that the Jubilee year was 5777 anno mundi (for more on 'anno mundi, check out the article Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End?). That year was from sunset October 2, 2016 to September 20, 2017. There is one claim for 2020 (https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/513212/jewish/When-Is-the-Next-Jubilee-Year.htm), which was proven wrong by the end of 2020.
I have looked at a lot of calculations for the next Jubilee year and am not absolutely certain which is correct. One that is supposedly based upon the reign of King Josiah seems to point to the 2028 or 2027 time period (see The Book of Life and the Feast of Trumpets?), but there are others that point to Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:29-34) that suggest more like a 2050 or 2051 date which seems too distant. Another from the Talmud that leaves over 200 years off, seems to point to 2038, while one related to Ezekiel 40:1 (which the Pulpit commentary says may have been 575 BC) points to 2026 , and one by the Rabbi known as Maimonides seems to point to 2025 (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12967-sabbatical-year-and-jubilee#anchor9). While something in the decade of the 2030s seems feasible, there are no calculations that I have seen that are so biblically-based that I fully accept their conclusion(s).
What about 2017?
Was the ‘Year of Jubilee’ 2017? No, but I noted that some falsely claimed it was and that Jesus could return then:
A current theory is that Jesus will return in 2017, based on the idea that 2017 is a Jubilee year that will fulfill a medieval rabbi’s prophecy. … there is no way to be certain that 2017 is an actual year of Jubilee. And, even if it is, it would not signal the return of Christ. … In ancient times, the Jubilee year began with the Sanhedrin’s blast of the shofar (ram’s horn). http://www.gotquestions.org/Jubilee-2017.html
The editor of World News Daily, Joseph Farah, posted the following:
November 8, 2015
JERUSALEM – Several years ago, Ludwig Schneider, a German-language scholar, discovered an amazing prophecy dating back to 1217 by a scholarly and highly respected rabbi by the name of Judah Ben Samuel.
…in the year Judah Ben Samuel died in 1217, he prophesied that the Ottoman Turks would rule over the holy city of Jerusalem for eight Jubilees. Now, keep in mind, he made this prediction 300 years before the Turks seized control of Jerusalem in 1517. In fact, the Ottoman Empire, as it would become to be known, did not even really exist yet in 1217.
According to Judah Ben Samuel, 1217 was a Jubilee Year. If he was right, that would also make 1517 a Jubilee Year. …
The rabbi also prophesied that during the ninth Jubilee, Jerusalem would be a “no-man’s land.” This is exactly what happened from 1917 to 1967, due to the fact that the Holy Land was placed under British Mandate in 1917 by the League of Nations and literally “belonged” to no nation. …
The rabbi also prophesied that during the 10th Jubilee, Jerusalem would be under the control of the Jews and the Messianic “end times” would begin. The 10th Jubilee began in 1967 and will be concluded in – 2017.
What should we expect to happen in 2017? I will leave that to your imagination.
But one thing is certain: Judah Ben Samuel made some truly remarkable prophecies that came to pass. http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/will-2017-be-a-jubilee-year/#TYEyp5EYgHULig9h.99
I denounced this prior to that year, as it was not possible.
Before going further, I would add that WND’s editor pushed the false idea that the so-called Shemitah year ran from September 25, 2014 through September 13, 2015. Global economic collapse was predicted to occur on September 13, 2015 according to items his site posted. That was wrong. Furthermore, if the Shemitah year really was from September 25, 2014 through September 13, 2015, then we should be in the Jubilee now as the Jubilee year begins ten days after the seventh Shemitah year in that cycle ends.
Some pointed to Judah Ben Samuel’s track record as proof that his Jubilee cycle predicted many events, but there were many reasons to discount his prediction for 2017.
One of the most important was that it was NOT possible for Jesus to return in 2017. Jesus said He returns AFTER the tribulation:
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)
The period know as the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21) cannot start until 3 1/2 years AFTER the deal in Daniel 9:27 has been confirmed by a prince for seven years (see The ‘Peace Deal’ of Daniel 9:27). As of September 3, 2026, that deal still has not been confirmed (let alone made), so there are at least 7 years before Jesus can return.
Here is a claim related to 2022/2023 from State of the Nation:
2022: The Controlled Demolition of Everything
July 26, 2021
The 2022/2023 AD time window was selected decades ago as the time frame to conduct a controlled demolition of the entire Global Economic & Financial System (GE&FS). ...
TPTB {The Powers That Be} have long planned to coordinate a controlled demolition of the GE&FS under the rubric of the GREAT RESET. ...
The year of 2022 was specifically chosen as the beginning of the “Year of Final Collapse” for various reasons, each of which mutually supports the other. ...
First and foremost, 2022 is not only a scheduled Shemitah year, it is the year of the Super Shemitah. The indisputable 7-year pattern of Shemitah years has been long established as explained here: The Actual Timing of the GREAT RESET Laid Bare. ...
In all likelihood, the coming two to three years will make the First American Revolution look like a very tame Tea Party. http://stateofthenation.co/?p=75719
No, while I expected violence and a certain amount of chaos those years in the USA I also wrote that they would NOT "make First American Revolution look like a very tame Tea Party."
What about the Super Shemitah? Well, if the above source was correct, then was to run from sunset September 25, 2022 or more properly sunset October 4, 2022 (the Day of Atonement) through sunset September 15th or 24th in 2023.
NWO GLOBALISTS AND BANKSTERS ARE ACCELERATING THE GREAT RESET TO ALIGN WITH THE SUPER SHEMITAH of 2022/2023
July 16, 2020
Make no mistake; the GREAT RESET has been planned for centuries. Yes, centuries!
The New World Order globalist banksters have essentially owned and operated planet Earth over the millennia that define the present age which began with the Mayan Long Count Calendar. That highly accurate and predictive calendar started well over 5000 years ago which means that the true end date can be any year going forward. ...
Shemitah
It widely known that the field of banking, and particularly where it concerns the practice of charging interest, it always fell to a specific tribe which is recognized as the original international banksters. ...
The Shemitah was a sacred seven year custom that was put into practice by the Hebrew communities which had the explicit purpose of forgiving all the debts that accumulated during the previous 7 years.
In this way, all members of the community were regularly relieved of their indebtedness so they could start fresh, and then the whole community rejuvenated financially. ...
The 7-year Shemitah cycles and Jubilees have been proven — beyond any doubt — to directly correlate with uncanny precision to many of the major world events of the past 200 years. ...
Super Shemitah of 2022
Given the established timeline of every previous Shemitah calamity going back to the beginning of the 20th century, it’s clear that the upcoming Shemitah is actually the Super Shemitah. ...
Which is exactly why the upcoming Super Shemitah will be the one to end all Shemitahs. Which is also why The Powers That Be are surreptitiously and conspicuously setting up the GREAT RESET.
KEY POINT: The Super Shemitah of 2022/2023 is the final Shemitah of the era that occurs after the last Shemitah Jubilee that took place in 2015. See: The Great Tribulation Of The 3rd Millennium Foreshadowed By The Shemitah Jubilee
The GREAT RESET ...
Clearly, the defining events of the Super Shemitah, that will start some time in 2022 and continue throughout 2023, will create a sufficient level of disorder so that TPTB feel they can impose the most draconian changes as dictated by those globalist-directed governments executing the GREAT RESET. ...
TPTB will attempt to do anything necessary to preserve their status quo of absolute supremacy for themselves while inexorably pushing the 99% into permanent financial ruin and unending economic hardship.
This is exactly what the GREAT RESET is all about as businesses around the world have been shut down forever as national economies have been destroyed pushing the whole world into a “Second Great Depression”. https://stateofthenation.co/?p=72645
The 'super shemitah' is supposed to be a 'jubilee year' above. While globalists will take steps, no, the "Great Reset" is not going to be complete in 2022 or 2023.
As far as Jubilee years go, according to the Bible, they are proclaimed on the Day of Atonement, which is nine days after the Feast of Trumpets (see also The Day of Atonement--Its Christian Significance).
The actual "Great Reset" will occur about the time of the start of the Great Tribulation and that will NOT be before 2030--and even that seems to soon.
I suspect that the last Shemitah year ran from sunset September 18, 2020 through sunset September 6, 2021. This coincided a bit with the COVID situation--which certainly has had disastrous consequences.
The Roman Catholics declare a Jubilee every 25 years:
December 18, 2024
The Vatican announced that the Pope will open five “sacred portals” on Christmas Eve. The ceremony will be the first time this is done and is set to coincide with the 2025 Jubilee Year. Jubilees have been celebrated every 25 years since the Vatican adopted the tradition in 1300.
This year’s theme is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. The ceremony, dubbed “doorway to salvation” by the Vatican, involves the opening of five “Holy Doors” at ancient basilicas. The doors are located at the basilicas of St. Peter, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls, all within a 30-minute drive of the Vatican. https://israel365news.com/398695/unprecedented-pope-to-open-five-sacred-portals-on-christmas-in-manner-described-by-talmud/
But, of course, the biblical Jubilee is not every 25 years, nor does the Bible show that it involves unlocking physical doors.
What looks like a Messianic Protestant website had the following from someone who calls himself the watchman:
On October 1, 2025 at sundown, the Day of Atonement (Yom haKippurim) will announce this Jubilee cycle with the blast of the shofar. But the Jubilee year itself unfolds with the beginning of the new year on Aviv 1 which begins at sundown on April 17, 2026 — meaning America’s 250th birthday falls inside the Jubilee year.
This is not a coincidence. It is a warning. ... This site is not meant to last forever. Jubilee2026 has a built-in expiration date: December 31, 2026. After that, the domain itself becomes irrelevant -- not because the message is finished, but because the year will have passed. https://jubilee2026.com/about/
Well, since the Bible teaches “the land shall enjoy its sabbaths” (Leviticus 26:34-35), the jubilee year is considered one of them (in addition to the every seven year land Sabbath of Exodus 23:10-11), and the final Day of the Lord lasts one year (Isaiah 34:8), it is possible that the Day of the Lord or the period immediately after the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom will be the next jubilee year.
But that is speculation.
What is NOT speculation is for me to declare that according to what Jesus taught in Matthew 24 as well as passages in the Book of Daniel that Jesus is NOT going to return in 2026 and the ‘Messianic era,’ which some would consider to be the millennium, cannot possibly start in 2027.
Here is some information from what seems to be a Protestant source that suggests 2028 for the next Jubilee year:
The Bible relates this information about the year of Jubilee.
“Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years [seven ‘sevens’]. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.”
Leviticus 25:8-12
The Bible further states the Jewish year begins in the first month of Nisan, since the time of Exodus, although modern Jews actually begin the civil New Year six months later in the seventh month (Tishrei). So using this understanding, the forty-ninth year (seventh Sabbath) would have started in the month of Nisan and ended just before the month of Nisan the following year. There would have been no planting in that year if they followed God’s laws. God also says not to sow or reap in the year of Jubilee as well, the fiftieth year, so why does He say to wait until the tenth day of the seventh month before the year is proclaimed when the Jews clearly should already be “observing” the Jubilee by not planting crops? We will examine this issue shortly. So a year of Jubilee begins on the first of Nisan, is proclaimed midway through the year on the Day of Atonement, and ends at the start of a new year in the month of Nisan.
Assuming Josephus was correct on this point, the year of Jubilee he reported would probably have been Nisan 1, 3738 A.M. to Adar 29, 3739 A.M. This corresponds to March 28, 23 B.C to March 16, 22 B.C. Projecting these dates 50 years ahead across the B.C. to A.D. threshold gives us March 14, 28 A.D. (Nisan 1, 3788 A.M.) to March 31, 29 A.D. (Adar II 29, 3789 A.M.) as the first year of Jubilee in the year of our Lord (anno domini – A.D.). This period of time partially overlaps the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, which ended in August of 29 A.D. If you aspire to do your counting from the first of Tishrei (using that as the beginning of the New Year), then the Jubilee Year would have been September 21, 23 B.C. to September 10, 22 B.C. instead, effectively moving the dates six months into the future. The next Jubilee (28/29 A.D.) using this accounting method would have lined up very close to the 15th year of Tiberius… being off by only three to four weeks longer...
So we see from using more accurate calendar math that the next year of Jubilee from Josephus’ writings was between 28 and 29 A.D. not just 28 A.D. as we originally calculated. If we project this Jubilee year 2,000 years into the future… forty (generations) fifty year periods (Jubilees), we get the first of Tishrei in the year 5789 A.M. This translates into September 21, 2028 A.D. on the Gregorian calendar and the end of that Jewish year using the same calendar is September 9, 2029 A.D. The tenth of Tishrei of this Jubilee year, the Day of Atonement, is September 30, 2028 A.D. as you already know. (Vargo RH. 2028 ~ GOD'S PLAN FOR MANKIND. Chapter 26. ASIN: B00885RJ9Y, 2007. http://webwaydrive.com/2028/Jubilee%20Year%20Revelation.htm; the same conclusion is in R.H. Vargo's 2009 book: Tribulation: God's Plan for the End of The Age, p. 16)
Again, 2028 is not the year or the start of the great tribulation (Matthew 24:21). I never accepted Harbinger author Jonathan Kahn's belief that the Shemitah was from Trumpets 2014 to Trumpets 2015--as I repeatedly denounced his false predictions for then. But note that it is possible that the millennium would start on a year of Jubilee.
Since the Bible teaches "the land shall enjoy its sabbaths" (Leviticus 26:34-35), the jubilee year is considered one of them (in addition to the every seven year land sabbath of Exodus 23:10-11), and the final Day of the Lord lasts one year (Isaiah 34:8), it is possible that the Day of the Lord or the period immediately after the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom will be the next jubilee year.
But part of my point is that there have been many claims of the Jubilee year.
Jubilee Speculations
People want to know dates.
This is not new:
3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3)
Jesus then proceeded with a list of events to watch for, including the proclamation of the kingdom of God to the world as a witness.
While curiosity is not a problem, many more people seem interested in a possible date than they do to support the fulfillment of the work of gospel proclamation which Jesus said would come first.
The old Worldwide Church of God did not teach that it knew the present biblical Sabbatical/Jubilee cycle. Rather, it taught that the original seven-year cycle could not be established with certainty. For administrative purposes, it therefore used individualized seven-year cycles for such matters as third tithe and land rest rather than claiming to know the nationally synchronized biblical cycle. It also taught that the Jubilee cycle was for 50 years based on Leviticus 25:10, not 49 years as some Jews and others have asserted.
That said, let's speculate a little bit based on the following:
This points to a likely maximum date of 2035 or 2036.
Could there be some type of 120 Jubilee cycle warning plan?
Herbert W. Armstrong taught:
For 6000 years, God has been revealing his truth to people. He revealed it to Adam in the Garden of Eden. He talked with Noah, and Noah went about 120 years, a preacher of righteousness, and righteousness in your Bible is defined as all of the commandments of God. (Armstrong HW. Order of End Times Events. World Tomorrow broadcast. https://www.hwalibrary.com/cgi-bin/get/hwa.cgi?action=getbroadcast&InfoID=1369494252)
Consider also:
Let's visualize the full scope of 6000 years of human history -- multiple dozens of generations strung end to end. ... For the 120 years during which his servants built the Ark, Noah himself proclaimed God's warning witness. The world heard Noah and the world knew God — but the world despised Noah and the world rejected God. (Hill DJ. Why Does God HIDE Himself? Plain Truth, March 1979)
Interestingly, 6,000 divided by 120 is 50, the number of years associated with the Jubilee. If the Jubilee cycle began with Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden in 3966 BC, that could possibly point to the final Jubilee being in 2034 or 2035 depending on inclusive or exclusive counting. Those dates are not proof, just an observation--and a very speculative one.
For more speculation.
In 2006, I was asked to give two sermons at the Feast of Tabernacles in Antigua, Guatemala.
While I had given many sermonettes at the Feast of Tabernacles, this was the first time to give any sermons.
I knew Deuteronomy taught that the book of the law was to be read every seven years at the Feast of Tabernacles:
10..."At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess." (Deuteronomy 31:10-13).
And this had never been done at any WCG, GCG, or LCG Feast of Tabernacles I attended. So, I decided to try to cover the Book of Deuteronomy in one of my two sermons.
Later, I wondered how that would happen in 2013. As it turned out, after leadership of LCG decided that it did not have to keep promises nor make corrections to its materials that the three Charlotte-based evangelists agreed were in error, I left on 12/28/12. So, the next Feast of Tabernacles was 2013, so that year I did 5-6 sermons to cover the entire Book of Deuteronomy. That was repeated by me again in 2020.
The sequence is therefore: 2006, 2013, 2020, 2027, and 2034--each seven years apart.
This got me to wonder whether perhaps God had moved LCG to have me give that sermon in 2006 as a marker for the beginning of a seven-year cycle, with the next corresponding readings coming seven years later.
It is intended that we will cover the Book of the Law again in 2027 and 2034.
During the millennium, and most definitely out the first year, the law will be taught. Micah wrote:
1 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord's house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And peoples shall flow to it.
2 Many nations shall come and say,
"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths."
For out of Zion the law shall go forth,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1-2)
The law will be taught.
The Sabbath of September 23, 2034 (which begins a sunset the 22nd) is also the Day of Atonement.
If 2034 is the end of God's 50 year cycle, and that is a SPECULATIVE IF, then it could be that the Jubilee year would begin on the Sabbath of September 23, 2034.
None of this establishes that 2034 or 2035 is the year of the Jubilee, nor does Scripture give us sufficient information to dogmatically declare that it is. The old Worldwide Church of God itself acknowledged that the ancient Sabbatical cycle could not be established with certainty. Nevertheless, the 6,000-year framework, the possible biblical significance of 120 and 50 years, and the possible relationship to the seven-year reading cycle make this an interesting possibility to consider. It should be viewed as speculation--not as established doctrine or a date-setting prophecy.
As far as how to know for sure, remember the words of Jesus:
1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together,
O undesirable nation,
2 Before the decree is issued,
Or the day passes like chaff,
Before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you,
Before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you!
3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth,
Who have upheld His justice.
Seek righteousness, seek humility.
It may be that you will be hidden
In the day of the Lord's anger. (Zephaniah 2:1-3)37 And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch! (Mark 13:37)
Jesus did not say that clever calculations were the answer, but gathering together with one who will issue the decree to flee (cf. Revelation 12:14-16), while watching for various events was the key.
And, I believe that we in the Continuing Church of God are doing the best job of watching and understanding prophecies better than any other group, which is part of why we best represent the Philadelphian remnant of the true Christian Church of God during this Laodicean age. And I believe the one issuing the decree will be from our midst.
Concluding Comments
Robert Morton said:
He makes an atonement two ways, you know, he makes the atonement by the sacrifice of Christ, upon our repentance, and of course our repentance is represented by our fasting, and he also atones or cleanses this world by getting rid of Satan and his demons ...
Brethren, that's what the Day of Atonement represents. ... It represents God forgiving and cleaning up that which can be forgiven, meaning our sinfulness. And it also represents God cleansing out and getting rid of that which cannot be forgiven, and that is Satan and his attitude. ...
And the Day of the, Day of Atonement, brethren, I think I've been able to show you now culminates what Christ started on the Feast of Trumpets. This is why God has bound or had his high priest sound a trumpet on the Day of Atonement during the year of Jubilee, because it represented Christ completing what he started on the Feast of Trumpets, and at that time, it could take the entire period of time in between, the entire 9 or 10 days before the whole thing is complete.
Finally, once it is complete, the year of Jubilee, the year in which total liberation of all mankind can take place. You know, that will be achieved on the Day of Atonement, and I think I've been able to show you why it can't begin until the Day of Atonement because man will never be free as long as Satan is there, once he is, and mankind then can begin the millennium, a time of peace and happiness and prosperity and productivity for all of mankind.
Of course, Robert Morton left off the reason Jesus was shown to be sacrificed there as well as in Passover, but yes, Jesus will finish what He started. And yes, the liberation of all human kind will take place.
But yes, Satan will be bound.
Yes, liberty will be proclaimed to the captives.
Yes, a type of Jubilee will occur after Jesus returns and establishes the millennial kingdom of God.
Remember to draw near to God and God will draw near to you (James 4:8).
Thiel B. Jubilee Aspects of Atonement. https://www.cogwriter.com/atonement-jubilee.htm COGwriter (c) 2026 0904