Originally posted by: I800C0LECT
The following has been pulled from an exchange concerning jewish people within the bible and the punishment God dealt to them through the books. The issue is that adding up the punishments jews received throughout the bible...resulting in the loss of their country, language, and culture...when all was accounted for it leads up to the point in time when their country, culture, and society were founded once more. In all the history of the world...this has not once happened to any other people group. Shockingly, it ends up being the exact date and time when the countries of the world signed them back into existance in 1948. (I think that's right)
- > My friend says your math is way off..I'm awful at math so I'm not gonna even
> attempt. What is your starting point and how did you figure that it came to
> may 1948?
The math is sound. It was first published in a book called "Armageddon -
Appointment with Destiny" in 1988 and has never been refuted in all the
years since despite high publicity and awareness among Bible scholars who
have examined the math very carefully.
Beginning point is 536BC, when the Jews were released from captivity.
God had decreed through Ezekiel that Israel would suffer 430 years of
punishment. Removing the 70 years of captivity would bring the remaining 360
years to the year 176BC. At that time the punishment clearly did not end and
the Jews were not yet living in a land that was entirely theirs. So we have
to take a closer look because *either* God was wrong or there is another
answer to the puzzle.
There were many places in Scripture, including Isaiah's prophecies more than
100 years prior to the captivity itself, that prophetic proclamations called
for the Jews to celebrate their release from Babylonian captivity and to go
back to Jerusalem at that time with joyful worship. It was clearly God's
plan that they all return to the land that had been promised and won with
such great faith and effort.
Unfortunately, only a small handful returned. Scholars aren't sure exactly
how many Jews were living in the Babylonian/Persian empire at the time, but
estimates range from 500,000 to 700,000 and only 44,000 returned. This is
well below 10 percent! It is clear that the vast majority were enjoying the
wealth and comfortable life they had made in this tolerant yet pagan empire.
There was little anti-Semitism. Jews held positions of honor and had built
vast business empires. Although many of the Jews were devout and held to
their beliefs faithfully, they had no temple and could not fulfill all the
requirements of the Law, so clearly their lack of desire to return would be
seen by God as a sinful attitude. This is especially true given His direct
commands to return home when allowed to do so.
In Leviticus 26:18, 21, 23-24, 27-28 God declares that after Israel suffers
the 70 years of punishment for not keeping the Sabbath of the land, if they
continue to disobey "then I will punish you seven times more for your sins."
This meant that the Jews would remain without a nation they could call their
own for another 2,520 biblical years from 536BC (360 x 7 = 2,520). Note that
the Bible only deals in 360-day years.
Babylonian captivity ended in spring of 536BC or 536.4BC
Duration of Israel's captivity 3483.8 calendar years (2520 biblical years
work out to 3483.8 modern years of 365.25 days)
This arrives at a date of 1947.4 AD using simple math, but there is no year
"0" so we have to add one year to adjust for this (the calendar jumps from
1BC to 1AD -- there was only one year between the Passover celebrations of
14Nisan 1BC and 14Nisan 1AD). Adding that year takes us to May 15, 1948.
In order to calculate it with all the necessary details, you have to convert
biblical years to days and measure the days, including the adding of leap
years. This was all documented in the "Armageddon" book.
There is some uncertainty about the exact starting date, but if you assume
it begins when Cyrus' decree was issued which is a reasonable assumption
then it works out.
Thanks for writing to have this clarified. Hope my explanation helped.
--
= George Pytlik =
george@pytlik.com
http://www.pytlik.com/
"People read what interests them; and
sometimes it's an ad." --Howard Gossage
wow...that's confusing....
does this help petrek?
It's confusing because it's all based upon *symbolism*. Why do people continue to take numbers and phrases completely literally from a work written based upon symbolism??
It's just mind-boggling.