contents - Description: Description: Description: Description ...

1962- 2,000,000; and 1970- 2,500,000. Now there are nearly five million Jews in Israel which
have been gathered up from over 102 different nations.
A gentleman by the name of Joe Marler had proposed a theory based on Daniel 9:25-26
which says: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to
restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three score
and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off...” The Hebrew word for “week” is ‘shabula’
which means ‘seven,’ indicating that a ‘week’ is actually 7 ‘weeks’ of years, or 49 years, which
is known as the Jubilee cycle (Lev. 25:8).
The 62 weeks began when the city of Jerusalem, and its Temple, which was destroyed in 586
BC, was rebuilt. Three such decrees were given. The first came during the first year of the reign
of Cyrus (King of Persia, 536-527 BC), who ruled for nine years; after which his son Cambyses
(527-520 BC) took over, and all the work on the Temple was stopped for seven years. The
second decree was made by Darius I, in the second year of his 35-year reign (520-485 BC).
Construction resumed on the Temple in 520 under Zerubbabel, the Persian governor, and was
completed between 516-514 BC. Then Xerxes reigned 21 years (485-464 BC). Artaxerxes ruled
40 years (464-424 BC), and during his seventh year, in 457 BC, he decreed that Jerusalem be
restored. Nehemiah, the cupbearer to Artaxerxes, was sent to Jerusalem in 444 BC to complete
the work on the walls of the city to fortify it. Thus the period of 62 weeks represents 434 years,
which added to 444 BC, indicates the date of 10 BC, which is close to the time of the birth of
Christ.
Marler’s research somehow led him to the period of 440-438 BC, and adding 434 years to
438 BC led to 4 BC, which is closer to the actual date of the birth of Jesus. Marler believes that
the other seven ‘weeks’ or 49 years apply to the second coming of Jesus. Rather than using the
date of May 14, 1948, when Israel officially became an independent country, he used the date of
November 29, 1947, when the United Nations voted 33-13 to approve a Jewish homeland.
Adding 49 years indicated a date of November 29, 1996, as the end of man’s rule on this Earth.
By counting back 3-1/2 years, he theorized that the period known as the Tribulation would begin
May 29, 1993. The irony here is a story that was reported on the news on May 19, 1993. Big
Ben, the renowned tower clock famous for its accuracy, which was installed in 1859 at the
eastern end of the Houses of Parliament in London, had mysteriously stopped running. Was the
most recognized time piece in the world stopped through divine means to signal the beginning of
the end? No. And another ‘date’ has come and gone.
There are also those researchers who have chosen to totally base all of their calculations on
the premise of 360 days indicating a Biblical year. For instance, in Hosea 6:1-2 it says: “Come,
and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will
bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live
in his sight.” From the initiation of Christ’s ministry, in the fall of 28 AD, and adding two “days”
(2 years X 360 days) would give us 720,000 days, which adjusted to our calendar by dividing
into that 365.25 results in 1971.25 years, which added to 28.75, takes us to the year 2000.
Another one has to do with the cleansing of the Temple. In 168 BC, the Syrian King
Antiochus IV Epiphanes attacked Israel, and sacrificed a pig to Zeus on the Temple altar, an
event that is referred to as the Abomination of Desolation. The period till cleansing, according to
Daniel 8:14, was 2,300 days, which some scholars feel refers to 2,300 morning and evening
rituals, or 1,150 days (3 years, 2 months and 10 days), which seemingly points to the ritual
cleansing performed by Judas Maccabaeus three years later, after the success of the Hasmonean