Shabbat Sabbath

Jerusalem set the timing for the great tribulation of Scripture. The “seven times” began with the fall of Jerusalem in 604 B.C. and ended in 2017. This is because the biblical calendar, after being suspended during the Babylonian captivity, resumed with Daniel’s 70 weeks, leading to the ministry of Christ.

Meanwhile, Judah’s calendar did not apply to the Israelites in dispersion—nor in any other nation that suffered from being “not My people.” Nonetheless, history shows that both Judah and Israel were subject to the 2,520-year cycle of tribulation. The question, of course, is…

The number 2,520 was discovered by the Greeks a few centuries before Christ. It was a sacred number to them, partly because it was divisible by all of the factors from one to ten (and 12 also). To put it another way, 2,520 is the lowest common denominator of all these factors.

2,520 divided by 1 = 2,520

2,520 divided by 2 = 1,260

2,520 divided by 3 = 840

2,520 divided by 4 = 630

2,520 divided by 5 = 504

2,520 divided by 6 = 420

2,520 divided by 7 = 360

2,520 divided by 8 = 315

2,520 divided by 9 = 280

2,520 divided by 10 = 252

2,520 divided by 12 = 210

So far, I have focused primarily on the prophecy of the “seven times,” which is 7 x 360. A prophetic year in Scripture is 360 days/years. Why not 365? It is because 360 is the mean distance between a solar year (365.25 days) and a lunar year (354.36 days). Therefore, too, a prophetic month is 30 days/years. The word month is derived from the word moon.

Discussing the previous 8 chapters of this prophecy of Zechariah, we hope to have established that they are actually a series of rather profound but complex prophetic visions which have two purposes. First, in the interpretation which we call the near vision, they are a prophecy of the immediate circumstances of the building of the temple and the founding of the 70-weeks kingdom. But more importantly, in the interpretation which we call the far vision, they are prophetic of the ministry of the Christ and the building of the Body of Christ which is the true temple of Yahweh. As we also hope to have seen, this true temple was to be built in the captivity of the woman in judgment, in the gathering of scattered Israel through Yahshua Christ in order to reconcile them to Yahweh their God. The purpose of the second temple and the 70-weeks Kingdom was to produce and herald the Messiah, and the overall purpose of Zechariah’s prophecy was to foretell some of the events. Circumstances and the purpose of His coming.

Presenting Zechariah chapter 9, we concluded that the oracles in the opening verses of the chapter were actually a promise of rest for the captivity of “all the tribes of Israel” who would repent and look to their God, something which is fulfilled in Christ as Paul had asserted in Hebrews chapter 4 that “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” We made this conclusion with the understanding that the message of the prophet is found in the meanings of the words, Hadrach, Damascus and Hamath, and not in the cities themselves. As the prophet wrote, Hamath and Hadrach had already been destroyed by the Babylonians, so the names must stand as allegories.

As the Church of England announced its decision on same-sex couples on Wednesday, the head of the Anglican church, Archbishop Justin Welby, foretold that the decision of keeping the Christian doctrine of heterosexual marriage but blessing homosexual civil unions would not welcomed by many.

“I am under no illusions that what we are proposing today will appear to go too far for some and not nearly far enough for others, but it is my hope that what we have agreed will be received in a spirit of generosity, seeking the common good”, Welby said in the press release that announced the decision.

The reactions in the first 24 hours have confirmed what the leader of the Church of England expected.

How can you get people to wake up if they are determined to keep sleeping?  For decades, global events have been moving us in a very ominous direction, and ever since this decade began the pace of change has accelerated dramatically.  But even though we just keep getting hit by one major crisis after another, most people still do not get it.

Almost everyone seems to be under the impression that the massive problems that we are experiencing right now are “just temporary” and that everything will “return to normal” soon.  Meanwhile, apocalyptic scenarios continue to unfold all around us at a breathtaking pace.

The prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel tell us that war is coming against Israel and what nations and people groups will be involved. What is most interesting about this is that the predictions of Ezekiel, made over 2600 years ago, line up very closely with the current alignment of nations that we see emerging today: the Islamic nations which are forming coalitions to “wipe Israel off the face of the earth”, the Northern and Eastern nations that are making efforts to establish a One World, Order, and a small number of nations which tend to be supportive of Israel to a smaller or larger extent.

“Trust Scores” or reputational scores are aspects of having a digital identity that haven’t been discussed much. By default, everyone who accepts a digital identity, whether decentralised or not, will receive a Trust Score.

With the introduction of trusted digital identities, social credit systems are reaching the West.

The tagline of many digital identity advertisements is “At the heart of all digital identity is trust.” But what does that even mean?

One current definition of trust is that it is “a confident relationship with the unknown.”