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| Ministry of the Priesthood Issue #138
July 2000
The actual 120th
Jubilee from Adam occurred in October 1986. This was when the Church was
supposed to declare the Jubilee--but did not do so. If the Church had
taken heed to the call to prayer issued by the Net of Prayer (and others)
from 1981-1986, I believe God would have given to someone the revelation
of timing during that time, and the Church would then have understood
what it ought to do. However, they showed a strange and unexplainable
lack of interest in seeking the heart of God. We
now understand that we were dealing with the Church under Pentecost, which
is leavened and cannot possibly bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom
under its limited anointing. It was the same in Jesus' day, as He dealt
with the Passover Church of the Old Testament, "the church in the
wilderness" mentioned in Acts 7:38. On
April 9, 1985 we were given the revelation that God was about to separate
His people--the overcomers--from the Pentecost Church. God said that He
would establish His Kingdom through these overcomers, rather than through
the entire body of believers. The reason was because relatively few Christians
really had a heart to know God. Most had an attitude of lawlessness, or
they were in submission to those who did have such an attitude and hence
were prisoners to men and denominations. In
the Bible, the Church under Pentecost is symbolized by wheat, while the
overcomers are barley. (See our books on those subjects.) In effect, in
these past 40 Jubilees of Church history, God's "field" was
mixed with barley and wheat in the same field. The prophetic Law says,
however, that "you
shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed"
(Lev. 19:19), so at some point God would have to separate the barley from
the wheat in His field. This was done at the 120th Jubilee
from Adam in 1986. Looking
back on the events of 1985-1986, we now see that when God separated the
overcomers from the Church, it was also like a birthing of the overcomers
who were to come into the fullness of the stature of Christ and reign
with Him in the Age of Tabernacles. In fact, it was the birthing of the
Melchizedek priest, because Rev. 20:6 says that those who rule and reign
with Christ will do so as PRIESTS. Under
Moses, the age that the priests had to be in order to minister in the
temple as full priests was set at 30 years of age (Num. 4:3). For this
reason, both John the Baptist and Jesus were 30 years of age when they
began to minister fully in their callings. They followed the pattern of
the Kingdom under Moses. Under
David, however, the age was lowered to 20 years of age. So we read in
1 Chronicles 23:24-28,
24 These
were the sons of Levi according to their fathers' households,
even the heads of the fathers' households
of those of them who were counted, in the number of names by their
census, doing the work for the service of the house of the LORD, from
twenty years old and upward.
25 For David said, "The LORD God of Israel has given rest to His people,
and He dwells in Jerusalem forever.
26 "And also, the Levites will no longer need to carry
the tabernacle and all its utensils for its service."
27 For
by the last words of David the sons of Levi were
numbered, from twenty years old and upward. 28 For their office is to assist the sons of Aaron with the service of the
house of the LORD, in the courts and in the chambers and in the purifying
of all holy things, even the work of the service of the house of God. In
other words, David lowered the age of the priests to 20 years of age.
On what grounds? God had revealed to him that when the ark was at rest,
and when God had given rest to His people, then the age should be lowered
to 20. Since these were "the
last words of David," they were spoken at the end of his life,
just as Solomon was about to ascend to the throne. Solomon was the builder
of the temple, where the ark of God actually came to a position of rest
in a permanent type of structure. All
of this foreshadowed the Jubilee, which is the real
REST that God intended for His people. There is a personal level of fulfillment,
of course, in which many people throughout past history and the present
have been called to that priesthood. However, we are dealing with the
historic fulfillment in terms of the Tabernacles Age. In
the declaration of the Jubilee in 1996, we actually became eligible to
fulfill the last words of David on a historic level. For this reason,
the Melchizedek priesthood, born in 1986, will be eligible
to minister in the true temple in the year 2006. This corporate overcomer
company will then be 20 years old. Yet
in order to minister, this priesthood needs a temple other than their
personal temple, which is their body. Because this is a corporate body,
they need a corporate temple as well. This is something that God has been
building on the earth for a long time. The only question has been: How
long before it is completed? The True Temple Men
have long founded their own religions, temples, and denominational organizations,
calling them "the true church." The fact is, the true church
is not an organization on earth, but a spiritual body whose members are
written in the Lamb's Book of Life in heaven. These come from all walks
of life and from many denominational backgrounds. They are people who
believe on Jesus Christ--not in their organization or in any man. To
believe in a denomination or a church organization will make you a church
member. To believe on Jesus Christ will make you a Christian. The
members of the true Church are being built upon the Chief Cornerstone,
Jesus Christ, and the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets (Eph. 2:20).
They have not placed their faith in the old covenant of Mount Sinai, nor
in the old Jerusalem, which is Hagar (Gal. 4:25). They have instead come
to a new Mount Sion (Zion) "unto
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 13:22). There
are earthly Zionists, whose trust is placed in the ancient hill called
Zion. Then there are the heavenly Zionists, who have come to a new Zion
that is not earthly, but is associated with the heavenly Jerusalem. When
the prophets speak of the future Jerusalem, Zion, and the Mount of Olives
in connection with the Kingdom of God in the latter days, they are not
speaking of the old locations in Palestine. It is speaking of better things
that are not carnal, but spiritual "places." The
same is true with the prophecies of the temple. Whether or not the Zionists
today succeed in building a physical temple on the ancient temple site
is irrelevant from a prophetic standpoint. That is the home of the abomination
of desolation, the man of sin, the antichrist, as we showed in our last
series in the FFI. Haggai's Temple
Prophecy Haggai
is the prophet of the feast of Tabernacles. His name means "feast
day, festival." His most striking prophecy was given to him on the
7th day of Tabernacles, as we read in Haggai 2:1,
1
On
the twenty-first of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came
by Haggai the prophet saying . . . . Haggai
began prophesying in the second year of Darius the Great, King of Persia
(Haggai 1:1). This was the year 520 B.C. The years of his reign are dated
by two lunar eclipses mentioned by the ancient astronomer, Ptolemy of
Egypt. He said there was a lunar eclipse in the 20th and in
the 31st year of Darius. Astronomers and historians tell us
that these occurred on Nov. 19, 502 B.C. and on April 25, 491 B.C. If
the 20th year of Darius was the year 502 B.C., as the astronomers
tell us, then 18 years earlier (520 B.C.) would be the second year of
Darius. In that year Haggai began to prophesy and urge the people to complete
the work of building the second temple. Ezra 6:14 and 15 says,
14
And
the elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying
of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished
building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree
of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15 And this temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar;
it was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. The
Persian calendars began in the spring (April). The temple was completed
in the month of Adar, which was the 12th lunar month of the
calendar year, corresponding to March 15, 515 B.C. It was the end of the
sixth year of Darius' reign. Haggai's
temple prophecy was not fulfilled in his day. Haggai 2:2 said that God
would fill that house with His glory, but we know that God's glory never
filled that temple. Haggai 2:9 also said,
9 The
latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says the LORD
of hosts, and in this place I shall give peace, declares the LORD of hosts. And
yet the glory of the second temple was nothing in comparison to the glory
of Solomon's temple. It is apparent, then, that the Word given to Haggai
was not really speaking of that physical temple that they were building,
but to a spiritual temple that was yet incomplete. This is a temple made
of living stones, as we are told in 1 Peter 2:5,
5 You
also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house
for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ. The
rebuilt temple in Haggai's day was only a shadow that prophesied of the
REAL temple that God would inhabit, made of living stones. Now,
as for the timing of its completion, it appears that we ought to draw
our focus to the year 2006 A.D. Why? First of all, this is 20 years after
1986, and the priesthood of Melchizedek would appear to be fully mature
and eligible to minister in a temple in 2006. They need a temple in which
to minister. Secondly,
the year 2006 is precisely 2,520 years after the completion of the second
temple. It is 2,520 years from 515 B.C. to 2006 A.D., taking into consideration
the fact that there is no year zero. So,
what is so special about the number 2,520? Revelation
12:6 and 14 speak of "a time,
times, and a half a time" as being synonymous with 1,260 "days."
A prophetic "time" is 360 days or 360 years. If you compare
Daniel 7:21-25 with Rev. 13:2-7, you will see that three and one-half
"times" is also a period of 42 months (12 x 3 = 36, plus 6 =
42). A
period of time that covers a full 7 "times" is twice this much.
In other words, 1,260 x 2 = 2,520 days or years. If you want to study
Bible prophecy, this is one of the most basic time cycles that you must
learn. When
the House of Israel was taken into captivity beginning in 745 B.C., they
were under the judgment of the law for 7 "times" (Lev. 26:24).
This ended 2,520 years later in the year 1776 A.D. when America became
a nation, composed primarily of the descendants of the lost House of Israel. Babylon
became an empire when it conquered Nineveh in 607 B.C. just three years
before it conquered the city of Jerusalem. And so we find that 2,520 years
later, in 1914 A.D. the bankers created a secret type of Babylon that
brought America and the world into financial bondage with the Federal
Reserve Act. It was signed into law by President Wilson in February 1914. In
604 B.C. the House of Judah and the city of Jerusalem was captured by
the Babylonians. Precisely 2,520 years later, British General Allenby
freed Jerusalem from Turkish rule in 1917 A.D. At
the same time, the Bolshevik revolution put an iron curtain over Russia
for 70 years from 1917-1987. It ended with Soviet President Gorbachev's
70th anniversary speech to the Supreme Soviet in 1987, announcing
his new policy of glasnost and
perestroika. Few people would have guessed that this marked the end
of Soviet communism, and that the entire empire would crumble and disintegrate,
splitting into many republics within a few years. The
entire 70-year Russian captivity took place exactly 2,520 years after
Jerusalem's 70-year captivity from 604-534 B.C. No, history did not repeat
itself. God repeated Himself. The Fall of
Babylon Daniel
5 records the fall of Babylon. During a drinking festival, a hand appeared
out of nowhere and began to write some words on the wall. The king's loins
were loosed (verse 6), which is a nice way of saying that he messed his
trousers. The Aramaic words written on the wall were: Mene,
Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. (See Dan. 5:25.) The
words are bankruptcy proceedings: MENE:
"numbered," or audited. TEKEL:
"weighed," or balancing the books. UPHARSIN
(pl. of PERES): "divided," or dividing up Babylon's estate at
the auction to sell it to Media-Persia. If
we translate these words from Aramaic into Hebrew, we find that they are
monetary terms. The lowest common denominator is the gerah--sort of like
our penny. MINA
= 1,000 gerahs MINA
= 1,000 gerahs SHEKEL
= 20 gerahs PERES
= 500 gerahs The
total number of gerahs in the handwriting on the wall is 2,520. It is
a hidden prophecy of the real downfall of Babylon in 2,520 years--that
is, in 1987, the Jubilee year and the year that the Soviet Union began
to collapse. It was the year that God began to set people free from the
communist ideology. That process is ongoing. Much
more could be written about this, of course, but our point is that the
time cycle of 2,520 years is extremely important in prophetic history.
With these examples in mind, we come now to the 2,520-year cycle of the
second temple. The
second temple was completed during the prophecy of Haggai from 520-515
B.C. This five-year period, I believe, will have its modern counterpart
2,520 years later from 2001-2006 A.D. In some way not fully understood
yet, there must be a counterpart to Haggai's ministry that will complete
the work on this prophetic temple, in order that the priesthood might
minister therein. I
do not believe that this will be fulfilled in a physical temple. This
is a spiritual work. Even so, it will take place here on earth, for that
is where the "living stones" are located. Daniel's 70
Weeks Daniel's
70 "weeks" (70 x 7 = 490 years) were fulfilled primarily from
458 B.C. to 33 A.D, a period of 490 years. It began with the edict of
Artaxerxes of Persia and ended with Jesus' crucifixion. Because we already
discussed this fully in Secrets
of Time, we will not attempt to repeat that information in this
short bulletin. We will just say that the "midst of the week"
mentioned in Daniel 9:26, 27 was not meant to date Jesus' crucifixion,
but rather His baptism. That is, it did not date His death, but His dedication
to the ministry, wherein He would soon die. As soon as He presented Himself
as the Lamb of God to the priest, John the Baptist, the "sacrifice
and oblation" ceased from God's perspective. Sacrifices, of course,
did not actually end until the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. In
connection with the 70 weeks, Daniel 9:25 mentions "the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" as the beginning
of the countdown toward the work of the Messiah. Artaxerxes gave that
command in 458 B.C. in the 7th year of his reign (Ezra 7:7).
However, a city is not complete until its wall is built. I believe that
is why Daniel 9:25 also mentions the wall being built. Another 70-Week
Period There
is a secondary 490-year period dating from the completion of the wall
around Jerusalem in 445 B.C. In the 20th year of Artaxerxes,
Nehemiah was sent to Jerusalem to build that wall (Neh. 2:1). It was completed
in the month we call August of that year (Neh. 6:15). If
we use this secondary date as the beginning of a 490-year period, we come
to 46 A.D. This was the year the Apostle Paul was commissioned and sent
out on his first missionary journey with Barnabas in Acts 13:2.
Paul
was converted in late 33 A.D. some months after Pentecost was fulfilled.
He tells us in Galatians 2:1 that it was "after 14 years" (i.e.,
the 14th year in Hebrewspeak) that he and Barnabas were sent
to Jerusalem with the contributions from Antioch. The NT prophet Agabus
had prophesied a soon-coming drought, so contributions were sent to the
church in Jerusalem, anticipating that drought. Acts
11:28 says that this drought took place in the days of Claudius Caesar.
Historians tell us that the drought took place in 47 A.D. during the 4th
Consulship of Claudius. (See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews,
XX, ii., 5.) So the prophecy of Agabus was given prior to that time. When
Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, God told the people to lay hands
on them and send them forth on their first missionary journey. This
date is important, because it completed the second cycle of 490 years,
dating from Nehemiah's wall. As
we have said many times, 33 A.D. began a 40-Jubilee cycle of the Pentecost
Church, which ended in 1993 A.D. There is another 40-Jubilee cycle that began with Paul's commissioning in 46 A.D. This cycle ends in late 2006. The
Apostle Paul's conversion was a pattern of moving from Pentecost to Tabernacles.
He was probably a direct descendant of King Saul (probably through Jonathan).
While named Saul, he persecuted the Church, even as King Saul had persecuted
David. But this NT Saul was converted to become a type of overcomer who
goes beyond Pentecost into the feast of Tabernacles. As
such, his commissioning into all the world to preach the gospel has great
significance to all aspiring overcomers today. In 1993 the Pentecost Church
Age ended, but when are the overcomers sent out under the new anointing
with the message of Tabernacles? Could it be after Tabernacles of the
year 2006? If so, it would correlate perfectly with the maturity of
the Melchizedek priesthood and the completion of the True Temple prophesied
by Haggai. The
year 2006 is 40 Jubilees from Paul's commission; it is also 50 Jubilees
from Nehemiah's wall. Nehemiah's name (Nahum-Yah) means "comforter of Yahweh," or Yahweh
comforts. This is the prime title of the Holy Spirit. Does this hint
at the outpouring of the Spirit in 2006 that will send out the overcomers
on the great mission of the second work of Christ? Be watchful of these
things. God’s
Kingdom Ministries |
