WHAT YEAR IS IT?

In the pages of this booklet you will find every biblical reference needed to verify what this summary chart reveals. What you do with this information is between you and the Almighty. (click to enlarge)
Authors Prologue

I have been studying and teaching the whole bible on my radio broadcast, now titled Cross The Border, since 1996. This has afforded me a circumspect view which eludes many who focus upon one topic or another from a “bible perspective.” Over the last ten years I have set about to understand the prophetic portions of the scripture, seeking the Spirit of God by prayer that I not be ensnared by any private interpretation. I believe God has honored that prayer. Unfortunately I have found the revelation, what God has shown me is contrary to what is accepted by the visible church at large, if not utterly unpopular, and made so by the corporate domination of christian media.

Before I began my research into the calendar I of course looked at The Usher Chronology, the Jewish Calendar, and the work of other men. The Usher Chronology already has us into the seventh millennium, as does the Rood calendar. When Usher wrote his chronology accuracy was not so critical with hundreds of years to go, but we are getting down to the wire here and the Millennial reign of Christ certainly has not begun. We have additional hindsight which demands re-inspection and update. The Usher Chronology has its value as an exhaustive work, but is not a focus upon the one object question: What year is it?

In this small booklet I have set about to find a purely biblically derived time line in order to determine about what year it is from the creation. This has not been done on a whim, but is a ten year culmination on this topic, the first five years simmering on the back burner as details were revealed through my regular chapter and verse bible studies. Having published earlier versions on my blog at CrossTheBorder.org beginning about 2009. With the help of my readers and listeners it has been refined to what I believe can only be found incontrovertible by those who are willing to follow the study as revealed here.

You may find that the revelation uncovered here negates many of the popularly held perspectives on the subject of prophecy. But this is not about what is popular, rather it is about what the Bible reveals on this topic. I have included every bible reference so that anyone with even elementary bible study skills will be without excuse to verify or challenge what I have exposed here. If you thereafter find it a compelling thesis I hope it will encourage you to re-examine all the popular prophecy of the day. If you don’t mind having the popular views challenged, you may find my book The Rapture Will Be Canceled just as compelling, this booklet is adapted from one of the chapters therein.

What Year Is It?

Did You Know that God told National Israel exactly what year the Messiah would come the first time? Through the Prophet Daniel he gave them a 483 year countdown to the year that He would show up on the scene. A total of 69 weeks of years (69×7) from the going forth of the decree to rebuild and restore the city Jerusalem.

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. (Mark 13:32)

Many will argue that we cannot know the day and hour of His return, but the scripture does not say that we cannot know the year. I have found God’s Word to be very exacting. God has hidden a time line in His Word in plain sight and now reveals it to His saints, Daniel says, knowledge will be increased and the wise will understand. Just as He warned National Israel, I believe He has revealed to His Spiritual Israel the year of His return, and I’m going to expose it here so that any one with elementary Bible study skills can follow and verify the findings for themselves:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1

The very term, “In the beginning” declares that Time was also part of the creation, it was the beginning of time as we know it.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Genesis 1:2-3

Likewise when He created Light, He created the night-day time cycle. When God said “Let there be light” there was only one thing to see in the vast expanse of the Time Space Continuum: That was the face of the deep, the Earth, void of form, a beautiful water blue marble, alone in an immense universe. Many have a hard time imagining light without the sun, but God is able, and I believe He did it just as He said in His Word.

What year is it? Few would ponder such a question, but rather quickly answer such with the Common Era or Roman date without a second thought. The question presupposes a beginning which must be ascertained before there can be an answer. This work is composed from the perspective that God created our universe in a literal six days just as The Bible recounts and that The Bible has veiled in it a time line from which we can discover the approximate year from the date of creation.

Why is this question important? Because we believe that The Bible is God’s Word and there is incontrovertible evidence that its prophetic utterance is unparalleled in accuracy, it reveals to mankind exactly what is hidden from view beyond the horizon of time. This future is not hidden from the Almighty Creator Who holds all things including all history, past, present and future within His view. He has revealed these future things to authenticate this very Bible as His Word to mankind. This author is not alone in the belief that the scripture indicates an allotted time for the era in which we live that parallels the days of creation, except that the era is made up of thousand year days with a fast approaching seventh day or Sabbath Millennium also known as the Thousand Year Reign of Christ which is immediately preceded by His coming.

Is it the year of the Lord Pontifix Maximus 2015 C.E. (Common Era) according to the ROMAN Gregorian Calendar? Or is it the year 5960 S.C. (Since Creation) according to God’s Word the Bible? For two thousand years, since the introduction of the Julian Calendar, Rome has ruled the worlds dating chronicle of history by it’s calendar as foretold by the prophet Daniel. And he shall … think to change times and laws: (Daniel 7:25) Of course the “he” is the final world dominating authority depicted by the iron legs to the broken iron mixed with clay in the toes of the Daniel Two Image and the seven headed ten horned first beast of Revelation chapter thirteen. I believe the Creator receives more glory when we use His date of creation, and I have this confidence: That we will not be using the ROMAN calendar during the Millennial Reign of Christ.

It is widely accepted that the Millennial Reign of Christ will be the Sabbath or Seventh Millennium from the Creation. Is the Seventh Millennium imminent? With all of the “end of the world, Left Behind, and Great Tribulation–Rapture” fervor of the last hundred or so years it would be wise to find a contiguous linage of time from the Bible itself that we can synchronize with the Common Era Calendar. This clear Biblical chronology indicates that we have about 40 years left before the seventh millennium begins.

The Genealogies

The first column of our chart below of course starts with the creation of Adam on day six, and when Adam was in his 130th year he had a son named Seth who had the next son to join this exclusive lineage in his 105th year. The totals are simply added until we get to the bottom of chart one and the man who was saved from the world wide deluge, Noah, because he was perfect in his generations, meaning that he was a product of the seed line of faith from Adam which would lead to the promised Messiah.
Noah was 600 years old when the flood came upon the earth in the Creation Year 1656. Our next chart picks up the genealogy of faith two years after the flood waters abated when Noah’s grandson is born to Shem, for whom the Semitic peoples are named. The genealogy is continued to the Messiah in the beginning of the book of Matthew. The Matthew Genealogy however is not dated therefore not helpful for our purposes here.
The second chart ends with the birth of Isaac to Abraham at 100 years of age and the year 2049 from the Genesis One Creation. This Genealogy Era of bible chronology is probably the least disputed in its conclusion beyond 1 or 2 years and the debate over averaging. It is my belief the Bible Genealogies were counted inclusively, meaning that if Adam was 129 years and six months old when he begat Seth it was recorded as 130 years.

Unlike the modern practice of counting ages exclusively, with inclusive counting the totals are self averaging. I have been asked about this and even thought it a concern when I began this project. Perhaps to better wrap your mind around this concept we would say that Seth was born in the 130th year of Adams life. But finally, or first of all we are handling the Word of God and maybe should accept the total as presented.

There are a few other debates such as the Genesis Gap theory and whether the genealogy starts after sin entered etc., but these spring primarily from conjecture rather the the plain reading of the text so would only render an inconclusive result, therefore are not worthy of the serious bible students time.

Birth of Isaac to Exodus Riddle
This era is where I got stumped early on in my investigation so many years ago and put the research on the back burner. But in my continued Bible teaching ministry I kept coming across clues that I had to bookmark in my mind which seemed to be pieces of a puzzle that when taken all together would yield a complete picture of the era between Isaac and the Exodus from Egypt. I believe that if I show you all of the pieces you will also agree that God perhaps concealed this era in a riddle, but provided more than enough evidence to yield a sure conclusion. So lets individually examine all of the pieces and see what happens when we put them all together.

Piece #1 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. Gal 3:16-17
Here Paul dates the time from the promises, recorded at Genesis 12:1-3 until the Law in the Exodus as 430 years. Paul seems to state this as it were common knowledge among the Pharisees, of which he was one.

Piece #2 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land [that is] not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; Gen 15:13
This period seems to contradict the first clue, but take notice that this prophecy concerns Abraham’s seed. His seed starting with Isaac, would be strangers and captives, cannot mean that the total captivity in Egypt was 400 years, for both Isaac and Jacob were strangers in land that was not theirs, then Jacobs family finally entered Egypt as free men. Because I don’t believe that God’s word contradicts itself I must consider a more exact reading of the text, and thereby conclude that all of the circumstances listed would happen to Abraham’s seed and culminate with a period of servitude over a total four hundred year period.  Was the period of time that Israel dwelt in Egypt actually 430 or even 400 years as commonly believed? No! Was the period of their servitude 400 years? No!

Piece #3 They were not forced into servitude until a Pharaoh “which knew not Joseph” arose. The Bible confirms the Egyptian sojourn could not have even approached 350 years: Gen 46:8 …And these [are] the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, …(v.11) And the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath,… So after arriving in Egypt, Kohath had a son named Amram and lived 133 years (Exo. 6:18). In turn, Amram had a son named Moses and lived 137 years (Exo. 6:20). And Moses was 80 years old when the Exodus took place (Exo. 7:7)

Moses grandfather, Kohath was born before Jacobs family entered Egypt, and he died there at 133. His son and Moses father, Amram was born in Egypt, begat Moses, and later died at 137 before the Exodus which took place when Moses was 80. When simply added these total 350 years. Because we are not given exact details we know there are undetermined overlaps, therefore we know the actual years spent in Egypt would be much less than the 350 year total.

Piece #4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. (Genesis 12:4)
Another seemingly contradictory piece. How does the fact that Abram departed Haran at 75, had Isaac at age 100 reconcile the difference between the 400 and 430 year periods given? It does not!

Again, more exact reading is required as I found in my search for more clues. I remembered that God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, so while he left Haran at seventy-five, he must have left Ur before that. Consider the following search for Ur in the book of Genesis:
Haran, Abraham’s brother, who was Lots father died in Ur. Abram left Ur of the Chaldees with his father, Terah and their households including his nephew Lot and moved to Canaan where they named their new hometown after the dearly departed Haran. Abraham left his Father and family in Haran five years later with his nephew Lot. “So Abram departed” Ur five years before he departed Haran, and thirty years before Isaac was born. So he would have been seventy when he received the promises in Ur, and departed Haran five years later at age seventy-five.
Piece #5 One more piece: Isaac is born to Abraham at age one-hundred; Jacob is born to Isaac at age sixty (Gen 25.26); Jacob enters Egypt at age one-hundred-thirty (Gen 47.9). At Genesis 47.9 Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.I believe that Jacob was actually bragging about his longevity as the Egyptians were not living that long, but God had another purpose for including this boast in His Word! When we take these clues and graph them out we come up with an incontrovertible conclusion: The time period from the Birth of Isaac to the Egyptian Exodus totaled four hundred years.

Exodus to Solomon’s 4th Year
This is one of the simplest eras of our chronology as it is all given to us in one verse, 480 years:
And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. (1Kings 6:1)

The Kings of Israel – Judah
So we have come to the fourth year of the reign of Solomon where he begins to build the Temple and the year 2929 SC (Since Creation). The chronicle records that Solomon reigned forty years, subtracting the four prior counted years we start by adding his remaining thirty-six. Thereafter we simply add the reigns of the successive kings which are also counted inclusively, so they too are self averaging as we previously concluded for the genealogies.

One only needs to be careful when going through the books of the Kings not to include the Northern Kingdom, but to exclusively follow the reigns of the Kings of Judah to come to an accurate count at the Babylonian desolation.

The Babylonian Desolation of Jerusalem and the Temple occur about BCE 586 and the year 3359 Since Creation. From this point we begin to synchronize with our Common Era Roman Calendar. The more points that we can synchronize together the more sure will be our result.

Before we move on I would like to take a little time to discuss the Common Era Calendars.

The Roman Julian Calendar

The Roman Calendar introduced by Julius Caesar was the prototype of the Roman Calendar used by the nations today.

“The then existing calendar was a lunar one with extra months slipped in from time to time in an attempt to adjust it. In Caesar’s time this calendar is three months out in relation to the seasons. On the advice of Sosigenes, a learned astronomer from Alexandria, Caesar adds ninety days to the year 46 [BCE] and starts a new calendar on 1 January 45 BC. Sosigenes advises Caesar that the length of the solar year is 365 days and six hours. The natural solution is to add a day every fourth year, introducing the concept of the leap year. The extra day is added to February, the shortest of the Roman months.” historyworld.net

We note two points from this bit of history:
1. Rome separated the months from the moon cycles.
2. The establishment of the Roman Common Era calendar had nothing to do with the birth of Christ.

The annual dating that we continue to use today was introduced at Rome about 525 by the monk Dionysius Exiguus as Anno Domini (A.D.) while working on his “Easter Tables to date from the incarnation of Christ”. however, modern scholars and even the Roman Catholic Church acknowledge that the birth of Jesus was a few years earlier than the date he determined to be 1 AD. No correction was ever attempted.

The Roman Gregorian Calendar

“By the 16th century the seemingly minor error in the Julian calendar (estimating the solar year to be 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than it actually is) has accumulated to a ten day discrepancy between the calendar and reality.
…Pope Gregory XIII employs a German Jesuit and astronomer, Christopher Clavius, to find a solution. Calculating that the error amounts to three days in 400 years, Clavius suggests an ingenious adjustment.
…Gregory puts the proposal into immediate effect in the papal states, announcing that the day after October 4 in 1582 will be October 15 – thus saving the lost ten days.” historyworld.net

Another leap day formula is added on a hundred year scale to correct this error. Happily, this minor ten day error and correction does verify the accuracy of the year count of the Julian Calendar to that date.

An additional and arbitrary change introduced with the Vatican’s Gregorian Calendar was the change from the biblically established New Year in the Spring to the present New Year of Janus. This is self evident by the numbered names of the months, September, October, November, and December which are respectively defined seventh-month, eighth- month, ninth-month and tenth-month, meaning that the eleventh and twelfth-month used to follow December, the tenth-month.

And he shall … think to change times and laws: (Dan 7:25)

As to the flap over the AD vs. CE terminology, I do not consider the Vatican’s Gregorian Calendar to be the denomination of the years of Jesus the Messiah. The calendar and sabbath given to the Hebrew Nation at the Exodus has been phased out with the two Roman Calendar introductions. My Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and Johns Gospel records that all things were made by Him and through Him. Of this we may be assured, that when Jesus returns we will not be using the Vatican’s Roman Gregorian Calendar.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

The Jewish Calendar

The Jewish Calendar has the date 5775 AM (anno mundi: Latin, the year of the earth) for the CE. year 2014-2015. One of the problems with the Jewish Calendar is how Daniels Seventy Weeks are calculated. They do agree that Daniels 70 weeks total 490 years, so that’s not the problem. The problem is where they fix the starting and ending point of those 490 years.

The wise Rabbi’s fix the starting point with the Babylonian Desolation of the First Temple, they then fix the ending point with the Roman Desolation of the Second Temple. “Desolation to Desolation.” But in the real world that time period was actually about 165 years longer than the 490 years of Daniel’s seventy weeks.

The red (dark) areas mark the Jewish Calendar omissions which include the seventy years from the Babylonian desolation of the Temple until its rebuilding and the fifty-eight years until the decree of Artaxerxes to restore and rebuild the city Jerusalem, the prophesied beginning of the final seventy weeks determined upon the Jewish people and upon the holy city. Also omitted are the 36.5 years from the end of the 70 weeks until the Roman Desolation. Simply adding the 165 year omissions charted above puts a corrected Jewish Calendar within several years of my calculation for the current year Since Creation. I did not feel compelled to further investigate the Jewish Calendar due to this seemingly intentional error, but that is another story.

The Creation-Roman Calendar Synchrony

At the first row below we have followed an explicit Bible Chronology to the year 3359 and the Babylonian Desolation of the city and the Temple which are also historically dated BCE-586. At the time of this writing I have already completed and published my WHAT YEAR IS IT Video on my CrossTheBorder.org website, and for the first time simply entered the above three BCE Roman dates in an internet search.

It is that easy for anyone to verify the dates that we are using to synchronize the ancient biblical chronology with the present Roman dating system. BCE dating is a recent invention created only for the purpose of historical dating to the Roman Calendar. There was never in reality any such year as a BCE year before about 525 AD when the common era numerical year dating system was invented.

Countdown to the Messiah

Daniel 9:24 gives the Hebrew Nation a 483 year countdown to the year that the Messiah would arrive on the scene (column 2 row 3 of our next table). Luke records that Jesus began to be about 30 years old when he was revealed as the Messiah at the Jordan River baptism. (From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old shalt thou number them, every one that entereth into the service, to do the work of the tabernacle of the congregation. Num 4:30)

Three and a half years later the Messiah is crucified, by no coincidence it is forty years before the total Desolation of the Temple and the Nation by the Roman army, the people of the prince that shall come, as foretold by Daniel and Jesus. If any period of time deserves the title, “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” it would be this forty years. And if those days had not been shortened no flesh (Jacob) would have been saved, but for the Elect’s sake (those obedient Hebrew’s who would spread the gospel) those days of persecution were shortened to prevent the annihilation of even the elect.

Many try to apply this verse to the days preceding the return of Messiah but this is not logical because the elect will all be resurrected at that time so those days will not need to be shortened for their sake. Because first century Christians were a sect of the Jews it was necessary for the Elect to survive the desolation of the Hebrew Nation at the end of that century.

Summary Charts
Putting all of these points of synchrony together with the former bible eras yields our summary charts bringing us to a conclusion of the present year Since Creation: CE-2015 equals SC-5960 (since creation). We have approximately until the year 2055 before the present era is completed.

Are You Ready?
Are you prepared to endure another 40 years until Christ returns?

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:11-14)

I have named my ministry Cross The Border as a reference to the Gospel of the Kingdom which Jesus preached. The Kingdom of God or Heaven is a Holy Nation that transcends all of the borders of the kingdoms of this world, transcends mortality and time, it is the only Kingdom that will last forever. I am not greater than my Master, “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So I preach and I bid all to cross the border into the Kingdom of God and live forever, there is nothing, absolutely nothing more important in this life. Repent and be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

How should we as believers respond to these things? We should continue to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit. Our Creator calls His Elect to obey to His commandments, allow His Holy Spirit to bring forth the fruit of repentance in your life, “the good works which God has before ordained that we might walk in them.” If you cannot obey Him now, how do you think He will lead you when the time is critical? Learn to trust and obey Him now and you will be able to hear and obey Him through this Global Great Depression, coming world conflicts and Mark of the Beast Inquisition. Cross the Border into His Kingdom, obey the King and live forever, nothing is more important!

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. (Mat 23:13)