Doves,
Been a while, hope you like this one.
As an addition to this post by Ibalog, The time of rapture Linked to the Dow Jones 2008 fall of 777.7, there is this. I just heard teaching on Genesis 6:3, “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years” (KJV) which I think I recall was on Lynn Leahz’ page. In short, this is commonly thought of as possibly setting the human lifespan at a maximum of 120 years. Interestingly, DNA research has found a limit to the number of times that DNA can reproduce itself, effectively, and that works out to about 120 years of doing so. Nonetheless, this figure is problematic as we don’t see that in actuality and there are other versus such as Psalm 90:10 which set that value at 70 or 80 years. So then, if not a lifespan, what is the Lord speaking of here?
One thought is that it refers to the span of time in which our Lord will “strive with man”(kind), as a whole. In other words, 120 years will measure the length of the striving with man after some key date which signifies the end times. We look to the ‘budding of the fig’ as a harbinger, or milestone, signaling the end of days, as we know. Many conjecture 1917, the Balfour Declaration, or perhaps 1967, the 6-Day Way, or 1947/48 as such a ‘first budding’ and then we go through various gymnastics trying to calculate a 'generation'.
Consider 1897, the date marking the First Zionist Congress. This marks the 1st spot in modern world history where the seeds were planted and expounded upon which later manifest at Balfour and in Israel’s statehood. It is entirely plausible that THIS was the 1st ‘budding’ of the fig.
So, 1897 plus the 120 years which He ‘striveth with man’ leads us to, wait for it, 2017.
Get that? 1897, 1917, 1967, 2017 !!! there you have it, 777.7 another way !!!!
1897 – 2017 = 120 years
1917 – 1967 = 50 years
1967 – 2017 – 50 years.
While we are working with the subject of first mentions into the public mind of the fact of Israel as a nation or a place, and 50-year increments, what, if anything, happened in 1867? If anything did, then you get 1867+50=1917+50=1967+50=2017.
Glad you asked:Mark Twain's visit to Lebanon, Syria, and the Holy Land in 1867 was published in "The Innocents Abroad", where he described Palestine as follows:
"..... A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds... a silent mournful expanse.... a desolation.... we never saw a human being on the whole route.... hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country." (The Innocents Abroad, p. 361-362)
From http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Articles/Story845.html 01/25/17 (emphasis mine).
While not of political significance, per se, Mark Twain's visit and writing about it are often cited as proof of the Lord's miraculous work in the restoring of the Land after 1948 as well as evidence debunking any claims by the Philistines to any value prior; seems relevant to me.Of course, the intertwining of the Shmita cycles with this data, and the Jubilee additionally, and this is all pretty Awesome, just like our Lord!
Maranath,
Jimboni