|
|
|
| Welcome to this new section! Let's pray together: |
| Heavenly Father, Since we began this set of lessons about Bible prophecy, we have studied many periods of time, many prophetic calendars. Today, we ask You to show us why these calendars are important for our understanding of the prophetic message You want to give us. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. |
 |
Lesson 48 |
Screen 2 |
God and the Calendars |
2 Peter 3:8 |
Comments |
| But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. | Many sincere people believe that, since God is not
subject to the notion of time, He doesn't attach any importance to the day and hour the
events of our lives take place on earth. This lesson will demonstrate that, on the contrary, God has a very precise calendar, on which the fulfillment of His prophecies is based. |
 |
Lesson 48 |
Screen 3 |
God and the Calendars |
Genesis 1:14 |
Comments |
| Then God said, «Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years.» |
First, the Bible says that God is orderly. Out of His infinite wisdom, He established laws and principles so that His creation may function with harmony and regularity. |
1 Corinthians 14:33 |
|
| For God is not the author of confusion. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 4 |
God and the Calendars |
Acts 17:26 |
Comments |
| [God] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. | The order God established also affects the
dimension of time. The chronology of events is not the result of chance: God intervenes at precise moments in history, so that His prophetic calendar may be fulfilled. |
Ecclesiastes 3:1 |
|
| To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 5 |
God and the Calendars |
2 Thessalonians 2:3,6 |
Comments |
| Let no one deceive you by any
means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin
is revealed, the son of perdition (...). And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. |
God's prophetic calendar is not only accurate as to
the length of foretold events, but also as for the order in which they will take place. So far, our lessons have always attached great importance to the chronological order of prophecies. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 6 |
God and the Calendars |
Galatians 4:4 |
Comments |
| When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. | Jesus' life is an excellent illustration
of God's calendar. The Bible often says that the events of His life on earth took place at a precise moment, «when the fullness of the time had come». |
Mark 1:14,15 |
|
| Jesus came to Galilee, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, «The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.» |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 7 |
God and the Calendars |
| The life of Jesus on earth indeed followed a very precise calendar: |
| «These words Jesus spoke in the
treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not
yet come.» (JOHN 8:20) «Then Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come."» (JOHN 7:6,8) «Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.» (JOHN 13:1) «Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.» (MATTHEW 26:45) |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 8 |
God and the Calendars |
Acts 1:6,7 |
Comments |
| «Lord, will You at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel?» And He said to them, «It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.» |
Just like His first coming, the second coming of Jesus will take place at a very precise moment, set by the Father and known by Him alone. |
Matthew 24:36 |
|
| But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 9 |
God and the Calendars |
2 Peter 3:9 |
Comments |
| The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. | Because of our impatience, we might think
the return of Jesus is delayed. But, in fact, Jesus will return exactly at the appointed moment. |
Ephesians 1:9,10 |
|
| [God has] made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth - in Him. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 10 |
God and the Calendars |
| The Bible is clear: God has set a date for the end of time. |
| «Look, I am making known to you
what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation; for at the appointed time the end
shall be.» (DANIEL 8:19) «Both these kings' hearts shall be bent on evil, and they shall speak lies at the same table; but it shall not prosper, for the end will still be at the appointed time.» (DANIEL 11:27) «Some of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purge them, and make them white, until the time of the end; because it is still for the appointed time.» (DANIEL 11:35) «But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.» (DANIEL 12:4) «Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.» (REVELATION 1:3) |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 11 |
God and the Calendars |
| The day of judgment is also fixed in God's calendar: |
| «Truly, these times of
ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has
appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has
ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.» (ACTS
17:30,31) «God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there shall be a time there for every purpose and for every work.» (ECCLESIASTES 3:17) «The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.» (REVELATION 11:18) |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 12 |
God and the Calendars |
Daniel 2:44 |
Comments |
| In the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. | Finally, God has also set the day when His eternal kingdom is established. |
Daniel 7:21,22 |
|
| I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 13 |
God and the Calendars |
Jeremiah 25:12 |
Comments |
| «Then it shall come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity», says the Lord. | Daniel, a captive in Babylon, knew the
importance of God's calendar. When he saw that the seventy years of Babylon's domination were about to end, he prayed God, to remind Him of that promise upon which he depended so much. |
Daniel 9:2,3 |
|
| I, Daniel, understood by the
books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord, given through Jeremiah
the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 14 |
God and the Calendars |
2 Chronicles 36:20-22 |
Comments |
| Those who escaped from the sword
[King Nebuchadnezzar] carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his
sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the
mouth of Jeremiah, (...) to fulfill seventy years. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia. |
After seventy years, God intervened, just as He had
promised. He gave rise to the Medes and Persians, in order to bring about the fall of Babylon. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 15 |
God and the Calendars |
Isaiah 60:21,22 |
Comments |
| Also your people shall all be
righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My
hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a
strong nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time. |
God often intervened in history, so that His prophetic calendar might be fulfilled, according to the promises He had made to His faithful people. |
Acts 7:17 |
|
| But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 16 |
God and the Calendars |
Daniel 5:26,30,31 |
Comments |
| «God has numbered your kingdom,
and finished it.» (...) That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom. |
At the appointed date, God brought about
the fall of Babylon. At the end of times, He will do likewise for spiritual Babylon, the apostate Church. |
Revelation 17:17 |
|
| For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 17 |
God and the Calendars |
John 7:30 |
Comments |
| Then they sought to take [Jesus]; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. | We see that, although God gives men freedom of choice and deed, He reserves the right to intervene at precise moments so that His prophetic calendar may be fulfilled as planned. |
Proverbs 19:21 |
|
| There are many plans in a man's heart, nevertheless the Lord's counsel - that will stand. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 18 |
God and the Calendars |
| God's calendar will always have precedence over that of the nations: |
| «The Lord brings the counsel of
the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the
Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.» (PSALM 33:10,11) «Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak the word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.» (ISAIAH 8:10) «[I am] declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure."» (ISAIAH 46:10) «The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.» (PROVERBS 21:1) «There are many plans in a man's heart, nevertheless the Lord's counsel - that will stand.» (PROVERBS 19:21) |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 19 |
God and the Calendars |
Numbers 23:19 |
Comments |
| God is not a man, that He should
lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? |
In light of God's unyielding faithfulness toward His prophetic calendar, we must give it our undivided attention, and thorough study. |
Revelation 9:15 |
|
| So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 20 |
God and the Calendars |
| We have already studied these prophetic periods: |
| In the prophetic | «Indeed,
the devil is about to throw some of you series of the | into prison, that you may be tested, and you will seven letters: | have tribulation ten days.» (REVELATION 2:10) ====================|==================================================== In the prophetic | «When He opened the seventh seal, there was si- series of the | lence in heaven for about half an hour.» seven seals: | (REVELATION 8:1) ====================|==================================================== In the prophetic | «And [the locusts] were not given authority to kill series of the | them, but to torment them for five months.» seven trumpets: | (REVELATION 9:5) |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 21 |
God and the Calendars |
| We have yet to study these prophetic periods: |
| The 70 | «70 weeks are determined
for your people and for your holy ci- Weeks | ty, to finish the transgression (...).» (DANIEL 9:24) =========|=============================================================== The | «"How long will the vision be (...)?" And he said to me, "For 2300 | 2300 days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed."» Days | (DANIEL 8:13,14) =========|=============================================================== The | «The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place 1260 | prepared by God, that they should feed her there 1260 days.» Days | (REVELATION 12:6) =========|=============================================================== The 1290 | «From the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the Days and | abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be 1290 the 1335 | days. Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the 1335 days.» Days | (DANIEL 12:11,12) |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 22 |
God and the Calendars |
Psalm 102:13 |
Comments |
| You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time to favor her, yes, the set time, has come. | The study of God's calendar is all the more important since the fulfillment of the very last prophecies is imminent. |
Luke 21:24 |
|
| And they will fall by the edge of
the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 23 |
God and the Calendars |
Revelation 12:12 |
Comments |
| Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and
you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. |
Satan and his angels, as for them, know that God's calendar is always accurate, and that, according to this calendar, they have a very short time left. |
Matthew 8:29 |
|
| Suddenly [the demons] cried out,
saying, «What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?» |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 24 |
God and the Calendars |
Revelation 10:6,7 |
Comments |
| [The angel] swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets. | In fact, very soon «there will
be delay no longer». The seventh trumpet will sound, announcing the long-awaited return of Jesus, our Savior. |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 25 |
God and the Calendars |
Habakkuk 2:2,3 |
Comments |
| Then the Lord answered me and
said: «Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.» |
As we wait for this glorious event, let's work with
perseverance in God's harvest. If the return of Jesus seems to delay, let's not be discouraged, «for the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie». |
|
Lesson 48 |
Screen 26 |
God and the Calendars |
| Let's thank God for all His blessings: |
| Lord God, This world is definitely soiled with sin in all its forms. But Your inspired Word teaches us that, in spite of the influence of evil and men's bad decisions, You have a precise calendar which will be fulfilled exactly as You foretold. We heartily thank You for not having left us to our sad fate, but offering us salvation in Jesus Christ. In His precious name we pray. Amen. |
|
The test of Lesson 48 is waiting for you!
Click here to send us your
questions or comments about our Web site and products.
|
God and the
Calendars