The Year of Redemption: Why Millions

Will Soon Go Missing

ONE DAY SOON, a trumpet blast will be heard around the world. It will be followed by a great
earthquake, and the disappearance of millions.

In the aftermath, there will be terror and confusion. Explanations will be given for where the missing
went: they perished in the quake, or were taken in a mass alien abduction. However, some will
understand that it was a biblical event that they had previously mocked—the Rapture. As foretold in the
Scriptures, followers of Jesus had been changed in the twinkling of an eye and caught up into the clouds
(1 Thess. 4:16, 17). They had been “redeemed” (Rom. 8:18–24).

While the timing of the Rapture will have seemed random to most, it will have actually been preordained
to occur during a particular year on God’s calendar: the Jubilee, or “year of redemption” (Lev. 25).

We find allusions to the year of redemption throughout the New Testament:

• Jesus says that when we see the signs of His coming, our “redemption” is drawing near (Luke
21:28).

• Paul, the Apostle to the Gentile Church, speaks of the “redemption” of our bodies at the Lord’s
appearing (Rom. 8:19–23).

• Christians are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of “redemption” (Eph. 4:30).

Understanding that the Jubilee, or year of redemption, marks the conclusion of the Church Age, a vital
question is, when is the next Jubilee?

Some would say it is impossible to know, as there is no record of past Jubilees from which to calculate.
However, I believe that the God of the Bible, the same God who revealed the timing of the Jews’
redemption from Babylon (Jer. 29:10), has revealed the timing of the ultimate redemption. It is given in
Daniel’s Weeks Prophecy:

“From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the prince comes,
there will be seven weeks” (Dan. 9:25).

According to Daniel, Messiah the prince will appear seven Sabbatical weeks, or one Jubilee period, after
a restoration of Jerusalem.
So, let’s calculate:

The only modern restoration of Jerusalem occurred in June 1967, when the Jews regained control of the
Holy City for the first time in millennia. Counting seven weeks from the start of the first Sabbatical week
after the modern restoration of Jerusalem, which is 1973–74, the Jubilee begins in 2022–23.

Click here for a chart:

With our calculated Jubilee in view, it is fascinating to consider an Old-Testament foreshadowing of the
year of redemption.

JUBILEE AT JERICHO

As the Israelites entered the Promised Land some 3,500 years ago, the first city they had to conquer was
Jericho. Because the entry into the Promised Land is a picture of the Rapture, when believers enter the
heavenly Promised Land, God’s marching orders to the Israelites at Jericho have typological significance:

“The LORD said to Joshua … march around the city … for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of
rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests
blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army
give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in’”
(Josh. 6:2–5).

Consider the types:

• Joshua is a type of Christ, who leads his people into a city prepared for them (Heb. 11:16).

• The six days of marching around the city denote 6,000 years of earth history (2 Pet. 3:8).

• The seven circuits around the city on the seventh day (double sevens) denote a Jubilee period
(Lev. 25:8).

• The final long trumpet blast and shout, followed by the going “up” of the people, are a picture
of the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:16).

An additional Rapture–Jubilee connection in the account of Jericho is the fact that the Hebrew word
translated “trumpet,” yobel, is the same word translated “Jubilee” in Leviticus 25. Thus, the trumpets
sounded at Jericho are specifically Jubilee trumpets. In fact, wherever the Hebrew word yobel appears in
Scripture, it refers specifically to the Jubilee or God’s trumpet (Lev. 25, 27; Num. 36:4; Ex. 19:13).

Finally, it is interesting to consider the timing of the Battle at Jericho: From the year that the Israelites
conquered Jericho (1408–07 BC) to our calculated Jubilee (2023) is exactly 490 Sabbatical weeks, or 70
Jubilee periods. This is significant because the number 70 symbolizes completion and redemption in
Scripture:

• A typical human lifespan is 70 years (Ps. 90:10; Matt. 24:32–34).

• The Jews were redeemed from captivity in Babylon after 70 years (Jer. 29:10).

• The Israelites camped at an oasis of 70 palm trees after being redeemed from Egypt, (Ex. 15:27).

• God’s plan of redemption for Israel is comprised of 70 weeks (Dan. 9:24–27).

In view of the prophetic connotation of the number 70, it is remarkable that there are exactly 70 jubilee
periods between the taking of Jericho and our calculated Jubilee in 2023.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The final Jubilee, or year of redemption, will mark the end of the Church Age, and a turning point in
human history. When God’s Jubilee-trumpet sounds, every Jewish and Gentile follower of Jesus who has
ever lived will receive a redeemed flesh-and-bone body:

“For this corruptible [body] must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor.
15:53).

While there is no way to know if our Jubilee calculation is correct, Jesus said that when we begin to see
the signs of His coming (as we have) to lift up our heads, because our “redemption” is near (Luke 21:28).

One day soon, a trumpet blast will be heard around the world. To some, it will be the most beautiful and
exhilarating sound they have ever heard, a euphonious declaration of freedom and restoration. To
others, it will be an utterly terrifying sound, as they realize in that instant that the God of the Bible is
real, that He is really coming back, and that they do not know Him.

If you do not know Jesus, call on Him today. Confess with your mouth that He is Lord, and believe in
your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be redeemed.

Do it today.

Time is running out.

. . .
NOTES:

1. Additional Scriptures linking the Jubilee to the Rapture:

• The Jubilee is when one’s possessions are restored (Lev. 25:13). The Church is God’s “special possession”
(1 Pet. 2:9; Eph. 1:14).

• The Jubilee, or 50th year, is patterned after Pentecost, the 50th day (Lev. 23:15, 15; 25:8–10). Since
Pentecost is about the “harvest” of the Church (Acts 2), so is the Jubilee.

• The Jubilee precedes God’s wrath (Isa. 61:1, 2; 63:4). The Church is raptured before God’s wrath (1 Thess.
4:13–18; 5:1–9).

• The Jubilee is when spiritual blindness is lifted (Luke 4:18). Israel’s blindness concerning Messiah Jesus will
begin to be lifted when the full number of Gentiles comes in at the Rapture (Rom. 11:25; Rev. 7:1–8).

• The Gentile Ruth (Church) is “redeemed” by marriage (Rapture) to a Jewish Kinsman (Jesus) (Ruth 4).

2. The final Jubilee will mark three major milestones: the end of the Church Age; the end of roughly 6,000 years
under Satan’s influence; and the beginning of the Day of the Lord. At this time, the “ruler of this age,” the devil,
will be cast down to earth to take up residence in a man called the “lawless one,” or antichrist (Rev. 12:7–9; 2 Cor.
4:4; 2 Thess. 2:4). Simultaneously, earth will be restored to its original Owner, God, who will then complete the
redemption process for Israel and others by allowing a period of Tribulation designed to bring them to faith (Lev.
25:23; Jer. 30:7; Zech. 13:9).

3. God reveals the time of liberation: The ancient Hebrews were told that they would be liberated from Egypt, a
type of the world, after 400 years (Gen. 15:13). The Jews were told that they would be liberated from Babylon, a
type of the world, after 70 years (Jer. 29:10). Daniel was told that Messiah would liberate the Jews from sin and
death after a certain number of “weeks” (Dan. 9:24–27). The lesson is that God may allow His people to endure a
period of waiting, or captivity, but He always reveals in advance when it will end, so they are not left hopeless (Jer.
29:11 KJV).

4. The standard interpretation of Daniel’s “seven weeks” is that they refer to the time it took to rebuild Jerusalem
after the Babylonian exile, from 457 BC to 408 BC. However, because there is no Scripture or ancient record to
confirm this timeline, commentators admit that it is essentially a guess: “The city walls and internal buildings of
Jerusalem may have taken fifty years to erect—we simply cannot tell” (Pulpit Commentary, Dan. 9:25). Another
problem with the standard interpretation of the seven weeks pertains to the math: Since Daniel’s “weeks”
correspond to the fixed Sabbatical cycle, the “seven weeks” must correspond to the fixed Jubilee cycle. Counting
forward from the Jubilee period established by the standard interpretation (457 BC to 408 BC), the Jubilee nearest
the present time would be 2043 AD. The problem with this date is that it falls well beyond the plausible endpoint
of other eschatological timelines (Matt. 24:32–34; Hos. 6:2; 2 Pet. 3:8–10). In contrast, when we assign the seven
weeks to Messiah’s second appearance and count from the modern rebuilding of Jerusalem in 1967, the nearest
Jubilee is 2023, a date that corresponds with other eschatological timelines.

5. Concerning the reckoning of Sabbatical weeks, it is important to note that there are two accepted chronologies,
which differ by a single year. The first chronology, associated with Benedict Zuckermann, has the most recent
Sabbatical year ending in 2022. The second chronology, associated with Ben Zion Wacholder, has the most recent
Sabbatical year ending in 2023. https://www.pickle-publishing.com/papers/sabbatical-years-table.htm

6. Another foreshadowing element of the Battle at Jericho is the fact that the Gentile Rahab and her family were
spared from death because she had faith in the promise of the Israelite spies, a promise honored by Joshua, a type
of Jesus, and showed it by hanging the scarlet thread from her house (Josh. 2; 6:17–25). Rahab and her family were
thus, like the Gentile Church, grafted by faith into the Nation of Israel, to become inheritors of the promises of the
covenant of Abraham and his descendants.

7. More biblical timelines pointing to 2023: https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-