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How the Bible Foretold, in Two Places,the Foundation Date for Israel – 1948

By Jeremy James

At a time when the modern state of Israel is coming under severe pressurefrom other countries, both Arab and Western, to cede part of its sovereignterritory to its enemies, we need to remind ourselves that the LORD hasother plans.Through His holy Word we know that this rebellious act will not betolerated. He said that he would gather His people from among the nationsand establish them once again in the Promised Land. Not only did Heuphold His covenant, but He did so in the year foretold, 1948 AD.This year may be calculated from two prophetic passages in the Bible, bothof which were underlined in dramatic fashion by the LORD. The first is inthe Book of Daniel, where the pre-incarnate Christ wrote four words on thewall during Belshazzar’s feast. The second is during one of the publicenactments of prophecy which Ezekiel was required to perform. Instead of simply reporting and recording the prophecy, Ezekiel had to go one stepfurther and act it out in a public place.Before proceeding to show how the date may be calculated in two differentways, I would like to give full credit to two important sources. The first is

Temple at the Center of Time

by David Flynn, which sheds significant lighton the meaning of the words that the pre-incarnate Christ wrote on the wallin Babylon. The second is

The Israel Omen

by David Brennan, which givesone of the two prophetic calculations. The purpose of this paper is tohighlight the interpretations made by these two authors and, moreimportantly, the connection between them.

Some points about Biblical prophecy

The Bible frequently refers to a prophetic year as a “day”. There are manypassages which confirm this. For example, when Jacob had to work a furtherseven years for Laban in order to win Rachel as his wife, the Bible refers tothis period as a “week”, that is seven days.The Jews in Biblical times also used the lunar calendar, which had a year of 360 days, rather than the solar calendar which uses a year of 365.24 days. Itis important to take this into account when interpreting prophetic passages.(See Note A).

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The First Prophetic Calculation

The scene at Belshazzar’s feast in the year 538 BC is one of the mostdramatic in the Bible. As co-regent of the Babylonian empire, Belshazzarwas hosting an extravagant party for his admirers, using vessels stolen fromthe Temple in Jerusalem. Unknown to Belshazzar and his generals, thePersians had stealthily diverted the Euphrates river which flowed throughBabylon and were quietly filtering along its empty channel beneath the greatwalls of the city.During their last hours the Babylonian dignitaries – who were committingan appalling act of sacrilege by using Temple vessels – were confronted by adisembodied hand which wrote the following words on the wall of thebanqueting hall: “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” (Daniel 5:25).Everyone in attendance was greatly alarmed. The old prophet, Daniel, whoby then was probably in his late eighties, was called to interpret thesedisturbing words. What message did they have for Belshazzar? According toDaniel, they were saying that God had numbered the days of the kingdom of Babylon, that its rulers had been weighed and found wanting, and that it wasnow being divided between two conquering nations, the Medes and thePersians.The prophecy was fulfilled and Belshazzar and his generals were executedthe same day.David Flynn noted that the four words also appeared to carry a furthermeaning. On the principle that the Bible is its own dictionary, he referred tothe section of Ezekiel which described the Temple of the Messiah during theMillennium, in particular a verse relating to weights and measures:And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, fiveand twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your manneh.(Ezekiel 45:12)These words –

shekel

gerah

and

manneh

– were actually Chaldean in originand denoted different units of measurement in ancient Babylon (Both Danieland Ezekiel lived in Babylon, were familiar with its customs, and couldspeak Chaldean). The

gerah

was the smallest unit of monetary value inBabylon, rather like a cent in modern usage. Thus the words “Mene, Mene,Tekel [

shekel

], Upharsin” were collectively describing a numerical value,where a Mene (or

manneh

) was 50 shekels or 1000 gerahs, a Tekel 20gerahs, and a Parsin 500 gerahs (Upharsin literally means ‘and a dividedmanneh’). This gives 1000 + 1000 + 20 + 500.Independent confirmation of this, where the words in question (namely,

mene

tekel

and

parsin

) can be interpreted as traditional Babylonian units of measurement, may be found in

The Bible Knowledge Commentary

byWalvoord and Zuck

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David Flynn then went on to analyse the many remarkable ways in whichthis number, 2520, crops up again and again in Jewish history and Bibleexegesis.However, there was one application of the number which he did not identifyand which appears to be highly significant. In the same way that the fourwords on the wall were conveying a specific message to Belshazzar, theywere also conveying another, very different message to the Jews. Toappreciate the significance of this message we need to place it in itshistorical context. Babylon had fallen in that very hour and the entirekingdom was now under the rule of Cyrus, the Persian general. Thefollowing year, 537 BC, Cyrus would issue a decree for the release of allforeigners held captive in Babylon. This instantly lifted the residencyrestrictions on the Jewish people and they were now at liberty to return tothe Promised Land.Jeremiah had prophesied that the Jews would be held captive for 70 years inBabylon – see Jeremiah 25:11-12 (The difference between 606 BC, whenBabylon first took captives from Jerusalem, and 537 BC, when Cyrus issuedhis decree, is 69 solar years or 70 lunar years). The Jews, who had justserved 70 lunar years of captivity in Babylon, would continue to live undersubjection to a succession of foreign powers – Persian, Greek and Roman –before being scattered to the four winds. They would not become a self-governing nation again until 1948 AD.The difference between these two dates – 537 BC and 1948 AD – is 2484solar years. (We must

subtract

a year since a calendar year is lost in thetransition from BC to AD. For example, the gap between 1 January 2 BCand 1 January 2 AD is three years, not four.) However, since these are solaryears, they have a length of 365.24 days. If we convert them into lunaryears, we arrive at a truly astonishing result:2484 solar years = 907,256 days [2484 x 365.24 = 907,256]907,256 days = 2520 lunar years [907,256 / 360 = 2520]So, just as they were about to complete their 70 years of captivity inBabylon, the LORD was telling the Jewish people that they still had afurther 2,520 lunar years to serve before the penalty for their transgressionshad been paid in full and they could once again return to, and enjoysovereign control over, the Promised Land.

The Second Prophetic Calculation

We will now examine the second prophecy regarding the foundation of modern Israel and the year 1948 (This follows David Brennan’s analysis,with some minor changes).