We are continuing with a study where we are looking at the year 2033 and the timeline of history. We wanted to look at the pattern of Christ’s first coming.
You know, I remember when Mr. Camping wrote the book “1994?” he set forth a fictional character named Nathaniel. Mr. Camping was making a point that if this fictional believer had only information given in the Old Testament, could he have determined the timeline for the first coming of Christ? Then Mr. Camping went through many of the major events the Old Testament talks about, and he demonstrated that it would have been possible for an elect child of God to have known the timing of Christ’s coming.
I want to read a few verses in the Old Testament that tell us about the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. For instance, it says in Isaiah 7:14-16:
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
Here, we see there is something very mysterious about this virgin that would conceive and bear a son and call his name “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” God spells that out in Matthew 1 where He interprets and tells us that it means, “God with us.”
If we were an Old Testament saint and we had the Old Testament Scriptures, we would read in Isaiah 9:6:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
In putting together Isaiah 7:14 and Isaiah 9:6, we see that this child’s name is “The mighty God” or “The Everlasting Father,” we would begin to realize that this is the Messiah. The church of the Old Testament was Israel and they talked about the coming of the Messiah just as the New Testament churches in our day talk about the coming of Christ. So, they would have spoken of the Messiah as true believers.
By the way, I do not like using that term “true believer” any longer because there are too many “true believers” that have gone back, so now we must modify it. First, it was fine that we referred to all of us as simply “believers,” but then it became necessary to modify that to make a distinction between “believers” and “true believers.” But now, we have seen a growing number of people that called themselves “true believers,” but they are not humbling themselves or submitting themselves to what God has done in our day, and they are resisting. So, I prefer to use the term “elect true believer” or “elect child of God.” I think this is clearer. If you are elect, then it means God has saved you. But if you are a “true believer,” you may, or may not, be elect.
Anyway, there would have been the general people of Israel, but among them there would have been an elect remnant. In the days of Elijah, God said there were seven thousand that had not bowed their knee to Baal, so out of a nation of a couple of million, seven thousand would have been a tiny remnant. God has always worked that way. Among the nation of Israel, there would have been the elect who had “ears to hear” as they heard about these verses when they went to the synagogue. They would have talked about the Messiah and read these Scriptures, from time to time, and they would have realized, “This is no ordinary person we are waiting for.”
But there were people that misunderstood exactly who Christ was and what He had come to do. Remember, they wanted to make Jesus a king, probably because of a perverted understanding of the Messiah and what He came to accomplish, so they wanted Him to be a king to bring victory to national Israel. But He had not come for that purpose.
However, there would have been true elect children of God that would have seen these things, like what we read in Micah 5:2:
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
This is a verse that indicates the Messiah would be God Himself. There would have been a correct understanding by these saints of God regarding who He was, and they would have been very interested in when He would come. Can you imagine being a Jew within the nation of the people of Israel, and these people are talking about this all the time? “When the Messiah comes, He will give us victory.” They were paying “lip service” to the coming of the Messiah, just like the churches today talk about the coming of the Lord, but they say, “We do not know when. He could come today, or tomorrow, or in 100 years.” Believe me, they prefer that it be 100 years from now because they do not want Him to come now and ruin everything and spoil the religious system they have established. That is the last thing they want. This is the reason that when the Messiah did come, Herod was troubled “and all Jerusalem with him.” They just did not want it. “It just cannot be. We want (only) the prospect of the Messiah. We want that goal or idea before us, but we really do not want it to actually happen.” This is the identical situation in the churches today. Yes – they love the idea that one day Christ will come, but they love the world more and they want to enjoy this world for as long as they can, just like every other (unsaved) person in the world.
But the true elect of God are not like that, so in Israel of old there would have been genuine children of God that saw the Scriptures that prophesied of the coming Messiah. They would have been curious. Let us say that they were living around 13 B. C. Did they know the Biblical calendar like we know the Biblical calendar? I do not know, but probably they did not, but it is hard to say because they were closer to these things than we are today. We know they had the Old Testament where we find the genealogies and the Biblical calendar of history. In that Biblical calendar, it establishes the year of creation as 11,013 B. C. and they could have seen some of the patterns we have noted, like the birth of Jacob to the coronation of King David; and in 13 B. C. they could have seen clearly that it was the 11,000th year of earth’s history. They could have thought, “There is some interesting language in the Bible about the number “11” where God uses that number in ways that seem to identify with the Messiah.” Let us look at a couple of those examples. It says in Joshua 24:29:
And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of JEHOVAH, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
The number “110” is “10 x 11,” with the number “10” pointing to completeness. What would the number “11” point to? That would have to be learned from the Bible. Joshua was a clear type of Christ and he lived to be the age of 110. Could it be that the number “11” has to do with Christ whom He typified?
It was also said of Joseph, in Genesis 50:26:
So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Joseph was also a type and figure of the Messiah who is Christ, and Joseph also died at the age of 110. So, these two men that typify Christ both died at the same age. And we know that nothing is in the Bible as merely a curiosity or accident. God arranges everything. God controls all circumstances. He designed it so these two men that typify the Messiah would die at that specific age of 110, just like God arranged for Jacob to be 130 when he entered into Egypt in the famine, which typifies the Great Tribulation.
We also know there is a strange statement in Deuteronomy 1:2:
(There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)
Horeb was the place with which the Law identifies, and Kadeshbarnea identifies with the Promised Land of Canaan. And there are “11” days. Mr. Camping explained that Horeb, which identified with the Law, originated way back in the Garden of Eden because that was where the first Law was given. Yes – it was a simple and basic Law and there was only one Law and, yet, if we offend in one Law, we are guilty of all (the Law), and they experienced death as a result. So, Horeb identified with the Law and there were eleven days journey to a place that identified with the Promised Land. Again, this draws from Mr. Camping’s teaching that the Promised Land identified with the coming of the Messiah because He demonstrated that heaven would be a reality for His people because He had done the atoning work. But this statement about it being eleven days’ journey from Horeb unto Kadeshbarnea spiritually points to the Promised Land. Mr. Camping went in-depth to show that this could not have been literally fulfilled to move such a huge nation of people that had come out of Egypt, as it suggests, in that short period of time. So, the “eleven days’ journey” we could understand that a day represents a thousand years, from creation to the coming Messiah, which would lead us to 13 B. C., the 11,000th year of earth’s history.
We also have the 110 years that those two men lived and then died. In addition, someone knowing Israel’s history would realize that from the birth of birth of Isaac in 2067 B. C. to the foundation of the temple in 967 B. C. is 1,100 years. And Isaac is a great type of the Messiah. From his miraculous birth until 967 B. C., the year King David died (another great type of Christ), to the year the foundation was laid is 1,100 years. That is significant.
By the way, an Old Testament saint would have realized something from the fact that they no longer had a king, as it says in verse in Isaiah 7:16:
For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
God brought judgment upon Israel in the North in the seventh century B. C. and then He brought judgment upon Judah in the South, and it ended the line of the kings. From that judgment in 587 that fell on Judah, someone reading the Old Testament would understand that it would be some time after that point that the Messiah would come. But for several hundred years after that, they could think, “We qualify because there are no longer any kings of Israel or Judah.” So, someone living in 13 B. C. could read this information and say, “We have no king, so we could qualify in that way.”
As time continued, I am sure the reports began to circulate about this strange virgin birth. Even before that was the strange circumstances surrounding the birth of John the Baptist. Elisabeth and her husband Zacharias would have been influential in the religious system of their day because Zacharias was a Levite and did service in the temple. The miraculous birth of John did not happen in a corner. Remember, he could not even speak until John was born. Very mysterious things began to happen. As far as we know, that broke the period of silence (from God) from the time of the book of Esther. It had been several hundred years, and then God visited that family and caused Zacharias to be “dumb” until his wife Elisabeth, an old woman, would conceive and give birth to John. People must have kept their eyes on John the Baptist. It was right around 11,000 years after creation and they had not had a king. There is another verse (they could have seen or heard) that spoke of the Messiah as coming as a root out of dry ground. The spiritual circumstances in Israel had not been good. It is just as we can look at the churches today and see a spiritual wilderness and wasteland, and they could have looked at Israel at that time and seen the same thing.
Then in 8 B. C. was the time when the Holy Spirit came to Mary and she conceived a son. Then there were the announcements God made through the angels, and so forth. There was a situation in Israel at that time, as we read in Luke 2, about an elect individual that was waiting for the coming Messiah. It says in Luke 2:25:
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
By the way, I mention this from time to time and I like to remind myself of this. They had to wait 11,000 years for the first coming of Christ. And we have passed only 2,000 years since the birth of Christ, which is nothing by comparison. It is a relatively short time. But, here, this elect man was waiting for “the consolation of Israel,” or the Messiah. Then it ways in Luke 2:26:
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
Here, God revealed a truth to one of His elect people. We do not know how old Simeon was, but no matter how old he was, he knew this: “I am not going to die until I see the Messiah.” That narrowed it down. It had been thousands of years, but now there was a time when there was no king in Israel and when there was spiritual desolation in Israel.
You know, this is legitimate. It is not like people today that claim they are getting a message from the Holy Spirit which is illegitimate because God had obligated Himself not to break the barrier of the supernatural. This was at a time when God was still bringing divine revelation outside of the Bible. God did divinely bring this information to this man. And what do you think this man would do with that information? He would tell people. He may have shared this information very cautiously at first; perhaps, with his family. He may have seen the roll-of-the-eyes response: “He is crazy. He is an oddball.” But he would have told people. So, Simeon had this understanding and it is even possible he got this understanding from the Bible, because it simply says, “it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost.” How does the Holy Ghost reveal things to us in our time? The Holy Ghost teaches as we compare Scripture with Scripture. When we learn a truth from the Bible, it is truly revealed by the Holy Ghost. If we follow the proper methodology and we are careful to harmonize our conclusions, the Holy Ghost has taught it.
This is the reason we had these tee-shirts printed that say, “Comparing spiritual with spiritual.” We want to emphasize this. We know it is the Holy Spirit that reveals truth, but there is so much perversion today in Christendom about the Holy Ghost’s communication with man in this world, so we must be careful in how we declare that information.
But, in the case of Simeon, the Bible was not yet complete, so the Holy Ghost could have spoken to him through a dream or a vision, or he could have learned it from the Old Testament Scriptures. It came from God and it was a fact, even if some people thought he was crazy. It was a fact that after 11,000 years God was finally coming.
I cannot leave this without commenting. You know, so many people say, “I am tired and I am weary. We have been talking about Christ coming in our day, and we had an expectation at this time and at that time.” But we have not waited nearly so long as these Old Testament saints. This information was handed down for generation after generation, and not for just 2,000 years or 4,000 years, but thousands of years! And the elect people of God were still faithfully waiting on the Lord. They knew God was true. They knew God was faithful. They knew that God does not lie. They knew about these verses about Immanuel and a virgin giving birth. They knew there would be given a Son and His name would be called Almighty God. They knew these were true and faithful Scriptures that God would bring to fulfillment. He would do what He had said, and they knew it. You know, that is what keeps the people of God looking for Him. We know the Bible is true and faithful. We know the Lord is coming a second time to do what He has said concerning this world, the granting of our inheritance and the fulfillment of all the promises we find throughout the Bible.
So, we keep looking. It is no different. The only difference is the reason for His coming and the timeline. For His own purposes, God does tend to make impatient men wait. Does He not do that? It may look like God did not fulfill things according to our understanding of the timeline, but remember what it said in Habakkuk 2:1-3:
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And JEHOVAH answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
It should say, “He shall speak,” not “it shall speak.” When it says, “though it tarry,” it means there is an appearance of tarrying, from our perspective. But the reality is that God has His timeline, and we can be sure that He will be right on schedule. God not only made the clock on the wall by providing all the materials, but He is the one that made the “clock in the sky” that the clock on the wall follows. He set the celestial bodies in motion to keep track of time, so we can look at our wristwatches and clocks. God is in complete control of time, and He has a timeline where He is unfolding all things. As we look at the first coming of Christ, it is just beautiful when we see that calendar of history and the dates are in place. We could never have come to this knowledge ourselves, but God has revealed it. And we can see that Christ came on the very date He was to come all along.
So, again, Simeon knew that He would see the Christ. There was also Anna the prophetess, a faithful woman and elect child of God. It says in Luke 2:36-37:
And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years…
We are not told exactly how old Anna was, but God gives us two clues. She lived seven years from her virginity with a husband and then she lived as a widow for 84 years, and that gives us the number “91,” which is significant. It is “7 x 13,” with the number “7” having to do with perfection and the number “13” having to do with “super fulness” and the end of the world. So, God is teaching with her age some spiritual truths. It goes on to say in Luke 37-38:
…which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
How did she know it was the Christ? There is a little baby there, but she is convinced and certain that this is the One that will bring redemption, which can only be the Messiah. Coming in that instant, she knew. It is as though she happened upon this scene and she possessed this absolute certainty. You know, the Lord was starting to get the Word out about this, and His Spirit was moving in His people in Israel where the elect would be found, and they would come together and speak of these incredible, miraculous things – the Virgin birth, the angels coming to the shepherds, Simeon’s witness, Anna’s witness, and so forth. The cities of Israel at that time would have been “buzzing” about the coming of the Messiah: “Is this it? So many things are happening and look where we are after 11,000 years.”
Then what happened after the Lord was born in 7 B. C.? What happened for the next three decades? Nothing. Everything quieted down. People had heard the report about the angels or they knew Simeon or Anna. But Simeon and Anna probably soon died. From 7 B. C. to 29 A. D. is a long time. ( 7 and 29 are 36, minus 1, equals 35 years). So, 35 years is a long time. At first, people would have been excited and greatly interested as they met in their Bible studies. I am sure their Bible studies would have been overflowing around that time of 7 B. C., but then nothing happened for decades. God tests people and He operates on a different schedule than man operates. The only thing we read in the Bible was an incident when Jesus was 12 years old and went into the temple and began to teach. That is all we know. Then after he was 12, it was quiet until His baptism by John the Baptist 29 A. D.
Now we even see a pattern with what God did in 1994. There was some “buzz,” was there not? Remember, the year 1994 was exactly 2,000 years from 7 B. C. Then because of what God did in the days leading up to May 21, 2011, the whole world heard about the Day of Judgment, and the Bible studies were overflowing. The fellowship groups were overflowing. The people that were involved in tract distribution wanted to learn whatever they could learn about it. To use an expression, theses people seemed to be “on fire” for the Lord. Then God did what He intended to do, which was to bring the world into spiritual judgment. Then there was a “lull,” and nothing seems to be going on, but to think that way would be an error. People that came to that conclusion a while after 7 B. C. would have been wrong, would they not? Something major did happen in the year 7 B. C. and, yet, there was a timeline attached to it that must be played out. The completeness of what God started in 7 B. C. would not be accomplished until 33 A. D. And even then, it was the beginning of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to start the church age which stretched almost two thousand years. So, some people could come to this conclusion: “Well, it all sounded good. We thought the Messiah had come, but He did not.” They would have been wrong.
Likewise, if anyone thinks the Lord has not come yet, they are wrong. The Lord began the second coming back in 1988 when He came as Judge of the churches when judgment began at the house of God. That is when spiritual judgment began and then it transitioned to the world on that date of May 21, 2011. And it will be continuing to its conclusion. If it follows the pattern of the first coming of the Lord, then the completion of the second coming of Christ will also happen over a prolonged period of time. Then will come that year and the time of fulfillment for all things of this world, and it will be complete.
Well, I went way off course from what I intended. We will stop here. Lord willing, in the next study I am going to test something out as far as the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 concerning the first coming of Christ. This is like a test, because in hearing it taught, we can learn some things and get some feedback from people concerning these things. Lord willing, we will look at that in our next study.