The Jubilee and 1994

Can the Jubilee cycle help us find dates for end-time events?

An independent ministry that calls itself “Wake Up America” believes that the Jubilee cycle points to 1994 as the probable date for disasters that will include (1) a massive earthquake, and (2) meteorite impacts that will destroy more than a billion people. This organization bases these claims on its interpretation of the last four seals and the seven trumpets of Revelation, which it sees as still future. A paper recently sent to tens of thousands of North American Adventist homes includes a chart which shows the 144,000 in heaven before the end of 1998.

Jesus’ Caution. Just before His ascension, Jesus’ disciples asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by His own authority” (Acts 1:6-7 NIV).

Disregard of this caution by Jubilee groups and others has repeatedly undermined the Seventh-day Adventist church’s influence. In the mid-1980s, for example, a certain Jubilee group made wide distribution of a 24-page paper that contained this front-page headline:
“The Bible Predicts the End of the World in 1987.”
The paper contained numerous charts, diagrams, and a Jubilee calendar. Articles with titles such as “Proclaiming the Sabbath More Fully” and “The Three Angels’ Messages” gave the impression that its content was from a Seventh-day Adventist source.

The paper’s Jubilee calendar somehow identified A.D. 27 as a Jubilee year, and then added 40 Jubilees to that date to arrive at 1987 as a Jubilee year. The front page declared:
“The Jewish Ceremonial System (Lev. 23, 24, and 25 KJV) reveals the exact timing of events in the plan of redemption pertaining to both the first and second advents of Christ, the Messiah. (But let us say at this point, that the exact day and hour of Christ’s coming is not found in any Bible prophecy, but what is found, is that it must occur some number of days after October 3, 1987, not before. It is the antichrist that appears before the Jubilee, claiming to be Christ, the Messiah).”

Some have set 1994 as a probable date for dramatic fulfillments of prophecy. How should Seventh-day Adventists respond to these assertions?

The paper had no identifying title, except for a front-page caption which said, “It Shall Be a JUBILEE Unto You; Lev. 25:10.” The return address was a town in the Northwest United States. I don’t know how widely this paper was distributed in North America, but addresses included “Postal Patron” and “Boxholder.”

What is the effect of such speculation? In most cases, recipients who knew anything at all about Seventh-day Adventists probably considered the paper to be official Adventist literature, representative of Adventist thought and teachings. And when 1987 came and went without any of the predictions being fulfilled, it strengthened disbelief in the genuine message of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

Now, building upon what appears to be an equally speculative foundation, the above-mentioned independent ministry has set 1994 as a probable date for dramatic fulfillments of prophecy. How should Seventh-day Adventists respond to these assertions? Space will not permit a full examination here of the claims being set forth, but a few observations may be helpful.

Radical Reinterpretation.

First, we should note that the scenarios being proposed represent a wholesale departure from the way Seventh-day Adventists have understood the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation from the beginning of this movement. Even more serious, an earlier publication entitled An Open Letter to Seventh-day Adventists listed seven different interpretations given in The Great Controversy and declared them “wrong.” A summary of the group’s departure from Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, as I understand it, includes the following:

1. Seventh-day Adventists generally consider the book of Revelation to be highly symbolic. This organization takes it, including the seals and trumpets, as mostly literal.

2. Adventists see Revelation 10, with its sweet-bitter experience, as descriptive of the Millerite movement and the 1844 disappointment. This ministry sees Revelation 10 as future—a description of the 144,000 just before Jesus comes.

3. Seventh-day Adventists see Revelation 11:1–13 (about the slain two witnesses) as descriptive of the God-defying atheism evident during the French Revolution. The Great Controversy devotes all of chapter 15 to this topic. This organization sees Revelation 11:1–13 as a yet-future experience of the 144,000—and considers the two witnesses to be the Bible and the Holy Spirit. The slaying of these two witnesses is also seen as future.

4. Our denomination, like many Protestants of Reformation times, sees the leopard-like beast of Revelation 13 as the papacy. This organization sees that beast as a “coalition of the world’s religious and political powers” that will form after the trumpets begin in 1994.

5. Our church understands the beast with lamb-like horns of Revelation 13 to be a symbol of the United States. This organization regards that beast to be a still-future appearance of Satan.

6. Seventh-day Adventists do not speculate as to the identity of the 144,000. This organization teaches that there will be 144,000 “prophets,” who after the disasters expected in 1994 will take the three angels’ messages to the entire world in 1,260 literal days.

Jubilee Basis.

The time elements in the above departures from Adventist belief hang largely on the Jubilee theory, which is put forth as a basis for suggesting 1994 as a date for the trumpets to begin. Yet I find no connection between the Old Testament Jubilees and the trumpets of Revelation 8 and 9 anywhere in the Bible.

The word “Jubilee” does not appear in the New Testament, though some references (such as Luke 4:18–19, quoting Isaiah 61:1–2) are said to contain elements of the ancient Jubilee. As for the Old Testament, except for a reference in Numbers 36:4, the only mention of the Jubilee by name occurs in the book of Leviticus. There the word appears twenty times—fourteen in Leviticus 25 and six in Leviticus 27.

Both Leviticus chapters present the Jubilee primarily as a social regulation to free slaves during the Jubilee year and to restore property to the original owner or his descendants. From this, of course, one can draw certain spiritual parallels, such as the fact that Christ frees us from the bondage of sin. And following the millennium, this planet will be restored to the human race in its Edenic perfection.

Such parallelism does take us, ultimately, all the way to the earth made new. But nowhere in either chapter in Leviticus can one find the slightest hint of anything that supports specific end-time dates.

The Jubilee chart now circulating claims to trace seventy Jubilee cycles. It has these cycles starting with the Exodus, which it claims took place in 1437 B.C. No Bible commentary that I know of establishes such an exact date for the Exodus.

Even if we could demonstrate 1437 B.C. to be the correct date, there is nothing to connect the Exodus to the Jubilee cycle. The book of Exodus doesn’t even mention the Jubilee. Leviticus outlines the plan for the Jubilee, which was to have been established only after the people entered the land of Canaan. Even that entry was delayed by the forty years in the wilderness, thereby removing the intended start of the plan still farther from the time of the Exodus.

Because of the failures of the Hebrew people, the Jubilee plan apparently was never actually inaugurated. With one possible exception (Isaiah 37:30; 2 Kings 19:29), there is no evidence that a Jubilee was ever celebrated. Why attempt to trace cycles whose beginnings are not firmly established and which were not subsequently observed?

Jubilee Application.

Even if we could identify when the Jubilee cycles began (if they ever did), we would still be left with at least two important questions:

1. Where in Scripture is there any evidence that the Jubilee can be used to determine the approximate time for the return of Christ or for events preceding the return of Christ?

2. With not even one mention of the Jubilee in the New Testament, what possible connection can there be between it and the trumpets of Revelation?

Some see in Jesus’ description of His mission (Luke 4:18–19) a spiritual application of the Jubilee. But the fact remains that the whole Jubilee system, with its provisions for freeing slaves and returning property, had to do with social conditions under the theocracy. While that freeing of slaves may be symbolic of Christ freeing us from sin, there is absolutely no Biblical support for using the Jubilee to determine a date for the start of the trumpets.

Ellen G. White and the Jubilee.

Ellen White’s first mention of the Jubilee was in the context of fanaticism that rose with a few early believers. Of them she wrote, “They said they were in the Jubilee, the land should rest, and the poor must be supported without labor”(Spiritual Gifts 2:75). Her few later references were predominantly in the context of Leviticus 25 and 27—with comments mostly about the freeing of slaves and the restoration of property to the original owners or their descendants.

The following summary is from an October, 1990 paper by the Biblical Research Institute entitled “Jubilee 1994—Fact or Speculation?” p. 4:

“There is nothing in the writings of Ellen White to support jubilee cycle calculations for the time of Christ’s coming. Ellen White does allude to the institution twice (in similar phraseology) in connection with the second coming of Christ (Early Writings, pp. 34–35, 285–286). As she describes the scene of Christ’s return breaking in on this planet, she exclaims, ‘Then commenced the jubilee, when the land should rest.’ That is all. It is obvious that she is employing the term as a metaphor of the ultimate release and restoration of all things from the bondage of sin that will be ushered in by the glorious advent of Christ (cf. Acts 3:20–21).”

“Beware” of Time Setters.

After the 1844 Great Disappointment, Ellen White repeatedly warned against setting time. One such powerful statement may be found in Testimonies to Ministers, p. 55. The full context helps us to understand more completely the work and danger of false teachers, but here we will note only one paragraph:

“Let all our brethren and sisters beware of anyone who would set a time for the Lord to fulfill His word in regard to His coming, or in regard to any other promise He has made of special significance. ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.’ False teachers may appear to be very zealous for the work of God, and may expend means to bring their theories before the world and the church; but as they mingle error with truth, their message is one of deception, and will lead souls into false paths. They are to be met and opposed, not because they are bad men, but because they are teachers of falsehood and are endeavoring to put upon falsehood the stamp of truth.”

Time setters are to be met and opposed!
Surely these words are good guidance as we again encounter those who use the Jubilee cycle to speculate about times and seasons!

A hundred years ago, in 1891, someone brought what he considered to be new light to the Adventist church, claiming that the work would close up in 1894, and that Jesus would come. Ellen White recalled what her response had been to this message:

“At our camp meeting at Lansing, Michigan, just before I came to Australia, I had to speak plainly in regard to this new light. I told the people that the words they had heard were not the truth of inspiration. The wonderful light, which presented such a show of truth, was the result of a misapplication of Scripture. The Lord’s work would not close up in 1894. The word of the Lord to me was, ‘This is not truth, but will lead into strange paths, and some will become confused over this representation, and will give up the faith’” (Selected Messages 2:113).

Providential New Compilation.

In God’s providence a new compilation from the writings of Ellen White entitled Last Day Events has just been published. It contains a section entitled “When Shall These Things Be?”

Several pages warn against speculation about times and seasons. Here’s a sample statement:

“After this period of time [Rev. 10:4–6], reaching from 1842 to 1844, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time. The longest reckoning reaches to the autumn of 1844" (p. 36).

The same book gives this illustration:

"I understand that Brother [A. G.] Daniells has, as it were, set time, stating that the Lord will come within five years. Now I hope the impression will not go abroad that we are time-setters. Let no such remarks be made. They do no good. Seek not to obtain a revival upon any such grounds, but let due caution be used in every word uttered, that fanatical ones will not seize anything they can get to create an excitement and the Spirit of the Lord be grieved" (pp. 34, 35).

"Let no such remarks be made."
We could paraphrase that and say, "Let no charts which suggest dates be published. The endtimes will be used to produce fanaticism and to create an excitement which grieves the Spirit of God."

We have abundant evidence that Jesus is coming soon! This is no time to enter into futile speculations. By God’s grace, let’s take the message of Jesus’ soon return, based solidly on Scripture, and give it to a world that is dying for lack of it. Let’s point them to a Savior who loves them, who died for them, and who is soon to return for those who will accept what He has done and can do for them. Let this be our passion and our purpose.
“For in just a very little while, ‘He who is coming will come and will not delay’” (Heb. 10:37 NIV).