Between the 5th and 6th editions of the Scroll of Biblical Chronology I moved my guess as to when the end will come forward by one Jubilee period. Note well that I have always labeled my forecasts ‘educated guesses.’
The basis of most of the eschatology is the same, namely that the resurrection of the dead will be on Yom Kippur, in the year of Jubilee. Also that Daniel’s 70th seven is the seventh sabbatical period leading up to a year of Jubilee. During the first half of it the two witnesses prophecy, namely Moses and Elijah, and during the second half of it the Anti-Messiah rules for 42 months. During the 42 months, those Israelites who heed the warnings, and who flee into the wilderness, will be protected for 1260 days. Those faithful in Messiah Yeshua who die before then will be raised from the dead with immortal bodies, and those who remain alive will shortly thereafter receive immortal bodies. Whether we live or die, our hope is in the return of Messiah and the resurrection of the dead, and not when this will happen. Meanwhile, the Almighty will keep his promises and always preserve a remnant of his people against the onslaught of Satan.
Though our hope is in things certain, and not timings, we are always curious, and hope for a soon end, though I think if you really knew what was coming down, you would hope you miss the years that lead up to the end if you live in certain places. The value in forcasting the end (an educated guess) is not to prophesy what has not be fully revealed. It is to take the chance to explain the times and seasons of Torah.
The significant factor is knowing when the Sabbatical and Jubilee years occur, and this is explained in the Scroll of Biblical chronology. What is more uncertain is knowing which year of Jubilee will be the end. We can be fairly certain that the end will not come unless it is a year of Jubilee, but we may not be able to tell for certain if it is a year of Jubilee. With that said, I come to the details of the 5th edition theory and the 6th edition theory.
The foundation of the timing of the second coming depends on the phrase “until the fulness of the nations enter in”; The orginal prophecy said that Ephraim would become the “fulness of the nations.” This refers to the seed of Ephraim (Israel) spreading to all nations, an objective that was accomplished through the exile of Israel from the land. The mystery of the kingdom is the recovery of scattered Israel, who view themselves as non-Jews or Gentiles, back into Israel through Messiah Yeshua. Until this is accomplished a hardening has happened in part to Israel.
To discover the timetable for the nations to come into Israel, we must discover the correponding timetable for the exile of Israel due to idolatry. When this time runs out, then the Messianic Kingdom can be established. Now Ezekiel gives us the number of years that Israel sinned as 390, and Leviticus 26 gives us a sevenfold principle of judgment, which from Daniel 9 and the example of Judah's 70 year exile appears to be temporal in nature. Therefore 390 x 7 = 2730 years.
In the 5th edition I tied the start of 2730 years of exile to the siege of Samaria and the exile to Assyria, and ended in the period 2007-2012. The restoration of Israel was then to follow, and there would be enough time for other prophetic events to happen before the next Jubilee in 2035.
However, it soon became apparent that political conditions and conditions of repentance (Deut. 30) were not coming to pass then as hoped. Also, as 2012 closed with no sign of these things happening, I began to rethink the timing I had set up, particularly the narrowing gap between 2013, and 2028 when the last seven was to start, a mere 15 years.
The timing of the Ezekiel 37-39 prophesy was getting pinched fairly hard here. Seven years alone would be taken up by burning enemy weapons of a fairly primitive nature, and this would not happen until the house of Israel and the house of Judah were both back in the land (Ezek. 37). So far only Judah is back in the land. I am fairly certain that God intends to stake the witness of the kingdom squarely in Israel in the end time before he judges all nations and gives them over to the anti-Messiah. Also the conditions of Ezekiel 38-39 imply that the economies of the world need to go backward quite a bit, perhaps nuclear EMP or solar EMP fries everything electronic. Ezekiel 38-39 also represents Israel as having a grass fed cattle culture. Unless I am mistaken, the current golden age of technology and prosperity in the world could be a blip on economic history. It is hard, though to envision Ezek 38-39 after Messiah’s coming. The text does not seem to represent Messiah ruling in Israel until Chapter 40. The prince there appears to be a viceroy of the house of David under the Messiah, a type of cogregency.
It is for this reason that I propose a longer timeline, at least to the next Jubilee. Meanwhile I discovered that a seven year gap in the 390 years during the kings was not needed since Israel in fact repented from most of its idolatry in the first year of Hezekiah, and went up to the Passover. This led to the conclusion that the terminal point of the 390 years may not be the beginning point of the 2730 year exile. It appears that Israel would have to sin again before that clock started ticking. What came to mind was the 65 years in Isaiah 7, which had been fitted into the chronology. If the final dispersion of Ephraim was at the end of these 65 years, then the 2730 year clock would start ticking then. The 65 years ended in 672 BC. To start the 2730 years there would bring the end in AD 2059. But that date would only be a marker for the return of Ephraim to national/political status. If the Ezekiel prophecies do not quickly happen even after that, then the Jubilee of 2084/85 might be too soon.
What I cannot be wholly certain of is if certain elements of the Ezekiel prophecy are separated like that of the fall of Babylon. There is a principle of prophecy called the mountain peaks principle. At a distance all events look like mountain ranges afar off. They all appear to be the same distance away. But then when you get close, you see that there are large distances between ranges. I believe that the Almighty intends to keep the prophetic timeline somewhat mysterious. What He does do often depends on the human response either for good or evil. The human responses cause the divine contingiency plans to execute. For God has a contingiency for every human action, including eliminating the human ability to act if necessary. The prophecies will all come to pass. There are probably a dozen different ways it can happen and yet the letter of the prophecy is satisfied.
I am reasonably certain that all this comes to pass before the end of the prophetic third day, that is, after 2000 years pass from the resurrection, and before 3000 years pass. So far no prophecy has been falsified. There remain many things that could be researched or studied out, and there may be prerequisties or discoveries with side effects that first have to be made to know anything more accurately. Future prophecy interpretation has always been a speculative venture, and often even those who were supposed to know what is going to happen didn’t. I mean here that Messiah’s disciples did not even realize that he had to die for our sins until it happened, though Yeshua told them a dozen different ways that it would happen then. I think the bright side of things is that he did not condemn them for not figuring it all out in advance, although he was somewhat annoyed with those who could not figure it out after it had happened without being directly told the connections. We have to realize that we do not have to figure it all out.