Celestial Clocks
16263 words long.
Genesis 1 tells us that on the fourth day, God created the sun, moon and stars to govern day and night and regulate days, seasons and years. They are God's celestial time pieces. These heavenly bodies move through the skies with mechanical precision, the attribute par excellence of the Celestial Clock. In Solomon's inventory of types of prophetic clocks, they come second, after the generation clocks:
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
- Ecclesiastes 1:5
This article will summarize sections of Peace, like Solomon Never Knew and Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace that were devoted to this type of clock. It will also introduce an more recently discovered clock based on the Beatitudes and Psalm 19, the Order of Salvation Clock. It will name each clock, block out the eras of history that it prophesies, point out where in those books it was developed, and (for a few) point to an extended treatment in a separate article on this website.
- Creation Clock
- Temple Dedication Clocks
- Solomon’s Celestial Clock
- Solomon’s Son-dial
- Lamps of the Ten Virgins
- Grand Father Clock
- Holy Spirit Clock
- Matthew’s Monthly Planner
- Moses’ Commandment Clock
- Rebirth of Israel Clock
- Hezekiah's Celestial Clock
- Proverbs Clock
- Fool's Clock
- Battle Clock
- Hannah's Prayer Clock
- Timothy’s Freedom Clocks
- Song of Songs Clock
- Master Psalm Clock
- The Order of Salvation Clock
1
Creation Clock
- Bible book: Genesis 1
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter(s): Solomon’s Clocks: Ecclesiastes 1
- Time span: 4020 BC–2280 AD (or later)
- Intervals: 7
- Period: 1000 years
Notable facts:
Matches the seven days of creation to important events in the seven millennia of history. This assumes that history will last no more than seven thousand years before the final judgment and the establishment of the new heavens and new earth. This clock is similar to the ancient expectation of many theologians which is called Millennial Day Theory. Many Christians combine the idea of the millennial reign of Christ with the idea of a thousand year sabbath during the seventh millennium. My formulation of eschatology, Fractal Historicism, does not. The two events are distinct. The millennial kingdom of CHrist has already come and gone, having lasted from 380 to 1380 AD in the form of Christian Rome and its extension through the Byzantine Empire. If the Creation was on or near 4020 BC, then we are already in the early years of the seventh millennium, yet Christ has not returned. My expectation is that the eternal sabbath will begin during this millennium, but not immediately. It could start at any time but the present world order may linger for two or three centuries more.
Day 1 of creation (4020-3020 BC) was when God created light and separated the light from the darkness by alternating day and night. This matches the division of people into two groups, the righteous descendants of Seth and the corrupt descendants of Cain.
Day 2 of creation (3020-2020 BC) is the only one God did not call good. This millennium had Noah's flood and the Tower of Babel, the worst calamities in history (so far).
Day 3 of creation (2020-1020 BC) is when God created the dry ground and plants and trees which grow from seeds. The ground is the Law of Moses and the seed is the beginning of the writing of God's Word.
Day 4 of creation (1020-20 BC), when God created the sun, moon & stars, ends within a few years of the birth of the Sun of Righteousness and Morning Star, Jesus. This millennium was when most of the prophets lived. Prophecy is about revealing God's future plans, interpreting history and marking out time, just like the heavenly bodies. Solomon lived at the very beginning of this millennium. His writings provide the temporal framework for understanding the rest of the prophets.
Day 5 of creation (20 BC-980 AD), when the birds were created, corresponds to the Holy Spirit, given at Pentecost, beginning the 5th millennium. The sea creatures were also created. Leviathan, the great sea serpent is first given expression in the form of the Roman Empire.
Day 6 of creation (980-1980 AD) saw the creation of the beasts and man. The sixth millennium spans the period during which mankind's knowledge grew fastest.
Day 7 of creation (1980 AD-?) will usher in the sabbath rest, when Christ returns.
2
Temple Dedication Clocks
- Bible book: 1 Kings 8:62–63
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter(s): Psalm 119: The Shepherd’s Clock
- Timespan: 4020 BC–39 AD, 960 BC–1680 AD
- Intervals: 22
- Period: 120 years
Notable facts:
When Solomon dedicated the temple, the quantity of animals sacrificed used the numbers twenty-two (22) and one hundred twenty (120). If you start the clock at the creation and allow Adam and Methuselah their longer generations, the 22nd generation ends in 39 AD, shortly after Christ sacrificed his life for our sins on the cross. Combined with the Psalm 119 clock which defines the birth of Christ before 19 AD, you can derive a range for the crucifixion of 19–39 AD!
If you instead start the clock from the temple dedication in 960 BC, the 22nd generation ends in 1680 AD. This final generation was the beginning of the Scientific Revolution and the age of Reason. Solomon, the wisest non-divine man in history, pointed to the era where humanity’s earthly wisdom would explode.
3
Solomon’s Celestial Clock
- Bible book: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapters:
- Solomon’s Celestial Clock,
- Solomon’s End Times
- Solomon’s Sundial
- Timespan: 960 BC–2280 AD (and beyond)
- Intervals: 28
- Period: 120 years (per “time”)
Notable facts:
This is the most fundamental prophetic clock in the Bible. It is the scaffolding that allows the others to be fit into a coherent and consistent framework. That makes it the mainspring of God's prophetic clocks.
By assigning a single word to each generation, Solomon revealed the principal spiritual forces at work from the dedication of the temple in 960 BC until the day the Lord ushers in eternal peace. His choice of words? Impeccable. Here are the key events that occurred in half the twenty-eight times:
- A time to die: Northern kingdom of Israel carried into captivity by Assyria.
- A time to plant: Prosperous times for Judah under King Hezekiah.
- A time to uproot: The Babylonian Exile of Judah uproots the Jews from their homeland.
- A time to kill: Attempted genocide of all the Jews by Haman in the Book of Esther.
- A time to weep: The Crucifixion of Jesus.
- A time to mourn: Roman persecution of Christians peaks under Diocletian.
- A time to dance: Rome becomes a Christian empire! Edict of Thessalonica issued in 380 AD.
- A time to throw away: Byzantium abandoned to its fate.
- A time to tear: Protestant Reformation & civil war tears the church apart.
- A time to mend: Dawn of Religious freedom and tolerance.
- A time to be silent: Christians listen to God during the Pietism Movement, Methodist Revival & Great Awakening.
- A time to speak: Great age of Christian missions.
- A time to love: Worldwide increase in health & prosperity and Israel reborn.
- A time to hate: Worldwide persecution of Christians and Jews will soon begin.
The power of this clock is that it operates at different scales of time and on different levels of being. It structures the history of...
- a single person via the Growth Pattern.
- ancient Israel and the church as a unity via this clock
- the secular world from the Creation until the end (via another clock)
- modern Israel (via a clock in "Appendix C: A Time for Israel" in Peace, like Solomon Never Knew)
It structures the levels of...
- existence in the material world that Solomon calls life "under the sun"
- existence in the spiritual world, as explained by Jesus in Matthew the Apostle Paul in his first seven letters
As illustrations of the spiritual dimension of Solomon's times:
- A time to be born is being "born again"
- A time to die is dying to self and gaining a new identity in Christ, as in Romans 6 and Galatians 2
- A time to plant is being baptized into the fellowship of the church
- A time to uproot is severing some ties with non-believers following salvation
With Solomon's times woven into so much of the material and spiritual order of the world, this means that prophecy is also deeply personal. Neglecting its study is unwise.
You can find more information about this clock in the article Twice a Thousand Years.
You can find more information about the spiritual analogs of the twenty-eight times in The Righteous Fall Seven Times and The Apostle Paul's Discipleship Program.
4
Solomon’s Son-dial
- Bible book: Ecclesiastes 1–10
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapters:
- Solomons Sundial,
- The Time of Her Confinement,
- Rightly Dividing the Words
- Timespan: 960 BC–2280 AD (and beyond)
- Intervals: 28 (divided by the phrase “under the sun”)
- Period: 120 years
Notable facts:
Almost a decade ago, I turned my attention to Ecclesiastes. I wrote a program that tallied how often each word and short phrase was used. The obvious result was that "under the sun" was Solomon's catch phrase. My clumsy research concluded that the structure and interpretation of Ecclesiastes was tied up in two things:
- The poem of the twenty-eight times
- The phrase "under the sun", which also appears twenty-eight times
It seemed sensible to ask, "Is the list of times a table of contents into the book?" I tried to map those words to the content of the rest of the book and failed. Also, the phrase "under the sun" is distributed haphazardly. It appears in one verse twice and in some chapters not at all, including the books two concluding chapters. I soon abandoned my effort and would not return to Ecclesiastes until 2020. The sad thing is that I was right. I had correctly identified the two features of the book whose relationship you must understand in order to solve the riddles of its meaning. I just didn't know what to do with them.
The twenty-eight times are not a table of contents into Ecclesiastes. They are a table of contents into a human life. Ecclesiastes is a treatise on the stages of a human life, but some of the "times" are not addressed there. They are however, addressed in Psalms, Proverbs, Matthew and the other Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
As for the placement of the instances of "under the sun", that was subtle. They are the tick marks on a prophetic sundial. Even though they are spaced unevenly, they do divide the book into twenty-eight pieces and each piece does correspond to one of the twenty-eight times, in sequence. Then the verses between the tick marks contains prophesies that point to events in the matching era of history. That is why Ecclesiastes is so hard to understand! It is a rundown of all history from the dedication of the temple until Christ returns. By combining the time phrase and the words in the bracketed passage you can understand part of God's plan for history and how it is all developed from an analogy to the life of a single person.
Here are where the "under the sun" references are found in Ecclesiastes and which time goes with each:
- 1:3 Born
- 1:9 Die
- 1:14 Plant
- 2:11 Uproot
- 2:17 Kill
- 2:18 Heal
- 2:19 Tear down
- 2:20 Build
- 2:22 Weep
- 3:16 Laugh
- 4:1 Mourn
- 4:3 Dance
- 4:7 Scatter stones
- 4:15 Gather stones
- 5:13 Embrace
- 5:18 Refrain
- 6:1 Search
- 6:12 Give up
- 8:9 Keep
- 8:15 Throw away
- 8:17 Tear
- 9:3 Mend
- 9:6 Be Silent
- 9:9 Speak, Love
- 9:11 Hate
- 9:13 War
- 10:5 Peace
The subtlest riddle in the Bible is hidden in “a thousand years twice over” in Ecclesiastes 6:6, whose answer gives us 120 years as the length of one of Solomon’s “times”. The solving of that riddle is the subject of Twice a Thousand Years.
A few interesting prophecies that fall out of the book are:
- On the “sun-dial”, the poem of the twenty-eight times occurs during “a time to weep” – when Jesus died for our sins, marking that the most important of times.
- Verse 9:9 says “meaningless” and “under the sun” twice and has the book’s only positive use of “love”. It falls on “a time to speak” and “a time to love”, season of God’s greatest outpouring of mercy upon the world and the greatest era of overseas Christian missions.
In the chapter "Solomon's Sundial", the placement of the "under the sun" usages was also used as a scaffold to study the distribution of other common phrases throughout the book. One example should suffice. It is the word "wind" which is often used to indicate futility as in "chasing after the wind".
Wind
Wind can mean “spirit”. The King James uses “vexation of spirit” in place of “chasing after the wind”. The impossibilities of catching the wind, containing it, or stopping its repetitive cycles are all conveyed by Ecclesiastes. The endless cycle is introduced in 1:6 with “The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.” Then the futility of chasing it is found all over. Since we can’t take anything with us when we die, 5:6 says we “toil for the wind”. In 8:8 we are reminded that we can’t hold onto our spirit and so overcome death by the words “no one has power over the wind to contain it...” The final mentions describe the mysteriousness of the wind:
“Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things."
- Ecclesiastes 11:4-5, NIV
It is no mystery which verses speak of the wind:
1:6,14,17; 2:11,17,26; 4:4,6,16; 5:16; 6:9; 8:8; 11:4-5
If the phrase occurs in a verse that falls between a pair of “under the sun” verses, we will assume the “wind” phrase is relevant to both corresponding “times”. If the phrase is in the same verse as “under the sun”, we only match it with one time.
For example, 1:6 includes “wind” and falls between 1:3 (born) and 1:9 (die), so it will be assigned both born and die.
On the other hand, 1:14 has both “under the sun” and “chasing after the wind”, so it is only assigned the time “plant”.
If you continue this for all fourteen “wind” verses, you will collectively match seventeen of the times. You can rationalize good reasons for each match, such as terrible defeats or the destruction of the temple, but the clearest, simplest story that they tell may only be inferred by looking at the times that were NOT matched. Those unmatched times are the the sundial’s shadow. They are clumped into three groups of adjacent times:
- Heal, Tear down, Build
- Mourn
- Throw away, Tear, Mend, Be silent, Speak, Love, Hate, War
What distinguishes these three periods of history from the rest? Satan. The three times in the first group span the silent years between the two testaments, when there were no prophets to add to the Word of God, the darkest time for Israel. That means the Spirit (the wind) was not at work sending authoritative messages to Israel to add to the Bible. The second group has one time, the time of the worst of the Roman persecutions, under Diocletian. This is what Revelation has to say about that time:
I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich!
I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews
and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.
I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison
to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days.
Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will
give you life as your victor’s crown.
- Revelation 2:9-10, NIV
After that, there is a long stretch where wind appears repeatedly. The millennium from “a time to dance” through “a time to keep” constitutes the thousand years that Satan was bound, between the Edict of Thessalonica and the commencement of the long period of Ottoman sieges against Constantinople, leading to its fall. The Spirit blew freely during those years and experienced limited Satanic opposition while the church grew.
After Satan was unbound, chaos ensued. Byzantium fell. The Reformation split the church and led to centuries of religious wars. More recently, the devil has deceived the nations; apostasy has spread, as formerly Christian nations abandon the faith. From “a time to throw away” to “a time to hate” (in our near future), the wind is absent again. That will end when history reaches “a time of war”. Christ will return in the middle or end of that time, and the Holy Spirit will complete his mission as well, as is revealed in Revelation:
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain,
standing at the center of the throne, encircled by
the four living creatures and the elders.
The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the
seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
- Revelation 5:6, NIV
Lest there be confusion, the Holy Spirit has never nor will ever be entirely absent from this world. What the preceding shows is that the balance of influence between the Holy Spirit and Satan’s evil spirits has shifted over time, first one way then the other. As the final two occurrences of “wind” attest, we “do not know the path of the wind”.
5
Lamps of the Ten Virgins
- Bible book: Matthew 25
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter: The Time of Her Confinement
- Timespan: 1–2280 AD
- Intervals: 10
- Period: 240 years (per lamp)
Notable facts:
In this parable from Matthew 25, ten virgins are to wait for the Bridegroom to arrive for the wedding. When he arrives, they are to meet him with lamps lit, attend to his needs and make the final preparations for the wedding. However, the Bridegroom is long in coming. The five foolish virgins did not plan for this and had run out of oil for their lamps. While they are at the market buying more oil, the Bridegroom arrives and the wedding starts. When they return, they are barred from entering the wedding and lose their right to participate in the festivities.
When interpreted as a celestial clock, this parable assumes the clock began with Solomon but that we can skip over the first eight times, which is four seasons. That is because Jesus ascended to heaven (hence is the Bridegroom who went away until it was time for the wedding) during the ninth time, a time to weep. From "a time to weep" to "a time for peace" is twenty times or equivalently ten seasons.
With that understood, each virgin with a lamp stands for one of Solomon’s “seasons”, which is made up of two 120-year “times”. During five of those ten seasons, women of the church were prepared, including the current season. One ill-prepared season remains. All told, the women of the church were prepared during these seasons:
- Season 5: a time to weep and a time to laugh (1-240 AD)
- Season 6: a time to mourn and a time to dance (240-480 AD)
- Season 11: a time to tear and a time to mend (1440-1680 AD)
- Season 12: a time to be silent and a time to speak (1680-1920 AD)
- Season 13: a time to love and a time to hate (1920-2160 AD)
In the beginning of the church, women were the first to see the risen Christ, participated actively in running churches in their homes and assisting in missionary efforts. During the years when the women of the church were not prepared, whose fault was that? Women were progressively excluded from positions in the church from 360-480 AD. Then on the other side, the Protestant Reformation promoted the priesthood of all believers. Protestant schools taught women to read and they slowly began to progress towards equality.
Why should we conclude that this parable is about whether the church respects and trains up women for service? The parable has many layers of meaning. On the surface, a wise or foolish virgin is an individual Christian, male or female, who has taken initiative to prepare for the return of Christ through learning the doctrines of the faith and obeying them conscientiously through acts of service. On a higher level, it is whole churches, since Revelation tells us that lamp stands stand for churches. On the highest level, it is whole eras of the church age, when the church as a whole was either prepared or not. The identification of the preparedness or unpreparedness of women is offered as a synedoche, a single, identifiable sign and symptom of the church's condition that stands for the whole of its problems.
The parable does not tell us which church ages were prepared or not. For that we must add in information from:
- Church history
- Other prophecies, like the letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation
The chapter "Seven Churches for Seven Eras" in Peace, like Solomon Never Knew matches the seven named churches to seven eras of history, using evidence from scripture, church history and archaeology. The assigned dates for the early church ages are similar to those proposed by scholars at the time of the Reformation, while those for the later ages are based on my own research.
The churches that Jesus mostly praised can be identified with the prepared virgins. The churches that Jesus had the harshest criticism for can be identified with the foolish virgins. Those seven eras are not uniform in length, but by placing them alongside the ten seasons of this parable, you will find that the praised church eras constitute half of church history.
In the following chart, two thirds of the way down the image are two rows labeled "Ten Virgins" and "Letters to the Seven Churches". The blocks labeled "YES" are the eras when the church was prepared. These are those prepared church ages:
- Ephesus (33-100 AD)
- Smyrna (100-313 AD)
- Pergamum (313-550 AD) Only the first third or so of this era was prepared. As the era progressed, the acceptable roles of women were progressively diminished by popes and councils.
- Philadelphia (1453-1990 AD)
- Laodicea (1990 AD-?) The church will be prepared during the first half of this, our current era, but steadily lose ground.
The unprepared church eras were:
- Pergamum (313-550 AD) The second two-thirds of the era.
- Thyatira (550-964 AD) The whole era.
- Sardis (964-1453 AD) The whole era.
- Laodicea (1990 AD-?) The second half of the era.
A time of darkness will one day come when no one can work. The time of war will test us all. Will women be prepared for this? Will men?
For how this parable fits into the larger schema for world missions, see The Parable of the Wedding Feast.
6
Grand Father Clock
- Bible book: Ecclesiastes
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter: A Grand Father Clock & a Silver Cord
- Timespan: 4020 BC–2280 AD
- Intervals: 42 (plus a short one)
- Period: 175 years (for 28 eras), 100 years (for 14 eras)
Notable facts:
One reason why scholars are stumped by Ecclesiastes is that it has multiple prophetic sequences overlaying one another. The same passage may have some verses that are prophecies for one clock while having other verses that are part of a second. Ecclesiastes has at least four:
- The poem of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 describes a clock from the temple dedication to Christ's return.
- The major portion of the book describes a clock from the temple dedication to Christ's return, divided into eras by the phrase "under the sun".
- The whole book describes a clock from the Creation to Christ's return, divided into eras first by the phrase "under the sun", then by other textual clues.
- The major portion of the book describes a clock from the Holocaust to Christ's return, divided into eras by the phrase "under the sun".
The first two listed above go hand in hand. They describe the growth of ancient Israel and a remnant's transformation into the church as a unit from birth to full maturity. When Christ returns, the church will be spiritually vital. The bride will be ready and in her prime.
The third clock listed above describes the growth of human civilization from birth to maturity to decline to death. It covers the whole life arc of Ecclesiastes, not omitting the days of darkness and decline. It does not have a happy ending like the other three.
The fourth clock governs the history of modern Israel.
This section is about the third clock above, for all humanity. It follows the rise and fall of human civilization through three phases:
- years of growth (28 times of 175 years each) from 4020 BC-880 AD
- productive years (12 times of 100 years each) from 880-2080 AD
- years of decline (2 times) from 2080-2280 AD or beyond
It identifies the centuries in which:
- Satan would be unbound (1380–1480 AD)
- New printing technology would let “fools multiply words”
- Kingdoms would have kings to rule as fools (1580–1680 AD), during the General Crisis
- Or rule as wise (1680–1780 AD), during the Enlightenment
- Or do away with kings altogether (1780–1880 AD), as democracy and revolution spread
- To be followed by Feasting (1880–1980 AD), as health, long life and prosperity spread worldwide
Let's zoom in on one verse to get the flavor. Ecclesiastes 10 is an extended metaphor for building a house. Is that not a fitting analogy for building a civilization? Setting aside for now how the calculation was made, the first half of verse 9 may be associated with the era 1180-1280 AD.
Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them...
- Ecclesiastes 10:9a
A modern work site sees an endless stream of trucks dropping off supplies. The masonry work may require marble, granite, brick, natural stone or cinder blocks. This verse, about quarrying stone, is the most on-the-nose verse in the chapter. The late twelfth and thirteenth centuries were the peak of the age of church building. Many of the great cathedrals were constructed during this century. It is estimated that during this phase of the establishment of Christendom, more stone was quarried for churches than was used for all the pyramids and temples of Ancient Egypt combined. A few decades into the next era, the addition of a new spire to the Lincoln Cathedral made it the tallest building in the world, a title it held for 237 years. (Prior to that, the Pyramid of Giza held the title for 3,800 years!)
This clock chronicles the rise and fall of modern Western Civilization. It is sobering to hear about its approaching demise. For a detailed article about this clock, see A Grand Father Clock & a Silver Cord.
7
Holy Spirit Clock
- Bible book: Psalms 78, 105, 106, 107, 114, 135, 136
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapters:
- Solving the Historical Psalms
- Psalm 78: Preparation of a Nation
- Psalm 105: Seasons of Suffering
- Psalm 106: Planted in our Memory
- Psalm 107: Where is the Love
- Psalm 114: Why?
- Psalm 135: Four Harvests
- Psalm 136: Requiem Aeternam
- Timespans:
- 33–2280 AD for Psalm 107
- 4040 BC - 2280 AD and beyond for others
- Intervals: 28 (for Psalms 107, 136), 7 (for others, by millennia)
- Period: 321 years per four periods (for Psalm 107), 1000 years (for some others)
Notable facts:
The Seven Historical Psalms have long been regarded as a unit. They look backward on Israel's history and most have references to the plagues on Egypt, parting of the Red Sea and initial conquest of the land. Each of the Psalms has ties to one of the seven phases of the Harvest Pattern, so that pattern organizes and sequences them into a larger pattern. The retrospective focus hides the prophetic intent. The true goal of these psalms is to look forward to what God will do next. How do we know this? The psalmist tells us!
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
- Psalm 78:1-3
In place of "dark sayings" some translations use "riddles", "puzzling problems" or "mysteries". It is our privilege to probe those mysteries and perhaps solve them.
Each of these seven psalms has its own prophetic clock. Some selections:
Psalm 105 picks just seven of the ten plagues against Egypt and reorders them to each match a different millennium.
- The fifth plague of hail destroys fig tree and vine, but not olive tree, signifying that Israel would lose their political power (the fig tree) and receive no more prophets (the vine), but their religion (the olive tree) would continue. The time would be the fifth millennium, which began with the birth of Christ and the total loss of sovereignty to Rome and later the Islamic empires and Crusaders.
- The sixth plague, of locusts, matches the sixth millennium’s fit of European colonial expansion. This is not the only Bible prophecy that likens those colonial empires to locusts. See 153 and the Fifth Trumpet for an interpretation of the blowing of the Fifth Trumpet in Revelation.
Psalm 106 also offers a millennial clock.
- For the fifth millennium, it predicts the people would “not believe his promise” (106:24), i.e. reject the messiah, and be exiled a second time, when God “scatter[s] them throughout the lands.” (106:24-27)
- For the sixth millennium, this psalm predicts the AIDS epidemic.
Psalm 107 parallels the 28 times of Ecclesiastes 3 in structure as well as mirroring the sevenfold harvest pattern. It covers the period 33–2280 AD and allocates 321 years for each four “times”. For example, Psalm 107:10-16, which corresponds to weeping, laughing, mourning and dancing, describes the Dark Ages, using the word darkness four times. Then Psalm 107:23-32, corresponding to the times to search, to give up, to keep, and throw away, describes a sea voyage. This matches the era of sea exploration, when the church reached the Americas.
The most amazing prophecy is one that correctly identifies the order in which the Jewish people would return to Israel from exile, in Psalm 107:1-3. The sequence was from the hand of the foe (Hitler’s Germany), from the east (Iran, Iraq, etc.), from the west (Egypt, North Africa), from the north (Iron Curtain countries including Russia), and from the south (the rest of the world). This prophecy also correctly identifies the direction of expansion in the five major periods of Christian expansion.
For a detailed analysis of Psalm 107, see the article Psalm 107: Where is the Love?.
Psalm 136 has 26 of Solomon’s 28 times, with the two remaining times being found in the two Biblical events at which this psalm was recited: the temple dedication and before a battle when King Jehoshaphat faced an overwhelming force. This psalm prophecies dozens of events, including the coming of Christ (“the sun to govern the day”), the Byzantine Empire’s successful raid of Damietta, Egypt in 853 AD, the flight to the Americas of the pilgrims, the abolition of slavery, and the defeat of Hitler.
Why would God put so many prophesies in the Psalms?
Twenty-five years ago, I didn't even like poetry. When I came across it in the Bible, I endured it. It struck me as emotional and imprecise - I am an engineer. The narratives told stories rich in detail, the sequencing of events and logical forms that I could sink my intellectual teeth into. Paul's letters, though poetic in expression, communicated intricate philosophical ideas and doctrines.
It was not until I began writing my novels that I got hooked. I blame God. I decided that my hero's wife was a literature professor. While he was in a coma, I had her read poetry to him at his bedside in the hospital. What kind of poems does a lit teacher like? To write her character convincingly, I forced myself to read lots of poems as part of my research. I didn't know it at the time, but writing that novel was my education in how to read and enjoy poetry. It would be essential years later when I faced Job and later the Psalms. You cannot understand what you do not love.
Discovering the prophetic content of the Psalms required years of study. The book is so large and complex that a single assault on this fortress of knowledge can never breach its walls. My first success was with Psalm 119. These seven Psalms came next. Then in short order, Psalms 102 and the seven Thunder Psalms. After that, other structures, like the first twenty-eight psalms matching the twenty-eight times of Solomon followed, plus the notable pairing of Psalms 111 and 112. Bringing up the rear was my discovery of the riches hidden in Psalm 19, said by C. S. Lewis to be the greatest in the psalter and among the greatest poems ever written. I am convinced that I have still only scratched the surface.
This brings us to the question. Why the Psalms? Why put so many prophecies there? Poems in antiquity had regular and intricate structures. Some of their forms have only been rediscovered in the last century or so. This regularity with subtlety is ready-made as a matrix upon which to stamp and conceal mysteries. The subjective emotions and colorful imagery can easily encode truths. If you add enough layers to the text, readers will likely give up after piercing a few but before they reach the bottom.
Given that my engineering mind recoiled for so long from undertaking a careful study of the Bible's poetry, I think God did it to thumb his nose at the world's intellectuals. I am glad I finally relented and discovered in God's poetry the truths that my heart longed to find.
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Matthew’s Monthly Planner
- Bible book: Matthew
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter: One Greater than Solomon
- Timespan: 33–2280 AD
- Intervals: 28
- Period: 321 years per four times
Notable facts:
This clock shows that every chapter of Matthew corresponds to one of Solomon’s twenty-eight times, making Jesus the new Solomon. Here are some highlights:
Here is a selection of the findings from the chapter. In my book, this "planner" showed two things for most chapters:
- Verses whose theme was then related to the time phrase from Solomon's poem of twenty-eight times.
- A prophetic interpretation tying other verses from the chapter to later history according to the clock.
In the table below, I have mostly dispensed with the passages that refer to Solomon's times and focus on the prophecies.
I was able to find for every chapter of Matthew some content that matches the corresponding time from Solomon's poem. I was not able to find prophecies for every chapter. However, every time I look at Matthew, I find more. Just today (June 22, 2024) I found three more, so have included them, even though they were not in the book as published.
| Chapter | Year Range (AD) | A time to... | Prophecy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 33-113 | Be Born |
First, this predicted the purchase of
salvation for mankind and the birth of the church. Second, the genealogy from Abraham to Jesus establishes that human history will last forty-two generations, as demonstrated in the generational clock based on the forty-two chapters of Job. |
| 2 | 113-194 | Die | The story of the Murder of the innocents (2:16-18) prophesies an era of increasing Roman persecution and the 136 AD Bar Kokhba revolt. |
| 3 | 194-274 | Plant |
Verse 3:6 says, "Confessing their sins, they were baptized by [John] in the Jordan River." This chapter recounts the Baptism of Jesus (3:13-17). John the Baptist challenges the leaders to produce the fruit of repentance (3:7-10). Then we see Jesus as a contrast. Compare to this Psalm, which describes Jesus planted by the water, producing good fruit: That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:3) During the reign of Emperor Gallienus (253-268) and for a few decades afterward, the “Little Peace of the Church” gave the church a reprieve. It put down roots and grew rapidly because it had been well-planted and watered. |
| 4 | 274-354 | Uproot |
Jesus calls the disciples in 4:18-22. They are uprooted
from their old lives to wander with Jesus. Rome in this era tried to uproot Christianity with its final persecution, but it was Rome’s pagan culture that was uprooted following Constantine’s conversion. This first great testing of the church was over: Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. (4:11) This anticipates the binding of Satan, which would begin twenty-six years later with the Edict of Thessalonica. |
| 5 | 354-434 | Kill |
In 5:21-26, Jesus compares anger to murder. The opposite is meekness. In 380 AD, the once persecuted Christians now inherit the kingdom of Rome, when the Edict of Thessalonica made Christianity its state religion: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (5:5) Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (5:10) |
| 6 | 434-515 | Heal | Jesus teaches about anxiety, the pursuit of heavenly and not earthly treasures, and the impossibility of serving two masters, money and God. In 476 AD, Rome falls. The church now has to survive by faith, without the wealth and protection of the world's most powerful empire. |
| 7 | 515-595 | Tear Down |
Unproductive trees are cut down. (7:19) Houses built on sand fall down. (7:24-27) “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." (7:15) Though many heresies have beset the church, Arianism is considered to have been the worst threat. Though the Arian heresy began in the 4th century, it posed the greatest threat politically and spiritually during the 6th. When Ulfilas translated the Bible into Gothic and evangelized the Germanic peoples, he brought his Arian views with him. Different Germanic tribes raided the south frequently and the 6th century saw the territory held by Arians grow substantially. Emperor Justinian opposed them forcefully during this era. Much of Italy fell to the Ostrogoths; Spain to the Visigoths; and north Africa to the Vandals. In addition to Germanic peoples, the Lombards also conquered parts of Italy under the sway of Arianism. Totila, leader of the Ostrogoths, vowed to level Rome after he captured it in 546, but relented. Even so, the might of Rome was torn down, in keeping with this era’s theme. Interestingly, wolves were symbolic representatives of both Rome and the Germanic peoples. However, Rome emphasized the nurturing aspects of wolves; Romulus and Remus, who founded Rome, were said to have been abandoned by the river but rescued by a wolf, who suckled and raised them. The Germans emphasized wolves’ fierceness, savagery and bravery. Thus the wolves in sheep’s clothing were Germanic tribes practicing a false version of Christianity. |
| 8 | 595-675 | Build |
What do you build, if not a house? Matthew 8 speaks three times of houses: 1. The house of the Centurion. The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” (8:8) 2. The house of Peter. When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. (8:14-15) 3. The house of Jesus: He has none! Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (8:20) In the case of the centurion and Peter, their houses were built on faith. In the case of Jesus, he has no house because he is busy building houses for us. Thus we have houses for the Centurion, Peter, Foxes, Birds, and Jesus - five houses. The ancient church had five patriarchates: Rome (founded by Peter), Constantinople (founded by Andrew), Alexandria (founded by Mark), Antioch (also founded by Peter), and Jerusalem (founded by James). Thus we can match Peter to Rome and the Centurion to Constantinople, since in this era Constantinople inherited Rome's place as seat of government. That leaves dens, nests and the open sky for Christians from the other three patriarchates. That is because in this era, the forces of Islam conquered the Middle East. They captured Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch. Christians in those parts now were like Jesus, without a home. |
| 9 | 675-755 | Weep |
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion
on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like
sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the
Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into
his harvest field.” (9:36-38) The period 675-755 AD falls midway between two major expansions of Christianity, in the middle of Islam’s first major expansion. Rome had fallen long before and Christian unity was weak. What did Jesus’ prayer do? In Ireland, they built a missionary training center and sent missionaries to Scotland and Iceland. Translations of the Bible were rendered in Arabic and Old English. And Charles Martel stopped the invasion by Islam at Tours in 732 AD. Translation: Jesus sent help. |
| 10 | 755-836 | Laugh | Jesus said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (10:34) Charlemagne used that sword to conquer the Saxons and many others, imposing Christianity and his rule upon most of Western Europe. While not the only king to spread the Gospel by force, his belief that Christian kings had a dual responsibility to spread the faith and advance their own nation influenced many future monarchs. |
| 11 | 836-916 | Mourn |
Jesus told his hearers this: "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." - Matthew 11:27 One of the most impactful events of this era caused the rift between the churches of the East and West to grow. In 867 AD, Photius convened the Council of Constantinople to address two issues. One was Rome's assertion of Papal Supremacy over all other churches and patriarchs. The second was the use of the Filioque, the addition by Rome of the phrase "and also the Son" to the creed to indicate that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son, not just the Father alone. The Greeks denied that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son. To modern ears, such a dispute seems absurd, minuscule and technical. Nevertheless, it helped split the church in two. Two centuries later, Saint Anselm wrote De processione Spiritus Sancti to defend the Roman Catholic position. The heart of his defense employed Matthew 11:27, quoted above. For a good summary of Anselm's argument, see St. Anselm on the Filioque. What is the conclusion? Jesus knew that the church would divide over this issue over 800 years before it happened and ensured that the words that could resolve the issue were slotted into the right chapter of Matthew. Sadly, the church didn't listen; we didn't listen to the very words of the one we were arguing about. |
| 12 | 916-996 | Dance |
While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers
stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him,
“Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”
Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my
brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my
brother and sister and mother.” (12:46-50)
Devotion to Mary existed from the earliest days of Christianity and doctrines related to her person slowly spread throughout the church. The 11th century saw a marked increase in devotion to Mary, and in the early 12th century, Eadmer of Canterbury wrote a treatise that ultimately persuaded the Catholic Church to promulgate the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. After that, things snowballed, with the creation of prayers, rosaries, cathedrals called Notre Dame, pilgrimage sites related to Marian apparitions and societies dedicated to her name. Personally, I accept the doctrine of Theotokos (Mary as the Mother of God), am unsure about perpetual virginity (but see solid scriptural arguments for it), am ambivalent about the Assumption into Heaven, and am skeptical of the rest. Yet I see these words of Jesus: Who is my mother? To my Protestant sensibilities, these words were once a stinging rebuke by Jesus to his family. Obedient faith counted for more than blood. After all, Jesus said that believers must be ready to leave family to follow him. But now I see these words differently. They were a challenge to us to find out exactly who his mother was. What was she like? What role does she or should she play in the church? The question must be asked. Jesus asked it and the Catholic Church asked it. Protestants almost never ask it. I may not like the Catholic answers, but at least they poured centuries of prayer, reflection and logic into answering it. Isn’t it peculiar that they started asking those questions in the era right after the time bracketed by this chapter? (See “Aftertaste: Donner and Blitzen” for a more compelling prophecy regarding the promulgation of Marian doctrines.) |
| 13 | 996-1076 | Scatter Stones |
But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” In 1009 AD, the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, scattering its stone, dishonoring Jesus Christ, in whose memory it was built. That church marked the site of his tomb. This act was a prominent cassus belli that led to the First Crusade at the end of the century. |
| 14 | 1076-1157 | Gather Stones |
In this chapter, Jesus feeds the 5,000, he gathers crowds to feed, gathers sick people to heal, and gathers leftovers. (14:13-21) In this era, God performed a greater miracle: the feeding of millions. The Medieval Warm period began around 950 AD. This did not have an immediate impact on agriculture in northern Europe. Starting around 1050 AD and continuing for the next three centuries, harvest yields doubled. Formerly, half of all grain used to be needed for the next year’s planting. This doubling of output meant that only a third of the grain needed to be held in reserve for the next year. The net effect was to triple the amount of grain available for food. In addition to the weather, there were other causes:
|
| 15 | 1157-1237 | Embrace | In this chapter, Jesus feeds a second crowd, of four thousand people. The Medieval Warm Period continued, as did a long period of increased agricultural output and increasing population. |
| 16 | 1237-1317 | Refrain |
“Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (16:6) In the above passage, Jesus is telling his contemporaries to refrain from embracing false teachings. In this era, the church spent a century suppressing the heretical sect of the Cathars in France. |
| 17 | 1317-1397 | Seek |
At the Transfiguration (17:1-13), the disciples are
confused why Elijah - whom they saw beside Jesus - was
not appearing to all Israel to persuade them that
Messiah had come. Elijah was whom all the people were
told to search for, but they did not recognize him, as he
came spiritually in the person of John the Baptist.
If you have religious expectations, how do you test to
see if they are well-founded? Are you searching for the wrong things? Another example of searching is when Jesus tells Peter to search for a fish with a four-drachma coin in its mouth to use for the Temple tax. That would seem to be an unreasonable thing to spend time searching for, yet Jesus commanded it. Knowing what to search for is not a simple proposition! A good example of searching is found in the following chapter, in the Parable of the Wandering Sheep (18:10-14). Though not in the same chapter, it is in the same larger section of the growth pattern – opportunity. Interestingly, the placement of a story about searching in a chapter about “a time to give up” adds the richness of irony to the meaning. Jesus was telling them that they would never abandon their property – a sheep, but they were abandoning their neighbors who were in need. Prophetically, the Hesychast controversy (1337-1351 AD) erupted between the eastern and western church. It concerned a mystical way to search for God. Western rational scholastic approaches to knowledge were incompatible with the mystical traditions of the east. In hesychastic practice, inner contemplation is supposed to permit the believer to experience God’s uncreated light, the same light that emanated from Jesus at his Transfiguration. Gregory Palamas proposed the Essence-Energies distinction which became standard Eastern Orthodox doctrine. We cannot see God’s essence, but we can see his energies. The upshot is that the disciples were confused by the meaning of the glory shining from Jesus at his Transfiguration, and over a millennium later, the church was still arguing about what to make of that glory. A decade ago, I fasted for three years, praying for God to show me His glory. I am still trying to understand... |
| 18 | 1397-1478 | Give Up |
To enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to give up our pride and become like a little child. (18:1-5) We also need to give up things that make us stumble, like a symbolic eye or foot. (18:8-9) We need to give up our place of safety among the ninety-nine in the flock and search for the lost sheep. (18:12-14) Sadly, if after repeated overtures to an offending brother or sister come to naught, we must give up on them and expel them from the church. (18:15-17) Lastly, we are called upon to give up our grudges and forgive or face eternity in prison. (18:21-35) Prophetically, during this era the Lord gave up on Constantinople, which fell in 1453. What was the cause? There were many causes, but one is symbolic and fits the timing of this disaster. C onsider Jesus’ answer to Peter: Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus said to him, "but 70 times seven. (Matthew 18:21-22, HCSB) Some translations say we are to forgive seventy-seven times, while others, like the HCSB, assume the words “seventy sevens” means seventy times seven, or 490. The parable of the unforgiving servant is about unforgiveness. On a macroscopic level, what is the historical manifestation of unforgiveness? It is civil war. The Byzantine Empire was beset by civil war throughout its history. From the 4th to the 15th centuries there were 119 wars and revolts, spanning a cumulative 294 years. The 7th and 8th centuries were two of the worst. However the longest sustained period of civil unrest was from the 11th to the 14th centuries. Of this 400 year period, 156 years were troubled by civil war and revolts. The only thing that prevented the 15th century from going the same way was their final conquest by the Turks. That captures the qualitative spirit of God’s complaint against that empire. Now for the quantitative part. Numerous theological disagreements drove Constantinople and Rome apart. One such disagreement may not be the gravest of them, but it is among the oldest and comes up in any discussion of what divides east and west. It is the addition by the Roman Catholic Church of the Filioque clause to the Nicene Creed. The oldest form of the creed said that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. The Filioque clause is the tacking on of the words “and the Son”. Does the Spirit only proceed from the Father, which is clearly stated in Scripture? Or does it also proceed from the Son? That latter may be inferred from the Bible, but is not stated explicitly. The debate involves attempts by the Catholic Church to show that the addition occurred very early and should be accepted as part of church tradition. The Orthodox Church contends that the addition was made much later and should be rejected as not having been approved by an Ecumenical Council and on other grounds. According to Wikipedia: “Some scholars claim that the earliest example of the Filioque clause in the East is contained in the West Syriac recension of the profession of faith of the Church of the East formulated at the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in Persia in 410.” A few earlier Christian writers subscribed to the idea, but the church had previously not made a ruling on it. One author to address the subject was Augustine, who affirmed the substance of the Filioque in De Trinitate, released in 419 AD, but begun in 399 AD. Thus let us assume the year 400 AD as a starting point for this controversy. The rancor of the debate increased for centuries. Charlemagne entered the fray in 787 AD, accusing Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople of infidelity for not affirming that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son. Things came to a head in the next century, during the Photian controversy. Again, from Wikipedia: Around 860 the controversy over the Filioque broke out in the course of the disputes between Patriarch Photius of Constantinople and Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople. In 867, Photius was Patriarch of Constantinople and issued an Encyclical to the Eastern Patriarchs, and called a council in Constantinople in which he charged the Western Church with heresy and schism because of differences in practices, in particular for the Filioque and the authority of the Papacy. This moved the issue from jurisdiction and custom to one of dogma. This council declared Pope Nicholas anathema, excommunicated and deposed. So in 867 AD, rejection of the Filioque became an official dogma of the Eastern Orthodox Church. This crisis continued to unfold over the next two decades, with more church councils and political actions occurring. Now for the punchline. Let us break the Filioque controversy into two eras:
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| 19 | 1478-1558 | Keep |
Opposing divorce, Jesus says a man should keep his wife. (19:3-12) Jesus tells the rich young rule that to get eternal life, he must “keep the commandments”. (19:17) Then Jesus says “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (19: 29) So to get and keep eternal life, you must leave everything else behind, a paradox. Jesus spoke against divorce, but in the prophetic era the western Church underwent a bloody spiritual divorce. The Protestant Reformation created the greatest rupture in the church since the Great Schism, with deadlier consequences. |
| 20 | 1558-1638 | Throw Away |
Jesus predicted that the chief priests and teachers of the law would throw away their Messiah to be crucified. (20:18-19) And Jesus threw his own life away to ransom ours. (20:28) The prophecy for this era was the publication in 1559 AD of the complete version of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. Among the ideas he forwarded was penal substitutionary atonement (a name not applied to it until much later), a successor to the ransom theory intended to more adequately describe how the ransom that Jesus paid on our behalf worked. |
| 21 | 1638-1718 | Tear |
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will
produce its fruit.” (21:43) The kingdom would be torn from Israel and given to the church. Later in the gospel, when Jesus addresses the end times, it will be to speak about another kind of tearing: Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (24:40-41) To be torn from this world in judgment is a terrible thing. During this era pointed to by this clock, the Thirty Years War raged on. More and more territory was torn away from the Catholic Church and given to the Protestants, whose missionary fervor produced fruit across the globe. |
| 22 | 1718-1799 | Mend |
In this chapter, Jesus is confronted by people trying to trick him. They ask if it is right to pay taxes to Caesar or not.
He asked to see the coin, asked whose image was on it, and said these famous words: So render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. His brilliant answer set forth the idea that there are two spheres of authority both set in place by God, the church and the state, each deserving of its own respect. During this prophetic era, the United States of America was founded, a nation where the distinct roles of church and state are separated so that neither will become too entangled in the other's business. |
| 23 | 1799-1879 | Be Silent |
They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are
not willing to lift a finger to move them. (23:4) This was God’s call to eliminate slavery. This era began with England’s abolition of the slave trade and ended with the American Civil War and Reconstruction. The connection to freeing slaves and prisoners is reinforced by Jesus’ reference to Zechariah: And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. (Matthew 23:35) And here is what Zechariah said when he announced what the blood of the covenant would do: As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. (Zechariah 9:11-12) We should all aspire to be prisoners – not of men, but of hope. Jesus said something else that was prophetic: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate." - Matthew 23:37-38 Jerusalem of the 19th century was desolate. The population was less than 40,000, with perhaps 13,000 of them Jewish. By Ottoman law, the name of a Jew could not appear on a property deed. This changed with the Land Emancipation Act of 1876, near the end of this era. Finally Jews could own property, so they began to return from exile. |
| 24 | 1879-1959 | Speak |
Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
To speak those words to the world, this era was dominated by a new invention: the telephone. This chapter also prophesied the development of electric power transmission and the spread of the gospel to the whole world. Regarding wars and famines, this era includes WW I, WW II, the Holodomor, and the Great Chinese famine (1958-1962). Jesus said. "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. (24:7) Electric lights and power transmission lines were also invented (1870s). Concerning this, Jesus said: "For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:27, NIV) Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. - Matthew 24:20-22 Thus did Jesus prophesy the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews. “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near." - Matthew 24:32 This prophesied the rebirth of Israel in 1948, since Israel is symbolized as the fig tree. |
| 25 | 1959-2039 | Love |
In three stories, Jesus warns what happens to those who do not love God the King. The parable of the ten virgins (25:1-13) tells of those whose love is not great enough to motivate them to keep prepared. The parable of the talents (25:14-30) warns about lazy servants who do not love and fear their master enough to work hard at multiplying what he left with them to invest. The parable of the sheep and the goats (25:31-46) explains what love is: attending to the hungry, thirsty, naked, lonely and imprisoned. As Jesus foretold, in this era opportunities for women to be educated, find work in all professions and in the church exploded. As a result, many “virgins” are now prepared. The church also grew rapidly, showing that the second servant’s two talents were well invested. And the world now produces more food, delivers more clean water, manufactures more clothes and liberates more enslaved people than ever before. However, for all the sheep serving the poor, there were also many goats. Thomas Malthus in the generation before, Paul Ehrlich (author of The Population Bomb in 1968) in the one after, and Margaret Sanger and legions of others during this era pushed for mass sterilization, abortion, and the denial of aid to starving people in India and elsewhere in order to save the planet. God’s plan was to increase the wealth, wisdom and agricultural capacity of the world to feed the poor. His sheep feed the poor, not abandon them. |
| 26 | 2039-2120 | Hate |
This chapter is steeped in Solomon's "time to hate". The Chief Priests. The Elders of the people. High Priest Caiaphas. Judas. The Sanhedrin. Peter. The disciples. All those men betrayed or deserted Jesus. The only person in the chapter to show unfeigned and total devotion to Jesus was the woman with the alabaster jar, who anointed Jesus with costly perfume. We don't know what is about to happen, but the rest of this century will surely see an increase in division and civil discord. Pray that your love for God will withstand what is to come. “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (26:64) Cry out to Jesus that you might have this vision of the Son of Man sitting at the Father's right hand. May it sustain you. |
| 27 | 2120-2200 | for War |
War is about taking violent action in support of the
things you love and against the things you hate. This
chapter is all about Satan’s war against God: the trial,
scourging and crucifixion of Jesus. We know Armageddon is coming; we just don’t know when. Jesus said he would rise on the third day, and his enemies knew that: The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” (Matthew 27:62-64, NIV) Taking a day as a thousand years, the third day is about to begin. It will begin in 2033 AD, two millennia after Christ was crucified. The first time Jesus rose, he appeared only to his followers and to Paul. When he returns from Heaven this time, he will be seen by the whole world. Most of the other clocks in this book have the final battle occurring closer to 2280 AD, and peace following after that, sometime between 2280 and 2340 AD. However, they also offer the possibility that the last time or two get stretched out, due to humanity perfecting new medicine that extends life. In addition, the fractal nature of God’s word makes it likely that this period of 2120–2200 is a time of war, to be followed by a false time of peace when the world believes it has defeated the church and God, which time will end with the true final battle and the return of Christ. |
| 28 | 2200-2280 | for Peace | And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (28:20b) |
9
Moses’ Commandment Clock
- Bible book: Exodus 7-11, 19, 20
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter(s): Aftertaste: Donner and Blitzen
- Timespan: 1–2280 AD
- Intervals: 10 (one per plague/commandment)
- Period: 240 years
Notable facts:
This clock shows that analogies to Moses’ plagues against Egypt are being repeated during the church age as judgments against the church and the world.
Moses lived to the age of 120 years, so:
(10 plagues + 10 Commandments) x 120 years = 2400 years
The last period will be cut short. Some plagues prophesy God’s judgments against the church (for discipline), others against the world.
- The 1st plague (blood on the Nile) was Christ’s Crucifixion.
- The 2nd plague (of frogs) matched the rise of the Frankish Merovingian Kings, whose crest of arms bore three frogs.
- The 5th plague (on livestock) preceded Mongol invasions.
- The 6th plague (of boils) matched the Black Plague as judgement upon the church for breaking the 6th commandment, against murder.
- The 7th plague (hail & thunder) was the 17th C General Crisis.
- The 8th plague (of locusts) was European colonial expansion breaking the 8th commandment: Thou shalt not steal.
- The 9th plague (of darkness) is the darkness of lies, starting with Hitler’s “Big Lie” philosophy, first enunciated in Mein Kampf, published in 1925.
In Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace, two more clocks were found that applied these principles to Israel and to a series of ten empires respectively.
10
Rebirth of Israel Clock
- Bible books: Ecclesiastes, Psalm 107
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter: Appendix C: A Time for Israel
- Timespan: 1942–2280 AD
- Intervals: 28
- Period: 12.5 years (a 50-year jubilee per quartet)
Notable facts:
Starting with the Nazi death camps of 1942, this clock follows the history of modern Israel from its birth up until Christ returns. The new Israel will celebrate six jubilees, six fifty-year periods, before the Lord returns prior to the seventh. Here is a taste of that clock, what it had to say about the rebirth of Israel, during the first quartet of times, the Security phase of the Growth Pattern.
In the following, the Grand Index is a reference to how Ecclesiastes may be broken into twenty-eight pieces using the phrase "under the sun" as a divider. Each piece then maps to one of the twenty-eight times of Ecclesiastes 3.
Security
- A time to be born: 1942–1955 AD
- A time to die: 1955-1967 AD
- A time to plant: 1967–1980 AD
- A time to uproot: 1980–1992 AD
Ecclesiastes begins with a riddle:
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
- Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
According to the Grand Index, this riddle falls between “a time to be born” and “a time to die”. “What has been will be again” is the nation of Israel. The death of its people in the Holocaust preceded its rebirth in 1948, like history moving in reverse. The chapter Psalm 107: Where is the Love? went through the immigration records for Israel to prove that the refugees returned from the land of the foe, the east, the west, and the sea (south) in the order prophesied.
Two monumental events marked off the second time (1955–1967). “A time to die” began with the Suez War of 1956 and concluded with the Six Day War of 1967.
The third time, “a time to plant”, saw Israeli agricultural output (like its famed Jaffa oranges) increase dramatically. In 1973, a Jewish botanist even perfected a variety of tomato that ripens slower, dramatically reducing loss due to spoilage (which had been 40% of the crop). This was predicted by Solomon, in this passage that matches "a time to plant" according to the Grand Index:
I made gardens and parks
and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
- Ecclesiastes 2:5-6
The fourth time, “a time to uproot”, was a beneficial uprooting. Jews from Russia and other Iron Curtain nations were uprooted from their homes and migrated to Israel, culminating at the end of this era with the arrival of several million Jews in the space of a couple years.
In another instance of God hiding a great blessing in the guise of objectionable language, we have this prophecy, a true emotional riddle:
I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves
who were born in my house...
- Ecclesiastes 2:7a
The USSR instituted a “diploma tax” in 1972 to prevent a brain drain. To get a visa to emigrate, some Jewish professionals had to pay twenty times their annual salary to meet the tax! Other communist countries had similar policies. Israel paid to release as many as they could afford. Thus the nation of Israel did buy “slaves” – in order to set them free!
11
Hezekiah’s Celestial Clock
- Bible books: Ecclesiastes, Psalm 102, Isaiah
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter: Appendix D: To Number our Psalms
- Timespan: 960 BC–2280 AD
- Intervals: 28
- Period: 120 years
Notable facts:
Prophecies in Psalm 102 focus on the period between the 816 year period Muslim Siege of Jerusalem in 637 AD and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD. That period of time is a multiple of the Psalm’s number, since:
816 years = 8 x 102
As for the number eight, the time between the sieges spans eight (8) of Solomon’s times. Furthermore, to direct our attention to the start of the crucial time, the psalm helpfully includes in the preceding verse the phrase “the appointed time”.
The time I spent studying this Psalm was sweet. Hezekiah has long been one of my favorite Bible personalities. It is likely that he or someone from his court wrote Psalm 102 to speak of Hezekiah's faith amid his suffering. Look here for a detailed analysis of the poem:
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Proverbs Clock
- Bible books: Proverbs
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter(s): Appendix E: The Plan of Proverbs
- Timespan: 4020 AD–2280 AD and beyond
- Intervals: 31
- Period: 120 years (except the first three)
Notable facts:
During the first six months of 1988, this fool read, meditated on and prayed to be transformed by the words of Proverbs every day, in keeping with my New Years Resolution to "Get Wisdom". Every day of the remainder of that year I studied the other wisdom books: Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and James. In response, the Lord gave me a little wisdom, which I applied inexpertly over the course of the next thirty plus years. Individual proverbs have guided me through problems and given me hope to persevere. Never in all those years did I have more than a rudimentary understanding of the contents of that book. Its structure, larger purpose and any inkling of how to apply its teachings in a systematic fashion were beyond me. Then recently the Lord remembered my many prayers and graciously opened my eyes to the glory in its pages, His glory. I went from seeing little rhyme or reason in the selection of topics in most chapters to seeing every chapter as a gem, polished and set in silver or gold. I see the arrangement of all into a harmonious whole. No word is wasted; none can be added or removed. I doubt I have seen everything that can be seen in its pages, but I now see something marvelous in every chapter, where before I saw only a haphazard arrangement of clever sayings. This is the tragedy of Proverbs, only another wise person can recognize and appreciate just how wise Solomon, Hezekiah and the other contributors to this book really were. You can be told that they were wise, but you can't see it for yourself. Since my wisdom is still very small, that means that I can only see the glint from its facets. I am like the museum tour guide who can recite from memory the paragraphs written on the walls below each painting or artifact. I have no clue how to copy the artist or experience the thrill that they felt on the day they created their masterpiece.
Though I cannot experience the thrill of creating words of wisdom, I can feel the thrill of discovering them. It was thrilling. At last I could see a glimpse of the grand and intricate design and purpose behind those words. Alas, I doubt I have adequately captured that thrill in my words about that discovery. My words in the articles to follow shall have to suffice. God reveals intel about Satan's plans and His own battle plan for the coming war through which He will vanquish evil. Once you see the prophecies hidden in Proverbs, you will marvel at how blind we must be for not having noticed them sooner.
The first three chapters of Proverbs look back to the first three millennia, respectively. Chapter 1 corresponds to the Son, chapter 2 to the Holy Spirit, and chapter 3 to the Father. The remaining twenty-eight chapters correspond to Solomon’s twenty-eight times, and begin in 960 BC. The conclusion is the wedding supper of the lamb, which occurs once the church has been perfected and become the wife of noble character of Proverbs 31. Here is a table that maps each chapter to its era of history and phase of Solomon's Growth pattern.
| Proverbs 1: 4020–3020 BC | Proverbs 2: 3020-2020 BC | Proverbs 3: 2020-960 BC | |
| Proverbs 4: 960-840 BC a time to be born |
Proverbs 5: 840-720 BC a time to die |
Proverbs 6: 720-600 BC a time to plant |
Proverbs 7: 600-480 BC a time to uproot |
| Proverbs 8: 480-360 BC a time to kill |
Proverbs 9: 360-240 BC a time to heal |
Proverbs 10: 240-120 BC a time to tear down |
Proverbs 11: 120 BC-1 AD a time to build up |
| Proverbs 12: 1-120 AD a time to weep |
Proverbs 13: 120-240 AD a time to laugh |
Proverbs 14: 240-360 AD a time to mourn |
Proverbs 15: 360-480 AD a time to dance |
| Proverbs 16: 480-600 AD a time to scatter stones |
Proverbs 17: 600-720 AD a time to gather stones |
Proverbs 18: 720-840 AD a time to embrace |
Proverbs 19: 840-960 AD a time to refrain |
| Proverbs 20: 960-1080 AD a time to seek |
Proverbs 21: 1080-1200 AD a time to give up |
Proverbs 22: 1200-1320 AD a time to keep |
Proverbs 23: 1320-1440 AD a time to throw away |
| Proverbs 24: 1440-1560 AD a time to tear |
Proverbs 25: 1560-1680 AD a time to mend |
Proverbs 26: 1680-1800 AD a time to be silent |
Proverbs 27: 1800-1920 AD a time to speak |
| Proverbs 28: 1920-2040 AD a time to love |
Proverbs 29: 2040-2160 AD a time to hate |
Proverbs 30: 2160-2280 AD a time for war |
Proverbs 31: 2280 AD-? a time for peace |
Before diving into the prophecies, it is important to first be introduced to Lady Wisdom, Solomon's muse and one of the main characters of Proverbs. If you haven't already do so, it may be helpful to start by reading this article about her:
For an excerpt that analyzes my favorite chapter, Proverbs 30, see Riddles of War. Otherwise, to read up on the entire book, follow the links below. They contain the entire contents of "Appendix E: The Plan of Proverbs". That appendix ran to a hundred printed pages. When God opens the floodgates of knowledge, it is impossible to not get carried away...
The Proverbs clock is too big to swallow in one bite. Here are links to analyses of each of its chapters:
13
Fool’s Clock
- Bible books: Proverbs 26
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter(s): Appendix E: The Plan of Proverbs
- Timespan: 960 BC–2280 AD and beyond
- Intervals: 28
- Period: 120 years
Notable facts:
This clock is nested inside the Proverbs Clock. It reveals the shape of Satan’s strategy to overcome the church.
Each of the twenty-eight verses of this chapter corresponds to one of Solomon’s twenty-eight times. Many include prophecies.
The chapter (and hence Satan’s master plan) is divided into four unequal sections, to correspond to four different agents and four eras in church history: fools, sluggards, the quarrelsome, and the malicious.
The details of the Fool's Clock are found in this article:
14
Battle Clock
- Bible books: Proverbs 30
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter(s): Appendix E: The Plan of Proverbs
- Timespan: 960 BC–2280 AD and beyond
- Intervals: 7
- Period: 480 years
Notable facts:
This clock nested inside the Proverbs Clock reveals the battle plan for the war between the righteous & the wicked. Seven riddling quartets address seven aspects of battle as well as consecutive time periods (with exceptions that reprise the whole time period).
The clock reveals five battlefields, then the combatants, cassus belli, cost, strategy, promotion, tactics and leadership. The strategy parable identifies the five major missions eras while the tactics parable goes into greater detail about the last two missions eras.
This clock is explained in detail in Riddles of War.
15
Hannah’s Prayer Clock
- Bible books: 1 Samuel 2
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter(s): The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
- Timespan: 1080 BC–2280+ AD
- Intervals: 8
- Period: 7 intervals of 480 years, one of 120 years
Notable facts:
Hannah defined the seven pillars of wisdom and prophesied:
- the destruction of Israel
- the birth of the messiah
- greatest era of world missions
- the coming of Messiah in judgment
The details of Hannah's clock are found in this article:
16
Timothy’s Freedom Clocks
- Bible books: 1 & 2 Timothy
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter(s): Appendix I: A Clock for Timothy
- Timespan: 1–2280+ AD
- Intervals: 10
- Period: 240 years
Notable facts:
The books of 1 & 2 Timothy contain not one, but four clocks! Their subject is the freedom that comes as God writes His law on human hearts.
- The Whole: Each of the ten chapters that constitute the two letters corresponds to an era lasting 240 years. The first points to eternity, while the rest point to successive pairs of times from Ecclesiastes. It chronicles God’s establishment of one commandment per season and identifies each season.
- Women’s Freedom: 1 Timothy 2:12-15. This clock has eight parts, some of which are 240 years but others 120 years, according to seasons or times, respectively. This describes a part of the process by which the equality of women will be restored.
- Equipping & Rescue: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 lists qualities to be learned and obstacles to be overcome by the church, until the final rescue at the time of the rapture. It identifies the times of steadfastness (the missionary age) and persecution (the tribulation about to come).
- Guidance: 2 Timothy 4:10-18 points to select Bible books to guide the church in the first six seasons. It identifies the seventh season as the time when all the books of the Bible would be mass produced. Then it offers warnings for the remaining three seasons, as well as repeating the promise of God’s rescue plan.
Much of the material from the appendix related to the prophetic clocks from 1 Timothy is found in this article:
17
Song of Songs Clock
- Bible books: Song of Songs
- Defined in: Peace, like Solomon Never Knew
- Chapter(s): Appendix G: A Prophetic Song of Songs
- Timespan: 3 BC–2280 AD
- Intervals: 28
- Period: 81.5 years
Notable facts:
The Song of Solomon (aka Song of Songs) has three speakers, the Beloved (or HE), the Bride (or SHE), and the friends (or OTHERS). Collectively they have twenty-eight speaking parts, one for each of Solomon’s twenty-eight times. Many of the events in the poem or history run opposite to Solomon’s times. The Bride is constantly out of phase with time, having to remind herself to wait before she awakens love.
The first part prophecies the birth and death of Christ.
The tenth part corresponds to the time of the Byzantine Iconoclasm, when Christians fought over what was proper in worship and what was idolatry. This is the only section in the poem that mentions gold, frankincense and myrrh, the gifts of the wise men who followed the star of Bethlehem to worship Jesus.
The Beloved (a type of Christ) has eight dialogue sections. All of them match negative times: uproot, tear down, weep, mourn, scatter, throw away, be silent, and war. These show that Christ is raising up his army, readying it for the final battle.
The word myrrh, symbolizing preparation for death and burial, occurs eight times in six sections. These occurrences match the worst times of crisis for the Roman Empire: the Fall of Rome, Iconoclasm, Photian Controversy of the Filioque, Great Schism, the Crusaders’ sack of Constantinople and the Black Plague.
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Master Psalm Clock
- Bible book: Psalms
- Defined in: Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace
- Chapters:
- Songs in the Night: Psalms 1-110
- Acrostic Clock: Psalms 111 and 112
- The Final Ascent: Psalms 113-150
- Timespan: 4020 BC-2280 AD
- Intervals: 150 (one per Psalm)
- Period: 42 years
Notable facts:
The Book of Psalms has numerous clocks of various sizes, from a single psalm (Psalm 119) to a pair (Psalms 111 and 112) to seven psalms (the Historical Psalms) to twenty-eight psalms (the Psalms of Growth, that match the Growth Pattern) to this largest clock, which spans the whole of the Psalter. It is possible that all 150 psalms contain prophecies, but it appears that not all psalms have prophecies that are part of this clock, the Master Psalm Clock. I have found fifty psalms that contain prophecies belonging to this clock.
For a psalm to belong to this clock it must have a prophecy that is fulfilled in the era that goes with that psalm. The era is given by these formulas for the start and end years:
- start year = -4020 + 42 * (psalm number - 1)
- end year = -4020 + 42 * psalm number
These fifty psalms are part of the clock:
1, 17, 23, 24, 33, 37, 40, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 52, 57, 63, 68, 71, 72, 73, 78, 82, 84, 87, 89, 90, 92, 96, 97, 102, 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, 112, 115, 122, 125, 126, 127, 128, 131, 133, 137, 139, 141, 142, 143, 144, 150
Here is one small taste of the riches hidden in the Psalms:
Psalm 139: 1776-1818 AD
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
- Psalm 139:7-10
Right after the founding of the United States, William Carey in 1791 posed a question to the church, First in a meeting of ministers and later in a pamphlet titled An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. Carey asked:
“whether or not it was possible for, as well as the duty of,
the Christian to preach the gospel among the unreached nations.”
Carey answered the question with his own life, serving as a missionary in India and translating the Bible into Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese, and Sanskrit. By his bold challenge and example, tens of thousands of Christians, men and women, soon entered the mission field and spread across the globe. Combine this with the British Empire’s turn towards abolishing the slave trade worldwide and you can see that the church had entered an exciting era. The gospel was spread “to the uttermost parts of the sea”. This was no mere poetic flourish but a solid truth. The Lord did it, and it is marvelous in our sight.
Those are all the Celestial Clocks that I can remember. I may have defined a few in Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace. If I stumble upon them again I will be sure to expand this article.
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Order of Salvation Clock
- Bible books: Psalm 19 and Matthew 5
- Defined in:
- This website
- Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace
- Chapter: Psalm 19: the Glory of God's Law
- Timespan: 30 AD - 2280 AD
- Intervals: 9 (one per Beatitude)
- Period: 250 years
Notable facts:
While writing Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace, I observed that when David prayed for salvation in Psalm 19, his prayer touched on nine steps in the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation. With one exception (the placement of Adoption into God's household), that sequence matches the Reformed version of the order. The only Reformed steps missing are Predestination and Election. The nine steps present are:
- Calling
- Regeneration
- Faith
- Repentance
- Justification
- Sanctification
- Adoption
- Perseverance
- Glorification
The Reformed tradition puts Adoption before Sanctification. My explanation for this is that Sanctification comes in two parts. Positional Sanctification is declared by God after Justification and prior to Adoption. Then Progressive Sanctification occurs over the course of a believer's life. This follows Adoption.
As I was researching my next book (which shall be on discipleship), I discovered that the nine Beatitudes present the same nine steps. The connection is simple. David prayed for salvation and Jesus answered that prayer, step by step. With the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 laying out the complete process of salvation for an individual in logical - if not chronological - order, it begs a question. Do the Beatitudes also prophesy a longer process that will mold the history of the Church?
Yes! So what do they prophecy? The prophetic clock hidden in the Beatitudes predicted the slow process by which the church would wrestle with the doctrines behind each step of salvation. Each problem - poverty, mourning, hunger & thirst - would be followed by a blessing. A problem suffered by the church is found in one era and the blessing that ameliorates that problem comes in the next era. The corresponding doctrine is instrumental to facilitating the change.
Because the ninth problem in the ninth era will be solved by a blessing in the era after it, that means that this clock breaks the time following Jesus' preaching of this sermon into ten eras. The last era is of indeterminate length, because Christ can return at any time. The last era will introduce no new problem, because once Christ returns, the Kingdom of Heaven will be fully realized and all sorrows cease.
Here is a brief analysis of each blessing.
Calling: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Problem: The powerlessness of the church of 30 - 280 AD whose belongings were often confiscated by the Romans.
- Blessing: Came in the next era, 280 - 530 AD. The mechanism of that deliverance was God calling Constantine the Great to faith. The Roman emperor saw a vision of a cross of light in the sky before a battle along with the words, "By this conquer". By the end of the 4th century, Rome would officially be a Christian empire. The kingdoms of Armenia, Georgia and Iberia also converted to Christianity early in that century.
Regeneration: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
- Problem: In the middle of the era 280 - 530 AD, the Fall of Rome in 476 AD triggered the collapse of classical civilization, civil order and prosperity, resulting in the Dark Ages.
- Blessing: Regeneration began in the era 530 - 780 AD. In the east, Justinian I restored a measure of stability with renovatio imperii, his plan to regenerate the empire. His Corpus Juris Civilis simplified Roman law and simultaneously altered it to reflect Christian doctrines. So successful was this effort that his work serves as the basis of many modern legal systems. One change reflects the Christian belief that people are made in the imago Dei. There was also a greater emphasis on human rights and equality, including increased rights and access to emancipation for slaves, more rights for women, and better protections for children. In the west, Pope Gregory the Great reformed and strengthened the church and send missionaries to England.
Faith: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
- Problem: In the middle of the era 530 - 780 AD, the armies of Islam captured a third of Christendom, including the ancient patriarchates of Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch and much of Spain. This crisis in part triggered the Iconoclasm Controversy, a religious civil war over the issue of idolatry in the church.
- Blessing: During the next era of 780 - 1030 AD, the meek began to inherit the earth, with these nations converting to the Christian faith: Saxons, Navarre, Moravia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bohemia, Normans, Denmark, Poland, Kievan Russia, Norway, Hungary, Iceland and Sweden.
Repentance: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
- Problem: In the era 780 - 1030 AD, Church corruption was rampant, such as during the Reign of the Harlots.
- Blessing: In the era 1030 - 1280 AD, many church reforms were implemented. It began with the Cluniac reforms of monasteries late in the previous era. Then Pope Gregory VII made reforms to address sexual immorality among the clergy, simony, and the corrupting influences of civil investiture. The importance of repentance and righteousness also found its way into theology, with Anselm's Satisfaction Theory of Atonement. The Peace of God (989) and Truce of God (1027) movements of this time were the first large scale peace movement the world had ever seen, righteousness writ large. The Code of Chivalry (1170-1220) was a move towards treating women with dignity.
Justification: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
- Problem: In the era 1040 - 1280 AD, the sale of indulgences as part of a complex penitential system arose. 11th century scholastics like Peter Abelard and Peter Lombard worked out the doctrines, partly based on a belief in Purgatory. The idea that your money can pay for your sins was corrupting. The unrepentant rich became complacent in their sins and the poor were left a religion that could not gain them forgiveness for their sins. Thomas Aquinas made improvements to the understanding of Justification, but because the doctrines of justification and sanctification had since Augustine been hopelessly intertwined, he still left a place for human merit in the process. This left people to think that they were responsible for doing the things that will accomplish their justification before God.
- Blessing: Near the end of the era 1280 - 1530 AD, Luther (in 1517) discovered that justification is by grace through faith. God does it all! This started the Protestant Reformation.
Sanctification: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
- Problem: In the era 1280 - 1530 AD (and continuing into the next century), legal, doctrinal and sacramental emphases robbed people of personal direct experience of communion with God.
- Blessing: In the second half of the era 1530 - 1780 AD, a revolutionary emphasis on personal reflection, repentance, holiness, prayer and Bible study arose. On the continent, this took the form of the Pietism Movement. In England it was the Methodist Revival. In America, it was the Great Awakening. Christians had direct, miraculous encounters with God. They believed that at last they could really "see God".
Adoption: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
- Problem: In the era 1530 - 1780 AD, the wars of religion following the Reformation killed tens of millions, the worst civil war ever to ravage Christianity. The church needed peacemakers, but where could they be found? In "The Theological History of Adoption", Tim J. R. Trumper argues that the doctrine of Adoption was the most neglected step in the process of salvation for a millennium. John Calvin mentioned it a little and the Westminster Confession of Faith had a section on it, but the powerful implications of us becoming sons of God and co-heirs with Christ were ignored.
- Blessing: We come to the era 1780 - 2030 AD - our current era, soon to end. If everyone in the household of faith is adopted by God into His family, what does that make us to each other? Brothers and sisters! Does brother have a right to enslave brother? Or brother oppress sister? The abolition, women's rights and anti-racism movements are the result of God DEMANDING that we take Adoption seriously. Also the spread of democracy and civil rights and the peace movement.
Perseverance: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Problem: In the era 1780 - 2030 AD, many Christians were martyred. Many who fought for civil rights, Christian or otherwise, were also persecuted. Dr. Todd M Johnson of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary estimates that 70 million Christians have been martyred since the beginning of the faith. Half that number died in the 20th century, mostly under totalitarian regimes.
- Blessing: The next era is 2030 - 2280 AD. The blessing, related to the kingdom of heaven, has yet to arrive. However, based on the other prophetic clocks, this era includes "a time to hate" and "a time for war". When the fifth seal of Revelation is opened, a great persecution will begin, which leads us into the last Beatitude. Surely if God enables Christians to persevere in this crisis, he must provide extraordinary means.
Glorification: Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- Problem: In the era 2030 - 2280 AD, persecution will worsen. With AI generated deepfakes getting more convincing all the time, the prospect is for wholesale perjury against Christians.
- Blessing: After 2280 AD, Jesus will return (if not sooner). The saints will then be glorified and all suffering for Christians will end.
From this clock we learn that salvation is not solely an individual matter, and it is not a trifling thing. Every step in the path to salvation is governed by a separate doctrine, and each doctrine has the power to shake the world.
For a more complete analysis that combines Psalm 19 and the Beatitudes, see The Beatitudes and the Order of Salvation.
