“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression..."

A fellow by the name of John Pratt has written a number of thought provoking articles about Bible Chronology and other LDS related topics. ( click here to learn more about Pratt and here to view some of his articles )

A few years ago he wrote an article entitled "Joshua's Seventieth Jubilee,"

When I recently discovered this article I was excited to see that he had arrived at a similar timeline conclusion that I had arrived at in determining that 2008-9 will be a major transitional time in religious history. I found it interesting that he had derived his conclusions using different doctrinal and scriptural witnesses than I had used. (keep in mind that 2009 does not really come to an end until April 6th 2010 according to my understanding of the true calendar based on the birth of the Savior)

He feels the major events may begin between September 2008 and September 2009 while I have been saying they possibly begin between April 2008 and April 2009. The furthest we could be off from each other is about six months…

In post #31 I briefly reviewed the 400 year prophecy from Genesis 15 which I think points to the beginning of the Marvelous Work and the Judgment on America sometime between the beginning of 2008 and the end of 2009. In post #35 we discussed how several scriptures indicate that the judgments fall four generations after the generation the church was restored.

With those time-line interpretations and conclusions is in mind, I want to quote parts from Brother Pratt's paper.

“According to the proposed dates from my research, the year from about Sep 2008 through Sep 2009 will mark the seventieth jubilee year from the events of the last year of Moses leading the children of Israel through the wilderness and of Joshua crossing the Jordan River into the promised land of Canaan. It would be a good time to commemorate the raising of the Brazen Serpent, the giving of the Book of Deuteronomy, and even the Easter Sunday on which the manna ceased to come from heaven. But of all of the days to celebrate, the most outstanding will be the anniversary of Joshua's miraculous crossing of the River Jordan. The quarter-day beginning at 6 p.m. on Sun 5 Apr 2009 is a once-in-history repetition of the date of the birth of Isaac on four sacred calendars.”

As you can see, Pratt feels the 70^th Jubilee will take place very soon… if he is correct, this is HUGELY SIGNIFICANT!

As is common with many seekers of hidden treasures of knowledge, Brother Pratt hid one of his most interesting and controversial observations in a footnote instead of highlighting it in the main article. I suspect that 90% of his readers missed it. But I am attempting to partially correcting the problem by presenting this information to all three of my readers... His footnote is below:

“In the Jubilee calendar pattern, there is a little season before the seventh period, called "The Burning" (See Figure 1). When applying the jubilee pattern to the seven Millennial Jubilees, the "Burning" refers to the jubilee prior to the seventh Millennial Jubilee. That would be the upcoming jubilee discussed in this article, beginning Sun 28 Sep 2008. Thus, the coming "Burning Jubilee" of 49 years might well include the "Burning of the Fields", being the destruction of the wicked in preparation for the coming of the Savior.”

Holy Shamoly!

If I understand what Pratt is saying, the “burning jubilee” which represents the time when the world is burned, (and which I believe is referring to the Marvelous Work and a Wonder and also to “Time of Jacobs Trouble” spoken of in Jeremiah.) begins very soon... sometime on or soon after September 28 2008... NEXT SUNDAY! (See Jeremiah 30:7)

Needless to say, we don’t need to wait very long to see if the judgments begin when he thinks they will…I realize he is not necessarily saying they begin on next Sunday....

I don’t necessarily totally understand and/or agree exactly with what Pratt is saying, but it feels like he is generally pretty close in his calculations….

The beginning of the "burning" could be a “soft” beginning that could take months and perhaps years to see what actually begins the process of the burning… Just as the First Vision was a hugely significant event yet the world did not know anything about it until years later…

Perhaps one of the things Pratt and I differ on is that, as I have indicated in my previous posts, Gods servants needs to return and give the last warning BEFORE the judgments fall. As a main-streamer, Pratt possibly feels that we go directly into the burning without the need for a servant to return and give a final warning since he may feel that the primary voice of warning has already taken place… or that it is currently taking place via the current missionary effort.

As a heretic, I take a literal view of the scriptures and of the words of Joseph Smith. It will be Gods servant Joseph Smith and the other First Laborers of the Last Kingdom that gives the last warning... and the warning that Joseph and the First Elders gave four generations ago during his first commission was not the final warning… he must return and complete his second commission in the 3rd Watch to warn those of us living at this time.

Note Gods infallible promise to Joseph and the First laborers of the Last Kingdom:

“..And AFTER your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand” (See section 88:88-89)

He didn’t say “after your testimony I think I’ll wait for four generations and then destroy the unrepentant world without sending my servants forth in power…"

Indeed section one of the D&C assures us that when the final warning goes forth, it will go forth in power!

In the Nauvoo era Joseph gave an incredible discourse showing from the German Translation of the Bible that a more correct translation of Matthew 24 indicates that Gods final witness will return and warn the wicked BEFORE the judgments of God fall on them:

“…the Savior said, when those tribulations should take place, it should be committed to a man, who should be a witness over the whole world, the keys of knowledge, power, and revelations, should be revealed to a witness who should hold the testimony to the world;”

“I have read it precisely as the words flowed from the lips of Jesus Christ-- John the Revelator saw an angel flying thro' the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, &c. the Scripture is ready to be fulfilled when great wars, famines, pestilence, great distress, judgments, &c are ready to be poured out on the Inhabitants of the Earth--John saw the angel having the holy Priesthood who should preach the everlasting gospel to all nations,--God had an angel, a special messenger, ordained, & prepared for that purpose in the last days—" ( Click here to see entire sermon)

Those events of the last generation listed in Matthew 24 and reiterated above by Joseph Smith did not take place in the 2nd Watch... they are a future event!

We live in very exciting and perilous times indeed!

The last generation of probationary time is about to begin!!!!! But again, I am digressing a little from the main point I want to make..

I am not going to do an extensive commentary on Brother Pratt's article… I would simply encourage you to read it if this topic is of interest to you.

I do however want to suggest that Brother Pratt has been very helpful in pointing out the significance of the time period he calls “seventy jubilees” and the fact that we are rapidly approaching some key dates.

That term really stuck in my mind after reading his article and it made me wonder if in fact that could be the key to unlocking the meaning of the following verse in Daniel

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Dan 9:24)

I wondered if by any chance anyone had postulated that Daniel could have meant “seventy jubilees” in that verse. After all, Pratt points out that it has been about seventy jubilees since Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt and Joshua led them across the river…

So I did a google search and BINGO!

I found a born again Christian that realized that the word “weeks” in that verse is not taken from the regular Hebrew word that means one week. It apparently means “multiple weeks” or “week of weeks” or “jubilee”. (I think our born again Christian brother had a reference to Brother Pratt's article at one time on his website…. He apparently got some of his inspiration from Brother Pratt! Small world, no? Here is his website http://www.bibleinsight.com/70weeks.html )

If this postulation is accurate, the scripture would read like this:

“Seventy [Jubilees] are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,[of Israel] and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy”

I don’t really have the time to develop this concept as much as I would like to, I have already violated my personal goal of keeping each entry reasonably short... but let me just give a few thoughts for those that are beginning to see where I am going with this..

We know from the scriptures that the Children of Israel were in a state of wickedness and darkness from the time they crossed the Jordan river, till they split into two kingdoms all the way down to this time.

Daniel seems to be saying that after a period of seventy jubilees, the transgression of Israel will be finished and the light will shine forth…

One of the significant things about the end of a 49 year jubilee is that all temporal debts of each individual Israelite is forgiven…

Certainly, at the end of the seventieth jubilee all of the debts of Israel as a group are forgiven as the righteous are gathered out and the wicked are burned…

Is it a coincidence that our government is in high level meetings as I am writing this entry, trying to avoid a major meltdown of our debt based financial system?

Just one week ago I mentioned that most Americans don't realize how close we are to a breakdown of our financial system... since that time look what has happened!

Here is a recent quote from Christopher Dodd after attending a closed door meeting with Ben and Hank

"I've been here 28 years. To listen to the language of last evening, we maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system,"

AFP quoted Dodd as saying while referring to the late Thursday meeting of the US Congressional leaders with the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Senator Dodd noted it was "one of the rare moments, certainly rare in my experience here, that Democrats and Republicans decided we needed to work together, quickly."

"We're talking hundreds of billions," Paulson said ahead of talks with Congress on details of the massive rescue effort, unveiled initially late Thursday.

Stunned by the depth of the economic meltdown of the US financial institutions, Congressional leaders pledged a quick vote on the rescue plan"

Unfortunately, the Saints and our nation are in this current predicament because four generations ago we chose the "greed is good" economic package presented by Adam Smith instead of the "consecrate and take care of the poor" economic package the Lord offered us through the Prophet Joseph Smith,

Is it a coincidence that they plan on putting a huge debt load upon the backs of every American right at this time without our permission... at a time when according to Gods law, all temporal debts are to be forgiven at the end of the Jubilee?

Could it be possible that a deliverer is about to come out of Zion in the near future to lead latter day Israel out of temporal and spiritual bondage?

Ponder this… something huge may be about to happen very soon….

Note: For additional information on just how serious the current financial crisis is and just how close we came to having a complete meltdown... See also the following article Almost Armageddon

UPDATE: Sept 22 the Secret Combinations are using blackmail to gain total control over the currency and economy

UPDATE Sept 23 Ben Bernanke warned Congress that urgent action was required to avert “very serious consequences” for the American economy. The Federal Reserve chairman’s comments came amid investor concern over political resistance to Washington’s proposed $700bn bailout and its chances of success.

Update Sept 23 Financial Collapse and Destructive War by J. R. Nyquist
If the United States went bankrupt the following sequence would occur: The U.S. government would lose its credibility, the country’s currency would fail and imports could not be maintained – especially oil imports. There would be shortages. But the sequence doesn’t end with shortages. It doesn’t end with mere economic loss. When the financial structure collapses, the national security structure collapses. Then nothing will restrain the military power of Russia and China.