Chapter 16: The Appointed Place

Jerusalem set the timing for the great tribulation of Scripture. The “seven times” began with the fall of Jerusalem in 604 B.C. and ended in 2017. The biblical calendar, after being suspended during the Babylonian captivity, resumed in 458 B.C. when King Artaxerxes sent Ezra to Jerusalem to make sacrifices for both the Jews and the king. This jump-started Daniel’s 70 weeks, leading to the ministry of Christ.

Meanwhile, Judah’s renewed calendar was unknown to the Israelites in dispersion. Nonetheless, history shows that both Judah and Israel were subject to the 2,520-year cycle of tribulation.

The question, of course, is this: What actually happened in history at the end of Israel’s 2,520-year tribulation cycle? The answer determines how Israel (in a national sense) emerges from tribulation—and what form (nation) this takes. The answer also identifies who Israel is and how God is working with that nation.

Keep in mind that we are now dealing with prophecies about the nations, all of which are yet imperfect. It will take many centuries to complete this restoration. Meanwhile, among these nations is the one comprising the overcomers—a new remnant nation among the nations.

Starting Points, Ending Points

There are two main starting points for Israel’s tribulation. The first is 745 B.C., when the tribes on the east side of the Jordan River were deported to Assyria. Those included Gad, Reuben, and half of Manasseh.

The second starting date—and perhaps the most important—was 721 B.C. when Samaria fell, and the full tribulation cycle began for Israel. The two starting points were 24 years apart.

If we track the two endpoints from those dates, we come to 1776 and 1800. These are the most important dates in America’s history. The year 1776 is when the Declaration of Independence was signed. The year 1800 is when our nation’s capital was built (Washington D.C.).

Israel’s capital was Samaria, which was destroyed in 721 B.C. At the other end of history, America’s capital was built in 1800. This suggests that America is the resurrected house of Israel, rather than the state which today goes by the name Israel. One cannot fake these time cycles, as they are a matter of undisputed history.

This also explains why the Pilgrims called this country the New Israel, New Canaan, a vine out of Egypt, and “the wilderness” (Hosea 2:14). Hosea tells us that Israel would be blessed while she was in the wilderness. Nothing is said about Israel returning to the old land, for by this time, they would be too numerous for the old land to hold (Hosea 1:10).

Furthermore, at the height of David’s kingdom, the prophet Nathan gave him a prophecy that must have startled him and perhaps even confused him. David wanted to build a temple for God, but God turned the tables on him, promising to build the house of David (2 Sam. 7:11).

The Appointed Place

In the course of Nathan’s prophecy about David’s house, we read in 2 Sam. 7:8-10,

⁸ Now therefore thus you shall say to My servant, David, “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel. ⁹ I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. ¹⁰ I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly.

I can imagine David looking around and thinking to himself, All of my enemies have been subdued, Israel is secure here, so what is this prophecy about being planted “in their own place”? What place is that, if not here in the land where we now dwell?

This prophecy was for an appointed place that was yet future, for God said, “I will also appoint a place for My people Israel.” It could only be a place other than the old land of Israel. In fact, Israel was yet to be afflicted and disturbed many times, culminating with the deportation to Assyria a few centuries later. So it is clear that the old land was not the land being promised to King David.

So this prophecy could be fulfilled only after Israel’s yet-future tribulation had been completed. When their tribulation finally came to an end after 2,520 years, we see the rise of the United States of America and the construction of the capital, Washington D.C.

Early Optimism

Many preachers in the late 1700’s believed that America was the fifth kingdom of Daniel’s prophecy, the “stone” that would crush the Babylonian image (Dan. 2:34, 35). Among them was Timothy Dwight, who was elected president of Yale University in 1795 after the previous president, Ezra Stiles, died. Dwight was one of the most prominent and well-known preachers of his day.

In those days there was great optimism, because the new Republic apparently had cast off the oppressive systems of the European monarchies. They had replaced this oppression with their Declaration of Independence, which declared that all rights come from God and that governments were established to secure those rights—not to grant rights. This was a whole new way of thinking which broke away from the traditional governments in Europe—including the Papacy.

However, this optimism was replaced by a new reality, as this new concept of government under God had many enemies around the world. The Masonic Order, which also wielded great power among the judges and politicians, silently pushed for secular government. Still worse, the rights of man were eroded by those who defined “men” in terms of white men only, and this meant that the rights of men did not apply to blacks and Indians.

All of these problems grew over the years, causing divisions in the nation and eventually leading to Indian wars and even Civil War (1860-1865). Even though America’s founding was certainly the beginning of Israel’s restoration after tribulation, there was more to the story than men like Timothy Dwight could have known.

Finally, God sent His Spirit in a new Pentecostal movement at the turn of the century (1900), first under the ministry of Charles Parham and five years later under one of his students, William Seymour (1905). In my view, the purpose of this outpouring of the Spirit was to cause the people to repent for breaking numerous treaties. The American government had clearly shown that its word could not be trusted. A man is only as good as his word. The same is true of governments.

The Convergence

In the early 1900’s, as we approached the end of 2,520 years from the fall of Jerusalem, the two times of tribulation (Israel and Judah) began to coincide. Recall that Israel’s tribulation began in 745-721 B.C., whereas Judah’s tribulation began more than a century later in 604 B.C. Hence, their endpoints also arrived more than a century apart.

In the early 1900’s (so it seemed at the time), the tribulation of Jerusalem was coming to an end. Men like H. Grattan Guinness (1835-1910) wrote in the 1890’s that Jerusalem would be freed from the Ottoman Turks in 1917, because this was 2,520 years after 604 B.C. He even believed that this would occur on the 24^th day of the ninth month on the Hebrew calendar, because this was the day of blessing in Hag. 2:10 and 18.

He was right in many ways, as history tells us, for this is when British General Allenby took the city of Jerusalem on December 9, 1917. But at the same time, there was a 100-year delay to account for the missing century, as I have said. When we account for this, it brings us to 2017, where the saints are given dominion. This is also where the two separate prophecies of Israel and Judah also converge.

The Communist Era

When General Allenby took Jerusalem precisely on schedule, the prophecy teachers in that time were vindicated, and yet their understanding was incomplete. They did not yet understand that this 2,520-year tribulation was not simply a fixed time cycle but was actually a legal contract between God and the beast nations, giving those empires “seven times” of dominion over the earth. So when God cut short the time of the third beast (Grecian empire) by a century (163-63 B.C.), that suspended the contract for a hundred years. That century would have to be added to 1917.

So when Jerusalem was taken in December of 1917, another series of historical events took place which would act as filler for the next century. I refer to the Communist Revolution in Russia, which began with the “October Revolution in 1917. From 1927-1990 Revolution Day was observed as a holiday on November 7.

The Soviet Union began to fall apart seventy years later on November 7, 1987, when President Gorbachev announced his new policy of glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”). This was in his Revolution Day speech in 1987, on the 70^th anniversary of the Revolution.

https://www.thoughtco.com/glasnost-and-perestroika-1779417

This “restructuring” proved to be the end of Russia’s 70-year captivity. The Soviet Union fell apart on December 25, 1991, and it was replaced by the new Russia as it exists today.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2021-12-21/end-soviet-union-1991

Two years later was 1993, which was the end of the church’s 40-Jubilee reign as “King Saul.” I found it interesting that from 1917 to 1993 is precisely 76 years, the biblical number of cleansing. Recall that when Judah was set free by the Edict of Cyrus in 534 B.C., the nation was resurrected, as it were, from the dead, and so the nation had to wait another 76 years of cleansing until a second Edict was decreed by King Artaxerxes in 458 B.C. Only then could Daniel’s 70 weeks begin the countdown toward Christ’s death on the cross in 33 A.D.

Cleansing had to take place before the new Jubilee calendar could be implemented. The 70 weeks (of years) were also 10 Jubilees (49 x 10).

In a similar way, after Jerusalem was taken in 1917, the Communist Revolution brought in a time of cleansing (through tribulation) upon the Russian people. This highlights the importance of Russia in the divine plan for the overthrow of Mystery Babylon in our time. It is for this reason that the West, still under the control of Mystery Babylon, considers Russia to be its enemy and is attempting to convince all of us to hate Russian people along with its Orthodox Christian culture that is emerging under Vladimir Putin.