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2020 A.D.: A Year To Look Out For?
Written Feb 13, 2010 A.D. by Dan Curry. 812-564-9421
Christians In America v.s. Israelites In Egypt: A Notably Parallel Journey
Consider the words of the Apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 13: 11-13. King James Version (Because it's beautifully spoken in that version, and uses the word 'glass' !)
"When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known."
"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
Seeing through a glass - that's something I am familiar with. Without my glasses I have my troubles seeing. But luckily, with glasses my vision can be corrected to 20/20.
Paul speaks of the time when 'perfection comes' just before these verses. We know that is probably referring to the second coming of Jesus. So here is my question (one others have asked also):
Could the year 2020 A.D. be the year? Could the Holy Spirit have given Paul a hint to share with us? No man knows the day or the hour of the Lord's next coming, we are told. But what about the year? Could it be 2020 A.D.? Not much about the apparent course of events today would rule it out necessarily.
Now, let consider a second thought:
Some of the major numbers associated with the United States are also numbers associated with Israel in the Bible.
For instance, there were America's 13 colonies, and there were 13 tribes of Israel (once Joseph was replaced by his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, at Jacob/Israel's request.) And, if you don't count Judas, but do count Mattathias (Judas's replacement) and Paul, the Apostle 'born out of his time', there are 13 Apostles also. I don't know if that's the right way to look at the number of Apostles, but it is true none the less. It is for God to do with Judas as He wishes.
Here's another one: The Israelites practiced a 50 year cycle called the Jubilee cycle. At the end of a 50 year Jubilee cycle the debts were cancelled, and the ancestral lands were returned to their owners or their relatives so that land holdings remained hereditary, even if land had to be sold for a while (leased out, really) to cover debts.
There are 50 states in the United States. There were 48 states, then a 'pause' of quite a few years, then two more states were added (Alaska, which is famous for being 'big', and finally Hawaii, which is famous for being 'beautiful'). Key words: pause, big, and beautiful.
In ancient Israel under the Laws of Moses you saw a similar thing, within the Jubilee cycle spoken about above, because you had a cycle where you had 6 years of regular living, then a year of rest. Then six more years of regular living, then another rest. And it went on like this. But at the end of every 7th rest cycle there would be a rest on that 49th year because it marked the end of the 7th 7 year cycle, followed by another rest year on the 50th (Jubilee) year, because 7 cycles of 7 were completed. In other words, the 49th and 50th year were the last two in the cycle, both were taken as years of rest for the people and the land, and so they were associated with a big (Alaska) beautiful (Hawaii) pause, or rest. (Keywords: big, beautiful and pause.)
The Bible never really contradicts itself, yet the scriptures say that Israel would be in Egypt for 430 years, in another place it says 400 years, and there is an important 215 year period and an important 144 year period. How can all of these statements be correct? There is actually a way, but that will unfold as you read this.*
Anyway, some of our important American 'periods of years' happen to be a match for some of Israel's important Genesis and Exodus 'periods of years'.
Consider this:
Israel came to Egypt to escape the 2nd bad year of a very bad 7 year period of drought, and they eventually left Egypt hundreds of years later to escape Tyranny.
People came to America to escape Tyranny, and some may leave it one day (hundreds of years later) during the rapture, which will take place somewhere in the middle (this part is disputed!) of a very bad 7 year period. People from all parts of the world will be included in the rapture I think, but not all people will be included.
So, here's the timeline comparison that is pretty interesting if the year 2020 happens to be the 2nd year of a particularly bad 7 year period:
2020 A.D. minus 430 years is 1590 A.D.
Why 430 years?
"Now the length of time that the people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, to the very day, all of the Lord's divisions left Egypt." Exodus 12:40
**A foot note in the NIV I possess says about this passage: Masoretic Text; Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint Egypt and Canaan **
So some versions of this scripture replace the word Egypt with the words Egypt and Canaan. We know that Abraham began wandering in Canaan and Egypt when he left Haran with Lot's family, his own wife Sarah, and their shepherds, servants and animals.
From the time Abraham began his walk of faith and went to wander in Egypt until the time his descendants, the Israelites, fled out of Egypt and crossed the divided Red Sea, was exactly 430 years. This scripture says it was exactly 430 years, and scripture is God breathed. So 430 years was an important time period for the Genesis and Exodus period Israelites.
But in America, in 1590, the colonists of a colony in Virginia called Roanoke essentially disappeared off the face of the Earth, never to be seen again. 2020 A.D. minus 430 years is 1590 A.D.
There are theories about Roanoke, and one of them may be true, but this is an event that is a little bit 'rapture-like' in that there was an unexplained disappearance of people in America from their place upon the Earth. It was a time of extreme drought in Virginia, by the way, just as there was an extreme drought when the Israelites first came to Egypt, where Joseph was. I found a source that said that 3 of the driest years out of the last 800 occurred during the time that the Roanoke colony disappeared.
Let's look at another example:
2020 A.D. minus 400 years is 1620 A.D.
Why 400 years? Some scriptures refer to Israel's stay in Egypt as if it were a 400 year period.
Stephen, the first martyr, recounting how God spoke to Abraham, Book of Acts 7:6 (NIV):
"God spoke to him in this way: 'Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves", God said, "and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place." "
**verse 7:4 just before this establishes that the words "this place" means the land of Israel in Stephen's time.**
That can work out for Abraham's son Isaac, Abraham's promised descendant. The time which passed from when Abraham began his journey of faith as a 75 year old until he finally had the promised son Isaac was 25 years. Isaac's 'weaning party' - the event after which Hagar and Ishmael had to leave the family for good - would have been at about Isaacs 5 year point according to some - perhaps exactly at his 5 year point. So it would be 430 years, minus the 25 years Abraham wandered before he had Isaac, and also minus the 5 years it took for Isaac to be weaned.
So, subtract 30 years from the original 430 years, and from the time of Isaac's weaning until the Israelites fled Egypt through the Red Sea would have been 400 years. Perhaps exactly.
The Pilgrims got off the Mayflower in 1620 A.D., forming a colony in Massachusetts. This is considered a signal event in American history as it was flight from religious persecution that sent the Pilgrims to American shores, and their story helped America to form an image of itself as a land of freedom from Tyranny.
Just as Isaac's role as Abraham's sole heir did not come about until a bond women and her son (Ishmael) were sent away, so also 'bondsmen' show up just before the Pilgrims come in 1620 A.D. A ship full of African slaves from Angola, Bantu speaking tribes, counted as the first 'group' of slaves to reach English speaking America, were purchased in 1619 A.D. They were bought from a ship's captain that needed to sell the slaves to get repair money for his ship. They'd been intended for sale to the Spanish somewhere to the south.
In Isaac's life, slaves (a bondswoman, anyway) left just before his big moment. For the Pilgrims, slaves reached America just before their big moment.
So, 2020 A.D. minus 400 years is 1620 A.D., the year the Pilgrims landed in what is today called Plymouth, Massachusetts. So another important American historical date correlates with a date that is important for the Israelites in Egypt.
Here's another:
It was 215 years from the time that Abraham began his journey as a 75 year old until his grand son Jacob/Israel arrived in Egypt, with Jacob's other sons and family, to join Joseph and to safely ride out the terrible famine by living in the part of Egypt called the Land of Goshen. So a great journey ended at this time.
(215 is exactly half of 430, by the way.)
So what happens if you subtract 215 years from 2020 A.D.? You get 1805 A.D.
Did anything pertinent to this idea of a shared pattern happen in 1805?
One thing which happened in the USA in 1805 A.D. was that another group of travelers, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, reached the end of it's travels by arriving at the Pacific Ocean (well, not the end of its travels, but the half way point, since it also returned back to the Eastern United States.)
The Israelites ended their 215 years of traveling in the 'Land of Goshen'. The American travelers at the Pacific Ocean. Land of Goshen...Pacific Ocean...Lantic Ocean...Pacific Ocean...Atlantic Ocean.....it gets weird!
Here's another one that we can at least ponder:
If you assume that it wasn't until Joseph died that people in Egypt began to treat the Hebrews as actual slaves, then the Israelites spent about 144 years (perhaps it was exactly 144 years) in an actual state of slavery. Joseph was about 39 when the Israelites came to Egypt to join him during the famine. The scriptures say he was about 30 when he began working for Pharaoh. Then there were the 7 good years. That would have got him to the age of 37. Then 2 bad years of terrible famine went by before his family came to join him and live in Egypt, in the area called Goshen. So Joseph should have been about 39. He lived to be 110. 110 - 39 is 71. So, that meant that his family enjoyed 71 years in Egypt during which Joseph was a man of importance there.
So, that means that for perhaps 215 years minus 71 years, the Israelites lived in Egypt without the protection of Joseph. That's 144 years. Besides, 144 is 12 x 12, which lends a little bit more credibility to this possibility. God does a lot of things with numbers as he engineers the events of time. The Israelites slavery began in the time of a Pharaoh 'who had not known Joseph'.
So, suppose it's true, just for conjecture. What is 2020 A.D. minus 144 years? 1876 A.D. It comes out to 1876 A.D.
What is that year known for in America? One thing is the Centennial. In 1876 America was having its 100th birthday. But what might have happened that would pertain to the rise of a ruler that was involved with enslavement somehow? I haven't found an especially great answer, to tell you the truth. But....there is Rutherford Hayes.
In 1876 Rutherford Hayes was elected as President, though he lost the popular election to Tilden. But, he prevailed, after some negotiation, in the Electoral College voting. In other words, it was a fairly contentious election, and there was likely fraud according to some writers of the time.
How did Rutherford Hayes interact with Slavery? Slavery had been abolished by his time, but there were a lot of Jim Crow laws being enacted in various states to ensure that the blacks weren't allowed to fairly exercise their 15th Amendment Right to vote. Rutherford Hayes as President should have sent some troops to enforce these Amendment rights, but he did not. There was still a lot of smoldering resentment in the south about the outcome of the Civil War, and Hayes thought it wiser to let things be. He also moved to end post Civil War 'Reconstruction' in the South.
Corrupt Reconstruction policies had caused a lot of anger in the South, and it did soothe feelings a bit when he officially ended the program. But for American blacks, it was lose/lose on both the Jim Crow laws and the end of Reconstruction. When the North pulled out of the South for good, it left the blacks in the hands of their former masters. This did not turn out well in all ways.
But Hayes wasn't anti-black. He seems to have been a believer in the rights of blacks, but just not willing to stir up too much trouble to uphold them.
Secondly, was Rutherford Hayes a man that 'did not know Joseph'? Well, all that I could find in that respect was that he left behind writings which made it pretty clear that he was not a believer in Christ Jesus, at least at the time he wrote, though he acknowledged the goodness of a society that followed Jesus' teachings. And as a boy he had gone to church. And it has been said by some Bible theologians that Joseph is a 'type' of the coming Christ. So a President that did not believe in Jesus is, in a symbolic way, like a Pharaoh that did not know Joseph. This is just conjecture though, and probably off course. I mainly picked Rutherford Hayes because he became the 'Pharoah' of America that year, and he sort of fit the bill.
What about the 71 'comfortable years' that Israel spent in Egypt under Joseph's time of favor? Where would that take us?
2020 A.D. minus 71 years equals 1949 A.D. What happened in America in 1949 A.D.? It maybe ought to involve a powerful ruler, but maybe not the President. After all, Joseph was second in the land. Although he was like Pharoah in all things except the throne, the Pharaoh said.
Well, since this is a time period centering around Joseph, (who was a true and loyal man) why not take note of Harry Truman. He was brought to prominence as a second in command. When FDR died, he became President.
Once President he ended WWII by authorizing the nuclear strikes against Japan. He had been President by default, but not yet elected. But in 1948 he ran for President, an office he already held, and was elected. Presidents take office the next year, so ...that would be 1949. Like Hayes, he had one of those rare elections where his opponent, Dewey, basically won, getting the popular vote. But Truman won the Electoral College votes. Dewey was famously declared the winner by mistake at one point in the news papers, but Truman was the eventual official winner, per the rules.
Truman was politically known for pushing for the Fair Deal. It was especially pertinent to blacks. Its point was to guarantee an equal share in the essentials of life to all people. Sort of like when Joseph gauranteed the essentials to his people in Egypt. He made sure they got enough to survive. Truman's effort had mixed success, however.
A second great American event in 1949 was that the US formed the North American Treaty Organization. It was composed of (get this....) The U.S., Canada, and 10 European nations. That makes 12 nations that were formed into a group. Twelve that were United. Two of the 12 were especially close (Canada and the USA).
Didn't Joseph work to form a 12 part Israelite nation of sorts, composed of himself and his brother from the same mother, Benjamin? And also of the other 10 brothers of Joseph, from different mothers but the same father. 12 brothers in all. Now that's a pretty neat typological comparison!
Interestingly, many of the tribes of Israel seemed to have been important foundational peoples among the nations of Europe. So says the BritAm org, and I think they probably have a lot of it right. Their website is an interesting one to look over.
I will mention that Joseph did not live to see the promised land. Only his bones were taken. Only his remnants, so to speak. I think that the USA may likewise be destroyed except for a remnant, if we are the great trading nation that, because of its wickedness, will be destroyed by fire coming from its midst. But I could be wrong and I hope I am. God's voice has never spoken to me. I just think about things, although I do ask the Holy Spirit to guide me, and that I won't write wrong things or things God does not approve of. I certainly hope he heard that prayer!
So, call this segment a work in progress, but there seem to be a few correlations that are unusual enough to warrant notice, though it could be something that's just coincidence or my own invention. But with so great a God, and so righteous a king, anything is possible. Whatever the case, it makes the year 2020 A.D. seem a lot more interesting, at least to me.