The Good Years

Last month I wrote about Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av—the day that both the First and Second Temples were destroyed. I laid out how there is a pattern surrounding both of these events that is in the process of being repeated in the end times, and that the Rapture—the removal of the temple of the Holy Spirit on earth—looks to be the event that fills the hole in that pattern this time around in lieu of the destruction of a literal, physical temple. And since both temples were destroyed on Tisha B'Av, it undeniably makes for a tantalizing connection between that day and the Rapture.

I really didn't mean to throw my hat into the ring of the current flurry of Rapture-date speculation for 2022, however, with Tisha B'Av coming right up on August 6–7. I made it clear in my article that if in fact the Rapture were to occur on Tisha B'Av, it could be Tisha B'Av of any year. I also tried to make it clear that the Rapture fills the hole in that pattern no matter what day it falls on—it's just that if it does happen to fall on the Ninth of Av, it would "dot the last 'i' and cross the last 't' of a pattern established by a God who doesn't do random," as well as be a spiritual earthquake for Israel.

If...if...if...

After I posted it, I'm happy to report that the one and only Pete Garcia, an alumnus of the late Jack Kinsella's Omega Letter who now runs a terrific prophecy/apologetics website at Rev310.net (bookmark it) posted an excellent article in which he digs into and extends some of the ideas I discussed.

Although I will only briefly mention Tisha B'Av at the end, I feel as if my previous article set me on the path of this one—only this time we are going to focus on years. And I may as well go ahead and toss out a spoiler:

I have personally come to suspect that 2022 ain't it.

Fair's fair

The first place we're off to is Egypt back in the days of Joseph. First, a quick review to get us up to speed and set the stage.

Joseph was the favorite of his father Jacob, and his 10 older brothers hated him for it. Joseph had a couple of prophetic dreams about ruling over them, and it just made his brothers hate him all the more (Gen. 37:1–11).

One day, while Joseph's brothers were off tending the family's sheep in a distant location, Jacob sent 17-year-old Joseph off to make sure all was well with them. But as they saw their pesky little brother coming in the distance, they plotted to kill him. Although they relented from shedding his blood, they threw him in a pit and decided to sell him into slavery to a passing caravan of merchants on their way to Egypt (Gen. 37:12–28).

In Egypt, Joseph became a servant in the household of Potiphar, basically Egypt's Secretary of Defense. Although Joseph became Potiphar's most trusted servant, after spurning the come-hither glances and advances of Potiphar's lonely wife, Joseph was falsely accused and put in prison (Gen. 39:1–23).

While in prison, Joseph was joined by Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker. One night both the cupbearer and the baker had dreams, and they related them to Joseph. Joseph told the cupbearer that his dream portended the fact that he would be restored to his former position in three days, but he told the baker his dream meant that he would be beheaded and impaled in three days. Both of Joseph's interpretations came to pass, and the cupbearer remembered Joseph's God-given ability to interpret dreams (Gen. 40:1–23).

Two years later, Pharaoh had a pair of dreams on the same night—one where seven fat cows were devoured by seven skinny ones, and one where seven good ears of corn were devoured by seven scraggly ones. None of Pharaoh's magicians could interpret the dreams—but the cupbearer told Pharaoh about Joseph's track record in doing just that (Gen. 41:1–13).

Pharaoh called for Joseph to be brought before him, and he told Joseph the two dreams. Joseph said the two dreams were the same dream, and that the dream had been "doubled" because God was showing Pharaoh what He was about to do. Joseph said the dream meant that there was going to be a period of seven good years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph recommended that Pharaoh begin to appoint officers to be in charge of storing up food and grain throughout the land to prepare for the coming seven years of famine (Gen. 41:14–36).

Of course, Joseph had just made quite an impression on Pharaoh by being the only one able to interpret his dreams, and he immediately decided that the now 30-year-old Hebrew would be just the guy to take the helm of such a program. He appointed Joseph as the number two man in Egypt, and he officially took over the administration of the country's food supplies and began arranging for the storage of food and grain in preparation for the coming seven years of famine (Gen. 41:37–49).

Seven years later, the good years came to an end and the famine began, just as God had revealed to Joseph. The famine was severe and affected the entire region, but in Egypt there was food to be had. People came to Egypt from all over to purchase food and grain, and it wasn't long before those included Joseph's brothers. After putting his brothers (who didn't recognize him after 22 years) through a series of tests, Joseph finally revealed his identity and was reconciled with them. He forgave them for what they had done to him, reassuring them that it was all part of God's plan to provide for their welfare. Then Joseph instructed them to bring their entire extended family to Egypt for their safety and survival (Gen. 41:53–46:7).

Joseph is one of the clearest types of Christ in the entire Bible, and I devoted an entire article to this topic about eight years ago. Joseph's life-saving provision for and gracious reconciliation with the brothers who cruelly sought to destroy him foreshadows the Jewish remnant finally coming to faith in the Messiah their ancestors crucified, and as a result being protected during the Great Tribulation's greatest fury.

Legions of commentators have rightly associated these seven years of famine with the seven years of the Tribulation—there is a laundry list of parallels that could scarcely be any clearer.

But...what about the seven good years? We have all seen countless charts of end-time events depicting the seven years of the Tribulation, along with many of the various and sundry attendant events included in there somewhere, often in differing positions depending on the eschatological views held by the creator of the chart. That said, let me ask you a question:

Q. When was the last time you saw an end-time chart that included a period of seven years corresponding to the seven good years of Genesis 41?

A. Uh...sorry, but I couldn't hear you over the chirping of the crickets.

I'll answer that one for you: never. In my entire life, I have never seen the seven good years mentioned in any discussion of the end times. The seven years of famine? Sure—the Tribulation, obviously.

And I suspect the reason you have never seen the seven good years included in anyone's end-time chart is pretty simple:

Nobody's quite sure what to do with them.

So they ignore them—the seven good years of Genesis 41 get left on the cutting room floor. They're all over the seven years of famine, aka the Tribulation, but the seven good years? Not so much—and I'm no exception. In all the years I have been studying the Bible, especially end-time prophecy, every time I have considered the story of Joseph and his days in Egypt, I have always struggled mightily to figure out a way to interpret those seven good years, and have always come up empty. It's like God just put a bug in my spirit about this many years ago. But there's just...nothing. Nothing stands out. Nothing speaks to that. Apparently it's just some nondescript period before the Tribulation...seven years that are "good" for some reason...tra-la-la. Or maybe it really is nothing...forget about it.

But here's the thing: If you're going to interpret the seven years of famine as the seven literal years of the Tribulation (which I am 100 percent convinced is correct), you cannot slip off that hook and fail or refuse to do the same for the seven good years. You can't sit there and say the seven years of famine are a specific, identifiable period of seven literal years (i.e. the Tribulation), but then say oh, those good years are just some vague, unspecified period that doesn't mean anything and so let's not bother with that. That's not biblical exegesis—that's Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street.

God's Word doesn't work that way.

There's no wiggle room on this one—fair's fair. If we're going to be consistent in our interpretation of God's Word, then the following must be true:

The seven good years must correspond to a period of
seven literal years that form a distinct, identifiable
period that occurs before the Tribulation, and that
can be called "good" for some meaningful reason.

There's simply no way around it. Either that, or we have to continue to toss them off and ignore them.

Back to back? Note that I don't believe these two corresponding periods of seven years in the end times must be absolutely back to back. While it's true that no gap is specifically mentioned in Genesis 41, I don't believe a brief gap between these two corresponding seven-year periods in the end times does any damage to the typological relationship between them and the fat and lean years in the book of Genesis.

Besides the fact that I try to avoid squeezing God into my neat little doctrinal boxes the way some do, one completely natural reason I say that is because there was a brief seasonal gap of an agricultural nature between the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine built right into the situation. That is, it's not as if on the last day of good year #7, they had all the food they needed and then BOOM...the very next day on the first day of famine year #1 they suddenly had no food. Famines don't work that way.

Think about the typical famine. After the harvest is brought in during the last good year, people have plenty of food for several months. Everything seems fine. Then, in the spring of the following (famine) year, they might begin to notice that they aren't getting as much rain as usual—perhaps none at all. Well, nothing to panic about—the weather can be unpredictable. People may be growing concerned, but they're like...

"Hey, relax—we've still got food, and the rains will come. But it probably wouldn't hurt to offer another sacrifice to the rain god."

But as the weeks turn to months and the rains don't come and the ground becomes worryingly dry and planting season is upon them, they no doubt begin to worry about how well the crops will turn out—of if they'll turn out at all. But surely the rains will come at some point—they always do.

But in the first of the Egyptians' seven famine years, the rains didn't come. As the year wore on, the crops failed and they were forced to avail themselves of the food that had been stored up during the previous years of plenty—and that pattern continued for the next six years.

All I'm saying is that there was a wee bit of a natural gap there due to the nature of what we are talking about. Thus, if there is a brief gap between these two periods of seven years in the end times, I wouldn't see it as something that breaks the typology between these two periods in the end times and the fat and lean years of Genesis 41 they correspond to.

Now, as you know, the Tribulation is one of the most sliced-and-diced periods of time in the entire Bible—we are told a great deal of detailed information about it throughout God's Word, especially in the book of Revelation (although some is hard to understand and so open to different interpretations). For example, we know how it begins; we know how it ends; we know what happens at its midpoint; we know a great deal about the series of judgments that fall during it; ad infinitum, ad illuminatio.

But what, if anything, can we deduce about this seven-year period in the end times that precedes the Tribulation that corresponds to Joseph's good years? Are there any considerations that would enable us to pin down when it begins or when it ends, or how those years could be characterized?

I believe there are.

The winds of change

As a general rule, when something in the Old Testament foreshadows or serves as a type of something in the New Testament or the end times, what happens in the Old Testament tends to be literal or physical, while the event it foreshadows is usually characterized by grander, more spiritual elements. And the seven years of famine in Genesis are a perfect example.

In Genesis 41, these were seven literal years of literal famine. People throughout the region were literally without food, and desperately needed to obtain it. It literally stopped raining in that region, and the ground literally dried up, leading to literal crop failure.

In the end times, although the Tribulation certainly features plenty of literal, physical destruction, there are overriding spiritual elements at work. God is releasing judgment on a sinful world that has staunchly rejected His grace and mercy and that has persecuted His people Israel. The Holy Spirit has stepped down from His ministry of restraining Satan, who is busily establishing the kingdom of the Antichrist while evil runs rampant in ways we cannot currently imagine. A group of 144,000 Jewish men have been sealed by God and are preaching the gospel throughout the post-Rapture world, bringing a huge harvest of souls into the kingdom, and so on.

But what can we say about the seven good years in the end times? As I said, during the Tribulation the Holy Spirit has stepped down from His ministry of restraining evil, and as a result Satan is free to manipulate the powers of the world in order to establish his short-lived kingdom ruled by his man the Antichrist. And I mention the Holy Spirit for a reason:

I believe the status of the Holy Spirit
is a key to understanding both of these
periods of seven years in the end times.

Think about the typical famine again. In many cases, what happens is the weather patterns in a region are temporarily altered by some geophysical phenomenon, and as a result the usual patterns of precipitation are affected. The patterns of air movement are shifted in some way, and it has an effect on the rainfall in that region. Simply put...

The winds change and the rains don't fall.

This is most likely what happened in Egypt in the days of Joseph. As the good years came to an end, the winds changed, the rain didn't come, and crop failure and famine ensued.

But think about wind for a moment. Throughout the entire Bible, wind is one of the most common types or symbols of the Holy Spirit. For example:

Thus, it is quite easy and natural to connect the seven literal years of famine (when the winds changed and the rains didn't come) to the seven years of the Tribulation (when the winds of the Spirit have shifted their base of operations from the earth back to heaven, and the Holy Spirit has stepped down from His ministry of restraining Satan).

At the same time, it is just as easy and natural to connect the seven years of plenty in Genesis to a time during the Church Age when the Holy Spirit is still dwelling on earth in His temple of believers and restraining Satan. During the seven good years in Genesis, the winds continued blowing as normal, the rains came as normal, and they had good crops. Similarly, during the seven good years in the end times, the winds of the Spirit are still blowing as normal, just as they have throughout the entire Church Age.

And just as the event that occurred to transition from the years of plenty to the years of famine in the Old Testament was a change in the winds that led to the rains being interrupted, it is easy and natural to see that a "change in the winds" of the Holy Spirit is what represents the transition from the seven good years of the end times to the seven years of famine, or the Tribulation.

And the event that marks that transition is clearly the Rapture.

It is at the Rapture that the winds of the Spirit change and He removes His temple from earth in the form of the Church, and ceases His ministry of restraining Satan. The upshot of this is that the Rapture (whenever it occurs) represents the end of the seven good years in the end times that correspond to the seven good years in Genesis 41. Hold up...incoming:

"Aha! Gotcha, Bible Dude! Genesis 41:45 says Pharaoh gave Joseph a wife before the seven good years. Joseph taking a wife represents Jesus taking a bride, which is the Rapture. H-e-l-l-o...the BRIDE of Christ? That means the Rapture comes before the good years—not after them like you say! None of this fits, and so it looks like your big theory is down the drain!"

Yep, we sure are the BRIDE of Christ. And when did we become that?

"Uhhh..."

Wrong answer: two thousand years ago. Jesus paid the bride price for us on a blood-stained cross at Calvary, and since then all believers have been spiritually betrothed to Him.

"Well, yeah, but..."

But you're forgetting something. OK, being honest here...this one had me stumped for a long time, too—but the Lord recently showed me something. When a woman became betrothed to a man in first-century Israel, they were considered legally married from then on, well before they ever consummated their marriage. That's why Joseph considered giving Mary a "writ of divorcement" after she became pregnant with Jesus prior to the consummation of their marriage (Matt. 1:19). They were married in the eyes of the law—and that meant serious danger lay in store for Mary.

Joseph knew that if they proceeded as a married couple, a child-bearing Mary would be at grave risk of being accused of the capital offense of adultery, and he sought to protect her. Luckily, in first-century Israel a writ of divorcement could be obtained without clearly specifying the reason—it used vague language that merely suggested the couple couldn't "live in agreement." By going this route, he would have been able to protect Mary from being condemned for adultery by the religious leaders and stoned. This wasn't about love or feelings—it was about a fearful awareness of the law. Joseph was a righteous man, and he loved Mary with all his heart and would have laid down his life for her.

"I see your point, Bible Dude." =8):::

So, Jacob's son Joseph was legally married to his Egyptian bride before the seven good years in Genesis 41, and Jesus was legally married to His bride before the seven good years in the end times. The Rapture actually has very little to do with this. Yeah, after the Rapture we have the wedding ceremony and the wedding feast, but the Church has been betrothed to and hence legally married to Christ for the last 2,000 years. It all fits.

Of course, up to this point we still have no idea when these seven good years end, and so we still have no idea when the Rapture will occur to end them. So, we still don't know when the seven good years begin (or what is far more likely, began, past tense). So let's keep digging.

How good is "good"?

If you're anything like me and many other believers today who are obeying the commands of Scripture to watch, you know that we are drawing excitingly close to the Rapture. In fact, many are convinced it will occur this year. So, the idea that the Rapture is more than seven years away is almost unthinkable. Of course, we can seldom definitively rule anything out with regard to the timing of the Rapture, but another seven years?! Say it with me:

No way, José!

We are much too close to even consider that—we've gotta be. But on the other hand, just exactly how close are we?

Some interpreted my last article as a clarion call to pin the Rapture to August 6 or 7, 2022. That wasn't my conscious intention, of course, but as is invariably true in regard to the Rapture, no one can rule out any possibilities.

All I'm trying to say is that it's pretty safe to assume that we are currently nestled somewhere in the confines of this period of seven good years in the end times, anxiously waiting for it to end at the Rapture.

Good is a relative term: One thing I want to settle before we go any further is what we actually mean by "good years." In Genesis 41, the seven good years were simply seven years when they had good crops. In each of those years the rains came as normal, they had a good harvest, and were able to store up food for the future.

But don't come away from Genesis 41 with the idea that there was something strange or unusual about these seven years—the Egyptians routinely had good crops. It wasn't like "Wow! We had a good harvest this year! That's incredible! Let's go worship the rain god!" In fact, the majority of years could probably be termed "good years," when the rains came as usual, the crops came in as usual, and they had plenty of food...as usual.

Now, they no doubt had occasional bad years here and there, but good years were pretty much the norm. Why can I say that? Simple: If that had not been the case, ancient Egypt wouldn't have been the stable, thriving civilization it was. If they were constantly struggling with poor agricultural yields and famines to the point where good years were the exception rather than the rule, people would have moved elsewhere in search of better conditions—and we wouldn't even be talking about ancient Egypt today.

I mention this because I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you that this seven-year period in the end times that corresponds to the seven good years of Genesis 41 is a time when everything is peachy keen—when all our problems just melt away: Trump is back in the White House; Biden is in a home, where he belonged years ago; the deep-state actors working to destroy America are in prison; COVID-19 is gone, along with the masks and the so-called vaccines; man-made climate change is exposed as the man-made hoax that it is; and people everywhere join hands and sing "Kumbaya."

Let me put it this way: This seven-year period of good years is not a glowing piece of heaven dropped into our history. I believe it is simply a period during which the satanic forces that seek to establish the kingdom of the Antichrist are held at bay just long enough and to a sufficient degree that the Church can complete its God-ordained mission prior to being taken home in the Rapture—the event that ends this period of good years and allows the Tribulation to congeal in the wake of the removal of the Holy Spirit's temple on earth and the cessation of His ministry of restraining Satan.

The point is that it's clear to me that the seven good years in the end times are simply the final seven years of the Church Age—the last seven years of the Holy Spirit's time on earth dwelling in His temple of believers and restraining Satan. Now, there is very likely a short gap between the Rapture and the "official" launch of the Tribulation that corresponds to the seven years of famine, but like I said: I don't see that as a typological problem since there is a brief natural gap between the good years and the famine years of Genesis 41. I don't believe that a short gap "breaks" anything.

One thing I want to emphasize here, however, is that if you don't think what we're going through now are "good years," then you just wait, hoss. Whatever we're going through now could easily be thought of as "good years" compared to what the world will be going through during Daniel's 70th Week. And I say that because I can hear a few out there grumbling:

"You must be nuts, Bible Dude! We're paying almost $6.00 for a gallon of gas, begging our enemies for oil, being forced to get vaccine after vaccine, losing our jobs, watching our kids get indoctrinated with racist claptrap and perverted gender-bending fantasies, watching our country become the laughing stock of the world thanks to our babbling idiot of a prezzzident, and you call these 'good years'?! You've gotta be kidding!"

My response: Be thankful you lost your job and not your head.

Well, if the seven good years in the end times are the last seven years of the Church Age and end with the Rapture, and we're not sure when the Rapture occurs and we're somewhere in that seven-year period now, are there any clues about when these good years started, when they will end, or both?

I believe there are...both.

A sign in the heavens

Many thousands of believers were abuzz in the five or six years leading up to 2017, because there was tremendous excitement over a coming alignment of stars and planets that put on panoramic display the "great sign" John saw in Revelation 12:1–2, something that came to be known simply as the Revelation 12 sign—or as I often refer to it, the REV12 sign:

This involved the planet Jupiter, the king planet associated with Christ, going into retrograde motion within Virgo's "womb" for a period of about 41 weeks—roughly the length of a typical pregnancy, and then exiting and being "born." At the same time, three planets (Venus, Mars, and Mercury) converged over the head of Virgo, which together with the nine stars of the constellation Leo that are always above Virgo, formed her crown of 12 stars (note that the Bible never distinguishes between stars and planets). The moon was at her feet, the sun clothed her, and this all came together to perfection on September 23, 2017. Rare? Well, it hadn't occurred for a couple thousand years and won't occur again for a few thousand more...so yeah, you might say that.

Busted: That's the first thing that tips me off—as soon as somebody dismisses the Revelation 12 sign because they claim it's not all that rare, I immediately know they have no clue what they are talking about. Case closed.

It might be considered technically inaccurate to call the alignment of 9/23/17 the "Revelation 12 sign," although we all do. In a sense, it's not. Strictly speaking, the "sign" of Revelation 12:1–2 is exactly what John saw in his vision 2,000 years ago: a woman (Israel) in labor, about to give birth to a child that can also be interpreted as a corporate body for reasons pertaining to Greek grammar, typological consistency, and other points (i.e. not merely Christ the man, but the body of Christ—the Church). And even though I have casually referred to it as such in the past, neither was it really the "fulfillment" of Revelation 12:1–2. That would be the conception/birth of the Church.

What we saw on September 23, 2017 could more accurately be described as a wholly unexpected stellar-planetary confirmation of the sign of Revelation 12:1–2. But it's a lot easier to just say "the REV12 sign"—we all know what you mean. It was first spotted by Lu Vega of PostScripts in around 2008, who studied it privately for several years before it began to be popularized by a number of folks on various websites and YouTube channels starting in 2011.

I don't want to take up too much space with the details of the Revelation 12 sign, because I figure by this time everybody is either pretty familiar with it, or they rejected it and don't want to hear any more about it. I have devoted several articles to it and discussed topics related to it on a number of occasions, so if you're interested see this, this, and this.

Speaking of not wanting to hear any more about it... Part of me didn't want to get into this, but I feel I have no choice. So be it. It saddens me to say it, but I know that a lot of good people still assume the REV12 sign was just another spate of apocalyptic hooey that faded into obscurity after the sizzle turned to fizzle as the date came and went without so much as a hiccup. Some may be polite about it, but they dismiss it—or at least hesitate to take it seriously.

Before the REV12 sign occurred, there were mainstream ministers who vehemently attacked it and haughtily condemned those who studied it. Some went so far as to accuse those who studied it of dabbling in astrology, of all things, which was the lowest of low blows that did nothing but reveal their ignorance of (a) what the Revelation 12 sign actually was, (b) the definition of the word "astrology," or, in all likelihood, (c) both.

I suspect that most of what many of these people know about the Revelation 12 sign came from a handful of cowboys who succeeded in turning a sign from God into a three-ring circus. Some built huge YouTube channels and popular websites devoted to the sign, and in the process managed to turn this stunning alignment into a spasm of full-bent, "Move over, Mayans!" Rapture mania.

This is unfortunate, because there was a core group of people studying the sign who were not doing that. They knew there are two signs, one in verses 1–2, and another in verses 3–4. The Rapture is depicted in verse 5. So, they knew there was no scriptural reason whatsoever to pin the Rapture to September 23, 2017. And we tried to tell people that...but few listened.

Of course, we couldn't rule out the possibility that the Rapture might occur not too awfully long after the sign (or even before it)—we didn't know. Besides, pinning the Rapture to any date was never our focus anyway, and we were quick to discourage others from doing so—we have the YooToob yayhoos to thank for that. And the result? Take a wild guess:

Five years later, many solid believers still wear their dismissal of the REV12 sign like a badge of honor.

Many who dismiss the REV12 sign tend to lump it in with all the other apocalyptic nonsense we have seen in the last decade or so, and they point to imminence as the primary reason. And rightly so.

Well, yeah...I mean, if all the REV12 sign amounted to was a gaggle of YooToobers caterwauling about how the Rapture is going to happen on September 23, 2017 for some screwball reason, I would have dismissed it too! And I would have pointed to imminence as my primary reason for doing so. But with all due respect, there lies the crux of the issue:

That's not what the REV12 sign was about in reality—it was twisted into that by a lot of excitable people who should have known better.

I would like to gently encourage those who still dismiss the REV12 sign because they see it as nothing more than another splotch of (failed) Rapture mania to step back and re-examine the details of the sign itself and the Scripture it corresponds to through the steely-eyed gaze of a Scripture wonk, scrubbed 100 percent clean of all the YooToob hoopla and hysteria about the Rapture occurring on that date. I say that because it was an extremely rare stellar-planetary alignment that speaks with undeniable clarity to the words of Scripture. And please understand:

That part isn't anyone's opinion—that's a steely-eyed fact.

The one, solitary issue that mattered to the core group who studied this sign was "What is God saying to us?" It certainly wasn't whether or not it was a legitimate sign from God to begin with—that was beyond dispute. And we certainly weren't stupid enough to litter cyberspace with gems like "Rapture on 9/23/17!!! It's a Bible lock!!!"

Yet those are the voices the naysayers tended to listen to. Although I understand the sentiment and I honestly can't blame people for dismissing the REV12 sign based on the YooToobery they were exposed to at the time, I have a wake-up call for those people—and if it steps on a few toes, even better:

What occurred on September 23, 2017
was absolutely a sign from God to the
Church, and it is far more important to the
Church today than it was five years ago.

And I don't give a rat's patootie how that makes anyone feel, because I still have the taste of blood in my mouth from the scorn that was heaped on us by people who literally had no idea what they were talking about just for studying what God was revealing during those years. And I'll just leave it at that.

But know one thing: This was a bona fide sign from God to the Church that is widely interpreted by those who actually studied it to be a sign that the Rapture is finally drawing near after almost two millennia. It confirmed that we are approaching the completion of the fulfillment of the sequence of events represented in verses 1–5, a sequence of events that began with the conception of the Church and ends with its translation to heaven. Simply put:

This spectacular alignment was nothing
less than the Church's two-minute warning.

The problem is that we didn't know how long that "two-minute warning" was, or when it would begin. What about imminence? Maybe the Rapture came before the sign, with the mere awareness of it being our warning. And if the Rapture followed the sign (as most assumed), was it a one-month warning, a one-year warning, a four-year warning, or what? That was the only real question. We knew it signaled the rapid approach of the Rapture, but that's it.

Well, it's been five years, so the REV12 sign is starting to look as if it could be a full seven-year warning to herald the harpazo. Seven-year periods are all over the place in the Bible—God seems to have an affinity for them, and the good years and the lean years in Genesis 41 are just two examples.

Back in 2017, the thought that the REV12 sign might be a seven-year warning for the Rapture was a thought that gnawed at me, but it was difficult for me to bring myself to believe it would actually be that long. Many hearts ached for it to be a much shorter warning period—the shorter, the better. But at this point, it's starting to look as if it could be the full seven-year monty.

OK, now there's your speculation.

But is that all? Is that all there is to indicate that in 2017 we were entering the final countdown to the Rapture? Is there anything else that suggests that we were entering this brief, final hiatus of seven "good years" before the Rapture and the beginning of the judgments of the Tribulation?

Is that it? Did God just give us one little old sign in the heavens?

Or is there more?

A sign in the earth

One interesting event that occurred on August 21, 2017 was a total solar eclipse that swept across the United States, sweeping downward from the Northwest to the Southeast.

Another interesting event that will occur on April 8, 2024 is the next total solar eclipse visible to Americans, which will sweep upward across the country from the Southwest to the Northeast. So, two consecutive total solar eclipses sweep across the nation, the first in 2017 and the second in 2024, that form an "X" pattern over America. (I vacillated on whether to call this a sign in the heavens or in the earth. The mechanics are in the heavens; but since the focus is on how it looks to us here on the earth's surface, I went with the latter.)

So, God scrawls a big "X" on the United States, with the first stroke occurring in 2017 and the second stroke occurring seven years later in 2024.

Marking off the beginning and the end of the seven good years that correspond to Joseph's good years in Genesis 41, eh LORD?

No? Oh, it gets better. The area where the paths of these two solar eclipses intersect is located in Southern Illinois (although it does include a wee bit of Missouri and Kentucky), with Carbondale, Illinois being the nearest major city to the precise line of intersection.

Southern Illinois has an odd nickname that typically only folks from the Land of Lincoln (like me) are familiar with, and it's partly connected to something that occurred in the early 1830s. In the winter of 1830–31, the northern half of the state experienced an extremely cold winter with heavy snow occurring unusually late in the spring. Then to top it off, a heavy frost occurred in early September that destroyed the crops all across Northern Illinois. As a result, grain was scarce in that part of the state and legions of people traveled to Southern Illinois to obtain supplies in the face of this localized shortage.

Although this nickname had been coined years earlier due to the area's geographical resemblance to the Nile Delta, the similarity of the situation that occurred in 1830–31 to what happened in the days of Joseph during the seven years of famine was not lost on Bible-reading Illinoisans, and it permanently enshrined that nickname into the history of Southern Illinois, aka...

Little Egypt.

(If you're starting to get goosebumps, welcome to the club.) So, God is going to scratch a big "X" on America, the first stroke occurring in 2017 and the second occurring seven years later in 2024, and the "X" intersects in a region that is nicknamed "Little Egypt" in relation to the seven good years and seven years of famine God revealed to Joseph, and that foreshadow the last seven years of the Church Age and the seven years of the Tribulation.

Mind. Blown. Is it just me, or you starting to pick up on the fact that an omniscient, omnipotent God is trying to tell us something?

So, we have a sign in the heavens and a sign in the earth that both suggest that in 2017 we entered the final years of the Church Age, with the second sign clearly indicating that those years will end seven years later in 2024.

OK, but is there anything else that occurred in 2017 that would indicate that the following years would be comparatively good years prior to the bottom falling out in the Tribulation after the Rapture? Is there anything else that happened in 2017 that suggests that the satanic forces that are actively seeking to establish the kingdom of the Antichrist would be held at bay to some extent until being turned loose after the removal of the Church?

I believe there is.

A sign in the world

In 2016, America was coming to the end of eight years under Barack Obama, a man who hates and is ashamed of what this country stands for and who did everything in his power to bring the United States down from its superpower status in order to pave the way for the kingdom of the Antichrist—a kingdom I know his supremely arrogant heart dreams of playing a major role in.

And another corrupt, left-wing liberal cut from the same cloth was waiting in the wings for a turn at continuing what he had started: Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton was all set to take the stage and push forward in the tearing down of America to realize the globalist dream (and to rake in even more tons of dirty money in the process). But something went wrong. Her opponent ended up winning a couple of key states by a narrow margin, and BOOM. The deep-state dream of a weakened America and a shiny New World Order swerved and skidded off the road, and suddenly the country had a leader who actually (gulp) loved America and sought to put America first:

Donald J. Trump.

The left openly plotted to destroy him from day one, but failed miserably at every turn. Personally, I believe that's because God had a hand in things. Now, don't get me wrong. Donald Trump is a flawed, imperfect man. He's a narcissist. He has moral failings. He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer in terms of politics. I like and respect him for what he's done, but I don't naively believe everything he says or that is said about him, or that he's going to singlehandedly save our country and make America Great Again Again.

But he loves America and strongly supports Israel...and that's enough to make me support him and the left loathe him.

My point is that when Donald Trump took office in January of 2017, Satan's useful idiots who were trying to destroy the United States ranted and snarled. But millions of average Americans rejoiced and celebrated because they sensed the powers of darkness that were tearing our country down were set to be put under some degree of restraint, at least for a while. There was hope for our country. All was not lost. Maybe things really would get better.

And things did get better. Under Trump the United States was energy independent, rather than groveling at the feet of foreign powers for oil. We were trusted by our friends and feared by our enemies. Our borders were secure. Our economy was booming. Unemployment was at historic lows. He openly and strongly supported Israel, and I know that is one reason why God blessed his four years in the White House:

Of course, now that Trump has been cheated out of his second term and replaced by a cardboard cutout whose only job is to be manipulated by the same deep-state actors that Trump was able to hold at bay to some extent, things have been going downhill faster than anyone could have imagined.

All told, the following has become blindingly clear to me at this point:

The REV12 sign of September 23, 2017 was a sign in the heavens to the Church that the final countdown to the Rapture had begun, although that sign didn't tell us anything about the length of that countdown. But at this point, seven years is an eminently reasonable guess with no shortage of biblical support.

However, a sign in the earth that clearly points to this being a seven-year warning consists of two solar eclipses, the first in 2017 and the second in 2024, that "cross out" America with a giant "X" and whose paths intersect in a region nicknamed "Little Egypt" in relation to what occurred during the seven good years and the seven years of famine in Genesis 41—events that foreshadow what is playing out even now as we near the end of the good years and look forward to the event that ends them: the Rapture.

And as confirmation that a major change occurred in 2017 before the tide rolls in during the Tribulation, that year saw the surprise election of a president who loved America, strongly supported Israel, and stood against everything that Satan's pawns were doing in order to tear down America and usher in the kingdom of the Antichrist. I believe this served to (a) keep Satan's efforts at bay a wee bit longer, and (b) make Satan's minions even more virulently determined to destroy everything good and right left in this country, a frenzy that will be unleashed and reach its zenith during the Tribulation.

The bottom line is that all these things, woven
together, certainly seem to point to the year 2024
as an eminently possible year for the Rapture.

What about that Tisha B'Av thing?

Like I said, my last article about the possible connection between Tisha B'Av and the Rapture is what set my feet on this particular path, and I only saw a few fragments of all this coming at the time. But I have to admit that the path ended up leading to a surprising rush of compelling stuff.

But what about that Tisha B'Av thing? Are there any further connections to that? I almost didn't want to mention this next little item, because it focuses on one certain day and I don't want to push the idea that I'm eyeballing one specific day for the Rapture. Even talking about a certain year is enough to give me a nosebleed.

But before God, I have to show you this. He showed it to me, so...

I mentioned in my last article (as did Pete Garcia in his) that Tisha B'Av occurs on August 12–13 in the year 2024. OK, so what? Well, you know me...I've been a numbers guy since the age of three, and I can't resist the urge to fiddle with them. I noticed something about the first of these two dates that made me head for Words"R"Us because it left me speechless.

Numbers normally have meaning throughout the Bible, and this is a topic I have written about before. So, let's consider the date of August 12, 2024, or the number 8/12/24.

The number eight is associated with new beginnings, since it comes after the number seven—the number of divine completion. There are seven days in a week, so the eighth day is the first day of a new week, and so on. Also, eight people were spared in Noah's ark to begin the human race anew.

The number eight is closely linked to Christ, who is our new beginning in the Spirit and whose empty tomb was found on the eighth day. The gematria of Christ's name in Greek (Ιησονς) is 888. So...

The number 8 points to Christ.

The number 12 represents perfect, God-ordained government and God's perfect authority. It is seen as the combination of three (divine perfection) and four (the earth), and it often represents a perfect foundation upon which God builds something. There are 12 constellations that grace the night sky that were originally interpreted to depict God's plan of redemption for sinful men.

FYI: Astrology is Satan's twisted corruption of this marvel that God created that is used by deceived people in a vain attempt to predict events on earth, and it is a form of the sin of divination. And I'll keep saying it until Pisces blows into pieces: The vast majority of those who studied the REV12 sign were not "dabbling" in it.

Jacob had 12 sons who formed the 12 tribes of Israel, which served as the foundation of God's Chosen People.

And there were 12 disciples who followed the Messiah, and who established the foundation of the body of Christ—the Church. So...

The number 12 points to the disciples.

The number 24 represents a complete group, and we see this in 1 Chronicles 24 where King David divides all the priests who work in the temple into 24 divisions called "courses." There were hundreds of priests, but those 24 courses represented the whole group. Similarly, in 1 Chronicles 25 David divides all the musicians and singers in the temple into 24 groups. There were hundreds of them, but those 24 divisions represented the entire group. There weren't any priests, musicians, or singers out running around loose.

And in Revelation 4 there are 24 elders, who can represent absolutely no one but the raptured Church, in heaven as a complete group before the judgments of the Tribulation begin in chapter 6. So...

The number 24 points to the body of Christ.

So, the date 8/12/24 brings together Christ (the Rock), His disciples (the foundation on that Rock), and the entire body of Christ. Simply put:

 8 = Christ 
 12 = His disciples 
 24 = His Church 

And if you were to challenge me to pick another date that was a better set of numbers that spoke to the Rapture, I seriously doubt if I could beat that.

Do with that as you will. But please...just don't accuse me of trying to earn my Harold Camping Merit Badge.

YAY! I was wrong! \o/

As I keep saying, I don't really want to focus on specific dates. There's really no need. Yeah, the 8/12/24 thing is a pretty cool detail, but I'm perfectly willing to let it remain just that: a pretty cool detail that certainly doesn't require the Rapture to occur on that date.

Who knows...maybe the Rapture happens prior to that date in 2024, and then afterwards God brings the significance of the 8/12/24 date of Tisha B'Av to someone's attention and the word starts to spread that the earth-shattering event that recently rocked the world really was the catching away of the body of Christ and not some Hollywood-inspired spiel about a benevolent alien race that has come to help mankind get through the earth's coming period of "changes" or whatever. And hey, it just might start with someone who reads this article.

(I'm kidding.) But let me say this: If the Rapture does occur in 2024, it makes a lot of sense to me that it would come after April 8, the date of the second stroke of the "X" with which God marks the United States. I say that because God tends to send His warnings first before He drops the hammer of His judgment. And let there be no doubt in your mind:

The Rapture will drop God's hammer of judgment on America.

It grieves me to say it, but I know the U.S. will never survive the sudden disappearance of tens of millions of its citizens, most of whom oppose what the left is trying to do to this country. As soon as the Rapture occurs and they start to pick up the pieces, it'll be clear sailing for the now-released satanic powers who want to knock America to its knees so the kingdom of the Antichrist can be ushered in. For the United States, it's over.

Finally, let me say one thing from my heart that at first blush might strike you as a bit odd:

I hope like the dickens I'm WRONG.

Please understand: Nobody hates being wrong more than I do, but nobody wants the Rapture to happen in 2022 more than I do, and August 6 or 7 (or any day this year) would suit me just fine and dandy. I would love for this to be the last article I ever write (and I see you out there, nodding in agreement). Like some of you, I'm sitting here wondering if I can take two more years of this—I'm sick of this sin-infested world.

I wanna go home! I wanna see Jesus!

I hope with every fiber of my being that I have somehow misunderstood or misinterpreted something along the way, or made too much of something and gotten a little off track, or whatever. I mean, yeah, it all makes sense—maybe even scary sense...at least to me. But we are all routinely wrong in our feeble efforts to time the Rapture in any way whatsoever, and there is certainly no reason to think I'm immune to that—I'm certainly not.

And if turns out the Rapture isn't set for 2024, I have a sneaky feeling God will be sending even more signs our way. That's what He's been doing up until now...why would He stop?

So, let me bring this in for a landing by urging all of you to pray and seek His presence on a daily basis, and rely on His strength to continue doing whatever He has set before you to do in these final days. And just as the Egyptians during Joseph's seven good years stored up huge amounts of grain for the coming famine, let us use what remains of these good years to store up treasure in heaven:

I know that's where my heart is, and I pray you can say the same.

And while you're at it, thank Him that we will never see the seven years of famine that are coming in the form of the Tribulation—and that He's given us the opportunity to live in the good years. But just remember that no matter what happens or how things play out...

The best years of all for the Church will be here before we know it!

Greg Lauer — JUL '22

Top of the page

If you like this article, share it with someone!

 JUL '22 

Site Search

Powered by:
JavaScript Kit