Of Calendars and Prophecy – Part 5

The Hidden Weaknesses of the Gregorian Calendar (These post really need to be read in order – you can get to part 1 by clicking here) In the previous post, we examined Daniel’s prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. We saw that Daniel predicted the coming of Messiah, the death of Messiah, and the destruction of […]

Of Calendars and Prophecy – Part 4

Daniel’s Seventy Weeks — What We Actually Know (These really need to be read in order you can start with part 1 here) For the past three articles, we’ve been discussing calendars. Prophetic years. Lunar calendars. Leap months. Ancient chronology. At this point some readers may be wondering when we’re finally going to talk about […]

Of Calendars and Prophecy – Part 3

Why Ancient Dates Refuse to Stay Put (Be sure to read these in order – start with part 1) Imagine I asked you what day of the week it is. Easy. Now imagine I asked you what day of the week it was exactly one hundred years ago. A little harder, but certainly possible. Now […]

Of Calendars and Prophecy – Part 2

The Calendar Jesus Actually Used (Before you read this you need to read Part 1) In the previous post, we discussed the idea of a prophetic year and why it may be more helpful as an interpretive tool than as a precision measuring device. But before we can have a meaningful discussion about biblical dates, […]

Of Calendars and Prophecy – Part 1

The Problem With Prophetic Years I was recently on a podcast and had a great time discussing the Bible, prophecy, Daniel’s seventy weeks, and the dating of Jesus’ death. One of the topics that came up was calendaring systems and how we arrive at some of the dates that are commonly presented in Bible studies, […]

Are We More Certain Than We Should Be?

Every Easter season the debates begin again. Was Jesus crucified on Friday? Was it Thursday? Was it Wednesday? Someone pulls out a chart. Someone else pulls out an astronomical table. Before long, people are counting backward, counting forward, calculating moon phases, and debating ancient calendars as if they have a first-century Jewish almanac sitting on […]