In our book Israel FIRST!, one of the most cutting edge predictions we made was with regard to the Jubilee year. The Jubilee year is very specific in time, and historically some very important things have happened within those twelve months. But before we zero in on that one year, let’s score ourselves on the other big “time related” predictions we made in the book.

For instance we said that the Blood Moons can take decades to unfold, and so we should not expect some dramatic event to happen on any particular Blood Moon date. In fact, we stood against the many predictions that war would come to Israeli soil during or after the final Blood Moon. We wrote in Chapter 10 for instance:

When considering investing in Israel, there is another top concern — the ever-present possibility of war. In Chapter 6 we showed the pattern of the Blood Moons does not indicate major wars immediately after the Blood Moons are completed. This observation contradicts what some others are predicting about the meaning of the Blood Moons. Based on the historical pattern, I am not expecting a war against Israel in the near future.

So far, so good on that prediction. We thank the Lord for that!

We also saw the Shemitah year as closing out not just one year, but an entire seven year cycle (which happened on September 13, 2015). We suggested a new biblical model for these current years, being part of four successive seven-year cycles that began in 2001. We summarized this in Chapter 16 as follows:

We might be reaching the half-way point of a new 28-year cycle–a 28-year cycle that is going to decide the outcome of our nation.

We further suggested that America might be a proxy for the Western World, and gave a specific set of scriptures that we thought should apply to the years 2015-2022. Quoting from Leviticus 26:22-23 we have:

1. I will let loose among you the beasts of the field
2. which will bereave you of your children
3. and destroy your cattle
4. and reduce your number
5. so that your roads lie deserted
6. and if by these things you are not turned to me
7. but act with hostility against me…

This prediction seems on target so far, but neither do we rush to propose that it is conclusively proven either! Items 1&2 are being fulfilled through a dramatic increase in Islamic terrorism in many countries including France and the USA that began after the Shemitah year ended. Even more specifically, the very first terrorism fatality of the new seven year cycle occurred on the very first day of that cycle (September 14th, 2015) in East Jerusalem near the Temple Mount. We will be carefully watching these items over the coming months and years.

We then went on to examine the Blessing and Cursing of Israel, and we suggested that such events are not on any timetable at all. When they happen, God responds quickly, as we said in Chapter 17:

If we come against Israel or the Jews as a nation, God does not have to wait for a seventh (Shemitah) year to act. This is exactly what seems to have happened in the 1920s.

The new idea from Europe to require Israel to label products that have shipped from the West Bank so that they can be rejected and avoided, is dangerously close to leveling a curse upon Israel.

In the book, we also suggested a concern that President Obama might try to establish a legacy for himself, and at the same time curse America, by allowing a UN resolution to pass declaring Palestinian statehood.  We pointed out that the Vatican had just done this very thing by signing a treaty with the Palestinian Fatah on June 26, 2015! So far this concern regarding Obama cursing Israel through Palestinian statehood has not materialized. We felt that if it were to happen, Obama would need an excuse, such as acting in retaliation for Israel destroying the nuclear capability of Iran. This military action by Israel  has not happened either–it seems that Netanyahu has decided it is not in the best interests of Israel to take such drastic action now. Who can blame them?  If the world just made a deal, albeit a terrible one, with Iran to delay their gaining nuclear capability by a mere ten years, then what advantage would Israel having in taking drastic action now? Assuming Iran keeps the agreement at some level, it seems that Netanyahu has decided it is better for Israel to just watch and wait, and take military action in ten years rather than today.

But, of all the topics in the book regarding “time”, we proposed that the Jubilee year was different.  We said that the Jubilee Year stands out as a single pivotal year in history. In the book we made a case for the Jubilee year to have started on September 14, 2015, and ending on October 2, 2016. Making a prediction that God might do something amazing for Israel in a very bounded period of time, a mere 12 month period, is admittedly putting us way out on the edge. Why did we do it?

Our thoughts were like this: 2015-2016 has the makings of a very special year.  Go back exactly seven Shemitah cycles to 1966-1967 and you have the Six Day War and the Reunification of Jerusalem. Go back exactly seven more Shemitah cycles to 1917-1918 and you have the Balfour Declaration and the Recapturing of Jerusalem by the British Army.  In each case these amazing events happened in the first year after a 49-year Shemitah cycle ended. So if there is an established pattern, and if God wants the world to know when to reclaim the lost Jubilee celebrations, then we can think of no better way for Him to indicate that cycle to the entire world, than by allowing Israel to reclaim something very important land on that very same year, seven Shemitah cycles later. So on that basis, we began Chapter 20 with an extremely bold statement:

We make the case in this chapter that God will use the 2015-2016 Jubilee year to restore parts of the Promised Land back to its legal owners.

Were we right? Not yet! How might this come about in nine months that remain? We simply don’t know! One idea that we had, and wrote in Chapter 20 was as follows:

How might this retaking of those land possibly come about? One likely way might be as a response to something that the United States might do. For instance we discussed in Chapter 18, God forbid, the USA recognizing a Palestinian State.

But our prediction of the USA recognizing a Palestinian State seems likely to be a miss, at least it was a miss for the Fall of 2015. Right now, President Obama has no convenient excuse to betray his relationship with Israel and declare Palestinian Statehood, even if he would love to follow the lead of the Vatican and do exactly that.

We are following this whole Jubilee situation closely in a series of articles on Breaking Israel News, and we include them for you in our weekly newsletter from time to time.  They link back and forward to each other, so if you find any one of them, you can read them all. In that series, we even examine our assumptions that we are in a Jubilee year right now! We are trying to keep a very open mind about everything, looking for the truth, looking for the hand of God in history, as Jews and Christians join together to attempt to solve once-and-for-all, the Mystery of the Lost Jubilee.