Using Time Bands to Study Time
The text of the Bible is uneven in the date references it provides. Some periods, like Noah’s flood, are elaborated day-by-day while others, like the period from there to the Exodus, find time references only every generation. These differences lead to our categorization of Bible date references into Bands.
Background
Throughout the winter of 1999 and 2000 we were living through the quiet time suggested by day-for-a-year prophecy as the time when the Hebrews were in Egypt. As that period progressed the Bible Time newsletter turned to focus on a series of dates suggested by the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those dates landed across the same period and had a series of interesting headlines. There was a difference, though, in the nature of the two series of dates.
The day-for-a-year dates were continuing a series of dates that had started in 1974 and were quite strong in their expected fulfillment. The Sodom dates were quite weak without a long track record and without any clear proof that they would end with anything important. (The Sodom story was all about a test and a conditional destruction. Nothing needed to replay at the end of that sequence.)
Dialog with newsletter subscribers revealed a misunderstanding about the natural distinction between the Sodom dates and the other trunk day-accurate dates.
When the Sodom dates failed to materialize in an explosion somewhere people though there was a problem with the trunk story. Not so, but there were problems with the Sodom dates. How were we to tell the difference?
Using Bands
Of course we were telling the dates apart. The Sodom related dates were "Sodom related dates." The trick was to see them as different.
Study of the Bible’s historical date record reveals a pattern very similar to our distinction between day-for-a-year dates and the Sodom dates. Some examples:
While we have no specific day-accurate dates from Adam to Noah’s flood, Noah’s flood itself is given day-accurately. For the entire episode the Bible records the important dates in the story. Then, for no apparent reason the Bible switches back to only providing references to births in specific years and even then provides no important stories, for about 2500 years.
Then stories pick up, as we read about Abraham, but no day-accurate records are kept until the time after the Exodus from Egypt. Here, for about a year, the story provides day-accurate records at the transition between Egypt and wandering around in the wilderness, about like it did for Noah’s flood.
Similar examples exist at the Jordan River crossing, for limited stories in the time of the Kings, and Ezra’s return to build the Second Temple and then finally in some of the stories surrounding Jesus’ life and ministry.
Even when we don’t know why, the Bible clearly considers the time elements of these certain stories as important, more important than the rest of the story. These dates hold importance while they spring from stories that hold our attention. Then, as each story passes and the regular flow of history returns, the precision in the dates is gone.
This characteristic is what we give the name Band.
The collection of day-accurate Noah’s flood dates are a Band of dates dealing with the flood. From the first day-accurate account of the warning of the soon happening flood through the last day when Noah comes out of the Ark and builds an alter, these dates together form a special, unique, and set apart band of individual dates.
Bands of dates like this, and there are many other such bands, share some things in common. The most important is any use of these dates requires the set of dates to work together as they did originally in the story where the dates themselves are given. This means they share the same error analysis, both issues like arithmetic tolerance as well as proper prophetic application. They also work together everywhere they show up again on the charts. They don’t just spring individually.
For example, all dates in a band work as a group in any anniversary applications, such as 2000th anniversaries from day-accurate stories around Jesus’ life, or other anniversaries as make sense from the Bible’s story.
It also means that if any date in a band is weak, it may share weakness with all the other dates on the band. Bands of dates are always weak until they have shown application against modern headlines, especially if the band is thought to be prophetic.
Prophetic applications are something that we do based on how we think the Bible works. We confirm our application of the dates in any use of a band against modern headlines. That confirmation strengthens our understanding of all the other dates in the band and moves the set of dates that make up a band from being weak to being strong.
The Sodom and Gomorrah dates sprung from the dialog between Abraham and God recorded in Genesis 18. That dialog forms the basis for a "Sodom and Gomorrah date Band." If the band works, or not, rests independently from any other date bands.
Of course placement of the Sodom and Gomorrah date Band on the modern calendar depends on the placement of the day-for-a-year band, as did Noah’s date Band during the Persian Gulf War, but that placement is subjective and based on a "hunch" until it has supporting headlines that confirm that placement.
Some Important Bands
Here are some of the reasons why a series of dates may show up again:
Last day repetition The entire age, the "Alpha" is a map to the "Omega" or last day. So the entire year-accurate story of Mankind’s history repeats as a band across the last day. This is the Trunk day-for-a-year Band.
Inflections on the last day The day-accurate stories within the larger history don’t compress, leading to day-accurate stories that compliment the Trunk day-for-a-year Band. Noah’s flood story as it applied to the Persian Gulf War and the fall of the USSR is the first such completed band. The Exodus, Jordan crossing, and several others all land in our modern era along the trunk time line because they inflect instead of compressing.
Anniversaries Nearly all of the day-accurate stories in the Bible have well identified anniversaries when they should be expected to replay. Only one, the 2000th anniversaries of Jesus’ birth era, have been seen working against modern headlines. The rest are still future.
The existence of day-accurate anniversary bands has been thought possible by many. Throughout much of the 1990s people speculated on the possible year 2000 NS as being important because it was 2000 years from Jesus. Of course only an accurate calendar prevented folks from seeing this work.
The prophetic fulfillment of the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus was seen with visits to the United Nations by the leader of Iran. A wise man from the east. He was even quoting his own Bible stories, as is so often seen.
Another example includes the 3500th anniversaries of the Exodus from Egypt. Those mostly replayed in the years ahead of 2010 NS. You know those headlines as the financial crisis of 2008 NS. Though there is a prophetic tail that extends beyond, likely intersecting Noah's anniversaries in 2029 NS, see below.
Other anniversaries include the 4000th from the time of Jacob in Laban’s service. This is a 20 year period extending from 2010 NS through 2029 NS, again intersecting with Noah, see below.
The 2000th anniversaries of Jesus’ public ministry lands across much of 2028 NS. The 2000th anniversary of his ascension lands about 10 weeks ahead of the 7000th anniversary of Noah, see below.
Finally, the 7000th anniversaries of Noah’s flood land in 2029 NS and 2030 NS. This band is suggested by God giving Noah 7 days warning. Since with Jesus a day is 1000 years, the 7 day warning is also a 7000 year warning.
The use of Bands to track groups of day-accurate Bible dates is fundamental to the way the Bible itself is written and is important to our understanding and use of the dates given in the Bible’s pages.
Note also all of these anniversary bands seem to intersect with the Noah anniversary dates in 2029 NS.