In my earlier post about the End Times, or “latter days”, as it’s sometimes called, I explained how the Bible itself pinpoints exactly when the end times begins and how to understand those scriptures which pertain specifically to this time, like no other time in history.  Using no other outside sources, we’re able to understand when “this generation” will exist.

In Matthew 24, he describes, in great detail, the signs of the “end of the world”–or, more accurately rendered “end of the age” or “end of the eon”.  The world does not come to an abrupt end.  This chapter, along with companion chapters in Mark 13 and Luke 21, are written ONLY to a specific generation that will be on earth to become eye-witnesses to all of the destructive events that are prophesied to occur.  After Matthew wrote, in chapter 24, all of the signs and events to look for just prior to the 2nd coming, in Matt. 24:4-33, he drops a bombshell on us in the very next verse, quoting Yahshua’s own words.

Matt. 24:34–“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.“

Yahshua was speaking to the Apostles, but this comment was addressing a future audience.  He did not say “THAT generation….”, as if he were just describing some future generation of people.  No, he was talking about you and I, or THIS generation which “shall not pass till all these things [signs to watch for prior to his imminent return] be fulfilled”.  In Part 1 (Here), I provided the Biblical evidence that we are the generation Yahshua spoke of and the many awful and horrific prophecies that are described will occur in most of our lifetimes.

In Part 2, instead of using scripture alone to validate the generation which Yahshua spoke of, let’s use…science.  Science?  Yep, you read that right.  If we accept the fact that any scientific method of measurement can only have one correct answer, then–yes–by using science, we can also prove that we are living in “that generation” which will see all these things.  Here is what I mean.

Most students of the Bible are well aware of Yahweh’s master plan which contains a certain number of years of man’s self-governance on earth, followed up by another period in which our Messiah, Yahshua, will return and take his rightful place as the ruler of the earth.  These time periods consist of 4,000 years since the creation of Adam up until the birth of Yahshua.  The next period consists of the 2,000 years beyond that.  This “concludes” the 6,000 years that man will make a feeble attempt to live in peace and govern himself with whichever form of government he can devise.  Afterward, we’ll greet our elder brother, Yahshua, who will govern all the earth for the next millennium.

There are many web pages which have taken a great deal of time and thought to add up the sum of the recorded generations which are spoken of in the Old Testament.  There are slight differences in their conclusions.  Some say that the 4,000 years since Adam ended in the year 8 B.C.E.  Others have concluded that those 4,000 years took us to the year 2 B.C.E.  Virtually none of those sites have any reference to the first 4 millennia going beyond the year “zero”, so it’s fairly accurate to agree that the first 4,000 years were concluded sometime between 8 B.C.E and 2 B.C.E.  For the point I intend to make, this is sufficient.

The next 2,000 years are known perfectly.  In the 1st century A.D., the historian Josephus began to chronicle this kind of data in his desire to preserve these historical facts for all generations to come.  Since his time, other historians followed, so we have a perfect chronology of the years, events and the places where important events took place, so there’s no ambiguity about the years which comprise those 2,000 years.

If you do the math (I’ll get to the science in a moment), using the information above, you’ll notice that something odd is revealed.  If the first “4,000” years ended between 8 B.C.E. and 2 B.C.E., and the next 2,000 years is added to it, then wouldn’t that mean that ALL of the allowable 6,000 years of man’s rule on earth should have already ended between the years 1993 to 1999?  How is it that we’re still here and Yahshua has not yet arrived?  If these dates are accurate, today, in the year 2017, we’re now at year 6,018 to 6,024 of man’s rule!  What happened to the “6,000” years?  Is the Bible a lie and we’ve all been duped??

No, we haven’t been duped.  No, the Bible did not lie.  And, no–until now, almost nobody understood what Yahshua meant by “this generation”, which we can now identify using science.  Specifically, the science of Astronomy.  To do so, I’m going to cite heavily another person who gets all the credit for allowing us to understand the following.

The person I’m referring to is the late Dr. Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D. (1932 to 2002).  Dr. Martin’s academic life originally involved the study of meteorology which created his interest in astronomy.  He attained a Ph.D. in Education, followed by a Masters degree in Theology.  At one point, Dr. Martin had become the Chairman of the Theology Department at Ambassador College–my alma mater–but he departed after the academic year of 1973-1974, and since I arrived in the fall of 1974, we never met.  With his background in both astronomy and theology, this made Dr. Martin uniquely qualified to study what the Bible says about the celestial phenomena associated with the birth of our Messiah.

I discovered Dr. Martin’s important work by accident, nearly 20 years after my own graduation, as I began a more serious study of the scriptures, and was pleasantly surprised to have learned about him.  He became an author of many books, a lecturer and teacher as he pursued his passion of discovering the truth of what the Bible says, despite what people may have previously believed.  He was one of the influential people  that caused me to believe that I too may be able to understand, on my own, exactly what the Bible says, and not just depend upon letting someone else explain what “they” think it says.

In 1996, he wrote a book called “The Star That Astonished The World”, or another title–“The Star Of Bethlehem”.  This amazing book makes a very solid case of the exact date and TIME of the birth of Yahshua.  His research has been well received and highly praised by theologians, astronomers and over 600 planetariums in the U.S. alone.  He has woven the fabric of the Bible and the “wise men” who saw something remarkable in the sky (not just the “night” sky!), with the actual configurations of celestial movements over a specific period of time and juxtaposed those known facts with what the Bible tells us in both the gospels as well as Revelation.  And because his conclusions are so convincing, hundreds of  planetariums reconfigure their laser shows each December to coincide with the dates which Dr. Martin has identified as the TRUE moment that Yahshua was born.  Even though people flock to see these laser shows in December, they’re introduced to how the heavenly bodies would have looked many years ago, in September.

An important fact that Dr. Martin emphasized is that in the 1st century A.D., one of the most respected professions was that of an astronomer (not astrologer).  Throughout all of the previous four millennia, there was a very strong belief in recognizing the importance of the movement of planets, stars, the sun and moon as signs to watch, which would allow them to measure time, seasons, reveal important moments or even point to the fulfillment of prophecy.  Modern man glosses over this verse in Genesis:

Gen. 1:14–“And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”

See that?  “Signs”?  The vast majority of readers pay no attention to this specific instruction in Genesis.  Moses wrote that the celestial bodies in the heavens were given to us to identify certain SIGNS throughout the years.  It was THIS belief that existed at the end of the 1st century B.C.E. and it’s why the event that occurred required WISE men–those who had a deep understanding of the positions of the stars and planets–to know when something unique or extraordinary occurred.  There was no “Super Nova” or other such brilliant light in the sky that drew their attention.  Something like that would have been seen by everyone in the region, not just by the wise men.

No, what these wise men saw, was something that only they understood the significance of, with the rest of the population remaining oblivious to it. Our modern-day astrological signs (Leo, Virgo, etc.) were the SAME identifiable constellations that these 1st century astronomers recognized, but their purpose wasn’t anything like what their purpose is used for today–virtually worthless psychobabble, with zero intellectual foundation.

In an earlier post (here), I mentioned how the Book of Revelation is not a “mysterious” book at all.  To the contrary, it is laid bare, fully open, with no secrets, if we are willing to actually accept that truth. Dr. Martin incorporates the Book of Revelation and science perfectly, starting in Rev. 12.

Rev. 12:1-3–“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:  ² And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.  ³ And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”

This. Is. Literal.  It is not some sort of poetic metaphor that the reader has to do all kinds of somersaults and flips to try and comprehend.  This passage is a clear description of the birth of Yahshua Anointed.  The “woman” that John is describing is none other than the constellation Virgo in heaven.  If the “sun” were clothing her, this phenomena would have to be identifying the position of the sun during the day.  Obviously, you can’t see any stars during the day…but the WISE MEN of the 1st century A.D. would have known exactly where this constellation would have been 24 hours a day. And, they would have known when the position of the sun was dead-center in the torso of the constellation Virgo.  Nobody else would have known this.

Admit it–for all of your lives, did you ever imagine that one of the most significant moments in history involved the juxtaposition of a constellation in the heavens with the daytime position of the sun?  Every depiction of this moment has ALWAYS shown stars in a night sky, but that is NOT what the Bible says.

Dr. Martin discovered that the sun “clothes” the woman (Virgo) every year, but at different days of the year, for about a 20-day period of time.  So, to determine whether this passage in Revelation can identify the actual birth date of the Messiah, he needed to examine the next detail–the moon “under her feet”.  His discovery was startling, shocking and exciting.

In all of the years that preceded the end of man’s fourth millennium on earth, there was one time, and ONLY one time when the constellation Virgo would have been “clothed” with the sun AND had the moon under her feet.  THIS celestial phenomena occurred exactly during the hours of 6:15 PM to 7:45 PM on Sept. 11, 3 B.C.E.  Even THIS moment, which involved the position of the moon, happened so early in the evening, that no stars would have appeared in the sky yet.  They would not make their appearance until the sun finally set and twilight began, allowing the stars to gradually become visible.  ONLY the wise men would have known the position of the constellation Virgo…since you could not see it yet.  But you would have been able to view the late-day moon in the evening sky, in perfect alignment of the sun “under the feet” description of Virgo.  Nobody on earth other than the astronomers would have known where Virgo was at that moment.  And by the time those stars were visible to everyone else, both the sun and the moon would have long since moved away from their concurrent late-daytime position.

Therefore, at that precise moment, mankind was finished with the first 4,000 years and the next 2,000 began.  And, since there’s no year “zero” on any calendar, those 2,000 years ENDED in 1998.  The reason that we are still here and that Yahshua has not yet returned is because THIS generation is separate from the 2,000 years of the 6th and 7th millenniums.  It is an ADDITIONAL period of time which the Bible calls a unique generation which will become eye witnesses to all kind of catastrophic events which–if left to our own devices would destroy all mankind–but OUR generation (which the Bible always identifies as being 40 years long) will be SHORTENED!

Matt. 24:22–“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.“

THIS generation, if allowed to exist for the normal 40 years of how the Bible measures generations would wipe out all of humanity on the planet.  But, we will be spared from that fate because OUR generation will exist for exactly the same amount of time that Yahshua originally existed on earth (33 1/2 years), prior to his next coming.  By the way, the fact that this generation is exactly 33 1/2 years…is not random.  But, I might save that explanation for a later post.

4,000 years of human experience up to the birth of Yahshua in 3 B.C.E.

2,000 years of human experience up to Sept., 1998.

33 1/2 years, identifying “that generation”, separate from all other generations that have ever existed.  It is not a part of the 2,000 years since the time of Yahshua’s birth.

Our shortened generation is a bridge which connects the 6,000 years of man’s rule with the 1,000 year millennial rule of Yahshua Messiah.  We’re now watching the clock tick down to THE most momentous time in world history.  We are so blessed to be here on earth at this time.  I love being alive in this generation more than I can express.

For those interested in reading Dr. Martin’s book online for free, click here: