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Measuring time by Sabbaths, part 2

The life of Jacob is perhaps the earliest confirmation in Scripture that time was being calculated in rest years and Jubilees from Adam. This does not necessarily mean that men understood this, but it is clear that God was doing it with or without men’s consciousness. So Jacob (and Esau, his twin brother) were born on the 43^rd Jubilee from Adam (the year 2107-2108).

Jacob lived to be 147, dying in the 46^th Jubilee from Adam. He was 130 when he went to Egypt at Joseph’s invitation (Genesis 47:8, 9). At that time, Joseph was 39. This tells us that Joseph was born when Jacob was 91 years old. Jacob had escaped to Haran when he was 77, married Leah and Rachel at the age of 84, and he finished paying his dowry at the age of 91. He remained for another six years (a total of 20) before returning to Canaan at the age of 97-98.

That was when he became an Israelite after wrestling with the angel (Genesis 32:28). His new name was given in the 45^th Jubilee from Adam, which was two Jubilees from his birth. We see, then, that the major turning points in Jacob’s life took place on rest years and Jubilees. This shows how God kept track of the Creation Jubilee calendar and exercised His sovereign will in the life of Jacob, as Paul tells us in Romans 9:11, 12,

¹¹ for though the twins [Jacob and Esau] were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, ¹² it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”

Years later, God brought the Israelites out of Egypt in the Spring of the year 2448 in order to bring them into the land of Canaan a year and a half later in the Autumn of the year 2450. In fact, they were to make this decision when the twelve spies gave their report on the 50^th Jubilee from Adam (50 x 49 = 2450). Their refusal turned the Jubilee from a day of “jubilation” to a day of Atonement, a day of mourning and fasting for refusing to enter the Kingdom.

This is another biblical example that shows how God continued to keep His Creation Jubilee calendar. In order for us to understand fully the divine plan in prophecy, we must know how God’s calendar works and must see how events in history correlate with it. A summary of events in chronological history are set forth in chapter 2 of Secrets of Time.

Blessed Time

The list of patriarchs in Genesis 5 and 10 are meant to provide us with a biblical chronology of time as well. A full chart is given in chapter 2 of Secrets of Time. There we see that Noah was born 1056 years after Adam. The flood began 600 years later in the year 1656 (years from Adam) and lasted a full year (Genesis 7:11; 8:13, 14).

In 1946, a man received revelation about Blessed Time (490), Judged Time (434), and Cursed Time (414). His son, Lalo Cadona, developed this revelation in the 1980’s and drew up chronological charts that supported the revelation. I met Lalo in April 1991 and spent a week at his house in Alturas, California, learning all that he could tell me. I then returned home (to Arkansas) and spent weeks at the Arkansas State University library, reading books on history and chronology. I wanted to test the accuracy of Lalo’s chronology.

I found some mistakes in his understanding, but the basic revelation was solid. In fact, once I corrected the chronology, I found many other proofs that he had missed.

The idea of Blessed Time is rooted in Genesis 2:3, which says that “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” He blessed not only the weekly Sabbath but also the Sabbath years and Jubilees (7 x 7 years). Blessed Time is a period of ten Jubilees (490 years), and so this defines Blessed Time, according to the Cadona revelation.

This is why Daniel’s seventy weeks (490 years) is so important. It is also a forgiveness cycle, according to Matthew 18:21, 22,

²¹ Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

When Jerusalem’s calendar was restarted in 458 B.C. in the seventh year of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:7), the seventy-week countdown began toward Christ’s crucifixion in 33 A.D. During that time, God forgave the nation once each year through the ceremonies on the Day of Atonement. When God’s obligation to forgive their sins expired after “seventy times seven,” history reached a climax, and Jesus’ death on the cross was the answer.

There are, of course, longer cycles, such as 40 Jubilees and even 100 and 120 Jubilees. The point is that God has been measuring time in terms of sevens, Jubilees, and multiple Jubilees, all of which are rooted in Blessed Time. It is imperative to learn this if one hopes to have skills that are sufficient to teach Bible prophecy—and to know the divine plan for the earth.

Cursed Time

Genesis 3:17 says, “Cursed is the ground because of you,” that is, because of Adam’s sin. This put the ground on Cursed Time, because it was under Adam’s authority. When Noah was born 1056 years later, we read in Genesis 5:29,

²⁹ Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest [nacham, “comfort”] from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed.”

The NASB (above) takes some liberties in their translation here. Noah means “rest,” but the Hebrew word used is nacham, “comfort,” as the KJV shows. Nonetheless, the verse shows that Noah was a type of the Comforter who was to bring us out of Cursed Time and into God’s rest.

The flood arrived in the year 1656 (4 x 414 years). Cursed Time is the term coined by Lalo Cadona’s father in 1946. The term is accurate insofar as it refers to the time under a curse. However, it is actually a grace period, which gives men and nations time to repent. If they do not repent, the curse—the judgment of the law—is executed.

In the case of the curse upon the ground, men were given 4 x 414 years in which to repent. When they refused, the flood was sent to execute the judgment pronounced at the start in Genesis 3:17. Only Noah and his family “found favor [khane, “grace”] in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). This provides us with a clear example of how to avoid the judgment of Cursed Time through God’s grace.

To go from Cursed Time to Blessed Time, from a chronological perspective, is to add 76 years. (414 + 76 = 490). The number 76 is the biblical number of cleansing. Noah himself was under no curse, because he himself was “a righteous man” (Genesis 6:9). Yet the rest of the people died in the flood, because they were carnal and attached to the ground. Hence, their fate was bound to that of the earth.

Lalo Cadona knew only this one example of Cursed Time, yet it was sufficient for his revelation. When I made corrections on his chronology, I discovered a half dozen more examples of Cursed Time in the Bible.

From the time that Noah cursed Canaan in Genesis 9:25 until Joshua led Israel across the Jordan to bring judgment upon the Canaanites was precisely 2 x 414 years. The Canaanites did not repent, nor did they submit to the will of Joshua (a type of Christ), and so they were judged.

Again, Ishmael was born of Hagar (an Egyptian princess, according to the book of Jasher), and 414 years later Egypt was destroyed by the plagues and the Red Sea during the time of Moses. In this case, Ishmael, being also the grandson of Pharaoh, was a part of the royal house of Egypt. He was born because Abram intended that he would be the chosen seed. This put a special responsibility upon Ishmael that he found impossible to fulfill.

By extension, it gave Egypt the responsibility to bring forth the chosen seed. For this reason, God sent the Israelites to Egypt, so that they could later be born out of Egypt. So Exodus 4:22 says,

²² Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Israel is My son, My first-born.”

Therefore also the prophet tells us in Hosea 11:1,

¹ When Israel was a youth, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.

Again, we find Jesus coming out of Egypt (Matthew 2:14, 15).

In this matter of Sonship, the Israelites under Moses followed the pattern of Ishmael whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian. In other words, they were spiritual Ishmaelites, children of the bondwoman (Galatians 4:23-25). They were “born according to the flesh” (Galatians 4:29) and therefore they were not the “children of promise” (Galatians 4:28).

Nonetheless, they were given the first opportunity to be chosen, at least on a legal level.

To be chosen, one must believe in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The angel identified Ishmael as a wild-donkey man (pareh awdawm) in Genesis 16:12). The law says that the first-born of a donkey must be redeemed with a lamb. Exodus 13:13 says,

¹³ But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons, you shall redeem.

Hence, God called those Israelites donkeys, because they were in need of redemption. They were indeed redeemed by a lamb at their first Passover just before leaving Egypt. This is what turned them from being donkeys to being the sheep of His pasture. Under the New Covenant, the Lamb is Jesus Christ (John 1:29). No one is a sheep of His pasture unless they are redeemed by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. At best, they are only donkeys, which cannot be presented to God, because they are unclean creatures.

So the children of the flesh, whether Jew, Israelite, or from another ethnicity, may all become “sheep” (Israelites) by faith in Jesus Christ. Fleshly seed can only be a donkey at best.

As we can see, Egypt itself was judged by the tenth plague specifically because they did not put the blood of the lamb upon their doorposts and lintels. But some joined the Israelites in their homes, and these were justified by faith and left Egypt with the Israelites (Exodus 12:38) to become “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38 KJV).

Psalm 103:7 says,

⁷ He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.

All of the Israelites who left Egypt saw God’s “acts,” all the miracles that He did at that time. However, only Moses knew “His ways.” There is a difference. God’s acts are written in the historical record of Scripture. Anyone can read of these things and decide whether or not to believe the account.

But to know God’s ways, I have found, it is extremely helpful to know timing. If we know WHEN those events took place, we will know WHY. If we know WHY God arranged the events at a particular time, then we will have a valuable window into the mind of God.

There are many events that occur on the feast days. Other events occur in specific years—rest years and Jubilees. These give meaning to the events themselves and establish patterns that help us understand the prophetic applications of the feast days and Jubilees—all of which are based on the biblical Sabbaths.