The starting dates of the 7 Times span 19 years (607-588 BC) and therefore the ending dates must also span 19 years. Now we saw a partial fulfilment of the end of the 2,520 years in the 19 years from 1914-1933, but it was clear that our understanding of the 7 Times was not yet complete. I had noticed that the true ending dates of the Times of the Gentiles (1948 and 1967) also differ by 19 years. I thought this could not be a coincidence. However these dates are about 34 years after the 7 Times ended on the original calculation. 

 
 As I sought the Lord over this puzzle, I believe He dropped the missing key into my understanding, as I realised that this was also the length of the Life of Christ. The missing key is the special and unique time of the Life of Jesus Christ, the God-man, when the true King of Israel and the King of all the Kings, was on the earth. As might be expected, the Messiah, Jesus who came to earth during these 7-Times, has put His imprint upon the course of these Times. 
 
 He was here for a little over 33.5 years (almost 34 years) as the representative of Israel. Because of the Presence of the King of Kings (the One to whom all dominion belongs), these 33.5+ years could not be counted as part of the Times of Gentile control. It could not be reckoned that the LORD Jesus Christ was under Divine Discipline or Gentile Dominion during His time on earth. Moreover, although from man’s viewpoint Israel continued to be under Gentile dominion, from God’s viewpoint she was primarily under Christ’s covering while He was presonally present with her.
Thus God had to suspend His counting of these Times during the Life of Christ. Thus the Times of the Gentiles must end over a 19 year period of time, 33.5 years later than the original calculation.
 

The Life of Christ
In order to apply this new understanding accurately to the 7 Times Prophecy, we need to understand the exact chronology of the life of Christ to get an exact measure of how long he was on the earth. You can study the charts on the next pages to get the full idea. However for the purposes of seeing the fulfilment of the 7 Times Prophecy it is enough to grasp the main facts from the Bible:
 
 1). Jesus was baptised and started His Ministry when He was 30. 
 
 2). The Feasts in John’s Gospel show that His Ministry lasted about 3.5 years. This is confirmed by the Parable of the Fig-Tree in Luke 13:6-9. Therefore from His birth to His death was about 33.5 years. 
 
 3). Knowing how God always makes His major interventions at His Feasts, we can be more precise, for their very meaning and purpose is to mark God’s major appointments in His Plan of Redemption.
 
 In particular Jesus was born at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 1:14) on the 15th day of the 7th month (Tishri) - which celebrated God’s Presence dwelling with and in man. We know that He died at Passover (the 14th day of the 1st month), which means His life was EXACTLY 33.5 years on the Jewish luni-solar calendar. 
 
 4). To these 33.5 days we need to add the 42 days from His death 
to His ascension to Heaven, to get His total time on earth, 
that is unreckoned time in the Times of the Gentiles.
 
 5). To get the exact length of His life to the day we need to fix 
the year of His death and resurrection at AD 33. 
 
 This is confirmed by a number of considerations:
*He died at Passover (14th Nisan) which had to be a Friday that year (the day before the Sabbath). Despite the Wednesday and Thursday theories, the Friday crucifixion followed by the Sunday resurrection on the 3rd day is the plain meaning of the Gospel writers and is confirmed by Church history to the earliest times. For those concerned about the 3 days and 3 nights see the charts at the end. A Friday Passover limits the options to AD 30 or 33.
 
 *There was a supernatural darkness on the day of the Cross prophesied in Amos 8:9 and Joel 2:31. This was also recorded by 
 
 the Roman historians and one of them even dated it to AD 33! 
See the Appendix: “The day the sun stopped shining.”
 
 *Also on Passover that year was April 3rd (on the Julian calendar used at that time which corresponds to April 1st on our current Gregorian Calendar). As you can verify from the NASA tables at the back (see also http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/phase/phasecat.html) there was a lunar eclipse that evening, the earth’s shadow causing a blood-red moon, thus fulfilling the double astronomical sign in Joel 2:31 that the sun would turn to darkness and the moon to blood before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord (this is literally: ‘the Day of the Lord’s Manifestation’ fulfiled initially in His glorious Resurrection), as Peter pointed out a few days later at Pentecost in Acts 2:17-21, which would have convinced many that Joel’s prophecy was indeed being fulfilled and the Spirit was being poured out on all flesh. Now we know there is also a future fulfilment of this prophecy at the Second Coming at the end of the rerun of Daniel’s 70th Week, just before which the sun will again turn to darkness and the moon to blood, but this does not discount the wonderful fact that there was also a fulfilment in AD 33.
 
 6. Going back 33.5 years from Passover AD 33 (April 1st) takes us to Christ’s birth at Tabernacles 2 BC (October 12th). Remember there is no Year 0. The year 2 BC for Christ’s birth agrees perfectly with early Church historians. In more recent times 4/5 BC became popular among scholars because a certain interpretation of Josephus’ account of Herod the Great’s life and death has sadly dominated. 
 
 However many scholars (including W.Galloway, Rutherford, W.Filmer and E.Martin) now realise that this was all in error and that when Josephus is correctly understood Herod died in 1 BC or 1 AD (see the chart called ‘Herodian Confusion’) which means Christ’s birth in 2 BC is consistent with Josephus. Evaluating all the evidence on this issue for the revised edition of his classic ‘Handbook of Biblical Chronology’ has caused Jack Finegan to change his date for the birth of Christ from 5 or 4 BC to 3 or 2 BC.
 
 *42 days from April 1st 33 AD takes us to the evening of May 13th when the Ascension took place (Acts 1). Therefore we now know the length of the Life of Christ to the very day.

 
 Thus the Times of the Gentiles must end over a 19 year period of time, just over 33.5 years later than the original calculation gave.
 
 *From the first starting point in Tishri (September/October) 607 BC, 2520 years took us to 1914 (the start of nation-shaking). When we then add the 33.5 years of the Life of Christ, which is not included in the 7 Times, we get to May 1948
- the rebirth of the nation of Israel!
 
*From the final starting point in Tishri (late October) 607 BC, 
2520 years took us to 1933 (the cutting off of the Gentiles). When we then add the 33.5 years of the Life of Christ,which is not included in the 7 Times, we get to June 1967 
- the recapture of the City of Jerusalem from the Gentiles! 
 
 Thus the 7 Times were due to end in 1948 and 1967, when 
(1) Israel should be regathered to her land and reborn as a nation, and (2) regain control of Jerusalem. It is a fact of history that (1) was fulfilled on May 1948 and (2) was fulfilled in June 1967. The Rebirth of Israel (1948) and the recapture of Jerusalem (1967) signalled and signified the end of the Times of the Gentiles (according to Jesus’ definition in Luke 21:24) at the exact time predicted by the 7-Times Prophecy, proving that these events were not historical accidents, but acts of God in fulfilment of prophecy. Therefore Israel is now a clear sign that we are in the end-times!
 __________________________________________________________________________________________*As the 33.5 years measured the time from His birth to His fullness, so the ending of these periods (in 1948 and 1967) saw the full manifestation of that which had their spiritual beginnings at the start of these periods (1914 and 1933).