Repressive governments and employers, debt, discrimination, disability, disease and the ultimate oppressor, the fear of death, are among the things that shackle mankind.
But there is good news. A Deliverer has come to set us free. On a Sabbath morning 2,000 years ago, Jesus stood up at the synagogue and read from Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent ... moreBy TW Tramm 👇👑🎺
THE Bible teaches that we are all “prisoners.”
Repressive governments and employers, debt, discrimination, disability, disease and the ultimate oppressor, the fear of death, are among the things that shackle mankind.
But there is good news. A Deliverer has come to set us free. On a Sabbath morning 2,000 years ago, Jesus stood up at the synagogue and read from Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18, 19).
Jesus was declaring His role as the Redeemer who will grant freedom at the “year of the Lord’s favor” (Eph. 1:13, 14).
JUBILEE
In Leviticus, God instructs the Israelites to proclaim a special year of liberty:
“When you enter the land I am going to give you …. count off seven sabbath years … so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years …. Then have the trumpet sounded …. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants …. It shall be a jubilee for you” (Lev. 25:8–11).
The call to freedom after 49 years is rooted in a biblical statute called the law of redemption. According to this law, if a person or piece of property has been sold to cover a debt, a near relative, or kinsman, may redeem them by buying them back. If a person who is sold into bondage has no kinsman to buy him back, however, the law requires that he be released, regardless, at the year of redemption, or Jubilee (Lev. 25:15–55).
Prophetically, the Jubilee illustrates God’s plan to liberate mankind from the slavery of mortal existence brought about by Adam’s sin. When the first man sinned, he and all of his descendants were sold into bondage. Since no sinful man can pay the cost of what Adam sold, the role of humanity’s kinsman redeemer belongs solely to our blood relative Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh, assumed our debt, and paid it with His life.
And so, God’s plan to permanently unshackle mankind is spelled out in the law of redemption as it pertains to the Jubilee. The Jubilee, or year of release, foreshadows the liberation from death at the resurrection–rapture:
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet … the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality …. then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’” (1 Cor. 15:51–54).
That the Rapture of the Church coincides with the Jubilee, or year of redemption, is implied throughout the New Testament:
• Paul speaks of the “liberty” and bodily “redemption” of the Church at Jesus’ coming (Rom. 8:19–23).
• Jesus tells His followers that when they see the signs of His coming, to look up because their “redemption” is near (Luke 21:28).
• Christians are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of “redemption” (Eph. 4:30).
CALCULATIONS
With the prophetic significance of the Jubilee in view, the question becomes, when is the next Jubilee?
Since no historical document exists to confirm any past Jubilee, no one knows for certain. However, since God instructed the Israelites to start counting Jubilees upon entering the Promised Land (Lev. 25:2)—an event that most chronologists date to 1406 BC—it is calculated that 2025 is a Jubilee:
1406 BC + 70 Jubilee periods (3,430 years) = 2025
Bolstering the 2025 Jubilee reckoning are a number of other calculations and concurrences:
• 2025 marks one Jubilee period (seven weeks) since a master plan to rebuild Jerusalem was published in 1970 (Dan. 9:25).
• 2025 marks 10 Jubilee periods (70 weeks) since an order to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall by King Suleiman in AD 1535 (Dan. 9:25).
• 2025 is a Jubilee per the Catholic reckoning. This is significant because, due to the way the popes count Jubilees (every 50th or 25th year since AD 1300), there has never been a concurrent biblical–Catholic Jubilee, until 2025, which is a Jubilee per both reckonings.
• A 2025 Jubilee synchronizes with Ezekiel’s Jubilee in 573 BC, when the prophet saw a vision of the ultimate Temple in the “25th year” (Ezek. 40). What’s more, like the 2025 Jubilee, Ezekiel’s Jubilee is a 70th Jubilee, as counted from Creation (4004–03 BC + 70 Jubilee periods = 573 BC).
• A 2025 Jubilee synchronizes with Josiah’s Jubilee in 622 BC, when the 25-year-old king initiated major religious reforms after discovering the Book of the Law (2 Kings 22, 23).
• 2025 saw Donald Trump become president of the nation comprised of 50 states, and which is founded on the Jubilee principle of liberty, evoking the Jubilee command: “Sound the trumpet …. [then] consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty” (Lev. 25). Coincidentally, the words “America” and “Donald” both have a gematria value of 50, the number of Jubilee.
• Nisan 2025 marks the year anniversary of the American solar eclipse, which had a distinct Jubilee theme. Besides completing a giant ‘X’ across the Jubilee nation (https://tinyurl.com/3fybtwsn), the eclipse occurred on the constellation “Band” that binds the fish of Pisces, denoting a release from bondage, as in the Jubilee (https://tinyurl.com/54vr7ncx).
Additionally, since God is known to speak through even chapter and verse numbers, it is noteworthy that:
• Leviticus ‘25’ details the redemption and Jubilee statutes.
• Jeremiah ‘25’ states that the Jews will be redeemed after 70 years (2025 marks Israel’s 70th Jubilee).
• Verse ‘25’ of Daniel’s Weeks Prophecy contains the only mention of a Jubilee period in Scripture.
• Matthew ‘25’ contains the parable about the bridegroom (Jesus) coming at midnight.
• Verse ‘25’ of Acts 16 recounts Paul’s midnight release from jail, when a supernatural earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, all the doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose—a picture of the Jubilee Rapture.
• Genesis ‘25:20’ (2025 reversed) states that Isaac, a type of Christ, married Rebekah, a type of the Church, when he was 40 years old. The striking parallel is that 2025 marks the 40th Jubilee since Jesus’ wedding promise to the Church (Acts 2). What’s more, some chronologies date the wedding of Isaac and Rebekah to 2025 BC.
Finally, with the Gregorian year 2025 in view, it is significant that in biblical numerology the number 20 denotes a period of waiting or expectancy, and the number 25 (5 x 5) signifies “grace upon grace,” making 2025 a fitting year for the Church’s waiting period, or “Age of Grace,” to end.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The Jubilee statutes in Leviticus illustrate God’s plan to redeem mankind.
At the final Jubilee, Jesus’ followers will be liberated from every type of bondage, including death.
While only God knows when the final Jubilee is, a concurrence of timelines suggests that it could be 2025. Counting from 1406 BC, the current year marks precisely:
• The 70th Jubilee.
• One Jubilee since the publishing of a master plan to rebuild Jerusalem.
• 10 Jubilees since an order to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall.
• The only concurrent biblical–Catholic Jubilee.
• 53 Jubilees since Ezekiel’s Jubilee.
• 54 Jubilees since Josiah’s Jubilee.
Additionally:
• 2025 marks the beginning of Trump’s last term as leader of the Jubilee nation.
• Nisan 2025 marks the year anniversary of America’s Jubilee-themed eclipse.
• Chapters and verses numbered 25 point to the Jubilee.
• The numbers 20 and 25 (2025) signify a period of waiting and grace.
Could 2025 be the “year of the Lord’s favor?”
For those longing for the ultimate freedom, it is a thrilling possibility to consider.
. . .
NOTES:
1. While the Jubilee is the year of redemption for those who know Jesus, it is a “day of vengeance” for those who do not (Isa. 61:2).
2. Another Jubilee calculation, based on the Sabbatical chronology associated with Ben Zion Wacholder, has the potential Jubilee ending at Nisan 2025: https://tinyurl.com/342zf67b
3. That 2025 marks the 70th Jubilee is significant because the number 70 signifies a release from bondage, as in the Jubilee, and the culmination of God’s redemptive plan (Jer. 29:10; Dan. 9:24).
5. Historical records indicate that AD 1535 is when Suleiman, the longest reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, ordered the reconstruction of the city walls of Jerusalem as part of a broader effort to restore and fortify important cities within his empire. Significantly, in the process of rebuilding, Suleiman ordered the Golden Gate, also known as the Gate of Mercy, to be sealed permanently. The reason for the sealing was to prevent the fulfillment of a Jewish prophecy, based on Ezekiel 44:1–2, which states that when Messiah comes, he will enter Jerusalem through this specific gate.
6. Catholic Jubilees since 1300:
1300: Boniface VIII
1350: Clement VI
1400: Boniface IX
1450: Nicholas V*
1475: Sixtus IV
1500: Alexander VI
1525: Clement VII
1550: Julius III
1575: Gregory XIII
1600: Clement VIII
1625: Urban VIII
1650: Innocent X
1675: Clement X
1700: Innocent XII and Clement XI
1725: Benedict XIII
1750: Benedict XIV
1775: Pius VI
1825: Leo XII
1875: Pius IX
1900: Leo XIII
1925: Pius XI
1950: Pius XII
1975: Paul VI
2000: John Paul II
2025: Francis
*Starting in 1450, the Popes began declaring Jubilees every 25 years.
7. Biblical Jubilees since 1300, based on a presumed 2025 Jubilee:
8. Ezekiel’s Temple vision occurred in the fourteenth year after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians (Ezek. 40:1). Most contemporary scholars agree that the destruction of Jerusalem occurred in 587 BC. Counting 14 years from then, we arrive at 573 BC, “Ezekiel’s Jubilee.” One reason Ezekiel’s vision is believed to have occurred in a Jubilee year is that the theme of the vision is restoration and kinship with God (Ezek. 43–48), the fundamental themes of Jubilee.
9. 622 BC is traditionally considered a Jubilee because it is when King Josiah initiated a return to principles that resonate with the Jubilee themes of land restoration, debt forgiveness, and liberation. Josiah’s actions symbolized a spiritual renewal that paralleled the physical restoration expected during an actual jubilee year.
