Israel Coming Together As A Nation In 1948

Israel Coming Together As A Nation In 1948

Have you ever read Robert Anderson’s The Coming Prince? In the book he calculated how to show when the Old Testament showed the Messiah would come. Using Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks (70 x 7 years, 490 years). According to the context, the weeks referred to are weeks of years - ie. each week is seven years; therefore 70 weeks would equal 490 years.

Daniel 9:24-27 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

The first 69 weeks (483 years) led to Messiah the Prince (the last seven being the 7 year tribulation period, which is still to come and which the book of Revelation primarily focusses on). Dating from the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem - which historically was 445 BC - 483 years comes out to April 6, 32 AD, to the exact date.

Nehemiah 2:1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.

See also Nehemiah 2:2-8. Nehemiah spoke to king Artaxerxes, and a decree was made in the twentieth year of his reign that Jerusalem could be restored and rebuilt.

Robert Anderson got his calculations by taking 483 years, times 360 days per year (as Revelation shows the Jewish year is), divided by our calendar year of 365 days a year. (See Revelation 11:2-3. 42 months for the last 3 1/2 years times 30 days a month equals 1260 days.)

483 x 360 (the Jewish year) = 173,880 days

Divided by 365 (our modern calendar year) = 476.38 years

Minus 445 BC takes us to 31.38 AD (now add one year because there is no year 0)

That takes us to April 6, 32 AD.

Several years ago, I was reminded of something I had read where the calculations of several Bible passages also came out to 1948. I did not create this formula, but tried to recreate something I had read 20 or more years prior to this.

I was reading Ezekiel 4 this morning.

Ezekiel 4:4-6 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Using the same calculations Robert Anderson used to calculate the date when Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey (Palm Sunday, April 6, 32 AD).

Ezekiel 4:1-8: 390 days + 40 days = 430 days.

A day for a year: 430 years. Minus 70 years of captivity. 360 years then times 7.

430 days - a day for a year - 430 years minus the seventy years in Babylon. Then times 7 according to Leviticus 26. Please see the whole chapter for context.

Leviticus 26:18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

Leviticus 26:21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.

Leviticus 26:23-24 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

Leviticus 26:27-28 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

If Israel kept walking in rebellion against the Lord, they would be punished seven times more for their sins. Only some of the nation went back to Jerusalem after being released from their Babylonian captivity. The final judgement in Leviticus 26 was for the Jews being scattered around the world in exile, in the lands of their enemies.

Now consider the following calculations, using the same method that Robert Anderson used to determine when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in AD 32. There are yet 360 years of punishment remaining out of the 430 years that God said He would judge them and scatter them among the nations.

360 years x 7 = 2520 years

2520 x 360 days a year (for the Jewish year) then divided by 365 days a year (for our years)

2520 x 360 = 907,200 days

divided by 365 = 2485.48 (rounded up)

According to Wikipedia, the seventy year Babylonian captivity ended in 538 BC

2485.48 minus 538 gives us 1947.48 years (add one year because there is no year 0)

If this part matters, it should be easy to verify again, but from what I recall, when they were released from the Babylonian captivity, it was supposedly in the fall. 1948 and 1/2 years brings us to spring 1948.

Using Robert Anderson's calculations (which MANY believe are right on), and several Bible passages about judgement on the nation of Israel, we can see that this presents a pretty clear calculation to the year 1948, when Israel became a nation again on May 14, 1948.

Some food for thought for those who deny that the nation of Israel that came together in 1948 is in fact the same nation that God made His everlasting covenant with all those years ago. Though they were put on the shelf for close to 1900 years, God is not finished with them yet!

Written out on July 6th, 2026
Jerry Bouey