As explained and detailed in the article Growing the Kingdom of God-the Mystery of Three Seasons, Three Harvests, the Kingdom of God grows and increases in three distinct stages (Mark 4:28)—that is, three separate ages. This is all represented by the three yearly harvests in Israel when mankind must appear before the LORD. Most believers likely understand that the millennium is when Christ returns and reigns on earth for 1,000 years. It is the second harvest period. That second growth stage is for some time in the future. But, obviously, a first harvest needs to come before the second; and that is what the count of the Feast of Weeks, also known as Pentecost, celebrates: the time of the first growth stage of the Kingdom of God—the firstfruit of God’s three harvests (James 1:18; Rev 14:4; 20:6).

Since it is known how long the second growth period lasts—1,000 years—is it possible to know how long the first growth period will last, when it begins, and when it will end?

Table of Contents

• Preliminaries and a foundation
• The beginning of the barley harvest age—Jesus preaches
• But for how long?
• The count to Pentecost reveals how long
• A period of 40 days
• Counting and doing the arithmetic
• Conclusion

Preliminaries and a foundation

To understand what is about to be presented, it is essential that one first have the foundational understanding that the LORD uses numbers, multiples of numbers, and multiples of years throughout His word to communicate His intentions, His plan, its meaning, and its timing. A few examples follow.

• When Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream in Genesis 41:25-31, “The seven good cows are seven years . . . and the seven thin ears . . . shall be seven years . . .”
• In Numbers 14:34 the children of Israel are told they would wander in the desert 40 years, a year for a day, “even forty days, for every day a year . . . even forty years.”In Ezekiel 4:4-6 God says, “For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days.”
• In Revelation 13:18 we are even instructed to calculate a number to understand a prophecy. “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast . . .” But it takes understanding.
• Regarding the count to the year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25:8, “And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years.

This foundational principle—multiplying numbers with days and weeks—prophesied that the starting year of Christ’s ministry was to be AD 27. This is shown in Daniel  9:24-27 and Ezra 7. It’s commonly called the 70 weeks prophecy. The dating of the prophecy is from the “going forth of the word.” For purpose of this paper, one just needs to understand that this prophecy reveals that 69 weeks represents 483 years, which is arrived at by multiplying 7 years with 69 weeks. It’s an extremely important prophecy and principle.

This prophecy is explained well in an Adventist paper When Did the Seventy Weeks of Daniel 9:24 Begin? by William H. Shea, (Note: century72.com does not agree with Adventist theology. Nonetheless, the paper is well researched and contains a thorough explanation.) To quote the paper’s conclusion, “. . . it can be seen that the prophecy of the 69 weeks, or the 483 full historical years of Daniel 9, culminates in AD 27. . . we are not talking here about the time of Messiah’s birth or the time of His death; we are talking about the time when He would appear as the Messiah [be anointed] . . . There is . . . only one who fulfills this requirement . . .” [comment added]

This prophecy and principle is most likely the reason Simeon the priest (Luke 2:25,26; 2:36-38), a righteous and devout man, and Anna a prophetess, knew that the time was close for the “consolation of Israel”, and God revealed to Simeon “that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

Now that we have seen how prophetic numbers are used in scripture to communicate the timing of God’s plans, let us look at another place where prophetic numbers are given to indicate the time and length of the first stage of the growth of the Kingdom of God.

The beginning of the barley harvest age—Jesus preaches

The law and the prophets [are] until John; from that time the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached . . . (Luke 16:16)

As the 70 week prophecy shows, the coming of the Messiah (the Anointed) was in AD 27. And the fall of AD 27 is when Christ began to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God, after John the Baptist was put in prison. There is no indication of anyone preaching about the Kingdom of God before John. Matt 4:12 and 17, and also Mark 1:14 confirm that Jesus began to preach the same thing as John after John was put in prison. Matthew uses the term Kingdom of Heaven, which is the same thing as the Kingdom of God.

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. (Mark 1:14)

We know that John preached for only a short time before he was put into prison. The phrase in John 5:35 is variously translated, “for a season, for a time, for an hour, for a while.” Since John was born about 6 months earlier than Jesus, it is reasonable to assume that he began to preach and baptize about 6 months earlier, also in the year that began in AD 27.

But the 70-weeks prophecy in Daniel also says the Messiah’s 7-year ministry would be cut off in the middle of the week. That would be three and a half years later, in the spring of AD 31. And Christ’s ministry was cut off after three and a half years, on a Wednesday, the middle of a week.

However, that was not the end of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God. It was only the beginning of the first growth stage of the Kingdom of God—represented by Pentecost, the whole time of the barley harvest, the first of the three harvest times. It was now up to Christ’s apostles, and the disciples that would follow, to continue preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God. He told them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)

But for how long?

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matt 24:14)

The context of Matthew 24 shows that it is not the end of the world that comes, but it is the end of this present age and the return of the “son of man” (v. 30).

The apostles didn’t ask him specifically how long. They asked him when shall these things be—referring to what he said in verse 2 about the destruction of the temple—and what would be the sign of his coming? Jesus told them of various signs that would occur just before the end of this age and His return. Those signs happen relatively close to the end. But the question still remains: how long until the end of this age? Like Simeon and Anna we can know.

The count to Pentecost reveals how long

Many people only see Pentecost as a one day event on which the Spirit was first poured forth. And that certainly is no small event that occurred on that single day. It occurred on the first day of the week, fifty days after the wave-sheaf that was offered during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

However, the commandment given in Leviticus 23:15-16 instructs us, “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath . . . seven sabbaths shall be complete. . . shall ye number fifty days.”

The instruction is to actually count the 50 days. There is a reason it is called the Feast of Weeks and Pentecost. We are to actually count every day during the barley harvest—which is the the time of the first fruit of all three harvest times—until day 50 fully comes. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1 KJV) Or as the Etheridge version of the bible says, “when the days of Pentecost were fulfilled.”

If we would thoughtfully count every day as instructed, with wisdom and understanding, those days will tell us how long.

A period of 40 days

The length of time is given in the count of Pentecost. However, the count to Pentecost involves more than just the 50-day count. There is also a 41-day count.

Acts 1:2-3 in the KJV says that Jesus was seen by the apostles for “40 days” before being “taken up” into heaven. During those 40 days, he was “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” This is an important statement. However, if we rely on the KJV, as often happens we can miss something very important. The King James translators have ignored one of the Greek words in that verse. Here is a better translation of what the Greek really says:

After he had suffered, he had shown himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during a period of 40 days and telling them about the kingdom of God. —Acts 1:2,3 (ISV) 

However, there were actually 41 days in which he appeared to them. It all has to do with inclusive counting and exclusive counting. It was a period of 40 days—exclusive counting.

Exclusive counting is when we count the days from a starting day; 4 days from Sunday is Thursday (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu). Inclusive counting is when we include the starting day: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday. Five days.

An example in the gospels is the period of time, three days and nights, that Jesus was in the heart of the earth (Matt 12:40); this is exclusive counting. It is a period of time, not an inclusive counting of days. If we were to count the days inclusively, starting late on the 4th day of the week, when the burial took place, and concluding just before sunset on the sabbath, we would count 4 days—Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

Those who believe in a Friday crucifixion count inclusively. They count the last hour or two of Friday afternoon as one day and one night. Then they count the sabbath night and following day as the second day and night. Then they count the evening and night before sunrise on Sunday, ending with a supposed dawn resurrection 12 hours later, as the third day and night. Even apart from the absurdity of counting, a brief time in the afternoon as both a day and a night, the whole idea that a period of time must be counted inclusively is wrong.

The idea that Hebrew speakers always used inclusive counting for everything is just not true. A period of time, the time from today until tomorrow for example, would just be one day, even though tomorrow is the second day. It all depends on how the thought is expressed. And in the first century, Judea was ruled by Rome and strongly influenced by the Greek world. They had no tradition of using inclusive counting. The gospel writers were free to express periods of time without using inclusive counting of days.

Counting and doing the arithmetic

As previously shown, it was a period of 40 days. Not 40 different days on which he appeared. This period of 40 days is exclusive counting, just as the three days and three nights is exclusive counting of a period of time, not a count of days. The count of the period of 40 days began on the first day of the week during the days of unleavened bread when Jesus first appeared to the apostles and taught them.

John 20:19 specifies that it was still the first day of the week, even though almost every translation uses the word “evening”. Evening is the Greek word Opsios (Strong’s 3798); in this context it means late in the day—the afternoon. He waited until just before sunset to appear to the assembled apostles (Acts 1:2-3; Luke 24:27-53). He also had appeared to others earlier in the afternoon, teaching them from the scriptures (Luke 24:27).

That day, the first day of the week, was also the beginning of the count to Pentecost. That count of 50 days is 7 full weeks plus one additional day. It represents the count of seven sabbath years for 49 years, followed by a fiftieth year of release from debts (Lev 25).

The period of 40 days when Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God also began on the first day of the week, a Sunday, late in the day. A period of 40 days later (exclusive counting), when the 40-day period ended, would be late in the day, near sunset on a Friday. It was just before the start of the Sabbath when Jesus was taken up into heaven as they watched. “Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey.” (Acts 1:12)

The idea here, using the day for a year principle, is that Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God for a period of 40 days during the 50 days of Pentecost; so that each day that He spoke would represent 50 years—during which the Kingdom of God is proclaimed to the Gentiles (Is 49:6), not just the descendants of Israel.

However—and this is important—the counting of Pentecost is inclusive counting. From a Sunday to a Sunday, with every day counted, it includes 50 days. If we are to determine the number of years between the start of Christ’s ministry in AD 27, and the end of the barley harvest time—the first stage in the growth of the kingdom of God—then we must use inclusive counting for both numbers. A 40-day period includes 41 days.

Using the biblical principle of a day for a year and multiplication we get: 41 days times 50 equals 2,050 years. The barley harvest age lasts 2,050 years from AD27 until AD 2077. The first stage of growth lasts “until the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in . . . The Redeemer shall come from Sion . . .” (Rom 11;25,26, Etheridge). It will last until the days of Pentecost are fulfilled. (Acts 2:1) Then the second stage of the growth of the Kingdom of God can begin.

Conclusion

The barley harvest age—represented by the count to Pentecost—is the age during which the Kingdom of God is first proclaimed. It will end with the resurrection of those chosen as firstfruit to God (James 1:18; Revelation 14:4). They are the firstfruit of the total yearly harvest; Christ being the first of the firstfruit (This idea is expressed in Ex 23:19 KJV). The resurrected firstfruit are chosen to be a Royal Priesthood who will reign with Christ a thousand years (1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 20:4-6).

Out of all the centuries of speculation and calculation about when the end of this age will come, it looks like Isaac Newton was the closest. His calculation was AD 2060.

Some dismiss any attempts at understanding the time of Christ’s return and will quote Christ’s words from Matthew 25:13, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” Or even His words to the apostles just before he was taken up, telling them “it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father hath set within his own authority.” (Acts 1:7 ASV)

However, notice three things: firstly, the Father has set the time and season; secondly, it was not at that time for the apostles to know those times or seasons; thirdly, the prophet Daniel was told:

Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but they that are wise shall understand. (Dan 12:9,10)

In this same verse of Daniel the Apostolic Bible Polyglot says that the “chosen” are those who are ”whitened and purified by fire and sanctified,” and that “the lawless ones shall not perceive, but the intelligent shall perceive.”

These verses tell us the wise and intelligent are those who purify themselves, who keep God’s laws, and who are being refined, purified, and sanctified by fire—they are chosen. It is they who shall understand as we get closer to the “time of the end.” The apostles were not close to the time of the end.

True, no one will know the day or the hour, but our Lord’s command is to watch. This is what we should do. Christ spoke a parable: ” . . . all the trees, as soon as they put forth leaves, you see it and know for yourselves that summer is now near.” (Luke 21:29,30) And Christ also said, “Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? ” (John 4:35) The Lord is telling us there is understanding to be found in the harvests.

There are many prophetic signs left to be fulfilled, including the two witnesses. There are people who are certain that Christ’s return will be in the year 2027, two-thousand years after his ministry began. And there are those who are certain that Christ’s return will be in the year 2031, two-thousand years after his death.

Those predictions are based on a misunderstanding of the “7,000″ year plan of God. But the scriptures indicate that it is not exactly 7,000 years. There are indications that the whole plan will span 7,200 years, or 72 centuries—as the website name century72.com hints at. However, that is for another paper.

For those who are disappointed and confused come the year 2031 (and also for those who may already be disappointed and confused), perhaps they will find this paper a help. For all who are wise and are purifying themselves and being refined, we offer two scriptures:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. —2 Peter 3:3,4

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For the foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there is a cry, Behold, the bridegroom! Come ye forth to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, Peradventure there will not be enough for us and you: go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage feast: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour. —Matthew 25:1-13