We've been speculating about the year of the rapture. It may be helpful to some folks who aren't up on their reading to know that the whole subject is based on what we researchers perceive as the definitive date for the beginning of the Millennium: the Feast of Tabernacles, 2033. We're working backward from that date, October 8 (Tishri 15), 2033. I recently stumbled upon an unexpected confirmation of my whole dating scheme, based upon a fragment of a sentence I had not exhaustively dealt with in Future History...
“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” (Revelation 17:12-14)
If “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” (II Peter 3:8), then “one hour” would equal about 41.6 years (1000 divided by 24). The authority of the “ten kings” will end when the Antichrist’s power ends (1,290 days before the end---Daniel 12:11), that is, one month before the Feast of Tabernacles 2033, which works out to September 8, 2033. Subtracting 41.6 years (41 years, 7 months) from this date, we arrive at early February, 1992.
And what happened then? On February 7, 1992, the Maastricht Treaty, otherwise known as the Treaty on European Union, was signed, establishing the EU as a political entity. The international agreement had been approved in Maastricht, Netherlands, by the heads of governments of the twelve states of the European Economic Community in December, 1991, and the TEU went into force on November 1, 1993.
Is the prophecy invalid because there were twelve, not ten “kings” who “received authority” at this time? No. The reason is latent in one of the treaty’s central provisions, the creation of an official currency designed for common use among the nations of the EU, the Euro. Precisely ten of the twelve nations who signed the Maastricht Treaty use the Euro: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (who joined a predecessor of the EU in 1948), France, Italy, and Germany (1952), Ireland (1973), and Greece, Portugal, and Spain (1986). Conspicuously absent from the Euro-nations list are the United Kingdom (1973) and Denmark (1973), the latter of which signed the treaty but failed to ratify it.
These ten “kings” represent a Europe unified by political ties and common currency, an entity that arose like a phoenix from the ashes of the old Roman empire, one that has a history of domination by the Harlot of Babylon in her Roman (that is, Catholic) guise, and one through which the Antichrist will rise to power. “These—the ten kings, whom we have now confirmed represent the EU—are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.” (Revelation 17:13) An artifact of this epiphany is that the timeline presented in FH (and in YY, I believe) has been vindicated.
kp