Will the 70th Jubilee Begin Next Month?
It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. (Leviticus 25:10)
Will the 70th Year of Jubilee Start in March 2025?
Compelling archaeological and biblical evidence suggests the trumpet announcing the coming 70th Year of Jubilee already sounded on the Day of Atonement in October 2024. If so, the 70th anniversary of Jubilee since 1406 BC will start next month, in March 2025.
The number 70 is auspicious in God’s word, symbolizing perfect spiritual order. Some examples:
70 Nations in Genesis 10
70 Israelites went into Egypt
70 elders on Mount Sinai, and later in the Sanhedrin
Jesus sent out 70 disciples, two by two
Israel exiled 70 years in Babylon
Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy
In this article you’ll learn:
What is the Year of Jubilee?
The archaeological and biblical evidence suggesting the Hebrew year starting in March 2025 is the 70th Jubilee since Israel entered the promised land in 1406 BC.
The huge implications of Jubilee’s fulfillment for Christians today. What does it mean? What can you expect?
What is the Biblical Year of Jubilee?
In the Bible, Jubilee first appears in the book of Leviticus, chapter 25…
And you shall count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years. Then you are to sound the trumpet far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land. So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan. (Leviticus 25:8-10)
The Pattern of God’s Rest: Sabbath/Shmitah/Jubilee
The 7th-Day Sabbath
God rested on the seventh day of creation and blessed the seventh day. Later, God made resting on the 7th-day the fourth commandment in the Ten Commandments.
The 7th-Year Shmitah
God extended the 7th-day Sabbath pattern into a 7th-year cycle, commanding Israel to work the land for six years and then let the land rest every seventh year.
Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. (Leviticus 25:2-4)
This 7th-year cycle is called the shmitah (pronounced shmee-tah) cycle.
After 7 Shmitahs, the Jubilee
Then, God further extended the pattern of sevens. The year after every 7th-shmitah (7x7 years) is a Jubilee year of rest.
So, here’s the progression:
God instituted the Sabbath in Genesis chapter two.
God’s rest in the weekly 7th-day sabbath is extended to a year of rest every 7th-year. Each group of 7 years is a shmitah cycle.
Then, following 7 shmitah cycles (49 years) the capstone event of God’s Sabbath rest is the Jubilee year. Thus, the Year of Jubilee is a triple-amplified, symbolic picture of complete Sabbath rest: Sabbath—>Shmitah—>Jubilee.
Ancient Israel’s Disobedience
There’s no record of Israel ever celebrating the Year of Jubilee by complying with all its requirements to forgive debts, free slaves, etc.
And the ancient Israelites didn’t obey the shmitah requirements either. After 490 years of neglecting to let the land rest every seven years, God destroyed Solomon’s temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon for 70 years—one year for every shmitah year they skipped. (2 Chronicles 36:21)
Is a Jubilee Cycle 49 or 50 Years?
Many people get confused about whether the Jubilee cycle is 49 years or 50 years.
Here’s a simple picture to show how the 50th year is also the 1st year of the next 49-year cycle. The green boxes are shmitah rest years.
The 50th year is the 1st year of the next 49-year cycle.
When Does a Jubilee Year Begin?
In the following quote, Hebrew scholar Dr. Nehemiah Gordon answers two questions.
He discusses the 49 or 50 year question above.
He clarifies when the Year of Jubilee begins—in which month of the year? It’s “announced” by a trumpet blast on the Day of Atonement, in October. Then, the Year of Jubilee begins on the next Hebrew New Year’s Day, close to the spring equinox, in March.
Here’s his quote (emphasis mine):
“The Torah says the following:
“And you shall pass a shofar of blasting in the Seventh Month on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement, you shall pass a shofar throughout all your land.” (Leviticus 25:9)
This verse is saying that a shofar should be used to announce the arrival of the Jubilee year, the 50th year in the Sabbatical system. It does not say that the Jubilee begins on the Day of Atonement, only that the impending arrival of the Jubilee year is announced on the Day of Atonement. The shofar is to be passed throughout the land on Yom Kippur of the 49th year, six months before the beginning of the coming Jubilee year. This interpretation is supported by the immediate context in Leviticus 25. Verse 8 says to count forty nine years, verse 9 says to pass the shofar throughout the land, and verse 10 says to proclaim the 50th year as the Jubilee. This shows that the shofar announcing the coming Jubilee in verse 9 is passed through the land before the Jubilee is actually proclaimed in verse 10.” Nehemiah’s Wall 9-18-22
Evidence suggesting the 70th Jubilee will Start in March 2025
Archaeological Evidence
When did the Shmitah/Jubilee Cycle Start?
To know which modern year is a Jubilee year, we must have a reference point to calculate from.
According to Leviticus chapter 25, the Shmitah/Jubilee cycle started when Israel entered the Promised Land.
When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. (Leviticus 25:2-4)
This BibleArchaeology.org article that convincingly proves that Israel entered the Promised Land in 1406BC. Reputable secular sources widely agree on this date. A search on their website will provide many references to 1406BC. Here is one of them:
The commencement of the conquest can be dated exactly. With the exodus datable to 1446 BC, the conquest automatically is dated to 1406 BC, because for “40 years the sons of Israel walked in the wilderness” before entering Canaan (Josh 5:6). Since the crossing of the Jordan River transpired on the 10th day of the first month, a date of 28 April 1406 BC is fixed as the day in which the Israelites crossed into Canaan (Josh 4:19). BibleArchaeology link
Biblical Evidence
Based on this 1406BC start date and a 49-year Jubilee cycle, the 70th Jubilee Year will start on Day 1 of the Hebrew calendar in 2025. Depending on which Hebrew calendar God uses, the new year will begin on either March 26 (God’s solar calendar) or March 30 (Nissan 1 on the Jewish lunar calendar) in 2025. (To learn why I say it’s ‘God’s solar calendar,’ read this post.)
Here are my calculations:
2025AD + 1406BC -1* = 3430 years.
*You need to subtract one because there is no year zero on a BC and AD timeline. As soon as 1 BC ends, AD 1 starts. So between the first of January 1 BC and the first of January AD 1, it’s precisely one year.
3430/49=70
The pattern and dates fit exactly, testifying to the precision of God’s plan.
What are the Implications of Jubilee’s Fulfillment for Christians Today?
What Can You Expect?
My Safe Answer
The Year of Jubilee is a “triple-amplified, symbolic picture of complete Sabbath rest.”
7-days Sabbath—>7-years Shmitah—>7x7 years Jubilee
So, what is God’s rest?
God’s rest means much more than simply not doing work on Saturday or Sunday.
God’s Rest
From the 7th day of creation, the concept of God’s rest has been fundamental to man’s relationship to God.
Hebrews 3:7 to 4:13 is a very mysterious and challenging passage about entering God’s rest. After relating how ancient Israel failed to enter God’s rest because of their “evil heart of unbelief,” he exhorts Christians,
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (Heb 4:9-11)
Since Jubilee is a ‘triple-amplified, symbolic picture of complete Sabbath rest,’ and this passage in Hebrews teases a promise of entering into a higher-level experience of God’s rest, I think it’s safe to assume some of Jesus’s disciples will enter into this higher level of God’s rest during the Year of Jubilee.
My Not-So-Safe Answers
The Year of Jubilee, beginning in March 2025, could restore our ancient spiritual inheritance in God’s kingdom. When the biblical Jubilee is fulfilled, our veil of flesh and unbelief will be removed, and we’ll finally recover our pre-existent state of glory and joy in YHWH’s presence. Just as the Israelites returned to their ancestral allotment of land, God will restore us to our ancient pre-Adamic position in His kingdom, completely reconciled and reinstated through His infinite grace and love.
Christians have a spiritual ‘promised land’ to enter. And what better time to enter our promised land than on the 70th Jubilee anniversary—at the end of the age?
The Year of Jubilee is when God will restore our spiritual inheritance. Our inheritance includes:
Deliverance from our sinful nature
Glorification as sons of God
Immortality
Our restoration in God’s kingdom.
I realize many of these ideas are new to most Christians. If you’re curious to learn more about these unconventional views, there’s much more detail in my 2017 eBook — the Overcomers’ Treasure Map.
The Rapture?
Many Christians on YouTube, etc., are excitedly talking about the 2025 Jubilee as potentially when the rapture will occur. I don’t disagree with the timing, but I have a different expectation of what’s going to happen in the rapture.
I’m looking for a rapture (Greek: harpazo) like Paul’s, who was caught up (harpazo) to heaven, shown many wonderful things, and then he returned as a mortal to fulfill his ministry on earth. (see 2 Corinthians 12:2)
The manifested sons of God (Romans 8:19) have a role to play in the end time, and their harpazo experience will empower and commission them to do it. Those who’ve read my novel trilogy will recognize this from Katie’s experience in Book 2—Martyrs and Miracles. After a week in paradise, she returned with her 143,999 brethren to proclaim the gospel ultimatum to every soul on earth.
Most evangelical pastors teach that God will rapture living believers up to heaven, where they’ll be changed incorruptible (resurrected) in the twinkling of an eye. Unfortunately, this doctrine doesn’t reconcile with Revelation 20:4-5, which says only those overcomers who were beheaded or rejected the mark of the beast will partake in the first resurrection. All others (believers and unbelievers) will be resurrected at the end of the millennium.
Bottom Line
We won’t have long to wait. We’ll soon see if the 70th Jubilee Year starts being fulfilled at the end of next month.
Either way, keep watching and be ready.
I've been tracking with a lot of what you're saying here but I do have a couple questions. Do you have any further references on the 1st year of the next cycle beginning on the 50th year of the previous cycle? The best argument I see for that right now is that some of the other signs point to this year being the Jubilee. I still, though, question why Shavuot is a 50 but does not (seemingly) begin a new cycle.
Also, it's clear that, if Usher's dates are right, and if the 50/1 count is the right accounting, 2025 (on 1 Nisan) would be the 70th Yovel, but I've always assumed when Jesus started his ministry by proclaiming Isaiah 61 (Luke 4) he was declaring that it was the time of release and that it would be a Jubilee year. But, if this Jubilee cycle is this accounting, there would've been a Jubilee in 16 AD and then not another one until 65 AD (at least that's the math my ridiculous spreadsheet came up with...). So either Jesus began his ministry in 16 AD or that proclamation wasn't proclaiming Jubilee, even though that's what should be expected by the reading of the Jubilee scripture (especially since he says that the scripture was fulfilled that day).
Sorry for the long comment but I was just bouncing some of my thoughts your way. I hope this all makes sense and I look forward to your thoughts.