I almost missed it! Sure, I knew that the world is a huge mess. There's Putin and Iran and China and a myriad of fears fueled by fear mongers. There's massive uncertainty about the roller coaster ride of the stock market! And, I don't mean to be trite, but as all Chicago Cubs (an American Major League baseball team) fans know, there's also the fact that this current Cubs team has a good chance of breaking "the curse of the goat" by making it to the World Series – their first since 1945.
During the last week or two of August a few people asked me about Shemitah. I knew about the goat curse of the Cubs but here I am, a Christian minister, and I had no idea about Shemitah, so I had to look it up. Before I looked it up, silly me, I would have believed you if you told me that Shemitah was a new electric car or another new raw fish craze, like sushi. But then, finding out Shemitah was now presumed to be another "sign of the end" I had a few more conversations with people who were 1) really worried about all of the doomsday predictions for September 2015 and 2) others were really worried that their family and friends were buying up freeze dried food and moving to the middle of Kansas to get ready for Shemitah.
Shemitah refers to an old covenant mandated cycle I am well aware of, but until now, not by that name. According to the old covenant, Shemitah is a seven year land rest for the land, and "at the end of every seven years you must cancel debts" (Deuteronomy 15:1). The last day of the Shemitah this year is September 13.
According to the current doomsday prophecies and their prognosticators, since September 13 is on a Sunday, then either Friday, September 11 or Monday, September 14, the U.S. stock market will crash. But I don't get it – they are all saying the Dow Jones will crash. But the United States is in massive debt to the Chinese. So, wouldn't it be just as logical to predict that President Obama will sign another executive order, and declare that the entire United States will now live by the stipulations of the old covenant? That would be convenient, wouldn't it? Then, wouldn't it make sense that Obama would then inform President Xi Jinping that because of Shemitah the United States has no debts to China whatsoever. Won't the Shanghai markets crash and won't the Dow Jones soar?
According to the end times marching and chowder society, September 15 will be another cataclysmic day, because again, according to the old covenant, September 15 begins the Jubilee Year. The Jubilee Year, explained in the 25th chapter of Leviticus, follows a cycle of seven Shemitahs – seven cycles of seven years. Among other stipulations, because land cannot be sold permanently (Leviticus 25:25) all those whose real property was taken or sold during the previous 50 years may now return to their property (Leviticus 25:13).
Okay, we're not done yet – but just a question. The vast majority of those predicting end-of-the-world upheavals are doing so in the name of Jesus, but all their predictions are based on the law of Moses. So how does that work exactly? Where is Jesus in all of this lunacy?
