This idea has been circulating the web and the question, or statement, has been sent to me on email recently. Let us address this.

The 40 years of warning in Bible history

God has used a period of circa 40 years of warning several times in the Bible. Two of the most notable times are the time before the destruction of the first and second temple. Both times, the destruction of Jerusalem is typified in the destruction of the world. Jesus even made that parallel himself in Matthew chapter 24.

From the time Jesus started His ministry until the city was taken there were approximately 40 years, and from Jeremiah started his ministry until the city was taken there were also approximately 40 years.

Jonah warned the inhabitants of Nineveh 40 days before the planned destruction and sometimes in Bible prophecy, a day can symbolize a year, although it was 40 physical days in the time of Jonah it could still prophetically mirror other events of destruction. One such occasion is when Ezekiel is asked to use a tile as a foundation to create a model of Jerusalem and then lay siege against the model for 40 days, one day for each year: “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» (Eze 4:6) 

The children of Israel were given 40 years in the wilderness before entering the Promised land. However, when they entered, it was a joyous event, but not for the residents in Canaan. But because of the lack of preparedness and also the disobedience of God’s people causing the prolonged 40 years, the Canaanites were granted an additional 40 years of probation before their destruction.

So, the period of 40 years have been used many times in the Bible. It is therefore understandable that several people are interested to see if something will happen 40 years after the gospel of the Ark of the Covenant discovery was given.

The 40 years Israel would spend in the wilderness were prophesied ahead of the fact. However there was no 40-year prophecy before the destruction of Jerusalem, it just happened that way.

Neither is there any time prophecy discovered that speaks of a forty-year period in regards to the Ark of the Covenant discovery and the reveal of the ten commandments.

This leaves us with this expectation as pure speculation.

A lot of false teaching is built on using examples from the Bible to speculate. However, it does not mean it will not happen this way either. The closest connection to the Ark of the Covenant and a period of 40 years, is the 40 years in the wilderness where at the end of that time period God’s people were told to follow the Ark of the Covenant out into the Jordan river where it stood until they all had passed over safely into the promised land. This has much symbolism to the end time and certainly to the discovery, however it takes a stretch and speculation to make it a time prophecy. When God gives a time prophecy in the Bible it is usually given directly by Him or an angel and it is told what it is about, when it starts and what it ends with. And there is no such Ark of the Covenant prophecy given directly.

We are left with this; that only God knows His times and He has linked the appearance of the law with an event taking place and not by a revealed time prophecy. But God also knows everything that will happen in advance and can plan when something is discovered with a future event.

The important thing to understand here is that the Bible tells us nothing about this and we can not treat this idea as anything but speculation.

However as we will see, God does sometimes use past stories to give us an understanding of the future events, they are parallel stories. And it is in these parallel stories alone that the 40 years can be applied.

Another factor worth noting is that, as in the email sent me that forty year mark is in 2022 can be right but also wrong after the Biblical way of counting. In the Bible, they counted differently than we do today and especially in the parallel stories the accuracy of the 40 years can be questioned. If we go by the Gregorian calendar and the modern way of counting, 40 years has passed on the 6th of January 2022 since the 6^th of January 1982 when Ron found the Ark.
However, God does not use a calendar named after a pope (Gregorian calendar) and a Caesar (Justinian calendar). He has His own calendar. In the Bible, there is no exact date given on which year we are living in after Creation or the fall of man. It is impossible to count exactly the date from the Biblical narration. Although we can come close, there are a few overlapping places and many gaps. One is the kings list where one usually overlapped the other in the same year, and the other is the ages as it is not said WHEN during their age they had their sons. It would be presumptions to think they all had their sons on their birthdays and so over time years can be added or even subtracted by all the months not counted. Why subtracted? I will explain the Biblical method. Although it is providing ancestry lists with ages and, as mentioned, in the chronicles of kings, there are still some gaps or confusion in the list that makes it hard to pin the exact date. So we can not count our way to the Biblical year we are currently living.

So, as an example I am just going to use the 40 years in a random year example. Let us say Ron discovered the Ark in the year 6001 in the Biblical calendar (just for example).

If Ron’s discovery had been recorded in the Bible in the similar way a king was recorded it would have looked more like this: “In the 6001st year, in the 10th-day of the 10th month Ron discovered the Ark of the Covenant”. In Biblical days it would not have been counted as zero. They did not need full years or days to start a count or end a count. They called the time of the event the year even if it did start 10 months before.
So let us say you are turning 40 years old. Today, you would say that you are 39 when people ask you. However, if it was in the past you would say you were in your 40th year instead of saying 39.

It is a different way of thinking and speaking that is lost in the western world today, but we still find it in the Bible.

One example is all the kings’ lists but there is also another right here:

«And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them…» (Deu 1:3)

This is in our language the 39th year and 11th month, but here it is called the fortieth year.

So, coming back to the 40 years connected to this discovery. If we are to count the Biblical way after God’s calendar, the Biblical year Ron found the ark started in the Gregorian year of 1981 in the spring. And then, that Biblical year the tenth Biblical month landed right into the Gregorian year of 1982. However, sometimes like this year (2020) the tenth day of the tenth-month lands in December before the change of the Gregorian year. So 39 years by the Biblical calendar are marked at the end of 2020 and not 2021.

And if you start counting the year Ron found the Ark as tenth month in year 1 (in our example 6001) then the fortieth year from Ron finding the Ark, began in spring 2020 (year 6040 in our example). And the tenth month of the tenth year in 2020 is around Christmas day 2020.

(If the tenth day of the tenth month this year had landed in January like it did in 1982 it would have been in 2021). The fortieth year then ends in spring 2021 where a new Biblical year starts.

This is one way of counting that fits the Biblical way. However if you want to change it up and count the Biblical year Ron found the Ark as year 0 (not common in the Bible) then the fortieth year starts in the spring of 2021, a few months away. And the completion of exactly 40 years lands on the 10^th month of the 10^th day either in 2021 or 2022 all depending on when the tenth biblical month lands that year.
(In case this was confusing see table below:)

Spring 1981 to spring 1982 → year 1 (Example 6001)

Spring 1982 to spring 1983 → year 2 (Example 6002)

Spring 1983 to spring 1984 → year 3 (Example 6003)

Spring 1984 to spring 1985 → year 4 (Example 6004)

Spring 1985 to spring 1986 → year 5 (Example 6005)

Spring 1986 to spring 1987 → year 6 (Example 6006)

Spring 1987 to spring 1988 → year 7 (Example 6007)

Spring 1988 to spring 1989 → year 8 (Example 6008)

Spring 1989 to spring 1990 → year 9 (Example 6009)

Spring 1990 to spring 1991 → year 10 (Example 6010)

Spring 1991 to spring 1992 → year 11 (Example 6011)

Spring 1992 to spring 1993 → year 12 (Example 6012)

Spring 1993 to spring 1994 → year 13 (Example 6013)

Spring 1994 to spring 1995 → year 14 (Example 6014)

Spring 1995 to spring 1996 → year 15 (Example 6015)

Spring 1996 to spring 1997 → year 16 (Example 6016)

Spring 1997 to spring 1998 → year 17 (Example 6017)

Spring 1998 to spring 1999 → year 18 (Example 6018)

Spring 1999 to spring 2000 → year 19 (Example 6019)

Spring 2000 to spring 2001 → year 20 (Example 6020)

Spring 2001 to spring 2002 → year 21 (Example 6021)

Spring 2002 to spring 2003 → year 22 (Example 6022)

Spring 2003 to spring 2004 → year 23 (Example 6023)

Spring 2004 to spring 2005 → year 24 (Example 6024)

Spring 2005 to spring 2006 → year 25 (Example 6025)

Spring 2006 to spring 2007 → year 26 (Example 6026)

Spring 2007 to spring 2008 → year 27 (Example 6027)

Spring 2008 to spring 2009 → year 28 (Example 6028)

Spring 2009 to spring 2010 → year 29 (Example 6029)

Spring 2010 to spring 2011 → year 30 (Example 6030)

Spring 2011 to spring 2012 → year 31 (Example 6031)

Spring 2012 to spring 2013 → year 32 (Example 6032)

Spring 2013 to spring 2014 → year 33 (Example 6033)

Spring 2014 to spring 2015 → year 34 (Example 6034)

Spring 2015 to spring 2016 → year 35 (Example 6035)

Spring 2016 to spring 2017 → year 36 (Example 6036)

Spring 2017 to spring 2018 → year 37 (Example 6037)

Spring 2018 to spring 2019 → year 38 (Example 6038)

Spring 2019 to spring 2020 → year 39 (Example 6039)

Spring 2020 to spring 2021 → year 40 (Example 6040)
December 24/25^th 2020 is the 40^th year since Ron found the Ark.

Spring 2021 to spring 2022 → year 41 (Example 6041)

However, if going after the exact 40 years with a full 360 days in each year we have to assume:

1. God has used exactly 40 years with 360 days this time although He did not do that in the past

2. We can know which method God is using this time without specific revelation.

Both are a bold presumption if we are not being honest with the uncertainties. Great humility is required before setting any dates considering the parallel stories, and direct revelation from God is needed and is missing in order to do so. However, there is nothing wrong, in my opinion, to speculate and notice similarities between today and in the past. Just do not set dates, but rather focus on the meaning with the parallel as I will address here.

Here is Ron Wyatt explaining the Biblical way of counting, in this instance days, taken from one of his old newsletters in the mid 1990s.:

“MAT 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

If this phrase were to be taken literally, Christ would not have arisen on the third day, but on the fourth. Yet, we are told distinctly:

MAT 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

The Hebrew idiom “three days and three nights” means simply “a period of time that covers parts of 3 days”. It may begin the last 5 hours of the 1st day, then include all 24 of the 2nd, and end after 4 hours into the 3rd day. But if we interpret it according to OUR manner of speaking today, we think it must mean 3 complete day cycles of 24 hours each. Yet, this is just how the Hebrews reckoned “days”.

In the time of Esther, we see the same “idiom” and it clearly does not include all 72 hours of “3 days and 3 nights”:

EST 4:16 Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

The literal interpretation of this above verse is that Esther, her maidens, and all the Jews were to fast for 3 complete days and nights, or 72 hours, and THEN she would “go in unto the king”. Yet, we learn that she appeared before the king “on the third day” in chapter 5 verse 1. ANY time during the third day would be less than 72 hours and hence she and her maidens did NOT fast for 3 days and 3 nights.

These Biblical “figures of speech” are seen and understood from various sources- many times they can be understood in “context” or from numerous other Biblical passages on the same subject. Sometimes they are discerned from other non-Biblical documents from the same time period of the same region. In other cases, the language employed is figurative for a definite Divine purpose” (Ron Wyatt, W.A.R newsletter)

Now back to our 40 years. Even if we do not wish to count the year Ron found the Ark as the first year and we still want to start counting the first year as the one starting a couple of months after He found the Ark, the fortieth year after Ron found the Ark will run from

1^st day of Abib/Nisan at spring 2021 and last until 1^st of Abib/Nisan next spring 2022.

And then the last method is to count the exact date Ron found it and count the years from that date.

However, if we use the term «after 40 years» we can come to a completely different conclusion. It would then be at the start of the 41st year Biblical speaking.

And so our conclusion here is that WE CAN NOT KNOW FOR SURE if even the 40 years are a thing or how God counts the beginning and the end of it. We can not pin a date even with the 40 years theory, neither with the parallel stories where nothing happened on the exact 40 year day.
The purpose of answering this question is to let people know to be prepared at all times and not rest assured that you presumably have figured out the times and the events. Christ’s second coming can not be easily predicted, if at all. To understand more read the following article giving all the Biblical quotes regarding time setting in the end times: https://thirdangelsmessage.com/is-jesus-coming-in-2027-2028-or-2031/

If you read this article and investigate the Bible references there you will see there is an unpredictability in the end-time events and that Jesus even tells us why there is unpredictability. Still, God’s people will be able to know that we are close to the events by other means.

The difference between the Biblical example of 40 years and Ron’s discovery, is that the others ended with literal destruction and a perfect type would be the destruction of the world. As we see there is little time if that is to be fulfilled within the passing of 40 years.

Now, I have for a long time seen the pattern of some of the places in the Bible with the end time events and the interesting time that has gone by since Ron found the ark, and I am excited by the idea that time is close. However, I know that no date can be set and that God is full of surprises. We can not predict His moves even if we wish to.

The conclusion has to be that we need to be awake and watch the events unfold and be open to the idea that we can not know for sure but that our security lies in our relationship with God, that Christ is in our hearts, and not in the date-setting or the feeling of the need of control over the events that are to take place.

For the reasons mentioned in the article I linked to, God has to keep some secrets from even His own people in the end times for their own sake and the sake of the cause.

The time is short, however, very short. We do not know how short, but the curses and plagues have already started falling on the earth – with mercy. When the ten commandments and the blood are shown to the world and people have made their decision the plagues will fall on earth without mercy (Revelation 16). God’s people will, if faithful, stay unaffected by them and will be spared (Psalm 91).

There is not much more time to «sit on the fence» or to make the right decisions. Do not wait. Do not let the people setting dates cause you to presume that you have time, because you might not have time after all.

If God’s spirit speaks to you today, receive the invitation and settle your case with God. This is the safest choice you can make. The global tribulations coming over the earth in 2020 is just going to get worse in the time to come. There is no turning back. We have reached the end, and God’s mercy will only be available for a short time from here on out. There is no salvation in the setting of dates or the leaning on dates. It is today you need to be ready.

As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3,15).

The past meaning of 40 years/days

As mentioned before, Israels wandering in the wilderness was not God’s original plan A, but it did offer the citizens of Canaan an additional 40 years of probation. Or a little less, as some believe the time they where in the wilderness before they came to Kadesh (when they refused to enter) was subtracted from the 40 years.

In this instance a 40 year of probation is added to a people already given a time of probation which had expired.

When Jonah preached the impending destruction of Nineveh 40 days in advance, we know it was an extended mercy. Sodom and Gomorrah was given no such warning and found no escape from their judgment. However, because Nineveh was granted these 40 days, many of them converted and the time given them worked as extended probation to turn from their evil ways. Which they did.

Both times Jerusalem was destroyed, we see the same pattern. Jeremiah is called to be a prophet in King Josiah’s 13^th year of reign, about 40 years before its destruction. When the Book of the Covenant is re-discovered and the Ark is placed back into the temple in the 18^th year of his reign, Josiah pleads with the Lord for the sake of the people. In return for his effort to educate and convert the people, he is told that he will not see the destruction that was prophecized. The period of time that follows is therefore an extended time of mercy given after interceding prayer. We are also told that judgment had to come because of the sins of Manasseh, yet God chooses to wait with the judgment because of Josiah’s reform. “And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem» (Jer 15:4)

And so, Jerusalem was given an additional time period, not of an exact 40 years, as we do not know the date of the intended destruction, but of approximately 40 years. The Ark being re-instated into the temple in this time period signaled an extended period of atonement for the people.

Again, we see the same pattern, not exactly 40 years but approximately, in Christ’s time.

According to the prophecy in Daniel 9 God’s people had been given 490 years which ended sometime after Christ was crucified. People debate what year Christ was crucified but most people agree it was sometime between the year 30 to 33 AD.

However, the temple was not destroyed until the year 70 AD. Again, their probation according to the prophecy had ended, yet the Jewish nation and temple continued to stand for approximately 40 years longer.And during this time Jews were converted, while some still resisted. You could say an additional time of probation was given yet again. Jesus had talked about the destruction of the temple a few days before being killed, yet it did take around 40 years time before it was completed. God waited longer than the time of probation given them.

If looking at these patterns and placing the 40 years since the Ark was found the approximately 40 years have to be interpreted to be an extended time of probation before the fulfillment of God’s judgment which are already set in motion. Meaning the ending might have been planned already at the time the Ark was found but postponed in harmony with God’s patterns. His great love for mankind is to keep trying even a little bit more after the time is up. We see Him doing this over and over again in the past. When the time for judgment has come, God adds time.

This trait of Jesus is seen in this story:

«He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. 

Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? 

And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: 

And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.» (Luk 13:6-9)

Even when the time was up during the first temple period God waited and said to them: «For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.» (Eze 18:32) 

«The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy» (Psa 103:8)

The Lord is «slow to anger», although God has to judge, even when the time is imminent, He seems to wait in the hope of saving.
«The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance» (2Pe 3:9).

The end of the world is not something God will bring lighthearted. He is grieved beyond our imagination for every soul lost. The closed thing we have to understand is if we had to judge our own children. It is hard to understand for anyone mortal the tough decision God will have to make when He says: Enough, no more time. He says He does not want anyone to perish. He does not want anyone to die. But man leaves Him no choice. And He is doing all He can to save. When Adam and Eve sinned He did not instantly let them die, He gave them an extended time to live and came up with a plan to save them which would not destroy His authority, the law yet gives Him the desired opportunity to save them at the same time. The cost was the blood of Christ.
God is fighting for us. That is what this extended time tells us, why God has waited. Let us be supportive of our Creator and endure the waiting with patience.

It is my conviction that the time was up years ago. And that we are currently living on borrowed time. You can see my Bible study on this topic in Ark Files episode 17: https://youtu.be/8ZQUnbBXKwk

Did God pause the events when the Ark was discovered? If He did, from these Bible stories we can more easily understand why and love God for it.

Conclusion/Answer. Even with the 40 year time period, we cannot know the date or time of this event beforehand. But we can appreciate God’s mercy and recognize that we are living on borrowed time every day that passes by.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZQUnbBXKwk&feature=youtu.be