On September 17, 2001, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 684.81 points – just a little more than 7% (7.13%) - and set a record for largest single day U.S. stock market crash, a record that would last until September 29, 2008, when Wall Street and the rest of the world would witness an even greater collapse of 777.68 points (6.98%). Eerily, both collapses occurred exactly seven years apart on the Hebrew calendar on the day of Elul 29 in the year of the biblical Shemitah, which Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of "The Harbinger" and "Mystery of the Shemitah," describes as a year of rest for the land and the cessation of economic activity. This Shemitah year occurred once every seven years. Elul 29, the last day of the year on the Hebrew calendar, when occurring in the year of the Shemitah, was a day associated with financial nullification and the wiping away of credit and debt. Of course, in recent times, the Shemitah and Elul 29, have become associated with stock market crashes.
Thus, it was with great anticipation and considerable anxiety that market watchers waited during the Shemitah year of 2015 for Elul 29, or September 13. However, that day fell on a Sunday, and U.S., as well as global markets, were closed on that day, so there was no crash on Elul 29, although there was a partial solar eclipse, as well as a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that struck off the coast of New Zealand (fortunately, no one was injured). Not surprisingly, many critics took the opportunity to ridicule the Shemitah phenomenon and its most prominent exponent, with one headline going so far as to say that “Jonathan Cahn Blows September 13 Doomsday Prophecy, Finds Convenient Explanation” (B. Tashman, www.rightwingwatch.org, September 16, 2015). Pretty tacky headline by any standard, if you ask me.
However, there is little disputing that the 2015 Shemitah year itself was a very difficult one for the global economy, and there was a particularly notable stock market event that did occur in the month of Elul, on August 24, 2015, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,000 points, before closing that day with a 610.32 point (3.4%) decline. The U.S. market collapse was immediately preceded that same day by an implosion in the Chinese market on what is called "China's Black Monday," which saw the Chinese stock market shed 8.5%, and triggered a cascade of market collapses around the world. Truly an amazing day, on which global markets experienced hundreds of billions of dollars in losses.
Aside from occurring in a Shemitah year, though, is there anything else to suggest that the market crash of Elul 9, or August 24, could have been a prophetically, or at least portentously, significant event? We can recall that Jeff Berwick of the Dollar Vigilante (www.dollarvigilante.com) famously showed that the Brexit market crash, which occurred on June 24, 2016, happened exactly 7 years, 7 months, 7 weeks, and 7 days, from September 29, 2008, or Elul 29, when the last great market crash rocked the world. Weird. But what if the August 24, 2015, crash could also be tied to the last great Shemitah crash. That'd be at least kind of weird, too, wouldn't it?
As it turns out, it is well-established that the biblical prophetic calendar is 360 days in length, in contradistinction to the modern Gregorian and Hebrew calendars. The Books of Daniel and Revelation, which were very concerned with prophetic times, allude to time periods that are most easily reconciled in relation to a 360-day year (sources: www.biblegateway.com (NIV), www.watchmanbiblestudy.com):
“He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.” Daniel 7:25
"The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach" Revelation 12:14
“But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.” Revelation 11:2
“And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” Revelation 11:3
"The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days." Revelation 12:6
Just for fun then, what if we apply the biblical prophetic year to the last great Shemitah crash date? 7 years x 360 days/year gives us 2520 days. With the help of the awesomely useful date calculator at www.timeanddate.com, we add 2520 days to September 29, 2008, and guess what date that gives us? August 24, 2015. On the biblical prophetic calendar, the crash of August 24, 2015, in the year of the Shemitah, occurred exactly seven years to the day from the last great Shemitah crash.
So in my mind, that's a really interesting result. But what does it mean? Honestly, I'm not sure. And why the apparent switch to a prophetic calendar, which is itself a very loaded question that I may defer to another time, or preferably, to those who are far more learned that I am. Of course, a reasonable starting point to addressing the question would be to ask whether there is anything special about the date itself. Anything special about August 24? With the help of sites like www.onthisday.com and other websites that provide an archive of historically important events, I found that August 24 has historically been a rather unusual and comparatively very busy day, with lots of events of ominous tenor, or political or religious significance, occurring on that day. For example, on that day, AD 79, Mt. Vesuvius erupted and killed 15,000 people. On that day in AD 410, Rome was overrun by the Visigoths, marking the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In 1349, 6,000 Jews were blamed for the great bubonic plague outbreak and massacred in Mainz, while in 1391, another 300 Jews in Palma Mallorca were massacred. In 1456, the print run of the Gutenberg Bible was completed. In 1814, during the War of 1812, British forces captured Washington, D.C. And August 24 could very well be designated one day as “World Nuke Day,” as it seems to have been a favorite day for nuclear test detonations: United States, 1962; France, 1968; and USSR, 1978. (sources: www.onthisday.com, www.wikipedia.com)
But perhaps the event with the most overtly prophetic allusion concluded on August 24, 1950. Operation Magic Carpet was one of a number of nicknames for Operation On Wings of Eagles, a secret effort by British and American forces to airlift 49,000 Jews from Yemen to the new state of Israel. Interestingly, this enterprise was also called Operation Messiah's Coming, in which case this amazing effort could be seen as a foreshadowing of the Rapture.
In any case, it would seem that there's much more than meets the eye when it comes to the market crash of August 24, 2015, when examined through the lens of the Shemitah. As for what it means, I leave that as an exercise for the reader.