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The Sword of the Shemitah—And How It Just Changed Your World

Jonathan Cahn says he has answers to major Shemitah questions.
Jonathan Cahn (Facebook/Ha Navi Gallery/ajmu )

PART 1: The Decimation of Markets

Could an ancient mystery over 3,000 years old be affecting the world today? Did it skip a cycle in 2015? Or did it show up? And if it did, how great was its impact? And is still affecting the world and our lives to this day?

For those who haven't read The Mystery of the Shemitah, the biblical Shemitah was the year of rest, Sabbath, cessation, that came every seven years to Israel. The Shemitah brought cessation to production, trade and economic activity and, ultimately, a nullification to the nation's financial realm, the wiping away of credit and debt.

Could this ancient pattern, established by God, manifest even in the modern world and affect modern economies, financial systems and stock markets?

The amazing answer is yes.

Does the pattern have to manifest in every cycle? No. God doesn't have to do anything at any particular time. For as long as I've spoken of the Shemitah and the future, I've issued that warning and caution: God is sovereign and nothing had to happen on any date, month, season, Shemitah or year.  

But having said that—what about the Shemitah of 2015? Did the ancient mystery manifest or not?

Many observers were focused exclusively on dates, and months (as in September), and blood moons, that they missed this overwhelming fact: The ancient mystery of the Shemitah did indeed manifest in 2015—dramatically and powerfully—and its ramifications are still affecting our lives as I write.

In the Shemitah of 2001 and 2008 an amazingly precise phenomenon occurred in which the greatest two crashes in Wall Street history each took place on the same exact biblical day, the last day of the biblical Shemitah, Elul 29, the Day of Nullification, appointed from ancient times for the wiping away of financial accounts—a day that only comes around once in seven years.

The Shemitah's Central Pattern

But this was a unique pattern. The most central and predominant pattern or manifestation of the Shemitah, as revealed in the book is this: During the year of the Shemitah, the ancient phenomenon manifests in the form of a long-term financial or economic collapse.

This pattern has manifested in every Shemitah of the past half-century, every seven years:

  • In the Shemitah of 2008, it manifested as the Global Financial Collapse and the Great Recession.  

  • In the Shemitah of 2001, it manifested as a long-term stock market collapse and an economic recession.  

  • In the Shemitah of 1994, it manifested it in the Great Bond Market Massacre, the greatest bond market collapse in history up to that time.  

  • In the Shemitah of 1987, it manifested in a summer to autumn stock market collapse and Black Monday, the worst one-day stock market percentage collapse in history.

  • In the Shemitah of 1980, it manifested as an economic recession leading to a stock market collapse.

  • In the Shemitah of 1973, it manifested in a stock market collapse and a long-term global recession.

  • And in the Shemitah of 1966, it manifested in a stock market collapse.

The Shemitah of 2015: Year of Collapse

So what about the Shemitah of 2015?  In 2015, the most predominant dynamic of the Shemitah manifested yet again. The stock market that had been ascending for years underwent a change. In May, it reversed its momentum and began to descend. Its descent would extend for months.

The Mystery of the Shemitah specifically focuses on the month of Elul as the peak month concerning the Shemitah and its dynamic of financial nullification. So it was in the Shemitah of 2015. With the approach of Elul 2015, all major markets were in collapse. The Dow Jones Industrial and the S&P 500 had been in collapse since May. The Russell 2000 index began collapsing in June. China's Shanghai Composite index also began collapsing in June. Then in late July the Nasdaq also began collapsing.

The month of Elul began in August. And with its coming, the collapse of the stock market would reach its crescendo with massive stock market crashes taking place on Wall Street and throughout the world.

How severe was the impact of this most recent Shemitah? The Shemitah of 2015 ...

  • Wiped out an estimated 16% of the British markets
  • Wiped out 18% of the French markets
  • Wiped out one-fourth of the German markets
  • Wiped out 4000 points from the Indian markets.
  • Wiped out 12,000 points from the Brazilian markets.
  • Wiped out 2 trillion dollars of the U.S. markets
  • Wiped out a colossal 11 trillion dollars from the world's financial realm.

 The Shemitah's Impact on Wall Street ...

Dow Jones Industrial Average

 The Shemitah's Impact on the DAX—Germany ...

Germany DAX 30 Stock Market Index

The Shemitah's Impact on the FTSE 100 - The United Kingdom ...

UK FTSE 100 Stock Market Index

The Shemitah's Impact on the CAC—France ...

France CAC 40 Stock Market Index


The Shemitah's Impact on the ASX 200 - Australia

Australia S&P/ASX 200 Stock Market Index

The Shemitah's Impact on the Sensex - India

India SENSEX Stock Market Index

The Shemitah's Impact on the TSX - Canada

Canada S&P/TSX Toronto Stock Market Index

The Collapse of China

We might expect that the impact of the Shemitah would manifest most powerfully in America. And for many of the past Shemitahs, this has been the case. And for much of modern history America has been the engine of the world economy. But this is no longer the case.

In the year after the previous Shemitah, in 2009, China became the largest exporter nation. In the year before the start of the most recent Shemitah, in 2013, China became the largest Trading Nation, supplanting the United States. At the opening of the most recent Shemitah, the news came out that the United States was no longer the strongest economic power on earth. That title too had passed to China.

As the world approached the Shemitah of 2015, China was the new engine of the world economy. If the Shemitah struck China, it would strike the world. And that's exactly what happened.

In the summer of 2015, China's stock market, the Shanghai Exchange, began to collapse. By the end of the summer, and of the Shemitah, China's financial realm had been decimated. The Shemitah had wiped away a colossal 43%.

The Shemitah's Impact on the Shanghai Composite—China

Shanghai Composite Stock Market Index

Such a percentage alone would mark the collapse of 2015 as one of the greatest in history. And it had all taken place in a mere 2.5 months. That's a rate of 18% of the market wiped out each month, a rate greater than that of the Great Depression. It was thus one of the most intense, if not the most intense, stock market collapse of modern times.

With the striking of China, the Shemitah of 2015 had struck the financial and economic realms of virtually every nation.

'The Worst Year Since 2008'

According to the ancient mystery, we might have expected 2015 to be a bad year for the world's financial realms. It was all that and more. It was the worst year in years. As 2015 reached its end, the internet was flooded with articles providing the final results concerning the year that had just past:

The word "Shemitah" in Hebrew, can be translated as "the shaking." So the Shemitah of 2015, as in past Shemitahs, was a year of massive shaking in the financial and economic realms—from the Greek Crisis, to the Collapse of China, to Black Monday. For the first time in years, stock market closed in the red, having entered negative territory. The headlines proclaimed it the worst year since 2008. Again, it had all happened according to a seven-year cycle as in the mystery of the Shemitah. And it wasn't just any 7-year cycle. It was the specific, ancient, and precise seven-year cycle of the biblical Shemitah. 2015 was the worst year of financial collapse since 2008. Both worst years, both years of collapse, 2015 and 2008, constituted the biblical Shemitah.

2016 - The Shadow of the Sword

As 2015 turned to 2016, the repercussions of the Shemitah did not end but continued. The S&P 500 large-company stocks had collapse from their peak in 2015 by 22.6%. The S&P 1500, a broad based index of large, mid, and small company stocks had fallen from their 2015 peak by 26.9%

And as 2016 opened up, it would witness a series of massive collapse in the stock markets of China and the world—a continuation of the Shemitah's destabilization of China and its summer collapses. It would constitute the worst opening week in stock market history.

What was happening at the opening of 2016 was clearly the continuing impact and repercussion of the Shemitah. It had brought years of an ascending stock market to an end. It had destabilized the engine of the world economy. It had produced some of the greatest stock market crashes in history. It was still shaking the world's financial and economic realms. How long the shadow of its sword would extend in the future was now the question.

But one thing was clear, in the year 2015, the dynamic and mystery of the Shemitah had again manifested, powerfully, dramatically and profoundly, and according to the ancient template and pattern.

This article is Part 1 of The Sword of the Shemitah—More will follow

Jonathan Cahn caused a national stir with the release of his book The Harbinger and The Mystery of the Shemitah, available everywhere. He is president of Hope of the World Ministries. To get in touch, receive prophetic updates, teachings and free gifts, go to HopeOfTheWorld.org or Jonathan Cahn Facebook.

Jonathan Cahn is the author of The Harbinger, The Mystery of the Shemitah, The Book of Mysteries, The Paradigm and The Oracle. He is also the president of Hope of the World Ministries and leader of the Jerusalem Center in Wayne, New Jersey. To get in touch, receive prophetic dates, and free gifts, go to HopeOfTheWorld.org or find Jonathan Cahn on Facebook.


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