Here is a word for you from the Word.
Psalm 95:1-2; 6-8
Psa 95:1 Come, let us sing to יהוה! Let us raise a shout to the Rock of our deliverance.
Psa 95:2 Let us come before His face with thanksgiving; Let us raise a shout to Him in song.
Psa 95:3 For יהוה is a great Ěl, And a great Sovereign above all mighty ones.
Psa 95:4 In whose hand are the depths of the earth; The mountain peaks are His also.
Psa 95:5 His is the sea, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.
Psa 95:6 Come, let us bow down and bend low, Let us kneel before יהוה our Maker.
Psa 95:7 For He is our Elohim, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice:
Psa 95:8 “Do not harden your hearts as in Meriḇah, And as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
There’s a beautiful progression there that brings us into the immediate presence of YAHWEH. It starts with loud and jubilant praise and thanksgiving: “Let us sing for joy to the YHWH, let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation.” YHWH encourages us to express freely our praises, our thanksgiving. But then as we go further it says, “Let us bow down and worship, let us kneel before the YHWH our Maker.” Praise and thanksgiving lead us on to worship. Worship is not so much an utterance as it is an attitude. It’s bowing down, it’s kneeling, it’s submitting ourselves to YHWH. And when we come into that attitude of worship, then we qualify to hear YHWH’s voice.
And so the psalmist says, “Today, if you hear his voice.” Alas, there are so many BELIEVERS who hardly know what it is to hear YHWH’s voice, and yet that’s the key to all success in the spiritual life is hearing YHWH’s voice. And if we’ll follow the pathway of praise and thanksgiving leading us to worship, bringing us to an attitude where we can hear YHWH’s voice, then we have the key to measureless blessings. - Derek Prince
Monday, December 21, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
"Permanent Link to Hanukkah Yes, but also Kislev 24"
December 12th, 2009
As sundown fell across Israel, Europe, and the United States last evening millions of Jews and many others who care about the history of Israel are marking the advent of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. What might be lost is the historical grounding of the feast of Hanukkah itself, which seems to actually derive from Friday’s date: Kislev 24 or the 24th day of the 9th month of the Jewish calendar. Notice carefully this historical background:
The book of the prophet Haggai comes to us from the 2nd year of the Persian King Darius, late summer, August, 520 BCE. It is one of the most precisely dated books in the Hebrew Bible, much like its sister Zechariah, and its twin Malachi. The three go together, like peas in the pod, both coming from that crucial time of the “restoration” of Judah to the Land following the Babylonian captivity. Collectively they are our LAST WORD from Yehovah in terms of how the redemption is to unfold. It is very likely, based on Haggai 1:12, where the Prophet is called the “messenger of Yehovah,” that Haggai is in fact the author of the book we call Malachi, as this book is just named “My Messenger,” and the name of the prophet who wrote it is not given. Both Haggai and Zechariah address their contemporary situation, as one would expect, and are concerned that the Temple be rebuilt and that the constitution of the new state of Judah be ordered according to the Torah. However, if read carefully, both clearly understand that this restoration of Judah is only a preliminary, even symbolic step, to a coming GREAT restoration of Judah and ALL Israel. Even though there is a Priest (Joshua), and a Governor (Zerubbabel) of the Davidic line, there is no anointing of the BRANCH figure of whom both Isaiah and Jeremiah had spoken. One way of putting this is to say that Haggai and Zechariah are working in the tall shadow of JEREMIAH (see especially chapters 30-31), and they know, from his clear and powerful prophecies, that the final days have not come with this tiny little beachhead return of a portion of Judah to the land. But they do believe that this return of Judah is a “sign” of things to come, and a guarantee that the Plan of Yehovah, to fill the earth with justice and righteousness, through Abraham’s seed, is not to fall to the ground.
And that leads us to the curious and fascinating references to the 24th day of the 9th month–Kislev 24 in modern Jewish parlance.
Notice, reading the book of Haggai is sequential, it takes you through the last months of the year. It begins with the Rosh Chodesh of the 6th month (August), takes you through the 21st day of the 7th month (2:1), which is the last day of Sukkoth (October), and then into December–with the 24th day of the 9th month. Haggai’s third and fourth messages come on this very day. It is a short book, and if you skim it through you will see the building sequence.
Kislev 24 is mentioned FOUR times in the second chapters, verses 10, 15, 18 and 20. Twice it is emphasized that “from THIS DAY FORWARD I will bless you,” and twice Haggai gets a special Word from Yehovah, on this very day. You have to read the whole chapter to get the context, but the message is basically that Yehovah will “SHAKE the heavens and the earth and ALL NATIONS,” overthrowing their power, anoint the chosen one (symbolized in that day by Zerubbabel), and essentially make Jerusalem the new world capital. For the DETAILS you need to go back, of course, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah in particular, as they set forth the entire agenda to which Haggai only briefly alludes.
This message is addressed to the two “messiahs,” the Priest and the “King” or Governor, Joshua and Zerubbabel, respectively (2:4-5). They become “signifiers” of things to come. They are not the final anointed ones, and Zechariah picks this up in his visions, especially chapters 4 and 6. These symbolic figures, as well as the promised presence of the Holy Spirit (see 2:5 and Zech 4:6!), are the guarantee that Yehovah will bring about these promises.
Notice, Zechariah begins getting his visions and messages in the 8th month of that same year (Zech 1:1), or mid-November. He has EIGHT night visions, they are all quite difficult to follow, but prophetically important in forecasting the redemptive future. There is much more detail in Zechariah, but the two, Haggai and Zechariah, should be read in tandem, as one explains the other. Now, note carefully, Kislev 24 is not specifically mentioned in Zechariah, but it is alluded to in chapter 4:8-10. It is the famous “day of small things,” that one might be led to “despise,” because after all, this tiny little remnant of Judah, beginning to lay the foundation of a nondescript temple, under the mighty thumb of the Persian empire, was hardly even worthy of the name of a city-state, much less a world kingdom, and yet had HOPES and DREAMS and promises of world dominion!
Chapters 7-14 of Zechariah, which he gets two years later, are quite different. They are straightforward and fairly plain, laying out, likely in some sequential order, both the preliminary events, and the detailed climax, of the “time of the end.”
So, what about Kislev 24? It seems to have a three-fold meaning. First, in the time of Haggai and Zechariah, it was the day MARKED for the promise that the redemption would ultimately come about, not by power, nor by might, but by the Spirit of Yehovah–but “in its time.” Second, subsequently though history, this day seems to be one upon which key events take place, perhaps only a few of which have been recognized down through history. And finally, it might well turn out that on some Kislev 24 in the future, that date will serve as a “countdown marker” for the unfolding of the mysterious 1260/1290/1335/2300 days of Daniel’s visions, which interested Sir Isaac Newton so much.
During the period of the Maccabees, when Syrian ruler Antiochus IV unleashed his great persecution against the Jews of Judea/Palestine, it was on Kislev 24 that the enemy was defeated and the Temple freed from its desecration. That is why the festival of Chanukah is celebrated beginning at sundown, at the end of Kislev 24. In other words, it is NOT so much Chanukah that is important, as its marker date: Kislev 24. It seems to become a kind of banner date in history that marks any kind of “signal” of future redemption.
Fast forward to December 9, 1917. General Allenby, leading the British forces (remember Lawrence of Arabia), liberates Jerusalem for the first time in centuries from Turkish/Muslim rule. The date on the Jewish calendar–you guessed it: Kislev 24! That evening the Jewish soldiers in the British army celebrated Chanukah and went to the Wall in openness and freedom. The Torah reading that week was Mikketz (Gen 41), where JOSEPH is raised to power and saves Judah. And the Haphtorah reading, for the special Sabbath of Chanukah, as it is today, is the fascinating Zechariah 2:14-4:7! Note how it begins: “I have returned to Zion,” which seems to be the essential meaning of THIS DAY.
It is doubtful that Allenby was aware, during the heat of the battle, of even Chanukah, but certainly he knew nothing of Kislev 24.
If we begin checking in history over the past 2520 years (remember that number), there have been numerous times when Kislev 24 has played a large part, and even a smaller more symbolic part, in the unfolding of redemptive history. For example, no matter what one’s view of Yeshua might be, it seems in all likelihood that Yeshua was conceived on this day, nine months before his birth in September 3 BCE.
Some UIWU officers also noticed some years ago that the encounter David Horowitz had at the cave with his teacher Moshe Guibbory, as recounted in his autobiography, Thirty-three Candles, was on Friday night, December 16/17, 1927–and again, you guessed it, this was Kislev 24th. The Torah reading was Vayeshev, which begins the Joseph cycle, and the Haphtorah was Amos 2:6-3:8, which seems quite appropriate. Horowitz had no idea of this until over 50 years later when it was pointed out to him by others.
Now, a tiny bit on the numbers. Note, these important visions came in the year 520 BCE. The year 2000/2001 marks 2520 years since that first Kislev 24 vision of Haggai. The number 2520 is interesting, it has several mystical mathematical properties, but one most obvious one is that it is 7 x 360, or seven “prophetic years.” A prophetic year in the Bible is 360 days, thus we get in the books of Daniel and Revelation the period of 1260 days for 3.5 years. There are a number of indications, both in the Torah and Prophets, especially Ezekiel, that a kind of “day for a year” principle applies in Prophecy, and accordingly, the official “Exile” of Joseph and Judah would last 2520 years. Perhaps this is the meaning of the phrase “after two days” and “on the third day” references in Hosea 6. Now Judah was essentially “restored” in type at least, in the year 520, but the full restoration, and the union of things between Judah and Joseph is yet to come, “after two days” according to Hosea (a day is a “thousand years” in these prophetic texts). The point is, based on this chronology, we are “in” the third day, as of the year 2000. And indeed, it does appear we have begun to experience a “shaking of all things.” Whether this is the ultimate upheaval to which Haggai refers remains to be seen.
It is also worth noting, in terms of Kislev 24, that if you add 2300 days (the figure in Daniel 8) to that day, you always, on the Jewish calendar, come to the last day of Unleavened Bread, oddly something like 6.3 years later. In other words, it is sort of a strange figure. And there are then various interesting ways, too complicated to go into here, that the periods of Daniel (1260/1290/1335) fit in, taking one to Shavuot of any given sequence of years. We do know for certain that the 2300 “days” was fulfilled as a “day for a year” running from Alexander’s defeat of Darius in 334 BCE (June 7), to the day, to June 7, 1967–when Jerusalem was liberated by the Israelis in the Six Day War. The point seems to be that Alexander’s march to Jerusalem began a period of 2300 days/years of the trampling of Jerusalem. So what this seems to indicate is that there is a larger (day for a year) fulfillment of these periods, as well as a shorter “day for a day” fulfillment, once the “countdown” begins.
One might conclude then, from these indications, that on some Kislev 24, at some year “on our days and in our time” (whether past or future), people will come to recognize that Haggai’s “shaking” did indeed begin. It does not seem likely that time has quite yet come, but every year at this time one’s thoughts go to this date, given such an important designation by Haggai and Zechariah. On a personal level, it seems it can always be a date of “renewal” for any of us, and a time of new beginnings, looking to both the past and to the future.
Posted in Biblical Reflections, Historical Reflections
As sundown fell across Israel, Europe, and the United States last evening millions of Jews and many others who care about the history of Israel are marking the advent of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. What might be lost is the historical grounding of the feast of Hanukkah itself, which seems to actually derive from Friday’s date: Kislev 24 or the 24th day of the 9th month of the Jewish calendar. Notice carefully this historical background:
The book of the prophet Haggai comes to us from the 2nd year of the Persian King Darius, late summer, August, 520 BCE. It is one of the most precisely dated books in the Hebrew Bible, much like its sister Zechariah, and its twin Malachi. The three go together, like peas in the pod, both coming from that crucial time of the “restoration” of Judah to the Land following the Babylonian captivity. Collectively they are our LAST WORD from Yehovah in terms of how the redemption is to unfold. It is very likely, based on Haggai 1:12, where the Prophet is called the “messenger of Yehovah,” that Haggai is in fact the author of the book we call Malachi, as this book is just named “My Messenger,” and the name of the prophet who wrote it is not given. Both Haggai and Zechariah address their contemporary situation, as one would expect, and are concerned that the Temple be rebuilt and that the constitution of the new state of Judah be ordered according to the Torah. However, if read carefully, both clearly understand that this restoration of Judah is only a preliminary, even symbolic step, to a coming GREAT restoration of Judah and ALL Israel. Even though there is a Priest (Joshua), and a Governor (Zerubbabel) of the Davidic line, there is no anointing of the BRANCH figure of whom both Isaiah and Jeremiah had spoken. One way of putting this is to say that Haggai and Zechariah are working in the tall shadow of JEREMIAH (see especially chapters 30-31), and they know, from his clear and powerful prophecies, that the final days have not come with this tiny little beachhead return of a portion of Judah to the land. But they do believe that this return of Judah is a “sign” of things to come, and a guarantee that the Plan of Yehovah, to fill the earth with justice and righteousness, through Abraham’s seed, is not to fall to the ground.
And that leads us to the curious and fascinating references to the 24th day of the 9th month–Kislev 24 in modern Jewish parlance.
Notice, reading the book of Haggai is sequential, it takes you through the last months of the year. It begins with the Rosh Chodesh of the 6th month (August), takes you through the 21st day of the 7th month (2:1), which is the last day of Sukkoth (October), and then into December–with the 24th day of the 9th month. Haggai’s third and fourth messages come on this very day. It is a short book, and if you skim it through you will see the building sequence.
Kislev 24 is mentioned FOUR times in the second chapters, verses 10, 15, 18 and 20. Twice it is emphasized that “from THIS DAY FORWARD I will bless you,” and twice Haggai gets a special Word from Yehovah, on this very day. You have to read the whole chapter to get the context, but the message is basically that Yehovah will “SHAKE the heavens and the earth and ALL NATIONS,” overthrowing their power, anoint the chosen one (symbolized in that day by Zerubbabel), and essentially make Jerusalem the new world capital. For the DETAILS you need to go back, of course, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah in particular, as they set forth the entire agenda to which Haggai only briefly alludes.
This message is addressed to the two “messiahs,” the Priest and the “King” or Governor, Joshua and Zerubbabel, respectively (2:4-5). They become “signifiers” of things to come. They are not the final anointed ones, and Zechariah picks this up in his visions, especially chapters 4 and 6. These symbolic figures, as well as the promised presence of the Holy Spirit (see 2:5 and Zech 4:6!), are the guarantee that Yehovah will bring about these promises.
Notice, Zechariah begins getting his visions and messages in the 8th month of that same year (Zech 1:1), or mid-November. He has EIGHT night visions, they are all quite difficult to follow, but prophetically important in forecasting the redemptive future. There is much more detail in Zechariah, but the two, Haggai and Zechariah, should be read in tandem, as one explains the other. Now, note carefully, Kislev 24 is not specifically mentioned in Zechariah, but it is alluded to in chapter 4:8-10. It is the famous “day of small things,” that one might be led to “despise,” because after all, this tiny little remnant of Judah, beginning to lay the foundation of a nondescript temple, under the mighty thumb of the Persian empire, was hardly even worthy of the name of a city-state, much less a world kingdom, and yet had HOPES and DREAMS and promises of world dominion!
Chapters 7-14 of Zechariah, which he gets two years later, are quite different. They are straightforward and fairly plain, laying out, likely in some sequential order, both the preliminary events, and the detailed climax, of the “time of the end.”
So, what about Kislev 24? It seems to have a three-fold meaning. First, in the time of Haggai and Zechariah, it was the day MARKED for the promise that the redemption would ultimately come about, not by power, nor by might, but by the Spirit of Yehovah–but “in its time.” Second, subsequently though history, this day seems to be one upon which key events take place, perhaps only a few of which have been recognized down through history. And finally, it might well turn out that on some Kislev 24 in the future, that date will serve as a “countdown marker” for the unfolding of the mysterious 1260/1290/1335/2300 days of Daniel’s visions, which interested Sir Isaac Newton so much.
During the period of the Maccabees, when Syrian ruler Antiochus IV unleashed his great persecution against the Jews of Judea/Palestine, it was on Kislev 24 that the enemy was defeated and the Temple freed from its desecration. That is why the festival of Chanukah is celebrated beginning at sundown, at the end of Kislev 24. In other words, it is NOT so much Chanukah that is important, as its marker date: Kislev 24. It seems to become a kind of banner date in history that marks any kind of “signal” of future redemption.
Fast forward to December 9, 1917. General Allenby, leading the British forces (remember Lawrence of Arabia), liberates Jerusalem for the first time in centuries from Turkish/Muslim rule. The date on the Jewish calendar–you guessed it: Kislev 24! That evening the Jewish soldiers in the British army celebrated Chanukah and went to the Wall in openness and freedom. The Torah reading that week was Mikketz (Gen 41), where JOSEPH is raised to power and saves Judah. And the Haphtorah reading, for the special Sabbath of Chanukah, as it is today, is the fascinating Zechariah 2:14-4:7! Note how it begins: “I have returned to Zion,” which seems to be the essential meaning of THIS DAY.
It is doubtful that Allenby was aware, during the heat of the battle, of even Chanukah, but certainly he knew nothing of Kislev 24.
If we begin checking in history over the past 2520 years (remember that number), there have been numerous times when Kislev 24 has played a large part, and even a smaller more symbolic part, in the unfolding of redemptive history. For example, no matter what one’s view of Yeshua might be, it seems in all likelihood that Yeshua was conceived on this day, nine months before his birth in September 3 BCE.
Some UIWU officers also noticed some years ago that the encounter David Horowitz had at the cave with his teacher Moshe Guibbory, as recounted in his autobiography, Thirty-three Candles, was on Friday night, December 16/17, 1927–and again, you guessed it, this was Kislev 24th. The Torah reading was Vayeshev, which begins the Joseph cycle, and the Haphtorah was Amos 2:6-3:8, which seems quite appropriate. Horowitz had no idea of this until over 50 years later when it was pointed out to him by others.
Now, a tiny bit on the numbers. Note, these important visions came in the year 520 BCE. The year 2000/2001 marks 2520 years since that first Kislev 24 vision of Haggai. The number 2520 is interesting, it has several mystical mathematical properties, but one most obvious one is that it is 7 x 360, or seven “prophetic years.” A prophetic year in the Bible is 360 days, thus we get in the books of Daniel and Revelation the period of 1260 days for 3.5 years. There are a number of indications, both in the Torah and Prophets, especially Ezekiel, that a kind of “day for a year” principle applies in Prophecy, and accordingly, the official “Exile” of Joseph and Judah would last 2520 years. Perhaps this is the meaning of the phrase “after two days” and “on the third day” references in Hosea 6. Now Judah was essentially “restored” in type at least, in the year 520, but the full restoration, and the union of things between Judah and Joseph is yet to come, “after two days” according to Hosea (a day is a “thousand years” in these prophetic texts). The point is, based on this chronology, we are “in” the third day, as of the year 2000. And indeed, it does appear we have begun to experience a “shaking of all things.” Whether this is the ultimate upheaval to which Haggai refers remains to be seen.
It is also worth noting, in terms of Kislev 24, that if you add 2300 days (the figure in Daniel 8) to that day, you always, on the Jewish calendar, come to the last day of Unleavened Bread, oddly something like 6.3 years later. In other words, it is sort of a strange figure. And there are then various interesting ways, too complicated to go into here, that the periods of Daniel (1260/1290/1335) fit in, taking one to Shavuot of any given sequence of years. We do know for certain that the 2300 “days” was fulfilled as a “day for a year” running from Alexander’s defeat of Darius in 334 BCE (June 7), to the day, to June 7, 1967–when Jerusalem was liberated by the Israelis in the Six Day War. The point seems to be that Alexander’s march to Jerusalem began a period of 2300 days/years of the trampling of Jerusalem. So what this seems to indicate is that there is a larger (day for a year) fulfillment of these periods, as well as a shorter “day for a day” fulfillment, once the “countdown” begins.
One might conclude then, from these indications, that on some Kislev 24, at some year “on our days and in our time” (whether past or future), people will come to recognize that Haggai’s “shaking” did indeed begin. It does not seem likely that time has quite yet come, but every year at this time one’s thoughts go to this date, given such an important designation by Haggai and Zechariah. On a personal level, it seems it can always be a date of “renewal” for any of us, and a time of new beginnings, looking to both the past and to the future.
Posted in Biblical Reflections, Historical Reflections
Thursday, December 3, 2009
FATHERS ****** "WHO IS WATCHING"
Walk a little plainer daddy
Said a little boy so frail
I'm following in your footsteps
And I don't want to fail
Sometimes your steps are very plain
Sometimes they are so hard to see
So walk a little plainer daddy
For you are leading me.
I know that once you walked this way
Many years ago
And what you did along the way
I'd really like to know
For sometimes when I am tempted
I don't know what to do
So walk a little plainer daddy
For I must follow you.
Someday when I'm grown up
You are like I want to be
Then I will have a little boy
Who will want to follow me
And I would want to lead him right
And help him to be true
So walk a little plainer daddy
For we must follow you.
(Author Unknown)
Said a little boy so frail
I'm following in your footsteps
And I don't want to fail
Sometimes your steps are very plain
Sometimes they are so hard to see
So walk a little plainer daddy
For you are leading me.
I know that once you walked this way
Many years ago
And what you did along the way
I'd really like to know
For sometimes when I am tempted
I don't know what to do
So walk a little plainer daddy
For I must follow you.
Someday when I'm grown up
You are like I want to be
Then I will have a little boy
Who will want to follow me
And I would want to lead him right
And help him to be true
So walk a little plainer daddy
For we must follow you.
(Author Unknown)
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Is there a Pre-Tribulation rapture?
All of us would like to believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the saints. After all who wants to suffer?
The words pre-tribulation and rapture do not appear in any English Bibles that I know of. So where did the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture come from?
I intend to show, in this short article, the fallacy of a pre-tribulation rapture by discovering in YAHWEH’s Word what it says about the timing of the event most people call the rapture.
One of the most commonly quoted verses supporting a rapture is
1 Thessalonians 4. However there is no apparent indication of timing
For this we say to you by the word of YAHWEH, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For Yahushua Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Yahushua will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Yahushua in the air. And thus we shall always be with Yahushua. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 NKJV throughout unless noted
Another commonly quoted verse is in 1 Corinthians 15.
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
Again nothing apparent pointing to a time when this occurs. However we will find something in these two verses which do hint to the timing.
Let’s first start with 1 Thessalonians.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of YHWH. And the dead in Yhaushua will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
Note the end of the verse, "And the dead in Yahushua (Messiah) will rise first" What would you call this event, where the dead are being made alive all around you? I would call it a resurrection. But what resurrection? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:52 that the dead will be raised incorruptible. Verse 54 says that the incorruptible are immortal. This event is something which changes the dead being raised into immortal beings.
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Yhaushua and for the word of YHWH, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Yahushua for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:4-5 emphasis added) This event in Revelation is called the First resurrection. Obviously the event in 1 Thessalonians 4 cannot precede the first resurrection.
So we have the timing of 1 Thessalonians at the same time as when Messiah returns to the earth to rule for 1000 years.
Now if you are a skeptic you may say, "Can’t Messiah come early, before He returns to rapture the saints away, then return again to rule?" Perhaps, but we still have more to consider. Look at I Corinthians 15.
….in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52)
Here we have a very good clue as to when this will happen. Notice the part that says "at the last trumpet". If we can find a description somewhere of when the last trumpet sounds we can then put some timing to this event. Turn to the Revelation 8:6.
So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. (Revelation 8:6)
Looks like we have seven angels with seven trumpets. I wonder which one would be the last trumpet?
Let’s see what events happen as these trumpets sound.
The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. (Revelation 8:7)
Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. (Revelation 8:8)
Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. (Revelation 8:10)
Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!" (Revelation 8:12-13)
The fifth angel is found in [Revelation 9:1-6] . Notice verse 4; the creatures did not have the power to hurt those with the seal of YHWH on their foreheads. Could this be the answer to Revelation 3:10 (which is often quoted in support of the pre-tribulation theory)?
"Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. (Revelation 3:10)
Notice those who had the seal of YHWH on their forehead are on earth during the trumpet plagues.
The sixth angel [Revelation 9:13-21] describes one third of the earth’s population being destroyed. This event describes the release of the commonly known term "4 horsemen of the apocalypse".
The seventh angel sounding the seventh trumpet (last trumpet) involves or precedes many events which, for the sake of brevity, will not be described here. Read these events from Revelation 10:1 - 20:6. The latter describes the first resurrection. A lot happens in the preceding verses and all is not clear as to when the 7th trumpet is actually sounded. However, notice Revelation 10:7
but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of YHWH would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets. (Revelation 10:7)
When the last trumpet was about to sound the mystery of YHWH would be finished as He had declared to His servants.
What mystery is he talking about?
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51)
The Mystery spoken of in Revelation 10:7 is revealed by the prophet Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:51; those saints who are still alive after the previous 6 trumpets will be changed in a moment into spirit immortal beings. Praise YAHWEH!
Further proof lies in Revelation 12.
Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by YHWH, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. (Revelation 12:6)
The woman has always been known to be the church.
But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. (Revelation 12:14)
This shows that YHWH’s followers are still on the earth during the tribulation.
Conclusion:
Hopefully you have seen the proof in the Bible about the timing of the first resurrection and the change of those who are still alive. This is very sobering. Only by trusting in YHWH, by staying in His Word, can we be sealed. Those sealed are protected from the severe part of the tribulation; not raptured away while others suffer.
The words pre-tribulation and rapture do not appear in any English Bibles that I know of. So where did the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture come from?
I intend to show, in this short article, the fallacy of a pre-tribulation rapture by discovering in YAHWEH’s Word what it says about the timing of the event most people call the rapture.
One of the most commonly quoted verses supporting a rapture is
1 Thessalonians 4. However there is no apparent indication of timing
For this we say to you by the word of YAHWEH, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For Yahushua Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Yahushua will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Yahushua in the air. And thus we shall always be with Yahushua. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 NKJV throughout unless noted
Another commonly quoted verse is in 1 Corinthians 15.
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
Again nothing apparent pointing to a time when this occurs. However we will find something in these two verses which do hint to the timing.
Let’s first start with 1 Thessalonians.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of YHWH. And the dead in Yhaushua will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
Note the end of the verse, "And the dead in Yahushua (Messiah) will rise first" What would you call this event, where the dead are being made alive all around you? I would call it a resurrection. But what resurrection? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:52 that the dead will be raised incorruptible. Verse 54 says that the incorruptible are immortal. This event is something which changes the dead being raised into immortal beings.
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Yhaushua and for the word of YHWH, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Yahushua for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:4-5 emphasis added) This event in Revelation is called the First resurrection. Obviously the event in 1 Thessalonians 4 cannot precede the first resurrection.
So we have the timing of 1 Thessalonians at the same time as when Messiah returns to the earth to rule for 1000 years.
Now if you are a skeptic you may say, "Can’t Messiah come early, before He returns to rapture the saints away, then return again to rule?" Perhaps, but we still have more to consider. Look at I Corinthians 15.
….in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52)
Here we have a very good clue as to when this will happen. Notice the part that says "at the last trumpet". If we can find a description somewhere of when the last trumpet sounds we can then put some timing to this event. Turn to the Revelation 8:6.
So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. (Revelation 8:6)
Looks like we have seven angels with seven trumpets. I wonder which one would be the last trumpet?
Let’s see what events happen as these trumpets sound.
The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. (Revelation 8:7)
Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. (Revelation 8:8)
Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. (Revelation 8:10)
Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!" (Revelation 8:12-13)
The fifth angel is found in [Revelation 9:1-6] . Notice verse 4; the creatures did not have the power to hurt those with the seal of YHWH on their foreheads. Could this be the answer to Revelation 3:10 (which is often quoted in support of the pre-tribulation theory)?
"Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. (Revelation 3:10)
Notice those who had the seal of YHWH on their forehead are on earth during the trumpet plagues.
The sixth angel [Revelation 9:13-21] describes one third of the earth’s population being destroyed. This event describes the release of the commonly known term "4 horsemen of the apocalypse".
The seventh angel sounding the seventh trumpet (last trumpet) involves or precedes many events which, for the sake of brevity, will not be described here. Read these events from Revelation 10:1 - 20:6. The latter describes the first resurrection. A lot happens in the preceding verses and all is not clear as to when the 7th trumpet is actually sounded. However, notice Revelation 10:7
but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of YHWH would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets. (Revelation 10:7)
When the last trumpet was about to sound the mystery of YHWH would be finished as He had declared to His servants.
What mystery is he talking about?
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51)
The Mystery spoken of in Revelation 10:7 is revealed by the prophet Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:51; those saints who are still alive after the previous 6 trumpets will be changed in a moment into spirit immortal beings. Praise YAHWEH!
Further proof lies in Revelation 12.
Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by YHWH, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. (Revelation 12:6)
The woman has always been known to be the church.
But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. (Revelation 12:14)
This shows that YHWH’s followers are still on the earth during the tribulation.
Conclusion:
Hopefully you have seen the proof in the Bible about the timing of the first resurrection and the change of those who are still alive. This is very sobering. Only by trusting in YHWH, by staying in His Word, can we be sealed. Those sealed are protected from the severe part of the tribulation; not raptured away while others suffer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)