Is the Rapture Going to Be on the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Kippur?

It is finally understood by many prophecy teachers that the fall feasts are to the Second Coming as the spring feasts were to the first. As such, there is a desire to understand what each feast or holy day represents. Before looking at how the feasts relate to the Second Coming we will merely look at the Scriptures and some of the traditions that surround them.

There are three feasts, however we will only concern ourselves with the first two in this article. The first is the Feast of Trumpets. It is better known as Rosh Hashanah, but that is not what the Lord calls it. In Hebrew this would be Yom Teruah - Day of Blasts (or Trumpet Blasts) hence the Feast of Trumpets.

Leviticus 23:24-25 "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD."

Numbers 29:1-6 "And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you. And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year without blemish: And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram, And one tenth deal for one lamb, throughout the seven lambs: And one kid of the goats for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you: Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his meat offering, and the daily burnt offering, and his meat offering, and their drink offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD."

This is all that is said about the Feast of Trumpets. There are three things required, 1) it is a Sabbath, so there will be no work, it is a day of rest, 2) it is a day of sacrifices and offerings, and 3) it is a day of blowing of trumpets. This is what we are told about this feast. Along with what the Bible tells us about this feast, which is very little, we know that the seventh month, Tishri, was originally the first month of the year. When God created everything, this was the first month. God changed the numbering of the months when He established Israel after the exodus from Egypt. Exodus 12:2 "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you." What had been the seventh month became the first month of the ecclesiastical year, and what was the original first month became the seventh in that calendar. However Judaism also still observes a civil calendar, and it still begins with the month of Tishri. As it is the original first month and considered to be the anniversary of creation, it is considered the New Year and hence the man-made celebration of Rosh Hashanah, which is the New Year's celebration. This is not spoken of in Scripture in relation to this day though. It is merely the Feast of Trumpets as designated by God.

As for trumpets themselves, there were two kinds which were used, a shofar or ram's horn, and silver trumpets. There were a number of ways they were used, each having its own purpose.They were used to announce the beginning of festivals, to muster troops, to warn of danger, to assemble the people, in the midst of battles, at the year of Jubilee, for coronations, at the daily burnt offerings, and for music in the temple.

There was another use which is pertinent to this feast. On the first day of every month, trumpets were blown. Numbers 10:10 "Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God." The seventh month was designated as a Feast to celebrate the blowing of trumpets.

There are also a number of traditions associated with this day. The first is that this is the anniversary of creation. I am not sure whether they measure this from the first day God spoke, or the day He created Adam. Another tradition calls this day "the day that no man knows the day or hour." The reason it is called this is because the first day of every month in Judaism is determined by when the new moon is first seen. In ancient times two witnesses had to see the first sliver of the new moon and report it to the temple. This was not a rule given by God, this was just a rule they adopted. Then the first day of the month could be declared. As nobody could be sure when this would occur, the first day of the month would be a day which no man would know the day or hour. Another tradition is that this day will be the coronation day of the Messiah. Lastly there is a tradition that this day is the beginning of a ten day period called the Days of Awe.  During this time God judges people and they fall into one of three categories. They either have their names written in the Book of Life, they are condemned, or they are given ten days to escape judgment by repenting. The books are sealed on Yom Kippur. 

The second fall feast is Yom Kippur, although it is not really a feast. It is instead a fast. The only one mandated by God. It occurs on the tenth day of the seventh month and is known as the Day of Atonement.

Leviticus 16:29-34 "And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever. And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest's office in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments: And he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation. And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses."

Leviticus 16:7-10 "And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness."

Leviticus 23:27-32 "Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath."

Numbers 29:7-11 "And ye shall have on the tenth day of this seventh month an holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls: ye shall not do any work therein: But ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD for a sweet savour; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year; they shall be unto you without blemish: And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals to a bullock, and two tenth deals to one ram, A several tenth deal for one lamb, throughout the seven lambs: One kid of the goats for a sin offering; beside the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and the meat offering of it, and their drink offerings."

This day is a Sabbath of rests or literally a Sabbath of Sabbaths. The most important Sabbath in the entire year. They are to have a holy convocation (a gathering of the people together), and do no work, (this rule includes any strangers among them). They are also instructed to fast and offer sacrifices.  The high priest puts on white linen garments and makes an atonement for the people by going into the holy place and sprinkling blood upon the ark of the covenant. Two goats are chosen. One is offered as a sin offering and the other has the sins of the people symbolically laid upon him and he is turned loose into the wilderness. In reality, the people threw this goat off a cliff so that it would not come back. It was said to be offered to Azazel, a demon chained to the area of the wilderness.

The Bible does not mention in these verses that a trumpet should be blown on this day, but that is what is traditionally done. Yom Kippur ends with the blowing of the shofar, which is supposed to herald the coming of the Messiah. It also symbolizes the closing of the gates of heaven. Yom Kippur tradition says this is the day when God closes the books after the ten days of awe or repentance, and He decides people's fates. Tradition also says it is the day that the Day of the Lord or God's wrath will begin. This has some basis in Scripture. Joel 1:14-15 "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,  Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come." The only required fast day is Yom Kippur, and they are to have a holy convocation or solemn gathering on that day, which is what this verse instructs them to do. The resurrection is also expected to occur on this day, as it precedes God's wrath. It also is said that this was the day of the fall of man by Adam and Eve. This was the first atonement in the history of the world when God killed animals to cover their sins, for He made them coats of skins. It would make sense, for it could not have been a long time between their creation and the fall, for there was no time for children to be conceived, and God had ordered them to get busy in that respect. Also, though it is only a few days, Satan would have had time to fall, when he saw God had created man in His image and got jealous and full of pride, and of course immediately he would have aimed his anger at God's creation to corrupt it.

While the trumpets are traditionally blown at the end of Yom Kippur, the only time that God has said that a trumpet is to be blown on Yom Kippur is when it is the year of Jubilee. This would be the last trumpet blown in God's calendar of time keeping, for God measures time by weeks of days (7 days with the 7th being a Sabbath), by weeks of years (7 years with the 7th year being a Sabbath) and by weeks of Sabbath years (7 groups of 7 year periods - 49 years) with the 50th year being a Jubilee and a Sabbath year. Then the count begins again.

Leviticus 25:8-55 "And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.

And the land shall yield her fruit, and he shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store. The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it. And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile. But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile. Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.  But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile: And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God. Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour. And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him. For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."

The Jubilee year is the year when everyone from Israel goes free, both from servitude, and from financial problems. They regain what they have lost in the way of land. Israelites who were sold into servitude due to financial problems could be redeemed during the fifty years by kinsmen for a price, dependent upon how many years until Jubilee, but whether a servant of an Israelite or a stranger, he was set free at Jubilee. The heathen bondsmen. however, remained forever as a servant of the family to be inherited as property. Property whether farmland or village land reverted back with the same rules of redemption as people. The exception was that houses inside walled cities had one year to be redeemed after being sold, and after that they were lost. The Levites could redeem anything at any time for they were to keep their land and houses for perpetuity. The land was not to be sown or reaped on the Jubilee year which also followed a Sabbath year. God's way of handling that was to give them three years worth of food on the sixth year in the seven year cycle. He guaranteed that they would be eating it not only through the seventh year, and Jubilee year (8th) year, but also into the ninth year.

When Christ first began His ministry, He stood up and read a passage from Isaiah in the synagogue. Luke 4:17-21 "And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

The passage in Isaiah says a little bit more. Isaiah 61:1-3a "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion"

Christ was reading a passage which referred to the ultimate Jubilee when the Messiah would come and fulfill those things in the greatest possible way. Israel would be set free for all time, they would redeem the land they had lost, their spirits would be set free from sin.  He stopped short of the end of the passage about the day of vengeance, because at that time, He was there to preach the gospel. Had they been willing and accepted Him, the day of vengeance would have followed, but they rejected Him. So Christ indicated by this passage that His coming had to do with Jubilee, which is announced with a trumpet blast at Yom Kippur, as the captives were liberated, not only physically from servitude and their ailments, but spiritually too as they were set free from the bonds of sin.

So now that we have looked at the Scriptures and traditions surrounding these two holy days, let us look to see what each one may represent.

First, not relying on the traditions, but keeping it strictly to Scripture we see that when we look at the feast of trumpets, as these feasts are foreshadowing things symbolically through whatever actions the Lord tells the people to take, we see that there are only three things He asks of them on this day. Blow the trumpets, observe it as a Sabbath, and offer the usual sacrifices of the month along with a few more.  If we look to the New Testament, the only thing we see that might refer to this day that doesn't have to do with a tradition is the seven trumpet judgments. Trumpets are blown on the new moon of every month and then there is the Feast of Trumpets on the seventh month. This gives us seven trumpets up to this point. It is signifying that seven trumpets are important, and the seventh one especially is the cause of a Sabbath.  So the Feast foreshadows the importance of the trumpet judgments in Revelation and especially designated the seventh or last trumpet as the most important. And in Revelation we see that seven trumpets are sounded, and the last trumpet is the most important. It symbolizes what is to come. As the day is also declared to be a Sabbath, we see a foreshadow of the Sabbath rest of the millennium.

When it comes to the traditions associated with the day, there is the phrase "nobody knows the day or hour" that Christ says in Matthew 24:36 "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." It is thought that since He said that He would come back at a time when nobody would know the day or hour,  many assume that this must be the day of the rapture, but this is not necessarily true. Every first day of the month would be a day which no man would know the day or hour, not just this day, although this day has a feast on it. And as it wouldn't matter what hour they saw the sliver, it was really that nobody would know the day. The hour wouldn't really be relevant. And it would seem that Jesus should know what God knows as they are of one mind, and as they are in charge of nature and the appearance of the moon, it seems unlikely that Christ wouldn't know the day or hour. There happens to be another event of which this is also said, but it fills what Christ said in a more complete way.

While people may not know the day of the Feast of Trumpets, (the hour being irrelevant as no matter what hour the sliver was seen, it was the day that mattered) Christ specifies that only God would know the day and the hour.  The event of which only a father would know the day and the hour would be the time at which he would send his son forth to get his bride. In the traditions of the culture, when a man was betrothed (as Christ is to the Church) he would leave her behind while he went back to his father's house and built a place for the newlyweds to live (New Jerusalem). When his father examined the structure and decided it was complete, he would give his son permission to go get his bride. (The groom would know it was time, but he had to await the actual permission to go). The groom would then make a noisy parade of it, probably with instruments (maybe a trumpet?) alerting all that he was on his way to pick up his bride and take her home. Now, in this case, the son would know that everything was ready for his departure, but he would not be able to leave, or know the day or hour in which his father would actually say the words, "Go get your bride." It would seem that since Christ is a groom, who has made a place for his bride to live and needs to wait for His Father to tell Him to go and get her, making a loud triumphant event of it, that when Christ said nobody knows the day or hour but the Father, refers to the resurrection/rapture at His Second Coming, but it does not mean that it has to occur on the Feast of Trumpets. It simply means that His Coming is the Bridegroom coming for His Bride and He can't know for certain when the Father will say "go", down to the hour. This seems made clear when He follows it up with the parable of the ten virgins, and how five were not ready for the groom's return and so missed out. It would seem that the point of His statement is not to point us to the Feast of Trumpets, but to alert us to the fact that this is about a wedding and it will be at a time when the groom and father know all is ready, but everyone else will be caught by surprise, unless they are vigilant and watching.

Finally another tradition associated with this holiday is a coronation. Trumpets were also sounded at coronations, and Christ must be crowned King before He returns. This would seem to be a good time to do it.

When it comes to Yom Kippur we know that in particular the most important Yom Kippur is the announcement of the year of Jubilee. We see that Christ read the Scriptures about the Jubilee when He announced that the ultimate day of Jubilee had come, if they would accept it. This would seem to indicate that Christ will come on a Jubilee year to set the captives free and declare the acceptable year of the Lord. Jubilee begins at Yom Kippur with the last trumpet blast of the year according to God's ordinances.

Yom Kippur is about atonement or redemption, fasting and mourning over ones sins with repentance, and Israel being given forgiveness as a nation. When Christ returns, it says that all Israel will see Him and mourn, as they realize their mistake. Zechariah 12:9-14 "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." Revelation 1:7 "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen."

When the Church is raptured, it is the end of the time of the Gentiles, and the time when all Israel will be saved. Romans 11:25-26 "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:" Zechariah 13:1 "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." On the day the Church is raptured, atonement will be made for the sins of Israel and all Israel will be saved. Yom Kippur is the day when Israel as a nation is given atonement.

It is a day when the priest puts on white (as we all will upon the resurrection/rapture) to go before God. It is a day when one goat is exiled (the first man, Adam) and the other is sacrificed (the last Adam, Christ). 1 Corinthians 15:45 47 " And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.... The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven."  Yom Kippur is the Sabbath of Sabbaths, and this Jubilee of the Lord's return would be the mega Sabbath of all time. Which is what the millennium is.

According to tradition, it is the day when the books are closed and it is decided who is in the Book of Life, and who goes into God's wrath. When the Church is raptured, God's wrath is poured out on the rest of the world. According to tradition, Yom Kippur is that day when God's wrath begins to be poured out.

Joel 2:11-18 "And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD (the Day of the Lord will occur when the following occurs) is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?  Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, (repentance) and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: ( Yom Kippur) And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.  Who knoweth if he will return and repent, (Christ will return for them at Armageddon) and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? (marriage supper of God, Rev. 19:17*)  Blow the trumpet (last trump) in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:   Gather the people, (holy convocation) sanctify the congregation, (Israel's sins forgiven, all Israel saved)  assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.  Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?  Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people."  Christ will redeem Israel and the land.

*Rev. 19:17 "And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God."

In the above passage Yom Kippur is clearly tied to the Day of the Lord.  And the Day of the Lord is preceded by the resurrection and rapture.

Ephesians 4:30 "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." We are sealed unto the day of redemption. Yom Kippur is the day of redemption for Israel, which means it is also the day of redemption for the Church as when their time is fulfilled, the time of Israel's redemption begins.

We see the events outlined in Isaiah 58:1-14 "Cry aloud, spare not, (Feast of Trumpets) lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and (Days of Awe) shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. (Yom Kippur) Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I have chosen?(Jubilee) to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? (Second Coming) Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, (All Israel is saved) and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee;  the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul;  (Restoration of the people and nation) then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. (Restoration of land) And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. (Millennium) If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it."

Just to follow up with the third feast, five days after Yom Kippur is the Feast of Tabernacles. It is Scripturally a time of celebrating the memorial of the people in the wilderness under God's protection after leaving Egypt. And it could just as easily stand for the protection in the wilderness during the second half of Daniel's 70th week. Revelation 12:14 "And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent."

It is also Scripturally the feast celebrating among other things, the harvest of grapes, which has a significant parallel in Revelation 14:14-20 "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs."

It is also called the "Season of Our Joy."  A wedding feast generally lasted a week in Biblical times. This feast is eight days long. Five days might be sufficient time for the Bema Seat awards to be given and have the Bride prepared for a wedding ceremony. It is this feast which is mentioned in Zechariah 14:16, which all people are required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate during the millennium. What better feast to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord's marriage to His Bride than this one? "And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles."

While many will want to cling to the Feast of Trumpets as the rapture, due to the two premises 1) the phrase "nobody knows the day or hour" and 2) the trumpet blast, I think those two things can be explained away (the marriage tradition and the Jubilee trumpet actually being the last trumpet, not the one on the Feast of Trumpets) which leaves no other evidence for that day. I believe the preponderance of Scriptural evidence clearly indicates that Yom Kippur, and in particular the Jubilee Yom Kippur, is the day which will see the Second Coming of Christ and the resurrection/rapture, and Day of the Lord's wrath. The evidence of the traditional beliefs seems to weigh in that favor also. However, it is up to the reader to decide what they will believe.

Will the Ark of the Covenant Be Necessary in the Third Temple of Daniel's 70th Week? Will It Be Found?

Much has been speculated over the fate of the ark of the covenant. There are a number of theories as to where it lies. This is the list of the most popular theories.

It lies hidden in a cave in the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Temple Institute, which is an ultra-orthodox group who have been working on preparations to rebuild the Temple, along with many orthodox Jews, say that this is the location of the ark. There was an excavation attempted in 1982 under Rabbi Yehuda Getz, but is was halted due to the riots that began when the Arabs discovered there was digging going on under the Dome of the Rock. “Witnesses” have said that they saw it, before they were blocked from further excavation.

It lies in a hidden room at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres in France. It is suggested by Louis Charpentier in his book Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral that the Templars found the ark during the Crusades and hid it in the cathedral for safety. The current clergy and caretakes at the cathedral deny this theory.

It lies in an unmarked cave in modern Jordan, along with other key artifacts, having been hidden there by the prophet Jeremiah prior to the siege by Babylon.

It lies in one of sixty-four different locations designated as treasure sites in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

It is held by the Lemba Tribe in southern Africa, specifically Zimbabwe. This tribe claims to be one of the “lost” tribes of Israel. A DNA survey done in 1999 does link the Lemba tribe to the priestly families in Israel. They treat their “ark” with the appropriate rules as prescribed in the Scriptures. There is a 700 year-old replica held at the Museum of Human Science in Zimbabwe which the Lemba claim was created from the core of the original ark. As this “ark” is bowl shaped, one has to wonder if they were so meticulous about keeping the prescribed rules for how to treat the ark, how they missed reading the description of it, which clearly is a box shape.

It lies in the Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia. Supposedly Solomon's and the Queen of Sheba's son, Menelik, stole the ark and replaced it with a fake, taking the real one back to Ethiopia with him. Nobody is allowed in to see this ark, but supposedly replicas of it are placed in every affiliate church. In looking for pictures of the replicas, I could only find someone carrying a small red rectangular trunk (no cherubim) with either gold or silver star-shaped designs on it. Again, this does not fit the description in the Bible.

It lies on the bottom of Lake Tiberias (aka the Sea of Galilee) according to some Shia Muslims who credit this knowledge to the Hadith (sayings attributed to Mohammed or commentary thereof). According to their prophecies, this ark will rise from the lake after the rise of the Mahdi (their Messiah), whom their prophecies also say will rule the Earth for seven or so years before the Day of Judgement.

It lies under the hill of Golgotha, according to Ron Wyatt, a hobbiest archaeologist. Wyatt made claims of finding other Biblical artifacts, such as Noah's ark. He said that the ark of the covenant was positioned there, so that Christ's blood could drip on it through the fissure in the rock during the crucifixion. He even claims to have scraped dried blood off the ark casing and to have subjected it to DNA testing. He said the lab reported the fascinating result of half the chromosomes normal humans have, consistent with having only one human parent (Mary). My problem with this is, how did Wyatt avoid being struck dead, as Uzzah was when he touched the ark, when he scraped this blood sample off the ark? That does beg some questions, does it not?


It is said by some to reside in heaven, based upon Revelation 11:19 “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” This can be dismissed right away, as there has always been an ark in heaven, long before the replica of it was made for the tabernacle. We know this because God told Moses that he was making the tabernacle and its accoutrements as replicas of the heavenly temple, and that is why the measurements and arrangement of all things had to be so precise. Exodus 25:9, 40 “According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it........And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.” Hebrews 8:5 “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.”

Lastly the movie Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark along with the television show Warehouse 13 has left us with the theory that the ark is boxed up in an unmarked crate and stored along with other missing artifacts of importance in an undesignated (or possibly the basement of the Smithsonian) government location where it can be protected from either being used for nefarious purposes by unsavory characters, or possibly proving the Bible true. One can almost believe this is the most logical possibility, knowing our government.

The truth of the matter is, nobody knows what happened to it except God. Is it necessary that it make a reappearance for the time of Daniel's 70^th week? Not really. We know that it was not in the Second Temple, and that did not stop them from sacrificing. We know that God left the Temple and will not return to it until He returns in the person of Jesus Christ or Yeshua ha Mashiach, so He does not need the mercy seat as a throne. We know that Christ was the ultimate sacrifice and that the Yom Kippur sacrifice or atonement has been permanently made once and for all. So the ark would seem to be unnecessary for the Tribulation Temple, for lack of a better title.  The only real prophecies that say it will make a reappearance come not from the Bible, but from the prophecies of Islam. These prophecies come from Satan, so does he plan to bring it back? Or at least a facsimile of it? Possibly.
The question then would seem to be, is it a necessary part of the Millennial Temple, for if it is, then one might think that it is necessary that it makes its reappearance. For that answer we can turn to the Scriptures.

Jeremiah 3:16 “And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.”

This Scripture tells us that during the millennium (which this passage of Scripture is describing) the ark will not come to mind, nor be remembered, nor visited (it could only be visited by priests once a year on Yom Kippur), nor shall what was done on the day of Yom Kippur (the sacrifice covering the sins of the people for the past year) be done anymore. If it is not visited by the priests on Yom Kippur, then it is not being used. If it is not being used it is unnecessary. If it is not remembered or does not even come to mind, it probably doesn't exist, for even if it existed, but was not visited, people would know it was there and think about it. Why is it not there? It is not needed. God will dwell among people in the person of Jesus Christ. He will be on a different kind of throne. Not a mercy seat where sacrifices need be offered, but on a throne where a king reigns. The people who are born in the millennium will only know the world that is, at that time, not remember the world that was. It will be irrelevant to them. The temple worship will be similar, in that sacrifices will be made, but not for all the same purposes. In Old Testament times, besides being sacrifices of blood to barely temporarily cover their sins, the sacrifices were the source of food for the priests and Levites. Without land to till and raise animals, they would be without food to eat. These sacrifices provided, along with the tithes every third year, the needed supplies of food, oil, wood, wine, etc. that was needed for the temple priests/Levites as well as their families and the running of the temple itself.

While many people have a problem with sacrifices being re-instituted during the millennium, that is exactly what Ezekiel teaches us in the last ten or so chapters of that book. As most people do not understand the sacrificial system at all, and only think it was to cover sins (which it never really did – Hebrews 10:4 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”), they do not understand why it would be re-instituted given that Christ died for our sins once and for all. Yes, He did. But looking at the Church these days and the sin that pervades it, would it not be a good reminder every time you committed a sin, if you had to go sacrifice an animal? I know it would certainly be a greater tangible deterrent for me than just my conscience, which although it accuses me, makes me feel guilty, and causes me to repent, does not cause as much anguish in my repentance (shame on me) as if I had to also slaughter one of my animals (and being an animal lover, this would bother me greatly). Then there is the absolute necessity of providing food for the priests and Levites. This will not change. This is the means by which it will be done, as this is how God set up His government. The sacrifices always served a double duty.

So, while the temple will be built again (see Ezekiel for the description) during the millennium (this will be the fourth temple, actually) it will not have an ark of the covenant according to the Scripture in Jeremiah. As it is not needed, chances are, it will not be discovered for the time of Daniel's 70^th week. But who knows. Maybe Satan has something up his sleeve, given what he has told others.

The Four Blood Moons Theory

The Blood Moon Theory has become increasingly more popular in the past few years. It is especially popular with the pre-tribulationists as they see it as a sign (in spite of the fact that they say there will be no signs) of the rapture. This theory was originated by Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries and was made more popular by John Hagee's bestselling book Four Blood Moons. 
 
If you have not heard of it, the theory is that the four lunar eclipses which occur on April 15, 2014, October 8, 2014, April 4, 2015 and September 28, 2015 are a tetrad of blood moons which, falling on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles (or Sukkot) in both those years, is a sign to Israel that something is about to happen. As pre-tribulationists believe that they will be out of here before anything starts with Israel, that means to them that the rapture must occur very soon.

Why are these eclipses significant? First in Jewish tradition, when a solar eclipse occurs, it is a bad omen for the nations, but when a lunar eclipse occurs it is a bad omen for Israel. Secondly there are some prophecies having to do with the end of the age that deal with the sun and the moon. The following are the Scriptures used as the basis for this Blood Moon Theory.


Joel 2:31 “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.”

Acts 2:20 “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:” 
 
Revelation 6:12b “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal …......and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;”

Taking these verses out of context from surrounding verses and assuming that they are speaking of normal lunar (and solar) eclipses, Mr. Biltz went to NASA's charts on eclipses and discovered that there was a tetrad of lunar eclipses in the future. He then compared these dates to the Jewish calendar and found that many fell on Jewish feast days. He then looked to see if there were any historical tetrads that had significance attached to their dates. He found what he thought was important information. Six times a tetrad had occurred in conjunction with Jewish feasts. By checking historical data he found that three of these had what he considered to be great significance in Jewish history.

The first tetrad was April 2 and September 25, 1493; and March 22 and September 15, 1494.

The second was April 13 and October 7, 1949; and April 2, and September 25, 1950.

The third was April 24 and October 18, 1967; and April 13 and October 6, 1968.

The first tetrad came during the Spanish Inquisition in which the Jews were expelled from Spain. Messieurs Biltz and Hagee have tied this tetrad in with the Alhambra Decree issued on March 31, 1492. The problem with this would seem to be, if God is trying to use these signs to warn the people, isn't he a little late to the party? These tetrads began after the expulsion. It is hardly of any use when one tells you after you have had something happen to you, that you were going to have something happen to you. Especially when the warning comes a year to two years late. I think we can dismiss this tetrad of being any special importance

The next tetrad was tied to the creation of the state of Israel. Israel declared itself the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, which was followed with a war, which was followed with their acceptance by the U.N. on May 11, 1949. Again, although there was one eclipse just before the U.N. accepted Israel into membership, the rest were after the fact. In fact the first one came a year late, considering they declared their independence a year earlier, and according to Jewish tradition these eclipses are signs of bad omens. It would seem that coming right before their acceptance as a country, it was a good omen. So again, God was late to the party, giving the warnings after the fact.

The last tetrad is tied to the Six-Day War in Israel which commenced on June 5 and ended June 10, 1967. Again, God only got one eclipse in shortly before the event, and the other three came after the fact. God does seem to have a problem with getting to the party on time. Three misses out of three tetrads.

Due to their tying these tetrads into these events, they postulated that the coming tetrads will fulfill the prophecy about which the Scriptures in Joel, Acts, and Revelation speak, therefore there is a major event for Israel about to occur. This is a 50/50 gamble, as everyone has been expecting something to happen in Israel for decades.

Before we show how these tetrads do not fulfill these Scriptures, let us consider some other facts. First of all, there were six tetrads that Mr. Biltz found. The other three were non-events. Coupled with the fact that these other three came more or less after the events, what basis do we have for believing that the upcoming tetrad has any significance? None, really. The odds are not on Messieurs Biltz and Hagee's side. In fact, it appears that these tetrads had nothing to do with the events, and certainly were not portents of them, as they came after and sometimes well after the events occurred. And why would God not warn them of the Holocaust during WWII, if He is using eclipses to warn them of major events of a negative nature? If He were going to warn them of something, would that not have been a good time to warn them?

Another fact to consider is that the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar. The feasts of Passover and Sukkot come on the 15th of the month. The full moon would come at the same time the feasts come during the month every year, so is it really so miraculous to think that occasionally there would be an eclipse of the full moon that coincided with these two feasts? And why is Mr. Biltz so sure that these eclipses will be blood moons? Not every eclipse is. 

The following information was found at AnswersinGenesis.org. The link is below.

"However, a wide range of color and brightness can be found in lunar eclipses. This is based on atmospheric conditions at the time including dust and humidity levels. While the color of some total lunar eclipses could be compared to blood, others are more orange, similar to a pumpkin. Still other eclipses look yellow, and some are very dark—virtually black. One of the most unusual total lunar eclipses was the very long one on July 6, 1982. Half of the earth’s umbra was as dark as coal, but the other half was rather bright and had a peach-like color. No one alive could remember such an unusual-looking lunar eclipse, nor were there any similar reports of past eclipses. In short, most lunar eclipses don’t appear blood-like, so it is a bit presumptuous to assume that any particular future eclipse—or, in this case, four eclipses—must of necessity be 'blood moons'

Total lunar eclipses aren’t that unusual; there will be 85 total lunar eclipses in the twenty-first century. The greatest length of time between two consecutive total lunar eclipses is only three years. In between these “droughts” will be occurrences of three or even four total lunar eclipses, each separated by about six months. A little more than half the earth’s surface can witness at least a portion of a particular eclipse.

The moon’s orbit around the earth is tilted a little more than five degrees with respect to the plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun (known as the ecliptic). So normally a full moon is above or below the earth’s umbra, and no eclipse occurs. Each month the moon’s orbit crosses the plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun in two places, points that we call the lunar nodes. If a full moon occurs when the moon is near a node, then there is a lunar eclipse. (Conversely, a new moon at this time results in a solar eclipse.) There are two times per year when the nodes are roughly aligned with a full moon. These eclipse seasons are little more than a month long, and they are separated by a little less than six months. The moon’s orbit precesses in an 18.6-year period, so the eclipse seasons shift about 20 days earlier each year. The result is that the possibility of lunar eclipses happening around the times of Passover and Sukkot (which are six months apart) repeats roughly half of this 18.6-year period. Passover and Sukkot are always at full moon and always six months apart. Hence, any lunar eclipse that happens near the equinoxes must fall on or within a day of Passover (spring) or Sukkot (autumn). Therefore the coincidence of these festivals with lunar eclipses is not as rare as Biltz implies."

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2013/07/12/lunar-eclipses-cause-blood-moons

So we can see that first of all, it is not remarkable or unusual for there to be an eclipse on the day of the Jewish Feasts of Passover and Sukkot. Nor it is unusual for several of them to occur six months apart. Nor to happen several years in a row. The odds of them being blood moons is unlikely, so to state that all four will be blood moons, when one cannot possibly know what the atmospheric conditions will be is ludicrous at best.

A problematic question that must be asked is this, why when the Scriptures imply this is a single event, do they say that these four events are the fulfillment of the Scriptures? Would not one eclipse do?

One last problem concerning the four eclipses themselves is that they are are not seen over the whole world as the Scriptures imply this event will be seen. They are only seen on the opposite side of the world from Israel. The last one is seen somewhat in Europe, but none are available for viewing in the very land that is supposed to view them as portents of their future. Does it not seem odd that God would not show these eclipses to the very people they are supposed to warn? 

Approaching the problem from another direction, we find that Mr. Biltz and likewise Mr. Hagee use only the passage in Joel to make their point. As the passage in Acts is taken as a quote from Joel, we will consider that this is the same verse. They look to the book of Revelation to verify that these signs are what they say they are, the signs of the coming apocalypse. As pre-tribulationists, they believe that the rapture occurs before the sixth seal, so this fits nicely with their ideology. But does Revelation really give credence to their theory? Let's take a closer look at that passage in Revelation.

Revelation 6:12-14 “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 
 
We see that there is a little more at work here than a blood moon. The sun becomes black or goes dark at the same exact time. But solar and lunar eclipses do not happen at the same time. In fact it is impossible for them to occur at the same time, so it is quite impossible that if the sun must go dark too, that these lunar eclipses are what are being spoken of. The only possible thing that could cause both to be eclipsed would be for some other rogue celestial body to come into our sphere of influence. Added to these things, we find there is more than just the sun going dark and the moon becoming blood red. According to Revelation the stars also fall to earth. As realistically we know that the stars way out in space are not going to fall to earth, we must look for another explanation. Does one come to mind? Yes, easily. When meteorites fall to earth, we in fact call them falling stars. It would appear that there will be a lot of meteors, and possibly small asteroids falling to the earth causing it to look like the stars are falling or going out. And that is what we also find in the passage in Joel in an earlier verse than Messieurs Biltz and Hagee use. 
 
Joel 2:10 “The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.”

This star shower can also be found in the gospel passages that describe this event.

Matthew 24:29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.”

Mark 13:24-25 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.”

Luke is not quite as detailed, but he does mention that the stars are involved in this event.

Luke 21:25-26 “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

  

We find that this event is not only described in Joel in the Old Testament, but in Ezekiel and Isaiah also. 

Ezekiel 32:7-8 “And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.”

Isaiah 13:10, 13 “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine....Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.” 
 
Isaiah 34:4 “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.”

Joel 3:15-16a “The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake.”

If one looks back at these verses, there is another component that the two gentlemen seem to miss. The earth will be shaken. There will be great earthquakes or possible one mega earthquake, for the whole earth is affected by this. Every island and mountain will be moved out of its place. It is so bad that according to Isaiah, it will actually alter the earth's orbital position, for it will be moved out of its place. There has never been an eclipse of the moon that has caused an earthquake, much less one that could move the earth out of its orbit. This is obviously not speaking of a lunar eclipse. It is speaking of something far greater and terribly devastating. An eclipse does not hurt the earth in any manner. This event will make people run to the caves to hide out of fear. 
 
Revelation 6:15-16 “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”
 
Clearly this Blood Moon Theory is a theory that comes from the imagination of some men. It is not based upon Scripture. Its only foundational basis is that there is a tradition in Judaism that eclipses of the moon have some significance for Israel. From there this entire theory was born, using one verse of Scripture out of context from the rest of the parallel passages. One can only see dollar signs as the reason for propagating a teaching that can easily be shown to not line up with Scripture. That God uses the celestial bodies as signs and portents is not in question. He does. And these eclipses might well occur before something disastrous happens, as the situation in the Middle East is always ready to blow. But to say that these four eclipses are 1)blood moons, which cannot be known until the day they occur as to whether they will be red or not, 2) are in a line of historical tetrads that have been portents, which clearly has been shown to be wrong, 3) only happen as a sign from God that something is about to occur, which is not true as they happen all the time due to the fact that these feasts fall on the full moon all the time, and 4) are the fulfillment of the signs given in Revelation, which clearly they are not, is deception at best. Such poor scholarship is inexcusable from men who are reaching and teaching thousands of people.

Yea Hath God Said?

“Yea, hath God said....?”

Four simple little words, but oh, how they can cause damage. These are the first four words that Satan spoke to Eve. And because she agreed that God did not mean exactly what He said, we now suffer the consequences of that terrible decision, namely sin. Christ had to die to undo that terrible mistake. Yet still today, Satan finds that these four words are his best weapon against Christians, for if there is one thing that causes a great deal of dispute, it is the subject of what God's Word – His literal words - says.

I cannot count the number of times I have read something like this, “I know what the text says, but that doesn't mean you have to interpret it that way.” In fact, I read those very words just yesterday. Today I read another comment by someone and they said basically the same thing. “You say it can't get much clearer than that! [the text] all sounds so cut and dry, I admit that....but...” Now here are two people that both admit that the text says something that is clearly understood in its straightforward reading, yet both of them argue that God does not mean what He said. In other words, Satan has managed to convince them, just as he convinced Eve that God does not actually mean what He has said.

Now my question is, if that were really the case, how on earth is God supposed to communicate something to us, if we constantly argue with Him that He cannot possibly mean what He has said? How many times when our children have misbehaved and deliberately done something that we have clearly and unmistakeably told them not to do, have they said that they did not understand us to have actually meant what we said? They choose to “interpret” what we have said in order to disobey us. I am sure every parent has had this happen at least once in their child-rearing years.

I cannot begin to count the number of people who have told me that God's Word is not to be understood in a straightforward manner, but that we are to “interpret” it in a symbolic or spiritualized way. Many well-known preachers even preach that we are to do this. The problem becomes, we have been told by God, through Peter, that we are not to try to put a personal or private interpretation upon His Word, especially prophecy. We are told it is not our place to “interpret” it, 2 Peter 1:20 “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of private interpretation.” Now considering that the vast majority of the Bible is prophecy, (not only all the major and minor prophets and Revelation, but also much of the gospels, epistles, Psalms, and Torah. And I am fairly sure that there are verses here and there in the few books not mentioned as well. That means that most of the Bible is not up for private interpretation. Therefore God actually means what He says, and He wants us to understand Him exactly as He has said it. So to say that, well, yes, you know that what is said makes sense as written, but you choose not to believe it is simply rebellion against God. Just as Eve rebelled against God.

Now I know that some read this will argue that there is more behind God's words than what is simply written - that there is symbolism as well, such as Abraham offering Isaac being a picture of God offering His Son. I will not deny that this is true. And naturally God's Word includes metaphors, anthropomorphisms, and similar grammatical devices, which we should intelligently be able to separate out. There are also visions, which God always interprets for us, so we need not try to interpret them ourselves. BUT, and this is a big BUT, besides those few things, we must always first and foremost accept what is written at the face value level and understand God's Word at that level before looking for any other meaning. THEN and ONLY then can we move on to look for the deeper meaning that may be symbolic. And this second or even third level of understanding will NEVER contradict the face value meaning at the first level. If we skip over the first level and try to “interpret” God's Word without a foundational understanding, we turn it into nonsense, for with no foundational truth underneath our interpretation, it will not stand up, but collapse under its own weight. Any theories derived without a foundational truth underneath it will only be a false interpretation and will lead one from the truth, not to it. This is why we find so many doctrines throughout the churches in Christendom. Instead of staying with a straightforward understanding, a great many of the “great scholars” or “giant Christian leaders” through the centuries have propagated their own private interpretation, which then became doctrine and then dogma. The very thing we were told not to do, was done by the very leaders of the church in defiance of God's command, and look where it has led us. People do not study their Bibles, our pastors do not study their Bibles, everyone studies their churches dogmas and doctrines and then defends them to the hilt, by using their privately derived interpretations of the Word of God, skewing His Word in whatever way is necessary for them to validate their beliefs. This is not what we were supposed to do.

So the question again becomes, “Yea, hath God said?” And our answer to that question posed by Satan to this day should be, “Yes, He most certainly has.”

Daniel's 70th Week - 3 1/2 Years or 7?

I am finding that the idea that the 70^th week of Daniel not being seven years is being promoted more and more on various websites. This appears to be a new teaching that I had not really heard much of until late. If it existed years ago, it apparently was not widely accepted, and with good reason.

For those who do not know this teaching, it is being taught by some that the 70^th week of Daniel only consists of three and a half weeks. I will try to explain as best as I can from what I have gleaned.

First we must look at the verse in Daniel that refers to this time period.

Daniel 9:24-27 “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

For a fuller explanation of what this passage is really about, please see these links to articles I have written. http://endtimesstudies.blogspot.com/2009/06/daniel-9.html

http://bibleconundrumsandcontroversy.blogspot.com/2012/03/daniels-70th-week-tribulation-day-of.html

The teaching to which I refer above states that the 70^th week, the last seven years that God promised Israel, has already been half fulfilled. It is said that the first three and a half years refer to Christ's ministry, and that His death on the cross was the abomination that caused desolation.

There are some very major problems with this teaching. First, notice how the verses are laid out above. First it says that after the sixty-second week (which comes after the first seven weeks) or more clearly the sixty-ninth week, the Messiah will be cut off or killed. This clearly and unmistakeably puts Christ's death at the end of the sixty-ninth week, not halfway through the seventieth week. By saying that the first half of the seventieth week is Christ's ministry, it creates the situation where you have to overlay the last half of the sixty-ninth week with the first half of the seventieth week, which then short-changes Israel three and a half years of the 490 years or seventy sevens that they have been promised. By what right can one alter God's promise? It is nonsensical to say that the sixty-ninth week and seventieth week overlap each other by three and a half years. There is nothing in the verses that implies this in any way. It is merely a contrivance created by someone to back up a theory which they have imagined to be, rather than taking the Scriptures at their face value and interpreting them as God has spoken them.

Not only do we see that Christ's death comes at the end of the sixty-ninth week, we see that this is followed by the information that after His death, the city and sanctuary will be destroyed and that there will be more desolations to follow that. As this happened a good forty years after Christ died, we see that the clock stopped ticking after the sixty-ninth week and that there is a gap between that and the seventieth week, which is still to be mentioned in the passage. There is, however, no gap implied during the course of the 70th week, as is being taught. Only an event in the middle of it.

Now that this gap is established in the correct place, after the sixty-ninth week, it is mentioned that the next thing will be the confirmation of a covenant for another seven years – the 70^th week of Daniel, as it is known. This confirmation is not made at the beginning of Christ's ministry, which it would have to be if the idea that the first three years of this week are Christ's ministry. This confirmation is clearly made after Christ's death and the destruction of the temple. To read anything else into this passage is to twist what is clearly stated. We are then told that in the middle of this seven year period the sacrifices and oblations will cease and that there will be an abomination that causes desolation.

Now I don't know about you, the reader, but I have a serious problem calling the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior an abomination. It was a horrific death, yes, and a blasphemy against God to hang Him on a tree, but it was not an abomination. The Hebrew word for abominations in this text is “shiqquwts”. This word means “idolatrous detestable filth”. The dictionary defines it as a person or thing that is disgusting. Do these people who promote this teaching really want to say that their Lord and His death were an idolatrous, detestable, filthy, disgusting person and thing? Do they understand what they are saying? Have they studied the passage to really understand what is being said, or are they, like many, trying to force the Scriptures to fit their teaching?

What the passage says is that the sacrifices and oblations will be caused to cease. Sacrifices by definition are animal sacrifices. Oblations are offerings that are not animal. First of all, technically the sacrifices and oblations did not cease upon the death of Christ. They continued for another 40 years, so the theory proposed does not fit the events. There is no implication in the verse that it is the effectiveness of the sacrifices that is being discussed or referred to, which is how this theory explains it. It is the sacrifices themselves which are actually physically stopped. This did not happen upon Christ's death.

As for the sacrifices mentioned (that are stopped), this entire 70^th week  falls after the destruction of the temple. This leads to only on conclusion. The fact that these sacrifices and oblations are going on indicates that there must be a temple or altar of some sort on the temple mount, which is the only place acceptable to God for these things to occur. This indicates that if they are stopped at the middle of the 70^th week, they must be going on before the middle of the 70^th week. Hence, if there is no temple or at least an altar on the temple mount or one in the process of being built by agreement of all parties, we are not in the 70^th week of Daniel. Nor can there be an abomination of desolation out of the blue without any forewarning, as this theory teaches, as the ongoing sacrifices would precede the abomination and warn us of what is coming.

To add to the stopping of these sacrifices, there is an abomination that causes desolation that is set up. Christ refers to this in Matthew 24 when He tells us that we are to refer back to Daniel when we see (visibly see) the abomination of desolation. We find more information on this abomination in Daniel 11:30-31 “For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.”

We are told that something will be placed in the sanctuary that will be an abomination. When this was originally fulfilled by Antiochus Ephiphanes, it was a statue of Zeus. We have two clues as to what it may be when the beast does it. The first is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (Notice we are told there will be a temple, which supports the correct interpretation of Daniel 9:27.) The second clue is found in Revelation 13:14-15 “And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

We cannot know exactly what this abomination will be, but our main clue is that it is something that will mimic, only on a much greater scale, what Antiochus Epiphanes did. It is something we will see. That along with the armies surrounding Jerusalem and the stopping of the sacrifices will be a neon sign to us saying that the mid-point of the 70^th week has come and that the tribulation is about to begin.

For those who teach that there will be no temple, no sacrifices, and no first half of the 70^th week, they do those who believe them no service, for any straying from the truth of Scripture leads people to error in understanding and possible deception of what will be going on. These people need to start taking Scripture at face value and understand that things are meant literally. They should not alter the meaning or chronology of these verses to fit their scenario. This is as much deception as any other false teaching out there.

America is on the Brink of Disaster

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

America is at a point where she is about to implode. Our government and its leaders are out of hand in their activities. Even posting this article will no doubt put me (as if I weren't already) on a list of people that should be disposed of, being considered a dissident due to my blog, my homeschooling, and etc.

I have believed for some time that America is Babylon, and according to Scripture, Babylon does not bite the dust until the end of this age. But the way America is going, and now things seem to be so bad that even what we are hearing in the media is quite awful, not to mention those things that are much more hideous behind the scenes and kept from the public, I have to wonder if I am wrong, or if something is going to happen to delay this event to its proper time frame. The one thing that could delay the demise of this country, its constitution, and sovereignty is the suggestion God made above. Christians need to get to their knees, NOW, and start praying fervently for this country, if we do not want to end up in jail (or worse) for having a Bible, or teaching Sunday School, or homeschooling our children. The rest of the world has been suffering under these types of restrictions and punishments for a long time, being martyred for their faith, much less being thrown in jail. We are the last bastion of freedom being able to worship God freely, but this is a freedom that is soon to be lost. We can no longer afford to stick our heads in the sand and ignore the problem, thinking that things will be okay, because we are supposedly a country under God. We have not been a country under God for a very long time now. And God has just about had His fill our our sins.

I am asking for every reader to either write your own plea, copy and paste this article, or link the blog address of this article in an email and send the message to as many Christians as you can. We can still delay the inevitable if we are willing to humble ourselves and ask God to forgive our personal sins and our country's sins. If we don't, we can expect that our lives will soon change, and not for the better.

The Seven Churches in Revelation Are Not Exempt from Suffering

Of late I have been thinking a lot of what the letters to the seven churches in Revelation say. I guess the reason I have been thinking so much about them is because so many people have been telling me the following - that the Church is above reproach and that God does not need to discipline her, because His blood has covered all her sins. He does not find her lacking or feel that she has to suffer, for if that were the case, then was not His sacrifice a thing of no worth? He died so that she might not suffer. He does not want a Bride who has been beaten up. Anyone who believes that we must suffer for Christ believes in a works salvation and not in Christ's blood justifying us, for Christ has no intention of letting His Bride suffer.

I guess I keep finding different ways to write about this subject, because I find this attitude so terribly disturbing and quite honestly just blind and ignorant in the face of not only history, but what is going on with Christians around the world. I apologize to people who follow me regularly, for it must seem that I am beating a dead horse after writing on this in so many ways. Moreso on my other blog that this one. As I find that many people are not regular followers but simply come upon me due to googling a topic title, I keep writing this in various ways in the hopes that if one article does not catch their attention, another will. I want to take a good look at the letters Christ writes to the churches to see if this attitude is actually a Scriptural one.

Let's take a look at what Christ says to each church in turn.

Revelation 2:1-7 “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

In Ephesus, Christ commends them for their works, patience, intolerance of evil, Berean testing of the leaders, hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans, and perseverance. If we stop at this point, we would look upon this as a church without blemish. This is no apostate church into doctrines of demons. They have not become a carnal church. This appears to be a church who indeed does not need any discipline or chastisement and of whom Christ can be proud, for it seems that they walk with God. But what is the next thing He says? “NEVERTHELESS I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” Christ is saying that they do not meet with His full approval. They are found wanting or lacking in some respect, and that respect is that they have left their first love. What is our first love? Our first love is this, Matthew 22:37-39 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

The first love is supposed to be for God. The second is for our neighbor. In looking at their works, it would appear that they have been zealous of love toward their neighbor as far as good works, and they have been zealous for the church in weeding out the wolves and sinners, but they have forgotten to take time for their first love, God. How often do we do that? God established the Sabbath so that man could have a day of rest. One in which the cares of the world could be set aside and he could spend the day communing with God. Today the Christian church has adopted a different day, and on that day they do anything but rest. It is service after service, meetings, choir rehearsals, etc. They are so busy doing for the Lord (or so they think) that they do not actually have time for Him. How many couples today end up divorced, because they spend all their time working to supply not simply the needs of the family, but the wants, and spend no time with each other simply loving each other, talking to and listening to each other, giving to each other, and showing each other their love? How many people take time each day to spend in prayer talking to God, or reading their Bible listening to God? We are a busy people. Too busy. We do not even take time to eat anymore. We eat fast food, because we cannot eat fast enough to get it over with to get on to other things. In Bible times (and still in some cultures), the meal was a long process in which people communed with each other, as well as took time over enjoying the food. When the angel of the Lord and the other two angels came to Abraham on their way to Sodom, what did Abraham ask of them? He asked them to stay for a meal. Realize that this was not a pop open the box and throw it in the microwave meal. Sarah had to make bread from scratch. Abraham got a calf and had a young man “dress” it. He had to first slaughter the animal. If you have never slaughtered an animal, then you should realize this is no five minute process. You have to first bleed them out, then gut them and strip the skin/fur off. Then usually they roasted the entire animal. That can take several hours. Even if cut up, it takes quite a while to roast the pieces. When they accepted the invitation, it meant staying around for a minimum of several hours and visiting while they waited. Then the meal itself would be a time consuming affair for it would have been rude to gobble it down as quickly as possible and run. And they were in a hurry. Today we can stop at a burger joint, in five minutes we have our food, and in ten it is consumed and we are on our way. Fifteen minutes of family time. Usually no fellowship. That is how we treat God too.

What does Christ tell this church? He tells them to repent “or else.” OR ELSE? Christ really said, “or else?” That is a threat. But Christ never threatens His Church does He? After all, they are above reproach, right? He has no bone to pick with them, does He? Well, maybe He does. Maybe He does not see them as perfect as they see themselves. With what does Christ threaten them? He threatens to remove their candlestick out of its place. But what and where is that candlestick and what does removing it mean? Revelation 1:12-13,20 “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.....The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. ”

The candlestick is one of seven (representing the seven churches) that are found in heaven. The candlestick is them, their church. Christ stands in the midst of the churches. He is spotlighted by the light they shine upon Him. The church is supposed to be the light of Christ to the world. We are to showcase Him. This church is threatened with the consequence, after all their good works, that if they do not repent and put God back first in their lives that their candlestick will be removed. That is no insignificant idle threat. It means throwing them out of heaven. It means they will not be allowed to shine for Him anymore. This is serious business. And this is a church that has much to commend it. So is the church beyond reproach? Is it true that Christ did it all for us, so we have to do nothing? It would not seem that this is the message He is giving us in this passage. God does believe in allowing His Bride to suffer, if she is not what she should be. Not only suffer, but He will remove her entirely from His presence if she does not get herself right with Him.

There is a caveat though. To those in a church like this who have an ear to hear this warning, this threat, the truth that Christ will chastise and punish His Bride - if they repent, they will overcome and be allowed to eat of the tree of life. Overcoming. What does this word mean? It means to succeed in dealing with, defeating or having victory over a difficulty or conflict, to defeat an opponent, to get the better of a struggle, or to prevail over a temptation or tribulation. We will look more into the Scriptural definition of an overcomer further along in this article.

Let us take a look at the next church. Revelation 2:8-11 “And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”

To this church, Christ has nothing but commendation. They are not found wanting in any way. In spite of this fact, what does Christ tell them? He tells them that they will suffer. They will suffer horribly, for they will be handed over to the devil, who will not only cast them into prison to try (examine, prove) them, but that after a period of tribulation (“thlipsis” in Greek) that they will be put to death. Now interestingly enough, this word tribulation, “thlipsis”, is the exact same word used in Matthew 24 when we are told there will be great tribulation. “Thlipsis” means “to put to the test or prove”. Here Christ is telling them that they will be handed over to the devil for a period of tribulation, “thlipsis,” and then be martyred, so that they may be proven or examined by Satan and shown to be perfect before God in their faith. This is similar to what happened to Job, for there was no fault found in him either, but God allowed Satan to try him also. For what purpose? To show that Job's faith was not because God only did good to him, but that his faith would survive even when God allowed him to suffer, by letting Satan destroy everything he had. I believe that is called testing or putting to the proof and God does do it to even His most righteous children.

The church is told that it should be faithful and endure right up to their death, for there awaits them a crown of life if they do. Then Christ says that for those who have an ear to hear, even if they are righteous and not in need of being tested, that if they endure this testing they will be overcomers and have no need to worry about the second death, which is spiritual death.

Here we see that suffering is not merely a matter of God disciplining us, but that He allows His righteous servants with whom He finds no fault to suffer to the point of death. Does that reinforce the idea that the Bride is not going to be allowed by Christ to be beaten up, or does it reinforce the idea that God will hand His children over to Satan and allow them to suffer, and to suffer to the point of death? We are told in Daniel 7 and in Revelation 12 and 13 that the saints are handed over to the beast. It is for the purpose of trying them to purge them. Purge them of what? Oh, of all these little complaints that Christ has with the churches.

The third church on this list is Pergamos. Revelation 2:12-17 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

Pergamos is a church that is in the midst of a city filled with Satanic worship. It was the headquarters of the pagan goddess Diana. In spite of this threat to their lives, living in the midst of this, they have not denied Christ (a very important tenet) even in the face of one of their own being martyred. They have works to their credit, but Christ has some problems with them. They hold to teachings that allow for not just freedom in Christ, but cross the line into carnality and are practicing carnality. They also hold to doctrines that Christ hates. Christ threatens them that if they do not repent of this, He will come and fight against the people within the church that are doing these things Himself. Again, He says that the people within the church who open their ears to His warning, and realize that they are not perfect before Him can repent and be saved. For the rest He will not only chastise them, but fight against them Himself. You do not want to be on the side whom Christ is against. Those who repent are overcomers.

Next we have the church at Thyatira. Revelation 2:18-29 “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

This church has works that are so impressive that Christ mentions them twice. They have love, they have faith, they have patience to endure things. Is not that all that is important? Love and faith? The works are a demonstration of their perfection, right? No. Again we see that carnality has crept into the church in its doctrines and behavior. They are tolerating a woman leader (God does not allow a woman to be the shepherd of a church) who is teaching them all sorts of wrong things. They are committing spiritual adultery as well as physical. They are listening to doctrines of demons and are getting involved with Satanic things upon which they are putting the moniker of “Christian.” Do we see this today? Yes, we do - in music, (rock, which is from Satan is reclassified as “Christian” rock) in contemplative prayer (which is a Christianized name for transcendental meditation), the prosperity gospel (which is merely another name for greed) and on and on. This church and especially the leaders have already been given a chance by God to repent and they have not. They know what they are doing and continue to persist in it. Not only will she (representative of all these leaders), but the entire church will be cast into the great tribulation and killed, so that everyone will know that God searches the heart and tries us to make us worthy. He will reward them according to their works, which in this case translates into punish them for their sins. The only hope they have of escaping (and this does not just mean escaping the suffering of the tribulation, but of far worse consequences) is to repent. Those who do and can endure to the end will rule with Christ. They will be overcomers.

Revelation 3:1-6 “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Sardis has a name in the world of being a church that is alive and on fire for the Lord. It is probably a good description of the mega churches that have congregations that number in the thousands and have more programs than you can count. However, they are spiritually dead. It is all superficial Christianity. They are into entertainment, social activities and thrive on being involved in their church, but they have no real relationship with Christ. Their works are lacking, because they are not done from a desire to be as Christ, but to look good in the eyes of the world. They are on the brink of not even believing in God, for even the few things of truth which remain are close to dying. If they do not repent and start watching, then Christ will come upon them as a thief in the night. This is how He will come upon the unbelieving world at His Second Coming. They will be among the unbelievers instead of His children at that time, if they don't repent. This shows that He is expecting to come back for His children at His Second Coming, at an hour they do not expect. There are a few who have not soiled themselves, but still walk with God within this church. They are worthy of being saved, and if they overcome they will not have their names blotted out of the Book of Life. This indicates that one can have their name blotted out of the Book of Life. That means that someone whose name has been written in the Book of Life can have it removed. Does this go along with the teaching that Christ has done it all and we need do nothing? That we need fear nothing? That Christ would never let His Bride suffer? This is something to radically fear - having one's name removed from the Book of Life.

The church at Philadelphia is a special church. Revelation 3:7-13 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

The church at Philadelphia is like Smryna in that there is no condemnation. They have works, they have kept God's Word pure and unadulterated from doctrines of demons, they have not denied Christ, they obviously are not carnal. They have kept the word of God's patience, that He is patient to wait for the last person to be saved before pouring out His wrath and for them to be patient to endure to the end until His return. Because they have kept that patience and understand that time and again we are told that we must endure to the bitter end, not have a good time and party, but endure (this indicates trials and tribulation - suffering) to the end, God will spare them from the suffering of that time of temptation (trying, putting to the test or proof – in other words, the tribulation) that the rest of the world must endure. He will protect them while those around them fall, a thousand on one side and ten thousand on the other. Christ warns that He will come quickly, so they should hold on so that nobody robs them of their crown. So you can have your crown robbed? This indicates that you can be deceived into losing it. That must be why Christ told us time and again in the Olivet Discourse to not be deceived and that if possible even the elect will be deceived. Is it possible? What do these letters teach? Even the Philadelphian must overcome and stay the course. It is not just a given because Christ died for them that everything is fine.

Lastly we have the church at Laodicean. Revelation 3:14-22 “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

The church at Laodicea has nothing to commend them. They are lukewarm - their works are useless for any real good. They are arrogant, proud of their condition, rich in worldly goods, think they have no need of discipline or suffering, for they believe they are above that. They are God's Bride after all. They are blind to the fact that they are spiritually apathetic, that they are not rich in any way that counts, that they are wretched and miserable and have not purchased their white raiment from God, which is essential to being let into the wedding feast. (Check out the parable of the wedding feast.) God counsels them to open their eyes, so they can see their own condition. He tells them that in spite of what they think, God will rebuke and chasten His own children, so that they will repent and buy gold and white wedding garments and thereby have heavenly rewards to throw at His feet, and proper raiment for the wedding supper. He then tells them that they have actually pushed Him outside the church. He is no longer even among them, but standing outside the door knocking and asking to be let back in again. He says that if any hears this warning and repents and lets Him back in, He will sit and have a meal with him. Earlier I mentioned Abraham entertaining the Lord and angels and how it probably went on for hours. This is what Christ is saying. He will take the time to spend with the overcomer to talk and fellowship with them and show them His love for them on a very personal basis. Then Christ mentions that He Himself is an overcomer.

So we see that while there may be a vast group of people who believe that Christ would never let His Bride suffer, in fact, Christ Himself warns us in all these letters to the churches of the exact opposite. He will not only let her suffer, if she does not clean up her act and repent He will actually cut her off, remove her candlestick, and blot her name out of the Book of Life. It truly is a fearful things to fall into the hands of the Living God. He will begin His judgment with His house as He said in 1 Peter 4:17 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” The book of Revelation begins by telling us how God will judge His house. He warns the churches before the tribulation begins, and long before He starts judging and punishing the world. How is it that so many ignore what He says in these two chapters? I guess it is because they do not have ears to hear. This is a serious problem considering what happens to those who do not have ears to hear and repent. This is why I spend so much time on this topic. I hope to open the eyes and ears of those who believe this lie that Christ would never discipline His own.

Now let's take a look at what overcoming may mean. Christ calls all those in the churches who endure to the end, or die before the end is reached, overcomers. We know that Christ has overcome the world. And we know that whoever is born of God overcomes the world. But there are another few times when overcoming is mentioned in the book of Revelation. The first is where the two witnesses and the church are handed over to the beast.

Revelation 11:7 “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.”

Revelation 13:7 “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”

We are told that the beast will be able to overcome the two witnesses and the saints. In both cases, death is the result. When Christ overcame the world, He did it by dying. Satan and the beast overcome the saints by killing them, but the saints overcome Satan and the beast by doing what Christ did – by dying instead of loving their life. They willingly allow themselves to be killed to prove their faith in Christ.

Revelation 12:11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

God is going to allow His children to be tried, to be put to the proof, to be tested, so that their faith can be made perfect, lacking in nothing. The vast majority will overcome by loving not their lives unto the death. The Philadelphians are the only ones with a promise to be kept safe from that trial. Even the righteous Smyrnans are allowed to die for God's glory. So are those who say that God would never allow the Bride to suffer correct? Is that what Scripture bears out?

Remember, the Smyrnans were told they would be allowed to undergo “thlipsis”, the same “thlipsis” as in Matthew 24. The Thyatirans were told they would be thrown into the “great tribulation.” The same great tribulation as found in Matthew 24. The Philadelphians are told that they will be kept from suffering the temptation. Everybody agrees this speaks of the great tribulation. Does that tell us something about what the great tribulation actually is, and what happens to the other churches?