Thursday, September 23, 2010

Happy New Year
Gentiles are sometimes confused in their studies of these holy days by the fact that the Lord changed the Jewish calendar at the time of the Exodus (Exodus 12:2). What had been the 7th month was thereafter to be the first, moving the beginning of the year to the spring, 14 days before Passover.
But because of the harvest, the Jews retained their original calendar as well, so now they have a religious year which begins in the spring and a civil year beginning in the fall. The Jewish New Year has always been celebrated in the fall and remains so today. This feast is known by two names, Yom Teruah, which means day of blowing but is called the Feast of Trumpets, and Rosh Hashanah, which means “head of the year”.
Rosh Hashanah is a time of new beginnings. According to some Jewish traditions, the creation was completed on Rosh Hashanah, and therefore Adam was born on that day as well. Many students of prophecy place the birth of the Messiah on Rosh Hashanah, giving the day it’s historical fulfillment, and believe that the beginning of Daniel’s 70th week and 7 years later the Lord’s Second Coming will also occur on Rosh Hashanah, fulfilling it’s prophetic significance.
Of the Lord’s coming with power and great Glory, Zechariah 9:14 tells us,
Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south, and the LORD Almighty will shield them.
And Matt. 24:30-31 adds, “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
Others think that the Rapture of the Church will happen on Rosh Hashanah, but I’m convinced that the Rapture is a number specific event rather than a date specific one, meaning the Church will be raptured when “the full number of gentiles has come in” making the day and hour unknown to us in advance, except that it will precede Israel’s re-awakening (Romans 11:25) and Daniel’s 70th week (Acts 15:15-16).
I’m also convinced that Paul’s reference to the Rapture happening at “The Last Trump” (1 Cor. 15:52) should not be used to connect it to the Feast of Trumpets. He spoke of the same event In 1 Thes. 4:16 saying it would be accompanied by the trumpet call of God. Some scholars say there are two trumpets of God that recall the two horns of the ram caught in the thicket as Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac. They call the Trumpet of Exodus 19:13 the left one, or First Trump, and say that God will call the Israelites back to the Land in the End Times by blowing the right one, or Last Trump. If, as I suspect, this will occur in conjunction with the Battle of Ezekiel 38, then my belief that the Rapture will take place before Ezekiel’s battle would be confirmed. (see Ezekiel 39:25-29)
'Posted from The REVELATION Files"

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