The Great Deception

Have you ever been fooled?  Have you ever fallen for a trick?  Have you ever believed a liar?  Once the deception was revealed, didn't you feel stupid for falling for it?  What if there is a lie coming that is so great it will fool most of mankind and damn your soul to Hell?  

2 Thessalonians 2:9 This evil man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. 10 He will use every kind of wicked deception to fool those who are on their way to destruction because they refuse to believe the truth that would save them. 11 So God will send great deception upon them, and they will believe all these lies. 12 Then they will be condemned for not believing the truth and for enjoying the evil they do.

What does the above Scripture mean?  It means that once the church is Raptured and the Antichrist is revealed there will be a great deception to all men who have previously heard the gospel and rejected it because they loved sin more than truth.

WOW!  That is going to be one big whopper, which is no surprise, for Satan is the Father of Lies.  What kind of lie do you think he could make up and have the whole world buy it?  For many years, the Evangelical community has been putting forth the theory that it will be an alien themed deception.

Picture this:  The world is thrown into chaos after the Rapture of the Church.  I believe that is why the US is not mentioned in the End Times Prophecies, I think we are wiped out when the church is gone.  The huge power vacuum that exists in the world after a US collapse will set the stage for the rise of a One World Government and enigmatic ruler.  Add an alien presence in the sky and a Catholic Church that has already prepared new doctrine based on an alternative gospel and you have the framework for the great deception.

We have been being prepared for an alien invasion for decades.  TV, movies, and books have pervaded our culture.  There is a recent survey that says that more people believe in aliens than in God.  In many circles, belief in aliens (Scientology and Mormons) are considered enlightened while belief in Jehovah is considered backward.  A decade ago, people were skeptical about aliens; no longer.  We have been fed a steady diet of aliens, space travel, and post apocalyptic/end of the world stories.

There is credible evidence to support UFO's.  There are hundreds or thousands of sightings a year by normal folks.  There are stories of police and military chases with hundreds of witnesses to these unexplained events.  There are monthly compilations of UFO videos on YouTube.

Many Evangelicals believe that these UFO's are real, but we do not believe they are aliens from another planet.  We believe they are fallen angels and demons that are coming under the guise of aliens.  Satan and his demons are called the Prince in the Power of the Air.  For we wrestle, not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities in high places.  So in Scripture we are told that Satan rules the skies.

He's not going to drop out of the sky with a pitchfork, horns, and a tail.  He is going to come as an angel of light. It is entirely rational and conceivable that the stage for the great deception is set, don't be fooled.

Satan as an Angel of Light

There are two schools of thought on whether or not people who have heard the Gospel can be saved after the Rapture.  I tend to lean toward the school that says if you have heard it and rejected it, you will be given the great deception.  Your soul is lost for eternity.  For we are saved through our belief and faith in the atonement, death and resurrection of Jesus; it takes very little faith to come to Christ when all the believers are gone.  That is why I am so desperate about my friends who are unsaved, because what is coming to you is beyond horrible.  I urge you to accept the gift of grace, love, and salvation before it is too late.

(Originally published August 4, 2013)

No One Knows the Hour or the Day?

Abigail and Dolley readers my husband sent me the below article from Hebraic Roots of Christianity Global Network.  The site is full of beautiful nuggets and I look forward in the coming days and weeks of thorough study.  In the mean time, the article below is the most comprehensive study I've seen on the Rosh Hashanah Rapture, so I figured my loyal readers would appreciate it.  So let's delve in!

At the Time of the End, the wise shall understand. Dan 12:10

The Wise Still Seek Him

Understanding the expression "No man knows the day or hour" is not possible by simply taking the English translation literally, because in the book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, we are given EXACT descriptions of timing, relative to KEY events - such as the shutting down of the altar sacrifices in Jerusalem at the MID-POINT of the 70th week. Dan 9:27.

Jesus was asked, "When shall these things be?" Matt 24:3

His answer ties us in to a very specific event (The Abomination of Desolation) which can be measured on our calendars: "When you therefore shall see the Abomination Of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoever reads, let him understand:)..." Matt 24:15.

It is now clear that "no man knows the day or hour" does NOT mean "no man knows the day or hour" as we read it from a modern-day English perspective.

From his book "Signs In the Heavens" by Avi Ben Mordechai, he devotes a chapter to explaining what "no man knows the day or hour" truly means from a rabbinical Hebraic perspective. It is a figure of speech.

The following chapter contains edited excerpts from Avi Ben Mordechai's commentaries and builds on them aiming to explain that the Holy Bible does in fact reveal the "day and hour" or "exact timing" of our Lord's Return.

No One Knows the Day or the Hour?

Christians over the centuries have separated themselves from their Hebraic roots causing the misunderstanding of key Jewish biblical idioms. An idiom is also a figure of speech. When Y'shua (Jesus) uttered His famous words concerning the Messianic Era in Matthew 24:26, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father", He used a common Jewish figure of speech referring to a specific Jewish Festival. In essence He was saying, "I am coming for My Bride on such and such a day! Be watching!" What day could the Jewish idiom be referring to? Keep reading!

Jesus Speaks of the Rapture

Abigail and Dolley readers some skeptics will say that they do not believe in the Rapture because the Lord never mentions it but is that true?  Let's look at some compelling Scriptures and you decide for yourself:

First let's lay out two primary Scriptures on the Rapture:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 because the Lord himself, in a shout, in the voice of a chief-messenger, and in the trump of God, shall come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are living, who are remaining over, together with them shall be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in air, and so always with the Lord we shall be.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52  lo, I tell you a secret; we indeed shall not all sleep, and we all shall be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in the last trumpet, for it shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we -- we shall be changed:

Basics - if you are dead, you are raised first and then those who are alive will go to meet the Lord in the air.

The Blessed Hope

Words of Jesus:

John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, `I am the rising again, and the life; he who is believing in me, even if he may die, shall live; and every one who is living and believing in me shall not die -- to the age;

The above says that the dead in Christ are raised and those that are alive shall not die.

John 14:1-4 `Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, also in me believe;  in the house of my Father are many mansions; and if not, I would have told you; I go on to prepare a place for you; and if I go on and prepare for you a place, again do I come, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am ye also may be; and whither I go away ye have known, and the way ye have known.'

This is Jesus promising to come again and receive us unto himself.  So there you go folks, short and sweet but a significant study and point to be made. (Originally Published 4/9/15)

No Last Tribes of Israel

Abigail and Dolley readers at some point in the future, all of the Jews will return to Israel; the Lord Himself will gather them back after the mighty miracle of Ezekiel 38/39.  They call it Aliyah and the Jerusalem Post has a special section completely dedicated to it.

Regathering:  
This begun in the 1880's and continues today in accordance with Isaiah 11:11-12. And in that day the Lord shall again lift up His hand a second time to recover (acquire and deliver) the remnant of His people which is left, from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam [in Persia], from Shinar [Babylonia], from Hamath [in Upper Syria], and from the countries bordering on the [Mediterranean] Sea.  And He will raise up a signal for the nations and will assemble the outcasts of Israel and will gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Note that the Scripture says that He will regather them a second time, the first being after their 70 year captivity in Babylon.  Many will say, "Yes, but the Northern Kingdom was lost 200 years before so the first regathering was of the Southern Kingdom."  Is this an accurate statement?  Are there really Lost Tribes of Israel?

DNA Does Not Lie:
In the last 15 years, the scientific advances in DNA testing and gene mapping have produced startling findings among scattered populations.  Some tests seems to suggest that an ancient line of Aaron has been found in India and testing of rabbis worldwide seem to all have the same unique genetic markers. An aggressive form of breast cancer has revealed hidden Jews in New Mexico who fled the Catholic Church's Spanish Inquisition.

Yom Kippur 2015 - Convergence of Signs

Abigail and Dolley readers in these times, there are conspiracy theories EVERY WHERE.   One can fall down Alice's Rabbit Hole and find all sorts of interesting theories!  On prophecy there are pretrib, midtrib, post trib, pre-wrath, post wrath, Americacentric, Anti-Catholic, Anti-Israel replacement theologies all hanging out with secular end times, FEMA camp, Climate Change, Illuminati, UFO/Aliens, Zombies, 9/11 Truthers, and Chem-Trail watchers all prepping for the storm about to come!  Thus, I have begun to look at what other schools of thought are putting forth and I am finding interesting tidbits that I'd like to share.

Yom Kippur this year seems significant, we touched on this in our study of the Significance of Yom Kippur 2015 but apparently there is quite a bit more to the story. There are dozens of examples of the dates Sept 22-28 being used in TV, movies, and speeches given by public officials.  Renee M's YouTube Channel has an interesting perspective on these occurrences:

The above is part 1 of a 4 part series where Renee fleshes out dozens of examples of Yom Kippur 2015 and the weight of evidence is pretty compelling.  Combine these events, with the studies we've done and patterns emerge of what might be happening in the days after the Rapture.

The Year of the Sheep and Goat

Thursday, February 19 began the Chinese year of the Sheep and Goat.  Considering the Biblical significance of both creatures, current events, and the perilous times we now reside it did not seem like coincidence to me.  Volumes have been written about the both creatures; I'll not seek to regurgitate the works of others but try and bring a fresh perspective.

Compare:
From an animal classification (taxonomy) perspective sheep and goats are identical all the way to the subfamily, they split from each other at the genus level.  Sheep are of the ovis and goats of the capra genus respectively.  So biologically, the creatures are close cousins, we know what we've read and watched on TV but first hand knowledge of these creatures is now reserved for farmers, so let's look at some basic facts.

Basic Facts:

Perhaps, the first thing you think of when you hear, "Sheep" is that they are stupid, I was surprised to learn that this is not actually the case (Reference).  On their own, sheep are defenseless and will run from what frightens them.  Their primary means of protection is to band together in a herd, even though they might not particularly like each, they are social.  Sheep follow each other, sticking together in the herd.  When the shepherd calls them, some sheep will respond to his voice and because of the herd instinct others will follow.  Some false shepherds may try and fool the sheep by calling them but when they arrive if they are not fed, sheep will quickly perceive the trick and no longer respond to the impostor.  Sheep tightly band together when they feel safe but when danger approaches they spread out and make room to run.  They know their names and will respond to the shepherd when called.  Sheep have excellent peripheral vision and can see 270° to 320°, but they have poor depth perception, so they can not always tell how close to danger they are.  They do not like the dark and will always move toward light.

Goats can be curious, intelligent, and loving creatures. (Reference)   Baby goats must be watched closely as they have an uncanny ability to get lost in hidey holes or small caves.  Goats are playful and the babies will jump all over their family members.  They climb to death defying heights with no fear of the consequences. They seem to be much more sexualized in their mating and rituals than sheep.  Females have dramatic orgasmic behavior after mating and the male buck becomes a filthy aggressive creature in the rut who urinates all over himself, including his face.  Goats relish the stench which will spread throughout the herd and into the milk if allowed to live together.  Herd life is different for goats that sheep.  A strong hierarchy is established in a goat herd through fighting and violence, even unto death. Newcomers are bullied and beaten up, goats take sides to determine the outcome. Herdsman may try to quell this behavior but it is inherent in them and can not be stopped.

Consider:
As an interesting exercise, reread the above two paragraphs making these substitutions:
Sheep - Christian
Sheep Herd - Church
Shepherd - Jesus
Goat - Carnal Man
Goat Herd - Society
Herdsman - Government

Contrast:
In agriculture, the shepherd uses his dog, whom the animals view as a predator to control them through their herd protective instinct.  There is no mention of Jesus' sheepdog - he does not use a predator to control us but calls to us by name and expects us to listen to his voice.  Only false prophets and evil leaders must always have an enforcer to keep the flock in line.  The maniacal Muslims that kill over cartoons are a good examples of these wicked beings.  

In Scripture, we have the Sheep and the Goat Judgement.  That is often confused with the Rapture of the church, but if you look at it carefully, you will see that it takes place at the beginning of the Millennium just after the 2nd Coming.  In context, Matthew 25:31, is clearly the Second Coming, note that he is coming in His glory to sit on his throne.  The Sheep and Goat is a dual judgement of individuals alive after the Tribulation and the nations, with the wicked people and nations (goats) being cast aside and the sheep being welcomed into the kingdom.

The church of Jesus Christ worships the Lamb of God; conversely, the church of Satan uses the symbolism of a Goat but the object of their worship is anything but a goat - he is the viper, the serpent, the evil one who counterfeits all from the Living God.  So in the end, even now there are only two kinds of people on the earth the sheep and the goats.  

Conclusion:

In closing, I find it interesting that the Chinese calendar would deem this the year of the sheep and goat.  The Lord is coming soon and He is not stranger to judgement between the sheep and the goats.  As we are in this age of grace, do not be a goat, for nothing will change you to a sheep once it is too late.  Seek Jesus as your Savior now, so that you might not hear, "Depart from me, I knew you not."

Significance of Yom Kippur 2015

This blog was originally published in September 2014, but while factually correct, did not have much of a point other than to highlight interesting tidbits.  I hope time and recent study will open the subject further.  Two years ago, I stumbled upon the below fact and it has niggled around in my brain since:

June 7, 1967 - Jerusalem (recaptured for Israel)
17640 days = 49 years (360 day years)
September 23, 2015 - Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)

There are three interesting subjects here:  The Six Day War, 49 years, and Yom Kippur.

Being an American Christian, I didn't know much about any of these.  I doubt I am alone, perhaps you are in the same boat as me?  There is something there, some reason that this is important!  Let's see what we can find out together.

Beyond the Blood Moons - A Timeline for What is to Come

The Lord works in patterns, he holds to timelines, he is not random - from the foundations of creation his orderliness is observable.  From the precision math demonstrated in the perfect tilt of the earth, the perfect distance from the sun, the perfect size and orbit of the moon to the subatomic structures of all atoms - we see his hand.  He also does not operate in secret, a retrospective study of Scripture reveals that he has always told us what is to come, always.  There are types and shadows and prophetic warnings throughout Scripture that only a backward glance reveals their truth.  Since he is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow - it should come as no surprise that he has laid out for us the pattern and timing of his coming.

My long term readers will be familiar with my work on this subject, from the The Harbinger Continues, to the Blood Moons, to the Rosh Hashannah Rapture, to the Days of Awe, to the Convergence of Signs - I invite you to read and study those works for it will give you a foundation to understand the timeline of events that could manifest in our lifetimes.  Many of the items I am listing below completely fleshed out, sited, and backed up with Scriptures in the previous works.

The Prophet Daniel writes that 70 weeks are set aside for Israel.  All but one are fulfilled, one remains.  The last 7 years, the time of Jacob's trouble, the 70th week, the Tribulation - this event is foretold and set aside for the judgement of the nations and for the restoration of Israel.  The great and terrible time of the Lord and woe to the inhabitants of the Earth.  The 69th week ended when Messiah was cut off, the exact moment and hour that that occurred is obscured from history. - debate continues on exactly when that date occurred.

Careful study of the facts and dates indicate that Jesus was crucified somewhere between 27AD to 33AD.  The prophetic clock stopped - the time of Israel paused and the church age began.  What date would that have been?  Was it the moment that the Lord died and the temple curtain was torn?  How about when he was raised?  Could be when he Ascended to Heaven or even Pentecost?  Any time in that 40 days could be THE date when the clock stopped, I can not say for certain but I CAN tell you without a doubt that sometime in the future, on that day, the Jews will sign a peace treaty with Anti-Christ and the clock will start again.

The Rapture - Basic Facts

Abigail and Dolley readers know that I don't often reproduce other's work or copy other commentary, but the recent Bible Study Series have created conversations between some friends and I regarding the doctrine of Pre-Tribulation Rapture.  This is an issue I studied with my Dad extensively, we spent a year or more investigating this specific doctrine and for most eschatology students and teachers the matter is settled.  I must remember though, that everyone else did not have the privilege of Friday night Bible Study with Jack Robinson, so I'd like to post the below commentary as a good tutorial and overview for those that don't have this doctrine settled in their minds. You can read the original here:  Pre-Rapture Commentary: Satan Hates The Rapture

Some say the word “rapture” is not in the Bible, so therefore there is no rapture of the Church. Neither is the word “trinity” in the Bible, but God is triune; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is one in three persons.

“Rapture” comes from the Latin word “rapturo.” It is the equivalent of the Greek “harpazo,” which is found in 2 Corinthians 12:2 and 1 Thessalonians 4:17 for “caught up.  Harpazo and rapture both mean: (a) to seize, carry off by force, (b) to seize on, claim for one’s self eagerly, and (c) to snatch out or away.

The Rapture (rapturo, Latin; harpazo, Greek) of Christ’s Church will happen on God’s time schedule. Some believe it will happen before Daniel’s 70th week (commonly called the seven year Tribulation), some in the middle and some at the end. It is clear to me that it is impossible for it to occur at any other time than prior to Daniel’s 70th week (the seven year Tribulation).

(Abigail and Dolley note, I believe the next event could conceivably be the fulfillment of Psalm 83 and even Isaiah 17/18 but neither has to occur before the Rapture and thus does not effect the basic doctrine of PreTribulation.)  The next event on God’s calendar is the Rapture of the Church. After that will follow Daniel’s  70th week, then Christ will return with His Church at the end of Daniel’s 70th week and set up His millennial kingdom, which is called the 1,000 year Millennium.

It does not upset me if others do not believe as I do regarding these events, but some folks really get uptight about these matters. For example, a few have tried to “straighten me out.” Others simply say I’m a false prophet and going to hell. Some question my salvation in very colorful ways, while others are just plain ticked off that I would believe in a Rapture at all.

Where does all this venomous hatred come from? The answer is obvious. Satan hates God’s Truth and will continue to fight against God and His chosen ones until his last breath.

Again, I strongly and without question believe in a Rapture of the true Church prior to the start of Daniel’s 70th week (the Tribulation). I would like to present the following for consideration. This is not original of course. Many others have presented these same arguments and I will use these same verses that others have pointed to.

Convergence of Signs

Abigail and Dolley readers you might recall that last Summer I did a pretty extensive study on the Feasts of the Lord, the Blood Moons, Rosh Hashanah, and the Rapture.  We are gearing up again for the Fall Feasts and my expectations continue to mount that we are truly living in the last days.  The Church is admonished to keep looking up that our redemption draws nigh.  Here are some compelling reasons that seem to mark a convergence of prophetic signs, a gathering together of momentum and circumstances:

Signs in the Heavens - Blood Moons, Super Moons, Solar Eclipses, Meteors, Sun Spots, Magnetic Polar reversals, just to name a few.

Wars and Rumors of Wars - Ukraine and Russia and the Middle East are exploding

Right is Wrong and Wrong is Right - the utter reversal of what is considered good, right, and moral is astounding.

Men will become lovers of self - five years ago we did not even have a term for taking a picture of yourself, now the pervasive selfie has littered the landscape and promoted ever increasing levels of narcissism.

Pestilence - I am third or fourth line in the fight against the Ebola virus.  I can not even convey how awful this situation is right now and getting worse.

Earthquakes - The USGS has stopped keeping this chart, it would alarm the public if they were to put this out in a twitter style graphic.  You can see for yourself that up until 2000 earthquakes over 6.0 remained infrequent.  This year, 2014 we have had over 114 earthquakes over 6.0.

Convergence of numeric and prophetic dates - God is orderly, He does not do things in a haphazard manner and thus, if we can observe patterns from history we can extrapolate and observe the way He has worked in the past.  Since God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow we can rely on the constancy.

7 days of Creation
7 days of the Week.
The laws of Sabbath for the land are arranged in 7 year increments
7 Sabbath years times 7 = Jubilee years
The Jews stayed in exile 70 years. (the number of Sabbath years they did not uphold)
Daniel 9 lays out 490 weeks (years) for the redemption of Israel.
One week remains of Daniel's weeks, one 7 year period
The Tribulation is 7 years
Yom Kippur 2015 is 49 years to the day of Jerusalem's recapture by Israel
Rosh Hashanah 2015 marks the end of a Sabbath year.  (Historically a devastating day/year financially)
The final blood moon takes place on the Feast of Tabernacles 2015

Conclusion, I am not naming dates but it is a compelling fact that all of these things are indeed converging.  There are hundreds more signs, hundreds more studies and nuances that can be brought to bear, I simply wanted to lay out for you simple facts and observations.  It is the Lord's deepest desire that all will come to faith in Him, that none should perish.  Chose this day who you will serve for tomorrow is promised to no one.

Blood Moon Tetrad

I am totally geeked out in a prophecy buff kind of way that the Blood Moon Tetrads start tomorrow, April 15, 2014.  Below is an excerpt from a blog I wrote last July when I first got interested in the phenomenon.

Blood Moon

A Blood Moon Tetrad is an occurrence of 4 Lunar Eclipses on the Jewish Feast days of Passover and the Tabernacles.  They call it a total lunar eclipse a blood moon because the diffused rays of the sun through the Earth's atmosphere can make it appear red, historically this scared the crap out of everybody.  A BMT (as they are called) has occurred 7 times since Jesus ascended into Heaven and each time it was a sign to Israel.  BMT's herald a terrible period of trouble for Israel followed up in deliverance.  When you add in the solar eclipse calendar to the lunar eclipse calendar, you get an even deeper picture.  When you add in the Elul 29 Shemittah, you get something else all together.

We had a Blood Moon Tetrad that coincided with the rebirth of Israel in 1948.  So Holacaust, then birth of the nation, then BMT1949-1950.  19 years later, 1967-1968 we have the Yom Kippur war or the 6 day war and Israel regains their capital, Jerusalem.  48 years later, we have another BMT 2014 - 2015.

Coincidentally this is the second time the spacing between triple occurrences has been 19-48, the year Israel was born again.  If you play with that number you see that by adding 1948 years to  the destruction of the temple in 70 AD you get 2018.  Folks in 2009 and 2010 were using this figure to predict a 2011 Rapture... we see where that got them... still here.  I am not trying to set dates, what I am trying to do is to get you to THINK.

There are youtube videos and charts everywhere but I couldn't find one that had everything I wanted to publish.  My handwritten notes and charts won't cut it, I may not be a professional, but I do have my standards...  I encourage you to watch the video and check out some of the charts, do your own research.  A number of charts have great info but some enterprising soul determined we were going to be Raptured in 2011 or 2012.  Others are pdf formatted only and blogger won't let me embed a pdf file, so for all you visual folks check out the below:

Lunar and Solar Chart 2014-2015

The above chart fails to note the two solar eclipses that occur on 4/29/14 (Yom Hashoah/Holocaust Memorial Day) and 10/23/14 (Rosh Chodesh Chesvan).  Whether they are significant or not, I can not say but felt the above was not inclusive and they warranted mention.

It is also noteworthy that in the 7 weeks model of Daniel, the number of days in a 7 week period is 17640.  Using the Biblical calendar we see that  9/23/2015 is exactly 17640 days from the recapture of Jerusalem on 6/7/1967.  Which happens to be on Yom Kippur.

Days of Awe

In the course of my research on Rosh Hashana, I learned about the Days of Awe.  This is the period between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur where tradition states that people whose name has been written in the Book of Death can seek God's mercy and forgiveness and have their names moved to the Book of Life.  The concept of Books is not merely traditional, the Scriptures hold many references.  Revelation 20:12 says, "I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books."  

I have discussed before that there are two schools of thought concerning those who will be saved after the Rapture and those who will receive the Great Deception and be lost forever.  One school says if you have heard the gospel and rejected it before the Rapture you are damned forever.  The other school says that each person has a chance after the Rapture, it's the last hope for all of eternity.  The Left Behind Series by Tim LeHaye and Jerry Jenkins takes the view that people that have heard the gospel and not accepted Christ will have an opportunity to be saved.  This is what Scripture says:


2 Thessalonians 2:6 And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes. 7 For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. 8 Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 This evil man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. 10 He will use every kind of wicked deception to fool those who are on their way to destruction because they refuse to believe the truth that would save them. 11 So God will send great deception upon them, and they will believe all these lies. 12 Then they will be condemned for not believing the truth and for enjoying the evil they do. 

So breaking this down in a time line:  the restrainer of the Anti-Christ, I believe, is the Holy Spirit living inside the Church or the Bride of Christ.  Once the Church is Raptured, the time of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will be over and the Anti-Christ will be revealed.  Satan puts on his dog and pony show and fools those who are on their way to destruction because they refuse to believe the truth that would save them.  The Anti-Christ will put forth the lies but God sends a great deception.  There may be a time between the Rapture and the Anti-Christ revealing himself that all people have the opportunity to embrace the truth.  

So if the Rosh Hashana Rapture comes to pass the Days of Awe may come into play.  There may be a time period for which all men who have heard and rejected the Gospel of Christ will have a brief period to repent, accept the Lord and be saved.  I believe this will be the only hope for Americans left behind at the Rapture because unlike in most of the world, Americans are afforded every opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Bible says that God reveals Himself to all people so that no one has an excuse, for my fellow countrymen, this is doubly true.    Men choose Hell.  I know many who are perishing and if they don't change their hearts and accept the free gift of salvation they will be at the Great White Throne Judgement and hear, "Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."

Days of Noah

Matthew 24:37 "When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah's day. 38 In those days before the Flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. 39 People didn't realize what was going to happen until the Flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes."

Serious prophecy buffs have delved deep into the "Days of Noah", perhaps so deep that we miss the easy meaning.  At the end of the day, Noah knew what was coming along with his wife, his sons, and their wives.  Eight people on the planet knew what was coming.  That's it, eight people.... From a percentage perspective that isn't many.

As I was walking today, I was praying, "Lord, why are you burdening me with all of this?  Why are you showing me all of these things?"  I am burning with a desire to DO something!  I now understand the street preachers who yell at people as they walk by, they are desperate to tell people, to help people, to save people.

My research has taken me to videos that are so compelling I want to shout it from the rooftops but who would hear me?  I look at the view count for these videos or my little blog, they are pitifully small.  This information is not made by crazy people nor are they nut job web sites, many are nothing more than compilations of news stories, like the one below:

There are hundreds of these types of videos, the odd behavior of the Earth has become so prevalent that many channels compile monthly chronicles of natural disasters.  World wide the planet is groaning, there are numerous stories of strange and unexplained sounds that seem to emanate from the ground or the sky, no one can tell.  There is some strong language on the video below, but it is freaky....

Let's not forget the UFO sightings.  Like the extreme weather, there are so many instances that they are making monthly compilations.  With the world armed with smart phones and video cameras, people are documenting UFO's at a rate of around one thousand per month.  Here's last month's compilation:

Our sun is behaving very oddly.  NASA has released tapes of major activity on the sun and this news cast from July 31, 2013 alarmed me... The analyst states, "Well, what you are seeing here is a weather map of the sun.  You'll notice that part of the sun is missing."  

So in the days of Noah, everybody was going about their business.  What do you want to bet that all Noah's facebook friends, oh I mean, his neighbors thought he had gone off the deep end....  This time we don't go out on an Ark, this time we go out with a trumpet.

The Rosh Hashanah Rapture

Abigail and Dolley readers it has long been speculated that the Rapture of the church will take place on God's Feast of the Trumpets.  The more I study, the more I am in agreement.  For modern American Christians, the first thought we have after reading the preceding sentence is, "No man knows the hour or the day..."  Until about three weeks ago, I thought the same.  Hang with me for a bit and perhaps we can look at this together.

Let's start with the Feast days. Leviticus 23:2-4 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. ³ Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. ⁴ These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.

These are fullness of God's appointments with man.  These are the days God set aside to meet and speak with his people. "Notice the phrase, "holy convocation". The phrase in Hebrew is mikraw kodesh, better translated, "holy convocation and rehearsal". In other words, God's appointed times are actually "holy rehearsals" set apart to reflect events in the Messianic era. God said to the people, "Pay attention! On this day I am going to do something! Wake-up! The Jews were to know and practice all of God's mikraot or holy convocations." (sited from Hebrew roots.org)

It's important to note that God says, these are HIS feast days.  Somehow in modern Christianity we have this idea in our heads that these are only for the Jew; nowhere in Scripture are they designated as belonging to the Jews only, these are God's days.  As such, we as believers need to come into an understanding of them. 

The Feasts are broken up by season, the Spring and the Fall.  The first coming of the Lord Jesus completed messianic aspects of the Spring Feasts: Passover (when Messiah is killed), Unleaven Bread (when Messiah is buried), First Fruits (when Messiah is raised from the Dead), and Pentacost (when believers received the Holy Spirit).  These feast days were fulfilled with perfect accuracy and in order.

The prophetic calendar is not random; the religious leaders of the day knew when Messiah was born, they knew the times of Daniel were being fulfilled, they were not ignorant of the celestial signs in the Heavens nor of God's timetable.  God did not want them to be ignorant then and He does not want us to be ignorant now.

There is a season in between the Spring Feast and the Fall feast: Summer.  This waiting time represents and correlates with the church age for which we currently reside.  Daniel's 69 weeks for Israel were completed, we await the final 70th week, given for Israel.  The long hot Summer will not last forever, we know that the cooler days of Autumn are coming.  2 Timothy 3 describes exactly where we are right now:

3 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. ² For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. ³ They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. ⁴ They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. ⁵ They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!  ⁶ They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires. ⁷ (Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth.) ⁸ These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. ⁹ But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres.

So to recap:

1. God makes appointments with His people
2.  The Feasts are Messianic dress rehearsals
3. The first coming of Jesus fulfilled the Spring Feasts in perfect order
4. Prophetic time tables were known to the religious scholars ahead of time
5. God does not want us to be ignorant and tells us to be ready
6. God is not random
7. 2 Timothy 3 perfectly describes the end times which we now live

So, if all of the above are true, they are applied to the first coming and the Spring Feasts then then we can apply the above truths to our discussion of the Fall Feasts and the second coming of the Lord.  (It is important to not confuse the Rapture of the Church and Christ's Second Coming - they are two separate events but will happen in the same "season".  When Jesus speaks of the End Times he is addressing Israel and warning of His Second Coming.  Paul tells the church of the Rapture.)

The first of the Fall Feasts is Rosh Hashanah, Leviticus 23:24 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.

The Primary focus of this holiday is acknowledging God as our King.  Men and women seek to make God the king of their lives.  It is the first day of Creation; "Let there be Light and there was Light.  Jesus is the Light of the World and shines in all the darkness.  It is the Jewish New Year but it is not the beginning of the calendar, it is the beginning of the seventh month.  Seven is complete.  So it marks the beginning but also the completion of a Sabbath.  Rosh Hashanah is a day of Remembrance and marks the day when Abraham was to sacrifice Issac.  Prophetically, Abraham and Isaac are a foreshadowing and a type of a Father sacrificing his Son.  It was a ram who served as the substitute sacrifice that day and hence the blowing of the ram's horn in remembrance. 

Rosh Hashanah is a day of Judgement, where God records the names of those in the Book of Life and those in the Book of Death.  The verdict is not final until Yom Kippur, there are ten days of mercy that those in the Book of Death can repent and believe. It begins a period where men search their souls and repent of their sins and seek forgiveness from God and man.  Teshuvah (literal means Returning) is the process by which a sincere Jew seeks forgiveness, it is a foreshadow of the process of Salvation:  "First one must recognize that they have made a mistake and genuinely desire to change for the better. They must then seek to make amends for their actions in a sincere and meaningful way, and finally demonstrate they have learned from their mistakes by not repeating them. When a Jew is sincere in his or her efforts at teshuvah, it is the responsibility of other Jews to offer forgiveness." (sited from About.com).

The Feast of the Trumpets; we are told that the Rapture will be accompanied by the trumpet of God.  1 Corinthians 15:52 it indicates it will be the last trumpet.  "The blowing of the shofar announces and reaffirms God as ruler of all mankind. The "trumpet-like" sound of the shofar also serves to stir the soul of all Jews, to awaken the Jewish people to the omnipotence and omnipresence of God and the chance to receive his mercy through prayer and repentance." (sited from how stuff works.com)

Okay, so now we have to address the "No man knows the hour or the day of the coming of the Son of Man, only the Father knows."  Did you know that is an idiom for a Jewish Wedding?  If I say to you as modern American Christian, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..."  You know I am talking about a wedding.  The same is true for "No man knows the hour or the day."  In Jewish marital customs after the betrothal the groom returns to his Father's land to build his new bride a home.  He was not released to go pick up his bride until his father said the house was ready.  When people would ask when he was returning to his bride he would answer, "No man knows the hour or the day only my Father knows."

It is also a phrase that refers to the uncertain nature of exactly when Rosh Hashanah will occur.  Since it is a Lunar Holiday, the task of setting the date fell to the religious rulers of the day based on the testimony of two witnesses.  Rosh Hashanah is the only feast that occurs on the first of the month, thus the determination of the day was extremely important.  The phrase, "No man knows the hour or the day" is also specific to Rosh Hashanah. When Jesus said this to his disciples THEY understood that he was talking about Rosh Hashanah!

To use the proofs established for the Spring Feasts, we can apply to the Fall feasts in like manner.

1. God makes appointments with His people, the next Messianic appointment is Rosh Hashanah
2. Rosh Hashanah is a dress rehearsal for Israel's acceptance of Jesus as King
3. It is a time of repentance, remembrance, and forgiveness
4. Prophetic time tables are known and the prophetic Scriptures have all been fulfilled
5. The Church is the Bride of Christ and Rosh Hashanah is mentioned by Jesus as his time of returning
6. God is not random
7. Feast of Trumpets and Trumpets of the Rapture

The weight of the evidence is substantial and supports the belief that the Rapture of the Church will occur on God's next appointed time.  Where people get in trouble is trying to name the year - that my friend, as of this writing, is still a mystery.  Could be this year, the year after, or the year after... it could be 25 years from now.  I am not naming dates, just simply trying to do my little part in getting the Church ready.

Signs in the Heavens the Harbinger Continues

Abigail and Dolley readers I once again find myself looking to the sky, the infinite, the Creator.  Last month, the book, The Harbinger came into our household.  My husband was enthralled and encouraged me to read it; I was busy but committed that I would.  The Lord insured that I would be a lot less busy... I read it last week.  From the opening chapters, I was hooked.  I devoured it like a starving man who wanders into marriage supper of the Lamb.

The omniscience of the Lord, His guiding hand, and His divinity are scattered throughout the pages.  We know in our hearts that He is bigger than we understand but we tend to make Him pocket sized.  We do not trust the supernatural, we doubt the still small voice, we dismiss miracles as coincidence.  This is a grievous offense and has no place in a believer's heart or life.  For His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

So God shows up in a BIG way and I begin to eat the strong meat of this Word.  I highly encourage everyone to read the prophetic word in the Harbinger, it is from that worldview that I write.  I will also assume that you have a fundamental understanding of End Times Prophecy because this will be a blog, not a scholarly article citing chapter and verse.  It is truth from this Pre-Tribulation believers point of reference and any small error I may make will be entirely my own.  My blog, my rules.

Every seven years Elul 29th is the end of the Shemittah or Sabbath year.  All accounts are wiped away and all debits and credits are returned to zero.  This command is only given to Israel but starting with 9/17/01, it came into play in America.  We had the largest stock market crash in our history to date, 6 days past 9/11.  This was our warning, repent and turn back to God.  We failed.  Seven years later, on Elul 29 (9/29/08), we had a global economic collapse.  We were called to repent as a nation, we did not.  Prophetic circles began to buzz, what would the next Shemittah year end Elul 29th bring?  What date is it?  (I need to remember to set a calendar reminder to divest before 9/13/15).  The date happens to always herald Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of the Trumpets.

This made me go, hmmmm.... it has long been surmised that the Rapture of the Church would take place on Rosh Hashanah, what better time than during all that trumpet blowing?  So I keep digging and I find there is a solar eclipse on the same date.  Sun signs are signs to the world and Moon signs are signs to Israel, so this date holds significance for both Jews and Gentiles.  The solar eclipse sent me to the Heavens....

Genesis clearly tells us that He created the stars, the sun, the moon to be signs for us. Not surprisingly, there is some pretty amazing stuff in the celestial calendars for the past few years and in the next couple of years; the researcher in me was on a roll.  Now, after the Fall, the Natural World was tainted by the stain of sin.  We live in a fallen world where EVERYTHING (except the Word of God) is tainted.  If you are going to investigate anything in truth, you must first deal with the sin element in it.  The sin element in astronomy is astrology and the Christian church has thrown the baby out with the bathwater.  We ignore it, we don't teach it, and frankly, we just don't understand it.  The Lord himself said numerous times that there will be signs in the heavens and that we are fools to not look for them.

This is where you need to be careful, well the whole subject requires care, but I have to point out here that when Jesus speaks directly about the Second Coming, he is talking to Israel not the Church.  The Second Coming and the Rapture are two different events, don't confuse them.  Now, I have to restate, when we are talking about the Moon, we are talking about Israel, keep that in mind.

Blood Moon

A Blood Moon Tetrad is an occurrence of 4 Lunar Eclipses on the Jewish Feast days of Passover and the Tabernacles.  They call it a total lunar eclipse a blood moon because the diffused rays of the sun through the Earth's atmosphere can make it appear red, historically this scared the crap out of everybody.  A BMT (as they are called) has occurred 7 times since Jesus ascended into Heaven and each time it was a sign to Israel.  BMT's herald a terrible period of trouble for Israel followed up in deliverance.  When you add in the solar eclipse calendar to the lunar eclipse calendar, you get an even deeper picture.  When you add in the Elul 29 Shemittah, you get something else all together.

We had a Blood Moon Tetrad that coincided with the rebirth of Israel in 1948.  So Holacaust, then birth of the nation, then BMT 1949-1950.  19 years later, 1967-1968 we have the Yom Kippur war or the 6 day war and Israel regains their capital, Jerusalem.  48 years later, we have another BMT 2014 - 2015.

Coincidentally this is the second time the spacing between triple occurrences has been 19-48, the year Israel was born again.  If you play with that number you see that by adding 1948 years to  the destruction of the temple in 70 AD you get 2018.  Folks in 2009 and 2010 were using this figure to predict a 2011 Rapture... we see where that got them... still here.  I am not trying to set dates, what I am trying to do is to get you to THINK.

There are youtube videos and charts everywhere but I couldn't find one that had everything I wanted to publish.  My handwritten notes and charts won't cut it, I may not be a professional, but I do have my standards...  I encourage you to watch the video and check out some of the charts, do your own research.  A number of charts have great info but some enterprising soul determined we were going to be Raptured in 2011 or 2012 and they may have false information on them.  Others are pdf formatted only and blogger won't let me embed a pdf file, so for all you visual folks check out the below:

Lunar and Solar Chart 2014-2015

The above chart fails to note the two solar eclipses that occur on 4/29/14 (Yom Hashoah/Holocaust Memorial Day) and 10/23/14 (Rosh Chodesh Chesvan).  Whether they are significant or not, I can not say but felt the above was not inclusive and they warranted mention.

It is also noteworthy that in the 7 weeks model of Daniel, the number of days in a 7 week period is 17640.  Using the Biblical calendar we see that  9/23/2015 is exactly 17640 days from the recapture of Jerusalem on 6/7/1967.  Which happens to be on Yom Kippur.

Now, I'd like to be Raptured as much as any believer reading this blog, I'd like it to be today.  While the above information is intriguing there are two celestial signs in Revelation 12 that I am not convinced we can pinpoint. It takes place at the exact middle of the Tribulation and corresponds chronologically with the Abomination of Desolation. "A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars".   Computer models can place the Woman but not "a huge red dragon,with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems" where "the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth."  Now can God make a dragon appear in the sky when he wants it too?  Yes, of course, he made the one below captured by the Hubble.  The point is we have no conclusive evidence of the Dragon that will appear at the same time as the Lady of the Apocalypse. 

Red Space Captured by Hubble

The Bible say there will be signs in the Heavens of His return.  We often hear quoted in Christendom that "That no man knows the hour or the day of Christs return, only my Father."  Did you know that is an idiom for a Jewish Wedding?  If I say to you as modern American Christian, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..."  You know I am talking about a wedding.  The same is true for "No man knows the hour or the day."  In Jewish marital customs after the betrothal the groom returns to his Father's land to build his new bride a home.  He was not released to go pick up his bride until his father said the house was ready.  When people would ask when he was returning to his bride he would answer, "No man knows the hour or the day only my Father knows."  Using that logic we can see that we are not be ignorant.  

1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don’t really need to write you. For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape. But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief. For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. 

Again, we are told it is the uninformed that will be surprised, not the elect.   If you read carefully, you will see that each time Jesus talks about the End Times he notes the signs in the Heavens and says the wise will see the sights and not be ignorant of His coming, it is only the uninformed that will be surprised.  

We as a church are called to be waiting for his return, I for one am keeping my lamp full of oil, how about you?

Signs of the Times

Abigail and Dolley readers it is hard to believe this is the first blog post in over a month... Honestly, I just haven't had the heart to write.  A good friend of mine said the day after the election that she'd seen a Prius with an Obama sticker and wanted to run it over, that describes our shared frustration.  Alas, in times of trouble, we should take solace in our faith and the firm understanding that the Lord is in control.

Dad was an eschatology scholar (Biblical End Times Study) as such, I have studied and discussed End Times events with him many times over the years.  What has surprised me is the realization that the world would not stay as we knew it, our country may not continue to be great, and even our last days here would be full of strife and pain.  I had surmised that the fall of the United States would be because of the Rapture and the subsequent nuclear Holicaust, not because we had committed suicide.  I wept on election night and the following day; I mourned as if a loved one had died.

As the news unfolds in Israel, it indeed seems that the time of the end is truly upon us.  The Palestinians have fired 740 rockets into Israel yet the Yahoo and Google headlines read, "Israel destroys Hamas Headquarters".  Truth is found in select places but you must search for it and many of the lame and uninformed just accept the drivel that is fed to them by the left.  It is insidious. 

Of course, I have been saying that for a dozen years that the end is near.  I'd venture a guess that folks felt that way during the World Wars and the Great Depression.  Perhaps we have all been right but our human timing is quite different from the Lord's.  We can only pray for protection and provision in what is to come.

What's So Special About Bethlehem

Abigail and Dolley readers - Merry Christmas!  I love biblical prophecy, of all the proofs that God offers us, the proofs of fulfilled prophecy are some of my favorite.  Today we celebrate Jesus' birth.  Most know that he was born in Bethlehem, but what makes that significant?  What was special about this place.  Let's look at some of the prophecy together.

The Book of Micah was likely written between 735 and 700 B.C. and predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem in Judea.  Mic 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting."
The New Testament proclaims that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the Old Testament tells us where in Bethlehem he was born.  A place called Migdal Eder, which means Tower of the Flock. 

Mic 4: 8 "And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, yea, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem."

Migdal Eder, the Tower of the Flock, was where the special passover lambs were raised.  These were not ordinary lambs, these were consecrated and set aside specifically for sacrifice.

Thus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29) was born in the lambing barn of the special passover lambs.  The shepherds which are keeping watch by their fields at night were the shepherds of Migdal Eder.

I could write for days and years on the subject - for the greatness of God is eternal and His mysteries are infinite.  May you be richly blessed this Christmas and may the peace and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.