Invite Your Neighbors to View the Coming Blood Moon Event

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The second lunar eclipse in the current tetrad is only one week away. Why not invite your neighbors to join you to view this history-in-the-making event? (Tweet that!)

I've already invited a neighbor, and she not only said yes she'd join me outside early the morning of October 8 to watch it, she's excited about it! I'm planning to invite more neighbors to join us. If you're interested, why not do the same and make neighborhood event out of it? (Tweet that!)

It will be a time for you to share what you have learned about this important, historic event which is occurring on the 7^th annual Feast of the LORD, which is the Feast of Tabernacles.

Others may see you gathered in the middle of the night, wonder what you're doing, and ask questions. You'll then have an opportunity to engage with your neighbors to discuss what's happening, why it's spiritually important, and will be able to answer their questions and discuss with them the history we are seeing play out before our eyes.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. "But I don't know enough about all this. You can bet they will ask me questions. How am I going to explain all the spiritual significance to everyone?"

Problem solved: I've made a handy PDF tri-fold brochure handout with the basic information that you can download and print right now. (Tweet that!)

Download and print "The 7 Feasts of the LORD and the 4 Blood Moons" tri-fold brochure here.

If you are a Christian and would like to start a conversation about spiritual matters with your neighbors, friends, or family members, this is a great, unique way to witness to your friends and neighbors. (Tweet that!) Print out my handout and you'll be equipped with facts, dates of the lunar eclipses, information on the Feasts of the LORD, Scripture verses, and more help to assist you. Or you can simply print copies to give to your friends and neighbors.

Want an invitation to spread around your neighborhood? Here's some suggested text for an invitation. You can get information for your location to fill in the blanks online at sites like TimeAndDate.com: Oct 8, 2014 Total Lunar Eclipse.

YOU'RE INVITED! 

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, October 8^th, there will be a total lunar eclipse. I'm so excited about this event that I'm making plans to wake up and take a look. Would you like to join me? 

In our area, if the skies are clear, we can expect to see the eclipse begin at ___________. 

The total phase of the lunar eclipse will last 55 minutes with the partial phases lasting about 1 hour and 9 minutes both before and after the total phase. (Please note the moon may disappear below the horizon before the eclipse is over, depending on your location.)

I'm especially excited about this lunar eclipse because it may have special spiritual significance. We are currently living in a series of four total lunar eclipses that may have been predicted in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. If you'd like to know more about that, I'll have some information with me that night. Please feel free to ask me questions and I'll do my best to answer them. 

Let's make a fun neighborhood event of it! Please join me outside at (address/location: 

______________________________________________________________________. 

Let's keep it quiet to be respectful of those neighbors who do not wish to join us. 

BYO's! (Bring Your Own)

• lawn chair
• snugly blanket 
• binoculars area  great way to view a lunar eclipse
• Hot cocoa, cider, tea, or coffee. (No alcohol please.)

While you're at it, why not message your local Police Department. You can probably find an e-mail address to send a message like this:

As a courtesy I wanted to let you know that I have invited my neighbors to join me outside in the early morning hours of October 8, 2014, to watch the total lunar eclipse. You shouldn't get any phone calls because I've left an invitation at the door of all my neighbors so they should know what we're doing out there. But if you do get a call that people are standing around in my neighborhood that night, that's what we're up to.

Don't be surprised if you see a patrol car drive by or stop to join you. Invite the officers to stay for a little while and offer them a cup of hot cocoa.

Related Links:

FACEBOOK WATCH PARTY: If you haven't yet, please join my Facebook Event "Lunar Eclipse Watch Party!" for the second of the four "Blood Moons." You'll be able to post with other people who are also excited about this event. Plus get more helpful information about this lunar event. Please also invite your friends, family, neighbors to join the event. Go to "Lunar Eclipse Watch Party! - 2nd of the 4 Blood Moons" and click "Going." (Tweet that!)

Finally, here's a really interesting video from NASA about what we're going to see. (Tweet that!) Runs 4:10 minutes:

When and Where to See the Next "Blood Moon" Total Lunar Eclipse

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We, the people of the earth, are now living within the timeframe of a tetrad of lunar eclipses. (Tweet that!) A tetrad is four total lunar eclipses occurring without a partial lunar eclipse occurring in between them.

The first lunar eclipse occurred last spring of this year on April 15^th, 2014.

The next lunar eclipse will occur in less than two weeks, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, October 8, 2014. (Now don't get confused or you might miss it. It's not the night of October 8. It's after you go to bed Tuesday October 7…after midnight, very early October 8.) (Tweet that!) 

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know I'm fascinated by these eclipses because they are falling on Jewish holy days. We talked a lot about that last spring before the first eclipse. But I know some people are just now becoming aware of the eclipses, often called the "Blood Moons" because the moon turns red when it is in eclipse.

If you're not familiar with what's going on, in short there are 7 Feasts of the LORD each year. These were established by God in the time of Moses. The first is Passover in the spring and the seventh is the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall of the year. In 2014 and 2015 there will be a total lunar eclipse on both Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Many Christians believe this is spiritually significant, that God is getting the attention of the people of the earth because something important is happening or is about to happen. (Tweet that!) 

If you haven't been aware of this, please take the time to read about the spiritual significance of these happenings in these related articles: (Tweet that!) 

• The Prophetic Significance of the Feasts of the LORD
• The Sun Will Be Darkened and the Moon Will Not Give Its Light
• The Moon as a Sign and the Prophesied Blood Red Moons
• What Causes the Moon to Turn Red Like Blood?
• "Tetrad" of Four Lunar Eclipses on Jewish Feast Days in the Past

So as the lunar eclipse of October 8 approaches, we're going to spend our posts here talking about it, getting excited about it, and letting people around us know about it. (Tweet that!) 

I'm sure you're wondering, "Will I be able to see the eclipse? And if I can, when and where will I see it?" (Tweet that!) 

I found this great web site called TimeAndDate.com. When I visited, it already knew where I live. (Not sure I like that, but it must have found that information somewhere, so anyway…) This site gave me the exact hours I will be able to see the eclipse where I live here in the United States, of course depending on having clear skies. If it doesn't come up with your location, there's a box where you can enter the name of your city or a location near you.

• TimeAndDate.com: Oct 8, 2014 Total Lunar Eclipse 

This site also had a map that shows who in the world will be able to see the eclipse, how much of it they can see, and other great information.

In general, you will be able to see all or most of the eclipse if you are in eastern Europe, most of Asia, Australia, much of North and South America, the Arctic, Antarctica, and the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

If you are in the Middle East, much of Europe, or Africa, you won't be able to see it live. But I bet someone online, perhaps space or astronomy sites, will be streaming it live so you can view it that way.

Remember, if you wait until the night of Wednesday, October 8, you'll miss it. You'll have to get up very early October 8, or stay up very late Tuesday, October 7 – basically pulling an all-nighter -- to see it. Or getting a partial night's sleep. I hope you'll make plans to do just that. Even on a school or work night. We can get a short night's sleep or even still pull an all-nighter once in a while and still make it to school or work, don't you think?

Why don't you let your friends, family, and neighbors know you're going to be watching it and invite them to join you? We'll talk more about that next time. (Tweet that!) 

Other sites with very cool information:

• EarthSky.com: Total eclipse of Blood Moon on night of October 7-8

• EarthSky.com: Sneak preview: Colorful lunar eclipse on October 7-8

• Total lunar eclipse on october 8 2014 (United States)

Join the Facebook Party!

Are you on Facebook? I've set up a Facebook Event called the #LunarEclipse Watch Party! - 2nd of the 4 #BloodMoons. This is a public event, so anyone can join. It doesn't require anything of you. You can "attend" the event from wherever you are. I'll post links to articles, web sites, and other information you might find interesting about this lunar eclipse. Please share this event with all your interested friends and contacts. (I believe you can send an invitation to your Facebook contacts from the Event page.) Stop by and click the "Going" tab here: Dianne's Lunar Eclipse Watch Party!

Today is the Feast of Trumpets

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Today is the Feast of Trumpets. Actually, because the Jewish day begins in the evening of the previous day on the calendar used in the west, the Feast of Trumpets began yesterday at sundown.

The Feast of Trumpets is fascinating because this is the next prophetic date on God's calendar to be fulfilled. (Tweet that!)

Of the seven Feasts of the Lord, Jesus fulfilled the first four Feasts in his first coming. He will fulfill the last three in his second coming. That means Feast #5 is the next one to be fulfilled. (Tweet that!)

The fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets will be followed closely by the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement and then the Feast of Tabernacles, when God comes to live among His people.

I believe the fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets by the Lord Jesus Christ will come very soon. Perhaps not this year, but soon. Perhaps the tetrad of four lunar eclipses, which I believe are warning signals from God to the all people of the earth, must be completed first. Or perhaps they don't need to be completed first. Either way, that completion will occur on the seventh Feast in 2015. So we may yet have some time before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or it may only be a year or two away. (Tweet that!)

However, whereas previous generations expected Jesus to return in the coming generation…or in their lifetimes…I believe we are now within a few years of his coming.

Time is growing dangerously short if you have not yet believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation. If this is you, why are you waiting? (Tweet that!) Why do you think you need to wait until the last moment? When that moment comes, it may come upon you so quickly you won't be able to respond fast enough. Don't be one who mourns at the coming of the Lord. Get right with Jesus today. I promise – no, actually HE promises! – you will then embark on the most exciting, fascinating days of your life from that moment on until the end of your life or until he comes again…which ever happens first! (Tweet that!)

Pray like this:

Lord Jesus, since your death on the cross paid for the sins of all people who will accept it, I now accept your atonement for my sins. I thank you for that. Now I ask you to teach me about you and your ways and to guide my life from here on out. Teach me how to live according to your ways. Show me what to do to follow you today. This I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

If you missed any of my teaching on the Feast of Trumpets or would like to review, here are the posts about this exciting and fascinating day: (Tweet that!)

RELATED LINKS:

• The Feast of Trumpets - Part 1 - Rosh HaShanah
• The Feast of Trumpets - Part 2 - The Trumpet Blasts 
• The Feast of Trumpets - Part 3 - Ten Days of Awe 
• The Feast of Trumpets - Part 4 - Do We Know "The Day No One Knows"?

The Feast of Tabernacles - Part 2 - and the Next Blood Moon

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The Feast of Tabernacles begins on Tishrei 15, five days after the Day of Atonement.

As we've discussed previously, on the Jewish calendar the first of the month is always on a new moon and therefore the 15^th of the month is always on a full moon.

As we've also discussed before, a lunar eclipse can only take place on a full moon. 

If you've been following the current tetrad* of four lunar eclipses on Jewish holy days, the next total lunar eclipse, which is the second of the set of four, will take place on October 8^th – that is in the early morning hours of October 8. (Tweet that!) 

October 8, 2014, is the eve or (or the beginning of at sundown) Sukkot, which is the Hebrew name for the Feast of Tabernacles. (Tweet that!)

As I said in my previous post, this is not a coincidence. This is a God-incident. (Tweet that!)

God is speaking. He is setting His signal in the sky for all the people of the earth to see.  (Tweet that!) He is setting a sign in the sky where no one can cover it over or hide it. We are not dependent on the news media to tell us this piece of information. Governments and leaders cannot hide it from the people. It is there. No one can make it go away.

Morguefile.com

Yes, people can say it's just a coincidence. Skeptics can snicker. Those who refuse to believe can ridicule. But it's still there. For everyone on earth to see. (Tweet that!)

It is a message. A warning. A shouting to the people of the earth that something is happening. (Tweet that!) Something is about to happen. If you're not listening, if you've never listened before, will you begin to listen now? And who would you like to share this with?

Our next post on Thursday will be on the Feast of Trumpets. After that, we will spend our posts until the eclipse of October 8 talking about and anticipating the next "Blood Moon" lunar eclipse.

* A tetrad is a series of four total lunar eclipses with no partial eclipses occurring in between.

Related Article:

• How the Jewish Calendar Works 

The Feast of Tabernacles - Part 1

"Sukkah Roofs" by Yoninah -
Own work. Licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - 

The seventh and final annual Feast of the LORD is the Feast of Tabernacles. The Hebrew name for this Feast is Sukkot (sue-COAT). It is also known as the Feast of Booths.

God gave the instructions for the Feast of Tabernacles to Moses in Leviticus 23:33-34.

33 The Lord said to Moses, 34 "Say to the Israelites: 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord's Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days...'"

This is the third Feast that God required all Jewish males to attend in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:16).

This feast lasts for seven days. The Feast of Tabernacles begins on Tishrei 15, five days after the Day of Atonement, and lasts until the Tishrei 21.

The reason God wanted the people of Israel to celebrate this Feast was to remember and celebrate the way God provided for and protected the Hebrew people in the dessert for 40 years after they were released from slavery in Egypt in the time of Moses (1526 – 1406 B.C.).

To celebrate this Feast, the people of Israel throughout the centuries have built "booths" out of tree limbs to live in temporarily, like the ones in the photo upper left. This remembers how their ancestors lived in the dessert around 3,500 years ago.

The word "tabernacle" means a dwelling place. The Tabernacle, built in the time of Moses, and its more permanent version known as the Temple, was symbolic of God's dwelling place as God dwelt among His people. (Tweet that!)

In other words, in the Tabernacle/Temple, God "tabernacled" with His people. (Tweet that!)

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Jesus fulfilled this idea in part when he came to earth. We could say Jesus, being God incarnate, came and "tabernacle" (lived with) us, humankind, for a time.

The apostle John wrote this about Jesus*, the incarnation of the very Words of God:

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14, NIV 2011).

(Tweet that!)

The idea of the Feast of Tabernacles also looks forward into the future. Back in Moses' day, it was the far distant future. Today, approximately 3,500 years later, it is much closer. There is coming a day when God will again "tabernacle" with humankind during the 1,000 year millennium reign of Jesus Christ (at the end of which Satan and all evil will be done away with forever). Hear what the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation which is about the End Times, says:

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God' " (Revelation 21:3, NIV 1984).

The Feast of Tabernacles looks forward to the day when God will come to tabernacle with His people -- those who love and follow Him. All others have been swept away.

Which group are you in? Which group would you like to be in? If you are not yet one of God's people but would like to be, simply talk to Jesus in prayer and tell him you want to be a true follower of his. He will begin to guide you and teach you his Truth.

The Feast of Tabernacles in 2014 will begin at sundown on October 8. This is also the date of the next total lunar eclipse or Blood Moon. That is no coincidence. (Tweet that!) We'll talk more about that in the next post next Tuesday.

*If you would like to learn more about how Jesus came to tabernacle among us, how all the prophecies of old point to Jesus, and how many of these prophecies were fulfilled in his birth at the first Christmas, please get my book Prophecies Fulfilled in the Birth of Jesus. This makes an excellent study for the upcoming Christmas season. Added thoughts, prayers, and questions make it easy to discuss as a family or use it to lead a small group. 

The Day of Atonement

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26 The Lord said to Moses, 27 "The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord..." (Leviticus 23:26-27, NIV).

Ten day s after the Feast of Trumpets comes the sixth of the seven Feasts of the LORD: the Day of Atonement. The Jewish name for this Feast is Yom Kippur. Again, you may have seen that on your calendar.

Coming ten days after the Feast of Trumpets, which is on the first of Tishrei on the Jewish calendar, this is, of course, the 10^th of Tishrei. This year the Day of Atonement begins the evening of October 3 through to evening on October 4, 2014, on our calendar.

So far the seven Feasts have been building to a great crescendo and we are nearing the climax of what we've been building to. (Tweet that!)

The Day of Atonement is the one day of the year when the High Priest of Israel may enter the Holy of Holies. (Tweet that!) Other priests regularly tend to the Lampstand, the Incense Altar, and the Table of Showbread in the first room of the Temple known as The Holy Place. That's what Zechariah was doing in the Christmas story (see Luke 1:8-13*). But only the High Priest is ever allowed in the Most Holy Place—the back one-third of the Temple. And then only on one day of the year.

That one day of the year is the Day of Atonement.

It is on the Day of Atonement that the High Priest brings the blood of the sacrifice into the Most Holy Place and sprinkles it onto the Ark of the Covenant that holds the stones where the finger of God Himself wrote the Ten Commandments, which represents the entire Law of God. (Tweet that!)

7 But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance (Hebrews 9:7, NLT).

With the blood of the sacrifice sprinkled onto the Ark, no longer could God look down from heaven onto His Law (which every person of all time has broken – including you, including me) without looking through the blood of the sacrifice and knowing the penalty of death for breaking His Law has been atoned for. (Tweet that!)

Of course the Temple no longer stands on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Holy of Holies is no longer available to hold the Ark of the Covenant. Therefore the sacrifices can't be made, the blood can't be carried in, and the sprinkling of the blood can't be done. Right now this ceremony cannot take place.

The Temple was destroyed by the Roman in 70 A.D., approximately 40 years after Jesus was crucified (scholars aren't sure of the exact year the crucifixion took place). So the Day of Atonement ceremony has not been performed since 70 A.D.

There is also the issue of the location of the Ark of Covenant and whether or not it still exists. It would be needed along with the Temple to observe this ceremony. The theories of the whereabouts of the Ark will make another interesting series of posts, but too lengthy to cover now.

For the Jewish people who depend on the Day of Atonement for the forgiveness of their sins, the lack of the Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem is a major problem. (Tweet that!) But in truth, the Temple is no longer needed because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. With Jesus’ blood to cover our sins, the Day of Atonement ceremony is no longer needed (but Jews don’t believe this). (Tweet that!)

God allowed the Temple to be destroyed in 70 A.D. because He didn't want this ceremony to take place year after year because it is no longer needed. It was a picture of what the Messiah came to perform once for all time and we are now to look to Jesus the Messiah for our atonement.

4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins...

9 Then he said, "Look, I have come to do your will." He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. 10 For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. (Hebrews 10:4, 9-10, NLT).

This is what the Lord Jesus accomplished once for all time when he shed his blood on the cross.

If you would like to learn more about the Feasts of the LORD, the Temple and the sacrifices, and much more, please get my book Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus.

*Learn more about the angel's visit to Zechariah and other incredible events in the Christmas story in my book Prophecies Fulfilled in the Birth of Jesus. 

The Feast of Trumpets - Part 4 - Do We Know "The Day No One Knows"?

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As I've said many times before, I credit what I know about the Feasts of the LORD to teacher Mark Biltz. I first heard Mark Biltz speak on Southwest Radio Church many years ago. I believe that must have been around 2008. He was teaching on the Feasts of the LORD and I had longed to learn about these Feasts for many years, so of course as soon as I heard the topic I was hooked.

Besides hearing him on the radio, I ordered his set of teaching DVDs on the Feasts and listened to them over and over taking extensive notes to absorb all the information he taught. I now write on these topics out of what I learned mostly from Mark Biltz (but also other sources).

Since then Mark Biltz has become a well-known teacher, radio and TV guest, and author.

I say all this to let you know the following information I learned from Mark Biltz's DVD set. I believe he also spoke of this on the Southwest Radio Church radio shows I heard. I don't know if this information is in any of his books. But what he teaches about the Feast of Trumpets I found absolutely exciting and amazing and have remembered it ever since. We'll see if you feel the same.

In my own words, here's what I've gleaned from Mark Biltz's teaching and my own study of the Bible:

When God gave the instructions for the Feast of Trumpets in Leviticus 23:23-25, it was to be a one-day celebration.

23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 "Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the Lord" (Leviticus 23:23-25, ESV).

But at some point in history, it became a two-day Feast. According to Mark Biltz's DVD set, this change came when the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon (after 586 B.C.) and here's why.

As we've discussed before, the first of the month on the Jewish calendar comes on a new moon. Who determines when the first of the month, and therefore the Feast day, is? That would be the priests viewing the night sky from the Temple (or Temple Mount, since the Temple had been destroyed) in Jerusalem. But when the people of Israel are in Babylon, not Jerusalem, how do you get the message to them that it is the day for the Feast to begin?

They had to send some sort of signal. But how?

They sent a signal by fire. Mark Biltz said they would set the hills on fire to send a signal that the day of the Feast had arrived. However, it might take a while for the smoke signal to be seen by the exiles in Babylon. For that reason, the people of Israel would be waiting for the signal to know when this one-day Feast would start and they wouldn't know exactly which day it would begin on. This meant two things happened:

1. This one-day Feast stretched into two days while they waited for the signal. So although it was two days, it was only supposed to be a one-day Feast. Therefore it became known as "one long day."
2. Since no one knew which day the Feast of Trumpets would start on, it became known as "the day no one knows."

(Tweet that!)

Now read these verses from Matthew 24 about the return of Jesus:

30 "And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven. 

32 "Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door. 34 I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. 

36 "However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows."  (Matthew 24:30-36, NLT, emphasis mine).

Did you catch that? The "day nobody knows" IS the Feast of Trumpets! (Tweet that!)

I believe Jesus will return and gather his people on the Feast of Trumpets! I'm not saying it will happen this year. I don't know what year.  (Tweet that!)

But I do know the next Feast to be fulfilled by Jesus on God's prophetic calendar of seven Feasts is the Feast of Trumpets. (Tweet that!)

It is unfortunate that something has happened over time in some Christian circles. That is that many people put strong emphasis on the part of Matthew 24:36 that says:

"...no one knows about that day or hour...not even the angels in heaven or the Son…"

Now there is nothing wrong with taking that (or any Scripture verse) seriously. Hear me clearly: there is nothing wrong with taking that seriously! As a matter of fact, we are to take Scripture very seriously. Always. And I do not want anyone to think I'm saying differently. However, because of the emphasis on "no one knows," regarding the return of Jesus it seems we can't even talk about the possibilities. In other words, we Christians have been silenced by our own fellow Christians from even being allowed to be curious. We are silenced. Discussing that Jesus might return on a certain date is a taboo subject in many Christian churches and circles today.

If or when we talk about this, it is often called "date setting" and is shunned.

It is for this reason that I fear Mr. Biltz and others have been discouraged from talking about this. Maybe I simply haven't heard an interview where Mark Biltz (or others) have talked about it, but in the interviews I've heard with Mark Biltz on Christian TV talk shows or on the radio, I haven't heard him talking about this at all--even though I learned it from him. I think it is a terribly and crucially important piece of information, but it is not being shared or talked about or taught anywhere. This piece of information is being squelched.

Of course we have to be extremely careful with what I'm about to say and make sure every theory and idea is thoroughly vetted through Scripture, but I believe information hidden from humankind for millennia past will be revealed in the Last Days (which I believe we are living in right now). One Scripture I can point to is Daniel 12:9. In 539 B.C., Daniel was given a vision of the End Times. After Daniel had written down the vision given him of the End Times (see Daniel 10 – 12), the Man talking to him in the vision (who, it seems clear to me, was the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ), instructed Daniel to do this (emphasis is mine):

"Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end"(Daniel 12:9, NIV 1984*).

That tells me that in the "time of the end" we will understand things in Scripture that we have never understood before. They will be unsealed for our understanding. (Tweet that!)

What a shame if we are silenced, even by well-meaning Christians, and cannot talk about these things. I believe after centuries of being told it is wrong to attempt to set the date of the return of the Lord Jesus, many Christians just automatically silence any discussion of it.

Let me say it again clearly: I believe Jesus will return ON the Feast of Trumpets (though we don't know what year). (Tweet that!)

Yes, that is a specific date because it will be the Feast of Trumpets. And I believe the year is not too far off. Will God leave us here to witness the final Blood Moon on September 28, 2015 (which is after the Feast of Trumpets 2015)? This I do not know.  (Tweet that!)

What do you believe? 

*The NIV 1984 is quoted here but, unfortunately, is no longer available so this link goes to three other versions.

The Feast of Trumpets - Part 3 - Ten Days of Awe

"Hasid-Uman(6)" by Вальдимар 

In the September 9^th post we looked at how the trumpet, or shofar, is blown in the ceremony celebrating the Feast of Trumpets. Today let's learn some more interesting information about this fifth Feast of the LORD.

The Feast of Trumpets is a two-day celebration on Tishrei 1 - 2. Originally it was a one-day celebration. The reason it is now two days is most fascinating to me, but that's another post. Actually, that's the next post (scheduled for next Tuesday September 16th), and I can't wait to tell you.

But today I want to tell you about the time between the Feast of Trumpets and the next Feast, the sixth one of the seven.

The sixth Feast of the LORD, the next one on the calendar, is the Day of Atonement. (We'll cover this in a later post.) It occurs on Tishrei 10. In other words, there are ten days between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.

These ten days are known as the

• "Ten days of Repentance" or the 
• "Ten days of Awe."

(Tweet that!)

Here is some interesting information from my most recent book, Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus (page 262-63):

In Judaism, it is taught that during Rosh Hashanah, the heavenly court is in session and the books are opened for ten days up until Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement... Jewish people try to do good deeds for others during these ten days in order to offset their sins hoping they will tip the scales toward the good before the Day of Atonement, when the books are closed and judgment is determined for the coming year. 

Those who know Jesus Christ as Savior know it is impossible to erase the consequences of sin by outdoing them with good deeds. We know it is impossible to earn our way to heaven or into God's presence by performing enough good deeds. We understand this was impossible and that is why it was necessary for God to arrange for the payment for our sin, which Jesus Christ did on the cross.

(Tweet that!)

We will learn about the Day of Atonement in the post following the next one, on Thursday, September 18.

This year the Feast of Trumpets begins at sundown on Wednesday, September 24^th (Tweet that!) and continues until sundown on Thursday, September 25^th -- a two day celebration of what was once a one-day Feast. There is a most-fascinating piece of information I want to share with you about why the Feast of Trumpets is now two days long in my next post. I want you to know this fascinating information before the Feast of Trumpets actually gets here, so please come visit again on Tuesday, September 16th when we'll cover that. (Tweet that!) (Tell your friends to stop by, too, please.) You won't want to miss it. I promise you will be absolutely amazed!

Remembering September 11, 2001

(c) 2001 David A. McPherson

I could not post to this blog today without recognizing this date, an anniversary of a day well-remembered in the United States. On this date in 2001 Muslim terrorists hijacked American passenger jets with the intention of killing as many people as possible. Of course we will never forget September 11, 2001.

That day was a turning point in American history, and indeed the history of the world. While it was thirteen years ago, the fight against Islamic terrorists continues today. It has not waned at all, but has escalated over those years and continues to escalate, even in recent weeks, as ISIS / ISIL advances.

In a very real way this blog is about that day and the continuing fight against radical Muslim terrorists because I believe all of these events are part of one of the main topics of this blog: the prophecies in the Bible of the End Times. (Tweet that!) I believe, as do many others, that these events are forwarding us, meaning the entire world, toward the "End Times" talked about by Jesus in Matthew 24 as well as many other passages in the Bible.

In recent weeks we have all watched events taking place in the world, from Russian's move into Ukraine and a passenger jet being shot down to the rise of ISIS / ISIL and the murder of many people, including the beheading of American journalists, in Iraq and other areas.

Dear America
A Letter of Comfort and Hope to a Grieving Nation
The book Dianne wrote after September 11, 2001.
Available at Amazon in print and on Kindle.
For those in grief and/or wondering where God
is when things like this happen.
Reveals important differences
between Islam and Christianity.

While I don't claim to be an expert on what Muslims believe, I have heard that radical Muslims believe they can bring about the "end times" of their religion and bring on the scene their prophet or messiah through causing violence throughout the world. (Tweet that!)

In a very important contrast, one way to look at the Christian belief of the "End Times" is that they will come because of the escalation of sin in the world. Sin always leads to death, and sin in the world will lead to the death of the world as we know it. (Tweet that!)

While Christians expect and recognize the rise of violence that will occur before the "End Times" and the coming return of Jesus, Muslims believe that by perpetrating that violence they can bring on the "End Times." For the casual onlooker it might all appear the same, but this is an incredibly important contrast. Christians (those who follow Jesus) won't be the violent ones. People who refuse to follow Jesus will be the violent ones.

Right now these two contrasting views are headed toward a collision. That collision may indeed be the End Times. (Tweet that!)

The Feast of Trumpets - Part 2 - The Trumpet Blasts

"A Haridi man blowing a Shofar." 
by Lilach Daniel 

The Jewish name for the Feast of Trumpets is Yom Teruah which, when translated, means "Day of Blowing" and of course refers to the blowing of the trumpet. In Jewish understanding the trumpet that is blown is the shofar or ram's horn. (Tweet that!)

When observing the Feast of Trumpets or the Yom Teruah ceremony, the shofar is blown in a pattern of three different sounds with each sound given three times. Three sounds played three times equals nine trumpet blasts.

     3 x 3 = 9     

This is done eleven times. That makes 99 trumpet blasts. (Tweet that!)

     9 x 11 = 99     

Then there is a final, 100^th trumpet blast.

When the final trumpet blast is blown, it is a long or extended blast. This final blast of the trumpet is known as "the Last Trump." (Tweet that!)

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51-52, ESV).

Did you catch that reference to "at the last trump?" (Tweet that!)

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first (1 Thessalonians 4:16, ESV).

And, of course, the verse we just looked at on September 4 from Matthew 24:

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matthew 24:31, ESV, emphasis added).

In part 3 of this Feast of Trumpets series, which will post on Saturday, September 13, we'll look at how the Jews observe the Feast of Trumpets as the heavenly court being in session to judge the deeds of the people of the earth. For the next post we will remember the anniversary of September 11, 2001.

The Feast of Trumpets - Part 1 - Rosh HaShanah

"PikiWiki Israel 4104 Shlomo Bar" 

As I mentioned in my previous post, we're going to take a break from our look at Matthew 24 in order to learn about the three fall Feasts of the LORD as well as the tetrad of lunar eclipses we are currently living in the middle of, and how those events (the Feasts and the eclipses) coincide. (Tweet that!)

To review, there are seven annual feasts of the LORD:

• Three in the spring, 
• then a break to Pentecost in June,
• then three more Feasts in the Fall. (Tweet that!)

If theses seven Feasts of the LORD truly are a picture of God's work on the earth throughout history (as I believe they are), and if we can look at them as God's calendar or schedule of events (and I believe we can), and if Jesus fulfilled the first four Feasts in his first coming (which I believe he did), then…the three Fall Feasts have yet to be fulfilled. (Tweet that!)

That means Jesus must still fulfill these next three Feasts. That means he must come again to fulfill them. (Tweet that!)

Therefore, these three Fall Feasts represent what Jesus will accomplish in his second coming! (Tweet that!)

The next Feast on the calendar -- or if we may say "God's prophetic calendar" -- is the Feast of Trumpets.

On the Jewish (Hebrew) calendar, the Feast of Trumpets begins on the first of Tishrei.

Remember when we studied how the Jewish calendar works, we learned that the first of the month on the Hebrew calendar is always on a new moon (when no moon is visible). Therefore the full moon always falls on the 15^th.

Here's another interesting note you need to know: When we're talking about the Jewish calendar, there are actually two.

• the civil calendar and 
• the religious calendar

On the civil calendar, Tishrei is the first month. So the Feast of Trumpets, which occurs on Tishrei 1, is also known as the Jewish New Year, which is called Rosh HaShanah. You may have seen some of these designations on your calendar but didn't know what they mean.

However on the religious calendar Tishrei is the seventh month. In the Bible, the number seven is known as "God's number," or the number designating perfection or completion.

On the Jewish religious calendar, Tishrei corresponds with September/October on the Gregorian calendar that we use here in the United States and which most western states use.

In my next post we'll learn more about the Feast of Trumpets.

Please note:

The New International Version of the Bible (NIV), which I'm used to using (but much prefer the version before the 2011 update) translates these seven holidays as "feasts of the LORD." However the newer New Living Translation (NLT) calls them "festivals of the LORD" or "the LORD's appointed festivals." The version of the Bible you own may use a different phrase. What's important is to:

1. understand what they are and, 
2. recognize them when we read them in Scripture. (Tweet that!)

For consistency, I'm continuing to use the phrase the "Feasts of the LORD" (capitalized because of their importance and uniqueness, for they are "THE" feasts of the LORD).

Related Article:

If you (or someone you know) would like to learn more about the seven Feasts of the LORD and the lunar eclipses occurring on the first and the seventh Feasts in both 2014 and 2015, this article gives a good overview of that information:

• The Prophetic Significance of the Feasts of the LORD 

At That Time...

Morguefile.com

The next sentences Jesus spoke when describing to his disciples the events preceding his coming are these:

"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." Matthew 24:30-31, NIV 1984 (this version no longer available).

In the previous post we talked about how Jesus had said "immediately after" these events in verse 29. These events would be all the happenings we've been looking at on this blog since June 24, 2014, when we started reading through Matthew 24 verse by verse. So these events would include false Christian teachers and leaders who claim to be Christians but are not and are leading many astray, persecution of Christians (seen any of that in the world lately?), nations rising against nation, earthquakes, famines, the "abomination that causes desolation," and people claiming the "Christ" is in hiding.

Then Jesus said "immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light" (Matthew 24:29, NIV).

Notice now that Jesus gives another time stamp to these events when he says "At that time…" (Tweet that!)

At that time, when the world sees Jesus "coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30, NIV) the nations will mourn because they did not believe in him. (Tweet that!) They didn't think any of this would happen. They will be totally surprised and shocked, realize they were wrong, and in extreme fear will mourn.

In today's world, most of the people of the earth ridicule people like me: people who do believe in Jesus and do know that he is coming again. (Tweet that!) People like me who believe he is coming soon…not a vague "soon" but soon, as in our lifetimes.

When they see Jesus actually coming, they will mourn because they didn't believe. They thought people like me were crazy. And yet…

Here he is. In the flesh. Coming at them, proving them wrong! How frightening this must be for all those who refused to believe in any of this beforehand. (Tweet that!) What will happen to them now?

The very next sentence says Jesus sends his angles -- notice they are HIS angels! -- to gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (This may be more than the "elect" -- the true believers in Jesus -- who are on earth; these may be all the "elect" of all time, meaning all true believers in the Christ of God.)

Please notice the trumpet call in verse 31:

"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" (Matthew 24:31, NIV. Emphasis added).

As I mentioned in the previous post (and many times before…repetition to help you learn it), there are seven Feasts of the Lord. Three in the spring. Then a break to the fourth, which is Pentecost, in June. We talked about these first four Feasts last spring on this blog. Then we took a break through the summer and have been looking at the prophecies Jesus spoke of the End Times in Matthew 24.

Now, as the end of summer comes and fall approaches, it's important for us to talk about the final three of the seven Feasts of the Lord, which occur in the fall. Those final three annual Feasts, celebrated by the Jewish people in the fall of the year, are:

• the Feast of Trumpets (this year in 2014 occurring on September 24-25), 
• the Day of Atonement (this year in 2014 occurring on October 3-4), 
• the Feast of Tabernacles (this year in 2014 occurring on October 8-16).

We'll talk about those in depth in coming posts, but I wanted you to notice now that the next Feast on God's calendar is the Feast of Trumpets.

Morguefile.com

And I didn't want you to miss the reference to the trumpet call in today's Scripture verse:

"...he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call…" (Matthew 24:31).

I believe these words of Jesus are a direct reference to the Feast of Trumpets! In other words, I believe Jesus is telling us this event of him coming on the clouds with power and great glory will be indicated by, and will occur on, the Feast of Trumpets. (Tweet that!)

If that bit of information doesn't excite you as it does me, I don't know what will!

Jesus now takes a turn in his speech to his disciples as he turns his attention to the lesson of the fig tree in Matthew 24:32-33. We are going to take this turn in his speech as an opportunity to take a break from Matthew 24 in order to learn about the three fall Feasts of the Lord. Included in this discussion of the Fall Feasts will be information on the coming lunar eclipse (being call a "Blood Moon") on October 8th. (Tweet that!)