Today is the Day of Atonement

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Today is the Day of Atonement. It actually began at sundown yesterday.

We learned about the Day of Atonement in advance so you would have that information before today arrived. If you're just now joining us and missed that information, it posted on September 18, 2014. Here's a link:

•  The Day of Atonement

Five days from now The Feast of Tabernacles begins.

On the Jewish calendar that's next Tuesday evening. On our calendar it's usually noted on Wednesday, October 8.

This year on the Feast of Tabernacles people over much of the earth will experience a total lunar eclipse. This is the second of the tetrad of four total lunar eclipses occurring in 2014 - 2015 on the first and the last annual Feast of the LORD.

That's important. Something is happening. God is communicating. You may not believe that. Or people around you may not while you do. If you do, stand strong. I know with every fiber of my being this is spiritually important. (Tweet that!)

(What if I'm wrong? Well, so what if I'm wrong. I'm calling everyone I can reach to believe in Jesus before time runs out. Even if time doesn't run out very soon, there are worse things to be wrong about. I'd rather make my mistakes calling people to Jesus than telling them they don't need to come to Him.) (Tweet that!)

Furthermore, this is not about scaring people into committing to Jesus Christ. Rather, I know there are lots of people out there who want to know Him, who want to come closer to Him. or who once dedicated their life to Him but drifted away and now want to come back again. Here's the thing: We have fascinating things happening all around us. If you come to Him now, you'll see things in such an amazingly different way! You won't be afraid any more. You'll find peace. Yes, even in the upheaval of our day. (Tweet that!)

If you don't yet know Jesus as your Savior, simply acknowledge that you are a sinner. You've done things wrong, you acknowledge all sin leads to death, and so you are in need of a Savior. Then acknowledge that Jesus is the only Savior. Only Jesus can reconcile you to God the Father. Ask Him to be your personal Savior. Then thank Him because it's a done deal! Amen!

If you prayed that, then today has become your Day of Atonement! Jesus is your atonement. He is mine. Hallelujah! (Tweet that!)

Related Articles:

If you're just joining us and missed recent articles about the coming lunar eclipses, here are two:

• When and Where to See the Next "Blood Moon" Total Lunar Eclipse
• Invite Your Neighbors to View the Coming Blood Moon Event

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.

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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 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. 

At That Time...

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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.

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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!)

Feast of the LORD #4 - Pentecost - Counting 50 to the Year of Jubilee - Part 2

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Did you know the Year of Jubilee can only be proclaimed to begin on the Day of Atonement? (Tweet that!) In Hebrew the Day of Atonement is called Yom Kippur. 

God gave these instructions through Moses in Leviticus 25:8-10:

You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.

The Day of Atonement is the 10^th of Tishrei on the Hebrew calendar. This year in 2014, that is October 4^th and we will talk more about the Day of Atonement as we approach that date. (Tweet that!)

The Day of Atonement is the sixth of the seven Feasts of the LORD. When this day is proclaimed, the trumpet is sounded in Israel. (Tweet that!)

According to the teaching of Mark Biltz, when Jesus stood up and read Isaiah 61:1-2, he was proclaiming the Year of Jubilee. (Tweet that!)

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,    because he has anointed me    to proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives    and recovering of sight to the blind,    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:14-21, ESV).

Jesus stunned the people when he announced that he was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-2 right before their very eyes. (Tweet that!) For more on Jesus fulfilling this prophecy see chapter 10 in my newest book, Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus. (Tweet that!)

Related Articles:

• Saturday, May 24 - 35 Omer - Feast of the Lord #4 - Pentecost
• Tuesday, May 27 - 38 Omer - Feast of the Lord #4 - Pentecost Before the book of Acts
• Thursday, May 29 - 40 Omer - Feast of the Lord #4 - Pentecost - The Second Feasts that Required Attendance
• Saturday, May 31 - 42 Omer - Feast of the LORD #4 - Pentecost - Counting 50 to the Year of Jubliee - Part 1