The End

From our website:

The topic of “The Last Days” or the “End Times” is vast. There is no unity in belief, except that there are many today who do believe that Yeshua, The Son of God, is going to return ‘soon’. Most of us in the Messianic Peshitta Fellowship do as well. Doing a ‘summary’ of “Last Things” or “Eschatology” is a difficult task, but we are going to make the attempt, as we do think there is an urgency from the Ru’akh HaKodesh, saying “Behold, I come quickly”.

The first thing Yeshua said about “Last Things” when pointedly asked about them was, “Do not be decieved.” We believe, unfortunately, that there is indeed a lot of deceit. We pray and strive not to be deceived, and certainly that we not deceive anyone else. 

When interpreting prophecies, we believe there is a biblical model for doing so. We have tried to ‘see’ prophecy through other ‘lenses’, but nothing else makes as much sense as what we have seen concerning “Appointed Times”.

God set His appointed times in Leviticus 23:

“These are the Mo’adim of  יהוה …. “

He describes there these ‘appointed times’:

Shabbat

Passover

Unleavened Bread

First Omer of Firstfruits

Weeks

Day of the Awakening Blast

Day of Atonement

Booths

Each of those feasts are ‘shadows’ of things to come:

“These [feast days, the beginning of the khadashim and of Sabbaths] are shadows of things to come; but HaGuf, it is Mashi’akh.” Kol 2:17

The ‘appointed times’ were put on God’s calendar in the very beginning:

“Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for Mo’adim, and for days and years….”

“Mo’adim” there is “appointed times,” what we would call ‘appointments’. They were written into the calendar of God, the Universe.

The Sabbath is the most frequent one, being celebrated four times per ‘khodesh’, or 48 times a year. On our Gregorian calendar, we celebrate it roughly 52 times per year.

The Sabbath is a foreshadow of “The Day of  יהוה ,” the last epoch of man. What we mean is this: There is a “World Week”, where God has set aside seven ‘days’ that are made up of 1,000 years each. We call them millennia. One millennium is 1,000 years. This has been understood in Judaism since antiquity. It is derived from scripture:

⁴For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. [Tehillah 90]

⁸But, my beloved, do not forget this one thing, that one day is with  יהוה  as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  ⁹ יהוה is not slow concerning His promises, as some men count slowness; but is longsuffering toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to teshuvah. [ 2 Peter 3:8-9 ]

This concept is detailed in the Jewish Encyclopedia, and in ancient Jewish, extrabiblical writings. Kefa [Peter] stated it as a matter of fact to the Congregation. So, the seventh millennium is “The Sabbath” of history, the Day of יהוה [Day of the LORD]. It is thus foreshadowed and ‘rehearsed’ each week, by those who keep His Sabbath, as we are commanded.

The whole “World Week” is also depicted yearly, in the Seven “Appointments” already mentioned. 

We read from right to left, so we represent things in the same flow:

The Messiah is the goal at which all of Torah, and thereby all sacred writings, aims. [Rom 10:4] The purpose of the feasts, we believe, is to foreshadow what is coming, just as Paul told the Collossians, as cited above. As such, we should see Messiah in these feasts, and what He ‘is going to do’. Since He has already come, we should see things as having been done in some of these feasts. We do. 

As seen in the diagram, and in Leviticus 23, Passover is the first of the yearly/annual ‘feasts’, better known as “Appointed Times”. When Yeshua began to become the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,” He was conducting His last Passover Seder. He instituted the “Renewed Covenant”/Brit Khadashah which was predicted by Jeremiah in 31:30-34, when He took the cup at Passover, the third cup, the cup after supper, and blessed it, saying, 

“This is my body, which is given for your sake; this do in remembrance of me.”  ²⁰And likewise also He took the cup, after they had eaten supper, and He said, “This is the cup of the Brit Khadashah [Renewed Covenant] in my blood, which is shed for you.”

Yeshua then became The Pesakh Lamb, and the “Unleavened Bread”/Matzot of Passover. This is marked by the first two branches of the prophetic Menorah of “Mo’adim.” The third branch is the “First Omer of Bikkurim”/Firstfruits, and Yeshua rose from the dead on Saturday Night, when the “First Omer” of the fifty days of counting was counted. Yeshua rose from the dead on Saturday night, three days and three nights after His having been put in the tomb as Unleavened Bread. He presented Himself to His Talmidim/Torah Students and gave them “Salvation” by breathing the “Ru’akh HaKodesh” into them [John 20:22], after having presented Himself to the Father as the “Firstfruits of those who have died” on the first day of the week during Passover. [1 Cor 15:20, Lev 23:11] .  The feast of ‘firstfruits’ continues, however, and goes to what is called “Shavu’ot”/Weeks, which most people know as pentecost, although that day is calculated errantly by papal authority. Yeshua fulfills Shavu’ot, the fourth candle on the Menorah, the “Tree” of the Menorah, by sending His Ru’akh HaKodesh to the believers, so that they can be the firstfruits with Messiah: “Do not err, my beloved brethren: every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from Avi HaOrot/My Father of Lights, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of change.  It is He who fathered us of His own will with D’var HaEmet, that we should be the firstfruits of His creatures.” [James 1:16-18].

So, Messiah Yeshua has already fulfilled, or made us to understand by His confirming the predictions of the Mo’adim, the first four ‘feasts’ on the Menorah of Prophecy. This is the model by which we interpret all the prophecies concerning the return of Messiah. Yeshua affirms this for us when He started His ministry by visiting His hometown synagogue in Nazareth. He read from the Isaiah scroll one of the most “Messianic” prophecies of scripture:

¹“[The] Ru’akh of Adonai  יהוה  is upon me; because  יהוה  has anointed me [Messiah/Anointed One] to bring good tidings [gospel] unto the humble; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the eyes that are bound; ²to proclaim the year of the good pleasure of  יהוה …..” [Isaiah 61:1-2a]

What is most interesting about Yeshua stopping in mid verse is how it fits on the Menorah of prophecy above.

What Yeshua read is exactly what He did leading up to Shavu’ot, in that He declared the good news, became the Sacrifice of God, rose from the dead, began to forgive the repentant, and then sent His Spirit into the world to empower them to tell His Good News just as He did. The next phrase in the verse He read, which He left off, was:

“and [to proclaim] the day of vengeance of our Elohim.”

The ‘Day of Vengeance of Our God’/Yom Nakam Eloheinu’ is ‘The Day of  יהוה ,’ the seventh millenium. The Sabbath of God. Which begins with vengeance, from Messiah Yeshua, the Avenger of God’s wrath [Rev 19]. Yeshua STOPPED there, because first, He had to declare, and become the lamb, and empower His people to declare His Good News, and the warning of the Wrath to Come. Much of the Renewed Covenant Scriptures/NT warn us of that wrath.

So, we are currently ‘living’ on that fourth candle, the ‘tree’, where Shavu’ot sits. We are planting and watering the incoming harvest, which will start on the next candle, “Yom Teru’ah,”/The Day of the Awakening Blast.” The first three candles have been fulfilled, the fourth is ‘being’ fulfilled, figuratively, having already been an early harvest of grains, our Jewish Messianic believers of 2,000 years ago; we are in the long, hot, dry summer, partaking of that crop’s goodness, awaiting the harvest of the fall crops, which are almonds, fruits, and grapes, et cetera.

The times in which we live right now are the Akharit HaYamim/Last Days. Look back up at the Menorah. Yeshua completed candles 1-4, from Passover to Weeks, and there are three candles left, Yom Teru’ah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Peter stood up in Acts 2 and declared that the “Last Days” had begun, and it is affirmed by other scriptures in the Brit Khadashah as well:

¹⁶But this is that which was spoken by Yo’el HaNavi: ¹⁷“It shall come to pass in the last days, says Elohim, that I will pour out my Ru’akh upon all flesh… 

¹From of old Elohim spoke to our fathers by the Nevi’im in many forms and in many ways; and in these Akharit HaYamim He has spoken to us by His Son…” [Heb 1:1]

This is related to the “World Week.” According to ancient Judaism, which Messiah refers to quite a bit, there were Two Days reserved for Adam; Two Days reserved for Israel, and Two Days reserved for Messiah, and then the Day of יהוה . Looking back in scripture, we can see that from Adam to Abraham’s covenant is right at 2,000 years. From Abraham’s covenant to Messiah is right at 2,000 years. From Messiah to our day is right at 2,000 years. We do not know exactly when the last Millenium will start, because our Jewish People lost track of time in Babylon a bit, and monkeyed with the calendar that they calculated about 1100 years ago to try to ‘fix things/unify’ Judaism in the diaspora. But, we are within a few years of that benchmark, nonetheless.

We have thus been in the “Last Days” since Peter proclaimed so nearly 2,000 years ago. Day 1 through 4 were the ‘first days’, and days 5-7 are the last days. 1-4 were the “Spring Rains”, and 5 – 7 will be the “Fall Rains” [Former and Latter rains]; both are harvests. Grains harvested in Spring [Jews of the 1st century], all other crops in the fall [Other grains [Jews], fruit trees, nuts, grapes, the nations].

The Apostles gave us ‘evidence’ of the “Last Days”.

³Knowing this first, that there shall come in the Akharit HaYamim, mockers who scoff, following after their own lusts ⁴and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since our fathers died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”  ⁵Of this they are willingly ignorant, that by D’var HaElohim the heavens were of old, and the earth emerged from water and by means of the water; ⁶and those men, because of whose deeds the world of that time was flooded, perished under that water; ⁷but the present heavens and earth are sustained by His D’var and are reserved for fire on Yom HaDin [Judgment Day], which is the day of the destruction of ungodly men. [2 Peter 3]

¹⁷But you, my beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the Shlikhim of Adoneinu Yeshua HaMashi’akh, ¹⁸how they told you that in the Akharit HaYamim there will be mockers, and they will always follow their own ungodly lusts.  ¹⁹These are those who divide, sensual people who do not have HaRu’akh in them. [Jude 1]

¹Now HaRu’akh says expressly that in the Akharit HaYamim some shall depart from HaEmunah, following after misleading spirits and doctrines of demons.  ²Some with false appearances will mislead and speak lies, and are seared in their own conscience..” [1 Tim 4]

¹Know this, that in the Akharit HaYamim disastrous times will come.  ²And men shall be lovers of themselves and lovers of money, proud, conceited, blasphemers, disobedient to their own people, ungrateful, wicked, ³false accusers, addicts to lust, brutal, haters of good things, ⁴traitors, hasty, boasters, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of Elohim; ⁵having a shade of the fear of Elohim, but far from the power of Elohim; from such turn away. [2 Tim 3]

To sum up, the last days will be full of demonic lies clothed in religious language/doctrine, the disbelief in creation and the flood, full of mocking the notion of Yeshua’s return, disastrous, full of greed, pride, et cetera. Anyone who cannot tell we are there has his head in the sand. We are in the last days, indeed.

But, we yet await the return of Messiah.

There are those who say they believe, but they do not await His return. That was seen in the mockers we read about above. There are those who say we are already under the final “Messianic Kingdom,” and that He has returned in religious figureheads [pope, etc]. There are those who say that He will not return at all. But, we are instructed to wait for, look for, and even speed up the Day of His Return.

¹¹Now since all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in your consecrated conduct and fear of Elohim, ¹²waiting for and longing for the coming of Yom HaElohim…[the seventh Millenium, the final Judgments] [2 Peter 3]

We are supposed to be preparing, in fact, for that day. This is intimated in the verse above, but clearly spoken by Yeshua and others:

³⁴But take heed to yourselves that your hearts may not become heavy by extravagance and drunkenness and the worries of this world, and that day come suddenly upon you.  ³⁵For like a downpour it will entrap all those who dwell on the face of all the earth.  ³⁶Therefore keep watch always, and pray that you may be worthy to escape all these things which are to happen, and that you may stand before Ben HaAdam. [The Son of Man]”  [Yeshua, Luke 21]

⁴But you, my brethren, are not in darkness that that day shall overtake you as a thief.  ⁵You are all the children of light, and the children of the day; and you are not the children of the night, nor the children of darkness.  ⁶Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober.  ⁷For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night.  ⁸But let us who are the children of the day be alert, putting on the breastplate of Emunah and love, and for a helmet put on the hope of life.  ⁹For Elohim has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain life through Adoneinu Yeshua HaMashi’akh, ¹⁰who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we shall live together with Him.  ¹¹Therefore comfort one another and edify one another, even as also you do. [1 Thess 5]

So, we know that ONE DAY is coming, the Day of  יהוה . It is a day of Judgment, of Wrath, of DESTRUCTION, of BLOOD. [Isaiah 63, Joel, Rev 19]. BUT, it is also a day of Joy, of Safety, of Marriage, of Coronation. Because the 1,000 years of that day begins both in Heaven and on earth!

Yeshua taught about those times differently than most are willing to investigate. He wrapped up Yom Teru’ah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, in His discussing those details, but too many people are oblivious to it. 

Yom Teru’ah/Rosh Hashanah will begin the LAST DAY, the DAY of יהוה . Yom Teru’ah is also known as “The Head of the Year,” the “Birthday of the World,” “The Coronation of the King,” “The Wedding of the Messiah”, “The Judgment of the Righteous,” and more. 

When asked about His Return, and the “End of the Age,” and the “Olam HaBah”, the World to Come, Yeshua started by saying “DO NOT BE DECEIVED,” and then He summarized a lot of what we have already discussed. But, the language He used is wrapped up in the themes of the last three candles on the Menorah of Prophecy. Yom Teru’ah literally means the “Day of the Awakening Blast”. It is a “khok”, meaning that it is a decree that God did not explain when He gave it. There is only ONE passage in the whole Torah explicitly and obviously about it:

²³And  יהוה  spoke unto Moshe, saying, ²⁴“Speak unto B’nei Yisra’el, saying, ‘In the seventh khodesh [renewed moon], in the first day of the khodesh, shall be a Shabbaton [High Sabbath] unto you, a Zikhron Teru’ah [Memorial of Blasting], a Mikra Kodesh [Holy Rehearsal]. ²⁵You shall do no manner of regular work; and you shall bring a karban of fire unto  יהוה ‘.”

Because it is a day of a Memorial of Blasting, it has become known to many as the “Feast of Trumpets”. But, this day is rife with mystery, even in the simple passage above. And, our Jewish people were instructed by King David on how to observe this day, when he made plans for the Temple service in the House for God that his son, Solomon, would build. But, in the verse above, we see a lot. A ‘memorial’ of blasting is ‘recalling to mind by speaking’. Is it any wonder that in the Revelation Yokhanan/John writes about this day, 

“… the first voice which I heard was like a shofar talking with me, which said, “Come up here! And I will show you things which must come to pass.”  [Rev 4:1]

This blast would take place in the Temple only after the seventh renewed moon was seen and declared.  So, it would happen at night. Probably near midnight at times, because it would take time for the watchers to go out and spot the moon and report it back to the Rabbis in Jerusalem [ one of whom is seen in the NT, Gamli’el, Paul’s teacher, who is recorded in the Mishnah as to how he verified the crescent was seen, on Yom Teru’ah]. 

One day soon, this earthly day will coincide with the start of the seventh Millennium. We just do not know precisely when. But, it is getting close. A duality of events will begin, and that is what many people cannot see. There will indeed be a ‘catching away’ on that day. The Brit Khadashah makes that abundantly clear:

⁵¹Behold, I tell you a Sod [biblical mystery]: we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the Last Shofar; for the shofar shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. [1 Cor 15]

What most people do not know is that Yom Teru’ah is also called “The Last Shofar”. It is known to herald the Day of  יהוה , or The Day of God.  This fixes the very day on the earthly calendar year when this would happen, which is also known as “The Day That No Man Knows”. No man knows it, because the seventh crescent has to be seen. Our Jewish sages, therefore, stretched it out to be a 48 hour day! To give time to make certain the new year for tracking time and prophecy would actually begin.  This was a feast day, and is only seen in one place as actually observed in all of scripture:

⁵And David said unto Yehonatan, “Behold, tomorrow is the khodesh, when I should sit with HaMelekh to eat; so let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at evening. ⁶If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Beit Lekhem, his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ ⁷If he says thus, ‘It is well,’ your servant shall have shalom; but if he is wroth, then know that evil is determined by him. ⁸Therefore deal kindly with your servant; for you have brought your servant into a covenant of  יהוה  with you; but if there is in me iniquity, slay me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?” [1 Sam 20]

Here, we see that David hides for two days! And, we know it is Rosh HaShannah, because it is the ‘yearly sacrfice’. There is no sacrifice for the monthly khodesh; we are just supposed to count them. But, there is a yearly sacrifice, and in Leviticus we read: “you shall bring a karban of fire unto  יהוה “. If we read that in Hebrew, it could be read this way: ” you shall bring near a wife unto יהוה . ” In Hebrew the last part reads, אִשֶּׁה לַיהוה / ishe la’ יהוה . Fire is usually spelled ‘esh,’ אש, but, for some odd reason, here, it is spelled just like the word ‘wife’. And in ancient Judaism, Yom Teru’ah, the “Head of the Year,” was traditionally when the King should marry!

Is it any wonder, then, that after explaining end things, Yeshua gives us this visual?

¹“Then, Malkhut HaShamayim [Kingdom of Heaven] will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out for the meeting of the bridegroom and the bride.  ²Five of them were wise, and five were foolish.  ³And the foolish ones took their lamps, but took no oil with them.  ⁴But the wise ones took oil in the vessels with their lamps.  ⁵As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.  ⁶And at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to greet him!’  ⁷Then all the virgins got up and fixed their lamps.  ⁸And the foolish ones said to the wise ones, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’  ⁹Then the wise ones answered and said, ‘Why, there would not be enough for us and for you; go to those who sell and buy for yourselves.’  ¹⁰And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and those who were ready entered with him into the wedding house, and the door was locked.  ¹¹Afterward the other virgins also came and said, ‘Adoneinu, Adoneinu, open to us!’  ¹²But he answered and said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.‘  ¹³Be alert, therefore, for you do not know that day nor that hour.” 

This goes with other images that Yeshua painted about that day:

²⁶Just as it happened in the days of No’akh, such will it be in the days of Ben HaAdam.  ²⁷For they were eating and drinking, and marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day when No’akh entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed every man.  ²⁸And again, just as it happened in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, and buying and selling, and planting and building; ²⁹but in the day when Lot went out of S’dom,  יהוה  sent down a rain of fire and sulfur from Heaven, and destroyed them all.  ³⁰Such will it be in the day when Ben HaAdam appears.  ³¹In that day, he who is on the roof, with his clothes in the house, will not come down to take them; and he who is in the field will not turn back.  ³²Just remember Lot’s wife.  ³³He who desires to save his life shall lose it; and he who loses his life shall save it.  ³⁴I say to you that in that very night two will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other forsaken.  ³⁵And two women will be grinding together; one will be taken and the other forsaken.  ³⁶Two will be in the field; one will be taken and the other forsaken.”  ³⁷They answered, saying to Him, “Adoneinu, to what place?” He said to them, “Wherever the Guf [Body of Messiah] is, there will the eagles gather.”

There is debate about the timing of these things; but the imagery of the feasts leaves little room for doubt. First, concerning the fact that Yeshua compared the kingdom to a bridegroom coming for His bride, and then just a very short time later told His Talmidim that He was going to ‘prepare a place for you’, it seems Yeshua is directly linking His Pesakh to His coming Yom Teru’ah. 

Yeshua told us about his preparing a place in His Father’s house in John 13, at His  Passover Seder! Then He shares the cup with them and institutes the Renewed Covenant. In a Galilean wedding, where Yeshua and most of His Talmidim were from, the bridegroom first makes a contract with the bride and her father, sealing that contract by sharing a cup of wine between all three of them, and then he goes away to build a house, or add on to his father’s house a room. When the groom’s father says the house or additional room on his own house is ready, he sends his son at midnight to go get his bride. Because they see the house is almost ready, the bride and her maidens are prepared, dressed, beautified and ready to go. The groom’s mates go before him and SHOUT [TERU’AH] that He is coming to meet her halfway! She and her maidens come out, the friends of the groom are carrying a litter on which they lift her up to ‘fly’ her to the wedding at the groom’s house. [She can refuse the wedding, all the way up to the moment of partaking of the cup again during the ceremony.] After the wedding, they live in the ‘kheder’ for seven days. Yeshua said that the five other virgins were locked out. He said many were ‘forsaken’, and not taken, to the wedding! 

This is the day Sha’ul/Paul was elucidating in 1 Corinthians 15. He also goes into some detail about it in Thessalonians:

¹⁵For this we say to you by the very word of Adoneinu, that we who are the remnant until the coming of Adoneinu shall not precede those who are dead.  ¹⁶For Adoneinu Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the Chief Malakh [Messenger/Angel] and with the Shofar of Elohim; and those who died in Mashi’akh will rise first.  ¹⁷Then we who remain, which are alive, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Adoneinu in the air; and so shall we ever be with Adoneinu.  ¹⁸Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

Those who think ‘the rapture’ is not in Scripture are ignorant of the fact that in the Latin Vulgate the words above ‘caught up’ are rendered from Latin “raptaeo”, which in greek was ‘harpazo’, and in Hebrew is either ננצלֹ / nin’tzal or נֵחָטֵף / nekhatef, where in Aramaic it is נֵתחטֵפ . All of these languages’ words mean exactly the same thing: to snatch away quickly.

So, we expect a ‘catching away’ on Yom Teru’ah. We just do not know what year, nor what specific day of that year, since Yom Teru’ah is 48 hours long, nor even the hour, just as Yeshua said. But, we have already pointed out that we are instructed to prepare. And further, Yeshua told us we can know when it is near!

³³So even you, when you see all these things, know that it has arrived at the gate. [Mat 24]

¹But of the times and seasons, my brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.  ²For you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of Adoneinu comes like a thief in the night.  ³For when they shall say, “Peace and tranquility,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.  ⁴But you, my brethren, are not in darkness that that day shall overtake you as a thief.  ⁵You are all the children of light, and the children of the day; and you are not the children of the night, nor the children of darkness.  ⁶Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober.  ⁷For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night.  ⁸But let us who are the children of the day be alert, putting on the breastplate of Emunah and love, and for a helmet put on the hope of life.  ⁹For Elohim has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain life through Adoneinu Yeshua HaMashi’akh, ¹⁰who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we shall live together with Him.  ¹¹Therefore comfort one another and edify one another, even as also you do. [1 Thess 5] 

Yeshua’s comment about knowing that it is ‘at the gate’ is not lost on those who understand Yom Teru’ah. It is also the “Day of the Opening of the Gates”, and on that day in Isaiah 26, God instructs His people very specifically:

²Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faithfulness may enter in…..

¹⁶” יהוה , in trouble [tribulation] have they sought You, silently they poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them. ¹⁷Like a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so have we been at Your presence, O  יהוה . We¹⁸ have been with child, we have been in pain, we have given birth to wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the land; neither are the inhabitants of the world come to life. ¹⁹Your dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise. Awake! And sing, you that dwell in the dust!  For Your dew is as the dew of light, and the earth shall bring to life the shades.”

²⁰“Go, my people, come into your khederim [rooms], and shut your doors about you; hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation passes. ²¹For, behold,  יהוה  comes forth out of His place to visit upon the inhabitants of the earth their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”

We do not have time to explain the enormity of the details of all of this. Yeshua linked this season to a woman in childbirth pains, as did the Apostles. But, Josephus tells us that the gates of the Temple opened miraculously every year, except for the last forty years of Temple service, on Rosh HaShannah/Yom Teru’ah. It is the day of the opening of the gates. And on that day, God figuratively tells His people to “go into your rooms” which Messiah has gone ahead to prepare for us, saying we would go and be with Him there.  And the Navi/Prophet Yo’el/Joel gives us an answer to that command:

¹“Blast the shofar in Tzion, and sound an alarm in My Har Kodesh; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for Yom  יהוה  comes, for it is at hand… 

This is Yom Teru’ah, announcing the Day of יהוה , and the following tribulation.

“Blast the shofar in Tzion, consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly; ¹⁶Gather the people, consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that nurse at the breast; let the bridegroom go forth from his kheder, and the bride out of her khuppah. 

This is Yom Kippur, a fast, where the Bride and Groom come out of their chambers, after the indignation/tribulation have passed.

Some people who dig into these things are confused about these two shofars. The “First Shofar” is not seen in this passage. It was sounded at Shavu’ot/Pentecost 2,000 years ago!  We await two more shofars: The Last Shofar, and The Great Shofar. Some people confuse Messiah’s mention of the Great Shofar as being The Last Shofar, and they move the catching away as a result. The Great Shofar of Mat 24 is not the Shofar of the Bride’s calling away; it is the Shofar of Yeshua returning and putting His foot down on earth, seen in the Hitgalut and in Mat 24:

³¹And He will send His Malakhim with the Shofar HaGadol, [great shofar] and they will gather His chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” 

There will be many people saved during the great tribulation, which is the seven earth-year period that begins on Yom Teru’ah when the Day of יהוה actually begins, which will coincide with the time that the Bride goes into the Khuppa, the “Kheder” above. The people that are gathered at the end by the Messengers, are those saved on earth during that time, because they end up dying for their faith. That is the only way to escape the beast at that point. Death. But, in Yo’el, the first blast we read about is the Last Shofar, where the bride is caught up, and trouble begins on earth, Yom יהוה , The “Day of the LORD” begins with that Shofar. That is the day that Yokhanan was ‘in the Spirit’ in the beginning of Revelation. It was Yom Teru’ah. It was not Sunday! The concept of sunday worship did not even exist nor cross his Jewish mind when he wrote that!

¹⁰ “I was in HaRu’akh on Yom יהוה , and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a shofar, saying…”

So the shofar that announced The Day/Yom [of] יהוה in Yo’el is the same shofar Yokhanan hears in the Spirit in Revelation 1. 

He hears that same shofar again in chapter 4:

¹After these things I looked, and behold, a gate was open in heaven; [Yom Teru’ah is the Day of the Opening of the Gates” and the first voice which I heard was like a shofar talking with me, which said, “Come up here! And I will show you things which must come to pass.”  ²And immediately I was in HaRu’akh and behold! a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. 

Yokhanan participated spiritually in the physical rapture that will happen soon! He saw what we who are the remnant will see! He saw us!

Here is the proof, and this is the major reason we cannot tell the world that the catching away will be after the tribulation: Yokhanan sees resurrected people gathered around that throne, and he tells us very specifically who they are: 

“and centered round about and in front of it were four creatures, full of eyes before and behind.  ⁷And the first animal was like a lion, and the second animal was like a calf, and the third animal had a face of a man, and the fourth animal was like a flying eagle… ⁹And they [the four creatures] sang a new song, saying “You are worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof; for You were slain and have redeemed us to Elohim by Your blood out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation; ¹⁰and have made us Melakhim and Kohanim for our Elohim; and we shall reign on the earth.”

It is critical to understand who this is. This is His Bride. This is the Camp of Israel. 

The ancient camp of Israel, which was laid out on earth according to the stars in heaven, making the stars a mirror of the gospel of Israel’s Messiah, had four camps. In ancient Jewish liturgy, it was well known that those four camps each had a banner. The camp on the east of the Taberacle, wherein sat the Ark as the Throne of God on earth, was the lion. The camp on the west was the calf. The camp on the south was the face of a man, and the camp on the north was a flying eagle. These match the four ‘creatures’/animals seen symbolically in heaven, and the symbolism is utterly clear to Jewish people of John’s day.

These are people, and they are assembled around the throne room in Heaven, before even the first seal of the end time judgments is opened. Anyone who thinks the tribulation has begun does not understand the key of prophecy. No seal has been broken as yet. Yokhanan participated in the “rapture” spiritually, 2,000 years ago. He was snatched out of time on Yom Teru’ah in his spirit, and then saw our future in heaven. Those resurrected humans who are assembled around His Throne for the wedding will come back with Messiah as His Army Bride, those who declared the gospel and entered into the Suffering of Messiah in this earth voluntarily, and dedicated themselves to Him as a bride, and looked for His return, and were ready. Psalm 68 alludes to the bride of His gospel being an army: 

 ¹²Adonai gives the word; those who declare the good news are a great army.

That reads in Hebrew: הַמְבַשְּׂרוֹת צָבָא רָב, and it is all in the feminine gender. This army is seen in Hitgalut/Revelation:

¹²Here is the patience of the K’doshim [holy ones]; here are they who keep the mitzvot of Elohim and the testimony/confession of Yeshua.” [14]

His bride has made herself ready.”  ⁸And it was given to her that she should be arrayed in fine, pure linen, clean and white; for fine linen is the tzedaka [rigtheous deeds] of the K’doshim. 

¹⁴And the armies which were in heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, pure and white.  ¹⁵And out of His mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He will tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Elohim Okhez HaKol. [19]

The bride will go in a catching away; the earth will undergo tribulation and great tribulation, 3 and 1/2 years plus 3 and 1/2 years, for a total of seven years. Yeshua gives the events leading up to it, and then describes the catching away, and then details the tribulation, and then cycles back and summarizes, and analogizes things afterward in Mat 24 and 25. But, the seven year ‘tribulation’ happens also to coincide with the seven days between Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur, the Last and Great shofars, which are called “The Terrible Days” in Judaism, and “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble”, or “Tribulation”. Those seven days are symbolic of the tribulation every year. In fact, in temple times, the High Priest would perform the rites of Yom Teru’ah, and then go into a secret chamber with his bride, to remain there for seven days to prepare for Yom Kippur, and the two of them would come out on Yom Kippur. Yeshua will get His bride on Yom Teru’ah, go into the rooms of heaven with her, just like He said at Passover 2,000 years ago as a promise, and the tribulation will start. He will return on Yom Kippur [perhaps after seven ‘evenings’ in Heaven, but certainly after seven years on earth]. He returns with His Bride on Yom Kippur, and destroys the wicked. Those who survive the tribulation will be gathered together on earth on Yom Kippur, by the Great Shofar, to be ruled by Messiah with His Bride for 1,000 years. This is Sukkot’s fulfillment, the last candle of prophecy. It is at the end of that 1,000 years, on Yom Kippur, that final judgment happens, those who denied the truth of the gospel will also be resurrected from the dead, to be punished for eternity separated from God, with the knowledge of all of His goodness and truth, and that they rejected Him.

To know whether or not these things are near, we need other information. The yovel cycle that follows the feasts in Lev 23 and 24 further explains the Revelation and its many layers:

A Yovel is the fiftieth year of a cycle of years called “Sh’mita” years.  Yovel is also a ram’s horn, from which they make the shofar, which is blasted on Yom Kippur of the Yovel year.  We are told a Yovel blew at Har Sinai [Shemot 19] as the “First Shofar” of Shavu’ot, since that was the first Shavu’ot/Pentecost.  In the Yovel cycle, there is a 49 year cycle where every seventh year, the land lies dormant, giving the land itself a ‘sabbath’ [7th] rest for a year, a year of ‘release’.  In the fiftieth year, after the seventh ‘sh’mita’ cycle, there is another year, called a year of ‘liberty’, making a back to back sabbath year for two years.  “Yovel” is known to most as Jubilee.  In this year, a Shofar is blown, and there is a proclamation throughout all the land: דְּרוֹר .  There is a linguistic link in this word, ‘d’ror’, ‘liberty,’ to one of our favorite scriptures, already cited:

“[The] Ru’akh of Adonai יהוה is upon me; because יהוה has anointed me to bring good tidings unto the humble; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the eyes that are bound; to proclaim the year of the good pleasure of יהוה ….”

One of the reasons that this scripture is so special to us is because Yeshua read this passage in the Beit K’nesset in Natzrat, His home town, before his family and the friends with whom he had grown up.  In the Yesha-Yahu 61:1-2a portion, which Yeshua read from at the Bimah in Natzrat, the word there for ‘liberty’ is also ‘dror’, as in the Yovel passage, where a year of ‘liberty’ is declared, since Yeshua was reading this very passage.  Yeshua thus declared this ‘liberty’ in His synagogue in Natzrat.  

Scholars differ on when the last Yovel cycle of the land of Yisra’el would have been. Some have said 67AD, some have said 70AD, and there are other ideas.  While studying the Hitgalut [Revelation], one must see how very close we are to Messiah’s return and the restoration of all things.  The yovel is a prophecy timepiece, a ‘key’.  One can see Leviticus 25-26 in Revelation.  The Yovel cycle leaps out at the reader who is familiar with Leviticus 25-26.  

“Time” in the scriptures has already come to mean a lot.  The world week already showed us that there are 6,000 years reserved for mankind, and a 7th “Shabbat” Millennium when Yeshua would rule on earth.  We can get closer to knowing when the Shabbat Rest of Messiah Yeshua, the last Millennium, would start, by doing some basic math:

A Yovel is a 50 year cycle

In a 6,000 year period, there would be 120 Yovel cycles

God told No’akh “I have numbered man’s days to 120 years”

A Yovel is a figurative timeframe; there is an unfolding of time.  There are ‘weeks of years’, etc.

From 70 AD to 2020 AD there would be 39 Yovel cycles, so 2020 would mark the beginning of a 40th Yovel from the destruction of the Temple.

40 is the number of judgment: the rains lasted for 40 days and 40 nights, Yisra’el wandered in the desert for 40 years, Torah’s limit of 40 lashes with the whip for punishment, 40 years of Philistine control, Yeshua fasted for 40 days, etc etc.

To me, this pointed to 2020 as a ‘possible’ yovel year, given that the Yovel not kept comes with a promise of judgment, and given that there are 39 cycles from 70AD to 2020.  The 40th would be 2070, but we can’t see how our current state of mankind and prophecy could last that long.  It could, but we just struggle believing it will.  So, 2020 was still a possible demarcation of the Yovel cycle, IF 70 AD was indeed the last one.  But, there is no real biblical reason to believe that 70 AD was a Yovel year, other than the destruction of the Temple.  Yeshua did predict that.  But, He predicted the destruction of the Temple in the last year of His ministry, just before His execution.  He said that the generation of that day would see its destruction.  That was a warning.  That would be only 37 years before 70 AD.  There should have been a forty year cycle, a generation!  A biblical ‘generation’ is 40 years.  It would seem that Yeshua would have given Yisra’el forty years to repent from the time He first stood and declared, “Repent!”.  A whole ‘generation’.  If He started His ministry and declaration for ‘teshuvah’ in 27AD, then it was forty years before Rome sacked Yerushalayim in 67AD!

In the times of Yirme-Yahu, Yisra’el, which at that time was Yehudah and the return of the remnant of the 10 northern tribes, our Jewish people, was about to be punished for not keeping the Torah.  One of the sins that יהוה punished Yisra’el for, that is called out in Jeremiah’s book, is that of not keeping the Sh’mitah and Yovel cycles.  One of the great things about those cycles is the lesson of compassion.  It is not just about giving the land rest, nor of relieving debt, but about learning to trust יהוה , and learning to demonstrate compassion to those in bondage.   So many people today do not want to learn compassion.  Especially among “Messianic” people who are bent on punishing people for ‘their’ infractions, which usually end up not being Torah infractions at all.  The Yovel cycle calls to mind the same sins in Yisra’el that Elohim punished them for in sending them into captivity into Bavel.  After Yeshua’s day, when they had been visited by “Adon HaKavod”, they refused to repent, and would not accept Messiah Yeshua as their Moshiah/Savior.  For those 37 years after His death until Rome’s besieging the city, they chased, persecuted, and killed the Kadosh ones, the Khasidim, those who trusted in Messiah and obeyed the Torah.  At the end of those 37 years, their spirit of “Mashi’akh HaSheker,” their מִתְנַגֵּד הַמָּשִׁיחַ spirit, ‘against Messiah’, was punished, and their Temple was destroyed.  And their religious life became a ruin.  They were scattered.   As predicted by Yeshua.  But, that was only 37 years after Yeshua predicted it.  However, perhaps the benchmark of the Yovel has been hiding under our noses all the while.   Yeshua declares a Yovel in Luke 4! And this was FORTY years exactly before 67 AD!  A ‘generation,’ time enough to warn of impending judgment.

“[The] Ru’akh of Adonai יהוה is upon me; because יהוה has anointed me to bring good tidings unto the humble; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the eyes that are bound; to proclaim the year of the good pleasure of יהוה ….”  The yovel year that began Yeshua’s ministry was indeed the “good pleasure of יהוה …”

Who better to ‘declare’ the Yovel than Yeshua the Messiah? Especially since it came with His anointing, miracles, and His declaration and warning: “The time has come to an end, and Malkhut HaElohim is at hand; repent, and trust in HaB’sorah.”  He spoke these words just days before entering the Beit K’nesset at Natzrat and declaring Yesha-Yahu 61:1-2’s declaration of “D’ror”, Liberty!  The Yovel? !

In the Hebrew, “likro lishvu’im dror’, gets rendered as ‘declare liberty for the captives’ in many translations.  This is not wrong.  However, there may be a hint in that middle word: sh’vu’im.  The root word is very similar to the root for “seven/shabbat”, which would be what the seventh year of the cycle is called.  And the Yesha-Yahu verse finishes with another declaration, the “Year of the Will [good will/favor] of  יהוה .” But, more importantly, the idea of ‘dror’ and ‘good will’ being declared by Yeshua Himself in this first year of His ministry, is very telling, considering that the clock of mankind ‘revolves’ around Him.  If he was born in 3 or 4 BC, then either 27 or 26 AD could have been the year He stood and read this passage.  We believe it was 3 BC, per stellar events recorded in history, which would make our year of this ‘declaration’ 27AD.  Yeshua then says, after reading this ‘good news,’ “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears..”  If this is the case, then exactly 40 years later Rome sacked Yerushalayim.  Forty years is the year of judgment in many scriptures/events of precedent.  This forty years would have been an opportunity for Yisra’el to do teshuvah, which we know that only a remnant did, by returning to Elohim, and trusting in Messiah and not in their own Tzedaka.  For forty years, starting with Messiah Himself, the B’sorah/Good News was declared and the Messianic community grew, and only the Messianic community fled Jerusalem before Rome shut it in in 67AD, forty years after Yeshua’s declaration of Yovel, until its destruction in 70AD.  If this is the case, then 2027 may be a very interesting year, as that would be the next biblical Yovel, if my math is right.  It may have been a Sabbath just before or after Yom Teru’ah or Yom Kippur when Yeshua stood and read, and ‘declared’ what looks strikingly like a Yovel.  Would not it make sense that Messiah start His ministry with the official declaration of Yovel, “D’ror”, and that it coincide with the actual clock of scripture?  And would it not then make sense that as soon as His Messianic ministry started, and the opposition of it, that forty years later, the time of judgment, the Temple would be destroyed, and all the punishments for breaking the Yovel would be meted out on Yisra’el?  It is certainly something to consider more deeply.  And it would be further sensible to see that there would be exactly 40 Yovels of time between Yeshua’s declaration and 2027, which ‘could’ mark the 6,000 year mark of the time appointed for man.

We are NOT setting a date; but, it certainly looks close. Even if it is not 2027, still, another Yovel cycle would be God in His Mercy having more patience for us, and it would put the end of all things out to 2077. We are okay with that, though things are speeding up in the world as this is being written [06/06/2022]. 

The signs we see are certainly there. But, Israel is a nation, but does not possess the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is the defining mark of Israel, and so our Jewish people will need to possess it in order for things to move forward. There will be a Temple, and the Lying Messiah, who will deceive Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and all the world, will defile it.

¹Now we beseech you, my brethren, concerning the coming of Adoneinu Yeshua HaMashi’akh and concerning our gathering together with Him, ²that you let not your minds be hastily excited or troubled, neither by word nor by a spirit nor by a letter supposedly from us, stating that Yom Adoneinu is at hand. ³Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come unless it is preceded by a departure. And then the man of sin will be revealed as Ben Ha’Abadon [Son of Destruction], ⁴who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called “god,” or that is worshiped; so that even in the Heikhal [Temple of God] of Elohim, he sits as God, and shows himself as though he were God.  ⁵Do you not remember that when I was with you I told you these things?  ⁶And now you know what has prevented him from being revealed in his time.  ⁷For the mystery of iniquity is already at work, until that which now hinders is taken out of the midst of them [The Bride].  ⁸Then shall the Wicked One be revealed, that one whom Adoneinu Yeshua shall consume with the breath of His mouth, and shall destroy with the revelation of His coming, ⁹even he whose coming is due to the working of HaSatan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, ¹⁰and with all deceitfulness of unrighteousness in those who perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved thereby.  ¹¹For this reason Elohim shall send them [those who do not love the truth: His Torah!] strong delusion that they should believe the lie, ¹²that all who did not believe in HaEmet /The Truth, but preferred unrighteousness, might be condemned.

Be ready. Do not be condemned. 

Believers who mock His righteous requirements, abrogate them, and ignore them, are not His Bride.