Trumpets

Each year at this time I always get excited. My heart is filled with anticipation as I wonder what it will be like to "be transformed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye."

You see, when God handed down the law to Moses He created seven festivals. Each was on a specific day and had a specific meaning. But what many don't realize is that each of those festivals also have prophetic significance. And Jesus has already fulfilled the first four of those seven prophecies - each fulfilled on the specific festival day.

What's really neat is that the next prophetic festival that is due to be fulfilled is the Festival of Trumpets. Rosh Hashanah. That begins today.

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." - 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

Interestingly, when Paul wrote the verse above to the Church in Corinth, he used the phrase "at the last trumpet." There is great significance to the sound of "the last trumpet."

There are 100 blasts of the shofar (the Jewish trumpet made from a ram's horn) in the prayer service. The last of those is important because that is the moment all of God's children will be changed. We also will be gone from this earth. We will then be with Jesus.

I am writing this story the night before Rosh Hashanah. My computer has been programmed to post this story whether I am here or not. My story is in the cloud you see. And someday, on Rosh Hashanah, so will we be. Amen and amen.

This link will take you to a story about Rosh Hashanah Read it and learn from it. Place your faith in Jesus before it's too late. It will be too late when the last trumpet sounds.

If you are still on earth after all the Christians leave there is still a chance for you. You MUST place your faith in Christ! That's number one. But you will then have to endure seven years of tribulation like you have never seen. Stay strong abd nay God be with you.

The Feast of Trumpets - Rapture Day

The Three Remaining Festivals

The next big event on God's end times calendar can happen at any time now. The signs of it's imminence are all around us. We were told. Why haven't we listened?

Here's a Bible reading tip for you. Don't read the Old Testament without first planting your feet firmly in The New - and vice versa. You will miss so much! Like this little treasure that many pass by while reading Exodus.

“Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); 16 and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field." - Exodus 23:14-16

That passage seems rather uninteresting . . . unless you have read the New Testament. Then it becomes truly amazing!

There are seven festivals that God informed Moses of that must be observed - for all time. What's interesting is that each of these festivals has prophetic significance. Of the seven festivals, God has already fulfilled four of them. All of them fulfilled, in order. The first three fulfilled by Jesus, the fourth with the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. There are three festivals which remain unfulfilled - the Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, The Feast of Tabernacles.

Of those three, the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) is up next. This verse from 1 Corinthians gives us a clue as to what happens on that day.

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." - 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

The Rapture.

Will we be found ready, doing the Lord's work? It will happen "in the twinkling of an eye."

This year, Rosh Hashanah begins Friday, September 18th and ends on Sunday, September 20th. The world certainly seems in the throws of birth pains, evil is called good and good, evil. It may not happen this year, or the next, but I would be willing to bet that the rapture happens during Rosh Hashanah . . . at the sound . . . of a trumpet.

The other two remaining festivals have End times significance as well. The Day of Atonement is when Jesus judges the world and puts everyone in their rightful place - heaven or hell. And the Feast of Tabernacles is when God FINALLY dwells with His people.

All the answers to life and death are in the Bible. Few study it in comparison to the rest of "the world." Be reading, be ready, for our redemption draws near.

Prophetic Fulfillment of the Biblical Feasts

Found One!

When my sister and were young we didn't have the toys kids of today have strewn all over the house. We got hand-made gifts at Christmas and we were satisfied. Happy! We didn't know any different.

Entertainment was cheap back then too. I'd spend time hunting for frogs & turtles in the swamp but when Mom and Dad said they were taking us to the Rollways, "Let's go!"

The Rollways are pictured at the left. Old-time loggers used to roll logs down the sand slope and into the Manistee River where they'd float downstream to the sawmill. The hill never recovered from that and still looks pretty bare today. It was in that bare, gravely soil that we found the treasure of our childhood - Petosky Stones!

They were not very plentiful but someone would always yell out when they found one and we'd all go running to see it.

Reading the Bible can be like that. There are Petosky Stone verses scattered all throughout scripture. Here's one that caught my attention this week. It's from the Book of Nehemiah. Found one! :)

They were reading out of the Book of The Law . . .

^"13 On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the teacher to give attention to the words of the Law. ¹⁴ They found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month (The Festival of Tabernacles) ¹⁵ and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: “Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make temporary shelters”—as it is written." - Nehemiah 8:13-15

Temporary Shelters . . . Temporary Homes.

Let's move to the New Testament Book of 2nd Corinthians.

"5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands." - 2 Corinthians 5:1

What is a tent? Well, it is "a temporary shelter." 2nd Corinthians says that our bodies are a temporary shelter - a temporary dwelling place. We are living on earth, our temporary home if you will. Our permanent home is with our Lord in heaven.

^"14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come." - Hebrews 13:14

When I saw the words temporary shelters written in the Old Testament I immediately thought about the New Testament concept of this world being our temporary home. All of the Old Testament festivals have new testament meaning. Look closer. Can you find the "Petoskey Stones," hidden in plain sight in God's Word?

The seven "B.C." festivals were actually prophesied events. Four of the festival prophesies have already been fulfilled. Three have not - The festival of Trumpets (Christ's return), The Day of Atonement (The Great Judgement) and . . . the Festival of Tabernacles (A New Heaven and a New Earth). Our permanent dwelling place.

As we walk through this life, as we read the Bible, let us always be aware that there may be treasure to be found. The treasure of friends, of serving others. In the words we read in the Bible, take the time to search diligently as you read. You wouldn't want to miss a real gem of a verse that has the power to open up your heart even wider than it already is.

Take time this day to read God's Word. Search thoroughly like my mom taught us kids to search for Petoskey stones. You WILL be rewarded. Found one!!

"I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name." - Isaiah 45:3

Tips For Finding Petoskey Stones

The End of The Age?

I was watching a television show a few weeks ago - Day of Discovery. The topic of the show was Old Testament festivals. Sounds exciting, right? Well, it was VERY exciting!! But the show stopped before it got to the good stuff. Please join me in a little research . . . a little Biblical background if you will.

Please open your Bibles to the Book of Leviticus. That's the book where God laid down all the Old Testament rules about sacrifices, offerings and marriages. God also extablished all of the Jewish festivals in the Book of Leviticus, chapter 23. Can you find all seven feasts of The Lord? Here they are, in order. Which is very, VERY important.

1. The Lord's Passover (v. 5)
2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread (v.6)
3. The Feast of Firstfruits (v. 10)
4. The Feast of Weeks (aka Pentecost) (v. 16)
5. The Feast of Trumpets (v. 24)
6. The Day of Atonement (v. 27)
7. The Feast of Booths or Tabernacles (v. 34)

There they are. The seven Jewish festivals or feasts. Seems simple enough. God set up these special days where God would be honored and worshiped. But why these specific days? And what do they mean? Why would God designate these VERY specific days? Look how precise the dates are.

"In the first month on the 14th day, at twilight" . . . "then, on 15th day of the month." Hmm.

Two festivals? One right after the other? You'd think God would have spaced them out a little bit. Unless . . . . unless God had a really good reason for them to take place so closely.

And here's something else we can observe. See that line under Festival #4 above? What does that mean? The first four festivals are spring festivals. The last three are fall festivals . . . harvest festivals. Keep THAT word in minnd as we continue forward.

What I am about to show you is really amazing. But God is amazing so why should any of this surprise us? Something very special has happened on each of the first four festivals. I will list the feasts again along with a very significant event in Christian history.

1. The Lord's Passover - Jesus was crucified and died
2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread - Jesus was buried
3. The Feast of Firstfruits - Jesus rose from the dead
4. The Feast of Weeks (aka Pentecost) - The Holy Spirit was given
5. The Feast of Trumpets -
6. The Day of Atonement -
7. The Feast of Booths or Tabernacles -

Isn't that amazing? Each of those first four events happened on a Jewish holiday. Hmm. That's weird. Or is it? And what about the last three events? What will happen on those days?

The last three events have not happened yet. They are in the future. But I can tell you this. I think the next major Biblical event will happen on the Feast of Trumpets. And when IS the Festival of Trumpets this year? Sunday, September 13th.

What is the Festival of Trumpets anyway? Can we get a clue about what will happen by the trumpets? What significance do trumpets hold in the Bible . . . the New Testament Bible?

There are five Books where the word "trumpet" is used in the ESV New Testament - twice in Matthew, once each on 1st Corinthians, 1st Thessalonians, Hebrews and 15 times in the Book of Revelation.

Matthew 6:2 is about not boasting (incidental for this discussion)
Matthew 24:31 is about the rapture of the church
1 Corinthians 15:52 is about the rapture of the church
1 Thessalonians 4:16 is about the rapture of the church
Hebrews 12:19 is about The Kingdom of heaven
Revelation 1:10, 4:1, 8:2, 8:6, 8:7, 8:8, 8:10, 8:12, 8:, 13, 9:1, 9:13, 9:14, 10:7, 11:15 and 18:22 are all about the kingdom of heaven and the coming wrath of God.

Do you sense a pattern here? I sure do!

 The Feast of Trumpets commemorates the end of the summer growing season and the beginning of the harvest.

It seems very obvious to me that something HUGE will happen on the Feast of Trumpets. The only problem is WHICH feast of trumpets. That I do not know. It could be this year (I don't think so) . It could be in 2017. It's really whenever God chooses. None of us will know the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36). The important thing is, are we ready? Well . . . are you? Jesus WILL return one day. The time of growing the church will end and God will harvest his people.

The next festival - the Day of Atonement. Jesus died as an "atoning" sacrifice for our sins. Have you made Jesus Lord of YOUR life? Please, if you have not, when you hear the trumpet sound, it will be too late.

"13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 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. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words." - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

This is the Gospel

Sound of The Shofar

And In The End . . .

I don't know if I should tell you this stuff or not. It certainly made me sit up straight and take notice when I began seeing these "hidden secrets" in the Bible. These "secrets" are not really hidden at all, nor are they really secrets. They are laying there in full view for everyone to see - like puzzle pieces. Only when we begin to place these pieces together do we begin to see the larger picture. A larger more amazing plan than we could have ever imagined.

I'm going to lay out some Biblical truths for you in a moment and let you draw your own conclusions about what to do with all this information. Everything I am about to tell you is all in the Bible. It is all true. And it is so unbelievably amazing you will get to the bottom of this page and think, "Only God could have orchestrated something like this."

First let me tell you a little about Bible prophesy by relating an example of it to you. In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 53, we can read a prophesy about the coming Messiah. That Messiah would one day be revealed in the person of Jesus. We read . . .

"5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes (Jesus was whipped) we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

Isaiah is relating God's foretelling about Jesus, a savior who was to come, and whose sacrifice on the cross would atone for our sins. This was written 700 years before it actually happened! The Bible is FILLED with prophesies like the one we just read in Isaiah.

These prophesies are amazing enough but when specific Messianic prophesies start coming true on specific Jewish holidays or festivals? Unbelievable wow factor!

There are seven Festivals found in the Book of Leviticus. They were recorded by Moses between 1400-1440 BC, directly from God. God established the specific dates for these festivals. Remember that. This is a list of the festivals.

1. Passover (Leviticus 23:5)
2. Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6)
3. First Fruits (Leviticus 23:10)
4. Weeks or Pentecost (Leviticus 23:16)
5. Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24)
6. Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27)
7. Tabernacles or Boothes (Leviticus 23:34)

Let's talk about Passover for a moment.  This is from Wikipedia . . .

Passover is an important biblically-derived Jewish festival. The Jewish people celebrate Passover as a commemoration of their liberation over 3,300 years ago by God from slavery in ancient Egypt that was ruled by the Pharaohs, and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses. It commemorates the story of the Exodus as described in the Hebrew Bible especially in the Book of Exodus, in which the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.

In the narrative of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape from their slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the ancient Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves; the tenth and worst of the plagues was the death of the Egyptian first-born.

The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew to pass over the first-born in these homes, hence the English name of the holiday.

Guess who is called the Lamb of God in the Bible? Well, that was Jesus. John the Baptist said this in The Book of John . . .

"29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! " - John 1:29

Well that was interesting. Why would John the Baptist call Jesus the LAMB of God? Did he know something? I believe he did. Or more precisely, God did. Now it gets interesting.

Guess when Jesus, the Lamb of God, was crucified. He was crucified . . . on Passover. Mhmm. That's right. What an amazing coincidence. The Spotless Lamb, Jesus, was sacrificed for OUR sins on Passover - a day the Hebrew people celebrate death passing them by because they had the blood of a perfect, spotless lamb, smeared on their doorposts.

That's just the beginning. Here are some additional amazing truths about God's plan, His festivals and His amazing timing.

• When was Jesus buried? On the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
• When did God raise Jesus from the dead? On the Feast of First Fruits.
• When did God send His Holy Spirit down on the apostles? On the Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost)

Are you sensing a pattern here? Is your mind spinning yet? Just wait. There's more.

All these things have already happened. But what about the three remaining festivals. Has anything or will anything happen on those days? What do YOU think?

What about the Festival of Trumpets? That's the next one on the list. Are there any prophesied events in the Bible that concern trumpets? Open you Bible to he Book of 1 Thessalonians. We read . . .

"16 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. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

The Rapture of The Church.

When is the Feast of the Trumpets? September 13th. It is Rosh Hashanah. There will be a partial eclipse of the sun that day. Later, after the end of the feast, on the 28th, there will be a total lunar eclipse, the third Blood Moon of the tetrad. Interesting. There's more

2015 is a Shemittah year. It began back on September 25, 2014 and it ends on September 13th of this year. What does Shemittah mean? It means "to release." It comes from the tradition of releasing those who are in debt but also can be mean releasing those who are indebted to you.

Coincidentally, the Pope is visiting the United States during this time - September 22-27. And guess where he is visiting? Philadelphia. Open your Bibles to the Book of Revelation, the third chapter. The words of our Lord . . . written to the church of . . . Philadelphia. :O

"10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’" - Revelation 3:10-13

I don't know about you but I am ready to go. I look at this world and I see it falling apart spiritually. People are committing sins against a Holy God and simply don't think twice that what they are doing offends Him. I am no better than these, but it is not my desire to sin against my King. I repent daily. Hourly! We must have a repentant, humble heart. Jesus is returning soon. When you hear the trumpet call it will be to late for those who refuse to believe.

The Feast of Trumpets is a little over eight months away. Do I know for sure that He is coming back then? No, I do not. No one will know. But I invite you to look at the scriptures. Be prepared, in season and out of season. Our job is to believe and to be ready. Examine the signs for yourself. Pray that God would reveal Himself to you through His Holy Spirit and written Word. Let he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Rapture and The Feast of Trumpets

How Did Jesus Fulfill The Meanings of The Jewish Festivals - GotQuestions.org