WHO IS THE BRIDE of the BRIDEGROOM? WHO DOES CHRIST WED? Part 2

 

Article written by Marty Plisek

SALVATION/MARRIAGE
As we peer into Scripture and into history to learn the identity of the Bride, a larger picture emerges. Pictures are wonderful teachers. In a heartbeat we discern that the institution of marriage is actually a divinely inspired portrait of salvation! This beautiful matrimonial theme runs congruently through all the books of the Bible, from Genesis through Revelation…from the Garden of Eden, where Adam wed Eve to the future wedding of the Second Adam to His epochal Bride yet to be consummated in the final chapters of the Book. All of the celebratory snapshots between the covers of this Sacred Photo Album reveal the expectancy of the human race to be seated at the marriage supper of the Lamb, that great wedding feast! Even the betrothal reveals a love story the nth of which is beyond our ability to fully comprehend, but riveted we are to gaze upon the matrimonial types, holy escorts of scripture leading up to and culminating in the return of the Bridegroom to retrieve His Bride (she was stolen from Him, don’t you know) 6000 years ago in a Garden called Eden, seduced and abducted by an adversary called sin. Oh woeful day for humanity, when that first couple was kidnapped, taking the rest of us down that dark and forsaken path as fellow casualties. Hallelujah, for the Sin Bearer has prevailed to win us back from our frivolous love affair with evil. Our Blessed Hope is about to be realized! Soon we shall meet Him, our First Love, and behold Him face to face. This is no small theme! Wedding analogy forms the very apex of Christianity, the saints of the Most High God being reunited with their Beloved. It’s an epic event, a consummation/completion between estranged lovers seeking reconciliation with their Sovereign, after a very long and bitter separation. The marriage contract God instituted and sanctified in the Garden between husband and wife runs parallel to that of mankind being reunited with his Maker. Read Song of Solomon, Jeremiah 2 or Ezekiel 16 or the book of Ruth. God’s love story with His people is no secret, yet divine intimacy is a sacred mystery of which the human heart ultimately yearns for. The Bible is that never ending love song being wooed from the Heavenly to the earthly realm. It emanates from God. God is love! He is that very Love Source in behalf of oneness between the husband-wife relationship and likewise in behalf of the story of human redemption, the former a prototype of the latter. Who is our propitiation/atonement (at-one-ment) if not the Lord God? Marriage represents this oneness, or echad (in Hebrew). “Well then,” you say, “there you have it…that makes US the Bride, right?” If only it were that simple. Sin has dramatically complicated things. Read the Bible text below, then you tell me if that is not so. You tell me how God sees it. Does He call the Church His Bride (as is the Christian maxim)? Be appraised, dear hearts, this scripture may be hazardous to the warm fuzzys of your denominational health, for the Bride issue is that of a dogmatic mine field ready to implode on Christianity’s happy agenda. Tread carefully, but leave the defusing for God, because everyone believes what is right in “his own sight.” According to King Solomon’s proverbial wisdom, presupposition and preconceived opinion does not make for truth. My motivation is simple. It is to make us keenly aware of a paradigm that we have not seen….that of God’s insight and intellect, for the Creator sees things far differently than His creation. Are you willing to see things His way? Take His Word for it? Appreciate His Counsel and apply it to your own understanding? Then here is your chance to do so. Allow me to introduce the Bride God has named for His Son, in the following text of Scripture:
“And there came unto me one of the seven angels….and talked with me saying, Come hither, I WILL SHOW THEE THE BRIDE, THE LAMB’S WIFE. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that GREAT CITY, the HOLY JERUSALEM, descending out of Heaven from God.” Rev.21: 9-10.
There it is, God’s ‘one-liner’ that resolves the question this report set out to answer. In fairness to God, I should conclude now by signing off with, “The End.” But I knew you would not be convinced without the rest of the story. Read Rev. 21:9-10 a second time. Notice what the text does NOT say. God does not say, “Come hither, I will show thee the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, the Church, whom I have gathered together over the ages to marry my Son,” (be honest, that is what you wanted to hear). Let us not put words into the mouth of the Holy One of Israel who calls Himself the Sovereign of the Universe. Not a wise thing. So argue with me, as this paper unfolds. I will do my best to help you take Him at His Word, and where and when we discover that our truth was not God’s truth, then with fear and trembling will we groan with the Spirit for forgiveness and correctness in understanding. Like that voice heard crying out in the firmament, it reminds me of that frantic line from the Apollo 13 movie, “Houston, we have a problem.” But our S.O.S call resonates unto Heaven in the midst of a situational dilemma that is every bit as tentative and life threatening. The astronauts survived. Praise God! How will we fare? Which Mission Control do we trust for our lifeline of communications? Whose voice is directing us to safety as planet earth plummets into the vastness of space and prophetic fulfillment. Do you recognize that still, small voice that Elijah sought to hear? Where are you tuned in, fellow traveler?

The Month of April: The Jewish Or Creator’s Calendar

The Month of April: The Jewish Calendar, or The Creator’s Calendar?

Written by: Michael Urioste

There are two camps of thought concerning the keeping of Passover. On one side of the debate there are the proponents of the creators calendar which revolves around the observance of the Abib barley and waiting for the appearance of the crescent of the moon. The other view is held by the Orthodox Jews. The Special Feast days mentioned in the Bible are already preset well in advance. You can verify this by getting next year’s calendar and looking for the days for Passover, Pentecost (Shavuot), and the fall feasts, and you will find dates for every one of them. There is, however, a discrepancy between the date for Pentecost and Shavuot. If you have a calendar that shows Jewish holidays, you will notice that Shavuot falls on a Wednesday the week before Pentecost Sunday. In fact, you will also notice that Pentecost always falls on a Sunday if you look on calendars for past years. This is another topic that will be elaborated upon in a future article.

The creator’s calendar involves meticulous observation of the seasons, specifically the abib barley and the moon. How often would the barley signal a leap year? Probably every two to three years. Did a pattern emerge over time that would have convinced the Israelites to make the observance of the abib barley obsolete and given birth to the Hebrew calendar we have today? If we follow the moon in order to determine time, however, we would become out of sync with the seasons and the solar cycle. A little over 11 days per year. A lunar year is 354 days as opposed to 365.25 days in a solar year. Of course, observing the barley to see if it was abib would sync the calendar with the seasons at least. How would this sync with the solar cycle? How often would solar, seasonal, and lunar cycles sync? The most that can be known for certain that it is by this practice that YHVH was able to keep the Israelites away from any type of solar observance unlike the nations and other pagan cultures around them in their day. The nation of Egypt worshiped the sun god Ra, for example. The other nations around them all had some form of sun worship. In this way, the newly fledged nation of Israel would have to depend on their Creator to tell them when and how they had to worship.

There is an informative article you may want to read by Yanki Tauber called The Nineteen-Year Marraige to gain more insight. This article explains the Jewish calendar as we know it today. It explains some of the mathematical intricacies that arise with reconciling a lunar and solar calendar together. As I mentioned before, there is an 11.25 day difference between the two calendars in just one year. In three years you would be 33.75 days off. This is the reason our modern day calendar adds a day every four years. Otherwise we would fall behind by a whole day every four years. It would take 120 years before you would have to add a month if a day was not added every four years. However, it would be quite absurd to let the calendar to remain out of sync for that long. The Jewish calendar remains closely but not accurately synced by adding 7 leap months within a nineteen year period when the lunar calendar and solar calendar finally align perfectly with one another on the nineteenth year. The United Church of God has a well detailed pdf article “The Hebrew Calendar” that further explains the complexities and the reasons for Hebrew calendar observance.

First, both calendars are lunar calendars. They do not always agree in regards to when the first month or when a thirteenth month is to be added. They may be one day apart in regards to settling on a date for Passover observance up to 32 days apart. The Bible does not give enough information or instructions to create a calendar. The biblical account is a very rough outline, more of a starting point of how to begin structuring a yearly calendar for determining how and when all who are faithful and obedient are to assemble in order to keep this “perpetual covenant.” I personally find that both views have merit. The most important thing to remember here is that we keep the passover whenever that may be, whichever calendar you choose to observe. There is so much to learn from the spring feasts to lose the significance and the blessings of these holy days on a calendar debate.

WHO IS THE BRIDE of the BRIDEGROOM? WHO DOES CHRIST WED? : Introduction

Article written by Marty Plisek

The question of the hour is, “Who is the bride?” Frankly, it’s an easy one to answer, because God has supplied a definitive one-liner (proof-text) for us in Scripture that is crystal clear…not of conjecture or of private interpretation. The problem is not one of answering the question (one text nails it point blank) but in dealing with the aftershock of ramification that will turn your world upside down. Before we go to ground zero, I submit that most of the Christian community will not sanction this bombshell text due to the negative impact they think it will have on their faith. Truth can be devastating if it is your apple cart that is over turned. It is my predilection that you will wrestle with your conscience as never before concerning the Bible writ, the “thus-saith-the- Lord” written response to this Biblical directive, even if He is your Rock of Ages. Why am I making such assertions? Three reasons…1) because I share this from a perspective of personal testimony, 2) because the Bridal debate controversy is over 2000 years in the making, and 3) because, frankly not al is well in Christendom….as we shall see. While this study sets out in all diligence to answer the ‘title question’ to your satisfaction, it represents only the tip of an iceberg looming ominously beneath the murky waters of the unknown. For some it may prove to be too much to bear, for truth as well as error runs deeply in the heart of passion. The Christian soul desperately longs for peace, not for another cross to bear or another ought to conquer.

Common sense virtue seeks a quick and tidy reply to this seemingly benign question…well, it is not to be. The issue here and the revelation it sparks, dearly beloved, will either embolden your heart’s desire for truth or harden your heart against it. Be careful here to remember what God said in the beginning, “The imagination of the heart is evil from our youth.” Gen. 8:21. Like Daniel, we need to purpose in our heart ahead of time to not defile ourselves, but to please God. Are you ready to tackle error for the sake of pleasing God? If not, then don’t bother reading further, as this paper will not be able to service you. If you are game, then know that this subject matter has the potential clout to knock you out of your padded pew! That’s not necessarily a bad thing, so fall gently. A wake-up call is a good thing, reviving us from that lukewarm disease of dying-on-the-vine spiritual lethargy. Reproof is like taking medicine, guaranteed to leave a bad after taste. We swallow the pill anyway, choking down spiritual pride to overcome and regain the health victory of spiritual wellness. Apathy will not win the day if the Great Physician, the Great I Am of your Bible and mine, is allowed to perform the miraculous. Not only did He turn water into wine, but He promises to transform our weak and beggarly bodies into one fit for the Kingdom! Wherefore the Perfect Bridegroom will have a Perfected Bride. Just as new wine will burst an old wineskin, the essence of new revelation must be received into a pliable vessel. Surely this look at ‘Who is the Bride?’ will satiate the heart that yearns for knowledge…while causing others to hemorrhage at the seams. Which will it be? The iceberg is getting closer and we are in harm’s way.
A collision course lies dead on between a lovely Bride sanctioned by the Church and the prophesied (even more glorious) Bride revealed in Scripture as penned aforetime by Holy men of old. Are you ready to grab the Sword of the Spirit and rightly divide the Word on the front lines of the battle? Do we really know what we think we know? And if we believe we are infallible, how do we know that? It has oft been said that truth will stand on its own merit. Amen. But wanting the truth, telling the truth, and knowing the truth, are not necessarily of the same mettle. Private interpretation will likewise lead us astray. Jesus said to search the Scriptures for they testify of Him…the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Surely we can’t go wrong there. The Word is our daily Bread. Exposing the fallacy of non-truth, however, is the distasteful part…a cutting off of leaven, lest the whole lump of truth becomes spoiled or corrupted. Truth and non-truth are age-old enemies, so this clandestine drama ensues with fervor and enmity between the Son of God and the son of perdition. As we delve into this thesis, discovering who the Bride of Christ is, our knowledge and faith view on many fronts will be tested. All of the following: tradition, anti-Semitism, salvation, marriage, Torah, Zion, Israel, Jerusalem, the Marriage Ketubah, and the biggest culprit of all, a strategy called Replacement Theology….weigh in heavily on our objective. I have no choice but to include commentary on all these significant factors, since they largely influence the outcome of our belief system. Two bride-versions will be compared, yet only one candidate will ultimately qualify to become the chosen Bride, selected by none other than the Bridegroom’s Father. So, fellow patrons of Christianity, are you a discerner of truth? “For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing eve to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:12. Will you take God’s Word on the matter, and be happy with it? We shall see.

The Month Of April: April, Nissan, or Abib?

Article written by Michael Urioste

April has been an exciting month. It almost seems impossible to know where to begin. There are so many topics to discuss so I decided to do a day by day approach. So let us begin by discussing the overall significance of this month. First of all this month was in sync with the Creator’s calendar, the Jewish calendar, and the secular calendar also known as the Gregorian solar calendar. It is more likely for the days from each calendar to differ than to coincide with one another. It is even more unlikely for all three to be in sync like the case is this year. Add to the fact that the shemitah year begins in the fall of this year, and you begin to see a pattern of events unfolding that the secular world is blind to, ignorant of, or considers coincidental at best. Also, there is the four blood moon lunar eclipse phenomena, known as a tetrad, that began this year and will conclude in the fall of next year. The probability of all this happening as a coincidence starts to look pretty slim indeed. If that wasn’t enough, this shemitah will be followed by a jubilee. If everything is figured out correctly, the possibility of this being the one hundred twentieth and final jubilee are also highly probable.

 

April 1st is the day everyone knows as April Fool’s Day. Not many people take into account the history of this day. Part of the origin goes back to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar we use today. Of course, many now celebrate the “New Year’s Eve” on January 1 as a result. Before the Gregorian calendar was used, however, people would celebrate the beginning of the year on April 1st. In the Bible, the first month of the year was known as the month of Abib. “This day came ye out in the month Abib.” Exodus 13:4. “Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)” Exodus 23:15. Deutoronomy 16:1 also reads, “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.” It is obvious that Passover is to be observed in the first month of the year. Leviticus 23:5 reads, “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s passover.” YHVH had the Israelites begin their biblical calendar in the month when the barely would be “abib”, the stage before being ripe, and called it the first month of the year according to the lunar cycle. The first month of the Jewish calendar is called Nissan, and usually begins close to the month of April. The days from either calendar hardly if ever coincide with one another. It is interesting to note that the word for “month” comes from the word “moon” since the months of the year were determined by one full cycle of the moon. The barely crop would begin to ripen towards the beginning of Spring. In ancient times the calendar was kept to careful observation of the lunar cycles and the barley crop. If the barley crop would not be ready, or abib, by the twelfth month, another month was added to the year allowing the barley crop to be ready. Only then could the new year begin on the beginning of the following lunar cycle. The Hebrew or Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar while the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. The Jewish calendar today is no longer kept through observing the moon given the accuracy with which lunar cycles are calculated in advance with such precision. This allows for the printing of calendars well in advance with the dates for Passover already marked. This method does not account for the barley to be abib, however. That is one yearly event that can’t be determined in advance. Karaites, Torah observant Jews, still observe the barley to see if it is “abib” in order to know when the first month can begin in accordance to scripture. By observing the barley crop in Israel before beginning the first month, has created what many refer to as “The Creator’s Calendar”. The calendar cannot be made in advance for the entire year until the barley is ready, abib.  This calendar doesn’t always coincide with either the Jewish or Gregorian calendar. However, this allows many to keep the passover on a day that is accordance with scripture.

 

So what does all this history and comparison of calendars have to do with you and me? It reveals three different calendars to consider when determining the first month of the year. We have the Gregorian solar calendar that we use everyday. Next we have the Jewish calendar still observed by orthodox Jews. Finally we have the Creator’s calendar where all the feast days are determined by observing the seasons, or appointed times that YHVH established in Genesis 1:14, “And God said, 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 seasons, and for days, and years:”. The word seasons come from the Hebrew word “moedim” meaning appointed times. It is a direct reference to the holy days mentioned in the Bible. YHVH has dictated the seasons or appointed times since creation. It is the seven days of creation that has given humanity our weekly cycle. It is the length of a full lunar cycle that has determined the duration of our monthly cycle. YHVH also determined the end and the beginning of our yearly cycles by commanding us to observe the barley crop to begin the spring feast in conjunction with the lunar cycle. This teaches us to depend on the Creator of the universe to determine our course in life.

 

Stay tuned for the next installment in “The Month of April” series where we will delve further into the historical as well as biblical significance that revolves around this special time of year.

The 120 Years of Genesis 6:3 as an 120 Jubilees Prophecy

Article by Michael Urioste

This is an introduction to the concept of the 120 years mentioned in Genesis 6:3 as 120 Jubilees till the end of this age. Genesis 6:3 reads “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” (King James Version) Many are quick to assume that this is the time YHVH gave the people of Noah’s day to clean up there act and be saved. However, a closer study of some key verses and the use of simple math quickly contradicts that view. There is also the case of people living well beyond 120 years after the flood. This then leaves us with a question to what the Creator was referring to.

First, let’s dispel some erroneously held beliefs. Noah did not preach for 120 years as many teach and falsely assume. We first find that Noah 500 when he had his three sons. Genesis 5:32 reads “And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (King James Version) Immediately after we have the Chapter 6 account of YHVH declaring the 120 year deadline and ordering Noah to build the ark. One would assume that he was 500 years old when he began building the ark if you follow the natural progression of the Genesis account. Genesis 7:6 reads “And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.” (King James Version) Following the natural progression of events, Noah begins to build the ark at 500 years of age and enters the ark at 600. This only gives us a total of one hundred years. What happened to the one hundred and twenty years that YHVH was going to give man on the earth? We have 20 years unaccounted for. Or do we? The Creator means what he says. Yet, His declarations don’t fall in line with what we expect them to mean. One classic example is the warning to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:17 reads “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (King James Version) “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” would have you thinking about immediate death. However, that is not what happened. YHVH was not referring to a twenty four hour period of time, but a one thousand year period. 2 Peter 3:8 reads “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (King James Version) Adam never lived one complete millennium (day). In fact, neither did any of his descendants lived to see their one thousandth birthday. So when YHVH said, “for in the day that thou eatest….”, He was referring to one thousand years. Adam did not die that same day that he ate of the forbidden fruit. Instead, he live up to 930 years of age, just short of reaching a millennial day. Genesis 5:5 reads, “And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.” (King James Version) So you see that the 120 years are not directly connected to the life of Noah since the scriptures only give a one hundred year account of his life before the flood. However, they are more directly tied to Adam. In fact, the one hundred twenty jubilees count starts with Adam and the creation. In Genesis 6:3 the word ‘man’ is from the Hebrew adam (H120 in the Strongs Hebrew and Greek dictionaries). So the verse is more likely referring to Adam since all mankind originated from him and the one hundred twenty years is inclusive of all generations beginning with Adam.

Now let’s continue to explain the 120 jubilees and the millennial week concept in further detail. First, we need to look at the biblical pattern of sevens in the scriptures. We start with seven days of creation where we get our seven days of the week. The seventh day was set apart and sanctified. In Genesis 2:2-3 we read, “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” (King James Version) This is the day we call the Sabbath or Shabbat and its keeping is still relevant today. The next instance of biblical patterns or cycles involves a seven year cycle where, you guessed it, the seventh year is special once again. This seventh year is called the Shemitah in Hebrew. The word literally mean ‘to release’. It was a time where outstanding debts were waived or forgiven. Leviticus 25:4 reads, “But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.” (King James Version) Now the seven year cycle is part of a larger cycle involving seven, seven year cycles. Another way of explaining this is to count seven Shemitahs. Once the seventh of these seven, seven year cycles (seven Shemitahs) is complete, this begins the fiftieth year which is what is called a jubilee. The jubilee began during the beginning of the fall feasts of the forty ninth year. Leviticus 25: 8-18 reads:
8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.
12 For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.
14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
15 According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:
16 According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.
17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:for I am the Lord your God.
18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety
Next we will look at 2 Peter 3:8, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (King James Version) Are you starting to see the pattern now. The Bible is full of examples where YHVH used patterns of seven to complete His agenda. The number seven is symbolic of completion. Now the next logical step to the pattern would be to count every millennium as a day. According to biblical history we are about to arrive at the end of the sixth day. That means we are on the sixth day of YHVH’s millennial week. If the pattern continues, then we will have a millenium of rest. The millennial week will be an exact copy of the seven days of creation , the seven days of the week. So how do we know if we have reached the end of the six thousand years? That is where the jubilees and Noah’s one hundred twenty count come in. If you multiply 120 by 50, you also get 6000. So let’s suppose that the 120 days that YHVH was talking about in Genesis 6:3 are in fact 120 jubilees that occur every 50 years culminating with the one hundred twentieth jubilee. It turns out that such a calculation has already been figured out by some people. The one hundred nineteenth jubilee was calculated to have occurred in 1967 during the Six Day War when Israel finally captured East Jerusalem and united the city under their control. If we count fifty years from 1967 we come to the date 2017. If this is indeed accurate we are now on the final seventh seven week cycle where the one hundred twentieth jubilee will arrive on 2017!

I would like to go over the main points of this study. First we have the one hundred twenty years mentioned in Genesis 6:3. We find that those years are connected to Adam and not Noah even though Genesis Chapter 6 mentions Noah by name but is not referred to in verse 3. Next there are the pattern, or cycles, that exist throughout the Old and New Testament. Most of those patterns involve the measure of time. We have seen how many of these patterns are closely associated with the number seven. We have the seven days of the week which in turn make up the months on a calendar. Then there is the seven year cycle called a Shemitah which in turn are part of a larger cycle where the seven years are kept seven times, equaling forty nine years. When the forty ninth year are concluded, the jubilee begins. Once the jubilee year is over, the people can once again begin the seven shemitahs cycle once again to reach the next jubilee and the cycle repeating over and over. We find then that the entire Bible shows text after text of how these cycles are to be kept throughout our generations. Each cycle culminates or concludes with a special time that is “set apart” from its counterparts. The days of the week end with the Sabbath which is sanctified and hallowed. This in turn was followed by the seven years with the seventh year (the shemitah) was a sabbath for the land and a time to be released from debt. Seven shemitahs were kept totaling forty nine years. Seven set apart years were kept to begin the next special year, the jubilee which occurred every fifty years. This year was not just a rest for the land and rest from working the land, or just a release from outstanding debts, but a time where liberty was declared throughout the entire nation. Debts were forgiven, slaves were set free, ancestral lands were once again returned to their original families, and rich and poor would once again get a fresh start. Isaiah 61:1-2 reads, “Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
Isa 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; ”
Yahushua spoke similar words in Luke 4:18-19, “Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luke 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
This is a very accurate description of what a jubilee is all about. This in turn becomes part of an even larger pattern. With the completion of twenty jubilees we complete one millennium or a day for the Creator as we read in 2 Peter 3:8. To YHVH one thousand years is just one day to Him. Here is where the pattern begins to come together. With each one thousand years counting as one day, then from what we have studied about the patterns of sevens, it is no big stretch to assume that six thousand years will pass before a special seventh millennium will once again be set apart. You will also notice that each special seven overshadows the one that preceded it. The seventh day Sabbath pales in comparison to the shemitah, the shemitah, pales in comparison to the jubilee, and the jubilee will definitely pale in comparison to the seventh millennial period of time which is the time period of Yahushua’s reign on Earth. We have reached six thousand years of Biblical history and are reaching the last jubilee in 2017. That is assuming that, despite how erroneous we human are, we have finally got it right this time. When the one hundred twenty jubilees are complete, then the time given to the generations of Adam will come to an end. But we look to our blessed hope, Yahushua.
1Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Corinthians 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Corinthians 15:24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Corinthians 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1Corinthians 15:27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Corinthians 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

I would like to conclude by summing up all that has been proposed to you. We see Yahushua in all the cycles. In the seventh day sabbath we see Him as the Creator of that day which He sanctified and hallowed, set it apart, from the rest of the days of the week. He also declared that he was the Lord of that day. Matthew 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. In keeping the seventh day Sabbath, not only do we acknowledge Him as our Lord, we also begin to see a foreshadow of something greater coming in the shemitahs. In Isaiah 61:1 &2 and in Luke 4:18 & 19, we hear the voice of Yahushua declaring liberty from debt, referring to the price of death we must pay for our sins. He took on our burden and paid our debts on our behalf. Shemitah means ‘to release’, symbolizing our release from having to pay the price for our sins. The shemitah is a foreshadow of what the jubilee will bring. The jubilee symbolizes freedom from the bondage of sin. It is also a prophecy that this world will once again return to its rightful owner(s). The advesary Satan, Hashatan, must release his captives, relinquish his claim to this world and return it to its previous owner or the owner’s descendants. We become descendants, Abraham’s seed, by being grafted in into Israel through Yahushua the Messiah. Israel is not supposed to join the ‘church’ and become members of a denomination like most in the Christian world would like you to believe. Neither are we to become Jews outwardly, but Jews and Gentiles becoming one in the Messiah. The jubilee is followed by the millennial days culminating with the seventh and final millennial week where Yahushua takes his rightful place as “LORD of lords and King of kings”. He will rule with all authority and power, conquer his enemies, subdue all the nations, establish his eternal kingdom, eradicate sin, and destroy death. Yahushuah is the climax of all the cycles that are found in the Bible. The seventh shemitah will begin soon. That is, if the proposed date of the last jubilee of 1967 is in sync with the Creators calendar of events, then the next and final jubilee, the one hundred twentieth, will end in 2017.

You may also find the following links interesting.

http://swissthomas.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/the-mystery-of-the-shemitah-jonathan-cahn/

http://kswptim.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/the-shemittah-and-financial-collapse/

Passover Seder vs the Lord’s Supper

Article written by Marty Plisek

The Springtime festivals of Aviv (April) are here once again, gracing our calendars to remind us of our Creator per His admonition in Gen. 1:14 “that the lights in the firmament of the heaven…are to be for signs, seasons, days and years.”  Passover is the annual season of redemption!  As we look back in time (history) we see His-Story alive and well… past, present and forever.  The Gospel Story of Redemption timelessly beckons eternity, broadcasting as it were via the sun, moon and stars which celestial glory points us ever forward and onward to the Lamb Slain from the foundation of the world.  It is a story as old as time itself.  Ever since the Fall of Adam and Eve, and Cain’s murder of his brother Abel shortly thereafter, the shedding of innocent blood, for sin’s sake, set an evil precedent into which mankind plummeted.  The blood of man was offered (slain) with unholy hands to satisfy the unholy machination of an unholy being.  Lucifer, through the serpent arranged for that unholy plot to unfold per his abject mockery of God…knowing what God Almighty would have to do to salvage the mess.  In order to rectify the prototype of evil that was unleashed upon the world by His arch-enemy, YHVH would Himself provide the blood atonement.   Only the future shedding of blood, on the part of the Perfect Lamb of God, would one day suffice to save the lot of fallen humanity. Hallelujah!  Passover was thus bequeathed to the world.

“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29

The Passover Seder points backward and forward:  backward to the account of the Exodus, when Israel was delivered of Egyptian bondage, freeing the Covenant People to enjoin their destiny in fulfilling the Patriarchal promises YHVH made with Abraham, Isaac, and confirmed in Jacob for a law…to Israel, an Everlasting Covenant. Ps. 105:9.  Passover not only commemorates the blood placed on the doorpost and lintels of those whom God prepared to leave the captivity of Egypt, but likewise to those of whom God is yet delivering from spiritual Egypt.  As a result of the 10th plague, the firstborn of Egypt perished, while all the firstborn of Israel were spared.   The sacrificial death of God’s Firstborn continues to save us, daily delivering all who symbolically apply that blood to the inward doorpost of their heart.  The mandate cry, “Let My people go,” is just as viable today, as when Moses charged Pharaoh over three millennia ago.  Man’s exodus from sin, from all that enslaves, is the Passover salvation celebrated in every century since.  Same Deliverance.  Same Redemption.  The Passover Lamb was killed, that whosoever wills, may apply the blood of the Lamb to their life, that they may live.

“And this day shall be unto you for a memorial and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.”  Ex.12:14

“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs.”  Ex. 12:8

“And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are and when I see the blood, I will PASS OVER you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.”  Ex. 12:13

In Messianic worship, the Passover Seder is a celebration of remembrance.  The emblems look to Messiah, our Deliverer.  No Deliverer, no deliverance!  In the Torah, the paschal lambs were a fore-shadowing of the per-incarnate Anointed One to come.  On the post side of His Incarnation, we likewise observe the Passover, not by sacrificing a lamb…”for Christ our Passover was sacrificed once and for all,” Heb. 10:10, but by following His Living example, His Personal instruction, in the Gospel accounts:

“When they killed the passover, His disciples said unto Him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the passover.? ” Mark 14:12.  The narrative continues…”They made ready the passover…and in the evening He cometh with the twelve.”  In verse 22, “And as they did eat, Y’shua took the bread and blessed and brake it, and gave to them and said, Take, eat:  this is my body.  And He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank of it.   And He said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.”  ALAS, the new testament is part and parcel of the Passover!  Christ is telling us, This is my blood, newly testified.  He is not telling us that “the Lord’s Supper” is a replacement for the Passover (as some presume).  Veritably,  there is no “Lord’s Supper” apart from the Passover context!  Luke and Matthew concur with wording that substantiates the Passover as that which has newness in the testament of Christ, via His body and blood.  The bread and the cup respectively are the reminders He chose to give us, while partaking of, or participating in, the very feast that celebrates Him!  The DAY of Passover, represents the LAMB of Passover, intrinsically.  It could not be otherwise.  If it were not so, the elements and the timing, prove not Christ.

Seder means “order” and not supper!  A Passover Seder includes more than matzah and wine!  It is a feast of YHVH that sets us apart, or sanctifies us, according to the festival convocations He asked us to keep holy in Lev. 23.  Y’shua’s life was a fulfillment or living testament, of these very same days, the Sabbaths of the Lord, Thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and into the Promised Land, where He will reign eternally as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

As for the Lord’s supper…it’s not what you think.  It is a supper you do NOT want to attend.  If you covet this meal, you are the guest of those who will have you for supper.  In other words, you ARE the supper if you have followed the kings of the earth, the captains and mighty men, the beast and the false prophet, and those who have conspired against the Lord, and have gathered themselves together to make war against Him that sat on the white horse, who is called Faithful and True.  Rev. 19:11

“And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather yourselves together unto the SUPPER of the great God”… that ye may eat their flesh. Rev. 19:17. … the flesh of those who are taken:  “Two shall be in the field, the one shall be taken, and the other left.  Taken where, Lord?  And He said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.”  Luke 17:36-37.

Brethren, this is one fowl supper….(pun intended)  Avoid it if you can.

Passover is where you’ll find the Lord! The Passover Meal/Seder is where you want to RSVP!  Your reservation at this table is your very salvation reservation, or reserved seat if you will, in the Kingdom!   Our Master NEVER SAID, to the twelve (or to anyone else), Come, it is now time for Me to give you a new and improved Passover-less service, the Lord’s Supper, in which to remember Me.  The word, supper, in fact, means just plain old dinner.  Strong’s #1173, in every usage.   It is not a definitive for anything holy, such as is tied to or associated with the words, communion or sacrament.

Yet if that is your belief system, I invite you to return to the Passover!!  “Come let us keep the Feast.” This is our scriptural admonition in 1Cor. 5:8.  Far from ‘trashing’ the Passover, Y’shua, in it, gave us more fully of Himself…asking us to remember HIM as the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and HIM as the Passover Lamb whose blood was shed and whose death we are to remember till He returns. Amen and amen.

If your eyes are still fixated on wafers and wine, or Communion bread and grape juice, I bid you to remember that type without without Anti-type is nothing.  Nor are emblems greater than Messiah.  If we are to remember anything, it is:

“CHRIST OUR PASSOVER SACRIFICED FOR US.” 1Cor. 5:7

What you keep is up to you, but when the feathers fly, it will be too late.

Seven Year “Peace Treaty”???

Article written by Marty Plisek

With all of prophecy ‘closing in’ as it were on these latter days of the end times, the ‘buzz’ is all about the seven year peace treaty (so-called) that will be enforced by the anti-christ/anti-messiah/little horn (choose whichever rhetoric best suites your comfort zone)…respective of Daniel 9.  “The prince that shall come shall confirm a covenant with many for one week….”  There it is, in Daniel’s own words…so who’s to argue with the source of those words?  They were commissioned by God, to Gabriel, then to Daniel, who wrote them in a book bearing his name.  Hallelujah, for his faithfulness to record “his” vision for those living in the time of the end… (“for at the time of the end shall be the vision”) Dan. 8:17.

Yes, Daniel spoke to us about an evil prince that would come and “confirm a covenant with many, for one week.”  Is that your seven year peace treaty??…a week of days prophetically converting to seven years??  Do we even have license to do that here?  I believe the answer to that is, “no we do not” for God uses a different time/ratio key in unlocking Daniel’s vision as we shall soon see.  I submit that seven years are seven years, and the Book of Daniel accounts for Seventy Years.  Rapturists, however, like to capitalize on a seven year hiatus to heaven, while Jews and other unworthies, are left behind to suffer the wrath of God, for the same number of years.  Thus we are looking at two WRONGS predicated upon this seven year time-slot….that of anti-christ ruling via a false treaty for seven years, while the saints simultaneously  bask in heaven.  One might ask, who is the peace treaty for, if the saints are absentee?  But, continuing on, yes of course the saints of God escape the wrath of God.  Pause.  But we don’t leave the planet to do it.  In fact, we’re not the ones being judged.  The world is!  Escaping the tribulation is a foregone conclusion.  God tells us He is going to be with us THROUGH the days of tribulation, which is not what the church wants to hear.  They want to hear that they go to heaven seven years ahead of time…PRE-tribulation, if you will.  They want to hear that God is punishing those left behind, for that very fact alone is proof positive that because they didn’t make the grade they deserve to suffer persecution at the hands of an antichrist.  The seven year peace treaty is a diabolic sham resulting in deceiving even the elect.  What if we don’t leave the planet?  What if we witness the judgments of God against the wicked, from a vantage point right here on earth, and not looking down from heaven?  What would that do to the faith of those who believed otherwise?  Is God not able to preserve us, alive, while he deals with the wicked?  The answer to that is a resounding, yes!  And yes again to the Biblical timing for the great catching away.  But it is not pre-trib.  We are caught up when Messiah appears in the sky, at His glorious return, or Second Coming.

Where does the left behind notion come from, if not the Bible?  Rapturists want you believe that the righteous are taken, and the wicked are left behind.  We’ve heard it all our lives, from sunday-school to seminary.  But is it Biblical?  Are the righteous taken to heaven, while the wicked are left behind?  The “I’m outta here” crowd thinks so, but the ironic truth of the matter is:  the Bible teaches exactly the opposite!  Who is taken and who is left?  The Bible tells us, ” the wicked are taken” and “the righteous are left.”  The wicked are “taken in judgment.”  The righteous “are left behind” and remain as partakers of God’s provision.  You know, like in Noah’s day.  The wicked were taken…NOT TO HEAVEN, but were taken in death by the flood waters, where they perished in judgment as their reward for  evil.  The righteous (who by the way, totaled only eight in number) were left alive!  They were all that were left of an evil generation.  Being left alive is God-speak…compared to being”left behind” which is church-speak or rapture-speak.   Noah and his family were not “left behind” as goes the rapture theory.  They did not miss out on salvation, neither were they removed from the planet.  They were preserved through the flood!  The ARK was their salvation!  Likewise will it be thus again, in the last days, when God again judges the world….not with water, but by fire.    The stubble “will be taken” in the flames.  The wheat “will remain” triumphantly, through it all.  We sing the song, “Through It All”…and believe a myth instead.  Back to Daniel.  Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego escaped the tribulation of their day IN THE MIDST OF A FIERY FURNACE.  Dan. 3. The point being, God was with them, and the flames were powerless to hurt them.  Is there no parallel in this for those upon whom the ends of the earth, will fall?

Back to Daniel’s other chapter (Dan. 9:24-27)) and the seven years disclosed therein, according to Daniel’s own words.
The seven years are those between week 62 and week 69 of his prophecy…see verses 26 and 25, respectively.
The entire prophecy covers a period of time known as the Seventy Weeks of Daniel, v.24.  He then breaks down for us what happens within that timeframe.  The entire 70 weeks represents 70 years, the last 70 years before Messiah the Prince returns.  “I, Daniel, understood the number of the years…(by Jeremiah’s books) that the Lord would accomplish 70 years, in the desolation of Jerusalem.”  Dan. 9:2.  In that verse, Daniel in essence gave us the contextual key for understanding that the seventy weeks is 70 years, and that it will concern the desolation of Jerusalem, which he penned in v. 26, saying the city and the sanctuary are destroyed “by the people of the prince that shall come.”   These 70 years on the calendar run from 1947-2017.  1947 is when the decree went forth to restore a homeland for the Jewish people (a homeland that includes Jerusalem) and the 70 yr.-math brings us through 2017, which is the Lord’s Jubilee and the Lord’s Return. The last Jubilee occurred in 1967 when Jerusalem was delivered from her enemies. The 120th Jubilee is the LORD’s JUBILEE
when all the earth is liberated from all her enemies, forever!

That accounts for the seventy years.  What about the seven?…those years that are misconstrued as a seven year peace treaty?  We have already seen them above as those years between year 62 and year 69…which correspond to Daniel’s verbiage of three-score and two weeks (or 62) and the 69 years, which is broken down as seven weeks, three-score and two.  Are you catching the principle of a week for a year?   62 weeks equals 62 years…69 weeks equals 69 years.  Thus the 70 weeks comprising Daniel’s Vision covers 70 years.  What is not readily discerned, however, is that Daniel’s seventy weeks, are actually an accounting of seventy Shavuots!  One Shavuot per year!  Daniel was a Hebrew, and the word, Weeks, was an automatic signal for the Feast of Weeks.   Shavuot is plural for Shabua (one week).  Daniel’s prophecy is concentric to the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot, as its backdrop.  You will recall that Shavuot is when God came down to Sinai, and personally gave us His Covenant!  Now If 70 Shavuot/Weeks is 70 years, then one week is one year.  Say it or read it again.  One week equals one year.  You are now ready to go back to the verse we quoted earlier, regarding the false peace treaty that would be confirmed by the apostate prince for ONE WEEK.  How long is one week?  One year!  Not seven years! Using Daniel’s code, one week is NOT seven years.  One week is ONE YEAR!!  Daniel is NOT telling us that we should look for a seven year treaty (false or otherwise)…but a one year treaty.   The evil covenant (so-called peace treaty covenant) that the evil prince sets up with the many for one week…in truth, by Daniel’s reckoning, lasts one year.  ONE, NOT SEVEN!

In the “MIDST OF THE WEEK” the anti-messiah, or evil prince, causes the sacrifice and oblation to cease.  In other words, he puts an end to Messiah’s Shavuot Covenant, essentially cutting Messiah off, from His people.  Note here that that Covenant was given to the mixed multitude who left Egypt, and were delivered to Mt. Sinai to meet their God. God’s Torah instructions were meant for all mankind, and not just the Jews, as is erroneously taught by those practicing replacement dogma. The 70th Week (of which the MIDST is compromised above) is 2016-2017.  Remember here that Daniel’s weeks are actual years, so let’s place 62 and 69 on the calendar, counting forward from 1947.  After threescore and two weeks, takes us to 1947 + 62, or 2009.  “After” begins the year 2010.  The 69th year (which adds in the seven weeks of v. 25) takes us to 2016/2017…the last year of Daniel’s prophecy!  The “seven weeks” mentioned in v.25 is a big clue, or time reference to the feast of Weeks, the 50 days of counting the Omer.   What Daniel is ultimately revealing to us is a covenant showdown, between Messiah’s Covenant (containing sacrifice and oblation) and anti-messiah’s false covenant, the one that supposedly ushers in a NWO peace.  It will be In the MIDST of the 70th year, (MIDST OF THE WEEK) that the anti-messiah makes his final decrees of abomination against the holy people, and the Holy Covenant.  The MIDST of the pagan year, 2017, is when the anti-christ power speaks as did King Constantine in a previous century.  The timing will be on a pentecost (pagan counterfeit of Shavuot) when fire will come down to ‘impress us’ with lying signs and wonders.  The antichrist uses a first day agenda, that of Sol Invictus Mithra, to posture against the Covenant of Shabbats we were given on Sinai.  In other words, pentecost belongs to the face in the pentagram.  The tongues of fire that came down in Acts 2, fell on Shavuot, on devout Jews, who were assembled per YHVH’s instructions to keep the mid-year Assembly.   Amen?!  But those, “the many” who cooperate with the anti-messiah for the abomination that makes desolate, will be on the wrong side of things as he promotes a Universal Sunday agenda to the world, which by default attempts to render God’s Seventh-day sacredness null and void.  Such is the work of Haman in every generation.  Persecution will again ensue against the Jews, and all who keep the faith of Y’shua. Y’shua was not a Sunday-keeper, but a Sabbath observant Rabbi…Saviour and Lord to all who call upon His Name.  To close Daniel’s Vision, we see that the anti-messiah reigns but for a short time, between the false pentecost treaty that opposes Shavuot, until the Fall Feasts and Return of the LORD in the month of Tishri.  There is no seven year treaty.  However, the last Shabua runs 2010 thru 2017, per the 62nd and 69th years of the vision. The 1260 days (or three and a half years of the great tribulation) begins in the middle or midst of that last week of years, in 2014, on Passover.  These years will be such as the world has never seen, according to the words of Y’shua in Matt. 24.  But He told us to be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world!  Time and time again, God comes to the rescue, to deliver His people!  This time, for good.  Deliverance will come to all who love Zion.

“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the LORD/YHVH, shall be delivered, for in Mt. Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.”  Joel 2:32

Shalom until that Day!!

Forty Days Of Weeping For Tammuz

Forty Days Of Weeping For Tammuz

Article By Michael Urioste

In all the hustle and anticipation of the spring feasts that are almost upon us, it is almost easy to forget that the Catholic’s pagan counterfeit is already in full swing. I am talking about Lent. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 5 of this year, then ending on Good Friday April 18. I guess everyone knows that. What was not very obvious to me was how the other “pagan” holidays of “Holy Week”, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter, always managed to fall around the time of Passover. Part of the reason may be because I, like many of you, are waiting to hear if the barley is “aviv” in Israel. So we can then wait for the first sliver of light of the moon in order to begin the Month of Aviv which usually ,but not always, coincides with the Gregorian calendar month of April. This was the method for determining the first month of the year. This is what many refer to as “the Creator’s calendar.” This makes Passover fall on a different date every year. This is the method for most Torah compliant believers and the method described in Numbers 9, Deuteronomy 16:1-6, and Leviticus 23:5-14. (More will be discussed on this topic on a future episode.) This anticipation and determination of dates usually kept me focused on preparing for the spring feasts and not much of anything else.

So why the sudden interest? The interest was always there. What was lacking was the awareness of what is already there hiding in plain sight. The Catholics too have a method of determining their festive spring holiday season. Their dates are determined by the sun and moon. Easter begins on the first Sunday after the first full moon that appears on or after the vernal equinox. This was determined to be the method of calculating the date for Easter at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. You back up 2 days to Good Friday. Notice that you don’t get to count 3 days from Friday to Sunday. From there you count 40 days backwards excluding the six Sundays in between (Sundays are not included in the 40 day count of Lent) to get your date for Ash Wednesday.

Lent is called Quadragesima in Latin and La Cuaresma in Spanish and begins on Ash Wednesday. The terms are a reference to the the number 40, the number of days until Good Friday. Now there a lot of reasons that Christians and devout Catholics may explain why this is so. The will say that the Bible refers to the number 40 throughout the Bible. All of the Biblical references to the number 40 are all true. However, none of them refer to Lent or have anything to do with the pagan holiday. Except perhaps they are talking about Ezekiel 8:14 “Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.” Why do I bring this up? There is no mention or reference to “forty” in the entire verse, you may observe. However, Tammuz is associated with a pagan rite that, you guessed it, lasts forty days. Nowhere in the Bible is there any reference for the observance of Lent. Yes, the Bible does have many instances of the number 40, but nowhere explaining, promoting or commanding the observance of a 40 day festival.

Now let’s look at this individual or deity, if you prefer, of Ezekiel 8:14. Tammuz was worshiped as a pagan deity by a festival that was celebrated with weeping and fasting for forty days. That is where the Catholic tradition of Lent really came from. Tammuz was the son of Nimrod and Semiramis. Tammuz was worshiped as the reincarnation of his father, especially since Shem came and killed Nimrod. Shem then proceeded to hack Nimrod into pieces which he then scattered. This is probably the origin of the story in Egyptian mythology of Isis gathering the pieces of her dead husband Osiris after Seth(Shem) hacked him into peices. This allowed Isis to resurrect her husband long enough to conceive their son Horus. Thus, you can say that Horus is another version of Tammuz. Tammuz was probably coerced into marrying his mother in order to keep up the charade of him being the reincarnation of his father Nimrod who miraculously became the Sun and impregnated his wife with his rays so he could be reborn once again, this time as Tammuz. Eventually Semiramis had her son , turned husband, killed in a boar hunt. When news of Tammuz’s “accidental” death had reach everyone in Babylon, she ordered forty days of fasting and weeping. In fact, this is the beginning of all pagan mythology involving the mother and child motif that has continued to replicate itself throughout every pagan religion throughout history culminating with the “Queen of Heaven” worshiped by the Catholics today, and lives on in Christianity through the false doctrine of the trinity.

WHO IS THE WOMAN OF REVELATION 12?

 

 

 

 

WHO IS THE WOMAN OF REVELATION 12?…[a Short Study on “Identity Crisis”]

Article written by Marty Plisek

Identity crisis on the part of the Church is why Replacement Theology abounds. If you don’t know what RT is, you will by the end of the study. God gave us no such doctrine, yet millions of God fearing people are partakers and/or victims of this egregious evil. If God’s people knew the answer to the question poised above, correctly identifying the Woman of Rev. 12, apostasy unparalleled would be overcome. False dogma would fall off like scales, and the identity crisis cover-up of centuries exposed. Your future hangs on being able to discern the true identity of this Woman from every alias [woman] who has tried to convince you that RT is part of God’s plan. Here are their respective views.

 

First, here is the Rev. 12 text in full from Scripture: “And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven, a WOMAN clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Rev. 12:1

 

• Catholics portend that this woman is a trinity: of the Virgin Mary, the Queen of Heaven, and the Mother of God. In cathedrals around the globe, master artists fashion liturgical imagery per the verbatim regalia named above [the sun, moon, and stars] as her exclusive adornment…to depict her universal persona. She is likewise worshiped by Catholics in tri-part, and as such she is to them not only a Heavenly Being who birthed Christ, but a Mother Goddess to all humanity and Co-Matrix of the very Godhead. Jesus, God the Son, is overshadowed by this woman’s identity. This Marion-worship belief system is to them proof positive (by Papal mandate) that Catholicism is the Mother Church, thereby fulfilling the Rev.12 woman bio…identification per theocratic decree on their part, if you will.

 

• Protestants protest the Catholic version of this woman, while ironically creating a parallel form equally disturbing in nature, believing instead that this Rev. 12 woman represents the “Christian” Church. In similitude to Catholicism, many Protestants believe Mary to be the mother of our Lord. While they refute much of the above verbiage, they follow suit in ‘using’ Mary to legitimate their religion, Christianity. [hence Protestantism as opposed to Catholicism] Yet both faiths claim to be Christian counterparts of the other. If the woman of Rev. 12 is the Christian Church, as Protestants believe, then Mary has become the vehicle they use to get there. Scripturally, the Maiden who gave birth to Yeshua/Jesus, was named Miriam. She was a virgin. She was blessed among women. She did conceive via the Holy Spirit. All true. We are not denying Miriam’s role in Scripture in any way. But is she the woman of Rev. 12? That is the question that we endeavor to answer. The assumption on the part of the Christian Church is to say, “Yes she is.” But assumption is not proof, just as it was not in Catholicism. The Rev. 12 woman is not the Christian Church, which is the leap they want you to make, spring-boarding from the Nativity. Mary proves Luke 1, not Rev. 12. Mary, the earthly womb of the Son of God, is no where shown in Scripture to be clothed in the sun, or standing on the moon, or having 12 stars around her head. Mary does not fit this description, which is the connection we are looking for, and Christianity fails to establish it. The Church has in fact stolen this very imagery from another woman [virtually replacing her] who is our third and final candidate below whose identity perfectly matches the prototype, the requisites presented in the Rev. 12 passage. While we indeed love Mary, she is not the prophetic woman we seek, though her personhood is definitely linked to the woman below.

 

• The correct identification of the woman described in Rev. 12 is none other than Israel! Both Catholics and Protestants ignore the Woman Israel, contending she is a rival entity that threatens the very ‘houses’ they have erected in her stead. The House of Catholicism has corrupted the Godhead of the Bible. The Corporate Houses of Protestantism have corrupted the Everlasting Covenant of the Bible. Both lay claim that “their woman” commends them sovereignty to do exploits in the name of God. Yet both fall miserably short of substantiating their claim, respective of their worship models…Mary playing different, but manipulated roles of manifesting as the Rev.12 woman. It’s not the fault of Mary, but of corrupt men whose Institutions have built lies upon her sanctified memory to proffer themselves. Not so with the woman Israel, who honors the woman Mary as harmonious with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (her family tree). Israel is the only one of ‘the three’ that meets the Biblical criteria for being clothed with the sun; having the moon under her feet; and wearing upon her head a crown of twelve stars. If the other two candidates make claim to these attributes it is because they have stolen these characteristics and have fraudulently applied them to their alias woman status “where they ought not” have done so [a tactic of antichrist]. Israel is the only woman in the mix that can wear this heavenly adornment without fraud, capriciousness, charlatanry, or harlotry.

 

• The sun represents the Father of lights, YHVH from the beginning, who in Gen.1:3 was the light and who hung the sun, moon and stars in their orbits and called them by name. v.14. Yeshua, the sun of righteousness, is also that light who from the beginning abode with the Father. The woman he lavished with light is Israel…to be a light unto the Gentiles. Is.60:3. The moon represents the lesser light of Gen.1:16, and in v.15 along with the greater light and stars, was to be for signs, seasons, days, and years. This is the celestial calendar God made in the beginning, and to which the woman of Rev.12 prescribed to and was honored. Why? Because Israel kept the appointed times (seasons) that God set forth as holy. The lunar cycle marks the months designated by the moon the woman had under her feet…not to trample on, but because she foundationally observed the Holy Days God proclaimed through Moses to the children of Israel. The twelve stars crowning her head are the twelve tribes of Israel, representing the heritage of Jesus/Yeshua that was born to her as the man-child of Rev.12:5. The lineage of Christ comes not through falsely held paternity ensued by the claimants of the first two women, but through the Covenant Promise God made with the Patriarch Abraham, renewed in Isaac, and confirmed in Jacob…who had 12 sons, one of whom was to bear the Scepter of the Coming Christ, the Lion from the tribe of Judah. 12 stars/12 sons, all bequeathed to Jacob whose name became Israel, the family-tree repository of the Seed lineage of the Man-child (a son of Israel) who was to rule all nations. The Mary of Christianity is a true daughter of Israel, a Jewess! She is part in parcel of the story, her blood lineage bearing testimony of the Covenant God made with Israel, to bring salvation to the world. Salvation, John says, is of the Jews. Jn. 4:22 While Saviour to all, Jesus (acclaimed by both Catholics and Protestants as their exclusive church progeny) is King of the Jews, and from His own lips, Holy One of Israel. The woman of Rev. 12 is without a shadow of doubt, Israel, progenitor of Messiah.

 

 

In closing, we will flashback to Gen 3:15, to shortly after the Fall, where God was speaking to the Serpent and said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It [the enmity] shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.” Who is this woman? She is the same woman of Rev. 12…the woman who brought forth Christ, the Man-child, who would crush the Serpent’s head with His crowning victory on Calvary, but whose heel would be bruised on the Cross, suffering the agony of crucifixion and death blow that was not sufficient to keep him in the Tomb.

 

Bear in mind here that the two false women [Catholicism and Christianity] both lay claim to the mother-of-God honors, identifying her as their religious property, so to speak, in order to legitimate their replacement systems, through Mary and Jesus respectively. However it is through the woman Israel that God prophetically spoke, and through Israel whom He sent His Only Begotten Son into the World. The woman Israel is the Progenitor of Christ…not the Church, be it Catholic or Protestant. We established that above. Thus to whom do we appropriate the other seed lineage that God referred to as the seed of the Serpent? Two seed lineages were spoken of in Gen. 3:15: one belonging to Christ [the Promised Seed through the Seed of the Women] and the other seed belonging to the devil. Through whom does the Serpent disseminate his seed? Well, if not through the Woman Israel, do you suppose it could be through the two imposter women that falsely stake claim to the son of God, boasting him as their progeny…their institutional systems? They do claim to be his mother, do they not? They do claim they are the woman of Rev. 12, do they not? Yet they failed to meet the criteria, the Biblical birth certificate, if you will. So who represents the seed of the serpent in the duality of Gen. 3:15? By default, it can only be the false women bearing false doctrine above. It’s a perfect match…the consequence of which is all but earth shattering. The Serpent is working his wiles within and through the Seven Churches….the very institutions that claim to be serving Christ! While God, on the other hand, is working his covenant promises through Israel, the rightful Woman of Rev. 12 who gave us the Promised Seed, the Child of Promise, in the Person of Jesus Christ.

 

In Rev. 2 we see approbations and chastisements from the Angelic Witness of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John regarding the Seven Churches/Assemblies collectively being reviewed for correction in righteousness. If one lists all the good commendations in one column, and all the faulty attributes ( black marks) in the other, a duality emerges…one half being a descriptive profile of the attributes of Christ, and the flipside a cameo description of the attributes of the Serpent.. What we are seeing via an overlay of the Seven Churches are the two antithetical seed lineages of Genesis 3:15 come to light: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Do you recognize which is which? Has your church missed the mark? Which column best identifies the woman you love? If not the seed of the Woman Israel representing Christ, then there is but one alternative in the equation, a seedline of churches (other women) acting in the capacity of the serpent.

 

Be not deceived by replacement theology! The serpent would love for you to think you are serving the rightful Seed, when in truth it is his seedline of perdition you have embraced, believing Israel to be the enmity of the Gospel. Not true! That is the hissing voice of replacement theology bidding you to hate the Woman of Rev. 12…replacing your affections in the scheme of things. This grand idea works well for the Serpent, for he uses whomever he can deceive to continue his work of deception upon the masses, spreading his lies and using church people (of all people) to do it, to denigrate Israel… heel bruising of the worst order, for the Feet of your Saviour are despised by the Serpent. These same pierced Feet will ultimately crush his head in the final Lake of Fire judgment when the Serpent is at last destroyed. Repent of replacement theology today. It has no Biblical basis except as presented in Gen.3:15 as belonging to the Serpent, God’s age-old foe and arch-enemy. Serve the Woman Israel instead as like followers and partakers of the “Prince who has overcome and prevails with God and man,” your Sar Shalom, Prince of Israel and Messiah to both Jew and Gentile. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Man-child born of ISRAEL, the Woman of Revelation 12. Thank you and God Bless.

 

Epilogue: What did Paul mean in 2Cor. 11:3-4 quoted here as follows?

 

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel that ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”

 

Dare we think it not possible that Replacement Theology is alive and well? Paul warned us about it explicitly in the text above…that we not become corrupted in our minds, through the beguiling of the serpent, to follow another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel as a replacement to the true simplicity we have in Christ. Dare we think it not possible when the Apostle Paul, through inspiration tells us otherwise? Tragically, the warning went unheeded, for the very Messiah of Israel (your Yeshua and mine) has been replaced by “another Jesus” whom the churches have created in their own image…one who is not a son of Israel.

 

Beloved, which “Jesus” is on the throne of your heart? The one born of Israel, or the one born of another, the two women whose spirit and gospel attempt to replace the Woman of Rev. 12 with their own Church Body. Hmmmmm. Only you know the answer to that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Haman Agenda For Purim 2014?

Article Written By: Marty Plisek

This year Passover is on Apr.15 (erev 14th).  Nissan 15 is April 15.  The calendars (Hebrew and Gregorian) are perfectly in sync this year.  I wonder how often that happens?  Our calendar experts would know…but I find this occurrence to be especially providential in that God is making it “easy” for Jews and non-Jews to be “on the same page” so to speak with regard to the prophetic fulfillment’s that are soon commencing on planet earth.

Exactly 30 days out from Passover is Purim on Mar. 15.th/2014.  The 1260 days (or 3 1/2 yrs) plus 30 gives us the 1290 days of Dan. 12: 10, the time period marking the days known as the abomination of desolation.  That date is right upon us this Shabbat.  Purim is the backdrop of Haman, whose agenda was to destroy God’s people.   Through the heroic efforts of Queen Esther and Mordecai, that did not happen!  However, the prophetic template was forever cast in understanding the controversy of the Kingdom, and of Jerusalem, and of the types representing Christ and antichrist, respectively, throughout the generations.  Haman (alias Lucifer) has not changed.  Neither has God changed His covenant promises to His covenant-keeping peoples.

Could a Haman figurehead or type rise up and reveal his intentions on Purim 2014?  If so, I believe he will “speak great words” to enact legislation, acting out his intent on Nissan 10/April10…which is called lamb selection day.  It was on this day (in the year our Lord was crucified) that Y’shua made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on the donkey.  He was bringing us the Kingdom then, but was rejected.  He was the lamb, selected by the Father, brought into the House (Jerusalem)  four days before the Passover.  The Haman antichrist agenda will likely follow suite.  Anti means “standing in the place of”…seducing by deception.  Haman will look good to the world, confirming a false treaty of so-called peace.  I believe he will attempt to divide Jerusalem as his means to an end, which is the current peace plan of Barack Obama, the PLO, and NWO.  The question remains, is this the year and is this Purim it all begins?

If so, then here is what I see happening per Obadiah 15.  It will come back on those who come against Jerusalem.  God will not permit Jerusalem to be divided.  Jerusalem above and Jerusalem below are connected together (echad) linked in oneness. Ps 122:3.  Compact/companion-like in this text means inseparable.  Jerusalem is holy unto God.  It is His Kingdom City.  But that is precisely why the Haman’s of this world want to destroy it, and those who love it.  The final coup is on.

Will Jerusalem be divided?  The attempt will be made in the name of peace…appeasing the terrorists…appeasing the Christians.  But God will reverse the outcome on those nations that come against Him.  Here is what I theorize as a result of the US involvement.  The New Madrid fault zone runs north/south along the Mississippi River Valley.  Seismologists are predicting a scenario that is unprecedented…three 9.0 quakes along the faultline that will literally divide the US from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes.  Some are guessing the River could become 100 miles wide.  The devastation unimaginable.  The United States, would no longer be united geographically.  We would be divided on either side of the Mississippi into an eastern US and a western US…fulfilling Obadiah ‘s words.  God will not be mocked.

In a book by John McTurnan, As America Does Unto Israel, it has been documented that within a day of anti-Israel legislation on the part of our Government, a natural disaster ensues within 24 hours as God’s response to coming against His Plan, His City, His Covenant.   This has happened time and time again.  Will it happen on Nissan 10th (11th)?  Only time will tell.  But I share this to prepare those who study the prophetic pictures God has given us in His Word.  If the principle holds true again, our Nation is fallen.  Our economy will crash.  Marshall law will be declared.  And the rest is anybody’s guess.  Other nations that are complicit with coming against Israel, will likewise be affected.  Perhaps this global ruin will be the timing for the NWO ten divisions (ten toes of iron/clay per book of Daniel)….and the initiation of the Great Tribulation spoken of by Christ.

Watch and pray!  Our journey to Zion is sure, but we must keep our eyes on The God who gave us His Shavuot Covenant at Sinai, and not be deceived by the god who will use Pentecost (the counterfeit of Shavuot) to perform signs and wonders, causing fire to come down to deceive the elect.  It all adds up to a showdown between the Lord of the Shabbat, who came down on Sinai and gave us His Torah, His Marriage Covenant, and the opposers of this Everlasting Covenant who seek to replace Him with a Sunday agenda.  Watch for sunday legislation on the part of Haman who seeks to do away with the “daily”.  Messiah is our daily bread from before the foundation of the world.  Strange bread (replacement) will not suffice.

Please pray for the peace of Jerusalem and those who are not connected to it….that they may love the Gospel of the Kingdom and receive their eternal inheritance as is God’s desire for all humanity.   As we approach and enter these last days, let us lift one another up and uphold our Y’shua as He fights for us and for His Right to rule on the Throne of David.  He is for us!  Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith!  The faith of YHVH!

God bless!