By Christine Darg

Jerusalem Channel

As the Church Age winds down and the nation of Israel is arising again, the Millennial Rule of King Messiah is looming large on the horizon. Are your spiritually far-sighted enough to perceive it? Believers are transitioning –from this world into the next Kingdom Age before the Eternal state.

Jesus scolded the Pharisees for not discerning the times. He held them accountable to know that he appeared on schedule according to specific Bible prophecies from the Book of Daniel and other Hebrew prophets, and therefore the religious leaders should have recognized the timing of his first coming.

At this time we’re headed into Israel’s High Holy Days and “the day or hour that no man knows.” The Feast of Trumpets is the only ambiguous date among the LORD’s appointed festivals due to the necessity of the Jews having to sight the new moon to determine the Feast of Trumpets.

Concerning his Second Coming Jesus stated in Matthew 24:36, “But of that day and hour no man knows, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” The Jews don’t know the precise day and the hour of the Feast of Trumpets because it IS the one feast that must be calculated by the sighting of the new moon. The last trump would be at twilight at the end of whichever day turns out to be the Feast of Trumpets, after the new moon’s sliver is sighted. So this keeps us on our toes watching.

Two days are set aside to cover the new moon sighting. This year 2023 the dates are begin on the evening of Friday, September 15, and ending at sundown on Sunday, September 17.  The Feast of Trumpets begins at twilight when the new moon is finally sighted, and the definition of twilight is an in-between period of ambiguity.

Remarkably the Feast of Trumpets is the holiday most associated with terminology relating to the Messiah’s return. It has been compared to a dress rehearsal for the Rapture. We are NOT date setters– we only want you to be aware of these connections. Twilight could be compared to the twinkling of an eye, referenced by Paul when he prophesied about the Rapture.

In Leviticus 23: 24 the Feast of Trumpets was first called Zichron Teruah [meaning a Memorial of Blowing Trumpets] and in Numbers 29:1, additionally it is called Yom Teruah meaning the Day of of the SHOUT or the Day of the trumpet blast. Some of you may not be happy with your bodies. But believers are going to be instantly TRANS-formed! Rabbi Shaul, aka the Apostle Paul, could have been referring to the Feast of Trumpets when he stated in 1 Corinthians 15: 51, “Behold, Listen carefully, I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep [in death], but we will all be [completely] changed [wondrously trans—formed], in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at [the sound of] the last trumpet. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead [who believed in Messiah] will be raised imperishable, and we will be [completely] changed [wondrously trans-formed]–Amplified Bible.”

This revelation of the Rapture (which is a Latinized word from the Vulgate Bible) was also described by the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4 in language especially associated with the Feast of Trumpets. Listen! Paul wrote, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a what? with a SHOUT [that could be Yom Teruah], with the VOICE of an archangel, and with the TRUMPET [the shofar] of God, and the dead in Messiah will be the first to rise. After that, those of us who are alive will be CAUGHT UP [raptured, trans-lated] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Many Christians will be caught unawares by the Rapture because they’re not walking in light of Bible prophecy.

We need to be familiar with the Feasts of the Lord. Jesus observed them all as did all the apostles. It was only when the institutional church divorced itself from its biblical Hebrew roots that the Feast of the Lord were largely lost in the churches.

Does it make any sense that the Father would command these Feasts to be celebrated in the future Millennial Kingdom — and not have them known today? We need to recover the biblical feasts because these holy days will be observed in the Millennial Kingdom when Jesus rules from Jerusalem and when all the nations are required to come up to Jerusalem to worship the King of Kings [Zechariah 14].

The blowing of the shofar in Israel signifies the beginning of 10 days of repentance called the Days of Awe leading up to Yom Kippur, or the solemn Day of Atonement, the holiest date on the Hebrew calendar. In fact, the Hebrew calendar is a cycle of redemption, with Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits in the spring, followed by Shavout, which Christians call Pentecost, 50 days later. In the fall are the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, Succot in Hebrew. Each has significance and meaning with regard to the life, death, resurrection and return of the Lord Jesus. Studying the Hebrew calendar and the Feasts of the Lord is extremely rich and meaningful. They are God’s appointed times for all His children.