By Maria Merola
© Copyright Double Portion Inheritance August 2004
The phrase “Key of David” is seen twice in Scripture (Isaiah 22:22 & Revelation 3:7), and it refers to an “opening instrument” that unlocks the understanding of prophecy. It also pertains to those who have the right to rule and reign as “kings & priests” with Yahuwshuwa ha’Mashiyach in his Melchizedek Priesthood during his Messianic Kingdom on David’s throne (Revelation 1:6 & 5:10).
The Hebrew word for “key” is defined in the Strong’s Condordance as follows:
#4668 maphteach maf-tay’-akh from 6605; an opener, i.e. a key:--key; and opening instrument.
It comes from another root word:
#6605 pathach paw-thakh' a primitive root; to open wide (literally or figuratively); specifically, to loosen, begin, plough, carve:--appear, break forth, draw (out), let go free, grave, loose (self), (be, be set) opening, put off, ungird, unstop, have vent.
This word “pathach” carries with it “Yom Kippur” language because it is on this feast every 50th Year in the year of Jubilee that slaves are set free, debts are cancelled and those who lost their inheritance have it restored back to them. The synonyms for this word “pathach” have familiar language from the prophecy in Isaiah 61. Our Messiah read this passage aloud in Luke 4:17-21 at the beginning of his ministry on Yom Kippur.
The words “put off” speak of “putting of the body of sins in the flesh” at the resurrection (Colossians 2:11). Isaiah 61 speaks of the day when Messiah will “proclaim liberty to the captives” and the “opening” of the prison to them that are bound. It also speaks of the elect coming out of their graves in Ezekiel 37:12-14. It will be a day of vengeance, of evening out the score, and of making the crooked paths straight (Isaiah 42:16).
When Yahuwshuwa returns, he will rebuild the Tabernacle of David that has fallen down (Amos 9:11, Acts 15:16) and from his throne he will rule in righteousness and justice. This will truly be the beginning of the restoration of Yisra’el culminating at the 8th Millennium when the New Heaven & the New Earth will come down out of heaven along with the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1-2).
The Congregation of Philadelphia in Revelation 3 are given an “open door that no man can shut” because their Messiah is the one who has the “Key of David” to open the door for them to enter into the marriage and their future destiny as “kings & priest.”
The “Key of David” belongs to those who “have the testimony of Yahuwshuwa and keep the commandments of Elohiym” (Revelation 12:17; 19:10 & 22:14).
Unlocking the Mystery of the Bride & Her Resurrection Day
Back in the 1970’s I was just a teenager, but I can still remember reading books like “The Late Great Planet Earth” by Hal Lindsey and watching Christian ministers on television who were all teaching something very popular called “The Pre-Tribulation Rapture.” This was the only view of “eschatology” that I had ever been taught, and at that time, to my knowledge there was no such thing as “mid-trib” or “post-trib.”
I never really challenged those beliefs as I was certain that all these theologians had it right. Each time I had questions that seemed to contradict the “pre-trib” view of the catching away of the bride, these pastors and teachers always quoted the “classic” scriptures taken out of context to defend their theology, and I naturally accepted it “hook, line and sinker.”
I blindly followed what was being taught to me in the churches that I attended until back in 2002, my belief in a “Pre-Tribulation Rapture” was suddenly challenged again by the Holy Spirit. It all began with the events that took place on “9-11,” as I lived just thirty miles south of the Pentagon in Crystal City Virginia where my son Elijah had been working at the time. That day would forever change my course as I began to seek the Heavenly Father more fervently about the apocalyptic events foretold in the book of Revelation. I began to fast and pray asking Abba to speak to me in prophetic dreams and visions, and he did!
Back in 2002, I had a series of eight prophetic dreams---all with a recurring theme relating to the Beast, the Antichrist and the second coming of our Messiah. As I began to chronicle these dreams in a book that I was writing, I typed on my computer some of my own commentary based on preconceived ideas that I had been taught. I began typing “the tribulation will last for seven years and then the saints will go up in the rapture….” Then I heard the voice of YaHuWaH speak to me in his still small voice “what scripture in the Bible says that there is going to be a seven-year tribulation?”
That is when I suddenly stopped typing and I began to do a “keyword search” for the term “seven years” in the Bible online. After I had thoroughly searched the scriptures for several days, I finally came to the conclusion that there was no such thing as a “seven-year” tribulation period, and this is where my “house of cards” began to fall apart.
By August of 2004, YaHuWaH opened my eyes to something that totally shifted my paradigm about the “pre-trib” rapture idea. It all started with 1st Corinthians 15:50-52 where it says that we shall be changed “at the last trump.” At this point, I began to realize that there was an unspoken rule, a pattern to be observed called “the law of first mention.”
This means that a concept or a phrase, or an idea is first mentioned in the Bible or in the Tanakh (Old Testament) and from that point moving forward, whenever that same terminology is repeated again in the scriptures, it has the same meaning that it did when it was “first mentioned.” As I was being taught by the Ruwach ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit), I began searching for the first time where the “last trumpet” is mentioned in the Bible.
I discovered that the phrase “last trumpet” does not appear in the Bible anyplace else other than in 1st Corinthians 15:50-52. However, the concept of the “last” or “seventh trumpet” is first mentioned in Joshua 6:16. I realized at this point that I needed to fully understand the meaning of the prophetic Feasts of YaHuWaH in order to fully grasp “end-time” prophecy.
This means that a concept or a phrase, or an idea is first mentioned in the Bible or in the Tanakh (Old Testament) and from that point moving forward, whenever that same terminology is repeated again in the scriptures, it has the same meaning that it did when it was “first mentioned.” As I was being taught by the Ruwach ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit), I began searching for the first time where the “last trumpet” is mentioned in the Bible.
I discovered that the phrase “last trumpet” does not appear in the Bible anyplace else other than in 1st Corinthians 15:50-52. However, the concept of the “last” or “seventh trumpet” is first mentioned in Joshua 6:16. I realized at this point that I needed to fully understand the meaning of the prophetic Feasts of YaHuWaH in order to fully grasp “end-time” prophecy.
From there, I began to study all the references in scripture that pertain to the “The Feast of Trumpets” aka “Yom Teruw’ah” (Day of Blowing). In the Towrah, in Leviticus 23:24 we are first told that in the “seventh month” on the Hebrew calendar we are to have “a memorial of blowing trumpets.” At each new month called “Rosh Chodesh” (head of the month) we are commanded to sound the showphar (trumpet) at the new moon (Psalms 81:3).
Since there are seven months of mowediym (appointed feasts) that we are commanded by YaHuWaH to observe, the last month is the seventh Hebrew month called Tishrei in which the “seventh new moon trumpet” is sounded. I also discovered that on the “Feast of Trumpets,” traditionally there are four trumpets sounded that represent the four angels from the four winds of heaven and the four corners of the earth.
Since there are seven months of mowediym (appointed feasts) that we are commanded by YaHuWaH to observe, the last month is the seventh Hebrew month called Tishrei in which the “seventh new moon trumpet” is sounded. I also discovered that on the “Feast of Trumpets,” traditionally there are four trumpets sounded that represent the four angels from the four winds of heaven and the four corners of the earth.
When the last of these four trumpets is sounded in the “seventh month,” that is when the harvest of souls will be gathered by the four angels from the four corners of the earth and the four winds of heaven (Matthew 24:31, Revelation 7:1) and it shall be with a “great sound of a trumpet!”
In order to see how the prophetic feasts tie into end-time prophecy, we must first understand that there are four harvest times in Yisra’el during the agricultural year. The first barley harvest is in the spring during Passover week called “Yom ha’Bikkuwriym” or “Day of First Fruits” which is the true resurrection day of our Messiah (not Easter Sunday).
The High Priest aka “Kohen ha’Gadowl” in Hebrew was to “wave” the sheaf of the first cut barley (symbolic of the first-fruits of souls) that our Messiah redeemed from the lowest parts of the earth at his first coming (Ephesians 4:8-9, Matthew 27:52-53). Then fifty days later on “The Feast of Weeks” called “Shabuwoth” (Pentecost) there is the first wheat harvest which symbolized the 3,000 souls that were saved in Acts 2:41.
The final harvest in the agricultural year in Yisra’el is in the fall called “the second wheat harvest” in which the mature wheat is harvested. Exodus 26:13 & Exodus 34:22 refer to this as “The Feast of Ingathering” at the end of the agricultural year. And then finally, in the last week of the agricultural year there is the “grape harvest” in which there are good grapes (symbolic of the elect) and there are sour grapes symbolic of the wicked who will be gathered into the great wine-press of the wrath of Elohiym and trampled underfoot (Ezekiel 18:2, Hosea 9:10, Amos 9:13, Matthew 7:14, Revelation 14:18-20).
There are seven “trumpet judgments” seen in Revelation 8:7 through Revelation 11:15, and these correlate to the seven trumpets sounded each month at the new moon between the month of Abib in the spring (the first month in the Hebrew calendar) until the seventh month called Tishrei. These trumpets are to remind the corporate bride to repent and prepare their hearts for the “The Day of Atonement” aka “Yom Kippur.”
For the ancient Hebrews, their calendar revolved around the new moon which was the first day of the month. Twin silver trumpets were blown to mark the beginning of every month (Numbers 10:1-10). By contrast, Sabbaths and the beginning of all the festivals except for Yom Teruw’ah, were marked by the blowing of the ram’s horn or showphar. In Numbers 10:1-10, twin silver trumpets were used also to signal when the camp of Yisra’el was about to resume their journey to the Promised Land.
However, during the second Temple period, the Levites used these same silver trumpets to signal animal sacrifices that were taking place in the Temple especially during the “Ten Days of Awe” between the “Feast of Trumpets” (Yom Teruw’ah) and the “Day of Atonement” (Yom Kippur). In eternity, these silver trumpets correlate to the seven judgments in Revelation 8-11.
For the elect, these silver trumpets signal the bride to make herself ready for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb on that final Day of Atonement, and they are also meant to signal the covenant people to prepare themselves for the journey toward the Land of Promise in Heaven (Numbers 10:9-10, 31:6, 2nd Chronicles 13:12-14).
In this account, we can see a prophetic picture of Yahuwshuwa (Joshua) the son of Nun as the Messiah in the end of days. Joshua led the armies of Yisra’el to take the Promised Land of Yeriychow (Jericho) on the 7th trumpet blast. Likewise, in Revelation 19, Messiah will return to unite both of his brides typified in Rachel & Leah. He will first catch away the bride typified in Leah on the Feast of Trumpets or Yom Teruw’ah (for Jacob married Leah first). During the ten days that follow, the other bride typified in Rachel will “suffer tribulation ten days” (Revelation 2:10).
Yahuwshuwa our Messiah will return ten days later, and he will also marry the other bride typified in Rachel and he will then make both brides (both Houses of Yisra’el) “one stick” in his hand (Ezekiel 37:16-17). His bride (his armies) clothed in “white linen fine and clean” will return on white horses with him after a 7-day wedding. Why seven days? We have the “law of first mention” showing us that Jacob & Leah’s wedding lasted for “one week” in Genesis 29:27-28 and at the end of the week, Jacob also married Rachel! And this will happen at the 7th trumpet blast!
I began to see that there is always a pattern in prophecy that correlates to the Towrah (Mosaic Law) and the Prophets. This is why our Messiah, Yahuwshuwa told us that all things written about him in the “Law, Prophets & Psalms” must be fulfilled (Luke 24:44). These are the “two or three witnesses” of scripture that we must look to when understanding prophecy. Yahuwshuwa ha’Mashiyach said that not one punctuation mark (jot or tittle) of the Towrah (Mosaic Law) or the Prophets have passed away yet until “heaven and earth passes away…” (Matthew 5:16-17).
Until there is “a new heaven and a new earth,” the Tanakh (Law, Prophets & Psalms) will continue to guide us through the fulfillment of prophecy. The Hebrew acronym “TaNaKh” stands for three Hebrew words: Towrah (Law), Nebiym (Prophets), Ketuwbiym (Writings).
YaHuWaH commands those of us who are in covenant with him to keep his holy feasts “forever....throughout our generations” (Exodus 12:14) because they are “holy convocations.” What is a “convocation?” It is the Hebrew word “miqra” and it means “a sacred assembly, a memorial, a rehearsal.” These Feasts of YaHuWaH are a memorial of what he has done for us in the past, but they are also a rehearsal of prophetic future events to come!
It is for this very reason that most people in the Christian Churches are unable to accurately discern end-time events because instead of using YaHuWaH’s rendering of “times and seasons” they are keeping pagan sun-god worship days (i.e. Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc.). These pagan celebrations are patterned after the pagan solar calendar which is also used by the Roman Papacy. Daniel 7:23-25 accurately describes the role of the papacy as “the fourth beast” who “changes times and seasons.” Satan has used the papacy to change our Creator’s calendar and thus confuse prophecy so that the “set-apart” ones (the saints) will not be able to discern the “mowediym” (times and seasons) of his return. The Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) wrote the following in his letter to the Thessalon-ians:
1st Tas’loniqiym (Thessalonians) 5:
1 But of the times and the seasons, (moewdiym) brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of YHWH so comes as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
As you can see by the graphic, there are “seven feasts” annually which correlate to the “seven branch menorah” in the Temple, and the “seven spirits of YaHuWaH” (Isaiah 11:1-2, Revelation 1:4, 3:1, 4:5, 5:6) and also the “seven eyes” of the Lamb (Zechariah 4:10, Revelation 5:6). We are commanded to keep these seven feasts according to Leviticus 23 and also the weekly Sabbath every 7th day. In Hebrew the word “day” is “yowm” which means “light.” And so when we walk in the “light” of these seven “feasts” we are “walking in his light!”
This means that we are not “in darkness” and will not be overtaken by “the thief in the night!” Now we can better understand why Sha’uwl (Paul) wrote “but of the times and seasons you have no need that I write to unto you.” It is because the first century followers of Messiah were keeping his “appointed feasts” called “mowediym” (times and seasons). To get a more detailed explanation of what the “thief in the night” is all about, see my other article entitled: “Times, Seasons & the Thief in the Night.”
Now let’s take a look at the word “rapture:”
This means that we are not “in darkness” and will not be overtaken by “the thief in the night!” Now we can better understand why Sha’uwl (Paul) wrote “but of the times and seasons you have no need that I write to unto you.” It is because the first century followers of Messiah were keeping his “appointed feasts” called “mowediym” (times and seasons). To get a more detailed explanation of what the “thief in the night” is all about, see my other article entitled: “Times, Seasons & the Thief in the Night.”
Now let’s take a look at the word “rapture:”
The word “rapture” is found no place in our English Bibles, however, it comes from a Latin word “rapturo” which literally means: “to seize, snatch, carry away.”
This is the very same word used in 1st Thessalonians 4:17 where it says that the elect shall all be “caught up” to meet YaHuWaH in the air. This word “caught up” in the Greek Strong’s Concordance is defined as follows:
#726. harpazo: to seize, catch away, pluck, pull, take (by force); to claim for oneself eagerly.
As you can see, the word “harpazo” has the identical definition of the word “rapturo” in Latin. It is also the same Hebrew word for “taken” that we see in 2nd Kings 2:11 which is “laqach” when Eliyahuw (Elijah) was “taken” in a whirlwind in a chariot of fire:
#3947 laqach law-kakh’ a primitive root; to take (in the widest variety of application): ---accept, bring, buy, carry away, drawn, fetch, get, infold, many, mingle, place, receive, reserve, seize, send for, take (away, up), use, win.
The reason why I am pointing this out is because there are some that would try to argue that there is no such thing as a “rapture,” but they are wrong. While it is true that this word does not appear in our English Bibles, the word “rapturo” (Latin) or harpazo (Greek) or laqach (Hebrew) all mean the very same thing. Therefore, we can be certain that the bridegroom will come to seize his bride and carry her away into the marriage. Those who go into the marriage with the bridegroom are “taken,” and those who do not have their lamps filled (the five foolish virgins) are the ones who are “left” out of the marriage. To see more evidence for this, see my other article entitled: “Remember Lot’s Wife: Taken or Left?”
Interestingly, the Hebrew & Greek meaning for the word “taken” means “to take into marriage” while the Hebrew & Greek meaning for the word “left” means “to divorce or forsake.” Contrary to what some people teach and believe, the five wise virgins who are “taken” represent the corporate bride of Messiah. They will be taken into a “set-apart” place called the “chuppah” or “bridal chamber” (Psalm 19:5; Joel 2:16). After seven days in the chuppah, the corporate bride will return with Messiah on white horses (Revelation 19:7-14). But the five foolish virgins are the ones who are “left” out of the marriage. From that group, there will be a remnant that will go and buy oil during “the ten days of tribulation” (Revelation 2:10). There will be some from that group who will be ready to meet their Messiah at the Mount of Olives when he returns (see Revelation 19 & Zechariah 12).
The rest of the wicked people shall be left here on earth to be eaten by the birds of prey on the day of wrath (Isaiah 18:6-7; Revelation 19:17-21).
The rest of the wicked people shall be left here on earth to be eaten by the birds of prey on the day of wrath (Isaiah 18:6-7; Revelation 19:17-21).
With this foundation laid, we should be able to get a clearer picture of our about the resurrection day for the bride:
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 24:
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Dismantling the Error of Dispensationalism
Back in the days when I followed Dispensationalist theologians, I was taught to believe that the “elect” are the Jewish people only. Those who teach this are using Isaiah 45:5 where it refers to “Yisra’el mine elect.” The argument that most Dispensationalists use for Matthew 24:29-31 is that there will be a seven-year tribulation period wherein “the Church” will be raptured (caught up) to meet Messiah, and they will be gone for seven years while the poor Jews will have to suffer down here on earth for seven years. They use the term “elect” to mean that only the Jewish people will be “gathered immediately after the tribulation,” while the church has already been “gathered before the tribulation.”
But my views began to change about who these “elect” are when I was lead to read 1st Keefa (Peter) 1:1-3 where he refers to the “strangers” in diaspora as follows:
“Elect after the foreknowledge of the Father, sprinkled with the blood of Yahuwshuwa Mashiyach (Messiah) and sanctified by the Spirit....”
Here is where my eyes were opened and I suddenly realized that in order to be part of the election, one has to be “sprinkled with the blood of Yahuwshuwa Mashiyach & sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”
Under the Mosaic Covenant, the natural-born Yisra’elites were called the “elect,” but any stranger could choose to join them and become grafted into one of their tribes according to Ezekiel 47:22. The same principle still applies under Messiah’s Renewed Covenant. Becoming an Yisra’elite is for everyone who joins the covenant through Messiah’s blood. Jews and Gentiles alike are given citizenship with Yisra’el through being “born from above” by the Ruwach ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit) regardless of what genetic markers they were born with.
Both Yahuwdiy (Jews) & Goyim (Gentiles) are “joint heirs” to the promises of Abraham through Mashiyach (Messiah) according to Galatians 3:28. Gentile believers in Yahuwshuwa are grafted in together with natural Yisra’el by virtue of faith. Now, please understand that I am NOT teaching this false doctrine known today as “Replacement Theology.”
Replacement Theology purports that Elohiym has disinherited the Jewish people from their promises and he has now given those promises to the Christian Church instead. However, this is a lie from Satan that has been preached to the masses ever since the days of the Roman Emperor Constantine. It first began in the 3rd Century, and it has continued to be taught by the papacy to this day.
Replacement Theology purports that Elohiym has disinherited the Jewish people from their promises and he has now given those promises to the Christian Church instead. However, this is a lie from Satan that has been preached to the masses ever since the days of the Roman Emperor Constantine. It first began in the 3rd Century, and it has continued to be taught by the papacy to this day.
Joseph Receives the Double Portion Inheritance
What I am about to illustrate is absolutely necessary in order for you to fully understand the timing of the catching away of the bride of Messiah. Before you can see “when” this happens, you must first understand exactly “who” will be caught up to meet YaHuWaH in the air.
Let me first begin with a concept seen throughout the scriptures referred to as the “engrafting” of the “wild branches” (Gentiles) into the nation of Yisra’el (the olive tree). The first time that the nation of Yisra’el is likened unto an “olive tree” is in Jeremiah 11:16, and the Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) was familiar with this concept, and this is why he referred to natural-born Yisraelites as “natural branches” (Romans 11:17-21).
Our Messiah, Yahuwshuwa was just like Yahuwceph (Joseph) in Egypt because he also married a Gentile woman. Like Joseph, whose offspring (Ephrayim & Manasseh) were grafted into the original Twelve Tribes of Yisra’el, so our Messiah has offspring (other sheep) that were not originally of the sheepfold of the House of Yisra’el (John 10:16). As a matter of fact, in Genesis 48:5-20, Jacob gave the blessings that belonged to Reuben and Simeon (his two oldest sons) to Joseph’s two sons Ephrayim & Manasseh.
Our Messiah, Yahuwshuwa was just like Yahuwceph (Joseph) in Egypt because he also married a Gentile woman. Like Joseph, whose offspring (Ephrayim & Manasseh) were grafted into the original Twelve Tribes of Yisra’el, so our Messiah has offspring (other sheep) that were not originally of the sheepfold of the House of Yisra’el (John 10:16). As a matter of fact, in Genesis 48:5-20, Jacob gave the blessings that belonged to Reuben and Simeon (his two oldest sons) to Joseph’s two sons Ephrayim & Manasseh.
He even said to them “let my name be named upon them.” So you see, these boys who thought they were Egyptians (Gentiles) were “named Yisra’el” by their grandfather, and they were grafted into the original Twelve Tribes of Yisra’el. Similarly, when Gentiles are “born-again” by the blood of the Lamb, the Heavenly Father “places his name” upon them and they are then grafted into the original Twelve Tribes just like Ephrayim & Manasseh! When our Messiah’s gospel message (the besowrah) was rejected by the religious majority in the Kingdom of Judah, it was then sent to the nations, in the same way that Joseph was sent by his brothers to Egypt.
In the same way that Joseph married an Egyptian woman, so our Messiah then became “married to the Gentile woman” and the offspring from this union became what is known today as the “Christian Church.” In the same way that Ya’aqob (Jacob) prophesied that Ephrayim would become “a multitude of nations,” (Genesis 48:19) our Messiah became like Joseph who would then “inherit the heathen nations for an inheritance” (Psalm 2:8). In Hebrew, this phrase “multitude of nations” is “melow goyim” which literally means “fullness of the Gentiles.”
The Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) used this same familiar language from Genesis 48:19 in Romans 11:12 & 25 to describe the end of days when these blinded Yisra’elites (who thought they were Gentiles) would enter into the “fullness of their true identity!”
Just as these grandsons of Jacob, who thought they were “Gentiles” were “named Yisra’el” by their grandfather in Genesis 48:16, similarly, born-again Gentiles who follow Messiah are grafted into the olive tree with Yisra’el.
When these born-again Christians repent of their pagan holidays and they come out of Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots they will then be awakened to their true identity in the last days and this is what is known as “the fullness of the Gentiles.”
The Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) explained in Romans 11, that the wild branches would be grafted into the same olive tree with Yisra’el (the natural branches) through Messiah. He also says in Ephesians 2:11-15 that these “former Gentiles” are no longer “strangers” but now they are part of the “Commonwealth of Yisra’el.”
Since the Tribe of Judah is the spiritual leader of the entire House of Yisra’el (Genesis 49:8-10), when these estranged Tribes of Yisra’el return back to the covenant, they will then be “under the scepter of Yahuwdah” (Judah) and they will be referred to as “Yahuwdiy” (Jews) even though they may not originate from the Tribe of Judah. When a Gentile “sojourns with” the Messiah who is the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” they are then joined to his tribe according to Ezekiel 47:22. This is why Paul wrote in Romans 2:26-28 that the “uncircumcised Gentile” is counted as a “Yahuwdiy” (Jew) when his heart is circumcised and he obeys “the righteousness of the Mosaic Law.”
Now we understand why Sha’uwl (Paul) is always categorizing these two groups of people as “Jews & Gentiles” in his epistles. Technically, when a Gentile is born-again, he is no longer considered a “Gentile” but he uses the term to mean “former Gentiles.” In Ephesian 2:15 he says that Jew & Gentile are no longer “two” meaning that they no longer follow “two different laws” but now these two groups become “one new man” in Messiah when they both follow the same covenant and the same Mosaic Law (Towrah).
Now you may be asking yourself at this point “what does all of this have to do with the rapture?” Well you see, it is important for me to lay down this foundational understanding of the Two Houses of Yisra’el and their “Gentile companions” so that you can see that our Messiah will gather both “Jews & Gentiles” together first before there can even be a resurrection and a wedding!
These Dry Bones Shall Live!
In Ezekiel 37:5-6, we read about the resurrection in the last days as YaHuWaH tells Ezekiel to speak to these dry dead bones: “Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live…. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live.”
In Ezekiel 37:9-10, we can see the same familiar language from Revelation 19:14, as this is the same event when our Messiah returns with his army (the bride) who is “clothed in fine linen white and clean.” You will also notice that this is the very same event from Matthew 24:29-31 where the angels from the “four winds” are gathering the elect:
Yechezqel (Ezekiel) 37:
9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus says YHWH Elohiym; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
Chazown (Revelation) 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Now why is it important to connect Ezekiel 37 with Matthew 24 & Revelation 19 as the same event? Well, if you keep on reading until you get to Ezekiel 37:16-17, you will discover that the resurrection includes three distinct groups of people:
1.) The House of Judah and the “children” of Yisra’el his companions.
2.) The House of Joseph that is in the hand of Ephrayim and the “house” of Yisra’el his companions.
3.) Gentile Companions who are grafted into the house.
You will notice that the House of Judah is accompanied by the “children” (ben) of Yisra’el, while the House of Joseph is accompanied by the “house” (bayith) of Yisra’el. You see, the natural branches that Paul spoke about in Romans 11, are the natural “DNA” children of Yisra’el. While the wild branches are the “Gentile companions” who are “grafted into the house” through Ephrayim (because he was exiled to the nations). However, in the last days, these wild branches become the “companions” of Judah!
This is also confirmed by this end-time prophecy:
Zecharyahuw (Zechariah) 8:
22 Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek YHWH of hosts in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), and to pray before YHWH.
23 Thus says YHWH of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations [goyim, gentiles], even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Yahuwdiy (Jew), saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that Elohiym is with you.
Have you made the connection yet? You see, in Ezekiel 37, the ones who are being resurrected and brought up out of their graves (in other words they are being raptured) are the “two sticks” (Ephrayim & Judah) seen in Ezekiel 37:16-17, and they have “Gentile companions” who are following them!
In Zechariah 8:23 the “ten men” are symbolic of the “Ten Northern Tribes of the House of Ephrayim” who were divorced for their idolatry by YaHuWaH in Jeremiah 3:8. But now they are returning back to the Towrah (Mosaic Law), and that is why they are taking hold of the “skirt” of a Yahuwdiy. What is the Hebrew word here for “skirt?” It is the word “kanaph” and it means “the four corners of the garment.”
In Numbers 15:38 & Deuteronomy 22:12, we are commanded to place fringes (tziytzit) on the four corners of our garments. These fringes must have a blue ribbon or thread going through them. What does the color blue symbolize? In Exodus 24:10 the Towrah (instructions) were given to Mosheh (Moses) and the seventy elders who went up to Mount Sinai, and there YaHuWaH Elohiym appeared unto them and underneath his feet was a sapphire pavement. This is why the color “blue” symbolizes the Towrah. Wearing the “tziytzit” is meant to remind us to obey the commandments, but it is also meant to be a “witness” to the lost sheep of the House of Yisra’el.
Have you ever noticed that a prayer shawl (tallit) is in the shape of a rectangular-shaped harvest field? In Leviticus 19:19, 23:22 & Deuteronomy 24:19, the nation of Yisra’el was commanded not to glean the four corners of their fields but to leave the rest of the crops for the widow, the orphan and the stranger passing through.
In Isaiah 54, we read that the nation of Yisra’el became as a “widow,” and her children became as orphans (fatherless) when they were exiled to the heathen nations and they lost their identity with the Heavenly Father. They also forgot that they were Yisra’elites and they stopped obeying his Towrah (comm-andments) and this caused them to come under the curses of Deuteronomy 28.
Shir ha’Shiriym (Song of Solomon) 1:33 Because of the savour of your good ointments your name [shem] is as ointment [shemen] poured forth, therefore do the virgins love you.
Chazown (Revelation) 3:
This number “144,000” is a number that carries with it deep spiritual meaning and it is not limited to a literal number of people. The word “thousand” in Hebrew means “the firstborn” because it is the word “aleph”א which is the first letter in the Hebrew Alphabet. This letter “aleph” א is a picture of the head of the ox in Ancient pictograph letters and it literally means “strong leader.” All those who are born-again by the blood of the Lamb will become “leaders” and they shall rule and reign as “kings and priests” for a thousand years in the Messianic Kingdom. The number “144” is the product of 12 Tribes X 12 Apostles.
In Revelation 11:11 it says that the “two witnesses” are killed and then their “dead bodies lay in the streets for three days and a half” before they are resurrected at the sound of the “seventh angel” (Revelation 11:15). Since our Messiah was in the “heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40) before he resurrected, then it stands to reason that the bride (the two witnesses) will follow the same pattern as their Messiah in death and in resurrection (Romans 6:4-5).
Are Satan’s children “persecuted for the word?” No!
In Acts 10:11, the Apostle Keefa (Peter) was shown in a vision a large sheet with both clean and unclean animals (symbolic of Jews & Gentiles). But what is also very interesting is that this sheet was “knit at the four corners” where we are commanded to wear the “tziytzit” for the lost sheep of the House of Yisra’el! This sheet was also symbolic of the end-time gathering of the “elect” (Jewish & Gentile believers) from the “four corners of the earth!”
This should now put to rest the notion that the “Church” is raptured first and then seven years later the Jewish believers are gathered after the tribulation. As you can see, our Messiah has promised to bring together “two sticks” and make them into “one stick” at his second coming!
The Seed of Abraham Leavened into the Whole Earth
If you are still having trouble believing that there are three groups of people that are going to be gathered at the “end-time” harvest, this parable spoken by our Messiah in Matthew 13:33 will give you some more clarity. I also find it fascinating that this verse is numbered with three number “3’s!” The number “3” symbolizes resurrection in prophecy and the “witness of three” is seen in every covenant that YaHuWaH has ever made (spirit, water and blood) according to 1st John 5:7-8.
In this parable, the woman is Jerusalem “the mother of us all” (Galatians 4:26), but it is also the Holy Spirit who gives “birth” to us when we are “born-again.” The Earth is the whole batch of dough and the “leaven” is besowrah (gospel) of Messiah being preached to the “seed of Abraham.” Who are the seed of Abraham? Is it those who carry the physical DNA of Abraham? Yes, it does include them but it goes beyond physical DNA. Even those who have the DNA of Abraham must repent, accept the blood of Yahuwshuwa Messiah as atonement for their sins and obey Towrah.
In this parable, the woman is Jerusalem “the mother of us all” (Galatians 4:26), but it is also the Holy Spirit who gives “birth” to us when we are “born-again.” The Earth is the whole batch of dough and the “leaven” is besowrah (gospel) of Messiah being preached to the “seed of Abraham.” Who are the seed of Abraham? Is it those who carry the physical DNA of Abraham? Yes, it does include them but it goes beyond physical DNA. Even those who have the DNA of Abraham must repent, accept the blood of Yahuwshuwa Messiah as atonement for their sins and obey Towrah.
In Luke 3:7-8, Yahuwchanon (John) the Immerser (Baptizer) rebuked those who were putting their trust in bloodline identity. He was essentially saying to them “just because you are the physical descendants of Abraham, does not mean you are automatically saved---you must show the fruit of repentance by obeying the commandments.” Listen to what John says:
Luqas (Luke) 3:7 Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be immersed (baptized) of him, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Luqas (Luke) 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That Elohiym is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Now, let me explain this parable:
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 13:33 Another parable spoke he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
*Note: this word for “leaven” in the above passage can usually be used as a metaphor for “sin,” however, in this passage the term “leaven” is being used as a metaphor of the gospel (besowrah) of Messiah. The Greek word is #2220 “zumoo” in the Strong’s Concordance. It is also interesting that there are three #2’s in this reference number to intimate that there are Two Houses of Yisra’el, but when the gospel message is “leavened” into the earth, they become three “3’s” for the added Gentile companions!
The Greek word “zumoo” means “to cause to ferment.” The Brown’s Driver-Brigg’s Lexicon says the following about this word: “this word for ‘leaven’ in most instances is used to symbolize “sin,” but in this instance it is used as a metaphor for the power of the gospel, which from a small beginning will gradually pervade and transform the whole human race.”
The Blue Letter Bible says the following about this Greek word “zumoo:” Leaven is applied to that substance which is small in quantity, yet thoroughly pervades a thing by its influence. The NT uses it in both a positive (cf. Mat 13:33) or negative sense (e.g., “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”).
The Kingdom of Elohiym (Heaven):
1. Followers of Messiah from the House of Yahuwdah (Judah or Jews).
2. Followers of Messiah from the House of Ephrayim (Yisra’el).
3. Followers of Messiah from the Gentile nations who are grafted into Yisra’el as “native born” (Ezekiel 47:22-23).
Kingdom of Satan (Darkness):
1. Those who reject Yahuwshuwa as the Messiah from Judah (Jews).
2. Those who reject Yahuwshuwa as the Messiah from Ephrayim (Yisra’el).
3. Those who reject Yahuwshuwa as the Messiah from the Gentile nations.
There are 6 groups represented above and “6” is the number of Adam, (mankind) and beast because all were created on the 6th day of creation.
The only difference between these two groups of “three” is that the first group belong to the Kingdom of Heaven, as they have received the blood of the Lamb as atonement for their sins and they have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In other words, they have the “breath” of YaHuWaH breathed into them.
Now we can better understand why Ezekiel was shown to take three parts of his hairs that had been shaven and to do the following with them:
Yechezqel (Ezekiel) 5:
1 And you, son of man, take you a sharp knife, take you a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon your head and upon your beard: then take you balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
2 You shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and you shall take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part you shall scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.
3 You shall also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in your skirts.
4 Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Yisra’el.
What are we seeing here? We see that one-third of these people from the House of Judah were burned in the Roman Siege in 70 A.D. during the destruction of Jerusalem. The other one-third of these were killed by the sword, and the final “one-third” were scattered into the “four corners” of the earth and many of those died by the sword as well. But a few in number (a remnant) were placed in the “skirts” of Ezekiel, and once again, this word for “skirt” is the Hebrew word “kanaph” which literally means “the four corners of the garment” where the “tziytit” are placed! In other words, those who obey Towrah are the remnant who will survive when they are “refined in the fire” of affliction (tribulation)!
Now, let’s get back to our study of the timing of the “catching away” of the elect.
Back in 2004, I revisited these verses in Matthew 24:29-31 with brand new understanding, as it had been previously explained to me by the Dispensationalist theologians that this verse was about the Jews who get left behind after the “Church is raptured.” Wow! I realized what non-sense this was once I came to the understanding of who the “elect” really are and I saw that the “elect” are made up of both Jews & Gentiles who are no longer “two” but “one new man!”
Back in 2004, I revisited these verses in Matthew 24:29-31 with brand new understanding, as it had been previously explained to me by the Dispensationalist theologians that this verse was about the Jews who get left behind after the “Church is raptured.” Wow! I realized what non-sense this was once I came to the understanding of who the “elect” really are and I saw that the “elect” are made up of both Jews & Gentiles who are no longer “two” but “one new man!”
How Many “Last” Trumpets?
Yahuwshuwa told us in Matthew 24:29 that he would gather his elect “immediately after the tribulation,” which, (by the way) only lasts for 3 ½ years, not seven years. But what really struck me was when I realized that this gathering would take place “with a great sound of a trumpet,” and then I remembered, what Sha’uwl (Paul) wrote in 1st Corinthians 15:50-52 where he says that the elect shall be gathered “at the last trumpet!”
I was now connecting the dots as I realized that this was the very same “great trumpet” that Yahuwshuwa was describing in Matthew 24:31 when he said that he shall he gather his “elect” immediately following the tribulation! If this is “the last trumpet” and the period called “the great tribulation” is over now, there can be no more trumpets after the last trumpet! Ponder that for a moment!
As I began to study the Feasts of YaHuWaH, I discovered that there are traditionally “four trumpets” that are sounded during the “Feast of Trumpets” aka “Yom Teruw’ah,” and the “last” of these “four trumpets” is when YaHuWaH will send his angels from the “four winds” of heaven to gather his elect from the “four corners” of the earth!
But lo, and behold, we find out there another “last trumpet” that is sounded every fiftieth year on Yom Kippur, which comes ten days after the Feast of Trumpets. Every year on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) on the 10th day of the 7th month of Tishrei, we are commanded to sound a trumpet:
Wayyiqra (Leviticus) 25:
8 And you shall number seven sabbaths of years unto you, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto you forty and nine years.
9 Then shall you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family.
Every “50th year” called “The Year of Jubilee” there shall be a cancellation of debts, slaves shall go free from their masters, and every person who lost their inheritance due to financial poverty, must be restored to his or her land. The trumpet shall sound on the “tenth day of the seventh month” on the “Day of Atonement” (Yom Kippur) pronouncing a Jubilee throughout the land of Yisra’el.
What does all of this mean? Well, do you remember earlier in this study when I mentioned that there are two brides typified in Rachel & Leah? Well that is where these two different “last trumpets” are going to come into focus. You see, the first bride that Ya’aqob (Jacob) married (Leah) represents the Ten Northern Tribes of the House of Ephrayim. But Ya’aqob (Jacob) married Rachel at the end of the “week” (seven days later) after he married Leah.
Rachel symbolizes the Two Southern Tribes of the House of Judah. The first “last trumpet” is for the “born-again” believers on the Feast of Trumpets typified in Leah. But the Yom Kippur “last trumpet” in the 50th year is for the House of Judah who will finally accept their Messiah at his second coming and these are typified as “Rachel.” Collectively, Leah’s sons and Rachel’s sons make up “The Whole House of Yisra’el.”
Leah & Rachel’s Sons Trade Places
It may seem strange for some of you that I assimilate Leah to the Ten Northern Tribes of the House of Ephrayim and Rachel to the Two Southern Tribes of the House of Judah. Some have rationalized “How can Rachel symbolize the House of Judah, when it was Leah who bore Judah?”
If Rachel is the grandmother of Ephrayim and Leah is the mother of Judah, then how did they end up switching places?
As we have already learned, in Genesis 48:13-20 Jacob gave the blessing of the “firstborn” to Joseph’s youngest son, Ephrayim, and the blessing of the younger son to Manasseh. Why did Jacob place his right hand on the younger son and his left hand on the older son? Jacob understood a principle that he was already familiar with, because Jacob was the youngest of twins born to Isaac & Rebekah. Even though Esau was the older twin, the prophecy spoken over him was the “older will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23, Romans 9:12).
This principle is illustrated throughout the scriptures as “the first shall become the last and the last shall become the first” (Matthew 19:30). Our Messiah referred to himself as “the first and the last” in Revelation 1:8 because he came to represent both Houses of Yisra’el (Leah & Rachel’s sons). This is how the sons of Rachel and the sons of Leah will become one family in the last days. To understand more about this concept, see my other article entitled: “Two Conditions of the Human Heart Seen in Ephrayim & Judah.”
So how did the families switch places? In Genesis 37:5, we read that Joseph had a dream wherein eleven of Jacob’s sons would bow down and serve him. This dream later-on came to pass when Joseph was made the ruler over his the brothers who plotted to kill him. The only brothers who did not want to kill Joseph were Reuben and Judah. Benjamin was too young at the time and so he was not present when the other brothers plotted to kill Joseph. However it was Judah’s idea to sell Joseph to the slave traders which ultimately saved his life and brought him into his destiny.
Years later, when Joseph was reunited with his brothers, Benjamin was the one who was instrumental in reconciling Jacob’s jealous sons back to Joseph. Jacob did not want to send Benjamin to Egypt for fear that he would be killed, so Judah promised Jacob that he would personally become Benjamin’s keeper forever (Genesis 43:8-9). After Joseph was reunited with his father, and Jacob was about to die, he gave Joseph a “double portion” of his inheritance (48:22). This means that Joseph would be the tribal leader of both Houses of Yisra’el.
But Judah was given the “priestly blessing” (the scepter) over the sons of Yisra’el, while Joseph was given the “birthright” which includes the “wealth of the nations.”
And so Joseph ruled over all eleven sons of Yisra’el according to the dream he had in Genesis 37:9. This would include the sons of Leah, Rachel, and their handmaidens (Bilhah & Zilpah). Joseph is a prophetic “type” of Messiah who in the last days will inherit “both houses” (Isaiah 8:14), in other words, he shall “possess the double” (Isaiah 61:7).
In 1st Kings 12, both Houses of Yisra’el split and became two separate kingdoms: The Southern Kingdom of Judah (which included Benjamin & Judah) and The Northern Kingdom of Ephrayim.
Since Judah vowed to become Benjamin’s keeper forever, these two tribes have remained together to this day.
When Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin, her body was buried in Bethlehem-Judah (Genesis 35:19). Because Rachel’s body was sown into the soil of the House of Judah, her son Benjamin would dwell in the land of Judah. Judah also protected Rachel’s son Joseph when the other brothers wanted to kill him. This is how Judah ended up becoming the son of Rachel. In Matthew 2:18 & Jeremiah 31:15, we read a prophecy about “Rachel weeping for her children.”
In Matthew 2:16 we read that King Herod had all the boys under two years old in the Kingdom of Judah killed in his attempt to kill the Messiah. These children were called “Rachel’s children” because her body was buried there. And thus, we can see how Judah & Benjamin are now counted as the sons of Rachel, and the other ten sons are counted as sons of Leah.
After King Solomon died, his son Rehoboam chased ten out of twelve tribes away by promising to make their tax burdens even heavier than his father Solomon did. This caused ten of the tribes to go north and they left the House of David. As a result of their departure, they began to worship the same pagan deities of the heathen nations, and eventually they were divorced by YaHuWaH and scattered to the four corners of the earth because of it (Zechariah 7:14; Jeremiah 31:10, Deuteronomy 30:3).
After King Solomon died, his son Rehoboam chased ten out of twelve tribes away by promising to make their tax burdens even heavier than his father Solomon did. This caused ten of the tribes to go north and they left the House of David. As a result of their departure, they began to worship the same pagan deities of the heathen nations, and eventually they were divorced by YaHuWaH and scattered to the four corners of the earth because of it (Zechariah 7:14; Jeremiah 31:10, Deuteronomy 30:3).
These Ten Northern Tribes known as “Ephrayim” were notorious for their idolatry (Hosea 4:17) and so they were sent away according to Hosea 1:9 and they were called “Loammi” (no longer my people). But as I already illustrated from Ezekiel 37:16-17, in the last days YaHuWaH shall cause these two divided Houses of Yisra’el to become “one stick” in his hand. What is even more revealing is that the Hebrew word for “stick” in Ezekiel 37:16-17 is “ets” which literally means “tree!”
Well now we can get a hint about who “The Two Witnesses” are in Revelation 11:4! The angel said to Yahuwchanon (John) “these are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks.” What this means is that there are two brides that are going to marry the bridegroom on two different feasts, but they shall become one bride on the “Day of Atonement” aka “Yom Kippur” at Messiah’s second coming! I will discuss the two witnesses a little bit more in detail later in this study.
Judah (who was born first in the natural) is now like the “younger son” in the story of the prodigal (Luke 15) because he is the “last one” who will become “born-again” by the blood of Messiah. And Ephrayim (who was born last in the natural) ends up in the last days becoming as “the firstborn” in the story of the prodigal because he will be the “first” to become “born-again” by the blood of Messiah. Hence, it is Ephrayim who represents the born-again believers in the nations and they will be married first to the bridegroom (just as Leah was married first). And Yahuwdah (Judah) repre-sents Rachel (the bride who was married last).
There shall be a “one third” from the House of Yahuwdah (Jews) who will be sealed in the foreheads in advance according to Ezekiel 5:5, 9:4 & Revelation 7:3-4, for they will not worship the Beast, nor take his mark. And because these remnant from the House of Judah “sigh and cry at the abominations” that are being done in Jerusalem, this will qualify them to meet their Messiah at the Mount of Olives at his return (Zechariah 14:4). These are the very same remnant from the House of David who will “look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10).
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 23:39 For I say unto you, You shall not see me henceforth, till you shall say, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of YHWH.”
In Hebrew, this phrase “Blessed is he that comes in the name of YaHuWaH” is “Baruch haba b’shem YaHuWaH.”
The Two Brides Becomes the Corporate “Man-child” at the Resurrection
The two brides of Messiah, symbolized by Rachel & Leah are going to become “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15) or the “man-child” in Revelation 12:5. This phenomenon may seem “strange” to you but here is why this is the case. You see, it was “Eve” (the woman) who sinned first and according to Paul in 1st Timothy 2:14-15, the woman was “in the transgression,” because she was deceived but Adam was not.
This is the reason why women were given the curse of bleeding every month during menstruation after the serpent had beguiled Eve. The female gender in prophecy is symbolic of the bride who bleeds every month (in other words, if she does not bear children, she is unfruitful) and so she is “unclean for seven days” during this time (Leviticus 15:19).
Similarly, Miryam, the mother of our Messiah gave birth to him on Yom Teruw’ah (Feast of Trumpets) and then she was “unclean for seven days” according to Leviticus 12:2. But by Yom Kippur, Miryam would have fulfilled her days of impurity, so that she could attend the circumcision of her son in the the outer court of Temple. Miryam is also the “woman” in Revelation 12 who gave birth to a man-child. But in the future, this “woman” in Revelation 12 is Jerusalem (the mother of us all) and when she gives birth to the corporate man-child, (the one new man) on the Feast of Trumpets, she too will have seven days of impurity during the “Ten Days of Awe” leading up to Yom Kippur!
The woman with the “issue of blood” in Matthew 9:20 was also a symbol of the nation of Yisra’el who had been “exiled” (sent away, quarantined) to the nations because of her uncleanness (Deuteronomy 24:1). She had this issue of blood for “twelve years” which is symbolic of the “twelve tribes” of Yisra’el. But when this woman “touched the hem” of Messiah’s garment she was made clean!
Similarly, Miryam, the mother of our Messiah gave birth to him on Yom Teruw’ah (Feast of Trumpets) and then she was “unclean for seven days” according to Leviticus 12:2. But by Yom Kippur, Miryam would have fulfilled her days of impurity, so that she could attend the circumcision of her son in the the outer court of Temple. Miryam is also the “woman” in Revelation 12 who gave birth to a man-child. But in the future, this “woman” in Revelation 12 is Jerusalem (the mother of us all) and when she gives birth to the corporate man-child, (the one new man) on the Feast of Trumpets, she too will have seven days of impurity during the “Ten Days of Awe” leading up to Yom Kippur!
The woman with the “issue of blood” in Matthew 9:20 was also a symbol of the nation of Yisra’el who had been “exiled” (sent away, quarantined) to the nations because of her uncleanness (Deuteronomy 24:1). She had this issue of blood for “twelve years” which is symbolic of the “twelve tribes” of Yisra’el. But when this woman “touched the hem” of Messiah’s garment she was made clean!
The Greek word for “hem” in Matthew 9:20 is as follows:
#2899 kraspedona: tassel, tuft; the extremity or prominent part of a thing, edge, skirt, margin; the fringe of a garment; the Jews had such appendages attached to their mantles to remind them of the law.
So you see, beloved, this “hem” of his garment was the “tziytzit” on the “four corners” of his garment to bring the “lost sheep” back home from their exile to the “four corners” of the earth! When these born-again Gentiles begin to “follow the Jewish Messiah” (according to Zechariah 8:23) by obeying his Towrah (Mosaic Law) they will be healed of their “uncleanness!”
And so whenever you see that the “elect” are likened unto a “woman” in scripture, it symbolizes her “unconverted” state before she is resurrected and she puts on incorruption (immortality). But once the bride “puts off the old man” and she “puts on the new man” she will then become a “type” of Messiah for she will then become his “body” which is a male body. In Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9-10 we see this typology being spoken of by Sha’uwl (Paul). That is why the bride is referred to as “one new man” in her converted state!
Our Messiah will return for the first bride typified in Leah which is the “born-again” believers from the “Ten Northern Tribes of Yisra’el” to include their “companions” (strangers who sojourned with them). This first bride will be “caught up” to meet Yahuwshuwa in the air on the “Feast of Trumpets” (Yom Teruw’ah). After the “Leah” bride is resurrected, she will then become “the new man” of Ephrayim! This bride typifies the “five wise virgins” in Matthew 25 who will go in to meet the bridegroom first, for their oil lamps will be filled. This means that she has the indwelling of the Ruwach ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit). In Song of Solomon 1:3 we read that the “oil” in the lamps of these “five wise virgins” is his name:
Shir ha’Shiriym (Song of Solomon) 1:33 Because of the savour of your good ointments your name [shem] is as ointment [shemen] poured forth, therefore do the virgins love you.
In Revelation 3 we see that the congregation in Philadelphia are spared from the “ten days of tribulation” that the congregation in Smyrna will have to suffer (Revelation 2:10). Why does Philadelphia have an “open door” into the marriage on the Feast of Trumpets (at the last trumpet)?
We get a clue here:
Chazown (Revelation) 3:
7 And to the angel of the congregation in Philadelphia write; These things says he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of Dawiyd (David), he that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens;
8 I know your works: behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it: for you have a little strength, and have kept my word, and have not denied my name.
9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Yahuwdiy (Jews), and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
10 Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
12 Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my Elohiym, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my Elohiym, [YaHuWaH] and the name of the city of my Elohiym, which is new Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), which comes down out of heaven from my Elohiym: and I will write upon him my new name.
In order to understand this prophecy, we must look to the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. Why are there “ten virgins?” The number “10” symbolizes the Ten Northern Tribes of the House of Ephrayim who were divorced and they “lost” their identity for a time because they stopped obeying the Towrah, their Father’s instructions. What does it mean that these are “virgins?” In Revelation 14:4 we read about the “144,000” and it says the following about them in the King James Version: “These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.”
What I also find fascinating is that the numbers “144” are embedded in this passage of Revelation 14:4 which is an integer that is the product of “twelve tribes times twelve apostles.” The word “women” in this passage is the Greek word “gune” and it is a singular word (woman). This passage is telling us that these “144,000” are undefiled by the Mother Harlot Church system, the “woman Jezebel” who is described by our Messiah in Revelation 2:20-23 as one who “teaches the servants of Elohiym to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.”
This number “144,000” is a number that carries with it deep spiritual meaning and it is not limited to a literal number of people. The word “thousand” in Hebrew means “the firstborn” because it is the word “aleph”א which is the first letter in the Hebrew Alphabet. This letter “aleph” א is a picture of the head of the ox in Ancient pictograph letters and it literally means “strong leader.” All those who are born-again by the blood of the Lamb will become “leaders” and they shall rule and reign as “kings and priests” for a thousand years in the Messianic Kingdom. The number “144” is the product of 12 Tribes X 12 Apostles.
This means that these “overcomers” follow the precepts of the Towrah given to Yisra’el during the Mosaic Covenant (erroneously called the Old Covenant). And they also accept the apostolic writings in the Briyth Chadashah (New Testament) and so they walk in the “double portion anointing” which is “spirit and truth.”
In Matthew 25, the “five wise virgins are “5” because they obey the Towrah (the five books penned by Moses) and they are “virgins” because they are undefiled by the Mother Harlot Church system. The “five foolish virgins” have the same characteristics as the “five wise” because they too obey the Towrah (Mosaic Law) and they too are undefiled by the Mother Harlot Church system, but they are not walking in the New Covenant writings of the apostles and they do not know the Messiah’s name yet! This is why they must “suffer tribulation for ten days” (Revelation 2:10) until Yom Kippur when Messiah returns! At the second coming of Messiah, these “five foolish virgins” from the congregation in Smyrna will finally be purged and purified in the fire of affliction and during this time, they will accept Yahuwshuwa as the Messiah, so that they will be ready to meet him at the Mount of Olives when he returns for them!
This congregation in Smyrna is the other bride typified in Rachel from the “Two Southern Tribes of Judah” (including their companions) who must go through “ten days of tribulation” (Revelation 2:10) or what is called the “Ten Days of Awe” so that they too will be ready to meet the bridegroom at his return. This bride is not ready when Messsiah comes on that day to “catch away” the bride on “Yom Teruw’ah” (Day of Trumpets). But during the “Ten Days of Awe,” Rachel will repent and make herself ready to meet the bridegroom when he returns on “The Day of Atonement” aka “Yom Kippur.”
To understand more about this concept, see my other article entitled: “Ten Days of Awe Leading Up to Yom Kippur!”
The “7th trumpet” (the last trumpet) on the “Feast of Trumpets” in the 7th month of Tishrei will signal the first bride (typified in Leah) to resurrect with the bridegroom. And then the “final trumpet” in the 50th year of Jubilee will signal the other bride typified in Rachel to be ready for the “Day of Atonement” (Yom Kippur) also called “face-to-face” by the Jewish people, for this is when the bride’s veil (blindness) is removed and she will finally “see” the bridegroom “face-to-face!”
On that self-same day, both brides typified in Leah & Rachel will be “changed” into the “one new man” as the corporate body of Messiah, “the two sticks” of Ephraiym & Yahuwdah (Judah)! In Revelation 12, the “woman” is Jerusalem (the mother of us all) and she is still in her mortal body and unconverted (uncircumcised in the heart). But when she gives birth to the “man-child” or the “one new man” she too will be saved ten days later on Yom Kippur! This is why Paul wrote the following:
1st Timotiyos (Timothy) 2:
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
The “woman” in Revelation 12 is Jerusalem (the mother of us all) and she has a crown of twelve stars for the Twelve Tribes of Yisra’el. This “woman” was called “a mother lioness” in Ezekiel 19 and she nourished two lion’s cubs (Ephrayim & Judah) the Two Houses of Yisra’el. But she became “barren,” as she was childless, unfruitful when she became “unclean” through her idolatry. She was like that woman with the “issue of blood” because she could not bear children any longer. But through the Messiah, her kinsman redeemer, she will give birth to the “one new man” and as a result, she also will be saved!
Now let’s continue with this study to find out the timing of when this will all take place. I know that there are many people who are reading this right now and they are still trying to defend the “pre-trib rapture theory,” and so it is important that we leave no stone unturned, so that you are settled in your mind once and for all.
Back in 2002, I began to study what many theologians call “Daniel’s 70th Week.” I realized that if we are going to understand the timing of these events, we must do a “time-line” on the life of our Messiah, Yahuwshuwa which lasted for 33.5 years.
Back in 2002, I began to study what many theologians call “Daniel’s 70th Week.” I realized that if we are going to understand the timing of these events, we must do a “time-line” on the life of our Messiah, Yahuwshuwa which lasted for 33.5 years.
As I began to study the timing of when our Messiah was born, I discovered through the research of by Dr. Ernest L. Martin in his book entitled “The Star that Astonished the World,” that there was a constellation seen on the night of his birth that was seen at no other time in history except when Yahuwshuwa was born. This took place on September 11th in 3 B.C., and this was the true birth-date of our Messiah.
It also happened to be the 1st day of the 7th month of Tishrei which landed precisely on “The Feast of Trumpets” aka “Yom Teruw’ah.”
Most Messianic Jewish believers tend to believe that his birth took place 15 days later on another feast called “The Feast of Tabernacles” or “Sukkot.” I must admit that I grappled with this idea of whether or not he was born on “Trumpets” or “Sukkot” for about five years (between 2002-2007) because the evidence for him being born on either of these two feasts seemed so compelling.
It was difficult to decide which one of these two feasts fit the prophetic markers of when he was born, but the more I researched and prayed about it, the evidence began to stack up higher and higher in favor of his birth being on “Yom Teruw’ah” on September 11th in 3 B.C.
What happened on that night? In Revelation 12:1-5 we read a prophecy that has a “two-fold” fulfillment.
A “sign” was seen in heaven by the Apostle Yahuwchanon (John) of “the woman clothed with the sun and the moon underneath her feet,” and she was giving birth to “a man-child.” The constellations that were seen that night are pictured here as “Bethulah” (Virgo the Virgin) giving birth to “Ariel the Lion of Yahuwdah” (Judah) and the planet Jupiter was also there within the constellation, originally called “Ha’Melek Tzaddiq” or in English “The Righteous King.”
What is so amazing about this constellation being seen on this night is that the “Feast of Trumpets” is nick-named by the Jewish people as “ha’Melek” because it is on this particular feast that all the Kings of Yahuwdah (Judah) were coroneted and ushered into a ceremony with a “great sound a trumpet!” And so the “King of the Jews” (The Lion of the Tribe of Judah) himself was being announced into the world on that day with trumpets and planetary fanfare!
Now, I do not want to digress too much further from our “rapture” study, and so I will just refer you to my other article entitled “When Was the Messiah of Yisra’el Born & Why Does it Matter?”
In this other study, I go into much more detail explaining how we can know for certain when he was born and why it is the “key” to understanding prophecy.
In this other study, I go into much more detail explaining how we can know for certain when he was born and why it is the “key” to understanding prophecy.
You see, the bride of Messiah was “created in his image” for we are being planted together into the likeness of his “death and resurrection” (Romans 6:5). This means that if he was born on Yom Teruw’ah (Feast of Trumpets), then the bride will also be “born-again” into incorruption on that self-same feast day! In Revelation 12:1, the woman is Miryam (the mother of Yahuwshuwa) who was giving birth to a literal “man-child” at that time. But in the future resurrection of the bride, she too will be “born of the woman” and the bride will then “put off” the old sinful nature (the old sinful nature of Eve) and she will be “changed” into the “one new man-child” born-again of incorruptible seed (1st Peter 1:23)!
Now let’s get back to our study…
The Roman Emperor Constantine borrowed the pagan celebration of the Saturnalia and attached the name of our Messiah to it calling it “The Mass of Christ” in the 3rd Century. He did this as a political strategy in order to assimilate the real Yahuwshuwa ha’Mashiyach to the pagan sun-gods who were supposedly “reincarnated” each year (according to paganism) on December 25th at the winter solstice in astrology. One of these reincarnated gods was named “Tammuz” also known as “Ba’al,” (Ezekiel 8:14). The people of Yisra’el were worshiping this pagan sun-god in the Temple of YaHuWaH and he called it an abomination. And so we can see why Satan wants us to celebrate December 25th because it actually represents a “false Christ” or the Antichrist.
Why is this so important? Because Yahuwshuwa’s real date of birth validates prophecy! Scripture tells us in Revelation 18:10, that “The testimony of Yahuwshuwa is the spirit of prophecy.”
Daniel’s 70 Week Prophecy
Now by understanding the timing of the birth and death of Messiah, I was able to come up with an exact time-line of “Daniel’s 70th Week” from the “going forth of the command to rebuild Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:24), which was the decree given by King Cyrus in 457 B.C. Daniel’s 70 Weeks begins with the decree of King Cyrus in 457 B.C. (not Artaxerxes) in 445 B.C. This is where the 490-year prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 actually begins. If you subtract 457 years from 490 years you get 33 years which is how old Yahuwshuwa was at his death. But if you subtract 7 years from 33, that takes us to the year 26 A.D. You skip one year forward for 1 A.D. because we do not count the year “zero” and so that brings us to 27 A.D. for when Yahuwshuwa he began his 3 ½ year ministry.
Why did we subtract 7 years? Because when you read the entire prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27, there is a period of 434 years being described, and then another period of 49 years and then the last period is 7 years. These three segments of time make up the entire 490 years and they are broken down as follows:
434 years + 49 years + 7 years = 490 years (70 weeks of years X 7)
490 years – 7 years = 483 years
We then take the final “week” or the last 7 years of this prophecy and we divide it into two parts as the prophecy states: “in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease” (Daniel 9:27).
7 years ÷ 2 = 2 periods of 3.5 years
And so there are actually four segments of time for which “something happens” leading up to the fulfillment of “Daniel’s 70th Week.” Let us now subtract 7 years from the total amount of years (490) and we are going to set that aside for now. From the time that the decree was issued allowing the Jews go back to Jerusalem to rebuild their city and their Temple (457 B.C.) until “Messiah the Prince” was revealed in Daniel 9:25 is a total of 483 years leaving only 7 years of this prophecy yet to be fulfilled.
Yahuwshuwa’s ministry lasted for 3.5 years (like Elijah and the two witnesses) and since we are patterned after the “likeness of Messiah” it only makes sense that Eliyahuw (Elijah) and the two witnesses have a 3.5 year ministry (1,260 days) just like our Messiah.
Yahuwshuwa began his ministry at his baptism in the fall (40 days before Yom Kippur). He read Isaiah 61 on “Yom Kippur” as the “High Priest” after he had already turned 30 years old on “Yom Teruw’ah” while he was in the wilderness fasting and praying.
The reason why his birthday could not have been on the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) is because his 30th birthday would have still been 5 days away and he would not have been able to perform the role as the High Priest on “Yom Kippur” that year when he first began his ministry in 27 A.D. In Numbers 4:3-47 it states in the Towrah that a priest must be at least 30 years old before he is allowed to minister. Yahuwshuwa’s ministry lasted for 3.5 years from Yom Kippur in 27 A.D. and then he died on Passover in 31 A.D. at the age of 33.5.
Now there is some historical record in the Jewish Talmud about “The Yom Kippur Miracle” that lasted from 30 A.D. until 70 A.D. (exactly 40 years) until the Roman Siege and this evidence seems to suggest that he died in 30 A.D. rather than 31 A.D. but I have a perfectly good explanation for this. It has to do with Pope Gregory’s introduction to the Gregorian calendar in 1582 which outdated the Julian calendar.
In the year that our Messiah was being crucified, the Jewish Talmud records that it was the year 30 A.D. but when Pope Gregory made changes to the calendar in 1582, it caused all previous dates to also move forward by one year. Hence, what used to be called “30 A.D.” in the 4th Century (when the Jewish Talmud went into print) is today called “31 A.D.” See this website below to learn more about “double-dating.”
Also, see my other article entitled “How Does Good Friday Discredit Our Messiah? Can You Count to Three?”
To learn more about the Forty-Year Yom Kippur Miracle, see my article entitled: “Jacob’s Time of Trouble & Daniel’s 70th Week.”
To learn more about the Forty-Year Yom Kippur Miracle, see my article entitled: “Jacob’s Time of Trouble & Daniel’s 70th Week.”
What does Yahuwshuwa’s ministry show us? It reveals that there are only 3.5 years left to go out of this 490 year prophecy of Daniel---not 7 years, as tradition has taught us! Out of Daniel’s 70 Weeks, 486.5 of those years have already been fulfilled with only 3.5 years left! As soon as we “see” the “Abomination of Desolation,” for then shall be “great tribulation” (Matthew 24:15-21).
The two witnesses in Revelation 11 will also prophesy during this period of 1,260 days (3.5 years) and the Anti-Messiah will speak blasphemies for 42 months (3.5 years) at the same time. Yahuwshuwa’s seven-year ministry was broken down into two parts. He first completed 3.5 years at his first coming, and then “in the middle of the week” (in the middle of seven years) he was “cut off” leaving yet another 3.5 years to be fulfilled of his ministry. But instead of finishing these 3.5 years himself just before his second coming, I believe that he will complete the latter half of these seven years through his “two witnesses.”
The two witnesses in Revelation 11 will also prophesy during this period of 1,260 days (3.5 years) and the Anti-Messiah will speak blasphemies for 42 months (3.5 years) at the same time. Yahuwshuwa’s seven-year ministry was broken down into two parts. He first completed 3.5 years at his first coming, and then “in the middle of the week” (in the middle of seven years) he was “cut off” leaving yet another 3.5 years to be fulfilled of his ministry. But instead of finishing these 3.5 years himself just before his second coming, I believe that he will complete the latter half of these seven years through his “two witnesses.”
The Anti-Messiah will also have a false ministry that will run concurrently during this time. The period known as “Jacob’s Time of Trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7) is actually a total of 20 years. In Genesis 31:41 we read that Ya’aqob (Jacob) worked “7 years” for Rachel, and then he was tricked into marrying Leah. His wedding with Leah lasted for “7 days.” On the night that he married Leah, he realized that he had been tricked by Laban his father-in-law into marrying the wrong woman. When he confronted Laban about it, this was Laban’s reply:
Bereshiyth (Genesis) 29:
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give you this also for the service which you shall serve with me yet seven other years.
28And Ya’aqob (Jacob) did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
And so Ya’aqob also married Rachel after his “7-day” wedding with Leah. But then he agreed to work for an additional “7 years” for Rachel totaling 14 years. But Yaa’qob (Jacob) also worked yet another “6 years” Laban’s cattle. The last “6 years” that he worked for his cattle symbolizes the Gentiles. Thus there are two periods of “7 years” for two groups of people, and then another additional “6 years” for the third group. And so there are two periods of “7 years” and another period of “6 years” for a total of three groups of people.
There Two Houses of Yisra’el (Ephrayim & Yahuwdah) and there are the Gentiles who are grafted-in (called companions in Ezekiel 37:16-17). Ya’aqob is a prophetic “type” of Messiah and he has allotted seven years for each of the “two brides” and then another 6 years for the cattle (Gentiles). These 20 years correlate to the 20 days that culminate during the three Fall Feasts beginning at the 2nd day of the Feast of Trumpets (after the bride is removed for seven).
In the same way that Noah and his family were placed inside of the ark for “seven days” prior to the rain falling on the earth as the “wrath” of Elohiym, so the bride of Messiah will be in the “chuppah” for seven days before the “day of wrath” which will happen on Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement is for the second bride typified in Rachel (unconverted Jews who are saved ten days later when Messiah returns). And the Feast of Tabernacles is for both brides becoming “one stick” in the hand of YaHuWaH with their “Gentile Companions” (Ezekiel 37:16-17).
Hence, there will be a total of 20 days from the 3rd day of 7th month of Tishrei through the 20th day of the 7th month of Tishrei culminating on the “Last Great Day” of the Feast of Tabernacles.
The first three days of the “ten days of tribulation” (ten days of awe) between the Feast of Trumpets & the Day of Atonement are the same “three and a half days” when the dead bodies of the two witnesses are laying in the streets. And then the “seventh angel” will sound on the 3rd day of Tishri, is when these two witnesses will be caught up to meet YaHuWaH in the air! See Revelation 11:15. So you see, the 1st day of the 7th month of Tishrei is when the “four angels” from the “four winds” of heaven gather the elect. But even these elect are divided up into three groups:
The first three days of the “ten days of tribulation” (ten days of awe) between the Feast of Trumpets & the Day of Atonement are the same “three and a half days” when the dead bodies of the two witnesses are laying in the streets. And then the “seventh angel” will sound on the 3rd day of Tishri, is when these two witnesses will be caught up to meet YaHuWaH in the air! See Revelation 11:15. So you see, the 1st day of the 7th month of Tishrei is when the “four angels” from the “four winds” of heaven gather the elect. But even these elect are divided up into three groups:
1.) The bride
2.) The bridal party
3.) The wedding guests
During these first three days of Tishrei, the elect are gathered to be separated by the angels (Revelation 14:15-20, Matthew 13:30-42). They will be divided into two parts initially: “wheat & tares.” Then, the wheat will be ground up into “meal” or “wheat flour” that can be used to bake bread, and then the meal will be divided up into these other three parts from the “three measures of meal” that we read about in Matthew 13:33. The bride will be the larger group from the Ten Northern Tribes of the House of Ephrayim. These are the “born-again” believers in Messiah, regardless if they began as Gentiles are Jews.
Then the bridal party will be those Jews who did not accept Yahuwshuwa as the Messiah yet, but because they do not take the “Mark of the Beast,” they are given a “seal” in the foreheads (Ezekiel 9:4, Revelation 7:3). These Yahuwdiy (Jews) “sigh and cry” at the abominations that are being done in Jerusalem in the last days, and this will qualify them to meet their Messiah at the Mount of Olives in Zechariah 12-14, where they will then be restored to him.
The wedding guests will be those truly born-again people within Christianity who did not come into the fullness of their identity as Yisraelites. They did not learn to say his true Hebrew name and they did not keep the Feasts of YaHuWaH and his Sabbaths, but they had other righteous deeds such as feeding the poor and hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those who were in prison and laying hands on the sick (Matthew 25:33-36; 7:20-23). But the bride possesses the “double portion inheritance” because she walks in both: Spirit & Truth.
The Jewish people refer to the Mosaic Law (Towrah) as “The Book of Truth” because of what David wrote in Psalm 119:142: “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your Towrah (law) is the truth.
But the bride not only operates in the “truth” of the Towrah, but she has also “washed her garments in the blood of the Lamb” and she “follows him wherever he goes.” This means that she does whatever he does, to include obeying the Towrah. She is undefiled by the Mother Harlot Church system and she is counted as the “144,000” in Revelation 14 because she has been fully grafted into the olive tree (Yisra’el).
The bride is also filled with the Ruwach ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit) and she displays the nine fruits of the spirit and she also operates in the nine gifts of the spirit (1st Corinthians 12:4-10 & Galatians 5:22-23). The bride has the “fruit” of repentance in her life, showing that she has the Towrah written in her heart. In other words, she has good works. But she also has the power of the Holy Spirit (the gifts) which shows that she has been baptized (immersed) by Messiah in his fire! She also has not denied his name (Revelation 3:8, and this qualifies her to go into the wedding first on the Feast of Trumpets.
The guests at the wedding may have faith in Yahuwshuwa as their Messiah, and they may have even accepted the blood of the Lamb as atonement for their sins, but they may not be walking in the “fullness” of their identity as Yisraelites.
These wedding guests may have some good works of charity, but like the congregations in the book of Revelation, they may also have some of the doctrines of Jezebel, Balaam & the Nicolaitanes mixed into their worship and so they do not qualify to be the bride (Revelation 2:6, 15, 20). These wedding guests may be saved from the second death (Revelation 20:6), but they will have to learn to obey the Mosaic Law or the Towrah during the Millennial Reign of Messiah (Isaiah 2:3, Micah 4:2). These wedding guests will not rule and reign with Messiah as “kings and priests” like the bride does (Revelation 1:6; 5:10).
These wedding guests may have some good works of charity, but like the congregations in the book of Revelation, they may also have some of the doctrines of Jezebel, Balaam & the Nicolaitanes mixed into their worship and so they do not qualify to be the bride (Revelation 2:6, 15, 20). These wedding guests may be saved from the second death (Revelation 20:6), but they will have to learn to obey the Mosaic Law or the Towrah during the Millennial Reign of Messiah (Isaiah 2:3, Micah 4:2). These wedding guests will not rule and reign with Messiah as “kings and priests” like the bride does (Revelation 1:6; 5:10).
To fully understand who this elusive group of people are, see my article entitled: “Who Are the 144,000?”
Now, Back to our Study on Daniel’s 70th Week
So far, we can see that Yahuwshuwa has already fulfilled “half” of the first “7 years” of working for Leah, and then the two witnesses will complete the other “half” (1,260 days) of working for Leah, totaling seven years. When Messiah returns, he will then work for yet another “7 years” for Rachel after he has already married her.
In Ezekiel 39:9 it says that there will be “seven years” of burning weapons and preparing the land of Yisra’el to be a habitation of peace during the Millennium. This will fulfill the remaining seven years out of the fourteen years of “Jacob’s Trouble.” You see Ya’aqob (Jacob) is a prophetic “type” of Mashiyach (Messiah) and his “trouble” was about the fact that he had to work for fourteen years in order to be married to Rachel his beloved.
Now let us get back to “Daniel’s 70 Weeks,” where we find out that there is a total of 490 years.
These 490 years are divided up into 4 parts: 62 weeks (434 years); 7 weeks (49 years); 1 week (7 years) but that last “week” is divided into two parts, because “in the middle of the week,” Messiah was cut off and he caused the “sacrifices and oblation” to cease “in the midst of the week.” The Father in Heaven no longer recognized these sacrifices in the earthly Temple once the Jewish nation rejected their Messiah.
The Levites continued performing sacrifices until 70 A.D. but they were not recognized because Jerusalem had rejected Messiah as the “Red Heifer” sacrifice which sanctifies the altar. Since his blood alone sanctifies the altar, their evening and morning oblations were “vain” or empty (Isaiah 1:11-18). It was Messiah himself who made Jerusalem “desolate” by his own prophetic word when he said to them:
The Levites continued performing sacrifices until 70 A.D. but they were not recognized because Jerusalem had rejected Messiah as the “Red Heifer” sacrifice which sanctifies the altar. Since his blood alone sanctifies the altar, their evening and morning oblations were “vain” or empty (Isaiah 1:11-18). It was Messiah himself who made Jerusalem “desolate” by his own prophetic word when he said to them:
“O Yerushalayim, Yerushalayim, you who stone the prophets…behold your house is left to you desolate!” (Matthew 23:38).
Daniel 9:27 is not about the Anti-Messiah who signs some imagined seven-year peace treaty. We must have “two or three witnesses” else-where in scripture in order to make that into a doctrine. Daniel 9:27 is about Yahuwshuwa Mashiyach (Messiah) who “confirmed the covenant with many for one week” during Passover week (Mark 14:24). It was Messiah who confirmed the one and only covenant that YaHuWaH made with Abraham. It was Messiah who also made Jerusalem desolate. It is Messiah who will cause Jerusalem to be desolate “even until the consummation.”
What does this phrase mean “even until the consummation?” What happens on the wedding night between a married couple? They consummate the marriage! In other words, right up until the “Marriage Supper of the Lamb,” (Revelation 19:9), Jerusalem will remain “desolate” and “barren” until she gives birth to the “one new man” and then she will no longer be desolate (barren) for she will be redeemed in the year of Jubilee on Yom Kippur at Messiah’s return! See my other article entitled: “Who Confirms the Covenant of Daniel’s 70th Week?”
The length of Daniel’s 70-Week prophecy is seen as follows:
70 weeks X 7 years = 490 years.
The word “weeks” here in Daniel 9:24-27 is the Hebrew word “shabuwah” which literally means “a period of seven; to be sevened; a heptad.” And so this period of “seventy weeks” means 70 years times 7 totally 490 years. This is the same formula that Yahuwshuwa gave to Keefa (Peter) when he asked him “how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?”
The answer that Yahuwshuwa gave to Keefa (Peter) was “I say not unto you, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22).
In other words 70 X 7 = FORGIVENESS!
The “first-fruits” of our redemption was accomplished with the atonement of Yahuwshuwa as our Passover Lamb. But the bride has not received the fullness of her redemption yet until she receives the redemption of the body:
Romiym (Romans) 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
When Yahuwshuwa completes the atonement on Yom Kippur (day of wrath, and vengeance), that will be the completion of his atonement for sins! You see all those who accept his blood atonement will be “accepted” and all of those who reject his atonement will “not be accepted.”
That is why he only read the first half of Isaiah 61:2 when he first began his ministry on Yom Kippur. He then he stopped in the middle of the verse and closed the book (Luke 4:19-20)! Why did he stop in the middle of Isaiah 61:2 by not finishing the verse? Because the last part of this verse will be fulfilled at his second coming on Yom Kippur! Let’s make a comparison between the original prophecy that Yahuwshuwa was reading from in Isaiah 61 and the account in Luke’s gospel:
Yeshayahuw (Isaiah) 61:
1 The Spirit of YHWH Elohiym is upon me; because YHWH has anointed me to preach good tidings (basar, gospel) unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of YHWH, and the day of vengeance of our Elohiym; to comfort all that mourn;
Luqas (Luke) 4:
18 The Spirit of YHWH is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the basar (gospel) to the poor; he has 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,
19 To preach the acceptable year of YHWH.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
As you can see, Yahuwshuwa stopped right in the middle of Isaiah 61:2 and he only read half of the verse! Why? Because “in the middle” of Daniel’s 70th Week he fulfilled only half of this verse! At his first coming, he began his ministry on Yom Kippur when he emerged out of the wilderness from his forty days of fasting and he declared the “acceptable year of YaHuWaH.”
He had by this point turned 30 years old on Yom Teruw’ah and he was now stepping into the role as the eternal High Priest (Kohen Gadowl) instead of the earthly priesthood of the Levites! In other words, he was now restoring the office of the High Priest back to Melchizedek! And at his second coming, he will fulfill the second half of Isaiah 61:2 when he returns once again as “King of Kings & Master of Masters” to not only restore the priesthood but also the role of the King of Judah! This is when he will come back on the day of wrath and vengeance as a “lion” to avenge the blood of his bride and once again it will be on Yom Kippur!
To fully understand this phenomenon of the role of the High Priest being “changed,” please see these other articles:
Messiah’s Forty Days of Fasting Leading Up to Yom Kippur!
What is a School Master & What Law Was Added Because of Transgression?
The Twin Goats on Yom Kippur Fulfilled in Yahuwshuwa Messiah
The 490-year prophecy given to Daniel will be completed when the “70 X 7” formula of complete forgiveness has been fully implemented for both Houses of Yisra’el. Even though it was already purchased for us by Yahuwshuwa when he died on the tree, in order for it to be fully implemented the House of Judah (Jews) must have another opportunity to receive it or reject it. You see Ya’aqob (Jacob) worked “double” the “seven years” because he loved Rachel that much! This is why the House of Judah will be given another chance to accept him just before his second coming.
YaHuWaH’s atonement for sin towards all of mankind will then be fully implemented on a spiritual and physical level.
Now, if we subtract 3.5 years (for the final tribulation period) from the 490-year prophecy, we get 486.5 years. So, let’s add 486.5 years to 457 B.C. (when the decree was first given by Cyrus) and we come to the exact date of when Yahuwshuwa died on the tree which was on a Wednesday Passover on March 26th in 31 A.D. How did I arrive at this date for his death? I took the date of his death from this calendar from www.TorahCalendar.com
There is no such thing as “Good Friday.” Good Friday discredits Yahuwshuwa and makes it appear that he lied when he said that he would be “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Good Friday puts him in the heart of the earth only one day, not three days.
The day after his crucifixion, was an annual Sabbath called “The Feast of Unleavened Bread” and then two days later was the weekly Sabbath. From these dates, we find out that our Mashiyach, Yahuwshuwa fulfilled the first 3.5 years of Daniel’s 70th Week leaving only 3.5 years to complete of this 490-year prophecy.
The last half of Daniel’s 70th Week (3.5 years), begins with the Anti-Messiah setting up the “The Abomination of Desolation” in the 3rd Jewish Temple, and this is when the “tribulation” period actually begins (Matthew 24:15-21).
Concurrently, the “two witnesses” in Revelation 11 will also have a ministry that lasts for 1,260 days (3.5 years).
In Daniel 12 & Revelation 12, we read a cryptic phrase called “a time, times and a half times.” In Hebrew and in Greek, the word “time” is “mowed” which means “an appointed feast or a festival” but it can also mean “conventionally one year.” This is because there are seven feasts annually, so seven feasts can be equivalent to one year. From this understanding, let’s see what this phrase means:
Time = 1 year
Times = 2 years
Half Times = 6 months (3.5 years or 1,260 days)
There is no place in scripture that tells us that there will be a “seven-year” tribulation!
Many theologians have misinterpreted Daniel 9:27 where it says “and he shall confirm the covenant with ‘many’ for one week....” They think that the “he” mentioned here is the Anti-Messiah (Antichrist) who “confirms the covenant.” But in the previous verses in Daniel 9:25-26, the subject is “Messiah the Prince” and then the other subject is “the people of the prince.” And so when Daniel 9:27 says “he,” we can only take that to mean the “he” in the previous verse which is “Messiah the Prince” because “the people” are a “they” not a “he.”
Furthermore, it was our Savior, Yahuwshuwa who said on that final Passover supper, the night before his crucifixion: “this is the blood of my covenant shed for MANY,” and he did this within the last week (seven years) of Daniel’s 490-year prophecy.
We can see that it was “in the midst of the week” according to Daniel 9:25-26 because Wednesday is in the middle of the week (literally) and then on a larger scale, in the “middle” of the last seven years of this 490-year prophecy, Yahuwshuwa was “cut off” according to Daniel 9:26. Who else would “he” be referring to in Daniel 9:27?
It is Yahuwshuwa Mashiyach who “confirmed the covenant with many” for the entire duration of his 3.5-year ministry. He will then continue the remainder of his seven-year ministry for Leah through his “two witnesses” right up until his second coming during the last 1,260 days (3.5 years) of tribulation which concludes the final “week” of this 490-year prophecy.
In order to “confirm” something like a covenant, there has to be a covenant already in place and there is only one original covenant that YaHuWaH made with Abraham, and Yahuwshuwa came to “confirm” this very same covenant! Also, the fact that the King James Version calls it “the” covenant rather than “a” covenant is another clue that this is no ordinary covenant or a so-called “peace treaty” by the false Messiah.
*Note: The King James Version says “the covenant” while all modern versions say “a covenant.” The King James translators obviously knew the meaning of this word “covenant” in Hebrew because they were using the Hebrew Masoretic text. Let’s take a look at this word “covenant” in the Hebrew Strong’s Concordance:
#1285 briyth ber-eeth in the sense of cutting a compact made by passing between pieces of flesh.
I believe that this is significant because it tells us that there was only one covenant that he came to confirm and this was no ordinary covenant nor is it a peace treaty signed by an Antichrist leader.
As you can see from the above definition for “briyth” (covenant) it has to do with “cutting a covenant” and then passing between pieces of flesh. When was the first time that this happened in scripture?
Bereshiyth (Genesis) 9:
11 And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there anymore be a flood to destroy the earth.
12 And Elohiym said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
You will notice that “all flesh was cut off” in the days of Noah and this was a sign of “circumcision” of the earth. The ordinance of water baptism was also present as the earth was cleansed with water. The second time that we see this type of covenant taking place on a personal level is with Abraham.
Bereshiyth (Genesis) 15:
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18 In the same day YHWH made a covenant with Abram, saying, unto your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
YaHuWaH “passed between pieces of flesh” in the above verses as a sign of his covenant with Abraham. This is how we know that the “covenant” being spoken of in Daniel 9:27 is not a peace treaty signed by an Antichrist leader!
Ten Days of Tribulation or “Awe” For Ten Virgins
In Leviticus 23, we are commanded to celebrate a “memorial of blowing trumpets” on the 1st day of the 7th month called Yom Teruw’ah or Day of Blowing. And then on the 10th day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement called Yom Kippur. During these ten days between these two feasts, it is called “The Ten Days of Awe” or “ten days of tribulation” for the Congregation at Smyrna (Revelation 2:10).
These ten days between these two feasts prophetically point to the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. Five of these virgins are wise because they will continue to stay filled up with the Ruwach ha’Qodesh (Holy Spirit) and they will be ready when the bridegroom comes. But five of these virgins are foolish because they are going to allow their oil lamps to run out, and they are not going to be ready when the bridegroom comes, and these are the ones that the Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) was talking about when he said the following words:
1st Tas’loniqiym (Thessalonians) 5:3 For when they shall say, peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape.
When the “five wise virgins” go into the marriage the “the door will be shut” and the “five foolish virgins” will be left out of the marriage.
After the bride goes into the marriage and the door is shut, there is a “seven-day” wedding just like Jacob & Leah. The bride will be “caught up to meet YaHuWaH in the air” (1st Thessalonians 4:17) and then she will be taken to the “New Yerushalayim” (New Jerusalem) on Mount Tziywon (Zion) in heaven for the wedding!
During these “seven-days” while the bride is getting married to the bridegroom, this will happen during the “Ten Days of Awe” (between Trumpets & Atonement). You might be asking yourself by now “But what about the other three days?” If there are a total of ten days between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, and the wedding of the first bride (typified in Leah) only lasts for seven days, then what happens during the other three days out of these ten days?
The corporate bride (the two witnesses) will also be “three days and three nights” with their bodies in the streets and then the “seventh trumpet” (last trumpet) on the Feast of Trumpets will sound, and then the corporate two witnesses will resurrect!
Hence, we have three days of the bride being dead, and then she is raised “on the third day” during these “Ten Days of Awe” and then for the next “seven days” she will be in the “bridal chamber” (chuppah) with the bridegroom until “Yom Kippur” when she returns with him on the “Day of Vengeance” (Revelation 19:7-14).
We see the same pattern with Noah and his family as they suffered “tribulation” while building the ark on dry land as they were mocked and persecuted by the unbelievers. The word “tribulation” both in Greek & in Hebrew literally means “persecution.” Noah’s family endured “tribulation” and then the “wrath” of Elohiym came in the form of rain. When all eight of them were in the ark, “the door was shut” and no more people were saved after that! Then immediately after Noah and his family went into the ark, they were told to “wait for seven more days” until the wrath fell upon the earth:
Bereshiyth (Genesis) 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
Yahuwshuwa said that his second coming would be “as in the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37). When the five wise virgins go into the marriage, “the door is shut” and no more people can get into the marriage after that! As in the days of Noah, once “the door was shut” to the Ark, no more people were saved from the flood!
Do you see the pattern? There is a 7-day waiting period where the bride is taken into a safe place called “the bridal chamber” or in Hebrew it is called a “chuppah” (Psalms 19:5, Joel 2:16) and she is being prepared for the “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:-14).
Noah’s Ark was like that chuppah and in both cases (Noah & the five wise virgins), are taken into a safe place, then the “door is shut!” Once the door is shut, there will be an additional 7-day waiting period before the day of wrath begins when the wicked shall be destroyed!
Now this is the conclusion that we can arrive at:
Yahuwshuwa told us when the tribulation will begin in Matthew 24:15-21:
“For when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.....for then shall be great tribulation....”
The first 486.5 years of Daniel’s 490-year prophecy has already been fulfilled leaving only 3.5 years of the 490 years. When the 3rd Jewish Temple is built, I believe the Anti-Messiah will be the 8th pope since 1929, when Mussolini restored the papal government after it had “suffered a deadly wound to the head” by Napoleon in 1798. In other words the “authority” (head) of the papacy had been dethroned until 1929, and since that time, there have been “seven kings” as of 2012 with Pope Benedict the XVI.
The next pope will be the “eighth king” or “eighth pope” as described in Revelation 17:10-11. This final pope will sit in the Temple to be worshiped as “God” (2nd Thessalonians 2:4). He will then claim to become possessed supposedly by “Jesus,” but it will actually be Satan. See my other related article entitled: “Fourteen Identifiers of the Beast.”
The next pope will be the “eighth king” or “eighth pope” as described in Revelation 17:10-11. This final pope will sit in the Temple to be worshiped as “God” (2nd Thessalonians 2:4). He will then claim to become possessed supposedly by “Jesus,” but it will actually be Satan. See my other related article entitled: “Fourteen Identifiers of the Beast.”
During the 42 months (3.5 years) of the Anti-Messiah’s false ministry, this will run concurrently with the true ministry of the “two witnesses” for 1,260 days (3.5 years). This will begin their evangelistic outreach to the world, as many will be saved and many will be martyred for their faith in Yahuwshuwa.
Who Are the Two Witnesses?
The angel described these “two witnesses” to Yahuwchanon (John):
Chazown (Revelation) 11:4 These are the two candlesticks and the two olive trees standing before the Elohiym of the whole earth.
In order to understand who the “two olive trees” are, let’s go to the first time in scripture where Yisra’el is likened unto an “olive tree:”
Yirmeyahuw (Jeremiah) 11:16 YHWH called your name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.
We see this same concept again being shown to Zechariah & Ezekiel:
Zecharyahuw (Zechariah) 4:
2 And said unto me, What see you? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Yechezqel (Ezekiel) 37:
16 Moreover, you son of man, take you one Tree (stick), and write upon it, For Yahuwdah (Judah), and for the children of Yisra’el his companions: then take another Tree (stick), and write upon it, For Yahuwceph (Joseph), the stick of Ephrayim and for all the house of Yisra’el his companions:
17 And join them one to another into one Tree (stick); and they shall become one in your hand.
And then finally we have the Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) repeating this same “typology” as he describes the nation of Yisra’el:
Romiym (Romans) 11:
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root you.
19 You will say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if Elohiym spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not you.
Now we can see who these “Two Olive Trees” are!
Yahuwshuwa gave us the mystery of the “seven candlesticks” in Revelation 1:20. He said that they are the “seven congregations.” When reading the first 3 chapters of Revelation, our Messiah had words of rebuke for seven different assemblies. Out of those seven assemblies, only two congregations were not rebuked, but instead they were commended for their “works.” Who were they? Smyrna & Philadelphia.
And so we see that the TWO WITNESSES are FOUR GROUPS of people coming together! We can also interpret these “two witnesses” as two different elements such as “Spirit & Truth” or “Wisdom & Revelation” also, “Towrah & Prophets.”
In other words, we are going to see “balance” with both the “written word” as well as “gifts of the spirit” in operation. These two witnesses will operate in both! They have the baptism in the Holy Spirit & fire with signs and wonders following, but they also obey the Towrah!
These two witnesses in Revelation 11:6 will also do the same exploits as Mosheh & Eliyahuw (Moses & Elijah) because they carry the same anointing as Moses & Elijah. In other words, the Yahuwdiy (Jews) have the Towrah (law) and the born-again Gentiles have the Holy Spirit (gift of prophecy) and together these elements will come together as THE DOUBLE PORTION ANOINTING!
When these former Gentiles who follow Messiah (typified in Ephrayim) come together with the House of Yahuwdah (Judah or Jews) as ONE NEW MAN (Ephesians 2:15) and ONE STICK (Ezekiel 37:16-17), they will become a corporate body of believers who will carry the DOUBLE PORTION ANOINTING OF MOSES & ELIJAH!
Every month on a Lunar Cycle, there is a new moon called “Rosh Chodesh” (head of the month) and for seven months, there is a trumpet sounded to usher in the new month (Numbers 10:10). In the “seventh month” of Tishrei when the “seventh angel” sounds, this is when the “two witnesses” will be resurrected! This is the very same LAST TRUMPET in 1st Corinthians 15:51-53 where the set-apart ones are caught up and changed!
In other words, the two witnesses are the “overcoming congregations” of Smyrna & Philadelphia symbolized by two candlesticks. And the “Two Houses of Yisra’el” (Ephrayim & Judah) are symbolized by the two olive trees.
But now let’s get something straight here. These “two witnesses” are NOT Moses & Elijah literally speaking as many theologians have taught us. Neither is it Enoch, which many people have speculated on. While I do believe that the two witnesses are two individual men, there will also be “two groups of people” that come out of four groups of people: Two Houses of Yisrael, & Two Congregations.
In other words, when Philadelphia & Smyrna come out of the Mother Harlot Church system, they will join themselves to the Two Houses of Yisra’el and become their “companions” and thus they will be part of the corporate “two witnesses” instead of four witnesses.
We already know who the “two olive trees” are as we have just seen in Jeremiah 11:16 that Yisra’el was named “an olive tree.” Yisra’el later on split into two different nations in 1st Kings 12 and became known as “The House of Judah” (Two Southern Tribes) and “The House of Ephrayim” (Ten Northern Tribes).
In Ezekiel 37:16-17 we see the same thing again as “The Stick of Ephrayim & the stick of Judah.” As I illustrated earlier, the word “stick” in this prophecy is the Hebrew word “ets” which means “tree.” This is how we know that these two witnesses are “Both Houses of Yisra’el” (Isaiah 8:14).
The Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) also described “two olive branches” in Romans 11, when he referred to them as “the wild olive tree” (returning Gentiles) and the “natural olive tree” (Yahuwdiy or Jews) being grafted into one olive tree.
In Revelation 1:20, Yahuwshuwa likened the “seven congregations” to CANDLESTICKS!
Chazown (Revelation) 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies: and the seven candlesticks which you saw are the seven assemblies.
Hence the “two candlesticks” represent these two assemblies who “overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11). In other words they overcome the sinful nature by accepting the blood of the Lamb as atonement for their sins. But they also obey the “commandments” because they have the “two tablets of testimony” deposited into their hearts as a sign of the Renewed Marriage Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-33, Hebrews 8:10, 10:16).
When these two overcoming assemblies join the Two Houses of Yisra’el they will become the corporate two witnesses in the earth, for they will operate in both “spirit and truth.” But after these two witnesses resurrect, they will become only ONE NEW MAN, as they are the ones found worthy to become recipients of the FIRST RESURRECTION at the LAST TRUMPET, and Yahuwshuwa said in Matthew 24:31 that all of this will happens WITH A GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET (the last one), “Immediately AFTER the Tribulation!”
There Are Several Reasons Why Elijah, Enoch or Moses Cannot Be the “Two Witnesses” Literally Speaking
1.) In order for the Anti-Messiah to kill them after their ministry of 1,260 days they would have to put on corruptible (mortal) flesh again which means reincarnation and the Bible does not support the idea of reincarnation. It says in Hebrews 9:27 “...it is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.”
2.) Eliyahuw (Elijah) was taken up in a whirlwind by a chariot but he had to put on incorruptible (immortal) flesh in order to inherit the Kingdom of Elohiym because the Bible says in 1st Corinthians 15:50 “...flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of Elohiym.”
Some people argue that Eliyahuw (Elijah) was “taken to another place” and not to heaven, as seen in 2nd Chronicles 21:12-20. We read in this account that Eliyahuw had been taken some place else yet ten years later, he wrote a letter to the King of Judah. But Eliyahuw did not remain alive forever. He had to die to his mortal body at some point, but nobody knows when because scripture never tells us when he died.
Never-the-less, we also saw Eliyahuw at the “Mount of Transfiguration” with Mosheh (Moses) and Yahuwshuwa (Matthew 17:3-4). And so this tells us that both Mosheh & Eliyahuw (Moses & Elijah) had to have immortal bodies because they were able to materialize and then disappear.
In Luke 16, Yahuwshuwa described a place called “Abraham’s Bosom” where all righteous souls went while they were awaiting Messiah’s blood sacrifice when he would then go into the “lower parts of the earth” so that he could give them “the gift of salvation” (Ephesians 4:8-9).
Regardless of where Mosheh & Eliyahuw were at from the time that they both departed from this earth, the fact remains, that Mosheh & Eliyahuw have an incorruptible body by now. And we know that they will not go backwards by putting on corruption (a mortal body) again to be killed by the Anti-Messiah.
3.) Mosheh (Moses) died, although there was a dispute over his body between the angels (Jude 1:9). But Joshua 1:2 says “Moses my servant is dead....” So we know that he died.
I believe that the two witnesses are two individual men who come in the same “anointing” as Mosheh & Eliyahuw because Revelation 11:6 tells us that these men do the same exploits as Mosheh & Eliyahuw. Here is what it says:
Chazown (Revelation) 11:6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy [Elijah]: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues [Moses], as often as they will.
This is how we know that the two witnesses “come in the spirit and power” of Eliyahuw & Mosheh (Elijah & Moses). Just as in the days when Yahuwchanon (John) the Baptist fulfilled his ministry duties, our Messiah declared that he was “The Elijah” that they had expected and yet Yahuwchanon (John) denied that he was “Elijah.” Was John contradicting our Messiah? No! They were both telling the truth.
John was telling the truth when he said that he was not literally “Elijah” come back from the dead or reincarnated. And Yahuwshuwa was telling the truth when he described John as one who came in the “role” of Eliyahuw! Therefore, he came in the “spirit and power of Eliyahuw (Luke 1:17) and the same thing will be true of these two witnesses.
John was telling the truth when he said that he was not literally “Elijah” come back from the dead or reincarnated. And Yahuwshuwa was telling the truth when he described John as one who came in the “role” of Eliyahuw! Therefore, he came in the “spirit and power of Eliyahuw (Luke 1:17) and the same thing will be true of these two witnesses.
Now that we have established who the two witnesses are, we can see that they are the “Two Houses of Yisra’el” (Ephrayim & Yahuwdah) and they have Gentile companions who join them which are the “Two Candlesticks” (Smyrna & Philadelphia). We can see that these “two witnesses” (corporately speaking), will become a powerful force in the last days because they will prophesy against the Anti-Messiah for 1,260 days. After they are killed in Revelation 11:7, it says that these two witnesses are then “taken up!”
And it says “the seventh angel sounded!” And guess which trumpet that is? This is the very same “last trumpet” spoken of by the Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) in 1st Corinthians 15:50-52 and in Matthew 24:29 when Yahuwshuwa will gather his elect with a “great sound of a trumpet!”
And Yahuwshuwa said that this is all going to happen “Immediately AFTER the tribulation!” In order to ascribe to a “pre-tribulation rapture” or catching away of the bride, we would have to believe in “two raptures” for the righteous, but scripture tells us in Revelation 20 that there are only two resurrections for two groups of people:
1.) One for the righteous and this is called “the first resurrection.”
2.) One for the wicked after the 1,000 years are finished.
In 1st Thessalonians 4:16-17 the Apostle Sha’uwl wrote: “the dead in Mashiyach (Messiah) shall rise first, then we which remain shall meet them in the air.”
Now, I had a revelation of how this occurs in eternity and it is mind-blowing!
You see there is no “time” in eternity (heaven). Yahuwshuwa is the “Alpha & Omega” (the first and last letter of the Greek Alphabet). But Yahuwchanon (John) received his revelation “in the Hebrew tongue” (Revelation 11:9, 16:16) and so we know that the original language of the book of Revelation was Hebrew, not Greek. Yahuwshuwa was actually referring to himself as the “Aleph & Taw” את (the first and last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet). Yahuwshuwa ha’Mashiyach is “the first and the last, the beginning and the ending.” (Revelation 1:8-11).
He is eternal for he is Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:3) who is “without mother without father, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of Elohiym; abides a priest continually.” In other words, he is outside of time because he is TIME! He is eternity! There is NO LINEAR TIME in eternity!
Therefore, the resurrection of Enoch, the resurrection of Elijah, the resurrection of Yahuwshuwa, and the future resurrection of the saints (rapture) are ALL ONE EVENT in eternity! Past, present & future all coincide into ONE RESURRECTION!
I have heard some people argue that there are “seven raptures.” They include the resurrection of Enoch, Elijah, our Messiah’s resurrection, Philips’s being “caught up” in Acts 8:39; the Apostle John’s being “taken up” in Revelation 4:1 and the Apostle Paul’s testimony of one who was
“caught up to the third heaven.” But the truth of the matter is, the resurrection is NOT an event within linear time. The resurrection is the “person” of Yahuwshuwa himself. Therefore the resurrection exists outside of time itself!
Yahuwchanon (John) 11:25 Yahuwshuwa said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
I have heard some people argue that there are “seven raptures.” They include the resurrection of Enoch, Elijah, our Messiah’s resurrection, Philips’s being “caught up” in Acts 8:39; the Apostle John’s being “taken up” in Revelation 4:1 and the Apostle Paul’s testimony of one who was
“caught up to the third heaven.” But the truth of the matter is, the resurrection is NOT an event within linear time. The resurrection is the “person” of Yahuwshuwa himself. Therefore the resurrection exists outside of time itself!
Yahuwchanon (John) 11:25 Yahuwshuwa said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
You see when we are “seated in heavenly places with Mashiyach” it means that we are “outside of linear time” and we are “in the resurrection” no matter what time it is inside of linear time!
Ephsiym (Ephesians) 2:6 And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Mashiyach Yahuwshuwa.
Daniel 12:1 even confirms this concept:
Daniyel (Daniel) 12:
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Notice that this “time of trouble” is termed as “such as never was” ....the same type of language that Yahuwshuwa used here:
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 24:21: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Both Daniel and Yahuwshuwa use familiar phrases like: “such as never was” or “such as was not”...this is the same event. And then the angel told Daniel:
“At that time your people shall be delivered,” and he clarified who “his people” are, by saying “everyone that shall be found written in the book!”
That means everyone whose name is written in the “Lamb’s Book of Life” will be resurrected and delivered all at once! One resurrection! And it happens “after” this “time of trouble!”
And so if there are “seven raptures” as people suppose, this means that Daniel 12 is a lie! There is only one resurrection (deliverance) for all those whose names are written in the book of life!
I once used to believe in a “Pre-Tribulation Rapture” until 2004 when YaHuWaH showed me that there are no scripture references to a 7-year tribulation—none!
In the book of Revelation, we see that the Anti-Messiah (Antichrist) will speak blasphemies for 42 months (3.5 years). See Revelation 13:5.
The “woman” (Jerusalem) in Revelation 12 and in Daniel 12 will be preserved during this period called “a time, times and a half times.”
The Hebrew Concordance defines the word “time” here in Daniel 12:
#4150 mow`ed mo-ade’ or (feminine) moweadah (2nd Chronicles 8:13) {mo-aw-daw’}; from 3259; properly, an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; conventionally a year; by implication, an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); technically the congregation; by extension, the place of meeting; also a signal (as appointed beforehand):--appointed (sign, time), place of, solemn assembly, congregation, (set, solemn) feast, (appointed, due) season, solemnity), synagogue, set time (appointed).
A Day Equals One Year
There is a principle established in prophecy related to a prophetic time where a period of a year is used to describe “one day.” This “day for each year principle” is seen here in the Towrah:
Bemidbar (Numbers) 14:34 After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my breach of promise.
In the above verse, a relationship between a day and a year is clear, and each day will equate to a literal year. For the forty days that Yisra’el spied in Canaan in unbelief, they would be punished by wandering forty years in the desert.
Yechezqel (Ezekiel) 4:6 And when you have accomplished them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Yahuwdah (Judah) forty days: I have appointed you each day for a year.
Once again, the equation is seen where a prophetic day represents a literal year.
But in 2nd Peter 3:8, we find that “one day is like a thousand years to YaHuWaH.”
So which one is it? Does a day represent a thousand years or does it represent one year?
Well I believe that it means both! In prophecy there are usually “three layers” of fulfillment.
The Witness of “Three” in Daniel’s 70 Week Prophecy
The Hebrew word for “week” is “shabuwah” which means “sevened.” This means that any time period that is divisible by the number seven is a “shabuwah.” Thus we can apply the word “week” in Daniel 9:27 to mean more than just a literal seven-day calendar week.
Since Elohiym created the earth in six days, and he rested on the seventh day, we know that there will be 6,000 biblical years from creation until Mashiyach returns to set up his kingdom for the “Sabbath Millennium.”
When we look at the 7,000 year “week” which will culminate at the end of the Millennium, our Mashiyach, Yahuwshuwa came to earth in human form during the “4th Millennium” (the middle of creation week). This is one layer of understanding of this prophecy. We can also see that Mashiyach died “in the middle of the week” (Passover week on Wednesday). And Mashiyach also died in the middle of “Daniel’s 70th Week” (in the middle of his 7-year ministry after 3.5 years). Hence, Mashiyach died “in the midst of the week, within the week, within the week.”
7,000 years = Mashiyach died in the 4th Millennium from creation, in the midst of the week of 7 Millennia.
7 years = Mashiyach died in the middle of a 7-year ministry of working for Rachel (like Jacob). His ministry was 3.5 years, and his “two witnesses” in Revelation 11 will pick up where he left off with a 3.5 year ministry (1,260 days). They will finish out the 7-year ministry of working for Rachel.
7 days = Mashiyach died in the middle of Passover Week on a Wednesday (the 4th day of the week).
Now we can see that the word “time” in the phrase “times, time and a half times” can actually mean several things. If we take the word “time” (mowed) to mean a literal year then the phrase means the following:
Time = mowed in Hebrew = 1 year
Times = 2 years
Half Times = 6 months
Hence, times, times, half times = 3.5 years
We see that during this time the two witnesses will have a ministry of 1,260 days (3.5 years). Yahuwshuwa had a 3.5 year ministry and Eliyahuw (Elijah) also had a 3.5 year ministry.
It is fitting that the end time “two witnesses” will also follow this pattern of a 3 ½ year ministry concurrently while the Anti-Messiah tries to mimic Yahuwshuwa with a 3 ½ year false ministry. During the ministry of Eliyahuw (Elijah) for 3.5 years (James 5:17), the false ministry of King Ahab & Jezebel ran concurrently where they preached their false religion of “Ba’al” worship.
But if we take the word “time” in the phrase “times, time and a half times” to mean “a day for a year” it can also mean 1,260 years when the true followers of Yahuwshuwa Messiah were persecuted by the Roman Papacy between the year 538 A.D. and 1798 A.D.
When Napoleon dethroned the office of the papacy in 1798, it “suffered a deadly wound to the head” (authority). This was a period of 1,260 years where the “witnesses” of Messiah were persecuted and beheaded for their witness against the papacy. Then in 1929 “the deadly wound of the papacy was healed” (Revelation 13:3) as Mussolini signed the “Lateran Treaty” with “Ten European Nations” (ten horns on the beast).
No Rapture?
In recent years as people have begun to abandon the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine, I have noticed that some people are going to another extreme by rejecting the idea that there will be a catching away of the bride altogether, and they are saying that there is no rapture at all!
If the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is going to take place as it is written in Revelation 19, then of course Satan wants to get the bride confused over the timing of this event. 1st Thessalonians 4:17 clearly states:
“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet YHWH in the air: and so shall we ever be with YHWH.”
Satan is an extremist and he loves to take a biblical truth that people are learning and then he takes that “new biblical truth” and attaches another “extreme lie” to that biblical truth so that people are never balanced. He loves to swing the pendulum “too far to the left or too far to the right” in order to create confusion. But we are commanded in the scriptures over and over again “look not to the left neither to the right” (Deuteronomy 5:32, 28:14, Proverbs 4:27, Joshua 1:7; 23:6). We are commanded to stay “centered” and to keep our eyes on Yahuwshuwa who is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
The Jesuit Rapture Theory
The pre-tribulation rapture theory actually got its start during the Protestant Reformation in the late 1500’s under the direction of two Jesuit Catholic Priests named Alchazar & Ribera.
The Jesuits are a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church. Their proper title is the “Society of Jesus.” Originally they were called “Compania de Jesus,” which is Spanish for “military company of Jesus.” They were founded in 1534 by Ignatius of Loyola. He drafted the rules that still govern the society.
The training of a Jesuit is long and rigorous. The Jesuits in the Vatican are an order of priests who are trained assassins and their primary mission was and still is for the express purpose of stomping out the “Protestant Reformation.” Their goal is to bring back all of those defectors who left the Roman Catholic Church in the 1500’s. And so a strategy was formed whereby there were “two seemingly opposing views” invented by the Vatican concerning the end-times in order to keep people confused.
The training of a Jesuit is long and rigorous. The Jesuits in the Vatican are an order of priests who are trained assassins and their primary mission was and still is for the express purpose of stomping out the “Protestant Reformation.” Their goal is to bring back all of those defectors who left the Roman Catholic Church in the 1500’s. And so a strategy was formed whereby there were “two seemingly opposing views” invented by the Vatican concerning the end-times in order to keep people confused.
These Two Seemingly Opposing Views are as Follows:
1.) The Christian Church will be raptured before the revealing of the Antichrist (which of course of false). Hence, the need to know the identity of the Antichrist is completely unnecessary since “the elect won’t be here anyway”---another lie!
2.) There will be no rapture at all (not even after the tribulation); and of course this is false as well!
This strategy that the Jesuits are famous for using on people is called “The Hegelian Dialectic.” What it means is that they form two seemingly opposing views in order to cause division in the body of Messiah. And this leads to the sheep being scattered and many people’s faith ends up ship-wrecked in the process!
Pre-Trib or No-Trib? Neither One is Correct, But the Jesuits Are Forcing You to Pick One of These Theories!
During the time of the Protestant Reformation which began in the late 1500’s, it became quite obvious through Bible prophecy that the seat of the papacy was indeed the seat of the Antichrist. The “man of sin” had been recognized, revealed and proclaimed by the early Protestant Reformers as the seat of the papacy. Not only the Reformers, but thousands of their followers and their kings agreed with these prophetic interpretations. Their united stand against the papacy gave the Reformers and nations the power to break away from allegiance to the papal system.
The papal reaction was a “Counter Reformation.” In an attempt to divert the undermining influence of the Protestant Reformation, a two-pronged counter attack was made:
1.) Praeterism: The fulfillment of the book of Revelation is in the past only with the fall of Pagan Rome happening before the popes ever ruled Rome. This viewpoint was founded by Alcazar, a Spanish Jesuit in 1614. The Praeterists consider the majority of the prophecies in the Book of Revelation to have been fulfilled in the downfall of the Jewish nation in 70 A.D. Most advocates of this system date John’s writing of the Revelation prior to 68 A.D. They claim that Nero was the Antichrist. While I do agree that Nero was a “type and shadow” of the Antichrist, he was not the final fulfillment of the beast of Revelation.
2.) Futurism: The fulfillment of the book Revelation is only in the future with only one individual “man of sin” not from the papacy. Around 1590, Francisco Ribera a Jesuit Catholic Priest published a 500-page book on Revelation, and he taught the “pre-tribulation rapture” theory with the tribulation period and the Antichrist in the distant future only. Robert Bellarmine, one of the most renowned Jesuit cardinals, taught that the Antichrist would be an individual Jew, (not from the papacy).
A Jesuit priest named Francisco Ribera (1537-1591) started to work independently. He looked deeply into the realm of Bible prophecy. The result of his work was a twisting and maligning of prophetic truth. Ribera’s futuristic interpretation of Daniel chapter nine was furthered by the work of another Jesuit, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621). These two were swiftly followed by a third, the Jesuit Luis de Alcazar (1554-1613).
A Jesuit priest named Francisco Ribera (1537-1591) started to work independently. He looked deeply into the realm of Bible prophecy. The result of his work was a twisting and maligning of prophetic truth. Ribera’s futuristic interpretation of Daniel chapter nine was furthered by the work of another Jesuit, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621). These two were swiftly followed by a third, the Jesuit Luis de Alcazar (1554-1613).
The prophecy of “Daniel’s Seventy Weeks” as erroneously interpreted by Francisco Ribera is the foundation stone for both Futurism & Dispensationalism. These interpretations must have their seven-year period at the end of time. All Futurist scenarios revolve around Ribera’s “seven-year tribulation period” and the Antichrist as the one who “confirms the covenant” with a “seven year peace treaty.”
Naturally, the Jesuits will see to it that their “self-fulfilling prophecy” comes true by fabricating an actual “seven year peace treaty” which will have nothing what-so-ever to do with Daniel 9:27 and the true Messiah who already confirmed the covenant during Passover week in 30/31 A.D.
The truth is, that both the Futurist and the Praeterist viewpoints contain some elements of truth because history does repeat itself as I have already illustrated. Since our Creator is “the one who was, and who is, and who is to come” why would any of his prophecies stand still inside of linear time? It only makes sense that there are usually multiple fulfillments of prophecy both literally as well as in the allegorical sense.
We can see that the prophecies of Revelation and Daniel have both past, present and future fulfillment, but the final fulfillment will be obscured by both extremes giving way to ecumenism between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. If the seat of the papacy is not the Antichrist, then there was no point to the Reformation separation from the papacy.
The “pre-tribulation rapture theory” was invented by the Jesuits in the Vatican in order to distract believers from recognizing the seat of the papacy as the “beast” power. If believers buy into the lie of Satan that the Antichrist will not be revealed until “after the rapture,” then there is no need for them to understand Bible prophecy, and to study the scriptures. When that final pope arrives on the scene in the 3rd Jewish Temple as the false Messiah, people will not want to believe that he could be possibly be the Antichrist, because their logic will tell them: “he can’t be the Antichrist, because the rapture hasn’t happened yet.”
I have heard many staunch “pre-tribbers” say to me “what difference does it make who the Antichrist is if we won’t be here when he is revealed?” This is the kind of logic that will bring about what 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 describes as “a falling away.” The Apostle Sha’uwl wrote that the bride shall not be gathered to the bridegroom UNTIL “the man of sin is revealed” and he also said that the “man of sin” would not be revealed UNTIL there comes “a falling away first.” There can be no date-setting for any “rapture” until these four things happen:
1.) Falling away.
2.) Man of sin revealed in the Temple, the Abomination of Desolation set up (Matthew 24:15-22, Daniel 12:1-12).
3.) Great Tribulation for 1,260 days (Revelation 11:3, Daniel 12:1-12).
4.) Catching away of the bride.
2nd Tas’loniqiym (Thessalonians) 2:
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our YHWH Yahuwshuwa Mashiyach, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Mashiyach is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called Elohiym, or that is worshipped; so that he as Elohiym sits in the Temple of Elohiym, showing himself that he is Elohiym.
*Note: certain date-setters to the timing of the “great tribulation” have suggested that there does not need to be a Temple built in Jerusalem before the tribulation period can begin. But verse 4 above proves them wrong. Our Messiah already told us that the tribulation cannot begin until we “See the Abomination of Desolation sitting in the Holy Place” (Matthew 24:15-22).
Let’s continue with Sha’uwl’s letter to the Thessalonians:
2nd Tas’loniqiym (Thessalonians) 2:
5 Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now you know what withholds that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity does already work: only he who now lets will let, until he be taken out of the way.
*Note: the idea that the Holy Spirit or the bride must be “taken out of the way” first before the man of sin is revealed is absurd and not supported by scripture. Daniel 10:13-21 illustrates to us the mechanism by which kingdoms and empires are installed and “taken out of the away.” The arch-angel Michael is the “restrainer” of kingdoms or the one who “withholds.” To understand more about this, read my other article entitled: The Mysterious Restrainer: Who Withholds the “Man of Sin?”
2nd Tas’loniqiym (Thessalonians) 2:
2nd Tas’loniqiym (Thessalonians) 2:
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom YHWH shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause Elohiym shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
We see clearly from the immutable record of the scriptures that there cannot be a “great tribulation” until we “see the Abomination of Desolation sitting in the Holy Place” and that cannot happen until the 3rd Jewish Temple is built first. And finally, there cannot be any “rapture” or catching away of the bride until she goes through the tribulation (persecution) for 1,260 days in order to be “tried and made white.”
In Daniel 12:1 the angel described to Daniel “a time of trouble” in which the people of YaHuWaH shall be delivered all at once indicated by the phrase “everyone whose name is written in the book of life” and then Daniel asked the angel “how long shall it be to the end of these wonders?”
In Daniel 12:1 the angel described to Daniel “a time of trouble” in which the people of YaHuWaH shall be delivered all at once indicated by the phrase “everyone whose name is written in the book of life” and then Daniel asked the angel “how long shall it be to the end of these wonders?”
Daniyel (Daniel) 12:
6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that lives forever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
*Note: the period called “time, times and a half” is for 1,260 days (3.5 years). The angel tells Daniel that “when the false Messiah shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the ‘holy people’ all these things shall be finished!
Daniyel (Daniel) 12:
8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Tribulation versus Wrath
One of the biggest misunderstandings that “pre-tribbers” have is the reason behind “why” the bride must go through “tribulation.” Most people assume that the “rapture” is for the sole purpose of snatching the bride away from the Anti-Messiah’s persecution. But this is not the reason for the “catching away” of the bride at all. The entire reason for “the catching away of the bride” is to change her into immortality!
Many people tend to confuse this period called “The Great Tribulation” with the “The Day of Wrath.”
I often hear people use this quote from Sha’uwl (Paul) as justification for believing in the pre-tribulation rapture:
1st Tas’loniqiym (Thessalonians) 5:9 For Elohiym has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our YHWH Yahuwshuwa Mashiyach.
Most people assume that the tribulation is the same thing as the “Day of Wrath,” but they are absolutely not the same thing!
The period called “Great Tribulation” is for a specific purpose, which is to purify the bride and to make her “white.” But the period called “The Day of Vengeance” is immediately following a three and a half year tribulation period.
We see this “Day of Wrath” as having several different descriptions by the prophets but they are all the same period. Below we see all of the scriptural references for this same event that will take place in the future on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) as seen in Revelation 19:
The Day of Vengeance: Proverbs 6:34, Isaiah 34:8, 61:2, 63:4, Jeremiah 46:10, Luke 21:22.
The Great & Terrible Day of YaHuWaH: Joel 2:11-31.
The Day of YaHuWaH: 2nd Peter 3:10, 1st Thessalonians 5:2, 2nd Corinthians 1:14, 1st Corinthians 5:5, Acts 2:20; Malachi 4:5, Zechariah 14:1, Zephaniah 1:14, Zephaniah 1:7, Obadiah 1:15; Amos 5:18 &20, Joel 1:15, 2:1,2:11, 2:31,3:14; Ezekiel 13:5, 30:3; Jeremiah 46:10; Isaiah 2:12, 13:6 & 9.
The Day of Wrath: Job 21:30, Proverbs 11:4, Zephaniah 1:15, Romans 2:5
Below are also phrases that pertain to the period of 3.5 years of tribulation or trouble:
But the period called “Great Tribulation” is a different time period as seen in the scripture references below:
Great Tribulation: Matthew 24:21, Revelation 2:22, Revelation 7:14
Time of Trouble: Job 38:23, Psalms 27:5, Psalms 37:39, 41:1, Proverbs 25:19, Isaiah 33:2, Jeremiah 14:8, Daniel 12:1.
When you study these scriptures above, you can easily see that they are two completely different events with different purposes. When YaHuWaH pours out his wrath upon the earth, this will happen on Yom Kippur when Yahuwshuwa avenges the blood of his bride (his saints).
Yahuwshuwa gives us the precise timing of when this “tribulation” actually begins:
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 24:15 When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoever reads, let him understand.
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
*Note: You will notice by the very next verse, that the “elect” (the bride) are the ones who will go through “tribulation:”
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
What is the purpose of “tribulation?”
Tribulation means the same thing as persecution:
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 13:21 Yet has he no root in himself, but endures for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended.
The word tribulation = persecution.
The word wrath = punishment.
They are TOTALLY DIFFERENT!
The Hebrew word for “tribulation” literally means “a tight and narrow place” which is the birth canal of woman, Jerusalem in Revelation 12:1.
The womb is a “narrow” and a “tight place” where the woman gives birth to ONE NEW MAN (Ephesians 2:12-15), which are the remnant of the House of Judah (Jews), and the remnant of the House of Ephrayim (lost tribes in the Gentile nations). And these Two Houses will become “one stick” in the hand of YaHuWaH at the resurrection (Ezekiel 37:16-17).
Satan will use the New World Order government of the “beast” (the dragon with seven heads and ten horns) to try and devour this “man-child” as soon as he is born:
Chazown (Revelation) 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
You see the Tribes of Yisra’el are likened unto stars, because YaHuWaH promised Abraham that he would multiply his seed “as the stars of heaven” (Genesis 22:17). Also in Revelation 1:20, the stars are likened unto the angels who watch over the elect. When “one-third” of the angels are deceived by Satan, they are then cast to the earth and they are no longer the guardians of the elect, but instead, they are used to persecute the woman’s seed. One-third of the Tribes of Yisra’el will be saved according to Ezekiel 5:12, but the other “two-thirds” will worship the beast and they shall be destroyed. And this “one-third” of the remnant of the woman’s seed are the ones who are “born to the woman!”
The word for “wrath” in the Greek Strong’s Concordance in the book of Revelation is as follows:
#3709. orge or-gay’ from 3713; properly, desire (as a reaching forth or excitement of the mind), i.e. (by analogy), violent passion or (justifiable) abhorrence); by implication punishment:--anger, indignation, vengeance, wrath.
The word “tribulation” in the Greek Strong’s Concordance in the book of Revelation is defined below:
#2347. thlipsis thlip’-sis from 2346; pressure (literally or figuratively):--afflicted(-tion), anguish, burdened, per-secution, tribulation, trouble.
Notice that the root word for “thlipsis” (tribulation) is the following word:
# 2346. thlibo thlee’-bo akin to the base of 5147; to crowd (literally or figuratively):--afflict, narrow throng, suffer, tribulation, trouble.
This is the same word used in the following scripture:
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and NARROW is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.
One could accurately read this verse as follows:
Mattithyahuw (Matthew) 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and TRIBULATION is the way, which leads unto life and few there be that find it.
TRIBULATION = NARROW = THE WAY THAT LEADS TO LIFE!
The Hebrew Word for “tribulation” in the Strong’s Concordance is seen below:
#6862 tsar tsar or tsar {tsawr}; from 6887; narrow; (as a noun) a tight place (usually figuratively, i.e. trouble); also a pebble (as in 6864); (transitive) an opponent (as crowding):--adversary, afflicted (-tion), anguish, close, distress, enemy, flint, foe, narrow small, sorrow, strait, tribulation, trouble.
#6869 tsarah tsaw-raw’ feminine of 6862; tightness (i.e. figuratively, trouble); transitively, a female rival:--adversary, adversity, affliction, anguish, distress, tribulation, trouble.
TRIBULATION = TIGHT PLACE = NARROW = BIRTH CANAL!
The Hebrew word for “wrath” in the Strong’s Concordance is as follows:
# 7107 qatsaph kaw-tsaf’ a primitive root; to crack off, i.e. (figuratively) burst out in rage:--(be) anger(-ry), displease, fret self, (provoke to) wrath(come), be wroth.
# 7110 qetseph keh’-tsef from 7107; a splinter (as chipped off); figuratively, rage or strife:--foam, indignation, sore, wrath.
# 2740 charown khaw-rone’ or (shortened) charon {khaw-rone'}; from 2734; a burning of anger:--sore displeasure, fierce (-ness), fury, (fierce), wrath (-ful).
WRATH = PUNISHMENT = JUDGMENT = DEATH!
WRATH IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM TRIBULATION!
And what is the purpose for the tribulation?
Daniyel (Daniel) 12:10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Tribulation is the “persecution” of the elect, to make the bride “white” as she is purified in the fire; she must be “tried” (tested) in the fire of affliction to see if her love for Messiah is true. The bride will become “wise” through affliction, persecution and tribulation. But the wicked will continue to do wickedly during the tribula-tion and they will not understand what is going on.
What is the purpose of wrath?
Chazown (Revelation) 11:18 And the nations were angry, and your wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward unto your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.
The wrath of Elohiym is for PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED, and to avenge and vindicate the servants of YaHuWaH!
1st Tas’loniqiym (Thessalonians) 5:9 For Elohiym has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Master Yahuwshuwa Mashiyach.
THE ELECT ARE NOT APPOINTED TO WRATH---BUT TO OBTAIN SALVATION THROUGH TRIBULATION, THROUGH PERSECUTION!
In the final analysis, we must be able to see that the remnant of the “seed of the woman” must go through the birth canal or in other words “the tight and narrow place of tribulation” before they can be “born-again” into immortality as the “ONE NEW MAN CHILD!” The elect must go through the birthing process which is the ADOPTION---THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY! (Romans 8:23).
The “woman” (Jerusalem) will be SAVED WHEN SHE GIVES BIRTH TO THE ONE NEW MAN-CHILD (Ephryaim & Judah or Jewish & Gentile) believers in Messiah Yahuwshuwa!
1st Timotiyos (Timothy) 2:15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
So you see, Yisra’el, the woman in Revelation 12 cannot be saved until her “twins” are born just like Tamar’s twins (Pharez & Zarah) who helped redeem her inheritance. When the two witnesses of Ephrayim & Judah go through that “tight and narrow place” called “the great tribulation” they will then be birthed from the “Two Houses of Yisra’el & Two Congregations” into ONE NEW MAN!
