#38 Odds & Ends On Daniel and Trumpets
Though there is prophecy throughout the Bible, the books I most think of, regarding prophecy, are Revelation and Daniel. Revelation is an open book per Revelation 22:10, but Daniel has been a closed book “until the time of the end” per Daniel 12:4,9 for about 2500 years. However, in 1894, the Chief of Scotland Yard published The Coming Prince in which he explained the timing of Christ’s first coming per Daniel 9:24-26 among other prophesies. I don’t believe much happened for the next century. Then, around 2,000 AD, J.R. Church explained the beasts from the sea in Daniel 7. Other authors opened other sections of the prophetic chapters of 2 and 7 to 10. I have tried to place these discoveries on my website. It may well be that the book of Daniel is now open. If so, we are in or close to the time of the end. Should you wish to read my take (taken from many authors) on these prophetic chapters, I suggest you go to #29 on Daniel 9, then on to #30 on Daniel 8, then on to #31 on Daniel 7, #33 on Daniel 10, #34 on Daniel 11, #35 on Daniel 11:36 to 12, and lastly #37 on Daniel 2. In other words, begin on #29 with Daniel 9 and go forward to #37 on Daniel 2, reading only Daniel and skipping the "#s" in between. I believe it is the easiest way to understand the prophecies rather than starting with #37 and going backward.
Now on to the Jewish Feast of Trumpets. God through Moses gave the Israelites seven feasts, the Hebrew Feasts of the LORD, which celebrate the harvest of Israel among other things. Six of the seven occur when the moon is full, but the fifth feast is during the New Moon, the crescent moon, when the moon is only a thin crescent in the sky, usually in September, but sometimes October. The feast is on the first day of the seventh month of Tishri by God’s new ordering of the months per Exodus 12:2 when the first month became the seventh and the seventh became the first, circa 1446 BC at the time of Israel leaving Egypt. In the old dating system per Genesis 8:13 the waters of the Flood were dried from the earth, and Noah removed the covering from the ark, i.e., a new beginning for mankind on Tishri 1. Per Grant R. Jeffrey’s Armageddon: Appointment with Destiny (1997), p. 82-83, it is when Joshua offered the first offering on the rebuilt altar in 536 BC when the Jews returned from Babylon per Ezra 3:1-6, and when Ezra read the Law to the Jews on a subsequent return from Babylon per Nehemiah 8:2,3.
Jeffrey also noted, according to Jewish tradition, a fourfold meaning to Trumpets: 1. New Year’s Day for Jews and most of middle eastern cultures, 2. the Day of Remembrance, 3. The Day of Judgment, and 4. The day of blowing the shofar, the ram’s horn, and hence, the name, the Feast of Trumpets. It is a curious feast in that it cannot be called until the New Moon, the crescent moon, is observed. If the sky is overcast and the crescent moon cannot be seen, the Feast is put off till Tishri 2 the next day. Jewish days go sunset to sunset. In Matthew 24:36, Christ said we would not know the day or hour of His return. Trumpets works well for this.
Trumpets on Tishri 1, the Jewish New Year, continues the Days of Awe which began on the first day of the preceding month of thirty days. These end on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the schedule of the feasts, on Tishri 10, to conclude forty days of prayer and worshiping God. The rabbis say that God opens His books for the good, the bad, and the in-between. If you are good, He will grant you another year of life; if bad, you will die in the upcoming year; if in-between, but you sincerely pray and repent during the Days of Awe, He will give you another year to think about it. In effect, Trumpets points to Yom Kippur, the only day the Levitical High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies in the Hebrew Temple to offer a blood sacrifice to God. Of course, in 32 or 33 AD, Christ’s blood sacrifice on the cross made further blood sacrifices irrelevant, and the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD, driving this point home.
Daniel 12:10 (An angel speaking) “And from the time the that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation (an idol in the Temple) is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.
Now, this is curious. The Great Tribulation begins when the anti-Christ sets up the idol in the Hebrew Temple. it lasts 1260 days or 42 months (42 X 30 = 1260 days) or time, times (two, not indefinite plural), and half a time (3 ½ X 360 days = 1260 days) per Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 12:6 &14 and 13:5. Why the extra 30 days? I have read it takes 30 days to cleanse the Temple from desecration. On to the next verse.
Daniel 12:11 “Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1,335 days.” Now an additional 45 days, for a total of 75 days after Christ returns at Armageddon. Why this extra 75 days? 30 days to cleanse the Temple makes sense, but why these extra days?
Genesis 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years. Signs refers to the Zodiac, but also solar and lunar eclipses, comets, and such. We think of seasons as spring, summer, fall, and winter, but in Hebrew the word means “appointed times,” the same word used for the Feasts of the LORD. Hanukkah is always 74 or 75 days after Yom Kippur. It celebrated the rededication of the Temple circa 164 BC when the first abomination of desolation (an idol in the Temple) was removed, and Temple worship was restarted. I believe the LORD will return on Yom Kippur to destroy His enemies. Then, there will be thirty days to cleanse the Temple, and forty-five days thereafter, the Feast of Lights, Hanukkah for eight days to end Daniel’s final or 70th week.
If I am correct, then the Feasts also pertain to the Christian Era of about 2,000 years, working thus:
#1 Passover on Nisan 14 in the spring- Christ was the Passover Lamb in 32 or 33 AD.
#2 Unleavened Bread for one week on Nissan 15-21 Leaven is a symbol for sin. His body did not decay in the tomb because He had no sin. Psalm 16:10
#3 First Fruits (of the barley crop), the day within the week of Unleavened Bread, after the first Hebrew Sabbath of sunset Friday to sunset Saturday per Leviticus 23:11. Resurrection!
#4 Weeks, also known as Second First Fruits (of the wheat crop), always 50 days after First Fruits with First Fruits being day 1, always sunset Saturday to sunset Sunday. The Holy Spirit is given to the church, i.e., the church is born.
But this leaves us with the last of the three Mosaic feasts for the church. Could it be?
#5 Trumpets on Tishri 1 (or 2 if the sky is overcast on Tishri 1, i.e., the crescent moon cannot be seen). It points to Yom Kippur on Tishri 10, but could Trumpets also refer to the rapture or removal of the church from the earth just before or just into Daniel’s final or 70th week per Daniel 9:27, and also point to six or seven or so years later when the LORD returns to reign on Yom Kippur- Armageddon?
#6 Yom Kippur on Tishri 10 The LORD returns to reign. Armageddon!
#7 Tabernacles on Tishri 15 -21 The Feast of the Christ’s Millennium per Zechariah 14:16.
#8 Hanukkah, an eight-day feast, usually in December. The Re-Dedication of the Temple after the first Abomination of Desolation circa 164 BC, but could it also celebrate the removal of the second Abomination of Desolation at the end of Daniel’s final or 70th week as well?
The LORD has set it up so there are features of the rapture of the church in several feasts, but I believe Trumpets is best. The symbol for Islam is the crescent moon. What would Islam do if their worst enemies were removed during a crescent moon, particularly after their success in Afghanistan? Cries of Allahu Akbar would arise all over the Muslim world. I have been told it means not Our god is great, but Our god is greater (than the God of the Jews and Christians). I believe they would believe Allah had done this to draw them to Jerusalem for their final victory, rather than the God of the Jews and Christians bringing them to Israel for their utter destruction.
This year, the Feast of Trumpets begins at sunset in Jerusalem on September 6 to sunset September 7, but if the crescent moon cannot be seen, the feast cannot be celebrated till the next day. Is this the year of the rapture? On Trumpets? Or is it in a year to follow?
The LORD did not appear to me to put forth this information, nor did He whisper it in my ear to my knowledge. However, if it turns out to be true, it can only be because the LORD wanted this information known at this time, and He, in some manner I do not understand, gave it to me. I am only a humble messenger, and I hope and pray that turns out to be the case.
-Gentry