This video correlates Matthew 24, the Book of Revelation and the fall biblical feasts as they relate to the seocnd coming of Yeshua the Messiah, the resurrection of the saints, the tribulation, great tribulation and wrath of Elohim in the end times.
Parashat V’zot HaBerachah — Deuteronomy 33:1 – 34:12 ***
Haftarah — Joshua 1:1–18
Prophets — Zechariah 12:1 – 14:21; Malachi 1:1 – 4:6
Writings — 2 Chronicles 30:1 – 36:23
Testimony — Revelation 18:1 – 22:21
Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link below.
The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day. One each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.
*** Parashat V’zot HaBerachah is usually read on Simchat Torah.
Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 10/5 through 10/11/14.
Revelation 17:1, Great harlot. This seems to be referring to a system that is larger than the Roman Catholic church and her Protestant daughters, or even a revived Islamic state or caliphate. How about a merging of the two: Chrislam? The Catholic Church has been making ecumenical overtures to Islam for years. The only way for the New World Order to achieve world peace may be to unite the world’s major religions at some level (how about the United Nations of Religions, which the Roman Catholic Church is now considering?). If Catholicism and Islam can unite in some bizarre way, then, no doubt, the Hindus and Buddahists (and the other smaller major world religions) will want to join in on the game as well. The great harlot “sits on many waters” or peoples, and so this religious system involves many nations of the world.
Revelation 17:3, Seven heads and ten horns. The political and economic beast system that the religious system rides has seven heads and ten horns, which represent its political and economic power base. The beast the woman sits astride is devoted to devil worship (or Luciferianism, Rev 13:2, 4).
Revelation 17:6, Saints…martyrs of Yeshua. Are these two different groups of people? The set-apart ones (those who keep YHVH’s commandments and have the testimony of Yeshus (or love Yeshua by keeping his commandments) as opposed to those who just “believe in Jesus” (your standard cultural Christian)?
Revelation 17:9, Seven mountains. Since Rome is built on seven hills, some have speculated that this is a reference to the Roman Catholic Church. There are also seven continents. Additionally, there are seven main economic powers on earth according to the International Monetary Fund called the G-7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States).These are the world’s wealthiest nations that represent 63 percent of the world’s net global wealth. Or, from a historical perspective, these seven hills could be referring to the seven manifestations of world-ruling Babylonian system (Babylon one, Egypt, Babylon two, Persia, Greece, Rome, the end times Babylon the Great New World Order). The latter interpretation makes the most sense in light of what John says in the latter part of this verse. From his perspective, five of these kingdoms were past and the Roman Empire presently was ruling, and one was yet to come (v. 10).
Revelation 17:10, Five have fallen, one is. When John wrote this, Babylon one, Egypt, Babylon two, Persia, Greece had fallen, Rome was in power, and the one worldwide end times system was yet to come.
Revelation 17:12, Ten horns…ten kings. This appears to be referring to ten global regional kingdoms into which the New World Order Babylon the Great system is subdivided. These ten kingdoms will last for a very short time (“one hour”) before they, along the Babylon the Great beast system to which they swear allegiance is destroyed at Yeshua’s second coming (v. 14).
Revelation 17:16, These will hate the harlot. The ten horns will hate the whore. This is likely since the goals of religious leaders are different and thus conflict with those of the global business and political leaders. The religious goals of the former will likely tend to obstruct the business interests of the latter. The political and economic leaders owe their power and allegiance to the devil, as do the religious leaders (although they may fail to realize this). This may be what causes the ten horns of the political system to hate the harlot. This verse says the ten horns (not the beast that she rides) will hate the harlot. The harlot is likely tied into the beast spiritually, politically and economically at the highest levels, but, perhaps, the ten regional global governments will, out of jealousy, see the woman as a threat to them because of her power and influence in their respective regions resulting in their opposing her. Perhaps this explains the unstable mixture of clay and iron of the ten toes of the Babylon the Great, antichrist New World Order system that Daniel saw in his vision of the great image of the man, which Yeshua, the uncut stone from heaven (a metaphor for the Torah-word of Elohim) destroys at his coming (Dan 2:31–35).
Watchman on the Wall Report:
Ebola may be coming your way sooner than you think!
Yeshua predicted this would occur in the end times just before his return:
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences [plagues], and earthquakes in various places. (Matt 24:7)
John echoed Yeshua’s warnings in the Book of Revelation:
When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. (Rev 6:7–8)
Before you read the article below, keep the words of our Almighty YHVH Elohim in mind — it’s our only hope!
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. (Psalm 91:1–11)
How is your faith? Do you really believe these promises of YHVH? The day is fast approaching when this will be our only hope — as this is already the case in some parts of the world for believers!
Now on to the article…
How many times have you read the US government’s reassuring babble about the impossibility of the ebola virus being transmitted through the air? Well the following article just came out today from http://www.infowars.com. (The actual article is at http://www.infowars.com/experts-ebola-could-be-transmitted-at-a-distance-from-infected-victims/.)
Professors at the University of Illinois in Chicago assert that the Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via “infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients,” suggesting that the current understanding of Ebola only being communicable via direct contact is inaccurate.
In a piece published by CIDRAP, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, authors Dr Lisa Brosseau and Dr Rachael Jones highlight how Ebola currently has “unclear modes of transmission.”
“We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks,” states the article.
Making reference to “controversy about whether Ebola virus can be transmitted via aerosols,” the authors assert that the current understanding that Ebola can only be transmitted by by direct contact with virus-laden fluids is “incorrect and outmoded.”
The authors note that US health professionals currently tackling Ebola are being put at risk because of the failure to offer them proper “respiratory protection,” making reference to hundreds of fatalities of Ebola health workers in West Africa due to facemasks or surgical masks which offer “very minimal protection from infectious aerosol particles.”
“Being at first skeptical that Ebola virus could be an aerosol-transmissible disease, we are now persuaded by a review of experimental and epidemiologic data that this might be an important feature of disease transmission, particularly in healthcare settings,” states the article.
Earlier today, Anthony Banbury, the United Nations’ Ebola response chief warned of the “nightmare scenario” that Ebola could go airborne as a result of a mutation if it continues to infect new hosts.
“The longer it moves around in human hosts in the virulent melting pot that is West Africa, the more chances increase that it could mutate,” said Banbury, adding, “It is a nightmare scenario, and unlikely, but it can’t be ruled out.”
As we reported yesterday, the Public Health Agency of Canada deleted information from its official website which indicated that the “airborne spread” of Ebola was strongly suspected by health authorities.
Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, also acknowledged in a recent New York Times op-ed that virologists are “loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private” the possibility that Ebola has gone airborne.
Here is the the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy report to which the above article makes reference:
Editor’s Note: Today’s commentary was submitted to CIDRAP by the authors, who are national experts on respiratory protection and infectious disease transmission. In May they published a similar commentary on MERS-CoV. Dr Brosseau is a Professor and Dr Jones an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be (to continue reading http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/09/commentary-health-workers-need-optimal-respiratory-protection-ebola.)
Revelation 13:1, The beast. The beast of Revelation 13 that rises up out of the sea is the end times New World Order, anti-Christ system comprised of the kings of the earth and their armies (see Rev 19:19). This beast is the political and economic branch of the Babylon the Great New World Order system. The metaphor of the sea is a Hebraism for the seas of humanity. This could be a reference to all the oceans of the earth or just to the Mediterranean Sea. Since all the kings of the earth follows this beast (v. 3), and “all the world” worshipped the dragon who gives authority to the beast (v. 4), it seems that seas is likely a reference to all the seas or oceans of the earth. This beast seems to correspond with the fourth beast of Daniel’s four beast vision (Dan 7:7ff).
Revelation 13:1, Seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads appear to the seven “world”-ruling manifestations of this Babylonian beast down through the ages to the present time (i.e., Babylon one, Egypt, Babylon two, Persia, Greece, Rome and end times Babylon the Great comprised of all nations (the New World Order). The ten horns are likely ten global semiautonomous regional governments, which, when combined, comprise all the nations of the earth and make up Babylon the Great. This may be what Daniel saw in the ten toes of the great image of Daniel 2. Perhaps the two legs of that image represent apostate Christianity and Islam — the two great religions of the world, which are in nearly every nation — united in some way. The two legs could also represent the first Roman Empire and an end times revived Roman Empire that is birthed out of Europe and which becomes the New World Order, which is the head of Babylon the Great. The fourth beast of Daniel’s four beast vision also had ten horns (Dan 7:7). Daniel speaks of a little horn coming up in the midst of the ten horns, which plucked three of the first horns up by the roots (Dan 7:8). This same horn speaks pompously (Dan 7:8, 11) and makes war against the saints (Dan 7:21, 22, 25) and prevails against them until Yeshua destroys it at his second coming (Dan 7:11, 21, 22). John uses similar language to describe the political and economic beast of Revelation 13:1. This beast also makes war against the saints and overcomes them (Rev 13:7).
Revelation 13:2, The dragon gave him his power. This is the ultimate end-times antichrist system.
Revelation 13:7–8, Every tribe, tongue and nation…all who dwell on the earth. Does this beast have authority over every single heathen on earth, and every last heathen on earth will worship him? In the Scriptures, all and every are sometimes used as hyperbole where exaggeration is used to emphasize a point. (For a discussion of this, see notes at 2 Sam 16:22 and Zech 14:2.)
Revelation 13:8, Whose names. This states that some names aren’t written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. This seems to fly in the face of the idea that all humanity’s names are written in the Book of Life, only to be erased when they fail to receive the salvation of the Lamb.
Revelation 13:11, Another beast. This beast is the religious leg of the Babylon the Great New World Order. This beast comes out of the earth (probably the European or Eurasian continent), since this would be the perspective of the John, the writer.
Two horns. The religious branch of Babylon has two horns — one that speaks like a lamb and one that speaks like a dragon. Could this be a reference to an ecumenical uniting of apostate Catholic Christianity (with her apostate daughters) and Islam?
Revelation 13:16, He. This is a reference to the religious beast. It is this beast who causes all humans to take a mark on their head or hand, in order that they might buy or sell. In other words, the religious beast component of Babylon the Great uses its miraculous power and spiritual deceptions to entice humanity to worship the image of the first or political and economic beast (a cloak for Satanic worship). This false religion beast is behind the effort to kill all those who refuse to worship the image of the beast.
Revelation 13:18, The number of the beast. Which beast is being referred to here — the first or second beast? The first beast would be political figure, while the second beast would be a religious figure.
Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) will be on Monday, Oct. 6) this year starting on the evening of Oct. 5 at sundown.
Start preparing yourself by reading my article on the meaning of Yom Kippur past, present and future at http://hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/yom_kippur.pdf.
The Resurrection of the Dead — A Fundamental Doctrine of the Gospel
The concept of the resurrection of the dead is a fundamental biblical concept and one of the main doctrines underlying the gospel message as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews states:
Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Messiah, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward Elohim, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (Heb 6:1–2)
What Is the Rapture?
The concept of the rapture has bandied about in the church quite a lot in recent years. Many doctrines of men have risen up around this concept and captured the attention and hopes of many modern believers. Let’s explore the what the Bible has to say about the rapture.
The word rapture comes from the Latin word raptura, which is a translation of the biblical Greek word harpazo meaning “to seize, carry off by force, claim for one’s self eagerly.” The idea of the rapture is based on 1 Thessalonians 4:17 where the phrase caught up refers to the glorification of the saints at Yeshua’s second coming.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up [Gr. harpazo] clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
The rapture, catching away or resurrection refers to saints receiving their glorified bodies — being changed from mortal to immortal. Those saints who are alive when Yeshua returns will be caught up to meet him in the air, while the righteous dead saints will be resurrected from their graves also meet the Messiah in the air at the same time. According to the Bible, the rapture or catching away will occur. The question is when does it occur?
The two primary passages in the Testimony of Yeshua (or New Testament) that speak about the resurrection are 1 Corinthians 15:51–54 1 and Thessalonians 4:13–17.
Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. (1 Cor 15:51–54)
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Yeshua will Elohim bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the YHVH, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of Elohim: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thess 4:13–17)
The First Resurrection
The rapture is simply a euphemism for the resurrection of the dead. How many resurrections of the dead are there? Continue reading