Batten Down the Hatches!

 tldr; Feast of Trumpets is next week.  A confluence of events is lining up with God's Word.  In this hour, we need to be awake and aware.

Overview of What's Coming

There is coming a day, and very soon I believe, which will take the entire world by surprise.  It will be a day of violent destruction from the Lord God Almighty.  Many will perish on that day as God goes forth for the salvation of his people. (Is. 34:8, 43:4, Hab. 3:13)  And because of that day, the Agenda will be delayed.  Many of you already know what agenda I'm talking about.  There are people in positions of power who have colluded together to greatly reduce the population of earth, to exterminate christians, and to implement a system of control over those who remain.  We are already seeing the beginning of that agenda being put in place.

However, because of what God is about to do, that agenda will be greatly delayed (Is. 17:12-14, 18:5, 25:5, 29:5, 63:6) as God gets his people to a place of safety where they will be protected.  God will be a wall of fire around us and the glory in our midst.  In fact, it will take several years for the wicked rulers of the earth to recover to the point where they are ready to implement their final solution, the mark of the beast.  All of this is foretold in the prophets, both Old and New Testament.  Unfortunately, scarcely anyone knows what is about to unfold and the vast majority will be...

Completely Taken Off Guard

For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.  1 Thessalonians 5:3

“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, Who dwell securely, Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, Nor shall I know the loss of children’; Isaiah 47:8 

This particular phrase, peace and safety, has been used by politicians for a few decades now.  I have concluded that the verse is talking about more of a mindset than anything else.  When worldwide catastrophe strikes, people will simply not be expecting it, least of all Americans.  This is also a common theme in the prophets when speaking of the attitude of Babylon when she meets her demise.  I believe this is true today, even, sadly, among many christians.  People, by and large, are just not expecting their comfy way of life to change over night.  The sudden destruction is discussed in many passages in the prophets.  It initiates a series of events which are best summarized in Revelation 6.  But when will it all begin?

At Harvest Time

Thus the Lord GOD showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit....The end has come upon My people...  Amos 8:1-2

...But the harvest will be a heap of ruins In the day of grief and desperate sorrow. Isaiah 17:11

For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect And the sour grape is ripening in the flower, He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks And take away and cut down the branches. Isaiah 18:5

Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished.  Joel 1:11

If you are one of the, maybe, three people in the world who have read my books and are familiar with my struggle to understand the prophetic text, you know that I've had a lot to say about springtime in regards to God's return.  Over the years, and especially recently, I've had to readjust my thinking in several areas.  I thought the cataclysm would occur just prior to, on the same day even, Babylon is destroyed by nuclear warfare.  Over the years this has probably been my biggest point of confusion when studying the prophets.  When reading the prophets, many of the events of Jacob's Trouble are interspersed.  The way those passages are written, some events seem to be linked so tightly that one walks away thinking they are the same event. (ie. Rev. 18:8)  However, to truly understand, if such a thing is possible in any meaningful way, we must take all the prophetic text into account.

I now see these two, sudden destruction and nuclear annihilation, as separate events.  (America being split in two and covered by ocean waves is still a yet future event from these two.)  First, God "stands up" to shake the earth mightily.  America, in particular, receives the brunt of this destruction.  Then, at some later time, possibly months later, America, all her major cities, will be destroyed by nuclear fire.  It's very possible the first event, sudden destruction, occurs at the Feast of Trumpets (the subject of this article), and then America is utterly destroyed weeks or even months later.

Besides harvest time, what else do we see?

Trumpet and Alarm!

Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the LORD is coming, For it is at hand: Joel 2:1

Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Joel 2:15

They have dealt treacherously with the LORD, For they have begotten pagan children. Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage. “Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, The trumpet in Ramah! Cry aloud at Beth Aven, ‘Look behind you, O Benjamin!’ Hosea 5:7-8

“Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD, Because they have transgressed My covenant And rebelled against My law. Hosea 8:1

God has gone up with a shout, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Psalms 47:5

The great day of the LORD is near; ... A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. Zephaniah 1:14-16

Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the trumpet in the land; Cry, ‘Gather together,’ And say, ‘Assemble yourselves, And let us go into the fortified cities.’ Jeremiah 4:5

‘And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets. Numbers 29:1

‘Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. Leviticus 25:9

When all is said and done, we will not be able to read the prophetic text and say, aha, that didn't happen.  In that day our understanding will be perfect, as the Lord himself will teach us. (Is. 54:13)  When I read these passages that describe the day of the Lord being initiated with the sound of trumpets, I tend to believe we are being told something, literal, about that day.  Namely, trumpets will be blown!

Now, if you are reading this, you probably already know that God's appointed times are codified in what we call the Old Testament and that the sun and moon and the stars of heaven are for signs and seasons.  And there happens to be one appointed time, around harvest, that literally means a day of blowing the trumpet.  It goes by the name Yom Teruah or Rosh Hashanah, or more commonly, Feast of Trumpets.

According to that codified Law, Feast of Trumpets must begin at a certain time each year, when the New Moon crescent is first sighted in the sky.  In 2021, this will be sometime in the first full week of September.  This particular holiday, which starts at the sighting of the New Moon crescent, is "the day and hour no one knows" (an old Jewish idiom) because no one knows, except God Himself, exactly when the first of that waxing crescent will become visible in the sky.

Feasting to Mourning

I will turn your feasts into mourning, And all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, And baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, And its end like a bitter day.  Amos 8:10

The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests mourn, who minister to the LORD. Joel 1:9

As with the synchronicity of harvest time and the blowing of trumpets, we seem to see here a time when one religious feast in particular, Feast of Trumpets?, Yom Kippur?, will be interrupted by God himself as he treads the high places of the earth (Amos 4:13), when the windows from on high are open and the foundations of the earth are shaken. (Isaiah 24:18)

Divide the Times

“Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add year to year; Let feasts come around. Yet I will distress Ariel; There shall be heaviness and sorrow, And it shall be to Me as Ariel. Isaiah 29:1-2

O LORD, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.  Habakkuk 3:2

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; Genesis 1:14

Add year to year; Let feasts come around.  Revive Your work in the midst of the years!  In the midst of the years make it known!  For years I have struggled over this text.  What could it possibly mean?  Does it really mean what some commentators of old have stated, that it simply is a plea for God to intervene in the affairs of man before the end arrives?

This phrase, in the midst of, simply indicates the middle of, or among, something.  But as it applies to multiple years, what does it mean?  Could it mean the point in time when one year turns into another year, the midst of two distinct years?  If so, Feast of Trumpets is just such a point in time when one year becomes another year.  Rosh Hashanah means head of the year and, by tradition*, is the celebration of the Jewish New Year.  Even more, this holiday begins the "10 days of awe" which, also by tradition, is dedicated to deep reflection and repentance.  

* While God is not at all obligated to honor the traditions of men, as He is His own Word, He knows all things before they happen.  I find it interesting that the Rosh Hashanah tradition originated during the (first) Babylonian exile and Habakkuk recorded the words above prior to that. As with all of God's Word, it speaks across the ages truth and light all the way to us.

When You Cease Plundering

Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you! When you cease plundering, You will be plundered; When you make an end of dealing treacherously, They will deal treacherously with you.  Isaiah 33:1

I am still not entirely sure about this one.  Recently I wondered if the plundering indicated the daily burning and looting we witnessed last year.   When I wrote the books in 2012 I supposed this meant that troops were being brought home.  As it happens, this week the "forever war" in Afghanistan has been declared over.  But were we really plundering and pillaging that nation, a nation that did not plunder us?  I will leave it to the reader to research that for themselves.  I highly recommend this link for a good starting place.

Conclusion

Right now, on the last day of August, 2021, though many are still oblivious to what's going on, God's people are facing extinction.  Unless God intervenes on our behalf, there is no hope; we will continue to be backed into a corner, deprived of all rights we have come to cherish and then killed.  But praise be to God, His counsels of old are faithfulness and truth! (Is. 25:1)  Get ready!