I have read this passage in John 1 often and until recently I was rather puzzled by this detailed interaction between Jesus and Nathanael, of whom after this we hear precious little in the rest of the gospel, especially compared to the other disciples that we’ve just met in this chapter, Simon Peter, Andrew, and Philip. But there’s nothing recorded in the Bible without a definite purpose, so I asked God to show me why this was here, and He graciously opened my heart to something beautiful, which I want to share with you.

First, read this chapter through in its entirety to get the context; you can do so online here. In verse 43 we’re told that Jesus, who has recently been baptised and is gathering His disciples to Himself, calls Philip, who seemingly immediately goes to find his friend Nathanael and tells him that he has found the Messiah – “Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote -” and Philip identifies Jesus as “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”. The way Philip describes Jesus tells me that he and Nathanael knew the scriptures really well; they were eager students of the law and the prophets and they understood that the Prophet Moses had spoke of in Deuteronomy 18 was the Messiah, as well as countless references in the prophets – such as Isaiah and Malachi. They were actively looking for the coming of Messiah, and after 400 years without prophets, John the Baptist suddenly appears on the scene, causing such a to-do among the people that the Pharisees, the corrupt and controlling religious authorities of the day, have to investigate (see earlier in the same chapter!). Philip and Nathanael must have been praying and seeking God to show them whether they were about to see the promised One…so when Philip is called by Jesus, he recognises Him straight away. There’s a lot to be said for knowing the Scriptures for yourself, and reading and believing prophecy…if you’re not seeking the truth, you will be much less likely to recognise it when it appears in front of you. No-one can do this for you; you have to take God at His word and seek Him.

Something of the early conversation between Jesus and Philip (and presumably Simon Peter and Andrew as well!) can be deduced from Philip’s subsequent identification – they have clearly asked Jesus about His lineage and His place of origin as part of investigating the huge claims about Him made by John the Baptist (and remember, this all takes place in Galilee, the same region in which Nazareth is located), so Philip tells Nathanael this information. Philip is a new believer, and in his sheer excitement to tell Nathanael, he gives him accurate information from a purely human standpoint, but doesn’t yet have all the dots joined with the ancient scriptures, which explains Nathanael’s response:

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

– verse 46

This may sound terribly derogatory, but Nathanael is right, from a prophetic standpoint, nothing significant comes out of Nazareth – the Messiah, the Anointed One, the One whose origins are from everlasting, is to be born in Bethlehem of Judah (quite a long way south of Galilee), as the scribes accurately told the Magi and Herod in Matthew 2. Nathanael wasn’t reacting in unbelief – or else Jesus would surely have called him out on it, as He did many times to others – he was skeptical of Philip’s claim until he had been able to work it out. He didn’t just believe the first thing that his excited friend told him. As for Philip, his response to Nathanael is golden:

“Come and see.”

– verse 46

Every believer can learn from this – human arguments and clever answers and long debates and intellectual scholarship will only ever go so far…what we must prioritise is calling people to come and see for themselves – to come and meet Jesus, and to introduce them to the One we are so excited about and love so well. And for unbelievers, those with a healthy skepticism, this is what you need to do if you really want to investigate the claims of Jesus and what that might mean for you…you need to meet Him for yourself. Notice too, that Philip says COME and see, not GO – he’s inviting Nathanael to walk alongside him and to journey with him; a beautiful picture of what it means to lead someone to the Lord or disciple them in the faith, however new or mature you are in the faith yourself, you’re always learning and will always learn from and alongside others as we get to know the Lord.

So Nathanael shows willing and humility, and goes along with Philip to meet Jesus. As they approach, Jesus offers this greeting:

“Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”

– verse 47

This is isn’t a rebuke or a sarcastic comment – this is a warm, admiring commendation from the One who perceives and knows what goes on in our hearts and minds, and knows our intentions, our motives, and our weaknesses. He saw Nathanael’s heart, knew his desire for truth and praised him for it. Nathanael is surprised, and humbly asks the Lord how He knows him, having never met Him before. Again, this is not a cynical, eyes-narrowed, suspicious question, but rather an open, trusting enquiry, like Mary’s to Gabriel when she was told she would be the mother of the Messiah. Jesus responds to Nathanael’s question the way God always responds to a humble heart; with compassion and reassurance; He saw Nathanael, He perceived him, He knew about him and his exact situation – sitting under the fig tree. Nathanael’s response is immediate faith – only God has the attributes of foreknowledge and omniscience, and Nathanael recognises Jesus for who He is and confesses Him as God and the rightful King of Israel. A similar immediate confession is Thomas, unfairly known to history as Doubting Thomas, who upon seeing the evidence in front of him, falls down on his knees and confesses Jesus as “My Lord and my God” – the only rightful response for a heart of seeking faith. Interestingly for this passage, Nathanael’s response proves that ancient Jewish thought and rabbinical tradition taught that Messiah would be divine…but that’s for another discussion.

So why the fig tree? Scripture is very specific, and when it’s specific, there’s a specific reason for that particular detail. Well, the fig tree denotes Israel – ancient, national Israel – in prophecy, and is highly symbolic of God’s covenant with the nation of Israel. So Nathanael is a son of Israel, committed to the law and the prophets, God’s ketubah with the nation He chose as His inheritance and His betrothed, and sitting under the fig tree seems to me to be a picture of sitting under the tutelage of the law and the Hebrew Scriptures, which as Paul says in Galatians, is our tutor to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). We can’t fully understand the depth and breadth of who Jesus is without the law and the prophets, and they in turn reveal Him in all His glory to anyone who is truly looking. Read Isaiah and you’ll see Him on almost every page! Matthew Henry also notes in his commentary on John 1 that Nathanael sitting under the fig tree is like Isaac meditating out in the field in Genesis 24:63 – it was a place of private communion with God, a place of prayer, and solitude, and showed Nathanael’s personal integrity and commitment to his relationship with God…what a beautiful picture that is! We are promised that one day, in the Messianic kingdom, that everyone will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and that people will invite their neighbours to sit in peace under their fig tree, indicating that this is a special place, a place of blessing and fellowship and of peace. (See Zechariah 3:10 and Micah 4:4). What an amazing promise!

So lastly, Jesus then promises Nathanael and the other disciples a vision of the second coming of the Messiah – His coming in power and great glory, when every eye will see Him in the very same splendour and majesty that He humbly set aside to come and meet them in that moment there in Galilee 2,000 years ago. It’s a validation if you like, a commendation and confirmation for Nathanael and Philip for their hours of study of the prophets, as they would have instantly recognised the vision as one given to the prophet Daniel, and it was also a great promise, clearly speaking of Messiah in the future tense, pointing them – and us – forward to what He would accomplish. This is still our Hope today, and until that glorious day, we too should be seeking Jesus, seeking the truth, coming to meet Him for ourselves, and inviting others to do the same. I’m really looking forward to meeting Nathanael and Philip one day soon, and I cannot wait to meet Jesus in the flesh and to worship Him with the words of both Thomas and Nathanael: “My Lord and my God – you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!”.

Well, the 19th came and went, and we’re still here! But quite possibly not for long; in fact we could be gone this time next week. Here’s why.

Firstly, I want to address anyone who thinks that this is just an exercise in constantly moving the goalposts…I’ve heard it said, and I don’t expect non-believers to understand our hope – though the kinder folk among them may try! But it’s truly sad when other Christians say it and attack us for doing what Jesus Himself said to do: watch! I have been through phases of not wanting to engage in this at all, so I do understand both points of view – it can be incredibly hard and stressful living in two parallel worlds; the “all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” kinda everyday life in the world (see 2 Peter 3 for that reference), and the “look up and lift up your heads, because your salvation draws near” urgency that seems to grow with each new event or insight (look at Luke 21 for that reference). But each time a possible Rapture date comes and goes, we are doing what any good investigator or scientist or academic does when studying their discipline; one theory is laid aside when it’s no longer relevant, and it’s superseded each time by a new idea or discovery. God is the ultimate Master of secrets, signs, codes, pictures, mysteries and prophecies, and He is unraveling them at the time of His choosing to those who are seeking Him for wisdom. See what King Solomon, the wisest man in history, says in this Scripture:

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the honour of kings to search out a matter.”

Proverbs 25:2

And yes, if you’re a believer, God has made you a king and a priest before Him forever (Revelation 1:6), so this applies to you too! Each time a potential Rapture date comes and goes, God is using those studies that went into it to deepen our faith, our appreciation of His designs and His beauty and His power and His sovereignty and His heart of love and patience and holiness, and each time, He also leads us on to the next clue as we follow this incredible treasure trail to His Kingdom.

So now; Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The next big date on the autumn calendar, and the day that I have felt for a long time with all my heart would be the date Jesus would return bodily at the end of the Tribulation. He will come in power and great glory to rescue Israel and to judge once and for all who has received Him as Saviour and therefore has a place in His kingdom, and who goes to eternal separation from Him in hell for their total rejection of Him. The Jewish people will finally see that HE is their atonement, and they will mourn and repent (Zechariah 12:10). I still believe this is the case, but there’s a specialness about THIS Yom Kippur, 2023, that means it’s a very high watch time for the Rapture.

Paul says that we will be raptured at “the Last Trumpet” in 1 Corinthians 15:52. So when is the Last Trumpet. There are many, many trumpet blasts, throughout Elul and the lead-up to Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets, and there are Trumpets throughout that festival – Leviticus 23:24 says that there is to be a blowing of trumpets for commemoration, but it doesn’t say what for. Then, according to the same chapter, you have the Day of Atonement, and there are no trumpets mentioned. Except during a very special year; every 50th year, the Jubilee. This was the year when all debts were cancelled, all slaves freed, and all ancestral land that had been sold reverted to it’s original owners. It prevented generations of servitude or usury, and helped the people learn the heart of their God for freedom and dignity. Here’s the shocking thing though; we have no record of this ever being observed. God calls His wayward people out several times in the words of the prophets for denying the Land her Sabbaths, in other words the Shemitah cycle and the Jubilees, and s0 we can conclude that this practice was neglected by sinful, greedy people…nothing changes in the heart of mankind, whoever they are, over the centuries. But God never neglects His own ordinances and covenants, and He has promised both the Land and the faithful remnant of His people a wonderful Sabbath rest and Jubilee when Messiah reigns on the earth. And 2023/24 ‘just happens’ to be a Jubilee Year. Interesting, huh? Let me go further.

In the Jubilee years, the Last Trumpet is actually the trumpet that declares the beginning of the Jubilee freedom:

“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. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty thought all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession and each of you shall return to his family.”

Leviticus 25:9-10, NKJV

Now turn to Luke 4, where Jesus, who has just been tempted by Satan in the wilderness, returns to His hometown and on Shabbat is called to the Torah to read a portion for that day’s service. The Torah itself has already been read, and He is being called to read either the Haftorah or the Maftir – the text doesn’t give us enough clues as to whether these set reading cycles were fully developed at this point in the 1st century. In any case, He is handed the scroll of the majestic prophet Isaiah, and He reads this:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…”

Isaiah 61:1-2a

Then He stops in the middle of a sentence, in the middle of a verse (in English at least!) and hands the scroll back, to give a commentary on the Parshah, as would be quite normal for a learned Jewish man. We know that many people called Him Rabbi, so He was already known for His wisdom, but that day, He incenses the people by claiming that HE is the fulfilment of the prophecy. The acceptable year of the Lord is the Jubilee year, and it is widely accepted that this passage refers to Messiah and the Messianic age, hence their outrage. Interestingly, where He stops is a dividing line in the prophecy, into which 2,000 years nestle, between the Jubilee Year which began Jesus’ first ministry of healing, reconciliation, and ultimately spiritual atonement, and the “the day of vengeance of our God” which completes the verse. Perhaps the day that Jesus read this in the synagogue was indeed Yom Kippur – it would make sense that the Jubilee year was declared on that day – and it will be Yom Kippur when He returns to complete the prophecy in judgment and justice.

But this will be 7 years (one Shemitah cycle, one Sabbath) into a new Jubilee cycle because this year is a Jubilee. So if Jesus was to rapture us on the Last Trumpet of this autumn’s trumpets, on Yom Kippur, He is proclaiming liberty for the captives, for us who are still oppressed, in bondage in our flesh to sin and corruption and illness and death, and we will be given the freedom of new, resurrection bodies and taken HOME to heaven. Because we are not citizens of this world; when we were saved we were given citizenship of heaven, and though our souls are redeemed and bought by Jesus’ blood, and sealed by the Holy Spirit, our bodies are still awaiting part 2 of our salvation, the mortal becoming immortal, as described in 1 Corinthians 15. According to the passage in Leviticus, each person’s possession was to be returned to them at the Jubilee. We are Jesus’s possession; He bought us with His own blood, and has given us a down-payment of His promise to redeem us fully, physically, so when He comes back, still a Torah-observant Jew, a Son of David, He will claim that which is His, His bride the church. The picture is so beautiful, friends! It makes so much sense of all these passages and the heart of our covenant-keeping God!

So, when is Yom Kippur this year? Well, following on from astronomical Rosh Hashanah, it could be anytime between the 27th and 29th September, 2023. Watch this space. The case that I have tried to lay out above is only one facet of everything else going on around us that points to this being the last days of the last days before the Tribulation. Read my post on 2023 if you haven’t yet – there’s so much more I want to write about involving the SDG Summit/Agenda 2030, the climate hoax, the alien hoax, the sharp descent into complete depravity with the LGBT/Trans agenda attacking children, the transhumanist agenda, the readiness of the Temple Mount Faithful to restore temple worship…King Charles III possibly being the antichrist (okay, yes, I’ve said it!)…the convergence of signs and of the birth pains increasing; friends, if Jesus doesn’t come this year, I’m going to be shocked – not faith-shaken, but shocked; everything that Jesus and the prophets said is happening now, and I genuinely can’t see this world being able to go much longer without Divine intervention.

So let’s wait and watch and pray and share – come, Lord Jesus!

Psalm 62:8 was one of today’s daily verses (Die Losungen for all you German-speakers), and it’s so beautiful and spoke to me so profoundly that I wanted to share it with you all, along with Psalm 63.

Psalm 62

To the chief musician. To Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

Truly my soul silently waits for God; from Him comes my salvation;

He is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.

How long will you attack a man? You shall be slain, all of you, like a leaning wall and a tottering fence.

They only consult to cast him down from his high position; they delight in lies;

They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly.

Selah

My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.

He only is my rock and my salvation;

He is my defence; I shall not be moved.

In God is my salvation and my glory;

The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.

Trust in Him at all times, you people;

Pour out your heart to Him; God is a refuge for us.

Selah

Surely men of a low degree are a vapour, men of high degree are a lie;

If they are weighed on the scales, they are altogether lighter than vapour.

Do not trust in oppression, nor vainly hope in robbery;

If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

God has spoken once, twice I have heard this:

That power belongs to God.

Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;

For You render to each one according to his work.

Psalm 63

A psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O God, You are my God; early I will seek You;

My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You

In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

So have I looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and glory.

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You.

Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your Name.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

When I remember You on my bed, I mediate on You in the night watches.

Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice.

My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.

But those who seek my life, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

They shall fall by the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals.

But the king shall rejoice in God; everyone who swears by Him shall glory;

But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.

(This story of freedom from the lies of New Age doctrine was written as a testimony/lesson, which our youth pastor allowed the author, Elaine, to give to the church’s youth group, grades 6 through 12, on November 9, 2011 at Gold Coast Christian Church. I have copied and pasted it here, from truthsaves.org, as promised in my previous post to help you realise and understand some of the deception that will be coming on the earth very, very soon).

I’ve been a born-again Christian for about four years.

My mom and my dad met at a Christian church as teenagers and even though they were very involved in church during that time, after they married they left the church. Eventually, my mom studied New Age ideas and my dad did too.

So I grew up in a home which embraced New Age beliefs.

“New Age” is a term which covers a wide range of beliefs. It is as if a person is walking through a cafeteria, picking and choosing the desserts only (from other belief systems), so you may see elements of Hinduism, Buddhism, astrology, mysticism, Native American beliefs, Kabbalah (which Madonna used to follow), witchcraft/Wicca, the occult, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism–the list goes on and on.

This cafeteria style is referred to as Syncretism. There are no set rules, because anything and everything is okay–except set rules.

Syncretism – anything and everything is okay, except set rules…what they don’t like is a religion that accepts only one path to God, such as Christianity.

Typically, people who hold this belief system describe themselves as being spiritual, not religious. They don’t usually refer to themselves as a New Ager.

New Agers believe that all religious paths lead to God so all religions are basically the same. What they don’t like is a religion that accepts only one path to God, such as Christianity.

At the root of the New Age belief system is the belief that each of us are part of the divine or god. But for some reason, we don’t realize it so we each have to spend many, many, many lifetimes until we do, learning different lessons, and then if our “good karma” outweighs our “bad karma,” we can pass on to a higher level of understanding called “Christ-consciousness,” eventually becoming perfect like God.

The belief in having more than one lifetime is called reincarnation. This progression to perfection all depends on our own effort and works. Each person is their own savior and not only is each person evolving to perfection but the world community as a global community is as well.

This is important for you to realize. They believe that the world is just getting better and better but one of the things holding us back is Christians and their intolerance. This was how I thought. I couldn’t wait for the world to get evolved enough so that the Christians would just go away. You’ve heard of the Bible verse that says “in the twinkling of an eye,” which Christians believe is about the rapture. Well, there is a New Age belief that only the truly evolved believers like themselves will be left on earth and that those who are not evolved (basically stubborn), will be removed as if in the twinkling of an eye. This is the way Satan has prepared them for when Christians disappear in the rapture.

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound and the death will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed…For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. The the dead in Christ will be raised first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, NKJV

People who believe like this also then believe that there is no such thing as evil. They think that the appearance of what Christians would call “evil” is actually just ignorance of who you really are. Therefore, they believe there is no sin. They believe that every decision a person makes, even a bad one, has value so there is no reason to repent or turn to God from one’s sin. Because guilt is only an invention of the Christian church.

So as a kid, with my sister and brother, I went with my mom to meetings delving into New Age studies through an organization called ARE (Association for Research and Enlightenment; their prophet is Edgar Cayce). At these meetings, we’d read each other’s auras, prophesize over each other, seek help from the spirit world and do Eastern-style meditation. Occasionally, we’d go to the Church of Religious Science, which is a New Age church.

When I was 14, a friend took me to a Christian church event and I responded to the altar call. I probably even recited the “Sinner’s Prayer.” I came home and pulled out a New Testament of the Bible, which my older brother had given to me a few years before, one of those hand-out-type Bibles he’d gotten free somewhere.

That evening, I told my mom that I had accepted the church’s altar call and she told me that it was just a bunch of emotionalism and that she herself had responded to many alter calls when she was a teenager until she realized that the Christian church was just working on her emotions.

After that, I still believed in my New Age ideas but I often attended the Lutheran church with my friend’s family and the youth group nearly every Wednesday night. I met my husband there and we married when I was almost 18. By 21, we had three daughters, and one who died when I was seven months pregnant. We continued to go to church almost every Sunday, first to the Lutheran church and then an evangelical free church. Wherever we lived, we attended, for the most part, spirit-filled Christian churches.

On the sly though, I still hung on to my New Age belief and studied from New Age books. My husband and his entire family are Christians. Most people just assumed I was too. I did not want to be hassled for my belief system so I stayed stealthy and secretive. I was not really impressed by the Christians I knew. I really didn’t think they had anything different than I thought I had. This is why I think it is really important to know that we are, as Christians, ambassadors for Christ to everyone, even people we think are Christians, because we just never know. From my viewpoint at that time, my New Age family acted more Christian than most Christians I knew.

This is why I think it is really important to know that we are, as Christians, ambassadors for Christ to everyone, even people we think are Christians, because we just never know.

I was content in my New Age belief; it answered all of my questions and I could explain it really well to other people.

My own particular New Age belief system was “Gnostic Christianity.”

A modern form of Gnosticism basically believes that Jesus was an example only, literally the first-born of what we all will eventually become. Gnosticism is the belief that salvation is gained through your own knowledge. It believes that the Christian church has lied and has not taught the true teachings of Jesus which he taught to his closest students/disciples and through them to us that we all could work as Jesus did to acquiring a “Christ-consciousness.”

In the New Age belief system, nothing really is at stake, because a person believes that we are spiritual beings who got stuck as humans in a physical world so God loves us all enough to just allow us to keep coming back lifetime after lifetime until, like Jesus who also had many lifetimes, we finally perfect ourselves so we no longer have to return to earth as humans. In that belief system, a person believes that there is no eternal separation; there is no threat of hell because there is no such thing as hell. They believe that hell is only an invention of mainstream religious Christianity, in order to keep mankind in control under the church’s power and to keep us all in the dark to our real identity.

C.S. Lewis’ book, “Mere Christianity,” says that Jesus is either a lunatic, a liar or the Lord; He can’t simply be a good moral teacher or guru figure, as the New Age reduces Him to being.

“Jesus [. . .] told people that their sins were forgiven. [. . .] This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. [. . .] I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

There is a fourth point, which I used to believe and which a lot of people with a loud voice in our culture currently believe. I’ll refer to it as the “Da Vinci Code Theory.” This says that Jesus came and did everything supernaturally, as the Bible states, but that his words were distorted in the Bible by the church in an attempt to keep mankind from knowing their true identity: as divine like Him, not as lost sheep – sinners in need of salvation.

The book “The Da Vinci Code,” which became a movie, is about Gnostic Christianity. Hollywood-type people, for the most part, think like this so it is promoted widely through their movies. Some other movies with obvious New Age agendas are Crash, The Matrix, Avatar, Star Wars, the Disney movie Pocahontas . . .

Because I had wanted to disprove Christianity to my husband, I read a lot of early church history and unfortunately I knew a lot more about Christianity’s beginnings then most Christians I knew. I didn’t know the Bible but I did know the history of the early church. Because I had this knowledge, this didn’t help me value a lot of what regular Christians would say, especially in their being able to quote the Bible because I believed the Bible was falsified. Christians could quote it but had no idea of who wrote the Bible and how it came into being.

I had read books by popular writers who also held similar views about Christianity as I did. It wasn’t until much later that I realized that their “facts” about the early church and the Bible were distorted. Their point was always that the religion of Christianity was all based on a conspiracy by the power-hungry church to keep mankind in the dark.

I was really content in my belief system. But thankfully, God had other plans and in a slow process, He drew me closer and closer to His Truth.

Bit by bit, I came to realize that those books I had read which criticized Christianity and Jesus were basing their ideas on very flimsy facts.

I also eventually came to the realization that the Bible actually has integrity, and more integrity than most historic accounts do and I also came to realize that God could actually be speaking to us through the Bible.

I started working at a Christian publishing house because I respected the moral ideas of Christianity. My work gave us some worship CDs. I listened a lot to these, not really believing or listening to all of the words, but I loved to worship God through music which glorified him. Thankfully God had shown me that He was worthy of our praise and I really did feel that. Even as an unbeliever I would raise my hands during worship time because it seemed right.

After the 9/11 attacks, because these were instigated by Muslims, I read a book on the religion Islam, whose followers are called Muslims. The book told me that only Jews and Christians view mankind as being made in God’s image and believe that God loves us and that God is a Father to us, his creation. Muslims, on the other hand, can be killed for stating such things because Islam does not believe any of that. This helped me recognize that not all religions are good and that they don’t all have the same concept of God. It helped me recognize that Christianity was actually a pretty healthy religion and a lot better than most other religions.

In 2005, a work friend mentioned to me, in passing, a New Testament Bible verse:

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

2 Timothy 4:3,4

Never discount the power of God’s word, as stated through our Bible.

Never discount the power of God’s word as stated through our Bible.

These verses really got under my skin, because it got me to questioning. Was I one of those people who had wandered off into myths?

In the Bible book of Genesis, there is the account of a man named Jacob who physically wrestled with God, and he would not let God go until God blessed him.

After my friend had shared the Timothy Bible verses with me, I did my own wrestling with God, for about three years. I demanded that God show me his Truth (often crying out in anguish), no matter where it might take me and no matter what it might reveal to me. I had also begun reading the gospels in the Bible over and over because I wanted to appear more knowledgeable about the Bible to the Christians at my work.

Part of this process was that even though I was not a Christian yet, I became very protective of my nieces and nephews on my husband’s side and their Christian upbringing because I now recognized that Christianity was the best religion to live under. I just didn’t know how to embrace it for myself as I was so entrenched in my New Age belief.

Remember that I said in the New Age belief system, there is no belief in evil? This also means that there is no belief in Satan, the devil. Well, because I was reading the parts of the Bible about Jesus, it finally started to penetrate that Jesus spent a lot of time casting demons out of people. So the next step in my thinking was that there must be such a thing as the devil and evil because it seemed to be so vindictive and personal.

And remember that New Agers think that the world is evolving to perfection? Well, I also started to realize that the world was not getting better. That it is, in fact, really broken for some reason. In contrast to the brokenness of this world and the people in it, I started to see that God’s nature is holy and I started to realize that no one else is like him except Jesus.

At this time, the Holy Spirit was also getting through to me that I am not perfect and my concepts of perfection are not God’s concepts. Nice and good are not the same thing.

Nice and good are not the same thing.

In the winter of 2008, my husband had to do extensive business travel, coming home only on weekends. It was during this time that the Holy Spirit led me through some good Christian books, one specifically on forgiveness. I was finally recognizing my own sin and I felt incredibly convicted.

At my work, prior to it being published, I had read a manuscript of a book entitled “Lost Boy” by Greg Laurie. His life was a mess before he came to Christ. What drew him to God was God’s love for him. That was not what God captured me with because as a New Ager, I believed that people deserve to be loved and honored. What got me about the book was how nice it must be to have such a simple faith that Jesus Christ was who Christianity said he was. I really started to wish I could just accept it. I also recognized that the author was not an idiot, yet he believed in Christianity. It seemed that a lot of intelligent people believed in Christianity. And, even though those New Age books I had read years ago implied and blatantly stated that information about the Gnostic Gospels and “changes” in the Bible were squelched by the organized church, I was seeing that there were Christians who did know about these things and that the knowledge of these things weren’t a big deal to them. There seemed to be intelligent rebuttal to the criticisms I had read and believed.

It was at the Holy Spirit’s urging, a pressing not from me, that I was able to let go of the last “stronghold” of my New Age belief system, which was my belief in reincarnation. This was the hardest thing for me to do, because so much of my worldview, the way I viewed everything, was based on it. But, I was finally ready just to know his Truth, and I took what is known as “a leap of faith.” Once I did this, God filled in the knowledge of why reincarnation does not make sense and how much His actual redemption plan through Jesus Christ does.

“Repentance” means: a turning back toward God. I felt a deep, soul-wrenching sorrow and I felt really bad for my past actions. There were a few nights, while my husband was away, that I was physically “on my face” before God. I felt God’s presence in a new way and His love in spite of my sins and I recognized that only He could save me, by forgiving the penalty that my sins created. I finally accepted that I could not be my own Savior because a person cannot work their way into perfection or godliness. Only God can, which is who Jesus is. I laid my will and my life down to Him, finally recognizing who Jesus really is and what Jesus did on the cross for me personally.

God journeyed me to rest solidly in a belief in true Christianity as Jesus stated in John 14:6:

“I am the Truth, the Way and the Life.”

Lesson:

I thought and prayed about what to do this lesson on, whether on apologetics (the defense of Christianity), or on something else. And I believe that I should talk to you about discernment in regards to “contending for the faith” and more about the belief system from which I came from.

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jude, verses 3-4

In these Bible verses, Jude, one of Jesus’ half brothers, wrote us that we must contend for the faith because certain people have crept in unnoticed.

Jesus states in John 10:10:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

When Jesus speaks of “the thief,” he is speaking about Satan, who is also known as the devil. There are a lot of warnings about him in the Bible.



In John 8:44, Jesus also says when he is speaking to the Pharisees:

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

This is the character of our enemy; he is a liar and a murderer who wants to destroy us.

One of the ways he does this is through false belief systems like New Age.

The term “New Age” got its start at the end of the 19th century. It refers to the 12 astrology horoscope signs of the zodiac. They believe we are currently in the horoscope age of Pisces; the sign is drawn as two fish.

Remember how I said that writers in that belief system take a fact and distort it? One of their lies is that the symbol used by early Christianity of the fish, which means “fishers of men” (you may have seen an example on a car decal; it is known as an “Ichthys”), actually refers to the age of Pisces horoscope sign.

New Agers believe that the next age we are approaching is the Age of Aquarius, so, a “New Age.” Each age is approximately 2,160 years long. And each age has its own “savior” who they believe comes with a message about the “truth” of who we really are, which is part of the divine. They believe that Jesus was an avatar ushering in the Age of Pisces. So they also believe that there will be a savior for the Age of Aquarius too, just as there were saviors for all of the other ages before the Age of Pisces. This is the way Satan has prepared them to accept the antichrist when he comes. He will be heralded as the savior of that particular age.

This is the way Satan has prepared them to accept the antichrist when he comes. He will be heralded as the savior of that particular age.

So what do they believe about the Age of Aquarius?

When I was a kid there was a very popular play. It was called “Hair” and one of the songs is “The Age of Aquarius.” In fact, in fifth grade I sang the school choir solo in this song. The first line is: “When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars.”

This is horoscope. Astrology language.

New Agers believe we are ushering in this New Age when we will be tolerant and no longer have the restraints of religion, specifically Christianity. They believe one of the “restraints” which will be broken in our current culture is the dumb idea that sexual relations should only be between a married couple which consists of one man and one woman. This is why, in our culture, we are bombarded now with examples of other sexual lifestyles and we are told that these are all okay and that Christianity is not okay because it is so intolerant.

New Agers believe we are ushering in this New Age when we will be tolerant and no longer have the restraints of religion, specifically Christianity.

True Christianity believes that Jesus the Christ is part of the three persons in one Godhead, the Trinity, which consists of the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. God is the creator and mankind is his creation. Man is not on the same level as God. Man is broken because of the fall in the garden of Eden. The results of Adam deciding to believe Satan who told him that mankind could be “like God” means that now people are spiritually dead which also then means that eventually each person physically dies.

Mankind’s spiritual life used to enable him to have a close relationship with our holy God. Jesus willingly sacrificed himself on our account so that we could again come into a relationship with our God. Jesus is the only Savior of the human race and that is because he is the only divine son of our holy God. He is an amazing mystery; Jesus is completely a man and he is completely God too. Only Christianity believes this: that Jesus is God and that we cannot be our own Savior, which means that we cannot work our way to heaven.

The following Bible verses show that the New Age belief system is actually very old. Satan just keeps using the same tactics to keep us for himself.

As mentioned, Jude starts off his letter stating that he intended to write about something else but he felt compelled to write:

“For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Jude verse 4

In another New Testament book, II Peter, Jesus’ disciple writes in depth about this same thing in Chapter two. He begins by writing:

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies [which means lies that they will try to pass off as Christian ideas], even denying the Master [Jesus] who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.“

2 Peter 2:1-3

These are just a couple of warnings in the New Testament. What both Peter and Jude are telling us as Christians is that we need to be aware of infiltrators, of evil sneaking in. We need to be able to discern.

“Discern” means to recognize or perceive clearly. In regards to Christianity this means you need to be able to recognize when an idea is not Christian.

To be able to discern, you must realize that one of your responsibilities as a Christian is to keep the Christian message pure. The only way to do this is to know what Christianity believes. Besides attending a Bible-believing church, read your Bible every day. I highly suggest a good study Bible so you can better understand those tough passages. I like the ESV study Bible. [Edit here from Becky: the King James Bible and the New King James Bible are the two English translations that are least corrupted by paraphrasing and using the wrong manuscripts as source material and I personally would recommend using only those if you can, but God will still speak through whichever translation is available to you if you can’t find a KJV or NKJV.] Ask God to help you fall in love with His written word, to give you a passion to want to read it and to spend time thinking about it and discussing it with him. Our tendency is not to want to so it is best to ask God for his help in reading your Bible. Satan loves when a Christian does not know how to discern lies from the true Christian message.

Find people to hold you accountable. Pray with and for these people and ask them to pray for you. Recognize that you need the covering of prayer because as a Christian, you are now on Satan’s radar. Don’t be scared. Recognize that he is only a created being so he is not even close to being as powerful as God but we need God’s power to protect us from his influences.

Discerning also means you have to recognize that just because someone or something states that it is Christian, it may not be. This is very evident in books because some “Christian” publishing houses are more liberal or loose in their theology (their belief in God). In fact, very recently, a major secular publishing house (“secular” means not religious but worldly) bought out one of the largest Christian publishing houses in the world. They had already bought out another large Christian publishing house about 20 years ago. So now they own 50% of Christian publishing worldwide. We are now seeing some of the books touted as “Christian” no longer reflecting the real Christian message.

I had read a lot of New Age books. There is an abundance of them, such as “The Da Vinci Code” and all other books by Dan Brown. A recent popular non-fiction book is “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle. I personally stay away from any books recommended, like this one was, by Oprah Winfrey, because she is a New Age believer. These books were runaway best-sellers around the world, translated into many languages.

These are some tactics for you to protect your Christian belief.

The New Age, Syncretism way of cafeteria-style religion is alive and flourishing. When you read the Bible, you will see that this is what the early church’s main battle was against. Other historic writings in the first and second centuries also prove this. It is up to us Christians to continue to “contend for the faith.”

In 2003, a reputable Christian survey group, Barna Research, found that one out of five USA adults believes in reincarnation. One out of ten USA born-again Christians believes in reincarnation. Does this surprise you? Contend for the faith!

Ponder this:

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.

Hebrews 9:27

It feels strange sitting here on a very grey, blustery day – 19th September 2023 – and thinking this, again. I’m not fazed that it’s the umpteenth possible rapture date we’ve considered over the past two years…each time one passes, we discover something new that the Lord is showing us in His word and in His world that points back to prophecy and forward to His coming to claim His bride, so though He may seem to tarry, He will be right on time. Here are a few thoughts about today…

Today is astronomical Rosh Hashanah. The Feast of Trumpets. The only feast where there was any ambiguity about its starting point, due to it beginning on a New Moon. The first sliver of the New Moon had to be sighted by two witnesses from Jerusalem, and verified before the priests (and later the Sanhedrin) before the feast could officially be proclaimed. But what if it’s cloudy? What if something obscures the moon, or it’s not in the right place on the right day? Exactly. “No one knows the day or the hour”…it’s an idiom referring to both Rosh Hashanah and the coming of the Bridegroom in a Jewish wedding (see my earlier post on that), but in both cases you’d have a pretty good idea of the season…the time of year, the likelihood. Even for a wedding, where the bride and her family had no definite date, it would be either one year, or at the most two years, after the date of the betrothal, and the bridegroom wasn’t to be late. So think of the anniversary, and you’ve got a pretty good guess. When was our betrothal to the Lord? When He created the New Covenant at Pesach in AD30…

‘Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day that I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom.”‘

Matthew 26:27-29 NKJV

This wedding language, the language of the shared cup of betrothal, where the bride and groom share wine, and then don’t see each other again until they share the cup of consummation on their wedding day, would have resonated with the disciples, some of whom were married (like Peter), and who would all have been to many weddings. They’d also have immediately been reminded of a passage, which is still read in the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah TO THIS DAY:

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah – not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my Law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people…for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Now, almost 2,000 years later to the very year (in fact, with just one week of years left!), here we are, awaiting the return of our Blessed Hope, our Bridegroom. Jewish wedding celebrations often last a whole 7 days after the initial ceremony and consummation, so coming for your bride with a week to go until your second betrothal anniversary would be quite neat planning! And there are some other interesting facts that seem very relevant for today of all days: according to My Jewish Learning, Tuesdays are considered a good day for a wedding, because on the days of creation, the third day is the only day where the phrase “And God saw that it was good” appears twice, thereby giving it special significance. And a Rosh Chodesh, or beginning of a month is also an opportune and popular time because of the waxing moon symbolising growth and fertility. Now, granted, these are the traditions of men, and in a faith which has had lots of superstition and mysticism mixed with it over the centuries, but nonetheless that’s pretty interesting, because today is Tuesday and if the New Moon has been sighted (would have to have been elsewhere, as the UK is currently blanketed under miles of grey cloud!), that makes it the Rosh Chodesh of Tishri.

It’s also around the time of the feast of oil, the last of the firstfruits offerings, each 50 days apart, of barley, wheat, new wine, and then oil…the oil of the Holy Spirit in the lamps of the Wise Virgins in Jesus’ parable all about the rapture, perhaps? The Oil of Joy or Oil of Gladness with which Jesus was anointed (Psalm 45:7, also about a wedding!), and which He gives in abundance to His people? The sacred, beautifully blended and scented oil of consecration, used to consecrate priests and holy tabernacle vessels in Exodus 30:22-25? And where was oil stored, especially for ceremonial anointing? In a horn – the same sort of rams horn that was also fashioned into the Shofar, the Trumpet, blown at high days and holy days and fasts and feasts, and to gather the people for blessing or for war. All significant correlations, signs and hints perhaps, that this is the right season.

As I covered in my last post, the SDG summit is currently taking place at the UN, where they’re recommitting, or confirming, a 7 year push towards the dystopian New World Order that they are planning to impose upon the world. Daniel 9:27 talks about the confirming of a covenant “with many” at the start of the tribulation, and out of this, the antichrist will be revealed and will deceive many. AI and the deep fake are going to play a huge role in this new SDG push, and the deception surrounding aliens and UFOs is growing ever more intense. This is going to be how they discredit the Rapture and deceive the world; check this video out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn9JrotuNuk . And it’s not just Christians saying this; the New Agers are also saying similar things, only they will claim that those taken are the stubborn ones, unwilling to reach the higher level of consciousness and holding back the world from moving into the new Age of Aquarius, and enlightenment, with its own ‘saviour’ figure…Satan’s false Christ, the antichrist. I will post a testimony of a former New Ager who lays all this out clearly.

Peace and Safety – or Peace and Security – is the buzzword for this time of year at the UN, and has been for 75 years. It’s in the UN Charter, it’s reconfirmed every year at the annual UN conference, and this year it’s being even more underlined as the International Day of Peace is Thursday 21st Sept, the day after tomorrow, and they will be marking it alongside the SDG summit with “A rallying cry to leave no-one behind”…interesting choice of language if they’re not already clued into the fact that millions will in fact be left behind. Satan is limited in his understanding, but he’s not stupid – he’s constrained by the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Bride of Christ on earth, but when we’re taken, he is cast to earth with great wrath to take as many of the left-behinders with him as he can before he’s bound for 1,000 years (Revelation 12:9, 12 and 20:1-3). He knows his time is short, and whether he is cast to earth at the beginning of the tribulation or the middle (options differ), he wants to kill and maim and destroy as many as possible, especially Israel, in a vain attempt to prevent the return of the Lord Jesus to the Mount of Olives, which spells his doom. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 says that when Peace and Safety is announced, then sudden destruction will come upon them and they will not escape. In a way, the inescapable cycle of wars and disasters that has characterised the last 75-80 years is one fulfilment of this, but there will be a very specific fulfilment when the Tribulation starts, and that could be anytime now.

Israel is also in peace talks at the very same time as this SDG summit, which is interesting if there’s going to have to be some sort of new arrangement in the Middle East whereby a third temple can be constructed (Daniel and Jesus specifically say that the antichrist will do terrible things in the temple – Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24:15 – and there currently isn’t one, hence the need to rebuild). The gathering and reconstruction of stuff for the temple furnishings and training of priests has been going on for decades, and there are several possible red heifers alive today for the consecrating ashes, so it’s all ready to go, just as you’d expect. The antichrist will turn on Israel, having been their false messiah at first, and he will persecute them horrifically, such that thousands upon thousand will flee into the wilderness from Israeli cities…but the Lord will have the last word, and He will defeat Satan and the antichrist at the end.

All this, and much more is happening now, at once, in tandem, and the heart of Jesus’ bride is lovesick for His imminent return. Will He come today? If He doesn’t, our hope is not in a date, but in the Lord of Heaven and Earth, and His timing is always perfect. I trust that He will come very soon, and we shall see how perfectly He has governed all things to bring out His purposes in just the right time. He is waiting for every last soul who will be a part of His bride to be brought into the fold before He comes for her, and when He does, nothing on earth can stop that amazing reunion!

Even so, come Lord Jesus!!

We’ve looked at why 2023 is an exciting year when compared back to the date of the crucifixion and Jesus’s own words about the Fig Tree generation…so how do the things in my title here all tie in with that, and why are they significant?

There is a MASSIVE convergence of all the things that Jesus and the ancient Hebrew prophets said would be happening at the time of the end: geopolitically, spiritually, technological, moral/immorality, and the environment…too much to ignore! Things are much more like the days of Noah, as described by Jesus in Matthew 24/Luke 21, in terms of normal life, than they were in 2020/2021…marrying, planting, reaping, building, society becoming just as hectic as pre-covid etc. But there was another man’s days that Jesus would reference to describe the last days, and these are the Days of Lot.

JUNE: I’m very aware that this one isn’t going to get me very many brownie points with a lot of people, but Jesus mentioned it, so we have to pay attention to it. Why did Jesus reference them when teaching about the Rapture specifically – what were the days of Lot like? Well, in some ways very ‘normal’ sounding by Jesus’ description and at the same time, fairly horrific, if you read Genesis 19. The sin had become so normalised, and had become so bad that God rained fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in judgment, to completely wipe out that society. What was the sin particularly mentioned? Homosexuality. I’m sure there was lots else too, violence and child sacrifice and ritual prostitution for idol worship, if the Canaanite cultures were anything to go by, but this sin gets the spotlight as the chosen illustration of the depravity of the culture. What was the very last thing that Lot saw before the angels graciously pulled him and his family out of Sodom to escape the judgment? The men of the city, both young and old, surrounding the house of Lot demanding that he allow them to violate the innocent men (angels) who sheltered in his house. The people were so depraved that they openly clamoured for innocent flesh, and in our day, this year/the last couple of years, have been the worst yet in terms of Pride Month and the aggressive ramming of the Pride agenda down the throats of society, parading themselves naked in front of innocent children, making children do drag performances, surrounding Christians vociferously and threatening that they’re coming for the children. Don’t believe me? See this article and this post as just two examples; it’s everywhere. And we can see the tragic outcome of this agenda in the vast number of childhoods ruined, underage bodies maimed and innocent minds corrupted by sexualisation of all kinds. Now hear me out here. I’m not saying all LGBT people are paedophiles, but I am saying that the agenda to corrupt children is pure evil. Adults have freewill to live as they please for the time being, and whether that’s in homosexual or heterosexual lifestyles, we all repeatedly choose sin of some sort and are enslaved by our sinful desires until we are saved by Christ, and then He delivers us from all of it. Plenty of testimonies back this up. But this intentional preying on the innocent, especially children, is something that God abhors and He will take vengeance (Matt.18:6). This last year or so, these things have become worse than ever before in the Pride arena. As in the Days of Lot. Believers (and, I believe, all the children), will be taken out of the way, as Lot and his family were, and judgement will fall.

JULY: The Season of New Wine…I’m going to do a whole post on this, because it’s too awesome to shrink into one paragraph, but suffice to say, this is a feast not mentioned specifically in Leviticus 23, but falling under the general principle of Firstfruits. The different harvests came at different times; Barley first in the springtime, then Wheat in early summer, and then Wine in late summer, and then Oil in early autumn, all 50 days apart. New Wine is the first pressing of the grapes, not so fermented yet, and is only available at a very specific time of year, when the grapes are first harvested. When is that? Tammuz and Av, the 4th and 5th months on God’s ceremonial calendar, the late summer, normally around July. It is also the date that we now call Pentecost. At Ascension (remember, at Shavuot, as above), Jesus told the disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit. So they did. And Acts 2 says “Now when the fiftieth day had fully come…” usually mis-translated/transliterated as “the day of Pentecost”…the original literally just means 50th day. So the disciples waited for 50 days, which brought them to the beginning of the month of Av, sometime around the 8th/9th/10th of that month, the Festival of New Wine. Which explains why Peter’s answer to the mocking cries of “They’re drunk on new wine!” was that it couldn’t be so, because it was only the third hour of the day, c.9am, when the High Priest would be that very hour pouring out the new wine firstfruits offering on the altar, and only then, once the sacrifice had been given to the Lord, could the people celebrate that harvest and drink the new wine. But very interesting that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was at the same time; this season of joy and celebration and freedom, love, weddings – think Ruth….SO many Old Testament parallels – I’ll stop here and save it for another post, but just one final thought before we go on; God loves the symmetry of using the same day for connected events…so could it possibly be that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on New Wine, the ‘birthday’ of the church, will be mirrored by the catching up of the church in the Rapture at the SAME festival?

The 9th of Av connection. Quick little addendum here: again, more will come in the New Wine post, but the 9th Av, the date right in the middle of when New Wine is supposed to be, is anything but a date of feasting and celebration for the Jews. Ask any Jew what the 9th Av means to them and they will say the loss of the temple – both temples in fact; Solomon’s and Zerubbabel’s (Herod’s). In 586 BC the Babylonians stormed Jerusalem and destroyed the first temple on the 9th Av. In 70 AD the Romans absolutely flattened Jerusalem and the second temple, as predicted sorrowfully by Jesus in Luke 19:41-44, and it happened on the 9th Av. But there’s more – going further back, the Golden Calf incident was around or on the 9th Av, and 3,000 perished for their idolatry that day, the 9th Av was supposed to be the day that Israel went into the Promised Land, and they refused, causing God to curse that generation to die in the wilderness, and according to ancient Temple documents, every year on the 9th Av for the remainder of that generation, 15,000 men died as a reminder of the curse until the generation had completely passed away. Fast-forward to Judges, and Samson brings judgement upon the Philistines at New Wine, killing 3,000 not once, but twice. These are not insignificant details…fast forward to the Early Modern era – the expulsion of the Jews from various lands happened on the 9th Av: in 1290 from England, in 1492 from Spain, various pogroms in Russia…and even the declaration of war by Germany on Russia in 1914 was on the 9th Av….leading eventually to the Holocaust of the 1940s. So this is a very significant day, and the temple is a key element as the biggest sorrow for the Jewish people – why did the destruction of AD70 happen, according to Jesus? Because “they did not know the time of their visitation”…they did not recognise their Messiah. Could it be that the church, the Temple of the Holy Spirit for the last nearly 2,000 years, will be the third temple to be snatched away on the 9th Av, leaving behind most Jewish people because they did not recognise their Messiah there right in front of them?! The 8th, 9th, and 10th or Av this year, 2023, are 26th, 27th, and 28th July. Interesting.

Okay, AUGUST: now, whether or not the Rapture happens in July, August 2023 is already shaping up to be eyebrow-raising. BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The alliance of nations to challenge the US-centric world order. 5 nations so far, but according to various news sources, this could become 10 very soon. So what? Well, Revelation 17:12-13 mentions 10 kings. At one point, I thought perhaps this meant 10 geopolitical regions representing the whole world, but BRICS makes things even more specific. According to Revelation, these 10 kings “have received no kingdom yet”, but at a certain time, they receive authority with the Beast, the Antichrist, for “one hour” or for a very short time. They then, with one mind, hand over their power to the Beast, and give him their authority, and the implication is that from this, the Antichrist has power over the whole world ceded to him by 10 individuals. This is fascinating, because anyone who is watching the news or knows anything about economics knows that the BRICS nations are the fastest growing economies of the world, often authoritarian governments, and together present a genuine challenge to the US/EU/NATO dominant world order that has existed since the end of WWII. Suppose Iran, Argentina, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey join in August. 10 strong nations. Could it be that after the Rapture, these world leaders form a 10-nation alliance to step into the leadership breach left by the weakling US administration collapsing, and the EU dissolving into chaos, following the disappearance of millions of citizens? And then they hand over their power to the emerging world leader, known to Christians as the Antichrist, who is currently playing Mr Nice Guy who can fix the world’s biggest problems….? Hmm.

SEPTEMBER: this is where things get really crazy. Daniel 9:27, the famous prophecy about the first coming of Messiah, His death, the sacking of Jerusalem, and finally the Tribulation, says: “Then he [Antichrist, the “prince”] shall confirm a covenant with many for one week…” Okay. The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has called recently for 7 years of accelerated action to achieve Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Interesting that it’s seven years, at this point in time. We’re familiar with the Biblical patterns of days representing years, so the covenant confirmed for one week is clearly (in the context) a week of years – 7 years. This isn’t just a random covenant either – these SDGs are highly significant. Basically they are a not-so-secretive Trojan “climate change” horse for the globalist dystopian world domination, calling for all heads of state and governments to re-commit to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement Agenda 2030 and to “turbo-charging” their efforts towards those ends. These might sound innocent and altruistic for the environment and peoples of the world, but really this is the elite, unelected dictators of the world (think World Economic Forum, The Great Reset) forcing the people of the world to adapt to their Neo-Marxist vision for humanity, come what may. As our ‘friends’ Klaus Schwab and Prince Charles said at the time of the covid hype, one must never let a good crisis go to waste…paraphrased, obviously, but not by much. This is going to be earth-shattering, literally, and will change life as we know it.

With that in mind, if the Rapture happens in July and then this covenant – the Hebrew word translates to alliance, treaty, agreement, or league – is confirmed with ‘many’ (the UN member states) in September, and the Antichrist rises up to broker this deal and is so compelling that the 10 kings of BRICS, or wherever they come from, hand over their power there and then, having only had it for a month tops, that signals the beginning of the Great Tribulation, beyond a shadow of a doubt. They’re aiming for 2030 for the WEF New World Order, and they’re not even hiding it anymore. The Summit at which this covenant will be confirmed is scheduled for the 18th-19th September, which means it begins, in Hebrew terms, just as Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets signalling the coming King, is ending – the last and great trumpet. The Antichrist is setting himself up as a false messiah and king, and given that Daniel describes him as a prince….which prince/king do you know of who has spearheaded the climate agenda, the New World Order and the Great Reset for decades….while styling himself as a friend of Israel and even claiming lineage from the House of David? Do some research.

So 2023 is looking very very interesting. I’d love this to be the season of the Rapture, and yet for many who are left behind, especially Jews, it will be a terrifying time. But however bad things get from a human perspective, God always gets the last word, and if you read Revelation and Daniel and all the rest of the prophets and Jesus Himself, yes, it gets scary and horrific during the Tribulation, but God will have the final say over all evil, and when He returns, around the Feast of Trumpets/Yom Kippur in, maybe, 2030 – if all these happens according to this projected timescale, He will be victorious and bring in the 1,000 year Messianic reign from Jerusalem, healing the earth and healing the nations. But you have to put your trust in Him, Yeshua the true Messiah, to have a part in it; do not delay, do this before it’s too late. Jesus will never turn you away and He is longing to bring you into His Kingdom and take you up with us when we go.

“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

Jesus’ words – Luke 21:28

So I haven’t written here for 18 months…and now it’s July 2023. I’ve simply got to share some things that I’ve been learning over the past few days, which have filled me with a sense of awe and joy and anticipation when looking at God’s word and the world around me. Let’s just say that 2023 might be very significant indeed. Disclaimer: this is a summary only, as there is wayyy too much to say to be able to write it all out! Lots of this information is taken from teachings by Generation2434 and Dr Barry on YouTube. Links to sources below.

Now, I have a quick confession to make. I struggled with intense disappointment after September and October 2021 came and went without the Rapture; initially I was fine, telling myself and everyone who knew I had been waiting for it, that it was fine, my faith wasn’t shaken, and it would still happen. And it’s true, I have never lost the faith that this WILL happen soon, within my lifetime, and before I get old(!), but as my Mum kept finding new possible dates and getting hyped for those, which also came and went, I got more and more disillusioned with the idea that we can ever know the date or time and I found it intensely stressful. I accepted that we might know the season (autumn feasts maybe?), but I gave up and went back to the “no-one knows the day or the hour” scripture to comfort myself. I refused to even entertain the ideas of new dates, and just forged on with life and work and trying to share the gospel with people; nothing wrong with that, but it was only a temporary solution for a watcher…when you’re awake to these things, you can’t help but feel compelled to look. However, over the last few weeks I experienced slipping into a depression where God felt far and silent; I felt distinctly that what I was doing with my time had no real eternal value, and that I should be seeking more focused gospel proclamation ministries and perhaps seeking a ministry vision that I had received back in 2017. I couldn’t seem to get anywhere in prayer over it, but I did feel God gently prompting me to go back to the idea of looking deeper in the Bible; the feasts, the prophecies, and the typology to see His purposes. I initially resisted, but after coming to a breaking point last Sunday (today is Tuesday 25th July), I gave in and watched some video teachings that my Mum had put on our family iMessage chat. Mind. Blown. Immediately I knew that I had been set free from the depression and the uncertainty; God’s word is so complete, so perfect, and so deep, full of beautiful mysteries, simply waiting to be unlocked! Joy flooded my heart, and along with it, the urgency to share this with you all, as it directly impacts all of us one way or the other. Here goes. This might take several posts, but I’m going to start with why 2023 is so significant.

When I first started talking about the Rapture in 2020 or 2021, many things looked like they were falling into place, but looking back now, it was only just beginning. Bear with me, those of you who already put up with this once; it’s much more conclusive now. Back then, we were still struggling to break free of the c0vid curse and get our lives back; not exactly life as normal, which Jesus describes so clearly in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 especially. The international scene was one of uncertainty, but nowhere near the level we’re experiencing now. Still no idea where Gog and Magog fit in, but it will happen! Tech, AI, digital currencies and the state of the world’s economies, international alliances, supranational bodies pontificating over how we’re allowed to live and the massive push of veganism and the “sustainable development” agenda, the falling apart of liberal western societies…all have RAMPED up over the past 18 months or so.

…we are within the 4-year high-alert watch zone, if you like, for the start of the Tribulation. What happens right before the Tribulation, in one sense precipitating it? Yup. The Rapture.

But to begin we’re going to look backwards in time:

30AD – or thereabouts. A Galilean carpenter-rabbi is brutalised and hung on a wooden cross to die a naked, shameful death between two criminals. He hangs there for 6 agonising hours, nailed up at the time of the morning sacrificial lamb in the temple for that Passover, and finally giving up His spirit at the time of the evening sacrifice – crying “It is finished.”. At the same time, the sun had already been darkened for 3 hours, the earth shook, the graves were split open, and the veil to the Holy of Holies in the temple was dramatically rent in two by God. “Truly this was the Son of God!” exclaims the centurion guarding the execution site. Then, on the day after the Sabbath following Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits of the Barley Harvest, the tomb where Jesus was lain is opened by an angel, and He is risen from the dead, and appears to select women and disciples. One week later, after his consecration as our Great High Priest in heaven (Leviticus 8:33), He appears to the whole gathered group of the 12, and Thomas finally believes. After that He is with them and others, teaching “infallible proofs” over a 40 day period, which when you take into account the days either side, makes the final Ascension Day to be Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, otherwise known as the Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest – that harvest representing the harvest of souls that the church is tasked with gathering in so many of Jesus’ parables (John 4:35, Romans 8:29).

Fast-foward 2,000 years. Where do you get to? 2030, right? Why is that significant? Biblical typology teaches that with the Lord 1,000 years is as 1 day, and a day as a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8), and days as a idiom for years is a commonly accepted part of the understanding of Hebrew prophecy. Hosea 6: 2 says “After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.” Jonah, used as a symbol of Himself by Jesus, was in the belly of the great fish for 3 days, being spat up on the 3rd day, and Jesus said He would be in the heart of the earth for 3 days, rising on the third day (Matt.12:40). So there’s something quite significant about reaching the end of two prophetic “days” of millennia by 2030; the third “day” immediately following will be the Messianic reign, made possible by the resurrection! Most scholars agree that the crucifixion was sometime between 30 and 33 AD, so going forward 2,000 years to 2030 and taking off 7 years for the Tribulation, that brings us to….2023 as the first possible year. So we are within the 4-year high-alert watch zone, if you like, for the start of the Tribulation. What happens right before the Tribulation, in one sense precipitating it? Yup. The Rapture.

We are also very LATE on in the Fig Tree Generation: the generation that was born at the time of the founding of the modern state of Israel, foretold by Jesus. He said that when you see the fig tree blooming (in other words national Israel coming back into their land and becoming a flourishing nation), that that generation would by no means pass away until all things had been fulfilled – Matthew 24:32-35; Mark 13:28-31; Luke 21:29-33. Depending whether you count that from the actual day, May 14th, 1948, or whether you feel that Israel really bloomed by c.1950, that means that we are anywhere from 73 to 75 years into that generation of c.80-85 years (as an average generational lifespan), which Jesus promised would see the fulfilment of all end times prophecy.

Now we jump forward back to the actual year we’re living in…read on in the next post.

Sources for all these things include, Dr Barry, Generation2434 – check out their channels!

I’ve been so busy with work recently that I haven’t had the time to think about adding more regular posts to this blog…since the 8th September, I’ve been thrown headlong into my work, and I am not complaining, as I love what I do! I am so privileged to get to work day in, day out, in the area where I am passionate – music. Whether that’s working for and singing with Epiphoni, singing with Thomas Tallis Society, going back to working backstage at Wigmore Hall, being at St Mark’s Hamilton Terrace and all the Sunday singing I do as an independent pro singer in London choirs, I truly adore the work that I do, and wouldn’t have it any other way. But even that can be a danger because busy-ness can become an idol, taking my eyes off the reality of the times in which we live and urgency of the real reason I am here – if I let it!

My real purpose is to bring the presence of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, into each and every one of those areas in which I work, and to manifest His love and compassion and truth and light and hope to each person I come into contact with. So whether you’re a friend from one of my choirs, someone I work with (or for!), or whoever you are, reading this right now, I want to be able to give you even just a hint, a clue, a taster as it were, of what it’s like to know Him. Apparently, in 12th century German Jewish tradition, when young boys started to learn Torah, the Rabbis made sure that studying and learning the words of scripture was associated with honey and sweetness to show the child that God is good and His word is sweet and nourishing. Having spent time getting to know God and His word and tasting His goodness in my life, I can think of no better illustration, and I long to be able to share that sweetness and joy with everyone in my life.

Which leads me on to the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam – repairing the world. The Jewish people know it is their purpose to restore and repair the world alongside God – a world spoiled by sin and evil – and in Jewish culture that gives ultimate worth and meaning to a life; leaving the world and one’s friends and family and contacts better for having known you and interacted with you. Whilst this isn’t a directly biblical idea (it comes from Kabbalistic roots, but is now much more mainstream as part of Jewish thought and culture), it draws on the themes of the biblical covenant between God and His bride, Israel, found first in the books of Moses and reiterated throughout the Bible. This is the meaning behind the oft-repeated phrase “I will be your God and you shall be my people” – the people of Israel agreed to this covenant and accepted the ketubah, or marriage contract of the Law given at Sinai, on the date which later became the feast of Shavuot. Contained in that contract were all of God’s promises as the husband to bless and protect them if they stayed faithful to Him, as well as the warnings of the judgement that would result if they were adulterous and went after other gods and adopted the primitive and often perverse practices of the pagan nations around them. But even in judgement God promised eventual restoration and forgiveness, and within these passages you can see the concept behind Tikkun Olam. The Jewish people are meant to be the people who show the watching world what it’s like to be in covenant relationship with God, and to bring the restoration of justice to society, and the redemption of anyone from those nations who wanted to become part of that covenant people – think Rahab and Ruth for example. The Jewish people are part of God’s process of redeeming the world back to Himself, ultimately fulfilled in Messiah Jesus, and anyone who believes on Him is adopted into that covenant people, the Bride of Messiah, to join with this amazing work.

Although, for the most part, the Jewish people reject Jesus as Messiah, their energy to bring physical healing and Tikkun Olam to the world is an inspiration to see, and the world is exponentially a better place for the existence and thriving of Jewish communities in practically every culture of the world. Many of the Jewish people I know personally are creative, arty, musical, expressive, and articulate individuals, whose intelligence and passion for social justice and equality is wonderful to see and partner with. Jewish people are also still partially fulfilling that spiritual Tikkun Olam by faithfully keeping the feasts of the Lord, His appointed times, which are all rehearsals for His amazing plans and purposes thought history. They have continually lit a candle against encroaching darkness – as is rehearsed weekly on Shabbat – and held out light, hope, life in the face of horror, persecution and death, and an unshakable trust in the promises of future restoration, and for that I am forever grateful to them – without their faithful commitment to their community, their traditions, and their Torah, my faith would be so much poorer. I am humbled and privileged to learn from them and to partner with them to bring physical Tikkun Olam to the world around me, treating people with kindness and bringing positivity, energy, creativity, integrity and justice wherever I can, to whomever God brings into my life. I also sincerely hope that by holding out the light and sweetness of the person of Messiah Yeshua whom I love with all my heart, that not only Gentiles, but also the Jewish people I know and love will come to see how He is woven into the fabric of their feasts and festivals, fits perfectly into their Scriptures as the ‘Prophet like unto Moses’, how He is Himself the ultimate fulfilment of Tikkun Olam and so, so much more, and that through having known me, they too will be able to rejoice in the joy of knowing Him as their Jewish Messiah one day soon.

Adapted from Day 109 of The Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Cahn

It was early morning. The teacher took me on a journey to the city, through the desert, riding on camels. The purpose was to pick up supplies for the school. But, of course, he had more than one purpose in mind.

“One thing I want you to do,” he said, “keep watch over the sun.”

It was a strange directive, but I did my best, noting from time to time its position in the sky. At the journey’s end, upon our return, he questioned me.

“What did you see?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I answered. “Nothing of note. The sun was just the sun.”

“I imagine,” he said, “that at times it was obscured by the mountains, the trees, or the buildings of the city. But otherwise, I imagine it stayed the same, certainly the same size. I would also imagine that the landscape was continually changing. Everything around us was changing except the sun.”

“That’s true,” I said. “But isn’t that just the way the sun works?”

“Yes, but why is that so?” he asked. “It’s because, although a mountain or a house or even a hand held up can appear bigger than the sun and can, for a time, obscure it, the reality is that the sun’s true magnitude – its actual size – is so enormous, so colossal, that the highest mountain on earth is nothing in comparison. It doesn’t appear so in the short run, but it becomes clear over the long run. Even in our little journey, everything we saw completely changed; the hills, the mountains, everything but the sun. And if we had traveled thousands of miles, it wouldn’t have made a difference. The sun’s colossal magnitude is manifested by its changelessness.”

“And what does it reveal?” I asked.

“Two thousand years ago, Messiah said, ‘I am the Light of the World.’ Since that time, ages have begun and ended, continents and civilisations have been discovered, kingdoms and empires have risen and fallen, kings, queens, and luminaries have appeared and passed away. And some of these have, for a moment, seemed larger. For a moment in time, they obscured the Nazarene. But in the long run, over the course of the long journey we call history, they’ve all passed away. Everything has changed….except Him. All the rest lies in ruins and rubble or in the pages of history books. But He remains unchanged, undiminished, as central and pivotal and colossal as He has ever been. His origins are in eternity, as the prophet Micah said. He is the Son and the immensity of His magnitude is manifested by His changelessness.”

The Mission: Today, see all things in view of the big picture. Whatever problems or issues you have are small in comparison to Him and pass away in the magnitude of the Son.

Micah 5:2, John 8:12, Ephesians 3:16-19, Hebrews 13:8