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