Is The Rapture Of The Yeshua/Believers At The Seventh Shofar In The Book Of Revelation

Is The Rapture Of The Yeshua/Believers At The Seventh Shofar In The Book Of Revelation

Those who believe that the rapture of the saints and the resurrection of the righteous in Yeshua comes at the end of the tribulation (Post Tribulation vs. the Pre-Tribulation view) present two views of where to place the rapture. One view, which I think is the more dominant view, is that it comes at the seventh Shofar in Rev. 11. The other view is that it comes at the end of the season of the bowls of wrath (a brief season at the end of the tribulation), and is identified with the blowing of the shofar at the end of Yom Kippur. This identification is connected to the I Cor. 15 text that says we will be transformed at the last shofar (I Cor. 15:51, 52).

In my book Passover, Key to the Book of Revelation, I argue for the seventh shofar as the shofar of the Rapture, our being caught up with the Lord that leads to our return with him. I see a process of events in his return and do not see it as an all at once event. I do understand that in such matters we see through a glass darkly and that all such views are somewhat speculative.

Here are my reasons for holding to the seventh shofar view.

1. The Last Shofar in I Cor. 15 could refer just to the last of the shofars that bring judgment and this seventh is the last one in the series and announces the final judgment, rapture and resurrection. It is not the last to ever be blown. There will be many more blown throughout the Millennial Age.

2. The Feast of Yom Teruah, or the Feast of the Blasting of the Trumpet has no great fitting fulfillment as the other Feasts. The others have obvious fulfillments in Yeshua. But if Yom Teruah announces the coming of the Messiah, and effects the rapture, the resurrection and then his descent to earth, we would have that fitting fulfillment. Other attempts do not identify a great fulfillment sufficient for the weightiness of a major feast. The association of II Thes. 4:16, and 17 with Yom Teruah or Rosh Hoshana is a dominant view and commonly taught for good reason.

3. The Book of Revelation provides a chronology that is progressive in the 7 Seals, the 7 Shoforot, and the Seven Bowls of Wrath. The Seventh Seal opens up and includes the Seven Trumpets, and the Seventh Trumpet opens up and includes the Seven Bowls of God’s wrath. The book also includes parentheses narratives in the midst of this progression that are not necessarily in the progression. But it is significant that John puts his parentheses narratives where he does. Before the Seventh Shofar, John writes that the mystery of God has been completed when he is about to sound the seventh shofar (Rev. 10:7). If this is the shofar of the rapture and resurrection, it would be a perfect fit. The mystery is the completion of the numbers counted in the Bride of the Messiah (as Paul teaches in Ephesians 3 and is the fullness of the gentiles Romans 11). If the rapture and resurrection are after the seventh shofar, then the mystery would not complete before it is blown as Rev. 10:7 states. There would still then people being saved who can be part of the rapture after the blowing of the seventh shofar. This does not fit the text in Rev. 10:7.

4. Revelation 11states that at the end of 1,260 days (the time of the Great Tribulation, v. 3) the two prophetic witnesses who are martyred are raised from the dead and ascend to heaven. This is certainly a picture of the rapture and resurrection that I believe shortly follows. Then there is a great earthquake and 7,000 die in the city called Sodom, which is identified as Jerusalem by noting that it is the city where our Lord was crucified. It then indicates that Jerusalem turns to the Lord. “The rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.” (Rev. 11:14) In every other case when judgments fall in the Book of Revelation, the people do not turn to God but rebel and curse all the more since they are under the deception of the Anti-Christ and the False Prophet. This fits as the time when Israel/Jerusalem calls on Yeshua to save them (Matthew 23:39 ff.) This perfectly fits Zech. 14 where the nations have surrounded Jerusalem, there is the earthquake and then the Lord goes forth to fight against the armies of those nations. The turning of Jerusalem to Yeshua fits if it occurs between verse 2 and 3 and then his feet touch down on the Mt. of Olives. The saints return with Yeshua and the war is still ongoing, not the end of the war yet. It is not yet the born again experience for Israel, but seems it is a corporate turning of Jerusalem to Yeshua. Only after this turning in Rev. 11:14 do we read that the angel sounds the Seventh shofar. (Don’t we believe when Israel or Jerusalem call upon Yeshua that leads to the rapture. Then we also read the Kingdoms of this World have become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Annointed One. (11:15).

5. Then in Rev. 14 we read what many scholars historically have said is the rapture and the resurrection of the saints. There are two angels, one harvests the earth positively, the harvest of the earth was reaped (14:16) Then another angel gathers the grapes into the winepress of the wrath of God. This fits the idea that the wrath of God is a very brief period at the end of the tribulation, and we are not here for that. It fits the time between Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur. Some who say they believe in a pre-wrath rapture find support for this. Some of them claim to be mid-tribulation pre-wrath in their view of the timing of the rapture, but this mistakes the tribulation as a seven year period and coordinate with the seven trumpets, whereas the Bible tells us it is 3 ½ years or half a seven. So the bowls of the wrath of God comes at the very end and occurs as we are returning with him from heaven to deliver Israel. It also includes the picture of the Lord slaying the armies of the nations that have come up to destroy Israel (Rev. 19, Joel 3, and Zech. 12, 14).

6. The seventh shofar view again fits what happens after the armies of the nations are destroyed. Rosh Hoshana in Jewish tradition leads to the Days of Awe, the days of judgment between Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur, but on Yom Kippur we have the final day of repentance. So is there will be a great Yom Kippur in Jerusalem, Israel and the nations. It would seem that the return of Yeshua to the earth after the rapture and resurrection leads to the repentance of those who were not so raptured. This so well fits the picture of Zechariah 12:10-14 when all of the tribes of Israel mourn. They look on Him who they have pierced and mourn for him. This does not seem to be a heavenly vision where they see him, but that He will be literally here and will be seen on earth. Some do see this as a pre-rapture turning of Israel, but I think the idea of the last war and Israel’s deliverance comes first, for in a time of war, one would not be able to fit this picture of everyone morning. No, they would be fighting. Indeed, this is a picture after the war where Israel, in their natural bodies, will be mourning and realizing that He was the one, their Messiah and Savior, all along. So in these pictures, Yom Kippur fits if it follows the rapture and resurrection.

7. At the end of Yom Kippur there a shofar is blown. It could be the last of this Age, and the inauguration of the Age to Come. In Lev. 25:10-12 the shofar blown on Yom Kippur announces the Jubilee year. Indeed, Israel and the nations have repented and all can now celebrate Sukkot together or Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16). The First Tabernacles of the Millennial Age would fit as the celebration of the Bride of the Messiah being joined to the Messiah, or the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. So the shofar blast of Yom Kippur on this scheme would not be the rapture and resurrection but the Jubilee shofar that ends the old age and begins the Millennial Age and the reign of the Messiah and his Bride, of Jew and Gentile who reign with Israel the nation in their own land. The rapture shofar is not the shofar announcing the age of peace as at the end of Yom Kippur after repentance, but the seventh also announces the final judgment of Rev. 19 and Zech. 14 and the very last battle that takes place.

The Palestinian Confederation Idea

A New Confederation Plan?

The Israeli Press is reporting on a new attempt of a solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, a confederation plan for the Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria (West Bank). Is this the plan that is being developed by the Trump administration? No one knows. Mohammad Abbas has voiced some openness, but then later denied it. The original plan for confederation came from Yigal Allon after the 1967 war.

Recent History

Some readers might know that from 1948 to 1967, Jordan ruled the West Bank and claimed sovereignty over it. They did not give the Palestinians of the West Bank Jordanian citizenship. Egypt ruled Gaza and did not give them citizenship. Jordan is ruled by an Arab clan known as the Hashemites, who are not considered Palestinians, though the majority population of Jordan is Palestinian. Jordan was part of the original Palestine Mandate. In the League of Nations partition plan, Jordan was created and separated from the territory west of the Jordan that was still under the Balfour Declaration and affirmed as a homeland for the Jewish people. The U. N. in 1947 presented another partition plan giving the Palestinians of Samaria, Judea and Gaza a state, and the Jewish people the rest. Israel accepted this plan and the Arab world rejected it. Then ensued the War of Independence that Israel won, but with the loss of the old city Jewish quarter in Jerusalem and the East Jerusalem Jewish areas including Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital.

The Allon Plan

The 1967 War gave Israel control of the whole area west of the Jordan. But now the famous demographic argument began. It states that for Israel to survive as a Jewish state it cannot incorporate the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza into Israel. So well before the Oslo accords, and as a way to find peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Allon presented the first and important plan of separation from the West Bank Arabs. Allon was a famous general and political leader in the Labor party.

The Allon plan included keeping the areas of East Jerusalem, especially those areas that were Jewish before the ’48 War, and then adding Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem. Secondly, it promoted Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria and military outposts that both would be important for strategic depth and Israel’s security. The idea was to expand Israel and to see the Palestinians connected to Jordan.

Jordan’s Response to the Allon Plan

For many years it was hoped that Jordan under King Hussein might accept such a plan, since he claimed the West Bank for Jordan. But he was not then open to the territorial compromise that the Allon plan envisioned. Then eventually he renounced all rights to the West Bank. Why? Because he has his own demographic problem. In Jordan many Palestinians do not have full rights and could rise up and overthrow the Jordanian rulers, the minority Hashemites.

The Oslo accords did not explicitly call for a Palestinian state, and some say that Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin who signed the Oslo accords did not envision a Palestinian State, but that is where the negotiations went, and they were twice offered a state by Prime Minister Barak and Prime Minister Olmert. However, when Gaza broke form the Palestinian Authority and was taken over by Hamas, any realistic prospect for a two state solution was killed, in spite of the continued talk that seems to still foster this. I have written that I think Gaza should be linked to Egypt and the Palestinian areas of the West Bank in confederation with Jordan. But Jordan refuses this plan due to their fear of more Palestinians being under their rule.

Yet there is a assumption, a root, which makes a solution impossible. It is that all people need to have full citizenship in a nation state. Where is that written in the tablets of ethical norms? Why couldn’t Palestinians have autonomy as a territory, elect their own domestic government, have Jordanian passports, and have an economy tied to Jordan and Israel? The wrong assumption keeps us from progress. So this looks like a return to Allon’s plan in part. In this plan the Jewish settlements of the West Bank are preserved and building in the Jewish areas would be legal but not Jewish settlement in the defined Palestinian autonomous zones.

Is this the Trump plan? No one knows. Is it possible? Unlikely since the Palestinian rejection of Israel is a religious based rejection. In all of this, we need to keep in mind that though we want the Palestinians to be treated well and with justice, macro cosmic justice on this issue begins with the affirmation that this Land is promised to the Jewish people. God is sovereign and can allocate lands as He decides. Can there be a temporary solution without this recognition? Yes, but never a permanent one without finally submitting to the will of God.

The Israel Surrogacy Law

On Sunday a strike has been called, and will be supported by Labor unions. It is a strike of protest against the recently passed law on surrogacy, where women can bear children for others and then give them to waiting parents who can not have children. What is the reason for the strike? It is that the law did not take into account the desires of the LGBTQ people in Israel. They desire that men and women singles can become parents through surrogacy and that the state will pay for it. The man and women can be any adults according to their own self identification (they can be bi-sexual, transgender, etc. etc.) The law only allowed surrogacy for married hetero sexual couples and single women, and single women can include lesbian single women. Israel does not marry homosexuals. What a sorry state we are in that such a strike can be called. Here are some thoughts.

1. What should my tax dollars pay for surrogacy? We are taxed to the hilt and there is so much demand for funds from poorly funded education, to research, to welfare. I am against surrogacy in principle. I think parents should adopt children that do not have good homes. I support international efforts to bring down the costs so it is doable for most people who could be good parents. Then we pay a woman to bear a baby for someone else?
2. Secondly, the far left and the sexual libertines simply do not want to face the massive studies that show again and again that the best situation for raising children is a family situation of a father and mother in a stable good marriage. One of the great characteristics of the far left is the great flight from empirical evidence. They paint a subjective picture of the way they want the world to be and will not bring that picture to the bar of empirical evidence that shows the consequences. We see this with the socialists who will not face what socialism does and with sexual libertines that will not face what their new “family” arrangements do to society.

And wait for the push for the rights of poly amorous communities to adopt.

That this movement has such support in Israel is really depressing. That our Prime minister was going to sign a bill that supported such broad acceptance for parents and surrogacy is alarming. In this case, thank God for the Orthodox community that pushed back against it, but the bill still goes to far in supporting surrogacy and single mother parenting. I was raised by my widowed mother, but had much to overcome by not having my father.

The Bible shows the way to health and would that it would be a greater influence on the way we see.

Reform and Conservative Jews are going foolishly extreme

Reform and Conservative Jews are going foolishly extreme in their reaction to the Netanyahu government reneging on their commitment to establish an official egalitarian prayer location at the Western Wall. This was to save his coalition government which would fall if the Ultra Orthodox left it. However the Reform and Conservative now even talk of withholding support for Israel. This is so very stupid. Here is some historical context.

First, to Israelis this is a non-issue. It is only an issue to us in that we do not want to alienate Reform and Conservative Jews. But non Orthodox Israelis (80% of Jews here) for the most part don’t care about having the opportunity to do egalitarian prayer at the wall.

Secondly, through most of the 20th century, Reform and Conservative Jews supported the separation of men and women at the wall. Why? Because Jews were seeking to have the right of serious prayer at the wall, and having the partition was the symbol of it being a synagogue like place. In the earlier part of the century under the British, they fought for this. They argued for the prayer center at the wall to be Orthodox in character and to be governed by the Orthodox. This was documented in a J. Post article yesterday by Einat Ramon.

Thirdly, I am very sad about the direction of Conservative Judaism. They used to be more identified with Modern Orthodoxy and sought a way between Reform and Orthodox Judaism. But now they have drifted more and more to Reform as liberalism has taken over. So now the more important issue for them is radical egalitarianism. For many who want to pray at the wall in an egalitarian way, there is no real belief in the personal God of the Bible.

But there are real important issues in regard to the rigidity of the Chief Rabbis and their power in the government here. Prayer at the wall is symbol. But the real issue here in Israel is on issues of Jewish identity and marriage. Since the founding of the State, all conversions by Reform, Conservative and Orthodox in the diaspora were accepted in Israel. Now there is an attempt to reject conversions from Reform, Conservative and even several Orthodox rabbis. This will fracture the Jewish people. There is even a list being made to deny the Jewish identity of some who have had status as Jews in Israel and were able marry other Jews in the land. This list is mostly being applied to Russian Jews and is now pushing 6000. It will deny them marriage in the Land. Before, noting the difficulties in the Soviet Union, there was a lower bar of proof.

These are real substantive issues where Modern Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and others should make common cause. But the prayer at the wall issue is really being overblown. The big issue is the power of the ultra Orthodox in the government and how oppressive this is.

Anti Colonialism and Israel

Daniel Juster, Th. D. Restoration from Zion of Tikkun International

I want to write more on the foolishness of the anti-Western civilization orientation from the radical left. For some of these folks the basic problem with the world stems form white Europeans who foisted themselves on other more benign peoples and oppressed them. Israel then is demonized as a colonial imposition upon the native, innocent and peaceful Palestinian population. This completely misses the complexity of how Israel came into being, and the general opposition of the colonial powers after 1925. I mentioned in the last post that this claim of colonialism as something unique to white Europeans proves the ignorance of those who assert it.

The basic nature of colonialism is that a nation that is more powerful can take over and dominate a weaker nation and enrich themselves to the detriment to the weaker nation. Eventually their power grows to the point of dominating many peoples. Sometimes the colonial power does good for the subjected people and even civilizes them, but generally human selfishness brings much injustice.

Ignorance, self hatred or denial is the root of claiming that white Europeans are somehow and uniquely more evil than other cultures. A study of history shows that most peoples who became powerful and capable sought to control and dominate others. In ancient cultures, genocide was common. We see this in the history of the Middle East, India and China. The extent genocide, atrocity, torture to attain domination astonishes modern sensibilities. Yet some of these cultures produced great gains in art and science. China was formed form the dominant tribe subjugating all others. It was ruthless. The warfare in India with the goal of dominating the other tribes is an amazing and painful story. So also is the story of the conquering the colonialism of the Mongol hordes who came to power and ruled India for centuries. Japan was certainly a colonial power when they were able to be such a power and dominated Korea and East Asia. Korea was sometimes dominated by China and sometimes by Japan. Africa as well developed Kingdoms that were formed by a strong tribe dominating and controlling other tribes to their detriment. Africans sold other Africans into slavery as part of their war strategy. It is all a very sordid picture. Even today, we see China trying to take over the South China Sea and militarize it to their benefit and to the detriment of the nations surrounding their illegitimate territorial claims. Arab peoples conquered and dominated others forbidding their indigenous languages and cultures. Turkey was a major colonial power for centuries and subjected many peoples.

However, there is one nation that is an exception to this, at least in the original conception of this nation. Israel was formed to be the non-colonial nation. They were formed from the seed of Abraham to bless all nations. They were given a particular territory. Though they were to be an instrument of punishing the corrupt peoples of Canaan, they were told to not seek to conquer the nations around them, but to seek to live in peace with them. God would protect them without compromising alliances or becoming a colonial power. The goal and vision of Israel is that the nations would come into a place of peace under the rule of the Messiah. Isaiah 2 gives us the picture of all nations coming to Zion to learn the law of God and the Torah going forth form Jerusalem. The picture is that war has been ended and all nations are valued and able to find their own cultural affirmation in peace with other people. It is a picture where nations do not dominate one another. Though a great disappointment, the United Nations does reflect something of this biblical ideal in its charter, and even quotes the ideal of Isaiah 2 in the New York center, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

Israel does seek to bless the nations. They do not seek to be a colonial power. Yes, we have to deal with the difficult issue of the destiny of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, who are not citizens; one state, two states, autonomy, linkage of the Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt. But the colonial accusation leveled against the only nation ever formed to be an anti colonial blessing to all peoples is a bogus accusation and it always has been.