Let me begin by saying that I don’t believe the Rapture must necessarily fall on any Jewish Holy Day because I believe that the Rapture is a number specific event, not a date specific one.  From my studies I have concluded that the Rapture is not connected to any other end times event, nor is it “scheduled” to take place on a given day, and certainly not on a Jewish Feast Day, which have so far been fulfilled in a manner significant to Israel, and which are easily identifiable in advance.

The key to the Rapture’s occurrence is in Romans 11:25 where Paul used what I think were two carefully selected phrases in writing, “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in.” The first phrase is “full number”. It was a nautical term that described the number of soldiers and sailors that had to be contracted and on board before a ship could set sail.  As soon as the full number was accounted for the ship could leave the harbor, but not before.  The last few crew members were often obtained in suspicious ways, so the ship set sail the minute all were on board.  In effect, no one knew the exact day or hour of departure, and the ship often stole away in the middle of the night, before the most recently “contracted” crew members woke up from their drunken stupor to discover what had been done to them.

The other phrase is “has come in.” It was another nautical term that meant “to arrive at its destination”. You’ve probably heard someone say, “I’m waiting for my ship to come in” meaning he’s waiting for his

fortune to arrive at its destination, in this case his bank account.  It’s a play on words that came from this term.

When I put it all together, I think that Paul was telling us that the Rapture is a number specific event not a date specific one, and that’s why no one will know the day or hour. There is apparently a “full

number” of members in the Church and when the full number has arrived at its destination, heaven, then the Lord will turn again to Israel, their blinders will come off, and He’ll fulfill the last seven years of Jewish history, Daniel’s 70th Week.

That being said, since no one knows the full number, no one can guess the day and hour of the Church’s departure.  But as soon as the full number of born again believers is reached the Church will set sail for it’s destination no matter what day or hour it happens to be. Then the scheduled End Times events can begin to happen, because they’re all geared toward accomplishing 2 things for God.  One is disciplining Israel and the other is completely destroying the unbelieving world (Jer. 30:11) and the Church has no part in either.

But since Pentecost is celebrated by much of the Western church this weekend and since I get a lot of questions about the Rapture occurring on Pentecost, here’s why if it was scheduled for a Jewish feast day, Pentecost would be the most likely.

What’s Pentecost?
Pentecost comes in the early summer (May-June). It’s the only Holy Day between the 3 Spring Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits) which were all fulfilled in the 1st Coming, and the 3 in the Fall (Rosh Hashanna, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles) which will all be fulfilled in the 2nd Coming.  Its Hebrew name is Shavuot. Pentecost is a Greek word that means “50 days” since it comes 50 days from the Sabbath after Passover. The Feast of First Fruits (Resurrection Morning) is celebrated on the day following the first Sabbath after Passover and Pentecost on the day after the Sabbath seven weeks later, (Lev. 23:15-16) giving rise to its nickname “Feast of Weeks.” Since the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday, both these Holy days are Sundays, although Pentecost has become a 2 day event.

Jews celebrate Pentecost (I’ll just use its Greek name to avoid any more confusion than necessary) as the day Moses received the Law on Mt. Sinai in the wilderness and the nation Israel was born. (Exodus 19-20) Christians celebrate it as the day the Holy Spirit fell on the Disciples in Jerusalem and the Church was born (Acts 2).  If you agree with my view that the parables of Matthew 13describe the church on Earth and that the parable of the yeast predicts there will be sin in the church, you’ll be interested in the fact that unlike all the other Jewish Feasts that call for unleavened bread, Pentecost requires bread baked with yeast (Lev. 23:17). Pentecost also began the annual wheat harvest, perhaps pointing to another of Matthew’s Kingdom parables, the Wheat and the Tares.

The Pentecost ceremonies reveal a subtle link to the coming church.  In synagogues, the Book of Ruth is read on Pentecost. The story of Ruth has been called “The Romance of Redemption” where-in Naomi, a Jewish woman from Bethlehem loses land and position and is forced into exile in a foreign country where her husband soon passes away leaving her penniless and alone. She decides to return to Bethlehem and is accompanied by Ruth, a gentile woman who has sworn never to leave her.  Ruth is a Moabite who had married one of Naomi’s sons who also died, making her Naomi’s daughter-in-law and, like her, a destitute widow.

Once back in Bethlehem Naomi’s relative, a prominent Jewish man named Boaz, falls in love with Ruth and marries her, in the process redeeming Naomi’s land and position according to the law. (Lev 25:25 & Deut. 25:5-6). The modeling here is dramatic, with Naomi in the role of Israel, destitute and alone; Ruth as the Church, the gentile bride; Boaz as the Kinsman Redeemer (Messiah) and the story a prediction of the relationship between the three of them. On His way to redeeming Israel, the Kinsman Redeemer takes a gentile bride, saving both from destitution and restoring Israel’s land. The identification of the Church with Pentecost began in the prophecies of Ruth.

By the way, Boaz was the son of Rahab, the supposed harlot from the Book of Joshua, and 3 generations later his great-grandson David became King of Israel. Rahab and Ruth both show up in the Genealogy of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 1:5), and one of the pillars at the entrance to the Temple was named after Boaz. There’s a tradition that the shepherds of Bethlehem, who were the first to be informed of the Lord’s birth, were tending their sheep in fields that once belonged to Boaz and Ruth.

When Is Your Birthday?
But there’s more.  Another tradition holds that Enoch, one of the patriarchs from Genesis 5, was born on the day later to be known as Pentecost.  Enoch’s name means “teaching” a primary function of the Church and so many scholars see him as a “type” of the church as well. Genesis 5:21-23 indicates that Enoch was very close to God and was actually taken live (raptured) into Heaven some time before the Great Flood.   Pre-Trib scholars see this event as hinting of a yet future disappearance of the Church just before the Great Tribulation,  especially since the Lord said that the day of His coming would be like the days of Noah. In the Days of Noah the unbelieving world was destroyed in the judgment, a believing remnant was preserved through the judgment and Enoch disappeared before the judgment.  If these conditions repeat themselves as the Lord indicated, then preceding the 2nd Coming, the unbelieving world will again be destroyed in the judgment, a believing remnant of Israel will be preserved through the judgment, and the church will disappear sometime before the judgment.

These same traditions also hold that Enoch disappeared from Earth on his birthday. So here’s a model in Genesis of a man identified with the church being born and raptured on the day that would become Pentecost, the day the church was also born.  And that’s why of all the Jewish feasts, Pentecost is the most likely Rapture Day

All this of course is merely an accumulation of circumstantial evidence. The Rapture is a secret event, and as such it’s exact timing is known only to God. And if, as I believe, it will happen as soon as the full number has come in, then it would be impossible for anyone on Earth to know the day or the hour in advance.

Soon And Very Soon
One day soon now, all who are in Christ, having heard and believed the Word of Truth, the Gospel of our salvation, thereby receiving the mark of the promised Holy Spirit, will suddenly disappear from the face of the Earth.   Included among them will be all children and those mentally incapable of making informed choices.  An unknown number of instantaneous deliveries will temporarily leave the world without a single pregnant woman at the same time. In one instant we will have been going about our daily routines and in the next we’ll be standing in the presence of our Redeemer, our sins forgiven and forgotten, and all our imperfections gone.  Joining us will be all the faithful dead, reunited with their perfected bodies and restored to eternal physical life. Together we will begin the most incredible journey of exploration and realization ever dreamed of.

Neither we, nor the unbelieving world, will have received any advance warning of the timing for this event; it will have come totally by surprise. Maybe it will happen on Pentecost, maybe not.  But one thing is certain, when it does happen, none us will care one whit whether we had predicted it’s timing accurately. We will only express in unimaginable joy our gratitude for being there.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephe. 2:8-9) As it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him – but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. (1 Cor. 2:9-10).

There’s a video currently on the web, promoted by a well known prophecy website, that a whole bunch of you have either sent links to or asked about it or both.   Here’s my response.

This video shows the result of tracking solar and lunar eclipses and comparing them with Levitical Feasts, and notes that the only time in this century when 4 consecutive full lunar eclipses, known as a tetrad, will coincide with either Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles is in the years 2014-2015. Lunar eclipses are also known as “blood moons” because the moon often takes on a red cast during an eclipse.

There will also be 2 solar eclipses during that time.  In the spring of 2015 Israel’s religious year will begin with a total solar eclipse, followed two weeks later a total lunar eclipse on Passover.  And then six months later the sequence will repeat itself with a second solar eclipse on Rosh Hashanna followed two weeks after that by another total lunar eclipse on the Feast of Tabernacles, all in 2015.

The last time anything like this happened was in 1967, when Jerusalem became an undivided Jewish city again, and before that there were several occurrences during the years of 1948-50, as Israel was becoming a nation.  There were none at all in the 1800’s, 1700’s, or 1600’s, and none in the 1500’s that coincided with Feast Days.

What Does That Mean?

The conclusion being drawn from this by the video’s producer is that 2015 is the most likely year for the Lord’s 2nd coming in the entire 21st Century, and the fall is the best time in that year.

Prophecy buffs from across the spectrum are falling all over themselves to get on board this.  But in the rush of emotion that rightfully accompanies thoughts of the Lord’s impending return most are ignoring a tool for evaluating where we are in the end times that I first introduced in my series entitled “Seven Things You Have To Know To Understand End Times Prophecy”. It’s a business management tool called back scheduling.  (You can access the series from our home page.)

Sensational claims like the one made in this video can result in real confusion if you don’t know the sequence in which major End Times events will occur. Actually their order is very logical, and once you learn it, you’ll wonder why you didn’t see it before. The best way to figure it out is to perform what the business world sometimes calls a back scheduling exercise. It involves going to the very end of a process and identifying its final outcome. Then you list in reverse order all the things that have to happen to produce that outcome, backing into the present. It’s simpler than it sounds, and much simpler in prophecy than in business because there are many fewer events to organize. Here’s how it goes.

We all think of Eternity as the final outcome, and so starting at the end and working backwards means we begin there. But the last major event described in any detail in the Bible is the Kingdom Age or Millennium, the Lord’s 1000 year reign on Earth, which is distinguished from and precedes Eternity.   Simply put, Eternity can’t begin until the Millennium ends.

The Millennium obviously can’t happen till the Second Coming, because that’s when the Lord returns to establish it. And the Second Coming can’t happen till the end of the Great Tribulation.  And that can’t happen till the anti-Christ stands in the Temple in Israel declaring himself to be God. (2 Thes. 2:4) That’s the event Jesus warned Israel to look for as the Great Tribulation’s opening salvo. He called it “The Abomination of Desolation” in Matt. 24:15-21.

But that can’t happen till there’s a Temple. There hasn’t been a Temple in Israel since 70AD and there won’t be one until the Jews decide they need one. That won’t happen until God reinstates their Old Covenant relationship, signaling the start of Daniel’s 70th week.  And that can’t happen till the Battle of Ezekiel 38-39 is won, because it’s Ezekiel’s battle that officially draws the Jews back to God. (Ezek. 39:22)  And that can’t happen till the Church is gone, because the Church and Israel are mutually exclusive to Him. (Romans 11:25 & Acts 15:13-18)   And that brings us to the present, because there is no preceding event for the Rapture of the Church. It could happen at any time.

Using this scheduling tool we can see how end times events are scheduled to take place, and the only one whose timing is at all speculative is the Rapture. Some argue that there’s doubt about the timing of the Battle of Ezekiel 38 but I think the Bible is pretty clear in saying that the battle of Ezekiel 38 is Israel’s wake up call  to begin Daniel’s 70th week.  It’s the event that brings Israel back into covenant with God, requiring that a Temple be built.  Daniel’s 70th week by definition is seven years long.  The last half is the Great Tribulation, after which the Lord will return.

What’s The Point?

That brings me to my point, and to make it, I’ll use the back scheduling tool again.  In order for the Lord to return in the fall of 2015, Daniel’s 70th week will have to begin the fall of 2008, a few months from now.  That means that over the summer, the Battle of Ezekiel 38 will have to take place, and God will have to re-introduce Himself to Israel, bringing them back into an Old Covenant relationship that results in Biblical Judaism becoming the official and national religion of Israel.  And the anti-Christ will have to appear and gain enough power to help Israel negotiate a seven year treaty that includes provisions for a Temple. (Daniel 9:27)  Then there’s the matter of the Rapture of the Church. While  this schedule is of course possible for God, having them all take place this summer would be a major departure from His normal approach to things.

In truth, there are several interesting facts you should know about this summer that make it an attractive possibility if you disregard everything we’ve just covered.  Israel will celebrate its 60th birthday and at the same time the world’s population is projected to reach 6,666,666,666.  The 1976th birthday of the church will also occur.  (Because of calendar differences much of the Western church will celebrate on May 11, but the correct date is June 8-9.)

Also some military experts say that June will effectively be the last time this year that Israel will have an opportunity to take out Iran’s nuclear capabilities, an act that will obviously cause major repercussions in the Middle East.  Iran’s rainy season begins in July making visibility an uncertain thing, and by September the US Presidential election will be ramped up for its all out run to our November election.  Many observers believe that the current administration won’t agree to let such a distraction interfere with America’s focus on the election this fall.  Adding these things into the mix has tempted a number of prophecy buffs to throw off all constraints and proclaim that the Day of the Lord is at hand.

Hold On Just A Minute!

But before we join them, let’s take a closer look.  Have the conditions for Ezekiel 38 been met?  Most of the players are lined up, the exception still being Turkey.  But Syria, not mentioned in Ezekiel 38, is right in the thick of things, teamed up with Iran and North Korea in a new axis of evil focused against Israel.  Can Isaiah 17 also happen this summer?

And then there’s the requirement that Israel be living in such a state of supposed peace as to be taken by surprise in a battle to the death. (Ezek. 38:11)  If Israel goes after Iran’s nukes next month, they’ll be the ones pulling off the sneak attack.  Could Iran’s certain retaliation in any way be called an unexpected surprise that catches Israel off guard? I don’t think so.

No, I think it’s much more likely that any war this summer between Israel and the Moslems would result in Syria’s demise and end in a false peace that puts into place the conditions necessary for Ezekiel 38 to happen some time later. And despite my earlier speculation about the 2012 magnetic polar reversal fulfilling the 6th seal of Rev. 6, I have to admit that the most likely coming event that fits the sequence and is worthy of announcement by signs in the heavens in 2015 would be the beginning of Daniel’s 70th week.

If these earlier Blood Moons did in fact announce the re-birth of the nation and the reunification of Jerusalem as it appears, then the next major step in Israels’ journey toward the Kingdom is their national reunion with their Creator.  This is the way Ezekiel saw it happening, and in my view is important enough to God to merit such a celestial announcement.  After all He’s been waiting to take them back for 2000 years.

“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.” (Hosea 6:1-2)

Thankfully, it won’t be long until we know for sure who’s right and who’s wrong.  And it won’t take any rocket science to tell.  Because if the 70th week is set to begin in September then the next few months will astonish the world in a breath taking series of prophetic fulfillments unparalleled since the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection.