The Ketubah

I mentioned the Ketubah (Hebrew wedding contract) last time. But there is so much more about it, I thought I'd take a minute to tell you.

The Ketubah was a written document that stated the bride price, the promises of the groom, and the rights of the bride. The Bible is our Ketubah! Search it out for yourself. Verses may already be popping into your head about all of God's promises, or how we were bought with a price.

A Jewish wedding has a lot of steps.

1.Marriages were arranged by the parents. Then the bridegroom would go to the bride's house with a large sum of money, a betrothal contract, and a skin of wine.

2.The bridal price was established.

3.Bride and groom were betrothed (legally bound without living together).

4.The Ketubah was written up.

5.The bride gave her consent.

6.Gifts were given to the bride.

7.The bride would go in the Mikvah (water immersion chamber). A ceremonial act of separation showing her  going from a former way to a new way.

8.A toast, and then the bridegroom would say, "I will go to my father's house and prepare a place for you."

9.After being gone for however long it took to add on to his father's house, (the father would say when it was ready.) The bridegroom returned... with a forerunner going a bit faster in front of him shouting "Behold the bridegroom comes" and blowing the shofar (rams horn). This was typically done at night.

10.The bridegroom would abduct his bride and take her to the bridal chamber where the marriage was consummated.

11. Finally there was a marriage supper for all invited.

Here are a few verses that deal with how this applies to us.

Gen 24:53-58, 1Cor. 6:20, 1Pet 1:18-19, john 14:1-4, mark 25:6-7, Isa 62:5-7, Rev 19:7-9, Matt 22:1-11, and luke 14:16-24.

It's easy to see that "Ha Kiddushin/ Nesuin" (Rosh Hashana) falls in line with what we know will happen with the rapture of the church (bride).

Rosh Hashana

So, what do the feasts have to do with The End?

Well, just like the feasts were "rehearsals" for what happened during Christ's First coming, they are also rehearsals for what will happen on his second coming.

The symbolism of Passover is very clear. Christ = the sacrificial lamb.

Unleavened bread = Christ was sinless. (Leaven/yeast = sin)

First Fruits = Resurrection day. (Practiced as a day that the Hebrews wave a sheath of barley asking for a plentiful harvest that year.)

Pentecost = start of the "church". A Harvest of sorts... They waited 50 days (The counting of the omer) from the resurrection to the "Feast of Weeks"/ the wheat harvest/ "Pentecost"... which was the day that they initially received the Holy Spirit.

All of these, as well as the very big possibility that Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles (a celebration of God dwelling with man) are ways that Christ "fulfilled" the feasts during his first coming.

The Fall feasts will be truly fulfilled during his second coming.

The first of which is Rosh Hashana.

The Feast of Trumpets is the only feast that happens on a new moon.  All the others are on a full moon. Because of this (that the new moon is harder to spot), once the new moon was spotted by two witnesses a trumpet would be blown to officially start the Festival. The Feast was two days long. This is where the phrase "No one knows the day or the hour" comes from.  It's not about really not knowing anything about the time it will happen. It simply means it could be at any time within those two days. It is called "Yom Hakeseh" = "The Hidden Day". Rosh Hashana is also known as Yom Teruah, "The Day of Blowing" or "The Day of the Awakening Blast". The ram's horn is blown to start the Feast, but in the future it will sound to awaken the dead in Christ to meet him in the air along with all the living saints.

On this day the Hebrew people greet eachother with "May you be remembered", for this day was a memorial. (Lev 23:23-24). The book of remembrance is opened on this day. (Luke 13:27, Numbers 10:9, and Mal 3:16-18.) This aspect of the day is where the name "Yom HaDin/ Day of Judgment/ The Opening of the Books/ Opening of the Gates" comes from. (Dan 7:10-11, Rev 5:11-13, 20:11-12, 4:1-2, Ps 24:7-10, 118:19-20, and Isa 26:1-3).

Every year on Yom HaDin the Jews beleive that the heavenly court is in session.  The trial lasts ten days, until the Day of Atonement. There is a wealth of other info about this Feast, but for the sake of time, I'll skip to the final element.

The Feast of Trumpets is also known as "Ha Kiddushin/ Nesuin" (Wedding of the Messiah), and "Ha Melech" (Coronation of the Messiah). Kings were often crowned on their wedding day.  There are Bible stories like the parable of the ten virgins that point to the wedding of the Messiah. The entire Bible is written as a Ketubah (a Hebrew wedding contract of sorts).  I'll spend another day talking about that.

The main point I'm trying to make today is that one of the days of Yom Teruah (The Feast of Trumpets/ Rosh Hashana)(no one knows the day or the hour) will be when the rapture occurs.

One year sometime in or around September (Rosh Hashana is noted on American calendars as well) is when Jesus will meet us in the air for His wedding.

I believe it's not too far away.

Start at the Beginning

There is no shortage of material on the subject of The End. But there is a shortage of simple, easy to understand, material with a strong Biblical backing on the subject.

I hope this helps.

I would love to start with current events and how they tie in, but I really should start at the beginning.

Maybe not Genesis 1:1, but how about Genesis 1:14? "Let there be lights in the firmament of  heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons..."  The word seasons means "an appointment; a fixed time or season; a signal".  The church of today more often than not, would tell you not to pay any attention to the sun, moon, and stars, for fear that you'd get sucked into astrology.

Many of our logically founded ideas have been some of Satan's most effective tools of deception. Without getting into that, I'll just go straight into proving that we should pay attention to the sun, moon, and stars.

God's calendar is a lunar calendar, a perfect 360 day circle. He set up the months to fall perfectly into alignment with the cycle of the moon. But Julius Caesar, and Pope Gregory XIII and his cohorts fell nicely into Satan's plan to confuse the "times and seasons". In our western world the best way to keep up with God's timing is to get yourself a Hebrew calendar that has our Gregorian calendar dates as well.

It is very important to know the "times and seasons". 

Other proof that God wants us to watch the sky are verses like Matthew 24:19, Luke 21:11and 25, Isaiah 13:10, and the verses in Revelation about eclipses: 6:12 and 8:12.

God doesn't tell us that there will be signs in heaven and then say, "but never-mind those."

A very cool thing about living in today's world is that all of the eclipses are tracked for us on sites like the NASA eclipse web site. (http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html)

This is just to show we can know when at least some of the predicted "signs in heaven" will be.

The people God was talking to in the Bible were from the area of Israel, so when you look at the table of eclipses, look for the ones that will be viewable from that region of the world.

The other important thing to know, is when to look.

God gives us very precise instructions on when His "appointed times" will be. These appointed times are better known as the "Seven Feasts". They are: Passover (Pesach), the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Matzot), First Fruits (Bikkurim), Pentecost (Shavuot), Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana), Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and The Feast of Tabernacles (Succot).

Throughout history these "dress rehearsals" have been celebrated by the Hebrew peoples, and some by Christians as well.

I'll explain the significance of the Feasts later.  If you want an assignment, go look up all the eclipses that fall on feast days, over Israel. (You can look into the past and the future. What you'll find should be very intriguing.

Dispensationalism

For decades the common view of most churches has been dispensationalism. 

Dispensationalism says that we are going to be raptured at the beginning of the Tribulation.

I say... along with a growing number of people... "NO."

I'll get into more of the "What" "When" "How" "Why" as the days go by....

Right now, my son needs the computer for his homework. :-)