Viewer Questions and Prophetic Nations

Looking through the comments now — thank you to everyone who has joined us tonight from New York, the Philippines, Canada, Hong Kong, and so many other places. It is amazing what the internet makes possible. So much of it is harmful, but we can also use it for God's glory, and it is a blessing to be gathered together in one accord through the Holy Spirit. Whether through phones or any other means, where two or more are gathered, He is there among us.

Bill quoted the scripture about the sword — that Yeshua did not come to bring peace but a sword, to separate and set apart, to divide the sheep from the goats. That is exactly right. And Manasseh's prayer, which we will go through next month as well, is a beautiful one.

Mike Robinson wrote that he would like to live in Israel one day. My friend, you will live in Israel one day — in the Millennial Kingdom, we will all be there. Sooner rather than later, amen.

Someone asked whether I think the Rapture is soon. I personally believe the Rapture and Resurrection will occur on the last day — the transition from the Antichrist's reign to Messiah's reign, the Day of the Lord. I place the Feast of Trumpets at the end of the seven years, when Messiah returns, as Matthew 24 suggests.

Regarding the broader debate — whether pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, or post-tribulation — I usually tell people that I am "pan-trib," meaning it will all pan out according to God's plan. As long as you are in the Lord, watching, and keeping track of these things as He commands, you will not be caught like a thief in the night.

That said, there is a responsibility here. If you hold a pre-tribulation view, I would encourage you to ask yourself: if I am wrong, am I prepared — spiritually, emotionally, perhaps physically — to endure the worst time in human history? The concern with an exclusively pre-trib mindset is that it can lead believers to disengage from biblical prophecy, from Israel, and from the larger story of what God is doing — focused only on personal escape. The Berean responsibility is not to be dogmatic on any one position, but to remain watchful and prepared.

Amy wrote that she had a conversation with friends about the prophetic significance of the feasts for new believers — that is exactly how it works. We fan the flame wherever we are. The Great Commission says to baptize, yes, but also to teach all things and to observe them — and that certainly includes His divine appointments.

To the viewer from Hong Kong — welcome to the channel. Happy Feast of Trumpets to you and your family. China has one of the largest underground churches in the world, and there is a remarkable revival happening there right now, as well as throughout the Middle East. We must keep the persecuted church in prayer. Those believers live under genuine tribulation because of persecution, in ways that those of us in America, who worship freely, do not.

Grammy wrote: "May I keep my lamb for a pet?" Yes, you may — just do not sacrifice your own Passover lamb. I am only joking, of course.

And Loretta writes about these things becoming a burden. The Apostle John tells us that we love Him and we keep His commandments, and they are not burdensome. These things are not a burden — they are a gift.

These are beautiful, exciting things to look forward to — the Sabbath, the New Moon Festival, the feast days. We do need to be careful with oral traditions. They are beautiful traditions and it's fine to observe them, but don't let them become a burden. Follow the commandment in the Holy Bible. It will tell you exactly how to stay in covenant by celebrating Passover, by celebrating the Feast of Trumpets, by celebrating Yom Kippur. Follow the commandment as written.

For the Feast of Trumpets, it is a Sabbath rest — a rehearsal, a blowing of trumpets, a dress rehearsal to spend with the Lord. We do not have to offer something by fire; that is for the high priest to do, and we don't have a high priest here to do that. So tithe, do whatever the Lord leads you to do, but stay within the commandment in Leviticus 23.

Regarding the Book of Revelation — it is a tough book. But I want to encourage you: the more we read it, the more it makes sense, just as with the biblical prophets. John has a second witness to everything contained within it. If we can identify those witnesses — whether it's the Book of Daniel, or the Book of Leviticus chapter 16 with the incense and the prayers — he is correlating all of those things as another witness. It connects to the Day of Atonement, to all of these things. Eventually we will do a dedicated study on the Book of Revelation, but the great tie-ins with the Torah and the prophets, which serve as a second witness to what John saw, are remarkable.

We are entering some amazing times. I cannot overstate it — the beginning of a new year, the beginning of a new month on the holy days, the beginning of a new shemitah cycle. A lot of beautiful things are prophetically converging right now. I believe these next seven years are going to be totally amazing, and we will all witness the things that are going to occur according to the biblical prophets.

We need to keep Israel in prayer. Scripture tells us to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. The Psalms tell us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. So we need to be praying for Jerusalem, for the Jewish people, for the Muslim people, and for all people to come to salvation, because the time is drawing near.

Regarding whether we can know the timing of the Lord's return — I totally disagree with the view that only God knows and therefore no one can. When Yeshua said "only the Father knows," He was speaking from a Jewish wedding tradition, where the father arranges the wedding and the father is in control, and the father declares the decree. He was telling us the Father is in control of the timing. But He will return on His divine appointments — on the fall feast days: Trumpets, Yom Kippur, the Feast of Tabernacles. That is scriptural. The Rapture is not going to occur on just any random day. The tribulation is not going to begin on just any random day. He is not going to leave us as orphans; He is going to give us the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the time of our visitation, just as He warned the Jewish people. I would encourage anyone to read Luke 19:41–44, where He pronounces judgment upon Israel because they did not understand the time of their visitation — those are His exact words. He will return on His divine appointments. That is biblical.

Yes, God's voice is the sound of a trumpet. We read that tonight in Thessalonians and in the Psalms as well — that His voice is the voice of a trumpet, and of the archangel.

Messiah Yeshua, Jesus, was one hundred percent Jewish. It is remarkable that we even have to say this today, but yes — He was. That is why Matthew the Apostle opened his Gospel with "seed of David, seed of Abraham." David was from the tribe of Judah — Judah, Jewish. Daniel, Jewett — these are Jewish people. The New Testament is written by Jewish people. What people don't always realize is that the New Testament is fundamentally for the Jewish people, and we Gentiles are grafted in, just as Paul says in Romans 1:16 — "to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile." Messiah Yeshua will return as a one hundred percent Jewish King who will rule the world from David's everlasting Jewish throne.

Regarding the greater Exodus — yes, there is going to be one. Exodus records six hundred thousand men who left Egypt, not including the women and children. Today there are roughly fifteen to sixteen million Jewish people in the world. Jeremiah 23 says that no longer will the Lord be called the God who brought them out of Egypt, but the God who brought them out from the north and from all surrounding areas. That is what I mean by a greater Exodus — more people exiting the nations to return home to Israel. And you are seeing it happen in front of your eyes right now. For the first time ever, there are more Jewish people living in the nation of Israel than in America. That just happened in the last couple of years. That is prophecy being fulfilled — the return of the Jewish people to the land is one of the signs of the end of the age. Jeremiah 16 goes through this as well with the prophecy of the fishermen and the hunters, and we saw it occurring especially during the shemitah year of 2014–2015. You can read both Jeremiah 16 and Jeremiah 23 for yourself.

Regarding Russia firing a nuclear weapon — that is very significant in our world, of course, involving human life and serious consequences. However, Russia is not in the Holy Bible prophetically. The bear in the Book of Daniel is Iran, not Russia. It is the second kingdom after Babylon — Babylon is the lion, and Iran is the kingdom that follows in sequence. All the countries referenced in Ezekiel 38 and 39, when you look at biblical atlases, are located in what is modern-day Turkey. We have to understand the correct nations as the prophets would have understood them from the Table of Nations in Genesis 9 and 10, and then plug those nations into the correct prophecies. What we are looking at is a Middle Eastern and North African conflict — a family affair between Isaac and Ishmael, Esau and Jacob, more broadly Judeo-Christian versus Islam, over the deed to the land of the Abrahamic Covenant. Russia having difficulty in its war with Ukraine is certainly not a sign of an army about to march through Europe to Jerusalem.

The trigger point of the seven-year tribulation period is the covenant made with Israel as described in Daniel 9:26–27. That covenant has not been made, so the seven years have not begun. That is the marker we are watching for. And I believe that in these next seven years, you are going to see some amazing things lining up with everything we have been discussing concerning the Lord's return.

In my opinion, the key scripture for understanding the Resurrection is Matthew 24. That is the chronological account of Messiah speaking about the Tribulation, the midpoint of the Tribulation with the abomination of desolation, and then his return at the sign of the Son of Man — the sun, the moon, and the gathering of his people. There is an order there. Anyone holding a pre-Tribulation view would have to reconcile Matthew 24, because most biblical scholars and prophecy teachers agree that it is a chronological account of Messiah's second coming, and it places his descent *immediately after* the Tribulation. I encourage you to read Matthew 24 and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you. If there are other scriptures that appear to contradict it, we must bring all of them into unity. I will eventually do a video that lays out every relevant scripture — including the ones pre-Trib teachers use — and lets us see together what the Lord is showing us.

To summarize where I stand: I absolutely believe in the Resurrection, and I believe it will fall on the Feast of Trumpets, just as the scriptures we have studied point so beautifully toward. I simply do not believe it will be pre-Tribulation, and that is my personal conviction based on the scriptures I read and the heart of God I see in the gospel. Consider the book of Acts — God did not remove Stephen from his situation. He did not remove Paul. He did not remove the disciples. We know what happened to each of them, and all of that occurred *after* the Resurrection. So if he did not spare them, why would we assume he will simply remove us and leave the nation of Israel to be slaughtered? To me, that is anti-gospel. I hold that conviction strongly, and I mean no offense to anyone.

I actually believe this could be the church's finest hour. Daniel 8 says that his people will do great exploits. Look also at Revelation 12 — the Antichrist goes after the offspring of the woman during the Tribulation, and that refers not only to Israel but to Gentile believers as well. There are many scriptures the pre-Trib position would need to reconcile in order to be airtight. Every scripture touching the Resurrection must be brought together and made to work as one. We must be Bereans. Some of what the Gentile church has inherited is simply not accurate according to the Bible — these are theories made by men that have spread rapidly. That is a conversation worth having, and it is not a judgment on anyone who holds a pre-Trib view. If it turns out to be pre-Trib, I will be ready on the Feast of Trumpets and say hallelujah. I simply hold a different reading of the scriptures, and I hope that difference does not divide us — because the Rapture should never divide the body of Christ.

The Rapture is, in my opinion, the most debated topic among believers in all of the Holy Bible. It has divided the body of Christ so deeply that I have hesitated to make a dedicated video on it. But let me say this: rather than being consumed with when we get out of here, let us focus on the Great Commission. Let us focus on the work God has called us to do on this earth until he does take us. Going around saying "I just can't wait to be raptured away" is irresponsible for a believer. Our posture should be: *I am ready to make disciples. I am ready to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I am ready to spread the good news.* That is our blessed hope in action. Honestly, my own prayer right now is not "Lord, take me out" — it is "Please don't take me out yet, because this is an amazing time to be alive." I want to be part of whatever God is doing, even if that includes the Tribulation. Keep me in the game. Because that seven-year period will likely be the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever seen — greater than the first. Persecution brings salvation. People in China know this. People in the Middle East know this. Through persecution, people come to redemption. That is how it worked for me, a hard-headed person who needed to be leveled before coming to the Lord.

Now, when I speak of the "American Jesus" or the "Roman Jesus," here is what I mean. The Gentile church over time has clothed Yeshua — a Jewish man — in such a way that the Jewish people can no longer recognize him as their Messiah. That is not to say it is entirely our fault that they do not receive him; that is their choice. But Paul tells us to make the Jewish people jealous. We will never do that by celebrating man-made traditions. They cannot recognize their Jewish Messiah in Christmas or Easter. Those festivals are not biblical. From Constantine through the Roman Catholic church and on through modern non-denominational churches, the Gentile church has inherited traditions that are simply not in the scriptures. A Jesus has been presented who is not actually Messiah as the Bible reveals him.

The true Messiah is a Jewish man, a Jewish king, Torah observant, rooted in the feast days, the calendar, and the covenants. He said to the foolish virgins, "I never knew you" — and that is a sobering statement. So we must ask ourselves: who is Yeshua according to the Holy Bible, not according to any tradition or institution? He is a Jewish king. He will return as the King of Israel and reign on David's everlasting throne — from the millennial kingdom through eternity. The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem bear the names of the twelve tribes. The foundations carry the names of the apostles, every one of them Jewish. Gentile believers are going to be astonished at how Jewish the millennial kingdom is, because we are entering the Kingdom of Israel, exactly as Acts 1 describes.

We as Gentiles are born Gentile, but the moment we receive the blood of the Lamb, Ephesians 2 tells us we become part of the Commonwealth of Israel. We are part of the covenants. That is covenant theology. We went through this in a previous session, and it is essential for cutting through the confusion of a Roman or American presentation of Christ. He is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the New Covenant. Everyone focuses on the New Covenant — rightly so, because it is the covenant of the blood of the Lamb that covers all of us — but it is an extension of the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants. That is exactly why Matthew opens his gospel with "the son of David, the son of Abraham." He is telling you to go back to the covenants, because they have not yet been fully fulfilled.

Israel has not yet ruled over the full extent of the promised land given in the Abrahamic Covenant — but she will when Yeshua returns. No one has sat on David's everlasting throne; Solomon's throne was taken from his line. But when Jesus returns, he will sit on David's Jewish throne forever in Mount Zion and rule over the nations. That is what I mean when I speak of the Jewish Messiah versus the American or Roman one. We must put him back in his proper biblical context as a Jewish man and a Jewish king — the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, not of the tribe of America, not of the tribe of Rome.

Our calling as Gentile believers is to provoke the Jewish people to jealousy, as Paul instructs. You will not accomplish that through Easter or Christmas. Those dates are not in the Bible. The Feast of Trumpets is in the Bible — Tishri 1, today. Passover is in the Bible. First Fruits is in the Bible. Tabernacles is in the Bible. Easter is not. Good Friday is not. December 25th is not, and in fact Jeremiah 10 explicitly warns against bringing a decorated tree into your home. What has happened is called replacement theology — replacing God's appointed festivals with man-made traditions, and along with it, replacing Israel with the church, claiming that the church inherits all the promises while the Jewish people receive only curses. That is an abomination. It is demonic, because it calls God a liar — it says he will not keep his promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. God is a promise-keeper, and he will fulfill every one of those promises, which is exactly why replacement theology is not only false but anti-Semitic at its root.

I say all of this not to come against anyone, but because we must place Yeshua back in his rightful biblical context — as a Jewish man, a Jewish king, the King of Israel, the Redeemer of Israel, the Holy One of Israel, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. That is just where I stand on it.

Happy Feast of Trumpets to everyone.