The Fall Feasts Of Yahuwah &
The So Called Rapture!
By Rabbi/Rabbi/Brother Moshe Yoseph Koniuchowsky
Update 12-27-99
As we approach the Fall Feasts of
Yahuwah, Rosh Hashanah (Feast Of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and
Succoth (Feast Of Booths), they all are solemn reminders of various Biblical
truths.
The Feast of Trumpets is not the Jewish
New Year as is widely taught in traditional Judaism. Rather it is simply and
plainly the Festival of Trumpet blowing, where Bible believers are instructed by
Almighty Yahuwah to refrain from all normal work by celebrating an annual Sabbath
and by participating in a holy gathering (Lev. 23:23-25).
According to the Biblical calendar Aviv
(April) is the New Year. Not Rosh Hashanah! If the traditional Rabbi’s are
incorrect about the Jewish calendar, could it also be that they are wrong about
the Jewish Messiah’s identity? According to scripture, several animal
sacrifices must be made on the Feast of Trumpets (Numbers 29: 1-6), along with
the holy assembly and the cessation of all customary work.
Traditional Judaism teaches that Yahuwah
created the world on Rosh Hashanah. Again this is without scriptural
justification. Another interesting traditional Talmudic teaching is that the
blowing of the shofar (rams horn) sends Satan into confusion and defeat. Again
while this is an entertaining thought, it has no biblical basis. Traditional
Judaism teaches that Rosh Hashanah commences ten days of introspection, soul
searching and confessing of sin, ending on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), known
as the Days of Awe. Observant traditional Jews are encouraged to not only ask
forgiveness from Yahuwah, but from other people as well. The Talmud teaches that
there are certain sins that only people can forgive. This Talmudic teaching is
somewhat biblical, with Israel’s greatest Rabbi, Messiah Yahshua making
reference to this principal in Matthew 5:22-24.
The So Called Sacred Cow
Called The Rapture
What is quite true is that HaAdon
Yahshua fulfilled the four spring feasts of Leviticus 23 at His first advent and
will surely fulfill the final three fall feasts at His return. The resurrection
of the righteous dead and transformation of the righteous living (Kehila), bride
of Yahshua, in the two phase of the first or blessed resurrection from the
grave, will I believe take place on this solemn day, the first of the seventh
month of the Biblical calendar. In Matthew 24:31 in the Brit Chadashah, Yahshua
makes clear reference to the catching away of the living saints as part two
or the second phase of the blessed first resurrection of the just! He
associates the first day of the seventh month and the sounding of the rams horn
(shofar), with the snatching away of the living Renewed Covenant saints, which
is not any kind of a so called rapture! Rather the snatching away is merely phase
two of the first and blessed resurrection of Israel’s righteous dead from
the Brit Chadashah period! (Revelation 20:5-7, Daniel 12: 1-3!) The rapture is
an Ephraimite invention brought on a past history of too much time in the Sun
(as in Sun worship), by separate entity theology that believes that somehow
unsaved Jewish/Israel gets zapped while the church-or Newer Israel flies away on
a rapture bus, piloted by the unholy father in Rome! The rapture doctrine was unknown
for 19 centuries of Messianic faith and became popular in the late 1800’s!
Despite adamant denials those who espouse a private secret church rapture, teach
three advents not the two so clearly seen in scripture. Thus all rapture
proponents (pre, mid, pre-wrath, post) mistake the two phases of
the first physical resurrection as two separate comings! This kind of fairy tale
theology continues to divide the two houses of Israel, into separate entities,
which naturally and sadly leads to dispensationalist rooted replacement
theology!
First Thessalonians 4:16-18 states that
Yahuwah will command His own shofar to be sounded on Yom Teruah (Trumpets), to
signal the beginning of the glorious millennial reign of King Yahshua, the end
of the Day of Yahuwah and the end of the just completed supernatural protection
of all born again Israelites. In First Corinthians 15:52, Rav Shaul teaches us
that the first physical resurrection of bible believers takes place on this
special annual Yom Teruah Sabbath when the shofar is sounded.
The Day of Atonement is considered the
holiest and most awesome day of both biblical messianic faith, as well as
traditional Judaism. It is always celebrated on the 10th day of the
seventh month. On this day Jews of all backgrounds and beliefs attend the local
synagogue, to ask Yahuwah for forgiveness for sins committed during the past
calendar year. Most traditional synagogues are so full of people that tickets
have to be purchased in advance, just to assure that members obtain sufficient
seating. Traditional Jews believe that this is the day when Yahuwah determines
once and for all who will live and who will die in the upcoming year. According
to the Talmud every Jew will be sealed in one of two books at Yom Kippur. Either
the Book of Life or the Book of Death, with no names remaining in the Book Of
The In Between, which was full of names at the beginning of Rosh Hashanah (so
called) at the first of the seventh month. Yom Kippur begins with the
traditional singing of Kol Nidraei a public renouncal of all vows made during
the prior year and closes with one final prayer service called Neleh, when
heavens gates begin to close to all Yom Kippur prayers. Traditional Jews remain
in synagogue most if not all of the day. This is the day where the man made
salvation formula is invoked by Jews to Yahuwah. This
formula simply stated is good deeds, plus prayer, plus repentance = salvation,
thus averting the evil decree!
This custom is a sad man made
substitute for biblical atonement. According to Lev. 23:26-32, Numbers 29: 7-11
and most importantly Leviticus 16, this day was the national Day of Atonement
for all the children of Israel through the sacrifice of the bull and the goat.
The blood of atonement was used to cleanse the priests, the altar, the people,
the priestly garments and all the holy items of temple sacrificial worship.
Leviticus 17:11 speaks of the blood of atonement as the only divine means for
the atonement of the human soul. The Book Of Hebrews talks much about the blood
of Yahshua as the only eternal means of atonement, as well as the blood that
conclusively removes sin forever, in the life of a believer. His blood ushered
in the new and everlasting covenant between Yahuwah and man. Yahuwah never
switched His requirements or criteria through which a man’s justification
can take place. A modern day traditional Jew who willfully rejects Yahshua
has no means of blood atonement for his sins and is forced to buy into the
spiritually bankrupt salvation system of traditional Judaism, instituted by
Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zaki at the Council of Yavneh, a Jerusalem suburb, in 70 AD.
Needless to say that Yahuwah never approved of this plan, rather He allowed the
Beth Ha Mikdash (temple) to be destroyed so that people would turn to the Jewish
Messiah for forgiveness. The temple’s destruction was predicted by Yahshua and
certainly did not catch Yahuwah by surprise. It was at Yavneh that a false
counterfeit man made formula was issued to the Jewish people in exile, in light
of the rejection of Yahshua by unsaved Israel’s leadership. Rabbi Zaki and all
his cohorts sold the Jewish people a new bill of goods along with a new formula
for forgiveness instead of embracing and teaching the New Covenant of blood
atonement that Yahuwah gave our people in Torah. While prayer, good deeds and
repentance are all very admirable traits they cannot replace Yahuwah’s eternal
requirements for a blood sacrifice as commanded by Torah. An interesting side
note about Rabbi Zaki is that upon his deathbed, he was greatly troubled and
confused about his right standing before Yahuwah. If the creator of modern day
traditional Judaism had no assurance of salvation and acceptance by Yahuwah, why
should any Jew searching for Yahuwah follow his lost example? Rabbi Zaki’s
confusion at his deathbed scene is even recorded in the Talmud.
The Day of Atonement prophetically
points to the soon coming day of Israel’s national salvation. We see in the
Davar Yahuwah that in the very near future, the Jewish nation will experience a
national day of salvation, preceded by a very special national Day of Atonement
and repentance. There is a special Yom Kippur in the not too distant future, in
which all lost (spiritually and physically) Israelites from both houses who
survive the Great Tribulation (man’s wrath) and the Day of Yahuwah (Master’s
wrath), will all repent be saved and apply Yahshua’s holy sinless blood to
themselves through faith (Romans 11:26-27).
In Zechariah, Yahuwah gives us an
amazing glimpse into this special and still future Day of Atonement in chapter
12 verses 10-14. Not only will Yahuwah pour out the Ruach Hakodesh (the Spirit of
grace and supplication); all Israel will see the pierced hands and feet of our
Messiah (verse 10).
The most striking verses are found in
Zechariah chapter 12 verses 11 through 14. These verses teach us that Israel’s
national day of salvation and teshuvah (repentance), will be widespread from
Jerusalem to Meggido to all the points of the land of Israel. This national
atonement will include all of the twelve Israelite tribes as well. In verses
12-14, Yahuwah teaches that all Orthodox and Lubavitcher Jews will also accept
Messiah Yahshua. These scriptures teach that Jewish men and women who are
accustomed to worshipping apart (Orthodox), will mourn and sit shiva (mourning)
separate from each other, when they recognize the nail scarred hands of Israel’s
Messiah. I believe all this will soon take place on the tenth day of the seventh
month in some year in the very near future. A startling reference to a national
Yom Kippur when all Israel is cleansed and sanctified before Yahuwah through the
Messiah Yahshua is found in Daniel 12:11&12. While verse 11 confirms the
three and a half years of Yahuwah’s wrath (1,290 days) found throughout
scripture, the very next verse (12), tells us that the Israelites (Daniel’s
people) who survive and who come to the 1,335th day are the ones who
are truly blessed. Why will Yahuwah add 45 days to the end of Daniel’s 70th
week? I believe that the first fifteen days are to cleanse the defiled
tribulation temple from the residue of the abomination that causes desolation
and that the remaining thirty days are the traditional Jewish time frame for
corporate national mourning. This thirty day mourning period will start on the
tenth day of Tishri and last thirty days. This concept has biblical precedent,
when the children of Israel mourned for Moses the redeemer of the first
covenant, for thirty days in Deuteronomy 34:8. I believe that these thirty days
will be a time of great inward introspection and meditation on the death of the
Yahshua, as Yahuwah’s Spirit is poured out, in order to reveal Yahuwah’s Son.
How about that!
The final and last of the fall feasts
is the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. This feast takes place on the fifteenth
day of the seventh month and lasts for seven days. The children of Israel
(including Messianic Nazarene Yisraelites), are commanded to dwell in booths for seven
days in order to recall their wilderness wanderings after the exodus from Egypt,
as well as to remember Yahuwah’s coverings of protection. The first day is an
annual Sabbath, wherein Yahuwah forbids any customary work and requires a holy
gathering to worship Him. The seventh day of the feast is called Hoshana Rabbah,
which means the great salvation. It was on this day that the ceremony of water
drawing from the Pool of Siloam and the pouring out of the same water on the
altar in the temple on Mt. Moriah was held. It was at this ceremony at night on
Hoshana Rabbah, that Yahshua made His great proclamation that He and He alone,
was the fountain of true living water (John 7:37-39), in fulfillment of Isaiah
12:2-3. In modern times the traditional rabbinical celebration is pretty much
the same as the biblical messianic celebration, with a few minor exceptions. The
eighth day is called Shimini Azereth and was commanded by Yahuwah as a day of
burnt offerings and Sabbath rest. The number eight in scripture speaks of new
beginnings and the main reason that it was given to national Israel by Elohim,
was to point the national 12 tribe Israel to the future millennial rule and
reign of HaAdon Yahshua on David’s throne from Jerusalem. Yahshua’s earthly
rule will be the dawn of a new day in humanity, a day in where not only peace
will be established, but a day in which the knowledge of Yahuwah will encompass
the earth even as the waters do now (Zechariah 14:9).
The Feast of Booths will be a
millennial requirement to all the nations (Gentiles) of the world. They must not
only keep the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days meticulously in accordance
with Torah specifications, they also are commanded to appear in person before
Yahuwah of Hosts (Yahshua), in Jerusalem to pay Yahshua homage and reverence
during this feast (Zechariah 14:16). Any family or nation that does not send
representatives or conduct a personal pilgrimage to the new millennial
Jerusalem, will suffer famine and lack, back in their own country (Zechariah
14:17). Verses 20 and 21 of Zechariah 14 teach that by the millennial rule of
Yahshua , the tribulation temple and all of the previously defiled vessels of
sacrifice will be cleansed by Yahshua Himself. Only saved born again
individuals, will be allowed to enter this re-cleansed millennial temple. No
Cannanites or unregenerate people will be allowed into the rededicated temple.
This final Feast of Yahuwah is a true
and concise prophetic picture of our future glory with Yahshua in Jerusalem,
living and dwelling eternally under the presence and the shadow of the Almighty.
Since non-Jewish believers will be celebrating the Feast of Booths forever, do
you and I have any legitimate excuse for not starting to celebrate this feast
right now?
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