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f-r-cox@comcast.net Repetition of 251
Years Throughout the book of Genesis Related Topics: |
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Hebrew Roots Myopia by
Floyd R. Cox There is a dimension we cannot see if we refuse to read about
events in their proper context. It’s like being blind to reality. For
example, Christians read that the Messiah has already come. Many devout Jews
don’t read it that way (I Jn 4:3). However, both think the Messiah is still
future. They’re on about the same page. Christians commonly view the holy
days as signs of things to come, whereas, Jews commonly believe the seven
holy days are memorials of past events such as the exodus from Egypt and
Pentecost. Others want to restore their roots by joining a present-day
“Christian Messianic” or “Messianic Jews” movement or the “Hebrew Roots
Awakening”. Will this solve the dilemma? Holy days are Signs of things to Come |
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The exodus from Egypt began after the Passover, and the
Israelites ate unleavened bread for 30 days, and these days were immediately
followed by the first week of having manna to eat from Sunday until
Saturday. This makes 37 days. On the 50th day, this “church in
the wilderness” was founded at Mt. Sinai on the day of Pentecost. In the second year, God began dwelling with them in a temporary
tabernacle perhaps with the goal of eventually having a permanent temple in a
future “golden era” in the Promised Land. Things to Come are Sometimes Conditional The Passover, days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost were to be
observed as memorials. So, after observing these memorials during the first two years,
12 scouts were sent to explore the Promised Land, and they brought back a bad
report, and all males over 20 were sentenced to die in the wilderness during
the next 40 years after the exodus. So, the next holy day, the feast of Trumpets. No trumpet was
blown for the marching orders, and the Ark and tabernacle did not cross over.
It must have been conditional on having a good report. When would the Israelites have entered the Promised Land? In the
original Plan (made before the scouts’ return). The feast of Trumpets was on
the first day of the seventh month, near the time of the grape harvest.
Likewise, the scouts brought back some giant grapes at this time, perhaps
near the time of the feast of Trumpets. They would likely have started
counting the jubilees from the 10th day of the seventh month. The Revised Plan There was a Revised Plan. They dwelled in booths, or tents,
for 40 years in the wilderness (Lev 23:43), and God “tabernacled” with
them. After 40 years, Moses instructed Joshua and the priests to cross
the Jordan and enter the Promised Land. This is comparable to the feast of
Trumpets. The trumpets sounded, preparations were made, and Joshua led them across the Jordan into
the land on the 10th day of the first month (instead of the
10th of the seventh month) and began counting the sabbaticals and
jubilees. The new generation of males was circumcised on the 10th
day of the first month (instead of the seventh month). They kept the Passover on the 14th. The first of the first fruits of the Promised Land was reaped on
the following Sunday, on the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering, as in the
Revised Plan, and the manna stopped. Immediately, they surrounded Jericho
during the following week, from Sunday until Saturday. Joshua eventually placed the Ark and tabernacle at Shiloh, and
it remained there until the Philistines destroyed Shiloh, and the Ark was
taken, and the High Priest died. This is comparable to the day of Atonement,
a time of fasting and emptiness. The Ark was eventually returned. King David captured Jerusalem
and brought in the Ark. This began the “golden era” for Israel and Judah. His
son, Solomon, created a permanent temple to replace the temporary tabernacle
created by David. When he dedicated the temple, they observed the feast of
Tabernacles for 14 days instead of seven. These events appear to be fulfillments of the seven feasts,
which were signs of things to come and to be observed as memorials. Likewise,
some fast days were sometimes memorials of other events, such as the
destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. Context of Israel’s Exile During the First
Temple Afterwards Solomon turned to folly, married 700 wives, overtaxed
the people, and the golden age was over. He died in 931 BC. The house of
Israel removed and formed a separate kingdom of Israel in the north in 931 BC
in a sabbatical year. A jubilee was in 868 BC, in the third year of
Jehoshaphat, and another in 721 BC, when Assyria captured the kingdom of
Israel north of Judah. Another was in 623 BC, when Josiah found the lost book
of Moses. Josiah’s reform bound the Jews to begin keeping every word written
in the book, including the sabbaticals and jubilees. His reform was a new
covenant. The next jubilee was in 574 BC, 14 years after Jerusalem had fallen
at the end of a sabbatical in 587 BC (Ezek 40:1). Again, there was also a
jubilee 14 years after Jerusalem fell the second time, in 70 AD. Context of Ezekiel’s Restored Temple: Terms
are Conditional The house was in exile scattered over the Assyrian Empire. The
house of Judah was in exile scattered over the Babylonian Empire, and
Jerusalem and her temple had been burned in 587 BC. After this, Ezekiel had a vision (in chapters after Ezek 40) of
a second temple in which Jerusalem would be divided among the 12 tribes
having returned from the nations of Babylon where they had been driven.
Sacrificial offerings would continue, and the feast of Tabernacles would
still be observed. In Ezekiel’s vision, a remnant of Judah, Israel, Joseph, Ephraim
and the whole house of Israel were to return from the nations of Babylon and
again become joint heirs of the Holy Land if they repented and returned to
Palestine. It would be conditional. They would reside in an area surrounding
a new, second temple if they repented and if they actually returned. Ezek 37:12- 28 was conditional as stated in Ezekiel 43:9… 9 Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcasses
of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever. 10 Thou son of man, show the house (the plan for a new
second temple) to the house of Israel (all 12 tribes), that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let
them measure the pattern. 11 And if they be ashamed of all that they have done,
show them the form of the house (the rebuilt temple), and the fashion thereof,
and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms
thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all
the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the
whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. 12 This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the
mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this
is the law of the house. It might help if Ezekiel 37 to 43 and Zechariah 14 were read in
proper context, when a second temple would replace the desolated first
temple, when the Levite priests (Ezek 44:15) would still be offering
sacrifices (Ezek 44:27-29; Zech 14:20-21) and keeping holy days. All twelve tribes did not return; therefore, another second
temple was placed on the drawing board as described in Haggai and
Zechariah. Zechariah’s second temple continued to have Levites, sacrificial
offerings and holy days (Zech 14). Context of the Second Temple Like code 251, there is a pattern that unveils the context of
the second temple. The last chapter of Haggai says the second temple was founded on
the 24th day of the 9th month. He says it three
times to emphasize the importance. Years later Antiochus captured Jerusalem, and the priests
offered sacrifices for the last time on the 24th day of the 9th
month. On the 25th day, Antiochus began offering swine flesh
on the altar, which polluted, not just the altar, but also the entire temple.
Judas Maccabee eventually ousted Antiochus and cleansed the altar on the 24th
day of the 9th month (as in Daniel 8:14). On the 25th,
there was found just enough oil to light the temple’s lamps for only one day.
Miraculously, it lasted for eight days, and it was an added celebration,
another memorial, called Hanukkah, which was two months after the 7th
month. Allegedly, Christ was conceived in 5 BC, when Hanukkah fell on
December 25, and he was born nine months later, in the fall. Christ went to Jerusalem to observe Hanukkah on the 25th
day of the 9th month. It had been renamed the “feast of the
Dedication” of the second temple. This was three months before he died. This
date pattern (Kislev 24-25) in I Maccabees appears in the Greek Septuagint
text. Since the book of Maccabees has been removed from the Hebrew Masoretic
text and from the King James text, most of the western world is blinded to
the Hanukkah pattern. |
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The Blindness Dual Fulfillment in the First Century A description of this Hebrew myopia is well covered in Romans
11, Colossians 1 & 2, and Hebrews 8 to 13. There already exists a
restored Tree of Life. Its branches can be removed, and there are branches
that can be grafted onto it and be rooted in it (Col 2:7). Referring to Ezekiel 43 and Zechariah 14, many commentators
imply that Christianity is only a temporary phenomenon. Allegedly, when the
Messiah comes, he will conquer all nations, and re-establish the Levites as
the priests sacrificing bulls and goats in a rebuilt third temple. Why will they continue sacrificing animals? To remove sins? To
be healed? Would they know that these kinds of sacrifices have been replaced
and removed once and for all? (Heb 9:12, 26). Perhaps these one-eyed commentators will find mates with two
eyes and merge with those living in the real world with three dimensions. Fulfillment of Atonement in the First
Century The spirit which denies that Jesus was the Messiah has
difficulty explaining how the day of Atonement was fulfilled (at least
primarily) when Christ went behind the veil once and for all with his own
blood on the Passover, in the spring, when the temple veil was ripped in
half. How could this fulfill the feast of Atonement observed in the fall? The
High Priest had previously gone behind the veil in the fall with the blood of
animals on the day of Atonement. Fulfillment of Tabernacles in the First
Century The spirit which denies that Jesus was the Messiah has
difficulty explaining how the feast of Tabernacles was (primarily) fulfilled
on the day of Pentecost, in the first century, when God began to tabernacle
with his New Testament “church in the wilderness”, 40 years before the fall
of Jerusalem in 70 AD (Rev 12:6). Other Motifs taken from the Exodus Like the lamb at the exodus, Christ died on the Passover. The
lamb’s blood became the “blood on the doorpost”, which spared the firstborn
of Israel in Egypt. He was the Rock that gave the Israelites water in the
wilderness (I Cor 10:4). He was the Manna from heaven. He was the serpent on
a stake, which took away the “sting of death” in the wilderness. Peter could
walk on the sea of Galilee as long as he was looking at Christ. Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles
Fulfilled during the “End Times”? This spirit postpones the fulfillment of Tabernacles until the
beginning of the Messiah’s 1,000-year reign, allegedly in 2239 AD on their
calendar. The rabbinical calendar dates creation as 3761 BC (3761 BC to 2239
AD = 6000 yrs). This is their belief. After the seventh 1,000 years, there is a resurrection
of the dead (Rev 20:5). This concept is often supported by Ezekiel 37:1, the
vision of the “valley of dry bones”, which receive flesh and the breath of
life (Ezek 37:5-10). However, upon closer examination, this passage is
actually about a remnant of captives scattered in the nations of the
Babylonian Empire, after 587 BC, who considered themselves as good as dead
and without hope of returning to Jerusalem. This vision was long before Cyrus
of Persia conquered Babylon and freed the Jews in 539 BC. Context of Zechariah 14 In
Zechariah 14, the new temple had been completed in 516 BC, and representatives (converts, proselytes or
lost sheep) of all nations must be permitted to go to Jerusalem to keep the
feast of Tabernacles (Zech 14:16) after the second temple was completed in
516 BC, until the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Zechariah 14:10 speaks of the second temple after it was founded
on Chishlev (Kishlev) 24, 520 BC (Hag 2:10, 18, 20). (Kislev 25 would later
become known as Hanukkah after 165 BC.) Two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah,
inspired the rebuilding of the temple for 3½ years (Zech 1:1; Ez 6:15; Rev
11:1-3). The prophet Daniel adds other details to the second temple
period. In the time of Antiochus IV of Syria, sacrificial
offerings were abolished before Hanukkah for 1290 days (Josephus, Antiquities,
allows 1296 days), actually, from Kishlev 25 to Kishlev 25, for exactly
three years, on the day after the second temple was founded (Hag 2:10, 18,
20). The altar was rededicated and offerings were resumed in the 148th
year of Seleucid, in 165 BC, on Kishlev 25, “on the very day the Gentiles had
profaned it”. (Dan. 8:13; 12:11; I
Macc 1:54,59; 4:52-54). Daniel 8:13-14 speaks of this time of the sanctuary
being desecrated and trodden down and needing to be cleansed. This is
speaking of Hanukkah, in 165 BC. Moreover,
according to Frederick Coulter, Christ was conceived (not born) during
Kislev, a month when Hanukkah, Kislev 25, was on December 25 (A Harmony of
the Gospels in Modern English, p. 14), and several customs Jews observed
on Hanukkah were later practiced by others on Christmas. The
blindness regarding Hanukkah primarily stems from lack of exposure to the
Greek text called The Apocrapha. It is in Catholic Bibles. In the context, Christ would eventually come, whom “they” would
pierce (Zec 12:10) during the second temple. Sacrificing would
continue during the second temple, when there was a Benjamin’s gate, a
corner gate, a first gate and a tower of Hananeel (Zechariah 14). Today there
are no walls with these gates and no temple in Jerusalem. Christ would
replace animal sacrifices once and for all during the second temple. The King of Zion would come to Jerusalem riding on a donkey and
pulling a colt (Zech 9:9), would eventually be sold for 30 pieces of
silver (11:12-13) and would be pierced (12:10), his sheep scattered (13:7),
and he would later be resurrected during the second temple. We should not pick and choose which parts of Zechariah 14
pertain to Christ’s future kingdom after the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Zechariah expected the Lord’s feet to, eventually, stand on Mt.
Olivet (Zech 14:5), but the context of Zechariah seems to be about what would
happen during the second temple, not 2,500 years later. This
is likely the reason he and Malachi, after their deaths, were buried at the
foot of Mt. Olivet. The New Covenant & House of the Lord Ezekiel
and later Zechariah expected rivers of living waters to, eventually, gush
from the temple to heal the desolate (Zech 14:8; Ezekiel 47:1-8), after the
desolate temple is rebuilt, when Levite priests would continue offering daily
sacrifices, during the second temple, before 70 AD. This is the hope
of those of the old covenant… that their Messiah would come in power. During
the new covenant, after 31 AD, rivers of living waters were to flow
from the hearts of believers to heal the desolate (Jn 7:37-38). Christ’s
ministry could be viewed as his platform, his will towards those who accept
him as their ruler. From
this view, the platform would be conditional. If Christ had become King of Judah,
then his platform would likely have proceeded to be fulfilled endlessly in
relieving the stressed, healing the sick, raising the dead and fulfilling the
jubilee. Healing waters would flow from the temple, and the 12 apostles would
rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. Then
there are those who will not accept the idea that promises, like dating
before marriage, are sometimes conditional. Allegedly, if things didn’t
happen in the first century, then they are bound to happen in our future,
over 2,000 years later. They say, that, if the Mount of Olives didn’t split
in half during the second temple, then it must still happen in our future,
over 2,000 years later, unconditionally, regardless of what people commit or
omit doing. Some
are quite confident about what was conditional during Christ’s ministry and
what the prophets said would happen but hasn’t. Perhaps, if these had lived
in the first century, they too would have adopted the spirit of antichrist
and become anti-Christians. They
limit the Higher Realm’s ability to create a New World whenever, wherever,
however it wants, and it can be in a visible or invisible Higher Parallel
Dimension. This is with or without our help. This is the myopia of the
Messianic Movement and Hebrews Roots Awakening. When the Jews stoned Stephen,
he saw the heavens opened and his Messiah was standing on the right hand of
the Throne. It was the beginning of the jubilee year. Christ commenced his
mission to retaliate by calling Apostle Paul to convert the gentiles in every
nation. His mission was to rule from his Higher Realm and fulfill the
jubilee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Roots Death From Exposure It is
important to stress that Christ died from exposure to us, from exposure to an
unclean and contaminated lower realm that hates the pristine Higher Realm. In
the book of Esther, the Jews were threatened with extermination, not because
they had killed Christ, but because they had become like the other nations.
They wanted to merge, blend and camouflage with the “gentiles”. Even Esther
became a “cryptic Jew” by hiding her “Jewish” identity. They had been ejected
from their own land, which was to remain “the Holy Land”. Context of Persia Since
the feasts and holy days are shadows of things to come (Col 2:16-17), these
would include Hanukkah and Purim. The
dates of Hanukkah include events that happened on Kislev 24 & 25. The
second temple was founded on Keslev 24, 520 BC. The Temple and Alter were
polluted on Kislev 25, 168 BC and cleansed on Kislev 24, 165 BC. The eternal
light in the temple was lit on Kislev 25, 165 BC. Another Sign of Things to Come Christ
became Emanuel, God in the flesh, or God with us, when he was conceived,
which allegedly occurred in the same month as when Kislev 25 was on December
25, in 5 BC. This
event has many implications for the new era, when Christ became the temple
(Rev 21:22), the Head of the Church, the High Priest and the Light of the
world. This would explain the mystery of the ten virgins who needed oil in
their lamps and the mystery about putting our candles on a high place in
order to let our light shine from our own temples. The
last feast, Purim, is strikingly similar to the time after the temple was
destroyed in 70 AD called the Diaspora. Some of the “Jews” were scattered to
Spain and were called Separdim, the Hebrew word for Spanish. Others fled to
Ashkenaz, Germany, allegedly where Noah’s great-grandson, Ashkenaz, had
settled. Like Esther, many of these were forced to conceal their “Jewish”
identities and try to conform to the Spanish and German churches, whereas,
the “Jewish religion” is based upon remembering Jewish history. From
the above, we surmise that the Jews were blinded, not for killing Christ, but
to allow the beginning of a new era in which both the Jews and Gentiles could
also become grafted onto the Tree of Life (Rom 11:19-25; Col 1:25-26). The
nations persecute the Jews because they also suffer from the same Hebrew
roots myopia. Their common view is that the church was founded on Pentecost,
and then the next festival skips over 2,000 years, to when the feast of
Trumpets would allegedly be fulfilled perhaps in our present time, or 6,000
years after their date of Creation, in 3761 BC. |
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Myopia of Acts 15 (the Jerusalem Conference) Finally,
we need to apply the jubilees to the Christian era. Saul,
Herod and Gamaliel persecuted the church for 3½ years after Christ ascended
to heaven (Rev 12:14-17), that is, from 31 to 34 AD, until Stephen was
stoned, and Paul was called on a mission to the gentiles in 34 AD. The
jubilee began in the fall of the sabbatical year, in 34 AD (Lev 25:8-9). The
next jubilee was in 83 AD, 14 years after Jerusalem fell (Ezek 40:1), and the
next was in 132 AD, at the beginning of the Bar Kochba revolt. Mary
was placed under the guardianship of apostle John, and they removed to a
church at Ephesus (Rev 12:1), and John baptized Polycarp, who removed to
Smyrna (Rev 2:8). The seven churches were headed by the Jerusalem church
represented by the seven candlesticks in the temple (Rev 11-12). The
name “Christian” was first applied to the church at Antioch located at the
northeast corner of the Mediterranean, where Peter would eat with the
circumcised Jews in the synagogue and Paul would eat with both, new gentile
believers as well. Peter was trying not to offend the Jews. It was their
synagogue, but how were Jews to treat new believers or “strangers”; what does
the law say? This was immediately presented to the church at Jerusalem in 49
AD, and the ruling on this one issue was based upon Leviticus 17, 18 and 19.
How can Jewish and gentile believers live in harmony as a new community? Why
put a yoke on the disciples coming from Jerusalem? Christ’s
brother, James, said the apostle should write to the church at Antioch, “that
they should abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from
things strangled, and from blood.” This did not require “strangers” to be
circumcised. Leviticus 17 and 18 says the gentiles and later the Jews were
driven from the Promised Land” because they were doing these things, and it
should be a lesson for the gentile and Jewish Christians. What were they
doing? 1.
Drinking blood (Lev 17:12). 2.
Uncovering the nakedness of their father, mother, sister, grandson, granddaughter,
near kinsman, aunt, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, any woman and her
daughter, near kinsman or near kinsman’s wife, son or daughter, or a
neighbor’s wife. The nations lie with a man as with a woman (Lev 18:22). “In
all these the nations are defiled and driven out before you.” You shall “not
commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any
stranger that sojourns among you… shall be cut off” (Lev 18:6-29). It is
clear this includes international pornography. 3.
Creating false images of God, and worshipping idols (Lev 19:4). The
apostles did not include other specific laws over agriculture, circumcision,
etc. in 49 AD. These
requirements for the gentile believers have nothing to do with becoming
Jewish. They have everything to do with the Jewish ability to accept
strangers into their midst with hospitality, without hostility but
with gratitude, because the gentile converts had made a new covenant to
overcome these vices mentioned, and their moral conversion had been endorsed
by miracles and by two prophets, Judas and Silas (Acts 15:32). This view does not encourage the Jews to travel (or write books)
to the ends of the earth in order to gain even one gentile proselyte residing
in other nations (Mat 23:15). Moreover, the new converts could meet in homes
and were not required to meet in a Synagogue. However, Paul’s travels expose how jealous the Jews became as he
revealed the one secret hidden since the foundation of the world (Rom 16:25),
that the gospel would eventually go to the gentiles willing to change their
ways, which was to be good news welcomed by the Jews who had already been
taught to make these changes (Acts 15:21). To “cross the Jordan”, to enter the Kingdom and stay in the
Kingdom, both Jews and gentiles must first become truly civilized
(circumcised in the heart), and avoid these things. |
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