In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. You shall observe it as a day when the shofar is sounded. Are you prepared for the sudden disappearance of millions of Christians from planet Earth? Believe it or not, the Feast of Trumpets among evangelical circles has increasingly become a high watch time for the appearing of Jesus in the clouds to collect his followers with the sound of the trumpet of God. This imminent event is called “the day or hour that no man knows.” The Feast of Trumpets is the only ambiguous date among the LORD’s seven appointed moedim due to the necessity of having to sight the new moon. Concerning his Second Coming, Jesus stated in Matthew 24:36, “But of that day and hour no man knows, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” Perhaps it’s no coincidence that we can’t know the precise day and hour of the Feast of Trumpets and the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana) because it’s the one Levitical festival calculated by the sighting of the new moon on the month of Tishrei. Furthermore, in Leviticus 23: 24, the Feast of Trumpets was first called Zichron Teruah, meaning a Memorial of Trumpet Blasts, and in Numbers 29:1, it is called Yom Teruah, meaning the Day of the Shout or the Day of the Trumpet Blast. All of this imagery keeps evangelical believers on high alert. This is because Rabbi Shaul, aka the Apostle Paul, might have been referring to the Feast of Trumpets when he taught in 1 Corinthians 15: 51-52, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep [die], but we will all be changed— in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” Paul’s revelation is called the Rapture (a Latinized word from the Vulgate Bible) translated into English as “caught up” into the clouds. This mass evacuation was also described by the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17 in language associated with the Feast of Trumpets: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet [the shofar] of God, and the dead in Messiah will be the first to rise. After that, those of us who are alive will be caught up [raptured, translated] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” It may all sound fantastical, but keep in mind that these words were also immortalized in the aria “The Trumpet Shall Sound” in Handel’s famous “Messiah” oratorio. I’m not a date setter for the Rapture in the clouds nor for the Second Coming of Jesus to earth. But I do want everybody to be informed in case we believers, who are largely Israel supporters, suddenly disappear from the earth! The cause of our disappearance will not be due to aliens or UFOs. Rather, the cause will be the Rapture, which will signal the end of the Church Age and the completion of the Times of the Gentiles prior to the 70th Week of Daniel. (Daniel 9: 24-27; Luke 21: 24; Romans 11: 25) Numerous New Testament Bible scholars and commentators teach that the Rapture doctrine was prefigured in the Hebrew Bible. The prophet Elijah was suddenly translated to heaven without death. Enoch, a descendant of Noah, was also raptured to heaven without dying. Many Israel-supporting Christians want to deny the New Testament doctrine of the Rapture because they do not believe Israel should be abandoned. However, God is well able to protect his remnant people. Furthermore, to insist that the Church should be present on earth during Daniel’s last and 70th Week of Israel’s history amounts to a form of Replacement Theology. In fact, many Christians will be caught unawares by the Rapture event because they’re not walking in light of biblical prophecies and because they do not understand the times concerning the restoration of Israel. Generally speaking, the patterns of the Feasts of the LORD would help to ground believers biblically to understand the times. Christians should be familiar with the LORD’s Levitical Festivals. Jesus observed all of the Levitical Festivals as well as Hanukkah (John 10: 22-23). It was only when the institutional Church divorced itself from its biblical Hebrew roots that the Feasts of the LORD became largely unknown in Christianity. Does it make any sense that Father God would command the Levitical Festivals to be celebrated in the future according to Zechariah 14: 16 — and not have them widely known today? We must recover the biblical festivals because these holy days will be observed when Jesus returns to restore the Davidic Kingdom to Israel. At that time all the nations will be required to come up to Jerusalem to worship. (Zechariah 14: 16-19) institutional Church That is a huge contradiction of terms. The early Church would not recognize itself today. The Apostles would be appalled by what the Church has become. But thank our Lord God that He still ministers to us and guides us. Keep looking up brothers and sisters! Our time is at hand. The rapture is upon us! Not sure if Boulder95 would agree, but in Dispensational circles there are two doctrines that fall under the larger doctrine of Ecclesiology (that is saying "the study of the church"), named "The Universal Church" and the "Local Church". I may be wrong, but it seems that the "institutional church" referred to here is the "Local Church". A simple definition of each follows: The Universal Church (sometimes referred to as "The Invisible Church") - is made up of all truly saved believers in Jesus the Messiah from Pentecost until the Rapture. The Local Church (sometimes referred to as "The Visible Church") - is a group of professing believers in the Messiah who have been organized into a local body. These believers are both saved and unsaved individuals. So in essence the Local Church or Visible Church is all local churches combined, while over time broken up into many denominations, sects and cults as we see today. The Universal Church or Invisible Church is made up of all true believers around the globe from Pentecost to the Rapture, and these believers would also be part of the Local Church.
