Complimentary Story
April 2024Some of the titles I have used over the years for WCN articles came to mind. “Too Soon to Offer Your First Love to Messiah?” “Will you be among the Five Wise or Five Foolish Virgins?” “A War and a Wedding Feast Will Have Their Place in Time” “Poor, Blind and Naked: from Eden to Laodicea” “Messiah’s Bride with out Spot or Blemish: Will He know You?” “Returning to God’s Righteousness.” “God’s Calendar and Holidays for us!” “To Understand the End We must go back to the Beginning.” “Let the Righteous be more Righteous…”
All of these topics are just as necessary today as back then. The most recent title. “Apostate Believers and Righteousness” follows the leading I have had to be more direct about what is happening today. I do still earnestly contend that we need to go back to the faith given once for the saints, as Jude called it, which I believe begins in Genesis, and all of what we call the Old Testament.
I have been echoing Messiah’s call to “watch and pray “since 2009. There is an email series on our website that you can sign up to receive. The things that are happening around us continue to ratchet up, more and more quickly. With many of you, I was aware that something fundamentally shifted in 2020 with all of the changes promoted by governments around the world at the same time. At first, I couldn’t believe that most people would be duped into being locked down and churches and businesses closed, but later had to admit that it really DID bring a “new normal” and we wouldn’t be returning to the old. The soft totalitarianism/Marxism is so apparent now!
Those who believe that our God has replaced Israel with the “Church” will likely take exception to what I write. God never said that. Men have said it.
What is it that we are to be watching and praying about? One of them is that we are to be aware of the signs that would indicate when we are approaching the time of Messiah’s return. We may not have every detail figured out, but we are to be watching! Set Apart Ministries has been reviewing eschatology every few years for many years as we come back and see what has become more clear since the last time. This year’s review has become quite challenging and exciting!
Yes, I know that people say “no one knows the hour,” but once again that reveals a lack of Biblical awareness. Thessalonians speaks of this, but also points out that believers are not of darkness, but children of light who will be aware of the season: applying His Word in our lives, not being hearers only.
We also have to contend with doubt: in ourselves and in others.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts. And saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.’
“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.” (2 Peter 3:3-5 KJV).
I take this to mean that if they have forgotten or do not acknowledge the God of Creation, then they will also not acknowledge that HE will determine when the fullness of iniquity is reached and will be ended in preparation for the New Beginning! I suppose a modern term for it would be “normalcy bias:” “a cognitive bias that leads us to minimize or disbelieve threat warnings” (per Wikipedia). Cognitions are in the mind; our thoughts and beliefs, one part of what we call the soul: which is made up of mind, will and emotions.
As I’ve written before, many people experience great fear and dread about anticipating the end, while others are looking forward to being with Messiah! This is true among believers as well as those not in faith relationship with Him. It really will be a double-edged sword: those who look to Messiah will have one experience and those who do not will have the other. A war and a wedding feast will have their place in time!
The common interpretation has been that there will be seven years of tribulation with the anti-christ showing up midpoint. Different beliefs about when believers are rescued range from pre to post tribulation…and variations from there abound.
It also makes quite a difference if one is studying from the Greek/western mindset of western Christianity or through the lens of the whole Word being relevant and the basis for understanding of the end. Since our God does not lie or change, and His Son, our Messiah Yeshua said that He only taught what the Father taught, we lean FAR toward viewing these matters from the continuity of the whole Word.
Several years ago, I had the honor to speak at a conference in Missouri where I met Steve Moutria, a main speaker, in person. We had followed his teachings from his founding of 119 Ministries and his transition to TorahFamily.org some years ago. Steve is very much focused on watching, considering and praying just how things could play out, without specifically setting dates. He frequently notes when what he sees could apply to more than one year. In 2019, he talked about two big things.
1) (Daniel 7:25, 12:7, Revelation 12:14) — The phrase, “a time, times and a half time” do not refer to years. The words under them instead indicate the appointed times, the moed-singular Feast and moedim-plural Feasts, in Hebrew and the final term term, “chatzi,” meaning half. So rather than looking for the worst of times to extend over 3+ years, he suggested we might be looking at 3 ½ Feast seasons. He has been considering this and has published variations on which Feast these events may begin and conclude. So the time of the tribulation could well be only one year. (Note: We had also seen some time ago that Sir Issac Newton, quite a Bible scholar as well as astronomer, had also postulated that the first 3 ½ years were during Messiah’s first time on earth, and that the last 3 ½ years would pick up at that point, not 7 years from the end.)
2) (Matthew 24:22, Mark 13:20) — These times have been “shortened for the sake of the elect,” so that there would be survivors. I just recently connected this with “the devil is wroth because he knows his time is short.” Hmm, shortENED? And for many reasons, reflecting thematic study of the Word and looking for patterns that our Father repeats, Steve has proposed that the shortening would take place in the form of delaying its beginning, rather than cutting off at the end. Indeed, there ARE several references among the prophets about this delay.
He went to Leviticus 26 where the blessings and cursing/disciplinary actions were laid out. If believers honored Him, their blessings would be extended times seven. If they did NOT honor Him, the discipline/curses would be multiplied times seven.
He surmised that since YHWH has indicated the times would be shortened for the sake of believers, that would mean they would be only one and not seven times seven. (I wonder if, instead, it could be anything less than the full “plus seven?”)
All of these may seem academic but in the light of current events, it seems to us in SAM that they need to be taking center stage. I can’t go into all of the reasons here, but I can refer the reader to TorahFamily.org; under “Steve’s Teachings, End of Days.”
He has prepared many video studies here, some as short as 20 minutes; others over an hour in which he examines the various aspects of what he is watching. He is also doing World Updates periodically as he considers how current events would seem to confirm or refute possible outcomes. Coupled with many other observations, these are helpful!
We also consider other teachers in prophecy: one believing we ARE in the midst of the final seven years, one saying that things aren’t bad enough yet for that, for example.
Recently some new developments have appeared. We have now seen the whole world adversely affected by the COVID 19 plandemic, and untested experimental mRNA “vaccinations.” Some of the democide of populations came immediately and some is showing over time: a deadly seed planted within especially young people who are our future. We are seeing planned food scarcity, and assaults on the general food and water supply worldwide. I am sure readers of WCN are well aware of many of these issues.
Have you noticed how well they line up with events listed in Matthew 24 and the first six seals? Perhaps “muted” due to His mercy to delay things but revving up to full power soon.
I know many Christians are opposed to the restoration of sacrifices at the Temple Mount, but I have said that the Jews do see them as necessary to restore, and they are a part of how we will recognize the anti — “in place of” — Christ.
Years ago we traveled to Milwaukee to view the touring Copper Scrolls that had been unearthed. Now the Copper Scroll Project has been quite busy in Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. They have located a number of places that have been shown to hold “non-ferrous” metal something like 12 feet below ground. It is believed that the wealth of the temple was buried here by the prophet, Jeremiah. I hadn’t realized that Qumran is laid out very much like Jerusalem. Fascinating story!
The dig was suddenly limited to less than 1 meter or 1 foot in some places, by Israeli Antiquities, and declared to have found nothing.
Check it out at CopperScrollProject.com . There are now strong indications that the Ark of the Covenant and the original Tent of Meeting will soon be revealed, perhaps spring of 2024. NOT discovered, but revealed.
At this time, as Israel was first supported after the October 7 massacre, the nations of the world are now turning against Israel. If this all results in the Tent of Meeting and the Ark being put up on the Temple Mount, you can literally see Biblical prophecy of war playing out soon.
War always brings death. You may recall a few years ago when 5-6 perfect red heifers were sent from Texas to Israel. Now of age, only 1 has been disqualified: more qualified ones than at any time before. The red heifer sacrifice yields ashes that are mixed with water for the purification of those who must handle dead bodies for them to be “tahor” or spiritually clean to enter the temple. It is not necessary for the sanctification of the temple as some think. They have already built the ramp and the altar and have practiced the process.
The original Tent of Meeting may go up first, and the stone Temple later. (I have viewed the Rabbi’s discussions about erecting the prefabricated building as well as a nearby parking ramp.) Either would be sufficient for sacrifices to resume; even just the altar being there. I have, myself, seen the huge solid gold Menorah that is already prepared and on display at the Wailing Wall for its use in the new Temple. Preparations for the resumption of the Levitical priesthood have been underway for a long time already. The full implications of this may be unclear unless you have been studying what Isaiah said has been the end proclaimed out of the beginning in the Word.
Those who will be saved OUT of the trouble that is coming on the earth seem to be the five wise virgins/Philadelphia/His Bride. Are you among them?
Others may be faithful believers but may still need more refinement as specifically is stated about Smyrna; and other assemblies of the seven described in Revelation remain.
When you see these things, do not harden your hearts! If you do, at some point He will grant you your own wishes and will no longer help you find repentance. Repentance, drawing near to Messiah IS of first importance!
“Let the righteous be more righteous, let the filthy be more filthy…”
We will likely be celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread as you read this and First Fruits soon after. He is Risen! He is Risen indeed! And the Spirit and the Bride say Come!
ONLINE: Set-Apart-Ministries.org
EMAIL: info@set-apart-ministries.org
(920) 634-2760
