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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

So if you have a Bible turn to the Book of Luke, The Gospel of Luke, chapter 21, Luke chapter 21. The Book of Luke, Gospel of Luke. We’re living at a time where people want something to happen. They figured 2,000 years long enough. And I don’t know if some people are trying to make something happen. And what about the signs of the times and the days in which we live? Always looking for something to kind to hang their hat on and say, now this is why I believe the Bible, or this is why I’m looking for the rapture, and this is why Christ must be coming this fall.

And so there’s a lot of interesting things that are going on, and especially right now because next Monday will be a eclipse, totally eclipse of the sun. And so some believe that’s got to be a sign. It may be a sign. So I wanted to take a look at some of these things here. But you’ll notice in the book of Luke in chapter 21, talks about a lot of great things that are gonna be taken place during the tribulation period.

He said in verse 20, When you shall see Jerusalem compass with armies and know that the desolation thereof is nigh, then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains and let them which are in the midst of it depart out and let not them that are in the countries enter there in two. For these be the days of vengeance. Now this is the days of vengeance talking about the Jacob’s trouble, the time of God judging the nation of Israel upon the earth.

And so we’re going to look at some of these things here. But notice in verse 25, and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring. Men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth and the powers of heaven shall be shaken. Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

So the know the moon and the sun got to be signs and then you’re supposed to look up because your redemption draweth nine. But it does get interesting as you study the Bible and you see some of these things happening. Right now there’s a lot of people talking about some of these feast days and looking at the possibility of what might be transpired very soon. So we are going to look at some of these things, but to know that the Bible makes a clear statement about these feast days have to come at a particular time.

They are set appointments, time determined by the Lord. And all the feast that they did for 1500 years, although they were the shadow of something literal that was going to take place. They’re the feast of the Lord, so I believe they have something to do with the Lord in every situation. And so we know in the time in which we live, we look back and we can see the cross. Well, we believe that the first three deals with that period of time, Passover and then you have the Feast of Unleavened Bread and we have the first fruits Christ coming back from the dead.

Fifty days later the day of Pentecost and so that’s passed but it happened right on schedule just like it talked about in the Old Testament especially the book of Leviticus chapter 23. So now we’re looking at something else. We’re looking toward the end. This is the one that’s really interesting and that’s the one that’s over here. So when we look at that We know the next thing that’s supposed to happen, according to Leviticus 23, is the Feast of Trumpets, the blowing of the trumpets.

Now there were reasons why God had the trumpet to be blown, and sometimes there’s a great announcement that was about war, it’s a warning, it’s gathering the people together, but also announcing the coming of the Lord, before that great and notable day of the Lord come. Now, most of the scriptures like you find in the book of Matthew and also Luke chapter 21, and the Old Testament are always referring to the period of time right here, this period of time.

So we have at the beginning of the tribulation period because this is the 70th week of Daniel. It has to do with Israel. It has to do with the city of Jerusalem. It has to do with the people of Israel, the Jews. And so that’s why this period of time right here is God dealing with Israel. So they have the Feast of Trumpets, which is the next thing to happen in this 70 weeks that God had determined upon Israel from the book of Daniel in chapter nine.

And then you have the atonement, the feast of the atonement. See, God’s people were supposed to realize that they needed to be right with God, and they were to examine themselves. And in the process of examining themselves, they were supposed to correct the problems. They were to do some penance. So they were supposed to make things right, and they were to confess their sins, and they were to repent, and all the things that they’re supposed to do a nation for God’s blessings upon them.

And then you have the Feast of Tabernacle. This is where when they came out of Egypt and they got into the wilderness, they lived in these little booths. Well, they had tents and so forth, but there was a reason for this. You see, Christ, when He comes back, is going to tabernacle among the people, and that’s to in the millennial reign upon the year. So you have these three feasts in the fall and the other three feasts were in the spring.

And so they’re separated only by the day of Pentecost, which came on 50 days after the resurrection of Christ. But that was a harvest time. And so many believe that Pentecost was the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so when the church is taken out, the Holy Spirit takes the body out. And then we had that seven years that’s still out there in the future where those feast days and these feast days will all come together and it will fit just like God intended it to.

So he makes a statement about Jesus Christ. It says in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7, purge out there for the Oleven that you may be one new lump as you have or unleavened for even Christ our Passover is sacrifice for us. Now in the New Testament after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ there is statements that refer to Christ fulfill in all three of these feasts. So Christ is our Passover. That’s why he was crucified on the very day that he was supposed to be crucified because the Bible says in that month of Neeson where it’s on the 14 day and it’s to be a full moon, there’s a time that’s been set, it’s appointed and so Christ was right on schedule.

Now in Acts chapter 2 and verse 31 he says, He’s seen this before, speak of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption, corruption because of sin. Remember that Christ had no sin, his body did not see corruption, it’s unleavened. And so this is also without sin. He made a payment for sin, but his body was in the grave and saw no corruption came back from the dead. Now he took our sins in his own body on the tree.

So his body was like the unleavened bread. So when you study the Gospel of John, you’ll find out in the sixth chapter where he talks about that if you eat my body and eat my flesh, he’s the man from heaven. He is the unleavened bread, then you will not have leaven, you will have eternal life. No sin, live forever. So that is what that I believe is referring to. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we call that the resurrection chapter.

And so it says, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruit. This is the feast of first fruit of them that slept. So he came back from the dead on his own power. And in verse 23, but every man in his own order, that means there is an order to this. There are prescription as there’s a date. There’s a time that’s fixed. and it says, Christ the first roots afterwards, they that are Christ at His coming.

So we know that after the first routes, then we yes had the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came, but also talking about Christ is coming again. So people down to the last 2000 years have been. been looking for the coming of the Lord. Why is there such great concern over the appearing of a total eclipse on August the 21st? You’d be surprised at stuff that’s going on and things that I’ve read and seen and a lot of people are very interested, but why?

Why is that so important? Well, in Matthew chapter 24 verse 29, Kans gives you a little clue because it says sign and it says it’s going to be sign. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light. So when you have this eclipse, it’s got to be this way where that the moon you can’t see but it blots out the sun which gives you a total eclipse.RESULTS So is this a sign?

Well many people believe that it is a sign and here’s a reason. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. In other words, there’s going to be this sun and the moon that’s going to be, you know, something that we can see, but right after this, there’s going to be the trumpet that gathered together. Now I don’t believe that Old Testament prophecies or the one in Matthew refers to the rapture although the same thing can happen seven years before this.

So we have the sun, the moon, then the trumpet, and this is why because if this eclipse is in the month of August And then the very next month, well, you have the Feast of Trumpets that will come also. And then you have the Feast of Atonement, then you have the Feast of Tabernacle. So all those three feasts are right after this. So this is why there are people who are putting this together and saying, this is the year.

Now, is it the year? I really wouldn’t mind if it was. I would even hope that it is, but I’m not going to tell you that it is. I’m not a date-setter. Am I? No, but I will give you what I believe the Scriptures are talking about. Then in Acts chapter 2 and verse 20, which is also a statement from the book of Joel in chapter 2, where it says, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood.

Now this is where you hear a lot of the people talking about the blood moons. And there’s about four of these blood moons that are happening fairly quickly and some have already been taken place. But in spite of everything that’s been done, a lot of people have sold an awful lot of books. They’ve made a lot of TV appearances, sold a lot of DVDs and nothing’s happened. just like Y2K. Anybody remember anything about Y2K? Everything was going to shut down.

Everything was going to happen. And when Y2K got here, what happened? Nothing. So you have to be very careful. And before that great and notable day of the Lord comes, but it’s associated with the coming of of the Lord. But when these things are mentioned, it’s not talking about the rapture, it’s talking about the revelation. When Christ comes at the end of the tribulation period, this is why you have people that believe in a mid-trib and a post-trib, which means that they believe that Jesus is coming back, not at the rapture at the beginning of the tribulation period.

they put it at the end of it and then when they put it at the end of it they got Some additional problems because then they can take all of these signs and these scriptures and put it at that one spot and therefore they come out against those who believe in a pre-trib position, which means that we believe that Jesus coming out to take us out of here before the tribulation starts because the tribulation period is not God whooping his wife.

It’s about God whooping Israel and that is going to take place. all mid tribulationists and post tribulationists will without a doubt get these events of the signs of the times out of sequence and they will get them out of sequence. But if you don’t know what the Bible actually says you can’t say whether that’s wrong that’s wrong or that’s wrong because if you don’t know you don’t know. But I try to spend as much time as I can studying the scriptures so that I would have a good idea what it’s talking about.

So I would know whether not to get on that train or not or just let that thing leave the station and I’m standing there. So because people believe that the feast of trumpet is the very next thing to happen according to God’s timetable and the Sun is going to be black and the moon shall not give a light and so that’s got to be that eclipse and therefore Jesus must be coming back in less than a month. Now are you ready to go?

Now I’m not saying it won’t happen because one of these days we know this. It will and people can guess for every day of the year that’s coming today. Well he didn’t. Come in tomorrow. Well he didn’t but one of these days somebody’s gonna be right, right? Because one day he’s coming and I believe he’s coming. Now the sun is dark before the feast of trumpets. In the seventh month before the revelation of Christ, that’s when he comes back at the end of the seven-year tribulation period.

But I do not find any scripture that says that this sign of the eclipse is going to take place before the rapture. But could it? It could. But I don’t have the scripture that dogmatically states that it will. Now there could be a lot of things that I don’t know but I’ve studied for you know fifty-five years on prophecy and I have a little bit of an idea but I don’t have it all down. There’s a few things that I’m not sure of.

Now we have here the two main months. The first month according to the religious calendar or the biblical calendar, God’s calendar is Nisan which is the first month which would be ours and you’ll notice down here March and April it’s the combination of those two months. Then you have a fluctuation that is is between this because it’s never dogmatically on March and April. It’s in there, but you never know exactly what day it’s going to fall on. Now they can figure out a lot of those things.

Now, but the way God originally made it, it didn’t fall that away. It’s because we’re using a different calendar. September and October, it can be anywhere from September and October on the seventh month. Tishari is the seventh month and that’s when we have the feast of trumpet. Those three feast trumpets, atonement and tabernacle. And then the first month which is what we believe was like March and April, but that’s when Christ was crucified on Passover, the unleavened bread and the first fruit.

Now I’ve never had anybody ever tell me and says that’s about the death, burial and resurrection. Always the death, yes, but the burial and resurrection we know is the first root. So I just assumed the unleavened bread has to be the burial, the body in the grave. But anyway, that’s maybe a little yank-y algae, and I can’t prove it other than just saying that it was a body that was the bread that was unleavened, no sin. And we’ll leave that right there.

I do not have all the answers on everything. I I can’t prove everything. I’m just giving you what highlights I see from the scriptures that might help us to understand a little bit more about the times in which we live and that I too am someone that’s looking for Christ to come back soon. And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide that day from the night, let there be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.

Now, this is what God says in the book of Genesis, chapter one, when he made. The firmment. When he made the stars, when he made the sun and the moon, he said, they are for dividing of days and nights. They are for signs and they are for seasons. So God has these two main seasons, which is the spring and the fall and says that these are going to be special periods of time. So God had set it up in such a way that our days in a week are seven days in a week.

And there’s these 28 days and then we have the Black Moon or the New Moon and start off another month. But let’s look a little bit further. He said, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. In the book of Matthew, Jesus was talking to them. He talked about the signs of the time, that there probably was something that they could have known. Remember the reason that the Magi came to where Jesus was being born is because they saw something in the east.

Remember that? Because they saw His star in the east. Now what did they see? There must have been something that they saw, whether it was in the heavens or she God said, she had the chakonah glory that appeared and they let them and so whatever it was and wherever they saw it there were signs that they saw and they came to Jerusalem and so they used the scripture to determine that he was born in Bethlehem, Africa. So these things are in the scriptures and they do mean something.

We may not always understand all the meaning because all we do is just you know look at our calendar what’s the day-to-day. It’s just Monday is the studio. Oh I go to church today and we don’t worry about none of the feast days. We’re not Jewish. We’re not raised in that. That’s a different way of thinking all together. We’re not on this year kind of agricultural calendar. They were. We’re not. He said, but of the times and the seasons.

See, there’s seasons and the times within those seasons, God says they’re there for a reason. But He says, He has said, I have no need that I write unto you for yourselves though perfectly that the day of the Lord, so cometheth the thief and the nine. But there is a time and a season for the day of the Lord. But the day of the Lord is that period of time. We believe when the specific day the Lord comes back to the earth, which will be, we believe, on the day of tabernacles when he comes back literally to the earth, which following the time of the tribulation period, which is, I believe, the feast of atonement, and then you have the the feast of trumpets which will sound.

So all of these things are significant. They got meanings to them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, say, and speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them concerning the feast of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feast.” And like we said last Sunday, these are not made up by some high priest. It wasn’t made up by Moses. The Lord spoke to Moses and told them these are my feast. And so these are shadows of things that are going to come.

They were memorials looking forward to the day when that specific day will literally take place. And so if the first three happened just like he said, then Pentecost came 50 days later just like he said, is it possible that the second coming of Christ to the earth is going to be just like he said? And remember whenever that day is that he comes to the earth, we’re supposed to be going out seven years earlier. So the same thing that happens on this date of the same time, same month could be seven years before that, exactly.

That’s where we would like to believe. But what does that do? When you hear some of these things, what happens to the eminency of Christ? That bothers me also. In other words Leviticus 23.4 says, these are the feast of the Lord. Even holy convocations, these are memorial times, they are religious, they’re sacred times, and they are a picture of something that’s going to happen down the road. Now when he did the Passover, yes they had the Passover when he came out of Asia, but it’s also symbolic of a day in the future like when John the And the Bible is called Christ and says, behold, the Lamb of God, which is taking away the sin of the world.

And Jesus kept saying, my hour is not yet come. My hour is not yet come. Then He said, my hour is come. And so Christ knew it, and he came and he was to be crucified. You also read in the book of John in chapter 7 where it talks about in the day of the feast of tabernacles. It also talks about in chapter 13, I believe it is the feast of Passover. So these feasts are mentioned when Christ was here and him attending, and his disciples tried to convince him not to go.

to go to the Feast of Tabernacles. And so he says, okay, he’s not going to go. And he walked away, they went, and then the Bible says, but Jesus went, but he hid himself so that they wouldn’t know that he was there. And reason didn’t want them to know, because they wanted to kill him. The Jews wanted to get him. But in the midst of that week of the Feast of Tabernacle, he reveals himself, and they get in a nice big old discussion.

Remember the statement, he says, in that last day of the feast, Jesus stood in Christ and if any man thirst, then coming to me and drinking, that’s the scripture he have set out of his belly-shelf low rivers of living water. This spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, but as yet the Holy Spirit had not yet been given. And so Christ has not yet been glorified, but that was on the last day of that feast, the feast of tabernacles.

So when Christ was here, He kept those feast days. Now, in Leviticus 23, 5, it’s in the 14th day of the first month, that even is the Lord’s Passover. So this was done, and this is why, you know, all those years later, when Christ came and He was born right on schedule, and He was crucified right on schedule. It wasn’t an accident. God had predetermined by the determinant council that Jesus would be crucified by wicked men in the book of Acts in chapter two.

Now, Passover is always on the 14th of Nissim and always on a full moon. There was a Goryon calendar, 365 days, that’s solar. And God’s calendar used the moon 360 days. I don’t understand everything about the calendars. All I know is God has one and the world has another one. And they don’t always agree. Things get changed around. They’re not even sure what year this is. Or when Jesus Christ was really born, was it 05, 6? When was he born?

I don’t really care. I just know he was born. I don’t even really care what day he died on, but that he did die, and that he came back from the dead, and he’s coming back again. And I’m just looking for him to come back. And so I look for him every day, and if I knew that he was gonna come back exactly on September the 20th of this year, would not change one eye odor of how I’m living.

I still do exactly the same thing I’m already doing. Unless I’m doing something really wicked and wrong. But it should not change my life because I should already be doing all that I know to do and all that I can do for the Lord. You follow that, don’t you? You can understand that. Alright. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr.

Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man.

The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address. And God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4081 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.

Tada can meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe it that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.