Yesterday, Gloria McCrea asked if there were people posting at this site who believed that a Rapture on Rosh Hashanah was not possible. Yes there are, and I am one of them. Gloria implied that anyone who believed this did so to protect their pet theories. Not so. The only reason I do not believe in a Rosh Hashanah Rapture is because I do not believe the Bible teaches this.

What I believe the Bible teaches is a Pentecost Rapture in some future year, most likely 2006. Pentecost begins on June 1, 2006, and ends on June 2, 2006 at sundown. If this is when the Rapture occurs, then I also think it is very likely that four days later, on June 6, 2006, the Antichrist will affirm the Covenant with Israel. Since occultists allow the dropping of zeroes when they are only placeholders, this date can be written 6-6-6 and would mark the beginning of the Tribulation Period. Once Israel realizes that her only true friends have vanished, she will very quickly sign the Covenant with Death.

On 9-22-05, the Quartet, the group trying to push Israel into a final agreement with the Palestinians, met at the U. N. building in New York. After their meeting they held a press conference. Appearing on the wall behind them was the number 6-6-6 in large letters. A photo of this can be seen at Herb Peters site, www.fulfilledprophecy.com listed under the date 9-22-05. It seems quite ironic that the group working on the so-called peace covenant is already identifying with the number 6-6-6.

There are two basic reasons that I do not believe that the Rapture will occur on Rosh Hashanah. The first is that Rosh Hashanah pictures the event described in Matthew 24:30,31. Verse 30 puts this Feast of the Lord in the Tribulation Period: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Verse 31 tells where the Rosh Hashanah trumpet comes in. "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Many years ago I heard a Jewish Prophecy teacher use these verses to explain why Rosh Hashanah is a Tribulation event prophesying the final regathering of Israel and has nothing to do with the Church. He was very convincing.

The second reason that I do not believe that there will be a Rosh Hashanah Rapture is that Pentecost, the Feast preceding Rosh Hashanah, has not yet been fulfilled. The seven Feasts of the Lord represent a timeline and must therefore be fulfilled in sequence. To put it simply, if Feast number four (Pentecost)  has not been completely fulfilled, then Feast number five (Rosh Hashanah) cannot be fulfilled until after Pentecost has been fulfilled. I doubt that most of the people claiming that Pentecost has already been fulfilled have ever read or understood Leviticus 23:17, which talks about two loaves baked with leaven being waved before the Lord at the Feast of Pentecost as "Firstfruits unto the Lord." James 1:18 identifies Christians as "a kind of Firstfruits." Pentecost is a harvest feast. Leaven represents sin, and the two loaves waved before the Lord represent two distinct categories of redeemed sinners: the resurrected dead in Christ and those who will be raptured while physically alive (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). This is the major theme of Pentecost: the dead in Christ being raised and then we who are alive being caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and be taken to the Throne room of God. The Feast of Pentecost clearly pictures the Rapture, and it most certainly has not been fulfilled.

To those who are hoping for a Rosh Hashanah Rapture I can only say that I, like you, am longing for the very soon coming of our blessed Lord. The only reason I am posting this is that in the event that the Rapture does not occur on Rosh Hashanah you would not become discouraged but realize that there is another possible time on the very near horizon that may bring our waiting and longing to an end and result in fulness of joy and pleasures forevermore at Christ's right hand.

Bob Braatz