Obediently Watching
     "Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning.  
     Lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping.
     And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." Mark 13:35-37.  
                                                                                                   By Pastor F. M. Riley
                                                                                                   July 11, 2017
     May 14, 2017 was the 69th anniversary date of the establishment of Israel as a modern nation among the nations of the world.  This was the 18th day of Iyar on the Jewish calendar.  Iyar is the second month on the calendar assigned to Israel by the Lord God in Exodus 12.  "2" is the number in the Bible which signifies "to separate; to divide; to call out."     "69" is the number in the inspired Word which signifies "to end; to stop; to cut off."  And oh yes.....May is the fifth month on our Gentile Julian calendar.  "5" is the number in the Scriptures which signifies "THE GRACE OF GOD."
      Draw your own conclusions!
     May 26, 2017 is the first day of the Jewish month of Sivan.  Sivan is the third month in the Jewish calendar given to Israel by the Lord God in Exodus 12.  So here we have the fifth month and the 26th day on our Gentile calendar, which is the third month and the first day of the month on the Jewish calendar.
     I have already given the Scriptural significance of the number, "5," as noted above.  "26" is the number in the Bible which signifies "The Gospel; the Good News; the Word of God."  Then looking at the correlation with the Jewish calendar, "1" is the number in the Bible signifying "unity; to be united."   Then "3" is the number in the Bible which signifies "the resurrection; the rapture; to be resurrected or raptured."
     Draw your own conclusions!
    Oops!  The Jewish holy day of Pentecost this year was placed on June 4th on our Gentile calendar, but on the Jewish calendar it fell on Sivan 6th, which on our Gentile calendar was May 31st.   Obviously someone was very wrong about the date this year.  Who was wrong?
     I will not be at all dogmatic on this, but by actual count from "the morrow after the sabbath following Passover, Leviticus 23:15-16, the count fell on June 4th of this year.  
     If we go with what the Jews are claiming, then Pentecost should have occurred on May 31, 2017.  This would have been the 5th month and the 31st day on our Gentile calendar.  As previously noted, "5" is the number in the Bible signifying "the Grace of God."  "31" is the number in the Bible which signifies "children; offspring; to bring forth children or offspring."  
     Every serious believer knows that it was on the Day of Pentecost, following the resurrection of Christ, when the Holy Spirit of God was poured out upon the Lord's Church in a mighty demonstration of the power of God, Acts 2.  At that time, the  pouring out of the Holy Spirit was a "sign" of transferring authority to serve as  God's representaive upon the earth, from ancient Israel, who had rejected and crucified the Lord as their Messiah and Savior, to the Gentile New Testament Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.  
     It should be obvious to any reader that very SOON now the authority to serve as the Lord's representative on earth,  will be transferred again from the Lord's Church back to the nation and people of Israel.  Israel is still God's chosen people by an everlasting covenant made with Abraham some 4,000 years ago, Genesis 17:1-8.  And how would this transfer of authority to represent Almighty God upon the earth among mankind be signified?  By the resurrection and rapture of all true New Covenant believers from off the earth to glory, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
      This transfer of authority from the Lord's Church back to the nation and people of Israel, by the resurrection and rapture, will be the greatest witness to the Divine Inspiration, accuracy, and truth of the Holy Scriptures, to those left behind on the Earth, that one can even imagine.  Yet many who are left behind will still refuse to submit themselves to God, and receive the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, Revelation 9:20-21.   
      We believers today are living in one of the most exciting times in human history.  
     Draw your own conclusions!
     As I write,  today is the 17th day of Tammuz on the Jewish calendar.  This day figures prominently in Jewish history.  It begins the 21 day period leading up to the 9th Day of Av on the Jewish calendar, which this year will fall on August 1st on our Gentile calendar.  
     It was during this 21 day period, beginning with the 17th day of Tammuz, that the Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem in 70 A.D., laying seige to the city.  The Romans refused to allow food to come into the city, or anyone to leave the city.  The result was that over one million of the Jewish people starved to death in Jerusalem during those 21 days.  Then on the 9th day of Av, the Romans broke through the walls surrounding Jerusalem, killed thousands of Jews, and burned the Temple of the Lord, in spite of strict orders that the Temple was not to be harmed in any way.  
      Adolph Hitler did not originate cruelty to the Jewish people.  Throughout the history of Israel, there have always been cruel tyrants who have hated, imprisoned, abused, and killed the Jews, apparently for no other reason than them being God's chosen people.  How depraved and ignorant some lost people are of the ways of the Lord!   
      As of today we are once again living in that 21 day period.   Only the Lord knows what will happen in these next 21 days.  
     Draw your own conclusions!
     Then there is the year!  This present year is 2017.  "20" is the number in the Bible which signifies "redemption."  "17" is the number in the Bible which signifies "Victory; to Achieve; to Triumph."  In speaking of the resurrection and rapture of the Lord's New Testament Church and people in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, the Apostle Paul was inspired of God to say, "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
     So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."  
     Oh glory to God!  Thank you Lord Jesus!  Praise the Lord!   Is this the year that God's people [true believers] will achieve their Victory?  
     Draw your own conclusions!     
My Conclusions
     It is my own conclusions, that from the prophetic "signs"  so swiftly coming to pass with nearly every passing day, the time of the resurrection and rapture is "right at the doors," Matthew 24:33.  
     At any minute now, I fully expect "...the Lord Himself [to] descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
     Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
     Wherefore comfort one another with these words,"  1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.  
     These "words" should indeed be a great comfort to every true believer, but no comfort at all to any reader who has never received Christ as their own personal Savior.  Why, oh why, will not lost men and women, boy and girls, pay attention to God's inspired Word, and the "way of salvation" clearly set forth in it?  It is their own eternal soul that lost  people are gambling with when they reject the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.  And the Lord God always wins!   If the reader has never been saved, have you read Acts 16:30-31 and Ephesians 2:8-10 lately?  I would like to meet every reader in glory.  Please don't disappoint me!
     May our gracious God bless every reader is my prayer.   
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     Please address all comments, questions, or correspondence to me at:
Pastor F. M. Riley, 14275 County Road 8120, Rolla, Missouri 65401.  
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