Hello John and Doves,
Adding another date to look at for
Ascension Day - May 20, Saturday, the weekly Sabbath -
Shabbat! I explain this new date below.
In my other letter today, "Israeli
Operation Shield and Arrow and Ascension Day", I wrote about
Ascension Day being around May 16 to May 19 - because there
are different thoughts on which day is Day 1 for the 40 day
count. And the Jewish days are sunset to sunset, so we
have May 16 to May 17 as one possible date and May 18 and
May 19 as another possible date. And then there is the
simple 40 day count from Easter - May 18. So it is a
small window anyway.
And during this time period is
Jerusalem Day - the day East and West Jerusalem became one
city again. This is very prophetically
significant! Jerusalem is the apple of God's eye. This
occurred on the 28th of Iyar which is May 19th in
Israel. May 19th is the Friday before the weekly
Sabbath or Shabbat.
Ascension Day is not listed in
Leviticus 23 as a Feast of the Lord. But this was a
very important day. It was a "Jesus/Christian"
day. And it occurred at the end of a very special 40
day period. Those 40 days were specific for Jesus to
meet with His followers and talk with them before He left
for His heavenly kingdom to sit on the right hand of God.
Will the Rapture happen on this
day? The Rapture is not for the Jewish people - it is
for the Gentiles. Once 'the Church' has been removed
from the Earth, God will turn His attention back to dealing
with the Jewish people, His 'chosen' - to finish out the
70th Week of Daniel. This time period is known as the
Tribulation period - the time of Jacob's Trouble.
When the Galileans that were with
Jesus that day on the Mount of Olives watched Him ascend
into the clouds, two angels appeared with them. In
Acts 1:11 the angels said, "Men of Galilee..why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen Him go into heaven."
Jesus was taken up into the clouds
and will return someday in the clouds. That is the
Rapture. These Galileans/Jews probably thought the
angels were talking about what we call the Second
Coming. This is what Jesus talked to them about many
times. They did not know about the Rapture. The
Rapture was explained much later by Paul to the
Gentiles. First to the Thessalonians.
On the day of
the Rapture, Jesus comes in the clouds for His Believers;
He does not come to the Earth. At the Second Coming
Jesus comes down to the Earth.
The Galileans then returned to
Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives - they were a Sabbath
day's journey away. Acts 1:12 This is mentioned
because it was a Jewish law - on weekly Sabbaths (Shabbat)
and High Holy Days, they could travel no further than a
Sabbath day's journey. So Ascension Day took place either on
a Shabbat (Saturday) or on a High Holy Day. The next
High Holy Day after Feast of Firstfruits is Feast of Weeks -
but that is too far out for the 40 day count, if the count
is being done correctly.
Jesus meets His followers one last
time in Galilee on the Mount of Olives: Acts 1:3 says
"He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke
about the kingdom of God." It looks like the 40 days
started when He met them in Galilee probably on the Mount of
Olives, on His Resurrection Day (Jerusalem is only a Sabbath
day's journey from there) - for in Matthew 28:7 the angel at
the tomb told the women to "...go quickly and tell His
disciples, "He has risen from the dead is going ahead of you
into Galilee. There you will see Him." Then in
verse 10, Jesus Himself, meets the women that are on their
way to tell the news to the disciples, and says "Do not be
afraid...God and tell My brothers to go to Galilee.
There they will see Me." So it looks like the 40 day
count starts this day. (They knew exactly where in
Galilee to meet Jesus - where they had spent much time with
Him on the Mount of Olives.)
According to the above given dates
for Ascension Day this year - none fall on the weekly
Sabbath. How can it fall on a weekly Sabbath? That
would be a Saturday. Unless we are counting
wrong...
Some believe the Jesus died on
April 6, 30 AD. That was a Thursday. So Feast of
Firstfruits would have been two days later on Nisan 16, a
weekly Sabbath - the people came to the tomb the day after
Shabbat (Matthew 28:1 "After the Sabbath, at dawn on
the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
went to to see the tomb." - so that would have been on
Sunday, May 9. Counting 40 days takes us to.....May
19, 30 AD - the day before the weekly Sabbath May 20. The
41st day would be on Ascension Day that would still fulfill
the scripture of Jesus "appearing to them over a span of
forty days" not including Ascension Day. And that
would match up with Acts 1:12.
Passover
Dates 26-34AD
Applying that counting to today,
adjusting Passover 2023 to April 6, a Thursday (just like in
30 AD and many believe Jesus was crucified on a
Thursday)...and counting 40 days from the following day
after the Sabbath (that would be April 9, Sunday, at dawn)
takes us to the same date as above, the 41st day -
May 20 is the weekly Sabbath.
That date makes more sense to me in
looking at the scriptures than that other dates for
Ascension Day.
Nothing more is said in Acts about
this miraculous disappearance of the Lord into the
cloud. The Galileans return to Jerusalem to wait for
the promised Holy Spirit.
Having the Rapture occur on a
Jewish Sabbath would be quite the message to the Jewish
people. It would be a message that the Church Age is
now over...and now God has moved on to deal with the Jewish
people. Garry B has written extensively about the
Rapture occurring on a Sabbath (Shabbat)
GOD
HAS "APPOINTED A DAY"
These dates are all coming in the
week ahead. If these pass, then on to Feast of Weeks
and Pentecost.
run time 7:03
Praying for His soon coming.
May we all meet soon in the air! Hallelujah!
Maranatha!
Chance