The Second Coming of the Messiah
One of the most misunderstood topics related to the book of Revelation and the end times is this: When is the Messiah going to return to this earth? In fact, it was also a question the disciples had.
Acts 1
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
What was the answer that Y'shua gave them?
7 And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power.
8 But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come on you: and you shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.
The most common answer to the question is related to the doctrine of eminence. In other words, he can come at any time. People refer to the verses that speak of "noone knows the day or the hour. These verses are:
Revelation 3
1 To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
2 'Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.
3 So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
The problem with this idea is that the phrase mentioned is not to be taken literally but is in fact a Hebrew idiom. The meaning of this idiom will become clear as we move on through my blog.
Notice that this scripture was written to a church. If the church is still asleep when he returns, he will come upon that church as a thief in the night, and sudden destruction will fall upon you.
1 Thessalonians 5
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Acts 1
7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
Matt 24
32 "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near;
33 so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.
34 "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
Notice the reference that says only the Father knows when the day and hour will come. This is a perfectly good reference to the biblical wedding festival. Let's look at the well known parable of the 10 wise and unwise virgins:
Matthew 25
1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go you rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Truly I say to you, I know you not.
13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man comes.
Those who did not watch and were not ready will not be welcome into the kingdom of heaven when the bridegroom, Y'shua, returns. In fact, he will say that he never knew you. I find this very interesting. If he is the bridegroom and we are the bride, what kind of bride does not get to know her spouse well enough to be recognized? How does a bride get to know her future husband? By dating and spending time with him.
He has actually given us the times that he will make an appearance so that we can spend time with our groom. More on that later.
Mark 13
32 "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
33"Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come.
The appointed time is a reference to the wedding. The question is, when is this wedding? As the bride, we sure do not want to miss our own wedding!
You may notice that he talks about the return happening in a specific time and season. The "times and seasons" is a Hebrew idiom that has an actual definition within the scriptures. I have always said that the Bible is the best dictionary for things you find within its pages. If you want to know what "times and seasons" means, look it up in the Bible. Here are some versus that talk about it.
Genesis 1
14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;
Now would be a good time to have a segueway about the biblical calendar. First, note that the lights in the heavens, the stars, the moon and the sun, are there to define the days and years, and for signs and for seasons.
In biblical terms, the day begins at evening, which starts after the sun has set, and ends when we have a full night and a full day.
Genesis 1
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
A month is defined from one new moon to another, and this moon is visible as the sliver of the new moon which starts the month.
Psalm 104
19 He made the moon for the seasons; The sun knows the place of its setting.
The underlying word here for seasons is Moed, which means a festival, a place to meet, an appointment. See, the groom has already setup times for us to meet with him! If you look back to the verse in Mark 13 where it talks about the appointed times, this is the same word. This tells us that he has setup times to meet with him, and these times are defined by the moon.
Jeremiah 8
7 "Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons; And the turtledove and the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration; but My people do not know the ordinance of the LORD.
We see here how the seasons, as described above, are tied to ordinances that YHVH has given us.
What are these ordinances? Let's read and to discover them.
Leviticus 23
2 Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, concerning the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings
4 These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons.
The feasts of YHVH are the times he has setup for us to meet with him. The word for "holy convocations" is mikra, which means a rehearsal and an assembly of people. We are to gather to rehearse his feasts. Please note that they are HIS feasts, not the feasts of Israel or the feasts of the Jews. They are the feasts of YHVH. They are the divine appointments, times he has setup since the creation of the world for us to meet with him. It is also interesting to note that Shabbat is one of the times that he will meet with us. Lets make sure we are there to make the appointment with our groom.
Colossians 2
16 Let no one, then, judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of the coming things, and the body is of the Christ;
We have here the scriptures telling us that the feasts are a shadow of things to come. How do we know when things will happen? We keep the feasts! Let me ask you, when did he come the first time? He came on a feast. Everything that God does is according to his calendar and during his feasts, his appointed times. He has set these times aside for us to observe so we can see what he is going to do. God will not do anything on the secular Gregorian calendar dates.
We can determine the date of his arrival by looking at John the Baptist. His father, Zacharias, was serving in the temple during the course of Abijah. This order of priests ministered in the Temple the eighth week of the Hebrew year according to the ordinance of 1 Chronicles 24:10. The eighth week transverses the last week of the second Hebrew month of Iyar and the first week of the third Hebrew month of Sivan, which culminates at Shavuot (Pentecost), which is during the summer (end of May usually). If you add 9 months to this, you end up with John being born during the feast of Passover. When Elisabeth was 6 months pregnant, Mary goes to visit her after being told by the angel Gabriel that she (Mary) is pregnant with the Messiah. This would correspond with Hebrew month of Kislev, around the time of Hannukah (December on the Gregorian calendar). If you add 9 months to this, you wind up in the month of Tishri.
Guess what happens in the month of Tishri? The feast of Tabernacles! Notice some of the references:
John 1
14 And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth.
The word that is translated as "manger" is the same word in the Septuagint for tabernacle.
His first arrival was during a feast, so why not his second? Let's look at some of the verses that talk about his return.
Matthew 24
31 "And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
He will return with the sound of a great trumpet. Who are the elect? They are the believers left on this earth.
1 Corinthians 15
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
1 Thessalonians 4
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
We see the trumpet of God sounding here. This looks very much like the scene at the foot of Mount Sinai.
Yet again, there is nothing in the New Testament that isn't already talked about in the Old Testament.
If you want to know when the return of the Messiah is, look at the verses that talk in a literal fashion in the Old Testament, not the ones that talk allegorically about his return in the New Testament.
Zechariah 9
13For I will bend Judah as My bow, I will fill the bow with Ephraim and I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece; and I will make you like a warrior's sword.
14Then the LORD will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning; and the Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, and will march in the storm winds of the south.
15 The LORD of hosts will defend them and they will devour and trample on the sling stones; and they will drink and be boisterous as with wine; and they will be filled like a sacrificial basin, drenched like the corners of the altar.
Revelation 11
15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever."
1 Kings 1
34 "Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, 'Long live King Solomon!'
Notice that the sounding of the trumpet often corresponds with the coronation of a King. In the case of the second coming, it is the coronation of our King and our bridegroom, Messiah Y'shua.
Joel 2
1 Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; surely it is near,
The day of the LORD has always been historically interpreted as the second coming, and here we have the trumpet sounding in Zion, in Israel.
Leviticus 23
24 "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
Numbers 29
1'Now in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall also have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. It will be to you a day for blowing trumpets.
We have a gathering together with our bridegroom on the feast of Trumpets.
Isaiah 27
13 It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
This is a prophecy about the return of the Messiah, and the gathering together of his people back to mount Zion (cf Joel 2:1).
Isaiah 30
27 Behold, the name of Jehovah cometh from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire;
28 and his breath is as an overflowing stream, that reacheth even unto the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and a bridle that causeth to err shall be in the jaws of the peoples.
29 Ye shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come unto the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel.
30 And Jehovah will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of Jehovah shall the Assyrian be dismayed; with his rod will he smite him.
32 And every stroke of the appointed staff, which Jehovah shall lay upon him, shall be with the sound of tabrets and harps; and in battles with the brandishing of his arm will he fight with them.
33 For a Topheth is prepared of old; yea, for the king it is made ready; he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
You can see by the typology here that this is related to the return of the Messiah, he comes back on a holy feast to the mountain of Jehovah, with the flowing of trumpets. It is my position that the second coming will happen on the feast of Trumpets, otherwise known as Yom Teruah.
As a side note, the 1st of Tirshi also corresponds to the creation of the universe. Remember how all the scientists say that the universe started with a big bang? That big bang is the trumpet of God. God blew his trumpet to announce the creation of the world, and the start of the feast of trumpets.
