Chag sameach Sukkot kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon and welcome to the sixth day of the Festival of Tabernacles which corresponds in the spiritual recapitulation to Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonements) and the Ruach haSheshi or the sixth Ruach (Spirit).

Yesterday, as we looked at the nature of Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets, Shouting), I tried to sensitise you to the character of Elohim (God) which on one side is justice and on the other side is ahavah (love)/mercy/grace. We contrasted the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb", which is the great blessing, reward and climax of the faithful Bride, to the "Great Supper of Elohim (God)" which is the destruction of the wicked. It has to be clearly understood that there is a cosmic reckoning and balancing of sorts that goes on when blessings are apportioned to the righteous because simultaneously punishments are meeted out to the wicked.

Today, which corresponds in our recapitulation of an earlier annual divine moed (appointment), Yom haKippurim, we come to a very sobering time indeed. You may, perhaps, have wondered why, in the many articles I have written and in the sermons delivered over the past few years, I have insisted that the up-and-coming Mishpatim Yahweh or Judgments of Yahweh, whilst extremely sobering and horrific in view of the impending destruction, are also a good thing, explaining why I have been upbeat and optimistic about the incredible blessings that the faithful Remnant qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) may simultaneously expect. And this is the reason. Blessings and judgment always occur hand-in-hand. Just as war brings out the best and worst in people, so judgment does the same. That is why it is possible to have simcha (joy) even in this season.

Rightly, believers everywhere are interceding so that the horrors which are coming in the Lesser Tribulation - the penultimate tribulation to the final "Great Tribulation" which preceeds our Messiah's Second Coming - may in some way be diminished, not just for the righteous but for everyone else too on the basis of the tiqveh (hope) that the wicked might repent too.

Much divine prophecy is conditional upon man's response to Yahweh's demand that mankind make teshuvah or repent, which one would expect of a merciful Elohim (God). Repentance is only possible, however, provided mankind - or certain nations or areas within nations - have not crossed that 'line-of-no-return' where Scripture says man has so ripened in iniquity that he is totally overpowered by the enemy and can no longer actually make teshuvah (repent).

Such was the condition of the ancient Caanites, Amorites and others in the Promised Land and roundabouts when Yahweh sent Israel in to take possession of it under Joshua. The extermination order was given only because the propulation was so degraded and wicked that there was no possibility of repentance for them - they had crossed that final line.

Yahweh has issued no instruction for any other people to be so treated since those times but this will be happening at the very end again. You only have to look at some places in the world to see that there are men and women of such moral degeneracy and evil that they may be said to have wholly sold out their souls to the devil. There will, at least on this occasion, not be another extermination order like the one issued to Joshua - the removal of these depraved apologies of mankind will be by various means, both natural and supernatural.

There are other reasons why there has to be bloodshed both in this imminent (and to some extent already begun) 'Lesser Tribulation' as well in the final 'Greater Tribulation' (Rev.7:14). This is because of decrees made by Yahweh which Brother Gabriel Ljungstrand was good enough to remind me of the other say. I cite two scriptures in particular, both from the Torah:

"You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 'Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of Elohim (God) has Elohim (God) made man" (Gen.9:4-6, NIV).

"Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, Yahweh, dwell among the Israelites" (Num.35:33-34, NIV).

The spilling of blood by murder or ungodly war (also murder) is such an obnoxious and grotesque sin that Yahweh has ordained that no prescribed blood sacrifice can atone for land thus defiled save by the guilty party's blood being shed. This is a tough and almost universally ignored doctrine for most but the Davar Elohim (Word of God) does not lie. You have only to consider the sad history of this world to understand that the land is horribly polluted everywhere, in some countries more than others.

Can you understand, in the light of this divine proclamation, why certain lands or countries are cursed by recurrent war whilst others seem to experience much less of it? The reason why Yahweh's judgments must be sent is so that atonement FOR THE LAND may be made. And the only way that that can be done is by the guilty party's blood being shed.

Before I go on, may I state right off the bat that this has nothing to do with the heretical fundamentalist Mormon doctrine of blood atonement whereby a murderer must shed his own blood in order to atone for his sin. This doctrine from Torah is not talking about personal sin but the defilement of the land caused by the spilling of innocent blood. Even murderers may be atoned for without the shedding of human blood by genuine repentance and acceptance of the sacrifice of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).

The first passage (Genesis 9:4-6) is simply a mitzvah (commandment) about capital punishment. The Post-Diluvial Covenant bound two parties together in a relationship, on the basis of mutual personal commitment, with consequences for keeping or breaking the commitment. Elohim (God) makes this kind of b'rit or covenant with a group of people by covenanting with one who represents them: everyone else then experiences the covenant by virtue of being included 'in' the representative and here the animals are included as well as Noah's descendants, showing Noah to be a kind of new Adam, just as Yah'shua (Jesus) became the "last Adam" (1 Cor.15:45).

So whilst we understand from the first passage that murder is atoned for by the death of the murderer (now paid for by Yah'shua/Jesus for the repentant believer) failure to deal justly, according to Torah, pollutes the land, rendering it unclean. Sexual sin does exactly the same thing to the land. And when that happens, so progressively Yahweh is unable to dwell in the midst of those living on the land. By this means a nation becomes progressively cursed. Today we live in a situation where murder is no longer properly punished, or sexual immorality, causing the land to become more and more polluted, opening doors wide to demonic infestation. And when that happens, the former hedges of protection of a nation given to a nation by Yahweh because of justice and righteousness, are removed, leaving that nation completely exposed.

That is why war is coming, for example, to nations that have not had it on their soil since 1945, or in the case of the USA, since 1865, when the Civil War ended, or later if you count the Comanche and other Indian wars. Since introducing abortion in 1967 and abolishing the death penalty for murder in 1977, my own country of England has experienced a continually rising crime wave - it is just getting worse and worse. In the case of the USA, 1973 (Roe vs. Wade) was a pivotal year in the blood-letting of the unborn with 60 million unborn Americans having been killed, of which 7 million is the responsibility of Planned Parenthood since 1970. 1974 was similarly a pivotal year for Sweden. Something like 32 million abortions are performed worldwide each year, with about 1½ billion unborn having been murdered since 1980! So, yes, the earth is drenched in the blood of the innocent - and that's just the unborn - so war is coming to our nations and quite possibly the opening moves have already begun.

What if the guilty parties have since died? How, then, can atonement be made? There was no provision for it in Old Covenant Torah which means there is no provision for it in new Covenant Torah either, since Messiah had nothing to fulfil. Not until "a new heaven and a new earth [come], [when] the first heaven and the first earth ha[ve] passed away" (Rev.21:1, NKJV) can anything be done supernaturally or by divine fiat until heaven and earth DIE and are recreated at the end of the Millennium. Until then atonement must be made by the descendants of those ancestors who were guilty of the original crime. That includes each cyclical atonement, the atonement at the end of the age (when Yah'shua (Jesus) return) and at the end of the Millennium when there is again much blood-letting as the demons are once more released and mankind is judged for the last time. Satan knows all of this, even if mankind - and in particular believers - are in denial and say that 'Christ' atones for the land when Scripture nowhere says that He does or is allowed to. Satan lusts especially after this time of year (Samhain) because he makes his annual claims especially at Yom haKippurim.

If you want a concrete example of this law in action, then I draw your attention to an event in the days of King David which both baffles and upsets a lot of believers who can see no rhyme nor reason and which leads many to atheism:

"During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, 'It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death'. The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to [spare] them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.) David asked the Gibeonites, 'What shall I do for you? How shall I make amends so that you will bless Yahweh's inheritance?' The Gibeonites answered him, 'We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.' 'What do you want me to do for you?' David asked. They answered the king, 'As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and exposed before Yahweh at Gibeah of Saul - Yahweh's chosen one.' So the king said, 'I will give them to you.' The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before Yahweh between David and Jonathan son of Saul. But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah's daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed and exposed them on a hill before Yahweh. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest (Yom haBikkurim), just as the barley harvest was beginning" (2 Sam.21:1-7, NIV).

You will notice that certain individuals (like Mephibosheth) were spared on account of a personal one-to-one covenant protecting a family line. Yom haKippurim is principally about collective or national covenants. Who, then, are the 'exceptions' today? In the New Covenant, these are they out of the nations who have made individual Covenants of Chayim or Life with Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) by which, if they are obedient, and do as they are told and go to where Yahweh sends them, they may be spared the judgments that must fall upon their nations because of the blood spilled that has cursed the land. But the curse on the land remains.

Now you may well ask why Yahweh has chosen to do things this way. Why not get Yah'shua (Jesus) to atone for the earth at the meridian of time? Well, His atonement is extended to the earth but only at the end of the Millennium when it too has first 'died' and may be 'raised':

"The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare" (2 Peter 3:10, NIV).

The earth is not a person as we are and cannot therefore 'choose' to either 'repent' or 'die' to self. Therefore a season to die must be appointed to it, and that time is at the end of the Millennial Age. This will apply, I believe, not just to the earth but to the whole Cosmos. But the earth, unlike man, does not have agency, and can only be prepared when mankind has been fully cleansed.

The angelic earth, which preceded the earth made for man, was destroyed and reshaped in Genesis 1:2 for exactly the same reason as it will be at the end of the Millennium. It was pristine when Adam inherited it but again it was cursed, and mankind has been cursing it ever since. Can you understand why it is such an unstable place, with nature so violent at times? These are the fruits not just of the original curse but of mankind's repetitive cursing through the shedding of innocent blood and sexual immorality. When innocent blood is shed and sexual immorality is comitted, you are sowing chaos into the planet, and contributing toward its inevitable demise. That is why it must be melted down eventually and rebuilt from scratch, though this time in a final, glorified state.

Why is there such poverty in some nations? Just go over their history and you will discover the reasons are usually because their land is soaked with innocent blood, cursed by sexual immorality and by witchcraft. Why are former Christian nations like the United States coming under judgment? Because of the shed blood of the innocent unborn (about 7 million now in the USA, I believe), because of the shed blood of the native population, the blood of innocents shed in foreign wars (estimated at about 20 million), the violation of treaties, slavery, the Civil War, and much else beside. The land must be atoned for by the descendants of those who shed innocent blood. Look how Russia paid dearly for its revolution and the bloodshed under communism! Over 22 million died in the last World War.

The atonement made by the shedding of human blood is never complete because the sinning goes on and on. Man does not stop sinning. Abortion does not stop. Murder by devil-worshipping cults grows apace, murder by criminal gangs increases, it never stops. All of this has to be paid for by the shedding of the blood of the perpetrators or their descendants, save those who are rescued out of Judgment through coming to Messiah.

We went through two terrible world wars in the 20th century. About 24 million died in the First World War and twice as many - about 48 million - died in the Second World War. 1½ billion unborn children have been murdered. Add all that together and there is a HUGE BLOOD DEBT! The Third World War, together with various natural disasters that preceed the Second Coming, if going to be off the charts and will kill half of mankind which is about 3¾ billion souls. Part of that destruction of life will soon be upon us in the 'Lesser Tribulation'. And were this blood debt not paid, the earth would likely fall apart.

The idea of communal responsibility does not sit well with the modern mind. However, Yahweh's laws cannot be circumscribed. We must deal with reality. Now 900,000 may not seem much to you out of a world of ten or more billion souls but that really is fantastic news when you think about it! That's nearly a million (less one hundred thousand) overcomers! It is easy to get depressed by the world but at Sukkot we must look to the Great Remnant for our consolation. These are whom Yahweh is going to rescue, as He rescued the Israelites out of Egypt and brought the second generation into the Promised Land.

Yes, we need to maintain perspective and deal with reality which is why I have had to speak - yet again - of the death and destruction that is coming. I am simply preparing you to get used to it, and in getting used to it, finding your simcha (joy) in the King of the 900,000. We have so much work to do and we can walk victoriously and joyfully through the carnage so long as we keep our eyes on our Messiah and on those who are being saved out of the world and to the Kingdom of the Messianic Bride.

Like I said, as evil rises and the world erupts in violence, so the Remnant will arise in power. It will absolutely happen. But glory is to be found in the midst of tribulation, therefore we must start getting used to both. We have had plenty of time to prepare. My prayer simply is: Come, Master Yah'shua (Jesus), and come to your Bride in glory and power as we humble ourselves and separate totally out of the world system. Deliver, we pray, and quicken us to be deliverers on Mount Zion, in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.