Chag sameach Yom Teruah, a blessed Rosh Chodesh and Shabbat Shalom as we once again enter into the first of three of the as yet prophetically unfulfilled autumn or fall festivals of Messianic Israel. Those who are aware of the spiritual significance of these divine annual appointments or moedim and why it is we are to continue observing them in the New Covenant of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) must wonder, as they look around at major geopolitical events unfolding around the world, if this mightn't be the actual year of fulfilment.

For those of you who are new to this work and still finding your feet, as it were, the fifth annual festival of Yom Teruah is also known, variously, as the Day of Trumpets - specifically, and uniquely, twin-silver trumpets (unlike the other festivals at which rams horns or shofars are blown) - or the Day of Shouting and sometimes Yom haZikkaron or the Day of Remembrance to Yahweh Most High (Lev.23:24) - Yom Teruah specifically announces the culmination day of the millenia-long warnings of the nevi'im (prophets) the arrival of the Day of Yahweh, or as most English Bible translations call it, the Day of the LORD which even more confusingly gets mixed up with the Sabbath Day too. In a nutshell, Yom Teruah is the day on which, finally, the long-awaited Day of Judgment has arrived (itself the sixth annual festival of Yom haKippurim, Yom Kippur of the Day of Atonements) which is in a mere 8 days' time, which is itself followed a few days later by the much anticipated joyful moed, namely, Sukkot or Tabernacles, otherwise known as the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb" in the Book of Revelation (19:9). In other words, this day is the day that our Saviour, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), returns for the second and last time.

That makes today the most fearful of all days throughout human history for the unrepentant wicked and at the same time the most joyful of all days for the repentant righteous saved who have longed for the Master's appearance after 2,000 years of waiting. Paul describes these autumn festivals well, beginning with Yom Teruah well, to the Thessalonian qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones):

"For the Master (Lord) himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel [Michael] and with the [twin-silver] trumpet call of Elohim (God), and the [firstborn, first resurrection] dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Master (Lord) in the air. And so we will be with the Master (Lord forever)" (1 Thess 4:16-17, NIV).

The previous four spring and summer festivals prepared us for this day, the last of which was Shavu'ot at which we simultaneously:

• (a) celebrated the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai that was Israel's Ketubah or Bridal Contract - or to put it another way, the Constitution of, first, the Nation of Israel, and second, the New Covenant Nation of Messianic Israel with Yah'shua (Jesus) as its King, and

• (b) the giving of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) at the first Messianic Shavu'ot which marked out, and supernaturally empowered, the born-again followers of the Saviour - Church tradition calls this the 'Day of Pentecost', one of the signs of which was a day in Jerusalem when the believers supernaturally spoke in foreign languages ('tongues') to the many delegates assembling for the annual festival from across the polyglot (multi-lingual) Roman Empire, which symbolically ended of the confusion of tongues caused by the wicked Tower of Babel project.

For those who are alive following the Great Tribulation, when the final Yom Teruah arrives, this will, for them, entail instant, breathtaking resurrection! This is the time when the first of the graves will burst open and the dead, Torah-obedient in Christ will be clothed in immortality. And then, on the day after the seven day-long Marriage Supper of the Lamb concludes, the 1,000 year long Millennial Reign of Peace begins which we ancipate on the day known as Shemini Atseret, regarded by many as an extra 'eighth' annual moed. At the end of that age, at which time more dramatic events unfold, and satan and his hosts are finally cast into the pit forever, the second or general resurrection will take place for the rest of humanity - for both the disobedient believers and all the unbelievers - who during the Millennium remain as disembodied spirits in Sheol, the place of the dead.

As no Great Heavenly Trumpet Blasts have been heard worldwide today, and as Messiah has not physically returned today accompanied by legions of the redeemed dead either, then we may know for certain that once more the moed of Yom Teruah has not been fulfilled this year either. Over 3,000 years have passed since the Torah was given through Moses on Mount Sinai, estimated by some to have been 1313 BC or 2448 in the current rabbinical calendar of the Jews, though no one really knows the exact date. Many will be disappointed today but others of us, who have known for some time that the return of the Master today would have been too early, this comes as no great surprise. I was not expecting anything to happen today yet I continued to be ready. We are, in any case, not supposed to stress out over it. True believers live their lives as though Christ might return any day and are at peace.

Three passages of Scripture in particular admonish us to be prepared always:

"The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray" (1 Pet.4:7, NIV).

"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Master (Lord) will come" (Mt.24:42-43, NIV).

"For the grace of Elohim (God) that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present æon (age), while we wait for the blessed hope - the glorious appearing of our great Elohim (God) and Saviour, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good" (Titus 2:11-14, NIV).

It follows, I'm sure you'll agree, that those who are not prepared for the Master's return at any time aren't living as they ought to be and are perhaps unconsciously hoping that they will be granted a little time to 'put things right' in their lives - hoping for a little bit of wriggle room of ongoing sinning before the final Yom Teruah does come...praying for an advance revelation or word from Elohim (God), if you like. I am reminded of the time toward the end of the year 999 AD in Europe when because millions believed Christ might return the following year - 1000 AD (because no doubt it was a nice round number, just as 2000 was 25 years ago) - that they had better start becoming penitent and finally start living the way they were supposed to have been living their faith all along. You'll not be surprised to learn that these 'last minute' penitants in Catholic Europe soon reverted to their sinful, impenitent ways in the year 1001 when Christ didn't return, thus demonstrating that their religion was a sham...for outward appearances only (irrespective of what opinion you may have about Catholicism itself). In other words, these 'last minute repent-ers' were hoping they would pass spiritual muster by means of a last minute 'fix', not unlike many who make deathbed confessions in the hope that Yahweh will not notice an entire life of determined sinning. We are either talmidim (disciples) of the Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Lord Jesus Christ) for real or we're just playing games as 'nominal Christians and Messianics', making a pretense of it for whatever reason. Though only Yahweh knows each man's and woman's heart, I dare say the majority of these people aren't saved at all, whatever their motives for 'playing the game' in whatever culture they happen to be living in.

Yom Teruah is good news for those who chose to be genuine believers, whose actual faith is known by their fruits or works. The Master said:

"You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them" (Mt.7:15-20, NKJV; Evidence Bible, p.1338).

Those who are living close to Christ as they ought to, in obedience and holiness, will never feel the need for a 'last minute scramble' as occurred in 999 AD or as has happened many times in my lifetime when false prophets have announced various bogus rapture dates (all of which have failed spectacularly) or (in the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Millerites/Seventh-Day Adventists, and not a few Protestant groups) that Armageddon or the Second Coming would be happening in a certain year. There was much 'scurrying about' by the members of such groups and by others who believed them. The Jehovah's Witnesses in particular made a great ado about 1975 leading many of their members to sell their homes and give all the money to the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. Needless to day, when the prediction failed, the WBTS refused to return the money they had dishonestly persuaded their most loyal followers to part with, leading to a mass exodus.

So, will the Second Coming occur on this particular day, on the first day of the seventh month of the Biblical Calendar? If, as we claim it will, does that disqualify us since scripture says that no one knows the day, even though we don't know the year? What does Yah'shua (Jesus) in fact mean when He says "concerning that day and hour, not even the malakim (angels) of heaven" know (Mt.24:36)? Why 'day' and 'hour'? This brings up an important controversy that touches upon other subjects in the Bible too which I think would be helpful here to resolve, which I hope will serve as a warning not to always read Scripture too literally. To divide or interpret the Davar (Word) honestly we need to know something of the way a particular language works. So bear with me as this will help us resolve other controversies such as the age of the universe which some believers say is only 6,000 years old and others, billions of years.

The Hebrew word yom, which we translate as 'day', can refer to several different things that only the context can (if it does) resolve. It can mean:

• 1. A 24-hour period;
• 2. A specific point in time;
• 3. A period of daylight (as opposed to night - Gen.1:5);
• 4. An extend æon, age or era (as in the 'day of Abraham');
• 5. Future final judgment (as in the 'Day of Yahweh/the LORD'): or
• 6. A portion of time (like the sabbath day from sunrise to sunrise, Yom haKippurim from sunset to sunset or the life span of someone, e.g. "all the days of Methuselah" - Gen.5:27).

The Hebrews did not measure time in quite the same way we do, but as I don't have time to get into all of that (no pun intended), I encourage you to carefully study our Time website. Even in English we use the word 'day' in many different ways. The thing is, 'day', 'year' and 'hour' are sometimes used interchangeably, as in "the days of our lives are threescore years and ten" (Ps.90:10, KJV). Time is also relative sometimes - a matter of persepctive - with a thousand human years being like a single day to Yahweh Himself (2 Pet.3:8). This sometime confuses Bible readers who assume that the "last days" is...just that when in fact the 'last days' began 2,000 years ago (Heb.1:1-2). To Yahweh it's as if only two days have passed since the cross. Distinguishing between divine and human perspective is obviously important.

So as far as the final Yom Teruah is concerned, 'day' and 'hour' have been telescoped together into 'time'. No one knows the 'time' of Yom Teruah and the fact we know which day of the year it will happen on still doesn't mean we know when it will happen in the overall sense. It just means that we know what time of the year it will happen. But that does not mean that we can relax our vigilence by being casual in our relationship with Yah'shua (Jesus) and not getting serious until round about autumn-time. The point is, Yahweh wants consistent discipleship - he wants us to be constant in our attitudes and behaviours, to live as though we were living in a timeless or near-timeless dimension like Yahweh's own, since we are the children of His world first and foremost. Knowing the time of year leaves us with no excuse for being casual or playing games. We dare not gamble.

The point is - and this is my message today - we need to live the Gospel as though it were one eternal round, as though this were the day we were born again as well as the day we finally meet our Master. As you get older like me time appears to shrink in any case. The days rush by like a whirlwind whereas I remember as a boy they seemed to drag out interminably. Time is, for sure, a strange phenomenon, for it was created by our Heavenly Father for a purpose, to serve as a unidirectional maxtrix in which to learn, make choices and grow. It does not allow for traveling backwards, to go back and change things. Nor does it allow us to hop into the future though there are some strange anomalies to be sure as cosmologists have discovered. Once an action in time is chosen, it's permanently chosen. Yesterday is forever gone, tomorrow is not yet, so what matters always is now.

An experience that J.B.Priestly, the English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator will forever be engrained in my mind. It had such an impact on me when I first read it as a young man in the early days of my spiritual searching at Oxford that I want to share with you today as it fits today's theme well. For those of you who, like me, are interested in the 'big picture' and the meaning of life - not just for humans but for all living things - you may find his revelation helpful, even comforting, for I have surely struggled at times to make sense of the greater reality, and especially all the apparent waste and futility in the life-and-death struggle down here on earth. If we are to believe the strange, if not perverse, theologies of man-made religion (which I do not), billions of souls are going to be tormented forever in hell. This is what he wrote in his book, Man and Time:

"I was standing at the top of a very high tower, alone, looking down upon the myriads of birds flying in one direction; every kind of bird was there, all the birds in the world. It was a noble sight, this vast aerial river of birds.

"But now, in some mysterious fashion the gear was changed, and the time speeded up, so that I saw generations of birds, watched them break their shells, flutter into life, mate, weaken, falter and die. Wings grew only to crumble; bodies were sleek and then, in a flash, bled and shriveled; and death struck everywhere at every second. What was the use of all this blind struggle towards life, this eager trying of wings, this hurried mating, this flight and surge, all this gigantic meaningless biological effort?

"As I stared down, seeming to see every creature's ignoble little history almost at a glance, I felt sick at heart. It would be better if not one of them, if not one of us at all, had been born, if the struggle ceased forever. I stood on my tower, still alone, desperately unhappy.

"But now the gear was changed again, and time went faster still, and it was rushing by at such a rate, that the birds could not show any movement, but were like an enormous plain sown with feathers. But, along this plain, flickering through the bodies themselves, there now passed a sort of white flame, trembling, dancing, then hurrying on; as soon as I saw it I knew that this white flame was life itself, the very quintessence of being; and then it came to me, in a rocket-burst of ecstasy, that nothing mattered, nothing could ever matter, because nothing else was real but this quivering and hurrying lambency of beings.

"Birds, people or creatures not yet shaped and coloured, all were of no account except so as this flame of life travelled through them. It left nothing to mourn over behind it; what I had thought of as tragedy was mere emptiness or a shadow show; for now all real feeling was caught and purified and danced on ecstatically with the white flame of life. I had never felt before such happiness as I knew at the end of my dream of the tower and the birds."

It's taken me a lifetime to understand the meaning of his experience, though I have had plenty of hints along the way especially as I have encountered others who have had what I call 'firstborn visions': Jakob Böhme (or Behmen) was one such visionary who impacted me. At first Priestly's vision worried me because it seemed to be validating a Buddhist idea that all that mattered was the corporate whole. Those who subscribe to reincarnation (as Buddhists, Hindus and New Agers do) believe the final destiny of man and indeed of all creatures is that we all merge together into some kind of personality-less state called 'nirvana', losing all individual identity, after they have each been through hundreds of lives. Yahweh specifically answered that fear of losing ones individuality in what seemed ultimately to be purposelessness when, as you know, in a Buddhist meeting I was attending in Oxford He spoke to me audibly and with such power that I uncoiled like a spring, leaping to my feet. "No!" was the emphatic response of the teacher's claim that Buddha reached Buddhahood but Christ only reached the penultimate state of Boddhisatva on the evolutionary scale of spiritual progress. "NO!" was the emphatic answer and with it came the revelation that Yah'shua (Jesus) was ELOHIM or GOD. I just knew from deep within - and have known ever since - that Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), the Son of Elohim (God), is the Creator and is Divine. It is my overarching testimony [1].

What I did not know back then was the importance of the collective or corporate BODY or TEMPLE OF CHRIST in the final state of things, or what it is these annual communal festivals mean, starting at Shavu'ot and ending in Sukkot. I did not know who I was back then and needed the truths hidden in the Spring Festivals from Pesach to Yom haBikkurim first of all. I needed to know who I was personally in Christ, for all concepts of communal echad union have no meaning - and are potentially terrifying - until you know who you are. And that identity can only come by being in Christ, blood-purchased, transformed, born again. Evangelical Christianity took me that far (thanks, in part, to the influence of Michael Wells [2]) even if there were vague references to the 'Body of Christ'.

I needed the Messianic vision to understand that in additional to being individuals in Christ we are also Israel, a Body, the Bride of Christ [3]. Then the fear of the collective not only vanished but became beautiful too. I personally experienced the beauty of that corporate spirituality, as I have told you before, when Father showed me the Council of Yah's Elohim in vision and I longed to be back with them again so deeply. We were made to be both individuals and for collective living in family, in marriage and as the Mystical Bride of Christ. We are not complete without any of these, indeed the absence of any one is a terror in itself. For when I was reunited with the Council in that experience I sensed with great intensity the loneliness of the world too.

That is what J.B.Priestly, who lived between 1894 and 1984, saw. He lived through so many social and religious upheavals. Though he didn't know it, the Life He saw wasn't merely something abstract or impersonal as a Buddhist or Hindu might view it, but a Person - Yah'shua the Messish (Jesus Christ). Only then does all the apparent meaningless of much of earth life, with all its death and suffering - for living creatues as much as for ourselves - make any sort of sense. I don't know about you, but I have always found the brevity of the life of our pets very distressing...our cats, dogs, chickens, guinea pigs, hamsters, sqirrels, tortoises, fish, toads, rabbits...they're here one day and gone within a decade or thereabouts. We can 'get through' many generations of pets. I still remember my dogs and cats from Malaysia, and more so since the time Yahweh showed me my dog Josephine (Yoyo) in heaven. And since then I have seen them hundreds of times, most recently about two months ago when I saw Max (a Yorkshire terrier of ours) again. Know this: no life is wasted. We have had dozens and dozens of chickens come and go in apparently meaningless succession. But it isn't meaningless. They all had a purpose and still do. Christ is the way, the truth and the life. He IS chayim - life, all life (Jn.14:6), and somehow He will fix everything when the creation is renewed. Nothing is wasted. This I totally believe. And Yom Teruah is the good news that that renewal is not only guaranteed but is imminent, if not in my generation, then almost certainly in the next.

So for me personally Yom Teruah is many things. Yes, it's about the return of Yah'shua (Jesus) and the first resurrection qodeshim or holy, set-apart ones. All of them, one big family. But it's also about the restoration of all living creatures, animal and plant - how, we cannot begin to conceive, but do you think for one moment that He cannot do it? Even better news is the understanding that we have been lied to about so many things in religion - about hell and punishment in which our Heavenly Father has been made out to be a cruel, unloving tyrant like the pagan gods themselves, if not worse, a goal of Satan, of course, who is continually trying to defile Yahweh's Name before human beings. But Priestly went too far in the other direction and never experienced the New Birth even though he wanted to. I guess he got waylaid by the secular philosophies of his day that tainted his earlier Anglican experience and fatefully led him into Unitarianism. He missed so much truth!

What a great liberation it was, then, when Yahweh taught me the truth about the Apocatastasis or Universal Reconciliation, what freedom it gave to my heart to understand even more of His great, great love for all of us, and to understand how wicked the cultic god of Calvinism is, and indeed the false beliefs of so many religionists claiming to be Christian over the centuries. I am just sorry Priestly never learned this truth in his (mildly) Calvinistic Anglicanism upnbringing which was (and still technically is) by its Westminster Confession creed. Yes, our Father is an Elohim (God) of Justice but His Grace is even wider than we ever dreamed of. John Boynton Priestly was given a glimpse of that and though he was definitely a believer of sorts, he was heavily influenced by liberalism. And though he began as an Anglican that embraced the divinity of Messiah,he ended up a Unitarian, denying Christ's divinity. He made his choices...tragic choices...

Though Yah'shua (Jesus) did not return today as He might have, I still find Yom Teruah immensely comforting and full of hope and something to shout about! Today reminds me of all that Father has taught me since both before and after I was born again on 30 March 1977. I would like to think that Yom Teruah can be a day of hope for all of you too. We have this promise spoken by our Heavenly Father through the navi (prophet) Isaiah:

"Yahweh is the everlasting Elohim (God),
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and His understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in Yahweh
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint"
(Is.40:28b-31, NIV).

Finally, Paul admonished:

"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving Yahweh. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with Elohim's (God's) people who are in need. Practice hospitality" (Rom.12:9-13, NIV).

Endnotes

[1] See A Glimpse into Heaven: My Life Story and How I Came to Know Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ)
[2] See in particular, Michael Wells: Sidetracked in the Wilderness: Find the Way Back to a Victorious, Abundant Life (Devotional Life Press, Littleton, Colorado: 1991), that was recommended to me by a retired Pastor and Evangelist who currently resides in Vietnam
[3] In addition to marriage and family life, we also get glimpses of this Mystical Union by belonging to various nations and in my case, more than one! The cameraderie of my army experience also gave me some insights.