The Wrath of God, End Times, & Hanukkah in Prophecy
Nelson Walters has an interesting post at thegospelintheendtimes blog recently asking:
How Long is the Wrath of God?
"Does the Bible tell us specifically how long the Wrath of God is? 7 years? 3 1/2 years, 1 year, 30 days, or a single day?
...God poured out his wrath on Jesus for our behalf. Jesus drank the cup of the Wrath of God full strength while on the cross. His death was substitutionary; he took the Wrath of God on behalf of those those who place their faith in him . This was necessary because there is a Day of Wrath coming, a day of vengeance when God will pour out his wrath on the unrighteous:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18)
...if we are able to determine how long the Wrath of God is and when it occurs, we may be able to tell when that rescue occurs as well. Here is a video that analyses a number of Old Testament passages from Leviticus, Isaiah, Daniel, and Job that give us a hint about that timing."
In the video below, NW explains why he thinks the scriptures describe a year long wrath that may correspond to the seventh year of Daniel's final week of years - the final year of the seven year tribulation. In NW's opinion, the rapture may occur one year before the end of the tribulation. Just as importantly, he suggests that instead of just accepting his conclusion, we should be good Bereans and study the Bible for ourselves to reach our own conclusions.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ciL9B8VGxU&w=854&h=480]
In my own prophecy books, I conclude that the most likely end of the tribulation puts the rapture on Judgment day on the 7th day of Hanukkah on December 28, 2019. So after watching NW's video above, I looked up any connection between Hanukkah and the rapture. Because if NW is correct, and my timeline ending with Hanukkah is correct, then one year earlier would also be Hanukkah. Whether the rapture is a year earlier as NW suggests, or right on Judgment Day as I concluded, would be the same point in the year either way. So I wanted to look up comments on a Hanukkah rapture again.
"The apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees, a helpful historical resource even though not part of the Hebrew canon of the Old Testament, records events of this tumultuous period. It tells us that Antiochus “wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that all should give up their particular customs. All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath” (Maccabees 1:41-43).
Antiochus’ edict prohibited observing the weekly Sabbath day and the other biblical feast days. Reading the law of Moses was outlawed, and all copies of it were ordered to be burned. Temple sacrifices were forbidden; circumcision was outlawed. The penalty for disobedience was death.
Many Jews chose to die rather than comply with Antiochus’ unholy commands. Angered by resistance to his odious laws, and misled into thinking it was just a small group of radicals creating trouble, the king intensified his persecution and cruelty. If an infant were found circumcised, Antiochus decreed that his family and the person who did the circumcision would be put to death and the infant would be hung from the neck of his dead mother (verses 60-61).
Then, on the 25th day of the month Kislev, 167 B.C. Antiochus profaned the temple of God in Jerusalem" placing a statue of Zeus made with the king's face on the altar of God and had pigs sacrificed on the altar... This was the first abomination of desolation. There will be another in the end times - quite probably involving an Islamic Antichrist conquering Israel for a short time in the near future...
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Jewish preacher most famous for books like "The Harbinger," says that Hanukkah has the most specific revelation of what is going to happen in the end times.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deK4TOJ2cNE&w=854&h=480]
Almost 2600 years ago, when Daniel said that our understanding of end times events was SEALED, and that people could not fully understand or appreciate it yet, I believe that was because much is revealed through the meaning of Hanukkah - a Jewish holiday based on events that occurred several centuries after Daniel lived - approximately 168-165 B.C. After these events, and after understanding the holiday of Hanukkah celebrating victory of believers over an antichrist - only then could we understand the final and global version of related events...
After looking up Jonathan Cahn's views, the next site that came up is from Gerry Almond, who wrote:
"If one accepts, as a fact, that Hanukkah is a replacement feast for Tabernacles, (as I have come to accept), because of the disobedience of national Israel, which occasioned its loss to them as a judgment of God, then it may mean that REGATHERED Israel is born out of due season, as a late baby. Time length, 60 days, the time between the September Feast of Tabernacles and the December Feast of Hanukkah. It may also indicate that the rapture of the Church will be governed by Hanukkah and not Tabernacles, as opposed to Tabernacles, the lost feast. Why do I say this? Because Tabernacles is the single feast of Israel THAT NEVER HAD A FULFILLMENT. All the others did, Tabernacles was lost to them. Why? Because “I hate your new moons and Sabbaths, for with your lips you are near Me, but with your heart, you are far away”. Therefore, God seemingly destroyed this last feast, and gave them a substitute for it. But somehow, we must connect Tabernacles to Hanukkah, using Bible connectors to do so.
The Feast of Hanukkah is 8 days, the exact same length as Tabernacles, but not nearly as complex. Its major feature is the lighting of the Temple. It roughly corresponds to the Christian Christmas with the lights, giving of gifts, etc. It celebrates the retaking of the Temple from the Syrian, Antiochus Epiphanes, circa 166 B. C.
It was in practice when Jesus was born. In John 10:22, the scriptures record “And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication (Hanukkah), and it was winter. 23, And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. 24, Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto Him, How long dost Thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25, Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 28, And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, 29, My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them our of My Father’s hand. 30, I and My Father are one.” Here Jesus asserted His Deity. He proclaimed plainly to them that He is God, the Son, the second member of the Triune Godhead. This was on the Feast of Hanukkah...
...If Hanukkah is indeed the REPLACEMENT for Tabernacles, it is possible that it is a day for day replacement as well. And since the dissolving of the booths occurred on the 7th day of Tabernacles, it is entirely possible that the resurrection/rapture may occur on the 7th day of Hanukkah. That would be Dec 27/28."
Almond's conclusion seems very supportive of my own timeline ending on December 28, 2019.
The next article I looked at is:
The Rapture, Gog, and Hanukkah Puzzle: Putting It All Together
which is less clear, but does add: "Once the ball is set into motion, the ability to calculate the time and hour of various events will become possible for those aware of Biblical prophecies."
Another site points out:
"Matthew 24:32-34... Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh: 33. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, [even] at the doors. 34. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
As this verse states, the generation that sees the rebirth of Israel (parable of a fig tree) shall not pass away until all these things have been fulfilled.
The next question is: How long is a generation? As one man said: "The best way to interpret the Bible is to let the Bible interpret itself." That in mind, I offer the following:
Psalm 90:10... The days of our years [are] threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength [they be] fourscore years, yet [is] their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
As you can see we are told quite plainly that a normal generation is 70 years.
Now let's begin assembling some facts. The rebirth of Israel occurred in May of 1948. It we add the length of a generation to that (70 yrs), we come up with the year 2018....
We have established that we are the last generation. Everything coming to an end by 2018. However Psalm 90:10 also says that if by reason of of good health (strength) a generation can be 80 years, placing the end as late as 2028 - thus the variable."
If the re-creation of the nation of Israel has any prophetic meaning at all - (and I know it does - it even occurred ON TIME as multiple prophecies in the Old Testament lead us to the year 1948 from thousands of years ago) then end times prophecies must occur soon enough for the generation that witnessed 1948 to still be alive. I found a lot of evidence pointing to end times events in Hanukkah 2019,
as I explain in my second book: End Times and 2019.
My third book, Antichrist 2016-2019, focuses on the clues suggesting that the politician who would prove to be the Antichrist would make a big move around June 2016, consolidating more power in a dictatorship at that time. I had suggested that some signs pointed to Obama, with less likely candidates (at the time) including Abu Bakr and Recep Erdogan. But in mid 2016, it was Turkey's Erdogan who staged a fake coup and consolidated dictatorial powers... If he is the Islamic Antichrist, then events in the Middle East should spin out of control for Syria, Iraq, and Israel VERY soon.
My fourth book, Nostradamus and the Islamic Invasion of Europe, focuses on Nostradamus' description of a 27 year period of hostilities with the Islamic world - quite possibly 2001-2028 - ending with WWIII and the fulfillment of end times Bible prophecies.
I don't claim to be 100% certain about the hour and day. Nostradamus isn't biblical, but his prophecies largely agree with the Bible and he considered himself a devout Catholic.
Bible prophecies and visions from Daniel, Isaiah, John, and others match the astronomical alignments in our skies that will be in effect in late 2019 - as the sun, moon, and planets move in a way that acts out all major steps of an ancient Jewish wedding ceremony in the sky - during Hanukkah! I can't ignore that as coincidence.