Marty 2020 Loc: Banana Republic of Kalifornia

I did!
Doesn’t have any mention of my declaring the sights that I see.
Too bad for you. Your barb missed the mark.
I don’t have the gift of evangelism.
Could you tell?
I’m pretty good at discernment though.

Michael Rich Loc: Lapine Oregon

The scripture that I was referring to is Ezekiel 18.

Can you read that and use your discernment to see what it says?

Marty 2020 Loc: Banana Republic of Kalifornia

Reread my post.
I did read Ezekiel 18.
I’m outa here.

Michael Rich Loc: Lapine Oregon

Go ahead and run.

Parky60 Loc: People's Republic of Illinois

I have. There is no mention of the 144,000 meeting Christ in the air.

And you didn't explain how you came to that conclusion.

Michael Rich Loc: Lapine Oregon

I could be mistaken, I'll have to read Revelation again to refresh my memory.

Marty 2020 Loc: Banana Republic of Kalifornia

It’s nice if you know what, what you say means.

Michael Rich Loc: Lapine Oregon

Its nice too if you can have the courage to explain Ezekiel 18, but you'll have some lame excuse as to why you wont or you cant or you'll run scared of scriptures that disagree with your brand of religion.

It might be too straight forward for your perfect self righteous self.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Revelation 7 and 14....

How did you read it and miss it???

12,000 from each of the 12 tribes...

TexaCan Loc: Homeward Bound!

Perhaps you should reread Parky’s “entire” statement before embarrassing yourself!

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Hanukkah (which in Hebrew means 'to dedicate') is also referred to as "The Festival of Lights" or "The Feast of Dedication." It is a holiday, lasting eight days, that celebrates the rededication of Jerusalem's temple in 164 B.C. after it had been defiled by the pagan Greek Hellenistic king, Antiochus Epiphanes (meaning "God Manifest"), who became ruler of the Seleucid Empire in what is now Syria, in 165 B.C., after the death of his father, King Antiochus III the Great.

Although Hanukkah is thought of as a Jewish holiday, the only place Hanukkah is found in the Bible is in the New Testament, not the Old Testament... and the only person who is found celebrating Hanukkah in the Bible is Jesus.

In the Gospel of John 10:22-23: “At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon." - The Hebrew word for “dedication” is Hanukkah!

Chanukkah (or Hanukkah) is the Jewish Festival/Feast of Dedication, also known as the "Festival of Lights.” It is an eight-day festival beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish lunar calendar month of Kislev, which typically falls in December on western civilization's solar Gregorian calendar. “On the 25th of Kislev are the days of Chanukkah, which are eight... these were appointed a Festival with Hallel [prayers of praise] and thanksgiving” (Shabbat 21b in the Babylonian Talmud).

The eight-day Hanukkah festival is the backdrop of one of the nastiest confrontations of the Jews with Jesus (John 10:22 - 24). The Jews knew Jesus would attend the Hanukkah festival and seized upon that opportunity to confront him regarding the claim that he was the Messiah. After a brief discussion, Jesus stated that He and the heavenly Father are One. After hearing this, the Jews, well aware of the meaning of Jesus' statement, began hurriedly gathering stones preparatory to stoning Him to death (John 10:31)!

The Jews then responded to Jesus, after He asked them why they wanted to kill Him, "We will not stone You for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a man, are making Yourself God" (John 10:33). Because it was not yet His time to die, Jesus was able to escape the wrath of the Jews unharmed (v. 39) during the time of Hanukkah.

There is nothing wrong with Christians celebrating Hanukkah, any more than it is wrong for people to celebrate a day of Thanksgiving. It is mentioned only once in the Bible, and that is in the New Testament, never in the Old Testament, as Hanukkah occurred during the 400 year period between Malachi, the close of the Tanakh/Old Testament and Matthew, the beginning of the B'rit Hadashah/New Testament.

When Alexander the Great conquered Syria, Egypt, and Israel, ca 330 B.C., he allowed each area under his control to continue observing their own religions and to enjoy a certain amount of freedom. But less than two centuries later, in 165 B.C., a man named Antiochus Epiphanes IV rose to power, and he severely oppressed the Jewish people. He outlawed all Jewish religious rites, massacring the Jews who refused to obey.

Antiochus IV offered pigs, unclean swine as sacrifices on the Temple altar. He was driven by a passion to assimilate by forcing the Jewish people into his own world view. Everyone was ordered to worship Zeus as the supreme god. He stamped his own face on the coins with the epithet “god manifest.”

While the Jewish people were devastated, and recoiled in horror, a small band of pious Jews led a guerilla warfare against the Syrian army. Their leaders were Mattathias (Matitiyahu) the Hasmonean and his son Judah Maccabee - “The Hammer”.

This is covered in the book of Maccabees, which has historical value, located in the Apocrypha, which is not recognized as canonical, i.e., not inspired by God by either Judaism or Christian Protestants.

Antiochus sent thousands of his Syrian army, but the Maccabees supernaturally succeeded in driving the more powerful and better armed cruel foreigners from their land. When they arrived at the Holy Temple, the Jewish religious center, it was in shambles, defiled, devastated and desecrated by foreign soldiers. They cleansed the Temple and re-dedicated it on the 25th day of Kislev on their lunar Jewish calendar, which is in winter.

It has been written in the Talmud that as they came to relight the Temple Menorah (the seven-branched lampstand), they searched for the special holy oil to light it but were able to find only one small jar of oil bearing the required seal of purity. Miraculously, that one small jar of oil burned for eight days, during which a new supply of oil could be made. From that time, Jews around the world have observed a holiday of lighting candles for eight days honoring God for their historic victory, and the eight day longevity of the oil's burning.

In Matthew 24, while answering his disciples’ questions about the end of the age and his Second Coming, Jesus revealed that one like the Tyrant preceding Hanukkah will appear again, and will oppress all those who have not believed upon Him.

In the end times, a man called the Antichrist will force all those in the world, all those not taken from the earth in the rapture, to assimilate to his world view, put his image on every human being and force them to acknowledge him as a god.

Since the original Passover in Egypt, the Hebrew calendar has followed the lunar cycle, in contrast with the Gregorian calendar of western civilization, established in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, which is mainly a civil calendar, based solely on a solar-year system.

The Hebrew calendar originated before the Israelites fled Egypt, during the first Passover: “This month [Nisan] shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Ex. 12:2). Nisan begins the religious new year, which occurs in the spring.

The Festival of Lights, aka, Hanukkah, lasts eight days, beginning on the 25th day of the month of Kislev in the Jewish lunar calendar. This month corresponds with late November to late December in the solar Gregorian calendar of the western world, thus observing the lunar calendar's Kislev 25th on the solar calendar's December 25th is both effortless and sinless, to those who choose to do so.

Another nuance of the Hebrew calendar involves how Jewish people determine when a day begins. Scripture states, “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5). Because this verse specifically puts evening before morning, Jewish people determined that a new day begins in the evening. Thus, all Jewish holidays and Sabbaths begin at sundown.

The Jewish holidays are fixed on the Hebrew months:

Nisan: March–April
Iyar: April–May
Sivan: May–June
Tammuz: June–July
Av: July–August
Elul: August–September
Tishrei: September–October
Cheshvan: October–November
Kislev: November–December
Tevet: December–January
Shevat: January–February
Adar: February–March

In a leap year, a second month of Adar is added.

Because lunar cycles are shorter than solar ones, a 13th lunar leap month is added seven times every 19 years, so the new moons align with the Gregorian calendar. This adjustment was needed to maintain the feasts in their correct seasons. The Gregorian calendar also makes adjustments: Every four years a leap day is added in February to keep the days and months in step with the Earth’s rotation around the sun.

The first Hanukkah had occurred during a very dark time in the history of Israel, one in which the “light” of God’s presence among his people was in jeopardy of disappearing entirely. It would take a miracle for the light to continue to shine and would take a rededication in the hearts of the entire Jewish nation to love and worship God above all else.

The world looks very dark right now. There is an adverse spirit that appears to be squeezing and forcing believers to assimilate with the world. But God, Who is ever faithful, is igniting a fresh wind and fresh fire within our hearts to worship and continue to surrender our whole lives to the only God who is worthy, - to re-dedicate, re-fine, and re-burn our hearts and lives to Him in this season, as we await His appearance above us, through the Clouds.

Because of the rising tide of human philosophies confronting us today, no New Testament book speaks with more relevancy than does the epistle to the Colossians. Not only do we live in an atomic and space age, but in the most technologically advanced age of all time. As in the past, this is a day where, duped by the age-old lie of Satan, man still continues to believe in himself and his ability to solve his problems apart from God as He is revealed in Scripture.

Suddenly the epistle to the little flock in the declining city has become perhaps the most contemporary book in the New Testament library.

“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

Michael Rich Loc: Lapine Oregon

Oh, and make damn sure that you never ever truly judge yourself when you can ride Paul's coattail into heaven.

TexaCan Loc: Homeward Bound!

MARANATHA! 🙏🏻

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Acts 1:7-11:

"Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

"After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.
They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them."

"Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?
This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”

Amen and Amen!

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

Romans 3:22-24 teaches, "For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Apart from the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, we would all perish (John 3:16, 18; Ephesians 2:8-9).