Rosh HaShanah Lecture 2017

[Rebbe]

ROSH HASHANAH (Yom T'ruah) 2017

Copyright © BRI 2017 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI)

CAUTION: BRI Yeshiva notes are not available to the general public. They are not for distribution. They are not for reproduction. The notes may also bear little or no resemblance to the actual audio or video recorded BRI Yeshiva lecture.

Many church-goers have been critical of my assessment that what we know as Christianity has become an irrelevant backwater and a fountain of inarticulate slobberdrool which has replaced genuine belief, faith and practise. Religion is essentially the dominion of absurdity.

QUESTION: I recently came across a web site which posed the question, "Dear Reader, Would You Settle For Planet Earth? Why Not Make Heaven Your Option?"

I didn't bother to read the rest, because I look at planet Earth, our planet, the only planet we've got, and I think its very beautiful. Yes, its only my opinion but I would be real glad to settle for planet Earth!

Now, I am a Christian. But I am a Jewish Christian so I tend to read my Bible just a little bit differently to the way my Gentile friends (who are also Christians) read it.

When I survey the biblical revelation I find an astonishing emphasis on the beauty of God's creation, and the writers of the various books of the Bible tend to focus on creation's marvels. Strangely, there is hardly a word about us going to heaven.  Yet Christians all seem to think that heaven is to die for. Everyone is dying to get there. Yet if you read carefully Revelation 21 and 22 God Himself is wanting to leave heaven and to come and dwell with us on planet Earth! In fact, the removalist vans are already loading up his goods and chattel to emigrate here.

And that is because God enjoys human beings. They are the pinnacle of God's creative activity, for they are made in His image. As such they are potentially the express IMAGE of His Person.

The apostle John, a disciple whom Yeshua said he loved, noted that at Christ's return, "we will be like him for we shall see him as he is" (1 Jn 3.1,2).

Nobody can look upon God and not be ash in a flash. But at Yeshua's return, when Christians are caught up to meet the Lord above the clouds as he descends to rule this world, we will be changed from flesh into spirit and we shall see the face of GOD. This is what all religions have ever sought: to look upon the face of a holy God.

If nothing else, this day of Rosh HaShanah (meaning the head or start of the year) or Yom Teruah (day of trumpets) pictures human beings coming face to face with God. Such an experience is exemplified by, and amplified with, loud wild shouts and the blasts of trumpets and ram's horns.

Now, I have mentioned trumpets. These trumpets, or clarions, were composed of pure silver (Hebrew, chatsotserah) and could produce a rich variety or frequency of musical notes reflecting the sounds of a newly created galaxy or universe (which scientists regularly monitor) and these are to remind us of the harmonics of God's creative power in continually accomplishing "new things."

The shofar, or ram's horn, was also blown on this day, and that frequently (Rosh HaShanah, Mishnah 26b). Jewish traditions tell us that this day also pictured the "Birthday of the World" and all Jews turned a year older on Yom Teruah; it is the day that celebrates the Lord Yeshua's human birth, which was sometime between 6.15pm and 9.30pm on 9/11 in the year 3/2 BCE. It is also the day that looks forward in anticipation for Christ's return to rule the planet with a shepherd's iron staff for a thousand years.

In contrast to the silver trumpets which were anciently blown on this day, the shofar produced only a piercing blast. This piercing blast is often referred to in the Bible as a shout, or intolerable noise. The ram's horn certainly has no musical connotation. And, I might just add, it symbolised impending war.

Make no mistake! We are rapidly heading for a period of intense ferocious warfare of an unspeakable nature. None of us will remain untouched by it. None of us will escape it.

I want you to turn with me to 2 Tim 4.2. Rav Shaul gave special instructions to his student Timothy concerning the uncompromising elements that needed to be followed in his ministry among the Gentiles. One of those expectations involved "preaching the word in season and out of season."

To the Gentile Christian mind this means nothing more than to be appropriate in teaching as opportunity arises. But in Jewish thoughtform it means much more than this! Let us never deviate from the Jewish thoughtform which produced the Book.

Paul's instruction to Timothy means nothing less than dwelling on the meanings of the seasonal Sabbaths as they come into a prominence in the sacred calendar. In other words the Gentiles needed to hear about the themes in God's plan and purpose for humanity as revealed in, and explicated through, the recurring annual agricultural festivals of Israel. In so doing, the converted Gentiles would be reminded of that truth contained in the seasonal festival and on which that particular annual Sabbath focused.

So, with Rav Shaul's instructions ringing in my own ears, I must ask the question: "Where are we, here, today?"

Over the past few years I have drawn a series of historic parallels between the first century when John wrote the Apocalypse, and our 21st century which I believe -- along with many others -- to be literally the "end of the age." And the two centuries certainly do have remarkable parallels.

Take a long, hard look at the world in which we find ourselves. Look at the famines presently stalking the earth. Look at the hunger. Look at the thirst for water. Look at the abundance of water available in the western world polluted dramatically to the point of uselessness. No public cures yet for cancer, or AIDS, or the common cold. Look at the devastation caused by increasing earthquake activity and earthquake intensity. Volcanic activity is once again on the increase. Look at the crime wave, getting steadily worse year by year. Horrific wars are presently raging around the globe and frightful diseases are now entering the western world from other regions of the planet. Air is even running out. German industry is raping the Amazon at the rate of 50 acres a minute. We will all be breathing through masks in the next few years. With food wars looming on the horizon we will be "lucky" to see the next two decades of this century out without a major thermonuclear war. In thirty short years we will be eating plankton, or people! The cult-movie classic "Soylent Green" could still eventuate as a reality!

But its not just what's occurring on earth that constitutes our planetary headache. An unusual presence of asteroids and meteors have scientists worried sick, according to recent Newsweek and Time magazines. Its not so much what they are telling us that we should be alarmed about, its what they're not telling us ("for our good," of course). We conveniently overlook the fact that Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates are known members of the global Gorbachev Foundation established for the purpose of producing legislation ("ways and means") for the eradication of two thirds of humanity. We live in an age of impending horror such as the world has never before seen (or at least, equal to the age which produced the Noachian Deluge).

I have mentioned in previous lectures that "prophecies can fail" (as Paul suggested), if that is God's purpose and intention. Most of you will recall the many prophecies I have shared with you in the past which have yet to see a fulfilment, from the extinction of the lion (Nah 2.11-13) through to the rise of Egypt as a powerful political entity just before the coming of Mashiach. According to Paul such prophetic expectations can be dismissed by God if He deems it pertinent to adjust such occurrences in His plans for the future. But, having said this, there are three prophecies which cannot fail and they are pivotal to the second advent of Yeshua the Messiah. As a student of the biblical revelation I am well aware that these three prophetic events are intertwined and inseparable from each other.

[1] The so-called Third Temple must be in existence prior to Yeshua's coming. For this to occur the Jewish authorities must come to recognise that the Jerusalem Temple Mount is not where it supposedly stands today. The rebuilt Temple must be over the Gihon Springs.

[2] Esau's descendants must rule the earth at the conclusion of this evil age.

[3] There must be a ONE WORLD FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC STATE governing the world at the end of days.

As none of this has yet taken place it is clearly evident that we are living in the "end of the age," but not as yet in the final cataclysmic "end of days."

If we take a quick look at what the Apocalypse says about the final World State we will discover that the kingdom (singular) of this world which will have absorbed the whole earth will be inherited by the saints when Messiah conquers that system! Notice it now:

"The seventh angel sounded his shofar and there were great voices accompanying it in the heavens crying aloud, The KINGDOM [singular] of this world has become the possession of our Lord and of his Messiah: and he shall reign for the ages of the ages" (Rev 11.15).

In Rev 11.16-18 we find 24 heavenly star gods proclaiming the end of the world as we know it. It's really the end of the age of evil and the announcement of Mashiach's soon coming Kingdom and government which will rule the earth for a thousand years bringing it peace and prosperity as never before realised by humankind. Angels announce his return. The Bible speaks of the end of the age when angels would begin to make their presence felt among the inhabitants of the earth. For the first time in centuries people are being exposed again to angels. TV shows speak of miraculous occurrences when angels have appeared and rescued people in dire straits. Magazine articles are discussing the miracles that are happening daily. Books are being written on the subject of angelic intervention in one form or another. Angels are becoming a daily reality. The 24 star gods cry:

"The nations were angry. Thy wrath has come. The time of the dead has arrived that they should be judged, and that you should give a reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that reverence your name, whether small or great, AND SHOULD DESTROY THEM THAT DESTROY THE EARTH" (Rev 11.18).

And here 24 angelic beings proclaim a message of liberation for planet earth.

"To destroy them that destroy the earth." The corollary is that he will save them that seek to save the earth. I really don't care if Greenpeace and other organisations are tools of an emerging One World Federal State or not -- Greenpeace, and others who are bringing much overdue attention to the extinction of our wild kingdom and the destruction of our delicate ecosystem, who are making it extremely difficult for Japan to hunt down and to slaughter whales, and who are attempting to prevent the wholesale destruction of wilderness regions where apes, gorillas and orang-utans are threatened, and who are trying to stop senseless dolphin extermination, they have my support -- and the support of the Son of God who created the earth in the first place. And the scripture is emphatic: he is returning "to destroy them who destroy the earth."

When John wrote the Apocalypse in the first century, the Roman empire was in the process of devastating the earth. Most do not realise it but the Sahara desert was the final product of mass deforestation at the hands of the Romans. Not only did Rome create deserts and plunder the wealth of her neighbours, but Rome also is guilty of causing the extinction of entire species and subspecies of earth's delicate wild kingdom.

At the inauguration of the Colosseum in 81 CE which lasted for 100 days over 9000 wild animals were slaughtered according to Dio Cassius. It is on record that at just one Roman festival 2000 gladiators met their deaths along with 70 lions, 30 elephants, 30 leopards, 19 giraffes, 10 antelopes, 10 hyenas, 10 tigers, a hippopotamus, a rhinoceros with 40 wild horses, and 20 wild asses.

Deer, stags, wolves, antelopes, buffaloes, hyena, giraffes, lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, panthers, elephants, jaguars, chimpanzees, apes, baboons, hippopotamus, rhinoceros -- you name it, Romans killed them, bringing certain creatures to the point of extinction. In fact some animals were hunted to extinction the Great Auk, the European Wild Horse, the Eurasian lynx, the North African, Asian and West Asian elephants among them. Following the Roman age the Nile Hippo was declared extinct. Entire species of creatures disappeared from their native habitat. The Atlas bear lost its African habitat and was slaughtered in its thousands to satiate the blood lust of Roman spectators. The European, Greek and Italian lions were wiped out after being rounded up in their thousands and so Rome turned to north Africa to track down the Barbary or Atlas lion. It also was hunted to the point of extinction and a few managed to survive until Algeria Day in 1981 when the last one was shot. They weighed 500 pounds and were 10 feet from tip of nose to tip of tail. Estimates reveal that at the Colosseum alone half a million people and a million wild animals were slaughtered.

In relation to the third point, understand! I ask you to "understand" because the Dark Lord wants you to MISunderstand. In order for misunderstanding to take place in an effective manner, relating to the end of the age, haSatan took four simple steps to falsely indoctrinate the Christian world and thereby take their eyes off the reality that was coming to the fore.

Firstly, he caused Christian prophetic commentators to focus attention on a revived or revised Roman Empire in Europe which they argue, will consist of ten tightly knit European powers in a United States of Europe. The European Common Market was to evolve from an economic alliance into a European political union and finally progress into a titanic militarily power so great it would eventually challenge the mighty USA for world ascendancy. So, most people are watching Europe for the emergence of a ten-nation eco-political-military federation.

Secondly, he created the illusion of the Papacy as the Antichrist religious power that would dominate the European union.

Thirdly, he early promulgated a very sneaky religious nonsense called Replacement Theology which teaches that the Christian Church is the New Israel and that the Jewish people in their rejection of the Messiah have forfeited their right to inherit the prophetic blessings of God.

Fourth, he spewed forth a further perverse form of Replacement Theology that centres on race -- he seduced millions into a belief that the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples of the world are the descendants of ancient Israel, namely the ten lost tribes, and that we British and European peoples living in the regions of the US, Canada, north-western Europe, British Isles, Australia, New Zealand etc are the wearers of the prophetic mantle and, moreover, that the Jewish people are not real Jews at all (and therefore could not be the inheritors of God's blessings promised to Israel) but are a mongrelised mixture of Turko-Moabitish peoples!

HaSatan in four simple steps took the eyes of Christians OFF a coming World Federal State, and off the Jews as the Chosen People -- indeed, the Jews are now seen by many western Christian believers as nothing more than a racist group of Zionist fanatics creating problems by refusing to give back to the Moslems that which is held to be theirs and theirs alone.

What a tragic state of affairs. And it is this thinking that is heralding the coming of the Antichrist onto the world stage.

Speaking of the blowing of the ram's horn on Yom Teruah, Rabbi Brasch has written:

"Far from being tuneful and soothing, its sounds are rousing and shattering. They are meant to stir man to the very depth of his being. Not music to his ears, they are clarion calls to his conscience to renew his faith and to return to God... the sounding of this horn... has become the symbol of supreme loyalty, which knows of no exception and denies no sacrifice. It signifies unshakeable faith in God's love, which, though often inscrutable in its ways, shapes man's destiny. New Year is the most universal of all anniversaries and unequalled as a time of self-scrutiny and judgment, repentance and return to God" (R. Brasch, The Star of David, 1955, 30).

Moses says, "Speak unto the children of Israel saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial proclaimed with the blowing of trumpets [Hebrew, "the blast of horns"] a holy assembly" (Lev 23.24).

This annual Sabbath was to be a memorial (not a shadow) of blowing of trumpets. This is corroborated in another place as also being "a day of blowing the shofar" (Num 29.1). God's priests were the sons of Aaron; only they were permitted to blow the shofar (Num 10.8). As recorded in the Rosh HaShanah Psalm, King David encouraged Israel to make the day a special one of singing and cheering for joy. "Make a shout and cheer of praise unto the God of Jacob" (Ps 81.1 Hebrew. See esp. vss. 1-4). Moses gave specific instructions about the trumpets which were to be used particularly for Rosh HaShanah (Num 10.1-10).

They were firstly to be made out of nothing less than silver for the importance of announcing the feasts, as well as to call God's people to assembly. These silver trumpets, or clarions, are pictured among the spoils of the Temple as they are carried away by the Roman troops, on the Arch of Titus. They were long and narrow with an expanded mouth. Made out of a single plate of silver (Num 10.2) one blast was a signal that would ensure an assembly of the princes of each of the tribes (Num 10.4) but the blow of an "alarm" (Hebrew teruah, a succession of short, sharp, separate piercing blasts) would bring the entire nation together in one massive assembly.

It is noted in the Torah that the tremendous noise of the voice of God was compared to the sound of the "horn" or shofar (Ex 19.16-19; 20.15-18). This appraisal has the approbation of Jewish records in the War Scroll of the Messianic Scriptures of the Yeshua Party (Rev 1.10; 4.1). It is significant, as all rabbis understand, at Sinai God's kingdom (in the form of the theocratic state of Israel) was inaugurated by the voice of the shofar. On Rosh HaShanah the shofar is used to both proclaim and announce God's sovereignty over the earth (Hertz, The Pentateuch & Haftorahs, 1961, 293). The shofar will once again proclaim God's sovereignty in the coming announcement of Messiah's intervention to usher in our planet's long awaited Sabbath of rest, through superior fire power. The blast of the shofar gave great solemnity to Rosh HaShanah (Num 10.10).

In the Qumran War Scroll mention is made of various battle-trumpets, probably the shofar, bearing such inscriptions as "Reminder of vengeance in God's appointed time" (1QM). The shofar blast announces divine judgment (Rev 8.2-9, 21; 11.15-19; Joel 2.1,2; Zeph 1.14-16; Apoc. Moses 22; Sib. 8,239).

It is this warning and alarm of war which sets this festival apart from all the other annual Sabbaths.

The day of Rosh HaShanah or Yom Teruah portrays the coming of Yeshua to conquer and to judge the world. But WHY is he returning to the Mount of Olives of all places?

Because it was on the Mount Olivet that he was crucified. He returns to that very same spot TRIUMPHANT!

There is only one hope for human civilisation. There is only one hope for the continuance of the human species and for the survival of our planet, Earth -- the ONLY planet we've got. We won't have to worry about humankind colonising Mars, and vainly attempting to create or recreate a new earth on that virtually dead sphere. Our earth will be saved by the greatest architect and higher mathematician the universe has ever seen. It is our entire planet that needs salvation. That salvation is not going to come through human effort. Its not going to come through human ingenuity. It can only, ever and always come from GOD. Many of us believe in the existence of a Creator God. Many of us believe in a Saviour -- a Jew called Yeshua (though many call him by the name of Jesus). If he is a Saviour then he must save us -- and our planet. And you want to know something? He is soon to intervene in world affairs. We cannot afford to dismiss this Superman. If you have a Bible with you, turn with me to the most encouraging words any of us can entertain at this time.

The extra-terrestrials who ventured into dialogue with His Initiated students as The Master ascended into the atmosphere above them, said: "You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into the heavens? This same Yeshua who is taken up into the heavens from you, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into the heavens" (Ac 1.11).Yeshua ascended into the heavens from the Mount Olivet (Ac 1.12). The prophet Zechariah, as a result of an ecstatic vision, testified that he saw the personification of the Eternal God descending from the sky to this very same region, near Jerusalem. "Behold, the day of the LORD comes... I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle... Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations... AND HIS FEET SHALL STAND in that day UPON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the MOUNT OLIVET SHALL SPLIT in the midst... the LORD my God shall come...  all the saints with you... and the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one LORD, and His name One" (Zech 14.1-5,9).

May God haste the final Rosh HaShanah!