The Mystery of the Shemitah ~ Jonathan Cahn

Shemitah:  "As soon as the Jews settled in the Holy Land,  they began to count and observe seven-year cycles. Every cycle would culminate in a Sabbatical year,  known as Shemittah,  literally: “to release.” as explained by Chabad.org. 

Genesis 2:2  New International Version
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

Leviticus 26: 34  Complete Jewish Bible

Then, at last, the land will be paid its Shabbats. As long as it lies desolate and you are in the lands of your enemies, the land will rest and be repaid its Shabbats.

Every 7th day is a Sabbath day, every 7th year is a Sabbath year.  A day of rest.  A year of rest.  After 7 Sabbath years, the following year, (the 50th, also the 1st of the next series) is called a Jubilee.  

The Mystery of the Shemitah by Jonathan Cahn

Oh wow, I started this a week ago, and finished and wrote a review on a different book, and still haven't finished this one.  This one is hard to review.  I'm literally torn in two as to how to lay this one out.  

On one hand, Cahn has a LOT of valid issues and data, and on the other hand, maybe it's too much data that is throwing me off.  I'll try to dissect it for you, and see where that leads us. 

Every 7th day is a Sabbath day, of which it tells us in Exodus, the Ten Commandments "Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God". This means, this day is God's day, we are not to work on this day, and later on in Leviticus we see someone picking up wood for a fire on the Sabbath, and God strikes him dead.  So... God meant do NO work on this day.  Period.  Now, every 7 years, is a Sabbath Year, Shemitah Year.  In this year, there is to be no work, the ground is to be left to rest for this year.  

In this story, it is explained that Israel was conquered and taken to Babylon, so the land would rest for as many years as the Sabbath was "skipped".  So Israel was in Babylon for 70 years, that's 70 x 7, or 490 years the Jews occupied Israel, and did NOT let the land rest.  

Cahn compares the signs that were given to Israel before it's downfall, to signs that America was given with 9/11.  Cahn spent a lot of time, talking about these Harbingers...  The title of his other book, and gave enough detail that makes you want to go and read that one too.  Signs that we have ignored, just as Israel did.  (No I'm not rushing out to get the other)

Cahn spends a lot of time, stating that if we read the signs we can predict down to the minute something, but never exactly says what, and never came up with a when.  

I am a mathematician and a math teacher, and found it difficult to navigate all of the stock market comparisons.  Apparently, a LOT of the bad stock market days occurred, before, during, or after the Shemitah.  I found this kind of redundant... of course, before, during, or after, there is no other time.  But the actual closeness of the dates on the calendar is something that is quite shocking, and we should probably note, and be aware of.  

Here's some conspiracy theory for those of you so inclined, or maybe something foreboding that we should be aware of:

• In 1945 (a Shemitah year), at the apex of American financial success, the Twin Towers were conceived.  28 years later, (also a Shemitah year), 1973 The Twin Towers were completed, also the year that abortion was legalized.  Exactly, according to this book, 28 years later, 2001 (again another Shemitah year) the Twin Towers were destroyed.  The book implies that these occurrences are all connected. 
• Again in 1945 America was a military power that was unrivaled by any other.  in 1973, America suffered it's first defeat, Vietnam, and in 2001 we would see attacks on our own soil.  (I wonder if Cahn remembers that Pearl Harbor was American soil, cause he implied in the book that NYC was the first attack on America).  
• "1945 New world order based on American economic and financial power was inaugurated.  1973, that order would suffer collapse.  28 years after that, in 2001, the symbol of the American-led global economy would also collapse (the twin towers)."

Cahn spent a lot of time talking about the Jubilee, and some of the things that happened during the Jubilee, and then said on page 263 that no one knows when the Jubilee really is.  He thinks it is 1967, because Jubilee is "the restoration" and Israel was restored in 1967. 

Each chapter ends with questions.

Chapter 1:  "Does this ancient mystery hold the key to what the future holds, what is yet to come?"

"Are there signs and harbingers warning us of what lies ahead?" Are two of the ten. 

Chapter two:  "What exactly is the mystery of The Harbinger?"

Chapter four:  "How could something intended to be a national blessing become linked to national judgment?"

The list goes on and on and on.  

So to wrap this up...

Cahn presents a LOT of information that probably should be in our brains.  But in reality without a LOT of other people getting on board and turning this nation around, which I honestly don't see happening, judgement on America is inevitable.  Just like all nations that rise, they must fall.  And once a nation starts to fall, can you turn it around?  Can people be awakened to our plight?  How do we facilitate the change that is needed?  ONE person at a time, and Pray to God that we work fast enough, and that he gives us enough time to change the hearts of those around us.  

I suppose for now The Mystery of the Shemitah shall remain a mystery to me, with tons of unanswered questions poised by Cahn, but not really answered.  

Of the books that I have read of late, I would recommend this one for reading, although it is somewhat confusing and at times overwhelming.  

Blood Moon Tetrads

In 5,000 years there have been 3,479 eclipses, but only 142 tetrads.  Since Christ there have been 62 tetrads, with only 8 of these falling on feast days.  The 9th is upon us now, and there will not be another this century.  

"The last two times there were four blood moons in a row, they happened, first, right after Israel became a nation in 1948, and then again when Israel retook Jerusalem in 1967."

The 9th one is upon us now.  I look forward to see what is coming from God this time.  

The Blood Moon Prophecy

Pastor Wes discussed Blood Moon Tetrads in his lecture April 13, 2014 titled The Signs of His Coming! And he gave me much information to think about.  I pulled the Blood moon Prophecy off of wikipedia.  I can see why and how this prophecy came about, but think they are flawed just a wee bit.  Let me explain.  

1st yes we can use the heavens to predict the future.  God told us this in Genesis 1:14 "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years"  And let them be for signs....... what kind of signs? and for seasons..... what kind of seasons?  Quite simply this means Sacred Times.  

Joel 2:31  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and dreadful day of the Lord doth come.

 Revelation 6: [12] And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal, and behold there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair: and the whole moon became as blood:[13] And the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as the fig tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind: [14] And the heaven departed as a book folded up: and every mountain, and the islands were moved out of their places. 

These two references, one old and one new testament, tells you exactly what signs in the heavens to look for.  

Even the wise men, on the night of Christ's birth followed the heavens to his location.  

Matthew 24:36  "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone  

According to our Jewish friends this refers specifically to the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana) whose day and hour no one knows until the signs from the heavens are seen and reported back, confirmed, and then the trumpets are sounded.   Celebrated yearly on the 1st day of Tishra.  

God used the sounding of the trumpet in various ways with Israel. It was used to call the people to repentance, to awake from sin. It was used to remind them of the covenants He had with His people which showed His mercy and grace toward them. On blowing the horn on New Year’s Day it was to remind them of their short comings and sin.


And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (Isa. 27:12-13).

NOW......  the question remains, do the signs have to be visible from Israel?  62 tetrads since 1 AD, 8 of them falling on the Feasts, most of which not visible from Biblical Israel.



With the information that I have gathered thus far, I surmise that indeed the end times will occur when there is an eclipse during the Feast of the Trumpets.   I have not unearthed enough information in order to predict which one it will happen at.   I will go out on a limb and say that I feel that the eclipse will be visible from somewhere in the world, not just the Biblical Israel, because in my opinion "Israel" is the land of God's people, and those of us that believe in him are his people, and we are scattered throughout the world.  Contrary to what most think, I personally don't think God's land is limited by people, geography, or borders.

The Blood Moon Prophecy is an idea popularized by Christian pastors John Hagee and Mark Biltz, which states that an ongoing tetrad (a series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, with six full moons in between, and no intervening partial lunar eclipses) which began with the April 2014 lunar eclipse is a sign of the end times.

Overview

The moon appeared red during the April 2014 eclipse.

On April 15, 2014, there was a total lunar eclipse. It was the first of four consecutive total eclipses in a series, known as a tetrad (the remaining three eclipses will take place on October 8, 2014, April 4, 2015, and September 28, 2015). It is one of eight tetrads during the 21st century AD. As with most eclipses, the moon appeared red during the April 15 eclipse. The red color is caused by Rayleigh scattering of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere, the same effect that causes sunsets to appear red.

Around 2008, Biltz began predicting that the Second Coming of Jesus would occur in the fall of 2015. He said he had "discovered" an astronomical pattern that predicted the next tetrad would coincide with the end times. When the prediction failed, he pulled the article from his website, but continued to teach on the "significance" of the tetrad.

Four Blood Moons became a best seller, spending more than 150 days in Amazon.com's top 150 by April 2014 For the week ending March 30, 2014, it was the ninth best selling paperback, according to Publishers Weekly. By mid-April, Hagee's book had hit #4 on the The New York Times best-seller list in the advice category. As the eclipse approached, Hagee and Biltz's speculations gained mainstream media attention in publications such as USA Today and the International Business Times. Earth & Skyreported receiving "a number of inquiries about Blood Moon", prompting a response.

Despite the attention, it is not clear if many people actually believe the ideas. According to Christian Today, only a "small group of Christians" saw the eclipse as significant.

Writing for Earth & Sky Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd point out that the referenced verse also says the "sun will be turned into darkness", an apparent reference to a solareclipse. They note that since the Jewish Calendar is lunar, one sixth of all eclipses will occur during Passover or Sukkot. Furthermore, there have been 62 tetrads since the first century AD and eight of them have coincided with both the feasts. Thus, the event is not as unusual as Hagee and Biltz imply. Additionally, three of the four eclipses in the tetrad will not even be visible in the biblical homeland of Israel, casting further doubt on Hagee and Biltz's interpretation. Writing for Space.com, Geoff Gaherty said he saddened that "'prophets of doom' ... view these life-enriching events as portents of disaster" and said the eclipse was "hardly something to be concerned about".