Will we Rapture on Pentecost, July 21 or July 30th?
There are many people that are looking for the Rapture and speculating that it may occur on the anniversary of when the Holy Spirit was poured out.
Many of you may be thinking that Pentecost was weeks ago, but a careful reading of scripture shows that it occurred at the Feast of New Wine, 50 days or 7 complete sabbaths after Shavout.
The next question we must ask is, “When is Shavout?” which ultimately turns into a question of when is First Fruits after passover, and what is the meaning of 7 complete Sabbaths.
But first, lets look at the case for the Pentecost Rapture.
The Rapture is a Birth
The rapture is a birth, described is Isaiah 66:
Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
8Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
9Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God. — Isaiah 66:7
The church was also “born” on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and as I recently demonstrated, I believe Yashua was also born on Pentecost. Here is a quick review.
In a recent post I produced compelling evidence that Yashua and the Church were born on Pentecost. I went over the Priestly Cycles that both prove the Lunar Sabbath and disprove Solar Calendar and continuous weekly cycle. And calculated when Yashua born, baptized, and wandered in the desert.
I showed this chart which had John the Baptist’s Father serving in the Temple on First Fruits, the 1st day of the week after Passover. This is when an angle appeared. Based upon that I could estimate that the Angel Appeared to Mary in the 6th month of the year, which is also the 6th month of Elisabeth’s pregnancy. This would have Yashua conceived during the fall feasts. If you add 38 Lunar weeks or 39 traditional weeks, the length of a healthy pregnancy, from Tabernacles, when Yashua came and tabernacled among us, you arrive at his Birth on the Feast of New Wine and Pentecost.
This is the same day the Church was born with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit when the Disciples were accused of being drunk on New Wine. This is the same day Moses came down with the two stone tablets after spending at least week and 40 days upon the mountain after Shavout when the commandments were first given verbally. This is the same day the golden calf was found and 3000 were killed. This is the same day that 3000 were saved at Pentecost.
Jesus is the word, the stone tablets are the word made “physical”. In the 40th year from this Pentecost the temple was destroyed in 70 AD.
This is the same day Peter quotes Joel 2 and says:
In the last days, God says,
I will pour out My Spirit on all people…
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.”
This is major because Peter quotes Joel who just described the Day of YHUH, which is what we are very near to.
Confirmation that Yashua was Baptized on Shavout
If we are to prove that Yashua was born on Pentecost, then having some confirmation that he was baptized at Shavout will confirm the timeline. If he was baptized on Shavout, then Yashua would begin his ministry on Pentecost when he was officially 30 years old, after spending 40 days in the desert just like Moses.
John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. … Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
Right in the middle of John teaching about baptism, he brings up baptism with fire and then references the fan used to separate the wheat from the chafe on the threshing floor and the gathering of wheat into his garner (barn). Shavout is the First fruits of Wheat and the Wheat harvest.
This same theme is found in Jeremiah 51 talking about the Fall of Babylon the great:
And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land (rapture): for in the day of trouble (tribulation) they shall be against her round about.
Now by this logic, one could argue for a rapture on Shavout during the wheat harvest, but that clearly didn’t happen. So we cannot rely upon the parable of fanners and fire to set the date of the rapture. Can we rely upon the parallel to New Birth of Pentecost to evidence the Birth of a Nation?
The theory could look like, “Rapture on Pentecost”, “Destruction on 9th of Av”. It sounds real clean and like a good pattern match to the typology. Especially given this history of Jerusalem being destroyed on the 9th of Av.
When is Pentecost?
Some people place New Wine and 9th of Av on the same day! They do this because they start counting to Shavout after Unleavened Bread. The argument is that unleavened bread isn’t a “complete sabbath week” because it wasn’t offered until the middle of the first day.
I recently came across this text from Philo:
The solemn assembly (Atzeret) on the occasion of the festival of the sheaf having such great privileges, is the prelude to another festival of still greater importance; for from this day the fiftieth day is reckoned. — Philo Special Laws II, XXX
I have previously done an in depth study on the Atzeret as it applies to Joel 2, the rapture, and the 8th day of Tabernacles. There is only one other use of this word and it comes from Deuteronomy 16:8, documenting the last day of the feats of Unleavened Bread.
Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly (Atzeret) to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein. — Deuteronomy 16:8
So Philo connects the Atzeret to First Fruits and indicates that this is the point from which Pentecost is reckoned. This appears to contradict with the text from Leviticus 23:15
And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete. — Lev 23:15
The text of Leviticus appears to point to the 16th in two different ways. First it says it is the day after the Sabbath, second it references the day the sheaf was offered, which we know was the 16th. So you would think you would start counting on the 16th; however, the word “sabbath” can refer to a 7 day week ending in a sabbath day. So you could also interpret this as:
And ye shall count unto you from the morning after the “sabbath week”: “starting the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering”; seven “sabbath weeks” shall be complete.
This would align with the testimony of Philo. I consider this a reasonable interpretation which completely transforms my prior interpretation.
Shavout gets moved to the 16th of the 3rd month.
We then have to count 50 days from here to arrive at Pentecost. The question is whether these 50 days are another way of saying 7 complete sabbaths. Because 50 days from the 16th of the 3rd month is the 6th of the 5th month. But 7 complete Sabbaths would land on the 9th of Av.
The word “day” in Hebrew has many different meanings depending upon context and can also represent an arbitrary “unit of time”. The dead sea scrolls indicate that they counted 7 complete sabbaths.
Given the ambiguity on the counting, I have identified the relevant watch dates for the rest of the year. I call them watch dates, but that is a general watching for Yah to do something significant.
Could we rapture on Pentecost?
Lets go back to Joel 2 to answer that question, just before the segment quoted by Peter at Pentecost we find the following:
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month
And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. — Joel 2:23
This looks like we need to wait for all the first fruits to be complete.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
Gather the people (rapture), sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and infants: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. — Joel 2:15–16
Before the rapture and the Day of the Lord we need the 144k to be sealed.
And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!” — Revelation 6:6
I believe the oil and the wine are those anointed and empowered by the spirit to witness.
Do not harm the land or sea (masses) or trees (nations) until we have sealed (with oil) the foreheads of the servants of our God. — Revelation 7:3
All of that said, I think the biggest reason we cannot see a rapture yet is because debts/sins are not forgiven until the Day of Atonement. It is on the Day of Atonement that the Jubilee is proclaimed. Any rapture prior to the Day of Atonement would be premature.
I think Day of Atonement is when the decision will be made on whose names are written in the book, 12 days later judgment comes.
After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9
The fact that they are holding palm branches in their hands is the key that they come from the Feast of Tabernacles.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly (Atzeret, 7/22): Gather/Rapture the People.
I think scripture is very clear about what has to happen and those who are looking for parallels in other feast days are likely engaging in rationalizations based upon a desire to be raptured sooner rather than later. When you are attached to outcomes it blinds your ability to interpret scripture because your brain will rationalize without you even realizing it.
