THE SIGN OF JONAH

THE SIGN OF JONAH

                “And as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jon ah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so shall the son of Man be to this generation.” Luke 11:29, 30.

                We all pretty much know that the sign of Jonah was that he was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights and then he came out preaching. What we don’t know today is that there were other signs surrounding Jonah that were common knowledge in Jesus’ day

                Cuneiform tablets were dug up in the area of Ninevah (presently called Mosul) that dated to the time of Jonah. (763 B.C.) It talks about a number of events preceding Jonah’s visit. There was a year of a great plague followed by a year of civil war, then another plague and then a total eclipse of the sun.

                So Jonah simply strode into town and pointed to the sky and told Ninevah to repent because in 40 days God was going to destroy the city for its sins. God had set it all up for him. Jonah hated the Syrians because he knew from prophecy that they would soon conquer Israel. He didn’t want to preach to them and he certainly didn’t want them to respond. He wanted judgment to fall on them. so given those circumstances, it is flat out amazing that the entire pagan city repented including  the King himself.

                Well, how did Jonah know that judgment would come in 40 days? It was because this was a pattern related to God’s appointed times or Moeds. A total eclipse of the sun when it occurred on the first of Elul set a 40 day period of testing and repentance leading 33 days to Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets) and then 7 more days to Yom Kippur ( Day of atonement). Combined, these 40 days forms a specific 40 day time of testing followed either by repentance, or judgment. The sun represents the Gentile nations while the moon represents Israel.

                Just like Ninevah, America has had a series of warnings in the heavens over the past few years beginning in 2014-15 with the tetrad of blood moons and eclipses all falling on Jewish Feast Days, the Star of Bethlehem in 2016, and this fall, the final events in the heavens warning of Judgment upon the world and more specifically on America.

                It is interesting to note that the coming eclipse will begin on the West Coast right over the Cascadia Fault line, then over Yellowstone, then over the New Madrid Fault line travelling from Washington State to South Carolina and then just 7 years later another total eclipse will cross America going from southwest to Northeast so as to form an X over America.

                There was another total eclipse in 1914 that crossed over Europe and the Middle East. It was known as the World War 1 eclipse. It crossed the area that was devastated by WW1 and over the Middle East, bringing an end to the Ottoman Empire. Well, the Ottomans are again trying desperately to re-establish their Islamic Caliphate and we are facing World War 3 and this time the total Eclipse has blazed its trail of darkness over America.

                Interestingly, the total eclipse will begin at the exact minute of sunset in Israel, so in an event unprecedented in history both America and Israel will go dark at the same moment. We don’t know exactly what these signs portend; but I think we can safely say that these things announce a time of repentance for America and Israel. We have allowed the sins of the world to infest our lands in spite of the many blessings that God has bestowed upon us.

                Now we are turning our back on God, removing the Bible from public and educational use, denying the name of Jesus in public, aborting 60 million babies, passing laws concerning sexual perversion and same sex marriage and transgender issues, all of which fly in the face of God. We have embraced the gods of the world. Our nation is practically run by Satanism and by a Luciferian agenda. Much like Israel did in the past and we have turned from a Christian nation into a largely pagan nation. Even much of the church has lost its salt and light as it follows after the Beast.

                So many signs of the end are being fulfilled right now that the watchmen can’t even keep up with it. We don’t seem to realize that we are on the brink of financial collapse, famine, global war and pandemic style plagues. The great day of the Lord is coming and who shall be able to stand?

                There is a great falling away going on right now as spoken of in 2 Thess. 2:4 that is literally giving rise to the antichrist.

                Satan set this whole thing up way back in the 4^th century, when he diverted Christianity from its Judeo/Christian roots and guided them into an adulterous mixture of church and state. They followed after the pagans, changing the calendar to a pagan calendar so that the church became totally blind to God’s appointed Moeds (Feast Days). They changed God’s day of Rest to honor the Sun god. They replaced all of the Feast Days of the Lord with pagan holidays so as to obscure the signs and seasons that are built into the Jewish calendar.

                For about 1600 years now the church has been running deaf, dumb and blind. But now, just as earth’s final events are about to come to pass, there has been a resurrection of interest among Bible prophecy students and a revival of long forgotten Feast Days that will yet be fulfilled right down to the day and hour and minute just as the Spring Feasts were fulfilled at Jesus first coming.

                Replacement theology has blinded the church and now it is time to get our heads out of the sand and to figure out what God is trying to say to us with all of these signs in the heavens and on earth.

                The ignorant will say that this is astrology, or demonic star gazing, or occultism such as Gematria or Cabalism, but it is not.

                God said in connection with the sun, moon and stars, saying, “Let them be for signs and Moeds (appointed times) and so we have doubted the power of the Almighty God that He could actually set the time clocks in the heavens to coincide with His appointed feasts as given to Israel.

                Israel is God’s time peace to the rest of the world and it is high time to wake up and seek understanding. The Titanic is going down even as the world parties on, oblivious to the signs of their soon coming plunge to the bottom.

                The fact that there is even such a thing as a total eclipse of the sun is an absolute miracle. The sun is 400 times bigger than the moon, but it just so happens to be 400 times farther from the earth as the moon is from the earth. Can such a balance be a coincidence? The odds of this happening are so slim that it may not be true anywhere else in our universe.

                God knows the end from the beginning. He set it all up so that Satan would have his 6000 years to reign over the earth. He stole Adam’s God given dominion by deceit and lies. Adam and Eve fell for it and so God has given it all time to play out. But the times of the Gentiles is coming to a close. The 6000 years (6 days) has come to an end God has said “Enough is enough. We will now stage one cataclysmic series of events that will force mankind into either serving God or serving Satan. Final choices are now to be made before the kingdom of Satan is destroyed forever. Then will follow a Sabbath millennium of peace under Yeshua.

                Those Christians that have been lured into thinking that they can have God and the world too are in for a rude awakening. Those who think that we will be raptured out of here before choosing sides are sadly mistaken. Jesus is looking for a Bride without spot or wrinkle. He is calling them out of Babylon (The world system of the Beast.) The true church is about to give birth to the man child and the dragon is waiting to devour the child as soon as it is born. The man child will be caught up to heaven even as the woman flees to the wilderness while being pursued by the dragon.  These are identified as those who keep the commandments of God and how hold to the testimony of Jesus.

                Exactly what this sign portends we cannot be exactly sure. Will there be a rapture of the Bride, made up of the wise virgins who are ready for the marriage feast? Will the foolish virgins (the church that wasn’t ready) have to flee into the wilderness to be purified the hard way in order to bring forth gold tried in the fire?

                Please know this: If you have one foot in Christ and one foot in the world, you will probably fit into the foolish category and you will have to pay the price. Laodicea will not go into glory without repenting and waking up and putting eye salve on their blind eyes and overcoming by the blood of the Lamb. They must somehow come out of Laodicea and become a part of Philadelphia, or for them there will be no open door and no escape from the time of testing.

                There is much going on in the world and we can all speculation about what comes next, but rest assured that this is a time of soul searching. We have been satisfied with church membership and a loose relationship with the Lord. But Jesus is not interested in membership. He is looking for disciples, people who have been transformed by His Word and His Spirit in their lives, who have the passion of a Bride for her soon coming Bridegroom.

                Yes, we can look at world events, but this is deeply personal as well. Each one of us will stand before God and we will have to give an account of our lives. Have we really been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb? Have we really washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb? Have we come fully out of Babylon, or do we still love the things of this world more than we love our devotion to Jesus Christ? Has marriage to Him been our priority, or just a side issue?

                Have we studied to show ourselves approved unto God, or do we just let the clergy tell us what to think and do? Have we established an intimate relationship with our Lord and Savior, or do we just touch bases with Him once a week for an hour? Are we winning other souls to Christ or are we ashamed of the Gospel of our salvation. Have we taken up our cross and followed after Him; or are we doing it our way?

                These are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking ourselves in this season.

                The United Nation’s title for this year’s peace conference is “Together for Peace and Safety.”

But Jesus said that when they shall say, “Peace and Safety” then will come sudden destruction.” The blood moons and all of the signs in the heavens all coming on God’s appointed times, tell us that the time of the end is near. Lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near. But now is the time to examine your life as well as to share Jesus with family, neighbors and friends.

                We don’t have to make any predictions, we only need to know the times and seasons of His coming and this we can know if our eyes are open. Shalom.