Chanukah: The Festival of Dedication :: By Jeff Van Hatten

Published on: December 13, 2020 by RR7 Category:General Articles

John 10:22-23 – “It was winter, and Yeshua was in Jerusalem at the time of the Festival of Dedication, and he was walking in the Portico of Solomon inside the Temple.”

Chanukah (sometimes spelled Chanukkah, Hanukah, or Hanukkah) is celebrated each fall, generally between Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Day. According to the scripture above, Yeshua was amongst the many who celebrated the yearly festival.

The Chanukah Holiday

Key Scripture: John 10:22-23 – “It was winter, and Yeshua was in Jerusalem at the time of the Festival of Dedication, and he was walking in the Portico of Solomon inside the Temple.”
Date of Holiday: Kislev/Tevet (November/December) generally between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
Key Words: Lampstand, Light, Menorah
Actions: The Menorah candles are lit, starting with the center Shamash (servant) candle, and each subsequent candle is lit from the center candle.
Fulfillment: Yeshua’s is the Servant Candle

Other Names

The Hebrew word Chanukah [חֲנֻכָּה – H2598] means: dedication, or consecration.

It comes from the root word, chanak [חָנַךְ –H2596].

In Greek, the word is egkainia [ἐγκαίνια – G1456].

Chanukah: Can be spelled as: Chanukkah, Hanukah, or Hanukkah.

Chanukah is also called:

The Feast of Dedication: Celebrates the cleansing and re-dedication of the Temple during the period of the Maccabees.
The Festival of Light: Celebrates the miracle of the burning of the Menorah for eight days despite having only one day’s supply of oil.

The Meaning of Chanukah

Chanukah was prophesied by Daniel: “In his place a despicable person will arise, on whom the honor of kingship has not been conferred, but he will come in a time of tranquility and seize the kingdom by intrigue” (Daniel 11:21), and “Armed forces will come at his order and profane the sanctuary and fortress. They will abolish the daily burnt offering and set up the abomination that causes desolation” (Daniel 11:31).

Chanukah prophesies that events that transpired in the time of the Maccabees will transpire again during the Tribulation Period – that apostasy will again come in part from within the religious circle – the priests will give in to the political leader of the day – the Antichrist or Beast, who will set up another Abomination that causes Desolation.
Chanukah is also a time of thanksgiving.
Chanukah celebrates the restoration of the Holy Temple after its desecration by Antiochus IV, also known as Antiochus Epiphanes.
Chanukah commemorates an important victory over tyranny.

The Historical Background

Antiochus IV, also known as Antiochus Epiphanes, which means “god manifest,” was one of the successors of Alexander the Great. He oppressed the Jews severely, placed a Hellenistic priest in the Temple, massacred many Jews, prohibited them from practicing circumcision and other rites, and desecrated the Temple by placing a statue of Zeus while sacrificing pigs on the altar in 167 BC. (Daniel and Yeshua reference this as the Abomination That Causes Desolation – Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, and Mark 13:14). The Jews even had a nickname for Antiochus: “Epimames,” which means “the mad man”!

Many Jews chose to comply with the new laws, forsaking Torah to save their lives. Others stood fast to the covenant, and paid with their life for their convictions.

Mattathias the Hasmonean, a Kohen (Priest), and his son Yehudah (Judah) Maccabaeus joined forces and were able to retake the temple. Upon doing so, they found only enough oil to keep the Menorah lit for one day, but miraculously it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the Menorah. It was on the 25th day of Kislev, exactly three years after the first swine had been sacrificed on the altar, that Yehudah and his men reinstated the daily burnt offerings to the Lord in 164 BC in memory of the cleansing of the Temple from the pollution of Antiochus IV.

The re-dedication of the Temple was celebrated for eight days, which came to be remembered and celebrated as the Festival of Chanukah. The festival centers around the lighting of the candles on the Menorah. Another tradition is called the Dreidel game, which commemorates when the Jews had to conceal that they were still studying Torah. They gathered in caves or private places, posted a lookout to let them know when the authorities were coming, and spun the dreidel. The dreidel is marked with four Hebrew letters: Nun, Gimmel, Heh, and Shin. The letters represent the Hebrew phrase, “nes gadol hayah sham”: “a great miracle happened here.”

The entire story of the abomination that causes desolation and the retaking and cleansing of the temple can be found in the Apocrypha in Books 1-4 Maccabees.

The Modern Background

Each year, Jews light the candles on a nine-branched Menorah called a chanukkiah [חַנֻכִּיָּה‎].

The center candle known as the shamash [שמש‎], which means attendant or servant, is raised higher than the other candles. This candle is lit first. All the other candles are lit from this center candle. The candles are progressively inserted into the Menorah, starting from the right and ending with the far-left candle, but are lit on successive nights from left to right as one honors the newer thing first.

Chanukah is eight days long and is symbolic of something that is one step above the natural order, above nature and its limitations. The greatly outnumbered Maccabees’ resolve to battle the Greeks wasn’t logical or natural but took faith and courage that are not part of normal human nature. This resolve, therefore, merited a miracle higher than nature—a miracle that lasted eight days.

The Christian Background

Yeshua is the light that has come into the world (John 8:12, 9:5, 12:46, etc).

Yahweh has not only the Temple in Jerusalem, but also has another Temple: Christians are the temple of the living word – believers in Him are a temple for Him, and He dwells in them. Like the Menorah in the stone Temple, Yeshua is the light in our temple of flesh. Yeshua is THE servant candle!

In ancient times, the Temple of Jerusalem was desecrated by pagan invaders. Without the presence of Yahweh’s Ruach Ha’Kodesh, we become a temple of desecration, defiled, darkened, filled with idols … a temple created to be holy but has fallen from its purpose.

The Mission Today: celebrate your own Chanukah, remove the idols, cleanse your chambers, rededicate and reconsecrate your temple to Yahweh/Yeshua, and the Ruach Ha’Kodesh – to Elohim.

The Prophetic Nature of Chanukah

Ecclesiastes 1:9 – “What has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

Genesis 12:3 – “I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

The Greek nation waged war against the Jews, trying to instill their philosophies and teachings into the Jewish mindset. It only lasted for a short time!

Eventually, Biblical faith would replace Greek paganism. As the Greeks had left the Temple of Jerusalem desolate, today the temples of the Greeks and their gods are abandoned.

The invasion of Antiochus Epiphanes and his Abomination of Desolation was just a shadow of the coming Abomination under the Antichrist or Beast. The desolation begins when an evil king sets up an idol in the holy place. Antiochus set up a statue of Zeus. The False Prophet will create an image of the Beast that all will be required to worship (Revelation 13:14-15).

Chanukah foretold the apostasy of Yahweh’s people and foretells the future great apostasy of the people of the world. Just as the priests, rabbis, and people of ancient Israel turned away from Torah and embraced the ways of the Greek nation, so it will be during the Tribulation Period. People will abandon any worship of Yahweh and embrace the lies of the Beast and the False Prophet, worshipping them instead (Daniel 9:27, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, Revelation 13:7-9).

Alexander the Great and his generals tried to bring the Hellenistic culture to the entire world. During the Tribulation Period, the Beast will try to form a One-World Government, One-World Religion, and One- World Economy. They sought to merge all cultures into one and to compel everyone to abandon their faith. Any culture, faith, people, or person that stood in its way, it tried to stamp out. The Beast will try to do the same.

The Beast system will try to establish a global culture, persecute Yahweh’s people, criminalize moral living, abolish the Bible, blaspheme the Name of God, desecrate all that is sacred, and prohibit observing the Sabbaths and other Biblical celebrations. The Beast system will try to merge all cultures into one and to compel everyone to abandon their faith. Any culture, faith, people, or person that stands in its way, it will try to stamp out. Just as in the days of Antiochus, many will abandon their faith in Yahweh and will take the Mark of the Beast.

Chanukah prophesies both an early Jewish apostasy and takeover, and a global apostasy and takeover. Only the return of Yeshua will reverse this vile takeover, re-establish the Holy Temple and accomplish its re-dedication. Chanukah is a very specific prophecy of what has been and what is going to happen in the end times.

Chanukah Lessons

Everyone has a purpose – one is not to fail to stand up for Yahweh, his people, or, in this case, his Temple.
Yahweh answers prayer – He is in control. Yahweh has covenanted with the Jewish people to be their God. Yahweh will not allow another to take his place, no matter how hard they try.
Be Faithful to Yahweh in all you do – Bowing only to Yahweh may land you in trouble, but Yahweh is more than able to overcome any obstacles you face, even against principalities, powers, rulers, and the spiritually wicked in high places (Ephesians 6:12).
Yahweh can turn mourning into joy – The Temple was retaken and rededicated.

Interesting Correlations

In Matthew Chapters 24 and 25, we see many aspects of Chanukah being repeated.

When Yeshua begins with the phrase of “wars and rumors of wars” the thoughts of his Jewish hearers would turn to Chanukah.
When Yeshua speaks about “many being offended and betraying each other” and the “love of many waxing cold” his Jewish hearers would say: That’s exactly what happened during Chanukah!
When he speaks about seeing “the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place” his Jewish hearers would say: This is exactly what happened 170 years earlier during Chanukah!
When Yeshua says, “Then let them which are in Judea flee into the mountains” these are the exact words of the Maccabees after they killed the officer of Antiochus.
When Yeshua talks about the good and evil servants, his Jewish hearers would say that during Chanukah there were faithful (good) Jews who held to the Torah and unfaithful (evil) ones who adhered to the Greek mindset.
Finally, when Yeshua tells the parable about the wise and foolish virgins, and the wise have oil to relight their lamps, his Jewish hearers would have immediately thought about the one-day supply of oil that kept the Menorah lit for eight days during the time of the Maccabees: It is Chanukah all over!

Website: https://raptureparty.net/

Email: jeff@raptureparty.net

Dec 14, 2020

Published on: December 13, 2020 by RR7 Category:Nearing Midnight

All Eyes on Georgia

It appears that some form of monkey business took place on election night in the selection of our next president and vice-president. When Trump was 800,000 votes ahead in Pennsylvania, it didn’t seem mathematically impossible for Biden to close the gap. I watched in amazement as 90% of the new votes came in for Biden. The only way for this to be possible is that 28% of registered Republicans decided to vote for the other party.

Trump did better with Blacks, women, and Hispanics across all states. He came up short in the needed 270 electoral college votes because he under-performed in six key swing states. With the Supreme Court having passed on an opportunity to rule on Pennsylvania’s violation of its own state constitutional rules regarding federal elections, it is clear the justices don’t have the stomach to get involved.

I still have a tiny amount of hope that evidence of massive fraud will come to light. The house legislatures in five of the swing states are controlled by Republicans, and they have the constitutional right to change their electoral votes. Republicans are so mousey when it comes to standing up for any cause, deceased people would have to come back to life and say they didn’t vote for Biden before fraud would be declared.

Everything now hangs in the balance in the state of Georgia. If the Democrats win both runoff races on January 5, they will have a 50-seat (plus tiebreaker Kamala Harris) majority in the Senate. This would lead to the nightmare scenario of Chuck Schumer becoming Senate Majority leader.

Just a few weeks ago, Schumer told MSNBC’s Joy Reid, “I’m not busting my chops to become majority leader to do very little or nothing. We are going to get a whole lot done. And as I’ve said, everything, everything is on the table.”

When probed as to whether statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C. were on the docket, Schumer replied, “I would — believe me, on D.C. and Puerto Rico, particularly if Puerto Rico votes for it; D.C. already has voted for it and wants it. I’d love to make them states.”

If the Democrats win both runoff races on January 5, they will likely pack the Supreme Court and end the filibuster—appointing activist justices who would legislate from the bench, and axing a rule that encourages coalition-building and prevents simple-majority tyranny in the Senate.

In a typical year, the two Republican incumbents, Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, would both have a 90% chance of winning their races. The two Democratic challengers are radical leftists. Raphael Warnock is an advocate of the BLM agenda who has attacked police, attacked the military, and said he would raise taxes. Warnock has called police “gangsters, thugs, bullies and a threat to our children.”

What gives me concern about this runoff race is the Democrats’ magical success with absentee ballots. Nearly one million voters have already requested mail-in ballots for the runoff elections, according to state election officials, including more than 600,000 people who were eligible to receive the ballots automatically. In the November election, Biden won nearly 400,000 more absentee ballots than Trump.

The only legal way for the Democrats to get so many votes is that they have a massive political machine that goes out and gets people to vote for their candidate. If they go to a church and hand absentee ballots out to everyone, the question is what happens to the ballots that went to the wrong candidate?

One sign of irregularity from the November election is that thousands of ballots were only cast for the president. Some people may have cared only about the top race, but I can’t imagine not voting in the House and Senate races.

If you live in Georgia, your vote on January 5th will matter a thousand times what it did in November.

Again, the odds are very low that both Republican incumbents would be defeated. If the Democrats pull off a miracle of miracles, then we will know for sure that the system is rigged.

I know many Christians are scratching their heads and wondering why God allowed Biden to steal or win the election. I think it has to do with the Bible’s prediction that things will get progressively worse as we get closer to the tribulation hour. Since Trump has made liberal media and the Democrats as radical as possible with their hatred of him, it’s time to move on. As the world quickly transforms into a police state fit for the Antichrist, it will soon be time for the Church to also move on. Come, Lord Jesus.

“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

— Todd

A friend of the site has created a smartphone-friendly RR app on Google play. Here is the link to the download page:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wRaptureReadyEndTimesNewsProphecyDoctrineofPreTribRapture_12467295&hl=en_US&gl=US

— Todd

God’s Warning to Evildoers

Never-ending reports bombard our radios, television sets, computers, and personal devices every second of every day. They continuously bring to light (to the spiritually attuned) the evil that comes from every direction. We have had to agree with Lot, who endured evil that perhaps eclipsed even that of our time. We, like Lot, are sorely vexed.

One Christian friend emailed me her vexation—voiced through the synthesized speech program I have to use due to being blind. She indicated she shared the note with many others as well, including whomever looks at email at the White House.

She says the following, in part:

Terry: Below is an excerpt from your commentary today. You are right. My own anger and indignation just keeps building, just as you describe.

Still, as the battle rages, the force that resists is largely hidden, spiritually speaking. But it is there, and it is a pent-up force that I sense is about to be unleashed in ways those of us within whom it resides can’t fully fathom.

This is the Lord’s Day, which I normally devote to sweet communion with Jesus in the Lord’s Supper and meditation and prayer, but I woke up with angry words in my mind this morning and before I could find peace and solace with our Lord I had to vent—and the result is what I just emailed off to our do-nothing Attorney General…

TO: Bill Barr

Rudy Giuliani says Bill Barr does NOT want to know the truth, which has been painfully obvious to us all.

AG Barr: Where are your grand juries, sadistic prosecuting attorneys and FBI Gestapo whom we have watched for the past four years relentlessly pursuing, persecuting, falsely accusing and framing innocent American patriots like General Mike Flynn who have admirably devoted their lives to serving their country and UPHOLDING THE SACRED OATHS THEY TOOK TO DO SO – THE SAME OATH YOU TOOK!??

Where are all these frenzied forces of yours now that we have thousands of sworn affidavits, video, audio, and reams of documentation of REAL crimes – HIGH crimes – TREASON, assault, murder, rioting, insurrection, looting, threats of violence and murder against the President, members of Congress, and anybody who doesn’t subscribe to the Communist takeover you are evidently passively endorsing?

Why is nobody being arrested and charged? Why has the DOJ/FBI suddenly turned into a big fat blob of dead flesh just sitting in their chairs like rotting corpses from coast to coast and stinking America up with their corruption and decay after their four-year feeding frenzy against innocent people?

Worms. Slimy, squirming, disgusting, traitorous little RED worms.

The LOVE OF THE TRUTH is a gift from God. All who refuse this gift of God are damned to eternal torment.

“because they received not the love of the truth…God shall send them strong delusion…That they all might be damned…” 2nd Thessalonians 2:10–12

(My thanks to Mary for sharing her…vexation.)

The causes of Lot’s vexation as compared to Mary’s vary only in terms of the issues: those of ancient times versus those of our own times. The chief architect of the evil of Lot’s day, our day, and all other times in human history is the same. Satan invades with his surreptitious insidiousness the minds—the very souls—of fallen humanity. He foments rebellion, brings forth false accusation, and implants hatred within the thoughts of “earth dwellers,” as people are called in the KJV.

Yet the most egregious of the vexing evil is the same, and is front and center in these times as it was back then. Political wickedness filled ancient culture in Sodom, in that all of society obviously was mad with sensuality and lust that was permitted—even condoned, no doubt by government. However, homosexuality reigned supreme, it’s obvious from the Genesis chapter 19 account. The LGBTQ lobby today, although population-wise is small, has managed to politically/legally all but silence those who would oppose their assault on the morality of the nation.

The past four or five years have given rise to evil that threatens to unleash total debauchery like that out of which the Lord took Lot, whom He called “just” (meaning “righteous”). The God of Heaven says the following by way of warning for those who follow the pernicious ways of the evildoers of Lot’s day. The Lord, through the Psalmist, begins by giving those who are “sorely vexed” great hope.

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” (Psalms 37:1–11)

To understand fully God’s pronouncement against evil and His promise to the righteous, read the entire passage of Psalm 37.

But for those who are presently entrapped in evildoing, there remains hope—Jesus Christ, the “Blessed Hope.”

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

—Terry