Our pastor has done some daring things in his preaching to his Sunday morning congregation over the last three or four years or so, like unfolding Deuteronomy, verse by verse, and wading through that sea of “begots” in 1 Chronicles to get to the core issues found there. Then we checked into the on-again, off-again obedience and disobedience of the Israelites in the book of Judges. Surprisingly, perhaps, the gospel was evident through all of these, foreshadowed by the sacrifices and the repeated acts of redemption that God in his mercy afforded the Israelites despite their waywardness.

Just recently he began exploring 1 Corinthians in the same manner, verse by verse.  Now, therein lies some course stuff for common folks in “down home” America, and it’s due to get heavier. (We are in chapter 5 at this writing.)

In these first few chapters I lost count of the number of times the word “gospel” has been mentioned in his sermons. Sorting out who was following who and re-aligning them with Christ as the One to follow, then announcing that he was “determined not to know anything among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” seemed to be the apostle’s declaration of “simplicity in Christ.”

At the beginning of his second letter to them, Paul wrote this:  “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward” (2 Corinthians 1:12), thus emphasizing again his desire not to get too elaborate and detailed in proclaiming the gospel. He says they came with “simplicity and godly sincerity” to tell them of Christ.

As he nears the end of his communication, Paul again expresses his concern for the purity of the gospel and reveals the source of the “fleshly wisdom” that would oppose the simplicity of the gospel and of Christ:  “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).

When Paul declared, “I determined not to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified” and brought the crucifixion to center stage in the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians, he was being moved by the Holy Spirit to express God’s highest priority.  It was, and is, that “no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). And on this foundation, without any works of the flesh whatsoever rests man’s hope of redemption.

John declared in John 1:11-13:“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Redemption is totally the work of God in the life of one who has realized he is a sinner against God and receives Christ into his life. Jesus further elaborates on this in chapter three when He declares to Nicodemus, “You must be born again!”

Note in that verse 13 the authority to be called a child of God is not by family identity (of blood), nor by personal efforts (the will of the flesh), nor by someone else’s efforts (confirmation or baptism), but by being born of God from above, a totally spiritual action by God.

Yet we see how “fleshly wisdom” and the subtle work of Satan to defraud the gospel of its simplicity and to weaken its effectiveness have brought those added “necessaries” to the gospel. Such things as baptism, church membership (“in our church”), taking of communion, which day to worship God—or anything that is considered necessary for one to maintain his salvation.

Paul wrote in Colossians 2:9-10:

“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”

And, having that completeness in Christ, he says, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17).

There are some interesting accounts recorded in the Bible where, seemingly, little is required for a confirmation from the Lord that the person’s salvation is established. Yet, an eternal destiny hangs in the balance.

Probably the one most well-known is the account of the thief on the cross alongside of Jesus. In Luke’s account: “Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’” (Luke 23:39-43).

The responsive thief did three things: 1) He admitted his own guilt, deserving the punishment; 2) He recognized Jesus as One greater than His situation; 3) He appealed to Him for favor and mercy. And the Lord responded with the promise, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” He admitted his sinfulness and turned to the Lord in submission.

Luke writes of a man who lived in Jericho named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. He heard that Jesus was coming to Jericho, and he wanted to see who He was. Being of short stature and not able to see over the crowd, the account tells us, “So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully” (Luke 19:4-6).

But the people complained that Jesus was going to be a guest in the house of a known sinner! Luke goes on to say:

“Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:8-10).

This incident tells of a man who gladly welcomed Jesus into his house (life), called Him Lord, then repented, and Jesus announced that salvation had come to him that day.  Three things happened:  Recognition, repentance, and regeneration.

Another account that is striking in the contrasting attitude described in the story:  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:10.14).

If “justified” means what I think it does—made right before God—then that humble tax collector found the simple pathway to salvation.

In Romans 10:9-10 Paul writes, “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

It is a classic directive to obtain salvation, but later on, verse 13, he pens this:

“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

It is a quote from the Old Testament, Joel 2:32, and like another Old Testament quote, “The just shall live by faith,” which Paul also repeats again in Romans 1:17, we can see a surprisingly simple link between the two sections of the Bible.  Could it be summed up this way—turn from your sins and turn to Jesus Christ with your whole heart, and you will be saved!

I submit that it is not likely that many people would have in their understanding, or even knowledge of those details in Romans 10:9-10 (above) at their first encounter with Jesus Christ. I certainly did not, but I was made aware of my own personal sinfulness before Him, and my need to appeal to Him for forgiveness. In that setting, “Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” was all that was needed to be born-again.

Anytime there is an eclipse of the moon or the sun it seems to stir up a lot of interest, sometimes almost as the time Hailey’s comet came in view from earth a few years ago. To me it looked like a smoky dust ball in our southeastern sky, hardly visible, even with binoculars. Then, it was gone in a few days, never to return in our lifetime.

But four total lunar eclipses in two years, projected by NASA are getting considerable attention among Bible prophecy adherents. There is much more to it in that regard, however, than just four lunar eclipses in two years. It’s their timing, visibility and repetitive appearances on certain days of the years. Here is a list of their salient characteristics:

They will appear on specific annual feast days of Israel.  In 2014, on April 15, the Feast of Passover and October 8, 2014, the Feast of Tabernacles.

They will appear in 2015 on the Feast of Passover, April 4, and on the Feast of Tabernacles, September 28.

The moon and its signs are distinctly related to Israel. The Jewish calendar is based on a lunar month of thirty days and a 360-day year, with periodic adjustments. Different phases of the monthly moon cycle become reference points for much of Israel’s society.

The visibility of the eclipses around the world add to the mystery of these so-called “blood moons.”  The first one in 2014 will only be visible in Australia, Pacific and the Americas.  In October, it will be visible in Asia, Australia, Pacific and the Americas. In 2015, the first one will be seen in Asia, Australia, Pacific, and the Americas.  And, the last one will be visible in the East Pacific, Americas,

Europe, Africa, and West Asia. In the latter region it will be visible in Jerusalem as the moon sets.

Some Observations about These Characteristics

The full eclipses fall on the first and last feast days of the annual seven-feast cycle, seemingly and perhaps purposely bracketing the annual seven feast schedule for each year. Is it to call attention to this annually repeated pattern since God gave Moses the instructions for their observance so many centuries ago on Mount Sinai?

Is it not strange that while the signs of the moon are directed to Israel’s attention, rather than the nations (Gentiles), these total eclipses are not visible in Israel, except for the final one, and that, hardly at all? It begs the question, why?

Let’s look at the feasts and their purposes in God’s plan. They were given to Moses as part of the declaration of the laws of God for the Hebrew nation. They are listed in Leviticus 23 in brief form. Hebrews 10:1 declares the law is but a shadow of the reality that was to come. That is, the law and its sacrifices were not the real thing, but were a foreshadowing of that reality then yet to come. Colossians 2:16-17 reveals that reality is Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” as John the Baptist declared in John 1:29.

These feast days, or festivals, had future fulfillments, and we can see that the first four were fulfilled in short order at the time of the crucifixion and shortly thereafter. Jesus was the Passover Lamb. It is unique how exact the timing was for His death. While the priests at the temple were preparing the lambs for that scheduled sacrifice, Jesus was being interrogated by the religious leaders and their Roman counterparts, and they were preparing Him for His sacrifice.  Yet, Jesus was not sacrificed there; He was not part of that sacrifice, and he was sacrificed outside the city.  He was not of the tribe of Levi, which had charge of that other sacrifice; He was of the tribe of Judah and of the order of Melchizedek, that priest of a much higher order (Hebrews 7).

Jesus was buried and in the tomb during the next feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Unleavened bread is flat bread; it does not rise in its baking. It is essentially dead, thus Jesus fulfilled that shadowed reality in His burial.

But on Sunday morning He rose from the grave and became the first fruit of the resurrection, corresponding to the first harvest time of the year, celebrated as the Feast of “First Fruits.”

Then, seven Sabbaths plus one day later the Feast of Pentecost was scheduled.  It was the time of the second harvest, and the fulfillment was the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell the very lives of the believers, as He was promised.  Jesus had told the disciples, when revealing to them that a Comforter would be coming after He departed, saying in John 14:17, “Bow He is with you, but then he will be in you.” Note that this day was a Sunday, the day the church, the body of Christ, was born.

No other feasts have been fulfilled since then, when in less than sixty days four of the foreshadowing feasts were turned into reality. Once in Jesus’ ministry, probably about this time of the year, he said to His disciples:

“Do you not say, It is yet four months, and the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white to harvest already” (John 4:35).

It is apparent in the context that He is not talking about the fields of grain before them. Sometime later, as Jesus was about to ascend to His Father in heaven following His resurrection, the disciples had one last question to ask Him:

“Lord, do You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus responded, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you. And you shall be witnesses to Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:6-8).

About ten days later, the church was born and here, we see its mission. A few years later, at the conference in Jerusalem, that mission was clearly defined: “God at the first visited the nations (Gentiles) to take out of them a people for His name” (Acts 15:14).  This period of time since Pentecost has been given to that mission, as spelled out in Acts 1:8.  That four months until the harvest in the Jewish annual calendar has become a gap of many centuries.  We have seen the “times and seasons” that Jesus spoke of, in reference to the question asked about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, now come to pass. The kingdom has been restored to Israel as an independent nation.

There have been no feast fulfillments since Pentecost, yet there is one more time of harvest on the Jewish calendar each year—the fall harvest. The next feast, the Feast of Trumpets, is unique in its manner of practice as an annual festival. It falls on the first day of the Jewish civil New Year, timed with the appearance of the new moon that starts the month’s new cycle. The requirement of exact correlation with the timing of the new moon at sundown meant that a two-day option had to be created in case cloudy weather prohibited a vision of the timing of the new moon. (As you may recall, Jewish days begin at sundown and end at the next sundown.)

At the opening trumpet blast from the temple in local practice, the field workers would immediately stop their harvesting and go to the place of meeting for worship.  There, they would meet with the Lord.  It is not that difficult to see the parallel with Paul’s description of the Rapture of the believers in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:  “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be with the Lord.”

It is not clear exactly when during the festival would the Rapture occur, for Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:52 of a “last trumpet” when the transformations happen.  In the Thessalonians passage, Jesus “descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God.” He also calls it a mystery, and certainly it is, for Jesus

has said, “Therefore watch, for you do not know either the day or the hour in which the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 25:13).

The next feast, the Feast of Atonement, was scheduled on the tenth day of that seventh month (of the religious year). Only believers are qualified for atonement, and this festival foreshadowed that provision in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.  For the unsaved Jew that provision is not effective until they have recognized that Jesus is their promised Messiah and believe on Him. According to the prophecy of Zechariah, there is a time coming when Israel will look upon Jesus in a much different light, like the light of understanding and reality, and of bitterness and repentance:

“And I will pour on the house of David, and on the people of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers.  And they shall look on Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be bitter over Him, as the bitterness over the first-born” (Zechariah 12:10). It will be the time of the true atonement for Israel, as foreshadowed in the Feast of Atonement.

Zechariah goes on to say, in the next chapter, “And it shall be in all the land, says Jehovah, two parts in it shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, It is My people; and they shall say, Jehovah is my God” (Zechariah 13:8-9). You can read the rest of the story in Revelation 12, where that great red dragon, the devil, chases them into the wilderness.

That final feast of the seven, the Feast of Tabernacles, points to the coming of Jesus Christ back to earth as the conquering Sovereign, who will close the seven years of tribulation with destruction of evil forces aligned against God, including the man of sin and the false prophet. Those two will be “thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20). In the following chapter we are told what happens to the devil—he is cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand  years and Jesus reigns on earth, on the throne of David in Jerusalem.

The Bible says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt [tabernacled] among us” (John 1:14), and again, He will come to dwell among us, as foreshadowed by the Feast of Tabernacles, thus climaxing that historical calendar of God’s plan for Israel, His chosen nation, and His church of Jewish and Gentile believers.

The questions we should be asking now are:

What is in these feasts that would cause the bracketing of the seven for each of two years?
For whom are the signs meant, since they are not visible in the land of Israel, except in their fading moments on the second day?
One of my readers alerted me to the following possibility. Noting the worldwide visibility of the eclipses, except in Israel and the Middle East, remembering also that God has scattered the Jews among all the nations, we cannot forget that God is still calling all Jews

back to their homeland in Israel. With our focus on the nation and land of Israel, we forget that a great number of Jews are still scattered among the nations, and those nations are the very ones in the visible path of the blood red moons.  For example, there are about 5.5 million Jews still in the United States and over a third of a million in Canada. How many more are in the sweep of the moon signs over other countries?

The one feast of the remaining three to be fulfilled, the Feast of Atonement, is the one that directly confronts unrepentant Israel with its foreshadowing of their Messiah’s unveiling before them. Their recognition and acceptance of Him is set forth in prophecy, as noted above.  Possibly these two factors—the full return of Jews to Israel and the fulfillment of the Feast of Atonement—are the core elements of the message of the moons.

Are these factors, then, clues to the purpose of the moon eclipses, their appearances on the first and last feasts of the annual series, and why Israel, itself, the historical lunar signs recipient, is not the focus of these signs?

Is God making a final call to the yet scattered Jews back to their homeland? Are the Rapture and the Atonement fulfillments a part of this unique, two-year alert and warning of things to come?  Is God’s appointed time now upon us?