Showing posts with label Brian Hennessy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Hennessy. Show all posts

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Is the Feast of Trumpets Being Fulfilled In Our Day? - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Is the Feast of Trumpets Being Fulfilled In Our Day?

Thursday, March 09, 2017 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY
As most Christian lovers of Israel now realize, the three major feasts or holy convocations God gave to Israel all pointed to a New Covenant fulfillment in Messiah. The Hebrew word for “convocation,” mikra, implies a “dress rehearsal.”
They were preparations for a deeper spiritual reality.
Although grouped into three convocations, there were actually seven feasts in number, requiring all Israel to be present in Jerusalem at the time of their celebration. They are Pesach (Passover, Leavened Bread, First Fruits), Shavout (Pentecost) and Succoth (Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles). Those clustered around Passover and Pentecost are known as the Spring Feasts. Those connected to Tabernacles were the Fall Feasts. Taken together, all seven represent the salvation plan of God in Messiah.
Now we know the Spring Feasts have already had their New Covenant fulfillment.
Passover was fulfilled in Jerusalem when Yeshua was crucified for our sins on the very day the feast was celebrated. And his followers were born again. Pentecost too was fulfilled on the very date, the seventh Sunday after First Fruits, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early church.
But Tabernacles still awaits its spiritual fulfillment, which will no doubt also occur in its assigned season. And also take place in Jerusalem.
The question is, could we have actually witnessed the fulfillment of the first of the three fall feasts associated with Tabernacles, namely Trumpets, without realizing it?
I believe so.
It dawned on me recently that when Israel won the Six-Day War and recaptured Jerusalem and the Temple Mount on June, 7 1967 had to be the fulfillment of Trumpets on God’s calendar.
Here’s why.
When the Jews regained control of Jerusalem after 2000 years of exile it was like the blast of a shofar (trumpet) that sent a shockwave that resonated throughout Israel and around the world. Aside from the pure emotional excitement of the event, four major spiritual awakenings trace their beginnings to that day. All were in keeping with God’s assigned purposes for the blowing of trumpets, which were to announce special times, gather His people together, break camp or go to war.
The first awakening took place among assimilated Jews in Russia who suddenly rediscovered their Jewish heritage and wanted to go home to Israel. When Russia refused to let them go they were termed Refuseniks. Their courage in face of great persecution eventually won them international support and permission to emigrate.
A second awakening also occurred among the Jews, primarily in the West, when suddenly thousands began to believe in Yeshua as Messiah. That was the start of the Messianic Jewish Movement.
The third awakening erupted in the Christian world. After seeing the miraculous way Israel recaptured Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Christians suddenly realized God was fulfilling the ancient prophecies of Israel’s restoration. This led many to rediscover the Hebraic roots of our faith, inspiring the Christian Zionism Movement that has done so much to bless Israel as of late.
The fourth big awakening also took place among Christians and became known as the Charismatic Movement. Nominal Christians from the dead mainline churches were born again and began to move in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
If I am correct in this, it means we are on the verge of seeing the fulfillment of the next holy convocation, which is the Day of Atonement. Called Yom Kippur by the Jews, it is the holiest day on their religious calendar and occurs ten days after Trumpets. Historically on that day the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the whole nation. Also, every fiftieth year on that date the trumpet was blown to announce the Year of Jubilee “when you shall proclaim a release [from all debts]… and each of you shall return to his own property” (Leviticus 25:10). It is the verse inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia celebrating the 50th anniversary of the city’s founding.
It really gets exciting when we realize Jun. 7th of this year will be the fiftieth anniversary of the recapture of Jerusalem! Could that mean the Ten Days of Awe following Trumpets are over and God’s Yom Kippur could begin to be fulfilled this very year? Could we actually be on the verge of seeing Zechariah 12:10–14 come to pass in our day?
And one more thing. Could the election of Donald Trump(et) signal the final shofar sound of this feast day ? And if so, will he become the new King Cyrus who many Christians are likening him too? The one who released the Jews from Babylon and helped them restore their temple? Or will he prove to be the new Constantine, “that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts… who was waging war with the saints and overpowering them?” (Dan. 7:20,21) Will he be the Great Deceiver “who’ll take his seat in the temple displaying himself as being God” (2 Thess.2:4)?
Stay tuned.
Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples
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Friday, November 4, 2016

COMMENTARY: Why Do So Many Christians Love a Jewish Israel? - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

COMMENTARY: Why Do So Many Christians Love a Jewish Israel?

Friday, November 04, 2016 
Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY
Views expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Israel Today.
After Israel was miraculously restored from oblivion in the last century, Jews began to return from every nation to their ancient homeland. But they weren’t the only ones rushing to set foot on that storied land. Christians began flocking to “the Holy Land” as well. 
At first, we came as tourists to visit the ancient churches and to walk where Jesus walked. Then God awakened us to see this re-born nation was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and we came as wide-eyed pilgrims. But as the years passed, God showed us something else. We saw in this restoration His everlasting love and compassion for His people who had suffered so much for so long. Often at the hands of those who called themselves Christians. And we began to understand and love the people as much as the land. And we came as friends. 
Over the last 40 years or so, a number of ministries have arisen to help Christians bless the nation in many ways. From bringing Christians around the world to march in streets of Jerusalem waving banners of encouragement. To providing much needed physical and prayer support. To standing up for the nation in political forums. To encouraging tourism, and even more recently, bringing volunteers to help harvest their crops.
Through it all, I believe God has been trying to show Jewish Israel (and us) how much He loves the descendants of Abraham. And how He has never forsaken them, even though it may have looked like it for a time. Isaiah anticipated this time of restoration when he wrote:  “For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you, says the LORD your Redeemer” (Isa. 54:7,8). 
In considering all this I realized this Christian attraction for Israel is not diminishing, but growing ever stronger. So you have to wonder– where is it all going? Is it, as many believe, just going to go away when we fly away in a secret rapture before the reign of antichrist? If so, I’d think that would reveal a deep shallowness in our recommitment to the Jews to “never leave you again,” as most of Christianity did during the Holocaust.
Or…does God have something else in mind for Israel and all the members of Messiah’s body ready to receive it? I believe He does! And I believe He put it all in the Bible in advance so we’d know what was coming. It was just hidden. But as Yeshua told us, “Nothing is hidden, except to be revealed” (Mark 4:22). 
That’s why I’m convinced by the Bible prophesies there will be a miraculous migration of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of believers streaming into the land one day. But this time we will not be coming as tourists. Or as pilgrims. Or even as “Christians.”  We will come, I believe, as mishpochah (Hebrew for “family”), the redeemed of the Lord.  
How many times have we sung in our churches this prophecy by Isaiah, understanding it pertained to all of us who are in Messiah?
“Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return,
and come with singing unto Zion,
and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.
They shall obtain,
gladness and joy,
and sorrow, and sighing, shall flee away. ” (Isa. 51:11). 
Where did we think Zion was? In Heaven? No, Isaiah was prophesying of a worldwide ingathering of God’s scattered children returning to Israel. 
Some believe Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled by the recent Jewish return to Israel. But Isaiah clearly defined these happy souls as “the redeemed (or ransomed) of the Lord.” And as Scripture tells us, it is only those in Messiah who have been redeemed…”from the Law” and “your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers” (Gal. 3:13;1 Pet: 1:18). The Jewish nation has yet to experience that spiritual redemption. 
 Remember, also, how the high priest, Caiaphas, in plotting to murder Yeshua declared it was better that this man should die “so that the whole nation not perish?” John then commented that Caiaphas had unwittingly prophesied the truth that one man has to die for the sins of the Jewish nation. But then John added:  “And not just for the nation only, but in order that he might also gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (John 11:52).
Who are these “children of God scattered abroad?”  Clearly Yeshua was speaking about the “Gentiles” who would hear the Gospel and become sons of God. The ones he “purchased for God with his blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9) 
It’s been two thousand years since the Gospel net was cast forth from Jerusalem upon the nation’s shores. But God said a day would come when that net would be full. And then something new would begin. As Paul put it – “A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” Then God would turn and display the same mercy to Jews as He showed us. And “thus all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:25, 26). 
All the signs indicate that time has come.  And for me, nothing testifies louder to it than to see the depth of love an ever growing number of God-fearing “Christians” have for Israel and her people. So get ready. I believe a tsunami of God’s children will soon be gathered from the nations to be united with their Jewish brethren in Messiah to become “one flock with one shepherd” (John 10:16).
As the prophet wrote: “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd…and they will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived” (Ezek 37:24,25).
Brian Hennessy is author of Valley of the Steeples
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Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Is God 'God' By Any Other Name? - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Is God 'God' By Any Other Name?

Monday, August 29, 2016 |  
Brian Hennessy   ISRAEL TODAY
In a recent interfaith video, Pope Francis argued that all religions worship God, whether we call Him God, Buddha, Jesus Christ or Allah. He then suggested we should lay aside our theological differences and all celebrate our Deity together. To quote him: “In this crowd, in this range of religions, there is only one certainty that we have for all: we are all children of God.”
I couldn’t help thinking of Zerubbabel’s response to a similar invite to come together, this one by the enemies of Judah who’d offered to help rebuild the second temple. After they told him that “we like you, seek your God,” Zerubbabel replied: “You have nothing in common with us in building a temple to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel” (Ezra 4:1-3). Apparently, he didn’t consider them to be children of the same God Israel served. 
But could the Pope be right? Does God not care much about what we call Him? Or how we worship? Is it enough just to acknowledge He exists and be sincere in our religious beliefs? Or is our God more particular about how He wants to be addressed and worshipped?  
We don’t have to look far in the Bible to get the answer. There’s an account of God’s prophet, Elijah, confronting Israel and the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. Elijah is obviously one who also does not embrace the big religious hug fest as proposed by Pope Francis. For we find him here challenging Israel to choose: “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If Yahweh is God follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).  
If Baal was indeed Israel’s God by another name, it shouldn’t matter, right? But clearly our God didn’t see it that way. Because after Israel voted to follow Him, He had Elijah slay all the priests of Baal!
It seems Israel never learned its lesson at Mt. Sinai where God instructed them on how to  worship Him. For while Moses was off getting the instructions in writing, Israel decides to worship God Egyptian style. And they set up a golden calf. As a result, three thousand died that day. What were they thinking? Hadn’t God just told them: “You shall not make for yourselves an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the LORD [Yahweh] your God, am a jealous God” (Ex. 20:4,5).
Still the people did not depart from their idolatry: “It was not Me that you offered victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it O House of Israel? You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of Rompha, the images which you made to worship” (Acts 7:42,43).
So we see God will not identify with the names of other gods. Not then. Not now. To begin, God has only one proper name, which is Yahweh – or Jehovah. It is written as the Tetragrammaton YHWH, but translated as “LORD” (all caps) in our Bibles out of deference to Jewish belief the name is too holy to be written or spoken. When speaking of Him, Jews today usually call Him HaShem (The Name). Before His true name was revealed the Patriarchs called Him El Elyon orEl Shaddai.
We can also address our God by His title, which is “Lord” (Heb. Adonai).Or as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” which is the only family on earth to whom He has forever linked His name (Ex. 3:15). But the most intimate way to speak to Him is to call Him “Father” (Heb. Abba). That’s how Yeshua talked to Him, and no one knew Him more intimately than he.
But Satan is a deceptive marketer who doesn’t quit. He knows if we approach God any differently than how God has prescribed we’ll be serving him. “I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I don’t want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?” (1 Cor. 10:20- 22).
As a former Roman Catholic, for example, I was taught that, at the incantation of the priest, the bread and wine at Mass were transformed into the actual physical body and blood of Jesus. Jesus could then be offered over and over on their altars as a bloodless sacrifice. The Council of Trent declared this sacrifice to be “propitiatory,” that is able to “pardon even the gravest crimes and sins” (Twenty-Second Session, Chapter II). After I started to read the Bible I found Hebrews 10:10-14 totally refuted this false doctrine. How deceived I was to think that worshipping a piece of bread as God, as we were taught, was any less idolatrous than worshipping a golden calf. 
We live in the Age of Grace right now. But one day this grace period will end and the wrath of God will begin. We don’t want to be found at that time hesitating between two opinions.
Brian Hennessy is author of Valley of the Steeples
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Monday, August 8, 2016

Are 'Gentile Believers' Still Gentiles? Monday, August 08, 2016 | Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Are 'Gentile Believers' Still Gentiles?

Monday, August 08, 2016 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY
It was Yeshua’s greatest desire that all his followers, from both Jews and Gentiles, become one people. His impassioned plea to the Father before going to the cross was “that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know You sent me, and loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:23).
Well, it’s no surprise that the world still remains unconvinced of his Messiahship.  How could it be otherwise when his followers have separated into over 40,000 denominations and other unaffiliated groups.
 But even before our divisions metastasized there existed an issue of unity between the Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Yeshua.  It began on the day the Lord told Peter to witness to the family of Cornelius. Before then the Jewish nation was under the impression this salvation belonged exclusively to them. Now, suddenly, it was being offered to others.  Worse, these “others” were the former bane of their existence – the Gentiles. The very ones they’d been shunning for the past 1400 years, according to Moses' instructions.
But hadn’t Yeshua prepared his Jewish followers for this when he was with them in the flesh? Hadn’t he told them, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd” (John 10:16)? Nevertheless, it was still a tough pill for Jewish Israel to swallow. And it was made harder, because along with this influx of unsavory outsiders, Israel was being asked to transition from their God-given covenant of Law to a new covenant of grace.  
The transition was so formidable, that to make it happen, God had to raise up a uniquely qualified man –Saul (later Paul) of Tarsus. To this former Pharisee was given the anointing to bring us all together under “the law of liberty” (James 1:25).  And even though the Roman Empire cut short his work, along with Jewish life in Jerusalem, God made sure Paul’s teachings were preserved as Scripture in the New Testament.  
Now for 2000 years, unity of Jewish and “Gentile” believers in Messiah has not been an issue. Mainly because after the first century there were almost no Jewish believers! And the non-Jewish believers had taken on another identity, calling themselves “Christians.” But after the physical rebirth of Israel, many Jews began experiencing a spiritual rebirth. And all of sudden the term “Gentile believer” was back. Along with the issue of us all becoming one again.
As I see it, the term “Gentile believer” is inherently discriminatory and creates an unhealthy division in the body of Messiah. If one is a “Gentile” it implies you are an unbeliever, outside the camp of God’s people. Although the word translated as “Gentile” just means “nations” in both the Hebrew (goyim) and Greek(ethnos), it carries centuries of baggage. Over half its usages in the Old Testament are negative. And so is a quarter of its usage in the New Testament, where it is occasionally translated as “heathen” or “pagan.”  It may not equate non-Jewish believers with being “uncircumcised Philistines,” but it doesn’t define them as “Snow White,” either.
But weren’t we all made “white as snow” in Yeshua? Weren’t we all circumcised with the circumcision made without hands?  Why then should we who are not Jewish be saddled with terminology that immediately creates a division in the body of Messiah? From God’s perspective we are no longer goyim. We are no longer Gentiles. We have come out of the nations and are now included with God’s people. We have been counted as part of the nation of Israel, co-inheritors with all Jewish believers in the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. “For if you belong to Messiah, you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). 
Paul had explained, just prior to that verse, that now “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, neither male nor female; for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua” (Gal.3:28). Did he mean Jews are no longer Jews, Greeks no longer Greeks, females no longer females? Of course not! Until the Lord returns and we are transfigured into our new bodies we remain who we are in this world. But_ in Messiah_, all racial, national, economic, gender – and other fleshly differences – disappear. In him we become one people!
It was Peter, the first Jew to witness to non-Jews, who later said to the entire body of Messiah, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” ( 1 Pet. 2:9). He had taken the very words Moses had spoken to all Israel and applied them to the New Covenant ecclesia _without distinction. _He was not saying the “church”had replaced the physical descendants of Abraham as God’s people, but that all who are in Messiah, both Jew and non-Jew, are the chosen remnant of Israel.
As God is restoring the nation to the land today, I believe it’s also time to strive for greater unity among Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Yeshua. So that, as he prayed to the Father, “the world may know You sent me.” 
A good place to begin is by retiring the unbiblical term “Gentile believer” once and for all.
Brian Hennessy is author of Valley of the Steeples
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