Shabbat shalom chaverim.

The purpose of this short message to to expose a prophecy scam that is gaining increased traction in both the Evangelical and Messianic Communities, not to mention New Age and other communities. I have felt more and more pressed by the Ruach (Spirit) to answer it so that I aim to do today. A false exegesis of the 12th chapter of the Book of Revelation has converged with an equally false astrological analysis of the heavens to produce what can best be described as a 'spiritual chimera', an unnatural mix of bad theology and equally bad science.

Many are staking their prophetic reputations on something 'big' happening on 23 September 2017 though no-one seems to be agreed on what the 'event' actually is - the Second Coming, the start of the Tribulation, the Rapture, the manifestation of the Anti-Messiah (Antichrist), the Abomination of Desolation occuring, Economic Collapse Day, World War 3, or something else. And whilst something big might happen on 23 September it will have:

• 1. Nothing to do with the heavenly sign mentioned in Revelation 12; and
• 2. Nothing to do with the alignment of stars or constellations in the sky.

"A text without a context is a pretext" and that is certainly the case when it comes to what I am calling the '9/23 scam'. The pop scriptorians break this rule magnificently, taking Revelation 12 out of the context of the rest of the book. What is the context? Let's see.

In the Book of Revelation you will find four apocalyptic horsemen and six seals. Each of these seals is, beyond dispute, opened sequentially. There's no way you can rearrange them without doing violence to the text. The opening of the first of these seals marks the beginning of the End Times (Rev.6) and the final seal is not opened until Rev.8. Out of the seventh seal flow the seven trumpet judgments which also proceed sequentially.

The first six trumpets all sound in chapters 8 and 9 but it is the seventh trumpet that has seized the imagination of the false prophets because the 23 September 2017 fake prophecy uses the heavenly sign within the seventh trumpet. The seventh trumpet, incidentally, covers chapters 11-14. Within the four chapters of the seventh trumpet many other events happen in addition to the heavenly sign in chapter 12. There are four time markers within the seventh trumpet indicating that the midpoint of the Seven Year Tribulation has been reached.

For the heavenly sign of Reveletion 12 to be on the verge of unfolding, the four horsemen of the apocalypse would have had to have ridden already which includes, incidentally, the death of half of mankind between Revelation 6:7 and 9:19 (see The Great Destruction: Half of Mankind Will Soon Perish).

The proponents of this crazy prophecy must, if they accept the chronology of the Book of Revelation, believe:

• 1. That half of humanity has already perished, or will perish by 23 September 2017; and therefore
• 2. We are half way through the Great Tribulation, or will have been by 23 September 2017, depending what you believe will happen on that day.

Where did this date '23 September 2017' come from in the first place?. It comes from pagan Babylonian astrology. In case you have forgotten Yahweh's view of this pseudo-science, which is in reality a kind of divination:

"Thus says Yahweh: 'Do not learn the way of the Gentiles (Pagans, Heathen);
Do not be dismayed (in awe of) at the signs of heaven,
For the Gentiles (Pagans, Heathen) are dismayed at them (hold them in awe).
For the customs of the peoples are futile" (Jer.10:2-3, NKJV).

"All the counsel you have received has only worn you out!
Let your astrologers come forward,
those stargazers who make predictions month by month,
let them save you from what is coming upon you.
Surely they are like stubble;
the fire will burn them up.
They cannot even save themselves
from the power of the flame.
Here are no coals to warm anyone;
here is no fire to sit by.
That is all they can do for you -
these you have laboured with
and trafficked with since childhood.
Each of them goes on in his error;
there is not one that can save you" (Isa.47:13-15, NIV).

Why do we need star-readers when Yahweh has always provided nevi'im (prophets)? There are, of course, plenty of false nevi'im (prophets) but see where they have got you? One in the Messianic movement, in spite of a false prophecy to be gathered in the ruins of Petra, in Moslem Jordan by last April, is making a big ado about 23 September 2017. She went to Jordan anyway and is sitting there in the middle-of-nowhere waiting for goodness-knows-what. So many of these false prophecies have arisen out of bad scriptural exegesis because of the spiritual strongholds of false tradition (see, for example, the series, The Bozrah Breakout)

Now I have been addressing end-time chronology for many years and in great depth (see, for example, the materials in the Mishpatim Yahweh) and you all know I believe we are nowhere near the Great Tribulation or the Second Coming which my generation will not witness - these events are still several decades down the road.

Which is not to say we won't experience tribulation because it's all around us, and will come more or less continuousaly in various waves until the great eschatological climax. So I am not at saying stop prepping or stop being watchmen on the walls of Zion - these things must be habitual now for another generation because of the calamities that are coming. We do need to be prepared. But we need to be prepared for the right things at the right times. So, please, stop following the Luciferian agenda by believing their false prophets and prophecies, of which 23 September 2017 is the latest 'biggie' destined to disappoint and disillusion. Get your eyes back on Yah'shua (Jesus) and the mandate to make talmidim (disciples) of all the world. We're not supposed to interrupt that by gawping at false, fleshy signs.

Believers often forget that the first sin committed by mankind was not believing in the Serpent's lies but in listening to him in the first place. One false messianic 'prophet' who is peddling 23 September 2017 with a very sophsticated website, denies the deity of Messiah. It's full of clever 'theology' and 'science', like a number of other fake revelations I could mention from the 20th century's New Age scam artists like the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ and The Prophecies of Enoch. Such works are multiplying and you may expect them to flood the churches and messianic assemblies on the Internet, through books and through visiting speakers with titillating messages. They are everywhere. And of course they all sound reasonable, containing as they must some element of emet (truth) in order to be swallowed by the gullible. Look at the crazy things happening in the messianic movement today with some even accepting the fake Book of Mormon as scripture and others scrambling to 'canonise' every tainted apocryphal and pseudepigraphical book they can lay their hands on. Discernment has fled because of disobedience! And it will only get worse as the power of the delusion blanketing this word spreads farther afield. The Courtyard of the Kingdom has been well and truly invaded.

So what exactly are these 'Christian' and 'Messianic' astrologers claiming? They are saying that on 23 September 2017 that the sun will be in the constellation of Virgo (the Virgin), along with the moon near Virgo's feet. In addition to this, the planet Jupiter will be in Virgo, while the planets Venus, Mars and Mercury will be above and to the right of Virgo in the constellation Leo. This is certainly a rare alignment, and the claim that this only happens once in every 7,000 may very likely be true, but what on earth has this to do with Reveletion 12:1-2?

"A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth" (Rev.12:1-2, NIV).

Virtually all the websites and videos promoting this 'prophecy' are saying that whilst there are only nine stars in Leo, the additional three planets make a total of '12 stars'. Since Leo is to the upper right of Virgo's head, it is claimed that this is a crown of stars even though these stars are far above the Virgin's head. Worse for the promoters of this 'prophecy', there are, in fact, far more than 9 stars in Leo, anywhere from 10 to 13. Some websites try to link this to the coming of Nibiru (whose existence has yet to be conclusively proven - I am neutral) and others to the already discredited blood red moon prophecies. People see what they want to see in such arangements, known in scientific circles as the 'Rorschach Phenomenon'.

What of the claim that Yahweh ordained the stars to be 'ot or 'signs' (Gen.1:14)? Do these 'signs' include predicting the return of the Messiah? Apparently not:

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the malakim (angels) in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matt.24:36, NIV).

If humans have truly decoded this information using astrology, then they know something they neither the malakim (angels) nor the Son know - are they then presuming to know more than these? We have our instructions and they are specicific enough:

"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Master will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him" (Matt.24:37-44, NIV).

I see no licence here, not even a hint, that we are supposed to be star-gazing for prophecy. The signs we are to look for are the signs of the times. Notice, if you would, the 50 per cent fatality rate (one of two men, one of two women) when the last 'flood' (this time, fire) strikes. We are to keep daily watch, not make a solitary astronomical calculation, predict a day (which no man or angel may know), get people all worked up and afraid, and then wait for it. Yahweh doesn't work like that.

What, then, are the stars to be signs for? Simple answer: determining the agricultural times and seasons and for navigation - not for divining the future nor (as one or two messianics are now claiming) for calculating the future calendar, for which purposes the sun and moon are all that are needed.

I doubt anything of importance will take place on 23 September this year, and if anything does, it will be by design of the Enemy to fool as many taken in by this pseudo-occultism as possible, as well as to advance their ultimate deception: the return of our alien forefathers. The Catholic Church is already promoting it, using its Lucifer Telescope in America, and you can be quite sure that millions of other undiscerning 'Christians' and 'Messianics' will be taken in by it too. But the return of the nephilim is another story altogether...

I am sorry to put the folk who love drama and notoriety out of work but ours is a more mundane, sober - yet infinitely more important - work: the saving of souls and the building up of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) in all emet (truth). Leave the 'big-time' prophesying to the real nevi'im (prophets) and get on with witnessing of what you actually know. Those in Petra will wander home somewhat humiliated (if they're still alive) and the rest who got it wrong will have to eat crow and go down a few ecclesiastical and prophetic status notches. I trust they will repent. It's time for the Remnant to grow up. Supermen, Batmen and Spidermen have no place in the Messianic Community (Church) and Escatological Comic Fiction has to come to a permanent end. I have made my peace. Shabbat Shalom!

Acknowledgements

[1] Dr. Denny R. Faulkner, What Will Happen on September 23, 2017?