Chag sameach Rosh Chodesh kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah. Welcome to the first day of the second month and to the first day of our annual Jericho March. This is the seventh year we have been observing this tradition where we devote special time for intercession in the removal of of obstacles set in our path by the Enemy.

Last year you will recall the pop 'prophets' and astrologers were claiming that 23 September was going to be the the day of the 'Rapture' or Second Coming, or the start of the Great Tribulation, or the arrival of Nibiru and the End of the World, or a 'Grand Sealing' of the elect would happen which was supposed to take place in Petra, in Jordan, or a combination of some of these. I predicted that these sign-seekers would be humiliated. I warned people most emphatically not to make futile journeys to the Middle East, sell their property, or say goodbye to their loved ones, as many did. These evangelical Christians attack Jehovah's Witnesses for all their failed prophecies but seem to have no problem brushing off their own failures.

You'd have though they'd have given up but have they? Not a bit. How many failed rapture prophecies have there been now? Seven years ago it was Harold Camping telling everyone that the rapture would happen on 21 May 2011. And what about all the crazy talk about Blood Red Moons back in 2013 which supposedly portended other grand events which never happened? I warned against that nonsense back then too but believers went ahead and started making wild predictions anyway, just as the New Agers did about the alleged Mayan end-of-the-world prophecy scheduled for 21 December 2012. Now they're saying one of these apocalyptic events is going to take place in a week's time, on 23 April 2018, again based on astrology.

I think what upsets me most of all about these false prophecies is that they can cause weak believers to lose their faith. So once again I must stand up and declare that the world will not end on 23 April and that there will be not be a 'rapture' on that date. It's time that the sign-seekers repented of their idolatry once and for all because they are making believers a laughing stock. Most importantly of all, until they wake up to the fact that they are being led by false spirits, they are going to find themselves going into the occult in increments whilst retaining the outer label of 'Christian' or 'Messianic'. You have to realise that it is not enough to make a profession of faith in Christ: if you choose to be seduced by, and follow, lying spirits you will end up losing the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) altogether...and if you go far enough, you'll lose your salvation. Sorry. But the Calvinistic fiction called 'Once Saved, Always Saved' has to be repudiated too. This sort of baggage has to be thrown off or the delusion will get worse and worse.

Now President Trump launching an attack with missiles on Syria the other day is sure to have excited the 23 April sign-seekers. And, truly, the danger of a Third World War is not over yet. The point remains, though - the people claiming to have prophetic insights into the stars and planets and their alignments are false prophets no different from the Astrologers of pagan Babylon. We have never been commanded to go to the stars for our revelation but to seek the Face of Yahweh in prayer and fasting using Scripture as our guide-rail. Why would Yahweh require 'Christian astrologers' to make unreliable predictions when all He has to do is speak to an authentic navi (prophet)? There is a divine economy involved here.

You can't get revelation by making astronomical calculations. The only astronomy we are required to do is observe the sun and moon in order to calculate the divine moedim or appointments - the weekly sabbaths, the monthly new moons, the annual feasts, the Sabbatical and the Jubilee years. That's all unless you're a sailor and need the stars to navigate by or need to know the best times for sowing and harvesting in agriculture.

I advise believers to tread very carefully when it comes to looking for revelation in the mazzaroth or constellations. I don't doubt Yahweh has placed all kinds of information in the heavens but I see no evidence of Him ever calling 'Christian Astrologers' to tell us the things a true navi (prophet) can do as well, if not better. This is not at all dissimilar to some messianics and non-messianic Jews going to the Torah codes to find prophetic information. And again, I do believe Yahweh has hidden prophetic messages in the Scriptures but, as we have seen time and time again, they were never intended as a primary source of revelation and are only of interest after the events they predict have transpired. Looking for revelation of things to come in the Bible Codes is a form of divination and it will lead the practitioner into serious trouble.

Today is, as I said, the first day of our annual Jericho March. It's also Rosh Chodesh, the day of receiving a Davar Elohim (Word of God) from Yahweh. I have noticed, as I am sure you have too, how the spirit of prophecy is needed more and more and how Yahweh is rising to meet that need. These last few weeks the Ruach (Spirit) has laid on my heart the importance of gathering together all the revelations and prophecies that have been received by this ministry since 1997 when the Olive Branch was published. Though hundreds have never been published online, and probably never will be, I was surprised just how many had been, many of which have been forgotten. The result has been a compilation of an enormous register which I hope will be published within the week. We need to know what Yahweh has told us and not dismiss or take lightly when it comes to what He has revealed. It is all too easy to forget these revelations.

What we need to do, privately and as families and congregations, is to prayerfully seek Yahweh's face and ask Him what obstacles or hindrances the Enemy has put in our path preventing us from coming up to Mount Zion to receive our marching orders. The Enemy is constantly trying to stop us. Many are wondering why Yahweh is apparently silent when the reality is the Enemy has stopped up their ears and pulled a veil over their eyes because they have let him. If, when "even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers the[] hearts [of Jews]" (2 Cor.3:15, NIV) so that they cannot understand what they are reading, then how much worse is it for us if the Enemy has succeeded in blinding us because of some vice or unrepented sin.

We are not too happy to admit that we might we fumbling around in the dark. How many pentecostals and charismatics do you know who have made false prophecies and predictions about raptures and second comings but carry on, time after time, making predictions that always fail? Why don't they not only admit that they got their predictions wrong but that they have a very serious issue in even discerning the Ruach (Spirit)? When will they swallow their pride and admit they were listening to demons and adhering to false doctrines?

A few days I had a vision that initially baffled me. This was in the middle of the afternoon. I saw someone to whom I was feeding a wholesome meal, a picture of giving ministry by feeding them with the Davar (Word). But for some reason they were not actually 'eating' the meal. Instead of producing fruit, they handed me a giant dead fly. What does a fly represent? You will remember that flies constituted one of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the fourth to be exact. Khepri was the Egyptian god of creation whose head was that of a fly. It was the fly-god. Flies are not only an irritation, but they carry disease and can do a great deal of damage. Beelzebub, or Ba'al-zebub, was the Philistine equivalent (e.g. Mt.10:25) whose name literally means 'Lord of the Flies'. He was worshipped at Ekron anciently (2 Ki.1:2-3,6,16). He was known as the "prince of the devils" (Mt.10:25; 12:24; Mk.3:22; Lk.11:L15,18-19). The person I was feeding with the Davar (Word) was, in truth, a worshipper of the fly-god who presumed to claim to be the Creator, Yahweh.

We must be careful whom we feed. Ba'al worshippers have infiltrated the Body of Messiah and have dominated it for a very long time, but they are now swarming into the Evangelical and Messianic movements en masse. Ba'al's female counterpart was Ashtereth, also known as Ishtar, Easter, Diana and the "queen of heaven" (Jer.7:18; 44:17-19,25) in the pagan nations surrounding Israel. We must march around these dark powers and call upon the Name of Yahweh to extricate us from their influence once and for all. 'Ba'al' means 'possessor' and we cannot afford to be possessed or owned by anyone other that Yahweh through Yah'shua (Jesus). We cannot serve two masters (Mt.6:24; Lk.16:13).

We must actively pray for cleansing, for as the proverb says, dead flies just corrupt:

"As dead flies give perfume a bad smell,
so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour" (Eccl.10:1, NIV).

With the dead flies of sin polluting our spirits, how can we make an offering "as an aroma pleasing to Yahweh" (Num.15:7, NIV)?

Brothers and sisters, let's be straight about one thing when it comes to prophecy - true or false - before we end, and focus on when Yahweh is to be found. And the answer is to be found in Scripture:

"'I am the Alef/Alpha and the Taw/Omega,' says Yahweh-Elohim, 'who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty'" (Rev.1:8, NIV).

Here is Yahweh defining Himself in a specific order or sequence. And it is very much out of keeping with the usual way we view time because normally, when we speak of time, we speak of past, present and future, don't we? For Yahweh, "now is the accepted time" (2 Cor.6:2, NKJV), now is the most important time, not yesterday, not tomorrow. He wants us to be a 'now' people because it is the present experience of Yahweh that matters most. Remember this: history and prophecy take second place to immediacy. Now is the vital time. Without a doubt, our Father in Heaven is the eternity that was and the eternity to come - history and prophecy are important because He is to be found in both but we are not 'yesterday' or 'tomorrow' people - we are 'now' people. Our present consciousness and appreciation of Him is of primary worth.

Far too many people lay emphasis on the past and the future. They seem to prefer to live in it because it is an easy way of dealing with the present with all its discomforts and perplexities. But that is not how we are called to live. Because, you see, if Elohim (God) is not 'now' for us, because we are viewing Him exclusively through the lens of history or the lens of the prophetic future, then basically He is 'never' for us. We'll never know Him. And this is something I have found with people for whom history or prophecy is the main thing - they don't know Yahweh.

Yes, His past ways and works reinforce our emunah (faith), His future prospects endorse our tiqveh (hope), but it is His immediate Presence that enthuses our ahavah (love). Ahavah (love) is only real in the here-and-now. Yahweh is our eternal contemporary, for He is "with [us] always, to the very end of the age" (Matt.28:20, NIV).

Did you know that the Hebrew Names of Elohim (God) express His 'here-ness' and 'now-ness'? They are Yah and Yahweh. We often speak of 'Yah' as being a mere contraction of 'Yahweh', and that is be true linguistically but Yahweh can't be reduced like that. 'Yah' contains a different concept to 'Yahweh'. Yah is Elohim (God) the Eternal whereas Yahweh is Elohim (God) the Everlasting. 'Eternity' is timeless, but 'everlasting' is contained within time itself, within mortality - so we have Yah who is above time (past, present and future rolled into one, which we can never understand while we are on earth), and Yahweh who is in time - in each time sequence, and, most importantly, right now He is HERE as the Incarnate Messiah. He is not primarily the remote Yah but is Yahweh who is near - accessible, amenable, and gracious - the 'here-and-now' Elohim (God).

I think a lot of false prophets and prophetesses are seeking validation in the excitement and remoteness of the future because they have problems dealing with the present. They are uncomfortable with human relationships because they feel inadequate, for whatever reason, whether because immaturity, abuse, or some disability. The same is true of those who live in the past - it's a problem I have found with historians. But there is no chayim (life) in the past or the future for human beings - chayim (life), as the Bible explains it, is in the immediate present. The history that matters the most is the one we are making today and the prophecy that matters is the one we are likewise creating today. Get present. Get close to Yahweh. Get back into chayim (life).

Yahweh our Commander is here for us in this assembly or wherever we may be. Prior to the Battle of Jericho, the pre-incarnate Yah'shua (Jesus) accepted worship from Joshua as the Malak (Angel) of Yahweh's Presence and "commander of the army of Yahweh" (Josh.5:14, NIV). That same Yah'shua (Jesus) is our commander today and He has tasks for us to do. Let us find out what He wants us to do today and get stuck in! Amen.

According to Stephanie Pappas, researcher for the Live Science website [1], the 23 April doomsday hails all the way back to William Miller, a Baptist preacher whose flock eventually formed the Seventh Day Adventist denomination. Apparently, Miller predicted a number apocalyptic dates in the mid-1800s, including one on 23 April 1843. He would become famous for his 22 October 1844 prophecy for the Second Coming of Messiah. When this did not transpire, the Adventist damage-control machinery went into action to 'explain' the false prophecy away (known by Adventists as 'The Great Disappointment'), leading to the 'investigative judgment' doctrine with which they are now stuck.

The 23 April 2018 prophecy is the work of David Meade who claims that a certain star alignment would result in a close encounter with the rogue planet, Planet X or Nibiru, which would result in geological upheaval and be followed by the Second Coming of Christ. According to Pappas:

"The reason, he said, is that on that date, the sun, moon and Jupiter will align in the constellation of Virgo, echoing Revelation 12:1-2, which refers to a "woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head" laboring to give birth to an eventual global dictator with a role to play in the end of the world.

"This same passage was Meade's basis for predicting Sept. 23, 2017, as the start of the apocalypse, though in that case, he fixated on an alignment of the sun in Virgo with nine stars and the planets Mercury, Venus and Mars.

"Some of Meade's astral speculation ironically might echo at least some of the inspiration of the original, which draws on older Jewish, Greco-Roman, and other traditions, said Allen Kerkeslager, a professor of ancient and comparative religion at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia".

Pappas is, of course, a vocal sceptic and atheist so she goes further in dismissing the Book of Revelation. However, she does make some important observations. She continues:

"Strangely, Jupiter is not actually aligned within the constellation of Virgo on April 23; rather, it will appear from Earth to be within the constellation Libra. On that same date, the sun will appear to align with the constellation Aries and the moon in the constellation Gemini."

Meade reminds me of the pseudo-science that is employed by another group of amateurs in order to promote the flat-earth nonsense.

"Meade has never been consistent with his predictions. The International Business Times reported in February that he was calling March 2018 as the trigger date for the apocalypse. He has also said he believes that a seven-year tribulation period preceding the end started on Aug. 21, 2017, and Oct. 15, 2015" [2].

It's this sort of nonsese by Meade et al which gives Christians and Messianics a bad name. We live in a scientific age which means if we do science, we must do science properly [3]. The Christian/Messianic 'pop scientists' and 'pop prophets' need to repent, stand down, and leave science to the scientists and prophecy to the nevi'im (prophets).

Endnotes

[1] Stephanie Pappas, Wait For It...The First 'April 23rd Doomsday' Was Predicted in 1843
[2] Ibid.
[3] This does not mean, of course, we should give carte blanche to everything scientists say, especially when what they say is not in their field of expertise, or if they are politically motivated (Scientism). 'Evolution', for example, is not science but philosophy (because it can't be subjected to scientific observation), and 'Cosmology' (as opposed to Astronomy) is just the same (since no one observed any 'Big Bang' or knows for sure how old the Universe is). See our Science Page for studies on these things.

Comments From Readers

[1] "Wonderful Message! God bless you Pastor Chris! Glory to the Almighty Lord!" (NJ, Rwanda, 16 April 2018)
[2] "Thank you Pastor Chris for the sermon. Much appreciated!!" (FVS, South Africa, 16 April 2018)
[3] "Excellent" (DH, USA, 17 April 2018)
[4] "What a wonderful message for us all! Again I say...WOW" (DC, USA, 17 April 2018)