Chag Sameach Yom Teruah, Chag Sameach Rosh Chodesh and Shabbat Shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah! Welcome to the 3 moedim-in-one Day which only occurs once a year on this the Day of Trumpets or Shouting.

Today might appropriately be called Christus Victor Day. That's a Latin theological term which simply means 'Christ (or Messiah) the Victor', and whilst it is true that Yah'shua (Jesus) won His victory over the powers of evil on the cross 2,000 years ago, enabling men and women to defeat sin in their lives and obtain salvation through trusting in the atoning work of Christ, this is, as of yet, only on a one-to-one basis. It's still a personal victory.

However a day is coming, and will occur on this day called Yom Teruah when trumpets will blast in the heavens and be heard globally, and a great shout be made by the heavenly hosts that will also be heard globally, when this Victory will be announced for the whole planet, leading to Judgment at Yom haKippurim or the Day of Atonements eight days later, to then be followed by the Marriage Feast of the Lamb at Sukkot or the week-long Feast of Tabernacles six days after that, and a day after that - at Shemini Atseret - will be the first day of the 1,000 year-long Messianic Millennial Reign.

So these three autumnal festivals are not about the Christus Victor for each individual who truly accepts Messiah but about the communal or collective Victory over Satan and evil for the entire Planet and Cosmos. It's when it happens for all of us as a Family. And whilst it is tempting to suppose that this will be the final Victory of Messiah, in actual fact it is the penultimate or last-but-one, because there is to be one last Cosmic Act, as it were, and that will occur at the end of the Millennium when Satan and his fallen malakim (angels) or demons will be released from the Pit one last time in order to test all those born during the Millennium. Once that's over, the Victory will be complete. So today we celebrate in anticipation of 'Victory Day Part 2' (of three parts).

Today is the biblical feast of Yom Teruah. However, there's another feast - a false one - which is celebrated by Rabbinical Jews and Messianics around the world called Rosh haShanah which occurs at around the same time, depending which calendar you use. Today is the Talmudic Jewish 'New Year' though the true one - the biblical one - is at Aviv 1 is in the spring.

So if today is not 'New Year's Day' as the rabbis claim, what is it? It is the day that Yah'shua (Jesus), who the first time 2,000 years ago came as a mild and gentle Lamb, this time comes back in triumph like a Conquering Lion to rule the earth. This is the day that everyone on earth who is still alive after the Great Tribulation will look up and see Him physically returning to assume His throne as Regent of the Planet. It's the day that His faithful qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) will be caught up into the air to meet him and 'escort', as it were, our Triumphat King back to His rightful Kingdom. He will execute Justice and destroy all His Father's enemies, burning up all that is impure and an abomination.

Paul gives a wonderful overview of the big picture, a broad historical and prophetic sweep, starting at the cross and taking us all the way to the Millennium and beyond. You'll find that in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. So that's where we'll start this morning, if you'd like to turn with me to p.1653 in your NKJV Evidence Bibles we'll start reading there:

"But now Messiah is risen from the dead, and has become the bikkurim (firstfruits) of those who have fallen asleep (died). For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Messiah all shall be made alive. But each one in his own [sequential] order: Messiah the bikkurim (firstfruits), afterward those who are Messiah's at His [second] coming (at Yom Teruah). Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to Elohim (God) the Father (at the end of the Millennium), when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For 'He has put all things under His feet.' But when He says 'all things are put under Him,' it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him (Yahweh the Father) who put all things under Him (Messiah), that Elohim (God) may be all in all" (1 Cor.15:20-28, NKJV).

There's a lot going on in that passage - it is crammed with important theological emet (truth). It's dense with important events covering 3,000 years of history starting at the cross with the death and resurrection of the Master, and ending at the end of His Millennial Reign when He hands back all his authority to Yahweh the Father so that He can "be all in all". No portion of this created Universe will not be filled by Him, no part will be inhabited by any kind of evil, malicious or rebellious power. This is a description of the Grand Goal of Everything. As all fell because of the sin of one man, Adam, so all people on earth - past, present. and future - will be made alive because of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), "the Saviour of all men," as Paul reminds the Evangelist Timothy, but "especially of those who believe" (1 Tim 4:10, NKJV). All will be saved from death and corruption by the Saviour but it's the believers, because they are special to Him, who alone will reign with Christ on the Millennial Earth. This is truly good news, even better news than the good news that we proclaim today because this represents everything completed, no strings left undone! So Yom Teruah might well be called 'fantastic news', don't you think, even though it's only Stage 2 of the 3-stage deliverance process of the Cosmos.

What with all the horrible news pouring in every day - and I don't know about you, but it frankly depresses me that I don't want to even read about it any more sometimes - I cannot begin to imagine what this new Millennial world is going to look like. But today we're going to try by using our imaginations to construct a picture of this new world based on what we have already been told about - the world that the final pre-millennial Yom Teruah will one day announce. For that I am going to need your help today.

To begin with, the future evil-free world as conceived by almost everybody, but especially by Christians and Messianics, is probably wrong. Whatever you've heard about 'heaven' - and maybe that has come through listening to YouTube videos made by those who claim to have been there - you need to be very careful indeed. Don't uncritically believe every 'testimony' you hear because so many of these don't match up with what Yahweh has revealed about Heaven to us in Scripture. I have been reading accounts and watching videos for decades of those claiming to have had near death out-of-body experiences, done astral projections into the psychic dimension, seen visions or had amazing futuristic dreams about the next life. Now, whilst whilst some of them are undoubedly true, a very large number of them definitely are not, even those claimed by regular Christians, and I tend to treat them all with what I consider to be a healthy does of scepticism. I have grown cautious because I have been 'burned' or misled by some of these accounts in the past.

That's why we have a very large website that covers all of these phenomena in detail. And whilst I have zero faith in the authenticity of astral projections - most, if not all, of what people 'see' is just demonic theatre designed to deceive (the demonic realm controls the astral or psychic dimension, just so you know if any of you have an occult background), I definitely believe that there are people who have had authentic near-death experiences, visions and inspired dreams. The problem is that the experiences people have of the non-physical dimension are often highly symbolic since non-physical realities have to be adapted to our limited ability to comprehend with our physical senses. Moreover, our internal use of symbols varies from culture to culture and from individual to individual.

That is why I urge extreme caution when dealing with anything subjective because ultimately you're the only one 'seeing' and/or 'hearing' psychic or spiritual things. Can anyone coroborate what you're seeing inside? Would their testimony hold up in a court of law? No, of course not. In fact I tried an experiment many years ago whilst doing deliverance ministry where two people claimed to be in the same place/reality inside and I asked them to describe in detail what they were witnessing. They contradicted each other. Through learning the hard way I realised just how important the physical dimension is. Nobody can ultimately testify of what's going on inside you except Yahweh. I'm not so sceptical that I will deny that thousands of people have authentic experiences but as one who has seen a lot of visions over the years, I have learned to be very careful in how I interpret them.

So the first problem we have in trying to make sense of 'heaven' is all the popular views and interpretations, and they are many. The first thing you have to realise is that the 'new heavens' and the 'new earth' described in the Books of Isaiah and Revelation are not, for the most part, describing a non-corporeal, disembodied state which, though real enough, is only temporary. Thr Scriptures rather portray the future resurrection life that lies beyond that disembodied, spirit world or state.

The Bible nowhere gives us a picture of the ultimate future as a world of disembodied spirits, of cherubs playing harps on clouds (which comes from Roman paganism), or the 'Isles of the Blessed' described by the Greek philosopher Plato where the righteous are all Greek and get to talk philosophy all day! Now maybe the odd philosopher among you may find that appealing but I suspect that would get boring after a while. The future world is not a world for craniacs, those who care only for the things of the mind, but for every aspect of the human soul.

The images and symbols which we find in the Books of Isaiah and Revelation (in particular) all point to a 'New Creation', which means this physical Creation which we can see, touch, smell, taste, etc., albeit in a perfect, immortal state whatever that ('immortality' actually means in practice because we all have ideas about that fed by the popular culture which isn't necessary correct (and usuaslly isn't, because humans just love to embellish, don't they?).

In other words, the future world which Elohim (God) has prepared for us resembles this one in which we live now, a world of space, time, and matter, yet far more glorious and full of new possibilities denied to most of us in this life. There will be new healing (a symbolic tree, you may remember, is provided for us as described in the Book of Revelation for that purpose), there will be new growth (this is not a static, stagnant or decaying world like the present one), and there will be a whole new realm of beauty to be explored and enjoyed.

The greatest amount of information there is to be had about the New Creation in the Bible is in the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation. Let's start by going to Revelation 21 (p.1844):

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea" (Rev.21:1, NKJV).

Then we are invited to imagine a community, a great multitude of people consisting of a city, which is called both the 'New Jerusalem' and the 'Bride of the Lamb'. And as we saw last sabbath we know that every type of 'sub-human', meaning every kind of human who is no longer in the image of Elohim (God), has been excluded. Let's take a look at vv.8 & 27:

"...the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death...there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life" (Rev.21:8,27, NKJV).

"...outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie" (Rev.22:15, NKJV).

In other words, "every sort of diminished and dehumanised behaviour has been excluded" [1]. As you read chapters 21 and 22 of the Book of Revelation it's clear that this is a place of dazzling beauty, likened to jewels and gold (which may be literal or representative of something equally, if not more, precious) and the beautifully proportioned buildings. Interestingly, "its length, breadth, and height are equal" (Rev.21:16, NKJV), in other words, a cube (though some suggest it is a pyramid). Now this cannot be literal because the length of each side is 144 cubits which is about 1,500 miles or 2,414 km! Mt.Everest is only 5½ miles or just under 9 km high! Now this obviously can't be literal because outer space is a mere 62 miles or 100 km up or 15 times higher up than the International Space Station (ISS). It would be pelted by meterorites and make the earth totally unstable. Indeed, it would be impossible. So no way is this a literal object (see image above) unless you invoke the totally crackpot flat-earth hypothesis.

Alright, we need to pause here and remind ourselves of something important. You can't interpret a 1st century AD book using 21st century lenses! We'll be studying the Book of Revelation in depth sometime in the future but it's as well to get some things clear early on. This 'city' is not literal in the sense that we are not Yah'shua's (Jesus') literal Bride or Wife either! It's an allegory to represent the intensity and depth of the relationship between the redeemed and the Redeemer.

When the Hebrew mind reads "144 cubits" and sees that the city is shaped like a cube, his mind is immediately triggered to think in terms of the symbology of the Torah. What does 144 connect you to? What important structure in divine architecture is shaped like a perfect cube? What does "new heaven" and "new earth" (Rev.21:1) actually mean? Well it doesn't mean 'brand new' or 'new' like a 'brand new car' or a 'new house'. The "new heaven and the new earth" aren't replacing the old - that is, the present - ones. It's not like Yahweh is going to start all over again. Yahweh isn't making 'all new things' but rather 'all things new' (Rev.21:5) - there's a big difference! The earth and the heavens are being renewed just as they were in Genesis 2, just as they were after the flood.

Alright, what about the number '144 cubits'? We talked about this a few months ago. The 144,000 firstborn qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) spring to mind, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. 144 is 12 x 12 and 12 represents the governmental perfection or rule taken to a new, even more perfected order. And what, in sacred architecture, is a perfect cube? Yes, the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle or Temple which was Elohim's (God's) dwelling place on earth (1 Ki.6:20). We are going to all live in that sacred space where there is perfect rule, perfect goverment. Where once only the Cohen Gadol (High Priest) could enter annually at Yom haKippurim to make atonement for Israel, our eternal Cohen Gadol (High Priest), Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), has entered in and sacrificed Himself as a permanent atonement for sins so that we may enter the Sanctuary to the Father through Him. So in the Millennium we will dwell fully in Yahweh's Presence. This 'cube' becomes the centre not just of this earth, not just of this solar system, not just of this galaxy, but of the whole Cosmos, a reason why Israel is the most contested real estate between spiritual powers in the whole Universe! These are all images designed to convey the complete banishment of all evil in the cosmic order.

I don't want to get into any further detail than that otherwise we'll lose today's thread. 'Perfection' is the key word here because the Perfect One will be in residence on earth. Revelation 21:4 tells us that because perfection will be here in order that there will be perfect healing too:

"And Elohim (God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, no sorrow, no crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Rev.21:4, NKJV).

"In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river (of life), was the tree of life, which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Rev.22:4, NKJV)

Now remember that 1st century Israel had no knowledge of medicine as we do, imperfect as that is still in spite of the amazing leaps and bounds humanity has made. Healing the sick was a central aspect of Yah'shua's (Jesus') ministry and that is a priority of Yahweh in the Millennium and throughout the ages afterwards, because Revelation 22:4 depicts a future scene after Revelation 21:4.

The point is this: in reading this highly symbolical text we are supposed to imagine a community of great beauty and healing, and see what Yahweh intended, and intends, to bring to pass through the death and resurrection of Yah'shua (Jesus). In other words, healing ought to be very important to us too, both of the conventional and supernatural kinds. Healing is supposed to be one of the defining marks of Yahweh's people whom He has equipped and enabled through the several giftings of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), whether it is to be a spiritual healer or a gifted physician. The writer of the Gospel of Luke and of Acts was a regular physician and served in that capacity alongside the apostles and others who had the supernatural gift of healing. We are supposed to be a healing community of the body, mind, heart and spirit. But healing only comes about when we have learned to walk by emunah (faith) in Elohim's (God's) perfection. "Therefore," Yah'shua (Jesus) commanded, "you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt.5:48, NKJV). Be cubes! Be miniature 'Holy of Holies', divinely consecrated spaces of healing! Which is what the coming moed (appointment) of Yom haKippurim (Day of Atonements) is all about, is it not?

I wonder if our picture of immortality has become somewhat skewed by paganism, by images of 'Superman' or something like one of the Greek gods? What do you imagine 'being resurrected' is going to be like in the Millennium and beyond? What was the Garden of Eden like? At least, I hope, we have been able to correct the false notion that being disembodied spirits is the final destination and goal - it is but a travelers' inn for the righteous awaiting the physical resurrection. The ideal - the goal - is this world transformed.

When we come to the Pauline revelation we encounter the same kind of anticipated reality. We've already touched on 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. The emphasis in that chapter is a future without death. Death, which is the corruption and decay of the good Creation and of us, humans, who bear Yahweh-Elohim's image, is the ultimate blasphemy and disaster, the great intruder, the final satanic weapon, and we are assured that it itself will be defeated. And that, for Paul, is the whole point of the resurrection. 'Life after death' in some mere spiritual sense is never the point. And if you think about it, if it were, that would in some way be to collude with death rather than to overcome it, because the reason we shall most of become disembodied is precisely because of that vile thing called 'death'. Death was never the original intent! One of the big handicaps in Western thinking is that when we think of an ideal, paradisaical world unreachable by death, we automatically tend to think of a non-physical world.

That is the legacy of pagan thinking! The truly remarkable thing about what Paul writes about is that what Yahweh intends us to inherit is an incorruptible, unkillable physical world, the very opposite of the goal of pagan gnosticism which can't wait to get away from this world of matter because it views matter as somehow devilish, a lie which permeates a huge part of Christianity. Not at all! It is New Creation that matters, not disembowled Creation! What matters is a new kind of world, a new kind of physicality, which will never need to decay and die, which will not be subject to the seasons, and the apparently endless sequence of deaths and births within the natural order.

Yahweh's new or reconstituted and perfected resurrection world will be the reality which all the beauty and power in the present world are mere signposts. However, there are true signposts, and unlike the pagan Greek Platonic system which early on merged with the Catholic Church and was passed on to Protestantism, they do not point to abstraction, to non-physical realities which are somehow 'better'. Not one bit! What is better is a world that is more physical, more solid, more utterly real, "a world in which the physical reality will wear its deepest meanings on its face, a world 'filled with the knowledge of Elohim's (God's) glory as the waters cover the sea'" (Is.11:9; Hab.2:14) [2].

Christians get very confused over these things because they have been taught a false dichotomy between physical and spiritual which is not the same as the fleshy, carnal, Adamic nature and the spirit. Listen to how Paul describes this physical resurrection and its quality:

"It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" (1 Cor.15:44, NKJV).

This has nothing to do with has being sown with physical bodies and being raised into superior bodies of 'spirit'. That's Jehovah's Witness and New Age doctrine. The word 'spiritual' refers to a condition and not a substance. This error is perpetuated by a number of bad translations as, for example, this often quoted passage in John 4:24:

"God is Spirit ('spirit' - NASB, NIV, JBP, NEB, NRSV; 'a Spirit' - KJV, ASV; ), and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24, NKJV).

"Elohim (God) is spiritual ('a spiritual being' - William Barclay), and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth".

Think about it. If Elohim (God) is 'a Spirit' (as the KJV translates it) or 'a Ghost' (i.e. an entity having no corporeality) rather than "a spiritual being" (as William Barclay translates it) or 'spiritual' by nature, how can a 'spirit have a spirit' - what would 'Spirit of God' or 'Ruach Elohim' then actually mean? Elohim (God) sends out His Ruach (Spirit) (as we discussed in our last Bible study) into the created realm, He Himself staying outside it. A spirit sending our a spirit makes no more sense than a physical body sending out a physical body but a 'spiritual' being sending out His Spirit - the Ruach - makes perfect sense.

Turn with me, if you would, to Romans 8:19-25 (p.1616) where Paul, in one of his greatest expressions, presents a picture of the future world to come:

"For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of Elohim (God). For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of Elohim (God). For we know that the whole creation groans and labours with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the bikkurim (firstfruits) of the Ruach (Spirit), even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our [physical] body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance" (Rom.8:19-26, NKJV).

"For all creation is waiting eagerly for that futrue day when Elohim (God) will reveal who His children really are. Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to Elohim's (God's) curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join Elohim's (God's) children in glorious freedom from [physical] death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And even we Christians, although we have the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when Elohim (God) will give us our full rights as His children, including the new [physical] bodies He has promised us. Now we that are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something you don't need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently" (Rom.8:19-26, NLT).

If we have the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), and if the Ruach (Spirit) has transformed our spirits through internal regeneration, then why would we look forward to a redeemed, perfected, resurrected physical body if in laying down our mortal body in death we get the ultimate release as the gnostics teach? Yet we don't. We cling onto physical life tenaciously because we know how precious it is. Now if you're in a lot of physical pain I can understand why you would want to get away from that, or if you're worn out as Paul was (Phil.1:23), but all things being equal, the great drive we have is the preservation of the whole soul - body and spirit.

Yes, the mortal body becomes really burdensome as you get older, but while you're young, you don't want to get rid of it! No born-again believer who enjoys reasonably good health wants to go and discard his or her body for a 'better' disembodied state! We cry - demand - to stay here because we know this is 'home'. People who commit suicide aren't thinking about the spiritual world beyond - their thought is complete extinction! Death angers us, frustrates us, because we want everyone we love to be here with us on earth. That's the way we were created to be and feel. And this is what Paul says: we eagerly look forward to having perfected, resurrected bodies in the new Creation back on dear old earth.

So Paul tells us that the Creation has been subjected to futility (Rom.8:20) and don't we know it! The tree reaches its fruitfulness in the summer and then becomes bleak and bare in the winter. Summer reaches its height at the summer solstice and at once the days start to shorten - I hate mid-summer's day precisely because I want summer to last forever! Human lives, full of promise and beauty, laughter and love, are cut short by illness and death. Creation as we know it not only bears witness to Yahweh's power and glory (Rom.1:19-20) but also to the present state of futility to which it has been enslaved by the Fall and death. The older and more frail you get, and as loved ones start getting infirm and die, leaving you behind, the more futile and poitless it all suddenly seems. That's the contradiction of the 'Old Creation Life' and why we yearn for the fullness of the New, not just internally but of our very physicality too.

But this slavery, like all slaveries in the Bible, is then given its Exodus, its moment of release, when Yahweh does for the whole Cosmos what He did for Yah'shua (Jesus) at the first Messianic Yom haBikkurim, the Day of Firstfruits (what Christians call 'easter') - the Resurrection! This is the vision which is so big, so dazzling, that many devout readers of Paul have, as it were, blinked, rubbed their eyes, and ignored it, hurrying on instead to the more 'personal' application in the next paragraph.

But this is the important thing - this is where Paul's argument has been going all along. This is where his great theme - the justice of Elohim (God), the justification of Elohim (God) - comes to one of its greatest climaxes. The theme of Yahweh's justice has for so long been isolated into, and demoted to, a special grouping of popular scriptures called 'how to be personally saved', that we need to be reminded - urgently - that if we are going to do accurate exegesis, that the theme stated in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of Elohim (God) for the salvation of everyone who believes..." (NIV) etc., comes to its full expression not simply in Romans 3:21-4:25 (about how we are not saved by our works but by trusting in Christ), not simply in Romans 5:1-11 (which is about justification through faith) and Romans 8:1-11 (about how the Law of the Ruach sets a man free from the law of death), but here in Romans 8:19-27 (which I quoted in the NKJV and NLT (about the Creation waiting in eager expectation for the sons of Elohim/God to be revealed).

In other words, this is far bigger than personal salvation (as important as that is) and encompasses the whole Cosmos. Why is this so important? Well, for many reasons, but one of which is that unless Creation as a whole is put to rights it might appear that the Creator had blundered, or was weak and incapable, or was actually unjust, an accusation I have heard levelled against Yahweh by satanists and therefore by the devil himself. But, no, Paul declares, the renewal of Creation, the birth of the new world from the womb-in-labour of the old world, will demonstrate that Elohim (God) is in the right. In fact, Romans 8 is probably one of the most important chapters in the Bible in answering the 'problem of evil', and to the question of Yahweh's justice, questions about which often vex us...I know they do me. And the important thing to understand - because this is a theme we're going to encounter again and again - is that it is all accomplished according to the divine tavnith or pattern of the Exodus, of the freeing of the slaves, of the cross and of the resurrection, of the powerful new life in the Ruach (Spirit).

What the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) invite us to imagine, then, is a new world - a physical world - which becomes wholly 'spiritual' as it is brought into that Holy of Holies 'cube' of Yahweh's perfection, a community pictured as a city coming out of heaven, as a beautiful, healing community, a world vibrant with chayim (life) and energy, incorruptible, beyond the reach of death and decay, a world reborn, set free from the slavery of corruption, free to be truly what it was made to be. That is what Yom Teruah announces the beginning of cosmically.

However, that does not mean we should just passively wait for the Second Coming and for the autumnal festivals to be fulfilled. Yes, we should be ready for it every autumn at this time, because this is the time of the year the Saviour will be coming though no one knows the year or 'prophetic day', not even the Son Himself. There is much we can, and should, be doing in the spirit of this occasion - the fifth Ruach (Spirit), the Ruach haChamashee. We can be proclaiming the Christus Victor not just as the victor over sin and death on the cross at Calvary for each individual, but for the whole Messianic Community (Church) as we focus on becoming a healing community, for we are surely urgently in need of healing, are we not? We need to be anticipating and realising, albeit it only in shadow, the kind of world we want in our homes and spiritual communities (assemblies/churches) by thinking and acting 'millennial' at least where we can.

It's time to think qadosh (holy, set-apart) again by re-activating sacred space in our homes and treating it like the different portions of the Tabernacle, so that there may be special places soaked in prayer, worship, Scriptural meditation, love and holiness. I want to bring a portion - even if it's only a tiny fraction - of that resurrection world into this one, at least into sacred places dedicated to Yahweh for the purpose.

As Paul insists in Romans 8, all our present life, in anticipation of this future one when Messiah comes back and sets everything in order, releasing resurrection power in its fullness, is a matter of groaning in the Ruach (Spirit) as we wait for the final gift - even as we are also rejoicing because the victory is already won. Turn with me finally to Romans 5:1-5 (p.1611):

"Therefore, since we have been justified through emunah (faith), we have shalom (peace with Elohim (God) through our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), through whom we have gained access by emunah (faith) into this grace (undeserved loving-kindness) in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of Elohim (God). Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because Elohim (God) has poured out his ahavah (love) into our hearts by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), whom he has given us" (Rom.5:1-5, NIV).

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If Elohim (God) is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom Elohim (God) has chosen? It is Elohim (God) who justifies. Who is He that condemns? Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus), who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of Elohim (God) and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

'For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither malakim (angels) nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the ahavah (love) of Elohim (God) that is in Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus) our Master" (Rom.8:31-39, NIV).

Yahweh bless you all and see you in a few days' time at Yom haKippurim (Yom Kippur)! Amen.

Endnotes