Pope speaks to the U.S. Congress on Yom Kippur, the start of the Sabbatical Year!

by **Harry** Mon Jun 29, 2015 9:52 am

Dear Friends,

In an effort to communicate faster and more efficiently, I will be launching Facebook with this email. You can follow me @Luis F. Munilla. If you do not have Facebook and would like to remain on this email list, please reply and tell me so.

I would like to share with you three important events that could profoundly affect our lives in the near future. These events surround the upcoming papal visit to the United States, and how this visit ties into Sunday worship, the Sabbatical year timeline, and an extraordinary series of lunar eclipses known as a “lunar eclipse tetrad.”

On September 24, 2015, Pope Francis will speak to the U.S. Congress for the first time in our history. His speech takes place on Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, [1] the most sacred Jewish festival. On the very same day begins the Sabbatical year, which always commences on the Day of Atonement and takes place every 7 years (Lev. 25:1-7).

Seven major Biblical landmarks have taken place on Sabbatical years, or “in the midst of the week” (Dan.9:27) of a Sabbatical cycle. [2] Note the startling remarks made by the pope in regard to the Sabbatical year and Sunday worship.

THE POPE’S ENCYCLICAL LETTER PUBLISHED ON JUNE 18, 2015

In his Encyclical Letter LAUDATO SI, Pope Francis stresses the importance of observing the Sunday sabbath in honor of Christ’s resurrection, instead of the Biblically mandated Saturday (seventh-day Sabbath). He then connects Sunday rest with the Sabbatical year.

“We see this, for example, in the law of the Sabbath. On the seventh day, God rested from all his work. He commanded Israel to set aside each seventh day as a day of rest, a Sabbath, (cf. Gen 2:2-3; Ex 16:23; 20:10). Similarly, every seven years, a sabbatical year was set aside for Israel, a complete rest for the land (cf. Lev25:1-4), when sowing was forbidden and one reaped only what was necessary to live on and to feed one’s household (cf. Lev 25:4-6). Finally, after seven weeks of years, which is to say forty-nine years, the Jubilee was celebrated as a year of general forgiveness and “liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants” (cf. Lev 25:10). This law came about as an attempt to ensure balance and fairness in their relationships with others and with the land on which they lived and worked.” -Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter LAUDATO SI, published June 18, 2015, Paragraph 71(Emphasis in bold supplied.)

Will the pope in his speech to the U.S. Congress, push for a Sunday Law as the solution to the problems facing the world? Is this his agenda?

“On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the ‘first day’ of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality. It also proclaims ‘man’s eternal rest in God’.[168] In this way, Christian spirituality incorporates the value of relaxation and festivity. We tend to demean contemplative rest as something unproductive and unnecessary, but this is to do away with the very thing which is most important about work: its meaning . . . The law of weekly rest forbade work on the seventh day, ‘so that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your maidservant,and the stranger, may be refreshed’ (Ex 23:12). Rest opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centered on the Eucharist, sheds it light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor.” -Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter [size=13]LAUDATO SI, published June 18, 2015, Paragraph 237 (Emphasis in bold supplied.)[/size]

THE BLOOD MOONS TETRAD

“The lunar eclipse tetrad – a series of 4 consecutive total eclipses occurring at approximately six month intervals. The total eclipse of April15, 2014, will be followed by another on Oct. 8, 2014, and another on April 4,2015, and another on Sept. 28, 2015.” -NASA Science, March 27, 2014.

Four days after the Pope’s speech, on September 28th, takes place the last of the four “blood moons,” in the 2014/2015 lunar eclipse tetrad. If you Google “Blood Moons,” you will find Bible scholars declaring that although blood moons are common, when four consecutive blood moons take place during Biblical feast days, a major event affecting the Jewish people could take place. The City of Jerusalem was reunited for the first time since its destruction in A.D. 70, after the six-day war during the Tetrad of 1967/1968. [3]

April 15, 2014 and April 4,2015, mentioned by NASA above, started the Feast of Passover in both years. October8, 2014 was, and September 28, 2015 will be, the start of the Feast of Tabernacles. Notice what Scripture says about “blood moons.”

“Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” Gen.1:14. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood.” Joel 2:30, 31. “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.” Rev.6:12.

HOW DO WE KNOW THE SABBATICAL YEAR STARTS ON SEPTEMBER 24th?

The Jews were exiled to Babylon for 70 years because they had not allowed their land to rest on the Sabbatical year (2 Chr. 36:20, 21.) When Jesus commenced His ministry, he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. “And when He had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:17-19; quoting from Isa. 61:1, 2.)

The Sabbatical year, like the Jubilee year, commences on the Day of Atonement. Lev. 25:1-9. In both Luke & Isaiah, the Sabbatical year is referred to as the“acceptable year of the Lord,” therefore, we can rest assured that Jesus commenced His ministry on a Sabbatical year. But on what year?

The burden of Christ’s preaching was, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Mark1:15. Thus the gospel message, as given by the Savior Himself, was based on the prophecies. The “time” which He declared to be fulfilled was the period made known by the angel Gabriel to Daniel. “Seventy weeks,” said the angel, “are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression,and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.” Dan.9:24.

A day in prophecy stands for a year. See Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6. The seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety days, represent four hundred and ninety years. A starting point for this period is given: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks” (Dan. 9:25), sixty-nine weeks, or four hundred and eighty-three years.

The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, as completed by the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus (see Ezra 6:14; 7:1, 9, margin), went into effect in the autumn of 457 B.C. From this time, four hundred and eighty-three years extend to the autumn of A.D. 27. According to the prophecy above, this period was to reach to the Messiah, the Anointed One. In A.D. 27, Jesus at His baptism received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and soon afterward began His ministry. Then the message was proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled.”

Then, said the angel, “He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week [seven years]” Dan. 9:27. For seven years after the Savior entered on His ministry, the gospel was to be preached especially to the Jews; for three and a half years by Christ Himself; and afterward by the apostles. “In the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” Dan. 9:27. In the spring of AD 31, Christ the true sacrifice was offered on Calvary. Then the veil of the temple was rent in twain (Mark 15:38), showing that the sacredness and significance of the sacrificial service had departed. The time had come for the earthly sacrifice and oblation to cease. The one week,seven years, ended in A.D. 34. Then, by the stoning of Stephen, the Jews finally sealed their rejection of the gospel.

Counting forward in seven-year cycles from A.D. 27, the start of our Lord’s ministry, takes us to the Day of Atonement, on September 24, 2015 (Please refer to the Sabbaticals &Jubilees Diagram attached.) Counting back from A.D. 27 in seven-year cycles, takes us to 688-687 B.C., when King Hezekiah prayed for deliverance from the Assyrians, and God’s angel smote 185,000 Assyrians. Isaiah 37:36. Do not forget that year zero does not count.

In answer to Hezekiah’s prayer, the Lord said: “This shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.” 2 Kings 19:29; Isa.37:30. This is unmistakable Jubilee year language (Lev. 25:21, 22), which took place at the end of every 49 years or 7 Sabbaticals. So whether we start in 688 B.C. or A.D. 27,we arrive at the same conclusion!

I don’t think it’s coincidental that Pope Francis is speaking on September 24th, on the holiest Jewish festival and the commencement of the Sabbatical year, especially when seven of the most important Biblical events have taken place on Sabbatical years.

Neither can I pass lightly the fact that the last of the four “blood moons” comprising the 2014/2015 lunar eclipse tetrad, takes place four days after the pope’s speech, especially when we consider that God gave us the moon for signs (Gen. 1:14). Luke 21:25 tells us there will be signs in the moon, and both Joel 2:30, 31 and Revelation 6:12 speak of “blood moons.”

According to Matthew 24 and Luke 21:11, 25, 26 natural disasters will set the stage for the Lord’s coming;these we are seeing already. However, if we are as close as I think we are, we will see natural disasters of unprecedented frequency and magnitude take place.

Your brother in Christ,

Lou Munilla

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[1] The Jews will celebrate Yom Kippur on September 23rd based on the “astronomical”new moon. However, if we follow the “visible”new moon of Scripture (1 Sam. 20:18), the Day of Atonement takes place on September 24th. “When the moon is almost on a line between the earth and sun, its dark side is turned toward the earth. At this time, the moon is almost invisible. Astronomers consider this dark moon the new moon. Within about 24 hours, a slim crescent begins to appear. The crescent also is called the new moon.” −World Book Encyclopedia, 1960 edition,page 648.

[2] Please refer to the “Sabbaticals & Jubilees” diagram attached.

[3] NASA Catalog of lunar eclipses.

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31