Prophetic Principles, Properties, & Performances-
Yom Kippur & the Scarlet Cords of Fate

As Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Judgement, approaches and the Nation’s attention turns to the nomination of a new Supreme Court Justice, America is gripped with the question of what Justice truly is. Fortunately for Believers, we don’t have to worry, as Christ fulfilled the Fall Feast of Yom Kippur.

The first instance of red cords seen in Scripture is the birth of Patriarch Judah’s grandsons through deception by his daughter-in-law Tamar, after the deaths of Judah’s two wicked older sons. (Genesis 38). While she was giving birth to a set of twins, the first son put out his hand and the midwife tied a red string to confirm that this was the firstborn. This child, later named Zerah, pulled back his arm and his brother, Perez was born instead, though officially Zerah broke the womb first and was thus considered the firstborn. But it was through Perez’s lineage that the kingly Tribe of Judah would birth King David and eventually, Christ Himself. Though Zerah, who was adorned with the red string, had the responsibility of the first born son, it was Perez who would carry the burden ultimately.

During the reconnaissance mission within the fortress of Jericho, the two spies sent in by Joshua were discovered and searched for by the local government, but were hidden in the thatched roofing of Tamar the Prostitute’s home, which was in the city’s wall. In exchange for saving their lives, she requested that her family be spared during the siege of Jericho. They promised that as long as she left out the red rope she let them outside the city from, they would know not to attack anyone within that home. Tamar eventually married Salmon and was the mother of Boaz, and the great grandmother of King David.

When someone was discovered with leprosy, they were required to be quarantined and live outside the camp boundaries or city walls to prevent the spread of the disease. After the disease had subsided and cleared up, a priest would inspect the healed person and perform a cleansing ritual, which involved two live clean birds, a red string, cedar wood, and hyssop. One of the birds was killed in an earthenware jar over running water and the live bird, red string, and other items were dipped in the blood of the killed bird. The healed person would be splashed seven times with the blood of the dead bird using the little bundle, and the live bird would be allowed to be set free in the open fields afterwards.

This ceremony was extremely similar to the one done during the Yom Kippur sacrifice. Two goats which were identical in every way, had lots cast, with one goat given a red string around its neck where the High Priest would place the ceremonial knife and the other goat had the red string tied around its horns like a bloody crown. This second goat would have part of the red string around its horns removed and placed on the door of the Temple, before being led into the Wilderness. After the Yom Kippur sacrifice, the red string on the door would turn white when the released goat died in the Wilderness.

Simeon the Righteous, a very famous and respected High Priest, was known for several miracles during his forty years serving. One of the most well know was that the red string turned white on the day of Yom Kippur, which was extremely rare, every single year. This was significant since the citizens of Jerusalem usually had to wait several days or weeks for the sign to occur. This changing from red to white was thought to symbolize G3D forgiving the sins of the Priesthood and the Nation, and began to be known as the Consolation of Israel.

When Jesus was presented in the Temple, this is what Simeon, a righteous and devout man had been waiting for. Not only was Simeon’s name an allusion to High Priest Simeon the Righteous, but he was waiting on the sign, most recognized during his tenure. Simeon was surprised to realize that the true Consolation of Israel was not a piece of string, but the Messiah Himself.

In each case, the lives connected to the red string were spared the consequences that they would have faced otherwise. Zerah the first born of Tamar’s twins, bore the red string on his wrist, but was not required to carry on the family name, and instead Perez, his twin bore the weight of his family’s shame, before the redemption by King David. The two spies was hidden from the King’s guards and escaped down the red rope outside Rahab’s home. But that same red rope which spared the spies, was used as a sign for which house not to attack during the siege of Jericho. The red string secured the safety of Rahab and her family and she eventually married into the Tribe of Judah and gave birth to Boaz. It was through her family line that both King David and Christ would be born.

The cleansing ceremony to heal lepers and the Yom Kippur sacrifice both required two animals, with one being killed and the other one associated with the red string let free. Regarding the Yom Kippur sacrifice, the red string tied to the door of the Temple would eventually turn white after the goat led into the Wilderness finally died. When Christ was presented in the Temple, Simeon recognized Jesus as the true Consolation of Israel.

Several Jewish sources confirm that for forty years before the destruction of the Temple, starting after Christ’s Crucifixion, the red string never turned white, which is fitting since Christ fulfilled the Yom Kippur sacrifice fully.

Red string was a sign that the wearer would be freed from the consequences that would normally befall you. Whether it was relieving you of the weight of a legacy of sin, sparing your physical life, or allowing you to enter back into the loving embrace of society again, the red string was a sign of our salvation. Likewise we are covered by the blood of Christ and are spared from sin’s debt and are allowed to go free while he carried our burden instead.

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Judgement, is no longer a day to afflict our souls and wait and pray hoping that we will receive a sign that G3D has forgiven our sins. We can now rest assured that we are free because Christ not only paid that debt, but He also fulfilled Yom Kippur.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

Prophetic Principles, Properties, & Performances-
Rosh Hashanah-Prophetic Date of New Beginnings

Christ’s Birth on Rosh Hashanah had been prophetically announced for hundreds of years in both subtle and bold ways. G3D told the Israelites to celebrate the day by blowing trumpets, but His People did not realize they were announcing their King.

Though G3D only stipulated that the day be set aside for the blowing of trumpets, the meaning behind this Prophetic Performance has changed over the ages.

Jewish tradition has taught two different origin stories regarding Rosh Hashanah. Some Rabbis have postulated that G3D began Creation on this day, while others argue that Adam was formed and had Life breathed into him on Rosh Hashanah.

Whether Creation or Mankind began on the Head of the Year, most agree that both Cain and Abel may have been born on the First Day of the Seventh Month, and other famous Patriarchs may have been as well.

Noah, famous for his ark, was also supposedly born on the same day the Earth was reborn. After nearly a year since the beginning of the Flood, on the First Day of the First Month, the Flood Waters began to recede and Dry Land appeared, symbolically re-birthing a purified World as it emerged from the Waters, setting the precedent for our modern water baptisms. Before G3D established His Religious Calendar, the calendar was set with Rosh Hashanah as the start of the year, and it still the beginning of the civil calendar.

After a long unjust imprisonment, Joseph was remembered and released from prison on Rosh Hashanah. More importantly, he was promoted to Prime Minister over all of Egypt on this day. This public inauguration was repeated by King Solomon when he held his coronation and sanctified and anointed the Temple on Rosh Hashanah. Though Solomon had been privately crowned king much earlier, and the Temple had already been completed, Solomon chose the day the whole country would be blowing trumpets to officially begin his reign. This date became so popular, all future Kings of Judah were initiated to the sounds of the Rosh Hashanah trumpets, including Jesus, whose birth would have been announced by the sounds of the shofar.

Modern Jews celebrate the Lord’s Feast by blowing trumpets in anticipation of the Messiah, but most families focus on eating sweet foods, such as apples dipped in honey, to symbolize the hope for a new year filled with positive experiences. One of the most consistent items at the table, is an accidental birthday cake: a round challah bread. Through challahs are usually baked in a long strip, on Rosh Hashanah, they are kneaded into a round shape for Rosh Hashanah. Though the domed shape may be a reference to the construction of the Tabernacle, most bakers will say that their creation is meant to resemble a crown, for the G3D of the Universe. Others will say that the circular shape represents the cyclical nature of the year, or the never ending reign of the Messiah.

Most Jews use the day to celebrate the beginning of a new calendar year, but it also marks the countdown to Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Judgement. Rosh Hashanah is the day the events for the next year are decreed, but it is not till Yom Kippur that they are made permanent. A person’s health, wealth, and relationships for the next year are affected by how a person lived their previous year. Having been generous and thoughtful and caring to your friends, family, employees and customers, will mean that you will be blessed with more in the upcoming year. Being cruel, mean-spirited, stingy, and cheating or purposefully hurting others, will result in you losing money, worsened health, broken relationships, and possibly even death.

By giving to the poor and needy, making amends with those you have hurt and wronged, and trying to outweigh the evil you had done, as well as intense prayer and remorse, your fortune for the upcoming year could be changed.

Thankfully, Christ’s Sacrifice negated the need to do any of that. Since we are unable to ever fully pay the enormous debt we owe for our sin, G3D’s Grace means that Rosh Hashanah can be a day of celebrating all the Good He has done for us throughout the past year. Rather than contemplating how we can try to make up for all the mistakes we have recently made, we can recognize all the blessings He has rained upon His Faithful.

Rosh Hashanah may have been the beginning of Creation or the start of Mankind, and it set a trend of commencements on this day. Not only was it the supposed birthday of very important Biblical figures including the Patriarchs, it was also the date of the rebirth of the World after the Great Flood. Joseph was released from prison and given the position of Prime Minister over Egypt on this day. King Solomon was publicly coronated and consecrated and anointed the Temple on Rosh Hashanah.

Most importantly, Christ was born on this day. His Birth began a new World and a new Era. The Nation of Israel blew horns announcing the birth and crowning of their Eternal King. Jews bake round challah bread to symbolically crown the Messiah and in recognition of His Never-ending Reign. While some people worry about having done enough good to survive the next year, we can rest on the fact that G3D’s Grace and Christ’s Sacrifice has paid the price, and we do not need to fear Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Judgement.

Whether you celebrate the day by blowing the shofar, eating round challah bread or other sweet and yummy foods, or spending time with family and friends, take a moment to thank G3D for having provided throughout this past year of uncertainties. This next year will be exciting and major changes will be coming, but know that He has revealed His Plans to His Prophets and Christ is ruling and reigning today.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

Prophetic Principles, Properties, & Performances-
Christ Fulfilled the Fall Feasts

As more and more Believers distinguish the importance of G3D’s Appointed Festivals, some still incorrectly argue that Christ has failed to complete the Fall Feasts. This error influences people’s ability to realize G3D’s Glory and recognize legitimate modern prophecy.

It is quite obvious that Jesus’ Death on the Cross, rising from the Dead, and sending the Holy Spirit, coincide with the Spring Feasts of Passover, First Fruits, and Pentecost. All modern Christians openly celebrate some expression of this with some version of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Even more tradition minded denominations see that Pentecost needs to be celebrated as it marked not only the fulfilling of the Spring Feasts, but marked the beginning of the birth of the Church, when the Holy Spirit filled the Disciples and the first mass conversion occurred during the observance of the Feast of Weeks in Jerusalem.

The Gospels made the details of these coordinated dates very obvious to their perspective audience, whether First Century Jew or Greek. Unfortunately, many of these cultural clues don’t always translate through a modern audience’s societal lens.

It is not through a lack of intelligence or spiritual discernment that contemporary Believers have missed these signs. But when shown how readers of that era would have understood Scripture, it will become obvious that Christ has kept His Word and fulfilled both the Law and the Prophecies about Him (ref Matthew 5:17).

While we will be just doing a rough synopsis of how Christ fulfilled the Fall Feasts in this article, we will be writing expanded outlines to fully explain the festivities over the next few weeks.

Christ’s birth was on the first day of the seventh month, celebrated as Rosh Hashanah. This Head of the Year, marked the beginning of the civil calendar with the blast of trumpets and horns. Since Rosh Hashanah had become the date to celebrate the inauguration and coronation of the Kings of Judah since King Solomon consecrated the Temple on Rosh Hashanah, it had also become the official start of new kings’ reigns. When Christ was born on Rosh Hashanah, it would have been with the whole country conducting a coordinated Prophetic Performance of blowing trumps, announcing not only a new year, but a new king, and a new era.

During Yom Kippur, a relatively new tradition had been introduced by one of the most famous High Priests, Simeon the Just, where the red thread around the neck of the goat or ram became white on Yom Kippur after the scapegoat had died in the Wilderness. Since the turning of the scarlet string to white was seen as a sign from G3D, that He had forgiven the sins of the Priesthood and the Nation of Israel, ensuring that it actually occurred became a national concern. Since the scapegoat didn’t always die immediately, patient watchers sometimes waited days or weeks for the miraculous sign.

Simeon, a just and devout man, whose name and description were Prophetic Properties correlating to High Priest Simeon the Just who instituted the tradition, was waiting for the consolation of Israel, when Jesus was presented in the Temple. He had been told that he would not die before he saw this miracle, and immediately realized that Christ was the true representation of the fulfillment of this feast. Most miraculous, for forty years before the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., the crimson thread never turned white, further proving that Christ had fulfilled the Yom Kippur feast.

There are also many major parallels between Christ’s Crucifixion and the Yom Kippur sacrifice. The scarlet string around the neck of the sheep to be sacrificed was mirrored through the red robe (Matthew 27:27-28) that was put on Christ. The scapegoat had the red string tied around its horns, prophetically referencing the bull caught by its horns in the brambles, when Abraham was provided a sacrificial substitute to his son Isaac. This also linked to Christ’s crown of thorns.

We’ll be expanding on the prophetic similarities more when we are closer to Passover.

Christ fulfilled the Feast of Tabernacles when on the eighth and greatest day, He declared that He was the Light of the World and the Source of the Living Water. He would have done this in front of a giant candle during the water drawing ceremony in the Temple. Though these prophetic performances were additions to the Sukkot Festival which only stipulated that Israelites live in temporary tents to remember their time wandering through the Wilderness relying on G3D’s Providence for survival.

Not only did Christ reveal Himself before the whole of Israel that evening, but a few hours later, He went up on the Mount of Olives and became transfigured between Moses and Prophet Elijah. Despite an expectation for Patriarchs and Religious figures to visit during this festival, Peter was overwhelmed by their presence, and in his panic focused on offering to build shelters for them to stay in. G3D corrected Peter and told him to listen to His Son. Not only was this a directive to focus on Christ rather than the Law, represented by Moses, and the Prophets, through Elijah, it was G3D’s way of showing that the Festival was fulfilled through Christ’s Transfiguration, not through the living in tents.

Our next month’s articles will be focused on not only further explaining the Fall Feasts, but continuing to showcase how Christ has fulfilled them. This is not a new revelation nor secret knowledge, but Truth that helps us open our eyes to the ultimate fulfillment of prophecy. By recognizing how Christ completed everything during His Era, we can recognize what is happening in our current timeline.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

Prophetic Principles, Properties, & Performances-
Preparing for the Lord’s Feasts

As the Fall Feasts (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, & Sukkot) approach, many modern Believers might question why G3D made them an everlasting covenant and whether we are required to observe them as well. These festivals not only prophetically pointed to Christ, but their celebration also pointed to how Christ fulfilled them during His Earthly Ministry.

Our previous article explained the differences between Prophetic Principles, Properties, and Performances, all of which are displayed during the Fall Feasts.

One of the most basic Prophetic Principles is the fact G3D will not do something new without first revealing it to His Messengers: the Prophets. While G3D had some specifications for how He wanted the Festivals to be conducted, He did give His People some creative license when it came to celebrating them. While Rosh Hashanah, means Head of the Year, and was designated by the blowing of Trumpets, King Solomon chose it as the day to consecrate the Temple with a huge multi-week carnival. Modern Jews bake challah bread in a round shape specifically for Rosh Hashanah and will often eat sweet foods, such as apples and honey, as a way to toast in the New Year, hoping that the rest of the calendar dates will be just as sweet.

Because King Solomon’s consecration of the Temple became a sort of public coronation celebration, Tishrei 1, became the official time period for dating the reigns of the Kings of Judah, similar to how January 20th is the sanctioned date of the United States Presidential Inauguration. The blasting of the shofar, was not only viewed as ringing in the New Year, but also as the day to announce the coming of a new king.

Prophetic Properties are seen constantly during the Lord’s Feasts, and even some of the characteristics that Man has introduced are used as a way for the culture to understand what G3D was doing during that timeline.

Rabbi Simeon the Righteous was famous for the miracles that occurred during his tenure as the High Priest. One of the best known was the marvel that the crimson thread tied to the Temple door would turn white once the scapegoat, which was released outside Jerusalem’s wall, finally died. Though the ceremony took place on Yom Kippur, devout people would eagerly wait days and sometimes weeks to confirm that the scarlet thread had turned white, thus symbolizing that the sins of the Nation of Israel had been forgiven for the rest of the year.

Observant readers will recognize the Prophetic Properties seen in the name of the man who was waiting for the consolation of Israel, who upon seeing the Christ Child, prophesied over Jesus when He was consecrated in the Jerusalem Temple. Luke boldly describes “Simeon was righteous and devout”, paralleling the High Priest who established the tradition of tying the crimson thread to the Temple door, so that the People could wait and confirm the “consolation of Israel”.

While the details and celebration of the Festivals is important, they must not take precedence over the true meaning, which was to prophesy Christ’s Arrival.

During the Feast of Sukkot, which G3D dedicated as a week where His People would live in tents to remember their time in the Wilderness, Christ’s bothers urged Him to start heading to Jerusalem to participate in the Festival which was approaching. Jesus had been avoiding Judea for several months because the religious leaders had been threatening to kill Him. As a religious Jew, Christ of course would make the pilgrimage, but sought to keep a low profile.

During Sukkot, the principle of generosity towards strangers is manifested in the concept of Ushpizin, meaning “Guests”. Though it has transformed over millennia to have the expectation that the spirits of the “Seven Wanderers”: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David, to each visit on a separate day of the week-long feast. Feminist minded Jews also invite Matriarchs: Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca, Leah, Miriam, Abigail, and Esther.

Self-promoting hosts would have taken great pride in saying that they had had the famous Jesus of Nazareth as their guest and drawn much attention to His Presence at the Festival. After declaring Himself the source of the Living Water and the Light of the World, during the water drawing ceremony and in front of the giant public candle on the eighth and most important night of the feast, which were both added elements to the Sukkot observance, Christ left for the Mount of Olives.

There, Christ was transfigured while standing between Moses and Elijah. Peter is seemingly not surprised by this, since there was an expectation to be visited by Ushpizin, or “guests” during Sukkot, but he failed to recognize the weight of the event and instead focused on suggesting to build tents for Moses and Elijah. Peter was focused on the Prophetic Performance of building tabernacles, rather than understanding the meaning behind them.

Though G3D laid out some specific details regarding the celebration of His Holy Feasts, Prophetic Principles show that He still used the additional aspects that His People incorporated to be able to prophesy His Son’s Arrival. Prophetic Properties such as people’s names and colors can’t be overlooked in Scripture and have been included to prove Christ is the Messiah. Finally, Prophetic Performances are extremely important in the rejoicing of His Festivals, but should not take precedence over why we are celebrating.

As the Fall Feasts approach, it is important that modern Believers are able to recognize and appreciate these important moments in Christ’s ministry. Even more significant is the fact that Christ has fulfilled these feasts as well, and by distinguishing this, His People can better identify legitimate modern prophecy.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator