Grace in the Shadows
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Grace in the Shadows
Exploring the Mysteries of Scripture: The Rapture, The Second Coming, and Jewish Festivals with Rabbi Jeff Grillo (Part 2)
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Ready to embark on a journey through time and scripture? With Rabbi Jeff Grillo by our side, we're about to navigate the intricate details of the tribulation, the rapture, and the second coming. We don't just skim the surface; we delve into the seven-year period mentioned in the Book of Daniel, raise questions about the prophetic words of Isaiah, and shed light on the mysteries lying within the Book of Revelation. This in-depth exploration is more than just a theological discussion; it's an opportunity to experience God's love, mercy, and grace in an entirely new light.
Now, picture yourself celebrating the vibrant Jewish festivals, immersing in the rhythmic chants and dances, and tasting the traditional delicacies. As we join Rabbi Grillo in understanding these cultural celebrations, we unearth their indispensable role in God's plan of salvation. But the conversation doesn't stop there. We'll be dissecting the concept of the Trinity, demystifying the entity of Elohim, and revealing the significance of the seven trumpets. And, what's more, we'll learn the lifelong process of restoration and sanctification that begins with one simple yet courageous act - repentance. Arise, listener, for a spiritual awakening beckons!
Check out Rabbi Jeff Grillo's church: https://myroic.org/about-roic/
You can contact Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Marla Behler:
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drjonathan@graceintheshadowsor.org
(251) 244-4645
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Slow Phан. Welcome to Grace and the Shadows. This is Dr Marla Bealer and Dr J Dr Jonathan Bealer. We're so glad to have everybody with us today. We want to do a quick shout out to Forest Virginia.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:We have a special young man that lives in Forest, virginia, close to Lynchburg yeah, right outside of Lynchburg, yeah.
Speaker 2:Beautiful area Nice area.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. Forest Virginia, thanks for sharing. Thanks for telling me. We really appreciate it. You can check us out at Graceandtheshadowsorg in text or call at 251-244-4645, or you can email us at drjohnathanatgraceandtheshadowsorgorg. Well, this is our second part of our discussion with Rabbi Jeff Grillo. We're so thankful to have you back with us again, and Jonathan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, last time he talked about the festivals and the Yom Kippur, the Day of Trumpets and others, and he talked about how you can definitely understand the New Testament and the Gospels a lot more profoundly and deeper by understanding the festivals Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I think all Christians should understand these festivals, so I'm excited about this.
Speaker 2:I mean God's in the details. He talks about the certain days of observance and what have you, and he's in the every detail of everything. And if he just doesn't throw celebrate this for 40 days because he feels like it, there's a reason behind it. So, rabbi Grillo, you're back and welcome back, and today I think we're going to move it into the rapture, the second coming, and how the festivals and things point to that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll try, maybe sometime to get an exciting topic. Right Now, this is about as exciting as it gets, and I'm thankful that you've got me back, so thanks.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen, excited about it, go ahead.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, last time. If folks didn't check that out, I encourage them to go back, because it just points to God's love and mercy and what it truly means to be born again and the natural progression. Talking about the fall festivals and rapture is to discuss, and we discussed off air about the tribulation and how the prophet Daniel speaks of a definite time period of seven years, a period of 42 months and 42 months, and how the events of those days are detailed and chronicle throughout various places in the scripture, and I presented the idea that I wish was an original thought. It's fascinating and brilliant and at first when I heard it and at first when you listeners hear it, they might be like, oh heresy.
Speaker 2:So right, right right.
Speaker 3:Because it just wow. It just kind of smacks of whoa, turn this thing off. Okay, I'm done. Oh, man, stepping on something here maybe we shouldn't mess with, but I will show through the scripture that Messiah himself is very clear. I'm not this.
Speaker 3:And what we're getting at is that the seven years tribulation Is not exactly what's gonna happen. I believe it's going to be much, much shorter, and I want to caution people that, first of all, this is not an In invitation to say, oh, it's not going to be as long or as bad, I can endure that. So therefore, I'm gonna live how I want, absolutely not. Do not take that from this. We. It's not anything anybody wants to go through for an hour, much less anything beyond, but what it is is going to open your eyes To a deeper understanding of the love, the mercy and the grace that the father has for all of us. So what are we talking about? So, again, daniel tells us it's seven years, but Yeshua says and he quotes Daniel that the prophet Daniel talked about, you know, seven years, but Unless those days, what days? The days Daniel prophesied. Unless of those days be shortened, no flesh would survive, and this is found in Matthew 24, if I didn't mention it. So how is it going to be shortened?
Speaker 3:If you look at the prophet Isaiah, chapter 4610, he says I'm the Lord, your God, beside me. There is none other Declaring the end from the beginning, and things of ancient times that have not yet been so. From the beginning, the end has already been declared. There is a set, finite number of days from creation to the end, and there's not going to be any more, and there's not, and there's not going to be any fewer. It is what it is. So, therefore, how are those days going to be shortened? The only option is they're shortened in the sense that the onset of those days is delayed.
Speaker 3:Where am I getting that from? If you go to Revelation, chapter 9? It's part of Revelation that that goes through the seven trumpets of judgment and they're chronological. And then I saw an angel and he blew the shofar, and then and then, and then it's over and over. So after the sixth Trumpet, judgment is completed, then your head on, john has a vision of another angel coming down and he sets one foot on the waters and one on the land and he raises a hand towards heaven and he swears upon heaven and all that is in it, the earth and all that is on it, and the sea and all that is in it. And he says that there shall be no more delay. And and then it says, as the seventh angel is preparing to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God is complete. What is that? What is he talking about? What mystery of God?
Speaker 3:The only thing that comes to my mind, you, and if I would love to know if there's another place, but the only thing that comes to my mind is was it the first Thessalonians, chapter 4? Behold, I tell you a mystery, that we shall not all sleep, but the dead in Christ will rise first, and those of us who remain will be thought of to meet him in glory.
Speaker 2:Now, rabbi Jeff, some people, I think, take the view that unless he came and Cut it short, the whole world and Elf flesh will be destroyed, the that towards the end of the seven year when Jesus returns with his saints. But you don't take that view. You think he's talking about cutting the tribulation short.
Speaker 3:Right, because in here's why, and you know, I want to stress if you agree with me, that's fantastic. If you don't agree with me, that's, that's okay, we can agree to disagree.
Speaker 2:I think it's a good theory.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, but so here's the idea Again. The prophet Isaiah said and it's not really that he said it, god spoke through him. True that, true, I have declared the end from the beginning. So the end is the end. So it can't be shortened that way, because then the end isn't the end. Right, that's true. So the only so. If we have a seven-year period that's gonna end on this date and time, the only way I can shorten it is I can delay Instead of starting it on this date. Maybe I can start it, you know, six months later or three years later or whatever it is.
Speaker 3:Then those days are shortened. So here's what's happening when you read the entirety of the trumpets, these judgments. This is, this is God declaring his judgment. This is what you deserve. Yes, and there's no no Argue in it. We deserve everything that's poor, that that is decreed to be poured out. However, god is a God of justice. The very first name given to us in Genesis is Elohim. It's a name that's all about justice, with a little bit of mercy. If there wasn't a little bit of mercy baked into the equation, the universe couldn't exist. So he's a God first of justice. The justice is. This is what you deserve.
Speaker 2:However, Elohim also points to the Trinity, to the Triune God. Right yeah, because the very first verse.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because Elohim would be, would be my God or our God, and Elohim, typically, would you get the Eema at the end of a word. That's the masculine form of a plural. So, and not pointing, you know, there's all kinds of theories. Oh, that's the council of God, the angels, and no.
Speaker 2:Trinity Triune God yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, yeah, so. So the seven trumpets, this is what you deserve, that's, that's his justice and his mercy comes in that it look, if I do this, it's all over, no one's gonna survive. So, because I am a God of mercy, because I am a God who's gracious and I love All, god so loved the world, not just the believers. He loved the world that he gave us all he was on, that all would hopefully repent and believe that he shortens it to give some the opportunity to survive, which otherwise it wouldn't happen. So it just, you know, if you couple that with the last episode and the 40 days of repentance that he calls us to leading up to 30 days prior to the sounding of the shofar for Feast of Trumpets, and the additional 10 days of repentance leading up to Judgment Day, right, the 40 days that it's all about us returning to Him, giving us opportunity to repent and to be born again, born anew every year, not just a one and done. It's a process, it's a lifelong process.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean where the Scripture says rightly, you know we were saved, we are being saved and we will be saved, and so, yeah, it is a process, for sure.
Speaker 3:And you know, I'm trying to think too, if it's also in Matthew 24, I don't. Ah, no, it's anyway, it's in Matthew. I'm pretty sure on that one. This was an off the cuff moment. But when Messiah is speaking to the disciples, I think it is. Yet In Matthew 24, he's talking about all of these hardships that are coming, all these terrible things that are coming, and those who endure to the end shall be saved. So here's my contention with that. This is my interpretation. Accept it, reject it, whatever.
Speaker 3:But it's just an interesting thing to think of. We think of when we're saved as that moment in time where we sent a prayer or we gave our heart to the Lord. I'm saved, okay. But I think the reality is that that moment of repentance, that Teshuvah, that turning toward God, is our starting point. Where we enter, we step off of the broad road that leads to destruction onto the narrow road that Messiah told us we need to be on right. So we're starting that walk.
Speaker 3:Then what happens? We're justified through the blood of Messiah, and now we spend the rest of our lives getting the sin out, becoming sanctified, becoming holy, because God didn't have a problem taking his people out of Egypt, which is a picture of bondage and sin, because Mitsurayim is the Hebrew word translated into Egypt and it literally means prison, bondage, narrow or closed in space. So it's a picture of our bondage. We're brought out of that and then we're into the wilderness and then it took the whole next 40 years of wandering through the wilderness, going through the test and trial and test and trial and all kinds of crazy stuff, just to get the sin out, so they could be sanctified enough to enter the picture of the festivals that the Jews did and do and that really the church should be doing one degree or another, points to really the salvation experience.
Speaker 3:Ultimately. Yeah, you know it's all individual, different events and different parts of the overall timeline of human existence and our ultimate destination, but yeah, it's all part of the process of salvation. It's all one and the same.
Speaker 2:So I want to backtrack a little bit. How do you got? How do you all celebrate these festivals? What do you guys do? How does that work for us Gentiles?
Speaker 3:Well, if anyone's in the Hickory, north Carolina area, I invite you to come to the Rock of Israel congregation and check it out. But for those of you who cannot, I guess the general thing is so Rasha Shana Yam Turu of East of Trumpets, we usually it's almost a party of sorts, it's you know we have certain there'll be a teaching, you know, like any other day there's. You know, certain things that are recited and certain, you know, kinds of music and lots of shofar sounding, lots of trumpets, lots of the celebration and food afterwards.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know you got to have a little bit of a little sweet little sugar, but yeah, so there's that. And then Yom Kippur it's kind of a strange thing. So it's really, on the one hand, the most solemn service of the year. We typically will wear all white, no leather. It's lots of. We're not a liturgical congregation. Except for this one service of the year. There's lots of traditional liturgical prayers and readings that we do and prayers.
Speaker 3:And then it's, even though it's such a solemn thing, it's also some Jews look at it as the most joyous, and especially for those who put their faith and trust in Yeshua and Jesus, because we know we are written in the Lamb's Book of Life that there is that part to it and you know it's also, you know, a time of fasting and then the breaking of the fast afterwards is a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3:And then Sukkot, or in gathering, is it's a seven day celebration where you know, typically, you know we will erect in our backyards or you know some people gather and go camping. You know, for the week there's just these temporary dwellings. At the very least Some will at least go out there and eat their meals in it, some will sleep in it, and it's a reminder of the temporary dwellings in the wilderness. There's all kinds of other you know, deeper connections and whatnot. And then, yeah, that was also at the end of it is an eighth day known as Sim-Katora, the joy of Torah, and that is sort of a day where the reading of the Torah starts anew, back in Genesis, chapter one, verse one, because every year they read through it. It's a prescribed thing that was divided up by the prophet Ezra and it is divinely inspired and it's a wonderful and beautiful thing in and of itself.
Speaker 2:So Well, tell us a little bit about your church. I want you to give a little advertisement of your church and a little plug there.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, we're a smaller sized congregation but seem to be growing fairly quickly. We don't have our own building right now, so we meet at Life Point. It's a church of God. We're actually part of the National Jewish Fellowship of the Assemblies of God, so it's kind of a pretty neat situation. They're super great to us, it's a great church, great leadership, and they're super kind to us. So we meet there on Saturday mornings at 9.30, and we'll typically have time of worship and teaching and a whole lot of fellowship. Most Saturdays we'll have a Hebrew class and so people are kind of getting all kinds of good food, good teaching. We do some different outreaches and you know women's, men's ministries and kids' stuff and it's really it's a Sounds like a great church. Yeah, it's pretty exciting and I think you have in the past linked to us in the description, so I guess they can check the description out. Maybe they'll be a link.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We'll definitely link that in the show notes for One of these days, we're going to stop by Rabbi.
Speaker 3:I can't wait and of course you're going to have to come and tap me on the shoulder because, with me being blind, I'm not going to, I'm not going to.
Speaker 1:I can recognize it.
Speaker 3:I won't know. I won't know if you have entered the building.
Speaker 2:Well, you know it sounds. I love talking about the end times. To me, we're not looking for antichrist, we're looking for Jesus Christ, the Blessed Hope, and to me it's a blessing to see the Jewish background, tradition and festivals, how they point to all this. What a great thing to know. God is in His sovereignty and providence, brings every detail, scripture and all things for His good purpose.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I love how you know we've known about the festivals. We didn't know a lot about them, but just all the way the numerical things that you pointed out and how it all fits together in the plan of God is just so interesting and exciting to me to see. You know absolutely.
Speaker 3:One of the other exciting things that's real quick about the Feast of Sikot, the Feast of Booths, is that in all likelihood I don't know that it can be proven, but in all likelihood all indications are that Yeshua was actually born on the first day of Sikot.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, Because you guys made all.
Speaker 3:Remember, john used some interesting language when he said that the word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us the Feast of Tabernacles, so that he would have embodied the flesh on that day. And here's another thing when is a Jewish young man circumcised and given his name? On the eighth day. That's the day of the joy of Torah. He is the Torah. It's a Torah made flesh right.
Speaker 1:Wow. Like we said earlier, he is so much in the details and I think sometimes we don't drill down to figure out what those details are, so this has been just so cool to do that.
Speaker 2:This has been a great blessing Rabbi. We hope you come back again sometime and you're just very scintillating discussions and teaching and just love it my pleasure anytime, yeah, like before Christmas. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, that would be good. That would be yeah.
Speaker 3:That would be a good one All right?
Speaker 1:Well, we'll definitely make it a date.
Speaker 2:And remember we're going to have a date. Oh yeah, uh-oh.
Speaker 3:That was a good time to end, jonathan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh boy.
Speaker 2:Okay, I think it's good for the heart, but remember everyone out there. Yeah, I can take your mass truncheon message for his glory, for your good.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening and thank you, rabbi Jeff, for being with us today.
Speaker 2:We really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Everybody have a great day, thank you.