This is the Year (F.M. Riley), 6/11/08
Subject: This is the year
Brother I want to incourage you today. I just completed your study on the return of the Lord and I know today is the day after your study was to conclude. I believe you are correct for the Lord's return for this year, but we can sometimes allow our desire to overrule what we know. Still belive what the word says "that no man know the hour or day of the Lord's return" stay strong in your faith in the promise giver even if the promise looks to have passed. I wait for the Lord daily and have felt for some time this was the year of the rapture. Do not let go but look to the last feast. I believe there is support for this time as well to mark the return of the lord. Mainly that the feast of Tabernacles cannot begin without two witness' seeing the new moon and this is the only feast that allows a 48 hour time frame to begin because "No man know the day nor hour". The beginning of the feast is the sound of the trumpet blowing. The Lord will bless you in your pursuit of Him. Do not let today trouble you. We have a BUT IF NOT faith. No matter what the Lord does in answer to our prayers and learning we will still serve the Lord.
Your Brother In Christ
Dear Brother,
I'm not letting today trouble me. In fact the Lord never showed me "June 8th." I have stated that several times to different people since writing my original study. The Lord never showed me a "date" at all. He showed me "Pentecost." After I had been shown Pentecost, then I went to my calendar to see what "date" it fell on this year. I think that is what any normal person with good sense would do. My calendar listed it on June 8th. That is why I included that date in my study. But the Lord didn't show me a "date." He showed me Pentecost.
After posting my study, a great debate broke out about the true "date" of Pentecost. I don't know what the true date is, or who to believe on this. The date of Pentecost is not given in the Scriptures, but rather has to be calculated from "the morrow after the sabbath" following Passover. Some folks think Pentecost is today, June 9th. Others say it is the 15th, and still others the 17th, 18th, or 19th. I just don't know! I'm just waiting to see what happens before the 21st. That is the first day of Summer, and the Spring season will be over. If the resurrection and rapture doesn't occur before that date, then there obviously won't be a Spring rapture.
I still believe I had a visitation from the Lord, for never before in the 54 years I have been in the Lord's ministry have I ever had an experience like that one. There had to be a reason for it. If the Lord doesn't come on Pentecost, during these present days, then I will continue to look for Him. However, I'm not going to jump way ahead to Trumpets or Tabernacles until the other notable Jewish days have come and gone.
The 17th day of Tammuz is coming up followed by the 9th of Av. I think it is highly significant that 14 years ago on July 16, 1994 [on the 9th of Av] is when the Shoemaker-Levy Comet, broken up into 21 major pieces, began to plow into Jupiter. Its plunge into Jupiter lasted exactly 7 days. I recognized clear back in 1994 that there was something very significant about the first piece of that comet plunging into Jupiter on the 9th day of Av, there being 21 pieces of the comet [corresponding to the 21 judgments of the Tribulation], and it taking exactly 7 days for all of those pieces to land on Jupiter. It appeared to me back then that the 7 days prefigured the 7 year tribulation.
If I have to continue to "watch" after this Pentecost season is over, then I'll sure be watching those days before I start looking at the fall holy days. July 16th is especially fascinating, for it was on that date in 1945 that the first atomic bomb was exploded in the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico. It was also on that date that Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969.
I do appreciate your concern for me personally. Some who claim to be "God's people" have already started to scorn, mock, and ridicule. They are so "concerned" about protecting "their image" of Christianity (or even their own pet theory) before a lost world, that they completely ignore such passages of Scripture as Psalm 1:1, 2 Peter 3:3-7, and Matthew 24:48-50. These critics won't lift a finger to seriously study the prophecies themselves and warn lost people to "flee from the wrath to come," but they are right there "johnny on the spot" to criticize those who do. I just thank God that this present "Laodicean farce" masquerading as Bible believing "Christianity" [Sic!] will soon be over, and our precious Lord Himself will sort the grain from the chaff. God have mercy!
Thank you for writing dear brother. I'll meet you soon in glory. Please keep me in your prayers.
Bro. Riley