September 24, 2021

Thinking about the rapture and timing of the Feast of Trumpets for 2021.

By James W.

Jesus said no man knows the day or hour. This may be also a reference to the Feast of Trumpets, (FoT), because since no one knew which day or hour the new sliver moon would be seen was understood in the days of Jesus, to refer to the FoT. So it is possible that the rapture could happen on the Feast of Trumpets is a reasonable clue. But the majority are not watching at all so they will be caught unawares, whenever it happens.

Following the Karaite literal interpretation of the scriptures here is the analysis of the Feast of Trumpets for the Hebrew year 5782 and which is also the year 2021AD, from March 22 on. The start of the religious year at Nisan 1 begins when there is a new moon on or after the spring equinox. The spring equinox starts after March 22 every year. For 2021, the modern rabbinical interpretation put Nisan 1 before the equinox in 2021. The Karaites stay with the Old Testament so they look for the new moon to be after the spring equinox. The modern priests placed the start of Nisan 1 too early, claiming that the FoT started in September 7, 2021 when it should be in early October.

The Prime Meridian is zero degrees longitude that passes through Greenwich England. This is the start of time called UTC, Universal Coordinated Time, or GMT, Greenwich Mean Time. To avoid confusion, the 24 hour count is used based on UTC and will also avoid confusion when using daylight time (DT) and standard time (ST) until it is needed for the area when in use. When a country is using DT then 1 hour will be added to use DT.

The Feast of Trumpets, the fifth of 7 Feasts, is the only Feast that starts on the new moon. For October 7, 2021 the new moon is at 11:05 UTC/GMT.

Israel is 2 hours east of the Prime Meridian, and since Israel is on daylight time in October, therefore the new moon starts at 14:05 IDT

Sunset in Jerusalem as of Oct 7 is 16:16 IDT. For North America Eastern Daylight Time, EDT is 7 hours back from Jerusalem, and Pacific Daylight Time, PDT, is 10 hours back.

The moon moves east in its orbit at the rate of about 13.186 degrees per day. That makes the motion of the moon about 0.549 degrees per hour. The moon’s diameter is close to one degree. Whether the priests see the new sliver moon is unknown at the present time, because the moon may be too much in the glare of the setting sun to see the sliver moon.

In Israel the position of the moon will be 14.05 IDT as a new moon, so at sunset at 18:16 IDT, the moon will have moved about 4 hours eastward in its orbit, which is 4 x .549 degrees/hour which is about 2.4 moon diameters. It may be possible to see the sliver moon on Oct 7 Jerusalem time. If it is not seen that day it will be seen the next day Oct 8 Jerusalem time. Whichever it is, the Feast of Trumpets will start when the sliver moon is seen.

When the sliver moon is seen for Eastern daylight time, the time would be about 11.16 EDT, Oct 7 and will be Oct 7, 8:16 PDT, depending upon atmospheric conditions. In Israel, if it is not seen Oct 7, it will be seen October 8.

So when the rapture happens, it will be instantaneous world wide whatever the time zone is.

If the rapture is not going to happen on the Feast of Trumpets 2021, will God leave it another year? Or will world events build to a point that sudden war starts, and then God takes us off. There is no predicting that timing.

God bless,
James