Rosh Hashanah and the Rapture

Why I believe the Rapture is connected to the Jewish Feast of Trumpets

Rosh Hashanah is this weekend. This significant, two-day Jewish feast and festival marks the Jewish New Year. It begins at sundown on Friday and concludes at sundown on Sunday evening. If you’ve been a part of this community for more than a year, you know I pay very close attention to this Jewish holiday, because I believe the Rapture is likely to happen at some point during Rosh Hashanah.

That’s one reason we’ve scheduled the Tipping Point Conference for Saturday, September 16. We want to gather this community together, teach about the end times, and encourage one another at a meaningful moment on the world’s calendar. I’ll be speaking and so will Dr. Mark Hitchcock. Billy Crone, Dr. Tony Evans, Jonathan Cahn and others are also on the guest list!

If you haven’t bought tickets yet, I’d love to meet you in person at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas. Or, you can livestream the conference with a digital pass. Tipping Point subscribers get special conference perks. Note: To receive access, you MUST use the same email address as your endtimes.com subscription when buying your conference tickets.

At any rate, the connection between the Rapture and Rosh Hashanah is is my personal opinion. There is nothing in the Bible that says, “The Rapture will be during the Feast of Trumpets.”

But like everything I try to share in this community, my opinion is an educated one based on decades of study. In today’s article, I want to explain why this important feast has a close prophetic connection to the Rapture.

In English, we think of food when we hear the word “feast,” but the Hebrew word for “feast” is a reference to a divine appointment. In the ancient language, its implication is similar to that of a dress rehearsal. God instructed the Jewish people in Leviticus 23 to keep seven feasts—four in the spring and three in the fall—and these were considered prophetic dress rehearsals for future events, which became clear in the life of Jesus.

Jesus was crucified on the Feast of Passover.

Jesus was buried during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Jesus was resurrected in the Feast of Firstfruits.

The Holy Spirit descended upon the people of God on the Feast of Pentecost.

The four spring feasts have found prophetic fulfillment in the past, and I believe the three fall feasts will be fulfilled in the future.

The next feast on the list is Rosh Hashanah. It is known by several names and I think these will capture your attention. With Rosh Hashanah coming up this weekend, I want to take a look at them.

Rosh Hashanah

In Hebrew, the name “Rosh Hashanah” translates to “head of the year.” It’s the start of a new year and a common greeting among Jewish people is “Shanah Tovah,” which means “good year” in Hebrew. It is considered a period in which everything begins anew.

This two-day feast ties back to this command:

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’ ”—Leviticus 23:24-25

This year, Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown in Israel on September 15 (Friday) and concludes at sundown on September 17 (Sunday). It just so happens that the Saturday in the middle is when we have scheduled our Tipping Point Conference.

That’s exciting!

The Feast of Trumpets

Rosh Hashanah has many alternative names, but the best-known of them is the Feast of Trumpets. During Rosh Hashanah, according to tradition, the priest would blow the shofar—a ram’s horn that is often translated “trumpet” in the Bible—one hundred times as a call to repentance. Over nine different sessions, the priest will blow the trumpet 11 times. That’s 99 soundings of the shofar, which leaves a final trumpet blast for the end.

The last trumpet, the 100th blast, is the loudest and longest—the final trumpet of the Feast of Trumpets.

Here is one way Paul described the Rapture:

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.—1 Corinthians 15:51-52

The Rapture has been associated with trumpet blasts for the entire history of Christianity.

Throughout Scripture and within Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah has been associated with blasts of the shofar. That’s why it is called the Feast of Trumpets.

Yom Teruah

Also related to the blowing of the shofar, Rosh Hashanah is sometimes known by the name Yom Teruah. It means “a day of blowing” or “the day of the awakening blasts.”

When the trumpet sounds during the Rapture, it is not just a noise to get our attention. It is an awakening blast for those who are in their graves:

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.—1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

For thousands of years, the Jews have been calling Rosh Hashanah the “day of the awakening blast,” and that is exactly what is going to happen at the Rapture. The dead in Christ will rise first.

They will be roused from their “sleep” and be raised incorruptible.

Yom Ha-Din

Another name for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Ha-Din, is a reference to the day of judgment. The Jewish prayers during this feast emphasize it as a time during which the world is judged, or put on trial. In Hebrew, Din means judgment. The Jews believe Rosh Hashanah represents a period during which God weighs our rights and wrongs from the previous year.

Of course, you’ll understand why this ties in so closely to the Rapture and the events of the end times.

12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”—Revelation 22:12-13

The Rapture will be a day when Jesus judges the church.

Yom Hazikaron

Rosh Hashanah is also sometimes called Yom Hazikaron, which means “the day of remembrance.” During this feast, Jews pray that God will remember them during the coming year.

This reminds me of Luke 17, when Jesus describes the Rapture:

“I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. 36 Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.”—Luke 17:34-36

He’s talking about a selective Rapture. One will be taken and the other will be left behind.

God remembers who is His. He remembers those who have given their lives to Him. The Rapture is a day of remembrance.

The Wedding Day of the Messiah

Another theme that has long been connected to Rosh Hashanah is the wedding day of the Messiah, which I have spoken about often at Tipping Point. Of course, many Jews are still awaiting the Messiah, while we as Christian believers know Jesus is the Messiah. But this is a very interesting theme for this holy feast.

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”—John 14:2-4

This is Jewish wedding language. When a Jewish groom was going to marry his bride, he left his father’s house with a bride price, or dowry, then went to the bride’s house to give her parents that gift. He drank a glass of wine with them, and that sealed the betrothal. Then he would promise His bride not to drink of that glass again until he drank it with her in his father’s house.

Of course, this is exactly what Jesus said to the disciples in the Upper Room:

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”—Luke 22:17-18

Then, after paying the price and making that promise, the groom left for his father’s house where he would prepare a chuppah—a small house or room—for him and the bride to live in. Only after it was ready and the father approved it would the groom return for his bride. Only the father knew when that time of approval would come.

Jesus is the groom. We are the bride of Christ. He has bought his bride by paying the price for our sins. He is at His Father’s house preparing a place for us—and at the Father’s word, the Rapture will mark Christ’s return for His bride.

The Day Which No One Knows

Another phrase the Jews use to describe Rosh Hashanah is “the day which no one knows.” That’s one reason this “holy day” actually spans two days on the calendar. It has everything to do with the new moon.

The ancient Jewish calendar was a lunar calendar, based on the cycles of the moon, back before people understood the movements of the planets and the cycles of the solar system. All the other Jewish holidays were timed to occur on the full moon, but Rosh Hashanah fell during the new moon. It was at the first of the month at the beginning of a new year.

It’s easy to tell when the moon is full. But discerning the new moon is trickier because it disappears altogether. According to ancient Jewish traditions, the new month would not officially begin until two witnesses reported that they had seen the sliver of the new moon to the High Priest. Jews knew that this sighting could take place within a two-day window of darkness. Once the sighting was witnessed and confirmed, the priests would sound the shofar. Then Rosh Hashanah would begin.

Isn’t that fascinating? Jesus described the Rapture using similar themes:

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.”—Mark 13:32-33

With Rosh Hashanah, the Jews knew the approximate season when the feast would take place, but they didn’t know the exact day or hour. It’s “the day which no one knows.”

What Happens Next?

Biblically, it’s clear to me that the Rapture is the next major prophetic event in the history of the world, and I think there’s a good case to be made for the Rapture to be associated with the Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah.

I am excited about this weekend because of the Tipping Point Conference, but I am even more excited because it is Rosh Hashanah. I will be watching and praying as the weekend approaches.

I always want to be ready for Jesus, but every time the Feast of Trumpets comes around in September, I pay even closer attention. I look for Jesus to return. You and I both see the state of the world right now. The stage has been set for the Rapture of the Church.

We don’t know the day or the hour, but that glorious Day—the “day which no one knows”—could arrive sooner than you think.