WINNING WITH THE WORD

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, July 10, 2023, and this is Episode #27 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Signs & Seasons of Christ's Return".

There is a very interesting Scripture passage in Mark 13: 28-29 that says this: “Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things taking place, you can know that His [Jesus Christ's] return is very near, right at the door." (Brackets mine.)

Prophecy expert and teacher T.W. Tramm has pointed out that summer as used in this Scripture is a metaphor for the end times. Keeping this in mind, Tram discusses five signs of summer that indicate that our Lord Jesus is coming soon to take us home in the Rapture. Let's take a look at these five signs.

1. The 8th Anniversary of the Appearance of the Star of Bethlehem in 2015.

July 1st of this year marked eight years since the Jupiter-Venus conjunction, referred to as the Star of Bethlehem, reappeared in 2015. While this recurrent conjunction is not necessarily rare, as Tramm points out, the one that occurred in 2015 was unique in that it occurred on the Jewish fall feasts of harvest. Also, like the original Star of Bethlehem that appeared around 2 B.C., this 2015 Bethlehem Star was a rare triple conjunction that occurred in the constellation Leo, or the Lion. It is this constellation that represents Jesus as the Lion of Judah, as we read in Revelation 5: 5, where John writes: "But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, 'Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.'”

Also, the appearance of the Bethlehem Star in 2015 occurred in a sabbatical year, just as did the original Bethlehem Star. The sabbatical year is the seventh of seven years during which the Israelites are not to plant crops but to let the ground rest for a year.

This command is found in Leviticus 25: 3-5:  "For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.”

So every seventh year, there was to be no planting or pruning of crops. The land was to rest. It is possible, as Tramm points out, that the Bethlehem Star and eclipses of 2015 were a seven-year warning about the Sabbatical week that will begin in September of this year on Rosh Hashanah, September 15-17. 

2. The Full Moon.

On July 3rd of this year, the first full moon of summer appeared. This moon was a super moon and indicates the type of moon that will usher in the return of the "goodman" of the house—namely,