Sid Roth welcomes Mark Blitz

Sid:  We want everyone everywhere to be red hot for the Messiah and when you understand the Biblical Feasts that they are the hour predict the first coming of the Messiah.  And to the hour they predict the return of the Messiah if you have eyes to see and ears to hear.  My guest Pastor Mark Biltz and Mark on yesterday’s broadcast we were talking about the Jewish roots of these Feasts that God calls My Feasts or My in the Hebrew means My appointments, appointments with God.  Let’s start out today with Passover.

Mark:  On Passover, that is when Messiah died, Unleavened Bread is when He was buried.  On First Fruits is when He rose from the dead.  And then on Pentecost or Shavuot that’s when the Holy Spirit was poured out.  And one of the exciting things that we do is how we keep Passover.  Last year we met at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma.  We had over 700 people from all different denominations, we had Christians and some Jews attend and we celebrated the Passover.  This year we’re looking at close to a thousand people coming to celebrate our Passover Seder at the Tacoma Dome; we’re really excited about that.  And then for like the Feasts of Trumpets, very exciting.  Last year we had a global Feast of Trumpets; we have people signed up from all over the world in every time zone.  And so as the Feasts of Trumpets began, we had people from every nation blowing the shofar all the way around the world.  And so we had this global wave of shofars being blasted and people communicated back from all over the world and what it was like for their individual groups.

Sid:  And what does it mean when the shofar’s being blown?

Mark:  When the shofar is being blown a lot of it, it means warning.  God is trying to warn us, it means to wake up, basically.  God wants us to wakeup; He wants the people to wakeup.  He wants to bring out a warning and I think it’s so amazing that on the Feast of trumpets that on, which was the seventh month, the Feast of the Seventh Month we blew the shofars and the Dow falls 777 points which was a 7% drop causing a 700 billion dollar loss on the 700 billion dollar bill bail out.  I think that it was amazing to me that God is trying to warn us about coming judgment and look what happened on that day.  But then also for the Feast of Yom Kippur what our congregation does, we all come to the congregation and we pray that Israel would have the blinders removed; that they would realize that Yeshua is their Messiah.  It’s the Day of Atonement and then on the Feast of Tabernacle’s we teach on the Feast of Tabernacles, we have a big Succot that we build at the church where we rent and everyone gets into the Sukkot, we encourage people to build their own little Sukkot’s at their own homes and to invite people over because the whole idea of the Feast of tabernacle is to celebrate the coming reign when we sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the table and have that great supper and Messiah has returned.

Sid:  Now, you say that it’s a time to party!

Mark:  Yes it is, I think of it when the Lord is here it definitely will be a time to party.

Sid:  And you also say that Jesus was not born on Christmas, why do you say that?

Mark:  Well, yeah the Messiah I believe was born on the Feast of Tabernacles because when you look at it, the Lord wanted to Tabernacle amongst us and I believe He was born on the Feast of Tabernacles which would have been in the fall.  In the winter there is too much snow and cold rain and shepherds, the Talmud records that the sheep would all be back into their folds, they wouldn’t be out on the hills in the middle of winter.  The very fact that they said that there was no room in the Inn, there would have been all kinds of room in the Inn at the end of winter.  And one of the other reasons why Tabernacles was the day that Messiah was born too, also has to do with the birth of John the Baptist.  In Luke you see his Dad, Zacharias; it was during the Feast of Pentecost that he had a supernatural visitation that he would give birth to his son.  Well, Pentecost is in June and so we find that it was six months later that the angel appears to Miriam or to Mary.  Well that puts you at the end of December and so then it’s at that time that she has a baby well puts you into the end of September, so that shows you again that He would have been born a lot closer to the end of September rather than December.

Sid:  So we’re positive it wasn’t in the winter, it wasn’t Christmas time, his birth did not occur in December.  But what makes you think that it’s Tabernacles?

Mark:  Well, one of the most amazing things to me is one of the Covenants to Abraham was to be circumcised on the eighth day and here Tabernacles is seven days long and then there’s a separate special Feast; Simcha Torah, or Shemini Atzeret, or the eighth day.  And so here what do we see?  On the eighth day here the Messiah is taken into the Temple, He’s shedding His blood, in circumcision confirming the covenant to Abraham and to me that is just incredible.  And here Miriam thought that she was too poor and she couldn’t afford a lamb but she did, she had the Lamb of God right there.

Sid:  One of the things that you teach on that is just so supernatural to me is the ancient Hebrew language was actually pictures almost like Chinese, it’s the letter’s weren’t the same as they are today.  But the ancient letter reveals mysteries of Messiah, tell me one.

Mark:  Oh, it is so amazing Sid because for example, God’s name; some people know that the Tetragrammaton, but its Yahweh, we get the word Jehovah from it.  But it’s made up of four Hebrew letters and if you look at the Dead Sea Scrolls some of the Dead Sea Scrolls have this ancient Paleo Hebrew or proto-canaanite language that Moses would have used when he wrote the Torah.  Every Jew know that the “RY” the letter Yod in Hebrew is a hand; that was the picture, it looked like a hand.  Well, the Vav in the ancient Hebrew looked like a nail or a tent peg.  And the letter “RH” sound, the letter Heh in Hebrew means to behold.  It was like a window to reveal something.  So God’s very name in Hebrew is the Yod Ha Vov where we get Yahweh from; but the ancient picture language showed a hand and window, a nail and a window.  The hand revealed, the nail revealed and I can’t help but think that Thomas, who when he saw the nail hands of Messiah says, “My Lord and My God.

Sid:    Mark something else I find interesting is that there are certain books of the Bible that are read on each of these Feasts and for instance, Shavuot, Pentecost.  What books of the bible are read?

Mark:  Yes, on the Feast of Shavuot or Pentecost they read Exodus 19 which has to do with the giving of the Torah.  And they also read the beginnings of the book of Ezekiel which talks about fire coming down.  And then the most important thing that I find is that they read the book of Ruth.  And here is the book of Ruth is about a Gentile lady getting into her Hebrew roots, marrying a Jew and if you’ll notice it talks about the barley harvest which is Passover.  She works the harvest until the wheat harvest which is Pentecost.  And Ruth in Hebrew means friend, so she became a friend, worked the harvest and brought forth the Messiah through King David.  But Orpah the other Lady who had married into Israel she went back to her gods and Orpah in Hebrew means to turn your back on.  So I see Orpah and Ruth representing the Gentile Church that are grafted into Israel, but in these last days there’s going to be a division.  Some are going to be a friend of Israel, work the harvest and bring forth the Messiah.  And some are going to turn their back on Israel and going back to their God.

Sid:  Give me your spin, if you will, on Romans 11:11 which says “Salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy.

Mark:  Boy, that’s so important.  I think so and the way that we’re going to provoke them to jealousy is not by doing the things according to the traditions of our Gentile Fathers so to speak but as we begin to keep the Feasts they are going to say “Hey, these things are ours.”  And so many Jews are secular, and as they see believers beginning to understand and to love and to have a passion for the feasts days then they are going to say, “Hey these things are ours.”  And they’re going to want to get back to them themselves, the secular Jew.  They’ll be turning back to God’s word themselves and I think that’s going to be exciting.

Sid:  Well, when stadiums are filled up in major cities throughout the world, of predominantly Gentile Christians celebrating the Feasts that most Jews… it’s the same old, old every year.  Are your Feasts same old, same old?

Mark:  Oh, absolutely not, we have people that are passionate, like I said “On Passover we will have almost 1,000 Christians filling the Tacoma Dome to keep Passover.  And I’ve been getting feedback from other Jewish people thinking this is amazing, how come you guys are doing this?

Sid Roth:  Now, our time is slipping away but what last words would you say about observing the Biblical Feasts.  Why do you have such a passion for it?

Mark:  Oh, because I want to be ready. I think that the Lord wants to have a Bride who’s without spot, wrinkle or blemish.  And if we want to be without spot, wrinkle or blemish we need to obey what He says and go to the dress rehearsals and to find out what they’re all about so we can truly be ready.