On May 5, 2000 the planets Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars are expected to loosely align in the constellation of Aries with the sun and the moon — a rather rare event in the heavens — which will not be repeated for at least another 100 years. The five planets, which will be located on the far side of the sun, will “point” like a string of pearls directly toward Pisces. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory back on July 23, 1995 issued a statement which included this gem: “While the beginning of a day is dawn, a five-planet conjunction occurring at dawn, with a new moon, and the start of spring would truly be THE BEGINNING OF ALL CYCLES.”

Certainly, utilising the hidden codes of the Scriptures, medieaval Jewish Kabbalists considered the year 2000 [5760] as having enormous significance in their mystical apocalyptic scheme. The year 5760 was to introduce an entirely new cycle. As it is written in the Midrash Talpiyot, “The length of days of this world shall be 5760 years. Then shall the world be renewed. For as the mikvah [ritual or ceremonial purification bath] purifies the unclean, at this time the Holy One, Blessed be He, will remove the unclean spirit from the world, there will not be left any remnant or trace. But this is only the beginning of the redemption.”

JEWISH YEAR 5760 — A GOOD YEAR INDEED! BUT NOT FROM CREATION!

In the days of Yochanan the immerser [John the baptiser], the mikvah was put into good use, especially by the New Covenant monks of Qumran. The year 2000, then, is connected in Kabbalist thought to the commencement of a purification period that will usher in the Maschiach [Messiah]. Of course, the Kabbalists fully realised that the Jewish year 5760 is not from Creation, but from the invention of the astronomical calendar by Seth! They were also well aware of the fact that the hidden Scripture codes allow for 5 possible futures in decisions to be made by man in any one instance where a choice is needed — choices within the spectrum of the eternal decree of God, and allowed for incidentally in quantum physics. And so within that spectrum Drosnin reports that Genesis 49.17 to Deuteronomy 28.64 encodes “holocaust of Israel” once and the year 2000 [5760] crosses it encoded in Exodus 12.4. On the other hand ‘you delayed’ overlaps the year in the hidden text of Exodus 12.4-5″ (M. Drosnin,The Hidden Bible Code, 231).

Whether Drosnin is right or wrong, what is important is that we “listen” to what the Kabbalists did not articulate, not make an issue of what they did “say.” With Kabbalist writings and lore it is the sub-text that is paramount. As for the loose alignment, Greg Killian in Mazzaroth has written, “[T]he sun, the moon, and the other planets are coming together like on the Menorah, right in the middle of Aries and Taurus, all together in a massing of the planets, which are right next to PLEIADES, the Seven Sisters.” 

YESHUA COMMANDED HIS PEOPLE TO “LOOK UP!”

Our Lord Yeshua told us 2000 years ago that there would be SIGNS in the heavens (Lk 21.25,26 cf Ps 19) that would warn the world of His imminent Second Advent and intervention in humankind’s affairs. He commanded His  talmidim (disciples, students) to take major encouragement from those signs.

There is no doubt in my mind that God began to speak boldly to His people Israel when He sent Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashing into Jupiter — the Messianic Planet — July 16, 1994. He most certainly got the attention of a multitude of rabbis, and indeed the entire world. Then He sent the Hale-Bop comet as a flaming arrow across the night skies from the constellation Sagittarius (the Messianic archer) into the very heart of Scorpio (the principle of evil). Now, looming on our heavenly horizon is the massing of certain planets (known to all peoples from the dawn of history) around our own star.

WHY MAY 7, 2000 IN DOOMSDAY SPECULATION?

Very few realise that according to Jewish tradition, May 7 happens to be the date that Solomon began construction on the
First Temple. Not only so, but this date also happens to be the date to the very day that Ezra began construction on the
Second Temple. Some Gentile Christian “prophets of chaos” point out that May 5 is very close to May 7 (duh!) and that therefore (?) work may commence on the Third Temple this coming May! Sorry, but May 5 being “close” to May 7 is like the doctor “almost” saving the patient! The celestial massings of these seven classical solar system bodies reach their culmination at 8:08 UT on May 5, not May 7, their closest separation since February 5, 1962. After passing Mars at this time and date — on 8.08 UT May 5 — the moon leaves the sun and the planets far behind.

There are also strong New Age disciples of yellow-journal sensationalism, on a par with the alarmist Christians mentioned in the above paragraph, who are touting the revelations of a Mr Richard Noone [anagram = “no one”] to the effect that the gravitational stress on May 5 will destroy the polar ice-caps and trigger earthquakes and unleash the restrained powers of vulcanism resulting in massive volcanic eruptions (Richard Noone, 5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster). True, Mt St Helens is rumbling again, and Mt Vesuvius — thought in some quarters to be extinct — is once more smoking. But they overlook the fact that the gravitational force (as weak as it might be) exerted on our Earth by a distant planet is totally swamped by the moon’s gravitation (Dr Brian Monson, Planetary Conjunctions, Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics: bmons@ctechok.org ). In his article Monson notes, “Our civilisation certainly wasn’t destroyed in 1861 when the planets were grouped much more closely than they will be in 2000.”

So, in a nutshell, will the Earth “split apart” or “tip over” on its axis? Nope. Are the icecaps going to melt? Nah! Not this year! Certainly down the track! Will massive tidal forces run amok triggering horrific earthquakes? Negative. Will the Earth somehow lose its gravity and will we all fall off and float away in space? Well, I personally admit that sometimes I wish I could leave this hell-hole. “Beam me up, Lord!”  

THE THIRD TEMPLE – SCHEDULED CONSTRUCTION MAY 7, 2000? 

Will May 7, 2000 — a date in the vicinity of May 5’s heavenly planetary alignment — have some important bearing on, or significance relating to, the rebuilding of the Third Temple? Certainly, many prophetic analysts believe it will. However, I cannot in all honesty share their optimism in believing the Third Temple will begin construction this year. Although I firmly believe (and teach) that a Temple will soon be erected in Jerusalem (but decidedly NOT on the present generally-accepted “holy” site) there are just too many biblical prophecies yet to find fulfilment relating particulary to the choosing of the precise area on which the foundation stone of the coming Jerusalem Temple will be laid. Not only is this the case, but other vitally important biblical prophecies have yet to occur PRIOR to the establishment of the restored Jewish place of worship in Eretz Israel. For one thing,

• the Nile has to dry up! Also,
• the prophet Zechariah predicted the coming civil war in Israel over the central issue of the Messianic claims of Yeshua. When that day of horrid conflict erupts — and it soon will — Israel is the last place on earth any Gentile Christian would want to find themselves.

Let me say this! I am not at this time a hardcore apocalyptic doomsayer! I will become one as we approach the end of the age big-time. There is no doubt in the mind of this lecturer that this scheduled alignment of the planets on May 5 will point toward an end-time fulfilment of the rise of the Messianic congregations in the State of Israel and in other areas of the world — exactly as foretold by the apostle John in The War Scroll of the Yeshua Party (or, if you insist, “Revelation”) chapters 2 and 3. Before this can occur, rigid Israeli laws will need adjusting, especially as pertaining to recognition of Messianic Israeli citizenship for aliyah (immigration) purposes.

Why do I perceive this?

There is significance to the May 5 alignment being in the vicinity of the Pleiades. We need to peruse some vital inform-ation regarding the Menorah (the seven branched lampstand), one of the sacred items of the ancient tabernacle of Moses, and the Solomonic and Herodian Temples. 

WHAT JOSEPHUS TOLD US

FIRSTLY, Josephus informs us that the Menorah, which was located on the south side of the Golden Altar in the Temple, represented seven heavenly bodies. “[A]s to the seven lamps upon the [lampstand], they referred to the course of the planets, of which that is the number” (Antiquities of the Jews, III,vii,7 cf III,vi,7; V,v,5). Philo records the seven lamps of the Menorah “being Saturn, Jupiter and Mars; then comes the Sun himself, and next to him Mercury, Venus and the Moon…The Creator, therefore, wishing that there should be a model upon earth among us of the seven-lighted sphere as it exists in heaven, explained this exquisite work to be made, namely this [lampstand]” (Philo Judaeus, Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres, XLV,224,225).

According to Josephus and Philo, and verified by other astrological writings of the first century C.E., the seven lamps on the 5 foot high Menorah in the Temple of God represented the Sun, the moon, and the five planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. But they also typified the seven human rulers of Israel and Judah (Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon,  Hezekiah, Josiah and Jehoiachin) who were utilised in the righteous cultic development of the Chosen People and whose lives are recorded for posterity in the “Book of Kingdoms” — a book which the Gentile church has erroneously divided into the four volumes of Samuel and Kings.

In early Jewish Messianic interpretation, “the seven lamps are the seven churches [assemblies, Gk. ekklesias]” of God ruled by the seven heavenly “stars” — angels (spirits) — represented by the constellation Pleiades (seen in Spring) which is located in the shoulder of the bull, Taurus (Rev 1.20). Messianic believers in Our Lord Yeshua (whether Gentile or Jewish) are thus seen throughout the pages of the Messianic Scriptures (wrongly referred to as the so-called “New Testament”) to be “lighted lamps” or “light-bearers” for the world — living, walking, talking Menorah’s — receptacles of the spiritual light of God’s Temple. God’s spiritual light was, of course, the Torah. It was ultimately focused and exemplified in the Living Torah — Our Lord Yeshua. God’s WORD (Gk, logos) is therefore a Lamp to our feet and a Light to our path ignited by the fire of the Spirit in the oil of Grace.

THE CONSTELLATION OF THE PLEIADES

SECONDLY, the Menorah in the Temple was situated right next to the Pleiadian constellation, in the southern region within the circle of the Sacred Zodiac located on the floor of the Holy Place in the Temple (which astrological design was embedded in the floor in front of the Altar of Incense). The western lamp of the Menorah was to be kept continually burning. The Menorah was thus associated in the Holy Place with the 12 loaves of Shewbread (War, V,5,5) that were located in the north of the Sacred Circle. The Shewbread represented the twelve months of the solar year, the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the twelve “minor prophets” — among other things.

And this rather unique planetary alignment in the heavens will occur right next door to the same constellation — the astrological seven sisters — which brings us to the THIRD point.

The seven sisters represent the seven Messianic assemblies. (Messianic congregations or assemblies are looked upon as “women” in the Messianic Scriptures.) In Greek mythology the seven sisters were the companions of Artemis (who was also known as Artema and Diana) and we know that she was the goddess of vitality and heavenly reproduction of life on Earth. So in the Messianic Scriptures it is through the “Woman” or “Bride of Messiah” that God is at this time reproducing Himself in humankind.

According to some scholars we have witnessed some 70 Jubilee years since Joshua and his legions crossed the Jordan into Eretz Yisrael (70X50=3500). They claim the anniversary is in December 1999 and consequently this 70th Jubilee is the FINAL, COMPLETE Jubilee for Israel before the end comes. They could be right in their assessment. Midnight is approaching rapidly.

May God help us all to heed, and to prepare to meet our God.