Tsiyon News

From Dawn

Perhaps you've heard that Bible chronology fixes the creation of man about 6,000 years ago, while the traditional Jewish Year lags behind that chronology by over 2 centuries. Eliyahu explains that discrepancy in our new program. You can also read Eliyahu's post about that here.

Did you know you can re-visit the Tsiyon News Weekly Newsletter Archive online? It is located at http://tsiyon.info/newsletter/archive

Occasionally, we hear from folks that they didn’t receive the weekly newsletter. It may be that your SPAM filter on your email account is sending the newsletter into your junk-mail folder. Most email programs have a way to “approve” or “white list” an email address so that you receive all the emails from that address to solve this problem.

Listener Q + A

Listener Comment - Is the mark on the 144,000 a visible mark?
Do you think the mark on the 144,000 will be a physical marking, visible to all? Thanks...

Tsiyon Answer - Is the mark on the 144,000 a visible mark?
Thank you for your question. A mark is meant to be a visible symbol of something. Revelation 13:16-17 says that anti-messiah will cause all "to receive a mark." This word mark is translated from Strongs G5480 charagma. This Greek word is defined as "a stamp, an imprinted mark." In the case of the mark of the beast, this definition seems to indicate a visible mark of some sort.

Let's contrast that with the 144,000 bond-slaves of Revelation chapter 7. The word mark is completely missing from the description of the bond-slaves. Instead, we are told that they are sealed in their foreheads. This Greek word is Strongs G4972 sphragizo which means "to stamp, to keep secret, to attest, to seal up."

Since an important aspect of sealing is to keep secret, it is unlikely that this sealing would involve a visible mark, since a visible mark would defeat the purpose of secrecy. Rather this is a seal that is put in place spiritually and is discerned spiritually.

The word forehead is translated from Strongs Greek word G3359 metopon. Thayers definition of this Greek word is "the space between the eyes." Strongs says this is "the face, the forehead."

When the remnant come in contact with each other they sense something unique about one another. It is a mind and body dedicated to YHWH, as HIS bond-slave. This special relationship, which can only come from YHWH, is manifested in the faces of remnant believers, which they recognize in one another.

All others, who have not been sealed in that special bond-slave relationship, have no commonality with the bond-slave, and therefore are not able to perceive that they are observing a person who has been sealed as a bond-slave of YHWH. To fellow bond-slaves (and YHWH of course) the seal is perceptible (for what it is), but to all others it is not.

Listener Comment - What is the TAM Tsiyon News date?
How do I decipher the strange TAM date in the heading of your newsletter? What does that mean?

Tsiyon Answer - What is the TAM Tsiyon News date?
In the heading of each issue of Tsiyon News you will find two dates. One is the current date as reckoned according to the commonly used Gregorian calendar that most of the world goes by. In the case of this issue of Tsiyon News, that date is listed as 5/6/2011. As you look at that heading you will also see another date, in this case 2/3/6011 TAM. That means: Torah month 2, day 3, Torah Year of the World 6011. AM stands for Anno Mundi, the Latin phrase meaning Year of the World and is a convention representing the year since the creation of man. TAM stands for Torah Anno Mundi, and means the same as AM, but as grounded in the chronology of the Torah. Tsiyon uses this TAM designation to distinguish our Torah-based chronology from some others which are more grounded in tradition than in fact.

One last thing: The Torah date begins at sundown of the Gregorian date listed. This is true of Tsiyon News and the calendar on our Tsiyon Community website that is found here. In other words, our calendar lists the Torah date as starting on the same day, but at sundown, of the Gregorian date listed. This means that our Torah date does not start the day before the Gregorian date listed, in the manner of some other calendars.

Questions we get about all this are: How do we know it is year 6011 since the creation of Adam? How does this 6011 date compare to other chronologies? How is it possible that we are already 11 years past the year 6,000? Doesn't that invalidate this chronology? These and other questions are addressed in our current program, #279.

From Eliyahu

YHWH is both infinite and eternal, far above the confines of time. He created time and created all of history from the beginning to the end. He did this without interfering with the free will of the intelligent creatures He also created. In other words, His plan of history already takes into account the free will choices of all of mankind, without dictating what those free will choices would be. All of this is included in a succinct Scripture phrase of Ya’akov HaTsadeek a/k/a James the Just:

Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Act 15:18

This means that history - and our present - are not just a series of random events. There is a definite structure to the passage of time and the events played out along the passing timeline. All of that is according to the plan of YHWH and is leading up to something. All of that is designed to fulfill the purposes of YHWH in time.

Viewed this way, all the begats in Scripture cease to be boring. Instead they form a measurable tapestry in history that tells us where we are in the stream of time, while also revealing the flow of Yah's great plan in history. We designate this study of the passage of time as recorded in Scripture by the term Bible Chronology. Bible Chronology, rightly entered upon, can give you a window into the mind of God. It can give you important clues about who you are and what your purpose is in His grand design. As you might have guessed, I love Bible Chronology. Listen to our latest program, Adam to Abraham to You #279 to understand some of the reasons why.

Blessings and Shalom,

Eliyahu ben David
www.tsiyon.org

Tsiyon Paradigm Shift #261