Every so often the Christian lunar calendar and the Rabbinical Jewish calendar get out of sync. This is such a year, with the Christian Feast of Trumpets happening on September 1 and the Jewish Feast of Trumpets scheduled for October 2.

The calendar confusion starts in the first month of this lunar year. For Christians it begins in the month when the full moon at the middle of the month occurs after the Spring Equinox. In 2016 the first full moon after the Equinox occurred on March 23, three days after the Equinox. This date is the time to celebrate Passover, and the Christians celebrated Easter on the first Sunday afterwards, on March 27.

The Rabbinical Jewish calendar, however, celebrated Passover a lunar month later, on April 22. The difference between the Christian and Jewish calendars is the result of a decision by the Rabbis to abandon the use of actual lunar observations to determine the beginning of their months. Instead they developed a fixed calendar which will sometimes very from the actual lunar calendar, as is the case in 2016. These calendar errors will also cause the Jews to celebrate Rosh Hashanah on October 2, Yom Kipper on October 11, and the Feast of Tabernacles on October 16, all one month later than the correct date.

Christians who want to celebrate the actual day of the Jewish Fall Feasts should therefore celebrate the Feast of Trumpets on September 1. It was celebrated in ancient Israel by the blowing of Trumpets, a sacred assembly, and a special sacrificial offering. The Jewish Rabbis stated that the Trumpet blasts were to bring Israel into remembrance of the Lord, to confound Satan, and to call men to repentance by awakening their slumbering spirits. With its emphasis on repentance and judgment, is a prophetic sign of the trumpet sound at Christ’s Return (See 1 Cor 15:52). Some think that the awakening of the dead at Trumpets is the source of the saying “Wake up O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph 5:14b).

But the feast of Trumpets is more than a prophetic picture for Christians. The Church needs to hear the trumpet call to remember God, confound Satan, and repent, just as the Israelites did. We need to awaken our slumbering spirits as the Israelites did with their trumpet blasts, and remember God and His Kingdom as we come into this critical election season of decision in America.

                Let us pray that the Church will hear the clarion call of the Trumpets and awaken from her slumber, to bring repentance and healing to our land.