Let's stop here and test your Moshiach literacy.

Yosie...we'll call him Yosie.  He came to our kehillah around October of 1993.  He had had a vision.  It was about angels. We didn't take Yosie very seriously. Even though we had seen the glory cloud and the miracles of the Ruach Hakodesh in our messianic kehillah, we still were unimpressed. But Yosie kept on for weeks going over the same details, especially his description of the two angels that appeared to him.  But the night he first told the story of his angelic visitation no one at our kehillah got that excited.  Unfortunately, for some people, angels fall into a category not far from pixies and fairies. But Yosie was gravely serious, describing the angels as communicating that some glorious thing was soon going to transpire for Yosie. The angels even gave the date. However, the angels instructed Yosie to tell no one the content of their angelic message to him.  I saw on the Jewish calendar that the upcoming day was the Fast of Tevet, 5754 (1993). The angels had told Yosie to prepare for that date, but Yosie would say no more about it.

There were two in the kehillah with the same name (Yochanan in Hebrew) who knew about Yosie's testimony.  One worked driving an ambulance as a paramedic in the New York City Emergency Medical Service.  The other made persistent inquiry but, notwithstanding, Yosie would not disclose the mysterious message that the angels had communicated, only that whatever was going to transpire would be on that day, which as I say, happened to be the Fast of Tevet, 5754 (1993) on the Jewish calendar, only a few days away.

So the Fast of Tevet was fast approaching. But on the night before the actual day foretold, Yosie began acting strangely expectant.  Something glorious seemed impending in his life.  He went around to all his visiting relatives who were in his house and had a sort of "farewell" personal conversation with each one; however, Yosie would not tell even his beloved sister or her husband what exactly the angels had said.

Then on actual morning that Yosie said that the angels had designated, Yosie could keep the secret no longer.  He awakened with great simcha and expectation.  He put on his best suit, a black one, with his best white shirt.  Then he went to his dearest confidante, his mother.  Yosie said, "Mom, today is the day of my wedding."  His mother was quite puzzled.  Where was the kallah (bride)?  Yosie had never even had a girl friend.  A 35 year old bachelor!  And a wedding on this calendar day?  But Yosie had arranged for a car service to take him to our kehillah at 1410 Coney Island Avenue for the great event that had been heralded by two angels.

Now normally in a messianic Kehillah where spirit-filled believers are dancing in the Ruach Hakodesh, dreaming dreams in the Ruach Hakodesh, having visions in the Ruach Hakodesh (see Yoel 2:28 (3:1), the building is a very lively place to be! For those who are uninformed, let me add the aside that Jewish Pentecostals are a small persecuted sect of the ancient Jewish faith, extant from Second Temple days. Jewish Pentecostals are always being persecuted. Jewish Pentecostals persecute no one. They are too busy praying for the peace of Jerusalem and for the salvation of Israel and for the coming of Moshiach and for the building of the Beis Hamikdash in Yerusholayim to waste time with self-appointed trouble-makers and persecutors. If you would like to know about this sect of Judaism you might read a few words from Gevurot. So as I say,our messianic kehillah is normally a fairly lively place. But unfortunately there was no one in the building to perform Yosie's ceremony. I suppose Yosie had this picture in his head of a mystery "kallah" there in the building and that I would officiate at the wedding.  But I had made a decision weeks before that on that particular calendar day the facility would be closed.  So when Yosie arrived wearing his black wedding suit and sitting in the car service limousine, he and the driver found our messianic shul dead and dark and all locked up.  So, a little confused, but not at all in doubt about the angelic vision, Yosie had to tell the driver to take him back home. 

At his mother's house, his family waited for Yosie.  There sat his mother and his sister and her husband.  Yosie's other sister was in the house but in another room.  All this was confirmed later by several eye witnesses. Now here is exactly what transpired, without any exaggeration or embellishment.  No sooner did Yosie in his wedding suit sit down, than his relatives watched him immediately stand up again, then grasp his chest and shake violently, and then topple suddenly to the floor.

It says in Ya'akov 5:14, "Are there any cholim (sick ones) among you?"  And then comes the directive.  "Let him (the sick person) summon the Ziknei HaKehillah."  Even though I was not available, the paramedic I mentioned was on call that day in his ambulance.  He happened to be driving around in an unfamiliar neighborhood in NewYork City, close to Yosie's house, a place he had never visited even though this paramedic was one of the Ziknei HaKehillah.  When the dispatcher suddenly came on the ambulance radio and commanded his ambulance to respond to this very medical emergency, one can imagine the paramedic's absolute and utter shock when he pulled up to the unfamiliar address, got out of the ambulance, and, looking down at the face of the man on the stretcher, suddenly recognized the face of our own faithful Yosie!

But no effort of the paramedic's could revive or hold Yosie back from the great event to which the angels had referred. Unbeknown to anyone but the angels, it turned out that Yosie had a condition no doctor knew about--an enlarged heart; and Yosie had suffered a massive heart attack and had instantly slipped out of this world on the very day the angels had pointed to. And remember all this pointing began when Yosie had a heavenly vision of these angels two months before back in October.

And where was the kallah (bride)?  The scripture says that there is a heavenly "kallah" and this bride is really a composite of all born-from-heaven believers redeemed from the Olam Hazeh by the Choson Moshiach and summoned to Moshiach's Chasunoh.  "And the malach (angel) said to me (Yochanah [both the paramedic and the other believer I referred to also had that name]), 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper (Seudas Yom Nisu'im) of the Lamb' " (Hisgalus [Rv] 19:9).

The angels were letting Yosie know that he was indeed invited and his invitation date was very soon, even (according to the Jewish calendar) not farther away in the future than the Fast of Tevet. You are also invited. So repent!

Let this be repeated. Baruch Hashem, when it came time to meet the Choson Moshiach, Yosie was ready, even dressed in the requisite attire, the "wedding garment" (Mt 22:11) of the new birth (Yn 3:7). Now you might say that this testimony about a believer putting on the requisite wedding attire of the new birth and being caught up to heaven is a fluke. Well, this has happened more than once in our Spirit-filled ministry. On April 25, 2006, at 4:00 P.M., in Macy's in Queens, while trying on a wedding garment, a new suit he was purchasing for a wedding he was planning to attend, Achilles Kazes, the man who personally typed the entire Greek manuscript found of our online Textus Receptus suddenly went to be with the L-rd. He missed the wedding on earth, but he didn't miss the all-important wedding in heaven, the Choson Moshiach's Chasunoh. Will you miss it? Are you not yet properly attired for the occasion, not having put on Moshiach, not having put on salvation? This should make you realize that the Judge is at the door.

Listen, dear reader, the orthodox Jewish Bible (I am not talking about my translation; I am talking about the original inerrant autograph pages in the original languages) is your roadmap to heaven; you'd be lost without it. And the nation of Israel in terms of the Jewish calendar is G-d's prophetic time clock; without it you know not the day or the hour. Like a blind man without a map or a watch, you stumble in darkness. But Yosie was given eyes to see. Baruch Hashem, when it came time to meet the Choson Moshiach, Yosie was ready, even dressed in the requisite attire, the "wedding garment" (Mt 22:11) of the new birth (Yn 3:7).  And because of Yosie's angelic prophecy and its spectacular fulfillment, his close and beloved family would have an opportunity to understand his "borntwice" messianic faith.  And their understanding would have the underpinning of Scripture, because we stand on the inerrant word of G-d and do not get puffed up with gnostic knowledge and vain visions (Co 2:18). Yet I still thank Hashem that the glory cloud has not ceased coming down at our shul and the Ruach Hakodesh still does miracles at 1410 Coney Island Ave among the Orthodox Jewish people in Midwood, Brooklyn and the covenant blessing of Abraham is true for us that we are blessed for blessing the Jews (Gn 12:3)