October 10 Stock Plunge By T.W. Tramm AS THE THIRD most powerful storm to ever make landfall in the US was bearing down on Florida yesterday, a financial storm was converging on Wall Street: the Dow’s third largest one-day point loss since 2008. In a panic selloff attributed to anxiety around climbing interest rates and escalating tensions with China, the Dow plunged more than 800 points, wiping out an estimated 850 billion in wealth. Sudden sharp point drops are not so uncommon in today’s market. Just eight months ago, the Dow suffered a nearly 1,200 point loss in a single session. However, the October timing of yesterday’s drop puts it in a special category. October, coinciding with the seventh biblical month of Tishrei, is associated with major economic crashes, including Black Monday in October 1987 and Black Tuesday in October 1929, the crash that heralded the Great Depression. Not only did yesterday’s market plunge coincide with the month associated with historic financial crashes—October/Tishrei—it occurred on the first day of the biblical month.* As the market was plummeting, the first visible crescent of the new moon was being sighted in Israel, marking the beginning of the seventh month, a.k.a. the Feast of Trumpets. What is remarkable is that the timing represents a virtual repeat of what occurred ten years ago. On September 29, 2008—as the new moon of the seventh month was being sighted in Israel—the Dow suffered a sharp 777 point loss. This sudden plunge marked the beginning of the 2008 global financial crisis, considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Yesterday’s (Tishrei 1) drop of over 800 points represents the biggest one-day point drop in the month of Tishrei since the 777 point drop on Tishrei 1 2008. Coincidence? A sign? As the market continues to rollercoaster, one wonders if we’re seeing the beginning of the end of the historic Bull Run that began at a market low of 666 points in March 2009. The answer has profound prophetic implications as Jesus takes pains to emphasize that the Day of the Lord will begin during a time of economic prosperity: people will be eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building (Luke 17:26-29). If the days of prosperity are nearing an end, how much nearer must the return of the Lord be? . . . NOTES: * Most Jewish calendars have the seventh month corresponding to September in 2018. Based on the calendar-reckoning view that says the new moon after the spring equinox is the first day of the year, however, I believe the seventh biblical month correctly corresponds to October. Rationale: Because Earth’s 365-day orbit around the Sun determines the year, the natural marker, or starting point, for the yearly orbit is the equinox. Because biblical years begin in the spring (Ex. 12:2), it is the spring, not the autumnal, equinox that determines the start point of the year and subsequent festivals. (Note: 2015’s super-rare total solar eclipse occurring on the spring equinox and Nisan 1 seemed purposed to highlight or draw our attention to the relationship between the spring equinox and the biblical New Year.) When it comes to reckoning the biblical months, it is the Moon, not the Sun, that determines the starting point. Thus the question arises: Does the new moon nearest, meaning sometimes before, the equinox represent the first day of the first month, or does the new moon after the equinox begin the first month? Deuteronomy 16 supports the latter (post-equinox) scenario when it says to “observe” the month of Nisan. The Hebrew word translated “observe,” shamar (Strong’s 8104), means to “confine,” “preserve,” “guard,” or “keep within bounds,” implying the whole first month must occur to the right side of the equinox (Deut. 16:1). Not only does reckoning Nisan 1 after the equinox harmonize with Scripture, it makes meteorological and agricultural sense. When one reckons the first month after the equinox, the year always begins in the spring. Conversely, when one reckons Nisan 1 the new moon nearest, before or after, the equinox, some years begin in the winter and others begin in the spring. Not only is it illogical to begin some years in winter and others in spring, a year begun in the winter sometimes results in the barley not being ripe enough for the Firstfruits festival. When the first month is reckoned after the equinox, however, the grain is always ripe enough in time for Firstfruits. The following factors do not determine the biblical New Year and/or festival times: • The ripened state of the barley is not to be used to determine the New Year as there are too many variables that make this method unreliable. Most importantly, there is no mention of using vegetation to reckon months and years in Genesis, only the lights in the heavens (Gen. 1:14). • The Suns’ position relative to the constellations on the day of the equinox is not a constant/reliable method of reckoning the New Year because this relationship changes over time due to the precession phenomenon. • The autumnal equinox in September does not factor into the determination of the New Year because biblical years begin in the spring (Ex. 12). Moreover, Scripture only implies that the first month be guarded or kept within bounds relative to the equinox, not the seventh month (Deut. 16:1). Empirical Support: The after-the-equinox reckoning of Nisan 1 is validated by the prophetic lunar tetrad of 1967. In 1967 the new moon nearest the equinox was March 13. A March 13 Nisan 1 puts Passover at March 27, 1967, a month before the “Passover blood moon” that year. Reckoning Nisan 1 the new moon after the equinox, however, puts Nisan 1 on April 13 and Passover on April 24, coinciding with the total lunar eclipse. Thus, assuming the blood-moon signs of 1967 occurred on God’s true feast days, the after-the-equinox reckoning is validated. LINKS: Article: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/global-markets-tumble-tandem-us-stocks-dow-futures/story?id=58428372 Largest daily changes in the Dow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_daily_changes_in_the_Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average