Root Source began in 2014, just at the very beginning of a series of “very interesting years” that have just ended. Here is a quick look back in time.

The year 2014 witnessed the first two of the Four Blood Moons on Passover and Sukkot that were made famous by Mark Biltz and John Hagee. That was the year that Root Source was officially registered with the Israel Registrar of Companies, and the year the first student signed up.

The year 2015 witnessed the fall culmination of the Shemitah year, that had been introduced to many Christians by Jonathan Cahn in his books The Harbinger and The Mystery of the Shemitah. The year 2015 also witnessed the appearing of the last two Blood Moons on the nights of Passover and Sukkot in 2015.

Blood Moons and Shemitah – Our Take

In the fall of 2015, Gidon and I released our first book, Israel FIRST!, based on a series of Blood Moons videos that we had developed in the spring of 2015, before anyone knew what was going to happen in the fall of 2015. Publishing this book when we did, before the last of the four blood moons of the series appeared, we made some predictions that in some cases went with the prevailing view, and in other cases took a controversial view.

Regarding the Blood Moons, we said that they were not a predictor of the coming of the Messiah, nor were they a predictor of the Gog and Magog war, nor were they a predictor of a major war against Israel, nor the judgment of the world. We said that the verse in Joel

Before the great and terrible day of Hashem comes,* I will set portents in the sky and on earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke; The sun shall turn into darkness And the moon into blood. Joel 3:2-3 (TIB)

about the “sun being turned to darkness and the moon turning to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord” did not fit past patterns of the Blood Moons. Rather, what did fit the pattern of past Blood Moons was the pattern of the Exodus, where the Jewish people were moving into a place of safety on their way to their inheritance of the Land and the establishment of the first commonwealth of Israel. In contrast with the “fire and brimstone” visions of others, we saw the Blood Moons as a cause for the celebration of God’s covenant promises to return the Jews to the Land of Israel, in a series of successive stages or waves in history. Looking back, I am so grateful to the Lord for giving us a “view from above” regarding this topic, and that we have written a book that will stand as a true statement of God’s love for His chosen people, and for Gidon’s idea that this Blood Moons’ cycle was about spiritual renewal in the Land of Israel. See our first column in this series for more on that.

Regarding the Shemitah, we agreed with Cahn that the seven-year Shemitah cycles have significant economic implications. But we stood against the suggestion that the 2015 Shemitah cycle might be the last Shemitah cycle before the Messiah or the great tribulation. Instead, we saw it as a pattern for how God judges nations with whom He has made covenant, and believed the 2015 Shemitah cycle was putting the United States at the “halfway point” of a 28-year cycle of judgement as indicated in Leviticus 26.

And if you remain hostile toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will go on smiting you sevenfold for your sins. I will loose wild beasts against you, and they shall bereave you of your children. Leviticus 26:21-22a. (TIB)

Based on that model, we predicted that new waves and new forms of terrorism would begin in the Fall of 2015 that would change the way we live and think. That call was made correctly: It has been reported in the news media that there have been so many acts of terrorism in schools, shopping malls and concerts that they have become a blur of history — nobody can even remember them all, nor when they occurred any more. But although we called it right, based on Leviticus, that the 2015 Shemitah would be “less economic” and “more violent,” we were wrong to say in 2015 that the US Stock Market might have already reached its all-time high.

The Jubilee – Our Take

Then from the Fall of 2015 until the Spring of 2018 we began writing about the Jubilee, in a book that we first released in the summer of 2016 called Jubilee NOW!  We are very excited to announce that this book has just been updated and released as Jubilee NOW! Final Edition. In the writing of this book we decided not to try to predict what might happen. Instead, we resolved to be students of the bible and history, and to watch the events as they would unfold over these two-and-a-half years. We would work with our audience as detectives, to see if we could, together, solve the Mystery of the Lost Jubilee. We published every article we wrote on www.root-source.com and as Breaking Israel News op-eds.

This whole book Jubilee NOW! Final Edition is based on the hypothesis that the Return of Jerusalem to the Jews in 1967 signalled a restoration of the Jubilee cycle, and to watch what happens in our days to see if we could “figure out” what God is trying to show us. I am very pleased with how Gidon and I worked together as Jew and Gentile to write on this topic from all the angles, and to follow current events.

I hope you will get your own copy of the newly released edition of book and follow the trail of history with us. Treat this book as a mystery novel, where you are walking along with us as we search for the clues. The conclusions of that book are not only still valid, they predict how God will be moving on earth in the years to come.

Where the trail of Jubilee NOW! Final Edition ended was at a place that was more profound, awe inspiring and glorious that I could have ever imagined. But maybe we should have simply had more faith that God would reward us for trying to be kings who search out a matter that God has gloriously hidden for our benefit (see Proverbs 25:2).

I believe Jubilee NOW! Final Edition answers the big picture question of what God is up to right now regarding Israel and the Nations, and that we are right in the middle of the great turning point of world history.

Seventy Years of Israel – Our Take

Finally, this year has seen the 70th anniversary of Israel, along with the exciting event of the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem. The bible speaks about 70 years as being one of the definitions of a generation.

The span of our life is seventy years, or, given the strength, eighty years; Psalms 90:10a (TIB)

Indeed for this reason alone–apart from the Blood Moons, the Shemitah, and the Jubilee as corroborating evidence–I personally see this 70th anniversary as a capstone to all of them, a signal that Israel is moving into a new phase of life (rebirth?) on earth, where Israel will be an ever-greater witness to the existence of a covenant-making, covenant keeping, generationally remembering God who does all things well.

May we all do our part to prepare for the coming of the Lord.

Shalom.