Dark clouds of global turmoil are causing many to question if the end is near. The Last Shofar examines ancient biblical Feasts of the Lord that reveal God's timing for the Second Coming of Christ and how it all ends. Its message to the Church is clear-get ready The Last Shofar is a unique practical guide to prepare for the end times. Chapter-based questions help the reader and small groups engage critical themes. "Most highly recommended Devoutly honoring Scripture as the Word of God, meticulously researched in an area that has received scant attention from Biblical scholars, this book has the potential to dramatically enlighten prophecies of the end times." Larry H. Ellis, D.Div., formerly The Chaplain, United States Marine Corps "A vital contribution-The Last Shofar brings to the church a new understanding of God's plan for ushering in the Millennial Kingdom. Believers will do well to study this groundbreaking exposition of scriptural truth for guidance and encouragement as we prepare to meet our Lord in the air and abide with Him forever." Donald B. Benson, Ph.D., M.S., M.Div., Director-The Kingdom Curriculum Project "A wake-up call" to every believer The Last Shofar sounds a clarion call to the church at large to prepare-to make ourselves ready for the challenging days preceding our Savior's return. Lenard and Zoller succinctly set forth this urgent message applicable to every believer." Marilyn Lake Griffin, Director-Ministries of New Life Dr. Joseph Lenard and Donald Zoller have spent a lifetime studying, researching and teaching biblical themes that impact, encourage and build-up the body of Christ. The disciplines of their medical and scientific backgrounds contribute to careful investigation of biblical truth as seen in The Last Shofar Further information about the authors is found at the end of the book and on their website (www.thelastshofar.net).

A relevant and timely novel by the New York Times bestselling author of Redeeming Love and The Masterpiece. He seemed like the perfect pastor to lead Centerville Christian Church. She was the perfect pastor’s wife. When Paul Hudson accepted the call to pastor the struggling church, he had no idea what to expect. But it didn’t take long for Paul to turn Centerville Christian Church around. Attendance was up-way up. Everything was going so well. If only his wife could see it that way. Still, he tried not to let her quiet presence disturb him. She knew something wasn’t right, and it hadn’t been for a long time. . . . Eunice closed the bedroom door quietly and knelt beside her bed. “I’m drowning, God. I’ve never felt so alone. Who can I turn to but you, Lord? Where else does a pastor’s wife go for help when her marriage is failing and her life is out of control? Who can I trust with my anguish, Lord? Who but you?” Grasping her pillow, she pressed it tightly to her mouth so that her sobs would not be heard. “This book is a powerful and almost-prophetic statement of the church in America. . . . And the Shofar Blew is a must-read.” —Anne Graham Lotz, bestselling author and speaker “[Rivers] as usual turns in a strong narrative, posing issues that ring loud and clear.” —Booklist “Meticulously plotted, Francine Rivers’s new masterpiece, And the Shofar Blew, brims with unforgettable characters.” —Romantic Times Also available in The Francine Rivers Contemporary Collection (e-book only).

The book focusses on the origin and transformation of the priestly festival calendar. Since the epoch-making work of Julius Wellhausen at the end of the 19th century the differences between the various ancient Israelite festival calendars have often been explained in terms of a gradual evolution, which shows an increasing historicisation, denaturalisation and ritualisation. The festivals were in Wellhausen's view gradually detached from agricultural conditions and celebrated more and more at fixed points in the year. This study tries to show that the changes in the priestly festival calendar reflect a conscious effort to adapt the ancient Israelite festival calendar to the semi-annual layout of the Babylonian festival year. The ramifications of the change only come to the fore after a careful study of the agricultural conditions of ancient Israel - and Mesopotamia - makes clear that passover and the festival of unleavened bread were originally celebrated in the second month of the year. The first month of the year envisaged by the priestly festival calendar for the celebration of passover and the festival of unleavened bread in turn mirrors the date of one of the two semi-annual Babylonian New Year festivals. The two Babylonian New Year festivals were celebrated exactly six months apart at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. In order to adapt the ancient Israelite festival calendar to the Babylonian scheme with two New Year festivals a year, the date of passover and the festival of unleavened bread had to be moved up by one month. The consequences for the origin of passover, the festival of unleavened bread, the festival of weeks and the festival of huts are charted and the relations between the various ancient Israelite festival calendars are determined anew.

From biblical times until today the shofar has served an array of practical purposes and communicated a range of symbolic meanings. The roughly seventy references to the shofar in the Hebrew Bible show four stereotypical functions: announcing the divine presence, accompanying sacred ceremonies, proclaiming kingship, and signaling on the battlefield. In addition to the above purposes, the shofar served as a symbol for messages of joy, fear, group identity, and redemption. This volume, written by prominent Jewish scholars and faith leaders, examines the role of the shofar in the Hebrew Bible and subsequent Jewish life, including even appearances in popular literature of the present day.

Symphony conductor Don Fernando longs to hear the sounds of the shofar. Like other conversos during the Spanish Inquisition, he has to hide his Jewish religion and pretend to follow the teachings of the church. But when he is asked to perform a concert celebrating the new world, he and his son Rafael devise a clever plan to usher in the Jewish New Year in plain sight of the Spanish nobility.

The Bible speaks of a time unparallel to any other-The Time of Jacob's Trouble or The Great Tribulation. Mainstream Christianity teaches the restrainer that is ascribed to holding back the powers of darkness is the Holy Spirit and since the Holy Spirit resides in them, they believe that they will be removed from the earth in rapture. Only then will Anti-Messiah appear. Missing the Mark: How and Why Mainstream Christianity Will Be Deceived in the Last Days, the first book in a series, uses biblical references to prove that not only is it scripturally inaccurate to believe a select few will be removed from the Earth in a rapture, it is unnecessary. Author Susan Mahoney reveals the true restrainer and explains why the Church is under heavy spiritual darkness. Using a strong Scriptural foundation and hard facts of recent history,Mahoney reasons under this cover of this darkness, Satan has already constructed the outline of the one-world system and prepared the citizens of the earth for the unveiling of his man.

Dark clouds of global turmoil are causing many to question if the end is near. The Last Shofar! examines ancient biblical Feasts of the Lord that reveal God's timing for the Second Coming of Christ and how it all ends. Its message to the Church is clear-get ready! The Last Shofar! is a unique practical guide to prepare for the end times. Chapter-based questions help the reader and small groups engage critical themes. "Most highly recommended! Devoutly honoring Scripture as the Word of God, meticulously researched in an area that has received scant attention from Biblical scholars, this book has the potential to dramatically enlighten prophecies of the end times." Larry H. Ellis, D.Div., formerly The Chaplain, United States Marine Corps "A vital contribution-The Last Shofar! brings to the church a new understanding of God's plan for ushering in the Millennial Kingdom. Believers will do well to study this groundbreaking exposition of scriptural truth for guidance and encouragement as we prepare to meet our Lord in the air and abide with Him forever." Donald B. Benson, Ph.D., M.S., M.Div., Director-The Kingdom Curriculum Project "A wake-up call" to every believer! The Last Shofar! sounds a clarion call to the church at large to prepare-to make ourselves ready for the challenging days preceding our Savior's return. Lenard and Zoller succinctly set forth this urgent message applicable to every believer." Marilyn Lake Griffin, Director-Ministries of New Life Dr. Joseph Lenard and Donald Zoller have spent a lifetime studying, researching and teaching biblical themes that impact, encourage and build-up the body of Christ. The disciplines of their medical and scientific backgrounds contribute to careful investigation of biblical truth as seen in The Last Shofar! Further information about the authors is found at the end of the book and on their website (www.thelastshofar.net).

In The Shofar, Jeremy Montagu offers a detailed study of the ram’s horn of the Bible, describing its history and use—both ritual and secular—from biblical times to the present. Because the same person normally blows the shofar each year during the Jewish High Holy Days, few are aware of the wide differences among communities around the world: the varying points in the Jewish liturgical service when the shofar is blown, what sound combinations exist, and the many varieties of the instrument. This is the first work of its kind to detail the full range of historical, musical, antiquarian, and religious issues surrounding the ancient instrument with all relevant citations from the Bible, the Talmud, and key post-Talmudic sources. Jeremy Montagu carefully examines horn types, sound characteristics, liturgical uses, and community functions to illustrate how the shofar has reflected local custom, regional needs, and religious practice. Chapters provide difficult-to-find information on how shofars are made; advice on how to choose, prepare, and maintain shofars; and instructions for aspiring blowers on a variety of traditions. With more than sixty photographs from the author’s personal collection, this is an ideal work for Jews and Christians, religious scholars and musicologists, and even practicing musicians seeking to understand the crucial role of this instrument in the life of a people.

Despite the fact that it's forbidden, Cadi Forbes is determined to find the sin eater after her grandmother's death

The Second World War gripped Poland as it did no other country in Europe. Invaded by both Germany and the Soviet Union, it remained under occupation by foreign armies from the first day of the war to the last. The conflict was brutal, as Polish armies battled the enemy on four different fronts. It was on Polish soil that the architects of the Final Solution assembled their most elaborate network of extermination camps, culminating in the deliberate destruction of millions of lives, including three million Polish Jews. In The Eagle Unbowed, Halik Kochanski tells, for the first time, the story of Poland's war in its entirety, a story that captures both the diversity and the depth of the lives of those who endured its horrors. Most histories of the European war focus on the Allies' determination to liberate the continent from the fascist onslaught. Yet the "good war" looks quite different when viewed from Lodz or Krakow than from London or Washington, D.C. Poland emerged from the war trapped behind the Iron Curtain, and it would be nearly a half-century until Poland gained the freedom that its partners had secured with the defeat of Hitler. Rescuing the stories of those who died and those who vanished, those who fought and those who escaped, Kochanski deftly reconstructs the world of wartime Poland in all its complexity-from collaboration to resistance, from expulsion to exile, from Warsaw to Treblinka. The Eagle Unbowed provides in a single volume the first truly comprehensive account of one of the most harrowing periods in modern history.