David Robinson (4 Feb 2005)
"Re: Pentecost or Feast of Trumpets"


Arlene, 

Like you, I'm not fully persuaded either way on this subject.  However, I think that there is a possibility that both are correct, but just misidentifying the participants.  You said regarding the fall feasts, "I see too much of Israel in these".  Well, if you consider that you could have said, "I see too much of the Jews in these", then I think you might easily recognize my following point:  All of the feasts are of the Jews!  The church didn't fulfill the spring feasts and may not fulfill the fall feasts either.  Here's why:  (It's interesting that the phrase, "of the Jews" occurs in 70 verses in the King James translation.)

     Jesus and the apostles were Jews, so technically the church didn't fulfill the spring feasts, the Jews did.  In John 4:22, Jesus told the woman at the well, "salvation is of the Jews".  The apostle Paul in Romans 1:16 states, " For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

 Without quoting other scriptures, I think you see my point that all of the feasts could be considered of the Jews.

   We understand the principle of a time keeper calling timeout in a ball game and I think the same thing applies here.  When the timeout is over, the clock always starts back right where it left off.  The age of the gentiles can be viewed as a "timeout" in God using Israel as a nation to proclaim his salvation.  Israel was always supposed to be his representative to reveal God's grace and goodness to other nations. We see this timeout in Daniel between the 69th and the 70th week.   Once again, after the age of the gentiles is over and the clock restarts, we see the emphasis on God using Israel to proclaim salvation to the rest of the world by the two witnesses and the 144,000 witnesses during the tribulation period.

   Romans 11:25 says, "that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in".  I propose that in the fulfilling of Pentecost by the Jews, (notice Acts 2:5 with respect to this point:  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.) that the age of the gentiles began on that day and may well end on that day.  It began a timeout period in the fulfillment of the feasts of and by the Jews.  Those that recognize the prophetic significance of the fall feasts may be correct in their interpretation, but possibly wrong in identifying the participants.

 This is just food for thought, but I believe it has sufficient merit for careful consideration.  I don't think we can automatically put a church label on the fulfillment of the feasts. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
 

 David Robinson