Steve Mullin (22
Sep 2012)
"My 2 Cents on a
Tabernacles Rapture"
Renee's posts are interesting and she seems convinced that God
revealed this information to her so it'll be interesting to
watch. To me, that date could make sense for a few main reasons.
God seems to have separated the times that he deals with 2
separate groups. So far, the 7 major feasts have seemingly been
fulfilled for the first group (the Jews) from the Old Testament
while the first 4 feasts have been fulfilled in order by Jesus
for the Gentiles. The "completion" and spiritual fulfillment of
the first group moving from the wilderness to the promised land
(earth to heaven) has still not been fulfilled by either group.
The 7th day (last day) of the 7th feast as a rapture possibility
could make sense when it comes to "completion" of the feasts for
the first group.
Id like to point out a distinction that Jesus makes in scripture
when he says, "..to those who say they are Jews and are not!.."
By that statement, we can know that some from Jewish bloodlines
are not Jews to Him. Let me add that in no way am I supporting
replacement theology. I would like to say that those who are
born again and have had the true Messiah revealed to him/her by
the Father could be "spiritual jews"--those circumcised of the
heart. Another example of a spiritual identity vs a physical
identity is when the Bible speaks of Jerusalem as "spiritual
Egypt or Sodom where our Lord was crucified". The more I study,
the more it seems there will be 2 raptures, in the same way that
Enoch and Elijah were raptured. Seems to me like the
non-believers who become saved during the Tribulation would be
the "spiritual Gentiles" getting raptured at some point during
the tribulation fulfilling Trumpets, followed by the second
coming fulfilling Yom Kippur and then the Lord "tabernacling"
with men fulfilling Tabernacles for the second group and all
people:
And I heard a great voice out of heaven say, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and
they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them,
and be their God. Revelation 21:3
Below, I've copied and pasted the page from my site that talks
about the fulfillment of the feasts of God as His blueprint for
humanity, taken from a book written by John Hagee:
(John Hagee, Final Dawn Over Jerusalem, pp. 165-191)
The clues we need to help us understand God's plan for humanity
are
found throughout Leviticus 23. The chapter begins with the
directive to
Moses to proclaim and keep holy the seven different
feasts. The Lord
established seven occasions of worship to guide Israel through
the centuries
until the Messiah comes. Christians often falsely assume these
feasts are
exclusively Jewish occasions. The Bible states that these days
belong to the
Lord which are established for divine purposes, and everyone has
the right
to draw near.
The number seven throughout the Bible represents completeness.
Just as
seven days finish a weekly cycle, seven festival occasions
complete the
work of God on Earth. Each holiday has a unique purpose. The
Hebrew
word for feast, mo'ed, means "a set or appointed time". Another
Hebrew
word similar to that is mikrah, which indicates a "dress
rehearsal or recital".
Each feast offers a piece to the puzzle of the divine blueprint
for Jerusalem,
Israel, and the rest of the world. Through these seven events,
God revealed
His 7,000 year plan. Peter reminds us that "a day is as a
thousand years
and a thousand years is as a day to the Lord". The final
Feast of Sukkot
will begin Jesus' reign on Earth for 1000 years of paradise.
1. The Feast of Passover: On the tenth day of A'bib (March
or April on
the English calendar), preparation for the annual Passover
begins. The Lord
states, "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall
be the first
month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of
Israel, saying:
'On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a
lamb,
according to the house of his father, a lamb for the
household.'"
Exodus 12:2-3
For four days, a one-year-old male lamb without blemish was tied
close to
the house so the family would embrace the lamb as a pet. At 3:00
in the
afternoon, the father of the house laid his hand on the lamb to
cut its
throat. Then he applied the blood of the innocence to the sides
of the door
and smeared it on the doorposts. The house was literally sealed
with blood.
The family was commemorating and reenacting the angel's journey
through
Egypt when the Jewish people were in bondage to the Pharaoh. At
that
time, an angel of death came to kill all of the Egyptian
firstborn children.
The angel "passed over" any house that had the blood of the lamb
on its
doorpost.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood,
and
without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews
9:22
In the Old Testament, sins were forgiven annually through this
feast. It was
God's way of foreshadowing his gift to humanity of forgiveness
of sins
through faith in his son Jesus. When John the Baptist saw Jesus
coming, he
exclaimed, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the
world!" John 1:29.
It is also significant that the lamb of the feast was slain at
3:00 in the
afternoon--that is precisely the time that Jesus said, "It is
finished!" and
gave up his spirit. Redemption is now given to each person who
has
proclaimed Jesus to be his/her personal Lord and Savior.
2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread: This feast is observed
the night after
the week-long Passover festival begins. The Passover meal,
called the
Seder, is itself a picture of the death and resurrection of
Christ. In the
middle of the ritual, a piece of matzo (unleavened bread that is
striped and
pierced in the baking process) is broken into three pieces. The
second
piece, the Afikomen, is wrapped in white linen and hidden away
for a little
while, then found amid great rejoicing.
This is an incredible foreshadowing of how Jesus the Messiah,
the Bread of
Life, would be pierced with a spear, wounded with stripes,
wrapped in
linen, and hidden away in a borrowed tomb. On the night Jesus
was
betrayed, He ate the Last Supper (called that because it was the
last meal in
which leavened bread could be eaten before the festival) with
His disciples
and told them that the bread was His body that was to be broken
for them.
Just as the matzo at the Feast of Unleavened Bread is without
leaven
(yeast), Jesus was without sin. His body was hidden away for
three days,
but then He rose and reappeared to many on the Earth amid great
rejoicing.
3. The Feast of Firstfruits: Immediately after the Feast
of Unleavened
Bread, this feast commemorates the day Israel went down into the
depths
of the Red Sea and came out the other side alive. The children
of Israel
marched into a watery grave and God raised them on the other
bank a
nation of free people. Little did they know they were also
demonstrating
how God would bring salvation to the entire world!
Paul wrote, "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has
become the
first fruits of those who have fallen asleep."
1 Corinthians 15:20
Jesus arose on the third day after his crucifixion and
announced, "I AM the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may
die, he
shall live. And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never
die." John
11:25-26
4. The Feast of Pentecost: On the second day of Si'van
(May or June on
the English calendar), exactly fifty days after the Feast of
Firstfruits, the
commemoration of the giving of the Law begins. Following the
Exodus and
the Hebrews' miraculous escape from the Red Sea where Israel
traveled
until they arrived at Mount Sinai, God instructed Moses to have
the people
purify themselves. At the end of their 47 day journey, they
purified
themselves for three days, resulting in a total of fifty days,
hence the word
Pentecost. At Mount Sinai, Moses received the Ten Commandments
directly from God.
At this point, the stage was set for God to reach the entire
Gentile world.
God was doing with the Jewish people at that time exactly what
he was
going to do fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
The feasts of the "former rain", consisting of Passover,
Unleavened Bread,
Firstfruits, and Pentecost, are acts 1-4 in God's preparations
for the divine
drama of the Second Coming. The prophetic counterparts to these
feasts
are behind us, their roles fulfilled.
5. The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah): The first day of
the Jewish
civil year begins on the first of the seventh month, Tis'ri
(September or
October on the English calendar). This is the date that God
created Adam,
the first man. This is also called the Day of Judgment, when God
sits on
His throne and determines the destiny of each individual in the
upcoming
year. The Jewish people celebrate by dressing up in their best
white clothes
to signify purity and they celebrate the day with joy.
This feast fulfills the Lord's commandment to Moses: "Speak to
the
children of Israel, saying: 'In the seventh month, on the first
day of the
month, you shall have a Sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of
trumpets,
a holy convocation'" Leviticus 23:24. The "blowing of trumpets"
refers to
the shofar, the ram's horn that is blown exactly 100 times
during the Rosh
Hashanah service.
While the first four festivals occur in close proximity, an
entire season
passes before the fall commemoration of trumpets begins. This
long period
represents the dispensation of grace that we now live in. Of all
the feasts,
this is the only time span that cannot be exactly determined.
This period is
the one we are currently living in, the period of time where we
wait for the
angels to blow God's great trumpet that will call the Bride of
Christ (The
Body of True Believers) to her mansions on high. The Rapture of
the
Church is very near!
In this interim as we wait between Pentecost and Trumpets, Jesus
Christ,
our Bridegroom, returned to His father's house (as is Jewish
custom) to
prepare everything for our arrival.
And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
will
take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
John 14:3
6. The Feast of Atonement: On the tenth day of Tis'ri
(September or
October), the day of Yom Kippur, Israel comes together in
worship,
self-examination, reflection, and repentance. This is the most
sacred day of
the Jewish year. In ancient times it was the only occasion when
the high
priest entered the Holy of Holies, and a scapegoat bearing the
sins of Israel
was sent off to Azazel in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:10)
Just as the crucifixion corresponded to the fulfillment of
Passover down to
the last detail, the Scripture points to the incredible promise
of what will
happen on this day, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Which Yom
Kippur we are not sure of at this point. The Second Coming of
Jesus Christ
(not the rapture) will occur 2,520 days or seven prophetic years
of 360
days after the day Israel signs a seven-year peace agreement
with the
Antichrist. This man will be worse than any other leader in
history, and he
is about to accept his role on the world stage. Fortunately, the
Church will
be "kept from the hour of trial which is to come upon the whole
world".
7. The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot): This feast is held
by divine decree
on the fifteenth through the twenty-first days of Tis'ri
(September or
October). Sukkot begins after the ingathering of the harvest,
and is the
happiest of the biblical festivals. It celebrates God's bounty
in nature and
God's protection, symbolized by the fragile booths in which the
Israelites
dwelled in the wilderness. According to Jewish tradition, Sukkot
is also a
festival involving Gentiles, and seventy bullocks were offered
up in the
temple for the seventy nations of the world.
This feast is also called the Feast of Lights. How fitting that
Jesus stood in
the midst of the people and proclaimed, "I am the light of the
world" John
9:5.
Light reveals, exposes, and conquers darkness. To those who know
Jesus,
this is truly a time we are longing for! The final thousand
years of rest will
begin with Jesus' Second Coming.
Steve Mullin