fall feasts outline endtime events

FALL FEASTS OUTLINE ENDTIME EVENTS

                Ken Johnson has written many books explaining scripture and prophecy. I have a number of his books. IN one of them he lists over 500 prophecies from scripture, both those that have been fulfilled and those yet to be fulfilled.

                In his book called “The Ancient  Book of Daniel” we find that Daniel was actually fasting according to the high holy days of the Fall Feasts and when the fast was over, Gabriel came to him to explain the meaning of the Fall Feasts to him in what we know as a prophetic outline of last day events.

                If these feasts were better understood they would clear up some of the erroneous thinking about last day events, for indeed much of eschatology has been developed apart from any knowledge of the feasts that actually give us the sequence of events.

                Rosh Hashanah was known as the head of the year. It is also known as the Feast of Trumpets. There were one hundred blasts of the trumpet (Shofar) blown on that day and the last long blast at the end of the day was known as the “Last Trump.” This “Last Trump” on Rosh Hashanah is the famous “Last Trump that Paul talks about in 1 Cor. 15:51, 52.

                Here we need to understand that the Last Trump that Paul talks about here is not the 7 trumpet in the book of Revelation. John wrote the book of Revelation some 35 years after Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he would not have been quoting from a book that had not been written yet.

                Rosh Hashanah is a very special feast in many ways. It was called “The Feast of the Last Trump” in ancient times. It was the only feast in which no one could know the day or the hour of the feast. This was true because it is the only feast of the Jewish year that begins at the first of the month. So since the beginning of each month had to be determined by the new moon and verified by at least two witnesses, no one could know on which of two days the new month would begin.

                So when asked about His coming, Jesus said, “No one knows the day or the hour” He was cryptically telling them that He would come on the feast of Trumpets of some unspecified year. But here in order to understand the feasts, we need to know that the second coming of Christ involves two events. The first event which happens on Rosh Hashanah at the last Trump is the event that Paul talks about in 1 Cor. 15:51, 52 saying:

                “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at eh last trump; for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. This event in Hebrew is called “Natzal”, In Greek the word is “Harpizo” or “Harpazo” and in Latin the word is “rapier” from which we get the English word “Rapture.” So Natzal, Harpizo or Rapture all pertain to the same event and it means to snatch away suddenly by force.

                Another name for Rosh Hashanah is “Yom HaKeseh. Yom Hakeseh means “Day of Concealment.” So when people tell you that a “secret rapture” is not biblical it only means that they don’t understand the feasts. This meaning actually came because a new moon is concealed, whereas a full moon is revealed.

                Now, moving on, immediately following the two days of Rosh Hashanah there are 7 days of awe representing the seven years of the Tribulation or time of Jacob’s Trouble. These seven days or years lie right between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is also known as the “Day of Atonement.”

                The seven days between Rosh Hashanah are called “Yomin Noraim, “which means the “Days of Awe”, or terrible days. It is spoken of in Joel 2:11, which refers to the Day of the Lord:

                And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great; for he is strong that executeth his word; for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible (Nora) and who can abide it?”

                So Yomin Noraim is the seven days/years that occur between the Rapture/Resurrection and the Second Coming. So let’s review this to see if we can make it clear. The Rapture or resurrection and catching away of the saints happens on Rosh Hashanah at the last trump just as Paul described it. Then comes the seven days/years of awe followed immediately by Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement.

                Now whereas Rosh Hashanah is known as the day of the last trump, Yom Kippur is known as the day of the “Great Trumpet. So whenever the term Last Trump is used it refers to the catching away of the Saints and when it speaks of the “Great Trump” it speaks of the second coming when Jesus returns with His saints as seen in Revelation 19.

                So on Rosh Hashanah, we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and on Yom Kippur we return with Him to rule and reign with Him during the 7^th or Sabbath millennium. If we observe these things carefully we can see that no one is caught up to meet Him at His second coming, but rather we return with Him at that point. WE come with Him riding on white horses and so Paul’s statements in 1 Thess. 3:13 and 4:14 make more sense”

                “So that He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus WITH ALL HIS SAINTS.” 1 Thess. 3:13

                “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will BRING WITH HIM those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.” 1Thess. 4:14

                Now, as for Yom Kippur, this is the festival of the second coming of Christ. It is a ceremony involving two goats. ON the Day of Atonement, two goats that looked alike were chosen. Then the high priest would bring out the Qalephi  (a box containing two lots) and by these two lots it was determined which goat would be sacrificed while the second goat would be led into the wilderness never to return to camp    and they made sure the goat never returned by shoving it off a cliff.

                At this point I will defer to Dr. Stephen Jones whom I think has a better comprehension of the two goats than Ken Johnson has. According to Stephen Jones, the first goat represents the sacrifice of Jesus at His first coming. By His death on the cross His blood covers our sins. IN our present state we are not sinless. We are still in our flesh sons and daughters of Adam, even though in our spirit we have been adopted into God’s family. So it is the blood of Jesus that covers our sins and offers forgiveness for our sins.

                However, when Jesus returns at His second coming, our sins will be forever taken away as with the second goat. We will never sin again, nor will we have the propensity to do so for our sin nature will be forever removed. So again we refer to 1 Thess. 3:13 where it says that He will establish our hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father AT THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS WITH ALL HIS SAINTS.”

                To be honest I do not fully comprehend the distinctions here for it seems that this would have been done when we were caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Nevertheless the Day of Atonement is a ceremony in which sin is done away with forever, Satan is bound for 1000 years after being defeated at the battle of Armageddon, the kingdom of the antichrist is destroyed and the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire where they are said to still be at the end of the 1000 years and the final judgment of the wicked.

                It was my discovery some years ago that Jesus fulfilled the spring feasts right down to the day and the hour at His first coming and so I concluded that He would do the same at His second coming. And while these feasts can be interpreted in various ways, they nevertheless tell us things about the second coming of Christ that have been lost to much of the church. For instance, in the years from AD 200 to 300 at the Schism of Nepos, nearly the whole church abandoned the teachings of the 12 apostles and adopted what is now called Amillennialism. This they did by taking what was intended to be understood literally and making it into allegory. Many abandoned the book of Revelation because they could not fathom it ever being fulfilled literally.

                Today we see all of its pages being fulfilled and now we can see how as the world is following exactly in the footsteps of prophecy. Now we have the technology and such to see it all happen literally      and especially with the return of Israel to its own land as promised, it has revived once forgotten prophecies   and breathed new life into things once thought dead.

                In the appendix of Ken Johnson’s book he quotes from early church fathers showing that they had an understanding of these things before the Schism of Nepos took place. Irenaeus AD 178, for instance taught the following in his book “Against Heresies 5:25- In 2 Thessalonians, the falling away is an apostasy and there will be a literal rebuilt temple... In Matthew 24 the abomination spoken of by Daniel is the Antichrist sitting in temple as if he were Christ. The abomination will start in the middle of Daniel’s 70th week and last for a literal three years and six months. The little horn (11^th) is the Antichrist.

                Irenaeus also taught that the antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan and that the rebuilt temple will be in Jerusalem.

                Another church father Papias AD 70-155 in Fragment 6 said: After the resurrection of the dead, Jesus will personally reign for one thousand years. I was taught this by the apostle John, himself.”

                Nearly all of them taught that the reign of sin would last for 6000 years followed by a Sabbath millennium in which Christ would personally reign in the earth. This was also taught by all of the Jewish sages so was passed on by the church as long as they had contact with the Jews.

                I personally believe that in these last days, God is restoring the church to truth       and part of that entails a bringing together Jews and Gentiles into one new man in Christ. Then will be restored to the church many truths that were lost to time. So I believe that the New Testament will be set back on its Old Testament foundations so that the Word of God can be rightly interpreted. This doesn’t mean that we revert to old testament sacrifices, but rather that we rightly understand the New Testament in light of Old Testament keys. Selah.