What are the holy days? What do they represent? I’ve heard many interpretations of the holy days – some more lucid than others – but nothing that made a PACKAGE. Nothing that made complete sense out of ALL of them.

It has been said that the holy days are the signposts of prophecy. Which is true enough, but it’s time to make SENSE of that prophecy – time to understand the BIG PICTURE – time to wrap our minds around the fantastic wonders of the all-encompassing PLAN OF GOD!

I’ll ask a few questions to prove my point – what is the meaning of trumpets? Or of Atonement? Why is atonement on the 10^th day of the first month, and not the 14^th or the 3^rd? Why is one day holy and others not? Passover isn’t a rest day, but atonement is – why? For that matter, why is trumpets such a joyous day that no one was allowed to fast or be morose (Nehemiah 8:9-10)? And why is Atonement the exact opposite – a day to fast and be generally depressed – why?

You see where I am going with this. ALL of the holy days have vast numbers of unanswered questions. But NO MORE! After this article – I think you’ll find at least 90% of them will be answered – and in so doing the answers will reveal a truth so powerful, so fascinating, and so incredible that it will astound you!

And as soon as you’re through being astounded, you’ll wonder “Why didn’t *I* think of this? This is so obvious and self-evident a child should have seen this!”

And you’re right. The only answer I can offer is…

Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

These things were sealed until the time of the end. Knowledge has been increased. Ergo, things like this which, as far as I know, have NEVER been understood, are being understood. And at that, by babes (Matthew 11:25). But enough preamble.

To begin with, I have to explain my basic hypothesis (See picture below). As you can see, I have outlined every yearly event in the holy day calendar that occurs in the spring – in the first month, the month of Abib. To begin with, on the first day of the month, God told Moses…

Exodus 12:2-6 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: … And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

So, on the first day the month started, on the tenth the passover lamb was set apart from the rest of the flock and prepared for the passover service, and on the fourteenth of the month it was killed.

After it was killed, the blood was laid on the doorposts and the death angel passed over those houses and spared the firstborn. Then Israel went out of Egypt on the “Night To Be Much Observed”…

Exodus 12:41-42 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.

And the Exodus began on the night to be much observed, at the beginning of the 15^th day of the month, which started the seven days of unleavened bread.

Exodus 12:15-20 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

And for seven days Israel ran away from Egypt, being pursued by Pharaoh and protected by God. Incidentally, throughout the Bible, Egypt is pictured as a type of sin, and Pharaoh, being the king of Egypt/sin represents Satan, and the armies of Pharaoh then would represent… that’s right, his fallen angels. And so for seven days Pharaoh and his armies pursued the firstfruits whom God had freed from Egypt, and on the seventh day, at the beginning of the last day of unleavened bread, Moses stood over the red sea…

Exodus 14:13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

And of course, the next day Pharaoh and all his armies pursued the Israelites into the Red Sea and God drowned them. One thing I want you to notice on this is that all of these feasts are about the FIRSTFRUITS. Remember, if they didn’t put blood over the doorposts, it was ONLY the firstfruits that died! The other children – the secondfruits, for lack of a better word – were in NO DANGER from the death angel!

Likewise the Exodus was the Exodus of the FIRSTFRUITS!

Exodus 4:22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

So, everything that happened in the first month involved the FIRSTBORN – don’t forget that, we’ll need to know that to explain this plan of God which is encapsulated in the holy days.

What I have done here is to write the spring feasts in red, and the fall feasts in blue. So everything that happens in the spring is written on the top, and everything that happens in the fall is written on the bottom. Now the first thing that jumps out at you is “Wow – look at how similar they are! Look at all the things that happen in the SAME DAY in BOTH the first month, and the seventh month! Is that a coincidence?”

Well, I don’t believe in coincidences when it comes to something this important that was authored by God, Himself, so… let’s see if there is a significance to it. But first, let’s go through exactly what happened in the seventh month.

In the first day of the seventh month we have a feast – a memorial – of blowing of trumpets. The Bible tells us very little beyond this little tidbit, except what I already mentioned about it being a joyous feast day, and that no work was to be done.

Then in the tenth day of the month, we have Atonement. Atonement is a day of mourning, and of fasting – no food or water is to be consumed during the entire day.

On this day in the old testament the high priest would, after sacrificing a bullock to pay for his own sins and those of his household …

Leviticus 16:5-9 And he (Aaron) shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, …
And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD …
And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.

This sin offering of course, represents Christ.

Verse 10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

Notice the difference in their destinies here – one is destined to be killed as a sin offering for the people. One is left alive and cast into the wilderness. Notice also that man can’t decide which goat is which – God must decide which goat is the one for the sin offering and which for the scapegoat.

Verses 15-16 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat:
And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

Verses 20-22 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

And now notice the distinction between their PURPOSE. The one goat is killed for a sin offering, and his BLOOD is spread around the tabernacle to PAY for the sins of the people. Again, that is undeniably Christ.

But the other goat is BLAMED for the sins of the people. They CONFESS UPON him their sins, and place their sins ON HIS HEAD! This, equally undeniably, must be Satan. Remember, Christ isn’t to blame for your sins – He isn’t the father of sin – But Satan, as the first sinner, DOES carry the blame! And so HE is led off into the wilderness, into a land that is NOT inhabited, by the hands of a strong, fit man. Again, file this information, we will be coming back to it in a moment.

Verses 29-31 And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:
For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.
It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.

So, that’s it for atonement – next we find the feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month.

Leviticus 23:39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

And finally, we come to the Feast of Tabernacles. We know for a fact that this feast hasn’t yet been fulfilled because we know that it will be kept in the millennium. The Bible doesn’t say that about any other holy day except passover.

Zechariah 14:16-19 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. …
This [drought and plague] shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

And finally, the Last Great Day. It was on this day that Christ opened up the gospel – or more specifically, the holy spirit – to everyone, symbolically.

John 7:37-39 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If ANY man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Now, we all know that the spirit was given on the day of Pentecost – so why did Christ make this pronouncement on the last great day of the feast – the eighth day, after the feast of Tabernacles? Was it just a random coincidence – He woke up that morning and said “Hey, let’s talk about the SPIRIT today!”… ya think? No, me neither. There was a REASON He said this when He did. And that reason is… a secret. Just kidding. Seriously though, be patient, and you’ll find out soon enough.

THE OVERLAY

Well, I’ve teased you long enough, it is now time to tie all of these ideas together in a basic framework. Refer again to the picture above. Notice again that many of the days are concurrent.

And so, what if… these days are not meant to be understood as separate feasts and ideas? What if they aren’t isolated symbolism, but instead each a part of a complete picture?

What if they’re meant to be understood as an overlay – where both the spring days and the fall days picture the same thing, and each complements the understanding of the other?

Notice again that Trumpets is on the same day as the beginning of months in the spring. Maybe instead of meaning totally separate things, they picture the SAME thing? Compelling idea, isn’t it? But there is another idea even more compelling, and in it we find the answer to all the questions.

What if… What if the holy days really DO show the plan of God? Not merely ideas, concepts, or key events, but what if they really show it – day by day – what if they actually tell us WHEN these things happened?

Colossians 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

If these holy days, new moons, sabbath days, etc, are all a shadow of things to come, doesn’t a shadow show the exact outline of an object? Could these all be, not merely signposts to the plan of God, but DATED signposts??

A fascinating question, no?

2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Still playing “what if”, what if when you overlay the spring and fall holy days, if each day represents 1,000 years of God’s plan? Will it make sense? To find out, we have to first establish a reference point to begin our dating.

We know that God is working for a figurative thousand-year week on this earth, and that he is working for six days, but the seventh is a sabbath of rest (Hebrews 4), which is the millennium, the thousand year period at the end of this particular age of Earth’s history after His return.

We also know that after that millennium the rest of the dead live again (Revelation 20:5), and all that have ever lived will stand before the judgment throne of God. And since this period begins after the millennium, and since the millennium should start “soon”, I placed a rough date of 3000 A.D. for the beginning of the great white throne period. Based on the theory that each day of this calendar represents 1,000 years, I then figured backwards and dated each day in this “month”….

So this is the result of the original two theories. So what do we have? Can we make any sense out of this? Right away you’ll notice that 4000 B.C. – more or less – is when man was created. You’ll also notice that, according to our “What if”, the thousand-year day that began with the exit from the Garden of Eden – beginning man’s 6000 years to rule himself – ALSO happened to be the time when the 7-day feasts both started! If this is a coincidence, it is a very fascinating one. It isn’t proof – but it is interesting, isn’t it? And for me, it was enough of a result to warrant further study. So, let’s start at the beginning and look at it again.

TRUMPETS

The most common interpretation of the feast of Trumpets is that “trumpets pictures the return of Christ”. This is based on the scriptures in 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which say that Christ returns at the “last trump” and with the “trump of God”, respectively. But they say nothing about any connection to this feast day. So to find it’s meaning, let’s look at the scripture itself…

Leviticus 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a MEMORIAL of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

Notice carefully that it is a MEMORIAL of the blowing of trumpets. Not a shadow, nor a picture, but a MEMORIAL. Do you keep a memorial of something, for example the return of Christ, BEFORE IT HAPPENS? Of course not, that’s just silly. But if not that, then what?

What does that pesky MEMORIAL of the blowing of trumpets MEAN? There just IS no reference to a blowing of trumpets prior to this in the Bible that this could picture as a memorial. Exodus 19:16 was on Pentecost, not Trumpets, so it couldn’t be that. So, thinking outside the box for a moment – what other meanings do we see in scripture for a trumpet?

Revelation 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

This was the voice of God which was like a trumpet. The voice of an angel is also similar to the voice of God, or a trumpet, according to…

Ezekiel 1:24-25 And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.
And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.

So, it seems an angel’s voice sounds like a trumpet. This is important. But now it’s time to go back to where the command to observe trumpets was given and see what it actually says before we can go any farther.

Leviticus 23:24 (KJV) Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

That’s what we’ve always heard. But if we examine what the original language actually SAID, we find a shocking difference!

Leviticus 23:24 (YLT) ‘Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first of the month, ye have a sabbath, a memorial of SHOUTING, a holy convocation;

Young’s Literal Translation takes only the words that are actually IN the original language and translates them as close as possible to their meaning, without regard for how it sounds in English. And as you can see, “a memorial of blowing of trumpets” IS NOT IN the original language! The translators ADDED the two words “of trumpets”, when all that the original said is that this is a memorial of SHOUTING!

They added these words because on this day every year the Jews blow a trumpet because that is the day on which they believe Abraham offered Isaac. But as you can see, Moses didn’t call it the day of trumpets. He called it the day of shouting. And there are no historical incidents prior to Leviticus 23 that involved shouting, either.

But now we finally have enough FACTS to put the pieces together and explain WHAT THIS DAY MEANS!

Job 38:4-7 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God SHOUTED for joy?

The morning stars, ALL the sons of God – angels – sang, and shouted for joy… when? At the creation of the universe! The time when the voices of angels, like the sound of a hundred million trumpets, rang throughout the universe! So it is small wonder that Trumpets is a feast day – it’s when this glorious creation began! And as a test of this theory, the overlay we have here shows that trumpets happens on the same day as the “beginning of months” happened – which, if our hypothetical dates are right, took place roughly 20,000 years ago!

The day of Trumpets – or, more accurately, the Feast of the Memorial of Shouting, pictures THE BIRTHDAY OF THE UNIVERSE!

ATONEMENT

So, what’s the next event in our cosmic timeline? The tenth day of the month, which, if this timeline is correct, pictures a time frame about 10,000 years ago. On this day in the spring, the lamb (Christ) was separated for the passover. In the fall on this day we find the day of Atonement. This day is, for some reason, the saddest day of the year.

So based on all of this, and again referring to our calendar, what depressing, negative event took place between the creation of the universe and the creation of Adam, involved a separation between the two goats, Christ and Satan, and resulted in the Scapegoat – Azazel – Satan – being led by the hand of a fit man (Angel) into a wilderness (Earth)?

Revelation 12:7-9 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

This day, the saddest day of the year, commemorates the time when SIN entered the universe! When the two goats, Satan and Christ, had to part ways – when Satan led his army of Angels up into heaven and were cast back down into the earth in defeat!

Luke 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Before this day, 10,000 years ago, Satan (at the time, still Lucifer) hadn’t sinned!

Ezekiel 28:14-15 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

Satan was PERFECT, from the day He was created, until the DAY that Iniquity was found in him! Satan is the FATHER (John 8:44), the very INVENTOR of sin! And so until Satan sinned, THERE WAS NO SIN IN THE UNIVERSE!

The entire universe was FREE FROM SIN until THAT DAY! And on that day SIN came into being! And once sin came into existence, a SACRIFICE was now needed! Up until this time, there was NO sin, and no NEED for a sacrifice – so Christ DID NOT NEED TO DIE!

But now that SIN was here, Christ had to be PREPARED for the sacrifice – mind you, He didn’t have to die yet – but now there was the POTENTIAL for Him to have to die, NOW HE had to be SEPARATED from the other goat, He had to PART COMPANY with the Devil, because two cannot walk together UNLESS THEY ARE AGREED! (Amos 3:3)

And so it is no WONDER that this is a depressing time of year! Now you can finally appreciate why God told you to FAST, and MOURN, for on this day SIN and by it DEATH ENTERED THE UNIVERSE!

PASSOVER

Next we come to passover on the 14^th day of the month. This of course, directly commemorates the death of Christ, the Lamb of God. On the chart we find that this falls, chronologically speaking, directly before the creation of Adam. So let’s go to that part of the Bible and see what happened, and see Christ’s attitude before he began creating Adam.

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The spirit of God MOVED over the waters. The meaning of this word “moved” means “To flutter”, “to hover”, or “to brood”.

Genesis 1:2 (Rotherham) Now, the earth, had become waste and wild, and, darkness, was on the face of the roaring deep, —but, the Spirit of God, was brooding on the face of the waters.

This was Christ, the word of God, preparing to create the world. He knew that the world He was about to create would be full of suffering, misery and death. He knew that people like Hitler and Shaka Zulu and Genghis Khan would be born, and he knew the awful atrocities that they would perform. Furthermore, He knew that if He did this, He would have to die. And He didn’t like this idea. So He brooded over the waters. And He thought about it. And then He finally decided to go through with it. All of which happens to be EXACTLY how the same being felt, on the same DAY, roughly 4,000 years later!

Luke 22:42-44 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Jesus Christ, on the fourteenth day of the month, the night before he was to be killed, was so distressed that He was SWEATING BLOOD, and He prayed THREE TIMES to God, saying that HE DIDN’T LIKE THIS PLAN ANYMORE!

He wanted God to come up with PLAN “B”! But in spite of that, He decided to submit Himself to His Father’s will, and knuckled down and went through this plan. GOD NEVER CHANGES! This same being, ON THIS SAME DAY, thousands of years earlier, felt the EXACT SAME WAY!

And so passover commemorates the day when Christ made the decision to die, and then went through with it. And on our chart, we find that this day is symbolized BEFORE the creation of Adam!

Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

And lo and behold we find that symbolically, the Lamb DIED from BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD (1 Peter 1:20)! The Greek word for “World” used here is Kosmos. In this context it means “society”. If this is true, then Christ symbolically died BEFORE the creation of this nearly six-thousand-year-old society, pictured by the fourteenth day of the first month, and chronologically speaking, about 7,000 years ago!

Isn’t that amazing? But we’re just getting started!

TWO FEASTS – TWO PLANS

Immediately after man’s sin, he was put out of the Garden of Eden, and the seven-thousand year “week” began. At this point, the plan pictured by the spring and fall feasts splits into two parts.

Up until now, we were working on one plan. All changes that happened, affected everyone in the universe equally. The universe being created, the first sin, the death of Christ. But now, we are working on two plans. The plan to bring in the firstfruits, and the plan for the salvation of all of mankind.

The firstfruits, pictured by the dark blue, were affected by the sin of Adam, and were sold into slavery to sin. And just like when Israel left Egypt/sin, so spiritual Israel, the firstfruits, were delivered from Slavery to sin when God called them. Remember that “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)? Free from… BONDAGE TO SIN!

But Satan doesn’t LIKE you being freed from his dominion, and freed from sin, so he and his armies PURSUE us! And on a grand scale, 6,000 years ago all men (Romans 5:12) were sold into slavery to sin (thanks to our ancestor Adam). And ever since then God has been calling men OUT of that slavery, offering them DELIVERANCE from the bondage of Egypt, and so for 6,000 years we have been RUNNING through the desert trying to leave sin behind!

And Satan has been pursuing us all this time – but there is good news! On the LAST DAY of Unleavened Bread, Moses stood and said STAND STILL, and SEE the SALVATION OF THE LORD! And on that last day, at the beginning of the Millennium, all of the saints who have left Egypt, and put sin out of their lives, will be resurrected, and Satan will be bound, and he will NEVER HAVE POWER OVER US AGAIN! On that day He will be symbolically DROWNED in the red sea!

That’s the plan of the first fruits. But another plan, a plan even more all-encompassing, has been progressing at this same time. All of the world was sold into slavery by Adam’s sin, but most of it has never been called out of it. It simply wasn’t the plan. But even though the bulk of the world is not being brought to salvation today, this lifetime, and this sinful existence, is still profiting them!

Ezekiel 20:42-44 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers.
And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.
And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

Despite the fact that many people in this life were never called, they will be able to look back someday on this and loath themselves for their evil ways, and they will learn from it. And the plan of God to bring these people to salvation, is pictured by the feast of Tabernacles. Now, it will be quite some time before these plans are reunited, but they will be reunited when all is complete…. but I’m getting ahead of myself.

WHY HOLY

I still haven’t answered the question of why a given day is holy. In the Bible, as today, a day is holy because it commemorates an important event, which changed the course of history. The fourth of July, Memorial Day, etc. And in the Bible, each holy day started a new phase in the plan, which the Bible calls an “age”. Remember the disciples asked Christ to tell them when the end of the “AGE” would occur (Matthew 24:3)? He said that THIS AGE would end when He returned! So that means that, if this is one age, His return will start another! And there was also an age BEFORE this world began (John 9:32)!

And strange as it may seem, this tiny bit of knowledge helps explain the fate of the Devil.

Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

In this scripture, “ever and ever” is translated from the original, inspired Greek words written by John. “ever” is the Greek word “Aion” – the word from which we get “Eon” today. This word means, then as now, AN AGE. A period of time! Not an eternity!

“Aion is usually better expressed by age, it is the world at a given time, a particular period in the world’s history.” (From “Online Bible Greek Lexicon” – article on “World, age”)

Consider these scriptures for yourself. The bold and italicized words are translated from “Aion”.

Mark 4:19 And the cares of this world…

Luke 16:8 …for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

John 9:32 Since the world began was it not heard…

Now try replacing the italicized words with “Age” – notice the perfect sense it makes. Then try replacing it with “eternity” – and it makes no sense! It would be GIBBERISH if you had to insert eternity, or “forever and ever” into each place where this Greek word was used!

So what Revelation 20 is referring to when it says “Forever and ever” would be more literally translated as “for age of ages”. However, the most accurate translation would be “Until the age of the ages”. In other words, the smoke of his torment will ascend UNTIL the AGE, or the plan, that consists of smaller ages, or plans, is FINISHED! Until the age of the ages! And the AGE of the AGES is laid out from beginning to glorious end in the plan of the holy days!

This world, this 6,000 years for the salvation of the firstfruits is one of these “ages”. The great white throne period, where all of mankind will get their chance at salvation, is another “age”. The period before Satan fell, the period after he fell, the Millennium – all are AGES, which make up the colossal plan of God!

And the BEGINNING of each of these ages is commemorated by a HOLY day, a day where NO work was to be done! At last, we have something that can actually EXPLAIN WHY the last day of Unleavened Bread is holy! Because the firstfruits, who are resurrected at the beginning of that “day”, the millennium, begin the next “age” of their plan – the age of being a king and a priest with Christ, and enter their training so that they can one day bring others into the family of God!

On the other hand, the last day of Tabernacles is NOT holy because most of THOSE people, the secondfruits, ARE STILL DEAD! The dead don’t live again until that thousand years is over – at which point, the next stage in THEIR development happens, the great white throne judgment period! And that day is represented by a holy day, the last GREAT DAY!

That day when ALL who thirst, and ALL, both young and old, small and great, HAVE THEIR CHANCE AT ENTERING THE FAMILY OF GOD! The people who in this life never were called, or perhaps never even heard the NAME of Christ, will be offered the RIVERS of living water, the holy spirit of God, and given their FIRST CHANCE to accept it!

Ezekiel 37:4-11 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: … So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and OUR HOPE IS LOST: we are cut off for our parts.

This was the WHOLE house of Israel, most of whom God NEVER called, who had DIED in THIS AGE! And God promises to RESURRECT those people, who said that their bones were dried, and their HOPE WAS LOST! These people WERE NOT SAVED, or their hope WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN LOST! But look what God promises these unsaved dead!

Verses 12-14 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

God says that they shall HEAR his word, and KNOW that HE is the Lord, and God promises that HE WILL PUT HIS SPIRIT IN THEM! THIS IS SALVATION we are talking about here! He is again offering them the LIVING RIVERS of waters, and promising that THEY SHALL KNOW HIM!

God uses the house of Israel as an example of what He will do for ALL men in that great day when “…the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)

Hebrews 8:10-11 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for ALL SHALL KNOW ME, from the least to the greatest.

This covenant wasn’t even begun until the time of Christ, and yet God promised that He would RESURRECT unsaved Israel, and indeed, the ENTIRE unsaved WORLD and MAKE THIS COVENANT WITH THEM!

Oh what an incredible, what an awesome, stupendous piece of understanding, to know that God is a loving God, who wants ALL men to be saved (2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16-17, 1 Timothy 2:2), and is not going to stop this plan until EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM HAS BEEN ABLE TO KNOW HIM, and then CHOOSE for himself death, or everlasting life!

PENTECOST

But for all of that, I still haven’t touched the most beautiful part of all. The part that transcends the ability of words to express. And that day, that day most glorious of all, is Pentecost.

In 1505 B.C., God gave Israel the law on Pentecost. And this law was God’s way of introducing Himself – the ten commandments were His business card, so to speak. Because, if you don’t keep God’s commandments – you can’t know him (1 John 3:4). You might know what He looks like, or where He lives, or that He died for your sins… but you can’t really KNOW Him without His law. So on this day, He gave man His law.

And this law united God and man in a way that was impossible without it. For now a man could take the law, and by applying it in his life, begin to actually THINK like God! Imagine that. This was the first fulfillment of Pentecost.

As we all know however, there was a second fulfillment. One that came in 31 A.D., where the holy spirit was given. Now this holy spirit takes the law, and it interprets it for you. Because the problem with the law is, it isn’t specific. I had a man one time tell me “awww, those ten commandments don’t cover everything!” And I said “well… uh, yeah they do…” he responded “Nope. See, the law doesn’t say I can’t burn my neighbor’s house down. Does it? I’m not stealing from him, because I’m not taking his house away and putting it on MY property. I’m not killing him because he’s not IN the house, and I’m not lying to him because I’ll tell him I did it!”

And the man has a point. But! As I told him, the SPIRIT of God EXPLAINS the law, it MAGNIFIES it to cover every circumstance and situation. In the SPIRIT of the law, the commandment about stealing becomes LARGER, to where it covers that situation nicely!

Another way of saying it, is that the Spirit of God is the very CONSCIENCE of Christ, Himself. It tells you what HE would do, in any given circumstance, so that now, instead of working WITH you, like He did with physical Israel, He actually lives IN you!

And Christ IN you, is your hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27) – it puts you one step closer to actually dwelling WITH God in a literal sense. But for now, God doesn’t dwell with man. Primarily because man is still too attached to sin and too unclean for Him to live here.

Pentecost, simply put, pictures God and man dwelling together. A few small, partial fulfillments of this have already happened – But the real version can’t happen until a few things are finished first…

1 Corinthians 15:24-28 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down ALL RULE and all authority and power.
For HE MUST REIGN, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Christ will one day destroy death itself. If death is swallowed up, then there has to be no more cause for death – in other words, no more sin. Furthermore, it means at that time there are no more physical people. By definition, physical people can die, so this must picture a time after all has been done, and all people who CAN be saved, have been saved. But how long will this take?

To begin with, consider that Christ often used the analogy of the harvest to refer to the salvation of mankind. And when you go out into your field of wheat to choose the best for your firstfruits to give to the priest, it takes you what – a few minutes? An hour? At any rate, a relatively small portion of time to choose your firstfruits.

It takes considerably longer, probably the rest of the week, and perhaps the next as well, to harvest your entire crop. Now this isn’t proof by itself, but why would God spend 7000 years on the firstfruits, and then only 100 years, or 1000 years, on the rest of all mankind? Doesn’t seem to make sense, does it? Then there is another question…

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

A thousand generations. Mankind has been on this earth something less than 6000 years. In the 4000 years from Adam to Christ, there were 63 generations (Luke 3, Matthew 1). Sixty-three. Now, how are you going to fit “a thousand generations”, into a few thousand years in the future? Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that we’ve had 100 generations in the last 2000 years. That means everyone had a child when they were twenty, as did their children, etc.

That didn’t happen, but let’s be generous for the fun of it. That means we’ve had 163 generations so far. This isn’t the only time 1,000 generations is mentioned either. It is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 16:15, and Psalms 105:8 directly, with several other oblique references, Exodus 20:6 for example. So with that many references, including some in the middle of the ten commandments, this probably isn’t just some “beautiful allegory”.

So if it isn’t, it means that God, if He IS going to be a faithful God, has to keep covenant with a THOUSAND generations! We’ve had less than 200 in 6,000 years. That means we need a LOT more time if we’re going to get 1,000 generations of people.

The problem is, we have ASSUMED that the great white throne lasts only 1,000 years, and most of the time it’s taught as only 100 years. This was based on

Isaiah 65:20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

As you can see, it really doesn’t say that the great white throne period will be 100 years. It just says that people won’t die infants or before their time, but that all will have a long, full life.

But back to the purpose of Pentecost. Pentecost was to be counted from the morrow after the sabbath during the days of unleavened bread. And from that next day, the wavesheaf day, you were to count off seven Sabbaths (Leviticus 23:15). Now in this 7,000 year plan of God, the only day called a Sabbath is the seventh one – the Millennium (Hebrews 4). So figuring from the morrow after that Sabbath, we mark out seven Sabbaths. And the day after that seventh Sabbath we find Pentecost.

And so we find that God showed Himself, His very character to man by showing him the law on Pentecost in 1505 B.C., just after the exodus. Later, in 31 A.D., He gave man the code, the program, to interpret this character and make it a part of himself. His spirit. This was God uniting Himself with man in another type of the primary fulfillment.

But the REAL fulfillment hasn’t happened yet. Still staying with our day-for-a-thousand years idea, when we count fifty we find that Pentecost caps off the plan, starting at the end of the 70,000^th year. A nice round number, and God seems fond of 7’s anyway. And on this day, in the far future, God will unite with man in the real sense, and at last dwell with all of mankind, literally.

Revelation 21:1-4 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, 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.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

And God will be with men, at last. When this plan is all done – when the age of the ages is finished, and Satan, sin, and death itself is destroyed – then Christ will hand up the Kingdom, perfect and holy, to His Father, and He will dwell with us, and we will be a united family at long last.

That is the plan of the holy days. That is what God MEANT when He commanded Israel to observe them forever, which extends up to us today. This is the plan of God in it’s entirety, from beginning to end, in all of it’s radiant beauty.

Is there anyone alive who would not be impressed by the beauty of the best plan ever made, a perfect plan established by a being who is wanting to populate the entire universe with righteous, perfect men who truly love one another.

Who would not be subdued and awed by what is quite literally, the greatest story ever told.

*****

APPENDIX

Now that the story is told, and the picture painted, it’s time to fill in the last few gaps. As I go through this plan and explain it to people, each time I do I see a new piece of scripture that will fit into this plan, each time strengthening and bringing out the colors ever brighter than before.

THE LAND SABBATH AND THE JUBILEE

Leviticus 25:3-4 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

Every seventh year the land was not plowed, the grapes were not harvested or pruned, and the fruit trees neither harvested nor cared for. And every seven years all Hebrew slaves went free (Deuteronomy 15:12). But these Sabbaths of years were only a small part of a larger plan – the plan of the Jubilee.

Leviticus 25:8-10 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

On this fiftieth year, just like the 49^th, nothing was planted or picked or dressed, and moreover all captives went free, Hebrew slaves went free, all land that had been sold returned to it’s original owner.

The connection to Pentecost is inescapable. The same odd method of counting, seven sabbaths, one of weeks, and one of years. And on this day of Pentecost, some 50,000 years in our future, after seven sabbaths have past, God will proclaim the day of the Jubilee, and ALL land will go back to its original owner (Him) and ALL slaves will go free, and at last the plan will be FINISHED!

CIRCUMCISION ON THE EIGHTH DAY

It’s actually astounding how many scriptures you can plug into this plan once you think on it for a while. I’ve understood this for nearly two years and just a few weeks ago I finally figured out why circumcision always took place on the eighth day.

I had always wondered “why the eighth day, not the fifth or eleventh?” And I finally understood. Believe it or not, even a thing as insignificant as this has its place in the plan of God.

Circumcision pictures access to the heart. The physical circumcision was a token, a symbol of being an Israelite, a promise that you would submit yourself to all of God’s laws. But it was only a type of what God really wanted all along, which was…

Romans 2:29 … a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Circumcision of the heart would give God access to your conscience, to let Him correct you and reprove you without stubbornness and rebelliousness. Needless to say, He seldom gets this, and practically never got it from Israel. But behold, God has a plan!

Jeremiah 31:31-33 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

This is what God REALLY wants, and what He has in mind for Israel and, indeed, the whole world! And based on what you’ve read today, He’s going to do that when? Why, on the “Day” after the millennium! The EIGHTH DAY from the BEGINNING of the CREATION OF MAN!

On that day, God will make a NEW covenant with all of Israel, and write His laws in their hearts, and on that eighth day they at last will have their hearts CIRCUMCISED!

SECOND PASSOVER

It always bothered me. Why would God make a SECOND passover? All of the other days you either got there on the right day or else. But passover somehow merited a SECOND CHANCE – under the right conditions.

Numbers 9:9-11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD.
The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

So if you were unclean, or in a journey, or… well, for example…

Luke 14:16-24 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

If you were too BUSY to take the passover – that is, too busy to repent and apply the blood of Christ to your sins – if you were unclean, or in a journey, or just got married, or had bought some land, and JUST COULDN’T TAKE TIME for God today… you WILL not partake of His supper, and you will NOT be a part of the first resurrection.

BUT! There will be a SECOND passover for all of those people who didn’t have time for God today, and that passover was set up for the very PURPOSE of saving those who didn’t make time for God the first time around! Of course, their reward won’t be as great, and that is as it should be – but they will still be children of God, just… younger children. Always subservient to their elder siblings, the firstfruits.

We know that there will BE a passover observed in the Kingdom, at least one, because Christ promised us!

Luke 22:15-18 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:
For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:
For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.

He promised that He would not drink the “fruit of the vine”, or eat the bread of the passover, UNTIL the Kingdom of God COMES! But the very concept of UNTIL means that AFTER it DOES come, He WILL take it again, and that proves there WILL BE a second passover service!

ALL AT ONCE?

The question has come up over the years, how will the dead be resurrected? Will God resurrect 70-100 BILLION people, stark naked, hungry, scared and confused, with many of them having as their last memory a lion tearing their throat out, or a viking coming at them with an axe??

Will that not cause enormous CONFUSION? And is God the AUTHOR of confusion? No, of course not. So how will it happen? Scriptures say it must. But remember, God has eternity to play around in, He needn’t hurry if it is inconvenient for Him. Time is most definitely on His side. So let me propose a new hypothesis.

What happens at the end of this six-day work week? A resurrection of the saints from this six-thousand year period. And for a thousand years, what happens? They are Kings and Priests, training to be the very GOD beings who will help their younger siblings come into the family. Then what? On the next day, the Wavesheaf/Great White Throne day, –SOME – of the dead are resurrected. (bear with me on this).

And for six days, God and the Firstfruits work with these resurrected people and try to bring them into the Family of God. And on the seventh day, the next “Sabbath”, logically, what should happen? Why, a resurrection of the dead from the previous 6,000 years. A thousand year rest/land sabbath to train these new beings and then a NEW batch is resurrected. This is repeated 7 times until all have been resurrected and given their chance at life. On the last sabbath the last batch of newly-saved beings is resurrected and trained and then, at last, the plan is finished. Pentecost and the Jubilee arrive, and Christ delivers the kingdom up to His Father, having finished the job of saving mankind that He was sent here to do, and God at last is ALL IN ALL!

THE SEVEN RESURRECTIONS OF LEVITICUS 16

Believe it or not, all I said in the last section is pictured in the story of Atonement, laid out plainly in the sacrifices. See, now that we understand the plan we can start overlaying holy days, sacrifices, and offerings and finding correlations – and there are a great many correlations, of which this is only one!

Atonement is about cleansing mankind. ALL of mankind. And this chapter shows EVERY sacrifice that is applied to mankind over the 70,000 years of this plan.

First Aaron, the high priest – representing Jesus – comes into the holy place (verse 3) with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. Then he washes his flesh in water (Jesus was baptized, remember, though He didn’t need it?) and puts on the holy garments (verse 4).

Then he gathers the two goats (Satan and Jesus) and a ram. (Verse 5). Then He offers the bullock for HIMSELF and HIS HOUSE. This is an offering specifically for the office of high priest, and HIS HOUSE, meaning the priests who work under him – which priesthood we are today (1 Peter 2:5). But notice the bullock is not killed yet (not until verse 11)!

In verse 6 the bullock is merely OFFERED – just as after Satan’s sin on the first atonement, Jesus OFFERED to die for the sins of the coming mankind. Now that sin existed, an offering was necessary, a WILLINGNESS to die – however, because man didn’t yet exist and hadn’t yet sinned, no DEATH was necessary!

Then the two goats are presented before the Lord; lots are cast, and the goats are identified (verses 7-10). But now notice an oddity! The goats are identified at this point, but they are not yet killed/offered! In verse 7, they are both presented before the Lord; and the goats are SEPARATED (verse 9), when the holy goat is brought before the Lord and is OFFERED.

But even though the goat that represents Satan is identified and it’s destiny determined (verse 10), IT IS NOT YET CAST OUT! There is much to be done first!

First (verse 11) Aaron kills the bullock for himself and his house. This all commemorates the fact that Jesus was slain “from the foundation of the world”. This sacrifice was to buy us grace to permit us to sin and still live.

Then (verses 12-14), he brings incense (prayers) and the bullock’s blood within the veil; and then notice carefully what He does! First, he takes the blood and sprinkles it on the mercy seat EASTWARD. Once!

Then he sprinkles it BEFORE the mercy seat SEVEN TIMES! Get that, SEVEN TIMES, plus the first time when it was sprinkled EASTWARD!

When the bullock (Jesus) was killed, it meant nothing to us until it was APPLIED to us. It’s like living next to a rich man – unless you get some of his money, it doesn’t help you at all! So when Jesus was symbolically killed before the foundation of the world – pictured by passover – it didn’t help us a bit, personally.

1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

But when we are resurrected, we must have our sins PAID for – and so Jesus, at our resurrection, will sprinkle the blood ONCE on the mercy seat. What does sprinkling represent?

Hebrews 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

A symbol of the new covenant (see also Exodus 24:8). The blood of bulls and goats “sprinkling the unclean” purifies the flesh; likewise, the blood of Christ purifies your conscience (Hebrews 9:13-14). So you see to enter the kingdom of God, we MUST have this blood of sprinkling!

So what is the significance of sprinkling it once on the east side of the mercy seat? The east is a place of great honor in the temple; it is right outside the front door of the temple where Moses and Aaron camped:

Numbers 3:38 But those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, even before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

No one else was allowed to camp there, only the most holy.

Ezekiel 47:1 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.

And the river of the waters of life, which picture the holy spirit going out from Jerusalem, spread by the saints, goes out the EAST side. So when God sprinkles blood ONCE on the EAST side of the mercy seat, it can only symbolize the PURIFICATION of the FIRSTFRUITS! The final purification of which takes place at the resurrection!

Revelation 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So the sprinkling represents ONE resurrection! What then do the seven sprinklings IN FRONT OF the mercy seat (in a different spot from the first sprinkling) represent, if not SEVEN SEPARATE resurrections of the secondfruits – and SEVEN purifications of those who are saved in that time! Seven times that the blood of Christ must be sprinkled on those of mankind who are worthy!

Then Aaron does all the same things with the holy goat (verses 15-17). Whether this represents a different part of the sacrifice as it applies to those people, or whether it represents the physical resurrection at the beginning of each week, while the bullock represents the spiritual resurrection at the end of the week, I’m not clear. But it is clear that this overlays the same basic pattern.

In verses 18-19 he then sprinkles the blood of both the goat and the bullock on the altar outside the tabernacle seven times. Again this overlays, but I’m not yet certain where.

But remember, all this time the evil goat was still alive, still not cast out of the camp, still not dealt with! We’ve passed over periods of sacrifice representing over 57,000 years while the other goat is STILL hanging around! But now we reach an end!

Leviticus 16:20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:

Notice he has made an END of reconciling the holy place! (the first fruits) and the tabernacle of the congregation (the second fruits?) and the altar (the gentiles?) – and when he is DONE making it holy; when all of it that can be purified IS purified – at the very END he brings this live goat back again.

Verses 21-22 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

So this goat and all his uncleanness is finally cast out of the camp; and then after that, ONLY THEN, Aaron is done; so he puts off the garments he was wearing, washes his flesh with water, then offers the burnt offering (burning the bodies of the goat and the bullock) and then the man who let go the goat is released and all is right with the world.

Now one more fact to add; the jubilee year officially began on the day OF ATONEMENT in the 49^th year of the 50 year cycle!

Leviticus 25:9-10 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in THE DAY OF ATONEMENT shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

Why the day of atonement? Why not the first day of the fiftieth year? Why not at least the first day of the seventh month? Why start the Jubilee on the day of Atonement? Because the Jubilee truly begins on the day of atonement! Because on atonement SATAN IS DEALT WITH AT LAST! How fitting that on the very day sin entered the universe, sin leaves it forever!

Consider the application of all this to the plan of God we’ve just learned; 9,000 years B.C., on the tenth day of the thousand-year month – atonement – Satan sinned. When that happened, the goats were both called before the Father to be heard. Satan was cast to Earth (the first type of being led “by the hand of a fit man” into a wilderness). Jesus expressed His willingness to die for sin; so the Lamb was set apart for the sacrifice.

4,000 years went by and Jesus prepared to create Earth and Man on the day of passover; six literal days of creation later, Man was finished; the seventh literal day, Man was trained in the law on the first Sabbath; just as six millennial days later, the first batch of saints were finished, and the seventh millennial day, called by Paul a Sabbath, is spent in training them on the first millennial Sabbath!

The blood is sprinkled on them to purify them – these are the ones on the east of the mercy seat – and then the next day (the wavesheaf day, the last great day after tabernacles, or roughly 3,000 A.D.) the first batch of the second resurrection is brought up; sprinkled perhaps with the lamb (this is a guess, I should emphasize) to resurrect them the first time; then they live their lives, die, and if worthy are resurrected at the end of the sixth day of that week, just as we were; they are resurrected with the sprinkling of the bullock (again, a guess), then the seventh day is spent training them as we were trained.

But the product of the second resurrection will never have the same honor or glory as that of the first – that is only right – so they are not ON the mercy seat eastward, but “in front of it”. Still immortal, still sons of God, but not the same level of authority as us.

Then another sprinkling, and another, and so on until seven sprinklings – resurrections – have happened. Then, when ALL has been reconciled (1 Corinthians 15:24-28), and He has “put down all rule and all authority and power”, on the 49^th millennial year of this Jubilee cycle, on the day of Atonement, God brings the other goat back!

And He shows him all that the way of God has produced, the happiness and health and harmony of God’s realm without Satan to muddle it up. Then Satan spits in God’s face, metaphorically, and is finally destroyed:

Ezekiel 28:18… I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, AND NEVER SHALT THOU BE ANY MORE.

And so on atonement, the same day that sin began… after all this time has passed, finally sin and the father of it are destroyed – along with death and hell – and God at last proclaims a JUBILEE for the universe, for now all captives to sin have been completely freed and all property that has been stolen will be returned to it’s rightful owner!

“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10) – no wonder it’s called a Jubilee! Because that day the destroyer of nations is himself destroyed!

And on the next day, Pentecost, the New Jerusalem comes to Earth and God at last dwells with man for good! What He has wanted for so many years!

IN WHAT ORDER DO THEY COME?

So we’ve established that there are in fact seven resurrections that are part of the second resurrection; so who comes up in which batch? Is it arranged by time – the first millennium’s unsaved dead resurrected in the first week’s batch? Or is it reversed – “the first shall be last, and the last first”?

Or is it arranged by levels of evil – the most wicked first, then slightly less wicked, up until we get to the basically good people? I’ve considered many different options over the years. But I have concluded that the only way that makes sense is to resurrect people in terms of the seven church eras.

In Revelation 2-3 God lays out the basic pattern of Church eras. These are a series of churches with the predominant characteristics of being, in the order given in Revelation: zealous, persecuted, deceived, patient, compromised, loving, and proud. See my article “Revelation’s Church Eras – Explained!” for the details and exact dates of when each of these eras existed – and why.

Suffice it to say that God has an angel in charge of managing His affairs on the Earth at a given time, and that this office changes out periodically among the seven top angels of God. I make no attempt to prove this here, that’s why you need to read the other article.

Regardless, this angel’s attitude can be summed up with one of the seven words I used above; and his attitude, as leader, seeps down into all the Earth at a given time. It is this shift in leadership that sparked the protestant reformation, for instance; that’s why Europe at say, 1000 A.D. Looked nothing like Europe at, say, 1600 A.D. Or again why it looked nothing like the world in 1900 A.D.

Furthermore, this has always been the case – even before the time of Christ, the pattern of “church eras” has always existed. This is why Laodicea describes perfectly the Pharisees; because the Pharisees were the “Laodicea” of the previous series of church eras.

Moving on, the reason I rejected the ideas I mentioned at first is that resurrecting people in terms of which thousand year day they were born in makes little sense; after all, I have no more in common with a viking than the viking has with Abraham. In fact, they’re probably more alike than we are.

On the other hand, if you resurrect people in terms of the ATTITUDES of the era in which they were born, it makes a great deal of sense; I understand the Pharisees. I GET them. Technology aside, the world that John the Baptist grew up in makes SENSE to me. Because it’s much like the world I grew up in!

A world that was “rich, increased with goods, having need of nothing”. A world of pride, of people who tell God (though not in so many words) “stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou” (Isaiah 65:5). And if you’re undertaking to convert a massive batch of people, what makes more sense than to resurrect people who have similar flaws at the same time!

On the other hand, I couldn’t relate to someone from medieval Europe; living in a time of persecution? Fiefdom? Where witchhunts and burning at the stake is a norm? How can I, who have lived in a time of such pride, security, and relative safety for my life identify with someone like Peter Waldo? Or for that matter, he with me?

So the only way that makes sense is to do it in terms of church eras. So which is first? Well, considering this is a training ground for the saints as well as a plan to save mankind, it makes sense to start with the easier ones first; Laodicea is going to be HARD to save.

Laodicea isn’t all that bad, they think; sure, they sin, but no one is perfect; but they don’t murder people, they don’t do things TOO bad. They’re not like those evil people from the fourth century! They don’t burn people at the stake like they did in the middle ages! They will be the hardest to save of all. Plus, consider this scripture:

Matthew 12:41-42 (BBE) The men of Nineveh will come up in the day of judging and give their decision against this generation: because they were turned from their sins at the preaching of Jonah; and now a greater than Jonah is here.
The queen of the South will come up in the day of judging and give her decision against this generation: for she came from the ends of the earth to give ear to the wisdom of Solomon; and now a greater than Solomon is here.

The queen of Sheba has sins of her own to deal with; she won’t be rising up and ten seconds later be bashing the Pharisees. But if she comes up, with the men of Ninevah, and FINDS SALVATION, then she will be in a position when the Pharisees finally come up (last) to CONDEMN them!

But to do that she must be resurrected BEFORE they are! So the only conclusion that fits with the scriptures and logic is that the resurrections are the church eras – all of the Ephesus eras since Adam, resurrected at once as the first batch, then the other eras in order, culminating in all the Laodicea eras resurrected last!

This way, God can present each group with lessons, challenges, and hurdles to overcome uniquely tailored for the specific faults of each group. And those who overcome those will be worthy to inherit an office in His Kingdom.