Last week, we were looking at a lot of verses dealing with the three seasons, the three times that God has outlined in the Bible where He is going to send forth His Word like the rain and He is going to gather fruit.
God typifies Himself as “the husbandman” in John 15. Jesus is “the vine,” and all those in Christ are “the fruit.” That language is found throughout the Bible in many places. The whole world is the field. The whole world is where God plants the seed of His Word, and He is that husbandman that we read about in the Epistle of James, in James 5, who has long patience “for the precious fruit of the earth…until He receive the early and latter rain.”
And we know with those three main Feasts that Israel was to keep and observe, when all of their males were to go to Jerusalem three times in the year, that they were to go before God in the place that He would choose and they were not to appear empty. They were to go and keep the Feasts.
God, spiritually, has done this with the Feast of Passover/Unleavened Bread. Jesus was the fulfillment of that Feast or what that Feast pointed to.
The second Feast, the Feast of Pentecost/Firstfruits, we know in Acts 2 that the Holy Spirit was poured out. The whole Church Age, the whole time from the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and all throughout the Church Age, the firstfruits were being gathered in. And they were identified as being 144,000 in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 14, God says that they are the firstfruits.
So the first two Feasts, Passover/Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Pentecost/Firstfruits [note: the speaker inadvertently said “Ingathering” when he intended to say “Firstfruits”] were fulfilled. They had a spiritual meaning that God fulfilled with His Gospel. But the third Feast, the Feast of Tabernacles/Ingathering, has never spiritually been fulfilled. It never was spiritually fulfilled. We do not read this anywhere, like we do about Pentecost. In Acts 2 it says “when the day of Pentecost was fully come,” because that meant the fulfillment of that Feast, and we do not read that about Tabernacles, that the Feast of Tabernacles was fully come or that the Feast of Ingathering was fully come. We do not read that kind of language. We do not have anything in the Bible, like Jesus the Lamb of God who is dying on the Cross at the same time that the Passover lamb was being slain, where it is so obvious that God fulfilled that Feast. And when it comes to the final Feast, the third Feast of Tabernacles/Ingathering, that fulfillment has to be at the end of the world. We know this because God says that it was to be held “at the year’s end.” He tells us that in a couple of places, that it was “at the year’s end.” And that identifies with “the acceptable year of the Lord.”
May 21st, 2011, is “the year’s end.” That is when “the acceptable year of the Lord” comes to a close, because there is no more salvation. That “year” stretches for hundreds and hundreds of years, throughout the whole Church Age. The only interruption was the 2300 days of the first part of the Great Tribulation when the Lord was virtually not saving anyone in all of the earth. That is an interruption, in a sense, to “the acceptable year,” but actually it continued because God never took away salvation completely from the world as He will on May 21st in 2011. Then that would be the end of the building of Nehemiah’s “wall,” the 52 days. That would be the end of Enoch’s time, his life on Earth. After he lived 365 years, he was taken. “He was not” because he “walked with God.” He was raptured exactly after he reached the age of 365 years, which we know relates to 365 days in a year, .22 something (I do not have that time exactly memorized), but it is 365 days. That is how we figure time. So God uses that picture of the end of “the acceptable year” as the end of the Gospel and the taking up of the believers, the Rapture of the believers.
And, you know, we have made a transition—I am sure that some people have noticed—over the last several months, or maybe over the last year, where we are not talking in possibilities anymore. We are not saying that 2011 is the likely end of the world, that May 21st is a strong possibility for the Rapture, that October 21st, 2011, is really likely the end of the world. We are not saying that. We are not conditioning it with a question mark, with maybes and possibilities, because God has confirmed it. He has verified it, and so we know. We know the day, we know the month, and we know the year of the Rapture of the believers and also of the end of the world.
God has given us that information, just as Joseph revealed himself to his brethren. He told them how long ago the famine had started. It was two years. That was their dividing point as Joseph made himself known, as he revealed himself, and yet he told them that it would be five more years.
So he basically told his brethren, and Joseph is a picture of Christ and his brethren a picture of the true believers, he told them that this is when great tribulation began, or that famine, 1879 B.C., as God has informed us about 1988, and they knew that this was a big change in that famine because they were coming out of the land of Canaan into Egypt, just as God sent forth the latter rain after that 2300-day period, which was the dividing point of the 23-year Great Tribulation.
And so, they knew when it began. They knew that this was the dividing point because they were taking their families and going into Egypt. And also, they knew 1872 B.C., after 7 years, that the famine which is called “great tribulation,” megas thlipsis, in the book of Acts, in Acts 7, would come to an end.
So God, historically, many thousands of years ago, drew us a picture. He said that when the Great Tribulation comes, we are going to know the beginning, the dividing, and the ending of the Great Tribulation. And that is exactly what we know.
We know that May 21st, 1988, was the end of the Church Age and the beginning of the Great Tribulation. September 6th, 1994, was the end of the 2300 days, the dividing point, and the beginning of the latter rain, which would go on for 17 years, from September of 1994 until May 21st of 2011. And this is exactly the length of time that Jacob was in Egypt. He was 130 when he went to Egypt, which relates to 13,000 years of history, and he lived 17 years, because he died at the age of 147 in Egypt. For 17 years, he was under the care of Joseph. He was being fed and nourished during an awful famine outside of Egypt, for the first part of that, and also God allows him to live exactly 17 years because it points to the 17-year period that we are in and are almost through, as it began in September of 1994 and will continue until May 21st, 2011.
So God is working with these Feasts to bring in His harvest. He is sending forth the rain in order to bring in the harvest.
If we go to Joel 2:23, it says:
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in JEHOVAH your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately…
Or righteously.
…and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain…
That would be the early rain that brings in the firstfruits.
…and the latter rain in (as) the first.
The latter rain will bring in the later fruits. It will bring in the feast of the final harvest, Ingathering, and that is what we are experiencing now as the seals are taken off of the Bible and God is opening up the understanding of His people.
And then Joel 2:24:
And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
It is amazing that this is found in the same book that if we go to Joel 1:10-11 says:
The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
That is the fruits of the harvest.
Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
You see, on one hand, that is true with the church. The church will not receive the latter rain. And if you do not have the latter rain, you cannot bring forth fruit because God has determined to send forth the rain, His Word, outside of the churches and congregations. And if they insist on staying in the church, no matter what church it is, if it is a church in America or Africa or India, it does not matter, if it is Presbyterian or Catholic or Independent or a house church. Wherever you have what is officially a church, there is no rain because the Holy Spirit left. He came out of the church.
And what is that going to do to your harvest? If there is no water, if there is no Gospel blessing, if God the Holy Spirit is not applying the Word to the listeners within the congregations, the harvest is ruined. The harvest is gone.
And yet, on the other hand, God encourages us in the next chapter that He is going to send the rain and that there will be plenty of fruits: the wheat, the wine, the oil, the corn. All of that is language to express the sending of the Gospel and the fruits that will be brought in by it.
And then look at Joel 2:26:
And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied…
Just like Joseph’s brethren, his family in Egypt.
…and praise the name of JEHOVAH your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.
And we are hearing a lot about that shame that is going to come.
Can you imagine, if you try to put yourself in the place of someone left behind when that day comes? When that day comes, in not too long of a period, and all of these things do come to pass, and here is someone left behind, someone who was a professing Christian and who knew a lot of truths. Wow! This is terrible! What shame! What shame, with all of the bodies littered all over the land, all over the ground, all over the earth, and especially if anyone had some intellectual knowledge of these things beforehand. They knew about it, to some degree, in their minds. There would be great shame for someone who would be left behind. But no true child of God will ever be left behind, because God is going to take all of His people into Heaven.
And then Joel 2:27 says:
And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am JEHOVAH your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
There will not be any shame because our sins were paid for by the Lord Jesus as He died as the Lamb for the sins of His people. And so, now, God is just coming for His people to take them away, to take them into Heaven to bring about all the wonderful promises that He has given concerning salvation.
Now, let’s look at a couple of verses again, beginning in Deuteronomy 11, with this Feast of Tabernacles and Ingathering in mind. In Deuteronomy 11:14, it says:
That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season…
And that is God’s, at the appropriate time.
…the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
Again, the fruits of the earth. The rain goes forth to gather them in.
Or go to Deuteronomy 16:13-15:
Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto JEHOVAH thy God in the place which JEHOVAH shall choose: because JEHOVAH thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.
God a lot of times uses this language of rejoicing in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles. That is why when we read a passage like 2 Chronicles 20 with Jehoshaphat as that great multitude, that tremendous host of the enemies of God, is coming up against them—the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the children of Mount Seir or Edom or Esau—they all gather together.
And what is interesting about those three nations is that those are the three nations that God told His people not to posses, not to take their land, because Esau was thy brother. There was Jacob and Esau, so do not take the land of Edom. And Moab and Ammon were children of Lot. They also were relations to Israel.
Those three nations gathered together to come to Judah in order to dispossess the Jews from their land. And that is what Jehoshaphat says to the Lord as he is praying to the Lord, “We cannot fight this great multitude. We cannot do battle with them. They are too mighty for us. You told us not to take their land, but look at how they reward us,” basically he is saying, “in coming to take ours.”
And then there was a prophet who stood up, a prophet who told Jehoshaphat and all of the people, “Do not worry. The battle is not yours, but it is God’s. You have no need to fight in this battle. God is going to fight in the battle.”
Why would it be that there is no need to fight? Because if believers are in Heaven while there is war raging on Earth, then how could we fight? Jehoshaphat and his army are commanded not to fight but to go to the battle singing and praising, basically rejoicing in God. Go to the battle, to “the watch tower in the wilderness.” It is like an observatory and they look out and what do they see? They see them all dead. They are all dead. They destroyed one another. They killed one another.
And Jehoshaphat and Judah did not fight in that battle. And then they gathered of the spoil of those three nations, so much spoil that it took them three days to collect it, and then they turned around and went back to Jerusalem or Mount Zion.
Which Jerusalem did they go to? What is the Jerusalem that they went to a picture of?
You see, they came from the Heavenly Jerusalem and they returned to the Heavenly Jerusalem, to the Jerusalem above, because we are not going to fight in the battle. All those left on Earth are going to destroy one another, whoever survives the earthquake and whoever survives the other calamities that will come with it. They will kill one another. And, really, it is God who is stretching forth His hand and His sword to destroy. But then they return to Jerusalem again, blasting the trumpet with loud cymbals and all kinds of musical instruments.
And so they went to the battle with singing and they returned from the battle praising God. And we do find the 144,000 in the book of Revelation that are harping with their harps and singing the Song of the Lamb. And also in Revelation 15, we find those who are upon the sea of glass likewise harping with their harps and singing the Song of the Lamb and the Song of Moses. There is great rejoicing in Heaven because they are keeping the Feast. They are observing the Feast.
Let us also look at 2 Thessalonians 2:1, and I think that we are familiar with the chapter. This is when the man of sin takes his seat in the temple and that is Satan who begins to rule and reign in the churches. But in 2 Thessalonians 2:1, it says something that is significant:
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
The Feast of Ingathering, the believers are being gathered together unto Christ.
Or go to Matthew 24:31:
And he shall send his angels…
This is immediately after the tribulation.
…with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The language of ingathering, gathering the fruit, gathering the believers together, and that happens immediately after the tribulation of those days.
The tribulation ends May 21st, 2011. It is the exact 23-year tribulation. It is exactly 8400 days. Immediately after, gather the fruit. Christ comes for His elect people. That is all He is going to come for, because all of the rest are not precious fruit. They are like the corrupt fruit that we see in the book of Jeremiah. There were good figs and bad figs, and anybody who is not saved is like a bad fig. They are not going to be gathered to go into Heaven.
Now, we are looking at these verses, so let’s look at one more. Leviticus 23:39 says:
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 JEHOVAH seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.
The 15th day of the 7th month is the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, of the ingathering of the fruit, and here it says that you have already gathered in the fruit. The Feast just began and the fruit has already been collected. Doesn’t it say that?
…in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land…
It is past tense. It has already been done.
Some people do not like this idea of 5 months of hell on Earth. They do not like the idea. And actually, you know, I had some feelings about that, too. It does not seem as…when we were talking about eternal damnation, that was so dramatic. That was so terrifying to speak about that kind of hell forever. And then when we learned that the Bible says, no, that there this going to be 5 months of hell on Earth followed by a complete destruction of man and the world and the universe, and that will be it. And people do not like that idea. It really has led them to think that Family Radio is not teaching the truth or whoever teaches that is not teaching the truth. It sounds too far out.
Well, that is what is in the Bible. That is what is in the Bible and God has designed His Word so that the natural man or the natural mind is not going to like it and many are going to be ashamed of Jesus and His Word because of things like annihilation, because of things like a 5-month period of hell on Earth. They are just uncomfortable with those kinds of ideas. And also, these same people say, “No, 153 days, that 5 months from May 21st to October 21st, that points to Heaven, that points to a time when God is gathering in.” And Jesus even said in John 7:2:
Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.
And then in John 7:37-38:
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.
On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles of 2011, which is October 21st, and here, we just read it, Jesus is saying:
…If any man thirst, let him come unto me…
Certainly God is telling us that salvation will be available on that last day because that is when He is going to fulfill the Feast of Tabernacles. He will bring His fruit in then and then He will end the world. But Leviticus 23 says that the 15th day of the 7th month is when you begin the Feast and your fruit is already gathered in. It is not on the last day. You do not gather in the fruit of Ingathering on the last day. It is on the 15th day when it is already done. I do not know when they did it but by the 15th day, it is done.
Or we read in Deuteronomy 16:13:
Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:
You do not go to the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering and gather in during the Feast. It is already done. You are celebrating. The fruit has already come in. You are rejoicing that the fruit has come forth and God has blessed it. It is not happening during the Feast.
Well, what does that mean in John 7? Let us look at some negative verses before we look at this again.
In Jeremiah 8, we are going to recognize this language. We are becoming more familiar with it as Mr. Camping…and by the way, you can listen to his studies on Jeremiah at www.familyradio.com. Go to the archives. If you scroll over the numbers of the studies in the archives, in many cases it will give you the verse. It will tell you what verse is being spoken of. So if you go and you begin scrolling until you come to Jeremiah 8, it would help you find where Mr. Camping has talked about this particular passage.
Well here in Jeremiah 8:1:
At that time, saith JEHOVAH, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
It is May 21st. All the graves come up because it is the Resurrection. It is the Rapture. All of the true believers are exalted. They are raised up into Heaven. All of the unbelievers also are resurrected. That is, they rise and then they fall because they have no life.
So the grave is opened supernaturally by God and God does raise up all of the unsaved dead, whatever is left of them. Whatever remains does come up, as God is lifting them up because they have no life to raise themselves, and then they fall on the ground. They fall, all of the bones, all of the ashes, all of the dust, whatever is left. There is a resurrection of the Just to life and a resurrection of the unjust to damnation or destruction, and that is what Jeremiah 8:1 is saying.
Jeremiah 8:2:
And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped…
Wouldn’t that be wonderful if that was all applying to God, but it is not. It is all the “host of heaven.” What great service, what diligent people individuals can be when it comes to serving wickedness. When it comes to serving their own flesh and desires and lust and lies and falsehoods, people can love that; they can serve that; they can walk after that. They can seek that and they can worship all of that, but when it comes to God, no, feignedly, half-heartedly, with lying lips do people do these things to God, unless God has saved them and given them a new nature, a new spirit.
But, anyway, it goes on:
…they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
It is the Feast of Ingathering and these are not gathered. They are not like 2 Thessalonians 1, the brethren who are “gathering together unto Him.” They are not the elect of Matthew 24 who the angels go forth and gather. These are left behind. Two are in the bed, “the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.” Two are in the field, “the one shall be taken, and the other left.” Two are grinding at the mill. (Is that right?) And “the one shall be taken, and the other left.” They are not gathered. They are going to be “for dung.” That is ugly. That is ugly, but that is the language that God is using, because it is a great shame. And, you know, it is terrible.
And by the way, in this very same chapter, a little later on, look at Jeremiah 8:7 while we are here. It says:
Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.
God tells us in Ecclesiastes that the “wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.”
…but my people…
Who are “My people”? Well, it is not the elect. It is those who say that they are Christians. They are in the churches or they are out of the churches. But if they are not seeing these things, they do not know the judgment of the Lord. “Nobody knows the day or hour.” As Robert was saying, it is to stay in ignorance. Then they do not have to worry about it. “It does not affect me.”
Well, yes it does affect you. This is something that is going to affect every human being, and in ignorance is not the place to be. It is not the place to stay, and yet God recognizes it, and Jeremiah 8:8 says:
How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of JEHOVAH is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
Someone called me yesterday from Connecticut. They had received the tract, “Did God Die for You?” In that tract we mentioned May 21st, and that is what really hit him. He called me up and the first thing he said was, “Nobody knows the day or the hour.”
I was trying to tell him, “Well, yes, but the Bible tells us that for the wicked, Christ will come as a thief. For the ungodly, for the unsaved, they will not know. But 1 Thessalonians 5 says, ‘But ye, brethren, are not in darkness…ye are all the children of light,’ indicating that believers will know.”
I talked to him for a half hour and I was sharing a lot of things with him and directing him to Family Radio where he could read We Are Almost There!!! and Time Has an End, and I thought, “Well, now here is a person whom maybe the Lord is working with, whom maybe the Lord is really beginning to draw.” He was in a church and he was presently fasting, abstaining from food. I had a chance to tell him that that was not what the Bible means by fasting. God means, “to get the Gospel out.” And I thought, “You know, this went pretty good. This conversation went pretty good and I am going to remember to pray for him.”
And then last night, he sent an email after visiting the website and he said, “Nobody knows the day or hour. Nobody knows the day or hour. I do not care how many Scriptures you bring up, nobody knows the day or hour.”
Now, that is what God is saying. He is saying:
…certainly in vain made he it (the Law of the Lord); the pen of the scribes is in vain.
It is in vain that God says that the wise discern time and judgment. It is vain that He says in Amos 3:7:
Surely the Lord JEHOVAH will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
It is vain that He told Noah when the flood was coming before it happened. It is in vain that He went into Sodom and warned Lot that it was time to get out of the city because the city was going to be destroyed.
Again and again and again, the Word of the Lord tells us that we will know. We will know. “The wise shall understand,” it says in Daniel 12, “and none of the wicked shall understand.” That is what Daniel 12 says. We will know. And yet God laments, “But My people know not the judgment of Jehovah.” It is so sorrowful.
Well, we are seeing that these same people, if they continue on in this way, will not be gathered. They are not going to be collected.
Look also at Jeremiah 9:22:
Speak, Thus saith JEHOVAH, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.
Again, “as dung,” you are not gathered. You are not gathered. You remain. You are going to be here, right here.
Yes, for now, it is not too bad. We have air in the summer, heat in the winter, plenty of food in the fridge. We have all kinds of necessities and luxuries. We have cars. We have gas. We have everything a person could want now, now. But even the history of the world teaches us that when a city is in a strait, when it is besieged by an enemy, no matter how it looked previously, everything changes overnight. It all comes to a crashing halt. You do not live like you used to live. Food becomes scarce and there are many things that people do without when it comes to war, when it comes to tragedy striking, like a hurricane or like an earthquake or like a tsunami or all of these things. When they come, you cannot live life like normal.
So maybe right now, today, when we are in our comfortable living conditions, we can casually dismiss what the Bible is saying about May 21 st, 2011 and not give it the proper attention it needs. But do not be deceived. Do not be fooled into thinking that how we live today is how we are going to live at that time in the future.
Let us go to one more verse in Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 25. In Jeremiah 25, God is speaking about “when seventy years are accomplished,” in Jeremiah 25:12. That is, they came to an end and now He is going to punish the King of Babylon. Notice in Jeremiah 25:15-17:
For thus saith JEHOVAH God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at JEHOVAH’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom JEHOVAH had sent me:
So this is all the nations on the face of the earth, and that is really emphasized in the following verses several times. It is worldwide in scope as God is causing all the nations, all the inhabitants of the earth, to drink of the cup of His wrath.
Then it says in Jeremiah 25:33:
And the slain of JEHOVAH shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.
The whole world of over 6 billion people, except for the likely figure of 200 million, which includes all of the saved in the history of the world. But the great majority of those saved are during these 17 years of the latter rain. All of the rest will be left behind and they will not be gathered but remain as dung.
Now, let us go to Zechariah 14. I know that we have gone over some of these verses, but I think that it is good to go over them again. In Zechariah 14, I will begin reading in verse 16. It says in Zechariah 14:16-17:
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, JEHOVAH of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, JEHOVAH of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
Because the latter rain ends May 21st, 2011, and the Feast is to be observed in the place that God will choose, which is in Heaven itself. And so you have to go up to keep the Feast. You have to be Raptured. You have to be lifted up out of this world.
Of course, no one can do this them self. It has to be a work of God. And if you are not taken up, if you do not go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering, there is no more rain, the sun is darkened, the moon does not give its light, the stars fall. The Gospel is gone forever from Earth, but the actual literal sun, moon, and stars are still in the sky because there is 5 more months of time till May 21st to October 21st.
Then in Zechariah 14:18-19:
And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith JEHOVAH will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations…
Actually, the word “punishment” in both places is the word “sin.” It is the word “sin.” It is only translated as “punishment” one other place in Lamentations 4. In every other place, and it is dozens and dozens of places in the Bible, it is the word “sin”. “I will be sorry for my sin,” it says in the Psalms. In Psalm 51, where David is crying to God for mercy because of his sin, it is this word.
So it is actually saying:
This shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Why sin? Because “the wages of sin is death.” “The sting of death is sin.” Sin leads to death, and anyone who is left behind has their sin upon them. It is not paid for. Their sin remains. Now they have to satisfy the Law of God, and the Law of God requires this awful 5-month period, or however long someone makes it during that time, followed by complete and total destruction, an “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.” These are all those who “come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.”
Now, let’s go to Revelation 7. In Revelation 7, we know that verses 4-8 are numbering twelve thousand from twelve tribes, totaling 144,000, the firstfruits unto God, those saved during the Church Age. And then in Revelation 7:9-13:
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
That is the great multitude. Where did they come from?
Revelation 7:14:
And I said unto him, Sir…
And that is the Greek word kurie. We would spell it k-u-r-i-e, like kurios for Lord. This is the word “Lord.” It is used to describe God in Revelation 4:11.
Revelation 7:14-15:
And I said unto him, Lord, 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. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
So they just came out of Great Tribulation. This is describing the believers who are gathered together. The angels, the messengers of God, just gathered them. They were just translated, as Enoch, as Elijah. They were just lifted up. They are in the presence of God. They are in Heaven itself before the throne. Immediately, they begin to do what God’s people will do forever. They serve Him, as it says:
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple…
So when Revelation 20 uses the language “day and night,” it does mean that you can use this kind of language for Heaven, that it does mean you can use this kind of language to describe that which continues on without end. Right?
No. Because in Genesis 1, God created day and night. He made the timekeepers. And if we would go there (we won’t), but you could read it. He very specifically spells it out, “Now begins day and night.”
In Luke 18, God speaks of His elect crying unto Him day and night, “Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him.” Well, those elect people, they are in Heaven. They are in Heaven. They are the souls that were slain under the altar in Revelation 6 who are crying out, “How long, O Lord…dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?” But if they are in Heaven, why are they crying out day and night? Why do God’s people cry out day and night?
Well, go to Revelation 12:10, and this is referring to the devil, and it says:
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God…
None of that applies to the devil, but later on.
…and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
“Day and night,” again. Remember in the book of Job, “There was a day,” and that is the Hebrew word for “day.” “There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them,” and God says that was a “day.” There is no time in Heaven. That was Job 1:6, and in Job 2:1, he came again. Satan came again, in Job 2:1, to accuse the brethren, to accuse Job before God, because that is Satan’s occupation. One of the things that he has done throughout history, throughout time, is he has accused the brethren day and night, until he was cast out of Heaven. He did it right in God’s presence. He went before Him.
What we learn is that as long as something is happening on Earth, as long as there is time on Earth, like Job was experiencing that awful affliction during his life, there was time on Earth, so there could be the language of “day” in Heaven, because the “sons of God” came on a “day” to present themselves before God. Satan continually accuses the brethren, day and night, all through history. All throughout the history of the world, this has been going on, until he was cast down and he could no longer do it in God’s presence.
And so the language of day and night, when we really look at it, has everything to do with time, everything to do with time. And when the great multitude go into Heaven and serve God before His throne day and night, it means that there is still time on Earth. It has to mean that. It cannot mean anything else.
For instance, in Revelation 21:22-25:
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
There is no night in Heaven.
Or look at Revelation 22. Verse 3 speaks about God’s servants serving Him, and then Revelation 22:4-5:
And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
There is no night. There is no day and night in eternity.
So when we read in Revelation 7 about the great multitude, God specifically identifies them as those who came out of Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation is over May 21st, 2011. They are serving God day and night for 5 months, 153 days, which is 9 x 17. The number 17 has everything to do with Heaven. Or 3 x 3 x 17: it is God’s purpose that for that 5-month period, those 153 days, His people will come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. They will observe the Feast in Heaven itself. They will no longer hunger nor thirst. There will be no more tears. There will be no sickness. All that language applies, but the language of day and night only fits for the first 5 months.
And once the world is destroyed then, as we read in Revelation 21:25 [note: the speaker inadvertently said “Revelation 21:22”], there is no night. There is no night anymore. It is gone.
So that great multitude is us. It is us. To everyone who is a child of God, God is giving us a glimpse into our future that is not far away. So if any of us are hungering or thirsting or in affliction or in tribulation or in trouble, physical aches and pains, mental anguish, sorrowful spirit, hold on. Hold on, because at a time coming very soon, it is all going to be removed and God is going to give us tremendous joy. Just like Jehoshaphat and his army, we will go with joy, rejoicing, to keep the Feast, to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Now, just one last thing. I know I am going kind of long. In Revelation 7:16-17:
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters…
We are in Heaven and we have not yet obtained that living fountain of water. Yes, it is begun when we have the Spirit, out of your belly shall flow rivers of water. The Holy Spirit is in you, but it goes on into eternity. It goes on forever and ever, that God will lead. He will guide us. It is the same word “guide” when speaking of the Holy Spirit, “He will guide you into all truth.” God is going to continue to give us His Word, His Gospel, an understanding of it, into eternity future.
So when Jesus says in John 7:37-38:
In the last day, that great day of the feast…
The Feast that you must go up to observe and celebrate.
…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.
You see, God is making that same statement concerning the great multitude who came out of Great Tribulation, in Heaven, because that is where they are keeping the Feast. That is the Last and Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles and of Ingathering.
Okay. Why don’t we stop here, and let’s close with a word of prayer.
Dear Father, we do thank You for our expectation which shall not be cut off, and You tell us that in Proverbs, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.” And so this is the great hope, the great promise that You have given us, and we know Your Words are true and faithful, that as everything else has always come to pass, perfectly, according to Your plan and will, that so, too, this will come to pass. And so Father, we pray that You would comfort us by these Words, comfort us and also strengthen us in the inner man by Thy Spirit. We pray that we would be strong in the Lord and in the power of Your might to keep Your commandments our self, to honor You, but also that we might bring the Gospel to the world for these last remaining days. Help us to have that spirit that will not be concerned about man’s disapproval or man’s reviling or reproach. Help us not to worry ourselves or fret at all if others think that we are crazy, like they did Noah, like they did all your people who truly brought the Gospel. And we pray, Father, that You would help us by Your Word and by Thy Spirit applying Your Word to our heart. And we do pray for Your help this day, at this time. As it is still the Day of Salvation, we ask that You would direct our paths and open up doors for utterance that Your Word might go forth. Father, we pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Questions and Answers
Chris: If anyone has a question or comment.
1st Question: Thanks for the message, Chris. If I wanted to tell someone about the three rains in Deuteronomy 11, how would I explain verse 14 and relate it to specific events in the Bible?
Chris: Deuteronomy 11:14 says:
That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain…
Here, it does not really show the three rains, but Joel 2 does, which we read earlier. There it speaks of a former rain. In Joel 2:23:
…for he hath given you the former rain moderately (or righteously)…
And that relates to the Lord Jesus’ ministry.
…and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain (or first rain)…
And that ties into the Church Age.
…and the latter rain in (as) the first.
So if we are telling someone, we can show them the Feasts, we can show them this verse in Joel that speaks of 3 rains, and also point out what God has in mind about the rain, as He says in Isaiah 55 that His Word is like the rain, or in Deuteronomy 32 where God likens His Word to the dew and to the rain.
Deuteronomy 32:1-2:
Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew…
So there God very clearly informs us what He has in mind. What He is waiting for is the husbandman, for the early and latter rain, to bring in the fruit.
It is all parabolic, and some people resist that. They think, “Well, I am not going to listen to that,” just like they will not listen to, “Come out of her, My people,” because it is referring to Babylon, or “flee to the mountains,” because it is speaking of Judaea.
If God does not open up someone’s eyes to see how He wrote the Bible, that He spoke in parables, then they are not going to understand or obey. But anyone whom God is drawing, He will lead them into understanding.
2nd Question: I missed it when you were explaining John 7:37, “in the last day.” I was waiting to find out which day we were talking about, and I guessed I missed it. Is that May 21, the day of the Rapture?
Chris: Well, what the Feast of Tabernacles has in view is the end, the destruction of the world. Some people come here (to this verse) and they say, “Well, you see, the last day is the last day of Earth and Jesus is sending out a Gospel proclamation.” And so they are resisting the idea that believers could be raptured on May 21st, because we must remain to continue bringing the Gospel to the world until the last day based on this verse. However, they are not seeing that in Revelation 7, the believers who came out of Great Tribulation, and that will be May 21 st, 2011, are in Heaven, and here God is making this statement, in Heaven, that He will lead His people to these living fountains of waters.
So, in other words, the believers do not have to remain on the earth for the 5-month period to bring the Gospel up until the last day, because this is being fulfilled in Heaven when God raptures His people.
2nd Question (continued): If He has raptured them, they are in Heaven, and why would He be saying, if they are already in Heaven, why would He be saying unto them, “Come unto Me”?
Chris: Well, let’s go to Revelation 21:6:
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end…
So He said, “It is done.” It is finished.
…I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Why does He say that? It is all done. It is all over. He is in Heaven. Because God is letting us know that that water of life that begins in the Spirit in this world continues forever and ever. It is a water that wells up, springs up, into everlasting life, and it goes into eternity future.
2nd Question (continued): Forgive me but I am being a little dense, I guess. It would appear to me that, and I do not disagree that the 5 months is going to be here. The Rapture has taken place. I agree with you in all of that. I am just wondering, isn’t that satisfied if in verse 37, last means the last day of Rapture, the last day of salvation?
Chris: No. It cannot be, because it is during the Feast of Tabernacles. And in John 7, that is definitely emphasized. God spells it out in a few places. So you cannot take elements of the Feast of Tabernacles and try to apply it to May 21st, 2011, as far as that being the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, because it is not.
2nd Question (continued): In verse 37, that great “day” is italicized.
Chris: Well, it does say “the last day.” And remember, this is one of the references we used to think, with the Rapture and the end of the world, that it was all simultaneous. There are several references to “the last day,” and this is one of them.
So John 7:37 does say:
In the last day, that great (megas) of the feast…
And so it is indicating, it is definitely the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. So we cannot—and I have tried thinking about it—but we cannot say that May 21st is fulfilling the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, because it has nothing to do with the Feast of Tabernacles. It is the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Hebrew calendar, when Tabernacles begins on the 15th day of the 7th month. So we cannot relate it in that way.
We see that God has taken up His people and that in Zechariah He says that you must go up to keep the Feast. Now, if you look up Jerusalem or Zion, a lot of times, it has in view the heavenly city. And when God says to go up to Jerusalem, historically, it could be just speaking of the city of Jerusalem. But in Zechariah 14, the spiritual meaning is into Heaven to keep the Feast for that 153 days.
2nd Question (continued): Alright. Now, May 21st, 2011 is that…
Chris: It is the 17th day of the 2nd month.
2nd Question (continued): It is the 17th day of the 2nd month.
Chris: Of the Hebrew calendar.
2nd Question (continued): Of the Hebrew calendar. And this is the 15th day of the 7th month.
Chris: Well, no. No, the last day is not the 15th day, but the Feast of Tabernacles began on the 15th day of the 7th month.
In 2011, October 21st will be last day of Tabernacles or Ingathering, and God has two things to accomplish. One: gather in the fruit before the Feast—before—not during—not after. Gather in the fruit, so you have your fruit and then you begin the Feast. Two: to destroy the world, because the Feast comes at the end. It is held “in the end of the year.”
And so He is going to have the believers in Heaven as His precious fruit. They are going to be before Him for those 5 months. They will be rejoicing before God. While on Earth, there is destruction, people killing one another. And the Last Day, the Great Day of the Feast, He is making this proclamation in Heaven, while also He will destroy the world and the universe.
3rd Question: Okay. Alright. Thank you. One last question is that at the end, when you were referring to Revelation 21:25 as a proof text for their being no night, I understood you to say that in eternity, there will be neither day nor night. And I would suggest that you probably misspoke and that you did not mean to say, “no day,” because a verse in this chapter says there is.
Chris: Yes. What I meant by that is the time. There will be no continuance of time, which is reckoned as day and night, since God placed the timekeepers in this universe for this world. And here He is indicating…even though He does say in Revelation 22:5:
And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun…
So the “day” that will be there is going to be a Light that emanates from the Person of God Himself and the Lord Jesus, who Himself is the Day.
But, you are right. I should have been more careful in mentioning that it had to do with time.
4th Question: My question is you have three Feasts of Ingathering? The first one is Tabernacles and then Ingathering. What is the third one?
Chris: Passover/Unleavened Bread is one. Pentecost/Firstfruits is the second. And Ingathering/Tabernacles is the third.
5th Question: Enoch was 365?
Chris: In Genesis 5:21-24:
And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
He did not die, just like most believers alive today will not die. We will be spared physical death. Some will, but most believers will not die. God will just simply come and take them. Remember in Luke 17? There are two in the field. He takes one; He leaves the other.
6th Question: My last question is about keeping the Feasts. Now, does keeping the Feast have something to do with salvation?
Chris: Let’s read in…I was looking for where God says, “You shall not appear before Me empty.” In 2 Chronicles 20, when they go to the watchtower in the wilderness and all the enemies of God are lying dead all over the place, they go and they gather the spoils of three days, and then they return to Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat in the forefront.
So those spoils represent, really, the ransacking of this world, where God is going to give us an eternal inheritance. But man, who has no salvation, will lose their inheritance. So it is like we are getting that spoil. We will not appear before God empty.
6th Question (continued): So, spiritually, the inheritance is going to belong to the believers?
Chris: Yes. Just like Jacob got the inheritance over Esau. And lying dead in that valley were the Edomites or the children of Mt. Seir. They were all dead, and it was basically Jacob’s seed that obtains the inheritance of eternal life.
6th Question (continued): Alright. Thank you.
Chris: Alright. Well, we will stop here and have lunch.