WHY are the churches of this world confused over the most important knowledge available to this generation?
Your Bible reveals in graphic detail the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in supreme power to set up the Kingdom of God on earth. Yet the world seems to understand almost nothing about this prophetic event and the annual festival that pictures it!
Think of it! God, in a very few years, will send the living Jesus Christ again – this time to save mankind from nuclear mass destruction, to end human misery and suffering, and to usher in peace, happiness and joy for all mankind. He will come to rule over and judge all nations and usher in the happy, peaceful world tomorrow.
What a far cry this is from the doctrine that “heaven is the reward of the saved.”
For nearly 6,000 years, ever since the sin of Adam, God has allowed us humans to reap the consequences of going our own ways. Man now stands poised to destroy all life on this planet. And unless Jesus Christ returns to earth to restore the government of God and put an end to warfare, not a single human being would be left alive!
In God's 7,000-year Master Plan of salvation, the first 6,000 years have been allotted to man to do as he wills. During these 6,000 years, civilizations have developed based on the way of Satan, who sits on the throne of the earth.
Christ, at His return, will end Satan's rule, and begin 1,000 years of God's rule, the rule of the Kingdom of God on earth. A new civilization based on God's law will grip the earth. Peace, happiness and prosperity will soon be everywhere!
God uses the spring and autumn agricultural harvests of Palestine as symbolic types of His spiritual harvests of humankind.
The spring festivals picture those God has been calling to become His Spirit-begotten children as the “firstfruits” (Jas. 1:18), the relatively small beginning of His spiritual harvest of all humankind into His divine Family.
Then in the early autumn, the festivals of the later harvest season picture God calling the rest of humanity to salvation after Christ's return.
God begins His annual festivals with the Passover, which reminds us that the Messiah's – Christ's – sacrifice (I Cor. 5:7) makes it possible for the firstfruits to be forgiven their sins.
Next comes the Feast of Unleavened Bread, picturing the continual need for God's people the firstfruits – to put out the “leaven” of sin (I Cor. 5:8) from their lives and to obey God.
Then the day of Pentecost, the final spring festival, is observed as a memorial of God's sending forth, first, His law at Sinai and, later, His Holy Spirit at Jerusalem (Acts 2) to spiritually beget and to strengthen the firstfruits of His salvation.
But the firstfruits will not be reaped into God's Family until they are “born again” (John 3:3-8) – resurrected and changed into spirit. That will not occur until Christ comes again – and that brings us to the next festival, the Feast of Trumpets!
The Feast of Trumpets is, in a sense, the focal point, the central, pivotal Holy Day in God's plan. It not only pictures the terrible time of misery and war to befall this generation, but also the intervention of Christ to save the living from annihilation and to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. It also pictures the coming of Christ to resurrect the firstfruits from the dead.
Christ's return, announced by the last trumpet, will usher in the Millennium – the 1,000-year period when He and the resurrected saints – the firstfruits – will rule on earth. Then will begin the great spiritual harvest into God's Family.
During the Millennium all mankind will learn God's truth, and be offered, freely, salvation and sonship in God's Family. Most will choose to obey God and will be born into the Family of God.
And we, the firstfruits, reaped into God's Family at Christ's return, will assist Christ in reaping that great spiritual harvest of human beings into the divine Family of God.
Now let's begin our study on the Feast of Trumpets. Understand exactly how this festival fits into God's great Master Plan.
