Resurrection

What Happens When You Die?

4uwzvo — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 19:04:57 +0000

What Happens When You Die?

4uwzvo Thu, 04/21/2022 - 19:04

What Happens When You Die?

Richard F. Ames

Booklet Media

#Afterlife

Is death the end of human existence? Will you be reincarnated? Will you “roll around heaven all day” with nothing to do for eternity? The amazing, encouraging truth of the matter is unknown to most people, yet it is found in the pages of your Bible! God has a plan for all of humanity—and a very special reward in store for today’s true Christians! What happens when we die, according to the Bible?

CHAPTER 1
HEIRS TO A PROMISE

You may have seen polls that ask people about their greatest fears. One famous poll found that people fear public speaking more than they fear death. That may seem humorous to us when we are young and healthy, and indeed public speaking is a challenge for which many are unprepared. Few of us, however, would really rather die than speak in public. We probably know what will happen when we finish a speech, but how many people really know what will happen when they die?

Will death bring a permanent end to our brief existence? Many people cannot bear the idea of not existing. Instead of living active, vibrant lives, these people waste their time fearing their eventual loss of life. Some, like noted futurist Ray Kurzweil, hope that we are nearing a time when human beings may overcome their biological limitations and “upload” themselves into machines that will “live” forever. A few at the other extreme take measures to preserve their dead bodies through techniques such as cryopreservation—deep-freezing their bodies—in the hope that science may one day be able to restore life to their lifeless flesh and bones.

But is the extension of our present lives really the answer to our problems? How many lives are tormented by pain, regret, sadness, loneliness, and heartache? When we read the Bible’s accounts of the lives of the earliest human beings, we see that they lived for many centuries. Adam lived for 930 years; Seth, his son, lived for 912 years; Enosh lived for 905 years; Cainan for 910 years; Mahalaleel for 895 years; his son Jered for 962 years; his grandson Methuselah for 969 years. Did their long lives bring them contentment? Did they live in a world filled with peace and prosperity? No! “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart” (Genesis 6:5–6).

No, a longer life doesn’t necessarily mean a fulfilling, purposeful life. And, despite humanity’s best efforts to create eternal life in the flesh, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Death truly is an enemy of mankind (1 Corinthians 15:26) and is truly inevitable: It has come to everyone who has ever lived. Americans may remember the famous quip by founding father Benjamin Franklin: “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” A few may have escaped taxes, but death is the one experience common to all.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH?

So, what will happen to each of us when death inevitably comes? In the Western world, a majority—albeit a shrinking one—still holds “mainstream” or traditional views about heaven and hell. The Pew Research Center reported in 2015 that 72 percent of Americans believed in heaven, defined as a place “where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded” (“Most Americans believe in heaven and hell,” Pew FacTank, November 10, 2015). Interestingly, just 58 percent expressed belief in a hell “where people who have lived bad lives and die without being sorry are eternally punished.”

Or, will death simply mean rebirth in another body? Year after year, pollster George Barna has found that Eastern religious concepts are gaining popularity in America. A few years ago, 18 percent of those surveyed told Barna that they believe in some kind of reincarnation. Some believe that the soul may come back as a human being, or maybe as an animal, depending on our conduct during this life, and that we will only end the cycle of reincarnation when by our own strenuous efforts we achieve perfection. Some describe this perfection as the complete loss of selfhood. Others expect to spend eternity in heaven with one deity or another, or perhaps gazing at a “beatific vision” of God, rapt in eternal worship with no particular work to do, forever and ever.

Others say that we live just once, and that if we fail to worship the correct deity, we will spend eternity being tortured by the flames of an ever-burning hellfire. They say that if you happen to be born in a time or place where you never heard of the correct deity, you are predestined for hell. This seems unjust and turns off many who are sincerely seeking to understand.

YOU NEED THE TRUTH!

Is there any way we can know with certainty the truth of what happens when a person dies? The good news is that we can know the truth, and that we can prove it from a source that has proved to be uniquely trustworthy: your Bible! So, what does the Bible say happens when you die?

The truth is that those who truly follow Jesus Christ are heirs to a wonderful promise—a promise we shall inherit when we are resurrected from the dead. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). The Apostle Peter describes our reward as “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away” (1 Peter 1:4). Notice that this reward is an inheritance that is being kept for today’s Christians. We are heirs, not yet inheritors, of a wonderful promise (Romans 8:14–17). What is that promise that we are destined to inherit? It is something of such wonder that humanity has not yet experienced anything like it, nor can begin to comprehend that wonder without God’s help. As Paul wrote, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Read on to learn more about this astounding promise and what it will mean for you!

CHAPTER 2
ETERNAL LIFE: A GIFT

Many Bible students are familiar with this very encouraging verse: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). But how many truly understand what this verse means?

As imperfect human beings, we commit sins and then we repent. We understand that God has not killed us “on the spot” because of our sins. Even those unrepentant sinners living carnal and dissolute lives have not yet received the full wages of their sins. We understand that sinners will earn their full wage after this lifetime.

But what exactly is that wage? Notice that the above scripture does not state, “The wages of sin is immortal life in hellfire.” The wages of sin isn’t any sort of immortal life; it is death—the absence of life. Why then do so many picture the “wages of sin” as being eternal life in torment? Living forever—available only as “the gift of God” according to this same verse—is the very opposite of “death.”

IS THE SOUL IMMORTAL?

The reason many professing Christians do not believe the plain words of God is the common and inaccurate teaching that everyone has an “immortal soul” that will never die—an immortal soul that will live forever, either in the torment of “hell” or the joys of “heaven.” But think: If we already have immortality, we don’t need to receive it as a gift from God!

Yes, as strange as this may seem to those of us who grew up hearing only the unbiblical assumptions of mainstream “Christianity,” the truth is that until we have “put on” immortality (1 Corinthians 15:52–53) through God’s gift at the resurrection, a soul can die! The prophet Ezekiel made this clear when he wrote, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). The Hebrew word for “soul” is nephesh, which refers to physical life; it is the same word used to describe animal life in Genesis 1:21.

“But that’s in the Old Testament,” you may be thinking. “What does the New Testament say about the soul?” You may be surprised to learn that Jesus’ teaching was the same: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul [Greek psuche, “life”] and body in hell [gehenna fire]” (Matthew 10:28). Do you believe your Bible? Do you believe what Jesus said? God is able to destroy both soul and body in “hell”—gehenna fire. Instead of describing the soul as “immortal,” Jesus Christ says plainly that the souls of the wicked will be destroyed along with their bodies!

The Bible does teach that there is a human spirit—the spirit in man (1 Corinthians 2:11; Job 32:8, 18) that works in conjunction with the brain and empowers the remarkable human intellect. Although this spirit is collected by God upon our deaths (Ecclesiastes 3:21), surely containing the record of all we’ve ever known and experienced for God’s future use (as we will see!), Scripture is clear that there is no consciousness after death! The dead do not praise God (Psalm 115:17), they do not thank God, nor even think of Him at all (Psalm 6:5)—in fact, they “know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5)! The soul is, indeed, mortal and until a future resurrection, the dead are plainly that: dead. The popular teaching of the conscious, immortal soul is simply a fallacy, contradicted by multiple statements in your Bible!

MISUNDERSTANDING “PARADISE”

Yet, many people mistakenly believe that they will immediately go to heaven when they die in the faith—that there is no need for a future resurrection for them to be with God. Where do they get that idea? Some base their misunderstanding on an incorrect reading of Jesus’ words to the thief crucified alongside Him: “And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’” (Luke 23:43). Many do not realize that based on the actual Greek text, which has no commas, the word “today” should be with the previous clause of the sentence: “I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise.” Yes, the thief will be with Christ in Paradise. But when? What is Paradise? And where is it?

Scripture says that Paul was “caught up into paradise” in a vision (2 Corinthians 12:4) and tells us that the tree of life is in Paradise (Revelation 2:7). It also tells us that the tree of life is in the New Jerusalem, which Christ says will be coming out of heaven to the earth once its preparation is complete (Revelation 3:12; 21:2; 22:2). Yet, the New Jerusalem will not be ready until after the saints have reigned on earth for one thousand years, at the conclusion of God’s plan (Revelation 20–22). Paradise is awaiting a future revelation and arrival on earth! The thief, just as Christ promised, will be with Him in Paradise after he is resurrected—but that time is a future time, yet to come.

Furthermore, even Christ Himself was not in Paradise—nor did He enter it—on the day when He made that promise! Jesus died, and He then spent three days and three nights unconscious, in the tomb—not in Paradise! Christ was not conscious again until God the Father resurrected Him to life on the third day, in fulfillment of Scripture (Matthew 12:40)!

The gospel of John confirms the truth that souls do not go to heaven when they die. As the Apostle John wrote, “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (John 3:13). As the Logos, Christ’s abode had been in heaven before He came to planet Earth as the incarnate Word, Jesus.

Although countless patriarchs had lived and died before the Apostle penned those words, only the one divine Personage now known as Jesus Christ had descended from and ascended to heaven! When Peter gave his first sermon, weeks after Jesus’ death and resurrection, he could state plainly, “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.… For David did not ascend into the heavens” (Acts 2:29, 34). David is dead in the grave, unconscious, awaiting the resurrection—as are all the other faithful saints!

Jesus and His Apostles taught what the Old Testament taught about death. In the book of Ecclesiastes, we read, “For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten” (Ecclesiastes 9:5). What does it mean that they “have no more reward”? We know from Scripture that human beings will receive eternal reward or punishment. What this scripture is telling us is that death isn’t some different kind of conscious state. When we are dead, we “know nothing”—just as if we were in a deep and dreamless sleep.

The Apostle Paul confirmed this when he wrote to those in Thessalonica:

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep (1 Thessalonians 4:13–15).

Paul’s words are clear: The dead are dead, but we have a hope for them—that God will bring them back. That hope is not rooted in unbiblical ideas of conscious existence that continues past death—rather, our hope mirrors that of the Apostle Paul, “that there will be a resurrection of the dead” (Acts 24:15)! Yes, God will, at the resurrection, give those who died in the faith eternal life—something we do not have as human beings.

IS GOD FAIR?

The above scriptures should make it exceedingly clear that those who are now dead are actually dead—they are not conscious, immortal souls waiting to be put back into human bodies. But who will receive eternal life? The vast majority of people who have lived and died never even heard the name of Jesus Christ. Other billions have heard only a false gospel about a false Christ. Only a relative few have had the opportunity to hear the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and to act on what they have heard. And yet Scripture tells us that we cannot receive salvation without Jesus Christ: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Does this mean that God is arbitrary or unfair?

Some religious thinkers, like the Protestant reformer John Calvin, have taught that God created billions of souls whom He knowingly predestined to suffer in hell for eternity. Others say that God wants to save all souls, but that it is up to Christians to reach the world with His message—and, if they fail, the souls who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ will spend eternity being tormented in hell.

The Bible, however, assures us that God is just, merciful, and fair. We have seen that the Bible teaches that a dead person remains dead until the resurrection. Both Paul and Jesus referred to death as a “sleep,” and one who is dead has no consciousness—remaining in the grave until he is raised from the dead. Consider Jesus’ words: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28–29). Other translations use the word “judgment” instead of “condemnation.”

Yes, without a resurrection, the soul would be dead forever. Our hope is not on a fictitious eternity in heaven as some disembodied soul, but in a future resurrection to life. Read on to learn what that resurrection—actually, those resurrections—will mean to you and your loved ones!

CHAPTER 3
THREE RESURRECTIONS

Near the end of His first coming, Jesus Christ told His disciples, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). The Apostle John told the Christians of his day, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). And Paul wrote, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).

Paul calls Satan the “god of this age” because of his immense power and influence, and God allows this for His purpose. In Revelation, the Apostle John calls Satan a deceiver who “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).

A BLINDED WORLD

Were the Apostles making this up? Was Christ exaggerating? Of course not! But if the Bible declares unambiguously that Satan is the ruler of this age and that the whole world is deceived—yet with nearly one-third of the world’s population professing some form of “Christianity”—what does this mean for Christians? The implications are clear. As shocking as this may seem, the vast majority of people who have lived and died in the nearly 6,000 years since Adam have been blinded—unable to understand and live by the true Gospel message that Jesus Christ brought! And that blinded mass of humanity includes the vast majority of those who call themselves “Christian” today!

Is this something we can “fix” by ourselves, apart from God’s help? No! For the faith and understanding that lead to salvation, we need the help of God’s Spirit. Paul explains: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The amazing truth is that God is opening the minds of relatively few in this present age. Jesus tells His disciples plainly, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him,” and that “no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father” (John 6:44, 65). Peter explains that, in this age, salvation is only extended to “as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39), and Paul reveals that only a few are being called by God in this life while others are not, according to God’s overall plan and timing (1 Corinthians 1:26–29; Romans 11:7–8, 32).

Does this surprise you? Think! If the all-good and all-powerful God really wanted to save everyone in this present age, wouldn’t He be able to do so? Even Jesus Christ, at the end of His three-and-a-half-year ministry, had just 120 disciples (Acts 1:15). Jesus spoke to the masses, but as He explained, “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13:13). Jesus did not speak in parables to make His message clearer to the crowds. Rather, He used parables so that only His chosen few would understand: “And He said to them, ‘To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that “Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them”’” (Mark 4:11–12).

This truth of the Bible directly contradicts what most of us were taught by mainstream “Christianity”—that Jesus spoke in parables “so everyone would understand.” In fact, the exact opposite is true! Jesus spoke in parables so the general public would not understand! Jesus was not trying to convert the world at that time! He knew that God was calling only a select few believers in this present age, as part of a far larger plan. One of God’s names in Hebrew is El Shaddai—God Almighty. Nothing could stop the Almighty God from converting the whole world right now, if that were His real intention!

This is not speculation; even secular historians have acknowledged the historical truth of what the earliest Church members believed and taught about the fact that God has planned different resurrections for different times and different portions of humanity. In The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, noted historian Edward Gibbon wrote the following:

The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the Second Coming of Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the Prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this long period of labour and contention, which was now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till the time appointed for the last and general resurrection (chap. 15, sec. 2).

Yes, as Gibbon points out, the first-century Church—the apostolic Church—understood that the saints would first be raised to rule with Christ for a thousand years, preceding a “general resurrection.”

THEY ARE NOT LOST FOREVER!

What does this mean for the billions who lived and died without ever hearing the message of Jesus Christ? Scripture teaches plainly that we cannot receive salvation without Him: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). How can we reconcile Peter’s plain words with the truth of a loving and just God? Notice what Jesus Christ said to the people of Capernaum who rejected His message: “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you” (Matthew 11:23–24).

God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by fire (Genesis 19). Yet Jesus Christ said it will be “more tolerable” for Sodom in the day of judgment than for Capernaum. How can that be? Christ said that if Sodom had seen His works, its people would have repented, and God would have spared that wicked and perverse city. If we believe that God is fair, and if we believe Jesus when He says that these people definitely would have repented if they had the same opportunity as His audience did, then we should believe that they will be given that opportunity. But how can this be?

MORE THAN ONE RESURRECTION!

As we will see, God’s word describes multiple resurrections, not just one! Notice how your Bible describes the first group of people resurrected—those who are raised to life when Jesus Christ returns:

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years (Revelation 20:4–6).

This first resurrection will include “those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God” (v. 4). These saints included in the first resurrection will be raised to immortality and will reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years—the time we call the Millennium, which means “one thousand years” (v. 4). These are among the ones Paul referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, when he said, “the dead in Christ will rise first.”

But notice! If there is a “first” resurrection (Revelation 20:5), there must be a second resurrection. Indeed, the same verse says that “the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.” (In fact, Scripture also describes a third resurrection, as we shall see.) Elsewhere, Scripture calls this first resurrection a “better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35) compared to the resurrections that follow it. Why? Faithful Christians of our present age who take part in that first resurrection will be born into the Kingdom of God as immortalized, glorified children of God. We will inherit the earth, and rule with Christ on this earth for a thousand years, as kings and priests (Revelation 5:10). During the Millennium, Satan will be bound and unable to influence humanity (Revelation 20:2). Those whom God is calling today must overcome Satan’s influence—something those in the Millennium won’t need to contend against until Satan is again released at the very end. Unlike today, when only a relative few are called, in the Millennium, all will know and be able to live God’s way (Isaiah 11:9). This thousand-year period of peace, prosperity, and spiritual abundance will prepare the earth for the next dramatic step in God’s plan for mankind!

Revelation 20:5 tells us that, after the Millennium is complete, the “rest of the dead” will be restored to physical life. You can read a description of that time in Ezekiel 37, which makes plain that this second resurrection is to lives of flesh and bone—not immortal glory, as in the first resurrection. Who are the “rest of the dead”? They are the masses of humanity who never embraced true Christianity. They include, for example, the peoples of Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, and Gomorrah, whom Christ said will receive favor and tolerance, upon repentance, at their time of judgment—that “day of judgment” we read of earlier, mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 11:24. They include even the peoples of Israel whom God spiritually blinded (Romans 11:25). Indeed, the vast majority of human beings who have ever lived will be resurrected for this period of judgment. They will not be raised as spirit beings like those in the first resurrection, but as physical beings such as Jesus' friend Lazarus was when Christ raised him from the dead (John 11:43–44), exactly as described in Ezekiel 37.

THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT

In this remarkable time after the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ and His glorified saints, billions of human beings who were previously spiritually blinded will finally learn from the pain of the past, and God will give them the opportunity to truly repent, believe the Gospel, and eventually inherit the Kingdom of God. As Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Notice in Revelation 20:11–12 the description of the time when “the rest of the dead” are raised to physical life:

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.

The Greek word for “books” in verse 12 is biblia. Yes, after the second resurrection, the “books”—the Bible—will for the very first time be opened to the understanding of the billions of human beings who lived and died before the Millennium without hearing and understanding the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. During this Great White Throne Judgment period, billions will have their first real opportunity to learn the truth. And they will have one special benefit we do not have today, as they will be able to remember the results of mankind living its own way in this present age and compare it against the reality of the better world around them, ruled by Jesus Christ. They will look back on today’s modern civilization and see what many today do not: that our system or society is not the one that the Creator God established. Rather, God has given human civilization 6,000 years, under the sway of Satan, to go its own way, to try out its own ideas, and to learn hard lessons through human suffering.

Does God want His creation to suffer? Is He not a God of mercy as well as justice? Would He not create a plan capable of reaching all those who have ever lived, leaving none without hope and the opportunity to choose? In these two resurrections, we see God’s mercy, justice, and fairness on glorious display. If you would like more information on this remarkable second resurrection, consider requesting our free booklet Is This the Only Day of Salvation? You can contact any of our regional offices using the information listed at the end of this booklet to obtain your own free copy.

Not only do many misunderstand God’s plan to reveal His truth to the world and to reward the saved, however—many also misunderstand His plan to punish those who reject salvation. Read on for the reassuring, encouraging, and inspiring truth about the true nature of the just punishment awaiting those incorrigibly wicked people who knowingly refuse God’s great gift of salvation!

CHAPTER 4
PUNISHMENT OR PUNISHING?

Sadly, throughout history, there are those who have accurately understood God’s grace and salvation, and yet have knowingly, willfully, and utterly rejected it. Even after the Great White Throne Judgment period, there will be those who willfully choose to live in rebellion and who refuse to come under the grace and mercy of God. Although God will give every human being a full and fair opportunity to accept salvation, we understand that there will be some incorrigible people who reject Jesus Christ forever.

He won’t force these rebellious people to obey Him. He will destroy them in the Lake of Fire.

After the Millennium and the period of the Great White Throne Judgment, all those throughout history who lived and died while both rightly understanding the truth and knowingly casting it aside and rejecting it will be raised for the third resurrection—the resurrection to eternal punishment through death in the Lake of Fire.

Yes, God is just. He reminds us, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Hebrews 10:30). Standing before the Lake of Fire and agonizing over the fate that awaits them, the wicked will then be cast into the fire and burned up forever (Revelation 21:8). Never again will they live. “For the wages of sin is death [eternal death], but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

“How cruel,” some may say, “that a just and merciful God would torment sinners for all of eternity because of decisions they made over a hundred years or so!” Are you one of the many who have never understood how Christians could possibly enjoy eternal happiness with God, knowing that at the very same time they are supposed to be feeling divine joy, their unsaved loved ones are roasting in hellish torment, experiencing unimaginable pain, forever? If you are, then you need the comfort that comes from knowing the truth!

THE TRUTH ABOUT “HELL”

For one thing, the Lake of Fire that we read about in Scripture is not the “hell” that most people think of when they think of God’s punishment of the wicked. Today, the vast majority of people in the Western world get their “picture” of divine punishment not from the Bible, but rather from the writings of a 14th century Italian poet. Dante Alighieri, author of La Divina Commedia (or, in English, The Divine Comedy) wrote his lengthy poem as an allegory to comment on the social and political problems of his nation. His depiction of hell featured nine descending regions of ever-greater eternal torment for sinners. In one section of Dante’s poem, titled “Inferno,” we find that lustful sinners receive the mildest punishment in the first circle of hell; the lowest realms of hell are reserved for those whom Dante considered history’s most repugnant traitors—not only Judas Iscariot, but also the Roman traitors Brutus and Cassius, who were implicated in the murder of Julius Caesar.

Many are surprised when they discover that Dante’s descriptions bear almost no resemblance to the “hell” described in your Bible.

But first, let us ask: What exactly does the Bible mean by “hell”? In the King James Version and New King James Version, the Hebrew word often translated as “hell” is sheol—which simply means “pit” or “grave.” It does not mean a place of ever-burning fire! The word sheol occurs 65 times in the Old Testament, yet in the King James Version it is only translated as “hell” 31 times! It is translated as “grave” another 31 times, and as “pit” three times. If you read the New International Version, you will see that it never translates sheol as “hell”—it simply uses the biblically and linguistically accurate term “grave.” As you can see, no one is burning in sheol!

THREE “HELLS” IN THE BIBLE

Your New Testament includes three Greek words that are translated as “hell”—Tartarus, hades, and Gehenna—yet each has a different meaning.

The Greek word Tartarus denotes a condition of restraint, and your Bible shows that it applies to fallen angels, not to sinful human beings. Notice: “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartarus] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4). As one scholarly source explains, “The verb tartaroo, translated ‘cast down to hell’ in 2 Pet. 2:4, signifies to consign to Tartarus, which is neither Sheol nor hades nor hell, but the place where those angels whose special sin is referred to in that passage are confined ‘to be reserved unto judgment’; the region is described as ‘pits of darkness.’” (An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, W.E. Vine, p. 300).

The Greek word hades, like the Hebrew sheol, simply means “pit” or “grave.” If you read the New King James Version, you will notice that Hades is often left untranslated. Farmers long ago, speaking Old English, would talk of “helling” their potatoes, which did not mean to burn them—it meant to store them underground.

More relevant to our discussion of the Lake of Fire is the Greek word Gehenna, describing the fire that will destroy the souls of the wicked (Matthew 10:28). Gehenna is derived from the Hebrew expression Ge Hinnom—referring to the Valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem. Anciently, the Valley of Hinnom was used as a place to dump Jerusalem’s trash. Fires burned continuously, fed by the city’s garbage, which included the dead bodies of condemned criminals. As a result, Gehenna became a symbol of judgment associated with fire.

This same word, Gehenna, was also used in Matthew 5:22, when Jesus said, “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire”—Gehenna fire. Yes, unrepentant sinners will be cast into a lake of fire. Gehenna fire is a reference to this final fate of the wicked: to be burned into ashes, into non-existence—not to burn forever and without end. Remember the decree of Ezekiel 18, verses 4 and 20: “The soul who sins shall die.” This is the “second death” described in Revelation 20:6, from which the firstfruits—Christians raised to immortality in the first resurrection—are exempt.

The second death—extinction in the Lake of Fire—is final; it is a death from which there is no resurrection. This is the real “hellfire” of your Bible. After the Great White Throne Judgment, all human beings who have ever lived will have come to one of two ends: they will be glorified children of God, born anew to live forever in the immortalized Family of God, or else they will have been utterly destroyed in the Lake of Fire, never to live again. Each of us will either live forever or die forever. There is no third option. Then Satan himself will be cast into the Lake of Fire and be tormented forever (Revelation 20:10). We read, “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14–15).

Peter writes that the earth will be totally purged by fire: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

So, with all of this planned for the future of humanity, why has God arranged to have a group of Christians saved in our present age, ahead of all the others? Are you one of those God is now calling? Read on to learn about the reward God has prepared for today’s faithful Christians, and about what they will be doing during the Millennium—and on into eternity!

CHAPTER 5
THE REWARD OF THE SAVED

Most people who call themselves “Christian” have only a vague idea of what their Christian reward will be after death. Perhaps you are one of the many who believe that they will have a “mansion” in heaven, or at least a wonderful room in a mansion. People often get that mistaken idea from a misunderstanding of John 14:2, in which Jesus tells us, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

The Greek word mone, translated above as “mansion,” is better translated into modern English as “room” or “chamber.” Jesus’ Father’s house has many rooms. But what is the Father’s house? Notice in Jeremiah 35 that the “house of the Lord”—the temple of God—has a variety of chambers, which correspond to the particular job held by the resident of each chamber (v. 4). The earthly house of God was a type of the Father’s house in heaven (Hebrews 8:5). Notice that the Bible nowhere calls heaven itself the Father’s house—the Father’s house is in heaven. When Christ departed from His disciples to prepare them a place, He did not tell them that the place would be in heaven. Rather, He told them that He would go to heaven to prepare their place in the Father’s house! When a cook prepares dinner in the oven, we do not say that the dinner is the oven—and the dinner is certainly not served in the oven! Amazingly, then, we go on to read that when the New Jerusalem comes to planet Earth after the Great White Throne Judgment, it will be the Father’s house. Christ is preparing for today’s faithful Christians their places in the New Jerusalem, which will come to planet Earth! “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God’” (Revelation 21:3).

A BRIEF APPEARANCE BEFORE THE FATHER!

Perhaps you have the idea that we will spend eternity sitting on clouds, playing harps, gazing at the face of God forever? This is not true at all! Yes, Scripture does portray a brief, future period in which faithful resurrected Christians stand with harps before God’s throne: “And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God” (Revelation 15:2). When we read of ancient King David praising his Lord with music, we can appreciate how music can express our deepening love for our Savior.

However, this brief moment is often misunderstood and misinterpreted, and our reward is so much more than that—as revealed in that passage and elsewhere in Revelation! First, notice that these harp players are not floating around on clouds. These musicians—resurrected Christians who have overcome the prophesied “beast” of Revelation—are standing on “the sea of glass.” Saying that it is “the” sea of glass implies it is the very same sea of glass seen by John earlier in his vision. Indeed, earlier in Revelation, after a description of God’s throne, we read, “Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal” (Revelation 4:6). So, the sea of glass is before God’s throne, but where is God’s throne? We know that after the Millennium, God’s throne will come to planet Earth, when the New Jerusalem descends, “coming down out of heaven” (Revelation 21:2).

THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB

Putting these scriptures together, we can see that the resurrected saints will gather on the sea of glass, in front of God’s throne in heaven, for a brief time after their resurrection. But what will the saints be doing there? Will they just be playing music to honor God, or is there something more?

The answer can be found in a promise Jesus Christ made to His disciples. During His time on earth, Jesus likened Himself to a bridegroom (Matthew 9:15). And truly, that is what He will be!

“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God” (Revelation 19:7–9).

How can mere human beings marry the Son of God? Even the simplest look at the world around us will reveal a fundamental fact: Every species reproduces after its own kind. The mating of two dogs doesn’t produce a cat. The mating of two birds doesn’t produce a fish. If God is reproducing Himself, then His offspring will be like Him, and will be full members of His divine Family! Indeed, God is the Father “from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” (Ephesians 3:14–15). And God wants each human being to voluntarily choose to become His son or His daughter! God wants us to come out of the carnal, sinful ways of the world. As the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, quoting the Old Testament, “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you,” and “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:17–18).

But we do not do this on our own. After we experience genuine repentance, exercise faith, and receive proper baptism in the manner God commands, He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Once we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, we become begotten children of God! We become the very heirs of God—co-heirs, or joint-heirs with Christ. Read it for yourself:

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption [or “sonship”], whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together (Romans 8:14–17, KJV).

A TRANSCENDENT PURPOSE

Please think carefully about the real meaning of Jesus’ final prayer to His Father in John 17. In the most awesome prayer ever recorded in the pages of the Bible, the Son of God asked His Father, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). Jesus was with God from the beginning of creation, and we’re told, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). Here, Christ asked the Father to restore the full glory that had been His when—acting for the Father—He, as the Old Testament “Logos,” created the entire universe!

After praying for His disciples on that final Passover evening before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed for those who would believe in Him after them:

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:20–23).

Can we fully grasp the awesome request the Son of God made in this prayer? He was asking that we who “believe in Me through their word” share with Him—in the resurrection—the glory He now shares with the Father. Yes, Jesus really meant what He said in this inspired prayer. He was asking that His true followers eventually become full sons of God and enter into the oneness of the God Family! Your Creator and Savior did not die so He could have a “barnyard” of lesser creatures to enjoy. When God the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead, He became the firstborn of many brethren—actual “younger siblings” of the “God kind” in the Family of God, able to share a love and fellowship far more intimate than even the happiest human families share today.

As members of the God Family, we will indeed bear a family resemblance to our Father, and to the resurrected Jesus Christ. Have you ever wondered what Jesus Christ looks like, right now? The Bible reveals His appearance:

One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength (Revelation 1:13–16).

GLORY BEYOND COMPARE!

Can you picture that? His face shines like the sun! And those of us who are willing to truly surrender our hearts, minds, and wills to our Father in heaven, and come to Him through Jesus Christ in genuine repentance, can look forward to this kind of magnificent glory! For the God of the Bible wants all of us to become real sons—not just lesser beings God merely calls His sons! Remember that after genuine conversion, God puts His very divine nature within true Christians. The Apostle John wrote, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Yes, we will literally “look like” Jesus Christ! We will be “glorified” in the resurrection as full sons of God—full brothers of Jesus Christ! For the Bible clearly explains that Christ will be “the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).

After Christ’s resurrection, He appeared to the Apostles and to others several times. They did not always recognize Him at first—He looked a little different from how He had appeared during His human life. Yet the resurrected Christ nearly always appeared to others as a human being, interacting with people in that manner so they would understand what He was saying and would not be afraid. He even demonstrated the ability to manifest the wounds of His crucifixion on His body, which He used to help the doubting Apostle Thomas to believe (John 20:14–17).

With all of this in mind, we can understand why Peter was inspired to reveal that, by God’s divine power, there “have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3–4). Born again into the Family of God, we will have God’s very own divine nature! But what will we be doing with that nature? Many mistakenly assume that there will be nothing in particular for the resurrected saints to accomplish. But your Bible reveals that the saints, having become literal members of God’s Family, will have a job to do—a joyous and fulfilling job that will not take place in heaven! Read on to learn more about that job!

CHAPTER 6
THE KINGDOM OF GOD

As we have seen, Christians who die in the faith during this present age will, at the first resurrection, become full children of God, able to interact with Christ and the Father and share fully in Their thoughts, plans, and projects. We will be able to join in various future creative projects and activities throughout the vast universe. The prophet Isaiah was inspired to tell us, “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7).

But first, we will have one very important job to do—for a thousand years! When Jesus Christ returns, He will return as King and will establish the Kingdom of God, which will reign right here on planet Earth! And it will be today’s faithful Christians who, as the resurrected saints and members of His Family, will rule under Him during that thousand-year Millennium, which will precede the period of time known as the Great White Throne Judgment.

RULING AND TEACHING ON EARTH

The people of the physical nations of the world will need instruction and guidance. Just as the resurrected Christ appeared to His disciples after His crucifixion, the resurrected saints will be able to manifest themselves to human beings during the Millennium. As kings and priests, we will be governing and teaching. In fact, the priests in ancient Israel were also Israel’s teachers. During the Millennium, we will be teaching God’s way of life—the way of truth, the way of the Bible, the way of living that Christ exemplified and taught. As kings and priests, we will teach the world the way to peace:

And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left (Isaiah 30:20–21).

Does this surprise you? It shouldn’t! Scripture tells us that resurrected Christians follow the Lamb—Jesus Christ—wherever He goes (Revelation 14:4)! They will follow Him for the marriage of the Lamb in heaven immediately after their resurrection and transformation, as we saw earlier. Then, they will follow Him to planet Earth, where He—and they—will rule in the Kingdom of God. For a thousand years, the work of the resurrected saints will be on earth, not in heaven!

Although the fact of the saints’ earthly rule is plainly taught in Scripture, many have been confused on this matter. But the misunderstandings are easily cleared up for those willing to put all of the scriptures together.

For example, when Jesus told His disciples, “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12), He was not telling them that their reward would be permanent residence in heaven. Rather, He was emphasizing the greatness of that reward, which—until the resurrection—is being reserved in heaven for Christians. Christ told us He was going to heaven to prepare it (John 14:3). The Apostle Peter describes this reward as “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). Again, we see that the inheritance is being held in store for today’s Christians, to be brought from heaven by Christ when He returns to earth to reign (Isaiah 40:9–10). We are only heirs for now, not yet inheritors (Romans 8:14–17). Rather, Jesus tells us, “I am coming quickly and my reward is with me” (Revelation 22:12).

Interestingly, the Greek word topos, often translated as “place” in John 14:3, also has the sense of “opportunity”—and indeed, Christ has prepared a wonderful opportunity for the resurrected saints. That opportunity is to rule on the earth under Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God.

Notice, too, what we learn about that reward in the Beatitudes, when Jesus was describing the rewards for His followers whose qualities please Him: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). How plain that is! Many are familiar with this verse, but few believe it! We shall inherit the earth. God’s word says clearly to all who will read it and believe it that “we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10)!

FOUR ELEMENTS OF A KINGDOM

To fully understand the reward of the saints, we must comprehend what it means to rule under Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God. First, let us understand what a kingdom actually is. Every kingdom has four basic elements: a ruler, a territory, laws, and subjects. How does this apply to the Kingdom of God?

First, the Kingdom of God has a ruler, as the Bible explains in many places. Notice what John wrote: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself” (Revelation 19:11–12). Jesus Christ, wearing many crowns, will return to earth as a conquering King (Zechariah 14:3–4).

Here is another description of Jesus’ appearance at His Second Coming:

He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:13–16).

Yes, the Ruler of the soon-coming Kingdom of God will be Jesus Christ Himself! Are you praying, “Your Kingdom come”? Are you eagerly anticipating Jesus’ return to planet Earth? The Apostle John certainly was. John concluded the next-to-last verse in your Bible with his prayer and fervent hope: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

What will be the King’s territory? When Jesus Christ comes, His territory will be the whole earth, and His subjects within that territory will be the whole of humanity. Scripture describes the whole world learning the way to peace. Every year, people will come to worship their King in Jerusalem. The whole earth will learn to observe the same biblical Holy Days that Jesus and the Apostles observed. “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:16).

Every nation on earth will worship the King—and will keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Many do not realize that the Holy Days are still filled with meaning for Christians today. The New Testament Church was founded on the day of the Feast of Pentecost, though many today have forgotten that Pentecost is one of the biblical Holy Days that God gave to His people. In the book of Acts, we read that throngs of people were gathered together to observe the Feast of Pentecost when the Apostles preached to them and thousands were converted. The people were gathered to observe the day because it was commanded in Scripture! As the NIV Study Bible tells us, “Pentecost is also called the Feast of Weeks (Dt 16:10), the Feast of Harvest (Ex 23:16) and the day of firstfruits (Nu 28:26)” (p. 1645).

True Christians today understand that the Feast of Pentecost commemorates the stage in God’s plan of salvation when He calls the “firstfruits” to salvation in this present age, preparing them to rule under Christ in the Millennium. To learn more about this wonderful truth, request our free booklet The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan.

What will be the law of the Kingdom? During the Millennium, the resurrected saints will administer God’s law. The prophet Isaiah gives us an inspiring foretaste of what will come:

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:2–3).

In Scripture, a mountain is often a symbol of government, including God’s. The government of God will rule on earth, and Jerusalem will be the capital of the world. “Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain’” (Zechariah 8:3).

Under the reign of the Kingdom of God, humanity’s often-contradictory and unjust laws will be no more. God’s laws will be taught and administered from Jerusalem, and the Ten Commandments are the foundation of those laws. Remember, Jesus said, “But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments,” and then went on to list several of the Ten Commandments (Matthew 19:17–19). Moreover, in His “Sermon on the Mount” Jesus actually magnified the Ten Commandments. He made them more comprehensive, and more binding, because Christians need to observe the Ten Commandments in the spirit, not just in the letter!

The subjects of the Kingdom will be the human beings who survive into the Millennium—living and learning in a world transformed!

For those subjects, what will be the impact of having God’s law in effect? The Kingdom of God will be established following several years of terrible devastation and death around the world. Billions of people will have died due to war, famine, and disease. Survivors will be physically and emotionally shattered by the world-shaking events of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. Yet, though humanity will have grown used to widespread injustice, corruption, and violence, Christ the King will bring justice and peace: “He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4). Young men and women will not be taught to fight in wars anymore. Yes, in the Kingdom of God, Christ the King will re-educate the whole world in the way of peace:

The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:7–9).

DESTINED FOR RULERSHIP

Remember that Christ will not do this alone—He will enlist today’s faithful Christians, the resurrected saints in the Millennium to assist Him! In Luke 19, Jesus gave the parable of the minas (or “pounds,” KJV), revealing that faithful Christians will rule over cities—some managing five, some overseeing ten. Jesus also taught that those who overcome would rule over nations (Revelation 2:26). Today’s true Christians, born at their resurrection and transformation into God’s glorious, immortalized Family, will be a vital part of the solution to this world’s problems!

In God’s Kingdom, King David will be resurrected to rule over both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, as the two nations become one (Ezekiel 37:17–19, 24). Also, Jesus told the Twelve Apostles that they would be ruling over the twelve tribes of Israel:

Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:28–29).

Those called to be in the first resurrection truly possess a remarkable opportunity!

INTO ETERNITY!

For a thousand years, humanity will experience the benefits of life under the benevolent rulership of Jesus Christ, with the rulership of the saints under Him. Then, for a period afterward—perhaps a 100-year period, as may be implied by Isaiah 65:17–20—the Great White Throne Judgment will follow. As discussed in the previous chapter, it is during this period when the second resurrection occurs and the minds of those who died without understanding the truth of God are finally opened so that they, too, may choose to become children of God.

Finally, when both the Millennium and the Great White Throne Judgment have passed, those in God’s Family will receive an even greater inheritance. Notice that God not only gives Christians the earth (Matthew 5:5)—He also gives us the entire universe: “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son” (Revelation 21:7; Romans 8:32). Consider this amazing promise: “For in that He [God] put all in subjection under him [humanity], He left nothing that is not put under him” (Hebrews 2:8).

“Nothing” not put under him? “All” in subjection? Yes, this is the promise! The Greek phrase translated as “all” in Hebrews 2:8 is ta panta—which literally means “the all.” As Greek lexicons explain, ta panta in the absolute sense means “the universe.” God wants to give you, along with billions of others, dominion not just over the earth, but over the universe! Yet we can only receive that after we have inherited eternal life—only once we’ve become God’s immortal children to reign with Christ in His Kingdom for all eternity! Our job during the Millennium, vital as it will be, is but a foretaste of what will come afterward. God’s purpose is to prepare us to govern the universe. We will be able to travel instantly to far-off galaxies. We will not be limited by time and space. God wants us to liberate the creation from its decay and corruption. As Paul wrote, “the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

Truly, God has an amazing destiny in store for His faithful children. We will be active, fulfilled, and gloriously happy for all eternity. Foretelling the coming of the Messiah and His eternal kingdom, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:6–7).

Do you want to be a part of the glorious future God holds out to you? Do you look forward to the day when God’s throne of grace will come to the earth? Only then, finally, will there be no more pain, suffering, and death. John writes of our inspiring ultimate destiny: “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

This is the eternity God has prepared for you. May God help you understand His great love and purpose for you, and may He help you prepare for your awesome eternal destiny!

CHAPTER 7
IS GOD CALLING YOU?

As we have seen earlier in this booklet, God is not calling most of mankind to repentance and baptism during this present 6,000-year period in human history. Well-meaning “altar calls” by popular evangelists may stir up human emotions, but unless God Himself stirs people’s spirits and opens their minds to His truth, they will remain fundamentally unconvinced, uncalled, and unconverted. The truth is that most human beings will have their day of salvation at the time of the “second resurrection”—the Great White Throne Judgment. For such individuals, their lives in this present age will one day serve as a powerful “witness” demonstrating the depths of human weakness and depravity in lives cut off from God. The Work of Tomorrow’s World and the Living Church of God is to provide a strong warning to such individuals of the terrible end-time suffering just ahead of us. When that time comes, and planet Earth is in the grip of the Great Tribulation, millions who have heard this message will know where God has been working, and will be all the more ready to embrace His ways joyously in the Great White Throne Judgment.

RESPOND TO GOD’S CALL!

However, the very fact that you are reading this means that God may well be calling you now, to be one of His firstfruits! You may be eligible for what Scripture calls the “better resurrection.” If so, you do not want to reject this call! For most of humanity, salvation will come in the Millennium or the Great White Throne Judgment—when God “‘will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:2). Those whom God calls today can, with His help and by His power, resist and overcome the deceptions of Satan, and can live Spirit-filled lives full of peace and joy and deep meaning.

If you feel that God may be calling you to repentance and baptism, and you would like to know more about God’s ways, please contact the Regional Office nearest you, listed on the TomorrowsWorld.org website and at the back of our printed booklets. One of our representatives will be happy to talk to you, at a time and in a place convenient for you.

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The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan

4uwzvo — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 16:50:24 +0000

The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan 4uwzvo Tue, 03/01/2022 - 16:50

The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan

Roderick C. Meredith (1930-2017)

Booklet Media

#Christian Living

#Christianity

#God

#Holy Days

#Jesus Christ

#origins of traditions

#Salvation

What are the most important days on the Christian calendar? Most would say Christmas and Easter. But the first followers of Jesus Christ observed NEITHER of these days. They followed Christ’s example and observed the SAME Holy Days that Jesus Christ Himself observed! The Holy Days are not obsolete “Jewish” observances, but in fact picture, in sequence, the destiny God has planned for ALL humanity. God Himself ordained these Holy Days for ALL of His people to observe.

Sadly, most of us just “grew up” in Protestant churches—or in Catholicism—and basically took for granted all that we were taught about God, Christ and religion. Very few people usually bother—even after reaching adulthood—to actually study and genuinely prove WHY they believe what they believe. It just seems easier to “follow the crowd” and go along with whatever we have been taught.

Have you been like this?

Have you carelessly ASSUMED that the Bible teaches us to observe Christmas and Easter? Have you assumed that Christ, our example, and the original inspired Apostolic Church observed Christmas and Easter?

If so, you could not have been more WRONG!

For nearly all honest theologians and historians freely acknowledge that Christmas and Easter were injected into “Christianity” many years after the death of the original Apostles! Under the article “Christmas,” the Encyclopedia Britannica states: “in the Christian Church, the festival of the nativity of Jesus Christ. The history of this feast coheres so closely with that of Epiphany (q.v.), that what follows must be read in connection with the article under that heading…. The great church adopted Christmas much later than Epiphany; and before the 5th century there was no general consensus of opinion as to when it should come in the calendar, whether on the 6th of January, or the 25th of March, or the 25th of December…. In 1644 the English puritans forbade any merriment or religious services by act of Parliament, on the ground that it was a heathen festival, and ordered it to be kept as a fast. Charles II revived the feast, but the Scots adhered to the Puritan view” (vol. 6, 11th ed., pp. 293–294).

The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday…. In England, Christmas was forbidden by Act of Parliament in 1644; the day was to be a fast and a market day; shops were compelled to be open; plum puddings and mince pies condemned as heathen. The conservatives resisted; at Canterbury blood was shed; but after the Restoration Dissenters continued to call Yuletide ‘Fooltide'” (vol. 3, pp. 724, 728).

REJECTING the Example of Christ and the Apostles

A vital key to remember in trying to understand what happened is to realize that the vast majority of “Christian” priests and scholars have NOT seriously tried to follow the example of Christ and the original Apostles! As the professing Christian Church grew in the Roman Empire, they tried to make their religion more “convenient” to the pagans around them in an attempt to win them over, and also, at times, in an attempt to avoid persecution. As Dr. Rufus M. Jones points out: “If by any chance Christ Himself had been taken by His later followers as the model and pattern of the new way, and a serious attempt had been made to set up His life and teaching as the standard and norm for the Church, Christianity would have been something vastly different from what it became. Then ‘heresy’ would have been, as it is not now, deviation from His way, His teaching, His spirit, His kingdom…. What we may properly call ‘Galilean Christianity’ had a short life, though there have been notable attempts to revive it and make it live again, and here and there spiritual prophets have insisted that anything else than this simple Galilean religion is ‘heresy’; but the main line of historic development has taken a different course and has marked the emphasis very differently” (The Church’s Debt to Heretics, pp. 15–16).

And mainstream Protestant author, Jesse Lyman Hurlbut—writing about the period between 313ad and 476ad—acknowledges: “The forms and ceremonies of paganism gradually crept into the worship. Some of the old heathen feasts became church festivals with change of name and worship. About 405ad images of saints and martyrs began to appear in the churches, at first as memorials, then in succession revered, adored, and worshipped” ( The Story of the Christian Church, p. 79).

So, although the early “Christian” leaders were accommodative to the pagans around them, God warned our spiritual forefathers against following the customs of the surrounding heathen nations saying: “Do NOT inquire after their gods, saying ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall NOT worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates have they done to their gods” (Deuteronomy 12:30–31).

Jesus Christ warned the religious leaders of His day, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition” (Mark 7:9). Notice carefully Jesus’ comment about rejecting the commandment of God by keeping human tradition. This is very definitely the case when we consider which days God made holy. For virtually no one keeps the days introduced by the pagans and also observes the biblical Holy Days that God commands and which Christ and the Apostolic Church observed.

In effect, you have to CHOOSE.

You have to choose between observing the “mass of Christ”— which pictures Christ as a helpless little child, and is surrounded by pagan concepts of the Yule log, the Christmas tree, Santa Claus and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer—OR, on the other hand, observing the biblical Holy Days that picture, step-by-step, the awesome PLAN that God is working out here on earth. You have to choose between following Christ and the original Apostles, or following the Catholic “fathers” of the Dark Ages who increasingly injected layer after layer of rank paganism into professing Christianity.

Which Will YOU Choose?

As I explain in the booklet, Which Day is the Christian Sabbath?, if you were on the proverbial desert island with only a sacred calendar and a Bible, you would have to observe the biblical Sabbath and biblical Holy Days because these are the ONLY days the Bible commands or even directly talks about. For instance, the word “Christmas” is not even in the Bible. And there is not even the slightest hint in the Bible that we should observe the day of Christ’s birth, even IF we knew when it was—which we do not! And the word “Easter” is purposely not mentioned in any reputable modern translation of the Bible. It is incorrectly mentioned one time in the King James Version in Acts 12:4. But all scholars concede that the word “Pascha” from which it is translated is correctly rendered “Passover” and has no relation to Easter whatsoever. And, virtually all scholars recognize that the word “Easter” is simply a derivation of the name of the ancient goddess Ishtar or “Isis”—goddess of sex and fertility of the ancient Middle East. That, of course, is where “Easter eggs” come from—the pagan worship of sex and fertility.

Interestingly, even though we were not taught about God’s Holy Days in Sunday School, God’s commanded days are mentioned quite often in the Bible! For these days were clearly commanded in the Old Testament and their observance by Christ and the Apostles in the New Testament certainly ratifies them for the Christian Church.

Luke tells us: “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover” (2:40–41). Then the account describes how “when they had finished the days… Jesus lingered behind” (v. 43). All scholars recognize that “the days” spoken of here were the Days of Unleavened Bread, which come immediately after the Passover. So even though Jesus was “strong in the spirit” and able to discuss spiritual principles at the highest level with the doctors of the Jewish law, He joined His parents in keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread.

During His ministry, we find Jesus going up to observe the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. He told His physical brothers, “You go up to this feast” (John 7:8). Clearly, they were instructed by the Son of God to go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles! Then, Jesus Himself went up secretly, at first, so as not to arouse persecution (v. 10). Then “about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught” (v. 14).

At the end of Jesus’ human life, Luke tells us: “Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat…. ‘ Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer'” (Luke 22:7–8, 15). So as an adult—setting us an example—Jesus observed the Passover.

Then we find that the inspired Apostolic Church began on another of God’s Holy Days, the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). What if the disciples had rejected God’s Holy Days and were not even there on the day when the Holy Spirit was given?

Some may assume that this was the only Day of Pentecost the early Church observed. Not so. For in Acts 20:16 we read, “For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost.” And Paul observed yet another Pentecost in Ephesus: “But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16:8–9).

Also, the Apostle Paul clearly commanded the Gentile Church at Corinth to observe the Days of Unleavened Bread. Speaking of these days, Paul wrote: “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us KEEP THE FEAST, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7–8). Paul was obviously speaking of “keeping the Feast” of Unleavened Bread.

ALL Nations to Observe God’s Holy Days

A powerful END-time prophecy makes it exceedingly clear that ALL nations will soon learn to observe the Feast of Tabernacles! Notice what God inspired the Prophet Zechariah to write about the years just ahead of us: “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south…. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to KEEP THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to KEEP the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:1–4; 16–19).

Since EVERY human being on earth will soon learn to observe these biblical Holy Days, why not learn to obey God and start keeping them NOW? Why not become a spiritual “pioneer” and help blaze the trail for the BILLIONS of others who will come to this understanding soon after Christ’s return?

“But,” you may say, “we have been taught that these are Jewish Holy Days! Are Christians to keep the Jewish Holy Days?”

Well, I have just explained that ALL nations, Jew and Gentile, will soon learn to keep the biblical Holy Days—NOT because they are “Jewish”—but because God commands all of His people to observe them. And all of His people did keep them in the New Testament Church and, as we have seen, Christ kept them—setting us an example. The original Apostles kept them also.

True Christians are the “Israel of God”

A vital key to understanding is to truly grasp Jesus’ instruction to the Samaritan woman. He told this non-Jewish woman, “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).

Although they often rejected His teaching or overlaid it with all kinds of human traditions, the Jewish people did preserve the knowledge of the Creator God and the only written Bible available to the original New Testament Christians—which we today call the Old Testament. Clearly, the Jews were given the “oracles of God” (Romans 3:1–2), which certainly included God’s Holy Days and the understanding of how to construct the sacred calendar upon which those days are based. So the Jews did “know” whom they worshipped. And through Christ and a correct understanding of the Old Testament, salvation was “of the Jews.” For in spite of human weakness and man-made tradition, the Jews have preserved God’s spiritual LAW, the Ten Commandments, the true Sabbath and the annual Holy Days that the Creator has commanded. And the Jewish race produced Jesus Christ—the prophesied Messiah.

As the Apostle Paul was inspired to write, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Romans 2:28–29). So ALL true Christians are spiritual “Jews”! And we are bound to keep the spiritual laws and Holy Days that God gave Israel and which were reaffirmed by the example of Christ and the inspired New Testament Church.

Again, the Apostle was inspired to write: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:15–16).

Clearly, the “Israel of God” are the true people of God—those who are spiritually circumcised and have Christ living His obedient life in them through the Holy Spirit. So, yes, we must get rid of our prejudices and quit calling “Jewish” those things GOD gave for ALL His people of all races and all nations!

True Christians are to keep holy the days God made holy. And we are to follow the example of Jesus and the original Apostles in so doing. Then, as we shall see, the understanding and observance of God’s Holy Days will open our minds to the great plan and PURPOSE that God is working out here below. Indeed, God does have a great plan in mind for all humanity. God reveals this to us through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: “Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the PURPOSE of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:9–11).

A Preview of the PLAN

Most professing Christians observe what they call the “Lord’s Supper,” “mass,” “Eucharist” or some such observance involving the partaking of bread and wine that symbolize Christ’s sacrifice. Few even begin to understand why they are doing this and—as I just pointed out—there are several different types of observances involved when you consider the different branches of Christendom.

But, as we shall see, these occasions are memorial observances of only the FIRST step in God’s Plan. For most professing Christians, all the other stages of God’s Plan are NOT observed in any way—and are therefore not understood in any way! Yet God has a “seven-step” plan—as are so many things God does revealed in patterns of seven. For in the beginning, God created the seven-day week (Genesis 1). The seventh day was revealed to be His Holy Sabbath (2:1–3). Later He gave exactly SEVEN annual Holy Days to reveal His overall plan and purpose in dealing with humanity (Leviticus 23). In the New Testament, we find the SEVEN Churches of Revelation described (Revelation 2–3). We read of the SEVEN seals, the SEVEN trumpets, the SEVEN last plagues, etc. For seven is the number of completion or perfection.

Therefore, when we understand, it should seem ridiculous to observe just ONE of God’s annual Festivals picturing His Plan and OMIT all the others! As a “preview” of what is to come, let us very briefly examine all seven of God’s annual, spiritual Festivals so we can better understand His Plan and PURPOSE in these Festivals as we go along.

First comes the solemn observance of Christ’s suffering and death on our behalf. The Bible calls this the “Passover.” It pictures our acceptance of Christ’s broken body and shed blood, which He offered as our Savior. But remember, this is only the first step in God’s Plan for us! Next, we need to GROW in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18) and begin to put our old sinful ways and habits completely out of our lives. This “overcoming” process is pictured by the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Third, all of us together in the spirit-begotten Church—the “little flock” (Luke 12:32)—are only the “firstfruits” of the great spiritual harvest that will occur after Christ’s Second Coming. So God’s third annual Festival, the Feast of Pentecost or Feast of “Firstfruits” pictures the fact that only a very small spiritual harvest is being reaped by God at this time. God is NOT TRYING to “save” the whole world now. Otherwise He would be doing so—and the BILLIONS of unbelievers of past ages and even in our present day in China, India and other nations would quickly come to full understanding of the true God and genuine acceptance of His Son as their Lord and Savior!

END-Time Events Pictured in the SEVENTH Month

Fourth, the cataclysmic events at the END of this present age and Christ’s return to earth are pictured by the Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24). Trumpets were literally used in ancient Israel as alarms of war. In our day, at the climax of a series of wars and worldwide upheavals, Jesus Christ will return and the dead will be raised “at the LAST TRUMPET” (1 Corinthians 15:51–52).

Then, immediately after Christ’s return, Satan is supernaturally bound and put into the bottomless pit “so that he should DECEIVE the nations NO MORE” (Revelation 20:3). Finally, with Satan bound, man can become “at one” with God. This is clearly pictured by the fifth spiritual Festival—the Day of Atonement.

After Christ’s return, God pours out His Spirit and begins to enlighten all humanity with the true understanding of His great PLAN. At that time, God says, “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). This is pictured by our joyous observance of the sixth Festival in God’s Plan—the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles or “Feast of Ingathering” (Exodus 34:22).

God’s Holy Day calendar is based upon the harvest seasons of Israel. As indicated, this pictures for us the spiritual harvest God plans to reap. First, the small spring harvest pictured by the “Feast of Firstfruits.” Finally, at the END of this age, the massive autumn harvest is pictured by the “Feast of Ingathering.”

Now, we come to the seventh and final spiritual Festival God gave His people. “But what part of His plan could still be left to picture?” you might ask. As shown earlier, even at the end of Christ’s 1,000-year reign there will be the untold BILLIONS of people of past ages who NEVER UNDERSTOOD virtually anything about the true God, about Jesus Christ or about God’s purpose for their lives. What will happen to these “unsaved” billions of human beings since “there is NO PARTIALITY with God”? (Romans 2:11). The solemn seventh Festival of God pictures the time when God will—for the FIRST time—open their minds to understand His Word and His will and give them a genuine opportunity to have their names written in the “Book of Life” (Revelation 20:11–12).

With the observance of this seventh Festival that we call the “Last Great Day” (John 7:37), we finish the portrayal of the entire PLAN of our Creator. From our first acceptance of Christ as Savior to the picturing of His Second Coming all the way until the Last Great Day picturing the time when ALL human beings will finally have a real opportunity for salvation—these God-given, God-inspired Festivals picture the REAL plan of God. The pagan religious festivals that Satan has foisted off on a deceived humanity are indeed a cheap substitute. For, in reality, they picture a false god, a false Christ and lead to the acceptance of a false gospel, which directly contradicts the true message that Christ and the Apostles preached!

These seven Festivals—two lasting seven days and five lasting one day—make 19 annual Feast days each year. Seven of these 19 days are special rest days or “Sabbaths.” These seven annual Sabbaths—also known as God’s annual Holy Days—are the First and Last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the First Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day.

As we will see in this booklet, God’s Holy Days are far more than just days on which we cease from our normal work; they are far more than mere civil holidays. Other Jewish holidays, such as Hanukkah and Purim, played an important part in the civil life of the Jewish nation and are important to many Jews today. Yet those civil holidays are not Feasts of the Lord, as listed in Leviticus 23. They may be joyous national celebrations, like the Thanksgiving Day festivities held in the United States and Canada—but just as one would not expect a British citizen to observe Canada’s Thanksgiving, one would not expect a non-Jew to find relevance in a holiday established by the Jewish nation-state. And God did NOT command that these civil holidays be kept, as He commanded the observance of the Feasts listed in Leviticus 23.

Now, let us retrace and fully understand the meaning and purpose of each of the SEVEN RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS that God gave for all mankind to keep. Remember, understanding and observing these Festivals helps us keep in mind the great MASTER PLAN of our Creator whereby He intends to enlighten and ultimately to save the vast majority of humankind.

Step 1:
The Passover

Perhaps millions or even billions of years ago, God decided to bring forth creatures who would become His real sons and daughters. Beings who would come right out from Him, having His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), His very CHARACTER placed within them through the Holy Spirit.

They must not be merely created beings like the angels. They must have free moral agency—the capacity to “choose” between good and evil. And they must prove by a lifetime of overcoming that they would always choose God’s way, yield to Him, serve Him and NEVER turn aside as did Satan and one-third of the original angels (Revelation 12:4; cf. 1:20).

Therefore, God decided that He would create the human race in His own image—having His form and shape and certain God-like capabilities, such as genuine mind power, creative imagination, freedom of choice, etc. God would allow humanity to SIN—under the influence of the fallen archangel Lucifer who has now become Satan the Devil. He would allow humans to go their own way for the first 6,000 years of human history. They would write the lessons of life through human experience and suffering yet, for the most part, not really LEARN those lessons until such time as God chose to supernaturally “call” each individual to genuine understanding and repentance (John 6:44).

Since SIN in any form is rebellion against God, it is a truly horrible thing. And since God has decreed that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), God decided long ago that only the DEATH of His own Son, Jesus Christ, could truly atone for the awfulness of sin. “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love…. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:4, 7).

God told ancient Israel that the “life of the flesh is in the BLOOD” (Leviticus 17:11). So God planned that His own Son’s blood would be shed. Christ would be the ultimate Passover Lamb—reconciling all true Christians to God the Father. “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). And again, “Much more then, having now been justified by His BLOOD, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:9).

Weeks before they came to Mount Sinai and before the Old Covenant was even proposed, God told the people of Israel to set aside an unblemished male lamb (Exodus 12:3–6). This lamb was to be the “Passover lamb” and was to be slain on the eve of the 14th day of Abib—the first month of the year in God’s sacred calendar.

God had determined to destroy ALL the firstborn in Egypt because of Pharoah’s refusal to let His people go. But God told the Israelites that if they would obey Him and kill and eat the Passover lamb—putting some of its blood on their doorposts and lintels of their homes—then “when I see the blood, I will PASS OVER you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a MEMORIAL; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an EVERLASTING ordinance” (vv. 13–14).

So, more than 1,400 years ahead of time, God guided an entire nation of some three million people to preenact the awesome SACRIFICE that His own Son, Jesus Christ, would later make on behalf of all humanity. For the slaying of the Passover lamb directly portrays the sacrifice of Christ—the first step in God’s Plan to make human beings His full sons and daughters.

The Passover pictures the fact that we are “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had PASSED OVER the sins that were previously committed” (Romans 3:24–25).

Every true Christian is commanded by God to KEEP the Passover! It is to be observed once a year as God commanded—on the very night in which Jesus was delivered to be crucified. The Apostle Paul explains: “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the SAME NIGHT in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23–26).

Notice that first comes the partaking of the bread. This pictures Christ’s body, which is “broken” for us (v. 24). God’s Word clearly shows that Jesus suffered a horrible beating or “scourging” just before He was crucified. The historians tell us that this Roman scourging was done with a leather whip in which were fastened sharp pieces of metal designed to cut and tear the flesh. Because of the violence of this scourging and resultant loss of blood, many condemned prisoners died of the scourging itself even before they could be crucified.

WHY did Jesus have to go through this awful beating?

About 700 years before it occurred, God inspired the prophet Isaiah to describe what would happen and why: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4–5).

By Jesus’ stripes we are HEALED! And it is more technically correct to translate the phrase, “He has borne our griefs” as, “He has borne our SICKNESSES.” In the New Testament, Matthew describes Jesus healing many people who were sick, and then cites this as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses'” (Matthew 8:16–17).

So when we eat the broken bread at Passover, we are reaffirming our acceptance of Christ’s broken body for our physical HEALING. Let us appreciate these vital symbols of our Savior’s sacrifice with deep humility, awe and FAITH in the Great God who made our physical healing and our spiritual forgiveness possible!

Next, at the Passover service, we should partake of red wine to symbolize the shed blood of Jesus Christ in full payment for our sins. It is important to understand that Christ is our CREATOR. Therefore, His life is worth more than all of ours put together. The Gospel of John tells us this about Jesus Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made…. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:1–3, 10–11). So the Personality who had been with the Father from eternity “emptied” Himself (cf. Philippians 2:7, NRSV) of His divine glory and power and became our Savior. But in the beginning, it was Christ Himself who created mankind and all that is—acting, of course, for the Father. Ephesians 3 tells us that God “created ALL THINGS through Jesus Christ” (v. 9).

No wonder the Bible speaks of the “precious” blood of Jesus Christ! For His is the blood of the Great Being who acted for the Father in creating the vast heavens, the earth and all that is.

When we partake of the red wine symbolizing this awesome act of total humility on the part of our Creator, it should fill us with a deep sense of appreciation and WORSHIP toward our God and our Savior. If we have truly repented of our sins and accepted Christ as our Savior, we should have total FAITH that we have not been “redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19).

Step 2:
The Feast of Unleavened Bread

Through the Passover sacrifice of Christ we are justified, forgiven of our past sins and “made right” in relation to God. “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:9). But even though we are now forgiven our past sins, how will we become “overcomers” and put sin completely out of our lives?

The Festival of Unleavened Bread provides the answer. And it pictures the next step in God’s Plan. Right after commanding the Passover, God told Moses: “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance” (Exodus 12:15–17).

Notice! As the Festival of Unleavened Bread was the time when God delivered Israel from Egypt—a symbol or “type” of SIN—so the symbolism of this Festival pictures true Christians coming out of spiritual Egypt—SIN! Leaven itself, of course, is also a symbol of sin. For when Jesus wanted to warn the disciples about the treacherous, sinful teachings of the Pharisees, He said to them, “Take heed and beware of the LEAVEN of the Pharisees and the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6). Literal leaven causes bread to rise, to “puff up,” just as the attitude of sin—or self will—causes us to puff up and “do our own thing.” And leaven tends to spread itself through dough just as unchecked SIN tends to spread through the Church! Therefore the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians: “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:6–7).

Many nominal Christians believe that we are “saved” when our sins are forgiven. And, indeed, we are at that time saved from the death penalty incurred by our past sins. But we can still fall away and lose out on salvation (Hebrews 6:4–8; 10:26–31; 1 Corinthians 9:27). Salvation is a process. We are now “being saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18) and ultimately “shall be saved”—if we endure to the end (Matthew 24:13). Paul explains, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His LIFE” (Romans 5:10). If we observe just the Passover, we leave God’s plan incomplete. We leave Jesus hanging dead on the cross—end of story! Yet remember—our Savior rose again! And it is through His resurrected life that we shall be saved.

Jesus told His followers, “If you want to enter into [eternal] life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17). He also told us to “repent” (Mark 1:15)—that is, turn completely away from sin and go the other way, the way of righteousness. In other words, God requires that we make a covenant with Him to put sin out of our lives—to stop breaking His spiritual law and start keeping it. And then He expects us to follow through.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Many will say this verse proves that we need not do anything more than receive God’s free gift—that we do not need to keep God’s law. But how shortsighted a point of view this is, when you consider the very next verse, in which Paul explained that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (v. 10). Indeed, our whole way of life must change from disobeying God to obeying Him. Of course, He knows that we will not succeed perfectly in this while still in the flesh (Romans 7:18, 24; 1 John 1:8–10). But He still requires that we grow in His character through a process of striving against and overcoming sin (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:24–27; Revelation 2:11; 3:21; 21:7). Our past sinful life must be “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). We are baptized as a symbol of our old nature being figuratively buried with Christ, then raised from the “watery grave” of baptism as a symbolic “resurrection” to new life in Christ. That being so, we should from then on live according to His way. The Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures this process of living His way, putting sin out of our lives.

So Paul commanded the Gentile Church at Corinth: “Therefore let us KEEP THE FEAST [the Feast of Unleavened Bread!], not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8).

Obviously, this is a New Testament command to KEEP the Feast of Unleavened Bread! And this command was given to a primarily Gentile Church—so there was not any “Judaism” here! In verse 7, Paul links the unleavened bread Festival with the Passover that immediately precedes it. For again, Passover deals with forgiveness of past sins whereas the Festival of Unleavened Bread deals with the “follow through”—the determination, with God’s help, to GROW in grace and in knowledge “to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

So how are Christians to keep this Feast? As it approaches each year, true followers of New Testament Christianity are to remove leavening (and bread products that are already leavened) from their homes and property. Then for seven days they are to eat no leaven. (Incidentally, there is nothing wrong with literal leaven itself. It is simply a symbol for sin during this Feast.) And as they go through this Festival, if they happen across some leaven in their homes that they had previously overlooked, they are to put that out as well (Exodus 13:7).

While they search about their property doing this “spring cleaning,” they should remember that, just as crumbs of leavened bread may fall into various nooks and crannies around their homes, so sin may be lurking in the hidden corners of their lives. Indeed, they may be quite surprised at some of the places they find leavening! Christians should be asking God to thoroughly clean them up and scrub them out spiritually—even showing them parts of their minds that they did not know were harboring sin.

For seven days—the number of perfection—true followers of New Testament Christianity are to put leaven out of their homes and off their property. They are to focus on getting completely RID of sin. They are to remind themselves through the observance of these God-commanded actions that they have a continuing responsibility before God to overcome themselves, the world and Satan the Devil. This is the true meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread!

Step 3:
Pentecost

As we have seen, each of God’s commanded Holy Days builds on the previous one in picturing for us the great Master Plan that God has in mind for humanity. Passover pictures our acceptance of Christ’s broken body and shed blood—our forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Unleavened Bread pictures the need to come out of sin and to grow in grace and in knowledge.

In describing how New Testament Christians can go above and beyond the carnal Israelites of old, the inspired writer of Hebrews tells us: “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it” (Hebrews 4:1–2). Through receiving the promised Holy Spirit, New Testament Christians can have genuine FAITH in God—far more fully understand His purpose—and be given a measure of God’s own character to help them overcome sin and grow in grace and in knowledge.

Speaking of the magnificent promises of God, Peter writes that “through these you may be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE” (2 Peter 1:4). Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God places within us His very own nature—His divine character—as we walk with Him and grow spiritually. This is what enables us to genuinely overcome sin—in contrast to the ancient Israelites, who never received the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Coming soon after the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost or Feast of “Firstfruits” (Exodus 34:22) reminds us that God is now calling only a small “firstfruits” spiritual harvest, but that He will bless this small harvest by EMPOWERING us with His Spirit so that we can overcome and grow spiritually even though living in “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).

In commanding the Feast of Firstfruits to ancient Israel, God told the Israelites to bring a sheaf of the “firstfruits” of the spring grain harvest to the priest (Leviticus 23:10). He was to wave this sheaf—in a solemn ceremony—to be accepted by God and thus obtain God’s blessing on this spring harvest and spiritually depict the resurrected Christ being accepted by the Father as the “first of the firstfruits”—the first human to be actually born of God by a resurrection. The “waving ceremony” took place on the Sunday immediately following the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread (v. 11). If you compare Matthew 28:9 with John 20:17, you will see that Christ presented Himself to the Father after His resurrection the previous evening (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23; Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:15, 18).

The Israelites were to count 50 days beginning with this Sunday: “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord” (Leviticus 23:15–17). Pentecost literally means “50th.” By counting exactly 50 days from a designated Sunday, they would always end up a Sunday seven weeks later—but not, obviously, on any particular day of the month. If Pentecost had been commanded to be kept on a particular day of the month, the Bible would have clearly said so—and there would be no need to “count”!

Then, on the day of Pentecost or “Firstfruits,” they were to offer two “wave loaves.” It was stated that these wave loaves “are the FIRSTFRUITS to the Lord” (v. 17). These “firstfruit” loaves evidently pictured both the Old Testament and New Testament people of God—since even the Old Testament prophets had the Holy Spirit of God (cf. 1 Peter 1:10–11).

Again, one of the lessons of the “firstfruits” is that God is only calling out a small number of people—the “firstfruits”—in this age. As we have stated, the early spring harvest in Israel was a small harvest compared to the major harvest that came in the autumn.

So it is today spiritually. Jesus Christ said: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are FEW who find it” (Matthew 7:13–14). And John reports Christ’s powerful warning: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day…. And He said, ‘Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father'” (John 6:44, 65).

Strange as it may seem to millions of “mainstream” Christians who have been taught that God is trying to “save” the world now, the true God of the Bible is trying to do no such thing! If He were, then the vast BILLIONS of human beings who have lived for millennia in India, China, Africa and elsewhere would have been “called” to Christianity. But the vast majority of them lived and died never hearing the name of Christ!

The Feast of Pentecost or “Firstfruits” reminds us, year by year that those few called out of this world today are only the “firstfruits” and that a FAR LARGER harvest of souls will occur later—as we shall see. And as we read of the “outpouring” of the Holy Spirit on the first New Testament Day of Pentecost, we can be inspired that though small in number—we “called out ones” today have the POWER of the Holy Spirit to do the Work of God, as well as overcome ourselves with help never before given to human beings.

For the inspired Peter proclaimed: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38–39). Then we read Paul’s inspired words in Romans 5: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (v. 5).

And what kind of love is this poured out by the Holy Spirit? The Apostle John clearly stated, “For this is the love of God, that we KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Through the Holy Spirit, we receive the spiritual love of God—the kind of love we must have to fulfill God’s great spiritual law, the Ten Commandments, and build the very character of God. Yearly, the Day of Pentecost reminds us of our unique calling and of the strength we are given through God’s Spirit to make our “calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10).

The Holy Days — God's Master Plan

* Passover		Feast of Unleavened Bread	Day of Pentecost	Feast of Trumpets
Old Testament meaning
A lamb was sacrificed and its blood placed around the doors of Israelite houses in Egypt, which God "passed over" when slaying the Egyptian firstborn. (Leviticus 23:5)		A seven-day festival during which leavening (such as yeast, which causes bread to rise when baking) is put out of dwellings and is not eaten. (Leviticus 23:6-14)	A day celebrating the gathering in of the first and smaller of the two annual harvests; observed 50 days from a fixed point in the previous Feast. (Leviticus 23:15-22)	Called Rosh Hashana by the Jews; a day of rejoicing marked by the blowing of trumpets. (Leviticus 23:23-25)
New Testament meaning
Pictures Jesus Christ's shedding His blood for the sins of mankind.		Pictures the Christian's duty to "put out sin" from a life yielded to Jesus Christ.	Pictures the Christian's receiving God's Holy Spirit.	Pictures a time of war and plagues, concluding with Jesus Christ's Second Coming.
2007	Apr 2	Apr 3 - 9	May 27	Sep 13
2008	Apr 19	Apr 20 - 26	Jun 8	Sep 30
2009	Apr 8	Apr 9 - 15	May 31	Sep 19
2010	Mar 29	Mar 30 - Apr 5	May 23	Sep 9
2011	Apr 18	Apr 19 - 25	June 12	Sep 29
2012	Apr 6	Apr 7 - 13	May 27	Sep 17
2013	Mar 25	Mar 26 - Apr 1	May 19	Sep 5
2014	Apr 14	Apr 15 -21	June 8	Sep 25
2015	Apr 3	Apr 4 - 10	May 24	Sep 14
2016	Apr 22	Apr 23 - 29	June 12	Oct 3
2017	Apr 10	Apr 11 - 17	June 4	Sept 21
2018	Mar 30	Mar 31 - Apr 6	May 20	Sept 10
2019	Apr 19	Apr 20 - 26	Jun 9	Sept 30
2020	Apr 8	Apr 9 - 15	May 31	Sept 19
2021	Mar 27	Mar 28 - Apr 3	May 16	Sept 7

(continuation)

Day of Atonement		Feast of Tabernacles	Last Great Day
Old Testament meaning
A day of fasting and repentance, known to the Jews as Yom Kippur (Leviticus 23:26-32)		A seven-day celebration of the great fall harvest, observed by living in temporary dwellings for the duration of the Feast. (Leviticus 23:33-43)	Adjacent to the Feast of Tabernacles, this eighth day is considered a separate Feast. (Leviticus 23:36, 39)
New Testament meaning
Pictures the binding of Satan at the beginning of the Millennium and the world becoming at one with God.		Pictures the Millennium, when the earth will be ruled by Jesus Christ and His saints.	Pictures the coming "Great White Throne Judgment" at which all of humanity not previously called will have the chance to hear the True Gospel and accept salvation.
2007	Sep 22	Sep 27 - Oct 3	Oct 4
2008	Oct 9	Oct 14 - 20	Oct 21
2009	Sep 28	Oct 3 - 9	Oct 10
2010	Sep 18	Sep 23 - 29	Sep 30
2011	Oct 8	Oct 13 - 19	Oct 20
2012	Sep 26	Oct 1 - 7	Oct 8
2013	Sep 14	Sep 19 - 25	Sep 26
2014	Oct 4	Oct 9 -15	Oct 16
2015	Sep 23	Sep 28 - Oct 4	Oct 5
2016	Oct 12	Oct 17 - 23	Oct 24
2017	Sept 30	Oct 5 - 11	Oct 12
2018	Sept 19	Sept 24 - 30	Oct 1
2019	Oct 9	Oct 14 - 20	Oct 21
2020	Sept 28	Oct 3 - 9	Oct 10
2021	Sept 16	Sept 21 - 27	Sept 28

* Observed the previous evening after sunset

Step 4:
The Feast of Trumpets

The first three of God’s commanded Festivals come in the spring. They all picture spiritual aspects of the Plan of God. The last four Festivals all fall in the seventh month—the month of finality or completion—and picture the completion of God’s plan on earth.

The Feast of Trumpets occurs on the very first day of the seventh month of God’s sacred calendar. It ushers in the final events of God’s Plan. It pictures the MASSIVE intervention of God in human affairs—climaxing in the Second Coming of Christ as King of kings. Notice God’s original command to ancient Israel: “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of TRUMPETS, a holy convocation'” (Leviticus 23:24).

In Israel, the blowing of trumpets was used as a signal for the people to assemble, to take some action—or as an alarm of WAR (Numbers 10:1–10). Therefore, being placed as it is just before the final events of this age, the Feast of Trumpets clearly signifies the soon-coming time of world upheaval, chaos and war that virtually all the prophecies of the Bible show will immediately precede Christ’s return.

It should be noted that trumpets were also used to herald the coronation of a new king, as in the case of Israel’s King Solomon (1 Kings 1:34, 39). And the peaceful rule of Solomon, following the wars of his father David, was a type of the coming rule of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Kings 4:25; 1 Chronicles 28:5).

This evil age of human self-rule will end with the human race standing on the very threshold of mass extinction. Indeed, the Bible has much to say about a terrible World War to come that will engulf the whole earth in the near future. To learn about this horrific time called the “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21) and the circumstances that will bring it about, please write for our informative booklets, The Beast of Revelation and What’s Ahead for America and Britain? Both are available free of charge.

Thankfully—before it is all over—God’s intervention will prevent humanity from utterly destroying itself (v. 22). For then the day of man will be over—and the Day of the Lord will commence. Yet it will not begin with peace and joy for everyone. Rather, the Almighty will have to enforce peace upon rebellious humanity—by first breaking its stubborn will. Thus, our Creator will intervene to show HIS POWER and remind a wayward civilization that HE is the ultimate RULER of heaven and earth.

Notice Joel’s inspired prophecy: “Blow the TRUMPET in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand” (Joel 2:1). So the blowing of trumpets here sounds an “alarm” that the prophesied “Day of the Lord is at hand”!

Picturing the time when the Israelites are released from captivity at Christ’s Second Coming and are brought back to the land of Israel, the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed: “So it shall be in that day that the great TRUMPET will be blown; they will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, and they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13).

Of course, the “trumpet plagues” are described in Revelation 8 and 9. Coming after the Great Tribulation, these awesome plagues will literally SHAKE this earth like nothing ever has before. At a time when the prophesied Beast and False Prophet (cf. Revelation 13:15–18) have just destroyed millions of lives with awesome technological weapons of war, then the great God intervenes to show HIS POWER and remind a rebellious civilization that He is the ultimate RULER of heaven and earth. “So the seven angels who had the SEVEN TRUMPETS prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up” (8:6–7).

Finally, the Living Jesus Christ supernaturally intervenes to SAVE a rebellious humanity and to bring genuine PEACE to the world. “Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!'” (11:15).

So Christ will return at the seventh trump! “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a TRUMPET, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29–31).

What is the significance of Christ sending angels to gather His elect at this time? As the Apostle Paul wrote regarding Christ’s return at the last trumpet: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). But notice what he further stated: “For since by man [Adam] came death, by Man [Christ] also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits [i.e. the first of the firstfruits], afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming [i.e. the rest of the firstfruits]” (vv. 21–23). And when will it all happen? Paul wrote: “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMPET. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (vv. 51–52). Perhaps there is nothing more encouraging than this amazing fact.

Can we picture a great blinding LIGHT so radiant that humans cannot even look at it? That is how the risen Christ’s face will look as He returns in GLORY. Can we picture a massive TRUMPET BLAST literally SHAKING the earth and Christ returning as King of kings? Can we picture the true saints of God rising to meet Christ in the air and then descending with Him to the Mount of Olives to join Him in RULING this rebellious planet? (cf. Zechariah 14:1–4, 9; Revelation 2:26–27).

All of these things will occur at the seventh trumpet! For although the Feast of Trumpets pictures the horrifying upsets and WARS and PLAGUES at the end of this human civilization, it also pictures the glorious DIVINE INTERVENTION of the Creator God who will finally restore order and bring genuine PEACE and JOY to a chastened humanity that is finally ready to “listen” to God and follow His righteous ways.

Step 5:
The Day of Atonement

Following the enormous “shaking” of the nations and Christ’s return in mighty power, the next step in God’s Master Plan is for the peoples of the earth to become “at one” with God. Then they can willingly learn God’s ways and be blessed.

But today, the nations are rebelling against God and His ways because they have been DECEIVED. In His wisdom and infinite mercy, God has made all human beings free moral agents. He knew that mankind would desperately want to try to do things his own way before finally learning that GOD’S way is right. Therefore, God has allowed humanity to be deceived—to be mainly “cut off” from God through these past 6,000 years of human history.

In His revealed Word, God clearly tells us that Satan the Devil is the “god” of this present world, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). Again, Paul was inspired to write: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1–2).

Satan the Devil, the “prince of this world,” as Jesus called him (John 14:30, KJV), is working overtime to deceive humanity. Being the “prince of the power of the air,” Satan “broadcasts”—just like radio and television. But he spiritually broadcasts wrong attitudes and ideas. He makes mankind feel that God is either “dead” or that He is not “real,” that He is an ethereal God, a “blind force” way off somewhere and, always, that mankind does NOT need to obey God’s law and literally follow His ways, the Ten Commandments and keep holy His weekly Sabbaths and annual Festivals like Christ and the original Apostles did do—setting us an example.

The beloved Apostle John wrote: “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who DECEIVES THE WHOLE WORLD; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:9).

The Apostle Peter was inspired to warn us: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a ROARING LION, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Peter 5:8–9).

Therefore, at the beginning of Christ’s reign—IF there is to be genuine peace and a right spirit among men—Satan the Devil must be banished! Notice the commandment regarding the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 23:27–28: “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.” This day was to be a “statute” FOREVER to the people of God. As we have seen, even the Apostle to the Gentiles was obviously KEEPING the Day of Atonement in a Roman prison ship in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea—years after everything was supposed to have been nailed to the cross! (Acts 27:9).

A very clear indication of the real meaning of Atonement is given in Leviticus 16. Here we find an Old Testament ritual wherein two goats were to be presented before the High Priest. In Israel, “casting lots” was an appeal to GOD to decide a matter. So Aaron was to “cast lots” to find what each of these goats represented (Leviticus 16:8). One was to represent “the Lord”—the God of Israel who later emptied Himself and became our Savior (1 Corinthians 10:4). The other goat was to represent Azazel, which is a term—as many Hebrew references explain—for the “adversary,” Satan the Devil!

The goat representing the “Lord” was to DIE. God told Aaron to “offer it as a SIN offering” (Leviticus 16:9) just as Jesus Christ gave His life for our sins. But regarding the “adversary goat,” God commanded: “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the INIQUITIES of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness” (vv. 21–22). Then the man who led this goat symbolizing Satan into the “wilderness” was to bathe his body and even his clothing (v. 26) for, symbolically, he had come into direct contact with the very embodiment of evil—Satan the Devil!

He had been used to separate Satan from the people of God. He had led the “adversary” goat to a wilderness—FAR AWAY—where he (Satan symbolically) could not hurt or deceive God’s people anymore!

When was this ceremony to be carried out? “This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month” (v. 29). Though the ancient Israelites understood that this ceremony was to be part of the observance of the Day of Atonement, very few grasped the real spiritual meaning this should have for New Testament Christians. For how could they, since they were blinded even to the meaning of the first goat—the Messiah—when He came to this earth to die for their sins?

Yet the New Testament shows that this is exactly what happens when Christ returns. Jesus’ return as King of kings is described in Revelation 19:11–21. Then, in Revelation 20, we read that a mighty angel is appointed to remove Satan. “He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (vv. 2–3). Clearly Satan—the “Azazel” or adversary—is CUT OFF from humanity so he is unable to DECEIVE mankind during the one thousand year reign of Christ!

That is why humanity will quickly become “at one” with God’s ways—NO MORE SATANIC INFLUENCE. That is why, during the glorious reign of Christ, “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).

And Isaiah further explains how at the time the blindness of humanity is fully removed, “He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken” (25:7–8). So with “Satan’s Broadcasting System” shut down and the BLINDNESS of humanity removed, man can indeed become “at one” with God. For Christ will have paid our part in our sins, but Satan the Devil will certainly be utterly banished to a symbolic “wilderness” or “bottomless pit” and be restrained and held in this kind of a prison for his part in our sins.

God is just! He will place on Satan’s own head the enormous GUILT he bears for stirring up mankind against God, for DECEIVING humanity into thinking God is “unfair” and that His laws and righteous ways are not good. Finally, again, humanity will learn to APPRECIATE God and His ways, to genuinely LOVE and WORSHIP the true God of the Bible. For at this point, the “atonement” for humanity’s sins will be complete.

Step 6:
The Feast of Tabernacles

After Satan is put away, the next stage of God’s Plan is the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ as King of kings. This involves Christ and the resurrected saints teaching ALL of humanity the ways of God. It involves the MASSIVE “fall harvest” of saints—the time when everyone then living will finally learn the ways of God and have full opportunity—without Satan’s deceptions—to serve and obey the Creator.

In Leviticus 23:34, God commanded this Festival to ancient Israel, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.'” So the Feast of Tabernacles was to last seven days. It pictures the seventh millennial day or 1,000-year period of human history—coming just ahead of us. In Leviticus 23, it is called the Feast of Tabernacles or “booths”—to remind Israel that they were “sojourners” in the land. Spiritually it reminds Christians that we are—as our father Abraham—”strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13) looking forward to the Kingdom of God.

But in Exodus 23 we find an autumn Festival described as “the Feast of INGATHERING, which is at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field” (v. 16). So it also pictures and celebrates the great fall harvest in Israel—picturing for Christians the great spiritual harvest of souls to be reaped during the one thousand year reign of Christ!

As we have already seen, at that time the earth will become “full of the knowledge of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:9). And “they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.” There will be an outpouring of peace and JOY such as the world has never experienced: “No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain JOY and GLADNESS, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (35:9–10).

The inspired Peter called this period the “times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of ALL His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). Indeed, literally scores of prophecies throughout the Old and New Testaments speak of the time of Christ’s return, of all the world coming to understand, and of genuine peace and safety permeating the earth because humanity will be learning God’s righteous LAWS and practicing His entire way of life:

“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the LAW, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:2–4).

When the modern Israelites return from their end-time captivity: “They shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations…. Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; EVERLASTING JOY shall be theirs” (Isaiah 61:4, 7).

The millennial reign of Christ is definitely the time prophesied by Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when 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 lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put MY LAW in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:31–33).

For God’s magnificent spiritual law, the Ten Commandments, has NEVER been done away! But they have been “magnified” by Jesus Christ and made even more binding, so that we are to keep, not only the letter but the spiritual intent of God’s law. So we do not merely refrain from murder, we refrain from enmity and hate and the attitude of murder (Matthew 5:21–22). We are taught not only to forsake adultery, but not even to “look on” a woman to lust after her! (vv. 27–28).

During the Millennium, God’s laws are to be written in the hearts and minds of His people all over the earth. For God’s laws expresses His very CHARACTER—the character He demands that we develop in order to be kings and priests forever in His Kingdom! This blessing will be afforded ALL MANKIND during the wonderful “Feast of Ingathering,” the 1,000-year reign of Christ here on this earth. Revelation 20 tells us: “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (v. 6).

So all true Christians should be preparing NOW to learn and PRACTICE God’s laws and His way of life so that they will be able to TEACH these things to others in Christ’s soon-coming world government. The inspired Apostle Paul admonishes true Christians: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:2–3).

Will just the “true Christians” or the Israelites observe the Feast of Tabernacles? Notice Zechariah 14:1–4: “Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.” Then read verse 9, “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—’The Lord is one,’ and His name one.” And read verses 16–19, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of ALL the nations that do not come up to KEEP THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.”

The above verses should make it very clear that ALL nations will learn to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in a very few years under the immediate direction of Jesus Christ. Even the Egyptians, who may at first have resentments against anything “Jewish,” will, learn to OBSERVE the Feast of Tabernacles—and ALL of God’s commanded Festivals.

Step 7:
The Last Great Day

Is this the ONLY day of salvation? The overwhelming majority of ministers, priests and “mainstream” Christians would resoundingly answer “YES.”

But these same people utterly fail to realize the depth, breadth and width of the massive DECEPTION Satan the Devil has perpetrated on a confused humanity. As we have seen, the Bible clearly says that Satan “deceives the WHOLE WORLD” (Revelation 12:9). Again, Satan is the “god” of this present age (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). People generally follow Satan’s ways—not God’s.

The Last Great Day pictures the amazing truth that God is NOT TRYING to save the world now! If the great GOD who made the universe were actually “trying” to save humanity, He would succeed. The BILLIONS of people in Asia, Africa and elsewhere would all become good Christians in short order! Yet the fact is that the OVERWHELMING majority of people throughout human history have NEVER subscribed to—or even been exposed to—any form of Christianity. And so it remains until this very day!

What is the REAL answer to this dilemma?

First of all, the Son of God stated plainly: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber…. Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep'” (John 10:1, 7). And He inspired the Apostle Peter to declare about Himself: “This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11–12). So you either accept Christ—the TRUE Christ of the Bible—or you do not. And if you truly accept Christ as your Savior AND your Lord, you will surrender to Him and let Him rule your life. As Christ commanded, you will keep the Ten Commandments as a way of life (Matthew 19:17) You will let Christ live His Obedient life in you through the Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:20). And if you do not, you are NOT a Christian and you yourself may be BLINDED. It is just that simple.

The overwhelming majority of mankind has been BLINDED to the knowledge of the true God and the true Christ. And yet again, God’s inspired Word tells us, “For there is NO RESPECT of persons with God” (Romans 2:11, KJV). And the Apostle Peter stated, when God began to call a few Gentiles to repentance, “Of a truth I perceive that God is NO RESPECTER of persons” (Acts 10:34, KJV).

Is God contradicting Himself? Of course not! For God has NEVER said that He is trying save everyone “now”! God has said, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). It is God’s will that ALL “come to repentance”—but they certainly HAVE NOT done so in this age! Notice also how the Apostle Paul speaks of “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3–4).

It is simply a matter of TIMING.

For in God’s time—as we shall see—all humans who have EVER lived will be given a real understanding of God’s Master Plan and Purpose, and the vast majority will ACCEPT God’s Truth once their eyes are fully opened. No, it is NOT a “second chance” as some would like to protest. It will be the first genuine opportunity for these people to come to understand the true God and the true Jesus Christ and Their great PURPOSE!

The Bible speaks time and again about a time of “judgment” for ALL humanity. And as used, the term “judgment” does NOT usually mean condemnation but, rather, a time of decision—a time of trial and testing (cf. 1 Peter 4:17). Notice Jesus Christ’s own statements to those cities of His own day who REJECTED Him and His teaching: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the DAY OF JUDGMENT than for you” (Matthew 11:21–22).

The pagan cities who NEVER HEARD of Christ will have a “more tolerable” opportunity in the coming day of judgment. Notice how even the city of Sodom was included in this category: “But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you” (v. 24).

If God judges these people by the same standard as others—which the Bible clearly indicates that He will—then the ancient pagans would have NO CHANCE for eternal life because they clearly did NOT accept Christ as their Savior or obey God’s ways. Again, the ONLY answer is that they will—in a coming judgment period—be given the opportunity to really understand God’s great PURPOSE, to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and then—at that time—to be “judged” by how they respond based on this genuine FIRST OPPORTUNITY for salvation.

But does the Bible indicate that such a time is coming?

Yes, it does! For in Revelation 20, after describing the Millennium and the short period after the Millennium, when Satan is released for a “little while” (v. 3), God goes on to describe a time of “judgment” for the dead people who died before the Millennium began and had never been converted. After describing a great “white throne,” notice what the Apostle John wrote under inspiration: “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works” (vv. 12–13).

When these dead people are seen “standing,” this involves a resurrection! And notice that verse 12 also says that the “books” were opened. The Greek word biblia, from which the word “Bible” is normally translated, is used here. So these people—for the first time—have their minds and hearts opened to the Bible. They also have opportunity to obtain salvation—to have their names written in the “Book of Life.” In this “Great White Throne Judgment Period,” they are truly being “called.” Satan is once again banished. Their minds are now opened to real understanding. In this judgment period, even the inhabitants of Sodom and hundreds of other pagan or deceived cities of the past, may have a better opportunity than some who lived at the time of Christ. For these ancient pagans never before understood virtually ANYTHING about the true God or His ways. They were NOT responsible for being “blinded”!

Countless millions of these men and women of past ages may zealously grasp on to the Truth when they fully understand. They may become better Christians—better servants of God—than many of us who sometimes take God’s precious Truth for granted and are not as zealous as we should be.

How clear!

God will resurrect the countless millions who lived and died long before Christ came and brought the full understanding of salvation. Additional BILLIONS who have lived and died since Jesus Christ, or who now live but are BLINDED to the knowledge of the true God and His purpose—all these will be brought to REAL understanding and repentance! They will be given God’s Holy Spirit—the very nature and character of GOD that will be imparted to them after real repentance and baptism—just as it is to us today. Then they, too, will have an opportunity for some years to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

They will have an opportunity for full salvation—eternal life in the very Kingdom and Family of GOD. It is only a matter that the TIME of their “calling” is later than many of ours—but it is SURE to come!

Then, finally, every single human being who has EVER drawn breath will have had a genuine opportunity for salvation! And so the SEVENTH of God’s Holy Days, the mysterious “eighth day” coming immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles—but as a separate Festival (Leviticus 23:36)—pictures this wonderful time soon after the Millennium when ALL humanity will finally be given an opportunity to understand the Truth.

This is obviously the time Jesus was referring to in John 7: “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'” (vv. 37–38). For in the Great White Throne Judgment “anyone”—EVERYONE who has every lived—will finally have his or her eyes opened and be given the opportunity to respond to God and to receive His Holy Spirit.

With this seventh God-commanded Festival, the picture of God’s Plan is now COMPLETE. In realizing the marvelous wisdom and mercy of God in all of His Plan, we may truly say with the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:32–33: “For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”

Conclusion:
FOLLOW God’s Plan!

If the Living God is opening your mind to His Truth, then you have the responsibility to act on it (James 1:22; 4:17). And to help you in doing so, please be informed that the Living Church of God—which sponsors this booklet and the Tomorrow’s World magazine and telecast—has ordained ministers and local congregations or video groups throughout the world. They meet together for worship regularly each Sabbath and on the annual Holy Days as well.

If you are interested in observing these days with us, please write or phone the Living Church of God office nearest you. All of our office addresses and phone numbers are listed at the end of this booklet. Be assured that no one will call on you unless you request it. If you desire, one of our representatives will set up an appointment at a time and place convenient for you. You will NOT be pressured to “join” anything. In fact, our minister or local representative may suggest that you do further reading, take your time and be sure that you truly want to live by every word of God.

Then, once you do start attending services with God’s people and truly observing His weekly and annual Sabbaths, you can expect to be amazed at how spiritually uplifted you will feel.

Attending services, hearing God’s Truth spoken each week and having the opportunity to fellowship with happy, forward-looking people of like faith will truly be a delight. In all of this, you will be a spiritual “pioneer.” You will have shown your Creator that you are willing to “step out in faith” to obey His inspired Word in spite of possible obstacles and opposition.

In so doing, you will be preparing for the first resurrection, the “better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:35). And if you stand firm in this way of life you will, in the end, hear these encouraging words from Jesus Christ: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you RULER over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matthew 25:21).

We hope to hear from you soon.

Booklet Category

Resurrection

What Happens When You Die?

CHAPTER 1 HEIRS TO A PROMISE

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH?

YOU NEED THE TRUTH!

CHAPTER 2 ETERNAL LIFE: A GIFT

IS THE SOUL IMMORTAL?

MISUNDERSTANDING “PARADISE”

IS GOD FAIR?

CHAPTER 3 THREE RESURRECTIONS

A BLINDED WORLD

THEY ARE NOT LOST FOREVER!

MORE THAN ONE RESURRECTION!

THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT

CHAPTER 4 PUNISHMENT OR PUNISHING?

THE TRUTH ABOUT “HELL”

THREE “HELLS” IN THE BIBLE

CHAPTER 5 THE REWARD OF THE SAVED

A BRIEF APPEARANCE BEFORE THE FATHER!

THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB

A TRANSCENDENT PURPOSE

GLORY BEYOND COMPARE!

CHAPTER 6 THE KINGDOM OF GOD

RULING AND TEACHING ON EARTH

FOUR ELEMENTS OF A KINGDOM

DESTINED FOR RULERSHIP

INTO ETERNITY!

CHAPTER 7 IS GOD CALLING YOU?

RESPOND TO GOD’S CALL!

The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan

REJECTING the Example of Christ and the Apostles

Which Will YOU Choose?

ALL Nations to Observe God’s Holy Days

True Christians are the “Israel of God”

A Preview of the PLAN

END-Time Events Pictured in the SEVENTH Month

Step 1: The Passover

Step 2: The Feast of Unleavened Bread

Step 3: Pentecost

Step 4: The Feast of Trumpets

Step 5: The Day of Atonement

Step 6: The Feast of Tabernacles

Step 7: The Last Great Day

Conclusion: FOLLOW God’s Plan!

CHAPTER 1
HEIRS TO A PROMISE

CHAPTER 2
ETERNAL LIFE: A GIFT

CHAPTER 3
THREE RESURRECTIONS

CHAPTER 4
PUNISHMENT OR PUNISHING?

CHAPTER 5
THE REWARD OF THE SAVED

CHAPTER 6
THE KINGDOM OF GOD

CHAPTER 7
IS GOD CALLING YOU?

Step 1:
The Passover

Step 2:
The Feast of Unleavened Bread

Step 3:
Pentecost

Step 4:
The Feast of Trumpets

Step 5:
The Day of Atonement

Step 6:
The Feast of Tabernacles

Step 7:
The Last Great Day

Conclusion:
FOLLOW God’s Plan!