concluding part
by
Robert Thompson
TWO OVERLAPPING YEARS
The year of jubilee, which was announced every fiftieth
year on the Day of Atonement, typifies the great day of
deliverance for the earth and the appearance of Jesus and the
sons of God. The feast of Trumpets and The Day of Atonement mark
the beginning of the Hebrew agricultural year, just as Passover
marks the beginning of the ceremonial year. The Hebrews had and
still have two overlapping years running concurrently, just as we
Americans today have a calendar year and a fiscal year which
overlap. The Hebrews seem to regard the new year which occurs at
the time of the Day of Atonement (today it is the feast of
Trumpets of Rosh Hashanna - Keith Hunt) as the New Year, just as
Americans regard the calendar year which commences on January 1
as the New Year, while July I, the beginning of the fiscal year,
is not as widely celebrated.
So it is, in a manner of speaking, with us Christians. We
have a "year" that begins with "Passover" and a "year" that
begins with the "Day of Atonement" in our experience of God's
salvation. We commence a whole new way of life at our "Passover"
when by faith we sprinkle the blood of Jesus upon our life and
flee from "Egypt" (the world; the spirit of the age) in the
sacrament of water baptism. The "Passover" experience begins our
life and walk with Go.
A NEW BEGINNING
But when we come in our experience to the Christian
counterparts of the Hebrew convocations of Trumpets and the Day
of Atonement, it is as though we have come to a new beginning. It
is not that we have come to a new Christ, or a new Holy Spirit,
or a now cross. A Christian should never remove the old
landmarks, no matter how advanced in God he thinks he may have
become.
Passover was repeated annually after it was instituted in
Egypt and still, thirty-five hundred years later, is observed
each year by the Jews. This is God's way to have us do a thing
over and over and over until it becomes an integral part of our
personality.... the repetition carves the death of Christ upon
the cross into our personality, and also imbues us with the
concept that we must continually eat the flesh of Christ and
drink His blood. So by talking about a "New Year" with Christ we
are not suggesting that we are to forsake or forget our
experience in Christ up to this time.
The first observance of Passover occurred on the last day
the Jews spent in Egyptian bondage, and the first week of
Unleavened Bread was observed during the first seven days of the
Exodus....
The land of Egypt is symbolic of the spirit of the age in
which we live, and Pharaoh typifies Satan. We observe Christ, our
Passover, on the last day of nor bondage to Satan and his kingdom
of darkness. Then we come out of "Egypt" under the mighty hand of
God. Therefore Passover begins the "first month of the year" to
us (Exod.12:2).
The year which begins with Passover contains the seven
convocations, the last of which takes place in the middle of the
seventh month. The year starting with Passover is a year of
redemption, or salvation. It is a time, symbolically speaking,
during which the Lord God brings a person all the way from the
bondage of Satan and complete personal corruption to a wholly
transformed creature in Christ, recreated in spirit, soul, and
body - a perfect salvation!
The year which begins with Trumpets commences on the first
day of the seventh month. This new year does not go from Passover
to Passover, but rather follows the cycle of agriculture. Whereas
the year which begins with Passover symbolizes the redemptive
revealing of God in Christ, the agricultural year symbolizes the
setting up of the kingdom of God upon the earth.
So it is that we Christians begin a new year, as it were,
when we come to the convocation of Trumpets. This new year
contains the culminating convocations of the work of redemption
(Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles)(and Last Great
feast - Keith Hunt). But now, instead of being a year of
redemptive acts of God toward men, it is the beginning of the
kingdom of God in the earth - a year of doing business in,
through, and with Christ.
As we start our "observance of Trumpets" we can begin to
actually conquer our environment through Christ; we can begin to
become a new creature in our daily living; we can begin to enter
into the rest of God. It is the start of our conquest of the land
of promise, and our rulership in Christ extends on into eternity.
We Christians believe in complete transformation of our
spirit, soul, and body into the express image of Christ. We
believe in the fullness of the indwelling the Father and the Son
through the Holy Spirit. We believe that it is God's will to pour
out upon the Christian disciples the fullness of the anointing of
the Holy Spirit so that we can bear witness to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ to every man, woman, boy, and girl in the world.
Now it is time for us to look steadfastly toward the living
God until total personal transformation, total indwelling, and
total anointing are in our possession and operate in our daily
lives in the earth. Our progress toward absolute victory may be
interrupted briefly by our physical death, or by the hour of
darkness which is coming upon the earth during which no man can
work. But with the exception of this brief interlude, our service
to Christ as kings and priests in the earth will go on throughout
the ages of ages, world without end.
Passover is the beginning and Tabernacles is the ending of
the plan of redemption, all of which is through Christ and is
Christ. Such is the year of redemption. But Trumpets, in the
context of the year which follows the cycle of agriculture,
begins our life which has no conclusion, a fellowship with Christ
in the bosom of the Father. Throughout eternity we will be kings
and priests of God through Christ, and only He will have dominion
over us. One of the great purposes of the working of God in us is
to bring us to the place that only Christ has rule over us. It
takes a lot of doing in a person to bring him to this place!
A REAL DIFFERENCE
As soon as we begin to confess our sins (Christian
counterpart of the Day of Atonement) we notice that something
actually is happening in our personality. It is not the old
hoping against hope that somehow, someday, God is going to do
something about the imperfections of our nature. A difference in
our personality is becoming evident to us and to those around us.
Gradually a reshaping of our deeds, words, motives, and
imaginations occurs, and we can tell the difference in our heart.
The Holy Spirit of God takes the blood of the cross into the
depths of the deceit of our being, bringing the judgment of God
upon the evil nature which has roots and branches throughout the
infinitely convoluted core of our personality, and we are
astonished at the intricate maze of subtleties that can be
uncovered in the desperately wicked heart of a person. We realize
in our spirit that this is the beginning of the year of jubilee
for the earth. The kingdom of God has come to the earth, and it
has begun in us.
It is not a new gospel, as we said before. The foundation of
Christianity is the Rock, Christ Jesus, and Him crucified and
resurrected, and it has been laid well by the Christian ministry.
But the experience of confessing sins under the direction of
the Holy Spirit comes to us with the force and uplift of a "new
year." Victory in spiritual warfare transforms our doctrines
which we have upheld so faithfully into the bone and blood and
flesh of reality.
CONFESSION OF SIN IS NOT NEW
We do not wish to leave the impression that the Christian
church has never experienced the confessing of sins under the
leadership of the Holy Spirit of God...
Also, the writings of the Christian saints will demonstrate,
we believe, that their individual histories illustrate the kinds
of relationships with God that we are suggesting in this
exposition, and that the Holy Spirit made them aware of the
condition of their hearts and of their motives and deeds just as
he makes us aware of our sins in these days. So, then, there is
nothing new about the confession of sins.
The fullness of God has been available to every believer
since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the first century.
True, the church has gone through dark days since then. But
it is there now to turn to the Lord and seek Him with all our
heart, soul, mind, and strength until He comes and rains
righteousness upon us (Hos.10:12).
JUDGMENT BEGINS AT THE HOUSE OF GOD
We must purify ourselves through the power of the Spirit and
the blood of Christ. In the third chapter of I John we find these
words:
"....we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him;
for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope
in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
We Christians hope to be like the righteous Jesus when He
appears. But this is a vain hope unless we obey the Spirit right
now. Every man that has this hope in him purities himself, even
as he is pure. The Lord can't be much plainer than that!
Judgment always begins with the household of God. The nearer
we are to the Lord the stricter the Judgment is, We, of all
people, will be examined to the most minute sin. The prophets can
never speak comfortably to Jerusalem until "she hath received of
the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Isa.40:2).
The world may get by with some things, but the church,
never. The Lord is going to present to Himself a glorious church,
"not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" (Eph.5:27). Any
teaching contrary to this may lead the disciple into the notion
that practical, dally holiness of life is not a necessary part of
Christian discipleship. Such a notion can lead only to
destruction.
LAZARUS THE SYMBOL OF SALVATION
The Christian who has accepted Jesus as his Lord ... but who
has not had the opportunity to confess his sins under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, may be compared to the resurrected
Lazarus. The raising of Lazarus on the fourth day is a picture of
the salvation experience ... Lazarus was raised from the dead by
the Spirit of the Lord but he came forth bound hand and foot with
graveclothes. We too have been raised from the dead by the Spirit
of Christ. But the graveclothes of the sins of the flesh are
hindering us from acting as we would (Ram.7:14-25). The carnal
mind is hostile to the new Spirit whom we have (Gal.5:17). Now
Christ commands, "Loose him, and let him go" (John 11:44).
It may be noticed that Lazarus had received new life from
Jesus, yet his hands and feet were bound, preventing him from
acting and conducting himself as he wished. Jesus had the power
to strike off the graveclothes with a word, just as He did the
chains of Peter in jail (Acts 12:7). But Jesus commanded the
people standing nearby to untie Lazarus.
So it is with us. Jesus has the power to cast off all our
bondages with the word of His power. But in His own wisdom He
directs people to remove our bandages from us. Sometimes we get
quite upset at this process!
JUDGMENT LIBERATES CHRISTIANS
We do not have to be afraid of God's judgment upon our life.
Daniel tells of three Hebrews who were thrown into a furnace that
had been fired up until it gave off terrific heat. But when the
three emerged from the furnace the only change in them was that
their bonds were gone. They did not come out of the furnace
naked, everything of value to them destroyed, as it were. They
came out fully clothed, not a hair of their head singed (Dan.
3:19-27). They were bound and thrown in by mighty warriors who
were slain by the blistering heat of the furnace. They walked out
under their own power.
No fire can harm an overcoming Christian who is willing to
be taken by the Lord through the fires of judgment (there were
four men in the furnace). "He shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost (Spirit), and with fire" (Matt.3:11). "Beloved, think it
not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as
though some strange thing happened unto you" (I Peter 4:12-19).
The Lord Jesus never forsakes us no matter how hot the fire
gets (Matt.28:20; Rom.8:38,39; Heb.13:5). "They that trust in the
Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth
for ever" (Ps.125:1). "He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:
he that keepeth thee will not slumber" (Ps.121:3).
PURGING THE HOUSE OF GOD
The Christian church is the New Testament counterpart of the
Tabernacle of the Congregation. God's throne (the ark in the most
holy place of the Tabernacle) is being created in the hearts of
men (2 Cor.6:16). God has no intention of making a sinful house
His eternal home (2 Cor. 6:17; 1 Cor.6:15-20). The Christian
therefore should be diligent in confessing his sins as they are
revealed to him by the Holy Spirit (Rum.8:13).
We have come now to the time in our Christian experience
when the Lord desires to drive the money changers, so to speak,
out of the house of God (the hearts of the believers, not the
buildings in which they assemble), "And he shall sit as a refiner
and purifier of silver and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and
purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord
an offering in righteousness" (Mal.3:3).
"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost (Spirit), and with
fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his
floor, and gather his wheat into the garner, but He will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matt.3:11,12).
We can stand in the day of judgment if we will anchor our
hope inside the most holy place (Heb.6:19). If we will, we can
avail ourselves of the sprinkling of the blood of the righteous
Jesus, in this manner cleansing ourselves from our iniquities.
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:7-9).
We are of the opinion that this confession and cleansing is
the new covenant fulfillment of the old covenant Day of
Atonement.
John the Baptist was the personification of repentance and
confession of sins on the part of Israel (Matt.3:6). John came
just before Jesus. In the same manner the Day of Atonement comes
just before the convocation of Tabernacles. Tabernacles, we
believe, typifies the coming of the Father and the Son...
TABERNACLES
"Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of
this seventh month shall be the feast tabernacles for seven days
to the Lord" (Lev. 23:34).
.................
TO BE CONTINUED
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