I love your work. It is thoughtful and considered, and clearly evidences a man on a spiritual biblical journey.
It is a path we are all on, even the most adamant atheists, who don't realised that they have closed the biblical door, and have stopped searching, and all the while, Jesus is knocking.
Becoming fixed in a creed is the Protestant way: most often Formal Churches have become fixated and strayed from Sola Scriptura - hence why they are all different.
The 'fire-refining' process never ends, yet we allow it to.
To counter this we must look to the Bible for Truth, so please see comments below in that light: this is a discussion on your piece with verses that offer a different perspective to yours, which are hopefully worthy of consideration, offered as Questions:
Q1: Should we still follow all the Feasts today?
Your piece suggests that we should be following the Feast cycle - the High Day - Holy Convocation Sabbaths.
By that argument are you also suggesting we follow new moon Sabbaths as well, etc, and do you separate them all from the 7th Day Sabbath (and keep that), which was instituted as one of the 10 Commandment Moral Laws at the end of the creation week, rather than all the Mosaic Ceremonial law sabbaths?
Paul is clear that the Temple Feast process was 'nailed to the cross', hence why the Temple Veil ripped from Top to Bottom: God was telling us that the sacrificial feast process had been replaced by His Son's "once only" sacrifice (as Hebrews describes).
Here is Paul in
Colossians 2:16-17 KJV, with which you will be familiar:
"[16] Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
[17] which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Note he isn't including God's 7th Day Sabbath, which he continued to keep, as did Jesus, and the Apostles, obviously: which was only replaced by Sun(god)day-worship when Constantine 'syncretised' pagan sun-worship with Apostolic Christianity, and the Vatican Antichrist enforced it (along with 'trinity').
Clearly the Feasts have prophetic meaning, which I think is one of your main points: with the Fall Feasts symbolising Christ's 2nd Advent (and actually His 3rd, for the Last Great Day, see below). This is the most important rationale for understanding the feast structure: they are Types to Christ's AntiType, Shadow to His Substance.
It begs the subsidiary Q: have you been circumcised? Paul points out that the 'Gentile uncircumcised' do not follow the Feasts - that process was for the Jews, if they wanted to continue (which he noted wasn't required). And the Council at Jerusalem, under James, agreed with him.
When we read their discussions on "circumcision" the entire issue includes "keeping feasts" - so if you are keeping the Feast Days, have you also been circumcised...? [The debate in Acts starts here as you will know: Acts 15:5 KJV
"[5] But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses."
Clearly they confirmed Gentiles didn't, and wrote a letter to everyone.
Finally Paul points out in Romans 2 that being "circumcised under the Law" did the Jews no good anyway - in other words keeping all their Feasts as 'Phariseic circumcised self-righteous jews' got them nowhere: he elswhere explains that "Righteousness by Faith" is the key: which starts with obedience to God's Moral Laws as a "natural lived experience prerequisite", but grounded in the 10 Commandments 'character of God, the Christian strives towards the perfection of Christ through His Righteousness not our own "Ceremonial Law" keeping, which system failed the 'Phariseic jews':
Romans 2:12 KJV
"[12] For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;"
Note I am carefully differentiating between the Mosaic Ceremonial law on paper next to the Ark - nailed to the cross, and God's eternal Moral Law: the 10 Commandments, written on 'permanent stone', inside the Ark: there is a difference.
You quote Rev 20:1-3, but don't firmly establish where that Bottomless Pit is, assuming it is not Earth:
"And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."
Yet the bible tells us that the Bottomless Pit is Earth, ergo that the 1000 year 'millennial period' is not on earth but instead in New Jerusalem in heaven:
Here is White on the subject, from "The Great Controversy":
"The revelator foretells the banishment of Satan and the condition of chaos and desolation to which the earth is to be reduced, and he declares that this condition will exist for a thousand years. After presenting the scenes of the Lord's second coming and the destruction of the wicked, the prophecy continues: "I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Revelation 20:1 -3.
That the expression "bottomless pit" represents the earth in a state of confusion and darkness is evident from other scriptures. Concerning the condition of the earth "in the beginning," the Bible record says that it "was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." [THE HEBREW WORD HERE TRANSLATED "DEEP" IS RENDERED IN THE SEPTUAGINT (GREEK) TRANSLATION OF THE HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT BY THE SAME WORD RENDERED "BOTTOMLESS PIT" IN REVELATION 20:1-3.]
Genesis 1:2. Prophecy teaches that it will be brought back, partially at least, to this condition. Looking forward to the great day of God, the prophet Jeremiah declares: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down." Jeremiah 4:23-26.
Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Limited to the earth, he will not have access to other worlds to tempt and annoy those who have never fallen. It is in this sense that he is bound: there are none remaining, upon whom he can exercise his power. He is wholly cut off from the work of deception and ruin which for so many centuries has been his sole delight..."
The direction of travel, in That Day, is confirmed also by scripture as Paul describes the Righteous being taken "up" to join Jesus at His Return, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 KJV:
"[16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
[17] then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Note its pivotal word "up".
4. Where are the Mansions?
This is compounded further by Jesus's promise of many Mansions, in His Father's place, in which the Saints will reside, which he is preparing:
self-evidently they aren't on the corrupted, desolate earth, but in His Father's Place: Heaven, as John 14:2-3 KJV describes:
"[2] 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.
[3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
Note this is where Jesus 'has gone to prepare a place': He ascended... at the ascension... and so will the Righteous at His Return, be received "up" to where He is, so that they can be there also.
5. Where is New Jerusalem?
Furthermore we know the place that the Righteous will go for the Millennium:
New Jerusalem:
this is what the Feast of Tabernacles is symbolic of: the millennial period of joy and celebration whilst Satan roams the desolation earth alone in his misery, with no one to tempt:
and we know from the bible that New Jerusalem then descends for the final denouement: The Last Great Day: the 8th Day, the 2nd Resurrection for final death for the wicked: this is Satan's short period, before their collective eternal death, as Revelation 21:1-3 KJV describes:
"[1] And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
[2] And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
[3] And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God."
And Revelation 21:10 KJV:
"[10] And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,.."
Note how New Jerusalem comes down from above, from whence it has been for the Millennium.
The idea that Earth is the location for the millennial period is perhaps the greatest of all prophetic eschatological errors:
it enables the misunderstanding that the Earth is redeemable in its current guise hence in history we observe, as you point out, different tyrants trying to set up a 1000-year empire, including Charlamagne, Napoleon, Hitler, etc. Similarly we have the Trumpian 'christian nationalist' US "Image of the Beast" pushing a 'Golden Age', where in fact the world is beginning to mirror the 'days of Noah' (Matthew 24).
Jesus warns this Laodicean Church age about the inbound 'golden age' in Rev 3:18.
It's almost as bad as the "pre-trib rapture" and a zionist 'jew-christan' 'heaven-earth' split in 'rapture experiences', none of it is biblical.
A resumé: I've drafted a detailed table on biblical eschatology: how it ends according to the Bible, tying in all the different verses:
[ignore the biblical astronomy timeline section earlier in the piece, which I'm redrafting, it's for an eBook that's in the works],
or try chapters 41 and 42 of "The Great Controversy", they're a good representation of the biblical ending, that isn't imbued with Jesuit/Schofield-bible 'mis-theology'.
Thanks David, and what a goal to look forward to, to be some part of helping bring the plan to fruition.
Hi David.
I love your work. It is thoughtful and considered, and clearly evidences a man on a spiritual biblical journey.
It is a path we are all on, even the most adamant atheists, who don't realised that they have closed the biblical door, and have stopped searching, and all the while, Jesus is knocking.
Becoming fixed in a creed is the Protestant way: most often Formal Churches have become fixated and strayed from Sola Scriptura - hence why they are all different.
The 'fire-refining' process never ends, yet we allow it to.
To counter this we must look to the Bible for Truth, so please see comments below in that light: this is a discussion on your piece with verses that offer a different perspective to yours, which are hopefully worthy of consideration, offered as Questions:
Q1: Should we still follow all the Feasts today?
Your piece suggests that we should be following the Feast cycle - the High Day - Holy Convocation Sabbaths.
By that argument are you also suggesting we follow new moon Sabbaths as well, etc, and do you separate them all from the 7th Day Sabbath (and keep that), which was instituted as one of the 10 Commandment Moral Laws at the end of the creation week, rather than all the Mosaic Ceremonial law sabbaths?
Paul is clear that the Temple Feast process was 'nailed to the cross', hence why the Temple Veil ripped from Top to Bottom: God was telling us that the sacrificial feast process had been replaced by His Son's "once only" sacrifice (as Hebrews describes).
Here is Paul in
Colossians 2:16-17 KJV, with which you will be familiar:
"[16] Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
[17] which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Note he isn't including God's 7th Day Sabbath, which he continued to keep, as did Jesus, and the Apostles, obviously: which was only replaced by Sun(god)day-worship when Constantine 'syncretised' pagan sun-worship with Apostolic Christianity, and the Vatican Antichrist enforced it (along with 'trinity').
Clearly the Feasts have prophetic meaning, which I think is one of your main points: with the Fall Feasts symbolising Christ's 2nd Advent (and actually His 3rd, for the Last Great Day, see below). This is the most important rationale for understanding the feast structure: they are Types to Christ's AntiType, Shadow to His Substance.
It begs the subsidiary Q: have you been circumcised? Paul points out that the 'Gentile uncircumcised' do not follow the Feasts - that process was for the Jews, if they wanted to continue (which he noted wasn't required). And the Council at Jerusalem, under James, agreed with him.
When we read their discussions on "circumcision" the entire issue includes "keeping feasts" - so if you are keeping the Feast Days, have you also been circumcised...? [The debate in Acts starts here as you will know: Acts 15:5 KJV
"[5] But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses."
Clearly they confirmed Gentiles didn't, and wrote a letter to everyone.
Finally Paul points out in Romans 2 that being "circumcised under the Law" did the Jews no good anyway - in other words keeping all their Feasts as 'Phariseic circumcised self-righteous jews' got them nowhere: he elswhere explains that "Righteousness by Faith" is the key: which starts with obedience to God's Moral Laws as a "natural lived experience prerequisite", but grounded in the 10 Commandments 'character of God, the Christian strives towards the perfection of Christ through His Righteousness not our own "Ceremonial Law" keeping, which system failed the 'Phariseic jews':
Romans 2:12 KJV
"[12] For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;"
Note I am carefully differentiating between the Mosaic Ceremonial law on paper next to the Ark - nailed to the cross, and God's eternal Moral Law: the 10 Commandments, written on 'permanent stone', inside the Ark: there is a difference.
I've written about them here:
Remember the Sabbath:
https://t.me/dommoor/34271
"I am the LORD thy God":
https://t.me/dommoor/30110
Q2: Where is the Bottomless Pit?
You quote Rev 20:1-3, but don't firmly establish where that Bottomless Pit is, assuming it is not Earth:
"And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."
Yet the bible tells us that the Bottomless Pit is Earth, ergo that the 1000 year 'millennial period' is not on earth but instead in New Jerusalem in heaven:
Here is White on the subject, from "The Great Controversy":
"The revelator foretells the banishment of Satan and the condition of chaos and desolation to which the earth is to be reduced, and he declares that this condition will exist for a thousand years. After presenting the scenes of the Lord's second coming and the destruction of the wicked, the prophecy continues: "I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Revelation 20:1 -3.
That the expression "bottomless pit" represents the earth in a state of confusion and darkness is evident from other scriptures. Concerning the condition of the earth "in the beginning," the Bible record says that it "was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." [THE HEBREW WORD HERE TRANSLATED "DEEP" IS RENDERED IN THE SEPTUAGINT (GREEK) TRANSLATION OF THE HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT BY THE SAME WORD RENDERED "BOTTOMLESS PIT" IN REVELATION 20:1-3.]
Genesis 1:2. Prophecy teaches that it will be brought back, partially at least, to this condition. Looking forward to the great day of God, the prophet Jeremiah declares: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down." Jeremiah 4:23-26.
Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Limited to the earth, he will not have access to other worlds to tempt and annoy those who have never fallen. It is in this sense that he is bound: there are none remaining, upon whom he can exercise his power. He is wholly cut off from the work of deception and ruin which for so many centuries has been his sole delight..."
[https://archive.org/details/TheGreatControversy/page/n364/mode/1up p659].
3. Up or down?
The direction of travel, in That Day, is confirmed also by scripture as Paul describes the Righteous being taken "up" to join Jesus at His Return, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 KJV:
"[16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
[17] then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Note its pivotal word "up".
4. Where are the Mansions?
This is compounded further by Jesus's promise of many Mansions, in His Father's place, in which the Saints will reside, which he is preparing:
self-evidently they aren't on the corrupted, desolate earth, but in His Father's Place: Heaven, as John 14:2-3 KJV describes:
"[2] 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.
[3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
Note this is where Jesus 'has gone to prepare a place': He ascended... at the ascension... and so will the Righteous at His Return, be received "up" to where He is, so that they can be there also.
5. Where is New Jerusalem?
Furthermore we know the place that the Righteous will go for the Millennium:
New Jerusalem:
this is what the Feast of Tabernacles is symbolic of: the millennial period of joy and celebration whilst Satan roams the desolation earth alone in his misery, with no one to tempt:
and we know from the bible that New Jerusalem then descends for the final denouement: The Last Great Day: the 8th Day, the 2nd Resurrection for final death for the wicked: this is Satan's short period, before their collective eternal death, as Revelation 21:1-3 KJV describes:
"[1] And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
[2] And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
[3] And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God."
And Revelation 21:10 KJV:
"[10] And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,.."
Note how New Jerusalem comes down from above, from whence it has been for the Millennium.
The idea that Earth is the location for the millennial period is perhaps the greatest of all prophetic eschatological errors:
it enables the misunderstanding that the Earth is redeemable in its current guise hence in history we observe, as you point out, different tyrants trying to set up a 1000-year empire, including Charlamagne, Napoleon, Hitler, etc. Similarly we have the Trumpian 'christian nationalist' US "Image of the Beast" pushing a 'Golden Age', where in fact the world is beginning to mirror the 'days of Noah' (Matthew 24).
Jesus warns this Laodicean Church age about the inbound 'golden age' in Rev 3:18.
It's almost as bad as the "pre-trib rapture" and a zionist 'jew-christan' 'heaven-earth' split in 'rapture experiences', none of it is biblical.
A resumé: I've drafted a detailed table on biblical eschatology: how it ends according to the Bible, tying in all the different verses:
you can find it here:
https://t.me/dommoor/33916
[ignore the biblical astronomy timeline section earlier in the piece, which I'm redrafting, it's for an eBook that's in the works],
or try chapters 41 and 42 of "The Great Controversy", they're a good representation of the biblical ending, that isn't imbued with Jesuit/Schofield-bible 'mis-theology'.
Hope that helps.
X: @dommoor
David, can’t leave messages on here but had an idea you might like - please email when you can - Darren, thelightaper@protonmail.com
Peace brother :-)
There's a typo in the email address, but I've added the missing letter, and an email should be with you now.
I have liked this comment three times now and every time it remains ‘unliked’.
Anyway, have sent you an email but it might be in your spam box, as, well internet and truth, etc.
Peace.