Jan 13, 2015 - 11:33 AM
Any study and knowledge of scripture must include information from the Old Testament as a type and shadow of what has come and what is coming. To ignore the OT in ones study will remove the understanding from the reader, for even Paul explained and wrote with the knowledge of the OT. This includes an understanding of the feast days of Israel found in the law, for God does everything according to His laws.
Scripture speaks to three different times of a harvest of souls. This in itself will remove the rapture theory from ones mind but let me explain it more.
There were three times a year in the life of an OT Israelite in which he had to show up before the Lord God. These were the feast days of Israel. The three times were Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Now a study and understanding to these three feast days must be understood to understand any end time events.
There are also three crop types which also represents the three different harvest times in scripture. These three crops are Barley, Wheat and Grapes.
The three feast days and the three crop types go hand in hand in scripture, for they represent times and entities.
Feast days and crop types
Passover and Barley Feast
The Passover celebration includes the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of firstfruits within it. This is the Barley feast days as well, for the feast of unleavened bread is Barley bread, for one cannot leaven Barley. Barley was the first crop to ripen in ancient Israel, but the harvest of the barley was not allowed until after the waving of the barley sheaf before the Lord in the temple on the feast of firstfruits.
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. (Leviticus 23:10-11)
The feast of Passover marks the time when the Israelites came out of Egypt. The Israelites celebrated the Passover by slaying a lamb and placing its blood on the door post. It is fairly certain that they did not understand at the time that they were marking the day in history when Jesus would be sacrificed for the whole world. The next day God led them out of Egypt through Moses which is the Exodus.
Pentecost and Wheat Feast
Seven weeks after the Passover feast days was the feast of weeks, or Pentecost. Pentecost is associated with the wheat harvest, for Exodus 34:22 tells us “And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end”. This was the time of wheat harvest because this is when the wheat was ripe for harvest in ancient Israel.
Historically Pentecost represents the day that God spoke the Ten Commandments to the people from Mount Sinai. It would be fulfilled later when Jesus death brought forth the spirit of God upon the people in Acts 2. The giving of the spirit of God is the giving of the law.
Tabernacles and the grape harvest
Tabernacles is celebrated in the Fall, for it was the fall feast days. The fall feast days include the feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles. Although scripture is not very telling of this, we do know from ancient accounts that this was the time of the grape harvest along with Figs, Pomegranates and others. We see this as the grape harvest because of the scriptures which speak to the harvest of the grapes and the winepress. We also know from ancient history that grapes were the first crop to ripen after Pentecost.
Passover and Pentecost have already been fulfilled by Jesus, with Jesus dying on the cross at Passover and the holy spirit being given in Acts 2 for Pentecost. The feast of Tabernacles however has yet to be fulfilled as this fulfillment will take place at the second coming of Christ. In essence, Jesus first coming was to fulfill the spring feast and His second coming is to fulfill the fall feast.
The three different age types
In the history of the earth we are confronted with three different ages of the church which coincide with the three different harvest types, or feast days. The first church type is the Passover church under the guidance of Moses. The word church actually means “the called out ones,” and we see in a number of places that Moses led the called out ones into the wilderness. We can also confirm that Moses had the first church in Acts 7:37-38 when we are told that the church in the wilderness was of Moses. The church of Moses actually begun on Passover when Moses started to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt.
The Pentecost church is the current churches of today. It is commonly accepted that the church of Jesus Christ began at the outpouring of the spirit in Acts chapter 2 on Pentecost (Acts 2:1). This is also why, in the last century or so we have seen grown up among us the Pentecostal church denominations, for it was their time to do so, toward the end of the Pentecostal age.
The church to come, the true church, is the Tabernacles church. This church will not begin officially until the second coming of Christ, for the church of Tabernacles is an uncorrupted church, a church of which does not exist today. Even though the church does not exist as a group today, I firmly believe that there are people in the earth today who are being trained by God to lead this church which is to come.
It is assumed that this church of Tabernacles will more than likely become a reality on the day of Tabernacle in some year, just as the other two church types became a reality on their respective feast days. Thus, this is one of the days which I watch to see what God does every year. Of course this whole event will start on the feast of Trumpets and culminate on the feast of Tabernacles later in the seventh month.
The three stages to salvation
I put this in so that you can understand the importance of the three feast days in God’s laws. There are indeed three steps to our salvation and they coincide with the three feast days.
The first step is our Passover Experience. Passover represents the coming out of Egypt. Egypt in prophetic terms represents the world, and so Passover is the coming out of the world. This is represented in our belief in Jesus Christ. Those who came out of Egypt under Moses had belief, but at the time this is all they had. Now belief is a very important step, but it is not the end of the journey, for once a person has belief, they then must go to school so to speak and learn of God. This includes their time learning under a denominational church and their time studying the scriptures. The Passover churches today are the Evangelical, Lutheran, Baptist and other churches who have a belief, but that is the extent of their understanding. They believe that salvation rightly comes from believing in God, but they do not see beyond that.
The next step is the Pentecost Experience. Pentecost is the hearing of the spirit of God for oneself. In the turn of the century (1900’s) there was an outpouring of the spirit upon a group in Topeka Kansas and later at a place known as Azusa Street. These revivals were huge and out of this was born the Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations. The Pentecostal churches understand the reality of hearing God for oneself.
The true definition of FAITH is “to hear the voice of God” by His spirit. This is the experience of the Pentecostal group, for they more then likely have had this experience. This experience is what we would call a radical step, and those who have experienced it all of a sudden find that there is more to knowing God than to just believe in Him. For the true Pentecostal will not only believe on God, but they will commune with Him also.
The problem comes with understanding what God is truly saying to them. Just because someone can hear God does not mean that they understand what God is telling them. This comes with learning and experience on this whole new level. But this is not the end of the line concerning salvation.
The Tabernacles Experience results in the ultimate level to salvation, for the Tabernacles Experience is the process of being reborn into a spiritual body. It is the resurrection in fullness, what Jesus calls being born again. This is the true being born again experience and the result is an immortal body. There are some that I am aware of who have had small Tabernacles experiences, such as the knowledge of everything for a period of three days. But in general no one expect Jesus has been resurrected into immortality thus far.
The Harvest of souls
We see in the three feast days a timing of the three harvest which God will do in the earth. In other words, there are three different groups of people who will be resurrected (harvested) at three different times.
The first harvest of souls is the Passover harvest. These are the priest and kings of God, these are the people whom God has chosen to be His authority in the earth. These are the Barley people, the ones who have gone beyond the denominations in their learning and understanding, these are the 144,000.
Here is a truth that the denominations do not understand as yet. This Barley Company of people are the saints of God. The denominations today believe that they are the saints, but this is in error, for the saints are those who have attained the higher calling of God. Here is a news flash, the New Testament was written for the saints, for you will find within the beginning of most of the NT books a statement as “to the saints of God.” No one knows at this time who the saints are, for only God knows.
The Barley Company of people come out of the denominational system. This is described in chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation. These two chapters speak of the seven churches (which are the Passover and Pentecost denominations), but more importantly these two chapters speak of those who come out of these churches. These are the people who overcome the lies within the churches, and as spoken of in Revelation 18:4.
This Barley group will make up the body of Christ, they will follow and be led in everything they do by the spirit of God. Their task will be to save the rest of humanity, for they will have the power, might and holiness of the spirit of God within them. This is the manifestation of the sons of God spoken of in Romans 8:19. This is what all of creation is waiting on, the arrival of this group of people. This is the group that will live and reign with God during the 1000 years of Christ, their manifestation begins the 1000 years of peace in the earth.
This is the group whom Paul writes to in his epistles, these are the people of whom Paul and the other NT writers are explaining things to in their writings.
But Wait, there’s more.
The next group of people who will be harvested is the wheat company. This wheat company will be resurrected at the end of the 1000 years of Christ. The wheat company consists of people who believe and attended church, but did not make the cut as part of the Barley company. Do not think that you have a choice in which group you belong to, for this decision was made before the beginning of the world. This is what predestination is, the fact that God already chose who will be in what group before creation began.
Wheat must be thrashed before it is ready to use, unlike barley which is ready at harvest. This thrashing is gentle and does not take long, so at the resurrection of all people at the end of the 1000 years, this group will not take long before they also are made immortal. These people will be in the kingdom of God, yet they will not be the priest and leaders of God’s kingdom, they will be citizens of His kingdom.
At this time in history, when the wheat company is being elevated into immortality, there is also another group who are the grape company.
The grape company are the non believers and those christians who would not learn to obey God during their training time. Grapes must be trod underfoot, stomped on so to speak before they are ready for use. This is when satan is let out for a short time once again.
But even though this group of people find themselves within the grape company, they too are destine to become immortal, to be saved, but their immortality must wait until they have been properly prepared and trained.
These are the sheep who have gone astray. Scripture tells us the Jesus will go out of His way to search out and find even the very last sheep (Ezekiel 34:16; Luke 19:10), for He is here to seek that which was lost.
So now to answer your question and scriptures.
What is the fire of God?
In scripture the fire of God is His spirit, for Hebrews 12:29 tells us that God is a consuming fire. Fire represents the purification process of the spirit of God. Gold is not purified until it goes under the fire and the dross is removed. Dross represents the sin within us, and for us to be purified, God must put us through the fire.
Fire will only affect those who have sin within them, and guess what, we are all sinful. But we should not fear the fire, for if we do not go through the fire we will not become purified, therefore no salvation. So when you read in the prophets God speaking about the purification of silver and gold, the removing of the dross, this is what He is speaking of.
What is Eternal
Eternal I have spoken of before. Eternal only speaks to an age, an unknown period of time. We do not know when an age might start or end, but none-the-less each age has a beginning and an end. The longest period of time spoken of in scripture is properly explained by an age and beyond, or ages and beyond. But when translated into english it has become the word eternal, or everlasting, or forever, words which speak to a never ending period of time. This is the errors within the translation to english that we must deal with. If you were to read the Young’s literal translation of scripture you will never see the word eternal, forever or everlasting, for they are all translated as An Age.
What is hell
Hell is the Greek word Hades (G86), which means grave or pit. It can also be understood as “a place unknown.” In the KJV it is translated as hell 10 times and grave once. Hades comes from the Hebrew word “sheowl” (H7585) which also means grave or pit. If one looks at the true definition of hell, or if one goes to hell, then all they are doing is going to the grave.
NOTE:
If anyone is interested in further study of the definitions of eternal or hell, I would suggest that you go to
[LINK NOT ALLOWED]
They have a free download of a book that goes into great detail on these two subjects. For those interested in really understanding scripture one must understand the Hebrew and Greek definitions of important words.
So what is Eternal fire, lake of fire
Eternal fire first of all, is only an age lasting event. Fire, as explained above, is the spirit of God. Therefore being placed into an eternal fire of God represents being handed over to the spirit of God for the duration of an age for further training. Brimstone is just a burning agent and represents part of the spiritual process of learning.
For those of you with eyes to see this, you can see that the Passover and Pentecostal churches have been blinded to this understanding. They place fear within the individual instead of hope. This should cover the scriptures of Matthew 25:41; Revelation 19:20; 20:14-15.
Many within the wheat company will be upset that they did not make the cut for the Barley company, and therefore Jesus speaks to them as those whom will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. They are cast out into what Jesus calls the outer darkness because they have not been chosen to be part of the body of Christ (Matthew 8:12). This is the group who Jesus will also tell to depart from Him, for even though they believed, they were not obedient unto Jesus and therefore Jesus did not know them.
Because of their lack of qualification, they must be placed into the outer court, which iOS also the lake of fire. But even the outer court is not fully removed from God, it is a time away from immortality.
Second Death
The second death are for those who have not been chosen in the barley company. For even though many of us will be alive and live in the earth even though we did not make the cut as a barley member, we will not be made immortal, but we will have our lives extended. Scripture tells us that during this time anyone who dies at the age of 100 will be thought of as young (Isaiah 65:20).
In this time the Barley company members will not be subject to this second death because they have already been made immortal. There will still be a group who will die during the 1000 years of Christ, yet it will be after a long lifetime. However, these people will die in the knowledge that they will be resurrected to life once the 1000 years of Christ is completed.
This 1000 years of Christ is the Sabbath millennium since creation. God works for the first 6000 years, but in the 7th 1000 years timeframe no one is allowed to be saved. This is why salvation will only occur before and after the 1000 year time frame.
Luke 16:19-31 is not about death, it is a parable about the tribes of Israel. The rich man is Judah, who has five brothers from the same mother. I do not have time to go into this one here.
I hope I did a good job of explaining this, but if there is any question please let me know.
Blessings
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