For July-September 2003  
Volume 6 Number 3

One would think that there would be little dispute about which days in the Hebrew Calendar are annual Sabbaths or holy days. The Hebrew Scriptures set forth in detail the feasts and the associated seven annual Sabbaths which Yahweh declared are his holy convocations for the people of Israel. So how, and more importantly, why would there be any controversy? As strange as it may seem, the answer appears to be some intentional spinning in order to avoid an apostolic doctrine concerning the resurrection of the dead.

Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28-29 set forth the weekly Sabbath, annual festivals and seven annual Sabbaths (see Comparative Scripture Chart). In this Levitical legislation the weekly Sabbath was also a holy convocation�a commanded assembly. The dates of the seven annual Sabbaths on the Hebrew calendar are set forth in the chart below.

Deuteronomy 16 provides additional details about observing the festivals but is not specific about dates. Exodus 23 and Exodus 34 also provide some general framework but not specific dates on the Hebrew Calendar. If you have taken the time to read and compare these passages it should be unmistakable that there were seven annual Sabbaths, e.g., holy convocations, solemn assemblies, Sabbath rests, set forth by Yahweh for the people of Israel to observe as holy days.

Isaacs and Payne writing in The International Bible Encyclopedia tell of the weekly Sabbath and then explain:

Of similar character were the seven "convocation" sabbaths at the five annual feasts, Passover and Tabernacles having two each (Lev. 23:7f., 35f.); note the title of the last, '^aseret, "restraint [of work]" (v. 36; cf. Jn 7:37). (Isaacs and Payne 1982:293.)

The two "convocation" sabbaths during the Feast of Unleavened Bread were the 15th (the 1st day of the feast, today often referred to as Passover Sabbath) and the 21st (the 7th day of the feast) and during the Feast of Tabernacles the 15th of the seventh month (Tishri 15, the 1st day of the feast) and the 22nd (Tishri 22, the eighth day of the feast). Some writers, including me, hold that there were seven festivals rather than five by distinguishing Passover (Nisan 14) from the Days of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15−21) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Tishri 15−21) from the Last Great Day (Tishri 22). In any case, below is a chart showing the holidays and suggesting their meaning in terms of the Old and New Covenants.

The symbolism set forth in the feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost embodies the sacrifice of the Messiah, the founding of the Church of God, and the giving of the Holy Spirit as a helper or comforter. These parallels are set forth in the New Testament with particularity (John 1:29; I Corinthians 5:7; I Corinthians 15:20, 23).^F1 It should come as no great surprise to Christians and Messianic Jews that they should look to the balance of the festivals and annual Sabbaths to foreshadow the rest of the story. This requires extrapolation of the events embodied in the symbolism of the three spring festivals to the four fall festivals. The lengthy period between the feast of Pentecost and the feast of Trumpets parallels the period of the Church of God in its sojourn awaiting the second coming of the Messiah. This being the case, it is important to discern exactly what these events are and when they occur.

Now then, let's examine how televangelist John Hagee explains these festivals and annual Sabbaths in his Final Dawn (Hagee 1998). Hagee claims that there are seven biblical festivals as follows:

1. The Feast of Passover

2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread

3. The Feast of First Fruits

4. The Feast of Pentecost

5. The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah)

6. The Feast of Atonement (Yom Kippur)

7. The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) (Hagee 1998:166.)

Rather than the biblical list, as set forth in the chart above, Hagee invents an Abib 16 (or Nisan 16 in contemporary parlance) "Feast of First Fruits" completely separate from the Feasts of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost and ignores the Feast of the Last Great Day. He offers no scriptural evidence. We should probably not be too critical of Hagee in this as it has been a part of some theologies for a very long time. American Baptist pastor, Bible teacher, and writer, Clarence Larkin nearly a century ago in his book Dispensational Truth held that there was a Feast of "First Fruits" lying in-between the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Pentecost (Larkin 1920). He claimed the Feast of Tabernacles, in his thinking the seventh feast, consisted of eight days. Larkin like Hagee ignored the Feast of the Last Great day. They both seriously error.

Leviticus 23:39 records that "from the day after the sabbath" the Israelites were to count "seven complete sabbaths" or as Yahweh stated in verse 16 "You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD." What then? This is important. Leviticus 17 then quotes Yahweh as commanding that the Israelites "bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD." The offering of the First Fruits were two loaves of leavened bread! The First Fruits could not be an offering during the Days of Unleavened Bread for the two loaves were leavened. Leavened bread was disallowed during the Days of Unleavened bread (Deuteronomy 16:5; Exodus 12:15; Exodus 13:7). The Feast of First Fruits was the 50th day from the offering of the wave sheaf not the Sunday the priests would offer it.

John Hagee has spun the Scripture to reach his own ends. What could they possibly be? Notice that he doesn't deal with the issue of annual Sabbaths but couches his language as feasts�in an oversimplification�thereby reducing the issues with which he would have to deal. That does not lead to exegesis but eisogesis and produces a distortion of the biblical symbolism and meaning embodied in the seven annual feasts and Sabbaths. Hagee then reports that the "Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot, is held by divine decree (Lev. 23:39) on the fifteenth through twenty-first days of Tis'ri which falls in September or October" (Hagee 1998:190). This corresponds exactly with Leviticus 23:39 and Numbers 29:12. Now then, where is Hagee's explanation of Tishri 22�the Great Day of the Feast? It is wanting.

What John Hagee wrote could lead us to believe that there is no biblical feast known as The Last Great Day. Hagee doesn't need the Feast of the Last Great Day in his epistemology. He writes that after the millennial reign of Jesus Christ comes the Great White Throne Judgment which he describes as a resurrection of the unjust for punishment (Hagee 1998:198). Consider his theology of the resurrection:

...the "Book of Life, contains the name of every person who accepted Jesus Christ while they were on the earth. When the wicked dead approach the Great White Throne, God will first look for their names in the Book of Life. Obviously, they will not be there. (Hagee 1998:200.)

With what result? In Hagee's worldview, Revelation 20:15 would apply at this point. In that paradigm anyone not found written in the Book of Life is at that point to be cast into a lake of fire from some point in outer space (Hagee 1998:198). Interesting speculation, but John Hagee could not be further from the truth of God's word. By rejecting the Feast of The Last Great Day he rejects the New Covenant symbolism embedded in it. In his theology the here and now is the day of salvation. Those who do not accept Jesus Christ in their lifetime are to be cast into a lake of fire. This of course, marginalizes the vast majority of humanity, probably at the least 99% of all men, women, and children who have ever lived. Does this sound like the will and plan of a loving God who sent his son to die for all humans? For the vast majority of evangelicals this belief provides a reason to convert the world�it is a driving force in their Christian missions.

In any case, there are several fatal flaws which, when taken collectively, falsify the Hagee analysis:

1. Hagee only discusses the feasts (festivals), ignoring the annual Sabbaths, thereby isolating them from their biblical context. With the feasts cut off from the annual Sabbaths only part of God's plan of salvation is apparent. For a holistic understanding one has to consider both together. Removing the annual Sabbaths from the feasts would also produce a distorted result. In context they are inseparably linked together.

2. Hagee's view of the Great White Throne Judgment is one of condemnation and eternal death wherein he combines Revelation 20:12 and Revelation 20:13. In context, however, they are closely related but very different events. Verse 12 refers to the general resurrection of humanity to physical life to encounter God whereas the focus of verses 13-14 is the punishment of the incorrigible wicked, that being their eternal death.^F2 The context of Revelation 20:12, is a time when the 99% of humanity who God never called in their lifetime will have their very first chance for salvation. Their judgment is to be out of the books�The Holy Bible�just as the Church of God is so judged today (I Peter 4:17). This is the time pictured in Ezekiel 37. Consider God's words in Ezekiel 37:13-14, "Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it, declares the LORD."

3. Hagee ends the Feast of Tabernacles on Tishri 21 without any explanation of the Mosaic holy day of Tishri 22 (Shmini Atzeret, the assembly of the eighth day). In his theological paradigm, if Hagee recognized Tishri 22 as a separate feast and annual Sabbath, then logically it would necessitate equating the Last Great Day with the screams, gnashing of teeth, condemnation, and agony. He chose to ignore the matter. Nevertheless, in apostolic understanding and in rabbinic Judaism the Last Great Day is not one of punishment and death but of celebration. Rabbi Maurice Lamm writes "The Torah insisted on one more holiday�a special one. It is connected to Sukkot; it caps the High Holy Day season; but it is neither of these. It is a gift�a holiday of pure joy" (Lamm 1991:365).

4. Hagee ignores that Matthew�s gospel records Jesus' teachings that among other people in this future "day of Judgment" Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 10:15), the men of Nineveh from the time of Jonah (Matthew 12:41), the Queen of the South from Solomon�s day (Matthew 12:42), and the people of Corazin (Matthew 11:21�22) and Capernaum (Matthew 11:23�24), would be there together along with the people of Jesus� generation (Matthew 12:42). These scriptures describe the judgment of Revelation 20:12. Yet in the Luke 16 parable of Lazarus and the rich man the timeframe is quite different for there Jesus pictures the resurrection of the incorrigible wicked described in Revelation 20:13 for the second death.

5. Hagee, by claiming Abib 16 as a feast separate from the Feast of Unleavened Bread creatively invented a feast that even rabbinic Judaism does not recognize.

6. Hagee ignores that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a seven-day festival (Leviticus 23:6-8). The first day is the Passover Sabbath not the feast. The whole seven days make up the feast. He had no problem with seeing that the Feast of Tabernacles was a seven day feast.

7. Hagee assumes this present age, from Adam to the return of Jesus Christ at the end of the age, is the only day of salvation.

The apostles proclaimed a future one-thousand-year reign of the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.^F3 This follows his return, in a second coming, and the resurrection, or regeneration, to eternal life of those of his followers who died in the faith or who remain alive at his return.^F4 They believed that the return of Jesus the Messiah was symbolized by the Feast of Trumpets. For the apostles this High Sabbath symbolically pictured the next event in the redemptive plan of God�when Jesus will return in the clouds, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God (I Thessalonians 4:16�17).^F5

According to the apostle Paul, Jesus� return and the resurrection was to be "at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead [saints] will be raised incorruptible [with eternal life], and we [Christians who are alive] shall be changed [as well]" (I Corinthians 15:52). The la�Alh'q" (q^ehal'el), Church of God, would then be immortal. Under Jesus Christ as King of Kings, the resurrected and glorified saints, then Sons of God, would rule the physical nations of the world (Revelation 2:26�27; 3:21; 5:10; 20:4�6) as God brings about worldwide redemption (Revelation 11:15).^F6 As kept by the early church, the Feast of Tabernacles was an annual testimonial symbolic of this yet-to-be great event in history. Moreover, Acts reports that Paul believed that "there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked" (Acts 24:14�15).

Moreover, the early church believed that this present-day age was not "the only day of salvation" but "a" day of salvation. The rendering of the apostle Paul�s quotation at II Corinthians 6:2 from Isaiah 49:8 should read "a day of salvation" for the Hebrew he quoted is not "the day" but "a day." Moreover, Alfred Marshall in The NASB-NIV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English so renders the Greek expression hJmevrs awthrivaz as "a day of salvation" (Marshall 1986:528).^F7

The resurrected Sons of God,^F8 who would then be in the Kingdom of God, will participate in the judgment process with Jesus Christ. With this judgment human life on earth comes to an end immediately followed by a final resurrection for condemnation of the incorrigible wicked to a second death (Revelation 20:13). The result of "unpardonable sin"�the rejection of the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth"�the second death consists of the complete annihilation of the incorrigible without any further resurrection.^F9 The parable of Lazarus and the rich man illustrates this apostolic teaching. The fate of the rich man in the parable (Luke 16:19�31) was the second death in a hell, gevennan (Gehenna) of fire (Matthew 5:22) or a "furnace of fire" (Matthew 13:49�50).^F10

What then does the Bible teach? Following the one thousand years, also called the Millennium, occurs the general resurrection of the dead for judgment.^F11 This Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11�12) foreshadowed by the great Day of the feast or the Last Great Day, symbolizing a massive resurrection of humanity.^F12 All of those who died without encountering God through a personal calling in this age would by resurrection of the dead be returned to physical life and given their chance to encounter God through Jesus Christ. This is to be an ages-encompassing redemption for the early church believed in global redemption. They rejected the hopeless view of the Sadducees that at death a person "is no more" and "has left us forever" for they held a wider hope for all humanity when after the Millennium salvation would be open to those who died in spiritual ignorance without encountering God in their first lifetime.^F13

For the apostles it was by means of the Great White Throne Judgment that the vast majority of people who have lived on earth would be given their opportunity to receive salvation. These had died in their sins, and through no fault of their own had not responded to a gospel they had never heard. This was to be their first opportunity to hear and understand the truth of God and to learn of God�s way of life (Ezekiel 37) for a period possibly as long as a full century (Isaiah 65:20). This was the apostles� answer to those who wondered about "a wider hope." Until then, the masses must await their salvation in the grave, for according to the apostle Peter "there is salvation in no one else [but Jesus Christ]; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).^F14

In their ministry the apostles did not attempt to convert the world but rather provided a witness to it and reached with the gospel message such as God called to be saints. For the apostles some people were to be called in this age and some were to be called in the next. Each person was to await his or her calling and personal encounter with God in his or her own order. This helps to clarify the perception of death, likened to sleep, in the New Testament. No doubt because the dead were to "awaken" in a resurrection wherein families would again be united.^F15

For some reason many Christians seek to avoid this apostolic teaching regarding the general resurrection of the dead and their chance to experience the grace of God in another day of salvation in the age to come. A few derisively refer to this apostolic doctrine as postmortem theology. Rather, they would keep access to the saving grace of Jesus Christ confined to this present age. This has led some Christian theologians to seek finding some other avenue to eternal life than through Jesus Christ for they see the evil in a theology that would marginalize the vast majority of the human race.^F16 It is no wonder John Hagee, Clarence Larkin, and, tragically, many others do not grasp the meaning of the Feast of Last Great Day for their theology limits them. The Last Great Day represents a period of pure joy when in the general resurrection families will be reunited in human life with an opportunity to encounter the God of the Bible for the very first time.

_______________

^F1Parallels include Zola Levitt's analogy with the conception and embryonic development of a baby (Levitt 1979), Marvin J. Rosenthal's The Holy Land Experience presentation on the plan of God's redemption and its relationship to the feasts of ancient Israel, and Chris Cumming's correlation of the Days of Unleavened Bread with the salvation process (private correspondence).

^F3See Revelation 20:3�7; Hebrews 4:1�6 and II Peter 3:8.

^F4See I Thessalonians 4:16�17; I Corinthians 15:50�53; Matthew 19:28; 22:31�32; 25:31�34; and Luke 13:28.

^F6The apostles were premillennialists in that they taught that Jesus Christ's return would precede the millennium (a period of one thousand years during which Christ will reign on earth). Today premillennialists generally believe that Christ will return to the earth with a cataclysmic judgment of the whole world. Following the millennium he would separate the surviving unbelievers from the believers, casting the unbelievers off the earth directly into judgment.

^F7Due to their predisposition the exegesis of the New Testament translators resulted in their use of "the" instead of "a" in both the NASB and the NIV. See NASB-NIV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English (Marshall 1986:528). At Isaiah 49:8 the Tanakh reads "on a day of salvation" (Jewish Publication Society 2000:961).

^F8Persons brought back to life in the resurrection of the righteous dead, according to Jesus statement in Luke�s gospel at Luke 20:35�36 (see also the parallel accounts at Matthew 22:30 and Mark 12:25), are to be neither male nor female and will not be marrying nor given in marriage. Many examples in the New Testament portray the symbols of the traditional relationships in the human family unit in order to describe the relationship between God and the church. No offense should be taken to these gender-specific references and examples. As recorded they were simply a means of using the common language and culture of the day to explain quite complex concepts to ordinary people.

^F9God's gift of eternal life is to those who remain faithful to God to death. If a converted person truly falls away it is impossible, even for God, to renew him or her again to repentance. Carefully note Hebrews 6:4-7. The writer of Hebrews, probably the apostle Paul, wrote that once a converted person falls away it is impossible, even for God, to renew him or her again to repentance. The implication is that salvation is not a one time event but a process that lasts a lifetime. However, conversion is a one time event. Conversion occurs through God calling, repentance, and God's gift of the Holy Spirit. Eternal life is a gift from God which no human can earn. Nevertheless, some, at one time converted and part of the people of God, rejected God and now await eternal death. Others will reject God in the future. The New Testament teachers that one of the conditions to life eternal is to remain faithful to God to death. Not doing so can result in a spiritual abortion. God loves his children and will do all he can to help us work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). The duty to allow God to perfect his work in us, however, rests upon us.

^F10All humans have sinned and come short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23). All will remain in an eternally lost condition, having no life eternal they will cease to exist, apart from the saving grace of the Jesus Christ (Revelation 20:12-20). Death to the apostles meant that a man or woman ceased to exist. The grave was an enemy for baring a resurrection the dead never would regain conscious life again. The end result of death, apart from eternal life from God through Jesus of Nazareth, was annihilation. One would be obliterated forever. Such death was complete and total and it had nothing to do with any immortal soul. Death was analogous to sleep as the dead were to be "awakened" in the resurrection. The first death, in other words, was not looked upon as permanent but rather quite temporary. The second death was not seen as sleep as it was to be fatal�eternal annihilation.

^F11At the last resurrection (Revelation 20:13�15) God would destroy in the second death the life essence of the wicked (Matthew 10:28) in a "lake of fire" (Revelation 19:20; 20:10; 20:14�15; 21:8). Those who face the second death at the last resurrection would be those who have rejected Jesus Christ as the source of life (Acts 4:12). The judgment of angels is, according to Jude, to be on the "judgment of the great day" which the apostle Paul believed would involve the resurrected saints (I Corinthians 6:3).

^F12See John 5:29 Revised English Bible and Isaiah 65:20. This does not include Christians in this age, as judgment is now on the house of God (I Peter 4:17), nor those converted in the Millennium.

^F13See Leviticus 23:34, 23:36.

^F14See Hebrews 11:35 and Revelation 20:5.

^F15This is consistent with Job 14:14�15 wherein Job awaits in the grave until God�s resurrecting call.

^F16Rather than facing this issue with intellectual integrity, there are some clerics who immediately reject this doctrine as second chance theology. Nothing is further from the truth. Billions of people lived before and after the birth and death of Jesus Christ who never heard his name let alone his teachings. They never had a first chance for salvation. People who deny such apostolic doctrine have a very limited understanding of God and salvation.

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