Moreover, Satan does not
want us to learn that that these holy days and festivals reveal God’s plan for
mankind. The plan of God culminates in the (i) return of Jesus, (ii) first
resurrection, (iii) temporary banishment of Satan and his demons for 1,000
years, (iv) establishment of the Kingdom of God and the millennial reign of
Christ and His saints, (v) permanent banishment of Satan and his demons, (vi)
second resurrection, (vii) 100-year Great White Throne Judgment period; (viii)
third resurrection, (ix) transformation of this earth, and the (v) transfer of
God the Father’s throne to the transformed earth. God’s plan symbolically
unfolds with each passing holy day and feast:
a)
Passover:
Jesus became our Passover, thus redeeming us from the second death mentioned in
Revelation (Rev. 2:11, 20:6, 20:11, and 21:8). We’ve all sinned, and the “wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
(Romans 6:23). Sin occurs when we break God’s laws: “Whosoever committeth sin
transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law”
(I John 3:4). On that stake, Jesus assumed the penalty of sin (death) on our
behalf. We recognize this when we observe Passover (technically, the Lord’s
Supper) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Such recognition is the first step
in God’s plan for us.
b)
Feast of
Unleavened Bread:
Leaven represents sin. When God calls us, and we accept Jesus as our Passover
sacrifice, then we should be determined to remove sin from of our lives, and to
obey God’s laws. Removing leaven (symbolic of sin: I Corinthians 5:7-8) from
our households serves as a reminder that we must remove sin from of our lives.
c)
Pentecost:
The Church of God celebrated its birth on Pentecost. Anciently, Pentecost was
called the Feast of Firstfruits. Jesus is called the firstfruit, and Christians
who have the Spirit of God are also called firstfruits. This implies that God
is revealing His truth not to everyone, but to a select few who are symbolically
called the firstfruits. They’ve received God’s transformative Spirit, and will
be resurrected or changed at the return of Jesus, itself symbolized by the Feast
of Trumpets.
d)
Feast of
Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets:
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ
will rise first” (I Thessalonians 4:16). This Feast points to the return of
Jesus and the resurrection of the dead in Christ.
e)
Day of
Atonement:
This day symbolizes not only the Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, but the binding of
Satan for 1,000 years. It also signifies the literal day when we will be “at
one” with God, which can occur only after Satan has been banished.
f)
Feast of
Tabernacles
represents the millennial reign of Jesus and His saints on the earth.
g)
Last
Great Day,
which immediately follows the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. This day
represents the second resurrection for everyone not resurrected one thousand
years earlier, and the ensuing 100-year judgment period in which everyone will
have an opportunity for salvation.
The Befuddled Disciples
“So when they (the
apostles) had come together, they were asking Him (Jesus), saying, ‘Lord, is it
at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is
not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own
authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:6-8).
Jesus’ disciples were
young and zealous. They believed that Jesus would overthrow Roman rule and thus
restore the Davidic kingdom of Israel. Even during Jesus’ last supper, they
argued about whom would be greatest in the new kingdom of Israel: “And there
arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be
greatest” (Luke 22:24). Some wanted to be the equivalent of our secretaries of
State, Defense, and Treasury.
In many ways the disciples
were clueless. They did not understand that Jesus had to die: “For He was
teaching His disciples and telling them, ‘The Son of Man is to be delivered into
the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will
rise three days later.’ But they did not understand this statement, and they
were afraid to ask Him” (Mark 9:31-32). Nor did they understand that Jesus
would rise three days after His crucifixion: “For as yet they did not understand
the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead’” (Mark 9:31-32).
Indeed, Jesus began to
open their eyes after His resurrection: “Now He said to them, ‘These are My
words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are
written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be
fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and
He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise
again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins
would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem”
(Luke 24:45-47).
After His resurrection,
Jesus opened the minds of His apostles. Only then did they begin to realize that
Jesus was not sent to overthrow the Romans, or to reestablish the Davidic
Kingdom of Israel then and there. Rather, they began to understand that Jesus
will return to establish the worldwide Kingdom of God.
Jesus and His Kingdom
“And behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He
will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will
give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the House of
Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:31-33). “For to
us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his
shoulders. And he 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. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on
and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this” (Isaiah
9:6-7).
Jesus did not establish
His kingdom in the first century. But He will do so in the near future: “And I
saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.
His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a
name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a
robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies
which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him
on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may
strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads
the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on
His thigh He has a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS’” (Revelation
19:11-16).
Where’s the location of
Jesus’ Kingdom? On the earth, of course: “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD
when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather all
the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the
houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest
of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth
and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that
day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem
on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to
west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the
north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My
mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will
flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of
Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! In
that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a
unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come
about that at evening time there will be light. And in that day living waters
will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other
half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.
And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will
be the only one, and His name the only one” (Zechariah 14:1-9).
After the return of Jesus
and the resurrection of the saints (and the change of the saints into spirit
beings), and after the battle at Armageddon (or Megiddo, in Northern Israel,
where the nations will assemble to fight the returning Christ), Jesus will
establish His Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God will be
based from Jerusalem: “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 into 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).
The extent of the Kingdom
will be worldwide: “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).
Furthermore, Jesus and His
resurrected and changed saints will enforce God’s laws, including the
seventh-day Sabbath and the holy days. For example, Jesus will expect everyone
to observe the Feast of Tabernacles: “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 14:16-19).
A quick summary of
events
Jesus will return to earth
and wage war against the nations assembled at Armageddon, or Megiddo. In the
previous three and one-half years there was great and unparalleled tribulation
in the earth: “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not
occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless
those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake
of the elect those days will be cut short” (Matthew 24:21-22). This period of
time will be characterized by the:
a)
Emergence
of three distinct blocs of nations
known biblically as the (i) king of the north (also identified as the
“beast” power in the books of Daniel and Revelation, and as the fourth empire -
the last manifestation of the ancient Roman Empire - in Daniel 2 and 7); (ii)
king of the south (probably an Islamic nation or group of nations; and the
(iii) kings of the east, probably an Asian nation or group of nations.
b)
Emergence
of a false prophet allied with the king of the north, or beast power.
This false prophet will masquerade as Christ or Christ’s emissary. The Apostle
Paul describes him as the “man of sin” who “opposes and exalts himself above all
that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of
God, showing himself that he is God” (II Thessalonians 2:3-4). He is also
symbolized by the “harlot” of Revelation 17;
c)
Persecution of God’s saints:
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be
hated by all nations for My name's sake” (Matthew 24:9).
d)
Persecution of the modern-day nations of Israel (e.g. the United States, Great
Britain, etc.), including the Jewish nation:
“For thus says the LORD: ‘We have heard a voice of trembling, o fear, and not of
peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do
I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces
turned pale? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is
the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall
come to pass in that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke
from your neck, and will burst your bonds; foreigners shall no more enslave
them. But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I
will raise up for them” (Jeremiah 30:5-9).
e)
Ministry
of God’s two witnesses:
“And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for
twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive
trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if
anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their
enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. These
have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of
their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood,
and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. When they
have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will
make war with them, and overcome them and kill them” (Revelation 11:3-7).
These events will
culminate in the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the saints (the living
saints will be changed), and the banishment of Satan and his demons for 1,000
years: “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the
bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 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” (Revelation 20:1-3).
Why is Satan so angry?
Satan is angry because of
the following reasons:
a)
He tried but
failed to overthrow God: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For
you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the
farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I
will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the
lowest depths of the Pit. Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you,
saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms’”
(Isaiah 14:12-16).
b)
He will try
to overthrow God again, and he will again fail: “And war broke out in heaven:
Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels
fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in
heaven any longer. 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 12:7-9).
c)
Bitter and
angry, Satan will then attack the children of God: “Now when the dragon saw that
he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the
male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that
she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a
time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. So
the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he
might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth
helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood
which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was
enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her
offspring (symbolically, the Church or children of God), who keep
the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”
(Revelation 12:13-17).
d)
Satan is
murderously angry at the children of God who keep His commandments and hold to
the testimony of Jesus because they will inherit what Satan thinks is rightfully
his: the Kingdom of God. “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors--not to the
flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to
the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage
again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out,
‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we
may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:12-17).
If we have God’s Spirit,
and keep His commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus, then we will
inherit the Kingdom of God. We’ll become kings and priests (Revelation 5:10).
This is why Satan is so angry at us. This is why Satan did not want you to read
this article. He doesn’t want us to know the plan of God, as revealed in God’s
holy days and festivals (Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 16, etc.). Satan wants us to
be blithely unaware of his methods in obfuscating God’s truth. He wants us to
observe Easter and Christmas, not the biblically-sanctioned Passover and Feast
of Tabernacles.
It’s often said
that the truth hurts. Well, God’s truth hurts Satan. The plan of God - as
revealed in His holy days and festivals - is not kind to him. Therefore, Satan
desperately wants us to never learn plan of God. Most of all, Satan doesn’t
want us to accept God’s truth, and to become God’s children (Romans 8). I hope
we disappoint him.
