A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh Month

Part One

Our people are in a desperate need of revival and God has so much in store for us, brothers
and sisters, truly amazing things. In putting this material together, I have truly seen the hand
of God’s Providence at work. We cannot afford to be deficient in the light that God would give
us to revive us. Through the guidance of the Spirit of Prophecy in the writings of Sister White,
God has led me to put together a comprehensive revival plan consisting of two parts: the
Personal Revival Plan and the Corporate Revival Plan. The Personal Revival Plan includes
the Revival Reading Plan and the Life of Prayer. You can access this all at this link; and I will
be providing other links as we go through as well that you can bookmark to read soon. And
all of the links are listed together below in the description for your convenience.
The material I will be presenting here pertains to the corporate revival plan, but I have
entitled it “A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh Month,” as this, and all that is
connected with it, is what will bring corporate revival, when coupled with the personal
experience of prayer and the Word.
Remember, “A REVIVAL OF TRUE GODLINESS AMONG US is the greatest and
most urgent of all our needs. To seek this should be our first work. There must be
earnest effort to obtain the blessing of the Lord, not because God is not willing to bestow his
blessing upon us, but because we are unprepared to receive it” (E.G. White, Review and
Herald, 3/22/1887).
Nothing matters more to Seventh-day Adventists today than this. Thus, everything I will be
presenting is toward this end of revival of true godliness, but just remember that it must be
coupled with personal revival, otherwise it will not work. Are we willing to make that earnest
effort to receive the blessing of the Lord? I hope we are, and if you have not prayed yet,
please pray now before you continue any further, and be prepare to learn things
that are contrary to your previous understanding; and even if you do not agree
with everything presented at this time, please do not discontinue, otherwise God
will hold you accountable for the light that you could have received, so please
persevere. Also, I recommend taking notes and pausing to help you learn the
concepts we go through better. And always compare everything you learn with
the Word of God, though that is what I strive to present here as a weak, erring
mortal.
The LORD is revealing things to us now that if we pursue and do, the hindrances that held us
back from receiving His blessings will be removed. You may have seen the video before this
one entitled “Are We Robbing God in Tithes and Offerings” (and here is the link).
It is a study on all of the prescribed tithes and offerings of the Law of Moses, showing that we
have robbed God in not bringing these to Him. But the promise in Malachi is: “ ‘Bring ye all
the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now
herewith’, saith the LORD of Hosts, ‘if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour
you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it’ ” (Malachi 3:10). As long
as we are robbing God, we are robbing ourselves of tremendous blessings; we have hindered
ourselves from receiving them that we may be able to bless the world through the Gospel as
God intends.
At this time, we will now see where else we have been robbing Him, thus withholding more
tremendous blessings that we may bless the world with the knowledge of the Everlasting
Gospel. The subject before us now is holy convocations and our robbing Him of our collective
praise at these gatherings - praise that God wants to receive because it changes us and
prepares us for Paradise where there is endless joyful praise and glory! The whole earth is to
be lightened with the glory of praise, as prophets of old tell us. So, this is our goal and
purpose.
Let us start with reading from 6 Testimonies, starting on Page 39, which is in a big section
called “The Camp Meeting”:
“Anciently the Lord instructed His people to assemble three times a year for
His worship. To these holy convocations the children of Israel came, bringing
to the house of God their tithes, their sin offerings, and their offerings of
gratitude.

They met to recount God’s mercies, to make known His

wonderful works, and to offer praise and thanksgiving to His
name.
And they were to unite in the sacrificial service which pointed to Christ as the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. Thus they were to be preserved from the
corrupting power of worldliness and idolatry. Faith and love and gratitude were
to be kept alive in their hearts, and through their association together in this sacred service
they were to be bound closer to God and to one another.

In the days of Christ these feasts were attended by vast

multitudes of people from all lands; and had they been kept
as God intended, in the spirit of true worship, the light of
truth might through them have been given to all the nations
of the world.
With those who lived at a distance from the tabernacle, more than a month of every year must
have been occupied in attendance upon these holy convocations. The Lord saw that
these gatherings were necessary for the spiritual life of His people. They
needed to turn away from their worldly cares, to commune with God, and to
contemplate unseen realities.

If the children of Israel needed the

benefit of THESE holy convocations
in their time, how much more do we
need them in these last days of peril
and conflict! And if the people of the
world then needed the light which
God had committed to His church,
how much more do they need it
now!...
A great work is to be accomplished by our camp meetings. The Lord has specially honored
these gatherings, which He has called “holy convocations” (pp. 39, 40, 70).
God established the “holy convocations” in Leviticus 23, where all of them are listed together
under the Sabbath commandment, and Sister White’s pen wrote that we are to have “these
holy convocations.” She uses the definite article “these” to specify that they are the ones of the
Bible that she earlier introduced. What makes them biblical and what makes them
holy? This is what we must examine, because obviously there is no record of Sister
White or the pioneers regularly observing them according to the biblical calendar. What does
this all mean?
We will go through this puzzle one piece at a time. It is important we do this carefully, and I
believe that Laodiceans have been very careless with this before. It is time to rectify that. Let
us work with what we have so far, then we will proceed to study Leviticus 23, where we see the
holy convocations in the Bible.
In the quote we have just read, we read what Israel did for the holy convocations, and then we
read what she said we ought to do, which is what our pioneers largely did. The emphasis
seems to be on two main things, besides just the general character of convocations, which
simply means an assembly or gathering:
(1) Collectively praising God in thanksgiving
 (2) Sharing the light of the truth with the rest of the world, who would be invited to our
meetings and, so that all who attend could carry the light back to their communities
As for the first item, there is some more information under the subsection entitled “Praise
Meetings” in the same camp meeting section in 6 Testimonies:
“In our camp meeting services there should be singing and instrumental music... And every
day a praise meeting should be held, a simple service of thanksgiving to God.
There would be much more power in our camp meetings if we had a true sense of the
goodness, mercy, and long-suffering of God, and if more praise flowed forth from our lips to
the honor and glory of His name. We need to cultivate more fervor of soul. The Lord says:
‘Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me’. Psalm 50:23” (p. 62).
Do we have praise meetings every day at our camp meetings today? If not, then no matter
when our camp meetings are, they are not the holy convocations that the LORD established in
the Law, which were to be gatherings for offerings unto the LORD - both the offerings of the
lips from the hearts and from the increase of the harvests.
And how is it with the second element? Are our camp meetings today evangelistic as they were
originally designed to be and as they were in our pioneer days? If we are honest with ourselves
and with God, we will recognize that we are not truly holding holy convocations according to
Bible and Spirit of Prophecy standards. Our camp meetings have largely been
socializing and sermonizing camps. But what makes them holy, at least from a
pragmatic perspective, is that they are set apart according to the intended
purpose of praise and sharing the light of truth to the world, and this is how
Sister White could consider their camp meetings at that time to be the holy
convocations from the Bible, not to mention that they had much more of the Holy Spirit
than we have had, which also made their convocations holy.

The stark reality is that we do not have biblical holy

convocations today. We have been robbing God of His glory
in robbing Him of our collective praises.
When this thought first hit me like a ton of bricks not long ago, it brought me to tears. I knew
then that I would have to share this message. I make an appeal to you to study all of
what she says that our camp meetings are to be in 6 Testimonies (here is a
link). I also make an appeal to any who have any responsibility in planning
camp meetings to make sure that future camp meetings are actual holy
convocations according to the divine standards. Even if you do not have this
responsibility, please make an appeal to the organizers of the holy
convocations you will attend. Sister White has made it clear that this is not optional. The
holy convocations were required for ancient Israel and our messenger, Ellen White, exhorted
us that they are “much more” needful today!
But we cannot stop here; the Gospel ship of truth is moving forward and we cannot afford to
be left behind! Here are several Spirit of Prophecy to inspire us to not give up and to press
onward:
“Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth there will be among the people
of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since
apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children” (Great
Controversy, p. 464).
“Every mind should turn with reverent attention to the revealed word of God. Light and grace
will be given to those who thus obey God. They will behold wondrous things out of
His Law. Great truths that have lain unheeded and unseen since the day of
Pentecost, are to shine from God’s Word in their native purity. To those who truly
love God the Holy Spirit will reveal truths that have faded from the mind, and will also reveal
truths that are entirely new” (Review and Herald, 8/17/1897).
And next we will see how these wondrous things will grow beyond what Ellen White could
even imagine, for an angel speaks to her the following words:
“Said my guide, ‘There is much light yet to shine forth from the law of God and the
gospel of righteousness. This message, understood in its true character and
proclaimed in the Spirit, will grow to large importance such as you scarcely
dream of, and will lighten the earth with its glory. The great decisive question is to
be brought before all nations, tongues, and peoples. The closing work of the third angel’s
message will be attended with a power that will send the rays of the Sun of Righteousness into
all the highways and byways of life, and decisions will be made for God as supreme Governor;
His law will be looked upon as the rule of His government” (Manuscript 15, 1888).
“That God who reads the hearts of everyone, will bring to light hidden things of
darkness where they are often least suspected, that stumbling blocks which
have hindered the progress of truth may be removed, and God have a clean and
holy people to declare His statutes and judgments. The Captain of our salvation
leads His people on step by step, purifying and fitting them for translation, and leaving in the
rear those who are disposed to draw off from the body, who are not willing to be led, and are
satisfied with their own righteousness” (1 Testimonies, pp. 332-33).
“There are glorious truths to come before the people of God. Privileges and
duties which they do not even suspect to be in the Bibles will be laid open before
the followers of Christ. As they follow on in the path of humble obedience, doing God’s
will, they will know more and more of the oracles of God and be established in right doctrines”
(Letter 5, 1889).
Are we expecting to see and experience glorious and wondrous things out of the Law, or are
we satisfied with our current knowledge and experience so that we cannot dig into God’s
Word ourselves but rely only on what has already been handed down to us? If we are
following Sister White’s counsel, we will walk in any increased light that God sheds on us. This
is what holds Seventh-day Adventism unique from all the other denominations which reached
a certain point and stopped.
I believe that the light and glory God wants us to have is more of an experience than a head
knowledge, but what He brings to us from His Word to our minds must come first. Everything
must be based on His Word and not just someone’s theory of His Word. It must be solid and
simple. And we must receive whatever it is with the humility of a child, otherwise we will
boast in our head knowledge and God will not be glorified. Such pride has been the bane of
Laodicea all along, but God is calling us to be zealous and repent of that pride. So, whatever
we learn, let us focus on the practical application of it and not of ourselves, how much we
know. This is critical before we proceed, because otherwise we will “hold the truth in
unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18), which is worse than not holding the truth at all because it
incurs the wrath of God, who hates pride much more than ignorance, though we should avoid
both. So, let our focus ever be on the glory of God and the betterment of mankind through our
carrying out the Law. Then His glory will come down upon our praises at the holy
convocations and the people of the world that come to them will see God in us and want what
we have. They will return to their home communities spread the spiritual light to those
around them. This is what we are after here.
“But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3).
I truly believe that this is largely how the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. So,
without further ado, let us discover the wondrous things from the Law! Proceed with prayer.
You must have the Holy Spirit. Pray with your heart and seek God’s understanding.
Behold the first four verses of Leviticus 23:

Behold the Sabbath magnified, the Sabbath proclaimed more

fully:
“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Speak
unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
Concerning the appointed times of the LORD, which ye
shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are Mine
appointed times. Six days shall work be done: but the
seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall
do no work therein: it is a Sabbath of the LORD in all
your dwellings. These are the appointed times of the
LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in
their appointed times.”
Several things deserve our notice. First, the phrase “appointed times” is the literal translation
of the Hebrew word ‘moed’ (‘moedim’ in plural). Any other meaning for this word is incorrect.
The King James Translation has ‘feasts’, which gives it an entirely different meaning. In fact,
the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary gives ‘feast’ this meaning:
“A ceremony of feasting; joy and thanksgiving on stated days, in commemoration of
some great event, or in honor of some distinguished personage; an anniversary, periodical
or stated celebration of some event; a festival; as on occasion of the games in Greece, and
the feast of the passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles
among the Jews.”
The definition of ‘feast’ is clearly ceremonial, but not so for the Hebrew word ‘moedim’, which
I have translated to appointed times. The Bible itself defines the meaning of ‘moedim’. In
Numbers 28 and 29, not only the weekly and annual appointed times are listed as they are
here in Leviticus 23, but the New Moon and the morning and evening worship times, which
clearly are not feasts, are listed as well. The sequence of the appointed times in Numbers 28
and 29 is daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. And as stated in both Leviticus and Numbers,
even two of the annual appointed times could not be considered feasts: the Day of Shouting,
or better known but less accurately translated as Trumpets, and the Day of Atonement - the
latter carrying the very opposite theme of feast: fast. These two days are appointed times
(moedim) but not feasts, but the King James Version lumps them in with the “feasts.” If we
can just grasp the simple distinction between feasts and appointed times, under two different
Hebrew words, God’s Word will be plain to us and many things will start to make sense. So,
let us make sure we have this.
Feasts are identified with a different Hebrew word: ‘chag’ (‘chagim’ plural),
used only for the three feasts in the year that were held at one place (wherever
the earthly sanctuary was); these were the feasts of Passover/Unleavened
Bread, First-fruits/Harvest, and Tabernacles/Ingathering (which can be found in
Leviticus 23 as well as in Verses 14 to 17 of Exodus 23). The first and last of these
involved a week rather than a single day. But the appointed times are simply
times appointed by the LORD for worship that pertain to a single day, with the
Sabbath as the model of them all. They never pertain to multiple days as can
feasts.
Again, we must let the Bible interpret itself. No less than four times in three verses at
the beginning of Leviticus 23, God tells us that the “appointed times” He is about
to list are “holy convocations.” I am not aware of such a repetition of things anywhere
else in the Bible, so this is extremely unusual. But God does not speak vain words, nor
is He the author of confusion, so His emphasis here is deliberate.
God wants no one to be left in doubt that the appointed times
are the holy convocations and the holy convocations are the
appointed times; and He seals His repetitive declaration with
the seal of His Law, the Sabbath of the Fourth
Commandment.
But the King James translators confounded this with the feasts, and this is why I believe that
our pioneers failed to have the holy convocations at their appointed times prescribed by the
LORD. They saw “feasts” here instead of ‘appointed times’, and feasts are, by definition,
ceremonial, as Webster told us.
But not just Webster tells us this. The Hebrew words themselves portray the ceremonial
nature of the feasts. Let us get a little deeper into the Hebrew word ‘chag’. Its root verb is
‘chagag’, which the King James Version correctly translates to ‘celebrate’ in speaking of the
Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23:41: “Ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.” The noun
and the verb often appear together, as in two verses before that, which I will again correctly
translate: “Ye shall celebrate (chagag) the feast (chag) of the LORD seven days.” Thus, the
Feast of Tabernacles is the celebration being celebrated. It is a ceremony of dwelling in
tabernacles for seven days in memorial of coming out of Egypt and dwelling in the wilderness.
Thus, we have two different Hebrew words with two different meanings: ‘moed’ (which, like
the Sabbath, appears in the Creation account) and ‘chag’ (which does not appear until the
Feast of Unleavened Bread was instituted in Exodus 12). One more time: a ‘moed’ is an
appointed time, usually an annual one, as part of God’s calendar. A ‘chag’ is not a calendar day
but an activity or event. It was a large annual celebration that ceremonially commemorated
coming out of Egypt and celebrated a harvest season of the typical Promised Land. The
Israel occupying that Promised Land with its three harvest seasons no longer
exists. God reestablished Israel in the Promised Messiah and all who are in Him are that
people – a spiritual nation, having only one harvest at the end of time, but the First-fruits of
that harvest has already occurred in the Spring of 31 when Christ and some in their graves
were resurrected.
This final harvest for God’s everlasting Israel will be in the fall, corresponding to the time and
the type of the ancient Feast of Tabernacles, when that Messiah returns to tabernacle with His
people. It is in the seventh month, which is of special interest to God’s remnant people, as we
will see later on in our journey here together. We will see in the Spirit of Prophecy that we are
to participate in very special activities each year when it comes around, and not only does it
involve the spiritual harvest but the single growing season that is common to the northern
hemisphere, which is most of the populated world, with the main harvesttime generally being
in September, just prior to the seventh month. You will definitely want to continue through
this journey to see what these exciting new covenant activities are, and which Seventh-day
Adventists, as communicated through their General Conference and periodicals, were starting
to practice in Sister White’s day. But as these activities are revived and fully practiced and we
become known again as a seventh month movement, they will not be anything like the old
covenant feasts.
The three ceremonial, or celebratory, feasts of the Law, are an impossibility for
us to celebrate today with our single harvest; but the appointed times they
were anchored to before they passed away are still solid for the Israel of God to
anchor onto today, for they are governed by the heavenly bodies and their
circuits from Creation, and we will see this more as we study it. God’s Word is
plain and precise; it is humans, not Himself, that have obscured it, blurring the distinctions
that God has placed. But He has permitted it so that there can be a revival in the last days, just
as He hid our Millerite eyes from seeing the true event in the seventh month of 1844, pointed
to by the Midnight Cry.
According to Strong’s, in the more literal rendering of ‘chagag’, feast celebration included
moving in a circle in a dance, but not like the dancing we have today. The dance seems to be
marching in a sacred procession of praise, which I joyfully experienced in a recent dream; and
Strong’s does define that word as “(specifically) to march in a sacred procession. It should be
noted that the King James translated the word ‘chagag’ to “dancing” in 1 Samuel 30:16, and
‘chagag’ and its relatives all seem to be rooted in the Hebrew word, ‘chûg’, which means
‘circle’. Thus, the biblical idea of a feast is rooted in the Hebrew concept of a circle and its
dance, whereas Greek thought is linear, which is often contrary to the ideas in Scripture. It is
likely that the Hebrew circle dancing, or marching, celebrated the circular nature of the year,
with the return of its appointed times. Holy dancing is a biblical form of worship that has not
passed away, and I believe it should be restored as one of other activities to replace some of
the incessant sermonizing that we are so used to, for we are greatly lacking in the spirit of
fervent praise and prayer to God. To dance in a musical circular march and to have a feast
gathering, or campmeeting, in themselves, pertain to worship and can be part of a ceremony,
but they are not themselves ceremonies, which depend on the meaning and any rites being
celebrated.
But the days of Shouting and of Atonement were solemn times when this festal celebrating
was not done; thus, another distinction between the three annual feasts and the first two
appointed times of the seventh month, in addition to the three being large, pilgrimage
gatherings. The shouting and trumpet blowing would have been solemn, and the day of
judgment on the last day was awfully solemn. Later on, we will be exploring the antitypes of
these seventh month solemnities in more depth than you probably have ever studied before,
and in studying this myself and putting this presentation together by God’s grace, I would
have to say that it was the most fascinating and glorious study that I have ever undergone. We
will explore these seventh month realities together that God has given us to understand in
these last days. We will behold wondrous things out of the Law!
So, looking at this all as a whole, the seventh-day Sabbath stands at the head of all the
appointed times – it also called a “holy convocation.” The others are according to the year,
and there are the biblical number seven of them. So, here is a list of them as they are recorded
in Leviticus 23: (1) the fifteenth of the first month; (2) the seventh day from that, thus making
a special week; (3) the 50th day from the Sabbath’s morrow falling during that week; (4) the
first of the seventh month; (5) the tenth of the seventh month; (6) the fifteenth of the seventh
month; and (7) the eighth day from that, thus capping off the previous special week as well as
the entire ecclesiastical season of holy convocations contained in the week of months.
According to this chapter, no servile work is permitted on these seven appointed times that
are scattered throughout the season, with the majority being in the Sabbath month. This
specific precept ensures sufficient time for worship. The Spirit of Prophecy defines ‘servile
work’ for us:
“Anciently in the service of the sanctuary, God required that sacrificial offerings be made
more upon the Sabbath than any other day. This was work, but it was not servile work. It was
not labor for a livelihood. It was not done for gain or for selfish interest. It was done in the
service of God” (Letter 67, 1887).
Thus, the annual appointed times for holy convocations, except for the Day of Atonement, are
less stringent than the seventh-day Sabbath. On the weekly Sabbath, God forbids us from not
only servile work but all other work, such as house and yard work, except for healing people or
taking care of the ill. But the tenth day of the seventh month, called the Day of Atonement
according to typical and antitypical events associated with this day, is a Sabbath (‘Shabbat’ in
Hebrew) with the same rules as the weekly one, except that before the Cross fasting was
required in connection to the symbolic cleansing of the earthly sanctuary. The seventh-day
Sabbath of Creation and this annual holy day are the only two days that are called ‘Shabbat’ in
the Hebrew Scriptures. The other six appointed times have the same precept of no servile
work, yet only the three in the seventh month are called, in Hebrew, ‘shabbaton’. It is usually
incorrectly translated to ‘sabbath’ even though it is a different word. It actually means ‘rest’,
and this is how the Greek Septuagint rightly translated it, using a completely unrelated word
from what it uses for Sabbath – ‘anapausis’ – the same word that is found in Matthew 11:28,
which says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Since the spring appointed times also have no servile work, this word, when it is applied to
God’s appointed times, has nothing to do with physical rest.
It must be spiritual rest. This word is used when referring to the seventh day of the Creation
week and the seventh year of a week of years, and thus it is also used for the appointed times
of the seventh month. In the number seven, God wants us to remember completion. The
seventh month completes the ecclesiastical season of holy convocations, just as the seventh
day completed the week of Creation. A special spiritual rest is attached to these days of the
seventh month. And after sin, they gained significance in the plan of redemption, for it is in
the fall that Christ performs, or begins to perform, the closing works of our salvation, which
was begun in the spring, at the Cross. ‘Seven’, in its Hebrew root, also means ‘oath’ or
‘covenant’. As we will see later, it is in the seventh month that God will deliver the everlasting
covenant to His covenant people, the 144,000. And whenever we observe the seventh of any of
God’s times, we enter into covenant relationship with Him, in which we have rest – the
everlasting rest that was promised to man on the seventh day of Creation and again in the
Fourth Commandment.
There is absolutely nothing ceremonial about these holy convocations. The literal meaning of
this phrase from the Hebrew ‘mikra'ei kodesh’ is simply a ‘called-out’ meeting or assembly,
and one that is holy. We earlier concluded that the convocations the pioneers had were holy
because they were according to their biblical purpose and because of the presence of God.
They kept God’s holy convocations according to their true purpose, just not at their appointed
times. But an additional layer of holiness is added when they are on the days that God made
holy. Were you aware that God made them holy when He made the seventh-day Sabbath holy?
We will later see biblical evidence for this from four different Scriptures on Creation, but
before we get into that, it should be enough to realize that holy convocations, of themselves,
are not ceremonial; they were not ceremonies that were temporary and ended at the Cross.
And besides this, we have seen that Sister White has them apply today and there is no reason
to assume that they were not important for the spiritual welfare of God’s people before Moses
or after the Cross. They are moral and not ceremonial, and that is what we want to dwell on
now.
What makes something ceremonial? We know that it cannot be merely something that was
written in the Book of the Law and not on the Tables of the Law, for there are many
statements from both the Bible and the writings of Sister White that speak of the statutes of
the Law of Moses being applicable for the last days and binding until the end of time. Here is
an example of one from the Bible:
“If ye fulfil the Royal Law according to the scripture, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself’ (quoting from Lev. 19:18), ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons
(forbidden in Deut. 16:19), ye commit sin, and are convinced of the Law as transgressors.
For whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he
that said, ‘Do not commit adultery’, said also, ‘Do not kill’. Now if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that
shall be judged by the Law of Liberty” (James 2:8-12).
And here is an example of one from the writings of Sister White, and if you haven’t watched
the message yet entitled “A Solemn Covenant,” which contains a score of similar
quotes, please bookmark it and watch it soon:
“These statutes were explicitly given to guard the Ten Commandments. They were not
shadowy types to pass away with the death of Christ. They were to be binding
upon man in every age as long as time should last. These commands were enforced
by the power of the Moral Law, and they clearly and definitely explained that Law” (E.G.
White, Review and Herald, 5/6/1875).
Since it is abundantly clear that something merely being in the Law of Moses – which is really
the Law of God given through Moses – does not make it ceremonial, then what makes
something ceremonial? We need to examine this.
Sounding a shofar and eating a Passover lamb in commemoration of the first-born of Israel in
the 10th plague being passed over is a ceremony. Eating unleavened bread for the Feast of
Unleavened Bread in commemoration of the coming out of Egypt is a ceremony. Shouting and
blowing trumpets on the first of the seventh month for the sake of the shouting rite, is a
ceremony. Afflicting the soul when the typical high priest went into the Most Holy Place each
year is a ceremony. Dwelling in tabernacles of palm branches in commemoration of camping
in the wilderness is a ceremony. These are all old covenant ceremonies because they celebrate
the physical happenings of the nation of Israel, whether it be agricultural, commemorative for
the nation, or pertaining to the typical sanctuary, with its external Law enshrined in it.
It is true that God’s covenant He made at Sinai – the old covenant – was for Israel of all time.
But because of the hardness of their hearts and their unbelief, it was in the Providence of God
to give Israel, as the fleshly nation that existed then, special precepts that were fleshly and
temporary until the Messiah would come to establish a better covenant with new ceremonies
associated with it, replacing the old covenant ones. These typical ceremonies would help
them, as well as us who study them today, to better appreciate and understand the new
covenant of forgiveness and mercy. Christ is the end, or goal, of the entire Law - both moral
and ceremonial (Rom. 10:4). But it would be an insult to Him, and to His Father who sent
Him, to continue the rites and ceremonies that were to end at His death, because it would not
acknowledge Him in bringing in the new covenant through His blood. The whole ceremonial
system has passed away, along with the fleshly nation of Israel; therefore, we are not to
celebrate the old Israel’s unique ordinances, which would be a distraction from the things that
pertain to Israel in the Spirit - which were from the beginning, but not manifest until the
Cross. But the feasts and other ceremonies - all relating to the Exodus and
typifying the new covenant – originated in the time of Moses, and they were for
those post-sin purposes.
Do you see the distinction between moral and ceremonial? Good. Now, please follow carefully
as we hone in on the Sabbath, before and after sin, and its relation to the other appointed
times.

The seventh-day Sabbath – placed at the head of Leviticus –

originated at Creation. Back then, it had no relation to
redemption, for there was no need of redemption before sin.
The Sabbath was a sign of Creation and nothing else. But in
the Exodus and the wilderness, typical feasts and ceremonies
were added to the Sabbath, just as with the other appointed
times, and it became the sign of sanctification. Its meaning
changed; nothing was taken away, but more was added.
“Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily My
Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you
throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the
LORD that doth sanctify you” (Exodus 31:13).
The Sabbath, as the head of all appointed times,
came to signify sanctification in its totality – that is,
the entire plan of redemption, a plan which is to sanctify
Israel as an eternal holy nation. The other appointed
times, then, came to signify the individual parts of
the plan of redemption - from the Cross, to the final
atonement cleansing the sanctuary, to the Second Coming. It
is all wrapped in the Sabbath gift - given to man,
foreknown by God at Creation, foreshadowed in the
old covenant types, and fulfilled by Jesus in the new
covenant. And through the temporary types added to the
seven annual appointed times, the Sabbath becomes a symbol
of rest from sin, antitypical of it being also a rest from the
heavy yoke of bondage in Egypt, as described in
Deuteronomy 5:15. The time of the Sabbath has not
changed since Creation, only its meaning.
With that established, let’s see what changed with the Sabbath after sin. Christ died for us,
resting in the grave over the Sabbath, in an uncorrupted state (without rotting). And this was
typified in an old covenant Sabbath ritual: Uncorrupted, or unleavened, bread was placed on
the table of showbread each Sabbath (see Lev. 24:5-8). The twelve cakes represented the
twelve tribes of Israel, who are to live by eating the Word of Life, and live because He died.
And this was magnified in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which His death fell during as well.
Christ fulfilled both the Sabbath and Unleavened Bread types, which we no longer practice,
but they still give additional meaning to the Sabbath day - the day that Christ’s life was in
cessation, for He had rested in His Father’s love and brought to the grave all sin that had been
placed upon Him, to forever be buried. And Christ would arise uncorrupted from sin in His
new glorified body – the First-fruits of all who will be found in Him.
To rest - to Sabbatize - means to cease. In Christ, sin was at an end; that will be the reality of
all who will be found in Him. And this same concept returns in the fall, in the types that were
done on the one annual Sabbath of the year - the tenth day of the seventh month, called the
Day of Atonement. All sin was to typically cease that day – a type of all sin ceasing among
spiritual Israel before the final atonement is made on that same day. After sin, the Sabbath
has thus come to promise an end to all sin. And the process of it coming to an end we call
sanctification, which the Sabbath has come to signify.
The Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment is, and shall be,
proclaimed more fully in the appointed times recorded in
Leviticus 23. Watch now:
“These are the appointed times of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall
*proclaim* in their appointed times” (v. 4).
“And at the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as
we went forth and *proclaimed* the Sabbath more fully. This enraged the churches
and nominal Adventists, as they could not refute the Sabbath truth” (E.G. White, Early
Writings, p. 33).
Dear friends, it is through the statutes and judgments that each of the Ten Commandments
are magnified and understood more fully; and it is through the precepts of the seven
appointed times that the Sabbath is proclaimed more fully.
“That the obligations of the Decalogue might be more fully understood and enforced,
additional precepts were given, illustrating and applying the precepts of the Ten
Commandments” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 310).
“I saw that we sensed and realized but little of the importance of the Sabbath, to what we yet
should realize and know of its importance and glory … But when the refreshing and
latter rain shall come from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of His power
… Then shall we see the Sabbath more in its importance and glory” (Letter 3,
1851).
Oh, we must be getting close to the latter rain showers! May God be praised by our people.
Listen now to her words about the Sabbath uttered while in vision, recorded by Joseph Bates:
“Out of weakness it has become strong from searching His Word. The test upon it has been
but a short time. All who are saved will be tried upon it in some way. That truth arises and
is on the increase, stronger, and stronger. It’s the seal! It’s coming up! It arises,
commencing from the rising of the sun. Like the sun, first cold, grows warmer and sends its
rays. When that truth arose there was but little light in it, but it has been increasing. O the
power of these rays! It grows in strength, the greatest weight and light is on that truth for it
lasts forever when the Bible is not needed. It arose there in the east, it began with a small
light, but its beams are healing. O how mighty is that truth; it’s the highest after
they enter the goodly land, but it will increase till they are made immortal. It
commenced from the rising of the sun, keeps on its course like the sun, but it never sets...
Look ye! that rising is in strength, and grows brighter and brighter. That truth is the seal,
that’s why it comes last. The shut door we have had. God has taught and taught, but that
experience is not the seal, and that commandment that has been trodden under foot
will be exalted. And when ye get that you will go through the time of trouble.
Yea, all that thou art looking at, thou shalt not see just now. Be careful, let not
light be set aside which comes from another way from which thou art looking
for” (Manuscript 1, 1848).
And I believe that final caution applies to us very much today.
Now, before we close this segment, let us close up a loose end that you may be wondering
about.
In the Law, only the first and the last day of a week designated as a festival was called a “holy
convocation.” But that does not mean that God designed our campmeetings today, or even the
feasts back then, to be only single-day holy convocations. The convening of the people for the
entire duration that they are gathered together is a holy convocation by definition. So, why is
it written this way in the Law? I believe that it is so that the bookend days of the spring and
fall feasts can identify the entire feasts as holy convocations for all who stay for the duration of
the time but that it was not required by the Law. In other words, if someone did business on a
day between the first and last, it would not be counted as sin, but for all who stayed the entire
time, it was as one holy convocation, identified as such by the bookends.
This is hinted at in Verses 6 and 34 of Leviticus 23, with the former saying this: “On the
fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.” The first two weeks of the
visible month pass, then the fifteenth identifies the entire feast of seven days. And it is the
same way for the Feast of Tabernacles in the latter verse: “The fifteenth day of this seventh
month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days.” It sounds strange in English, but such
is the Law’s wording – clarifying the purpose of the week while still making liberal provision
for any necessary business or trade. Today we might sell special literature or digital media on
days that are not appointed times for people to bring home from campmeeting; or we may
need to stock up on groceries. But we are to make every effort during the entire duration of
our campmeetings “to separate from business cares and burdens, and devote a few days
exclusively to seeking the Lord,” even avoiding to “engage in conversation upon common
subjects which do not relate to the meeting” (2 Testimonies, Ch. 74).
Instead of seeking the minimum we can do to honor God, which is mere legalism, we should
always seek the most we can do. The standards of our time are higher than the standards in
the Law, which commands the minimum. Sister White is clear that our holy convocations
today are the campmeetings as a whole; in other words, we are not to go back home and work
our regular jobs and come back again at the end, which was not forbidden in the Law. And
later on, we will see quotes where she says that one week is not long enough. We have a higher
standard than the Old Testament. And this is yet another reason why we are not to keep the
old covenant feasts. They are too short for our purposes today. We are to have one long feast
per year instead of three shorter ones. And this change in the Law can be because the feasts
are ceremonial, just as there was a change in the sacrificial offering system, which is also
ceremonial. We still are to give the offerings specified in the Law to the ministry of our High
Priest, but they are not brought to an earthly temple or in the form of animal sacrifices or
grain offerings. Another example is that Passover has become a supper celebrated at different
times throughout the year. Feast-keepers need to be open to the changes in the Law,
and non-feast-keepers need to be open to receiving what still remains in the
Law; long ago, both sides should have studied together to come into harmony,
instead of debating against each other and taking to opposing extremes.
So, in summary, the moral statutes do not change, the appointed times do not change; they
are permanent and still remain. But the ceremonies have either radically changed or ended.
Let us accept new light that God has for His Great Advent movement, shining from the
Scriptures, without rejecting old light from the time of Sister White. The Bible and the Spirit
of Prophecy can both be kept in harmony. We will continue in the next segment, in which we
will take a journey back to Creation. You will not want to miss this, especially if you are in
doubt concerning the pre-sin nature of the appointed times. We will also see a little on how
God’s calendar works and look at some Scriptures you may not have seen before. So, please
join me in the second part of our main journey. It will be much shorter, but very interesting.

A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh Month

Part Two

As promised, let take a journey back to Creation – to the fourth day. Genesis 1:14 records the
creation of the lights of heaven - primarily the sun and the moon - and their multifaceted
purpose:
“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the
night; and let them be for signs, and for appointed times, and for days, and years.”
Not only was the sun created to light the day and the moon to light the night, but they were
created for God’s calendar. The word ‘moedim’ appears, which the King James mistranslated
again, this time to ‘seasons’, but that is not what the word means. The ‘moedim’ are literally
appointed times, and obviously, time is the direct context here. The root Hebrew word of
‘moed’ is ‘ya’ad’, which means to appoint, to meet, or to assemble. So, the moedim are
appointed times for the purpose of meeting with God or assembling together.
The greater context here is Creation, of course; thus, the times appointed are of God and not
Moses, originating at Creation, not at Sinai. Hence, as it is recorded in Leviticus 23, “the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
‘Concerning the appointed times of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy
convocations, even these are My appointed times. Six days shall work be done: but the
seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation’ ’ ” (vv. 1-3).
Three days after the lights were created for the appointed times, on the seventh day, He would
hallow the moed of His Sabbath: “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Genesis
2:3). But is the seventh day itself all that He sanctified that day? We already have seen a clue
to support the negative in what we just read in Leviticus 23, with the appointed times and the
Sabbath tied together, but in order to explore more fully the seventh day, let us make an
observation about the previous day, the sixth day, when God made man:
“And God created the man in His own image” (Genesis 1:27).
The Hebrew word for ‘man’ is ‘adam’. This very word tells us something very significant: All of
man, or mankind, was created in Adam - all of our genetics, all of our origin. And that is how
it is written that “for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1
Corinthians 15:22). When the original Adam sinned, death came upon him - that is, all of
adamkind. As his descendants, we were in him in both his rise and fall. Eve was also created
on that sixth day and their marriage was instituted; and it was through their marriage that
Adam’s descendants would come.
But the institution of marriage has a twin: the Sabbath institution of the seventh day. Just as
with marriage, the Sabbath has descendants. For one, in the sanctification of the original
Sabbath, every other seventh-day Sabbath in time was hallowed with it - each one that comes
every seven days. But is that all? No. We saw in the Law, in Leviticus 23, how that the Sabbath
is the primary holy convocation to which the other seven holy convocations are linked. And
all of the annual rest days were hallowed in the Sabbath, just as all of the
weekly rest days to come were. We do not see this in Genesis, just as we see no
command for man to keep the seventh-day Sabbath as a rest day in Creation
and we see no command to keep it as a holy convocation in neither the Creation
nor the Decalogue; we find it only in Leviticus 23 where we were before.
We must understand that the Ten Commandments, along with statutes and judgments, were
around long before Sinai. It is written, “Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My
commandments, My statutes, and My laws” (Genesis 26:5). Obviously, this includes more
than just the ten broad commandments. Adam and Eve were given the Law and its various
precepts right away, and “Adam taught his descendants the Law of God, and it was handed
down from father to son through successive generations” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 363).
We do not know exactly what all of the statutes were, but we do know that before Sinai there
had been no extensive sanctuary system and so many fleshly rites to reflect back to us our
works-based mentality when we made our old covenant with God. And new meaning became
attached to the appointed times that had not been there before Sinai.
We even see new meaning attached to the seventh-day Sabbath in the second giving of it in
Deuteronomy 5:
“And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God
brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm: therefore the
LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day” (v. 15).
The Sabbath day became a sign to fleshly Israel of rest from their bondage in Egypt, but this is
also a type of the rest from our bondage of sin, represented by Egypt. In Numbers 28, Verses 9
to 10, the priesthood was instructed to slay two lambs on the seventh-day Sabbath, along with
meat and drink offerings. And in Leviticus 24, Verses 7 to 8, they were instructed to set new
showbread on the sanctuary table each seventh-day Sabbath. This was all typical of the
spiritual warm bread of the Word that we partake of in greater quantities on the Sabbath than
on other days of the week. None of these ceremonies were attached to the Sabbath before
Moses, for there was no Levitical priesthood; the Melchizedek priesthood was much simpler,
though we do not know in which details.
The point is that some of the moral commandments, statutes, and laws that we find in the
Law of Moses existed from Creation, which included the seven appointed times in the
Sabbath, but not the ceremonies that were added to the Sabbath and other appointed times in
the Law of Moses; and these did not make the Sabbath and other appointed times themselves
ceremonial or turn them into feasts, for they remained the same since Creation. What changes
is how they are celebrated in the old and new covenants.
The King James Bible that Sister White had, as well as mine, has a passage that more plainly
speaks of the hallowing of the other appointed times at Creation. It is in the Apocrypha, which
Sister White said that “the wise of these last days should understand” (Manuscript 4, 1850)
and that that they should “bind it to the heart,” “let not its pages be closed,” and “read it
carefully,” for she said that it is part of the “pure and unadulterated” “Word of God”
(Manuscript 5, 1849).
*** REMNANT FOR THE REMNANT LINK ***
See the link on the screen for a very interesting study on the Apocrypha.
*** END REMNANT FOR THE REMNANT SCREEN ***
The passage I’m speaking of is in the book of Ecclesiasticus, also called Sirach, originally
written in the Greek. The King James Version translated the Greek word ‘heorte’ into ‘feasts’
in the passage we will examine here, but it translated the same word into ‘holy days’ in
Colossians 2:16. The word can mean the celebration of those days, or feasts, since the Greek
does not distinguish between the annual days and the feasts themselves as does Hebrew;
however, days themselves are being dealt with in the context here, which is dealing with days
themselves in Creation - before anything ceremonial - so I will be translating it to ‘holy days’.

Why doth one day excel another,

when all the light of every day in the year is of the sun?

By the knowledge of the Lord they were separated

and appointed times and holy days He made different.

Some of them hath He exalted and hallowed,

and some of them hath He made ordinary days.

And all men are from the ground,

and Adam was created of earth.

~ Ecclesiasticus 33, Verses 7 to 10

This is profound. Not only do we see that God hallowed the annual holy days - which I believe
He hallowed in hallowing the Sabbath day - but we see that all men are from the ground since
Adam was created of the earth, since we were in Adam in Creation. I believe that God knew us
all and created us all when He, through His Son, breathed the Word of life into the dust of the
earth to form Adam and that that same breathed Word spoken in Creation then brings us into
life in the wombs of our mothers. His Word is the Seed, spoken in Adam, and the vital life is in
the Seed, just waiting until the fullness of our time comes to bring us into existence. And
Christ is that Seed. When He spoke, “Let us make adam/man,” He was also creating the
humanity of the Second Adam, which He also promised to Eve when He first revealed to her
the Gospel in Genesis 3:15.
The Promised Seed, the Gospel, was there in creation of man, which would be passed onto the
succeeding generations through the institution of marriage, but that same Gospel Seed was
also in the twin institution of the Sabbath, the seventh day. The seven annual rest days flow
out from the Sabbath fountain, and they explain the Gospel through the types added to them
in the Law of Moses, and upon them is the Gospel fulfilled in the Christian dispensation. But
“from the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man
through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He
foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency” (Desire of Ages, p.
22).
God foreknew both the apostasy and the remedy, and that is why it is written
that it was “by the knowledge of the Lord” that the days were separated, with
the holy days made different from the ordinary days in His hallowing the
Sabbath on the seventh day. The Gospel was there in Creation, and it seems it was also in
the constellations of the stars (called the ‘Mazzaroth’ in Hebrew), just as it was in the Law of
Moses through the types. Wherever we go in the Scriptures or in the Book of Nature we may
find Jesus, but we will not find Him if we are not looking for new light.
One thing is for certain in this hidden book passage, revealed unto the wise
who fear the Lord in these last days: We are infinitely far from being more
knowledgeable than the Lord who made us all, therefore we as mortals made
from dust have no right to think to change the appointed times that our Creator
hallowed in His Creation. Who on this earth has the power or wisdom to hold
back the hands of our infinite Maker and Sustainer, whose power continually
holds all heavenly bodies in perfectly precise motions of time? Not you, not I,
no one.
Our third text of Creation is ten chapters forward in the same book:

The Lord ... made the moon also

to serve in her appointed time
for a declaration of times,
and an everlasting sign.

From the moon

is the sign of holy days,
a light that decreaseth upon her perfection.

The month is called after her name,

increasing wonderfully in her changing,
being an instrument of the hosts above,
shining in the firmament of heaven.

~ Ecclesiasticus 43, Verses 5 to 8

The moon is the highlight of this passage. The Lord made it serve as an
everlasting sign, specifically for declaring times. Its appointed time is called
New Moon, standing at the head, or first, of the biblical month. On this day, a
new crescent will be seen sweetly shining in the western sky after sundown.
This visible crescent sign thus declares that a new month is beginning.
Over the course of the waxing part of the month, the crescent sign will
gradually transition to another sign that declares the holy days, “a light that
decreaseth upon her perfection.” It then becomes the sign of holy days, and as
with the crescent sign, it will appear just after sundown, this time in its full,
mature state, thus marking the conception of the fifteenth of the month—to be
born at dawn. Then the moon begins its decreasing, or waning, after exactly
two weeks of gaining, or waxing.
Though we will not get into the details of biblical calendation in this presentation, this passage
that was hidden to us offers us fresh insight on God’s calendar, showing us the everlasting
importance of the sign of the moon - both in its crescent sign and mature sign - and when
utilized to determine the holy days and days of the months, it fits perfectly in place with all of
our Adventist prophetic dates. Even outside of keeping the holy days, we need to be able to
defend those divine dates, for they are at the very foundation of the Advent movement, which
stands or falls upon them. I speak not only of the time prophecies of the 70 weeks and 2300
days, but those of the seven trumpets, closing on the exact day of 8/11/1840.
Many have doubted these dates - even among professed Adventists - because they have not
known how God’s calendar works, which is explained in the provided link. And in that link
is a message entitled, “A Revival of God's Calendar Through His Prophetic Times.”
Since Creation, the moon has always served as an everlasting sign. It is written
of its appointed time, the New Moon, together with its twin day of holy delight,
when the new earth shall be, “that from one New Moon to another, and from
one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the
LORD” (Isaiah 66:23). And each time the redeemed gather on the New Moon in
that City of Peace, lo, a new ripe kind of fruit will be shared together from the
Tree of Life (see Rev. 22:2)!
Nothing agricultural or meteorological has ever determined God’s calendar, but rather when
His people that were living during the ceremonial economy were faithful, the agricultural
seasons would always come on time according to the calendar of sun and moon. Of primary
importance in God’s calendar is His appointed times. This is made clear in our fourth Creation
text:
“He made the moon for appointed times” (Psalm 104:19).
Given the context of Creation, there should be no question that these “appointed times” refer
to God’s own that He hallowed in Creation. The moon does not produce any generic seasons
like the sun does, and there were no oceans in Creation to produce tides. We need to let God
in His Word speak for Himself and regard what He regards.
Nevertheless, the general word “times” appeared in our last Ecclesiasticus text. This shows
that God also considers our secular needs, and He also gives us opportunity to put our own
memorials on the calendar for special events we choose to commemorate through fasting or
feasting, just as Purim and Hanukkah were in the latter; however, Pagan times should be
shunned no matter what significance Christendom has given them, for they originated in the
worship of Pagan gods.
Even the names given to the days of the week are Pagan, but God numbered them and the
numbers are all in relation to His great sign and seal of His Creatorship, the Sabbath. Our
pioneers used to number the days of the week, at least in their periodicals, and so should we.
Then the Sabbath - governed by the sign of the splendid sunset, which also speaks of our daily
time of rest - is ever kept before us to remind us of our weekly and our spiritual rests. Thus,
throughout the week in our continual count, we will actually “remember the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy,” and we will remember all what it stands for, particularly the creative works of
our God.
But what spiritual meaning does the moon and its sign have? This is what we will look at next,
in Part 3. According to God’s design, the moon has much to teach us. We have rich prophecies
told by the moon to mine, but this mining takes place in the Bible and the writings of Sister
White. There is much to uncover; we have glorious things to behold. So, please join me again
in Part 3.

A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh Month

Part Three

Let us journey on now to hear the story of the moon. We will start with the most basic
meaning and then proceed into glorious prophecies of our Adventist future, based on our rich
Adventist heritage – realities that we are to hope for and enter into by faith.
Just like the daily sign of the sun reminding us to rest in the creative works of God, the
monthly sign of the moon and its waxing and waning each month also remind us of a central
spiritual concept.
New Moon Slide
The Hebrew word for the New Moon is ‘Chodesh’, and its root word is ‘chadash’, which,
according to Strong’s, literally means ‘to be new’. Thus, when the moon shines anew each
month, it is to remind us of spiritual renewal.
And since we know that a woman’s cycle is a month and that the moon is female both in the
Hebrew and Greek, we can tie the moon to the spiritual woman of Christ’s church, as also
according to the more sure word of prophecy. The moon reflects the light of “the Sun of
Righteousness” (Malachi 4:2) which represents Christ, “the Bridegroom” of Matthew 25. And
it is written in Revelation 12:1, “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman
clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve
stars.”
The twelve stars obviously represent the twelve tribes of God’s church - anciently in type and
antitypically according to the tribes of the 144,000 listed in Revelation 7. She reflects the
bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness - that is, Christ’s character. And she stands on the
moon because “from the moon is the sign of holy days” - the days in which her Bridegroom
begins His legal work to marry her while she awaits His real coming in the seventh month.
This is the same month that the Adventists tarried for in the Midnight Cry of 1844. The Loud
Cry - antitypical of the Midnight Cry - will make us known as being the seventh-month
movement all over again, for we will be warning the world of salvational events to take place
in the seventh month. And this requires us to take a very rewarding look now into prophecy,
because it is not enough to know the signs and dates of God’s calendar; we also need to know
what they mean to us on a practical level to enrich us now and prepare us for the future.
The Midnight Cry announced the Day of Atonement of the seventh month when it came in
1844, but the passing of that day then became bitter to the tarrying saints when Christ did not
return to this earth as they so fervently had hoped. This was prophesied in Revelation 10 when
John was told to eat the little book containing the prophetic times of Daniel. It was sweet to
the taste but became bitter to the belly. After this, John (representing God’s end-time saints)
was told, “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues,
and kings” (v. 11).
We are to prophesy again, but this time the message will not be hinged on time. We will not
know how long it is until the close of probation. It is not for us to know and it is not our
message. The time prophecies of Daniel have all been fulfilled, the little book eaten. But we
are to prophesy again as the Advent movement. We do know that the final atonement that
cleanses the sanctuary has not been made yet, that the seven last plagues will commence at
that time and last for a year according to Revelation 18:8 via the day-for-a-year principle,
ending at the Second Coming, which will be in the seventh month at the commencement of
the time of Tabernacles, fulfilling the type. God will come to tabernacle with us, bringing us to
our temporary camp away from this earth, and we shall travel there for a week, arriving on the
appointed time known as the last great day.
Thus, we can expect the final atonement to be made in the seventh month of the previous
year. And on what day of that month will the antitypical cleansing of the sanctuary occur?
None other than the Day of Atonement, when this time the investigative judgment will not
commence but rather the judgment of plagues that will eventually destroy Babylon. Just as
the Midnight Cry of the second angel prophesied of this day, so will the Loud Cry of the third
angel, warning of the plagues and of no more Mediator to atone for sin, for the final
atonement will be made, antitypical of the Lord’s goat, as seen in Leviticus 16. Also in that
chapter is the laying the sins upon the scapegoat. The antitype of that will be fulfilled
according to the time as well. All the sins that have ever entered the heavenly sanctuary will be
placed upon Satan at the appointed time.
These two phases of the final atonement must be understood, thus the reason for two different
days to commence the proceedings. The investigation of who will be the subjects of the
Kingdom must precede the receiving of the Kingdom and is thus a necessary part of the
atonement process, for it must be determined who shall be made at one with God. But the
actual atonement between God and redeemed humanity, represented by Christ, is still
separate from the investigation proceeding it. Then Christ will sprinkle His blood on the
mercy seat, antitypical of the Lord’s goat which did not bear any sin but only cleansed, unlike
what He has been doing for so long with His blood transferring our sins into the sanctuary.
The transferring of sin will no longer be made to the sanctuary but to the scapegoat, a very
different event from which has been happening. The mercy seat covers the ark of the covenant
holding the divine Law, representing divinity, and Christ, representing humanity, will apply
His blood there, thus consummating the marriage, making at-one-ment between redeemed
humanity and God. A separate atonement had been made on the Cross for all of humanity,
being restored to life from Adam’s sin, but this atonement is only for those whose names
remain written in the Book of Life in the investigative judgment.
The atonement being made by the new covenant blood, Christ will thus receive His Kingdom
from the Father, whose Name, which the sanctuary represents, is vindicated. The Law held in
the Ark of the Covenant is the contract of the marriage covenant. All the conditions will be
met, with the 144,000 being the first-fruits representing the redeemed of all ages who would
have fulfilled all of the Law had they had the light that they will have. Their own hearts being
cleansed by the Spirit to the point of being able to live without a Mediator will free the Daily
Lamb, who ever liveth to make intercession in the antitypical daily, from His sacrificial duties.
Then, and only then, He will receive His Kingdom. But the Scapegoat will be bound. Hence,
the antitypical “fit man” of Leviticus 16 who places the sins upon the Scapegoat are the
144,000, who Christ sees ‘fit’ to not require His sacrificial atonement for their sins, which
have ceased. Thus, it is our prophetic role to free the Lamb and bind the
Scapegoat, and this is what happens in the second antitypical Day of
Atonement, since this cannot be fulfilled in the investigative judgment but must
come after.
Sister White sees in a vision that the plagues “do not come until Jesus puts on the garments of
vengeance and takes His seat upon the great white cloud. Then while the plagues are
falling the scape goat is being led away. He makes a mighty struggle to escape, but he
is held fast by the hand that bears him away. If he should effect his escape, Israel would be
destroyed. I saw that it would take time to bear him away into the land of
forgetfulness after the sins were put upon his head” (Manuscript 15, 1850).
A single sin from the saints at this time would cause the Scapegoat to escape. That is why it is
so critical that the four winds of strife be held off until the Lamb of God sees that He can safely
leave His daily sacrificial duties, the 144,000 being safely sealed. It should be mentioned here
that in the type, the daily offering still had to be done on the Day of Atonement before the
special atonement could be made. Antitypically, we see this in the fact that Christ is still
transferring sin into the sanctuary while conducting the investigative judgment, but this old
phase must end.
The scapegoat trying to escape represents Satan and his angels still being able to tempt the
144,000 to try to get them to sin, including to try to get them to lose hope. But Israel will
prevail. A change will come near the end of this next antitypical Day of Atonement, which
lasts for a year.
“Therefore shall her plagues come in one day” (Revelation 18:8).
Sister White has another vision which sees what happens toward the end of that day, and this
brings us up to another appointed time of the seventh month - the one closing that day, or
year, and the setting is deliverance from the death decree that Babylon, united with the world,
impose upon God’s people for keeping the Sabbath and not her Sunday, though the true and
false holy days, like Christmas and Easter, will be involved as well. It should be noted from
prophecy that this unlawful union of Babylon and the world making the worldwide Sunday
law will only last for one prophetic hour, of which it is written, “Alas, alas that great city
Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come” (v. 10). In real time, this is
a half month.
Here is the vision, with the setting being at the end of that two weeks’ time; it is the Day of
Shouting – solemn, and yet glorious and victorious:
“It was at midnight that God chose to deliver His people. As the wicked were mocking around
them, suddenly the sun appeared, shining in his strength, and the moon stood still. The
wicked looked upon the scene with amazement, while the saints beheld with solemn joy the
tokens of their deliverance. Signs and wonders followed in quick succession. Everything
seemed turned out of its natural course. The streams ceased to flow. Dark, heavy clouds came
up and clashed against each other. But there was one clear place of settled glory, whence came
the voice of God like many waters, shaking the heavens and the earth. There was
a mighty earthquake. The graves were opened, and those who had died in faith
under the third angel’s message, keeping the Sabbath, came forth from their
dusty beds, glorified, to hear the covenant of peace that God was to make with
those who had kept His law.
The sky opened and shut and was in commotion. The mountains shook like a reed in the wind
and cast out ragged rocks all around. The sea boiled like a pot and cast out stones upon the
land. And as God spoke the day and the hour of Jesus’ coming and delivered the
everlasting covenant to His people, He spoke one sentence, and then paused, while the
words were rolling through the earth. The Israel of God stood with their eyes fixed
upward, listening to the words as they came from the mouth of Jehovah and
rolled through the earth like peals of loudest thunder. It was awfully solemn.

At the end of every sentence the saints

shouted, ‘Glory! Hallelujah!’
Their countenances were lighted up with the glory of God, and they shone with glory as did
the face of Moses when he came down from Sinai. The wicked could not look upon them for
the glory.
And when the never-ending blessing
was pronounced on those who had
honored God in keeping His Sabbath
holy, there was a mighty shout of
victory over the beast and over his
image.
Then commenced the jubilee, when the land should rest. I saw the pious slave rise in victory
and triumph, and shake off the chains that bound him, while his wicked master was in
confusion and knew not what to do; for the wicked could not understand the words of the
voice of God” (Early Writings, p. 285).
This is no doubt the Day of Shouting, the highest New Moon of the year, the beginning of the
seventh month. It is the only holy day, outside of the future holy day that begins Tabernacles,
in which no prophetic event connected with the plan of redemption has happened yet, and it
is the most mysterious one since no old covenant types seem to be associated with it. But now
it is made clear. This day was called the Day of Shouting for what will happen in the antitype
in the shout of victory over Babylon, which reigned over the world for but an hour. God’s
people who freed the Lamb are now freed themselves in the time of jubilee. The Sabbath and
Jubilee years always commence on this Day of Shouting, and since in the antitype the final
atonement will have already been made, the freedom can go into effect immediately instead of
waiting for the tenth day of the new civil year.
God’s voice will sound like thunder, much stronger than all of the human shouts combined.
He delivers the new and everlasting covenant to all the redeemed Seventh-day Adventists at
once. This is the covenant promised to the patriarchs and ratified by the blood of Jesus but it
will not be delivered and go into effect until the Day of Shouting, when the 144,000 will have
the Law written in their hearts and their experience tested. The Kingdom is given. The
Sabbath millennium begins. And God’s thunderous voice also speaks the day and the hour of
the Second Advent, which is undoubtedly the fifteenth day after that date to fulfill the Feast of
Tabernacles. Thus, Babylon will have had its hour, or 15 literal days, and God will now have
His.
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, ‘The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His
Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
This is the ultimate fulfillment of the everlasting covenant. The earth is declared as the eternal
Promised Land. And through all the commotion and seismic activity causing the massive
earthquakes, the “Lake of Fire burning with brimstone” will be kindled, which the beast
(representing the Papacy) and the false prophet (representing the United States) will be
thrown into – that is, the leading forces of these entities who engage in the Battle of
Armageddon, which takes place in the region of Israel.
“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him,
with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that
worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone”
(Revelation 19:20).
Though it has largely been forgotten, the Dead Sea and the area around it, which is just east of
Jerusalem, had been burning and smoking for many centuries after the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah there, until at least the 18 th Century. The major Dead Sea transform fault lies
directly below the sea – which is more like a lake, except for its saltiness – and the sulfur in
and around the sea is the biblical brimstone which ignited through the earthquake-released
hydrogen sulfide and asphalt. And since the final battles will take place in this same active
region, it looks like the Dead Sea will rekindle as a lake of fire again and is what is being
referred to as the prophetic Lake of Fire in the time of the seventh plague. This fire will
continue burning until worldwide fire combines with it and the old earth is destroyed at the
end of the 1,000 years, since after the 1,000 years the devil will be “cast into the lake of fire
and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet were” (Revelation 20:10).
Thus, what we see is a continuation of fire from the Day of Shouting to the very end of the
1,000 years, making it a single period time called “the Day of Judgment” in which the nations
of the earth and their inhabitants are judged retributively until God’s Kingdom reigns on this
earth.
“But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved
unto fire against the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not
ignorant of this one thing, that ONE DAY is with the Lord as A THOUSAND YEARS, and a
THOUSAND YEARS as ONE DAY” (2 Peter 3:7-8).
During this time, the earth, having sinful man inhabiting it for six millennia, rests from its
sinful inhabitants and waits for its new birth in which there will be no more sin or death. But
this Day of Judgment - a day-for-a-thousand-years - should not be confounded with the time
of plagues preceding it, also a day, but a day-for-a-year. To see this clearer, here
** start picture slide **
is a chart that depicts the two one-day prophecies and how they overlap with each other for
one hour - the first half of the seventh month, from the appointed time of the 1 st to the
appointed time of the 15th. It is as if the Day of Judgment flows out of the seven last plagues
biblically called ‘the Day of the LORD’, both having their source in the Day of Atonement in
the seventh month the year before, commencing the whole thing.
What is not on this chart is the Investigative Judgment period, but it should be noted that it
commences and closes on the same biblical day, which was in the type called the Day of
Atonement – a name that perfectly fits the antitypical events, thus no need for a name change.
Here, we are studying only the events and periods following the close of probation, being the
second of those two momentous days. With the investigation completed, justice must come.
The day for a year of plagues is well established in Scripture and it most commonly called the
Day of the LORD. We will just look at a few passages here from Isaiah, but it is also called this
in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Joel, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and Malachi.
** end picture slide **
“It is the Day of the Lord’s Vengeance, and the Year of Recompenses for the controversy of
Zion” (Isaiah 34:8). “The Day of Vengeance is in My heart, and the Year of My redeemed is
come” (Isaiah 63:4). “He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable
year of the LORD, and the Day of Vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn” (Isaiah
61:1-2).
These verses describe the mercy in God’s justice, for the judgments upon the wicked mean the
deliverance of Israel, typical of their ancient deliverance from Egypt and its plagues. The
Adventists have their own experience to celebrate and look forward to in these last days, and
this is why we are studying these prophetic events of the seventh month and their associated
periods. Our coming out of the world and into the everlasting Kingdom of God is a process,
completely tied to the seventh month events; and we need to properly understand both our
past and future so that we can have our own experience with God. We need to realize that we
have an independent and unique from the old covenant experience of coming out of Egypt,
though antitypical of it. We must see what the appointed times mean to us as Adventists
entering the new covenant so that we can properly observe them according to God’s purpose
for us.
** start the same picture slide **
Thus far, we have looked into the seventh-month event that commences the Day of the LORD
as well as the one that commences the Day of Judgment. But before we can cover the last
three seventh-month events, we need to return back to the New Moon where we started.
** end picture slide **
** start moon slide **
We have seen that a very special one is planned for the Day of Shouting when God’s people are
delivered from Babylon. It is very unusual that Sister White in her vision of the deliverance
says that the moon stood still on that climactic day, the highest New Moon. Why would it
stand still on this Day of Shouting? Could it be to hold before the inhabitants of the earth the
covenant sign, the crescent moon, on this very high and holy day when God makes His
everlasting covenant with His people? I think that is very possible given such an unusual sign
and wonder.
The New Moon is the day of renewal, representing the new covenant, and this is very clear
now after studying the Day of Shouting. God does not command us to observe the New Moon
in His Law nor to treat it as a rest day. It is a voluntary day that the Bride of Christ observes
out of love, not out of command.
** end moon slide **
Amos 8:5 and Ezekiel 46:1 record it as being set apart from working days and from buying
and selling, but it is not commanded because this is the time for the bride to shine. So, how
she chooses to observe this day will be out of agape love and not command. This is a taste of
when the new covenant goes fully into effect in eternity when the Law will be written in our
hearts rather than having to be read as a commandment with penalties attached for
disobedience. Then, there will be no possibility for disobedience, for all will be eternally
secure and trusted after having been through the education process of this old earth and
having overcome all that was revealed to be sin by the blood of the Lamb in this sinful flesh.
Each New Moon we may look forward to our deliverance when God delivers the everlasting
covenant to us. And each waxing phase after that day can remind us of the waxing of the new
covenant in our hearts as we grow “from faith to faith” (Romans 1:17) and God progressively
writes His Law in us.
And the waning phase can remind us of how the old covenant and the old earth will pass
away: “In that he saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth
and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13). When all is fulfilled - the Law being
perfectly written in our hearts and having no need to teach others to know God with probation
ended - there will be no more need for the old, with its written Law, for us to continually read.
The Bible will no longer be needed, for we shall see God face to face as He is. That is the Day
of Shouting - the day the new covenant is delivered, and also the day that the old earth and its
heaven shall begin to “pass away” (Matthew 5:18), in that the Lake of Fire is kindled. Thus, the
more the moon wanes, the sooner it is to that day and its memorial each month.
The New Moon experience is thus tied into the experience of the high one – the seventh one of
each year, which is so special that God wants us to remember it every month rather than once
a year like the other annual holy days, with one exception. Do you know what it is? Recall how
there is only one annual holy day that uses the word ‘Shabbat’, and that is the Day of
Atonement – the day that both begins and ends the Investigative Judgment. The experience
that God wants us to have that is associated with this day is the permanent resting, or ceasing,
from sin; but, again, rather than us only remembering such an experience once a year, He has
us to remember it each week – and even each day of each week which is named after, or
counted from, the Sabbath. Thus, every weekly Shabbat is a weekly reminder of the truths
associated with the annual Shabbat, and we see that same relationship between every New
Moon and the seventh one magnifying the covenant principle, just as the Day of Atonement
magnifies the rest principle. And each day of the month is also named after, or counted from,
the New Moon, thus bringing the covenant experience into our daily lives. It is truly amazing
how God has designed His calendar for us! It is so rich with meaning, according to the riches
of His wisdom!
But there is more!
** start the same picture slide **
Just as the annual holy day that corresponds to each week comes twice to fulfill old covenant
types – first on October 22nd, 1844, and again in the future when the final atonement is
actually made – the annual holy day that corresponds to each month also comes twice to fulfill
types so that the plan of redemption is completely fulfilled. And that’s what we are going to
look at now. We have seen that the Day of Shouting commences the Day of Judgment, but it
also concludes the same period, just as the Day of Atonement concluded the Investigative
Judgment that it began. Both judgment periods are this way. And we have more evidence than
simply the 1,000 years being exactly 1,000 years – beginning and ending on the same day.
For the Day of Shouting commencing the judgment period, it says in the Great Controversy,
(in an updated form of what we read earlier from Early Writings):
** end picture slide **
“The voice of God is heard from heaven, declaring the day and hour of Jesus’ coming, and
delivering the everlasting covenant to His people ... And when the blessing is pronounced on
those who have honored God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is a mighty shout of
victory” (p. 640). And two chapters later, the same book carries us down to the next time of
deliverance – the next great Day of Shouting – this time closing the 1,000 years: “In the
cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch—Satan the root, his
followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of justice
have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah ... Now
God’s creatures are forever delivered from his presence and temptations. ‘The whole earth is
at rest, and is quiet: they [the righteous] break forth into singing.’ Isaiah 14:7. And a shout
of praise and triumph ascends from the whole loyal universe. ‘The voice of a great
multitude,’ ‘as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
thunderings,’ is heard, saying: ‘Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.’ Revelation
19:6” (p. 673).
On the former Day of Shouting was “the voice of God like many waters, shaking the
heavens and the earth” (Early Writings, p. 285); but on this Day of Shouting, the voice of
many waters includes the great multitude of the redeemed of all ages in praise to God! Before,
the everlasting covenant was delivered, and that was reason enough for “a mighty shout of
victory”; but though delivered and partially realized, in that the redeemed could live with God
and be carried to the eternal City of peace, it could not go in full effect until after the 1,000
years – not until the root and the branches of all evil be destroyed, along with the old cursed
earth. And once destroyed, there is no need for the new heavens and the new earth to tarry;
there is no delay.
“At the final destruction of ‘Gog and Magog,’ the whole wicked host will be burnt up, ‘root and
branch,’ and cease to exist. Then will appear the new heaven and the new earth” (E.G. White,
A Word to the Little Flock, p. 12).
So, both the destruction and the recreation will happen the same Day of Shouting, with
perhaps the final burning happening that consumes everything while it is still night so that the
day dawns with the new creation. But it should be noted that the purification of the earth is a
two-step process. First, the area of where the New Jerusalem shall land must be purified,
which is a very substantial area, being that each side of the City is “12,000 furlongs” (Rev.
21:16), which is equivalent to exactly 1500 miles, or over 2400 kilometers. This makes for a
square area of 144 million furlongs, or 2¼ million square miles, or nearly 6 million square
kilometers, which is over eight times the huge state of Texas! Yet it will still be only about one
percent the size of the earth as a whole. This one percent set apart for the saints will be
purified first at the end of the 1,000 years, but not on the very end of it. But it could still be
considered that 1,000 years of inclusive reckoning have passed before anything happens on
earth, which was a common mode of counting in biblical times. Listen to this Spirit of
Prophecy statement:
“The saints will rest in the Holy City and reign as kings and priests one thousand years; then
Jesus will descend with the saints upon the Mount of Olives, and the mount will part asunder
and become a mighty plain for the Paradise of God to rest upon. The rest of the earth will
not be cleansed until the end of the one thousand years, when the wicked dead are
raised and gather up around the city. The feet of the wicked will never desecrate the earth
made new. Fire will come down from God out of heaven and devour them” (Early Writings, p.
51).
The implication of this is that the 1,000 years called the ‘Day of Judgment’ includes not only
the seventh plague of Revelation when Babylon is destroyed and two weeks later all the rest of
the living wicked as we studied before, but also the final judgment that destroys the wicked of
all ages – not to mention the saints judging the wicked people and angels in between. It is
indeed the Judgment Day. Sin is a horrific thing, but the execution of the Judgment is one just
and humane process, one year after the investigation ends.
At the close of it all, “some are destroyed as in a moment, while others suffer many days”
(Great Controversy, p. 673). This suffering is not from the physical fire but from the result of
their own sins. The sinner “will realize that because of transgression, his soul is cut off
from God, and that God’s wrath abides on him. This is a *fire* unquenchable,
and by it every unrepentant sinner will be *destroyed*” (Signs of the Times,
4/14/1898). The apocryphal book of 2 Esdras says the same thing – that God’s “Son ... shall
lay before them their evil thoughts, and the torments wherewith they shall begin to be
tormented, which are like unto a flame: and He shall *destroy* them without
labor by the Law, which is like unto *fire*” (13:37-38).
This is how Jesus died as well: the wrath of God, through the Law decreeing death – not for
His sins but for our sins. If He had sinned, His soul would have been permanently destroyed,
but instead only His sinful flesh had no resurrection since He never contaminated His soul
with sin. But He still felt the wrath of God – the anguishing soul separation from God for His
wrath against sin – our sin, the sin of the world. He died the death that we deserve, and which
we will receive if we do not receive Him as our Saviour from sin. Nevertheless, the flames of
fire surrounding the wicked, which symbolize their torments within, will destroy their bodies
afterward – after their souls are destroyed by the spiritual fire of the Law exposing their sins,
as the Son of God, with His piercing eyes, brings every one of them to memory. How much
infinitely better it is for us today to turn to the Law each day to have thee dross consumed
from our hearts now while we still are in this probationary time!
“After all have perished who fell by his deceptions, [Satan] is still to live and suffer on” (Great
Controversy, p. 673); thus, this whole process will take place over many days leading up to the
Day of Shouting, not to mention the war that Satan musters up before any of this happens.
** start the same picture slide **
Thus, we see that even the end of the 1,000 years is a process. It is a period of so many days,
which can be called the “Great White Throne” Judgment (Rev. 20:11) – the final stage of the
Day of Judgment as well as the great controversy as a whole. The end of that period, which is
the very end of the 1,000 years to the day, is the Day of Shouting, when the earth receives not
its millennial jubilee as before, but its eternal Jubilee – permanent release from all trace of
sin, except for the wounds of Jesus which will eternally testify the great deliverance He
provided through them in His precious blood.
Thus begins the third and final prophetic day – not the day-for-a-year or the day-for-a-
thousand-years as before, but the day-for-eternity, yea, the day of infinity! Judgment is all
past and not a single unpleasant thing will ever enter the entire universe again! How
appropriate it is for a day of joyous shouting of praise and triumph to the Most High! The
Prophet Zechariah calls it “one day,” particularly as he speaks of the Holy City, in which there
is no night because of the brightness of God’s glory that floods that city and its surroundings:
** end picture slide **
“It shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come
to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters
shall go out from Jerusalem ... And the LORD shall be King over all the earth: in that day
shall there be one LORD, and His Name one” (Zechariah 14:7, 9).
Just imagine: A day that never ends! That is how it will be in the everlasting City of peace. But
then how will God’s calendar be witnessed? The Prophet Isaiah answers this for us, speaking
of the same prophetic day of eternity, which commences on the Day of Shouting for joy, so
that that day marks and defines the infinite day; thus, “the day” in the verse we are about to
read is referring to both as one:
“The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be
sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of His
people, and healeth the stroke of their wound” (Isaiah 30:26).
So, we have talked much about the moon and its holy day (the New Moon) for a while. Since
we are talking about “the day,” let us talk some about sun and its holy day (the Sabbath), and
this will bring us into the last two seventh-month holy day events, though 1,000 years earlier
than the one we last covered.
As we saw in Sister White’s dream of the Sabbath seal, she likens that seal to the rising of the
sun, getting higher and higher, reaching its highest, its noon, when we reach the eternal city.
Thus, we can think of eternal things as the morning progresses each day. And the sun only
drops after that so that we can later see the moon speak her message to us in the sky – her
message of the covenant, just as the sunset each evening, especially the seventh, speaks of the
rest we enter into by faith. Each Sabbath day is a sign of the ceasing of sin unto everlasting
rest. But it was not so originally. In the original Sabbath in Eden, Adam and Eve innocently
knew nothing of spiritual rest from something bad; they only knew to stop working after six
days of physical labor to honor their Creator. And this brings us to a very important principle
that must not be misunderstood, so please listen carefully.
There is or never was or never will be anything of a typical
shadow in the Sabbath, or in any of the Ten Commandments,
or in any of the appointed times, or in any of the moral
statutes of God’s Holy Law. The clear line of demarcation
must be drawn. Nothing original from Creation can be a
typical shadow. Types can come later that associate with the
things of Creation, but they cannot make those things
shadowy types themselves, only shadowy signs, which is the
case with the Sabbath. Something created for its own
purpose can secondarily become a sign, shadowing a greater
meaning beyond the sign, but a type designates its original
purpose.
And the Spirit of Prophecy, in several places, not merely speaking of a meal (as can be seen
the context of the quotes), calls the Jewish Passover a “national festival” - that is, for the
nation of fleshly Israel. Its original purpose was to commemorate deliverance from Egypt and
its plagues and typify of a greater deliverance - one celebrated event typifying another. The
Jewish Passover is a type, not a sign like the Sabbath is for rest from sin after sin entered; and
the two must be distinguished. We will later on study how Paul kept a Passover, but it was not
the one prescribed in the Law – the national festival of the Jews – since he did not slaughter a
lamb nor always celebrate it in Jerusalem. For a Christian to keep the national feasts is an
impossibility.

Thus, the old covenant festivals and other ceremonies from

the Exodus and Sinai, and even circumcision which came
earlier - all pertaining to fleshly Israel - cannot disannul the
appointed times and other moral statutes of the everlasting
covenant (which came before and was ratified after, causing
those temporary types all to cease). But this does not mean
that the permanent things cannot gain new meaning as signs
to signify spiritual realities; in fact, if what they come to
signify is not recognized, these things can easily become mere
forms and nothing more to the religious observer, having lost
all the meaning. And Jesus Christ will always be the fullness,
or substance, of all the meaning.
Every week as we approach the Sabbath day, we are to be mindful of its spiritual meaning. As
Paul says in Hebrews 4, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is
entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Let us
labor therefore to enter into that rest” (vv. 9-11).
The rest that remains is both spiritual and physical. Spiritually we enter into that rest by
entering into faith, but physically we will enter in when we will be changed “in the twinkling of
an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52). When will that be?
** start the same picture slide **
When the fullness of the time is come. The moon will reach maturity and then make its full
moon sign just after sunset, and thus the fifteenth of the seventh month commences. By this
time, the prophetic day (the Day of the LORD) and the prophetic hour (Babylon’s hour) will
have passed. The time then shortens further. It is time for the prophetic half-hour to begin, in
the countdown to the Last Great Day. Here is the prophecy:
** end picture slide **
“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the
space of half an hour” (Revelation 8:1).
Since one prophetic hour is 15 literal days (1/24 th of a year), then a half hour is 7 ½ literal
days. This silence of heaven is the absence of God and His Son and His retinue of holy angels
from the Holy City. Again, it commences on the fifteenth of the seventh month, when the
Advent scene gets brighter and brighter from the perspective of the earth. This is the fullest
day of the year. It is very likely the day that Christ came the first time, out from the womb of
Mary, so that His circumcision – being the eighth day by law – would fall on the eighth day
associated with the week of Tabernacles. God in Christ came to tabernacle with us, even in our
flesh, permanently in humanity. But it is very certain the day that Christ comes the second
time so that type meets antitype. Then the week of time that follows, leading up to the eighth
day is that half hour that heaven is empty to receive us who are to be redeemed. And, speaking
of the cloud of angels that Christ returns in, Sister White saw this in vision: “We all entered
the cloud together, and were seven days ascending to the sea of glass” (Early Writings, p.
16).
That would thus leave for a half day preceding the seven days to make up the prophetic half
hour, and this half day must be the time that Christ takes to travel here from heaven. And the
end of that prophetic half hour would then be on the Last Great Day, the last day of the time of
Tabernacles, when the thirsty saints - so long prone to this dark, dry, dismal world - may
finally drink freely “of the fountain of the water of life” as they arrive into the Holy City, all
safe and sound, along with all the redeemed of all ages (Revelation 21:6). What a grand,
gigantic fountain of bottomless pure waters that must be! I long to be there! But you and I
must first drink of the spiritual waters of the refreshing Word, administered by the Holy
Spirit, daily cleansing ourselves thereby from every defilement to have a right there.
Sister White, speaking in the Desire of Ages of Christ’s momentous words on the Last Great
Day that He attended, says the following: “The cry of Christ to the thirsty soul is still going
forth, and it appeals to us with even greater power than to those who heard it in the temple on
that last day of the feast. The fountain is open for all. The weary and exhausted ones
are offered the refreshing draught of eternal life. Jesus is still crying, ‘If any man thirst, let
him come unto Me, and drink.’ ‘Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely.’ ‘Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life’.” Revelation 22:17; John 4:14” (Desire of Ages, p. 454).
A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh Month
Part Four

Thus far, we have seen from Old Testament Scriptures that the appointed times are holy
convocations from Creation that secondarily became shadowy signs of the plan of redemption
after sin, and especially after the Exodus when shadowy types became associated with them.
It is now time to see what a shadow is and how two different kinds of shadows are
distinguished. This will bring us into a very powerful study of the controversial chapter of
Colossians 2, especially focusing on the glorious body of Christ and how God uses a shadow
that we can sense and comprehend to reveal the reality of it.
To be a shadow means to outline or represent something else of a greater meaning. A sign is
one kind of shadow, whereas the other kind of shadow is a type, with its original purpose to
prophesy of a future event through a past event. This was introduced earlier, but we need to
further distinguish the two, because they may at first appear nearly the same, when they
operate as different as the moral precepts are from the ceremonial. Let us again use the
Sabbath as a familiar example and then progress from there.

The Sabbath is a sign of our sanctifying rest from sin

that we have in Christ through the Word, which
spoke all of creation into existence. The Sabbath is
the sign that God created all things perfect and that
He is preparing the perfect creation again in all who
accept the sign its reality.
And even before sin, the Sabbath was a promise –
the everlasting covenant promise that God made
with His Son before the foundation of the world –
that if the earth should fall from her created
perfection, God would restore her, just as surely as
the Sabbath day is restored each week.
Thus, the Gospel – should it be required – was promised in
the Sabbath from Creation, but only after sin was the Gospel
revealed that was hidden in the Sabbath genetic code. It was
first revealed in types, then in antitypes. When God created
this world, He did not create it in vain, for His Word – which
He spoke in Creation – does not lie.
There shall be perfection in God’s creation, and the
Sabbath number of seven represents that perfection.
In the Sabbath is the promise of restoration, and this
restoration is a process we call sanctification – not a
future event that is typified but an ongoing reality
we enter into by faith, climaxing in the restored
creation.

In Christ is our sanctifying rest – rest from sin – as well as our Bread of Life, which is
antitypical of the showbread that was placed on that day in the temporary ceremonies
attached to that day in the Law, thus making the Sabbath a sign of our Bread of Life. Our Daily
Bread of the Word for the spiritual body of Christ is also shadowed by our very necessary
daily bread/meat/food for the physical body, originally created for our pleasure and
sustenance but later taking on a secondary shadowy role. Our daily Bread of Life we take in
through the hearing of faith will refresh us from our nutrient loss of sin until sin is ended. But
as classified in Leviticus 23, the holy Sabbath day has always, and will always be, God’s weekly
holy convocation with His people, who come apart and rest on that special day.
Our Adventist pioneers observed annual holy convocations in principle, according to their
original intent, only not according to their time on God’s calendar from Creation. However,
you still may have some doubt in regards to us doing so. The New Testament will thus confirm
our faith. The text that is most often used to disprove keeping God’s appointed times,
including the seventh-day Sabbath, is Colossians 2. We will start at this one for now, and then
later look at some other New Testament Scriptures. As we shall see, this is actually the most
affirmative text in the New Testament for observing the appointed times on this side of the
Cross.
Here is Verse 16, then we will look at the context and come back to it again:
“Let no man therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or in part of a holy day, or of the
New Moon, or of the Sabbath.”
This holy day, New Moon, and Sabbath trio can be found in different places throughout the
Old Testament, either in that order, or in reverse, or with just the pair of the Sabbath and New
Moon, as we saw in Isaiah 66. Some have remarked that the Sabbaths should be plural, as it is
in King James; however, the Greek is plural for Sabbaths in other places in the New
Testament where it should obviously be singular. It is simply a Greek plural for singular
idiom, similar to how in Hebrew ‘Elohim’, which is plural, is used for our singular ‘God’. So, I
prefer translating it to the singular, as the Revised Version also has it. And please keep in
mind that it cannot be referring to annual Sabbaths as there is no such thing, for there is only
one annual ‘Shabbat’ as is evident in Leviticus 23 in Hebrew, and that is on the tenth of the
seventh month, which was called the Day of Atonement. Paul would have mentioned that day
if that is all we meant. Therefore, the Sabbath being referred to cannot be anything other than
the weekly Sabbath, which Paul simply says that we are to not let anyone judge us in part of it
– that is, how we celebrate it.
As we will see in the context, those who were judging the Colossians, who had a heathen
background, were Gnostics. These people believed that the body was evil and that it must be
abused and restricted, which was common in oriental religion. Thus, their religion was one of
mere restrictions and forms, focused on the human body rather than on Christ and His body.
But instead of Him being the substance of their religion, they believed in various levels of
angels to connect divinity with humanity since they believed humanity to be so evil, which led
them to deny that a divine christ could come into sinful flesh, thus denying the full divinity of
Christ. Instead, ritual self-discipline was salvation. Celebration of anything, whether in food
or in a holy day, was considered against the Gnostic religion. By the way, this is part of the
origin of the Catholic Church, which came to make Sabbath a fast day rather than a
celebratory as it was meant to be, thus leading to Sunday celebration and sacredness. So,
without further ado, let us read that passage along with the surrounding context, which is
necessary to see what Paul is really saying.
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of
the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and
power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in
putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with Him in
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who
hath raised Him from the dead.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of
your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having
forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting
(idiom: bond of debt) that was against us in the decrees,
which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to His Cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers,
he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Let no man therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or
in part of

a holy day, or of the New Moon, or of

the Sabbath: Which are a shadow of
coming things; but the body is of
Christ.
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels,
intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And
not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment
ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore if ye be dead
with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject
to decrees, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the
using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a
show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and severity of the body; but are not of any
value against the satisfying of the flesh. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall ye also appear
with Him in glory.”

Unless the entire context is read and considered, as we are doing here, the message is lost. The
Apostle Paul is simply preaching the Gospel in contrast to self-imposed religion that focuses
on severely disciplining the body in an effort to counteract carnal desires. But Paul says that
these self-imposed carnal decrees have no value in counteracting carnal desires, but they only
puff up the fleshly mind. Self-righteousness always results in pride.
The solution that Paul presents to replace a religion fixated on the human body is the body of
Christ; and in his Gospel messages, especially here in Colossians, he links together the
physical body of Christ and His spiritual body, the church, which is to receive the life of His
spiritual blood, the Holy Spirit. Thus, when Christ was buried, there we were in Him, since He
represented all humanity. We were all baptized in Him, in His death as a human family, and
we were all raised up in Him when He was resurrected by the Father, so that we sit with Him
in heavenly places. That is where our hope is. We are complete in Christ. This is our legal
reality we have as a human family, but to accept it by faith places us in His spiritual body,
receiving His Holy Spirit. But if we focus on worldly elements - whether they be worldly,
carnal things that gratify our desires, or carnal observances that seek to subdue our
conscience seared by carnal lusts - we will be focused on the problem, not the remedy. And the
remedy is always Christ, who is not on earth, but in heaven, who is yet to come. Paul is thus
directing our minds from the earthly to the heavenly.
Now, let us hone in on the part of the passage that is of most interest to us - Verses 13 to 17.
The basis is what Christ accomplished on the Cross. Some who have lost a sense of the Gospel
fail to realize what happened there. Every one of us were forgiven of all our sins, before we
ever believed. It may sound like it is too good to be true, but in this case, that rule is not true.
We are forgiven in a legal sense because Christ, as our High Priest, “became us” (Heb. 7:26) -
all of us, to represent us to the Father in heaven. But before this, He had to be born as us, live
our life, and then die our death on the Cross.
Paul explains how our sins were forgiven by using an idiom that was common to Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin - the three languages that were written on the Cross in handwritten letters
which said, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Luke 23:38). The idiom in English,
including the King James, is “handwriting”; in the original Greek it is, ‘cheirographon’. It was
universally known as being a note of hand - a bond of debt written out by the hand of the
debtor who promises to pay it. Hence, it was a receipt of a debt to be paid; and when it was
paid, a nail was pierced through it, just as some restaurants still do today after a bill is paid.
And, lo, it is written, “They pierced My hands and My feet” (Psalms 22:16). Christ is called the
“King of the Jews” through His transaction on the Cross. He paid off our debt of sin by giving
up His life, which stands for our life in the Judgment, and all who accept His payment by this
enactment of the new covenant are Jews, recipients of His Kingdom. His blood made the
payment for our debt incurred by sins, and it is that same life that was in His blood of Calvary
that comes to us in Spirit and saves us from all our sins, thus making us true Jews.
“Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered
without the gate” (Hebrews 13:12).
“Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
It is the blood of Christ, both physically and spiritually, that makes us part of His body; and
we will cover this in more detail later. His Kingdom of the new covenant is thus established in
us through a sanctifying process, and when that process is complete for the spiritual Jews as a
whole, and each individually, He will reign, but His blood on the Cross established His
Kingdom, and we are just waiting for it to come to fruition. The Sabbath is a shadowy sign of
this sanctification reality - a shadow that represents an increasing present reality. Hebrew
thought is a process, and that is what we must realize. The everlasting covenant, which the
sign of the moon represents in its crescent and mature forms, and everything in between, is a
process of development. Thus, the New Moon is a shadow of what we already may have and
do have in Christ in heaven, and in Christ in us through His Spirit. Though His completed
Kingdom and His coming to us as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and us seeing the New
Jerusalem are still glorious things to come in the future, He is coming to us now as the
showers of rain in the time of the latter rain; He is falling upon all who will receive Him.
King James says, “things to come,” but the Greek is in ‘present participle active’ form; that is
why I have translated it to “coming things” as the Young’s Literal Translation has it. The
blessings of God come from heaven and not this earth; our eyes need to be on heavenly things,
from whence comes the rain:
NEW VERSION OF VERSE
“Then shall we know, and pursue to know Jehovah:
His going forth is prepared as the morning;
And He shall come unto us as the rain,
As the latter and former rain unto the earth.” (Hosea 6:3).
Do you know Jehovah? Do you know what His Name means? Yes, it means His
character, but I am asking more specific than that. The title, “the LORD,” is
generally placed where His Name is in the King James Bible, except for four
times. Here is one of them: Just before He delivered Israel from Egypt, “God
spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah: And I appeared unto
Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the Name of El Shaddai (translated in
the King James to “God Almighty”), but by My Name Jehovah was I not known to
them” (Exodus 6:2-3) - the reason being, God had not then delivered Israel, He had only
promised the new covenant to the patriarchs. But He went beyond that in the Sinaitic
covenant and the happenings surrounding it. The new covenant was typified in a very detailed
manner and could be much better understood, and then His Name was revealed, for He would
reveal His deliverance of Israel - a type of the new covenant deliverance.
It is in His Name - His Covenant Name - which consists of four Hebrew letters. I will now
show you what it looks like in the ancient Hebrew pictographs, the original language - a
language with each character being a picture representing physical objects that describe
things when grouped with other characters to form words; and keep in mind that Hebrew
reads from right to left, so here it is:
NEW SLIDE
On the far left column, we see the ancient Hebrew pictographs, and on the far right are their
corresponding English equivalents in letters. On the second column from the left is the
English transliteration of the letters (how they sound), and to the right of that is the English
translation of the letters (what they mean). So, with that, the first character is Jod. It means
hand. The second is Hey, which means behold. The third is Vav, which means nail and the
fourth is hey, which again means behold. So altogether, here is His name: The hand, behold,
the nail, behold. 

His Name is full of wonder and awe! It is so simple, yet infinite in meaning. Can you see why
this is His Covenant Name? And it is His Son that builds up this Name, for a son is one who
builds his father’s name in Hebrew and Christ, on the Cross, built up His Father’s Name,
establishing it as self-sacrificial love - the principle of God’s eternal Throne. He was crowned
with a crown of thorns as the King of Grace, so that He will one day be crowned as the King of
Glory. “His abasement was the pledge of His exaltation. The blood drops of agony that from
His wounded temples flowed down His face and beard were the pledge of His anointing with
‘the oil of gladness’ (Hebrews 1:9) as our Great High Priest” (Desire of Ages, p. 734). It is
called the oil of gladness because Christ gladly wore the crown of thorns, causing His blood to
anoint His holy head, to build His Father’s Name, which is Infinite Love; thus, His Kingdom,
which the Father will give to Him when Israel is fully sanctified as His body. It was all by the
faith of Jesus, who said, “I do always those things that please Him” (the Father) (John 8:29).
His faith was a doing faith, motivated by supreme love for God - the same kind of faith we
must have. And what did Christ do on the Cross? He blotted out “the handwriting that was
against us in the decrees, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
Cross.” By His own hand He paid our debt which we could not pay, for the Law of God
requires a life free from sin, which none of us have outside of Christ. Behold His hand - the
hand of One counted as the debtor, or sinner, so that we could be legally counted as He
deserved - One never having sinned. He is we. When He died for our sins, we died also in
Him. His pierced hand represents our hand - the debtor’s hand.
“For He (the Father) hath made Him (the Son) to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Therefore, in Christ, there is no more bond of debt against us that we owe. The hand writing is
blotted out with blood from the hand of pure life that never sinned. It was in the decrees that
we were decreed to be in debt. Which decrees are these? The ones in the Law - God’s Law, the
Torah Law, which is both moral and ceremonial, as established in the covenant at Sinai. It was
the ceremonial law that declares the debt - that blood is required for transgression, the blood
containing the life representing the sinner. This is just what Christ offered for you and me at
Calvary, thus fulfilling the Law. Thus, in Christ, no more decrees could be against us, and to
indicate that the decrees of death had ended, the ceremonial system of typical blood ended at
the Cross - the veil of the sanctuary being rent in twain as a witness. The decrees of death in
the slaying of innocent animals ended to show that in Christ no death decree stands against
us, and thus we are to have nothing to do with the ceremonial system which contained death
decrees. The moral precepts of Sinai still remain to this day until they are sealed in our hearts
as the condition for the new covenant to be enacted, but the ceremonial decrees are done. The
debt - illustrated by countless deaths of beasts - has been paid.
But the Gnostics of Colossae of Paul’s day did not understand this precious Gospel. They did
not practice Jewish ceremonies, but they tried to impose their severe decrees upon believers:
“Touch not; taste not; handle not.” Eating and drinking, as well as celebrating God’s holy days,
New Moons, and Sabbaths, were completely contrary to their Christless, joyless religion. The
things that God gave us to be enjoyed were perverted into forms of bondage. Eating and
drinking - especially of the Lord’s supper, but every meal - lost all meaning, having no
connection to Christ in their minds, for their minds were on themselves. But how is it with us?
How do we treat each meals - as sacred? the nourishment of the life of Christ,
who is our life? as a shadow of our spiritual life we receive from eating His
Word that is coming to us fresh from heaven morning by morning? Listen to what
Sister White said in regards to this:
“To the death of Christ we owe even this earthly life. The bread we eat is the purchase of His
broken body. The water we drink is bought by His spilled blood. Never one, saint or
sinner, eats his daily food, but he is nourished by the body and the blood of
Christ. The Cross of Calvary is stamped on every loaf. It is reflected in every water spring. All
this Christ has taught in appointing the emblems of His great sacrifice. The light shining
from that Communion service in the upper chamber makes sacred the
provisions for our daily life. The family board becomes as the table of the Lord,
and every meal a sacrament.
And how much more are Christ’s words true of our spiritual nature. He declares, ‘Whoso
eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life.’ It is by receiving the life for us
poured out on Calvary’s cross, that we can live the life of holiness. And this life
we receive by receiving His Word, by doing those things which He has
commanded. Thus we become one with Him. ‘He that eateth My flesh,’ He says, ‘and
drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live
by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.’ John 6:54, 56, 57” ( Desire of
Ages, p. 660).
“If the people of God rightly appreciated the temporal and spiritual blessings
which the Lord has poured upon them through Jesus Christ, continual praise
would be upon their lips” (Special Testimonies on Education, p. 79).
“With God ‘is the fountain of life.’ Psalm 36:9. Not only is He the originator of all, but
He is the life of everything that lives. It is His life that we receive in the
sunshine, in the pure, sweet air, in the food which builds up our bodies and
sustains our strength. It is by His life that we exist, hour by hour, moment by moment.
Except as perverted by sin, all His gifts tend to life, to health and joy” (Education, p. 197).
Do we treat the things of our everyday lives as empty forms, like shadows? Or do we discern
the Lord’s body - the substance - in these things? Do we accept the shadows to lead us into the
incoming things of “the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2)? Food and drink and the
things of this world, outside of Christ, mean nothing and “all are to perish with the using.” It is
the crucified, buried, and risen body of Christ that has value to us, and His spiritual body, the
church, has existence and life only through His body and blood - counted as the Head of the
spiritual body. But if we are “not discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor. 11:29) in the shadows of
the coming things, shadows are all they will ever be - empty and lifeless as the passing shade.
Likewise, if we do not discern the Holy Spirit in every word of God, then the words are just the
lifeless ink we see on the page – symbols of condemnation against us in the Judgment, when
they could be symbols of the righteousness of Christ that we claim now by faith. And so it is
when we enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, and food that God provides for us without a thankful
heart for our probationary life we receive in these things by the sacrificed body of Christ –
probation perverted into condemnation against us in the Judgment, when it could serve to
remind us of the Spirit of Christ in His Word nourishing us as His spiritual body.
The Sabbath is a sign of the LORD sanctifying us, but if we treat it as a day of restrictions as
the Colossian Gnostics did, we are not being sanctified by the experience but only placed in
self-imposed bondage. The Sabbath is to be our experience all seven days of the week, and it is
the same with all of the holy days and their meanings; they are to be a living reality to us as we
observe the signs of the heavens in their various stages and meditate on their spiritual
significance as they are in the coming things of Christ. Take Christ away from the necessities
of life, and you are left with a vain, empty shadow of darkness; and ignore the days that the
LORD set apart by His knowledge and you are left with nothing - at least from what you could
be experiencing in Christ.
Paul essentially said to the Gnostic Colossians, “Let no one judge you in imposing restrictions
upon you in eating and drinking or in respect of the days God gave us to enjoy in their fullness
in Christ, not a perverted emptiness that God never intended. You should have learned from
even God-given decrees being abolished at the Cross that man-made decrees to observe forms
are worse than worthless.”
Just because we are not Gnostics does not mean that we do not have the same problem that
they had in having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (2 Tim. 3:5). Formalism
is in every false religion. But in rejecting mere forms, let us not reject the forms thinking we
can have the Spirit without them. For example, we cannot truly have the Sabbath rest
experience without resting physically and spiritually on God’s holy day of the week, and an
even more obvious example is that we cannot expect to physically live, having nourishment,
by just relishing the Word of God for many days on end without partaking of physical food.
Just because eating is a shadow of partaking of God’s Word and drinking a shadow of being
cleansed from sin, washed in the blood of the Lamb, does not mean that we can replace the
shadow with the substance. Not only would the physical body perish, but before that would
happen, the experience of eating and drinking to better discern the Lord’s body and how He
nourishes us would be lost. The Hebrew experience - the experience of the Israel of God - is a
holistic one. Having the spiritual instead of the physical is all Greek to the Hebrew mindset.
Speaking of Greek, it should be noted that the Greek word translated to “shadow” is ‘skia’ and
“body” is ‘soma’. When these two words are paired together as we see in Colossians 2:17, ‘skia’
cannot mean a typical shadow, but it is rather a shadow to substance relationship. The word
“body” does not have to be present for a shadow to not be a type, but this juxtaposition of
words in Colossians 2 makes it impossible to be otherwise.
The substance in this case is, again, the body of Christ - both the Head in heaven and the
spiritual body here. It is from the Head that the body functions. Everything that happens with
the body must come from the Head, thus the “coming things” in Colossians that Paul is
directing us to must be from Christ, in heaven. Our minds and hearts are to be drawn up
there, otherwise they will be on ourselves and on what we are doing or not doing, and such a
religion is not of Christ and is thus not Christian. It was antichristian for apostate
“Christianity” to changes times (plural) and law in changing God’s appointed times (Dan.
7:25), but it is also antichristian to misuse these times for serving self in a self-imposed
religion for forms. When we come to accept new duties, let us observe them in their fullness in
Christ, who is all our fullness, because many have not.
It is not just the appointed times that are a shadow of coming things. The entire written
Law of God, also called the Law of Moses (who was God’s mouthpiece), has the
same signatory nature as the appointed times. Written words - especially when
they are pictorial characters as the ancient Hebrew was - signify substance,
except in the case of idle words. The pictures represent reality. Knowing this,
what is the reality that the written Law from Sinai represent?
Paul describes the Law as containing, or “having a shadow of coming good things” (Hebrews
10:1). Paul is not speaking of a typical shadow in this general statement; however, it is true
that the earthly sanctuary and its services that he describes in Hebrews is a type of the
heavenly sanctuary and its services. But here Paul is describing the contents of the whole Law
as a “shadow” of reality, and that reality is the Gospel. Sister White describes it in
this way:
“The Law is the gospel embodied, and the Gospel is the Law unfolded. The Law
is the root, the Gospel is the fragrant blossom and fruit which it bears” (Christ’s
Object Lessons, p. 128).
“Christ had repeatedly shown that His Father’s law contained something deeper than mere
authoritative commands. In the Law is embodied the same principle that is
revealed in the Gospel. The Law points out man’s duty and shows him his guilt. To Christ
he must look for pardon and for power to do what the Law enjoins” (Desire of Ages, p. 608).
“The Law is the Gospel of Christ veiled” (Review and Herald, 5/27/1890).
The Gospel is contained in the Law in seed form. The moral injunctions of the Law describe
the righteousness that will be implanted in the heart by grace through faith - identifying what
is right and contrasting it against sin. The ceremonial decrees of death describe how death
and atoning blood must pay off the debt owed by transgressing the moral law in types and
shadows that are fulfilled by Christ. But though the moral statutes that the Law contains are a
shadow as well, they are not types as is the case with the ceremonial parts of the Law. The Law
in its written form - especially as the Tables of Stone and the Book of the Law held in the
earthly sanctuary acting through a ministration of death, but also in our Bibles - is not the
reality of righteousness, which can only be received by faith, not by a mere reading to gain
head knowledge so that we can work the righteousness. That is why it is so important to
understand the shadowy nature of the Law, as long as we also understand that the moral parts
are not shadowy types.
E.J. Waggoner describes Hebrews 10:1 in this way:
“The law delivered to the people in the wilderness of Sinai was but the shadow of the real law,
which is the life of God. This is often urged in depreciation of the law; many people seem to
think that since the law is but the shadow of good things, therefore we should choose that
which is as opposite to it as possible. Not so do men argue in temporal matters. If we have a
photograph - a shadow - of a man whom we wish to find, we do not light on a man whose
features bear no resemblance to the likeness, and say, ‘This is the man.’ No; we find a man of
whom the photograph is the exact likeness, and then we know that we have the one we seek.

Now the real law is the life of God, and the law delivered to
the children of Israel - the shadow of good things - is the
photograph of God's character
The one man in all the world who in every particular meets the specifications of that
photograph, is, ‘the Man Christ Jesus’, in whose heart is the law” (Everlasting Covenant, p.
354).
Thus, to know the righteousness that we will find in Christ,
we must go to the Law, otherwise we may mistake a
counterfeit christ for the genuine One. The Law of itself
cannot save us, only that it is the form of the Word of God,
which we receive in reality only by faith; and Christ is that
Word - the One who must become flesh in us. And this is the
ultimate good thing that is coming as we believe.

The Word, without faith, is just as dead as the paper it is

printed on, just as our works, without faith, is just as dead as
our mortal bodies are without the breath of God continually
breathing life into us. It is only a dead shadow, worthless
unless it is used to point us to the body of Christ, which is the
substance. But faith, without the Word and without works, is
also dead - a counterfeit for the genuine - for it is written of
genuine faith, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God” (Romans 10:17). And the hearing that Paul is
describing is an obedient hearing - “the hearing of faith”
(Galatians 3:2) - that is, surrendering to what the Word
says and to the creative power that is in the Word to produce
what the Word says (see Isa. 55:11).
So, we see that the righteousness of the Law and the righteousness of God are not the same
thing. Though they are both the same in principle, the former is a shadow of the latter, the
substance. But there is another layer involved: the sanctuary system; and this is where the
ceremonial law comes in. In order for righteousness to make it to us, it must come through the
sanctuary system, with the earthly one being a shadow of the heavenly one, which is the image
itself: “The Law, having a shadow of coming good things, and not the image of the things
itself, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the
comers thereunto perfect.”
A major difference between the “shadow” sanctuary and the “image” sanctuary is that in the
former the sacrifices had to be repeated year by year, according to the appointed times set up
at Creation, whereas everything that happens in the heavenly sanctuary happens at the same
appointed times but only once. However, sometimes, though it be once, it is once and
continual, unto the completion, and we have seen this with Christ’s daily ministration since
Pentecost of 31 AD and His investigative judgment since the tenth day of the seventh month of
1844. So, both sanctuaries use the same appointed times, which are independent of both and
were originally just holy convocations like the seventh-day Sabbath.
But the “image” in heaven is still not the actual thing, which we could call the ‘substance’
sanctuary, otherwise it would not be called only the “image.” Nevertheless, it is “a greater and
more perfect tabernacle.” Let’s go to the passage that says that as well as “coming good
things,” and then we will discover the very substance:
“Christ being come a High Priest of coming good things, through a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes
of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to
God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God?”
(Hebrews 9:11-14).
It is now clear that the “coming good things” come to us “through a greater and more perfect
tabernacle.” That is where Christ ministers as High Priest with His own blood, which cleanses
us, who are to become the most perfect tabernacle - the one that remains for eternity, even the
“body of Christ,” who is the Head representing the body. The “coming good things,” which the
things contained in the Law are a shadow of, are all for this end purpose. This is the temple
that ultimately needs to be cleansed, and what happens in the heavenly sanctuary is a legal
record of it, but it is also from where the incoming blessings flow from, which are in the living
blood.
“There are three that bear record: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three
agree in one ... And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in
His Son” (1 John 5:8, 11).
As the blood of Christ flows in heaven where our legal records are, so also the Spirit - having
the same life of Christ - flows all the way to us, bringing the good blessings that are recorded
in heaven to our hearts. This spiritual blood must flow through the spiritual body, cleansing it
from all impurities. Every good thing we grasp by faith in the Word comes fresh from heaven’s
storehouse and more and more purifies the heart from faith to faith “unto the perfect day”
(Proverbs 4:18). When is that perfect day? the full moon of the seventh month, when God
comes to physical tabernacle with us and there will be nothing causing shadows to obscure
our view of Him. The Sabbath rest we have been entering into, with each sunset and seventh
sunset closer to that day, will become a full reality.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of
Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
And so shall Christ’s body temple be built up and cleansed unto its completion. Until then, the
sins thus purged from our hearts are carried back to heaven and recorded until there is no
more to purge. Let us behold this truest tabernacle that will never dissolve in some Scriptures
that speak of it.
“Ye are the temple of the Living God; as God hath said, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them;
and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’ ” (2 Corinthians 6:16).
This is a composite quote from two old covenant Scriptures of the Torah (Ex. 29:45 & Lev.
26:12), the wording of which applies directly and typically to the old covenant earthly
sanctuary but indirectly and antitypically to the new covenant living sanctuary. God’s Spirit,
which He sends from heaven through His Word, makes us His temple, which He progressively
sanctifies until it is wholly holy. “The Holy Spirit is in the Word of God” (Letter 132,
1900). His Word is not just the content of the Bible but also the Book of Nature, which
includes the the heavens and the signs in the heavens.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech
nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and
their words to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4).
Jesus prays to His Father, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth” (John
17:17). And the Apostle Paul writes of Christ, concerning the church, that He would
“sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, That He might present it
to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should
be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:26-27).
God’s Word can be found in both the Bible and in nature. In the shadow of eating, we can
discern the body of Christ sustaining us, and the experience will sanctify us. And likewise
when we drink water, discerning the washing of water by the Word, and when we bask in the
sunshine, discerning the Sun of Righteousness coming with healing in His wings (Mal. 4:2),
and when we breathe in fresh, country air, discerning God’s Breath of Life, the Holy Spirit.
And we will also receive sanctification from God, as His Spirit draws us, in discerning
sanctifying rest in the Sabbath, the new covenant in the New Moon, the Passover Lamb of God
in the holy convocations of springtime, the showers of refreshing in the Pentecost season, the
three angels’ messages producing a people that God will make a covenant with in the Day of
Shouting, Christ’s atoning work in the heavenly sanctuary unto its cleansing in the Day of
Atonement, and God tabernacling not only with us, but in us, when the seventh month has
reached its fullness. These are all not merely past, not merely future, but present sanctifying
experiences we may enjoy in addition to our daily experience of receiving God’s Spirit-filled
Word in our morning and evening devotional reading material.
It is the Word of God that builds up, sanctifies, and cleanses the living sanctuary. To neglect
any of these experiences in the Word through the shadows that God has given us to bring us to
the substance of the good things coming from heaven, which are the various qualities of the
life of Christ, is to neglect the body – the living sanctuary – of Christ, the Anointed Eternal
King of the Jews. This substance is dormant until the Word makes it flesh in us, but as long as
this body temple is neglected, Christ will be sacrificially constrained to His temporal
sanctuary in heaven, waiting with longing desire for us to receive His many rich blessings. The
foundation we are to build upon, and which then builds us up, is the Word of God. Then we
“are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
Chief Corner Stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple
in the Lord: In whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit”
(Ephesians 2:20-22).
In the next part, we shall look at a very fascinating prophecy of the holy temple that you will
not want to miss – a prophecy of revival that is associated with other profound prophecies of
revival. We will learn of a great spiritual revival and gathering of God’s people, which can only
be accomplished through a revival of holy convocations according to their true and full
purpose. So, please join me in Part 5.
A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh Month
Part Five

In Part 4, we began studying the three temples – the typical earthly, the antitypical heavenly,
and most importantly, the everlasting living one, in which the Spirit of Christ is to dwell. We
introduced it through a study of Colossians 2, which calls it the “body of Christ” – a
component of the chapter that is usually largely ignored due to the controversy over the
Sabbath taking most of the attention.
We have seen that the shadow of the Law does not merely point to things future but presently
developing things that lead us to the future. It is like going through the forest and following
the shadows of the coming trees to the sun. We must follow the directions of the leading
shadows in order to reach the Eternal Sun of Righteousness, otherwise we are going in a
wrong direction. The promise of the new and everlasting covenant, being the Eternal
Kingdom, can only be reached by following the shadows that are cast by that Glorious Sun.
The Law is to bring us to Christ, not away as the popular and false gospel teaches. God is
raising up the Kingdom’s eternal temple, and He has given us both a typical and antypical
temple containing His Law, for this third temple to be raised up, with all the principles of the
Law enshrined in the new covenant heart. This is what God is bringing us to. So, without any
further ado, let us get right into the fascinating prophecy of this temple, the body of Christ.
Jesus said to his enemies, who he called His friends, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up. Then said the Jews (speaking of the old covenant temple), 46 years was this
temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days? But He spoke of the temple of His
body” (John 2:19-21). Many do not realize that this was a dual prophecy, and of course the
people that first heard Him speak those prophetic words thought he was speaking of the
Jerusalem temple then present. His body arose on the third day from when He started to bear
the sins of the world at the fullness of the first month in the time of Passover, but when He
was resurrected, we were all raised up in Him. In Ephesians 2, which we read at the end of the
last part, are the following wonderful words: “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches
of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (vv. 4-7).
We were all legally raised up in Jesus, but that is not the end of the story. The exceeding riches
of His grace is to raise us up in reality. This is our hope if we hold firm to it till the end. And it
will be in the third day. We cannot study this prophecy now in depth, but I will outline it here.
Our early Adventist pioneers believed that the three days stand for three millennia beginning
with Rome, based on Luke 13:32, where the “fox” is Herod (who represented Rome). Here it
is:
“And He [Jesus] said unto them, ‘Go ye, and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out devils, and I do
cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected’ ’.”

The pioneers misunderstood the starting year as 158 BC, but we now know that it was in 161
BC when Judas Maccabeus, representing the Jews, made a league with Rome known in the
history books as the ‘Roman-Jewish Treaty’, which is recorded in the eighth chapter of 1
Maccabees of the apocrypha. The effect of the treaty was that the Jews were officially bound to
Rome; hence, the beginning of the fourth kingdom in Daniel that would rule over God’s
people in their subjection to foreign powers. Thus, the third day, or millennium, from thence
began in 1840 - the year that the second woe of the sixth trumpet of Revelation ceased to
sound. The Ottoman Empire lost its power, but the First Angel’s Message was given power
through the Adventists predicting the event right to the day (8/11/1840).
With that, let us read of the three-day prophecy as it was originally given, which prophesied of
Rome’s tearing Israel and its King, and of the healing of Israel through a great revival taking
place in the third day; I love this hopeful prophecy:
“Come, and let us return unto Jehovah: For He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath
smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us: In the third
day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know,
and pursue to know Jehovah: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He
shall come unto us as the rain, As the latter and former rain unto the
earth” (Hosea 6:1-3).
This raising us up happened legally in Christ’s resurrection. This is the prophecy from which
His third day resurrection was originally based on, not the supposed idea of first-fruits always
being on the third day from Passover. The reason that people miss even its first fulfillment in
the physical body of Christ is because it is speaking of us who were legally raised up in Him
who had become us. And it is worded this way so that it can have a second fulfillment in the
saints - the spiritual body of Christ - being resurrected themselves, not just legally as before.
But even this is not all that is in the prophecy. It is also a prophecy of revival, which
commenced right as the third millennium from Rome began. But that was only the First
Angel’s Message. It is the Third Angel’s Message by which “the mystery of God should be
finished” “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound”
(Revelation 10:7). The greatest revival that there ever was will come under the sounding of
these two harmonious angels proclaiming the third woe – the final plagues that come as a
result of the revival of the Islamic caliphate, which had politically fallen previously in 1840.
Christ in us is the great mystery - the Word made flesh, the Law written in the heart; and
militant Islam will act as a scourge of God against those who in the last days forsake that
Torah Law, for they will not be protected from Sharia law. Thus, the winds of human strife in
the third woe will fiercely blow. I hope you can see how the commencement of the third day in
1840 is tied to the closing conflict, involving a revival of God’s people through the Torah Law,
a revival of Babylon through its Sunday law, and a revival of militant Islam through its
Shariah law – climaxing in the Battle of Armageddon – however, that is beyond the scope of
what we are covering here.
The “latter and former rain” produces the revival of God’s people, but we need to study what
this rain really is. It comes by the way of doctrine – the doctrine of God’s Torah Law. Listen:
“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of My mouth. My
doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon
the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass” (Deuteronomy 32:1-2).
The root word for the Hebrew word of Law, ‘Torah’, is ‘yarah’, which means ‘to flow as water’,
or more figuratively and practically, ‘to teach’. In fact, the Hebrew word translated to “former
rain” in Hosea 6 is ‘yoreh’, which is derived from ‘yarah’. What we can draw from this is that
the revival Hosea 6 is referring to has much to do with the Torah, which was even in the First
Angel’s Message. How? Well, the tenth day of the seventh month of 1844, as proclaimed in the
Midnight Cry, is a key part of the Torah. Also, all of the time prophecies of Daniel can be
traced back to the ‘seven’s of Leviticus 26, which is in the Torah; I cover that briefly in the
message I mentioned earlier in our series called “A Revival of God’s Calendar Through
His Prophetic Times”; please don’t miss that message. But now in the Third Angel’s
Message, when the mystery of God is finishing, we have all of the Torah, with all of its
appointed times.
We can expect that when God’s people gather for the holy convocations of the Torah that the
showers will fall just as they did upon the Day of Pentecost of 31 AD. In fact, Zechariah 14 has
a prophecy of spiritual “rain” falling when God’s last day people “go up from year to year to
worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles” (v. 16),
whereas the final “plague” will fall upon those who fail to come up. The “Jerusalem” of that
prophecy is the living sanctuary of saints gathering together who are spiritually in Jesus who
is in the New Jerusalem, where their worship is directed, and the “Feast of Tabernacles” is not
the old covenant one but the Adventist one, as will be explained later.
The Holy Spirit will be poured out in great measure when we receive and carry out all that the
LORD has commanded us - the conditions of the everlasting covenant - and the Sabbath is
proclaimed more fully. Let us review a quote we read earlier, now reading the whole
paragraph:
“I saw that we sensed and realized but little of the importance of the Sabbath, to what we
yet should realize and know of its importance and glory. I saw we knew not what it was
yet to ride upon the high places of the earth and to be fed with the heritage of Jacob. But when
the refreshing and latter rain shall come from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of
His power, we shall know what it is to be fed with the heritage of Jacob and ride upon the high
places of the earth. Then shall we see the Sabbath more in its importance and
glory. But we shall not see it in all its glory and importance until the covenant of peace is
made with us at the voice of God, and the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem are thrown open
and swing back on their glittering hinges, and the glad and joyful voice of the lovely Jesus is
heard, richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, bidding us to enter, that we had a
perfect right in the city for we had kept the commandments of God, and heaven, sweet heaven
is our home for we have kept the commandments of God” (Letter 3, 1851).
That will be the heavenly Jerusalem, where the saints will be away from this earth for that day
of 1,000 years. The records of all who did not make it will be open for review, and the
standard will be the same Law that was given at Sinai - the Ten Commandments and their
supporting statutes written in the Book of the Law: “These statutes,” Sister White says, “were
explicitly given to guard the ten commandments. They were not shadowy types to pass away
with the death of Christ. They were to be binding upon man in every age as long as
time should last” (Review and Herald, 5/6/1875).
Jesus said: “Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18).
Thus, after the Tables and the Book of the Law have served their purpose in the “ministration
of death” (2 Cor. 3:7) – first to threaten the sinner with death unless he turns to Jesus in the
time of grace, and later to execute justice and testify against the sins of the wicked in the time
of Judgment – the Book of the Law, not being engraved with the finger of God, will be
destroyed in the Lake of Fire that destroys the earth and everything that involved death.
However, the Tables were “written with the finger of God, never to be
obliterated, never to be destroyed” (Review and Herald, 3/26/1908). They will
always serve as a testament of God’s government and what He has restored His
creation into, just as the glorious wounds of His Son in His hands shall stand
as a memorial of how this restoration came to be; however, without the Book of
the Law which contains statutes of death, it will no longer function in the
ministration of death. It will no longer be needed in order to know what
righteousness is or to point to Christ to save us from our sins, for all will know
and be saved (see Jer. 31:34); thus, all the Law will be fulfilled in the heart and
the Law functioning as it did before will pass away from use. And the heavenly
sanctuary, which involved the shedding of blood and a record of sins, will be
destroyed; it is provisionary, just like its type before it, but unlike the
everlasting living sanctuary of the Body of Christ. Then, after the destruction
of all objects pertaining to death, the final phase of the old covenant will be
finished.

The Judgment – which doubly flows out from the

solemn Day of Atonement, and doubly flows through
the victorious Day of Shouting – brings an end to
Kingdom of Grace, which gives way to the Kingdom
of Glory, the fruit of the former; for by the end of it,
every knee shall bow to King of Glory, judging Him
to have no fault, but faithful and holy and true and
righteous altogether!
Here is what John the Revelator saw in vision: “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.
And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. 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 God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And
He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new ... And there came unto me
one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with
me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away
in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that Great City, the Holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God ... And I saw no temple therein: for the
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Revelation 21).
Thus, the old covenant given at Sinai is phased out and the new covenant phased in through a
process of phases, just as we see in the shadowy sign of the lunar cycle. The old covenant
ceremonies ended at the Cross but still had to be fulfilled there in the courtyard and in the
heavenly sanctuary until all is fulfilled. The ceremonies have passed away but not that which
fulfills them - the heavenly sanctuary system. But the day will come for even that to cease
from service. The 144,000 will enter there in the 1,000 years, as Sister White saw in one of her
early visions, where the written Law will be, to judge the records of the lost, but even the
fulfillment of the old covenant ceremonies will pass away. Even certain moral statutes, such as
tithes and offerings, will also come to an end, for Christ will have no ministry to save the lost
in the new earth. The function of the old covenant Law given at Sinai to condemn erring
mortals will be passed away when the new covenant comes to completion in the new earth -
the everlasting Promised Land.
But the principles of the Ten Commandments will always remain, and so will God’s appointed
times for holy convocations, which the ones we have now, are but a faint shadow of the ones in
eternity, when all of God’s people from all time are gathered together in the Holy City (which
will be right where the old one is now) with God and His Son and the four living creatures, the
24 elders, the cherubim and seraphim, and multitudes of angels. Think of the choirs, and the
music, and the joyous, yet reverent, worship and celebration! I will not even attempt to
describe it in my mortal tongue, for it is impossible. We have already read the text in Isaiah
66, but here it is again, showing that God’s calendar of weeks and months will continue for
eternity:
“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith
the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that
from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all
flesh come to worship before Me, saith the LORD” (vv. 22-23).
Those are the monthly and weekly appointed times, but what about the yearly? We do not
need to be in doubt, for we have this in Nahum:
“What do ye imagine against the LORD? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up
the second time ... O Judah, celebrate thy feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked one
shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off” (1:9, 15).
The eternal Judah’s new covenant feasts will coincide with the annual appointed times of
Eden’s calendar - the one and eternal calendar that God created before sin - but they will have
new meaning from the old covenant ones or even what we are to commemorate now in our
past Adventist experience, for all things will be made new. Just what meaning they will have
we will have to wait and see, but we do know that every New Moon, including the high one of
the seventh month, we will partake of a new ripe fruit of the Tree of Life according to each
month (Rev. 22:2). The ripe fruit will symbolize the completion of the everlasting covenant.
We are now in the process unto that completion. The covenant was ratified on the Cross, so it
is already a guarantee, for Christ wearing the crown of thorns symbolized Him taking upon
Himself the curse of the earth caused by sin, which involves thorns, and what He took upon
Himself at Calvary he brought with Him to the grave, destroying it. But that reality in Christ,
the Head, must take effect in His body before it can actually go into effect. Having this hope
set before us will motivate us to continue with the sanctification process unto its completion.
The temple of Christ’s spiritual body must receive all the good blessings that God longs to
pour upon us through His ministering Son in the sanctuary of heaven. And I believe that
many will quickly come our way when we embrace the substance through the shadowy signs
of eating and drinking, as well as the holy days, the New Moon, and the Sabbath. Our
Heavenly Father has always communicated His teachings and blessings to man through signs
and symbols, and we cannot receive them in any other way. The completion of the new
covenant will tarry only as long as we tarry in receiving it, in the Sabbath as it is proclaimed
more fully.
So, let us pause for a brief review, and this will lead us into a brief study of a very glorious
event.
We have seen the eternal nature of God’s appointed times, which are daily, weekly, monthly,
and yearly. The yearly is our focus in this series since we are studying the holy convocations.
We have also seen some of their significance in becoming shadowy signs of presently coming
good things from heaven – things that pertain to the plan of redemption. But the original and
primary purpose of the holy convocations is simply for God’s people to gather and praise God
with spiritual sacrifices. Festivals and ceremonies became attached to these holy
convocations, but they passed away when the old covenant ceremonial system came to an end,
being replaced with the new covenant ceremonies that Christ instituted when He was here;
namely, the foot-washing and the Lord’s supper, not to leave out the once-in-a-life water
baptism. We saw how returning to the old covenant ceremonies would be to deny that our
Lord came to fulfill the antitypes through His death on the Cross and atonement in the
heavenly sanctuary. Now, with that, let us consider these two Spirit of Prophecy statements:
“Christ has taken His people into His church. He has swept away every ceremony of
the ancient type. He has given no liberty to restore these rites, or to substitute
anything that will recall the old literal sacrifices. The Lord requires of His
people spiritual sacrifices alone. Everything pertaining to His worship is placed under
the superintendence of His Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the Father would send the
Holy Spirit in His name to teach His disciples all things, and to bring all things unto
their remembrance that He had said unto them” (E.G. White, Review and Herald,
2/25/1896).
I believe that we all need to take heed to this warning. Not only does it mean to stop
participating in the old covenant ceremonies, including the feasts, but it would also entail not
making any man-made productions that would substitute the Holy Spirit of Christ teaching
us, and I do not believe our people have generally been following this. God’s method of
instructing us through visual representations came to an end at the Cross, and to go back to
that again is to go against the purposes of God and lessen the power of His Spirit to teach
people in their hearts and minds because people will see the works of man instead; to go back
to that denies that type has met antitype in Christ.
Here is a quote that brings this out further: “Let the divine Spirit work to produce the
impression God would have made upon mind and heart. Christ is our efficiency. All
the pictures of the greatest artist in the world can never, never do the work that needs to be
done for the soul, the work of the Holy Spirit, which convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment. The Hebrew nation had before them the type of a Saviour, who was to
be crucified for the sins of the world. Thus Christ was seen in figure as the great
offering. But the need of this instruction ceased when type met antitype in the
death of the Lamb slain for the sins of the world. Christ ascended on high, to take His
position as our Advocate in the heavenly courts. Having reached His throne, He sent His Holy
Spirit, as He had promised, in response to the prayers of His disciples. The right
impressions made on the human heart are made by this Spirit ... The Holy
Spirit will be poured upon the church in strong, heavenly currents if God’s
people will believe, if they will turn their attention to that which is true, and
living, and real” (E.G. White, Letter 133, 1899).
Anything visual should be limited to the background and to what is necessary to convey
certain information; the heart is the Holy Spirit’s domain. And certainly, no images should be
used to accompany worship; God instructed Israel to make a tabernacle, which He removed,
and He never instructed us to make anything else for this purpose. Also, our people should
have never taken tourist trips to Israel; this applies as well, and I will through this now segue
into that glorious future event I told you about. As far as the Ark of the Covenant being
unveiled and displayed, that is God’s work, not man’s work, and no one should have ever gone
there to look for it; instead, God will show it to us all together. Listen to how Sister White
describes the event:
“The precious record of the Law was placed in the Ark of the Testament and is still there,
safely hidden from the human family. But in God’s appointed time He will bring forth
these Tables of stone to be a testimony to all the world against the disregard of
His commandments and against the idolatrous worship of a counterfeit
Sabbath” (Manuscript 122, 1901).
When is this appointed time? It must be after the close of probation, because, according to
this statement, the Tables of testimony are only acting as a testimony against the its violators,
not for them to encourage belief. God will work no miracle to convince the world of His
Sabbath and holy convocations. The conviction must be through the Holy Spirit alone, acting
through the proclamation of the Word. The time for any old covenant artifacts to appear is
after the Holy Spirit has done its work – after the close of probation. We are in the
dispensation of the Holy Spirit, not that of types and figures; we cannot go back. God’s work
of changing hearts is to be done solely through faith, not through visual representations as
was done in the old covenant.
The appointed time for the Tables of the Law to appear is made clear in the Apocrypha:
“The prophet, being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the Ark to go with him,
as he went forth into the mountain where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage
of God. And when Jeremy came thither, he found a hollow cave, wherein he laid the
tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door. And some of those
that followed him came to mark the way, but they could not find it. Which when Jeremy
perceived, he blamed them, saying, As for that place, it shall be unknown until the
time that God gather His people again together, and receive them unto mercy.
Then shall the Lord shew them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall
appear, and the cloud also, as it was shewed under Moses, and as when Solomon desired
that the place might be honorably sanctified” (2 Maccabees 2:4-8).
This can be none other than when the angels of God gather His people together the second
time to make the covenant of mercy with them – the first time being when He gathered Israel
together at Mount Sinai, where the Tables of the Law first given to humanity. The Prophet
Isaiah speaks this here:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the
second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left” (Isaiah 11:11).
This Scripture also has a dual fulfillment. In a general way, it prophesies of the spiritual
gathering of Israel after its long scattering since the kings of Israel and Judah were taken
captive; I go into this in more detail in the presentation of God’s sacred calendar. Sister White
used this text that way in Early Writings. But she also used it in the context of saying, “The
day of deliverance is at hand” (Prophets and Kings, p. 376). This second fulfillment can be
none other than the Day of Shouting of the seventh month when all who entered the Most
Holy Place by faith are gathered together to have the covenant of mercy delivered to them and
God officially receives them as His people to stand for all the redeemed.
But ever since the tenth day of the seventh month of 1844, there has been a spiritual gathering
after the long scattering of Israel since ancient times; and this spiritual gathering was ushered
in by the spiritual revival of 1840, commencing the third day – the day of spiritual and
physical resurrection, according to prophecy. Jesus did not return on the Day of Atonement as
earnestly expected; however, Pioneer Hiram Edson was given a vision of the heavenly
sanctuary the next day, representing the experience of the Adventist people who would gather
in the Most Holy Place which Jesus had just entered, thus fulfilling Revelation 11:17 as Ellen
White normally applies it. But watch how she applies it to the future physical gathering in the
following words, and yet connects it back to the spiritual gathering leading up to it:
“ ‘And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple
the Ark of His testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an
earthquake, and great hail.’
When God’s temple in heaven is opened, what a triumphant time that will be
for all who have been faithful and true! In the temple will be seen the ark of the
testament in which were placed the two tables of stone, on which are written God’s law.
These tables of stone will be brought forth from their hiding place, and on them
will be seen the Ten Commandments engraved by the finger of God. These tables of stone now
lying in the ark of the testament will be a convincing testimony to the truth and binding
claims of God’s law.
From every nation, kindred, tongue, and people is to be gathered out a people
who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. This is the
work to be accomplished in these last days” (Letter 47, 1902).
Do you see the connection? God has been spiritually gathering out a people ever
since the heavenly sanctuary became open to their minds in the seventh month
of 1844, and those who remain faithful among them will be physically gathered
when God delivers His everlasting covenant to them and they see the heavenly
sanctuary opened to them and the Ten Commandments brought forth with
their own eyes, again in the seventh month. Both the earthly copy hidden in the
cave will be unearthed and the original copy hidden above will be unheavened!
It will take a miraculous vision for everyone to see it in the sky and all the words written in
letters of fire as Sister White describes in the Great Controversy (p. 639). Both witnesses will
testify of the Law that forms the basis of His covenant with Israel on the Day of Shouting and
triumph over Babylon, who is judged and completely fallen that day for rejecting God’s Holy
Law.
God’s remnant people will be gathered by the angels around the place where the Tables are
now, and that is how they will know that honorably sanctified place, as it says in 2 Maccabees.
Then the cave will be known, though we know the general area according to Scripture: “The
mountain where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage of God” is “the Mountain of Nebo,”
which is “over against Jericho” (Deut. 34:1) – that is, across the Jordan River to the east, near
the Dead Sea.
Jericho actually has typical significance in an event that took place there. It was near the
entrance of the typical Promised Land and its destruction by the children of Israel was the
beginning of their inheritance of it, for as Sister White said, “This city,” which she described as
“large and strongly fortified,” “was virtually the key to the whole country” (Patriarchs and
Prophets, p. 482). Notice in the Scripture the peculiar means by which they destroyed this
proud, wicked, and impenitent city.
“And it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people
shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into
the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city” (Joshua 6:20).
Sister White described this event as the sound shaking the earth, as in an earthquake:
“As the seventh circuit was completed, the long procession paused, The trumpets, which for
an interval had been silent, now broke forth in a blast that shook the very earth. The walls of
solid stone, with their massive towers and battlements, tottered and heaved from their
foundations, and with a crash fell in ruin to the earth” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 491).
It was by God’s power, but it is written, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down” (Hebrews
11:30). This was a type of the fall of Babylon in the last days by the faith of true and everlasting
Israel—an event that will take place in the same Dead Sea area. It is written of the conquerors,
“Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation
14:12). Their “victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the
number of his name” (15:2) is the victory of faith. As Jesus, they trust in the power and
authority of God’s Word rather than in the usurped power and authority of Babylon exercised
perfectly for but one hour. Sunday, and all that it stands for, is the mark of her authority, and
the Sabbath and all that it stands for is the seal of God’s authority, and the 144,000 of the
twelve tribes of the true Israel of God choose the latter.
The Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment stands for all of God’s appointed times and all of
the antitypes of the types that were connected to them, thus the provisions of the complete
plan of redemption; and more generally, it stands for all of God’s Law, being the seal of it in
having the Name, title, and territory of the Lawgiver; and that territory is “heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that in them is” (Exodus 20:11), which Babylon will seize for one hour by
getting the world to acknowledge the mark of her authority in head or in hand. But the
144,000, from “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6)
represent that same territory; and though in the minority, their testimony is greater, for the
God they serve is greater inasmuch as God created the world and through His Son will have
recreated a remnant in the world who come to perfectly represent His character, which will be
shown to be infinitely superior. And His Law is the transcript of His character, to appear
before the whole world by three witnesses: the Tables appearing in the sky, the Tables
appearing outside of the cave at Mount Nebo, and the Tables of the hearts of the 144,000
whose mighty shout from glowing faces—all testifying of its eternal power and authority over
the whole earth. Thus, the great city falls that victorious day into the Lake of Fire, kindled by
the power of God in that mighty shout.
And with that, yet another miracle happens, for thus saith the LORD, “My determination is to
gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation,
even all My fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy. For
then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the Name
of Jehovah, to serve Him with one consent” (Zephaniah 3:8-9). In that triumphant shout,
glory will be ascribed to His Name and all will be pronouncing it the same way. Until then, I
have come to believe that it would be wise to stick to the pronunciation that Sister White used,
having the gift of prophecy, for that is the original pronunciation God permitted to be spoken
in English and it is also the pronunciation of the consonants by the Sephardic Jews, whose
heritage is from the ancient Middle East. And the accent on the last syllable is what is in the
Strong’s concordance based on the Masoretic pronunciation, and it allows for a reverent pause
when saying the Name. But we should have tolerance for those who pronounce it differently.
I believe we should learn call upon His Name and praise His Name now, as the Scriptures
repeatedly tell us to do, in preparation for that great day, as it represents His complete
character and covenant relation to us, unlike the substituted title, but only under two
stipulations:
(1) That we do not literally take God’s Name in vain by saying it without mindfulness of its
meaning, pausing when we say it, just as we should do for the Name of His Son and even their
titles.
(2) That we do not spiritually take God’s Name in vain by living lives that are contrary to
God’s character and that we are showing Him reverence in how we worship and pray in by our
posture and apparel, including the apostolic counsel we are given in 1 Corinthians 11. It is
putting on the spiritual apparel of Christ’s righteousness that will truly prepare us for that day
when God officially makes His covenant with those who are sealed with His Name.
But the prophecy in Zephaniah goes beyond just the joyful shouting of God’s Name in unison.
Though that is the primary reason given, from that point on, everything the saints say will be
of the same pure language of Canaan which they conquer by faith, for Babylon originates from
the ancient Babel.
“Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language
of all the earth” (Genesis 11:9). But when Babylon in its modern form is fallen, is fallen into
the Lake of fire, then there will no longer any purpose of multiple languages, at least for the
inheritors of the everlasting Canaan of this earth. There will be no confusion of tongue
therein, only the language of Canaan. I believe the shout of victory proclaimed by the faithful
standing upon Mount Nebo will by God’s power cause the unstable Dead Sea area to quake,
with magma exploding from the earth, thus igniting the fire the destroys Babylon and will
destroy all the old earth 1,000 years later. But the Tables must first appear in earth and in sky.
Sister White also speaks this concerning the Tables hidden there in a cave at Mount Nebo:
“The tables of stone are hidden by God, to be produced in the great judgment-day, just as
He wrote them” (Review and Herald, 3/26/1908). What is the Great Judgment Day? The
prophetic day of 1,000 years! When does it commence? On the Day of Shouting, the first day
of the seventh month, when God’s remnant people are all gathered together to receive the
everlasting covenant!
We are truly, in so many ways, the seventh month movement that God has been gathering
together. But until that final, literal gathering comes, God calls us to gather together for holy
convocations during His appointed times, but particularly His seventh month, as we will see
in the next part of this message. We see a type of it in perhaps the most notable revival in the
Bible. It is recorded in Nehemiah Chapter 8 and is a type of the seventh month revival
movement of the last days. Let us read parts of it now as we make note of what this revival
consisted of:
“And when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities. And all
the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before
the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of
Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the
Law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with
understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month ... And Ezra opened the
book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all
the people stood up: And Ezra blessed the LORD, the Great God. And all the people answered,
Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and
worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground ... So they read in the Book in
the Law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
And Nehemiah ... said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God;
mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law...
And on the second day were gathered together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the
priests, and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the words of the Law. And
they found written in the Law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the
children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month...
So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths ... and sat under the
booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of
Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Also, day by day, from the first day
unto the last day, he read in the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast
seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the
manner” (Nehemiah 7:73 – 8:18).
Do you see the ingredients of this revival that typifies that of the last days? I see five main
ones:
(1) It all takes place in the seventh month, commencing at the head of the month –
well in advance of the week of Tabernacles.
(2) As with the Pentecost of 31 AD, all the people are gathered together in one
place. They are gathered “as one man.” This means unity. They were of one mind; their
common interest was the building up of Jerusalem and its wall. This is typical of God’s
people being built up in the last days, with no breaches in the wall of the Law.
(3) The religious revival centers around a revival of the complete Book of the
Law, which is called here both “the Book of the Law of God” (who is the Source) and
“the Book of the Law of Moses” (who is the channel through which it was commanded
to the people). Sister White speaks of the antitype of this in the last days: “It is only
as the law of God is restored to its rightful position that there can be a
revival of primitive faith and godliness among His professed people”
(Great Controversy, p. 478).
(4) The people worship God in the right way, with uplifted hands and
bowing themselves to the ground. The biblical mode of reverent worship will be
restored in these last days; for more information, please check out the link on your
screen, which has a message entitled, “Biblical Worship: Reverential
Postures and their Meaning.”
(5) There is great joy, for it is on these holy days that deliverance and glory will come
upon God’s people in the last days.
For us to experience the revival prophesied in this third prophetic day, all five of these
ingredients must come into play.
Then, in the next two chapters, after having read the Torah, still in the seventh month, the
people make a solemn covenant with God. Sister White comments on this and says something
very interesting: “The whole congregation entered into a covenant to keep all the
commandments of GOD; and that the transaction might be as effectual as possible, this
covenant was written out, and those who were thoroughly in earnest in the work of
reformation, affixed their names and seals. They wished to preserve for future reference a
memorial of the obligation they had just taken upon themselves, as a reminder of duty and a
barrier against temptation. Thus it was that the people took a solemn oath to ‘walk in GOD’s
Law, which was given by Moses the servant of GOD, and to observe and do all the
commandments of the Lord our Lord, and His judgments and His statutes’ (Neh. 10:29) ... It
would be a scene well-pleasing to GOD and angels, would his professed
followers in this generation unite, as did Israel of old, in a solemn covenant to
“observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his
judgments and his statutes’ ” (Signs of the Times, 1/10/1884).
When the time is right, this will happen. It will be the only sure foundation as we reorganize.
It will guard us against both a human creed and a lawless gospel. And I believe it should be
part of our church covenant that is confessed as churches are organized to finish the Great
Commission, in accordance with what our pioneers established in the Michigan Conference
on October 5th, 1861, which happens to be the evening that conceives the New Moon of the
seventh month!
Here is the record:
“Resolved, That this Conference recommend the following church covenant:
We, the undersigned, hereby associate ourselves together, as a church, taking the name,
Seventh-day Adventists, covenanting to keep the commandments of God, and the faith of
Jesus Christ.
~ Review and Herald, 10/8/1861
Our creedless covenant could be updated to include not only their quote of Revelation 14:12,
but the quote we just read of Nehemiah 10:29, thus connecting with both our pioneer and
ancient heritage. Perhaps this will occur on the seventh month again.
The Law of God must be our foundation and governance. No man can improve upon God’s
Law; no doctrine of man can bring the unity and order that results from the Torah, especially
the appointed times which are to order our worship and holy convocations. And based on all
what inspiration says of the holy convocations and the seventh month, I believe they will be
the main means of gathering the remnant who will come out of Babylon in the eleventh hour
and join our ranks. The truth is plain. We just need to walk in it without delay; only then can
the much-needed revival and reorganization come so that the work of the precious Gospel can
be finished.
In the next part we will closely examine how the end-time feast of the seventh month can be
practically carried out based on inspiration and some very interesting church history you were
probably not aware of. It is truly amazing what God has in store for us, so please join with me
again in Part 6 to study it. I promise that you will be in amazement as I was when you see it.

A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh Month

Part Six

When we began our studies, we saw how the main theme of our holy convocations, just as the
ancient ones, is to be of thanksgiving and praise. We read that “every day a praise meeting
should be held, a simple service of thanksgiving to God” (p. 62). But there is a specific holy
convocation that this is especially to be done, with special directions given on how to celebrate
a certain festival. This is all given to us in the Spirit of Prophecy. It is the feast of the seventh
month, named after the ancient Feast of Tabernacles, but the Seventh-day Adventist new
covenant version will be celebrating something entirely different. Let us read the details in the
Spirit of Prophecy:
“In separating ourselves from the world as God’s commandment-keeping
people, we have experienced the power and opposition of the enemy. As we have made
advance moves at the command, ‘Go forward’, we have had occasion to rejoice that angels of
God have gone before us, and prepared the way. We have, as it were, crossed the Red
Sea, and have again and again realized the hand of God in our deliverance. It
becomes us to call to mind these evidences of divine favor, and to offer up thanksgiving
and praise that the Captain of our salvation, concealed by the cloud by day and the pillar of
fire by night, has been, and still is, leading us into all truth.
Well would it be for us to have
a feast of tabernacles, a joyous
commemoration of the blessings of
God to us as a people.

As the children of Israel celebrated the deliverance that God wrought for their fathers, and His
miraculous preservation of them during their journeyings from Egypt to the promised land, so
should the people of God at the present time gratefully call to mind the various ways He has
devised to bring them out from the world, out from the darkness of error, into the precious
light of truth.

We should often bring to remembrance the

dependence upon God of those who first led out in
this work. We should gratefully regard the old way-
marks, and refresh our souls with memories of the
loving-kindness of our gracious Benefactor.

We are indeed strangers here, and pilgrims to a better country. Our prospective home is the
heavenly Canaan...” (Review and Herald, 11/17/1885).

Notice that it is “a Feast of Tabernacles,” not the Feast of Tabernacles – that is, not the old
covenant one prescribed in the Law. Ours is prescribed by God in the Spirit of Prophecy and it
is to review where God has led our Adventist people in the past in thanksgiving to Him for His
deliverance out of the world. Unlike in the Law, it is not mandated, but we are robbing God of
our praise of how He has led us in the past and ourselves of a blessed experience if we do not
follow this counsel. And since our holy convocations are to be evangelistic oriented, while we
review our past, the public evening meetings would educate the public of who we are as a
people and what our message is. We would warn of the soon-coming judgments of God and
teach the Everlasting Gospel with the complete plan of redemption. Many will thus be led into
the truth and be added to the church following-up the festival.
Five years later (1890), Sister White repeated the message again, for it had not been heeded
yet – this time in a widely-published book for everyone to see, in a chapter dedicated to “The
Annual Feasts”:
“Well would it be for the people of God at the present time to have a Feast of Tabernacles—a
joyous commemoration of the blessings of God to them” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 540).
However, this time her counsel would not be ignored. Later that decade, in 1898, after the
book had been circulated and people had read it, this counsel began to be partially
implemented. I have extensively studied this history in the SDA periodicals, which can be
accessed at ‘adventistarchives.org’. So, I will now share my research findings.
Ida Hibben, who had served in the Illinois Sabbath-School Association with her sister-in-law,
Anna, reported in the October 10th, 1901 issue of the Youth’s Instructor the following:
“At a time when my mind was deeply exercised over the statement that ‘too little attention was
being paid to our children and youth’ (Review and Herald, 4/28/1896), an article appeared in
the Signs of the Times (9/23/1897) descriptive of the Feast of Tabernacles, from the pen of
Mrs. E. G. White. In it occurred the following paragraph: ‘From far and near the people came,
bringing in their hand a token of rejoicing. Old and young, rich and poor, all brought some gift
as a tribute of thanksgiving to Him who had crowned the year with his goodness, and made
his paths drop fatness. Everything that could please the eye, and give expression to the
universal joy, was brought from the woods; the city bore the appearance of a beautiful forest’.
As, in imagination, I lived with the people of that long-ago time, and witnessed the rapture of
those children as they wandered through the woods in search of something ‘pleasing to the
eye,’ afterward bringing it in their little hands as a ‘token of rejoicing’ to add to the ‘universal
joy’ of the occasion, my heart longed to have the scene re-enacted in this time. Taking my
Bible, I began searching for the meaning of this feast, and turning to Neh. 8:15, 16, I learned
that after the captivity of the children of Israel they were told to ‘go forth unto the mount, and
fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and
branches of thick trees to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth, and brought
them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts,
and in the courts of the house of God,’ etc.
Reasoning that if it was pleasing to the Lord then to have his people bring boughs into the
‘courts of the house of God,’ — the place where the people worshiped — it would not be
displeasing to him today to decorate the place of worship with some of his beautiful
handiwork; and wishing to be sure such a move would meet the approval of Heaven, we
searched everything we could find on the subject. You can faintly imagine our joy when, on
pages 540-546 of Patriarchs and Prophets, our eyes rested on the following words: ‘Well
would it be for the people of God at the present time to have a Feast of Tabernacles — a joyous
commemoration of the blessings of God to them.’ A little farther down the page we read: ‘The
Feast of Tabernacles was not only commemorative but typical. It not only pointed back to the
wilderness sojourn, but, as the feast of harvest, it celebrated the ingathering of the fruits of the
earth, and pointed forward to the great day of final ingathering, when the Lord of the harvest
shall send forth his reapers to gather the tares together in bundles for the fire, and to gather
the wheat into his garner’.”
She next makes a major misassumption to support keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.
“Since a type is never done away until it meets its antitype, we were fully satisfied that a
service of this nature would be pleasing to the Lord in this time; so according to the best light
we had, we moved forward, and for the past three years (since 1898) such a service has been
held in the little church at Sheridan, Ill., with excellent results.”
The main focus was to “illustrate spiritual truths by the beautiful things from nature which
have been brought for decorations. In fact, the larger portion of the time should be occupied
in this way.” The decorations were used to teach the beauty and provisions of God and to thus
worship Him in thanksgiving for it. Then she explained the secondary aspect to the service:
“Another thing to be emphasized is the fact that ‘young and old, rich and poor, each brought a
gift as a tribute of thanksgiving’. If a harvest of these gifts is desired, let it be remembered that
there can be no harvest without a seedtime. Those who have charge of the Sabbath-schools
should see to it that plans are laid whereby the children may earn something for offerings, and
also gather grains and grasses for decorations, thus turning their attention to nature. From
time to time call attention to the needs of different branches of the work, and then let each
one be free to work for, and give to, the cause nearest his heart, and you will be surprised how
many different branches will be remembered.”
She was advocating for a “missionary garden” – a long-forgotten practice nowadays but that
had been practiced for nearly two decades prior, just without any service accompanying it.
Anna Hibben elaborated on this more in the article following Ida’s in the paper. Sister White
advocated it as well in Letter 356, 1907, though she did not call it that: “Many a child who
lives out of the city can have a little plot of land where he can learn to garden. He can be
taught to make this a means of securing money to give to the cause of God.” As in the case of
the harvest ingathering, the money was brought to the praise and thanksgiving service to be
collected so that it could be sent to missions, mainly overseas. But missionary hens (I suppose
for laying eggs that could be sold), selling our papers and books, and raising money by other
means were options given as well.
Earlier that year, in the spring, Anna was asked to speak in regards to the harvest ingathering
service at the General Conference Session during an International Sabbath-School Association
meeting, sharing how wonderful the program was working in the few places it was being
practiced. There were no objections to what she said afterward, and decisions must have been
made in favor of it because starting that fall the service had become widespread around the
world as the periodicals that year and following years indicate. Anna gave this very strong
statement at the meeting: “Had they [the Israelites] ceased to keep the Passover before the
type met its anti-type, they would have been denying their faith. The Lord looked upon this
just as he did upon the other – a ceasing to keep the Feast of the Tabernacles denies our faith
in the soon-coming harvest of the earth” (General Conference Bulletin, 4/19/1901).
It sounded convincing, and some still hold this view today; however, according to the light
that we have been given, it is just not true. The typical system has all passed away. The idea is
that the Festival of Tabernacles was the only festival that has not been fulfilled yet and that
this is why we should observe only this festival. But the reality is that the types attached to all
the holy days have either not started fulfilling or finished fulfilling. Christ is still our Passover
Lamb in heaven, and a latter Pentecostal outpouring is still future as well as the bringing in of
the new covenant on the Day of Shouting, and so is the final atonement on its appointed day.
But there is another unrecognized antitype, which is still in progress, that we have not covered
yet: The sealing message and experience for Seventh-day Adventists began on the first holy
day of the biblical year, the 15 th of the first month, which fell on 4/20/1848. That was the first
day of the first Sabbath Conference, which was held in Rocky Hill, Ct.
Still during the conference, the fourth day in, was the infamous election that began the French
Revolution of 1848; thus, the general time of trouble, leading to the great one, also began,
with the four winds of human strife being gradually released, yet held back from full strength.
The sealing message was presented in power and clarity at these conferences, settling the
remnant of God in the truth so that He could mark and cover His “first-fruits” (Rev. 14:4);
then they would be passed over in the plagues, just as the first-born of Israel were passed
over in the last plague that fell upon Egypt.
Sister White wrote this in 1849, just after the sealing time had begun:
“Satan is now using every device in this sealing time to keep the minds of God’s people
from the present truth and to cause them to waver. I saw a covering that God was drawing
over His people to protect them in the time of trouble; and every soul that was decided on the
truth and was pure in heart was to be covered with the covering of the Almighty” (Early
Writings, p. 43).
The covering is a symbol for the protective Law of God’s Government that His people accept
over them under the sounding of the third angel’s message, and the seal is a symbol of the
Sabbath – the seal of the Law – and all that it stands for; and the sealing process is the
process of sanctification, which the Sabbath is a sign of. Our pioneers that were sealed will be
covered in the seventh plague that they are resurrected in. They did not know that the time
they were meeting on began an antitypical fulfillment of the original Passover of Israel
according to the appointed time on God’s calendar, but it just as surely took place. They did
unitedly teach that the sealing under the third angel’s message began in 1848 through the
Sabbath Conferences. And we are still living in the time of that sealing today, in preparation of
the plagues which will destroy the wicked, but the servants of God will be passed over,
because they will have obeyed the sealing message of the third angel. The spring types have
yet future fulfillment.
Therefore, none of the antitypes of the typical ceremonies anciently carried out throughout
the year have really ended, and they do not all happen in the order of the year as single
fulfillments like many have thought; if we kept the typical Feast of Tabernacles, we would
have to keep all the others. But that is not acceptable, because all of the types ended
when Christ came to fulfill the antitypes and the veil of the ceremonial temple
was rent in twain. This distinction must be made clear. Sister White said that
we should observe “a Feast of Tabernacles,” not ‘the Feast of Tabernacles’. That
detail has been missed by many, just as the detail of the moedim (appointed times) being
distinguished from the chaggim (feasts), although I have found an article in the Review and
Herald (1/15/1914) that made this distinction; the author just did not see the significance of it.
Nothing is typical or antitypical with the appointed times themselves; they are all moral
statutes, not just the two that border the time of Tabernacles. But to have a Feast of
Tabernacles is perfectly right to do, and so was what the General Conference decided to do
with the harvest ingathering service, just not the thinking behind it. Gathering things from
nature to decorate the church is a ceremony, but it is not an old covenant ceremony. Leviticus
23:40, as understood in context and as cross-referenced in Nehemiah 8:15, speaks of
gathering certain branches from trees but only for making booths, or tabernacles, to dwell in.
The practice described in Sister White’s Signs of the Times article of carrying tokens of
rejoicing in hand and decorating Jerusalem with them was a festive tradition, and not a bad
one but probably inspired by God. It is an excellent festal and worshipful activity for children
and even adults as it leads the mind away from the things of man to God and His creation in
the spirit of thanksgiving.
The Hibbens – and thus the early 20 th Century Seventh-day Adventist Church which
supported their program – had attempted to resurrect the old Festival of Tabernacles, but
they really were not since there was no building of booths. They were rightfully creating an
Adventist Feast of Tabernacles, except it was a miniature one; and that was their main
practical deficiency.
In Patriarchs and Prophets, Sister White spoke of us having “a Feast of Tabernacles” in
context of the ancient one, which was eight days long. God did not mean for it to be a one-day
service. The appointed times – a special week apart – still remain. Furthermore, Sister White
gave no indication that our Tabernacles should be anything other than a campmeeting, not a
one-day gathering for a local church. To the contrary; in an article entitled “Come to the
Feast,” she urged people to come to the first ever Seventh-day Adventist campmeeting in
Australia and said the following: “The forces of the enemies are strengthening, and as a people
we are misrepresented; but shall we not gather our forces together, and come up to the
feast of tabernacles? Let us not treat this matter as one of little importance, but let the
army of the Lord be on the ground to represent the work and cause of God in Australia. Let no
one plead an excuse at such a time. One of the reasons why we have appointed the camp-
meeting to be held at Melbourne, is that we desire the people of that vicinity to become
acquainted with our doctrines and works. We want them to know what we are, and
what we believe” (Bible Echo, 12/8/1893).
New Zealand was also having its first ever Seventh-day Adventist campmeeting near that time
and just over a month earlier she used the same words: “Will our brethren not come up to
the feast of tabernacles?” (Letter 8a, 1893). Sister White is borrowing language from
Zechariah 14, which says, “And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no
rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not
up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles” (14:18).
As it indicates on Page 657 of the Great Controversy, the ultimate setting of this passage is in
the very last days when the whole world is arrayed against Seventh-day Adventists, who are
receiving the latter rain as they come up to the Adventist Feast of Tabernacles, while those
who do not come up will receive the final plague that comes on the Day of Shouting; they will
not be covered, and this links back to the antitypical Passover just discussed. Everything
seems to converge in the seventh month in the last days!
The root of the Hebrew word translated to “Tabernacles” (‘sukkah’, ‘sukkot for plural) is
‘sakak’, which means ‘to cover’, thus giving ‘sukkah’ a meaning of ‘covering’, equivalent to
‘covert’ – one of the entries in Strong’s and also the King James translation of ‘sukkah’ in Job
38:40.
What this tells us is that coming up to the Feast of Tabernacles camp meeting in
the last days is a shadow of the protective covering the faithful remnant of
Israel receive for the seventh plague. It will pass over Israel until the holy day
that begins the week of Tabernacles, which only those who come up to the great
final Tabernacles gathering at Mount Nebo will enter into, for the rest of the
world will be destroyed by the plague, with many destroyed by the brightness
of the Second Advent, finishing the plague. The righteous will be safely
encamped for two weeks at Mount Nebo, where the Law that is sealed in their
hearts is unearthed from the cave, for the Adventist Tabernacles begins well
before the week as we will see. And just in time for that great week, the
redeemed of all time will be added, turning that Tabernacles into the
ultimate gathering – the ingathering of souls, the resurrected and the
translated, visiting different worlds each day until the Last Great Day in the
Holy City of Peace! That glorious week will be spent all covered in the healing
rays of the Sun of Righteousness!
Sister White also applied Zechariah 14 to the urgent and critical situation in Australia and
New Zealand, where we were just establishing ourselves as an army of people against powerful
forces operating in people who knew not our Everlasting Gospel. Her application of it is not
the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy, but the connection she made there between the
camp-meeting and the Feast of Tabernacles should be clear to us.
The Millerites called their campmeetings in the 1840s the ‘Feast of Tabernacles’ due to the
connection between dwelling in tents in a campmeeting setting and the tabernacles that the
Israelites of old dwelt in for their feast. However, Seventh-day Adventists after that time
usually did not call them that anymore, probably because that since they kept the Sabbath,
they did not want others to connect our Sabbath-keeping with ceremonies of old covenant
feasts.
But now that we know the Spirit of Prophecy uses that title, so should we for our fall holy
convocation that falls on the appointed times that the Scriptures command us to keep. And we
can also see a connection between the Review and Herald quote that we just read and the one
that said, “Well would it be for us to have a feast of tabernacles, a joyous commemoration of
the blessings of God to us as a people.” Both of these quotes indicate a reviewing of God’s
leading in our past history, particularly as it involves “the precious light of truth.” The only
difference is that the earlier quote has an emphasis on our own experience whereas this one is
on sharing our experience with the world.
Both of these objectives – God’s blessings to ourselves and His blessings through us to the
world – can and should be met in our Feast of Tabernacles, and we need to be careful to do so.
The evenings can be more geared for the public, and we can have festive praise meetings and
commemorate our past during the day, though anyone could be invited as we have nothing to
hide; some may be spiritually awakened by our praises and testimonies. But should we also
incorporate collecting and decorating with the things of nature and collecting funds from the
produce God has blessed us with to use for missions? Indeed, we should, and as we continue
to progress through history it will become clearer why we should. In fact, some of the produce
of our mission gardens, such as squash, melons, root vegetables, and apples, could be sold
right at the festival along with our literature, which could be a means to invite people to the
evening meetings so that they can learn who we are and what our message is. Literature
geared towards health – our opening wedge – would go excellent with the healthy produce.
And for most of the civilized world, the seventh biblical month is right when much of the
produce is ripe, so it works out about right and so does the weather, which is milder than
spring and less hot than summer. It will truly be a harvest festival – both an
ingathering of produce for funds and of souls! The hope of these things is
rapturous to my heart, and I just cannot hold it back! Please share this hope
with me so that we can go forward in this endeavor so that God’s glory can
shine to this dark world!
Again, the earlier Review and Herald article in 1885, where she originally described our Feast
of Tabernacles, says, “so should the people of God at the present time gratefully call to mind
the various ways He has devised to bring them out from the world, out from the darkness of
error, into the precious light of truth. We should often bring to remembrance the dependence
upon God of those who first led out in this work. We should gratefully regard the old way-
marks, and refresh our souls with memories of the loving-kindness of our gracious
Benefactor.”
Most of this was left out of the reprint of it in Patriarchs and Prophets, which is for the public,
and which is also all that the Hibbens had apparently read. According to the Spirit of
Prophecy, the primary thing we are to celebrate during our Feast of Tabernacles is purely
Adventist – God’s delivering us from the world through the first, second, and third angels’
messages. This commemoration cannot be done in a service on one day,
especially since praise, thanksgiving, and other things are to accompany it. It
takes time to review our past history every year, which is much more often
than we are accustomed to reviewing it; and this is especially the case since we
are also to teach it to others. Many of our own people have lost faith in the
Spirit of Prophecy to some degree and what it teaches in the reforms as well as
the teachings of our pioneers going back to the Millerites, and perhaps this is
why. “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way
the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history” (Review and Herald,
10/12/1905).
Should we forget how God led the early 20 th Century Seventh-day Adventists to practice the
Feast of Tabernacles because it did not review our past history and had other mistakes due to
their partial blindness? Absolutely not, and I will now explain further why as we look at just
a little more history. Our people today should not be blind to what God led them in.
In 1908, the harvest ingathering service was upgraded to be called the ‘Harvest Ingathering
Campaign’. It was probably the most massive evangelistic campaign that our church has ever
undertaken, as it covered the whole world and involved many of the individual church
members as well as a major undertaking for our periodicals. It involved amazing sacrifice and
brought in masses of money for missions. Seventh-day Adventism would not have been as
widespread as it is today had it not been for this campaign that lasted for decades.
Unfortunately, as apostasy crept into the church, the focus moved away from praise and
thanksgiving to God for His physical harvest of produce and souls for the spiritual harvest and
towards a way to just raise money, and the money came to be used more for humanitarian
purposes, like ADRA (a government-funded relief agency that is legally barred from sharing
the third angel’s message with the world), rather than for missions. Missionary gardens
became long-forgotten as families moved more into the cities and forgot God and His
produce. And lacking the Spirit of God, it was easier for people to raise money for
humanitarian needs than for religious purposes. Decades after the campaign began, the name
changed to just ‘Ingathering’, with the concept of harvest – the original focus – vanished. The
‘Ingathering’ is still a thing in the General Conference today, but very few are engaged in it
and many have never heard of it, let alone its origin in the early 20 th Century Adventist Feast
of Tabernacles/Ingathering.
With this out of the way, we will dwell no longer on the negative. If we behold apostasy, we
will become the same. Instead, let us focus on where God has led us in the past and where He
will lead us in the future as we follow His leadings. Let us go back to how the ‘Harvest
Ingathering Campaign’ was originally. Now, before we look at just what it was, here is a quote
from Sister White showing a strong promotion of it just the year before she passed away:
“God designs that through the individual members of His church, life-giving beams
shall shine forth into the dark places of earth, and into the heart of every benighted soul. Thus
the whole earth is to be lighted with His glory...
In the providence of God, those who are bearing the burden of his work have been
endeavoring to put new life into old methods of labor, and also to invent new plans and new
methods of awakening the interest of church members in a united effort to reach the
world. One of the new plans for reaching unbelievers is the Harvest Ingathering
campaign for missions. In many places, during the past few years, this has proved a
success, bringing blessing to many, and increasing the flow of means into the mission
treasury. As those not of our faith have been made acquainted with the progress of the third
angel’s message in heathen lands, their sympathies have been aroused, and some have sought
to learn more of the truth that has such power to transform hearts and lives. Men and
women of all classes have been reached, and the name of God has been
glorified” (Church Officers’ Gazette, 9/1/1914).
Thus, the harvest ingathering service in 1898 and the campaign for it ten years later was not
just something that the Hibbens or anyone else came up with on their own; it was
providential. So, now that we know what we are dealing with here, let us look at exactly what
this campaign was. We already know that it involved church members working in a united
effort and was a major success, but what exactly did they do?
First of all, those who were doing missionary gardens were working towards the harvest
festival in the fall since springtime when soil was prepared and seeds were planted. The
children and adults assisting them would have an excellent, practical experience with God in
nature. And children would gather special things from the woods as well as tend their gardens
throughout the summer. This is what had already been taking place since 1898, but in 1908 a
massive campaign began. Five years before that, Jasper Wayne, an Iowa nurseryman, was led
to give away Signs of the Times that he ordered and ask for donations in return that would be
used for missions. It worked extremely well, and his plan spread from conference to
conference until the General Conference made it official in 1908.
A special number of the Review and Herald or the Signs of the Times was produced annually
each fall starting on November 26th, 1908, when the first ‘Harvest Ingathering Review’ printed
400,000 copies to be distributed by church members throughout North America. $30,000 in
profits were gained, which is equivalent to over $800,000 today; by 1927, the harvest
ingathering donations reached the equivalent of over 75 million dollars! Each year the
donations increased, and in some areas the Harvest Ingathering Campaign funded overseas
missions more than any other project. It should be noted that this did not replace harvest
ingathering services being held with missionary garden sales being collected; the campaign,
involving the door-to-door donation collections through the missionary paper, was additional.
The campaign was carried out very systematically. In those days, the churches – even in North
America – were actually organized for mission; in other words, they were not fake Christian
churches. They called the vast areas around them fields. And each church divided their fields
into territories and church members were assigned into them with the goal of every door in
the territories being knocked on each and every year. The laborers were given specific orders
by the conferences and mission leaders. For example, in 1923, each worker was called on to
spend 40 hours of time ingathering and each lay member 10 hours. The field laborers for the
ingathering were also encouraged to sell other literature to those the most interested, and
some people who were interested in our message were followed up with workers. Thus, people
were converted to our faith in this way. The special paper described who we are as a people
and briefly what our message is. Then many interesting pictures, charts, and stories were
printed of our missions all over the world, covering double the length of a normal periodical
paper. The laborers would introduce our people, give the paper for free, and ask for donations
for the missions displayed in the paper. Those who donated were noted for future years.
The fact that we are not doing these things today shows that we have lost our missionary
spirit, and this because we have largely lost the Holy Spirit. We are in desperate need of
revival, and I believe that this will be accomplished through living the life of prayer and
participating in the Revival Reading Plan – both under the Personal Revival Plan – and
corporately gathering together at our Adventist Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month,
which when revived will revive us, just as it did in the Midnight Cry. Then being revived in the
Holy Spirit, we will be enabled to organize ourselves for missions. Until we are organized, we
are robbing God of our service and until we have praise meetings at our harvest gatherings, we
are robbing Him of our praise. I pray that the Holy Spirit will come down upon us and cause
us to weep over these things, for God is greatly dishonored by our disorganization. We need to
humble ourselves by letting God dethrone us from a theoretical religion of pride and enter
into the practical religion of Jesus Christ. The holy convocations are all toward this end, but
the enemy of souls would have us continue debating over whether the old covenant feasts
should be kept or not and debating over many other things, all the while the practical matters
are neglected and the world remains in darkness because of us. We have been robbing the
whole world. It is time to repent without delay.
The seventh month – the month of the Sabbath (the annual one, that is) and the month of the
Second Advent – is the Adventist month and has been since the Midnight Cry was first
proclaimed in the summer of 1844. I believe that this is the light that God want us to walk in
and that it grows even brighter when we see it shining from Jesus, seeing what He does in the
month and what He wants us to do in this month. Listen to part of Sister White’s vision of the
Midnight Cry:
“On this path the Advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the
path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the beginning of the path,
which an angel told me was the midnight cry. This light shone all along the
path and gave light for their feet so that they might not stumble. If they kept their
eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe. But
soon some grew weary, and said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have
entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising His glorious right
arm, and from His arm came a light which waved over the Advent band, and
they shouted, ‘Alleluia!’ Others rashly denied the light behind them and said that it was not
God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out, leaving their feet in perfect
darkness, and they stumbled and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus, and fell off the path
down into the dark and wicked world below.”
Now listen what she says next; it is the Day of Shouting the head of the seventh month:
“Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’
coming. The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice,
while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spoke the time, He
poured upon us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the
glory of God, as Moses’ did when he came down from Mount Sinai” (Early Writings, p. 14).
That glorious light will be literal, but it was only because they followed that Midnight Cry light
all the way down the path. It is the seventh month light; it has been the light of the Midnight
Cry all along the way. But now we are living over a century and three-quarters past 1844. We
are weary; we thought Jesus would have come by now. It has been discouraging for us, and we
wonder why we are still here. But then, just now – yes, now! – Jesus is waving His arm, and
the light of the Midnight Cry is shining brighter than ever before! Prophecy is being fulfilled
before our very spiritual eyes! Will we cherish this light? It comes from Jesus in the Most Holy
Place.
We must follow the Lamb withersoever He leadeth us and not step a foot off the path, lest we
hear only the sound of wrathful thunder on that glorious day, one hour before the Great
Second Advent and do not shine but perish in darkness. It is the same light that is in
Revelation 18, which is added to the third angel’s message. The Sabbath month and all that is
connected to it is the Sabbath proclaimed more fully, as well as the Midnight Cry proclaimed
more fully. The light of the Loud Cry is simply the light of the Midnight Cry magnified “with
ten times the power” (Manuscript 4, 1852) through the full Sabbath truth. Since after the
tenth day of the seventh month in 1844, it has become the Sabbath light – the light of the seal
that has been increasing with strength since it first appeared in the east. But now we see the
Sabbath and the seventh month intersected as the light shines brighter from the glorious arm
of Jesus! He has led us this far, and we must not, cannot, turn back or aside lest we perish. We
shall go forward in faith on the strait and narrow way, just now as Midnight approaches!
On that glorious Day of Shouting, the first day of the seventh month, “it is at midnight that
God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears, shining in its
strength” (Great Controversy, 636).

The Midnight Cry reaches its climax and conclusion

at midnight – not the typical midnight of the summer of
1844, which cry Samuel Snow publicly proclaimed on the fifth
New Moon of that year (August 15th at the Exeter Camp
Meeting), but the antitypical and real one on the highest New
Moon of the year, announcing the real Great Second Advent.
It is when the cry becomes a shouting of victory over Babylon
as she falls, not spiritually as before, but physically into the
Lake of Fire where she is destroyed!
It is God’s hour, starting at midnight in Mount Nebo east of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea
where God’s people are gathered to hear the words of the Most High as the Tables of the Law
are unveiled from where they are now hidden; it is also where Moses beheld both in sight and
in vision the heritage of God: the typical Promised Land, which will become the capitol city of
the eternal Promised Land, where Christ and His faithful saints will land at the end of the Day
of Judgment, which begins on that solemn, victorious day. They are gathered there at
the head of the seventh month because they had been gathering each year at
the seventh month holy convocation, the Adventist Feast of Tabernacles, since
they saw the light shining from Jesus. And for two weeks, during their final
Tabernacles on this old earth, they will behold that vast land looking waaaaay
out, and perhaps see rapturous visions as Moses did when he was there.
In fact, Sister White records that Moses on that mount saw this very event that they are living
out. Let’s read it now:
“With joy Moses saw the law of God still honored and exalted by a faithful few. He saw the last
great struggle of earthly powers to destroy those who keep God’s law. He looked forward to
the time when God shall arise to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and
those who have feared His name shall be covered and hid in the day of His anger. He heard
God’s covenant of peace with those who have kept His law, as He utters His voice from His
holy habitation and the heavens and the earth do shake. He saw the second coming of Christ
in glory, the righteous dead raised to immortal life, and the living saints translated without
seeing death, and together ascending with songs of gladness to the City of God” (Patriarchs
and Prophets, p. 476).
O brothers and sisters, will we walk in this light just now? God is testing us. Will we celebrate
the Feast of Tabernacles that God has given to the Advent band in the Spirit of Prophecy?
If we will follow the directions given us there, we will see that the Tabernacles she describes
for us to have is a campmeeting, yet we know God has led us in the past by His providence to
have missionary gardens and systematic door-to-door ingathering, which, by the way, could
be used to invite the public to come up to the Feast of Tabernacles where they can receive
physical and spiritual healing as well as insight on prophecy. Many will be interested in
prophecy as more and more judgments of God fall upon this earth, and many will be
interested in healing as more and more agents of disease sicken and kill people. Everything is
setting in place if we will just walk in the light of the Midnight Cry as it is swelling into the
Loud Cry. God and His angels are longing to bring salvation to the multitudes of this world
through this means.
Will our Tabernacles be only the same eight days that the old covenant one had? The answer,
according to the Spirit of Prophecy is actually . . . No. We really have four choices:
(1) We can do absolutely nothing and experience no blessing.
(2) We can ignore the Spirit of Prophecy and try to observe the old covenant
ceremonies that passed away at the Cross, which is really an impossibility.
(3) We can ignore the moral statutes of the appointed times that God in His knowledge
made for man at Creation, as the original King James Bible teaches.
(4) We can observe both the biblical appointed times and the Feast of Tabernacles that
God has given us in the Spirit of Prophecy.
But only Choice #4 is the light that is coming from Jesus.
Therefore, we who are wise shall walk in the light and not in darkness. And that given, now let
us see from the Spirit of Prophecy that our Feast of Tabernacles is longer than the old
covenant ceremonial ones as well as our only campmeeting, or non-local gathering, of the
year.
We read earlier in regards to the first-ever SDA campmeeting in New Zealand where Sister
White pleaded, “Will our brethren not come up to the feast of tabernacles?” (Letter 8a,
1893). Well, in that same letter, she also says this: “Bear in mind God’s plan was that His
people should assemble together to worship not less than three times a year. The Lord
has not signified it to be your duty to do this.” Here is another one: “God required of
His ancient people three yearly gatherings” (3 Testimonies, p. 395). But in speaking of ours,
she spoke of singular yearly ones: “Let all who possibly can, attend these yearly gatherings.
All should feel that God requires this of them ... Come, brethren and sisters, to these
sacred convocation meetings, to find Jesus. He will come up to the feast” (2 Testimonies, p.
600). Friends, we as Seventh-day Adventists, have but one yearly feast, not three and not
zero; and, if properly conducted, Jesus will be there – that is, in Spirit, until the final seventh
month when He will come in person! But He will not come then until He first comes in Spirit.
O how I long to see Him at the feast in both cases! What about you?
The Lord has also instructed us exactly how long our campmeetings should be, which would
make more than one per year unrealistic: “If our camp meetings are conducted as they should
be, they will indeed be a light in the world. They should be held in the large cities and towns
where the message of truth has not been proclaimed. And they should continue for two
or three weeks. It may sometimes be advisable to hold a camp meeting for several
successive seasons in the same place; but as a rule the place of meeting should be changed
from year to year. Instead of having mammoth camp meetings in a few localities, more good
would be done by having smaller meetings in many places. Thus the work will be constantly
extending into new fields” (6 Testimonies, p. 33).
What wonderful counsel we have been given, but we have much bitter repenting to do,
because we have not followed it and many in the world have been lost that could have been
saved because of this. Now, there are exactly three weeks between the first and last appointed
times of the seventh month, and I believe that this is where God is leading us. We have the
type set before us in the revival of Nehemiah, remember? It typifies of us in the last days!
Each one of the four appointed times of the seventh month – the Day of Shouting, the Day of
Atonement, and the bookends of the specified week – have rich significance for us as
Adventists. So, we can make the entire time the Feast of Tabernacles to be in line with the
Spirit of Prophecy for the era that we live in. Three weeks may be too long for some people,
but our camp meetings are to be largely for the local public. Ministers and other workers can
be there the entire time holding evening meetings for the public; and they will need about that
long to get our complete message. And our own people can come as soon as they are able to.
However, it should be expected that we would all be there for at the very least the Day of
Atonement until what is called the Last Great Day—the day after the Tabernacles week.
Arriving the day before the Sabbath of the year, being the tenth, would make for two weeks,
and this is more than three times better than a single week according to Sister White:
“Our camp-meetings should continue two weeks. Not one-third the good is
accomplished when the meeting is held a single week that would be if it were held a
week longer. If the meeting is held but a week, there is not time for the truth to
affect the heart and change the channel of the thought before the camp is astir, the
tents are struck, and the people are on their way home. All care should be left behind, and all
should be free to enter heartily into the spirit of the meeting. Our brethren should come
at the commencement of the meeting, and stay to the close. They should make
preparation for this, and as far as possible lay aside every worldly interest” (Review and
Herald, 4/22/1884).
According to the Spirit of Prophecy, the week-long old covenant feasts, which feast-keepers
are still doing today, will not do, because outside of them being old covenant ceremonies, at
least two-thirds of the spiritual benefit is lost due to the shortness of time. The heart and mind
are not long enough departed from the world.
It should be understood that our spiritual needs are greater than those that lived before the
Cross in the typical dispensation, and especially in our time with wicked worldliness being all
around us like never before. The standards are higher after the Cross, as our Saviour also
taught. The Law of Moses allowed for a standard of righteousness which is not always the best
for today, whether it be polygamy, wine-drinking, meat-eating, or slavery; and the Spirit of
Prophecy contains an increasing light for God’s people as they approach the restored Eden.
The Law of Moses technically had only two days of holy convocation for the typical
Tabernacles. People were allowed to work on non-rest days, although it was inferred by the
bookends that the entire time was a time for holy convocation for all who could make it. But in
our time, the Spirit of Prophecy is calling for our brethren to come at the commencement of
the convocation of two weeks and stay to the close, and with, as much as possible, every
worldly interest laid aside during the entire duration of the time, thus making the entire two
weeks holy time!
It seems to me that the official revival meetings for our people should be from the evening
opening the Day of Atonement (the keynote day of our movement), arriving earlier that day to
unpack, through the evening of the Last Great Day, departing the next day, which makes for
exactly two weeks. But outreach activities could start on the 1 st, the Day of Shouting, when we
all who can make it give a shout out to the public, through various media, to come up to our
Feast of Tabernacles. A major ingathering campaign could be wrought out during those nine
days, with territories all marked out for people to be assigned to, with perhaps a day of
training the day before the seventh month begins; however, prior to that, in September, a
door-to-door harvest ingathering and service could also be held in the local churches as well,
extending the joyful festal season back even further! But whenever a family does make it up to
the Tabernacles campmeeting – whether for just the main two weeks of meetings or for the
ten days of training and door-to-door outreach leading up to it - they should not leave until
after the closing day, the Last Great Day, as it is called. That day, being connected with the
symbol of water, clues us to the fact that God will specially send spiritual rain that day, and no
one should miss out on it. Thus, we have “two or three weeks,” just as the Spirit of Prophecy
counsels us.
A question arises now on how people will be able to spend that much time away from their job
and that much money for possible motel expenses. It definitely means sacrifice, but I believe
there is a simple solution. It involves getting organized. And I mean more than just having
churches and conferences organized for service. I mean systematically organizing in labor to
make our own Adventist industries scattered in various places, with agriculture being the
foundation of them and simple education on how to do the labor and build simple facilities in
many places. With our own labor system, we will not be bound to the vacation times of the
world, with its holidays. Added to this is the second tithe, which the 1901 General Conference
(the same one that voted on reorganization and introducing our Feast of Tabernacles in the
harvest ingathering service) voted to recommend the state conferences to collect the second
tithe from church members, based on a study of the Law which Sister White affirmed by
publishing an entire pamphlet on the second tithe. This is documented in the General
Conference Bulletin dated 4/15/1901.
In the Law, the second tithe was primarily used for people to attend the three annual festivals,
as an example for our annual festival. I believe we should reorganize going back to the simple
church government and policies that we had in 1901, and let the second tithe be collected
throughout the year and distributed to all who need assistance for motel expenses, though
staying in tents should be encouraged so that those who cannot do so and for the nights that
may be too cold for staying in can have sufficient funds for motels. Any funds that are not
expended could be used for the things that our pioneers used the second tithe for, including
various church and mission expenses. But even if people held onto their own tithe until it was
used for travel expenses and the excess given as an offering at the end of Tabernacles, the 10
percent of even low-income families would be more than sufficient for two or three weeks in a
motel in most cases. God has provided the funds for us all to attend if we are faithful with our
tithes; and the second tithe is in His Law, so there should be no excuses for not being able to
financially attend. I have a detailed study on the Law’s system of tithes and offerings in the
message entitled “Are We Robbing God in Tithes and Offerings?”
As for having time to attend, God will provide that as well as we adjust our employment to
prepare for the Sunday and holiday laws that we should be preparing for anyways. Here are
some ideas to get us started that God has impressed my wife and I with please listen very
carefully, and you will want to pray about this to see what God’s calling may be for you:
*** BIOLOGICAL GARDENING LINK ***
Instead of having just mission gardens, larger gardens and farms can be worked for our
various
Adventist industries, and there would be no pesticides and they would be grown through
biologic garden principles which maximize nutrition (see the link on the screen for more
info.), making our produce healthfully unique when it is sold.
*** END BIOLOGICAL GARDENING LINK ***
And our produce can also make our own truly health food products, as Battle Creek used to
have, except our facilities would be smaller and spread out in many places, hiring many
workers instead of implementing expensive machinery. Our produce would also be sold to our
own plant-based restaurants. We could also produce our own pesticide-free cotton for healthy
and modest clothing made affordable for our people to wear. In addition to Farmers’ Markets,
we can sometimes have our own markets, selling all kinds of health and spiritual products.
Everything would be very affordable because we would be using our own produce, thus
multitudes would come and buy our products and eat at our restaurants. We would also have
simple sanitariums and schools. This includes adult schools to train workers for these
industries as well as for training ministers, colporteurs, and Bible workers. All of these
industries would require many laborers, meaning that we could all have jobs
and with our own Adventist holidays off, with everything climaxing in the
seventh month – the time of ingathering, when we invite the public to learn
who we are and what we do, including our industries. This is the direction we
should be quickly moving in, because “in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a
very serious one” (E.G. White, Letter 5, 1904).
Speaking of our holy days, we have only covered the four that are in the seventh month. What
about the other three in the year – the two in the spring that are connected by a special week,
and the 50th day from the Sabbath’s morrow of that week? What should we do for them, seeing
that we no longer are to observe them as pilgrimage festivals, or campmeetings? Well, that is
what we will look at next, in the final installment of this series. We will be going through some
important history, starting in the New Testament Scriptures, and you will learn some more
amazing things about the meanings of God’s holy days. It will be shorter than this quite long
segment we just completed, but it will also again be very practical and interesting. So, please
join me in Part 7 as we complete our journey together, only so that we can put it into practice,
living it out in the journey of real life.

A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh Month

Part Seven

Holy Festivals unto God

In the previous part, we studied how the seventh month feast can be practically carried out so
that we ourselves are revived and we can reach the world with the Everlasting Gospel. And
now we shall complete our studies with how the holy days outside of the seventh month can
be practically observed now that the types that were attached to them no longer exist. We have
much to learn yet as well as some things to unlearn. Let us start in the New Testament.
Let us see what the apostle Paul did with the Christians in Philippi over 25 years after the
Cross. In addition to Colossians 2:16, this is another very strong New Testament evidence of
the holy days being kept after the Cross, especially with Sister White’s commentary we have:
“And we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread” (Acts 20:6).
“At Philippi Paul tarried to keep the Passover. Only Luke remained with him, the
other members of the company passing on to Troas to await him there. The Philippians were
the most loving and truehearted of the apostle’s converts, and during the eight days of
the feast he enjoyed peaceful and happy communion with them” (E.G. White, Acts
of the Apostles, p. 390).
The Apostle Paul could have chosen any other time
of the year or any other duration of days to have this
peaceful and happy communion with the
Philippians, but Paul chose exactly the eight days
from the 14th to the 21st of the first biblical month –
“the Days of Unleavened Bread.” But The Jews were
not there; they had all left and gone to Jerusalem.
Therefore, Paul was not keeping not the Jewish
Passover of old covenant ceremonies, which could
only be observed in Jerusalem, but rather the
Christian Passover, which can be kept in any land.
There would be no other reason for him to do this
unless he were not only keeping the holy days of
God’s Law but honoring Christ being sacrificed as
our Passover Lamb on the evening of the 14 th, when
the typical Passover of the flock was slain and eaten.
On that very evening, Christ our Passover was
sacrificed “in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40) –
that is, in the experience of hell, which He began
experiencing in Gethsemane.
The evening (which was then considered to be mid-afternoon) of the 14 th was added to the
week of Unleavened Bread following it, thus making for eight days total. The Christian
Passover meal would be eaten that evening without the sacrifice of lamb, celebrating not just
the usual symbols of the body and blood of Christ, but also the events of Christ that night –
His supper, suffering, and arrest. But this special communion meal would not replace its
ordinance being celebrated throughout the year for the sake of remembering our Lord’s
sacrifice in general, just not commemorating that evening’s events.
The next day, then, being the holy day of the 15 th, would commemorate Christ’s death on the
Cross, which fulfilled the type of sacrificing of the Passover of the herd. This was in contrast to
the Passover of the flock that was offered the night before, the original Passover sacrifice that
was instituted in Exodus 12 in Egypt. We will not go there, but Deuteronomy 16:2 speaks of
both and Verse 4 refers to that of the herd, which was sacrificed the evening of the first day of
the feast, being the 15th of the month; this is also what John is referring to – the Passover that
the Jews had not eaten yet when Jesus was in the judgment hall (see Jn. 18:28). Thus, Christ
fulfilled both types of the Passover: first of the flock in eating the supper with His disciples
and His Father sacrificing Him that night in Gethsemane to bear our sins, and second of the
herd in being sacrificed again on the Cross, this time suffering to the point of death.
The crucifixion of Christ also fulfilled the type of the daily sacrifice which was done
throughout the year. And, as Christians, we are to celebrate the antitypical daily sacrifice and
Christ’s daily ministration in the heavenly sanctuary in our morning and evening personal
and family prayer time of spiritual sacrifices through the merits of Christ, who is both our
Daily and Passover Lamb. Morning and evening worship times are the very foundation of the
appointed times according to the beginning of Numbers 28, and “it would be well for us to
spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it
point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones” (Desire
of Ages, p. 83); thus, the personal morning part of the Revival Reading Plan.
But on the 15th, we should corporately remember the scenes of Christ’s crucifixion. Christ on
the Cross was our Passover Lamb and, according to the Book of Revelation, this He will
forever be. The following Bible verse speaks of the typical event and its commemoration on
that day – the children of Israel being delivered out of Egypt, which was fulfilled in Christ
delivering us from our sin and death on the Cross that same biblical day.
“And ye shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought
your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by
an ordinance forever” (Exodus 12:17).
Here we see that according to this type in the Law, our deliverance had to come on the 15 th,
not the 14th as we supposed. Christ brought us out of the world into Himself through the
baptism of death on this day, and then He was laid in the grave. He rested over the Sabbath;
and this is where we see the weekly cycle kissing the yearly calendar.
We will come back to the Sabbath in a moment, but first let us cover the Sabbath’s morrow (or
first day of the week). It must fall on one of the seven annual days of Unleavened Bread, thus
the Sabbath can be on the 14th; and we know this because it was the case when the children of
Israel had entered the typical Promised Land and on the 15 th ate produce that had passed from
that land to them, its new inhabitants. They could not have eaten it on this day had it not been
the day of the first-fruits offering – the morrow of the Sabbath, which fell on the 14 th that first
year it was celebrated. God had resurrected those first-fruits from the ground that spring. This
was a type of “Christ the First-fruits” (1 Cor. 15:23) who, by partaking of Him, will bring us
into the permanent Promised Land where we can eat from our own country gardens in
unimaginable arrays of produce for all of eternity! The account of that original first-fruits day
can be found in Joshua 5:11, with Leviticus 23:14 as a good cross-reference. Centuries later,
Christ was resurrected on this day, with type meeting antitype, for “now is Christ risen from
the dead, the First-fruits of them having fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
The Sabbath itself, the day before, would commemorate His death – His resting in the grave.
He had been “put to death in the flesh” (1 Pet. 3:18) – that is, permanent death to His adopted
sinful flesh, in which He “who knew no sin” was made “to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). One day
that will happen to all the redeemed, but that reality is already in Him. And in a sense, the
Sabbath of every week commemorates this reality we enter into by faith.
In fact, each week we can celebrate the reality that “we are buried with Him by baptism into
death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we
also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). The Sabbath and its morrow come to us
each week, reminding us of death to self and newness of life. Thus, I believe that God was
intentional in bringing the Creation week into the Paschal week, so that we can be reminded
of the realities of redemption each week. Sunday sacredness is a perversion of what God
intended for the Sabbath’s morrow which arose from the mystery of lawlessness. But this
ought not cause us to forget the significance of Christ the First-fruits each week, as Paul calls
Him in his chapter on resurrection (1 Corinthians 15). Then, just after this discourse at the
beginning of the next chapter, God, through the apostle, institutes a rarely recognized
Christian ordinance to celebrate Christ the First-fruits on each Sabbath’s morrow; and this is
very important, so let us take a moment to examine it through the lens of the Spirit of
Prophecy:
“Not only does the Lord claim the tithe as his own, but He tells us how it should be reserved
for Him. He says, ‘Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of thine
increase’ (Prov. 3:9). This does not teach that we are to spend our means on ourselves, and
bring to the Lord the remnant, even though it should be otherwise an honest tithe. Let God’s
portion be first set apart. The directions given by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, in
regard to gifts, present a principle that applies also to tithing. ‘On the first day of the
week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him’ (1 Corinthians
16:2)...
And what more appropriate time could be chosen for setting aside the tithe and presenting
our offerings to God? On the Sabbath we have thought upon His goodness. We have
beheld His work in creation as an evidence of His power in redemption. Our hearts are filled
with thankfulness for His great love. And now, before the toil of the week begins, we return to
Him His own, and with it an offering to testify our gratitude. Thus, our practice will be a
weekly sermon” (Review and Herald, 11/10/1896).
And thus, by the example and the admonition of Paul, we have marked out for us how to
celebrate the Christian Passover, just as Sister White, as well as the providence of God in the
early 1900s, showed us how to observe the Adventist Feast of Tabernacles. Each spring at our
local Passover we can commemorate our Christian heritage, and each fall at our large
Tabernacles campmeeting we can commemorate our Adventist heritage as well as share it
with the world. However, there is some overlap since Passover involved more than just the
Head and Representative of Israel - being that He is our Passover Lamb. It also involves Israel
itself, in the last days. Israel will be marked and covered to be passed over by the final plague;
and this is a process – one that can be remembered each spring in addition to remembering
the Cross, such as through corporately reading or studying portions of the Book of Revelation.
The sealing experience is the Most Holy Place experience; thus, the Cross and the sanctuary
can both be celebrated in the Christian and Adventist Passover each year. It should be
remembered that we are Christian first, then Adventist; but we are not the national Israel that
came to naught by the Romans in 70 AD. Thus, we no longer commemorate the coming out of
Egypt through the old covenant feasts, which were only the types of what we celebrate. God
has given us this double heritage to be recounted each year – spring and fall – in praise and
thanksgiving to His glory. It is truly a wonderful heritage to have.
And just as the yearly Sabbath in the fall, the Day of Atonement, magnifies the Sabbath
principle of cessation from sin, which we are to bring into each weekly Sabbath, we have now
seen that the spring has a similar phenomenon with its special Sabbath and its morrow.
God made the Pentecost holy convocation to be on the Sabbath’s morrow, thus connecting
with the Day of First-fruits also on that weekly day of newness. The Roman Sunday – a
holiday named after the Roman sun god – totally nixes the day’s relation to the Sabbath. The
Sabbath’s morrow commences a new Sabbath experience that we are to enter into through the
week. And, unlike the Sabbath day, it is only holy once a year, not throughout the year. Yet we
should not ignore the day that God made for His intended purpose, but we should honor
Christ our First-fruits, who was risen on the first Sabbath’s morrow to serve us in the heavenly
sanctuary, which work He began on the seventh Sabbath’s morrow. We are to honor Him as
our First-fruits by sacrificing, for Him and through Him, the first-fruits of our income on that
weekly day. And this is a weekly sermon teaching us that we are primarily working that week
for His heavenly ministry, not our temporal needs. The mission of His ministry in heaven –
from whence the Holy Spirit comes, as we see on the first Christian Pentecost – is to bring a
people out of the Egypt of this world to be His everlasting living sanctuary. Our
income is first and foremost for this cause, for it is used to fund Christ’s Gospel ministry on
earth, which is an extension of His ministry in heaven by His Holy Spirit. He has made us
stewards of His ministry through this arrangement.
Thus, what we celebrate each year has a major impact on how we celebrate each week as we
experience and proclaim the Sabbath more fully through a revival of the holy convocations
and the seventh month. But in remembering the morrow of the Sabbath, let us not forget “the
Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath” (Mark 15:42). The Sabbath has two bookend
activities that we have forgotten. We have just rediscovered the post-Sabbath bookend of
presenting to God our tithes and offerings, which could either be presented in cash or in
record on paper to be paid later. But have we remembered the pre-Sabbath bookend? Here it
is:
“Before the Sabbath begins, the mind as well as the body should be withdrawn
from worldly business. God has set His Sabbath at the end of the six working days, that
men may stop and consider what they have gained during the week in
preparation for the pure kingdom which admits no transgressor. We should each
Sabbath reckon with our souls to see whether the week that has ended has brought spiritual
gain or loss” (E.G. White, 6 Testimonies, p. 356). Keep in mind that the Sabbath day is a
shadow of the everlasting rest; and every Day of Preparation is a test. Are we prepared? Also
on this day, if necessary, “we need to confess to God and to one another” (ibid). This would
also be the appropriate time to mark any sin offerings that should be presented to God after
the Sabbath. Thus, we can enter into Christ’s Sabbath death. Only then are we prepared for
the appointed time and holy convocation of each week, which should be entered into as
follows: “Before the setting of the sun let the members of the family assemble to read God’s
word, to sing and pray” (ibid).
Therefore, the days of Passover, as well as Pentecost and Tabernacles, have become
completely Christian. Though we use the same biblical calendar and names, unlike the
Catholic counterfeit feasts, unlike in the typical feasts, our Christian feasts have a spiritual
bearing on each week and they need not be held in Jerusalem, according to the Apostle Paul’s
example. Also, the names have different meanings – no longer commemorative of coming out
of Egypt, no longer tied to old Israel’s agriculture, and no longer typical but a shadow of
ongoing things. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” and we are now “the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). We are under no legal requirement to
ceremonially eat unleavened bread for the week. The focus of our local spring festival is on
Christ, with His purity and truth of self-sacrificing love; this would be the theme for the entire
week. Yet, we would expectedly eat unleavened bread for the Lord’s supper during that time.
The typical feast has ended and now we feast antitypically by being the uncorrupted body of
Christ, dead to sin, savory unto life.
There is another thing to note about the original quote:
“At Philippi Paul tarried to keep the Passover. Only Luke remained with him, the other
members of the company passing on to Troas to await him there” (Acts of the
Apostles, p. 390).
Not everyone in Paul’s company tarried to keep the Passover. This means that the Christian
Passover is not obligatory like the old covenant ones. Paul’s companions must have had good
enough reason to go ahead to Troas.
We also have an example of the Apostle Paul celebrating another holy day. Just as we did
before, let us read the Bible record of it, followed by Sister White’s commentary.
“I must by all means observe this coming holy day in Jerusalem” (Acts 18:21).
“Paul’s next scene of labor was at Ephesus. He was on his way to Jerusalem to celebrate the
Feast of Pentecost; and his stay at Ephesus was necessarily short” (8 Redemption, p. 65).
Paul did not merely go to Jerusalem to evangelize to the Jews. The Spirit of Prophecy says that
he went there to actually celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. And he was not going there to
celebrate the Jewish Passover but the Christian one. The Jews were still there making
ceremonial offerings at the temple, but the ceremonies that Paul would have participated in
with the Christians are the foot washing and the Lord’s Supper. Apparently, Paul was expected
to be in Jerusalem, and being a prominent evangelist, he would take every opportunity to go
where most of the people were since the church at Jerusalem was the original and central one
and the city was still where most people gathered for the holy convocations until it was
destroyed. What were the Christians celebrating on this holy day? Most likely the original
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that day as well as Christ’s ministry in the heavenly
sanctuary, because there would be nothing else for the Christian to celebrate since the
ceremonial law had passed away about two decades earlier.
Pentecost was thus an annual Christian memorial day, in addition to the Passover and First-
fruits. Roman Catholics still observe these days, but according to their calendar and their
Pagan customs. We have already seen from Colossians 2 that all the holy days, the New Moon,
and the Sabbath were all current practices, though some were perverting them; they just did
not understand the meanings of the holy days in the fall, which would later be revealed to
Seventh-day Adventists, so there is little mention of them. Luke does mention “the fast” being
“already past” in Acts 27:9, referring to the Day of Atonement. Apparently, they were still
fasting on that day, but it would have nothing to do with their sins figurately entering the
earthly sanctuary. The custom of fasting might have been for the purpose of soul-searching
each year at the beginning of the new civil year. This is quite a contrast and much better than
the worldly New Year’s celebrations many, including professed Christians, are celebrating
today.
So, we see examples of the apostles and early Christians celebrating holy days, but does the
Spirit of Prophecy in the writings of Ellen White support celebrating any Christian holy days
and festivals outside of the Feast of Tabernacles today? Indeed! It is in a manuscript entitled
“The Manifest Working of the Holy Spirit at Battle Creek College,” dated 4/30/1896, which
was published in a few different publications. Let us look at some passages from it:
“If the people of God rightly appreciated the temporal and spiritual blessings which the Lord
has poured upon them through Jesus Christ, continual praise would be upon their lips. We
have had an experience in being relieved from spiritual bondage similar to that of the
Israelites who were set free from the bondage of Egypt. Have we not had chains of oppression
broken, and Red Seas of impossibilities opened up before us? Have we not been fed with
manna from heaven?...

Would it not be well for us to observe holidays unto

God, when we could revive in our mind the memory
of His dealing with us? Would it not be well to
consider His past blessings, to remember the
impressive warnings that have come home to our
souls, so that we shall not forget God?
The world has many holidays, and men become engrossed with games, with horse-
races, with gambling, smoking, and drunkenness. They show plainly under what banner they
are standing. They make it evident that they do not stand under the banner of the Prince of
Life, but that the prince of darkness rules and controls them.

Shall not the people of God more frequently have

holy convocations in which to thank God for His rich
blessings?...
Shall we not keep holy festivals unto God? Shall we
not show that we have some enthusiasm in His
service?
With the grand, ennobling theme of salvation before us, shall we be as cold as statues of
marble? If men can become so excited over a match game of cricket, or a horse-race, or over
foolish things that bring no good to any one, shall we be unmoved when the plan of salvation
is unfolded before us?

Let the school and the church

henceforth have festivals of rejoicing
unto the Lord.”
This testimony was little heeded, unlike her “Festival of Tabernacles” statement. But I did find
an interesting article entitled “A Christian Holiday” in the Youth’s Instructor, interestingly
dated 12/25/1906, in protest of the worldly holiday observed by many professed Christians,
written by A.W. Spaulding, whose work was in Adventist education. At the beginning of his
article, he quoted from what we just read from Sister. Let us read some of it:
“On page 50 of ‘Special Testimonies on Education’ we read: ‘Would it not be well for us
to observe holidays unto God, when we could revive in our minds the memory of his
dealing with us?’ The rest of the paragraph makes evident the nature of such holidays, and
how they should differ from those of the world.

Yet so-called Christian holidays, such as Christmas,

Easter, and Thanksgiving, have become in their
celebration just as worldly, though, doubtless not so
unsocial, as the most secular. For a model of a
Christian holiday we must look elsewhere, and we
find it in the festivals given by God to Israel.
A study of these feasts, wherein recreation and festivity were combined with
worship, will give a very different idea than the average churchgoer has of what a holy day
should be. Even our picnics are commonly occasions of frivolity and gormandizing, though
they might be no less pleasing to mind and appetite if kept within the bounds of right.
Have not Adventists events in their history which warrant the making of
holidays? Consider one. Sixty-two years ago, all the universe was watching with intense
interest for one of the most important acts of time. A few thousands on earth, having given the
world its warning, were also looking for that event, but imperfectly understanding it. On the
day, when William Miller and his associates were watching the skies for the appearance of
their Saviour, heavenly hosts were escorting the great High Priest to the inner sanctuary,
when its cleansing was to begin. And on the night when those persecuted ones of earth were
creeping, crushed in hope, back to their homes, a sympathetic heaven was watching and
working to pour upon them a blessing they knew not of.
That day, the twenty-second of October, marking as it does the entrance of our High Priest
upon His last work, and therefore the preparation for the great harvest, might well be a
memorial day among us. Stories of its incidents on earth and its significance in heaven,
rehearsals of its prophecy and the periods belonging with it, songs and instrumental music,
might be combined with the exhibition of products of field and home—such products, as in
Israel at the similar feast of tabernacles, to go toward helping the poor and the ministry—and
the whole day be used in praise, festivity, and joy. Why not have it combine the best features
of picnic, literary entertainment, and religious meeting, a veritable thanksgiving? That those
three features can be combined the Jewish feasts witness.
One church-school this year made a slight attempt to commemorate the day ... May not
succeeding years see more general attention given to what, it would seem, should be a
memorial day to us? Nor is this the only holiday we as Christians and Seventh-
day Adventists should have.”
I say, Amen! But why didn’t this practice go forward? I believe it is because it was recognized
that if we truly followed through with it, we would be observing the holy days of the Bible, and
people were not ready for that yet; they had only supposed that Tabernacles still remained to
be observed and they could not see anything outside of that except for the most obvious day to
hold a holiday on: the day that Christ entered the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary,
which they thought of in terms of the Gregorian calendar they were used to. But it only
happened to fall on October 22 nd in 1844 because that is the 10th day of the seventh month
earnestly expected by the Millerite Adventists. I think people recognized that but they did not
want to go through the trouble of figuring out God’s calendar nor did they want to do
something that they connected with the ceremonial law originating in the Exodus, except for
the idea of the unfulfilled Feast of Tabernacles, because they did not discern the distinction
between the old covenant festivals and the appointed times. Thus, the fall festival held, but
not others.
What would be the second most obvious day to memorialize, being that we already covered
the big event for Adventists? The holy day of Christ’s crucifixion, when He delivered us all
from sin and death. But this never falls on the same Gregorian day every solar year; even the
Catholics recognize that. And then there are the Day of First-fruits for the celebration of the
resurrection and the Pentecost for the celebration of Christ entering the first apartment of the
heavenly sanctuary to make atonement for our sins – a general work He is still continuing for
us now in this hour of judgment. Every one of these dates are connected to God’s lunar-solar
calendar. And to use the calendar of Rome for a holy purpose would only serve to
pay homage to Rome rather than God. He still has holy days for His people, and
only He can truly make a day holy from the rest – a true holi-day.
“Why doth one day excel another,
when all the light of every day in the year is of the sun?

By the knowledge of the Lord they were separated

and appointed times and holy days He made different.

Some of them hath He exalted and hallowed,

and some of them hath He made ordinary days.”
~ Ecclesiasticus 33, Verses 7 to 9

We need to learn to stand on God’s Word and not lean on mere traditions. We need to walk in
the new light that He sends us, while holding the harmony between what God has said
through Sister White and what He says in Scriptures like this one. Sister White probably did
not know that our holidays would fall on God’s ancient holy days. She only wrote out what she
was shown; her work was not to study and analyze it but only to record. But she did write that
we are to have holy days, yea, holy festivals of rejoicing, yea holy convocations. These are
biblical words. Our pioneers pragmatically practiced the holy convocations by holding camp-
meetings and they were holy in the sense that they were observed according to their holy
purpose in giving glory to God with praise and having His presence with them, but they just
had not kept them according to the holy days of God’s calendar. We now understand that God
made certain annual days holy in Creation, and the wise of these last days will recognize the
Apocrypha as His Word and heed it. We can see, that to be true to the purpose of holy days, it
is only practical and possible to have them in memorial of the events of our past that define
our authentic Christianity and Adventism; and all of our significant prophetic events
happened on God’s holy days, not the days of Pope Gregory’s calendar.
The main holy day of the first month commemorates both our Christian and Adventist
heritage in that it is the same day for both the crucifixion and when the sealing message began
at the commencement of the Adventist Sabbath conferences. And then, in addition to all of
our memorial days, there are days that point to future events, in which there is also present
application for preparing for those events of the Judgment; hence, three more Adventist holy
days: the victorious, yet solemn, Day of Shouting, which will both commence and close the
1,000 years; the 15th day of the seventh month, when shall be the Second Advent of Christ; and
the eighth day from that, when God’s saints shall enter into the glorious eternal City after a
week of space travel. So, altogether, there are seven: three Christian holy days and four
Adventist holy days, with the Passover being shared by both. That still makes only six unique
holy days due to the overlap, but then we must add to that the seventh day of Unleavened
Bread, in which I am not aware of any events. That is a mystery day which will be revealed in
its time, for surely God has a reason for making it a holy day. I expect to see some event
happen on that day in the future.
But we also cannot forget the New Moons that come each year. Could these become holy
festivals for the remnant of God in these last days as well? According to the Spirit of Prophecy,
“At the time of the new moon a sacred festival was celebrated in Israel” (Patriarchs and
Prophets, p. 654). If Israel of hold had a festival each New Moon, why cannot we, who have a
greater knowledge of the significance of the day than they? It is the day that the ancient Law
will be unearthed from a cave and all of God’s people will gather there at Mount Nebo to
receive the everlasting covenant from the Almighty; and the heavenly law will also appear in
the sky to pronounce the final judgment on Babylon. This day could be used to not only look
forward but to review how God has led us in the past to understand His Law, the conditions of
His covenant. We could study how He has been leading us out of Babylon. The Lord’s supper
could be held and special fruit be served with it in the expectation of eating the fruit of the
Tree of Life every New Moon in Paradise. It would also be an excellent day to share
testimonies and praise God for how He has blessed our lives for the past month, with an
emphasis on the progress of the local missions and perhaps plans made for the next month.
Perhaps as we seek God, He will inspire musicians among us to write special songs for the
regular New Moon as well as for the annual holy days. As an example, The Old Sabbath
Hymnal, composed around the turn of the 17th Century by Anabaptist Sabbatarians in
Transylvania (now Central Romania), consisted of 102 hymns: 44 for the Sabbath, 5 for the
New Moon, 11 for Passover and Unleavened Bread, 6 for the Feast of Weeks, 6 for
Tabernacles, 3 for New Year, one for Atonement, and 26 various others; this can apparently
be found in Romanian libraries in the Hungarian tongue. These Sabbatarians came to be
numbered over 10,000, with some entire villages converting to this faith. They were very
practical Christians and true to principle. However, their theology was not flawless and the
fault proved to be fatal for them; they eventually lost their faith. The movement began as
antitrinitarian and became unitarian, denying the divinity of Christ. They rightly accepted all
of God’s appointed times through a study of the Scriptures, but their Christology led them
away from Christ, and having embraced the same festivals as the Jews, though observed in a
Christian way, they became more and more like the Jews, until, progressively through the
decades, they became Jews and rejected Christ as the Messiah. Some of this was also due to
their very anti-Catholic stance in having a religion of more what they were against than what
they were for.
This is an important lesson for us. The basis for our religion is not anticatholic or
antitrinitarian or anti-antinomian; we have a positive religion. God purposely gave us our
doctrines in the order that He did after the Dark Ages closed. The first angel’s message,
containing the Everlasting Gospel, came first. The focus was on Christ, specifically His Second
Advent. Then came the Law progressively over time. The Advent faith is rooted in our
prophetic understanding, which grounds us against many false teachings. But among some
Adventists, especially non-Trinitarians and feast-keepers, there has been a tendency to exalt
these doctrines above Christ and our prophetic heritage. This has resulted in many false winds
of doctrine, with some even leaving the Adventist faith to join the Hebrew Roots movement,
including friends of mine. But that is not our movement and we should not unite with them.
We are first and foremost Christians, then we are Adventists; and over time we have come to
embrace the Law of Moses, with the statutes and judgments (Mal. 4:4), including the
appointed times, during which we are to have our own festivals based on the double heritage
that God gave us—not the festivals of the nation of Israel, which He obliterated. Here is the
passage:
“Remember ye the Law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for
all Israel, even statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the great and terrible Day of JEHOVAH come. And he shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come
and smite the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:4-6).
Now, we need to investigate a question, that we may both understand and fulfill this very
important prophecy for these last days. We shall do this by looking at several other related
Scriptures.
Let’s start with the Book of Malachi itself, looking at a couple of other places where “fathers”
is mentioned in this book, and see how it relates to the Law of Moses:
“And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might
be with Levi, saith JEHOVAH SABAOTH. My covenant was with him of life and peace; and
I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared Me, and was afraid before My Name. The
Law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with Me in
peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest’s lips should keep
knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of
JEHOVAH SABAOTH.
But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the Law; ye have
corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith JEHOVAH SABAOTH. Therefore have I also made
you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept My ways, but
have been partial in the Law. Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?
Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our
fathers?” (Malachi 2:4-10).
We can see here that the Law (of Moses) and the covenant (of Levi) are one and the same
thing. The same is made clear in Exodus 34:28:
“And [Moses] was there with JEHOVAH forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread,
nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten
Commandments.”
The fathers, then, would be Moses and Aaron—both Levites—and, in a lesser sense, the rest of
the Levites and the nation as a whole, who GOD made a covenant with. This covenant—also
called the ‘old covenant’—wasn’t against the everlasting covenant promised to Abraham, but
was really a magnification of it. It was also a shadow of it (Heb. 10:1), with definite statutes
and judgments—both ceremonial and moral—teaching of the Messiah and His righteousness
in the symbols of types and words. The shadow and the substance work together in harmony.
Now, here is the next reference to “fathers” in Malachi:
“Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from My statutes, and have not kept
them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith JEHOVAH SABAOTH” (3:7).
The text then proceeds with a specific class of statues that Israel of old, and of today, has
broken: “tithes and offerings” (v. 8). The “fathers” being the same as before, their days would
be the days of Moses and Aaron, when the children of Israel rebelled.
Now, let’s look at a New Testament reference to the prophecy of Malachi: “JESUS answered
and said unto them, ‘Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things’ ” (Matthew 17:11).
All things must be restored—that is, all things that are in the covenant, the Law. This would
include all the tithes and offerings as well as all of the appointed times. We have been robbing
GOD of His money and time that He has given us to return to Him. We have also been
robbing Him of praise and thanksgiving, which will be returned as well. This is the work
for now. It is a revival and reformation that we most need. We ourselves need to restore all
things that pertain to GOD and His Law before we can be Elijah messengers to call the world
to do the same.
Here is another New Testament reference to the prophecy of Malachi; it is the angel Gabriel
prophesying to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, who would come in the spirit of
Elijah as a type of the Elijah messengers who proclaim the Second Advent of the Messiah:
“And many of the children of Israel shall [John the Baptist] turn to the Lord their God.
And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people
prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:16-17).
There are a couple of things to notice here. First, the “children” are “of Israel,” the new name
of Jacob, who is the grandson of Abraham, whom GOD promised the everlasting covenant to.
Secondly, Gabriel quotes from the prophecy of Malachi, with a twist, giving added
information, showing that the children were disobedient because they did not know the
Messiah who alone could give them righteousness.
Based on what we just examined, the “fathers” wouldn’t just be Moses and Aaron, but also
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). Again, they are related, because God promised the actual
covenant to the earlier fathers—the inheritance of the earth for the Seed of Abraham—and He
made the typical covenant with the later fathers, which was designed to bring us back to the
original covenant through the shadows that would speak to our senses. So, both classes are
the fathers of the children—that is, the children of Israel.
I have come to believe the children being referred to are the children of Israel according to
the flesh and that the prophecy of Malachi is a prophecy of Seventh-day Adventists who
restore all things in the Law and proclaim the Law of Moses to the world: “to the Jew first, and
also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
Why is the Gospel to go to the Jews first? Because we are indebted to them. “Unto them were
committed the oracles of GOD” (3:2). Paul also wrote concerning them: “to whom pertaineth
the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of
GOD, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh CHRIST
came” (9:4-5).
GOD has blessed many Jews with great wealth due to the original blessing pronounced upon
their fathers; thus, they will be a great asset in reaching the rest of the world with the Gospel. I
believe this is why they must be reached out to first—even before other people groups that we
may be specially indebted to, such as the blacks and natives, who have been unjustly treated,
neglected, or despised by professed Christians and Seventh-day Adventists in the past. To do
this we must have resources, and this will happen by following the biblical order of things.
We must share with the Jews the prophecies of their Scriptures, which they passed down to us
—with an emphasis on the Law which they love, but do not understand; this we owe to them.
The center of the Law is the Messiah and His sanctuary above—in types and symbols. The
time prophecies of Daniel, originating from Leviticus 26 in the Law, point forward to the great
restoration and gathering of Israel following the Day of Atonement in 1844. This is the
message we are to proclaim, especially to the Jews! We must understand the seven prophetic
years that originate from the sevens of that chapter and how a remnant of the children of
Israel will literally be gathered after that long scattering into the twelve tribes listed in
Revelation 7, physically gathered at Mount Nebo on the Day of Shouting when GOD delivers
His covenant to Israel restored and gathered.
We must be able to teach to the Jews the nature and timing of their scattering and gathering
and they must see that we keep their Law, which is what restores Israel since the disobedience
to it led to the scattering, including the 2300 years of it which remained after the typical
restoration. In this, we can also point to the Messiah through the 70 weeks cut off from that
time.
And the Spirit of Prophecy teaches the same, from other Scriptures:
“When this gospel shall be presented in its fullness to the Jews, many will
accept Christ as the Messiah...
In the closing proclamation of the gospel, when special work is to be done for classes of
people hitherto neglected, God expects His messengers to take particular
interest in the Jewish people whom they find in all parts of the earth. As the
Old Testament Scriptures are blended with the New in an explanation of Jehovah’s
eternal purpose, this will be to many of the Jews as the dawn of a new creation, the
resurrection of the soul. As they see the Christ of the gospel dispensation portrayed in
the pages of the Old Testament Scriptures, and perceive how clearly the New Testament
explains the Old, their slumbering faculties will be aroused, and they will recognize
Christ as the Saviour of the world. Many will by faith receive Christ as their Redeemer.
To them will be fulfilled the words, ‘As many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name.’ John 1:12.
Among the Jews are some who, like Saul of Tarsus, are mighty in the
Scriptures, and these will proclaim with wonderful power the immutability
of the law of God. The God of Israel will bring this to pass in our day. His
arm is not shortened that it cannot save. As His servants labor in faith for those who
have long been neglected and despised, His salvation will be revealed.
 ‘Thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob
shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. But when he seeth his
children, the work of Mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify My name,
and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that
erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall
learn doctrine.’ Isaiah 29:22-24” (E.G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 382).
Here are a couple of more quotes on the same order, emphasizing the massive number of
Jews that will be part of this as well as their role; and we will close here with this. Notice how
she makes reference to the prophecy of John the Baptist, who had the spirit of Elijah, thus
showing that these Jews will be part of the Elijah message movement; and perhaps one of
them will be the Elijah messenger of these last days:
“There will be many converted from among the Jews, and these converts will aid
in preparing the way of the Lord and making straight in the desert a highway for
our God. Converted Jews are to have an important part to act in the great preparations to be
made in the future to receive Christ, our Prince” (E.G. White, Manuscript 75, 1905).
“The time has come when the Jews are to be given light. The Lord wants us to
encourage and sustain men who shall labor in right lines for this people; for there are to be
a multitude convinced of the truth, who will take their position for God. The time is
coming when there will be as many converted in a day as there were on the day of
Pentecost, after the disciples had received the Holy Spirit. The Jews are to be a power to
labor for the Jews; and we are to see the salvation of God” (Manuscript 66, 1905).
HalleluJah!
But until we begin observing all of God’s holy days, there will remain a great wall of partition
between us and the Jews, as well as most Christian Sabbatarians (such as the many Messianic
Jews and Hebrew Roots folks), for most of them all observe the holy days in addition to the
Sabbath, with Seventh-day Baptists being an exception; this was also the case in the Dark
Ages. This barrier must be broken down because it is preventing many from receiving the
Everlasting Gospel presented in the three angels’ messages; they see too much inconsistency
with our observance of the Law. But now that we are embracing all of God’s appointed times,
we have a great opportunity set before us.
The time has come, brothers and sisters. This light came after Seventh-day Adventists began
having a Feast of Tabernacles in the ingathering service, but it was not followed up. But now
is the time to restore this, along with the seventh month movement of the Midnight Cry! And I
believe that when we observe our Feast of Tabernacles in its proper season, along with all the
other holy days, yet without keeping the ceremonial festivals of the old covenant which God
cannot bless, He will work mightily to reach the Jews. Most of them are in major cities, and
that is where are camp meetings are supposed to be. I believe this will be the main means of
reaching them. They will hear the Gospel in its fullness – one that exalts the Law of God
rather than the evangelical one that destroys it – and “a multitude will be convinced of the
truth”! Wow!
So, let us close this message with this wonderful hope before us. And let us plead mightily
with God and work mightily with God to make this prophetic hope come to fruition!
If you were blessed by this message, please comment and share it abroad. I also recommend
going through this material a second time. This is a very comprehensive message with a lot of
material for thought, and you will see things that you may have missed. May you see and keep
the Sabbath freshly from how you have in the past in all its fullness. There is so much to this
mighty Fourth Commandment of God, as revealed in the Law and the Prophets! May you bask
in the bright beams of this light and share it with others. May God richly bless you as you walk
in this light, living each new day with new and rich meaning in all that you spiritually and
physically eat and drink in. Shalom.

A Revival of Holy Convocations and the Seventh Month

Part Eight

Did you know that all of the working days belong to the Sabbath and not to themselves?
I would like to share my latest findings with you on the glorious Sabbath truth as we continue
to see it more fully. I have recently found a chart called “The Chart of the Week,” published in
1886 by a studious Seventh-day Baptist and linguist by the name of William Mead Jones
based on his intensive research done in Joppa, Israel (near Jerusalem). You can view it at this
link:
http://ecclesia.org/truth/languages1.html
What fascinates me the most in the research is the Semitic languages naming the days of the
week like as follows (I will use the Hebrew for example):
· One into the Sabbath
· Second into the Sabbath
· Third into the Sabbath
· Fourth into the Sabbath
· Fifth into the Sabbath
· Eve of Holy Sabbath
· Sabbath (Shabbat)
Here is what Dr. Jones stated on the chart about this wording: “Each day proceeds on, and
belongs to the Sabbath. This is the meaning in all the languages where ‘into Sabbath’ or ‘into
the Sabbath’, is employed.”

Now, let’s look at the Hebrew preposition which is the Hebrew letter ‘Beth’: ‫ב‬. One of the
English words it can be translated to is ‘into’, as in ‘into the Sabbath’. Here is one way how the
Brown-Driver-Briggs concordance describes it: “often pregnant with verbs of motion, when
the movement to a place results in rest in it, into.”
Doesn’t that perfectly fit with the Sabbath, which means ‘rest’? All of the preceding days of the
week are flowing into it and they are numbered in order accordingly. But the Sabbath is still;
there is a ceasing. The week comes to a glorious halt. And this is typical of the six millennia of
this sinful earth coming to a glorious conclusion in the Sabbath millennium when this world
shall rest—the end of which sin will come to a permanent cessation.
I should here mention that the 6,000 years from when sin entered ended in 1844. Under the
Midnight Cry, William Miller taught the 6,000-year period ending in 1844. This is when the
seventh trumpet began to sound. And it is written that “in the days of the voice of the seventh
angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of GOD should be finished, as He hath
declared to His servants the prophets” (Revelation 10:7). The mystery of GOD is the
completion of the Gospel—CHRIST restoring His moral image in humanity, with sin no longer
defacing it—and it is to finish at the beginning of the days of this seventh trumpet, with the
prophetic days standing for literal years.
Thus, we are in an interim of time extending from the sixth millennium that ended in 1844,
when “time should be no longer” (v. 6) and the sanctuary should be cleansed. We are in a long
overtime to finish the gospel work. The Sabbath millennium should have only tarried for a few
short years, but due to our not heeding the Laodicean message, we have been here much
longer. This interim actually makes a chiasm, because between Creation and when Adam
sinned, there was also an interim of time. Thus, the 6,000 years from sin unto the end of
prophetic time is both preceded by and followed by a time period, and the Sabbath
millennium closes it all so that there can be a new beginning.
The seventh trumpet, and the third woe associated with it which includes all the judgments
upon the wicked, finishes when the Sabbath millennium has passed. Thus, we are still in the
beginning of its “days” (or years), but such a description cannot exist much longer, for no
beginning can last forever. We have yet to fully put an end to sin so that the Sabbath
millennium can come.
According to Hebrews 4, that is the rest that we are to “enter” into (a word that is repeated
seven times in that chapter). Sister White calls this the “rest of faith”—a developing rest from
our own works of sin, into the works of GOD. So, what we have is not merely an end, but a
process leading up to it, and this is what the week is a shadow of. It is one complete system.
The days of the week should never be separated from the Sabbath which they are entering
into. There is no reason to use the Pagan names for the days of our week in our personal lives,
in our homes, or in our church. They cause us to violate the Fourth Commandment by
forgetting (or not remembering) the Sabbath to keep it holy, and this is what Satan devised
them.
We are to keep the Sabbath holy throughout the week by remembering what it is set apart for.
Just ceasing work on the seventh day is mere legalism. But we must have a faith goes far
beyond a legal formalism. The whole reason we are to rest is because the Sabbath is not only a
memorial but also a “shadow of coming things” (Colossians 2:16). There is movement. There
are coming things as we approach the end of the millennial Sabbath and the end of the
millennial week, because we are moving in time. Sanctification is coming upon GOD's
remnant people, which the Sabbath is a shadowy “sign” of (Exodus 31:13).
We can never keep the seventh-day holy just one day a week. The claims of the Fourth
Commandment are always binding, bidding us to enter into GOD’s rest, which is in His
righteousness that is in His SON JESUS CHRIST. Every day belongs to the Sabbath, thus
every day in which we live we belong to CHRIST, who has both created and redeemed us, and
the eternal rest of His Kingdom is in Him. Whenever we are planning our weekly activities,
every time we confess the Sabbath, if not in vain, we are confessing this reality and are thus
keeping—guarding, retaining—the Sabbath in our hearts.
The ceasing of our secular activity on the seventh day is only the shadow of the reality; take
away the substance and the shadow has lost all its meaning. Unfortunately, that has largely
been our experience. But now as new light shines from the Sabbath truth—the seal—we are to
walk in it and gain new experience, so that that seal may finally be placed in us.
The New Moon and the month are similar in relationship, though unlike the Sabbath, both the
holy day and its cycle share the same Hebrew word, which is ‘chodesh’. Each day of the month
belongs not just to the Sabbath but also the New Moon, which provides for each new month.
The days of the month flow out of, rather into, the New Moon, which is a shadow of the new
covenant. The Sabbath represents cessation, whereas the New Moon denotes beginning.
When GOD delivers the new covenant to His people, that will just be the beginning of eternity,
for it is an everlasting covenant, in that it promises everlasting life in a never-ending Canaan
of bliss. And both the Sabbath and the New Moon will be observed there as memorials of the
ending of sin and the beginning of eternity. New fruits will be produced every New Moon in
commemoration of the ever-new and sweetness of that eternity.
It should be noted that there is a Hebrew word distinct from ‘chodesh’ that means ‘month’,
and that is ‘yerach’, also the word for moon. Why two different words? It appears that
‘chodesh’ is used more narrowly in identifying individual days, especially the New Moon,
while ‘yerach’ is used to describe the cycle of the month as a whole, its root Hebrew meaning
having to do with a prescribed path. Throughout the course of each day and each month, the
moon follows a prescribed path, so ‘yerach’ seems to just be referring to the moon and its
course or cycle, called a month.
‘Chodesh’ is very rich in meaning, including the concepts of newness and marriage. The New
Moon appears where the sun is, and thus could be said to be married to it at that time. And a
month is a period of a woman’s cycle, which revolves around her being able to have a son or a
daughter—traditionally a key purpose of marriage. Each month she produces a new ovum,
which when fertilized, can divide and become an embryo—a brand new human being.
Revelation 12 describes the church, the bride of CHRIST. In Verse 1, she is described as being
clothed with the sun and standing on the moon. Genesis 1:14 tells us that these luminary
bodies are for GOD’s calendar, which her adversary thought to change (Dan. 7:25).
There is a special day on that calendar that specially pertains to the woman and is why I
believe she is standing on the moon. It is the day of the New Moon. This is when the trees of
Paradise, including the Tree of Life, bear new fruit (see Ezek. 47:12; Rev. 22:2), and we know
that this is a day, in addition to Sabbath, that the redeemed will especially gather together in
the New Jerusalem (see Isa. 66:23). It must be for a special meal: The Marriage Supper of the
LAMB. For what other occasion than that would all the abundant fruit be for?
But before I go any farther on that meal, I want to connect this back to the Sabbath. The
marriage is associated with the seventh month. This is the month of Sabbath rest, for it
contains the only annual Sabbath and all of its holy days are called days of ‘shabbaton’—
meaning, spiritual rest and perfection. The Sabbath and the New Moon couple marry this
month. The Sabbath is governed by the sun, which represents the SUN OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS, and the New Moon is of course governed by the moon, which represents
the woman that is the bride of CHRSIT. Seven is the Sabbath number of perfection and it is
also the number of the commandment protecting marriage. This marriage will be perfect,
unlike the one that GOD made with the typical nation of Israel at Mount Sinai.
“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. For finding fault with them, He saith, ‘Behold, the days come’, saith the Lord, ‘when I
will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah: Not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the
hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I
regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in
their hearts: and I will be to them a GOD, and they shall be to Me a people” (Hebrews 8:7-10).
The sealing of the Law will be completed on the Day of Atonement (the 10th day of the
seventh month), with probation closing that day. The SON OF GOD will be ‘at one’ with His
bride that day as His blood, no longer bearing sin, will make a final atonement to cleanse the
sanctuary. Thus, the marriage will be consummated. CHRIST becomes the KING OF GLORY,
married to the New Jerusalem, which stands for all of His holy people that will inhabit it.
The benefits of the marriage covenant will be delivered to the beneficiaries that same
prophetic day, for it is written that Babylon’s “plagues come in one day” (Revelation 18:8);
hence, a literal year. The next fall, on the New Moon of the seventh month, the Day of
Shouting, when the saints will be glorified and shout with a shout of victory over Babylon, the
counterfeit woman, the covenant will be delivered. To testify of the Law that was sealed in the
hearts of the 144,000, the its Tables will be unearthed from where it is now hidden at Mount
Nebo where that company will stand, and the ones of heaven will be displayed in the sky as
the restored Israel formally receive and agree to the conditions of the covenant, now sealed in
their hearts.
The root word of ‘chodesh’, which is ‘chadash’, means to make new, or restore. So, this is
when Israel is officially gathered and restored. Again, it is the seventh New Moon, denoting a
perfect marriage and its covenant. This is the perfection that we are to enter into by faith
every day of the week and every day of the month. “For therein is the righteousness of GOD
revealed from faith to faith” (Romans 1:17). Faith must be all built up until its perfection of
seven can come.
But there is even something beyond this. I have covered earlier in this series how the rest of
this seventh month passes. There is a prophetic hour (15 literal days, or half month) where
GOD’s people are triumphing over Babylon, then there is the prophetic half hour of silence in
heaven (Rev. 8:1; 7 ½ literal days, or quarter month) when all the saints travel to the Holy
City and temporarily dwell (or tabernacle) at different worlds along the way. Then we arrive in
the Holy City on the Last Great Day and drink of the water of life freely.
But what happens beyond that? After further study, I believe that the next big event is to
happen on the next New Moon—the eighth of the year. The marriage has been all taken care of
during the seventh month.
Then it is the eighth month. Eight is the number of new beginnings. The old is cut off. It is the
day when the sons of Abraham were circumcised—a cutting of the flesh, symbolizing sin that
is in the flesh, or fallen nature of men. And it is the eighth period, after the seven millennial
days, that sin has been permanently cut off from the planet. And the Last Great Day is also the
eighth day from when the week of Tabernacles begins. Again, eight is the number of new
beginnings, and it is that great day that the saints arrive in the New Jerusalem—the capitol of
their new and eternal home.
Thus, it is very fitting for the marriage supper to take place on the eighth New Moon, which is
the time of month when all of the fruit trees, with the Tree of Life, bear new fruit. The supper
celebrates the fruit, or results, of the marriage covenant—a sweet eternity of peaceful bliss.
While seven denotes a perfection, eight represents an overflowing! The Sabbath is the portal
into a new realm beyond, even an overflowing eternity—the product of the ceasing, of sin. And
I believe that the marriage supper will, in a way, be repeated every New Moon thereafter in a
ceremony that forever celebrates the produce, or product, of the marriage of the LAMB and
His bride.
The earth in its state of sin will exist for about seven millennia, but then the eighth prophetic
day will come, again, on a New Moon—the one exactly 1,000 years after the Lake of Fire is
kindled on that victorious Day of Shouting over Babylon. I believe that the old creation also
happened on the same New Moon, so that all the months and years go back to the fourth day
of creation when the heavenly bodies were made for GOD’s calendar—this being the
conception of the spring-to-spring year of months to be born six months later in the spring,
just as a day is conceived in the evening and born in the morning.
The Day of Shouting is also when the Jews believe Creation was, and it makes the most sense;
thus, it would also make sense for the new creation to be on this day as well, when sin comes
to an end and there is rest. Thus, the seventh month is tied to creation, carrying yet another
key attribute of the Sabbath—the weekly memorial of creation and shadowy sign of GOD’s
creative, sanctifying power to put an end to sin.
Therefore, the earth is circumcised as the eighth prophetic period commences after the seven
millennia of sin. It is a prophetic day of new beginnings, with sin and all suffering having been
forever cut off. Perhaps this is what is secondarily represented by the week of Tabernacles
followed by the Last Great Day, the eighth. The old earth in which we now live is only our
temporary dwelling place, and on the Last Great Day—the eighth of new beginnings—we will
no longer dwell in temporary dwellings, but we will have permanent country homes on this
earth made new.
Just as there is a prophetic day of a year and a prophetic day of 1,000 years, there is also a
prophetic day of eternity, and that is what I believe the Last Great Day represents—first, when
we arrive in the Holy City after traveling for a literal week and temporarily dwelling in worlds
while en route, and second, when the rest of the earth is made a Paradise after the week of
millennia of sin, having been put to rest in the Sabbath. The Day of Eternity begins for the
saints when they reach the City of Peace—their eternal headquarters. But the earth will not
reach eternity until the Sabbath millennium has passed. Then...
“JEHOVAH my GOD shall come, and all the saints with Thee. And it shall come to pass in that
day, that the light shall not be with brightness and with gloom: But it shall be one day which
shall be known to JEHOVAH, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening
time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from
Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in
summer and in winter shall it be. And JEHOVAH shall be KING over all the earth: in that day
shall there be one JEHOVAH, and His Name one” (Zechariah 14:5-9).
There is a new beginning. This is the eighth day, following the entrance of sin—a day that
never ends. And every week is a shadow of it, for the first day into each new Sabbath is also
the eighth day to the previous one. And outside of the Sabbath, it is the only day of the week
that the Bible gives significance. It is the day of the week that begins the count to Pentecost—
the day that CHRIST was resurrected on in His new beginning as a glorified human without
any taint of sin other than His eternal wounds. And as a result, in Him, there is a new
beginning for the entire human race. And Pentecost itself is always on this day, which was a
new beginning for GOD’s church, now having the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. The
Jubilee—representing a new beginning of freedom—follows the same Pentecost principle of
the morrow of seven Sabbaths.
The first day of the Sabbath is mentioned multiple times in the New Testament, thus it has
significance, though no sacredness. Many, in trying to uphold the Sabbath, have ignored its
significance, but it is all through the Bible. And it only has its significance as its relation to the
previous Sabbath, whereas most of Christendom has forgotten the Sabbath. Likewise, the
eighth month only has significance because of the seventh month that comes before it. Our
spiritual life will be greatly enhanced as we remember the significance of all the various parts
of GOD’s calendar.
So, that covers the spiritual meaning of ‘chodesh’. We have learned that GOD will officially
make the renewed covenant with His renewed Israel on the seventh New Moon, then
celebrate the marriage and its covenant the next New Moon, and finally, after the 1,000 years
from the former one, renew the earth. Hence, it is all about renewal and marriage. Marriage
itself has a sense of newness. As happily married couples know, marriage is always a novelty—
a continual reliving of the wedding and honeymoon, for the bride and bridegroom have come
together from two separate lives, and their coming together in their regular holy ritual of
pleasure since their marriage was consummated is a confirmation of the fact. So it will be with
the marriage of the Lamb and the Bride and their monthly marriage supper ritual when they
come together for holy communion.
And every day belongs to the New Moon, so rich of meaning. Every day is to remind us of the
meaning as we look at the calendar, but this can only be as we use GOD’s calendar and
abandon the Papal (Gregorian) calendar, which months are named after Pagan gods and
Caesars, having nothing whatsoever to do with the things pertaining to JEHOVAH our GOD.
So, let us deeper and deeper enter into the Sabbath experience, that we may enter into the
great eternal beyond.