A Fresh Look at Shavuot

As I'm sure many of you know, the Feast of Trumpets recently passed, and with it another round of failed Rapture-date speculation. Wait, don't hit that close button just yet...I have no intention of pontificating in regard to those who engage in date speculation as I have been known to do in the past. I've made my private peace with it, and my feelings toward it can be summed up rather succinctly:

I don't need that.

Trust me...anyone who knows me knows that's not self-horn-tootage—that's exactly how I feel. I know the Rapture can occur at any time, I know it's coming very soon because I know what the Bible teaches about the end-time scenario, and I set about the task of living my life accordingly. Every day should be a high-watch date because the last time I checked, that was the type of attitude we were commanded to have in the New Testament. But as I have stated in the past, I still don't think there's anything inherently wrong with scripturally based speculation in regard to the Rapture—I'm just content to give such speculation a pass.

That's not why I am writing this article.

Now, you might assume from the title that I am here to hold forth with a grand, in-depth treatise on why the Feast of Pentecost, aka Shavuot (sha-'VOO-ot, and I only mention that because I recently discovered I've been mispronouncing it for years) is far and away the superior choice when it comes to Rapture-date speculation, and then get you lathered up with a snappy one-liner like...

So cheer up and gear up for May 2021, boys and girls!

Now, we will be discussing some connections between the Rapture and Shavuot, but it may surprise you to learn that attempting to pin the Rapture to that literal feast day in late spring isn't the purpose of this article either.

The first thing I want to do is a bit of tweaking of my own understanding of the Jewish moedim or feasts or appointed times and what they actually prefigure or foreshadow. I have been struggling recently with a few of the particulars, and I want to iron out a couple of wrinkles because I believe it is critical to correctly understand what the moedim mean to us as born-again believers.

In regard to the primary point of the article, however, I am reminded of a composition teacher I had in college many moons ago who taught a simple, three-step approach to writing a paper—an approach I am fond of summarizing as follows:

1. Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em.
2. Tell 'em.
3. Tell 'em what you told 'em.

Not sure how helpful that approach is going to be here, but here goes. I have become convinced of something that might strike you as a bit odd at first blush, but it is this:

For the Church during the Age of Grace,
from the day of Pentecost to the Rapture,
every single day is effectively Shavuot.

Don't touch that close button—I'll get us there, I promise.

A fresh look at all the feasts

I have argued in the past that the three annual pilgrimage feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the early spring, the Feast of Pentecost in the late spring, and the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall—all foreshadow resurrections. The reason I am bringing this up and dusting it off is because I am now convinced I was only partially right. Well, "partially right" is wrong in my book, and you know me—I'm the type of person who will move heaven and earth to get things right.

I long assumed that since the three pilgrimage feasts are the three times during the year that every adult Jewish male had to present himself at the temple in Jerusalem, they represented gatherings of people to God, or resurrections. Emphasis on the word "resurrections." That implies that the first pilgrimage feast represents the resurrection of Christ along with a select handful of Old Testament saints, the second pilgrimage feast represents the resurrection of the dead in Christ at the Rapture, and the third and final pilgrimage feast represents the resurrection of Old Testament saints and the martyred Tribulation saints after the Second Coming so they can be ushered into the kingdom.

I've been giving this a great deal of thought, however, because it struck me that things were just a little...off. For example, if the first feast represents Christ's resurrection, then why isn't it the Feast of Firstfruits? Firstfruits foreshadows the resurrection of Christ, but it's not the Feast of Firstfruits—it's the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and that foreshadows His burial, not His resurrection. It just doesn't quite line up.

And what about the Rapture? Only the dead in Christ are resurrected, while the rest of us are translated, alive and kicking. So the Rapture, which I am convinced is foreshadowed by Shavuot, includes a resurrection, but that's just part of it. There's more to it than that.

And if the Feast of Tabernacles foreshadows a resurrection, it must apply to Old Testament saints and believers who perished during the Tribulation. I believe these will all be resurrected around the time of the Second Coming, prior to the judgments of Matthew 25 that determine who is granted entrance into the kingdom. But this would seem to ignore the living Tribulation saints and the Jewish remnant who will be gathered alive into the kingdom. After all, that's what the Feast of Tabernacles is all about—the launching of the Millennial Kingdom, when God will once again tabernacle with men on earth. So, while the third and final feast may be associated with a resurrection, things again seemed just a tad off.

The bottom line is that I couldn't shake the feeling that something was awry, and it finally hit me how I had gotten it wrong.

If I am going to get this right, the best and hopefully clearest way to do it is to briefly review all seven of the moedim and in the process indicate how I now see a couple of points a bit differently.

1. Passover. Also referred to as Pesach, this is the first moed on the agenda. It falls on Nisan 14 (early spring), and it prefigures the Crucifixion. Note that Christ—our Passover Lamb—died on the cross at 3 p.m. on Pesach, and at exactly the same time a priest was sacrificing a lamb in the temple a short distance away.

2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread. That evening (which by Jewish reckoning is Nisan 15), the lamb that was sacrificed earlier that afternoon was eaten in what is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As for the lamb itself, none of its bones could be broken and it had to be fully consumed that evening. The Feast of Unleavened Bread or Chag HaMatzot (chag specifically referring to a pilgrimage feast) runs from Nisan 15–21.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread foreshadows Christ's burial, and this is where I missed something because I was so focused on resurrections.

Q. After He was buried in the tomb, what did Jesus do and where did He go for three days and three nights?

A. Hint: He didn't just lay there and get cold and stiff.

Jesus had a full schedule for those three days and three nights. One thing He did was to go to Sheol and preach to the righteous Jews who were waiting in the Paradise side, telling them of the atonement He had accomplished on the cross that had removed their sin, thus qualifying them to finally enter God's presence in heaven (1 Peter 4:6). Incidentally, before He was done He also made a pit stop in the other part of Sheol, or Hades, to preach to the unrighteous dead as well (1 Peter 3:19–20). Then He personally escorted the righteous to their new digs in heaven.

But note one key point: There is no actual resurrection here. These righteous Jews weren't resurrected, they were relocated. But one thing is abundantly clear—it was certainly...

A gathering of people to God.

3. The Day of Firstfruits. The day after the first Sabbath following Passover (which would be a Sunday) marks the Day of Firstfruits, or Yom Hibikkurim. On this day, a priest would wave a sheaf of barley (the omer) before the LORD, and a one-year-old male lamb without blemish would be sacrificed. The waving of the sheaf of barley typified the resurrection of Christ; and although Christ Himself is referred to as the Firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:23), I believe that sheaf of barley includes a number of Old Testament saints who were resurrected shortly after Christ was (Matt. 27:52–53). They were the firstfruits of the spiritual harvest that will continue in future stages at the Rapture and following the Second Coming.

On the Sunday of Firstfruits, a seven-week countdown would begin, known as the Counting of the Omer, which would count up to the Sunday seven weeks after Firstfruits (a total of 50 days if you count both Sundays). This count determined the timing of the next feast:

4. The Feast of Pentecost. Also called the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot, aka Chag HaShavuot. Shavuot is observed on Sivan 6, and while the Bible runs down a laundry list of various sacrifices and offerings that were to be made on this feast, one of the prime activities centered around a priest taking two loaves of leavened bread made from freshly harvested wheat and waving them before the LORD. Many believe these two loaves of leavened bread represent Israel and the Church.

Of course, we know that it was on Shavuot two thousand years ago that the Holy Spirit came to earth to indwell believers for the first time, thus conceiving the Church, the body of Christ.

The ultimate irony: Although the Old Testament gives no special significance to Shavuot (other than the fact that it's apparently time for the wheat harvest), after the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the drive to re-invent Judaism in a way that pointed 180 degrees away from Christ being the Messiah got underway. One item on the agenda was to come up with something to draw Jewish people's attention away from the bizarre incidents that occurred 50 days after the alleged "resurrection" of that trickster from Nazareth, and they finally settled on pinning Shavuot to the receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. In other words, it's the ultimate irony that for Jews, Shavuot is all about the Law—for Christians, it's all about the Spirit.

Now, many folks tend to assume that what occurred on Shavuot two thousand years completely fulfilled that feast, but I beg to differ.

TIMEOUT

I have written about this before, but it's certainly worth a quick review.

It is clear that Christ personally and directly fulfilled the first three moedim during the First Advent in the form of His death, burial, and resurrection. And it is equally clear that He will fulfill the last three moedim just as personally and directly in the form of His physical return to earth at the Second Coming, His judgments that determine who will enter the Millennial Kingdom, and His establishment of that kingdom. This begs the question:

Q. What exactly did Jesus Himself do two thousand years ago on the day of Pentecost to personally and directly fulfill that feast?

Hmm... Well, you can't just claim that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, because that leaves you in a scriptural conundrum. Yes, at the Last Supper, Jesus said He would "send" the Holy Spirit (John 15:28). But a few minutes earlier, Jesus said the Father would "send" the Holy Spirit in His name (John 14:26). So just exactly who is "sending" the Holy Spirit, Jesus or the Father? Can they both "send" the Holy Spirit? Well, maybe...but if that's the case, then it sorta kills the notion of Jesus personally and directly "sending" the Spirit.

As I explain in the article I linked to above, one way to resolve the issue is to note that the verb used in both passages is a form of pempo (send; transmit; permit to go; put forth). As you can see, it can be used in a passive manner, which suggests that perhaps the Father and the Son simply agreed in some manner to permit the Holy Spirit to come to earth.

If Christ had personally and directly "sent" the Holy Spirit to earth, as if to "send" Him on a mission to seal and indwell believers throughout the Church Age, a different verb would have been used—most likely a form of apostello (to send forth; to send as a messenger; to commission), which is where we get the word "apostle." For example, a form of apostello is used in reference to the fact that God "sent" His Son into the world (John 6:29; Luke 19:10).

But regardless of what you do with the verb pempo, this kicks the argument that Jesus personally and directly fulfilled the Feast of Pentecost two thousand years ago right in the teeth, which strongly suggests that its final fulfillment is still pending.

And that's not all. Understand that Shavuot is a chag, or one of the three annual pilgrimage feasts which foreshadow a gathering of people to God (and which may include a resurrection). So...

Q. Who exactly was gathered to God or resurrected on the chag known as Shavuot two thousand years ago?

A. First name "No," last name "Body."

The next gathering of people to God on the agenda is the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the translation of believers alive at the time in the Rapture, and the point I'm driving at is the fact that the Rapture must be the event that ultimately fulfills the Feast of Pentecost. There is simply no scriptural way around it.

Not only that, but Shavuot is one of the only two moedim whose exact day and month are not specified in Scripture (the other being Firstfruits). For the other five, it's like "the fourteenth day of the first month," "the tenth day of the seventh month," and so on. But not so for Firstfruits and Shavuot.

Rather than specify a certain day of the month as He did for the other five moedim, God simply told Israel to celebrate Firstfruits on the day after the first Sabbath following Passover (Lev. 23:11). Then he told them to count off 50 days starting with the Day of Firstfruits (which foreshadowed Christ's resurrection) to determine the timing of Shavuot (Lev. 23:15–16). So not only are the dates of Firstfruits and Shavuot not expressly stated (which in the case of Shavuot is suggestive of the fact that the date of the Rapture is not for us to know), but there is also a built-in sense of patiently biding the time associated with Shavuot (much as we are told to patiently watch and wait for the Rapture). But more importantly, it communicates one thing loud and clear:

The timing of the Feast of Pentecost
is completely dependent on Firstfruits.

In other words...

Our resurrection (or translation) at the Rapture
is completely dependent on His resurrection.

Glory to His holy name! And if you can think of a more exquisitely appropriate way to foreshadow the Rapture, feel free to share it with me.

And if that's not enough, see this for more. Not to overstate things, but in my humble view this effectively dismantles the argument for the Feast of Pentecost being completely fulfilled two thousand years ago—and as an added bonus hammers home the argument for it foreshadowing the Rapture.

GAME ON

So, as well as it being the day the Holy Spirit first came to seal and indwell believers and launch the Church, as a chag it typifies and foreshadows...

A gathering of people to God.

And as we have seen, that gathering of people to God can be nothing but the Rapture, the next such gathering on the prophetic agenda.

5. The Feast of Trumpets. Later in the fall in the September–October time frame (Tishri 1 on the Jewish calendar) comes what Christians call the Feast of Trumpets, aka the Day of Shouting, or Yom Teruah. Yet despite what Christians call it, it is not a chag or an annual pilgrimage feast, so it's nigh unto impossible for me to see how it can prefigure the gathering of people to God that is the Rapture, as so many are inclined to believe these days.

I've heard a lot of good people make all sorts of trumpet-related arguments in their efforts to pin the Rapture to the Feast of Trumpets, but personally I have become 100 percent convinced Trumpets prefigures the Second Coming of Christ to the earth. And if you're into trumpet-related arguments...well, two can play at that game:

In Isaiah 27:13, Israel is being gathered back into their land so they can be ushered into their promised kingdom at the sound of a "great trumpet." Although the Hebrew word for "trumpet(s)" appears 62 times, this is the only mention of a "great trumpet" in the entire Old Testament.

In Matthew 24:31, Jesus is describing the fulfillment of this prophecy that will occur at the Second Coming, when the Jewish remnant will be gathered into the land of Israel to be ushered into their promised kingdom. Note that He says they will be gathered at the sound of a "great trumpet" (or the "great sound of a trumpet"). Guess what? This is the only mention of a "great trumpet" in the entire New Testament.

OK, go ahead: Look me in the eyes and tell me these are two completely different trumpets.

Jews believe that starting on Yom Teruah, God grants them a 10-day period known as the Days of Awe to engage in repentance, soul-searching, good deeds, and the giving and seeking of forgiveness in relation to other people to ensure that their names will be inscribed in the Book of Life, which is sealed at the end of the 10 days on...

6. The Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur (Tishri 10). On the Day of Atonement, the books are sealed and so is your fate. You're in or you're out, and that's final. In Old Testament days, it meant you would either live and be blessed for the coming year, or die.

After the Second Coming, Jesus will carry out judgments to determine who among the living Tribulation survivors will be granted or denied entrance into the kingdom (Matt. 25). This is what the Day of Atonement prefigures—at these judgments, the books are sealed and you either join those who are about to be ushered into the kingdom or you're sent off to destruction, and that leads us to our final feast:

7. The Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot (Tishri 15). After the judgments that fulfill the Day of Atonement, all believers—including resurrected Old Testament saints, surviving and resurrected Tribulation saints, the Jewish remnant, and the Church in our glorified bodies will be ushered into the newly established Millennial Kingdom.

This leads to another point I missed that led to some of my confusion—and as I said, it's primarily because I was so focused on the idea of the annual pilgrimage feasts representing resurrections.

Again, the pilgrimage feasts represent gatherings of people to God, which may include a resurrection, as it does in the case of the dead in Christ at the Rapture. So...

Q. Who is being gathered to God at the launch of the Millennial Kingdom on earth, which is precisely what the Feast of Tabernacles foreshadows?

A. Ever read past Ezekiel 38–39?

The answer lies in Ezekiel's vision of the kingdom. In chapters 40–48, Ezekiel is focused on the Millennial Kingdom and the Millennial Temple that will be its seat of authority. Ezekiel describes the Millennial Temple's construction and its operational logistics in some detail, and in chapter 43 he lays this on us:

At the outset of the Millennial Kingdom, the Shekinah glory of God will enter and fill the temple, and God will dwell with His people forever.

That means that when the resurrected Old Testament saints, the Jewish remnant, both living and resurrected Tribulation saints, and the Church who tagged along with Christ at the Second Coming are all ushered into the Millennial Kingdom, the Shekinah glory of God will dwell in the Millennial Temple with them. And there you have it—that makes this fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles very much...

A gathering of people to God.

These are the seven moedim, or appointed times that God commanded Israel to observe, and they are all grouped around three annual pilgrimage feasts that foreshadow gatherings of people to God. Scripture neatly packages these three pilgrimage feasts together in Exodus 23 before Moses broke the first set of stone tablets bearing the 10 Commandments, and again in chapter 34 after God replaced them and reiterated His commands. Here is the latter:

*Note: Don't be misled by the words "first fruits" in verse 22. This is clearly not a reference to the Day of Firstfruits that occurred earlier in the spring in association with Passover and Unleavened Bread. He's talking about the first fruits of the wheat harvest, not the barley harvest, which occurs earlier in the spring. That's why they wave a sheaf of barley at Firstfruits—the wheat harvest is still 50 days away.

Oh, and here's one last savory morsel about Shavuot that I feel compelled to toss in before we move on. Enoch, the father of Methuselah, was raptured before the Flood:

According to Jewish tradition, Enoch (whose name means "teaching," one of the primary functions of the Church) was both born and translated alive to heaven on Sivan 6, or Shavuot. In other words, the birth of Enoch corresponds to the birth of the Church, and his translation to heaven corresponds to the translation of the Church to heaven.

And just as Enoch was raptured prior to the unleashing of God's judgment in the form of the Flood, the Church will be raptured prior to the unleashing of God's judgment in the form of the Tribulation.

(Excuse me while I do my happy dance...)

Now, let's turn our attention back to Shavuot.

No can do

So, we know that the Church was conceived on Shavuot, and as we have seen there is no reasonable, scriptural conclusion we can come to other than the fact that the gathering of people to God at the Rapture represents the fulfillment of this pilgrimage feast. It fits too perfectly, and I believe there's a reason for that—it's right.

And that brings us face to face with the following conclusion:

The fulfillment of Shavuot began two thousand
years ago when the Church was conceived,
but it won't see the completion of its fulfillment
until the Rapture, when the Church is complete.

In other words:

The entire Church Age fulfills Shavuot.

"Yo, Mr. Imm-uh-nence... How in the world can the feasts work that way?! For Pete's sake, the Church Age has been going on for nearly two thousand years! Plus, that means that the Rapture must be slated for some Shavuot in the future, right? What ever happened to your big claim that the Rapture can occur at any time, huh?"

Hold those thoughts.

It seems that just about everyone who writes anything at all about end-time prophecy (at least those who hold to a pre-trib Rapture) has tossed his hat in the ring on this issue at one time or another (this writer included), and has held forth on why they are convinced that either Pentecost or Trumpets is the most logical choice for the date of the Rapture, if indeed it occurs on any feast day.

Personally, I've long had my money riding on Pentecost. Although Trumpets led by several lengths in the backstretch, Pentecost has closed the gap somewhat since we came out of the final turn with the fulfillment of the REV12 sign on September 23, 2017. But the conclusions I have come to recently are nothing short of a game changer—at least for me personally.

The recent Rapture-date speculation, which (as usual) swirled around the Feast of Trumpets, got me thinking about this whole issue of pinning the harpazo to a Jewish feast day and the fact that I lean toward Raptecost, or a Rapture on the Feast of Pentecost.

Over the course of the last several years, I have been hounded by vague misgivings about the whole idea of anticipating the Rapture on a Jewish feast day, be it Pentecost or Trumpets. I have generally tried to take a middle-of-the-road approach, insisting that although I don't fully endorse pinning the Rapture to either one, Pentecost makes a great deal more scriptural sense than Trumpets in my opinion.

But no matter how compelling the case for Raptecost may be, I was still hounded by those misgivings. I wrote an article about imminence a couple of months ago, and it served to intensify my struggle with reconciling the imminence of the Rapture with the idea of pinning it to a Jewish feast day.

Which is harder than it sounds. I reminded myself that there is nary a whisper in the New Testament of any group of believers anywhere looking forward to any Jewish feast in relation to the Rapture, which there almost certainly would have been if any such connection existed. After all, they understood the Jewish feasts as well as we do—better, if anything. There is no conceivable way the significance would have been lost on them. But what do we see, over and over and over again?

Watch and wait...watch and wait...watch and wait...

Reconcile what the New Testament clearly teaches about the imminence of the Rapture with the idea of pinning it to a specific Jewish feast day?

Sorry, no can do.

After years of interminable thrashing about and endless equivocation, I was finally coldcocked by the glaring reality that pinning the Rapture to a feast day and the doctrine of imminence are simply incompatible. There is no honest way around it, and I became painfully aware that I had been pussyfooting around with this notion for far too long. But then again, the same thoughts continued to hound me:

The Rapture is imminent, yeah, but...God doesn't do random, ya know? And a Pentecost Rapture fits s-o-o perfectly! And hey, we don't know which Pentecost, so...aarrgghh!

I finally reached the point where I was tired of struggling with it—I just felt profoundly exasperated over the whole issue. And so I did what I always do when I reach that point:

I took it to the Lord and dumped it on His lap.

I had reached the end of myself, and so I simply asked the Lord to give me wisdom and clarity on this issue. I asked Him to show me something that would allow me to stop struggling.

Now, if you've read very many of my articles, you know full well that I am not the kind of person who runs around saying "The Lord showed me this...the Lord showed me that...the Holy Spirit downloaded such and such into my spirit," ad infinitum, ad nauseam. I just don't feel comfortable casually tossing those kinds of phrases around, even if I honestly feel it's true. Just to be crystal clear...

Attention: I, Greg Lauer, do hereby declare that
I do not have it all figured out, and do not have
my own private hotline to the Holy Spirit that
other believers do not have access to. Thank you.

But after I spent some time with the Lord, unloading my very real burden on this issue and asking Him to give me wisdom and show me something that would help me stop struggling with it, these are the thoughts that suddenly began to occur to me over the next 15 to 20 minutes.

And they have been occupying my thoughts ever since.

Now, if you'd like to believe the Lord really did show me this, that's fine. If you'd prefer to think I'm a couple of French fries short of a Happy Meal and should consider seeking professional psychiatric help, that's fine too. In the end, all I can do is be obedient and put this out there—I'm perfectly content to let you be the judge.

Time out

The first thing to get straight is that the seven feasts or moedim that we are talking about are called the "feasts of the LORD" when they are spelled out in Leviticus 23 (even though, as I said, only three of the seven are specifically designated as "feasts"). They are the feasts of the LORD, and the LORD gave them to Israel and commanded His people to observe them. Repeat after me:

They are the feasts of the LORD, and the LORD
commanded His people Israel to observe them.

My point is that they are not the feasts of the Church. Even though the seven moedim certainly contain prophetic symbolism pertaining to the Church, the primary focus of these festivals is on Israel:

• The first three—Passover (Pesach), Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzot), and Firstfruits (Yom Habikkurim)—prefigure the death, burial, and resurrection of Israel's promised Messiah.

• The last three—Trumpets (Yom Teruah), Atonement (Yom Kippur), and Tabernacles (Sukkot)—prefigure the return of the Messiah to establish His kingdom, His judgments to determine who is ultimately granted or denied entrance into the kingdom, and His reign over that kingdom—the kingdom that God promised His people Israel.

I left out the middle feast—Pentecost (Shavuot), and I did that because I believe it warrants a closer look from a different perspective.

The six feasts of Israel? As I said, Scripture really doesn't give any special significance to Shavuot, and it was only after the destruction of the temple in AD 70 that the Jews came up with the idea of associating it with the receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. But because Shavuot is of such foundational importance to the Church, one might balk at the idea that it is a feast of Israel and not a feast of the Church.

Remember, however, that what occurred on Shavuot two thousand years ago was effectively the receiving of the New Covenant—a covenant based on the Spirit, not the Law; one based on faith, not the flesh. And that covenant was cut for Israel. It's just that as a nation Israel rejected it, and as a result it went out to all who would believe in faith, thus conceiving the Church. But that doesn't change the fact that the New Covenant was cut for Israel. The advent of the Holy Spirit had been intended for God's people Israel; but as a nation, they rejected their Messiah and the covenant He cut for them with His blood, and so they missed the boat the first time around.

But they won't miss it the second.

Now, let's consider the sequence of prophetic events that literally fulfill what is prefigured by the seven moedim. For the purposes of this article, I'm going refer to this sequence of events—events such as Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, etc.—as the countdown. And I want to emphasize this:

This is Israel's countdown,
not the Church's countdown.

Now, imagine that God has a huge stopwatch in His hand. Instead of 12 markings that indicate hours, however, God's stopwatch has seven markings that correspond to the seven moedim or appointed times of Israel. Now, when Christ was crucified and died on the cross two thousand years ago, God pressed the button on His stopwatch and the countdown began, starting from the marking that corresponded to Passover. Then as Christ was buried and subsequently resurrected, the clock continued ticking past the markings for Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits. And the countdown continued.

So far so good.

On Firstfruits, the day that was fulfilled by the Resurrection, a 50-day count began that led to up to Shavuot, when the Holy Spirit came down to indwell believers and the Church was conceived. But as the Church was launched and began to get off the ground, something else occurred:

God turned His face from Israel and began to focus on building this body of believers that would be taken primarily from the Gentiles.

The religious leadership of Israel had rejected the Messiah that God had promised and then sent, and conspired to have Him executed like a common criminal. They had bitterly, savagely rejected what was arguably God's greatest revelation, and that invariably brings judgment.

Because of their refusal to accept and embrace their Messiah, God placed a partial hardening on Israel that would prevent them from acknowledging Christ as their true Messiah, and that hardening will remain in place until the full number of Gentiles has been saved and are removed via the Rapture. Only then will God turn His attention back to Israel and begin to effect their national redemption (Rom. 11). This will happen during Daniel's 70th Week, and these constitute the Jewish remnant who will be protected by God through the horrors of the Great Tribulation and ultimately ushered alive into the kingdom.

But it occurred to me that when the Church was conceived on Pentecost two thousand years ago, it was as if God pressed the button on His stopwatch and stopped the clock—Israel's clock, that is. The countdown stopped at Pentecost, as God turned His face away from Israel and towards the Church. In other words, in relationship to Israel and their countdown...

God called a timeout.

God effectively called a timeout on Israel's prophetic countdown so He could grow and develop this new body of believers, culled primarily from among the Gentiles and who are grafted into the New Covenant that Christ cut with His blood—a covenant that was cut for Israel and that Israel rejected, thus allowing the Gentiles to be grafted in.

Israel's prophetic countdown stopped on Shavuot two thousand years ago, with the hand on God's stopwatch pointing to that feast.

And that hand has been pointing to Shavuot ever since.

As God has overseen the growth and development of the body of Christ over the last two millennia, Israel's countdown has been stopped. The sequential fulfillment of Israel's moedim has been paused. As soon as the Church Age is finished and the Church is removed at the Rapture, God will press the button on His stopwatch again, and the countdown will continue.

In other words, Israel's countdown stopped on Shavuot when the Church was conceived, and the hand has been pointing to Shavuot for the last two thousand years. As soon as the Church is complete and the Rapture takes place and God is ready to turn His attention back to His people, Israel's prophetic clock will begin moving once again, ticking on toward the next appointed time on their countdown (Yom Teruah, which will be fulfilled by the physical return to earth of their Messiah).

But think about this for a second:

That means that no matter when
the Rapture occurs in earthly time,
it'll be Shavuot on God's stopwatch.

Don't miss this: That means it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever whether the Rapture occurs on the Fourth of July, Groundhog Day, or Cinco de Mayo. Or next Tuesday. On God's stopwatch that is monitoring Israel's prophetic countdown, it will still be Shavuot, just as it's been for the last two thousand years of earthly time. However, once the Church is raptured and the Church Age is in the books, the focus will once again be on Israel and the fulfillment of their prophetic countdown, and God's stopwatch will begin ticking once again. I firmly believe that the remaining three moedim—Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles—will all be fulfilled on their literal earthly dates, just as were Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits.

That means my struggle reconciling imminence with the fact that the Rapture fulfills Shavuot are over. Done. Finito. And I can finally say adios to frenzied bouts of Rapture-date speculation.

The Rapture not only completes the fulfillment
of Shavuot, but it will do so while occurring
on some unknowable day in real, earthly time.

I can just hear people now:

OK, let me get this straight: Every day is Shavuot. Straight up, Bible Dude—why on earth would anybody believe such a stupid thing?!

Why indeed. As with any interpretation of any biblical matter, the first and most obvious question is whether or not there is anything in Scripture that lends support to it in some way, or at least make it seem plausible.

In this case, I believe there is.

Sand and stars

There are several places in Scripture, most of them in the book of Genesis, where God's covenant promises to His people Israel are spelled out. For example, He gave these promises twice to Abraham (Gen. 15:5; 22:17), once to His son Isaac (Gen. 26:4), and again to Isaac's son Jacob (Gen. 28:14).

The Abrahamic Covenant includes promises of a specific region of land, numerous descendants, and blessings for the entire world through one of those descendants (the Messiah). In regard to Abraham's descendants, God typically characterizes them as being as numerous as the sand on the seashore or the stars in the heavens (or both).

I don't want to go too far afield with this, but one thing is undeniably true:

Sand is earthly—stars are heavenly.

Earth-shattering, I know. But it is clear throughout the Bible that God has two distinct programs at work for two distinct groups of people, and I believe these two characterizations of Abraham's descendants foreshadow these two distinct groups—Israel and the Church: Abraham's "earthly" descendants through the flesh and his "heavenly" descendants through faith.

God changed the name of Isaac's son Jacob to Israel, and so in a sense Jacob could be seen as prefiguring the nation of Israel—God's earthly people. It's interesting to note that when God gives the covenant promises to Jacob (Gen. 28:14), God characterizes his descendants a bit differently, as the dust of the earth (and it's not a translation issue—different words are used in the original Hebrew). But later, when Jacob is praying for God to deliver him from the hand of his brother Esau (whom he fears is going to kill him and his family), he reminds God of the covenant promises He gave Him earlier, but in so doing he reverts to the sand on the seashore motif (Gen. 32:12).

Sand is earthly, and is used to prefigure God's earthly people.

On the other hand, note that when Abraham was preparing to sacrifice his son Isaac, at that moment Isaac became a type of Christ, and thus in a sense prefigures the body of Christ, or the Church—God's heavenly people. And sure enough, when God gives Isaac the covenant promises (Gen. 26:4), He uses the stars in the heavens line.

Stars are heavenly, and are used to prefigure God's heavenly people.

I'm veritably sitting on my hands right now because there is a great deal more that can be said about this; but for the purposes of this article, the following point is sufficient:

Israel is God's earthly people:
the Church is God's heavenly people.

Now, consider. We all know how time passes on earth. From our point of view, time moves in a constant, unidirectional, unidimensional flow. It just keeps on ticking inexorably forward, tick...tick...tick... Never faster, never slower, never backwards, never in any other manner than what I just described. That's just the way the laws of physics work here in this three-dimensional space-time continuum God created for us to live in.

OK, but what about heaven? Well, first of all, heaven is clearly a place that lies within the spiritual dimension. I'm not quite sure what that means to a physicist, but I think one thing is pretty obvious:

The laws of physics in heaven must certainly transcend what we know and understand here on earth.

Modern physicists have differing views of the relationship between time, matter, and space, but many will at least tell you that they believe they are related. Don't ask me how—that's just what I've read.

But without sitting here and trying to pretend I understand theoretical physics, one thing should be intuitively obvious:

There is no reason to believe that those in heaven experience the passing of time the same way we do here on earth.

Of course, we can only speculate how they do experience it, but the fact that it is not the same is made quite clear in Scripture:

Many people view this verse in a figurative sense, and some even try to utilize it in various types of dating schemes. And I don't have a major problem with that. But I believe it can be taken in a more literal sense as well. To me, this tells us point blank that God—up there in His heavenly abode—doesn't experience time the way we do. And why should He? After all, our Father in heaven—the Creator of all we know and more—exists in a multiplicity of dimensions we can't even begin to conceive of.

In other words...

If a day with the LORD can be as a thousand years, it can just as easily be as two thousand years.

I don't know about you, but the idea of "heavenly time" being radically different from "earthly time" doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to me.

So, taking all of this into consideration...

• Is it really so difficult to believe that on Shavuot two thousand years ago, when God turned His attention away from His stiff-necked earthly people Israel and toward His heavenly people the Church, that He similarly shifted from the earthly time of Israel's prophetic countdown to heavenly time in His dealings with the Church?

• Is it really so difficult to believe that during the entire Church Age, while God deals with His heavenly people, God is working on heavenly time so that in His prophetic countdown for His earthly people Israel, no prophetic time passes?

• Is it really so difficult to believe that when the Church Age comes to an end and His heavenly people are raptured and God turns His attention back to His earthly people Israel, that He shifts back to earthly time and Israel's prophetic countdown continues from Shavuot, precisely where it stopped two thousand years ago, and begins ticking forward to the next appointed time, Yom Teruah?

I guess I can't fault anyone for thinking I've got a screw loose, but it all actually makes surprisingly good sense to me.

Game on

I have a confession to make: It's positively liberating to be free of the angst of hovering between the imminence of the Rapture and its obvious, profound connections to Shavuot, and without giving short shrift to the scriptural integrity of either.

That means it's that much easier for me to focus more attention on other important prophetic developments without the semiannual distraction of feast-related Rapture-date speculation:

Feast of Trumpets!! (oops, fail—six months later...)
Feast of Pentecost!! (oops, fail—six months later...)
Feast of Trumpets!! (oops, fail—six months later...)

You get the idea.

Now I can give my full attention to what is happening in the world as the prophetic scenario congeals, and do so with the full knowledge that the Rapture is getting excitingly close and could literally occur at any time, regardless of what the calendar says.

And "what is happening in the world" should be filling every believer with an unprecedented sense of urgency. Not to be hyperbolic or anything, but...

It's game on, folks.

With the corrupt mainstream media on the brink of coronating an equally corrupt career politician as "president" (after listening to Joe Biden's speeches, I'm tempted to start spelling it "prezzzident") and the democracy that has long characterized this once great nation being torn to shreds and trampled underfoot before our very eyes, we need to do our utmost to refrain from allowing ourselves to be goaded into the type of hate-mongering that those who so blithely fall for the lies, misinformation, and misdirection spewed by the MSM are so accustomed to trafficking in.

That's not our place, and that's not our calling. That's not being "in the world, but not of the world"—that's being a carbon copy of the world. And most importantly, it dishonors the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and denigrates the gospel of His salvation we are called to preach.

We don't need to be looking at the latest lies and misinformation on CNN. We don't need to be looking at the latest misdirection on Fox News (they have some terrific individual commentators that are absolutely spot on, but as a network they're often almost as bad as CNN—which is no small feat). And to be brutally honest, we really don't need to be looking at InfoWars for the latest lowdown on frighteningly real election skullduggery, although far be it from me to piously condemn anyone who happens to do so. I mean, facts are facts, and more are coming out on a daily basis.

In all sincerity, there is only one place we need to be looking right now:

We need to be looking up.

And the reason we need to be looking up is because on God's prophetic clock, today is Shavuot!

Greg Lauer — OCT '20

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