Sabbath study, vii: the meaning of God’s appointed sabbath days
Extra-specially insightful Bible study for you all. :)
Introduction
It is no surprise that many Christians, at least those oriented towards an apocalyptic focus, eagerly digress into lengthy theories about the mark of the beast. However, any diligent student of the holy scriptures must understand the structural pattern and precedent, lest expositions become arbitrary and premised on the unstable whims of private interpretation1 which all too often grievously supplant the rightful teaching of God’s Holy Spirit.2 Impulsive human nature directs the mortal heart to seek first an understanding the problem and only then the solution to that problem; not so for a biblically converted and restored heart! God always first reveals (yes, literally apokálupsis, a.k.a. “revelation”) His glory that is the heavenly answer to earthly problem, and then shows to His servants what is the earthly woe that will be resolved by a heavenly decree already put forth in revealed motion.
The Book of Revelation, most notably is chiastically structured on this principle. Consider for instance the following at-large chiastic correspondences:
C.i.II (4:6b-11) is part of a theophany where John witnesses four angels acknowledging Jehovah as the eternal head of the universe in past, present, and future: “who was, and who is, and who is coming”3
the chiastically mirroring C’.i’.II (17:7-18) highlights the counterfeit nature of the satanic beast out of the bottomless pit that impersonates God: “was, is not, and yet is”4
C.iii.VI-VIII (11:15-19) describes the final trumpet blowing preceding the Parousia which unveils the completion of the mystery of God5 in a three-fold structure: 1) a heavenly proclamation (C.iii.VI: 11:15); 2) worship and benediction towards God (C.iii.VII: 11:16-18); 3) a sign revealed in the revelation of God’s ark of the covenant in the heavenly sanctuary service (C.iii.VIII: 11:19);
that is counterfeited before its transpiration by the enforcement of the mark of the beast which the second beast a.k.a. False Prophet spearheads in a counterfeit three-fold structure: 1) an earthly, satanic proclamation (C’.iii’.VI: 11:11-14); 2) directed worship towards the image of the beast (C’.iii’.VII: 11:15-17); 3) the mark of the beast’s orientation (C’.iii’.VIII: 11:18)
In order to understand what the mark of the beast is, one must first and foremost understand that there is a mark/sign of God whose fundamental baseline nature (a.k.a. what it is) and purpose (a.k.a. why) is being satanically counterfeited. As the second example above conveys, the purpose of the mark of the beast is to misdirect the entire planet into a satanic false worship complex whose adherents are eternally separated from the love of God—but as to exactly what it is, the full story is not for today. Before I can provide a thoroughly comprehensive rundown of what the mark of the beast will be and how it will be universally capable of deceiving the whole planet in the final separation of the wheat from the tares, it is crucial to grasp what the mark of God is.
God’s mark/sign of authority: the sabbath days (both weekly and annual)
The prophet Moses was instructed by Jehovah to relay the following message to the children of Israel (as in the real biblical Israel, not some hexagramic nazijewish ethonationalist pedophile syndicate, so don’t you EVER dare conflating the two!):6
Only, My sabbaths ye do keep, for it [is] a sign between Me and you, to your generations, to know that I, Jehovah, am sanctifying you!
And we have a second and third witness through the prophet Ezekiel:7
And also My sabbaths I have given to them, to be for a sign between Me and them, to know that I [am] Jehovah their sanctifier.
…
And My sabbaths sanctify, and they have been for a sign between Me and you, to know that I, Jehovah, [am] your God.
In both the Exodus and Ezekiel passages, the Biblical Hebrew word for sabbaths is the same: שַׁבָּת a.k.a. “shabbath,” which refers (cf. concordance details here and here) not exclusively to the weekly sabbath but all appointed holy sabbath rest days, both weekly and annual (the latter meaning the feast days, as detailed in Lev. 23).
The meaning is resoundingly plain clear: anyone who worships the God of Heaven and seeks to keep His commandments must—as an unconditional, non-negotiable corollary—keep His sabbath days, both the weekly seventh-day sabbath and the annual feast days. Yes, quite literally the very same sabbaths which most Christians have been worthlessly taught by their satanically lying and serpentine-conniving “priests” and pastors not to ever observe, all because mainstream theologians choose to deliberately distort the meaning of Col. 2:16-17.
Weekly seventh day: memorial of Creation Week
Providence did not first ordain the observance of the seventh-day sabbath at Mount Sinai—the Fourth Commandment rather only reiterated that which already was proclaimed millennia ago at the very start of biblical Creation. So the account of Creation Week’s concluding day states:8
And the heavens and the earth are completed, and all their host; and God completeth by the seventh day His work which He hath made, and ceaseth by the seventh day from all His work which He hath made. And God blesseth the seventh day, and sanctifieth it, for in it He hath ceased from all His work which God had prepared for making.
How is it evident that Adam and Eve observed the sabbath on Creation Week? Because both Adam and Eve already were created on the sixth day of that week, and obviously did not sin on the upcoming sabbath. This is indicated by the fact that when Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and gave to Adam to eat of it, the two of them sinned and were subsequently ashamed of their nakedness,9 and then God walked by them in their direct presence as they rushed to hide themselves from the presence of God.10 IOWs, on the day that Adam and Eve sinned, God was not continually amongst their presence, for otherwise Eve would not have been alone outside the presence of both her Creator and her husband to have been beguiled by the serpent.
The sabbath days are described in the Old Testament as days of full communion with God, days set apart from earthly servile work to rest in the peace of God’s abode.11 Adam and Eve sinned after the sabbath of Creation Week, because on the first weekly sabbath described in Gen. 2:1-3, God fully rested that day from His completed creation, a.k.a. Jehovah was resting in the joy of communion with Adam and Eve for the fullness of that day, resolutely accompanying them with His physical presence for the entirety of that seventh day.
Why then is the antitypical biblical Jew12—a.k.a. the faithful apostolic Christian redeemed by the blood of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—supposed to observe the weekly seventh-day sabbath? Because to rest from all earthly work on the seventh day of the week (a.k.a. from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset according to the biblical reckoning that the day begins at sunset) for the purpose of consecrating that day to God is to acknowledge without a doubt who one worships and what they are recognizing: Jehovah, the God of Heaven who created the heavens, earth, sea, and all that is in them, in six days, and that just as God rested in the joyful abode of humanity (created in the image of God,13 lest you forget!), so the faithful worshipper of God rests on the seventh day to signify his/her yearning to rest from their previous six days of work in the rest of God whose Holy Spirit is the everlasting Comforter.14
Sola scriptura plainly obvious proof that the seventh-day sabbath is the Lord’s day
“But hold on!” so some of you will retort. “Aren’t Christians supposed to observe Sunday as the Lord’s day, as Revelation implies?”
…no.
Nowhere in the Bible is the first day of the week—a.k.a. what we know as “Sunday”—ever sanctified as a weekly day of communion. Only the seventh day is spoken of as a consistent weekly day of rest and communion, and that applies for both the Old Testament Mosaic Jew and the New Testament apostolic Christian without any contradiction whatsoever. There is nothing new under the sun15—just as the seventh-day sabbath was, so it is, and so it shall be for all eternity. In order to objectively determine what day the apostle John described in the first chapter of Revelation as the Lord’s day,16 one must consult the scriptures themselves. Let’s look at what the prophet Isaiah uttered of God’s appointed oracles!17
If thou dost turn from the sabbath thy foot, [from] doing thine own pleasure on My holy day, and hast cried to the sabbath, a delight to the holy of Jehovah, honored, And hast honored it, without doing thine own ways, without finding thine own pleasure, and speaking a word;
then dost thou delight thyself on Jehovah, and I have caused thee to ride on high places of earth, and have caused thee to eat the inheritance of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken!
Here, the meaning is inextricably obvious: God—a.k.a. Jehovah, or the LORD (whose name/title also is given as Adonai/“Lord,” the title used by Jesus in the New Testament)—says that the sabbath is His holy day, a.k.a. it is the Lord’s day. We have also another witness—in fact, synoptically confirmed three times!
And [Jesus] said to them, ‘The sabbath for man was made, not man for the sabbath; so that the son of man is lord also of the sabbath.’18
‘…for the son of man is lord even of the sabbath.’19
And [Jesus] said to them, ‘The Son of Man is lord also of the sabbath.’20
Most Christians assume that the seventh-day sabbath was rendered obsolete by the Resurrection and became a dead institution, but Jesus affirmed that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living21—if God therefore rendered the seventh-day sabbath obsolete, then Jesus would be lord over a dead sabbath, which would brazenly contradict what He said.
In light of these unmistakably clear-cut passages affirming the continuation of the seventh day of the week as divinely appointed holy convocations to consecrate out of obedience to God, it is not difficult to understand this introductory statement by the apostle, evangelist, and revelator John in the Book of Revelation:22
I, John, who also [am] your brother, and fellow-partner in the tribulation, and in the reign and endurance of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos because of the word of God and because of the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice—as of a trumpet—saying, ‘I AM the Aleph and the Tav, the First and the Last!’ and, ‘What you do see, write in a scroll, and send to the seven assemblies that [are] in Asia: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’
When the apostle John spoke of “the Lord’s day,” he was not referring to the first day of the week, because there is no scriptural evidence that the first day of the week was ever known as the “Lord’s day.” Rather, he affirmed—just as Isaiah proclaimed, and likewise his Savior Jesus Christ affirmed—that the seventh-day sabbath was the weekly day of rest and observance appointed by his Lord. When John was banished to the island of Patmos by the Roman emperor Domitian, he refused to work on the weekly sabbath by reason that he kept the commandments of God, and because he faithfully consecrated the sabbath, John was given the Revelation of Jesus Christ on the sabbath a.k.a. he received the visions. Therefore, out of regard for the Lord who bestowed upon him such a marvelous privilege, John thereby acknowledges to whom the honor is belonged in regard to the day on which he received the visions, referring to the seventh day as the Lord’s day.
For as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making, are standing before Me, an affirmation of Jehovah! so remain doth your seed and your name. And it has come to pass from month to month, and from sabbath to sabbath, come do all flesh to bow themselves before Me, said Jehovah!23
Feast of Passover
We now are addressing the annual feast days—these were instituted after sin entered humanity, and therefore serve specific functions different from the weekly sabbath, as the seventh-day weekly sabbath observance was divinely consecrated before Adam and Eve sinned. The exact mode of sabbath observance for the weekly sabbath was ordained in its perfect eternal form for a sinless humanity and therefore its exact mode of observance is wholly consistent from Creation Week unto the end of the ages.
The annual feast days, by contrast, were only observed in their Mosaic Jewish typifying form as a shadow pointing to Jesus Christ as the substantive fulfillment, and therefore the underlying purpose entailed—particularly for Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the Day of Atonement—different material forms of observation between the Old Testament type and New Testament antitype, because the shadow/precursor is obviously not the same as the substance/fulfillment it is a typifying precursor to.
In type, there was annually a Passover lamb who was slaughtered and eaten on Nisan 14, pointing to the Lamb of God a.k.a. Jesus Christ.24 Jesus Christ was crucified and killed on the Passover a.k.a. Nisan 14, and on the beginning of Nisan 14, a.k.a. “Thursday evening” (since the sixth day of that universally significant week began on Thursday sunset and extended to Friday sunset), Jesus ordained the antitypical Passover feast to His twelve disciples, where literal unleavened bread is to be consumed as the representation of Jesus’s flesh, and fresh grape juice consumed as the representation of Jesus’s shed blood.25
The early apostolic church without a doubt observed the Lord’s Supper annually as Passover, once a year on Nisan 14. The apostle Paul himself indicated this:26
Not good [is] your glorying; have ye not known that a little leaven the whole lump doth leaven? Cleanse out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened, for also our passover for us was sacrificed—Christ, so that we may keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness, but with unleavened food of sincerity and truth.
We have also the testimony of an apostolic church presbyter from the 2nd century:27
As for us, then, we scrupulously observe the exact day, neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia great luminaries have gone to their rest, who shall rise again in the day of the coming of the Lord, when He cometh with glory from heaven and shall raise again all the saints. I speak of Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who is laid to rest at Hierapolis; and his two daughters, who arrived at old age unmarried; his other daughter also, who passed her life under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and reposes at Ephesus; John, moreover, who reclined on the Lord’s bosom, and who became a priest wearing the mitre, and a witness and a teacher-he rests at Ephesus. Then there is Polycarp, both bishop and martyr at Smyrna; and Thraseas from Eumenia, both bishop and martyr, who rests at Smyrna. Why should I speak of Sagaris, bishop and martyr, who rests at Laodicea? of the blessed Papirius, moreover? and of Melito the eunuch, who performed all his actions under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and lies at Sardis, awaiting the visitation from heaven, when he shall rise again from the dead? These all kept the passover on the fourteenth. day of the month, in accordance with the Gospel, without ever deviating from it, but keeping to the rule of faith.
Moreover I also, Polycrates, who am the least of you all, in accordance with the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have succeeded-seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth, and my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven-I myself, brethren, I say, who am sixty-five years old in the Lord, and have fallen in with the brethren in all parts of the world, and have read through all Holy Scripture, am not frightened at the things which are said to terrify us. For those who are greater than I have said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’ —Polycrates of Ephesus [epistle to “Pope” Victor I]
To hold the bread-and-grape-juice communion once a year on the beginning of Nisan 14 (a.k.a. the evening) is to acknowledge that one is redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, the antitypical Passover Lamb, and that one not only accepts Christ’s messianic sacrifice on their behalf, but that one also internalizes the “flesh” and “blood” (symbolically speaking) of Jesus as respectively true food and true drink.28
Passover in Revelation
Some two dozen times, Revelation refers to Jesus Christ as the Lamb. Does this not demonstrate the universal significance of Jesus as the antitypical Passover Lamb?
Feast of Unleavened Bread
The feast of Unleavened Bread goes more or less hand-in-hand with Passover: both were first recorded in decree before the other five annual feast days were, a.k.a. right before the plague of the firstborn in Egypt.29
In the literal type, the seven days right after Passover (from Nisan 15-21) were ordained as a period where no fermented food was permitted consumption. Since shadow met substance as Jesus is the unleavened bread of life,30 the exact mode of observance for the antitypical Jew a.k.a. apostolic Christian under the New Covenant is not the same as for the typical Mosaic Jew under the Old Covenant.
To understand the difference between the type and antitype, we can consult the parallel case study of circumcision: the Pharisees who became Christians in the 1st century initially presumed that ethnic “Gentile” converts into the apostolic Christian faith must be literally circumcised in the flesh as the Abrahamic and Mosaic type demanded, but the apostles of Jesus Christ affirmed differently: literal circumcision of the flesh was only the type that pointed to the antitype where the faithful believer redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ is circumcised in the heart, a circumcision made without hands.31
Likewise, Unleavened Bread in antitype is not about whether a person is not biblically permitted to eat fermented a.k.a. leavened food during Nisan 15-21, because literal leaven in type pointed to spiritual leaven in antitype. Jesus warned His disciples during His ministry to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” which He specified was hypocrisy.32
When Paul therefore told the Corinthians to “cleanse out the old leaven” while mentioning the Passover in the same sentence, he obviously was referring to the leaven of sinful hypocrisy and not of literal yeast for baking bread. Nisan 15-21, the week of Unleavened Bread, therefore, is meant to be kept in antitype as a period to abstain from the leaven of hypocrisy and to be kept—as an assembly of God’s faithful and penitent believers—apart from presumably any contact and exposure to the wicked hypocrisies of the world. The specificity of Nisan 15-21 as a special weekly duration to abstain from the leaven of hypocrisy would appear to indicate a designated special period where separation from hypocrisy is of pertinent significance to non-Unleavened-Bread durations of everyday life, as one is supposed to abstain from hypocrisy anyways, so the exact speciality of Nisan 15-21 in antitype could perhaps use better clarification, as this author (myself) am not 100% certain on the full meaning at the very time being, as of typing.
Unleavened Bread in Revelation
While not exactly explicit, the substantive motif of Unleavened Bread is nonetheless found in the Book of Revelation through a careful study of the historical-continuous first half of the book, a.k.a. comprising the first side of the chiasm—as the vision of the third seal opening is described:33
And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, ‘Come and behold!’
And I saw, and behold! a black horse, and he who is sitting upon it is having a balance in his hand.
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A measure of wheat for a denary, and three measures of barley for a denary, and the oil and the wine thou mayest not injure!’
The focus of study here is on the concluding statement of the third seal opening, one which stumped “expert” theologians for centuries and probably millennia. There is depicted a scarcity of wheat and barley, while the oil and wine are safeguarded. So what does this mean exactly?
In order to understand this quasi-cryptic message, it must be understood that the first four of the seal openings and first four trumpet blowings are recapitulations of the same prophetic time dispensations outlined in the first four church epistles:
31-cir. 100 A.D.: the church age of Ephesus, when the rider on the white horse bent Judah as his bow and filled it with Ephraim to shoot forth the gospel message into the hearts of men,34 and when literal Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. a.k.a. the unbelieving Jews were punished
cir. 100-313 A.D.: the church age of Smyrna, when bloodshed and grisly martyrdom was rampant
313-538 A.D.: the church age of Pergamum, when Constantinian-Nicene syncretism corrupted the Christian church into “baptized pagan” syncretism
538 A.D. onwards: the Dark Ages, when the corrupted, apostatized church of the Middle Ages controlled the civic power as the self-styled “correcter of heretics”
For this study, the relevant time period to focus on is the third era, a.k.a. 313-538 A.D.; this was what Jesus addressed to the “angel” a.k.a. messenger of that church period:35
(a) And to the angel of the assembly in Pergamos, write:
(b) These things says He who is having the sharp two-edged sword: I have known your works, and where you do dwell—where the throne of the Adversary [is]—and you do hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days in which Antipas [was] my faithful witness, who was put to death beside you, where the Adversary does dwell.
(c) But I have against thee a few things, that you have there those holding the teaching of Balaam,
(d) who did teach Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat idol-sacrifices, and to commit whoredom;
(c’) so have you, even you, those holding the teaching of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
(b’) Repent! and if not, I come to you quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
(a’) He who is having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the assemblies! to him who is overcoming, I will give to him to eat from the hidden manna, and will give to him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, that no one knew except him who is receiving.’
Let’s also quickly take a look at the third trumpet blowing details:36
And the third messenger did sound, and there fell out of the heaven a great star, burning as a lamp, and it did fall upon the third of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters, and the name of the star is called Wormwood.
And the third of the waters doth become wormwood, and many of the men did die of the waters, because they were made bitter.
Let’s piece this all together!
church epistle: addresses Jesus as the one holding the sharp two-edged sword; speaks of the corrupting teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans; promises a hidden manna to those who overcome and abide in the truth unto the end
seal: showcases a ride on a black horse with a balance in his hand; a message goes out declaring a scarcity of wheat and barley while oil and wine are preserved
trumpet: describes the descent of a great star from heaven who contaminates the rivers and fountains of waters (a.k.a. freshwaters), lethally poisoning the waters into wormwood, whose drinkers die of the embittered waters
And these are the parallels:
sharp two-edged sword ↔ pair of balances: represents providential judgment in its determining/“weighing” phase
Balaam/Nicolaitans ↔ great star falling from heaven: symbol of Constantine, a mighty chieftain who propagated Nicolaitanism (“Nicolaitan” = conquering the laity) when he proclaimed the famous in hoc signo vinces (“in this sign you shall conquer”) as his lynchpin raison d’être for mass power accumulation
manna ↔ wheat and barley: the grains used to prepare bread consisted (evidently primarily) of wheat and barley
What we have here are individual pieces of a puzzle: the church epistle, seal opening, and trumpet blowing details each highlight part of that 313-538 A.D. time period but by themselves do not explain the full picture, which can only be understood when the three are properly grasped through a historical-continuous recapitulation framework.
Throughout the Old Testament, grain, oil, and wine were understood in conjunction as representative of God’s promises to His covenant people.37 The grains/bread and wine of course respectively in antitype represent the body and blood of Jesus, while the oil represents the Holy Spirit.38 Waters meanwhile, in the sense of freshwaters accumulated from rain, represent doctrines:39
Drop as rain doth My doctrine; flow as dew doth My sayings; as storms on the tender grass, and as showers on the herb.
What then can we synthesize together to explain the third church era? Constantine fell40 as a great star (a.k.a. angel, since stars represent angels/messengers41) out of heaven, corrupting the waters a.k.a. doctrines of salvation, causing the bread of life to wane scarce; however, the oil and wine were left unhurt, because only the true faithful believers were retained access to them in their unadulterated form. God promised to the faithful believers of that time period that those who endured into the end in righteousness would be granted to eat from the hidden manna, a.k.a. that which God will feed to His redeemed people:42
They shall not hunger any more, nor may the sun fall upon them, nor any heat, for the Lamb that [is] in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and wipe away shall God every tear from their eyes!
Notice right here that that which was corrupted and deprived of its pure form from 313-538 A.D.—the bread of life and doctrinal waters of salvation—are the ones which are specified as that which assuredly shall be restored. The pure bread of life—Jesus Christ—will again be given freely to His faithful and redeemed adherents in the heavenly New Jerusalem, the holy and eternal Zion of God, into which shall never enter even a picogram’s worth of leaven of hypocrisy that defiles.43
Feast of Firstfruits
The Feast of Firstfruits is on Nisan 16, and notably is—alongside Passover—the only feast day not associated with being itself a sabbath day of rest,44 as it rather is contained within the week of Unleavened Bread. (this fact solidly cements—as you shall see—the simple conclusion that Resurrection Sunday never was a biblical precedent for specifically a weekly day of rest on Sunday) It points to Jesus Christ as the firstfruits of the resurrection, as the apostle Paul explained:45
And now, Christ hath risen out of the dead—the first-fruits of those sleeping he became, for since through man [is] the death, also through man [is] a rising again of the dead.
For even as in Adam all die, so also in the Christ all shall be made alive, and each in his proper order, a first-fruit Christ, afterwards those who are the Christ’s, in his presence,
And Paul connected the firstfruits to the lump, evidently connecting it to the feast of Unleavened Bread in antitype:46
And if the first-fruit [is] holy, the lump also; and if the root [is] holy, the branches also.
Furthermore, when Jesus was resurrected, it was recorded that “the graves were opened” and redeemed saints of old were resurrected with Him:47
and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who have fallen asleep, arose, and having come forth out of the tombs after his rising, they went into the holy city, and appeared to many.
This detail is crucial, because it very likely helps shed some light on understanding who the twenty-four elders are in the heavenly sanctuary.48 It is already known that long before Jesus’s death and resurrection, there were already three individuals translated to heaven: Enoch,49 Moses,50 and Elijah.51 While not resolutely confirmed by name, one might reasonably assume that they are among the twenty-four elders in Revelation—this indicates that at the Resurrection, Jesus was raised up to heaven alongside twenty-one saints, indicating a beautiful divine theme of completion: 1 + 7 + 7 + 7—a.k.a. 22 (a number of divine completion, as there are 22 letters in the Biblical Hebrew alphabet)—were resurrected in total and brought to heaven.
Now, the Feast of Firstfruits’ timing is critical to understand here in conjunction to Jesus’s death and resurrection:
sixth day of the week: Nisan 14, a.k.a. Passover, when Jesus instituted (what is commonly known as) the “Quartodeciman” communion as the antitypical Passover observance and, after facing relentlessly cruel torture in the Sanhedrin show trial, died the vicarious death for humanity as the antitypical Passover Lamb
seventh day of the week: Nisan 15, a.k.a. the first day of Unleavened Bread, when Jesus remained dead and His disciples rested on that Great Sabbath according to the biblical commandment
“eighth” day a.k.a. first day of the new week: Nisan 16, a.k.a. Firstfruits, when Jesus was resurrected as the firstfruits of the righteous dead
The Feast of Firstfruits is itself not a sabbath day of rest, evidently because the providential design was that Resurrection Sunday was never meant to be celebrated and commemorated as specifically a sabbath day, but rather simply as an annual remembrance of God’s resurrection of His Son as the antitypical fulfilled substance to the Feast of Firstfruits. It is very plainly obvious that anyone wishing to validate weekly Sunday observance cannot find any such basis from a theologically sober sola scriptura exposition of the Bible as it stands in its unadulterated form.
Firstfruits in Revelation
The C’.ii’.I pericope in the at-large chiastic structure of Revelation mentions the 144,000, the same group introduced in ch. 7:52
And I saw, and behold! a Lamb having stood upon the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty-four thousands, having the name of His Father written upon their foreheads.
And I heard a voice out of the heaven, as a voice of many waters, and as a voice of great thunder, and a voice I heard of harpers harping with their harps, and they sing, as it were, a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and the elders, and no one was able to learn the song except the hundred forty-four thousands, who have been bought from the earth.
These are they who with women were not defiled, for they are virgin; these are they who are following the Lamb whithersoever he may go; these were bought from among men—a first-fruit to God and to the Lamb—and in their mouth there was not found guile, for unblemished are they before the throne of God.
Feast of Pentecost
From Shavuot into the concluding three feasts, the type/antitype difference is less starkly distinct compared to the first three. The antitypical, substantive fulfillment of Pentecost of course started with the preaching of Jesus Christ’s apostles after the Resurrection and Ascension, detailed in Acts 2:53
And in the day of the Pentecost being fulfilled, they were all with one accord at the same place, and there came suddenly out of the heaven a sound as of a bearing violent breath, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared to them divided tongues, as it were of fire; it sat also upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, according as the Spirit was giving them to declare.
In a nutshell, Pentecost points towards the eventual completed ingathering of God’s people into one unified body out of all nations and ethnicities, beginning at the first Pentecost and continuing until—in the final completed numbering—God’s assembly of sealed faithful faithful believers will grow into the stature of Christ’s fullness.54 The Feast of Shavuot in antitype represents the completion of the body of Jesus Christ—His church—reaching mature stature as the completed bride.55
Pentecost in Revelation
In the Book of Revelation, there is witnessed and prophesied a solidly assured eventual completion of the ingathering of God’s people into one body. A glimpse of this is first seen in the conclusion of ch. 5:56
And I saw, and I heard the voice of many messengers round the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders—and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands— saying with a great voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing!’
And every creature that is in the heaven, and in the earth, and under the earth, and the things that are upon the sea, and the all things in them, heard I saying, ‘To Him who is sitting upon the throne, and to the Lamb, [is] the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the might to the ages of the ages!’
And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the twenty-four elders fell down and they bow before Him who is living to the ages of the ages.
And:57
After these things I saw, and behold! a great multitude, which to number no one was able, out of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands, and crying with a great voice, saying, ‘The salvation [is] to Him who is sitting upon the throne—to our God, and to the Lamb!’
And:58
And after these things I heard a great voice of a great multitude in the heaven, saying, ‘Alleluia! the salvation, and the glory, and the honour, and the power, [is] to the Lord our God, because true and righteous [are] His judgments, because He did judge the great whore who did corrupt the earth in her whoredom, and He did avenge the blood of His servants at her hand!’
And a second time they said, ‘Alleluia!’ and her smoke doth come up to the ages of the ages!
And fall down did the elders—the twenty and four—and the four living creatures, and they did bow before God who is sitting upon the throne, saying, ‘Amen, alleluia!’
And a voice out of the throne did come forth, saying, ‘Praise our God, all ye His servants, and those fearing Him, both the small and the great!’
And I heard as the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! because reign did the Lord God, the Almighty! May we rejoice and exult, and give the glory to Him, because come did the marriage of the Lamb, and His wife did make herself ready!’
And there was given to her that she may be arrayed with fine linen, pure and shining, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.’
In terms of whether the 144,000 fit in and how, that is a specific topic to be addressed perhaps another time. :)
Feast of Trumpets
Cf. this previous post of mine for the lengthy explanatory details:
Trumpets in Revelation
The Feast of Trumpets is plainly evident in the Book of Revelation as none other than the blowing of the seven trumpets—we find a precedent in Joshua:59
(And Jericho shutteth itself up, and is shut up, because of the presence of the sons of Israel—none going out, and none coming in;)
And Jehovah saith unto Joshua, ‘See, I have given into thy hand Jericho and its king—mighty ones of valour, and ye have compassed the city—all the men of battle—going round the city once; thus thou dost six days.
And seven priests do bear seven trumpets of the jubilee before the ark, and on the seventh day ye compass the city seven times, and the priests blow with the trumpets, and it hath been, in the prolongation of the horn of the jubilee, in your hearing the voice of the trumpet, all the people shout—a great shout, and the wall of the city hath fallen under it, and the people have gone up, each over-against him.’
The judgment upon Jericho, as recorded in the Book of Joshua, typified the Second Coming of Jesus Christ—the Parousia—where absolute final destruction will consume all the ungodly inhabitants of the earth upon the blowing of the seven trumpet as recorded in the conclusion of the C chiastic branch in Revelation.60 (remember how I more or less detailed this in the introduction’s second example?)
Day of Atonement
Cf. these previous posts:
Day of Atonement in Revelation
From the standpoint of justice and mercy, represented in the typifying form by the sacrificial goat and scapegoat respectively, the historical-continuous first half of the Revelation chiasm is important to grasp in its providentially affixed structural integrity with utmost concision. As I explained above in the analysis of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the Book of Revelation, the seal openings and trumpets represent—at least consistently so for the first four dispensations in each—recapitulations of the time periods defined in the letters to the church messengers.
In a nutshell, here’s the simple breakdown:
at-large chiastic B branch (chs. 2-3): historical-continuous summary of human history from the beginning of the New Testament era into the close of probation towards the end of time, from the standpoint of God’s messages of commendation and/or reproof to His assembly, in seven demarcated time periods
at-large chiastic C.i sub-branch almond (chs. 4-6), namely C.i.VII-XII (ch. 6): historical-continuous summary of human history from the beginning of the New Testament era into the Second Coming, from the standpoint of the divine purpose of God’s dealings with humanity, in six out of the seven seal openings
at-large chiastic C.ii-iii sub-branch almonds (chs. 7-11): historical-continuous summary of human history from the beginning of the New Testament era into the commencing of the Second Coming, from the standpoint of judgment against the spiritual heathen who reject Jesus Christ, where the seventh seal opening prepares the seven trumpet blowings
In a nutshell, the church epistles represent the side of mercy—typified by the scapegoat from the standpoint of expiating sin out of the presence of God’s people—where Jesus tells each church era what they are doing right and shortcomings they need to repent for to walk in the light of the truth unto secured redemption. Meanwhile, the trumpets represent the side of justice—typified by the sacrificial goat from the standpoint of providing a blueprint for meeting the price of sin (a.k.a. death61) to ensure that those who continue to behave wickedly hold no valid excuse left—in the execution of God’s wrath on the rest of the world who are not among His faithful adherents.
Think of it this way: Jesus’s epistles to the churches represent the “mercy” side of a coin, while the trumpet blowings represent the “justice” side, while the seals represent the positional standing of the coin itself.
In between the churches and trumpets therefore is the Day of Atonement. And that is explained in ch. 5:62
(c.I) And I saw upon the right hand of Him who is sitting upon the throne a scroll, written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
(c.II) And I saw a strong messenger crying with a great voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose the seals of it?’
(d) And no one was able in the heaven, nor upon the earth, nor under the earth, to open the scroll, nor to behold it.
(c’.I) And I was weeping much, because no one was found worthy to open and to read the scroll, nor to behold it.
(c’.II) And one of the elders saith to me, ‘Weep not; behold! overcome did the Lion, who is of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, to open the scroll, and to loose the seven seals of it.’
Only one individual was qualified to open the book of the testament and loose the seven seals of it: Jesus Christ, the one and only Lion of Judah and Root of David. Why? Well, let’s keep reading ch. 5:63
(b’) And I saw, and behold! in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb hath stood as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of God, which are sent to all the earth, and he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who is sitting upon the throne.
And when he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, having each one harps and golden vials full of perfumes, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sing a new song, saying, ‘Worthy art thou to take the scroll, and to open the seals of it, because thou wast slain, and DIDST REDEEM US TO GOD IN THY BLOOD, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and didst make us to our God kings and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth!’
The reason Jesus was the only person qualified to open the sevenfold-sealed testament in heaven was because He was the only person who fulfilled the Day of Atonement in substance as both the antitypical scapegoat and the antitypical sacrificial goat whose one single perfect sacrifice for sin forever perfected His adherents who are sanctified.64 There is only one path to cleansing from sin unto atonement in the sight of God, and that is through the blood of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Without the Day of Atonement, justice and mercy are left unreconciled, and it would be wholly impossible for God to fully execute the sword of justice upon the wicked without the satanic wicked complaining endlessly that they weren’t given a “merciful opportunity” to turn from their ways. Due to the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement in Jesus Christ’s single sacrifice for sin on the cross, all continuing unrepentant wicked behavior manifests itself to be undoubtedly certain that it knew the light of God and chose not to walk in it,65 and that by this reason they fittingly deserve the brutal punishment God ordains against their willingly filth-stained souls.
Note that the trumpets are not prepared for execution until only after the seventh seal is opened, and it is immediately right after the opening of the seventh seal that the trumpets are prepared:66
(a) And when he openeth the seventh seal, there came silence in the heaven about half-an-hour, and I saw the seven messengers who before God have stood, and there were given to them seven trumpets.
(b) And another messenger did come, and he stood at the altar, having a golden censer,
(c) and there was given to him much perfume, that he may give [it] to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar that [is] before the throne,
(d) and go up did the smoke of the perfumes to the prayers of the saints out of the hand of the messenger, before God.
(c’) And the messenger took the censer, and did fill it out of the fire of the altar, and did cast [it] to the earth,
(b’) and there came voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
(a’) And the seven messengers who are having the seven trumpets did prepare themselves that they may sound.
Why is this the case? Because once all seven seals were loosened, the scroll could be opened and the will of the testament read aloud by Jesus Christ, securing the completed antitypical blueprint of the Day of Atonement for the full wrath of God to be executed on the wicked in conjunction to the fulfillment of God’s mercy granted towards the righteous, all without contradiction.
Once the seventh seal was loosened to allow the scroll to be fully opened up, the wrath of God was fully validated for execution. The seven seals in the first place could only be opened by the inheritor of the testament, a.k.a. Jesus Christ, who could only meet the God-appointed criteria for opening it because He alone fulfilled the Day of Atonement in substantive verity.
Feast of Tabernacles
As I covered before, the Feast of Tabernacles represent the story of humanity from Adam and Eve’s first sabbath with God to the Millennium, because—as the apostle Peter said—“a day with the Lord is as a thousand years”67:
Tabernacles in Revelation
What is the promise to the redeemed? The prophet and revelator was informed by one of the twenty-four elders of the redeemed mass multitude in ch. 7:68
‘These are those who are coming out of the great tribulation, and they did wash their robes, and they made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.
Because of this are they before the throne of God, and they do service to Him day and night in His sanctuary, and He who is sitting upon the throne shall tabernacle over them.
And of the New Jerusalem, it is written:69
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth did pass away, and the sea is not any more.
And I, John, saw the holy city—New Jerusalem—coming down from God out of the heaven, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband, and I heard a great voice out of the heaven, saying, ‘Behold! the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them—their God, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and the death shall not be any more, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor shall there be any more pain, because the first things did go away.’
…
And a sanctuary I did not see in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, is its sanctuary, and the Lamb.
And the city hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon, that they may shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp of it [is] the Lamb.
Conclusion
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.70
What then are the reasons to observe the sabbath days? In summary:
weekly seventh-day sabbath: by working six days a week and resting on the seventh day from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, one signifies thier faithful walk in the footsteps of Jehovah of Hosts, who created the heavens, earth, and sea—and all that is in them—in six days, and rested on the seventh day from all His creation in the heavens, earth, and sea
annual sabbaths: when observed in proper antitypical format, one signifies their recognition of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment to the messianic promise
Quartodecimanism as Passover: reflective honoring and recognition of Jesus’s sacrifice in body and blood as the antitypical Passover Lamb
Unleavened Bread (abstaining from the leaven of hypocrisy): acknowledges Jesus as the bread of life who lived a sinless life as the radiance of the invisible God and the radiance of His glory and whose teachings are to be fully internalized as heavenly manna in truth and in spirit
Firstfruits: commemorates Resurrection Sunday, acknowledging the material reality that God the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead to complete the assured hope that God’s adherents also have an assured hope of resurrection unto eternal life
Pentecost: signifies faith in the assured hope that God’s people will one day be completed in regathered unity into one body a.k.a. assembly as Jesus’s bride under the one and only tripartite God (Jehovah, His Word, and His Spirit) in one faith and one baptism
Trumpets: acknowledges the word of God as the two-edged sword proceeding out of Jesus’s mouth to be preached unto the whole world in boldness of faith by God’s faithful adherents who fulfill the duty of a messenger
Day of Atonement: acknowledges Jesus Christ as the only propitiation for sin who reconciled justice and mercy on the cross, providing all sinful human beings a chance unto redemption and forever vindicating the authority of God as simultaneously the guarantor of mercy towards His people and the wrath of justice against evildoers without contradiction
Tabernacles: acknowledges Adonai Jehovah as the tabernacle and abode of His people forever, even unto the end of the ages
II Pet. 1:19-21.
Cf. Lk. 12:12; Jn. 14:26; I Cor. 2:13.
Rev. 4:8.
Rev. 17:8.
Cf. Rev. 10:5-7.
Ex. 31:13.
Ezek. 20:12, 20.
Gen. 2:1-3.
Gen. 3:7.
Gen. 3:8.
Cf. Ex. 16:28-38, 31:15-16, 35:2-3; Lev. 23; Isa. 56:4-7; Neh. 13:15-22; Lk. 23:56.
Cf. Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3.
Gen. 1:27, 9:6.
Jn. 14:26, 15:26, 16:7.
Ecc. 1:9b.
Cf. Rev. 1:10.
Isa. 58:13-14.
Mk. 2:27-28.
Matt. 12:8.
Lk. 6:5.
Mk. 12:26-27; Matt. 22:31-32; Lk. 22:37-38.
Rev. 1:9-11.
Isa. 66:22-23.
Jn. 1:29, 36; cf. I Pet. 1:18-19.
Mk. 14:22-24; Matt. 26:26-28; Lk. 22:19-20.
I Cor. 5:6-8.
“Epistle of Polycrates to Victor I,” Early Christian Writings.
Jn. 6:53-56.
Ex. 12:1-20.
Jn. 6:32-33, 35, 47-51.
Cf. Acts 15; Col. 2:10-12.
Mk. 8:13-21; Matt. 16:4b-12; Lk. 12:1.
Rev. 6:5-6.
Zech. 9:13.
Rev. 2:12-17.
Rev. 8:10-11.
Cf. Jl. 2:19a.
Cf. Ex 30:22-33; I Sam. 16:13; Isa. 61:1-3; Jas. 5:14-15.
Deut. 32:2.
Cf. Heb. 6:4-6.
Rev. 1:20b.
Rev. 7:16-17.
Rev. 21:27.
Lev. 23:9-14.
I Cor. 15:20-23.
Rom. 11:16.
Matt. 27:52-53.
Cf. Rev. 4:4.
Gen. 5:24.
Cf. Jud. 9.
II Kings 2:11.
Rev. 14:1-5.
Acts 2:1-4.
Eph. 4:11-16.
Cf. Eph. 5:22-33.
Rev. 5:11-14.
Rev. 7:9-10.
Rev. 19:1-8.
Jos. 6:1-5.
Rev. 11:15-19.
Rom. 6:23.
Rev. 5:1-5.
Rev. 5:6-10.
Heb. 10:1-18.
Cf. Jn. 3:19-21.
Rev. 8:1-6.
II Pet. 3:8.
Rev. 7:14b-15.
Rev. 21:1-4, 22-23.
I Jn. 2:1-3.