TO RETURN: TURNING BACK TO GOD
The Festivals of the Lord are called "Moedim" which means "rehearsals". The pattern of the Festival Seasons are rehearsals of events to become real events in God’s redemptive plan.
The 40-day season called "Teshuva" becomes symbolic of Gods testing. The 40-day season precedes the Fall Festival cycle, but concludes on Yom Kippur (the Day of the Lord): the last day of the High Holy Days. The High Holy days are the days that God judges His people. God established a pattern: that a time of grace and testing always preceded Gods judgment of His people.
The season of Teshuva is a time of God’s special grace wherein each man must examine his own life prior to the onset of the Fall Festival season. This window of grace prior to judgment called each man to turn away from sin and turn back to God. It is a most critical and urgent time to humble oneself before God with sincere repentance. After restoration to God in this manner, one is counted among the "righteous". The righteous of God are called the "Tzaddikim" or "the saints". It becomes a most pressing matter to be counted among the righteous "Tzaddikim" PRIOR to the first High Holy day, Yom Teruah (the Feast of Trumpets). It is most urgent because it is to THIS group that are found to be righteous PRIOR to Yom Teruah (the Feast of Trumpets) that the resurrection is promised.
Yom Teruah is marked by the continuous blowing of the shofar trumpet (a ram's horn). This shofar alarm is a dire warning to God's people that judgment is already passing from the Lord. This is a pattern and type of God’s impending judgment at the end of the age that will be announced by the "Last Trump" (the last Yom Teruah or Feast of Trumpets of this age). In God's redemptive plan, the world is presently in the time of "Teshuva" . . . that long period of grace that precedes His final judgment of all mankind that will cleanse and prepare the earth for the return of Messiah. Teshuva clearly illustrates this season of grace that always precedes the Lord's final judgement. today.
The following precepts are connected with Teshuva:
A] Natzal- "deliverance" / "the gathering to Messiah" Gen 29:10 / 2 Thess 2:1
-this is the resurrection of the past dead concurrent with the "catching away" of the living saints:
In it’s fulfillment, when the last shofar trumpet is blown (the Last Trump) it announces the final Yom Teruah or Feast of Trumpets of this age. At that time, the dead and living saints will be instantly resurrected (gathered) to the Messiah to be present in Heaven for His Coronation and His wedding. (1 Cor 15:52). In God's redemptive plan, it is to these righteous that the first resurrection is promised.
This is why it is urgent to be restored to God PRIOR to the final Yom Teruah, biblically known as the "Last Trump". When this festival day is fulfilled, it announces the onset of final judgment of all mankind.
B] During the season of Teshuva mankind falls into three categories:
1. the redeemed of God (called "the Saints" or the "Tzadakim")
2. the wholly wicked: no repentance is possible
3. the intermediates: (this will comprise the largest group over the earth).
They are not yet judged righteous or wholly evil as yet and the Holy Spirit is still at work in their lives.
C] At the sounding of the "Last Trump" several events occur simultaneously
1. the resurrection of the past dead are gathered to Heaven (gathered to Messiah) "unto Him shall the gathering of the people be"; "concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus and our gathering together with Him" Gen 49:10 KJV & 2 Thess 2:1
2. the "catching away" of the living "Saints": the Tzadakim -the redeemed of God, or the Saints, are simultaneously removed and gathered to God in Heaven while the last seven years of this age begin, which marks the cleansing and final judgment of mankind. The "last week" of Daniel 9 and the "7 days of soul affliction" in Lev 23:29 are types and shadows of this prophetic period of judgment.
3. The "intermediates" and the "wholly wicked" that remain on the earth after the resurrection and catching away of God's saints are plunged into the Great Tribulation known biblically as the "Day of Trouble", " Days of Awe", "Great Harvest of God", "the indignation" and so forth. All these prophetic names describe the final seven-year time period of judgment and cleansing of the earth prior to the return of Messiah, Yeshua/Jesus.
During the Tribulation, the "great harvest" of the redeemed will come in . . . it is a time of unprecedented redemption as well as a time for final judgment of the unredeemed.