ASCENDING ALIVE
CONT., page 11
DAY OF ATONEMENT
We want to consider the place of Christianity in all of this, and will begin doing so by examining the Day of Atonement, which occurs on the tenth of the seventh month, between Trumpets and Tabernacles.
Atonement is a most unusual festival day. It is truly a two-edged sword. On the one hand, Atonement is sorrowful. It was initiated because Aaron's two sons offered "strange fire before Yahweh, which He had not commanded them" (Leviticus 10:1). Atonement also marked the sorrowful day when the Israelites rejected entering into the promised land, and they could not reclaim that opportunity even though they repented. In parallel significance, it was also undoubtedly the same day in which almost 1,500 years later the church equally failed to enter into the "promised land" - when Stephen was stoned to death. In revealing testimony, what was not accomplished outside the promised land when men sought to take up stones to kill the two true witnesses, was accomplished when the false witnesses took up stones and killed the true witness, Stephen. And in both cases, a forty part period of wilderness wanderings followed - forty years for the sons of Israel, and forty Jubilees for the sons of God.
Atonement will be the day when Christianity realizes they too have rejected entering into the pure kingdom of heaven. With the translation of the Remnant out of the world, Christians who remain will suddenly realize that what the Remnant had been declaring, was in fact true. While the Remnant is in heaven on the tenth day experiencing the beginning days of their own Tabernacles, Christianity will be on the earth repenting for their failure to enter into Yahweh's "promised land." As the Israelites repented on this same day outside of Canaan, Christians will do likewise.
Sorrow always precedes the coming of a deliverer, and this will certainly be no exception with Yahshua's return - man's birth pains. What kind of sorrow will this be? It will be the sorrow foreshadowed in these haunting words:
"A voice was heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
And she refused to be comforted,
Because they were no more."
This particular verse from Jeremiah 31:15 is actually quoted from Matthew 2:18 where it refers to the sorrow produced by the death of the male children in Bethlehem at the time of Yahshua's birth. Both intercessorally as well as prophetically, these slain male children were "two years old and under," representative of the 2,000 years in which the body of Christ (the "house of bread," or Bethlehem) would equally die. But there is a promise to these Christians who will experience this sorrow foreshadowed in the death of these two year olds. In the very next verses, 16 through 18, the following promise is made, substantiating what we have just said regarding its application to and hope for Christianity.
Thus says Yahweh,
"Restrain your voice from weeping,
And your eyes from tears;
For your work shall be rewarded," declares Yahweh,
"And they shall return from the land of the enemy (from death).
And there is hope for your future," declares Yahweh,
"And your children shall return to their own territory.
I have surely heard Ephraim grieving,
'Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained calf;
Bring me back that I may be restored,
For Thou art Yahweh my God.'"
The first to be brought back to be restored will be those who are living when Yahshua returns. But in time, those who have been dead will be brought back as well, even from the dead, and they too will restored.
Thus when Atonement takes place in Christianity just before Yahshua's return with His Remnant Bride, the cries of Christians will be as it were tears of sorrow for the death that has taken place in Christianity for 2,000 years, the place where they too have thus secured their fate by their unbelief.
Following in the foretelling origin of Atonement, Christianity will finally realize that the fire they have offered to Yahweh for 2,000 years is "strange fire," something that has been according to their own design and not from Him. As it is written in Amos 8:10, so it will be fulfilled in that day - "Then I shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and the end of it will be like a bitter day." Attested by the sorrowful Day of Atonement and its location between Trumpets and Tabernacles, breach Christianity will enter into a time of sorrow that will extend all the way to the end of Tabernacles, to the great closing eighth day or the holy convocation. Instead of this Tabernacles and its eighth day being a great and victorious day, its wonderful prophetic purpose now missed will make it an even more "bitter day!" As we see in 1 Kings 8, Christianity will be left in their earthly tents. This is the negative side of this day. Now for the exceptionally positive side!
It is very significant that Yahweh would choose the Day of Atonement as the day in which He would also have one of the greatest blessings in all of Scripture. When one considers the two concurrent events that will take place during a soon hopeful fall festival, one clearly understands why this day has two entirely opposite connotations. It was the tenth day of the seventh month (the Day of Atonement) on the fiftieth year when a ram's horn was to be sounded and Jubilee declared! All debts were to be forgiven and each person was allowed to return to his own property and to his family (Leviticus 25:8-12). This clearly is the very good side of this two-edged sword. "Behold the kindness and severity of God" (Romans 11:22).
Thus, while Christianity is on the earth experiencing the sorrowful side of Atonement, concurrently the Remnant will be in heaven celebrating Jubilee - having all their debts to sin totally released, preparing them to return to the originally possessed garden land Yahweh gave man at creation, and enjoying Yahshua and His Remnant holy ones! This will truly be the Jubilee Yahweh has always looked to! (It is very significant to note that neither Israel nor, of course, Christianity have ever carried out a single Jubilee.)
Christianity's Day of Atonement will some day turn into a Jubilee when they too have their debts completely removed. Their victory day will come following their sorrow and refining. Let us now consider this.
Continue to page 12 of Ascending Alive for CHRISTIANITY