Last Sunday we stood back to see how the Messiah’s landscape, contained within Jonah, develops with pinpoint accuracy how He bridged the span of time between the Old and New Testament.

To understand how God projects His intention for the Jews, into the landscape of the Church, which was grafted onto the root of their tree, Abraham, to receive the full benefit of His grace, in their place, as a reward for their trust in His word, is what it is to understand Substance and Shadow

Today, we must narrow our focus to the whole landscape of the Messiah, and how it’s reflection in the Feast of First Fruits reveals the landscape of the birth and completion of Christianity at the Rapture.

Paul’s teaching on the Rapture is part of Paul’s teaching about the Church to the first converts. It’s already recorded in scripture. There is nothing new. It’s part and parcel to the revelation of the Church. That’s easily seen as we reach the point of grasping the understanding that Paul is conveying to us in his teachings.

GOD SET THE TIMES

As I have previously mentioned, when you look at a picture, it’s a complete scene, but a closer examination reveals that the whole scene being viewed is made up of other scenes that blend together and creates the picture.

By now it should be second nature to you to close your eyes and visualize the landscapes that make up the picture of Christianity that we are presently dissecting. One of the scenes in Christianity’s landscape is the Rapture landscape.

Close your eyes and visualize this: we are in the bottom right corner of the picture of Christianity, just where the entire picture ends. As we examine this area, we find ourselves in the landscape of Jonah. Remember, Jonah paints a picture of the Messiah, and when we examine the scenes that develop His landscape, we come to the scene that corresponds to the feast of First Fruits.

As we have studied, the feast of First Fruits is God’s set time of the promise of the full harvest yet to come. We have further studied that these set times of the Jews were cast as shadows of things to come for the Church, and that the substance casting the shadow is Jesus.

We learned from its landscape that the set time of First Fruits lasted fifty days and ended on Pentecost. The events concerning Jesus the Messiah that occur during that set time of fifty days are the shadows that are cast into the future of the Church.

We learned that the offering in the Temple on First Fruits began with an omer of barley flour, taken from an uncultivated field, and offered as a promise of the full harvest yet to come, and ended on Pentecost with an offering of the completed product of their labor, a loaf of bread.

We saw how Jesus rose on that day, fulfilling the set time for His resurrection, and became the promise of the full harvest yet to come. Also, on that same day, graves were opened and many saints came out of them and were seen by many in Jerusalem.

Resurrected saints, many of them, seen by many in Jerusalem!

Now we are into the landscape that develops the risen saints, and who they are in the Churches future. Remember now, we are in the picture of Christianity, swimming around down here in Jonahs landscape, right at the bottom corner of the picture, just before it ends. This scene of risen saints is part of the set time of First Fruits, so it’s shadow is cast into the Churches future along with everything else in the Jonah landscape.

Jesus fulfills the set time for His resurrection, becoming the first fruit of resurrection and after Him, comes the many saints, resurrected to their glory by His sacrifice. Captives of the original sin, set free from their bondage by the blood shed of an innocent, who was God, and taken as captives to Himself when He returned to His throne on that Ascension day.

That event had a set time. The time was set at 40 days in the Landscape of Jonah, and fulfilled by the Messiah, so is part of His landscape. The Messiah landscape includes everything depicted in Jonah. Jonah warned to repent or suffer impending destruction by God in 40 days. So, this 40-day period was a period of warning.

Scripture tells us what Jesus was doing during His last 40 days on earth, but it doesn’t mention what the freed saints, who were seen by many in Jerusalem, were doing. Jesus was visiting His friend and showing them that He was alive, and telling them about His leaving, and that He would come again. These resurrected saints knew that. They heard it straight from Jesus. The many who saw them in Jerusalem were surely being told their story, which ends with following Jesus, which is a warning to repent, as repent means to turn away from and turn toward. Following Jesus, out of the grave, into the Kingdom saved from destruction!

No wonder that just 10 days later, on Pentecost, when Peter offers Jesus as the Messiah, 3,000 people rushed to his call on the very first day of his Ministry. Obviously they heeded the warning to accept Jesus as Messiah and be saved from destruction and the reward of a heavenly Kingdom on earth.

The symbolism holds up because this is not the Church being saved. The Church was still a mystery, hidden in the mind of God, not yet revealed at the time of Acts 2.

This is an offer to the Jews to be saved from destruction, (which comes later to all Jews who do not accept Him, except for those for whom God has already provided for in their scripture), and to receive the Kingdom on earth, as promised in their covenant.

Not until the Church is revealed through Paul, does the reward change from salvation and Kingdom on earth, to salvation and Heaven with rulership in the Kingdom on earth.

But there was only one sacrifice made. It was made to save the world through the Jews, but that prize is awarded to a substitute because even though He came to His own, His own received Him not. That’s why the Church was revealed in its time, because the need arose.

Put simply, Christ said, “here I am”, the Jews said, “no you’re not”, and the Church said, “I believe”. So, the believer gets the prize, the Jews get the Kingdom on earth and Christ rules the Kingdom with the prize winners for a thousand years.

The significance of the dead that rose after Christ is that they were the token that fulfilled the promise of the full harvest yet to come by the harvester and the part they play in the shadow that is reflected in the future for the Church is taught by Paul to the Thessalonians. The dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the air to be with the Lord forever.

Many of the dead in Christ of the end time are going to rise first. Before hand, just like they did when they cast this shadow. And when they do, they will be doing the same thing as their counterparts did after they rose. For 40 days they will be seen in Jerusalem, warning the Jews to repent and follow Jesus, the true Messiah before it’s too late and God’s wrath falls on them.

Paul taught Christians to be watching at the end time in order to see the elements of the prophecies occurring, so we can alert the others to what we see. But, this is the Jews show that’s being played out on the stage, so we must be watching them if we are to see this warning sign that the close of the Church Age is only 40 days away.

The 40 days warning of the Jonah landscape, and the return to save from destruction in the Messiah landscape are the only components left unfulfilled. Those two elements complete the landscape of the Rapture.

Next is the Offering landscape at the close of the set time of First Fruits, the completed product of their labor that is offered on Pentecost, the fiftieth and final day of First Fruits.

Acts 2 records the events of the Pentecost that followed the Ascension of Jesus. And, as the story line goes, the Apostles were gathered and were anointed by the Holy Spirit, who transformed them into the bravest of soldiers. And on that day, as Peter spoke, his words being heard by every dialect, moved 3,000 to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Whereas on the first day under the law, 3,000 were slain for breaking the law by worshipping and idol, but on this day, covered by the blood of the lamb, 3,000 were saved.

Pentecost is cast as a shadow into its future within the First Fruits landscape. Jesus fulfills this because He is the new offering of the work of His labor. It was offered to and accepted by the Gentile substitutes, only after the Jews had rejected the work. Under Paul’s tutelage the Gentiles began growing the body of new creatures in Christ, which continues into the present day. Whereas the Jews display the characteristics and history of a people who have been on hold, while the prophecies concerning their fate continue to plays out in time.

On Pentecost, with every Spring feast (set time) fulfilled by Jesus, the way is clear for God to resume the Abraham covenant and fulfill their destiny.

The object here is to see that since the offering of the completed Messiah was made on Pentecost of Acts 2 for the Jews, and since they later rejected Jesus as the Messiah, God opts to place them on hold while he deals with the new covenant people, the Church. This requires that Jesus come again to complete His role for the Jews.

Pentecost becomes the pivotal feast, because the shadow cast into the future by the Pentecost of Acts 2 includes not only the new offering of Jesus, but also the anointing of the witnesses who carried the message of the Messiah to the Jews.

When Jesus takes His freed captives home with Him on Ascension Day, He casts the shadow himself of the Rapture, coming after 40 days of warning about the coming destruction.

Then on Pentecost, the witnesses are anointed and the march to convert the Jews was under way.

Now, in the future, the shadow cast from the Pentecost of Acts 2 requires that witnesses be anointed and begin offering Jesus as the Messiah to the Jews. Scripture tells us that God will anoint His last two witnesses to be the preachers of righteousness to the Jews.

When they begin to preach on Pentecost, it will be to the Jews, because the Church is gone! They will be pointing at the Rapture to demonstrate to the Jews that again they were warned, and again they were stiff-necked and so again they missed Him. They will also be pointing out that the Peacemaker that the Jews have just proclaimed as their deliverer is a false deliverer. Also, they will continue preaching the gospel of the Kingdom on earth, so that now the end can come to pass, as proclaimed by Jesus to the Jews in Matthew 24:14

The Church has to be gone. That message is not to the substitute Gentile believer that received the promises of the feast that were meant for the Jews. It’s for the Jews again, because their covenant is still ongoing, and their end time prophecies are about to be fulfilled. The end time prophecy for the Church was already fulfilled on Ascension Day!

PAUL SETS US STRAIGHT

At the end of the 40 days warning, something unexpected happens to the freed captives that had been raised. They are taken to Heaven, captive now to Jesus, so instead of receiving the Kingdom on earth as a reward, as promised in their covenant, they will now have a place in the rulership of the Kingdom under Jesus when He returns along with the full harvest of His labor that he had previously claimed on Ascension day.

Jesus, The Messiah, ascended with His captives 40 days after they arose on the feast of First Fruits. That’s part of the Messiah landscape that is included in that feast which is casting its shadow into the future of the Church to set the time precisely. And, that’s a picture of the Rapture and the time for its occurrence. And it’s landscape shows that it came at the end of a 40-day warning period to the Jews.

Now, Paul spoke of the Rapture in a variety of terms. He called it putting on immortality, a catching a way, a gathering together unto Him, and being taken out of the way. Remember these were HIS descriptions of an event that he was completely aware of, except for its timing. He was telling the story just as God had told it to him. He didn’t know anything else, so he couldn’t have given any misinformation. And, he told them that when this event came to pass, it would happen in the twinkling of an eye.

So, don’t let anyone ever convince you differently. Paul taught on the Rapture as an event. Paul taught on the Rapture’s timing, and Paul taught on the significance of the Rapture to the end times. That’s a whole lot of teaching about something that some Christians think doesn’t even exist!

Well, if doesn’t exist, why did Paul tell us to follow a trail that led us to know exactly what day it will occur? And don’t forget, along that trail we also found the warning period of the dead in Christ rising on First Fruits, and the anointing of the last two witnesses on Pentecost.

No, it’s exists for sure and we know the day, but not the date of its occurrence. For that we must continue to Watch the Jews. That’s what Paul meant when He told us to Watch!

DANIEL IS THE ALARM

Daniel’s prophecy holds the key to the timing of the end times, and thus to the Rapture, because it was the only prophecy that God sealed tight until the time of the end. That was done specifically to alert those living in that day that the final leg of the human journey had begun.

In the study of Daniel we learned that the Mideast was the location of the final action and the events leading up to peace with temple mount rights was the key.

We learned that the timing for peace has to be close enough so it can happen by Pentecost, because the new offering of the Messiah, the completion of Gods work, to the Jews (which went to the Church) happens on Pentecost. Thus, the resumption of the Abraham covenant, which has been held in limbo these many years, cannot begin again until the Messiah completes His covenant with the Church on Ascension Day, opening the way for His return, with them, to end the time of trouble and usher in the Reign of Christ on Earth.

THE RAPTURE – THE FEASTS
THE END TIMES – THE JEWS

The whole landscape of the end of the Church Age, and the beginning of the Tribulation is contained in the shadow cast by the feast of First Fruits. First Fruits is the fifty-day feast that ends on Pentecost. Christianity's birth and completion (not death, as we are all alive when we go to heaven) are typified in this 50-day period.

The theme goes from the promise of the full harvest yet to come, to the new offering of the completed work of Jesus. In Christian terms, the theme includes the Resurrection, the warning, the Rapture and the offering. That offering of the good news of the coming of the Messiah was made to the Jews! The Church was born at a later time under a different circumstance, and promised heaven and rulership in the Kingdom on earth if they accepted the offering.

We know that He’s coming again, and that the theme of it is to complete the Abraham covenant. Scripture says the offering will be made again to the Jews. And because He’s offered again, proves that the Church age is over. The Church already accepted Jesus as Christ, reoffering Him to us would be meaningless. And since Jesus atoned for sin, and we accepted that, the fulfillment of the feast of Atonement by Jesus, to include the Church would be meaningless also. And, when Jesus returns to earth to take command of His Kingdom, we will be with Him as part of the cadre, as He fulfills the feast of Tabernacles, not for us, but for the Jews!

With that understanding, how could anyone conceive of a mid, or post Tribulation rapture, or worse yet, no rapture at all.

The scriptural evidence is overwhelming! Not one new word has been added to scripture! It’s already nigh you; all you have to do is speak it forth! There is nothing new to believe, only an unexplored trail through scripture to experience.

There was great meaning and power in Paul’s words to the Colossians. We’ve explored the trail left by those words through the Old and New Testaments together, and discovered the landscape of the Rapture built into the landscape of the Messiah, depicted in the landscape of His only sign, Jonah, all wrapped up in the feast of the Jews, fulfilled by the Messiah, who bridges the span of time from then until now. (This is very much like the Television show on the Discovery Channel called, “Connections”.) And, all of these individual parts fit neatly onto the landscape of Christianity, which is in the picture painted by the Tabernacle in the wilderness, which was decidedly Jewish.

And, all of this is very easy to understand. It’s extremely clear how God shows you the timing for everything demonstrated by His “set times” (the feasts, remember, feast means “set time”), for the Jews, that He turned into promises to the new creatures in Christ, by grafting them onto the tree of the root of Abraham, under a new and separate covenant.

Why does it take hundreds of denominations of Christianity to understand that? It doesn’t! It only takes one! And, Paul only taught one; the one that He got out of the mouth of God. That meant it had to be SIMPLE! That meant it had to be UNCOMPLICATED! That meant it had to be self contained! Because God is not the author of confusion, and His entire plan was laid down before the foundation of the world. Once started, it continues along a course through time until it reaches its end.

RELIGION and its TRADITIONS are what are making void the word of God and confusing things to the point that hundreds of denominations are adding to the confusion that we have come to expect from man!

It’s time for Christianity to look to its roots for the answer. Especially since we are even at the door of the end of time, as Christians will know it. Paul is who God trusted with this word. Turn to Paul’s teaching for the TRUE message, spoken then to the new converts, but realized now, in those of us who made it into the “end times”.

Don’t let RELIGION and its TRADITIONS blind you!

I hope that this teaching has helped to de-mystify what is our fondest hope in Christianity. Our hope is not a myth! It’s scriptural and clearly defined for those who will take the time to search it out, as you have, by studying along with me and discovering the “connections” God used to assure you of your faith in His word.

Go on to Class VI
Giving as an Object of Faith