By COGwriter
Back in 1981, the late Church of God leader, Herbert W. Armstrong, gave a sermon titled The Meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles. My wife Joyce and I watched it live on what seemed to be the first live satellite broadcast that the old WCG had ever done for the festival sites.
This article is highly based on what he said, and will include many quotes from him. Note: Any statements within quotes using the following { } were added by me.
But first, let's go to the first time the Bible uses the expression "Feast of Tabernacles." That is in Leviticus 23:33-43, which states:
33 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. 35 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. 36 For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. 37 'These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day -- 38 besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the Lord. 39 'Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. 40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.'" (NKJV throughout, unless otherwise noted, or including in quotes from other sources)
Jesus also kept it:
2 ... the Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. ... 10 But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. ... John 7:18
14 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. (John 7:2,10,14)
So, we see that God commanded its observance, and Jesus kept it.
Why?
While we do not know all the reasons why, the festival points us to look to God--to not be involved in our regular routine--and to help us look to the coming millenial Kingdom of God.
That is NOT a new idea nor invention of Herbert W. Armstrong.
Notice something that the Greco-Roman Catholic saint Jerome wrote:
Christian judaizers … Christian Jews … All, he says, those who remain survivors of the nations that come against Jerusalem, shall go up every year, to worship the King the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of Tabernacles. These also shall hope in, through the hollow devotion of Jews, a thousand years old promise of the future kingdom, whose festival this is the beginning of.
So, just like those Jerome observed in the 4th/5th centuries who had the revealed vision of God's plan, we in the Continuing Church of God also believe that the Feast of Tabernacles foreshadows the coming millennium. Living in temporary dwellings, while spending second tithe to rejoice (Deuteronomy 14:22-26), helps picture the abundance of the millennium. That is part of its meaning.
The Bible teaches that one should normally travel for the Feast of Tabernacles and use the tithe saved for it to do so and rejoice:
39 'Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. 40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. (Leviticus 23:39-41)
22 "You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. 23 And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24 But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, 25 then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. 26 And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. (Deuteronomy 14:22-27)
In his sermon, Herbert W. Armstrong said:
I've been struck with the average "gospel message" so-called (falsely so-called) preaching about Christ, just about Christ. That's all right in itself, but we need so much more than that. Jesus Christ was the Messenger who brought the message of the Gospel. The Gospel is the message He brought — the message from God the Father; and they ignore God the Father today in the religion known as Christianity. They just say, "If you have heard Christ, if you know that Christ died for you. The Gospel is that Christ died for you. You just accept the fact He died for you, 'hocus pocus', you'll go to heaven when you die."
Oh, how terrible it is, brethren, that the world doesn't know WHY WE ARE HERE! THEY DON'T KNOW THE PURPOSE OF LIFE!! THEY DON'T KNOW THE PURPOSE OF GOD ALMIGHTY. But this Church is beginning to tell them; and we've been telling them now for about forty-eight, forty-nine years. And the only voice in the world that is telling them the real truth of WHO AND WHAT GOD IS, OF THE REAL MESSAGE OF GOD AND THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST which is the Gospel OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, OF WHAT AND WHY MAN IS, HOW DID WE COME TO BE HERE? WHAT"S THE PURPOSE OF LIFE? WHY WERE WE PUT HERE? The world does not know those things.
Oh, it is so much more than just knowing that Christ died for us. Why did He die for us? What was the purpose? What does that have to do with us and our lives? There's something we need to do besides what He did for us. We need to let Him come into our lives and live our lives for us, and that's something else again.
One of the reasons that the world does not know more about God's plan for humans is because the vast majority do not keep God's Holy Days, particularly the Feast of Tabernacles, and its eighth adjacent day. The biblical time lasted 8 days with the first and eighth day as a holy convocation.
Satan the devil is sitting on the throne of the earth, and for six thousand years he has been ruling in the governments of this world. He sits on a throne. The world is being governed, and people's lives are being governed. Satan does not want people to know God's plan, hence he has come up with various demonic alternatives to God's holy days. He even influenced a fearful king of Israel to come up with a substitute for the Feast of Tabernacles to be observed a month after the biblical date:
25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel. 26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah."
28 Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!" 29 And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30 Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. 31 He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
32 Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. 33 So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense. (1 Kings 12:25-33)
Another thing that is interesting about that is that this would have been the tenth month of the ancient Roman calendar, called December. But since Emperors Julius and Augustus Ceasar wanted months named after them, they inserted those into the calendar. Then December ended up two months later, and now much of the world observes what is often considered the Christmaa holiday period from 25 December to 1 January. This is also 8 days with the first and the eighth day being considered as holidays.
Now let's go to the New Testament, the twelfth chapter of Revelation:
7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:7-9)
So, Satan will have more focus on the world then he has been having.
Continuing 12:10:
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. (Revelation 12:10)
Many think that they already have salvation, but Christians do not attain salvation until after Jesus returns:
28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. (Hebrews 9:28)
Herbert W. Armstrong said:
People think that when you say, "I receive Christ," you have received salvation. The Bible does not teach that, my brethren. The Bible teaches that he that endureth unto the end the same shall be saved. Salvation comes with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and not until then. Oh, how deceived this whole world is. Satan the Devil has deceived them. He is the god of this world. He has his religions, he has his governments, he has his social structure, he has his business and economic structure. He has everything in this world! It's his world.
Jesus returns to bring salvation as well as to usher in the millennial kingdom of God.
12:11
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:11)
Herbert W. Armstrong said:
That doesn't mean that everybody dies that loves God and has His Word. In fact, this Church is to be protected from that sort of thing. But you have to love God and love peace and love things like that more than your life.
12:12
12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time." (Revelation 12:12)
Herbert W. Armstrong said:
He knows that he has but a short time. But what is all of that triggering? Satan cast out of heaven, down to earth and beginning to persecute the Church as the next verse said, which I didn't read. And we have been persecuted; and it does show that, after that, we're going to be taken to a Place of Safety. Then there will be another persecution of the remnant Church — known in the Bible, and in the 3rd chapter of the book of Revelation, as the Laodicean Church — a still greater Church but a lukewarm one ...
Yes, Satan knows that his time will be short.
Now let's go to the 11th chapter of Revelation:
15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" (Revelation 11:15)
Related to that, Herbert W. Armstrong said:
Brethren, we're here to celebrate the time that will begin with the Second Coming of Christ. That will be a thousand years of peace. Now, just five days ago, we celebrated a time that really signifies and reminds us every year of the fact that this Satan the Devil is going to be cast into a symbolic bottomless pit. In other words, set a seal upon him that he cannot deceive the nations anymore for one thousand years. And there will be a thousand years of peace on this earth. We had a sermon here in Pasadena this morning on peace. I wish that could have been telecast all over the whole world because it did help to set the pattern for this entire festival that we're observing now.
Peace is a state of positive mental tranquility, but it is more than just tranquility. It's a state of confidence, it's a state of love; it's a state of mind, an attitude of mind. And it was explained to those in the local audience here this morning, how (even though we live in a world of great disturbance and of war and of every evil) that we can have peace in our own hearts and our own lives even in such a world.
Now notice verse 18 of Revelation 11:
18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,
And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,
And those who fear Your name, small and great,
And should destroy those who destroy the earth." (Revelation 11:18)
If this was God's world, the nations would rejoice when Jesus returns. But instead, notice that they are angry.
Yet, despite that God will reward the prophets and the other saints when Jesus returns. That reward will include salvation as well as reigning with Jesus as kings and priests:
9 And they sang a new song, saying:
"You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
10 And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:9-10)
And notice, this reigning is on the earth. The Roman Catholics and SDAs, to name two groups, badly misunderstand this.
Getting back to, Herbert W. Armstrong's sermon, he said:
Today we're living in a SICK, SICK world. A VERY SICK world! A world filled with crime, filled with violence and war, filled with immorality, and filled with starvation and ignorance and suffering and every evil and everything that we don't want — because men are living the way they want to live. Now it all started at the very beginning, and you find that beginning in the beginning of your Bible in Genesis 1 and verse 1.
So here is that verse:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
Herbert W. Armstrong said:
God created the heavens at the same time He created this earth, and that may have been thousands or millions of years ago. We don't know. The Bible doesn't state that, and there is nothing in the Bible that contradicts the fact that it might have been that long ago. {there is an article on that: How Old is the Earth and How Long Were the Days of Creation? Gap Theory?}
But first God had created angels and angel life, before He created the earth and before He created man. He had created angels; and God is, well, God is in the business of creation. Jesus, when He was on earth, said that He worked; and He says, "My Father works." "My Father works and I work;" and we're to work and labor, but we're to work progressively and profitably. ...
God is Creator, but what is God creating? Just what is God creating? God is creating CHARACTER inseparate created entities, which God has created. Separate entities having minds of their own. But now the character -- supreme, righteous, perfect character — is something even God cannot, by Himself alone, create automatically by fiat. He cannot do that. It takes also the decision making process and the will of the individual created entity, along with the work of God, to create that character.
Now God has that character dwelling within Him. That means the perfect way of life. It means following as a motive of life and an attitude of mind and heart the way of the Law of God, the way of out-flowing love. A way of living! This world is living just the opposite way, and no wonder we're having troubles. No wonder we have violence and war. No wonder there's trouble between husband and wife, and between parents and children, between neighbors, between groups, capital and labor, black and white. Any little thing that we can find, we get prejudice against someone else; and we get into discrimination, and hatred, and everything wrong. Because the Law of God in your mind and heart is the way of love, the way of tolerance, the way of concern for the good and welfare of others instead of just yourself. But people have self-concern.
So God established government over the angels in order to have a way to enforce His Law, in order to create character in them. Now the angel that He put over all them was one of the archangels — the morning stars, you know "light bringers" — was one called Lucifer.
I'd like to turn to that in Isaiah the fourteenth chapter, and I'll read now just the twelfth to the fifteenth verse. It is speaking primarily here of the king of Babylon, but he was merely a human ruler under the government of Satan. Satan was sitting on the throne of the whole earth, but this king of Babylon was merely a type representing Satan. So beginning with verse twelve, the lower type lifts to the greater anti-type of Satan the Devil; and speaks now of Satan, instead of just King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, beginning with verse twelve, where it says:
So, to Isaiah 14:
12 "How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart:
'I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.' (Isaiah 14:12-14)
Yes, it is Satan, who was originally named Lucifer that has weakened the nations and was the first one known to attack the government of God.
Herbert W. Armstrong said:
Lucifer was his name. Now Lucifer means shining star of the dawn, one of the morning stars that sang when God created the earth. In other words, light bringer. He was a glorious archangel as God had created him. ...
He was going to knock God off His throne. He was going to take over the rulership of the whole world. In other words, jealousy had entered into him and rebellion. He was put on this earth to administer the Government of God. The Government of God was based on a constitution or a basic law, the Law of God, the Law of out-flowing love.
The only difference between that and the Law of God and the Ten Commandments is that we are mortal humans. We are male and female. Angels were not. We have to have in that Law the same principle expressed like adultery and honoring father and mother. They didn't reproduce. They didn't have sex. But the principle of first love to God and love to one another did apply to them just the same. But this archangel rebelled, and he talked all of his angels into a rebellion and into an army to SWOOP on up to heaven and to knock God off the throne and to take over. Now we're talking about the rulership or the government over the lives of people. That's what we're talking about. ...
Satan is going to strike this Church some way. I don't know how, but I just know he's not going to rest. He doesn't like to see this Church bound together in love as we are right now.
Now he'll strike at any one of you if you will let him. You need to be constantly on your guard because Satan, as a roaring lion, is going about seeking whom he may devour; and he would try to devour any one of you.
Well, when Lucifer rebelled, the Government of God on this earth became inoperative; and the Government of God was no longer being administered. There was no Government of God being administered on the earth.
Continuing in Isaiah:
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit. (Isaiah 14:16)
So, we see that Satan was prophesied to lose.
Notice now the following:
16 "Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
'Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
17 Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who did not open the house of his prisoners?' (Isaiah 14:16-17)
Yes, people will be shocked that such an entity as Satan/Lucifer was able to sway governments and hold the world captive.
But, brethren, we do not have to wait until then to know.
We already know now.
And the New Testament tells us how to deal with Satan.
First, here is from the Apostle James:
6 ... "God resists the proud, {Satan was proud}
But gives grace to the humble."7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:6-7)
The Apostle Peter wrote something similar:
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. (1 Peter 5:8-9)
Next, here is what the Apostle Paul told those in Ephesus:
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints (Ephesians 6:10-18)
Taking up the whole armor of God, including the word of God, includes keeping the Feast of Tabernacles where you will learn more about God and His ways as well as what His plan is for humankind.
Getting back to Herbert W. Armstrong, he said:
Now this Lucifer became Satan the Devil, and his angels now became demons. And yet the Gospel when Jesus finally came, and the Gospel we preach to the world today, is the Kingdom of God; and that's the Government of God to replace that Government of Satan on this world. Now Satan is not ruling in the Government of God on this earth.
The Government of God is not operative any longer. It's not being administered on this earth except one place; and that is in this Church. And that's a voluntary rule. You have come in voluntarily. I didn't solicit any of you to come into the Church. I didn't ask any of you, I didn't plead with you, "PLEASE GIVE YOUR HEART TO THE LORD, PLEASE COME INTO THE CHURCH, PLEASE BELIEVE THESE DOCTRINES." I never did that. I proclaimed the truth; and I think perhaps the majority of you came into the Church because you heard a broadcast, or you read something I wrote in a magazine or that some other under me had written (one of the students that I had taught).
God had called you. NO MAN CAN COME TO CHRIST, and there is no way to come back to God except through Christ. But no one can come to Him, except the Father draws him. And that is only those that are predestinated, as I said in the message last night that you saw on the screen. And God has picked one here, and one there, and one over here, and one somewhere else all over the world out of the billions of people on the earth. You happen to be one of those people that He has picked.
And think of the responsibility that rests on you, that you were chosen. But you were chosen for a purpose. You were chosen for a service. You were chosen for a big job. You were chosen to change your life. You were chosen to let God come into your life through the power of His Holy Spirit and fill you with the love of God — of love towards others: and love, first of all, towards God; and then towards man — and then to help in getting this message to the world.
God has not called this Church to convert the world. He isn't trying to convert the world at this time. He is calling some for the Church that are the FIRSTFRUITS of God's salvation. The CHURCH IS TO BE MARRIED TO CHRIST when He comes. And we will be turned from human into God, from mortal into immortals, from flesh and blood into divine spirit. And we will then reign and rule UNDER Christ. But we have to be submissive to Him and take orders from Him. We have to be ruled now by Him and through His Church or we'll never be able to do the ruling with Him then.
And, you know, some have gone out of this Church because they've said, "Oh, I hate that Government of God in the Church." Do you hate the Government of God, the Law of God, which is just love towards other? And the Government of God is administered in love, not in ... It's not a stern tyrant ruling over slaves. It is the way Christ rules and the way God rules — in love and in mercy and in wanting to help and in wanting to serve. Jesus came as a servant, and yet He is the head of the Church. And that's the way of the Government in this Church.
Now God's purpose, as I said, is to create character. But now in humans God has another purpose. God's purpose is to REPRODUCE HIMSELF. God is NOT reproducing Himself in angels. They have no reproductive process within themselves. He made human man to have the reproductive process within himself because God is reproducing Himself in and through man.
Related to that part of the plan of God to reproduce, let's notice something else from Genesis:
24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness (Genesis 1:24-26)
Animals were made after the animal kind, but human beings were made after the God kind.
Jesus taught deification:
34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods" '? 35 If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), (John 10:34-35).
And this was not only referring to His own deification as Jesus quoted from Psalm 82:6 which also is in the plural:
6 I said, "You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High..." (Psalm 82:6).
God wants godly offspring, and that is why God made humans male and female and created marriage, as the Prophet Malachi was inspired to write:
14...she is your companion And your wife by covenant. 15 But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. (Malachi 2:14-15)
Like Malachi, the Apostle Paul also taught that we are God's offspring:
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. (Acts 17:28-30)
Additionally about real Christians, the Apostle Paul specifically taught "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16)--we do and strive to have that more.
Notice that, anciently, David knew that he would be as God when he was resurrected into God's Kingdom:
15 As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness. (Psalm 17:15)
Paul wrote that Jesus was to be the firstborn of many brethren:
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).
Notice that there are to be MANY brethren (see also the free online book: Universal OFFER of Salvation, Apokatastasis: Can God save the lost in an age to come? Hundreds of scriptures reveal God’s plan of salvation). The offer of salvation and deification are not going to be limited just to a few (Luke 3:6; though most will not receive their opportunity in this age, cf. Matthew 7:13-14).
As God is our Father, we are to be "conformed to the image of His Son," Jesus is God, Jesus is our brother, are we not to be in the family of God and truly be deified?
Notice what happened with Jesus is supposed to happen to us:
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).
18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures (James 1:18).
4 These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb (Revelation 14:4).
16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches (Romans 11:16).
Christians are to be firstfruits like Christ. As a firstfruit, Christ is divine.
Notice something Jesus prayed:
10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. (John 17:10-11)
Since both the Father and Son are divine beings, Jesus prayed for His followers to be one as He and the Father are--which means part of the God family. Lest anyone wish to interpret the above scripture to mean something else, Jesus continued His prayer and also prayed the following:
20 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:20-26)
Jesus prayed that His followers would become one in the same way. He and His Father are one. And they are one divine family.
Furthermore, notice that the Bible does teach that there is a whole family which is named after God the Father, and that we are to know the love of Christ so that we can truly have the fullness of God:
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19).
If one is filled with "all the fullness of God" does not that suggest that they will be also God as part of the Family of God?
The Apostle Paul also taught:
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together (Romans 8:16-17, KJV).
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)
18 'I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:18)
Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:14-15).
Notice that "the children of God" are to be "glorified together" with Christ as "joint-heirs" and are to be transformed into the same image as God. And God will be a Father to His sons and daughters.
The Apostle John taught:
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12).
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! 2 Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God (1 John 3:1-2a).
The children of people are people, the children of cows are cows. What are the children of God?
The Apostle Peter taught deification:
3 His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4).
Are not those that are "partakers of the divine nature" somehow deified? And fully partaking of this nature does not happen until after the resurrection (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:50-53).
If you respond properly to God (either in this age, or if applicable, the age to come), then ruling the creation, the universe is part of your destiny. Notice:
21...the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. (Romans 8:21-22)
As joint heirs with Christ, resurrected converted humans are to rule the universe:
2:5 For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. 6 But one testified in a certain place, saying:
"What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? 7 You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. 8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet."
For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:5-10)
Jesus suffered. And He did so in order that we will be granted salvation and brought to glory--that glory is deification!
11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying:
"I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You."
13 And again:
"I will put My trust in Him."
And again:
"Here am I and the children whom God has given Me."
14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. 3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. 5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. (Hebrews 2:11-3:6)
Ruling the universe is part of the destiny that God has in store for the vast bulk of humanity.
We are to make that calling sure as Peter wrote:
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:10-11)
That is part of why we need to learn and accept God's form of governance now as well as to look forward to it in the millennial kingdom of God, which the Feast of Tabernacles helps picture.
Early Christians taught the doctrine of deification.
In the early second century, Ignatius of Antioch wrote:
For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ, these are with the bishop; and as many as have repented, and have entered into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall be of God, (Ignatius. Letter to the Philadelphians, 3:2)
Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, and the apostles, and the Church; all these come into the unity of God. (Ignatius. Letter to the Philadelphians, 9:1)
For it is not my desire to act towards you as a man-pleaser, but as pleasing God, even as also you please Him. For neither shall I ever have such [another] opportunity of attaining to God ... It is good to set from the world unto God, that I may rise again to Him ... Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God (Ignatius. Letter to the Romans, Chapters 2,4).
He is the door of the Father, by which enter in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, and the apostles, and the Church. All these have for their object the attaining to the unity of God (Ignatius. Letter to the Romans, Chapter 9).
Polycarp of Smyrna, who knew Ignatius, wrote:
But He who raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments {including keeping the Feast of Tabernacles} and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, falsewitness; "not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing," or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord ... may He bestow on you a lot and portion among His saints, and on us with you, and on all that are under heaven, who shall believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ, and in His Father, who raised Him from the dead (Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1 as edited by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Sections 2,12).
Polycarp is teaching that what happened to Jesus will also happen to true Christians. And that is also what New Testament writers taught. He also mentioned the commandments--and according to the Apostle Paul, "the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart" (1 Timothy 1:5)--and as God's people we are to learn and teach His commandments and love.
Theophilus of Antioch also taught the humans were to become God, though several passages need to be looked at to make this clear:
In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the threes of God, and His Word, and His wisdom. And the fourth is the type of man, who needs light, that so there may be God, the Word, wisdom, man (Theophilus of Antioch. To Autolycus, Book 2, Chapter XV. Translated by Bob Thiel).
(Note the above is often mistranslated, for details see the article Theophilus of Antioch).
What Theophilus is teaching is that now man is a fourth, but will become part of God, the third part of God, when humans become God's born-again offspring. And that he seems to see this as the wisdom of God's plan.
Lest anyone suggest that I am reading something into Theophilus that he does not mean (and since he often writes poetically, he is a bit hard to follow), he verifies what I concluded when he wrote:
... if I call Him Mind, I speak but of His wisdom; if I say He is Spirit, I speak of His breath; if I call Him Wisdom, I speak of His offspring (Theophilus of Antioch. To Autolycus, Book 1, Chapter III. Translated by Marcus Dods, A.M. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2. Edited by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).
For if He had made him immortal from the beginning, He would have made him God...so that if he should incline to the things of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he should receive as reward from Him immortality, and should become God...For God has given us a law and holy commandments; and every one who keeps these can be saved, and, obtaining the resurrection, can inherit incorruption (Theophilus of Antioch. To Autolycus, Book 2, Chapter XXVII. Translated by Marcus Dods, A.M. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2. Edited by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).
Theophilus teaches that we are to be God's offspring and become God. We are to be God in the family of God.
Theophilus also taught:
For if He had made him immortal from the beginning, He would have made him God ... so that if he should incline to the things of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he should receive as reward from Him immortality, and should become God ... For God has given us a law and holy commandments; and every one who keeps these can be saved, and, obtaining the resurrection, can inherit incorruption (Theophilus of Antioch. To Autolycus, Book 2, Chapters 26, 27, p. 105).
Early koine Greek speaking Christians, like the three just quoted understood the original language that the New Testament was written in, plus knew the apostles or people who knew the apostles or their disciples and they taught deification.
Getting back to Herbert W. Armstrong, he said:
God did not make man complete. Man was only half there. He made man to reproduce because God was going to reproduce man, and so man must reproduce as a type of what God is doing through us; and man couldn't reproduce himself. ...
Now women are co-heirs with men to the Kingdom of God. They are not satisfied with that. They can be as much God as man can in the next life. But God made them for one purpose. A man can't bear children, a woman can. But they consider that as beneath them. That is a GREAT GLORY! IT'S A GLORY A MAN CAN'T DO. It's a wonderful thing that a woman can become a mother and bear children. In the eyes of God that is a wonderful thing, but women downgrade that today. They don't want to have children. They want to rule over men. They want equal rights with men. Well, there shouldn't be discrimination. God didn't intend discrimination, but He didn't intend the kind of governments and laws and fighting and bickering, the kind of thing we have in this world today either.
But now here was Adam, and Adam was still incomplete. He had a spirit, but it only gave him half of a mind. He was only half mentally there. He was only half physically there. He needed a wife. Well, God took care of that. God made the wife for him. But in his mind, he had to have a part in that. He had a spirit, a human spirit; but he needed another spirit with it. It was incomplete. And just as the male needed a female, a wife with him — so the one spirit needed another spirit, the Spirit of God, before the MIND even became complete. That's what he needed. ...
But Satan's was still on the throne, and Adam had now to decide. Would he take life? Adam, he didn't have life. He had a temporary existence. He was made of the dust of the ground. He was going to live only so long. God put him in the Garden of Eden after He had created him. And there were two trees in the center of that Garden: One the Tree of Life, the other The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Now notice, one would give him life, the other was the knowledge of good and evil. But God said that would give him death, because He said, "If you eat of that tree, you shall surely die." So that was the Tree of Death, but also the tree of knowledge. Now the first tree, The Tree of Life but it also was a Tree of Knowledge. It was tree of revealed knowledge from God through the Holy Spirit of God. Man didn't have full knowledge. His mind was only half there.
Do you get eternal life immediately? Oh, no! First, you repent. Then you have to come to really believe in Christ. Not only believe that He did die for you and that His shed blood paid the penalty of your sins, but you have to first repent of those sins and be willing to turn around and go the other way. Then you have to believe Christ. That is, believe what He said; and believe the Gospel. He said, "the Kingdom is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel." People don't believe the Gospel because they don't even know what the Gospel is. It isn't being preached except through this Church. Seventh Day Adventists don't preach it. The Sardis Church of God, a true Church of God, they don't preach it because they don't know what the Kingdom of God is; and the Kingdom of God is the Gospel.
The Tree of Life symbolically represented God's Holy Spirit. Without it, humans cannot have eternal life. With it, we can reign with Jesus during His millennial kingdom and beyond.
As far as why Adam and Eve had not eaten of the Tree of Life, there are perhaps a few reasons. It is likely that God wanted them to prove that they had the character for Him to make them immortal, hence He probably placed the Tree of Life in a difficult to access place and/or perhaps there was no mature fruit on it to be eaten. But what we do know is, that after Adam and Eve sinned, God would allow them access to it.
In a different sermon in 1983, Herbert W. Armstrong said:
Now, man had only this temporary life. God's purpose is to reproduce man. It required this character. Adam chose the wrong way, and so he neglected to have God's character; and God thereupon closed up the Tree of Life.... You see Adam was incomplete, spiritually and mentally. He had one spirit, a human spirit; and that human spirit made it possible for him to have a contact with God. That spirit made it possible for him to receive the Spirit of God and to come to have spiritual knowledge. That spirit gave man the power to have MIND power and to distinguish certain good, up to a certain level, from evil.
But to understand spiritual knowledge and God's kind of love took the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That is what Adam rejected. So God closed up the Tree of Life. And God closed up that Tree of Life until AFTER Jesus Christ, the second Adam, should come and pay the penalty of man's sin. Otherwise man had to die. ...
Now man was made mortal so he could die in the first place, lest (as you read in Genesis 3 verses 22 to 24), lest he would take of immortality and take the Tree of Life and live in sin forever. Sin just makes you unhappy and everybody else unhappy around you. So God would rather they just come and die finally into extinction, as if they had never been; and that's the ultimate end of those that refuse. But in the meantime, all were to die in Adam and be resurrected in Christ into a time of judgment. (Armstrong HW. The Trunk of the Tree. Sermon Date: October 15, 1983)
Now, let's go to Genesis 3:
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:1-5)
Back to his Feast of Tabernacles sermon, Herbert W. Armstrong said:
And, you know, even the religion of {called} Christianity still believes the serpent. They still believe that today. Brethren, human beings are not immortal. YOU ONLY HAVE TEMPORARY LIFE. THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE. YOU'RE ONLY HERE FOR A LITTLE WHILE; AND YOU'RE HERE TO LEARN A LESSON, AND YOU'RE HERE TO LEARN HOW TO GET INTO AN IMMORTAL LIFE.
Let me add that early Christians did NOT teach the immorality of the soul and unbiased scholars of early church history realize that (see also Did Early Christians Believe that Humans Possessed Immortality?).
Herbert W. Armstrong said:
So she took of ... the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is really the Tree of Death. She gave to her husband, and he also followed her as a weakling; ...
Anyway, God finally cast them out of the Garden of Eden (as you read in Genesis 3 and the last three verses of the third chapter of Genesis) after they had sinned. And God CLOSED UP THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SHUT IT OFF FROM HUMAN BEINGS SO THAT NO HUMAN BEING COULD GET IN TO GET THE TREE OF LIFE.
... We don't get immortal life right away. We get the Holy Spirit; and, if we're led by the Holy Spirit, it gives us knowledge, the revealed knowledge of God. Men don't have that kind of knowledge. Adam only had the ability to acquire physical and materialistic knowledge. He did not have ability to acquire spiritual knowledge. His mind was only half there, and Adam never took of the Tree of Life. He would have received the Holy Spirit of God if he had. His mind would then have been full and complete. It never was. And so, let's notice now what happened. The Tree of Life was shut up.
God stopped humans from having immediate access to the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:22-24) on their own (John 6:44). God had a plan of redemption from before the foundation of the world involving Jesus Christ (Revelation 13:8)--who grants access to the Tree of Life (Revelation 2:7).
Let me add, that Irenaeus of Lyon, who knew Polycarp of Smyrna, explained in the late second century that God cut off access to the Tree of Life for Adam's good:
Wherefore also He drove him out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He pitied him, [and did not desire] that he should continue a sinner for ever, nor that the sin which surrounded him should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable. But He set a bound to his [state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God. (Irenaeus. Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter 23, verse 6).
Although Irenaeus had imperfect knowledge, what he was saying was that by denying Adam and Eve access to the Tree of Life after they sinned, they would thus die (as God previously said that they would if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil), and therefore have an opportunity after the resurrection (in their case, like most humans, the second resurrection) to live to God. And to prevent people from becoming incorrigible (Hebrews 6:4-6) is part of why God does not call all to eternal life in this age (cf. James 4:17) as He wants all to have a real opportunity for salvation (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4).
Theophilus of Antioch wrote:
And God showed great kindness to man in this, that He did not allow him to remain in sin for ever; but, as it were, by a kind of banishment, cast him out of Paradise, in order that, having by punishment expiated, within an appointed time, the sin, and having been disciplined, he should afterwards be restored. (Theophilus. To Autolycus, Book 2, Chapter 26)
GOD DOES NOT WANT ANY TO LIVE ETERNALLY IN THE TORMENT OF SIN. THAT IS WHY HUMANS WERE NOT MADE IMMORTAL--BUT NEED TO CHOSE GOD'S LOVING WAY SO WE CAN LIVE ETERNALLY IN LOVE AND BLISS. See also the free eBook: The MYSTERY of GOD’s PLAN: Why Did God Create Anything? Why Did God Make You?
Hopefully, you have chosen the God's way have been granted God's Holy Spirit in this age. In case you have not, the following might be helpful to you:
Is God Calling You? This booklet discusses topics including calling, election, and selection. If God is calling you, how will you respond? Here is are links to related sermons: Christian Election: Is God Calling YOU? and Predestination and Your Selection; here is a message in Spanish: Me Está Llamando Dios Hoy? A short animation is also available: Is God Calling You?
Christian Repentance Do you know what repentance is? Is it really necessary for salvation? Two related sermons about this are also available: Real Repentance and Real Christian Repentance.
About Baptism Should you be baptized? Could baptism be necessary for salvation? Who should baptize and how should it be done? Here are links to two related sermons: Let's Talk About Baptism and Baptism, Infants, Fire, & the Second Death.
Now, let's look at something written by the Apostle Paul:
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. (1 Corinthians 15:22-26)
You may not have thought about it this way before, but that is tying Adam and all others in to the coming Kingdom of God. The millennial portion of which is pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles. So, despite Adam's sin, God's plan will be accomplished.
Those in the millennium will have an opportunity for salvation, hence access to the Holy Spirit.
Now, related to tying in with the Holy Spirit for beyind the millennium, the eighth day of the Feast, the Last Great Day (which starts as soon as the seven day Feast of Tabernacles ends), also pictures the making of the Holy Spirit available.
The late Dr. Herman Hoeh wrote the following about that:
You will find Jesus' activities during the Feast of Tabernacles described in the Gospel of John, chapters 7 through 9. "Now the Jews' feast of Tabernacles was at hand," reports John in 7:2. Notice Jesus' example! "Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught" (verse 14). And a few days later: "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly [innermost being} shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive...)" (verses 37-39).
What did John mean, "the last day, that great day of the feast"? The Festival of Tabernacles is an autumn festival, seven days in length. It begins on the 15th day of the seventh month (Tishri) in the Hebrew calendar, corresponding to September/October in the Gregorian calendar. Immediately following the seven days is an "eighth day" (Lev. 23:34-36, 39), the 22nd day of Tishri. It is a one-day festival, called the Last Great Day. The entire eight-day period came to be known as the Feast of Tabernacles, ...
Jesus' evening message, as that Last Great Day began, centered on water as symbolic of the Holy Spirit of God. ...
It was customary, as we have noted, to have a special ceremony of water-drawing from the pool of Siloam during the Feast of Tabernacles (The Babylonian Talmud, Seder Mo'ed, Sukkah, iv, Soncino Press, 1938). The ceremony symbolized the outpouring of the Spirit of God on the nations during the reign of the Messiah. The basis for the Jewish ceremony was Isaiah 12:3: "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." This water-drawing occurred on each of the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles and on the eighth or Last Great Day. (Whenever ... the Last Great Day occurred on a weekly Sabbath, the drawing of water occurred the previous evening.) ...
Jesus brought a new covenant message. The gospel came by Jesus Christ. Christ brought the New Testament promise of the Holy Spirit. He set the example for the New Testament Church of teaching about conversion and the Holy Spirit during the Feast of Tabernacles. Christ left us "an example that ye should follow his steps" (I Peter 2:21). (Hoeh H. The New Testament FEAST OF TABERNACLES. Good News, July-September 1973)
Notice also:
God is now giving the former rain of the Holy Spirit "moderately" -- producing the small harvest of firstfruits. There is to be a correspondingly larger "latter rain" of the Spirit to produce the greater spiritual harvest of souls (lives) in the Millennium (Acts 2:16,17). (Lesson 38 - The Feast of Tabernacles - The World Tomorrow. 58 Lesson: Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, 1965)
In a different message, Herbert W. Armstrong taught:
"In the last day, that great day of the feast [or the festival], Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." (John 7:37) Now, isn't that strange language? I wonder if you can understand that?
"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly [that is, out of his innermost being] shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38)
Now the next verse explains what He meant: "(But [and it's in brackets or parenthesis] this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should [or were in the future to] receive: for the Holy [Spirit] was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)." (John 7:39) Now the Holy Spirit had not been given to all men at that time. ...
a great many people believe today that the Holy Spirit had already been given. And they believe that Peter, and James, and John, and the apostles, or the disciples, as they were at that time - a disciple is a student or learner, and that's all they were at the time. ...
Now they had not received the Holy Spirit. It says so here very plainly. ... Now the Holy Spirit had not been given, and this very definitely says the Holy Spirit had not yet been given "(...because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" (John 7:39) And Jesus said to them; "...It is expedient for you [He said to His disciples] that I go away: for if I go not away, the [other] Comforter [the Holy Spirit] will not come unto you; but if I [go], I will send him unto you." (John 16:7) Now, the Holy Spirit had not come. ...
Now the Spirit of God is; "...the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy [Spirit]..." (Romans 5:5). The Holy Spirit is the love of God, it is love, and it comes from God. (Armstrong HW. Feast of Tabernacles To Be Kept Forever - Part 1. World Tomorrow Radio Broadcast, 1979 https://www.Herbert W. Armstronglibrary.com/cgi-bin/get/Herbert W. Armstrong.cgi?action=getbroadcast&InfoID=1429109886)
Notice that Jesus coming to be the future ruler was long part of the plan:
6 For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
God's government and peace will increase. The millennium will be the first part and the Feast of Tabernacles helps picture that.
Herbert W. Armstrong said:
He was coming as a RULER to establish the Government of God in the Kingdom of God. Now the Kingdom of God is the born Family of God. Christ was the first born of many brethren into that Kingdom. You and I can be born by a resurrection the same way. We can be begotten in this life, but we're not yet born. You know, an embryo in a mother's womb in the first four months of the pregnancy is not yet born. It's only begotten, and that's all we are spiritually. Physical birth is the precise exact example and type of our being spiritually born of God, exactly. But Jesus came and He said, " I will build My Church". Now then, He was going to call out certain ones. And so we read in Joel, the second chapter of Joel and verse twenty-eight:
Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon ALL flesh; God prophesied through Joel that the time would come when the Holy Spirit would not be locked up. Now He closed the Tree of Life in the time of Adam, but He said the time will come when He would open the Tree of Life (and it comes through the Holy Spirit) to all flesh. Well, on the Day of Pentecost, when the Church was founded, Peter said this is what Joel prophesied. But this is only the beginning. We're only the firstfruits. God has not poured out His Spirit ALL flesh yet, only the firstfruits because JESUS said in John (let me turn to that), John 6:44.
Jesus said: John 6:44 No man CAN come to me, except the Father which hath sent me DRAW him. The whole world cannot COME to Christ now. THEY COULDN'T COME TO CHRIST IF THEY WANTED TOO. Well, maybe if they wanted to badly enough, God would call them. But they can't come unless God calls them. I think if anyone thirsted for it and hungered for it enough and sought it enough, I believe God would call them. But if God doesn't call them, they can't come. That's why some of you, when you were converted in that first flush of romance, spiritual romance with Christ, you wanted to get all of your family and your relatives converted. You wanted them to get this wonderful good news; and they just laughed at you, and they thought you were crazy. I think most of you had that experience. I have. I did when I was first converted fifty-five years ago. My relatives just laughed at me. They thought I was a crackpot. They didn't want any of this kind of religion. If God the Father doesn't call, they cannot come now. "It's appointed to men now to die, after this the judgment". We're going to learn about that a week from today, the Last Great Day of this festival.
Now then, in the present time, Satan has blinded the world. You read of it in II Corinthians chapter 4 beginning with verse 3, where it says: II Corinthians 4:3 But if our gospel be hid [And that's about the Kingdom of God and getting into the Family of God. "IF our gospel be hid"], it is hid to them that our lost; Now lost doesn't mean condemned. Jesus came to save those that were lost, didn't He? We're to go after those that were lost.
II Corinthians 4:4 In whom [those that are lost] the god of this world [Satan the Devil] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them. It isn't given to them to know now. You know, Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God in parables; and His disciples came and said, "Why do You speak in parables"? "Well", He said, " I speak in parables so that the people in hearing would hear but would not understand. I didn't speak in parables to make the meaning more clear. I spoke in parables so they couldn't understand." It isn't given to them to understand. It is given them to die and after this the judgment. But every one who ever lived is going to come back in that judgment and have his chance of salvation. Oh, God is not going to pass up anybody. You'll find out in the end that God is so much more fair than the way Satan has the world believing. There's no comparison between the two.
Now, let's g0 tp Revelation 19:
6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! 7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!'" And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God." (Revelation 19:6-10)
Herbert W. Armstrong said:
Who is His wife? Brethren, you are that wife! And you people all over the United States and Canada and England and the others who are not able to hear this but will hear it later (won't be able to hear it today simultaneously with us, but will hear it later). We in this Church are that wife; and it says, "That the Church will have made Herself READY". BUT, BRETHREN, THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL BE READY! IT DOESN'T MEAN EVERY INDIVIDUAL IN THE CHURCH IS GOING TO BE READY. The question is ARE YOU READY NOW if Christ should come tomorrow?
Now, I think I can tell you He's not going to come tomorrow. Some people that don't understand say He might come any minute. That is not true. Certain other events have to happen first. But events can speed up very rapidly from this minute on, and it can come a lot quicker than you think, and it can come very, very quickly.
But after He comes, Satan is going to be put into the bottomless pit (as you read in the twentieth chapter and the first three verses). But now beginning with verse four in the {4} twentieth chapter of Revelation:
Revelation 20 starts off with:
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. (Revelation 20:1-3)
Satan will be bound for the entire millennium. We get a foretaste of that in a small way when we attend the Feast of Tabernacles as we are not in our usual routine in the world.
Continuing in Revelation 20:
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4-6)
Yes, brethren, we are to reign with Jesus for a thousand years. It will be a time of abundance and the Feast of Tabernacles pictures that.
The world will be a better place:
1 The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; 2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing.The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, The excellency of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted,"Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you." 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. 7 The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8 A higHerbert W. Armstrongy shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the HigHerbert W. Armstrongy of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray. 9 No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, 10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35:1-9)
Here is something related to the abundance:
11 "On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, And all the Gentiles who are called by My name," Says the Lord who does this thing. 13 "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it. ( Amos 9:11-13 )
David wrote:
16 There will be an abundance of grain in the earth, On the top of the mountains; Its fruit shall wave like Lebanon; And those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. 17 His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him; All nations shall call Him blessed. 18 Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! 19 And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. (Psalm 72:16-19)
As far as how God's people will function as priests, teachers of God's ways, notice the following:
The millennium will be fantastic, partially because people will be keeping God's law. God also will insure that people have better understanding of it than they do now:
20 ... Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
"This is the way, walk in it,"
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left. (Isaiah 30:20-21)
Yes, the Christians of today will be the teachers of tomorrow's world. You are learning to do so during the Feast of Tabernacles, in addition to what you learn throughout the year.
Herbert W. Armstrong closed with:
Well, brethren, that's about it. We're here to celebrate that time of that thousand years. But in that thousand years we're going to save those...and the salvation will be open to everybody then that is still living. Of those who have died, they will come up in the Great White Throne Judgment after that thousand years is completed. But that time is not very far off now, and we're celebrating that time.
Now, we've had a good beginning of this festival. Let's go on and enjoy it and rejoice; but let's also remember that we need to get closer to God, everyone of us. And, during this festival, don't just think of fun in the physical sense. Think of it in the spiritual sense and of a festival that will bring us CLOSER TO GOD. NOT CLOSER TO PHYSICAL and material things.
I know the Bible says, "bring your money that you saved up all year and spend it on whatever your soul lusted for." I think that "lusting " is a wrong translation in the English language. "Whatever you desire." But you should only desire those things that are right in God's sight. Let this festival be something that brings us all closer to God. That's the way to rejoice, and it is A TIME OF REJOICING.! So let's go on rejoicing and rejoicing in that way. Thank you all, brethren!
Yes. the coming kingdom of God will be a time of rejoicing. As it says in Leviticus 23:40 and Deuteronomy 14:26, we are to rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles.
So, the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles has to do with understanding God's plan, accepting God's government, being faithful to obey God, so that we will be granted entrance to be part of His kingdom as divine beings after the first resurrection, so we can then teach God's loving ways and help others prosper and be converted during the glorious kingdom of God. A time Satan will not be present.
We all should rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles.
Thiel B. The Meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles (c) COGwriter, 2025, https://www.cogwriter.com/feast-of-tabernacles-meaning.htm 2025 1001