Often the best way to gSometimes the best way to get across a point in order to make it clear, especially a complex difficult point, is to couch it in terms that people can understand, to present it in a manner which is familiar to people and to relate it to things that are familiar to the audience. 

                                    Jesus Christ often used this technique—and I would like to go particularly to Matthew 25:1, “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five of were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried or delayed, they all slumbered and slept, all of them. And at midnight there was a cry made. Behold the bridegroom cometh; go ye to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.”

                                    My particular point in this is that Jesus Christ was explaining to the people that His coming would be like the coming of a bridegroom. And He relates the subject of His coming in glory, to the subject of marriage. This was appropriate because nearly everyone in Judah at that time got married at some point in their lives.

                                    So, what was marriage like in that time in Judah? It was customary for parents to arrange marriages with, of course, the input of their children. Parents would get together and they would make an arrangement. Now, this is typical of God the Father looking down and calling certain individuals to become part of the bride for His Son. 

                                    Now once parents had made a marriage arrangement, gifts were usually exchanged and in the same way, when we respond to the Father’s call, a gift is provided which is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, the physical parents of the physical bride and groom would often delay the marriage for a time in a period of spousal, to determine their fitness for each other. Even so when we are called by the Father and given His gift, we must go through a period of time in this life to prove our devotion, fidelity, faithfulness, and obedience to our future husband, our bridegroom. And during this time, we are in a period of spousal or engagement to our coming husband.

                                    In Judah, when the date finally arrived for the big event, the bridegroom would leave his home with his friends and journey to the home of the bride where he would collect up his bride and together with her family would then proceed back to his own home. There a great feast would be held after which they would go forth to set up their own housekeeping in their own home.

                                    Even so, Jesus Christ will come and collect up his bride and take her back to the Father, presenting her to the Father and having a great marriage feast, there in heaven with the Father, after which they will leave the Father’s home to come down to the earth to establish their own domicile, their own home. And when Christ returns with His saints, He will set up a kingdom over the whole earth.

                                    Now, we see Jesus Christ using the customs of marriage in Judah as a beautiful analogy of the coming of the Kingdom of God and of His relationship to the called out ones the first fruits.

                                    So, let us go over this again. Parents arrange for the marriage of their children, the Father calls his first fruits out to become a bride for His Son, Jesus Christ. The parents exchange gifts, set a date and at that date, the bridegroom leaves his father’s house, goes and collects his bride, and takes her back to his father’s house. At which point, there is a great feast. Then the bridegroom leaves his father’s house with a new bride to set up his own home.

                                    This pictures beautifully, the Father calling out His first fruits, giving him the gift of the Holy Spirit; they are going through a period of espousal. After which at the appointed time, the Son comes from the Father’s house, comes down, and collects His bride, and takes her back to the Father’s house for the marriage feast. After which, He returns to the earth with His bride and sets up His kingdom.

                                    Let us now go to Revelation 19:1, “And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven. These are people in heaven saying, ‘Alleluia, Salvation and glory, and honor, and power unto the eternal our God! For true and righteous are His judgments for He had judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.’  And again they said, ‘Alleluia,” and her smoke rose up forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four creatures fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne saying, ‘Amen! Alleluia.’ And a voice was come out of the throne saying, ‘Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great.’  And I heard the voice of the great multitude and as the voice of many waters as the voice of mighty thunderings saying, ‘Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife hath made herself ready.’ And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white for white linen is the righteousness of saints. And He saith unto me, ‘Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And He said unto me, ‘These are the true sayings of God.’ And I fell at His feet to worship Him and he said unto me, ‘See thou do it not. I am thy fellow servant and of thy brother that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’ And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that sat upon Him and was called faithful and true and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with vesture dipped in blood: and His name was called Word of God. The Word of God is Jesus Christ. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations and He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”

                                    There you have it, Jesus Christ is in heaven. He is with His saints who are standing before the throne of God. And at this point they mount their horses as a great army and come to smite the nations with a sharp sword, verse 15 of Revelation 19. Here it is, “The wedding feast takes place in heaven after which the Messiah Jesus Christ will come down to the earth to set up His abode on the earth with His saints. For Jude tells us that He shall come with 10,000’s of His saints. Jude does not say He’s going to come down and meet all His saints on earth and stay on the earth. He says when Messiah comes, He shall come with His saints. He came and got His saints previously. As the bridegroom, He came for the bride and took them to the Father’s house for the wedding feast, after which He is coming to the earth with His saints; returning to the earth with them to establish His home, His kingdom on the earth.

                                    These is all explained in a slightly different way in Revelation chapter 15 beginning in verse 2, “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory of the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over a number of his name, stand on sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying, ‘Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are Thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, and glorify Thy name? For thou only art Holy: for all nations shall come and worship before You for Thy judgments are made known and made manifest. And after that I looked and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.”

                                      So, we see here all the saints: verse two, those who had gotten victory over the beast, and his image and his mark. They all stood on the great expanse of glass, having harps of God and they were before the throne in the temple of God in heaven.

                                    And now coming to verse 6, “And the seven angels came out of the temple having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. These seven angels had the vials, one for each of them containing the seven last plagues which are to be poured out on the earth and upon the kingdoms of this world to destroy them, to soften them up for the coming of Christ for the saints.”

                                    So, we see clearly the analogy of the marriages in Judea used by Jesus Christ to explain the events that were going to take place. How He was going to be betrothed to some called out first fruits called by the Father and that they will spend a period of time betrothed to Him after which He will come to get His saints and take them to a wedding feast at the Father’s home before the temple of God in heaven at the Father’s throne. And then He will return with His saints to set up His kingdom on the earth.

                                    Now what about John 3:13, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even a Son of man which is in heaven.”  Someone once made an assumption that because it was written that no man had ascended to heaven, that meant no man would ever ascend to heaven.  And this person spent his entire life teaching that no man would ever ascend to heaven, and was  thereby  denied an understanding of this beautiful, beautiful analogy. The fact is, flesh cannot cross the gulf between earth and heaven. Jesus Christ did not ascend to heaven while He was flesh. After He died and was resurrected, and was changed to His spirit, He again ascended to the Father. He is the first born of the many brethren. No man except Christ has been resurrected up until now. No man except Christ has been born again of the spirit and changed into spirit until now. When Christ comes to get and gather up His bride when the dead in Christ are resurrected and the living are changed to spirit, mankind who are the first fruits, who are the called of God, who have been faithful, who have endured to the end and overcome and remain in Christ completely and totally to the very end, those people would be changed to spirit. And spirit can cross the gulf between earth and heaven.

                                     As Christ was able to ascend to heaven once He was changed to spirit, so we, once changed to spirit, will be able to ascend and see our beloved Father and take part in the fantastic and wonderful wedding feast. A true celebration, a victory celebration, victory over Satan, victory over sin, victory over evil, and victory over the pulls of the flesh. And we shall celebrate this victory with our betrothed husband who has now become our husband, our husband Jesus Christ. And we will do this in the presence of our Father who loved us enough to give His Son for us. To say to His Son, “Go ahead and do this.” And He gave up His only beloved Son, His much beloved Son, His only begotten Son for our sakes. He loved us that much and He loved us enough to call us and to give us the gift of His spirit. We shall be able to enjoy a great celebration of victory in His presence. And He, the great Father, the Holy Father the true Holy Father, the King of the universe, shall be able to enjoy having His children gathered around Him. Truly this will be a momentous and wondrous occasion.

                                    I have gone to some length to try and explain all of this and set it all out. So, that you will really understand the difference between the 1290 days and waiting to the end of the total of 1335 days.  At the end of the 1290 days is the resurrection when the saints ascend to the Father in heaven. When Jesus Christ comes to gather up His saints, His bride and takes them to the Father and over the next period of time, over the next 45 days, the seven last plague are poured out and during that period of time, Jesus Christ returns with his bride, with his saints to crush the opposition, to crush the enemies of righteousness and to establish the kingdom of God on this earth. And at the end of this period of 1335 days; all men, all flesh will be blessed for God’s spirit—Joel 2:28—will be poured out on all flesh and God’s kingdom will be established over all the earth.

                                    Certain errors have crept into the Church because the words of the Book of Daniel, the words of the prophets were sealed until the very end. And not knowing this and believing that it was the end, thinking that they were much closer to the end, than they really were, people got carried away with certain ideas and tried to substitute their own opinions and their own speculations for the Word of God. And before long these speculations and opinions assume the weight of facts and people were misled. So, an error that no man ever will go to heaven crept into the Church and it is now deeply rooted in people’s minds.

                                    There is another error and it goes something like this: we are told that spring festivals picture the spring or early harvest in Palestine and that the fall festivals picture the fall or main or greater harvest in Palestine. And yet people then go on to say that the reaping of the spring harvest occurs on a fall holy day. That is such a contradiction; if a spring harvest pictures the harvest of first fruits and it pictures the harvest of first fruits in the spiritual sense, in the plan of God :why would you have the spring harvest being harvested in the fall, by proclaiming that the harvest of first of fruits was to take place; a resurrection of the first fruit was to take place on a fall holy day? This is an absolute direct contradiction; as a spring harvest must be harvested in the spring. The spring harvest cannot take place in the fall. If it did take place in the fall it would not be the spring harvest it would be a fall harvest.

                                    A few hundred years ago, some commandment despising, law-hating-person, who felt that he had been liberated from having to obey God ;looked in the Bible and saw these seven trumpets of the Book of Revelation and thought that trumpets and the Feast of Trumpets were about the same thing. They put two together (so they thought) and came up with the idea that the resurrection would be on the Feast of Trumpets.

                                     That is the resurrection of the first fruits of the early harvest they declared. This is nonsense; the early harvest is reaped in the spring not in the fall. The resurrection of the first fruits will take place in the spring when the early harvest is reaped. It will not take place—the resurrection of first fruits will not take place on the Feast of Trumpets in the fall. The fact that the trumpets were blown for the seventh plagues,( the trumpet plagues in the Book of Revelation),  has nothing more to do with the Feast of Trumpets than the fact that Moses had his servants blow the trumpet to call the elders to come and meet with him.

                                    The word trumpet is there, but it is about a different situation, a different occasion, it is about different events. Because the word trumpet is used in both places does not mean that both events are synonymous or happen at the same time. This error, this idea that the Feast of Trumpets represents the resurrection of the early or spring or harvest of first fruits can be found in almost any Bible commentary or dictionary or encyclopedia. A good one, say Ungers will tell you under article festivals that the Feast of Trumpets pictures the resurrection of the first fruits. These ideas were first presented a long, long time ago, well over a hundred years ago perhaps two or three hundred years ago. And they were presented by unconverted commandment-rejecting man who did not have God’s spirit and who therefore had no understanding and no discernment of the things of God. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

                                    Why do we depend upon unconverted people lacking God’s spirit for our doctrine and our understanding of prophesy? It is time to turn to God’s Word and to reject people’s speculation about God’s Word. It is time to go directly to the Word of God and seek inspiration from God and seek understanding from our eternal Father.

                                    If you go back now to Revelation in chapter 16, you will see the seven last plagues, the seven vials being poured out on the earth and you will immediately realize that these are incredible disasters and they are poured out one after the other. And one of these involves the concentration of and the moving of a vast army across the Euphrates River and down into Judea to mass at Megiddo and then proceed to attack Jerusalem.

                                    This movement of armies takes a period of time. You don’t get together a huge army and move it several hundred miles instantaneously. Large armies like these, even small armies do not move quickly. They move slowly and it takes a great deal of preparation and effort. It is a very difficult thing to move a large army and we are talking here about a vast army. 

                                    If we then go to Zechariah 14, we see what is happening here. This huge army will be camped up in the plains north of Jerusalem and they will then move upon the seat of the false prophet and the beast; which will at that time be Jerusalem. And this army from Asia will come down on the city and fight to destroy the false prophet and the beast once and for all. And having taken about half of a city, at that moment will come, Jesus Christ will come  with His saints and will take over putting down all resistance and conquering  all, making Himself King over all the earth and bringing His saint with Him to be His kings and His priests over the various nations.

                                    This is the establishment of the kingdom of God and He will take the beast, the king emperor, and the false prophet and throw them into the lake of fire and begin the process of cleaning up this world and getting rid of all evil and putting down  all wickedness. And humanity, which has been totally humbled, totally crushed in spirit will now be contrite of spirit and broken of heart, repentant in attitude and He can then pour out God’s Holy Spirit upon all flesh, establishing the magnificent kingdom of God, ruling over humanity for a thousand years, a Sabbath day of years, a Sabbath of rest, mankind at peace with one another and at peace with God.

                                    This pouring out of these seven plagues, these seven vials takes a period of time. It is not done instantly, or in an hour, or in a day; it takes a period of time and that period of time is the period between the resurrection and the establishment of the kingdom of God which is the period of time between the end of 1290 days and the end of 1335 days, a total period of 45 days which is probably just barely enough time to have all these events occur.

                                    So, we see in Daniel 12, that from the time that the abomination is set up, there shall be 1290 days at which time the resurrection will takes place; the saints will be gathered together by their bridegroom and taken to the house of the Father for the wedding feast. During the wedding feast, responsibilities and duties and rewards will be handed out, organization will take place regarding the kingdom, and then Christ will return with his saints to set up his kingdom over all the earth and to establish his household with man. And Christ with his saints like a husband and bride will rule the kingdom of God on earth.

                                    Tell me, what father does not want to rejoice with his son at his son’s marriage? What father does not want to see his children? We are the children of the Father through the spirit of adoption, being adopted by Him through the Holy Spirit and we are the children of Christ by virtue of being created by Christ, but Christ and the Father are one in every way.

                                    Therefore as Christ wants to be bonded with us, the Father also wants a deep bonding relationship with us. When we pray, to whom do we pray? Do we not pray to the Father? Do we not keep the Father’s commandments? Do we not love the Father? The Father loves us; we will have the opportunity to meet our Father and He will have the opportunity to see His children rejoicing around Him and around His throne.

                                     Yes, my friends the elect shall go to the throne of God, they shall see the Father, and they shall bond with the Son in a great wedding feast. After which they shall return with their new husband and the new relationship between the first fruits and Jesus Christ. They shall return to earth to rule the earth.