The Feast of Unleavened Bread symbolizes the basic salvation experience through the blood of the cross.

The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) symbolizes life lived in the Spirit of God.

The Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes the fullness of God, a part of redemption not as yet in the possession of the greater part of the Lord's people.

The Pentecostal people are being called forward. A time of spiritual growth is at hand. The next great plateau of redemption is typified by the Old Testament Feast of Tabernacles. If we are experiencing justification through the blood of the cross and the life lived in the Holy Spirit of God, how can we tell when God is urging us forward into the spiritual fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles? What are the symptoms we should be looking for?

We do not wish to imply that we "get saved," "get filled with the Spirit," and then get something else.

One of the great problems associated with today's preaching of the Gospel, from my point of view, is the formula we have derived from verses cut and pasted to form "four steps of salvation."

Without commenting on how handy a device this is or how many people have been truly brought to Christ by means of it (this author was helped by it), the truth is the four steps of salvation come far short of the glory of God and the breadth of the plan of salvation.

We ought to be exhorting people to look to Christ for salvation and then put themselves under the oversight and teaching of a pastor. The "four steps of salvation" has given rise to the notion of a "decision for Christ" and then the counting of noses to give proof of the effectiveness of our ministry or the strength of our church or denomination.

Making a decision for Christ is not a scriptural phrase and has some unscriptural implications. The fact is, it is Christ who decides for us. We do not choose Him, He chooses us. Then we make a decision to accept or reject the call of the Spirit.

Things are too man-centered today!

Salvation includes at least four million steps. We start at a decisive point when we yield to the demands of Christ, turning away from the life of the world and entering the Kingdom of God. After that we take a step each day. Every day we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Every day we renew our confidence in Christ. Every day we make a decision for Christ. Every day we press toward the fullness, enduring to the end that we may be saved.

The idea that salvation is an event we can point back to as being the point at which we "were saved" is destructive. It gives rise to such perversions as "once saved always saved." We ought to say, "on such and such a date I turned away from the world and began to look to Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. At that moment I began the program of salvation from the world, from lust, and from self-will. My account is up to date. My future will be glorious when the Lord returns bringing salvation with Him."

To be continued.