There is deliverance from the body of sin and death, for which Paul groaned.

Just as our freedom from the guilt of sin was accomplished by a specific act of God, so it is true that our freedom from the power of sin will be accomplished by a specific act of God.

We believe the Day of Atonement, of Reconciliation, of total redemption, has begun now and will continue throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

The Jewish Feasts, and the Coming Salvation

Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: (Deuteronomy 16:16)

The feast of Unleavened Bread.

The feast of Weeks (Pentecost).

The feast of Tabernacles (Booths).

The feast of Unleavened Bread symbolizes our basic salvation experience through the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus.

The feast of Pentecost symbolizes the work of the Holy Spirit in our salvation. We might say that the twentieth century has been the century of the Holy Spirit.

The spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles is virtually unknown to the Christian churches. This is where we are heading in the present hour.

The feast of Tabernacles includes the Blowing of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles proper.

The Blowing of Trumpets announces the coming of Jesus Christ the King to make war against His enemies.

The Day of Atonement, of Reconciliation, is the work of God of which we have been speaking—the salvation that will move us completely from all the works of Satan and bring us into the image of Christ and into untroubled rest in the Father.

The feast of Tabernacles will be fulfilled when the Father and the Son settle down to rest in us.

Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (John 14:23)

There actually are seven feasts of the Lord. They are divided into the three groups we have just set forth.

Now notice: after we have come through the Passover blood, after we have experienced Pentecost, we then are ready for the great Day of Atonement—the season when the Lord God will remove from our personality all that is displeasing to Himself.

We never thought we could experience such deliverance prior to our death, or prior to the return of Jesus Christ in the clouds of glory.

The truth is, the deliverance of the Day of Atonement has nothing to do with whether we are alive on earth or alive in the spirit realm. The Lord judges the living and the dead with equal facility.

But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. (I Peter 4:5,6)

The fact that the Day of Atonement is announced by the Blowing of Trumpets reveals that the nature of the Day of Atonement is one of war and judgment. This is because our deliverance from sin can be accomplished only as the enemy that binds us is judged and driven from us by force.

To be continued.