The Last Days of This Age

The Last Days in the Light of God’s Feast Days

“The Last Days” is one of the phrases the Bible uses for the last 3 of the 7 days of God’s master plan, the time of Messianic fulfillment. It is a period of 3,000 years, beginning with the first appearance of the Messiah as sacrificial lamb, through the 2,000 year current age when he is not seen, and concluding with his return as conquering lion, to rule as king for the final 1,000 years of the master plan of redemption. The phrase “the last days” can also refer to the time just prior to the return of the Messiah as lion and king, the end times of this current age.

This age will end at a particular moment, a moment when the veil hiding the spiritual realm is dissolved in an instant, a moment when those faithful to Jesus, the Christ, are caught up in a rapture of love, joy and ecstasy as they rise to meet the Lord in the air. It is the moment when the Lion destroys the lawless one, the Antichrist. He will then take his seat on the throne in God’s temple to begin the age of peace.

The prophecies of the Bible contain a number of different descriptions of time sequences. Many of them apply to this special time of The Last Days of this age, the end times. The problem is that unless you have the keys, it is very difficult to find the correct ones and to arrange them in the proper sequence. One of the most important prophetic keys is God’s Holy Feast Days, as recorded in the Bible and revealed through history.

The feast days have specific meanings and rituals but, in addition, they have prophetic overtones. Prophecy often has duel fulfillment, sometimes called major and minor fulfillment or early and latter fulfillment. It is the prophetic meaning of the feast days that gives meaning and depth to God’s master plan and clarifies the prophecies of the Bible.

The following is a tabular presentation of the feast days, including when they occur in the biblical calendar year, with proposed early and latter prophetic fulfillment; for as time goes on God reveals more of their meaning. The final feast day, the Festival of Lights, is the only one not found in the law of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament. This feast was prophesied in Daniel chapter 8 and also pointed to in chapter 12. The timing of the first 6 feast days corresponds to the annual harvests, the first three to the early (Spring/Summer) harvest and the next three to the Fall or late harvest.

God’s Holy Feast Days

#	Feast Day	When	Early Fulfillment	Latter Fulfillment
1	Passover Preparation Day (Pesach)	1^st month 14^th day	Israelites protected by blood of lamb. They begin exodus - leave sin behind.	First Coming of the Christ, as sacrificial lamb, spotless one who lived w/o sin. Jesus' blood ratifies God's covenant.
2	Feast of Unleavened Bread (Pesach)	1^st month 15^th - 21^st day 7 days	Joshua & 12 tribes take Jericho. Israelites begin to drive sin out of promised land.	Latter rain of Holy Spirit. Those w/o sin, 144,000, receive God's seal.
	Wave Sheaf of Firstfruits	Sunday during Pesach	Israelites baptized in crossing Red Sea. Nation is early firstfruits.	Resurrected Christ and few others presented to God as Firstfruits of mankind. Early harvest of souls.
3	Feast of Weeks Pentecost (Shavuot)	50 days from Passover sabbath. Sunday 7 weeks after Passover.	Israel receives Law. God's covenant written in stone.	Early rain of Holy Spirit. Harvest of souls continues. Church is latter firstfruits.
4	Blowing of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah)	7^th month 1^st day	Warning of 7 trumpets. Tribulation judgments fall upon the earth.	Battle of Gog & Magog. Satan judged - into the lake of fire.
5	Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)	7^th month 10^th day	God’s goat was slain. Tribulation elect are finalized. Satan will be banished.	Great White Throne judgment of all. End of probation.
6	Feast of Tabernacles Feast of Ingathering (Succoth)	7^st month 15^th - 21^st day 7 days	Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. Sinful generation dies out - prep for promised land.	Great/Final harvest of souls starting w/ purification of tribulation and continuing through the Millennium.
	Great/Last day of feast (Sh’mini Atzeret)	7^th month 22^nd day	Ezra reads Law for feast to commemorate the rebuilding of Jerusalem. (Prophesied in Daniel 9.)	God's covenant fulfilled! Law written in our hearts. New Jerusalem - no temple. Living waters to all!
7	Festival of Lights (Hanukkah)	9^th month 25^th day 8 days	Temple cleansed of abominations. Temple dedicated - miracle of light for 8 days. (Prophesied in Daniel 8.)	Final Coming of the Christ, as conquering lion. Resurrection of faithful - their temples rebuilt. Light of the Messiah comes to the temple.

The spring feast days apply primarily to the first coming of Messiah as lamb and sacrifice and to the giving of the covenant. Their early fulfillment points to the birth of the nation of Israel, which would produce the Messiah. Their latter fulfillment points to the Messiah’s sacrifice atoning for our sins, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and to the birth of the church. The fall feast days apply primarily to the second coming of Messiah as lion and king and to rededication to the covenant. The early fulfillment points to preparation for and the start of the reign of Messiah as king and the latter to the end of his millennial rule and fulfillment of the covenant, a mature and full harvest.

We will focus on the early fulfillment of the fall feast days. Using these as our guiding light, the prophetic time pieces for the end times will fall into place. The fall feast days revolve around the Day of Atonement. These feast days begin with the Blowing of Trumpets, a warning to the congregation of the impending day of judgment. This is the time to put your spiritual house in order and have deep reflections upon your relationship with God. Then comes the Day of Atonement, when all are judged one way or another. This is followed by the Feast of Tabernacles (a.k.a. Feast of Booths and Feast of Ingathering), a time to gather the fall harvest. It is also a remembrance of the time when the nation of Israel was set free and its people lived in booths in the wilderness (Lev 23:42-43). Living in booths in the Bible is symbolic of being heirs of the kingdom but not yet coming into full inheritance, which occurs when one fully matures in ones walk with God. While in the wilderness, the Israelites lived by faith and were protected by God who provided for their needs. This is a solemn time. This period ends with the great day of the feast, a time to celebrate and enjoy all the fruits of the harvest. On this last great day of the feast, Jesus affirmed the living waters to all who believe (Jn 7:37). So remembering the journey of the Exodus, we see that God’s people had been freed from their bondage and sin, lived in the wilderness where they nurtured and harvested their fruit, and finally, when spiritually mature, entered the promised land.

In using the feast days to arrange the end time prophecy, we start with knowing that the High Priest makes atonement for the sins of the congregation on the Day of Atonement. This is the one day on which the High Priest enters the most holy place and sees the ark of the covenant. Daniel’s 70^th week ends on a day when all sin is atoned for and the most holy is anointed (Dan 9:24). Both these events can occur only on the Day of Atonement. So the fulfillment of Daniel’s 70^th week at the end of this age will come to completion on the Day of Atonement of some future year. Turning next to the book of Revelation, John describes the dead being judged at the 7^th trumpet. We also see ark of the covenant here, the only place it is seen in Revelation, so the 7^th trumpet also occurs on the Day of Atonement (Rev 11:15-19). These two points, the end of the 70^th week and the 7^th trumpet, become anchors on the following chart, as they occur on the Day of Atonement.

It is instructive to take a moment to review the whole story of the day of atonement, for its image spans the entire period of Messianic fulfillment, that is the entire Last Days of God’s master plan, not just the end times prior to the return of the Messiah as lion king. The ritual begins with two goats being presented, one chosen by lot to be God’s goat, the other being Azazel, representing Satan. Next the High Priest purifies himself with the sacrifice of a bullock. Then God’s goat is slain and used to bear the sins of the congregation. This represents Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. The now cleansed High Priest takes the goat's blood into the holy of holies to purify the sanctuary and confess the sins of the congregation. This represents the risen Christ entering the heavenly sanctuary and acting as intercessor on our behalf for these past 2,000 years. The sanctuary having been cleansed, the High Priest emerges bearing the sins of the congregation and then, through confession, lays them upon the head of the other goat, who remains alive, and is then lead into the wilderness thereby removing the sins from the congregation. This represents the returning Messiah putting the sins upon Satan and banishing him to the wilderness or bottomless pit during his reign. So this then also points to the time when he will be released again after the 1,000 years have ended.

Thus we see that the whole ritual of the Day of Atonement points to both the early and latter fulfillments of this most important and central feast day. The early fulfillment being a day of judgment when the elect are finalized followed by the return of the Messiah, the resurrection of the faithful and the gathering of the elect. At this point Satan will be banished alive into the bottomless pit for 1,000 years, symbolized by the Azazel goat being led into the wilderness. The latter fulfillment of this day comes at the end of the millennium when all are resurrected and judged before the Great White Throne of the Almighty. This is the end of probation. Notice also that the fall feast days occur in the 7^th month which reminds us of the 7^th millennium.

Returning to The Last Days chart, the next most important steps for creating the overall structure of end time events are the placement of Daniel 12:11-12 and Daniel 8:13-14. The key to Daniel 12 is to realize that you don’t line up the end of this piece with the end of the 70^th week, which most people want to do. The beginning of Daniel 12 is lined up with the midpoint of the 70^th week, because this is the same event, the removal of the daily sacrifice. This means the end of Daniel 12 extends beyond the end of the 70^th week. This is okay, since there are fall feast days that follow the Day of Atonement, so Daniel 9 is not the end of the sequence. The key to Daniel 8 is to realize that it does not apply to the end time scenario, and again, most people want to fit it in somewhere. Daniel 8 prophesied Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, and so we see its early fulfillment. This feast always begins 75 days after the Day of Atonement and is the end point of Daniel 12 (1335-1260=75). The Blessed Day, when the light of the Messiah breaks into this world in a very physical way, will occur during the Feast of Lights, Hanukkah! This will be its latter fulfillment. It is interesting to notice that Hanukkah always includes a new moon, which is a new month. A new month means the trumpet is blown. This might account for the last trumpet, blown when the dead are raised (1 Cor 15:52). Notice also that the last trumpet comes after the 7^th trumpet.

Having placed the key pieces from Daniel, we know from his book that the “little horn”, the lawless one, the Antichrist reigns during the second half of the week of years, a period of 7 years. This latter 3½ years lines up with the same period described in Revelation. This period of time is described in 3 different units of time which are the same in Biblical time: 3½ years = 42 months = 1260 days. This is the time of the 7 trumpets, which corresponds to the blowing of trumpets. It precedes and warns of the approaching day of Atonement. The trumpet was used to call the congregation to worship and as a call to prepare for war. This is also the time of the two witnesses who will add to the warning given to all the world.

After the Day of Atonement is the Feast of Tabernacles, the time of the fall or final harvest of the year. In symbolic terms, God uses the harvest of crops to symbolize the harvest of souls once they have matured and developed in their obedience to God. The fulfillment of this feast begins with the souls who come out of the Great Tribulation having remained faithful to God despite the great temptation of the time of lawlessness. At the Messiah's return, those who are raised and transformed to rule with Christ for a thousand years are but the firstfruits of the spiritual harvest, not the whole harvest. The harvest continues each season for the entire millennium as many souls develop to maturity during the reign of our Lord and his saints, the firstfruits of mankind. Thus the holy feast days are meant to keep us in a true understanding of God’s entire great plan for the redemption of all mankind.

This chart presented has no dates. It is a template, based purely upon the Bible. It is to be used as a guide. If you feel an event fulfills the start, middle or end of Daniel’s 70^th week, this chart can be used to determine the dates of other points in the sequence so one can verify if all events fit the correct time frame. For complete details of the development of this chart, see the book Don’t Worry... Be Faithful . The overall summary of the sequence of events can be expressed as follows:

Start of Daniel’s 70^th Week - This will occur in the late Fall, a month or so after the Day of Atonement.
This begins with a strong covenant affecting many. It will determine the status of the Israelites and the holy city of Jerusalem.
This process and agreement should create an environment that allows the rebuilding of the temple in Israel.
This agreement will be brought about with the help of one of the Prince of Darkness' agents.
This could be either the 7^threligious king of Rev 17:10 or the beast that will rise from the pit in Rev 17:8.

The beast who rises from the pit has 7 heads and 10 horns, the same as in Daniel 7. The 10 horns are 10 kings.
When 10 kings from the area around Israel receive their 10 crowns and come to power as an empire,
we will witness the mortally wounded 7^th head of the beast that is healed and lives again (Rev 13:3).
The beast is resurrected if the 10 kings are of nations which came out of the Roman Empire and they control Jerusalem.
The Arab nations will unite in their effort to destroy the nation of Israel (Ps 83).

The system of Babylon is upon us!

Start of the latter rain, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the whole world and the time of the final warning.
This will occur in the Spring at the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
This will likely occur in the first Spring following the start of the 70^th Week.
Midpoint of Daniel’s 70^th Week - 3½ years from the start, in the Spring.

A final religious king will come to power, subduing 3 of the 10 kings and gaining the empire’s power.
This is the reign of the Antichrist, the one who makes war on the saint,
the 8th religious king of Rev 17:11, the little horn who becomes king in Daniel 7,
the merger of the Beast out of the Sea (7 heads & 10 horns) with the Beast out of the Earth (2 horns like a lamb),
the final world empire to be ruled by a human with the mind of a beast.

He will impose his religion upon the world via the mark of the beast.
He will remove the Daily Sacrifice wherever it may be and persecute those who oppose him.
He will make war on the saints for 3½ years = 42 months = 1260 days.
Two witnesses will prophesy and protect the temple during this 3½ years, the time of the 7 trumpets.
End of Daniel's 70^th Week - 3½ years later on the Day of Atonement, 7 lunar years from the start.
7^th Trumpet - All are judged but Jesus is not seen yet.
The Abomination of Desolation - 30 days later, 7 solar years from the start and on a false feast day.
Before this day, the Antichrist defeats the two witnesses who are taken up to heaven after 3½ days.
The Antichrist takes the throne in the temple of God and declares himself to be God (2 Thess 2).
He will declare prophecy fulfilled. However, this begins the time of the 7 bowls, the period of God's wrath.
The Blessed Day, Blessed Hope - 45 days later on the Feast of Lights.
Babylon has fallen, the battle of Armageddon is fought and won.
The last trumpet is blown as the rapture and resurrection occurs. It is the time of the wedding feast of our Lord.
Jesus takes his throne as Lord and King in the temple of God and begins the thousands years of peace.

Once a being such as the Antichrist comes to power, we could be enslaved for a long time. The promise of prophecy is that the time of this darkness will be cut short and broken by the one who has demonstrated the appropriate use of his power.

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©2002, 2008 Collins Hamblen
First Posted: 06/15/02
Last Update: 05/14/08