The Feasts of the Jews – Part I

Charles Cooper

The last five years have been especially fruitful for me personally, inasmuch as I have had the unique opportunity to study all the significant passages that deal with the end of the age. The need to do this work grew out of my discovery that pretrib teachers consistently have incorrectly interpreted Daniel 9:24-27. Because they are so dogmatic about the meaning of this passage, including their supposed ability to count down to the very day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey [Sir Robert Anderson’s conclusion], many people have accepted their understanding of Daniel 9 without question. I was once among them.

My discovery regarding Daniel 9:24-27 aroused immediate suspicion about everything else that pretribbers have come up with to support their position. But now, having worked through the major tenets of the Pretrib rapture view and found that the Prewrath position better explains the timing of the Lord’s parousia (its beginning, direction and conclusion), I am convinced that we finally resolved the timing question correctly. The Seventieth Week, the Great Tribulation, the Parousia of Christ, the Day of the Lord, and the Battle of Mt. Mo’ed are settled in my mind.

Now, as I turn my attention to secondary issues, the first issue I want to address concerns the Feasts of Israel and their relationship to events in the life of Christ. The primary reason I feel it necessary to focus on the feasts is that, like just about everything else, pretribbers have grossly misinterpreted the Bible relative to these matters. Their conclusions, for the most part, lack en exegetical basis. For example, consider their view of the Feast of Trumpets, which is the first fall feast of Israel. Arnold Fruchtenbaum’s comment regarding this feast is typical. He states, “The fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets is going to be the rapture of the Church” (www.ariel.org/mbs118m.pdf). Wow! There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it – the rapture is the ultimate fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets.

Fruchtenbaum is regrettably representative of those who take this position, but he, like others, offers no basis for the claim. The single proof cited among all those who take this position is Paul’s reference to “the trump of God” in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Notice the basis for Fruchtenbaum’s claim: “There are two main passages that deal with the details of the Rapture, and in both of those passages there is the presence of a trumpet, the trumpet of the Feast of Trumpets” (www.ariel.org/mbs118m.pdf). Again I say, “Wow!” That is the sole basis of his claim. He associates the presence of a trumpet with the rapture and also sees the Feast of Trumpets as that same trumpet.

He goes on to suggest that the Rapture will fulfill the Feast of Trumpets; the time of great tribulation will fulfill the Day of Atonement; and the millennial reign of Christ will fulfill the Feast of Tabernacles. So the grand total is more than 1007 years (seventieth week of Daniel plus millennial kingdom) to fulfill what historically only covers 21 days. I have yet to find a solid exegetical presentation of the Bible in support of this conclusion. Yet many teach it as if it is the explicit teaching of Scripture.

Marvin Rosenthal, whom I deeply love, respect, and highly value, adopted the basic arguments of the pretrib camp when working out his understanding of the seven Jewish feasts and their relationship to Christ. Since the Pretrib position is the basis of the Prewrath position in this regard, I personally continue to feel the necessity to confirm every passage, lest we persist in teaching what may be false regarding our Lord’s relationship to the Jewish feasts.

In several key points I have had to abandon completely the adopted position of Marvin Rosenthal and Robert Van Kampen because I am convinced that Scripture does not support their conclusion. For example, let us consider Revelation 3:10. While often touted as a proof text, good utilization of Bible study methods reveals that this passage has absolutely nothing to do with a Pretrib rapture. Both Rosenthal and Van Kampen accepted the teachings of Dr. Robert Gundry, who argues against the Pretrib interpretation of this verse. We now know that the original arguments made by pretribbers were faulty. Therefore, Gundry’s response was also unacceptable. All have assumed that Revelation 3:10 deals with the great tribulation of Satan and his Antichrist, when in reality it relates to the Day of the Lord.

Another area where pretribbers get it wrong concerns the relationship between the Jewish feasts and events in the life of Christ. Since the timeline of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ evidences patterns in common with the first four feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost) and lacks any explicit reference, pretribbers abandon any pretense of good exegesis and espouse conclusions that simply make no sense.

I continue to be both amazed and disappointed at the lack of biblical support for many of the claims pretribbers make. Because Paul refers to a trumpet on two separate occasions (1 Thess. 4 and 1 Cor. 15) as involving the resurrection of the righteous dead, pretribbers automatically assume a connection with the Feast of Trumpets. They teach it as being factual, when in reality there is not one ounce of explicit biblical support for their claim. They base opinion on nothing more than similarity, coincidence, and generalization. This is not good exegesis! This is an excellent example of the kind of eisegesis (reading something into the text) that built the system known as Pretribulationalism, which does not have one explicit passage of Scripture to back it up. Please understand that I am not attempting overstatements here.

The how, what, and when regarding the Lord’s relationship to the spring feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost) is a powerful clue to the nature of his relationship to the three fall feasts (Trumpets, Atonement, and Booths). In other words, the primary characteristics of the Lord’s relationship to the spring feasts should guide our understanding concerning his relationship to the three fall feasts.

However, before I talk about the particulars of each feast, I want to deal specifically with the relationship between the events in the life of Christ and the Jewish feasts. What “word” or concept best describes this relationship? Does Christ “fulfill” the feasts of Israel? If so, in what sense can we say Christ “fulfilled” the feasts? This will be the subject of the next part of this paper.