Celebrating the Second Coming of Christ

Most Christians honor holidays that commemorate events of the past such as Christ's birth and Christ's death. But there are biblical holy days called the 'Lord’s Appointed Festivals’ which celebrate events yet to come. In Leviticus 23, we read about each of the Festivals that God instituted with Israel as a reminder of what He had done for them and His promises to them. However, these Appointed Festivals also possess a deep prophetic significance to us today as they foreshadow Jesus Christ and God’s plan for ALL of mankind.

The first set of festivals occur in the spring season and include Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost. These spring biblical festivals were prophetically fulfilled at the first coming of Jesus through his death, resurrection and giving of the Holy Spirit.

The next set of God’s festivals occur in the autumn season. These exciting festivals are awaiting their fulfillment at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and include the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.

It all begins with the prophetic fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets when the final trumpet call will be sounded at the return of Jesus Christ as we read in
I Thessalonians 4:16-17,

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

The Feast of Trumpets celebrates God’s promise of the day, yet to come, when the trumpets shall sound and Jesus Christ returns with power and authority to establish his kingdom on earth, the dead in Christ are resurrected and his faithful ones who are still alive ascend to meet him. This is only the beginning!

The next fall festival, the Day of Atonement, follows 10 days later. The future fulfillment of this day concerns the repentance and redemption of ALL the nations when they will look upon the one they have pierced and recognize Jesus as the Messiah which we find in Zechariah 12:10. And Jesus will cleanse them from all sin as we read in Zechariah 13:1.

The final fall festival is The Feast of Tabernacles, which God established as a time of rejoicing the ingathering of the year-end harvest. This foreshadows the promised Kingdom of God when ALL nations will flow to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles as we read in Zechariah 14:16. It will be a time of great rejoicing as the Lord gathers in His great harvest.

Why celebrate something that hasn't occurred yet? Because what God has promised, He has guaranteed. He cannot lie. These future events exist and cannot be revoked...just as surely as the sun will come up in the morning. Nothing can stop them. The Lord assures us in Isaiah 46:10-11,

“I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.”

So let us not wait to celebrate that which already exists by the very word of God! Let us celebrate now! Let us celebrate the Second Coming of Christ. Let us revel in the joy of knowing that our Messiah is returning very soon...at the sound of a trumpet call!
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