I Saw The Light Ministries
Serving God in Spirit and in Truth Day of Atonement Sept. 29,2009 Read Rev. 12!!! This is a commanded day of Fasting. Although we are to fast often, This is the only day we are specifically commanded to fast.
Lev. 23:26 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, It plainly says the Day of Atonement is the 10th Day! It is the same day! The confusion comes about where it says 9th day from even to even in verse 32. This is the only Sabbath or Holy day where it uses this phrase of even to even! That is interesting! What is unique or different about this Holy Day? It is the ONLY day that we are commanded to fast on that particular day. It is truly different from all others. It would not do good to eat a big meal and then proclaim your fast and say "I'm going to fast now Lord", when you just finished stuffing your stomach! No, you must have your stomach empty or near empty at the beginning of your fast to be a true fast! So that is why the Lord wants you to start your observance of this special Holy Day on the evening of the 9th. But the actual Holy Day is the 10th as it says it is. Okay, what about where it says from even unto even. We understand now why God would want us to start our fast the previous evening but why does it say unto even? Let's examine both words "unto even".
unto = H5704 "unto" can mean during, while, as much as, into, while, etc. It does not necessary mean that we must stop our fast at evening.
even = H6153 I would feel safer keeping this fast from the evening on the 9th, throughout the 10th until I awake on the 11th or until daybreak on the 11th. To be on the safe side and to make sure I am truly afflicting my soul.
The following is a quotation from:
http://www.ptgbook.org/index.html and I do agree mostly with what he says about this particular issue except that it is NOT even to even. To learn Why it is NOT even to even, please read the When Does the Day start article. Also, the first day of the month when to start counting the days of the month should be according to the New Moon events. The Day of Atonement - the Putting Away of Satan In this present 6,000 year age of man, Satan is the ruler of this earth. He has a throne on the earth. "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north" (Isaiah 14:12-13). Satan now has authority over the kingdoms and nations of the earth. "Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, 'All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours' " (Luke 4:5-7). See also Matthew 4:8-9. Satan is the ruler of this world, this civilization, this system. Before He was crucified, Jesus said, "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me" (John 14:30). Satan can only do what God allows him to do, as shown in the first two chapters of Job, but right now it suits God's purpose to allow Satan to be on the throne of the earth and to deceive the nations. Satan is called "the prince of the power of the air". "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others" (Ephesians 2:1-3). Paul calls him, the "god of this age". "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). As ruler of the world, Satan deceives the whole world. "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" (Revelation 12:9). Before there can be true peace and happiness on this earth, Satan must be removed from his throne and position of influence over mankind. When Christ comes, He is coming not only to take over rulership of the earth, but to replace Satan as ruler of the earth. Satan will be removed and put into a condition of restraint so he can no longer influence men and deceive the nations as he does now. After Christ returns to the earth, Satan will be removed from his throne and bound in a condition of restraint for one thousand years. "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while" (Revelation 20:1-3). The next holy day after the Day of Trumpets is the Day of Atonement. The instructions for Atonement are given in Leviticus 23:26-32. It is a Sabbath, a day of rest and assembly, and also a day of fasting, a day of refraining from food and drink for twenty-four hours ("you shall afflict your souls"). "It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath" (Leviticus 23:32). If you have read the instructions for the holy days given in the Old Testament, you will notice that there are instructions for offering animal sacrifices for each of them. The Church of God rests on these days and assembles for worship, fellowship, and instruction, but does not offer animal sacrifices. Why is that? The animal sacrifices in the Old Testament were a substitute for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They could only be offered by the Levitical priesthood. King Saul offered animal sacrifices and was rebuked by God. "And Samuel said, 'What have you done?' Saul said, 'When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, "The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord." Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.' And Samuel said to Saul, 'You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you' " (1 Samuel 13:11-14). Since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Church is under the priesthood of Jesus Christ, not the Levitical priesthood. As explained in the book of Hebrews, there is a change in the law because there is a change in the priesthood. "For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law" (Hebrews 7:12). The Levitical priesthood, which offered animal sacrifices, has been replaced by Jesus Christ our high priest, who is the real sacrifice that animals only represented. The Church does not offer animal sacrifices today. But the animal sacrifices are designed to teach us lessons, primarily about the meaning of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which they represent. We can learn lessons about the sacrifice of Christ by studying the instructions for animal sacrifices given in the Old Testament. They are written for our learning. The sacrifice of the Passover lamb is an example. We do not sacrifice a lamb at Passover today, rather we use the symbols of the bread and wine that Jesus Christ instituted for the Church. Nevertheless, we can study the Passover sacrifice of the lamb as recorded in the Old Testament to help us learn lessons about how the sacrifice of Christ pays the penalty of our sins so that we do not have to ultimately die in the second death. There are instructions for sacrificing an animal on the Day of Atonement given in the Old Testament, and we can learn lessons about the meaning of this day from those instructions. Two goats were to be presented before the Lord at the tabernacle. One was to be sacrificed and the other turned loose in the wilderness. "And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering" (Leviticus 16:5). "He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness" (Leviticus 16:7-10). Notice that it is God who decides which goat is which, not the priest. "Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness" (Leviticus 16:15-16). This goat is killed for the sins of the people. This clearly represents the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for our sins in our place. What about the other goat that is not killed? What does that represent? Some have thought that this other goat also represents Christ. Does it? "And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. Then Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of meeting, shall take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and shall leave them there. And he shall wash his body with water in a holy place, put on his garments, come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. The fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. And he who released the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp" (Leviticus 16:20-26). Notice concerning the live goat that it does NOT die, but it is taken away from the tabernacle and God's presence and away from Israel, and notice that those who have come into contact with the live goat have to bath in water afterwards, implying that there is some uncleanness about the live goat, some influence that must be removed from those who came into contact with it. These things cannot represent Jesus Christ, but they can represent Satan very well. Why are the sins of the people placed on the head of the live goat if that goat represents Satan? It is Satan that deceives the whole world and leads the world in sin (Revelation 12:9). Ephesians 2:2 says he works in the sons of disobedience. He is called "the tempter" who tried to tempt Jesus into sinning (Matthew 4:3). It was Satan who deceived Eve and led her to take of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Adam ate of the fruit also, and thus Satan led the whole human race to take the wrong path (Genesis 3:1-6). Thus Satan is partly responsible for the sins of mankind. He shares in the responsibility, and the guilt, of the sins of man. When Satan tempts people into sinning, and people give in to the temptation and sin or are deceived into sinning, the responsibility and guilt for the sin is twofold. The person who sins is responsible for committing the sin, but also Satan is responsible, and guilty, for tempting or deceiving the person into sinning. By becoming a human being, living a sinless life as a man, and then dying to pay the penalty for our sins, Jesus Christ took on himself the penalty for the share of the guilt for our sins that falls on human beings. But Jesus did not pay the penalty for Satan's share of the responsibility. He did not pay the penalty for Satan's sin. Satan must bear his own penalty. But Satan, like the angels of God, cannot die (Luke 20:35-36). Satan will be removed from his throne over the earth, put into a condition of restraint so he cannot influence man, taken away from the presence of God and mankind, but he cannot die. Likewise, the live goat is taken away from the presence of Israel and God's tabernacle and let loose in the wilderness. Leviticus 16:21 says, "Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man." The King James Version uses the term "fit man" for the one who was to take the goat into the wilderness. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:21, King James Version). The "fit man" parallels the angel in Revelation 20:1-2: "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years". There is also a lesson in the fact that lots had to be cast to decide between the two goats. It was not left to the priests to decide. God had to reveal which goat would be sacrificed and which was the one to be taken into the wilderness. Before lots were cast and God revealed which goat was to be sacrificed (representing Jesus Christ) and which goat was to be taken into the wilderness (representing Satan), the people could not know which goat was which. Satan deceives all mankind right now (Revelation 12:9). He has blinded the minds of men (2 Corinthians 4:4). As part of the deception of mankind, Satan also practices religious deception, deceiving false ministers into teaching error. "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works" (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). It is even possible for false ministers, who may be sincere not realizing that they themselves are victims of Satan's deceptions, to teach a false concept of Jesus Christ and a counterfeit Jesus. Notice what Paul warned about in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4: "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted-you may well put up with it!" How do we tell false ministers from true? How can we tell who are the ministers of the true Jesus Christ and who are the counterfeit ministers? How do we tell the true concept of Jesus Christ from a false Jesus, or as Paul put it, "another Jesus whom we have not preached"? Just as the priest in ancient Israel had to look to God to reveal which goat was which on the Day of Atonement, so we must also look to God to know who the real Jesus Christ and His true ministers are, not by casting lots but by looking to God's Word, the Bible. Notice this instruction in Isaiah 8:20: "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." We have to look to the Bible and be willing to believe the Bible to know who is speaking the truth. The Bible must come first, not the ministry, the church we attend, the traditions we were raised in, or the traditions we have adopted and become comfortable with. God's ministers have a role in teaching and helping us find answers in the Bible. But we should not look to the ministers to teach us what the Bible means or to "interpret" the Bible for us. The Bible interprets itself, and difficult scriptures are interpreted by clear scriptures. Rather than look to ministers to interpret the Bible for us, we should look to the Bible to tell us who the true ministers are. The Church of God teaches that the Day of Atonement represents the application of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind, but also the future removal of Satan from his position of rulership and influence over the earth. The Church of God observes this day by resting from work, assembling for church services, and refraining from all food and water during this day. The above article was copied from the above mentioned website. Please visit back here again to see updates and information in my own words added. Thanks!
|
