Nathan Jones: The Jewish people celebrate seven feasts. The first four take place in the spring and the last three take place in the fall. Remarkably, all four of the spring feasts were fulfilled in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, as well as the birth of the Church. Knowing this then, do the remaining three fall feasts point to the prophetic events surrounding the return of Jesus Christ?
To help answer this important question, we turned to Messianic Jewish rabbi Dr. Richard Hill to explain what the fall feasts are exactly and to discern if they contain any prophetic significance. Richard’s interviews will be aired over the next three episodes of our ministry’s television program, Christ in Prophecy.
The Feast of Trumpets
Richard Hill: I believe the fall feasts do indeed contain prophetic significance. The three fall feasts are Rosh Hashanah, which is known in the Bible as Yom Teruah. Next, there’s the Feast of Atonement, known as Yom Kippur. And third, there’s the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot.
Considering Rosh Hashanah or Yom Teruah, Gentiles know this feast better as the Feast of Trumpets or Feast of Shofar. Many Christians love this feast because they believe it prophetically points to the Rapture of the Church as revealed in the following verses:
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (i.e. raptured) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
These passages concerning the Rapture reveal that this prophetic event happens during the blowing of a last trumpet, or the last shofar blast. A shofar is a ram’s horn. The Jewish people have blown the shofar for millennia, and especially during the Feast of Trumpets.
Nathan Jones: Because 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 tell of a trumpet being blasted to call the Church up to Heaven in the Rapture, could the last trumpet blast be tied to the final trumpet that’s blown at this feast? This year, Rosh Hashana begins at sundown on Wednesday, October 2 and ends at nightfall on Friday, October 4. If this feast is indeed tied to the Rapture, then could it happen sometime during those three days or on a future Feast of Trumpets?
Richard Hill: I do believe the Rapture is tied prophetically to the Feast of Trumpets, because I know of no other set of shofar blasts that are that important. First Corinthians notes this great “catching up” will happen during the last trumpet blast, meaning there’s going to be a series of blasts tied to the Rapture. The final trumpet blast of Yom Teruah is called the “tekiah gedolah.” That’s the greatest, longest, and loudest blast in the series. That could be the prophesied shofar blast of the Rapture.
The Day of Atonement
Tim Moore: We read from Scripture that as believers in Christ are raptured, we will hear a trumpet sound and the archangel shout, and then Jesus takes us all away to Heaven. I’d imagine that’s probably where a lot of Gentile believers stop in their appreciation of the Fall feasts.
Often Trumpets is the only feast they are looking forward to because they are anticipating Christ to return. After all, there are two more feast that follow the Feast of Trumpets. One of them primarily involves the Jewish people, then the last is for all believers?
Prophetically, the Jewish remnant will by the end of those seven years realize that Jesus’ blood alone atones for their sins. Then they will finally look upon Him whom they have pierced, and the remnant that has survived will put their trust in Jesus Christ. The New Covenant’s blood covering makes atonement for our sins and brings us back into a right relationship with God.
Nathan Jones: And so the prophetic significance of the Day of Atonement—Yom Kippur—is that it will coincide with the very day of Christ’s Second Coming.
Richard Hill: Possibly, yes. The Jewish people are going to get saved at the advent of Christ’s Second Coming. The one-third who make it to the end of the Tribulation will finally recognize that Jesus is indeed the Jewish Messiah whom they’ve been waiting for so long. They will cry out to Jesus in Hebrew, “Baruch haba B’shem Adonia,” meaning “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39).
So, first the Jewish remnant gets saved. They recognize and accept that Jesus is the Messiah. They’ve at last come to the end of themselves. Can you imagine surviving seven years of Tribulation horrors? They come to the end of themselves only when everybody in the entire world comes against them to commit genocide, and so they’re all facing an imminent death. They need to believe that God will rescue them. And that’s what they are prophesied as doing, “for I (Jesus) say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'”.
After the Jewish remnant calls out to Jesus for salvation, then and only then will He finally return to physically save them from the Antichrist and his armies besieging Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be the final theater in Satan’s long attempt to wipe out all the Jewish people, because Satan knows this prophecy, and so wishes to prevent Christ’s return.
The Feast of Tabernacles
Yes, because as soon as Jesus returns, He is going to defeat Satan and his minions and then set up His Millennial Kingdom. This Kingdom concerns the last and seventh feast—the Feast of Tabernacles. What is a tabernacle exactly?
Richard Hill: A tabernacle is a temporary shelter. God required the Jewish people to build temporary shelters during the forty years of Exodus wanderings, then on this feast week the Jews build these booths outside of their homes and all over the land of Israel. Historically, the Jewish people particularly liked going up to the Temple Mount to best be able to worship and build their tabernacles there. Whoever got there first received what was considered the favored spot.
Richard Hill: The theme of the Feast of Tabernacles is “God with us.” God is going to dwell with us in the near future. After Christ’s Second Coming, we will have the privilege of God dwelling with us. When Jesus sets up His Kingdom, we will then be able to worship Him as both the King of the Jews as well as the King of the World. That’s the aspect of “God with us.” Forevermore, we are going to worship our Savior and give our King all the praise and glory and honor He so rightly deserves.
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