Is the Church bound by Jewish Feast Days? When it comes to Prophecy, can the Rapture really be just any old day? Pentecost and Feast of Trumpets are the 2 most popular Feasts that most Experts debate over.
I love Feast Days because it allows believers a target to anticipate for the Rapture. Jesus says “I come at an hour you think not.” Some say that means Christ’s Appearing on a Sabbath which the Jews would never allow. Could it just mean He is coming just any old day out of the blue?
The Church is not bound by Jewish feast days, although each Feast has both historical and prophetic fulfillment. For instance, Passover both commemorated the deliverance of the Jews from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, and prophesied the Messiah’s deliverance of the world from the bondage of sin. The spring feasts were fulfilled in the First Coming and the fall feasts look forward to the Second.
But while events of both the first and second advent are foretold in the Jewish feasts, the Rapture is not directly connected to either. It’s an event unique to the Church that is only related to the Lord’s Comings in that it has to happen sometime after the First and before the Second.
The reason Pentecost, the only summer feast, is a popular date for the Rapture is that the church was born on that day. And in fact, if the Rapture should happen to come on a Jewish Feast day, Pentecost is the only likely one. Those who choose the Feasts of Trumpets or Tabernacles have confused the Rapture and the 2nd Coming.
But I believe that the historical fulfillment of Pentecost was the giving of the 10 Commandments at mount Sinai, inaugurating the Dispensation of Law, and its prophetic fulfillment was the birth of the Church which brought the Dispensation of Grace.
Further, I’m convinced that the Rapture is a number specific event, not a date specific one. In other words, there is a specific number of believers who will populate the New Jerusalem, and when that number is reached, off we’ll go. So it could happen on any date. Acts 15:12-18 and Romans 11:25-27 support this view.
What makes us believe we’re close to the Rapture is the proximity of post-church end times events pertaining to Israel.