Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Sunday afternoon Bible study. In our last couple of Sunday Bible studies, we have been looking at the number “10,000” and the “10,000 day,” which is October 7, 2015. For instance, we saw that there was an interesting connection between God beginning His judgment and the “10,000” talents, which represented the complete sin debt of one of God’s professed servants. It said in Matthew 18: 23-24:
Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
It was just noticed that God uses the word “begun” in regard to reckoning and this is the same Greek word that is used in 1Peter 4:17, where it says judgment “begins” at the house of God. The king is reckoning with his servants as God is reckoning with His servants that professed to be the servants of God and as He began to reckon the amount that was owed was “ten thousand talents.” And it just so happens that from the day when judgment began at the house of God on May 21, 1988 to October 7, 2015 is “10,000 days.” We looked at that and it was very interesting and then last week we looked at how Christ comes with 10,000 of His saints and, once again, God is using the number “10,000” in relationship to Judgment Day. Of course, it also represents the completeness of the saints, but we are looking at a date (October 7, 2015) that absolutely will be the 10,000th day since judgment began on May 21, 1988. There is no question this is the last day of a 10,000-day period, but the question is: “Will it be the last day of earth’s existence?” Well, there is strong evidence for that, but it is definite that it will be “the last day” of 10,000 days. Is that not interesting?
After May 21, 2011 we were looking for a date that was relevant to the continuance of what God was doing in the judgment process. How long would Judgment Day last? What would be the duration of the Day of Judgment? Then we went to Revelation, chapter 14 and God provides the number “1,600” that when added to the “8,400” days of the Great Tribulation totals “10,000” days. And what does the number “10,000” in the Bible mean? It points to completeness. Did we just make that up in the last couple of years? How long have God’s people been teaching that the number “10” or multiples of “10” point to completeness? Well, you can go back to Mr. Camping who taught this for decades and it was true even before his time. I remember finding that A.W. Pink broke down numbers on a study he did in the Book of Exodus and he was born long before Mr. Camping. It was not something that originated with Mr. Camping; God’s people have learned down through the ages that the number “10” points to completeness or multiples of “10,” like “100” or “1,000” or “10,000” and the number “10,000” points to even greater completeness because it is “10” to the 4th power or “10 x 10 x 10 x 10” and the number “4” represents the furthest extent of whatever is in view.
So that day, October 7, 2015, is the 10,000th day and it is the day that God will very likely complete the judgment He began. Even the statement, “Judgment begins at the house of God” calls for a completion. If you begin something, it calls for completion. Remember what it said in Philippians 1:5-6:
For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
So God will perform that good work until “the day” and that day is Judgment Day. When God begins something, He completes it. And this is the idea behind the statement, “judgment begins at the house of God,” and that is why on May 21, 2011 (after 8,400 days or an exact 23 years), we were looking for a completion. We looked at the “five months” and we thought, “This is it because the Bible speaks of five months of judgment,” but we were incorrect in the nature of the “five months.” We thought it would be a literal five months, but it turned out to be a figurative number like every other number in the Book of Revelation. Actually, “8,400” days plus “153” days to October 21, 2011, equals “8,553,” but that number does not break down to anything significant, but “8,400” plus “1,600” comes together perfectly. It is “10,000” days. The “8,400” days was judgment upon the churches because they would receive more “stripes.” The “1,600” days is judgment upon the world and the churches because when judgment began on the world on May 21, 2011, God is still judging the churches now as part of the world.
Today I thought we would look at what the Bible says about the phrase “the last day.” We know that October 7, 2015 is the last day of 10,000 days. However, the phrase “the last day” is only found eight times in the Bible. The phrase “the last day” is found four times in John, chapter 6. Let us go to John 6:37-40:
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
There are two references to “the last day” in this passage. Then it says in John 6:44:
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Then it says in John 6:53-54:
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
So these are the four times the phrase “the last day” are used in this chapter. And what is in view? In every case, it is either the rapture or the resurrection and we can prove this from Matthew 12:41, where the word translated as “raise” is also used. It says in Matthew 12:41:
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it…
The word for “rise” is the same Greek word. Also, when the Sadducees were questioning Jesus about the resurrection, it says in Mark 12:23-25:
In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
The word “rise” is the same word. There are many verses like this, but let us just go to one more, in 1Thessalonians 4:14-18:
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
This is off topic, but does it say, “Wherefore terrify one another with these words”? [Laughter] How many times have you heard people say about the end, “Oh, you are fear mongers!”? No, we are to “comfort one another with these words,” and it is comforting if you are a child of God, but it is frightening if you are not a child of God. Anyway, I got off topic.
But, again, 1Thessalonians 4, verse16 refers to the dead in Christ “rising” and we were also looking at four reference in John, chapter 6, where Jesus said, “I will raise him up at the last day.” So the terms “raise up” and “the last day” are joined together all four times.
Lord willing, we are going to look at all eight references to “the last day,” but I want to break them up so we do not just jump into it. It will help us to dwell on it and consider it more carefully. Let us go to Revelation 14:19-20:
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
This is where we get the number “1,600.” Here, the context is Judgment Day as we read in verses 9, 10 and 11 and from verses 14 through 20. The entire context is Judgment Day and, here, God gives us the unusual statement about the blood coming out of the winepress and the winepress is where Jesus Christ is treading upon the wicked and the blood is going the space of “1,600 furlongs” and then it, apparently stops because it did not go for 1,601 furlongs or any further than “1,600 furlongs” and then the flow of blood ceases. The Bible tells us in Leviticus, “The life is in the blood.”
So, as we look at this chapter we see it is speaking of Judgment Day and the Bible locked in Judgment Day and while it began at the house of God back in 1988, the final judgment on the world began on May 21, 2011 after the Tribulation. This passage locks it in – it is Judgment Day and, therefore, it identifies with May 21, 2011. We understood the Great Tribulation was 8,400 days in length and, here, we get the number “1,600” that fits perfectly with “8,400.” What happens when we look at this number? The “1,600th day” falls on October 7, 2015 and it breaks down to “40 x 40.” That means that since May 21, 2011, it is as though we have been living in little periods of “40 days.” From May 21, 2011, we lived for 40 days and then after that, there was another 40-day period, and so on. I think we are coming very close now to the 39th period of 40 days and soon it will be the last 40-day period ending on October 7.
In the Bible God uses the number “40” to indicate “testing” and it especially ties into testing those people that have just been delivered, like the testing of the people that had just come out of Egypt, the place of captivity. God saved everyone by May 21, 2011 and everyone whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life were delivered. And then did we all enter into the Promised Land right away? No, that is not how it works. The Jews were greatly disappointed about that, too, when the hot sun began to beat down on them and they began to wander from one encampment to another encampment and they wanted for food and drink. They began to murmur and complain and their true nature came through, because the vast majority of them were not saved. And after God had mercifully saved a great multitude of people by May 21, 2011, what was the response of some of those that professed to have been delivered? They murmured, right away on May 22nd, but some waited until the 23d. [Laughter] And some people waited to murmur until October 21, 2011 or October 22, 2011.
Why did God allow this testing period? And why did He allow this for the Jews? It was because even though they came out of Egypt and were delivered, they were not all God’s true people. They were not true men, as they were not spiritual Jews.
Likewise, there were many people that were associated with God’s end time program and they came out of the churches, perhaps, but they were not born again, so God developed a period of severe testing. That is the only way you can look at “40 x 40.” It is severe testing. Raise your hand if you have not been tested over this period of time. Even if you did raise your hand, I do not think it would be accurate because we have all been tested. Some have been tested physically and some economically. Some people have been tested in their relationships or with their relationship to the Word of God and its doctrines. You know, God has been “testing” since judgment began on the churches back in 1988. The 10,000 days breaks down to “250 x 40,” so October 7, 2015 is the 250th 40-day period since God began judging the churches in 1988. The “250” would “5 x 5 x 10 x 40,” and “5” relates to the atonement and, in the case of the wicked, they are their own sacrifice for sin and it also relates to applying the atoning work to the great multitude during this span of time.
We were also being tested during the time of the Great Tribulation as God would open up a “new” doctrine and it would be the test. For example, there was the doctrine that came forth that Christ died for sin from the foundation of the world and some people responded, “Oh, no He did not. I know He died for sin at the cross.” Then there was the doctrine of annihilation as compared to the old doctrine of “Hell.” There was doctrine after doctrine that tested us. The doctrine of the end of the church age was testing us during the Great Tribulation, but once we transitioned to the final judgment of mankind, the testing intensified – now it was “40 x 40” and that is what God has been doing throughout this 1,600 days. And October 7, 2015 is “the last day” of the “1,600” days. It is the 40th “40” and the 1,600th day and it is “the last day” of the 10,000th day of overall judgment. These things are certain and definite. It is “the last day” of 1,600 days and “the last day” of 10,000 days and it is 40th “40” and the 250th “40.” I could probably put forth a couple more, like it is the 7,700th day since God ended the first part of the Great Tribulation with the completion of the 2,300 “evening mornings,” so it is the 7,700th day since September 7, 1994. So it is “the last day” of all of these things.
Let us see what else the Bible has to say about “the last day.” This will be the fifth time that phrase is used and it is spoken by Martha to Jesus, in John 11:23-24:
Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
This is the fifth time this phrase is used and it is in relation to “the resurrection at the last day.” The four previous times it was associated with being “raised up” at “the last day.”
This word “resurrection” is also used in Luke 14:13-14:
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
This is the typical word for “resurrection” and it is also found in John 5:27-29:
And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
It mentions the “resurrection of life” and the “resurrection of damnation” and when does this happens? According to John 11, it is “the last day.” For “they that have done good,” it is because God imputes the righteousness of Christ to them and that is the sense in which anyone has “done good.” But to the rest, they are still in their sins and have, therefore, done evil and there is the “resurrection of damnation.” The Greek word “damnation” is “krisis” and can be translated as “judgment.” It is Strong’s #2920 and it is related to a word we find in John 12, where we find our sixth reference to “the last day.” Remember, there are only eight instances in the whole Bible and we have looked at five of them which all have to do with the rapture or the resurrection. It says in John 12:47-48:
And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
This is a related word, Strong’s #2919. God’s Word will “judge him in the last day.” In one sense, “the last day” began on May 21, 2011 because it is a prolonged period of judgment and God’s Word has been judging throughout this time. But, especially, it applies to that final day of this prolonged period of time, the day when God will raise the dead – it is the resurrection of the just to life and the unjust to condemnation and destruction.
This is the sixth time the phrase “the last day” is found in the Bible. You know, the Bible is a big Book and there is so much emphasis on the end of the world, so it is kind of amazing that this phrase only appears eight times. It is especially associated with the Gospel of John, where it appears seven times. Only one other place in the Bible is this phrase found and it is in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles. Let us go back to Leviticus 23. The phrase is not found here, but we learn about this Feast in Leviticus 23:34:
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto JEHOVAH.
The Feast of Tabernacles is held on “the fifteenth day of the seventh month.” If we go further down, we read of another feast that is held on this same day, as it says in Leviticus 23:39-44:
Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto JEHOVAH seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before JEHOVAH your God seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto JEHOVAH seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am JEHOVAH your God. And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of JEHOVAH.
So the Feast of Tabernacles (a booth is a tabernacle) was held, as God said, “That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt,” so the Feast of Tabernacles commemorates “deliverance,” the time when all Israel was delivered. And what happened when they came out of Egypt? They wandered 40 years in the wilderness and they were tested. During the test, what is your housing? Where do you live? You live in a “booth.” The Feast of Tabernacles is a feast that identifies with the 40 years that Israel wandered in the wilderness and with testing.
The parallel to our day is that on May 21, 2011 God delivered all the elect and we entered into a period of severe testing and of keeping the feast of booths or the Feast of Tabernacles, spiritually. Remember how Mr. Camping tied in the Feast of Tabernacles with the Word of God, in Nehemiah, chapter 8? God’s people have turned for refuge to God and to His Word and it is our protection in the “evil day.” It says in Isaiah 4:5-6:
And JEHOVAH will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
The Lord has led us to His Word to observe the Feast of Tabernacles during this severe time of testing. Where are we going? What has been our direction and what is our finish line? To what day do we look? It is October 7, 2015, which is “the last day” of the Feast of Tabernacles.
I think I jumped ahead a little bit, because we need to go back to Nehemiah, chapter 8. I recommend that you read the entire chapter, but it is speaking of coming out of the captivity to Babylon, which God equates to the coming out of Egypt – it is the same spiritual picture. It says in Nehemiah 8:17-18:
And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.
The phrase “the last day” is found in verse 18. On the first day of Tabernacles they were in booths, because you can read earlier that they went to get branches for the booths, just like we read in Leviticus 23. But it says, “From the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God.” This is the only time in the Old Testament you will find the phrase “the last day.” Again, it is the only time in the entire Old Testament. It is only here and it is only in association with the Feast of Tabernacles and, yet, in the New Testament God used the phrase six times: “I will raise him up at the last day,” which was used four times in John 6; “The resurrection of the last day” in John 11; and “the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” All these speak of “the last day” of earth’s existence. Then God uses the same phrase in conjunction with the Feast of Tabernacles. Maybe it is a coincidence, except that we see it one more time in John, chapter 7. First, let us establish the context, it says in John 7:2:
Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.
So the context is the Feast of Tabernacles. Now look at John 7:8:
Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
What did Jesus mean by that because right after He said this He did go up to the feast? It is because what He had in mind was the spiritual fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast was held in the end of the year and the spiritual fulfillment of Tabernacles would be the end of the world and that has been understood for some time. In this context of the Feast of Tabernacles, we read in John 7:37:
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
This is the eighth and final time this phrase “the last day” is used in the Bible. Six times it identifies with the end of the world and the rapture and resurrection and two times it is associated with the Feast of Tabernacles. And it so happens that on October 7, 2015 it is “the last day” of the Feast of Tabernacles. It is also “the last day” of 10,000 days and it is “the last day” of the 1,600 days. It is “the last day” of the Feast of Tabernacles, a feast that God relates to the last day of earth’s existence by His use of the term “the last day.”
So, we can say these things definitely, but I know that some people want us to say October 7, 2015 with an “exclamation point.” Alright, here is your “exclamation point.” It is “the last day” of the 10,000 days! It is “the last day” of 1,600 days! It is “the last day” of the Feast of Tabernacles! This is pretty certain. Will it be “the last day” of earth’s existence? Well, “the last day” will come, will it not?
In life and in many different areas, “the last day” does come, does it not? The last day of school comes. When you are in high school, it seems like you have been in school so long, but you do finally come to the last day of school or college or the last day of your military sign-up period. I remember being in the military and counting down the days (“DTG’s or “days to go”) and I started counting as soon as I got in. [Laughter] It seems to drag and take so long, but “the last day” does come and then you look back and it has been years and years. Also, the last day of life comes for people we have known. The last day comes for people and then they are gone and we see them no more because they died. That last day always comes and God says, “These words are faithful and true.” He says He is the first and the last, the beginning and the ending. He is also the “resurrection.” That is rather interesting to me because the resurrection is the last day and Jesus is the “resurrection” and He is the “last” and He will bring about “the last day.”
Let us just look at something else in Revelation 14, because October 7, 2015 is also “the last day” of one other thing that is very significant. Remember, in Leviticus 23 that the Feast of Tabernacles began “on the fifteenth day of the seventh month,” but also the feast of ingathering or feast of harvest began on that same day. It is the final harvest. Exodus 23, verse 16 speaks of the harvest as both the firstfruits and the feast of ingathering at the end of the year. God said of the harvest, in Matthew 13:39:
The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world…
The harvest is the end of the world and then when we come to Revelation, chapter 14, we find that it says of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Revelation 14:14:
And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
What is He going to do with a sickle? It is used in harvest. Then it says in Revelation 14:15:
And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
Verses 14 through 16 are pretty much focused on reaping the harvest. Then it says in Revelation 14:17-19:
And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
It is the reaping and thrusting in of the sickle. Why? It is because the harvest is the end of the world. Jesus is the Judge and He is bringing Judgment Day and Judgment Day is a harvest, according to the Bible. Then it says in Revelation 14:20:
And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
So Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011 and “harvest” began with the reaping process and the thrusting in of the sickle. In that context, God gives us the number “1,600.” Once we understand it to represent days and we connect it to May 21, 2011, we extend it into the future “four years, four months and sixteen days” later and it falls on the 10,000th day since judgment began at the house of God. It is also the 1,600th day, according to the relationship to the furlongs. It is also “the last day” of the Feast of Tabernacles and “the last day” of the feast of harvest.
Please think about this. Please think about it because I went through this chapter in our earlier studies in Revelation and it did not hit me at first, but it is similar to how May 21, 2011 locked in because of the 7,000 year timeline from the date of the flood. On the very day that God shut the door of the ark, it was exactly 7,000 years later to the day that the end of the Great Tribulation came and God brought judgment upon the world. It was the hand of God locking in that date. What are the odds (to use a term of the world) that this particular number (1,600) that was given in the context of judgment would take us to the date of “the last day” of harvest, as God has been “thrusting in the sickle” to reap, in verse after verse! And 1,600 days later, we land on “the last day” of the feast of harvest. That is pretty amazing. It is “the last day” of harvest. It is “the last day” of Tabernacles. It is “10,000” days and it is “1,600” days, the completion of testing or the 40th “40.”
We are still going to say there is a “strong likelihood” that October 7, 2015 will be “the last day,” but we will say it is definitely “the last day” of Tabernacles and “the last day” of harvest” and “the last day” of 10,000 days and “the last day” of 1,600 days and “the last day” of the “40 x 40” period of testing. These are all “absolutes.” There is a strong likelihood (not a weak likelihood) that this will be “the last day” the Bible speaks of and which Christ referred to in all these verses.