Sabbath Thought – Fall Holy Days

Fall is definitely arriving with the beginning hints of the leaves changing color, days getter shorter, summer crops getting closer to harvest. Additionally, I have been watching the waxing moon that verifies that we are only two weeks from the first of the fall Holy Days – Trumpets!

I always look forward to the fall Holy Days because of the deep spiritual meaning. In the Feast of Trumpets we have the truth and the hope of the resurrection of the saints of God – and the visible, powerful return of Jesus Christ! When Christ returns, He replaces Satan as ruler of this world and begins establishing God’s Kingdom on Earth. Because mankind has become so separated from God, they will initially fight Christ at His return, but all kingdoms will come under the rulership of Christ. Before that can begin in earnest, Satan has to be removed from being able to influence mankind to sin – and that event is anticipated in the Day of Atonement. 

Once Satan and the demons are removed, Christ and the resurrected saints can begin the work of repairing the destruction done to the earth over the last 6,000 years and during the Tribulation. This will usher in the Millennium, pictured in the Feast of Tabernacles. The more rewarding work during this time period will be the teaching from God that will flow from Jerusalem to all parts of the world. Mankind will no longer be blinded to God’s way of life and will instead learn to live in peace. God will heal the land and purify the environment to an extent that hasn’t been seen since the Garden of Eden. What will mankind be able to accomplish under God’s direction compared to what we currently know under Satan’s influence? The possibilities are almost limitless!

The ending of God’s plan of salvation for mankind will certainly be memorable! The Last Great Day is going to be an amazingly happy time when all who have ever lived and died without knowing God’s truth will be given physical life once again. This is not “second chance” salvation, but rather the first time mankind as a whole will know and be able to understand the choices set before them – that there are two trees representing two diametrically opposite “philosophies” of how to live. One leads to death (and mankind has followed that way of living since the Garden of Eden) and the other leads to life (and will have been modeled by Christ and the saints during the Millennium). At the end of the fulfillment of the Last Great Day, all of mankind will either be in the Family of God forever – or they will cease to exist forever.

Then – I suspect – it will get interesting. What will the family of God do for eternity? If God’s hand is not limited in what He can create and sustain, imagine what a whole family with the same power could do! We know that God is love, so imagine that same kind of love growing and building within an eternal family. Everyone will be of the same nature and character as the Father and the Son are so everything positive will expand to continue to edify all that they touch.

God’s plan of salvation is an awesome truth to ponder. Make the most of the coming weeks to rehearse these truths, to be grounded in God’s law so we will withstand the hard times yet to come, before He fulfills the rest of His plan. Strengthen one another in God’s truth and rejoice in His Holy Days!

I pray that you have a wonderful Sabbath,

Dan Dowd

29 August, 2026