Cees en Anneke Noordzij — Eschatology
b6 — From Passover to Tabernacles
Feast of Tabernacles as eschatological goal
“Jesus does not now push His church back to the beginning, but toward the full feast of Pentecost and then toward the experience of the feast of Tabernacles, whose glory will surpass everything from the past.”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Feast of Pentecost
“Thus the true great ‘Day of Atonement’ comes, followed soon by the heavenly ‘feast of Tabernacles’. That is the glorious ‘feast of all fullness’, ‘that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God’ (Eph.3:19).”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Great Day of Atonement
“We will experience nothing of this path to that glorious feast of Tabernacles if we neglect Passover and Pentecost.”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Feast of Pentecost
Interpretation: The feast of Tabernacles functions as the eschatological endpoint of the entire salvation-historical feast cycle (Passover → Pentecost → Tabernacles). The authors present it not as a return to the past (the early church) but as a surpassing future. The measure is “the fullness of God” (Eph.3:19). [Confirms the pattern of b1–b5: the kingdom goal as future fullness, not as a reconstructed past]
The Parousia — internalized second coming
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1Cor.11:26). Until He comes in us!
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Passover
“For He Himself says, ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me’ (Rev.3:20). Then He eats and drinks with us and we with Him ‘new’ (Matt.26:29). That is more than a ceremony.”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Passover
Interpretation: The exclamation “Until He comes in us!” is a deliberate re-reading of 1Cor.11:26. The second coming is not denied but internalized: the parousia finds its primary fulfillment in the indwelling of Christ in the believer (Rev.3:20). [TENSION with b5, where the literal cloud-coming is explicitly rejected as a “naive interpretation”; here the positive alternative is formulated as an inner coming]
The Great Day of Atonement as future fulfillment in the church
“This great work of atonement has far from fully become manifest in the church of Christ, let alone outside it. It will, however, when the ‘second goat’ (=the sons) lets itself be sent ‘into the wilderness’ as ‘living, holy and pleasing sacrifices to God’ (Rom.12:1).”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Great Day of Atonement
“To this day the great Day of Atonement has not found its fulfillment in the Church, and humility is still required.”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Great Day of Atonement
“Full reconciliation between God and His people comes about through the blood of the Lamb AND through the testimony of His own (Rev.12:11). It comes to pass through His Son AND through the ministries of the sons. Thus ‘the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ’ appears (Rev.12:10).”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Great Day of Atonement
Interpretation: The Great Day of Atonement has a two-actor structure: Jesus as the slaughtered sacrifice and the “sons of God” as the second goat sent into the wilderness. They “suffer for the people and fill up in their flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church” (Col.1:24). The authors explicitly state that this fulfillment in the church has “not yet been found” — a future-eschatological expectation. [Confirms the pattern of b1 and b2: the sons as instrumental end-time redeemers; now linked to the Day of Atonement typology]
Universal reconciliation — Col. 1:20 as eschatological key text
“God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through his blood to reconcile to himself all things (Col.1:20). He ‘entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption’ as the eternal high priest (Heb.9:12,14,24).”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Great Day of Atonement
Interpretation: Col.1:20 (“to reconcile all things to himself”) is deployed as the hermeneutical basis for the Day of Atonement theology. The universal scope (“all things”) functions as the designation of the not-yet-fulfilled eschatological promise. [Confirms the apokatastasis tendency of b2, now with an explicit biblical reference to Col.1:20]
Kingdom of heaven on earth — Matt. 6:10
“Instead of heat and barrenness on ‘earth’, there will be life in abundance in the Kingdom of heaven on earth (Matt.6:10). Move on! We have lingered long enough.”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Blowing of the Trumpets
Interpretation: The expression “Kingdom of heaven on earth” distinguishes this from the purely presentic reading of b5. The authors add a future-earthly dimension: the kingdom comes on earth, not only inwardly in the believer. [TENSION with b5: there the kingdom is explicitly a present spiritual reality; here it has a future earthly manifestation]
Trumpets as eschatological sign and preparation
“On the first day of the seventh month you are to hold a sacred assembly and announce it with trumpet blasts (Lev.23:24). […] They sound forth: ‘Set your minds on things above’ (Col.3:2). ‘Prepare the way for the Lord our God’ (Isa.40:3). ‘Acknowledge your transgressions’ (Isa.58:1).”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Blowing of the Trumpets
“There will be ‘war in heaven’ (Rev.12:7). Yes, there will be darkness over the ‘earth’ and war in ‘heaven’ (Rev.12:7). ‘Heaven and earth’ will shake and ‘every support and prop will fall away’ (Isa.3:1-7). But in ‘the Shelter’ there is new ‘wine’, ‘milk’ and ‘living water’ (Joel 3:17-18).”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Blowing of the Trumpets
“Only they give a clear signal. […] God Himself will provide ‘silver’ ‘trumpets’! Their message of reconciliation will be ‘with authority and not as that of the scribes’ (Matt.7:28-29).”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Blowing of the Trumpets
Interpretation: The two silver trumpets (Num.10:2) are allegorically interpreted as servants of God who proclaim the universal work of reconciliation and call God’s people to eschatological watchfulness. The trumpet time (seventh month, first day) is for the authors a present-eschatological moment of preparation for the coming Day of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles.
The church permeated by the Kingdom — Matt. 13:33
“The kingdom of God is like leaven that a woman (=the ecclesia) took and hid in three measures of flour (=in spirit, soul and body), until it was all leavened (Matt.13:33, Luke 13:20-21). Thus, the entire Church will one day be completely permeated by the ‘new’ of God’s Kingdom and ‘be waved upward’!”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Feast of Pentecost
“Of ‘the old’ nothing is given a place in the heavenly realms: that is to have been put away at Passover (1Cor.5:6-8). Only what is permeated by ‘the new’ is exalted.”
Source reference: Noordzij, From Passover to Tabernacles, section The Feast of Pentecost
Interpretation: The leavening of the church (Matt.13:33) is an eschatologically progressive process: the ecclesia will be fully permeated by the new kingdom life and then exalted (“waved upward”). This “waving upward” refers to the Pentecost ceremony of waving the grain sheaves (Lev.23:10-11, 17) and has a future eschatological endpoint. [Confirms the pattern of b1: the 144,000 firstfruits as “waved” firstfruits who precede the church]