Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
What does it mean to live while that great "seventh angel" of Revelation 11 blows his "trumpet" (vss. 15-19)? What is "Day of Atonement" living? And what's so different about it than living on any ordinary "day"?
The Day of Atonement for Israel of old was what Jews today regard as "Yom Kippur," a day just observed by Jews around the world. This is a solemn "day," different than any other of the year (Lev. 23:27-32). It was a kindergarten lesson of the cosmic Day of Atonement in which we live today, a time of being completely reconciled to God (the word "atonement" means "at-one-with"). It's the opposite of being afraid of God; it's living totally, fearlessly, in harmony with Him.
It's not wearing hairshirts or walking on hot coals or starving yourself (Hinduism has been specially designed as a gross counterfeit of it). It's not being ascetic, going off in the desert to be a nun or a monk (the Dark Ages idea was a total distortion of it). It's not the karma idea of piling up "good works" to make up for all the bad things you've done. It's not fear-motivated living; it is love-motivated living. It's totally being at-one with Jesus, of living in heart-union with Him. It's not fanaticism or dour self-torture. It's not singing sad hymns all the time.
So, what is Day of Atonement living? It's "growing up" out of spiritual infancy "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13), and loving every moment of it! It's a mature "comprehension" of His thinking, His feelings, His aspirations (3:14-21). It's identifying with Him to the point of being "in Him," of looking at the world as He looks at the world and being supremely happy in that identity.
Yes, since time began there have always been "some few in every generation" who have "grown up" out of the kindergarten idea of worshiping God and have been at-one with Him, like Enoch who "walked with God," and Moses, whose heart was so in tune with Him that he was willing to have his name blotted out of the Book of Life rather than see Israel go down the drain (cf. Heb. 11:5; Ex. 32:31, 32).
But now on this cosmic Day of Atonement, this "antitypical" one, God has a worldwide corporate "body" of people so "at-one" with Him that they become a Bride to Christ who "has made herself ready" for "the marriage of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:7). Every moment of every day becomes an exciting adventure "with Him."
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 7, 2001.
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