The Day of Atonement

By Richard Govier

The month Tishri had historically been used as the first month of the Hebrew Year. That changed when God commanded Moses to make the 1st Passover the first month of their year. It was at the 1st Passover when Israel left Egypt that the saga of sacred feast days began. The Feast of Passover celebrated the anniversary of Israel's deliverance from Egypt. The Feast of Pentecost marked the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai some 50 days after the crossing of the Red Sea. But the two tablets of stone upon which the Law was written were destroyed by Moses at the base of Mount Sinai when he found the children of Israel worshiping a golden calf. The question is, did it alter God's redemptive plan for the human race and leave it highly flawed?

Richard O. Govier (1928-2018) was a Protestant pastor and missionary and travelled the world in that capacity. He planted a number of churches as well as training pastors who served in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and across the United States.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Govier
• Release date: Jul 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463543764

Richard Govier

Richard O. Govier (1928-2018) was a Protestant pastor and missionary and travelled the world in that capacity. He planted a number of churches as well as training pastors who served in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and across the United States.After his marriage to his lifetime sweetheart, Christine Ann Golfis, at the Bethesda Missionary College in Portland, Oregon, he attended extension classes at Pierce College and the Portland State college. Touched by the Latter Rain revival that began in the Northwest, the call of God rested continually on their hearts and they were forever seeking means of preaching the Gospel to their generation. They bought a small trailer and began an evangelistic trek across the United States, preaching in small churches that were open to the work and moving of the Holy Spirit. They criss-crossed the United States from Los Angeles to New York and finally settled down in Los Angeles where they both got jobs and attended a church in Long Beach, California. While serving in that church their son, Jeffrey Lee, was born on November 4, 1963.God had spoken through prophetic words that they would be going to a land whose language they would not understand. Going through a dry period in their lives, Richard loaded up a small tent and made a trip to Mount Palomar, to wait on God. After a week of prayer and fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke to his heart that it was time to fulfill the call to a foreign land. Richard, Christine, and Jeff, set out for Brazil. They had no financial support for this until the night they boarded the ship. God sent a local Christian businessman who committed himself to their support for two years, just enough time to attend language school.It was while attending the Brazilian language school that a missionary visited and introduced Richard to one of Brazil's most notable guitar players, who had recently converted to Christianity. Richard played with him on the banjo and the two began a ministry together that took them to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Richard taught pastors in afternoon meetings, while accompanying his Brazilian friend in large city-wide evangelistic campaigns in the evenings.After serving for ten years in South America, Richard and Christine returned to the United States, primarily to get Jeff into an English-speaking school. Richard pastored churches in York, Pennsylvania, and later in Brooksville, New Jersey. The family eventually moved to Florida where Richard went to work for Piper Aircraft and Page Avjet.Richard loved studying the word of God and, in his retirement years, wrote over thirty books about the unfolding revelations of God in human history. His son, Jeff, published these books one year after his father passed away.

Book preview

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT

AND ITS RAMIFICATIONS

Richard O. Govier

Copyright © 2019 by Jeff Govier

Bible quotations unless otherwise identified are taken from

the King James Version with emendations by the author.

Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible®,

Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995

by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from The Holy Bible : Revised Standard Version

Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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After reading this book and finding it of value to you, please consider sending a small donation for the the costs of advertising my father's work. Send all donations either by Paypal account name [e-mail] or by mail to:

Jeff Govier, 5511 Lorraine St., Lakeland, FL 33810.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

The Day Of Atonement

The Goat Ceremony

The Great Jubilee

About the Author

Introduction

The Day of Atonement is for the Jew the end of a cycle in which their sins are expiated for another year. For the Christian, it means the beginning of Eternal Life. Jesus, who was anointed as High Priest at His baptism, atoned for the sins of the entire world. The Day of Atonement was the only time of the year in which the High Priest entered the cubicle called the Holy of Holies and offered blood on the mercy seat to atone, not only for his own sin, but for the sin of all the people.

The first reference we have to the Day of Atonement comes in the Book of Exodus where details are given for the building of the Altar of Incense. It is there that we find a brief warning about the Day of Atonement: You shall not offer any strange incense on this altar, or burnt offering or meal offering; and you shall not pour out a libation on it. And Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year; he shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord (Exodus 30:9-10).

It was in the seventh month (Tishri) that the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles were celebrated It marked not only the end of their Sacred Year but the beginning of a new Agricultural Year. Jesus died as our Atonement Sacrifice on Passover and not on the Day of Atonement, which would seem a contradiction. Yet Jesus fulfilled in His person, and during the Passover month of Nisan, both the Passover (by dying on the cross) and the Atonement by ascending unto the Father in heaven. If Jesus had not ascended to the Father and made Atonement as the Sin Sacrifice, then there would have been no outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and the Church would never have been born.

It is points like these that I will address in this study. The Day of Atonement ritual was different from both Passover and Pentecost. Both of these Feast Days have been spiritually fulfilled in the life of the Church from the 1st Century on, but the third and last Feast Day has never been fulfilled as it applies to the Church.

Then there is the matter of the two goats that were chosen by lot on the Day of Atonement, one to be sacrificed as the Sin Offering and the other