The Legal Types And Antitypes
That some of the legal types have met their antitypes is beyond controversy. By learning the manner of their fulfillment, and the principle as to time on which they are fulfilled; we can the more understandingly proceed to the investigation of the other types. There are two classes of yearly types - the Vernal and the Autumnal; Lev. 23. The former met their antitypes at the first Advent, but the latter are to be fulfilled in connection with and after the second Advent.
The vernal types were the Passover 14th 1st month, the feast of unleavened bread, 15th to 22nd 1st month, waving of the first fruits 16th 1st month, and the feast of weeks or Pentecost 50 days after the 3rd month. Lev. 23:1-21.
Our Savior was scrupulously precise in (commencing) their fulfillment at the very times they were respectively observed under the Law, as the brethren have repeatedly shown. But we have evidently erred in circumscribing the latitude of their fulfillment, they being fulfilled during the Gospel Dispensation.
The Passover. 1 Cor. 15:3; "For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures." 1 Cor. 5:7 "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us," Paul considered it of the first importance to deliver unto us the fact that Christ died for our sins in fulfillment of the slaying of the Paschal lamb. This he received from the law, though the law nowhere says the words that his crucifixion should be the antitype of slaying the Paschal lamb; yet so clear was the fulfillment that it furnished unanswerable proof that Jesus was the Messiah.
The Jews could not lay hands on him till his hour had come, then, being "brought as a lamb to the slaughter," he expired, "our Passover," in the very month, day, and hour, of slaying the legal Passover. It is ascertained that the Paschal antitype began at the crucifixion; but where must it end? Let the Savior answer. Luke 22:15-18 "And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; for I say unto you will not any more at thereof till it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God shall come." The Paschal feast must be "fulfilled in the Kingdom of God," which according to ver. 18, was then and is yet to "come." the Paschal antitype is not finished. The Lord instituted his Supper for the New Covenant in place of the Paschal feast of old, and as oft as we do it we show forth his death till he comes. One extreme of the Paschal antitype is his death, and the other his second coming, hence it spans and is fulfilled during the Gospel Dispensation.
The Feast of unleavened bread, in the antitype appears to run parallel with the Paschal antitype. 1 Cor. 5: 7, 8; "Purge out therefore, the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." The type was carnal, the bread made of grains, the antitype spiritual, the bread is truth, the Word of God received in sincerity. The bitter herbs with which it was eaten seem fitly to typify the afflictive trials of Christians in this state. As they began on the 14th at the Passover to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs, so the afflictive trials of the church began when the "Shepherd was smitten and the sheep scattered;" but they will end and the Bible be superseded "when the Chief of Shepherd shall appear" and gather the "flock of slaughter" with joy to our beloved Zion.
First Fruits . This was a handful of the first ripe fruit or grain. 1 Cor. 15:4, 20, 23; Ac. 26:23, show that Christ "rose again the third day according to the scriptures," "the first fruits of them that slept," thus laying the foundation of the resurrection to life. The fruits appear to be connected with.
The Feast of Weeks, at which two loaves of the new flour baked with leaven were waved before the Lord. "When the day of Pentecost was fully come," the Holy Ghost, the principle of life, came upon the disciples. This, which is the only thing recorded as the antitype of the feast of weeks, is to abide with the church till it shall quicken the bodies of the saints "at his coming." It must now appear evident that the vernal antitypes having begun with the opening of the Gospel Dispensation will close with its close.
From analogy we must conclude that the autumnal antitypes will occupy a period of time relative to that occupied by their types in somewhat the proportion of the vernal antitypes. In other words, the period of their fulfillment must constitute a dispensation of many years.
1846 ORLC, LOM 37