Biblestudy: Are God's Holy Days To Be Kept Today?
The Holy Days of God
#BS-979
Martin G. Collins
Given 27-Feb-10; 63 minutes
description: If we do not keep God's holy days, we will deprive ourselves of the knowledge of God's plan or purpose. Ancient Israel was termed the Church in the Wilderness, a type of the church of God. Leviticus 23 enumerates the feasts of the Lord, beginning with the weekly Sabbath, the covenant sign between God and His people. Keeping any other day than the Sabbath is an affront to God. God gives details as to how to keep each of these convocations. The seven annual holy days are not considered Jewish or Old Testament, but God's holy days, including the Passover, Pentecost, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles. Anti-Semitism has been, and continues to be, the catalyst for hatred of these annual holy days of God. Emperor Constantine condemned Judaizers as anathema to Roman Catholicism. The real founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, kept all the annual convocations, never abolishing them or their significance, anticipating their continuance in God's Kingdom. John's gospel indicates that Christ continued to keep the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day, as well as the Passover, faithfully keeping the festivals outlined in Leviticus 23 and Exodus 12, providing an example for us. Jesus commanded His disciples also to keep these festivals and to teach others to do so as well. The apostle Paul also faithfully taught and admonished the Gentiles to keep these days. The seven annual feasts are still in force today, and will be kept in the Millennium, when everyone will be following in Christ's footsteps.
transcript:
The subject we have today is also a basic doctrine. It is amazing because it is so basic and simple for us to understand but the world is in darkness over it and it is causing them a great deal of ignorance, to say the very least. Even the professing Christian churches are in this darkness, and they have done that by choice because they have chosen to follow traditions of men rather than what Scripture shows.
The subject we have here today is of vital importance to us, and it also is one that opens up a broad spectrum of understanding of God's truth.
The so-called Christian churches today do not understand or teach what sin is. They do not teach that sin must be put away, and they do not understand what man is, all because of not understanding this question I am going to answer today. They do not understand the purpose of life and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. They do not understand that God's church today is not here to convert the world, but to feed the flock and to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom as a witness, to live a life of overcoming sin, enduring to the end, and that the overcomers will reign with Christ, being kings and priests in His Kingdom.
Why do not people understand these things? Because people who do not keep God's holy feasts are in ignorance and confusion about God's plan of salvation for mankind. It is that simple.
Should the New Testament church observe what seem to be Jewish holidays?
Let us begin with some background. When did the true church begin? It seems like an easy question, but let us take a look at this. Turn with me to Exodus 12, verse 1. Now God commanded Moses and the Israelites to keep the Passover, as you are well aware of.
Exodus 12:1-4 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt [of course Egypt representing sin], saying, "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb.'
Exodus 12:6 "Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight."
So the nation of Israel was called the congregation of Israel with regard to her religious activities, and in Acts 7:38 we learn that the congregation of Israel was called the church in the wilderness in the days of Moses. The English word "congregation" used throughout the Old Testament is only another rendering having the same identical meaning as the word "church" in the New Testament. The word translated congregation in the Old Testament is ecclesia. I am sure you have heard that Greek word many times. It is translated ecclesia in the Septuagint, which was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which is the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into popular Greek before the Christian era. And then it became an important Old Testament translation for early Christians.
Keep in mind Greek was the language, like English is today, of the world business language during the time of Christ and the apostles. So most people in the world spoke Greek as well as other languages.
Now Israel was both church and state. As a kingdom, it was ruled for years by a system of judges over 50s, one hundreds, and thousands, and so on. And later, having a king. But as a congregation or a church, Israel was organized with a physical civil leader like Moses or Joshua, and the priests of the tribe of Levi. Now Israel was a physical type of the spiritual church of God. Both the civil leaders and the priests, with their high priests, were under the God of the Old Testament, who later became Jesus Christ.
The congregation of Israel was required to keep the law of Moses containing those ritualistic and ceremonial laws which were added because of transgressions to the Old Covenant, and they were only added until Christ came to teach and instill into them the habit of obedience. And these consisted of meat and drink offerings, various washings, and physical ordinances. Also they had the sacrifices of the pre-substitute of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
In the 12th chapter of Exodus where we had been, while the children of Israel were still in Egypt, long before the law of Moses had been given, prior to the time when God revealed to Moses and the Israelites He would make the Old Testament with them, we find God's annual holy days and feasts being observed. Both Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are detailed there in Exodus 12. And in the 23rd chapter of Leviticus, if you will turn with me there, we find a summary of these annual holy days and set feasts, but God begins by reminding Israel that the 7th day weekly Sabbath is His feast day. The weekly Sabbath is not one of the seven annual holy days or feast days, of course, as you well know.
Leviticus 23:1-3 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts. [And look what the first one is that is mentioned there that is written.] Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings [speaking there of the weekly Sabbath].'
So the weekly Sabbath is a feast day. That is not the point of this Bible study today, but I do need to give you some information about that Sabbath.
Then in verses 4 through 44 of Leviticus 23, God gives details for keeping each of the seven annual holy days or feast days. And when God made the Sabbath for man, He gave man a rest day carrying great significance and purpose. At His church in the wilderness, God said that the Sabbath was a covenant sign between Him and His people, just like it is today for the church of God. It is a sign. It was a sign for Israel as the church in the wilderness. A sign is a supernatural proof of identity, and it is the sign by which we know that He is God.
Genesis 2, verses 1 through 3; we will just turn over there quickly. You are very familiar with these, but it establishes the Sabbath right from the beginning.
Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the hosts of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Also Exodus 20:11 reiterates that the Sabbath day has been established since Creation Week. It says, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
Now it is a memorial of creation and creation is the proof of the existence of God. Creation identifies God, and the Sabbath is a weekly memorial of creation. It is a weekly reminder of God's power to create and therefore it identifies God to us and keeps us in the true memory and true worship of the true God. No other day but the 7th day of the week could have that great of significance and meaning.
It was designed to keep us in the true worship of God. Therefore, those who keep Sunday are in the false worship of another god. It is that simple and that plain. It is amazing to me how some people in the church over the years have listened to the Sunday preachers on Sunday in addition to coming to God's Sabbath. It is just amazing to me.
The festivals given to ancient Israel were not only intended for the Old Testament, and they were not abolished by the New Covenant. Neither were they intended only for the Jews, as mainstream Christianity believes. The true God of the true church of God's basis for observing the festivals of God outlined in Leviticus 23 is rooted firmly in the New Testament. They are not Old Testament. Holy days are not Jewish holy days, per se. They are God's holy days firmly in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament.
As you know, those seven annual holy days are the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day. And the Day of Atonement is a feast day as well. It is a spiritual feast day where we imbibe the Word of God, all of its glory and all of its help.
God's holy feasts were actively observed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament church, and true Christians are to be actively observing them today. I want to give you a little background history just very quickly here just to build the case.
Attacks on God's holy feasts are nothing new. They have always happened. Satan is always there ready and willing to cloud them, distort them, and pervert them. And early in the history of the New Testament church, some of the church's Gentile membership began to disparage God's holy feasts, and eventually most of those Gentiles came to consider the holy feasts merely Jewish observances. Those who retained the Passover and Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles were labeled Judaizers, and it became a very nasty word, much like the conservatives are today, but in a much worse case because there was such religious hatred involved.
Now this attack was successful because two ill-fated Jewish revolts against Rome in AD 66 to 73 and also AD 132 to 135 made Judaism extremely unpopular throughout the Roman Empire. After these two bloody and prolonged struggles, the Romans held everything Jewish in contempt, especially the characteristic earmarks of Judaism, like the weekly Sabbath and Passover, the Jewish New Year, that is, the Feast of Trumpets, and Yom Kippur, which is the Day of Atonement. But anti-Jewish bias became a catalyst for false teachers to encourage the abandonment of the Sabbath and the holy days.
Let me read some very familiar scriptures that mention this in the way of background here just to show you that the feast days and the weekly Sabbath have been under attack since the beginning. I am just going to read through these. You do not have to turn there because they are not the point of the Bible study. They are just some background information.
Acts 20:28-30 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
II Corinthians 11:13-15 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. [Satan is involved in these perversions of the holy days and the weekly Sabbath and moving it to Sunday.] Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers [Satan's ministers] also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
Matthew 7:15-16 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.
II Peter 2:1-3 But there are also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who brought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
And in the final scripture in this series,
II Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
That is exactly what the world's holidays are—fables.
So the Bible prophecies foretelling that the church would be betrayed from within came to past. Anti-Semitism was an excuse for Latin Christianity to get rid of the Sabbath and God's feast days, and this has always worked for the opponents, the adversaries of God's truth, and God's way of life, and God's people. Because even in recent history, just a mere 15-20 years ago, the same exact thing happened in the Worldwide Church of God. And what did they get rid of? They said the holy days were only optional, then they kept both the Sabbath and Sunday, and then only Sunday. So it has gone this way every time Satan gets a hand in to employing these false teachers and prophets.
Well, by the 90s AD Victor, the first bishop of Rome, threatened to excommunicate whole churches in Asia Minor still holding on to the Passover. And by AD 154, Polycarp of Smyrna, the apostle John's disciple, disputed with the bishop of Rome about keeping the Passover on the 14th day of Nisan. Rome was busy implementing Easter Sunday as an annual commemoration of the resurrection in place of the Passover, which commemorated the death of Jesus.
Now when Emperor Constantine from AD 306 to 337, allied himself with the Roman Church to use it as a politically unifying force, state pressure compelled any Judaizers in the empire to abandon the Passover and the 7th day Sabbath. So 1,260 years of constant persecution began for those remnants of God's church still keeping God's holy days. Those who tried to keep God's festivals were driven underground, and only a precious few knew the essentials of God's plan of salvation, which can be fully understood only through observing these holy days, these feasts of God.
Here is a question every Christian must ask himself: To what authority should a Christian turn for enlightenment on the issue of which days to observe as religious festivals? What have the Catholics and Protestants chosen? The traditions of men and they ignore Scripture. Wisdom dictates that we go to the Founder of Christianity. Some forget the obvious fact that Jesus Christ was a Jew in His physical form, and He was reared in a home faithfully observing the Old Testament commands.
Turn with me, if you will please, to Luke 2, verses 41 to 43.
Luke 2:41-43 His [Jesus'] parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast [meaning they went every year to do that. This was deeply instilled in Jesus as a Jew.]. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it.
From earliest childhood, Jesus kept the Passover and the seven-day feast that followed called Unleavened Bread, and these Days of Unleavened Bread were first observed by the Israelites immediately after escaping the slavery of Egypt—before they received the law of Moses. But did Christ annul these holy feasts during His ministry? It is a question, and that is an argument that is posed sometimes. Did He supersede them with new days like Good Friday, Easter Sunday? Well, you know the answer to that is absolutely not. But interestingly, professing Christians and mainstream Christianity do not know that answer.
Continuing on we will jump over to Luke 22.
Luke 22:1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.
Luke 22:8 And He [that is, Christ] sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat."
So Christ was keeping the Passover after His youth. Here was Jesus' perfect opportunity to cancel the Passover and introduce Easter or some other festival, but He did not. Jesus commanded His disciples, the foundation stones of the church of God, to prepare the traditional Passover that Jews always observed.
Here in Luke 22 we will read verses 14 through 16. And of course as you see in the heading of your Bible there, "Jesus Institutes the Lord's Supper" or you should see, the Passover symbols.
Luke 22:14-16 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."
So we have both here, on the evening of the 14th and also the Kingdom of God shown here that it will be kept, but Jesus was going to refrain from it in the interim. Not only did Jesus observe every detail of the Passover on the 14th of Nisan, the first month on God's sacred calendar, but He clearly taught that the Passover would be observed in the Kingdom of God, and that would be the next time He would eat of it. The only thing Jesus changed are the Passover symbols, and today Christians take bread and wine that night instead of eating lamb. The bread and wine ceremony is part of the New Testament Passover, an ordinance of remembrance and a commanded memorial of the death of our Savior.
Continuing on here in Luke 22, we are going to read verses 17 through 20.
Luke 22:17-20 Then He took the cup and gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." And He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me." Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."
And there we see this is a description of the Passover service clearly establishing it under the New Covenant. All four gospels command this Passover observance as an act of obedience to God our Father and Jesus Christ. Besides here in Luke, it is also found in Matthew 26:19-29; Mark 14:12-25; and John 13:1-17.
What about the other holy feasts? What about the Feast of Tabernacles? Is this also binding on the New Testament church? Well, the answer again—you already know—absolutely. John's gospel proves this beyond doubt. John's gospel dates to about the last decade of the first century and internal evidence indicates it was composed after the Roman clampdown of Judea in AD 70. And we know this because John uses the Roman manner of counting time common after AD 70. Only he of all the gospel writers labels the Sea of Galilee the Sea of Tiberius, another Roman change.
Now the early church historian Eusebius records that John governed the churches in Asia Minor after the death of Domitian. Domitian was assassinated AD 96. This gives us a time frame. At that time in the late first century AD, heresy flourished. Doctrinal deviations about the nature and authority of Jesus Christ proliferated. And some false teachers urged adopting Sunday and abandoning the Saturday Sabbath to escape the stigma attached to everything Jewish. It kept getting back to that.
That was the excuse that they so successfully used, though John, the last remaining apostle, counteracts all of this in his gospel. John mentions the Jews 69 times. It is John who records Jesus' statement, "Salvation is of the Jews" recorded in John 4:22. John's book pivots around Christ's last Passover, 8 of his 21 chapters narrate the events of Jesus' last day on earth, the 14th day of Nissan. We can certainly understand why John in several places carefully records Jesus Christ, the Head of the true church, faithfully observing the festivals found in Leviticus 23.
Let us look at some examples there in John, which we will turn to now.
John 2:13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Why? To keep it.
John 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.
John 5:1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
John 7:2 Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.
I have been attending God's church for decades (and many of you have as well), and whenever we reference some time during the year, we use the holy days as a reference: before Passover, after Passover, before Pentecost, before the Feast of Tabernacles. That is what we use. We do not use Easter and things like that, and that is what is happening here. As John records these things, they are from the perspective of having kept them.
"Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand." He was using that as a reference because he himself kept it, and that was what he referenced, events that happened. John painstakingly records Christ's dedication to observing the holy feasts at the time of His last Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus could not go up publicly because He knew that His enemies would be watching for Him. Nevertheless, He did attend the feast, traveling there in secret, and His enemies sought to take Him.
John 7:8-11 "You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast [speaking to his brothers], for My time has not yet fully come." When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee. But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, "Where is He?"
So there we see Jesus Christ keeping the feast. How did Jesus observe the New Testament Feast of Tabernacles?
John 7:14 Now about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
John 7:28 Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know."
Those in the Temple were very familiar with Him because He went there often to keep the weekly Sabbath as well as the holy days.
John 7:37 On the last day, that great day of the feast [What day is that? The Last Great Day that we keep.], Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink."
So Jesus, active Head of His church, kept the Feast of Tabernacles by instituting powerful preaching services, which we have today. Even His adversaries were impressed with the words He spoke.
John 7:46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"
It was inspired speaking directly from the mouth of God the Father through Jesus Christ. God's church keeps the Feast of Tabernacles in the same way today. The Feast of Tabernacles in particular revolves around convocations where God's people listen to inspired preaching from His ministers.
Now those who argue against keeping God's holy days sometimes claim that Levitical law specified that the holy days could only be kept in Jerusalem. But Jesus reveals an important principle with regard to this.
John 4:21-24 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what you worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Satan is always looking for ways to ensnare us. And the important thing for New Testament feast observers is not to observe the feasts in Jerusalem, but to observe them in spirit and in truth. In other words, understanding deeply the awe-inspiring significance of these holy days and God's plan of salvation. Properly keeping God's feasts must portray the spiritual truth of God's plan for all people everywhere. Jerusalem is not the only place to celebrate the holy days. God's feasts were actually celebrated, as far as we know, in Egypt while the Israelites were coming out of bondage, and Jerusalem did not even exist by that name at that time.
Exodus 12:1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, . . .
Exodus 12:11 And thus you shall eat it [that is, the Passover lamb], with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.
And then we will jump down to Verses
Exodus 12:14-17 So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a as a feast to the Lord throughout throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance [or statute]. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.
We know that Egypt represents sin, and the Days of Unleavened Bread represent ridding sin from our lives.
So we see there are many, many tie-ins, most of which I will not even be able to get to. With the spiritual symbolism, as I mentioned before, the feasts of the Lord were commanded before the law of Moses was given to Israel. It is obvious that God's church may meet in any geographic location or region for the festivals. The restriction to Jerusalem only applied under the Levitical priesthood. New Testament Christians worship under the spiritual Melchizedek priesthood of Jesus Christ.
Turn over to Hebrews 5, if you will please. We will see the Melchizedek priesthood mentioned there.
Hebrews 5:5-6 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: "You are My Son, today I have begotten You." As He also says in another place: "You are a priest forever [and remember, Aaron died, and Christ will not] according to the order of Melchizedek."
Hebrews 5:10 Called by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
We worship in spirit and in truth under the spiritual Melchizedek priesthood as priests ourselves.
Now some have argued that although Jesus initially kept the holy days, He only did it to keep the law as the prophecy said. In considering this weak and weary argument, how can we know if these feasts are for the church today? Well, two things are important to keep in mind, very simple statements.
First, is that Jesus Christ is our Example, our Standard, and our Pattern and what He did we must also do.
I Peter 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.
Second, is that Jesus commanded His own disciples to observe the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Records of these commands are found in Luke 22:8; John 7:8; and John 14:15. Luke and John were part of the very foundation of the New Testament church, and they were commanded to keep these days as we are.
What were they supposed to teach us, that is, the days? Christ's last command to His disciples tell us they were to teach others everything He commanded.
Matthew 28:19-20 "Go therefore make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
Something the professing mainstream Christian churches do not do. Jesus commanded His disciples to observe the holy feast days. The disciples, in turn, taught holy day observance to the church, the same church that still exists today, the same church that we attend.
Flip over to I Corinthians 11. You recognize this set of scriptures right away. We are told to do these things in remembrance of Him.
I Corinthians 11:23-26 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the New covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it [once a year on Passover, not every Sunday or every quarter. I just got that question this week about the taking of the Passover and the wine.], in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.
Jesus has not changed His mind on doctrine. We are to keep Passover till He comes, and no doubt it will be beyond that as well.
Hebrews 13:8 [Everyone knows this.] Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Malachi 3:6 "For I am the Lord, I do not change."
But yet the mainstream Christian churches change, change, change in preference to their traditions. Could they be part of God's church at all? I cannot see any way that they could be.
It is faithfully recorded in the New Testament that the first century church was keeping those days. The book of Acts documents that the early church observed the holy days. Luke's inspired account of the young church in action shows how faithful the early Christians were in keeping God's annual festivals. In AD 31, the Holy Spirit filled the church on the Day of Pentecost.
Acts 2:1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. . .
As you know, to arrive at the day of Pentecost we count 50 days, beginning with the Sunday following the weekly Sabbath that falls during the Days of Unleavened Bread. At this precise time during that spring festival, firstfruits were offered in the Temple as instructed in Leviticus 23:15-17. Pentecost is also called the Feast of Firstfruits. Years later, around AD 56, we find Paul, who many deceived people assume opposed God's laws and Jewish festivals, actually keeping them. In Acts 20, we will turn there because we are going to be in Acts for several scriptures.
Acts 20:16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost.
He obviously kept it. Paul even wrote to his Gentile converts in Corinth using the holy feast day as a reference point. We will not turn there for the sake of time, but I Corinthians 16:8 says, "But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost." He told the Gentile converts that. The only way they would have known what he was referring to is if they had been keeping it, and as I said, when you have kept them for many years, you use those holy days as a reference. That is a powerful testimony that the Gentile Christians in Corinth knew the exact time for Pentecost. It is significant.
The book of Acts also clearly documents the early church observing the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Acts 12:3-4 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also [that is, Herod the king]. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. So when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.
If you have a King James version of the Bible, I believe it says Easter there. And that is a good indication that you cannot trust translators. To make such a flagrant and arrogant mistake as that was not a mistake but intentional, and I feel for the person who changed that because there is a curse put on those who change Scripture. So Passover is the original translation, not Easter.
Acts 20:6 But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.
So Paul and his companions obviously had observed the Days of Unleavened bread at Philippi.
The plainest evidence that the early church observed Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread is embedded in Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. If you will turn with me to I Corinthians 5, verse 6. I will not apologize to turning to so many scriptures because this is a Bible study and that is what we are turning to—Scripture.
I Corinthians 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
He is speaking to Gentiles. The Jews would have known what leaven meant or what it represented, but the Gentiles would have only most likely had they been taught. The context here is Paul's rebuke of the Corinthians for their spiritual shallowness and their tolerance of flagrant sin in the congregation, that incestuous relationship that that man had with his stepmother. Any Jew would have understood the reference to leaven. After all, they observed seven days of eating bread with no leavening as Exodus 13:16 commands.
However, the Corinthian church was primarily a Gentile church founded by Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. The Gentiles did not keep any days where they did not eat leavening. It was only as they came into God's church that they began to obey God's command to not eat leaven for seven days. Paul admonishes these same Greek converts in verse 7 here.
I Corinthians 5:7-8 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
This analogy is easily understood by those keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread. Since you truly are unleavened, he says, and Paul is explaining that although the Corinthians had de-leavened their houses physically, they had to also purge themselves of spiritual leaven, which of course, was sin. Paul says, for indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Christ, who kept the Passover, became the perfect Passover sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Now Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles under the authority and inspiration of Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, told his Gentile converts, "Let us keep the feast." How much clearer could it be than that? By contrast, mainstream Christianity cannot find even one scripture to command Easter or Christmas. Rhetorical question here. Can a person be in the true church of God if he rejects God's days to keep men's?
It is interesting that Herbert Armstrong, from what I understand, was not able to keep the 7-day feast days or the holy days of the year, I think for about 7 years or 2 years after he had began to learn God's truth, and I do not believe God held that against him because if you do not know, and you do not know you do not know, God takes that into consideration. But as soon as Herbert Armstrong found the truth, he had re-established the holy days in the church and kept them from that time forward.
I said in there, if a person rejects God's days to keep man's. So in one sense you have to have the knowledge before you can be held accountable for it. Of course, when we sin, if we do not know that we are sinning, we still pay the penalty for sin. Just look at the sexual sins and see all the people in ignorance going ahead and committing those and receiving the penalties for all of these sexually transmitted diseases.
In I Corinthians 11:23-26, Paul gives us a succinct review and outline of the Passover service showing that Christ's death must be commemorated at night, when the hour had come, as Luke 22:14 shows. Now the Passover is to be memorialized once a year on the 14th day of the first month of God's sacred Hebrew calendar. And these are clear instructions in God's inspired written Word not to be rejected for humanly-reasoned traditions that are syncretized with pagan celebrations.
The fall festivals are to be kept too, we understand, but let us look at that in Scripture. Luke records Paul as referring to the Feast of Tabernacles in AD 51 and 52.
Acts 18:21 But [Paul] took leave of them, saying, "I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you, God-willing." And he sailed from Ephesus.
And we can time that to the Feast of Tabernacles, as I said, in AD 51 or 52.
Luke also records Paul's active awareness of another holy day in AD 58. Please turn over to chapter 27 of Acts. We find Paul here.
Acts 27:9 Now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the Fast [that is, the Day of Atonement, and even my margin of this New King James Version says Day of Atonement for the fast, so it is well recognized that it is the Day of Atonement] was already over.
Because the fast, the Day of Atonement was already over. Even the staunchly Protestant Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary admits that the fast here refers to the Day of Atonement, first commanded in Leviticus 23:27.
Even the one festival of Leviticus 23:24-25 not directly named in the New Testament, that is, the Feast of Trumpets, is indirectly referred to in Colossians 2:16, where Paul counsels Gentile Christians to ignore critics accusing them of misconduct on a festival or a new moon or Sabbath. And those, a festival, a new moon, and Sabbath, all that fits the Feast of Trumpets.
The outstanding new moon of the Jewish calendar was the first of Tishri, the beginning of the Jewish civil year known today as the Jewish New Year, and this new moon was a vital key to calendar computations in Judaism, and still is. Incorrectly observing or noting the new moon of Tishri could cause the other holy days to fall on the wrong days too. The Feast of Trumpets was such an obvious and significant part of the calendar, being part of the oracles of God, which Paul tells us in Romans 3:2, was committed to the Jews. That the other festivals hinge on it, that is, the Feast of Trumpets, as far as the counting on the calendar.
The early church observed all the festivals of God, and they certainly would have observed the Feast of Trumpets as well. It takes all seven feasts of God to lay out a complete plan of salvation. You cannot have the complete explanation of the plan of God without all seven.
These seven feasts of God are in force now. Let us look at some proof of that. The Gospels, the book of Acts, which is the main inspired account of the early church history, and the epistles, the foundational doctrines of the church of God, teach and reiterate the holy feast days of Leviticus 23. Some of those scriptures we just went through.
It was Christ's custom to observe the holy days, and it is obvious that Paul observed them and taught them to the Gentiles. Paul admonishes the church to imitate him as he imitates Christ. The apostle Peter also knew that Christ set the example and that the church of God should follow in Christ's footsteps, or steps as Peter words it. What feasts did Peter and James and John and Paul and Andrew and Jude grow up observing? They were all Jews. Only those mentioned in Leviticus 23. Paul told Timothy to continue in what he had learned as a child from the Old Testament Scriptures.
Now if you will turn over to II Timothy 3, we will see that instruction by Paul to Timothy. It was obvious that Timothy had always kept the holy days, and as a new minister, a new pastor in God's church, he was instructed to continue to keep them.
II Timothy 3:14-17 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures [and they only had the Old Testament Scriptures at that time, so that is what it is talking about], which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete [you cannot be complete with only having five of the holy days or five of the feast days in your understanding], thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So the teachings of the Old Testament Scriptures had not been done away, but many tried to deceive the church while appearing to keep the feast with them. And in II Peter 2:13, Peter condemned the hypocrites in the first century church who corrupted themselves, and as Peter said there, ". . .in their own deceptions while they feast with you." Obviously they were keeping the feasts, and there were those in the church who were trying to pervert and change that.
I was going to cover just a brief explanation of the love feasts, but I am going to skip that for the sake of time. Just suffice it to say that years later Jude referred to the heretics in his day, "as spots in your love feasts" in Jude 12. And those love feasts were actually feasts kept by the church of God, but these spots were these false teachers and false prophets who were trying to pervert it, change its meaning, and that type of thing. This quick comment from Adam Clarke in his commentary states that,
The feasts were in use in the primitive church till the middle of the 4th century [that is, those love feasts], when by the Council of Laodicea they were prohibited to be held in the churches.
I think that Council of Laodicea was in 325 AD. And there is also the Council of Laodicea somewhere around 357 AD, and one changed the weekly Sabbath to Sunday and the other one changed Passover to Easter, I believe. I get those two confused.
We find that nine New Testament books show clearly what feast days God's New Testament church kept and is keeping. The God of the Old Testament, who later became Christ, commanded the holy days originally. Jesus Christ set the example by keeping these same days, and the apostles followed that example and taught others, Jew and Gentile, to do the same. No distinction. In Zechariah we find a prophecy that even the Gentiles during the Millennium will either keep the feast or be punished by God. God's feasts have been commanded to be kept forever.
If you will turn with me to Zechariah 14, verses 16 through 19. Again, scriptures you are very, very familiar with but it sure helps to see them in print in the inspired written Word of God.
Zechariah 14:16-19 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth [or the representatives] do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt [those are Gentiles] will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Why in the world would Israel be commanded to keep the Feast of Tabernacles and then the church not, and then in the Millennium it be a commanded again? It makes no sense at all. If we truly believe the Holy Bible is the inspired written Word of God, we can draw no other conclusion from it than that God's seven annual holy days are to be kept today. And if we follow our Savior Jesus Christ, we must keep these feasts of the Lord. There are curses pronounced on those who do not keep them.
It also holds true that when God gave His church seven annual Sabbaths, He in His wisdom had a great purpose in mind. These days were given to keep God's children in the true memory and worship of God by keeping us constantly in the understanding of God's great plan of redemption. These annual holy days picture the different periods in the plan of spiritual creation, mark the stewardship of God's truth, and picture their meaning.
The whole story of spiritual regeneration was in these feast days to be reenacted year after year continually, and they have vitally important symbolism and meaning for every member of God's church. It is an historical fact that any nation that ever profaned God's holy weekly Sabbath and annual holy days has lost contact and knowledge with the one true God and gone into idolatry. The only nation that did keep God's Sabbath is the only one that was kept in the true memory and worship of the true God, and only when they kept the Sabbath. When ancient Israel began to profane God's Sabbath, they began to worship idols. One follows the other. And what is it that God constantly condemns the Israelites for in Isaiah and Ezekiel? Breaking the Sabbath and committing idolatry—Sabbath breaking and idolatry, Sabbath breaking idolatry, over and over and over again.
And in the same way, if we fail to observe God's annual Sabbaths, we would also be without knowledge of God's true plan of reproducing Himself.
A scary thing happened on the way home from the feast years ago. It must have been 30 years ago. One of the pastors of one of the churches of God in the Worldwide Church of God was pumping his gas. He was an ex-member. He had long since left; and a good friend of mine was pumping gas at the next one. And the pastor saw him, and said, "Hey, how are you? Where have you been?" He said, "We've been at the Feast of Tabernacles." And the man said, "Feast of Tabernacles?" And he genuinely did not remember, could not make the connection. And it really scared my friend to see that.
But anyway, it can be a complete memory loss like that or just a partial one in the understanding of it. It depends on what God has in mind. Maybe with a minister doing that, it is the payment or punishment. Well, a minister doing that, the punishment would be worse for the curse.
God's feasts, His holy days, His Sabbaths were commanded to be kept year after year forever. In this way, God purposed to impress the truths these high Sabbaths picture on all the minds of His children, through all time, keeping His church in the true understanding of His plan of salvation.
Psalm 81, verses 1 through 4 really has some meaning in light of this Bible study. It says there,
Psalm 81:1-4 Sing aloud to God our strength; make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob. [It is one of our hymns.] Raise a song and strike the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the lute. Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day. For this is a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
We are commanded to keep God's holy days, and when we understand their true significance, they are nothing less than a great joy, and they are full of hope. Why would we ever want to give them up? They are to be kept today and forever.
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