"The Holy Days"

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"The Holy Days"

Post by Romans » Wed Apr 11, 2018 2:41 am

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“The Holy Days” by Romans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-zk-E55dRk

In the New Testament, the Apostle John makes several qualified references to the Feast Days of the Old Testament: First in John 2:13: “And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,” Again, in John 7:2, he writes, “Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.” There were a number of Feast Days that God ordained to be observed by Israel as proscribed in the terms of the Old Covenant.: The Passover; the Days of Unleavened Bread; the lesser known Feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost; the Feast of Trumpets; the Day of Atonement; The Feast of Tabernacles; and The Last Great Day. Being practicing Jews, these Days were observed by Jesus and His disciples during His earthly Ministry. I would like to take time tonight to review and explain these days.

I would also like to explain how we, as New Testament believers, are not required to observe these days. Notice, again, how John, as the last writer of a Gospel Account, when Gentiles had been a part of the Church for decades, qualified his reference to the Holy Days which he observed in his youth, as “the Jews' Passover,” and “the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles.” Our non-observance of them, however, has left us at something of a disadvantage in that the Feast Days, designed and established by God for Israel to observe, have great spiritual and symbolic significance.

They are, alas, almost all completely overlooked in Christian circles. Since they are so rarely taught, it follows that they are not so well understood. Let's see if we can resolve that situation, tonight. I will be frequently using a book called, “The Feasts of the Lord” by Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal. This book helps us to understand how these Feast Days were observed by ancient Israel. I have made every effort to put quotation marks around direct quotations from this book. Any omissions of quotation marks are inadvertent. I here give full credit to “The Feasts of the Lord,” for those occasions where I paraphrased its descriptions without due credit.

A Study of the Holy Days of the Old Testament is a fascinating Study to undertake, with deep Spiritual rewards.
Much can be learned from such a Study, and I would like to share with you what I have learned about them.
I have learned that it is no mere accident that the Holy Days followed a certain prescribed order, and included specific sacrifices and rituals in their observance. What you find is that they perfectly, and chronologically, map out for us God's Plan of Salvation for mankind. Israel went through the motions of the Holy Days without ever realizing their deep Spiritual significance. And we, as Christians, because we, for the most part, do not observe them, also missed their symbolic teaching! So, let's dig in!

As the first day of the Hebrew Calendar to be observed, The Passover has an obvious, great spiritual significance. When John the Baptist first saw Jesus, he declared, in John 1:29: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” But there are also many subtle, spiritually significant details about the Passover Lamb that are not part of our normal teaching. The Passover lamb was to be a perfect lamb without defect, spot or blemish, chosen from the flock, in its prime. Notice: it was to be chosen on the 10th day of the Month of Nisan, and killed on the 14th day of the month at even. It would come to live with a family where they could personally observe its fitness, its peaceful manners and its complete innocence. In their time together, the family could come to fully appreciate its unworthiness to die.

Many scholars recognize, where prophecies are concerned, that there is a day for a year principle employed in prophecies that help us either project or understand or both, what was fulfilled or what its fulfillment meant. This is an example of that being fulfilled. The Passover lamb was to be killed in the middle of its fourth day by the whole assembly. It was brought into the house on the 10th of the month, and killed during the afternoon of the 14th day of the month. Day 11 was one day, Day 12 was two days, Day 13 was three days, and it only made it through half of Day 14 before it was killed. Three and one-half days to be living among the family, playing with and maybe sleeping along side the children, allowing them to experience and appreciate its genuine innocence.

And then, on the afternoon of the 14th Day it is slaughtered. We read in Exodus 12:6: “And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.” Applying the day for a year principle, most scholars agree that Jesus ministry lasted three and one half years. He was among His own people, the Jews, demonstrating His peacefulness and gentleness and innocence. But, as we read in John 1:11: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.”

No bones of the Passover lamb were to be broken (Exodus 12:46). In fulfillment of the prophecy established by the observance of the Passover, although Jesus was brutally scourged, beaten and crucified, none of His bones were broken. We read of the soldiers who checked those who were crucified in John 19:33: “But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs;” 36: “For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.”

Christ was, indeed, the Lamb of God. He was perfect, unblemished, and spotless. He was a man of peace seeking only to heal and comfort and feed those spiritually and physically when the opportunity presented itself. And He was an innocent man, declared so repeatedly even by Pilate, the jaded Roman Governor who presided over His illegal trial. Like the Passover lamb living with a family until the middle of the 4th day, Jesus was in the middle of His fourth year of ministry when the whole assembly demanded his death by crucifixion.

It has only come to me quite recently in thinking of Jesus knowingly and willingly subjecting Himself to the horror of a crucifixion, the stark and troubling contrast between God's approach to us, and man's approach to Him. The Father as His Gift to us to accomplish our Salvation, gave us His Only Begotten Son only because there was nothing better that He could have given us. In response, Jesus' own people demanded that Pilate condemn Him to be crucified, only because there was nothing worse that they could have subjected Him to. Every time I realize that contrast, I just have to stop and close my eyes and try to let the gravity of it, and its significance sink in for me.

Lastly, as with the original Passover lamb enabled the Lord's Judgment to pass over the people, all who were under its blood were passed over by the Angel of Death. The Passover Lamb was a prophetic picture of Jesus' Sacrifice. For those who would prefer to see that claim spelled out in so many words, I offer what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5:7: “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:” The literal realization of this event, all of its symbolic demands were fully met as Christ, the Lamb of God, was bleeding out on the Cross He was nailed to.

And this prophetic picture was literally and fully realized in real time, and at the very time the entire surrounding Jewish Community was busy sacrificing unblemished male Passover lambs, by shedding their blood in preparation for their upcoming observance of a Festival God had ordained. And, incredibly, the significance and rich fulfillment of Jesus' death was utterly and completely missed by those who blindly went through the motions of that observance, focusing only on their ancestors' miraculous deliverance from cruel Egyptian bondage.



On the very next Day, began the observance of The Days of Unleavened Bread: The Feast was observed by putting all leavening agents, and leavened products out of your house, and not eating it or even being near it for seven days. Leaven, in the New Testament is a symbolic picture of sin. Jesus said in Matthew 16:6: “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees...”

The Pulpit Commentary says of this verse: “By "leaven" he does not here refer specially to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees, as in Luke 12:1, but to the evil influence which they exercised, which was diffused far and wide, and penetrated to all ranks and classes. Their unsound opinions, their inability or disinclination to enter into the spiritual sense of Scripture, vitiated their whole system, and made them dangerous teachers directly they attempted to explain or amplify the letter of Holy Writ. It was this same perverse blindness that led them to refuse to accept Jesus as Messiah in spite of all the proofs
which had been brought before them.

That leaven, in one aspect, was regarded as a sign of impurity and corruption, we learn from the strict rules which banished it from Divine service, and especially during the Passover season. Says St. Paul, "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" (Galatians 5:9); and, "Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened" (1 Corinthians 5:7).”

Before we go on to examine the other observances of God's appointed Spring Festivals, there is a significant ritual that took place right after the Passover that was also a significant spiritual forecast of Jesus Christ. As Christians, many of us are aware of the things Jesus did after He was raised from the dead, but we are oblivious to those things being based on and symbolically pictured by Holy Day Season rituals practiced for centuries by Israel in the Old Testament.

Notice: We read in Leviticus 23:5-6: “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.” And also Verses 10-11: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11  And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.”

From the “Feasts of the Lord” book, we read, “Firstfruits marked the beginning of the cereal grain harvests in Israel. Barley was the first grain to ripen. For Firstfruits, a sheaf of barley was harvested and brought to the Temple as a Thanksgiving Offering to the Lord for the Harvest. It was representative of the barley harvest as a whole, and it served as a pledge, or a guarantee that the remainder of the Harvest would be realized in the days that followed.” Now... when do you suppose this was presented?

Listen (or, read) carefully...

On the morrow after the sabbath that follows the Passover the priest shall wave it. So following the Passover, and on the next day following the weekly Seventh Day Sabbath which is what? the first day of the week, on that day, the firstfruit of the Harvest is presented to God. And that is exactly when Christ presented Himself to God. He told Mary Magdelene, on the first day of the week, after the Sabbath, after the Passover in John 20:17: “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”

Jesus was the firstfruit of the Harvest, or as the Apostle Paul phrased it in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”

Jesus was not the first person raised from the dead. However, unlike those whom Jesus raised from the dead: Lazarus, and Jairus' daughter and the widow's only son; and unlike those others who were raised from the dead: Dorcas by Peter, and Eutychus by Paul, Jesus was raised from the dead, but He did not die a physical death a second time. He is alive forevermore. Jesus was the firstfruits from the dead, or as Paul phrased it another time in Colossians 1:18, he called Christ “... the firstborn from the dead.” But there are several other things I want you to see about the Feast of Firstfruits. It is not one of the more familiar Old Testament feasts, and, as the Feast of the Lord book says, it was “not as strongly emphasized in the Hebrew Scriptures as the other Levitical feasts, (it) forms an important backdrop to New Testament teaching.”

“Paul spoke of Epeanatus as 'the firstfruits of Achaia (Romans 16:5),” or the first of the converts from Achaia. “Paul again used this imagery when he spoke of salvation as the 'firstfruits of the Spirit.'” James also applied this Feast to fellow-Christians. “Speaking of believers as set apart to the Lord, James taught (in James 1:18) “Of His own Will He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”

And lastly, the Apostle John, much later, in the Book of Revelation “describes a special group of 144,000... who will be sealed just prior to the opening of the seventh seal... John describes these 144,000 as 'redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.”

Pentecost is translated from the Greek meaning, count fifty. But count fifty what? Count fifty days? Yes, but fifty days in relation to what? Pentecost was celebrated 50 days after that first wavesheaf, the firstfrtuits of the Harvest was offered. This firstfruit was offered on the first day of the week. 50 days later, Pentecost would fall once again on the first day of the week. On Sunday, May 20th, 2018, Christianity will celebrate Pentecost. As New Testament believers, it is commemorated as the Birthday of the Church. Here again, as with the sacrifice of the Passover, and the putting away and abstaining from leaven during the Days of Unleavened Bread, there is rich spiritual symbolism as Pentecost was a celebration of “The early or Spring Harvest.” Certainly, those first believers were an early Harvest for the Kingdom of God.

Let's notice that Jesus used the analogy of a Harvest on several occasions to describe early potential converts to Christianity: Matthew 9:37-38: “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” Also, in the city of Sychar in Samaria, Jesus told His disciples in John 4:35, “I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

Pentecost is the only Feast Day from the Old Testament that is observed on the Christian Calendar, but many Christians have no clue regarding its Old Testament roots. Spiritually speaking, this early Harvest refers to the initial gathering of those who are being called into the Church. As I said, on the Christian Calendar it is the Birthday of the Church.

I believe it is significant to note that the events that The Holy Days symbolically pictured in God's Plan of Salvation, occurred on the very observance of those Days on the Hebrew Calendar. I am not going to dogmatically declare that future Salvation Events will similarly occur on future dates on the Hebrew Calendar... but... the God we serve is a God of infinitesimal detail and precision. With that in mind, while I will not be lured into the trap of setting dates, only to have nothing happen when that date arrives blow up in my face. But... if future events in God's Plan of Salvation, which are symbolically pictured in the Feasts of the Lord, DO occur on the exact date of the Hebrew Calendar that pictured them, I will not be surprised. That is as far as I can go, or, at this time, will go...

It is also interesting to note that God appointed no Festivals to be observed during the Summer months. It is as if the Church Age in which Gentiles are grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel, and adopted into the Family and Kingdom of God, is something of a pause in the major and earth-shaking Events culminating in Christ's Return. Then in the Seventh Month of the Hebrew calendar, corresponding to our September/October, the remaining Four Holy Days are observed:

As we move forward on the Hebrew Calendar, on the 1st Day of the Seventh Month is Rosh Hashanah is observed. It called The Feast of Trumpets in English. I would like you to notice that the word “Trumpets” in the name of this Feast Day is in the plural. This is significant. In the Bible, the blowing of trumpets is often associated with war being waged. Jesus Christ Returns, and the Resurrection takes place at the blowing of the seventh Trump. So here we see a progression of six preceding trumpets (plural) being blown signifying these End Time Events.

And then, regarding Christ's return to rule the earth as King from Jerusalem, we read in Revelation 11:15: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Regarding the Resurrection, we read in 1 Corinthians 15:52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” In other related prophecies, a total of seven trumpets are blown, making this last trump being blown where the resurrection takes place, is also the one and the same Seventh Trump that announces Jesus' Return to the earth.

There have been several self-proclaimed prophets who identified The Feast of Trumpets as the date of Christ's Second Coming. One such “prophet” identified 1994 as the Year of Jesus' Return. At 12:01 am as time crossed over into the Feast of Trumpets, I was listening to the Radio Station this “prophet” owned. He came on and said, “Well, now we are just waiting for news out of Jerusalem that Jesus has returned...” He is still waiting for that News, 24 years later. I hope none of you don't misunderstand me: I believe Jesus will absolutely return to the earth. But, that same Jesus said, in the clearest terms He could, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36).

I do believe that the Feast of Trumpets does picture Jesus' Return, as His Return is culminated at the conclusion of the blowing of trumpets, plural. But to say it will take place on A SPECIFIC day is not for me or anyone to say. We should probably also add another detail to Jesus prediction of His Return, namely that it will be we don't expect it to happen (Luke 12:40).

As we move on in our examination of the Feast of the Lord, we come to the 10th Day of the Seventh month, God appointed the observance of The Day of Atonement, or At-One-Ment. This day celebrates an event for which God has long awaited, namely the time when God and mankind would be At-one. And it makes perfect sense both symbolically and in reality. If the Feast of Trumpets pictures Jesus' Return, the very next Feast Day celebrates God and man, coming to be At One. It is also significant that this At-Oneness was something Jesus focused on on the night before His crucifixion.

Speaking of the disciples He currently had at the time, notice Jesus' words in John 17:20-21: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” His crucifixion, dying for us, and paying the penalty for our sins, would, in just a few hours make that prayer for Atonement, or, At-Onement, a reality.

There is a very unusual and very significant offering on The Day of Atonement: involving two identical goats. But they had to be identified as to which part each goat would play. So, two lots were placed inside a golden vessel and shaken. One lot was labeled for Jehovah. The other “for azazel.” (This English meaning of this Hebrew term is not fully understood.)

The High Priest shook the vessel and drew the lots, one for each goat. The goat which drew the lot marked for Jehovah would be sacrificed as a sin offering. This sin offering was fulfilled by Jesus on the cross. Scripture tells us the fate of the azazel or scapegoat in Leviticus 16:21, “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” I have heard some say that the scapegoat or azazel was also fulfilled by Jesus, but I am not sure I can agree.

Yes, it had all the sins placed on his head, and took them away out into the wilderness, but the first goat accomplished taking away our sins by paying the death penalty for sin. We know that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan early in His ministry. But over three years later, Jesus died, and was raised to Life, but not to be led into any wilderness. No... the scapegoat goat is led, alive, and out into the wilderness. I agree with those who say that this goat represents Satan. Another clue that this goat represents Satan can be found where Jesus includes information about angels, at the end of an answer on another subject. We read in Luke 20:35: “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:

Verse 36 tells us, “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels.” Satan is an angel, and cannot die. So this live goat is lead into the wilderness alive. This is the Atonement: Jesus dying that we might live. And Satan bearing not the penalty, but bearing the responsibility for our sins, as temptor and enemy of our souls.” This is the Atonement: God and man, at Jesus' return are atoned, or, set at one.

The Feast of Tabernacles was the great Fall Harvest, also called Ingathering.
In His parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus said in Matthew 13:30  Let both grow together until the harvest:” and in verse 39, “The enemy that sowed them (the tares) is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” On a Spiritual level we can see it as the gathering in of all of the godly living and dead at the End of the Age to be together at last for all Eternity.

The Last Great Day is seen by some as representing the White Throne Judgment, but I cannot be more specific than that. There are a variety of interpretations, each of which have their own valid, as well as invalid, claims. For me the jury is still out regarding that, and I have chosen not to present it until I can do so, first with a personal clearer understanding of it, and one that I can defend from the Word of God.

I do know this: there is a physical / spiritual flow of chronological events prophetically presented in the Feasts of the Lord. Individually, and as a whole, these Feast Days have the same deep and profound spiritual significance as most people recognize in the Passover observance. All the Holy Days as they transpired during the year were previews and forecasts of God's Great Plan of Salvation that He was working out. The Jews were as oblivious to it as they were when they had Christ nailed to a cross while Passover lambs were being killed for that night's meal.

Here is a verse that proves that the Jews had not yet eaten the Passover. Notice John 18:28: “Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover.” The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” So while Jesus endured the brutal scourging in silence, and then as He died on the cross, as a lamb to the slaughter, all of the rest of Judea was busy slaughtering their Passover lambs that had pre-envisioned Jesus' sacrifice for centuries. And they were all completely blind to the incredible significance of the events happening right in front of their eyes!

It can be argued that all of these Feast Days, including the lesser known and seemingly less significant Feast of Firstfruits, unveil, chronologically, God's Plan of Salvation. He pictured that Plan using agrarian parables, or farming symbolism. It is also significant that for each of the Spiritual events in the Plan, that have already taken place, occurred on the actual days that God ordained them to be celebrated!!

Let me just say, so that there is no confusion as to what I am saying, or where I am going with this. We read in Leviticus 23:4: “These are the feasts of the LORD , even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.” As a direct command of the Old Covenant, the Children of Israel were required to observe these days. They were celebrated in Israel as “annual Sabbath Days.” God said to Moses in Exodus 31:13: “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.”

When Gentiles became members of the Church, there were Jewish Christians who understood that these days should continue to be kept by them, and all Gentile converts. It seemed pretty open and shut: “These days were to be observed throughout your generations...” But other Jewish Christians disagreed.

There were other things God said His people would observe “throughout their generations” that we, as Christians no longer observe: For example,
Exodus 29:42  This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations...

Do we offer, or should we offer burnt offerings, today, as Christians. No. We do not and should not.

Exodus 30:8  And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.

Do we burn, or should we burn perpetual incense, today, as Christians? No. We do not and should not.

Exodus 30:10  And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.”

Do we, or should we offer the blood of sin offerings, today, as Christians? No. We do not and should not.

We read instead in Hebrews 10:4 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”

In order to be preaching a unified Gospel, and in order to address the division that was taking place in the Church, a decision had to be made in the early days of the Church, as to whether or which Old Testament Laws such as circumcision or these Feast Days should be required to be kept, in order for Gentiles should become Christians. And we read of that decision when it was made, beginning in Acts 15:14: “Simeon {Peter} hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:

Verse 17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. 18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. 19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: 20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood...”

Skipping to Verse 23: “And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment...”

Skipping to Verse 28: “For it seem good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; 29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”

The Holy Days that ancient Israel observed have great spiritual significance. There is much that we can learn from them, and we would do well to study them and be blessed by what they impart to us. But there is no New Testament indication let alone Command, that we are required to observe them to be saved.
Yes... it is true that Leviticus 23:4: tells us, “These are the feasts of the LORD...” But they were Feasts observed as part of a Covenant that had been ratified between Israel and the Lord. Jesus was that Lord who mediated the Covenant, as I have conclusively proven in several past Discussions. When He died, the Covenant was terminated.

We read in 15: “And for this cause he (Jesus) is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.” In the same way that the terms of a will are not activated until the person who wrote the will dies, so the New Covenant was activated when Jesus died, and the terms and conditions and requirements of the Old Covenant were terminated.”

The Jews who killed Jesus did not see Him as the Lord, or the Creator God, or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To them He was nothing more than a blasphemer who claimed to be equal to God by calling Himself the Son of God. When He died, they did not see a cessation of the terms of the Old Covenant. They still regarded these Feast Days as the “Feasts of the Lord.” But the Apostle John knew the reality. The One Who ratified the Old Covenant and the testator of the New Covenant was dead, disabling the Old, and Enacting the New. So in each of the occasions he refers to these Feast Days, John never calls them a Feast Day of the Lord. On two occasions, one in John 5, and the second, here, he calls them a “feast of the Jews.” The phrase “Feast of the Lord” does not occur anywhere in the New Testament!

As far as the Jews were concerned, the Old Covenant was still in force, and they were still keeping these days, even though they completely missed their spiritual significance, not to mention their literal fulfillment which happened right before their eyes!!!

It was never my intention this Evening to belittle or disparage the Feasts of the Lord. Far from it. I had two main objectives: To present their spiritual and symbolic significance, and to reinforce the teaching that we, as New Testament Christians, are not obligated to observe or practice the rituals, washings or sacrifices of the Old Covenant. We can, however, gain great insight and edification from studying them and deriving from them great spiritual benefit. I hope you will take the time to do that. They are unmistakable pointers to and prophetic forecasts of our lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and what He willingly endured to accomplish your Salvation, that you might be able to live and rejoice as adopted members of the Family and Kingdom of God throughout Eternity!

This concludes the Evening's Discussion, “The Holy Days”

This Discussion was originally present “live” on April 4th, 2018.



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