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Holy Days or Holidays
These Are the Feasts of the Lord |
Dear Brethren,
It is our beliefs
that define who we are and what we are becoming. The Feasts of God
separate us from the world. The seven annual Holy Days listed in
Leviticus 23 were ordained and commanded by God to be observed as
holy gatherings. The Holy Days reveal God's continuing plan
for all mankind. They were first given to Old Testament Israel, but
the New Testament Church of God observes them as well. God is
gracious, not only to disclose His great design, but also to allow
us to see His plan of salvation as it unfolds.
God's Church today
observes the scripturally commanded seven annual Holy Days given to
us by our Lord through Moses, kept by Jesus Christ, the apostle
Paul, and all the faithful New Testament Church members, as
evidenced by the biblical books of Acts and Corinthians. The Holy
Days are annual Sabbaths called the "Feasts of the Lord." God
commands His people to keep, not only the weekly Sabbath Day, which
is a holy convocation, but His annual Festivals as well.From Jesus
Christ's sacrifice as the Passover Lamb, to the Last Great Day of
the Feast spoken of in John 7:37, the Holy Days explain God's
intervention in bringing many sons to Glory.
Each year God
intends that we go through the entire cycle depicting His eternal
plan for mankind.In fact, John used the annual Holy Days, which
occurred during Jesus’ public ministry, as the outline for his
Gospel account. Jesus used the occasion of the Holy Days to expound
on their spiritual and prophetic meanings. Each feast day has a
special prophetic meaning depicting an important step in God's
salvational plan for man. A deeper understanding of the meaning of
the Holy Days comes with their persistent observance.
All of God’s Holy
Days have great meaning. Not only have they not been done away
with, the Bible clearly shows that the Feasts of the Lord will
continue to be kept during the millennium, after Jesus Christ has
established the Kingdom of God on the earth. It shall come to
pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came
against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the
King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”
(Zechariah 14:16)
By way of contrast,
pagan holidays such as Christmas and Easter do not possess any
symbolic meaning at all. They do not point out anything that God is
doing. They are hollow and meaningless. It is because pagan
holidays draw people away from the truth of God, that God calls
those practices, abominations.” Jesus was not born anywhere near
December 25th, and we are told nowhere in the Scriptures
to observe His birth at all. Christmas is not pleasing to God in
any way.
Quite the contrary,
we are commanded by God to observe Passover as a memorial of His
death. He did not rise from the grave during an Easter sunrise.
Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day and St. Valentine’s Day are all
worthless because of their pagan origin. They are Satan's
counterfeit feast days. The great Church of Rome upholds these
counterfeit days, but the true Church of God has never observed
these bogus holidays.
These
are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which
ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the
first month at even is the Lord’s Passover.” (Leviticus 23:4-5)
Passover
falls on the fourteenth day of the first month of God’s sacred
calendar. It is to be kept just after sunset, at the beginning of
the 14th day of the first month, just as Christ kept it on the
evening before he died. Passover is kept only once a year. It is
not a Holy Day of convocation, and work is permitted. Observe
the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God: for
in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of
Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto
the Lord thy God.” (Deuteronomy 16:1-2)
The footwashing
ceremony is conducted at the beginning of the Passover service (John
13:1-17). The footwashing service is performed as an example of
serving one another in humility, and in accordance with Christ's
example and instruction to us. Baptized members partake of the
unleavened bread and wine, symbolizing the forgiveness of sin by the
sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. We renew our
covenant with God yearly at the Passover service. See also:
"A Servant's Towel"
The entire Passover
service is a memorial of Christ's death. I have received of the
Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the
same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had
given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body,
which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the
same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this
cup is the New Testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink
it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and
drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he comes.”
(1Corinthians 11:23-26)
Unleavened Bread
follows Passover for seven days. The fifteenth day, and the
twenty-first day of the first month are Feast Days and are
therefore, holy convocations. Unleavened Bread pictures our coming
out of sin – putting sin entirely out of our lives. Jesus Christ is
our perfect example of a sinless life. Thou shalt keep the Feast
of Unleavened Bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as
I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it
thou came out from Egypt.” (Exodus 23:15)
Pentecost is
a New Testament term indicating that fifty days are to be counted.
It is a Holy Day of convocation that always falls on the first day
of the week, Sunday, because the count is begun on the Sunday during
the Days of Unleavened Bread.. "You
shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day
that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall
be complete:Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall
ye number fifty days [Pentecost]... And thou shalt observe
the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest."
(Leviticus 23:15-16, Exodus 34:22)
God sent His Holy
Spirit and fulfilled the meaning of the prophetic day when He
established His Church some seven weeks after Jesus’ death and
resurrection. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1)
Trumpets, a
Holy Day of convocation, falls on the first day of the seventh month.
The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of
Israel, saying, in the seventh month, in the first day of the month,
shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy
convocation.” (Leviticus:23-24) Trumpets shows that Jesus
Christ will return as Lord of lords and King of Kings. Trumpets is
the next Feast of the Lord to realize its prophetic fulfillment.
Even now, we are counting down to the return of Jesus Christ.
Atonement
falls on the tenth day of the seventh month. Atonement is a
spiritual Feast day – a day of fasting without food or water.
On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of
atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall
afflict your souls… And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it
is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord
your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in
that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.”
(Leviticus 23:27-29) Atonement makes way for the millennial
rest to begin, because man is delivered from the bondage of
Satan and every enemy.
The Feast of
Tabernacles begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month.
It lasts for seven days. The first of seven days is a Holy Day of
convocation. In the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye
have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto
the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the
eighth day shall be a Sabbath [Last Great Day]. And ye shall take
you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm
trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and
ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.”
(Leviticus 23:39-40)
The Feast of
Tabernacles points to the time of the establishment of the Kingdom
of God on earth. Jesus Christ – the Messiah – will be ruling over
an earth becoming perfect for one-thousand years. We will reign and
rule with Him.
The Last Great
Day pictures the time when all who have ever lived will have the
wonderful opportunity to live again, and then to know God and be led
by His Spirit! In the last day, that Great Day of the Feast,
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto
me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
The Feasts of the
Lord are preserved for us in the sacred calendar that God gave to
the nation of Israel. There is so much more to be told of the story
of God’s Holy Days. After the time of the Last Great Day, the Great
White Throne Judgment will precede the coming of the New Heavens and
the New Earth… and a glorious future for the Children of God.
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| Sermon: |
"These Are the Feasts of the Lord"
alternate title: "Holy Days or Holidays"
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