Should we keep the Feast Days?
*1 Corinthians 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."
....Truth is, we no longer need to sacrifice a Passover lamb according to this passage. This is actually common knowledge among most Christians of today. The exact same principle therefore applies to all the Jewish feasts as they are indeed fulfilled already, just as the sacrifice of the Passover lamb was fulfilled.
As for those who feel they are convicted to keep these feasts, I am not seeking to change your minds. At the same time, I feel I stand justified in that I see no reason for you to seek to change mine. The facts will be presented for intelligent Bible decisions to be made on this issue. For it is also written...
- *Colossians 2:16-17, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of thesabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."
...By the way.. the "sabbath days" mentioned here are ceremonial feast days, and not the weekly Sabbath. See Leviticus 23:23-38 on this. Specifically verse 38 where it declares these "sabbath days" are BESIDES the Sabbath of the Lord. Another easy to see reality in this passage is. MANY like to claim that this passage is speaking of the "Ten Commandments" because the "sabbath days" is mentioned. But when looking at the ENTIRE verse, one realizes that it is impossible for these "sabbath days" to be the same as the weekly Sabbath day. Why? This passage is lumping both the "sabbath days" together along with the "meat, drink, holy days, and new moons." Where in the Ten Commandments does it speak of meat, drink, holy days, and new moons?
The Jewish feast days were a shadow of things to come. They pointed forward in a prophetic manner as to what Christ would do when He came to this Earth for us. I ask, why should we embrace or seek to keep feast days that speak of things already done? My faith alone in the "Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world" [John 1:29] already proclaims that which the feast days looked forward to as fulfilled at Calvary.
In fact, some of the feast days required the believer to offer sacrifice in the Jerusalem Temple did they not? How is that possible today? How was that possible in fact since 70ad when the Jerusalem Temple was completely destroyed by Rome?
Scriptures openly declare these feast days "nailed to the cross" in the following passage...
- *Colossians 2:14, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way,nailing it to his cross;"
...These feast days / laws of Moses were ORDINANCES penned on paper by Moses himself. Unlike the Law of God written in STONE by His very finger. The ripping of the temple veil in Matthew 27:51 declares in mountainous tones that these feast days were indeed no longer needed. The Temple itself was no longer the residence of the Shekinah glory of the Lord's presence when that Temple veil ripped. Before the rip, no man could enter into the Most Holy Place but the High priest. Anyone else walking in there would most assuredly DIE. Now however, any man can come before the Lord, for the Temple is now YOU, the Christian!
- *1 Corinthians 3:16, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
...Want it prophetically BLUNT? Daniel the Prophet declares the Feast Days as something that was to STOP the moment Christ died on the cross...
- *Daniel 9:27, "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the weekhe shall cause the sacrifice andthe oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
...Prophecy itself confirms the feast days CEASED at the time of the cross. In the "midst of the week" (3.5 yrs after Jesus was baptised) the Temple veil RIPPED completely in two. At the exact moment the "Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world" spoke from His very lips, "IT IS FINISHED"-John 19:30
...Picture this... You are looking for your friend who is said to be behind your house working on your car. You look outside and all you see is your friends shadow protruding from behind the house. You can see your friend working on the car by watching the shadow. So you wait patiently for him to finish. Suddenly your friend cry's out that, it is finished. You then walk to the back of the house, and follow the shadow to your friend that eventually leads directly to him. The feast days are no different. They illustrated to the believers a glimpse of that which Christ was to do in the future, and when He cried out, "it is finished" on Calvary, IT WAS!
Think about this as well...
There were NO Jewish feast days BEFORE the Exodus from Egyptian bondage. And according to prophecy as well as Scripture speaking of the time of fulfillment, they ended perfectly when Jesus "finished" what He came to do for you and me, as well as all those that kept those feast days in faith BEFORE Calvary.
Could there be prophetic reasoning for such an end time movement?
Is it not being "prophesied" all over the world by false prophets that a "third temple" must be rebuilt? Has it not already been reported that the Roman Catholic church is performing "animal sacrifices" on their altars in Africa?Are we to start offering sacrifices again regardless of the fact that prophecy as well as the reality of Calvary declares it is finished? Does not the "keeping of the feast days" denote a "possibility" that Christ has NOT yet arrived, therefore we need to look for another? Will this be used by Antichrist to gather some of the flock into his camp? That I believe is the main issue here. All I can see coming from keeping the feast days is a faith that may eventually learn to embrace the "old leaven" of the Pharisee's. All the world knows, they do indeed proclaim with boldness that Messiah has not yet come. And all of Christendom can read for themselves...
- *1 Corinthians 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."
...One last thing before going further. For those that claim Christ Lord and still can't see the Feast Days abolished at His cross. Please look upon this passage with open eyes...
- *Act 6:14 "For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us."
...We need to understand that orthodox Jews to this day still observe the feast days because they refuse to accept the sacrifice of the Messiah Jesus Christ in their behalf. When we echo their observance of these abolished ordinances today, we are doing the exact same thing as those Jews who are not moved by faith in Christ Jesus as Lord. In fact, some of the early Christians continued on with the feast days as well. How did Paul respond to this?
- *Galatians 4:9-11, "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."
...One more thing needs to be realized here as well. At present, we living during anti-typical day of atonement (since 1844 per Daniel 8, 2300 day prophecy) as we wait on that same Messiah Jesus Christ to return. While we wait, we must understand that this waiting time is not to be considered a time of celebration. Just as the Jews of old prepared 10 days before the day of atonement, we too must use this time to afflict our souls so as to prepare to meet our God. During this time we have been given a chance to purify our souls by the putting away of sin. Soon probation will end and that eupastern sky will split and we will be called Home. Or.. if we waste this precious time we have been given to get right with our God, we will be left behind dead. Those that celebrated on the day of atonement were cut off from the camp. The feasts are celebratory in nature until the feast of the day of atonement which is a solemn feast. We can not "celebrate" the feasts while we are living in the solemn day of atonement.
One more thing to realize about the anti-typical day of antonement we presently find ourselves in. Many fail to realize this basic reality in fact. You simply cannot keep any feast days right now because we are in the antitypical day of atonement. Look in your Bibles and you will see that NEVER in the Word of God do we see anyone keeping two feast days simultaneously. That being the case. How can we keep the feast days while keeping the day of atonement?
Bottom line is this...
The Feast days pointed to His first coming. The Lord's Supper points to His second coming.
Literal Before The Cross. Spiritual After The Cross.
For the SDA brethren that have been pulled into the feast day movement, what saith the prophet of the Lord to the last day church?
SOP says,
"In this ordinance, (The Last Supper) Christ discharged His disciples from the cares and burdens of the ancient Jewish obligations in rites and ceremonies. These no longer possessed any virtue; for type was meeting antitype in Himself, the authority and foundation of all Jewish ordinances that pointed to Him as the great and only efficacious offering for the sins of the world. He gave this simple ordinance that it might be a special season when He Himself would always be present, to lead all participating in it to feel the pulse of their own conscience, to awaken them to an understanding of the lessons symbolized, to revive their memory, to convict of sin, and to receive their penitential repentance. He would teach them that brother is not to exalt himself above brother, that the dangers of disunion and strife shall be seen and appreciated; for the health and holy activity of the soul are involved. {5BC 1139.5}
This ordinance does not speak so largely to man's intellectual capacity as to his heart. His moral and spiritual nature needs it. If His disciples had not needed this, it would not have been left for them as Christ's last established ordinance in connection with, and including, the last supper. It was Christ's desire to leave to His disciples an ordinance that would do for them the very thing they needed--that would serve to disentangle them from the rites and ceremonies which they had hitherto engaged in as essential, and which the reception of the gospel made no longer of any force. To continue these rites would be an insult to Jehovah. Eating of the body, and drinking of the blood, of Christ, not merely at the sacramental service, but daily partaking of the bread of life to satisfy the soul's hunger, would be in receiving His Word and doing His will" (RH June 14, 1898). {5BC 1139.6
