The Feasts

Video: https://youtu.be/DFiJHaG1JqM

Why don't Christians celebrate the festivals ordained by God in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible)? You will hear a few explanations -- "Christ did away with those laws," "The Church changed the holy days into other holy days," "Christ is the fulfilment of them, so God doesn't care about them anymore as long as we have Christ," and probably others. I'm going to demonstrate why none of those explanations are what the Bible actually teaches.

I will use the words feast, festival, holy days, or appointed times to refer to the same things. In the Hebrew Bible they are called moed, which most closely translates to "appointed time".

Sometimes, people make a distinction between God's "moral" instructions (those that He wants Christians to observe) and "ceremonial" laws (the ones that they claim Christ did away with). The Sabbath and other feasts are usually labeled "ceremonial". That distinction is not found in Scripture. It is a man-made distinction that has been invented to compliment the man-made doctrine that Christ did away with the law, while still being able to enforce the laws that they deem applicable.

(See also: Under the Law)

However, let's suppose that that distinction were valid. What are the ceremonies in that context? They are rituals that were put in place as a response to the sinful nature of man and the ritual purity required for man's involvement with the tabernacle/temple. In that sense, it is true that certain laws have more to do with ritual or ceremony than others. However, just because there are ceremonies associated with certain commands, does not mean that that is all that there is to them.

The 7th day Sabbath is one of God's festivals. The Sabbath was instituted at creation, before sin even entered the world. It is therefore not inherently "ceremonial" in nature.

Likewise, during the creation week the sun, moon, and stars were put in place. God gives us one of the reasons for the celestial bodies within the creation account. He says that they are "for" his appointed times. In other words, He put the celestial bodies to mark when His festivals are. This implies that they existed or were in mind prior to when they were given in the form of a command. Again, this was prior to sin. Therefore, God's other appointed times are also not inherently "ceremonial".

Even though there were ceremonies involved with the observance of these days, the days themselves are not ceremonies and observing them is simply a matter of paying attention to them and what they represent. God tells us to also performing certain activities that help in that act of remembering. These are distinct from any ceremonies pertaining to sin or ritual purity. Rather, they are descriptions of how to observe the holiday, just like we have traditional things that we do to observe the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, or any other holiday.

God says of the appointed times found in the Bible (Leviticus 23), "these are My feasts". Not Israel's, not the Jews', but God's. Another way of saying "appointed time" is appointment. It would be a shame to miss an appointment with God, wouldn't it?

Since Christ came, we do not have less reason to observe these days, we have more. That is because we can see precisely what the spring feasts point to with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. We can also better understand what the fall feasts are pointing to at Christ's second coming. Colossians 2:17 tells us that the festivals "are a shadow of the things to come."

In addition to the weekly Sabbath and new month festivals, there are seven annual feasts of the Lord. Here is a brief mention of each and how they relate to Christ.
#todo Click on each feast to see an look at how they specifically point to Christ in detail.

Passover - Death
Unleavened Bread - Burial
Firstfruits - Resurrection
Pentecost - Giving of the Holy Spirit
Feast of Trumpets - Call to alertness and repentance
Day of Atonement - National atonement
Tabernacles - The millennial reign

In addition to the prophetic and symbolic meaning of the feasts themselves, there is something else that Christians must consider in regards to the importance of God's festivals. There are several specific prophecies which are understood to refer to the millennial reign of Messiah. That is, the literal time in the future in which the Messiah is reigning on earth from Jerusalem. Although the idea of two messianic arrivals fits within Jewish thought, this Messianic era is what Jewish people were looking for in the first coming of Jesus, as indicated by the disciples when they asked, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"

Regardless, those prophecies make specific reference to the feasts and foretell that they will be observed at that time. The incredibly detailed prophecies in Ezekiel (40-47) speak of a new temple, a renewed, functioning Levitical priesthood, the observance of the Sabbath, New Moon, (as does Isaiah 66:23), Passover, and Unleavened Bread. Zechariah 14 tells us that the feast of Tabernacles will be observed during this time as well.

Therefore, if God's feasts were observed in the past and will be in the future and they point to Christ, why shouldn't we as Christians observe them insofar as we are able to today?

Much more can be said about this subject, but I will leave it at that for now.