The fourth "finding"

The fourth finding reported by the author of Feast-Keeping and the Faithful almost made me laugh, well, actually, I did laugh, but it was a sad kind of laugh.

4) Corroborated by various respected biblical scholars within the Adventist Church, my research has been publicly promoted by the now-retired Director of the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference, Dr. Ángel Manuel Rodríguez. He notes: “Dr. Ron du Preez has produced an excellent exegetical and theological study related to the question of the relevance of the Israelite festivals for Christians. Every argument used to support its observance has been carefully evaluated and a biblical answer provided. This is not simply a study aiming at the facts, but throughout it there is a genuine pastoral concern interested in the unity of the church and its message. May this volume contribute to intensify that unity.”

Item four is less a "finding" than a quote from a well-known person in order to support the findings  already addressed and to bolster the scholarly reputation of the author. The previous three findings have not been biblically sound, as we have shown. It is true that the author does exhibit a kindly pastoral concern, but he casts feast-keepers in the same boat as those who follow nonbiblical rabbit-trails such as the lunar sabbath, 12-hour day, 2520 prophecy, etc. It is unfortunate that those groups do exist -- and even more unfortunate that their strange beliefs lead many astray who are seeking true understanding.

Ángel Manuel Rodríguez wants this volume to "contribute to intensify" the unity of the church and its message. Without a solid biblical basis, unity cannot be achieved.

Feast-keeping identified as "anti-christ"

This is the third consecutive post in which I am looking at the findings of the author of Feast-Keeping and the Faithful.

His third finding states his shocking conclusion to the previous two statements:

3) In short, to observe these feasts is actually “a denial of Jesus’ messiahship” (as one biblical scholar rightly noted); thus, it is a new form of being “anti-christ,” i.e., in place of (or against) Jesus Christ.

He laid the groundwork in his previous statements (see previous two posts) saying that the feasts are fulfilled by Jesus and are therefore not to be observed; that the ceremonial law, which we all know is not a biblical term, includes the holy days and that they ended, along with the rites and ceremonies, at the cross. He then extrapolates the astonishing conclusion that those who observe the days our Lord commanded us to observe are acting against Christ, and, in fact, are an anti-christ!

Christ Himself said that He came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it, yet to this day many claim that He has done just that, abolish the law by fulfilling it. Christ's definition of "fulfill" is the definition we must use.

Those who observe the feasts in this Christian era understand more of Christ's sacrifice, and more of the past, present, and future fulfillments of the prophetic aspects of God's calendar than anyone else on earth! I never thought such a thing could be said, but only by deeper studying have I understood so much of the message that God has given us, the blessing He has given us, through his annual Holy Days.

I do not understand how a person, who on the surface is kind and gracious, could make a such broad and untrue statement based on these weak foundations.

An expanded meaning of "ceremonial law"

The next item on the list of findings about feast keeping by the author of Feast-Keeping and the Faithful is his quoting of the book, Seventh-day Adventists Believe:

2) The standard SDA book, Seventh-day Adventists Believe, repeatedly confirms that, "At the death of Christ the jurisdiction of ceremonial law came to an end. His atoning sacrifice provided forgiveness for all sins. This act ‘wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross’ (Col. 2:14; cf. Deut. 31:26). . . . No more worries about the ceremonial laws, with their complex requirements regarding food and drink offerings, celebrations of various festivals (Passover, Pentecost, etc.), new moons, or ceremonial Sabbaths (Col. 2:16; cf. Heb. 9:10), which were only a ‘shadow of things to come’ (Col. 2:17). . . . [These were things] which pointed forward to the coming of the Messiah, and the observance of which terminated with His death on the cross” (pp. 274, 285). In a nutshell, Adventists do not keep the feasts.

I've referred to all of these comments in previous posts. The book, Seventh-day Adventists Believe, does not supersede the Bible, and Adventists would believe that it does not supersede the inspiration of Ellen White. The book gives an expanded meaning to the term "ceremonial law," a term that is not scriptural. As such, the term is left for us to define.  

Ellen White defines ceremonial law as the Jewish rites and ceremonies (see previous post); "ceremonial law" does not refer to the sabbath days on God's annual calendar. The Holy Days can be observed as sabbaths without the addition of sacrifice, since Jesus' death caused "the sacrifice and oblation to cease." Daniel 9:27. The rites and ceremonies are never again referred to as being kept in the early Christian church; however, the observance of the Holy Days are referred to several times in the New Testament. Besides Scripture, historical documents exist that show the church kept those days in the early centuries following Christ. If they were done away with, they would not be keeping them in the various parts of the world to which they were scattered.

Am I being presumptuous, to feel myself an extension of Tyndale's plowboy, able to hold the Scriptures in my hands and read for myself? Do I have to have a degree and read from the works of a multitude of scholars in order to know what it says? I don't believe God gave that requirement for an understanding of His word. I am not an anti-theologian snob who ignores what the scholars have to say, but I must say that I believe their focus on academia and scholarly approaches to Bible study limits their understanding (not to mention their heart), and perhaps all they depend on is their advanced knowledge and their ability to prove their point -- when it may not be God's point.

Colossians 2 is clearly misunderstood by many people, when a straight reading of the passage makes it plain. My plain reading is spelled out in previous posts. Your plain reading may differ, but it's worth a close look, without the trappings of tradition, to determine for yourself what it really says.

"An Insult to Jehovah"

As I said previously, I came to understand the Bible support of observing God's Holy Days when I set about to disprove them! You can't make this radical change in belief without constantly being exposed to the naysayers, the ones who thought just like I thought not too long ago. What I had relied on was hearsay and tradition. Well, it turns out that hearsay and tradition are not very reliable.

One person who is frequently invited to speak against feast-keeping in Adventist circles is the author of Feast Keeping and the Faithful. This man is a well-spoken and outwardly kind man, but in reading his book, I find a lack of intellectual honesty. It seems that he said to himself, "What quotes can I find that will disprove feast keeping?" rather than, "What does the inspired Word of God have to say on this topic?" Though going out to prove just that point took me in the opposite direction, in order to have growth, a person's mind must be open to accepting that their preconceived ideas may need adjusting. That is very hard for most of us.

Here are a couple of examples of his lack of intellectual honesty:

1.  He pairs feast-keepers with the so-called lunar sabbath at almost every opportunity. Of course the lunar sabbath is neither biblical nor logical, but when so pairing the two together makes it sound like all feast keepers subscribe to the lunar sabbath. He knows this is not true, because he has spent time with feast keepers who adamantly oppose the lunar sabbath.

2. He wrote:

Over time, I was able to do some careful biblical research into every significant argument put forward by those who promote or observe these festivals. In brief, my findings are as follows:

1) These feast days have ALL been fulfilled in and by Jesus Christ. And to continue to keep these festivals is actually an “insult to Jehovah” (RH, June 14, 1898), according to the inspired Spirit of Prophecy.

I have heard this "insult to Jehovah" claim repeatedly. The following is a portion of the Ellen G. White article he quoted above:

In this ordinance [foot washing], 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.

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

The author of Feast Keeping and the Faithful does not seem to notice -- but how could he not notice? He is a scholar! -- that the quote above, and others like it, all refer to the rites and ceremonies, observed by none of the feast keepers that he finds fault with, as he knows through association with them.

These two examples reveal to me how he uses faulty reasoning and inaccurate statements in order to to paint with a black brush those who observe God's Holy Days.

The rites and ceremonies that pointed forward to Jesus and His sacrifice for us all had to do with the Temple sacrificial system, and that came to an end when He became our Passover. But his followers continued to gather together on His Holy Days, forsaking the rites and ceremonies of the past, but following His injunction to have "an holy convocation" at His Appointed Times. When He told His disciples that he would not partake of the fruit of the vine until "that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom," He may have been referring to a kingdom-celebrated Passover.

When I think of the deeper meanings of Passover, how it wasn't just a celebration of past deliverance, not only a former pointing forward to of Jesus' final blow to Satan on the cross, but a current looking forward to our final deliverance from this earthly Egypt and our escape from the evil of this earth, I am so thankful that I have come to understand the plan of salvation and how it is laid out so clearly through the annual cycle of God's Holy Days! What a blessing this has been to my life!

A task I've set myself

I've asked others for any source of written Bible studies on our Saviour's festivals -- a series of pamphlets with synoptic info, questions with Bible texts to look up, and answer blanks to fill in. Every answer I've received so far has been to refer me to various books, even when I specifically said I am NOT looking for books, but for Bible studies.

In other words, apparently Bible studies do not exist. I am thinking of creating my own. Big job, but one that is bound to help me grow. The easiest way to go about it would be to base the studies on videos that already exist, since there are so many of them. I will need to get the video-producer's permission.

Invisibility

I've discovered this blog is invisible. I've done numerous searches using the URL, the blog title, some of the post titles, and it never comes up. This has never happened with my previous blogs. Perhaps I'm the only one that can see it, and that disappoints me.

How to know what the Bible says

About ten months ago I published this article, and since it goes with my previous post about people who believe that Bible can be made to say what you want it to say, I thought it would be timely to post it again:

The following is adapted and condensed from an article, "Rules of Biblical Interpretation," by Melody Drake.

The reason why there are so many different churches and beliefs among Christians today is because many do not follow sound rules for Biblical interpretation. The Bible itself tells us how to study the Bible, either directly, or indirectly through observation. If all Christians followed these rules, we would not have so many different Christian churches and beliefs.

1. With a good concordance, search out everything the Bible says on the subject before coming to a conclusion. “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” (Isaiah 28:10) One can pull out a Bible text to prove just about anything, but when one first looks at all the Bible texts on a certain subject, then a pattern of truth will emerge.

2. All conclusions should be based upon the weight of evidence and must make logical sense. God created us with minds to think and He appeals to our intellect. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.” (Isaiah 1:18)

3. Each passage of Scripture should be carefully considered in its context. What does the Bible say before and after the passage? First we must consider the immediate passage, then the chapter, book, other books by the same author, and finally other writers of the Bible.

4. A literal interpretation of the Bible should be given unless the context clearly shows that the verses under consideration are symbolic. When the interpretation is symbolic, the Bible will tell us the meaning of the symbol either in that passage or elsewhere. The Bible must always interpret itself.

5. One text of the Bible must not undo another text. The Bible never conflicts with itself.  Sometimes Bible texts, at first glance, can appear to contradict with other texts, but upon a deeper study, the contradiction will disappear. For instance, one can find Bible texts that appear to support works in order to obtain salvation. Elsewhere, the Bible states that faith obtains salvation. On the surface these texts appear to be contradicting each other, but upon deeper study one finds that works and faith are the flip sides of the same coin. Without one the other does not exist. Sometimes the Bible will give us a harmonizing text and sometimes it will not, leaving us to do the harmonizing. Here is a harmonizing text. “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” (James 2:18)

6. All words should be accurately defined and understood. A good dictionary and concordance will aid in this. Since, over time, language changes, sometimes we have to search a word through a prophet’s writings to see how they define that word so we can correctly understand what they are saying.

7. We cannot conclude more or less than the evidence allows. “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2) “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19) These are serious words not to be taken lightly.

8. Consider the words of the text in the original languages. We do not need to be scholars studying Greek and Hebrew in order to do this. Using Strong’s Concordance one can easily find the original meaning of a word. As in English, some words in Greek and Hebrew have multiple meanings. Sometimes a contradiction may appear because the wrong definition of the word was used. However, by carefully considering all texts on a subject, one can determine the correct definition. For easy access to Strong's, use Blue Letter Bible with the Strong's numbers (click on Strong's box at the top of your KJV Bible text).

9. Each prophecy in the Bible has a beginning and ending point in time, and the elements within this prophecy occur in chronological order. This rule is not for conditional prophecy in the Bible but only for prophecy which has definite time frames. Daniel chapter 2 gives us a model. In this chapter the head of the image, which represents Babylon, comes before the chest, which represents Medo-Persia, which comes before the belly, which represents Greece, etc.

10. When God sets up a pattern, He never breaks this pattern. At times the Bible clearly sets out the beginning of a pattern. By following this pattern one can then determine the rest of the pattern and discover wonderful truths. For example, here is a pattern: three, six, nine. Once we see this pattern the next number is easy to determine. Our Heavenly Father is a God of logic and order.

11. Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide your mind before beginning to study because without the Holy Spirit one cannot obtain truth. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

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Other writings need to come under the same scrutiny. Do they align with the Bible? New truth doesn't erase old truth. New understandings build on old understandings, and this is good, as long as the old understandings are correct. When the original understandings are not scriptural, or off just a little bit, the newer understandings go farther astray.

Naysayers

I have, for a long time, wanted to use my real name on this blog, but because of opposition and stigma, I have not. The right time will come.

An acquaintance of mine has written a book entitled Feast-Keeping and the Faithful, and this book has caused more opposition, stigma, and heartache to those of us who truly believe we have found a long-forgotten gem in God's Holy Word. Back to that book another day.

When I first shared with a bunch of friends, about seven years ago, that I had attended a Yom Teruah at a local synagogue, I had no idea that anyone would think something was wrong with it. At that point, I was just interested in what Orthodox Jews did on that day. However, my Trumpets attendance had an immediate affect in that I was quietly uninvited from teaching an adult Bible class, i.e., teaching the class was not mentioned again. I did not protest, because not having the responsibility was something of a relief to me, but it, and having a shocking number of friends in other locations removed from church membership, gave me caution about saying much about what I have learned through my studies.

A very good Adventist friend of mine told me that observing the feasts is wrong, it makes people leave the church, and it keeps us from focusing on the sanctuary, which is the truth for the end times. I can't help but wanting to say, "Excuse me? What is observing the feasts all about if not gaining a deeper understanding of the sanctuary and its depiction of the plan of salvation through the annual holy days?" But I never did get to say it, because this friend is a talker and not a listener.

Yes, some have left the church, usually not so much because they chose to, but because they were asked to leave. And yes, some have been so excited about what they have learned that they are not judicious in how they share it. They trust that all will want to know and embrace what they have embraced. Some have been accusatory towards those who are not ready to accept it, saying things such as, "You cannot be saved if you don't believe this," so I know not all the fault is with the churches who have booted sincere people out of their congregation. And yes, there are those who did choose to leave, some because they cannot tolerate the hoopla around Christmas, a holiday not based on the birth of Christ at all; He was just pasted in later, on top of a pagan background. Have I mentioned Christmas in this blog? If not, I will attend to it at some point. Even though my church is increasingly secular in its Christmas celebrations, so far I find it relatively easy to avoid participating.

Some feast keepers, it is obvious, have attached to it strange doctrines, and because of that, their wanderings have painted the entire movement in shades of dark gray. Many, including the author of the book I mentioned, who travels around the world teaching his theories, seem to think that all who observe the Biblical feasts are following weird unbiblical doctrines not related to the feasts at all.

There are those who are strong advocates of using the term "Yeshuah" in any of its various spellings for "Jesus" and teach that if you use the name Jesus, you are not talking about the Son of God. Though I know "Jesus" was not how his name was pronounced, I don't agree with the Sacred Name movement, and I have already gone into that in other blog entries. Some have adopted what is called the Lunar Sabbath, in which the week begins at the new moon, and the weekly Sabbath is every seven days after the new moon. Of course, this leaves a few extra days at the end of most month which are not counted, and every month the "Sabbath" is on a different day of the week, an obvious contradiction to Bible teaching. Some believe a day starts in the morning instead of the biblical "even to even," and some teach that a day is only the sunlit hours. This has got to please a lot of people who see the Sabbath hours as restrictive instead of a blessing! These ideas get wackier and wackier and stray further and further from the Bible, and one can easily see how, in every case where there is truth, it gets attacked from all sides.

I believe that the biggest reason for these strange beliefs is that people will listen to someone, or read something that has been written, without checking the Bible for themselves. What's keeping people from coming together on beliefs is that so many will just read a book, such as Feast-Keeping and the Faithful, without studying to see what the Bible says. "This highly-educated person is smarter than I am, reads the Bible more, and has done more research, so I'll just go with what he says," appears to be the thinking of many -- on many topics, but especially on Bible truths.

Some believe that one can't know what the Bible says, and that you can make it say whatever you want it to say. Those who have that belief are exactly those people who will not study anything for themselves. They will listen to speakers, read books, and pick the one who has ideas that they like the most. It's a sorry state for those who want to follow the One who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

Trumpets shall blow

This is a quickie about the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Teruah, a sabbath that started tonight at sunset. It is the first of the three fall convocations. Next is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, then the eight days of the Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot.

In Lev. 23:23-27, God was speaking to Moses when He told him to tell the people to observe this feast, saying it was a "memorial of blowing of trumpets." The spiritual event that they were to remember, the only one that accompanied trumpet blowing in their history, must have been when Moses went up on the mount to receive the Ten Commandments and other instructions from God that he was to share with the people.

The sounds of the trumpet were loud, as trumpets tend to be, and were accompanied with thunder, lightning, and an earthquake:

"When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain... So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder." Exodus 19:13, 16-19

God invited His people to covenant with Him, and they promised to do everything that the Lord commanded. In a short time they broke this covenant. But still, God said, "Let them make me a tabernacle, that I may dwell among them."

When Jesus came, He was God With Us in the flesh, and a tabernacle was no longer necessary, because He promised to be with us and desired to live in us. He reaffirmed the covenant, a better one. Soon we will hear the trumpet sound and be living with Him eternally.

That's what Trumpets is about -- the heralding of Jesus' soon return to be with us.