"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!

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."

A letter for Seventh-day Adventists

For the majority of my life I cruised along in my Christian beliefs, sure that I knew just about everything I needed to know, but then a friend challenged me on some of the very texts in the Bible that had bothered me, one of those being in Colossians. I set out to prove him wrong, studying on my own to learn what the Bible really said. It turned out that I was the one who was clearly wrong! It was exciting to learn the truth, but a challenging decision to make even minor changes in my personal traditions.

Nearly three and a half years ago, I wrote a letter to my Seventh-day Adventist family to explain to them what I had learned. I included quotes from Ellen G. White, because there is always the question, "What did Ellen White have to say about the feasts?" They trust the Bible as the final word, but Ellen White's commentary is also important.

Here is the letter:

Dear ____,

A few years ago I read Samuele Bacchiocchi's books on the feasts, and I've been thinking about what he had to say. I've listened to the pros and cons, including Ron duPreez's long YouTube video against keeping the feast days.

Ever since I studied Bible doctrines in church school when I was 12 years old, I have been puzzled by Colossians 2. What we were taught troubled me because I could see that our explanation of the ceremonial law but not the moral law being nailed to the cross in verse 14, and the chiastic interpretation of verse 16, were not convincing. If I wanted to convince someone else of the seventh-day Sabbath, I would have to explain these verses, and I knew our understanding of it was lacking something, I didn't know what.

But then I realized -- it was Paul who wrote Colossians. What did he do? What was his practice? Had the law been divided into moral and ceremonial law, and part of it -- the ceremonial law -- nailed to the cross? Did Paul live and talk as if that is what had happened?

When Paul was writing to the Corinthians, Gentile converts, he wrote, “”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." 1 Cor. 5:7-8

When Paul was at Ephesus, they wanted him to stay, but he “bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast in Jerusalem." Acts 18:21. He used the word "keep." He didn't say, "I must by all means be at Jerusalem during the feast [so as to reach as many people as possible with the gospel]," an explanation that many will give for this text. He wanted to keep the feast in Jerusalem, but would he honor the feast elsewhere if he weren't able to get to Jerusalem?

Many Adventists will look to Ellen G. White to see what she had to say on this topic. Regarding Paul's stay at Ephesus, she said, "After leaving Corinth, Paul's next scene of labor was Ephesus. He was on his way to Jerusalem to attend an approaching festival, and his stay at Ephesus was necessarily brief."  Acts of the Apostles 269.

Paul did not make it to Jerusalem in time, so “we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread.” Acts 20:6. They had honored the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread away from Jerusalem, in Philippi.

Ellen White comments on this in Acts of the Apostles 390-391:

At Philippi Paul tarried to keep the Passover. Only Luke remained with him, the other members of the company passing on to Troas to await him there. The Philippians were the most loving and truehearted of the apostle's converts, and during the eight days of the feast he enjoyed peaceful and happy communion with them.

Philippi was city in which there was no synagogue, and many conclude that the converts there must have been Gentiles. Paul was memorializing the Passover and unleavened bread with the Gentiles, not Jews who were clinging to old, familiar customs.

Paul wrote to those at Corinth, “But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.” 1 Cor 16:8, indicating that he wanted to observe Pentecost with these believers in Ephesus. He was observing the holy days everywhere he went, with both Gentile and Jewish converts.

Again, Ellen White said,

Paul greatly desired to reach Jerusalem before the Passover as he would thus have an opportunity to meet those who should come from all parts of the world to attend the feast. Ever he cherished the hope that in some way he might be instrumental in removing the prejudice of his unbelieving countrymen, so that they might be led to accept the precious light of the gospel. He also desired to meet the church at Jerusalem and bear to them the gifts sent by the Gentile churches to the poor brethren in Judea. And by this visit he hoped to bring about a firmer union between the Jewish and the Gentile converts to the faith.

From every quarter were coming accounts of the spread of the new doctrine by which Jews were released from the observance of the rites of the ceremonial law. ...His plan to reach Jerusalem in time for the Passover services had to be given up, but he hoped to be there at Pentecost. ... At Philippi Paul tarried to keep the Passover. Only Luke remained with him, the other members of the company - Acts of the Apostles, 389-390

Paul preached against observing the ceremonial laws and rites, but he still honored the feasts. It is clear that Paul did not believe that the holy days were included in the ceremonial law.

Paul had done all in his power to remove the prejudice and distrust so unjustly excited because he presented the gospel to the Gentiles without the restrictions of the ceremonial law.” Sketches from the Life of Paul, 208.

Paul did not bind himself nor his converts to the ceremonies and customs of the Jews, with their varied forms, types, and sacrifices; for he recognized that the perfect and final offering had been made in the death of the Son of God.” Sketches from the Life of Paul, 105.

Factions also were beginning to rise through the influence of Judaizing teachers, who urged that the converts to Christianity should observe the ceremonial law in the matter of circumcision...They indicated their position, which was in opposition to that of Paul. Sketches from the Life of Paul, 121.

Paul didn't teach his Gentile converts to do circumcision or take part in ritual sacrifices, but he did teach them to observe the holy days, showing that Paul did not consider these days to be part of the ceremonial law.

The church instituted by our Lord and built up by His disciples in the first century is set forth as the divine model. Its prerogatives and authority are fully acknowledged, and all its ordinances and memorials are observed. Life Sketches, 472.

I've been reading some history of the early centuries of the church. There is evidence that the Waldenses observed the holy days, that Philip, his daughters, and John the Revelator kept them and taught others to do so, that those who were converted to Christianity in India were taught to keep the holy days.

There's lots more. I have learned so much through studying about this subject, and how to apply the lessons from these appointed days to my own life and to prophecy. I thought I would send this to you so you could see what I've been studying and see what you think.

The family members who responded seemed interested but not convinced -- but at least I've planted a seed for thought and consideration.

Feast days after the cross

For Seventh-day Adventists, a leading theologian's conclusion about the feast days:

A fourth surprise was to discover that I was wrong in assuming that the annual Feasts came to an end with the sacrifice of Christ, simply because they were connected with the sacrificial system of the Temple. I came to realize that the continuity or discontinuity of the Feasts is determined not by their connection with the sacrificial system, but by the scope of their typology. If the Feasts had typified only the redemptive accomplishments of Christ's first Advent, then obviously their function would have terminated at the Cross. But, if the Feasts foreshadow also the consummation of redemption to be accomplished by Christ at His second Advent, then their function continues in the Christian church, though with a new meaning and manner of observance. 

God's Festivals in Scripture and History, Volume I: The Spring Festivals, from the chapter, "Preview of the Book," by Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi