Some think that worship is sanctioned and properly kept only at Jerusalem. Yahweh commanded in Deuteronomy 12:5 to worship where He places His Name. Yahweh didn’t place His name just in Jerusalem. Granted, when the kingdom comes to earth Jerusalem will be the capital of the earth and also the focal point of worship and the Feasts, 2Kings 21:7. Until then, as Yahshua said to the woman at Jacob’s well, “Believe me, the hour cometh, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father,” John 4:21. The following are several times when the Feasts were kept away from Jerusalem:

Exodus 12 – Israel kept the Passover in Goshen, and Unleavened Bread on the way to the Promised Land.

Numbers 9:5 – Israel kept Passover and Unleavened Bread in the Sinai wilderness

Joshua 5:10 – Israel kept Passover on the plains of Jericho

Acts 20:6 – Paul kept Unleavened Bread in Philippi

1Cor. 5:8 – The Corinthians kept Unleavened Bread in Corinth. Paul in his missionary journeys kept the Feasts wherever he was, and at times was more than a thousand miles from Jerusalem.

Paul said what happened to Israel is a lesson for us, 1Corinthians 10. There are not two (or more) ways to salvation.There is only one basic plan for all who would take hold of the promise. That plan centers on obedience. What Yahweh wanted Israel to do He wants us to do, too—meaning to obey Him. It’s that simple

Remember that the Messiah and His disciples all kept the Biblical holy days and their lives are examples for us. He didn’t give us a different set of instructions from what He Himself followed. If these annual days were only reminders for Israel, why did Yahshua Himself keep them religiously and teach His disciples to do so as well? Paul instructs us in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Yahshua the Messiah.” In John 10:4 we learn that He is the Shepherd that guides His sheep: “And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.” We as His sheep follow the Shepherd. Therefore, when He kept Passover, so do we. When He kept Pentecost and Tabernacles, we do as well.

Our Savior an d every Apostle and disciple in the New Testament kept the Feast days commanded by Yahweh for His people Israel. Yahshua kept the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread with His disciples before He died, Matthew 26:17. He became the Passover Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world. He kept the other Feasts like Tabernacles as well, Luke 2:42. Surprising to some, the champion of Christians, the Apostle Paul, kept these Feast days as well, as is clear from many passages in the New Testament. In Acts 18:21 he was resolute: “I must by all means keep this feast that comes to Jerusalem.”

All the big events in Scripture occurred or will occur at a Feast times. At Passover was the release of Israel and our Savior’s atoning death; His resurrection occurred during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On Pentecost both the law and Holy Spirit were given. Yahshua will likely return at Trumpets. Tabernacles and Last Great Day represent the establishing of the Kingdom.

Galatians 4:10 speaks of pagan observances, not Yahweh’s appointed times. Colossians 2:16 is an admonishment not to let outsiders judge the believer when it comes to Yahweh’s special days.

For an in-depth study on the Holy Days read our booklet: The Amazing Biblical Feasts

In the year 1215 Pope Innocent III decreed the doctrine of transubstantiation, meaning that once an ordained priest blesses the bread of the L-rd’s Supper, it is transformed into the actual flesh of Messiah and when he blesses the wine, it is transformed into the actual blood of Messiah (though both retain the properties of bread and wine and are never changed to actual flesh and blood). The support passage cited most frequently is John 6:32-58 and especially verses 53-57, “Yahshua said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life … For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him … so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.’” Yahshua used physical concepts of eating and drinking to teach spiritual lessons. He said in John 6:63, “The words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.” Eating His flesh and drinking His blood are symbolic of fully and completely receiving Him in our lives.

The Passover is a memorial, a “remembrance” pointing to the body and blood of Yahshua (Luke 22:19; 1Corinthians 11:24-25), not the actual consumption of His physical body and blood. In contrast, transubstantiation is viewed by the Roman Church as a “re-sacrifice” of Yahshua for our sins or as a “re-offering and re-presentation” of His sacrifice. This directly violates Scripture, which says that Yahshua died “once for all” and He does not need to be sacrificed again (Hebrews 10:10; 1Peter 3:18). Hebrews 7:27 declares of Him, “Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. ” Further, the law strictly forbids drinking blood. “Whatsoever soul [it be] that eateth ANY MANNER of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people,” Leviticus 7:27. The clean food laws of Leviticus 11 andDeuteronomy 14 don’t list humans. Being sinless, Yahshua would not violate these ordinances in His teachings. And He never gave the Catholics or any other church the authority to transform his flesh and blood, real or imagined.

“Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning” (Exodus 34:25).

The word “feast” mentioned in Exodus 34:25 should in fact be rendered victim. By the insertion of the word victim the undeniable meaning of this passage will become explicit. The word “feast” in Exodus 34 is from the Hebrew word, No. 2282, chag. The Strong’s Exhaustive Concordancedefines chag as: “from 2287, a festival, or a victim therefor:–(solemn). Feast (day), sacrifice, solemnity.”

The Strong’s only offers a general definition so it becomes a necessity to look at the over all evidence of the Passover and what was commanded not to left until the morning. Chag only offers two possibilities. One possibility being a feast day, and the other possibility being a type of sacrifice or victim.

If we would leave the word “feast” in Exodus 34:25 we would have to conclude that we are not to leave the feast until the morning; however, if the word” “victim” was to be inserted this passage would become unmistakably clear.

By inserting victim this passage would read as follows: “Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the [victim] of the Passover be left unto the morning.” What was the victim of the Passover? The Passover victim was that yearling lamb or goat, which was selecting from the herd of the 10th day of Abib (the first Hebrew month), and then slaughtered for the Passover sacrifice.

Exodus 12:10 reveals that the Passover lamb or goat was not to be left until the morning and if it was it was to be burnt with fire. “And you shall let nothing of it (i.e. the Passover victim) remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.”

Exodus 12 shows plainly that the Passover victim was not to be left until the morning. The word “feast” in Exodus 34 is a poor translation. This translation does not agree with the other passages that concern the Passover, yet through the Strong’s and by example through Exodus 12:10 we would have to resolve that Exodus 34 is speaking of the Passover sacrifice, not a high feast day.

It is true only if Yahshua were a lawbreaker. The law says that nothing leavened is to be eaten with the Passover, Exodus 12:8;23:18; 34:25; Deuteronomy 16:2-3. To say that leavened bread is acceptable for the Passover memorial emblem is tantamount to blasphemy because leavening in relation to the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread represents several kinds of corruption that lead to sin. (Matt. 16:12; Luke 12:1; 1Cor. 5:8). If Yahshua’s body is represented by leavening then His perfect and sinless life is corrupted.

Some look at the word “sop” in the New Testament and think of a soft, leavened slice of bread. “Sop” derives from the Greek psomion, and means “a morsel,” “a bit,” “a fragment.” Thus, it signifies a piece of food. At the “last supper” the text says the sop was dipped, which does not necessarily suggest that the sop was used for soaking up liquid. It could also be used like a potato chip or tortilla chip for dipping in a sauce or for scooping up another food.

Now let’s examine another word. The Greek artos is used in the New Testament for the bread eaten during the last supper. The New Testament Greek Lexicon defines artos as “food composed of flour mixed with water and baked.” It goes on to say, “The Israelites made it in the form of an oblong or round cake, as thick as one’s thumb, and as large as a plate or platter, hence it was not to be cut but broken.”  Obviously, this is a hard, unleavened bread.

The Greek also has a word for “unleavened,” azumos, which means literally “without yeast.” Some have assumed that because azumos does not appear in the Evangel accounts of the last supper that the Passover bread was leavened.

This assumption is invalidated by Kittle’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, which says about azumos: “P. Fiebig [a Greek-language scholar] . . . shows that the term artos does not exclude azumos, but that in certain circumstances, e.g., in description of the Passover, it may mean this. Hence the occurrence of artos at the Last Supper is no proof that this was not really the Passover.”

In addition, both early Jewish writers Josephus and Philo use artos in their description of the matzo of the Passover meal. Further, the showbread in the Tabernacle and Temple is called artos in Hebrews 9:2. This is key because the showbread was unleavened. The showbread is mentioned in Exodus 29:2, 23 and is expressed by challah, which is Hebrew meaning “unleavened.” These were unleavened loaves that are also referred to by the Greek artos in the New Testament.

Manna is also rendered by artos, “bread” (John 6:31). In Exodus 16:31 manna is described as a wafer, which is the Hebrew tsappiychith, a “flat cake.” A wafer is not leavened.

Yahshua described Himself as the artos of life (John 6:48-51). And the bread taken at the Passover by the Messiah is also called artos (Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, John 13:18).

Not only is artos used for bread, but it is also employed metaphorically for food in general. For example, when Yahshua prayed to give us our daily bread or artos (Matthew 6:11), He was referring to food in general, not to raised loaves.

Although azumos means “without leaven,” it is not used to describe bread – it is used for the name of the festival itself. What we call the Feast of Unleavened Bread was originally simply called “the Feast of Unleavened.” The term “bread” was added later in English-language Bibles (e.g. Matthew 26:17).

Only once is the word azumos used to describe the spiritual state of being unleavened (1 Cor. 5:7), and even in that case it is not related to bread but to our spiritual state. In the next verse we are told to celebrate the feast with the azumos of sincerity and truth.

Contending that use of the word artos for the Passover bread means that leavened bread was used assumes more than the word signifies. And as we have shown, parallel references in the Hebrew reveal that artos refers to unleavened bread. Even more significantly, use of leavened bread in the Passover is a violation of Torah law.

Issues commonly brought up about the calendar and Passover can almost always be answered if we go back to the law, to the first time the command or instructions were given. If any such teaching pulled from the New Testament does not harmonize with the law then that teaching is bogus.