Q. I read your article regarding the SDA accepting the Feasts. As a Seventh Day Adventist (SDA), I believe the ceremonial laws that pointed to the redeemer were done away with at the cross. To keep these days means you are not accepting the Messiah as the one true sacrifice. Why do you continue to observe these days and deny the Lamb of G-d?
A. Besides the fact that the Feasts are prophetic and will be observed in the millennial Kingdom by all nations (Ezekiel 45-46; Zechariah 14:16), the Feasts were also observed in the New Testament by the Messiah and His disciples. Below are several examples:
- Luke 2:41: “Now his [Yahshua’s] parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.”
- Luke 22:11 “…Where is the guestchamber, where I [Yahshua] shall eat the passover with my disciples?”
- 1Corinthians 5:7-8: “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Messiah our passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast….”
- Acts 20:6: “And we [Paul and company] sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread….”
- Acts 2:1: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they [apostles / disciples] were all with one accord in one place.”
- Acts 20:16: “…for he [Paul] hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.”
- 1Corinthians 16:8: “But I [Paul] will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.”
- Acts 27:9: “…because the fast [Day of Atonement] was now already past….”
- John 7:2, 37: “Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand … In the last day, that great day of the feast, Yahshua stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”
Many of these examples occurred years/decades after the Messiah’s death and resurrection. If the Feasts were tied to the sacrificial system and no longer required after Yahshua’s death, why then did the apostles continue to observe these days in the New Testament?
Also, the notion that these days are no longer required because of the sacrificial system would also apply to the Sabbath. As Numbers 28:9-10 verifies, there were also sacrifices on the Sabbath: “And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof: This is the burnt offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering.”
Those who refuse to honor the Feasts due to sacrifices being offered on these days in the Old Testament must also apply this same reasoning to the Sabbath. Clearly, sacrifices were offered on both the weekly Sabbath and annual Feasts.
In addition, Yahweh lists the weekly Sabbath and annual Feasts together in Leviticus 23: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of Yahweh, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of Yahweh in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of Yahweh, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is Yahweh’s Passover,” verses 2-5.
This passage confirms a continuity between the weekly Sabbath and Feasts. Try as a person might, you cannot observe the weekly Sabbath and dismiss the annual Feasts. To do this is contrary to Scripture and nonsensical.
I get so tired of people saying the feasts were part of the law and have been done awsy with.
They never were part of the law and they were feasts that God called his own.
The very same people love the pagan trash known as xmas and easter.
That’s funny because there is group of SDA that keep the feasts in Northern California and and don’t but into Trinity doctrine, they even invite brad scot to preach. Bible Explorations TV. SDA are programmed by church and eg white!
Isn’t the term ‘ceremonial law’ a human division? I don’t recall it being recorded in the Bible, which only speak of ‘the law’ (of this and that). Moreover, why would something that is perfect have to be tossed? Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. We cannot start dividing God’s Word as we see fit, God is One and so is His Word. The thousands of denominations that have been splitting the Word in what they do and don’t believe (or possibly ‘like’) are… Read more »
I have been a Seventh-day Adventist since five-1955. I learned about the Holy Convocation days through a former SDA. However, on my own before meeting him, I was struggling with Cols 2:15-17 and Lev Chapter 23 for years. I am a Biblical historian and still an SDA. I keep the Commandments, the Statutes and the Judgments. I do not believe in the word feast because it is pagan and there is only one supper at a time which was the passover supper and it ended. A New Covenant was made after the passover meal to YAHSHUA’S Supper. Feast means to… Read more »
A few points. Feast is not from pagan roots it is from the Hebrew word Chag. It is Strongs H2282. chag: Original Word: חַג
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: chag
Phonetic Spelling: (khag)
Definition: a festival gathering, feast, pilgrim feast
And the word Ruach does not mean life.
Original Word: רוּחַ
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine
Transliteration: ruach
Phonetic Spelling: (roo’-akh)
Definition: breath, wind, spirit
The holy spirit is not a person male female or otherwise. https://yrm.org/identifying-father-son-holy-spirit/
Much like the words you defined, your other statements are not in line with scripture either.
Marrian, I have been a Seventh-Day Adventist too, for my whole life. I am glad there is an other adventist believer like me who share the same conviction. We must tell other Adventists though. On the other hand, this platform and the Adventist church alike, still have some homework to do, as in regards to which calendar the seveneth day sabbath is. My conviction tells me, Pope Gregory had no intention to synchronize his weeks on pagan calendar, with the weeks of Yhweh’s calendar, unless he might have done so by mistake. And I don’t think he was that much… Read more »
it is amazing how such people want to have it according to the ways of this world. It is written, the Sabbaths are a perpetual sign between the Creator, our Father Yahweh, and His people. The Tanak as well as Isaiah have made this clear!
Do you keep Yaweh’s calendar using the sun (years) and the moon (months) or do you keep gregory’s calendar?
We do not use the sun or the gregorian calendar. We use the Biblical calendar.