THE HOLY DAYS DESCRIBED IN THE OT AND REFERENCED IN NT ARE CHRIST CENTERED
Who is the Passover Lamb of the Bible? It is Jesus Christ without doubt.
Who is the wave sheaf offering and first of the first-fruits to God during the Days of Unleavened Bread? It is Jesus.
Whose trainees were given enormous power on Pentecost the feast of first fruits? It was clearly Jesus's disciples to proclaim Him .
Who will return in great power at the last Trumpet to install the wonderful Kingdom of God ? Clearly, it is Jesus Christ.
Whose sacrifice will atone for the the sins of the world and is represented by the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement? It is Christ's.
Who will rule during the wonderful reign of the Messiah (Christ) pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day? Clearly Jesus will judge the world then. The Holy Days undoubtedly picture God plan of salvation for all mankind.
The pros of the Biblical Holy Days are so obvious but, what are the some of the arguments against New Covenant believers celebrating these days in our worship of Christ today?
ARGUEMENTS AGAINST USING THE BIBLICAL HOLY DAYS
Remember the Apostle Paul who wrote most of the NT is a deep thinker and therefore can BE EASILY MISUNDERSTOOD. These words are in the Bible itself. If one does not carefully weigh all evidence his words can easily be misunderstood. See article titled “ Christ-Centered Holy Days “ in the Twenty First Century Watch, volume 26 number 1 currently available for more details.
2 Timothy 3:15-16 NKJV 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
2 Peter 3:15-16 NKJV 15 ….also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
What is the Apostle Peter saying? If one does not understand the Bible which includes the OT that ignorance can lead one to misapply some of Paul's inspired writings. With that warning in mind we will review some of the crucial verses.
Galatians 4:9-11 NKJV 9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
First there is no way that someone who believed in all the Bible like Paul, would refer to the Holy Days as weak and beggarly. Paul said he also believed in all the Bible including the OT.
Acts 24:14 NKJV 14 "But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.
What was Paul referring to in his warning letter? He was warning of loss of freedom found in the superstitious pagan fear religions. Pagans were so terrified of dangerous gods that they even sacrificed their own children. These gentiles in the past were never into or even familiar with the OT. Paul in context is saying the kind of worldly pagan influences and the Judaizers extremely over regulated rules will put people back into bondage.
Galatians 2:3-4 NKJV 3 Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage),
Did the OT have sacred times and months and years, no! The Bible condemns times because they are pagan.
Deuteronomy 18:10-14 KJV 10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD:....14 For these nations... observers of times, and unto diviners:
Cycles of the sun and moon established a sense of sacred times for pagans. Pagans observed sun and moon worship based on sacred months and full moon ceremonies. This is the kind of bondage these gentiles knew in their past. Paul is saying do not get trapped into any kind of bondage whether pagan or Judaizers over regulations version of bondage. Paul goes on in this letter to explain that believers should be free and that much of Judaism in Jerusalem was in bondage.
Paul in this letter is not teaching against God's Laws but their misuse and the extra oral rules added by Rabbinical councils.
Galatians 3:21 NKJV 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.
Galatians 5:1 NKJV 1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
One more thought; if Paul is teaching against the Holy Days why is it that he teaches gentiles to keep Biblical Holy days.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 KJV 6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 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 8 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.
Note not only were the gentiles in Corinth taught to keep the feast but to actually remove leavening and be truly unleavened. Otherwise this sentence does not make any sense. If he is saying be spiritually unleavened, though you actually are still leavened it makes no sense. It is like one saying be as fast as a rabbit metaphorically because rabbit are fast actually. That would make sense. They were actually unleavened.
DOES THE APOSTLE PAUL CONTRADICT HIMSELF
Those who inherited worldly worship days found, once the Bible was put into common language and distributed, thought they had found such a verse. It is one that can also be misunderstood if you do not take into account the context and totality of biblical teachings.
Colossians 2:16-17 KJV 16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: in meat...: or, for eating and drinking 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the bodyis of Christ.
They assume this verse is saying that the Judaizers are judging you for not keeping these OT laws and you should reject them. But who actually is judging them regarding what they eat and the days they keep and the calendar they use? Is it the extreme Jews or their pagan neighbors? The context will show us the real truth about what Paul is saying about who is judging them.
Colossians 2:8 KJV 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
CJB 23 They do indeed have the outward appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed religious observances, false humility and asceticism; but they have no value at all in restraining people from indulging their old nature.
Pagan ascetic neighbors are judging them and Paul is saying to them only listen to God's church which is the body of Christ. The word 'is' in verse 16 was added by translators who were deceived. Paul is not telling one gentile church to do keep them and another gentile church to reject them. Our world just is misguided and therefor can easily misunderstand.
