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Should Christian Believers Observe Jewish Holidays?

        Originally the New Testament Church Observed the Jewish Feasts being that the New Testament church was founded in the Messianic Jewish movement. Throughout the centuries, fragments of God's church scattered here and there among the nations have continued to observe God's weekly Sabbath. Some of them have been led to remain faithful in keeping His annual Sabbaths; the seven annual festivals of Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day. Jesus did away with sacrificial atonement once and for all, along with abolishing the legalistic practices of the Old Testament (Hebrews 9:11-28; Romans 3:19; Ephesians 2:8-10) however Jesus did not do away with holidays. Biblically Jesus fulfilled the legalistic works of the law and the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly sin offerings, He did not abolish the feasts Jesus, the apostles Peter and Paul observed them, Jesus established them (Acts 2:4; Matt 26:18). The Jewish holidays are not worldly. THEY ARE YAHWEH ORDAINED AND THEY ARE ETERNAL, Lev 23:2,4; Exo 23:13-19. The NT church meet on all the Jewish Holidays here are the scriptures to prove it; Pentecost/50th/Feast of Weeks Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor 16:8; Passover 1 Cor 11/Rom 11:16-17. They are a holy convocation to Yahweh. Jesus did not come to do away with the Old Covenant but to fulfill it, Matt 5:17-20; Rom 3:19-28,31. We are to establish the law by obedience to God through faith knowing we are not justified by the works of the law but by the precious blood of Jesus. Jesus did away with the adverse effects of the law, legalism and sin which was death no one can keep the law with out Gods help and free gift of salvation, 1 John 3:6-9; Eph 2:8-10; James 1:21-27; 2:14-26; Rom 3:10,23; 5:8; 6:23; 10:9-10; Acts 2:38-39; 3:19; 4:12. Nisan 14, the Jewish celebration of the Passover Sidur, according to the OT is the day that the Jewish people escaped from Egypt. Jesus is the messianic Passover lamb, who died once for all sins that we might pass over from death to life. Jesus died on the Jewish Passover and rose on the day that Moses crossed through the red sea making a way for use to get from sinful Egypt to Gods promised land. Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant. Colossians 2:16 tells us that we are not to judge celebration of holidays if it does not cause our brother to stumble and it exalts God. It is okay to have fun to celebrate certain holy-days however most holy-days we celebrate today are not holy and have pagan origins and most people still openly unknowingly practice pagan rituals openly i.e. the east bunny and the Easter egg represents the goddess of fertility Aphrodite, so does the Christmas tree with silver on it, the 4 leaf clover is a Celtic symbol for the god of luck and chance, Halloween is the worship of the ancient druid god Sam Hain, etc... I would rather celebrate the Jewish feasts being that Daniels prophecy leads to the feast of Trumpets as Messiahs birth but we are not to judge what day we celebrate however we are to avoid worldly practices that would cause a weak Christian or worldly person to go to hell, 1 Corinthians 8,10. I know that allot of the Christmas and Easter practices are rooted in paganism the Easter bun having an egg comes from the Easter bunny. The day we now celebrate Jesus birthday is on the day the pagans worshiped the sun god molek and sacrificed babies. The tree has symbolic meaning in some pagan practices also. The gift giving and Santa Claus came from an actual saint, saint Nicholas who gave gifts at night and would not tell them who. Died on December 6 and the Catholic Church started to worship him until the reformation and then they blended it with the December 26 celebration and added the rising of the Son of God calling it Christmas. Don't you think that if Jesus is intermingled with the world that allows for pantheism? A Wicca once wrote in my guest-book that there was no need for her to go to church (which she had been raised in) because the celebration we practice started with paganism before Jesus was ever born. Do you see my point? Judge not the day anyone celebrates, judge nothing, let God be the judge and just share the truth as it is known. May the Lord Bless you and give you direction. Jesus loves you and so do I. Your brother in Yeshua, Jeramiah A. Giehl, and fellow seed of Abraham, Jews by faith and by the grafting in of Gods spirit. The Hebrew luna-solar calendar is the calendar God Himself established it, and gave it to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt (Exodus 12:1). However, its principles go back to creation, when the sun and moon were appointed by God "for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" (Gen. 1:14). The word for seasons here is moadim and literally means "an appointment, a fixed time or season; a FESTIVAL, by implication, an assembly" (see Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, #4150). Thus God appointed the heavenly bodies to determine the "appointed times" of His annual Holy Days and Festivals from the moment of Creation! They were intended for all mankind, even as the weekly Sabbath was ordained for all mankind! (Compare Gen. 2:1-3; Mark 2:27-28). Note that the "Sabbath" -- which includes the annual Sabbaths (Lev. 23:32, 38-39) -- was "made for MAN" (Mark 2:27) -- not just for the Jews! In the coming Kingdom of God, ALL NATIONS will observe God's annual and weekly Sabbaths (Isaiah 66:23), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16-19). The Hebrew calendar was entrusted by God to the Jewish people for preservation (Rom. 3:1-3; Matt. 23:1-3). They have preserved it faithfully throughout all generations, despite persecution, captivity, and being scattered among the nations! "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, THAT OBSERVE AND DO, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do." -- Matt. 23:2-3. Jesus fulfilled the Passover celebration to the T, so should we. Sunday the New Testament Christian Sabbath the celebration of Jesus resurrection from the dead on the eight day or the first day of the week the day of new beginnings. We live under grace and do not have to observe days however if you want to have celebration and holidays I highly recommend to bring honor upon the name of Christ that we observe the Holidays that are God ordained and eternal. 

Mark 16:2: "And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came to the tomb at the rising of the sun."

Mark 16:9: "Now when Jesus was risen, early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons."

John 20:19: "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you."

Acts 20:7, "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered."

I Corinthians 16:2: "Upon the first day of the week."

The annual Jewish Festivals
The Spring Festivals
Roman Year Passover * Feast of Unleavend Bread 1st Holy Day 2nd Holy Day Shavuot, Pentecost
2000 April 19 April 20-26     June 11
2001 April 7 April 8-11     May 27
*Observed the Evening Before

The Fall Festivals
Roman Year Rosh Hashanah, Feast of Trumpets Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement Succoth, The Feast of Tabernacles 1st Holy Day Shemini Atzeret, The LastGreat Day
2000 Sept 30 Oct 9 Oct 14-20   Oct 21
2001 Sept 18 Sept 27 Oct 2-8   Oct 9

Matthew 3:9, "and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." 

Jeremiah 31:33, "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." 

Romans 4:16, "Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations,' in the presence of Him whom he believed-God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did." 

Hebrews 11:12, "So many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable." 

Galatians 3:14,29, "That the blessings of Abraham might come through Jesus Christ: that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And if you are Christ's then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." 

Romans 11:12-27, "Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, 'Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.' Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.'" 

Ephesians 2:13-22, "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being bui lt together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." 

Galatians 5:16-23, "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." 

Romans 3:19-20, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." 

Galatians 2:16-18, "knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor." 

Galatians 3:24, "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." 

Romans 3:31, "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law." 

Galatians 5:14,18; 6:2, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'... But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law... Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." 

Ephesians 2:15, "having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace." 

James 1:25; 2:8-12, " But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does... If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty." 

Matthew 5;17-19, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." 

Colossians 2:11, "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ." 

Philippians 3:3, "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." 

Ephesians 2:8-12, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh-who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands- that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." 

Romans 2:26-27, "Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?" 

Romans 1:20,32 "Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all!... They know that God's law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them." 

Romans 2:11-29, "For God judges everyone by the same standard. The Gentiles do not have the Law of Moses; they sin and are lost apart from the Law. The Jews have the Law; they sin and are judged by the Law. For it is not by hearing the Law that people are put right with God, but by doing what the Law commands. The Gentiles do not have the Law; but whenever they do by instinct what the Law commands, they are their own law, even though they do not have the Law. Their conduct shows that what the Law commands is written in their hearts. Their consciences also show that this is true, since their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them. And so, according to the Good News I preach, this is how it will be on that Day when God through Jesus Christ will judge the secret thoughts of all. What about you? You call yourself a Jew; you depend on the Law and boast about God; you know what God wants you to do, and you have learned from the Law to choose what is right; you are sure that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in darkness, an instructor for the foolish, and a teacher for the ignorant. You are certain that in the Law you have the full content of knowledge and of truth. You teach others—why don't you teach yourself? You preach, 'Do not steal'—but do you yourself steal? You say, "Do not commit adultery"—but do you commit adultery? You detest idols—but do you rob temples? You boast about having God's law—but do you bring shame on God by breaking his law? The scripture says, Because of you Jews, the Gentiles speak evil of God. If you obey the Law, your circumcision is of value; but if you disobey the Law, you might as well never have been circumcised. If the Gentile, who is not circumcised, obeys the commands of the Law, will not God regard him as though he were circumcised? And so you Jews will be condemned by the Gentiles because you break the Law, even though you have it written down and are circumcised; but they obey the Law, even though they are not physically circumcised. After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing. Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings."

 

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