FESTIVALS

Christmas, the granddaddy of all worldly celebrations, was never kept with such intensity in the past. The observance was even outlawed by American puritan colonists. But now that it is deeply ingrained in the mass conscience by annual mass practice –and relentlessly driven by merchants with massive greed - it will not be dislodged until Yahushua returns and reinstates His righteous and true set-apart days.

The Yuletide extravaganza is nowhere commanded or even found in the Scriptures. Yet, we see the familiar signs admonishing, “Put Christ back into Christmas” when He was never there in the first place!

In stark contrast to Christmas, just recently honored again by Yahweh’s true believers is the Feast of Tabernacles. This joyous, eight-day Scriptural blessing has been a standing command in the Scriptures for more than 3,000 years. It is taught and observed in both covenants. Along with other set-apart days, it was kept by the ancient patriarchs as well as by the apostles and Yahushua the Messiah Himself. Still, it remains a near total mystery to the world.

Why do you think that is?

One answer is that man has always had difficulty doing what his Creator asks of him. There is a natural, human resistance against anything Yahweh tells us to do. We would rather make our own rules for life and worship, unfettered by Scriptural do’s and don’ts. Added to this clash of the carnal are multiple layers of family ritual and cultural tradition, and a society with preconceived notions about what everyone will automatically be observing. No one ever asks, “Do you keep Christmas?” They just assume you do as most everyone else, and so overcoming that common presumption presents an automatic obstacle.

All of this adds up to a formula for forgetting the Father and just going with the traditional flow.

It’s nothing new. A stubborn Israel was constantly being admonished by Yahweh to follow Him and eschew the ways of the world. They mostly failed. Yet, when Yeroboam created his own false observance a month after the Feast of Tabernacles, ordaining his own priesthood as well, the people flocked to it! (1 Kings 12:32). That’s the nature of recalcitrant man.

The key to True Worship is that honoring the Father must be done on Yahweh’s terms and His alone. If that means keeping His set-apart days and giving up the world’s “holidays”, then that is what it must be.

Nowhere in the list of “Days to Keep” found in Leviticus 23, Exodus 12, Deuteronomy 16 and elsewhere do we see any of today’s popular “holidays”. We are presented the same option as ancient Yisra'ĕl - keep Yahweh’s days as commanded or ignore them and follow the inventions and conventions of man.

Some will take this issue up with their minister, expecting fair and honest consideration of the issue. Instead they will immediately hear the tired old bromide, “Those Old Testament days are unnecessary today. We are in a New Testament dispensation.” (Which leads one to ask, since when did the New Covenant teach us to keep heathen “holy”-days?)

Today’s clerics completely disregard the fact that Yahushua the Messiah and His apostles in the New Covenant observed the very days found in Leviticus 23, and they will keep them again in the Reign along with the resurrected saints - Ezekiel 45:17-25, Zechariah 14:16-19. This fact begs another question: If the Scriptural days were kept by the early Assembly and will be kept in the new heavens and earth, why shouldn’t they be observed now? We are told in 1 Peter 2:21 that Yahushua left us an example to follow. Shouldn’t we be following it?

It is appalling that sincere inquirers cannot get the Truth from most ministers who are supposed to be guiding them into it. Instead, they are sent spinning off in an oblique direction whenever they inquire about why the church ignores the Bible’s commanded holy days. Ezekiel prophesied of this very thing:
Ezekiel 22:26 “Her priests have done violence to My teaching and they profane My set-apart matters. They have not distinguished between the set-apart and profane, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean. And they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned in their midst.”

If one seriously studies the Scriptures with an open mind, it will soon be obvious that churchianity is ignoring some of the most important and elemental truths of Scripture - Yahweh’s laws. At the same time telling you how unnecessary Yahweh’s Scriptural set-apart days are, churchianity observes with dedicated veneration the popular holidays that are completely missing from the Scriptures.

So what will it be, hollydays or set-apart days? Is your desire to please people or to please Yahweh? It is your choice. And so are the consequences of what you choose.

QODESH DAYS (MOEDIM) 2011

NEW YEAR (Abib) 4^th APR (M)
PESACH (Passover) 17^th APR (Su Evening)
MATSAH (Unleavened Bread) 18^thAPR -24^th MAY (M)
SHAVUOT (Weeks or Pentecost) 12^th JUN (Su)
YOM TERUA (Trumpets) 27^th SEPT (Th)
YOM KIPPUR (Atonement) 4^th-5^th OCT (F Evening)
SUKKOTH (Booths) 10^th-16^th OCT (Th)
SHIMENI ATZERETH (Great 8^th Day) 17^th OCT (Th)

Leviticus 23
And YHWH spoke to Mosheh, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say to them, ‘The appointed times of YHWH, which you are to proclaim as set-apart gatherings, My appointed times, are these:
(SABBATH)
3 ‘Six days work is done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a set-apart gathering. You do no work, it is a Sabbath to YHWH in all your dwellings. 4 ‘These are the appointed times of YHWH, set-apart gatherings which you are to proclaim at their appointed times.
(PASSOVER)
5 ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evenings, is the Passover to YHWH.
(UNLEAVENED BREAD)
6 ‘And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Unleavened Bread to YHWH – seven days you eat unleavened bread. 7 ‘On the first day you have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work. 8 ‘And you shall bring an offering made by fire to YHWH for seven days. On the seventh day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.’ ” 9 And YHWH spoke to Mosheh, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and you shall say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 ‘And he shall wave the sheaf before YHWH, for your acceptance. On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest waves it. 12 ‘And on that day when you wave the sheaf, you shall prepare a male lamb a year old, a perfect one, as a burnt offering to YHWH, 13 and its grain offering: two-tenths of an ĕphah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to YHWH, a sweet fragrance, and its drink offering: one-fourth of a hin of wine. 14 ‘And you do not eat bread or roasted grain or fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your Elohim – a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
(WEEKS)