The fifth of Yahweh's (Jesus') annual holy days, the Day of Atonement is almost upon us. Read the brief amount written about it in Lev. 23. It's to be observed at the beginning of the 10th day of the seventh month, Tishri, from sunset until sunset (on the following evening). It is a day of fasting from all food and liquids for most who observe this day. This day, like the other annual holy days God gave to His people, Israel, many centuries ago is for His people today also! It's mentioned in Acts 27:9 where it's referred to as 'the fast'. It would not have been mentioned so casually by Luke if Christians were no longer observing it. I believe all true 1st century followers of Jesus' were observing this important annual Sabbath and so should His disciples in 2018! This day is packed with important meaning and symbolism that the vast majority of professing Christians are ignorant of.
You can read about the meaning of this day
here (1),
here (2),
here (3),
here (4)
and here (5).
Monday, September 17, 2018
Monday, September 10, 2018
The Feast of Trumpets
Today, Monday, September 10, is the Feast of Trumpets. In the Hebrew calendar, it is the 1st day of the 7th month of Tishri. So, Tishri 1 = Sept 10 2018.
This is one of the seven annual holy days God gave to His people, the children of Israel* in the wilderness, following their miraculous escape from Egypt.
[* The nation of Israel was the only people group God was working through and dealing with at that time in history. In Lev. 23, we read The Feast of Trumpets and the other annual Sabbaths were given to the Israelites to be observed throughout their generations. Since Israelites still exist today, they are still required to observe the annual holy days of: (Passover), Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day. The meaning of these days can be found throughout the entire Bible! Very few understand what these days picture in full. One reason is God is not allowing most people to understand His Word and His wonderful plan of salvation at this time in human history! It can and should be an exciting life-long study for those who are being called by God now!
So, the skeptic says, "Aha. So God gave these days to the Israelites! Christians do not have to keep them - not now, not ever, since God gave them to Israelites only and no other people group."
Not so fast! In Galatians 3:26-28, Paul wrote: 'for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27. For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek [gentile]....for you are all one in Christ Jesus.' Note well, spiritually speaking, there is no distinction between Jew and non-Jew when it comes to how we live and obedience to God.
It's a myth to believe gentile Christians are under no obligation to observe the holy days God gave to the Israelites in the wilderness under Moses' leadership. To prove this, note what Paul the apostle to the gentiles wrote in 1 Cor 5:7, 'For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. 8. Let us therefore celebrate the festival (Unleavened Bread).....' Corinth was a city in modern Turkey. Almost certainly, most of the church would have been gentile believers. Paul was commanding them to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread right after the Passover, as we read in Lev. 23:4-8.
Many have tried to find excuses for not observing God's holy days. A popular one is: Jesus fulfilled the holy days in His life, death and resurrection. They part-wrongly believe: When Jesus died and rose up to Heaven, all the Old Covenant was fulfilled and therefore everything the Jews were commanded to do was 'nailed to the cross'. That is only partly right!
True, we no longer have to offer animal sacrifices to God in payment for our sins. Jesus did indeed fulfill that requirement through His death on Calvary.
Also, physical circumcision is no longer necessary as we are required to be spiritually circumcised as Paul made clear in Romans 2:29, 'But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter......' In vs.25-28, Paul explains that the one who is uncircumcised who keeps God's law will condemn the one is circumcised but who does not obey the law. To the circumcised one who breaks the law is counted by God as one who is uncircumcised. In v. 28, Paul states, 'For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. All disciples of Jesus are spiritual Jews who are obliged to keep the law of God.
Late in the first century, John, the apostle 'whom Jesus loved' (see John 13:23; 20:2; 21:7 & 20. John wrote of himself in the 3rd person), wrote, 'Sin is the transgression of the law' (1 Jn 3:4). It's nonsense to argue that Christians are free from obeying the Ten Commandments. Read Jesus' words of warning in Matt. 5:17-20.
People like to read and think of John 3:16 but they would do well to meditate Peter's words of warning in 2 Peter 3:15, 16! It's amazing how many deceivers muddy the waters and misinterpret Paul's teachings about God's law. Many who should know better teach (wrongly) with great certainty that Paul taught that Christians are no longer under the law (eg. Gal. 5:18), meaning they are not required to keep it. They claim incorrectly, that keeping the law is no longer an issue for anyone who is 'led by the Spirit' and who has accepted Jesus in their hearts as their personal Saviour but they are false teachers. They ignore Paul's teaching in Romans 6:23: 'For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord'. A major motive for teaching that God's law is no longer binding on Christians is their desire to reject and ignore the 7th day Sabbath that the 4th commandment teaches us about. Paul showed how all Jesus' disciples should accept and agree that we are spiritual Jews and should be true Sabbath-keepers, as well as people who want to observe the biblical holy days that the pre-incarnate Jesus gave to His people from Mount Sinai. Yes, for those who are unaware, Jesus was the God of the Old Testament, not God the Father. For proof, read here.
That's why Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (John 14:15).
How sad! Untold millions of professing 'Christians' who are not Christians at all according to the Bible are going through life assuming they're right with God but they're not, simply because they have believed lies about God's law 'being nailed to the cross' which is a huge misunderstanding Bible 'experts' have repeated often enough to mislead M-a-n-y biblically uneducated professing Christians. They have been very careless at handling God's Word. They have failed to understand the Bible was not written with 21st century 'Westerners' in mind! To get the correct meaning from the Bible, it is absolutely necessary to read it from the writers point of view! What was the original writer trying to get across? What did he believe? Who was he writing to? You have to get inside the mind of the writer and, if possible, the individual or group he was writing to. The many Bible 'experts' and preachers misunderstand Paul's writings as a result of ignoring this vitally important principle! Re-read 2 Peter 3:15, 16.
Ultimately, the main reason why we are given years to live here on Earth after trusting in the blood of Jesus to save us is to give us time to become very familiar and knowledgeable of God's Word, the Holy Bible. We are wasting our time if we approach the Bible with our own pre-conceived ideas and beliefs in our heads. We should ask God to enable us to abandon our own ideas when proven to be false and honestly embrace what the Bible actually teaches.
We are to read out of the Bible what is in it (exegesis), NOT read into the Bible what we want it to say (eisegesis)! That is a vital principle of Bible study!
So, as we read and study the Bible, may God guide us to understanding more of His priceless Truth, eg. the need to keep His annual Sabbaths such as the Feast of Trumpets which I am observing today, for our spiritual good and the blessing that comes from obeying God.
My prayer is that by next year many more people here in Ireland and around the world will be observing all God's holy days listed in Lev. 23. They are, again: Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day.
We should seek the hidden gems of Truth concerning God's holy days and other precious doctrines that are scattered throughout the Bible, every day of our lives. It's so true, that the more one studies the Bible with a pure heart and motive, the more hidden Truth and understanding one discovers. Nothing else should be more important to us as individual Christians. God bless.
This is one of the seven annual holy days God gave to His people, the children of Israel* in the wilderness, following their miraculous escape from Egypt.
[* The nation of Israel was the only people group God was working through and dealing with at that time in history. In Lev. 23, we read The Feast of Trumpets and the other annual Sabbaths were given to the Israelites to be observed throughout their generations. Since Israelites still exist today, they are still required to observe the annual holy days of: (Passover), Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day. The meaning of these days can be found throughout the entire Bible! Very few understand what these days picture in full. One reason is God is not allowing most people to understand His Word and His wonderful plan of salvation at this time in human history! It can and should be an exciting life-long study for those who are being called by God now!
So, the skeptic says, "Aha. So God gave these days to the Israelites! Christians do not have to keep them - not now, not ever, since God gave them to Israelites only and no other people group."
Not so fast! In Galatians 3:26-28, Paul wrote: 'for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27. For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek [gentile]....for you are all one in Christ Jesus.' Note well, spiritually speaking, there is no distinction between Jew and non-Jew when it comes to how we live and obedience to God.
It's a myth to believe gentile Christians are under no obligation to observe the holy days God gave to the Israelites in the wilderness under Moses' leadership. To prove this, note what Paul the apostle to the gentiles wrote in 1 Cor 5:7, 'For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. 8. Let us therefore celebrate the festival (Unleavened Bread).....' Corinth was a city in modern Turkey. Almost certainly, most of the church would have been gentile believers. Paul was commanding them to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread right after the Passover, as we read in Lev. 23:4-8.
Many have tried to find excuses for not observing God's holy days. A popular one is: Jesus fulfilled the holy days in His life, death and resurrection. They part-wrongly believe: When Jesus died and rose up to Heaven, all the Old Covenant was fulfilled and therefore everything the Jews were commanded to do was 'nailed to the cross'. That is only partly right!
True, we no longer have to offer animal sacrifices to God in payment for our sins. Jesus did indeed fulfill that requirement through His death on Calvary.
Also, physical circumcision is no longer necessary as we are required to be spiritually circumcised as Paul made clear in Romans 2:29, 'But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter......' In vs.25-28, Paul explains that the one who is uncircumcised who keeps God's law will condemn the one is circumcised but who does not obey the law. To the circumcised one who breaks the law is counted by God as one who is uncircumcised. In v. 28, Paul states, 'For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. All disciples of Jesus are spiritual Jews who are obliged to keep the law of God.
Late in the first century, John, the apostle 'whom Jesus loved' (see John 13:23; 20:2; 21:7 & 20. John wrote of himself in the 3rd person), wrote, 'Sin is the transgression of the law' (1 Jn 3:4). It's nonsense to argue that Christians are free from obeying the Ten Commandments. Read Jesus' words of warning in Matt. 5:17-20.
People like to read and think of John 3:16 but they would do well to meditate Peter's words of warning in 2 Peter 3:15, 16! It's amazing how many deceivers muddy the waters and misinterpret Paul's teachings about God's law. Many who should know better teach (wrongly) with great certainty that Paul taught that Christians are no longer under the law (eg. Gal. 5:18), meaning they are not required to keep it. They claim incorrectly, that keeping the law is no longer an issue for anyone who is 'led by the Spirit' and who has accepted Jesus in their hearts as their personal Saviour but they are false teachers. They ignore Paul's teaching in Romans 6:23: 'For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord'. A major motive for teaching that God's law is no longer binding on Christians is their desire to reject and ignore the 7th day Sabbath that the 4th commandment teaches us about. Paul showed how all Jesus' disciples should accept and agree that we are spiritual Jews and should be true Sabbath-keepers, as well as people who want to observe the biblical holy days that the pre-incarnate Jesus gave to His people from Mount Sinai. Yes, for those who are unaware, Jesus was the God of the Old Testament, not God the Father. For proof, read here.
That's why Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (John 14:15).
How sad! Untold millions of professing 'Christians' who are not Christians at all according to the Bible are going through life assuming they're right with God but they're not, simply because they have believed lies about God's law 'being nailed to the cross' which is a huge misunderstanding Bible 'experts' have repeated often enough to mislead M-a-n-y biblically uneducated professing Christians. They have been very careless at handling God's Word. They have failed to understand the Bible was not written with 21st century 'Westerners' in mind! To get the correct meaning from the Bible, it is absolutely necessary to read it from the writers point of view! What was the original writer trying to get across? What did he believe? Who was he writing to? You have to get inside the mind of the writer and, if possible, the individual or group he was writing to. The many Bible 'experts' and preachers misunderstand Paul's writings as a result of ignoring this vitally important principle! Re-read 2 Peter 3:15, 16.
Ultimately, the main reason why we are given years to live here on Earth after trusting in the blood of Jesus to save us is to give us time to become very familiar and knowledgeable of God's Word, the Holy Bible. We are wasting our time if we approach the Bible with our own pre-conceived ideas and beliefs in our heads. We should ask God to enable us to abandon our own ideas when proven to be false and honestly embrace what the Bible actually teaches.
We are to read out of the Bible what is in it (exegesis), NOT read into the Bible what we want it to say (eisegesis)! That is a vital principle of Bible study!
So, as we read and study the Bible, may God guide us to understanding more of His priceless Truth, eg. the need to keep His annual Sabbaths such as the Feast of Trumpets which I am observing today, for our spiritual good and the blessing that comes from obeying God.
My prayer is that by next year many more people here in Ireland and around the world will be observing all God's holy days listed in Lev. 23. They are, again: Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day.
We should seek the hidden gems of Truth concerning God's holy days and other precious doctrines that are scattered throughout the Bible, every day of our lives. It's so true, that the more one studies the Bible with a pure heart and motive, the more hidden Truth and understanding one discovers. Nothing else should be more important to us as individual Christians. God bless.
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