Volume 13, Number 2, July-August 2009 What Are the Holydays FOR?
Of All Biblical Subjects, God’s Annual Holydays enjoy the Least Regard in most of the Professing Christian Community. The Disdain for them is due Largely to a Mis-Representation of their Ultimate Purpose© Rich Traver, 81520-1411,
In
the greater Christian Community, there are few subjects which are met with greater
disinterest than the seven annual Holydays found in the pages of Scripture.
Despite the Early Church being seen as having observed them, and despite the
Apostle Paul’s direct instruction to a Greek (Gentile) congregation to keep
one set in particular, (1st Cor. 5:7-8) yet the attraction to non-biblical
religious holidays seem the more compelling, to our secular society and even
among the religiously inclined. It’s All About Grace Factoring
into people’s sentiments in this matter is the issue of Grace. It is
counter-posed that we are not in any way obligated to keep Biblical Holydays
as means of attaining salvation. Despite this being technically correct, a
greater matter is overlooked. These days are not our means of
attainment, rather they are educational tools created by God to permit us to
better understand the process of salvation, both personal salvation and
ultimate world salvation, and to provide a framework upon which to be able to
better understand Bible Prophecy. Observing
these before-ordained Holydays and focusing on their illustrative meaning
gives each disciple a more in-depth comprehension of how personal salvation
is attained and how that opportunity will be extended ultimately to all who
have ever lived! It
is ironic that the one place in the New Testament which most specifically
mentions Holydays is used to discourage interest in them! Colossians 2:16-17
admonishes the Christian: “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: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body…of Christ. What
this verse says is to let no man judge them in how they were observing these
things, but rather to let the Church (the body of Christ) do so. (The word
“is” was added by translators, and it clouds the point.) Notice
please, that Paul wasn’t indicating that ‘men’ were judging them for not
keeping these things, but rather for how they were
keeping them. The Biblical
Holydays offer a framework for a more in-depth understanding of redemption
and prophecy. Most perceive prophecy to be only dark predictions of end-time
events. Anyone with a reasonably correct understanding of prophecy will
immediately see the correlation between prophesied events and God’s Holydays,
particularly the Fall Holydays. Anyone not finding Bible Prophecy to be clear
and understandable can gain much from a familiarity with Biblical Holydays in
knowing how events interrelate and why they happen. Holyday
observance isn’t our means of earning salvation, nor was it ever intended to
be, but of enhancing understanding, (growing further in grace and knowledge).
Greater Salvation The
Spring Holydays illustrate the process of personal salvation.
(Passover, the seven Days of Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost (also known as
the Feast of Firstfruits.) God’s
Annual Holydays powerfully incorporate the fundamental Biblical Doctrine of
the Resurrections from the dead. Spring Holydays end with the First
Resurrection, the Fall Holydays sequence begins with it. The
Fall Holydays illustrate how the process of salvation will be afforded to all
who have ever lived (or will live beyond the Great Tribulation in the
Millennial Age): world salvation (pictured by: The Day of Trumpets,
Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day). All Nations Will Come
The
world will one day be introduced to them. The set of Holydays into which all
nations will be invited (gently coerced) into observing is that set which
illustrates what is then being offered them! The Feast of Tabernacles!
Zech. “And it shall come to pass, that every
one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even
go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to
keep the feast of tabernacles. 17And it shall be,
that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Clearly
here, Gentile nations, bar none, will be called upon to be adequately
represented in Test Yourself Consider
a brief test as to whether or not you could benefit from a familiarity
with biblical Holydays: 1. Do you understand about the Millennial
Rule of Christ and His Glorified Immortal Saints on Earth? (Rev. 2:26, 2. Do you understand the need for the
resurrections from the dead? (1Cor. 3. Can you explain how many resurrections there
are and generally when they occur? (Rev. 20:5) 4. Do you know that Pentecost originally was
an Old Testament observance? (Lev. 23:15-16) 5. Do you understand what will happen in the
post-millennial age and beyond that? 6. Can you explain when it is that all
the uncalled dead will have the opportunity that they never had in
their lifetimes? (Rev. 20:12, John 6:44, & God
has a Plan by which all who have ever lived, who never had opportunity, will
have opportunity for salvation. That Plan is laid out rather specific-ally in
His Holydays. (Man’s holiday inventions present none of this! Man’s theology
doesn’t have answers for this wide-open redemptive situation.) Modern
theology holds to the opinion that this is the only day of
salvation, that ‘whosoever will’ may come today, despite the clear
qualification by Jesus Christ Himself that anyone in this first harvest must
be drawn toward salvation specifically as a result of the Father having
called him.2 There
are two general ‘harvest periods’ in the process, known by the terms: “the
early and the latter rains”. (James 5:7, Zech. 9:9 thru 10:1, Deut. 11:13-17
) My articles addressing the resurrections from the dead further explain
their essential part (www.goldensheaves.org). We place ourselves at a
perceptual disadvantage whenever we consign God’s Holydays to practical
irrelevance. Footnotes: 1 This is that period generally known
as ‘the latter rain’, suggesting that they must respond positively to be
afforded the opportunity then open to all.
It isn’t the rain itself that’s harvested, it’s the fruit of that
outpouring. 2 John Download Full Issue in PDF: July/August 2009 Quick PDF (1.8
MB) July/August 2009 High-Quality PDF to Print (3.7 MB)
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