Curiosity is growing among believers in Jesus about the festivals of the Bible. Will more come to accept them as part of Christian faith and practice? Will you?
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ixty years ago, I began observing the biblical festivals of God as a young boy. It started with my mother. After several years of study and seeking, she found that the Bible set forth the observance of the weekly seventh-day Sabbath and annual feasts of the Lord, leading her into deeper understanding of God than what she had as part of a major Protestant denomination.
As my mother learned about the feasts and started to keep them, she taught them to me. No other family members observed these festivals. No one else in our small Midwest community kept them either. We were alone in what we did.
Today we are not alone. Today there is a growing interest in the feast days of the Bible. This is not the first time for such growing interest. Religious history tells us that when people through the ages began to read the Bible in their own languages, they began to read about the biblical Sabbath and God’s other feasts. This led to more people keeping these festivals.
A lot of people are now taking a closer look at what these days are about. Perhaps many of these people will take the step of actually observing them. They certainly should. These are God’s own festivals. And one day the whole world will celebrate them!
Foundational yet often forsaken
As a pastor and teacher for nearly 50 years, I have taught the observance and meaning of these days all over the world. They reveal deep insight into the mind of God and His plan for humanity.
The words of Leviticus 23:1-2 set the foundation: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts”’” (emphasis added). Accepting the feast days as belonging to God gives not only the right foundation but the basis for understanding every other reference to these festivals throughout the Bible.
God wanted the ancient Israelites to be swept clean of all the pagan teaching they might have absorbed in Egypt and for them to worship in ways acceptable to Him. He defined the holy times in which they were to come and worship Him as part of His revealed truth. Observing these days as instructed would have set and kept the nation on the right course. Sadly, the Israelites often strayed.
Observing God’s festivals is part of His requirement to worship Him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). These days were taught and observed by the early apostles and Church. When they are observed with God’s work through Christ at the center, they give enlarged meaning and understanding.
The feasts of the Lord fell out of favor with growing numbers among the early Church as pagan influences introduced other festivals and ideas about worship. Over time, the birthday of the sun god, Sol Invictus, on Dec. 25 was adopted as the birthday of Jesus, and Easter took the place of the biblical feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread. The biblical festivals came to be viewed as unnecessary and were scorned as “Jewish” practices unbefitting Christians.
The familiar pattern in the tragic story of ancient Israel repeated itself. Idolatry crept into worship, and the feast days were forgotten until a righteous leader would rediscover and proclaim the truths from the law. Josiah’s reforms in the seventh century B.C. are a classic example.
Renewed interest today
Which brings us back to the present. Observers of the religious landscape clearly see the decline in traditional religion, the return of pagan ideas and a restlessness for authentic religion.
As noted earlier, there is a growing interest in these biblical feasts. Last year saw the publication of a book with an intriguing title—The Rose Guide to the Feasts, Festivals and Fasts of the Bible. This book surveys the festivals of God in their biblical and cultural setting and what they meant in biblical times. It shows how groups today, such as the Messianic movement, observe the days with a focus on the work of Christ being portrayed through them.
This is not the only book by authors who see great value in the feasts of God. In recent years many Bible scholars and teachers have studied the feasts to find additional meaning. This has led others to dig deeper into what these days mean.