Godsloveandlaw's Blog

As many Bible students know, the Old Testament feast days were a very important part of the righteous walk with our Lord prior to our Lord’s sacrifice. The special days all pointed to Christ and His redemption plan. But today, we must not, as a requirement, keep the feast days as will be more  clearly  shown.

Within  the feast days and ceremonial observances, the animal sacrifices were an integral part of the services. These sacrifices, as we all know, signified our Lord’s sacrifice. As He died on the cross,  the vail in the temple, was ripped in two. This was to give a clear sign that the sacrifices, along with the ceremonial feast days were to end. The Anti-Type had met type.

A while back we did a post called “Original Davidians are not Branch Davidians”. The Branch DSDA are a break away group that was founded after the death of brother Houteff. One of the points we addressed is that, unlike Original Davidians, the Branch Davidians believe that the Lord’s followers still have to keep the feast days. This is one of the most striking differences between the two groups. Unfortunately, they are often both lumped together, with people assuming that ALL Davidians believe this way. Ignorance is indeed a mis-adventure for many.

Let’s look at some clear Ellen White quotes concerning our issue . In our first quote she says, ” There are many who try to blend these two systems (the ceremonial law and the Moral Law), using the texts that speak of the ceremonial law to prove that the Moral Law has been abolished; but this is a perversion of the Scriptures. The distinction between the two systems is broad and clear. The ceremonial system was made up of symbols pointing to Christ, to His sacrifice and His priesthood. This ritual law, with it’s sacrifices and ordinances, was to be performed by the Hebrews until type met anti-type in the death of Christ, the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.Then all the sacrificial offerings were to cease.”(Patriarchs and Prophets, p.365)

“The rending of the vail of the temple showed that the Jewish sacrifices and ordinances would no longer be received.” (Spiritual Gifts, vol.1, p.170)

Lastly she says, “Since the whole ritual economy was symbolical of Christ, it had not value apart from Him. When the Jews sealed their rejection of Christ by delivering Him to death, they rejected all that gave significance to the temple and it’s services. it’s sacredness had departed. it was doomed to destruction. From that day sacrificial offerings and the service connected with them were meaningless (Desire of Ages, p.165).

Remember last week in our post how we pointed out that the clear plain words of Scripture and Inspiration cannot be added to or subtracted from, lest we wrestle away our Lord’s clear intended will for us. Can it get any more plain than the above?Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems in Christendom is the ignoring of the straight words and meanings. It’s the old human nature to use our imagination and agenda reasoning to take the straight words and turn them into crooked words!

Ok we’ll add one more EGW quote to quash the issue. “He has swept away every ceremony of the ancient type. He has given no liberty to restore these rites, or to substitute anything that will recall the old literal sacrifices.” (Review and Herald, feb. 25, 1896).

One of my good friends has recently told me that she has been shown by a friend that the feast days are still a part of our walk.Surprisingly this belief is more prevalent than we think. Not only Branch Davidians teach it, but some other divergent groups within the SDA as well. So our purpose in this post is to help clear up this issue. Feel free as always to copy this report and use it as a study to counteract their false beliefs.

 The basic main feast days are a list of  seven.(perfect harmony with God’s completeness number-7)

1) Passover feast

2) Feast of the unleavened bread

3) Wave sheaf ceremony

4) Pentecost ceremony

5) Feast of trumpets

6) Day of Atonement

7) Feast of tabernacles

Something is very interesting about one of  the above feasts. We read in (Zech. 14:16) the following, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles”.

Apparently it appears that once the future premillennial kingdom is established in the holy land, the Feast of Tabernacles will be performed and kept. I am searching the last prophet’s writings concerning this, and will add them as soon as I locate them.

So with the above clear words of Inspiration, how can some still get into the trap of thinking we need to keep the feast days? Here’s a quote that is often used to support their ideas, “If the children of Israel needed the benefit of these holy convocations(feast days) in their time, how much more do we need them in these last days of peril and conflict! And if the people of the world needed the light which God had committed to His church, how much more do they need it now!” (Ellen White, Testimonies, vol. 6, pages 39, 40, chapter title,“The Camp Meeting.”)

But if you read that real closely, she is talking about a “camp meeting” experience and as such, it would be a great LEARNING experience to observe them. In fact, the holy convocations really are a great experience and I personally would see the occasional observance as one of great enlightenment. I think in this light she was explaining them. If she was indicating that we must keep them, then God forbid, she would have said clear error and contradictions with her writings above.

Lastly, in finishing our study, we would be remiss to not post what the “restorer of all things” said about this issue. Remember that the Elijah prophet MUST be our go to source in these last days, right before the great and dreadful day. He is the last prophet from the Lord, consequently the most current “present truth” we can and must know. I can tell you one thing, my heart and soul soars knowing that I have all the writings of our Lord’s final message to refer to. It can give you great joy as well. The Lord knows what we need and He delivers it through His prophets!

“Broadly speaking, the law of Moses consists of three parts.  The first is the Ceremonial law, the law of the temple — the sacrificial law.  This law, of course, we today must not observe, except in antitype, for it foreshadowed things to come, particularly Christ’s first advent.  Thus it is that if we had lived in Old Testament times and had failed to comply with the sacrificial law and system of that day, we would thereby have demonstrated unbelief in Christ, Who was to come.  But since we are living in the Christian era, if we should now observe the typical sacrificial law and system, we should thereby demonstrate unbelief in Christ, Who has come.

   And so, as this law was nailed to the cross (Col. 2:14), we need not, and must not, observe it now. ( Brother Houteff, Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No.37, para.14)

We see that brother Houteff minces no words on this issue “we need not, and must not, observe it now”. And as he clearly says, we demonstrate “unbelief in Christ” if we take the stance that we are required to keep them.

Hopefully this has cleared up the issue a little more. So next time someone who’s trying to “work” their way into heaven comes up and says, “What about the feast days?”  We can say we’ve looked into the plain straight forward words of the prophets and the answer is–NO, we don’t have to keep them today. May the Lord guide you into all truth (John 16:13)

This entry was posted on February 16, 2013 at 5:48 am and is filed under Proper teachings, The Feast Days. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.