Posted on 09/20/2006 10:14:32 AM PDT by Buggman
As many of you already know, we are entering into the fall High Holy Days, comprised of the Feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. Just as the spring Feastdays celebrate the First Coming of Messiah Yeshua, and Shavuot (Pentecost) celebrates the giving of the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) to the Ekklesia in between the visitations of Yeshua, the Fall Feastdays look forward to His Second Coming—and in particular, the Feast of Trumpets looks forward to His Glorious Appearance in the clouds of heaven!
The day which this year falls on September 23 (beginning at sundown the previous night) is known by many names, but is little understood. The most commonly used today is Rosh Hashanah, the Head of the Year or New Year, and is regarded as the start of the Jewish civil calendar. (The religious calendar begins on the first of Nisan, fourteen days before Passover, in accordance with Exo. 12:2.) For this reasons, Jews will greet each other with the phrase, “L’shana tova u-metukah,” “May you have a good and sweet new year” or simply “Shanah tova,” “A good year.” In anticipation of this sweet new year, it is customary to eat a sweet fruit, like an apple or carrot dipped in honey.
The Talmud records the belief that “In the month of Tishri, the world was created” (Rosh Hashanah 10b), and its probably due to this belief that it became known as the Jewish New Year. The belief that the world was created on Rosh Hashanah came out of an anagram: The letters of the first word in the Bible, “In the beginning . . .” (B’resheit) can be rearranged to say, “1 Tishri” (Aleph b’Tishri). Perhaps because so little is directly said in Scripture about this day—unlike all of the other Feastdays, there is no historical precedent given to explain why Rosh Hashanah should be celebrated—the rabbis also speculated that Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Samuel were all born on this day.
However, that’s not it’s Biblical name, which is Yom Teruah, the Day of the [Trumpet] Blast:
And YHVH spake unto Moses, saying, “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing (Heb. zikrown teruah) [of trumpets], an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto YHVH.’” (Lev. 23:23-25)In each of these passages, I’ve placed “trumpets” in brackets because it’s not actually in the Hebrew text; however, teruah can and usually does mean to sound the trumpet (though it can mean to shout with a voice as well) and the use of a trumpet on this day is considered so axiomatic that there is literally no debate in Jewish tradition on the matter. Specifically, the trumpet used is the shofar. The shofar is traditionally always made from the horn of a ram, in honor of the ram that God substituted for Isaac, and never from a bull’s horn, in memory of the sin of the golden calf.And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing (teruah) [the trumpets] unto you. (Num. 29:1)
The shofar first appears in Scripture as heralding the visible appearance of God coming down on Mt. Sinai to meet with His people (Ex. 19:16-19). It is also linked with His Coming in Zec. 9:14 and with Him going up (making aliyah) to Jerusalem in Psa. 47:5. Small wonder then that Yeshua said He would Come again with the sound of a trumpet, a shofar, in Mat. 24:31, which is echoed by Sha’ul (Paul) in 1 Th. 4:16 and 1 Co. 15:52. Indeed, many commentators have recognized that by “the last trump,” Sha’ul was referring to the final shofar blast, called the Tekia HaGadol, of the Feast of Trumpets.
This visitation by YHVH is closely associated with the second of this Feastdays names: Yom Zikkroun, the Day of Remembrance. This is not primarily meant to be a day when the people remember God, but when God remembers His people—not that He has forgotten them, but in which He fulfills His promises to them by Coming to them. In Isa. 27:13, it is the instrument used to call God’s people Israel back to the Land. In Psalm 27, which is traditionally read in the month leading up to Yom Teruah, we see the Psalmist looking forward to God rescuing him from his enemies:
Among the rabbis, the shofar is often associated with the Coming of the Messiah and the Resurrection of the Dead as well. “According to the Alphabet Midrash of Rabbi Akiva, seven shofars announce successive steps of the resurrection process, with Zechariah 9:14 quoted as a proof text: ‘And Adonai the Lord will blow the shofar’” (Stern, David H., Jewish New Testament Commentary, 489f). “And it is the shofar that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to blow when the Son of David, our righteous one, will reveal himself, as it is said, ‘And the Lord GOD will blow the shofar’” (Tanna debe Eliyahu Zutta XXII). It’s interesting that the rabbis, without the benefit of the New Covenant writings, have come to the same conclusions as the Apostles: That YHVH would visit His people in the person of the Messiah and raise the dead on Yom Teruah (also in the Bablyonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 16b). On Yom Teruah, the shofar not only rouses the people from their complacency, but the very dead from their graves. (See Job 19:25-27, Isa. 26:19, and Dan. 12:2 for the Tanakh’s primary passages on the Resurrection.)Though an host should encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear:
Though war should rise against me,
In this will I be confident . . .For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion:
In the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me;
He shall set me up upon a rock. . .
The shofar is an instrument that is very much associated with war (Jdg. 3:27, 2 Sa. 20:1, Neh. 4:18-22, Ezk. 33:3-6). It was used to destroy the walls of Jericho (Jdg. 6:20). In Joel 2:1, it sounds the start of the Day of the Lord, the time in which God will make war on His enemies: “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the Day of YHVH cometh, for it is nigh at hand” (cf. v. 15). This again matches perfectly with the NT, where Sha’ul describes the Lord’s coming with a trumpet immediately preceding the Day of the Lord (1 Th. 4:16, 5:2).
This brings us to the next name for this Feastday, Yom HaDin, Judgment Day. Not only did the shofar sound the call for war, but also the coronation of kings (2 Sa. 15:10; 1 Ki. 1:34, 29; 2 Ki. 9:13, 11:12-14). Therefore, the rabbis have always associated this day with God’s sovereign Kingship over all mankind: “On Rosh Hashanah all human beings pass before Him as troops, as it is said, ‘The LORD looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike; He considereth all their works’” (Rosh Hashanah 6b, quoting Psa. 53:13-15). To remember God’s Kingship, it is traditional to eat round objects to remind us of God’s crown (oriental crowns being shaped as skullcaps instead of circlets). For example, challah is made to be round instead of braided as it normally is.
Because this day is associated with God’s judgment, it is also considered a time of repentance (t’shuva) in preparation for Yom Kippur. The Casting (Tashlikh) Ceremony, in which observant Jews gather together at the shores of oceans, lakes, and rivers and cast in stones and/or crumbs of bread to symbolize “casting off” their sins, is performed on this day to a prayer comprised of Mic. 7:18-20, Psa. 118:5-9, Psa. 33 and 130, and often finishing with Isa. 11:9.
The Talmud (ibid.) goes on to say that on this day, all mankind is divided into three types of people. The wholly righteous were immediately written in the Book of Life (Exo. 32:33, Psa. 69:28) for another year. The wholly wicked were blotted out of the Book of Life, condemned to die in the coming year. Those in between, if they truly repented before the end of Yom Kippur, could likewise be scribed in the Book of Life for another year. For this reason, a common greeting at this time is “L’shana tova tikatevu,” which means, “May you be inscribed [in the Book of Life] for a good new year.”He will turn again,
He will have compassion upon us;
He will subdue our iniquities;
And Thou wilt cast all their sins
Into the depths of the sea.
(Mic. 7:19)
The Bible, of course, is clear that one is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (cf. Php. 4:3; Rev. 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, and 21:27) not by one’s own righteousness, but by receiving the Messiah’s righteousness by faith, trusting in Him, and that there is no in-between; one either trusts God or one doesn’t. Nevertheless, a great eschatological truth is preserved for us in this rabbinical tradition. At the time of Yeshua’s Second Coming, all mankind will be divided into three groups. Those who have already trusted in the Messiah will be Resurrected and Raptured to be with Him immediately upon His Coming on the clouds of the sky. Those who have taken the mark of the Beast and have chosen to remain with the Wicked One will be slated to die in the Day of the Lord, which for reasons that are beyond the scope of this essay to address, I believe will last for about a year.
However, there will also be a third group, who neither had believed in the Messiah until they saw Him Coming on the clouds but who also had not taken the mark of the Beast. Many of these will be Jews, who will mourn at His coming and so have a fount of forgiveness opened to them (Rev. 1:7, Zec. 12:10-13:2)—most prominently, the 144,000 of Rev. 7 and 14. Others will be Gentiles who will be shown mercy because they showed mercy to the children of God (Mat. 25:31ff). These are given the opportunity to repent during the period between the fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonment, called the Days of Awe—a reference, I believe, to the Day of the Lord.
Finally, this day is known as Yom HaKeseh, the Hidden Day. It was a day that could not be calculated, only looked for. Ancient Israel kept its calendar simply by observing the phases of the moon. If a day were overcast, it might cause a delay in the observance of the beginning of the month, the new moon (Rosh Chodesh), the first tiny crescent of light. Every other Feast was at least a few days after the beginning of the month so that it could be calculated and prepared for in advance. For example, after the new moon that marked the beginning of the month of Nisan, the observant Jew knew that he had fourteen days to prepare for the Passover.
Not so Yom HaKeseh. In the absence of reliable astronomical charts and calculations (which were made only centuries after God commanded the Feasts to be observed), the Feast of Trumpets could be anticipated, estimated to be arriving soon, but until two or more witnesses reported the first breaking of the moon’s light after the darkest time of the month, no one knew “the day or hour.” Therefore, it was a tradition not to sleep on Rosh Hashanah, but to remain awake and alert, a tradition alluded to by Sha’ul: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Th. 5:4-6).
Because of the difficulty of alerting the Jews in the Diaspora when the Sanhedron had decreed the start of the Feast to be, it became traditional to celebrate the first and second day of Tishri together as Yoma Arikhta, “One Long Day.” Is this meant to remind us, perhaps, of when another Y’hoshua (Yeshua) won against his enemies because God cast down great hailstones (like the hailstones of Rev. 16:21) and called upon the Sun to stand still so that they would not escape (Jos. 10:10ff)?
Yom Teruah is a day which ultimately calls all of God’s people together in repentance in anticipation of the glorious Second Coming, in which He will once again visit His people in the Person of the Messiah Yeshua to Resurrect the dead, awaken the living, and judge all mankind together.
Shalom, and Maranatha!
I didn't avoid anything since I have already stated that both approaches -- romish and judaistic -- are wrong.
So your argument is not with me. You can take up the issue with the Christmas keepers.
The Christmas keepers have just as much authority for their traditions as the folks who take Levite-based ceremonial laws out of their old covenant context and try to force them into the new covenant according to a Johnny-come-lately human tradition.
What day do you go to church?
From a sentimental/humanist view, you may be correct.
Since I go by the position that whatever is not commanded by God is forbidden in worship, then blowing a horn on an ersatz "Rosh Hashanah" really is no different or any more appropriate in the new covenant than sacrificing a goat "in Jesus' name".
Both are attempting to resurrect old covenant forms in the new covenant. Feast days and animal sacrifices, Levites and the temple were inextricably linked on to another. Both essentially deny that Christ has come in the flesh. Neither one has God's sanction, therefore they are both abominations.
My quarrel is when people start talking about these Jewish holy days being normative for Christians.
If it is appropriate for worship, then every Christian ought to be doing it. That's the nature of the universal church. One people without regard to racial/ethnic distinctions worshipping God with one set of standards.
Say, your not a nun at a girls grammer school are you?
I'm not saying, Sailor...
But my last Master Chief would have laughed at the thought!
Calvin probably wrote more on the law and preached more sermons on the law than all your modern judaizers combined.
His Sermons on the Book of Deuteronomy, for example, cover 200 sermons over several years. He has written extensively on the law and the place of the law in the Church and society.
I appreciate your perspective even if it is a tad off base.
Same day as Paul (Acts 20:7).
Let's start by looking at the ruling of the Jerusalem Council. First, note that Ya'akov actually sides with Sha'ul in not forcing Gentile believers in Yeshua the Messiah to become circumcised (that is, become ethnically and completely Jewish) or to keep the whole Torah as a prerequisite to salvation and fellowship.
The conclusion they came to was that the Tanakh (the OT) actually referred to Gentiles--not converted Jews--being called by God's Name, and moreover God had shown His acceptance of them by giving them His Spirit (e.g., Cornellius) upon their coming to faith in the Messiah of Israel. We also see in Galatians, which was apparently written before the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 (since Sha'ul does not reference the Council in his defense of the Gentiles) that it was understood very early on that salvation was by God's grace, received by putting one's faith in the Messiah, not by keeping the Torah in just the right way (works).
Note that at no point is the question even raised about Jewish believers keeping the Torah: It was assumed as a given that they should. The question was how to handle the influx of Gentile converts.
If they encouraged them to circumcise--which in the first century meant giving up one's status as a Greek, a Roman, a Scythian, or whatever and becoming Jewish--then they would be saying that salvation was by faith plus being Jewish, a clear distortion of Yeshua's teachings which ignored the Spirit's evidence among the uncircumcised believers.
If they emphasized Torah-observance and in any way made it a prerequisite to fellowship, then they would a) send out the message that salvation is by faith plus works, and b) put an enormous stumbling-block in the way of those who wanted to come to God. Let's look at those two issues separately a moment.
Issue A is intimately tied to the racial issue, but it was also tied to avoiding making Christianity just another mystery religion. Every mystery cult had their "path to salvation" where if you did x, y, and z exactly right you could supposedly ascend. Christianity was not only the only faith which said that God only wanted your trust and love, but which said that if you tried to earn the gift that was freely offered, you were insulting your Benefactor.
Issue B was just as much a problem: The fact was that many Gentiles simply could not keep the whole Torah as a matter of practicality. A slave could not insist on taking the Sabbath off, for example, nor could even many free men. Being circumcised was considered self-mutilation by the Greeks; imagine if you tried to join a church and they insisted that you had to cut off your right ear! Therefore, if they made Torah-observance a matter of fellowship, many who would otherwise want to repent and come to God would be discouraged.
Therefore, they came to a most merciful and graceful decision: They set the bar for fellowship low. They insisted only that new converts "abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood." Each of these four items is directly tied to the pagan practices of the day: Idolatry, temple prostitution, strangled sacrifices, and drinking blood were all regular practices which, if the new believer avoided them, would prevent him from participating in the pagan culture of the first century.
Some propose that these items were meant to be the only requirements on Gentile Christians forever, but if so, by what right did Sha'ul tell the brethren to stay away from theft and contentiousness or to honor their parents and send monetary support to Jerusalem? Why did Ya'akov command support of the poor and not favoring the rich? None of these items were on the list!
Therefore, it is understood by those of us on the Messianic side that the four commandments were never meant as an end, but as a starting-point. By separating the Gentile believers from idolatry (and this would have its own social consequences), they would become "clean" enough to enter the synagogues as God-fearers to worship and learn about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob alongside their Messianic Jewish brethren. This is why Ya'akov concludes with, "For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day" (v. 21).
The idea was that since the Holy Spirit was being given freely to the Gentiles who believed, that the Apostles would trust the Spirit to finish what He had started in His own time. However, even within that expectation, we see the Apostles exhorting the churches, giving specific commands, and even passing judgment on those who sinned, so it was not expected to be an automatic or smooth process.
In the meantime, while the Church was undergoing her growing-pains, one of the cheifmost concerns of the Apostles was unity. They greatly feared the division of the Church into battling sects, especially at so early a stage, or into the Gentile believers vs. the Jewish belivers (which did happen, but at the fault of the Gentile Christians) so we see them in their letters trying to smooth over differences between the Gentile and Jewish believers, constantly reminding them that love for one's neighbor was to remain paramount. Thus, believers with honest differences of opinion are told to "be convinced in (their) own mind" and not to judge each other over the "minors" (e.g., Rom. 14).
Lastly, Sha'ul and Ya'akov weren't in disagreement at all; they just emphasized the same points differently. Where Ya'akov said, "Faith without works is dead" (Jas. 2:26), Sha'ul goes on from pointing out that salvation is by faith and not works to adding, "For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:8-10).
Point the first: Show us, instead of just assuming, where the Apostles commanded the Feastdays to no longer be observed. If you cannot, then the prior command should be assumed to still stand.
Point the second: We are not "ignoring the details of the law" at all. We recognize that certain commands regarding sacrifice cannot presently be carried out due to the lack of a Temple or functioning priesthood. However, what you plainly do not understand, and have no interest in understanding, is that there was more to the Feasts than the Temple sacrifice.
Were you aware that Yom Teruah wasn't even a pilgrimage Feast? No one was required to be in Jerusalem to observe it or to personally offer a sacrifice; the command to offer a sacrifice by fire was specifically for the priests to offer a sacrifice on behalf of the whole country. However, as Doug pointed out in detail, there were still several specific commands that could be followed in one's home village:
1) To have a day of rest on the first day of the seventh month. Easy enough. You don't need the Temple to have a sabbath-rest.Within these three commands God gives a lot of leeway for personal observance and tradition. A lot of churches beyond even the Messianic ones are starting to observe the Feasts by teaching their significances and holding special services. In doing so, they develop their own traditions within the framework of God's commands. This is a good thing. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I think the most beautiful thing of all would be for nominal Christian churches to observe, for example, the Day of Atonement by singing "Amazing Grace" and reading from the book of Hebrews in place of the traditional Jewish liturgy.2) To have a memorial of the blowing of trumpets. One doesn't need the Temple to blow the shofar or hear it blown. Nor does one need the Temple to have a memorial day (though one has to do some digging in Scripture to figure out what is being memorialized, which was the purpose of my article).
3) To have a holy convocation. Still no Temple needed--any synagogue or church will do for the purposes of gathering together in sacred assembly to worship God.
Now, it is time to pay the piper. You've been ranting on for a good half-dozen posts now about doing things God's way and accusing everyone else of Judaizing, Romanizing, sentimentality, etc. So now it's put-up or shut-up time:
Prove to us from the Scripture that the Sabbath was moved to Sunday. Simply pointing to Acts 20:7 won't cut it for two reasons: First, because every other instance in the book of Acts speaks of gathering on the Sabbath; and second, because gathering on the first of the week no more means that the Sabbath moved to Sunday than Billy Graham having a Crusade on Tuesday moves it to Tuesday. God specifically made the Sabbath the seventh day, even tying it to the act of creation (Ex. 20:11) and reiterated the timing many times in the Tanakh--it would take Yeshua Himself (though for purposes of giving you some more rope, I'll expand that to include any Apostle) specifically commanding that the day changed to countermand something that God literally wrote in stone Himself.
Can you provide such a countermand? If not, then I expect you to either start keeping the Sabbath or to admit that you lack the consistancy to judge those of us who are keeping God's actual, written commands over the traditions of men.
What scripture commands you to go to church that day? Do you think Paul kept the 4th Commandment?
Got a cite for that proposition? Especially in light of Rom. 14?
What scripture commands you to go to church that day? Do you think Paul kept the 4th Commandment?
Sorry for the double. Gotta love that cell phone internet
Those are your presuppositions, a point that I do not happen to share.
E.g., where in the Bible are any of the levitical feast days observed (even partially) apart from either the tabernacle/temple or sacrifices?
Where do we see, for example, Rosh Hashanah being partially observed by the children of Israel?
Where in the Bible does it give instruction on how to observe the levitical feast days when there was no temple or functioning priesthood?
Where in the Bible (NT especially) are gentiles outside the land invited to observe these feast days?
I believe the way these ceremonial laws are stipulated makes it clear that all the components were necessary in order to be faithful to God's command in how they were to be observed.
"Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it." (Deut. 12:32)
You are the one arbitrarily separating the parts from the whole in order to give your theology its distinctive aroma.
While Israel as the identifiable people of God stood as a nation in the land these laws were appropriate to her situation.
When Israel as a nation was judged by God, the temple and sacrifices ended once for all, and the kingdom taken from her leadership (Matt. 21:43) and given to the leadership the the universal church (Matt. 16:19) made up of Jews and gentiles without regard to racial distinctions, these laws were no longer appropriate.
The apostate rabbis had to invent codes of worship to cover these contingencies because they were not part of their program. Because they denied the presence of the "age to come", the age of Messiah, they missed the end of the ceremonial system. Because they missed the Substance, they continued to live in the shadows.
The church gave up on these shadowy things precisely because they saw them all fulfilled in Christ. There are no annual feast days in the era of the Melchizedekian priesthood, just as there are no earthly priests and animal sacrifices. "For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect." (Heb. 10:1)
There was a certain futility in trying to approach God year after year by the blood of animals. It was with anticipation that these things pointed to the Christ who would come. Once He appeared and His work of redemption accomplished and applied to His people, the shadows were done. They served their purpose. As Hebrews tells us, they were "decayed and growing old is ready to vanish away."
Thank God that Christ has come. Thank God that we no longer have to worship according to the shadows. Thank God that we no longer have to go to the Levites to hold a holy convocation, or to blow the trumpets, or to have our animals ritually slaughtered, or to tell us when the new moon has arrived.
Christ did away with all that according to His predetermined plan. And He left no instructions with His disciples on how to conduct ersatz annual feast days in the new covenant.
Just ask the apostate rabbis.
Deut. 4:15-20; 12:32; Matt. 4:9-10; 15:9; Acts 17:23-25; Exod. 20:4-6, John 4:23-24; Col. 2:18-23
The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way:
But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.Especially in light of Rom. 14?
Romans 14 is about adiaphora, things indifferent (food etc). We are not to judge our brethren based on things which are indifferent in terms of kingdom living.
Worship does not fall under that category since it is strongly regulated throughout the Scriptures by God Himself.
There are many good articles on the subject on the Internet. You might start here
Those verses are not on point. Nowhere is there any cite for the proposition that what is not explicitly allowed is forbidden. I'm familiar with the concept of the regulative rule of worship; I do not accept it because it is fundamentally opposed to the concept of adiaphora.
Short on time, but meant to add that the Gentiles would be under the Noachide Covenant and thus not have to keep the whole Torah. Since Gentiles weren't expected to be circumcised, no doubt this helped to determine that they still didn't need circumcision.
Since God commanded a Sabbath worship and did not specifically allow for a Sunday worship, what day do you worship on?
Or do you have (somehere in the Book of Hezekiah maybe?) a scriptural "commandment" to worship on Sunday?
Most of those are proscriptions against idolatry, or graven images. They are not on point for the assertion that what is not explicitly commanded is forbidden.
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