The holidays contain more divine
information of spiritual and prophetic value
than any subject of scripture. Why aren't we
taught these marvelous lessons in church? The
answer is found during the first through to
the fourth centuries.
First Century Church
In the first century there were
literally hundreds of thousands of believing
Jews (Acts 2:41, 47, 4:4, 6:7, 9:31, 21:20).
Scripture tells us the apostles and the early
church continued to celebrate the holidays with
the new realization of the symbolism of Christ.
Very few Gentiles converted before Peter and
Paul were sent out. When God miraculously showed
the believing Jews that Jesus was the Messiah
for both Jew and Gentile alike, then Gentiles
from every nation began to pour into this Jewish
faith. The followers of Christ, whether Jewish
or Gentile, were seen as one family. Both considered
themselves part of Israel. The Gentiles saw
themselves as grafted into Israel (Romans 11),
not replacing Israel. The word Christian was
not used until a.d. 42 in Antioch (Acts 11:26).
Later it was adopted to set apart Jews believing
in Jesus and unbelieving Jews. Ultimately it
became an identity for the entire Church.
Paul makes it clear that Gentiles
who trust in Jesus become children of God, are
equal partners with believing Jews in the Body
of the Messiah, and are declared righteous by
God without their having to adopt any further
Jewish distinctives (Rom. 3:22ÿ23, 29ÿ30;
4:9ÿ12; 10:12; 11:32; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph.
2:11ÿ22; 3:6; Col. 3:11) (Stern, 1992).
Second Century Church
By the second century the Gentiles
had taken control of the church, and there started
the process of removing Jewish influences referred
to as de-Judaizing. There was a growing spirit
of resentment of the non-believing Jews and
all Jewish customs. The first seeds of anti-Semitism
were sown. As the church grew, it became increasingly
Hellenized (Greek) and Latinized (Roman). The
Gentile-dominated Church celebrated the Lord's
resurrection, but to distance Christianity from
Judaism they changed the resurrection date from
the Jewish calendar from the third day of Passover,
to Sunday this is how Easter became separated
from Passover.
Fourth Century
By the time of the Council of
Nicea (325 a.d.), Constantine, Emperor of Rome,
claimed conversion to Christianity and considered
himself the leader in the Christian church.
Things changed drastically for the Gentile believers.
Gentile believers were no longer persecuted.
It became an economic advantage to be a Christian.
Constantine also supported paganism with Christianity.
In 314 he placed the symbol of the cross on
his coins with the marks of Sol Invictus and
Mars Conservator. Constantine retained the title
of chief priest of the state cult until he died.
Under Constantine things got better
for the believing gentiles; however, now the
Christians persecuted the Jews. The Jews who
accepted Jesus as the Messiah were forced to
give up all ties with Judaism, Jewish practices,
Jewish friends and anything Jewish. Constantine
issued laws forbidding Jewish believers to keep
Saturday as Sabbath, circumcise their children,
celebrate Passover, etc. The punishments included
imprisonment and even death. Constantine replaced
the Biblical Holidays with alternative forms
of celebrations adopted from other religions.
The Jewish New Testament Commentary
reports that the Jewish believers were told
to ignore the way commanded by Moses or they
could not be saved! "You Messianic Jews
should not separate yourselves from us Gentile
Christians by having Messianic synagogues! Don't
you know that in Christ there is neither Jew
nor Greek? So be like us, give up your Jewish
distinctives, stop observing the Torah and the
Jewish holidays, put all that behind you; and
worship with us in our Gentile-oriented congregations,
living our Gentile lifestyle. The misuse is
in concluding that because there is no distinction
in God's sight between the forensic righteousness
of believing Gentiles and of believing Jews,
therefore Jews are prohibited from observing
God-given commandments. Such a conclusion defies
both logic and the practice of the early believers.
The anti-Semitic attitude toward
the Jews flourished. During the Middle Ages,
bands of Crusaders destroyed many Jewish communities.
The raiders demanded the Jews convert but the
majority preferred to die for their faith. In
the late thirteenth century half of the world's
Jewish population were living in Western Europe,
over five hundred thousand. By 1500 there were
no more than 150,000 Jews in this region due
to riots, plagues and expulsions.
Two Peoples, One Church
Galatians 3:28 says, There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond
nor free, there is neither male nor female:
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. This isolated
verse has been misinterpreted to say a Jew must
give up his heritage. It really explains that
Jewish and Gentile believers must treat each
other as equals before God, of equal worth as
human beings. Notice how Paul ends the chapter.
And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's
seed, and heirs according to the promise (v.
29).
[The sentence in the verse above]
contains three parallel pairs: Jew -- Gentile,
slave -- freeman, male -- female. Obviously
there are still observable physical, psychological
and social distinctions between male and female
and between slave and freeman (even today there
remains in the world tens of millions of slaves),
even though in union with the Messiah Yeshua
they are all one, so far as their acceptability
before God is concerned. The same is true of
Jews and Gentiles: the distinction remains;
the verse does not obliterate it (Stern 1992).
The Bible does teach differences
between Jews and Gentiles and between other
groups. There are different commands for men
and women, husbands and wives, parents and children,
slaves and masters, leaders and followers, widows
and other women as well as special requirements
for offices such as pastors, elders, deacons,
and evangelists (1 Cor. 11:2ÿ16, 14:34ÿ36;
Eph. 5:22ÿ6:9; Col. 3:18ÿ4:1; Titus
3:1ÿ13, 5:3ÿ16; 1 Peter 3:1ÿ7).
Much of the Church continues to
insist on this view that once a Jew is saved
he is no longer a Jew. Christians can be a better
witness to a Jew once they understand how a
religious, non-believing Jew thinks. For example,
an invitation to Sunday church or to a ham dinner
for Christmas would not be the best way to win
Jewish converts.
Throwing Out the Baby
Unfortunately, while trying to
separate from the non-believing Jews the Church
threw out the baby (Biblical holidays) with
the bath water (un-Biblical customs)! There
was no reason to stop the Holidays. These days
did not bring bondage they brought people closer
to God. Jesus and Paul both celebrated the holidays.
The holidays should be analyzed according to
the Bible ÿ not whether or not they are
Jewish.
A non-Jew may choose voluntarily
to conform to certain observances, celebrations,
or customs which are both Jewish and rooted
in Scripture. Such practice is not Judaizing.
Following a Biblical custom is far different
from being bound by a required practice (Wilson
1989, 26). Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection,
has made it possible for all believers, Gentiles
and Jews, to maintain the righteous principles
of the law without being encumbered with all
the cultural baggage of Talmudic Judaism (Judaizing).
The Puritans
When the Puritans came to America
they were deeply immersed in their Hebrew heritage.
Marvin Wilson explains in his book, Our Father
Abraham (pp. 127-128):
The Reformers put great stress
on sola scriptura (Scripture as the soul and
final authority of the Christian). The consequent
de-emphasis on tradition brought with it a return
to the biblical roots. Accordingly, during the
two centuries following the Reformation, several
groups recognized the importance of once again
emphasizing the Hebraic heritage of the Church.
Among these people were the Puritans who founded
Pilgrim America.
The Puritans came to America deeply
rooted in the Hebraic tradition. Most bore Hebrew
names. The Pilgrim fathers considered themselves
as the children of Israel fleeing "Egypt"
(England), crossing the "Red Sea"
(the Atlantic Ocean), and emerging from this
"Exodus" to their own "promised
land" (New England). The Pilgrims thought
of themselves as all the children of Abraham
and thus under the covenant of Abraham (Feingold
n.d., 46).
Thus, the seeds of religious liberty
for the American Church did not come from New
England leaders like Roger Williams and Anne
Hutchinson as noble as they and others were.
Rather, it came from the Hebrews themselves,
whose sacred Writings inspired the Puritans.
The Jewish New Testament Commentary
says, "The Puritans, who took the Old Testament
more seriously than most Christians, modeled
the American holiday of Thanksgiving after Sukkoth"
(Stern 1992).
The Puritans wanted to abolish
pagan religious ceremonies that had crept into
the Roman Catholic church from Babylonianism.
To rid the church of all pagan superstitions,
the Puritans did away with all the calendar
days. Christmas was outlawed in England in 1644
by an act of Parliament, for it was a lingering
pagan element of the papal calendar, and they
considered it disobedient to God's Word (Deut.
12:30, 31; 1 John 5:18-21; 2 Cor. 6-14-7:1).
By 1659, Massachusetts had passed a law fining
anybody who celebrated Christmas. Under the
influence of puritanical thought, America suppressed
the celebration of Christmas well into the nineteenth
century.
By doing away with all the calendar
days, the Puritans also threw out the baby (the
Biblical holidays) with the bath water (pagan
festivals such as Halloween, which is the ancient
Samhain Festival of Death).
Today, God is Doing a Marvelous
Thing
Richard Booker said it so well
in Celebrating the Lord's Holidays in the Church:
The themes in the Old and New
Testaments are the same: God's holiness, righteousness
and mercy; and man's alienation and estrangement
from God through disobedience. It might surprise
you to know that the Jewish people do not rely
on works for salvation they know the only way
to salvation is through the Messiah. The basic
significance of the New Testament is uniquely
a Jewish one: the fulfillment of the messianic
hope. The New Testament writers, with perhaps
the exception of Luke, are all Jews. The early
Apostles and followers of Jesus are also Jewish.
There is nothing in the New Testament that is
non-Jewish or anti-Jewish. Quite the contrary,
Jesus' entire message taught that:
Only the merciful were to receive
mercy, only the forgiving could expect forgiveness
and that love would be the sign of His true
disciples.
Let No Man Judge You
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 is of Christ. Col. 2:16-17.
This passage refers to God's Holy
Days as shadows. When Jesus came the first time
He fulfilled the first three holidays. This
does not mean the days are now irrelevant, unnecessary,
and should not be kept. Wedding anniversaries
are not irrelevant, unnecessary. They are set
times to remember a special day. We don't mistake
the anniversary as the reality of marriage.
The anniversary is a symbol of the marriage.
It can be a special time set aside to focus
on the meaning of the marriage and maybe to
speak of memories over the years. The anniversary
is not a substitute for the marriage.
The Holidays days are set apart
special times to remember, to look ahead, and
to look at our spiritual walk. The Holy Days
and their observance, incorporating all five
of our senses, give us a better understanding
of God. Just as God asked His people to remember
the Exodus by observing Passover. Jesus, on
the night He was betrayed (during Passover),
asked us to remember Passover. 1 Corinthians
11:23-26 For I received from the Lord...that
He took bread and blessed it and said take and
eat, this is my body which is broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. Also the cup after
supper saying this cup is the new covenant in
My blood. This do, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death till He comes. The taking of
the bread (His body) and drinking of the wine
(His blood) is a special set apart time to remember
just like an anniversary.
But what about this verse? Ye
observe days, and months, and times, and years.
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon
you labor in vain (Gal. 4:10-11).
