Keeping the Feasts unworthily
What is true in the modern paradigm of Christianity is that many people are coming to the realization that the way church is being taught and practiced for the last 100 years is not how its described in the Bible. A similar movement back to God's word occurred during the first Protestant reformation, and unfortunately that protest has ceased to continue. At the same time, the prophecy of Israel's 2,730 year punishment ended in 2008, and its likely by this marker God is allowing the lost sheep of Israel to start remembering who they are and coming back into Covenant with him. While they remember that we must keep the Commandments they have also discovered the Torah and that has led many to think they need to look more Jewish and keep traditional Jewish practices and Laws in order to be right with God. What they fail to realize is the modern Jews inherited their practices from their forefathers for hundreds of years, part of that is from an oral tradition from Pharisees and the other is mixed in with Babylonian ideas, including a false Sabbath and the keeping of the Feasts (anywhere they please).
The Torah of course outlines in detail a number of Feasts God ordained and commandment to be kept by the children of Israel IN THE LAND of inheritance. These modern Torah keepers are completely unschooled in Jewish tradition but think that if they learn Paleo Hebrew, wear Tzitzits or related head coverings, and keep all the flesh practices of Jews they are going to be saved! The Bible will call you fools for not listening more carefully! Many of these Torah people are thinking its a big party and keeping the party is what God wants. They have reduced Christ's sacrifice on the cross to a pot luck or a worship of a Rabbi or to nonsense like praying to walls.
What does it say in Deuteronomy Chapter 12:
"1. These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do IN THE LAND, which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth."
It then proceeds to tell Israel to burn down all the altars and practices and symbols of the pagan people's they are removing from that land.
Then it says in Verse 5: "But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come."
Then it tells you in verse 8: "Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes."
It then tells you in verse 9: "You are not yet in the rest and land of inheritance (implying don't do it outside the land)!"
by Verse 30 it warns Israel: " Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following after (the pagan lands wherever they go)...and how they serve their gods"
By verse 32 "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: though shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it!"
If Deuteronomy 12 isn't convincing enough, we can see examples of how first century Apostles keep the Feasts in Acts chapter 18-20. Paul tells them he is going to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Passover and Pentecost. Paul and associates are witnessing in Greece, then goes to Ephesus and tarried with them much longer than expected but tells them:
Acts 18: 21
But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jeruselam: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus."
Paul proceeds to go to Caesarea, Antioch, Corinth, etc. and ends up missing Passover, tarried at Troas and Philippi after unleavened bread then says
Acts 20:16
"For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus (again as promised), because he would not spend time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost."
Two times in two chapters Paul emphasizes the importance of keeping the feast in Jerusalem, which is the land of inheritance as described in the Torah. Yet Messianics want to completely ignore this evidence and hold Feasts any way and any where they damn well please, except on the dates they think are correct per scripture. Unfortunately, we don't even have the same calendar as 1st century Jews, and won't be able to figure out how to keep it on the correct date per God's instruction. As a consequence we have Torah followers from different parts of the world keeping Feasts at different times and dates and often mixed with their own ideas of what is acceptable. Not making a difference between the Holy and Profane. Allowing customs of the world to enter in and simply holding a party they are calling a Feast to the Lord. God is extremely clear he hates you for not listening to his instructions and making up your own tradition!
Are Messianics making a mess of what they think is Apostolic? Even the Jews are more consistent with following Torah than these people, and many of their customs are by the letter (flesh based blind obedience) and traditions of men, learned from Babylon. There is even more evidence in scripture that the Feasts must be kept in the land. God considers anything outside of the land he ordained to be polluted and profane. In the book of Tobit it describes a scenario that when we obey and listen to God these Feasts can be a blessing and a joy, but when we don't listen they turn to mourning.
Ezra 6: 18
"And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem; as it is written in the book of Moses."
In chapter 1 of the book of Tobit, Tobit tells us he is from the tribe of Naphtali and a captive in Assyria.
Tobit 1:4-7
"4. And when I was in mine own country, in the land of Israel, being but young, all the tribe of Naphtali my father, fell from the house of Jerusalem, which was chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, that all the tribes should sacrifice there where the Temple of the habitation of the most High was consecrated, and built for all ages. 5. Now all the tribes which together revolted, and the house of my father Naphtali sacrificed unto the heifer Baal. 6. But I alone went often to Jerusalem at the Feasts, as it was ordained unto all the people of Israel by an everlasting decree, having the first fruits, and tenth increases, with that which was first shorne, and them gave I at the Altar to the Priests of the children of Aaron."
By Chapter 2 we see an example of Tobit attempting to do a Feast, wanting to find a person from his tribe to Feast with, instead finding the dead body of a guy strangled in the marketplace. This event also leads to Tobit's blindness, which he is later cured from after he repents. He proceeds to say:
Tobit 2: 4-6
"Then before I had tasted of any meat, I started up and took him (the dead guy) up to a room until the sun went down. 5. Then I returned and washed myself, and ate my meat in heaviness. 6. Remembering that prophecy of Amos, as he said; Your feasts shall be turned into mourning, and all your mirth into lamentation."
What does Amos then have to say about doing Feasts unworthily and focused on feeding our own belly and our own pride instead of following God's instructions?
2 Chronicles 30
This chapter we see an example of the people wanting to do the Feasts, but the Priests were not properly sanctified, they threatened to not keep it because they were not able to do it properly by God's Word. In this case, Hezekiah prayed to God to ask for direction, and God healed them and allowed the Feast. Regardless, you should pay attention to how they were mindful of following God's instructions. Saying in verse 7, "And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see."
Amos 5:1, 21-27
"1. Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. 21. I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell your solemn assemblies. 22. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. 23. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. 24. But let judgement run down the street as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. 25. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26. But ye (now) have born the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god (Remphan), which ye made to yourselves. 27. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts."
Amos 8: 4-5; 10
"4. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, 5. Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? 10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end therof as a bitter day. 11. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD!"
In Amos, God is telling you THAT WHEN YOU MAKE UP YOUR OWN TRADITION, ITS AN IDOL SIMILAR TO WORSHIPING MOLECH OR SOME OTHER FALSE GOD!
In the book of Daniel, Chapter 10, Daniel demonstrates his situation in captivity and in mourning abstains from feasting and God sent him an Angel. Doing a Feast to fill our own belly instead of obeying God's instruction is a sin that God is highly displeased with. Those who encourage others to do it are a false teacher. Repent because tribulation is right around the corner. Instead, read Luke 16 and understand the meaning of the Unjust Steward and how we only need to "write a check for half" and keep the basics of the Covenant, which is the 10 Commandments, including not partaking in idols or things sacrificed unto them, and start preaching the gospel to those who haven't heard it! Assuming the faith is all about feasting and wearing Tzitzits is wordly and full of error.
