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Romans 14:6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of Adonai Each religion distinguishes itself through its calendar of events and yearly feasts, but Abba is the One who has created and organized the celestial bodies to show us His calendar (Genesis 1:14), so we should leave it up to Him to teach us what the important times of the year are. In the Book of Leviticus the Almighty teaches us about the weekly Sabbath and also of seven heavenly appointments called in the Hebrew text ‘moadim’ (Leviticus 23). These are commanded to be observed perpetually throughout our generations wherever we are. One may argue that Paul is the one who taught us to abolish these feasts, but a reading of his lectures within their own contextual values shows us that he never did but actually practiced them. We must remember that in the days of Paul, ‘Christianity’ did not exist; that before their divorce from Jerusalem to pursue their adulterous relationship with Rome, believers were merely a sect of Judaism called: the Sect of the Nazarenes (Acts 24:5). Believers were actually found practicing the Levitical Festivals up to the fourth century C.E. when Constantine finally ruled them illegal in the Council of Nicaea in favor of Roman observances. Whereas Jews in the congregations were already familiar with God’s calendar of events, Paul had to teach them to the gentile believers as well as to encourage them to renounce their pagan holy days. In Corinthians Paul gives the congregation instructions on how to observe Passover (1 Corinthians 5:8), and all throughout Acts, Paul times his journeys according to the Levitical schedule. The Pauline texts used to abolish Levitical Holy Days for believers are texts divorced from their context. For example in Romans, Paul seems to teach that there are no days above others and that the distinction of days is a matter of personal opinion (Romans 14:5-6). We must remember that the Roman congregations were made up of both Jews and gentiles, and that we are only left to speculations as to the subject matter of the text. In any case though, Levitical ‘moadim’ are Holy Appointments and commandments given by the very Voice of God in Horeb, not issues subject to personal opinion. I would therefore safely assume that Paul cannot be talking about them in this text. The non-Jewish disciples in Colossi were given a hard time by their pagan counter-parts, and even from non-believing Jews for adopting the Biblical Festivals, but Paul encouraged the disciples to not let people bother them about it, because they are important times shadowing the reality of the Messiah who will soon return to rule and judge the earth (Colossians 2:17-18). Lastly, Paul seems to rebuke the Galatians congregation for following the Biblical Festivals, but a closer look at that text shows us that he was actually talking to gentile believers about their inclinations towards pagan observances (Galatians 4:8-17); the adjectives used in this text could hardly define God’s Appointed Days. Again, we must read the text within its proper context. People today have even forgotten which day is the Master’s Sabbath, and some even say that it can be observed on any day as long as we take one. Before He left, in His Endtime discourse, the Master instructed us to pray that our ‘flight be not … on the Sabbath Day’ (Matthew 24:20). The contextual Sabbath in this passage is God’s weekly Sabbath, but how can believers pray that prayer if they don’t even know what day it is? The Levitical Feasts are our yearly appointments with our God. They lead us to the final of all Appointments at the end of time, but someone who wants us to miss the Heavenly Rendez-Vous falsified the information. Let us now return to our first love and the truth if the Word; you don’t want to miss the ‘Appointment. Do you?
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Levitical festivals, Jewish feasts, Constantine, Sect of the Nazarene,
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