Should Christians keep the Sabbath and Festivals as described in the OT or not?

festivalsWell, this has been a hot topic all over the Christian world and the internet. We are taught in many churches that we are to keep the so-called Christian holidays, Christmas, Easter etc. And that the biblical holidays as described in the Old Testament are for Israel and not for New Testament Christians. In this post, I will look into these claims and see what the Word says about this.

Leviticus 23: 1-2 HRB

And YAHWEH spoke to Moses, saying,  Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, The set feasts of YAHWEH which you shall proclaim as holy gatherings, shall be these: These are My appointed feasts:

    1. PASSOVER (PESACH)
    2. UNLEAVENED BREAD* (HAG HAMATZOT)
    3. FIRST FRUITS (YOM HABIKKURIM)
    4. WEEKS or PENTECOST* (SHAVUOT  or HAG HASHAVUOT)
    5. TRUMPETS (ROSH HASHANA)
    6. DAY OF ATONEMENT (YOM KIPPUR)
    7. TABERNACLES* also called FEAST OF SHELTERS OR BOOTHS (SUKKOTH)

* The 3 pilgrim Feasts: every Israelite male, 13 years or older, must present himself to Yahweh three times a year at the Temple in Jerusalem at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the 7 day feast following the Passover sacrifice), the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and at the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths).

Leviticus 23: 3 HRB

Work is to be done six days, and on the seventh day shall be a Sabbath of rest, a holy gathering; you shall do no work; it is a Sabbath to YAHWEH in all your dwellings.

So now that we have established the Feasts and the Sabbath and that these are the Feasts Yahweh has commanded Israel to follow and keep forever. There is nothing in the New Testament that cancels these feasts. On the contrary, the Messiah said

Matthew 5: 17-18 HRB

Do not think that I came to annul the Torah or the Prophets; I did not come to annul, but to fulfill Truly I say to you, Until the heaven and the earth pass away, in no way shall one yod or one stroke pass away from the Torah until all comes to pass.

torahSo with that, it is clear that the Torah still stands. I know what you are going to say, we are not Israel and we are not under the Torah. Well, since we are grafted in then we are. Let us look at from another perspective, I you get adopted into a family, are you not under there rules? We pride ourselves to be just that, grafted onto the vine. So then we are to follow the Torah and the feasts. We are to keep the Ten Commandments but we do not need to do Blood sacrifices as commanded. The Messiah was our Blood sacrifice. The other way to look at it, if these Feasts and the Sabbath was good enough for our Messiah to follow, then we need to do the same.

There is no scripture that I have found that talks about the so-called Christian holidays in any place in the Word. It appears that what we celibate today, the so-called Christian holidays are all man made holidays that have been put in place over the centuries by certain religious groups and adopted by most Christian religions today.

Watch the moment Jim Staley won the Sabbath Debate

To watch the entire 2 hour debate – Click HERE.