God's Sacred Occasions

John R. Oliver MD

Description

This book examines the Feasts of the Lord from Old Testament times through the early Christian Church and also discusses their importance for us today.
The Feasts of the Lord, or God’s Appointed Times, first appear in the Bible during the Exodus. There are three aspects to the Feasts of the Lord: 1. Agricultural, 2. Memorial, and 3. Prophetic. They are prophetic about both the First Advent and the Second Advent which means that some events prophesied have not happened yet.
The Jewish calendar was to be determined by the New Moons and the ripening of barley in Israel and consisted of twelve or thirteen months. The first of the Appointed Times was Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Unfortunately, the Hebrews rarely observed the Feasts of the Lord and this ultimately led to their division and the Babylonian captivity. In Babylon they began to rely upon the Babylonians astronomical calculations as well as observations to try to determine when the Feasts of the Lord would occur. Finally in the fourth century, they began to rely solely on calculations to determine the dates of the Feasts of the Lord.
The Feasts of the Lord played an important role during Christ’s time on earth. There were four Passovers during His ministry culminating in His crucifixion at the time of the fourth Passover. After His resurrection, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon His followers in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
The early Christian Church continued observance of the Feasts of the Lord. Paul observed Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Philippi. He was arrested at the time of Pentecost. The first breaks from the Feasts of the Lord began in the second century CE.
The Feasts of the Lord are still important today because they were part of an oath from God, and He never breaks His oaths. Furthermore, we will be observing Feasts of the Lord in the New Earth.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Biblical Commentary
• Philosophie et théologie
• Pentecost
• Yom Kippur
• Sukkot
• Passover
• Pessa'h

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 14 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798385000258
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

GOD’S SACRED OCCASIONS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JOHN R. OLIVER, MD
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright © 2023 John R. Oliver, MD.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
 
WestBow Press
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.
 
ISBN: 979-8-3850-0023-4 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-3850-0024-1 (hc)
ISBN: 979-8-3850-0025-8 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023910452
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 06/14/2023
 
The other Bible texts are from The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text. Public Domain. ©1917, The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, PA.
 
Special thanks to the Review and Herald Publishing Association for permission to quote from the following books:
 
The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary , 10 volumes, edited by Francis D. Nichol, ©1953 – 1979, 2002, Hagerstown, MD.
The Sanctuary Service , by M. L. Andreasen, ©1937, Hagerstown, MD.
Secrets of Daniel , by J. B. Doukhan, ©2000, Hagerstown, MD.
 
Special thanks to Giancarlo Bacchiocchi for permission to quote from the following books by Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi:
 
From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity , ©1977, The Pontifical Gregorian University Press, Rome.
The Sabbath in the New Testament , ©1988, Biblical Perspectives, Berrien Springs, MI.
God’s Festivals in Scripture and History, Part I: The Spring Festivals , ©2001, Biblical Perspectives, Berrien Springs, MI.
 
Special thanks to Dr. Nehemia Gordon of the Makor Hebrew Foundation for permission to quote from his websites Nehemia’s Wall ( https://www . nehemiaswall.com ) and The Karaite Korner ( https://www.karaite-korner.org ).
 
Some content taken from The Works Of Josephus: New Updated Version by William Whiston. Copyright © 1987. Used by permission of Hendrickson Rose Publishing Group, represented by Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
To my family: Tracey, Keoni, and Kiana.
Special thanks to my sister, Teri Oliver, who helped turn my writings into a book.
GOD’S APPOINTED TIMES
 
CONTENTS
Preface
 
Chapter 1 :      The Jewish Year
Chapter 2 :      The Sabbath
Chapter 3 :      The Passover—Pesach
Chapter 4 :      Christ and Passover
Chapter 5 :      Passover and the Early Christian Church
Chapter 6 :      The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Part 1)—Chag Ha-Matzot
Chapter 7 :      The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Part 2)—Days of Rest and the Wave Sheaf
Chapter 8 :      Pentecost, Chag Ha-Shavuot (Feast of Weeks), Chag Ha-Katzir (Feast of Harvest), Yom Ha-Bikurim (Day of Firstfruits), and the Feast of Oaths
Chapter 9 :      The Feast of Trumpets—Yom Teruah
Chapter 10 :    The Day of Atonement—Yom Kippur
Chapter 11 :    The Sanctuary Shall Be Cleansed
Chapter 12 :    The Feast of Tabernacles (Chag Ha-Sukkot), the Feast of Ingathering (Chag Ha-Asif), and Shemini Atzeret
Chapter 13 :    Saul, the Jew Who Believed in Christ, or Paul, the Christian Who Used to Be a Jew?
Chapter 14 :    To Feast or Not to Feast: That Is the Question
PREFACE
In the Old Testament, the center of the Hebrew religion was the Temple, with its services such as sacrificing animals, lighting the menorah, and burning incense. In addition to these daily services, there were designated times observed both at the Temple and throughout the land of Israel. In the King James Version of the Bible, these times were called feasts of the LORD. The feasts of the LORD have also been called God’s appointed times or seasons. The Hebrew calendar began in the spring with Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then about seven weeks later came Pentecost. In the fall came the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
From its beginnings in the 1840s, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has adopted several Old Testament Hebrew traditions that are not part of mainstream Christianity. They began worshipping on the seventh-day Sabbath at a time when there were very few Christian denominations doing so. They adopted the guidelines for eating clean animals as delineated in Leviticus 11. They placed special emphasis on the Day of Atonement because they believed that on the Day of Atonement, October 22, 1844, Christ began His final work of judgment in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary before He returns to this earth. Seventh-day Adventists were doing these things one hundred years or more before Messianic Judaism and the Hebrew Roots Movement churches began to grow.
Messianic Jews and the Hebrews Roots Movement churches do not share the Adventist beliefs about October 22, 1844. They do believe in observing the Torah, which are the first five books of the Bible, attributed to Moses. This observance included keeping the feasts of the LORD. This is a practice that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has never adopted. Most Adventists share the belief with other mainstream Christian denominations that the feasts of the LORD were part of the ceremonial law and were nailed to the cross. In other words, they believe that when Jesus died on the cross, it was no longer necessary to observe the feasts of the LORD, just as it was no longer necessary to sacrifice lambs.
About fifteen years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend. He said he was surprised that the Adventist Church had not become a Messianic or Hebrew Roots church. The seventh-day Sabbath and the Day of Atonement, which was a day of fasting and prayer for the cleansing from sin, were both appointed times that had been commanded by God in the Old Testament. They were observed by the early Christian church but were then, at some time, discarded by them.
Then the Adventists began observing the seventh-day Sabbath, eating only clean animals, and placing special emphasis on a Day of Atonement that occurred 1,813 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This was why my friend thought that, in the early days, the Adventist Church looked like it was becoming what many Messianic and Hebrew Roots churches are today.
This conversation made me start thinking. I thought about the Feast of Tabernacles. As Adventists, we consider the Feast of Tabernacles to be prophetic of the Second Coming of Christ. This led me to the following question: If the event prophesied by the Feast of Tabernacles has not happened yet, should we still be observing the Feast of Tabernacles? It seemed odd to me that God would institute this feast and then make it no longer important when Jesus was crucified thousands of years before the event that it prophesied would be fulfilled.
When I looked for answers in The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary , I found that the authors categorized the Law of Moses into four categories: moral law, health laws, ceremonial laws, and civil laws. 1 Essentially, the commentary’s position is that the moral and health laws are still in force, but the ceremonial and some of the civil laws are no longer applicable. Using these categories, the feasts of the LORD have been arbitrarily classified as ceremonial laws. These were nailed to the cross and are no longer applicable.
The problem with this view is that no such distinctions were ever made in the books of Moses. For example, Leviticus 11, which would be classified as health laws because it lists the clean and unclean animals, makes no promises of health benefits to those who obey. The chapter is simply sealed with an oath by God in verse 44: “I am the LORD your God.”
I felt the arguments in The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary were weak. I also realized that the texts used in the commentary to argue that the feasts of the LORD were nailed to the cross are also used by Sunday-keepers to argue that the Sabbath was also nailed to the cross. I had read in Samuele Bacchiocchi’s book The Sabbath in the New Testament that these texts not only do not apply to the Sabbath, they do not apply to the feasts of the LORD as well.
One day when I was visiting Southern Adventist University, I stopped by the office of Dr. Greg King, the dean of the school of religion. I inquired if he had any information on the subject. He referred me to three authors. Samuele Bacchiocchi had written two books on