As I sit here typing, I have an SDA student missing two days of school because they are celebrating Passover. They also missed a day last week. There seems to be a push among some SDAs in my area (some I know personally) who are getting into the business of celebrating the Jewish holidays. Apparently from what my principal was telling me, the SDA school in another city north of us has to rearrange all their schedule to accommodate the vast amounts of SDAs that want to celebrate these holidays in that specific church. The person who’s child is missing from my class have been influenced by relatives in that other city. It’s like some Jewish rebirth or something!

I have a problem with this.

First of all, the student missing school cannot afford to miss school.

Second, isn’t this going back on Paul’s emphasis on moving on in the New Covenant? If Paul has harped on circumcision and going back under the law, would he not have issues with Gentiles celebrating Jewish holidays?

I’m all for religious freedom but I think that a Christian putting everyone in an inconvenient position because they want to celebrate a holiday that has nothing to do with their faith and by the very foundation of their faith is basically unnecessary and obsolete makes no sense. Is not their allegiance to Christ now and not to Jewish festivals strictly for the Jews?

On the other hand is there anything wrong with celebrating our Jewish heritage and finding deeper meaning through the practices? Is it not the keeping of these holidays that he sanctions according to Romans 14 and that we are not to judge if others want to keep them?

What say you?

It is common for Christians of several different denominations to examine their Jewish roots and re-enact some of the festivals. But the serious problem in Adventism today is progression of the legalism associated with Sabbath keeping to even imposing these festivals as required. Herbert W Armstrong did this and remaining Armstrong cults do this.

Missing school days for this purpose is problematic. But with tolerance towards every group today including Muslims, we are going to see more of this.

Stan

guibox - 06 May 2010 02:04 PM

Second, isn’t this going back on Paul’s emphasis on moving on in the New Covenant? If Paul has harped on circumcision and going back under the law, would he not have issues with Gentiles celebrating Jewish holidays?

I’m all for religious freedom but I think that a Christian putting everyone in an inconvenient position because they want to celebrate a holiday that has nothing to do with their faith and by the very foundation of their faith is basically unnecessary and obsolete makes no sense. Is not their allegiance to Christ now and not to Jewish festivals strictly for the Jews?

Yes, but everything you’ve said here also applies to the sabbath day.

guibox - 06 May 2010 02:04 PM

On the other hand is there anything wrong with celebrating our Jewish heritage and finding deeper meaning through the practices? Is it not the keeping of these holidays that he sanctions according to Romans 14 and that we are not to judge if others want to keep them?

What say you?

I think the people in Rome that kept sacred days were probably Jews. Paul did have a problem with Gentiles keeping the Jewish holy days in Galatians 4:10-11, including the sabbath.

Jeremy

Stan Ermshar - 06 May 2010 06:56 PM

But the serious problem in Adventism today is progression of the legalism associated with Sabbath keeping to even imposing these festivals as required. Stan

Jeremy - 06 May 2010 06:56 PM

Yes, but everything you’ve said here also applies to the sabbath day.

I believe that there is a distinction between the two but I’m not going to get into that again. I also don’t believe that the tendency to celebrate these Judaic festivals is linked with the keeping of the Sabbath. It is interesting to note that Vance Ferrell the ultra/uber conservative from sdadefend.com, who’d sooner toss his daughter under the bus then deviate one iota from Sabbath legalism, is completely against the practice of keeping Passover and other Jewish holidays.

Hey Guibox,

I appreciate you posting this. I have had some contact with Adventists who are very strict about the feasts and festivals. I am with you on this. We have no need to celebrate Passover anymore because we now have the Lord’s Supper. It was the Passover meal that Jesus radically reinterpreted in the upper room after all. We no longer need circumcision because we have baptism, and we no longer need Passover because we have the Lord’s Supper.

Nate

All,

Yes, there are clear and specific entreaties and prohibitions in Holy Scripture that free the Gentiles (that’s us...) from the dominion of the law, be it ceremonial, moral, or dietary.  The Apostle Luke records this in the Book of Acts:

Acts 21:25 NIV As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”

Because of our sinful nature, we are all pridefully desperate to add something to Christ’s work of redemption. We either realize that there’s nothing we have to offer but “filthy rags” and thereby fully surrender to Him; or we insult the redemptive power and work that was accomplished by our Lord through our own sinful attempts to attain a “works based” justification. The taking upon ourselves of the ceremonies and practices which are now simply shadows of a past and faulty covenant; and has no real substance or meaning now that the fulfillment (by Christ) has come to us by faith is a sinful thing. This does not mean that the OT Law is evil and should not be considered as we are instructed by Jesus and His Apostles. But that’s the subject of other threads in this forum. The Law is our Pedagogue, our teacher, who reveals to us the impossibility of keeping the law perfectly as the Lord’s faultless standard requires.

It’s all human pride, purely and simply. Some denominations choose to try to somehow make themselves distinctive in God’s eyes by doing these things. We are in effect saying to our Lord by our “filthy rag” offerings: “See what great thing I am doing for you?” And He responds thusly: “No, my child - see and celebrate all that I have done for you! There is nothing that you have that I need; nor do I desire from you anything except your full and grateful devotion (worship) and your obedient love.”

John 4:15 NIV 15"If you love me, you will obey what I command.

For the true and faithful Christian, the distinctives that we should desire most and ardently pursue are those that separate us from this sinful world; not from our fellow Christian brothers and sisters. Most of the unorthodox (un-scriptural) practices committed by some Christians are (in varying degrees) the product of the poison of human pride. This is clearly antithetical to the concept of being “one” in the Body of Christ! It is these things we must prayerfully resist with all of our spiritual might. So that we might demonstrate our love for Him by our desire to obey Him. As imperfectly as we might obey, it is that heartfelt desire within us (because we love Him) that Christ values. It is our total dependency upon Him and our complete surrender to Him that He desires and commands.

Matthew 11:28 NIV 28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

In His Name, I pray....

I think Dan’s post is right on the money. To add to what he said, the feasts and festivals all point to Christ. Now that we have the reality, we no longer need (nor should we desire) the shadow. All of the festivals are explicitly abrogated in Colossians.

Nate

Happy hanukka everyone…

LOL

The feast of tabernacle seems to have a final fulfilment in Rev 7:9.  I would agree that the festivals including the feast Sabbath’s were done away with…