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POSTED 31 MAY, 2002
Does the New Testament Annul the Biblical Appointments?
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
We as Messianic Believers need to lament over the fact that most
of our Christian brothers and sisters do not honor and observe
our Heavenly Father’s appointed times[1]
or moedim (~yd[Am),[2]
listed in Leviticus 23. Instead of remembering
Pesach/Passover,
Chag HaMatzot/Unleavened Bread,
Shavuot/Pentecost,
Yom Teruah-Rosh HaShanah/the Feast of Trumpets,
Yom
Kippur/the Day of Atonement,
Sukkot/Tabernacles,
and Shemini Atzeret/the Eighth Day Assembly, in addition
to the weekly seventh-day Shabbat/Sabbath—Christians
today celebrate Christmas and Easter and assemble on Sunday.
They have missed out on much of what the Lord has to show us, by
avoiding to meet when He wants to meet with His people.
Certainly, if anyone is truly committed to God and wants to
honor and celebrate Him as much as possible, the advantage of
remembering His appointed times over various human replacements
is obvious. Eight appointed times versus two holidays and about
two hours on Sunday. It is obvious by the numbers alone
that what He intended is better!
All too often, we as Messianics can be unfairly chastised by
Christians for wanting to obey the Lord by observing His
appointments. It is not uncommon to be called legalistic for
celebrating the Biblical festivals. In fact, some say that we
are going too far, or are perhaps trying to earn our salvation,
and in a few cases that we are not even saved. These claims
against us are completely unacceptable if we are reasonable
Believers united around a common hope of salvation in Messiah
Yeshua (Christ Jesus).[3]
There is nothing wrong with obeying God or His Word and in
following the instructions that He has laid out for us. By
remembering the Biblical appointments, we as Messianic Believers
are following the example of our Messiah Yeshua and the early
First Century Jewish Apostles and Believers who likewise
observed them as a part of their faith practice.
Contrary to popular opinion, the First Century Apostles and
Believers did not celebrate “Christmas” or “Easter,” or even a
“Sunday Sabbath”—especially as we know them today. They observed
the moedim of Leviticus 23 and the weekly
Shabbat,[4]
and on these special days remembered who Messiah Yeshua was as
the Savior of Israel. As James the Just attested to the Apostle
Paul, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the
Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for
the Law” (Acts 21:20). Now, the same is being said of many
non-Jewish Believers who likewise have faith in Yeshua and who
are zealous for the things of God’s Torah, eagerly partaking of
their heritage in Israel (Ephesians 3:6). God is bringing all of
His people together in a very unique and special way.
But there are those who say otherwise. There are those who say that
because of Yeshua’s sacrifice at Golgotha (Calvary), the Torah
or Law of Moses has been abolished, and thus the
moedim
or appointed times are likewise done away with, annulled, and
abolished. Some think that they might be important for us to
study for understanding the Bible in an historical sense, but
not to be followed as standard elements of our orthopraxy.[5]
Others think that by remembering things like the Passover, we
have actually turned our heads away from Yeshua, and bring
dishonor to Him as our final sacrifice. Those who frown on
Messianics keeping the appointed times, regardless of the degree
of how strong they speak against them, or frown upon them, say
that the Apostle Paul gave us specific instruction in his
epistles that we are no longer to celebrate the “Old Testament
holidays.”
Do the Apostolic Scriptures (New Testament) truly tell us not to
celebrate the Biblical holidays? Are the Biblical holidays no
longer of any value to us as Believers? What might a closer
reading of the Biblical text reveal?
It is important that we examine the three common Scripture passages
(Galatians 4:9-11; Colossians 2:16-17; Romans 14:5-6) which are
often given to support the premise that Believers today are not
supposed to remember the moedim or appointed times of the
Torah, placing them in proper context.[6]
These words were originally given to distinct ancient audiences
with some specific issues facing them, and not
necessarily Twenty-First Century people. Knowing that Yeshua the
Messiah upheld the validity of the Torah as a standard for good
works (Matthew 5:16-19), and that remembering the appointed
times is a simple matter of outward obedience, is it possible to
see how the majority view out there has missed some things? Let
us read these verses and investigate their background a bit more
fully.
End of sample excerpt.
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J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
NOTES
[1]
The Hebrew term moedim (~yd[Am) is translated variably as “appointed
times” (NASU), “appointed feasts” (NIV), “fixed times” (NJPS),
and “appointed festivals” (ATS). CHALOT defines
the singular moed (d[Am) as “meeting assembly,” and “appointed
time, fixed day,” indicating that it is used in the
Tanach for the “tent of meeting” where the elders
of Israel met with the Lord (p 186).
[2]
Cf. Ephesians 4:1-6.
[3]
Consider varied references in the Apostolic Scriptures
to Shavuot/Pentecost (Acts 20:16; 1 Corinthians
16:8) and Yom Kippur/the Day of Atonement, “the
fast” (Acts 27:9). Why would these holidays even be
referenced if the Believers in the First Century were
not observing them to some degree? Furthermore, Acts
17:2 tells us that it was Paul’s custom to go to the
local synagogue on the Sabbath day first, when he
went into a new community, to reason with those
assembled to present them with the gospel.
[4]
The term “orthopraxy” “literally [means] ‘right
practice,’…living out the known and experienced truth in
the Christian faith in love and justice” (Stanley J.
Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling,
Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms [Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1999], 94). For our purposes as
Messianics, it means how our faith is to be properly
lived out and how Torah observance is practiced in the
world.
[5]
I have chosen to address these passages in the order of
frequency in which Messianic Believers often hear them
quoted, not their order of composition
(Galatians-Romans-Colossians).
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