by CW Mayberry and Stephanie Mayberry
NOTE: This post is designed to serve as a study guide. You will notice that there are a number of links to other posts on our site that expound upon the concepts and information presented here. We strongly suggest that you take the time to examine this and study it out thoroughly to fully grasp it. As always, if you have any questions or comments, we are available for one-on-one discussion, or you may leave a comment below, and we will address it publicly.
One of the most common questions that we get here from people who are escaping churchianity is which Feast Days we still observe. The modern church has downplayed the Feasts, Sabbath, and the “Old Testament” as a whole, regarding it as archaic and “the old ways.” Essentially, they have convinced sincere believers that the Old Testament, especially the Torah, is obsolete and no longer necessary.
That could not be further from the truth!
It is impossible to truly understand the New Testament without first understanding the Old Testament. When Yeshua taught, He taught from what we call the Old Testament. The disciples taught from the Old Testament. In fact, EVERYONE in the New Testament was teaching from the Old Testament. Why? Because they were LIVING the New Testament, so it had not yet been written.
Because the church has concealed the Torah – the command to keep the Sabbath and the feast days from believer- believers, sincere Christians, are often shocked to learn that those commands to keep them are still valid today.
And that the command is FOREVER.
Are We Required to Keep the Leviticus 23 Feast Days?
The short answer is, yes. While the modern church tends to teach compromise on this matter, the Word of Yehovah tells us something very different.
According to scripture, we are required to keep all of the Leviticus 23 Feast Days as well as the Sabbath, which is included in that chapter.
3 ‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.
Leviticus 23:3
Our fellowship, Torah Observant Apostolic, celebrates all of the Feast Days.
So what exactly are the Feast Days, and where can they be found in scripture?
Spring Feasts – Leviticus 23:4-22
Passover Meal (Pesach)
Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzot)
Feast of Pentecost (Shavuot)
Fall Feasts – Leviticus 23:23-43
Day of Trumpets (Yom HaTeruah)
Day of Atonement (Yom HaKippurim)
Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)
Feast of the Eighth Day (Shemini Atzeret)
The time between Pesach and Shavuot is called the Omer.
Counting the Omer means counting seven Sabbaths plus one day from Passover to arrive at Shavuot. If you aren’t keeping Passover, it is impossible to determine Shavuot.
Yes, this means that the vast majority of modern churches are celebrating “Pentecost Sunday” on the wrong day.
Didn’t Jesus Fulfill the Command to Keep the Feast Days?
Many are taught that Jesus fulfilled the command to keep the Feast Days (among other commands, such as “the law”). They are erroneously taught that the eternal requirement to keep the Sabbath is no longer valid, that keeping the Feast Days is no longer necessary, and that “the law” was “nailed to the cross.” They teach that the “Old Covenant” was ended or fulfilled and a “New Covenant” was established.
None of these claims is true.
Why would we keep any of the Feast Days if the prophetic significance of a particular Feast Day “Moedim,” has been fulfilled? The fact of the matter is that no Moedim has been completely fulfilled and will not be until they are all fulfilled.
Like the branches of the Menorah, they may appear to be separate but are one unified, undivided body that cannot be separated.
They are all part of a prophetic sequence that must be taught and rehearsed until the entire sequence has become a reality.
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Matthew 5:17-18
Let’s study this out.
Destroy, katalyō, kat-al-oo’-o From κατά (G2596) and λύω (G3089)
to dissolve, disunite
(what has been joined together), to destroy, demolish
metaph. to overthrow i.e. render vain, deprive of success, bring to naught
to subvert, overthrow
of institutions, forms of government, laws, etc., to deprive of force, annul, abrogate, discard
of travellers, to halt on a journey, to put up, lodge (the figurative expression originating in the circumstance that, to put up for the night, the straps and packs of the beasts of burden are unbound and taken off; or, more correctly from the fact that the traveller’s garments, tied up when he is on the journey, are unloosed at it end)
Fulfilled
to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being
to become, i.e. to come to pass, happen
of events
to arise, appear in history, come upon the stage
of men appearing in public
to be made, finished
It might be argued that Passover, “Pesach” could be ignored but the fact is that this crucifixion of Yesuha was only a partial fulfillment of the prophetic picture given in the Passover.
The Passover pointed to the substitutionary offering of the Messiah as our Passover lamb but that is not the complete picture.
The passover also points to the exodus of all Yehovah’s children from the bondage of sin. We will be completely liberated from all the effects of sin at the second coming “ Yom Teruah “
Amos speaks of a day when the prophecies of the spiring feasts shall overlay the prophecies of the fall feasts. It will be a deliverance on a universal scale. All those awaiting release from this present life and its struggles will be free. All those that sleep in Messiah will awaken to the newness of life in Messiah.
13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,
Amos 9:13-15
that the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed;
and the mountains shall drop sweet wine,
and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel,
and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them;
and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof;
they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them,
saith the LORD thy God.
The kingdom will be established, and we will rule in authority and power with our Messiah.
When Will the Command to Keep the Torah be Ended?
The Command to keep the Torah, to keep the Sabbath and the Feast Days – the Holy Days – will NEVER end.
During the thousand-year reign of Messiah in this present world, the nations that survived the events of the tribulation will be made to keep the Torah, particularly the Ten Commandments and the Feast Days.
The Torah and the feast days will define the culture of that age. All who refuse to comply will suffer the consequences of rebellion.
16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem
Zechariah 14:16-17
shall even go up from year
to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts,
and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up
of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem
to worship the King, the LORD of hosts,
even upon them shall be no rain.
Those who are taught to disregard the Old Testament are often unaware that this chapter of Zechariah is speaking of the events of the Millennial Reign of the Messiah, Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, will be celebrated and is mentioned specifically because it is the one feast day that will not be fulfilled until the end of the Millennial Reign and the White Throne Judgment.
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make,
Isaiah 66:22-23
shall remain before me, saith the LORD,
so shall your seed and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another,
and from one sabbath to another,
shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
In verse 23, the phrase “from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another” tells us that the biblical calendar with its Moedim will still be in use.
All of the feast days will be observed until they are all fulfilled.
And we aren’t there… Yet.
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