The 144 000 observe the Feast of Tabernacles

TENS OF THOUSANDS of spirit-begotten children of the Almighty recently observed the FEAST OF TABERNACLES as commanded in Leviticus 23 [verses 33-44], Deuteronomy 16 [verses 13-17] and Deuteronomy 31 [verses 9-13].

The annual sacred Sabbaths of Yehovah, as commanded by the Eternal, taught by the Apostle Paul, and kept by the early Jewish and Gentile congregations of Christ, have recently been celebrated with great festive joy all over the world.

The sectarian and cultic deviates within Churchianity, would, quite naturally, because of their first century departure from the great truths of the Eternal, criticize, condemn, and revile any who keep these commanded sacred assemblies. Their condemnation is rooted in Roman Catholic and Protestant perversions of the gospel of the Kingdom of heaven as preached and practiced by Christ and the Apostles.

To place these Holy Days – the annual sacred Sabbaths – in proper New Covenant perspective, we briefly review some important scriptural segmets.

Firstly, let's examine Paul’s instruction to the GENTILE CHURCH at Corinth to keep the annual Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. These holy occasions are observed in the first month of the Sacred Year, Abib or Nisan [usually late March to early April on the Julian calendar].

These sacred assembly dates were originally given by the Eternal himself in afore-noted Old Covenant chapters.

More detailed instruction regarding Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are recorded in Exodus 12.

These Old Testament instructions are not MOSAIC as if originating in the desert-desiccated gray matter of one so-called “Jew” on a barren crag plonked in the middle of an inhospitably austere desolate wilderness some 3 510 years ago. These Holy Days were teleologically designed by the Almighty before the earth was founded and put into effect on day four of creation week.

Genesis 1:14 reads: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs [Heb: oth, signals – they must indicate something; they demonstrate or signal divine purpose], and for seasons [Heb: moed, specific festival appointments] and for days, and years.”

These sacred festival assembly times were taught to the Gentile churches by the apostle Paul. He admonished the non-Jewish Corinthian Christian converts to observe these Holy Days. This he does as late as circa 53-55 AD – more than twenty years after Christ’s death and resurrection! [See 1 Corinthians 5 and 11.]

Paul’s personal observance of the Annual Festivals as clearly recorded in Acts.

MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS AFTER THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST – when the Law was supposedly abolished and weekly and annual Sabbaths were, according to secular Churchian dogma, purportedly not observed by the Church anymore, Paul writes to the Corinthian congregation stating that their manner of observing the Passover and the annual Holy Days of Unleavened Bread, is unbecoming and disrespectful of the sacrifice of Christ!

Here we have an indisputable connection between the Holy Days and the salvific work of Christ. The Holy Days were teleologically—having been designed with divine purpose--connected to Christ before the foundation of the earth because scripture teaches that He was slain for man’s salvation from before the foundation of the earth. THEREFORE, the sacred assembly days like Passover and Trumpets, depicting the redemptive work of Christ, were simultaneously designed to reflect his work on behalf of humanity! [1Pet 1:20; Eph 1:4; Rev 13:8.] Since Christ is not an afterthought in the great Plan of salvation the Holy Days depicting that Plan cannot be a redemptive postscript.

Simply stated: The Passover depicts the atoning sacrifice of Christ. This atoning sacrifice was planned before the foundation of the earth. Thus, the Passover itself had to be planned before the foundation of the earth! Ditto the Feast of Trumpets which depicts His second coming.

Remember, Paul writes to the Corinthian congregation during the days of Unleavened Bread [as will be shown below] from Ephesus [1 Cor 16:8] – a mere 200 miles across the Aegean Sea. With regular crossings between the two commercial metropolises Paul’s letter would have reached them during the Festival period.

Paul speaks to the congregation analogously in Chapter 5:1 (and following). By analogy he indicates that just as leaven spreads through a lump of dough to sour it, so spiritual corruption slowly permeates through a congregation. He says: “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven [corruption, in this case the sinning fornicator, v.1] leavens [corrupts] the whole lump [the whole congregation]?” [1Co 5:6.]

The report Paul received [Verses 1-5] indicated that there was a regular fornicator [spiritual corruption] in the congregation. This “leavened” [corrupted] the whole church, spiritually. Paul instructs the congregation to “Purge out therefore the old [corrupt spiritual] leaven [that is, put out the fornicator from congregation] “that ye may be a new [Greek: spiritually regenerated] lump [congregation] ...”

Observe very carefully. Paul has just castigated this church for having spiritual corruption [spiritual leaven] in their midst. And then he says: “...as you are unleavened.” [Verse 7].

Paul is not engaging in deceptive double talk. First, he states categorically that these people are leavened [spiritually]; but then he unambiguously declares that they are already unleavened [meaning physically].

Though physically unleavened they were spiritually leavened!

Clearly, if they were physically unleavened it means that they were eating unleavened bread and thus observing the Feast of Unleavened bread, literally! They were observing the letter of the law without concern for the spirit of the law.

The conclusion is inescapable—Paul had taught the Gentile congregations under his apostolic authority to observe God’s Annual Holy Days.

Continuing with 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore, let us keep the feast...” What feast? The feast which is bound to the Passover, the Feast of UNLEAVENED BREAD.

HOW to keep it though, is the issue.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread cannot be kept with leavened bread! Under God’s jurisdiction in the Old Covenant such defiance of the law was punishable by death! Leaven should neither be found with anybody NOR be eaten by anyone [Ex 12:15, 19].

The camp of Israel was to be kept pure from all physically corrupting leaven and spiritually corrupting behavior. The same with the church! Corrupting sinners in the midst of the congregation is defiance of the Eternal’s objective to keep his congregation clean and pure.

HOW, therefore, is this feast to be kept? In a manner befitting the symbolism of the uncorrupted -- unleavened --bread. As the unleavened [uncorrupted] bread which is eaten during the PASSOVER AND DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD represents purity, so the feast is to be kept communally and individually in moral and spiritual purity.

Paul explains: “...not with old leaven [with the corrupt sinning fornicator in the church], neither with the leaven of malice [Greek, kakia: depravity, evil] and wickedness; but with the unleavened [uncorrupted] bread of sincerity [moral purity, a quality as possessed by God] and truth” [verse 8].

Why would the holy spirit inspire Paul to so meticulously explain the teleology -- the ultimate purpose --undergirding the theologically inseparable Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread if it had no Christological meaning NOR credible dogmatic instructional linkage within the local gentile-based Corinthian congregation, or the universal body of Christ? It would have been meaninglessness personified.

These HOLY DAYS—THE MOEDIM—are directly linked to the PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH'S EXISTENCE and to Christ. Embedded within each holy day’s symbolism is the purpose of Christ’s eternal existence. The Passover sacrifice teaches His salvational sacrifice. The Feast of Trumpets His eventual return. Combined, these Holy Days demonstrate the great grandiose predetermined God-purposes and how they all manifest a divine teleological objective – creating a God-family as predetermined in eternity and articulated in Genesis 1:14. The Feasts are annual reminders of this God-purpose.

Paul gave clear instructions to the Corinthian church about keeping the Passover [Ch. 11] and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Even though they were already observing these days, literally eating unleavened bread as commanded in Scripture, they engaged in some disrespectful attitudes and behaviors. But Paul knowing the recalcitrant human heart and mind, issued this challenging statement: “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual [as many modern-day preachers presume themselves to be while they publicly pervert this very teaching of the Apostle!] let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you [inter alia, about keeping the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread] are the commandments of the Lord” [1 Cor 14:37].

Paul wrote the letter during the Days of Unleavened Bread from Ephesus – another Gentile congregation. Is it at all plausible that he would instruct the one Gentile-based church to keep the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread and not observe it in Ephesus himself with another Gentile-based church? It’s an absurdity beyond contemplation.

Paul would, quite clearly, have been keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread with the Gentile-originated congregation in Ephesus while instructing the Corinthian congregation to do the same—otherwise the man would have been nothing but a schizophrenic hypocrite!

Luke, Paul’s traveling companion, meticulously records the Holy Days during their travels. He pays attention to the Days of Unleavened Bread in Acts 12:3 and 20:6. These calendric notifications [the MOEDIM of Genesis 1:14] serve as milestones along their journeys and seemingly served as their “annual diary”. Precisely as the Eternal intended them to be!

Why mention these annual Holy Days if they were of no importance to Paul and Luke – or to the Church, then and now? It is because of these holy spirit inspired memoranda that we, 2000 years later, are still motivated by Apostolic example of obedience to the Eternal’s annual holy convocations that the world has in recent times again witnessed tens of thousands observe the Moedim of Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles.

Further New Covenant indicators of the Apostolic Church keeping the Moedim during the first century is found in Act 27:9 where it is noted that “sailing was now dangerous, because the fast [it is the specific fast of Lev 23:27ff, Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement] was now already past”. The contrast between this SPECIFIC FAST on the 10th of Tishri [late September to early October] and unscheduled non-biblical fasting is found in this same chapter when we read in verse 33 that the people on board had had continued fasting for 14 days soon after “the fast” due to a violent storm and crises on board.

This voyage occurred in the year 59AD. This fact is HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT. Why? It tells us that 28 years after Christ’s death and resurrection, Paul, Luke and Aristarchus [later imprisoned with Paul, Acts 27:2 and Col 4:10] still observed the Day of Atonemt! There is not the slightest indication that the Holy Days were abandoned by the Apostles and the New Testament Church due to Christ’s sacrificial death! All the evidence proves the contrary--nominal Churchianity's strained and stained opposite teachings notwithstanding!

We further note that Paul departed from Ephesus saying, “I must by all means keep this [coming] feast … in Jerusalem” [Acts 18:21]. Which feast this was Luke does not indicate. Irrespective, it is still one of the great pilgrimage festivals ordained by the Eternal for His predetermined purposes and for His predestined people.

If, as professing Churchians aver, they believe the bible and accept it as the "inerrant revealed word of" then we propose that they also have a look at Isaiah 66:24 which anticipates the Messianic Kingdom upon earth.

During Christ's millennial reign all humanity -- “all flesh” – will worship the Eternal on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath, being designed to be kept by all mankind in the Kingdom [see previous Blogs on the Sabbath] is indicative of submissive obedience, love, and honor to the Father and Christ. By what logic, by what scriptural authority, can it be determined that the Sabbath should not be kept when Scripture plainly teaches that it should be kept?

But, let’s consider the Feast of Tabernacles and the 144 000.

In Zechariah 14:16-19 we read some mighty compelling declarations about keeping Yehovah's Moedim, designed and created before the earth was formed as part of His eternal Wisdom. [See inset, Prov. 8:22-36.]

THE HOLY DAYS WERE DESIGNED and ORDAINED IN ETERNITY PAST FOR ETERNITY FUTURE!

“And it shall come to pass, that every one [no exceptions!] that is left of all the nations [no exceptions!] which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, Yehovah of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”

The Sabbath and the Feast of Tabernacles will be observed by God’s command under Christ’s earthly rulership during the Millennium. Therefore, what reason may be given for abandoning these Holy Days today? As seen from Paul’s teaching, Christ’s death did not “do away” with the Holy Days. By his life example and that of the Apostles after Him we discover demonstrable evidence that the holy Sabbaths of the Eternal are not to be abandoned--neither in this age nor in the age to come.

[Those who argue to the contrary on the basis of Galatians 3, Romans 14, and Colossians 2 are ill-informed about God’s grand design and the contextual content of those scripture segments. Despite the fact that some of the more brilliant ones can quote reams of scriptures, and irrespective of any cum laude academic achievements from their sectarian seminaries where falsehoods are regurgitated year upon year and professors use their same old dog-eared handbooks written by their likeminded peers and repeat the same old stale jokes and cunningly devised errors and sophistry and illustrations ad nauseam, and despite their libraries replete with tomes ancient and modern, they still “see through a glass, darkly (1Cor 13:12)].

These Holy Days were instituted by the Eternal in the Old Testament [“written aforetime (before ordained) for our learning (doctrine)” and are “able to make us wise unto salvation”, Rom 15:4 and 2 Tim 3:15]. The Holy Days were kept by the apostles during the New Testament era, and will continue to be kept during the soon-coming Millennium. And, if any theological genius surviving the coming holocaust should wish to display his or her seminary ignorance by quoting beer guzzling, self-righteous, deviant “reformers” to contradict the decree of Christ and encourage people not to keep “those Jewish” days observed by “sects” and “cults”, then the following will happen: “And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Yehovah of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain” [Zech 14:17].

Disobedient, God-defying, non-Holy-Day-keeping nations will suffer drought. Famines will ensue. Since Christ will control world food supplies no foreign aid will be given to them. Christ will starve them to death if they refuse to obey His sacred annual Feasts! Alternatively they can learn to obey Yehovah’s divine laws, which will include keeping the Annual Sacred Feasts, the Moedim.

All “intellectually profound” hermeneutically superior biblical expositors, linking their creation theology to one Darwin [all fools! (Rom 1:22)], attempting to defy the ruling Christ by trying to persuade other rebels not to obey the yearly Feast of Tabernacles, will be quashed and their wicked influence societally eliminated!

Satan has wreaked enough havoc by his theological trickery, doctrinal deception, moral dishonesty, fraudulent history, fake science, and false religious schemata of Sunday observance, Venus veneration [Ishtar/Easter] and the jolly Jesus “Christ”-mass celebrations. Christ will not tolerate any such spiritual and intellectual “kakia” venerating a mythologized counterfeit christ.

Some preachers of unrighteousness presently prancing on their plush carpeted platforms of liberation from “that dreadful law”, seemingly will survive the coming holocaust to face their shame. They will deny that they preached against Christ and His law. When confronted about their antinomian past their ingrained lying spiritual-DNA will once again kick-start their deceitful response.

“And it shall come to pass in that day [in the Millennium], that the prophets [the present-day Churchian preachers] shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied ... [lying] he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth” [Zech 13:4-5].

Amazing! Even in the face of all the evidence against them they keep on lying!! It’s a characteristic concreted into their coarse, gravelly hearts through years of imbibing and practicing deceit.

Will today’s dyed-in-the-wool antinomianists, dripping their doctrinal drool like over-ripe, suppurating boils, be granted opportunity for repentance? Or, will some still be so obstinate as to continue their chosen preacher’s career in proclaiming false doctrines, only to be “thrust through” by their own parents? [Verse 3.]

With the African continent in his prophetic eye Zechariah continues:" And if the family of Egypt [representative of all Africa] go not up, and come not, they will have no rain." Yehovah will smite those nations with "the plague" if they do not go up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. [See Zech 14:18-19.]

But what about the 144 000?

To understand the connection between the 144 000 and the Feast of Tabernacles we need to understand who they are.

Revelation 7:3-4 declares: “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”

In Revelation 14:4 it is stated that the 144 000 are “the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb”.

These first-fruits will be alive upon the earth at the return of Christ and will be changed into spirit beings and ascend to meet the returning Christ in the clouds. They are Israelites [not just Jews] who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” [Rev 14:12].

What does the New Testament teach about obedience to the commandments of God – including the Moedim?

John 14:21 “He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me...” Millions of Churchians and their thousands of pastors claim to “love Jesus” – but refuse to keep His commandments!

1 John 2:4 states: “He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Antinomianists, take note!

Notice also 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."

Rev 12:17 virtually clinches the matter: “And the dragon was angry with the woman [the true Church of God], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed [the true followers of Christ], who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Since the Moedim--the seasonal sacred days, the ANNUAL HOLY DAYS--are integral to the commandments of God on a universal basis in the coming Kingdom, it would seem most logical and biblically correct that the 144 000 will be observing the Feasts of the Eternal at the end time as a precursor to establishing them as the effective PRIESTS, KINGS and RULERS TO SERVE AND LEAD all humanity [Rev 5:10; 20:6].

Can Protestant, Pentecostal or Catholic clergy who have never been taught, nor ever taught anybody, to keep the ANNUAL HOLY DAYS OR YEARLY SABBATHS, be in a position to instruct the worldlings of the millennium how to observe and why to observe the Moedim of the Eternal?

Can a Protestant, Catholic, or some secular Churchian minister who decried, denounced, and deprecated the commandments of Yehovah, and specifically the Holy Days, ever be in a position to teach what he does not know, or what he does not respect and willfully rejects and refuses to obey?

On what basis should such preachers be permitted to become a Priest and King unto THE ETERNAL? And on what basis can they function within the kingdom—being ignorant of YEHOVAH’S WAYS?

Will the people whom they are to teach at that time [assuming they are given such power], and who knew them in the pre-millennial era, not legitimately ask: Why are you teaching me to keep the Feast of Tabernacles when you taught me that I do not have to keep these "abolished Jewish feasts"? Such a scenario will be an absurdity of note!

If you are going to be a teacher of righteousness—be a Holy Priest and King—you have to know righteousness and have had to observe it as a life-style. Is it not therefore, a sine qua non that the 144 000 Israelite believers will be keeping the Feast of Tabernacles at the close of the age? They will have to be Torah observant today to qualify to teach Torah tomorrow in the Kingdom.

If not, Zechariah, Isaiah and Paul – in fact, the Bible -- makes no sense whatsoever!

BUT, since the Bible is the most sensible book ever written, for those with understanding it is clear that, as with all other Moedim, THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES WILL BE OBSERVED BY THE 144 000 AT CHRIST'S RETURN.