Are the Biblical Holy Days of Leviticus 23 for Christians?
“Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5: 7-8 NASB)
“Therefore let us keep the feast” falls completely on deaf ears (or eyes, if you prefer) when a person in the 21st century initially reads it. What in the world can this mean? Most Bible-believing Christians would likely just skim that verse without understanding the deeper meaning. Apparently, Christians weren’t supposed to stop observing God’s Holy Days outlined in Leviticus 23. Paul taught gentile converts to keep at least the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread feasts, hence his teaching in 1st Corinthians above.
Yes, Leviticus 23 applies to Christians
The symbols of the Levitical Holy Days are absolutely relevant to Christians. Sometimes one can see Christian teachers teaching the relevance of these days to Christian belief and prophecy, but they almost always end with “but we don’t have to do those now, Christ came to end that ritual stuff.”
The Sabbaths of Leviticus 23 can be kept in a New Testament context and they should be. A Christian can refrain from work on these days and have a holy convocation or assembly. The Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread look to be fulfilled to a large degree with respect to prophecy so we keep those in remembrance of Him. The Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot, looks to have a future fulfillment, so we can study that and learn how things might unfold before the end of days.
God’s appointed times are for every believer
“If an alien sojourns among you and observes the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its ordinance, so he shall do; you shall have one statute, both for the alien and for the native of the land.” (Numbers 9:14 NASB)
God’s Holy Days, His appointed times, were meant for all to enjoy and learn. There aren’t two sets of rules, only one. When a person accepts Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, as his Savior and is baptized, that person becomes adopted into the family of God. After being adopted, a child naturally learns the customs, traditions, and rules of his adopted family. Don’t you want to follow the customs of your Father in heaven?
Relevant teachings:
Explaining the Hebrew Calendar – First Century Christianity A written article explaining the differences between our modern calendar and the Hebrew calendar.
Understanding Prophecy – First Century Christianity This message explains the prophetic outline of the Holy Days and their individual meanings in the Plan of Salvation.
Holy Days for Christians – First Century Christianity This message explains how the first Christians continued to keep these days and expected us all to do the same.
How to Keep the Holy Days of the Bible – First Century Christianity
The Bread of Chaos – First Century Christianity
Last Day of Unleavened Bread 2022 – First Century Christianity
Yes! When he said “Do this in remembrance of Me” he meant that we should observe Passover, not simply ceremoniously eat the unleavened bread and drink the wine without any idea what it means in the total context.
Keeping the Holy days outlined in Leviticus 23 are more relevant for Christians than they are for traditional Jews. The spring feasts were fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Yeshua, and the Fall Feasts are all about His second coming. So, the feasts are all about Yeshua. Because the Feasts are all about the Messiah (Yeshua), I believe they are more relevant for Christians, but have been sadly, for the most part, ignored by mainstream Christianity.