Tag: Apologetics

Apologetics are messages related to the basics of Christianity as practiced by the first century Christians.

First Century Christianity

What did the early Christian faith look like, what were their beliefs, and how are we supposed to be worshiping today?

Audio only below

There a point where believers, for whatever reason, get a feeling that mainstream Christianity isn’t quite lining up with scripture and decide to read the bible for themselves from Genesis to Revelation. This is also true of people who have never been believers and decide to do the same thing, just read the Bible. It makes a lot of sense for people to be searching for God and truth today because western society, which is founded heavily on the Christian faith, appears to be on the brink of crumbling. It’s an unfortunate reality that people don’t tend to look for God in good times, but that there are no unbelievers in fox holes (meaning during wartime or hard times people turn to God).  For whatever reason a person decides to investigate the faith, they often come to some conclusions that they were not looking for. Many of the key doctrines of mainstream Christianity simply aren’t biblical. I’m not talking about loving your neighbor, being charitable, or any of the basic behaviors, I’m talking about the form of worship. I went down this path over twenty years ago and was astonished to discover the things I was taught to hold dear were derived from non-biblical religions. In fact, they come from religions that the bible condemns and instructs believers to have nothing in common with. When I learned of the pagan origins of mainstream Christian practices, I had to make a choice. The big sin Israel was smote for, repeatedly, was worshiping false gods or blending the true worship with false god worship. Once this happens to a person, that person realizes they must change. In many cases, mine included, we start chopping the false, pagan stuff out of our lives because the Bible commands this over and over. So we chop. And we chop.

At some point, though, we need to find the way to worship. Getting rid of paganism and huge doctrinal errors is great, but can leave one with, well, nothing. I had to learn what the early church really looked like and what practices they had for worship so we could add back in after we cleared the deck of the pagan stuff. That’s the beginning of this ministry. What did First Century Christianity look like and how did they worship? The answers are shocking to mainstream Christians, but pretty easy to realize once you think about it. In fact, if you’ve been in church or read the New Testament at all, once you see how they worshiped, you’ll realize you knew it all along. Just by simply reading the bible the picture becomes clear and easy to see. Over these past 20 some odd years, the picture that became clear to me in the beginning is even clearer now that I know a lot more of the details. So I’m sharing with the world.

Theologically, we are in the same place today as the world was after the fall of the second temple. This would be 70 AD. Follow with me now, this will make sense. Christianity departed from the faith once delivered starting at the end of the first century and into the second. This is when the pagan stuff started to be mixed in. In the 4th century, the corrupted Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. That gave birth to the Catholic church which had a split with the eastern church, then we had the reformation which has resulted in a lot of strange beliefs. All that said, though, we are effectively in the same place with respect to the faith once delivered to the saints as the first century believers after the temple fell. Sure, world history has progressed, kingdoms have risen and fallen, great things have been invented, and awful things have occurred, but there hasn’t been a significant progression in the faith once delivered since the close of scripture, aside from billions of people learning some form of Christianity. The next stop in the plan of salvation is the return of the Messiah, which is exactly where the first century Christians were. So what I am trying to say is that our faith and worship should look as much like it did when the knowledge of the Messiah went forth from Zion. The time period we need to focus on for how to worship and believe is recorded in the New Testament, mostly between Yeshua’s ascension and the close of scripture. We do not have any scripture written after the fall of the temple, as the oldest New Testament books or letters were written in the 60s AD and the temple came down in 70 AD.

Acts 2 is where we see an enormous change. The New Testament contains quite a bit of progression on the path of salvation, meaning explaining the past, fulfilling significant prophecy, and showing us hints at what is to come. Acts 2 is where I want to start the focus of this message. Mainstream Christianity absolutely recognizes Pentecost Sunday as a huge event but misses a lot of stuff that’s going on there. First is they don’t realize that the Day of Pentecost is actually an ancient holiday. They think the apostles were randomly together the day they got the Holy Spirit and that the day was then called Pentecost. But there’s a lot more than meets the eye here because the day of Pentecost is from the Torah. It’s a commanded Sabbath from Leviticus 23. The apostles were together on the day of Pentecost because they were still keeping the Torah. This is hard to fathom if Yeshua had told them the law was done away with after Yahweh resurrected Him.

Slide 2 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. [Luk 24:27 NASB95]

Brothers and sisters, this is a significant verse. And, yes, I may overuse the word “significant” and its synonyms today because I’m talking about the easy to see verses that have caused hundreds of thousands of us to change to a biblical form of worship away from how we were taught in mainstream Christianity. After the resurrection, the Messiah, the Son of God, explained everything beginning with Moses and all the prophets. In order for us to understand the Messiah and the New Testament scriptures, we have to understand Moses and the prophets. I know I’m repeating myself, but it’s absurd to say the law was done away with at the cross when the law defines the Messiah and identifies Yeshua as that Messiah.

So understand they were still keeping the Torah by having a holy convocation, aka church, on the day of Pentecost after Yeshua explained everything to them. This means he did NOT tell them to stop keeping Torah! Pentecost which is also known as Shavuot (both meaning count 50, one from Greek, the other from Hebrew) is a day from Torah that is exactly 50 days from the offering of first fruits. Yeshua was resurrected as the first fruits of the dead as Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:20, which means He was resurrected on that annual observance. Exactly fifty days later is another holy day where the priests would offer leavened bread as the first fruit offering and the nation would have a sabbath. This is a big piece of information that mainstream Christianity misses, and even teaches against. The holy days of Leviticus 23 are prophetic, they continued to be kept by the early church, they show a fulfillment of some prophecy, and allude to more to come. These days are very often dismissed as meaningless rituals, which is blasphemy, but they have deeper meanings including prophetic meanings. They aren’t just days to observe, but they show us the pattern for the plan of salvation. And the first Christians, who were Jews, and those who converted, kept these days the rest of their lives. In fact, we have evidence from the church councils that Christians continued to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days for hundreds of years after the close of scripture, stopping only by force and law.

Let’s get to Acts 2 because it gets even better. There is so much there that we miss because mainstream Christianity is conditioned to look at scripture with the wrong foundation. So let me show you a bit more:

Slide 3 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” [Act 2:6-11 NASB95]

Folks normally look at Acts 2 to focus on the Spirit coming down and the miracle of speaking in tongues. Well, the miracle is really hearing in tongues here, but why are all these people there? Have you ever wondered? Were these international believers in the God of Abraham just randomly present at that moment in time? No! They were there because Pentecost is an ancient pilgrimage festival from the Torah. There are three holy days in Leviticus 23 which are pilgrimage festivals. Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). The nation of Israel was meant to stay within its borders and go to the tent of meeting or the temple three times a year. The Jews were scattered after the first destruction of Israel/Judea. Nehemiah and Ezra returned, but many stayed wherever they were in the world. The synagogue system began around the time of the rebuilding of the temple, which is referred to as the second temple era. The Pentecost in Acts 2 is roughly 500 years after the synagogue system began, which is where Jews and proselytes all over the world were worshiping and learning. These people would then make Aliyah, i.e.,  pilgrimage, to Jerusalem during their lives.

Every single person present when Peter and the apostles received the Holy Spirit were there on purpose. Because Yahweh wanted them there. And He wanted them to witness the miracle and then hear it in their own languages so they could take that information back to their home synagogues and spread the word. The gospel went forth from Zion in Acts 2 through active Jewish believers returning to their homes.

Slide 4 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to [the] courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” [Mat 10:16-18 NASB95]

Brothers and sisters, we’re taught that the law was done away with and that Christianity is some new religion that breaks from the Old Testament, but that’s hogwash. The Messiah told the apostles they would be scourged in the synagogues during His ministry. He told them to go to the synagogues to spread the news of His first coming. See, these are easy to see scriptures that you already knew!

Slide 5 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. [Act 19:6-8 NASB95]

Those synagogues were all over the known world, so that people who knew the Old Testament and knew to expect the Messiah would be prime to hear the gospel and understand it. Having their own faithful return from Jerusalem to tell them of the Messiah and of the miracles of Acts 2 is how Yahweh spread the knowledge of the Messiah to the known world. I wonder how many of those who returned to their homes were baptized and then baptized others? For curiosity, do a search on the word synagogue in the book of Acts in your electronic bibles and see how often Paul was in one preaching about Yeshua. It’s pretty often! In this case, he preached for three entire months!

Slide 6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear [them] in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–we hear them in our [own] tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” [Act 2:6-11 NASB95]

I’ve put Acts 2:6-11 back on the screen. A big change in mindset from what almost all Christians are taught is that the first converts were almost exclusively Jews who attended synagogues all over the known world. We’re talking about ten years of time before the gentiles start converting in significant numbers. When it is written that thousands were baptized in a day early in Acts, they were Jews and those converting to Judaism. These Jews and proselytes stayed Jews the rest of their lives. The difference was that they accepted Yeshua as the Messiah and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. In the New Testament, the term Jew refers to anybody who followed Torah and were from any of the tribes or converts. Something to keep in mind when studying is that language is not static, meaning words can change over time. Those who kept Torah after the temple was rebuilt gradually became known as Jews all over the earth. The book of 2 Maccabees, an apocryphal book written to tell Jews how Judea purged the Greeks from its land, uses the word in that context as does the entire New Testament.

Slide 7 “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” [Act 15:19-21 NASB95]

How often have we read this and just thought the four things were kind of random and all that the gentile converts would ever have to do? I know that’s what I used to think. And then I studied Torah and discovered all four of those instructions are from the book of Leviticus. Yes, deep within the Torah.

Leviticus 17: 12 prohibits eating blood. Leviticus 17:15 prohibits eating things that that just die, which added with verse 12 would cover everything that died without being bled (strangled), Lev 18 defines fornication, Lev 19 and others talk about idolatry. The apostles are telling the gentiles that are converting that they must start by obeying a few Torah principles. But the next line is the one I like to focus on. Moses is read in the synagogue on Shabbat. Why is that line there? Because the gentile converts are keeping the Sabbath and going to the synagogues all over the world. They were hearing about Yeshua and either were already attending synagogue or they were starting, where they would hear the Torah read each week and then learn to follow the commandments! The Jews had a huge problem with in influx of gentiles in their synagogues, which is the crux of the problem for the Jerusalem council. What to do with all those gentiles keeping Shabbat? This letter didn’t make the gentiles convert because they would hear Torah, learn in the synagogue, and then make that decision later, if at all.

Slide 8 5 “For we have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. … 14 “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; [Act 24:5, 14 NASB95]

If Christianity broke off from Judaism to become a new religion at Acts 2, or anywhere in the New Testament, why would the Jews care what Paul did decades later with the Gentiles? My friends, as strange as this may sound, Christianity started in the synagogues and stayed there a long time. Paul was a pest to Jews throughout the world because The Way, or the sect of the Nazarenes, was considered a sect of the Jews. The book of Acts was written in the 60s AD, somewhere around 30 years after the ascension of Yeshua. Our faith was still considered part of the Jews to both the Jews and the Romans! Paul still believed everything in accordance with the law and the prophets. So what does this mean for us? The recipe is clear and on the screen. We follow the law and the prophets and the new testament.

Slide 9  So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua. [Rev 12:17 NASB95]

The rest of her children are those who keep Yahweh’s commandments while also holding to Yeshua’s testimony. This is the same message that we see throughout the New Testament and Paul’s missionary work. To worship and believe as the first century Christians, we are to keep the Sabbath, study Moses, avoid the four things in Acts 15, but then as we study Moses we start changing. We keep the Holy Days of Leviticus 23. We stop eating unclean food and adopt Yahweh’s diet from Leviticus 11. We cease any forms of worship or beliefs that come from paganism. Sunday, Easter, Christmas, the Trinity, praying to dead people, any form of astrology, anything connected to idolatry has to go.  And we copy Yeshua in his application and teachings on the Torah. We need to be loving and patient, trying to help everyone we can come to the knowledge of the truth.

For more messages on early Christianity, please visit firstcenturychristianity.net. Thanks so much for listening and may Yahweh bless you and keep you, in the Name of His Son, Yeshua.

Evangelical Atheism

Spreading the bad news.

This one is audio/video only. Sorry, nothing in print! The video is the first embed below and is from our Rumble channel. There are some cool visuals in this one so click that for the best experience. Please like and subscribe on Rumble if you have an account there! First Century Christianity (rumble.com)

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Worship Matters

When and how you worship identifies which God you serve.

Video with slides from Rumble below.

Audio only from Spotify below.

When and how you worship identifies which God you serve.

When we think of the first three commandments we almost always think about false gods being idols. But what if worshiping false gods didn’t just involve what your worship but when? Unfortunately, most of Christianity worships a false god and breaks the first three commandments without even knowing it. But please bear with me because if you really want to be a part of the family of the true God Yahweh, when you worship is the actual sign. It’s about behavior as well as idols.

I spend a lot of time pitching the positive side of keeping Torah. You know, the benefits of following the entire bible and how the whole faith, from Genesis to Revelation, makes sense. This is in the vein of the Shema, which Yeshua said is the greatest commandment -to love YHVH your Elohim, the LORD your God, with all your heart, you soul, and your might. If you love YHVH, you will do what He says. And when you do what He says, the bible and our ultimate destiny become much easier to understand. But there’s a flip side to this walk:

Slide 2 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. (1Pe 2:17)

Slide 2 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecc 12:13-14)

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The list goes on and on. And it’s hard to bring this side of the faith up because we are all sinners. But we must be moving in a positive direction, towards Yahweh, and sometimes the consequences of our actions need to be addressed to bring about the necessary change. Yeshua said the greatest commandment is to love Yahweh with all your heart and second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Loving Yahweh with all our hearts is displayed by simply doing what he said to do and not doing what He said not to do. Obedience and emulation are the best forms of worship. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. If you saw your neighbor doing something that could hurt them, you are obliged to warn them if you love them.

So why is it so important for us to worship on the right day of the week?

Slide 3 YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am YHVH who sanctifies you. ‘Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to YHVH; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. ‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days YHVH made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God. (Exo 31:12-18)

One of the biggest signs of God’s people, if not the biggest, is when and how we worship. One objection to this is that we’re not the sons of Israel so it doesn’t apply. Au contraire, my friends. Those who accept Yeshua as the Messiah and are baptized become adopted children of Abraham and heirs according to the promise. The NC was made with Israel and Judah. The path to salvation is inextricably tied to being part of the family of God. If you worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He has told us how to do this. And the 7th day Sabbath is a chief way of doing this.

Also in the passage above it says “sabbaths” in the plural. Leviticus 23 defines all of Yahweh’s sabbaths. The weekly being at the top and then we have annual observances, most of which are also sabbaths. I’ve spoken in detail in the past how these observances identify Yahweh’s people. The few times that Israel did what they were supposed to do by following Torah, one could imagine watching the nation from a helicopter view. Every Friday and sunset all motion would stop. All the kids would be in their houses, the streets empty and everything peaceful. On Saturday, you’d see people congregating to have their fellowships on Shabbat. In the days of synagogues, you would see people literally going to church on Shabbat. Then they’d go home and at sunset, you’d see some activity, but for the rest of the week you’d see normal hustle and bustle. Commerce, ranching, farming, and the like. Then on the annual sabbaths, you’d see the entire nation just come to a stop just like on the weekly sabbath. How is this a sign? Because it’s a culture. All the surrounding nations would know how to identify the Israelites by what days they observed. This is the true faith, not one of crosses or statues, but one of routine observances. Our behavior defines which God we serve.

Having a sign and a means to identify oneself as a believer is important. The flip side of having a sign is that it gives the adversary an avenue for attack.

Slide 4 ‘As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. ‘He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. (Dan 7:24-25)

Satan wants to be worshiped. That also means he doesn’t want us worshiping Yahweh. In fact, Satan wants to actually be the ruler of the universe. So his playbook is to change the Torah, hence the change in times and law. The Torah establishes time in the book of Genesis. An evening and a morning is a day. The seventh day of creation, which is the seventh day each week, is the Sabbath. It’s the day Yahweh rested from His works and then we follow His example by doing the same. Remember, the fourth commandment even references the creation.

The cold reality of the situation is that the switch from Sabbath to Sunday isn’t just some switch in when to meet up for church, it’s a switch in gods. Friday sunset to Saturday sunset is the mark of Yahweh. So what god is served by keeping Sunday? You’ve go it, a sun god.

Pagan religions from antiquity worship the sun, s-u-n, the helium plasma ball at the center of our solar system. People, either ignorant of Yahweh or being influenced by Satan, realized that life and light go hand in hand. The sun brings warmth and plants grow when we have sunlight and warmth. When the sun went away, which we now know it stays still and earth’s tilted orbit makes it seem like it is moving when it’s us, it got cold and things died. When it “came back”, it got warm and things came back to life. So people decided that sun, s-u-n, was a god, the giver of life. Then they added in the planets and all sorts of other things to worship, which is idolatry. Over time, these other things got days and observances because it’s hard wired into mankind to want to have religious observances. Deis solis is the day of the sun and is Sunday on our calendars. The false gods had observance times because they are copies of the true God’s worship system.

When Christianity went forth from Zion, it started in the synagogues with Jews who accepted Yeshua as the Messiah. This continued for a long time. When gentiles began to convert, they joined with the Jews at synagogue. They gave up their pagan practices and adopted the worship of the True God, Yahweh, through His Son, Yeshua. This is why the council of Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15, includes “for Moses is read in the synagogues every Sabbath”. The converts had already stopped worshiping on the false days, were attending synagogue on Shabbat, and were expected to keep doing that to hear Moses, i.e., the Torah, every week and learn the ways of Yahweh. So understand, that first century faith was one of people accepting Yeshua as Messiah, Jesus as the Christ, and then breaking with their pagan ways. They stopped worshiping false gods and switched to the true and did it by changing when and how they worshiped.

Unfortunately, Christianity grew apart from the synagogue and keeping the Torah as it moved west. Over time it became acceptable to blend the pagan practices into Christianity. This culminated in councils of bishops who had come to loathe Jews and the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Christianity grew into somewhat of a new religion, being an amalgamation of NT scripture, some OT scripture, legends, myths, and the observances of pagan religions. Sunday, Christmas, and Easter are all pagan celebrations that were brought into Christianity and ultimately subverted it. We have evidence of this in the councils of Nicea and Laodicea, where at the council of Laodicea they were forbidding keeping the Sabbath and mandating people read the Gospels on that same day. This is because, in AD 364, Christians were still reading Torah on Shabbat as the disciples expected them to do in Acts 15. Council of Laodicea – 364 AD – The Sabbath Sentinel

It’s remarkable to not that the same sin which got Israel smote repeatedly, mixing in false god worship with the true (syncretism), has become the foundation for Christianity. Most of the world’s Christians think that Sunday is the Sabbath and that we’re supposed to observe Christmas and Easter. All three of these things actually give homage to false gods and we really need to not do them. If you want the brutal truth about Christmas, please check out my post Are You Worshiping False Gods? – First Century Christianity where you can hear perhaps the most famous minister of our time admit live on TV that Christmas and all its observances are 100% pagan.

Brothers and sisters, if you’re hearing this info for the first time, it’s time to make a change. The change is hard. Yeshua said plainly that He didn’t come to bring peace but a sword. It was not a literal sword, but a sharp division between doing what is right and following Him and His Father versus going the other way. When I learned this information, I spent a ton of time trying to disprove it. But I had to come to the reality that Friday sunset to Saturday set is the Sabbath, the real 4th commandment. And keeping any other day like that is honoring a false god while cheating on the True God. How and when we worship matters.

Holy Days for Christians

The first century Christians did not observe Sunday, Christmas, or Easter. Whether gentile convert or a Jew who accepted Messiah, they continued to worship as commanded by the Torah. This message shows that Christians should never have stopped that practice and the blessings for those of us who have returned to the observances of the first Christians.

Video with slides above via Rumble. Audio only below via First Century Christianity | Podcast on Spotify.

Tisha B’Av happened August 6 this year. The 9th day of the 5th month. This is not a commanded observance but is a very important date in Judaism and Christianity. There is a list of bad things said to have happened on the 9th of Av on the Hebrew calendar. Some are a stretch. But two things appear to be quite literal, the destruction of both Temples happening, or starting to happen, on or about this date. This is significant for a lot of reasons but having both temples come down on the same calendar date is a big sign that YHVH meant those things happen. The second temple coming down was prophesied by Yeshua. That’s also super significant because it’s another proof of His Messiahship. The down side to this, of course, is the suffering and the time it took for the destruction to be complete.

I bring this up because cultures are formed around events and observances. The Torah establishes what a day is, what a week is, what a month is, what a year is, sabbatical years, and jubilees. The Torah is very much intertwined with times and observances. The culture of this world has observances, too. They are sometimes secular in nature, like sporting events or the signing of key documents, and they are religious in nature. The religious ones are pretty much imposters of the real Holy Days of the Bible. It’s August 27 and can you believe there was a Christmas tree display in Costco yesterday? None of us keep Christmas, but this is absurd to start thinking about it this far out. What’s not absurd to think about are Yahweh’s fall observances, which start a little less than a month from now. Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, begins sundown on Sunday, September 25th this year. September 26 is the day to take off work, the High Sabbath. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins the night of October 4 and runs through sundown on October 5. We do no work and eat or drink nothing for those 24 hours. Then Sukkot comes on October 10 – October 17, with the 10th and 17th being High Days.

One of the core beliefs we share is to observe the holy days of Leviticus 23. The early church continued to obey Torah and those who were grafted in from the nations in the first century adopted God’s ways. There are a couple of key points to prove this in the New Testament:

Slide 2 When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them, (Act 27:9)

This is when Paul was being taken to Rome as a prisoner. This is perhaps 20 years after Yeshua ascended. The fast is Yom Kippur and the author of Acts is using this day to say “it’s fall and the seas are now rough.” The day of Atonement mentioned so casually this late in scripture is solid evidence for its continued observance for the early Messianics.

Slide 3 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. (Act 20:16)

Same theme as above but the day is mentioned by name this time. Well, it’s Greek name.  Pentecost means “count 50” and this is the day that is 50 days from the brining in of the first fruits around Passover time. It’s also the day that Yeshua sent the Ruach to the apostles in Acts 2. Paul is trying to be in Jerusalem for Shavuot, a pilgrimage festival. The context again shows solid evidence the day was known and observed by the early believers. Keep in mind the book of Acts was written about 20 years after Yeshua ascended so if they decided to stop keeping the law, it’s weird behavior for the day of Pentecost to be mentioned at all, let alone showing Paul trying to observe it in the holy land.

Slide 4 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Messiah 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. (1Co 5:7-8)

Just to make sure we cover all the bases, Paul is instructing the church at Corinth to keep the festivals. These would be gentiles and Jews alike and he is writing as if they are fluent in the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So let there be no doubt that they continued to observe the festivals, and the commandments, long after Yeshua ascended. It was expected the faith would be observed like this forevermore. In fact, we have evidence the faith did continue like this until the early 400s as the councils had to mandate believers to stop observing the Sabbath and even reading the Torah Portions. So this wraps up the apologetic on the early church keeping the holy days.

Slide 5 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Messiah, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Messiah Yeshua. For all of you who were baptized into Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:24-29)

But I bring it up because of Tish B’Av and how we need to keep the right mindset. Our Messiah was Jewish. He lived as a Jew, attending synagogue, and kept the commandments. That doesn’t mean we have to become Jews or follow the Rabbis, particularly the stuff that came after, but it means we should be mindful, respectful, and somewhat knowledgeable about Judaism, particularly how it was followed in the first century.

Slide 6 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. (Rom 11:1)

But Paul said, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.” (Act 21:39)

But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!” (Act 23:6)

These verses are up so we can see that not only were the first believers grafted in to the family of God but those who were already of the family did not have to change. By change, I mean cast aside the Torah and their ancestry, which is what mainstream Christianity teaches. They teach that a new religion was born 2000 years ago, while we know the faith is a continuance of the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I watched the movie Risen on a couple plane rides. It was very good until the end when the movie makers showed the Apostles cease being Jews and become something else. That’s just not true. The New Testament doesn’t show God turning His back on the Jews and switching to random gentiles, it shows Jews accepting Messiah and continuing to keep the commandments and gentiles accepting the Messiah and starting to keep the commandments. So while we aren’t to convert to Judaism, we still learn from them and their writings because, for at least 150 years, the Messianic movement was actually a sect of Judaism until it was forced out for a couple reasons.

So with all this said, let’s take a quick look at the Fall Holy Days of Leviticus 23 because they are coming up.

Slide 7 Again YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ‘You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to YHVH.'” (Lev 23:23-25)

In English, this is called the Day of Trumpets. That doesn’t do it justice. In Hebrew it’s called Yom Teruah, which does include Trumpets but also shouting, noise, etc. We have a conflict here with Judaism because they call this “new year’s” when it is the first day of the SEVENTH month. But we also learn something from Judaism about this day that Yeshua cited:

Slide 8 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” (Mat 24:36)

Judaism has referred to the first day of the 7th month as “the day no man knows” since before Yeshua. Yeshua was hinting His audience that the end, or His Return, or some hugely significant event coming in the future will occur on the Yom Teruah.

Slide 9 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1Th 4:16-18)

And Paul tells us also that Yeshua will return on Yom Teruah, revealing the hint from Yeshua, and that this day is also when the first resurrection will occur. So, you see, keeping the Holy Days isn’t just a commandment, it isn’t just an expectation of the original believers, many of which were already keeping the commandments because they were Jews, but it’s also looking forward to the return of the Messiah!

Slide 10 YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to YHVH. “You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before YHVH your God. “If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. “As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. “You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. “It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.” (Lev 23:26-32)

Now comes the Fast. This day has enormous Messianic meaning. But the crux is to do nothing – no eating, no drinking, no work, nada for 24 hours from sunset to sunset. That’s what we do today. Back in Temple and tabernacle days, the people did nothing except for a couple of the Kohen. The High Priest made atonement for the people. This was the day that the sins of the people were transferred, ceremonially and perhaps literally, to the goats or the curtain. And the High Priest did it for all.

Slide 11 Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. (Heb 9:6-7)

Again, today is just an overview, but the crux of the matter is that Yeshua bore our transgressions. The Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, was a type, Yeshua is the fulfillment. When He died, the curtain was torn in two. And the book of Hebrews goes on in great detail what this day means.

So for us to fast on this day, to observe it the best we can, is to honor our Messiah’s death which paid the price for sins. And those were sins committed in ignorance, which gives us a marvelous hope for all mankind who have committed sins in ignorance, which is everyone.

Slide 12 Again YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to YHVH. ‘On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. ‘For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to YHVH. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to YHVH; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work. (Lev 23:33-36)

Now we get to Sukkot! The Feast of Tabernacles. Or the season of our joy! So after we have the day that foreshadows Yeshua’s return, then we have the day of somber fasting that is for the sins committed in ignorance (among other things), we have an 8 day festival. We analogize this one to representing the 1000 years, but the Sabbath does that to. We also equate the 8th day as the sign of completion and a gateway between the impure and the holy. The 8th day of sukkot is thought to be representative of the bridge between the end of this era and the beginning of eternity, where we enter the olam ha ba. It’s also thought to be judgment day or the second resurrection. For today, Sukkot is a time for us all to fellowship together in peace and harmony, most often at a resort or camping, with just our fellow believers. Scripturally it represents the time the Hebrews were in the wilderness, living in sukkahs, and is a remembrance of that. Which can also relate to how our lives here are temporal, where we live for just a short time, and then at the resurrection are given permanent immortal bodies. But whatever the meanings turn out to be, the feast is just fine as it is!

Slide 13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecc 12:13-14)

The conclusion, though, is to fear God and keep His commandments. For in so doing, we will show ourselves approved and faithful when Messiah returns. Keeping the commandments are not burdensome, as I hope the message today shows. They are a privilege for us to know and do. They are healthy for us. They enhance our lives today. And they show our faith in Yahweh and His Son, Yeshua, while we await Yeshua’s return.