Tag: Faith once delivered

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.

Truth is Truth

Truth is ready to be discovered if we trust the Spirit and are willing to break away from credal Christianity.

We must challenge the doctrines of men.

Did you know there is a controversy over who discovered mechanical flight first? Being Americans, we naturally know that the Wright Brothers were the first to fly an airplane. But between 1895 and 1906, there are several people who claim to have conducted the first manned flight. And guess what? Many of them are correct. These people did fly something, and in their regions, they were the first to do it. These people were not stealing ideas from each other and claiming credit, they figured it out about the same time and before new could travel fast, if at all.

The reason I bring this up is to illustrate how truth is simply truth. Mankind had wanted to build a flying machine for hundreds of years. Gliders and hot air balloons were a reality, so we knew it was possible to get up there and possible for the air-plane to work. An airplane is called this because its body and wings form a geometric plane on which the craft glides on the air. It compresses the air beneath it to give it rigidity. It’s similar to surfing and you feel this when trying to move a board in a strong wind. With enough thrust, the glide becomes a flight. As technology progressed where we had strong yet light enough materials coupled with the internal combustion engine and some propeller or propellers, it became a real possibility. And many men (and likely women) realized how to get it done at the same time. Because knowledge, technology, and resources all came together at the same time. This illustrates how truth is discovered and is simply “true”. This is only one example among a great many where different, and isolated, people have made scientific or engineering discoveries at nearly the same time because they had the means to discover truth at similar times. It even happens on a grand scale. Continental drift was discovered in a similar fashion, where people operating telescope observatories on different parts of the globe realized their observatories were actually moving. They anticipated their platforms to be perfectly still but the math didn’t add up. Air travel figures into this, too, as many pilots had the opportunity to see the coastlines of Europe and North America and realized they could fit together as a puzzle. Submarine captains were also realizing something similar. Somebody put all this together to realize that the surface of our planet is not stationary. And this is quite recent as well, hence the plane and submarine references.

The amount of people who have come to the knowledge of the truth of scripture in the last twenty years is astonishing. This is how we start our walk. Arriving at the truth is an inevitability if we let the words say what they say. But what’s happening now is different from the historical changes in doctrine. I often mused that if someone who was educated but completely isolated from religion ever read the bible, they would come to something similar to what we do. I imagined that perhaps someone from a godless, communist country could get their hands on a bible, any bible, and just read it, they would not come up with the doctrines of mainstream Christianity but their worship would look very similar to ours. I understand this has actually happened over time, once even with some people or pirates who got shipwrecked in the Caribbean. They read the bible and started a Christian society that followed the Torah. But for us, something else has to happen. A little different.

Slide 2 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” (Joh 16:13)

This is literally about prophecy but it applies to our walk. The context is that Yeshua was about to be crucified and they would not realize what was happening but after, the Spirit would come and lead them into all truth. But this does apply to us today in a similar manner. It’s absolutely possible for us to read the Bible as a technical manual and apply its truth to our lives in a very academic fashion. But to make the words actually matter, well that takes supernatural power. That takes the Spirit.

Slide 3 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Messiah Yeshua, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. (1Co 2:1-5)

Paul had superiority of speech and wisdom and he knew he couldn’t make anyone believe. Paul’s pedigree, intellect, and knowledge surpasses almost all of mankind’s. His faith does, too. And he knew he couldn’t force change. It takes the Spirit to make the change. So take it to heart, brethren, that I can’t make the words meaningful, either. If these messages help you understand the Bible and bring meaning to it, it’s not me doing it. It’s the Spirit. And if these message inspire anyone, let them inspire you to read the Bible and let the Spirit guide you into all truth.

This is why the message is entitle Truth is Truth. We have to have faith that our Bibles are the true Word of God and then place our trust that He will lead us into what we need to know and when we need to know it.  

Slide 4 The Jews then said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find Him? He is not intending to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is He?” (Joh 7:35)

We’re still fighting this exclusionary spirit. Yeshua was disliked among the clergy of His day because He was not beholden to them for His knowledge or for His authority. He challenged their doctrines by means of His mere existence and one educated in Torah and all things related to Israel. They kept testing Him because they wanted to put Him into a box. If He believed in resurrection, He had to be a Pharisee. If he didn’t follow traditions of the elders, He had to be a Sadducee. And on and on. They wanted to put Him into a box so they could control Him. And they were terrified of Him teaching the Greeks (which means us). They wanted special, compartmentalized knowledge and control. He wanted to save all mankind.

Slide 5 Enter Credal Christianity

For the first 150 or so years of Christianity, aka The Way, aka, the Faith Once Delivered, we had that freedom. What’s really unusual is that we had that freedom in the synagogues. That’s where the Jews worship, dontcha know? And that’s where the faith started. Paul went right into the synagogues to teach Yeshua and Him crucified, challenging the clergy right to their faces. And it took a while for him to be expelled. The gentile converts also attended synagogue to hear Torah, as recorded in Acts 15. When the Jews finally had enough, the faith grew independent of central leadership. Until the Nicene council. Which I spoke of in my recent podcast about how God is not a Trinity.

Having a creed, or statement of beliefs, is almost a requirement. We had to have a statement to get the 501c3. So what happened after the first creed went into place? It grew. And then came the edicts. Over time, the faith became bloated with rules and rulings and it very quickly turned into a form of Rabbinic Judaism, where men became the gatekeepers of all dogma. But, worse than Judaism, these clergy men made themselves out to be the arbiters of salvation. If you didn’t agree to the creeds and dictates of the church, then you were excommunicated, which meant you lost your salvation. Worse, if you still didn’t shut up, they would kill you outright.

But if their doctrines were true, then why did they need to be enforced by, well, force? And this gets to the core of faith. Yahweh sent His Son to die so that mankind could have a shot at salvation – a shot at living with Him and His Son for eternity. It’s an invitation. What is the goal of trying to force this on anyone? If Yahweh wanted to force the issue, isn’t He powerful enough to do so?

Then we get to the reformation, but that didn’t pan out the way it should have, either. The believers did throw out the Catholic dogma, well some of it, but then they kept a lot and kept the church governance. Luther started Lutheranism. Calvin started Calvinism. And on and on. The Geneva bible is printed, which was great. It is the precursor to what we carry today. Small and cheap so each family could have one. But then you had men interpreting what things meant, so they didn’t get rid of Sunday worship, they kept the pork, they kept a lot of the pagan stuff. They became Catholic-light.

Slide 6 The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. (Act 17:10-12)

Here we have Paul going into the synagogue in Berea and challenging the doctrines of the day. What did the people do? They searched the scriptures. And I bet those scriptures were the LXX in Greek. And they challenged their long held beliefs. Paul convinced them to check it out.

Today, we all have the scriptures. In every language. And we have reference material galore. And we can see the LXX and the MT. We can go nuts with this stuff. But you have a bible. If you don’t and need one, let me know and I’ll send one. An NASB, which is a modern, literal, translation not some special thing that fits my doctrine. Don’t be afraid to challenge doctrines. If they are true, then they will pass the test and be retained. If they are false, then adjustment is required. But there’s a third option that many find too uncomfortable to accept. It’s a little known place called “I don’t know”. If the doctrine is true, then it’s true. If it’s false, then it’s false. Even if you don’t have a better option. I don’t know is a fine place to be.

But just know that truth is truth. And if you are meant to find it, you will. If you trust Yahweh, Yeshua, and their Ruach, the Spirit, to guide you!