Why God’s Calendar Isn’t Jewish
An important aspect for followers of Christ is what the Holy Scriptures record concerning time. Time, and time keeping is concisely set out in the books of the Bible from the very first chapter of the first book— Genesis.
Genesis 1:14 – “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, and for seasons, and for days, and years”.
By the end of the 6th day, God commanded that the 7th day be a day of rest because that in it He himself rested from all the work which He made.
Genesis 2:2 – “And on the seventh day God ended his work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all his work which He had made”.
Genesis 2:3 – “God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which god created and made”.
As an unbroken cycle God designed the weekly Sabbath to keep track of time, directing His people to keep 7-annual festivals throughout the harvest seasons each of which pictured His overall purpose of salvation through each festival. These represented an integral part of that plan and purpose which began with the Lord’s Passover picturing a lamb being sacrificed for the sins of the people. Each festival portraying their astonishing end-time fulfilment.
Historically, the 7-feasts of the Lord (as well the weekly sabbath) were so heavily persecuted by the world’s leading religion, Catholicism, that by the end of 1,000-years of persecution, awful tortures and murders and burning at the stake that by the early 19th century only small pockets of people kept the feasts of the Lord, which are rejected today as Jewish by modern day Christianity. The apostle Paul taught these days to Gentile congregations, while the Lord also kept & taught these days not doing away with his Father’s law (Mat. 5:17-18).
He changed the ‘symbols’ of the Passover from the killing of the lamb to the partaking of the red wine symbolizing His shed blood, and the partaking of the broken unleavened bread symbolizing His broken body. The foot washing also symbolizing the humility which He displayed particularly in the closing scenes of His life! (See 1 Cor.11:23-27).
The 7-annual festivals form part of the laws of God which are to be kept by faith as Moses did the first Passover. They are ordered by Christ—the lawgiver (Isaiah 33:22, James 4:12.) as well as the Creator who commanded His Holy Day calendar in the Books of the Law (Numbers.9:3-5; Duet.16; Leviticus 23; Exodus 12-13); as well as the prophets, and which the apostles of the Lord taught as part of God’s calendar to Gentile converts. Scriptures for reference: I Corinthians 5:2, 6-8; Luke 22:7-8; Matthew 26:2, 17, Acts 12:3-4.
