The Feasts of the Lord
portray the history (Restoration) of the Christian church in minute
detail.
Passover reveals
salvation through the Blood of the Lamb.This was the truth
restored under Martin Luther in 1517.It shook the
foundations of established Christianity to the core.Europe was set ablaze
with the cry:"Justification by Faith."A return to the Bible
established the motto:'The Scriptures alone;Faith alone;Grace alone.'The Counter-Reformation, instigated by the Jesuits, stood
powerless against the onslaught of the Holy Spirit and the Word of
God.
If the current cry of
"Going home to Rome" is valid, then Luther was a heretic, the
Reformed Movement was a lie, and the doctrine of Justification by
Faith is heresy.
What do you believe in
this regard?Think carefully.Your answer will direct you to your eternal state with or
without God!
But church history is
simply not a "one shot" affair.This teaching exposes
the fallacy of the Evangelical Church world and its belief
structure, "You get it all when you become a
Christian."
Pentecost shows this not
to be the case.
When the Children of
Israel were extracted from Egypt, God led them to Sinai (shadowed in
the Baptism of the Holy Spirit), there to receive the Law, the
Priesthood, the Sacrificial Offerings, the Tabernacle of Moses and
the Feasts of the Lord.These teachings are treated with disdain are excluded from
many Bible School curriculums.We certainly have
become wise in our own conceits.
How many of the 613 Laws
are we familiar with?The Jewish Encyclopaedia reveals these do's and don'ts,
positives and negatives as 365 negative commandments supposedly
corresponding to the veins in the body, or the 365 days of the
calendar year.The remaining 248 positive commandments correspond to the
supposedly 248 bones in the human
body.
Was Sinai the destination
of the journey, the ultimate in the purpose of
God?
No!The first Pentecost was a
wilderness experience.It was "en route" to Phase 3, to Canaan, to the Promised
Land.
It was here that God
wrote the Ten Commandments on Tables of Stone.[Under the New
Testament, the Law of God is written in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit.]You see,
the Law kills but the Spirit gives
life.
With these five teachings
the disciple is to become absolutely familiar.These are what God
gave.
This is why the two
End-time books of the Bible are Hebrews [which cannot be understood
without the Old Testament shadow of the Law, the Priesthood, the
Sacrificial Offerings, the Tabernacle of Moses and the Feasts of the
Lord] and Revelation.Hebrews, with its doctrine of perfection, is shyed away
from.It is
constructed around the greatest day in the Old Testament Calendar,
the Day of Atonement.These five teachings and two books lie at the heart of what
is to be achieved under Phase 3.
One of the great maxims
of British Law is that any section of the law cannot be correctly
understood without a prior knowledge of the whole
law.
So it is that the church
came to Pentecost.In church history this was fulfilled when God poured out the
Holy Spirit in Topeka, Kansas in 1900 and Azusa St, Los Angeles, in
1906.We have had
100 years of Pentecost
When the Holy Spirit
came, it turned the Evangelical church world on is head.It persecuted
Pentecost, but to no avail.The Pentecostal arm of
the church has prospered without
precedent.
But is this the end?Is there anything
more?
Proverbs
4:18But the path of
the just is as the shining light that shines more and more unto the
perfect day.[or,
day of perfection]
As surely as the three
primary colours, yellow, red and blue, break into the seven colours
of light, red, orange, yellow, green, blue indigo and violet, so the
Three Feasts of the Lord, Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, break
into the seven foundational (first) principles of Hebrews 6;1,
2.
The third Feast cannot be
ignored!
The doctrines of
resurrection life, eternal judgment and perfection cannot be swept
under the carpet.
You see, the God of
nature is the God of the Bible.Nature and the Bible
are harmonious!
They are both fashioned
by the one God.
The objective of God is
yet to be realised.
As surely as Joshua led
the people into the Promised Land, so will Jesus Christ lead His
people into the fullness of the promises of God.He (Jesus) will build a
church against which the gates of hell will NOT prevail.What a far cry from
what is evidenced as Christianity in the Western hemisphere
today.
1 Corinthians
10:11And all these
things happened to those [as] examples, and [it] was written for our
warning, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
The greatest method God
uses to speak to his people is types.It is the most
prolific.
The greatest type in the
Bible is the deliverance of the people of God from Egyptian bondage
(Salvation), their course to Sinai (Pentecost), and entry into the
Promised land (Perfection)
The Christian Church lies
at the crossroads of its destiny.Will we ignore the
foundation of what has gone before, or will we build and advance to
perfection according to the will of God?
When this visitation
arrives the Pentecostal arm of the church will dig its toes in.It will oppose
it.It will
fight.It will do
everything in its power to survive.Severe persecution
will come from this quarter.But God will
prevail.The
church will go to Phase 3.
Greg
Killian
[Greg Killian has
graciously granted permission for the following nine articles to be
incorporated into The
Feast of Trumpets.My sincere thanks are duly recorded
in honour of his
kindness.]Greg’s
Website is located at:
The Watchman:http://members.aol.com/gkilli/home
Rosh Chodesh (New
Moon)
By Greg Killian - Elul 1,
5756
The first mitzvah given
to the congregation of Israel
is:
Shemot (Exodus) 12:1-2
HaShem said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for
you the first month, the first month of your
year.
To put it another way:
The first command, given to the congregation of Israel, was
to:
1. Set up a calendar,
based on the moon,
2. That has Nisan as the
first month.
Notice that this first
command is given to Moses and Aaron as representing the highest
authority in the nation. From this, it is derived that the authority
for sanctifying the new moon and for establishing the order of the
months lies with the highest authority in the nation, namely the
Sanhedrin:
Rosh HaShana 22a MISHNAH.
IF A FATHER AND A SON HAVE SEEN THE NEW MOON, THEY SHOULD BOTH GO
[TO JERUSALEM], NOT THAT THEY CAN ACT AS JOINT WITNESSES[1] BUT SO
THAT IF ONE OF THEM IS DISQUALIFIED[2] THE OTHER MAY JOIN WITH SOME
OTHER WITNESS. R. SIMEON, HOWEVER, SAYS THAT A FATHER AND SON AND
ALL RELATIVES ARE ELIGIBLE TO TESTIFY TO THE APPEARANCE OF THE NEW
MOON. R. JOSE SAID: IT HAPPENED ONCE WITH TOBIAH THE PHYSICIAN THAT
HE SAW THE NEW MOON IN JERUSALEM ALONG WITH HIS SON AND HIS
EMANCIPATED SLAVE, AND THE PRIESTS ACCEPTED HIS EVIDENCE AND THAT OF
HIS SON AND DISQUALIFIED HIS SLAVE, BUT WHEN THEY APPEARED BEFORE
THE BETH DIN THEY ACCEPTED HIS EVIDENCE AND THAT OF HIS SLAVE AND
DISQUALIFIED HIS SON.
GEMARA. R. Levi said:
What is the reason of R. Simeon? — Because it is written, and the
Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This
month shall be unto you the beginning of months,[3] which implies,
‘this testimony shall be valid [when given] by you’.[4] And the
Rabbis? — [It implies], this evidence shall be entrusted to
you.[5]
This authority is
reiterated in:
Rosh HaShana 25a Our
Rabbis taught: Once the heavens were covered with clouds and the
likeness of the moon was seen on the twenty-ninth of the month. The
public were minded to declare New Moon, and the Beth din wanted to
sanctify it, but Rabban Gamaliel said to them: I have it on the
authority of the house of my father's father that the renewal of the
moon takes place after not less than twenty-nine days and a half and
two-thirds of an hour and seventy-three halakin.[6] On that day the
mother of Ben Zaza died, and Rabban Gamaliel made a great funeral
oration over her, not because she had merited it, but so that the
public should know that the Beth din had not sanctified the
month.[7]
'HaShem said to Moses and
to Aaron: "... this month shall be for you the beginning of months
..." And at the moment when Moses our teacher received this command,
the Holy One, blessed be He, transmitted to him the precise rules
for intercalating the New Moon. Thus He made known to Moses the
method for establishing the times and the
seasons.'[8]
Moses and Aaron were told
by HaShem that there should be two witnesses who actually see the
new moon, in order to sanctify it on the thirtieth day. If no
witnesses come on the thirtieth day, it is automatically sanctified
on the thirty-first day. Many assume that the witnesses were
necessary because the Sanhedrin lacked the ability to calculate the
time of the new moon. This is not born out by the facts. Consider:
Why would the witnesses look on the thirtieth day, except they knew
that that was the first time it might be visible. Also we should
note that the last Sanhedrin calculated the new moons so accurately
that they were able to sanctify every new moon for nearly two
thousand years!
The Torah does not list
Rosh Chodesh with HaShem’s festivals in Leviticus 23, never the less
it is a festival as we shall see. First lets note that Rosh Chodesh
is specifically called a day of rejoicing in this passage from the
Torah:
Bamidbar (Numbers)
10:1-10 HaShem said to Moses: "Make two trumpets of hammered silver,
and use them for calling the community together and for having the
camps set out. When both are sounded, the whole community is to
assemble before you at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. If only
one is sounded, the leaders--the heads of the clans of Israel--are
to assemble before you. When a trumpet blast is sounded, the tribes
camping on the east are to set out. At the sounding of a second
blast, the camps on the south are to set out. The blast will be the
signal for setting out. To gather the assembly, blow the trumpets,
but not with the same signal. "The sons of Aaron, the priests, are
to blow the trumpets. This is to be a lasting ordinance for you and
the generations to come. When you go into battle in your own land
against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the
trumpets. Then you will be remembered by HaShem your God and rescued
from your enemies. Also at your times of rejoicing--your appointed
feasts and New Moon festivals--you are to sound the trumpets over
your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a
memorial for you before your God. I am HaShem your
God."
The Temple services were
given to King David in a dream and written down for his son,
Solomon, as we can see from this next passage:
Divrei Hayamim (I
Chronicles) 28:11-19 Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for
the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper
parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. He gave him the
plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of
the temple of HaShem and all the surrounding rooms, for the
treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the
dedicated things. He gave him instructions for the divisions of the
priests and Levites, and for all the work of serving in the temple
of HaShem, as well as for all the articles to be used in its
service. He designated the weight of gold for all the gold articles
to be used in various kinds of service, and the weight of silver for
all the silver articles to be used in various kinds of service: The
weight of gold for the gold lamp stands and their lamps, with the
weight for each lamp stand and its lamps; and the weight of silver
for each silver lamp stand and its lamps, according to the use of
each lamp stand; The weight of gold for each table for consecrated
bread; the weight of silver for the silver tables; The weight of
pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls and pitchers; the weight
of gold for each gold dish; the weight of silver for each silver
dish; And the weight of the refined gold for the altar of incense.
He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of
gold that spread their wings and shelter the ark of the covenant of
HaShem. "All this," David said, "I have in writing from the hand of
HaShem upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of
the plan.”
Since the Synagogue
service is modeled after the Temple service, it would be instructive
to see what is done in the synagogue today. We’ll start by examining
the readings from the Tanakh[9]:
The Torah for weekday
Rosh Chodesh:
Bamidbar (Numbers)
28:1-15 HaShem said to Moses, "Give this command to the Israelites
and say to them: 'See that you present to me at the appointed time
the food for my offerings made by fire, as an aroma pleasing to me.'
Say to them: 'This is the offering made by fire that you are to
present to HaShem: two lambs a year old without defect, as a regular
burnt offering each day. Prepare one lamb in the morning and the
other at twilight, Together with a grain offering of a tenth of an
ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from
pressed olives. This is the regular burnt offering instituted at
Mount Sinai as a pleasing aroma, an offering made to HaShem by fire.
The accompanying drink offering is to be a quarter of a hin of
fermented drink with each lamb. Pour out the drink offering to
HaShem at the sanctuary. Prepare the second lamb at twilight, along
with the same kind of grain offering and drink offering that you
prepare in the morning. This is an offering made by fire, an aroma
pleasing to HaShem. "'On the Sabbath day, make an offering of two
lambs a year old without defect, together with its drink offering
and a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed
with oil. This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, in addition
to the regular burnt offering and its drink offering. "'On the first
of every month, present to HaShem a burnt offering of two young
bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect.
With each bull there is to be a grain offering of three-tenths of an
ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, a grain offering
of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; And with
each lamb, a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour
mixed with oil. This is for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, an
offering made to HaShem by fire. With each bull there is to be a
drink offering of half a hin of wine; with the ram, a third of a
hin; and with each lamb, a quarter of a hin. This is the monthly
burnt offering to be made at each new moon during the year. Besides
the regular burnt offering with its drink offering, one male goat is
to be presented to HaShem as a sin
offering.
A Sin-Offering for
HaShem?
Why is the goat offering
of Rosh Chodesh the only sacrifice of its kind referred to as "a
sin-offering for HaShem?"
Two seemingly diverse
Talmudic interpretations dovetail to supply the
answer.
"Let this goat be an
atonement," Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish explains the reasoning of
HaShem, "for My reducing the light of the
moon."
The Talmud (Chulin 60b)
relates the efforts of HaShem to placate the moon after ordering it
to reduce its light as a response to that luminary's challenge that
there was no room in the universe for two heavenly luminaries of
similar power. Jews would calculate their calendar according to the
moon and tzaddikim such as Yaakov, Shmuel and David would be called
"small" in association with the lesser light of the moon. When all
of this failed to completely appease the moon HaShem ordered Israel
to bring a sin offering on the New Moon. The atonement of this
sacrifice, points out Rabbi Yehuda, is essentially for those sins of
entering the Sanctuary or eating sacrificial flesh while in a state
of impurity of which one never becomes aware. "A sin-offering for
HaShem" means a sin which only HaShem is aware of. HaShem wished to
give Israel this opportunity for atonement, explains Tosefot, and
designated Rosh Chodesh, the Festival of the New Moon, as the time
for offering it in order to placate the moon for its reduction of
light.
Shavuot
9a
Haftarah for Shabbat Erev
Rosh Chodesh: (Torah section for the
Shabbat)
I Shmuel (Samuel)
20:18-42 Then Jonathan said to David: "Tomorrow is the New Moon
festival. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. The
day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid
when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. I will shoot
three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a
target. Then I will send a boy and say, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I
say to him, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them
here,' then come, because, as surely as HaShem lives, you are safe;
there is no danger. But if I say to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are
beyond you,' then you must go, because HaShem has sent you away. And
about the matter you and I discussed--remember, HaShem is witness
between you and me forever." So David hid in the field, and when the
New Moon festival came, the king sat down to eat. He sat in his
customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next
to Saul, but David's place was empty. Saul said nothing that day,
for he thought, "Something must have happened to David to make him
ceremonially unclean--surely he is unclean." But the next day, the
second day of the month, David's place was empty again. Then Saul
said to his son Jonathan, "Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to the
meal, either yesterday or today?" Jonathan answered, "David
earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. He said, 'Let
me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and
my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your
eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.' That is why he has not
come to the king's table." Saul's anger flared up at Jonathan and he
said to him, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don't I
know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and
to the shame of the mother who bore you? As long as the son of Jesse
lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be
established. Now send and bring him to me, for he must die!" "Why
should he be put to death? What has he done?" Jonathan asked his
father. But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan
knew that his father intended to kill David. Jonathan got up from
the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the month he did
not eat, because he was grieved at his father's shameful treatment
of David. In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his
meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, And he said to the
boy, "Run and find the arrows I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an
arrow beyond him. When the boy came to the place where Jonathan's
arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, "Isn't the arrow
beyond you?" Then he shouted, "Hurry! Go quickly! Don't stop!" The
boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. (The boy knew
nothing of all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) Then Jonathan
gave his weapons to the boy and said, "Go, carry them back to town."
After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side [of the
stone] and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to
the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together--but David
wept the most. Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have
sworn friendship with each other in the name of HaShem, saying,
'HaShem is witness between you and me, and between your descendants
and my descendants forever.'" Then David left, and Jonathan went
back to the town.
It is apparent from the
above passage that, even in the days of Samuel and Saul, already
Israel was celebrating Rosh Chodesh, the New Moon, for two days. We
celebrate for two days when the preceding month is twenty-nine
days.
Rosh HaShana 19b R.
Joshua b. Levi testified on behalf of the holy community of
Jerusalem concerning the two Adars, that they are sanctified on the
day of their prolongation.[10] This is equivalent to saying that we
make them defective but we do not make them full, and excludes the
statement made in a discourse by R. Nahman b. Hisda; [for R. Nahman
b. Hisda stated in a discourse]: ‘R. Simai testified in the name of
Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi concerning the two Adars that if they
[the Beth din] desired they could make both of them full, and if
they desired they could make both of them, defective, and if they
desired they could make one full and the other defective; and such
was their custom in the Diaspora. In the name of our teacher,[11]
however, they said: One is always to be full and the next defective,
unless you have been informed that New Moon has been fixed at its
proper time’.[12]
