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Why is the World so Messed Up? Part Three
December 14, 2019
For the last several weeks we asked the question, "Why is the world so messed up?" We could probably ask that question every week and uncover yet another reason. Last week we considered how not applying God's agricultural laws, His laws of clean and unclean meats, and forgetting about the ten commandments have all contributed to the current mess. Today's Bible study is joined by a companion sermon and sermon transcript. We found out that the world is messed up as a result of ignoring God and rejecting His way of life.
This week we look at the contributing role of the abandonment of God's Holy Days and subsitution of man's holidays. The Holy Days of God can be found listed in Leviticus chapter twenty-three. Christians today think of these as Jewish holidays, but that’s not how God identifies His Holy Days. In verse two we can see that God claims ownership. Reading through the Holy Days, we see the full listing from the Spring Holy Days to the fall Holy Days. To find out more about each Holy Day, use the site index to find a corresponding study or sermon.
Some believe the death of Jesus did away with the need to keep these Holy Days, yet that is not what we’re told. We’re told the observance of these days is a statute forever. The only thing to change with the death of Jesus is the need for offerings and sacrifices as Jesus was our sacrifice once for all (Hebrews 10:5-10). The idea that the law was done away with contradicts what we see in the Bible. In Romans 6:1-2, Paul asked, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” If the law was indeed done away there would be no transgression of the law and no sin. There also could be no grace given to those who sin, or who break the law of God. Instead Paul says we are not to continue in sin. With the death of Jesus is removed the death penalty of sin, because Jesus paid that price for us. The law of God remains for us to follow, yet it is through Jesus and not the law of God that we are saved. There remains a Christian observance of God’s Holy Days.
Leviticus 23:1-44
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD. And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD. And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD. Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein. These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD. Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.
How did we get to the point where the Holy Days of God are not known or ignored by people in the modern era and instead holidays like Easter and Christmas, are observed? There are Biblical events that people and even clergy link to these holidays, yet there is no reference to these holidays in the Bible.
What most people do not know is these holidays are based on pre-Christian, or pagan practices and were decreed by governmental authorities. Easter borrows from the pagan, or pre-Christian goddess Eostre, and the Easter celebration was referred to as Eosturmonath, roughly meaning Easter Month, by the early Christian writer Bede. Eostre was a fertility goddess that had nothing to do with the Bible in either the Old or New Testament. Easter was decreed by the Emperor Constantine in AD 325 during the Council of Nicaea even though the Biblical record makes it clear Jesus died on the Passover, Nisan 14, a date which we can to this day accurately observe.
Christmas is most likely placed on December 25th because of that date’s proximity to a holiday honoring the Roman god Saturn, Saturnalia, which was also a time of gift giving and merry-making. There is no date given in the Bible for the birth of Jesus and if it were important or even advisable for Christians to have this information, God would have given this to us. Instead we are given the date of the death of Jesus which is also ignored by mankind. It is the death of Jesus Christ that provides for our salvation.
A clue given to us in the Bible when Jesus was born involved the reason for the trip to Bethlehem, the census. Census decrees were typically given during the warmer months . Additionally, we know from a passage in Luke that Shepherds were living in the fields with their flocks; shepherds would not typically overnight in the fields during the colder winter months at the time of the birth of Jesus.
Luke 2:7-8
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
So, looking at the Holy Days from the Bible, God’s Holy Days, looking at Easter and Christmas, the question is fair to ask, what should we observe? Should we observe only the Holy Days from the Bible, God’s Holy Days? Should we observe only Easter and Christmas? Should we observe all of them? We’ll take a look at instructions God gave to the children of Israel that we can use and apply to answer this question.
Deuteronomy 18:9-14
When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
God tells us very clearly in these verses that we shall not learn to do after the abominations of nations. As Christians, we need to consider how we would apply that verse to pagan, or pre-Christian practices that have crept into Christianity. There is no way to reconcile that pre-Christian practices have any place within Christianity, and I know there are those who say, “Wait, wait, wait! These practices have not paganized Christianity, we have rather Christianized those practices.” Again, I would take those people who would argue that principle back to verse nine. We are not to take from those practices and use them within our religious worship of God.
The practice of taking and blending different beliefs is called syncretism. Syncretism can involve taking pre-Christian practices and blending them with Christian practices to come up with a new blended religion. The question that we need to look at today is not that we have Christianized these pagan practices, we need to strongly consider how these pre-Christian practices have paganized the faith that God had once given for all of mankind.
When it comes down to choosing between God’s Holy Days and the holidays that are typically observed, we always need to err on the side of God, because God is good, He is right, He is righteous, and his Holy Days are good, right, and righteous as well. So, as we are observing God’s Holy Days, there are many of us who would choose not to observe Christmas or Easter. How do we live in a world that is mostly focused on Christmas or Easter? We recognize that we live a different life. We are respectful to those who believe differently than we do. We do not need to compel them or bring to their attention other than the preaching of sermons and sharing our faith what is proper and right before God. You know, as we walk into a store and see a Christmas display, we do not need to bring issue with the store staff for doing that.
When we go to work and there is an office event we need to be at, we do not need to take issue with the fact that there is a difference in faith that is being recognized. That’s something that we don’t need to be doing, we need to be mindful of what we need to be observing in our own life. And, in our own life when we have the choice between the holidays that man observes, Christmas and Easter and the Holy Days of the Bible, we do need to err and choose with the Holy Days of God.
All verses are from the King James Version.
This site provided by Tom Laign. To all who may believe differently, I also extend peace and love.
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