Ian Boyne, Contributor
THIS WEEK is special to religious Jews all over the world. It is the week of the Feast of Sukkoth, or Feast of Tabernacles, otherwise called Feast of Booths. It represents to the Jews God's miraculous and loving guidance of them during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness before they entered their Promised Land, Israel. It also foreshadows the coming of the Messiah.
I maintain that it is a period that should not only be special to Jews but to Christians as well. But the truth is that most Christians reading this have never heard of the 'Feast of Tabernacles' or 'Feast of Booths', even though it is in the Bible (Leviticus 23 and John 7). Yet, there is a small minority of Christians outside orthodox Christianity who believe that New Testament Christians should observe these days.
I have been spending time with some of these Christians in Ocho Rios since Friday evening when the eight-day feast began. Hundreds of them are here from all over the United States, Canada, Britain and the Caribbean to celebrate this feast not as a Jewish festival, but as a Christianised festival that outlines what is seen as God's plan of salvation. It is our belief that the Christian church made a tragic mistake when it cast aside these observances and subsequently Christianised pagan festivals, rebaptising them as Christmas and Easter.
My sistren, brethren and I all take our annual vacations at this time of the year to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, which in our view pictures the eschatological Kingdom of God when absolute peace, prosperity and justice will be established all over the world. The Feast also pictures the incarnation of God in human flesh-Christ "tabernacling" (Greek, Skenoo) with us(John 1:14).The Feast is totally Christo-centric.
ANTI-SEMITISM
Today the average churchgoer will tell you that he no longer keeps the seventh-day Sabbath, the "Jewish feast days" and that he abstains from certain meats because those things were all "nailed to the Cross". Now that Christ has come and we are in the Age of Grace and Faith, we no longer have to do the things that the Jews of the Old Testament did. And they seemingly have a lot of New Testament texts to back up their arguments, too.
But a lot of these arguments mask the fact that a major reason for the historical rejection of the Sabbath, feast days and the dietary laws was due to anti-Semitism.
Jewish-Gentile tensions in early Christianity and the growing antipathy toward Jews who allegedly killed Jesus, the founder of Christianity, pushed the Christian Church further from its Jewish roots. Some of the early Church fathers were among some of the most vehement anti-Semites.
John Chrysostom, Bishop of Antioch, interrupted a sermon series in AD 386 to warn his members against observing the upcoming Feasts of the Fall. Hear him:
"The festivals of the pitiful and miserable Jews are soon to march upon us one after the other and in quick succession: Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Tabernacles, the fasts (Day of Atonement). There are some in our ranks who say they think as we do yet some of these are going to keep the festivals and others will join the Jews in keeping their feasts. I wish to drive this custom from the church right now."
The historical records confirm that Christians in the First century and the earliest centuries continued to keep the seventh-day Sabbath and the Festivals, which were observed by the Jews.
The evolving Christian church carried out a ceaseless propaganda and literal bloody war against them. Justin Martyr, a famous saint of the Catholic church (about AD 100-165), says in his Dialogue With Trypho: "We too would observe your circumcision of the flesh, your Sabbath days and in a word all your festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you, namely because of your sins and hardness of heart."
In other words, it was because God knew that the Israelites were wicked and hard-hearted why He punished them with the burdens of the Sabbath and the feast days! This is rank anti-Semitism and prejudice. While a lot of Christians have developed other, more sophisticated, seemingly more rational and exegetically sound arguments against Sabbatarianism and Feast observance, the genesis of the distancing of the church from Jewish practices must be noted.
SHUNNING JEWISH CUSTOMS
It is clear that the New Testament writers continued to follow the Jewish calendar and its observances. Troy Martin writing in the scholarly journal, New Testament Studies in 1996 (issue 42) says, "The references to time in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians exclusively reflect the adoption of a Jewish calendar. He builds an elaborate argument based upon the festival of the Passover and Unleavened Bread (I Cor.5: 6-8) in order to exhort the Corinthians, 'Let us keep the festival". Although the temporal references in Paul's letters are sparse, 1st Corinthians provides strong evidence for the Pauline adoption of the Jewish practice that marked time by festivals and Sabbaths".
He goes on to say that the "portrayal of Paul in Acts supplies clear evidence that Christians mark time by segments of festivals and Sabbaths". In the book, The Primitive Christian Calendar Phillip Carrington makes the same point: Carrington says the books of Mark, John, Corinthians and Hebrews and Revelation indicate that a "Christianised form of the Hebrew calendar was in use by the Apostolic church. A lot of the allusions and symbolism in those books are rooted in the Old Testament Feast liturgies.
These liturgies would be much more meaningful to Christianity than those of Christmas and Easter, which historically, have nothing to do with salvation history. These are pagan adaptations.
Look at what all Christians already acknowledge, without some of them ever making some natural connections: Christ was crucified on the day of the Old Testament (read Jewish) Passover. He was presented to the Father as the wave-sheaf offering on the Sunday after the Sabbath during the Passover week when the wave-sheaf was traditionally offered. The Holy Spirit came "when the Day of Pentecost was fully come" - on another Old Testament Feast day recorded in Leviticus 23.
Then there is another Feast called the Feast of Trumpets. In I Corinth-ians 15: 51-53, 1st Thessalonians 4:16, Revelation
11:15 we see the coming of Christ associated with the blowing of Trumpets.
In Leviticus 16 where the Day of Atonement rituals are outlined we see the ritual of two goats presented. One is killed and the other sent away by a fit man to an uninhabited place. Interestingly, Seventh-day Adventists who do not celebrate the Feast days teach, contrary to most Christians, but correctly, in the view of Herbert Armstrong, that the goat sent away represents Satan who will be bound during the millennial reign of Christ. Atonement follows Trumpets, which, if we follow the symbolism, represents the return of Christ. Seems like a smooth flow of salvation history to me.
The Feast of Tabernacles pictures the coming Kingdom of God. Interestingly enough, even highly recognised scholars acknowledge this while the orthodox Christian church continues to reject the feast days as meaningful and important modern-day observances.
In the prestigious and highly regarded Word Biblical Commentary series, John Hartley, Professor of Old Testament and Chair of Biblical Studies at the well-known Azusa Pacific University, says in his commentary on the book of Leviticus: "Yahweh is jealous that his people celebrate each of the festivals. Amazingly, the church has nothing that corresponds to the joyous Feast of Booths! In the Old testament, however, the reign of Yahweh is associated with this Feast.
Several prophets use symbols from this Feast in their oracles of the coming reign of God (e.g. Isa.52: 7-13; Zech.12-14) They foresee a year when God Himself will establish a peaceful reign over the entire world from his throne in Jerusalem (Isa. 2: 2-4; Micah 5: 1-4). Yahweh will resolve all disputes. Peace will reign supreme. All nations will stream to Jerusalem to be taught of Yahweh and to celebrate these great feasts, above all, the Feast of Booths.
Therefore, the Feast of Booths continues to hold promise for all believers. It points to the return of Jesus and to his universal reign as King of kings and Lord of lords".
Absolutely fascinating coming from an orthodox Christian scholar and not from one of us in the movement founded by Herbert W. Armstrong! But he has more: "Just as the liturgical calendar was important to Israel, so too the liturgical calendar is important to the church. Observance of the calendar brings us into contact with the mighty redemptive acts of God on our behalf".
MISGUIDED
What's wrong with Christianity is that it has uprooted itself from its Jewish moorings and has cast aside a beautiful and fitting heritage through chauvinistic prejudice, bigotry and misguided exegesis of Scripture. Some have come back to their theological senses. Some years ago the well-known Adventist scholar and leading exponent of Sabbatarianism worldwide, Dr. Samuelle Bacchiocchi, was challenged by members of the Armstrong movement to study the Holydays (Feasts). He had previously taught that only the seventh-day Sabbath was necessary.
He plunged into an intense period of scholarly study, scouring doctoral theses at Andrews and other reputable universities, devouring books on the issue and finally coming to the conclusion that the Feast days were still to be kept and had meaning beyond the Cross. He subsequently wrote a two-volume book, God's Festivals in Scripture and History which have led a number of persons to appreciate the significance of the observance of Feast days like the Feast of Tabernacles we are now observing on the northcoast.
He even found statements in Adventist Founder Ellen G. White's writings (Patriarchs and Prophets) where she said, "Well would it be for the people of God at the present time to have a Feast of Tabernacles-joyous commemoration of the blessings of God to them."
He found quotes from The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary which says that Paul wrote favourably about keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Corinthians. While Adventists have traditionally used Colossians 2:16 to show the Feast days are abolished (ironically, the same text used by Sunday-keepers to show the Sabbath is abolished!), Bacchiocchi has rejected this view, maintaining correctly that the text preserves the continuity of both the Sabbath and the Feast days. John 7 shows Jesus attending the Feast of Tabernacles. This means nothing, Adventists say, yet they themselves quote Luke 4 and Acts 17 to show that the custom of Jesus and Paul to be at the synagogue meant that they were still keeping the Sabbath and, therefore, Christians should follow their practice today.
Acts 20:6 mentions the Days of unleavened Bread casually, suggesting that they were known and observed by Christians in the Gentile areas. Acts 20:16 shows that Paul was determined to attend Pentecost celebrations at Jerusalem. But that was to preach Christ to the unbelieving Jews, some retort.
In 1st Corinthians 16:8 Paul again mentions wanting to go to a Pentecost celebration but this time in a gentile area of Ephesus. And Zechariah 14:16 prophesies that at the return of Christ all nations, including Egypt, will be keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, showing that its meaning goes beyond ethnic Israel. The Armstrong movement has always taken this to mean that Christians ought to be keeping them now and that the Feasts are meant for non-Jews.
So this week we are off from our routine activities to picture a coming world tomorrow where there will be no corruption, extortion, fiscal deficits, garrisons, greedy politicians, injustice, exploitation, crude materialism and oppression by hegemonic nations. Thy Kingdom come, O Lord!
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. You can send your comments to ianboyne1@yahoo.com.
