Survey of the Holy Days II

Fred R. Coulter—September 24, 2011

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We are going to see with this survey that there is absolutely no justification—not a single peep of a justification—for observing the holidays of this world and claiming that you are Christian and believe in the Bible. There is none, zero, nada, zip.

And here's another thing: Because you keep Sunday and keep the holidays of this world, you don't know God; you don't know His plan!. You may know of Him, you may have a zeal for God. You may be happy that Jesus forgives your sins. But you don't have a true relationship with God, because you're not baptized and don't have the Holy Spirit of God and you think that you do.

Let's look at it this way. And it's amazing how many people demand honesty from everyone else, but they don't want to be honest with themselves and God. They want to have their way and have God endorse what they do. They want to come to God and say, 'God, I'm doing this and this is really fine and good. It's really wonderful. Everybody's happy doing it, so it's got to be good. You must accept it.' Well, God doesn't.

How do we know the Truth? If people would just take the Bible that they have and follow through with the survey that we are doing in these sermons, you'll not find one positive thing to endorse Halloween, Christmas, New Years, Lent, Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday, or Easter. And as I mentioned on Church at Home one time, I'll give you a million dollars—and I don't have to produce it—if you can show me a live rabbit that can lay boiled, tattooed, and decorated chicken eggs. You laugh at that and say that's foolish. Please understand: That's how foolish what you do is to God!

What is God doing and how are you going to know? Let's begin with some simple verses here, because God is so great and fantastic that He has hidden within His Word in plain sight what He's doing, the general time table of how it's going to happen, etc. But for those who don't have the Spirit of God, they don't know and they can't find out unless they repent and receive the Holy Spirit of God.

Psalm 25:14 says: "The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him..." Yes, God has secrets. Even says, 'You're a God that hides Yourself.' Why does God hide Himself? Because people don't want Him around! God was on earth from the time of creation of Adam and Eve until the Flood and what happened? Everyone told God, 'Get out of our lives! We're going to do what we want to do!' What happened? It became so evil and corrupt that God had to destroy all life and save humanity through Noah and his family—one man! Stop and think on this for a minute. If you believe the majority is always right, why did the Flood occur when only one man was righteous? You can't answer that!

Notice what else: "...and He will show them His covenant" (v 14). The covenant here is the New Covenant and what is God doing. See, because everything in the Bible is based on a principle, which is this: The natural first, then the spiritual.

We have the physical creation. God gave the physical creation and built into it in the way that He made the heavens, the earth, the sun, and the moon. He built into it the seven-day week, the appointed times (Genesis 1:14-15). People read that and say, 'Oh, well, that's nice. God did this.' But hidden in that creation is the secret and plan of God!

Another thing that's important to do, let's come here to Psalm 111:7[corrected] and we'll see the flow of this. What I want you to do is just follow along in the Bible and you will see there's not one place which says, 'Keep Christmas.' As a matter of fact, the word is not even in the Bible. Yes, it talks about the birth of Christ, but Christmas, December 25, is not the birth of Christ.

It condemns Halloween by saying, 'To the law and the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it's because there is no light in them, because they're seeking to the dead and to demons which peep' (Isa. 8). What does Halloween commemorate? Death! It is the highest witchcraft 'Shabbat' for witches and wizards, and they do exist. There are two million registered witches in the United States alone. The Wicca, which is the religion of the witches, is recognized by the United States military and universities as a legal religion and they must have their days off.

Psalm 111:7: "The works of His hands are truth and justice; all His precepts are sure." No one's going to escape God. 'The wages of sin is death.' That's just the way it is. Sooner or later, if you live a halfway decent life, you'll live longer. If you don't, you're going to die. You dishonor your parents, BANG! You may get in a wreck. You may take an overdose of drugs.

That happened to a couple who went out to a party on a Friday night. Hadn't taken any drugs. Someone gave them some meth. Blew their brains, completely lost orientation where they were. The vehicle they were in got stuck in a snowstorm and they died. People love to break the laws of God. They love to rebel against God. However, there's a penalty. 'The wages of sin is death.'
Verse 8: "They stand fast forever and ever; they are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto His people... [Yes, if they'll repent.] ...He has commanded His covenant forever; holy and awesome is His name…. [Here's the way out of all of these traps of human nature]: …The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do... [keep or practice] ...His commandments. His praise endures forever" (vs 8-10).

Psalm 112:1: "Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in His commandments."

• Do you love the commandments of God?
• Do you love the commandment which says, 'Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy'?
• Do you love the commandment, 'You shall have no other gods before Me'?

There are a lot of people, when they came to a Sabbath-keeping church, eventually gave up on the Sabbath and the Holy Days, which as we saw is the secret which tells us what God is doing. They lost all knowledge. How did that happen? How could such a thing happen?

Let's come back here to 2-Timothy 3[corrected], and let's see. Combination of several things:

• those who were teaching
• those who were learning—listeners or followers

The fatal mistake that they made was that they gave up believing God and believing His Word.

This is the anchor of all belief right here. Paul wrote to Timothy, 2-Timothy 3:15: "And that from a child you have known the Holy Writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus." The Holy Writings are the Old Testament. In there it:

• tells all about Christ
• tells about the Kingdom of God
• tells about the Sabbath
• tells about the Holy Days

Here's what they've forgotten, and here's what people in the world do not believe. If you go to a church and they say:

• Well, the laws been done away.
• We have a new dispensation and we don't have to do the old laws.
• The God of the Old Testament was a harsh God, but Jesus is nice and wonderful.

Paul wrote that if you reject Jesus, you're going to face a far worse penalty of consuming fire from Jesus Christ when the judgment day comes. I don't think you've been taught the right thing.

Here's the Truth, v 16: "All Scripture... [Old and New Testament] ...is God-breathed..." God did use human beings to write it, because people told God to go away, so He said, 'Okay, I'll go away. I'll hide Myself, but I'll reveal Myself to those I want to reveal Myself to, and I will give them the understanding of what I'm doing.'

"...and is profitable for doctrine, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So, that the man of God... [that means anyone who is truly of God.] ...may be complete... [What does this tell us? If you don't have the Word of God and you don't understand it, you're not a complete human being! Isn't that true? Yes, indeed!] ...fully equipped for every good work" (vs 16-17). All those good works are the laws and commandments of God, the teachings of Jesus Christ, the inspired writings of the apostles. Holy men moved by the Spirit of God to write it.

For the whole Bible, God only used 40 men to write the entire Bible: 32 for the Old Testament and 8 for the New Testament. If you believe God is almighty and all-powerful and can control all things, don't you think he can control 40 men to write what He wants written? Let's look at the responsibility of what those who are teaching are to do, so that the people that they are teaching:

• will know God
• know the knowledge of God
• understand the Word of God
• be in a covenant relationship with Him.

2-Timothy 4:1, he wrote Timothy: "I charge you... [That's pretty direct teaching—isn't it?] ...therefore, in the sight of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is ready to judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the Word!…." (vs 1-2). That's what's to be taught: the Word of God. Not some feel-good type of religion with the name of Jesus Christ attached to it. Preach the Word, from the Word.

"…Be urgent in season and out of season..." (v 2). What are the seasons or the appointed times that God has given? The Holy Days, which He built right into the creation. And remember what He said about His law: He didn't come to abolish, He didn't come to do away. He said, 'It's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.' You think about that!

"…Be urgent in season and out of season..." This tells us what? That which looks physical in the Old Testament—like the days, the months and the years, the calendar, the Holy Days, and so forth—is the physical. The New Testament gives us the spiritual meaning of those. When God brings the spiritual meaning of those things, it's elevated to a higher level, not eliminated. "...Be urgent in season and out of season; convict, rebuke, encourage, with all patience and doctrine" (v 2).

Here's what happened because they didn't do it. You ever gone to a Church of God where all the teachings become very laid back? I think the best way to describe it is like 'jello': sometimes firm, sometimes shaky, sometimes liquid, no substance to it. That happens all the time in the 'Christian' churches. Oh, they teach you how to be a better person, but you could get that out of psychology books. Oh, they use the name of Jesus, but they never declare Him as the Lord of the Sabbath and follow the Sabbath.

Like happened to a woman who just recently through Church at Home found out about the Sabbath. She went to her Sunday-keeping preacher and said, 'Well, the seventh day is the Sabbath of God. Why don't we keep it?' That's the first thing you ask when you really find out about the Sabbath. He said, 'Oh, we're in a new dispensation now, we don't have to do it.' Who gave that dispensation, was it God or was it Satan?

Here's what'll happen, and did we not see this happen, v 3: "For there shall come a time when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but according to their own lusts... [not the Spirit of God] ...they shall accumulate to themselves a great number of teachers, having ears itching to hear what satisfies their cravings."

When some people were told, 'Well, it's all right to keep Christmas now.' Whoopee! I missed that Christmas tree all these years!

• Were they converted? Probably not!
• Were they following the teachings of God? No!
• Were they attending a church? Yes!
• But did it have anything meaningful in their lives? No!

When they found out they could go to church on Sunday, a lot of them left in droves to keep Sunday. Those who believed in God and the Sabbath and Holy Days, they didn't leave, they kept them. God has a way of separating.

Here's what happens, v 4: "And they shall turn away their own ears from the Truth; and they shall be turned aside unto myths." And that's exactly what has happened.

Let's come back here to Leviticus 23 and we're just going to do a quick survey. What we're going to find out is that not only is there the weekly Sabbath, but all the Holy Days are themselves Sabbaths, and they are called a Sabbath.
What God has done, and I am sure that those who believe in a so-called 'new dispensation' will say, 'Well, all of these are temporary and all of these don't have to be kept anymore.' I think you're going to be surprised by the time we finish this little short series here.

Leviticus 23:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, "Concerning the appointed Feasts of the LORD... [the appointed times; God appointed them; they stand fast forever] ...which you shall proclaim to be Holy convocations, even these are My appointed Feasts"'" (vs 1-2).

He owns them. They belong to Him and no one can tell Him what to do with them, and no one can say that they should not be kept. God put them here in Lev. 23 as a test. Do you believe God or not? Did they keep these things in the New Testament? If they did, why doesn't the Christian world today do it today when they all know that there is not one justification for Sunday anywhere in the Bible?

Verse 3: "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a Holy convocation. You shall not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings…. [It's called the Sabbath of rest and also a Sabbath.] …These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons" (vs 3-4). Didn't we just read where Paul told Timothy, 'Preach in season, out of season, be urgent,' and so forth? Yes!

• Passover—the 14th day of the 1st month
• Feast of Unleavened Bread—1st day and 15th day are also holy convocation, called a Sabbath

These are the months according to the calculated Hebrew calendar. In John 19:31 they didn't want to leave the bodies on the cross because you have the Passover day when Jesus was crucified and the next day coming up was the first day of Unleavened Bread. They didn't want to have the bodies on the cross on that Sabbath 'for that Sabbath was a high day.'

• Pentecost—how to count Pentecost and it says right here that you shall proclaim that day to be a Holy convocation (v 21).
• Trumpets—v 24: "Speak to the children of Israel saying, 'In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of ram's horns, a Holy convocation'" It is a Sabbath.
• Day of Atonement is a Sabbath, v 32: "It shall be to you a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at sunset, from sunset to sunset, you shall keep your Sabbath." That's how God defines time from sunset to sunset.
• Feast of Tabernacles—the 1st day is a Sabbath, the 8th day is a Sabbath (v 39)

So, if you have one Sabbath, you have all the Sabbaths. Is the weekly Sabbath an appointed time? Yes, God declared it! All of the Holy Days are also Sabbaths.

We're going to do a quick overview in the Old Testament, beginning in Joshua 5 and we are going to see that the children of Israel just before they went into the 'promised land' kept the Passover. That also means, though it may not be necessarily stated, that they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Once it's told us in the Bible in one place what to do, when it makes reference to it later on, it means to do what has been referenced in that place in the Bible.

Let's come here Joshua 5:10: "And the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho…. [they kept the Passover] (v 11 is a key verse when counting Pentecost): …And they ate of the old grain of the land on the next day after the Passover, unleavened cakes and roasted new grain in the same day" (vs 10-11). That was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Go back and read the instruction in Lev. 23 and you find that God told the children of Israel, 'When you're in the wilderness, you're not going to eat any bread. But when you come into the land, you shall take a sheaf of the harvest and wave it before the Lord and then you can eat the grain and the bread.' That's what happened here, and that's why God stopped the manna.

Verse 12: "And the manna stopped on the next day after they had eaten the grain of the land. And there was no more manna for the children of Israel…" No more manna came. Forty years every morning except the Sabbath. You'd think that the Sabbath would be ingrained within them for forty years. I bet that grain tasted very good to those people, because the ones who were not killed in the wilderness because of their rebellion were all of those who were 20-years-old and up. Here they were 20-years-old and now another 20 years before they eat another piece of bread. According to this world's diets, they must have been in fantastic shape—huh? Yes, indeed!—eating manna, angel's food.

• they kept the Sabbath
• they kept the Passover
• they kept the Holy Days

Let's come to the book of Judges and see what happens, because human nature tends to corruption. Let's see what the children of Israel—their successors—did after the elders had died.

Every new generation that comes along, even within a family, every individual has choices. God has set before all humanity, wherever they are--it is evident and it is there whether they have it written down or not: 'life and death, good and evil, blessing and cursing.' All the young people growing up think that as their minds are beginning to mature that they know everything in the world and now they want to run their life their own way. So here's what happened.

Judges 2:10: "And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD... [How do you know the Lord? You keep His commandments!] ...nor even the works which He had done for Israel…. [Short memory!] …And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim. And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, Who brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods, even the gods of the people who were around them, and bowed themselves to them, and provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD and served Baal and Ashtaroth" (vs 10-13). Ashtaroth was the female goddess, the queen of heaven, today who is known as the virgin Mary. Sound familiar? Yes, indeed! So then, God's correction came.

In this survey, we're going to continue making our way to the New Testament, because we're going to talk about the time of Solomon. We're going to see that they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. We're just going read these last two verses here and then we're going to go forward to 1-Chron. 5, which is the parallel account.

1-King 8:65 "And at that time Solomon held a feast and all Israel with him, a great congregation—from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt—before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. On the eighth day he sent the people away. And they blessed the king and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the good that the LORD had done for David His servant and for Israel His people" (vs 65-66).

We're talking about the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day in the days of Solomon. This is getting pretty close to 500 years after they came out of the land of Egypt.

We have a greater description of it here in 2-Chronicles[corrected]. What I want to do with this is I want to go backwards. We know that in the seventh month, the first day of the month, Trumpets, is a Holy Day. We know the tenth day of the month is the Day of Atonement, which we're not eat food or drink any water. So, when we have seven days and seven days and then the eighth day listed back there in 1-Kings 8:66, we're talking about seven days dedication of the temple, seven days and the eighth day for the Feast of Tabernacles.

2-Chronicles 7:8: "And at the same time Solomon kept the Feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt. And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly, for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the Feast seven days…. [What do we have in a timeframe here?] (Last part of v 9): ...for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the Feast seven days. And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month... [the day after the Feast of Tabernacles] ...he sent the people away..." (vs 8-10).

We have a chronology here—don't we? Let's see what happened on Trumpets, because that's the beginning of the first seven days, which is the dedication of the altar. Let's see what happened here; we'll just summarize a little bit. They brought the Ark and put it in the Holy of Holies. The Levites carried them. All the priests and Levites were there. They had extra altars for offering burnt offerings and things like that.

2-Chronicles 5:10: "Nothing was in the Ark except the two tables which Moses put in it at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the Holy place (for all the priests present were sanctified, and did not wait by course)... [That's a whole other topic which we can cover at a later time.] ...and the Levitical singers... [Then it lists all of them:] ...all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being clothed in white linen, and having cymbals and with harps and lyres—stood at the east end of the altar... [this is the dedication of the altar] ...and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with silver trumpets" (vs 10-12).

This had to be on the Feast of Trumpets, the beginning of the dedication of the altar, v 13: "It came to pass, as the trumpeters and the singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the silver trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, 'For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.'.… [His mercy endures forever] ...that the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD" (v 13). God put His presence in there and that is known as the 'Shekinah.'

Verse 14: "So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God!" Then Solomon gave his prayer. Fire came down, chapter seven, consumed the burnt offering and the glory of the Lord filled the house. This had to be on Trumpets. What did we have here?

• Trumpets, day one, first day of the seventh month
• then the seventh day the dedication of the altar ended
• three days till Atonement

—eighth, ninth, and third day is the tenth.

You can't have any feasting on the Day of Atonement. It's a day of fasting, so that's why you had the dedication of the altar for seven days first, and then the Feast of Tabernacles next. But they kept Atonement in-between. That's what you have here with the sequence of events. What happened with the situation with Solomon?

• God gave him peace
• God gave him wisdom
• God gave him wealth
• God gave him riches
• he was the smartest man on earth

All the kings of the earth brought their tribute to him. He gave them knowledge and then what happened? He married too many women and his wives turned his heart away and he left God and offered to other gods!

You see what happens if you do not continue and in season learn and understand about the Sabbath and Holy Days of God. He ended up being pagan and God took away the ten tribes of Israel from him and gave them to Jeroboam and told Jeroboam, through a prophet of God, that 'if you would keep the commandments of God and teach the people to do so, you, Jeroboam, would have a dynasty like David's.' But he didn't do it and he went right back to the religion of Egypt—what did he do? He built the golden calf in Dan and Bethel and set up temple services for these pagan satanic gods and made himself a priest!

There were some righteous kings, as we will see, as we examine 2-Chron. a little more, that did keep the commandments of God and did keep the Holy Days of God, but that was not on a continuous basis.

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2-Chronicles 29:1: "Hezekiah began to reign being twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done" (vs 1-2).

Since he took over from Ahaz, who turned out to be really a very corrupt, evil, rotten, disobeying, rebellious king, the temple had been neglected, so it had to be repaired. All of chapter 29[transcriber's correction] talks about the repair of the temple, and everything. Getting it up and ready and going.

2-Chronicles 30 becomes a major important point, because we're going to deal with the Passover. Did God deal with the children of Israel on the Passover Day and the first day of Unleavened Bread? Yes, He did! And that goes back 430 years to Abraham—does it not? Passover is a very important thing as we go along. For them to return to God, they had to come and keep the Passover. But it turned out that they couldn't get the temple cleansed in time to actually keep the Passover at that time.

Here is what they decided, 2-Chronicles 30:1: "And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the LORD God of Israel. And the king and his leaders, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, took counsel to keep the Passover in the second month." (vs 1-2). That goes back to Num. 9. If you are unclean or you are on a journey, then you can keep it in the second month.

They sent the letter out. A lot of people came; they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Let's come forward now to v 21: "And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread... [It shows they kept the Passover. They killed it on the 14th day of the 2nd month (v 15), etc.] ...seven days with great gladness…."

Then what happened? It was so good that they decided, v 23: "And the whole assembly took counsel to keep another seven days. And they kept another seven days with gladness." Whenever you come back to God, you do it how? Sabbath! Passover! Holy Days! That's consistent throughout the whole Bible.

Any of the pagan days are counted as nothing by God and are worthless. What happened: Hezekiah had his mistake; then his son, Manasseh, took over and reigned for 55 years—55 years of corruption. And he ended up being the worst of all.

Then God raised up Josiah (2-Chron. 34). He was king, began at eight years of age. When he was sixteen, he began to break down the altars that were in the land, and so forth. Again, the temple was in such disarray that they had to repair it. This time it was worse than it was in the days of Hezekiah. They had even lost the Law. The temple was in such a state of disrepair that they lost the scrolls of the Law. They came, after they found the scroll during the cleaning of it, and they brought it to King Josiah. Here's what Hilkiah the priest said after he found the book of the Law:

2-Chronicles 34:15: "And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.' And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. And Shaphan carried the book to the king and brought the king word back again, saying, 'All that was given into the hands of your servants, they are doing. And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and delivered it into the hands of the overseers and to the hands of the workmen.' And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, 'Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.' And Shaphan read it before the king" (vs 15-18).

This was probably the book of Deuteronomy with all the curses in it. He was probably reading those curses, and Josiah could see, yes, these are coming upon us now. What happened? He repented! There was no priest that really God would deal with, because they were so wicked and evil that they had to go to Huldah, the one who was a prophetess and a keeper of the wardrobe in the temple, and say, 'What is God going to do?' The answer came back, 'Since you've repented, this will not come in your day.' So then Josiah called for emergency meeting of all the leaders—all of Judah, all the elders, Jerusalem—brought them to the temple and made a covenant with God, restoration back to God.

Let me just say here that they had to clean up all of the pagan things and here's a lesson for every one of us: If you have rejected God, and you are keeping the days of this world—which were no different during the time of the children of Israel, it was Baal the sun god, Sunday was his day, Halloween, Easter, and their version of Christmas, which was in honor of Tammuz; likewise the fake resurrection—they had all of that back there. If you don't have the book The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop, you download it. We have it on both of our sites: CBCG.org and churchathome.org—download it and read it!

Because he repented, God held off, v 26: "And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, so shall you say to him, 'Thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the words you have heard, "Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before your God when you heard His words against this place and against its people, and humbled yourself before Me, and tore your clothes and wept before Me, I have even heard you also," says the LORD'" (vs 26-27).

That's what needs to be done. If there's any kind of repentance, it's going to turn things around in this nation. This is what needs to be preached from every Sunday pulpit in the land. And they need to say, 'From now on we're keeping God's Sabbath. We are not going to keep Christmas. We are not going to keep Easter. We are not going to keep these pagan holidays. We are going to keep the Passover and we are going to keep the Feasts of God from now on.' If that occurred, same thing would happen that happened here. God would defer the destruction of Israel in the end-time. But I don't think that there is proverbial chance of a 'snowball in hell' that that's going to happen.

So what did he do? Verse 28: "'Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, nor shall your eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon its people.' And they brought the king word again." So the king gathered them all together, brought them up to the temple. He stood by his pillar. All the people there they read the Law, they all said that they would keep the Law. They all repented and what was the first thing that they did?

2-Chronicles 35:1: "And Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. And they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month." They returned to God! So, if anyone's going to return to God, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. And remember, all these are the appointed times of the Lord which He built into the creation of the stars, the earth, the sun and the moon. It is part of what God created and that's why Jesus said He didn't come to destroy the Law.

The only way that we would not be bound to keep these laws—because we're going to see in the New Testament they kept them as well—is if the heaven and earth did no longer exist. And, of course, you know that's not true, because we're on the earth and we can see the heavens and we can see the moon—correct? Yes! That's why you can't find anywhere in here authorization to keep the holidays of this world.

Now we come to the New Testament, Luke 1. As I mentioned, God has various things hidden in the Bible. It says it's 'the glory of God to conceal something and the honor of the king to find it.' It's the honor of anyone to search it out in truth. But everyone has got to be willing to do God's way.

Here we find beginning the narration of how John the Baptist was conceived and born. I'm just going to read you one verse because there is something here that you need to catch. This is why, remember where we started this sermon: 'All Scripture is God-breathed.' And in that He has hidden something very important.

Luke 1:5: "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest of the course of Abijah..." You know what that is? You know what that means? Course of Abijah? Probably not! Maybe some of you have never even heard it. What does that have to do with the Holy Days? Let me explain to you. In AHarmony of the Gospels and also in Appendix E in the Faithful Version we have When Was Jesus Born? This becomes a clue as to the time when Jesus was born.

David divided all the priests into 24 courses. The course of Abijah was the 8th course (2-Chron.). They began the first month of the year. Every course would work a full week from Sabbath to Sabbath. They would start at noon Sabbath and end at noon Sabbath. All the 24 courses came twice a year to the particular course of the time that they were to do it. The course of Abijah was the 8th course of the year. When you count in the week for Passover and Pentecost, you can pinpoint to within two weeks when John the Baptist was born, and then you can pinpoint when Jesus was born. So, we have that all laid all according to the calculated Hebrew calendar.

But if you're so naive and deceived and gullible, and hence you are ignorant—that doesn't mean you're stupid, it means you lack knowledge, are ignorant of these facts—you don't know where to look for the things that are hidden.

Zacharias worked the eighth and the ninth week, and the tenth week he went home. And because he didn't believe Gabriel the angel, he couldn't even talk to his wife, except write out, 'Come on, we're going to have a son.' That gives us a probable two-week period of when John the Baptist was born and when Jesus was born.

Let's read something here that's very important. I'm not going to go through the whole thing about the announcement by Gabriel, v 36: "Now behold, Elizabeth your kinswoman... [She was Mary's aunt. Mary was young. Elizabeth was old, so it couldn't have been her cousin, but an aunt.] ...Now behold, Elizabeth your kinswoman has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren."

Guess what we did? We took the calculated Hebrew calendar for 4 and 5B.C., pinpointed exactly when those things took place, counted forward six months to when Mary conceived in her womb, count forward and you come to the fall when Jesus was born. The middle day of the two-week period was no less than the Feast of Trumpets, the first day of the seventh month.

You need to get AHarmony of the Gospels or read it in Appendix E in the Bible. Those are some of the little things that are hidden there, which if you read you have no understanding of. If you're told everything in the Old Testament has been fulfilled, you don't have to read it, well then why should you read it? Why should you try and investigate it? Then you're told, 'Well, all of the Holy Days and these things, these were all ritual days.' No! The truth is the days came first by creation! The rituals came later. If the rituals have been replaced by spiritual things, that does not do away with the days. That's very important to understand. I have two sermons: Which Came First, the Day or the Ritual?

We come to Luke 2:42, and we find what they did. If we're not to keep the Passover, if we're not to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because Jesus did away with it, why did He keep it? 'Oh, He did it because He was a Jew and under the Old Covenant.' No! He was not under the Old Covenant; He was under the special covenant between Him and God the Father. And you can also download that from our Hebrew series, message #27, The Covenant Between God the Father and Jesus Christ.

John 2:41: "Now, His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast" (vs 41-42). What do you know about that, He kept the Passover, kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread. You could read the rest of the account, because we're just doing a little survey here. Kept the Passover! Did Jesus keep the Passover? Of course! From when He was a kid!

Now, let's come to His last Passover. Let's see what Jesus did. If you want an in-depth study of the Passover, you write in for The Christian Passover book. Which day to be observed? The fourteenth and fifteenth! And let me just forewarn you, because those without understanding, as one minister said, why do you have to have a book of 500 pages to explain about the Passover? You've heard me say that before. The Passover is the key! Did we not see the Passover is the key, Abraham, yes! Children of Israel, yes! The return to God, yes! Going into the 'promised land,' yes!

It is the key. Revelation 13:8 says: "…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." God built into the creation all of these days. These are God's days and God uses these days and He used the Passover Day as the crucifixion day.

If you don't want to read the 500 pages, then ask for the book, The Day Jesus the Christ Died. Mel Gibson, being a Catholic, had only about half the Truth. I saw the full movie, had some very interesting things in it—some things very close, some things very far away. The most important thing that he showed was the brutality of the scourging. But 50-percent of what he had was missing, because he didn't have it on the Passover Day. That's the day Jesus was crucified; the day that God chose from the foundation of the world!

Luke 22:1: "Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called Passover, was approaching…. [I explain why you call unleavened bread 'Passover,' I explain that in the Passover book.] …And the chief priests and the scribes were speculating as to how they might put Him to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went away, and spoke with the chief priests and the captains about a way by which he might betray Him to them. And they rejoiced, and agreed to give him money. And he promised, and sought an opportunity to betray Him to them away from the multitude" (vs 2-6).

I'm not going to explain the technicality of v 7, except to say the Passover Day is an additional day of unleavened bread separate from the Feast of Unleavened Bread. "Then came the day of the unleaveneds... [That is a literal translation, because they had to unleaven their houses. They had to unleaven all their villages. They had to get all the leaven out everywhere in preparation for the Passover.] ...in which it was obligatory to kill the Passover lambs."

That's all explained. It takes three whole chapters in the Passover book to knock down every argument that carnal-minded men who want to destroy the Bible and Truth, have come up with.

Verse 8: "And He sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat.'" What did they eat? The Passover! But some people are so confused that they say, 'Well, He really didn't keep a Passover, He kept a pre-Passover Passover.' Well, it would be kept then on the wrong day. 'Well, no, it wasn't the wrong day because Jesus was going to be killed on the Passover Day.' But when did they observe the Passover? At night. Was He crucified then? No! Could He not keep the Passover that night of the fourteenth, as it began? Of course!

Why does Satan bring so many things against it? Because he doesn't want anyone to be in covenant with God the Father and Jesus Christ! Those who belong to God the Father and Jesus Christ must keep the Passover every year. So, if you can get people not to keep the Passover, then they will not be in covenant with God—right? That would be Satan's goal—correct? That's why all these arguments come up against it.

Verse 9: "But they said to Him, 'Where do You desire that we prepare it?' And He said to them, 'Watch, and when you come into the city, you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house that he enters" (vs 9-10). Why was he carrying a pitcher of water? What was the first thing they did after the Old Testament Passover was started and they were eating? Right at the beginning of supper, Jesus washed the disciples' feet. You've got to have water for that—don't you?

So did this man know he was carrying the water in there for the foot-washing service? No! They didn't do that with the Passover of the Old Covenant; they did with the New. All of this is arranged ahead of time. I imagine there were angels guiding this and guiding that, working everything out. Everything was all set.

Verse 11: "And you shall say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says to you... [The Teacher. Didn't even tell them who it was.] ... "Where is the guest chamber, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?" And he shall show you a large upper room furnished; there prepare.' Then they went and found everything exactly as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover" (vs 11-13).

This becomes important, v 15. And He said to them, 'With earnest desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you that I will not eat of it again until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.'…. [Then we know from John 13 that He washed their feet.] …And He took a cup; and after giving thanks, He said, 'Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink at all of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God has come.' And He took bread; and after giving thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is My body, which is given for you. This do in the remembrance of Me'" (vs 15-19).

Let's just do this. Come back here to Matthew 28. If you want to know all the exact things concerning the timing of the Passover, get The Christian Passover book and review it. There are some people who have written me and have said, 'I read the Passover book from January going up to the Passover every year and I learn out of it every year.' That book is jam-packed with information.

I have sent to one of the brethren in the Ukraine, the one who translated the Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days book and he's working on The Jesus the Christ Died. I just found out that his father was a Jew and his mother was a Ukrainian. He said that the book, The Day Jesus the Christ Died, is a 'very profound and moving book.' I sent a friend of his, who remarked about it: Every Jew needs to read The Day Jesus the Christ Died. Because that will show them that everything they have been told by their rabbis is a lie. Everything that they see in what is Christianity today in this world is a lie. They understand the idolatry and the paganism of Catholicism. They can understand for the first time why then they should not keep the Passover on the fifteenth. But if they want to follow Jesus Christ, they should keep it on the fourteenth, because that's when Jesus kept it. We'll see in just a bit here that Paul wrote 'And in the night in which He was betrayed...'

A lot of time is spent on the Passover, because the Gospels are filled with everything to do with the Son of God, His teachings, the Passover and His sacrifice. After He was resurrected from the dead, He came to His disciples. Notice His instructions:

Matthew 28:17: "And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.... [Still, even at that point. Are people hardheaded and hard hearted? Yes!] ...And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me'" (vs 17-18). That is from God the Father—correct? All authority!

Verse 19: "'Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit... [that's not a trinitarian formula; you need all three. The Holy Spirit's the power of God, not a god.] ...teaching them to observe all things... [Do all thing mean all things? Yes, they do!] ...all things that I have commanded you...'" (vs 19-20).

• What did He command them with the Passover?
• Did He command them to keep the Passover?
• Did He command them wash each other's feet?
• What night did they keep it on? The fourteenth—correct?
• What night should true Christians keep it on? The fourteenth!

The Jews have confused things so badly, because they keep a fifteenth Passover because they are in the Diaspora, and they can't keep the fourteenth because they're not 'in the land' as was required under the covenant with Israel. Jesus said what? "…go and make disciples in all nations….teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." For how long?

Verse 20: "…And lo, I am with you always, even until the completion of the age. Amen." That means until His return, when the age of man under Satan's rule comes to an end.

If Jesus kept it on the fourteenth, which He did, what should true Christians do? Keep it on the fourteenth. Nowhere, nowhere,nowhere does it tell us to keep Easter.

Acts 12—here's a place, if you're talking to a Protestant, and you say, 'Well, you shouldn't have anything to do with Easter.' Well, Acts 12, it says Easter. You know who put that in there? Translators of theKing James Version! And the King James Version is filled with so many major errors that that is why it's awfully hard for people who use the King James Version of the Bible to really come to the full knowledge of these things and the technicalities of the things that they need to know. and to understand Law and to understand grace and to understand the Sabbath and to understand the Holy Days. The King James Version is so awful, because it gives the appearance with that translation that Law has been abolished, when it hasn't. You need the Faithful Version of the Bible and you need the book, Judaism: A Revelation of Moses or a Religion of Men? in order for you to under understand those difficult Scriptures.

Acts 12:4: "And after arresting him [Peter] he put him in prison, delivering him to four sets of four soldiers to guard him with the intent of bringing him out to the people after the Passover season." The Greek is 'pascha'—the Passover. To translate that as Easter is a fallacious, vicious, a knowingly wrong translation to try and justify the pagan Ishtar holiday of Easter that came out of ancient Babylon and is sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestants today. It should read as it's translated here: "…after the Passover season." Why do we have season here?

Verse 1: "Now, about that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands to persecute some of those of the church; and he killed James the brother of John, with the sword" (vs 1-2). You will see in the chronology of writing the New Testament that since in the book of Hebrews Paul did not mention the death of James, the book of Hebrews had to be written before this occurred. This was somewhere about 44A.D. He doesn't mention it. I don't recall right off hand. Maybe it was written later.

Verse 3: "And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to take Peter also. (Now those were the days of unleavened bread.)" How do you have the Passover after Unleavened Bread? You don't, it comes before. This is as it was back there in Luke 22, the Feast of Unleavened Bread called Passover—so it's the Passover season. But nevertheless, they weren't keeping Easter. You ask any Jew today. 'Why don't you keep Easter?' He'll tell you it's pagan; they have that correct. But they don't understand all of their traditions that they have and follow are just as pagan as what they accuse the Christian world of as being pagan. There you have it. It's 'the kettle calling the pot black.'

We'll continue the survey in the New Testament and see, yes indeed, they kept the Passover; they kept Unleavened Bread; they kept Pentecost and then we will see that the book of Revelation is broken down according to the sequence of the Holy Days. Very interesting indeed!

Again, nowhere can you find the holidays of this world being authorized in the Scriptures anyplace!.

Scriptures Referenced:

• Psalm 25:14
• Psalm 111:7-10
• Psalm 112:1
• 2-Timothy 3:15-17
• 2-Timothy 4:1-4
• Leviticus 23:1-4, 24, 32
• Joshua 5:10-12
• Judges 2:10-13
• 1-Kings 8:65-66
• 2-Chronicles 7:8-10
• 2-Chronicles 5:10-14
• 2-Chronicles 29:1-2
• 2-Chronicles 30:1-2, 21, 23
• 2-Chronicles 34:15-18, 26-28
• 2-Chronicles 35:1
• Luke 1:5, 36
• John 2:41-42
• Revelation 13:8
• Luke 22:1-13, 15-19
• Matthew 28:17-20
• Acts 12:4, 1-3

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Genesis 1:14-15
• Isaiah 8
• John 19:31
• Leviticus 23:21, 39
• Numbers 9
• John 13

Also referenced:
Sermon/Series:

• Which Came First, the Day or the Ritual?
• The Covenant Between God the Father and Jesus Christ (Hebrews Series #27)

Books:

• The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop
• A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• The Day Jesus the Christ Died by Fred R. Coulter
• Occult Holiday or God's Holy Days—Which? by Fred R. Coulter
• Judaism: A Revelation of Moses or Religion of Men? by Philip Neal

Article: When Was Jesus Born? (Appendix E The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, a Faithful Version)

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 10-5-11
Formatted: bo

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