FAQ - Appointed Holy Feast Days

Answer:Things are not always as they appear. Mankind is now living at the pivotal "appointed time" of prophetic fulfillment, and it is not business as usual. Yahuwah's faithful must not leave even one doctrinal stone unturned as we prepare our hearts and minds for the additional light of truth, as it will fall like rain from heaven.

Also, it must not be assumed that those who have gone before had all the truths nailed down correctly. By clinging to doctrines that have not been accurately supported by Scripture, is like the proverbial child trying to force the square block in the round hole, and getting no where. Yahuwah's faithful have not been left without stunning council in this regards.

"We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed." 1 Selected Messages, p. 37

"There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation." Councils to Writers and Editors, p. 35

Answer:Which is easier to do: Change the Roman Gregorian calendar or teach that the Feasts of the Lord were done away with at the cross? The reason I can say this is because the two simply cannot be harmonized. It doesn't take an astronomer to see that the holy Feast days cannot be placed on a Gregorian calendar and still meet all of the Scriptural criteria. Just like oil and water, they don't mix. No man can serve two masters. For details showing that unbroken chains of weeks cannot exist even for 6 months when using the calendation criteria from Scripture.

Answer:After Christ's death on the cross, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, His own disciples continued to keep all the feasts. This included the very next one that came fifty days later, known as Pentecost. Acts 2:1, Acts 20:16, 1 Cor.16:8

The sacrificial system reached its fulfillment the moment Christ said, "It is finished," and died. At His death, the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom by an unseen hand, and the lamb ran away. Mankind now has freedom to the throne of grace through none other than our risen Saviour who now mediates in the Sanctuary above as our High Priest. No longer was there a need for the blood of bulls and goats, and innocent lambs, as they and their deaths were symbolic of the work of the promised Messiah, who would lay down His life to take away the sins of the world.

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29 KJV

Passover had a two fold meaning, first as a memorial of the first Passover when the death angel passed over the homes of all who had faithfully placed the blood of the lamb on their door post. Second, it was an annual prophetic reminder, highlighting the work of the coming Messiah, our redeemer and Saviour.

Just as Christ's ministry changed at His death to be our High Priest in the Sanctuary above, the sacrifices changed as well. Today rather than the blood of bull, goats and lambs, the Heavenly Father, in His eternal temple, not made with hands, requires the sacrifice of a meek and humble spirit..

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1

Answer:This is true if you are trying to locate them using the Roman Gregorian calendar. However, they fit perfectly like a glove when the lunisolar calendar is used. The precision of the sun, moon and stars has been a conspicuous marker for astronomers since antiquity. Perfect records have also been kept. Every 19 years the Creators lunisolar calendar comes into harmony with the solar calendar. Astronomical science supports the lunisolar calendar. The sun and moon still shine today to beacon Yahuwah's algorithms of time. They still consistently demonstrate the exact time for His Holy Appointed Feast days and His true seventh-day Sabbath. It is also these astronomical records that prove that while Yahushua died in A.D. 31, on the 6th day of the week and rose on the 1st day, it was not a Friday crucifixion and a Sunday resurrection.

Answer:This is only possible using the correct calendar. With the lunisolar calendar the 14th of the month is always the 6th day of the week and the 15th of the month is always the seventh-day Sabbath. This doesn't just occur once a year at Passover, but each and every month. Remember, Christ died on Passover the 14th of Abib, which was also the 6th day of the week, and rested in the tomb on the Sabbath, which was the 15th of the month. When we celebrate Passover it is always on the 14th of Abib, which is always the 6th day of the week. This year 2009 it is only coincidental that Passover is on the 6th day of the Gregorian calendar. However, notice that the date is not the 14th on the Gregorian calendar, which is the Scriptural requirement from Exodus 12:1-3; Leviticus 23:5, 6. For those of us keeping the Creator's lunisolar calendar it is both the 6th day of the week as well as the 14th of the month.

Answer:The keys are in the details for reckoning the Holy Festivals, where it has been discovered how the Creator's months and weeks were originally structured. They show how the seventh-day Sabbath was inlaid within the month, just as a precious gem is placed in its specially designed setting. All the Creator's units of time are measured by the same standard of His one and only time keeping system that He ordained at Creation - which incorporates the dual action of both sun and moon.

One principle given by Yahuwah to Moses, aptly applies to calendation, as it is a moment by moment measure of time. This principle states that Israel was not to have two differing weights and measures, but only one that is accurate and honest. Most assuredly Yahuwah would be in-keeping with His own standard.

Do not have two differing weights in your bag--one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house--one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly. Deuteronomy 25:13-16 NIV

Answer:There was great aggravated controversy over the time reckoning for "Easter," the Roman replacement for the Scriptural "Passover." The calendar wars officially began with Pope Victor I A.D. 193-202, because of the calendars that the differing factions held to. The west followed the Roman Julian calendar and was amiable to keeping an "Easter Sunday," while those of the east remained faithful to the Scriptural lunisolar calendar, observing "Passover" on the night of the 14th. Those faithful to the Scriptural calendar and the lunisolar timing for Passover became known as Quartodecimans.

"Quartodecimanism ("fourteenism", derived from Latin) refers to the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on the fourteenth day of Nisan in the Old Testament's Hebrew Calendar (for example Lev 23:5, in Latin "quarta decima"). This was the original method of fixing the date of the Passover, which is to be a "perpetual ordinance . . . Since the Bible's calendar is lunisolar and the Roman/Western calendar is only strictly solar, it is difficult to calculate Nisan 14 in the western calendar without knowledge of how a lunisolar calendar system works. For various reasons, the Church eventually chose to use a different method from the one that the Jews had used for their Passover. A controversy arose concerning whether it should also be a resurrection holiday, and thus whether it should instead be celebrated on one particular Sunday each year, which is now the floating holiday that is commonly called Easter Sunday. Quartodecimanism was popular among Christians in Asia Minor and it is generally believed that this was the method specifically preferred by the followers of John the Apostle, since it was advocated by Polycarp who was a disciple of either John the Apostle or John the Presbyter, assuming they are not the same person." Theological Dictionary

If we faithfully follow the principle of "solo Scriptura" we can not go wrong.

Answer:There are two High Sabbaths which occur every year. This is when an appointed Feast Sabbath commences on a weekly seventh-day Sabbath, such as in the case of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the spring and on the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall. Counting from the New Moon both feasts begin on the 15th and end on the 21st day.

"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." Leviticus 23:34

Both festivals always begin on the seventh-day Sabbath and end on the sixth day of the week, so there is no variation when they begin or end. Contrary to popular belief it is clearly stated in Leviticus 23:34 that the Feast of Tabernacles is a seven-day feast and not and eight-day feast. Yahuwah in His wisdom makes it plain by stating in Leviticus 23:36 the following eighth day is to be a holy convocation. We find in Leviticus 23:2, 3 that the seventh-day Sabbath is this holy convocation. The fact that the eighth-day which follows the seven day Feast of Tabernacles is a holy convocation does not automatically make the Feast of Tabernacles an eight-day feast, but rather it is making a calendation distinction. The first day of the Feast is a seventh-day Sabbath as well as the day following the seven-day Feast. However, what it accomplishes is that it acts as Yahuwah's checks and balances to show that the holy seventh-day Sabbaths continue intact to be legislated by the moon. This is because the seventh-day Sabbath is the day after the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles each and every year and not just once in a while. This cannot be accomplished using the Gregorian calendar.

Answer:If you are using the Gregorian calendar with "unbroken chains of weeks" then it will appear to begin on any day of the week. However, Scripture is our standard and it states that the spring Feast of Unleavened Bread commences on the day following Passover the 14th. Counting from the New Moon, it is the 15th day of the month of Abib, and always commences on the seventh-day Sabbath, making the first day of this seven-day feast, a High Sabbath each and every year. It also occurs when the moon appears to be full, since a full moon always occurs around the 15th of a lunisolar month. This festival ends on the sixth-day of the week, the 21st day of the month, which is also appointed as a holy convocation, but not a seventh-day Sabbath. The day following the 21st is the seventh-day Sabbath each and every year. The Feast days, together with the seventh-day Sabbaths create a GPS for discovering the structure of the Creator's appointed and true calendar.

"And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it." Leviticus 23:6-8

Answer:Here is how the Sabbaths complete, fit into the mix. Six work days plus one 7th day Sabbath equals one Sabbath complete. This was the template that Yahuwah ordained at Creation. These will never include New Moon days or translation days, because these are not the days specified in the equation.

And you shall number to you from the day after the Sabbath, from the day you bring in the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths perfect [complete, KJV] they shall be, to the day after the Sabbath seventh; you shall number fifty days. Leviticus 23:15, 16 (The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, and English.)

The year was A.D. 31 and the first month of that year was April. Since N.A.S.A identifies the Gregorian 10th day to be the conjunction, all we must do is add a day to arrive at the first visible crescent as viewed in the night sky following sunset on the 11th of April. The following day April 12 is then New Moon day, which is also the first day of the lunisolar month of Abib/Nissan. Since we know from Scripture, that Christ Yahushua died on the 14th of the lunisolar month of Abib/Nissan, then we simply count to 14 and therefore arrive at Wednesday, April 25, A.D. 31, as the day of Christ Yahushua's crucifixion. See many illustration at Article Link: The Sacred Count to Pentecost

Answer:Some also believe that the appointed, Feast of Pentecost was to be the memorial of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from Yahuwah. The attempted support for this view is in the story of Aaron and the golden calf incident of Exodus 32.

"And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." Exodus32:5, 6

There is no evidence that Aaron's proclamation regarding "the feast" is actually a Holy appointed Feast of Yahuwah. However, there is evidence that it was not the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost). This is because Yahuwah had not revealed anything about the Feast of Weeks as of yet. Moses knew nothing about it and neither did Aaron. It wasn't until Exodus Chapter 34, after Moses came down from Mt. Sinai the second time, that Yahuwah gave instruction regarding celebrating "Feast of Weeks." It was to be a celebration of the "first fruits" of the (wheat) harvest. Since they had only just begun a diet of "manna" four weeks previously, they were at least 40 years away from having a wheat harvest. In addition, all the appointed festivals were to have their fulfillment in Christ the Messiah's sacrificial, High Priestly and finally His Kingly role as the Saviour. One by one the Holy Feasts unfold in their sequence, portraying the parameters of the Creator's redemption of His fallen world.

John 4:34, 35 says nothing about the wheat harvest "beginning" in the fourth month, but it does state that four months continue for the harvest. The wheat that is grown around the world today has been genetically altered to yield a higher percentage of carbohydrates and is designed to lose its hull at harvest. The ancient wheat was known as "spelt" which is higher in fiber and nutrients and holds onto its hull longer to preserve the nutritional value longer. When "spelt" is sown in the fall, it is harvested in spring between May and June. This is exactly the right time frame for the Feast of Weeks on Sivan 9. Both harvest feasts could not be fully celebrated until Israel was in possession of the Promised Land, where they could plant and harvest crops.

While it has been a traditional belief among some religious groups that Pentecost is a memorial of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, it appears to be without Scriptural support. Rather, Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) appears to be a second harvest phase fifty days following the harvest of "first fruits" at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The "first fruits" harvest was represented by Christ the Messiah's resurrection. The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) appears to be represented by His ordination as High Priest in the courts above, during which time there was a great harvest of souls that day in Jerusalem.

Answer:Since each month begins with the New Moon day, then New Moon day is "day one" of the month of 29 or 30 days. The first day of the month is never the first day of the week. The first Sabbath of any given month is always on the 8th day of the month and the second Sabbath is always on the 15th. Now when you read in Ex. 12; 16; and 19 as well as Leviticus 23 you will see that each and every month of each and every year looks exactly the same other than half of the months are 29 days and the other half 30 days. No where in the Scriptures is there a statement that the appointed Feasts of the Lord Yahuwah float through the week and begin on different days of the week. There is no record of it happening. The reason we can be so certain of this is that the dates are given as a count from the new moon day. Also, Passover always occurs on the 14th of Abib at sunset on the preparation day. Each month is fixed to the phases and locations of the moon. Each week is fixed week within the parameters of the month. All the dates are fixed on those specific days of the month, and nothing rotates. This is not my system but Yahuwah's divine calendation according to the dual action of both the sun and moon that He set as "The principles that rule in the heavens."

Answer:Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23 give the parameters and dates for these feasts and clarifies that both the spring Feast of Unleavened Bread and the fall Feast of Tabernacles are seven days in length. See Leviticus 23:34. They both begin on the seventh-day Sabbath and both end on the 6th day of the following week, which is known as preparation day. Since both feasts begin on the seventh-day Sabbath, then they become High Sabbaths. The last day of Unleavened Bread is appointed as a Sabbath but is not a seventh-day Sabbath. For the Feast of Tabernacles the last day was not a Sabbath, rather the following day is the seventh-day Sabbath. See Leviticus 23:36. This is evidence that the last day of the feast is always a 6th day of the week. Therefore the first day of both the spring and fall Feasts are truly seventh-day Sabbaths, which makes them also High Sabbaths each and every year.

Answer:Passover is defined as being on the evening of the 14th of Abib. Surprising as it may be, they did not leave Egypt until the night of the 15th, rather than the 14th as you have stated. From the detailed record that the Lord Yahuwah commanded Moses to document, the Israelites left Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth at night, on the day after Passover (Numbers 33:2-4). A second witness to this is that the Heavenly Father commanded that the Israelites were not to step outside their doors until morning (Exodus 12:22).

Answer:It is well known among theologians that Hebrews from the time of Moses to the time of Christ used the lunisolar calendar for their holy appointed feast days. Moses recorded all three - Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus. If there had been a discrepancy between them, he would have questioned Yahuwah. Fifteen hundred years later, Christ Yahushua kept all the feasts and seventh-day Sabbaths according to the Torah recorded by Moses. Another way to be certain that the calendar of Creation and the Exodus was the same as that of the Cross is that the New Year continued to begin in the spring, the month continued to commence with the New Moon which set up all the dates, weeks and Sabbaths for that 30 day period. At the time of Christ this same system was still kept, as is evidenced in the twelve time centric criteria of the crucifixion.

Answer:This is such a good and insightful question, as there are clear discrepancies in the New Testament translations regarding Passover. The key to all the details of Passover is given in the Old Testament, Leviticus 23:5, and Exodus 12:1-11. It is only after understanding the historic foundation for Passover that we can accurately apply details accurately from the evidence given in the New Testament.