Jesus Christ celebrated seven festivals every year that most Christians today can’t even name, yet they each have His unique imprint all over them. He is the reason for each of these seasons and they each have great meaning for anyone who seriously desires to follow Him.
The Biblical Festivals Reveal Christ’s Role In God’s Plan:
What are these festivals and what do they reveal about our only Hope and Savior… and soon coming King?
The Biblical Festivals Show How God Will Bring World Peace:
Will mankind ever experience lasting peace? Mankind’s track record todate has been a dismal failure. But a series of biblical feasts reveals just how God will indeed bring lasting world peace to our planet!
Should You Be Keeping The Festivals Jesus Observed?
Jesus and the New Testament church He established observed the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles and all the other festivals that God gave to ancient Israel. Should you be following both His and the early church’s example? Are those sacred festivals still applicable for Christians today? Can you be sure?
Feature Video:
God has given human beings a series of vital annual milestones to help us understand what He is doing here on earth. Do you know what they are? The answer may surprise you!
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Pagan Holidays Or God’s Holy Days – Which?
Does it really make any difference which days we observe – or whether we make the effort to keep any of them at all? Does the Bible establish whether we are to continue keeping certain days holy to God? Were these days given to ancient Israel only?
Are they binding today only on the Jewish people, while Christians are commanded instead to keep holidays such as Christmas and Easter?
‘Holy Days’ Calendar:
| YEAR | NEW YEAR | PASSOVER*+ | DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD* |
PENTECOST* |
| 2021 | March 14 |
March 27 |
March 28-April 3 |
May 23 |
| 2022 | April 2 |
April 15 | April 16-22 | June 5 |
| 2023 | March 23 | April 5 |
April 6-12 | May 28 |
| 2024 | April 9 | April 22 | April 23-29 | June 16 |
| 2025 | March 30 | April 12 | April 13-19 | June 8 |
| * Begins the evening before at sunset + Observed the previous evening after sunset |
||||
| YEAR | FEAST OF TRUMPETS* | DAY OF ATONEMENT* | FEAST OF TABERNACLES* | LAST GREAT DAY* |
| 2021 | September 7 |
September 16 |
September 21-27 | September 28 |
| 2022 | September 26 | October 5 |
October 10-16 | October 17 |
| 2023 | September 16 | September 25 | September 30-October 6 |
October 7 |
| 2024 | October 3 |
October 12 | October 17-23 | October 24 |
| 2025 | September 23 | October 2 |
October 7-13 | October 14 |
Note:
* Sabbaths begin the previous day at sunset, and end at sunset on the above dates.
+ Passover is to be held “between the two evenings”. This means the ceremony should begin just after sunset (and before it becomes dark) at the end of the previous day to the date shown above.
‘God’s Sacred Calendar’ Read now →
Colossians 2:16-17
“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”
This verse has troubled many. Yet it should not.
Colossians 2:16 was written as a warning to the Gentile Christians at Colosse to protect them from false teachers – teachers who were subtly perverting the message Paul taught. Notice what Paul wrote: “Let no MAN therefore judge you in meat, or in drink [margin – for eating or drinking], or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.”
The original Greek in verse 16 for “meat, or in drink” – en broosei and en posei – means “in eating and in drinking.”
There is no mention of the abolition of God’s law or His holy days. Nothing is done away in these verses. In fact, it is just the opposite. The very criticism the Colossians were receiving about their observance of these days proves they WERE keeping them. How could they be criticized “with regard to” days they were not keeping?
The once-pagan Colossians never kept these holy days of God before! They were heathen prior to conversion. Now that they had learned the gospel, they were keeping holy the days God made holy. And Paul is warning them not to return to or be influenced by their old pagan ways – the ways of those who hated God’s laws and his festivals.
“Let no man therefore judge you…” (verse 16) in these matters, said Paul, “but [rather] the body… of Christ” (Colossians 2:17, last part). Notice that the word “is” in the King James Version is in italics. It does not appear in the original. The original Greek says only, “…but, the body of Christ.” What is the body of Christ? How does Paul use this expression in Colossians?
Turn to chapter 1. In verse 18 we find that Christ “is the head of the body, THE CHURCH.” See also Colossians 2:19.
The true Church of God is the body of Christ. Just as the Spirit of God once dwelled in the earthly body of Jesus Christ so now the Holy Spirit dwells in each member of the Church and together the members constitute one body, doing the very work Christ did. The Church is therefore Christ’s body today! And Christ is the Head as the husband is the head of the wife (Ephesians 5:23).
Paul is declaring in Colossians that no unauthorized person is to sit in judgment of a true Christian’s conduct. Man does not determine how we should live. But it is the responsibility of the Church – the body of Christ – to determine these matters! The Church is to teach how to observe the festivals – to explain the meaning of self-control in eating and drinking, etc.
So these little-understood verses ought to be translated clearly: “Let no man therefore judge you… but [rather let] the body of Christ [determine it].” Let Christ’s body judge these Church matters. Greek scholars recognize the last clause “but [rather] the body of Christ” demands that a verb be added, but have often not seen that the missing verb should be supplied from the most logical and grammatically parallel clause so as to read properly “Let the body of Christ judge [these matters]”!
(H.W. Armstrong, Pagan Holidays or God’s Holy Days… Which?)
