Hi,
Bear with me, here is my reply...going to be long...
visionary said:
excuse me,..... we are talking about this Col 2:16....
I'll cut-and-paste from another post...something different to consider...
OntheDL >>>
"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." "The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." "In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people."
So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator's power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. "From one sabbath to another" the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up "to worship before me, saith the Lord." Isa. 66:23. --Maranatha p371
In Hebrew mindset, when they wanted to convey something important, they gave multiple parrallels to bring emphassis on it. This pattern is evident throughout the whole bible.
When the bible mentions the feasts, new moon and sabbaths, every single instance is associated with sacrificial ceremonies. When unclear, the practice is that we always go the first instance when it was mentioned in the bible.
1 Chronicles 23:31
And to offer all burnt sacrifices unto the LORD in the sabbaths, in the new moons, and on the set feasts, by number, according to the order commanded unto them, continually before the LORD:
2 Chronicles 2:4
Behold, I build an house to the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance for ever to Israel.
2 Chronicles 8:13
Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.
2 Chronicles 31:3
He appointed also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD.
Nehemiah 10:33
For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.
Ezekiel 45:17
And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.
Hosea 2:11
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
Notice offerings were made on weekly sabbaths, new moons and feasts and daily continual bases.
Colossians 2:16
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:
However, regardless which sabbath Col 2:16 was talking about, it was clearly talking about the ceremonies (drink, meat, sacrificial offering) and let no man judge you on ceremonies in respect of (in connection with) feast days, new moon or sabbaths which are shadows of Christ vs17
Where do you think in Acts or Gal is the idea that feasts are no longer?
See below...
Luke related the time of James' murder and Peter's imprisonment to the Days of Unleavened Bread (Acts 12:2, 3).
By barely mentioning the feast that the jews celebrated at the time has no bearing on the subject. If you look a few verses down in your KJV, the holiday Easter is mentioned. Does that mean you observe it also??? Don't think so.
Paul said in Acts 18:21, "I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but I will return again to you, God willing." It would appear this was the Feast of Tabernacles.
Alright, I'll give you this one. I have not been able to come up with a definitive answer for it. But a few things to take into consideration:
There are questions if Paul indeed said he must keep the feast in Acts 18:21. This phrase does not exist in certain manuscripts. Though not my favorite group of text, the Greek minority text does not have this phrase. So this potentially is a problem.
In the context of Acts 18, Paul was persuading the jews. Paul was a jew but now a christian, was using this to relate to them. Also the feast days are days of wholy convocation. It would also be a great opportunity to reach many of them.
Nonetheless one verse here can not be used to build a doctrine. We'll see if the rest of the scripture agrees with it.
More than 20 years after the crucifixion of the Lamb of God, about the year A.D. 55, the apostle Paul gave some important instruction to the church at Corinth, a Gentile city. Most church members there were Gentile, though some were probably Jewish. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:8).
I must say this is a classical example of taken out of context.
The week of Unleavened Bread 1: pointed to the sinless nature of Jesus, 2: taught a moral lesson that the believers ought purge sins from their lives. Not just during that week, but a life long practice. The Week was a type of a sanctified life.
1 Cor 5 deals with the issues of sexual morality of believers of Corinth. Nothing in context remotely sugguests any issue with the keeping or not the feast of Unleaven Bread. Paul was using it as a figurative speech to point out they should live a sinless life.
In a similar way, wine and unleavened bread at the Passover remind us of Christ's sacrifice (1 Corinthians 11:23-29). IF you do not keep the feast of unleaven bread, how are you to understand how insidious and daunting the task of removing sin from you life is?
...
All the feasts were types and pointed to Christ's earthly ministry. Yes, the dying animals and everything pointed to Christ and studying them diligently will reveal greatly about Christ's characters. But the rituals have no merit of saving men. Partaking in them will not necessarily bring men closer to God. The jews are the example. They had been observing and are still observing them. To understand the whole plan of salvation, we have to also learn the spiritual applications: Christ's heavenly ministry.
Keeping the feast can only be understood in the light of what the Bible instructs. The instruction to put leavening out as covered in Leviticus 23 is not abrogated. The New Testament builds on the foundation of the Old by emphasizing the spiritual intent of these days. ...
Paul never preached about keeping the feasts. In fact, he taught quite the opposite. I'll looking into them later on in this post...one more time.
God's Holy Days have tremendous meaning-not just the Passover, but all the days God made holy are relevant to us. God does not apportion to us the right to decide what is holy and unholy, or what is right and wrong.
Yes. However the covenant of observing rites and rituals was done away along with the Levitical priesthood. Is there a priesthood so that you can observe them according the ritual laws??? No. The essential element of any feast was the sacrifice (without the shedding of blood there is no remission). Would God still accept any sacrifices? I would think you'd agree with me.
The annual festivals are also mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul reiterates and reconfirms the New Testament Passover, ...
Aren't these statements contradict themselves?
If we must unstand spiritually, then how participating the rituals would help?
The NT Lord Supper is different from the Passover. We don't kill a lamb, we don't east the lamb meat and we don't have priests who would sprinkle the blood.
These rituals are shadow. But Christ is the reality.
Toward the end of this epistle, Paul states, "But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost" (1 Corinthians 16:8). If he were only gauging time by Pentecost, there would have been no need to wait. He waited so he could observe Pentecost at Ephesus with God's people before continuing his travels.
By the ritual law, Pentecost required wholy convocation just like your agreement that Paul must go to Jerusalem to 'observe' the other feast. If Paul was really following the ritual law, Paul would have gone to Jerusalem.
This is as if I say I'll be here until Christmas before I go for a trip. Doesn't necessarily mean if I celebrate it or not. But you can interpretate it either ways.
God is love (1 John 4:8). The annual festivals are His feasts (Leviticus 23:2), or "love feasts." They are alluded to in Jude 12 and 2 Peter 2:13.
Jude 12 and 2 Peter 2:13 are actually not about feasts themselves. The context talks about association with unbelievers.
The annual festivals are the only feasts God ever gave! They are an expression of God's love and a delight and joy to those who observe them....
They were temperary provisions that brought men to the coming messiah. Was the old covenant not replaced by the new? Was the Levitical priesthood not replaced by Christ's priesthood after His ascension? The 10 commandments are the expression of God's love.
Another misunderstood text is Galatians 4:10: "You observe days and months and seasons and years." Nothing in these scriptures identifies these as God's Holy Days. The Galatian Christians were Gentiles who were going back to what they had come from (verse 9). They were returning to pagan observances. God nowhere made any months holy, and He condemned the observance of times in Deuteronomy 18:10, so these could not refer to biblical festivals and Holy Days.
These "days and months and seasons [times] and years" were the pagan practices of men-possibly similar to astrology today.
How can one make a statement without reading the whole Chapter?
Most of the books of Galations deal with the issue of Jewish legalism. The judaizers went after Paul left to teach the new christians to keep the law of Moses. All you have to do is to read through all these books without making the word of God none effect.
Look at what Paul was talking about!
Galatians 4
8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements,
whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
....
21
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
Question: what bondage is this? That's the product of works. Agar and her children were result of Abraham's unbelieve and his own works. By trying obtain salvation through observing the law of Moses: observe dates, months and years put the believers in bondage.
Let me ask you the same question: Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
In a later post, I'll go over the NT scripture on the ritual laws being abolished.
I'll appreciate those of you who do not belong to this congregation respect the rules and only post questions and fellowship here so we can avoid these kind of endless arguing due to the obvious differences of our believes.
But do take these words into consideration and don't let them be a stumbling block.