The more I have looked at what The Bible says and compare it with what “Christians” do in their churches and even their daily lives the more I have a lot of questions I want to ask them. So, I began to think: Why not just ask?
And that is what I want to do with this message. I want to write an “open letter” of sorts to all “Christians”—especially pastors—who would be willing to read this with an open mind and a heart that genuinely hungers for The Bible. As you read through these questions and my own commentary on them you may be challenged to examine the things that you have been taught or teach others as a “Christian” and inquire whether or not your current beliefs are true.
I also want to state up front that I am not giving commentary to sway you from doing your own study on these matters, but to give you some foundation to research them yourself. Though I am quite confident in my own research and study as a Bible teacher, I want to encourage you to not blindly trust anything any Bible teacher, pastor, or any other minister says—including me. You should always test what you have been told and see if it really does align with the whole counsel of Scripture. And I cannot emphasize that last part enough. If an ideology or theology does not align with the whole counsel of Scripture then it is not biblical. It is easy to isolate a Bible verse and use it out of context to support a belief, but too much of the time such beliefs go against other parts of Scripture. I want to caution you against such an approach to The Bible.
Also, before diving into these major questions I have for “Christians”, I want to ask a few quick preliminary questions that I hope you will keep on your mind as you go through this study—you may even want to write these down to keep in front of you as you read this message.
If you were doing something that God does not approve of, wouldn’t you want someone to tell you?
If you were not doing something that God wants you to do, wouldn’t you want someone to point that out in The Bible to you?
If God gave you a gift, would you just set it aside and say that you don’t need it?
Think on these as you go through the rest of this study. You know, you can be sincere in the things that you believe and you can equally be sincerely wrong about the things you believe. If you have been taught what most of “Christianity” believes and teaches, this study is going to challenge you in a lot of ways and I simply ask that you honestly and with an open mind read it and really think about what I am asking and the points I am going to make regarding these questions I have.
There are several things that are themes throughout the totality of Scripture, yet when you bring them up as a topic of discussion a great majority of “Christians” seem to be conditioned to resist them. They have been taught that those things are no longer required or not imposed on “Christians”—which they tend to define as something to the effect of non-Jewish or ‘Gentile’ people who “believe in Jesus”. Among these topics, the most commonly objected to are the food laws from Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, the biblical seventh-day Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 20:8-11), celebrating the biblical Feast Days described in Leviticus 23 and other portions of Scripture, and the origins of popular holidays heavily embraced by “Christians” despite what passages like Deuteronomy 12:29-31 have to say about the appropriation of religious practices of “the nations”. It is to these points I want to ask some questions to “Christians”. And with that, let’s begin.
The Sabbath Day
Can you show me anywhere in The Bible where The Sabbath Day is defined as anything other than the seventh day of a biblical week, the way it is defined in Genesis 2:1-3 and Exodus 20:8-11, or anything in The Bible that authorizes “Christians” to redefine when or what The Sabbath Day is?
You know, it’s a funny thing—or perhaps a sad reality. “Christians” fight to defend the honor of what they call “The Ten Commandments”, which is the list of ten rules given in Exodus 20. I recall some years ago when there was a great controversy over a monument dedicated to “The Ten Commandments” on display at a state courthouse and there was an uproar from “Christians” over the removal of it. Though the common belief is that these are the ten statements inscribed on the tablets given to Moses on Mount Sinai, there is some debate as to the validity of that popular belief. Despite that, it is undeniable that the biblical seventh-day Sabbath is a part of this popular list.
Genesis 2:1-3 makes it very clear that The Sabbath Day is the seventh day of the week, and in biblical terms through Israelite culture days are considered to change at sunset—as opposed to day-changes at midnight on the modern secular calendar. As such, the true biblical Sabbath Day is considered to coincide with sunset “Friday” evening until sunset “Saturday” evening. Exodus 20:8-11 reiterates this, declaring again that The Sabbath Day is the seventh day based on the biblical ancient Israelite concept of a day.
There are several times in The Gospel records where The Sabbath Day is highlighted, even stating that Yeshua made it His custom to attend the Synagogue gatherings where The Torah was read. When we venture into the Book of Acts, which is also a Gospel writing as a continuation of Luke’s Gospel, there are eighty-five Sabbath Days documented as being kept by the apostles leading the first century movement. In these cases as well it highlights visiting the Synagogues, as a custom on The Sabbath, to hear the reading of The Torah.
Hebrews 4:9 is the final actual mention of The Sabbath in Scripture, and it says that there remains a Sabbath for God’s people. In my study of the Book of Hebrews I have found that the traditional view on dating the writing of the book appears to be wrong. Historically it has been said that Hebrews was written prior to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 A.D., however newer research by scholars that have reevaluated this are finding that the language of the text indicates that this was a letter written after this event in consolation of the lost Temple—the center of all Israelite worship. If we apply this to a passage like Hebrews 4:9, the context becomes something to the effect of: “They can destroy The Temple, but they cannot take away The Sabbath, it remains set in time and cannot be destroyed.” This would make a lot more sense of the passage, in a letter written by a first century Jewish person to the community of Hebrew people.
Isaiah 66:22-23 indicates that The Sabbath will be kept in the millennium, a period of one thousand years in the still-to-come future. We know it’s talking about the millennium because the mention of Sabbath-keeping is preceded by the declaration that this will happen at the establishing of the new heaven and new earth.
So, to recap up to this point, The Sabbath was created on the seventh day of the Creation week, is one of “The Ten Commandments”, was kept by Yeshua as documented in The Gospels and by the apostles as documented in the Book of Acts, remains and cannot be taken from God’s people, and will be kept in the millennium. Not one place in all of this is The Sabbath defined as anything other than the seventh day of a biblical week as it is established to be from Genesis 2. So, where do “Christians” get their ideas that “Sunday is their Sabbath” or “Jesus is their Sabbath” or “The Sabbath has been done away with”? The simple fact of the matter is that there is not a single statement in the entire Bible to support the “Christian” belief against keeping the actual Sabbath Day, no matter which approach they take to redefine what day it is or deem it an obsolete practice. Regarding The Sabbath Day, “Christians” simply cannot support their beliefs with The Bible.
Let me also briefly address the semi-popular “Jesus is our Sabbath” claim. First of all, The Bible never makes such a statement—“Christians” read this idea into passages that are not actually saying what they think they say. But even if that were a true statement, that “Jesus is our Sabbath”, would that mean we no longer have to keep the actual Sabbath Day? Let’s look at some passages where The Bible does say Yeshua is a particular thing and see where it leads us.
John 6:35 says that Yeshua is the bread of life, and in Him we will not be hungry. Does this mean we are to stop eating food as Believers? By the “Jesus is our Sabbath” logic, “Christians” should not be eating actual food and rely solely on their “belief in Jesus” for their physical sustenance. John 8:12 says Yeshua is the light of the world and in Him there is no darkness. So, why aren’t “Christians” removing all of the light fixtures in their homes and boarding up their windows or going to live in a cave? John 10:7-9 says that Yeshua is the door, or gate. So, are we to conclude that we must remove all of the doors from our home and rely on Him alone to prevent bugs and burglars from invading? Clearly, even if the idea of “Jesus is our Sabbath” had biblical merit, which it does not, it would not be a reason to refrain from keeping the actual biblical Sabbath Day—the seventh day of the biblical week from sunset “Friday” to sunset “Saturday”—according to the commandment. Simply put, “Jesus” is not The Sabbath and “Sunday” is not The Sabbath; the seventh day of a biblical week alone is The Sabbath according to The Bible.
Yeshua said: “The Sabbath was made for man…” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath is one of the gifts given to us by our Creator to bless us. Why would you not want to keep it if you love Him?
The Food Laws
Can you show me a verse in The Bible that undeniably and emphatically states that the Leviticus 11 food laws were changed or overturned? Not a verse where you have to read that into it—like how you have to read into Acts 10, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:3-5, Colossians 2:16-17, Romans 14, and all the others that they do away with the food laws when all of these passages actually have a context that says the opposite—but a verse that directly says something clear and unmistakable like: "The dietary restrictions no longer need to be followed". Can you give me that type of clear statement from The Bible?
This one really baffles me, because it goes all the way back to the very first act of sin in the entire Bible where somebody ate something God said not to eat. In Genesis 2:17 we are introduced to a tree in the midst of the Garden of Eden that God said not to eat from. We know little about this tree apart from it being called The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and eating its fruit brings death. But when we turn over to Genesis 3 the narrative continues to reveal that Adam and Eve fell to the deception of the serpent—revealed in Revelation 12:9 to be Satan—where they ate from the tree they were told not to eat from.
The entire reason we have a Bible is because of this act of eating something God said not to eat. The reason there is sin and evil in the world in which we live is because somebody ate what God said not to eat. The reason we need redemption and Yeshua had to die and resurrect is because they ate what God said not to eat. But despite all of this, “Christians” insist that the commandments regarding what to eat and what not to eat from Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 do not apply to them. They honestly believe that it is permissible for them to eat things like pork, shellfish, and many other things that God said not to eat. And often when you bring up Genesis 3 they will allegorize it and claim it is saying something other than what it literally says.
What is even more interesting is that these commandments regarding which animals are clean and acceptable as food for humans and which animals are unclean and not to be eaten is known prior to the flood event. In Genesis 7 we can read about the instructions given to Noah regarding the animals that would be on the ark. It distinguishes between clean and unclean, stating that a single mating pair of unclean animals would be taken but of the clean animals they would be taken by sevens. There is some debate about whether this meant there were seven or fourteen of each kind of clean animals, but what is important to this study is that there was a clear distinction made and it was well known, before the flood, that these commandments related to which animals were allowed for food and which were not was already instituted.
This brings me to the passages that are often used by “Christians” to claim that these food laws outlined in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 do not apply to them. Each of these passages would require a lengthy study, and many of them I have already written extended teachings about what they actually say in context. But for purposes of brevity I will here go quickly through the passages often referenced and give what they are actually talking about in context—and how they are not giving any permission to eat things God said not to eat.
Matthew 15, Mark 7: In these two chapters, primarily through the way Mark 7:19 is translated in some Bibles, “Christians” believe that the food laws were overturned. However, this is illogical on at least two major points. First, the context of this record was initiated through an accusation that eating bread without performing a Jewish hand washing ritual first is sinful. That’s what was being addressed, not whether or not it’s acceptable to eat unclean animals like pork and shellfish. The second reason is that when we get to Acts 10, which we will look at next, Peter still believes that the food laws are to be followed—and this scenario with Peter occurs at least ten years after the events recorded in Matthew 15 and Mark 7. So the context of these passages simply cannot support an abolishing of the Leviticus 11 food laws. For an in-depth study on this passage that addresses these points more fully, you can read my article: Did “Jesus” Say Pigs Are Clean? A Study Of Mark 7
Acts 10: In this passage we see Peter fall into a trance where he sees a vision of a large sheet with all manner of animals on it, both clean and unclean. Repeatedly Peter says that he does not eat things that are unclean or common and God says not to call common what he has made clean. This is the first clue to the context here, as deeper study reveals that even in the vision itself Peter was not being told to eat something like a pig or a dog, but to eat what was deemed common through a man-made tradition. Then in Acts 10:28 Peter gives the actual meaning of the vision, that we are not to call people unclean in a context that you don’t have to be “Jewish”, by blood or DNA, in order to be saved. That is what the purpose of this passage is about, not an abrogation of the Leviticus 11 food laws. For an in-depth study on this passage that addresses these points more fully, you can read my article: Get Up Peter! Kill And Eat!
1 Timothy 4:3-5: In this passage “Christians” use the phrase “every creature is good, nothing is to be refused or rejected” to say that they are free to eat whatever they want, including things God said not to eat. They also point to the earlier statement about people abstaining from foods God created. But, yet again, there are numerous problems with this line of thinking from what is said in the text. First, the passage also talks about people who forbid marriage, which gives us an important clue that Paul was here addressing a particular Gnostic heresy that was popular at the time. In this belief, it was not a refusal to eat unclean animals that was the problem but a refusal to eat clean foods that God designated for people to eat. In a study of the major phrase in question—“created by God”—in its original meaning it indicates something that was created for the purpose of food. In The Torah, specifically Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, we find out what animals were created for the purpose of food. Also, the phrase “nothing it so be refused” is not used in the sense of refusing to eat something, but in the context of not throwing away good biblically approved through The Torah food and being wasteful with God’s provisions. Additional proof of this is that there are animals, such as the golden dart frog, that if you eat them you will die immediately. So it is very obvious that Paul was not talking about eating any and all animals. Finally, the passage says that it is talking about things sanctified by the Word of God, and the only place where the distinctions of what is sanctified as food and what is not, regarding meats, comes from Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. For an in-depth study on this passage that addresses these points more fully, you can read my article: Created With A Purpose
Colossians 2:16-17: This passage is often used because “Christians”, once again ignoring the surrounding context and the specific cultural problem it was addressing, believe it to be speaking in negative terms about things “previously commanded in “The Laws of Moses”. However, Colossians 2:8 gives us an important clue into the problem being addressed here—philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men and the basic principles of the world rather than Messiah. A proper study of this passage reveals that the problem was not people obeying The Bible and keeping the food laws, Sabbaths, or festivals that God commands us to keep, but with the counterfeits of the day within the pagan religion the converts in Colosse came out of. When Paul said “do not let anyone pass judgment on you” he wasn’t talking about legalistic and fanatical Judaizers trying to put “Christians” under God’s Laws. He was encouraging them to hold true to their new faith because the unconverted pagans were mocking them and persecuting them for not continuing in the ways of the pagan religion of Rome. After all, the pagan religions also had their food and drink customs, their festivals, their new month celebrations, and their Sabbaths. We know, through the decrees of Constantine several centuries later, that Sol Invictus, the day of the sun, which we today call “Sunday”, was the weekly Sabbath in the ancient pagan Roman world. So this passage also fails the test of being a valid argument that the food laws are now done away with. For an in-depth study on this passage that addresses these points more fully, you can read my article: Living In The Shadow
Romans 14, 1 Corinthians 8 and 10: A lot of people also turn to these passages as “proof-texts” that “Christians” are permitted to eat what The Torah says not to—especially the passage in Romans 14 because in verse 14 is makes the statement: “nothing is unclean”. However, this is the Greek word koinos (κοινός), the same word used in Acts 10 that is translated common—which referred to a man-made tradition, not God’s commandments regarding clean and unclean animals. The Greek word associated with unclean in the sense of the Leviticus 11 food laws is akathartos (ἀκάθαρτος). This shows that Paul is not referring to the commandments regarding animals we are told not to eat and saying it’s “now acceptable” to eat pigs and rodents and shellfish. Additionally, the language used in all three of these chapters reveals that the same issue is being addressed in them: meat that was sold in the public market after potentially being offered to idols or pagan gods. So the context, once again, has no relationship to the Leviticus 11 commandments or gives any valid indication that these commandments are nullified. I further address the issue of meats offered to idols in my article: Idolatry
This pretty well covers the passages used by “Christians” to support their claim that they can eat what God said not to eat. As you can see, all of these passages in their proper context do not make valid arguments that the food laws described in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 are in any way annulled, revoked, made obsolete, nullified, abrogated, abolished, retracted, ended, abated, cancelled, or voided. A major rule of good hermeneutics (proper understanding of Scripture) is that a vague passage should not be used to override a clear commandment. Yet that is exactly what “Christians” are doing with all of the above passages regarding to the food laws. None of these segments of Scripture actually say what “Christians” claim they do, and yet despite this they read into them an overturning of the clear commands of God regarding what is and what is not food.
In addition to this, the concept that the food laws were rescinded was not originally attributed to anything in The Bible. The original Roman Catholic belief stated that it was a Bishop of Rome named Eleutherius who made this change. This man was posthumously listed as a Pope, which is essential to the Catholic religion’s rules for changing The Bible as Popes, deemed “The Vicar of Christ”, hold the authority to permanently override a previous biblical decree. A Catholic record called The Liber Pontificalis states that this Eleutherius declared: “…no kind of food in common use should be rejected, especially by the Christian faithful, inasmuch as God created it; provided, however, it were rational for food and fit for human kind.” This means that the original “Christian” view that it is acceptable to eat unclean things like pork and shellfish was never thought to come from any of the above passages in The Bible, but from a Catholic Bishop who was named a Pope long after his death so that they could essentially treat him as a god and use His words to usurp the commandment of The God of The Bible. Also, even here it says that the item in question must be fit for humans to eat, and modern scientific study has shown that anything listed as unclean in Leviticus 11 can have a severely negative impact on human health. So even if we accepted this ruling by the Catholic religion, we now have newer evidence not known at the time this was decreed that what God said not to eat is not rational for food and not fit for human kind.
It was not until much later in history that the above vague passages from The Bible were used to support this idea that “Christians” do not need to follow the food laws. After all, especially with the rise of the Protestant Reformation, there were people who did not accept that Popes held the power to overthrow something commanded in Scripture. They also, however, still accepted that the food laws no longer applied—after hundreds or even well over a thousand years of “Christians” eating things like pork and not incurring the noticeable wrath of God it seems logical that they would think this must validate the idea (“Christians” often act as if the lack of God smiting people for their sin somehow equates to His approval of their lawlessness)—so now they needed a “biblical” reason to support this belief because the decree of Catholic Popes is not acceptable to those who reject the Catholic religion. And that is where all of the above passages began to be taken out of context and used as “proof” that they no longer had to abstain from eating unclean things. Yet, as I have shown, this simply is not the truth.
Think about what all of this means. If you are a “Christian” and you embrace this view that the food laws are no longer applicable, you are essentially following the Roman Catholic religion and the decree of its pagan Popes—the very thing that non-Catholic “Christianity” essentially formed in order to break away from. To eat things that The Bible calls unclean is to acknowledge the Catholic Popes as gods. Where is the logic in that?
Furthermore, there are some statements made in Scripture that clearly endorse the continued mandate of following these food laws, including in the Apostolic Writings that “Christians” refer to as the “New Testament”—a term that, along with “Old Testament”, seems to have been created to support Marcionist and antinomian beliefs by separating The Bible into two parts, one that we follow and the other we do not. However, in just a moment I will ask and address another question that will reveal the inconsistency of this same theology.
2 Corinthians 6:17 (TLV, emphasis added) says: “Therefore, come out from among them, and be separate, says ADONAI. Touch no unclean thing. Then I will take you in.” In contrast to Romans 14, it is the word akathartos (ἀκάθαρτος) used in this verse. This is also the Greek word used in the Septuagint, a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek several hundred years before the time of Yeshua and the apostles, in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Additionally, Paul is here quoting the prophet Isaiah. So the statement “touch no unclean thing” used here, in context, absolutely has to include the upholding of the Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 food laws.
Additionally, Revelation 18:2 refers to unclean animals and unclean birds. One Spanish translation of The Bible, the Traducción en Lenguaje Actual (TLA), even includes the phrase, “y no debemos comer,” which means: and we should not eat. The biblical timeline of events suggests that this passage likely also refers to a time in the yet to come future—many believe it refers to the millennium, others say shortly before. In like manner, Isaiah 66 is commonly believed to be a prophetic description of the returning Messiah, and in verse 17 those who eat unclean animals are among the people who will “come to an end” or “be annihilated” in His wrath.
I have heard some really wild statements from “Christians” over the years. I have even had people tell me that “Jesus” ate pork. Where is that in The Bible? Nothing in The Gospel records or anywhere else would suggest that He deviated from anything in The Torah, including where diet is concerned. The only thing we know for a fact that Yeshua did with pigs was to cast devils into them and drown them in the sea—and seeing as when He fed the masses He instructed the leftovers be gathered so food is not wasted, it seems contradictory that He would “waste all that food” by drowning the pigs if He considered them to be food.
Ultimately, the dietary prohibitions trace all the way back to the Garden of Eden, the commandments about clean and unclean animal distinctions are known before the flood, nothing in The Bible actually supports the idea that these commandments are rescinded, there are good indications that these dietary rules were upheld by the apostles, it appears that they will be kept in the millennium, and it seems clear that Yeshua and all of the apostles continued to observe them. Also, the known research on the positive health effects of eating clean animals and the negative healthy effects of unclean animals would suggest that these commandments are also one of God’s gifts to us. Once again we have a question that “Christians” cannot provide an answer for and shows that they are completely wrong in their belief about the food laws because there is nothing in The Bible that, in proper context, actually says we are now allowed to eat unclean things.
God’s Holy Days
Can you show me a clear statement from The Bible where it says “Christians” do not have to celebrate the Feast Days described in Exodus 23, Leviticus 23, Numbers 28-29, and Deuteronomy 16 despite the facts that Yeshua celebrated them, the apostle Paul spoke about the importance of keeping them, and there are clear indications through the prophets Ezekiel and Zechariah that both the Spring Passover Season and Fall Tabernacles Season will be kept in the millennium?
Let’s talk about the biblical Holy Days: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. Really, we can also include Purim and Hanukkah in this discussion since they are both Bible festivals as well, and while they are not instituted in The Torah, we do see indications that Yeshua celebrated both of them (Purim in John 5:1, Hanukkah in 10:22-23) and we are commanded in The Torah to shema (hear, listen to, follow, obey) “the prophet like Moses” (Deuteronomy 18:15-19), which is Yeshua (Acts 3:22-26, 7:37). 1 John 2:6 also tells us that a genuine Believer must walk as Yeshua walked. This would mean that celebrating the Feasts and festivals we see Yeshua keeping in The Gospels are also supposed to be celebrated by us today, if we truly are His followers, and that doing so is also a commandment (again, Deuteronomy 18:15-19).
Yet many “Christians” oppose celebrating these days, calling them “Jewish holidays” and saying, as I saw stated while I wrote this message, that there is no evidence that the early Believers in the first century kept these Feast and festival days as a mandate. Such statements are absolutely absurd, as we will see. First of all, these celebrations are repeatedly called “The Feasts of The Lord” in the most used English translations of The Bible—while the more Messianic or Hebraic translations might use phrases like “The Feasts of ADONAI” or “The Feasts of Yahweh”. This very clearly tells us that these are not “Jewish” or in any way exclusive to “Jews”. In fact, passages like Exodus 12:49, Numbers 15:16, and Ecclesiastes 12:13, especially from Hebraic translations like the Tree of Life Version and Complete Jewish Bible, tell us that the same Torah applies to native Israelitesand anyone who enters into covenant from the Gentile nations and that following The Torah applies to all humanity and is what being human is all about.
As for a claim that there is no evidence that the earliest Believers in the first century celebrated these Feast Days, this is simply not true. Even in The Bible alone we see evidence to the contrary. Throughout the Gospel records we see statements of Yeshua and His immediate followers going to Jerusalem to celebrate these Feast Days at the Temple. It is undeniable that the Passover celebration with the associated Week of Unleavened Bread and Day of First Fruits were being celebrated at the time Yeshua was crucified and rose again. There is also a clear mention of the Feast of Sukkot along with reference to the traditional water libation ceremony (John 7:37-38) as kept by Yeshua and His followers. Since we see Yeshua keeping these Feasts and the apostle John said that if we follow Yeshua we must walk as He walked (1 John 2:6), then by default under apostolic authority we are mandated to keep The Feasts—must is not a word indicating something is “optional”. It’s amazing how often “Christians” want to insist on building beliefs on what it not made clear, the way they do with the food laws, and refuse to see what is made clear, like the mandate to follow the example of our Messiah.
Acts 2:1 says: “When the day of Shavuot had come, they were all together in one place.” These were not “Christian” antinomians who just happened to be in Jerusalem on the same day “The Jews” were celebrating “their holiday”. They were gathered there because they too were celebrating the Feast. It is no coincidence that this was the day chosen to pour out The Spirit as the Feast of Shavuot (also called Pentecost) celebrates the giving of The Torah at Mount Sinai and Ezekiel 36:27 tells us that when The Spirit is given under the new covenant the recipient will be CAUSED to walk in God’s Laws, The Torah.
Acts 18:21—at least in some translations that include the King James Version, the BRG Bible, the Darby Translation, the Good News Version, the Jubilee Bible, the New Matthew Bible, the Revised Geneva Translation, the World English Bible, the Wycliffe Bible, and Young’s Literal Translation—shows Paul expressing a great desire to be in Jerusalem for one of the Feast Days. It is widely believed that this too was a reference to the Feast of Shavuot (or Pentecost).
In 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 Paul makes reference to the celebrations of Passover and the Week of Unleavened Bread. In this segment he makes the statement: “therefore let us keep the feast.” In order for “Christians” who oppose doing some of these things we are told to do throughout the whole counsel of Scripture to justify their belief against keeping The Feasts or that The Feasts are optional but not necessary they must make this statement mean something other than what a literal reading of it would indicate. They have to allegorize Paul’s words here and say—despite the fact that by his own testimony he believed in The Torah and never opposed it (Acts 24:14, 25:8)—he was merely using the Passover celebration as “an analogy of a spiritual principle”. But doing this simply does not make sense with the whole of Paul’s teachings and the many statements he made that clearly upheld adherence to The Torah and expressed his desire to keep the Feasts.
Then there are the references to the Feasts in the millennium. Ezekiel chapters 40-48 describe a future Jerusalem Temple that many scholars consider the Millennium Temple. In Ezekiel 45:21-25 the prophet describes how in this Millennium Temple the celebration of Passover will be kept in the first month and then references a Feast in the seventh month, which is clearly a reference to the celebrations connected with the Fall Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles) Season. Also, Zechariah 14:16-19 describes further the celebration of the Feast of Sukkot in the millennium by all nations complete with a penalty of no rain being given to any nation that refuses to keep it.
So here again we have a testimony all throughout Scripture of celebrations that were initiated very early in The Bible (at least as far back as Exodus 23), kept by Yeshua and His early followers, promoted within the writings of the apostle Paul, and will be kept in the millennium with no indication anywhere in The Bible that they were ever repealed or deemed “optional, not necessary”. Once more popular “Christian” theology fails and cannot answer an important question about its beliefs and the way it approaches The Bible. They simply cannot show where The Bible actually says they do not have to celebrate these Holy Days that their own Messiah, who they claim to follow, kept and that The Bible mandates us to keep.
Popular Holidays
Can you justify, using only The Bible, the celebrations of Christmas, Easter, and Halloween as an acceptable “Christian” practice?
Now we will turn our attention to the most popular holidays in the world today, that are as beloved among “Christians” in their “churches” as they are in the rest of secular society. I have asked the above question in various forms at times, often focused just on one of these holidays. Usually the answer is the obvious: “No.” However, this “no” is often followed by: “but…” They then follow this with some sort of “reason” they believe they should celebrate these holidays anyway. I didn’t ask for a “reason” or “excuse”, I simply asked if they could justify these holidays using only The Bible, and they all admit they cannot.
Now, the lack of being able to justify these holidays with The Bible alone is not in itself sufficient to determining whether or not we should celebrate them. There are certainly lots of things that are not in The Bible, and therefore cannot be supported by Scripture, that are also not wrong or sinful in any way. But in order to even begin discussing whether or not we should celebrate these popular holidays we must first realize that they are not biblical. If something is not in The Bible and it is associated with evil or another religion, on the other hand, then clearly this is not something we should be doing.
The simple fact of the matter is that Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are the creations of the Roman Catholic religion as part of its larger body of idolatry. Roman Catholicism meets all of the criteria of a pagan (polytheistic, or “many gods”) religion. First there is the treatment of “Saints” in this religion. Just like the gods of pagan religion, especially those of the Greco-Roman pantheon most closely related to it, Catholic “Saints” possess the following five characteristics:
1. There are temples or cathedrals named for them.
2. Statues are erected of them, especially within these temples or cathedrals.
3. Feast days are designated for them.
4. Followers of the religion pray to them and give offerings in their name.
5. They are given positions of authority as “Patron Saints”.
We see all of these same characteristics with the lower gods of other pagan religions, and that’s exactly what “Saints” are in Roman Catholicism—the lower gods of the religion. They treat their “Jesus” as the chief god and “Saints” hold the position of lower gods. This is the basis for which Christmas, Easter, and Halloween were created. In fact, part of Halloween in the Catholic tradition is connected to “All Saints Day”—a festival dedicated to veneration of all the “Saints”.
In addition to the idolatry associated with Catholic “Saints”, there is also the aforementioned matter of their living Pope as “The Vicar of Christ”, where they view this man as sort of a reincarnation of “Jesus”. Essentially, whoever the living Pope is gets viewed as “being Jesus” and holds the same authority as God, even to the point where they can change Scripture. Again, this is where the change to the food laws actually originated. This idea of “The Vicar of Christ” is the same deifying of the ruling human as the Emperor worship in the Roman Empire and the Pharaohs of Egypt were. As I stated when discussing the food laws, if you celebrate holidays like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween—or the festivals honoring “Saints” like “Saint” Patrick’s Day or “Saint” Valentine’s Day—you are openly acknowledging the Popes and now also all of the deified Catholic “Saints” as gods. To do this as a sincere Bible Believer makes no sense at all. If you would like to know more detail about the relationship between these holidays and the pagan Roman Catholic religion I would recommend my articles: Is Christmas Pagan? and The Christian Origins Of Halloween?
On top of this, all three of these holidays have influences from festivals that come from pagan religions outside of Roman Catholicism. There is some debate about whether these festivals influenced the origins of these Catholic holidays or just many of the traditions carried into them, and that is a discussion outside of the scope of this message. With that said, Christmas as celebrated today has influences from the old Roman Saturnalia festival held in honor of the god Saturn and the old Norse Yule festival that continues to be celebrated today through the Wiccan religion. In addition to this, the history of the Santa Claus character seems to trace back to the old Norse god Odin, also a prominent part of modern Wiccan worship. Easter has influences of the old festival to the Teutonic spring fertility goddess Eostre. Halloween, which I can’t even comprehend how “Christians” believe is acceptable to embrace in their faith practice, is well known to be associated with the old Celtic Druid Samhain (pronounced sow-in) festival.
All of this history is well documented. It can be verified in Bible dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, secular encyclopedias, and a wide variety of academic resources. There are also a number of books published by practicing witches in the Wiccan religion, some of whom hold a Ph.D. and teach these histories from the Wiccan perspective on a university level, that speak about the association Christmas, Easter, and Halloween have with witchcraft religions. And as a reminder, we do not find any of these holidays promoted or even mentioned in The Bible. They did not exist at that time; they are not Bible holidays.
Deuteronomy 12:29-31 states very plainly that we are not supposed to appropriate religious practices from the nations and “convert” them into acts of worshiping God—and this would include religious festivals associated with pagan religions. Other passages, like Deuteronomy 18:9-12 and 20:17-18 offer a similar admonition. This would mean that in addition to these holidays not coming from The Bible and their being associated with other religions, which should be more than enough reason to shun them, celebrating them would be sin—as sin is defined in 1 John 3:4 as breaking The Torah and these passages in Deuteronomy represent commandments given in The Torah. As hard as it may be for the brainwashed “Christian” mind to comprehend, celebrating Christmas, Easter, and Halloween appears to literally be an act of sinning against God.
As noted in the previous segment pertaining to the Bible Feast Days, we are provided with a number of celebrations in The Bible. There are a total of seven Feasts given in The Torah and two others, Purim from the Book of Esther and Hanukkah mentioned in John’s Gospel, for a total of nine biblical Holy Days. Because several of the biblical celebrations are eight days long, when you add them up it comes to about 30 total days. Seeing as Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are each a single day, this means that God gave us three times as many Holy Days and ten times as many days of actual celebration than the world gives us through holidays associated with pagan religions—not the least of which being the pagan Roman Catholic religion.
On top of this, all of the biblical Holy Days have prophetic associations with the life of Yeshua our Messiah. All evidence points to His birth occurring at the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall. His crucifixion was during Passover, He was afflicted in the grave for the opening of the Week of Unleavened Bread, and He rose again on the Day of First Fruits. The outpouring of The Spirit happened when His followers were celebrating Shavuot (The Day of Pentecost). It is believed by many End-Times Prophecy theorists that His return will take place in connection with “the final trump” that happens on The Day of Shofar Blasts (Yom Teruah, The Feast of Trumpets), and the logical conclusion would be that The Day of Judgment will coincide with Yom Kippur—The Day of Atonement. The festival of Purim was instituted in the Book of Esther where the lineage of the Hebrew people was preserved from annihilation—which is critical to the life of The Messiah. And Hanukkah, which is also called the Festival of Lights, would be around the time that Mary conceived of The Spirit with The Light of the World, nine months before He was born at Sukkot in the fall.
So this begs another very important question for “Christians”: Why in the world would you want to celebrate three holidays that have no connection with The Bible but are connected with pagan religions, including and especially the pagan Roman Catholic church, and not celebrate Bible Holy Days that were celebrated by everyone who wrote The Bible and by our Messiah Himself and are prophetically linked with the life, work, and ministry of Yeshua our Messiah?
Doesn’t it just make good sense to do what’s in The Bible and has prophetic significance—instead of what’s not in The Bible but is connected with witchcraft, pagan religion, and idolatry?
“That’s Old Testament”
“We’re Not Under The Law”
If you truly believe that you are “not under the Old Testament”—as you often say—why do you constantly go to “Old Testament” passages that speak about blessings, promises, or inspiration and claim them for your life?
This last question is a bit different than the others, yet a very important one to ask. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a “Christian” chanting Deuteronomy 28:3-13 as some type of mantra or incantation, “claiming” these blessings over their life as if they have some sort of right to them. But they do not. If you read the first two verses in the chapter it becomes very clear that these blessings belong only to those who live by The Torah. If you continue beyond the blessings the rest of the chapter is for those who reject The Torah, and it is a much longer list of curses.
I saw a standard antinomian “Christian” speaking negatively of the biblical Feasts, specifically Yom Kippur—The Day of Atonement—as it was on that most holy day I wrote the first draft of this article. His complaint was that he does not believe we need to “wait” for a specific day to receive a blessing. He was partially correct. It is obvious that God can bless us every day if we are living in obedience to His Torah. However, the Feasts are appointed times and as such it would be logical to conclude that there are specific blessings that can only be received through biblically keeping them. To give a good analogy, you can maintain your physical health every day but you can only get the unique care for your health from a doctor at your scheduled appointment.
What concerned me most, however, was not whether or not a preacher endorsing the Feasts may have some bad theology regarding blessings or even how some today are using the Feasts as fundraising gimmicks—there are those today who misrepresent Scripture in saying that the offerings given at the Feasts are money and if you give that money to their “ministry” you can receive some random list of blessings. What really troubled me was that the person saying these things is openly antinomian, especially when it comes to things like the food laws, The Sabbath, the Feast Days, and other such matters. You see, instead of being worried about whether or not someone’s specific belief about blessings connected with keeping The Feasts is valid he should be focused on the fact that biblically he is under the curse laid out in Deuteronomy 28, starting at verse 15, for those who reject The Torah lifestyle that comes through truly following Yeshua.
“Christianity” has a tendency to teach that “Christians” are “not under the ‘Old Testament’, not under the law” but then they will venture into this same part of The Bible and when they see something that talks about a blessing or some promise of God or is in some way inspirational they will accept that and claim it’s for their life. This approach to The Bible has a huge problem with it. The same Books in The Bible that they pull these things from also teach obedience to The Torah. Let me show you a few examples.
I praise You, for I am awesomely, wonderfully made! Wonderful are Your works—and my soul knows that very well. —Psalm 139:14 (TLV)
This is a popular and often quoted passage. But it is written in the Psalms, which is “Old Testament”. In addition to this, there are statements about obeying The Torah in the Psalms that if we are going to claim that this verse applies to our life, we either have to accept statements about obeying The Torah also apply to our life or make up some bizarre theology that allows us to reject other things in the Psalms. Consider the following:
Happy is the one who has not walked in the advice of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the Torah of Adonai, and on His Torah he meditates day and night. —Psalm 1:1-2 (TLV)
I delight to do Your will, O my God. Yes, Your Torah is within my being. —Psalm 40:9 (TLV)
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Torah of Adonai. —Psalm 119:1 (TLV)
Your justice is righteousness forever, and Your Torah is truth. —Psalm 119:142 (TLV)
Great peace have they who love Your Torah, and nothing causes them to stumble. —Psalm 119:165 (TLV)
All of these passages from the Psalms speak to following and living by The Torah of God. So how can someone justify going to the Psalms to pull out a verse about being “awesomely and wonderfully made” while rejecting The Torah? It’s contradictory and hypocritical. Let’s look at another one.
“For I know the plans that I have in mind for you,” declares Adonai, “plans for shalom and not calamity—to give you a future and a hope.” —Jeremiah 29:11 (TLV)
Again we have a popular and often quoted verse from the “Old Testament”. But what else does the prophet Jeremiah have to say?
Hear, O earth! See, I will bring disaster on this people —fruit of their schemes— for they did not listen to My words and rejected My Torah. —Jeremiah 6:19 (TLV)
“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” —it is a declaration of Adonai—“I will put My Torah within them. Yes, I will write it on their heart. I will be their God and they will be My people.” —Jeremiah 31:32 (TLV)
“They have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My Torah, My statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.” —Jeremiah 44:10 (TLV)
Once again we see the same Book that gave us the “inspirational verse” is also telling us that we are supposed to live by The Torah. Let’s do one more, but this time turn to the Book of Proverbs that is filled with inspirational passages.
Trust in Adonai with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. —Proverbs 3:5 (TLV)
Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. —Proverbs 3:13 (TLV)
The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until the full day. —Proverbs 4:18 (TLV)
For wisdom is better than jewels, nothing you desire compares with her. —Proverbs 8:11 (TLV)
The fear of Adonai is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. —Proverbs 9:10 (TLV)
The fear of Adonai leads to life, and he who has it rests satisfied, untouched by harm. —Proverbs 19:23 (TLV)
These are all great statements, but only if we live by a whole Bible faith practice. What does Proverbs have to say about keeping The Torah?
For the mitzvah is a lamp, Torah a light, and corrective discipline the way of life, keeping you from the immoral woman, from a wayward wife’s smooth tongue. —Proverbs 6:22-23 (TLV)
Those who forsake Torah praise the wicked, but those who keep Torah stir them up. —Proverbs 28:4 (TLV)
One who turns his ear from hearing Torah—even his prayer is an abomination. —Proverbs 28:9 (TLV)
Where there is no divine vision people cast off restraint, but blessed is the one who keeps Torah. —Proverbs 29:18 (TLV)
That last one in particular is quite interesting, as I have heard so many times where modern “Christian” preachers will use the first half of that verse as a source of inspiration whenever they want to lead their congregants toward some “church vision”, but completely ignore and don’t even dare to mention the latter part that speaks of how blessing comes through keeping The Torah—meaning that the vision the verse is speaking about is Torah-keeping, not the latest worldly idea a “church” has and needs to raise funds for. Notice also that if you turn your ear from hearing The Torah even your prayers are an abomination to God.
You simply cannot escape the fact that every single Book of The Bible was written by people who pursued and lived by God’s Laws, The Torah, and include statements that endorse continued obedience to it. This includes all of the “New Testament”. The Gospels are filled with Torah-positive statements from our Messiah, not the least of which being: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Most people are taught under “Christianity” that at the very least Paul’s letters offer “proof” that we do not have to follow The Torah, but Paul already addressed this. In the record of Acts Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and charges brought against him, one of the main accusations being that he was teaching people they do not have to follow The Torah—the exact same thing “Christians” use Paul’s letters to claim. His defense was that he believed everything written in The Torah and The Prophets (Acts 24:14) and that he never once violated The Torah (Acts 25:8). In Romans 2:13 (TLV), one of many Torah-positive statements Paul made, he said: “For it is not the hearers of Torah who are righteous before God; rather, it is the doers of Torah who will be justified.”
The statement “not under the law” that is often used by “Christians” comes from Romans 6:14-15 and Galatians 5:18. In the Romans passage it opens by saying, “Sin [Torah-breaking, 1 John 3:4] will not be master over us,” and concludes by mocking the idea that we should sin [break The Torah] because of the “not under the law” statement. In Galatians the statement is preceded by saying, “if you are led by The Spirit” and Ezekiel 36:27 says that being filled with and led by The Spirit CAUSES the Believer to walk in God’s Law, The Torah. On top of this, Paul—especially in Romans—made a lot of statements in his letters that undeniably promote living by The Torah (see Romans 2:13, 18-20, 25-29, 3:20-21, 31, 6:16, 7:7, 12, 22, 8:7, and 13:10), promoted keeping The Feasts (1 Corinthians 5:7-8), and upheld following the food laws (2 Corinthians 6:17). The record of Scripture shows that Paul kept The Sabbath, celebrated the Feasts, and followed a biblically clean dietary practice and told his followers to do the same, not that he taught against these things. The phrase “not under the law” is clearly taken out of context by “Christians” and simply does not mean what they think it means.
We can also look at the apostle John who said that anyone who claims to know God and does not keep His commandments [The Torah] is a liar and the truth is not in them (1 John 2:4), defined sin as the breaking, violating, transgressing of The Torah (1 John 3:4), and said that the holy ones are those who both follow the commandments of God [The Torah] and the faith of Yeshua [The Gospel] (Revelation 12:17, 14:12)—it’s not either or, you do not get to choose one or the other, both are the mandate of Scripture.
The simple and inescapable fact is that Torah-keeping Israelites wrote everything in The Bible and everything they wrote that makes up our Bible was a declaration and a call—over and over and over again—to keep, follow, obey, and live by The Torah of God. No matter how you look at it, you simply cannot pull verses out of any Book of The Bible related to blessings, promises, inspiration, “happy thoughts”, or anything else viewed as a “positive message” while rejecting The Torah and not be a hypocrite or an outright deceiver of people. To put it another way, if you do not follow The Torah—if you do not adhere to the food laws, if you do not keep the biblical seventh-day Sabbath, if you do not celebrate The Father’s Feast Days, if you do celebrate pagan holidays like Christmas and Easter, if you in any area defy and rebel against God’s Law—you have no right to anything in The Bible, including the salvation that comes through repenting of your sin [Torah-breaking] and a decision to follow Yeshua and His Torah lifestyle. If you are not a follower of The Torah, you are not in covenant with God and if you are not in covenant with God you are not saved.
What Now?
That really is the question of questions at this point, isn’t it? What do you do now, my dear “Christian” friend, having gone through this study and found that so much of what you are being taught in your “Christian churches” is not at all in line with The Bible? I want to share a couple of passages of Scripture with you here.
Her kohanim have done violence to My Torah and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, nor have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean. They shut their eyes to My Shabbatot. So I am profaned among them.
—Ezekiel 22:26 (TLV)
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, and drive out demons in Your name, and perform many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”
—Matthew 7:21-23 (TLV)
These two passages perfectly describe the religion that is today called “Christianity”. They teach that they are “not under the law”, and we have seen that they are taking this statement out of context. They teach that “the law is a curse”, yet we see in Deuteronomy 28 and elsewhere that the opposite is true—lawlessness is the curse. They teach that it is not required to follow certain commandments—deeming them either obsolete or optional. They teach: “Did God really say not to do that? You won’t surely die or go to hell if you…” (read Genesis 3). They teach so many lies that completely go against the message of Torah-obedience that is taught in every book of The Bible and was the message of our Messiah. They violate, or do violence to, The Torah. They profane the holy things of God. They say we no longer have to distinguish between the clean and the unclean—especially regarding the food laws.
Then you go to their “churches”, especially the Pentecostal ones, they are found talking about miracles and prophecies and casting out devils. They really get into these types of things. But they are workers of lawlessness; they live in defiance toward God’s Law, The Torah. They find obedience inconceivable.
And I really do not understand this. The term Pentecostal is a direct reference to one of the Bible Feasts, the one that celebrates above all others the giving of The Torah through Moses at Mount Sinai. Yet the Pentecostals are above all other “Christians” the most in line with what is described in Matthew 7:21-23. If Pentecostals actually embraced what that term means they would love and embrace the Torah lifestyle—because more than supernatural experiences through The Spirit being a Pentecostal should mean being a Torah-keeper. Again, the word literally refers to the Feast that celebrated The Torah, and it’s the day that The Spirit was poured out that, according to the prophet Ezekiel, will CAUSE the true Believer to walk in The Torah (Ezekiel 36:27).
Think about this for a moment. “Christians” like to quote 1 Peter 1:16, where the apostle says: It is written, “Be holy, as I am holy.” But if you ignore the place it is written you will think this verse applies to whatever “Christianity” defines holiness to be. Often times “Christians” think that if you are remaining sexually pure and don’t drink alcohol you are “being holy”. But there is not even a biblical prohibition against drinking alcohol and pretty much everyone agrees that the wine Yeshua drank was real, alcoholic wine. I am not saying you should drink alcohol, I don’t and I do believe The Bible speaks in mostly negative terms about it—but there is not a direct prohibition against it the way there is about eating unclean things. However, this phrase to be holy, as God is holy comes from Leviticus 11:44, 19:2, and 20:26. Two of those passages directly associate the phrase with following the food laws and the other associates it, in part, with keeping The Sabbath.
There is no actual prohibition against drinking alcohol and The Bible associates being holy, as God is holy with not eating pork and shellfish more than any other commandment. Think about that, and think about how different that is from what you are taught in “Christian churches” where they tell you it’s permissible to eat unclean things. I can’t tell you how many “Christians” have told me over the years that their holiness is not dependent on following the food laws or keeping The Sabbath, yet The Bible emphatically says the exact opposite. On top of that, like Paul’s statement to touch no unclean thing, quoting the prophet Isaiah, Peter’s use of this statement has to be contextually regarded as his telling new covenant Believers that they are still expected to follow the food laws and keep The Sabbath—in the “New Testament” and through the words of an apostle. Otherwise he would be quoting a passage of Scripture out of context, using it to teach something different from what it originally meant.
I also think about all the “Christians” who vehemently oppose Halloween but celebrate Christmas and Easter. I realize they are ignorant of the truth, but to do this is quite strange really. As we saw, all three of these holidays have the same origin and were similarly adopted, at least in part, from pagan festivals. If you are against Halloween you should also be against Christmas and Easter. If you celebrate one, you should celebrate them all. Are you a Roman Catholic? Are you a pagan? Do you approve of practicing witchcraft? If you are not a Roman Catholic and acknowledge that worshiping their Pope and their “Saints” is nothing short of pagan idolatry then you should oppose all three of them. If you do not approve of paganism in general and practicing witchcraft then you should oppose all three of these holidays—because all three of them are full of themes that come from the witchcraft religions.
You don’t need to celebrate Christmas to celebrate the birth of your Messiah and you don’t need to celebrate Easter to celebrate His resurrection. You are supposed to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, when He was born, and the Day of First Fruits when He rose from the grave—keeping these Holy Days actually found in The Bible is the commandment of our God. I often find myself wondering how He feels when all of the “Christians” are celebrating the single greatest event in the history of the world, the resurrection of Yeshua, in the name of the spring fertility goddess Eostre. Is it possible to be more insulting to our Messiah? Perhaps the only thing more insulting to Him would be rejecting The Father’s gifts to us that are The Sabbath Day, the Feast Days, and all of The Torah.
Think also of The Passover. This is one of the most important celebrations in the entire Bible. Right before His crucifixion Yeshua was celebrating The Passover with His disciples and said: Do this in my memory. He wasn’t talking about “taking communion”—that wasn’t even something they did, “communion” comes from the Greek mystery cults and was brought into “Christianity” much later in history (see my article Communion: Commandment Or Convenience? where I discuss the history of it). Yeshua said we are supposed to celebrate The Passover, every year, on the biblically appointed day in the spring, in His memory. Why aren’t “Christians” even doing the one thing in the entire Bible that Yeshua asked to be done in His memory? Think about that! “Christians” today do not do what The Messiah asked us to do, but instead do an abbreviated ritual originating from pagan religion that they call “communion”—and they do it whenever they decide to instead of on God’s appointed time.
One other argument I hear from the antinomian “Christian” crowd is that if they do not see a commandment repeated in the writings of the apostles it must either be obsolete or not mandated—if you want to do it because Yeshua and all the apostles clearly did, you can, but don’t you dare try to say it’s still a commandment and “all Christians” are obligated to do it. They use this argument to claim they do not have to keep the food laws, the Feasts, The Sabbath, and other things they oppose. But this too is flawed logic. The Torah prohibits sexual intercourse with animals (Exodus 22:19, Leviticus 19:23, 20:15-16, Deuteronomy 27:21). This is not repeated in the “New Testament” or anywhere else outside of The Torah, so under the “Christian” viewpoint followers of Yeshua should engage in animal sex.
When I bring this up, they often contend that it’s covered under general statements in the “New Testament” that speak against sexual immorality. But then if that argument works in one case, it must work in all cases. So when Paul said, “touch no unclean thing,” and when Peter quoted directly from Leviticus 11:44 and 20:25-26 we have to equally say they were upholding the food laws. When Hebrews 4:9 says, “there remains a Sabbath,” we must conclude it means the only thing called The Sabbath in The Bible—the seventh day of a biblical week. And when Paul said to the Corinthians “let us keep The Feast”, highlighting one of the Torah Feast Seasons, we must consider that he was saying that we are still supposed to celebrate these commanded and appointed times. You can’t use a one set of interpretation rules for commandments you want to accept and a whole different set of rules for those you want to deem obsolete or at the very least optional.
If you are a “Christian”, whether a mainstream Protestant or even a Pentecostal, and you have read this message you know you cannot give good answers to the questions I have asked. You know that nothing in The Bible, in context, authorizes you to redefine The Sabbath or deem it abolished. You know that nothing in The Bible, in context, actually overturns the food laws or deems them abrogated. You know that the biblical Feasts are not “Jewish holidays”, that they were celebrated by Yeshua and the apostles, and that nothing in The Bible says they were voided or deemed “optional, not necessary”. You know that your favorite holidays—Christmas, Easter, and Halloween—come from the same Roman Catholic paganism and idolatry with influences from other pagan religions, and that these same holidays do not originate from The Bible. You know how illogical it is to say you are not under the “Old Testament” or not under The Torah but you can still go back there and claim blessings, inspiration, and promises that in context only belong to those who live by The Torah.
If you do not live by The Torah, if you hold an anti-Torah view of Scripture thinking that something in one part of The Bible voids something in an earlier part of The Bible, then it doesn’t matter what verses you quote, preach from, or speak over your life because you will be taking them out of context. Every verse in The Bible is written for the purpose of leading you to follow Yeshua AND His Torah lifestyle. When “Christians” say that they are “not under the law” or make similar statements they are the very same serpent that we read about in Genesis 3.
You know these things I have said in this message are true and you know you cannot answer the questions I have asked, so that leaves this one final question: What now?
What are you going to do now that you have been issued with this challenge to rethink what you were taught through “Christianity”? Are you going to say that despite what I have shared here, making so much sense, I must be wrong because “2.4 billion people who follow Christianity” cannot be wrong? That doesn’t make sense, The Bible says that broad is the way leading to destruction and many walk on it while narrow is the path to truth and life and few find it (Matthew 7:13-14). The Bible says not to follow a crowd to do evil (Exodus 23:2), and what is more evil than following a religion that is made to look biblical but is so far from actual Bible truth? How many more things do I need to show for you to see that what you are taught in “Christian churches” and what The Bible actually says are the exact opposite? 2.4 billion people, one-third of the world’s total population, is not the few who find the truth—it’s a large portion of the whole world that Satan deceives (Revelation 12:9).
Look, I am not asking you to renounce The Bible. I am not asking you to renounce Yeshua as Messiah. I am not asking you to renounce The Father and Creator. I am not asking you to renounce The Spirit of God. I am not asking you to renounce miracles, signs, and wonders. I am not asking you to renounce anything that is written in The Bible. I am not asking you to renounce anything other than false religion that leads you to believe some parts of The Bible do not apply today while we get to embrace things that The Bible tells us not to touch. And if that religion happens to be called “Christianity” then so be it. If something The Bible says runs completely contrary to the beliefs and teachings accepted by the masses, we are to follow The Bible. And when you do honest study into what The Bible actually says—the cultural context of what it says, written exclusively by Torah-keeping Hebrew people—a great majority of what “Christianity” believes and teaches and what The Bible actually says are vastly different.
I say it all the time and I will say it again here: In The Bible there is a lawless one (2 Thessalonians 2:8-9) and a Righteous One (Isaiah 53:11). The lawless one is Satan and the Righteous One is Yeshua. Lawlessness (or sin) is defined in 1 John 3:4 as breaking The Torah, going against The Torah. Righteousness is defined in Deuteronomy 6:25 as obeying The Torah, living by The Torah. The very first thing we see Satan telling people in Genesis 3 is that they do not have to obey the commandment of God (Genesis 3:1, 4-5). The passage reveals a three-step process he uses. In Genesis 3:1 he gets you to question the commandments: Did God really say? Did He really mean it when He said that? In Genesis 3:4 he leads you to believe there are no consequences for breaking the commandment, so you will think it’s not necessary to obey: You will not surely die. Nobody goes to hell for eating pork, not keeping The Sabbath, not celebrating the Bible Holy Days, etc. Then in Genesis 3:5 he convinces you that you will miss out on something if you don’t break the commandment: God knows you will be like Him. Think about it. If you don’t celebrate the pagan holidays of Catholicism you will be “missing out” on all the fun. If you keep The Sabbath you might “miss out” on the opportunity to be paid overtime at your job. If you follow the food laws you will “miss out” on certain things that taste good.
The very first message Yeshua preached is: “Repent, turn from your sins [Torah-breaking], for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). With these points alone considered do you really still believe that modern mainstream “Christianity” offers a correct understanding of The Bible? Who do you suppose is actually behind “not under the law” beliefs? It really is not that difficult to figure out that Satan is the god of modern “Christian” theology.
When you rely on common sense and look at what I have shared, it is easy to see who is behind the ideas that “Christians” have no requirement to follow the food laws, keep The Sabbath, and celebrate the Feasts and festivals that even The Messiah observed. It is not difficult to figure out who is the driving force behind the belief that it’s acceptable to celebrate the holidays of pagan witchcraft religion so long as you change the names and replace all the “bad stuff” with Bible themes. It’s the same serpent that first appeared in Genesis 3 and tricked people into thinking they don’t have to follow the commandment of God. Do you think any of this pleases God? It does not. It’s no different than when the Israelites, fresh out of Egypt, molded a golden calf and tried to use pagan religion to create their own “feast to Yahweh” (Exodus 32:3-5). Christmas, Easter, and often even Halloween are the golden calves of modern “Christian” religion, used to declare their own festivals to “Jesus”. Some people may not be fully persuaded that these holidays are truly pagan, but the mere fact that they are not found in The Bible and are the creation of the idolatrous Catholic church should be enough for any serious follower of Yeshua to renounce them and celebrate the biblical Holy Days instead.
Understanding the lawless one and the Righteous One is at the root of the issue. And until we deal with the foundational things, we cannot have a meaningful discussion about this with those trained and brainwashed by the antinomian delusion of the lawless (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12). Those who oppose obedience to The Law of God have all of their Bible verses that they think support their position, and until it is made clear who the lawless one is, who the Righteous One is, what lawlessness means according to The Bible and what righteousness means according to The Bible there is no reasoning with them. They are held captive in their minds to the deception of the serpent that presented itself at the tree in the midst of Eden. Yet the points I have made throughout this message cannot simply be dismissed, they must be addressed and if the questions I have asked do not have good answers—as they clearly do not, other than “No, we can’t find that in The Bible”—then can you at least consider that the overwhelming majority of “Christians” are wrong about what they believe?
Revelation 12:9 says that the ancient serpent, which is Satan, will deceive the whole world. And yet I have, on rare occasions, presented the facts to some people who cannot even comprehend that the lawless one is behind all of the beliefs from “Christians” who think they do not have to obey at least some aspects of The Father’s Torah. It truly boggles my mind when I encounter people who are so consumed with a belief system built entirely on the serpent’s theology originating in Genesis 3, honestly believing that they are following The Bible, that even what I have shared in this message does not make good sense to them. Fortunately, most “Christians” are capable of seeing the truth with much less convincing than this message has provided—they just need to be told.
The word “Christian” is used only three times in The Bible. It comes from the Greek word Cristianos (Χριστιανός). Two of the uses are attributed to actual pagan Romans saying the word toward the followers of Yeshua and many scholars consider it somewhat derogatory in this context, similar to a racial slur. It was likely a term of mockery directed at those who followed the faith of Yeshua and His Torah lifestyle, exactly as John describes in Revelation 14:12, and were thus considered fanatics. In Greek the “ianos” suffix denoted slavery, so it was a powerful thing, even in mockery, to be called a “Christian” in that context—it showed that you were completely sold out to following Yeshua and His Torah lifestyle, completely differentiating you from the surrounding secular culture and popular religion. In contrast, the modern suffix “ian” is much less intense and simply denotes “belonging through association”. In other words, as long as you just say you “believe in Jesus” you can call yourself a “Christian” in the modern view, no matter how much (or how little) of The Bible you actually live by. What all of this means is that technically the word “Christian” is not really biblical but the term was initially used to describe those who lived completely biblical lives by following the whole counsel of Scripture, so you can follow The Bible without associating yourself with the term “Christian” or you can, if you so desire, call yourself a true Christian if you follow a whole Bible faith practice. But because the word primarily represents a completely false religion today—so much so that if you follow The Bible as I have described all of the “Christians” think you are involved in a cult—I rarely use the word in a positive sense and typically favor simply saying I am a Believer or a follower of Yeshua. But whether you choose to continue identifying as a “Christian” or embrace another term to disassociate yourself with the lies, I do hope this message has changed you.
I am not against “Christianity” or “Christians”; after all there is a biblically supported true Christianity that follows both The Messiah and The Father’s Torah. But most “Christians” today have it ingrained into them that they are “not under the law”, and so the whole of their beliefs are built on this ideology. When they read and study The Bible, they do so already determined that The Bible supports this view that they are “not under the law”. The problem is that this is a belief that comes directly from the mouth of the serpent in Genesis 3, the first biblical character to teach people that they are “not under the law, they won’t die or ‘go to hell’ if they reject the commandment of God” and get people to believe that this is the teaching of Scripture. The entirety of most “Christian” theology today is built to use The Bible as support of the idea that there are parts of The Bible made obsolete or optional, despite that everyone who wrote The Bible believed the commandments of God to be mandated at all times and to all Believers and that the concept that commandments are obsolete or optional is always attributed to Satan throughout The Bible. But if you renounce this lie and read The Bible with the understanding that we are supposed to obey the commandments of God, suddenly everything begins to make more sense and no longer do there appear to be conflicts, contradictions, and Scripture overturning Scripture.
There is a big difference between teaching The Bible and using The Bible to teach religious beliefs. “Christianity”, for the most part, does the latter and when they do this they all too often use passages in ways that are completely different from their original intended meaning. Instead of conforming their beliefs to The Bible, they make The Bible conform to their beliefs.
Another error people make when matters such as those discussed in this message are brought up is the idea that Bible teachers such as myself are trying to get people to “be Jewish”. They envision that we want people to start wearing a kippah and grow those curly side locks called peyots. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with some such practices—though, the peyots are connected to kabbalist beliefs—you do not have to be “Jewish” in cultural or religious practice to follow The Bible, nor is following The Torah exclusively “Jewish”. The commandments of God are for all people according to Exodus 12:49, Numbers 15:16, and Ecclesiastes 12:13 and the term “Jewish” refers to the nation of Judah that formed after the kingdom split following the reign of Solomon—which is completely different from the original tribe of Judah. Nowhere does The Bible say you have to embrace post-biblical Jewish customs in order to keep biblical commandments. This is not a call to embrace Jewish culture or “Judaism”; it’s a call to embrace Bible culture and Bible commandments. If you truly love God, love Messiah Yeshua, and love The Bible then Bible culture should be your culture. The error of “Christianity” is a rejection of The Torah, the error of most “Judaism” is a rejection of Yeshua as Messiah, and the truth is those who BOTH keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony and keep the faith of Yeshua (Revelation 12:17, 14:12).
Sadly, I have presented the points in this message to some who still find obeying The Bible as a “Christian” to be incomprehensible. I have been told I am deceived, being taught from a slant, a legalist, a Judaizer, a fanatic, in a cult and so many things from religious “Christians” who simply cannot comprehend that we should obey The Bible. I take a position that “The Bible says to do this, so we should do it” and their position is “well, the Bible said [past tense] to do that, but we figured out some reason using a random Bible verse that infers through our interpretation why we don’t have to do it anymore” and somehow I am the one with a cultish view. They honestly believe that The Bible teaches against obeying The Bible. They think that teaching people to follow The Torah is a doctrine of demons. The Torah came from The Father, and I assure that Satan is not on a mission to convince people to obey The Father’s commandments.
It is truly perplexing. I can barely comprehend how hard someone’s heart must be in order to remain blind to the truth after being shown the five main questions in this message and how modern “Christian” theology cannot answer them, the breakdown of the lawless one and the Righteous One, the three-point pattern of the serpent in Genesis 3:1-5, and so many other points made in this teaching. Ezekiel 36:26 says that God will give us a new heart, removing the heart of stone, in the new covenant and Jeremiah 31:32 adds that this new heart will have The Torah of God written on it. For someone to be presented with everything this message conveys and still reject it, calling the messenger a legalist, a Judaizer, or anything else can only be attributed to the delusional force of the lawless (2 Thessalonians 2:11).
John 4:24 says: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” “Christians” think that they are worshiping The God of The Bible in their churches on Sunday mornings, but they are not. Ezekiel 36:27 says that The Spirit CAUSES a Believer to walk in God’s Law, The Torah, and Psalm 119:142 says The Torah is truth. You cannot worship in spirit or truth if you are not living by The Torah. Sunday mornings, worldwide, must be a time when God weeps and Satan rejoices as the deceived and lawless masses of “Christianity” sing songs and offer prayers to a God they refuse to obey. But they sure do spend a lot of time teaching secular concepts like debt reduction or marriage counseling with a “Christian” twist—throw in a few Bible verses, usually out of context, and you can make any cultural issue sound biblical while ignoring the actual mandates of The Bible.
The Bible speaks of a time when the people did whatever was right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6, 21:25). The Bible says that there is a way that seems right to men, but the end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12). Some today hear the truth about some of the things I shared, especially the truth about things like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, and say: “That’s not what it means to me!” The problem is that The Bible does not authorize us to take evil things from pagan religion or anything else and assign it another meaning. The Bible actually says not to do that, and what really matters is what these things mean to God—and in His eyes if it is evil, then that’s what it means to Him. Do a study on those who did evil in the eyes of God throughout The Bible and what they did to be forever marked in the biblical record as those who did evil in the eyes of God. About half of the kings of Israel have that statement as their eternal legacy. And what did they do? Most of the time it was cultural idolatry—building altars to Ba’al, raising Asherah trees, burning incense in the high places, offering children to Molech, molding golden calves, and numerous other things. This is no different than today’s cultural idolatry in churches—raising Christmas trees, offering children on the lap of Santa Claus (aka Odin), hosting Easter egg hunts, doing Halloween alternatives, and numerous other things. It’s all the same thing, and it’s the exact opposite of worshiping God in spirit and truth—both of which require a heart of Torah obedience. You cannot escape the truth and there is coming a day when you will stand face-to-face with God at The Throne of Judgment. What will you do now?
If this message has changed your perspective or caused you to think about things, I hope you will share it with others you know who are involved in modern “Christian” religion that rejects certain commandments of our God while embracing things that come straight out of pagan religions. If this message has radically changed you, as I am sure it has, you should want others to be radically changed as well. This is a message that has the potential to start a revolution. So that leaves you with this final question: What will you do now?
And for any pastors that may have read through this message: Will you be brave enough and bold enough to make the ultimate stand for Messiah that you can make in this generation and begin leading your church in the truth? What will you do now?
—Blessings and Shalom—
©2022 Truth Ignited Ministry
