Discipleship

God’s Calendar

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. They will be signs and will mark religious festivals, days, and years.
(Genesis 1:4, God’s Word Translation)

God’s Calendar – Introduction

Like most Messianic disciples I always believed the Hebrew lunisolar calendar the Jewish religion uses was God’s calendar. After all, they’ve been using it for thousands of years. But, while driving home after eight days of Sukkot camping I listened to Dr. Michael Heiser’s podcast teaching on Revelation chapter 11. Paraphrasing, he concluded that:

‘If you want to understand the numbers in Daniel (i.e., 1260, 1290, 1335, 2300) you must use the Zadokite solar calendar. It’s the only calendar that fits.’

Until I heard this statement I’d never seriously questioned the validity of the traditional Hebrew lunisolar calendar. A few months ago someone mentioned the Enoch solar calendar, but after looking into it I quickly dismissed it because it didn’t keep the weekly Sabbath day on Saturday, the 7^th Day… I wondered how the Zadokite solar calendar was different.

Of course, I know of many minor lunar calendar disputes that constantly brew within Jewish/Messianic communities. For example, in my local fellowship there is a discussion concerning what constitutes the new moon?

Is the new moon when the moon totally disappears at conjunction? Or,
Is the new moon when the first sliver is sighted by two witnesses?
The answer determines when each month begins, which controls the dates for Passover, Pentecost, Atonement, etc., on the lunar calendar.

And so, Dr. Heiser’s statement was revolutionary, a potential paradigm shift, sending me on an investigative journey that resulted in this article.

The result of my investigation is that I’m now convinced the solar Zadokite calendar is God’s calendar.

From Noah’s flood in 2348 BC until Antiochus IV Epiphanes (who is the prototype for the final Antichrist) changed it in 167 BC, the evidence clearly proves (to me) the Zadokite calendar was the calendar of God’s covenant people.
If that’s true, it is still the calendar God uses—regardless of whether mankind uses it or not.

Ancient Witnesses to God’s Solar Calendar

Here is the body of evidence that convinced me God’s calendar is the solar Zadokite calendar. This evidence is from Genesis, Daniel, Enoch, Jubilees, Solomon’s Temple, and the Dead Sea Scrolls showing (explicit and inferred) proofs that—for thousands of years—YHWH’s ancient disciples used a solar 364-day calendar…not a lunar 354-day calendar.

Genesis

The Book of Genesis says the flood waters prevailed 150 days over exactly five months. Since the lunar calendar has both 29 and 30-day months, it won’t tally 150 days in five months. Therefore, we can deduce from Genesis that Noah used a solar calendar with 5 months of thirty days each. Here are the details:

The rain started on the 17^th day of the 2^nd month. (Genesis 7:11)
The waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days. (Genesis 7:24)
After 150 days the waters had gone down. On the 17^th day of the 7^th month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. (Genesis 8:3-4)

Daniel

Dr. Michael Heiser states that to understand the prophetic numbers in Daniel (i.e., 1260, 1290, 1335, etc.) you must use the Zadokite solar calendar. Heiser states, ‘If you want to make sense of the numbers, historically and eschatalogically, the only way it makes sense within a Jewish/Old Testament/Second Temple Jewish context is if you use this calendar.’ NB-381 Transcript, see page 13
Dr. Michael Heiser (MH) quotes Dr. Boccaccini, “Daniel 7:25 blames the iniquitous king, Antiochus Epiphanes, for “changing times” in Temple worship. According to A. Jaubert and J. C. VanderKam [MH: who are two experts on this chronology], this marks the occasion on which the Hellenistic lunar calendar definitively replaced the old Zadokite solar calendar, which Jubilees and [MH: the people at] Qumran would seek in vain to restore after the Maccabean revolt. (The Book of Daniel, Composition and Reception, Vol II, Pg 311)

1 Enoch

Blessed are all the righteous, blessed are all those who walk in the way of righteousness and sin not as the sinners, in the reckoning of all their days in which the sun traverses the heaven, entering into and departing the portals for thirty days, with the heads of thousands of the order of the stars, together with the four which are intercalated, which divide the four portions of the year, which lead them and enter with them four days.

Owing to them men shall be at fault and not reckon them in the whole reckoning of the year: yea, men shall be at fault, and not recognize them accurately.

For they belong to the reckoning of the year and are truly recorded (thereon) for ever, one in the first portal and one in the third, and one in the fourth and one in the sixth, and the year is completed in three hundred and sixty-four days. (1 Enoch 82:4-6)

Note: A solar calendar produces a 364-day year, while a lunar calendar produces a 354-day year. Therefore, the reference to 364 above is solar, and 354 (“ten days too soon” in the following ‘Book of Jubilees’ quote) is lunar.

Jubilees

“And all the children of Israel will forget, and will not find the path of the years, and will forget the new moons, and seasons, and sabbaths, and they will go wrong as to all the order of the years. For I know and from henceforth shall I declare it unto thee, and it is not of my own devising; for the book (lieth) written before me, and on the heavenly tables the division of days is ordained, lest they forget the feasts of the covenant and walk according to the feasts of the Gentiles after their error and after their ignorance. For there will be those who will assuredly make observations of the moon–now (it) disturbeth the seasons and cometh in from year to year ten days too soon.

For this reason, the years will come upon them when they will disturb (the order) and make an abominable (day) the day of testimony, and an unclean day a feast day, and they will confound all the days, the holy with the unclean, and the unclean day with the holy; for they will go wrong as to the months and sabbaths and feasts and jubilees. For this reason, I command and testify to thee that thou mayest testify to them; for after thy death thy children will disturb (them), so that they will not make the year three hundred and sixty-four days only, and for this reason they will go wrong as to the new moons and seasons and sabbaths and festivals, and they will eat all kinds of blood with all kinds of flesh.” (Jubilees 6:34-38)

Solomon’s Temple Designed for God’s Calendar

The Jewish Talmud tells us Solomon architected YHWH’s temple to reveal the exact times of the sun’s equinoxes and solstices at Jerusalem. This is because the vernal (spring) equinox controls the beginning of the year on the Zadokite calendar.

“The East Gate into the temple used to be called the Sun Gate or Sunrise Gate. The Sun Gate was used to record the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Before the exile into Babylon, it was held to be of imperative necessity that on two days of the year the sun shone directly through the Eastern Gate and through all the Eastern Gates of the Temple arranged in a line, directly into the very heart of the Temple proper. The Eastern Gate, also called the Sun Gate, served not only to check the equinoxes, when the sun rises exactly in the east, but the solstices as well: a device on the Eastern Gate was designed to reflect the first rays of the sun on the summer and winter solstices, when the sun rises in the southeast and the northeast respectively.”
The Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Erubim 22c

Dead Sea Scrolls

“The Qumran sect believed that God had entrusted them with the innermost secrets of the structure of the universe, including the secret of the true calendar and the exact dates of the festivals. They used a solar calendar, with the year consisting of 364 days. It was divided into twelve months of thirty days, with the exception of the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth months, which had thirty-one days each. According to this calendar, the festivals always fell on the same day of the week: Passover on a Wednesday, the Festival of Weeks of a Sunday, and the Day of Atonement on a Friday.” (Pg34, The Bible in the Shrine of the Book, From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Aleppo Codex, Adolfo Roitman, The Israeli Museum, Jerusalem, 2006.)
“The lunar calendar, which Judaism follows to this day, requires a large number of human decisions. People must look at the stars and moon and report on their observations, and someone must be empowered to decide on the new month and the application of leap years. By contrast, the 364-day calendar was perfect,” they write in the Journal of Biblical Literature. “Because this number can be divided into four and seven, special occasions always fall on the same day. This avoids the need to decide, for example, what happens when a particular occasion falls on the Sabbath, as often happens in the lunar calendar. The Qumran calendar is unchanging, and it appears to have embodied the beliefs of the members of this community regarding perfection and holiness.” (TheGuardian, 26 Jan 2018)
The Zadokite calendar was ‘the official temple calendar up to the Maccabean period.’ (The Book of Daniel, Composition and Reception, Vol II, Pg 326)
Dr. Heiser said, “Do you realize that the calendar used today by Judaism (the lunar calendar) was viewed as an apostate, awful thing by the Jews who wrote Jubilees and who lived at Qumran (the Essenes) and the book of Enoch as well. Those are solar calendars. And those are the calendars they believed originated at the time of creation. Everything else was an inferior system…This is what led to the split that created the Qumran community. This was a big deal for them. Because now you’re using a human calendar, one that you have to adjust by arbitrarily adding a month every now and then, as opposed to God’s perfect mathematical calendar. This is an abomination. They never won that fight…Antiochus Epiphanes “changes the times” in the temple worship. They go back to the lunar calendar. They replace the solar calendar.” (NB-381 Transcript, see pages 8-9)

A Dead Sea Scroll in Jerusalem’s ‘Shrine of the Book’ Museum

Book of Revelation

Dr. Heiser said, “The only ancient text that explicitly elaborates on the figure of Daniel [MH: this numerical figure] is the Revelation of John, and it is strikingly straightforward. The time of persecution is a period of “42 months” [MH: Revelation] (11:2; 13:5), or [MH: it’s described as] “1,260 days” (11:3; 12:6), or “a time, two times and a half time” (12:14).

According to the book of Revelation, therefore, Daniel would have known a solar calendar of twelve 30-day months, which makes a year of 360 days. In fact, such a calendar allows us to establish a sensible relationship among the three calendrical references in Daniel 12. A consistent and proportioned series links the “half week” (1,260 days) to the 1,290 days ([MH: by virtue of] the addition of one 30-day month), which in turn becomes 1,335 days with the further addition of one 30-day month and a half [MH: 30-day month]. (NB-381 Transcript, see page 10)

HOW Israel Transitioned from God’s Solar Calendar to a Lunar Calendar

In view of the clear evidence that the Zadokite solar calendar was (and is still) God’s calendar, what caused the Jewish religion to change from the solar calendar to a lunar calendar?

Overview of the Jewish Transition from Solar to Lunar Calendar

Onias III was the last faithful high priest in Israel. He was a son of Zadok, descended from both Aaron and Levi. His tenure ended in 175 BC.
When the gentile Antiochus Epiphanes assumed Seleucid rulership over Israel in 175 BC, he replaced Onias III with Onias’ brother Jason. Unlike Onias, Jason was a hellenist who favored Greek culture.
Within three years Antiochus replaced Jason with the totally corrupt Menelaus, of the tribe of Benjamin, who sold precious temple vessels to purchase the position of high priest. He then murdered Onias III after Onias exposed him.
- Antiochus and Menelaus changed the calendar from solar to lunar (The Book of Daniel, Composition and Reception, Vol II, Pg 326)
- In 167 BC Antiochus defiled the temple with pig blood, erected a statue of Zeus, forbade the Sabbath, circumcision, etc.
- These abominations caused the Maccabean revolt, which the Maccabees won
Following their victory over Antiochus in 164 BC, hellenist Jewish leaders compromised with their Seleucid (Greek) rulers by (1) keeping Menelaus as high priest, and (2) keeping the Gentiles’ lunar calendar.
- As a result of this compromise, from 167 BC until today the Jewish religion still uses the lunar calendar.
From Menelaus (172 BC) until the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 AD, Gentile rulers sold the high priesthood to the highest bidder.
The Jewish religion is without temple or priests since 70 AD, fulfilling Yeshua’s prophesy, “Your house is left unto you desolate.”

Details of the Jewish Transition from Solar to Lunar Calendar

This section expands on the summary version above, providing more details and dates.

Onias III, 199-175 BC

Before Antiochus Epiphanes became king, Onias III was the last faithful Aaronic ‘son of Zadok’ to serve as Jewish high priest. Second Maccabees chapter 4 chronicles the betrayal and intrigue of his downfall.

Jason, 175-172 BC

In 175 BC, the new Seleucid ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, forced Onias III to yield his office to Jason, his brother. Jason was a hellenist sympathizer who only occupied the position three years until 172 BC, when Menelaus deceptively ousted him.

“Jason forthwith brought his own nation to Greekish fashion.”
2 Maccabees 4:10

Antiochus IV Epiphanes, 175-163 BC

After more than 7 years as ruler over the Jews, in 167 BC the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes did two things: he

Desecrated the Jewish temple in an ‘abomination of desolation,’ and he
Changed the Jewish calendar from solar to lunar, thereby changing God’s moedim–His ‘appointed times.’ (1 Maccabees 1:41-50)

Antiochus polluted the temple with pig’s blood on God’s altar and erecting a statue of Zeus, whose face resembled Antiochus’ own likeness. Antiochus also outlawed circumcision and Sabbath observance, making violations punishable by death.

These abominations resulted in the Maccabean revolt in 166 BC. The Maccabees finally defeated Antiochus’ army, cleansing and rededicating the temple in 164 BC.

According to 2 Maccabees 5:14-15, Antiochus (guided by Menelaus) killed 80,000 Jews and sold 80,000 others into slavery.

Antiochus Epiphanes died horribly in 164 BC, with every bone broken in a chariot accident and his flesh swarming with worms.

Menelaus, 172-161 BC

In 172 BC Antiochus put the high priest’s office up for auction and Menelaus, a Benjaminite, outbid Jason, deposing him as high priest.

Menelaus didn’t have the money he bid for this sacred office, so he stole sacred temple vessels to raise the sum he needed.

When Onias III heard of this, he publicly accused Menelaus of robbing the temple. To quiet him, Menelaus sent assassins who killed Onias III.

Menelaus was high priest during the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes.

According to II Maccabees, Menelaus is responsible for persuading Antiochus to hellenize Jewish worship, including changing the Jewish calendar from solar to lunar in 167 BC.

After the Jewish Maccabee victory over Antiochus and the recapture of Jerusalem in 164 BC, Maccabean leaders made a political decision to keep the corrupt Menelaus as high priest in the restored and cleansed Jewish temple.

“Despite their firm opposition to the Hellenists, the Maccabees retained the newly-introduced lunar calendar.” (The Book of Daniel, Composition and Reception, Vol II, Pg 327)

The corrupt Menelaus occupied the high priest office for 11 years, from 172 BC until his execution by Antiochus’ successor in 161 BC.

Divided Jewry, from 164 BC to 73 AD

Following the Jewish Maccabees’ victory over Antiochus in 164 BC, Jewish leaders compromised with their Seleucid rulers, keeping the lunar calendar. This compromise caused a split between Hellenistic and traditional Jewish religious groups.

Hellenist Jews mixed Greek culture with Jewish traditions. As a result, they adopted the lunar calendar, liberalized Torah observance, elevated ‘oral traditions,’ and cancelled God’s requirement that high priests be descendants of Aaron, i.e., Menelaus.
In contrast, traditional Jewish leaders believed in keeping the solar calendar, following the Torah, and restricting the priesthood to the sons of Levi/Zadok.
- But, with Judah under Seleucid rulership, this party lacked any political support to exist.
- As a result, they left Jerusalem, ‘shaking the dust from their feet’ to form a monastic community in the desert wilderness at Qumran.
- In Qumran the ‘Zadokites’ saw themselves as the ‘sons of Zadok’ in Ezekiel’s apocalyptic temple prophecy.

The ‘Sons of Zadok’ Prophecy in Ezekiel

The Zadokites in Qumran considered the Hellenists in Jerusalem to be apostate from YHWH, while they considered themselves to be the prophetic ‘sons of Zadok’ in Ezekiel’s prophecy.

The prophet Ezekiel lived 400 years before the events of 167 BC. Within his end-time temple ministries Ezekiel prophesied explicitly about apostate priests versus the sons of Zadok, “who kept charge of My sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from Me.” (Ezekiel 44:15)

About the apostate priests Ezekiel wrote:

Surely the Levites who wandered away from Me when Israel went astray, and who wandered away from Me after their idols, will bear the consequences of their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having charge of the gates of the temple and ministering there. They shall slaughter the burnt offerings and other sacrifices for the people and stand before them to minister to them.
Because they ministered before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I swore with an uplifted hand concerning them that they would bear the consequences of their iniquity, declares the Lord GOD. They must not approach Me to serve Me as priests or come near any of My holy things or the most holy things. They will bear the shame of the abominations they have committed.
Ezekiel 44:10-13

Ezekiel then proceeded, writing:

But the Levitical priests, who are descended from Zadok and who kept charge of My sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from Me, are to approach Me to minister before Me. They will stand before Me to offer Me fat and blood, declares the Lord GOD. They alone shall enter My sanctuary and draw near to My table to minister before Me. They will keep My charge…In regard to their inheritance, I am their inheritance. You are to give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession.
Ezekiel 44:15-16, 28

The Zadokites in Qumran applied Ezekiel’s ‘sons of Zadok’ prophecy to themselves, believing the Jerusalem hellenizers were “the Levites who wandered away from YHWH.”

The Zadokites dwelt in Qumran more than 100 years, until the Romans destroyed their community between 68-73 AD.

The Jewish Religion from 73 AD to Today

For more than 1800 years after the Romans destroyed the Qumran community (until a boy discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946) the world forgot everything about the Zadokites’ beliefs, their writings, and God’s calendar.

In the meantime, since 167 BC all Jewish religious sects continue using the lunar calendar. That is, each month starts with a ‘new moon’ and when this calendar gets ‘out of sync’ with the four seasons a 13^th month is added to compensate.

The Bible, Talmud, Mishnah, etc.

As Winston Churchill famously said, “History is written by the victors.”

Regarding God’s calendar, the historical victors (so far) are the proponents of Hellenistic Judaism.

The Zadokites fled from Jerusalem in 167 BC, becoming a marginalized Jewish sect in the desert under the Seleucids. Then, the Romans completely destroyed them around 67-73 AD and they disappeared from history—until a boy discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946.
Meanwhile, Hellenistic Judaism continued in the Jerusalem temple under the Seleucids and then the Romans, until the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and exiled surviving Jews from their land in 70 AD. But, even as exiles among the nations for almost two millennia, their version of Hellenistic Judaism still survives today.

Therefore, since before the Pharisees and Sadducees existed, and 1600 years before Gothenburg invented the printing press, the world has only known the Hellenistic version of Judaism—which uses the Gentiles’ lunar calendar.

Fast forward to today… all Jewish and Christian writers, Bible translators, and publishers assume the Jewish religion’s 2100-year-old lunar calendar is correct. Since it’s so ancient, all our Bible translations and seminaries have this perspective.

What is God’s Calendar?

This section briefly describes the Zadokite calendar and its benefits. Use the hyperlinked resources at the end of this article for more-detailed study.

Description

In the Zadokite calendar the year always contains 364 days.
Each year consists of twelve months of thirty days each, plus four additional days, one of which is intercalated (added, inserted) at the end of each three-month period.
- For example, the first and second months are 30 days long, while the third month totals 31 days; then the pattern repeats.
- Each three-month period is 91 days long.
- Four 91-day quarters combine in a 364 day year.
New Year’s Day and the first day of each quarter always falls on a Wednesday.
- Wednesday is the day mandated as the first day by the creation order, since the heavenly lights – sun, moon and stars, the basis of all calendars – were created on the fourth day (Gen. 1:14-19).
A particular day of any given month will always fall on the same day of the week every year.
Festivals occur on the same day each year, and never on a (Saturday) Sabbath, thereby avoiding conflicts about sacrifices.

Benefits

A great advantage of the Zadokite solar calendar over the lunar calendar is that it results in fixed dates for the major festivals.
This calendar guarantees that a particular day of any given month will always fall on the same day of the week every year.
The 364-day year is divisible by 7, which fits God’s pattern of time keeping.
- God created the heavens and earth in 7 days
- 7 days x 52 weeks = 364 days in a year
- 7 years in a shmitah period
- 7 x 7 years in a 49-year Jubilee cycle
- There are 7000 years in God’s plan for this creation (2 Peter 3:8)

God’s Calendar Template

Sabbath Days on God’s Calendar

In God’s calendar the 7^th-day Sabbath repeats on the same days each year. For example, in the diagram below read across from left to right to see the red Sabbath dates are the same in months 1, 4, 7, and 10. Then, read across to find the blue dates are the same on months 2, 5, 8, and 11, and they’re the same for green months 3, 6, 9, and 12.

You can verify this pattern in the calendar template on the next page.

Image from Part 1 of the Asherit Dead Sea Scrolls video series

Since God created the sun, moon and stars on the 4^th day of creation, the Zadokite solar calendar starts on the 4^th day of the week (Wednesday) after the spring equinox.

Sorry for the small text; please zoom-in to see the details more clearly.

Download calendar at https://zadokway.com/calendar

‘Appointed Times’ on God’s Calendar

God’s appointed times (see Leviticus 23) are highlighted in yellow or green in the template above. These appointed times occur on the same days each year:

Passover – 14^th of 1^st month
Unleavened Bread – 15^th to 21^st of the 1^st month
Firstfruits of Barley – 26^th of 1^st month
Shavuot or Pentecost (firstfruits of wheat) – 15^th of 3^rd month
Trumpets – 1^st of 7^th month
Day of Atonements – 15^th of 7^th month
Sukkot (Tabernacles) – 15^th to 21^st of 7^th month, and the 8^th Day on the 22^nd of 7^th month

Resolving My Own Arguments Against the Solar Zadokite Calendar

Before accepting the Zadokite solar calendar as God’s calendar I had to overcome these three major objections.

1. Doesn’t the Bible talk about the new moon, including a new moon celebration?

Here are the only verses that mention “new moon.” Quotes are from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English:

Numbers 10:10 And in the day of your joy and of your meetings and of the beginnings of your months, sound with the trumpets for your burnt offerings and for your peace offerings and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God; I AM YHWH your God.”
Isaiah 1:13 You shall not continue to bring to me worthless savor offerings. It is disgusting to me. At the first of the months and on the Sabbath you assemble an assembly.
1 Chronicles 23:31 And to offer up sacrifices to YHWH on the Sabbaths, and on the first of the months, and at feasts by their number, according to what is right for them constantly before YHWH.
2 Chronicles 2:4 Even now I am building a house for the name of YHWH my God, to hallow it and to bring before him censers of sweet incense and to light a lamp constantly, and to bring sacrifices at dawn and in the evening, and on the Sabbaths in the first of the month, and at the feasts of YHWH our God for eternity; this they decreed for all Israel.
2 Chronicles 31:3 And the King gave some of his slaughtered ones, sacrifices of oxen of the dawn and of the evening, and offerings of Sabbaths and of the beginning of the month, and of the feasts, and he spoke to the people just as it is written in the Torah of YHWH.
Nehemiah 10:33 For the bread of the offering, for the continual offering and for the continual sacrifice of the Sabbaths, and of the beginning of months, and of the feasts, and of holy things, and of the forgiveness of the sin of Israel, and all the work of the house of our God.

I chose quotes from the Aramaic Bible in Plain English because it consistently translates ‘new moon” to mean the 1^st day of the month, or the 1^st day of the year, without any reference to the moon. Here are the underlined portions from the six references above:

the beginnings of your months
the first of the months
the first of the months
the first of the month
the beginning of the month
the beginning of months

The Hebrew word chodesh can either mean moon or month, so most translators assume that more than 2100 years of rabbinic tradition is correct when they choose to translate chodesh as ‘new moon’ instead of ‘beginning of the month.’

As you see on the image below, the Hebrew word for moon ‘yarach’ isn’t found anywhere in the Hebrew manuscripts where it says, “new moon.”

Also, the image below shows another possibility for ‘new moon’ events mentioned in scripture. Perhaps they were the first days of the months following the quarterly ‘intercalary’ days. Asherit explains this concept starting at the 5:36 minute mark in this video. To better understand these technically complicated topics, click the hyperlinks I’ll provide at the end of this article.

Image from Asherit Dead Sea Scrolls video #1

2. Why is Firstfruits of Barley on Aviv 26 in God’s Calendar?

Most Messianic disciples believe the ‘Firstfruits of Barley’ should be celebrated on the Sunday within the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is the Sunday when Yeshua appeared to Mary and the disciples after His resurrection as the ‘firstfruits of the dead.’

On the Zadokite calendar image below, this Sunday is the 19th day of the 1st month. However, the Zadokite calendar places the Firstfruits of Barley event on the following Sunday, the 26th day of the first month. What’s up with that?

I emailed Asherit from the YouTube Asherit Dead Sea Scrolls channel, asking this question:

“I recently listened to a podcast by Dr. Michael Heiser in which he asserted that the Zadokite calendar is the only one that fits the numbers in Daniel’s prophecies. As a result, in researching the Zadok calendar I discovered your YouTube series. I’ve watched all 5 parts, and they’re very good, but I have a hang-up about the dating of Firstfruits that (I see) others have also asked you.
Basically, I don’t understand why Firstfruits can’t be on the Sunday within the feast of Unleavened Bread (ULB). Why does it need to be after ULB?
In your YouTube Discussion page (2 years ago) Anne Fallible asked you about this and you said you’d email her a lengthy response. If you can find it, please send me this response. Or you can send me a more current explanation if that’s more convenient.”

Asherit gave me this response the same day:

‘So, this was a source of debate among my group of friends before I discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) and the First Fruits of Barley date on Abib 26 and it actually served as confirmation that whoever wrote the DSS knew the Torah very well.

When we read Leviticus 23 it was clear that the First Fruits of Barley could not occur within the 7 days of Passover and Unleavened Bread because the 7 feasts were divided into separate sections and First Fruits was not within the section for Passover and Unleavened Bread. First Fruits of Barley and the 50-day count to Shavuot were together but separated from the earlier 7 days of Passover and the later feast of Yom Teruah/Trumpets. There were basically two different camps: 1) First Fruits must be the day following the first Sabbath after the 7 days ends and 2) After the weekly Sabbath during the week of Passover you must count 50 days to the Barley harvest and then another 50 days to the Wheat harvest.
Option 2 never made much sense to me but I thought option 1 was the best answer. After I found the DSS and saw that over 2,200 years ago they wrote it was the 26th which is the Sunday following the first weekly Sabbath after the end of Passover/Unleavened Bread I was thrilled to have a definitive answer instead of just a guess.
Then when I read in Jubilees that the feast of Shavuot was in the middle of the 3rd month, it was another confirmation that it lined up with Torah. I had always argued that starting the 50-day omer count during the 7 days of Unleavened Bread would never get you into the middle of the 3rd month when Israel arrived at Mt. Sinai according to Exodus, the closest you could get was a full week BEFORE the middle of the 3rd month…so how could Shavuot commemorate arriving at the holy mountain of Yah?
(Here she inserted the text of Leviticus 23:1-22, which I’ve removed. It’s available in your Bible.)
So, I understand that a lot of people have been taught that Yeshua had to be resurrected on First Fruits of Barley because He is called the First Fruits of the resurrection later and if He didn’t rise from the dead on First Fruits then He didn’t fulfill the feasts properly. This has been a popular Torah movement teaching which was based more on the lunar calendar tradition of the Rabbi’s who routinely mix and overlap their feast days and Shabbats.
So where did the idea come that He would be the First Fruit if He didn’t resurrect on that feast day? Isaiah 53. This is also where we get the understanding the He was to be our Atonement as it states in Hebrews although He didn’t die on Day of Atonement. Yeshua was the first to resurrect to ETERNAL life out of land that was dry, devoid of the living water needed for life. Because He was the first to resurrect with eternal life, He can now impart this to us as the Day of Atonement sacrifice.
If you will recall the part of His trial when Barabbas (Son of the Father) was placed next to Him and the people chose Yeshua as their sacrifice and that Barabbas would be set free.
The first Adam destroyed eternal life and until Yeshua there was no eternal life imparted to anyone, only the expectation of eternal life in the future Messiah which it says that Abraham saw and rejoiced over. This is why Yeshua is called the 2nd Adam/the Last Adam. But the association doesn’t dictate that He must be resurrected on the feast of First Fruits to be the First Fruit, just as He didn’t have to do it all over again in the 7th month just so He could be called our Atonement. It simply means that He fulfilled or filled up with meaning, those specific roles during His ministry.
I hope this helps…Shalom!’

3. A year isn’t 364 days, it is 365.25 days!

Yes, that’s correct. So, just as in our ‘leap year,’ where we add a compensating day (February 29^th) to our calendar every 4 years, the Zadokite solar calendar adds days to the end of a year after every five or six years, depending on the vernal (spring) equinox.

Intercalation Rule

Simply put, the Zadokite calendar’s calendar-adjustment rule is that whenever the spring equinox would extend past day 364 at the end of a year, add up to seven days to start the next year’s cycle on the following Wednesday.

For example, look at the diagram below:

The calendar numbers the days of the year from 1-364. In the Zadokite calendar Day 1 is always on a Wednesday, Pentecost (Day 75) is always on a Sunday, and Yom Kippur (Day 192) is always on a Friday, etc.
Red dates are Biblical festival dates, which never vary.
Solid Red boxes are equinoxes and solstices
Green boxes are Sabbath days (Saturdays)
Blue boxes are the 91^st day of each quarter, and intercalation days at the end of the year.

As you can see, the Spring equinox at the top beginning of the year (solid red box) was on the 3^rd Day of the week (Tuesday), but at the end of the year the Spring Equinox falls on Wednesday, which would be day 365. Therefore, add seven days (after day 364) to start day 1 of the the following year on the next Wednesday (after Day 7 in the blue box). This resets the Zadokite solar calendar, just as adding February 29th resets the Julian calendar during a leap year.

Image from Asherit Dead Sea Scrolls video #5

Then, at the end of the year following the year depicted in the diagram above, the Spring equinox will occur on day 359, so that year can end on Tuesday, day 364 and the year after that can start the next day. Another intercalation adjustment won’t be necessary again until the spring equinox occurs after day 364, after five or six years.

4. Does Psalm 104:19 support a lunar calendar?

Psalm 104:19 says, “He made the moon (yarach) for times (moedim, appointed times) and the sun knows the time of its settings.” This verse seems to support a lunar calendar for setting the dates of YHWH’s ‘appointed times.’

I emailed Asherit about this, writing:

Asherit, I have a quick question that you might be able to help me with. Psalm 104:19 says, “He made the moon (yarach) for times (moedim, appointed times) and the sun knows the time of its settings.”
This verse explicitly says God created the moon for the moedim. However, in the Zadokite calendar the moon is not associated with the moedim, so how should we understand this verse?

Asherit emailed her response to me, saying:

I believe that this verse is referring to the appointed times of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes when the moon serves as a witness to the season as established by the sun alone.
Enoch 1 tells us that two times a year the moon changes its course to set with the sun through the same gate. I have a video on my YT channel of the sun and moon setting together through the same gate on the equinox. In other words, the sun knows it’s going down, it precise location through the new gate, and the moon acts as a faithful witness.
I believe that because we are so far removed from understanding the motion of the heavens like the ancients knew them that we don’t understand references that would have been clear to them at the time it was written. I hope this helps!

Her response makes sense to me. Here’s how I now understand Psalm 104:19:

The psalmist wasn’t endorsing the lunar calendar. He was referring to the two times per year when the moon synchronizes with the sun in an equinox. They are the ‘two witnesses’ of each equinox.
The Spring equinox (when the moon passes through the same ‘gate’ as the sun) is used to establish all 364 dates for the entire year that follows, including the dates for all the ‘appointed times’ in Leviticus chapter 23.
The image below is from her YouTube video demonstration of the moon serving as a witness to the sun during the Spring and Autumn equinoxes. It starts at the 14:38 minute point in Zadok Calendar In The Dead Sea Scrolls Part 3.

Zadok Calendar in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Part 3

Conclusion: the Zadokite Priestly Calendar is God’s Calendar

The solar Zadokite calendar is God’s calendar.

For more than 2000 years, from Noah’s flood in 2348 BC until Antiochus IV Epiphanes changed it in 167 BC, historical evidence proves God’s covenant people used the Zadokite calendar.
If that’s true, it is still the calendar God uses—regardless of whether mankind uses it or not.

To Learn More About God’s Calendar

Videos

1. Calendar Dead Sea Scrolls by Professor Rachel Elior of Hebrew University This fascinating 2-hour 20 minute video includes three parts.

From the start to 1:06:15 The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Zadokites and the Essenes, the covenant and the sacred calendar, Enoch, angelic priestly ministries, angelic Melchizedek
Question and Answer period: 1:06:18 to 1:22:55 includes the history of how the ancient rabbis forbid Jewish people from reading books outside the Old Testament canon, such as Enoch, Jubilees, etc.
From 1:23:00 to the end: The Zadokite Solar Calendar is God’s calendar. Rosh Hashanah isn’t a legitimate Jewish New Year; how the lunar calendar displaced the solar calendar.

2. Asherit’s Zadok Calendar in the Dead Sea Scrolls 5-part series on YouTube:

Part 1 Introduction and Overview of the Zadokite solar calendar
Part 2 How the Zadokite solar calendar operates from year to year; intercalary days, vernal equinox
Part 3 The luminary cycles of the sun, moon and stars; how to observe the equinox
Part 4 Comparison of various lunar and solar calendars. Intercalation. How the solar calendar changed to lunar.
Part 5 Continuation of Part 4. Why the Zadok calendar is superior to other calendars, and how to establish Day 1.

Websites

How to Be a Good Parent | Reset Priorities and Overcome Programming

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With the American government, mainstream media, and the NEA (teachers’ union) all dominated by progressive ideologues, I’m very concerned about the welfare of the next generations of kids. If you’re concerned about how to be a good parent in today’s world, let me share some practical tips I’ve learned in more than 40 years of parenting.

How to Be a Good Parent: The Problem

I know how easy it is to feel overwhelmed by career pressures and the cares of life. As a result, most parents offload the weight of parental responsibility in the following ways:

Allowing the content and worldview in their children’s’ minds to be molded by the school system
Using TV and video games as a babysitter and pacifier
Avoiding religious training and discussions
Neglecting family-focused activities. Instead, family members dwell in individual bubbles, with their attention glued to a TV/PC/phone screen.

If this tendency toward passive parenting isn’t addressed and corrected, I’m concerned society is on track to raise a generation of amoral sociopaths who expect someone (i.e., parents, the government) to continue providing all their needs and wants.

In my opinion, to be a good parent you must:

Reset your priorities
Overcome the world’s programming, displacing falsehoods with Truth

1. How to Be a Good Parent: Reset Your Priorities

Parental Responsibility

Parents have a God-given responsibility and authority to form the beliefs and attitudes of their children. This responsibility is not transferable, and it’s more important than your job or hobbies.

In a few years your child will be grown and mature, and you’re responsible for what kind of adult your child will become. If you look into the future, will you be proud or ashamed?

Parental Commitment

The kind of person your child will become is largely up to you.

Therefore, today, unless you’re confident about the positive influences in your child’s life, commit to optimizing your child’s influences so that you can be proud of who your child becomes in the future.

This commitment to your children’s welfare may cost you money, promotion, friendships, etc.

You’ll need to ‘count the cost’ to determine which is more important–your worldly success or your children’s positive development?

Parental Control of Education

Many public (and private) schools today are intentionally brainwashing children with evil concepts. For example:

Racism, under the headings of Critical Race Theory, Systemic racism, white supremacy, 1619 project, Black Lives Matter
‘Abolish the police,’ Social justice theory
Math is racist, ethnomathmatics
Theory of evolution as a proven scientific fact
Anti-patriotism: America, and its founding fathers, are evil
Amoral sex-education with free condoms, including at the elementary school level
Promoting abortion as a means of birth control without consequences
Sexual identity indoctrination, radical pro-LGBT ideology, gender is fluid, anti-marriage, anti-parental rights

It’s every parent’s duty to know what their child is being taught. If their school is teaching any of these evil concepts, they are harming your child.

Worse yet, if you don’t contradict these teachings, this is the worldview your child will grow up believing is true.

Parental Decision

Therefore, if your child is in an evil learning environment you must either (1) aggressively work to change what the school is teaching your child, or (2) transfer your child into a good school environment.

A ‘good school environment’ may include enrolling them in another public school, a good private school, or making the commitment to homeschooling them.

Your local public and private school options will vary by your location. For homeschooling, a quick Internet search revealed some good HomeSchool resources, both secular and Christian:

For parents, public schools are both easy and free, and the alternatives (private school or homeschooling) generally aren’t easy or free. But, if your public school is teaching evil concepts, your child’s welfare obliges you to make one of these choices.

2. How to Be a Good Parent: Overcome the World’s Programming

Model and Teach Truth

About 2000 years ago Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?”

Jesus didn’t answer the Roman tyrant. But privately, Jesus had informed His disciples,

“I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6

Jesus is the truth, the living word of God, the ‘word made flesh.’ (John 1:14) Therefore, if you wish to follow ‘the truth’ in your life, you will end up following the Savior revealed in the New Testament.

(Some who read this article are now thinking “I don’t want to become religious–I just want to be a good parent.” I understand. But I don’t think you can be a good parent if you’re not following truth to the best of your ability. And, now that I’ve told you that Jesus is the embodiment of truth, every honest person is obliged to determine if that’s correct or not. To determine this, read the Gospel of John in the Bible. It’s a short, but life-changing book.)

So, as a first foundation, parents should model and teach the truth of God’s word in their daily life. The word ‘model’ means you are a living example. If you want your children to follow the right way in life, you should set the example by following Him who is the embodiment of truth.

Next, God commands parents to look for every opportunity to teach their children the right way to think and behave.

“…you shall teach these words diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6:7-9

Monitor Outside Influences

Then, having modeled and taught them the truth, closely monitor (and be very involved with) what your kids are being taught in school, and what they’re watching on TV and social media, etc. Don’t allow them to be taught evil things. If you don’t contradict every evil teaching or concept in a homework assignment, a TV program, a video game, or a comic book… then you’ve allowed it.

Always counteract evil influences with a loving, godly perspective. Explain the good and bad consequences of every concept and habit, encouraging them to choose what’s good.

How to Be a Good Parent: Your Parent-Child Relationship Foundation

Depending on what influences you allow into your child, you may be doing a lot of correcting. This can quickly become tedious for both parent and child, especially if you don’t have the foundation of a strong parent-child relationship.

If your relationship is weak, build its strength by prioritizing and investing every spare moment doing fun and educational things together. Without this foundation, the world’s voices (school, TV, friends, etc.) will be louder than yours.

Every Decision Has Consequences

As they mature, it’s very difficult (but necessary) for moms and dads to give their children the freedom to make their own choices, letting them be accountable for their decisions and their consequences–both good and bad. Of course, parents need to establish boundaries to prevent kids from hurting themselves or someone else. But, otherwise, they should be given freedom to make decisions commensurate with their maturity level.

Children will make some bad decisions. When you see your child suffer negative consequences for a bad decision, it’s a learning experience for them. So, try not to protect them from the consequences that result from their decisions. Consequences are a great teacher.

For bad decisions that continue into a bad habit, I prescribe consistent parental counseling, prayer and spiritual warfare, and holding onto Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

How to Be a Good Parent: Conclusion

It’s every parent’s responsibility to “Train up a child in the way he should go.” Afterward, it’s every grown child’s responsibility to choose which path he will follow, and which consequences he’ll receive.

Speaking from more than 40 years’ experience, this combination of teaching, modeling, consequences, prayer and faith works.

God will likewise bring you success as a parent, if (1) you are faithful to set your priorities aright, and (2) you are diligent to overcome the world’s programming in your child’s mind and heart.

“Be Blameless and Harmless” in the Great Tribulation | Philippians 2:15

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This morning the ‘still, small voice’ of the Holy Spirit spoke to me concerning how we will overcome our spiritual adversaries in the coming Great Tribulation. He said, “blameless and harmless,” reminding me of Philippians 2:15.

“Do all things without murmurings and questionings: that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life; that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain. Yea, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all: and in the same manner do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.” (Philippians 2:14-18 ASV)

As you can see, the apostle Paul associates being ‘blameless and harmless’ with the “day of Christ,” which is coming soon. He also associates it with being offered-up as a sacrifice, which I’ll discuss below.

Blameless and Harmless

Blameless

Why must we be blameless?

Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it’s against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Therefore, our enemy is not evil people. It’s not the government, or liberals, the deep state, or the Chinese, etc.

Our enemy is the Devil, that ancient serpent, “The Accuser” and the evil spirits (principalities and powers) who follow him. According to Revelation 12:10b, The Accuser is even now accusing us continually before God in heaven.

But, when we are blameless, The Accuser and his evil followers will have nothing to accuse us of, and therefore they’ll have no right to remain in heaven. The blamelessness of YHWH’s witnesses (martus, martyrs) will cause our enemies to ‘lose their place‘ in heaven. Michael and his angels will then cast them out of heaven and down onto the earth.

So, there are two reasons why our blamelessness is important to complete God’s plan of salvation:

Blamelessness testifies to our successful transformation from sinner to saint. It glorifies God because of His successful work of forgiveness and grace in our life. As long as we abide in carnality and sin, the Holy Spirit’s transformational work of sanctification isn’t complete.
Our sacrificial offering (Psalm 110:3) must be pure, without blemish or defect.

(I realize these topics may will generate more questions, but the answers are well beyond the scope of this short article. For the background theology behind what I hinted at here, read the free PDF booklet, The Overcomers’ Treasure Map.)

Is it Possible to be Blameless?

Some will ask “Is it possible for us to be blameless?” Many religious people say ‘nobody is perfect,’ and ‘everybody sins every day.’ But these sayings aren’t true. They’re the enemy’s lies.

Instead, concerning the possibility of attaining perfection, the apostle Paul had the attitude we should have:

“I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view.” (Philippians 3:10-15 BSB)

Be Perfect; Press On to Take Hold; Strain Toward What’s Ahead…

God’s plan of salvation makes it possible for us to attain perfection and sinlessness. It’s not only possible, but YHWH expects us to press into blamelessness, as these verses prove:

Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:7-8 BSB)

You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless our conduct was among you who believed. (1 Thessalonians 2:10 BSB)

…so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:13 BSB)

…in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, as you anticipate these things, make every effort to be found at peace—spotless and blameless in His sight. (2 Peter 3:13-14 BSB)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. (Ephesians 1:3-4 BSB)

Harmless

Speaking of Jesus, our High Priest in heaven, the Book of Hebrews states:

For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. (Hebrews 7:26 NKJV)

Harmless: Without Any Desire to Hurt or Harm

‘Harmless’ in Hebrews 7:26 comes from the Greek word akakos. As you can see below, Akakos means someone who is innocent, without any desire to hurt or harm.

Harmlessness Isn’t Weakness

As He was dying for our sins Jesus prayed,

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

During His earthly ministry Jesus exemplified harmlessness. But that doesn’t mean He was weak in any way… The same Jesus who gently welcomed the children frequently scolded His disciples. The same Jesus who touched the leper and healed him whipped the moneychangers as He overturned their tables in the temple.

Being harmless doesn’t mean we’re always happy, smiling and positive. It means our intentions are always pure toward another person’s benefit. It means we only want other peoples’ welfare, regardless of how they hurt or wrong us.

Being harmless is how we fulfill these commands:

I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:44)

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. (Proverbs 25:21)

Bless those who persecute you. Pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:28)

Make sure that no one repays evil for evil. Always pursue what is good for one another and for all people. (1 Thessalonians 5:15)

Overcomers are Blameless and Harmless

The 144,000 Overcomers

“The end-time harvest of the earth, for which God has been patiently waiting since the First Eon, is a holy people who overcome sin through His Spirit living within them. According to Revelation 14.4, the firstfruits of the coming end-time harvest will be 144,000 morally flawless disciples of the Lamb, with 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. They’ll completely fulfill all the requirements of God’s law by growing daily into the fulness of the stature of Christ.” (The Overcomers’ Treasure Map, pg 93)

The 144,000 are blameless and harmless. They’re overcomers, who overcome Satan, the world system, and their own carnal desires. The apostle John saw them on the heavenly Mount Zion with the Lamb–their resurrected Messiah. About the 144,000 John wrote,

“They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been redeemed from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.” (Revelation 14:4-5 BSB)

Conclusion

We’re living in the end of the age. The fulfillment of end-time prophecies is imminent, including:

The Great Tribulation
The manifestation of the sons of God
The end of the Serpent’s reign over the earth
The destruction of all nations (Daniel 2:44)
The first resurrection of saints
God’s final harvest of souls
The Messianic kingdom for 1000 years
The final judgement of all mankind

How can you be on the right side of these end-time events? Be blameless and harmless, and follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

Anticipating Christian Pentecost

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The Feast of Pentecost has two fulfillments, symbolized by Israel’s early rain and latter rain. In the early rain God gave us the Holy Spirit as ‘the earnest of our inheritance.’ In the latter rain we’re going to experience ‘the manifestation of the sons of God.’

Early and Latter Rains

People in ancient Israel understood agricultural examples. They knew:

The early rain came in the autumn. It softened the hardened earth, enabling farmers to plow and plant their seeds.
The latter rain came in the spring. It ripened the grain, just in time before the big harvest.

The Early Rain Pentecost

The apostle James directly connects this symbol of Israel’s early and latter rains to the Lord’s return.

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the early and latter rains. You too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
James 5:7-8

The first century Pentecostal outpouring of God’s Spirit was the early rain.

In the early rain God gave us the Holy Spirit as ‘the earnest of our inheritance.’

The Earnest of Our Inheritance

ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession
Ephesians 1:14

This raises two questions:

The definition of earnest?
What is our inheritance?

Earnest of Our Inheritance?

An earnest is a pledge or down payment. It proves the buyer’s full intent to complete a transaction. In this case, it is God’s guarantee to us that He has accepted us and He will bring us into our inheritance.

What is Our Inheritance?

If the Spirit’s Pentecostal outpouring 2000 years ago was the earnest (or pledge) of our inheritance, what will our full inheritance look like?

Our Inheritance Includes Redemption

The Spirit of God is now “the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.”

Redemption is: “The purchase back of something that had been lost, by the payment of a ransom.”
https://biblehub.com/topical/r/redemption.htm

How Were We Redeemed?

What did God pay for our ransom? God redeemed us by the blood of Jesus. At the throne of YHWH in heaven, this is the song the elders sing to the resurrected and glorified Lamb of God:

Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You redeemed for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.
Revelation 5:9

What are we redeemed from?

Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Titus 2:14

The Greek word for iniquity literally means ‘without law.’ It means living outside the boundaries of God’s moral will for us. Since the early rain of Pentecost we have the Holy Spirit to guide us out of iniquity and into holiness.

What are we redeemed to?

One of the Holy Spirit’s primary roles today is to fulfill Jeremiah’s prophecy of the New Covenant:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.
Jeremiah 31:31-34

Therefore, since Pentecost, as we walk according to the Holy Spirit’s leading in our heart God ‘redeems us from all iniquity, purifying to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ (Titus 2:14)

Our Inheritance Includes Sonship

all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Romans 8:14

Inherit All of Creation

The sons of God will inherit all of creation:

And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.” And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life. The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son. But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.
Revelation 21:5-8

Jesus’ Younger Brothers

For eternity Jesus will look upon these sons of God, whom the Spirit conforms to Jesus’ image, as His younger brothers.

be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:29

Summary of Our Inheritance

Therefore, if you walk in the Spirit you will overcome iniquity and God will conform you to His image. Then, you will inherit all things and be recognized throughout creation as a son of Almighty God, a brother of Jesus. This is your inheritance if you choose to become a son of God.

The Hope of Redemption

The early rain Pentecost gave us the earnest of our inheritance, but we earnestly desire the total consummation of our redemption, the redemption of our bodies. As Paul wrote,

We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:22-23

The latter rain Pentecost will soon bring us closer to this goal.

The Latter Rain Pentecost

In the early rain Pentecost God gave us the Holy Spirit as (1) the earnest of our inheritance, and (2) an indwelling guide to conform us into His moral image.

For almost 2000 years Jesus patiently waits for the latter rain Pentecost to bring his bride to spiritual maturity, “to the full measure of the stature of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13) His wait is almost over.

What to Expect in the Latter Rain Pentecost

The latter rain Pentecost will ripen the Bride of Christ into maturity, “to the full measure of the stature of Christ.”
The latter rain Pentecost will result in the glorious ‘manifestation of the sons of God.’ They are the 144000 ‘firstfruits’ of the global harvest at the end of this age.

Pentecost is a ‘Firstfruits’ Festival

The Feast of Pentecost is also known by other names, one of which is ‘Firstfruits.’ Here’s a list of names for the Feast of Pentecost:

Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:10, 16)
- This is because (every year) Pentecost is celebrated 50 days (7 Sabbath weeks plus one day) after the day God resurrected Jesus’ body from death.
- Feast of Shavuot (Hebrew word for Weeks)
Feast of the Harvest of the Firstfruits (Exodus 23:16)
Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest (Exodus 34:22, Numbers 28:26)

Caution: Don’t Confuse the Two Firstfruits Festivals

The reason why Pentecost is also called a Firstfruits festival is that Pentecost is an extension of Jesus’ resurrection. Let me explain…

There are two festivals called Firstfruits, and they’re related via Jesus’ resurrection.

Leviticus 23: 9-14 This Firstfruits festival occurs during the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread. Jesus fulfilled this barley Firstfruits festival by His resurrection.
Leviticus 23:15-21 Then, 50 days after the resurrection, the Pentecost ‘Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest’ festival began to be fulfilled in the ‘early rain’ outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the disciples in Jerusalem. I say it ‘began to be fulfilled’ because Pentecost has more fulfillment coming in the latter rain outpouring of God’s glory.

The barley Firstfruits festival celebrates the Messiah’s resurrection. It’s also the event that triggers the 50-day countdown to Pentecost, which is the wheat Firstfruits festival.

Jesus said His resurrection is what enables God to send His Holy Spirit to us. So, Pentecost is dependent on (and triggered by) the resurrection.

But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
John 16:7

In summary, there are two Firstfruits festivals (50 days apart) and both are related to Jesus’ resurrection.

Pentecost as ‘Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest’

One Firstfruit versus Many Firstfruits

The Barley Firstfruit Festival is a Single, Unleavened Offering

There is one sheaf of barley in the barley Firstfruits festival. Since this festival occurs during the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, we can be absolutely certain this offering is unleavened.

This single sheaf represents the sinless state of our Passover sacrifice, Jesus. YHWH resurrected Jesus’ sinless body, fulfilling this festival.

The Wheat Firstfruit Festival (Pentecost) is a Multiple, Leavened Offering

In contrast to the single sheaf of unleavened barley, two leavened loaves of wheat bread represent multiple wheat Firstfruits with imperfections in their lives.

Two Leavened Loaves

Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD.
Leviticus 23:15-17

Jesus was the single, unleavened firstfruit offering in the barley Firstfruits festival.

Since the barley Firstfruit represented a person, I assume these two leavened loaves also represent people. If so, we can learn two things from the two leavened loaves:

It’s a group — not just one person.
They’re not totally perfect and holy. There is leaven in their lives, which represents imperfection.

Who Are the Pentecost ‘Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest?’

Exodus 34:22 calls Pentecost the ‘Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest’ . So, who are represented by the two leavened loaves? What group of imperfect people will be the ‘firstfruits of the wheat harvest?’

The Book of Revelation gives us the answer… in the end-time, angels ‘seal’ 144000 disciples of Jesus in chapter 7. They’re called the “firstfruits to God and the Lamb” in Revelation 14:4.

I believe Pentecost’s two leavened loaves represent the 144000 disciples of Jesus in the Book of Revelation. There’s leaven in their lives, so they’re not yet perfect like Jesus. But, like King David, God looks on their pure heart.

They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been redeemed from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.
Revelation 14:4-5

For much more detail about the latter rain Pentecostal blessing of the 144000, sometimes called ‘the manifestation of the sons of God,’ watch the video or read my free book at Arise, Shine!

Christian Pentecost – Conclusion

The Feast of Pentecost has two fulfillments, symbolized by Israel’s early rain and latter rain.

The Early Rain

In the early rain Pentecost, almost 2000 years ago, God gave us the Holy Spirit as ‘the earnest of our inheritance.’

The Latter Rain

The latter rain Pentecost will ripen the Bride of Christ into maturity, “to the full measure of the stature of Christ.”
The latter rain Pentecost will result in the glorious ‘manifestation of the sons of God.’ They are the 144000 ‘firstfruits’ of the global harvest at the end of this age.

What Do You Think?

Did this article answer all your questions on this topic? Please leave a comment below and tell me:

Did this article satisfy you?
Or, did it leave you wanting more?

Christian Passover

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What is Christian Passover? Even after being a dedicated Christian for over 45 years, I didn’t understand Passover; and, like most Christians, I believed that Easter replaced Passover. But in the last few years I’ve discovered Passover’s spiritual importance and how Christians should celebrate it.

Most Christians know God fulfilled Passover about 2000 years ago when the Lamb of God voluntarily sacrificed Himself for our sins. That’s true, but the ongoing, Christian meaning of Passover is that disciples are to follow the Savior’s example, themselves becoming lambs of God, “living sacrifices.” How?

In this article you’ll learn:

Past: How Jesus physically fulfilled Passover. This includes how He fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits, both of which directly result from His sacrifice as our Passover Lamb.
Present: How God calls His disciples to celebrate Christian Passover in their own lives, with purity, obedience, and sacrifice.
Future: Since God fulfilled the Spring feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits) exactly as prophesied, what can we expect concerning the Autumn feasts in our future?

“Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
1 Corinthians 5:7

1. Past: How Jesus Fulfilled Passover

Terminology: Jewish Passover vs Christian Passover

Jewish Passover

Since the exodus from Egypt, God commanded Israel to annually celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

So, for more than 3000 years, descendants of Israel remember Passover every springtime in a Passover Seder (pronounced say-der), which is a traditional Passover event.

Christian Passover

During the Last Supper on the evening before His crucifixion, Jesus fulfilled the symbolism of the Jewish Passover and instituted a New Covenant version–a Christian Passover.

Christian Passover doesn’t replace the Jewish Passover. Rather, it builds on the original Passover’s foundation and adds expanded meanings to it.

Here’s a Christian Passover Seder incorporating some of the traditional Seder, but updated in light of the cross and resurrection of our Savior. Feel free to download and use it to celebrate your Christian Seder. If you’d like a Microsoft Word version that you can edit, email Tom@Standinfaith.org to request it.

Passover-Outline-v7 Download

When to Celebrate Christian Passover?

Disclaimer: Since 164BC, Jewish leaders use a lunisolar calendar, which is primarily controlled by the moon’s phases. (If you’re interested in learning about Israel’s calendar before 164BC, read my post entitled God’s Calendar.)

The Jews determine Passover season dates according to the monthly cycle of the moon. (Leviticus 23:5-8)

Nisan 1 begins each Jewish year with a new moon.
Passover preparation (lambs are killed) occurs on Nisan 14
The feast of unleavened bread runs 7 days, from Nisan 15-21
Nisan 15 and 21 are Sabbath days

The Hebrew Calendar

Nisan? For centuries many doctrinal misunderstandings and errors occurred because our Gregorian calendar is different from the Hebrew calendar, so (trust me) it’s important for you to briefly understand the Hebrew calendar before proceeding.

From Sunset to Sunset

Ever since the first day of creation in Genesis chapter one, days in the Bible go from sunset to sunset—not from midnight to midnight as we’re accustomed.

(example above from Hebrew4Christians.com)

God’s Appointed Times

Explanatory Note About God’s Names

First (because it’s a stumbling block to some people) this section is a quick side-note to explain why I use the names YHWH and Jesus in this article.

YHWH

In Exodus 3:14 we learn that “YHWH” is Almighty God’s personal name. There are many opinions about how to pronounce YHWH, with Yahweh or Yehovah being the most popular.

In this article, rather than referring to Him using the generic word ‘God,’ which allows people to imagine whatever their concept of God is, I’ll often use the specific name of YHWH. YHWH is the God who covenanted with Israel. He is the Father of Yeshua the Messiah.

Yeshua

There are almost as many opinions about how to correctly say our Savior’s name. He is called Yeshua, Yahushua, Issa, Iesue, and Jesus. In this article I’ll refer to the Lord by the name Jesus, not because it’s more correct, but because this article’s target audience are Christians who know Him by this name.

The Seven Moedim (Appointed Times)

In the Bible (Leviticus 23) YHWH ordained seven ‘moedim’ for His people. YHWH’s appointed times, or ‘Moedim’ (pronounced mo-a-deem) are sacred assemblies for His people (Leviticus 23:2).

The 4 Spring moedim teach us about God’s plan for redeeming mankind from sin and death through the Messiah. Christian Passover is a spring moedim; we celebrate it to remember (and personally identify with) Jesus’ sacrifice as the Lamb of God. The other 3 Spring moedim are:

The 3 Autumn moedim promise how YHWH will resurrect His saints and establish the Messiah’s kingdom on the earth.

Here are the 4 Spring and 3 Autumn moedim:

The 7 Moedim from holyimpactministries.com

God fulfilled the Spring moedim in the past; He will fulfill the Fall (Autumn) moedim in our future.

Lunar Month of Nisan

Passover is in the lunar month of Nisan, which is the first month in the Hebrew calendar. Nisan always coincides with March/April.

The first day of each Hebrew month starts at sunset when Israel sights the first sliver of the new moon. (Or, a minority believe the new moon is ‘at conjunction,’ when the moon is completely dark–the Bible doesn’t define which is correct.) Then, two weeks later, the full moon is on the 15^th of each month. Here’s a depiction of one lunar cycle; one Biblical month.

Passover on Nisan 14

From the following verses we learn Passover occurs ‘between the sunsets’ on Nisan 14. The Feast of Unleavened Bread follows immediately afterward, for the next 7 days, from Nisan 15-21:

These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you shall proclaim at their appointed times. The Passover to the LORD begins between the sunsets on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of the same month begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
Leviticus 23:4-6

Every year, the Jewish Passover Day (Nisan 14) is when the lambs are killed. But, it is not itself a Sabbath Day.

Rather, Nisan 14 is a preparation day, to prepare the lamb (and vegetables, etc.) for the Passover ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread.’ This feast begins after sunset, as the ‘high Sabbath’ begins on Nisan 15.

The Passover feast is the ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread,’ and Nisan 15 is a ‘high Sabbath’ day.

Events on Christian Passover Day – Nisan 14, from Sunset to Sunset

This is a brief, chronological summary of events that happened on Nisan 14, Christian Passover Day, in the year Jesus died on the cross:

Jesus and His disciples met for the Last Supper at the beginning of Nisan 14, just after sunset. This was a Tuesday evening.
After dinner, Jesus and His disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Judas led a a mob there to arrest Jesus.
Pontius Pilate convicted and condemned Jesus to be crucified early on Wednesday morning.
By 9am Jesus was crucified. At about 3pm (still on Nisan 14) He died on the cross.
His disciples hastily laid His body in a nearby tomb before Nisan 14 ended at sunset. This was before the Feast of Unleavened Bread began at sunset, the beginning of Nisan 15. (John 19:31, 42)

The Last Supper

Jesus and the 12 disciples met in an upper room for (what Jesus knew was) His last meal. During this meal He emphasized to them (and demonstrated) the Christian Passover concepts of purity, obedience, and sacrifice.

Purity: Mikveh and Foot-Washing

Before entering the sacred temple area for Passover, Jews ritually purified themselves by immersion in a mikveh, a ritual bath. Archaeologists discovered hundreds of mikvehs around Jerusalem for this purpose.

Whoever has already bathed needs only to wash his feet, and he will be completely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.
John 13:10

From this verse (John 13:10) we know Jesus and His disciples bathed to cleanse their bodies before walking to the upper room for the Last Supper.

Another Ancient Stepped Mikveh in Jerusalem

Obedience:

Jesus didn’t want to die on the cross. Even so, knowing He was going to be crucified as the Lamb of God within just a few hours, Jesus said,

I do exactly what the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
John 14:31

Sacrifice: Bread and Wine

At the Last Supper, Jesus used leavened bread (artos, Strong’s #740) and wine to symbolize His body and blood.

The Melchizedek Priesthood

The symbol of bread and wine wasn’t new in Hebrew history. In the book of Genesis, Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He ‘brought out bread and wine’ when he blessed Abraham in Genesis 14:19.

According to Hebrews 5:10, 6:20, and 7:1-28, Jesus is our High Priest ‘according to the Order of Melchizedek.’

So, what did it mean when Jesus ‘brought out bread and wine,’ and how does it relate to Christian Passover? Months before, in Galilee, Jesus told His followers:

I AM the Living Bread of Life

Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”
“Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood you have no life in you…”
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink.
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your fathers, who ate the manna and died, the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this teaching, Jesus asked them, “Does this offend you? Then what will happen if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before? The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. However, there are some of you who do not believe.
John 6:53-63

So, what did it mean when Jesus ‘brought out bread and wine,’ and how does it relate to Christian Passover? The bread and wine in the Last Supper were elements of an ancient blood covenant ritual. It is a ‘New Covenant in His blood.’

The New Covenant

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them, declares the LORD.
But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.
For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.
Jeremiah 31:31-34

Who Are the Parties Making the New Covenant?

Who did YHWH covenant with in the New Covenant? Contrary to popular opinion, the Church didn’t replace Israel as God’s chosen people when Jesus instituted the New Covenant.

According to Jeremiah 31:31 above, the New Covenant is between YHWH and the houses of Israel and Judah.

Spiritual Israel

New Covenant disciples are citizens of spiritual Israel.

Jesus is God’s High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He mediated the New Covenant between YHWH and the houses of Israel (10 tribes) and Judah (2 tribes). The apostle Paul revealed that Gentile believers are reconciled to God because they’re grafted-in to the ‘lost 10 tribes’ of Israel.

At the Last Supper Jesus revealed that His body and blood would be sacrificed to renew the covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai—the covenant Israel had broken.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.”

Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:26-28)

This is the Christian Passover ceremony.

The New Covenant Is A Blood Covenant

Bread and wine are ‘blood covenant‘ symbols. In ancient times, whenever two men made a formal covenant, they sacrificed an animal. They spilled its blood (its life) and then roasted and ate its body in a covenant meal. Eating this meal constitutes an unspoken agreement that whoever breaks the covenant will be cursed to die, just as the sacrificed animal died.

In like manner, when we eat the Christian Passover bread and drink the Christian Passover wine (in the Feast of Unleavened Bread) we’re symbolically eating the body and drinking the blood of the Christian Passover sacrifice, the Lamb of God.

When you eat the bread and drink the wine in the Christian Passover ceremony you are literally entering into a covenant with YHWH.

That’s why the apostle Paul warned:

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 11:27-30

Our Responsibility In the New Covenant:

Believe in the Messiah as our Christian Passover sacrifice
Have God’s law written in our mind and on our heart (and walk accordingly)
Know YHWH.

YHWH’s Responsibility In the New Covenant:

Reconcile believers to Himself—both Jew and Gentile. Reconciliation is available to anyone who believes. Belief in YHWH’s Christian Passover sacrifice is the only method of reconciliation with YHWH. (John 14:6)
Replace believers’ heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Make it possible for them to live according to God’s instructions.
YHWH now inhabits a spiritual house made from ‘living stones,’ making all stone temples obsolete.

As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, you also, like living stones, are built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5

Arrest, Trial, Crucifixion, Burial

The themes of purity, obedience and sacrifice continue:

Purity

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot.
1 Peter 1:19

Obedience

“Not My will, but Thine be done.”
Luke 22:42

In His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
Luke 22:44

He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:8

Regardless of the cost and pain, Jesus completely obeyed the Father and submitted Himself to the Father’s will.

Sacrifice

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
Isaiah 53:7

Feast of Unleavened Bread, from Nisan 15-21

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is the actual Passover meal, when we eat the roasted, sacrificial lamb.

Historical Christian Passover Week Details

Note: the year 30AD is not certain, but the Nisan 14-18 details are correct.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread occurs every year after sunset, at the beginning of Nisan 15. This is about 4 hours after the lamb’s blood (its life) is taken.

Jesus died on the cross on Wednesday at about 3pm. This was exactly the same time as the Levitical priests in the temple were killing the Passover lambs to cover the nation’s sins. Just after sunset on that Wednesday, all families in Israel would be eating roasted lamb in Passover Seder meals. A ‘Seder’ (pronounced say-der) is the ritual feast commemorating the exodus from Egypt under Moses.

A bright, white full moon at the beginning of this feast on Nisan 15 represents the Messiah’s resurrected glory.

Why Unleavened?

Whereas Jesus and His disciples ate leavened bread at the Last Supper, this is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Why unleavened? There are two reasons:

In the exodus from Egypt they didn’t have time to leaven their bread. So this is a remembrance of their leaving in haste.
Leaven represents sin. While Jesus was in His mortal body, it was corruptible, like ours. In fact, in this sinful world Jesus suffered temptation in every way we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) But after His body died, it was no longer possible to tempt Him to sin. He is forever incorruptible. His body has (symbolically) changed from leavened to unleavened.

In the New Covenant YHWH gives us a heart of flesh and writes His law in our mind and on our heart. So, unleavened bread also represents our changed nature, from sinner to saint. We can now walk in sincerity and truth…

Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.
1 Corinthians 5:7

Why is the Feast of Unleavened Bread 7 Days?

The Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles have many similarities:

Both feasts last 7 days (Tabernacles lasts 7 days, but adds an 8^th day)
Both begin and end with “a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work”

Ever since the 7 days of creation in Genesis, the number 7 represents the fullness, completeness, and perfection of YHWH’s creation. For example, every 7^th day speaks of complete rest; there are 7 colors in God’s rainbow, and 7 notes in the musical scale.

Why these feasts last 7 days is a mystery, but here’s my belief; the 7-day duration of these two holy feasts tells me that they have eternal significance.

Throughout all eternity we’re grateful to YHWH because He provided us the bread and wine of the New Covenant in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We owe everything to YHWH’s love and grace, and to our Passover Lamb, Jesus.
For all eternity we’re the ‘tabernacle’ of YHWH; that is, He will dwell in us and we will be His temple, built of living stones.

Should Christians Celebrate Moedim?

In a word, yes. For Christians who don’t believe the moedim apply to them, Zechariah 14:16 tells us all nations will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles annually in the millennial age to come–after the Battle of Armageddon.

Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
Zechariah 14:16

Think about it objectively…

God required Israel to celebrate His moedim in the past, and He will require require all nations to celebrate Tabernacles in the future Millennium.
It’s therefore highly unlikely that God thinks it’s okay for His people today to disregard His moedim, and to replace them with non-Biblical ‘Christian’ holidays.

Firstfruits, Nisan 18

Firstfruits celebrates the first portion of the harvest of mankind in the kingdom of God.

The Sign of Jonah

The Jewish leaders asked Jesus for a sign to confirm God sent Him. In response, Jesus told them,

A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”
Matthew 12:39, 16:4, Luke 11:29

Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
Jonah 1:17

The sign of Jonah is that Jesus would be in the grave three days and three nights.

His disciples placed Jesus’ body in the tomb on Wednesday afternoon, Nisan 14, before sunset. Three days and 3 nights later, Jesus arose from the dead on Saturday afternoon, Nisan 17, before sunset.

Timing

While fulfilling the sign of Jonah, Jesus also fulfilled the timing requirements for the Firstfruits moedim.

And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land I am giving you and reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD so that it may be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.”
Leviticus 23:9-11

After the Nisan 17 sunset, ending the Sabbath, Jesus ascended into heaven and waved the sheaf of firstfruits before YHWH on Nisan 18.

Firstfruits Offering in Heaven

As the spotless Lamb of God Jesus fulfilled Passover and Unleavened Bread. When YHWH resurrected Jesus’ body, transforming it into an incorruptible, heavenly body, Jesus ‘entered the land’ in the spiritual realm. As the resurrected High Priest according to the Order of Melchizedek, Jesus brought many resurrected saints with Him as the Firstfruits offering in the heavenly sanctuary…

At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After Jesus’ resurrection, when they had come out of the tombs, they entered the holy city and appeared to many people
Matthew 27:51-53

Some believe these resurrected saints are the 24 elders John saw in Revelation 4:4.

2. Present: Christian Passover

How should Christians apply the spiritual truths of Passover?

Christian Passover – Purity

Just as Jesus and His disciples ritually purified themselves before Passover, we must purify ourselves before we can…

offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Romans 12:1

How to Purify Yourself

The Passover sacrifice of Jesus makes it possible for us to overcome all shame and an evil conscience. This enables us to ‘have confidence’ to enter YHWH’s presence without guilt or shame…

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:19-22

The Tabernacle

God told Moses to build the tabernacle “according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” (Exodus 25:40) God showed Moses the divine pattern that everyone must follow to enter YHWH’s presence.

Enter through the Door at the bottom. Proceed up to the Holy of Holies.

The Temple

Later, Israel’s temples followed this same pattern…

Christian Passover – Spiritual Application

First, enter through the Door. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. (John 10:7)
Sacrifice on the brazen altar. Jesus was offered once for all time as a permanent sacrifice for sins. (Hebrews 10:12)
Sanctification (mikveh) in the brazen laver (large tub) of water. We have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. (Hebrews 10:10)
After sacrifice and sanctification you can enter the Holy Place to praise YHWH, receive revelation (the Word), and enjoy the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, before we can enter YHWH’s presence we must partake of the Passover sacrifice by faith. Then, we can mikveh (cleanse) our mind and conscience through introspection, repentance, and prayer.

Other New Testament scriptures concerning our purification: Ephesians 5:27, Colossians 1:22, Hebrews 9:14

The ‘bottom line’ is that nothing impure or unholy may enter YHWH’s presence.

Christian Passover – Obedience

Jesus frequently said, “If you love Me keep My commandments.” He also warned,

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven. But only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 7:21

Similar verses include: 1 John 2:17, John 9:31, Mark 3:35, Matthew 7:24, 12:50, and Revelation 2:26.

Cheap Grace vs Costly Grace

Dietrich Bonhoeffer became a martyr for Christ after he opposed Hitler during WWII. He wrote “The Cost of Discipleship,” contrasting cheap grace with costly grace.

Cheap Grace

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before…Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin…. “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. It is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
“The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Sadly, most of today’s visible Church wants ‘cheap grace.’ Its leaders merchandise the gospel for their own benefit, while ‘tickling the ears’ of large crowds on the broad way that leads to destruction. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Costly Grace

Costly grace is… costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life but delivered him up for us.
“The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God’s grace was costly. We respect the price He paid by becoming morally pure according to His Spirit in us…

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
Jeremiah 31:33

Don’t Tolerate Sin In Your Life!

If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:26-31

Obedience to God isn’t always easy or pleasant…God’s will led Jesus to die on the cross. In like manner, God’s will may lead us to sacrifice our money, our property, and our lives. But following God’s will is the only path to success and glory in God’s eternal kingdom.

Christian Passover – Sacrifice

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:1-2

How to Become a Living Sacrifice

Purity: partake of the bread and wine of the Passover sacrifice by faith. Then mikveh (wash, cleanse) your mind and conscience through introspection, prayer, and faith in the Messiah’s sacrifice for your sins. Do this until you can stand before God without any shame or guilt.
Obedience: having purified your conscience, don’t be defiled by allowing leaven (sin) in your life. Be holy, as YHWH is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Be sure to mix holiness with genuine humility; remember, pride is a sin.
Sacrifice: having cleansed your conscience by faith in the Christian Passover Lamb, put away all leaven in your life. Then you can offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. God will mightily use you to advance His kingdom on the earth.

Job Openings in God’s Kingdom

All of these saints will be ‘living sacrifices’ unto YHWH during the years ahead:

3. Future: The Autumn Feasts in Our Future

At the exact moment the Levitical priests were killing the Passover lamb in the temple, our Christian Passover Lamb was dying on the cross. He arose from the grave after fulfilling the sign of Jonah, just in time to wave the sheaf of Firstfruits in heaven on the Sabbath following Passover.

God fulfilled the Spring feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits) exactly as prophesied. Since YHWH fulfilled the Spring feasts so exactly, what can we expect concerning the Autumn feasts which haven’t been fulfilled yet?

Obviously, (just like the Spring feasts) we can expect the Autumn feasts to be fulfilled on the exact dates when the Jews are celebrating them. The Autumn feasts all take place in the Hebrew month of Tishri, the 7^th month, which occurs in September/October on the Gregorian calendar.

Trumpets, Tishri 1, Leviticus 23:24-25

Many reputable teachers believe this will be the day when “the Last Trump” will sound and all dead and living saints will be resurrected or ‘snatched-up’ to heaven and changed in the twinkling of an eye. (1 Corinthians 15)

Day of Atonement, Tishri 10, Leviticus 23:26-32

Whereas Passover deals with personal redemption, the Day of Atonement is the national-level ‘covering’ of sin, with offerings for the priesthood, the nation, and the sanctuary.

I believe the Battle of Armageddon, when Messiah returns with the armies of heaven to defeat the armies of the Antichrist, will occur on a Day of Atonement.

Following the resurrection of Jesus’ disciples on Tishri 1, I believe this is the day when ‘all Israel’ will be saved, in fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10.

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove godlessness from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.
Romans 11:25-27

The Year of Jubilee, when all debts are cancelled and properties are restored, will begin on a Day of Atonement. (Leviticus 25:8-12)

Tabernacles, Tishri 15-22, Leviticus 23:33-43

Saints commanded to dwell in booths (tents or temporary shelters) for 7 days to remember how Israel dwelt in booths when they came out of Egypt
Joining ‘the camp of the brethren’ for a week every year is practical training for the ‘Greater Exodus,’ when believers will flee from the Antichrist (Revelation 12:13-17, Jeremiah 23:7-8)
Also known as the Feast of Ingathering (of the final harvest) in Exodus 23:16
Many reputable teachers believe the Wedding Supper of the Lamb occurs during this feast
God will require all nations to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem every year during the millennial reign of Messiah (Zechariah 14:16-19)
The 8^th day symbolizes the saints dwelling in YHWH’s presence for eternity

Christian Passover – Conclusion

Most Christians know Passover was fulfilled about 2000 years ago when the Lamb of God voluntarily sacrificed Himself for our sins. That’s true, but the ongoing, New Covenant meaning of Christian Passover is that disciples should not only partake of the bread and wine, but they should themselves follow the Savior’s example, becoming lambs of God, “living sacrifices.”

They can do this by:

Purity: partake of the bread and wine of the Christian Passover sacrifice by faith, and then mikveh (wash, cleanse) your mind and conscience through introspection and prayer. Do this until you can stand before God without any shame or guilt.
Obedience: don’t let any leaven (sin) defile you. Be holy, as YHWH is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Be sure to mix holiness with genuine humility; remember, pride is a sin.
Sacrifice: having cleansed your conscience by faith in the Christian Passover Lamb, and having put away all leaven in your life, offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. God will mightily use you to advance His kingdom on the earth.

What Do You Think?

Did this article answer all your questions on this topic? Please leave a comment below and tell me:

Did this article satisfy you?
Or, did it leave you wanting more?

Q: Should Christians celebrate Old Testament festivals?

A: Yes. The New Covenant is between YHWH and Israel–sealed by the blood of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the Spring festivals exactly according to their dates and prophetic patterns and He will likewise fulfill the autumn festivals in our future. God gave the annual festivals in Leviticus 23 to His people so that we’d understand God’s plan of redemption, and He commanded His people to keep these festivals. Christians are grafted into Israel (Romans 11:17-24), so let’s keep the Biblical festivals, not blindly and mechanically according to their letter, but intelligently, according to God’s spiritual intent, as I’ve illustrated in this article about how to spiritually observe Passover and the Spring feasts.

Q: This article doesn’t jive with the church’s Good Friday and Easter holidays. Why not?

A: Good Friday, Easter, Ash Wednesday, Lent, and all other ‘church’ holidays are both absent from and contrary to scripture. For any objective person, it’s easy to trace their evolution from Babylonian roots. Though many of these holidays seem harmless, and even reverent, they illegitimately substitute themselves for the truths that YHWH’s moedim provide. Thus, they deprive you of the moedims’ revelation and truth, and they deprive YHWH of the form of worship He commanded us to present to Him.

YHWH designed His moedim to teach you His plan of redemption, including how and when events will unfold in our future. Just as Jesus fulfilled the Spring feasts, so will He fulfill the Autumn feasts.

Therefore, instead of following the world in celebrating pagan holidays, Christians should follow YHWH’s appointed times (holidays) found in Leviticus chapter 23.