299 Does it make a difference to Elohim

Does it make a difference to Elohim?

When YHVH called ancient Israel out of Egypt He wanted them to become a model nation to the nations around them,in the way they followed Him, as indicated in Deuteronomy 4: 1 & 6 – 8, as follows:“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, in order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which YHVH, the Elohim of your fathers, is giving you. (6) So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ (7) For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is YHVH our Elohim whenever we call on Him? (8) Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?”The Israelites were to be an example to the other nations around them, to show them Elohim’s way and how it produces abundant blessings and benefits.

Whilst living in Egypt the Israelites were subjected to a foreign culture and people who worshipped a number of pagan gods. The Egyptians believed every creature and occurrence of nature to be holy and worthy of worship. It was for this reason that Elohim delivered the Israelites by causing the animals, insects and occurrences of nature that the Egyptians worshipped, to become a series of plagues to force them to set His people free[1]. A short time after Elohim miraculously delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; He instructed them how He wanted them to worship Him. After a forty seven day journey from Egypt the Israelites arrived at the bottom of Mount Sinai, where Elohim instructed Moses to consecrate the people for two days; telling them to wash their clothes and to be ready on the third day when He will give them His commandments (Exodus 20) statutes and judgments (Exodus 21 – 23). Elohim told Israel about clean and unclean food (Leviticus 11); His Feast Days (Leviticus 23); instructions regarding the behavior of the priesthood; their clothing; the tabernacle and offerings (Exodus 25 – 31).Elohim told Moses to come up to Him on Mount Sinai and gave him the two tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments. However, when Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people convinced Aaron to mingle Egyptian worship with the instructions they received from Elohim and after making a golden calf for them, heproclaimedin the last part of Exodus 32: 5, saying: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to YHVH.” We read further from verse 6, ‘So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” According to the footnote against the words ‘rose up to play’ in The MacArthur Study Bible, the Hebrew word for play allows for the inclusion of drunken and immoral activities so common to fertility cults in their revelry. This celebration blended Elohim’s instructions with religious practices of the Egyptians and since the Israelites became so accustomed to the religious practices and traditions of the Egyptians whilst living there, that syncretism[2] had robbed them of all ethical alertness and moral discernment. Those of us who come from Churchianity are fully aware how syncretism hasrobbed millions of their followers from the blessings to be had by obeying Elohim’s Torah teachings.

In fact Rav Shaul warns fellow Nazarene Israelite believers in 1 Corinthians 10: 6 & 7, saying:‘Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved. (7) And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” We also see from verses 7 & 8 of Exodus 32, that Elohim was not pleased with the Israelites, in this way: ‘Then YHVH spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. (8) They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”’

YHVH our Elohim shows from His Word that He expects more from those who claim to follow Him. Being a spirit being,YHVH expects us to worship Him in spirit and in truth as Yahshua told the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4: 21 - 24, saying to her: “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. (22) You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (23) But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. (24)Elohim is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”There was no reason for the Israelites to disobey Elohim’s instructions introduced at Mount Sinai. We see from verse 10 of Exodus 32 that their actions angered Elohim, and He was ready to destroy them. However because of Moses’s pleadings with Elohim in verses 11 – 13 of Exodus 32, He did not harm them, as isconfirmed in verse 14, in this way: ‘So YHVH changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.’We see from verses 25 - 28 of Exodus 32, that Israel’s experimentation in blending Elohim’s instructions with pagan customs and beliefs was disastrous, as follows: ‘Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control— for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies— (26) then Moses stood at the gate of the camp, and said, ‘Whoever is for YHVH, come to me!” and all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. (27) And he said to them, “Thus says YHVH, the Elohim of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’” (28) So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.’The people acted defiantly against Elohim’s instructions and Moses described their action as a great sin as in verse 30, saying to them: “You yourselves have committed a great sin; and now I am going up to YHVH, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” Elohim’s teachings regarding defiant behavior is clearly stated in Numbers 15: 30 & 31, in this way: ‘(But)the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is a native or an alien, that one is blaspheming YHVH; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. (31) Because he has despised the word of YHVH and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be on him.’This same standard applies to us the modern day followers of the way of Elohim, as witnessed by Rav Shaul in Romans 15: 4, as follows: ‘For whatever was written in earlier time was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Rav Shaul also wrote in 1 Corinthians 10: 11, ‘Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.’

Elohim Himself had proclaimed the weekly Sabbath at the end of the creation week. Mankind was simply told to “remember” and keep set-apart the time that Elohim Himself had previously designated, but the annual festivals were different, as Leviticus 23: 2 and 23: 4 show. While each individual could simply remember to observe the seventh day of the week, this was not possible with the annual festivals. Their exact timing would vary somewhat from year to year, regulated by the principles that YHVH gave Moses in Leviticus 23 and elsewhere. So, whilst the weekly Sabbath is to be remembered by each of us as individuals, the annual festivals are to be named or designated on the calendar each year by an authoritative body. They were never intended to be an individual matter.The transliterated Hebrew word ‘Chodesh’ is translated as “month” in most English versions of the Bibles. Its root meaning involves “making new” or “repairing”. The moon orbits the earth, going through its phases as its position changes in relation to the sun and the earth on an on-going basis. It takes approximately 29-and-a-half days to get into exact conjunction between the earth and the sun when the three orbs are in a straight line with one another, though not necessarily on the same plane. During conjunction, the moon is totally dark, reflecting none of the sun’s light. As it moves westward, away from the conjunction, it starts reflecting the light of the sun again and depending on the observer’s location and the earth’s position at conjunction, the renewed moon will generally not be visible until one or two days after conjunction. An observer cannot know in advance, on which day he might see the renewed crescent moon. Depending on the exact time of conjunction, he might see the crescent either on the 30th or the 31st day after the last new crescent. Since days begin at sunset, observers would have to keep the 30th day after the new crescent as set apart time, as they might see the new crescent that evening, though they would more commonly see it on the following evening. The only Feast Day that is celebrated when the moon is in its concealment is Yom Teruah, known as Rosh Hashanah to the house of Judah. We read accordingly from the correct translation of Psalm 81: 4: “Blow the shofar on the new moon, concealed (ba’keseh) to the day of our festival.” Yom Teruah is the time of the year when we choose to make YHVH King over our lives for the next year, as witnessed from the second part of Numbers 23: 21, as follows: ‘YHVH his Elohim is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.’

The Torah establishes Yom Teruah on the first day of the seventh month (Tishri), even though this Set-apart day is celebrated for two days today. The Scriptural basis for celebrating Yom Teruah for two days is found in Nehemiah 8: 2 & 13, in this way: ‘Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. (13) Then on the second day the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests, and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of law.’ A second witness comes from 1 Samuel 20: 5 & 27, as follows: ‘So David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is a new moon, and I ought to sit down to eat with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field until the third evening. (27) ‘And it came about the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David’s place was empty; so Shaul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”’The new moon is in concealment for about 2 days, and is only ‘watched’ to determine the date for Trumpets. If the Day of Atonement will be on a Friday or a Sunday of any year, the Feast of Trumpets is moved forward one day, ensuring that Atonement is never on a Friday or a Sunday. Since, concealment takes up to two days; it ensures that even in the event of such a postponement, the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) will still occur during concealment of the moon. Nevertheless, the intercalary year necessitates a calendar calculated in advance. Intercalary years are those in which a 13th month is added. Since, twelve lunar months equal just over 354 days and a solar year is equal to just over 365 days, using a calendar based on 12 lunar months, would cause the festivals to occur about a month earlier every three years in relation to the solar year and seasons. However, Leviticus 23: 10 & 11 commands the priests to offer an omer of barley as a wave offering to YHVH on the day after the first annual Sabbath (or First Day of Unleavened Bread) of the year; beginning the 50 day count to Shavuot (Pentecost) fromthe evening of the 16th of Aviv to the 6th of Sivan[3]. This clearly necessitated that the first month of the year (Aviv or Nisan) does not fall in winter, which is too early for ripe grain to be available for the offering and required the addition of a 13th month about every three years. The question is how is this addition determined?

Those who argue for direct physical sighting assert that the priests examined the grain crop each year before the end of the 12th month, and if they saw that it would not be ripe soon enough they added a 13th month to postpone the first month for about 30 days. The only alternative would be a regular cycle, calculated by the priests, to determine which years had 12 and which had 13 months. Is there biblical evidence as to the priests’ practice? There certainly is! Acts 2 reminds us that Jews came to Jerusalem from all over the known world on Pentecost the year after Messiah’s ascension. If the decision regarding the 13th month were made a few weeks before the Passover, how would Jews all over the world have known when to come to Jerusalem – or for that matter, when to celebrate Passover in their own area? Significant numbers would either have been a month early or a month late! Remember they could not call ahead on the telephone or check someone’s website! There was either an established pattern followed, or there would have been confusion among Jews throughout the Diaspora. How could a calculated calendar have been figured anciently? In antiquity, man had only two ways of knowing the time of the new moon. One was by physical sighting of the crescent moon; the other was by calculations based upon the average time between conjunctions. Some today wish to offer a substitute calendar based not on average or observation, but on figures they obtained from the NASA or the US Naval Observatory. These figures derived from satellite observation are supposed to be more exact than the averages from which the traditional Hebrew calendar was calculated. However, we need to understand, if there is one calendar that we can absolutely prove that Yahshua and His disciples DID NOT use, it is one based on satellite observation! The only calculated calendar that could possibly be used until about after 1968 was one based upon the average length of time between conjunctions.

The ancients were able to arrive at the average length between conjunctions by carefully recording the time of the eclipses of the moon and calculating the amount of time between them. We speak of an “average” because the actual length can vary from month to month by a few hours, primarily because of the earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun and the resulting variation in the sun’s gravitational pull on the moon. This figure can then be used to calculate the new moon for years and centuries in advance. While the exact conjunctions (invisible from earth, except during a solar eclipse) may vary from the calculated ‘molad’ (a Hebrew term referring to the “birth” of the moon) by up to a few hours, the calculations average out over time and they are always very close; not accumulating lost or gained time even over many centuries. The Hebrew calendar uses 29 days, 12 hours and 793 parts (an hour contains 1,080 parts) as the duration of the average lunar month. This works out to 29.53059 days in decimal form. According to the 15th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, modern astronomers using satellites and computers have come up with one-one millionth of a day difference. How did the Hebrew calendar come to use such an accurate figure for the average length of the month? Some contend that they adopted their number from Babylonian or Greek Astronomers. There is a problem with that theory, however. The figure used by the Greeks, Babylonians and Egyptians was not as accurate as that used by the Jews! If we grant that Israel of old borrowed the number from one of their ancient neighbors, then why did they modify it? How did they know to modify it just the right amount, making it more exact than the one used by anyone else? Remember the figure used anciently to calculate the Hebrew calendar, 29.53059 days per month, was the same one used by NASA up through 1968 when satellite and computer technology allowed them to take the number out one more decimal place. How could an ancient Israelite mathematician have arrived at a more exact figure than his contemporaries could? Exodus 31: 1 - 11 shows that (YHVH)’s Set-apart Spirit empowered two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, to have a special understanding and knowledge in being able to craft the items needed for the tabernacle. Did (YHVH)’s Set-apart Spirit also lead someone to have a special ability for making astronomical calculations to fix the calendar? Clearly, someone did make a calculation that remained unsurpassed until the decade when the United States put a man on the moon!

We see that the generation of Israelites who convinced Aaron to build the golden calf, never learnt to trust and obey Elohim, because later when they were preparing to enter the Promised Land, they became afraid of the inhabitants of the land and refused to enter. Consequently Elohim told them in Numbers 14: 30 -32, saying: ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. (31) Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. (32) But as for you, your corpses shall fall in this wilderness.’Elohim’s teachings included a clear warning against incorporating pagan customs into the way they (and us their modern day descendants) should worship Him, as is recorded for us in Deuteronomy 12: 29 – 31, as follows: “When YHVH your Elohim cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, (30) beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’(31) You shall not behave thus toward YHVH your Elohim, for every abominable act which YHVH hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.”Unfortunately the Israelites failed to pay attention to Elohim’s warning and time and again allowed their fascination with the religious practices of the nations around them, to get the better of them. YHVH gave Israel a number of warnings through His prophets. The first warning came through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 10: 1 – 5, in this way: ‘Hear the word which YHVH speaks to you, O house of Israel. (2) Thus says YHVH, “Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens although the nations are terrified by them; (3) For the customs of the peoples are delusion; because it is wood cut from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. (4) They decorate it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers so that it will not totter. (5) Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, and they cannot speak; they must be carried, because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, nor can they do any good.”’Here Elohim is warning specifically the house of Israel against following pagan practices of worshipping heavenly bodies (such as the sun on December 25) and putting up Xmas trees in their homes. But despite this warning, we are all aware that this very thing is being done by many modern day descendants of Israel today.

A number of years later Elohim again expressed His disdain for His people in Ezekiel 23: 37 – 39, saying through the prophet Ezekiel, “For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. Thus they have committed adultery with their idols and even caused their sons, whom they bore to Me, to pass through the fire to them as food. (38) Again, they have done this to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My Sabbaths(weekly and annual Sabbaths). (39) For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and lo, thus they did within My house.”Is this not what some modern day Israelites dotoday? They have abortions done (after which the unborn child {fetus} is burnt)so that they have enough money to buy whatever they desire. Then to top it all they go to church services, acting as if they have done nothing wrong.Churchianity wrongly assumes that the so-called ‘Old Testament’ instruction condemning the mixing of paganism with the way they worship G-d, were annulled by the apostles after Yahshua’s death[4]. However, this is totally untrue.To prove the continuity of Elohim’s teachings of Torah in the Renewed Covenant, we need to consider the people of Corinth. But, to be able to understand what happened at Corinth, it is necessary to backtrack a bit to show that Rav Shaul was essentially the Apostle trained by Messiah personally to teach the Gentiles. We read accordingly from Acts 26, where Rav Shaul tells King Agrippa how he came to believe and work for Yahshua, in verses 12 – 18, as follows: “Whilst thus engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, (13) at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. (14) And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ (15) And I said, “Who art Thou, Master?” And the Master said, ‘I am Yahshua whom you are persecuting. (16) But arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; (17)delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, (18) to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to Elohim, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’”

Having established Rav Shaul’s mission, let’s consider the people of Corinth in order to show how Rav Shaul continued preaching Elohim’s truth. Corinth of that time was where the most intrusive examples of paganism were incorporated into Nazarene Judaism. Corinth sat on an important trade route, south of the narrow strip of land connectedto Greece. Its inhabitants became rich by transporting goods across the four-mile peninsula, which saved traders in Greece having to pay for a 200 mile trip on sea. Rav Shaul established a thriving congregationin Corinth, representing a cross section of worldly minded people who came to Corinth to partake in the available business adventures, gambling, legalized prostitution and amusements available in this first century coastal city. Rav Shaul was writing to this group consisting mainly of Gentile believers who used to worship idols, as witnessed in 1 Corinthians 12: 2, in this way: ‘You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the dumb idols, however you were led.’In 2 Corinthians 6: 14 – 7: 1 Rav Shaul discussed the subject of whether other religious customs and practices could be tolerated among Elohim’s people, as follows: ‘Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (15) Or what harmony has Messiah with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? (16) Or what agreement has the temple of Elohim with idols? For we are the temple of the living Elohim; just as Elohim said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR ELOHIM, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. (17) Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says YHVH. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; and I will welcome you. (18) And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says YHVH Almighty.(1)Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of Elohim.’Instead of allowing new believers to retain some of their pagan practices, or renaming some of the pagan customs as Nazarene, Rav Shaul instructed them to immediately stop practicing all their previous forms of worship. Rav Shaul also condemned sexual immorality so common with pagan fertility rites, as we read from verses 13 &16 – 20 of 1 Corinthians 6, in this way: ‘Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food; but Elohim will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for YHVH; and YHVH is for the body. (16) Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO WILL BECOME ONE FLESH.” (17) But the one who joins himself to YHVH is one spirit with Him. (18) Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. (19) Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Set-apart Spirit who is in you, whom you have from Elohim, and that you are not your own? (20) For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify Elohim in your body.’ The point is that we do not glorify Elohim if we eat unclean food or do immoral things.

As part of the immersion ceremony an elder or Torah teacher immersing new believers should read and explain the instructions that Rav Shaul wrote in this regard in Roman 6: 1 – 8, and especially verse 6, as follows: ‘Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.’ Rav Shaul made it clear in Ephesians 4: 22 – 24 that new believers should not retain any of their past religious practices and traditions, saying: ‘That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, (23) and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (24) and put on the new self, which in the likeness of Elohim has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.’A second witness comes from Colossians 3: 9 & 10, as follows: ‘Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, (10) and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.’It is important for those of us coming from Churchianity to remember that unlike the Feast Days ordained by Elohim, which our Jewish Brothers have been keeping from the time that YHVH gave it to them through Moses, the Christian feasts including the calendar that they are using, have never been ordained by Elohim.YHVH our Elohim is strongly opposed to altering the Feast Days that He gave His people through Moses, as is recorded in Deuteronomy 12: 32, saying: ‘Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add nor take away from it.’ A renewed Covenant witness comes from Revelation 22: 18 & 19, in this way:‘I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, Elohim shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; (19) and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, Elohim shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the set-apart city, which are written in this book.’ How and by what authority did people who say they believe in the Messiah, change the days they observe?The first human conceived changes made to the Feast Days that Elohim ordained in the Scriptures, was to worship on Sunday, in place of the seventh day Sabbath specified in Torah. The consolidated-Webster Comprehensive Encyclopedic Dictionary states under Sunday, ‘the first day of the week. In ancient times it was the day on which the sun was worshipped. In the early days of the church Christians began to observe the first day of the week in honor of the Resurrection in addition to keeping the seventh-day Sabbath of the Decalogue. Gradually the seventh-day Sabbath was abandoned and the first day adopted, though without any Biblical authority, as the Christian rest day. The first Sunday law was that of Constantine the Great A. D. 321.’Notice it was done without any Scriptural authority.

Elohim’s annual Feast Days were similarly replaced with pagan holidays. It started when the kingdom of Israel was divided after King Solomon’s death; King Jeroboam who ruled the northern ten tribes known as the house of Israel, instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the Feast of Tabernacles kept by Judah from the fifteenth of the seventh month, as may be read from 1 Kings 12: 32 – 33. Jeroboam was the first king of the house of Israel who corrupted the pattern in the nation’s religious life, and this eventually caused the house of Israel to be taken captive by the Assyrian Empire. Most of us who come from Christianity followed their traditions which were all contrary to Elohim’s instructions, without ever questioning it. During Messiah’s time, the Pharisees found themselves in a similar situation, resulting in Him admonishing them in Mark 7: 6 – 8, saying:“Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME, (7) BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ (8) Neglecting the commandment of Elohim, you hold to the tradition of men.”We need to understand that only the days and times consecrated by YHVH are set-apart. It does not matter what our traditions have been or what explanations we use to justify them, it is evident from the Scriptures that we must follow YHVH our Creator’s teachings regarding His Set-apart Days and forms of worship.

Rav Shaul similarly warned believers about the traditions of men in Colossians 2: 8, saying: ‘See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Messiah.’ One of the final messages contained in Revelation 18: 4 & 5 warns people who are currently caught up in a worldwide religious systems established in opposition to Elohim, as follows: ‘And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues; (5) for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and Elohim has remembered her iniquities.”’At this time we may choose between the feast days instituted by men or the Feast Days of Elohim, but it is important to realize that our choices will affect our relationship with Elohim and ultimately our destiny. Think about it!

[1]Plague Egyptian god Plague Egyptian god

1. Blood Hapi 6. Boils Sekhmet

2. Frogs Heqt 7. Hail Geb

3. Gnats Hathor 8. Locusts Serapis

4. Flies Isis 9. Darkness Ra

5. Livestock Apis 10. Death of the first-born Egyptian first-born treated as ‘gods’ in their families.

[2]Syncretism is defined as the blending of religious beliefs, customs and practices.

[3]The 6th of Sivan being the day Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from (YHVH)’s hand, the same date upon which YHVH gave His disciples and believers in Yahshua from the lost sheep of Israel His Set-apart Spirit, after Yahshua’s death, resurrection and ascension to heaven.

[4]A footnote in ‘The MacArthur Study Bible’ against Acts 20: 7 reads: The writings of the early church fathers confirm that the church continued to meet on Sunday after the close of the NT period. Scripture does not require Christians to observe the Saturday Sabbath. The Sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic Covenant (Ex 31: 16, 17; Ne 9: 14; Ezekiel 20: 12), whereas Christians are under the New Covenant (2 Co 3; Heb 8). Wow, have these so-called believers in Messiah forgotten Yahshua’s words in Matthew 5: 17 – 20 and especially in John 5: 46 & 47, where He said: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me.But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words.”