Adventist
Feastkeeping: A Study in SOP Terminology
Kevin
Straub, Jan. 10, 2008
“All
who have had the light of truth are being tested, as were the Jews. . . . The Lord has been revealed to us in ever-increasing light. Our
privileges are far greater than were the privileges of the Jews. . . . That which was type and symbol
to the Jews is reality to us. . . . The spiritual banquet has been set
before us in rich abundance. We have had presented to us by the messengers of God the
richest feast,--the righteousness of Christ, justification by
faith, the exceeding great and precious promises of God in his word, free
access to the Father by Jesus Christ, the comforts of the Holy Spirit, and the
well-grounded assurance of eternal life in the kingdom of God. We ask, What
could God do for us that he has not done in preparing the great supper, the
heavenly banquet?” {RH, January 17, 1899
par. 14}
Gal 2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in,
who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we
have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:
“We are to pray for divine enlightenment, and at the same time we should be careful about
receiving everything termed new light. We must beware,
lest, under cover of searching for new truth, we allow Satan to divert our
minds from Christ and the special truths for this time. I have been shown that
it is the device of the enemy to divert men's minds to some obscure or
unimportant point, something that is not fully revealed or is not essential to salvation. This
is made the absorbing theme, the "present truth," when all the investigations and suppositions only serve to make
matters more obscure, and to confuse the minds of some who ought to be seeking
for oneness through sanctification of the truth. {3MR 29.1}
“All must be
careful what they present to the people as truth. Do not present your own
imaginations. The enemy tries to warp and twist human minds. To the one who
will listen to him, he will present ideas which are odd and
peculiar, which will create a sensation. These he leads him to present to
others, with a test which he has imagined. Thus Satan sets minds running
in wrong channels, diverting them from the genuine tests which God has
presented in His Word. {3MR 29.2}
“There is no need
of entering into controversy with the poor souls who think they are doing God's
service when they are believing fables. . . . turn from
romance, from the fanciful interpretations which have no foundation in God's Word. ‘What is the chaff to the wheat?’” Jeremiah 23:28. {3MR 29.3}
“Christ passed through all the
experiences of His childhood, youth, and manhood without the observance of
ceremonial temple worship.” {BEcho,
October 31, 1898 par. 7
====================
When they come to your home to convince you to “keep
the feasts” -- the typical feasts --
according to the “Law of Moses,” which they say is “still binding,” be wary
and be aware of how the feastkeepers will quote texts and use terms to
make their points. Take time to study
things out for yourself to see if it truly makes sense.
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Feastkeeping
Teachers will say things like: . . . here is a wonderful quote
which I’d like to search into in more depth and synchronize it with another
inspired text. Read it: “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the
spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He
would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that
for four thousand years had pointed to His death.” {DA 652.2} Answer: è Let’s not use one
sentence only when the full context is so rich. Let us read it through to the end of the
paragraph and include also the next: “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the spotless
Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would
thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four
thousand years had pointed to His death. As He ate the Passover with
His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be
the memorial of His great sacrifice. The
national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was
to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages.” {DA 652.2}
“The Passover was ordained as a
commemoration of the deliverance of A broader treatment of this text has
been offered elsewhere, but before we follow down the yellow brick road based
upon the highlight of two words in single sentence and lest we find that, along
with Toto, “we are not in Kansas anymore,” let’s ever keep the entire picture
before us in any and all discussions wherein one side is making a contention
for the typical celebration of Passover.
(Although they say it is, “of course, without the typical lamb
offering.”) It must be fixed in the mind – a foundation
laid -- that there was a transition from one thing to another thing. Those things
are called “economies.” One is the
“Jewish economy.” The other would be
the “Christian economy.” Each one was
given a fundamental feast, or a “festival.”
The Jewish economy had Passover.
The Christian economy has the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. The Jewish feast was “to pass away forever.” The Christian feast was to be observed
“through all ages.” We know that the
law, as God gave it to Moses, stated that the Jewish Passover was to take
place annually and was connected to
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with its sabbaths. Jesus instructed that we sit at the
Communion table with a frequency of our
own choosing, for He said “as oft
as ye do it.” 1 Cor. 11:25. Ellen White also instructed us explicitly
to not relegate it to an annual event, but to observe it frequently. “Here our Saviour instituted the Lord's supper, to be often
celebrated . . . . Therefore, the Lord's supper was to be observed more
frequently than the annual passover.”
{ST, March 25, 1880 par. 9} The above should be sufficient to
lay down a solid, immutable, bedrock principle: The old economy and its feast was abolished. The new economy and its feast were established. The old one was not to merge with the new, nor was it to be reconfigured and remain in
place. The old was to supplant
the new. At this point or earlier in an
investigation of the plain meaning of the text at hand, they will leave it
and its truth behind and go to another argument, perhaps the one of Paul and
his “keep the feast” statement in 1 Cor. 5:8.
They will endeavor to make it mean what they want it to mean in order
to set up their own spurious bedrock principle and then come back here and
reinterpret the plain meaning herein, insisting that the term “Passover,”
because it says that Jesus ate it,
means ONLY the meal and not the festival.
They want us to understand that the MEAL is the equivalent of the
FESTIVAL. We beg to differ and declare
that the meal is only part of the
festival. A point to note is that many
Christian Feastkeepers today at the Nisan 14 Feast will actually hold a Jewish
Passover Seder, with various elements in addition to the simple elements of
the Lord’s Table which are simply a cup of grape juice and unleavened
bread. They hold the Passover feast
with all or most of its symbols, rites, and traditions, minus the lamb. (I have even known non-Adventist Christian
celebrants that have also the lamb.
There are a range of styles in this, but they all call it Passover,
not the Lord’s Supper, and this in itself is confusion.) There are the bitter herbs, the multiple
cups, the sending of a child to look out the door for Elijah, etc. The
Passover feast minus the Lamb, kept as “Passover,” as a typical celebration
in accordance with Jewish law, is not the Lord’s Supper and cannot be the
Lord’s Supper. If one wishes to
host a Seder for the lessons in it, it can be a great exercise and we can
learn much from it, but don’t think to make it a binding rite for
Christians. This is where one crosses the
line into Judaizing. Now that we have hopefully
established truth from the context, we can proceed with the feastkeeper’s half quote: “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the
spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He
would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that
for four thousand years had pointed to His death.” {DA 652.2} The emphasis they will bring forth
is that the system of types and ceremonies was brought to an end. We have no argument with this. However, we are to focus on “types and
ceremonies” as meaning one thing only.
The next quote and comment are typical (no pun intended) of how their
lines may go: Feastkeeping
Teachers: Here is another text from EGW
involving the types and ceremonies that we need to bring in harmony
with DA 652.2: “Paul did not bind himself nor his
converts to the ceremonies and customs of the Jews, with their varied
forms, types, and sacrifices; for he recognized that the perfect and
final offering had been made in the death of the Son of God. The age of
clearer light and knowledge had now come. And although the early education of
Paul had blinded his eyes to this light, and led him to bitterly oppose the
work of God, yet the revelation of Christ to him while on his way to Ellen White says that the types and
ceremonies that He would bring to an end are those that pointed to the death
of Jesus. This agrees with Daniel 9:27 which informs us that there
would be an end of the “sacrifices and oblations” at the end of the 2300 year
prophecy. Every time EGW uses the word “ceremonial” in her writings,
she means the sacrificial system and she supports it by using Daniel 9:27. Answer: Can we logically draw the conclusion
that this text from Life Sketches of
Paul, or many others like it, because they specify sacrifices, or that
Daniel 9:27, saying that the sacrifices would cease, means the end of
sacrifices only and nothing else? This
is like saying “I have blue socks in my drawer.” Actually, I have black, white, and other
colors also. What they are using is an
error of logic called “argument from silence.” This text in LP also includes the
terms “customs” and “forms.” Both texts, DA 652.2 and LP 105.1 use also the
term “types.” Let us deal with these
systematically: Forms The whole Jewish economy, or
“typical system of the Jews,” consisted in “forms and ceremonies,” “types,”
“shadows,” “figures,” and “symbols”: “The Lord Jesus was the foundation
of the whole Jewish economy. . . .
But the Jews had exalted the forms and
ceremonies and had lost sight of their object. . . they did not recognize in Him the fulfillment of all their types, the
substance of all their shadows. They rejected
the antitype, and clung to their types and useless ceremonies.” { “They were to diligently trace link
after link of sacred truth revealed by the prophets, in types and figures representing the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He lifted the vail from their understanding, concerning the typical system of the Jews, and they
now saw clearly the meaning of the forms
and symbols which were virtually abolished by the death of Christ.” {3SP 249.1}
The whole Jewish economy, more than
sacrifices alone, was swept away. “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies. . . .” {DA 652.2} “From the time when the promise was
made in “. . . the forms and symbols . . . were virtually abolished by the death of
Christ.” {3SP 249.1} “Christ himself was the
foundation of the whole Jewish economy, the end of types,
symbols, and sacrifices.” {RH, August 6, 1895 par. 6} “Anciently believers were saved by the same
Saviour as now, but it was a God veiled. They saw God's mercy in figures. . .
. Christ's sacrifice is the
glorious fulfillment of the whole Jewish economy. . . . When as a
sinless offering Christ bowed His head and died, when by the Almighty's
unseen hand the veil of the temple was rent in twain, a new and living way
was opened. All can now approach God through the merits of Christ. It is
because the veil has been rent that men can draw nigh to God. They need not
depend on priest or ceremonial sacrifice. We may also assuredly add, we need neither to depend upon typical
sabbath keeping, either, for with the abandonment of the Jewish economy
was also the abandonment of the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread, the
“Great Festival” of that economy. The Jewish economy includes the
Great Festival of Passover “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. . . . The national festival of the Jews was
to pass away forever. The
service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all
lands and through all ages.” {DA
652.2} Customs The early Jewish Christians were not
ready and willing to give up their customs which made them separate from the
gentiles in faith. Act
21:20 “And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto
him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe;
and they are all zealous
of the law: Act
21:21 “And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest
all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought
not to circumcise their
children, neither to walk after the customs.” Act
15:5 “But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed,
saying, That it was needful to circumcise
them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” The law of Moses was considered the customs and this had not to do with sacrifices but the entire system of types. "The entire body of Christians
were not called to vote upon the question.
[Regarding circumcision and the keeping of the entire ceremonial law.]
The apostles and elders--men of influence and judgment--framed and issued the
decree [to abstain from meats offered to idols, blood, things strangled, and
fornication], which was thereupon generally accepted by the Christian
churches. All were not pleased, however, with this decision; there was a
faction of false brethren who
assumed to engage in a work on their own responsibility. They indulged in
murmuring and fault-finding, proposing new plans, and seeking to pull
down the work of the experienced men whom God had ordained to teach the doctrine of Christ. The church has
had such obstacles to meet from the first, and will ever have them to the
close of time. {LP 70.2} “ “Paul did not bind himself nor his
converts to the ceremonies and customs
of the Jews, with their varied forms, types, and sacrifices; for
he recognized that the perfect and final offering had been made in the death
of the Son of God. The age of clearer light and knowledge had now come. . . .
His teaching led the mind to a more active spiritual life, that carried the
believer above mere ceremonies. "For thou desirest
not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken
and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." {LP 105.1}
Types The feasts were types, the feasts were typical,
and they were also bound up with all things typical in their
observation, therefore coming under the “system of types.” “Among the Jews the sacred feast was connected with all their seasons of national
and religious rejoicing. It was to
them a type of the blessings of eternal life.” { “The Feast of Tabernacles was not only commemorative but typical.” {PP 541.2}
“Christ was the firstfruits of them
that slept. This very scene, the resurrection of Christ from the dead, was observed in type by the Jews at one of
their sacred feasts, called the feast of the Jews. They came up to the
temple when the firstfruits had been gathered in, and held a feast of
thanksgiving. The firstfruits of the harvest crop was sacredly dedicated to
the Lord. . . .” {CTr 286.5} “The Passover was followed by the
seven days' feast of unleavened bread. On the second day of the feast, the
first fruits of the year's harvest, a sheaf of barley, was presented before
the Lord. All the ceremonies of the
feast were types of the work of Christ. The deliverance of It is clear that the entire typical system was done away when type met antitype. “. . . the death of Christ abolished . . . the typical system of sacrifices and ceremonies . . . .” {FW 90.1} “He [Jesus, before His ascension] lifted the
vail from their [the disciples’] understanding, concerning the typical system of the Jews, and they
now saw clearly the meaning of the forms and symbols which were virtually abolished by the death of Christ.” {3SP 249.1}
“Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the
spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He
would thus bring to an end the system
of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to
His death. As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its
place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. The national festival of the Jews
was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be
observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages.” {CCh 298.2} “. . . when Christ was
revealed in His advent to our world, and died man's sacrifice, type met antitype. Then the glory of that which is not typical,
not to be done away, but which remaineth, God's law of ten commandments,
the standard of righteousness, was
plainly discerned as immutable by all who saw to the end of that which was
abolished.” {BEcho, August 4, 1902 par. 6} This last text is quite strong. It clearly demonstrates that that which is not typical but remains is
the ten commandments and that which is done away is that which is not of
the decalogue.
See also the following, equating the whole Jewish economy with the
ceremonial observances with the typical and contrasting all of this with the
Decalogue and the Antitypical. “Christ was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy, and in all his specific directions regarding the
ceremonial observances, these were distinguished from the Decalog.
They were to pass away. Type was to
meet antitype in the one great offering of Christ for the sins of the
world. {ST, July 29, 1897 par.
10} “It was the light of the glory of
the gospel of Christ, who was the
foundation of the sacrificial system, that shone in the face of
Moses. ‘But if the ministration of death, written and engraven
in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to
be done away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?’
When the reality, the full blaze of midday light, should come, the dim glory which was but an earnest of
the latter, should be done away, swallowed up in the greater glory. {ST, August 25, 1887 par. 5} “‘And not as Moses, which put a veil
over his face, that the children of That which was typified, being done
away, was reflected also in the feast of the Passover, which we have already
shown to have been entirely abandoned and replaced by the communion, the Lord’s
Supper: The great salvation that he brought
was typified by the deliverance of the children of The type and symbol, being long
gone, is replaced by the “richest feast” of the realities bestowed upon us in
Christ Jesus crucified and gone to prepare a place for us in the heavenlies: That which
was type and symbol to the Jews is reality to us. . . . The spiritual banquet has been set before us in rich abundance. We have had presented to us by the
messengers of God the richest feast,--the righteousness of Christ,
justification by faith, the exceeding great and precious promises of God in
his word, free access to the Father by Jesus Christ, the comforts of the Holy
Spirit, and the well-grounded assurance of eternal life in the kingdom of
God. We ask, What could God do for us
that he has not done in preparing the great supper, the heavenly banquet? {RH, January 17, 1899 par. 14} A leading feastkeeper wrote me to
express his disgust that I am spiritualizing and allegorizing the
feasts! What else is there for us to
do with them? Read again the above
text. Statutes to Guard the Decalogue The feastkeepers love to quote the
following to show that the feasts are still in effect as they are statutes
given to uphold and support the fourth commandment (although there is not one
shred of evidence to support this idea, which is nothing other than worthless
theories of men): “In consequence of continual
transgression, the moral law was repeated in awful grandeur from Sinai. Christ gave to Moses religious precepts
which were to govern the everyday life. These statutes were explicitly given to guard the ten commandments. They were not shadowy types to pass away with the death of Christ.
They were to be binding upon man
in every age as long as time should last. These commands were enforced by the power of the moral law, and
they clearly and definitely explained that law.” {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 10} It has been shown by careful readers
that such a treatment of this text is unwarranted, as it is specified which
statutes or precepts were not typical.
These have to do with the governance of “everyday life.” Just as Christmas is not “everyday life” for the world or the corrupt churches, so
much more than this were the holy festivals not “everyday life.” They were holy appointments. The ceremonial law, or typical law, on the
other hand, had to do with the services
(more on this in a moment) and rites of the Jewish system of religion which
was given to them as a living enactment of the gospel plan and were not with respect to man’s dealing with
his fellow man in the course of everyday life. Getting back to the idea of the
Mosaic precepts as guardian statutes to the decalogue,
noting that above, in the May 6, 1875 article we find a certain portion of
them binding, we read in another article that the guardian statutes are of a
“different character,” changeable: “The law of ten precepts, spoken from So we note that there was a segment
of the law that was called the “ritual system,” which term is synonymous with
many other terms which we have explored here, such as “typical system” and
“ceremonial system.” In this instance,
she states that this system was to guard the ten precepts and was
abolished. In another place, as seen
above, she explains that there were included in the guardian statutes certain
commands that were not to pass away and clearly defines that they pertain to
“everyday life,” which would refer to that which is other than ritual, typical, or ceremonial. These guardian statutes were therefore
not a part of the “ritual system”; they stand “as long as time should last.” Services of the Feasts are no more: “. . . all the sacrificial offerings and services were to be
abolished. Paul and the other apostles labored to show this, and
resolutely withstood those Judaizing
teachers who declared that Christians should observe the ceremonial law. {RH,
September 27, 1881 par. 3} “‘Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world:
he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life.’ {DA
463.1} When He
spoke these words,
Jesus was in the court of the temple
specially connected with the services of the Feast of Tabernacles.”
{DA 463.2} “The Feast of Tabernacles, or
harvest festival, with its offerings from orchard and field, its week's
encampment in the leafy booths, its social reunions, the sacred memorial
service, and the generous hospitality to God's workers, the Levites of the
sanctuary, and to His children, the strangers and the poor, uplifted all
minds in gratitude to Him who had crowned the year with His goodness. . . .” {Ed 42.3}
The “services” were connected not
only to sacrificial rites, but also to the feasts. All the feast days had ordinances and
services. Adventist Feastkeepers,
although not unanimous in their abolishment of services, tend for the most
part to do away with any prescribed typical services (save for the elements
of the Lord’s Supper, in addition to varying elements of the Jewish Passover
Seder, and the rite of cleaning homes of leaven and eating unleavened bread
during the days of the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread.) So they have no sacrifices, other than Antitypical, they have almost no services or rites or ceremonies,
other than Antitypical (either by commemoration or present experience [day of
Atonement] or by looking to various perceived future fulfillments), but they
insist upon the keeping of the typical day with dogged determination to
convince you and me that it should be done, in fact, must be done as a salvational requirement in these last days – as
having primary importance over all the various laws, in the present movement
to reinstate to God’s people the “law of Moses,” the “statutes and
judgments,” “the Torah,” in this the “day of Elijah.” You hear mainly the call to “keep the
feasts, keep the feasts.” “Why, Paul kept the feasts, Jesus kept the feasts –
why would you not want to do what Jesus and Paul did?” and a touch of sarcasm
is generally added in there, “Did someone forget to tell Paul and Jesus that
they were done away?” But I say to you, if all the typical
elements are stripped out of them, and these are observed antitypically,
(as they should be), what is left but these anachronistic shells in time, to keep as sabbaths;
wherein such fellowships we are given primarily to talking and listening to
talk about how important they are, going over all our proofs, how they were
given as guardians of the 7th day Sabbath, etc. Throughout such gatherings there is such a
focused determination to labor upon the subject of the feasts so as to create
an environment or culture wherein the feasts are prone to be elevated above
the weekly Sabbath of the Decalogue, at least in a percentage of the minds of
those that get swept up in the culture.
This may be a mere perception, but it is a perception held by many
observers of radical feastkeepers and their attitudes. I show here a comment by a leading
feastkeeping teacher that seems to demonstrate such a glorification of a
festival above that of the Sabbath of the Decalogue: “Passover is of such significance
that it is to be ‘a sign on the forehead and the hand’, which not even does
Yahweh say this about the weekly Sabbath. Passover is the very opposite
of the mark of the Beast. See Ex. 13:9.”
Leading Feastkeeping teacher,
private email to K. Straub Are the feasts part of the moral law
or the ceremonial law? You decide: “God's people, whom He calls His
peculiar treasure, were privileged with a
twofold system of law; the moral and ceremonial. . . .
From the creation the moral law
was an essential part of God's divine plan, and was as unchangeable as
Himself. The ceremonial law was to
answer a particular purpose in Christ's plan for the salvation of the
race. The typical system of sacrifices and offerings was established that
through these services the sinner might discern the great offering, Christ. .
. . The ceremonial law was glorious; it was the provision made by Jesus
Christ in counsel with His Father, to aid in the salvation of the race. The
whole arrangement of the typical system was founded on Christ. Adam saw
Christ prefigured in the innocent beast suffering the penalty of his
transgression of Jehovah's law.
The need for the service of sacrifices and offerings ceased when type
met antitype in the death of Christ. In Him the shadow reached the substance.
. . . The law of God will maintain its
exalted character as long as the throne of Jehovah endures. This law is the
expression of God's character. . . . Types and shadows, offerings and
sacrifices, had no virtue after Christ's death on the cross; but God's law
was not crucified with Christ. . . . Today he [Satan] is deceiving human
beings in regard to the law of God.
The law of the ten commandments lives and will live through the
eternal ages. . . .
God did not make the infinite sacrifice of giving His only-begotten
Son to our world, to secure for man the privilege of breaking the
commandments of God in this life and in the future eternal life. {FLB 106}
The
sacrificial system, committed to Adam, was also perverted by his
descendants. Superstition, idolatry, cruelty, and licentiousness corrupted
the simple and significant service that God had appointed. Through long
intercourse with idolaters the people of
There are many who try to blend
these two systems, using the texts that speak of the ceremonial law to
prove that the moral law has been abolished; but this is a perversion of the Scriptures. The distinction
between the two systems is broad and clear. The ceremonial system was made up of symbols pointing to Christ, to
His sacrifice and His priesthood. This ritual law, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was to be
performed by the Hebrews until type met antitype in the death of Christ,
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Then all the
sacrificial offerings were to cease. It
is this law that Christ "took . . . out of the way, nailing it to His
cross." Colossians 2:14. But
concerning the law of Ten Commandments the psalmist declares, "Forever,
O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." Psalm 119:89. And Christ
Himself says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law. . . . Verily
I say unto you"--making the assertion as emphatic as possible--"Till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:17, 18. Here He teaches, not
merely what the claims of God's law had been, and were then, but that these
claims should hold as long as the heavens and the earth remain. The law of
God is as immutable as His throne. It will maintain its claims upon mankind
in all ages. {PP 365.1}
While the Saviour's
death brought to an end the law of types and shadows, it did not in the least
detract from the obligation of the moral law. On the contrary, the very
fact that it was necessary for Christ to die in order to atone for the
transgression of that law, proves it to be immutable. {PP 365.3}
What about the “statutes and
judgments?” Feastkeepers refer to
these as those commandments other than the Decalogue, which include the
feasts, which they say are surely binding for us today. “The minds of the people, blinded
and debased by slavery and heathenism, were not prepared to appreciate fully
the far-reaching principles of God's ten precepts. That the obligations of
the Decalogue might be more fully understood and enforced, additional precepts were given,
illustrating and applying the principles of the Ten Commandments. These laws were called judgments, both
because they were framed in infinite wisdom and equity and because the
magistrates were to give judgment according to them. Unlike the Ten
Commandments, they were delivered privately to Moses, who was to
communicate them to the people.” {PP
310.1} Statutes and judgments can also refer
to the ten commandments: “The word of God is made of none
effect by falsehoods and traditions. Satan
has presented his version of God's law to the world, and it has been
accepted before a plain ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ The controversy begun in heaven over the law of God, has been kept up
upon the earth ever since Satan's expulsion from heaven. . . . {RH, June
17, 1890 par. 10} “Ignorance and self-sufficiency go hand in
hand. The law of God has been given for the regulation of our conduct, and it
is far-reaching in its principles. There is no sin, no work of
unrighteousness, that escapes the condemnation of the law. The great statute-book is truth, and
truth only; for it delineates with unerring accuracy the history of Satan's
deception, and the ruin of his followers. Satan claimed to be able to present laws which were better than God's
statutes and judgments, and he was expelled from heaven.” {RH, June 17, 1890 par. 12} “Concerning the law proclaimed from Sinai, Nehemiah says,
"Thou camest down also upon As already discussed, we know that
the laws or statutes given to Moses, which were to be guardians to the Decalogue, which are also to be binding through all time, are specifically a
subset of statutes delineated as those that govern our relations to one another. “The law of types reached forward to Christ. All hope and faith
centered in Christ until type reached its antitype in his death. The statutes and judgments specifying
the duty of man to his fellow-men, were full of important instruction,
defining and simplifying the principles of the moral law, for the purpose
of increasing religious knowledge, and of preserving God's chosen people
distinct and separate from idolatrous nations. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 5} “The statutes concerning marriage, inheritance, and strict justice in deal
with one another, were peculiar and contrary to the customs and manners
of other nations, and were designed of God to keep his people separate from
other nations. The necessity of this to preserve the people of God from
becoming like the nations who had not the love and fear of God, is the same
in this corrupt age, when the transgression of God's law prevails and
idolatry exists to a fearful extent. If
ancient Israel needed such security, we need it more, to keep us from
being utterly confounded with the transgressors of God's law. The hearts of
men are so prone to depart from God that there is a necessity for restraint
and discipline.” {RH, May 6, 1875 par.
6} "The law of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise
the simple. The statutes of the
Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much
fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy
servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward.’. . . {RH, December 18, 1894 par. 5} “‘Thou shalt not oppress a hired
servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy
strangers that are in thy land within thy gates; at his day shalt thou give
him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and
setteth his heart upon it; lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be
sin unto thee.’ ‘Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him; the
wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until morning.’ {RH, December 18, 1894 par. 6} “The Lord Jesus gave these
commandments from the pillar of cloud, and Moses repeated them to the
children of “The instructions given to Moses for
ancient Israel, with their sharp, rigid outlines, are to be studied and
obeyed by the people of God today (Letter 259, 1903).” {1BC 1103.4} It is the non-typical,
non-ceremonial, non-ritual, statutes and judgments which govern our relations
to others are those we are to give place in our Christian conduct. We must carry that distinction, that
mitigating parameter, into our reading of inspired passages, whether they
specifically refer to the laws other
than the ten commandments or to the Word of God in a broad sense, such as the
one below, which uses the term statutes in a general sense as applying to the
Scriptures, overall: “If the mind is set to the task of
studying the Bible for
information, the reasoning faculties will be improved. Under study of the Scriptures the mind expands, and
becomes more evenly balanced than if occupied in obtaining general
information from the books that are used which have no connection with the
Bible. No knowledge is so firm, so consistent and far-reaching, as that
obtained from a study of the word of God. It is the foundation of all true
knowledge. The Bible is like a fountain. The more you look into it, the
deeper it appears. The grand truths of sacred history possess amazing
strength and beauty, and are as far-reaching as eternity. No science is equal
to the science that reveals the character of God. Moses was educated in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians, yet he said, "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the
Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to
possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely
this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is
there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all
things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that
hath statutes and judgments so righteous, as all this law, which I set before
you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest
thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from
thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons and thy sons'
sons." {FE 393.1} “Where shall we find laws more
noble, pure, and just, than are exhibited on the statute books wherein is recorded the instruction given to
Moses for the children of Summary While this study has not been
exhaustive and surely much more could be said and there are others much more
skilled and trained in this subject, it is my own independent study and I
believe it adequately serves to show that EGW has not set out to teach us to
keep the feasts, by any stretch of the imagination. We have looked at the range of terminology
that feastkeepers use to pull out references from the SOP and found that many
of the terms are interchangeable, such as “Law of Moses,” “Jewish economy,”
“typical system,” “ritual system,” “ceremonial system,” and “customs.” We found that feasts were types, or
“typical” and, along with their rituals, sacrifices, forms, symbols, shadows,
figures, and services, were rendered obsolete as all is transitioned into the
antitypical realities of the Christian economy by the advent and ministry of
the antitypical Lamb as He moves through the antitypical sanctuary. Regarding statutes and judgments, we find
that these are fluid terms, sometimes referring to the Decalogue, sometimes
the ceremonial law, sometimes the Scriptures or the Bible in general. When enjoined to keep the statutes and
judgments as “guardians of the Decalogue,” or otherwise, we are to understand
that this refers to a subset of the same which are set apart from the
services, which were not types, forms, ceremonies, etc., but they are those
laws which refer to our treatment of our fellow man, in “everyday life.” At last, you may get a surprise, when
you find that the “teacher of Torah” doesn’t like your Spirit of Prophecy
quotes anymore. I quote a leading
Adventist feastkeeping teacher which reveals a certain attitude that can
hardly cause us to agree upon how we may use EGW to understand the
differences between the Jewish and Christian economies: “. . . you are using the
the age old erroneous
lies that Ellen White repeated (in ignorance) from “. . . You will not be
judged by Ellen White and what she says, but rather what G-d spoke through
Moses through Yeshua in the Torah. Much of the
final crisis in Adventism will come over whether New wine can be put into new
wineskins. If your wineskin is Ellen
White for doctrine instead of the Bible. . . , your wineskin will burst
when the New Wine of Torah and further revelation is put into it. . . .
Will we cling to fossilized customs
from We
find error in THESE writings: |
|
Feastkeeping
Teachers will say things like: . . . here is a wonderful quote
which I’d like to search into in more depth and synchronize it with another
inspired text. Here it is: “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the
spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He
would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that
for four thousand years had pointed to His death.” {DA 652.2} Answer: è Let’s not use one
sentence only when the full context is so rich. Let us read it through to the end of the
paragraph and include also the next: “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the spotless
Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would
thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four
thousand years had pointed to His death. As He ate the Passover with
His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be
the memorial of His great sacrifice. The
national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was
to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages.” {DA 652.2}
“The Passover was ordained as a
commemoration of the deliverance of A broader treatment of this text has
been offered elsewhere, but before we follow down the yellow brick road based
upon the highlight of two words in single sentence, lest we find that “we are
not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” let’s ever keep the entire picture before us in
any and all discussions wherein one side is making a contention for the
typical celebration of Passover.
(Although they say it is, “of course, without the typical lamb
offering.”) It must be fixed in the mind – a foundation
laid -- that there was a transition from one thing to another thing. Those things
are called “economies.” One is the
“Jewish economy.” The other would be
the “Christian economy.” Each one was
given a fundamental feast, or a “festival.”
The Jewish economy had Passover.
The Christian economy has the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. The Jewish feast was “to pass away
forever.” The Christian feast was to
be observed “through all ages.” We
know that the law, as God gave it to Moses, stated that the Jewish Passover
was to take place annually and was
connected to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with its sabbaths. Jesus instructed that we sit at the
Communion table with a frequency of our
own choosing, for He said “as oft
as ye do it.” 1 Cor. 11:25. Ellen White also instructed us explicitly
to not relegate it to an annual event, but to observe it frequently. “Here our Saviour instituted the Lord's supper, to be often
celebrated . . . . Therefore, the Lord's supper was to be observed more
frequently than the annual passover.”
{ST, March 25, 1880 par. 9} The above should be sufficient to
lay down a solid, immutable, bedrock principle: The old economy and its feast was abolished. The new economy and its feast were established. The old one was not to merge with the new, nor was it to be reconfigured and remain in
place. The old was to supplant
the new. At this point or earlier in an
investigation of the plain meaning of the text at hand, they will leave it
and its truth behind and go to another argument, perhaps the one of Paul and
his “keep the feast” statement in 1 Cor. 5:8.
They will endeavor make it mean what they want it to mean in order to
set up their own spurious bedrock principle and then come back here and
reinterpret the plain meaning herein, insisting that the term “Passover,”
because it says that Jesus ate it,
means ONLY the meal and not the festival.
They want us to understand that the MEAL is the equivalent of the
FESTIVAL. We beg to differ and declare
that the meal is only part of the
festival. A point to note is that many
Christian Feastkeepers today at the Nisan 14 Feast will actually hold a
Jewish Passover Seder, with various elements in addition to the simple
elements of the Lord’s Table which are simply a cup of grape juice and
unleavened bread. They hold the
Passover feast with all or most of its symbols and rites, minus the lamb. (I have even known non-Adventist Christian
celebrants that have also the lamb.
There are a range of styles in this, but they all call it Passover,
not the Lord’s Supper, and this in itself is confusion.) There are the bitter herbs, the multiple
cups, the sending of a child to look out the door for Elijah, etc. The
Passover feast minus the Lamb, kept as “Passover,” as a typical celebration
in accordance with Jewish law, is not the Lord’s Supper and cannot be the
Lord’s Supper. If one wishes to
host a Seder for the lessons in it, it can be a great exercise and we can learn
much from it, but don’t think to make it a necessary rite for
Christians. This is where one crosses
a line into Judaizing. Now that we have hopefully
established truth from the context, we can proceed with the feastkeeper’s half quote: “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the
spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He
would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that
for four thousand years had pointed to His death.” {DA 652.2} The emphasis they will bring forth
is that the system of types and ceremonies was brought to an end. We have no argument with this. However, we are to focus on “types and
ceremonies” as meaning one thing only.
The next quote and comment are typical (no pun intended) of how their
lines may go: Feastkeeping
Teachers: Here is another text from EGW
involving the types and ceremonies that we need to bring in harmony
with DA 652.2: “Paul did not bind himself nor his
converts to the ceremonies and customs of the Jews, with their varied
forms, types, and sacrifices; for he recognized that the perfect and
final offering had been made in the death of the Son of God. The age of
clearer light and knowledge had now come. And although the early education of
Paul had blinded his eyes to this light, and led him to bitterly oppose the
work of God, yet the revelation of Christ to him while on his way to Ellen White says that the types and
ceremonies that He would bring to an end are those that pointed to the death
of Jesus. This agrees with Daniel 9:27 which informs us that there
would be an end of the “sacrifices and oblations” at the end of the 2300 year
prophecy. Every time EGW uses the word “ceremonial” in her writings,
she means the sacrificial system and she supports it by using Daniel 9:27. Answer: Can we logically draw the conclusion
that this text from Life Sketches of
Paul, or many others like it, because they specify sacrifices, or that
Daniel 9:27, saying that the sacrifices would cease, means the end of
sacrifices only and nothing else? This
is like saying “I have blue socks in my drawer.” Actually, I have black, white, and other
colors also. What they are using is an
error of logic called “argument from silence.” This text in LP also includes the
terms “customs” and “forms.” Both texts, DA 652.2 and LP 105.1 use also the
term “types.” Let us deal with these
systematically: Forms The whole Jewish economy, or
“typical system of the Jews,” consisted in “forms and ceremonies,” “types,”
“shadows,” “figures,” and “symbols”: “The Lord Jesus was the foundation
of the whole Jewish economy. . . .
But the Jews had exalted the forms and
ceremonies and had lost sight of their object. . . they did not recognize in Him the fulfillment of all their types, the
substance of all their shadows. They rejected
the antitype, and clung to their types and useless ceremonies.” { “They were to diligently trace link
after link of sacred truth revealed by the prophets, in types and figures representing the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He lifted the vail from their understanding, concerning the typical system of the Jews, and they
now saw clearly the meaning of the forms
and symbols which were virtually abolished by the death of Christ.” {3SP 249.1}
The whole Jewish economy, more than
sacrifices alone, was swept away “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies. . . .” {DA 652.2} “From the time when the promise was
made in “. . . the forms and symbols . . . were virtually abolished by the death of
Christ.” {3SP 249.1} “Christ himself was the
foundation of the whole Jewish economy, the end of types,
symbols, and sacrifices.” {RH, August 6, 1895 par. 6} “Anciently believers were saved by the same
Saviour as now, but it was a God veiled. They saw God's mercy in figures. . .
. Christ's sacrifice is the
glorious fulfillment of the whole Jewish
economy. . . . When as a sinless offering Christ bowed His head and
died, when by the Almighty's unseen hand the veil of the temple was rent in
twain, a new and living way was opened. All can now approach God through the
merits of Christ. It is because the veil has been rent that men can draw nigh
to God. They need not depend on priest or ceremonial sacrifice. And may we add, we need neither to
depend upon typical sabbath keeping, either, for with the abandonment of the
Jewish economy was also the abandonment of the Passover/Feast of Unleavened
Bread, the “Great Festival” of that economy. The Jewish economy includes the
Great Festival of Passover “Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. . . . The national festival of the Jews was to
pass away forever. The service
which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and
through all ages.” {DA 652.2} Customs The early Jewish Christians were not
ready and willing to give up their customs which made them separate from the
gentiles in faith. Act
21:20 “And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto
him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe;
and they are all zealous
of the law: Act
21:21 “And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest
all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought
not to circumcise their
children, neither to walk after the customs.” Act
15:5 “But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed,
saying, That it was needful to circumcise
them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” The law of Moses was considered the customs and this had not to do with sacrifices but the entire system of types. "The entire body of Christians
were not called to vote upon the question.
[Regarding circumcision and the keeping of the entire ceremonial law.]
The apostles and elders--men of influence and judgment--framed and issued the
decree [to abstain from meats offered to idols, blood, things strangled, and
fornication], which was thereupon generally accepted by the Christian
churches. All were not pleased, however, with this decision; there was a
faction of false brethren who
assumed to engage in a work on their own responsibility. They indulged in
murmuring and fault-finding, proposing new plans, and seeking to pull
down the work of the experienced men whom God had ordained to teach the doctrine of Christ. The church has
had such obstacles to meet from the first, and will ever have them to the
close of time. {LP 70.2} “ “Paul did not bind himself nor his
converts to the ceremonies and customs
of the Jews, with their varied forms, types, and sacrifices; for
he recognized that the perfect and final offering had been made in the death
of the Son of God. The age of clearer light and knowledge had now come. . . .
His teaching led the mind to a more active spiritual life, that carried the
believer above mere ceremonies. "For thou desirest
not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken
and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." {LP 105.1}
Types The feasts were types, the feasts were typical,
and they were also bound up with all things typical in their
observation, therefore coming under the “system of types.” “Among the Jews the sacred feast was connected with all their seasons of national
and religious rejoicing. It was to
them a type of the blessings of eternal life.” { “The Feast of Tabernacles was not only commemorative but typical.” {PP 541.2}
“Christ was the firstfruits of them
that slept. This very scene, the resurrection of Christ from the dead, was observed in type by the Jews at one of
their sacred feasts, called the feast of the Jews. They came up to the
temple when the firstfruits had been gathered in, and held a feast of
thanksgiving. The firstfruits of the harvest crop was sacredly dedicated to
the Lord. . . .” {CTr 286.5} “The Passover was followed by the
seven days' feast of unleavened bread. On the second day of the feast, the
first fruits of the year's harvest, a sheaf of barley, was presented before
the Lord. All the ceremonies of the
feast were types of the work of Christ. The deliverance of It is clear that the entire typical system was done away when type met antitype. “. . . the death of Christ abolished . . . the typical system of sacrifices and ceremonies . . . .” {FW 90.1} “He [Jesus, before His ascension] lifted the
vail from their [the disciples’] understanding, concerning the typical system of the Jews, and they
now saw clearly the meaning of the forms and symbols which were virtually abolished by the death of Christ.” {3SP 249.1}
“Christ was standing at the point of
transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the
spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He
would thus bring to an end the system
of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to
His death. As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its
place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. The national festival of the Jews
was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be
observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages.” {CCh 298.2} “. . . when Christ was
revealed in His advent to our world, and died man's sacrifice, type met antitype. Then the glory of that which is not typical,
not to be done away, but which remaineth, God's law of ten commandments,
the standard of righteousness, was
plainly discerned as immutable by all who saw to the end of that which was
abolished.” {BEcho, August 4, 1902 par. 6} This last text is quite strong. It clearly demonstrates that that which is not typical but remains is
the ten commandments and that which is done away is that which is not of
the decalogue.
See also the following, equating the whole Jewish economy with the
ceremonial observances with the typical and contrasting all of this with the
Decalogue and the Antitypical. “Christ was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy, and in all his specific directions regarding the
ceremonial observances, these were distinguished from the Decalog.
They were to pass away. Type was to
meet antitype in the one great offering of Christ for the sins of the
world. {ST, July 29, 1897 par. 10} “It was the light of the glory of
the gospel of Christ, who was the
foundation of the sacrificial system, that shone in the face of
Moses. ‘But if the ministration of death, written and engraven
in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to
be done away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather
glorious?’ When the reality, the full blaze of midday light, should come, the dim glory which was but an earnest of
the latter, should be done away, swallowed up in the greater glory. {ST, August 25, 1887 par. 5} “‘And not as Moses, which put a veil
over his face, that the children of That which was typified, being done
away, was reflected also in the feast of the Passover, which we have already
shown to have been entirely abandoned and replaced by the communion, the
Lord’s Supper: The great salvation that he brought
was typified by the deliverance of the children of The type and symbol, being long
gone, is replaced by the “richest feast” of the realities bestowed upon us in
Christ Jesus crucified and gone to prepare a place for us in the heavenlies: That which
was type and symbol to the Jews is reality to us. . . . The spiritual banquet has been set before us in rich abundance. We have had presented to us by the
messengers of God the richest feast,--the righteousness of Christ,
justification by faith, the exceeding great and precious promises of God in
his word, free access to the Father by Jesus Christ, the comforts of the Holy
Spirit, and the well-grounded assurance of eternal life in the kingdom of
God. We ask, What could God do for us
that he has not done in preparing the great supper, the heavenly banquet? {RH, January 17, 1899 par. 14} A leading feastkeeper wrote me to
express his disgust that I am spiritualizing and allegorizing the
feasts! What else is there for us to
do with them? Read again the above
text. Statutes to Guard the Decalogue The feastkeepers love to quote the
following to show that the feasts are still in effect as they are statutes
given to uphold and support the fourth commandment (although there is not one
shred of evidence to support this idea, which is nothing other than worthless
theories of men): “In consequence of continual
transgression, the moral law was repeated in awful grandeur from Sinai. Christ gave to Moses religious precepts
which were to govern the everyday life. These statutes were explicitly given to guard the ten commandments. They were not shadowy types to pass away with the death of Christ.
They were to be binding upon man
in every age as long as time should last. These commands were enforced by the power of the moral law, and
they clearly and definitely explained that law.” {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 10} It has been shown by careful readers
that such a treatment of this text is unwarranted, as it is specified which statutes
or precepts were not typical. These
have to do with the governance of “everyday life.” Just as Christmas is not “everyday life” for the world or the corrupt churches, so
much more than this were the holy festivals not “everyday life.” They were holy appointments. The ceremonial law, or typical law, on the
other hand, had to do with the services
(more on this in a moment) and rites of the Jewish system of religion which
was given to them as a living enactment of the gospel plan and were not with respect to man’s dealing with
his fellow man in the course of everyday life. Getting back to the idea of the
Mosaic precepts as guardian statutes to the decalogue,
noting that above, in the May 6, 1875 article we find a certain portion of
them binding, we read in another article that the guardian statutes are of a
“different character,” changeable: “The law of ten precepts, spoken from So we note that there was a segment
of the law that was called the “ritual system,” which term is synonymous with
many other terms which we have explored here, such as “typical system” and
“ceremonial system.” In this instance,
she states that this system was to guard the ten precepts and was
abolished. In another place, as seen
above, she explains that there were included in the guardian statutes certain
commands that were not to pass away and clearly defines that they pertain to
“everyday life,” which would refer to that which is other than ritual, typical, or ceremonial. These guardian statutes were therefore
not a part of the “ritual system”; they stand “as long as time should last.” Services of the Feasts are no more: “. . . all the sacrificial offerings and services were to be
abolished. Paul and the other apostles labored to show this, and
resolutely withstood those Judaizing
teachers who declared that Christians should observe the ceremonial law. {RH,
September 27, 1881 par. 3} “‘Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world:
he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life.’ {DA
463.1} When He
spoke these words,
Jesus was in the court of the temple
specially connected with the services of the Feast of Tabernacles.”
{DA 463.2} “The Feast of Tabernacles, or
harvest festival, with its offerings from orchard and field, its week's
encampment in the leafy booths, its social reunions, the sacred memorial
service, and the generous hospitality to God's workers, the Levites of the
sanctuary, and to His children, the strangers and the poor, uplifted all
minds in gratitude to Him who had crowned the year with His goodness. . . .” {Ed 42.3}
The “services” were connected not
only to sacrificial rites, but also to the feasts. All the feast days had ordinances and
services. Adventist Feastkeepers,
although not unanimous in their abolishment of services, tend for the most
part to do away with any prescribed typical services (save for the elements
of the Lord’s Supper, in addition to varying elements of the Jewish Passover
Seder, and the rite of cleaning homes of leaven and eating unleavened bread
during the days of the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread.) So they have no sacrifices, other than Antitypical, they have almost no services or rites or ceremonies,
other than Antitypical (either by commemoration or present experience [day of
Atonement] or by looking to various perceived future fulfillments), but they
insist upon the keeping of the typical day with dogged determination to
convince you and me that it should be done, in fact, must be done as a salvational requirement in these last days – as
having primary importance over all the various laws, in the present movement
to reinstate to God’s people the “law of Moses,” the “statutes and
judgments,” “the Torah,” in this the “day of Elijah.” You hear mainly the call to “keep the
feasts, keep the feasts.” “Why, Paul kept the feasts, Jesus kept the feasts –
why would you not want to do what Jesus and Paul did?” and a touch of sarcasm
is generally added in there, “Did someone forget to tell Paul and Jesus that
they were done away?” But I say to you, if all the typical
elements are stripped out of them, and these are observed antitypically,
(as they should be), what is left but these anachronistic shells in time, to keep as sabbaths;
wherein such fellowships we are given primarily to talking and listening to
talk about how important they are, going over all our proofs, how they were
given as guardians of the 7th day Sabbath, etc. Throughout such gatherings there is such a
focused determination to labor upon the subject of the feasts so as to create
an environment or culture wherein the feasts are prone to be elevated above
the weekly Sabbath of the Decalogue, at least in a percentage of the minds of
those that get swept up in the culture.
This may be a mere perception, but it is a perception held by many
observers of radical feastkeepers and their attitudes. I show here a comment by a leading
feastkeeping teacher that seems to demonstrate such a glorification of a
festival above that of the Sabbath of the Decalogue: “Passover is of such significance
that it is to be ‘a sign on the forehead and the hand’, which not even does
Yahweh say this about the weekly Sabbath. Passover is the very opposite
of the mark of the Beast. See Ex. 13:9.”
Leading Feastkeeping teacher,
private email to K. Straub Are the feasts part of the moral law
or the ceremonial law? You decide: “God's people, whom He calls His
peculiar treasure, were privileged with a
twofold system of law; the moral and ceremonial. . . .
From the creation the moral law
was an essential part of God's divine plan, and was as unchangeable as
Himself. The ceremonial law was to
answer a particular purpose in Christ's plan for the salvation of the
race. The typical system of sacrifices and offerings was established that
through these services the sinner might discern the great offering, Christ. .
. . The ceremonial law was glorious; it was the provision made by Jesus
Christ in counsel with His Father, to aid in the salvation of the race. The
whole arrangement of the typical system was founded on Christ. Adam saw
Christ prefigured in the innocent beast suffering the penalty of his
transgression of Jehovah's law.
The need for the service of sacrifices and offerings ceased when type
met antitype in the death of Christ. In Him the shadow reached the substance.
. . . The law of God will maintain its
exalted character as long as the throne of Jehovah endures. This law is the
expression of God's character. . . . Types and shadows, offerings and
sacrifices, had no virtue after Christ's death on the cross; but God's law
was not crucified with Christ. . . . Today he [Satan] is deceiving human
beings in regard to the law of God.
The law of the ten commandments lives and will live through the
eternal ages. . . .
God did not make the infinite sacrifice of giving His only-begotten
Son to our world, to secure for man the privilege of breaking the
commandments of God in this life and in the future eternal life. {FLB 106}
The
sacrificial system, committed to Adam, was also perverted by his
descendants. Superstition, idolatry, cruelty, and licentiousness corrupted
the simple and significant service that God had appointed. Through long
intercourse with idolaters the people of
There are many who try to blend
these two systems, using the texts that speak of the ceremonial law to
prove that the moral law has been abolished; but this is a perversion of the Scriptures. The distinction
between the two systems is broad and clear. The ceremonial system was made up of symbols pointing to Christ, to
His sacrifice and His priesthood. This ritual law, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was to be
performed by the Hebrews until type met antitype in the death of Christ,
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Then all the
sacrificial offerings were to cease. It
is this law that Christ "took . . . out of the way, nailing it to His
cross." Colossians 2:14. But
concerning the law of Ten Commandments the psalmist declares, "Forever,
O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." Psalm 119:89. And Christ
Himself says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law. . . . Verily
I say unto you"--making the assertion as emphatic as
possible--"Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no
wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:17, 18. Here
He teaches, not merely what the claims of God's law had been, and were then,
but that these claims should hold as long as the heavens and the earth
remain. The law of God is as immutable as His throne. It will maintain its
claims upon mankind in all ages. {PP
365.1}
While the Saviour's
death brought to an end the law of types and shadows, it did not in the least
detract from the obligation of the moral law. On the contrary, the very
fact that it was necessary for Christ to die in order to atone for the
transgression of that law, proves it to be immutable. {PP 365.3}
What about the “statutes and
judgments?” Feastkeepers refer to
these as those commandments other than the Decalogue, which include the
feasts, which they say are surely binding for us today. “The minds of the people, blinded
and debased by slavery and heathenism, were not prepared to appreciate fully
the far-reaching principles of God's ten precepts. That the obligations of the
Decalogue might be more fully understood and enforced, additional precepts were given, illustrating and applying the
principles of the Ten Commandments. These
laws were called judgments, both because they were framed in infinite wisdom
and equity and because the magistrates were to give judgment according to
them. Unlike the Ten Commandments, they were delivered privately to Moses,
who was to communicate them to the people.”
{PP 310.1} Statutes and judgments can also refer
to the ten commandments: “The word of God is made of none
effect by falsehoods and traditions. Satan
has presented his version of God's law to the world, and it has been
accepted before a plain ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ The controversy begun in heaven over the law of God, has been kept up
upon the earth ever since Satan's expulsion from heaven. . . . {RH, June
17, 1890 par. 10} “Ignorance and self-sufficiency go hand in
hand. The law of God has been given for the regulation of our conduct, and it
is far-reaching in its principles. There is no sin, no work of
unrighteousness, that escapes the condemnation of the law. The great statute-book is truth, and
truth only; for it delineates with unerring accuracy the history of Satan's
deception, and the ruin of his followers. Satan claimed to be able to present laws which were better than God's
statutes and judgments, and he was expelled from heaven.” {RH, June 17, 1890 par. 12} “Concerning the law proclaimed from Sinai, Nehemiah says,
"Thou camest down also upon As already discussed, we know that
the laws or statutes given to Moses, which were to be guardians to the Decalogue, which are also to be binding through all time, are specifically a
subset of statutes delineated as those that govern our relations to one another. “The law of types reached forward to Christ. All hope and faith
centered in Christ until type reached its antitype in his death. The statutes and judgments specifying
the duty of man to his fellow-men, were full of important instruction,
defining and simplifying the principles of the moral law, for the purpose
of increasing religious knowledge, and of preserving God's chosen people
distinct and separate from idolatrous nations. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 5} “The statutes concerning marriage, inheritance, and strict justice in deal
with one another, were peculiar and contrary to the customs and manners
of other nations, and were designed of God to keep his people separate from
other nations. The necessity of this to preserve the people of God from
becoming like the nations who had not the love and fear of God, is the same
in this corrupt age, when the transgression of God's law prevails and idolatry
exists to a fearful extent. If ancient
Israel needed such security, we need it more, to keep us from being
utterly confounded with the transgressors of God's law. The hearts of men are
so prone to depart from God that there is a necessity for restraint and
discipline.” {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 6} "The law of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise
the simple. The statutes of the
Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much
fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy
servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward.’. . . {RH, December 18, 1894 par. 5} “‘Thou shalt not oppress a hired
servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy
strangers that are in thy land within thy gates; at his day shalt thou give
him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and
setteth his heart upon it; lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be
sin unto thee.’ ‘Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him; the
wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until morning.’ {RH, December 18, 1894 par. 6} “The Lord Jesus gave these
commandments from the pillar of cloud, and Moses repeated them to the
children of “The instructions given to Moses for
ancient Israel, with their sharp, rigid outlines, are to be studied and
obeyed by the people of God today (Letter 259, 1903).” {1BC 1103.4} It is the non-typical, non-ceremonial,
non-ritual, statutes and judgments which govern our relations to others are
those we are to give place in our Christian conduct. We must carry that distinction, that
mitigating parameter, into our reading of inspired passages, whether they specifically
refer to the laws other than the
ten commandments or to the Word of God in a broad sense, such as the one
below, which uses the term statutes in a general sense as applying to the
Scriptures, overall: “If the mind is set to the task of
studying the Bible for
information, the reasoning faculties will be improved. Under study of the Scriptures the mind expands, and
becomes more evenly balanced than if occupied in obtaining general
information from the books that are used which have no connection with the
Bible. No knowledge is so firm, so consistent and far-reaching, as that
obtained from a study of the word of God. It is the foundation of all true
knowledge. The Bible is like a fountain. The more you look into it, the
deeper it appears. The grand truths of sacred history possess amazing
strength and beauty, and are as far-reaching as eternity. No science is equal
to the science that reveals the character of God. Moses was educated in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians, yet he said, "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the
Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to
possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely
this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is
there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all
things that we call upon Him for? And what nation is there so great, that
hath statutes and judgments so righteous, as all this law, which I set before
you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest
thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from
thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons and thy sons'
sons." {FE 393.1} “Where shall we find laws more
noble, pure, and just, than are exhibited on the statute books wherein is recorded the instruction given to
Moses for the children of Summary While this study has not been
exhaustive and surely much more could be said and there are others much more
skilled and trained in this subject, it is my own independent study and I
believe it adequately serves to show that EGW has not set out to teach us to
keep the feasts, by any stretch of the imagination. We have looked at the range of terminology
that feastkeepers use to pull out references from the SOP and found that many
of the terms are interchangeable, such as “Law of Moses,” “Jewish economy,”
“typical system,” “ritual system,” “ceremonial system,” and “customs.” We found that feasts were types, or
“typical” and, along with their rituals, sacrifices, forms, symbols, shadows,
figures, and services, were rendered obsolete as all is transitioned into the
antitypical realities of the Christian economy by the advent and ministry of
the antitypical Lamb as He moves through the antitypical sanctuary. Regarding statutes and judgments, we find
that these are fluid terms, sometimes referring to the Decalogue, sometimes
the ceremonial law, sometimes the Scriptures or the Bible in general. When enjoined to keep the statutes and
judgments as “guardians of the Decalogue,” or otherwise, we are to understand
that this refers to a subset of the same which are set apart from the
services, which were not types, forms, ceremonies, etc., but they are those
laws which refer to our treatment of our fellow man, in “everyday life.” At last, you may get a surprise, when
you find that the “teacher of Torah” doesn’t like your Spirit of Prophecy
quotes anymore. I quote a leading
Adventist feastkeeping teacher which reveals a certain attitude that can
hardly cause us to agree upon how we may use EGW to understand the
differences between the Jewish and Christian economies: “. . . you are using the
the age old erroneous
lies that Ellen White repeated (in ignorance) from “. . . You will not be
judged by Ellen White and what she says, but rather what G-d spoke through
Moses through Yeshua in the Torah. Much of the
final crisis in Adventism will come over whether New wine can be put into new
wineskins. If your wineskin is Ellen
White for doctrine instead of the Bible. . . , your wineskin will burst
when the New Wine of Torah and further revelation is put into it. . . .
Will we cling to fossilized customs
from We find error in THESE and similar writings, CD and DVD
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“I am . . . receiving
printed matter, tracts and leaflets, from one and another, which present a
large array of Scriptures, put together in a way that would seem to prove
certain theories; but they only prove the theories in the estimation of their
authors; for truth set in a framework of error, diverts the mind from the real
subject which should take the attention, and aids error in calling the minds of
men away from the present truth which is essential for this time. These persons
bring certain Scriptures together, and interpret passages of the Bible, so as
to give coloring to their views; but they are wresting the Scriptures to make
them appear to say that which they do not say. False theories will thus be
propagated in the world to the very end, and as long as there are printing
presses and publishing houses, erroneous matter will be presented for
publication, and books will be prepared for public circulation.” {CW 153.1}
“Messages of every order and kind have been urged upon
Seventh-day Adventists, to take the place of the truth which, point by point,
has been sought out by prayerful study, and testified to by the miracle-working
power of the Lord. But the waymarks which have made
us what we are, are to be preserved, and they will be preserved, as God has
signified through His word and the testimony of His Spirit. He calls upon us to
hold firmly, with the grip of faith, to the fundamental principles that are
based upon unquestionable authority.” --Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 2,
p. 59. (1904.) {CW 52.1}
“Without my consent, they have made selections from the
Testimonies . . . to make it appear that my writings sustain and approve the
position they advocate. In doing this they have done that which is not justice
or righteousness. Through taking unwarrantable liberties they have presented to
the people a theory that is of character to deceive and destroy. In times past
many others have done this same thing, and have made it appear that the
Testimonies sustained positions that were untenable and false. {TM 32.3}
There “. . . are the class who pride themselves on their
great caution in receiving "new light," as they term it. But their
failure to receive the light is caused by their spiritual blindness; for they
cannot discern the ways and works of God. Those who array themselves against
the precious light of heaven, will accept messages that God has not sent, and
will thus become dangerous to the cause of God; for they will set up false
standards. {RH, December 6, 1892 par. 5}
“The leadings of the Lord were marked, and most wonderful
were His revelations of what is truth. Point after point was established by the
Lord God of heaven. That which was truth then, is truth today. But the voices
do not cease to be heard--"This is truth. I have new light." But these
new lights in prophetic lines are manifest in misapplying the Word and setting
the people of God adrift without an anchor to hold them. If the student of the
Word would take the truths which God has revealed in the leadings of His
people, and appropriate these truths, digest them, and bring them into their
practical life, they would then be living channels of light. But those who have
set themselves to study out new theories, have a mixture of truth and error
combined, and after trying to make these things prominent, have demonstrated
that they have not kindled their taper from the divine altar, and it has gone
out in darkness.” {17MR 4.3}