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:

 

Click for online shop.“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

 

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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.

 

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 Israel from Egyptian bondage. God had directed that, year by year, as the children should ask the meaning of this ordinance, the history should be repeated. Thus the wonderful deliverance was to be kept fresh in the minds of all. The ordinance of the Lord's Supper was given to commemorate the great deliverance wrought out as the result of the death of Christ. Till He shall come the second time in power and glory, this ordinance is to be celebrated. It is the means by which His great work for us is to be kept fresh in our minds.”  {DA 652.3} 

 

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 Damascus had changed the whole current of his life. His character and works had now become a remarkable illustration of those of his divine Lord. 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}

 

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.” {COL 34.4} 

 

“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 Eden, Christ was shadowed forth in types and symbols. The light gradually increased,--becoming more and more distinct until the fullness of the time came. Then the great Antitype, the originator of all the Jewish economy, appeared in our world. In Christ, type met antitype. The gloomy shadows were lightened by the appearance of him who was the full signification of all the symbols.  {YI, December 13, 1900 par. 3}

 

“. . . 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. Liberty is given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour.  {AG 155.5} 

 

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}

 

Jerusalem was the metropolis of the Jews, and there were found the greatest exclusiveness and bigotry. The Jewish Christians who lived in sight of the temple would naturally allow their minds to revert to the peculiar privileges of the Jews as a nation. As they saw Christianity departing from the ceremonies and traditions of Judaism, and perceived that the peculiar sacredness with which the Jewish customs had been invested would soon be lost sight of in the light of the new faith, many grew indignant against Paul, as one who had, in a great measure, caused this change. Even the disciples were not all prepared to willingly accept the decision of the council. Some were zealous for the ceremonial law, and regarded Paul with jealousy, because they thought his principles were lax in regard to the obligation of the Jewish law.  {LP 71.1} 

 

“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.”  {COL 219.1} 

 

“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 Israel from Egypt was an object lesson of redemption, which the Passover was intended to keep in memory. The slain lamb, the unleavened bread, the sheaf of first fruits, represented the Saviour.”  {DA 77.1} 

 

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 Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.’ God was pleased to reveal to Moses the end of the sacrificial offerings at the time of the giving of his law. It was made plain to him that the Angel that stood at the head of the armies of Israel was the great Offering for sin, the foundation of the entire typical system. He saw type reach its antitype. The former was but an earnest of the latter, and in comparison with it was intricate and mysterious, although of great beauty and clearness.”  {ST, August 25, 1887 par. 6} 

 

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 Israel, which event was commemorated by the feast of the passover.  {3SP 128.1} 

 

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 Mount Sinai, Christ himself declares that he came not to destroy. This testimony should forever settle the question. The law of God is as immutable as the throne of Jehovah. It will maintain its claims upon all mankind in all ages, unchanged by time or place or circumstances. The ritual system was of an altogether different character, added to guard the ten precepts of the Eternal.  {RH, September 27, 1881 par. 4} 

 

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 Israel had mingled many heathen customs with their worship; therefore the Lord gave them at Sinai definite instruction concerning the sacrificial service. After the completion of the tabernacle He communicated with Moses from the cloud of glory above the mercy seat, and gave him full directions concerning the system of offerings and the forms of worship to be maintained in the sanctuary. The ceremonial law was thus given to Moses, and by him written in a book. But the law of Ten Commandments spoken from Sinai had been written by God Himself on the tables of stone, and was sacredly preserved in the ark.  {PP 364.3} 

 

     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 Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments." Nehemiah 9:13. And Paul, "the apostle to the Gentiles," declares, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Romans 7:12. This can be no other than the Decalogue; for it is the law that says, "Thou shalt not covet." Verse 7.”  {PP 365.2}

 

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 Israel and wrote them in a book, that they might not depart from righteousness. We are under obligation to fulfill these specifications; for in so doing we fulfill the specifications of the law of God. If a brother who has labored disinterestedly for the cause of God, becomes enfeebled in body, and is unable to do his work, let him not be dismissed and be obliged to get along the best way he can. Give him wages sufficient to support him; for remember he belongs to God's family, and that you are all brethren. In the New Testament the world's Redeemer has specified what constitutes pure religion in our dealings with our fellow-men. Obeying the first four commandments with the whole soul causes us to render supreme love to God, and to become co-workers with God in carrying out the will of God toward our fellow-men. Keeping the first four commandments makes us one with Christ, who gave his life as a ransom to deliver all from the thralldom of sin, and to make us free men and women in him. The value of man is to be estimated at the price paid for his redemption.  {RH, December 18, 1894 par. 7} 

 

“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 Israel? Through all time these laws are to be perpetuated, that the character of God's people may be formed after the divine similitude. The law is a wall of protection to those who are obedient to God's precepts. From what other source can we gather such strength, or learn such noble science? What other book will teach men to love, fear, and obey God as does the Bible? What other book presents to students more ennobling science, more wonderful history? It clearly portrays righteousness, and foretells the consequence of disloyalty to the law of Jehovah. No one is left in darkness as to that which God approves or disapproves. In studying the Scriptures we become acquainted with God, and are led to understand our relation to Christ, who is the sin-bearer, the surety, the substitute, for our fallen race. These truths concern our present and eternal interests. The Bible stands the highest among books, and its study is valuable above the study of other literature in giving strength and expansion to the mind. Paul says: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."  {FE 393.2} 

 

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 Rome about Communion or the Lord's Supper. The disciples and the early church till Constantine's time did not celebrate Communion. . . . They kept Passover. Communion comes from the Roman Church and is another doctrine of Babylon to obscure the importance of the Passover Memorial. So history refutes both Ellen White and your vain reasoning. Even Ellen White contradicts herself in Acts of the Apostles by affirming that Paul celebrated Passover with the Philippians.

“. . . 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 Rome instead of the plain word of Torah, even as we find error in her writings.”  Leading Feastkeeping teacher, private email to K. Straub

 

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 Israel from Egyptian bondage. God had directed that, year by year, as the children should ask the meaning of this ordinance, the history should be repeated. Thus the wonderful deliverance was to be kept fresh in the minds of all. The ordinance of the Lord's Supper was given to commemorate the great deliverance wrought out as the result of the death of Christ. Till He shall come the second time in power and glory, this ordinance is to be celebrated. It is the means by which His great work for us is to be kept fresh in our minds.”  {DA 652.3} 

 

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 Damascus had changed the whole current of his life. His character and works had now become a remarkable illustration of those of his divine Lord. 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}

 

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.” {COL 34.4} 

 

“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 Eden, Christ was shadowed forth in types and symbols. The light gradually increased,--becoming more and more distinct until the fullness of the time came. Then the great Antitype, the originator of all the Jewish economy, appeared in our world. In Christ, type met antitype. The gloomy shadows were lightened by the appearance of him who was the full signification of all the symbols.  {YI, December 13, 1900 par. 3}

 

“. . . 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. Liberty is given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour.  {AG 155.5} 

 

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}

 

Jerusalem was the metropolis of the Jews, and there were found the greatest exclusiveness and bigotry. The Jewish Christians who lived in sight of the temple would naturally allow their minds to revert to the peculiar privileges of the Jews as a nation. As they saw Christianity departing from the ceremonies and traditions of Judaism, and perceived that the peculiar sacredness with which the Jewish customs had been invested would soon be lost sight of in the light of the new faith, many grew indignant against Paul, as one who had, in a great measure, caused this change. Even the disciples were not all prepared to willingly accept the decision of the council. Some were zealous for the ceremonial law, and regarded Paul with jealousy, because they thought his principles were lax in regard to the obligation of the Jewish law.  {LP 71.1} 

 

“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.”  {COL 219.1} 

 

“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 Israel from Egypt was an object lesson of redemption, which the Passover was intended to keep in memory. The slain lamb, the unleavened bread, the sheaf of first fruits, represented the Saviour.”  {DA 77.1} 

 

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 Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.’ God was pleased to reveal to Moses the end of the sacrificial offerings at the time of the giving of his law. It was made plain to him that the Angel that stood at the head of the armies of Israel was the great Offering for sin, the foundation of the entire typical system. He saw type reach its antitype. The former was but an earnest of the latter, and in comparison with it was intricate and mysterious, although of great beauty and clearness.”  {ST, August 25, 1887 par. 6} 

 

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 Israel, which event was commemorated by the feast of the passover.  {3SP 128.1} 

 

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 Mount Sinai, Christ himself declares that he came not to destroy. This testimony should forever settle the question. The law of God is as immutable as the throne of Jehovah. It will maintain its claims upon all mankind in all ages, unchanged by time or place or circumstances. The ritual system was of an altogether different character, added to guard the ten precepts of the Eternal.  {RH, September 27, 1881 par. 4} 

 

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 Israel had mingled many heathen customs with their worship; therefore the Lord gave them at Sinai definite instruction concerning the sacrificial service. After the completion of the tabernacle He communicated with Moses from the cloud of glory above the mercy seat, and gave him full directions concerning the system of offerings and the forms of worship to be maintained in the sanctuary. The ceremonial law was thus given to Moses, and by him written in a book. But the law of Ten Commandments spoken from Sinai had been written by God Himself on the tables of stone, and was sacredly preserved in the ark.  {PP 364.3} 

 

     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 Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments." Nehemiah 9:13. And Paul, "the apostle to the Gentiles," declares, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Romans 7:12. This can be no other than the Decalogue; for it is the law that says, "Thou shalt not covet." Verse 7.”  {PP 365.2}

 

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 Israel and wrote them in a book, that they might not depart from righteousness. We are under obligation to fulfill these specifications; for in so doing we fulfill the specifications of the law of God. If a brother who has labored disinterestedly for the cause of God, becomes enfeebled in body, and is unable to do his work, let him not be dismissed and be obliged to get along the best way he can. Give him wages sufficient to support him; for remember he belongs to God's family, and that you are all brethren. In the New Testament the world's Redeemer has specified what constitutes pure religion in our dealings with our fellow-men. Obeying the first four commandments with the whole soul causes us to render supreme love to God, and to become co-workers with God in carrying out the will of God toward our fellow-men. Keeping the first four commandments makes us one with Christ, who gave his life as a ransom to deliver all from the thralldom of sin, and to make us free men and women in him. The value of man is to be estimated at the price paid for his redemption.  {RH, December 18, 1894 par. 7} 

 

“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 Israel? Through all time these laws are to be perpetuated, that the character of God's people may be formed after the divine similitude. The law is a wall of protection to those who are obedient to God's precepts. From what other source can we gather such strength, or learn such noble science? What other book will teach men to love, fear, and obey God as does the Bible? What other book presents to students more ennobling science, more wonderful history? It clearly portrays righteousness, and foretells the consequence of disloyalty to the law of Jehovah. No one is left in darkness as to that which God approves or disapproves. In studying the Scriptures we become acquainted with God, and are led to understand our relation to Christ, who is the sin-bearer, the surety, the substitute, for our fallen race. These truths concern our present and eternal interests. The Bible stands the highest among books, and its study is valuable above the study of other literature in giving strength and expansion to the mind. Paul says: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."  {FE 393.2} 

 

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 Rome about Communion or the Lord's Supper. The disciples and the early church till Constantine's time did not celebrate Communion. . . . They kept Passover. Communion comes from the Roman Church and is another doctrine of Babylon to obscure the importance of the Passover Memorial. So history refutes both Ellen White and your vain reasoning. Even Ellen White contradicts herself in Acts of the Apostles by affirming that Paul celebrated Passover with the Philippians.

“. . . 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 Rome instead of the plain word of Torah, even as we find error in her writings.”  Leading Feastkeeping teacher, private email to K. Straub

 

We find error in THESE and similar writings, CD and DVD media:

 

Testimony of the MoonClick for online shop.

 

“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}