New Video: When Does the Biblical Month Begin? Crescent Moon or Conjunction?

To know when to celebrate the biblical feasts, the Bible believer must know when the month on the biblical calendar begins. Does the biblical calendar begin at the moon’s crescent or conjunction? In this video, we refute 14 pro-conjunction arguments in favor of the first visible cresenct new moon.

 

New Videos on Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret

The joy of YHVH Elohim is a powerful spiritual force that can carry one past the obstacles, pitfalls and hinderances of life. The redeemed believer has every reason to experience YHVH’s joy and all the more so during the biblical festivals including the Feast of Taberncales, which are prophetic pictures of the wonderful world tomorrow of Yeshua’s millennial kingdom. Watch this video and be encouraged!

Shemini Atzeret or the Eighth Day (mentioned in Lev 23:36) is the most overlooked and misunderstood biblical festival in the Messianic or Hebrew Roots Movement, yet it prophetically represents the final step in YHVH’s glorious plan of salvation for humans. Watch this video, because you need to know “how the story ends” and what you have to look forward to for eternity if you remain faithful to YHVH.

 

Yom Kippur: Past, Present and Future

Introduction

Yom Kippur is a day of contradictions and contrasts: Joy and sorrow. Rewards for the righteous and judgments for the wicked rebels. Joy for the righteous when Satan and his demons, death and Babylon are destroyed by the King of kings.

Yom Kippur_heb_960

On this day the high priest of ancient Israel went into the holy of holies of the Tabernacle of Moses (and later the temple in Jerusalem). There he sprinkled blood on the mercy seat (Heb. kapporet) and the ground seven times. Atonement was made for the high priest himself, his family as well as for all Israel. On this day the sanctuary, tabernacle, the priesthood and the all Israelites were cleansed. It represented corporate or community cleansing and entering into a deeper and more intimate relationship with YHVH.

The Passover and Day of Atonement are related though different:

Pesach (Passover) is the time of the sacrifice or atonement for personal sin—initial repentance from sins committed before being born again.

Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is the time of the atonement or covering of the individual’s as well as the corporate sins of Israel committed in ignorance (Heb 9:27) during the past Continue reading

 

Tonight is the first day of the seventh month…

The new moon was not spotted in the land of Israel yesterday (Monday, Sept 14), which means tonight (Tuesday, Sept 15) will mark the beginning of the seventh month on the biblical calendar. This day also marks the beginning of the fall biblical feast season. HalleluYAH! Time to celebrate. It’s all good news, which we need in these dark times!

Yom Teruah (or the Day of Shouting/Shofar Blasts) is the biblical name for the traditional the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah) is on the first day of the seventh month (Lev 23:23–25). This is a high holy sabbath day.

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On the tenth day of the seventh month will be Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, Lev 23:26–32).This year, it will be on Friday, Sep 25. This too is a high holy sabbath day.

Next, from the 15th to the 21st day of the seventh month (Sept 30 to Oct 6) will be Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles, Lev 23:33–43).

Finally, at the end of Sukkot will be an additional holiday called Shemeni Atzeret (or the Eighth Day, Lev 23:36, occurring on Oct 7). Hebrew roots and messianic people often overlook this high holy day sabbath, but it’s part of the Torah, and so we celebrate it.

All of these festivals are significant spiritually for the redeemed believer and are steps in YHVH’s plan of salvation. The fall feasts are also prophetic of events that will happen prior to and after the second coming of our beloved Messiah Yeshua.

For written instructional materials on these feasts, please go to http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/teaching.html#feast. For videos teachings about these feasts, go to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/HoshanaRabbah.

You may wonder why some people are celebrating these feasts on other days than the ones mentioned above. There are several reasons for this. I’ll briefly explain.

The rabbinic and orthodox Jews will be celebrating their feasts two days earlier. This is because their calendar is usually incongruent with occurrence of the visible new moon. How did they get off the biblical calendar, you might ask? For the answer to this questions, please read my article at http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/new_moons.pdf.

Some people keep the biblical feasts on the astronomical new moon conjunctions, which is not the biblical way to determine the months. I explain this in the following article at http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/vis_moon.pdf.

If you want a comprehensive understanding of the biblical calendar please read the following article at http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/cal_demyst.pdf.

It’s important that we understand the biblical calendar issues, since there is a lot of confusion out there on the subject. Also, YHVH calls his feasts moedim or divine appointments, for it is then that he meets with his people. It’s important to do so when he has told us to do so, not when we choose to so.

Get a cup of tea  or coffee, find a comfortable chair and prop up your feet and get to reading on the subject of the biblical calendar. We have provide you some simple to understand resources to understand this subject. You’ll need to concentrate though and have your Bible handy so you can look up the verses yourself and prove that what we’re saying is the truth. You might need to read over some of the material a couple of times to wrap your brain around the concepts. I’ve tried to make it as simple as possible. It’s really not that bad. Once you understand it, you’ll have a firm foundations from which to go onward and upward in YHVH’s truth.

Understanding the biblical calendar and knowing when to keep the biblical feasts is part of the restoration of all things that must occur in conjunction with Yeshua’s second coming (Acts 3:21). By obeying YHVH and keeping his feasts on the calendar he established, you are part of the fulfilling of Bible prophecy and are helping to hasten Yeshua’s coming.

 

 

Should we keep the biblical feasts outside the land of Israel?

According to some individuals who assert the validity of a Torah-obedient lifestyle for modern saints, the biblical feasts aren’t able to be kept except in the land of Israel and specifically in Jerusalem. Since they live outside the land of Israel, they use this as a justification for not celebrating the seven biblical holidays. They also maintain that YHVH didn’t require the Israelites to celebrate his feasts outside of the Promised Land. They reason that since they are in “exile” outside the land of Israel, it is impossible to properly keep the feasts, and they’re, therefore, exempt from having to do so.

The following is a list of scriptural truths that show the fallacy of this reasoning. Doubtless, many more scriptures could be given, and we will add more in the future.

  1. When Genesis 1:14 uses the word seasons, the Hebrew word seasons is moedim and can also mean feasts. This is a clear reference to the biblical feasts and indicates that YHVH’s feasts were from the foundation of the world.
  2. Genesis 26:5 tells us that Abraham was Torah-obedient including YHVH’s commandments, statutes and laws. This would include the biblical feasts.
  3. The children of Israel kept Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread before coming to Mount Sinai and receiving the law of Moses and before entering the Promised Land (Exodus 12 and 13). This indicates that YHVH wanted his people to keep the feasts even while still outside the Promised Land.
  4. In Leviticus 23, the Sabbath is mentioned at the head of the list as one of  YHVH’s feasts along with the other seven annual high holy day feasts (Lev 23:1–3). The implication here is that the Sabbath and biblical feasts come as an indivisible unit. If the seventh day Sabbath is to be kept, then so are the feasts.
  5. When Leviticus 23:4 states that the biblical feasts (i.e., the holy days, not the weekly Sabbath) are to be at their appointed times or “in their season” as some Bibles translate this phrases, this indicates that YHVH created the seasons around the biblical feasts. That is to say, in YHVH’s order of creation, the feasts predate the four seasons. Except at the equator and perhaps at the poles, the seasons are a global phenomenon, and therefore, it would seem, wherever seasons occur, YHVH’s feasts should be celebrated.
  6. Several times in Leviticus 23 and elsewhere in several places (Lev 23:21, 31, 41; Exod 12:14, 17, 24), YHVH’s word states that the feasts are forever. There is no indication that they are to be kept only in Jerusalem.
  7. Nowhere in the Scriptures is there a command to celebrate the feasts only in the land of Israel or in Jerusalem. Rather, in several places in Deuteronomy YHVH commands his people to celebrate the pilgrimage feasts where he has chosen to place his name (Deut 16:2, 6, 11). At that time, his name was where the tabernacle and latter the temple resided. However, both the tabernacle and temple are gone. Paul teaches us that the saints are YHVH’s temple because his presence, in the form of the Holy Spirit, now resides in them as opposed to the holy of holies in the former temple (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19). Based on this, it can reasoned that the saints can now celebrate the biblical feasts wherever YHVH leads them to do so whether in the land of Israel or not, for as Yeshua said, where two or more are gathered together in his name, he is in their midsts (Matt 18:20). Furthermore, YHVH is in the midst of his people wherever they are, for the psalmist tells us that he inhabits the praises of his people (Ps 22:3). Where YHVH is, that is where is name and anointing will be.
  8. In Ezekiel 20, we see that YHVH’s feasts (or sabbaths) are a covenantal sign between YHVH and his people (Ezek 20:12) that they were to live by (Ezek 20:11), yet which Israel, in rebellion, refused to do while in the wilderness. Instead they defiled his sabbaths by, presumably, not doing them and doing other things on those holy days (Ezek 20:13). Israel’s rebellion against YHVH with regard to their refusal to keep his sabbaths brought upon them YHVH’s judgments (Ezek 20:13). In other words, it was YHVH’s will for the Israelites to keep his sabbaths in the wilderness, but because of their idolatrous rebellion, they refused to do so.  In fact, YHVH calls refusing to observe his sabbaths idolatry and for this sin (along with other sins), the Israelites had to wander in the wilderness for forty years (Ezek 20:15–16). In profaning his sabbaths, YHVH accuses the Israelites of despising his Torah (Ezek 20:16). YHVH then goes on to urge his people to not follow the example of their rebellious forefathers, but rather to walk in all of his Torah commands (including his sabbaths, Ezek 20:18–20). Because of their profaning his sabbaths, he punished them by scattering them in exile among the heathens. Those modern saints who refuse to keep YHVH’s Sabbath and feasts are walking in the same sin as the ancient Israelites. Often people who refuse to keep YHVH’s  feast days holy do so because the feasts conflict with their secular activities (such as their jobs). YHVH calls this idolatry and being like the heathen (Ezek 20:30, 32). In the end times, YHVH is going to separate his people out from the heathen and bring them back into covenantal agreement with him including obedience to his sabbaths (Ezek 20:33–38). He will purge from his people those rebels who refuse to obey him including keeping his sabbaths (Ezek 20:38), which are a sign of his covenantal relationship with them.
  9. In Matthew 5:18, Yeshua says that not one yud or tag of the Torah would pass away until heaven and earth ceased to exist. Clearly, in Yeshua’s mind, the biblical feasts along with the rest of the Torah are still for his people today.
  10. Yeshua told his disciples to celebrate the Passover in remembrance of him (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24, 25). Nowhere does he qualify this statement by saying that the Passover can only be done in Jerusalem or the land of Israel. In fact, when Paul is giving these instructions to celebrate the Passover to the believers in Corinth he doesn’t say that it can be done only in the land of Israel, and that this feast can’t be celebrated outside the land of Israel.
  11. In the book of Acts, it is mentioned that Paul hastened to Jerusalem in order to keep Pentecost (Acts 20:16), which was one of the four pilgrimage feasts (along with Passover/Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles). Yet at the same time, he commands the believers in Corinth to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread (1 Cor 5:7), which was one of the pilgrimage feasts. He also celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread outside of Jerusalem (Acts 20:6) even though it, like Pentecost, was one of the pilgrimage feasts. Obviously, he didn’t make going to Jerusalem a condition for observing this feast.
  12. Two of the seven feasts weren’t kept in Jerusalem, but at home. These were the Day of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. There is no command in the Torah to go where YHVH has placed his name to celebrate these feasts. Therefore, those who say that we can’t celebrate the feasts except in the land of Israel and specifically in Jerusalem should at least celebrate these two feasts at home. In fact, Acts 27:9 indicates that Paul celebrated Yom Kippur on the island of Crete, not in Jerusalem. If he didn’t celebrate this holy day, why mention it?
  13. Moses in the Torah prophesied that the Israelites would forsake YHVH’s Torah covenant and serve foreign, pagan gods resulting in YHVH having to punish them with captivity in “another land” (Deut 29:25–27). Moses then goes on to prophesy that from the nations where Israel had been scattered because of its sin of Torahlessness, the Israelites would “return to YHVH your Elohim and obey his voice, according to all that I commanded you today” (Deut 30:2). As a result of their repentance and return to Torah-obedience (including keeping YHVH’s sabbaths or feasts, which they had forsaken along with the rest of the Torah), YHVH promises to bring them back (to the land of Israel) from captivity and regather them from all the nations where they have been scattered (Deut 30:3–5). This passage makes it clear that conditional to Israel’s regathering and return to their land would be a whole-hearted repentance and return to the Torah (Deut 30:2) including the biblical holidays, while still in the land of their exile.
  14. Interestingly, the religious Jews to this day have no tradition mandating that the biblical feasts can’t be kept outside the land of Israel. In synagogues all over the world, the Jews still celebrate all the biblical feasts.

The bottom line why  people don’t want to keep YHVH’s feasts is this:

Because  the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim; for it is not subject to the law of Elohim, nor indeed can be. So then those that are in the flesh cannot please Elohim. (Romans 8:7–8)

 

 

Preparing for Shavuot (Pentecost)

The Feast of Weeks (Heb. Shavuot) or Pentecost will be occurring in about a week on Sunday, June 8, 2014. Pentecost is one of the seven biblical holy day Sabbaths that YHVH commands his people to celebrate. Below is a short piece to help you to prepare yourselves spiritually for this set-apart time when YHVH meets with is people in a special way.

A (Re)New(ed) Covenant Involving YHVH Writing Torah on Our Hearts

Jeremiah 31:27–36 prophesies about YHVH making new (or renewed) covenant being with his people Israel, which involves both houses of Israel (the Jews and the Christians) and his writing his Torah on their hearts.

Shavuot, Joyous

 Behold, the days come, saith YHVH, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith YHVH: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith YHVH, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their Elohim, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know YHVH: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith YHVH: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jer 31:31–34)

Contextually, in the verses surrounding this prophecy we discover some other important details.

  • Verse 27, The houses of Judah and Israel were to be mingled throughout the beast nations of the world as punishment for breaking their covenant with YHVH that they made with him on Shavuot (the Feast of Pentecost) at Mount Sinai (Exod 19–20, 24).
  • Verse 28, At some point in the future, YHVH’s punishment of Israel for breaking their covenant and their resulting exile among the gentile nations will come to the end. He will rebuild and restore the nation of Israel.
  • Verses 29–30, Whereas in times past, Israel was punished as a collective nation for their sins when they disobeyed YHVH and were similarly blessed when they obeyed him, now each person will be cursed or blessed for his own sins. Salvation is more of an individual matter now.
  • Verses 31–33,  YHVH promises to make a renewed covenant with the two houses of Israel at some time in the future (from Jeremiah’s perspective). It will be different from the covenant he made with Israel at Sinai in two major ways:
  • Though it will be a covenant with Israel collectively (both houses), it also will be made with individuals.
  • He will deal with the heart of each individual Israelite when he writes his Torah on their hearts.
  • Verse 34, This renewed covenant will involve mercy and forgiveness (grace). It will involve a personal relationship between each person and YHVH (“they shall all know me…”).
  • Verses 35 and 37, As the sun, moon, stars, the sea, and expanse of the heavens and the earth exist, so YHVH will renew his Torah covenant with Israel. The words of Yeshua in Matthew 5:18 are reminiscent of the this prophecy. Not one yud or tag of YHVH’s Torah will pass as long heaven and earth still exist.
  • Verse 36, The very survival of the nation and people of Israel (and hence the fulfillment of the covenants YHVH made with Abraham), is dependent on YHVH regathering and restoring Israel. If YHVH doesn’t bring this to pass, then YHVH is a liar and his Word is a lie and there is no hope for the world! This cannot be!

This was fulfilled during the time of the writing of the Testimony of Yeshua (New Testament). The author of Hebrews talks about this in Hebrews 8. Continue reading