God's Seven Annuals Festivals

Are God’s festivals still in force today?
The answer might surprise you.

You can search the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single mention of man’s traditional holidays such as Christmas, New Year’s or Halloween.

Nor will you find any proof that Jesus Christ, His apostles and the New Testament Church even kept those  holidays.

Easter was mentioned (Acts 12:4). 

But, it is a mistranslation of the Greek word Pascha in the King James Version. 

Other versions of the Bible more accurately render Pascha as Passover.

What you will find, however, are seven annual festivals Moses recorded in Leviticus chapter 23; namely, Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles and the eighth day or the Last Great Day.

Are these annual festivals only for the Jews? 

No, they were not.

God emphatically said, “these are MY feasts” (Lev. 23:2).

Not the feasts of the Jews.

But, theologians and Bible scholars maintain that these festivals are obsolete, Old Testament commands that are no longer valid for New Testament Christians.

Are they?

Don’t believe me.

Open your Bibles and prove it for yourselves.

The Bible repeatedly says that these annual festivals are commanded forever (Lev. 23:14, 21, 31, 41,).

Moreover, the Bible clearly proves Jesus Christ, His apostles and the New Testament Church observed  these seven annual festivals.

Every one of these seven annual festivals has a deep spiritual significance. 

They picture God’s grand master plan for the salvation of the entire human race.

And that’s why Christians today are commanded to observe these festivals forever to keep them in remembrance of God’s truly spectacular plan to save mankind from the consequences of sin: eternal death (Rom. 6:23).

Passover

Let’s begin with the Passover, which occurs on the 14th day of the first month Abib in the Hebrew calendar, corresponding to our March/April (Lev. 23:5).  

Passover pictures the sacrifice of Jesus Christ which paid the penalty of our past sins upon sincere repentance (Rom. 3:25).

Days of Unleavened Bread

Following the Passover is the second festival of the Days of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:6-8).

It is a seven-day festival starting on the 15th day of the month. The first day and the seventh day are holy days and are commanded assemblies or holy convocations.

During the entirety of this seven-day festival, all leavened products are to be removed from our homes, picturing our deliverance from sin. 

Pentecost

The day of Pentecost is the third festival (Ex. 34:22; Lev. 23:15). 

Pentecost in the Greek means “count fifty.”

We are commanded to count seven sabbaths “beginning on the morrow after the sabbath during the days of unleavened bread” (Lev. 23:15-16).

That Sunday — the day following the seventh sabbath — was the day of Pentecost.

Because we had to count the weeks, it was called the Feast of Weeks (Deut. 16:10).  

In the Old Testament it was referred to as the Feast of Firstfruits because it came fifty days after the cutting of the wave sheaf during the Days of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:15-21).

The Church was founded on that day of Pentecost, Sunday 31 AD. 

On that day the Holy Spirt was poured out on 120 members of God’s Church gathered in this upper room of a house in Jerusalem (Acts 1:13-14; 2:1-4). 

We have now covered the first three annual festivals:  Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost.

The last four festivals occur in the Fall of the year, during the months of September-October.  

Trumpets

The day of Trumpets is observed on the first day of the seventh month Tishri in the Hebrew calendar (Lev. 23:24). 

This day pictures Christ’s second coming, when He will set up the Kingdom of God on the earth and reign for one thousand years (Rev. 20:4).

Day of Atonement

Ten days later, the fifth festival — the day of Atonement — is observed (Lev. 23:27). 

It pictures the time when Satan will be bound in chains and shut up, powerless and unable to influence mankind for a thousand years. 

Tabernacles

Five days after the day of Atonement, we come to the sixth annual festival, the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:34). 

This seven-day festival pictures a time of peace and prosperity during the one-thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ on this earth.  

The Last Great Day

Finally, the seventh festival — the Last Great Day — is celebrated on the eighth day (Lev. 23:36). 

It pictures the time when all that have ever lived will be resurrected to physical life. 

Every man, woman and child who ever lived will be given their first opportunity to learn the truth about the Creator God and understand God’s plan of salvation.

What the Bible Says

Did Jesus Christ and His apostles keep God’s annual festivals? 

Did the New Testament Church keep them as well?

The Bible says that they did.

Turn to Luke 2 and read verse 41.

Christ and His parents went to Jerusalem to observe the Passover.

41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

43 And when they had fulfilled the days. . . 

What days?

The seven days of Unleavened Bread which made up the Passover season!

The New Testament Church was still observing Pentecost even after Christ’s death and resurrection. 

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1).

The apostle Paul himself kept Pentecost (Acts 20:16).

Jesus Christ, His family and the disciples observed the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:8, 10, 14).

And on the eighth day—the last day, that great day of the feast—Jesus Christ stood up and taught in the temple (John 7:37).

“Marvel not at this” Christ said, “for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice” (John 5:28).

The apostle Paul, many years after Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension to heaven, still kept the Day of Atonement (Acts 27:9).

God's Grand Master Plan

Now we can begin to see how awesome God’s plan to deliver mankind from eternal death and give them eternal life truly is. 

The seven annual festivals mentioned in Leviticus clearly illustrate God’s great plan. 

What a wonderful blessing to understand God’s purpose and plan for all mankind.