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How God's Festivals Teach Us About Jesus Christ
“The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts" (Leviticus 23:2). Here God Almighty says in Scripture that these are His feasts. Why are they important to Him? And why should they be important to every Christian?
The seven annual feasts of God are "a shadow of things to come," and Jesus Christ is at the center of all of them.
The answer is simple but profound: They center around and teach us about God's plan for all mankind and the centrality of Jesus Christ's role in every step toward its completion. Yet for most of traditional Christianity, these biblical feasts are thought to have been kept only by the Jews and are considered meaningless for Christians.
Their meaning in this regard has sadly escaped most Bible readers for the last 2,000 years. Let's take another brief look at each of these festivals and see what they teach us about the Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ, and how He accomplishes God's incredible plan for humanity.”
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How Should We Observe God's Festivals?
“How should you observe God's Holy Days?
These festivals are special occasions on which we should gather with other believers. As with the weekly Sabbath, God commands special worship services on each of the Holy Days.
After we come to realize that God's festivals are vitally important to mankind and eminently applicable to our modern world, we should naturally want to learn more about how to observe them.
Where should we celebrate them? Should we keep them at home or in some kind of religious service? What should we do on these days? Does God mind if we do our normal work on these days, or should we reserve them for other purposes? How will the observance of these days affect our families and jobs?
These are all important questions we must consider upon learning about God's festivals. Let's examine some biblical principles we should consider in dealing with these real-life issues. All different, but all holy..
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The Feast of Tabernacles: Jesus Christ reigns over the entire earth
“The sixth biblical feast, the Feast of Tabernacles. (Going on now) It was originally kept by the Israelites to remind them of all God's miraculous interventions during the 40-year period in the wilderness: "All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 23:42-43).
But what does the Feast of Tabernacles have to do with Jesus Christ? Describing Christ's earthly ministry, the apostle John states that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The Greek term translated "dwelt" here literally means that He "tabernacled" among us. Just as Jesus Christ as the Creator God of the Old Testament (John 1:1-3, John 1:10; Hebrews 1:2; Colossians 1:16) "tabernacled" with the Israelites in the wilderness, He now did so with His people in His physical life many centuries later.
The apostle Paul says that the Israelites in the wilderness all "drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4, NIV).
At Christ's second coming, He will again "tabernacle" with those who are saved. He will dwell with His people for a thousand years, and this 1,000-year rule of Jesus Christ over the earth is the ultimate fulfillment of this feast. "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years" (Revelation 20:6).
So Christ is definitely at the center of this feast too—as the ruler who "tabernacles," or dwells with, His people as He reigns on earth in the Kingdom of God for a thousand years.” From: From: https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/gods-holy-day-plan-the-promise-of-hope-for-all-mankind/how-gods-festivals
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The Eighth Day: the last judgment
(This year, 2022, 17th or 18th or 19th October, depending on where you live.)
“The Feast of Tabernacles lasts seven days. Then, on the eighth day, there follows another, separate feast day, the last of the biblical feasts (Leviticus 23:36). What does this day have to do with Jesus Christ?
During Christ's 1,000-year reign, all of mankind will be offered God's Spirit. And beyond that, the Bible reveals there will come a future time when Christ will offer it to those who rise up in a resurrection of the dead from all past ages. In Revelation 20, we read what happens after the Millennium (pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles) is completed:
"Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away . . . And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books" (Revelation 20:11-12).
This period is also called the White Throne Judgment, and it is Jesus Christ who has been appointed to judge all of mankind (John 5:26-27; Romans 14:10). This does not mean immediate condemnation but an evaluation period, since the Book of Life is opened—meaning an opportunity is opened to receive God's Spirit and have one's name written into it. The apostle Paul writes in Philippians 4:3 of those "who labored with me in the gospel . . . and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life."
So Christ will also carry out the central role of this final feast, that of lovingly and mercifully offering the multitudes of the uninformed and the deceived an opportunity for conversion and salvation and then rewarding them according to the life they live.
Thus, the seven annual feasts of God are "a shadow of things to come," and Jesus Christ is at the center of all of them. Yet He has not brought them to ultimate fulfillment; that will only occur in the coming Kingdom of God.
Yes, Christ is our Passover who redeems us. He is the unleavened bread that purifies us and the One who leads us out of sin. He sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, through which He lives in us. He is the coming King heralded by the blast of the trumpets. He is the One who will banish Satan and intercede for mankind as High Priest. He will tabernacle with human beings on earth as King of Kings. And finally, He is to judge mankind and offer the great majority an opportunity to have their names written in the Book of Life.
This is why God's Church kept these feasts as shown in the New Testament (see God's Festivals in the New Testament). This is why these holy feasts are still to be kept—to remind us of the central role Jesus Christ has in carrying out the plan of God the Father. Isn't it about time you honored Him and started keeping them yourself?” Also from: https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/gods-holy-day-plan-the-promise-of-hope-for-all-mankind/how-gods-festivals
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From the book: How Not To Die From Cancer
“Whereas infectious diseases were the primary causes of death during the Age of Pestilence and Famine, our current era of human disease, the Age of Degenerative and Man-Made Diseases, counts lifestyle diseases—heart disease, chronic lung disease, and cancer—as the top killers.
This pandemic of chronic disease has been ascribed in part to the near-universal shift toward a diet dominated by animal-sourced and processed foods—in other words, more meat, dairy, eggs, oils, soda, salt, sugar, and refined grains. China is one of the best-studied examples. There, a transition away from the country’s traditional, plant-based diet was accompanied by a sharp rise in diet-related chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer.
The same kind of diet that may help prevent common cancers just so happens to be the same kind of diet that may also help prevent heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and many other leading causes of death. Unlike drugs—which tend to only target specific conditions, can have dangerous side effects, and may only treat the symptoms of disease—a healthy diet can benefit all organ systems at once, has good side effects, and may treat the underlying cause of illness.
That one unifying diet found to best prevent and treat many of these chronic diseases is a whole-food, plant-based diet, defined as an eating pattern that encourages the consumption of unrefined plant foods and discourages meats, dairy products, eggs, and processed foods.
The truth is that adhering to just four simple healthy lifestyle factors can have a strong impact on the prevention of chronic diseases: not smoking, not being obese, getting a half hour of daily exercise, and eating healthier—defined as consuming more fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and less meat. Those four factors alone were found to account for 78 percent of chronic disease risk.
If you start from scratch and manage to tick off all four, you may be able to wipe out more than 90 percent of your risk of developing diabetes, more than 80 percent of your risk of having a heart attack, cut by half your risk of having a stroke, and reduce your overall cancer risk by more than one-third. For some cancers, like our number-two cancer killer, colon cancer, up to 71 percent of cases appear to be preventable through a similar portfolio of simple diet and lifestyle changes." From: https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/cancer/
“The information on this page has been compiled from Dr. Greger’s research. Sources for each video listed can be found by going to the video’s page and clicking on the Sources Cited tab. References may also be found at the back of his books.”
See also: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die-from-cancer/
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