Survey of God's Holy Days III

In the New Testament
Fred R. Coulter—September 24, 2011

- Video | - PDF | Audio

Track 1: or Download

Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services. This becomes really important to understand: Most of the Protestants and I'm sure the Protestants they're sincere, they have a zeal for God. They believe in the name of Jesus. Some of the ministers can preach relatively decent sermons, but none of them talk about the Holy Days. None of them talk about the Sabbath. Yet, the days that they keep—Halloween, Christmas, Easter, New Year, Lent, Good Friday, Easter Sunday—are not mentioned in the Bible. One place that we covered last time where they mention Easter in Acts 12, obvious blatant mistranslation so they could say, 'Yeah, Easter's in the Bible.' But the Greek word there, that they translated Easter is 'pascha'—which is Passover.

What we're going do is we're going to start off with a survey of Gospel of John. And we're going to see a pattern of how this was put together. John is telling us through this, that he framed the ministry of Jesus around the Passover and Holy Days. Not around Easter or Christmas or Halloween.

If you want to know the truth about those, you can download the book, The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop. You can get it on cbcg.org or on Church at Home. As a matter of fact, 1959 is when I started becoming interested in the Truth. I was listening to the World Tomorrow program, getting the magazines, and so forth, and they were doing a series on Satan's Great Deception.

It had a lot of quotes and references out of the book, The Two Babylons; so, I bought one. I started reading that and of course I'd never had any deep involvement in the Catholic Church. I went to the University of San Francisco for a while and got out of that. But when I was reading that, it shows you that everything that the Catholics do—and the Protestants just keep the same thing, only they do away with some of the Catholic rituals and practices that they have—came out of ancient Babylon in Egypt: Nimrod, Horus and Semiramis or Isis, Horus, and Semiramis.

When all of the people were scattered from the Tower of Babel, that's who they were worshiping as their gods. So, when their languages were changed, the names of the gods were changed. That wasn't known for centuries. When putting it together, what do you know? All the deception of the pagan religion goes back to three people. Of course, they worship the sun, the moon, the planets, and so forth.

If you are a sincere Protestant and you say you believe in the Truth, I'll tell you what happened with a woman who saw a couple of Church at Home programs and she was a Sunday-keeper. And she went to her Sunday-keeping pastor and said, 'Oh, I just learned that the Sabbath is the day we're to worship on.' What did the pastor say? Oh, that's what the Bible teaches, but we're in a new dispensation today and we don't have to do it. We can worship on any day. That's based upon Rom. 14, a mistranslation of the King James.

That's why we have Rome's Challenge to the Protestants here in the Faithful Version Bible (Appendix N), because there's nothing like the Truth from the enemy. Cardinal Gibbon who wrote Rome's Challenge to the Protestants back in 1893, and I love this: It was published in the Baltimore Sun four Saturdays, or Sabbaths, in a row, where he was telling them that Sunday is a Catholic institution, and for you to say 'sola scriptura' is not true, because the Bible says nothing about Sunday. Likewise it says nothing about the holidays of this world. This becomes important.

Whenever you write something, you write it according to the framework of how you view time. Now Glenn Beck wrote a book on Christmas; tells you where he's coming from. And so did Mike Huckabee write a book on Christmas. I suppose Bill O'Reilly's not going to be outdone, so he'll probably write a book on Christmas one of these days.

The first chapter of John tells us about Christ: Who He was. He was God before He came to the earth. John the Baptist was not the Christ. John the Baptist said that Jesus was the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. Then He spent some time with some of the original disciples and that finishes off chapter one. Then all you 'temperance' believers, listen up, Jesus changed 180 gallons of water into the finest wine ever. That was after they drank all the other wine and ran out. He didn't send them carbonated water.

Passover:

After that, John 2:13: "Now the Passover of the Jews..." Every Protestant will look at that and say, 'See, it belongs to the Jews.' The Jews were keeping the Passover because it was God's. You go back to Lev. 23, God says, 'These are My Holy convocations, My appointed seasons.' We're also going to see something very interesting with this. Jesus made Himself first known at the temple. Very interesting.

Mal. 3 it says that 'He would send His messenger to go before the Lord and He shall suddenly come to His temple.' We find the fulfillment right here. When you really get in the Bible and study the Bible, the Old Testament agrees with the New and the New agrees with the Old. And it's just like a lock and key, they fit. If you get a wrong key, like the pagan holidays, you can't unlock the understanding of the Bible, because you're coming at it with the wrong basis.

It's like trying to do math and every time you wanted to add four and four, it came out six. And you accepted that four and four was six, when right in the book it says four and four is eight. But since you did it and it came out six and you think you're right, four and four is six. Well, that's how silly Sunday-keeping is. 'Oh, well, we have a new dispensation.'

• Who gave you the right to contradict God?
• Who gave you the right to say that the Lawgiver was wrong?
• Who gave you the right to say that God's perfect law is harsh and needs to be done away?
• Who gave you the right to say, when God says He's love, that He's a harsh, angry God?

No! He's harsh and angry against sin!Yes, indeed! But He loves those that love Him. You expect Him to show His love and favor to sinners? So they think, 'Oh, this is wonderful. God loves me, I'll just continue in my sin.' How are they ever going to know what sin is otherwise? They won't!

When he writes, v 13: "Now the Passover of the Jews was near..." He was writing this because most of the people now in the Church were not Jewish; they were Gentile. This would tell them that they are not to use the Roman calendar in figuring the days to observe, but the calculated Hebrew calendar.

Which by the way, we have another appendix showing when Jesus was born. (Appendix E: When Was Jesus Christ Born.) We have the calculated Hebrew calendar going right through that. We also have the calculated Hebrew calendar to know when Jesus was crucified. If you read the book, The Day Jesus the Christ Died, God selected that day, as we already said here, that John said He was 'the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.' Rev. 13:8 says 'the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.' God chose that Passover Day, that particular, singular Passover Day in 30A.D. And when we get the book published, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah, you are going to see how all the appointed times fit together with the Holy Days just the way that God intended.

Verse 13: "Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money exchangers sitting there; and after making a scourge of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with both the sheep and the oxen... [I love this the way it's described.] ...and He poured out the coins..." (vs 13-15). Here are all the silver coins, the gold coins, the copper coins all rolling out across the stones of the pavement of the temple. That's their livelihood. 'Why is He doing this?'

Verse 16: "And to those who were selling the doves, He said, 'Take these things out of here! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise.'" Was it legal to use doves for sacrifice? Yes! But you have all of these people coming in from the Diaspora and they have to buy the doves, so they can make the sacrifice. They have to buy the lambs, they have to buy the kids, they have to buy the kid-goats and the oxen. So what were they doing? Here they're from the Diaspora, they had to pay a premium. They were cheating them! They were making a profit on them that they should not have.

"…He said, 'Take these things out of here! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise'" (v 16). Just put in your notes Ezek. 28. One of Satan's sins was the multitude of his merchandizing—right? Yes!

Verse 17: "Then His disciples remembered that it was written, 'The zeal of Your house has eaten Me up…. [Then the Jews wanted to know about this]: …What sign do You show to us, seeing that You do these things?'" (vs 17-18). In other words, why are You doing these things? Another place, remember they came up to Jesus and they figured they had Him trapped, and said, 'Who gave you the authority to do these things?' And Jesus said, 'I'll ask you one question and if you answer Me, I will tell you. The baptism of John: Was it from heaven or was it from men?'

That's very easy to figure out. So, they all huddled together, the community group consensus. And they said, 'Well, if we say from heaven, He's going to say why didn't you believe Him. If we say 'from men, then the people will get angry and stone us'; they believed in Him. They said, 'We don't know.' Jesus said, 'Neither am I going to tell you where I got this authority.'

Here's another instance like this. Notice that lots of times when Jesus answers their question, He doesn't answer their question. Notice what He said, v 19: "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'…. [The Jews thought it was a physical building. 'Hello, what is it we have here, Superman or something?' They couldn't figure this out.] …Then the Jews said, 'This temple was forty-six years in building, and You will raise it up in three days?'…. [But then the disciples remembered] …He spoke concerning the temple of His body" (vs 19-21). Look back, then you see why He said the three days.

Verse 23: "Now, when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the Feast..." We also saw another thing in the second segment [Survey of God's Holy Days II], which was this: That the whole Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread is referred to as the Passover in many places in the book of Luke. Just like we do today. Very seldom do we say, 'Well, I'll sure be glad when Unleavened Bread gets here.' No, you say, 'I'll be glad when Passover gets here and oh, by the way, we keep Unleavened Bread, as well.'

"...when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the Feast... [the Feast of Unleavened Bread that followed the Passover.] ...many believed on His name, as they observed the miracles that He was doing…. [Notice what it says about Jesus, because though He was Creator of the earth and the heavens, He'd didn't entrust Himself to anyone]: …But Jesus did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all men; and He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man" (vs 24-25).

Why? Because He was the Lord God of the Old Testament! He is the One Who judged Adam and Eve.He is the one Who said, 'Because you've sinned, you're going to die and the ground is going to bring forth thorns and thistles.' He was the One Who put into man—which then is carried down to us through genes of our parents to us—the law of sin and death. He didn't trust Himself to any man. And even of the twelve, one of them was a betrayer—wasn't he? Yes, indeed! What do we have? John 2: Passover!

Pentecost:

We come to John, chapter four, very interesting. It doesn't use the word Pentecost, but after the Passover and Unleavened Bread is Pentecost. Here's what Jesus told His disciples. This is a reference to Pentecost and the firstfruits harvest that was taking place leading up to Pentecost.

John 4:34: "Jesus said to them, 'My meat [food] is to do the will of Him Who sent Me, and to finish His work.'" He had to finish the work that He was to do in the flesh and we find that in John 17, where He says: 'I finished the work that You've given Me to do.' Then you come to Rev. 21, after everything is all done He says: 'It is finished.' Very interesting.

Verse 35: "Do not say that there are yet four months, and then the harvest comes. I say to you, look around. Lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are already white to harvest." This is interesting, so put in your notes Matt. 13 about the sower of the seed. In the Old Testament all the Holy Days were centered around the harvest season. That was the physical meaning.

First comes the natural or the physical. Next comes then the spiritual. So we have the Old Testament, which brings us the natural and the physical concerning the Holy Days and the Sabbath and all of that, with some prophecies of the spiritual. But now comes the New Testament and everything is spiritual; everything is raised to a higher level.

Jesus said in the parable of the sowers; He brought that up to the time of the resurrection—correct? So He says here: "...for they are already white to harvest. And the one who reaps receives a reward, and gathers fruit unto eternal life... [He is showing the spiritual meaning of the physical thing.] ...so that the one who is sowing and the one who is reaping may both rejoice together. For in this the saying is true, that one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that in which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor'" (vs 35-38).

That's a profound verse here. This is something we all need to know. Everything we have has come from God and everything we have has come down through His Church. All of these things are contained in His Church, not in the churches of the world, not in Judaism, not in any other religion.

There are those who labored. Some had to labor alone. I tell you, the thing of William Tyndale, and how he is virtually ignored by so many people. I've got to finish that introduction for that book on William Tyndale so we can send that out with every Bible. He was the very first one to translate from the Greek. He was such an educated man. He went to Oxford at age twelve and went to Oxford and went to Cambridge. He knew seven languages fluently and could be speaking in one language and then switch over to another language, without skipping a beat and sounding like an idiot.

There was another man that helped William Tyndale, Erasmus. Both were Catholic priests at the time God began dealing with them. But Erasmus ended up being almost in total rebellion to everything the Catholics stood for. He was the one who brought all of the Greek texts together and did the Greek text. He had five editions. The first edition, Erasmus taught at Oxford when Tyndale was there and he and many of his friends became converted by reading the Greek New Testament. They had to put up with all the Latin that came out of the Catholic Church. And boy, in his book, A Pathway Into the Holy Scripture, he talks about what the priests do and how they say it. He is merciless on them. Erasmus brought the texts. Tyndale wanted to translate, so he went to Cuthbert Tunstall, who was the bishop or the cardinal in London and asked if he could translate just the Scriptures, nothing else. Denied! So he knew had to go to Europe. So he went to Europe and he had a couple of helpers with him.

The Reformation was raging in Germany and it was coming over to England at the time. So Tyndale met Luther and saw that he couldn't work with Luther. He determined to use the first edition or maybe it was the second edition of Erasmus to translate the New Testament into English. The first time it was ever translated into English.

He was the most important man of all concerning the English Bible for the English-speaking people. And yet, he's neglected and denigrated and put down. I've got to get that booklet out. But not only did he translate it, he published it. He had business friends that would smuggle his New Testament into England in bolts of cloth and bags of flour and various other ways.

Tunstall was busy trying to burn all of them. Finally, the businessman made a deal with Tunstall. And he said, 'Okay, you give me the money and I'll go buy all that I can over in Europe and I'll bring them here and you can burn them.' He brought some, but not all, and he gave the money to Tyndale so he could do his publishing, and he was chased by the Roman authorities. Finally, he had to go into hiding into Antwerp. He got into the Old Testament and he said, 'Hebrew and English go together a thousand times better than English and Greek.' First time it's done.

We don't have this Bible here without William Tyndale! So when I was doing the translation for the New Testament and doing this, I went back and read this over many, many times, because I needed to keep in mind, 'Listen, you're working in what other people have done.' Same way with the things we learn from the Church: the Sabbath and Holy Days. We're working with things that others have done.

John 5:1: "After these things there was a Feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem." It doesn't tell us which Feast. You have Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost—what comes next? Trumpets!

What comes after Trumpets? Atonement! This could not be Atonement, because no work was to be done—right? None, whatsoever! We deduce that this probably had to be the Feast of Trumpets or the fall festival season. What do we have? Spring, summer, fall! Now then, He healed the man, and so forth, made enemies with the Jews.

Let's come to John 6. I want you to see the framework on how John wrote this. The framework is the Holy Days of God, or the appointed times of God. John 6:4: "Now the Passover, a Feast of the Jews, was near." There's another reason why he says, 'Feast of the Jews.' Because the Jews did not keep the Passover the way that it should have been kept, because they had their own traditions.

We have spring, summer, fall, spring. How can anyone say that we're not to keep the Passover today when John 6 talks about that He's the Bread of Life and you have to eat His flesh and drink His blood and that refers directly to the New Covenant Passover in the bread and the wine—correct? Yes, indeed!

I want you to see the outline on what he's doing. He nowhere writes Christmas or Easter or Sunday. Those aren't there, because that's not a part of original Christianity. John 7:1: "After these things, Jesus was sojourning in Galilee, for He did not desire to travel in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was near. For this reason, His brothers said to Him, 'Leave this place and go into Judea, so that Your disciples may see the works that You are doing; because no one does anything in secret, but seeks to be seen in public. If You do these things, reveal Yourself to the world.' For neither did His brothers believe in Him" (vs 1-5). That is, at that time.

Let's see what Jesus said and told them to do, v 6: "Therefore, Jesus said to them, 'My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me because I testify concerning it, that its works are evil…. [I would have to take a look in there, but I don't think I remember one place where Jesus said, 'Please.'] …You go up to this Feast...'" (vs 6-8).

If the 'Feast of the Jews' were a sin and if keeping them for Christians today is a sin, why would Jesus—God manifested in the flesh—tell His half-brothers and his mother, 'You go to the Feast.' He would have told them, 'Look, I came from heaven. God the Father sent Me and My job is to do away with the Law and the Holy Days. You don't have to go, stay here in Galilee.' But He didn't say that—did He?

Verse 8: "'You go up to this Feast. I am not going up to this Feast now, for My time has not yet been fulfilled.' And after saying these things to them, He remained in Galilee…. [I've heard Protestants say, 'Well, He told His brothers and His mother to go up, but He didn't go up.'] …But after His brothers had gone up, then Jesus also went up to the Feast, not openly, but as it were in secret." (vs 8-10). Came up incognito. Jesus had the ability to change His appearance. I imagine that's partly what He did when He went up in secret. Did Jesus keep the Feast? Yes! The first half in secret, finding out what the people were saying. So obviously then, He disguised Himself. How about that, you ever heard of Jesus as an uncover agent? Not quite!

Verse 11: "As a result, the Jews were seeking Him at the Feast, and said, 'Where is He?' Now, there was much debating about Him among the people. Some said, 'He is a good man.' But others said, 'No, but He is deceiving the people.' However, no one spoke publicly about Him for fear of the Jews…. [Lest they be kicked out of the synagogue.] …But then, about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and was teaching." (vs 11-14). You can read the rest of it.

Did Jesus keep the Feast of Tabernacles? Yes! He also had some excoriating things to say to the Jews. Remember, there are two Laws of Moses in the New Testament:

• in the Bible
• the Jews' traditions which they call Moses' teachings

But they weren't! They were the teachings of men having nothing to do with Moses.

Jesus said to them, v 19: "'Did not Moses give you the law, and not one of you is practicing the law?'…." When Jews give the impression that they are keeping the laws of Moses, they are not. Can you keep the Sabbath on the right day and have the wrong motive? And Sabbath-keeping to you is not worth anything to God? Yes, indeed!

John 5:45 will show you what I mean: "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, in whom you have hope. But if you believed Moses... [The true Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—right?] ...you would have believed Me; for he wrote about Me. And if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe My words?" (vs 45-47). Very profound Scriptures!

When He says Moses gave you the Law, John 7:19: "...not one of you is practicing the law…" they weren't doing what Moses said. Were they there at the Feast of Tabernacles? Yes, they were! Were they attending? Yes, they were! Were they at the temple? Yes, they were! But since they were not keeping the Law and seeking to kill Jesus, what good did it do? None!

Verse 37: "Now in the last day, the great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and called out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.'" Now He shows the spiritual meaning of the ceremony of the pouring of the water around the altar. That was the ritual, the physical thing that they did. He's showing the spiritual meaning. Remember this: the physical or natural first; then the spiritual. Just exactly like circumcision. Circumcision in the flesh for the Old Covenant was required. What's required for the New Covenant? A higher standard of circumcision, a circumcision of the heart! One got rid of a little piece of flesh. The other gets rid of the sin in the mind. Quite a difference and this is what He brings out here.

Verse 38: "'The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke concerning the Spirit... [here's the spiritual application] ...for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Now after hearing these words, many of the people said, 'This is truly the Prophet.' [That's the one that Moses said would come.] …Others said, 'This is the Christ.' But others said, 'Does the Christ then come out of Galilee?'" (vs 38-41).

Isn't it interesting? God does things to fulfill His Word absolutely correctly, but as other people view it, the Truth is hidden from them. And they said in another place, 'Does any good thing come out of Galilee?' That's how they looked down on Him.

Verse 42: "Does not the Scripture say that the Christ comes from the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the town where David was?" That's why Joseph and Mary did not get to Bethlehem until just before the time for Jesus to be born. You could not go to the Bethlehem town records and say, 'Well, let's see, yeah, here's Joseph and Mary and Jesus. Yup, they were registered right here in the town register and counted in the census and here they are.' They were there for the Feast. God does many different things in different ways.

Then we come to John 8 and John 9 we have the rest of the Last Great Day. John 12, won't go into it, but many people came up before the Feast of Passover. What do we have as the pattern in the book of John?

• Passover and Unleavened Bread
• Pentecost
• Trumpets
• Tabernacles and Last Great Day

Next we have Passover. Luke fills us in on the fourth Passover so we get the chronology right for three and half years. There is the structure of how John framed the Gospel that he wrote.

If you want to do something in a chronological way, you use the dates and you use the things that you use as you normally do. When you write a letter, what do you do? You put down the date according to the Roman calendar, because that's the one that is used. You could put down the date according to the calculated Hebrew calendar, but no one would recognize that. 'Writing this to you on the first of Nisan.' How about the twelfth of Iyar? The fifth of Adar? Make any sense to anybody? No! So this is why we have our little calendars for the Holy Days, which synchronizes the calculated Hebrew calendar days with the Roman calendar.

Track 2: or Download

We're aren't going to spend too much time analyzing various Scriptures. We're just going to point out the flow and structure. We've seen with John, we have:

• Passover
• Pentecost
• Trumpets
• Tabernacles
• Last Great Day

and then we come around again and here we are in John 13.

John 13:1: "Now, before the Feast of the Passover..." Then we have part of the Passover ceremony with the foot-washing. Then we have the words of the covenant (John 14-17). Then we have His trial and His crucifixion—on what day? The Passover Day! The day selected from the foundation of the world. What else do we have then? We have the resurrection on the Sabbath! We have the Wave Sheaf Offering Day, the ascension of Jesus to heaven and back.

I want to show you something here just a little comment as we go along. John 20 is with doubting Thomas. It was interesting, Randy Vild, Vild Productions, that does all of the editing and production things for Church at Home. He has met different people who believe that Jesus was not God before He became a human being. That He was only conceived and that's when He came into being. If that's so, Jesus was just an ordinary man—right? Rom. 1 says that because they rejected God, they worshiped men, animals and serpents. So if anyone worshiped Jesus, he would be committing idolatry, because He would not be God. And remember the angels, when John tried to worship the angel, the angel said, 'No, don't do it.'

John 20:27: "Then He said to Thomas... [After Thomas said a week earlier, 'I'm not going to believe it until I see His hands and feet.'] ...'Put forth your finger, and see My hands; and reach out your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.'.... [Especially when you consider that all Scripture, that means each and every one, is God-breathed.] ...And Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and My God'" (vs 27-28). Amazing—huh? See how little things like that in the Bible come along? There are so many things hidden in the Scriptures that we have to dig out. We'll understand them if we love God and obey Him. We won't understand them if we don't love God and we don't obey Him.

I'm going to go through these chapters (in Acts) fairly rapidly, because this is an overview or a survey that throughout the Bible the Bible is structured according to the Holy Days and Sabbath of God. There are other Scriptures we could have added in there, which we've already covered, such as Luke 4:16, that that Sabbath was Pentecost. And there's a whole lot more we could add to that, which I have coming in the book, The Appointed Times of the Messiah.

Here in Acts 1 He told them to 'wait in Jerusalem until you have been imbued with power from on High.' That was at the end of 40 days that He spent 'showing Himself to the disciples by many infallible proofs.' What were those infallible proofs?

Acts 1:3: "To whom also, by many infallible proofs, He presented Himself alive after He had suffered, being seen by them for forty days, and speaking the things concerning the Kingdom of God." Doesn't tell us what they are.

Again, let's notice that God uses His Holy Days to fulfill His plan and purpose. That's why they're the appointed times. 'At the appointed time Christ died for the ungodly.' In the fulfillment of the time 'Christ came, made under the law' (Gal. 4).

What do we have here Acts 2:1: "And when the day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day... [It didn't happen the day before, didn't happen the day after.] …And when the day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day, was being fulfilled... [That's what it means in the Greek, a present tense passive articular infinitive. In the fulfilling of the day—literal translation.] ...they were all with one accord in the same place." And then here comes the Holy Spirit.

Verse 2: "And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like the rushing of a powerful wind, and filled the whole house where they were sitting." What does this also prove? The Holy Spirit is the power of God! It is not a person. Ever seen a person fill the room? I've seen some mighty, mighty, big people. I've seen on television those that weigh over a thousand pounds. They filled the bed, but they didn't fill the room. Sometimes you need just simple explanations to understand the Truth.

But there are some people who would die before they would admit there's no trinity. There are other people who would kill others who didn't believe in it. That's why they killed the true Christians, because they wouldn't accept the pope and didn't believe in the trinity.

What happened that day? God gave His Holy Spirit! They were filled with the Spirit, they spoke with other languages and 3,000 were converted. It doesn't talk about any other day here as we go along, but we've already covered Acts 12, so let's go there just to review that again. That's the only place in the King James where the word 'pascha' is translated Easter. The King James translators just had to get it in there. There were certain things that they changed. Just note this, you might put it in your notes, in the King James Version of the Bible 1-Cor. 13. And when I first started reading that, because I heard when I first heard about it, that this is the love chapter. Okay, I read it and it said charity. Why wasn't it love? William Tyndale translated it love, but the Latinist of the committee that had 1-Cor., they had to put their stamp on what they did, so they changed the translation of the Greek word 'agape'—which means love to 'charitee'—which comes from the Latin.

They had to let everyone know, 'We still love the Latin, guys.' Same way in 1-Cor. 10, where the word should be fellowship—communion. 'Yes, we've got to have communion.' 1-Tim. 3, the qualifications for a bishop and the Greek there is overseer, or elder.

Here's the correct reading. Acts 12:l: "Now about that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands to persecute some of those of the Church; and he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to take Peter also. (Now, those were the days of unleavened bread.) And after arresting him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four sets of four solders to guard him... [16 in total] ...with the intent of bringing him out to the people after the Passover season" (vs 1-4).

And people have said, 'Well, how could that be Passover, because Passover comes before Unleavened Bread?' The whole Passover-Unleavened Bread season is called Passover. We find that in what Luke wrote. This means the Passover season including the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Let's come to Acts 16; the King James says, 'Then on the Sabbath day...' or 'day of the Sabbath.' However, Acts 16:13: "Then on the days of the weeks..." Where were they? They were in Philippi, in Greece, a Gentile land, a city of Macedonia.

"Then on the day of the weeks [Pentecost] we went outside the city by a river, where it was customary for prayer to be made… [That's where those who kept the Sabbath and Holy Days would go because of the pagan city.] ...and after sitting down, we spoke to the women who were gathered there" (v 13). What were they doing? Keeping Pentecost!Keeping the Feast!
Acts 13—what do we have? Paul went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day and preached Jesus! Some of the Jews believed, others left and were hostile and then the Gentiles said, 'Preach these words to us.' He didn't say, 'Come tomorrow everybody, because you're Gentiles, and that's the day of worship for Gentiles.' No, he said, 'On the coming Sabbath.' He waited until the next Sabbath.

Let's come to Acts 18:4, he comes to Ephesus. "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks." Then he stayed there for three years. What do we find? We find that's how he did things.

Notice what happened, v 7: "And after departing from there, he went into the house of a certain one named Justus, who worshiped God, whose house adjoined the synagogue." Right next to the synagogue where they ran him out. Now they start meeting right there and notice what happened.

Verse 8: "But Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with his whole house; and many of the Corinthians who heard believed and were baptized" (v 8). Here's the ruler of the synagogue meeting in a house next to the synagogue, because the Jews kicked him out of the synagogue, but he kept the Sabbath. Then he stayed there (v 11), for a year and six months.

All the way through we have Sabbath, we have Holy Days, we have all of those things. Everywhere Paul went, sooner or later there was a riot, whether in the synagogue—and here in Ephesus (Acts 19), things were so powerful that there were people coming in with all of their occult things and their books of Diana and all of their idols and they were burning them. There was a depression in the idol business, the smith-makers. They organized a union riot against Paul. They went into the Coliseum there in Ephesus and they were shouting, 'Great is Diana, goddess of the Ephesians,' for the space of two hours. They were ready to seize Paul and kill him. After all, if you're an idol maker, you've got to have business. So that finally settled down.

Acts 20:1: "When the tumult was over, Paul called the disciples to him and embraced them; then he left to go into Macedonia. And after passing through these parts and exhorting them with much speaking, he came to Greece... [down toward Athens] ...Now, after he had been there for three months, he was going to sail to Syria. But when he learned that the Jews were lying in wait for him... [They were after him. The Gentiles, the Jews, everyone was ready to kill Paul.] ...he decided to return through Macedonia" (vs 1-3).

I want you to follow the sequence of events and the people, because you need to, out of this, distinguish three groups:
Verse 4: "And these accompanied [#1—Paul]him as far as Asia... [They came across and they were over at Troas in Asia. Then it lists them.] (v 5): …[#2] These went on ahead and waited for us in Troas…. [Paul went on his own. He left all of them there.] ...But [#3]we... [That is the next party, Luke and those with him.] ...we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread…" (vs 5-6). Why did they leave after the Days of Unleavened Bread? Because they kept the Days of Unleavened Bread! If you weren't keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread, you'd just travel on those days—right?

"...and in five days we came to them at Troas... [Unleavened Bread must have ended on a Monday or whichever day it was.] ...and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days" (v 6). They were there for the Sabbath. We have the three groups:

• Paul
• the ones he left in Asia and they went over to Troas to wait
• Luke and his group, and they came to Troas, met up with the others

Complete break, because Paul left those that accompanied him. He left them there.

He was someplace else, 7: "Now, on the first day of the weeks... [The Wave Sheaf Offering Day. If you don't understand that, this looks like the Wave Sheaf Offering Day comes after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but it doesn't. It's right in the middle of it.] ...when the disciples had assembled to break bread... [to eat] ...Paul preached to them; and because he was going to leave in the morning, he continued speaking until midnight." Then it talks about how he was preaching, this one lad fell down, but he was okay, and Paul told them his life was in him, he got up again.

Verse 11: "And after he got up again, and had broken bread and eaten, and talked for a long time, even until daybreak, and thus, he departed. And they brought in the boy alive, and were greatly comforted. Then we went on ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos... [Paul made arrangements for them to meet him in Assos. Paul went on to speak to disciples, it doesn't tell us exactly where it was.] ...there intending to take in Paul; for he had so appointed, since he himself was going on foot. And after he met with us at Assos and we took him in, we came to Mitylene" (vs 11-14).

If you get those three parties and understand it was Paul who went alone, leaving his group. Luke who had his party, who met up with the ones that remained behind. Then they came right on down to Assos to meet Paul where it already told them, 'Meet me down here.' But what does this tell us? This tellsus that way into the ministry of the Apostle Paul they were keeping Unleavened Bread, which means they kept Passover! We find in another place we'll read here in a minute, that he was going on ahead so he could keep Pentecost in Jerusalem. Everything is listed.

Let's come to 1-Corinthians, we'll look at some others. We don't necessarily have to cover every Scripture, but let's come to 1-Corinthians. I think you'll find this very interesting. Paul is writing this to them before Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We cover this every year at the Feast of Unleavened Bread—don't we? They were glorying in sin and he said, 1-Corinthians 5:6: "Your glorying is not good. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?"

What's the purpose of leaven spiritually for us today? A little sin makes more sin! 'A little leaven leavens the whole lump.' Whereas for the Old Testament it was just get rid of the leaven. Get rid of the leavening agents, the physical things. We still do that, so we learn the lesson of how easy sin comes in by this physical thing. But the spiritual lesson is to get sin out and eat the unleavened bread of putting Christ in.

Verse 7: "Therefore, purge out the old leaven, so that you may become a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." What does this tell us? They were keeping the Passover regularly, year after year! They were keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Verse 8: "For this reason, let us keep the Feast..." Some people don't like that in there. I brought this up to real staunch Sunday and holiday keepers and I said, 'Here is a New Testament passage to Gentiles, which is a command to keep the Feast!

Which one? "...not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and Truth" (v 8)—the whole meaning and purpose of it. And our nature is still so deceitful and we're overcoming the law of sin and death within us, that we need the Passover and we need the unleavened bread every year and we need the lessons of it so we can learn the lesson: Never, never, never slack up on getting rid of sin out of your life through the sacrifice of Christ. Christ is our Passover.

1-Corinthians 11—I'm not going to read much here, but I'm just going to read a couple of verses concerning taking of the bread and wine. 1-Corinthians 11:23: "For I received from the Lord..."—directly from Christ. If He came to do away with the Sabbath and the Holy Days and the Passover so you can take communion, as the Catholics would say, sacrifice of the mass, how many times on Sunday do they have that? Every service, three services, three times a day! Some take it every morning or at night.

Verse 23: "For I received from the Lord... [directly from Him] ...which I also delivered to you... [I also gave this to you.] ...that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and after giving thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body, which is being broken for you. This do in the remembrance of Me'" (vs 23-24).

The Catholics have a round wafer—don't they? And they make sure that it is perfect, not broken. How can they be taking the equivalent of what this is when it's supposed to be broken? See how far people have removed from the Bible, though they claim to be Christian?

Verse 25: "In like manner, He also took the cup after He had supped, saying, 'This is the cup of the New Covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in the remembrance of Me.'" (v 25). Now there are restrictions to that so you need to get the Christian Passover book to find out.

Just remember this: the one day in the Bible that Satan hates is the Passover because with the knowledge of the Passover and the true sacrifice of Jesus Christ and when to take it and the proper method of taking it, keeps people in covenant with God the Father and Jesus Christ. And renews their baptism. That's why there are so many heresies, so many wrong practices, and so many things brought against the Passover.

In a war it would be like this: The best way to get rid of a fly on the wall is to use a 105 Howitzer. That's what they want to do with the Passover—destroy it! What's the first thing you're accused of if you let them know you keep the Passover? 'Are you a Jew?' No, you're not!

Let's go to 1-Corinthians 16:7: "For at this time I will not stop to see you, but I hope at some future time to stay with you, if the Lord permits. But I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost" (vs 7-8). He stayed to keep Pentecost! Then we have different Scriptures in the book of Acts where Paul went to keep Pentecost in Jerusalem. Another time when he went there to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

Let's come to the book of Revelation, because this becomes very interesting. Let's see the outline of the Holy Days. What are the Holy Days?

• Passover—but that's not a Holy Day
• Unleavened Bread—for Christians to develop the character of Christ and the righteousness of Christ and to overcome sin
• Pentecost

I want you to see this pattern here, Revelation 1:4: "John to the seven churches... [keep the #7 in mind] ...that are in Asia: Grace and peace be to you from Him Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come... [What does this tell us? Jesus Christ is still living, was the Son of God on the earth and died, and Who is to come, is going to return.] ...and from the seven spirits that are before His throne... [I've explained that recently.] …and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn from the dead..." (vs 4-5). When was the resurrection? During Unleavened Bread! When did He die? Passover—right? We have Passover, Unleavened Bread here.

"...and the Ruler of the kings of the earth... [hat goes forward to the Millennium] ...to Him Who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood… [Passover] …And has made us kings and priests to God and His Father... [That's our reward to rule as kings and priests in the millennium. What I want you to do is see the Holy Days are woven in almost every verse here.] ...to Him be the glory and the sovereignty into the ages of eternity. Amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him... [His second return] ...and those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen. 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending... [also in Isa. 45, I am the First and the Last, Beginning and the Ending] ...says the Lord, 'Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come—the Almighty'" (vs 5-8).

Verse 11: "Saying, 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last'; and, 'What you see, write in a book, and send it to the churches that are in Asia: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.'" God wanted it written. The Bible God wanted written.

You can't trust tradition! You can't trust oral speaking of things that are as important as it is to have the Word of God so everyone can read it. You don't learn from just hearing. You learn from hearing and reading. When it's written, then you have written record at a certain time, which then gives us a point to look back to and a way to look forward from that.

After he saw Him in His glory, v 17: "And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as if dead; but He laid His right hand upon me, saying to me, 'Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last, even the One Who is living; for I was dead, and behold, I am alive into the ages of eternity. Amen. And I have the keys of the grave and of death'" (vs 17-18).

That's why all have to come through Christ. That's why in John 5, 'all who are in the graves are going to hear My voice and come forth. Those have done good to a resurrection of life. Those who have done evil to a resurrection of judgment.'

Verse 19: "'Write the things that you saw, and the things that are, and the things that shall take place hereafter…. [That's the whole basis for the book of Revelation.] (then He explains): …The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, is this: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches; and the seven lampstands that you saw are the seven churches'" (vs 19-20).

As I've explained before, these lampstands are not the candelabra that you see when you look at the implements and utensils of the tabernacle. That candelabra symbolizes the seven spirits of God. The seven lampstands are in a circle because Jesus said He was in the midst of them. Now you can't be in the midst of something that is linear.

• How many churches do we have? Seven!
• What constitutes being a church? The congregation of those who have the Spirit of God!
• When did the Spirit of God come? On Pentecost!
• We have seven churches—don't we?
• How many weeks are there in the physical harvest in counting to Pentecost? Seven weeks!

The seven churches spiritually speaking down through time from this time until the return of Christ, represent the spiritual harvest which was pictured by the seven weeks. Seven weeks of physical harvest for the Old Covenant; seven eras, or times, as typified by these weeks for the spiritual harvest.

So we have Rev. 2 & 3 we have Pentecost! The work of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost. How many days to Pentecost? Fifty! There's one more day. The seven churches picture the time of salvation before the Tribulation and it pictures the seven churches. But the harvest is not over.

After we see the vision of the throne of God, Rev. 4 & 5, and then the beginning of the last three and half years with the Great Tribulation and everything, and then the sixth seal, the scrolling back of the heavens, then we have another day of salvation for two groups of brand-new people who were never part of the Church. These represent the fiftieth day of Pentecost, or God's harvest (Rev. 7)—the 144,000 of the children of Israel and the great innumerable multitude. This is God's harvest to finish off the church harvest. And this probably takes place, their sealing, which means receiving the Holy Spirit, probably takes place on a day of Pentecost.
What happens right after that? What comes after Pentecost? The day we're going to keep this week—right? Trumpets! We have the seven angels with the seven trumpets (Rev. 8).

Now then we go through all the things, Rev. 8-10, and then we come to 11 when the seventh trumpet is sounded. That's when the resurrection takes place, on a Pentecost. Now someone will always say, 'Well, how can you say that Pentecost is going to be the resurrection when it says of the return of Jesus Christ, no one knows the day or the hour?' Well, because 1-Thess. 5:1-2[transcriber's correction] says, 'And brethren, you have no need that I write to you, for you know the times and the seasons.' He's referring to the resurrection.

We have an understanding of it because of the Holy Days. But because of all the turmoil on the earth and the sun not shining for a third of the day and the moon not shining for a third of the day, and the second sun up in the heavens, because of the sign of the Son of man, no one on earth's going to know which day is which, even though you know what the Holy Days mean.

That's why only God knows those days at that time. So then we have the first resurrection (Rev. 14). On the Sea of Glass (Rev. 15). Then when everything is there—now from Pentecost to Trumpets is about four months. That's how long it takes for the seven last plagues to be poured out. While we're on the Sea of Glass, there's going to be:

• the marriage supper of the Lamb
• the giving of the rewards
• our new name that's going to be given to us

We're going to find out how to use this new spiritual body. You need a few lessons—don't you? You need to understand what it is you can do and can't do. Did even little babies have to learn how to walk? Of course! We'll be taught all those things and we'll look down on the earth and we'll see the seven last plagues being poured out.

Then we come to the next Feast of Trumpets and what happens? We come with Christ down to the earth, the final battle. That's why the Feast of Trumpets is a war feast. One year of war—terrible, terrible war! The first eight months have to do with angels against men and demons. The resurrection takes place, then the next four months you have the seven last plagues poured out by the angels. That ends in the battle of Armageddon which takes place on the next Day of Trumpets. Tat day, according to the calculated Hebrew calendar may be off a day or two from what we could figure if we figured what it would be because of all of the astronomical events that have taken place.

What happens? On that Feast of Trumpets we come back with Christ to the earth, and then an angel cast the beast and false prophet into the Lake of Fire; all the armies are destroyed. Then what happens next? What's the next Holy Day? Atonement and Satan is removed and put into the abyss and locked up with a seal over him.

What is the next Feast to take place? The ritual back in Lev. 16 is elevated to this spiritual work of getting rid of Satan the devil. Then what is the next Feast? The Feast of Tabernacles, the 1,000 year rule of Christ and the saints on the earth!

The whole book of Revelation is based upon the Holy Days. Then what happens after that? The final judgment against Satan and the second resurrection, which is pictured by what? The Last Great Day! Then the Last Great Day finishes by what? The new heavens and the new earth and the coming of New Jerusalem! You see how the whole book of Revelation is based upon the outline of the Holy Days. You cannot find anything positive concerning the holidays of this world that Christians are to keep them. You do find about the Christmas tree (Jer. 10). Don't do it!

You do find about sun worship, or Sunday worship (Ezek. 8). They were worshiping the sun to the east. You do find about Good Friday and weeping for Tammuz (Ezek. 8). You do find out about hot-cross buns (Jer. 7). You do find out in the book, I think it is Amos, I'm just doing this from memory because we're almost out of time, but there is a place where God says, 'Your feasts I hate!'Does God hate His own Feasts? No! What feasts could He be talking about? The holidays of this world! That's why we have the book, Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? This world is so deceived they think they're Christian. And they reject everything that we have covered here. They reject everything we've covered in these three sermons about the outline or survey of the Holy Days in the Bible. You can't find any one of the holidays that the world keeps that are sanctioned in the Bible. All you find are the Sabbath and Holy Days of God and He has used that as the framework for fulfilling His will. That'swhywe keep the Holy Days of God. Maybe that will also help add a little bit more to your understanding.

Scriptural References:

• John 2:13-21, 23-25
• John 4:34-38
• John 5:1
• John 6:4
• John 7:1-14, 19
• John 5:45-47
• John 7:19, 37-42
• John 13:1
• John 20:27-28
• Acts 1:3
• Acts 2:1-2
• Acts 12:1-4
• Acts 16:13
• Acts 18:4, 7-8
• Acts 20:1-7, 11-14
• 1-Corinthians 5:6-8
• 1-Corinthians 11:23-25
• 1-Corinthians 16:7-8
• Revelation 1:4-8, 11, 17-20

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Romans 14
• John 1
• Leviticus 23
• Malachi 3
• Revelation 13:8
• Ezekiel 28
• John 17
• Revelation 21
• Matthew 13
• John 8-9, 12, 14-17
• Romans 1
• Luke 4:16
• Galatians 4
• 1-Corinthians 13, 10
• 1-Timothy 3
• Acts 13; 18:11; 19
• Isaiah 45
• Revelation 2-5; 7-11
• 1-Thessalonians 5:1-2
• Revelation 14-15
• Leviticus 16
• Jeremiah 10
• Ezekiel 8
• Jeremiah 7

Also referenced:
Books:

• The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop
• The Day Jesus the Christ Died by Fred R. Coulter
• The Appointed Times of the Messiah (coming soon)
• A Pathway Into the Holy Scripture by William Tyndale
• Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? by Fred R. Coulter

The Holy Bible In Its Original Order, A Faithful Version Bible by Fred R. Coulter

• Appendix N: Rome's Challenge to the Protestants
• Appendix E: When Was Jesus Christ Born

FRC:lp    Transcribed: 10-9-11     Formatted: bo—10-24-11

Copyright 2011—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.