America needs Day of Atonement
By Joseph Farah, WMD, September 25, 2012
They call it a Jewish holiday – Yom Kippur.
It’s the Day of Atonement, all right, but it’s not just for Jews. As Leviticus 23 makes clear, today is not a Jewish holiday, it’s one of the Feasts of the Lord, or, more precisely, one of the Feasts of Yahweh.
In other words, it’s for everyone who believes in the One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Christians should especially find it appealing, since they believe in the forgiveness of sins by the one they consider to be the Jewish Messiah.
What has become increasingly clear to me in my study of the Bible over the years is that Jesus – or Yeshua, as He was known to his brethren – did not come to Earth in human form as the Son of God to start a new religion called Christianity, which, after all simply means followers of the Messiah.
Yeshua came to fulfill the promises of the Hebrew prophets. Neither he nor anyone else in the Bible ever suggested we should celebrate His birthday on Dec. 25 – the traditional birthday of the pagan deities Tammuz and Mithra. Neither He nor anyone else in the Bible ever suggested we should celebrate the Babylonian holiday of Ishtar, or Easter. In fact, neither He nor anyone else in the Bible ever suggested we should observe Sunday as the Sabbath.
These were all traditions of men trying to blend pagan cultures with a touch of Christianity.
But the God of the Bible doesn’t like mixing pagan mythology with His commandments or pagan holidays with his appointed feasts.
That’s why it may surprise some of you that this Christian, this follower of Yeshua Ha’Maschiach, is observing Yom Kippur today – the Day of Atonement. My family will fast and pray just like Jews around the world and more and more Christians who are rediscovering the Hebrew roots of their faith.
The Day of Atonement is a high holiday – a Sabbath. I’m not working today until sundown. And I stopped working yesterday at sundown. That’s because by God’s reckoning of time, the day begins at sundown, not sun up and not midnight.
What I am saying to Bible believers is that God doesn’t want us celebrating our pagan holidays. He expects us, however, to observe His divine appointments. Those come weekly at sundown Friday from sundown Saturday. And there are additional spring and fall feasts, or appointed times, like Yom Kippur, in which we are called out to meet Him.
Some modern American Christians might arrogantly suggest they don’t have to atone for any sins because Jesus already did that for them. While it’s true that Yeshua died for the sins of those who make Him Lord of their life, that atonement doesn’t come without sincere repentance.
And repentance is not a one-time act. It’s not a collection of magic words we say one time in our lives so that we have license to sin some more. Repentance is a continual process, because we all fall short of the mark.
It’s not just individuals who need a Day of Atonement.
In ancient Israel the high priests prayed for the sins of the nation, too.
America could take a lesson from that experience.
We are a nation in moral free fall.
We’ve lost our ability to discern right from wrong.
We don’t even accept that there is such a thing as sin anymore. Sinners are just those practicing alternate lifestyles.
But this can’t go on forever – just as it couldn’t go on forever in ancient Israel when the nation went adrift.
God is longsuffering because He loves us. But like any good parent, He will not enable His children forever. He will discipline them in an attempt to bring them back to His authority – not wishing any should perish.
So if you think today is just another Jewish holiday, think again.
Today is one of your God’s feasts, one of His appointed times. He wants to meet with you. He wants to bring you back into covenant with Him.
@ Calvary:Israpundit is not the place to discuss scriptures. Stop it.
Yamit and Shy guy. I know you just responded but don’t. I will remove any comment violating my rules as soon as I am aware of it.
My last post I don’t think worked (if it did, I apologize). But why is Calvary allowed to missionize against Judaism and the Jews, while I am “moderated” for defending the Judaism and the Jews? I don’t get it (again).
Hey, why am I “moderated” still, yet this guy is allowed to missionize without being moderated?!? I don’t get it (again).
@ Calvary:
4th and I hope Last time. Eyes that can’t see and ears that can’t hear and a closed mind to the truth.
look at the first verse of our passage from Jeremiah 31:31-34:
Behold, the days come, saith the Etrnl, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.
This is considered a prophecy because of the first words of the verse, ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Etrnl.’ However, immediately before these few verses that begin with verse 31, there are additional verses that also begin the exact same way, with the words, ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Etrnl.’ When Christians refer to Jeremiah 31:31-34, they are leaving out half of the prophecy because the whole prophecy actually begins with verse 27. As you will read, when one looks at the whole prophecy of Jeremiah 31:27-34, this passage could not be referring to Christianity at all. Here is the whole passage:
These verses are, indeed, speaking of the Messianic age, however, they are not speaking of the coming of Jesus and Christianity.
Verse 27 speaks of a time when the House of Israel is reunited with the House of Judah, and when they increase in size as well as in resources.
Behold, the days come, saith the Etrnl, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. [Jeremiah 31:27]
Then G-d states that just as He watched over the Jews when He saw fit to punish them, so, too, will He continue to watch over the Jews as everything gets better:
And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Etrnl. [Jeremiah 31:28]
The next verses actually deny the most basic belief of Christianity, that Jesus can die for your sins:
Verses 29-30 above are saying that in this future time, no one will continue to believe that one person can die and thereby take away the guilt for another person’s sins. This is shown by those who recite an old saying (also found in Ezekiel 18) that the father eats sour grapes, but that it is the children who taste the sourness. This old saying expressed the erroneous belief that the parents would sin, but that it was the children who inherited the guilt of their parents’ sins. Instead, Jeremiah is saying that when those days come, all will recognize, as the Bible has said repeatedly (See Exodus 32:30-35; Deuteronomy 24:16; and Ezekiel 18:1-4) that the person who sins will always be the only one who gets the punishment for that sin. This is what it states quite simply in Deuteronomy 24:16, No man shall be put to death for the sins of his children, no child will be put to death for the sins of his father. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
This description of this messianic age continues with Jeremiah 31:31, which is the passage that Christians usually quote without the verses that come before it. Just a simple overview of these verses indicates that what it describes has not happened yet.
The first verse of the passage reads:
However, the House of Israel, which was made up of the Ten Lost Tribes, have been lost and scattered around the world since the fall of the Northern Kingdom around 721 B.C.E.. The House of Israel, the Ten Lost Tribes, cannot be re-united with the House of Jacob, because the House of Israel has not been around for thousands of years, That is why they are called the Ten LOST Tribes. This passage in Jeremiah is describing a Jewish People where all of the descendants of every tribe thrives, and has made their way to the Promised Land. Because it speaks of both the House of Israel and the House of Judah together, with G-d, in a single new covenant, and since the House of Israel cannot be unified with the House of Judah, this entire passage has not happened yet, and cannot refer to Christianity or their ‘new covenant.’
There is another reference, also in Jeremiah, in the 23rd chapter, that describes the same thing, where all the Jews have returned to the Promised Land, and which also begins with the same words found in Jeremiah 31:27 and 31:31
look at the next two verses of our passage:
What these verses are saying is that everyone will no longer need to look in any book, neither a ‘New Testament,’ nor even the Hebrew Scriptures, to tell them what is Right and what is Wrong. They will know it instinctively because it will be in their hearts, truly making G-d their G-d, and in turn, truly making them G-d’s People. Certainly this has also not happened yet, and so this passage cannot be referring to Christianity, nor can it be referring to their New Testament.
What, precisely, does it mean to have G-d’s Torah written in our innermost parts?
Because Gd’s Torah is within us, we know what we are to do, and we are happy to do it.
Please also read carefully. Jeremiah 31:33 does not say ‘I will put my NEW Torah in their inward parts’ It says, ‘I will put my Torah in their inward parts.’ The laws of G-d do not change or get changed, they are eternal as G-d is Eternal:
The secret things belong unto the Etrnl our Gd: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this Torah. [Deuteronomy 29:29]
The Torah of the Etrnl is perfect, converting the soul:
[Psalm 19:8-9]
Calvary Said:
Same crooked question of yours again and again.
Asked and answered already, time and time again.
And ain’t it funneh that you folks can’t quote the immediate following verses:
You’re only lying to yourself. Always have been. All of you.
Just like old times Yamit!
(Most of what you said we already argued about ad nauseum. Thrice is enough.)
I agree that the Law will be practiced by Jews when Messiah either comes or comes back. 🙂 The NT affirms the Tanakh.
Both books also say an unsavory character will force you to worship him in your rebuilt temple. You will not like this – (rightly so!) – and trouble will ensue.
The Law changes because God said so!! Your God. The God who chose Jeremiah as a prophet and sent him to Israel and put his words in the Tanakh:
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
Unless you disown Jeremiah as a prophet, you have to ask yourself:
‘What is the new covenant? And how does it relate to the old?’
Thanks for the links, Yamit. Awesome!
@ Rob K.:
So you are an expert on Talmud and Judaism?
@ dbdent:
They do not need to become a Jew as any righteous gentile can enter the next world. The laws of Noach and a proper Jewish teacher is all they need.
@ Robert_K:
correct but if you pray to Jesus your prayers and supplications will go unheard and unfulfilled.
@ Calvary:
Nothing complicated: Jewish Truth Christian Falsehood.
Knowledge of Truth vs Blind Faith
Major sections of the New Testament wrestle with this topic from the Jewish perspective.
Not much Jewish before Paul and nothing Jewish after Paul.
Paul, a Jewish “Pharisee, son of Pharisee” had a lot to say about it.
Paul, if he ever really existed was not a Jew and the only evidence you can supply are the NT and early Christian apologists. I can guarantee that Paul’s knowledge of Judaism based on his supposed writings could not have been a Jew no less a Pharisee. Point one: his writings would have been in Aramit and Hebrew and not Greek. Can you imagine a Jew writing for other Jews in the hated Pagan language Greek? According to Josh McDowell a Christian apologist and believer , there are over 200,000 variants of the NT. A very unreliable source for anything except blind faith. Early Christians did not know of the trinity and the concept did not take hold until the 3rd century.
According to Jewish tradition the Messiah must come from the seed of Solomon, You Jesus genealogy either of Luke or Matthew does not cut it especially Lukes. Funny the other gospels omit the genealogy entirely because it was not important or considered at the time.
I have read Romans and the complete NT more than once but it’s not on my standard bedtime reading list.
The whole of the Torah and Tanach is eternal. We Jews who have accepted the Yoke of heaven do not have the luxury of picking and choosing what G-d’s Laws to obey and what not. That would defeat the purpose and render Judaism as something other like Christianity and all other Pagan or atheist beliefs.
Would G-d give the Law to the Jewish People that he knew in advance could not be kept. Punished the Jewish people who strayed from the road time after time? What is you idea of such a divinity? A sadistic practical joker? A liar?
.
THE FOLLOWING PASSAGES ARE VERY IMPORTANT. ISAIAH AND MICAH ARE TALKING ABOUT THE “END OF DAYS”. JEWS BELIEVE THIS IS WHEN THE MESSIAH WILL COME
ISA002:003 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
MIC004:001 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
MIC004:002 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
ACCORDING TO THESE PASSAGES, IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE LAW WILL STILL BE IN EFFECT AT THE “END OF DAYS”. ISAIAH AND MICAH MAKE IT QUITE CLEAR THAT THE OTHER NATIONS (GENTILES) WILL COME AND LEARN THE LAW FROM THE MESSIAH AND FROM THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. REMEMBER G-D REFERS TO ALL OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL AS A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS:
EXO019:006 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
IF JESUS FULFILLED THE LAW, WHY WOULD G-D SAY THAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WILL TEACH HIS LAW TO THE REMAINING GENTILE NATIONS?
THE LAST PROPHET MALACHI ALSO EMPHASIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LAW OF MOSES AND HOW IT WILL STILL BE IN EFFECT DURING THE “END OF DAYS”. THIS PASSAGE ALSO TEACHES US THAT G-D IS GOING TO SEND ELIJAH AT THE “END OF DAYS”:
MAL004:004 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
MAL004:005 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
MAL004:006 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS THAT THE LAW STAYS IN EFFECT UNTIL THE “END OF DAYS”, WHEN ELIJAH COMES.
BUT G-D SAYS THROUGH MALACHI THAT ELIJAH COMES AT THE “END OF DAYS”. JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST LIVED TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO, OBVIOUSLY NOT THE “END OF DAYS”.
HERE G-D MENTIONS SOME OF HIS LAWS AND STRESSES THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THEM. G-D ALSO EMPHASIZES THAT HE DOES NOT CHANGE:
MAL003:005 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.
MAL003:006 For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
MAL003:007 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
IF G-D DOES NOT CHANGE, HOW CAN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY TEACH THAT WITH JESUS, THE LAW IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT? WE HAVE JUST READ THAT NOT ONLY WILL IT BE IN EFFECT AT THE “END OF DAYS”, BUT WILL BE A REQUIREMENT FOR THE GENTILES AS WELL.
THE JEWISH BIBLE TEACHES US THAT THE GREAT PROPHET ELISHA, RECEIVED A DOUBLE PORTION OF HIS PREDECESSOR ELIJAH’S SPIRIT. THE JEWISH BIBLE ALSO TEACHES US THAT ELISHA PERFORMED THE SAME KIND OF WONDERS AND MIRACLES AS JESUS IS SAID TO HAVE DONE. AS A PROPHET AND SPEAKING FOR G-D, ELISHA SAID THE FOLLOWING:
2KI017:037 And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which He wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
G-D SAID TO OBSERVE THE LAW FOR “EVERMORE”, TO ME THAT MEANS FOREVER. G-D SAID THIS WHEN THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE MISBEHAVING BADLY. EVEN THOUGH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE IGNORING THE LAW, G-D STRONGLY MAINTAINED THAT THE LAW WAS ETERNAL.
JOH014:015 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
JOH014:021 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
I see so many contradictions between what Paul said about the law then what the Gospels say Jesus said.
@ Michael Devolin:
Hinduism’s Message to the Jewish People
@ Michael Devolin:
The Connection between Sukkot and the Noachides
B”H
G-d Said, “Be Happy”
Yamit, and all. A Christian’s relationships with the Law of Moses is complicated. ESPECIALLY if you are Jewish and accept Yeshua/Joshua/Jesus as Messiah.
Major sections of the New Testament wrestle with this topic from the Jewish perspective. Paul, a Jewish “Pharisee, son of Pharisee” had a lot to say about it. (If you are curious what he said, Romans is fascinating reading.) I can summarize my understanding of his (and his Jewish peers’) teaching on this topic in the NT:
1) The moral laws of the Torah/Tanakh are eternal. Murder, lying, adultery, envy is still sin!
2) The purpose of the Law was to bring Israel to righteousness – of course – but also to humility. Why humility? Because you will realize at some point, that you can’t fulfill even the Ten Commandments, let alone the 613 that you reference. And thus Israel must humbly appeal to God for mercy and grace, which He promises to give.
3) Followers of Yeshua – Jew and Gentile – go to him for this grace believing his self-sacrifice satisfied God’s requirement for justice, which made grace possible.
So when Christians – Jew or Gentile – say we are not ‘under the Law of Moses’ what we really mean is that we’re not under the condemnation of the Law because we believe we have received grace through Messiah.
This is what Yeshua meant when he said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Non-Jews obeying Jewish halacha is pointless because non-Jews gain no merit from G-D in doing so. Secondly, it is forbidden by Torah for non-Jews (and this includes Christians and Muslims) to observe Jewish halacha. Non-Jews are commanded to obey the 7 Laws of Noach, nothing else. This is what I’ve been taught by my Jewish friends. And yes, Gentiles are permitted to observe Succot.
“One should never lose sight of the fact that the Torah was intended to provide the framework for a practical legal system under which Israel was to be governed.”
Christians and Muslims lost sight of this fact long ago, Yamit.
Shabat shalom.
Law is an exceedingly complex subject (ask any lawyer!)
It should be appreciated that the Torah that G-d gave to Israel establishes a the basis of a legal system with a fundamental set of laws (traditionally held to include 248 mandatory and 365 prohibitive commandments, making a total of 613). Many of the Torah’s laws are explicitly stated to be “eternal statutes”, i.e. laws intended to remain in force for ever, and the great majority of the laws are addressed exclusively to Israel and to no other nation, so the claim often made by christians that they are “no longer under the Law” is absurd: in the first place christians are not part of the nation of Israel and so were never subject to most of the Torah’s laws anyway, and secondly, without laws to govern human behavior and to determine which actions are acceptable and which are unacceptable, civilization as we know it would degenerate into chaos – how is anyone to know what a “sin” is if there is no law to define it? Or do they think they are above the Law?
“It is no longer necessary to obey G-d’s laws,” christians tell us, “you only have to ‘love’ Him”. But they never specify how one is supposed to show this “love” for G-d. The Torah, however, does tell us how we are to “love” G-d—
“So now, Israel – what does haShem your G-d ask of you? only this: to respect haShem your G-d by following all His ways and to love and serve haShem your G-d with all your heart and all your being by keeping haSem’s commandments and laws that I am commanding you today…” (D’varim 10:12-13)
One should never lose sight of the fact that the Torah was intended to provide the framework for a practical legal system under which Israel was to be governed. Moses was even commanded to appoint shoftim v’shotrim (“judges and policemen”) to enforce the law (D’varim 16:18). In any practical legal system, laws specify what each person is required to do (for example, paying his taxes) and what he is not allowed to do (murdering, stealing etc), and penalties are prescribed for those who break the law (such as paying a fine or serving a term of imprisonment). A person who has been convicted of a crime and has either paid his fine or served his term of imprisonment is deemed to have “paid his debt to society” and is no longer considered as having “guilt” for whatever crime he committed.
Torah law is no different in this respect.
I, for one, was thankful to read this. I hope many Christians will read this and have the understanding that Joseph does…that they would enter in and observe the Feasts of YAHWEH. I think that Joseph and his family will also be celebrating Sukkot.
@ dbdent:
Yeshua was of the tribe of Judah. Israel consisted of 12 tribes. Judah is only one tribe. The faith in the one true God laid out in Scripture is the Hebrew faith. (Kept by all 12 tribes until the northern tribes fell into paganism and were cut off.)The Battle Yeshua had with the Jews was over who makes the Laws, God and Torah or priests and sages. Farah is noting the same hypocrisy amongst Christians. To embrace Talmud over Torah would be no better than embracing papal bull over scripture.
Poor Farah cannot say it.
Yeshua , Joseph, was born a Jew and died a Jew.
Yeshua celebrated Yom Kippur in his day.
You want to do what he did, then take your feelings a bit more deeply , think carefully , and consider becoming a Jew!
If Joseph Farah should be promoting any holiday for Gentiles, it should be the holiday of Succot (Tabernacles) as mentioned in the Book of Zechariah (Zechariah 14 16-19), and in this vein further elaborated on by the Talmudic Sages’ comment that the 70 Bulls offered for the additional sacrifice during the 7 days of Succot corresponded to the 70 nations which by Jewish lore comprise the entire world. This as per the verse in Deuteronomy 32 8 – “When the Most High divided the nations,when he separated mankind, he set the bounds according to the number of the children of Israel.” (and the children of Israel numbered seventy souls when they entered Egypt).