Sabbath & Appointed Times
Bible Questions
Teachings
Hanukkah – Should/Can Christians Celebrate This Holiday?
Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, remembers the recovery and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the persecution of the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV. The speaker explains that Hanukkah is not one of Yehovah’s commanded appointed times in Leviticus 23, yet argues that disciples of Yeshua may commemorate its history. He particularly highlights the courage of Mattathias and Judah Maccabeus to resist enforced idolatry and maintain faithfulness to Yehovah.
Understanding The Sabbath – A Biblical Overview
This fellowship Teaching examines Yehovah’s Sabbath as a set-apart day of rest, worship, delight, and renewal. Beginning with Isaiah 56 and Isaiah 58, participants share their own journeys toward Sabbath observance and discuss preparation before sunset, work and commercial activity, recreation, travel, necessity, mercy, and how conscience and Scripture shape personal decisions. Different perspectives are preserved rather than combined into one mandatory checklist.
The Feast of Tabernacles – God Living with Man
This Teaching examines Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) as Yehovah’s appointed time of rejoicing, temporary dwellings, harvest thanksgiving, and remembrance of His presence with Israel. Ed begins with the commands in Leviticus 23, discusses the first and eighth-day assemblies, describes practical ways families can build or occupy a sukkah, and connects the tabernacle in the wilderness to God’s promised dwelling with His people. He then explores future worship in Zechariah 14, the harvest imagery of Matthew 13 and Revelation 14, the seven-year Torah reading, Solomon’s temple dedication, the Transfiguration, and a proposed chronology of Yeshua’s birth based on priestly divisions and Luke 1. The concluding audience discussion addresses how believers plan for annual Sabbaths and respond to unavoidable conflicts with humility and grace.
Sukkot – The Feast of Tabernacles
This Teaching examines Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) as one of Yehovah’s appointed times. Beginning with Leviticus 23, Ed discusses seven days of rejoicing, temporary booths, the harvest, holy convocations, and the sacred eighth-day assembly. The central study then asks why Leviticus specifically names native-born Israelites as booth dwellers while Deuteronomy includes the stranger in the celebration. He explores the original Exodus, the mixed multitude, covenant identity, a proposed future ‘second Exodus,’ judgment and refining, and the prophetic depiction of nations observing Sukkot in Zechariah 14. Finally, he connects the harvest with end-of-age imagery and Yehovah dwelling with His redeemed people. Audience discussion addresses what believers can observe while away from the land.
Passsover 2022 – How did Yeshua fulfill the Passover and become the Passover Lamb?
This 2022 Passover Teaching presents Pesach as Yehovah’s enduring memorial of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and describes Yeshua as the fulfillment of its lamb imagery. The speaker connects the lamb’s selection and examination to Yeshua’s arrival in Jerusalem and examination by opponents, describes the temple cleansing in relation to removing leaven, and compares Gospel references to the third and ninth hours with a proposed temple-sacrifice timeline. The concluding section revisits Luke 22 and argues that Yeshua’s call to remembrance belongs within the Passover setting. The Teaching also surveys Yehovah’s appointed times and their perceived prophetic connection to Messiah.
PASSOVER – Yes, Christians should be observing the Festival
This Teaching argues that Pesach and the connected spring appointed times belong to Yehovah, not exclusively to one modern religious community, and therefore deserve the attention of those following Yeshua. The speaker begins with Genesis 1:14 and Leviticus 23, discussing the Hebrew terms for appointed times and holy convocations. He follows the first-month sequence of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits through Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23, and connects the selection of an unblemished lamb, removal of leaven, and offering of first fruits with Yeshua’s entry into Jerusalem, suffering, burial, and resurrection. He discusses Jubilee imagery from Leviticus 25, Isaiah 61, and Luke 4, and contrasts the Passover meal of Luke 22 with familiar church communion practice. The closing discussion offers ways to remember Yehovah’s deliverance with family and children, whether through a traditional seder or a simpler fellowship meal, while recognizing that observance and understanding develop over time.
Passover – What is ACTUALLY Commanded? What is Tradition?
This Teaching examines Pesach (Passover) by separating explicit instructions in Torah from later customs and by considering how Yeshua fulfills the Passover pattern. The speaker discusses the original lamb and blood, the location and nature of sacrifice, roasting, unleavened bread and bitter herbs, memorial storytelling, and covenant participation. He argues that a modern seder contains traditions that are not themselves commanded, while acknowledging that a tradition is not necessarily sinful merely because it is extra-biblical. Because the temple sacrifice cannot currently be carried out in its historical form, he offers a simple, non-prescriptive approach for observing Passover today through Scripture, remembrance, a shared meal, and attention to Yeshua. Participants express different views about symbols, timing, and which original details remain practicable.
The Biblical Calendar – Signs & Seasons
This Teaching begins a study of the biblical calendar by asking believers to work from Scripture rather than adopt a named calendar system as the final authority. The speaker openly states that he does not claim to have every calendar question completely resolved and calls for patience, love, and respectful reasoning where believers disagree. Genesis 1:14-16 is foundational: the heavenly lights are presented as serving signs, appointed times, days, and years. Leviticus 23 then identifies Yahovah’s appointed feasts and holy convocations, which the Teaching describes as scheduled gatherings or rehearsals with prophetic significance. The Teaching explains its understanding of a biblical day, week, month, and year: a day beginning at sundown, a seven-day week ending in Shabbat, lunar months associated with the new moon, and a lunisolar year whose beginning is connected with Aviv barley in the land of Israel. When necessary, an additional month is understood to keep the festivals in their proper agricultural seasons. The latter portion connects Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost with Israel’s Exodus and with Yeshua. Several prophetic connections – including the two Pentecost loaves representing Judah and the house of Israel/grafted-in nations – are explicitly presented as the speaker’s interpretation. The Teaching ends by preserving unresolved questions for continued study and a later part.
Sukkot: It’s Ultimate Fullfillment
This Teaching approaches Sukkot as both a memorial of Israel’s wilderness experience and a forward-looking picture of gathering, dependence on Yahovah, the reign of Yeshua, and the ultimate dwelling of Yah with His people. It begins with the biblical commands for the Feast of Tabernacles and emphasizes harvest, ingathering, rejoicing, and temporary dwellings. The Teaching then connects those themes to a proposed future wilderness experience or Greater Exodus, while repeatedly distinguishing the speaker’s interpretation from what Scripture states explicitly. The discussion closes with practical and theological questions from the fellowship about observing Sukkot, Jerusalem, temporary dwellings, the temple, sacrifices, the abomination of desolation, and tradition.
The Day of Atonement
This Teaching approaches the Day of Atonement as a study of access to Yehovah’s presence. It begins by stating that observing the appointed day does not repeat or supplement Yeshua’s sacrifice; rather, Leviticus 16 provides a pattern through which sin, atonement, cleansing, mediation, priesthood, and access to the holy presence can be understood. The account of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10 becomes an important starting point. Their unauthorized approach is used to emphasize the words, ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy,’ and the Teaching develops the theme that fallen humanity cannot approach Yehovah on its own terms. The boundaries, washing, clothing, blood, incense, and mediation surrounding the high priest are presented as purposeful provisions for approaching the holy presence and living. The Teaching then turns to Yeshua. Hebrews 9 is used to show that Messiah entered the greater sanctuary with His own blood and obtained eternal redemption. The speaker emphasizes that the Day of Atonement pattern did not end with the high priest entering the Most Holy Place: the people waited for him to reappear. This becomes the Teaching’s central connection to Hebrews 9:28, where Messiah appears a second time, apart from sin, for salvation to those eagerly waiting for Him. Hebrews 10 is then used to connect Yeshua’s priestly work with believers drawing near with confidence. The Teaching also asks what the Day of Atonement means after Yeshua’s return. It is careful to state that Scripture does not explicitly assign a particular prophetic event to a future Yom Kippur. Several possibilities and participant observations are discussed – including cleansing, the removal of evil influence, Israel, the millennial period, and the memorial character of the appointed time – but these are presented as matters for continued study rather than as explicit statements of Scripture. The closing discussion also considers afflicting oneself, fasting, Isaiah 58, serving others, and approaching unresolved prophetic questions with humility, faith, and trust.