The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-21, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 49."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

Which Jewish holidays, such a Purim, Passover, Hanukkah, would be appropriate for a Jewish believer [in Christ] to still celebrate, and which if any, would no longer be appropriate?

Answer

Well, essentially from the vantage point of the New Testament, there are no Jewish holidays that are still a part of the Christian faith.  There are certain holidays that don't have anything to do with the Old Testament: Hanukkah, the Jewish New Year has nothing to do with the Old Testament; I think Purim has nothing to do with the Old Testament; the Feast of Lights is more of a traditional feast than an Old Testament Biblical feast, or festival.  But as far as the New Testament is concerned, all of the ceremonies were set aside and we know that because Jesus indicated to us in His attitude with the Scribes and the Pharisees a certain indifference to that, and most particularly, Jesus made the transition from the Passover, which was the main celebration, to the Lord's Supper--it was at a Passover meal, the night of His betrayal, that Jesus took the bread, which had once been in reference to the Passover in Egypt, which was the great historic indication of the power of God to deliver His people and became the basis of the Passover, it was to be a memorial and God instituted it there in Egypt.  But Jesus took the elements: the bread and the cup that were connected to the Passover, and said, "From now on, this bread doesn't represent the unleavened bread of the Passover in Egypt--it represents My Body.  And this wine, is no longer representative of deliverance in Egypt, and the blood put on the door and the lintel, it is representative of My Blood shed for you.  So Jesus Himself transitioned out of the Passover, as such.  

When you come into the Book of Acts, in the Jerusalem Council, in the 15th chapter of Acts, the believers there were instructed, however, not to offend the Jewish people, with regard to some of those remaining ceremonies.  And in Romans 14 and 15, there is even some instructions about, if people have certain, I suppose you could say scruples, if they have certain convictions, and they are not free to violate those because they don't yet understand their freedom, even as Christians.  If they are still holding to, let's say, the Sabbath, or they are still holding to a certain dietary law, the Apostle Paul says, "Don't offend them, don't force them into liberties which their conscience doesn't yet allow them to do--they need to be instructed and they will come to a point where they will better understand the terms of the New Covenant, and they will leave those things aside.  

So the objective is, Jesus ends the Old Testament ceremonial law, as such, and with the ceremonial law,  go essentially, all the feast and festivals that were a part of it.  Then in the Book of Acts there is a gradual sort of disconnect with that, and we know that because as the church was being built under the leadership of, particularly the Apostle Paul, those things were never instituted in the church--they were left to the past.  When you get into the Epistles, it becomes very specific and the texts that I would...well, one in the Book of Acts, Acts 10 where there is a vision that Peter has and on this sheet that he sees, a sheet coming down from heaven, there's all kinds of animals, clean and unclean, you know, kosher and non-kosher, and Peter is told, "Rise Peter, kill and eat."  And he says, "I can't do that.  I can't eat the unclean animals."  And the Lord says to him, "Don't you call unclean what I have cleansed."  So there is no more distinction between clean and unclean, and that's just an illustration of the break with the past.

When you come into the Epistles, and I would draw your attention to one particular Epistle, and that's Colossians, and the 2nd chapter of Colossians.  The Apostle Paul is showing us how things have dramatically changed; he says this in verse 16, Colossians 2:16, "So let no one judge you in food," that is, in any dietary law, "Let no one judge you in drink; Let no one judge you regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths."  Now, no dietary regulations; no religious observances, and the festivals were essentially Pentecost, Passover, Feast of Tabernacles--all of those.  "No new moon," and that was the point at which the monthly sacrifice was made--on the first day of each month--the new moon.  "No Sabbaths," that's the weekly celebrations.  So, annual celebrations, monthly celebrations, weekly celebrations--he says, "Don't let anybody hold you to those things," verse 17, "which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."  They were shadows, and now the substance has arrived, and the shadow has no more place.  

And so, as far as we are concerned in the Church: Jewish Christian, Gentile Christian, there is no necessity to observe any of those things from the standpoint of our Christian faith.  However, within the framework of tradition, within the family, there's nothing wrong with participating in those events--nothing wrong with the traditional family celebration of Passover; nothing wrong with other traditional Jewish celebrations: the Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur, whatever it is, and in fact, as a Christian you can bring into that kind of celebration a much richer understanding of the reality of which those things were but a shadow.  That's one of the reasons why it is problematic to have what we call, "Messianic Synagogues."  

There has been a movement for a number of years and I have addressed it throughout the last, probably, fifteen years, where Jewish people, who are believers, have established, rather than Churches, what they call Messianic Synagogues, and they observe all of the Jewish customs, all of the Jewish traditions, whether it is the annual feasts like Pentecost, Passover, and so forth, whether it is the New Year, the Day of Atonement, the monthly New Moon Sabbath, they observe the weekly Sabbath, they observe it on Saturday, they go through all of that ritual, and in a sense, they are like the Judaizers of the New Testament, who are running around, trying to impose Jewish custom, Jewish ceremony, Old Testament ritual on Christians.  I think it is wrong to do that.  I don't think that's what the New Testament intends.  I think the flow of the New Testament is that is what you are trying to do is to teach those people who come out of that background that they no longer need to hold to those things, but that they can let them go because of their freedom in Christ. 

So I think that is the best passage to take people to who are asking that kind of question.  We are not under obligation to maintain any of those things, and the most notable of all of them is the Passover.  You celebrate the Passover because of God's redemption--the Redeemer comes and the Passover is over and now you have you have the Lord's Supper.  You celebrate Pentecost, which is "first fruits" and the last Pentecost, legitimately celebrated, was the Pentecost at which time the Holy Spirit came--remember it was the day of Pentecost the Spirit came--it was the great harvest feast and the Spirit came on that day, and in a sense put an end to the shadow, because now the Holy Spirit had come and the great harvest, as it were, of souls, began.  

So I think that it is best to see no Biblical obligation at all for any of those things, but I think that it is wise, if you are in a Jewish context to graciously participate in those kinds of traditions understanding that they all point to the reality, who is Christ. 

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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