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Originally Posted by MMasztal  Quote: |
The Westminster Confession teaches that the old covenant feast days were part of the ceremonial law given to Israel as a "church under age". As such they are inappropriate for God's people under the new covenant.
| Lately, I've often wondered why we don't celebrate at least some of the Jewish holidays since as Christians we are grafted into the (Hebrew) olive tree.
I sure wouldn't consider the WCoF as the final arbitor on this issue. |
I would contend that the root in Romans 11 is not Moses, it is Abraham. He is the father of all the faithful, including the gentile nations. The ceremonial law came by Moses and was only appropriate to the religious cultus of old Israel. All of the Levitical feast days were in one way or another tied to the animal sacrifices of the old covenant. The only legitimate transformation from old to new is seen in the Passover becoming the Lord’s Supper. That is the celebration of God’s people for the new covenant age. Coupled with the Sabbath, it is a universal “feast day” for all the Church.
Celebrating holy days given by Moses would be no more appropriate than keeping dietary and clothing laws in the new covenant.
Scripture is our final arbiter, and we find no instructions in the new covenant for keeping old covenant “holy days” in an unbloody fashion. Some Christians have adopted the approach of the apostate rabbis who constructed the Talmudic law in order to make provision for keeping the feast days without the temple and sacrifices
So the bottom line is, “keeping Jewish holidays” in the Church cannot be done without the need to construct a Christian version of the Talmud. And that would be most inappropriate for the Church to attempt.