The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2019 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 70

Does God Give Authority over His Feasts to the Pharisees?

(Are You Kidding Me?)

Benedict Arnold was an American officer in the Revolution against Britain and a close associate of George Washington. During the war, though, Arnold married into a family of British supporters and socialized with those who were loyal to the British king. His wife even maintained a friendship with the head of British intelligence in the colonies, Major John Andre.

Such close connections with the enemy might have caused Washington some suspicions of Arnold’s dedication to the American cause. In spite of that, Washington put Arnold in charge of the important American fortifications at West Point, New York.

Guess what happened?

Arnold tried to turn West Point over to the British.

The fortuitous capture of Major Andre revealed the plot, West Point was saved, and Benedict Arnold became the most famous traitor in American history.

Should Washington have put Arnold in charge of West Point’s defense, in spite of his camaraderie with the enemy?

No. That was a big mistake and a military disaster was avoided only by a lucky break.

Many Feast observers believe that God puts the Pharisees in charge of His festivals. Is that like putting Benedict Arnold in charge of West Point?

Who are the Pharisees?

God’s enemies.

Mainstream Judaism believes that God gave authority over His Sabbath and Feasts to the Pharisee rabbis. They revere the rabbis and go by the rabbi rules for those days. And the Pharisee rules about the Feasts, including their calculations of dates, are about as complex and confusing as their rules about the Sabbath.

Most Christian and Messianic Feast observers do not accept Pharisee Sabbath rules. They do not light Sabbath candles, they do read electronic Bibles on the Sabbath and they do write Sabbath sermon notes with a pen. However, despite ignoring rabbi Sabbath rules, they generally believe that God gave the Pharisees authority over the Feasts. They believe that the Pharisee calculations set the holy days, and that certain rabbinical traditions should be carried out during the Feasts.

It’s obviously inconsistent to accept Pharisee authority over the Feasts and not over the Sabbath. Since the Sabbath is the first Feast named in Leviticus 23, if God gave authority to the Pharisees to set Feast rules, they would also have authority to set Sabbath rules.

And if the Pharisees have authority to set the Feast dates and ceremonies, then why wouldn’t the rest of their rules about the Feasts apply? Such as not reading a laptop Bible or taking notes with a pen or turning on a light to read on a holy day.

Yeshua’s earthly teaching period was centered around the Feasts. Did Christ obey the Pharisee Feast rules?

No.

At the time when Yeshua walked the earth, Pharisees did not rule the Feasts. The Temple had not fallen, the priests still served at the Temple, and the Pharisees did not unilaterally rule Judaism. The Feasts that Yeshua and the first flock kept were not set by the Pharisees. Their Feast rules came much, much later.

Most people are not aware that Judaism is the Pharisees. Saying that God gave the Jews spiritual authority sounds a bit better than saying that God gave the Pharisees authority. As cited earlier, though, Judaism is the Pharisees.

Jewish Encyclopedia, 1910 edition, article Pharisees
”…with the destruction of the Temple the Sadducees disappeared altogether, leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of the Pharisees.

Henceforth Jewish life was regulated by the teachings of the Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view…”

So saying that God gave the Jews authority over the Feasts is saying that God gave the Pharisees authority over the Feasts. They are Judaism.

Do they have that authority? Does God set the time and conduct of His Feasts by Pharisee rabbi rules?

The Pharisees?

What an incredible proposition! That God sets His holy days by those who murdered His only begotten Son!

That’s as preposterous as saying that God uses Judas to lead His church. During His earthly teaching time, nobody opposed Christ more than the Pharisees. Conversely, Christ condemned the Pharisees more than any other people on earth.

Matt 21:42-45
42) Yeshua said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?’
43) “Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation bringing forth its fruit.
44) He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust.”
45) When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke about them.

 Yeah, He did speak about them. “The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you.”

Matt 5:20
For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

So the unrighteousness of the Pharisees will not be in the Kingdom of Heaven.

That presents a festival problem.

God’s Feasts will be kept in the Kingdom of God. But if the unrighteous Pharisees won’t be there, then who will set the annual holy days? When the Feast of Tabernacles is kept by the world right after Christ’s return, will Yeshua keep that Feast by the Pharisee rules — who won’t even be there?

Surely not.

If the Pharisees won’t control the Feasts in the Kingdom of God, should they control them today?

In the Kingdom of God, won’t the holy days be set by the Holy One, who set those days to begin with?

Gen 1:14 Lexham English Bible
14) And God said, “Let there be lights in the vaulted dome of heaven to separate day from night, and let them be as signs and for appointed times, and for days and years…

The Hebrew word for “appointed times,” often rendered in this verse as “seasons,” is “moed.”

H4150 (Mickelson’s Enhanced Strong’s Dictionaries of the Greek and Hebrew Testaments) moed.
1. (properly) an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season.
2. (specifically) a festival.

God set the signs for the festivals, because He is directly in charge of them. The Pharisees, though, say we have to look to them, not God, for discerning the Feast times.

The Pharisees presume to have authority to set God’s holy times, yet Christ said they could not discern the signs of the times.

Matt 16:1-12
1) The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
2) But he answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’
3) In the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can’t discern the signs of the times!
4) An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will be no sign given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” He left them, and departed.
5) The disciples came to the other side and had forgotten to take bread.
6) Yeshua said to them, “Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7) They reasoned among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.”
8) Yeshua, perceiving it, said, “Why do you reason among yourselves, you of little faith, ‘because you have brought no bread?’
9) Don’t you yet perceive, neither remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up?
10) Nor the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up?
11) How is it that you don’t perceive that I didn’t speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
12) Then they understood that he didn’t tell them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

If the Pharisees did not have the wisdom to figure out that the Son of God was among them, would they have the wisdom to discern when God’s Feasts should be held?

Christ also warned us to beware of the teaching of the Pharisees. That would surely include their teachings on the Feasts.

Yeshua plainly said that the Pharisees are blind.

Matt 15:12-14
12) Then the disciples came, and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended, when they heard this saying?”
13) But he answered, “Every plant which my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.
14) Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

Surely, God does not use those who are spiritually blind to rule His holiest times. Throughout the Bible, the times when God’s people were closest to Him were at His Feasts. Coming out of Egypt, entering the Promised Land, dedicating the first Temple, Ezra’s Tabernacles after returning from Babylon captivity, Hezekiah’s Passover/Unleavened Bread, Josiah’s Passover/Unleavened Bread, and Yeshua’s Passover sacrifice — those were the highest spiritual times in the Bible, all at festivals.

The Sabbath is extremely important, as it is a memorial and connecting time to the Creator. The Feasts are likewise extremely important, as they teach what God is doing with humankind and with each human. Rome could not really change the Sabbath day and the Pharisees could not change the Feast days. But they both thought they could, because of God’s authority.

“If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.” Would God use those who are spiritually blind to set His Feasts? Should the times when God’s people are closest to Him be set by those who are farthest from Him?

Common sense says no.

Here is the ultimate problem with having the Pharisees rule the Feasts.

Luke 5:18-21
18) Behold, men brought a paralyzed man on a cot, and they sought to bring him in to lay before Yeshua.
19) Not finding a way to bring him in because of the multitude, they went up to the housetop, and let him down through the tiles with his cot into the midst before Yeshua.
20) Seeing their faith, he said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
21) The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”

The big insurmountable problem of Pharisees/Judaism is that they do not accept that Yeshua is the Son of God, and is God, and is one with God the Father. How can they set the holy days of God– the Father and the Son — when they don’t even accept the Son as God?

As discussed earlier, the Pharisee rabbi rules for the Sabbath are enormously complex. Even the Judaism site chabad.org describes them as “overwhelming” with “an impossible number of restrictions.”

Guess what?

The Pharisee rules for the Feasts, including their calculations, are the same way.

I once heard a wise man say, “God makes things simple. Man makes things complex.” I have never forgotten that.

Sabbath rules, food rules, Feast rules — nobody complicates things like the Pharisees. Yet that wise man went by the complicated rules of the Pharisee calendar, which he could not figure himself, because he believed that God gave the Pharisees authority over the Feasts.

Over and over Yeshua contended with the Pharisees over who is Lord of the Sabbath, Him or them. He totally disregarded their Sabbath laws and absolutely did not accept that the Pharisees had authority over the Sabbath.

Pharisee authority over the Feasts rests on the same principle as their presumed authority over the Sabbath. That principle is that God gave them authority to change His laws and days. If Christ did not accept Pharisee authority over the Sabbath, it would be totally contradictory for Him to accept Pharisee authority over the Feasts, because the Sabbath is the first Feast.

Yet most Christian and Messianic Feast observers follow the Pharisee Feast rules, in setting the time of the Feasts and in rituals done at the Feasts. They believe the Pharisees — the Jews — have authority to add to God’s laws. They think that God lets the Pharisees undo what He did.

Rome says that God gave the Roman Church authority to nullify the Sabbath. They have a Bible passage to “prove” that. Does the Bible say that God also gave the Pharisees authority to change the Feast days?