Biblical dates are hidden by the man-made ‘holy days’ of the western Church

Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor

Dr JT Hardy replied pleasantly (‘Do not be judged by your response to a festival but by your response to the salvation message,’ April 15) to my points in my letter (April 14) and raised a point himself in form of a verse from the New Testament, namely:

‘Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.’

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From my own experience many in the churches are apt to judge exactly if one does any of the things listed in that Scripture warning.

In the original text and in the Hebrew New Testament the word ‘Sabbath’ is in the singular, not plural, as there is only one weekly Sabbath in the Bible, but there are annual Sabbaths or ‘rest days’ which are holy days set in place by God and which Yeshua/Jesus observed called ‘moadim’ in Hebrew, which are the “religious festivals” in the verse above in the version Dr Hardy supplies.

Judging on eating and drinking would include the widely held teachings within Christendom against God’s advice on eating unclean animals, which the non-Jew Noah knew about.

How many Christians understand or keep a New Moon? Yet, this verse warned against judging those who observe them, which is basically just the lunar months (‘moonths’) set in place by God which according to Genesis the moon and sun were for days and months and years.

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I fully endorse Dr Hardy’s quotation that no Christian should judge for keeping any of these, but man-made ‘holy days’ and festivals are a different matter. All what is quoted above were set in place by God, and that is why no one should judge about anyone keeping them.

Most Christians quote this to promote ‘Sun’-day thinking that the Sabbath has been anulled.

One of the ‘religious festivals’ (moedim) or holy ‘Appointed Times’ is the Passover of the LORD, now largely superceded by the ecclesiastical ‘Easter,’ named after a spring goddess.

Going by the Biblical dates of Passover, the date of the resurrection falls this year on Monday 18th April, which is 17th Nisan in the Bible, but most Christians will have celebrated this on ‘Easter Sun-day’ the day before. As with Good Friday, it is observing these things on a day of the week instead of the dates given in the Bible that causes the real dates of these momentous events to remain in obscurity.

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Dr Hardy says that it is the message of salvation that matters, but it’s still a glaring difference for these Biblical dates to be hidden by the man-made ‘holy days’ of the western Church.

For another year the true resurrection day is ignored by the majority of Christians.

Colin Nevin, Bangor

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