Does this BREAK the law? - Keeping Biblical feasts outside of Israel

All right, this is a big one. Perhaps one of the more controversial questions. Do you have to be in the land to keep the feast days? And is it a sin if you're trying to keep it outside of it? David, what are some of your thoughts on that?

I would say that this would only apply to sacrifices. You know, there are certain offerings that you would take to the temple that are associated with the festivals, and obviously that cannot be applied today. You know, the Torah says to offer those sacrifices only at Jerusalem, the place where God places his name. So that can't be applied today even if we wanted to, because there's no temple in Jerusalem and no levitical priesthood in operation. But we could still apply other aspects of the festivals outside of Israel. And that is what first century Jews and Christians did in the diaspora. In one corinthians five eight, Paul tells christians to celebrate the festival even though Korath was 800 miles away from Jerusalem, and most christians would not be able to make such a long trip. In the diaspora, communities often sent representatives to Jerusalem on behalf of the community, and they would give offerings at the temple and all of that when they would travel to Jerusalem. But those who stayed behind would observe the festivals where they were. They would observe the aspects of the festivals that they could do outside of Jerusalem. So take Passover, for example. You know, you wouldn't be able to have a Passover lamb at your local community in Korus, because the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed in Jerusalem at the place where God chose to set his name. But you could remove the leaven from your home. You could abstain from eating leavened foods for seven days. Right? You could do all the other aspects of the festivals that don't require.

That's what he tells him to do. He says, let's celebrate the festival. And he says how? He literally says, not with the old leaven. Leaven of malice and evil, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

So, yeah, and I would just add really quick to that. Historically. Historically, that's what christians did. We have quotes from polycrates and polycrates. He's explaining what he and the apostles before him, like the apostle John and Polycarp and others, that they always observed the Passover on the 14th of Nisan, the same time the jews do it. And he says that they observe removing leaven from the home, the putting away of leaven. And so they're in the churches in the Asia minority, they're churches in the east. So not all of these people are coming to Jerusalem. They're observing the festival, the aspects of the festival that they could observe where they resided.

Let me read, I just want to read a few lines of that because I think it's going to be helpful for people. It says, but the bishops of Asia, led by polycrates, decide to hold to the old custom handed down to them. And then he goes on, he says, we observe the exact day, neither adding nor taking away. And then he says, he talks about all these as David referenced, all these who've come before. He says, philip, one of the twelve apostles. And then he says, john, who was a witness and teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and Polycarp and Smyrna, who was bishop and martyr. And so probably four or five more, including bishops and so on. And then he says, all of these observe the 14th day of the Passover according to the gospel, deviating in respect, but following the rule of faith. And he says, he concludes it with just this line. I love, he says, and my relatives, we all, we were bishops, and we always observe the day when the people put away the leaven. So beautiful. So I guess my question to whoever's listening to this is like, are you identifying as part of the people who observe the day when I. The people put away the leaven?

Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. In that same quote, he quotes acts where he says, we must obey God rather than man. And polycrates references, that's acts 529 in relation to the date of Passover, which is significant because it indicates that these early christians considered the observance of Passover to be a matter of obedience. It wasn't just a custom or tradition to them. They considered it a matter of obedience. We have to obey God by observing the Passover.

I love how we have biblical writings, and that would be enough. Absolutely. But we also have writings from the early church confirming many of these things. So beautiful. So one thing I'll actually just add to this whole thing is that when you think about the diaspora, which, you know, at the time, this is now after the temple got destroyed 70 AD, you still have Polycarp listed in here. And he died around 156 AD. And so he's still, at that point, they're still celebrating Passover after the destruction of the temple. So this proves that you don't need the temple, you don't need to be in Jerusalem to keep the feast at all. There's the aspects of it that has got nothing to do with the temple offerings that can still be kept. And that's what they did.

Amen.