We are often asked the question: Are we supposed to keep the feasts or holy days such as the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Passover, and the Feast of Trumpets?

In Deuteronomy 4:13 the Lord “…declared unto you [the children of Israel] his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.”

In verse 14, Moses makes a difference between 

1) the ten commandments of the Lord, and 

2) other “statues and judgments” that “the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you”.

In Deuteronomy 31:24 “…when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book” he commands the Levites to “…put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.” These handwritten ordinances were a “witness against” the children of Israel when they rebelled in the future (see Deuteronomy 31: 27).

The record of the feast days were part of these ordinances that were handwritten by Moses while the moral law was written by the finger of God upon tables of stone. One set of laws were permanent, while the other was temporary foreshadowing the advent of Christ.

Paul tells us in Colossians 2:14 that when Christ was crucified He was “…Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross”. The temporary handwritten ordinances of feast days (etc.) were blotted out by the cross.

The sacrificial system of types and shadows pointing to the “lamb of God” was now unnecessary, because the real Lamb of God (Christ) had fulfilled all the symbolic meaning in these ceremonies and feasts. So the short answer to your question is that we no longer have to observe these feast days since the reality they are pointing towards has already come.

At the council at Jerusalem in Acts 15, a dispute arose about whether the Gentile believers should be obliged to obey these ordinances by practicing circumcision (and other “laws” that were part of these writings of Moses). The early Assembly wrote a letter to the Gentile assemblies. In Acts 15:28, 29 they tell the Gentiles “…it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well…”

As New Covenant believers we are to abstain from:

1) Meats that have been offered to idols

2) From Blood (Drinking blood)

3) From those imals that have been strangled

4) Fornication

This decision not to burden the Gentiles with the ordinances of Moses, freed the generations that followed from observing the various feast days, etc. but in no way relieved the obligation to obey the moral commandments written by God on the tables of stone! Since the Sabbath commandment is the fourth of the ten commandments in the moral law of God, the question arises are we expected to obey it today?

The simple answer to that is that the 10 commandments including the Sabbath day are now written on our minds and hearts. Please see Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews Chapter 8.

Along with the other 9 commandments these commandments are now spiritual as we can see with the example of adultery in Matthew 5:27-28.

Matthew 5:27-28, 27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Our rest is only in Jesus, no one else and no way else.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

We will never find rest on any day of the week, the rest that we will find can only be found in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The Sabbath is no longer a day to rest, the Sabbath is a 24/7 event only found in our saviour because he alone is the only one that can give us that rest.

While we can safely look upon the feast days (etc.) as symbolic teaching tools that explain portions of Christ’s ministry, they are not necessary for salvation and will never be able to save any man.

The Passover was ordained as a commemoration of the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. God had directed that, year by year, as the children should ask the meaning of this ordinance, the history should be repeated. Thus the wonderful deliverance was to be kept fresh in the minds of all.

The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper was given to commemorate the great deliverance wrought out as the result of the death of Christ. Till He shall come the second time in power and glory, this ordinance is to be celebrated. It is the means by which His great work for us is to be kept fresh in our minds. “

“In this ordinance [the last supper or communion], Christ discharged his disciples from the cares and burdens of the ancient Israelite obligations in rites and ceremonies. These no longer possessed any virtue; for type was meeting antitype in himself, the authority and foundation of all Israelite ordinances that pointed to him as the great and only efficacious offering for the sins of the world.

He gave this simple ordinance that it might be a special season when he himself would always be present, to lead all participating in it to feel the pulse of their own conscience, to awaken them to an understanding of the lessons symbolized, to revive their memory, to convict of sin, and to receive their penitential repentance. He would teach them that brother is not to exalt himself above brother, that the dangers of disunion and strife shall be seen and appreciated; for the health and holy activity of the soul are involved.

This ordinance does not speak so largely to man’s intellectual capacity as to his heart. His moral and spiritual nature needs it. If his disciples had not needed this, it would not have been left for them as Christ’s last established ordinance in connection with, and including, the last supper. It was Christ’s desire to leave to his disciples an ordinance that would do for them the very thing they needed,—that would serve to disentangle them from the rites and ceremonies which they had hitherto engaged in as essential, and which the reception of the gospel made no longer of any force. To continue these rites would be an insult to Yahuah (the Hebrew Name of the Lord) . Eating of the body, and drinking of the blood, of Christ, not merely at the sacramental service, but daily partaking of the bread of life to satisfy the soul’s hunger, would be in receiving his word and doing his will.”

In this article it is absolutely clear, that to keep the feasts is an insult to God. These new theories that have risen among God’s people are the work of the enemy designed to distract us from the most important end-time message.

There is no old forgotten ceremony or rite that we must be keeping. This is not “new light”. This is a regression backwards, and those that teach that we need to keep the feasts are not understanding what Jesus intended to be done with the communion service or His death.