Holidays

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In our study, it is our hope that we can examine what the Bible says and compare that to what the world does today. The word holiday has come to mean just a day that we celebrate something and don't have to go to work but that is not how it started. The word actually comes from the combination of two words which are "holy" and "days".

In the Bible (Leviticus 23), the Lord gave Moses a list of His appointed feasts and this is where we get holy days. The days in Leviticus were to be days of sacred assemblies where God's people (Israel) were to gather.

We may say "We aren't Jews so what does this have to do with us?" but the simple fact of the matter is that we are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a Jew (see Matthew chapter 1) and we are to follow Him and do as He did.

The first holy day that God prescribed is called the Sabbath. This is the seventh day and is observed as a day of rest to remember that God created everything in six days and then declared this day of rest. This day was to begin at sundown on Friday and last until sundown on Saturday (that is the prescribed way of keeping track of days, see Genesis 1:5). God's people (the Jews) were to get together (hold a sacred assembly) and to do no work. There are those that say that, through Jesus, the Sabbath was changed to Sunday and therefore the "church" is to meet on Sunday but there is no biblical basis for such a claim. In fact, if you look at Jesus' own words in Matthew 5:17-20, He said that not the "least stroke of a pen" will disappear from the Law.

**CAUTION** It must be understood that we are not talking about keeping the Law for salvation. As Christians, we are called to be disciples of Jesus and that means we are to do the things that He did. Jesus kept the holy days of God and so we should do the same instead of replacing them with man made celebrations.

For a look at some of the days that are celebrated that are not holy days, you can check out our Valentine's Day page.