The Feast Days
of YaHoWaH

Most people who grew up in a Christian church were taught that the Old Testament feasts were Jewish customs that no longer apply. They were told those days were shadows of things to come and that the reality is found in Jesus. But that is not what YaHoWaH said. Not even close.

The word translated as feasts in most English Bibles is Moedim, meaning appointed times or set meetings. This is the word YaHoWaH used when He spoke to Mosheh (Moses) about these days. He did not say: here are some religious ceremonies for Israel to perform. He said: these are My appointed times.

Read that carefully. He did not call them Israel's feasts. He did not call them Moses's feasts. He called them His own.

Holy convocations. The Hebrew word for convocation is miqra (sacred assembly), meaning a rehearsal, a calling together, a commanded gathering. These are not optional religious observances. They are commanded assemblies that YaHoWaH scheduled with His people.

There are seven of them. Each one is tied to a specific time of year on the Hebrew lunar calendar. Each one carries a specific meaning, a specific command, and a specific promise. They are woven into the fabric of YaHoWaH's covenant with His people and they point to His plan for all of creation.

They also include two appointed times that many people do not think of as feast days at all: Shabbat (the Sabbath, meaning rest) and Rosh Chodesh (the new moon, meaning head of the month). We will cover all of them in this teaching.

But first, we need to understand why most people have never kept these days. That story matters deeply.

YaHoWaH arranged His seven appointed times in a specific order across the Hebrew year. The spring feasts come first, then a long summer, then the fall feasts. Each one builds on the one before it. Each one tells part of a larger story.

In their seasons. Not when it is convenient. Not when the culture accommodates them. In the seasons He appointed. YaHoWaH built these times into the rhythm of creation itself. The Hebrew calendar, the phases of the moon, the agricultural cycles of the land all align with His appointed times. They are not arbitrary religious dates. They are woven into the fabric of the world He made.

Before YaHoWaH listed a single annual feast in Leviticus 23, He opened the entire chapter with Shabbat (meaning rest, cessation). This was not accidental. Shabbat is the first and most frequent of all the appointed times. It comes every seven days without fail, woven into the rhythm of creation itself.

Shabbat was not given at Sinai. It was built into creation itself.

YaHoWaH blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. That word sanctified means set apart as holy. He did not bless the first day. He did not sanctify Sunday. He blessed and set apart the seventh day. This happened before any law was given. Before Sinai. Before Moses. Before Israel existed as a nation.

Then at Sinai He repeated it as one of the Ten Commandments, the only commandment that begins with the word remember.

The seventh day. Not a day in seven. Not any day you choose. The seventh. The one He blessed at creation. The one He set apart. The one He commanded His people to remember.

What day is the seventh day? On any calendar in the world, the seventh day of the week is Saturday. Sunday is the first day. This is not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of calendar fact. YaHoWaH blessed and commanded the seventh day. Constantine and the Council of Laodicea (363 AD) moved Christian worship to Sunday and forbade resting on the seventh day.

YaHoWaH Himself declares the Sabbath was never meant for Israel alone. The sons of the stranger, those from every nation who join themselves to Him, who love His name, who choose to follow Him and walk with His people, and who keep His Sabbath, are brought to His holy mountain. His house is called a house of prayer for all people. The invitation is open. The covenant is open. The Sabbath is open.

YaHoWaH Himself called the Sabbath a delight. Not a burden. Not a restriction. A delight. He gave it as a gift to be received, not a law to be endured. Notice what the promise is tied to: when His Sabbath is honored, the inheritance of Jacob is opened, and the mouth of YaHoWaH has spoken it.

Closing Summary

The Sabbath stands as the first appointed time YaHoWaH declared holy. He set it apart at creation, before there was an Israel, before there was a covenant nation, before there was a temple. He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He had rested from all His work. Then, in His Torah, He commanded His people to remember it and keep it holy. Then, through Yeshayahu, He opened the gates wider still: the sons of the stranger who choose to follow Him and keep His Sabbath are brought to His holy mountain, and His house becomes a house of prayer for all people.

The Sabbath is not Israel's burden. It is YaHoWaH's gift. It is the weekly return to His presence, the rhythm He built into His creation, the day He calls a delight. Science has confirmed what YaHoWaH built in from the beginning: human beings need one day in seven to rest. YaHoWaH knew that long before we did. To honor His Sabbath is to honor Him. To call it a delight is to agree with His own word. To enter into it is to step into the inheritance of Jacob and the promise spoken by the mouth of YaHoWaH Himself.

This is the question that needs to be answered honestly. If YaHoWaH commanded these appointed times, if He called them His own, if He said they are forever, then how did billions of people end up not keeping a single one of them? The answer is historical, and it is important.

The early followers of Yeshua (Jesus) were Torah-observant Jews. They kept Shabbat. They kept Passover. They kept the feasts. The earliest congregations in Jerusalem gathered on the seventh day, kept the appointed times, and understood their faith through a Hebrew lens. That world was not separate from Torah. It was built on it.

But as the movement spread through the Roman Empire, Gentile (non-Jewish) leadership grew. And those Gentile leaders brought their own cultural assumptions with them. They were not raised in Hebrew practice. They were raised in Greek and Roman religious culture. Slowly, over decades and then centuries, the Hebrew foundations were replaced with Roman ones.

Then came the moment that changed everything permanently.

313 AD — The Edict of Milan. Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity throughout the empire. For the first time the church had the protection of state power. And Constantine used that power to shape the faith in his own image.

321 AD — Sunday worship becomes law. Constantine issued an edict declaring Sunday, the venerable day of the sun, as the official day of rest and worship. This was not a spiritual revelation. Constantine was a devotee of Sol Invictus (the unconquered sun god) and Sunday was the sun's sacred day.

325 AD — The Council of Nicaea. Constantine convened bishops from across the empire. Among the decisions made: Easter was formally separated from Passover. The date was changed so that Christians would never again celebrate the resurrection on the same day as the Jewish Passover. The break from Hebrew roots was made official.

363 AD — The Council of Laodicea. This council went further. It decreed that Christians must not rest on the Sabbath day, meaning Saturday. Canon 29 stated plainly that Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day. Any who refused to work on Saturday were called heretics. The seventh-day Shabbat that YaHoWaH had commanded from creation was not just moved. It was forbidden.

The ancient paths did not move. They were abandoned. And the abandonment was not accidental. It was systematic, political, and enforced by imperial power. The people who inherited this faith received it centuries after these decisions were made, with no knowledge of what had been removed.

That is why billions of people today do not keep a single feast of YaHoWaH. Not because the feasts were cancelled. But because they were taken.

Some will say: those were Old Testament commands given to Israel under a covenant that has since been fulfilled or replaced. We have already addressed the Two-Coming doctrine and the abolishment of Torah claim in our other teachings. But let us look specifically at what YaHoWaH said about His appointed times and whether He placed any expiration date on them.

He used the word olam. The Hebrew word olam (עוֹלָם) means a long age, a perpetual duration, a time extending far into the future. It is the word YaHoWaH used repeatedly when He described these feasts.

Notice that Zechariah 14:16 is a future prophecy. It describes a time that has not yet come. And in that future time, the nations of the earth are keeping Sukkot (Tabernacles). Not Easter. Not Christmas. Sukkot. The feast YaHoWaH commanded. If the feasts were done away with, why does the prophet describe them being kept in the future restored earth?

All flesh. Every Shabbat. Every new moon. In the future. YaHoWaH's appointed times are not behind us. They are ahead of us. They point to His plan. They rehearse His story. And they will still be kept when everything is restored to what He intended from the beginning.

They were never cancelled by YaHoWaH. They were cancelled by men. And men do not have the authority to cancel what YaHoWaH commanded.