THE BEST FEAST EVER–NOT!
Copyright © Jules Dervaes
September 1, 2001
Note: You will not hear this hard-hitting analysis at any feast site because the ministers out there want you to stay anesthetized. But, if you do, you can be sure that some “ministers” will have again copied my free work in order to maintain their salaried positions. Mark those men because God has reserved an especially severe punishment for these despicable impostors.
PART ONE
That we are required to keep the annual Old Testament Holy Days is indisputable. One only needs to look around to see the proliferation of feast sites run by all those competing, splintered groups who clearly understand that these days must be observed. The demise of the WCG has spawned a buffet-style selection of sites to choose from. However, is this smorgasbord of parties what God really intends for His New Testament people, the end-time remnant? And shouldn’t you be receiving spiritual food today that is of higher nutritional value than meals in the past? Or, are you content to be served the warmed-up, tasteless leftovers dished out regularly–year after year after year? These critical times we live in call for critical actions.
Have you ever seriously considered, or even remotely suspected, that something is missing? After 2,000 years of history, shouldn’t we, as latter day Christians, be observing God’s Holy Days differently? SURELY, there should have been further growth in our development as millennia have passed. Our advanced spiritual Age should have brought advanced insight into our understanding of what God requires from us at this critical, last stage in His plan. If, after thousands of years, we have not become any more mature, then we, as rebelliously retarded children, are in grave trouble. What makes our condition worse is that we have the benefit of hindsight because we are not the first people of God to have wanted to stay “tied to mama’s apron strings.”
Originally, for Old Testament Israel, the Holy Days served as yearly physical observances meant to foreshadow the different stages in God’s redemptive plan. His intention was to help prepare His children so that they would develop in a continual progression toward an ever- deepening maturity. Our Father knew that man, being carnal and weak, needed to keep sacred key annual days as outward physical reminders to help in achieving mastery of inner spiritual concepts. Certainly, God expected obedience to His commands just on the elementary level. As infants we could obey them for our own good. But, by no means whatsoever, should it have ended there. Building on that foundation of obedience, rooted in Old Testament physical rudiments, God’s children were always to keep growing and, thus, gaining adult understanding.
When God required His Israelite children to make good on their extensive training and begin the transition to spiritual adulthood, He sent His Son to get the job done. It was graduation time for students of the Old Testament School. Over the span of four millennia, only a very few meek individuals had ever mastered the divine curriculum and qualified earlier for matriculation. Now, Jesus had come to found the post-graduate New Testament Academy which would place a “heavier” course load than just the easy, rote drill of the Ten Commandments. However, the children of the old school felt that this new curriculum was an affront to their established intelligence and that it posed a threat to their position as head of their elementary class. With their world under attack from this revolutionary man, God’s people chose the security of childhood over change, over the fearful uncertainty which would result if they had to enter adolescence.
PART TWO
(No “minister” will dare tell you the truth that I am telling you here. He is afraid that you just might be smart enough to see the parallel. And you, would you dare ask the “minister” where he was in 1986? What was he doing back then, when God’s people were entering the most dangerous period in the entire history of the Church? Are you afraid to find out about the parallel rebellion of God’s ordained “servants”? As believers of the Bible, Christians are supposed to be able to see parallels. That is the New Testament way God talks to His true servants!)
Where did it all go so wrong, so terribly, terribly wrong? After such a glorious beginning, what happened to the Jews that caused them to travel down this road of rebellion? The answer is to be found by looking at Jerusalem headquarters where the trouble obviously started. There, in a setting rich in goodly tradition, the ordained religious rulers, seated in the position of Moses, had developed a personal stake in, what was now, the business of handling the scriptures. The essence of their new brand of ministerial service was to gain and maintain control.
Consequently, those who were supposed to serve God–and only God–had lost their impartiality and, instead, were guilty of a conflict of interest. Protecting their self-interests meant that any new truth which would expose the Jewish ministry, bringing them harm, would be naturally rejected out of hand–dismissed with no questions asked! The base humanity of God’s earthly governmental officials was evident in their preeminent concern for self-preservation, which found expression in their siege mentality. Over time the ministry of God had subconsciously come to operate based on the gross human reality of the bottom line. No mere man could ever be allowed to upset that balance .
There was one huge, glaring problem, however. Overlooked was the plain historical fact that, on previous occasions when God needed to correct His government, He had sent an ordinary man to do the work. On a regular basis God had had to go outside His established administration to recruit a non-ordained man since His prior servants had grown blind due to their all- consuming desire for power. Historically, the results of such divine interventions were explosive. Now, into this powder keg situation at His Church headquarters, God would be sending, not just a prophet, but His own Son. Nevertheless, in the view of that cynical ministry, this common carpenter could not be the voice of God. JESUS CHRIST WAS NOT ORDAINED!
(Let’s see now: Poor, poor Jesus! The man had no ministerial credentials. Surely, we couldn’t listen to such a nobody today! FACT: Ministers wouldn’t be caught dead preaching this totally radical truth: Jesus Christ was not one of them! In his day He operated outside the ministerial rank and file. By the way, check out this other Church reject: John the Baptist!)
All God’s work, the hard fought victories won, the lessons taught in blood–the entire Old Testament training was at risk because of one pitiful issue: jobs. Or, more accurately, top, governmental jobs. Jobs are the perennial winner over truth, whether in the world or in the Church. All leaders everywhere are never stupid when it comes to perceiving threats to their positions; they won’t sit still for the loss of their power or influence. Therefore, from God’s own ordained ministry, there would be official condemnation for any outsider whose actions would undermine their status. This would ensure that the tithe- goldmine would remain safely in their possession. Profit rules!
His independent reliance on God made Jesus a rival in the eyes of the Jewish ministry. What did they see? How could white be perceived as black? The non-ordained, unschooled and unauthorized, would God use a non. There would be no security for their position in the Jewish church with this troublemaker walking around, going against “the law”-their tradition. So, desperate to maintain the status quo at all cost, the top minister and his cohorts began orchestrating events from the top down.
Incredibly, the battle shaped up to be one pitting God’s government on earth against God’s Son on earth. Finally, egged on by their leaders, Jewish synagogue-goers got swept along in the administration’s conspiracy and did the unthinkable. Only then, it was “the right thing to do” because the very ministers of God had sanctioned the action. Now, however, because the book has been written, the final score is posted, we can join in the winning chorus of condemnation. Given the benefit of this historical perspective, we are able to choose the right side. Two thousand years ago for the people of God, His son had to be gotten rid of in order to keep themselves from losing face. Ignominious finish?