Friday, October 5, 2012

Master Slinky


As I write this, the ICEJ’s annual Feast of Tabernacles has just finished in Israel. Someday it would be nice to go to that event. Ah, but that would take time and money...                                   Time.

In the Greek way of thinking, time is a straight line that extends beyond comprehension. The Hebrew calendar is circular and time keeps pace according to the festivals and new moons. With the stretching of another helical coil in this year’s slinky, our time has been marked off again. Each of us has our own slinky that spirals to the sky; the number of coils defines our lifetime. God has inscribed a calendar on the master slinky that He started that tells the story of His redemption as it has unfolded over time. Marked on each year is the sequence of: Passover (death of Messiah), First Fruits (Resurrection of Messiah), Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah (birth of Messiah), Yom Kippur, and Sukkot /Feast of Tabernacles (the Kingdom of Messiah). When Catholicism took the faith over, they threw away this calendar and created their own. When Martin Luther came along he trimmed it a bit, but pretty much passed it on.

I must confess that I did not (and have never) built a sukkah in my backyard to celebrate Sukkot; but I am aware of the holiday’s timing and significance, both in the Biblical past and prophetic future. This last weekend occurred during Sukkot. Let me ask you this: Did your church mention anything about Sukkot in its bulletin, sermon, or church calendar? Does it have classes that teach about the Biblical calendar?

I believe that the Gentile church should have more than just a better understanding of the importance of the Biblical calendar; it should take measures to include it in its own calendar. In a way I’m calling for the evangelical church to distance itself from the Catholic-based calendar that it has observed for centuries and begin to adopt a new approach to counting the time. Evangelicals pride themselves on being Bible based – but we have not been Biblical when it comes to the calendar. Time is a sacred element; it is the first thing that is called holy in the Bible. It is God’s idea; not ours and it was not given only to Israel. But how should we go about incorporating this? What should we include and not include? How do we bridge the gap between the two worlds of the traditional and the Messianic? Do we gradually bring in the Biblical alongside the traditional? How do we educate everyone on this? Is the problem really that people will be worried that other commandments, until now deemed not applicable, will be considered again? There’s a church in our town who is advertising that they’re having a pig roast. What does this say about our respect for the commandments?

Do you have any ideas that you would like to share on this? I have set up an email account to collect your thoughts. I will consider those as I seek to offer suggestions to this complicated subject. Send your feedback on this and other subjects to: dkbaggage@gmail.com

Until next time.

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