God's house today is being polluted by alien, foreign and different strange doctrines. The Apostle Paul said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various strange doctrines" (Heb 13:8-9). Paul's warning is for us as it was for those he spoke to. At that time many identified themselves as Christians, yet they were being taken in by the false teaching of Judaism. There are two important points Paul makes in the book of Hebrew. One was to confirm to Jewish Christians that the Old Testament Judaism had come to an end through the fulfillment by Christ. The second point was to warn some who had identified themselves as Christians, against falling back in to the practice of Judaism. Paul continues these warning thoughts to the Ephesian brethren telling them, "Henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive" (Eph 4:14).

These false teachers are very cleaver and deceiving. We are being told by many of the scattered church leaders and groups that we need to get back to our Jewish roots. It sounds and looks religious to have special repetitious prayer, candle lightings, using Hebrew dialogue, bobbing up and down while meditating and praying. Harvesting these thoughts, we will look at a Bible study Dr. Herman Hoeh gave on September 15, 1977--23 years ago, titled "Why Keep the Holy Days."

"I had to face the question, "Was I to become a Jew inwardly?" That was and is the issue when the Holy Days are presented. Because there are those who can see other doctrines on the Millennium, or on the Sabbath, or on the lost tribes, you name it, tithing. Some of these things are shared by other Christian groups. What is uniquely Jewish is a series of festivals, seven in number. And I realized what I doubt the majority even in God's church do. That there is nothing more significant in the world as it is now structured than the fact that if we keep the festivals of God we are most directly related to a Jewish practice.

When I made up my mind on the question of the festivals after months here at college, and I didn't make it up in September, October, or November or December, or January. It took some time, because to do this was to depart from what had been regarded as the broad Christian view. And it meant doing something that was so significantly Jewish, that there was no question that this is an issue which denotes who are God's people. Even more specifically than that of the Sabbath itself, meaning the seventh day of the week." Teachings like the above has caused God's people to accept Judaism, and its practice of the postponements that are calculated into the Jewish Hebrew calendar. These are God's Holy Days---not the Jews holidays!

Judah's practice of abominations was headline news a long time before Christ walked on earth as a human being. Jeremiah 7:30 makes this abundantly clear. "For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight," says the Lord. "They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, [Church of God] to pollute it" (Jer. 7:30).

But before taking a look at the Feast of Trumpets, step 4, let's read what the Encyclopedia Judaica, has to say about the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, on Page 169 titled Passover. This is a short paragraph on some history going back to Jewish roots. Keep in mind that many church groups want you and me to combine Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread together, keeping them as one feast day. But is that what the Encyclopedia Judaica has printed in its pages?? "The feast of Passover consists of two parts; the Passover ceremony and the Feast of Unleavened Bread originally both parts existed separately; but at the beginning of the exile they were combined." When going back to Jewish roots that statement makes it very clear---the 14th is the Passover not the 15th and they are two separate feasts not one. Just as God's Word commands in Leviticus 23:5-6. "In the fourteenth day of the first month at even [ben ha orbayim - meaning: between evenings, sun set and dark] is the Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the Lord: seven days you must eat unleavened bread." God's Word clearly confirms two separate events!

God's feasts were given to Israel, not just to the Jews as is assumed by most of the world. This also is confirmed by God's Word. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "speak to the children of Israel, [not just Judah] and say to them: The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts"

Why bring up the Feast of Trumpets? Step 4 in God's plan? Because it seems many in God's churches feel they need to get back to their Jewish roots and keep Rosh--ha--shanah. What is Rosh-- ha--shanah ???? Rosh ha shanah means: "the new year." The Feast of Trumpets, and the first day of Rosh ah shanah are suppose to be on the same month and day of the year. Rosh ha shanah, is the new year for the religion of Judaism and the Feast of Trumpets pictures the prophetic return of Jesus Christ! That's one day Satan really wants postponed. He has convinced those who practice Judaism and syncretism to do just that. If you follow the Hebrew Calendar and keep Rosh ah shanah, you will not be keeping God's Feast of Trumpets!

"Rosh-ah-shanah is referred to in the Torah as the day of sounding the shofar. It was not called Rosh-ah-shanah the New year until Talmudic times, [around 200 A.D.]. The nature of the festival is unclear. The notion of Rosh-ah- shanah as the year may have come later in the tradition. Rosh-ah-shahah as the new year is tied to the creation of the world. Thus in the Talmud there is a debate as to whether the world was created in Nisan [ the month when Passover Falls] or in Tishri. In fact the Bible's silence about the fall new year and its celebration is hardly accidental. Celebrations of this festival were so fraught with pagan associations that the rather Puritanical Biblical authors probably opposed the festival altogether, much as later rabbis fraught against too much Paganism and magic for their comfort. Only in the Talmud does Rosh-ah- shanah emerge as a major Jewish festival, showing that the folk, then as later, did not always listen to their more Purist religious leaders. It is likely that especially the first Diaspora Jews, those of Babylonia, did much to support the acceptance of this festival, and gave it a legacy that is in many ways reminiscent of the ancient Babylonian new year."

Rosh-ah-shanah is not the first day of God's year. Exodus 12: 2, tells us when the first day and month is to begin. "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month (new moon) of the year to you" (Exo 12:2). You can see God's new year day and month is not on Rosh ha shanah. While reading the "Jewish Holidays, A Guide and Commentary," I came across an interesting statement from one of his Commentators, Edward L. Greenstein, an associate professor of the Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. It reads, "Most of the biblical contexts make it clear that the shofar was sounded primarily to announce the beginning of the special day, especially the new moon: ‘Sound on the new Moon the shofar at the darkening of the moon the day of our Festival ; for it is a statute for Israel, a ruling of the God of Jacob" Psalm 81: 3-5, Rosh ha shanah is the seventh and thus a special new moon."

Some are teaching and believing that Christ was only an angle before He was born of flesh. They teach that God the Father was the God [Lord] of the Old Testament, and that He married and divorced Israel, not His son Jesus the Christ. Those that believe that, want to bypass the mystery of creation week. "Then God said, "Let us [plural] make man in our image [plural] according to our [plural] likeness" (Gen. 1:26). The plural ‘us' and ‘our' require the presence of at least two beings counseling together. The statement that man was to be made in our image and was made in God's image, leads to the conclusion that those counseling must both be, being's of the same Godhead.

This truth is implied in various passages such as in Genesis 3:22. "The Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us [plural], to know good and evil." What else doe it mean ‘to become one of us'?? We will need to look at Matthew 19 and 1 Corinthians 12 for the answer. "The Pharisees came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? And He answer and said to them, "have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female. And said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matt. 19:3-6). God said this in the first marriage ceremony in Genesis 2. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:24). These words express the deepest physical and spiritual unity of a man and woman in marriage. Their expressed, unmistakable community of interests are one in thought, character, and action. They share the same name--same house--same love [meaning] out going concern. God the Father and Jesus Christ share the same commandments, statutes and judgments! Christ said, "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30). Let's look at John 17, verses we read at Passover service. "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are" (John 17:11).

1 Corinthians 12, speaks of every believer being a member of Christ's body! "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body" (1 Cor. 12:15-20). The lowliest member of the church is as much a member of the Body of Christ as the most highly endowed. Christ gave His life for all and He is no respecter of persons.

If God the Father married Israel and divorced Israel, because Israel committed adultery, can Jesus Christ upon His return to earth, marry Israel His Father's divorced wife? I ask ??? Is that legal in God's commandments, statutes, and judgments? In Leviticus 21 is written a law regulating the priesthood. "They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; For the priest is holy to his God" (Lev 21:7). God does not have two standards. The priest was not permitted to marry a woman profaned by harlotry or one that's divorced. Remember Christ is our High Priest. In 1 Corinthians 4:5 Paul says its abomination for a man to have his fathers wife. Theses topics are being believed and taught by false teachers, who say we need to get back to our Jewish roots, and stop believing that Jesus Christ was the God of the Old Testament. We need to be careful of who our teachers are!! It is possible to educate men into a knowledge of the truth or away from the truth, therefore Christ's followers are admonished to be very sure that the knowledge and information they receive be true! Why follow Judaism, when they don't believe in Jesus Christ? Why follow their teachings?

In ancient times Israel trumpets were blown to warn impending dangers. Those who heard the warnings were prepared to defend themselves! Are the churches of God that are hearing the trumpet warning of Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other prophets prepared to defend God's truth. Are they crying aloud, and sparing not, are they lifting up their voice like A trumpet, and show God's people their transgression, and the House of Jacob their sins? (Isa.58:1). Or are they too busy with self ?

A call to repentance by a minister, cannot be effective unless setting fourth clearly what man must obey from God's inspired written Word. Leaders who fail to draw a clear line, between right and wrong, so that the people may understand the principles involved, are blind leaders of the blind. Who are the blind leading the blind ?? "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. "Because you say, `I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing-- and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked" (Rev. 3:16-17). [ John is speaking of spiritual blindness. The antidote for spiritual blindness is to gain true spiritual vision through the enlightenment of God's Holy Spirit]. Vs 18, "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint Your eyes with eye salve, that you may see [seeing sin as God sees it, and realize their real condition, as a prerequisite to repentance]. Vs.19,"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent."

Reviewing Isaiah 56, is a message fraught with meaning for God's Church today. We will find the work of repentance is centered on a return to faithful Sabbath observance. "Thus saith the Lord, keep your judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that does this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil" (Isa 56: 1-2). Those who ignore this blessing will face going through the Tribulation. A spirit lead Christian must have the ability to discern the truth from error and not compromise God's true Sabbaths, as many are wanting to do today. "His watchmen [those whose responsibility it is to instruct others] are blind: they are all ignorant, [of God's ways] they are all dumb dogs, [ meaning, they lack the intelligence of a watchdog] they cannot bark; [that is they failed to sound a warning] sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter" (Isa. 56:10). These are shepherds whose only interest was in themselves!! While making God's Holy Days and appointed time's a peripheral issue, in other words God's Holy Days are not important to them!

Apostle Peter wrote "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:19-21). Peter and his companions derived their firm convictions of Christ, from the way in which Christ's life fulfilled Old Testament prophecies! In Apostle Peters second sermon, Peter stressed the fact that Old Testament prophets foretold of Christ's works. He said, "But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled" (Act 3:18). It is because of prophecy that Paul could say: "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober" (1Thess. 5:1-6).

3. To these two, must be added the predicted events!! This is to occur at the exact junction of time and place. If any one of these three factors is missing: the particular prophecy is not in the process of fulfillment. When reading Daniel 12:4 it has to be obvious to us at the time of Daniel's writing [600 BC], people did not have the means to run to and fro, like we do today, flying to other countries in a matter of hours, and travel down highways and freeways at 75 miles an hour.

Daniel was also told: knowledge would increase. There has been stupendous advances in science and general knowledge in this last century. What you buy or learn today is obsolete tomorrow! These things are all going to be evident during the time of God's holy people being scattered [separated]. "And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter [separate] the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished" (Dan 12:7). "And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? and he said, go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried [tested]; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Dan. 12:8). That's a guarantee--the wise shall understand!

Daniel recorded many prophecies, but did not understand what he wrote, nor did God intend for him to. But God does intend for us today to understand. The most basic keys to understand Bible prophecy is to reverence God and His Word [The Bible]. Not many today really stand in awe of the Great God and His Word. God says, "For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and tremble at My Word" (Isa 66:2).