The Feasts of God

God gave us the feasts of God so that, as His people, we may know Him and receive His blessing of salvation. The Bible describes God’s church that keeps the feasts of God as Zion. God’s feasts and Zion are inseparable. So, in order to observe God’s holy feasts, it’s essential for us to go to Zion. This is a consistent teaching throughout the Bible.

Zion, the City of God’s Festivals

For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling: “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it. I will bless her with abundant provisions; her poor will I satisfy with food. I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints will ever sing for joy.”
Psalms 132:13-16

As the Bible tells us, God chose Zion as His eternal dwelling place. Therefore, to meet God, we must go to Zion. And in Zion, we can have a relationship with God and receive the blessings of salvation.

The scriptures explicitly tell us that Zion is God’s church where the feasts are kept. This means God’s people who keep the feasts should be there too.

Look on Zion, the city of our festivals…
Isaiah 33:20

Look at Zion, the city where we celebrate our religious festivals.
Isaiah 33:20 (GNB)

The Bible delineates God’s holy days as feasts or festivals. It is because these are days of celebration for the people of God to receive spiritual blessings.

Feasts of God

It’s evident that Zion is a very special place, which provides much favor to the people of God. However, just because a place bears the name “Zion,” it does not make it Zion where God dwells. We must know the feasts of God to confirm whether or not we are in Zion.

God proclaimed the seven holy festivals in the book of Leviticus.

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.’”
Leviticus 23:2

The seven feasts of God are as follows:

  • Passover
  • Feast of Unleavened Bread
  • Day of Firstfruits (Resurrection Day)
  • Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)
  • Feast of Trumpets
  • Day of Atonement
  • Feast of Tabernacles

These feasts are grouped into three times during the year.

Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles.
Deuteronomy 16:16

The feasts of God were not only for the Israelites in the Old Testament times, but were also kept by Jesus and the Early Church in the New Testament times. While establishing the New Covenant, Jesus showed the disciples how to keep the feasts. In other words, although the feasts of the Old Covenant share the same name and appointed time as the feasts of the New Covenant, they are observed differently. Jesus and His disciples did not keep the feasts the same way the Jewish people kept them (Mt 26:17-28, Lk 22:7-20, Acts 2:1-4, Jn 7:2,37-39).

Therefore, Zion, God’s dwelling place, is wherever the New Covenant feasts are kept. And the example of Jesus observing them lets us know the practicality of keeping them.

Feasts of God Abolished in History

Although the Early Church kept the feasts of the New Covenant according to Christ’s example, over time, the feasts were abolished and replaced with different teachings.

Through the Council of Nicaea, the Passover feast that Christ established was abolished and replaced with the celebration of Easter, which originates in the pagan religion. Through the Passover, Christ promised eternal life and forgiveness of sins (Jn 6:53-54, Mt 26:26-28). Therefore, as Christians, we must keep the Passover that Jesus Christ established.

In the spiritual world, Zion is wherever the New Covenant feasts of God are kept. Because the feasts of God were abolished, Zion was spiritually destroyed and ruined. Hence, God’s church, overflowing with blessings, could be found no more.

The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
Isaiah 51:3

Restoration of Zion

Though Zion did not exist for many years because the feasts of God were not kept, God promised to restore Zion in the last days. Meaning, the way to salvation will once again be opened through the establishment of the feasts of God, which together are the foundation of Zion.

In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Micah 4:1

Since Zion is the place where God’s feasts are kept, Zion can only be restored when the true New Covenant feasts of God are kept again. The book of Micah describes the feasts as the law going out from Zion. It is because the feasts are not only celebrations, but holy commandments of God.

Today, the church that keeps the feasts of God according to Christ’s teaching is Zion prophesied to appear in our age. Here, we can definitely receive blessings and salvation directly from God (Ps 132:13-16). As God had promised, Zion has been restored and the feasts of God are being kept at the World Mission Society Church of God. To put it simply, the World Mission Society Church of God is Zion.

Numerous people around the world are streaming to the Church of God just as the Bible prophesied. They are keeping the feasts of the New Covenant following the teaching of Christ and the law of God.

Please visit your nearest World Mission Society Church of God for more in-depth study and understanding of Zion and the feasts of God so you, too, can keep them.