Building on the Foundation

  Most of us are probably aware that Jesus Christ is our High Priest, something which the Book of Hebrews calls Him at least 11 times. We’re also probably aware that we, God’s people, are spiritual priests in training under Jesus Christ. Our destiny, should we be blessed to be in the First Resurrection, is to “be priests of God and of Christ” (Rev. 20:6). We “are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5). But most of us have probably never considered how Jesus Christ became High Priest, or what it meant for Him to be appointed as such. Most churches today teach nothing about the Messiah’s appointment as our High Priest. The reason why will become apparent by the end of this article. Nevertheless, God’s Word does tell us that Jesus Christ had to be appointed as our High Priest, and it tells us when, how, and what that meant for us. This wasn’t something that just happened ; He didn’t ju...

  A brother in the faith recently sent me a document called “Passover Observance History,” which is the appendix to a book recently released by a pastor in the United Church of God. While I haven’t read the rest of the work, it seems (based on the title) to be a harmony of the Gospels and not specifically about Passover. But this appendix makes claims about the history of Passover observance which deserve careful, Berean-style scrutiny. Here’s a summary of its five major claims: That Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread began as two separate feasts, That the Jews drifted in their understanding of Passover, moved the Passover sacrifice from the beginning of Nisan 14 to the end, and merged the two feasts into one, That this happened because the Jews briefly abandoned the Scriptural practice of beginning days at sunset and copied the Egyptian custom of beginning days at sunrise, That it wasn’t possible to kill all the Passover lambs at the temple, And that there were therefore t...