The Hebrew Roots Movement invests enormous energy in the biblical feasts - Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles. These are not merely Jewish cultural observances, the movement insists. They are the moedim - the appointed times of the Lord, written into the structure of Leviticus 23 as permanent covenant obligations. They are prophetic calendars mapping the entire arc of God's redemptive work. To neglect them is to miss God's appointed meetings. To observe them is to walk in the fullness of what God designed for his people.

It is a compelling presentation. The feasts are genuinely beautiful. Their connection to Christ's redemptive work is real and instructive. And the HRM's teachers are often at their most persuasive when they walk through the feast calendar and show how each one points to Christ.

That last sentence contains the admission that defeats the entire argument. But we will get there. First, let us deal with each pillar of the case honestly.

Pillar One: "The Feasts of the LORD" - Not Israel's Feasts

Leviticus 23:2 introduces the feast calendar with a declaration the HRM leans on heavily: "These are the appointed feasts of the LORD." Not the feasts of Israel. Not the feasts of Moses. The feasts of the Lord. The movement argues that because they belong to God rather than to Israel as a nation, they are universal - applicable to all peoples, not just ethnic Jews, and not limited to any particular covenant period.

The argument sounds significant until you read the next verse: "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: These are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations." (Leviticus 23:2) God owns the feasts - and God gave them specifically to Israel. These two facts are not in tension. They simply mean that what God commanded for Israel, he commanded as their covenant Lord. Calling them "feasts of the LORD" establishes their divine origin and authority. It does not make them universal obligations independent of the covenant in which they were given.

By the same logic, the Aaronic priesthood is described as belonging to the Lord. The tabernacle is the Lord's dwelling. The Sabbath is the Lord's day. None of these being "of the LORD" makes them universal obligations for all people of all time. They were given by God to Israel within the Mosaic covenant. The ownership clause tells you who gave them. It does not tell you they transcend the covenant in which they were embedded.

Pillar Two: They Are Olam - Forever

The feast calendar uses the Hebrew word olam - variously translated as "forever," "perpetual," "throughout your generations." Passover is olam (Exodus 12:14). The Day of Atonement is olam (Leviticus 16:34). The movement takes these declarations as proof that the feasts were never designed to end - that any suggestion of their obsolescence contradicts God's own stated intent.

We have addressed the word olam in detail elsewhere on this site, but the point bears repeating here. Olam does not mean philosophical eternity - endless, timeless, beyond all ages. Its Hebrew meaning is closer to "throughout the relevant duration" or "beyond the visible horizon." A Hebrew slave who chose to remain with his master served le'olam - for the rest of his working life. Hannah's son Samuel remained at the temple le'olam - for the duration of his service. The Aaronic priesthood was established le'olam - and Hebrews 7:12 states plainly that it has changed.

When Leviticus declares the feasts olam, it means they are permanent throughout the covenant age for which they were given - just as the Aaronic priesthood was permanent throughout the covenant age for which it was given. The age has changed. The substance the feasts were pointing toward has arrived. Olam does not override covenant context. It was always bounded by it.

Pillar Three: Jesus Kept the Feasts - So Should We

Jesus observed Passover. He went to Jerusalem for the feasts. He kept the feast calendar of his people. Therefore, the movement argues, those who follow Jesus should do the same. If Jesus is our example, his feast observance is our instruction.

This argument proves far too much and has been addressed in full in the Matthew 5:17 article on this site. Jesus was born under the law (Galatians 4:4) - born a Jew, circumcised on the eighth day, raised in a family that observed the Torah, living under the Mosaic covenant as a member of the covenant people. He kept the feast calendar because it was his covenant obligation as an Israelite living before the cross. He also kept the entire sacrificial system - presenting offerings, observing purity regulations, operating within the temple economy. The movement does not argue that Christians must present animal sacrifices because Jesus did. The "Jesus did it so we must" principle is selectively applied - and the selection always lands on the things the movement already wanted to require.

More fundamentally: Jesus's earthly life was the final feast observance. He did not merely attend Passover. He became the Passover lamb. He did not merely observe the Day of Atonement. He became the once-for-all atoning sacrifice that the annual ritual was rehearsing. He did not merely celebrate First Fruits. He rose from the dead as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20). His life was the fulfilment of everything the feast calendar was designed to anticipate. Following his example means receiving what he accomplished - not repeating the rehearsal after the event has taken place.

Pillar Four: The Feasts Are Prophetic - Spring Fulfilled, Fall Pending

This is the HRM's most sophisticated argument and, as we noted above, the one that contains its own defeat.

The movement teaches that the spring feasts - Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost - were fulfilled at the first coming of Christ. Passover: the crucifixion. First Fruits: the resurrection. Pentecost: the giving of the Spirit. The fall feasts - Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles - await fulfilment at the second coming. Therefore the entire feast calendar remains active as a prophetic framework, mapping God's redemptive programme from first coming to second.

Now press on the logic. The movement says the spring feasts were fulfilled at the first coming. But they still observe Passover. They still celebrate First Fruits. They still keep Pentecost. If fulfilment of a feast by Christ means the feast should continue to be observed, then observe it. If fulfilment means the feast has reached its destination and the observance is now the shadow waving at the substance that has already arrived - then stop observing it.

The movement cannot decide which of these positions it holds because it needs both simultaneously. It needs fulfilment to be real enough to make the feasts Christologically significant - which is what makes the teaching compelling. And it needs fulfilment to leave the observance intact - which is what makes Torah obligation possible. But these two needs are in direct contradiction. A rehearsal that has already taken place is not a rehearsal anymore. It is a re-enactment. And re-enacting the sacrifice of the Lamb after the Lamb has been sacrificed once for all is not worship. It is, at best, theatre. At worst, it implies the original was insufficient.

Hebrews 10:1–2 makes the logic explicit: "For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered?" The author's argument is precise: if the offering had actually accomplished what it pointed to, it would have stopped. The repetition was the confession of incompleteness. Christ's once-for-all offering is complete. The repetition ceases - not because the feasts were meaningless but because the thing they were repeating toward has arrived and finished its work.

What Colossians 2:16–17 Actually Says

Paul addresses feast observance directly - not by implication, not by inference, but by name. Colossians 2:16–17: "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ."

Festival. New moon. Sabbath. Paul lists the three tiers of the Jewish sacred calendar - the annual feasts, the monthly new moons, the weekly Sabbath - and addresses them in a single sweep. He does not say: observe these, for they are the Lord's appointed times. He says: let no one judge you regarding these, because they are a shadow and the substance is Christ.

The HRM's standard response is that Paul is telling the Colossians not to let outsiders judge them for keeping the feasts - as though the problem was anti-feast pressure from Gentiles, and Paul was defending feast observance. But the context will not sustain this reading. The entire section from Colossians 2:8 onward is a warning against being taken captive by hollow philosophy and human tradition, against submitting to regulations, against the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion. The people passing judgment in verse 16 are the ones requiring observance - and Paul is telling the Colossians not to submit to their verdict. The judgment being resisted is the judgment that says you must keep feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths to be in right standing. Paul's response: these are shadows. The substance is Christ. You have the substance. You do not need to keep chasing the shadow.

What Galatians 4:10–11 Says

Paul's letter to the Galatians addresses the same issue with considerably less patience. The Galatian believers had begun observing days, months, seasons, and years - the sacred calendar of the Mosaic covenant - under pressure from Judaising teachers. Paul's response is not gentle correction. It is alarm: "You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have laboured over you in vain." (Galatians 4:10–11)

The verse immediately before this is Paul's description of what feast and calendar observance means in the new covenant context: "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?" (Galatians 4:9) Weak. Worthless. Elementary. Slavery. These are Paul's words for the sacred calendar when it is placed back on the necks of people for whom Christ has died. He is not describing paganism. He is describing the Mosaic feast calendar - and calling a return to it a return to slavery.

The HRM finds this passage so uncomfortable that it frequently argues Paul cannot mean the Jewish feasts here - he must mean pagan festivals. But the context of the entire letter is the pressure to adopt Mosaic covenant practice. The teachers troubling the Galatians were not pagan priests. They were Jewish Christians insisting on circumcision and Torah observance. The days, months, seasons, and years Paul rebukes are the Mosaic calendar. And his response to Gentile believers adopting that calendar is not "well done for recovering your heritage." It is: I am afraid I have wasted my time on you.

The Early Church - A Silence That Speaks

The book of Acts records the explosive expansion of the early church from Jerusalem into the Gentile world. Gentile believers were added in their thousands. Churches were planted across Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. The Jerusalem Council met to settle the question of what Gentile believers were required to observe - and issued its ruling: four requirements, nothing more.

No feast calendar. Not a word about Passover. Nothing about Tabernacles. No instruction to observe the new moon. No Pentecost requirement. The apostles, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, with full knowledge of Leviticus 23 and its declarations that the feasts were olam - said nothing about feast observance to the Gentile churches.

This silence is not an argument from ignorance. It is an argument from what the Spirit chose to say and chose not to say. If feast observance was required for new covenant believers, the Jerusalem Council was the moment to say so. The Spirit said four things. None of them was the feast calendar. The Spirit, who knows Leviticus better than any HRM teacher alive, did not forget. The Spirit chose.

One Final Sweep - The Question That Settles Everything

We have now walked through every pillar of the HRM's case for feast observance. The "feasts of the LORD" language establishes divine ownership, not universal obligation. Olam means throughout the relevant covenant age, and the Aaronic priesthood - also olam - has already changed. The "Jesus kept them" argument proves too much and ignores that Jesus kept them as their fulfilment, not their perpetuation. The prophetic fulfilment argument collapses under its own logic. Colossians 2:16–17 names feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths and calls them shadows. Galatians 4 calls calendar observance a return to slavery. The Jerusalem Council said nothing about feasts to the Gentile churches.

But here is the truth that underlies every one of those arguments and makes them all unnecessary to rehearse separately.

The feasts were given to Israel as part of the Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic covenant is not your covenant. You are in a new covenant - ratified by better blood, enacted on better promises, governed by a better high priest, written on hearts rather than stone. You died to the law through the body of Christ (Romans 7:4). The person who was under the Mosaic covenant's jurisdiction died with Christ on the cross. What rose was a new creation - no longer under the old covenant's terms, no longer subject to its calendar, no longer bound by its feast requirements. Not because those requirements were bad, but because the person they governed no longer exists. You cannot call a dead man back to a feast he died before attending.

You are not under Moses. You are under Christ. You are not governed by the Levitical calendar. You are governed by the law of Christ - love God with everything, love one another as he loved you. You are not in the jurisdiction of the court that prescribed feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths as covenant obligations. You are in the jurisdiction of the new covenant, whose terms were set not at Sinai but at Calvary, whose mediator sits not in a tent but at the right hand of the Majesty on high, whose sacrifice was not repeated annually but offered once, for all, never to be repeated again.

The feasts pointed to him. He came. He died. He rose. He sent his Spirit. The rehearsal is over. The event has happened. And the people of the new covenant do not repeat the rehearsal - they live inside the reality the rehearsal was always about.

You are not required to observe the feasts. You are invited to know the one they were always announcing. That is not a lesser thing. It is the only thing that was ever worth having.

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. - Colossians 2:16–17