Hardly a day goes by that I’m not told by some “expert” in the doctrines of christianity that the Sabbaths were ended at the cross, and they often misinterpret passages like Colossians 2:16-17 as if that passage supports their blatant spiritual error.
No, Paul NEVER stated that the Sabbaths were ended, nor did he even imply that one should loathe the Father’s traditions, as most who are lost in christianity do (“that’s Old Testament, but we’re New Testament.” *smh).
In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul states that the strict mandates of the law—the myriad difficult rules and regulations governing HOW the physical Jews were to eat, drink, and observe the Sabbaths—were nailed to the tree; thus, nobody is to judge anybody else in HOW they eat, drink, or observe the Sabbaths.
If I say that nobody is to judge how others dress, that doesn’t mean that there is no longer clothing—it simply means that everyone is allowed to dress the way they want. And, that is exactly what Paul said about eating, drinking, and observing the Sabbaths. We are still to eat, drink, and honor Yah’s ordained days; there are simply no specific rules for HOW anybody is to do those things.
So, when a christian states that the Sabbaths were ended, he immediately reveals at least TWO things about himself: first, he doesn’t know the Father, for rejecting the Father’s traditions is essentially a rejection of who He is; and a rejection of who He is is a rejection of Him. And, second, that person openly exposes that he is ignorant of the coming things (prophecy), for, as Paul said in Colossians 2:17, the Sabbaths are a shadow of things THAT ARE TO COME.
The prophetic calendar CANNOT be understood apart from an understanding of the Father’s traditions, which include the Sabbaths (weekly and feasts), the wedding traditions, and the temple ordinances and practices—especially those that detailed the priestly duties surrounding the three annual harvests, and the feasts tied to those harvests.
Now, there is a direct correlation between the coming tribulation and the days that the Jews called “the ten days of awe.” Let’s start with the Feast of Trumpets. The Jews called the Feast of Trumpets “the day or hour no man knows” (Matthew 24:36), because it is the only feast that falls ON the sighting of the new moon. It is the first day of the month of Tishri (the seventh month of the scriptural calendar).
Because the moon could be obscured by weather, and two independent witnesses were required to verify they had seen the crescent of the new moon, nobody knew for sure when the first day of Tishri would be declared. So, the feast of Trumpets, which falls on that date, was never known exactly until it was confirmed by the high priest.
Additionally, the physical Jews called the Feast of Trumpets “the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:52), “the feast of the shout” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), and “the wedding of the Messiah” (how can there be a wedding without a bride?).
The Feast of Trumpets is the first of the three fall feasts, which are also called “the judgment feasts.” So, judgment begins with Trumpets. We’re told that Yah judges His house first (1 Peter 4:17), and His house is Y’isra-el, who is Messiah’s bride. True Y’isra-el is comprised of the true Jews (Romans 2:29), which are those who have been given the covenant that was revealed on the Feast of Weeks following Messiah Yahoshua’s resurrection (Acts 2).
It is the bride who possesses the covenant, and her name is Y’isra-el. On the Feast of Trumpets, the bride will be gathered together in the air (both those who have already died physically and those who are alive and remain on the earth) to meet the Bridegroom (ending the period of mandatory separation after the Bridegroom announced He was going to prepare a dwelling place), and go to the wedding chamber.
The Jews called the period from Trumpets to Atonement “the days of awe.” It was a ten-day period of reflection and repentance. Trumpets is 1 Tishri, and Atonement is 10 Tishri.
The bride (the barley harvest) will be taken on the Feast of Trumpets—the beginning of judgment; and, we see in Revelation 4, the 24 elders are assembled. They were foreshadowed in 1 Chronicles 24, and they represent the entire priesthood. In heaven, the bride is the priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), and the 24 elders show that the entirety of the bride is in heaven at that point. And, in Revelation 4:10, we see the elders casting their crowns before the throne, which means the bride has already been judged for reward (crowns are rewards).
Because Daniel’s 70th “week” is actually seven years, the period between Trumpets (rapture of the bride) and Atonement (Armageddon) is ten years. The Antichrist will be revealed immediately after the bride is removed (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8), and for three years, he will rise to a level of power necessary to broker an international peace treaty. The peace treaty begins Daniel’s 70th week (Daniel 9:27).
For 3 ½ years after the treaty is declared, there will be relative peace in the world, but at that point, all hell will break loose on the earth (Revelation 6:4).
The Antichrist, who will be a virgin male physical Jew, will be assassinated by a wound to his head (Revelation 13:3), and around the same time, Satan and his demons will be cast out of heaven (Revelation 12:9), and Satan himself will indwell the dead body of the Antichrist, resurrecting him, and then entering the temple to demand that animal sacrifice be ended, and the world worship him as the supreme Elohim (a counterfeit of Messiah Himself).
The Great Tribulation that follows for 3 ½ years will culminate in Messiah Yahoshua returning to the earth after the marriage to His bride is consummated in the wedding chamber, and He will bring with Him the rest of the wedding party—the friends of the Bridegroom (OT saints) and friends of the bride (tribulation saints) to prepare for the wedding feast (Revelation 19).
The day He returns to the earth at Armageddon will be the Feast of Atonement, and will usher in Messiah’s 1000-year earthly reign from Jerusalem. His millennial temple will be dedicated on the Feast of Tabernacles.
So, the ten-day period the Jews called “the days of awe” is actually a foreshadow of the ten years of tribulation on the earth once the Antichrist is revealed—the time between Trumpets and Atonement. It is a period of repentance from unbelief by those who are the friends of the bride—the wheat harvest. The tribulation saints (friends of the bride) are provided a “second Passover” (Numbers 9), as they were not prepared for the first, which is tied to the bride.
As a side note: many in christianity falsely think that the bride will return with Messiah to be on the earth for His millennial reign, but that is because they don’t know or understand the Father’s traditions. Once the bridegroom and the bride entered the wedding chamber to consummate their marriage, the bride (who had been veiled during the betrothal period) remained in the wedding chamber, and was not revealed until the wedding feast, which is what we see in Revelation 21:2.
Do you see how much truth one misses by rejecting the Father’s Sabbaths, and ignorantly claiming they have ended? Nobody understands the coming things apart from understanding the traditions. That is why Paul observed them, and taught them to the Gentile converts (1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15).
For more information: Will There Be a Pre-Tribulation Rapture?