Do You Follow and Imitate Christ’s Example of Keeping His Feasts?

by Leonard V Johnson

Blessings to you, my friend! Welcome. Our friends in Karachi, Pakistan, Poza Rica, Mexico, Thái Binh, Vietnam, and the Nizhniy Novgorod, Russian Federation. I welcome you to the Church of Jesus Christ Online Ministries (COJCOM) here in West Central Florida!

What are commonly called the ‘Fall Holy Days’ will begin very soon for 2026. In fact, the SEVENTH MONTH of the year begins sunset Friday 11th. It’s the biblical month, Ethanim (1st Kings 8:2).

There are wonderful meanings that these Fall Holy Days represent.

A few weeks ago I spoke concerning the glorious LORD’s Feast of Trumpets which pictures for us a memorial of blowing of trumpets the next phase of the LORD God’s redemptive plan, when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, shall come, in the clouds with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17) For it shall be AT THE LAST TRUMP “for the trumpet will sound, and the dead [in Christ] will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” – 1 Corinthians 15:52.

Beginning at sunset the 20th of this month is the LORD’s Day of Atonement. Truly, a holy day to humble yourself before the LORD God. These feasts and holy days belong to God! They are His feasts! And He’s sharing the information with us – those of us who have ears to hear and eyes to see and a willingness to accept the truth of God as being our teacher! Sadly, many ministers today continue to threaten the congregation with a very serious maniacal undertone – “You shall afflict your souls!” As we have pointed out many times ── get out your concordance, get out your word studies, get out your different translations, and you too will discover that that phrase is supposed to say – “You shall HUMBLE yourself before the LORD.” It is the same thing that our Lord Jesus Christ teaches in the Book of Matthew, chapter 5.

True Christians continue to keep our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s example of keeping and celebrating the LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles and knows that it represents the glorious and powerful second coming of our Savior and the establishment of His Millennial Rule on Earth! (cf. Revelation 11:15).

As our beloved Apostle Paul, under divine inspiration, wrote ──

“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 11:1.

Do you follow and imitate Christ Jesus?

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, along with all of His apostles kept and celebrated the Fall Holy Days!

Let’s also notice that our beloved Polycarp of Smyrna (c. 69–155 AD), a disciple of the Apostle John, also kept and celebrated the Fall Holy Days ──

I will give the narration in order, thus coming down to the history of the blessed Polycarp. …

So also he pursued the reading of the Scriptures from childhood to old age, himself reading in church; and he recommended it to others, saying that the reading of the law and the prophets was the forerunner of grace, preparing and making straight the ways of the Lord, that is the hearts, which are like tablets whereon certain harsh beliefs and conceptions that were written before perfect knowledge came, are through the inculcation of the Old Testament, and the correct interpretation following thereupon, first smoothed and levelled, that, when the Holy Spirit comes as a pen, the grace and joy of the voice of the Gospel and of the doctrine of the immortal and heavenly Christ may be inscribed on them. And he said that they could not otherwise receive the impression of the seal which is given by baptism and engrave and exhibit the form conveyed in it, unless the wax were first softened and filled the deep parts. So also he thought that the hearts of the hearers ought to be softened and yield to the impress of the Word. For he said that it unfolded and opened, like closed doors, the minds of recent comers; and accordingly the prophet was bidden by God, Cry out mightily and spare not, Raise thy voice as a trumpet. What must one say, when even He that was gentler than all men so appeals and cries out at the feast of Tabernacles? For it is written; And on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If any man thirsteth, let him come to Me and drink. 1

So, according to Pionius──for there is a narrative claiming that Pionius and several other Christians were martyred on the “birthday” of Polycarp──he endorsed the keeping and the celebration of the Fall Holy Days which begins with the LORD’s Feast of Trumpets, including the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day.

The Feasts and the Holy Days of the LORD (annually during the spring and fall) were indeed kept and celebrated by the early, true Christians, and this is crystal clear from God’s living word──from both the Old and New Testaments. For additional information, be sure to read and study “God’s Eternal Marks Upon His Covenant People (PART ONE) and (PART TWO).”

The LORD’s first fall Holy Day is the Feast of Trumpets (also called Rosh Hashanah by the Jews) which will begin sunset on September 11th until sunset September 12th.

Then there is the LORD’s Day of Atonement. It begins sunset on September 20th until sunset September 21st. Again, the true meaning of the Day of Atonement isn’t about God wanting you to afflict your body. It’s about God wanting you to HUMBLE yourself before Him, His will, and His word. A MEMORIAL of the glorious ATONEMENT that our Lord Jesus Christ has done for all of us! Christ Jesus is our ATONEMENT!

There are some magnificent prophetic meanings of the Day of Atonement as well, that many church leaders have never considered. And I’d be willing to say that probably most do not have a clear understanding of, prophetically, what the Day of Atonement – the DAY TO HUMBLE YOURSELF BEFORE GOD – symbolizes. On a personal level, it truly means getting ever-closer to God, repenting, and humbling yourself before God – but on a prophetic level, it is directly linked to the end-time tribulation that will occur! What our Lord Jesus calls the end-time ‘great tribulation.’ – Matthew 24:21-22.

Then comes the great annual festival, the Feast of Tabernacles! It begins sunset September 25th and continues until October 2nd at sunset. Immediately followed by the Last Great Day which ends at sunset on the 3rd of October.

The LORD God’s faithful followers, the early true Christians, kept and celebrated what many mistakenly refer to as “Jewish holidays.” Again, our Savior and Elder Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ indeed did──an not only because He was Jewish. His disciples that graduated and became apostles all kept and celebrated His Feasts and Holy Days! Including the weekly holy Sabbath day, the SEVENTH DAY!

I hope and pray that you will look into His Feasts and Holy Days more! □