Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Did the church gather on the first day of the week?


Growing up in church, I heard the following verses being used (along with a few others) repeatedly to show that Sunday was the day when Christians gather to worship. 

Acts 20: 7-8
Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.8 There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. 

Seems pretty cut and dry huh? It looks like the disciples were gathering together on Sunday to break bread. Might we even dare to say that they were having communion? But is that really what is happening? That is certainly what is taught in most churches and even in the footnotes of many Bibles. 

Friday, December 4, 2015

Hanukkah for believers in Messiah Yeshua

Hanukkah is not one of the seven Feasts of YHVH found in Leviticus 23. It is an 8 day celebration honoring the rededication of the temple following the victory of the Maccabbees over the Seleucid Empire ruled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 2nd century BCE.

The story about the oil lasting eight days is an example of Jewish legend being added hundreds of years afterwards. Hannukah is eight days long