Month: June 2026

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America, America!

An English teacher named Katherine Lee Bates was travelling in the American west in 1893. She was impressed by the beauty and grandeur of the mountains of Colorado. She was moved to write the patriotic hymn “America the Beautiful,” as a statement of belief in God and a prayer for our nation. The refrain, “America, America, God shed his grace on thee,” has become  a familiar example of “civil religion.”

There are many such examples. Presidents, throughout our nation’s history, have invoked the blessing of God on America. When Ronald Reagan was nominated at the Republican convention in 1980, he closed his acceptance speech by asking the convention center crowd to begin the presidential election campaign right then, with a moment of silent prayer. Then he solemnly intoned, “God bless America.” Many were deeply moved. Some in the national media mocked him for this simple expression of faith.

Later, when as president, he survived an assassination attempt, he declared, “Whatever happens now I owe my life to God and I will try to serve him every way I can.” In a speech to a gathering of the National Association of Evangelicals in 1983, he said, “Freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly sought and humbly accepted.”

Reagan’s words are examples of the kinds of statements many American leaders have made in political campaigns, in times of national crisis, and in expressing their personal beliefs in interviews.  Words like these acknowledge that the majority of Americans are comfortable with public expressions of belief in God. This “civil religion” recognizes the freedom of all Americans to express their beliefs according to the dictates of their own consciences.

Baptist theologian Richard Land wrote, “Civil religion cannot replace personal faith, but it can be society’s way of acknowledging the central role religion has played in American life and protecting a place for faith in the public square. It should in no way be considered a substitute for deep faith convictions. . . . It is merely society’s way of accommodating religion in general without favoring a particular faith over other faiths. Civil religion can also provide a shared space in which people of varying religious traditions can bring their faith convictions to public debate in a pluralistic society.”

In 1798 John Adams said we need a citizenry with strong religious and moral character in order to sustain America. Our government, he said, is “insufficient” for any other. This is not the same thing as saying that America is, or ever was, “a Christian nation.” But it is a powerful admission that America needs a citizenry whose values are shaped by religious convictions. Our founding fathers were brilliant men of deep conviction, courage, and commitment. But they were not all “born again” Christians. They did, however, admit the nation’s need for the protection and guidance of divine Providence.

Throughout its history our nation has believed that God has a special purpose in mind for America. The Declaration of Independence refers to God as our Creator and He holds nations and individuals accountable to his judgments. The freedoms, rights, and responsibilities we have as Americans are gifts from our Creator. Because of this, it has been rightly said that the founding of America was “a faith-based initiative.”

These thoughts are on my mind as our nation’s 250th birthday approaches. I am praying for this nation, as I am sure my readers are praying, that God will guide us and that he will heal our land.

When Katherine Lee Bates wrote, “America, America, God shed his grace on thee,” she was framing a prayer. When we sing it, we are praying for our nation.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Come to the Feast!

This was God’s invitation to the people of Israel. When he gave them instructions as to how they were to live in fellowship with him in the Promised Land, he established festivals for them to observe throughout the year. These were important dates on their calendars for remembering, worshiping, and thanking God.

Leviticus 23 tells us there were seven feasts. These were holy events involving pilgrimages, sacrificial offerings, special sabbaths, and sacred assemblies. There were specific instructions as to how they were to be observed.

I have been writing about these Feasts of the Lord in this space for the last seven weeks. Why would these matters of ancient Hebrew history be of interest to us today? I believe it is because  these Feasts of the Lord are keys to our understanding of God’s plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. They symbolize Jesus and apply to God’s program for the church. We who believe in him are also invited to come to the feast.

Romans 15:4 says that “Everything that was written in the past (the Old Testament) was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.” I suspect that when our Lord Jesus explained to his disciples “what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27), he may have alluded to Leviticus 23.

The first of the feasts is Passover. It commemorated the Israelites’ national deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They were redeemed by the blood of sacrificial lambs. Passover testifies to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ as the ultimate Lamb of God, who shed his blood to redeem us (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). We must believe in him as savior to be able to enjoy redemption from sin and fellowship with God.

Beginning the next day after Passover, and continuing for a week, the Jews celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They ceremoniously removed all leaven (yeast) from their dwellings and feasted together as families. In the Bible, yeast is a picture of sin. Once a person has received Jesus Christ as savior, he or she should endeavor to resist sin and remove it from their lives (2 Corinthians 7:1).

After the week of unleavened bread, came the Feast of Firstfruits. It was always on the first day of the week, following the sabbath. The people were to bring to the priest a first sample of the spring harvest as a sacrifice to God. In the New Testament, Firstfruits pictures the resurrection of Jesus Christ and of all who believe in him (1 Corinthians 15:23). It is worth noting that the first day of the week, for Christians, is resurrection day.

Fifty days later came the Feast of Weeks (seven weeks), also called Pentecost, meaning “fifty.” The Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, in accordance with the promise of Jesus (Acts 2:1-21). The church was born when the Holy Spirit came.

The Feast of Trumpets speaks of the Lord’s gathering his people together. Trumpets were blown to announce the moving of the camp of Israel, to declare war, or to assemble the people for a special occasion. This may illustrate the gathering together of God’s church when the trumpet sounds to raise the dead and living believers are “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, came next. It was a solemn day of fasting, stillness, sacrifice, mourning, and confession of sins. Devout Jews consider this day to be the holiest day of the year. Kippur means “covering.” It signified that the sins of the people were covered and forgiven by a merciful God. There will come a day when national Israel will repent. The features of the Day of Atonement are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:2).

The seventh feast is the Feast of Tabernacles, It was observed in the fall of the year in connection with the preceding two feasts. It followed the Day of Atonement with a week-long remembrance of Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, the forty years in the wilderness. During the week of this festival, Hebrew families camped in temporary shelters called sukkot. It was to be a joyful celebration of God’s past faithful provision, and anticipation of the future earthly kingdom of Messiah (Ezekiel 37:26-28).

These feasts tell us that God is interested in how we live our lives. The people of Israel were to keep the Lord first in all aspects of their days, months, and years. He had given them their seasonal rains and harvests, and they remembered to thank him. Our lives, likewise, should be regulated by his word.

These seven feasts are pointers to our Savior, Jesus Christ. They are pictures of the blessings of his great salvation. They tell us that fellowship with God is possible through him.

The first four feasts, in the spring of the year, picture Jesus’ first coming, his death and resurrection and the descent of the Spirit. The last three feasts, in the fall of the year, picture our Lord’s second coming. So we live in grateful remembrance of what God has done for us in the past. We also live in joyful anticipation of the fulfillment of his promises of a glorious future with him.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

 

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Tabernacles: Christ’s Coming KIngdom

The seventh of the Feasts of the Lord was observed in the fall of the year, right after the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:33-44). It was a joyful celebration which lasted seven days. It was, like the spring festivals, a pilgrim feast which brought Jewish families back to Jerusalem. There they gave thanks for the forgiveness of sins, for abundant blessings of good harvests and for God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises. It is said to be the most popular of the annual festivals.

The feast was called “tabernacles” because for that week the people erected and camped in temporary shelters, or booths. These shelters were made of leafy limbs and branches woven together. These temporary dwellings were to remind the Hebrews of their history as a pilgrim people. They remembered how the Lord had guided their ancestors through the forty year pilgrimage in the wilderness of Sinai. The Hebrews had lived on the move in temporary quarters all that time until they occupied the promised land.

“Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so that your descendants will know that I had them live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 23:42-43). Some observant Jews in Israel still make a practice of constructing booths for seven days in the middle of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar.

Jesus observed this festival by making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem (John 7:2, 14). He would have participated in the sacred assembly at the temple. He would have seen the grand procession of the priests who, accompanied by music and dancing and the sounding of the shofar, brought water from the Pool of Siloam to pour out as a libation to the Lord. He would have seen the lighting of four golden lamps in the court of the temple amid great rejoicing. He would have joined the crowds in singing “Hosanna” (Psalm 118:25).

The ceremonial pouring out of water was a symbol of how the Lord provided water for the Hebrew pilgrims in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6). The lighting of the lamps evoked memories of the pillar of cloud and fire by which God led his people in their journey (Exodus 13:21-22). Jesus knew this when he stood in the courts of the temple, raised his voice so the crowds could hear him, and cried, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water shall flow from within him” (John 7:37-38). He drew the crowd’s attention away from the literal water to himself, the spiritual water of life.

Then, with the inherent authority he had as the Son of God, he interrupted the lighting of the lamps in the temple to declare, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). This young itinerant rabbi from Galilee was inviting the congregation of Israel to come to him! He was saying that the Feast of Tabernacles pointed to him! He is the Messiah. He is the Savior.

When he comes again, the whole earth will rejoice under his kingly rule. At the climax of the Book of Zechariah we read about Israel’s national restoration (Zechariah 13:9). The Jews will cry out to God in repentance (Zechariah 12:10-11, 13:1). Messiah Jesus will reign as king in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:9, 8:3). The Lord will live among his people (Zechariah 2:10). Representatives of all nations will go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in the Feast of Tabernacles (Zechariah 14:16).

The  pilgrim feasts of the Lord are important witnesses to us. The Feast of Passover signifies Jesus’ past sacrificial death. Pentecost reminds us of the coming of the Holy Spirit who remains with us now. Tabernacles is a testimony to the future second coming and glorious kingdom of our Lord Jesus. Just as the Hebrew people rejoiced when they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles in the past, so God’s people will rejoice when Jesus comes and his people reign with him in his kingdom in the future.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Atonement: Forgiveness of Sins

The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, was one of the seven feasts of the Lord prescribed in the Book of Leviticus. It was to be a day of solemn reverence. No travelers rushed in and out of Jerusalem; marketplaces were closed; craftsmen and tradesmen shuttered their shops; the whole nation was quiet and still. “The Great Fast,” or “The Day of all Days” had arrived. Observant Jews around the world still observe Yom Kippur as a day to worship the Holy One and to confess their sins.

The first five books of the Bible form the foundation for the rest of scripture. In the heart of these five books of Moses is Leviticus. It describes the priesthood, sacrifices, and forms of worship which were to be carried on in the tabernacle, located in the center of the wilderness camp of Israel. In the center of the book of Leviticus is the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34; 23:26-32).

This was the great day when the High Priest declared to the people that their sins were forgiven. God is a forgiving God. Mitch Glaser wrote, “He creates a shelter of sacrifice to protect worshippers from his wrath.”

Past importance

The tenth day of the seventh month was for the people a time of intense self-examination, confession, and repentance. In preparation for the Day, the High Priest was to review the scriptural commands, offer sacrifices to cover his own sins, bathe his entire body and change from his priestly robes into white linen.

On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest sacrificed a young bull and a ram, and selected two goats, one to be sacrificed, and one to be the “scapegoat.” He would enter the Holy of Holies three times, once with incense, once to sprinkle the blood of the bull seven times on the golden cover of the ark of the covenant, and once with the blood of the goat. The blood of the sacrifices covered the sins of the High Priest and of the people.

The scapegoat was not sacrificed. Instead the priest laid his hands on the head of the goat and confessed the sins of the people. He read the law (Torah) to the people, washed himself and changed into his priestly garments. The High Priest then declared to the people, “You shall be clean,” indicating that their sins were forgiven. The scapegoat was released alive into the wilderness, symbolizing the fact that the sins and guilt of the people were removed. (The Hebrew word translated scapegoat means “removed.”)

Present significance

The Book of Hebrews gives us the deeper significance of the Day of Atonement. It pictures Christ. He is superior to the Old Testament priesthood (Hebrews 7:26-28). The High Priest In Leviticus had to confess his sins. Jesus Christ was sinless. He was the perfect Son of God.

The priests in the Old Testament were mortal and they received their appointments through heredity as descendants of Aaron. Jesus is immortal and he was appointed to his eternal priesthood by God the Father (Hebrews 5::4-5). He ascended to God’s right hand where he continually intercedes for his people (Hebrews 8:1). The earthly priests served in the tabernacle and temple. Jesus serves in heaven, “the true tabernacle” (Hebrews 8:2).

The New Covenant is vastly superior to the Old Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31,33). Jesus is the High Priest of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6, 12-13). The Old Testament sacrifices had to be repeated. They offered only a temporary covering for sins. They pointed forward to the ultimate and perfect sacrifice, Jesus’ death on the cross (Hebrews 7:27).

When the scapegoat was released into the wilderness, symbolically bearing the sins of Israel, it pictured how Christ’s sacrifice completely removes our sins. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12).

Future application

The Day of Atonement pictures a time in the future when ethnic Israel will be cleansed finally and completely. The prophets describe a future time when Israel will repent and offer a great prayer of confession. Jesus Christ will return. Israel’s eyes will be opened to recognize him as their Savior and Messiah (Zechariah 12:10, 13:1).

“In those days, at that time, declares the Lord, search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none. And for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare” (Jeremiah 50:20).

Pastor Randy Faulkner