Christ said, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill... one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." Some have taken this to mean that Christ "fulfilled" the law during His lifetime, causing it to "pass away," and, as a result, Christians today are not required to observe God's law. While Christ did observe the law perfectly, He did not truly fulfill the law during His first coming - and the upcoming Feast of Trumpets proves it!

The above quote from Christ is found in Matthew 5:17-18, and I wrote a blog post previously explaining why most of Christianity does not agree with Christ's own words in these verses, which actually reveal that the law cannot pass away until heaven and earth also pass away. In spite of Christ's clear statement, some Christians hone in on the word "fulfill" in these verses and deduce that the law has "passed away" because Christ "fulfilled" the law by observing it perfectly and dying on the cross. I would like to examine this argument by considering whether Christ truly fulfilled the law during His lifetime on earth.

What does it mean to "fulfill" the law? A look at how some of God's Holy Days have been "fulfilled" in the New Testament will demonstrate that it implies more than mere adherence to a rule. God's Holy Days are part of the law and are listed in Leviticus 23. Some of these (specifically the ones that have been fulfilled already) are well known within most Christian circles, while the rest are virtually unknown by most Christians. In the order that they occur during the year, these days are: Passover, the seven Days of Unleavened Bread, the Day of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, and the Eighth Day (sometimes called the Last Great Day).

Most Christians are familiar with Passover because Christ was crucified and died on this day, and for this reason Christ is later referred to as "our Passover" in 1 Corinthians 5:7. Christ fulfilled the Passover by becoming the sacrificial Passover Lamb commanded in the law. Three days and three nights later, Christ was resurrected during the Days of Unleavened Bread. More specifically, Christ was raised from the dead on Saturday evening, but went to the Father on Sunday (raised to heaven) as pictured by the wave sheaf offering, which is the day from which the counting of Pentecost begins. Thus, Christ, by His resurrection, fulfilled the role of the wave-sheaf offering as commanded in the law. 50 days later, on the Day of Pentecost, the Church of God was founded and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Apostles as well as those who repented and were baptized. These individuals - as well as believers today who repent and receive the Spirit - are "firstfruits" of God's spiritual creation (Romans 8:23, James 1:18), and fulfill the offering of the firstfruits of the summer harvest which was required by the law on Pentecost. These 3 critically important events in God's plan represent the sequential and ongoing fulfillment of God's first three annual Holy Days! This demonstrates that there is more to "fulfilling" God's Holy Days than Christ's perfect observance of them.

And this begs the question: does it make any sense for God to begin fulfilling the true meaning of the Holy Days and to stop at the firstfruits harvest of Pentecost? No! Just as the fulfillment of each of the three Spring Holy Days was accompanied by a significant event in God's plan, so also each of the Fall Holy Days will be fulfilled by a key event of God's plan in the end times.

The first of the Fall Holy Days is the Feast of Trumpets. The Scriptures teach us that Christ's return will be heralded by a great trumpet blast after the world has suffered through the Tribulation and that the saints of God will be resurrected with Christ at that time as well (1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Revelation 11:15). This pivotal moment in God's plan represents the beginning of the establishment of His Kingdom on earth! You may want to learn more about why the United Church of God believes that the Feast of Trumpets represents the extraordinary return of Jesus Christ and browse through our free online booklet "God's Holy Day Plan" to unlock the prophetic meaning of the remaining Holy Days of the year - each of which is linked to a spectacular future event in God's plan that is yet to be fulfilled.

Understanding the meaning of God's forgotten Holy Days allows us to plainly see that the law of God was not entirely fulfilled by Christ's first coming. Therefore, the argument about Matthew 5:17-18 saying that the law has "passed away" because Christ fulfilled the entire law is simply not true: parts of the law, such as the Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:23-25), are still yet to be completely fulfilled. The truth is that God does require Christians to learn and obey His law - including the Holy Days!