The Messenger Church of God keeps the festivals God commands his people to keep. The commanded festivals and annual Sabbaths are listed in Leviticus 23. They include, in addition to the weekly Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, but technically a separate feast. The 2024 festival observance planned by the Church for the commanded annual festivals is summarized below.

A common belief is that these festivals were somehow “done away” for Christians, but the Bible does not support such a belief. That the early New Testament Church kept the Passover on the fourteenth of Nisan (or Abib, the first month of the Hebrew sacred calendar), is easily proven from extant historical records, and is admitted by virtually all competent Bible scholars (see chapters 9 and 10 of When Is the Biblical Passover?).

Nowhere in the New Testament is there any suggestion that the weekly Sabbath or any of the annual feasts was abrogated (see “Why Christians Should Keep the Sabbath”). Jesus and the apostles and their disciples kept the Sabbath and the feasts God commanded to be kept as recorded in Scripture, not the feasts borrowed from paganism that have become popular in the human devised traditions of apostate Christianity (Matthew 26:18; Luke 4:16; John 7:2, 8-43; Acts 2:1; 16:13; 17:2; 20:6, 16; 27:9; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8).

Unheard of in the New Testament is the keeping by Christians of such days as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc. There is no command or suggestion in the Scripture that Sunday is to be kept as a day set apart for regular weekly worship services and rest from secular labor. All such customs are of human invention, and are not sanctioned anywhere in the Bible.

The calendar of annual feasts and holy days we plan to keep in accordance with God’s word in 2024 are as follows:

Passover	Nisan 14	April 22*
Unleavened Bread	Nisan 15 – 21	April 23 – April 29
First Holy Day	Nisan 15	April 23**
Last Holy Day	Nisan 21	April 29**
Pentecost	Sivan 6	June 16**
Trumpets	Tishri 1	October 3**
Atonement	Tishri 10	October 12**
Tabernacles First Holy Day	Tishri 15	October 17**
Last Great Day	Tishri 22	October 24**
* Service previous evening
** Begins previous evening – days in Hebrew calendar begin at sunset

We plan to have a service on each annual holy day, and services daily during the Feast of Tabernacles. Details regarding our services for the annual festivals will be made available to registered attendees at the appropriate time.

Our services are intended for our members and for persons genuinely interested in learning about and following real Biblical Christianity. If you wish to inquire about attending any of our services, please contact us.

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Messenger Church of God
PO Box 619
Wentzville, MO 63385
USA

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