Jewish Roots Dr. John Garr Dr. John D. Garr, founder and president of Restoration Foundation, has pioneered research, writing, and teaching on the Hebrew foundations of Christian faith for more than thirty years. His international ministry has enlightened believers of numerous communions, teaching them the historical and theological emergence of Christianity from the matrix of biblical Judaism. John, his wife Pat, and their sons, John, Timothy, and Stephen, are working to promote Restoration Foundation. Dr. Garr's web site is: www.restorationfoundation.org The High Holy Days and Christian Faith by John D. Garr, Ph.D. The system of praise, worship, and service which God, himself, gave to the Jewish people, known by the time of Christ as Judaism, included daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, and generational reminders that summoned the Jewish people to celebrate the magnificent works of God in their behalf. These remembrances constituted a major part of the worship which Yahweh prescribed for his people. They included three hours of prayer daily, the weekly Shabbat, monthly new moon celebrations, and the festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. God knew full well that the all-too-human beings he had created were inclined to forget their connection with the Divine. For that reason, he instituted a system of remembrance, using the calendar that he had designed in the beginning when he flung the stars, sun, moon, and planets into space and ordained them to be for "signs, seasons, days, and years" (Genesis 1:14). One seventh of Gods creation was the institution of a day of rest which God never personally needed! Enervation? The Omnipotent never experienced it! God instituted Shabbat as a weekly marker in time to remind man that the universe had been "created" by God and that man, himself, did not evolve from some primordial ooze. | |
|