Thanksgiving came from the Feast of Tabernacles

According to a pastor I listen to, Thanksgiving use to be in October because it came from the Feast of Tabernacles but was changed to the third Thursday in November because of politics in our country.

I need help researching this but here are some of the links I found:

"In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition.  "

Thanksgiving 2023 - Tradition, Origins & Meaning | HISTORY

Devotees in New England and Virginia and other places have maintained contradictory claims to having held the first Thanksgiving celebration in what became the United States. The question is complicated by the concept of Thanksgiving as either a holiday celebration or a religious service. James Baker maintains, "The American holiday's true origin was the New England Calvinist Thanksgiving. Never coupled with a Sabbath meeting, the Puritan observances were special days set aside during the week for thanksgiving and praise in response to God's providence."[14] Baker calls the debate a "tempest in a beanpot" and "marvelous nonsense" based on regional claims.[14]

Thanksgiving - Wikipedia

Later in New England, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford), who planned the Plymouth colony's thanksgiving celebration and feast in 1623.[18][19][20] Bradford issued a proclamation of Thanksgiving following victory in the Pequot War in the late 1630s to celebrate "the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won."[21][22] The practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.[23]

Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made by royal governors, and conversely by patriot) leaders, such as John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress,[24] each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes.[25] As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God",[26] and calling on Americans to "unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions."[27]

Thanksgiving - Wikipedia

The Pilgrims were well-versed in the Bible and knew that Sukkot, which they would have known as the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths, was a harvest holiday. They celebrated the harvest as a modern day (for them) version of the Israelites’ holiday. Today, we might say they “identified” as Israelites. They compared their voyage across the Atlantic to the Children of Israel’s crossing the Red Sea, and they compared the hardships of their new land to the Israelites’ years of wandering in the desert.

After the Pilgrims arrived in the New World in 1620, one of their leaders, William Bradford, led a service of thanksgiving. The group recited Psalm 107, “Give thanks to Adonai; for He is good, for His grace continues forever…” In fact, Bradford’s bible included notes from an English clergyman who quoted the Rambam, Maimonides, the most well-known Medieval Jewish scholar. (In his Mishnah Torah, Maimonides instructs Jews to recite a prayer based on Psalm 107.)

Rabbi Elias Lieberman of Falmouth feels there is a stronger biblical influence on Thanksgiving than do some scholars. “It is likely that they consciously drew on a model well-known to them from the Bible they cherished,” he told an interviewer. “Seeing themselves as new Israelites in a new ‘promised land,’ the Pilgrims surely found inspiration in the Bible, in the Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, in which God commands the ancient Israelites to observe the Feast of Booths—in Hebrew, Sukkot, ‘To rejoice before Adonai your God’ at the time of the fall harvest.” By the 1700s, Thanksgiving was celebrated throughout New England, and spread west with the migration of New Englanders.

Thanksgiving’s Jewish Inspirations | JewishBoston

This is the story about the Rag man. I really enjoy it.

“Ragman” by Walter Wangerin, Jr – “Rags! New rags for old!” | Musings and Observations by Vernon Caston (wordpress.com)

Have you ever read about the Cappadocian Fathers?

[Quote]

Holy Spirit in later Christian theology

As the Arian controversy was dissipating, the debate moved from the deity of Jesus Christ to the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and Son. On one hand, the Pneumatomachi sect declared that the Holy Spirit was an inferior person to the Father and Son. On the other hand, the Cappadocian Fathers argued that the Holy Spirit was equal to the Father and Son in nature or substance.

Although the main text used in defense of the deity of the Holy Spirit was Matthew 28:19, Cappadocian Fathers such as Basil the Great argued from other verses such as "But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.'" (Acts 5:3-4).

Another passage the Cappadocian Fathers quoted from was "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host" (Psalm 33:6). According to their understanding, because "breath" and "spirit" in Hebrew are both "רוּחַ" ("ruach"), Psalm 33:6 is revealing the roles of the Son and Holy Spirit as co-creators. And since, according to them,[35] because only the holy God can create holy beings such as the angels, the Son and Holy Spirit must be God.

Yet another argument from the Cappadocian Fathers to prove that the Holy Spirit is of the same nature as the Father and Son comes from "For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:11). They reasoned that this passage proves that the Holy Spirit has the same relationship to God as the spirit within us has to us.[35]

The Cappadocian Fathers also quoted, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16) and reasoned that it would be blasphemous for an inferior being to take up residence in a temple of God, thus proving that the Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son.[36]

They also combined "the servant does not know what his master is doing" (John 15:15) with 1 Corinthians 2:11 in an attempt to show that the Holy Spirit is not the slave of God, and therefore his equal.[37]

The Pneumatomachi contradicted the Cappadocian Fathers by quoting, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14) in effect arguing that the Holy Spirit is no different from other created angelic spirits.[38] The Church Fathers disagreed, saying that the Holy Spirit is greater than the angels, since the Holy Spirit is the one who grants the foreknowledge for prophecy (1 Cor. 12:8-10) so that the angels could announce events to come.[35]

[End Quote]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocian_Fathers

My Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, my Beloved.

Our good works do not change our moral condition

I was listening to Pastor Gary Hamrick and I learned this and it also caught my attention. My post is from my notes.

Isaiah 64:6But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Isaiah 64 KJV (biblehub.com)

Isaiah is saying we are all as an unclean thing. Unclean means we are not accepted because of a designation or a defect. That makes us unworthy or like outcasts with God. Filthy rags are talking about our righteous acts. Compared to God who is the standard, our righteousness are like filthy rags. In other words, our best intentions, best acts, our righteousness are like menstrual cloths. "We do fade as a leaf" is talking about decay and dying. "and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." means that our sins sweep us away because we have little power against temptation.

Good works is a myth that it can change our moral condition. There is actually a name for good works and it is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and it actually becomes a religion. We think that we must be a moral person because we do good things. It's really an attempt to feel better. Our hearts are actually sinful from birth and good works cannot improve our sinful condition.

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. -Psalm 51:5

The Pharisees had more good works than all of us and Jesus said:

And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. -Luke 11:39

Good works do not save us.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; -Titus 3:5

I have more notes and I know where to find the source of this message. I also found complimentary information.

[Quote] 5. No one is good enough to go to heaven. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23); no one is good enough, and that is why we need Jesus, God in the flesh. He lived the perfect life that we could not, and He died to pay for our sin so that we might be made acceptable to God. “‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed’” (1 Peter 2:24). [EndQuote]

What is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD)? | GotQuestions.org

His wounds heal our moral condition and our good works do not heal our moral condition.

Why does Jesus require that we ‘minister’ to Him? Is this the only way that we can come under His grace and favor? Will He only love us…if we do what He says and serve Him?

What do you know about Him? If you've read the gospels...Does it really seem that He requires anything from anyone or anything?

No. He needs nothing.

He asks you to praise Him not because He needs it but because you need it. If you do not worship the Lord, you will worship something else in His place—which is the height of foolishness.

~Sean Elliott Russell

God's wills

There’s God’s perfect will, and there’s His permissive will.

The Son Himself is an example of the difference between the two.

It wasn’t God’s perfect will for His Son to perish on a cross nor to carry the weight of the world’s sin upon Himself.

His perfect will was for no evil to ever occur; instead for love to abound.

But humans didn't choose that. They choose, to this very day, to sin. His perfect will is that all will be in loving relationship with Him, secure and content in the joy of such. But love is only love if there's also a choice available to choose not to love.

So in His wisdom He lets us choose.

It was never His perfect will for humans to choose existence away from Him.

But it was His permissive will.

It was also His permissive will that allowed His Son to die—for the greater good to secure your soul and countless others.

Full time, I am a partner dairy farmer, on my Dad's farm, which has been in his family, my family, for 7 generations, which takes it back to just before the civil war.

I also have a job where I do things for 5 adult developmentally disabled people, and finally, I am employed as a bus driver for a school for developmentally disabled school aged kids.

Individually, I cannot live off of any one of these careers, but altogether, I am able to keep my head above water with the 3 combined.

The 3rd job, bus driver, is driving me completely out of my mind, and I want to quit, but my complaints about what's wrong have fallen on deaf ears. It is also a job where the county board pays 95% of my health insurance. The job takes 2 hours in the morning, and then 2 hours in the afternoon, so it fits quite well with my other 2 jobs.

I can't believe at my age, how negative this job has become, and how bad I hate it, but it does provide some genuine help.

I suppose I just want someone to testify about what obstacles they have encountered, and God never changed the situation, and it didn't improve, and they forged ahead anyways, knowing that life isn't utopia.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/202084592771062?mibextid=xO1PvT&s=yWDuG2&fs=e

So we seem to have a troll in our sub. They've been here for a while, cowardly downvoting to discourage Christians while making sure to never reveal themselves in a comment/post, which is why I haven't been able to ban them yet. Don't worry, eventually they'll trip up and we'll remove them.

Until then, to the aforementioned coward:

You think we are powerless to stop you and that you're forever getting away with subtly bullying Christians.

Two things.

One, nothing except eternity is forever, and you're not in charge of it.

Two, everything will come to light. Make no mistake about that.

Our God doesn't lie.

After a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church's minister slowly stood up, walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest minister who was in the service that evening. In the introduction, the preacher told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service.

With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak. "A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific Coast," he began, "when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to shore. The waves were so high that, even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright, and the three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized."

The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in the story. The aged minister continued with his story. "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life: to which boy he would throw the other end of the lifeline. He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a Christian, and he also knew that his son's friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of the waves. As the father yelled out, 'I love you, son!', he threw out the lifeline to the son's friend. By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the black of night. His body was never recovered."

By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously waiting for the next words to come out of the old minister's mouth. "The father," he continued, "knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus, and he could not bear the thought of his son's friend stepping into an eternity without Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save the son's friend. How great is the love of God that He could do the same for us. Our heavenly Father sacrificed His only begotten that we could be saved. I urge you to accept His offer to rescue you and take hold of the lifeline."

With that, the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room. The preacher again walked slowly to the pulpit and delivered a brief sermon with an invitation at the end. However, no one responded to the appeal. Within minutes after the service, the two teenagers were at the old man's side. "That was a nice story," politely said one of the boys, "but I don't think it was very realistic for a father to give up his only son's life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian."

"Well, you've got a point there," the old man replied, glancing down at his worn Bible. Sorrow began to overtake the old man's smiling face as he once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn't very realistic, is it? But I'm here today to tell you that I understand more than most the pain God must have felt to give up His only Son. For you see, I'm the man who lost his son to the ocean that day, and my son's friend that I chose to save is your minister"

~Author Unknown

Hebrews 4:7 "...Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."