Dear KLM,
 
http://www.thewatchman.org/en/articles/paul_and_the_feasts.php
 
Re: Beliefs about the Feasts of the Lord being only for Israel.
 
I am not trained as a minister of the Word, and do not consider myself competent to rebut your argumentative stated beliefs concerning the Feasts of the Lord. Hopefully, someone else will read your comments and reply to you, but perhaps the controversy will never end on this side of eternity.
 
I will make a few comments in reply, but have no hope at all that they will make any difference to your strongly held beliefs.
 
I agree with the statements made in the article in the above link, i.e.,  that the Feasts are a shadow of things to come. The things to come are all about Jesus and His mission on earth, i.e., to die (Passover), be buried (Unleavened Bread), rise again (First Fruits) and to thereby pay the price for justification from the sin debt we all inherit from Adam.
 
The fall Feasts, start with Yom Teruah, or Rosh Hashanna or the Feast of Trumpets, and the blowing of the shofar trumpets warning of His return for His Bride from the resurrectd dead in Christ and those who are believers and are still alive. If we care about Jesus, and we certainly do as believers in His salvation work performed for us, then we definitely should care about His Feasts.
 
Israel on the other hand, cares about the Feasts in a different and more legalistic way, since they think the Messiah has not yet appeared, and do not believe Jesus is the Messiah. Their observance of the Feasts may honor their Messiah yet to be revealed, but at this point in time they do not honor the true Messiah, Jesus.
 
The educated Jews who studied the Torah before Christ's death believed that the resurrection of the dead for judgment would occur on Rosh Hashanna. Paul was an educated Pharisee and knew about this traditional teaching and probably, though we cannot be absolutely certain at this time, referred to this belief in 1 Cor. 15 when he speaks about the last trump, which ties together the resurrection of the dead and the rapture of the Bride of Christ. The first trump is the left ram's shofar, the last trump is the right ram's shofar, referring to the substitutive death of a ram, instead of Isaac on Mt. Moriah.
 
The Bride of Christ consists of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, male and female, free and slave, without distinction for Christ came to die for all mankind, not just Israel. Before the crucifixion, there were distinctions between Israel and Gentile, since the Jews were the chosen people. After the crucifixion, these distinctions are erased and the new distinction is between believers and unbelievers in Jesus and His provision of salvation.
 
Thank you for your comments, and I pray we will someday be able to agree on everything concerning God's Word. Until then, I wish you the very best and thank you for letting me know your thoughts.
 
YBIC,
 
Robert