THE BIBLICAL CALENDAR
Dictionaries define the word CALENDAR as; A means of measuring the passing of
time by DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS and YEARS.
In the beginning God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to
divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and
for days, and for years Gen 1:14. Thus God set in motion the means
of dividing and measuring time.
DAYS
The evening and the morning were the first day Gen 1:5; the evening and the
morning were the second day Gen 1:8. This formula is repeated for six
times, revealing clearly and unmistakably how a day is to be defined.
In Deu 23:11 and Jos 8:29, the terms evening and sundown are used
interchangeably, revealing that the word evening is meant as sunset. Now,
God made two great lights, one to rule the day and one to rule the night Gen
1:16. The sun rules the day and when it sets it is no longer ruling,
therefore the day has ended and the night has begun. In the beginning
there were no clocks, the lights of the heavens were man's clock. All a
person had to do, was to look up and see that the sun had set, to know that the
day was over. God made the things about measuring time, simple and easy.
WEEKS
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it Gen 2:2-3. On the
seventh day God rested from His labours and spent the day with the man, whom
He had created. The seventh day was set apart for holy use at the time of
creation, for Adam and ALL his descendants M'r 2:27. At the end of a
seventh day, a new week begins. The eighth day always represents the
beginning of a new cycle of seven (let the reader understand). And so we
have the week of seven days, ending with the end of the seventh day!
MONTHS
Paul tells the Colossians not to let anyone condemn them for observing New Moons
Col 2:16, and Isaiah says that, in God's kingdom, ALL MEN shall worship on the
new moons Isa 66:23. Some men declare that Zec 14:16, which states that in
the Kingdom of God, all men will observe the Feast of Tabernacles, justifies
observing that Feast today! Yet these same people refuse to observe New
Moons, even though Isaiah declares that in the Kingdom of God, all men will
observe New Moons! They are NOT CONSISTENT in their thinking. Now
the citizens of Colosse were Gentiles who had never before observed the laws of
God. They began to observe what Paul had instructed! Would the Apostle
Paul have instructed them to do something that was unnecessary? or contrary to scripture?
Why did he encourage them to continue observing New Moons in the face of
objections by others, if he thought that observation was unnecessary?
David wrote that He appointed the Moon for seasons Psalm 104:19 and
special Burnt Offering were to be made on the New Moons 1 Ch 23:31, Ezra 3:5.
The New Moons were NOT Sabbaths or Holy Days but they were consecrated as
natural divisions of time appointed by Almighty God.
At the conjunction of the moon there is no light at all. On most of
our published "Christian" (sanctified by the Roman Pontiff) calendars
the date of the conjunction of the moon is marked as the new moon, since this is
how astronomers reckon things. A day or two later the first visible light
from the moon can be seen. Over the next two weeks, the moon appears to
grow bigger, fuller and rounder until it is completely full, A FULL MOON.
After this event the moon begins to shrink, getting a little smaller each day,
until about two weeks after the full moon there is again no visible moon at all,
this is called the conjunction. If we were to search the sky we would see
nothing of the moon at all. Then a day or two later we would see the first
visible light of a NEW CRESCENT MOON. Why a new moon? Because the
day before there was no moon! We are now seeing something NEW in the
night sky. This new light is the beginning of a month, the beginning
of a NEW cycle. The moon waxes and wanes throughout the month, until it
finally disappears and the month ends, even as the day ends when the sun
disappears over the horizon. A day or so later, a NEW LIGHT, A NEW MOON
appears in the sky and a new month begins! How awesome and simple! It is
only necessary to look up and acknowledge the light in the night sky to discern
when a new month begins!
Since all days begin at sunset, the first day of each month also begins at
sunset. Therefore the observance of the New Moon must take place directly
after sunset, for the beginning of the day and the beginning of the month both
start at sunset. If a New Moon were to be observed in the morning, then
the new month would begin at the next sunset. Otherwise we would have the
new month beginning in the middle of a day! The new month BEGINS with
the SUNSET starting the first COMPLETE day after the New Moon is
observed. Otherwise, one could be polluting a High Holy Day (The Feast of
Trumpets) for a full half day without knowing it. A High Holy Day CANNOT
begin in the middle of a day and it CANNOT begin before the New Moon
beginning the month is OBSERVED! Such a Holy Day must begin like ALL other
days, AT SUNSET!
WHEN DOES NEW MOON BEGIN
In our round world the question arises; When does the new moon begin? Are
we to observe it in Jerusalem or somewhere else? The answer is that since
God made the heavens our calendar, at creation, and it is quite probable that
Jerusalem did not exist at that time, that God fully intended that people,
wherever they are, could just look up and discern the times. Surely, God
knew that men would reproduce and spread over the earth, for He had commanded
them to do so. God wanted to make the measurement of time simple and easy,
wherever men were. When you look up into the sky and see the sun set, the
day ends for you, wherever you are. We are not to live all around the
earth by Jerusalem sunset times! Neither are we to live all around
the earth by Jerusalem new moon days! Wherever the new moon is observed by
the naked eye, without aids, such as telescopes or binoculars, that is
where the new moon begins on the planet's surface. Whenever and wherever a
new moon is seen, that moment begins the new moon day! As the earth turns,
that new moon will become visible in each new time zone. The argument that
people will see the new moon on different days is simply false and is the result
of confusing God's calendar with the Papal calendar and trying to intermix them!
While there may be a different day according to the Papal calendar, the
new moon will be seen within the SAME 24 HOUR PERIOD, beginning at the same
sunset as it occurs around the world, on the same Biblical day!
YEARS
God said to Moses; this month shall be the first month of the year to you
Ex 12:2. During this first month the early harvest shall begin Lev 23:5-14
and Deu 16:9. The year begins with the first visible light of the first
crescent moon of the first month. The year consists of twelve months,
therefore at the end of the twelfth month the year ends and a new year begins.
Thus bringing to a completion the seasons and completing one revolution of the
earth around the sun. Because the twelve months do not add up to a
complete solar year there is a loss of about ten days a year, of the lunar year
over the solar year. If this were allowed to continue without any
correction, the end of the twelfth month would quickly fall behind the solar
year, throwing the spring holydays out of the spring harvest season.
Therefore a thirteenth month is intercalated every few years to bring the lunar
back into line with the solar year. This addition of a thirteenth month is
essential to maintain the holydays in their proper seasons. The thirteenth
month should be added whenever the spring harvest in Judea will not be ripe
enough to begin reaping by the day of the Wave Offering on the day after
the Sabbath which comes after Passover. Note; the Wave Offering is to be made
during the week of Unleavened Bread, therefore, if Passover falls on a Sabbath,
the Wave Offering is to be made on the First Day of Unleavened Bread. This
is because the next day after the Sabbath, occurring one week later, would
fall outside of the feast of Unleavened Bread.
During ancient times the people in Judea had no problem looking out at their
fields and determining the ripeness of their crops. As migrations occurred
it became very difficult for people who lived many thousands of miles away to
receive timely information on the state of crops in Judea. This problem
was solved by the observation that crops in Judea ripened around the spring
equinox. Since crops were never ripe enough before the spring equinox, the
Wave Sheaf could not be harvested and offered before the equinox. A
thirteenth month was added whenever it was determined that the Wave Sheaf
offering would fall before the equinox.
Today, with e-mails, web sites and telephones it is incredibly easy to contact
someone in Judea and determine the state of the crops there. This fact
along with the equinox rule makes the determination of intercalated years simple
and easy.
While these observations are easy in a dry desert climate. They are difficult in
areas subject to much rain, fog, smog or bright city lights. Yet, in
todays world, there should be no difficulty in setting up official church
observers in various cities around the world, so that these events may be
seen regardless of local conditions. In fact, the date and timing of the
first visible crescent of the new moon may be calculated and known beforehand,
requiring only confirmation by observation. The same may be said of sunset
times and harvest dates as well.
Throughout the ages various priesthoods have tried to make the simple calendar
of God's word appear complex and incomprehensible to people. This was to
create an atmosphere of dependence on the priests for information; on when
to plant and harvest and when to keep annual celebrations pleasing to God.
This has been true of virtually all cultures. They try to conceal the
truth, that God's ways are simple and really very easy to understand.
Because the word calendar is not mentioned in the bible, there are those who
declare that there is no biblical calendar and that all people must rely on the
calculated Rabbinic calendar. We have shown that there most
definately are biblical instructions on the calculation and measurement of
the passage of time. We DO NOT need to RELY upon those who reject our
Messiah for information on how to please our God, through observing His feasts
on their proper days. Instead WE NEED TO RELY UPON THE WORD OF OUR
GOD! If we would only observe the new moons, as scripture indicates is
God's will, we would NEVER have lost track of God's way of measuring time.
We would NOT have become so lost and confused about something so simple.
New moons are NOT holydays, they are signs of the natural division of time and
should be observed as such.
The calendar information discussed above was in use in Judea before and during
the time of Christ. The modern calculated Rabbinic calendar with it's
reliance on Molads (the average moon conjunction times), postponements and
complex rules was first published by Hillel 2 in the fourth century AD.
IN FACT, this was the Babylonian calendar, learned in Babylon by the captive
peoples and slightly modified to accommodate religious holydays! This
Hillel 2 calendar completely ignores the word of God as recorded by Moses in the
Torah. Those researchers who base their studies on the premise that the Hillel 2
calendar was in use during the time of Christ and earlier will be in error in
their conclusions. The fact is, Hillel 2 was not even of the same branch
of the Pharisees that lived in Judea at the time of Christ. Those Mosaic
Pharisees were destroyed during the Roman rebellions in the first century.
Hillel 2 came from the Hellenic Pharisees and his ideas had been moulded by the
Babylonians (see the SEAT OF MOSES page). In terms of research,
any astronomical observatory can calculate moon phases, equinoxes and
sunset, moonset times back for thousands of years. Making the
determination of months and years in history relatively easy.
It is a general principle that God keeps things simple and straightforward
where-as men complicate matters. Brethren, it is time to RETURN TO
OUR GOD and look to HIM for understanding on ALL SPIRITUAL MATTERS!
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