CALCULATE OR OBSERVE the biblical months? CALCULATION OR CONFUSION? This month – the fifth biblical (lunar)month, known as “Ab”, began on the 8th july 2013 – Monday. NOT following the calculated calendar results in great CONFUSION by those who wrongly believe they must “observe” the crescent of the new moon before they begin their month, and some also say they must see the crescent in Palestine/Israel. The moslems had great difficulty deciding whether Tuesday or Wednesday was the new moon – and worse still they keep this month as the “ninth month” and a fast month. So there was great confusion as to when to begin their “sunrise – sunset” fast (which, by the way should be the last month of autumn, not during the long days of summer. The calculated calendar with its calculations was released for general use by Hillel 2 in 358 AD. It had been a closely guarded secret in the first century at the time of Christ, but it was used behind a false front of pretending to “observe” the moon’s crescent. It is said to come from the days of Moses and Aaron and was given to them on Mount Sinai by Yahweh. As well as preserving this luni-solar calendar (which takes into account the movements of the moon and sun) for us, the Jews and 7th day Christians also preserved the 7th day Sabbath for us today. This was also stated by Herbert Armstrong in his 1940 letter. This month’s new moon day beginning 8th July 2013 was kept on 3 different days after the new moon by those who “observe” the crescent of the moon. So, the conjunction was on Monday morning, and that was the new moon day. The moslems (who also like to say they begin their months when they observe visually the new crescent) kept two different days – Tuesday or Wednesday, and those who believe in observing the crescent from Israel kept Thursday! So this month, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were ALL kept by different groups as their “new moon” – the beginning of the biblical 5th month of the year! Yet, God is NOT THE AUTHOR OF CONFUSION. And this is certainly confusion! Last month (4th) the new moon day was kept on 3 different days by different groups. Those who “observe” the moon could not ask for a day off work for a new moon or holy day in advance – because they allow 2 days for the crescent to be sighted, and if it is not sighted on the first day because of cloud, they keep the next day, even though by calculation they know that without the cloud the moon could have been visible the day before. The “Karaites” are one group who observe the moon, and their customs were similar to the Saducees in Christ’s day, who were in charge of the temple. Most of the people followed the Pharisees’ teachings however. Michael Rood is one teacher who believes in observing the moon, while Mr. William F. Dankenbring also observes the crescent and believes God did not give a calculated calendar to Israel. Muslims and Chinese people also “observe” the new moon. Even at present the criteria the muslims use have changed, and they recognise the confusion which arrives from different countries observing the new moon instead of calculating it. For example: (from “moonsighting”): -- “Some muslims have introduced new criteria such as: USA - Fiqh Council of North America/Islamic Society of North America. The criteria are Moon must be born before Sunset in Makkah, and moonset after sunset in Makkah. This would mean that the conjunction could be 1 minute before sunset in Makkah and the following day would be the “new moon”. The calculated calendar disregards any conjunction occurring after noon. IF every country in the world keeps the new moon when the first observe the crescent in their country on a non-cloudy day, there will be different days kept for the new moon throughout the earth. Some muslim countries kept Tuesday as the new moon and some Wednesday. Even though they claim to “observe” the moon, it would have been impossible to see the crescent anywhere on earth on Monday evening (except for Polynesia). Yet Isaiah said in the Bible that EVERY NEW MOON AND EVERY HOLY DAY would be kept by ALL FLESH as they come. Calculation is thus necessary !” If calculation is necessary – why make all this fuss about “observing’’ the crescent? The moon can NOT DEVIATE from its ordained orbit. Look at how the calendar originated: God made days: Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And he made the sun, moon and stars: Gen 1:14* ¶ And 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 years: So the sun, moon and stars were for a) signs, b) FESTIVALS, times for the congregation to MEET with each other c) for DAYS and d) for YEARS. There are heavenly SIGNS in the sky, there are FESTIVALS at certain times when the sun and moon are in certain positions in the earth’s orbit round the sun (requiring a lunar/solar calendar to know when they occur), there are DAYS which are governed by the sun and the earth’s 24 hour rotation which consist of evening and morning (darkness and light), and there are years which are the earth’s rotation around the sun taking 365 ¼ days. Now would it make any sense for Elohim (who created all things through Yahweh or Yeshua or Jesus Christ) to create the sun and moon for FESTIVALS or ASSEMBLIES at feast times, and then not give humankind a CALENDAR so that they may know WITH ACCURACY when these festivals take place? Does Mr Dankenbring (who thinks God did not give mankind a calendar) think that Elohim created the sun and moon for calendar festivals and then said to humanity “Keep my festivals but I’m not giving you a calendar to tell you when they come”. Elohim DID give mankind a calendar and confirmed it at various times to his servants. We only have knowledge of ONE calendar given to humanity, and that is the Jewish Calculated calendar, as used by Herbert Armstrong, and many of the various offshoots of the Worldwide Church of God. ftp://ftp.uic.edu/pub/depts/econ/wpaper/cchis/JSdocs/Jewish%20calendar.htm (from Tracey R. Rich) The above link explains some of the basics about the holy/Jewish calendar. Now let’s look at the holy Calendar itself: The Calendar: Also known as the calculated calendar, the biblical or holy calendar, or the Jewish calendar, the holy calendar basically consists of months of 29 or 30 days since the astronomical lunar month has approximately 29 1/2 days. Or 29.53 days is the average period between lunar conjunctions. A day begins at sunset in your local area, but for the purpose of the calendar over the entire earth, days begin and end at 6pm (more like average day-length at the equator) Jerusalem time. Very accurate figures have been included with the handed-down instructions about the biblical (Jewish) calendar. From one lunation to another is an average of 29 days, 12 hours and 793 parts. One “part” is 3 1/3 seconds, and one “moment” is 5/114 seconds. If you know the exact time of one lunation (lunar month beginning with the molad or conjunction) then you just add the above lunation length to that to determine future conjunctions, and subtract it to find previous conjunctions (molads). The first 6 months are ALWAYS 30,29,30,29,30,29 days and they continue to be so excepting for when an adjustment is necessary and this is done in the 8th and 9th months by making Heshvan 30 days instead of 29, or making Keslev 29 days instead of 30. An adjustment is necessary sometimes because a DAY is the smallest unit of time we deal with in the calendar and the moon’s orbit is not an exact number of days. So the extra 793 parts accumulate until they build up to where an adjustment in Heshvan or Keslev is necessary. (This explains the Passover Day – the lambs were killed on the 14th, the firstborn in Egypt were killed at midnight, and Christ died at 3pm – but it was all the same DAY.) An error has to build up before an adjustment can be made, and we can only adjust in whole days and so far as keeping Passover in the spring season (as commanded) the error would have to be half a month at least before a 13th month in the cycle were to be omitted. This last statement relates to the intercalation of a 13th extra month 7 times in the 19-year cycle. The passage which says to preserve the month of “ripe barley” in the springtime is as follows: De 16:1* Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Note: the ripe barley occurs in the MONTH, not necessarily before the month begins, farmers will know when their barley will be ripe, and should be ready for the wave-sheaf on the 16th. Although the barley must be ripe for the wavesheaf as it represents Christ and the firstfruits, there is no command to intercalate a month by the condition of the barley at the end of the old year. Instead this preservation of the month of ripe barley is included in the calculated calendar The word “observe” has the sense of “to keep, guard, observe, give heed, have charge of”. The month of “ripe barley – “abib” - has to be preserved in the springtime in both the northern and southern hemispheres of the earth. (The first or the 7th month respectively). The earth, moon and sun relate to each other in a 19-year cycle. This is equal to 235 lunar months (or 693d 16h 595p). After 19 years the days on the holy (luni-solar) calendar line up (almost) exactly with the civil solar calendar we use (Gregorian). There is a possible deviation of 1-2 days a century, and we also have to allow for the Gregorian days beginning at midnight and the holy calendar days beginning at sunset. For example the Day of Trumpets this year (2013) is on September 5th (Gregorian), and in 19 years time the calendar repeats itself almost exactly with the Day of Trumpets in 2032 being on sept 6, 2052 being 7 sept, 2070 being 6 sept, 2089 being 5 September. According to the Jews, the first year in the 19-year cycle was Trumpets 1978 to 1979 – they count the new year as being in the 7th month when both hemispheres (north and south) are in the same year (or, beginning in Nisan it would be Nisan 1st 78 to Nisan 1st 1979.) And the next 19-year cycle begins 1997 to 1998, followed by 2116 to 2117. Trumpets in 1997 was 2 oct , in 2116 it will be 3 oct. After 247 yeas the year types (standard or leap (intercalary) years) repeat themselves to a great extent but not exactly. After 36228 cycles or 689,472 year the 19-year cycles repeat themselves EXACTLY. In the 19-year cycle leap years (13th months) are added on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th of the cycle. This keeps Passover in the springtime. This works like the white musical notes in a scale of C major: C,C#,D (3) Then count D again: D,D#,E (6), E,F (8), F,F#,G (11), G,G#,A (14), A,A#,B (17), B,C (19). So, following the repeating 19-year cycle keeps Passover in the springtime, and closely follows the course of the moon. No calculations are done each month for the conjunction or the possible first sighting of the crescent. The months are determined in advance with a high degree of accuracy. Appointments can be made in the future. You can ask for days off work knowing the date of those days. You can know when the new moon is to be celebrated. Otherwise you will be living in confusion. Appendix. What the Bible does NOT SAY. The Bible does NOT say to begin the holy months on the day of the conjunction (although they should be close to it – see below). It does NOT say the autumn festival should be AT, or CONTAIN, or BE AFTER THE EQUINOX. Although we know it must be close to it because the 7-day feast is called “the equinoctial festival”: Ex 34:22* And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. “Year’s end” in Hebrew is “tekufah Hashanah” which means “the year’s equinox”. The word “at” is not in the Hebrew. The “tekufah” is the Hebrew for “equinox” (it’s plural is “tekufoth”). So the feast of ingathering (tablernacles) is CONNECTED TO THE EQUINOX. BUT the text does not SPECIFICALLY SAY it MUST be before, during or after the equinox. In the calculated calendar the spring and autumn (fall) festivals are close to the equinox. The spring equinox is March 20,21, and the autumn equinox is Sept 22,23. At the equinox the days and nights are equal over the entire earth. The Bible NOWHERE says to begin the month by observing the crescent, or not if it is cloudy. Obviously we WILL see the crescent close to the beginning of the months if visibility is good. The biblical example is that Moses had to be TOLD which day was the new moon. He did NOT determine it by observation of the crescent. Although the first month MUST be in the springtime in the northern hemisphere (when it will be autumn (fall) in the southern hemisphere), there is NO command to determine this month by the state of the barley (HOW COULD NOAH HAVE CHECKED THE BARLEY DURING THE FLOOD?) – and Noah gave the EXACT DATES of the flood according to the holy calendar. The flood began in the second month: Gen 7:11* ¶ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. The flood ended about a year later, and Noah knew by the calculated calendar that it was the beginning of the year by referring to it. Genesis 13* ¶ And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. The Bible nowhere says to reckon the months by what you see in Jerusalem or anywhere else on the earth. It goes without saying that the lunar crescent is sometimes seen on DIFFERENT DAYS in different parts of the earth. What the Bible DOES SAY. Preserve the month of ripe barley (in Israel) in the springtime. Each month should begin on a day CLOSE TO the molad. By calling them “new moons” we automatically know that months should CLOSELY FOLLOW the phases of the moon throughout the entire earth. The Bible records Yahweh telling Moses when the “beginning of the beginnings of months is” in Ex 12:2. Exodus 12:1 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2* This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Two points a) The beginning of the beginnings of months --This can only be a reference to the 19-year cycle which is built into the orbits of the moon, sun and earth. This was the beginning of the first month of the 19-year cycle. b) This month was the first month of the year to you, in Egypt, in the Northern Hemisphere. HOW WE KNOW GOD GAVE MANKIND A CALENDAR 1. He established the sun, moon, earth and stars at creation to run like a clock and to mark out days, years and FESTIVALS. Festivals are ASSEMBLIES of the people, and they need to know the exact day to assemble otherwise they will miss out on meeting the other people keeping the feast. (Or worse still, what if they had missed putting the lamb’s blood on their doors on the CORRECT Passover night.) 2. Abel observed the festival of firstfruits, at the END OF DAYS – that is at the end of a count of 50 days, known as the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. He had to know the EXACT DAY THIS DAY ARRIVED. 3. Genesis 4:3 ¶ And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. 4. “Process of time” in English is a translation of the Hebrew “at the end of days” and the only festival occurring after a count of days is Pentecost occurring 50 days after the 16th Nisan which is called THE FEAST OF FIRSTFRUITS. (FIRSTLINGS). 5. Genesis 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 6. NOAH wrote down each event of the flood as it occurred with the exact days of the holy calendar. He did NOT check for Abib barley at the end of winter, instead he used the calculated calendar. He was PERFECT in his generations. This knowledge was passed on to Shem and Abraham. 7. Abraham kept God commandments and he needed a calendar to do this. 8. Moses was expert in the knowledge of the Egyptians, and Yahweh CONFIRMED to him the month which was the beginning of the 19-year cycle, and the first month of the year for Egypt. 9. Israel needed to know the EXACT date of the Passover day to avoid death of their firstborn. 10. Jesus used the same calendar as the Jews, e.g. the last great day of the feast he preached. 11. John 7:37* In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 12. Jesus saw through the pretense of “observation” of the lunar crescent. He said the kingdom of heaven comes by calculation, not observation. Luke 17:20 ¶ And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 1. 21* Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. The NEW MOON DAY, comes by CALCULATION, NOT BY OBSERVATION. The Kingdom of God is NOT inside our heads (“within us”) as some believe. The time up until the Kingdom of God had to be known in advance, CALCULATED and FULFILLED. Mr 1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Neither will they say “Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Just as the supposed “witnesses” of the new moon crescent (which was calculated anyway) ran to the Sanhedrin at the time of Christ shouting “Lo here, Lo there! For behold, the new moon is among us”. *Bibliography: much of this information about the mechanics of the calculated calendar is obtained from Arthur Spier’s book “The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar”. *The Bible
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 13:27:23 +0000
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