The Hebrew Calendar And Its Postponements
By Jamie
McNab
Part 3 of our calendar series
In the final part of our series on the calendar we
review the entire subject one more time.
We look at the various alternative calendars put forward by various
calendar “experts” in the Churches of God.
We also examine the Hebrew Calendar again and, in particular, look
closely at the Postponements. And we
answer the question: Is God FAITHFUL?
For other articles, audio sermons and Bible Studies,
visit our web site at: www.t-cog.net
As we look closely at God’s Holy Day calendar, it can all
seem rather complicated. We come across
unfamiliar terms such as molads,
conjunctions, equinoxes, intercalary months, postponements, and so on.
Do we need a university
education in mathematics and astronomy in order to understand how to find
God’s Holy Days, and OBEY HIS LAWS?
Of course not!
So, let’s have another look at the calendar. We’ll do this in two parts. We’ll firstly
remind ourselves of some very basic
principles which should allow any of us to reach an understanding of how to
KNOW when God’s Holy Days fall.
Even though these basic principles are clear, and most
church members are generally happy with them, some have been troubled by
certain objections that are raised by
several of the calendar experts. We will
try to complete the picture in the second part by looking briefly at some of
these so-called objections — such as the visible
crescent — or the “barley being green” — and especially those “nasty postponements”!
Basic Principles
We know that THE SUN and THE MOON play the major part in
God’s calendar.
“Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of
the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years’”,
Genesis 1:14.
In Psalm 104:19 we read, “He appointed THE MOON for seasons”.
The Hebrew word for “seasons” in these verses is moed, which commonly means congregation, FEAST, solemn assembly, APPOINTED TIME. And we can see from Psalm 104 that the moon is particularly important in
arriving at God’s appointed times.
The SUN divides the day from the night. For example, we all know that the setting of the sun determines when the Sabbath
begins and ends.
The sun also determines THE YEAR. Spring, summer, fall and winter are all
controlled by the movement of the earth in its orbit around the sun.
The MOON determines the
months. We are probably all familiar with the cycle of the moon — from when
we see the slim crescent in the sky, getting slowly bigger till we get the big
bright full moon, and then slowly
diminishing night by night till it disappears from view. It takes about 29½ days from one part of the
cycle to another. This is the average
length of a lunar month.
This is different to the calendar that we are used to
today. Most of our months have 30 or 31
days (with 28 or 29 for February), and our months have no connection to the
phases of the moon.
So, we can see as a basic
principle, that we need to use the
sun and the moon to determine the
dates for God’s appointed times.
Where Do We Find the Dates?
In Leviticus 23:4 we read of “the feasts of the LORD, holy
convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times (moed)”.
God says, for example, that we are to observe Passover on the 14th day
of the first month. We are to keep the
Feast of Trumpets on the 1st day of the seventh month. If we want to meet God at HIS appointed
times, it is clearly important that we know how to correctly calculate the
various dates. If we turn up early — or
late — then God won’t be there! In fact,
God says He will “cut us off” if we DON’T observe His days!
So where do we go to find the dates that God will be
honouring?
Well, let’s establish another basic principle.
The
Since God’s Church has existed since 31 AD, unto today, we
should expect that God’s people have — to a greater or lesser degree — kept His
Holy Days throughout that period.
Certainly the Passover on 14th Abib would be the very minimum we would
expect, even allowing for periods of neglect or spiritual lethargy. And no doubt for many years, all of God’s
Holy Days would have been kept. So WHAT calendar has God’s church used
throughout the past almost 2,000 years?
The answer is really self-evident, but let’s establish one more basic principle.
Is God Faithful?
If God requires us to keep
His commandments — and to keep HIS HOLY DAYS — shouldn’t we expect our God to ensure we have access to His
CALENDAR?
Over the past 2,000 years, God’s people have been keeping
the Passover and at least some of the Holy Days. From the first century ... through the middle
ages ... right up to modern times. Could
God have COMMANDED that we keep His Holy Days, but then leave us without the knowledge of His calendar
... for generation after generation? We
need to recognise as a basic principle
that God has always been FAITHFUL to fulfil HIS responsibilities!
“Forever, O LORD, Your Word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness
endures to ALL generations”, Psalm 119:89-90.
“What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of
circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the
oracles of God. For what if some did not
believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without
effect? CERTAINLY NOT! Indeed, let God be true and every man a
liar”, Romans 3:1-4. Even though God’s
people may not always conduct themselves right before Him, we can be confident
God will do HIS PART! And making sure we
have His calendar is part of that faithfulness.
It is our decision as to
whether we will KEEP His Holy Days, or not, but God makes sure we have the right days to choose from!
We can conclude the following:
·
God has given us His Holy Days for our good — to teach us His purpose and
plan
·
He commands us to KEEP THEM
·
It is SIN to transgress God’s commandments, and He
will “cut us off” if we do not keep them
·
So could God be FAITHFUL to require this of us ... and then NOT ensure we have His calendar?
In Matthew 7:9-11 we read, “Or what man is there among you
who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a
serpent? If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, HOW MUCH MORE will your Father who is
in heaven give GOOD THINGS to those who ask Him!”
God is a Giver of good things. He is a responsible
Father! He is dependable and
RELIABLE. He is not out to mock us, or
seek to trick us. He wants us to KEEP HIS HOLY DAYS. And He has made sure we can know WHEN His
Holy Days fall!
God IS FAITHFUL! He
has not left His people — His children — in the dark for the last 2,000 years
about His calendar!
Objections to the Jewish Calendar
The only calendar
God’s church has had access to over the past 2,000 years has been what is
commonly known as the Jewish Calendar,
or the Hebrew Calendar. If any member of the Church of God ever
wanted to keep the Holy Days, say in 100 AD, or 500 AD, or 1850 AD, they would
just need to find the nearest Jew, and ask, for example, when is the 14th day of Abib?
It has been as simple as that!
But hold on, say the “experts”, the Hebrew calendar is all wrong! It is the product of CARNAL MEN. It starts the months on THE WRONG DAYS. It starts THE YEARS at the wrong time. And it POSTPONES God’s true Holy Days over
60% if the time!
These are serious allegations. And, if we think about it, they are really an
indictment against God’s faithfulness. Because what other calendar could God’s people have used over the past 20
centuries??
Let’s look at some of the alternative calendars.
The ‘Visible Crescent’ Calendar
The MAJOR alternative view to the official Hebrew calendar
is one where the months start with
the VISIBLE CRESCENT. When you can just
see the tiniest thin sliver of the moon in the sky — in the west, usually very
soon after sunset — that is the first day
of the month, they say.
Historically, that has been a popular method of keeping
track of the months. It was used in
ancient times in a number of countries, and is still used today in the Islamic
world (such as
·
how do you identify day one of the month if the sky IS CLOUDY? And remains cloudy for several days!!
·
who has the
AUTHORITY to decide if the crescent was or was not seen? The Jewish priesthood? There are none today. Perhaps Jewish astronomers? Or, American
astronomers? Since identifying day one
is vitally important in arriving at
God’s true Holy Days — WHO is in AUTHORITY?
Some people may have better eyesight ... some may use binoculars ...
some may mistake an unusual cloud formation for the moon (after all, some have
mistaken clouds for UFO’s!). Perhaps the
pilot of a Jumbo Jet arriving at Lod airport may see the moon more easily from
his altitude of several thousand feet.
But WHO is authorised to make the
decision in the event of a dispute?
·
WHERE must the crescent be observed? Over
·
And if, for the sake of argument, we decide to use
In order to prove that God’s calendar is based on the
visible crescent, we have to do the following:
·
find BIBLICAL PROOF
that we are to use
·
find BIBLICAL PROOF that we are to use the VISIBLE
CRESCENT
·
find BIBLICAL PROOF as to who has THE AUTHORITY
·
find BIBLICAL EVIDENCE of what to do when the moon
is NOT VISIBLE due to poor weather
·
find EVIDENCE that God’s church has kept such a
calendar for 2,000 years
So what does the BIBLE actually say about all of these
features of the visible crescent calendar?
One particular calendar writer has a web page devoted to
the visible crescent, and runs occasional large advertisements for his calendar
in the Journal. The new moon, as he
points out, is absolutely critical to working out when God’s true holy days
occur. In his major calendar article, he
devotes one entire chapter to the New Moon. Yet in this entire chapter, only ONE BIBLE
VERSE is given to show that the visible crescent (allegedly) must be seen. The verse is Deuteronomy 16:1, which reads:
“Observe the
month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of
Abib the LORD your God brought you out of
We are told that the word for month should be translated as “moon”, and then asked to accept that
“observe” means to look at visibly and
see with the eye. However, the
Hebrew word for observe is translated
284 times as KEEP. This is its most common meaning as, for example, in
Exodus 20:6, where we are told to “remember the Sabbath to KEEP it holy”.
The instruction in Deut 16:1 is not so much about looking at any moon, but about remembering, and KEEPING the time holy
before God. And, as we’ll see later, the
actual moon that is important to God in the month of Abib is not the new moon, but the FULL MOON that
occurs at the Feast of Unleavened Bread!
The Beginning of the Year
Let’s look at another problem of the alternative calendars
— figuring out WHEN the new year actually BEGINS!
We know that Passover and Unleavened Bread fall in the first month. Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles fall in
the seventh month.
Okay — just WHEN is the first month ... and the seventh
month?
Our British and American calendars are quite
straightforward in this regard. There
are 12 months in the year, and after the twelfth month (December) is finished,
we start with the first day of the NEW YEAR — January 1st. That’s easy!
A lunar-solar calendar is not so simple. There aren’t 30 days from the beginning of
one month to the beginning of the next.
The average time from one phase of the moon to the same phase of the
next month is 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 3.3 seconds — near enough to
twenty-nine and a half days.
So, over 12 lunar months this comes out at 354 days —
about 11 days short of a normal solar
year (we have 365.25 days in a year).
Over a three year period, the Hebrew calendar would be out by 33 days —
effectively an entire month missing!
This is rectified by ADDING IN an extra month about every
three years. This is known as an intercalary month. This evens things up. The Hebrew calendar
adds an extra month in seven years out of a nineteen year time-cycle,
and it fits everything together almost perfectly. [This is also the origin of the NINETEEN-YEAR
TIME CYCLE that we are so familiar with in the Churches of God.]
So, having got this far, a very obvious question is: WHEN
is the start of the year in God’s calendar?
When is the first “new moon”?
Very simply — the Bible doesn’t say!
Various calendar experts can provide at least 7 or 8
DIFFERENT ways of identifying the first month of the year. And each expert will claim he has the one,
true, definite date — with everybody else being in error!
All we are told in the Bible is Exodus 12:2, “THIS MONTH
shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you”.
But how do we identify “this month”?
The Month of Green Ears
Some say there is a clue in the name of the first month.
The first month is named Abib — which means green ears. So, we are told,
we need to look out for the month when the
barley first starts to be green
in the ear. If we get to a new moon
(whatever we believe that to be!),
and there are no green ears yet, then the year has not begun. If, however, the ears do start to show, then
the next new moon is first month of the year.
Indeed, some of the Churches of God do follow this
procedure. They rely on individuals
going out into the barley fields in
But, again, what were God’s begotten saints supposed to do
in
Also, whereabouts
was the barley to be green? Barley will
ripen at different stages, depending upon whether it is in the warmer climate
of the
And how, for example, did Noah keep track of the months
and changeover of the year, when there was no barley around to ripen anyway,
during his time on the ark?
The Spring Equinox
A number of calendar experts choose to use the spring equinox as their benchmark
for working out the beginning of the year.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the spring equinox falls around the 21st
March.
The logic here is that spring “officially” begins with the
equinox (at least that’s how we work things out in our calendars). Since Passover and Unleavened Bread are said
to be spring festivals, they must
fall shortly afterwards. But it’s no
surprise that the calendar experts find areas of disagreement:
·
should you start with the new moon nearest the equinox (the nearest moon
sometimes falls before, and sometimes
after, the equinox)?
·
should you go only by the new moon which falls after the equinox?
·
should you go by the visible crescent ... or the
astronomical conjunction ... or even the “dark moon” — whether nearest, or
before, or after?
·
should you go by the visible crescent over
As is so often the case with the calendar, we see nothing
but confusion and disagreement!
We can conclude this section by recognising that the Bible
itself does not clearly specify
·
WHEN a month actually begins
·
WHEN the new year actually starts
That’s just the way it is!
The Hebrew Calendar
We’ve looked at some of the alternative calendars “in the
marketplace”, so now let’s take a closer look at the Jewish or Hebrew
calendar. And keep in mind that this is
the ONLY calendar that the
And let’s take a very close look at the POSTPONEMENTS,
since they are the source of most of the criticism which is levelled at the
Hebrew calendar.
What is the Molad?
The months in the Hebrew calendar are based upon what is
called the molad.
The molad is very similar to what astronomers call the conjunction. A conjunction is that precise moment in the month when the earth, moon and sun come into
a straight line with each other. [If all
are in the exact same plane at the
time, there will actually be a solar eclipse].
It can be very difficult to calculate the precise moment
of a conjunction, since the moon’s movement in its orbit around the earth is
quite erratic at times (caused largely by the effect of the sun’s and the
earth’s gravitational forces). The time
from one month’s conjunction to the next month’s conjunction can vary up or
down by as much as 12 hours.
The Hebrew calendar overcomes this difficulty by using the molad. The molad is arrived at by using the average time from one conjunction to the next (rather than the actual
time). The average lunar cycle is 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 3.33
seconds. Molads are therefore regular
and predictable.
The POSTPONEMENTS
The molad of Tishri, the seventh month of the year, is the
most important date in the Hebrew calculated calendar. All other dates are derived from this one.
For much of the time, the actual day of the molad is used
as the first day of the new
month. Over half of the time, however,
this is NOT the case, and the start of the month may be set back — or postponed
— by one day, or sometimes even by two
days, after the molad.
There are four rules
of postponement that may be applied in the Hebrew calendar, and this is the
area that upsets a number of people.
“You can’t postpone God’s Holy Days”, they say, “that’s just Jewish
jiggery-pokery … it’s not right … this is the rabbis introducing their own
weird ideas for their own carnal convenience”.
In some ways, such criticisms “miss the point”. ALL calendars have rules. In our western calendar, the month of
February usually has 28 days. But every
fourth year, we add an extra day, and
February then has 29 days. No one shouts
that this is jiggery pokery — that we are wrongly postponing the start of March!
Everyone understands that it is necessary to add an extra day every so
often so the right number of days fit into the year.
The Hebrew calendar is no different. It has rules and procedures which are
necessary to keep it properly organised with respect to the movement of the sun
and moon.
However, there is NO BIBLE RULE that says a month MUST
BEGIN with the day of the molad. The
molad is part of the exercise, but
there are certain circumstances which allow for the actual start of a month to be adjusted by a day or two.
WHY the Postponements?
But people want to know WHY? Why
do the postponements exist? What is the
REASON?
Firstly, we need to acknowledge that there is nowhere in
the Bible where it says we should postpone — or should NOT postpone. The Bible is silent on the issue.
There are at least two
basic reasons given to explain the postponements. Let’s look at each.
“More Convenient?”
The reason given by the Jews themselves is that the
postponements are there mainly to
prevent the Day of Atonement from falling on
a Friday or a Sunday. How does it do
that? If the molad of Tishri falls on a
Sunday, a Wednesday or a Friday, the start of the month is put back — or
postponed —by one day.
The reason for the postponements, say the Jews, is that it
is not appropriate to have Atonement fall, for example, on a Friday, since it
would make it difficult to properly sanctify the weekly Sabbath. Friday is the preparation day for the Sabbath, and a fast day then would
interfere with the keeping of the Fourth Commandment.
Some people are quite happy with this explanation. It makes sense to them that God would have
made suitable arrangements for the keeping of His Holy Days, so that we can
focus on the real meaning, rather than being distracted by
physical issues (especially when Yom Kippur is involved!).
But quite a few people are still uneasy with this
explanation. They don’t really trust the
views of the Jewish rabbis. Is there not
ANOTHER reason for the use of the postponements, they wonder?
Astronomical Reason for the Postponements
We have already seen that the average length of a lunar
month is 29.5 days. So day fifteen of the month is clearly the
halfway point. This would mean that on
day fifteen of the month, we should expect to see a FULL MOON in the sky, since
the full moon falls halfway through the moon’s monthly cycle.
And we know, of course, that in the month of Tishri, the
Feast of Tabernacles begins on the 15th day of the month. So, we should expect to see the full moon in the sky at the
beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, shouldn’t we?
Now it gets interesting!
Let’s look at Psalms 81:2-4. This
will turn out to be a KEY SCRIPTURE, which can help us understand the reason for the postponements.
In these verses, in the New King James’ Version, we read:
“Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the FULL MOON, on our solemn Feast Day. For this is a STATUTE for
[Although the KJV gives “in the time appointed” in verse
3, most modern translations — and the Hebrew — show that the meaning is the
FULL MOON]
These verses refer to a time of the year when we are to
honour God at the time of a new moon
AND at a full moon. And notice that this is a LAW and a
STATUTE. There is only one time in the
year when there is such a LAW, and that is in the seventh month, Tishri. In the seventh month we are required to keep
the first day of Tishri — the new moon
— the Feast of Trumpets — and the fifteenth day — the full moon —the Feast of Tabernacles.
So, according to Psalms 81, any calendar we use must
ensure that we are keeping the Feast of Tabernacles at the time of the FULL
MOON!
There is a similar situation in Abib, the first month of
the year. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
falls on the 15th day of the month and, since this falls halfway
through the month, should again be a FULL MOON.
Unlike the month of Tishri, however, God’s law does not require us to
sanctify the first day — or new moon — of Abib.
Psalms 81:2-4 is referring to Trumpets and Tabernacles in Tishri.
So, let’s put the Hebrew calendar, and its postponements,
to the test.
Do the postponements help in making sure that Tabernacles
falls at the time of the full moon, as required by Psalms 81, or are they just
carnal inventions of the rabbis that move us away from the full moon?
The year 2,000 is an excellent test, because there were,
in fact, two postponements that
year!
Since the molad that year fell shortly after
So, according to the Hebrew calendar, the first day of the
Feast of Tabernacles in 2,000 was the weekly Sabbath of 14th
October. As we gathered on the Friday
night for the traditional “get-together” service, how close to the full moon
were we? Answer: the moon on that Friday
evening was 99.7% full! As far as the
human eye is concerned that is a perfect
full moon! Even after two days of postponement.
If the beginning of Tishri had NOT been postponed, and we
had used the day of the molad to start the month, the moon would have been only
97% full at the “revised” time for
Tabernacles. This would be quite easy to
detect with the human eye.
So, despite the criticisms, the postponements actually
ensure we arrive at the Feast of Tabernacles at exactly the full moon — as
required by Psalms 81!
And how did some of the other calendars do?
Those Churches of God who start their months with the astronomical conjunction found that the
moon was only 96.7% full when they arrived at “their” Feast of
Tabernacles. The particular
On this basis, the Hebrew calendar wins “hands down”! And the postponements turn out to be absolutely necessary to ensure we
coincide with the moon’s movements, and comply with Scripture.
Postponements in Other Years
Was the year 2,000 just a coincidence? Just a “happy accident” for the Hebrew
calendar? What about some other
years? Is the Hebrew calendar with its
postponements consistently more
accurate?
We mentioned earlier that the calendar should also ensure
that the 15th of Abib — at Unleavened Bread — should ALSO be a full
moon. This would coincide with the Night
to be Much Remembered. [And, of course,
it should be no surprise to us that God would have arranged to take His people
out of
In the year 2,000, the Hebrew calendar gave us a moon on
the Night to be Much Remembered that was 98.8% full. Again, that’s pretty close to a perfect full
moon.
The
average of the two “festival moons” was therefore 99.2%. WITHOUT postponements, the average would be
only 98%. So, although there is not a
huge difference, a calendar with the postponements is clearly MORE ACCURATE!
If we run a similar check over, say, the last 19 years (a
time cycle), we find that the Hebrew calendar is much more accurate — year
after year. [Full details of the
comparison are given in the Appendix
at the end of this article].
From the figures shown in the Appendix, we can determine
that, over a 19-year cycle, the Hebrew calendar comes on average to within 99.4% of the festival full
moons. Quite impressive for an ancient
calendar “cooked up” by some rabbis!
And note that the postponements IMPROVE THE ACCURACY of
the calendar. Without the postponements,
the correlation is only 98.8%. And in
1995 and 1999, in particular, the calendar would fall a long way short without the postponements!
So there is a clear ASTRONOMICAL NEED for the
postponements to ensure that we “blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the FULL MOON, on our
solemn Feast Day”.
What about the Mishnah?
Despite all of this evidence, some still want to argue
against the Hebrew calendar. “Well”,
they say, “ there may be something to these postponements, but they weren’t in use in Jesus’ day”. The usual argument is that the postponements
were not in the “original” Hebrew calendar, but were added by Hillel II, around
360 AD. “So”, they say, “since Jesus
didn’t follow them, neither should we”.
Well … how do we
know whether the Jews kept the postponements at the time of Christ ... or
even hundreds of years before? The Bible
says nothing.
The usual answer is that they are not mentioned in THE MISHNAH.
What is the Mishnah?
These are collected writings of rabbis and Jewish scholars, debating and
arguing about the meaning of scripture, and how the “traditions of the elders”
should be understood. The Mishnah is a
major work, and fills the equivalent of about
18 volumes of an encyclopaedia. It
is Jewish commentary, and is riddled with contradiction, confusion and, at
times, complete nonsense. [The religion of Judaism is actually based on the
writings and teachings of the Mishnah, and not, in fact, on the teachings of
the Bible].
In the 200’s AD, a Pharisee, by the name of “Rabbi”,
collected many of the so-called oral laws
into the Mishnah. In the process he
discarded over 90% of the material
then available — one can only imagine how much additional confusion and chaos
was in the material he chose to destroy!
These Jewish elders did not understand God’s purpose and
plan, and Jesus often upbraided them for making the COMMANDMENTS OF GOD of no
effect by their traditions. There is
little, if anything, we can learn about God’s ways from the Mishnah.
Some of the comments within the Mishnah make reference to
the rules and regulations the rabbis had introduced to “protect” the sanctity
of the Sabbath and various Holy Days.
Mostly, they just made the Holy days burdensome, with lots or rules
about what could or could not be done on a Sabbath. Some of the comments imply that the postponements were not being kept at around 200 AD
(for example, instructions are given as to what is allowed when Atonement falls
on a Friday — something which is, in
fact, prohibited in the Hebrew calendar, as we saw earlier).
However, we are probably all familiar with the fact that
the Jews disputed over almost EVERYTHING!
The gospel accounts record how they argued over divorce — over whether
there are angels — over whether there could be a resurrection — over what could
be done on a Sabbath — and so on.
History shows that some of the arguments among the Pharisees themselves
led to bloodshed! Not to mention the
disputes between the Sadducees and Pharisees (and other groups).
We also know that even the time of Passover, and the correct day for Pentecost, gave rise to disagreement and dispute at certain times.
We can see their arguments often involved very important,
yet BASIC, areas of God’s Law.
The calendar itself
did NOT ESCAPE these disputes. There
were plenty of calendar “experts” around in early New Testament times, just as
there are today! And, just like today,
these experts “knew better” than the official Hebrew calendar! For centuries
the calendar caused debate and argument!
History shows that the Mishnah we have today emanated
largely from the very sizeable colony of Jews living in
The calendar, however, was determined by the official Sanhedrin based IN
JERUSALEM. The Sanhedrin had to WORK
HARD to preserve the unity of the Jewish people, and the calendar was carefully
preserved by them against all attempts to corrupt it. Its rules were kept
relatively secret, to avoid well-meaning amateurs from producing erroneous
conclusions about the calendar.
The Sanhedrin were faithful in this regard. However, in the late 300’s AD, as persecution
and oppression were threatening the continued existence of the Sanhedrin,
Hillel II took the difficult but very necessary decision to MAKE PUBLIC the
underlying rules that regulated the calendar and its calculations. This was to ensure that all Jews — no matter where they were scattered across the earth —
would have access to the true calendar and its dates, and would not end up
keeping a myriad of different dates. The
calculations, and the postponements, were NOT NEW! They were simply now being REVEALED for all
to see.
As we’ve already seen, the postponements are necessary for
us to comply with God’s STATUTE in Psalms 81.
And the Sanhedrin always knew that.
Really, the position we see today is no different to that
faced by the Sanhedrin 2,000 years ago, or by ancient
Conclusion
We could continue to investigate and write about the
calendar for years to come — and we’d always come across someone who wants “to
do it differently” — who has now really figured out the original, correct, true
Bible calendar that God gave to Moses, etc.
But, in essence, the position is simple:
·
is God FAITHFUL?
·
would He have left His Church without knowledge of
His calendar for 2,000 years, making it IMPOSSIBLE for His saints to worship on
His Holy Days?
Surely the answer is clear? God IS FAITHFUL, and He HAS given us His
calendar — the Hebrew calendar WITH its postponements!
As the apostle Peter wrote, “Grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has
given to us ALL THINGS that pertain to life and
godliness ...”, 2 Peter 1:2-3.
Does the calendar “pertain to life and godliness”? Yes, for it tells us WHEN to come before God
on HIS Holy Days — at HIS appointed times.
Peter assures us that God has given us ALL THINGS that are
necessary. That includes the knowledge
of His calendar.
So, let’s HOLD FAST to the Truth once delivered to us!
APPENDIX
A 19-Year Comparison, Showing How the Postponements
of the Hebrew Calendar Bring Us Nearer to the Festival Full Moons, as required
by
Psalms
81:2-4
Column 1 gives the year
Column 2 gives the percentage of the Full
Moon visible on the first Holy Day of the Feast of UB and the Feast of
Tabernacles (averaged)
Column 3 gives the percentage of the Full
Moon which would be visible if postponements were not applied
Year Hebrew
Calendar Without
Postponements
2000 0.992 0.98
1999 0.996 0.973
1998 0.987 no postponements this year
1997 0.993 no postponements this year
1996 0.997 0.991
1995 0.996 0.975
1994 0.992 no postponements this year
1993 0.991 no postponements this year
1992 0.996 0.992
1991 0.997 no postponements this year
1990 0.995 no
postponements this year
1989 0.983 no postponements this year
1988 0.998 0.98
1987 0.997 0.989
1986 0.996 no postponements this year
1985 0.996 0.996
1984 0.992 0.983
1983 0.997 0.99
1982 0.987 no postponements this year
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