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Is God’s Calendar Based on the New Moon Days?
Response by Fred R. Coulter | [Up]
Thank you for your email.
Please understand that the seven-day weekly cycle was established by God at Creation based upon the rotation of the earth; bringing to every location on the earth an evening and a morning. The Seventh Day Sabbath is Saturday today.
However, you are quite mistaken concerning the lunar/new moon calendar because it is absolutely not the calendar of God. It is a figment of the imagination of men who think they know more than God, because the seven-day weekly cycle can never be broken. The lunar/new moon calendar places the Sabbath at different days during the week, rather than the seventh day of the week. So therefore, they lose from one to two days a month in time. The Sabbath does not begin with the new moon days. That’s when the month begins, and the month is calculated by the Hebrew calculated calendar.
It is, to say the least, the height of foolishness and great arrogance by men who think they know more than God, and establish a lunar/new moon calendar so that they break the weekly Sabbath. And break the seven-day cycle, which goes day-by-day, not reckoned by the new moon. All months and years in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar are subject to the seven-day weekly cycle. So, while the promoters of the lunar/new moon calendar claim everybody else is wrong but them, are being utterly most foolish and arrogant. There is nowhere in the Bible, where it says we are to figure the Sabbath based on the new moon.
So if you follow that, I hope you heed what I have said and repent. And if you do not repent, then you may find yourself in a worse position in your relationship with God than do Sunday-keepers. While Sunday is obviously the wrong day, they do not make the fatal, spiritual mistake of destroying the continuous seven- day weekly cycle, as do those who profess a lunar/new moon calendar.
I am being very straightforward with you, because this puts you in a very seriously, near fatal spiritual state before God. So I must be very direct and truthful to you, so that you will not fall prey to this false doctrine.
Once again, thank you for your email.
Fred Coulter
Calculated Hebrew Calendar & Postponements
Response by Fred R. Coulter
Thank you for your email.
Let me point out a fact in the Bible you need to understand: 1) God is going to execute His will, regardless of who does it. So I call your attention to Balaam. Did God make him bless and speak the words of God, though he was a pagan high priest and though he wanted to curse? Yes or no? The answer is yes.
Now, it is the same way with the Calendar calculations. God gave it to the descendants of Aaron to preserve, and all of the calculations were released in the 350s AD by Hillel the Second. These all came from God.
Now concerning Maimonides, he falls into that category as a descendant of Aaron and knowledgable concerning the calculations of the Hebrew calendar. Please understand, mathematics are mathematics, are mathematics, are mathematics. The calendar has nothing to do with the traditions of the Jews, though it has been preserved by the Aaronic descendants within the Jewish community. Concerning other traditions of Jews, we don’t follow them because they are the teachings of men.
Now in light of that, please understand another fact: the descendants of Aaron and Levi have preserved the Old Testament down through history, in spite of their traditions and shortcomings, because God gave them that responsibility. Period.
So since you use the Old Testament, why do you not apply the same reasoning that you have toward the calendar? If you did, you would reject the Old Testament. Correct?
God is the one who created the heavens and the earth, the moon, etc. He alone knows how they function. In giving the priests and Levites the calendar calculations, He gave them the correct ones; including all postponements, because everything needs to be adjusted to keep everything in synchronization. So whether you know it or not, you believe in postponements. Let me tell you why.
Look at the Roman calendar today. In a four-year period we have three years that contain 365 days. However, that is not exactly correct, because the actual time for each year is 365 1/4 and round it out from there. Therefore, this quarter day is held in suspense until they can adjust, or postpone, to a full day; because everything has to be adjusted two full days. That’s why in the fourth year we have 366 days.
Now if you accept that, then you have to accept the postponements of the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, because those are absolutely necessary to keep everything synchronized so that we have the correct appointed times that God gave.
The calculated Hebrew calendar is correct, but the Passover and Pentecost designated by the Jews is incorrect
Thank you very much for your email concerning the Jewish Pentecost and the calculated Hebrew calendar. Please understand this: the Jews reckon Pentecost with the 50-day count beginning the day after the first holy day during Unleavened Bread. As you will see in some booklets that are coming, this is incorrect.
Please also note that the calendar itself is correct. And we know that the 14th is the Passover--that was the domestic Passover--this is the one that Jesus kept. The temple-sacrificed Passover lamb for the 15th Jewish Passover does not change the fact that the actual Passover is on the 14th.
So I hope these new booklets will help you and remember this: in counting Pentecost we are to count seven complete weeks, beginning with the first day of the week during Unleavened Bread. That is the wave sheaf offering day and is day one.
Also, note that with the Jewish count and the count to a Monday Pentecost the 50th day does not fall on the day after the seventh Sabbath. Those are two guidelines you can use.
One other note: the Feast of Unleavened Bread is called a feast of seven days. The reason that is so is because the Feast of Unleavened Bread falls on parts of two weeks. Therefore, those seven days, like the Feast Of Tabernacles is 7 days, are never referred to as the week of unleavened bread, or the week of tabernacles. Rarely does the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the Feast Of Tabernacles ever fall within one complete week. That's why they are never referred to as the week of unleavened bread, or the week of the Feast Of Tabernacles, because they nearly always fall on "portions of two weeks."
Now this is vital to understand concerning Pentecost, because we are to count 7 complete weeks, and I think you can see the difference when it is expressed that way.
Remember, the true 14th Passover never falls on the 15th. And likewise only once or twice in 10 years does Pentecost fall on the 6th of Sivan.
The Jewish way is like having Thursday and Friday as one day, which they call the Passover, and then the next day be the Sabbath. Once again, this exposes their errors in designating those days, even though the calculated Hebrew calendar is correct.
