God's Sacred Calendar

How the most important thing in the Bible has been hidden

Fred R. Coulter—November 2, 2019

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[#2 of two separate sermons given on November 2, 2019 - ]

You all have this booklet, Which is the True Calendar of God? We have much more in addition to it, and four videos.

• Do you believe that the Old Testament is the Word of God? Yes!
• Do you believe that we should keep the Sabbath?

• Remember what it says in Genesis?
• What is the first instruction given to Adam and Eve?

He created them and then taught them on the Sabbath! Notice that right at the first.

You can read Appendix N: Rome's Challenge to the Protestants by Cardinal Gibbon. When the enemy tells you that they have searched the Scriptures thoroughly and there's not one Scripture that says you shall keep Sunday, and that it's a Catholic institution, why do you Protestants say that you follow the Bible, but you keep Sunday?

That happened in 1892, and ever since that time, the Protestants have gone down little by little. Sometimes a lot and then a little recovery, but little by little they have been going down to where now they used to be 80% Protestant when asked, 'What is your religion?' Today it's 54%! Atheism and all of these things have increased.

Adam and Eve:

Genesis 2:1: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And by the beginning of the seventh day God finished His work, which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work, which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it… [made it Holy] …because on it He rested from all His work, which God had created and made" (vs 1-3).

We know that He gave His commandments to Adam and Eve. It doesn't say that they were the Ten Commandments, but do you think that they were any different than the Ten Commandments?

The Children of Israel:

Let's see something about the Sabbath. Remember what happened in Exo. 16: God sent the manna for six days, and you if you took too much on the five days and left it over, it bread worms and stunk! On the sixth day you could bring in twice as much so you could eat of days six and seven. Some of them went out to look for manna on the seventh day, and God got angry and said, 'How long refuse you to keep My commandment?' Think about that phrase, and apply it today.

When we come to Exo. 31 we find a very significant addition to the commandments of the Sabbath, in addition to the Ten Commandments. The Sabbath is part of everything that God does! So, it was part with Adam and Eve, and all the patriarchs between Adam and Noah had to keep the Sabbath, because they were righteous. If you're righteous and walk with God:

• Do you think that you don't have to keep the commandments of God?
• How can you walk with God if you don't keep the commandments?

Exodus 31:12: "And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 'Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, "Truly you shall keep My Sabbaths… [plural; some places singular, some place plural] …for it… [the keeping of] …is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations…"'" (vs 12-13).

He didn't limit it, and it's all over when you go to Babylon, or it's all over when I destroy Jerusalem. No way!

"…to know that I am the LORD Who sanctifies you" (v 13). If you don't keep the Sabbath, do you really know God? No, you don't know God!

Verse 14: "You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is Holy to you. Everyone that defiles it shall surely be put to death, for whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people."

What does that mean? That those people will suffer the taking away of the blessings that God gives to the rest of the people! That's how He does it among the people.

Verse 15: "Six days may work be done, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, Holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath Day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant" (vs 15-16).

Wasn't that true for the 40 years in the wilderness? Manna six days of the week, none on the Sabbath! The Sabbath is perpetual of time for God to be in contact with His people.

Notice what has happened to Sunday-keepers, especially after the warning of Cardinal Gibbon. Look at Protestantism today. When people don't keep the Sabbath, and that is a segment of time. Every seven days God made the calendar every seven days. Men have had different calendars.

• look at the ones that they've had with Rome
• look at the Julian calendar, which was 365 days, a quarter of a day short

So, down through time, the Catholics began to see that Easter is getting closer to winter. They originally set it so it would be close to Passover as the feast to substitute for Passover. But when they got down to the 1500s, Pope Gregory had to drop ten days out of the month of October. I forget the exact year, but the month they did it was October 4th and the next day was Oct. 15th. The Russians did it in 1912. then they had to drop out more than ten days.

No humanly devised calendar is as accurate as God's! Here is the problem for people: the Bible does not contain the formula on how to calculate time according to God's calendar.

A book by Arthur Spier—The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar—has everything calculated and worked out. In the introduction he says that the calendar was not devised until about 1000B.C. It is the tradition of the Jews and he was putting this calendar together so that the Jews would be able to determine their birthday.

Why would he phrase it that way when that is not true? Here you have the true facts on how to calculate it, but then you denigrate your presentation by saying it's a tradition of the Jews.

If you're a Protestant and you read that, and then you read Mark 7—what Jesus said about the traditions of the Jews, 'Full well you have your traditions and you reject the commandments of God'—they pay no attention to it. That really shocked me when I read it, because the purpose of the calendar is to reveal the Sabbath and the Holy Days.

God says here that it is the Sabbaths, a perpetual covenant; v 17: "It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever… [tie in with Isa. 56 & 58 about the Gentile and Eunuch keeping the Sabbath] …for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed."

What is the first encounter with the Passover by the children of Israel? Exo. 12! The children of Israel were in Egypt and they lost all knowledge of the calendar. We don't know what kind of calendar that the Egyptians had, except they were sun-worshippers. Some of the holidays that are kept today are identical to what they kept in Egypt that long ago.

So, here's what God told Moses, Exodus 12:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 'This month… [How many days are in a month? That depends!] …shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you'" (vs 1-2).

Then He gave the instructions of getting the lamb on the 10th and holding it until the beginning of the 14th. It can mean moon or month, but technically speaking—you'll have to read the booklet Which is the True Calendar of God? to understand it—when looking for the new moon you never see the first of the new moon. Why is that? Because that crescent is still behind the sun! The first little sliver of light on there comes the day before the next sliver of light. That's why it's calculated. You can read in the booklet.

Then God tells them what to do with the lamb, when to kill it, and then He gives the instruction concerning Unleavened Bread, which is the day following. The first day and the last day are Holy Days!

Let's see something that tells us that God did something on the Passover Day and the first day of Unleavened Bread before He ever started with the Israelites. This was with Abraham.

Exodus 12:40[transcriber's correction]: "Now, the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years, and it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it was even on that very same day, all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt" (vs 40-41)—430 years before!

Clarifying the 400 and 430 years. This goes back to Gen. 15. it's not called the Passover here, but a special covenant day. It covers what is the Passover and the first day of Unleavened Bread.

Genesis 15:4: "And behold, the Word of the LORD came to him saying, 'This man [Eliezer (v 2)] …shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own loins shall be your heir.'" Abraham was 75-years-old when he was given this promise!

That's the first promise, physical seed! The next promise is a tremendous event, because the whole rest of the Bible springs out from this chapter; think of that! That's important! The day that this occurred on is important, and this was the Passover Day and the next day was the first day of Unleavened Bread, but not declared that way. But these days, with the action of God, were so important. Then God used them again in the days of Israel.

Verse 5: "And He brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward the heavens and number the stars—if you are able to count them.'…." This had to be at night!

• Have any of you seen stars in the daytime other than the sun? No! So, this was at night!
• When do we keep the Passover today? At night!

"'…And He said to him, 'So shall your seed be.' And he believed in the LORD…." (vs 5-6).

This was the spiritual seed, and there were hardly any spiritual seed until the coming of Christ. Look how far in advance God has planned things.

• What was it said of Jesus? He was slain from the foundation of the world!
• What is said of the Gospel? Before the ages of time!

God has a great plan and it's all hinged on the Sabbath and Holy Days! But He didn't put in the Bible how to calculate it!

"…And He accounted it to him for righteousness" (v 6). Then we have the sacrifice of the heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and young pigeon! 

Verse 10: "And he took all these to himself, and divided them in the middle…" Notice that this is not an altar of rock like God said if you're going to make an altar; that it had to be of whole stones!

Did Abraham not do that when he offered Isaac, an altar of whole stones. Here there is no altar. These animals were cut right down the spine, and then the halves were laid to make a path, except the pigeon and turtledove. Let's notice the timing of this:

Verse 11: "And when the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away." This tells you that it took most of the day to cut those animals and lay that out. We don't know how long it took to gather them out the herd, and we don't know how long it took to cut them down. But there they lay.

Verse 12: "And it came to pass, as the sun was going down…"—not yet down. When did Christ die? At the ninth hour or 3 pm! Is the sun going down? Yes!

So, here's a prophecy, a prophecy that Abraham did not even know—which now we can look back and know—was of the death of Jesus Christ. The One Who became Christ was the One Who walked through the parts of the animals.

"…that a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And, behold, a horror of great darkness fell upon him! And He said to Abram, 'You must surely know that your seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs (and shall serve them and they shall afflict them) four hundred years'" (vs 12-13).

The 30 years is this: It was 15 years from the time of this until the promise of nations. Here Abraham is 75-years-old and at 85-years-old that is given, and then at 100-years-old Isaac is born. So, you have another 15 years and Isaac was offered. That's the difference in the 400 and the 430 years.

Verse 14: "And also I will judge that nation whom they shall serve. And afterward they shall come out with great substance."

• Did all of that happen? Yes, it happened in Egypt!
• Did they come out with great substance?

Verse 16: "'But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.' And it came to pass—when the sun went down and it was dark—behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces" (vs 16-17).

What happened to those sacrificial animals? They were probably all burned up! There were just ashes there. So, Abraham knew that God meant what He said when he saw that!

Verse 18: "In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'I have given this land to your seed'"—that his children would come out and they would have the land! So, 430 years later, to the very same day, that shows you God keep time, and how He keeps time.

God had to have given the means of calculation to the priesthood. That falls into the whole history of the children of Israel, the Jews and the Levites. How can you give the day of a Holy Day with a specific number and month and specific number of day if there were not a means of understanding how you get that month and day?

If you believe the Old Testament is the Word of God, then as Paul wrote, the oracles of God were given to the Jews! The calendar calculations to the priests and Levites, because here's what they were to do:

Leviticus 23:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, "Concerning the appointed Feasts of the LORD…"'' (vs 1-20.

We're going to learn that appointed times has to do with prophetic and spiritual events! What was the appointed time of Jesus' death? The Passover! It had to be on the time that God set; not on the time that men would set in a calendar that would be a little different.

• Were there times when different segments of Israel and the Jews had different calendars? Yes!
• Were there times when those in Babylon differed with those who were in Jerusalem? Yes!

But God gave it to the priesthood!

"…which you shall proclaim to be Holy convocations, even these are My appointed Feasts" (v 2). The first one is the Sabbath! Every seventh day is an appointed Feast of God.

Verse 3: "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a Holy convocation. You shall not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings."

Then there's more to come! Did God not in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy talk about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast at the end of the year? Yes! He didn't give a date though. Here He gives a date for every single one. Has to be!

Could the priests proclaim it unless God gave them how to figure the rest of it? No! God is so precise!

As you read in the booklet Which is the True Calendar of God? The calculations in what we call the Calculated Hebrew Calendar today are so precise that it is more accurate than NASA and the Naval Observatory, because the full moon of the 15th in the 1st month are 99% accurate to the fullness. It's either waxing or waning. When it comes to those in New Zealand, it's waxing. When it comes around to us, it is full and waning. That works every time!

Verse 4: "These are the appointed Feasts of the LORD, Holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons." Then He lists them all!

Verse 5: "In the fourteenth day of the first month… [they knew the month and the day] …between the two evenings, is the LORD'S Passover."

• Verse 6: "And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread…"
• Verse 7: "On the first day you shall have a Holy convocation…."
• Verse 8: "…In the seventh day is a Holy convocation…."

Then they had a special thing for first day of the week during the Feast of Unleavened Bread: The Wave Sheaf Offering!

• Why is that important?
• What did that picture?

When it was given, they did not know it pictured Christ ascending as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.

They had no idea, but we know! They didn't know that it was going to happen on the very day that God gave in Lev. 23. then you're to count seven full weeks, and the day after the seventh week you're to have what we call today Pentecost, which means count 50!

Then we come down to Trumpets, the 1st day of the 7th month, which is a key important day. All calculations are based on the 1st day of the 7th month, and you count backward 177 days to get to the 1st of the 1st month. That has to be precisely figured. Then when you count backward you have 30 days, 29, 30, 29, until you get to the Feast of Trumpets.

We have it in A Harmony of the Gospels, when was Christ born? Gal. 4 says at the appointed time!

How can we figure that? Read what we have in the Harmony! We take the Calculated Hebrew Calendar month-by-month, week-by-week and we come out precisely on the middle day of the two-week probable birth was the 1st day of the 7th month.

Could that be going back when Adam was first created? We don't know, but we do know that in Gen. 1, day four God set the sun and moon in the proper position in relationship to the earth for the appointed seasons!

Think of that! That's how important that the Calculated Hebrew Calendar is. Some people may object to it. But why does God fulfill those days all the way through.

• What happened on Pentecost?
• Why was Pentecost so important to the apostles?
• What did Jesus tell them? You stay in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high!

That was the Holy Spirit, on the Day of Pentecost! That's what it's called. It's also called the Day of the Sabbaths, or the Day of the weeks.

Then we have the Day of Atonement. How important is the Day of Atonement that you have the right day? It's so important that God made it very clear that the Sabbath, especially the Day of Atonement, is to be from sunset to sunset! No work, no nothing, rest and fast!

• What if you're off a day?
• What if you're a day ahead?
• What if you're a day behind?
• What if you're two days off?

You can't call it Atonement!

We had recently this silly calendar where they said that you watch and look for the new moon and that's the first day of the week. So, they have to drop out days every month. It's the worst calendar of all.

That's the first day of the month and then it's the Sabbath. Then you count seven days and that's the Sabbath. Then you count seven days and that's the Sabbath. Then you count seven days and that's the Sabbath. Then  you wait until you see the new moon. It might be on any day of the week, but you wait until you see it, and then begin counting again. So the Sabbath travels through the whole gambit of every day of the week over a period of time.

God said, every seven days; not how you determine it, but how He created it!

Then we come to the Feast of Tabernacles, which we just had and the Last Great Day.

The Appointed time of Christ:

Galatians 4:1—Paul is talking about Christ: "Now then, I say, for as long a time as the heir is a child, he is no different from a servant, although he be lord of all; but he is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed beforehand by the father. In the same way, when we were children, we were held in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the time for the fulfillment came… [the appointed time] …God sent forth His own Son, born of a woman, born under law… [the appointed time;God does everything by the appointed time] …in order that He might redeem those who are under law, so that we might receive the gift of sonship from God. (vs 1-5)

So the whole plan of the New Testament follows right along with that.

The Calendar Court:

When you're talking about the calendar, someone is going to bring up about Hillel-II. That goes back—read it in the booklet—to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. They setup the Great Synagogue and when Ezra was revamping the Old Testament he used the Chaldean block Hebrew before it was script.

So, they did the whole Old Testament, and they had a Calendar Court. The leading one of the family of Aaron was the head of the Calendar Court. If you read Maimonides, he tells you that although they had people look for the New Moon, the Calendar Court never agreed with the one who said he saw the New Moon unless it agreed with the calculations. That Calendar Court operated that way all the way down—there were some interruptions in it—and there was always a descendant of Aaron as the leader of it. He was know as Nasi.

• Gamaliel in the book of Acts was a Nasi
• Hillel-II was a Nasi

After the temple was destroyed, the priests and the Levites setup a whole school in Tiberius near the Sea of Galilee. They were there for 400 years before they moved to western Spain. They were the ones who had to fight off the rabbis over in Babylon. They wanted to have a different calendar.

Just like through them, God preserved the Old Testament and the calculations for the calendar and all of the things necessary.

What Hillel-II did was this: Because the persecution was so great among the Christians and Jews, he decided to let the knowledge of calendar calculation become public. He was afraid that if they killed all the priests, no one would know how to do it, and the Jews in the Diaspora would be out of luck. They wouldn't know what days were what, so it was made public.

The western Jews moved from Tiberius to Spain, and Spain the 1100s was when Maimonides—a Nasi—wrote sanctifying the New Moon. Then Goldfried translated it. I've got the whole book. I've read the whole book. It brings out everything necessary concerning the calendar.

Postponements:

Some people say we shouldn't have postponements. That's kind of a nasty word: postpone. But while they say we shouldn't have postponements, in the Roman calendar they agree with a postponement. What is that? February 29! What does that postpone? March 1 by one day! Generally Feb. 28 and then Mar. 1. Then you have Feb. 29 and then Mar. 1. Why? Because that's the kicker day to take care of the one-quarter day of 365-1/4 days! Then they have a full day. You never postpone until you have a full day.

I like to call them synchronizing adjustments. Those are what keeps everything in correct order. If you didn't have postponements you would soon end up like the Roman calendar and the one that Julius Caesar came up with. You would lose time.

The Flood:

I hope you read this booklet. Read carefully concerning the year of the Flood, which is figured by the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. Believe it! If you don't believe it, the figures are right there and they are correct. One thing to know, when it said that the Ark rested, that means it stood still in the water above the mountains of Ararat. It didn't come down on the Mt. of Ararat, it came down in a saddle between the mountains of Ararat. Read it there; it says, 'the Flood covered the high hills and all the mountains.'

• How high is Mt. Everest? 29,000 feet!
• How high are the mountains of Ararat? 17,000 feet!

So, there was two miles of water when the waters started coming down; two miles of water from 29,000 feet and 15 cubits above that. When the Bible says that the Flood covered all the mountains, it means that it covered all the mountains. It took 150 days for the water to go down.

Then if you read the King James, it says, 'saw the dry ground.' That's not a correct translation. It should read, 'and the ground was drying'; still soggy! They stayed in the ark quite a length of time after that.

So, that Calculated Hebrew Calendar year turns out to be a leap year of 385 days, the longest possible year!

• God used the Calculated Hebrew Calendar for that
• He gave the Calculated Hebrew Calendar to Moses and the priesthood
• we have the Calculated Hebrew Calendar today

That is the calendar that we should use, because that's the calendar that God uses!

We know that there have been sins of men back in the times of Israel and Judah. There have been sins of men in the Church. But you don't throw away the Truth of God because men sin! The Truth of God says that men sin! That doesn't change it.

Scriptural References:

• Genesis 2:1-3
• Exodus 31:12-17
• Exodus 12:1-2, 40-41
• Genesis 15:4-6, 10-14, 16-18
• Leviticus 23:1-8
• Galatians 4:1-5

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Exodus 16
• Mark 7
• Isaiah 56; 58
• Genesis 15:2; 1

Also referenced:

Appendix N: Rome's Challenge to the Protestants (The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version)

Booklet: Which is the True Calendar of God? by Carl D. Franklin & Fred R. Coulter

Books:

• The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier
• A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 11/6/19

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