The Calendar, Part 1

Okay, I want to just...like I say, this became an issue down in Bellevue, a calendar issue. We've got a number of people who look at a different calendar to keep the Holy Days of different days, and we're keeping them. I just want to give you a little background as to why I actually looked into this subject. Not a subject I was interested in looking into, really, but back in 2005, so I was about seven years ago now, a member in our Michigan congregation came up to me before services, and he was mad.

It was about a week before Passover, and he came up to me and he says, You caused me to miss Passover. I said, What do I mean? I caused you to miss Passover. He says, Passover was three weeks ago. I said, Huh? What are you talking about? Well, he got online and found another calendar, and he got convinced by looking at this person's website. Bill Dankenring was the individual.

Some of you may know Bill Dankenring. And so Bill Dankenring goes by a version of the Karaite Jews calendar. I don't know if you know the Karaite Jews or not, but the Karaite Jews are a special kind of an offshoot of the Jews.

They're a small group, but they have a special way. They begin the year. Actually, what they do is they plant a seed in the fall in certain fields in Palestine, and then they look for when they're going to see that seed come up and when they see the green leaf of that seed. The next new moon after that, then, is the moon. They begin the year on that new moon. And that seed came up early that year, so they started their calendar year a month early.

After that, they go pretty much by the Hebrew calendar. Bill Dankenring has his version because the Karaite Jews, they count to Pentecost like we do, where a bull deck and rank counts like the Orthodox Jews do, and reserves Pentecost on a different day. So he has a different version of the Karaite Jews calendar. But that all came up seven years ago in the Flint Church, and it was causing division in the church.

In fact, we had about 15 percent counting children. There were only a few adults, but there were a lot of kids in their families. So we lost about 15 percent of the Flint Church over that particular issue. So that's why I looked into it. I addressed it to try to stabilize the rest of the Flint Church, which I was able to do through a series of Bible studies on the calendar. But the calendar is a complicated issue, something to address. It's hard to address like in one Bible study because you really want to get into some of the details. But it also could be very fascinating in some ways and very inspiring, because any time you go into the calendar, you have to go a little bit, at least, into astronomy.

Into God's creation. And when you get into that aspect of it, you see how awesome God is, and it becomes quite a very inspiring subject to look into. But here are some questions I want to address. What is the true biblical calendar? Is there such a thing as a true biblical calendar? Some people say there is. Is there really? What is God's calendar? What calendar is God's use? What calendar did Jesus Christ use in the New Testament? Is there any way you can kind of tell? What is a calendar and what is the purpose of a calendar?

How is a calendar determined? What about this question? What makes a holy day an annual holy day? I'm talking about now. What makes an annual holy day a holy day? Is it the right day that you determine to observe it that makes it a holy day, or is there something else that makes it a holy day? What is the difference between the weekly Sabbath and an annual Sabbath as far as what makes those days holy? Is there a difference or a distinction?

What about the Hebrew calendar? Is it God's calendar? How many versions of the Hebrew calendar are there? Is there just one version or are there several versions? Do you know there are at least seven or more versions of the Hebrew calendar that all, depending on which one of those Hebrew calendars you go by, you're going to be observing at least one or more of the holy days on a different date.

Did you know that? Why do we then use the version of the Hebrew calendar that we use? And the Hebrew calendar we use, which causes a lot of controversy, has these four postponement rules that go by that have been added to it. Should we use those postponement rules? Are those rules of men we should discard? Or do they have more purpose? Do they have any spiritual purpose or meaning? What purpose do they serve? What about, at some point I have a case, simply going by the new moon?

And that's what the folks down in Bellevue now saw in a few families. They want to go by what they call a new moon calendar. They want to go by the new moons. Let me ask a question. How many versions of a new moon calendar are there? It's not just one version. There's at least eight or more versions of a new moon calendar you could go by, all of which would have at least one or more of the holy days on a different date. So which one do you go by?

Who determines it? You know, the people who go by a new moon calendar, they cannot ever agree among themselves as to which is the proper one to go by. Which one is it? And if you go by the new moons, which one should you use? And should it be, how should you calculate the new moon by astronomical calculation or by observation? You know, the Muslims go by observation.

They have people stationed different, and they try to observe the new moon. And then they start their month by that, observe observation. There's a lot of problems with that. And of course you have to have some other things. For example, Ramadan, their feast of Ramadan, because they don't use the solar at all, they just go by strictly by the new moons, that Ramadan will drift throughout their calendar through the year.

So it's never on the same time of the year. It drifts throughout the whole year, over a period of time. And finally, what does the Bible say and what doesn't it say in regards to a calendar? So the calendar is really a fascinating subject to explore. So those are some of the questions we'll address in this series of Bible studies over the next several months, or maybe over the course of nearly a year.

And I do this, I want to be objective. I'm not just going to, I'm not going to advocate one particular calendar over another. I'm going to be objective, but I am not going to try to explain every version, because that would not be profitable for any of us. And I don't want to really get into any specific calendar issues today. Instead, today I want to give you two biblical principles that I want to utilize here for this study. And I want to give you kind of an overview of some of the issues of the calendar and also begin to give you the perspective of the New Testament.

Because there is a very clear perspective, at least, of the New Testament. But I'd like to begin by giving you two overall principles from the book of Proverbs. So let's turn first to Proverbs 11. Proverbs 11, verse 14, where it says, "...where there is no counsel, the people fall, but a multitude of consulars there is safety." Now, when it comes to this subject that I just want to mention, I'm going to use a multitude of sources.

I'm going to use a multitude of consulars to get you an overall perspective, being objective to this. So you can then look at this and make up your own mind. I'm not going to just advocate one particular calendar over another. I'm going to try to give you an overall perspective so that you can understand the issues and understand why we use the calendar we do. Another proverb I want to employ, which I think is an excellent proverb, to take into consideration when you're studying something like the calendar. And it's complicated as the calendar. It's Proverbs 18, verse 13. Proverbs 18, 13 says, "...he who answers a matter before he hears it, he who makes up his mind on something like this before he knows all the facts regarding it, since it can be a folly and a shame to him." So before coming to a conclusion as to which calendar to use, first let's try to get all the facts.

Let's get a large perspective of what all the issues are. So I'm going to utilize both of these principles, examining the calendar. First, I want to give you a little bit of an overview here. First, what is a calendar? This is a biblical... I mean, a biblical... this is a Webster's dictionary definition of a calendar. A calendar is a system for organizing units of time for the purpose of reckoning time over extended periods.

So in other words, a calendar organizes time. And it organizes days into months, months into years, and years into centuries. Now, let me ask this. Why is that necessary? Well, I'm going to use the Scripture to answer that. That's what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14.40, just that one verse. 1 Corinthians 14.40, Paul wrote, So why is it necessary to have time organized by a calendar?

Well, society can function in an organized manner. Or in the case of God's Word and God's feasts in Holy Days, so they can be observed in an organized manner within their proper seasons. Because we know God's feasts resolve around two overall seasons, the spring harvest season and the fall harvest season. And the first Holy Days, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, all have to do with the harvest of the firstfruits, the first harvest season, the small harvest.

And then the others, Trumpets, Atonement, a piece of Tabernacles, last great day, they all have to do with God's great fall spiritual harvest. And they should be observed during the fall—that's the harvest season, I should say. So, though, they need to be observed in their seasons, because their meaning ties in to the seasons. So, we have a calendar so all things can be done decently in order, but that is not as simple as it may seem on the surface when it comes to the calendar. Why not? Because, of course, when it comes to a calendar, we have to deal— we like to deal with whole numbers, like 30 complete days in a month and 12 complete months in a year.

That would be real nice. It worked out that way. If you could coordinate the revolution of the moon around the earth and the revolution of the earth around the sun, if it came out even days and months, that would be great. But, unfortunately, it doesn't work that way, because we live, as we know, on a planet that's revolving around the sun and it's rotating on its axis with the moon that is, at the same time, revolving around the earth.

And, astronomically speaking, our lives and our time and seasons and our counter-organization of time are, invariably then, tied into the motions of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun. Which has nothing to do with worshipping heavenly bodies. That's just the way it is.

That's the way things are right now, as far as God's creation is concerned. Now, to organize time, we use seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, centuries. But here, then, lies the problem when it comes to using a calendar to try to organize time in an orderly manner. A day, as we know, is one complete revolution around the earth on its axis. A revolution, I should say, of the earth on its axis.

One complete revolution of the earth on its axis, which we have divided at 24 one-hour periods of time. So, one day equals 24 hours. That's the way we've defined a day.

In Genesis 1, by the way, just to quote it, in Genesis 1, the Bible simply says, God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. So, the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1, verses 4 and 5. And we have subdivided that into 24 one-hour periods of time.

So, each day or so, each evening and morning is defined in Genesis 1. It consists of exactly 24 hours as we divide time. What about a month? An astronomical month is the time it takes for the moon to make one complete revolution around the earth.

From one phase of the moon to when that same phase of the moon begins again. Or we might say, from one new moon, since the Bible defines a month beginning with a new moon, from one new moon to the next new moon. Now, how much time does that take to go from one new moon to the next new moon? How much time does that take in days, hours, minutes, and seconds? Well, you can look it up. This is an average, by the way. This is a medium. This is an average. But on the average, it takes 24 days, 12 hours, 41 minutes, and 2.7 seconds on the average to go from one new moon to the next new moon. But that's an average. But we can't use those numbers for organizing time on a calendar. We have to round it off to whole numbers of either 29 or 30 days in a month.

Which is what all versions of the Hebrew calendar do.

In the Bible, a month begins with a new moon. It goes from one new moon to the next. But what is a new moon? That's a question you can ask. However, a lot of people have definitions for the new moon. But there are actually different definitions you can use for a new moon. You want to really get into details.

But a major follow-up question with regards to what is a new moon is, let us ask this question. This is a question that's interesting to ask when you're thinking about the calendar and calendar issues and going by a new moon calendar, so to speak. What is the biblical definition of a new moon? How does the Bible define a new moon? That's an interesting question. If you try to search that out and find the answer. Let's ask another question. What is a year? Well, astronomically speaking, a year is the time it takes for the Earth to make one complete revolution around the Sun, as we know. How much time does that take? Well, it takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and approximately 46 seconds. I looked it up and said 45.51 seconds. And the interesting thing is that's pretty consistent year after year. So you have to ask yourself, the Earth evolves in elliptical orbit around the Sun. How can it be that consistent year after year? What sustains that consistency? Did God create things in a way that sustains that? That's an interesting question. You get into astronomy in the calendar. But here's the problem. When you have a year that's about 365 plus days, and you have lunar months that are a little less than that, because you already stated that on the average, a lunar month is from one moon to the next new moon, which is approximately, and it varies, it can vary. But the average is 29 days, 12 hours, 41 minutes, and about 2.7 seconds. That's the average. It can vary up to almost a quarter of a day either way over a period of time. That's the average. But if you multiply that, the time it takes for, from going to one new moon to the next new moon, and if you multiply that average of 29 days, 12 hours, 41 minutes, etc., but times 12, so we could have 12 lunar months in a year, it comes out to be, and if you multiply that by 12, it comes out, 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, and 36 seconds. That would be the time for 12 lunar months. But we've already stated that the time it takes for the Earth to revolve around the sun is 365 plus days. There's 11 days difference there.

A astronomical year of 12 lunar months is a little less than 11 days shorter than an astronomical year. 11 days difference. So 12 lunar months, actually 11 days shorter than the actual time it takes for the Earth to make one complete revolution around the sun. Which means what? Well, it means we can't have a fixed calendar utilizing both the sun and the moon and get it to come out even. It doesn't come out that way. It doesn't come out even. If we devised a calendar with 12 lunar months for a year, and we went just by that, the seasons would fall back by about 11 days every year, or by 32 to 33 days every three years. And if you didn't have some way to correct that and tie it in with the revolution of the Earth around the sun, in 18 years, Passover would be in the fall, in the northern hemisphere, and the Feast of Tabernacles would be in the spring. That wouldn't be right. That wouldn't be good. The goddess wants that. He wants it the other way around. So then what does any calendar have to do in order to keep the year in alignment with its proper seasons? It has to add, or postpone, time. Now the Hebrew calendar, for example, adds an extra lunar month seven times in every 19-year time cycle. And by doing that, it gets it to come out even again about every 19 years. It heaps everything up. So you're always observing the Feast in Holy Days in their proper season. So seven out of every 19 years, the Hebrew calendar adds a 13th month. And when a 13th lunar month is added, what does that do? Now think about this. When you add a 13th month, what does that do? It postpones the beginning of the next year by one lunar month.

So here's the bottom line. Any calendar anyone can devise to organize time according to the movements of the Earth and the Moon, in relation to the revolution around the Sun, so God's feasts and holy days can be observed in their proper seasons, any and all calendars must have some form of postponement rules. You can't have a calendar that will coordinate the solar year with lunar months, and not have some form of postponement rules. Now, the calendar we use today is called the Gregorian calendar. By Pope Gregory, back a couple hundred years ago, he revised the Roman calendar. The calendar we now use is called the Gregorian calendar. Our Gregorian calendar has postponement rules. We add an extra day on February 29th, once every four years. It's called a leap year.

What does that do? What happens when we add a February 29th to our calendar? What does that do? It postpones March 1st by one day. So, by adding a February 29th, that's a postponement rule for our Gregorian calendar. Any February 29th, once every four years, is a postponement rule. But, interesting, even that does not keep our Gregorian calendar in perfect sync with the seasons.

Thus, the Gregorian calendar we use today has another postponement rule that probably most of you are unaware of.

That additional postponement rule that's used in our Gregorian calendar is this. Only turn-of-the-century years that are divisible by 400 are leap years, with the addition of February 29th. In other words, in the year 2000, 12 years ago, we had the year 2000. That was a century year. The year 2000 is divisible by 400, so it was a leap year. It had a February 29th added. 1900, you go back to 1900, 1900 is not divisible by 400. So, because it's not divisible by 400, the year 1900 did not have a February 29th added. That February only had 28 days. Now, the year is 2100, 2200, and 2300, since they're not divisible by 400, they will not have a leap year. They will not have a February 29th added. But 2400 will be a leap year, and will have a February 29th. So, it gets complicated when you get into the calendar and try to keep it lined up. The interesting thing is, the Hebrew calendar does that, the version we use, I should say.

But even that, you take those two post-modern rules that I just explained to you, the Gregorian calendar, even then, another extra day will have to be added once every 3200 years or so. Which leads me to something here I want to point out that is quite interesting. It's been proposed, and it's very seriously being considered now, and if this ever goes through, we're all in trouble. It's going to be very confusing. There's been a proposal for a long time to have a new calendar for us to use, a world calendar. The world calendar is a proposed reform of the Gregorian calendar created by Elizabeth Achilles of Brooklyn, New York, back in 1930. The world calendar is a 12-month perennial calendar with equal quarters. It is perennial or perpetual because it remains the same every year. It's not going to be changed from year to year. It's going to be about the same every year. Each quarter... Now, listen, what is the center day of the new world calendar? The center day, the number one day to look at in the new world calendar, if it ever goes through, is Sunday.

Each quarter begins on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday.

The world calendar also has a following two additional days to maintain the same new year days as the Gregorian calendar. Now, listen to this. It's going to add a world's day. Here's the catch. Listen to this. The last day of the year following Saturday, December 30th... December 30th is always going to fall on a Saturday. January 1st will always fall on a Sunday. What about December 31st? Well, there won't really be a December 31st. There will be, but it's going to be called a world's day.

The last day of the year following Saturday... Listen to this now. The last day of the year following Saturday, December 30th... This additional day will be dated W, which equals December 31st, which will be named World's Day... A year-end world holiday... And that day, then, is followed by Sunday, January 1st, the new year. Did you get that? December 30th is Saturday. World day is next. And then January 1st is Sunday. You go from Saturday to World Day... What does that do to sequence the days of the week? It screws it all up, doesn't it? What day is the seventh day of the week? All of a sudden, the seventh day becomes the sixth day... or whatever.

You know, it's very interesting. Daniel... I'm not going to turn there, but I just mentioned Daniel 7.25. He's talking about the Antichrist. If the Antichrist can ever take power... He says, he shall intend to change times and law. What could that mean? He could intend to change the laws regarding how time is organized on a calendar. And certainly, if you incorporate a world counter, that would do that. That would fulfill that prophecy.

And that would really cause confusion. And all the churches of God... Anybody who keeps the Sabbath, seventh day of Venice, Jews around the world... That would be real. They'd have to come to a decision. What do we do?

How do we coordinate the seventh day of the week with that kind of a counter? And there is very strong pull to incorporate that calendar, sometime even the next few years.

But the bottom line in regards to the calendar, man's calendar or God's so-called calendar, is that it must have some form of postponement rules. And men have been arguing over that and revising the calendar for 6,000 years. And it's not going to be settled until Christ returns or until we see the restoration of all things, as mentioned in Acts 3, 21. We may be back to restore things so things can come out even.

But the Hebrew calendar right now does as good a job, if not better a job, in keeping God's feasts and holy days aligned with their proper seasons as any calendar man can devise. So until Christ returns to restore all things, we can either use the Hebrew calendar, or you can decide to try to devise your own version of the Hebrew calendar, or your own version of some other new moon calendar, which you're never going to get everybody to agree on.

Or should we try to devise a so-called biblical calendar? Is there really such a thing as a biblical calendar? I'll actually address that question in more detail in the future Bible setting. But I want to turn for a moment here in time we have, let's look at the New Testament briefly. What perspective does the New Testament give us in regards to the calendar and calendar issues? Actually, I'll take several Bible studies to cover that, but there are five overall areas that we can look at to get the full perspective of the New Testament. I'm just going to mention them to you. Number one, is calendar calculation observance of the new moons? Is that an issue that stands out in the New Testament? Can you see that being an issue in the New Testament? And the answer to that is, no. You don't see anything in the New Testament where you see circumcision being an issue, there are other things being an issue, but you don't really see anything in the New Testament that stands out to show that when they would observe the Holy Days or Feasts or anything in regard to the calendar as being an issue that comes out as being apparent in the New Testament. There is not a word in the New Testament that indicates a calendar or calendar dates as to when the Feasts and Holy Days were to be observed, is an issue in the New Testament. The New Testament is basically silent when it comes to the calendar and issues surrounding the calendar. Now, that is especially noteworthy when we realize, if you go back 2,000 years, and you realize that the Jews at the time of Christ used three variations of whatever calendar they were using, at least three variations. And depending on which of those variations you used, you would observe at least one or more of the Holy Days on a different day. Why isn't it an issue then? It's not.

Why then is the New Testament silent in regards to that issue when there was controversy over the calendar at the time of Christ? There certainly was. Bottom line for point number one is the New Testament is silent in regards to the calendar and calendar dates being an issue. The question is why? And that's a very interesting reason as to why. And I'll get to that in a future Bible study as well. That's why it wasn't an issue. The second area of the New Testament to look at is, why is it really important? What is really important from the perspective of the New Testament? What is important? How is the calendar? Calendar issues were not important. They said they were not brought up as being important. But there is something that is very important. What is really important from the perspective of the New Testament? I'll cover that in the next Bible study. Number three, third issue. What does the day on which Christ died, I should say, what does the day on which Christ died tell us in regards to the calendar that was being used at the time of Christ? You know, as we know, He died on the Passover, which is we know I'm not going to go into all of that, but you've been through that we have booklets on it. He had to fall on a Wednesday in the year Christ died. With the first day of 11, bread falling on a Thursday in that year.

And from the facts of the New Testament, the New Testament gives us, we can determine then from that, that He died either, almost all in probability, He had died near 30 or 31 A.D.

What does that reveal in regards to the calendar being used at that time? Now that reveals a lot.

What about John 7.37? What does John 7.37 reveal about the calendar being used by the New Testament Church at the time of Christ? Let's just turn there real quickly and read John 7.37. But first, let's read John 7.1. John 7.1 gives us a time frame here. It says, After these things, Jesus walked into Galilee, for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. So this is telling us then that what we're reading here is a time that's going to be leading up to the Passover in which Christ died.

They're already plotting here to kill Him, leading up to that time.

What time of the year was this in John 7?

John 7.2, Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

Question. This ties into the calendar, calendar issues. Very interesting question. Why did John call it the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles?

Why did he call it the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles? Why didn't he just say when the Feast of Tabernacles was at hand? Because we know it's God's Feast of Tabernacles, not the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles, but here he calls it the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles. Why? Is there a reason for that? Well, there is. There is an important reason for that. And we'll get to that in a later Bible study. Now let's go to John 7.37.

So on the last day, that great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. Now a question then.

Is this the eighth day, or the last great day as we call it? Or was this the seventh and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles?

It's a controversy among scholars.

And almost all the Jews of God believe it's the eighth day. The only two Jews of God that now believe it's the seventh day, and that's the United's one of them. But in my opinion, this scripture here, when you look at another scripture that ties in with it, right here in this same area, to me that could at least be the smoking gun when it comes to which calendar Christ was using. I mean, that was being used by the New Testament Church at the time of Christ.

And it'll take probably two Bible studies to really go through, explain John 7.37 and how that ties into what calendar was being used at the time of Christ. And I'll tell you what I'm going to tell you. It's being used at the time of Christ.

But finally, when it comes to the perspective of the New Testament, one other thing I just want to get to today and just point out quickly is Acts. What about Acts 2, verse 1? We're all familiar with Acts 2, verse 1. I'll just turn there and read it. Acts 2, verse 1, which says, When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord. Now, remember, there were different calendars that could be used there. Jews were using different calendars, especially in regards to Pentecost. But it says, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. First, why does it say when the day of Pentecost had fully come? Why does it just say when the day of Pentecost had come? Well, because you had to count to the day of Pentecost. You had to count down to it. The day of Pentecost had a countdown period, and it still does have a countdown period, and it couldn't fully come until that countdown period was complete. You had to count seven weeks or fifty days. And you go back to the Scripture that gives us that, which we're going to go to in detail later on, but the Scripture that tells us that is Leviticus 23, verses 15 and 16.

That's why, then, of course, since there was a countdown period, that's why, in the Old Testament, Pentecost was called, at times, the Feast of Weeks, because you had to count seven weeks. And why, in the New Testament, it's called Pentecost, or count fifty, because you had to count fifty days.

Now, Leviticus 23, verses 15 to 16 has been debated for centuries as to when this countdown period was to begin. Let me just tell you this. Go into history. And all you can do is you can all go to Google or Bing or whatever and find this out for yourself. But at the time of Christ, the Pharisees counted from the first day of Unleavened Bread, or from the first Holy Day Sabbath. They counted from the first Holy Day Sabbath, with the first day of Unleavened Bread, even as Orthodox Jews around the world still do today. And when you count that way, you only have to do it one time. You count once and you've got it. Because the first day of Unleavened Bread is on the fixed day of the month, isn't it? It's on the fifteenth day of the first month. So you count fifty days from there, you're going to come out to the sixth day. If you count properly, there are people who don't count properly, like we did one time. But if you count properly, then Pentecost will always be on the sixth day of the third month, or on the sixth of Stephen, which is the day the Jews around the world served Pentecost today, because they count from the first Holy Day Sabbath. The Sadducees, on the other hand, counted from the weekly Sabbath that occurred during the days of Unleavened Bread, even as we do today. So that way it can come out at different times. It won't come out on a fixed day of the month. It'll come out on a fixed day of the week, Sunday.

And third, there is some evidence that the Essenes, another group of the Jews at the time of Christ, the Essenes were the group of Jews that now they feel were those that settled in Qumran, around where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and that they actually probably copied some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, or brought in some old scrolls to deposit there in the case of Qumran, and it became part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And they feel that group of Jews that had that settlement there were the Essenes. And there's some evidence that the Essenes counted differently than either the Sadducees or Pharisees that observed Pentecost in any different day than they did.

Also, in addition to that, there's another complication maybe most people aren't aware of. Today, you have a special situation. This situation occurs once every five or six years or so, where the weekly Sabbath, or I should say, let me put this way, when Passover, the Passover Day, falls on a weekly Sabbath, when the Passover Day falls on a weekly Sabbath, then the only Sabbath that occurs actually during the days of unembrite is the last Holy Day Sabbath, the last day of unembrite.

But, you see, you've got a problem. Somebody's got to make a decision. You're going to count from the Passover Sabbath, even though it's before the days of unembrite, or are you going to count from the last Holy Day Sabbath? We count from the Passover Sabbath. Why do we do that? And all the churches of God do that except for one. I know one that doesn't. One counts from the last Holy Day Sabbath when that occurs once every five or six years or so.

Because what happened on the day after that Sabbath? Well, you had to waive the wave sheaf offering on the next day. So the thing is, if you count from the Passover Sabbath in those years, then the wave sheaf would be offered on the following day, which would be the first day of unleavened bread, which would be the wave sheaf would then be offered within the days of unleavened bread.

But if you wait until the last Holy Day Sabbath to start your count, then the wave sheaf would be offered on the next day, which would be outside the days of unleavened bread. So what do you do? Again, somebody's got to make a decision. It's another controversy that comes up. And like I said, we have one Church of God that counts from on the happens, it counts from the last Holy Day, we count from the Passover Sabbath.

We begin our count to Pentecost on the Passover Sabbath, even though it's the day before the day is when the bread start. So there's all kinds of things there that somebody has to decide when it comes to calendar issues.

So what does this tell us then when it comes to calendar issues? When it comes to the New Testament of Effect regarding the calendar and calendar issue? Well, all these things tell us a great deal. They give you an overall perspective of some of the difficulties and problems that have to be resolved, that somebody has to decide on. And there are a lot of variations of either a Hebrew calendar or a New Moon calendar that you could come up with and devise and go by, all of which would have slight variations, at least for Pentecost.

Because when it comes to counting to Pentecost, it doesn't matter whether you're using a Hebrew calendar, or some version of a Hebrew calendar, or some version of a New Moon calendar, everybody has to decide how we're going to count to Pentecost. And there's at least two or three different ways you can count to Pentecost, which all of which will cause Pentecost to come out on a different day. But yet it says in Acts 2.1, they were all with one accord in one place. Why? What was it that caused them to be with one accord in one place on the day of Pentecost?

When there were Jews that counted differently and would observe the day of Pentecost differently, even as we do today as well in some of the churches of God. So I'm there for now. I just wanted to watch your appetite a little bit to show you that it is a complicated issue, but it's also a fascinating issue when you get into it, and there's a lot you can learn.

And when you understand everything, it helps you then at least know what the issues are, and helps you to make up your mind whether the calendar we use is okay to use or not. So I'll end there for now. Next time we'll continue to look at the perspective of the New Testament. When I'll address this particular question, what is really a primary importance when it comes to the New Testament?

And we'll get to that next time. So we'll end there, and then we'll start services in about a half hour, one o'clock. Thank you all very much for being here. Yes, John? You said from one moon to the next moon, it was 24 days. No, no, no, no, 24 hours. Well, one moon to the next moon is 29, 24 hours. 29.53 days, something like that. Oh, I didn't mean that. Let me correct that right now.

No, it's not 24 days. It's one new moon to the next new moon is 29.53 days on the average. And it can actually vary a little bit if you go into it. It can vary as much as like a quarter of a day either way or something like that. But, yeah, no, please correct that. One new moon to the next new moon is 29.53 days on the average. So, yeah, not 24. I'm 29. Thank you, John. I appreciate that.

I'm glad you corrected that so we can have that. I'm hopefully recorded. Thank you very much. Okay, that would be dismissed. And thanks, John, for bringing that up. I appreciate it.