The Calendar, Part 13

Today, because of the schedule that I had and wasn't sure what was going to happen this summer and so on, I wanted to make sure I could finish this series on the calendar before anything happened. It doesn't look like anything's going to happen, at least this summer anyway, but I wanted to finish that up as soon as I can here the next month or so. So today I want to continue our series of Bible studies on the calendar. This will hopefully be the next to last study on that.

Last time in Part 12, we covered why there are no calendar conflicts mentioned anywhere in the Bible, even though the Jews at the time of Christ at least had two different methods for counting to Pentecost and would observe Pentecost at two different times. Sadducees counted differently than the Pharisees, and we're not sure. The Essenes may have counted differently yet, so there were some differences there. But there's, even though they observed it, maybe some observed on a different day there's no mention of any conflict in the Bible. And the main reason for that was probably because the general populace of the Jews and Israelites looked to the Sanhedrin as being the final authority for appointing the feast and holy days back at that particular time.

And it also seems apparent that those who few may have chose to observe Pentecost at a different time, a different day, because they counted differently, it doesn't seem to be there's any judgment against them for doing that. At least it's not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament.

But there is no doubt that the calendar committee within the Sanhedrin, when you look into history at that time, was the main authority that the vast majority of the people of Israel looked to for appointing when to observe the annual feast and holy days back at that time.

When it comes to counting to Pentecost, I'll cover that. I'll try to cover that in the final Bible study next time on this series. But today I want to cover two main points, considering the calendar. One, I'm going to ask this question, is there a distinction between the weekly Sabbath and an annual holy day Sabbath? And if so, what is that distinction?

And what does that distinction then tell us when it comes to the calendar?

Second thing I want to cover, and I've touched on it in a previous Bible study some time ago, but I want to go into a little more detail. Is there a warning from prophecy concerning the calendar? What is that warning? And how might that impact our lives if it happens? And how would we handle it if it does happen? If this warning does happen, how would we handle it as a church and individually? Those are questions we'll address today. Title is the calendar, part 13.

Distinctions and Prophecy. Part 13, Distinctions and Prophecy. First of all, then, let's look at distinctions. Is there a distinction between the weekly Sabbath and an annual holy day Sabbath?

And if so, what is that distinction? I want to begin by asking this particular question. What makes an annual holy day a holy day? Is it the time that makes it holy? In other words, is time holy in the case of an annual holy day? Is it holy time or is it a holy day? See, what is the distinction between the weekly Sabbath and the annual holy day Sabbath? I want to begin by turning to Mark chapter 2. And my purpose is not to try to explain this particular section of scripture, but just point out one particular thing here. Let's begin in Mark 2 verse 24. Mark 2 verse 24, which says, The Pharisees said to him, to Christ, Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? That is, what is not lawful according to all the rules and regulations that the Pharisees had imposed on the populace for observing the Sabbath? They added all kinds of rules and regulations that aren't in scripture.

So there were things that people did that were not lawful according to the rules and regulations of the Pharisees. Christ said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was in need and hungry and those with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful deed except for the priest, and also gave some to those who were with him? And then he said in verse 27, The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Sabbath was made for man's benefit, to benefit man, not to encumber man with all kinds of countless rules and regulations that the Pharisees imposed. But the main point I want to make here is that Christ said the Sabbath was made. That's the point. He said the Sabbath was made. It was created. The Greek word translated made here means it came into being.

It came to being by what? It came into being by an act of God. What act of God was that that brought the Sabbath into being? Let's go to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20, verse 8, which of course is the fourth commandment from the God gave desert from Mount Sinai when he gave them the 10 commandments.

Verse 8 of Exodus 20, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

In it you should do no work, you know your son, nor your father, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your strangers within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that in them is and the sea, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So the act of God, which caused the Sabbath day to be created or made, was that God rested on that day.

The Lord rested the seventh day, and the seventh day is then a day to remember and a day to keep holy. Now you stop and think. The seventh day of every week is the Sabbath day.

A counter is not even really necessary in order to do that, to keep the Sabbath. We just have to keep track of when the seventh day occurs. We have to keep track of when each seventh day occurs, and it occurs every seventh day. So two things here distinguish the weekly Sabbath from an annual holy day Sabbath. Number one, the first thing is the weekly Sabbath was created.

Annual holy days are appointed and proclaimed, as we will see. Number two, second thing is we don't need a calendar in order to keep the weekly Sabbath. We just have to keep track of when every seventh day occurs. But we do need a calendar in order to know when the annual feast and holy days occur. We need a calendar when it comes to observing the annual feast and holy days. Let's go to Leviticus 23, which summarizes all the annual feast and holy days of God.

Exodus 23, and let's begin in verse 1, because we'll see a difference here between the weekly Sabbath and the annual feast and holy days. We'll see a distinction. Leviticus 23 verse 1, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feast of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts.

Do you notice that? The feast which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations.

Then God contrasts that with the weekly Sabbath in verse 3. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day, every seventh day, is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You should do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. So the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest.

Then God again contrasts that with his annual feasts in holy days, verse 4. But these are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. So God's annual feasts and holy days were not created in the way the Sabbath was.

They must be proclaimed and then appointed. Appointed by what? By a calendar. Verse 5. On the fourteenth day of the first month, you need a calendar when the fourteenth day of the first month is. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feasts of unleavened bread to the Lord.

Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. Dropping down to verse 24. Speak to children of Israel, saying, the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. Again, you have to have a calendar to know when the seventh month and the first day of that month is. Verse 27. Also, on the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonement. It should be a holy convocation for you. You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. Verse 34. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feasts of tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. So all of God's annual feasts and holy days have to be proclaimed and then appointed on a calendar. And they do not occur apart from a calendar. It has to be determined when they will occur on a calendar and then have to be proclaimed and appointed on that calendar so we'll know when to observe them. As I've already previously covered, we cannot create a calendar from the Bible alone. I've covered that. You cannot create a calendar from the Bible alone. People think you can. They try to say that, but you can ask them certain questions and you have to come up with some rules for that calendar that are outside of the Bible. The Bible gives you some general guidelines, but you cannot create a calendar solely from the Bible alone. You have to go outside with some rules for some rules and regulations for a calendar, which means what? It means some rules for creating a calendar and for observing God's annual feasts and holy days must be determined by man because it can't be determined in all cases from the Bible alone. Does God then give man some leeway and some responsibility for determining a calendar by which God's feasts and holy days can be proclaimed and appointed? Let's go back to Genesis chapter 1. Just to bring out a principle here that God establishes at the very beginning when it comes to man. Genesis chapter 1 verse 26.

Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth. Let them have dominion over all the earth and over every keeping thing that is keeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female. He created them. Now, I realize this is primarily speaking of man having dominion over all other forms of life on the earth, but the insinuation is clear. God created man in his own image with a mind that can think, that can reason, and that can even create to some extent. They can think, reason, and create a calendar, for example, for proclaiming and appointing God's annual feasts and holy days according to God's instructions and guidelines. So God gave man a certain amount of dominion and responsibility. But the bottom line is this. God does distinguish the weekly Sabbath from his annual Holy Day Sabbaths. The weekly Sabbath was created by an act of God, by God resting on that day, while the annual Holy Day Sabbaths are proclaimed and then appointed by man on a calendar according to God's guidelines and instructions.

Now, the weekly Sabbath has existed since God created it by resting on the seventh day, while the annual Holy Day Sabbaths do not occur or exist until they are proclaimed and then appointed by some authority of man in conjunction with God's instructions on a calendar.

So what makes an annual Holy Day then a Holy Day? Is the time holy, or is the day holy? Is it holy time or a holy day? Or is it holy time because it's a holy day? Or is it a holy day because it's a holy time? See, which is it? Is it a holy day? Is it the day that makes it holy? Or is it the time that makes it holy? They are called holy complications or holy assemblies or holy days, as we call them.

What is it that makes those particular complications or assemblies or days holy? What makes them holy?

It is God's presence that makes them holy, not the time. It's God's presence. Our not-too-distant past proves that. Many of us go back 30, 40 years or more. Those of us who were in the World Wide Church of God back in the early 1960s or maybe prior to that, remember when we wrongly proclaimed and appointed Pentecost to fall on a Monday. How many of you have served Pentecost on a Monday? How many of you here? When I came to the church, we were serving Pentecost on Monday because we were wrongly counting the Pentecost. We counted wrong. I think it was actually a Jewish rabbi that pointed that out to Mr. Armstrong at some point when he changed it. But we now know it should have been proclaimed and appointed to fall on a Sunday, not on a Monday, which then begs this question.

When we observed Pentecost on a Monday back in the early 60s and prior to that, was there still a Holy Day even though we observed it at the wrong time? Yes, it was. It was a Holy Day. Why was it a Holy Day? Because God's Holy Spirit was present with us on that day. And God's Holy Spirit inspired the messages that were given on that day. I know I was there. I remember the messages we got on Pentecost and they were inspired by God's Holy Spirit to give meaning and understanding of that day. And God's Spirit was not present on the Sunday before.

He's not in the same way or in the same extent, even though that was the right time.

Now, when we observed Pentecost on Monday, God's Holy Spirit was present on that day because it was the day Pentecost had been proclaimed and appointed. That does not mean we should be sloppy and trying one new point. We should try to go by God's instruction and get it right. But because of God's, God was very merciful and He overlooked our error because our heart was right. Our heart was right. We wanted to observe God's Holy Days. We wanted to do it at the right time. We just didn't understand properly at that time. But our hearts were right, which leads to this very important principle. It's better to have a right heart on a wrong day than a wrong heart on the right day. I think that's a very important principle to understand. So is there a distinction between the weekly Sabbath and the annual Holy Day Sabbath? Yes, there is. What is that distinction?

The weekly Sabbath was created by an act of God, by God resting on that day, and is observed every seventh day with or without a calendar. The annual Holy Day Sabbath must be proclaimed and then appointed on a calendar with some authority and dominion given to man for doing so.

Let's now move on to the next second part of this message today. Let's move on to a warning from prophets from Scripture concerning the calendar. A warning of prophecy concerning the calendar.

As thoroughly documented in our old worldwide church, God Book of which I covered, I mentioned a little bit in a previous Bible study, well, that worldwide came with a booklet some time ago called, Has Time Been Lost? Which, again, I covered previously. That booklet shows the cycle of the weekly Sabbath has never been changed or altered since God first created by resting on that seventh day of creation week. It's never been altered by man. It's never been altered by God.

It was not altered by Joshua's long day, as they point out in that booklet, and it was not altered by the sun going back 10 degrees during the time of King Hezekiah. Also, as pointed out and explained in that particular booklet. So, so far after this time, the cycle of the weekly Sabbath has never been changed or altered. The seventh day of creation week on which God rested is the same seventh day of the week we observe today. The day, this day we, I'll call Saturday, is still the seventh day of the week.

That has never changed. But that could and likely will change at some point in the future.

In fact, it already has changed for some Sabbath keepers in one small corner of the world, as we will see.

I see Matt Schaeffer. I mean, Matt, you must have been the one that pointed that out to me. I started to think who pointed that out to me. It was Matt, and I did some research on that, and it's very interesting. We'll cover that in a little bit.

Let's go to Daniel chapter 7. Go back to the book of Daniel to look at this prophecy, prophetic warning from Scripture that ties in with the calendar. Daniel chapter 7 beginning in verse 1.

In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.

And Daniel spoke saying, verse 2, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.

The great sea of humanity was being stirred up by these beast powers that had come on the scene to rule the world and control mankind.

So the great sea of humanity was being stirred up to be controlled by these four world-ruling empires. They were going to be coming onto the scene. Verse 3, four great beasts came up from this sea of humanity, each one different from the other.

The first beast, it says, was like a lion. Verse 4, that represented the Babylonian empire.

The second beast was like a bear. Verse 5, it represented the Medo-Persian empire, which conquered the Babylonian empire.

The third beast was like a leopard. It moves extremely fast. Verse 6, and it represented the Greco-Macedonian empire of Alexander the Great and his successors.

Then it says the fourth beast was dreadful, terrible, and exceedingly strong.

Verse 7, that represented the Roman empire, which conquered the Greco-Macedonian empire and lasted for over 500 years and had subsequent resurrections.

It would come into existence again, just before Christ returned.

It says it had 10 horns, representing 10 resurrections and also representing 10 teams that would come on the scene at the time of the end.

Continue right down into the return of Christ.

And then it says there was another horn coming up among them with the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words. Verse 8.

And when Daniel saw the vision of what would happen in the future, he became very grieved. His spirit was grieved.

Because he knew when this happened, God's people who were living on the earth during that time were going to enter very difficult and very troubling times.

It's going to be very, very difficult to continue to keep God's commandments at that time. It's at that time.

Daniel 7, verse 15.

I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

I came near to one of those who stood by and I asked him the truth of all this. And so he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things.

He said, Those great beasts which you saw, which are four, are four kings, four powerful kings, over four kingdoms, which will arise out of the earth.

But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.

But what will happen just prior to the saints of the Most High possessing the kingdom?

Verse 19. Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, because it was exceedingly dreadful, with his teeth devoured and his nails a-bronze, and it devoured in broken pieces and trampled the residue with its feet.

Verse 20. And the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely the horn which had eyes and a mouth, and which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows.

What will this little horn, what will this horn, what will this powerful leader do?

Or think to do, and maybe do.

Verse 21. I was watching, and the same horn was making, well, I've got to where I'm going, it will do this for sure.

And I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them.

So this powerful leader is going to make war against the people of God at this time.

And it says he's going to prevail against them.

No wonder Daniel was troubled and grieved.

At what time will all this take place?

Will it take place just prior to Christ's return?

Verse 21. And I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them. Until the ancient of days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom, this power, which for a time will make war with and prevail over the saints, will come on the scene just prior to Christ's returns. It says until the ancient of days came.

Will the final resurrection of this fourth beast and the power of this little horn devour the whole earth?

Verse 23.

And as he said, the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on the earth, what should be different from all of the other kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth.

And trample it and break it in pieces.

Now, as a part of that persecution, what will this additional horn or very powerful leader intend to do?

When it gets control, what's going to tend to do as part of this persecution that's going to come on?

He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, verse 25.

He shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and he shall intend to change times and law.

And then the saint shall be given into his hand for a time and times and a half a time for three and a half years.

He will intend to change time and law.

What do we use to keep track of time?

And what law concerning time would be involved in this change?

To keep track of time, to keep track of days, months, and years, we use a calendar. And the law concerning time, concerning days, months, and years, and when to observe God's annual feasts and holy days in the Sabbath and all that, would be God's laws.

He would think to change laws concerning God, especially God's laws concerning the Seventh-day Sabbath, being the Sabbath being the Seventh Day of the Week on our calendar.

And will this power prevail against the saints when he comes on the scene and thinks to change times and law? Daniel 7.25 says, then the saints will be given into his hand for a time and times and a half a time for three and a half years. And of course, during that time, what's going to happen to the whole world?

The whole world's going to be in great tribulation.

You know, you think about it, Evelyn mentioned this to me after I gave it in Cedar Road this morning. She says, this would be a good time to be in a place of safety.

It's going to be pretty tough to be out there trying to keep God's laws and God's feasts and hoy days when this comes on. These things are changed and it has effect on the entire world.

But changing times and then making that into a law would involve changing the calendar.

That almost happened back in 1961, and there are many who are still pushing for a new world calendar to replace our current Gregorian calendar. Here's a quote from an article titled, A Brief History of the Calendar by Dr. David Harper.

An article he wrote on the world calendar.

The limited success of the French Republican calendar is testimony to the enduring simplicity of the calendar handed down to the Western world by Julius Caesar and then by Pope Gregory the 13th, our Gregorian calendar. However, many individuals since 1582, in time of Pope Gregory the 13th, have recognized the failings of the Gregorian calendar and suggested solutions.

For many of us, these weaknesses of the Gregorian calendar. The lengths of the months are a half-hazard sequence. The fourth quarters of the year are not of the four quarters, excuse me, the four quarters of the year are not of equal length. In a normal year, there are 90 days, 91 days, 92 days, and 92 days.

The year, whether 365 days or 366 days, does not contain a whole number of weeks, and so each day in the year can fall on any day of the week. The number of working days in a month varies from one year to the next. A phrase such as, the last Sunday in October, does not define a fixed day of the month. It can be any day. Proponents of the world calendar suggest a scheme which would eliminate all of these problems. They split the year into four quarters, beginning in January, April, July, and October. The first month of each quarter, the first month now of each quarter, in other words, January, April, etc., would have 31 days, while the second and third months of each quarter would have 30 days, making exactly 13 complete weeks in each quarter. Okay? That sounds, sounds good, doesn't it? There would be an extra day at the end of the year called year-end day to bring the total to 365, and in leap years the additional day would be placed in the middle of the year between June and July. Each quarter would begin, no, let's not get this now, each quarter, no, it was January 1st, April 1st, etc., each quarter would begin on a Sunday, since each quarter contains exactly 13 weeks, the sequence of the days of the week would not be broken during the year until you get to the end of the year, and you have to add a new year day in there. Then you've got a little bit of a change in things, things would, a change would happen, also whenever you have a leap year, and you had an extra day between June and July, and they called because the reason is because they don't, that's not gonna be a day of the week.

It's almost happened back in 1961. Since 1955, the adoption of the World Calendar was on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly. It was poised to be implemented in 1961, but again, a lack of support stymied the reformers aspirations. Despite such setbacks, the issue of calendar reform remains salient and continues to be campaigned for throughout the world in certain quarters. Now, if this World Calendar were adopted, the weekly cycle would be altered. Think about it. I'll just, I'll try to explain it briefly.

December 30th would become the last day of the year, and would, December 30th, since the first day of the next quarter always begins on a Sunday, the last day of the previous quarter will always be on a Saturday. Every quarter would end on a Saturday and begin on a Sunday. December 30th would be the last day of the year, and it would be a Saturday. January 1st would be a Sunday, but December 30th would be followed by December 31st, which would be called New Year's Day, or Year-end Day, because Year-end Day. Only Year-end Day would not be a day of the week. Do you understand this?

December 30th is Saturday. Then you have Year-end Day, which is not a day of the week, to be followed by January 1st, which is Sunday. So you got Saturday, December 30th, Year-end Day, and then you have Sunday, January 1st.

Now think about that. December 30th is the seventh day of the week. Then you have Year-end Day, which would normally be the first day of the week, but Sunday is going to be January 1st, so that'll be the first day of the week, but it's really going to be the second day of the week. So then the following Sabbath is going to be on the sixth day of the week.

It's going to interrupt the weekly cycle. January 1st is the first day of the first quarter of the year. It would always fall on a Sunday. And December 30th, the last day of the fourth quarter, would always fall on a Saturday, or on a weekly Sabbath. December 3rd would then be followed by Year-end Day. That would be its name. It wouldn't be a day of the week. So you'd have December 30th is Saturday, the seventh day of the week, and then December 31st, Year-end Day, which would not be designated as any particular day of the week. And then January 1st, Sunday, the first day of the week. So Year-end Day in God's cycle would be the first day of the week. And the next day, January 1 in God's cycle, would be the second day of the week, which would be Sunday, the second day of the week. So it would just throw everything off, wouldn't it? Everything would become very confusing, especially for Sabbath keepers. If that ever happened, it would be the second day of the week.

If that ever happened, if times and law were changed, what would we do? Daniel 725 is indeed a prophetic warning concerning the calendar in the weekly Sabbath and Sabbath observance. And again, like I said, that count calendar was nearly adopted in 1961, but it was failed past the General Assembly. Now, a moment ago, I asked, what would we do if times and law were changed with the adoption of this new world calendar, which some are still pushing for?

I think it was Matt Shafer that pointed out to me, so I Googled it and went in there and found it very interesting, because a similar situation happened in Samoa to a very small group of seven-day Adventist Sabbath keepers. Samoa is a small group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about 2,200 miles south of Hawaii. Up until the end of 2011, Samoa was on the United States side of the International Date Line.

The International Date Line is an imaginary line that exists as a figment of the world's imagination. It was established to be the north-south line of the globe, which would determine when a day begins and ends. It begins on the US side of the International Date Line. It ends on the Australia and New Zealand side of the International Date Lines. So you've got this International Date Line. This side is, say, Friday. This side is Saturday.

It's the next day. So you cross this line, you change into another day. Here's the International Date Line. Here's Samoa on the US side of the International Date Line. What happened? You know what happened? At the very end of the year 2011, they changed the International Date Line to go to this side of Samoa. Samoa now is on the Australian side, and all of a sudden, they got into a different day.

See, up until the end of 2011, Samoa was on the United States side. Actually, a 24-hour day, like I said, begins on the US side and ends on the other side, the Australian side. So the US side of the International Date Line is always one day ahead of the Australian side of the International Date Line.

And you cross that line, you enter into a different day of the week, either forward or backward, depending on which direction you go. So in other words, it can be Friday on the US side and Saturday on the Australian side. And as I said, Samoa was on the US side up until the end of 2011. Then time and law was changed concerning the International Date Line. Actually, the International Date Line was changed. It was changed time and law for the people on Samoa.

At midnight, on Thursday, December 29th of 2011, at midnight when Thursday, December 29th ended, the International Date Line was arbitrarily altered to shift Samoa to the Australian side of the line. At that precise time, Samoa fast-forwarded to Saturday, December 31st. They went from Thursday, December 29th to Saturday, December 31st. It's like they lost a day. They went from December 29th, Thursday to Saturday, December 31st. Or to put it another way, they suddenly went from the fifth day of the week to the seventh day of the week. It was Friday, the sixth day of the week was skipped for those people living on Samoa. To the seventh day Adventist living on Samoa, Saturday, December 31st was then the sixth day of the week.

Since the previous day, Thursday, December 29th was the fifth day of the week. It's kind of hard to follow, but you can Google this and research out and think about it. That then made Sunday, January 1st, 2012, the seventh day of the week for the people on Samoa, if you want to keep the sequence. Thus, the Seventh Day Adventists living on Samoa. They wrestle with, how do we do this?

The SDA Church, their headquarters, never really made a final decision on this. They're still struggling with it. But the Seventh, the many Seventh-day Adventists on Samoa at that time began observing their Sabbath on Sunday. Since then, to them, Sunday was now the seventh day of the week.

Because the previous day had been the fifth day of the week. Or the previous day had been the sixth day. Fifth, third day was the fifth day of the week, I should say. So they skipped Thursday. They skipped Friday, I should say. I get mixed up just trying to tell it. It's very confusing. But the Seventh-day Adventists, some of them now, they realize in keeping the sequence, Sunday was now to them the seventh day of the week.

So they start observing the Sabbath on Sunday. It's been a struggle over there. I think some of them now have gone back to Saturday, they won't be too confusing. But some still keep Sunday, because they figured that's the seventh day of the week to keep the sequence. Again, you can Google or Bing that to get more complete history of that.

It's quite interesting to look at. And as far as I know, that particular situation is still not being completely resolved by the SDA church. They're still haven't made a determination on it. So the question remains, if time and law were changed for us in a way that then altered this sequence of the days of the week, what would we do? How would we handle that?

And to what authority would you look for a resolution?

Some of those Seventh-day Adventists are still looking to the authority of the church for resolution. They haven't decided yet. They're having a hard time figuring out what they should do.

So that then is a warning from prophecy concerning the calendar.

And again, to repeat what it says in Daniel, another king shall arise. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and a half a time. How close are we to when this might happen? Well, only time will tell. I don't know.

That'd be scary times to have to live in if that ever happened, and those new calendars adopted to change all these things and changes the sequence of days of the week. A decision would have to be made.

Otherwise, it'd be very, very confusing, very difficult, very troubling times.

Well, I'll end here for now, and we'll conclude this series, hopefully, on the calendar next time. We'll cover counting to Pentecost, and that will be on the Sabbath of June 14th for both C. Dewolley and Bellevue.