Covenants, Calendars and Clarity, Part 2

Well, happy Sabbath again, brethren! Great to see all of you with us. As always, thank you, Art. Very beautiful. It's the first time I've ever heard you perform that particular number or piece. A very beautiful thank you, and that is certainly true. We all need to pray for one another.

Well, I have a part two of the sermon series that I began a few weeks back regarding the covenants and the calendars and clarity. I'm going to be going over time today. Unfortunately, services are pushed back here, so I apologize in advance that I'm going to be going a little longer than I normally am. This is also a technical subject, so I'm going to be reading a little more than I like, looking at my notes a little more closely than I normally do, but it's an important topic that I wanted to cover as part of this series. Last time, we discussed the various covenants that God instituted with certain individuals and eventually with the nation of Israel, known, of course, as the Old Covenant. We also looked at God's name. We looked at his titles and his character, and it's obvious that God does not have a single sacred name but is known by many wonderful titles and identities, all insufficient in human language is to describe his awesome majesty and grandeur.

Today, I'd like to focus on the Hebrew calendar. That seems to be a topic of discussion on a lot of the internet blogs. It's affected the Church of God in various ways, and I'd like to focus on the Hebrew calendar today and how we determine the Holy Days for the 21st century. But before we talk about the Hebrew calendar, before we go to Scripture, I think it's important for us to understand the secular calendar that we use today. The calendar we use today is a western calendar that comes from ancient Rome. It began about 45 BC when Julius Caesar, upon the advice of a Greek astronomer, decided to use a purely solar calendar. A solar calendar is one complete revolution of the earth around the sun. Sun being solar. So that is one year. The solar year contains 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes, and 45.5 seconds. Now, this is going to be important because if the calendar that any man creates is out of sync with that, then that calendar begins either gain too much time or lose too much time. This calendar, known as the Julian calendar, fixed the normal year at 365 days and added something called a leap year, every fourth year at 366 days. Leap years were so named because the extra day causes any date after February in a year to leap forward one day in the week in contrast to normal years. The Julian calendar also established the order of the months and the days of the week as they exist in our present-day calendar. So, thanks to the Julian calendar, we called this month February. That was all established back then.

But, oh, there was a problem. And the problem became evident around the year 1582 AD. The Julian year was 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the solar year. And you might say, well, big deal! So what? That's not much time. You're talking about just a few minutes and a few seconds longer, but that time adds up as the years roll by.

And this discrepancy between 45 BC and 1582 AD caused there to be 10 days early in the year 1582 AD for Catholic Church holidays. So the holidays didn't fall in the appropriate seasons. And that was a problem. So, a man named Pope Gregory XIII, no relation, issued a decree dropping 10 days from the calendar. And there were a few other minor changes. But because of that, we all used the Gregorian calendar today. And it is purely a solar calendar. So it teaches us to be very careful of anything someone named Gregory decides to do regarding calendars.

So that's the calendar we use today. The calendar the ancient Hebrews used was a lunar solar calendar. In contrast to our Gregorian calendar, God directed Israel to adopt a lunar solar calendar that was based on the observation of the moon. And this calendar regulated harvest and religious activity.

It was called solar lunar because it acknowledged the sun's orbit to mark the length of a complete year. But based on the beginning of months, the observation of the phases of the moon. And each month would start due to a new moon, unlike a solar calendar where it doesn't care what position the moon is in. Let's go to Exodus chapter 12 beginning in verse 1.

Exodus chapter 12 beginning in verse 1. So again, the western calendar we have today is a solar calendar. The Hebrew calendar would be a lunar solar calendar. Exodus chapter 12 in verse 1. Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, this month shall be your beginning of months and it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying, on the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father and a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of persons according to each man's need.

You shall take your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year of the year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it under the fourteenth day of the same month then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. So there's a first reference that we have regarding the kind of Hebrew calendar that the Israelites would be using in the Promised Land.

Here's what the very Bible note says about this verse. This month was called by its Canaanite name Abib, meaning ear, because the grain was in the ear, though it was later called by the Babylonian name Nicin. Let's drop down now to the next chapter, Exodus 13, and read verse 4. Exodus 13 and verse 4. And I want you to notice that this Canaanite name is used. On this day you are going out in the month Abib, it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. So the first thing we need to know about this calendar is that it already existed. God does not say, I am introducing a new calendar to you, and that calendar is going to have 12 months, and each month is going to have so many days. It assumes that the calendar already exists because it did. God just basically says the month that you're in right now, which happens to be the springtime when the barley heirs are green.

This is the new year for you, for the people of Israel. So the first thing we need to know about this calendar is that it already existed. God did not give Israel a sacred calendar, a holy calendar, or a godly calendar. He taught Moses how to determine his holy days from an existing Semitic calendar that Moses had been using the last 40 years living in Midian.

Moses was very familiar with this calendar because it already existed throughout the land of Canaan. And this was the calendar that would be used in Canaan, the land that they were going to. So God was using this calendar to teach them how to determine holy time within the secular Canaanite calendar. What we've read here, this may surprise you, but what we have read here is basically everything the scriptures have to say about the calendars that the Hebrews would use. So everything beyond this point that you read about the Hebrew calendar is the result of either historical knowledge, archaeology, Jewish tradition, or human opinion.

And people want to make a big doctrinal issue about something that, frankly, the Bible does not talk about in great detail. The Bible actually says very little about what we call the Hebrew calendar. But here are some interesting things to know about the calendar. First of all, God was dealing with a Bronze Age culture that had a limited knowledge of astronomy, and they lacked the ability of print technology. When you and I want to know five days from now or five months from now, a particular day, we pull out a paper calendar, don't we? We open it up and we flip the pages and we can point to it and we can say, there! That's looking into the future. That is the day that something is going to occur. It was a culture that lacked mass publishing, and it made it difficult for people to plan ahead. Publicly displayed calendars that could plot months or years ahead were an unknown concept. Because of this, 1st Moses, and eventually the Levitical priesthood, was given the task of literally announcing when each new moon was, and announcing when each new month was starting. And this was done at this time by mere observation rather than a mathematical formula or looking at an astronomical chart, because they were not that advanced to know or understand that. So that's an interesting thing to know as we talk about the Hebrew calendar. Another interesting thing is that earlier, before this time in Exodus, if you look in the book of Genesis, it implies that all months were 30 days long, and that the complete year was actually 360 days, and not 365 days. If you look at the dates given around the time of Noah, it strongly implies that the year was 360 days, or 12 lunar months of 30 days each. What happened? We don't know.

Something astronomically or geologically happened, because that's what the Bible implies between Genesis and by the time we get to the age in the world we live in today. Another interesting thing to understand is strictly using a lunar calendar presents some serious problems over time. The first problem is that the moon circuit has about 29 and a half days, and that forces a vacillation between some months being only 29 days long, and some months being 30 days.

And that's another reason you couldn't have a printed calendar, because you didn't know three months in advance whether that month would have 29 days before a new month would be declared, or 30 days. So it virtually made it impossible to plan much in the future. So that presents a problem. Secondly, that I want to point out here, is that the lunar months equal 354 days, which means it's about 11 days short of a solar year.

So if you have 12 lunar months, you're losing 11 days every year. What does that mean? That means in three years you are a month behind. In a few years, you're keeping the spring holy days in the fall. So that's a problem, isn't it? It's an absolute problem. Certainly. It means again that for a short period of time, the spring holy days would shift and eventually occur in the fall. This, of course, wouldn't make sense. And it would defeat the purpose and the rich meaning of the holy days. If you have a fall harvest festival like the Feast of Tabernacles, it has to occur in the fall.

Or it doesn't have very much meaning, does it? Or the spring holy days, the Passover, doesn't have much meaning in the days of Unleavened Bread if they happen in June, what we would call in our modern term today, June. So somehow the priest had to add days to the year or an occasional month every few years to compensate for the loss of 11 days every year.

Now we're not just talking about religious observances here. We're not talking about theology. You see, the crop season isn't geared towards lunar months. The crop season is geared towards a solar year. We're talking about survival here, brethren. If you get off on the year and you plant your seed too early, it's still cold and they rot in the ground and you die because you don't have food to eat. If you plant your crops too late, then you miss out on the important rains early on in that growing season because they already passed and your crop is diminished.

And again, you might risk starvation or death. So we're not talking simply about theology here. We're not talking about religious desires. We're talking about having a calendar that is synchronized correctly with the season because your life depends on it. So they had to insert days to insert days or a month into a calendar to harmonize it with a solar year is called intercalary. Again, intercalary. So when you hear that phrase, if I use it a little later, or you read about that phrase, that's what it means. It means to insert a day or a month into the Hebrew calendar to make that synchronize or harmonize with a solar year so that it works.

Another interesting thing to realize is that the usual practice in the Old Testament was to simply number the months between 1 and 12, month 3, the fifth month of this king's reign. That's what's usually done. But occasionally they did use Canaanite month names, and there are four that are in the Old Testament, four names of months that are Canaanite in origin.

They are Ebeeb, Zeeb, Ethonym, and Abul. It occurred in October, November, and these are all recorded in the books of Exodus and 1 Kings. You will see these four Canaanite names used for Hebrew months. Begin because it was a Canaanite calendar that God used to show them how to determine his holy days through a calendar that already existed.

So who was responsible for regulating the calendar? If you'll turn with me to Leviticus chapter 23 in verse 1, who was responsible for regulating the calendar and declaring certain holy days? Again, remember, people did not have printed pocket calendars. They didn't have this little thing hanging on the wall that has 30 squares on it that said 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 19, because they didn't know if this month was going to be 29 days long or 30 days long until someone got up there, hopefully not with cataracts, and we'll look up there and say, I see the new moon!

Okay? So it was very hard to plan anything in advance.

Leviticus chapter 23 in verse 1. Let's see who's given this authority. 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.

So he doesn't say, All of you nice Israelite people decide when you want to keep the holy day. Decide when a month starts. Manasseh, you can decide this date. Judah, you can decide to do it this way. No, there has to be one central authority, and that central authority was Moses.

Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times.

So notice God's command to Moses. You are responsible for this, Moses.

God states that he had the ecclesiastical authority and the responsibility to declare when the holy days, when the seasons were to begin. You can't have individual Israelite tribes deciding when they think a new moon begins or when they think a holy day begins. In order to avoid confusion and chaos, someone has to be the authority to determine when the months start.

And what was true then is also true today. Because what do we find when people don't recognize an ecclesiastical authority that has the responsibility to proclaim when God's holy days are? You have some groups that are not inserting days or a month every so many years. They refuse to do that. So they're way different than another group who believes that the new moon starts when the first crescent is visible. And then you have another group that says, no, the new moon, it really begins when the sun is in complete alignment with the moon and there's total darkness. And what you end up with is chaos and confusion when people don't recognize authority.

This chapter, chapter 23, includes a listing of what God considers his feasts. If you read through this chapter closely, I want you to notice that new moons are not even mentioned in any of these instructions. That's another virus, unfortunately, that cycles throughout the Church of God occasionally in which people want to make new moons festivals, want to make them rise up to the level of being a festival. New moons were not considered festivals. They are not mentioned in Leviticus 23. They're not festivals like the Sabbath and holy days. I've read where some said they're mini festivals and they should be observed as such. But the name mini festival is a man-made term. That's artificial. Leviticus 23 does not discuss mini festivals because they don't exist. There is one verse that mentions a holy day on the first day of a month. Let's see what that is dropping down to verse 24. Leviticus, chapter 23, verse 24, speak to the children of Israel saying, in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial blowing a trumpet, a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work in it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. So again, the Feast of Trumpets occurs on the first day of the seventh month, but this does not endorse the observance of new moons if, as some claim, that the day after the monthly new moons were already being observed as special Sabbaths, and I've heard read where some people say that, then this verse would not be necessary because it would already be happening every month. So the very fact that they were instructed to do it shows that it wasn't happening every month. It is true that additional offerings were made on the first day of the month. It's also true that the Israelites had special meals to celebrate the beginning of a new month, but this does not mean they were considered holy, and it certainly doesn't mean because they did it that we should do it today. Remember, they did not have printed calendars. The special observance of a new month was so that they did not completely lose track of time. When you don't have the advanced understanding of the future, the beginning of every month is essential to regulating your life. Within this Bronze Age culture, the typical person or family would not have been able to keep track of time. They needed to know when each month began so they could prepare for proper planting. You had to purchase seed. You had to prepare your implements. You had to know in advance when it was time to plant. And as I said earlier, if you plant too early or you plant too late, you are in big trouble. They needed to prepare in advance for harvesting season. They need to be able to prepare in advance to observe the holy days at the right time. The extra offerings and the trumpets that were made at this time were blown throughout the land to acknowledge the beginning of a new month.

But the point is, is because they did it doesn't mean the days were holy and it doesn't mean that we should do it. The main point of this understanding is that we must be careful when discussing the Hebrew calendar because so little is mentioned about it in the Bible.

It tells us that the year begins in the spring. It has a few Canaanite names of various months. It tells us how to determine the holy days by counting a certain number of months and then counting a specific number of days. But beyond that, it doesn't tell us much. And everything beyond that point is people's study of history, archaeology, Jewish culture and tradition, or someone's opinion. So should we make a salvation issue? Should we make a real big deal out of something that is so ambiguous? Something that the Bible itself doesn't spend a lot of time talking about? Much of what we know about the Hebrew calendar doesn't come from the Bible. I want to emphasize again it comes from Hebrew tradition or secular history. Issues like how do you deal with a lunar calendar that is 11 days short every year? The Bible doesn't tell us.

Do you insert every year 11 days? Or do you wait three years and insert a month?

The Bible doesn't tell us. What were the other names given to most of the months? Because only four are mentioned in the Old Testament. It's clear that the Hebrews began the sacred year and the first day of the bib. But when did they begin to celebrate the civil year and the first day of the seventh month? The Feast of Trumpets. We don't know that. Did the new moon begin when it was dark? Meaning a complete conjunction with the sun in front of the sun and you can't see it. It's all dark. Or does it begin when the first visible crescent appeared? The Bible doesn't discuss these and many other issues regarding the calendar. So for people to make a tremendous doctrine, a salvation issue out of how you observe the Hebrew calendar seems to me to be rather absurd. Until the exile, the Jews were not very strong in the science of astronomy. As a matter of fact, the law forbade them to study astrology so they didn't look up into the skies and do a lot of studying of the heavens. They did not fully understand mathematical principles and the cycles of the sun and the moon and the stars until they were captive and were taken to Babylon. And frankly, it was the Babylonians who taught them that it's a clock up there. It's something that you can calculate in advance. The heavens are part of a perfect creation by a God who, like a great clock, has things happen every so often. It comes back and it resets itself. And when you understand the mathematical principle of astronomy, then you can know in advance when something like a new moon is going to occur. You don't have to have some fella up there with cataracts trying to guess whether he sees a new moon or not. According to the Talmud, the priest would watch for a new moon and proclaim it by sending messengers and blowing trumpets throughout the land. And you know what? That's okay if you don't have very much land, but a trumpet blast only goes so far and then you can't hear it anymore. Witnesses were appointed to look for the new moon if the announcement was made before dark, that day was proclaimed as the first day of the new month. If the announcement was not made until after dark, the following day began the month. And if it was cloudy and could not be observed, well, you couldn't declare that to be the beginning of a new month because you couldn't see the skies on a cloudy night. So you would push it back from the 29th day, which was a possibility, until the 30th day. And you would declare the 30th day as the new month. However, there is a hint in the Old Testament that perhaps they were already beginning to calculate the new moon and looking beyond mere observation. This is just a hint. 1 Samuel chapter 20 and verse 5.

We'll take a look at what is written here about a conversation between David and Jonathan. 1 Samuel chapter 20 and verse 5. It says, And David said to Jonathan, Indeed, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go, that I may hide in the field until the third day at evening. If your father misses me at all, then say, David earnestly asked permission of me, that he might go over to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family. So it's obvious here that the king had a special meal to celebrate the beginning of a new month, and it's probable that all the people of Israel enjoyed a special meal on the day after the new moon. Again, it was important for them to regulate their lives, not having a calendar to look to understand the future. It was important celebration in their culture. But we're not to do something just because Israel did. They did many things in their culture that are not valid or useful for us today. We do things because God instructs them in Scripture, not because they were done by Israelites or Jews or other cultures in the Old Testament. The very fact that David says, indeed, tomorrow is the new moon. Hence, that maybe they were already beginning to calculate the new moons not going strictly on mere observation. I'd like to read a paragraph from the Hebrew scholar and a noted calendar expert named Arthur Speer from his book, Historical Remarks on the Jewish Calendar. This is on page one. This is what he says. This is a man who has a number of books and has studied this subject very deeply. Quote, In the early times of our history, the solution was found by the following practical procedure. The beginnings of the months were determined by direct observation of the moon, sanctified and announced by the Sanhedrin after witnesses had testified that they had seen the new crescent and after the testimony had been thoroughly examined, confirmed by calculation, and duly accepted. The Jewish communities were notified of the beginnings of months in an earlier time by kindling the night fires on the mountains and later on by messengers. And again, that works as long as you're in a small piece of land. But as we're going to see when they go into captivity, it gets a little more complicated than that. Let's go to Psalm chapter 81 and verse 1. Psalm chapter 81 and verse 1. A lot of times I've read people focus on the new moons, but they also forget the focus on the full moons, which obviously occur about 15 days later. Psalm chapter 81 verse 1. Sing aloud to God our strength, make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob, raise a song and strike the timbrel, the pleasant harp and the lute, blow the trumpet at the time of the new moon at the full moon on our solemn feast day. For this is a statute for Israel, a law of the God of Jacob. So the moon is more than just for the beginning of months. The full moon signals the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It signals the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles. The calculation of these months are critical because it must not only start at the right time, but people should be able to look up on the 15th of the month and see a full moon.

There are sound biblical and practical reasons for all the rules and the methods of the Hebrew calendar. As we know, let's fast forward in time a little bit, in the process of time, first Israel went into captivity by the Assyrians and then later Judah went into captivity and the captivity presented two new issues for Jews in Babylon regarding their survival. They had to consider now that we are out of our land and the temple has been destroyed, how do we keep the faith? How do we survive? Now that we are out of that land that God had given us, what are the keys to survival? Well, observing the Sabbath would be easy because you simply count to seven. No matter where you're at, one, two, three, four, five, six, Sabbath! One, two, three, four, five, six, Sabbath! So that part was easy.

But how do you worship at a temple when it no longer exists? You see, under the law of the the Old Covenant, there was one central place to worship and that was from originally the tabernacle and then the temple. That was the one acceptable place to worship. Well, how do you worship at the temple when it no longer exists? And when you're 500 miles away from the temple, how do you continue to worship? Another question, another problem they had. How do you observe the new moons when you're not in Jerusalem to confirm it by observation? If you're 500 miles away, if you're a Jew a thousand miles away, how do you know when the new moon is in Jerusalem if you're not there? If the Jews are scattered all over the earth, how will they know when a month begins so that everyone can keep the Holy Days at the same time no matter where they're located on earth? These are pretty important questions to the Jews. Well, to solve the problem of how to worship, they invented something. They established the concept of the synagogue. The synagogue isn't mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament. They brought the idea from Babylon back to Jerusalem when the captives returned, and by the time of Jesus Christ the idea of a synagogue as an alternative place to worship was firmly accepted and established, even though it had been invented. Jesus himself endorsed the idea of synagogue worship by oftentimes attending the synagogue himself. He gave his steel of approval on the whole concept of something that wasn't even in the Old Testament. And of course, the New Testament church came out of the synagogue. We have deep roots out of the original synagogues. Now, to solve the problem with how to determine the beginning of the month, the Jewish priest in Babylon learned mathematical skills from the Babylonians. From the Babylonians, the Jews learned to add an extra month every two or three years.

And in time, by the time you go to rabbinical times, this intercalary, remember that phrase, intercalary month, was inserted seven times every 19 years. And since the 12th month was named Adar, when they added a month, it was called second Adar. Not too creative, but it works.

It's the point across. So when the Jews returned from Babylonian exile, they brought with them the monthly names of the Babylonian calendar. They realized that the universe is like a big clock, that things work in a precise way, that you can pretty well calculate far in advance when a new moon is going to occur, and when certain things in the heavens are going to happen. And they also brought back with them the names of the Babylonian calendar, and renamed the Hebrew calendar months with those names. The most familiar is Nethan. Let's read about that in Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 1. Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 1.

Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 1, and it came to pass in the month of Nissan, formerly known as Abib, and Abib itself was a Canaanite name, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king, Nehemiah telling his story. Now I had never been sad in his presence before, therefore the king just said to me, why is your face sad since you were not sick? Why do you look depressed and discouraged? The king says to Nehemiah, this is nothing but sorrow of heart. He's saying, you're pulling me down by seeing how you look. It's discouraging me, the king, because you look so downtrodden. He says, so I became dreadfully afraid. You did not want to risk the displeasure of the king. And I said to the king, may the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lie waste, and the gates are burnt with fire? Then the king said to me, what do you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. Sounds like instantaneously when the king asked that question. He did what we should do throughout the day when we're confronted with a problem or an issue or a challenge. He said he prayed to the God of heaven instantaneously. God helped me with this one. Verse 5, and I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah to the land of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it. And that's what happened. What a blessing. But I want you to notice here in verse 1 that it referred to the month of Nisan. If you look at Nehemiah and Ezra, you will find a number of Babylonian titles relabeled on the Hebrew calendar. But here's the thing to keep in mind. Since it was a secular calendar anyway, the Bible never condemns the use of either using Canaanite or Babylonian names for the months. It was not a religious calendar. It was a secular calendar, which you would calculate in certain ways to determine God's holy days.

But it was a secular calendar. Many former captives did return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, and they brought with them an increased knowledge of mathematical calculations and astronomy. So should we have a problem saying the month of June, which is named after the Roman god Juno? No, because it's a secular calendar. And that's the name that the month has. And saying that name does not violate God's law or God's grand plan, because trust me, the Gregorian calendar, as appropriately named as it may be, is not a holier religious calendar. It is a purely secular calendar that we live in here in the 21st century. So let's fast forward a little bit more now. At a time of Jesus Christ, the authority to proclaim the holy days was given to a body of Jewish leaders called the Sanhedrin. Jesus observed the holy days as declared by the Sanhedrin, and he never questioned their authority to do so. Not once in the Gospels does he question the authority or question the determination of any of the holy days. So we don't see a problem there.

After the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD, after Jesus had died and was resurrected, and the Gospel was being preached throughout Asia Minor, after the destruction of this second temple, the Sanhedrin was re-established, moving to various cities under the watchful eye of the Roman Empire. Remember, the Romans went in to destroy Jerusalem. They were anti-Semitic after that. They destroyed the temple. They butchered the Jewish population in 70 AD. So the Sanhedrin now has to be kind of a clandestine organization in order to survive. They are under the watchful care of the Roman Empire. So they moved from city to city, trying to always stay one step ahead of the Roman authorities, because they're talking about the survival of the Jewish belief system.

By the time we get to the presidency of the Sanhedrin, a man named Demeliel IV, he was president from 270 to 290 AD. Because of Roman persecution, they even stopped calling themselves the Sanhedrin. Same group of Jewish scholars and believers, rabbis, but again, in order to try to avoid persecution, they even dropped the name Sanhedrin. It didn't work very well. By 358 AD, the Roman Emperor Theodosus I forbade the Sanhedrin to even assemble and declared any ordination of a rabbi to be illegal. That's what I call persecution, but that's not all. Theodosus prescribed capital punishment for any rabbi who received ordination, and here's what he said. He said, I declare complete destruction on any town where the ordination occurs. I want to complete destruction of that town. So, as you can see, the Sanhedrin is under tremendous pressure.

What are they going to do? Jews are being scattered all throughout the then-known world. How are they going to keep the Holy Days in synchronization? How are they going to ensure that a thousand years later, if you're a Jew living in Poland, and you're a Jew living in France, and you're a Jew living in the Holy Land, that you all are keeping the Holy Days on the same day at the same time? How are you going to do that? Well, historically, the last binding decision of the Great Sanhedrin appeared in the year 358 AD, when the Hebrew calendar, the one that we use today, was adopted. The Sanhedrin was dissolved after continued persecution by the Roman Empire and the rising tide of Roman Catholicism, which frankly was very anti-Semitic. They referred to the Jews as Christ killers, so they were extremely anti-Semitic. It had become too dangerous to collect eyewitness testimony to physically observe a new moon, and decide that if you were 500 miles away from Jerusalem, how could you do physical observation of a new moon anyway, where you were located at? So a member of the Sanhedrin, whose name was Hillel II, recommended a change to a mathematically-based formula, a calendar, that was adopted at a clandestine or underground meeting of the Great Sanhedrin in 358 AD, out of fear of literally being killed by the Romans. They met privately and secretly, and they decided this was like their last act before they were finally broken up, to decide on declaring the Jewish calendar, the very one that we use today. Again, this was the last universal decision made by that body.

Hillel II's calendar codified what had already been occurring for centuries. What he did is he made public some things that I'll mention, called postponements, that the Sanhedrin had been using for centuries way before the time of Jesus Christ. But since they were all about to be perhaps annihilated by the Romans, he publicly made known some of these things that they had been doing for many years to calculate the Hebrew calendar. It included four basic rules of what are known today as postponements of days. These are very complex.

They're difficult to grasp because of their technical explanation.

But again, they had been quietly used by the Sanhedrin for centuries, including the time of Christ. And every one of these postponements are based, are concluded, on reasonable conclusions of Scripture. And I'll just quickly mention what they are, and I think you'll see the logic of them. The first postponement is a rule in the Hebrew calendar that when it occurs, when a new moon occurs late in the day, if it appears on or after 12 noon, this rule requires that the proclamation of a new moon be moved to the next day, a day in which the moon is actually still new.

You might say, well, why is that important? Well, this is necessary so that the Feast of Trumpets is a full 24-hour day. If the new moon happens to occur through calculation, say at 2 in the afternoon, how do you run to everybody and say, oh, the Feast of Trumpets is already half over. Gotcha! Surprise! So obviously this makes sense. The second and third postponement rules cause the calendar to be adjusted so that the Day of Atonement does not fall on the day before the weekly Sabbath and the majority of the annual Holy Days, that they do not fall on the day after the Day of Atonement. Now, here's why this makes sense. I'll give you an example. In preparation for the Sabbath, God commanded that we do all our work on the sixth day. That's Exodus 16. He has also commanded that we do absolutely no work on atonement. Therefore, if atonement were to be allowed to fall on a Friday, it presents a conflict with God's command. You can't prepare for the Sabbath on the sixth day if the Day of Atonement is on the sixth day. So, this rule of postponement will adjust the Day of Atonement so you don't have double high days back-to-back. You still do occasionally, but specifically with the Day of Atonement, which is a difficult day if you're fasting and if you're doing what God wants you to do, this postponement makes sense and is logical. The final postponement rule, number four, is related to a 19-year time cycle. Once every 19 years, as the Jews learned in Babylon, the earth and the sun are almost in complete conjunction once again. This rule keeps the years length adjusted so that the years are in sync with the solar year, with none having an abnormal length as they go through their cycle. It also ensured that Jews scattered all over the world would insert the additional month in the right years. If you do it in year three and I do it in year four, then you're going to be keeping an entire year's worth of holy days 30 days differently than I do. So again, it's a postponement, but it makes sense because it brings unity and understanding to God's Word. These facts should put postponements in perspective, and a lot of people are against postponements. They say, oh, the Bible doesn't talk about postponements. When it comes to the calendar, the Bible doesn't talk about 90% of the stuff that relates to the Hebrew calendar.

In fact, as is plain to see, some are absolutely necessary in order to perform what God has written in his Word. For example, intercalary. If you're not adjusting the calendar, all the holy days within a few years are going to be totally out of synchronization. You're going to violate God's command that the time that the barley is green is your first month, is the beginning of a new year. So you do these things in order to keep God's commands, not to try to avoid God's commands. Again, I'd like to quote a paragraph or two from Arthur Spear, who again is a famed educator and scholar. This is from his book, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, from page one. Quote, he says, A special committee of the Sanhedrin, with its president as chairman, had the mandate to regulate and balance the solar with the lunar years. This so-called calendar council calculated the beginnings of the seasons on the basis of astronomical figures which had been handed down as the tradition of old. Whenever, after two or three years, the annual excess of 11 days had accumulated to approximately 30 days, a 13th month, a Dar II, was inserted before Nisan in order to assure that Nisan and Passover would occur in spring and not retro-gress towards winter. Here's something else that he says. Quote, This method of observation and intercalation was in use throughout the period of the Second Temple. Now, that happens to be from 516 BC to 7080. That includes the time that Jesus Christ walked on the earth. So let me start that sentence over again. This method of observation and intercalation was in use throughout the period of the Second Temple and about three centuries after its destruction, as long as there was an independent Sanhedrin. In the fourth century, however, we've read about those persecutions, in the fourth century, however, when oppression and persecution threatened the continual existence of the Sanhedrin, the patriarch Hillel II took an extraordinary step to preserve the unity of Israel. In order to prevent the Jews scattered all over the surface of the earth from celebrating their new moons, festivals, and holidays at different times, he made public the system of calendar calculation, which up to then had been a closely guarded secret. The Sanhedrin did not want everyone to know what the postponement rules were. It's like anyone in a position of authority. They wanted to keep those secrets to themselves, but it was Hillel II knowing that the Sanhedrin was not the around very much longer, who boldly made them public. One final paragraph that I will quote here from Mr. Spear. It has been used in the past only to check the observation and testimonies of witnesses and to determine the beginnings of the spring season in accordance with this system. Hillel II formally sanctified all months in advance and intercalated all future leap years until such time as a new recognized Sanhedrin would be established in Israel. And to this day that has never happened. Perhaps it'll happen at the return of Jesus Christ. One final sentence quoting, this is the permanent calendar according to which the new moons and festivals are calculated and celebrated today by Jews all over the world.

So my brethren, for over 1,500 years scattered Jews worldwide and the Church of God has six successfully used this Hebrew calendar. Unfortunately, there are those who want to make a salvation issue about something as complex as establishing a date on a lunar calendar. Brethren, as I said in my previous sermon regarding the so-called sacred name, if people tell you they know how to determine the months of the holy days, they are only making a guess. They may pretend to have authority, they may pretend to know what they're talking about, but they're only guessing that is the reality.

Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16.

A scripture that many distort to try to put down the holy days, to try to put down the new moon festival of trumpets, to try to put down the Sabbath saying that they're obsolete and done away.

Let's look at this in the proper context. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16.

And tie it in with what some people are saying about the Hebrew calendar today that we observe. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16. Paul wrote, so let no one judge you in food or in drink regarding a festival or a new moon like the Feast of Trumpets, or Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. I'm going to read this from the translation God's word for today. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that cast the shadow belongs to Christ. What Paul is saying here is that no one has the right to judge you and tell you that you're keeping the Sabbath wrong, or that you're even keeping the Sabbath and it's done away. No one has the right to judge you and tell you that you're keeping the Feast of Trumpets wrong or any festival. They don't have that right. Who does have that right? The church has that right. That's the body of Christ. The only one that legitimately has the right to judge us for what we're doing, right or wrong, is the body of Christ. That is the church. It's not outsiders. It's not a self-appointed authority. Someone who ordains themselves in the mirror starts their own church and decides that they're going to begin teaching that we're keeping the calendar all wrong and that they're right. The only authority that has the right to judge us and how and when we keep the Holy Days is the body of Jesus Christ himself. That is the church of God. Paul saying, let no individual person make decisions on this subject. It's the church's role to proclaim the Holy Days. It's the church's responsibility. It's their ecclesiastical responsibility to establish for everyone in advance when the Holy Days are to occur. I want to just step back for one second as we're getting ready to close here. I'd like to step back and give you one example of logic and show you that the calendar was being calculated in advance.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 8, there's no need for you to turn there. You're familiar with the Scripture. Paul tells the Gentile believers in Corinth, quote, therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. That's the statement that he makes. He was obviously calculating when the month of Nisan would have begun. Why? How do I know that? Because it would have been impossible and it would have been impractical for someone to travel over 1200 miles to Jerusalem.

Look at the moon. Travel over 1200 miles back to Corinth in only 15 days to say, hey, the new moon was this day or this day. So the only way that Paul could tell them, therefore let us keep this feast, meaning this coming feast, was because they were advanced enough that they were already calculating when the holy day would be. And I think that's a very important scripture for us to understand.

You'll turn to Acts chapter 3 and verse 21. As you turn there, I would like to read a statement from a very prominent Dutch-American physicist. His name was Samuel Goudsmit. And here's what Dr.

Goudsmit wrote in a book that he wrote called Time. He said, the year, the month, and the day are independent and incompatible. Like imperfectly matched gears, they do not mesh. Men have tried gamely to divide the year in such a way that important days, holidays, vacation, ceremonies will be in tune with the seasons year after year, century after century. Ingenious calendars have been devised, but a fully accurate solution cannot be found because the problem of reconciling the days, months, and the year is really insoluble. End of quote. And you know what? In the hands of man, it absolutely is. Acts chapter 3 and verse 19. Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out at times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. I'm going to read verse 21 in the new century version. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

So, brethren, we live in a secular world that calendars have problems, our language has problems, and I'm being the first to admit that I don't have all knowledge, that I could very well be in error on a number of things. And the church could be in error on some things. That is why we look for a time in which the Bible promises a restitution of all things. We can all look forward to a time when Christ will introduce a new godly kingdom with a pure language, not like any of the languages we use in the world today. He'll introduce a perfect calendar. Perhaps the solar system will be realigned and as is implied in the book of Genesis, maybe there will be exactly 12 months of 30 days in a 360-day year. Who knows? It will be one of a righteous culture, not like the cultures we have around us today, a culture based on God's law and God's will. Until then, brethren, as Paul would say, we look through a glass darkly. The role of the Church of God is with the information that we have and with what we understand to make the best decisions that we can for the sake of the church.

And that includes using the Jewish calendar to proclaim and to announce God's festivals.

No one should try to make a salvation issue out of something as complex, something as imperfect as the ancient Hebrew calendar. Next time, we'll discuss the vast difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant that was introduced by the messenger of the New Covenant himself, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We'll cover that next time. Thank you. Be sure to have a great Sabbath day.