In Part 2 I wrote: There has to be a point that can be identified from the history of the Worldwide Church of God or Radio Church of God where a basic flaw in thinking affected doctrine and became a basis for the domino effect that has caused the collapse of the entire structure. The point that I identify as this crucial junction occurred in the very beginning. This flaw in thinking patterns began almost immediately. This shows the absolute deceit and power that Satan has and his ability to thwart sincere believers. This fatal flaw in thinking came at the very beginning of the history of the era of the church that began when Mr. Armstrong first came into contact with the Church of God 7^th Day. The error in thinking involved the Jewish Calendar and its proper application today.

Just as the calendar controversy had been raging for centuries, so it reared its ugly head in the beginning of Mr. Armstrong’s ministry. In 1927 he came into contact and started attending services with the Church of God 7^th Day. They scheduled Passover according to the Jewish Calendar. At least they tried to schedule Passover according to the Jewish Calendar, given the restricted information available at that time. They did not, of course, keep or acknowledge any of the other holy days. In 1940 Mr. Armstrong was forced to confront and resolve a calendar controversy.

Two years ago I was finally forced to start looking into the Calendar Controversy for myself. There is a lot of misinformation floating around concerning this. One of these ideas concerns not reading information produced by sources that do not share your religious bias. Now let me say right here that this is a damnable, satanic idea. It has no scriptural basis.

The real scriptural basis for our approach and attitude is exemplified by the Bereans, a group of Jews in the town of Berea who had a humble, teachable attitude. How about you? Are you teachable? Or, do you mirror the attitude of a Laodicean thinking you have all knowledge and everyone else is wrong? Let’s examine the example of the Bereans.

Here we have a biblical account of the Jews in Thessolanica rejecting Paul and his assistants concerning the Word of God. Consequently, they are guided to Berea and encounter an entirely different approach to examining doctrine. Verse 11 shows how teachable these people were. They measured teachings against the Bible (Old Testament). They did not immediately swallow everything they were told, but neither did they discount Paul’s teachings outright as so many people do who believe the Jewish Calendar was inspired by God. I do believe we were taught to "prove all things."

There are a growing number of people who realize, after studying all aspects of the calendar issues, that we need to change. This is precisely what I had to do when I came into the truth. I had to examine the evidence and understand what the Holy Spirit was showing me. I discovered, much to my disliking, that trying to prove that Sunday as a day of worship had had replaced the Biblical Sabbath in God’s opinion was simply a "fool’s game." I reached the point that I had to actually change. Likewise, I discovered that Christmas and Easter were pagan festivals that had just adopted the concept of Christ as part of their religious experience. I had to change my thinking concerning holidays I had always observed. Just arbitrarily placing God’s approval and name in a pagan holiday or doctrine does not cut it. I worship a God of precision. How about you?

The hard, cold facts show that the Jewish Calendar merely is the product of Jewish, Rabbinical thinking long after the time of Christ and the original Apostles. If all of the evidence is examined, it can be shown that this calendar was not complete until 921 AD. Further, the rabbis are merely an extension of the dreaded Pharisees. To assume that they had much of anything correct from Christ’s perspective is really stretching your imagination. The Pharisees were heavily condemned for bending, changing biblical truth to accommodate their traditions (interpretations of scripture at the time).

Yes, I hated to swallow it, but the biblical facts and Jewish history showed that I had merely substituted one set of unbiblical festivals and papal authority for another equally pagan and unbiblical authority and festivals. These Jewish festivals closely resembled God’s festivals in name, but the way they are scheduled failed the biblical test. During the study I encountered such brash statements as "God nowhere reveals his calendar in the Bible." Balderdash! Under what authority and reasoning would anyone make such a statement? We are to live by every word of God. Does Christ lie? Would God tell you to do something and then not even leave a clue in his recorded word how to do it? Even Dr. Hoeh acknowledged as late as 1981 that the Bible actually has a lot to say about how to schedule the holy days.

Absolutely never is it biblical to not examine an issue. If I had followed this line of thinking, I would still be attending a local Baptist congregation. You should not automatically follow every wind of doctrine. You should give your religious affiliation the benefit of the doubt and study their ideas; but the ultimate test is the biblical test. Is the doctrine in question supported in the Bible? You are supposed to be sufficiently grounded in truth to properly discern error and hopefully not manipulate scripture to fit your bias. This is why the Bereans could be taught.

Another argument used is the appeal to unity and not to be divisive. I do not know how the laity could be more divided than they are right now. Where exactly, does the Bible condone a continuance in pagan doctrine for the sake of unity? If unity were a criteria we would all be back serving and paying tithes to Worldwide or even promoting a sunrise service in the local Baptist church, all the while knowing it was wrong but staying together for the sake of unity.

Just because the Jews claim their method of calculation for the calendar has been handed down orally from the time of Moses does not make it a fact. The actual history of the Jewish Calendar shows otherwise. I will make the statement right here that there is a correct method of scheduling holy days that God undoubtedly showed Moses. He undoubtedly also showed the same techniques to Adam, Seth, and even Noah. But, what God showed them is not the Jewish Calendar. As we progress through the study, I hope this becomes more clear.

It is very important to understand how we were taught about the Jewish Calendar in the early 80s. How we were taught and how the ministry understood the teaching were two different things. It was much easier to let dumb sheep just proceed with a false image of official church doctrine than it was to correct it. I have actually encountered ordained elders (not pastors) who do not realize that the Jewish Calendar has always been the standard used to schedule holy days in both the Radio Church of God and Worldwide Church of God. Hard as that may be to believe, there are those scattered individuals who attained the ordained rank of elder, but did not realize that use of the Jewish Calendar went back to the beginning. They perceive that use of this calendar just started somewhere in the late 60s when Dr. Hoeh wrote a couple of articles on the calendar and authority of the Jews. They never once took the time to really study the past history of the church or how its doctrines were formulated, and more importantly how they have been changed. This shows how thoroughly the history of the church and its development of doctrine has been obscured (intentionally I might add). Burying the past (history) is a known technique used to deceive nations and even religious organizations. You never hear older ministers and evangelists dwell on how the church had healing back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, because they realize we do not have this gift today.

In some of the earliest Bible studies designed to give us (the laity in general) information concerning how to determine Passover we were actually told that the Jews were following "God’s Sacred Calendar." It was explained that we were not under Jewish authority. The explanation was that the Jews just happened to accidentally get this doctrine right. They were doing things almost as well as we were. The difference was that our leaders had made a few changes based upon their superior understanding of the New Covenant and New Testament scripture. The primary example of course was that of Jesus keeping a different Passover date than the Jews. This is a perfect example of the absolute arrogance of the ministry toward the laity. The fact that these Jews kept a different Passover should have given someone a wakeup call. But no! These same ministers have the gall to explain that Jews have authority over the calendar and that we must do what they say when legitimate questions arise about the calendar today. This is technically called a "dodge." It is also an example of circular reasoning. If the Jews have authority over the calendar now, why do we not actually observe holy days as they do? This form of reasoning shows no form of consistency with calendar history or logic. This technique is also known as a "dismissing a topic." Does anyone remember the absurd example of Dr. Stavrinides and his famous bible studies with "nonquestions?" Can you remember the absolute arrogance of this scholar toward good questions that got right to the heart of the issues?

It was always explained to us in the 80s to go to the first New Moon after the Vernal Equinox and count 14 days to Passover Day. Now where did this idea come from? Any of us who have studied these issues know that there is a secret society of knowledge floating around. We now understand that the Jewish Calendar in fact does not even care about a Vernal Equinox. I was one who went through studies with three pastors and several elders and they all taught the same thing. They all misunderstood the same things.

These pastors and elders got this idea and information from somewhere, and it was the Ambassador Experience. That is because this is what they taught. This is the source of the teachings. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to understand this. All of us knew in the truth certainly did not come up with this idea. We had never heard of these issues, let alone care about them before. It was a gross misunderstanding of the facts, but nonetheless, this understanding had its origins at the beginning. This is an example of the blind leading the blind. This idea (going to the first New Moon after the Vernal Equinox) is actually factual and really is the true basis for determining which month starts the year, but was just a product of assuming the Jewish Calendar actually determined the first month this way in early church understanding?

As we proceed through this study you will see some rather amazing examples of poor reasoning. You will also see some glaring examples of generalization. Ambassador College had a special course to teach the Jewish Calendar and how it was calculated. This course evidently failed to include a complete history of exactly how this calendar model was developed and when it was developed from Jewish History. Either that, or they knowingly eliminated the true history. This course was developed because Mr. Armstrong taught that we needed to understand God’s calendar so we could accurately explain and understand many prophecies. Prophetic statements were thought of as instruments of precision in those days. Hence the need for a detailed calendar course. This is a very logical progression of reasoning. The only thing wrong was they developed a college course to cover the wrong calendar. The first edition of this course was prepared by John Kossey and edited by Herman Hoeh. By this time Dr. Hoeh most certainly knew exactly how the Jewish Calendar worked. He actually knew how this mathematical model worked in the 60s.

Much has been said over the years concerning the Jews and their accuracy with preserving scripture. Things have been attributed to them, like God using them in spite of themselves to faithfully copy scripture without changing things. The reality of the facts is that we do not have the original ancient Hebrew texts. The Jews have a proclivity for adding their own interpretations to scripture. It is called the Talmud, which show what the Jewish leaders were thinking at different points in history. Supposedly the Talmud contains oral tradition going back to Moses but in fact it just shows conflicting ideas. What the Jews thought from time to time may or may not agree with God’s Word. The church presented this as part of a "Faith Issue" in the late 60s. The reality is that what one set of Rabbis passed on to their students changed. A serious study of the Jews reliability will show they have tampered with the scriptures. This is a reality most of us will have to learn and face eventually. Let’s briefly examine one obvious example.

This is an example of how certain unfaithful scribes actually inserted their own ideas into the original text. Other examples of this are in Leviticus 23. Many people turn to Leviticus 23 to find examples of specific High Days, which are supposed to be more important and hence treated differently. Actually, it can be effectively argued that these translations represent tampering to justify the Jews postponement stance. The historical evidence establishes that God is not at all opposed to double Sabbaths.

Mr. Ben Whitfield occasionally does a Bible study showing how the Passover was corrupted as part of the history of the Old Testament. He shows how traditions changed the original instructions for Passover in Egypt to sacrificing one lamb for the entire nation. His study is excellent and totally accurate in my estimation. He further shows how this change is simply history and that God does not condone this practice. He just permits it. Again, a totally accurate analysis in my judgement.

Some Church of God ministers try to show that the Levites were at some time definitely authorized to sacrifice the Passover Lamb in place of a head of household observance at home often cite the scripture above (Deuteronomy 16. 1-8). Most of these ministers were trained in the Ambassador Experience so they should know better. It is just an example of leaders trying to build a biblical case to justify their bias. They often point out that people in the church do not totally realize that when the Levitical Priesthood was formed, certain changes (special knowledge is required outside the Bible) were made. They try to make the case that one of the first changes was making the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb a priestly function rather than a head of household function. This is just another example of changing the Biblical rules without proper authority. At the time of Christ, one pascal lamb was sacrificed for the entire nation but it was just a custom of the Jews, nothing more.

Religious leaders and scholars have an inborn need to justify themselves and establish their worth and the necessity of having them around. This is why such a mess was made changing doctrines. The example cited above is typical of the Jewish scholars and leaders just changing God’s laws to accommodate their traditions. What they should have done with these doctrines was to change their customs and traditions to accommodate God’s laws.

Usually the ploy in citing this scripture is to show how sharp the speaker is and his knowledge of the Bible. He is usually making some kind of case for not focusing on pure doctrine, but rather the need focus on just loving others. While love (godly love; agape love) is important I would submit that accuracy of doctrine defines the God we serve. Loving the True God precedes effectively loving your neighbor.

God’s true ministers trying to present truth will never focus on Deuteronomy 16: 1-8 to show how God changed laws at different times because they know this scripture represents tampering. Most will not bring it to your attention either. They will present it on a need to know basis because they are trained to keep you in the dark to some degree. In other words, the truth that some Jewish Scribes tampered with the Bible needs to be kept back so you will not loose faith. I believe Jesus said, ….."and the truth shall make your free."

If you look in Arthur Spier’s book, the source of most COG calendar information, you will see that the year 2003 (this year) of your Gregorian Calendar is categorized as the year 5763 from Creation. The only problem is that this famous calendar model has lost about 184 years of recorded history that can be detected. Most ministers were taught this at Ambassador College. They will actually laugh about how the Jews lost most of the history of the Persian Empire and its actual duration.

Am I missing something? Why would ministers who recognize this fact go to great extremes to claim that the Jews have preserved the correct calendar? Why would they try to justify the authority of the Jews concerning scheduling the holy days on some misguided faith argument? This year of creation is a fundamental part of the Jewish Calendar. It is a fundamental part of this special, privileged knowledge the Jews were supposed to have.

We need to do some basic mathematics at this point. If we add the 184 lost years of history to the Jews dating of creation we get 5947 years from creation.

If the Church of God ministers promoting the end of the United State really believe in this calendar, why are they always trying to scare more money out of the laity by proclaiming the immediate end of the world and need to know when to flee to the "Place of Safety?" There is really some misguided zeal working here or poor reasoning skills. If the traditional church position of God allocating Satan 6000 years to beguile mankind is accurate, we still have at least 53 years left before Christ comes back. If the Jews are right we still have 234 years left. I know these ministers constantly predict the downfall of the United States but the opposite is actually what is occurring.

Church of God leaders really need to get their act together. If a group of religious scholars can loose 184 years and still be called accurate by COG leaders, there simply needs to be change of leaders. That is precisely what God is doing. He is scattering the flock away from a corrupt leadership. See Ezekiel 34 for this explanation. In your wildest imagination, why would you look to the Jews for any reliable accuracy on the calendar if the loose 184 years?

It is quite well known that Jews do not keep the Jubilee anymore. That is simply because they have lost it in practical knowledge. They do not know or really care what year it should be. The Bible instructs the Israelites to begin the Jubilee Year on the Day of Atonement. This is the most important holy day to the Jewish Religion, yet they lost the knowledge of which year should be the Jubilee. The Karaites claim knowledge of which year it is but their track record concerning doctrine is pretty shaky. The Karaite reasoning, or rather their conglomerate of different ideas, is more mixed up than the Rabbis (see Richard Nickel’s great article "What do you mean "You"?).

What do you think of a group of religious scholars who claim authority, yet have lost the Jubilee which is supposed to start on their most holy day of the year? This is a typical example of what happens when people interject their own ideas into God’s Word. They stop keeping God’s way of life. Then they loose the proper doctrine and understanding of that doctrine. Likewise, the fruits of the last several decades in the Churches of God mirror what happens when a religion apostatizes.

It is no coincidence that keeping the improper method of scheduling God’s holy days has something to do with the modern problems in the Churches of God. For years a fundamental doctrine of the Worldwide Church of God and Radio Church of God was that if God showed you something to do and you refused to act upon revealed knowledge, then God’s blessings would be removed. Later in the study we will show how this works. In 1969 a great many problems occurred in the church. It is no coincidence that 1969 probably marks the year Mr. Armstrong became aware of how the Jewish Calendar actually works. From 1934 until 1974 the church grew at an unprecedented rate of 30%. Then suddenly, the blessings stopped and now the church is scattered, almost to the state of being irrelevant.

It appears there is a good chance that the Jews have lost the knowledge of the location of the Temple. They have lost the knowledge of the location of David’s tomb also. In 1969 a scholar at Ambassador College, Earnest Martin, led about a large number of people out of the Worldwide Church of God on the Sunday Pentecost issue. These people very quickly became scattered and returned to Protestantism as did Dr. Martin. Dr. Martin went on to publish a book locating the Temple down the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem’s water source. His theories concerning the need for water for the sacrificial system was prominent in developing his conclusions. His premise seems flawed to me. I personally believe that history will eventually show that the location of the Temple was on top of the Mount of Olives, just where everyone believes it was. This is because I find it very doubtful that God would inspire men to build the temple where there was a potential to contaminate Jerusalem’s water supply with the tremendous amounts of blood involved in the sacrificial system.

As few years ago Ben Whitfield gave a Bible study at the Jackson, Wyoming feast site showing the inside of the Dome of the Rock. It showed an impression cut out of the rock base that is presumably where the Ark was set. I am confident that history will verify this version of the Temple location over Dr. Martin’s theories.

Dr. Martin’s theories concerning the location of the Temple cannot be totally ignored as other scholars have came to similar conclusions. Dr. Martin is not an infallible source as may be evidenced by his studies showing Pentecost should be on Sunday. Most of his arguments were based upon wild theories showing that the Resurrection happened on Sunday. Indeed, the Systematic Theology Project embraced these theories and were the basis for Raymond McNair and Garner Ted Armstrong spearheading the effort to change the church’s observance of this festival. Once the theories concerning a Sunday Resurrection fall, the entire argument for a Sunday as a Pentecost date implodes. The 1974 change concerning the timing of the Resurrection has been missed by most people in the church.

At this point in the study we need to examine the very beginning of the Radio Church of God and how the authority of the Jewish Calendar became official doctrine. Mr. Armstrong came into contact with the Church of God 7^th Day in 1927. By 1931 he was ordained. He encountered the usage of the Jewish Calendar in regard to scheduling Passover. This group acknowledged no other holy days or New Moons. He was just like you and me coming into the truth. He had no reason to doubt the authority of the Jewish Calendar as a means of scheduling holy days. In his wildest imagination, the thought that the leaders might impose a nonbiblical system would not naturally enter his mind. Neither would this possibility enter ours if we were in his shoes.

The Church of God 7^th Day and Mr. Armstrong did not have Arthur Spier’s book available in 1940. Dr. Spier was in the process of immigrating to New York City to avoid persecution by the Nazis in 1940. His book would not become available for years. All they had readily available was The Farmer’s Almanac, The Word Almanac, and encyclopedias. They may have had access to a kosher calendar.

In 1940 a controversy arose concerning when to schedule Passover. One Brother Dodd had scheduled the Passover based upon figuring the New Moon closest to the Vernal Equinox. This placed Passover one month earlier than the Jewish Calendar had it scheduled.

This same situation arose in 2002 only in reverse. The Jewish Calendar had Passover scheduled based upon the New Moon nearest the Vernal Equinox. This configuration was definitely one month early as shown in the detailed study "The Real Calendar God Gave Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Issac, and Moses." What escaped Mr. Armstrong and others was the fact that the Jewish Calendar often schedules Passover exactly like Brother Dodd wanted to do. Raymond McNair and other scholars try to justify this as a special rule for special occasions. In 1940 Mr. Armstrong and his counselors would not accept this argument as a biblical argument. They were of course correct it is not a biblical argument today and it was not in 1940. If Mr. Armstrong had truly understood what the Jewish Calendar really was and how it operated I am certain he would have made the necessary changes to have the church assume its proper role in scheduling holy days for the people God called out of the world.

This 1940 Coworker Letter is included in the Appendix of this study for examination. Over the years very little was ever written about the calendar and even less after 1969 when questions arose concerning this system of scheduling holy days. Kenneth Herrmann and Dr. Hoeh were the only ones besides Mr. Armstrong to really address the topic of the calendar and they simply carried on a hypothesis he made concerning the authority of the Jews.

As stated in Part 11, the topic this 1940 letter addresses is when to insert the intercalary month. I quote from this letter, "5) Now, our problem is, WHEN, and HOW OFTEN, DID God ordain these intercalary months should be added?" This is the root of the issue. Earlier in this article Mr. Armstrong stated "many of the brethren are in doubt, and want the FACTS." Postponements are not an issue because Mr. Armstrong and others simply are not aware of these peculiarities. Mr. Armstrong is not trained in astronomy or higher mathematics. He is essentially a self-trained man. He never received a college degree for anything. This always bothered the scholars.

Many people will focus on this 1940 article in an attempt to introduce confusion into issues concerning when and how to schedule the Feast of Weeks (not the Feast of Sabbaths). They will point out a typo showing how there is doubt concerning the scheduling of this feast. They will try to prove that Mr. Armstrong kept a Tuesday appointment for the Feast of Weeks. This is not true. Diaries exist showing that as early as 1937 and 1939 Mr. Armstrong and his congregations observed only a Monday schedule for the Feast of Weeks. If you consider that he kept the holy days with Mrs. Armstrong 7 years by themselves you will see a remarkable understanding of scripture by the time the 1940 controversy arose. He was inspired to sort the facts and understand a proper scheduling of the holy days in 10 years from the first time (1927) he came into contact with the Sabbath issue.

The mistake of putting June 18 instead of June 17 is just what it seems. It is just a typo, nothing more. It is not proof of anything. Mr. Armstrong is just trying to say sunset to sunset and gets things tangled up. When translating God’s ideas into Gregorian Calendar lingo, that sometimes happens, even to people with doctorate degrees. If only his critics could measure up to what was accomplished through him in restoring doctrine.

Critics of the Jewish Calendar being chosen as the authority for scheduling holy days such as Frank Nelte always turn to this, the first writing in the church establishing doctrine in this sphere. The critics are quick to point out that Mr. Armstrong does not understand the Jewish Calendar and how it comes to its conclusions and they are right. They will point out that in item number 3 of this article that Mr. Armstrong wrote, "Pentecost ALWAYS came in the summer, Tabernacles ALWAYS in the Fall at time of, or right after, Fall harvest." These critics will jump on the fact that he says Pentecost always comes in the summer. What these critics fail to tell you is that in the minds of many of the ancient scholars, the seasons are spoken of as only SUMMER and WINTER. This is because there are only two equinox locations in the path of the earth around the sun. The locations of the two solstice points on the Ecliptic Plane are different points in astronomy. Charts and pictures are provided in the Appendix of this study showing the Ecliptic Plane.

We know from other church literature that Dr. Hoeh and others were definitely aware that the Feast of Weeks was seasonal in nature and never to fall in the summer. I have no doubt that the people helping Mr. Armstrong in 1940 had some of this figured out too.

Frank Nelte and others point out that all of the scriptures in the Bible pertaining to scheduling God’s festivals with the exception of Romans 3: 1-2 which was later used to justify how "Oracles of God " was interpreted are present in this 1940 article. Even though Mr. Armstrong mentions "Oracles of God" in the article he does not specifically cite scripture. This seems to indicate he does not place a lot of importance on what must have been Romans 3: 1-2 in resolving the problem at hand.

Notice the scriptures he cites in the article. He definitely went to the Bible first to see what it said about the scheduling of the holy days. He seems to show a definite bias toward the Jewish Calendar, as he should. He should not accept a change in doctrine haphazardly.

Notice that Mr. Armstrong lists all of the scriptures that apply except Genesis 1:14. If you examine this article thoroughly it becomes apparent that Mr. Armstrong tried to find every scripture pertaining to the topic. This is important in Bible study. In those days he was seeking truth diligently.

Note that Mr. Armstrong emphatically states that, "There is NO BIBLE AUTHORITY WHATSOEVER for figuring the 1st day of the 1st month from the new moon NEAREST the Spring equinox!" He is absolutely correct but he obviously does not understand that the Jewish Calendar, the system he thinks is correct does just this quite often. He absolutely knows that from scripture you never figure the New Moon nearest the Vernal Equinox. Mr. Armstrong and his helpers undoubtedly knew that Ezra adopted the Babylonian names to the calendar. They would have had to realized that the Babylonians always started their year from the first New Moon (visible crescent by their reckoning) after the Vernal Equinox. This information would have been quite common knowledge. Only historical evidence from written records of ancient Israel and how they done it is obscured from history.

Mark this well! Right here is the basis for the misunderstanding of believing that the Jews started their years like the Babylonians. There was no evidence showing that the calendar systems of Babylon and Judah were not compatible. They were. All of the calendar systems in this part of the world were lunar and came from the same source. This is the original thinking and assumptions leading to the teaching that I was to experience in the early 80s. After all those years, the original misconception was still believed by many to be correct while the church scholars had actually come to know differently. They knew by 1969 that the Jewish Calendar did not even pretend to schedule holy days using this criteria. Those of us in the laity who "proved all things" had to dig this out by ourselves. And it has been a long excavation. The idea was not to rock the boat, but to preserve the income base for doing a work. Somewhere protecting and teaching truth took a backseat.

Most of us know how Mr. Armstrong taught and warned against human reasoning. He taught that there was a cause for every effect. He was right. What he did not realize was that he fell victim to the same human reasoning he warned all of us about. After the extensive study he and other done, Mr. Armstrong realizes the Josephus and other historians only provide conflicting ideas regarding how the schedule God’s feasts. He can find no authority in the Bible on how and when to insert the intercalary month. It must be noted here that neither is there anything in the Bible giving the Jews this authority. God sets doctrine and schedules his feast days (see Richard Nickels fine article, What do you mean "You?").

So Mr. Armstrong makes the following generalizations:

Please notice the human reasoning and logic involved. He previously cited practically all of the scriptures relating to scheduling the holy days one can find in the Bible. He understands that God would not commit his method of scheduling holy days to profane history. He does not understand the mathematics of the Jewish Calendar. Mr. Armstrong does not realize that the Jews have not preserved God’s method of scheduling holy days. What they have done is devise their own method based upon the logic of the rabbis over several centuries after the time of Christ.

Mr. Armstrong makes the correct decision. He really has no other options at this point. He thinks the Jewish Calendar is going to the first New Moon after the Vernal Equinox. I have before me Arthur Spier’s book and it shows in 1940 that is precisely what the Jewish Calendar system does. What Mr. Armstrong does not realize is, that in 1940 the Jewish Calendar Model only appears to be doing what he expects. It is just a fluke of the mathematical model and its cycles at that point in time.

In closing this part of the study I will say that given the information at hand Mr. Armstrong made the right decision. He made an obvious error in relying upon HUMAN REASONING and this error set the stage to undermine the entire church. Mark this well! This reasoning was used by Satan to destroy and change a lot of original doctrines starting in the late 1960s. A little leaven truly leavens the whole lump. Right here was the beginning of the approach to doctrine, which has caused the disintegration of the entire church structure. I hope to show this to you as the study progresses.

In the beginning, Mr. Armstrong fell victim to the very thing he preached against, HUMAN REASONING. This by itself is not the most crucial thing. What I hope to show later in this study is how failing to change, to correct wrong thinking and get in line with the Bible as the sole authority will destroy everything. Right here is the SPIRITUAL TERMITE that undermined the entire structure and that termite stands identified as HUMAN REASONING.

The next important article concerning the calendar was written by Kenneth Herrmann in 1953. He arrives at the same conclusion regarding the authority of the Jews concerning this calendar as Mr. Armstrong did in 1940. Kenneth Herrmann does add a few scriptures not used in the 1940 article.

Kenneth Herrmann adds Genesis 1:14 to the scriptures used to show what the Bible has to say about scheduling the holy days. He adds Exodus 12: 2 to show that without exception, the Bible starts the year in the Spring. Kenneth Herrmann is still using the same human reasoning Mr. Armstrong used in 1940 but he expands on the biblical requirements from the Bible for the calendar by adding Genesis 1:14 and Exodus 12:2. He also adds Romans 3:1-2 as the first actual reference to what the church was interpreting "Oracles of God" to mean. Otherwise there are no changes.

What I intend to do next is look at some parts of this article and examine the premise Kenneth Herrmann is working on. The following excerpts were also included in his 1957 article.

Kenneth Herrmann is obviously under the misconceptions that the Jewish calendar attempts to achieve FIRST VISIBILITY of the New Moon crescent! All calculations of the Jewish calendar are based on establishing THE INVISIBLE CONJUNCTION, "the molad." Further this molad is not the invisible conjunction but rather a mean average of the actual conjunctions. Visibility never enters into any considerations one way or the other with the Jewish Calendar model. \

Further, Kenneth Herrmann apparently believes the molad calculations in the Jewish Calendar model arrive at the true new moon conjunctions. They do not. The molad calculations can be 15 hours in error, at Jerusalem. The 15 hour error causes the actual New Moon to be visible before the Jewish calendar model begins a month.

What Kenneth Herrmann is talking about here the earliest year for all the Feasts and the

latest year for all the Feasts in every 19-year cycle. Year #9 is the earliest year Year #17 is the latest year in the Jewish Calendar model. There are either 8 years or 11

years between these extremes. Kenneth Herrmanns understanding is flawed.

In actual practice in the Jewish calendar Passover is scheduled to be on:

Listed below are the scriptures cited in this article:

Genesis 1:14 = use sun and moon for the calendar

Leviticus 23:27-32 = days go from sunset to sunset

Exodus 12:2 = year to start in the spring

Numbers 28:11 and 1.Chronicles 23:31 = months start at the new moons

Leviticus 23:4 = feasts in their seasons

Exodus 13:10 = in its season

Exodus 23:14-17 = feasts in their seasons

Deuteronomy 16:9-16 = feasts in their seasons

Numbers 28:2 = offer in their seasons

Acts 7:38 = lively oracles

Romans 3:1,2 = oracles of God