Part
7:
Proverbs 16:
end thereof are the ways of
death.
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 7th 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
7th 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 mathematical model.
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 approach. It has no
scriptural basis except to show that one is most probably a Laodicean (one who
thinks he has all knowledge).
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 analyze the example of the Bereans.
10 And the brethren
immediately sent away Paul and Silas by
night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the
synagogue of the Jews.
11 These were more
noble than those in Thessalonica, in
that they received the word with all
readiness of mind, and
searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
12 Therefore many of
them believed; also of honourable
women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.
13 But when the Jews
of Thessalonica had knowledge that
the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came
thither also, and stirred up the people.
14 And then
immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go
as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timothy stayed.
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
that God inspired the Jewish Calendar. 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 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,
what characteristics define the deity you worship?
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 and when they are
scheduled fails 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. It was just that the
church did not follow the Bible in scheduling holy days.
The church had chosen to follow human tradition.
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
the 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 some of
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 clear.
God is the creator of the universe and deals in reality, not fiction.
Part
8:
It is very important to
understand how we were taught about the Jewish Calendar in the early 80s.
How we were taught and how some of the ministry understood the reality of
the calendar model 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 of the Radio Church of God.
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. These people 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).
These elders were so busy leading and preaching that they never even
thoroughly understood the doctrines they were actually supporting.
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 “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 new in the truth certainly did not come up with this idea.
We had never heard of these issues, let alone care about them before.
We were just like the Colossians. 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, and 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
according to 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.
He would have had to have realized the technical problems the Jewish
Calendar has in light of what the Bible says concerning scheduling holy days.
Part
9:
Loss #1:
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.
These teaching are itemized in a collection of teachings 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 the Jewish Calendar as fa “Faith Issue” in the
late 60s when serious questions were arising concerning the calendar.
The reality is that what one set of rabbis passed on to their students
changed from generation to generation. 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.
Deuteronomy
16:
1 Observe the month of
Abib, and keep the passover unto
the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy
God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.
2 Thou shalt therefore
sacrifice the passover unto the LORD
thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the
LORD shall choose to place his name there.
3 Thou shalt eat no
leavened bread with it; seven days shalt
thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of
affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in
haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest
forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.
4 And there shall be
no leavened bread seen with thee in all
thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the
flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all
night until the morning.
5 Thou mayest not
sacrifice the passover within any of
thy
gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee:
6 But at the place
which the LORD thy God shall choose to
place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover
at
even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou
camest forth out of Egypt.
7 And thou shalt roast
and eat it in the place which the
LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the
morning, and go unto thy tents.
8 Six days thou shalt
eat unleavened bread: and on the
seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God:
thou shalt do no work therein.
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 the Jews were not at all opposed
to double Sabbaths until long after the time of Christ.
Mr. Ben Whitfield
occasionally conducts 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 part of the
recorded history of the Bible and that God does not condone this practice.
He just permitted it.
Some Church of God
ministers trying 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 this was just
a custom of the Jews, nothing more. The
Jews had corrupted many biblical doctrines by that time.
God’s presence and guidance had been absent for a long time.
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 has been made changing doctrines in the Church of God.
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.
What the church should have done is continue to try to live by every word
of God rather than align their doctrines with the Jews.
God
has a lot to say about scholars:
Romans 1
18 For the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth
in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which
may be known of God is manifest in
them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they
are without excuse:
21 Because that, when
they knew God, they glorified him not
as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish
heart was darkened.
22 Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and
fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also
gave them up to uncleanness
through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own
bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the
truth of God into a lie, and worshipped
and served the creature more than the Creator, who is
blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God
gave them up unto vile affections: for
even their women did change the natural use into that which is
against nature:
27 And likewise also
the men, leaving the natural use of the
woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with
men working that which is unseemly, and
receiving in
themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they
did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do
those things which are not convenient
(postponements);
29 Being filled with
all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy,
murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters
of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without
understanding, covenantbreakers, without
natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the
judgment of God, that they which
commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the
same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Usually the ploy in
citing Deuteronomy 16: 1-8 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 to
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 comes before 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.”
Loss #2
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. 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.
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?
Why would these pastors continue to defend a position that is simply not
defendable from the record of history, namely that the Jewish Calendar is not a
product of the Jews, hundreds of years after the time of Christ. Identifying the 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. Yet, they lost a significant
amount of history.
We need to perform 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 to fiscal 2003.
5763
+ 184 = 5947 years from creation
If the Church of God
ministers promoting the end of the United States 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?
There is really some misguided zeal working here or poor reasoning skills. If
the traditional church of God position 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. The
United States just keeps getting stronger.
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 they can loose 184 years of history?
Loss #3
Losing the Jubilee
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 the Jubilee 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 really shaky. The
Karaite reasoning, or rather their conglomerate of different ideas is more mixed
up than ideas of the rabbis (see Richard Nickel’s great article, What
do you mean “You”?).
What do you think of a
group of religious scholars (rabbis), 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.
Starting in the 60s, the church has been led from one heresy to the next.
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 that 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 surfaced 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.
Loss #4
The
Loss of the Temple Location
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 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
were 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.
A 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 they 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
Sunday as a Feast of Weeks date implodes. The
official 1974 change concerning the timing of the Resurrection has been missed
by most people in the church. This
is because Mr. Armstrong did not fully understand that his helpers had assisted
him by officially changing this doctrine. He
continued to preach, publish, and teach a public message showing the
Resurrection was on Saturday.
Part
10:
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 7th Day
in 1927. By 1931 he was ordained.
He encountered the usage of the Jewish Calendar in regard to scheduling
Passover. The Church of God 7th
Day acknowledged no other holy days or New Moons. Mr. Armstrong 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 an unbiblical
system would not naturally enter his mind.
Neither would this possibility enter our mind if we were in his shoes.
The Church of God 7th
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 “Return
to Gilliagan’s island --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 in 1940.
The Jewish Calendar model does not care about Equinoxes or First
Visibility or Jerusalem Time. Only
when the months were intercalated and scheduled based upon the reality of
observation, were equinoxes (a biblical requirement) ever criteria for
scheduling holy days. Raymond
McNair and other scholars try to justify this (going to the New Moon nearest the
Vernal Equinox on certain years) 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. Beginning the year
with the New Moon nearest the Vernal Equinox is not
a factual 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.
He would have devised a system based upon God’s reality of creation,
rather than Jewish reasoning. The
church would have been taking responsibility for scheduling their own appointed
times with God based upon the Bible, just as the Colossians did.
This 1940 Good News
article 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.
Part
11:
The
Topic the 1940 Good News Article Addresses
As stated in Part 10,
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 of the Jewish Calendar.
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 scheduled 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 that he had a remarkable understanding of scripture by
the time the 1940 calendar 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.
Part
12:
The
Critic’s Corner
Critics of the Jewish
Calendar being chosen as the authority for scheduling holy days such as Frank
Nelte, always turn to the 1940 article, 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 was never to fall in the summer.
I have no doubt that the people advising Mr. Armstrong in 1940 had some
of this figured out too.
All of the scriptures
in the Bible pertaining to scheduling God’s festivals with the exception of
Genesis 1: 14 and Romans 3: 1-2 which was later used in a special interpretation
of what “Oracles of God “
means, 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 oracles means in
resolving the problem at hand (when to insert the intercalary month).
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.
Leviticus
23:10-14 = the wave-sheaf
Leviticus
23:39 = Feast of Tabernacles
Exodus
23:14-17 = feasts in their seasons
Exodus
34:18, 22-23 = Feast of Tabernacles at the TEKUFAH of the year
Deuteronomy
16:9, 13, 16 = 3 feasts in their seasons
Leviticus
23:4 = feasts in their seasons
Numbers
28:2 = offer in their seasons
Exodus
13:10 = in its season
1
Chron. 12:32 = men of Issachar for the calendar
Esther 1:13 = men who "knew the times" in the Persian Empire
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 of how to schedule the appointed times. This is important in Bible study. In those days he was seeking truth diligently. Notice that he did not come to his final decision alone. The verdict was the result of a consensus. Mr. Armstrong did not pretend to be a calendar authority when this study began or when it was over and a final decision had been made.
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 (Jewish Calendar) does this
quite often. He absolutely
knows that from scripture you never figure from 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 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 began
the month 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 “prove all things” had to dig this out by ourselves one piece at a time.
And it has been a long excavation. The
idea of the leadership was not to rock the boat, but to preserve the income base
for doing a work. Somewhere,
protecting and teaching truth took a backseat.
Somewhere, the church woke up one morning without
the gift of healing, just as Judah woke up one morning and discovered the
presence of God was gone from the Temple.
Part
13:
Human
Reasoning
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 others done concerning the calendar in 1940, Mr. Armstrong realized that
Josephus and other historians only provide conflicting ideas regarding how to
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 all doctrine and schedules his feast days (see Richard Nickels
fine article, What do you mean “You?”).
So
Mr. Armstrong made the following generalizations:
“In
conclusion, unless God has preserved His sacred calendar thru the Jew, then WE
DO NOT KNOW how to figure Passover or ANY of the holydays this year. For there
is NO AUTHORITY for any other day.”
. “God did not commit His oracles, or the preservation of His TIMES to profane history, or to the Roman Catholics, but to the Israelites. And they have been preserved BY THE JEWS.”
“The
Catholics are the ones who have thought to CHANGE the Times. They say the
paschal new moon this year is the one BEFORE March 21st, and figure Easter
accordingly. The Jews say it is the one AFTER March 21st.”
“After
thorough study of the Bible, of the Hebrew calendar, of history, and every
angle,--after going into the matter with all the Eugene brethren, and other
brethren who have made a special study of this question, we have unanimously
agreed that the Hebrew calendar has been preserved correct by the Jews.”
Please
notice the human reasoning and logic involved.
He previously cited practically all of the scriptures relating to
scheduling the holy days that 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 that in 1940 this was precisely
what the Jewish Calendar system appeared
to do. What Mr. Armstrong does not
realize is, that in 1940 the Jewish Calendar Model only appeared to be doing
what he expects. It is just a fluke
of this 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. 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 if the truth is revealed to you.
Right here is the SPIRITUAL
TERMITE that undermined the entire church structure and that termite stands
identified as the HUMAN REASONING of
church leaders submitting to Jewish reasoning.
Part
14:
Church
History on the Jewish Calendar
This
part of the study is quite lengthy. It
will detail prominent writings of the church over the yeasr concerning the
calendar and document the progressive understanding that the Jewish Calendar has
a lot of technical flaws. The
articles are cited to show that despite obvious, unbiblical technicalities, that
the Jewish Calendar was retained as the official means of scheduling God’s
appointed times. These articles
document the movement of the church leaders to accept the authority of the Jews
and align the church with Jewish reasoning.
The Bible had ceased to be the authority for all doctrine.
Kenneth Herrmann’s March 1953
Good News Article
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.
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 Chron. 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
Deut.
16:9-16 = feasts in their seasons
Numbers
28:2 = offer in their seasons
1
Chron. 12:32 = men of Issachar for the calendar
Romans
3:1,2 = oracles of God
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.
On page 8, also column I, the article states: "God's months begin with the new moon. However, these months may seem to begin a day or so following the actual new moon because of special considerations. The observation of the new moon is to be made from Jerusalem, not from the North American continent. The seven to ten hours difference in time between Jerusalem and the part of the country (i.e. United States) you live in will make actual observation of the new moon from America misleading."
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 a mean
average conjunction (the molad), not THE ACTUAL INVISIBLE CONJUNCTION.
Visibility never enters into any mathematical considerations one way or
the other with the Jewish Calendar model.
Further, Kenneth
Herrmann apparently believes the molad calculations of 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 can cause the actual new crescent to be visible before the Jewish
calendar model even begins a month. The
New Moon of March 2003 is an example of this.
On page 8, top of column II, the article states: "Passover varies from about March 26th to April 22nd over a ten-year period
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:
April
23rd in 2005
March
25th in 2013
Therefore the range for
Passover dates in the Jewish Calendar model are 3 days longer than Kenneth
Herrmann states in this article. The
range is thus clearly a full 30 days and not only 27 days as the 1953 article
implies. Incidentally, 2005 marks
another year like 2001 when the churches of god schedule their Pentecost based upon an incorrect understanding Joshua
5:10-12. Also, 2013 marks the
earliest year in the range for scheduling Passover and throws the fall festivals
into the summer.
On page 8 in column II,
the article Kenneth Herrmann writes:
"Thus we have established… the yearly cycle beginning in the spring with the first day of the month in which the early harvest would take place. The day, month and year are easy to follow by watching the sun in its daily path, the moon in its phases, and the seasons as they progress. The signs in the heavens were intended for this purpose." (Also quoted in the February 1957 GOOD NEWS article, Kenneth Herrmann's own emphasis).
Doesn’t Kenneth
Herrman say it beautifully? How
could you improve on the way he describes the yearly cycle? He has knowledge of the sciences. Once more Kenneth Herrmann correctly states that the yearly
cycle begins in the Spring! However,
the Jewish Calendar does not do this all of the time. Six years out of every Nineteen, the Jewish Calendar starts
the year in the winter. This is
precisely what Mr. Armstrong criticizes Brother Dodd for in 1940.
Kenneth
Herrmanns February 1957 Good News Article
WHICH IS THE CALENDAR CHRIST USED
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
This is basically a
rerun of his 1953 articles. Many
passages are quoted exactly as mentioned in the previous analysis of the 1953
article. One notable exception is
that Kenneth Herrmann does not reference "the men of Issachar" or
Persia as being the calendar gurus. He evidently realizes at this point that
there is a conflict concerning this biblical idea with what the church is
actually teaching.
The church was teaching
that Leviticus 23 shows how certain authority was given to the Levites.
Hence, that authority passes to the leaders of this church age and they
understand that "the oracles of God" were the specialty of the
priesthood and/or the tribe of Judah. Naturally
they had to extend this privilege to Judah because at the time of Christ the
priesthood was overrun with “shanty” Levites.
Herod sold genealogies and politics corrupted the priesthood.
Rich Nickels has a tremendous article exposing the error of assuming
Leviticus 23 gives any special authority to the priesthood concerning the
calendar. His article is called, What do you mean “You?” This
study clearly shows how wanna-be leaders will go to any extreme to bend
scripture to give themselves authority. Also,
teaching that Levites in general were given special authority is a real stretch
of scripture. Generalization
is a product of the human reasoning that has proven to be a spiritual termite in
the Church of God.
Also
Kenneth Herrmann has added Acts 7:38 with reference to "the lively
oracles." Otherwise the article generally shows that Kenneth Herrman
still thinks, or at least teaches the idea that the Jewish Calendar meets the
scriptural requirements for scheduling God’s holy days.
Kenneth
Herrmanns October 1957 Good News Article
Prove God's Calendar Correct
This specific Good
News article was aimed at addressing a specific problem. That problem was:
1) In the first Good
News article of 1957, Kenneth Herrmann had stated that the start of each
month is based on the appearance of the first faint crescent of the new moon in
the western sky. This is not
factual. The Jewish calendar never claims to achieve first visibility of the new
crescent; it is only concerned with "the molad," the mean average,
invisible, new moon conjunction. The
reality of the creation is not a concern with the Jewish Calendar model.
2) Since his previous
article was published in 1957, some Church members had noticed that they could
see the first faint crescent of the new moon one, and sometimes two days earlier
than the dates published by the Church. Naturally they wrote with questions to Pasadena.
An accurate educational picture of the Jewish Calendar model was
developing within the church.
3) In response to those
questions--to explain this obvious contradiction of facts--Kenneth Herrmann
wrote this present article. In this
article he mentions several things that were not featured in his previous
article in 1957, which was published twice under different titles.
On page 5 in column I, the opening sentence states:
"Almanac dates for the new moon sometimes disagree with those on the Sacred Calendar."
This is Kenneth
Herrmann's purpose statement for this entire article.
He is going to explain why the start of each month in the Jewish calendar
(which he calls "the
Sacred Calendar,"
a title the Jews themselves have never at any stage claimed) frequently differs
from the "new moon dates" that are commonly published in calendars and
in almanacs. Kenneth Herrmann will
explain why God expects the church to enter chaos and ignore the reality of his
creation. He will explain why Moses
deliberately led the Israel in a state of confusion, despite clear biblical
statements otherwise, for 40 years and had them by blind faith accept a New Moon
which was up to two days different from the New Moon of reality (actually he
fails to make these things clear).
For the purposes of
this article I will deal with only several of the many obvious flaws in thinking
the church has developed at this point. By
1957 the scholars in the church had bought the lie 100% and were producing the
fruits of accepting false doctrine. This
false doctrine concerns what the oracles of god are.
The church leaders are defending a battery of false doctrines and
reasoning. The original precept
that the “jews must have secret knowledge” has become mature at this point,
systematically leading to the concept that the church must submit to the
authority of the Jews when something is not made crystal clear in the New
Testament. Yes, bizarre
as this is, I have had three pastor rank ministers and other elders explain that
this understanding is fundamental to properly discern scripture.
It is no wonder that the church has been spewed out of God’s mouth.
On page 5 in column I
the article states:
"One
member will look for the first faint crescent of the new moon in our western sky
and actually see this 'new moon' a day or two ahead of the date divinely
appointed as indicated on our Sacred
Calendar.…Are these individuals justified in being skeptical of our work
in publishing this calendar? Or have they failed to read the instructions that
go with it?"
First, Kenneth Hermann
uses a literary technique designed to silence opposition.
No proof has ever been made that the church is scheduling appointed times
from divine instruction (it is not, it ignores biblical guidelines) or that
their calendar (Jewish Calendar) is sacred in any way.
The crux of the argument is to muster blind faith and assume that God
really does not care about accurately scheduling the holy days or any kind of
harmony in his creation. This is
indeed a strange approach from a professor of the sciences.
On page 5 in column I
the article states:
"The
Bereans…searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so."
This is precisely what
many of us are also doing-- searching THE SCRIPTURES for proof that the Jewish
Calendar is divinely inspired. We
have been searching for a long time for some proof that this mathematical model
supports biblical instructions for scheduling the holy days.
Why were the Bereans
not instructed to search "THE ORACLES OF GOD" as well as scripture?
Why were they limited to searching ONLY "the Scriptures"?--if
the "oracles of God" are supposedly some additional extra-biblical
inspired information? Would someone on earth, anyone please, FIND a copy of "the oracles of God," and send us a copy so
we can lay this problem to rest?
Now lets examine the next quotation I have chosen for this study from the 1957 article in question. In reference to Romans 3:1-2 and "the oracles of God". On page 5 in column I, the article states:
"These (“the oracles of God”) must be our final authority in the problem with regard to new moon dates."
This is the crux of the
whole calendar question. We are
expected to ignore reality. We must
ignore when the REAL new moons take place.
Our authority simply has be the new moon dates revealed by "the
oracles of God." So the
"oracles of God" supposedly reveal "new moon dates."
On page 5 at the top of column II, the article then asks the question:
"Is the Jewish calendar such an oracle?"
The answer his article
will provide is a foregone conclusion. Everything
hinges on accepting this premise Without the claim that the Jewish Calendar is indeed such an
oracle, ALL SUPPORT FOR THE JEWISH CALENDAR Will COLLAPSE!
Everything depends on this one premise.
Kenneth Herrmann then
goes on in his article assuming that
the present Jewish Calendar goes back to Moses, which it certainly does not.
If this calendar model goes back to the time of Moses, we would
today be keeping the Feasts after the wrong new moons.
Without going into the complexities of the Jewish Calendar model, let’s
just examine the opinion of an acknowledged expert.
If you will not believe me, and you should not, without proof, would you
believe Arthur Spier? My wife is a
professional schoolteacher and her single biggest problem is teaching people to
read and correctly comprehend what they are reading.
Maybe she should have taught the scholars in the Churches of God?
On page 227 Arthur
Spier writes: "From the two tables following, it is evident that the
advance of Nisan towards May, at a rate of 4 days in a thousand years, has postponed Pesah
(i.e. the Passover) already in the 8th and 19th year of the cycle more
than a month from the astronomical spring equinox."
This quote from Arthur Spier's work shows that you simply cannot take the
present Jewish Calendar back to the time of Moses without shifting the Feasts
into different seasons. So, Kenneth
Herrmann's assumption that the present Jewish calendar does go back to Moses
runs into serious problems. Once
you start down the path of a wrong premise and then seek to justify a doctrine
apart from the Bible, serious complications arise.
TRUTH can be camouflaged temporarily but never permanently hidden.
TRUTH is still TRUTH and no amount of tinkering can make UNTRUTH into
TRUTH. A rotten hole just gets
bigger and deeper.
On page 5 in column II, the article states:
"The knowledge of the inner working of the Calendar was retained by God's appointed physical priesthood until the year 360 A.D.. In that year the Jewish leaders published the information for all to know, so the broken and scattered Jewish nation (and Christians as well) would be able to continue the observance of God's Feast Days in accordance with the new moons as calculated from Jerusalem."
All of the premises
made in this quote are simply not true.
1) In his previous
article Kenneth Herrmann had already spelled out very clearly ALL
of the requirements for a correct calendar, all of which are found in the Bible.
There was no need for any "inner workings," which GOD would
somehow keep secret from His people in general and only reveal to some
"initiated" group.
2) God clearly spelled
out all the duties of the priests in
the Bible’s book of Holliness! The
Book of Leviticus spells out very clearly, for everyone in the nation to know,
exactly what duties the priests were expected to perform and how they were to
perform these duties. Nowhere does anything imply God gave the priests some
"additional duties," the details of which God simply wasn't going to
let the people in general know about. God’s
way of life included participation by everyone.
His religious feasts were not priest ordained, but people ordained.
Read Richard Nickels very fine article “What
do you mean “You?” for a complete explanation of how this system of
participation worked. There were
specific orders of the priesthood. The
Order of Aaron was the highest. When
you approach anything from a standpoint of priestly duty, one must always be
specific because of the different orders.
3) Furthermore, if the
people only had the knowledge that every month should start with the new moon,
but the priests had some additional "inside information" about
"POSTPONING"
the start of the month by one or by two days under certain circumstances, this
would have created a lot of confusion for a people who clearly saw every new
moon for 40 years that they wandered in the wilderness.
How would they possibly have reconciled "postponements" with
what they could so clearly see in the desert sky immediately after sunset--every
single new moon crescent for 40 years? This
is just another sad argument in this unfolding saga.
Every group of scholars and priests needs to develop a fraternity of
secret knowledge to justify their existence.
That is why Jesus Christ is the only high priest today.
Mystery Religion is not God’s Way.
4) Another
contradiction is as follows: the priests were all of the tribe of Levi, and more
specifically, of the family of Aaron. But
in his earlier article (Good News March 1953, page 9) Kenneth Herrmann had
claimed that the men of the tribe of ISSACHAR specialized in the field of
astronomy (referring to 1 Chronicles12:32), and that THEIR decisions were
accepted by the nation. The men of
Issachar were NOT
"Levites." By now this
earlier and incidentally, biblical statement has been scrapped.
In all of the Bible, only the men of Issachar are implied to have known
anything about calculating the seasons and “times.”
As shown in our article, Return to
Gilligan’s Island --The Real Calendar God Gave Adam, Seth, ……,
the ability to schedule the New Moons is not really very difficult.
It was well within the ability of anyone, even what we would call grade
school children today. Other Israelites most certainly could calculate times.
It is just that 1 Chronicles 12:32 Is the only biblical reference to
specific tribes with this ability in Israel.
To claim that "the
inner working of the calendar was retained by the priesthood" CONTRADICTS
the earlier claim that the men of Issachar were the real specialists when it
came to the calendar. If the men of
Issachar had access to these "INNER WORKINGS," then it certainly was
not restricted to "the priesthood," and then there is no reason why it
should not have been accessible to the entire nation.
5) Kenneth Herrmann
does not seem to be aware of the fact that "the priesthood" was simply
no longer around in 360 A.D.! The
priests ceased to have any influence in the religious arena before the end of
the 1st century A.D.. Only non-levitical Pharisees were in the power circle, of which Hillel II
was one. Never in the Bible do you
find the high priesthood extending to anyone except those from the Order of
Aaron. This flawed reasoning, which
Raymond McNair and others use to claim special authority and knowledge, simply
is a perversion of biblical fact. Whatever
authority they claim does not come from the general tribe of Levi.
Generalization is a dangerous and perverted way to approach
scripture. More on this habit as it
developed from the original Spiritual Termite will be shown later.
I will close the
discussion of this article here. This
article is totally without any merit. Kenneth
Herrmann is simply not aware of how the Jewish Calendar model works.
He works under a deluge of false premises.
The church is under attack for a unscriptural stance concerning their
calendar used to schedule the appointed times.
Blind faith is not a quality God is searching for.
There are so many flaws and holes in Kenneth Herrmann’s arguments it
would take a lengthy article to deal with all of them.
At this point in time the church leadership is kind of like the
scriptures in Ezekiel, chapters 8, 9. And 10.
These scriptures detail how the presence of God left the second temple.
An aspect of God’s presence (the gift of healing) is preparing to flee
at this point in time from a rapidly degenerating leadership of the church in
1957. The original false human
reasoning is expanding as the church aligns with Jewish Ideas more and more on
into 1969 and eventually 1974.
Kenneth
Herrmanns Article of 1974
GOD'S SACRED CALENDAR
This article is
basically a reprint of his 1953/1957 articles except for the omission of almost
all of the scriptural requirements for a correct calendar.
By now the issue is strictly a faith issue.
The church has no answer for the real issues, so the problem has been
reduced to a faith issue, and a blind
faith issue at that. The church
is in the midst of a massive doctrinal change at this point.
Raymond McNair, Garner Ted Armstrong, and others have launched an all out
rebellion concerning traditional doctrine and succeed in getting Mr. Armstrong
to change the date for the Feast of Weeks and other doctrines during a staged
coup. This is truly the most
hideous time ever for God’s Church. The
doctrine of the Resurrection being on Saturday is changed to Sunday along with
other unbiblical and massive changes.
Genesis
1:14 = use sun and moon for the calendar
Exodus
12:2 = year to start in the spring
Numbers
28:11 and 1.Chron. 23:31 = months start at the new moons
There has to be clearly
a reason Kenneth Herrmann edited out all of his scriptural references to
biblical requirements for a correct calendar before having his original article
turned into a reprint article. The
reason is probably linked to "the 1968 letter from Kenneth Herrmann,"
which John Ritenbaugh has in his possession, and to which he referred and quoted
from in his January 1, 2000 calendar sermon. This letter shows that by 1968 the church leaders knew about
the problems with the Jewish Calendar. Kenneth
Hermann changes from a biblical and servant oriented approach to a totally
deceitful approach to a sincere line of questioning concerning the calendar.
Mr. Armstrong had to have known the facts by this time.
Also, at this time Dr. Earnest Martin was preparing to lead off thousands
of members and return them to Protestantism in 1969.
The church is trying to avoid doctrinal controversy at any cost.
There is a problem with this line of reasoning.
It reflects the inroads the spiritual termites have made.
Truth has somehow been
replaced by human reasoning and a need to keep “the work” going.
The Bible has a
different perspective. When God
shows or reveals something, action is expected.
The result of noncompliance is destruction. What we see going on within the ranks of the leadership of
the church is simply a question of PRIDE.
Yes, the original sin once again rears its ugly head.
PRIDE is the first
thing that can keep you out of the Kingdom of God.
Humility is what is required,
but NO! The leaders simply refuse
to face facts. If Raymond McNair
and Garner Ted had spent one-tenth the time examining the real issues and facts
of the Jewish Calendar and correcting that error, they would not have needed to
develop a false system of arguments to change how the church scheduled the Feast
of Weeks. Failure to acknowledge
and do something about the Jewish Calendar model as a means of scheduling holy
days is the single largest doctrinal issue that kept the church from reaching
its full potential before 1968. Indeed,
it caused the destruction of the entire tabernacle. This will become clear as the study progresses.
When PRIDE
is the source of management direction, contention naturally results.
The next step when unrepented of, is destruction.
If this does not accurately describe the Exodus of the church since 1967,
the death of Mrs. Armstrong, I do not know what does.
In the late 60s the church had reached its zenith.
Yes, one of those precious gifts was the Gift of Healing.
This gift vanished in 1968 or 1969.
Dr. Meredith is one who knows this and looks to this time frame when
admonishing his flock to pray for this gift to be restored to him and his
ministry.
Does anybody remember
Mr. Armstrong’s example of the failure to change when showed truth in Mystery
of The Ages? Mr. Armstrong
had to enlist the aid of a Pentecostal man (apparently unordained) to pray for
Mrs. Armstrong. Mrs. Armstrong was
healed as a result of this man’s prayers and Mr. Armstrong learned a lot about
how to approach God for healing. Later,
Mr. Armstrong showed this man biblical truths concerning the Sabbath.
This Pentecostal man refused to change and guess what?
Why, the spiritual Gift of Healing was removed from him, and quite
quickly. Mr. Armstrong knew why this gift had been removed, yet Mr.
Armstrong experienced this same phenomenon around 1968.
It appears to me that his failure to confront
the truth of the calendar issue was the reason for the Gift of Healing, that
most precious and significant Gift of the Spirit being removed from him.
God is truly not a respecter of persons.
It just seems like
important leaders in God’s church and nation tend to really mess up when they
get old. The biblical record is
quite clear on this. Take for
example Josiah and how his failure to heed a message from God concerning the
Egyptians resulted in his death in battle.
Take the example of Zedekiah asking for revelation from God and getting
it during the siege of Jerusalem. As
a result of failing to heed God’s revelation through Jeremiah, Zedekiah had to
watch his sons killed before him, be blinded and taken to captivity.
How about Hezekiah and his failures.
And yes, how about Herbert W. Armstrong. It is pretty well known that in his old age, he departed for
awhile, from significant parts of
the truth he once taught. Leaders
can be doing quite well and then suddenly, go completely off the track and loose
out.
This principle was well
known to Mr. Armstrong, yet he allowed the church
tares and other worldly pursuits to get the best of him.
He failed the test when needed change was shown to him.
He actually allowed solid doctrine to be changed, but ignored the
calendar questions. When Mrs.
Armstrong died he lost his one real friend and ally.
Perhaps this is why God instructed Moses in the Book of Numbers to retire
the Levites when they reached 50. The
failure of the older leaders who led the church into apostasy is compounded by
their failure to heed these specific instructions in the Book of Numbers. This also points out that these older leaders really fail the
biblical model of government. They
just yak about government, but really
have no intention of following clear, biblical guidelines.
Modern Pharisees, I would perceive.
Dr.
Herman L. Hoeh, Good News Article, April 1981
THE HEBREW CALENDAR - AUTHORITATIVE FOR GOD'S CHURCH TODAY!
Listed below are the
scriptures used in a very lengthy article attempting to justify the
“postponements.” By this time,
many church members have heard about these “postponements.”
They probably do not clearly understand them but a lot of questions are
being fielded. After all, there has
been a recent, major housecleaning in Pasedena.
Garner Ted and others have been disfellowshipped.
Mr. Armstrong has regained a degree of control.
1981 is a very busy year for the church.
In the May 1981 Good News article, Mr. Armstrong runs an article refuting
the way the church schedules the Feast of Weeks.
His efforts are to no avail, the ministry basically thumbs their nose at
their Apostle and does their own thing. They
continue to count from within the Days of Unleavened Bread despite Mr.
Armstrong’s article, but this is a different story for later in the study.
Acts 7:38-39 = lively oracles
Romans
3:1-4, 7 = oracles of God
Leviticus
23:26-32 = to justify the postponement rules
Numbers
28:11 and 1 Chronicles 23:31 = months start at the new moons
Exodus
34:22 = Feast of Tabernacles must be in the autumn
My Comments:
By 1981 "the
oracles" had become the main justification for using the present Jewish
calendar. They are the first
Scriptures quoted in an attempt to claim divine inspiration
for the present Jewish
calendar. Dr. Hoeh presents the
PHARISAICAL justification for these postponement rules. Appealing
to Leviticus 23:26-32 is supposed to discourage us from seeing through the
carnal and shallow reasons for these humanly devised postponement rules.
Historical facts concerning the calendar are not made part of this
article. Actually, Leviticus
23:26-32 does not in any way justify "postponing" the Day of Atonement
away from "inconvenient" days of the week. This idea simply was not introduced until several centuries
after the ministry of Jesus Christ. There
were no "postponement rules" during the first century A.D.
The Talmud is quite clear on this.
Dr. Hoeh makes one slip
in this defense of the present Jewish Calendar, in that he quotes Exodus 34:22.
Quoting and dwelling on Exodus 34:22 actually exposes a fatal flaw in the
Jewish Calendar model. Dr. Hoeh is
aware of the other scriptures showing biblical requirements of scheduling the
appointed times; he just does not use them.
He wants to continue to align the church with Jewish Philosophy.
Exodus 34:22 is a scripture that had not been quoted in any calendar
articles since Mr. Armstrong had quoted it in his 1940 GOOD NEWS letter.
It is not clear whether Kenneth Herrmann realized that the Feast of
Tabernacles sometimes starts before the end of summer in the present Jewish
Calendar model, or whether he simply overlooked this verse that Mr. Armstrong
had mentioned in his 1940 letter. At
any rate ,Kenneth Herrmann did not mention Exodus 34:22 in any of his articles.
Dr. Hoeh actually
devoted about five paragraphs to a
discussion of Exodus 34:22. This
shows that in 1981 he also did not yet realize that Hillel II had placed the
entire Feast of Tabernacles in the summer for some years, in a pattern that
repeated itself for over 800 years after Hillel II introduced his fixed
calendar. It is quite well known
that Dr. Hoeh introduced a lot of heretical ideas to the church
However, Dr. Hoeh did
at least willingly acknowledge that Exodus 34:22 is a very clear requirement for the calendar. In the very next paragraph, after concluding his
multiparagraphed discussion of Exodus 34:22, Dr. Hoeh concluded his entire
article with this sentence:
"HE (GOD) DOES REVEAL IN THE BIBLE MORE THAN YOU MAY BE AWARE ABOUT HIS CALENDAR."
Dr, Hoeh is praised by many for his understanding of the calculated calendar and how it works. There are theories going around that Dr. Hoeh was one who understood that calculation of the calendar came first, and then it was established by observation. Naturally, the calculation is thought to be the Jewish Calendar model. The facts of history and Jewish writing show differently. Jewish history shows that they simply adopted the Meton Cycle with its flawed 19-year time cycles. Incidentally, I do not wish to digress far, but Dr. Hoeh was the one who developed the flawed 19 year time cycle theories into church beliefs. This led to a lot of problems when the church prophecies for 1972-1975 backfired. By this time it is evident that God is really not working in a prophetic manner with the Worldwide Church of God, but nobody seems to take a wake-up call. This same appeal to the flawed 19-year time cycle is still used to justify a system of generalization. Just a few paragraphs earlier, I showed from Arthur Spier’s book how he even recognizes this Jewish Calendar model does not go back to Moses. It is best to leave mathematics to professional mathematicians.
What the Jewish history shows is that this calendar model was not intended to be used forever, but was a temporary solution until a new court could be convened. This history also shows that the calendar was finalized in Babylonia (Jordan-Iraq). This is the region of what is known as the Diaspora. The calendar model was only intended to serve this area, not a worldwide outreach. Areas like the area of the Colossians were far removed and had to observe and calculated their own calendar to schedule holy days.
Dr. Hoeh is most certainly right to a small degree. Calculation can come first. Most of the people, even the uneducated in this area could somehow count to 30. This would help them be aware of the major, upcoming holy day of the New Moon. There is a specific way to calculate the New Moon, but it most certainly is not the Jewish Calendar model.
Stephen
Flurry, April 1996, PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET
GOD'S
SACRED CALENDAR
Chronologically, this is the next attempt by a major player at justifying the Jewish Calendar as the perfect model to schedule God’s Appointed Times. In his zeal to be biblical, Mr. Flurry lists a host of scriptures that represents previous information in church writings on this topic.
Romans 3:1-2 = oracles of God
Genesis 1:14 = use sun and moon for calendar
Exodus 12:2 = the first month of the year
Exodus 13:4 = Abib means "an ear of corn"
Leviticus 23:4 = feasts to be kept in their seasons
1 Chron. 12:32 = men of Issachar for the calendar
Matthew 23:2-4 = Pharisees in Moses' seat
Exodus 34:22 = Feast of Tabernacles at the Tekufah of the year
Stephen Flurry also used a flawed understanding of "the oracles of God" as the foundation for his whole argument. He obviously did not realize that by 1968 Kenneth Herrmann had very meticulously moved away from presenting any SCRIPTURAL requirements for the calendar and instead moved totally to "the oracles." The entire focus was on making the calendar a faith issue. Stephen Flurry also used Dr. Hoeh's 1981 article very extensively. Consequently he repeated the same biblical requirement Dr. Hoeh used for Exodus 34:22. Unbelievable as it seems, important leaders continue to just yak, yak, yak, yak, about something they know absolutely nothing about. Since its very beginning, the present Jewish Calendar has violated the principle of starting The Feast of Tabernacles on or after the fall equinox. It is just as though these wanna-be leaders are totally blind.
By now the reader should perceive a dangerous thinking pattern emerging. In all of the preceding and following articles written by church scholars on the calendar over the years, the argument becomes an issue of blind faith for the supporters of the Jewish Calendar. Their "FAITH" will not permit them to accept facts that expose the flaws with the present Jewish Calendar. They will fight to retain this "faith" at any cost. Against this "faith" reason, logic, history, and biblical facts cannot make any inroads. This is exactly what you see in the Catholic and Islamic religions. Do you think that this same reasoning is not a part of the mindset of young people who become suicide bombers?
Note this approach very carefully. Here are the steps:
A) The writer perceives a need for something.
B) The writer has a bias, a fixed idea exactly how this need should be met.
C) In reality the writers have NO PROOF and NO EVIDENCE that their idea is actually correct.
D) Next the writers turn the existence of a perceived need into the proof that this need is indeed being met exactly as they expect it to be met, in their minds.
E) This tactic enables their minds to dispense with the need for any REAL proof that their doctrinal idea is actually correct. They will dispense any evidence to the contrary as just garbage.
F) All forms of real proof contradicting their idea are dismissed and labeled as "lacking faith."
G) Next, the writer cites scriptures, which have nothing to do with the issue at hand. These spurious scriptures are called upon as further proof of the correctness of the position in question. A multitude of Scriptures is intended to overwhelm all objections, even though those "other Scriptures" may not really apply to the subject at all.
An analysis of this approach to doctrine appears thus: Since I know that we have an absolute NEED for something, consequently, the existence of this need is in itself absolute proof that God will provide for this need exactly as we know that it must be met. Furthermore, just examine all of these other scriptures that supporting our case.
I suppose this line of thinking would be based on a misapplication of Philippians 4: 19, which reads: "But my God SHALL supply all your need…."
The inherent problem with trying to solve a doctrinal problem with this approach is:
a) People assume something to be a specific need.
b) They assume only one possible solution.
c) These assumptions become non-negotiable issues. If I had used this unbiblical approach, I would still be in the Baptist Church or more likely just nowhere.
d) All scriptures are interpreted in the light of the assumed solution. The Bible as the source for revealing its intent is discarded. Only interpretation is relevant.
e) Although scholars are not able to refute the objections to their idea, they simply dismiss all objections on the grounds that their other scriptures have sufficiently proved their case. Somehow, the concept of gathering all of the biblical evidence pertaining to a topic gets discarded.
Since the Philadelphia Church of God pretends to emphasize only what Mr. Armstrong says, I will close the analysis of Mr. Flurry’s article by quoting what Mr. Armstrong so often tried to teach us. On pages 11-12 of "Mystery of the Ages" Mr. Armstrong wrote:
"Most people accept carelessly what they are taught from
childhood. And, coming into maturity, they accept that which they have
repeatedly heard, read or been taught. They continue to go along, usually
without question, with their peers. Most people do not realize it, but they have
carelessly assumed what they believe without question or proof. Yet they will
defend vigorously and emotionally their convictions. It has become human nature
for people to flow with the stream--to go along with the crowd--to believe and
perform like their peers around them. Further, most people stubbornly refuse to
believe what they are unwilling to believe. There's an old saying, 'He who is
convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.' I was no
different." (pages 11-12).
Raymond
F. McNair, July-August 1996, Global Church News
WHICH
calendar has God authorized?
This article represents the next article by a major player in shaping the apostate position the church finds itself in today. This article was written in response to questions arising at the time that the ill-fated Global Church of God was formed. The 1996 article represents the doctrinal team’s response after supposedly taking three years to examine this and other doctrines in great detail. Naturally, no new opinions were formed. Despite a continual barrage of historical and biblical evidence, the old guard still held to their position that the Jewish Calendar is sacred, and inspired of God. Sounds kind of like the Catholic Church and unrelenting pressure to see the importance of the Sabbath doesn’t it? That is because this paradox is precisely the same. The wanna-be leaders have long since quit using the Bible as their source of authority. Human reasoning and a desire to align with the Jews means more than consistency, all forms of logic, and getting all of the facts.
A critical examination of this article will show that Mr. McNair is certainly no authority on mathematics, Jewish history, or what should be involved in scheduling the appointed times. He is supposed to be an expert on the British-Israel topic, but I certainly hope he has used a good deal more precision with this topic than he does in applying scripture and historical fact to the Jewish Calendar model. The basic approach he uses is to attempt to make scripture fit the Jewish Calendar model. He of course has to redefine certain terms like “Tekufah.” His lack of precision in handling the Word of God and Generalizing makes for quite an article.
His approach is the standard, “I already know that the present Jewish Calendar is equivalent to God’s sacred calendar, so what do I need to do to finally put this baby to rest and satisfy all of the questions and still the opposition to the unbiblical aspects of this calendar model.” His bias toward the traditional position is obvious. For example, the title of his article has a subtle implication that other positions and approaches to scheduling the appointed times would be discussed. Surprise! No such factual examination takes place within this article. In fact, the Jewish Calendar itself is not even examined in light of the specific questions pointing out specific problems. He is begrudgingly trying to still the opposition, nothing more. Servant Leadership is not his BAG. I would submit right here, that there is nothing wrong with a bias toward the TRUTH. But, Mr. McNair still has to prove that his bias is actually TRUTH and not just his bias.
We are supposed to prove all things. We are supposed to test the spirits of those who want to be leaders. So far, non-of these men exhibit any degree of success with having prayers answered for divine healing after 1968. Boy, if they did, we would have heard about it over the last 34 years!
Let’s examine Mr. McNair’s article:
1) He begins by telling us that the Bible does not really reveal a full calendar, and refers to five "PROBLEMS" that everyone who wishes to look to the Scriptures for a calendar will have to face. This approach simply allows him to set the stage for claiming that the "sacred" calendar must be sought outside of the Bible. Keep in mind the article does not address all of the scriptural requirements to schedule the holy days that Mr. Armstrong’s 1940 article contained.
2) Then Mr. McNair states that God revealed His truth to Moses and Aaron, and claims that God must also have "OF NECESSITY" somehow given them His "sacred" calendar at that time. No proof is offered, just speculation.
3) Mr. McNair then presents a variety of quotations from various sources to support his conclusions that the present Jewish Calendar is definitely the calendar that God gave to Moses. In the process he presents a number of assumptions without any attempts to actually PROVE these assumptions. He probably knows that most of the laity will just swallow anything. Mr. McNair obviously has not read Arthur Spier’s book with any degree of understanding or he would know that the Jewish Calendar cannot go back to Moses.
4) Then he presents some general information concerning the Jewish Calendar, with the biblical requirements, which such a calendar must meet.
5) Mr. McNair then claims that the permanent calendar of Hillel II (about 358 A.D.) is God's "TRUE" calendar because God gave "HIS" calendar to Aaron and to Aaron's family for safekeeping. To support his claim he refers to the "ORACLES of God," though he makes no attempt to explain what this expression in Romans 3:2 actually means. Would someone please produce the Book of Jasher and the Book of the Oracles of God so Mr. McNair can prove his position. His appeal to Aaron’s family as the bastion of preservation of secret inforationis a positive move. Normally he just generalizes this important duty to Levites, in genera,l when proving the chain of authority. Apparently he has read the Book of Leviticus and realizes there were Orders in the priesthood by the time he wrote this article.
6) Whille Mr. McNair has presented some information "ABOUT" the Jewish calendar; he never actually examines the Jewish Calendar itself, to see what it looks like in practical applications! He never once examines the technicalities that are causing the problems.
If the Jewish Calendar is indeed God's "true" calendar, then it will most assuredly be in full agreement with God's instructions for scheduling the holy days, which are revealed in the Bible. Mr. McNair gives no examples clearly demonstrated in the form of practical examples to support his host of unqualified assertions. This is simply the wrong approach and a dishonest one. The reason he makes no practical examples to support his claims is because there are none.
7) Despite his misleading title, Mr. McNair never once examines even one alternative option or possibility to the Jewish Calendar, to see how they stack up against the requirements God spells out in the Bible. It was never his intention to even look at any other option, though his readers might have thought that to be a possibility from the title he chose. Quite a snow job, if I might say so myself.
I find one subhead I agree with in this article "REJECT UNBIBLICAL TEACHINGS"! I agree one hundred percent with this approach. That is why I am rejecting Mr. McNairs articles as totally off track. He lists scriptures outlining four biblical requirements, yet does not prove how the Jewish Calendar satisfies these requirements. He just lists them and approaches them as if they are fact and nothing more needs to be said.
We all have prejudices, so I will quote from Mr. Armstrong as he explained this problem. As Mr. Armstrong wrote on page xiii of the "Author's Statement" of "Mystery of the Ages":
"I have often said it is
much more difficult to unlearn an erroneous supposed truth than it is to learn a
new truth. Even in these past 58
years I had not fully and clearly realized the significance of the fact revealed
in Genesis 3:22-24... ."
"AN ERRONEOUS SUPPOSED TRUTH" is extremely difficult for any of us to identify. Mr. McNair makes the opening statement that God did gave Israel a reliable calendar at the time of Moses. So, if God did indeed give Israel "A RELIABLE CALENDAR" at the time of Moses, then we should be able to PROVE this! It should not be something we have to assume or take for granted.
WHERE
IS THE PROOF?
1) WHY are the instructions God supposedly gave to Moses not recorded in the Bible? Why are they recorded in the Book of the Oracles of God?
2) WHY would God have given some information to Moses, which He wanted to keep secret and only revealed to Aaron? Why is God supposedly setting up a Mystery Religion when He wants everyone to be able to follow his commands?
3) What proof is there that the calendar the Jews have today is the same as what God might have given to Moses over 3000 years ago? Remember, Arthur Spier does not even believe this.
4) IF God indeed "gave" something to Moses, did he possibly give anyone authority to make any alterations to the things He had given to Moses? Or, were all instructions to remain unchanged?
5) Is there any possible reason why the information about the calendar needed to be kept secret? Babylon and all the societies of the day kept the same basic calendar, based upon observation and partial calculation. The whole Word of God was not something that was kept secret. Why should The Book of the Oracles of God containing information about the calendar be treated differently?
6) Does not "secret information" require total trust in men. There are many examples of priests and high priests, that were not what I would call faithful to God. Ye,t "secret information" requires a blind trust in such men. God giving "secret information" to certain men works against the principle of Jeremiah 17:5
Jeremiah 17:5: "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed [be] the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD"
It is not really very compatible with the way God works, to claim that He gave some secret information to Moses, which God wanted kept secret until the time of Hillel II, who himself was an unconverted Pharisee and nonlevitical Jew, in the 350's A.D.. What happened to the secret being kept within the Order of Aaron?
Mr. McNair’s opening argument of his article is something that he should have to prove. He is not justified in making that assumption without providing convincing proof. He sidesteps this requirement for proof by simply presenting what he really needs to prove as something that requires no proof. He is obviously "vigorously and emotionally defending" his convictions. He is not addressing issues.
Additionally, Mr. McNair attempts to interpret scripture and put a cute twist on what Exoidus 34:22 really means. He says it means tabernacles may occasionally fall in the summer (he has secret understanding). He emphasizes that the entire feast must never fall in the summer. Otherwise he agrees and bases his arguments here upon Dr. Hoeh’s 1981 article.
At this point we need to review Isaiah 8:20:
Isaiah 8:20: To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
1) Exactly where, in the Bible (i.e. in the law and in the testimony) does Mr. McNair find these calendar instructions which he claims are "sacred"? If these instructions are not found in the Bible, then they lack would lack understanding (no light in them) according to the Bible. This verse requires us to base all our claims regarding God's instructions to us on the Bible. But the Jewish Calendar is not found in the Bible, as Mr. Mcnair himself pointed out. Yes, I know. Long before 1996, the need to live by every word of God had been replaced by the need to submit to the authority of the Jews when something is not precisely explained in the Bible. How about you, the reader? When you claim to base your convictions upon the Bible as the authority, do you really do this? Or, do you just practice highly selective religion in this respect? I would submit that in reality you probably do not really believe the Bible is the authority after all. Iit just sounds good to say that?
2) Exactly where, in the Bible does Mr. McNair find justification for interpreting Exodus 34:22 and what the meaning of Tekufah mean. He puts a cute twist to scripture and says it means that only part of the Feast of Tabernacles needs to be in the fall. I was taught that the Bible was a complete book and it says what it means and means what it says. This is a classic example of what to watch out for when someone slips a false meaning into a translation. Arthur Spier knows what is meant by the word Tekufah, just like Dr. Hoeh. And in his book, Arthur Spier makes it plain that the Jewish Calendar model does away with this consideration. That is why The Feast of Tabernacles sometimes was scheduled by the Jewish Calendar to be entirely in the summer. The Jewish Calendar model simply does not care about equinoxes, but the Jews definitely know what they are. Apparently Mr. McNair is totally unaware of this.
Let’s close discussing this unbiblical article by reviewing Mr. McNair’s opening statement:
"SINCE God commanded Israel to keep His weekly Sabbath (Ex. 20:8-11), and His seven annual Holy Days (Lev. 23; Ezek. 20:12-24), OF NECESSITY HE WOULD ALSO HAVE GIVEN HIS PEOPLE A RELIABLE CALENDAR showing when to observe those Sabbaths."
IF God would "of necessity have given" a reliable calendar to Moses and to Aaron,
THEN the present Jewish calendar is the only choice available to us. And that is
precisely what Mr. McNair’s whole argument is based on. Yet the article fails to prove that argument.
Mr. McNair was
personally taught by Mr. Armstrong, and he heard him explain many
times, how people carelessly assume things to be true. It is appropriate here to close with the observation of his master concerning human reasoning. On pages 11-12 of "Mystery of the Ages" Mr. Armstrong wrote:
"Most people accept
carelessly what they are taught from childhood. And, coming into maturity, they
accept that which they have repeatedly heard, read or been taught. They continue
to go along, usually without question, with their peers. Most people do not
realize it, but they have carelessly assumed what they believe without question or
proof. Yet they will defend vigorously and emotionally their convictions. It
has become human nature for people to flow with the stream--to go along with the
crowd--to believe and perform like their peers around them. Further, most people
stubbornly refuse to believe what they are unwilling to believe. There's an old
saying, 'He who is convinced
against his will is of the same opinion still.' I was no different." (pages
11-12)
Mr. Armstrong's statements also apply to Mr. McNair, Dr. Hoeh, and himself in regard to speaking about "a sacred calendar" and leading God’s people into apostasy. In this article, Mr. McNair has "carelessly assumed" and "accepted" the things he has heard and been taught without proof. He too, does "defend vigorously and emotionally" his convictions. He too also "stubbornly refuses to believe" what he is "unwilling to believe".
I have had to change my mind several times when Jesus Christ showed me what I needed to do. I know full well the penalty for noncompliance with revelation. I had no idea I would find the things I did about the church’s sacred cow (Jewish Calendar). I have been many years learning and am still learning, but I am now obliged to no longer follow this calendar model of unconverted, nonlevitical Pharisees. To do so seems to me to actually show an arrogant attitude toward God. Why not just keep Christmas and Easter? What would be the difference? If the substance of the days is all that is important, why bother? The reason is because the substance of the days is not all that is important. God’s Truth is what is important. I have no particular hang-ups with looking like a fool if I am wrong. I simply try to realign with God’s revelation when I understand an error.
UCG
Doctrinal Paper, FEBRUARY 1997
SUMMARY
OF THE HEBREW CALENDAR
Mark 7:9
“and he said unto them,
full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition
The next study of importance would be the 1997 study paper on the calendar by the United Church of God. It is a new approach with a dismal ending. They came to the conclusion to keep using the Jewish Calendar, but did not have scholars with any degree of honesty. When I started writing about this paper, the one thing that kept coming to mind, was the scripture cited above (Mark 7:9). It is a known fact that the UCG does not have people who really understand the Jewish Calendar. I reference their Pentecost Study paper. It should have come as no surprise to me that I would find an arrogant attitude, dismissing 50 study papers outright and not even commenting upon major points brought up in one of them. In their Pentecost Study Paper, UCG takes the position that errors by the doctrinal study team can be adequately explained as a matter of semantics. This means that words really have no meaning any more. Jesus said to live by every word of God, the UCG says words really have no meaning.
The UCG study group clearly realized that the present Jewish Calendar does NOT meet the biblical requirements for a biblical calendar, listed by people like Mr. Armstrong, Kenneth Herrmann, Dr. Hoeh, Raymond McNair, etc. This study was flooded with papers from all over. Among these papers was a series by Frank Nelte. Mr. Nelte is acknowledged as an expert on the Jewish Calendar and its flaws. There was so much obvious information refuting the traditional beliefs concerning the Jewish Calendar model that the study paper took a new route. It totally ignored all biblical requirements for scheduling holy days and the preposterous arguments concerning the “Oracles of God.”
So!! This study paper dismissed the evidence. Note: The UCG paper asserts:
"There
are no new questions which have arisen about the calendar. Mr. Armstrong
addressed the same issues in 1940."
This statement is pathetic! If you read Mr. Armstrong’s 1940 letter in question, the specific question he was really dealing with was when to insert the intercalary month. At that time, he had no knowledge about how the Jewish Calendar violated biblical principles. But, I would expect this from a group of scholars who do not believe words have any relevant meaning. This explains their flimsy stance on many doctrinal issues. The issue in 1940 was when to insert the intercalary month. It still is one of the main issues and the church has reversed its arguments to embrace the very things Brother Dodd was trying to do in 1940.
The next point the UCG
tries to make fit their bias is a quote from the Palestinian historian
Epiphanius (315-403 C.E.). This
quote involved the Quartodeciman Controversy.
The UCG interpretation here sets the stage for their misapplication of
scripture and historical documents within this doctrinal paper.
This is just so sad. The
topic of this controversy involved Polycarp and when to schedule Passover.
Polycarp held to the Nisan 14 date (real apostolic practice) established
by Christ, not the Jewish version. But,
simple historical facts are stretched until the UCG tries to make the citation
mean that Polycarp scheduled things according to the Jewish Calendar.
They must have had divine visions to come up with this one.
There is not one shred of evidence I see in the specific citation or the
entire Quartodeciman Controversy that even mentions the Jewish method of
calculation. Whether to keep Easter
or Passover was the issue. The
Jewish Calendar was never a part of the controversy.
UCG’s argument is based upon trying to misapply basic arithmetic rules
and say: because Polycarp held to the apostolic custom (see Exodus 12:6-11) of
Nisan 14 for Passover, that this equals scheduling holy days based upon the
Jewish Calendar model. If UCG is
going to use the Greek Orthodox branch of the churches as an authority to
establish the Jewish Calendar, they had better look over their doctrinal stance
concerning Sunday as the proper day for The Feast of Weeks.
It s pretty well know that the Greeks preserved the New Testament.
If UCG really had a sound and valid point, then they would first show how and why their
Point has biblical support, and then they might refer to the Church's traditions and the
Examples of various leaders as support. But, the biblical proof and support must always come first. It must be the foundation on which anyone builds his case. Does the Spiritual Termite show up here? The Bible has long since ceased to become the final authority to these scholars in UCG.
Instead, this paper took the route of mathematics and trying to justify postponement rules. The paper used John chapters 7-9 to give a justification for the Jewish postponement rules. Naturally, their biblical arguments failed the test. Their arguments using the aforementioned chapters of the Book of John hinged entirely upon proving a 31 A.D. crucifixion date.
The assumption for the proof rested upon a 31 A.D. crucifixion date that would necessitate a Wednesday Passover based upon postponement rules. Their paper did not consider that a Wednesday Passover in 31 A.D. is THE ONLY POSSIBILITY in a calendar based on visual observation of the first new crescent or the invisible conjunction. This study paper totally ignored the reality of God’s creation. You know, trying to prove something that happened 2000 years ago is really a fool’s game. Most people simply cannot comprehend that amount of time. The same flawed thinking goes into trying to base times for scheduling holy days upon Jerusalem time. This approach removes people from reality. God’s calendar has not changed. Anyone who attempts to prove anything 2000 years ago better leave this work to real mathematicians.
I
HAVE SAVED THE BEST (ACTUALLY WORST) FOR LAST!!
In a desperate
effort to find some support for a 31 A.D. crucifixion date, the UCG paper
appeals to an article written by Colin J. Humphreys and W. G. Waddington in the
December, 1983 edition of "Nature," and titled Dating
the Crucifixion.
The UCG paper states:
"In their research the authors state that there was most likely an eclipse of the moon the evening after Christ was crucified. Various sources are quoted for proof of this event."
The UCG scholars quote from page 745 of the "Nature" journal as follows:
"Since the darkened sun occurred at the Crucifixion it is reasonable to suppose that "the moon turned to blood" occurred the same evening, "before that great and glorious day," Resurrection. This interpretation (!) of Acts 2:20 (emphasis ours) is supported by F.F. Bruce [The Acts of the Apostles, Inter-Varsity, 1952]. Other documentary evidence suggests that on the day of the Crucifixion, the Moon appeared like blood."
Next the UCG scholars refer to an apocryphal fragment of a spurious and forged document titled Report of Pilate. The UCG scholars used this document to lend support to the document by Humphreys and Waddington, cited above. There is nothing quite like being able to support your arguments with spurious documents lacking credibility. Throughout the decades of apostasy, and the mass of study papers showing the flaws of the Jewish Calendar model, one thing becomes evident. Whatever we might accuse these leaders and scholars of that have led the church into apostasy, competency is not one of them.
MY
ANALYSIS
Do you have any doubts concerning the spiritual condition of the church and how it got to the point it is now? What possible credit and praise could you extend to any organization that would resort to deceit like this? This one rates an “F.” This obvious manipulation of scripture surpasses all of the ignorance the UCG demonstrated in their Pentecost Study Paper. Even Raymond McNair and his obvious flawed and private interpretation of scripture for The Global Church of God to make Tekufah and the scriptures fit the Jewish Calendar model, never approaches anything like this. Can there be any doubt as to why the church has been spewed out of God’s mouth?
Come on folks! Dust off your Bibles! The UCG is quoting authors that totally misapply Scripture. The scripture these authors quote is Acts 2:20. This about the grossest misapplication of scripture I can remember and by referencing it to support their conclusions, the UCG must agree with this doctrinal stance. What possible lows will they stoop to in a vain attempt to preserve their traditions? They know most people will just suck in their information and never check the actual scripture cited.
May God have mercy upon the scholars of the UCG? Is this the best you have guys? Anyone worth his salt knows that Acts 2:20 is a verbatim quote from the Prophet Joel concerning the Day of the Lord. It has nothing to do with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The scripture, Acts 2:20, is about the Second Coming of Christ. But, I suppose this is just another of UCG’s examples of universal semantics.
Since UCG quotes the authority of Mr. Armstrong’s 1940 GOOD NEWS letter, it would seem appropriate to quote a section from that letter pertaining to what they have done with this misapplication of scripture.
“Surely we can see that
profane history only contradicts itself, is inaccurate, cannot be depended upon,
and HAS NO AUTHORITY WHATSOEVER. There is no Bible authority for any of it.”
The UCG has obviously relied upon profane history to help substantiate their proof. Actually, they have gone far beyond relying upon profane history, to a point that approaches profaning God’s Name. When one misapplies God’s name to an argument like they have, it is actually using his name in vain, or profaning his holy name.
You should notice that by now the "biblical calendar requirements" first listed by Mr. Armstrong to schedule holy days have been eliminated completely from the whole discussion about the calendar. The Bible has not been the authority for a long time. Misapplication of scripture is the norm. The tares will stop at nothing to preserve their version of heresy on this topic concerning the Jewish Calendar.
In conclusion: Within the context of the Lone Ranger and Tonto series of parables and Bible studies, the UCG wins the Silver Bullet Award for the most obviously unbiblical and arrogant approach toward an important doctrinal topic. Their misapplication of scripture and historical events is without equal.
John
Ritenbaugh, Church of the Great God, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2000
Series
of Four Sermons (Cancerous Calendar
Controversy, etc.)
These sermons are one of the most deflating series of messages I have ever heard. In my estimation, John Ritenbaugh is by far, one of the greatest writers and speakers in any of the Churches of God. His approach to scripture is normally very precise and on target. He searches all of the scriptures pertaining to any one subject diligently. He is the only minister I know of that has the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the heresy of not recognizing the importance of New Moons and the obvious error of Raymond McNair and others pushing for the Karaite version of counting within vs without during the Days of Unleavened Bread. For some reason, he really reverts to unscriptural reasoning on the calendar topic. Listed below are two primary scriptures used in the series.
Acts 7:38 = lively oracles
Romans 3:1, 2 = oracles of God
John Ritenbaugh very carefully avoids any discussion of the BIBLICAL requirements for correctly scheduling the appointed times. His entire argument is built on "the oracles of God" and biblical information about faith and loyalty and God's faithfulness, etc. His messages are very exciting and well put together. They just fail to include the biblical requirements for scheduling the appointed times. At best, the series avoids the issues and prolongs the agony of the sheep.
The question concerning
the validity of postponements is one of the major issues concerning the Jewish
Calendar. At the time Mr. Armstrong
addressed the issue of when to insert the intercalary month, he plainly did not
realize anything about the postponements. For
most of us, when we first read about these special rules, our minds tend to shut
down. This is because we know they
do not fly in the face of the reality of the Bible.
Let’s examine a few quotes from Jewish Literature.
You should not have to just believe what I have to say.
But, would you believe reputable Jewish literature?
"The Jewish calendar as now observed is the product of a long historical development." (The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p.631)
“According
to a Babylonian [Jewish] tradition of Gaonic times, it was Hillel II (in the
IVth Century C.E.) who fixed the Jewish calendar and established its rules. However,
these rules of Hillel II were only one phase in the history of the Jewish calendar, which was not
completed before the sixth-seventh century.” (Hayyim Schauss (1938) The Jewish
Festivals, Cincinnati: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, n.121, p.299)
"There is...unimpeachable evidence from the works of writers with
expert knowledge of the calendar that the present ordo intercalationis [sequence
of intercalations--the 19 year cycle] and epochal molad were not intrinsic parts
of the calendar of Hillel II, these being seen still side by side with other
styles of the ordo intercalationis and the molad as late as the 11th century.
Also the four dehiyyot [postponement rules] developed gradually. ...By the tenth
century the Jewish calendar was exactly the same as today." (Cecil Roth,
editor, Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 5, p.50, article: Calendar)
"In
432 B.C.E. the Athenian astronomer Meton had reformed the Athenian calendar on
the basis of a cycle of nineteen years, consisting of 235 lunar months adding
one month seven times in the cycle to take care of the excess (235 is 7 more
than 19 times 12). This calendar was widely adopted, and was eventually [in
post-Talmudic times] followed by the Jewish teachers..." [7]
(The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p.632)
It is plain from the
record of prominent Jewish Literature that knowledgeable Jews do not teach that their
calendar goes back to Moses. They
understand that the sages adopted the Meton Cycle as a temporary means to
schedule holy days and serve the Diaspora (Jordan, Syria, and Iraq) until a new
court could be convened. The
Babylonian Talmud will be quoted for the purposes of this paper since it was the
largest of the oral traditions of the Pharisees for the purposes of this paper.
When you study the
Talmud, there is a noticeable tendency for your mind to shut down.
This is because you encounter a virtual barrage of UNBIBLICAL
thinking patterns. Since the
Pharisees wrote the Talmud, this should come as no surprise.
I well remember a sermon several years ago by Mr. Carl McNair, where he
made the point that the Pharisees were just Lawyers. All they could and
would do, was argue about what words meant.
Do you remember the UCG and their position on Semantics? I think a
disturbing pattern is emerging. The
vast majority of the trained ministry today are nothing more than Pharisees,
continually arguing about what words mean so they can apply their particular
brand of heresy. I cite several
examples below of odd thinking patterns to show how the Pharisees thought.
Deuteronomy
4:5-6 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as
Hashem my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are
entering to take possession of it. You
shall guard and You shall do them, for this will show your wisdom and
understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say,
"Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."
"You
shall guard and you shall do..." Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahman said in the
name of Rebbe Yonatan, from where do we know that it is a mitzvah for each man
to calculate the seasons and the months? It is written, "You shall guard
and you shall do, for it is evidence, in the eyes of the nations, of the wisdom
and understanding that has been given to you." What is the wisdom and
understanding that Israel possesses "in the eyes of the nations"? We
must say that it refers to the calculation of the seasons and months. Concerning
one who knows how to calculate and does not do so, the verse says, "They
did not contemplate God's deeds, and they have not paid attention to the work of
His hands."
Midrash Rabbah - Esther IV:1 1. THEN THE KING SAID TO THE WISE MEN, WHO KNEW THE TIMES (Esther 1: 13). Who were these? R. Simon said: These were the tribe of Issachar, as it says, And of the children of Issachar, men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do
(I Chronicles XII, 32). R. Tanhuma said: This means, for fixing the calendar: R. Jose b. Kazrath said: For intercalation. (‘ To know what Israel ought to
do’:
Please notice that the
Jews think everyone should be able to calculate the months or they are not worth
talking to. This is a radical
departure from Church of God logic. Notably,
the Jewish logic cited above tries to equate the need to be able to calculate
with a scripture talking about statutes and judgements,
of which calendar calculation is not included.
These Jewish scholars would fit right in with most of the COG scholars
today if they would just understand the “Brutish” Government of God theories
the COG scholars developed. This is
a typical example of the reasoning
skills you will find in the Talmud showing how the Pharisees would reason their
way around any scripture to make it
say what they wanted it too.
The last quotes, above,
from the Talmud show a unique interpretation of the Bible concerning who knew
how to intercalate. According the
Rabbi Simon, Esther 1:13 is talking about the Men of Issachar who were able to
know how to intercalate. According
to Rabbi Tanhuma, these same Men of Issachar were the ones knowing how to
intercalate for Israel. If these
observations were true, and the first is
not, then the common Church of God theory that calculations were secret goes
up in smoke, at least according to the rabbis.
The scripture cited in Esther is talking about men versed in law, not
astronomy. Queen Vashti got frisky
and had to be disciplined. She did
not have to be hung from the horn of the moon.
Do you think a King of Persia did not have people from his own race
capable of understanding astronomy? If
this is what you think, you need to pray for understanding. Persia was a seat of mathematicians and astronomers.
They certainly did not need the Men of Issachar to show them how to
figure a New Moon or anything else concerning astronomy and astrology.
For a full explanation see the article, Return
to Gilligan’s Island. This
is just another typical case of Jews (Pharisees) misapplying scripture to
justify their reasoning.
Judges 21: 25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
All of us who have been
around the Churches of God any length of time soon learn that this is a
scripture wanna-be leaders and ministers quickly turn to in an effort to
establish unity, and more important, authority
over other peoples’ lives. And
yes, advocates of the Jewish Calendar quickly turn to this scripture as part of
their proof that there has to be a central authority on the question and
submission is required to someone (how about God?).
Once again, I will
simply state that I was taught to examine the scriptures on both sides of a
cited scripture before coming to an unwarranted conclusion.
Judges 21: 25 is the closing scripture in the last chapter of the Book of
Judges. The Israelites had just
finished disciplining the Tribe of Benjamin, actually almost annihilating it.
The spiritual state of the nation was at an all time low. The leadership and priesthood of the nation were totally
corrupt and practically irrelevant. This
accurately describes the situation in the Churches of God today, doesn’t it?
What this scripture
really does is simply state a fact concerning a condition that existed.
It should not be construed as either good or bad.
It simply relates facts. Do
you suppose that following corrupt priests and leaders would justify people in
God’s eyes if they new better? At
this period of history, just as at the time of Elijah, there were undoubtedly,
many people who had not bowed their knee to Baal.
Mario Hernandez gave a marvelous message on Old Testament Offerings and
priestly duties a few years back. The
point of his sermon was that Men of God like Daniel, and David, recognized their
obligation to fulfill a spiritual dimension of the morning and evening
sacrifices, even when these physical sacrifices were not possible.
Likewise, we have priestly duties today. One of them is not bowing our knee to a false minister.
We are all responsible before God for what we think.
These
( who would not bow their knee to Baal) would be what you might call “The
Lone Rangers” of Israel.
Do you remember how we used be inspired when the Lone Ranger and Tonto
would ride into a corrupt town and clean it up?
Nobody helped them. The
citizens of this town are just like the majority of the people in the Churches
of God. They maintain a status quo
of corrupt doctrine. They will not
get involved or prove anything, yet they are happy to have a brutish minister
removed. That is precisely what God
is doing in scattering his flock.
Today, God is not
looking for ordinary sheep. I do
not believe the vast majority of church members will not make the cut.
God is looking for Pillars for his church in the millennium.
In essence, he is looking for Lone
Rangers. If you pride yourself
on looking to the Bible for your beliefs instead of Mr. Armstrong, and will not
consider the inherent problems with the Jewish Calendar, you probably are not a Lone
Ranger. The Lone Ranger
always did what was right. That is
why a parable concerning him was chosen to start this Bible study.
What you probably are is a common sheep not committed enough to really
get involved. You desire to let
someone else solve the problems and stand up to doctrinal error.
Being politically correct is probably your trademark.
Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out you own salvation with fear and trembling.
Paul gave this
instruction within the context of taking about following Christ within an
organized structure. We hardly have
an organized structure in the Churches of God anymore. He also gave these instructions within the context of
righteousness, not deceit. All of
us are responsible for the organization and leaders we support.
We are supposed to be developing discernment. Right now the church is in exactly the same position as were
the people of Israel during the time of the Judges. It would seem Paul is more in agreement with these people,
doing what was right in their own eyes, than most ministers are today.
We have to do what is right in our own eyes and accept the responsibly to
follow the real Christ.
In conclusion the last
verse of the Book of Judges gives no one any authority.
It is just a simple statement concerning the way things were.
There really is no fear of God in the ministry today.
Control is the dominant motivation.
The next time some
minister starts ranting and raving about unity and mavericks being divisive, set
back and consider all the facts. It
just may be that he is the one who is being divisive. There is no case in the Bible for not being divisive when it
comes to false doctrine. The
present situation with ministers rapidly leading sheep into apostasy is about as
divisive as you can get. Consider
what Jesus himself said about division, when doctrinal matters are involved.
32 Whosoever therefore
shall confess me before men, him
will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
33 But whosoever shall
deny me before men, him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven.
34 Think
not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came
not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to
set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law
against her mother in law.
36
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me.
Yes, if you are going
to follow Christ, sometimes you will have to appear to be divisive.
There really are no shortcuts. Isaiah
the prophet long ago spoke concerning the real biblical test to any doctrine.
I believe him, how about you?
Isaiah 8:20:
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in
them
In conclusion, I have
discovered that the postponements are not valid. Jewish literature and the Bible have no real evidence that
God has ever sanctioned these ideas. We
are not supposed to develop blind faith. I
do not care how good an idea postponements are or how good an idea the Jewish
Calendar might be (it is not a good idea).
If these ideas of men cannot be backed up in the Bible and at the least
in prominent Jewish literature, it is because there is no light in them.
An UNBILICAL idea is still UNBIBLICAL,
even if it sounds good.
Doesn’t
the Oral Law show that postponements were in place?
This would seem a logical question.
There were two writings in Talmudic times.
One was the Palestinian Talmud and the other the Babylonian Talmud.
I can find no reference to anything like postponements in these
documents. This of course, is
because there were no postponement rules in place.
The New Moon was sanctified every month.
Observation was used to verify a new crescent (waxing moon).
Now just think for a moment about postponing a New Moon.
What possible reason would there be to observe the first visible crescent
so the New Moon could be sanctified, if they were going to postpone it anyway? Would this not be absurd?
These two Talmudic writings do have evidence that postponements were not
in place. This was something I did
not expect to find. These documents
(oral law) were written in the first two centuries A D.
Rather than detail
specific sections of the Talmud right here, I will simply document my findings.
The Talmud is a long difficult selection of writings.
Most of them really are bizarre. You
find stories connected to sanctifying the New Moon of rabbis out throwing dirt
clods at a lingering old moon, trying to get it to hide itsself (dark phase) so
they could sanctify it (the New Moon). The
rabbis have never been against changing something that was inconvenient to them.
The Talmud, which was
written during the first two centuries A.D., does not mention the postponements,
but it does mention a Saturday Sivan 6 (the Jewish Calendar’s Pentecost or
Shavuot). Under the rules of
postponement, Sivan 6 cannot fall on a Saturday. This is a good indication that the rules of postponement were
not in effect at the time the Talmud was written.
The Talmud also gives
specific examples of what to do if Atonement falls on a Friday or Sunday.
Again, these are things forbidden under postponement rules.
At different times, the Jews definitely thought different things.
In the first few centuries AD, they did not have any real hang-ups with
back to back Sabbaths. The
historical evidence simply shows that there were no postponement rules in effect
at the time of Christ.
Doesn’t
the Oral Law show when to intercalate the thirteen-month?
This is another logical question we should expect an answer from.
The Talmud does comment upon this, but no definite conclusions are
established.
I learned that there
was a special committee of the Sanhedrin charged with the responsibility of
deciding whether it was necessary, or not, to intercalate a questionable year.
This committee was called the Sod Haibbur - the calendar council, and
they calculated the beginnings of the seasons (Tekufot)
on the basis of information which had been handed down to them by tradition.
Notice that the Talmud records that the equinox was a consideration
in intercalating a year. This
council considered the matter regularly and reviewed the weather conditions to
determine whether an extra moon was needed to ensure that Passover fell in the
spring.
The Talmud explains
that this council intercalated the year when the barley in the fields was not
yet ripened, when the fruit on the trees was not yet properly grown, when the
winter rains had not yet stopped, when the roads for the Passover pilgrims had
not dried up and when the young pigeons had not yet become fledged.
Yes, Gods way of life has a common sense logic to approaching human
needs. Seasons do have something to
do with birds hatching. Most COG
ministers were not trained in these fundamental laws of nature.
Neither were they trained in the peculiarities of an agricultural
society.
Note the following
quote from the Talmud.
Talmud
- Mas. Sanhedrin 11b Our Rabbis taught: A year may be intercalated
on three grounds: on account of the
premature state of the corn-crops;[140]
or that of the fruit-trees;[141] or on account of the lateness of the Tekufah[142] Any two of these reasons can justify
intercalation, but not one alone. All, however, are glad when the state of the
spring-crop is one of them.[143]
Rabban
Simeon b. Gamaliel says: On account of [the lateness of] the Tekufah. The Schoolmen inquired: Did he mean to say that ‘on account
of the [lateness of the] Tekufah’ [being one of the two reasons], they
rejoiced,[144] or that the lateness of the Tekufah alone was adequate reason for intercalating the year? — The
question remains undecided.
Do you see the never-
ending debate over what words mean in a vain attempt for private interpretation
of rules? Doesn’t this sound a
lot like the approach of UCG concerning semantics?
Mr. Carl McNair was right on target with his description of the
Pharisees. In the Oral Law, Rabbi
Simeon b. Gamaliel is a very important figure.
I submit to you that he meant what he said and said what he meant.
The lateness of the Tekufah is
the reason for intercalation. This factor alone
is the determining factor. A late
Tekufah would insure that a rainy season would make travel difficult and the
barley would not be in the dough. The
Tekufah is not a terribly difficult thing to figure (See the article, Return
to Gilligan’s Island). But
more important, a late Tekufah made intercalation absolutely necessary to place The
Feast of Tabernacles in the proper season.
Otherwise this festival would begin in the summer.
Incidentally, around
921 C.E. a power struggle and debate took place concerning the Jewish Calendar
Postponement rules. History has not
yet shown whether this struggle was one over Astronomical Accuracy or just a
Grab for Power? This power struggle
is simply known in history as The Jewish Controversy about Calendar
Postponements. This controversy
involved two prominent Jewish leaders. Ben
Meir from Palestine and Saadia from Babylonia.
These two were the primary contenders.
This struggle mirrors the modern power struggle within the Churches of
God. Like modern power struggles,
the struggle is always disguised as a concern about “the work”, who teaches
the most truth, calendar computation for new moons, months, years, Holy days,
and Festivals. The list is never
ending, but the real purpose always involves a quest for power and authority.
Saadia's controversy
with Ben Meir about Hebrew calendar postponements in 921 C.E. mirrors modern
arguments in which a power struggle is disguised as a concern about calendar
computation for new moons, months, years, Holy days and Feasts involving
lunar-solar calendars, etc. Jewish
historical documents show that in the first few centuries AD, the Babylonian
Jews constantly contended with their Palestinian counterparts to wrest their
authority from them. In the fourth
century, Roman persecution of the Palestinian Jews forced them to relinquish
authority to Babylonian Jewry.
By 921, the Palestinian
Jewry launched an attach upon Bavel (Babylonia) in an attempt to wrest the
authority for the laws and fixing the calendar back to Palestine.
This coup attempt was led by a prominent scholar known in Jewish history
as Ben Meir. His contention was
that the calendar calculations needed to be adjusted by what we would call 35
minutes to properly schedule the holy days.
Babylonia is 56 minutes East of Palestine in astronomical reckoning.
The argument was: The Babylonian schedule would cause too many POSTPONEMENTS. Yes, the
idea that postponements are not
scriptural has its original precepts among the Jewish scholars themselves.
It is not a modern product of some overzealous weirdo today.
This controversy is not something new.
There truly is nothing new under the sun.
The 56 minutes difference, or one time zone difference, often created
what was considered by some to be an excessive number of postponements.
This is because one-hour difference for the New Moon sanctification often
was one day different that Palestine because of the calendar rules concerning
what we would call noon and when to declare the New Moon in the next day.
A Babylonian scholar
named Saadia led the counterattack against Ben Meir. He never once questioned Ben Meir’s calculations.
That is probably because they were accurate.
Saddia prevailed. He was
apparently the greater orator. Subsequently,
the authority to fix the calendar and make judgements based upon the Talmud
stayed with the Babylonian Jewry. Doesn’t
this entire scenario sound familiar? Today,
ministers of various splinter groups contend for authority and play my dog is
better than your dog.
What we need to
understand from this Saadia vs Meir fiasco is that all of those who claim it is
absolutely necessary to use Jerusalem Time to fix the calendar had better watch
out. The Jewish Calendar model uses
the mean-average molad. This is a
highly theoretical, average, invisible conjunction.
AND, the calculations and
final determination for this calculation was fixed WHERE? Why it was fixed
in Babylonia. OR, would you please step in and offer proof beyond a shadow of a
doubt that it was changed back to a Jerusalem-Palestine configuration after the
10th century AD? Of course, that
would probably prove that your Jewish Calendar really does not go back to Moses,
would it not? The hole just gets
wider and deeper, doesn’t it?
Part
17
One of the major
controversies about the calendar involves whether or not to use Jerusalem Time
to schedule the holy days for the Churches of God. Most scholars, including avowed calendar experts like Frank
Nelte just absolutely insist upon Jerusalem Time.
The Jews erroneously claim to use Jerusalem Time as shown in Part 16.
This has been a never-ending cause of confusion.
Now God is not the author of confusion, so there has to be a better way.
David was a man after
God’s own heart. The scriptures
reveal that David and Johathan knew when to anticipate the New Moon.
This is because the mean average time of a New Moon is 29.5 days and
these grown men could count to 30. Note:
they were not in Jerusalem. The
priests were functioning from Shiloh, not Jerusalem.
Just like when God spoke to Moses in Egypt, he dealt with the reality of
the month of Abib in Egypt, not Jerusalem.
Likewise, David in this
Psalm shows a harmony with the creation. He
is not focusing of fictional days like the Jewish Calendar.
God is a god of precision and reality.
Our solar system is a vibrant, moving entity within the confines of
space. Yet, it is predictable
because of the natural laws of astronomy and physics that God created to hold
this universe together. That is why
we can send men to the moon. The system is and has always been highly predictable.
3 When I consider thy
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon and the stars,
which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that
thou art mindful of him? and the son of
man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made
him a little lower than the angels, and
hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to
have dominion over the works of thy
hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
Notice what God calls good:
14
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the
heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for
signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for
lights in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two
great lights; the greater light to rule
the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the
stars also.
17 And God set them in
the firmament of the heaven to give
light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over
the day and over the night, and to divide
the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
It is very presumptuous
of God to call all these things good
and have the gall to say these things are for signs and seasons, isn’t it?
In absence of the lack of light, concerning the stance the Jews and
Church of God scholars have taken on how to schedule holy days, God seems a bit
out of line? God says, use these
objects of reality. The Jews say,
“use our calendar model, can’t you see it goes back to the beginning of
creation. No we cannot prove that,
but the oral tradition of the Pharisees on this topic is correct.”
Dr. Hoeh says, “Today we use a fixed calendar.”
The UCG scholars say, “we just don’t know.
All of these study papers could be wrong, so we better maintain the
status quo and manufacture a concocted story nobody will check up on.”
When someone says we
need to base the schedule for the holy days on Jerusalem Time, it really sounds
logical doesn’t it? You think
this idea could be biblical, don’t you? The
Bible does show that someday, Christ will return and set up government of the
Kingdom of God in Jerusalem but even these scripture do not specifically
describe how the holy days will be scheduled.
So, logically Jerusalem should be the place to base time upon, RIGHT?
No! The danger of being
presumptuous on a biblical topic usually involves a failure to glean all the
scriptures relating to a subject. God
nowhere says to use only Jerusalem time. In
fact, a study of the Bible simply shows that God works with his called out
people at different times, in different places.
He obviously wants his people to be knowledgeable and in tune with his
creation. He wants them to
appreciate Him as the Creator and follow the path of the celestial bodies which
are evidence of his creation.
Let’s examine one of
the first perspectives the church really had.
It is part of the 1953 Good News article by Kenneth Herrmann. On
page 8 in column II the article Kenneth Herrmann writes:
"Thus
we have established… the yearly cycle beginning in the spring with the first
day of the month in which the early harvest would take place. The day, month and
year are easy to follow by watching the sun in its daily path, the moon in its
phases, and the seasons as they progress. The signs in the heavens were intended
for this purpose." (Also quoted in the February 1957 GOOD NEWS article,
Kenneth Herrmann's own emphasis).
Doesn’t
he say it beautifully?
Why, does the church not simply follow this analysis? God;’s Geat Time Clock is set in the sky above us.
Why, does the church instead follow some highly theoretical product of
the Pharisees? God days and nights
and months come to us where we are. Trying
to readjust everything to Jerusalem Time when there is no congregation there is
a fool’s game. The temple is
primarily in North America. That is
why we use Wheatland, Wyoming as general geographic center to schedule the
appointed times.
I now understand that
first visibility is not the criteria for the New Moon.
I do not believe it ever was. All
experts agree that witnesses were used to observe first visibility.
The scholars had ways of confounding the witnesses to check up on them.
But notice, the day they thought should be sanctified had already been
identified. It had to be.
Sometimes the dark phase of the moon lasts up to four days.
The first visibility only confirmed the calculation.
Did all of the witness sit on the hills for four days, hoping to see a
moon? No!
Most people, including the rabbis back at the time of Christ could count
to 30. This was not a highly technical thing to do.
When they did not have the Gregorian Calendar, even David and Jonathan
could anticipate the day the New Moon should occur.
To illustrate this
point further let me relate the details or our lunar observations.
On February 17, 2003 we took our text , Return to Gilligan’s Island,
and set up our table in the morning. At
daylight we gathered our lunar sightings and calculated that the New Moon would
occur, beginning at 7:48 PM on the night of what is known as March 2.
This would put the majority of theNew Moon into March 3, 2003. We checked our calculations with the Naval Observatory and
found them to be 13 minutes off. Additionally,
we checked the Naval Observatory data bank and determined the actual New Moon
over Jerusalem was March 3, 2003. Next
we checked Arthur Spier’s book and found the Jewish Calendar placed the New
Moon on March 5, 2003. This is
quite a spread from reality.
About fourteen miles
from our home is a town called Alzada, Monatana. It used to be the drunk capital of the area.
Ordinary drunks were not part of the customer base.
These were hard core drunks. After
a new snow we used to quickly travel this road because it was quite humorous to
watch the tracks. After the taverns
closed, the drunks all headed home. They
could only hit the road when they crossed it.
Occasionally, one would completely go way off the road and wreck.
This is kind of the way the Jewish Calendar approaches scheduling the
appointed times. It just sort of
hits the road when it crosses it.
The dark phase of the
New Moon we calculated has covered about 4 days. I ask you, what do you suppose the witnesses would do in a
case like this. How would the
Sanhedrin sanctify a New Moon that was way over due for first visibility.
This phenomenon would happen in Jerusalem, just like Wyoming.
The Sanhedrin had rules to take care of this.
The Diaspora was waiting for news of the sanctification of the New Moon.
Can you see that every month a few weeks before the New Moon, the
Sanhedrin would calculate (No they did not use the Jewish Calendar Model in the
1st Century) the expected day of the New Moon?
Jewish scholars in Babylonia would probably do the same thing.
They would not be far off in their calculations.
Next, messengers would be sent to notify the Diaspora of the calculated
date. Then, if first visibility was
attained early, signal fires would announce this event and messengers would be
dispatched to officially give the news.
In summary, using
Jerusalem Time actually hinders our relationship with God.
It is a distraction that removes us from the reality of the creation.
The Bible does have scriptures admonishing us to focus on the creation to
know God. Using the Jewish Calendar
model also removes people from a reality based religion into a mysterious,
unreal system.
Part
18
Aren’t there some
real benefits to the Jewish Calendar”? Surely
there are some redeeming features about it?
After all, many of us kept the appointed times under this system for
years and it seems to work? Isn’t
this what kept the church and Jews together?
Yes, there are some
real advantages to using the Jewish Calendar if you are willing to discard the
biblical record. Technically, I
believe the Bible claims that it is through the power of God’s Holy Spirit
that the church is kept in unity. I
would not know what kept the Jews together, but my observation is that they are
not very united. There are a lot of
different sects around. B y the
way, as scattered as the church is today, it is hard to imagine the Jewish
Calendar is holding it together.
There are some
redeeming values to this system:
1)
The Jewish Calendar is a fixed calendar.
One does not have to contemplate the creation or the creator to find
these days scheduled on the pocket holy day calendar and Gregorian Calendar.
2)
If, precision is not your method of approaching God and his Word, then
Jewish Calendar system is for you. You
will sort of be close to the reality of God’s clock in the heavens if you use
this calendar model. Of course,
without the Gregorian Calendar to map the results or Arthur Spier’s book, you
might really be lost. I wonder what
would happen if you were on a distant island with no Gregorian Calendar, pocket
holy day calendar, or Arthur Spier’s book.
Additionally you do not know the month, day, or season.
How would you possibly tell when to schedule the appointed times?
Actually, I wonder what good Arthur Spier’s book would really do, if
any, under these circumstances? (See
the article: Return to Gilligan’s Isand)
3)
I called up the Naval Observatory data bank and figured all the New Moons
in 2003. It took 40 minutes to
document these new moons in a MS Word file and find the data to support the
file. It took another 12 minutes to
schedule the appointed times. One
hour of time spent after the Feast of Tabernacles each year to plan the next
year’s appointed times might be to much for some organizations.
In that amount of time, one minister could probably answer 3 simple
questions from people writing in about biblical topics.
In ten years time, a workday for one minister would be used up scheduling
appointed times by using the equinox positions and actual New Moons.
This just may take too much time away from preaching the gospel.
If so, the Jewish Calendar is for you.
4) Some argue that this system appears to have been in effect for a long time and they wish to keep following the traditions of men. Perhaps this is so. After all Christmas, Easter, The Saturnalia, and many other pagan religious systems have been in effect for a long period of time. Since this Jewish Calendar model was developed in its final form by the 10th century, this would mean we might want to consider keeping Easter. Easter has been around a lot longer than the Jewish Calendar model. Maybe the substance of the days is what is really important as the
Part 19
Post Hoc Analysis
The development of Change #1 (Changing How God Schedules the Appointed Times) and its doctrinal history has been a very long and lengthy process. It is absolutely necessary to review all of the pertinent history to gain a perspective. First, it must be said that the error in using the Jewish Calendar model to schedule appointed times is not, by itself, the reason that the church does not have the Spiritual Gift of Healing today. The church did have that gift through 1968, but it was never a major manifestation. It is my opinion that using the Jewish Calendar model severely limited the church from attaining the full potential of this gift.
The next thing one must realize is that Mr. Armstrong made a mistake based upon the lack of information available. He was not a mathematician. He very clearly looked to the Bible and ferreted out all the biblical requirements. What he did not do, was change, when the truth was made known to him around 1968. By the same token, neither did anyone else. I do not have the slightest doubt that if Mr. Armstrong had understood in 1940 how the Jewish Calendar model has always violated specific biblical requirements in scheduling the appointed times, he would have resolved the issue correctly.
What I hope readers realize is that the original, Spiritual Termite has become mature. It is undermining all of the pillars in the church by 1969. By 1996, the church is being taken down. It is no longer a usable structure. The church no longer focuses on biblical requirements like they did through the 50s. The church has been aligned with Jewish Reasoning and Beliefs. This is why major doctrines were changed in 1969 and 1974. A little leaven truly leavens the whole lump. As the study progresses, I hope to be able to show how the leaders’ rush to align with Jewish authority, destroyed major doctrines. By the end of 1974, a different Christ was the cornerstone of the tabernacle. Of course, this Christ did not heal people. This Christ was made of putty and the Temple collapsed.
The church, the New Testament tabernacle, had a firm foundation. All growth figures showed that for at least the first 35 years. The church was being blessed despite the incorrect calendar to schedule the appointed times. You do not remodel buildings that are well designedl. The result is usually chaos and destruction. No engineer would ever seek to jack a skyscraper up and install a new cornerstone made of putty. Yet, this is exactly what the wanna-be leaders did and they manipulated Mr. Armstrong into letting them do it. The Jewish Christ is not the foundation of the New Testament church.
Paradoxically,
this phenomenon is a recurring cycle in the Church of God.
Jesus Christ actually spoke concerning this phenomenon in parables.
The New Testament church was never to come under the authority of the
Pharisees. Yet, the leaders
developed a doctrinal stance that submits to the so –called knowledge of the
Jews (Really Pharisees, unconverted non-levitical Jews) when the New Testament
is not explicit about doctrine. What a sham!!
A summary of the last 60 years reveals that since Mr. Armstrong first published his 1940 GOOD NEWS letter, there has been a vast shift away from the BIBLICAL requirements for the correct scheduling of the appointed times. The historical examples shown above that examine exactly which scriptures each author appealed to for support for his statements, demonstrate this shift very clearly.
If someone wants to insist on the information Mr. Armstrong published (Tabernacles at the Tekufah, the wave-sheaf, all feasts in their seasons), and all of the information
Kenneth Herrmann published in the 50s (the year must start in the spring, all feasts in their seasons), and the information Dr. Hoeh published (Tabernacles at the Tekufah), that person will be branded self-willed, wanting, divisive, and faithless. If this person feels he needs to follow God’s instructions and schedule his own calendar, that person is faithless and heretical. Fortunately, only God can bind doctrine.
For 56 years, (from 1940 till 1996) the Church has repeatedly published correct biblical requirements for the calendar, requirements that the present Jewish Calendar has violated since its very inception in A.D. 358/359. Paradoxically, it is now almost anathema to actually look at those biblical requirements, let alone to find them wanting.
This is nothing new to me. I experienced this with my family and friends when I was forced to quit keeping Christmas and Easter. I experienced this same treatment when I left Worldwide during the apostasy following Mr. Armstrong’s death. I experienced this same treatment when I left the Global organization to align with the Living Church of God. I experienced this same treatment when I became nonaligned with the Living Church of God. I signed on to follow Christ and when he shows me something, I am bound to perform, not procrastinate.
Today, all of these recent authors are fully aware of the fact that the present Jewish calendar does not really comply with the biblical requirements. That is why they
are now very meticulous in avoiding any discussion of these biblical requirements. Back in 1940 and even in the 1950's the Church supported the present Jewish
Calendar by appealing to the biblical requirements for a calendar. Today, the Jewish Calendar is defended by nothing more than appeals to "the oracles" and to faith and loyalty and submission to government (church authority). These leaders and their followers have been found wanting. They have hardened their hearts and entered the Laodicean attitude. The church is being scattered. It has been forced to wander in a Spiritual Wilderness since 1969. God is not mocked. When he shows you something to do and you ignore it, you get spewed out of his mouth, symbolically speaking.
The only justification I can find to submit to the authority of the Jews by keeping the Jewish Calendar would involve a sovereignty issue. There is no historical or biblical reason that I can find to justify this system. However, if Mr. Armstrong was indeed the Apostle Christ used to raise up the modern era of the church, then he had the authority to set the standards for formality and worship. This would imply that Jesus Christ personally inspired Mr. Armstrong to establish the Jewish Calendar model as the system to use in scheduling the appointed times, even if it did not fulfil biblical requirements. This possibility does pose a dilemma for anyone rebelling against his authority. Contending with the Apostle is an issue with a lot of dark streets. If, Mr. Armstrong was not the Apostle, or a deceived Apostle (Paul even thought he could be deceived) then we have a different issue. I believe we are bound to select a system that does not violate biblical principles for scheduling the appointed times. To do otherwise, is simply rank rebellion against God.
Part 20
Conclusion to Change #1
I hope as we move through all of the doctrinal changes, that the reader will see how Satan has undermined the church. The change in the attitude toward the Bible as the source of information and authority at the beginning of the Radio Church of God concerning how to schedule the appointed times was truly devastating. If I were with Tonto, and he were to ask me what it all meant to me.
I would say: After examining all of the facts, I would expect to find just what we see today. God is a jealous god. I would not expect to see any healing in the Churches of God. I would expect to see them blindly staggering about searching for healing, and wandering in a Spiritual Wilderness, yet not having any idea what the biblical doctrine of healing really is all about. I would expect to see them drowning in sorrow, while claiming to be blessed. That is what it means to me! Methinks, that is exactly what I see.