Who Decides the Calendar?
Good News
January 1961
Vol. X, Number 1
How
FAR Does CHURCH GOVERNMENT Extend into YOUR Life?
Through whom does God make final decisions in matters of Church
policy? What is your
responsibility under the government of God?
by Herman L. Hoeh
Who decides the
point on this round earth at which the new
moon is to be observed? The
surprising answer is, GOD DOES NOT
ALLOW US TO DECIDE! He
has NOT made it OUR RESPONSIBILITY to
observe the new moon.
God revealed His
Sacred Calendar to the Jews. THEY determine
where the new moon is to be calculated from. THEY determine
mathematically when, in a nineteen-year cycle, the thirteenth
month is to be added. THEY
determine when a nineteen-year cycle
begins.
THEY determine
mathematically that no holy day in the Sacred
Calendar may fall on Sunday in the autumn. That is why the Feast
of Trumpets, for example always falls on either a Monday, or
Tuesday, or Thursday, or Sabbath (beginning in each instance, the
evening before). But it
never falls on a Sunday, Wednesday or
Friday. It is one of the
irrevocable mathematical rules of the
Sacred Calendar God committed to the Jews. We have nothing to
say about it. We are
under authority. Determining the year is
not left up to any individual in God's Church today. It is
determined by those who are responsible in the Jewish community.
The function of God's ministry today is to understand God's
Calendar and to ENFORCE this calendar today.
The Jews have
been required THROUGH ALL THESE CENTURIES to
preserve God's Calendar. One
can find the Sacred Calendar for
this century preserved by the Jews in "The Comprehensive Hebrew
Calendar," which gives in advance all the months from now till
2000 A.D.
The ministry
today is responsible for publishing God's
Calendar for the Church each year, but we do not decide for
ourselves when a month begins.
We do not decide what year is to
have 13 months and what year is to have 12 months. These things
are not left to us, NOR TO ANY OF YOU.
But we do have authority
to bind God's Calendar on the Church.
As to WHICH DAY a
Festival falls, that is not left to your
decision. GOD tells us
WHICH DAY in the calendar any Festival
falls. He tells us the
Passover is to be observed on the 14th
day of the first month. But
He does not allow us to decide for
ourselves when the first month is.
That has been committed by
revelation to the Jews, just as much as have the Scriptures of
the Old Testament!
The
responsibility of the ministry is to bind these dates on
the Church in any matters of controversy. But we do not
originate them. God
does! When we see these things, brethren,
it becomes quite clear that there has to be AUTHORITY over our
lives when it comes to group functions of the Church.