This is a good article showing how HWA Kept the New moon Count
from the Invisible conjunction in 1940.
GOOD NEWS LETTER 1940
HOW TO FIGURE PASSOVER
PASSOVER IS ON THE 14TH OF THE FIRST MONTH, ABIB (Nisan).
The PROBLEM is to figure WHEN is 1st day of month Abib.
Because the Catholics and Protestants figure "Easter" a month earlier that the
Hebrew calendar sets Passover this year, and because Brother Dodd has published
the date March 22 as Passover, while both Stanberry and Salem organizations have
published the date as April 21st, many of the brethren are in doubt, and want
the FACTS.
Briefly, after very exhaustive study, and counsel with brethren who have also
made through study of the question for years, the facts are these:
1) The Bible YEAR is SOLAR, while the Bible MONTH is LUNAR.
2) PROOF the Bible month is LUNAR; that is, each month begins with a new moon:
By studying Numbers 28 and 29, we learn offerings were held DAILY (vs. 3-4),
WEEKLY on every Sabbath (vs. 9), MONTHLY on the 1st day of each month (vs. 11),
and YEARLY on the annual holydays (vs. 16 and on thru chapter 29). Compare with
I Chr. 23:31; II Chr. 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; etc., where the same sacrifices and meat
and drink offerings are mentioned, and in each case the MONTHLY offerings are on
the NEW MOON. Since Nu. 28:11 says this is in the "beginnings of your months,"
or the first day of each month, we have Bible proof the 1st day of each month is
calculated by the New Moon.
3) The Bible YEAR is SOLAR. This is proved by the festivals and the holydays. A
month is between 29 and 30 days. A 12-month year, or a lunar year, is
approximately 354 days, whereas a solar year is a little more than 365 days.
Thus a lunar year is about 11 days less than a solar year. If the Bible year
were lunar, always 12 months, Passover would come about 11 days earlier each
year. Thus, in about nine years it would come in the MIDWINTER; in another 9 in
the FALL, and a few years later Passover would come in the SUMMER. In 34 years
it and all the holydays would make the round of all four seasons. But Passover
ALWAYS comes in the SPRING, at time of the early grain harvest. On the morrow
after the Sabbath during Feast of Unleavened Bread, the priest waved the
wave-sheaf, and none of the early Spring grain could be used until this was
done. (Lev. 23). Pentecost ALWAYS came in the summer, Tabernacles ALWAYS in the
Fall at time of, or right after, Fall harvest. (Lev. 23:29) These were SET
feasts, set for DEFINITE SEASONS of the year (Ex. 23:14-17; 34:18, 22-23; Deut.
16:9, 13, 16; Lev. 23:4; Nu. 28:2; Ex. 13:10).
4) These facts prove there had to be an intercalary, or 13th, month ADDED to the
year SEVEN TIMES in each 19 years. God has set the sun, the earth, and the moon
in motion so that once every 19 years the sun and moon come into conjunction.
That is, once in 19 years there will be a new moon on March 21st, for example.
There are SEVEN more new moons in each 19-year solar-lunar cycle than there are
solar months, (12 to the year). Thus God's great time cycle, written in the
heavens, is based upon SEVEN -- God's complete number, signifying Sabbath --
added to TWELVE, the number of Tribes of Israel, number of Jesus' original
apostles, etc.! Since this is true, the ONLY POSSIBLE METHOD by which months can
begin on new moons, and yet the solar year can be retained, is to add a 13th
month every two or three years, 7 times in 19 years. Nowhere do the Scriptures
specifically mention an intercalary month, yet these facts of astronomy and
these Bible facts PROVE it was used.
5) Now, our problem is, WHEN, and HOW OFTEN, DID God ordain these intercalary
months should be added?
Research reveals two basic points on this question, 1st, GOD DID NOT RECORD IT
IN THE BIBLE, which gives us absolutely NOTHING more to go on that I have stated
above. 2nd, History is vague on the subject, shedding little light that can be
accerted and trusted. Yet we know God gave HIS PEOPLE a FIXED RULE for
calculating TIME PERIODS, and for figuring WHEN to hold the Festivals of
Jehovah. Otherwise, the prophecies, so full of definite time-periods, can never
be understood. Otherwise God's people could not obey Him!
We learn in the Bible the men of old did have understanding of the times. They
knew how to figure time. "Of the children of Issachar, were men that HAD
UNDERSTANDING OF THE TIMES, to know what Israel ought to do." (I Chron. 12:32).
See Esth. 1:13.
In Dan 7:25, the "little horn," or papacy, was to "think to change TIMES" as
well as laws. Notice, only to THINK to change them -- to deceive the world in
general, but not God's people. Thus with the LAW and the Sabbath. The world is
deceived. But have WE lost "TIME" in respect to the Sabbath? No! This Scripture,
then, indicates TIME HAS NOT BEEN LOST! The true sacred calendar is no more lost
than the weekly Sabbath. Then WHO HAS PRESERVED THIS TIME, this sacred CALENDAR?
To whom did God give it? To whom were "the oracles of God COMMITTED?" To ISRAEL
AND JUDAH, of course! Israel LOST the Sabbath, LOST time, LOST even her national
name and identity. But JUDAH NEVER DID. Judah has kept TIME in respect to the
weekly SABBATH. The Jews rejected Christ. They apostatized in doctrine, BUT THEY
WERE STRICT, STICKLERS FOR THE LETTER. Would such a people have lost their
CALENDAR? If so, TIME IS LOST! There is no other source thru whom God could have
committed AND PRESERVED His calendar. He did COMMIT it to them. Therefore it
must be thru them He has preserved it! They had the calendar correct at the time
of Christ. They figured Passover, all the feasts, as He did. In 70 A.D. the Jews
were scattered into every nation. The present "Jewish calendar" had come down
intact without change since 100 A.D. -- that much is proved by history. Could
they have changed it, and all changed it the same way, while scattered all over
the world, and that within a thirty-year period between 70 and 100 A.D.? IF THE
PRESENT JEWISH CALENDAR EVER WAS CHANGED FROM THE WAY COMMITTED IT TO THEM, IT
HAD TO BE DURING THOSE THIRTY YEARS. The Jews in one part of the world, without
knowing what the Jews in the other parts of the world were doing, all had to get
it changed in exactly the same way! That, of course, was utterly IMPOSSIBLE!
Further PROOF comes thru the continuous observance of Passover by one Jewish
sect, going by the name of "Samaritans."
In the "Encyclopedia Britannica", 14th edition, Vol. 17, page 357, we read:
"The Samaritans have throughout their history observed the Passover with all its
Pentateuchal ceremonial and still observe it down to the present day. THEY
SACRIFICE THE PASCHAL LAMB, which is probably the oldest religious rite that HAS
BEEN CONTINUOUSLY KEPT UP." Here are the ONLY people who have kept Passover,
continuously, thru all generations without a break, exactly as God gave it to
them under the old Testament form. They have NEVER made any change in their
doctrines regarding Passover, or the manner of observing it. Could THEY have
lost the calendar -- the way of figuring WHEN to take it -- as God committed it
to them? Hardly! Yet they use today the same calendar all the Jews use -- the
sacred original Hebrew calendar!
Interesting, too, is the fact they observe Passover on the eve, or night part of
the 14th, not on the 15th. They kill the lamb between sunset and dark at the
very beginning of the 14th. They observe the FEAST the night of the 15th. Also,
they have continued to figure Pentecost from the morrow after the WEEKLY SABBATH
during the days of unleavened bread, the true Bible way -- instead of from the
first annual Sabbath.
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.
There is NO BIBLE AUTHORITY WHATSOEVER for figuring the 1st day of the 1st month
from the new moon NEAREST the Spring equinox!
As soon as I learned of Brother Dodd's published dates for the festivals this
year, I sent him a telegram asking for his authority for his dates. His reply is
that he bases his method of figuring on certain statements of profane history
found in encyclopedias. He replies "in some Bible dictionary, or Encyclopedia,
or Jewish encyclopedia, I read something like this: 'The ancient reckoning of
Passover was from the actual sight of the New Moon nearest the Vernal Equinox
....'"
But, we ask (tho Brother Dodd is quoting from memory, and was unable to find the
clipping or reference, or state WHERE he had read this), how did the man who
wrote the article in the encyclopedia KNOW this was the ancient method of
reckoning? Did He offer proof? The Jews, continuing the observance of all the
seven annual festivals EVERY YEAR continuously, tho scattered all over the
world, say it was figured anciently as they figure it today, by the Jewish
calendar. What more dependable record has come down from Moses' time?
Bro. Dodd also cited Josphesus, Jewish historian, to indicate that Passover
could never be earlier than March 20th, or later than April 19th. Yet in
Hastings Bible Dictionary, I find this same Josephus quoted as saying the Vernal
equinox (March 21), always occurred in Nisan, which means the year always began
with the New Moon PRIOR to March 21st. They quote one more author to this same
effect, (Muss-Arnolt, p. 77). Thus one writer says Josephus (Ant. I, X.5) to
figure the new moon PRIOR to March 21st, another uses the same Josephus to prove
we ought to take the new moon NEAREST the same date, or about half the time the
new moon FOLLOWING March 21st, while in the Britannica I find statements
supposed to be historic that it ALWAYS began with the first new moon AFTER March
21st.
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.
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.
The New moon occurs, IN JERUSALEM, (World Almanac), at exactly 10:18 P.M., the
night of April 7th, which is the eve of April 8th. However, God had the new moon
observed by the naked eye and by this method the first day of the 1st month
begins the following sunset, April 8th. Thus Passover comes AFTER SUNSET APRIL
21st and the HOLY CONVOCATION after sunset April 22nd, which is Abib 15th. The
second holyday begins sunset April 28th, with holy convocation held during the
day-time, April 29. Pentecost this year is JUNE 17th, sunset, until sunset June
18th, instead of June 12th as erroneously figured on our calendar printed three
years ago.
* * * * *
SACRED CALENDAR FOR 1940
PASSOVER, after sunset, April 21st
UNLEAVENED BREAD, April 21 to 29th
First Sabbath, meeting after sunset April 22nd,
Second Sabbath, daytime April 29th
PENTECOST, daytime meeting, June 18th
TRUMPETS SABBATH, October 3rd
ATONEMENT (fast), October 12th
TABERNACLES, sunset Oct. 16th to sunset Oct. 24th
* * * * *
-- HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
The following information is provided for Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California (longitude W118.4, latitude N34.1):
Sunday 7 April 1940 Pacific Standard Time SUN Begin civil twilight 5:07 a.m. Sunrise 5:33 a.m. Sun transit 11:56 a.m. Sunset 6:19 p.m. End civil twilight 6:44 p.m. MOON Moonset 5:34 p.m. on preceding day Moonrise 5:27 a.m. Moon transit 11:55 a.m. Moonset 6:28 p.m. Moonrise 6:01 a.m. on following day
New Moon on 7 April 1940 at 12:18 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.