The Postponements

Never in the recent history of the church of God has one idea stirred so much excitement and emotion, as it races through the church like wildfire!

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about the Hebrew calendar. The information in this article may surprise and astonish you! In fact, you may never look at the Hebrew calendar the same way again!

This booklet was initially released in 1996. Later 2002. We had originally intended to publish a book on the various calendar subjects, but the more we researched, the more we became convinced that there are several ways to approach the calendar issues. Most of these different calendar approaches can be backed up by biblical and historical evidence to support each position taken, but none of them emerged clearly identified as the one right understanding.

We finally had to admit that we could not authoritatively take any one position and defend it successfully against all others. We also saw many people whom we were convinced were true God-followers, and sincerely dedicated in their service to God, who had come to different conclusions about the calendar than we had.

So, progress on the book came to a complete halt. There were simply too many unanswered questions. We could not find enough biblical and historical evidence to convince everyone that one certain calendar concept was right while all others were wrong. And we could not at that time understand why it was that all this could be happening to a people about whom God cared very much.

After I attended a calendar conference before the 1996 Feast, and after our own calendar panel discussion at the Feast, I came to these conclusions:

(1) The Hebrew Calendar (or, more accurately, the Jewish Calendar) is being widely dismissed as authoritative in our lives, as more people discover that it is not a biblical calendar, or “God’s Calendar,” but rather a hodge-podge of Jewish tradition that didn’t become finalized until the tenth century A.D.;

(2) There are two major theories as to what constitutes a new moon: Those of us who first studied materials presenting the conjunction of the moon as the new moon became proponents of that concept, while those of us who first became acquainted with the new moon as a visible crescent tended to follow that way of doing things. You will notice in the enclosed article a heavy slant toward the conjunction as being the new moon, since that was “where we were coming from” at the time we wrote the article. However, “crescent people” are very dedicated to what they believe and can also provide strong arguments to back up their position.

(3) Both major schools of thought (conjunction and visible crescent) have valid reasoning to explain their idea of what the new moon might be. However, neither group can come up with conclusive scriptures that put all argument to rest. The second best guide would be history, but history indicates that Israel observed both types of new moon and the calculated calendar at various times in its history.

(4) We have noticed that people from each camp, once they become acquainted with the other side’s perspective, have said, “I wasn’t aware of all that. I’ll have to study into this some more.” Both sides are (for the most part) willing to listen to each other, and to continue to cooperate, as brethren should. We all must continue to study into the matter, in an atmosphere of truth-seeking, not just trying to win people over to our way of thinking.

(5) If a body of men arose who might be considered authorities on the calendar, such as a reconstituted Sanhedrin in modern day Israel, you can imagine that not everyone in the New Testament church would be willing to bow to their conclusions or to their authority. No doubt, such a Sanhedrin would be devoted to tinkering further with the calculated Jewish calendar, which many of us have already rejected, rather than answering questions which we have regarding the actual new moons.

(6) These and other issues are still up in the air. (For example, should we use Jerusalem time versus local time, which new moon would be Abib 1, etc.) There are many compelling arguments and “proofs” on both sides of every issue, plus more than a reasonable doubt. Without a valid human authority to whom we can all look, each one of us must make his or her own decisions and bear the responsibility for them. It reminds us of the situation in Judges 21:25: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This was not necessarily a horrible turn of events. It was merely the way things were.

Because of these difficulties, and others, we must admit that the jury is still out in reference to the calendar issues. We can address some of the issues, which our article has done, but no final answers have as yet been reached. There are many people who firmly believe their answers are the correct ones, but we’re not as yet prepared, in this examination of the calendar, to be so bold. The greater the number of people studying into these issues, and sharing their findings with others, the better able we will be to arrive at the correct conclusions—in God’s good time.

The final answer I have reached is this: Either we can’t know, or we simply don’t know at the present time, or we may not be confident with the answers we have found, regarding the real answers to the questions we will be examining. Many people on various sides of the issues may feel they have found the right answers, but we must recall that we had been convinced in the past regarding various doctrinal understandings, and we were surprised to find out that we really didn’t know, after all!

There is much good information in this booklet. We don’t claim to have all the answers, nor do we believe we will convince everyone who reads this that these are the true answers. Learn what you can from this booklet, and from every source you have available to you. Learn as much as you can, and draw your own conclusions, with much prayer and beseeching God. We must always be seeking His will, not our own.

We have found that “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out” (Proverbs 25:2). God doesn’t tell us every detail. We need to search them out. That’s how we know “it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God” (1 Peter 4:17). God is judging us on how we seek God and His truth. Perhaps more important to God than the answers we come to, is how we conduct the search!

When Messiah comes, He will tell us the answers. In the meantime, we must continue to do our best with what limited understanding we have, and with the limited mental capacity we have! Happy reading. • Jack M. Lane

It’s exciting! It’s history in the making! Discussions about the Hebrew calendar have erupted in many Church of God congregations and corporate Church headquarters around the world!

The Hebrew calendar is a complex topic, with many issues to explore. Two particular points have become most prominent recently in calendar discussions: (1) the postponements, and (2) the new moon. In this booklet, we will attempt to answer several questions that have arisen surrounding these issues. We intend for this booklet to serve as an immediate means of getting preliminary information into the hands of those who would like to know the answers, without too much technical detail.

The information contained in this article is our opinion, based on what we have found in the Bible and in history. Articles written by other people will, likewise, reflect their own opinions. There are some areas where it would be difficult to be dogmatic, as there are many areas where there is no clear “Thus saith the Lord.”

We do not maintain that we have discovered absolute truth, or that we are the final word on this subject. All of us in the faith are in this together, and we should all be seeking truth, putting our findings together, rather than pulling apart.

Many people made the mistake in the past of choosing a religious leader, and then suspending their own thinking ability, accepting everything the religious leader taught, often without bothering to prove whether what was taught is true. Some are still making this mistake, and will believe what a clergyman says simply because he is a clergyman. We urge our readers to take back their ability to think and to reason, and to come to their own conclusions.

Since it is not possible to understand what is actually correct in many areas at this time (1 Corinthians 13:9-12), the best we can do is to study into those areas and draw conclusions based on our findings. Some people will arrive at one finding, some at another. This is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but only that we have arrived at different findings. We should still treat our church brethren with respect and dignity, even if we disagree.

“The glory of God is to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2, Literal Translation of the Bible).

“The secret things belong to Jehovah our God, and the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

There are those who maintain that the calendar is one of those secret things of God, and that knowledge of the calendar was entrusted to the priests, or to a secret society of Jews. But God did not give any cryptic knowledge to the priests and Levites so they could control the people or be revered in some way. It was the pagan mystery religions of the nations around Israel that practiced secrets in their religion, including clandestine societies and hidden mysteries. Did God set up a secret society? Where are the scriptures to show that?

No, the scriptures above make it very plain that whatever God wants us to know, it is available even for our children to verify. Otherwise, how would the Israelites know, for example, that a false religious leader was trying to get them to follow other gods, as the true God warns in Deuteronomy 13?

Using the knowledge which God allows us to have, we have studied into the matter and have arrived at the conclusions presented here.

It has been pointed out that we should talk about “the Jewish calendar” rather than “the Hebrew calendar,” because the traditional calendar is a product of Jewish thought, reason, and calculation. However, we have elected to refer to “the Hebrew calendar” because that is the name by which it is more widely known, and it is so called by those who prepare and publish the calendar.

We have noticed that in virtually every sermon tape or article from the clergy designed to defend the Hebrew calendar, they attempt to denigrate those who teach other things by derisively referring to them as “self-appointed experts.” We make no claim to be experts. We are like so many others who have studied into the matter and found something other than the usual dogma to be the case.

As for the clergymen who continue to deride others by calling them “self-appointed experts,” what are their credentials that would make them any more a calendar scholar than anyone else? Many officials and clergy of various church organizations are now examining the calendar for the first time, and finding that they were not experts, after all. The clergy should realize that they are speaking negatively about a large and growing segment of the church, who are not content to follow a man or stick with the way things have always been done. More and more people in the faith are attempting to correct past wrongs in doctrine. It doesn’t make sense for the clergy to try to thwart that effort.

We would like to call on everyone involved in this search for God’s truth to stop, take a deep breath, and count to ten. Then, in a relaxed attitude, let’s all go forward together, honestly searching for answers to this perplexing question. Hostility serves no useful purpose. We should be confronting the facts of history, not each other.

There are several calendar issues which must be discussed. Primarily, problems with the Hebrew calendar have caused churches to unwittingly schedule Holy Day observances on what we would call the wrong day, a majority of the time! We’ll see that as we study into this matter in the pages ahead.

But before we can discuss the calendar itself, we must approach the question of whether or not the Jews have the authority to set the calendar, change it, or do anything they please with it.

Many people are still firmly convinced that there is such a thing as “God’s Sacred Calendar.” The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) published the so-called Sacred Calendar for many years, showing when the Holy Days fell. If a Holy Day was scheduled to be held on a certain day of a month, it would be clearly marked on the Sacred Calendar, so people would be sure to make it to Holy Day services on the correct day. Since the entire Church around the world was observing the same Sacred Calendar, the entire Church membership met on the same day, everywhere in the world.

It may come as a shock to many, but there is no such thing as “God’s Sacred Calendar.” There simply isn’t. We were taught for years that there was a sacred calendar handed down from God. It turns out that it was nothing more than the standard Hebrew calendar, used by the Jews throughout the ages! It is a calendar, but it is not sacred, nor is it from God!

Most people who have begun to study into the calendar have seen that the Hebrew calendar is not scriptural. That is, there is no place in scripture where the year is defined, the months are identified, or the rules are expounded. There is no place in scripture where the Jews were given the authority to set the calendar. “God’s Sacred Calendar” is a myth! And the Hebrew calendar is a man-made calendar, subject to flaws and imperfections because fallible men have put it together, and have tinkered with it over centuries and millennia.

A brief history of the Hebrew calendar would show that, at the time of the Exodus, God told Moses that the year would begin with a particular month, and that Passover would occur 14 days into that month. We still know that month by its Hebrew name, Aviv or Abib, and by its Babylonian name, Nisan.

In the wilderness, God explained the sequence of Holy Days, found in Leviticus 23, and showed that the first month and the seventh month were especially important. On the first day of the seventh month, Tishri, the Feast of Trumpets was to be held. The first day of the month was a new moon. Atonement was to be on the tenth day following the new moon. The Festival of Ingathering, or Feast of Tabernacles, was to begin on the fifteenth day following the new moon. Other Holy Days fell into their appointed times, as God explained.

Throughout most of human history, each month was considered to begin with the new moon. The terms “new moon” and “new month” meant the same thing. The terms were interchangeable. (Recall, as an example, the cliché about American Indians saying, “Many moons ago, this or that happened.”)

However, a complex system of traditions and legislation arose around the calendar, including a Calendar Council of the Sanhedrin by the time of Christ. Following the dispersion of the Jews from Palestine in the first century A.D., and increased persecution toward the Jews in the fourth century, the eminent Jewish scholar Hillel II did what had never been done before: he published the rules that had grown up around the calendar. Before that time, the calendar rules and regulations had been kept from the average citizen as a proprietary interest of the priests or the Sanhedrin. However, because of the increased persecution and growing isolation between communities of Jews, Hillel II felt the best way to preserve the calendar was to allow separated Jews to have the rules regarding the calendar.

The act of publishing the rules and regulations did serve to keep the Hebrew calendar going. However, the calendar experienced tinkering and changing several times over the centuries. It came to be in its present form, as we know it today, by the tenth century, at about the time of Maimonides, the Jewish scholar in Spain.

During the long centuries, several changes took place in the calendar, and in the way the Jews observed the Holy Days. Today, Holy Day observing Christians are faced with this dilemma: If the Jews truly have authority over the calendar, then it would follow that (1) it is not God’s calendar, or else it could not be changed, and (2) we must observe the Holy Days when and how the Jews observe them.

If the Jews have authority over the calendar, who gave them that authority? Does that authority extend over the New Covenant church of God?

Although many are quick to answer that God gave the Jews the authority, there is no scripture whatsoever giving the Jews any control, or total and unquestioned rulership, in calendar matters. It’s true, the Jews have taken on the responsibility with all earnestness, but there is no biblical mandate from God.

Similarly, there is no scripture that would indicate that the Jews of any age had religious authority or power over New Testament Christians, either in Holy Day observance or in any other matter.

If we stop to analyze the situation, we have to ask, “How is it that carnal, unconverted Jews would have the authority to tell members of God’s New Testament Church when to observe God’s Holy Days? Where is that in scripture?”

Paul referred to “the oracles of God” in Romans 3:1-2: “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.”

However, these verses are not speaking in reference to giving the Jews authority to set a calendar or move God’s Holy Days. Yet this one verse of scripture, isolated from its context, has been used repeatedly to reinforce the idea that the Jews have total control over the calendar. This is absolutely not what is being discussed, and betrays a flagrant misuse of scripture.

When the word “oracle” is researched, and the book of Romans is considered as a whole, we can see that the “oracles of God” are the scriptures, and the advantage or profit the Jews had was not in having the calendar rules, but in knowing God’s laws!

The apostles stated that we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). That would include any man-made religious doctrine or legislation that is in conflict with God’s Word. It is possible to worship Christ in vain, following the traditions of men as if they were the commandments of God (Mark 7:7-9). We are familiar with the stories in the gospels about how the traditions, laws and customs of the Jews so often worked in a direction opposite to what Christ wanted.

When the Jews rejected their own Messiah, the Gospel message was taken to the Gentiles, who embraced it with joy (Acts 13:48). When a party of Jews from Jerusalem attempted to impose Jewish practices on the Gentile church members, it was decided that God did not want that to happen, but rather that the Gentiles could follow the principles of Christianity in their own culture, without the imposition of the Jewish hardships (Acts 15).

That decision by the early church still holds true today! Why would we hang the burden of the rules of postponement, or any other traditions of men, around our necks if the scriptures don’t tell us to do so? The Jews do not have any authority over God’s church!

In addition to the often used verses concerning the oracles of God, there are other scriptures that come up whenever calendar matters are discussed, to “prove” a particular point of view. Let’s look at them briefly, to see if they really say what people try to make them say.

One scripture that is used in an attempt to bolster Jewish authority is this: “Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do...’” (Matthew 23:1-3). Some have even used this scripture as their authority to follow some of the practices of the Pharisees.

Did Jesus tell the multitudes and His disciples to become Pharisees? To do what the Pharisees do? Or that if they wanted to please God they should look to the Pharisees? Let’s continue in the same verse: “... but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders ... all their works they do to be seen by men. ... They love the best places ... and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’” (verses 3-7).

Is this the kind of behavior Christ wanted His disciples to emulate? Would Christ have wanted us to adopt the customs and traditions of the scribes and Pharisees? Not at all! In the next few verses, Jesus commanded His followers to live just the opposite way of life!

Yet, Jesus was referring to the Pharisees and scribes as those who had some authority, because they “sit in Moses’ seat.” What kind of authority was that? In the Companion Bible, Bullinger mentions in a footnote that the verb translated “sit” might better be rendered “have taken [their] seat.” If this is the sense of the verb, we can see how the scribes and Pharisees took to themselves the lofty authority of Moses! That’s why Christ told the Jews to “do as they say, not as they do.”

Did their authority extend beyond the confines of the local synagogue of the first century Holy Land, and reach clear down to us today, in the New Covenant assembly of God? Of course not. The scribes and Pharisees have no authority over the body of Christ.

Continuing in Matthew chapter 23, Jesus denounced the scribes and Pharisees. Seven times Christ thundered, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” Sin after sin was revealed by Him who can read all hearts. Christ did not want His followers to pattern their lives or behavior after the scribes and the Pharisees. Whatever limited authority the scribes and Pharisees may have exercised, they were not being held up as examples the people should follow.

If the Jews had the authority to tell us when to observe God’s Holy Days, would they not also have the authority to tell us what to do on those Holy Days? For example, some practices of the Jews include:

· Calling Tishri, rather than Abib, the first month, and calling Tishri 1, rather than Abib 1, New Years Day.

• Observing Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, on a fixed date, Sivan 6, rather than counting from the Wave Sheaf ceremony.

• During “Holy Week” (that is, Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread), they will eat Kosher. The rest of the year, most Jews have no regard for the dietary laws.

Many people, when originally instructed about “God’s Sacred Calendar,” were told that we weren’t under the Jews’ authority, but that they just happened to “get it right.” That is, the Jews were following “God’s Sacred Calendar” almost as well as we were. (We made a few corrections, you see.) What colossal conceit! But now, there is a flip-flop in official explanations. Now, when anyone questions the calendar, the church organizations say the Jews have the authority over the calendar, and we must do what they say. Is this consistent with either history or logic?

If the Jews have the authority of the calendar, are we not under an obligation to keep Passover and Pentecost as they do? Yet, as we have just seen, even the Jews don’t observe Leviticus 23 in all instances.

If we were to place ourselves under the authority of the Jews in this one area only, and not in any other, that would make no sense. But if we place ourselves under the Jews’ authority in many or all areas, so that we too “progress” in a backward direction, God’s authority in our lives is nullified. If this untruth is carried out to its conclusion, we would have to admit that the Jews have authority in other areas of our lives, as well. We would, in fact, become Jews rather than Christians!

As we progress though this study of the calendar, keep in mind that (1) the Jews have accepted the responsibility of developing and maintaining the Hebrew calendar, although God did not give a scriptural command to that effect; and (2) the Jews have no authority over New Covenant Christians today, in any area.

The Hebrew calendar as we know it today is a product of the 10^th century. History indicates that the calendar used in the first century A.D. is not exactly the same as today’s calendar.

There is talk today in Israel of reconvening a Sanhedrin to settle many issues, including problems with the calendar. For instance, the calendar is progressing gradually through the year, so that the spring Holy Days are moving closer to summer at the rate of four days every thousand years. Because of this progression of the calendar, and because of the intercalation of a thirteenth month at arbitrary times rather than when it is needed, the Holy Days can actually be off by a month! (The intercalary month is discussed later in more detail.)

It is generally acknowledged that only the Sanhedrin would have the authority to change the Hebrew calendar. But who would vest a modern-day Sanhedrin with such authority—the government of men in Tel Aviv? Does the civil government of Israel have the power to authorize such activity if the calendar is truly from God? This is one of the thorny issues people must consider.

There are few calendar rules listed in scripture, and there are no rules of postponement in scripture at all. There is no place in the scriptures where God defines a calendar or tells us how to set up or administer a calendar. However, there are enough clues and principles in scripture to help us see at least part of the picture, even though we seem to be looking through a glass darkly.

Many people assume that the Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar; that is, the first day of each month ought to be the day of the new moon. But the Hebrew calendar is not a true lunar calendar, nor is it a true lunar-solar calendar, which would use both the moon and the sun to set the days. It is a calculated calendar.

Rather than noting the exact time of each new moon every month (the actual time of lunation), the Hebrew calendar uses the mean time of lunation (the average amount of time it takes for one lunar cycle, averaged over 19 years) to calculate when the months supposedly begin, whether or not the “average” date is actually the new moon! This averaging of dates can affect when a Holy Day is scheduled, and can offset by one or two days when the faithful convene for Holy Day services! A church may meet on a day other than the day God intended! If God set up a certain day, and the Church meets on another day, was the appointment kept?

God says, in relationship to computing when His Holy Days will be scheduled, to use the first new moon and the seventh new moon, when they occur—not the average time they occur, but the day they occur!

If the length of the synodic month [one full cycle of the moon] were exactly 29.5 days, and the time required ... were a constant, we should have a regular succession of lunar months with first 29 days and next 30, then 29 again, and so forth. [This is how the Hebrew calendar is set.] Since, however, the length of the synodic month ... varies, it is quite possible to have two 30-day months or two 29-day months in a row. When the synodic month is below average length ... it is possible to have three 29-day months in a row. Conversely, when the synodic month is lengthening beyond the average ... it is possible to have three, at times four, and very rarely five 30-day months in a row.

The time required from conjunction to full moon is also variable. ... [There are times when] the moon travels ... from conjunction to full moon, and the time is shorter because the distance is less and its speed is faster than ... [at other times]. The necessary time for full moon varies from 13.73 to 15.80 days after conjunction. (Richard A. Parker, The Calendars of Ancient Egypt, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950)

The Hebrew calendar does not take these cosmic fluctuations into account. It simply calculates average times and lets it go at that. If we wish to do what God says to do, we cannot use the average length of the lunation of the moon to determine when His appointed times are. Rather, it would be appropriate, and highly accurate, to note each month’s actual new moon phase.

In addition, the Jews compute the year from the wrong starting point, according to God’s way of reckoning. The Hebrew calendar sets each year by calling the first day of the seventh month “New Year’s Day.” That is, the Jews consider the new year to begin with Tishri 1, in the fall, rather than Abib 1, in the spring!

The complexity grows from there. Once they have determined when Tishri 1 falls, they then count backward 177 days to determine when the first day of Abib will be. This may set Abib 1 on a new moon day, or it may not.

The real problem with this system is that, because of the rules of postponement, Tishri 1 itself may or may not be on the day of a new moon. It may be set one or two days after the new moon! Each month should begin on a new moon, but in the Hebrew calendar this does not happen every month.

The problem arises because, although one can look at the calendar and go to a Holy Day service on the 15^th day of Abib (according to the calendar), that day may not actually be the 15^th day following the new moon! We believe God does not want His people meeting for Holy Days on the wrong day. To a growing number of people, “the 15^th day of the new moon” is rather plain. To meet on another day, even if the Hebrew calendar designates it as the 15^th of the month, is wrong.

Some people point out that God blessed their church with growth, with miracles and healings, and all sorts of blessings, while they were observing the Hebrew calendar. This is mentioned to “prove” that God backs up the Hebrew calendar. However, this assertion fails to take into consideration the knowledge and intent the people in the church had.

For example, in the past we observed Sunday, Christmas, etc., in our ignorance and innocence, and God allowed us to do what we considered to be right. But then, one day we learned the truth in God’s Word, that the Sabbath is still an obligation for Christians, and that God does not condone Christmas, but rather prefers we observe His Holy Days. At that point, we had to change to conform to our new, greater understanding. If someone came to an understanding of the Sabbath, but then defiantly refused to give up Sunday worship, with knowledge and intent, would God continue to bless that person? Probably not. God will not “back us up” if we deliberately disobey Him. The key is in whether we know we are disobeying God!

That’s why there is so much interest today about the calendar. People are seeing, for the first time, that their church may not have been correctly setting the dates for observing the Holy Days, and that we may need to change in order to please God, as God leads us to a deeper understanding. We are truly responsible for what we know (Luke 12:47-48). Once we understand more, we must live according to our increased understanding.

It’s not good enough to simply accept the Hebrew calendar on faith. We have accepted so much on faith in our religious lives, sometimes to our hurt. Now it falls on us as God’s people to truly prove all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21), for unless we prove all things, how will we truly have faith in the good things we must retain?

Is it wrong to prove something, rather than accepting it on blind faith? God doesn’t tell us to believe anything concerning Him simply on blind faith. Where God is concerned, there is always evidence for faith (Romans 1:18-20)! The example of the Bereans was cited in scriptures forevermore, commending them for going to the scriptures to prove if what they had been taught was true or not (Acts 17:11). There are a great many congregations of corporate churches today where that kind of behavior would simply not be tolerated. Their philosophy is stated, in so many words, as “Accept and believe what we teach, or you’re not welcome here.” Are you attending one of those churches?

Some people feel that the calendar sounds too complicated. They say it’s just too difficult for them to understand, and they need to rely on someone else to tell them what they need to know.

What is difficult to follow or understand is the Hebrew calendar as the Jews have made it. Especially confusing and mind-bending are the four dehioth, or rules for postponement (discussed later in this article). The traditions and man-made legislation that are part of the calendar fly in the face of simple biblical instructions so much that, when someone tries to read the calendar and postponement rules for the first time and understand them, the mind tends to balk, because the traditional rules do not harmonize with an understanding of the Bible!

The calendar can be difficult to understand. God’s instructions, however, are quite simple. We can all understand what God wants us to know about finding when Holy Days are to be kept, without becoming entangled in ancient, man-made rules and regulations!

There is no scriptural authority for letting someone else do your thinking for you, just as it is not acceptable to have someone else repent for you, be baptized in your place, and overcome your temptations! It is the responsibility of each one of us to study into these matters and determine as best we can what God wants. As much as we might look up to a member of the clergy, or any other human being, we must not rely solely on their judgment to determine what we will believe or do.

God’s way is always the simple way. What makes the Hebrew calendar so complicated is the man-made rules added over centuries and millenia by men. Even more confusion comes from attempting to justify the use of these rules, and actually shoving God’s laws aside at times, in order to preserve their traditions! (See Mark 7:8-13).

We should point out that, although God’s way is simple, it’s not easy. God requires us to follow Him, and that’s not always an easy thing to do. The choice, as always, is ours.

Some church leaders are calling for unity in the congregations. The calendar issues are condemned as being “divisive.” Should everyone do the same thing simply for the sake of unity?

Unity among church members is a noble goal. We should all be “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). However, it should be obvious to anyone involved with religious life that doctrinal unity is virtually impossible among so many people with so many religious beliefs. Every church, whether Catholic, Protestant, Church of God, or local independent fundamentalist, has experienced division and disunity, time and again. Therefore, we must look on unity as a goal toward which we strive, but we shouldn’t be surprised if we don’t achieve it. Unity is really based on love—godly love!

Should we follow a wrong practice for the sake of unity? If all the church members around you begin postponing the Sabbath and going to church on Sunday, what would you do? Go along with them for the sake of unity, or stand up for what you believe, and obey God regardless of the consequences?

When Herbert Armstrong changed the observance of Pentecost from Monday to Sunday, many people left WCG. Did they change for the sake of unity? No, they stood up for what they believed, even if it cost them membership in WCG! Who is right? Each camp thinks they are right.

Let’s suppose for a moment that, for the most part, the church people observe the Hebrew calendar, with its postponement rules, and believe that to be what God wants. Let’s also suppose that a minority of church members has come to recognize that God does not want us to observe the postponements, but rather determine the Holy Days by the new moons. (This example is, in fact, what is happening.) Should the minority change back to doing what the majority is doing? If the minority does not have the faith that it is right to do so, it would be sin for them to do it (Romans 14:23)! What, then, becomes of unity? We each must follow God the best way we know how, or we compromise our conscience.

“The unity of the Spirit” means unity with God, not unity with each other without consideration of God! “The bond of peace” has to do with our relationships with each other. So if each is convicted in his own heart, let each act accordingly, all the while esteeming others appropriately (Philippians 2:3), out of love for God and each other.

One of the biggest problems concerning the calendar is our understanding of both the Hebrew calendar and its relative importance! The Bible doesn’t give us the means for calculating a calendar. Why is that? Why are there no calendar calculations in the scriptures?

The calendar has become very important to a lot of people over the last few years. If the calendar had been all that important to God, and He had wanted us to follow a specific calendar of His own design, He would have provided us with ample instructions in the Bible. Look at the detail God gives us in reference to the Tabernacle, the sacrifices, slavery, and other such things. Would God have forgotten to include “God’s Sacred Calendar” in the Bible?

What does that tell us? The inescapable conclusion is that God is not all that interested in calendars! There have been many calendar systems in use throughout history. God simply gave Moses instructions in accordance with the calendar system which Egypt, and much of the known world, was using at that time. God didn’t say, “Here’s a new calendar,” or “Here’s My calendar.” He said, “This month [or more literally, this new moon—Hebrew chodesh] shall be your beginning of months [new moons]; it shall be the first month [new moon] of the year to you” (Exodus 12:2).

What did God instruct His people? He gave very explicit instructions on what days to observe, and what to do on those days.

“On the tenth day of this [new moon]” such-and-such will take place; “you shall keep [the lamb] ... until the fourteenth day of the same [new moon]” (Exodus 12:3, 6), etc.

The same holds true in Leviticus chapter 23. “These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations.... On the fourteenth day of the first [new moon].... And on the fifteenth day of the same [new moon].... In the seventh [new moon], on the first day of the [new moon].... Also the tenth day of this [new moon].... The fifteenth day of this seventh [new moon]....” (Leviticus 23:4-6, 24, 27, 34), etc.

What are we to learn from this? God gave specific and detailed commands regarding the Holy Days, even telling us when they are on a new moon or how many days we need to count following a new moon.

There is no “God’s Sacred Calendar” in scripture! There are, however, God’s sacred feast days, holy to the Eternal, with instructions on how to locate the exact day to observe them!

Primarily, we must locate the first new moon and the seventh new moon, and determine when the Holy Days fall based on that. There is no need to establish a new type of calendar, or to argue endlessly over what calendars we have at our disposal. The important thing to God is whether we will obey Him (1 Samuel 15:22)!

We now move from what has been the easy part for many people, to what has been the hard part for many people. Once someone has determined to stop following the Hebrew calendar and note each new moon as the beginning of each month (the easy part), the next question to face is: What exactly is a new moon (the hard part)?

The actual conjunction is one moment of time when the earth, moon, and sun come into alignment, at approximately the mid-point of the dark moon phase. The conjunction takes place at a precise moment all over the earth. It is computed, and the day can be identified in an almanac. There is no question or uncertainty as to when the moment of conjunction occurs.

Many people use the conjunction of the earth, moon, and sun to define the new moon. There are few difficulties found in using the conjunction. It is fairly simple to predict, and finding the date and time of the conjunction from any reputable agricultural almanac is a simple matter. The day a conjunction occurs becomes the day the new month begins. In the case of Abib 1, the day the conjunction occurs is New Years Day.

Since we live our daily lives according to the Gregorian calendar, the only new moons we need to know for certain are the first and the seventh, for the months Abib and Tishri. By noting which conjunction occurs nearest the spring equinox, one can determine which new moon begins Abib. Six months later, the conjunction of the seventh month aligns us with the fall Holy Days. We wouldn’t even need to concern ourselves with the need for a 13^th month. It’s all automatic!

Many people use the observable crescent (the first visible portion of the moon following the molad) as the new moon. When the first visible crescent is spotted, that day is the first day of the month. (This may be one, two, or even three days following the conjunction.) When the first visible crescent following the spring equinox is seen, that’s New Years Day. Again, the first and seventh new moons are the important ones for Holy Day observers, and the 13^th month is automatic, without our need to calculate the need for one.

Is the observable crescent the new moon? According to common usage today in all scientific and educational arenas, and on all wall calendars and other documents showing the phases of the moon, the new moon is understood to be the dark moon, during the conjunction, when the moon cannot be seen. The visible moon is referred to as a young moon. In the numerous charts published today showing the phases of the moon, the new moon is always the dark moon.

Anciently, however, the crescent was used to establish the beginning of each month. History records this as the most often utilized system, and for this reason crescent observers consider this system to be the correct system to use.

There are difficulties inherent in observing the visible crescent. The moon first becomes visible at different times in different places, depending on longitude and latitude, or even at different altitudes at the same longitude and latitude. So sightings, even in the Holy Land, can be widely varied. Weather conditions can affect sightings of the visible crescent, as well.

The Sanhedrin felt the need to establish rules to follow (additional man-made rules) for those times when weather prevented the official spotters from seeing the moon. One rule was that, if weather conditions did not allow observation of the crescent when it was expected, the new month would be declared anyway, based on the calculated time.

The time when the first faint crescent can be seen may vary from 15 to 48 hours following the conjunction—sometimes even longer. Because of the different angles of the moon to the earth at various times of the year, weather conditions, when moonrise and moonset occur, etc., it is difficult to predict by visual observation with any accuracy. However, the calculations had already been done, and the observation of the crescent was merely to verify the day which the members of the Sanhedrin were anticipating the crescent to arrive.

Since the moon may become visible at different times in different countries, the International Date Line becomes significant. If the new moon is declared on one day in this hemisphere, but that happens to be the next day on the other side of the planet, this can create additional problems, i.e., observing the new moon or the Holy Days on the same date around the world. Some have advocated going by Jerusalem sightings, calibrating the world’s observance to that date, and have actually stationed observers in Jerusalem for that purpose.

When the International Date Line becomes an issue, it would be a simple matter to observe new moons and Holy Days from Jerusalem time, so as to coordinate worshippers in all nations around the world. However, there are some who would prefer to observe the new moon in their local time zone, and base the time for the Holy Days on that, without regard for when the Holy Days are scheduled in Jerusalem. We’ll discuss this more a little later.

Let’s examine some of the words with which we will need to be familiar in this study.

The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, by Arthur Spier, is the actual book containing the calculated Hebrew calendar. Spier says, “Since biblical times, the months and years of the Jewish calendar have been established by the cycles of the moon and the sun. The traditional law prescribes that the months shall follow closely the course of the moon, from its molad (birth, conjunction) to the next new moon.”

Spier defines the molad as the conjunction of the moon, or its birth. When a conjunction occurs, it’s not visible. The visible crescent is actually called the young moon. Even though the Jews discuss sighting the observable crescent, the actual intent for setting the calendar and predicting the crescent is to calculate the conjunction of the new moon based on the mean time!

In the Hebrew scriptures, “new moon” and “month” are frequently translated from the same word. The Hebrew word used for a new moon, chodesh, is never associated with seeing anything—such as light, the phases of the moon, or especially a crescent. The word hodes or chodesh (Strong’s #2320) occurs 270 times in The New Englishman’s Hebrew Concordance, or 283 times in The NIV Exhaustive Concordance. The word is only used for “new moon” or for a numbered month.

On the other hand, the word primarily used for a visible moon is the Hebrew word yrh, yerach, or yereach. These words occur 44 times in scripture (Strong’s # 3391, 3393, and 3394). This is the word used when referring to a visible moon, or the motion of the moon, or when the moon would become another color. If yereach is used in reference to a month, it refers to a period of time, rather than the new moon (for example, 2 Kings 15:13: “...he reigned in Samaria for one month [yereach]”, or to a named month (for example, 1 Kings 6:38: “In the eleventh year in the month [yereach] of Bul, the eighth month [chodesh]...”).

Sometimes the word lebana is used, but this word actually means “white,” “white lady,” or “white one.”

There is another Hebrew word we need to consider: the word for “crescent.” It is saharon, or in the plural, saharonim (Strong’s #7720). The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament translates this word (TWOT #2239a) as “moon, or crescent,” without reference to jewelry. The word would primarily refer to the celestial body. James Strong, however, apparently believed the meaning was more in line with “a round pendant, for the neck,” as in something that simulates or resembles a crescent moon.

This word does not occur in scripture in reference to a new moon. If God had wanted Israel to look for the crescent to determine the new moon, and if He was going to command them to do so, this is probably the word He would have used. But He didn’t! The nations around Israel were already worshipping the moon, especially the horns of the moon (the saharon), and God had already told Israel the nations’ practices were detestable to Him!

In the scriptures, God does not inspire the writers to use the word saharon in association with the literal moon as seen in the sky, but rather with pagan idols or symbols that the Midianite kings and their camels had around their necks, and amulets worn by the women of the apostatized Israel. If God had wanted us to look for a crescent in the sky, this word would have been used in an astronomical context. However, we don’t see this taking place.

Let’s look at the three times scripture uses the word saharon. The first two are in Judges chapter 8. Reading from the Literal Translation of the Bible: “And Zebah and Zalmunna said, You rise up and fall on us, for as the man, so is his might. And Gideon rose up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the moon crescents [saharon] which were on the necks of their camels. ... And the weight of the rings of gold which he asked was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold, apart from the ornaments [saharon, crescents], and the pendants, and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midian; also apart from the necklaces that were on the necks of their camels. And Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even Ophrah. And all Israel went whoring after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house” (Judges 8:21, 26-27).

Although the word saharon is loosely translated in KJV and NIV as “ornaments,” in the NRSV it is better translated as “crescents.” The Amplified Bible translates verse 21 as “the [crescent-shaped] ornaments,” and verse 26 as “the crescents.”

As a side note we see that, after Gideon made an ephod out of these gold crescent ornaments, the people worshipped the ephod. How quickly and easily the people began to worship images! God didn’t want His people to look to anything but Him. He knew what would happen. Conjunctionists might suggest this is why He had made the new moon invisible!

The third mention of saharon in the scriptures is in Isaiah 3: “’For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen; because their tongue and their deeds toward Jehovah are to rebel against the eyes of His glory. The look of their faces answers against them; they have declared their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have dealt evil to themselves. O My people, your rulers cause you to go astray, and they swallow the way of your paths. And Jehovah says, because the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with stretched out necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and make a tinkling with their feet; therefore Jehovah will make the crown of the daughter of Zion scabby; and Jehovah will lay their secret parts bare. In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of the ankle-bracelets, and the head-bands, and the crescents [saharon], the pendants, and the bracelets, and the veils; the headdresses, and the leg ornaments, and the sashes, and the houses of the soul, and the amulets; the rings and nose jewels ...” (Isaiah 3:8-9, 12, 16-18, LTB).

All these items that the women of Israel were wearing, that God was threatening to take away, have to do with idolatry.

The practice of wearing on the person a small symbolic object as a charm or protection against evil was common throughout the ancient Near East. Such amulets were usually in the form of small ornaments, gems, stones, seals, beads, plaques or emblems, sometimes inscribed with an incantation of prayer. The Hebrews were unique in condemning their use and Is. 3:18-23 gives a list of such trinkets worn by women. ... In common with the condemnation of those who employed charms (as Is. 3:3, RSV), the bronze serpent made by Moses was destroyed as soon as it became an object of superstitious reverence in itself (2 Ki. 18:4).

Archaeological evidence reveals the common use of ornaments in the shape of the sun disk or inverted moon crescent, a symbol of the goddess Ishtar-Astarte, worn by women or animals to increase their fertility (Jdg. 8:21). (New Bible Dictionary, Article “Amulets,” p.34)

As you can see, in all three places where God uses the word saharon (crescent), He doesn’t show any pleasure with its association with His people.

The nations around Israel worshipped the crescent moon. That doesn’t make the crescent “evil,” of and by itself, but God specifically told Israel not to adopt the pagan religious practices of the nations around them. (See, for example, Jeremiah 10:2-3). We believe, however, based on scripture and history, that this is exactly what they did.

“According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances” (Leviticus 18:2).

“You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nations which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them” (Leviticus 20:22-23).

From the standpoint of a student of the calendar, we must realize that the Egyptians and Babylonians from the area around Ur, during the time of Abraham, had a very high level of astronomical technology. And the fact that the scriptures refer to chodesh, rather than crescents, and to new moons rather than to a calendar, indicates that Israel used the conjunction as the new moon, and the new moon as the beginning of months, until they apostatized, beginning in the period of the Judges.

Recall that most of the time, 60% of the time, the Feast of Trumpets on the Hebrew calendar is not on the new moon of the seventh month, not because of error in calculation or problems in sighting the visible crescent, but because of the implementation of the postponement rules.

It was the combination of wrong attitude and wrong practices that God hated about Israel’s sacrifices, new moons, sabbaths, convocations, and festivals which were contrary to the law of God. See Isaiah 1:10-15. Notice that God says He hated “your [Israel’s] new moons,” not “My new moons,” and also for the various other observances which were theirs, and not His.

Although there is no clear scriptural reference as to how God would prefer His people to identify a new moon, there is historical evidence that observing the visible crescent was Israel’s practice. History also shows that Israel used precise calculation to determine when the conjunction would occur that would precede the observable crescent. The conjunction was used along with the visible crescent in new moon calculations.

Where did this knowledge of calculation of astronomy come from? Did they possess it in Egypt, or even before? There is historical evidence that Ur of Abraham’s day possessed such astronomical technology.

Mathematical calculations require precise measurements. We know God does things on time. Moses was educated in the house of Pharaoh, where the conjunctions may already have been calculated. Wouldn’t it make sense, if God told Moses anything at all about calendars, that He would tell Moses to begin the month (or new moon) with a phase of the moon that is precise? The conjunction is precise. The crescent is not precise at all. (Neither is the full moon, which some are now observing and calling the new moon!)

The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar also states, “A special committee of the Sanhedrin, with its president as chairman, had the mandate to regulate and balance the solar with the lunar years. This so-called calendar council (sod haibbur) calculated the beginnings of the seasons (tekufoth) on the basis of astronomical figures which had been handed down as a tradition of old.”

It is noteworthy that the Sanhedrin knew, “on the basis of astronomical figures,” when each “molad (birth, conjunction)” was to occur, because it was being calculated. The Hebrew calendar identifies the molad as the conjunction!

Quoting again from The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, page 217: “Nowadays the day, hour and parts of each molad are announced before the proclamation of the new month in the Sabbath morning service preceding the week of the new moon. This custom keeps alive the memory of the time when the Sanhedrin sanctified the months on the basis of observation. It calls our attention to the fact that today we determine our new moon and holidays according to the decision of Hillel’s Beth Din.”

Even today, the rabbis announce the upcoming molad on the Sabbath before the crescent appears. How do they know what day the crescent should appear, if it isn’t determined until it is actually seen? The answer is: The molad is calculated, and they can determine when to expect the visible crescent based on the date of the molad! It is interesting to see that the conjunction and the visible crescent are both used to determine the new moon.

We also see in this quote that the Hebrew calendar in use today stems from Hillel II’s Beth Din, which was published in about 359 A.D.. From that time, the calendar continued to evolve until it reached its present form sometime in the 10^th century A.D. Today neither the conjunction nor the crescent play a major role in determining when a new month or new year begins. Today, the dehioth, the rules of postponement, play a far greater role.

This section examines the part moon worship played in the religion of non-Israelitish nations in ancient times, and how God forbade the Israelites from taking up the practices of the nations. We are not suggesting that crescent observers are worshipping the moon. However, an understanding of how the moon and the crescent fit into history can be helpful when trying to understand various aspects of lunar calculation and observation.

Ancient Israel was warned not to adopt the customs of the nations around them. Did they? What historical indicators do we have?

[At] Excavations at Mari, modern Tel Hariri, in S.E. Syria ... more than 22,000 inscribed clay tablets provide important information for the background of the Patriarchal Age [before Israel was a nation]. The texts provide a detailed insight into daily life, especially in the 300-room (15-acre) royal palace with its various archives recording not merely interstate affairs but the detail of imports of wine, honey, oil, wool, ice and commodities. Other notes detail the issues from the palace stores both for the royal hospitality and for the ritual feasts which were part of the worship of dead ancestors. The pantheon at Mari included the sun (Saps), moon (Sin, Yerah) [the visible horns of the moon], the storm-god (Adad) as well as the goddess Ishtar, ‘Attar, the god Dagan (Dagon), Ba’al, ‘El, Rasap (the underworld god) and many others (including Lim, “the thousand gods”). All these could have been known to Terah (Jos. 24:2). (New Bible Dictionary, Article “Mari,” p.736-7)

These were the same gods Abram, his father Terah, and his nephew Lot may have been very familiar with, gods which were worshipped in Ur and Haran. God told Abram to come out from that environment, to a better way and place God would show him.

Notice what Joshua said, several generations later, to the young nation of Israel: “Joshua said to all the people, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshipped other gods.” ... Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River...’” (Joshua 24:2, 14).

Ur and Haran were actually the major centers for worship of Sin, the god of the horns of the crescent moon. There can be no doubt that this is one of the gods that the Eternal is referring to in the above scriptures.

The moon is named as an object of idolatrous worship in Jb. 31:26, and archaeology has shown that it was deified in ancient W Asia from early Sumerian to Islamic times. In Mesopotamia the Sumerian god Nanna, named Sin by the Akkadions, was worshipped in particular at Ur, where he was the chief god of the city, and also in the city of Harran in Syria, which had close religious links with Ur. The Ugaritic texts have shown that there a moon deity was worshipped under the name yrh. On monuments the god is represented by the symbol of a crescent moon (Amulets). At Hazor in Palestine a small Canaanite shrine of the late Bronze Age was discovered which contained a basalt stela depicting two hands lifted as if in prayer to a crescent moon, perhaps indicating that the shrine was dedicated to the moon god. (New Bible Dictionary, Article “Moon,” p. 793)

When God talks about the worshipping of the moon, that word is yerach or yereach, all forms of yrh, which means the visible moon.

The new moon was determined by visual sightings throughout much of Israel’s history. Although the conjunction can be calculated to the minute, attempting to establish the new moon by visible sightings often causes disagreement as to when the visible sighting took place.

Why would God instruct Israel to look for something in the heavens that the nations around them were worshipping? He said the practices of the nations were detestable to Him (Deuteronomy 12:31).

There are several scriptures where God told Israel He did not want them taking up the practices of the heathens around them. For example, see Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 9, 12, 15-19, 23-24; 12:1-4, 29-32; 18:9-13.

God gave Israel a way to worship Him that was different from the nations around them. See Deuteronomy 17:2-7; 2 Kings 23:4-7, 10-15; Job 31:23-28; Jeremiah 10:1-3.

After Gideon, Israel apostatized, doing things that were even worse than the nations around them (Judges 2:10 - 3:7). Over and over, they would go away from God. Our approach should be different. We need to be faithful to God and obey Him only (Jeremiah 7:21-26).

Yet, history shows that the early Israelites, and later on the Jews, did indeed observe the visible crescent of the moon to identify the beginning of months. We believe, however, that they left what God instructed them and adopted that practice from the pagan nations around them, abandoning their earliest practice of observing the dark moon.

Notice some of the trinities of gods of ancient Assyria: “Besides this great triad [of Anu, Bel and Ea], there was another consisting of the moon god Sin, the sun god Shamash, ... and Ishtar, the goddess of the crescent moon, and the queen of the stars .... These gods are invoked at times severally in phrases which seem to raise each in turn to a position of supremacy over the others” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Article “Assyria,” sec. 4, religion, p.102).

The worship of the moon was extensively practiced by the nations of the East and under a variety of aspects. Ur in lower Mesopotamia, Abraham’s birthplace, was an important center of the worship of Sin, the moon-god, as well as Haran in Upper Mesopotamia whither Abram and Terah emigrated (Cf. Joshua 24:2). In Egypt the moon was honored under the form of Isis, and was one of only two deities which commanded the reverence of all the Egyptians. In Syria it was represented by that one of the Ashtaroth surnamed “Karnaim,” from the horns of the crescent moon by which she was distinguished. There are indications of a very early introduction into the countries adjacent to Palestine of a species of worship distinct from any that we have hitherto noticed, viz., of the direct homage of the heavenly bodies—sun, moon, and stars—which is the characteristic of Sabianism. The first notice we have of this is in Job 31:26, 27, and it is observable that the warning of Moses (Deut. 4:19) is directed against this nature-worship rather than against the form of moon-worship which the Israelites must have witnessed in Egypt. At a later period, however, the worship of the moon in its grosser form of idol-worship was introduced from Syria, probably through Aramaic influence.

In 2 Kings 23:5 we read that Josiah put down those “that burnt incense to Baal, to the sun, and the moon,” etc. Manasseh appears to have been the great patron of this form of idolatry, for “he worshipped all the hosts of heaven” (2 Kings 21:3,5). From his reign down to the captivity it continued to prevail among the Jews, with the exception of a brief period under Josiah. Jeremiah has several references to it (7:18; 8:2; 44:17). In one of these references the prophet gives us a little insight into the manner of worship accorded to the moon: “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven” (7:18). These cakes were probably intended as gifts, in acknowledgment of a supposed influence exercised by the moon on the affairs of the world, or, more specially, on the products of the soil. (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Article “Moon.” p. 757)

Professor Ferris J. Stephens has kindly called my attention to a number of instances that seem to typify the manner of recording new-crescent observation in Assyrian times. In one of such instances, a person named Nabua, presumably a royal astronomer, reports to his king as follows: “On the 29^th day, we kept watch (but the god) Sin we did not see.” In another instance, the same Nabua reports thus: “A watch we did keep on the 29^th day; (the god) Sin we did see.” In still another instance, one “Istar-nadin-aplu, decadal chief of scribes, of Arabela,” submits the following report: “On the 29^th day, we kept watch (but) because of the presence of clouds (the god) Sin we saw not.” It need hardly be said that in all instances “the god Sin” refers to the (new) [crescent] moon. (The Code of Maimonides, Introduction, p. xvii, footnote #39)

Moses strictly forbade the adoption of these practices into Israel: “Therefore you shall carefully watch over your souls, for you have not seen any likeness [i.e., an image that could be worshipped] in the day Jehovah spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire, and that you deal corruptly, and make for yourselves a graven image, a likeness of any figure ... and that you not lift up your eyes towards the heavens and shall see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and you be drawn away and worship them, and serve them; which Jehovah your God has allotted to all the peoples under all the heavens” (Deuteronomy 4:15-16, 19, Literal Translation of the Bible).

God Himself would be telling Israel to violate some of His own commandments if He instructed them to look for the horns of the moon (i.e., the moon god Sin) as the beginning of their months, as the nations around them were doing. Commandments which might be compromised include at least the first, second, third, ninth and tenth.

Wouldn’t it seem rather inconsistent of God to instruct Israel not to do as the nations around them did, knowing their practices were detestable to Him, and tell the Israelites not to make any kind of image, including the moon—but then tell them to look for the moon god Sin to begin their months?

Indeed, God stressed that Israel should insulate itself from the religious practices of the nations.

“Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God. The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.’ You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshipping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it” (Deuteronomy 12:28-32).

God instructs us by the most righteous man recorded in the Old Testament scriptures, “If I ever looked on the sun in splendor or the moon moving in her glory, and was led astray in my secret heart and raised my hand in homage [to worship these heavenly bodies]; this would have been an offense before the law, for I should have been unfaithful to God on high” (Job 31:26-28).

This is exactly what Israel did. God knew His people could be led astray easily, and they were, as stated above, and in Jeremiah 7:18, etc.. It is difficult for humans to keep in mind the invisible things of God, while at the same time not giving too much heed to the very visible universe around us. It became a small step for the ancients to begin by using the heavenly bodies as time keepers, as God intended (Genesis 1:15), but then give themselves over to worshipping the heavenly host.

Earlier we mentioned the concept of using Jerusalem time as a world standard for the new moon. The conjunctions, like the equinoxes and solstices, occur at one moment in time, the same moment no matter where someone is in the world. But we are all in different time zones, and even different days, when the conjunctions and equinoxes occur! This creates problems in observing times and seasons from one area of earth to another. How do we get around that situation? Do we each observe what day the conjunction or equinox occurs according to the time of sunset in our local time zone? Or would it be prefereable to standardize the entire world to one practice?

The problem is compounded if we follow the visible crescent. The crescent becomes visible at different times, even on different days, depending on where the observer is on the earth.

When either the conjunction or the first visible crescent occur, and it is one date in one part of the earth and a different date somewhere else, there are two options: (1) Go with the local calendar date when the conjunction occurred, or the local time of observing the crescent, which means that some churches would be observing the same Holy Day, but perhaps a day or two later than other churches; or (2) standardize observance of the new moon according to one central location, so the date would be the same for every time zone around the planet. Jerusalem is the logical choice for this centralized location, and using Jerusalem for this purpose seems to be supported by scripture.

Here are some scriptures that show that God has chosen Jerusalem in the past, present and the future:

“...and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen. ... but he shall have one tribe for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. ... And to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to put My name there” (1 Kings 11:13, 32, 36).

“Again proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “My cities shall again spread out through prosperity; The LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem”’” (Zechariah 1:17). Bullinger has a footnote in the Companion Bible at Zechariah 2:12 in reference to the word “again”: “again = yet; as in 1:17. Not make a new choice, but demonstrate again His old choice in actual experience.”

Other scriptures which indicate Jerusalem would be a logical central location include 2 Chronicles 6:5-6, 34, 38; 7:12, 16; Nehemiah 1:9; Psalm 132:13-14; Zechariah. 3:2.

These scriptures show that God expects His people to look to Jerusalem, “for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3), for He has placed His name there perpetually, and He will dwell there forever!

Some pastors have pointed out that the first day of Unleavened Bread and the first day of the Feast are on the fifteenth day of the lunar month. These men take great pride in insisting that they have always seen a full moon on those days; that somehow “proves” the Hebrew calendar is correct.

As mentioned earlier, some months are longer than others. We must not assume that the full moon will be at its midpoint exactly 15 days following the new moon. For instance, the full harvest moon in the autumn, when we go to the Feast, may last up to three days in fullness. Also, during the day before and the day after, the moon may appear to be full. Attempting to gauge the monthly cycle by observing the full moon can be inaccurate, and is not a biblically legitimate method of determining months.

The length of months can vary, not only from month to month or season to season, but the same month can vary in length from year to year! That’s why it is improper to use a pre-conceived calendar with each month being assigned 29 or 30 days. This is why it is appropriate to go by the conjunction dates and/or the observed crescent.

Some are quick to say, “God gave the Jews authority over the calendar.” There is, however, no scripture that gives any human or group of humans authority over a Christian’s conscience in worshipping God.

“Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. ... Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—the LORD, who remains faithful forever” (Psalm 146:3, 5-6).

The apostles were ordered by the high priest and the Sanhedrin to cease preaching in the name of Christ. “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” they said (Acts 5:28). How did the apostles respond to their authority? “We must obey God rather than men!” (v. 29) God’s authority always takes precedence over man’s authority.

God gave clear instructions what Israel was to do if a false prophet or wicked men were to arise to try to lead “the people of their town astray, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ (gods you have not known)” (Deuteronomy 13:13). God commands the people, “Then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly” (v.14). And why does He do this? “The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and Him you must revere. Keep His commands and obey Him; serve Him and hold fast to Him” (verses 3-4). We must obey God, not the Jews, not a corporation, and not men! Only God and His word!

What, then, if someone teaches, “There is wisdom in the postponements, because we need a preparation day before the Holy Days,” or “The crescent moon is the new moon.” What did we just read that God said He was doing to us? Testing us! Where are the answers to this test, or any other test? “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20, KJV).

Jesus said, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such ones that worship Him. God is a spirit, and the ones worshipping Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24, LTB).

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:16-17, NIV).

Does it appear from these scriptures that God wants us to follow a man or a group of men that have some secret knowledge, supposedly from God? Or should we rather pursue truth through God’s Word and His Spirit?

How can we find out the answers to the tests that God is giving us, if the test and the answers are kept secret? We have seen how He has commanded His people not to revere anything else before Him, or in His place.

Didn’t the apostle Paul say something about this? “Be imitators of me, as I also of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1, LTB). Even at that, the standard is to imitate God, not men!

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this applies to every man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with all that is hidden, whether it is good, or whether it is evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, LTB).

He will judge us by a standard we can continually look into: “But if you keep the royal law found in scripture .... Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom” (James 2:8, 12, NIV). That’s what we will be judged by, not by some “secrets” we cannot verify!

The calendar issue goes on and on, confusion upon confusion. God is not the author of confusion.

1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of CONFUSION, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

What IS the solution? It has to be simple enough for the average person to figure out. Salvation is not complicated.

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the SIMPLICITY that is in Christ.

If the calendar issue is complicated, this forces us, the average lay member, back into subjection to the hierarchy, if it is only the scholars who are capable of figuring it out.

Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION with fear and trembling.

How? We are to study the Word of God for correction and instruction and learn to make proper decisions based upon that instruction.

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION in righteousness:

If we are commanded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we have to know when OUR APPOINTMENTS ARE WITH GOD.

My wife, Ruth, has done hundreds of hours of research into the calendar issue. She is totally responsible for the technical information in this paper. I learned through her research and, I think, God’s intervention or leading her to these conclusions.

Like so many others in God’s church, I blindly accepted what the corporate group taught, so the calendar wasn’t an issue in my life until one day someone on one of the church forums made a comment, something like this. “The Holy Days are our APPOINTMENTS with God. If we miss them by even one day, we are in trouble.” That statement really rang my bell, and the calendar issue has been of great concern to me ever since.

Should we go with what the Jews have written and devised to fit their own likes and dislikes with all its postponements and many admissions of why they change days to fit their traditions? OR, should we go with WHAT GOD HAS WRITTEN IN THE HEAVENS?

Genesis 1:14 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:

For me, personally, I’m going with what God has written in the heavens. God says, “You will know me by the things I have made.”

Romans 1:20 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:

The simple fact is that we are commanded to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the fifteenth day of the first month, called Abib or Nisan, in Lev. 23:4-6, and we are also commanded to keep the Feast of Tabernacles on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, called Tishri, in Lev. 23:34. So all a simpleton like me needs to know then is, “When is the fifteenth day of the first and the seventh months?”

Leviticus 23:4 These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. 5 In the FOURTEENTH DAY OF THE FIRST MONTH at even is the LORD’S passover. 6 And on the FIFTEENTH DAY of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

Leviticus 23:34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The FIFTEENTH DAY OF THIS SEVENTH MONTH shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.

Almost everyone agrees that the new moon conjunction somehow starts the new month. The lunar month contains an average of 29.5 days, more or less. Trying to figure when the Holy Days are by starting with the new moon conjunction automatically leads to confusion. There are at least three possible ways to count it.

2. Start the count THE DAY AFTER the conjunction, which is the first day that does not contain part of the old month.

3. Start the count with the appearing of THE FIRST CRESCENT, which sometimes is the same day as the conjunction, sometimes is the day after the conjunction and sometimes is the second day after the conjunction.

IS THAT CONFUSING ENOUGH? Using any of these counting methods, the full moon can occur on day fourteen, fifteen or sixteen, thus producing a full moon on day fifteen only about a third of the time.

A simpler way to count is to go to the full moon, which Ps. 81:3 identifies as a Holy Day, discussed below in detail. This would be the 15^th, Jerusalem time, since the law goes forth from Jerusalem.

Isaiah 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for OUT OF ZION SHALL GO FORTH THE LAW, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Why is this a “simpler way?” Because there is no misunderstanding as to what is meant by a “full moon.” It is a specific lunar event that occupies a specific moment of time. Either the moon is waxing, not quite full, or it is waning, having passed the moment of fullness. Whatever day the moment of fullness is reached, that is the “full moon day.”

Doesn’t God tell us clearly in Lev. 23:4,5,6, and 34, that our appointments with Him are on the fifteenth of the first and seventh months?

Leviticus 23 gives the formula that both Abib 15 and Tishri 15 (a) are feast days (b), or in mathematical terms a=b. Psalm 81:3 adds the information that the full moon (c) is a feast day (b), or b=c. If a equals b, and b equals c, then a is also equal to c, or a=b=c. To put it another way, the fifteenth day holy days (15) are full moon (FM) days, or FM=15.

There are two precise astronomical divisions of the lunar month, the new moon conjunction and the full moon moment of opposition. The sun, moon and earth are in alignment, three points on a straight line, for just an instant. Just as swiftly, their orbits carry them away from this alignment, but these two moments divide the lunar month into halves.

Just as counting from the new moon can put the full moon on days fourteen, fifteen or sixteen, counting from the full moon can cause day one to be in three positions relative to the conjunction; that is, day one can be ON THE DAY of the conjunction, or on THE DAY AFTER the conjunction, or on the SECOND DAY after the conjunction. This agrees with ALL the methods of counting from the new moon. Each method applies SOME of the time, just NOT ALL of the time.

If we count back one day from the full moon, we will know when the 14^th day of the first month is, for observing the Passover. In the seventh month, if we can count back 15 days to day one, we will know when the tenth day is for Atonement and when the first day is for Trumpets. That is simple. That is not complicated. We don’t need a hierarchy of scholars to tell us when to keep our appointments with God.

Notice Psalm 81:3- Blow up the trumpet in the new moon [Strong’s #2320], in the TIME APPOINTED [Strong’s #3677], on our solemn feast day. (KJV)

The trumpet was to be blown on the new moon. New moon is Strong’s #2320, meaning “the new moon, by implication, a month.”

Also notice “time appointed,” which is Strong’s #3677, meaning “fullness, or the full moon, i.e., ITS FESTIVAL.” I checked at least eight other translations and they all translated this as “full moon” in contrast to the King James Version.

“Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, AT THE FULL MOON [Strong’s #3677], ON OUR SOLEMN FEAST DAY.(NKJV)”

“Blow the trumpet at the new moon, AT THE FULL MOON, ON OUR FEAST DAY.( Amplified)”

“Blow the trumpet at the new moon, AT THE FULL MOON, ON OUR FEAST DAY.( NAS)”

“Blow the trumpet in the new moon, AT THE FULL MOON, ON OUR FEAST DAY. (Green’s Interlinear Bible)”

“Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and WHEN THE MOON IS FULL, ON THE DAY OF OUR FEAST;( NIV)”

“[S]ound the New Moon trumpet, AT THE FULL MOON, ON OUR FEAST DAY! (Jerusalem Bible)”

“[A]t the new moon blow the trumpet, and AT FULL MOON, FOR OUR FESTIVAL. (Moffatt)”

“Blow the trumpet at the new moon, AT THE FULL MOON, ON OUR FEAST DAY. (RSV 1952)”

Some people want to argue with Psalms 81:3, because this is the only place that the full moon is mentioned in connection with a Holy Day in the Bible. The command in Mat.4:4 is to “live by every word of God.” Where does it say that an instruction has to be written more than once to have authority? Is Psalm 81:3 not a word of God?

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

As far as I know, the material in Rev. 20:12 is just mentioned once in the Bible.

Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Is this information to be ignored because IT is not repeated in another scripture? There are several subjects or things that are mentioned in the Bible ONLY ONCE. The gospel of John tells us about the foot washing at Jesus’ last Passover. Do we ignore it because the other gospels don’t mention it?

I repeat, God is not the author of confusion, and salvation is not a complicated subject. If it is, we will find it IMPOSSIBLE to follow the command of Phil 2:12 to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

The only other necessary ingredient is to keep the Festivals in harmony with the seasons. There are only two seasons directly mentioned in the Bible, summer and winter, but both of these seasons have astronomical definitions. The question that needs answering is, “Do the heavens reveal the works and words of God Himself?” A thorough study of Psalm 19 reveals that they do.

Psalms 19:1 The HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD; and the firmament sheweth HIS HANDYWORK.

4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a TABERNACLE FOR THE SUN,

5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and HIS CIRCUIT [Strong’s #8622] unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

This whole quotation concerns astronomy and affirms God’s authorship. Look at the word, “circuit” in verse 6. It is Strong’s #8622, “{tek-oo-faw’ 1) coming round, circuit of time or space, a turning, circuit.” Does a “circuit” really have an “end,” or is this referring to the integral division of the year into four precise, natural, astronomical parts, the four seasons? Summer is marked by the “turn” of the sun at its northernmost limit, which is called the summer solstice. The word “solstice” is a combination of the Latin words for “sun” and “stop.” Winter is also marked by another “turn.” The sun drops toward the southern horizon to its limit, then TURNS around and starts heading north again. So, not only does the sun have a “circuit” that defines the solar year, it has a seasonal “circuit” as well as it rotates between its southernmost and northernmost limits. If you look at a globe, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn mark those limits.

The seasons are defined further by two more astronomical events, the equinoxes. Looking at the globe again, the equinoxes occur when the sun crosses the equator, and the duration of daylight and dark are about equal. The equinoxes are the dividing points between the two Biblical seasons of summer and winter, heat and cold.

Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

God’s instructions to Moses concerning the proper month or moon to begin the year was in complete harmony with the commencement of the agricultural season.

Exodus 12:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

Exodus 13:4 This day [the 15^th] came ye out in the month Abib [Strong’s #24].

Leviticus 2:14 And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits GREEN EARS [24] of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.

Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary defines Abib, number 24,” ‘abiyb {aw-beeb’} from an unused root (meaning to be tender); translated in the AV - Abib 6, in the ear 1, green ears of corn 1; 8 other; 1) fresh, young barley ears, barley 2) month of ear-forming, of greening of crop, of growing green ; Abib, month of exodus and passover (March or April).”

Ask any farmer. It is the returning sun’s warmth and the growing length of the daylight hours which stimulate the barley plants to bloom and produce the seed to be used for the wave sheaf offering that starts the spring barley harvest. Notice that these firstfruits are from the earliest possible, immature, GREEN EARS which need to be dried by the fire before they can be used to make a loaf.

The timing of the Feast of Tabernacles six months from the First Day of Unleavened Bread is in harmony with the turning point which ends the agricultural cycle. The Feast of Tabernacles should be observed after the bulk of the summer harvest has been completed.

Deuteronomy 16:13 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:

Exodus 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end [Strong’s #8622].

The word discussed earlier, #8622 {tek-oo-faw’ 1) “coming round, circuit of time or space, a turning, circuit,” is important because it tells more exactly when to keep the Feast.

The Schocken Bible calls the Feast of Tabernacles, “...the Pilgrimage-Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year...” The New International Version says, “...the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year...” The NIV adds a footnote which says, “That is, in the Fall.” Green’s Interlinear Bible says, “at the TURN of the year.”

These verses show that the timing of the Feast of Tabernacles is to be close in relationship to the “turn” or equinox as well as the completion of the major fall harvest. That is, the Feast can be at or overlapping the turn, or it can be entirely after the turn. It just should not be entirely in the summer season BEFORE the turn. At least some of the Feast period must be “in the Fall.” This timing was especially important to farmers, because it allowed them to start harvesting the spring barley crop as soon as it began to mature, while giving them enough time to finish harvesting the big late summer crops before being required to leave home to keep the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem.

IT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FALL EQUINOX AND THE FULL MOON THAT FIXES THE ORDER OF THE MONTHS WITHIN THE YEAR. ONCE YOU KNOW WHAT MOON IS “SEVEN,” THEN IT BECOMES OBVIOUS WHICH MOON IS “SIX,” “FIVE,” AND “ONE.” When you know that the full moon is “15,” you automatically know the numbers for the rest of the days of the month.

Putting all the instructions together, the Passover is to be observed at the season of the year when there are green ears of barley in the field. It is at the beginning of the day before a full moon which is the First Day of Unleavened Bread. The first full moon of the year is the seventh full moon, counting inclusively, in front of the full moon which starts the Feast of Tabernacles so that all or part of that Feast is after the fall equinox, Jerusalem time.

Once the two full moons of Abib 15 and Tishri 15 are marked on your calendar, all the other holy days simply fall in place accordingly. These few simple principles overcome all of the complications brought up in the arguments about the calculated Hebrew Calendar. There is no need to worry about adding a thirteenth month every second or third year. By focusing on the seventh full moon at or after the fall equinox, the 13^thmonth will happen in its natural course whenever needed. The Holy Days will always be in harmony with the seasons. There is no need for anyone to “declare” anything.

DON’T BELIEVE ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU THAT THE BIBLE CONTAINS NO FORMAT FOR THE CALENDAR. You have just seen the verses that give all the necessary instruction. Now, you are prepared to identify God’s Holy Days for yourself.

Before you start, you need to know the exact time of the fall equinox and have a list of the times of the full moons for the year. One familiar source is the “Farmer’s Almanac,” which is readily available in print. By computer, you can also get this information from the US Naval Observatory web site. If you are looking at a “Farmer’s Almanac,” which uses the US Eastern Time Zone, just ADD SEVEN hours to convert to Jerusalem Time. Since the US Naval Observatory uses Universal (Greenwich) Time, just ADD TWO hours to convert to Jerusalem Time. Sometimes, this will change the applicable date of a Holy Day because the converted time is past sunset at Jerusalem.

1. Find the date for the fall equinox, adjust it to Jerusalem Time, and mark it on your calendar.

2. Next, IDENTIFY THE SEVENTH LUNAR CYCLE OF THE YEAR by looking at the list of full moons. Determine which one is closest to the equinox, being six days or less before it, or immediately after it. This is the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, the “time appointed,” the fifteenth of the seventh month. Remember, Ex. 34:22 says to keep the Feast AT the TURN. The Feast is a SEVEN DAY PERIOD OF TIME, not just ONE day, so if that period of time overlaps the “turn,” this is precisely “at.”

3. Count back to the tenth to locate Atonement, and back to the first to locate Trumpets.

Leviticus 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the FIRST DAY of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

Leviticus 23:27 Also on the TENTH DAY of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Now, take your year 2000 calendar and apply these simple principles to find the Holy Days for the coming year. These dates and times are from the “Farmer’s Almanac,” and they have been compared to data downloaded from the US Naval Observatory with the same results.

1. The fall equinox is on September 22 at 12:28 p.m., EST, which is 7:28 p.m. Jerusalem Time. Since God’s days begin at sunset, and 7:28 p.m. is past sunset, the equinox actually belongs to the day of the 23^rd in Jerusalem.

2. There is a full moon on September 13, but that is too early, because starting the Feast on that date would complete the Feast BEFORE the equinox. The next full moon AFTER the equinox is on October 13 at 3:53 a.m., or 10:53 am Jerusalem Time. This is the 15^th of the seventh month and the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Our appointment with God for the Feast of Tabernacles begins at sunset of the prior day, October 12, the beginning of the 15^th day by God’s sunset to sunset reckoning. The Last Great Day will begin at sunset on October 19 and end at sunset of October 20.

3. Go back to October 13, the full moon day that is the 15^th day of the seventh month. Count back to the 10^th day of the seventh month, which is October 8, starting at sunset of Saturday, October 7. This is our appointment with God to keep the Day of Atonement.

Leviticus 23:27 Also ON THE TENTH DAY OF THIS SEVENTH MONTH THERE SHALL BE A DAY OF ATONEMENT: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

4. Continue counting back from the 10^th day to determine the 1^st day, September 29. This is our appointment with God to keep the Feast of Trumpets, which starts at sunset of September 28.

Leviticus 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in THE FIRST DAY OF THE MONTH, SHALL YE HAVE A SABBATH, A MEMORIAL OF BLOWING OF TRUMPETS, AN HOLY CONVOCATION.

5. Now that the fall holy days are in place, count back from the full moon of October, which we now know is in the SEVENTH lunar cycle of the year, to locate the FIRST full moon of the year, April 18 at 12:41 p.m. EST, or 7:41 p.m., Jerusalem Time. This is just past sunset at 6:10 p.m., so it applies to the next day of April 19, the First Day of Unleavened Bread.

6. Count back one day to the 14^th day of the first month, or April 18, for Passover which is observed the prior evening just after sunset.

7. Pentecost is counted from the weekly sabbath during Unleavened Bread, which brings us to June 11, 2000.

Leviticus 23:15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; SEVEN SABBATHS SHALL BE COMPLETE:

Leviticus 23:16 Even unto THE MORROW AFTER THE SEVENTH SABBATH SHALL YE NUMBER FIFTY DAYS; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.

Passover

1^st Day, Unleavened Bread

Last Day, Unl. Bread

Pentecost

Trumpets

Atonement

Feast of Tabernacles

Last Great Day

April 18, 2000, observed after sunset of previous day

April 19, 2000

April 25, 2000

June 11, 2000

Sept. 29, 2000

Oct. 8, 2000

Oct. 13, 2000

Oct. 20, 2000

When you mark these days on your calendar, you will notice that all the Fall Holy Days are double sabbaths like Pentecost. This could NEVER happen under the Jewish Calendar, because it has postponement rules that FORBID Atonement to fall next to a weekly sabbath and FORBID the Feast of Trumpets to fall on a Friday. That calendar postpones the observance to the next day in the week to keep such an event from happening. However, the Rabbinical commentary, the Talmud, contains historical evidence that this very situation used to happen in the days before Hillel II introduced the rules for the current Jewish calendar. At a time prior to the current Jewish calendar, the priests ALTERED THEIR RITUAL TO FIT GOD’S DAY, instead of doing what the postponement rules now do to ALTER GOD’S DAY TO FIT THEIR RITUAL.

We will be publishing a much more detailed paper on the calendar some time in the future. It will be located on the internet at the home page of Solid Rock’s People. Even after Ruth has spent hundreds of hours in research, there is still much yet to be done in documenting historical evidence. If you are interested, you may want to look for it in the future.

Do your own counting using the simple outline that God has PRESERVED in the Scriptures to harmonize with what He has written in the heavens and see what you come up with. I say again, God is not the author of confusion and salvation is not a complicated subject. If it IS complicated, then we are no better off than we were under our past religious dictatorship, so why bother?

Read carefully what Isaiah wrote as a promise from God, the very reason for the scriptures themselves. All that we need to know is preserved right there in them.

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES, AND THE OPENING OF THE PRISON TO THEM THAT ARE BOUND;

2 TO PROCLAIM THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

We are no longer bound by an hierarchical priesthood, nor by a “calculated” calendar that ignores God’s astronomical framework. Discover for yourself “the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Section 5:
How to Determine the Conjunction of the New Moon Without a Computer or Time Tables

Many think that it is very complicated to determine the conjunction of the New Moon without some sophisticated computer program or time tables which have predetermined conjunction times already calculated for them. This is not the case at all. It is quite simple to accurately calculate the conjunction of the New Moon by using simple math. Once you know these simple calculations, it’s very easy to accurately determine the conjunction in your head without doing any calculating on paper at all.

To make it easy, in the beginning you should have a protractor, or a compass with degree markings on it, a pencil or pen, and some paper. That’s all! In time you won’t even need these.

1. Locate the moon a week or so before the conjunction, shortly before sunrise. It will look like a crescent above your head or over toward the eastern sky.

3. Take the protractor or compass and measure the angle between the waning crescent and the horizon, just as the sun rises.

Let’s say, for example, that it’s June 30^th, 1997, and the angle is 52° between the moon and the horizon where the sun is just appearing; and this is about 4 days before the conjunction (or what you believe will be the day of the conjunction). In our example it’s 5:50 a.m. when the sun appears.

Given the above example, we can do some essential preliminary calculations. The moon travels around the earth once a month. This takes about 29.5 days; actually 29.53 days, on average. We also know that this revolution is 360°. With that information we do this calculation: 29.53 days X 24 hours a day = 708.72 hours (on the average) in one 360° revolution of the moon in one month. Then we can take 360° divided by that 708.72 hours to determine that the moon moves precisely .508° (or to make it easier we round this number to .51°) in one hour. The moon moves relative to the sun by an amount almost equal to the moon’s diameter every hour, which equals the .51°; so if we multiply by 24 hours, this makes the movement of the moon about 12.2° every day. This is a little more than half a degree every hour, on the average.

Remember, these are just rough figures, though using them will give you accurate results. As more time is spent in observing the moon’s movement in the sky, as the ancients did, we would discover the different cycles of the moon’s movement. We would then be able to more accurately know at which points in its cycles the moon moves faster or slower than the average of 29.53 days a month. We would use these modified figures to come up with a very accurate conjunction time, as the ancients were able to achieve.

Very simply put, the formula is the angle of the sun to the moon at sunrise divided by the rate of change per hour, which equals the time of conjunction, in hours, from the time you took your measurements. That’s all you need to know.

Now that we have all these figures and a formula, what do we do with them? The moon will travel 360° from new moon to new moon in 29.53 days, on average. So remembering our example, all we need to do is to take the 52° measurement for the angle between the sun and the moon at sunrise and divide it by the .51° rate of change per hour. This figure will give us the amount of time it will take for the sun and moon to reach the point of alignment or conjunction. That’s all the information we need to do the calculations.

Now, let’s do the math. 52° divided by .51 degrees per hour gives us 101.96 hours. That is, it will take 101.96 hours from 5:50 a.m. on June 30, 1997, when we determined our angle between the sun and the moon, for the moon to travel the 52° still needed to reach conjunction. So, how many days away is 101.96 hours from the time we determined our angle between the sun and the moon? How many days away is the conjunction? Divide 101.96 hours by 24 hours (don’t use fractions of a day for the remainder; we want whole days with the remainder in hours) and we come up with 4 days, or 96 hours with 5.96 hours remaining. Add this 4 days to June 30^th, 1997, and we arrive at 5:50 a.m. July 4^th, 1997. Now we add the remaining 5 hours to 5:50 a.m. July 4^th, 1997, and that brings us to 10:50 a.m. with the .96 of an hour left to be added to that time. Multiply .96 by 60 minutes, which gives us 57.6 minutes. Add 57.6 minutes (or 57 minutes; we can round off the number to make it easier) to 10:50 a.m. which brings us to 11:47 a.m. July 4, 1997 as our “rough” calculation for the time of the conjunction.

Did you think it was going to be that easy? Now you can go out tomorrow morning with this formula and figure out the time of the next conjunction. Just give it a try, and with a little practice you can amaze about 99.9% of the people on the planet with your ability to determine the exact time of the conjunction without a computer program or a calculator.

Don’t like all that math? If you want to quickly determine the conjunction, all you really have to do is ascertain the angle of the sun to the moon at sunrise and multiply by 2. You then know the number of hours until the occurrence of the conjunction (that is, which day the conjunction will occur). Don’t forget to convert your total number of hours into days. If this puts the conjunction close to sunset, then do the calculations above to get a more precise result. This will let you know on which of the two days the conjunction will most likely be (the one before sunset or the one after sunset).

The real test to our example is to see when the conjunction really took place. We can do this by checking a computer program or by getting some astronomical tables. Remember, these are just to verify our figures and give us confidence that we are accurate in our calculations. You can refer to The Astronomical Tables of the Sun, Moon and Planets, by Jean Meeus. There is also a very good shareware program that is available on the Internet, called “Moonrise,” by Dr. Bruce P. Sidell in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The actual time of conjunction on July 4^th, 1997 was at 11:40 a.m. PDT. Our calculations were off by only 7 minutes.

From the time man has been on the planet it has been possible to accurately determine the conjunction of the moon using simple arithmetic. According to Joesphus, Seth’s sons were the first astronomers and had developed a knowledge of the precise cycles of the sun, moon and stars (what we today call astronomy). We can likewise determine the various cycles of the moon with precision.

“And God saith, ‘Let luminaries [those which produce or reflect the light] be in the expanse of the heavens, to make a separation between the day and the night, then they have been for signs, and for seasons [Hebrew Moedim, or appointments], and for days and years, and they have been for luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth:’ and it is so. And God maketh the two great luminaries, the great luminary for the rule [domination] of the day, and the small luminary—and the stars—for the rule [domination] of the night; and God giveth them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, and to rule [dominate] over day and over night, and to make a separation between the light and the darkness; and God seeth that it is good; and there is an evening, and there is a morning—day fourth” (Genesis 1:14-17, Young’s Literal Translation).

The sun is to give us light during the day and the moon and stars are also to give us light, though less, in the night. Their purpose is also for the precise measurement of time, using astronomy. This is the divine time clock for the appointed times of the Creator, given for man to calculate their movement in order to have knowledge of the exact times of the Father’s appointments with His people.

The Postponements: Addressing the Issues

Conjunctionists tend to look to the conjunction closest to the spring equinox to determine Abib 1. There will be times when the fall Holy Days will be wholly in the summer (before the fall equinox) rather than in the fall season.

According to one of its own rules, the Hebrew calendar begins the year with the new moon closest to the spring equinox, as referenced in this quote from the Encyclopedia Judaica: “But Nisan 16 must not occur before a spring day, by the rules of the Hebrew calendar.”

If the first day of Unleavened Bread fell on the day before spring, then the Last Great Day of the fall festival would occur before the fall equinox. We might ask, “How then could the fall festivals occur before fall begins?”

It is important to know that the scriptural instruction is not to observe fall festivals, but rather to “celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress” (Deuteronomy 16:13), and to “celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in your crops from the field” (Exodus 23:16).

The grape harvest begins in July and lasts until September. The wheat harvest is over in July or August. Olives are harvested from September to December; this is one of the longest harvest periods. Exodus 34:22 says, “also the Feast of Ingathering at the turn [tekufah] of the year.” Tekufah here refers to the fall equinox.

On the other hand, those who observe the first crescent tend to declare the first new moon following the spring equinox to be Abib 1. That way, the spring barley crop will always be ripe and ready for harvesting (for the first fruit of the harvest used in the wave sheaf offering), and the annual Holy Days will all be where they are expected to be: the spring Holy Days will be in the spring and the fall Holy Days will be in the fall.

How can we tell which new moon, the one nearest or the one following the equinox, establishes the beginning of the year?

The first month of the year is named Abib, which means, roughly, “green ears.” The month was named for a noticeable feature of the month, namely, the green ears of barley in the fields. Ripe barley is not a requirement for the month of Abib, although the barley needs to be at a certain stage of maturity.

If Abib 1 is determined by the first new moon after the equinox, there will be years when the Last Great Day will be as late as November 3, which is past the harvest, and into the rainy season, which begins in late October.

In God’s instructions in Deuteronomy 16, He says, “Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing-floor and your winepress” (Deuteronomy 16:13, NIV).

He also said, “Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year [tekufah]” (Exodus 34:22).

The grape harvest is from the middle of July until September. Going to the Feast after the grape harvest would place the Feast in late September, at about the time of the tekufah, or the fall equinox.

By using the new moon closest to the spring equinox to determine the beginning of the year, rather than using the first new moon following the equinox, the earliest a Feast of Tabernacles would fall would be the middle of September. There may be years when the Feast would be in the late summer, but there is no scripture which forbids this. There is actually no mandate for the Feast to be completely in the fall. Tekufah refers to the fall equinox. Notice how God commands, “Celebrate ... the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year” (Exodus 34:22).

Even though Moses appears to be saying, in Exodus 13:10, “You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year” (NKJV), it is better translated, “You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year” (NIV), or “You shall keep this ordinance at its proper time from year to year” (NRSV). There is therefore no biblical mandate for the “fall” Holy Days to be in the fall, but there is a mandate that there be green ears in the spring, which is the meaning of “Abib” (Exodus 13:4; 34:18), and that the Feast begins after the completion of the wheat harvest (in August) and the grape harvest (in mid September) (Deuteronomy 16:13).

There is no valid scriptural reason for the Hebrew calendar to set the year by determining when Tishri 1 would occur rather than when Abib 1 would occur.

Several church leaders and church members have wondered about having some type of new moon observance, since it was important in ancient Israel, and there are several references in the Bible to new moon festivals.

When we look to Leviticus 23, and the list of God’s commanded observances, we will find the weekly Sabbath and the Holy Days mentioned. We want to be sure to observe those. However, there are no scriptures telling us to observe other days, such as Purim or the Festival of Lights, although these are mentioned in scripture. These were, in effect, national holidays of ancient Israel, set up by a grateful nation to thank God and honor Him for delivering them from their enemies. There are likewise no scriptures commanding a New Covenant observance of the new moon. These other days, while they are not forbidden, are not commanded. Therefore, there would be nothing wrong in observing Purim, the Feast of Lights, or the day of the new moon, as long as we understand that they are not commanded observances, nor are they feasts of God.

Many ministers have been asked about new moon celebrations. The answer has generally been that there would be nothing wrong in observing the new moon, and it might even be beneficial, but since there is no biblical command to do so, the corporate churches have not set up any program for that.

One of the reasons that the new moon observance was so important in Israel was that it was a day to synchronize the nation. Each new moon was greeted by the blowing of horns throughout Israel, and served to remind everyone that the new month had begun.

Today, we use wall calendars, desk calendars, wristwatch calendars, and calendars in our computers to synchronize us, not to the Hebrew calendar, but to the Gregorian calendar. It would almost be an anachronism to “make a big production” on the new moon, although a quiet observance would be appropriate. Perhaps a home Bible study could be scheduled, or perhaps having a few friends over for dinner. These would be enjoyable and beneficial ways to spend the evening. The calendar and God’s plan would naturally come up in conversation, and would help to remind us once again of what an awe-inspiring God we serve, and how blessed we are to be included in His plan, and how each of us was called by name to be a child of the great God in heaven.

In the long run, it may not make as much difference as we think whether we observe the new moon on the conjunction, the calendar date, or by sighting the first crescent. The important thing has always been to serve our great God as best we can, in spirit and in truth, the way we understand, following as much truth as He has allowed us to see, always seeking to know more.

It seems evident that our God has much more patience with us than we do, and is more forgiving of our foibles and shortcomings. As long as we turn to Him with our whole hearts, and do the best we can with what we have, God will supply our need. Whatever calendar system we choose to follow, if we are following it in full faith that it is the right thing to do, will God do anything but accept that attitude?

An important principle to remember is found in Romans 14: “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘”As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “Every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.”’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling-block or obstacle in your brother’s way” (Romans 14:4-13, NIV).

Paul also wrote to each one of us: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

“In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities [of Satan’s world] and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

“Therefore [because of all these things] do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:6-17).

We do not judge other people on what they do, and we ask the same favor toward us. Whatever each reader chooses to do with this information is entirely up to him or her. We will not condemn anyone for continuing to do what they have been doing. We only wish to share our findings and ask each person to examine the evidence and act on his or her convictions before God.

We do not seek to be divisive. Clergymen stand in their separated congregations, addressing shrunken crowds of followers who have been divided up among several new church groups, and accuse people who discuss the calendar of being divisive! It would seem the pointed finger has three companions pointing back, and a thumb pointing toward heaven! No, we do not mean to be divisive. The body of believers could not be more divided than it already is.

The Kingdom is not meat and drink, nor is it postponements and new moons. God will judge our hearts and intentions, to see if we are worshipping Him, individually, in sincerity and truth. If we sometimes fall a little short in absolute truth, because we can’t yet know it, we must make up for it in sincerity, along with faith, study, obedience, and love—especially love.

You may have several questions from reading this booklet. That’s good. Seek answers from as many sources as you can, but always reserve judgment for yourself. The Spirit of God within each Christian should be leading every Christian into all truth. Go to God on your knees, and ask His help in hearing His Spirit within you.

These issues of the calendar are challenging. There are no easy answers. But perhaps you will now be better able to make an informed decision regarding at least some of the calendar issues.

Partial Bibliography

Bedwell, Wayne. The Original Calendar For Our Day,
Church of God Talents Ministries, Corona, California, 1995.

Spier, A. The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar,
Feldheim Publishers, New York, 1981.

Kossey, John. The Hebrew Calendar,
Ambassador College Press, Pasadena, California.

Russell, James. Postponements: Another Mystery of the Ages,
Church of God In Truth, Riverside, California, 1993.

Crawford, Malcolm. “God’s Holy Day Calendar—According to the Bible,”
Pathway Church of God, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1995.

Crawford, Malcolm. “What Calendar Did Jesus Observe?”,
Pathway Church of God, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1995.

Crawford, Malcolm. “God’s Commonsense Holy Day Calendar,”
Pathway Church of God, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1996.

Solinsky, Herbert and Anderson, Rob. The Calendar God Gave to Moses,
self-published, 1995.

Nickels, Richard. “Review: ‘The Calendar God Gave to Moses’—The Calendar God Didn’t Give to Moses,” article in Biblical Holy Days,
Giving and Sharing, Neck City, Missouri.

Anonymous, “God’s Sacred Calendar,”
Worldwide Church of God, Pasadena, California, 1960.

Anonymous, The Hebrew Calendar, Part 1,
Church of God, The Eternal, Eugene, Oregon, 1979.

Anonymous, The Hebrew Calendar: Is It Reliable?,
Church of God, The Eternal, Eugene, Oregon, 1994.

The Postponements: Addressing the Issues