the true sabbath.pdf

8/14/2019 The True Sabbath.pdf

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THE TRUE7thdaySABBATH

REVEALED

HAS THE BREACH FINALLY BEEN REPAIRED?

PRESENT TRUTH!

The Tribulation TimesPresenting Gods Last Message of Mercy to the World

LONG FORGOTTEN BIBLICAL CALENDAR UNLOCKS MYSTERY OF THE TRUE SABBATH

RETRACING OUR PATHIt was a strange migration. Gold had been discov-

ered in the western United States, and within days

men set off from the east on horseback, followed

in the months to come by wagon loads of families;

all were after the elusive dream of riches. Thou-

sands sold everything they owned and travelled

the uncharted paths west. Thousands lost every-

thing, even their lives. The perils of the journey,

sickness, accident, weather and enemies, reduced

the wagon trains until only a remnant arrived at

their destination. Then, even fewer ever found the

gold and riches they had sacriced all to attain.

Some of these wagon trains hired guides and

scouts to lead them. Others elected someone

from among their group to take the responsi-

bility of leadership. That responsibility was

huge. Lives could be lost by choosing the

wrong path. Hardships could be increased by

missing waterholes or not camping in the right

place. Attacks by enemies could destroy them

if the people were not trained in quick de-

fensive measures. The security of the

group rested on the shoulders of the leader.

When a wagon master had accidentally

gone the wrong way, when he had chosen

the wrong path, it was his duty to tell the

people and ask them to turn around, go

back, and take the right path. This could

involve additional travel, wasted time and

lots of grumbling. At times, some of the

wagons even broke off and continued in

the wrong path rather than retrace the way

they had come. Admission of an error by

the leader involved the danger of loss of

faith in his leadership. Mutiny was a real

possibility. A conscientious leader would

always look for additional informa-

tion, added knowledge for use in the im-

portant decisions that guided the group.

As message bearers of the obligation of

keeping ALL of Gods commandments, it is

a grave responsibility to teach truth and truth

only. And because truth is ever unfolding, study

must be ongoing to discover which beliefs are

to be learned and which must be unlearned.

God has promised to guide those who diligent-

ly seek Him into all truth. The last generation

that lives through the coming time of trouble

must have only truth, no error in their beliefs.

They must be established upon thattruth so that they cannot be shaken by

mans assaults or the devils deceptions.

All people have an obligation to their Creator to

worship Him on the seventh day, His appointed

Sabbath according to the fourth commandment.

But, how is that Sabbath to be found? Is it pos-

sible to be right about the count of the day and

wrong about which calendarto use to nd that

day? As a result of this question, diligent study

has been done by many dedicated Sabbatarians

so as to determine whether or not the Gregorian

calendar in common use by society around the

The truth is an advancing truth, and we must walk in its ever increasing light

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 5Day 4 Day 6

7th DayNEW MOON

NEW MOON

Continued on Page 3...

EXCLUSIVE


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world today, is the true original Biblical calendar.

Where are the roots of the Julian/Gregorian cal-

endar found? Which calendar was used by Moses

at the time of the Exodus? Which calendar was

used by the Jews at the time of Jesus, the Christ?

Serious study of these questions has led to

the nal conclusion that the correctly num-

bered day on which to worship, on the seventh

day of the weekly Sabbath has to be taught.

To achieve this grave task, the original

Biblical luni-solar calendar must be used to ndGods true seventh-day. Through time there have

been many calendars, many schemes to mea-

sure time and set the days for worship. Since the

Bible is our guide; it follows also that the Scrip-

tures must establish both whenthe Sabbath com-

mences and which calendar to use in identify-

ing it. Historical facts can also be examined so

as to prove the testimony of the Scriptures. It

has been a shock to learn that the idea of con-

tinuously cycling weeks since creation was a

wrong assumption. The Gregorian Pagan/Papal

calendar is the wrong measurement to use for de-

termining the true seventh day for worship. It is

strange to the mind to try and understand a dif-

ferent system of time measurement. But, truth is

too precious. It is a joy to know for sure that the

correct Sabbath can be found if the correct Bibli-

cal luni-solar calendar is used. Please study out

this vital, life-changing issue for yourself. Please

compare scriptures and the facts of history to un-

derstand that Satan really has sought to change

times and laws. Please give the Holy Spirit a

chance to impress your mind by promising to

obey Him if He reveals to you thatthisis truth.

Join believers around the world as our steps are

retraced, knowledge of an old path is restored

and concepts new to us are understood. TheLord Jesus is coming very soon. Let us unite

in love and voice, spirit and truth on the true

seventh-day Sabbath to worship our Creator!

HISTORY OF A LIEChristians who worship on Sunday base this prac-

tice on the belief that Christ arose from the tomb

on Sunday. Jews and Christians who worship on

Saturday do so because it is presumed the sev-

enth day of the week. Both parties however,

base their belief and thus their practice, on an

assumption! The assumption is that, because

the progression of days was not changed at the

time the Julian calendar transitioned to the Gre-

gorian, therefore the modern week is identi-cal to the Biblical week. The logical con-

clusion is that Saturday is indeed the Bible

Sabbath and Sunday is the day on which

Christ arose from the grave. The facts of

both the Julian & Gregorian calendars them-

selves, however, prove this assumption is false.

A well-known adage is that those who forget

history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of

history. Likewise, those who have never learned

the facts of calendar history have built an

entire belief structure on a faulty foundation:

the assumption that weeks have cycled continu-

ously and without interruption ever since Cre-

ation. It is of vital importance to all, regardless

of their religion, to study the history of the Ju-

lian/Gregorian calendars. Assembling the miss-

ing puzzle pieces of historical fact reveals when a

continuous weekly cycle of seven days became the

standard measurement of time and it was not at

Creation, neither was it sanctioned by the Creator!

Julian Calendar EstablishedThe calendar of the Roman Republic was

based on lunar phases. Pagan Roman priests,

called pontiffs, were responsible for regulat-

not convert for two more years. His decision

in October of A.D. 312 to paint a Christian sym-

bol on the shields of his men at the battle of the

Milvian Bridge was not a conversion. As with

all his acts, it was politically motivated. Even

after ofcially converting in 323, he postponed

his baptism until just before his death in 337.

Furthermore, he retained the ofce and titlepon-

tifex maximus, head of the state religion which

he had assumed in 312; for the rest of his life.

Christianity was made by him [Constantine]the religion of the state but Paganism was not

persecuted though discouraged. The Christian-

ity of the emperor himself has been a subject of

warm controversy both in ancient and modern

times, but the graphic account which Niebuhr

gives of Constantines belief seems to be per-

fectly just. Speaking of the murder of Licin-

ius and his own son Crispus, Niebuhr remarks,

Many judge of him by too severe a standard,

because they look upon him as a Christian; but

I cannot regard him in that light. The religion

which he had in his head must have been a

strange compound indeed. The man who had

on his coins the inscription Sol Invictus, who

worshipped pagan divinities, consulted the har-

uspices, indulged in a number of pagan super-

stitions, and on the other hand, built churches,

shut up pagan temples, and interfered with the

council of Nica, must have been a repulsive

phnomenon, and was certainly not a Chris-

tian. He did not allow himself to be baptized

till the last moments of his life, and those who

praise him for this do not know what they are

doing. He was a superstitious man, and mixed

up his Christian religion with all kinds of ab-

surd superstitions and opinions. . . . To speak

of him as a saint is a profanation of the word.

It is intriguing that this quote refers to Constan-

tines involvement with the Council of Nica as

interference. Do not doubt it: Constantines

Sunday law was civil legislation enacted to

unite his empire via a single, unied calendar.

Constantine, the consummate politician was

foremost a politician and a military strategist.

He issued at least six decrees relating to Sun-

day observance, but all were for purely politi-

cal reasons. These decrees were:

March 7, 321: A law command-

ing townspeople, courts and trades to

cease from labor on the day of the Sun.June, 321: Emancipation and manumission

of slaves allowed on the day of the Sun.

Christian soldiers allowed to at-

tend Sunday church services.

Pagan troops required to recite a prayer

while on the drill eld on Sunday.

Sunday declared a market day

throughout the entire year.

A decree supporting the Council of Nicas

decision that Christs resurrection should

henceforth be observed on the day of the

Sun (Easter Sunday) rather than commemo-

rating the death of Christ on the actual cru-

cixion Passover date of Nisan (Abib) 14.

Constantine wanted a unied empire. With his

eastern counterpart, Licinius, he had issued

a decree in 313 known as the Edict of Milan

which granted Christians protection under

civil law. This did not promote Christianity

above paganism as much as level the play-

ing eld, allowing Christians equal rights.

For the rst time Christianity was placed on a le-

gal footing with the other religions and with them

enjoyed the protection of the civil law. Licinius

was a pagan, and this law grants no privilege to

...Continued from Page 1

ing the calendar. Because the pontiffs could

also hold political ofce, it provided oppor-

tunity for abuse. Intercalating an extra month

could keep favored politicians in ofce lon-

ger, while not intercalating when necessary

could shorten the terms of political opponents.

By the time of Julius Csar, months were

completely out of alignment with the seasons.

Julius Csar exercised his right as Pontifex

Maximus(high priest) and reformed what had

become a cumbersome and inaccurate calendar.

In the mid-1st century B.C. Julius Csar in-vited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer,

to advise him about the reform of the cal-

endar, and Sosigenes decided that the only

practical step was to abandon the lunar calen-

dar altogether. Months must be arranged on

a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year

was used, as in the Egyptian calendar . . . .

Notice that Sosigenes big innovation was

an abandonment of lunar calendation:

The great difculty facing any [calendar] reform-

er was that there seemed to be no way of effect-

ing a change that would still allow the months to

remain in step with the phases of the Moon and

the year with the seasons. It was necessary to

make a fundamental break with traditional reck-

oning to devise an efcient seasonal calendar.

To bring the new calendar into alignment with

the seasons required adding an additional 90

days to the year. This was done in 45 B.C., cre -

ating a year of 445 days. This year of 445 days

is commonly called by chronologists the year

of confusion; but by Macrobius, more tly, the

last year of confusion. The rst puzzle piece in

establishing the truth of the calendar, is to real-

ize that the Julian week of 45 B.C., did not look

like the Julian week when Pope Gregory XIIImodied it, and thus did not look like the mod-

ern Gregorian week of today. This is the rst

assumption made by both Jews and Christians,

regardless of the day on which they worship.

Constantine

The Great

Constantine the Great (A.D. 272 A.D. 337)

is widely known as the rst Christian emperor.

His Sunday law is viewed as the religious act

of a recent convert to honor his new day of wor-

ship. Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodoxhave canonized him, while Saturday sabbatarians

accuse the Roman Catholic Church of inuenc-

ing Constantine into changing the Sabbath from

Saturday to Sunday. They denounce the Catholic

Church for deceiving all Christendom into be-

lieving that Sunday is the proper day of worship.

Although the fact itself is true, that

there has been a change made to time,

this statement is not entirely accurate.

Constantine had not yet convert-

ed at the time of his Sunday law.

The Roman Catholic Church has always

been open about their role in this legislation.

Most signicantly, the Sunday law was

actually civil legislation which outlawed the

Biblical luni-solar calendar and enforced the

Julian calender upon Christians and Jews.

Constantines Sunday law was actually dis-

guised as calendar reform which laid the foun-

dation for a massive deception: Sunday as

the day on which Christ was resurrected; Sat-

urday as the Bibles seventh-day Sabbath.

Constantines veneration of the day of the Sun

was not a religious act as a Christian, for he would

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the Christians that is not allowed to the heathen.

It is another evidence of Constantines policy

of maintaining peace in the religious world.

Constantine was no saint. He was a tyrant

guilty of murdering his own son. His motiva-

tion for a united empire was not prompted by

a desire for peace. Constantines drive for a

unied empire was founded upon his desire for

greater power. Some historians connect Con-

stantines tolerance of Christianity with a de-

sire to be able to enlist Christians as soldiers,

thus increasing the size of his army. (Up to

this point, Christians avoided enlisting.) All of

Constantines religious tolerance acts should

be viewed in the light of a dictator seeking uni-

formity, and thus greater control, in his empire.

Renowned church historian, Phil-

ip Schaff, cautioned against reading too

much into Constantines Sunday law:

The Sunday law of Constantine must not be

overrated. He enjoined the observance, or

rather forbade the public desecration of Sun-

day, not under the name of Sabbatum [Sabbath]or dies Domini [Lords day], but under its old

astrological and heathen title, dies Solis [Sun-

day], familiar to all his subjects, so that the law

was as applicable to the worshipers of Hercu-

les, Apollo, and Mithras, as to the Christians.

There is no reference whatever in his law ei-

ther to the fourth commandment or to the res-

urrection of Christ. Constantine was an equal

opportunity monarch. While Christians hailed

him as the servant of God and called him

the blessed Prince, pagans regarded him as

their Supreme Pontiff, Pontifex Maximus. Con-

stantine demanded unity. He forced compro-mise in an unexpected way: calendar reform.

J. Westbury-Jones highlights the pur-

poseful ambiguity of Constantines law:

How such a law would further the designs of

Constantine it is not difcult to discover. It

would confer a special honor upon the festival

of the Christian church, and it would grant a

slight boon to the pagans themselves. In fact

there is nothing in this edict which might not

have been written by a pagan. The law does

honor to the pagan deity whom Constantine

had adopted as his special patron god, Apollo

or the Sun. The very name of the day lent itself

to this ambiguity. The term Sunday (dies Solis)was in use among Christians as well as pagans.

Of all Constantines edicts, the one that had the

greatest and most lasting effect on Christendom

was his legislation supporting the Council of

Nicas decree establishing the observance of

Easter. By the time of Constantine, apostasy in

the church was ready for the aid of a friendly civil

ruler to supply the wanting force of coercion.

The time was ripe for a reconciliation of state

and church, each of which needed the other. It

was a stroke of genius in Constantine to real-

ize this and act upon it. He offered peace to

the church, provided that she would recog-

nize the state and support the imperial power.

All of Constantines acts had the ul-

terior motive of political gain and the

Council of Nica was no exception.

Biblical Calendar AnnihilatedThe signicance of the Council of Nica

is found in the fact that the decree out-

lawed the Biblical luni-solar calendar.

Since the second century A.D; there had been

a divergence of opinion about the date for cel-

ebrating the paschal (Easter) anniversary of the

Lords passion (death, burial, and resurrection).

The most ancient practice appears to have been

to observe the fourteenth (the Passover date), f-

teenth, and sixteenth days of the lunar month regard-

less of the day of the [Julian calender] week these

dates might fall on from year to year. The bishops

of Rome, desirous of enhancing the observance of

Sunday as a church festival, ruled that the annual

celebration should always be held on the Friday,

Saturday, and Sunday following the fourteenth day

of the lunar month. In Rome, Friday and Saturday

of Easter were fast days, and on Sunday the fast

was broken by partaking of the communion. This

controversy lasted almost two centuries, until Con-

stantine intervened in behalf of the Roman bishops

and outlawed the other group. The point of conten-

tion appeared deceptively simple: Passover versus

Easter. The issues at stake, however, were im-

mense. The only way to determine when Passover

occurs is to use the Biblical luni-solar calendar, for

only by observing the moon can one count to the

14th day following the rst visible crescent of the

moon (known as the New Moon). Because the

seventh-day Sabbath was also calculated from the

rst visible crescent of the new moon, a ruling in fa-vor of Easter being observed on a Julian date would

also affect the occurance point of the seventh-day

Sabbath. Prior to this time, true Christians com-

memorated Passover, ignoring the pagan Easter.

Up until the Council of Nica, the Christian Eas-

ter, especially in the East, had been celebrated for

the most part at the time of the Jewish Passover,

. . . [but] on the contrary, in Europe, some ear-

lier, some later, were intercalating the months .

. . the Europeans were placing their cycle at the

equinox, and were celebrating the Passover on the

next full moon after the equinox. These conten-

tions had agitated the churches of Asia since the

time of the Roman bishop Victor, who had perse-cuted the churches of Asia for following the 14th-

day heresy as they called it, in reference to the

Passover. . . . The future Easter observance was

to be rendered independent of Jewish calculation .

This is civil legislation enforcing the pagan Julian

calendar. Calendars by denation calculate time,

and at the Council of Nica it was decreed that

Christians were to remain independent of Jewish

calculation because the apostacised Christians did

not want to be associated with the Jews in any way.

This is a fact well-known to Jewish scholars

and historians. The Jewish Publication Society

of America published the following statement:

Then the world witnessed the hitherto undreamt-

of spectacle of the rst general convocation of Nice

[Nica], consisting of several hundred bishops and

priests, with the emperor at their head. Christianity

thought to celebrate its triumph, but only succeed-

ed in betraying its weakness and internal disunion.

For on the occasion of this, its rst ofcial appear-

ance, in all the splendor of its plenitude of spiritual

and temporal power, there remained no trace of its

original character . . . At the Council of Nice the

last thread was snapped which connected Chris-

tianity to its parent stock. The festival of Easter

had up till now been celebrated for the most part atthe same time as the Jewish Passover, and indeed

upon the days calculated and xed by the Synhe-

drion [Sanhedrin] in Juda for its celebration; but

in future its observance was to be rendered alto-

gether independent of the Jewish calendar. Such

was the pompiety and pride of the grand council

that words like these were uttered: For it is un-

becoming beyond measure that on this holiest of

festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews.

Henceforward let us have nothing in common with

this odious people; our Saviour has shown us an-

other path. It would indeed be absurd if the Jews

were able to boast that we are not in a position

to celebrate the Passover without the aid of their

rules (calculations). These remarks are at-

tributed to the Emperor Constantine . . . [and

became] the guiding principle of the Church

which was now to decide the fate of the Jews.

Notice that the decrees of the Council of

Nica are clearly perceived by Jews them-

selves to be the act of Christians step-

ping independent of the Jewish calendar.

The Council of Nica accomplished

three goals, all of which are still in ef-

fect today. The decree served to:

Standardize the planetary week1.

of seven days making dies Solis

the rst day of the week, with dies

Saturni(Saturday) the last day of the week.

Guarantee that Passover and Eas-2.

ter would never fall on the same day.

Exalt dies Solis(Sunday) as the day of3.worship for both pagans and Christians.

By establishing Easter on the Sunday fol-

lowing the full moon after the vernal equi-

nox, the Roman Catholic Church guaran-

teed that it would never fall on the Jewish

Passover. At this time, the Jews were still

using the luni-solar calendar of Creation,

intercalating by the barley harvest law of

Moses. Because the seven-day weeks of

the Biblical lunations cycled differently

than the pagan solar calendar, Passover,

the sixth day of the Biblical week, would

fall on different days of the Julian week.

Likewise, First Fruits, the true day of the res-

urrection on the rst day of the Biblical week,

appeared to wander through the Julian week,

sometimes falling on dies Martis(Monday),

or dies Veneris(Wednesday), etc., and only

rarely coinciding with dies Solis(Sunday).

Vestiges of the resulting confusion when at-

tempts are made to reconcile a solar calen-

dar to a luni-solar calendar may still be seen.

Easter is never on the same date of the Gre-

gorian calendar from one year to the next.

The feast of First Fruits, when calculated by

the Biblical calendar, always falls on the 16thof the month, a First Day. Easter, however,

because it is linked to a corruption of lunar

calculation does not fall on any specic date,

as does Christmas, nor a specic day of the

month, such as Thanksgiving in the Unit-

ed States, which always falls on the fourth

Thursday of November. Thus, while the true

date of the resurrection always falls on the

same day of the week and the same date of

the month, Easter on the Gregorian calendar

appears to oat through March and April.

The long-term effect was that Easter Sun-

day entered the Christian paradigm as The

Day of Christs resurrection. The direct result

to this realignment of time calculation was

that the day preceding Easter Sunday, Sat-

urday, became forever known as The True

Bible Sabbath. This is the true signicance

of Constantines Sunday law and it laid the

foundation for the modern assumption that a

continuous weekly cycle has always existed.

The fall-out from this edict was immedi-

ate. The law made it illegal to use the

Biblical calendar and it persecuted those

who still tried to use it. David Sider-

sky says, It was no more possible un-

der Constance to apply the old calendar.

APOSTACY!

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only worship day founded upon paganism.

Saturday, known to the pagans as dies Satur-

ni, as the original rst day of the pagan week,

is also a counterfeit. As the seventh day of

the modern week, it is a counterfeit for

the true seventh-day Sabbath of the Bible.

In 321 A.D; Constantine, emperor of Rome

. . . by civil enactments made the venerable

day of the Sun, which day was then notable

for its veneration, the weekly rest day of the

empire . . . The enforcement of the weekly ob-

servance of Sunday gave ofcial recognition

to the week of seven days and resulted in the

introduction of it into the ofcial civil calendar

of Rome. The Romans passed that calendar

down to us, and in it we have still the ancient

planetary pagan titles of the days of the week.

The aftershocks of the Council of Nica are

still felt world-wide, today. Of any direct or in-

direct attack against the truth of God, this one

act has had the most profound and far reaching

affect. All the world has united in using this

calendar in its modern, Gregorian form. En-

tire churches base their religious observance

off of this pagan calendar. The foundationlaid by Constantines Sunday law is the

reason why Saturday and Sunday keepers

worship on the days they do. The decrees

of Nica legislated into place an entire coun-

terfeit system of religion with its pagan solar

calendar. Thus the knowledge of the Creators

calendar with His true seventh-day Sabbath

has been buried under the accumulated weight

of centuries of continuously cycling weeks.

Willful Apostacy or Ignorance?Frequently the question is asked, Would

Yahweh God really allow the knowl-edge of His Sabbath to be lost? The an-

swer as given in Lamentations 2:6 is: YES.

The LORD hath caused the solemn feasts

and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.

This theme is expanded upon in Hosea, chap-

ter 2. Here the Lord is likening His people to

an unfaithful wife who has gone whoring after

other lovers. Gods people have been an un-

faithful bride to their Lord. The prophecy of

Hosea applies to Gods people today. We like

to quote the beautiful promises in the second

half of that chapter as applying to Gods peo-

ple. These promises are precious. However,

they must be looked at in context, and they are

given in the context of Gods betrothed hav-

ing been unfaithful to Him. Therefore, the pun-

ishment is: I will also cause all her mirth to

cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her

sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. (Verse 11)

The new moons is a clear reference to the cal-

endar by which the Sabbaths are gured, just as

in Isaiah 66:23: And it shall come to pass, that

from one new moon to another, and from one

Sabbath to another, shall all esh come to wor-

ship before me, saith the LORD. The Seventh-

day Adventist church has used this text to provethat the Sabbath will be kept in the new earth.

More than that, unseen is the fact that this text

proves which calendarwill be used through-

out eternity, because on the pagan, solar Gre-

gorian calendar, the new moons are not even

noticed and denitely do not begin the months.

It was by compromise with paganism that the

early Christian church lost its apostolic purity.

This opened the oodgates to all of the decep-

tions of Satan. By not valuing and preserving

the truth, the people of Yahweh lost it. When the

truth of heaven is not cherished as it should be,

Yahweh removes it; He causes it to be forgotten.

Hosea 2:14 reveals just how we have for-

saken our heavenly Husband. It is by taking

the names of Baal into our mouths and let-

ting the worship of Baal structure our lives.

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring

her into the wilderness, and speak comfort-

ably unto her . . . And it shall be at that day,

saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi;

and shalt call me no more Baali. For I will

take away the names of Baalim out of her

mouth, and they shall no more be remembered

by their name. And in that day will I make a

covenant for them . . . And I will betroth thee

unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto

me in righteousness, and in judgement, and

in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even

betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou

shalt know the LORD. . . And I will say to

them which were not my people, Thou art my

people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

If each of the ancient prophets spoke less

for their own time than for ours, so that their

prophesying is in force for us then it is vi-

tal to look at this passage in light of the mod-

ern world. No one runs around claiming to be

worshipers of Baal anymore. Verse 17 givesa clue just how this is to be applied: For

I will take away the names of Baalim out

of her mouth, and they shall no more be re-

membered by their name. The names of the

weekdays: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.,

are named after the pagan planetary gods.

It is a curious fact of calendar history that the

pagan, planetary week originally began on

Saturns day (dies Saturni). That was the high-

est day of the week. It was followed by Suns

day (dies Solis), Moons day (dies Lun), etc.

The pagans worshiped the seven planetary

gods in the order they thought those planetsorbited in relation to the earth. They thought

that Saturn was furthest from the earth, so

it held the preeminent position of impor-

tance, as the rst day of the planetary week.

It is this selfsame day which Sabbatarians

have assumed corresponded to the seventh

and last day of the Biblical week, the Sab-

bath. It was only later that the days of the

week were rearranged with Sunday as the

rst day and Saturns day as the seventh. The

months of the Gregorian year and the days of

the planetary week are irreparably pagan. It

is these to which the passage in Hosea is re-

ferring. When Christians arrange their livesand their worship days by a pagan, planetary

calendar, the names of Baalim are taken into

their mouths. It is impossible to nd the cor-

rect Biblical Sabbath on a pagan, Gregorian

calendar and in this, the Creator is forgotten.

By restoring to the nal generation the knowl-

edge of His true method of calendation, Yahweh

is bringing them back to a primitive godliness.

He says, Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness, and speak

comfortably unto her. What wilderness? The

answer is found in Revelation 12. Here is giv-

en a depiction of the true church, the Bride of

Christ, as a woman who has to ee into the

wilderness.And the woman ed into the wil-

derness, where she hath a place prepared of

God, that they should feed her there a thousand

two hundred and threescore days. (Verse 6)

When the pure church accepted the practices

of paganism, the long night of the Dark Ages

fell on her. The true church ed into the wil-

derness and there, after experiencing the deso-

lation that comes from accepting other lovers,

the Lord began to allure her back. The Prot-

estant Reformation beganrestoring to her the

In subsequent years, the Jews went through iron and

re. The Christian [papal Roman] emperors forbade

the Jewish computation of the calendar, and did not

allow the announcement of the feast days. Graetz

says, The Jewish [and apostolic Christian] commu-

nities were left in utter doubt concerning the most im-

portant religious decisions: as pertaining to their fes-

tivals. The immediate consequence was the xation

and calculation of the Hebrew calendar by Hillel II.

The decrees of Nica, destroyed the Temple of

the Law in Judea, as it were, and the ancient regu-

lation of Moses for harmonizing the course of themoon with that of the sun was ultimately replaced

by calculations involving the vernal equinox, af-

ter which the nearest full moon was chosen to be

the paschal moon. From this equinoctial point, the

[Catholic] church built up her ecclesiastical cal-

endar and its Easter feast. It is easy to gloss over

the real signicance of the Council of Nica and

its bearing upon the Jewish system of time, for

though the church desired to depart from Jew-

ish calculation, and to adopt a movable feast, yet

in the end, it turned out that both the Jewish and

Roman Catholic festivals came to be computed

from the same point of time the vernal equinox.

The controversy over calendars was not resolvedwith Constantines edict. Rather, it opened the

door for religious persecution of Christians, by

Christians. Those who were convicted by con-

science that the Passover (as well as the Sabbath)

should be observed by the Biblical calendar were

unwilling to accept civil legislation in the realm

of religion. These continued to use the luni-so-

lar calendar in the face of intense persecution.

Christians on the fringes of the Roman Empire used

the Biblical reckoning centuries after Constantine.

When Catholic princess, Margaret, married Scottish

king Malcolm III (1031-1093) in 1070, she was in-

strumental in establishing Catholicism in Scotland.Prior to that time, Scottish priests still married, still

observed Passover on Abib 14 (regardless of the Ju-

lian date) and still worshipped on the seventh-day

Sabbath likely by the Biblical calendar as well,

as they were observing Passover by that calendar.

The Council of Nica was the culmination of many

years of compromise with paganism. It climaxed

in legislation which outlawed the only calendar

by which the true seventh-day Sabbath, and also

the true date of the resurrection, may be found.

The spirit of concession to paganism opened the

way for a still further disregard of Heavens au-

thority. Satan, working through unconsecrated

leaders of the church, tampered with the fourth

commandment also, and essayed to set aside the

ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed

and sanctied (Genesis 2:2, 3), and in its stead to

exalt the festival observed by the heathen as the

venerable day of the sun - dies Solis(Sunday).

Counterfeit worship required a counterfeit calendar

and the Council of Nica provided it. Biblical lu-

ni-solar calendation was supplanted by pagan solar

calendation, and the planetary week replaced the

Biblical week which depended upon the

phases of the moon and the sun combined.

This planetary week is paganisms counterfeit ofthe true Biblical week instituted by the Creator in

the beginning of Earths history. In the counterfeit

week employed in ancient paganism the vener-

able day of the Sun was esteemed by the heathen

above the other six days because it was regarded as

sacred to the Sun, the chief of the planetary deities

. . . Just as the true Sabbath is inseparably linked

with the Biblical week, so the false sabbath of pa-

gan origin needed a weekly cycle. Thus we have

found that the planetary week of paganism as we

have it to date is Sundays twin sister, and that the

two counterfeit institutions were linked together.

When the historical facts of the Julian calendar are

understood, it becomes clear that Sunday is not the

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light that had been lost. But because, The

truth is an advancing truth, and we must walk

in its ever increasing light, and since the days

of the Protestant Reformation, Yahweh has

been alluring His bride (the church) back

to Him, winning her heart to her True Love

by showing her His beautiful love and care

for her. However, Our Father in Heaven will

advance no faster than His people can follow.

The knowledge of the luni-solar Sabbaths is

now being restored to the remnant church. This

understanding should affect any preconceived

ideas of the time of trouble. The one belief

shared by both liberal and conservative Sev-

enth-day Adventists is that the United States

government will be foremost in making an im-

age to the beast(the Roman Catholic Church.)

In simple terms: all are looking for a Sunday

Law. Keeping in mind that Sister Ellen White

was bidden to write The Great Controversy in

such a way as to trace the history of the con-

troversy in past ages, and especially so to pres-

ent it as to shed a light on the fast-approach-

ing struggle of the future, is it possible that

the Sunday Law will again come disguised ascalendar reform as happened through

Constantine at the Council of Nica, in A.D

321-325?

Sister Ellen White warned the church to be

aware of Satans devices. Just as soon as people

become aware of one device, the father of lies

gives it a new twist. It is vitally important that

the church today be aware of Satans deceptive

devices because the nal generation is charged

with a special commission; a commission

Satan is desperate to keep them from doing:

They that shall be of thee shall build the old

waste places: thou shalt raise up the founda-tions of many generations; and thou shalt be

called, The repairer of the breach, The re-

storer of paths to dwell in. (Isaiah 58:12)

Christ Himself, shortly before His death,

also referred to this special group of peo-

ple. The last chapter of the last book of the

Old Testament contains this admonition:

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant

. . . with the statutes and judgements. Be-

hold, I will send you Elijah the prophet be-

fore the coming of the great and dreadful day

of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of

the fathers to the children, and the heart ofthe children to their fathers, lest I come and

smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:4-6)

The disciples knew this prophecy. Af-

ter Christ was transgured and Moses and

Elijah appeared with Him, Peter, James

and John questioned: Why then say the

scribes that Elijah must rst come? In oth-

er words, If you truly are the Messiah as

we believe, why didnt Elijah come rst?

Yahshuas response is very intriguing.

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Eli-

jah truly shall rst come, and restore all things.

But I say unto you, that Elijah is come already,

and they knew him not, but have done unto

him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall

also the Son of man suffer of them. Then

the disciples understood that He spake unto

them of John the Baptist. In this exchange, the

disciples and Christ were both referring back

to the prophecy of Malachi which promised

the coming of Elijah before the great and

dreadful day of the LORD. The disciples

assumed He was speaking solely of John the

Baptist, but actually Jesus makes a distinc-

tion between the Elijah who is yet to come,

and John who came already (Matthew 17:11)

The Elijah that was yet future to Christs

day would do something very important:

he would restore all things. (Verse 11)

Restore what things? The answer is found

again in Malachi 4: Remember ye the law

of Moses . . . with the statutes and judg-

ments. (Verse 4) The repairers of the

breach restore the statutes and principles of

the law of Moses, including calendation.

Many people assume that the word statute

applies strictly to sacricial offerings that were

done away with at the cross. However, a care-

ful search of scripture reveals that the word

statute is never used to apply to offering a

sacrice. On the other hand, it is frequently

couched in the following phrases: it shall be

a statute forever, it shall be a perpetual stat-

ute, and this shall be an everlasting statute.

The work of restoration and reform car-

ried on by the returned exiles, under the

leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehe-

miah, presents a picture of a work of spiri-

tual restoration that is to be wrought in

the closing days of this earths history . . .

The spiritual restoration of which the work car-

ried forward in Nehemiahs day was a symbol,is outlined in the words of Isaiah: They shall

build the old wastes, they shall raise up the for-

mer desolations, and they shall repair the waste

cities. They that shall be of thee shall build the

old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foun-

dations of many generations; and thou shalt be

called, The repairer of the breach, The restor-

er of paths to dwell in. (Isaiah 61:4; 58:12.)

The prophet here describes a people who, in a

time of general departure from truth and righ-

teousness, are seeking to restore the principles

that are the foundation of the kingdom of God.

They are repairers of a breach that has beenmade in Gods Law the wall that He has placed

around His chosen ones for their protection, and

obedience to whose precepts of justice, truth,

and purity is to be their perpetual safeguard.

In words of unmistakable meaning the prophet

points out the specic work of this remnant

people who build the wall. If thou turn away

thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy plea-

sure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a

delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and

shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor

nding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine

own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in

the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon thehigh places of the earth, and feed thee with the

heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of

the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 58:13, 14.)

In the time of the end, every divine institution

is to be restored. The breach made in the law at

the time the Sabbath was changed by man, is

to be repaired. Gods remnant people, standing

before the world as reformers, are to show that

the Law of God is the foundation of all endur-

ing reform and that the Sabbath of the fourth

commandment is to stand as a memorial of cre-

ation, a constant reminder of the power of God.

In clear, distinct lines they are to present the

necessity of obedience to allthe precepts of the

Decalogue. Constrained by the love of Christ,

they are to co-operate with Him in building

up the waste places. They are to be repairers

of the breach, restorers of paths to dwell in.

May Yahwehs people today restore every

divine institution, including His calendar,

that the beauty of His law might be displayed

before the world!

Calendar reform is urgenty needed.

However, rather than changing the papal (Gre-

gorian) calendar into some new form, the true

calendar of the Creator needs to be restored to those

who desire to worship Him. Scripture declares: Ver-

ily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between

Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may

know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. Ye

shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto

you. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh

is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD... It is im-

perative that all have an intelligent knowledge of these

vital issues. Counterfeit worship requires a counter-

feit calendar and Satan is well-prepared to confuse

minds with an array of false methods of time-keeping.

The modern week in use today, which would be car-

ried over to The World Calendar, is founded on pa-

ganism: This planetary week was paganisms counter-

feit of the true, Biblical week instituted by the Creator

in the beginning of Earths history. Just as the true

Sabbath is inseparably linked with the Biblical week,

so the false Sabbath of pagan origin needed a weekly

cycle. Thus we have found that the two counterfeit

institutions were linked together . . . The enforcement

[at the Council of Nica, A.D. 321-325] of the weekly

observance of Sunday gave ofcial recognition to the

week of seven days and resulted in the introduction of

it into the ofcial civil calendar of Rome. The Romanspassed that calendar down to us, and in it we have still

the ancient planetary titles of the days of the week.

The calendar reform needed today is a return to true,

Biblical time-keeping. Sabbath reform necessitates

calendar reform.

The work of Sabbath reform to be accomplished in the

last days is foretold in the prophecy of Isaiah: Thus

saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice; for my

salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be

revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son

of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath

from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any

evil. The sons of the stranger, that join themselves to

the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord,to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath

from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even

them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them

joyful in my house of prayer. [Isaiah 56:1, 2, 6, 7.]

These words apply in the Christian age, as is shown

by the context: The Lord God which gathereth the

outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to

him, beside those that are gathered unto him. [Isa-

iah 56:8.] Here is foreshadowed the gathering in

of the Gentiles by the gospel. And upon those who

then honor the Sabbath, a blessing is pronounced.

Thus the obligation of the fourth commandment ex-

tends past the crucixion, resurrection, and ascen-

sion of Christ, to the time when his servants should

preach to all nations the message of glad tidings.

Treasure Reburied

The year is 1938. The world is precariously bal-

anced on a powder keg and most people know it.

The United States is still struggling with the nan-

cial fall-out of Black Thursday that has plunged

the country into the Great Depression. Europe is

jittery because no matter how accommodating

British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain is,

Adolph Hitler still wants more and more and more.

In this time of intensity, the Seventh-day Adven-

tist church was confronted by a theological cri-

sis unlike any it had ever before faced. The danger

level was on a par with the Kellogg led alpha of

apostasy nearly 40 years before, but this time the

threat came from without and it wasnt pantheism.

The stakes: October 22, 1844; the Spirit of Prophecy;

and the seventh-day Sabbath.

The enemy: the majority of the governments of the

world. It was a proposed Sunday law, but it did not

bear the slightest resemblance to any Sunday law ever

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dreamt up by Seventh-day Adventists. It was a calen-

dar change that would affect the Sabbath.

At a time when Seventh-day Adventists were already

struggling with labor unions for the right to keep Satur-

day as their rest day, it promised disaster to the church.

The movement for a change of calendars started

in the 1920s, but really gained momentum in the

1930s. This was not some hare-brained idea sup-

ported by a handful of visionaries. It was well-or-

ganized, well-nanced and had supporters highly

placed in the Roman Catholic Church and in the

League of Nations (present day United Nations).

Let it not be thought that the effort to do this (put into

place a new calendar) is insignicant and unimport-

ant. Rather is it true that a world-wide and pow-

erful organization has come into existence which

has this as its objective. It is spending many thou-

sands of dollars yearly for propaganda to obtain the

approval of commercial, governmental, and civic

bodies for the World Calendar. It has numerous sub-

sidiary organizations throughout the world working

for the adoption of the new calendar. Under different

names there are similar organizations working for the

same objective in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,

Mexico, Panama, Uruguay, Peru, Belgium, Colom-

bia, Germany, France, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland,Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and elsewhere.

The threat to the church was immediately clear. Un-

like the change from the Julian calendar to the Gre-

gorian calendar in 1582, the proposed World Cal-

endar would affect the continuous weekly cycle.

The result would be that the rst year of the change, the

Sabbath would remain on Saturday; the following year,

however, the new Saturday would fall on the old Friday.

The year after that, Saturday would fall on the old Thursday.

The year this was to go into effect was 1945. The rea-

son was simple: It is best to choose a day, date, month,

and year when both the old retiring and the new incom-

ing calendars glide smoothly together. In the propa-ganda widely distributed by the World Calendar Orga-

nization, it was stated that the last four months of 1944

were identical to the last four months of the new calen-

dar, so that would be a good time to make the switch.

It was a deceptive statement. There was one glaring

difference between the two calendars a blank day.

The way the calendar worked was this: the whole of

the Gregorian year would remain the same until De-

cember 31. December 30, 1944, was a Saturday; De-

cember 31 was a Sunday. Under the new calendar, the

day following Saturday, December 30, would not be

Sunday, December 31, but simply World Day. It would

not have a date (that is, a number) nor would it be

part of the weekly cycle of Sunday through Saturday.

Instead of being recognized as Sunday, which it is,

instead of being called a Sunday, or being observed

as Sunday, it is set aside as an extra Saturday, De-

cember W, and counted a blank day, or zero day.

Instead of going to church that day Sunday observ-

ers would celebrate a holiday, an extra Saturday.

They would go to church the next day, Monday, the

2nd day of the week, now rechristened Sunday, and

moved up, on paper, to be the 1st day. They would

be asked to keep Monday during all of 1945 . . .

In 1949 Saturday, the 7th day, under this ar-

rangement, would be called Sunday, and madethe 1st day, and observed by Sunday keepers . . .

Thus the historical Sunday would be detached from its

xed place in the week and set to wandering through

the weekly cycle, its own name removed and another

name applied. Those who observe it as a religious day

would be plunged into hopeless and endless confu-

sion, groping about to discover their lost day of wor-

ship. Seventh-day Adventists suddenly found them-

selves uneasy bed-fellows with Jews, Muslims and

Sunday keeping Protestants who did not want a cal-

endar change that would affect the only weekly cycle

they had ever known a continuous weekly cycle.

The advantages claimed for the reformed

calendar are avowedly commercial, eco-

nomic, statistical. It will, we are told

Fix the year in perpetuity.

Retain and largely equalize the twelve

months.

Retain and equalize the quarter years.

Group the months uniformly within the quar-

ters.

Provide 13 complete weeks within each

quarter and uniformly group these weeks.

Reduce the inequality between months

from three days to one day, and es-

tablish an equal working month.

In summary, the year would always begin on a Sun-

day and end on a Saturday. Specic dates would no

longer oat through the weekly cycle, but would

forever be xed to one day. So, under the new cal-

endar, if a child were born on Tuesday, January 10,

1947, her birthday would always fall on Tuesday

because January 10 would always be a Tuesday.

Opponents to this change quickly denounced it

as a deceptive calendar. The Gregorian calendar

is based on the solar year how long it takes the

earth to revolve around the sun. The solar year is

365.2422 days long. The World Calendar, on the

other hand, while ofcially claiming to be a so-lar calendar would be only 364 days long (World

Day, previously known as December 31, not be-

ing counted as a day.) Every four years, leap

day would be handled the same as World Day.

The World Calendar reformers would have us ob-

serve that this calendar divides the twelve months

of the year into four equal quarters, 91 days in each,

364 days in all. But as there are 365 days in ordi-

nary years, and 366 days in leap years, they would

have these taken care of by calling the 365thday

Year End Day, or December W, or an extra Sat-

urday, and have it follow December 30, not to be

counted in the calendar, but considered and used asa holiday, a blank day, or zero day. Likewise would

they have us provide for the 366thday in leap years,

this becoming Leap Year Day, by placing the old

February 29 in midyear following June 30 as an-

other extra Saturday, and calling it June W, but not

counting it in the calendar, just nonchalantly ban-

ishing it as another blank day. They cheerfully tell

us that both December W and June W are the sta-

bilizing days in the calendar the World Holidays.

Within the Seventh-day Adventist church, rum-

blings of problems with calendation principles rst

appeared some years earlier. Elder J. H. Wierts had

learned from his Hebrew teachers, Jewish rabbis,

that the rabbinical Day of Atonement for 1844 had

been observed on September 23, not October 22.

Wierts determined to investigate the issue. Taking

advantage of a contact within the United States

Naval Observatory, he searched for the truth.

Wierts discovered inconsistencies in calendrical

science principles that affected the date of the cru-

cixion. This was vital, because a correct (or in-

correct) understanding of the calendar affects the

interpretation of various prophecies as well as the

seventh day Sabbath doctrine. He felt it was imper-

ative that the church acknowledge and reconcile

these discrepancies before our adversaries could

challenge us on them. He nally wrote his ndingsup in a manuscript 283 pages in length. In 1932, he

began appealing to various ofcials in the General

Conference for an investigation of his ndings.

The General Conference did not see the neces-

sity for ofcial research and he had no success

in getting them to look into the topic for some

time. Finally, on November 7, 1938, the General

Conference appointed a committee of ministers,

scholars and respected theologians to address the

issues raised by Wierts. Membership on the Re-

search Committee reads like a veritable Whos

Who of Seventh-day Adventist leaders: Elder L.

E. Froom chaired the committee; Dr. Lynn Harper

Wood was secretary. Other members included

Dr. M. L. Andreasen, F. C. Gilbert, and Pro-

fessors M. E. Kern, Albert W. Werline, and

W. Homer Teesdale. In January of 1939, Miss

Grace Amadon, the granddaughter of Adventist

Pioneer John Byington, was also invited to join.

At this time, nearly 70 years later, it is impos-

sible to denitively state which reason prompt-

ed the General Conference to appoint the Re-

search Committee: Elder Wierts persistent

questioning, or the increasing agitation for a

World Calendar. They did study Wierts nd-

ings. It is also clear that they were very aware

of the increasing support, world-wide, for a

change in calendars, as references to that ap-

pear in their research and correspondence.

The Research Committee conrmed that Oc-

tober 22 was indeed the Day of Atonement for

1844, even though it conicted with the rabbin-

ical date of September 23. As such, the status

of Ellen White as a prophet remained safe and

secure. The one unwelcome and completely un-

expected element brought to light was that the

Biblical calendar used to establish October 22,

1844, as the great anti-typical Day of Atone-ment also appeared to affect when the Sabbath

fell. This caused unprecedented confusion. For

a time, the committee considered implement-

ing the luni-solar calendar as church policy.

In an undated letter to fellow-committee mem-

ber, Grace Amadon, M. L. Andreasen expresses

his fear that adopting the calendar used by the

Millerites would only result in confusion. He did

not see how such a calendar could be adopted by

a worldwide church or how it could be explained

to the church members, let alone, the world.

It would not be easy to explain to the peo -

ple that the God who advocated and insti-

tuted such an arrangement would be veryconcerned about the exact seventh day.

If an explanation were possible, and the people

were at last adjusted to the shift in the feast day

and the stability of the seventh day, it might

be supposed that in time they would get used

to the arrangement. But they would no sooner

have become accustomed to this, till another

shift is made. Now they shift back to where they

were before. But neither is this settled or sta-

tionary. Another shift comes, and another and

another . . . There is no uniformity and just as

the people get used to a certain arrangement,

the day is changed again. Such is more than

the common people can understand, and if wego to the people now with such a proposition,

we must expect that confusion will result. And

our enemies will not be slow to point out the

difculties and ring the changes on them . . .

If in the new calendar scheme we are con-

sidering adopting it should be admitted that

local communities have the right of mak-

ing their own observations [of the moon] that

would determine the new year, it would yet re-

main a question if the proper men competent

for such observation would be available . . .

The seventh-day Sabbath is clear and dis-

tinct. A child can understand its computation.

Let not the people observing Gods holy day

sponsor a calendar that means confusion, and

make our work unnecessarily hard. For while

the proposed scheme does not in any way af-

fect the succession of the days of the week, and

hence does not affect the Sabbath, nevertheless

if the people observing the Sabbath also advo-

cate the new scheme of calendation, the result-

ing confusion will not be of any help to us . . .

The committee has done a most excellent piece

of work. The endorsing, unreservedly, of the

plan now before us seems to me . . . in its im-

plications so loaded with dynamite, with TNT,

7


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that we might well beware. I would most ear-

nestly warn the committee in this matter. I am

afraid that the repercussions of such endorse-

ment at this time will be felt in wide circles . . .

Seventh-day Adventists will soon have enough

matters on their hands so that it will not be nec-

essary to make trouble for ourselves before the

time. The blank day may yet confront us. We

cannot afford to start trouble of our own. To the

world it will look that the present proposed cal-

endar is advanced for a specic purpose not

for the purpose of adoption, for we will nd

that it is impossible of universal application,

but for the purpose of supporting the 1844

date. I do not believe that we are under that ne-

cessity. It must be possible to establish Octo-

ber 22, 1844 without resorting to such devices.

A possible solution: I suggest that we make a re-

port to Brother McElhaney of what the Millerites

believed and how they arrived at their conclu-

sions, without, at this time, committing ourselves

upon the correctness of their method. Let Brother

McElhaney publish this report in any way it may

be thought best, and let us await the reaction. This,

of course, would be only a preliminary report, and

would be so designated. We will soon [see] whatre it will draw. In the mean time let us study fur-

ther on the nal report. The reaction to the prelim-

inary report may determine the form of the nal.

The confusion arises over the fact that the Gre-

gorian calendar has a continuous cycle of weeks,

while the luni-solar calendar does not. There-

fore, when the solar Gregorian calendar is super-

imposed over the luni-solar Biblical calendar,

the luni-solar dates seem to oat through the

Gregorian week. The true seventh-day Sab-

bath of the luni-solar calendar only rarely falls

on the Saturday of the Gregorian calendar.

It is not entirely clear whether or not the ResearchCommittee saw the full affect of their ndings on

the Sabbath. Various statements are quite ambig-

uous and could be interpreted either way. De-

nitely some of the members chose to ignore cer-

tain scientic proof that did not agree with their

preconceived ideas of when the Sabbath occurs.

Gods people today cannot afford to repeat their

mistake. The Creators invitation to His people

is: Come now, let us reason together. The word

translated reason is ykach which means to be

correct, to justify or convict; to reason together.

While it is true that there will always be hooks

on which to hang doubts for those who wish todo so, it is also true that Yahweh does not re-

quire blind faith. Pure faith, yes; blind faith,

no. He always gives sufcient reason to be-

lieve for those who are willing to be convinced.

This must be understood. A Laodicean who dis-

covers apparent contradictions in the Bible, can

be shaken. Rather than digging deep in the mine

of truth to discover the underlying principle that

will reconcile the two apparently contradicto-

ry points, he will instead choose to believe the

one that agrees with his belief system because it

suits the tenor of his feelings and reject the oth-

er. Anything new is seen as unnecessary knowl-

edge. Laodiceans, after all, are increased with

goods (knowledge) and have need of nothing.

When something comes up that he does not know,

the Laodicean feels, I dont need to know that.

If it were important to know, Id already know it,

because what I already know is sufcient for sal-

vation. A true student of the Word, on the other

hand, will never reject something simply because

it contradicts a preconceived idea or cherished

opinion. To him, the truth is more important

than anything else. He realizes that not knowing

the truth does not change the reality of what is

truth. So, he would always rather know the truth.

Understanding that feelings are not a reliable indi-

cation of what is truth, he has chosen to follow the

light wherever it leads, even if it means giving up

his most cherished beliefs. He has chosen to obey

if it can be proven from the Bible to be correct.

The pioneers of the Advent movement under-

stood this point very well. Listed in The Mid-

night Cry of November 17, 1842, are their Rules

of Interpretation. Rule 4 states: To understand

doctrine, bring all the scriptures together on the

subject you wish to know; then let every word

have its proper inuence, and if you can form

your theory without a contradiction, you cannotbe in an error. The Research Committee would

have done well to heed this inspired rule of Bib-

lical interpretation. Instead, rather than study-

ing until they could reconcile the contradictions,

they chose to cling by faith to their errors.

The last generation will need to dig down to

bed-rock for their foundation. No amount of

sand can be allowed in to weather the storms

soon to break upon the church. Yahweh God is

leading His people on to that rock solid founda-

tion. Along the way, they may encounter differ-

ing truths which seem to contradict each other.

At such times they must remember that the Fa-

ther does not require blind faith. He has invit-

ed His people to come and reason with Him.

Yahwehs children dont need to fear that

which they do not understand. If they are will-

ing to obey, no matter what the cost, if they are

willing to follow the light wherever it leads,

He has pledged Himself well capable of pro-

viding them with sufcient ykach-- suf-

cient reasons to convict them of what is truth.

The luni-solar calendar established by

Yahweh at creation is a workable, understand-

able calendar.It should be diligently studied

by the remnant TODAY. Isaiah 66:23 revealsthat it is the calendar to be used in the New Earth

and it is the truth Heaven is restoring to the nal

generation to enable them to go out and preach

the Sabbath more fully. Let us learn from

the lessons of the past. Let us praise our Heav-

enly Father for the increase of knowledge He is

pouring out. Let us trust that He who has led us

thus far, is capable of revealing His truth to us.

The Creators

Original Calendar

In the beginning, the Creator made everything

from nothing. Matter existed at the sound of

His voice. Life entered man with the breath of

his Maker owing into his lungs. Everything

from nothing. All provisions for the happi-

ness of man were provided by a loving Creator.

And then, Yahweh God gave man the Sabbath:

a blessed and holy time in which to rest and to

give love and worship to his Creator. All people

need to worship; it is how mans brain is made.

But, lest after generations become confused

and lose track of the days, Yahweh provided at

Creation, a built-in, ever present, always accu-

rate clock/calendar to measure time and clearly

designate the work days from the worship days.In order to worship Yahweh on the day He ap-

pointed, people must be able to understand how

His clock/calendar works to know which day is

number one-- the starting point for counting the

six days to work, with worship on the seventh.

The calendar established at Creation was kept

by the Jews until well into the 4th century A.D.

It was a luni-solar calendarwith months lasting

either 29 or 30 days. Each new month started with

the rst appearance of the crescent moon. The

years did not have a continuous cycle of weeks but

instead the weekly cycle started over with each

new moon.New Moon day was a worship day

followed by six working days, with the seventh-

day Sabbath on the eighth day of the month. Three

more successive weeks completed the month.

Most people nd this concept so different it leaves

their brain reeling. At the very least, it is tempting

to denounce it as wrong simply because it is so for-

eign to everything we as Seventh-day Adventists

have ever heard, believed, or preached. However,

there is scriptural, historical, astronomical and

prophetic proof that this description of the original

calendar is true. We will now consider the scrip-

tural and historical proof for the original calendar.

First, a denition of frequently used terms.

There are only three kinds of calendars in use:

the solar, the lunar and the luni-solar.

Solarcalendarsare based upon how long it takes

the earth to revolve around the sun. The Gregorian

calendar is a solar calendar with each new year ar-

bitrarily beginning in the middle of winter on Jan-

uary 1. The solar year is 365.2422 days long. The

left over time (approximately of a twenty-four

hour period) accumulates over a four year period

and is resolved by adding a leap day, currently Feb-

ruary 29, every four years. Because the remainingtime isnt precisely of a twenty-four hour peri-

od, adding one day every four years actually adds

too much time. The extra time is removed from

the calendar by, on a rare occasion, having eight

years between leap years, rather than just four.

Centurial years that are equally divisible by 400

are leap years; centurial years that are not equal-

ly divisible by 400 are not leap years. This is

why A.D. 2000 was a leap year, but 1900, 1800

and 1700 were not, while 1600 was a leap year.

Lunar calendarsare based strictly on the cycles

of the moon. A lunar calendar is only 354 days

long, or 11 days shorter than a solar year. As a re-sult, the dates of the lunar calendar oat through

the solar year. An example of a lunar calendar

is Islams religious calendar. This is why Rama-

dan is at differing times of the year on a Grego-

rian calendar. Sometimes Ramadan is in spring;

other times, it comes in November or January, etc.

Luni-solar calendars are a combination of the

two. The days are marked off by the rising of the sun

while the months are tied to the cycles of the moon.

A luni-solar calendar, because it uses both the sun

and the moon, does not shift as much as a strictly

lunar calendar, so spring feasts remain in the spring,

while fall feasts remain in the fall. The Jewish luni-

solar calendar used both observation and calculation.

Because Yahweh established His clock/calendar at

Creation, it would be reasonable to expect some

reference to that in the Creation account given in

Genesis. It is found right where one would expect

to nd it in the record of the fourth day of Cre-

ation. And God said, Let there be lights in the

rmament of the heaven to divide the day from

the night; and let them be for signs, and for sea-

sons, and for days, and for years (Genesis 1:14.)

The word here translated seasons is moed.

It means: Congregation, festive gathering; ap-

pointment, signal. . . . Moed often designates

a determined time or place without any regard

for the purpose. Since the Jewish festivals oc-

curred at regular intervals, this word becomes

closely identied with them . . . Moed is used in

a broad sense for all religious assemblies. It was

closely associated with the tabernacle itself . . .

God met Israel there at specic times for the pur-

pose of revealing His will. It is a common term

for the worshiping assembly of Gods people.

All of Yahwehs worship days in the Bible are

called moeds. Leviticus 23 lists all of them. The

very rst one listed is the seventh-day Sabbath:

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak8


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intermitted at the new moons. The new moons

are generally mentioned so as to show that they

were regarded as a peculiar class of holy days,

distinguished from the solemn feasts and the

Sabbaths. . . . The religious observance of the

day of the new moon may plainly be regarded

as the consecration of a natural division of time.

An indication that the New Moon Sab-

baths were considered to be high Sabbaths

is the additional sacrices offered that day.

One of the clearest passages in the Bible that

show that the Jews kept the luni-solar cal-

endar is found in Exodus 16. Ironically, it

is one of the chapters we as Sabbatarians

have used in the past to prove that Satur-

day is the Biblical Sabbath. It is the account

of the Children of Israel rst receiving manna.

Exodus 16:1-2 states: And they took their jour-

ney from Elim, and all the congregation of the

children of Israel came unto the wilderness of

Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the

fteenth day of the second month after their de-

parting out of the land of Egypt. And the whole

congregation of the children of Israel murmured

against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

It may not be immediately apparent how this

passage of scripture proves a luni-solar calen-

dar. This is because of a change in punctua-

tion when the Bible was translated into Eng-

lish. Technically speaking, the ancient Hebrew

did not have punctuation marks as exist today.

However, they did have little marks, or breaks,

that let the reader know where the end of the

thought was or, in effect, where the period is

supposed to go. This is called an atnach and

is found after the location given in verse one. A

correct rendering of these verses, then, is this:

And they took their journey from Elim,

and all the congregation of the childrenof Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin,

which is between Elim and Sinai. (Atnach)

And on the fteenth day of the second month after

their departing out of the land of Egypt, the whole

congregation of the children of Israel murmured

against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

On the fteenth day of the second month, which,

by luni-solar calendar reckoning is always a

seventh-day Sabbath, the Israelites griped to

Moses and Aaron because their food had run

out! The Lords response is found in verse four:

Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for

you; and the people shall go out and gather acertain rate every day, that I may prove them,

whether they will walk in my law, or no. And

it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they

shall prepare that which they bring in; and it

shall be twice as much as they gather daily.

So, here He is telling them, Im going to give

you some manna; and the way Ill know wheth-

er or not you obey Me will be if you try and

work to collect it on the seventh day. Im spell-

ing it out for you now to prepare twice as much

on the sixth day. Well see if you obey Me.

The story continues in verse six. Moses and

Aaron went and announced to the people that

at even they would have meat and in the

morning they would see the glory of the Lord.

And it came to pass, that at even the quails

came up, and covered the camp; and in the morn-

ing the dew lay round about the host. And when

the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the

face of the wilderness there lay a small round

thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground.

The meat came up at even the even after

they complained, and the next morning they found

manna. Moses then explained that the manna

was bread from Yahweh God (Jehovah Jireh, the

Provider) and they were to gather it for six days

unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,

Concerning the feasts (moed) of the LORD,

which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations,

even these are my feasts (moed). Six days shall

work be done: but the seventh day is the Sab-

bath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no

work therein: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in

all your dwellings. From there, Yahweh goes on

to list the rest of His moeds Passover, Feast

of Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost,Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast

of Tabernacles. They are all called moeds.

People who keep the feasts, gure them by the

moon, but the very rst feast listed is the week-

ly feast (moed) of the seventh-day Sabbath.

Anciently, the Jews waited to observe the rst

crescent of the moon and then the day fol-

lowing that sighting was New Moon day.

The Hebrew month was lunar, beginning with the

evening on which the crescent moon appeared.

The rst day of the month was called the new

moon (1 Samuel 20:24-27) . . . At rst, visualobservation was used to determine the appear-

ance of the crescent. If the crescent was seen on

the evening following the 29thday of the month,

a new month had begun; if not, another day was

added so that that particular month had 30 days (a

month never had more than 30 days).The biggest

difference between the calendar of creation and

the calendars in use today is how the weeks cycle

through the year. The Gregorian calendar, like the

Julian calendar before it, has a continuous cycle

of unending weeks, one after the other. The Cre-

ators calendar does not. The weekly cycle start-

ed over with the appearance of each new moon.

Again, the rst visible crescent not only be-

gan each new month, it also restarted the

weekly cycle. As a result, the seventh-day

Sabbath always fell on the 8th, 15th, 22nd,

and 29th of the luni-solar calendar month.

To those who have never known anything dif-

ferent than a continuous, unending cycle of un-

broken weeks, the idea of starting the weekly

cycle over again each month strains credulity.

However, be assured that the working week was

never longer than the prescribed six days. Once

a month they would have what today would

be called a long weekend, because in a 29-day month the seventh-day Sabbath was im-

mediately followed by a New Moon sabbath,

but the days for work never exceeded six days.

Since the world has been on an unending weekly

cycle for over 1,000 years, people today are un-

acquainted with a weekly cycle that is not con-

tinuous. We as Seventh-day Adventists, there-

fore, have misunderstood the following quote:

Like the Sabbath, the week originated at cre-

ation, and it has been preserved and brought

down to us through Bible history. God himself

measured off the rst week as a sample for suc-

cessive weeks to the close of time. Like everyother, it consisted of seven literal days. Six days

were employed in the work of creation; upon

the seventh, God rested, and he then blessed this

day, and set it apart as a day of rest for man.

It has been assumed that this referred to a con-

tinuous weekly cycle. But all this quote is say-

ing is that the week as a unit of time is still

the original length of seven days. Studying

the units of time measurement in the Hebrew

economy is very revealing. Notice in par-

ticular the denitions of the various words.

Calendar Units

(in the Hebrew economy)The day In calendar terms, the day is

the smallest and most consistent unit of

time. In the ancient world, the term day

was used in two senses. It described a

24-hour period, as well as daylight in

contrast to the night (Genesis 1:5) . . . .

The week was a seven-day unit begun at

the time of creation (Genesis 1:31-2:2). The

word week means seven (Genesis 29:27;

Luke 18:12). In the Bible the days of the week

were called the rst day, third day, and

so forth (Genesis 1:8-31; Matthew 28:1), al-

though the seventh day was known as sab-

bath (Exodus 16:23; Matthew 12:1). The

day before the sabbath was called the (sab-

bath) Preparation Day (Mark 15:42) . . . .

The month was a unit of time closely tied to

the moon. The Hebrew word for month

also meant moon (Deuteronomy 33:14,

NIV, NASB). The reason for the connec-

tion between the month and the moon is

that the beginning of a month was marked

by a new moon. The moon was carefully

observed by the people of Bible times.

When it appeared as a thin crescent, it

marked the beginning of a new month.

The lunar month was about 29 days long.

Therefore, the rst crescent of the new moon

would appear 29 or 30 days after the previ-

ous new moon. At times the crescent was

not visible because of clouds. But this was

allowed for with a rule that the new moonwould never be reckoned as more than 30

days after the last new moon. This pre-

vented too much variation in the calendar.

What has been preserved since creation is a sev-

en-day week. At different times through history,

various cultures experimented with weeks of

differing lengths. Some weeks were eight days

long, while others were ten days long, depend-

ing upon how far apart were their market days.

However, saying that the week as a unit of

time has been preserved since Creation is dif-

ferent from assuming that the cycle of the

weeks has been unbroken since Creation.Sabbatarians have long used Isaiah 66:23 to

prove that the seventh-day Sabbath will

be the day of worship throughout eternity.

Unfortunately, it has not been realized that

this very same text also reveals the calen-

dar by which the Lords Sabbaths are cal-

culated: And it shall come to pass, that

from one new moon to another, and from

one sabbath to another, shall all esh come

to worship before me, saith the LORD.

The rst day of the lunar month was observed

as a holy day. In addition to the daily sacri-

ce there were offered two young bullocks,

a ram and seven lambs of the rst year as a

burnt offering, with the proper meat offerings

and drink offerings, and a kid as a sin offer-

ing. Numbers 28:11-15. As on the Sabbath,

trade and handicraft work were stopped, Amos

8:5, and the temple was opened for public wor-

ship. Isaiah 66:23; Ezekiel 46:3. The trumpets

were blown at the offering of the special sac-

rices for the day, as on the solemn festivals.

See Numbers 10:10; Psalm 81:3. It was an oc-

casion for state banquets. See 1 Samuel 20:5-

24. In later, if not in earlier times, fasting was

9


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without leaving any left-overs for the next day. On

the sixth day, he said, they were to gather twice

as much as there would be none on the seventh

day (verses 15-22.) When the sixth day arrived,

Moses gave them some additional instructions:

This is that which the LORD hath said, Tomor-

row is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD;

bake that which ye will bake today, and seethe

that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth

over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

They gathered the manna for six days. Six days

starting when? Starting the 16th of the month,

the day on which the manna rst fell after theircomplaining on the 15th. The next day after the

preceding six days, Moses said, was the rest of

the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Simple math:

15 + 7 = 22. Again, because the rst of the month

is a New Moon Sabbath, the 8th, 15th, 22nd,

and 29th are also always seventh-day Sabbaths!

The next day, which would have been the 22nd,

a Holy Sabbath, there went out some of the

people on the seventh day for to gather, and they

found none. This was the test the Lord referred

to earlier would they obey Him and keep the

Sabbath by resting on it or not?

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long re-

fuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

See, for that the LORD hath given you the sab-

bath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day

the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his

place, let no man go out of his place on the sev-

enth day. So the people rested on the seventh day.

The seventh day from when? From the rst day

they received the manna which would have been

the 16th of the month, a rst day of the week.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we have always faith-

fully said that the Sabbath was established by the

fact that for 40 years, Yahweh provided proof as

to which day was the Sabbath by two miracles:

1. Giving manna on the six working days;

2. Withholding manna on the seventh day.

However, it has not been realized also, that this

same passage provides an insight into the con-

struction of the luni-solar months. Other pas-

sages in the Bible also support such congur-

ing of the luni-solar month, but it is not wit

the true sabbath.pdf

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