(Originally Published as 7 Booklets, Copyright © 1989 by Richard Scott)
Many wrong assumptions are read into scripture, in attempts to understand it in the light of false religious traditions.
Such attempts, however, cannot withstand the searching light of factual examination or the beacon of truthful and inspired insight.
For example what exactly are scriptural months and years, and how can the yearly feast sabbaths be determined according to them?
What, exactly, does scripture really teach us on this subject?
It may well shock many bible students, and so-called scholars and researchers alike, to learn what scripture does and does not say a month and a year actually are.
Once you learn the truth about what scripture reveals on this topic, you should be willing to discard inaccurate and false assumptions.
It is a strange fact that most of those who believe in the false ideas of scriptural months and years also accept and teach a totally opposite concept of so-called "prophetic months" and "prophetic years."
In plain language this means they have discovered scriptural facts that reveal the actual scriptural months and years are different from what is generally assumed.
We'll get to those facts one at a time. But first, let's look at what most scholars believe and teach that months and years in scripture supposedly are.
The Scriptural Month
In all but a handful of "Old Testament" scriptures the Ibreyan (ancient "Hebrew") word translated into the English word "month" is not from the word meaning "moon" or "lunation" (lunar cycle, otherwise called a lunar month).
Scriptures where the word "month" does mean a lunar month are: Exodus 2:2; Deuteronomy 21:13, 33:14; I Kings 6:37, 38, 8:2; II Kings 15:13; Ezra 6:15; "Job" 3:6, 7:3, 29:2, 39:2; "Isaiah" 60:20; Daniel 4:29 and Zechariah 11:8.
This word is closely related to the word for "moon."
In fact, in Ibreya (prior to the modern Hebrew version of the Old Testament scriptures), it is the exact same word elsewhere translated "moon" throughout the Old Testament.
Scriptures where this word is so translated, are: Genesis 37:9; Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3; "Joshua" 10:12, 13; II Kings 23:5; "Job" 25:5, 31:26; Psalms 8:3, 72:5, 7, 89:37, 104:19, 121:6, 136:9, 148:3; Ecclesiastes 12:2; "Isaiah" 13:10, 60:19; "Jeremiah" 8:2, 21:35; "Ezekiel" 32:7; "Joel" 2:10, 31, 3:15; and Habakkuk 3:11.
In over 250 other scriptures throughout the Old Testament, the English word "month" is translated from a totally different word, a word that is entirely unrelated to the word properly translated "moon" or lunation!
Twenty times, however, this word is also mistranslated "moon," and fifty times it is translated "new," as in: Exodus 1:8; Leviticus 23:16, 26:10; Numbers 28:26; Deuteronomy 20:5, 22:8, 24:5, 32:17; "Joshua" 9:13; Judges 5:8, 15:13, 15, 16:11, 12; II "Samuel" 6:3, 21:16; I Kings 11:29, 30; II Kings 2:20; I Chronicles 13:7; II Chronicles 20:5; "Job" 32:19; Psalms 33:3, 40:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144:9, 149:1; Ecclesiastes 1:9, 10; "Isaiah" 41:15, 42:9, 10, 43:19, 48:6, 62:2, 65:17, 66:22; "Jeremiah" 26:10, 31:22, 31, 36:10; Lamentations 3:23; and "Ezekiel" 11:19, 18:31, and 36:26, for example.
Although modern "Hebrew" distinguishes this translation by using different vowel markings, in ancient Ibreya it was the exact same word as elsewhere translated "month" in English.
Similarly, in the New Testament, the word translated "moon" ten times (in all but one instance) is the Greek word for moon (see: "Matthew" 24:29; Mark 13:24; Luke 21:25; Acts 2:20; I Corinthians 15:41; and Revelation 6:12, 8:12, 12:1, 21:23).
Yet, in the exact same fashion as found in the Old Testament, when the phrase "new moon" is found in the English translation of the New Testament (in Colossians 2:16), it is an entirely different word meaning "new month" in Greek.
The part of that word mistranslated "moon" is found in eighteen other verses throughout the New Testament, where it is never once translated "moon," but in every case is translated "month" instead (see: Luke 1:24, 26, 36, 56, 4:25; Acts 7:20, 18:11, 19:8, 20:3, 28:11; Galatians 4:10; "James" 5:17; and Revelation 9:5, 10, 15, 11:2, 13:5, 22:2).
The last of these scriptures reveals a fact that starts to explain why the word for month is not related to the word for moon in either Old or New Testaments.
The Scriptural Year
Revelation 22:2 talks about the tree of life, which "bares twelve manner of fruits, and yields her fruit every month" (in other words, a different fruit for each month).
This is a significant revelation, as you will see, for not only are there exactly twelve fruits, one for each month of the year -- exactly twelve, and never any more -- but as this verse also reveals, the tree of life bears twelve different fruits every year, no more and no less.
It has long been taught and assumed that scripture teaches a luni-solar calendar, meaning a solar year as far as the seasons go, but with lunar-length months, varying from 12 to 13 in the solar year.
Judaism has observed such a traditional calendar since the time it was "officially" fixed by Hillel II in the year 359 of the common era (otherwise incorrectly known as A.D.).
Based on that calendar, the dates of the yearly feasts outlined in scripture -- such as Passover, Pentecost, Reva (commonly misnamed "Trumpets"), Atonement, Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day -- have been supposedly set by occurrences of lunar new moons.
Almost no one has ever questioned this calendar, even when it was learned that the Babylonians had a similar luni-solar calendar; even knowing this could well be the source, by adoption while captive in the land of Babylon, of the supposed Jewish calendar system, established in its final form more than half a millennium later.
Not even when internal scriptural evidence contradicts this luni-solar calendar do most misbelievers ever doubt its veracity.
Yet, unless direct proof can be found in scripture to support or prove a lunar month or the luni-solar year belief, then you must accept what scriptures do reveal actual scriptural months and years are, in your Creator's eyes.
This means that, if you find the current traditional, accepted calendar system is in error, or contradicted scripturally, then you must be willing to dump it and accept what scripture actually reveals on this controversial subject.
Contrary to the opinions of scholars, who are unwilling to dismiss traditional errors for what they are worth, there is only one valid calendar outlined in scripture; not two or three.
Either that calendar is luni-solar, or it is something else entirely.
Let's learn now just what scripture does reveal on this vital topic.
Proofs Against Lunar Months and Luni-Solar Years
First, according to a major luni-solar calendar argument, since there are slightly more than 12 complete lunations (periods of time from one "new moon" to the next; approximately 29 1/2 days) in the solar year (which is about 365 1/4 days, from spring to spring), in order to make lunar "months" coincide with the solar year a thirteenth supposed "month" must be added seven times every 19 solar years.
This 19-year cycle is thought, by some theorists attempting to justify a luni-solar calendar, to perfectly synchronize the lunar and solar years.
In actual fact, it does not, and the seasons gradually shift backwards in the luni-solar year, even is spite of arbitrarily adding a thirteenth lunar "month" in certain years.
The problem with this belief is that scripture never once gives the slightest evidence for the year ever having 13 lunar "months."
Revelation 22:2 is but one scripture that conflicts with this commonly accepted notion.
In the Old Testament, where provisions are outlined for various yearly offices or jobs of community service, only twelve exact divisions -- and never thirteen -- are commanded.
Compare the following examples: I Kings 4:7 (King Solomon's district governors, who has to supply provisions for the king and royal household for one month each year), and I Chronicles 27:1-15 (army divisions on duty month-to-month throughout the year, each year).
According to Genesis 7:11, 24 and 8:3, 4, the period of time between the seventeenth day of the second month and the seventeenth day of the seventh month was 150 days.
Some, who simply divide 150 by five months, therefore conclude that each scriptural month must have been, as in the ancient Egyptian calendar, exactly 30 days each (a sort of compromise with the variable length lunations).
This makes a year of just 360 days, so the Egyptians added enough days to the end of each year to make their calendar synchronize with the solar year, which all calendars must for administrative and accounting purposes, particularly in agricultural and husbandry-based societies, but also for military and other government-related activities.
However, there is no direct proof that scriptural (commanded sacred year) months ever contained exactly 30 days each. In fact, quite the contrary.
Those claiming a supposed scriptural "prophetic year" of 360 days is revealed by these verses, have misunderstood the intention of the flood account in Genesis, along with other scriptures in Daniel and Revelation, which you must examine next.
It is interesting to notice the hypocrisy of those who accept so-called 30-day "months" in the accounts of Genesis, Daniel and Revelation, while at the same time accepting and following the Jewish religious luni-solar calendar year; because the two are totally irreconcilable!
There is simply and absolutely no way, with a luni-solar calendar for instance, to count 150 days from the seventeenth day of the second lunar "month" to the seventeenth day of the seventh lunar "month," and this holds true no matter which lunar "months" you start or end with!
In other words, there are no more than 147 to 148 days in any five lunar "months," period.
This alone ought to have raised an over-sized red flag over the entire issue, for anyone truly concerned about learning the actual and pure truth about what scripture does reveal on this subject.
That evidence should also not be dismissed simply because it contradicts any religious tradition that flies in the face of this revelation, or reveals the true worthlessness of such beliefs.
No Proof For 30-Day "Months" Or 360-Day Years
Daniel 7:25 and 12:7 are said to correspond to the forty-two month periods found in Revelation 11:2-3, 12:6 and 13:5 by certain bible theorists, whose intention is apparently to find support for their belief in 30-day "months" and 360-day years in scripture.
The assumption is made that, because the 150 days of Genesis 7:24 and 8:3 are equally divisible by 5 months into exactly 30, and because 1,260 days of Daniel 7:11 and 8:3 can be divided by 42 months (according to Revelation 11:2-3, 12:6 and 13:5), into exactly 30 also, therefore this is assumed as proof positive that such "biblical months," as these theorists like to call them, were each 30 days long.
The major point missed by this assumption, however, is that there is absolutely no way to reconcile the resulting supposed 360-day year with an actual year of 365 and approximately 1/4 days; which must be done, since the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation deal with present day and near-future events.
These prophecies were never intended for the ages in which they were given (cf. Daniel 12:9; Revelation 11:6-13, and 14:1).
Either 30-day "months" and 360-day years is a false assumption, or scripture contradicts historical and present-day fact. However, nowhere in scripture do you ever find any direct statement indicated a 30-day "month," and the same is true of a 360-day year!
In fact, in one instance, you can actually discover proof that does indirectly prove a scriptural month of less than 30 days during the time of Moses, just after the exodus, when the calendar year was first revealed to the Yasraelites (Exodus 12:2).
As already explored and proved in the last installment of this series (What Is A Day?), the 15th day of the second month, the year of the exodus, was a sabbath day (see: Exodus 16:1, 4-7, 13-16, 21-23 and 25).
This means that the eighth and the first days of the second month, counting in reverse, were also sabbaths.
This was prior to Pentecost in the third month, and following the Feast of Unleavened Bread (observed from the 14th through the 21st day of the first month; Exodus 12:18).
Unleavened Bread was a period of seven days (Exodus 12:15, 19; cf. Deuteronomy 16:3-4), the first day of this Feast being a sabbath (Exodus 12:16), which was also on the 15th day of the month (see: Leviticus 23:6-7).
So here you learn that the 15th day of the first month was also a sabbath, just as the 15th day of the second month also obviously was.
You will discover that the first and fifteenth days of the seventh month were also sabbaths, according to Leviticus 23:24 and 34-35.
There is revealed in all of this a definite pattern, showing that the first, eighth, fifteenth, etc., days of each month (every seventh day, starting with the first day of each month), were always sabbaths.
The tenth and fourteenth days of the first month were also never sabbaths, because hard work was commanded for those days (separating the sheep for the Passover on the tenth, Exodus 12:3; or cleaning leaven out of their homes and killing the Passover lambs on the fourteenth, Exodus 12:6, 15).
So it is apparent and obvious from all this that the first and eighth days of the first month were also sabbaths.
Next you will discover that Pentecost is a Feast sabbath that falls the day immediately following the seventh of seven sabbaths, counting from the day of the wavesheaf offering, which had to occur the day immediately following a sabbath (see: Leviticus 23:15-16).
The wavesheaf observance was not on a sabbath day, since it involved the commanded work of cutting grain for the offering on this day.
Therefore you can know with certainty that the 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd days of the second month were four of the commanded seven sabbaths that fell between the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the first month and Pentecost in the third month (and you will soon discover why there was never any 28th day sabbath in the second scriptural month).
The fact that the wavesheaf was offered the day immediately following the Feast week of Unleavened Bread is proven both by context -- the last sabbath referred to prior to Leviticus 23:15 being the second sabbath of the Feast on the 21st, in verse 8 -- and by the fact that only the old grain was permitted to be eaten during the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread (cf. Leviticus 23:14 and "Joshua" 5:10-12).
The new grain of that year's harvest could only be eaten following the wavesheaf offering, the day following the last sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the 21st day of the first month; so the wavesheaf was offered on the 22nd day and not on the 16th of the first month, as many would-be "sacred" calendar teachers have falsely assumed).
Counting forward from the Feast of Unleavened Bread, during which the 15th and 21st days of the first month were sabbaths (due to two sabbaths in seven -- rather than eight -- days, to complete that Feast period as commanded), you will discover that the 28th day from the start of the first month also had to be a sabbath.
But, because you have already seen proof that the first day of the second month was a sabbath, this also reveals that the first month could have only been 27 or 34 days in length (as you will soon see, it was 27 days, with the very next day being the first sabbath day of the second month).
Either way, this proves that scriptural months were certainly not lunar based periods, neither were they some arbitrarily set number even close to the lunar cycles.
Scriptural months were, instead, so many sabbath weeks in length!
This explains how the "new months" always began on a celebrated "new" sabbath day (compare I "Samuel" 20:5; Ezra 3:5 and "Amos" 8:5, where they are listed along with the regular and Feast sabbaths as a separate and unique type of sabbath observance).
The date these "new" cycle month sabbaths fell, unlike lunar "months" which had to be observed first (because a "new moon" can fall on either of two possible days), could easily be counted and known in advance, just as I "Samuel" 20:5 reveals was possible, and was a well-known practice of that time!
You will also notice how the feast week of Unleavened Bread, unlike any other sabbath week, has only five days, and not six, between the two feast sabbaths.
However, seven weeks later, Pentecost -- also unlike any other sabbath -- has no days between it and the prior sabbath.
If you count the days in the first and third months, as a result, you will find there is one day less than usual in the first month, but one extra day in the third month; and so everything is restored, sabbath-wise to the usual means of counting the days of each scriptural month.
How Long Is A Scriptural Year?
Exodus 12:2 reveals that the beginning of the year had to be revealed through Moses, at the time of the exodus, but that not even he would have otherwise known when it should have been observed.
The Egyptians preserved records of their years, prior to the exodus, starting in what we now call the fall.
This is still preserved in the so-called "civil new year" of the Jewish-Babylonian calendar, which was in turn most likely derived from the ancient Egyptian calendar.
Springtime did, prior to the exodus, come at the start of what is now known as fall, just as the Egyptians, Aztecs, Incas, many American Indian tribes, and nearly every European race have all preserved in their written records, indicated that the sun prior to that time rose in the west, and set in the east!
Incredible as this sounds, the Egyptians recorded and depicted the stars or constellations is reverse orientation in some of their more ancient tombs and monuments.
It is evident, from these historical facts, that at the time of the exodus the earth's axis flipped, exchanging what was once the north and south poles, thereby reversing the order of the seasons (just as the seasons in the southern hemisphere are today still the reverse of those in the northern hemisphere).
Despite this clear and evident act of the Creator's will, the ancient worldly governments would not consent so easily to changing their already flawed and false centuries-old calendars, so most of them opted instead to simply continue using their old calendars, as though nothing significant had transpired to permanently out-date and invalidate them.
Thereafter, only the Yasraelites -- beginning under Moses, so long as they remained obedient to what he revealed for them to observe -- had an accurate calendar system, that began with a new cycle sabbath observance on the first day of each spring, and continued with the regular sabbaths thereafter, except when the annual dates for the yearly Feast sabbaths determined otherwise.
The name for the first true scriptural month, Abib, means: "green ears," which would have been of corn, and not barley, representing the start of spring (cf. Exodus 9:31-32, 12:2, 13:4, 34:18 and Leviticus 2:14).
Passover, on the night following the 14th day (the night of the 14th), and the first sabbath day of Unleavened Bread beginning the very next morning, at the start of the 15th day, was not to be observed with the new grain prior to the wavesheaf offering, if the old grain was included in the prohibition prior to the wavesheaf (Leviticus 23:10-14; Deuteronomy 26:1-3, 10).
Rather, only the new grain from the spring harvest was prohibited until after the wavesheaf was offered, immediately following Unleavened Bread, during which the old grain from the prior winter harvest was to be used, according to this commandment.
It is important to notice here that "Joshua" 5:10-12 does not say "on the morrow after the passover" -- as verse 11 of the Hebrew and King James English versions of these verses of scripture appear to say -- in the older manuscripts translated from the ancient Ibreyan scriptures.
Since the wavesheaf, in any case, had to be offered the day after the sabbath -- if you assume this, as the Jews and others today falsely do, to be the first sabbath of the Unleavened Bread or Passover week -- the added words, "on the morrow after the Passover," as the time the Yasraelites supposedly ate the new grain of the land, still puts this on a sabbath before the wavesheaf; a clear and apparent violation of the command given in Leviticus 23:10-11 and 14!
Obviously, the new grain was not eaten until after both Passover and Unleavened Bread were over (which for the prior 40 years before this first Passover and Unleavened Bread observance, in the new land of Yasrael, was observed with manna).
And this had to have been on the day immediately following the final sabbath day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread; after the wavesheaf ceremony.
The manna ceased on that very same day, which would have been the day following a sabbath, just as it had begun on the day following the third sabbath of the second scriptural month nearly 40 years prior to that first wavesheaf observance.
If, as you have seen, the months of the scriptural years are counted by sabbaths, why then is the year not evenly divisible by seven (as it apparently once was)?
It is obvious that neither a 360-day nor a 365 1/4-day year are evenly divisible into seven-day sabbath weeks.
There is scriptural proof that the year used to be shorter than its present length, however -- though not as short as 360 days -- and that at the time of the exodus, and thereafter (until changed once again, due to the rebellion of the Yasraelites against obeying the revealed sacred calendar) the year was at first exactly 364 days in length (equally divisible by both 7 and 12)!
Scriptural Proof For The Ancient 364-Day Year
Two main historical events recorded in scripture reveal how the year was expanded, and is now longer that it once was in ancient times, since the time of Moses.
Counting back from the present 365 1/4 day solar year it is possible, by accounting for these two scriptural events, to roughly determine the length of the solar year at the time immediately following the exodus.
The first event occurred at the time of king "Hezekiah," when the prophet "Isaiah" gave him a sign that he would recover from a deadly illness (II Kings 20:1-8).
That sign was that the sun would move either forward or backward in the sky, which would be evident by the shadow of a sundial, which then existed.
This sundial was actually composed of a large structure the steps or stairs of which represented approximately half-hour increments from the movement of the structure's shadow over them throughout the day (see: Unger's Bible Dictionary, article "Dial," Moody Press, Paperback edition, 1983, p. 264).
King "Hezekiah" chose the most difficult of the two proposed signs, asking for the shadow to go backward ten degrees or steps, a period of about five hours (II Kings 20:9-11).
This meant that the day, and by extension the year also, was lengthened by nearly 1/4 of a 24-hour "day" period (not to be confused with the 12-hour days revealed throughout scripture).
So, deducting about 1/4 of a day from our current year, you will discover that the year, just prior to the time of this miraculous event during the life of king "Hezekiah," was approximately 365 days in length (after you also deduct the additional hour or so of extra time in the solar year, which has gradually accumulated from the time of Moses through today, accounted for by a small expansion in the earth's orbit around the sun).
Next, you will find that the year was also expanded by an entire day, when the sun did not set "about a whole day" (i.e. the period of time from when it should have set, until the next day's sunset would have normally taken place); a period of approximately 24 hours, more than 40 years after the exodus (see: "Joshua" 10:12-14).
Subtracting another 24 hours from the 365-day year that followed this event, you will learn that between the exodus and this miraculous occurrence, the solar year would have been precisely 364 days long!
There is no scriptural record or reason to believe there have been any similar historical events that extended the length of a day, and by extension the year as well, since the time of creation, through the time of Noah and the worldwide flood, down to the time of Moses.
So it is reasonable to assume and believe that the length of a year at creation was also exactly 364 days long.
A 364-day year is exactly 52 sabbath weeks long. The end of the last sabbath week of one year would be followed immediately by the first (sabbath) day of spring, starting each new year.
364 is also evenly divisible into exactly 12 months, however it is also very likely that four of these months of the year, one in each season, were exactly five weeks in length, the rest being exactly four weeks long (because 52 weeks cannot be evenly divided into 12 months, although a 364-day year is evenly divisible by both 7-day weekly periods, and also into 12 monthly cycles).
Why then, if it was so perfectly adapted to a sabbath-cycle calendar, however, is the year no longer evenly divisible by seven (or by twelve into sabbath divisible months of four or five weeks each)?
What heavenly purpose has this lengthening of the solar year served?
The Sabbath Forgotten?
In a prophecy of "Jeremiah," in the scriptural book known today as Lamentations, you will find an event that nearly every Jewish tradition based religion must deny has ever been fulfilled, or as most of them also teach, will ever happen.
Yet, if this prophetic scripture can be provably "broken" (see: "John" 10:35), by claiming it never took place, then your Creator can effectively be assumed to be a liar!
For there is no evidence throughout inspired scripture that this prophecy was ever set aside or invalidated (cf. I Corinthians 13:8), due to repentance of those against whom the prophecy was directed.
Thus, you will read in Lamentations 2:6 that the Creator of heaven and earth: "...has violently taken away His tabernacle, as if it were a garden: He has destroyed His places of assembly;" all of which took place the first time with the Babylonian captivity and the destruction of the first Temple, built by king Solomon.
Once again, this prophecy was further fulfilled a final time when the Romans sacked Yaravsalem, destroying the last Temple, and utterly subjugating all of what was then left of Yasrael, in 69-70 C.E. (Common Era), or 39-40 A.R. (After Resurrection); forty being the number of probation before chastisement, resulting from a nation breaking a covenant between itself and our Creator (such as ancient Nineveh, which made a covenant of repentance and was not destroyed 40 days after the prophet Yavneh -- "Jonah" -- finally delivered his prophecy to that city-state; but was destroyed precisely forty years later, a day for a year prophetically, when those people forgot their covenant, and returned to their wicked works).
The first half of this prophecy being historically proved to have been so precisely fulfilled, it is reasonable to also conclude that the rest of this prophecy was also fulfilled.
There, you will learn that our Creator: "...has caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Ziavon, and has despised in the wrath of His anger the king and the priest."
It is also a proven historical fact that the kingdom and priesthood were, in effect, obliterated by the Romans at the same time they destroyed the last Temple, the city of Yaravsalem, and the entire nation of Yasrael, something nearly accomplished previously, at the time of the Babylonian captivity.
There is enough internal evidence, within scripture itself, and particularly the New Testament, that the feasts and sabbaths had already been generally forgotten, and that "feasts" and "sabbaths" were then kept on incorrect, false dates by all but a few; of whom the Savior and His disciples were a minority that still preserved these commanded observances by keeping them at the correct times.
Compare how the Savior and His disciples observed His last Passover meal, a full day before the Pharisees and others kept a false passover: "Matthew" 26:17-20; Mark 14:12-18; Luke 22:7-16; and cf. "Matthew" 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; "John" 19:31, 42; with Exodus 12:6-12, 18-19; Leviticus 23:5-6; and Deuteronomy 16:2-4, 6).
If Lamentations were the only prophecy concerning this vital truth, it might be successfully argued against from the lack of further evidence.
However, there is yet another such prophecy on this selfsame subject, which also reveals precisely when, in general time order, the sabbaths and feasts, and even the yearly divisions into monthly cycles, were forgotten!
It is a prophecy we have already examined in the second installment of this series (in issue 18, Back To Scriptural Basics, Lesson 2).
Now notice, in "Hosea" 2:18, the time frame of the yet future millennium, the thousand-year Kingdom of Messiah Yahvsave here on earth.
Verse 13 reveals that, prior to that time a judgment will take place due to unrepentant sin, and verses 10-12 then outline the nature of that ongoing judgment; which by necessity must include the present day and age.
Reading verse 11, in particular, you will see: "I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new cycles [Note: The English word "moons" is a mistranslation here], her sabbaths, and ALL her solemn feasts I will stop."
Despite this prophecy, nearly all so-called (would be) "sabbath" observers today have utterly refused to believe this clear, iron-clad, scriptural revelation, exposing the error behind every "traditional" calendar, the supposed "feasts," and even the alleged "weekly sabbaths," while the true feasts and sabbaths remain generally forgotten!
How better to forget the true feasts and sabbaths than by worshiping according to false week-days dedicated to the sun, moon and five of the known planets of the solar system (see: Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3; II Kings 23:5; "Jeremiah" 8:2 and Romans 1:25 -- as in the NIV, the word "creature" in this last verse means "creation").
Observing false luni-solar year "months" and so-called "feasts," by an equally false calendar, that conforms to the ancient Roman, and before that Egyptian, planet, sun and moon worship false "week" -- and the misnamed "sabbaths" also observed by it -- is the chief means by which this deception has been perpetrated.
The true sabbaths will be examined in the very next installment of this series, next issue.
As Ivan Panin -- in his otherwise misguided work, Bible Chronology In Three Parts, truthfully observed: "As to soli-lunar years, which means sun-moon years, they are not found in the Bible, nor in every day speech. The sun measures years only, the moon measures months [sic; i.e. lunations or lunar periods] only, and a mixture of the two, like most mixtures, spoils both" (The Association of The Covenant People, Vancouver, B.C., p. 152).
What is the answer, then, to the question of how the ancient calendar was observed, and how the sacred calendar should still be kept today, as revealed in scripture?
Without consulting false traditional calendar concepts, which are neither scripturally provable nor valid evidence, how can you prove and come to the only correct solution of the pure truth that reveals the sacred calendar today and how it should be observed?
The True Yearly Calendar
The calendar revealed to Moses began with the very first day of spring (on the spring equinox), with a new-cycle (month) sabbath observance, and that calendar year was divided into exactly 52 sabbath weeks, as you have already seen.
The months were either four or five sabbath weeks long, every third month having an extra sabbath week (27 days for the first month, and 28 days for the second month, with 36 days for the third month, then 28, 28 and 35 days respectively for each of the following quarters of the year).
This accounted for all the sabbaths in the year except Atonement, the lone maverick exception to the rule.
But as with the relationship between Unleavened Bread (a seven day period including two sabbaths) and Pentecost (two sabbaths with no work days in between), the first sabbath of the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh new-cycle month fell five days after Atonement on the 15th day of the month -- with just four days between the two annual sabbaths, the first a fast and the second a feast sabbath -- the usual seven day sabbath week is maintained throughout the year perfectly.
This begs the question, however, concerning how the yearly calendar was to be observed after the year was lengthened.
How was the extra 1 1/4 days each year to be added to the calendar without disturbing the proper sequence of sabbaths, feasts and months?
The answer, or solution, again was given and preserved in scripture long before this problem arose.
It is generally acknowledged that the phrase "year's end" in Exodus 34:22 comes from an Ibreyan word that meant not year's end, but rather, "change of seasons" (i.e. the fall equinox).
So this scripture reveals that the fall feast and fast sabbaths, starting with Reva (mistranslated "Trumpets"), which is also the first day of the seventh new-cycle month (Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1), are now to be observed starting with the day of the fall equinox (just as the first new-cycle month begins with the day of the spring equinox).
Doubtless, in Moses' time, the fall equinox was very likely the midpoint of the year.
Now, however, as with the length of days -- which in summer are longer, and in winter are shorter -- the year is also now slightly longer between the spring and fall equinoxes than it is between the fall equinox and the next spring equinox (the fall and wintertime of the year being like the shorter nights in spring and summer, while the spring and summertime is like the longer days during the same period of time).
The commandment to observe the yearly feast and fast sabbaths, according to the yearly seasons, remains firm (see: Leviticus 23:4; Numbers 9:2, 3, 7, 13, 28:2; i.e. by the equinoxes).
Note: Psalm 104:19, taken in context, has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the yearly feast and fast sabbaths (as a basic cursory look at the rest of that psalm proves; "seasons," as in the NIV, in reference to the moon, merely means lunar phases and not seasons of the year).
So now, even if there is an extra day or so between the last regular sabbath of one half of the year, and the first new-cycle or feast sabbath of the following half of the year (or the start of the next year) -- either at the end of summer and the start of fall, or at the end of winter and the start of spring -- these days simply account for the extra 1 1/4 days in the year, and the shifting of the seasons somewhat as a result of these seasonal changes in the yearly calendar.
In fact, the seasons may have always been unequal in division, requiring the times for observing the annual feast sabbaths to be adjusted seasonally, in ancient times as well, to conform with this reality.
Many will argue that this somehow "disturbs" the sabbaths in some way, as if their opinion and word on the subject alone is more important than the simple commandments revealed in scripture.
Those who think this do so because they have based their viewpoint on the falsehood of either adding to or detracting from the commandments, doing what seems "right" in their own eyes, or blindly following traditional but false observances, or those who teach these.
Nowhere does inspired scripture reveal any such ways to observe, or count, the yearly feasts, fast, or even the regular sabbaths, to account for such beliefs and practices, however.
Some will also object, asking: "Is this calendar revealed in scripture something we must use today, to observe the correct feasts and sabbaths? If so, then why was the knowledge of the true calendar lost for so long, and why is it only now being taught?"
The Restoration of All Things
The fact of the matter is that we are still commanded to keep and observe the true sabbaths, feasts and fast.
This is painfully obvious by consulting all of the prophecies that reveal these observances being kept in the still future millennium (such as: "Isaiah" 58:13-14, 66:22-23; "Ezekiel" 44:24, 45:17, 46:1-3; and Zechariah 14:16, 18-19, for instance).
This being so, why are the true feasts, fast and other sabbaths still generally unknown today?
The Savior Himself prophesied about a time, just before His return and coming Kingdom is established here on earth, when ALL things would first need to be restored ("Matthew" 17:11)!
Peter also spoke (and wrote) prophetically about this same event in Acts 3:21.
With the research and lessons of this "Back To Scriptural Basics" series, that time has finally arrived.
The restitution, or restoration, of all things has already begun!
And if you are not too fearful of a direct and personal and blessed relationship with the very Creator of heaven and earth, you may well be counted among those who will become strong in the spirit, to oppose the great falsehoods and deceptions of this age, and instruct many others -- in these final days before the restoration on the Kingdom of Creator Yahveh, and of His firstborn son Yahvsave -- in their way of the pure truth (Daniel 11:32-33).
Be sure to read the next installment in this series, which will finally reveal -- after centuries of false teachings and spiritual error on this vital topic -- the pure truth about the commanded sabbath, which the majority of so-called "sabbath" keepers will choose to ignore and refuse to admit.
Despite this, everyone concerned with attempting to live according to their Creator's revealed will must accept what inspired scripture actually reveals on this most intriguing subject.
The inspiration of this restoration of everything, prior to the Savior's return in this most wicked age, exposes the fallacies of the ingrained calendar and "sabbaths" beliefs for what they truly are: yet another in the countless false religious teachings and the religions that spawned them, that currently dominate in this age of the adversary!