Sidebar on the Calculated Hebrew Calendar

Fred R. Coulter—October 1, 2011

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Let's continue on with numerics and patterns in the Bible. The question always comes up, so we'll have just a little sidebar here. If you want to know about the calculated Hebrew calendar, why that is the calendar to use, you can write in for it or phone the office. We have four videos and we have lots of material for you to read.

The reason being is that keeping the Holy Days and figuring them is different from the Sabbath. Because Sabbath is anywhere you are on the earth when the seventh sundown comes that begins the Sabbath, wherever you are.

Here's something that a lot of people don't understand. The Sabbath Day, to have the complete Sabbath Day for the whole world around the earth takes 48 hours. Because you start in one place, then it takes 24 hours for that sundown to come everywhere in the world. When it comes back again, say to Australia, then that ends the day. But it takes 24 hours to end the day for the rest of the world. A day looking down on the earth from heaven, is actually to cover the whole earth, 48 hours. But every day wherever you are on the earth, is approximately 24 hours from sundown to sundown.

The Holy Days are different because that involves the sun and the moon and it also involves things that have happened to the sun and moon since creation. This is why we find evidence in the Bible that right at creation the year was 360 days long. Took 360 days for the earth to go around the sun. The months were 30 days long and so you have 12 months of 30 days, equals 360. When you're dealing with mathematics, how many degrees are there in a circle? 360! Likewise, when you're dealing with a compass.

However, today we have a distinct astronomical problem—don't we? The solar year is 365-1/4 days. You can never have a partial day. So, listen up everyone who says you can't have postponements, because you believe in them and you operate by them. We have in the Roman calendar, which is called the Gregorian calendar, because in the 1500s they were going back in time toward winter, so spring was not really spring, but it was back into the winter. The Catholics had to clarify the calendar to get it up to date.

In the month of October, the way that they brought time back into synchronization with the actual 365-1/4 days, which was the Gregorian calendar, the one that they used up to that time was the Julian calendar. And from the time of just before Christ on down to the 1500s when they took care of the ten-day difference, they lost ten days in time. What they did in the month of October was this: You had the fourth of October and the next day became the fifteenth of October, because they already lost the ten days; you have to catch up to real time.

The Muslims have just a lunar calendar. And a lunar calendar is shorter in a 12-month period than a solar calendar, because of the astronomical events that have happened to the earth. So therefore, when the Muslims have Ramadan, every year it's about 20 days later. Over a period of time they will circle through all the seasons of the year. They believe in observing for the new moon. There are also other people who believe in the Church observing for the new moon and I'll get to that in just a minute. But here's how the Muslims do it. They do it by telephone. They have someone in Mecca, they have someone in America, and they have someone else probably down in Australia. What they do, they all get on the phone and they say, 'Did you observe the new moon?' Answer, yes! Second one, 'Did you observe the new moon?' Answer, yes! 'Okay, tomorrow is the first day of the month.'

If they call up and they say for the next month, 'Did you observe the new moon?' No! 'Did you observe the new moon?' No! 'Did you observe the new moon?' Yes. 'We postpone one day.' The moon is very tricky.

This is why the Bible does not say observe for astronomical understanding the moon. God knew that there would be things that would take place on the earth which would get it out of sequence of the 360 days and there were probably many things that had it longer and shorter. They now know that there was a time in recorded history when Mars came close to the earth and got everything all messed up on the earth. We can ask what happened when the Flood occurred? The fountains of the deep broke up and God opened the windows of heaven! What did that do to the earth? Did it move it slightly out of orbit? What did it do to the moon? We don't know! People don't understand that the moon has 5,000 perambulations or individual variations that the ancients knew of in their calculations.

We've got, as I've said, lots of material on it and four videos and you're going to be hit with observable new moon, astronomical new moon, whether there is to be a leap year, and all of that sort of thing. We have that.

The last astronomical event to occur was the moving of the sundial back ten degrees. Now how are you going to do that? How did God do that? You know He didn't stop the earth and everything to make it suddenly go back. But it was observable that it went back. The best they've been able to estimate is that God simply moved the orbit of the earth in relation to the sun outward from the sun by 1.4 degrees. That would give you 5-1/4 days.

How do you account for the quarter day? Most people believe that spring begins on March 21st. This year spring did not begin until March 22nd, early in the day. How much is a quarter of the day? Six hours! Every year you gain six hours. This year fall did not begin until September 23rd. We're into 18 hours, six plus six plus six.

What do we have coming in 2012? What is it called? A leap year! What do we have? Twenty-nine days in February! If you don't believe in postponements, then you should not believe in the leap year, one-day adjustment every four years, because that is a postponement, because time is coming a little faster than an exact amount.

So likewise, with the calculated Hebrew calendar. There are postponements because the calculated Hebrew calendar is based upon the sun, the earth, and the moon. All of the factors need to be taken into consideration. The orbit of the earth, the movement of the day, the movement of the moon, the visibility of the moon, and also the action of the sun are all calculated into the calculated Hebrew calendar.

I need to just explain a couple of other things. In order to get everything reconciled—so remember this—every postponement is a reconciliation or an adjustment to keep everything in synchronization or balance. The first visible moon can be seen eight miles apart, but at different altitudes. The first visible part of the moon after it sets can be seen 14 hours and 50-some minutes after it sets. On the very same day, eight miles away at a low elevation, they did not see the new moon. What's the problem with observing, because it is now no longer 360 and 12 and 30—it is 365-1/4.

First day of the month on the ones in the altitude begins when they see it. First day of the month begins with the other ones, because they'll see it the next night, which is actually the second day of the new moon, and not the new moon, so they're already a day off. This year we had exactly the same thing. There are those who believed in the astronomical new moon, which is perfect alignment of the earth and the moon. They kept Trumpets on Wednesday. The ones who follow the calculated Hebrew calendar, like we do, we kept it on Thursday. The ones that followed the supposed first crescent of the moon, kept it on Friday. That's confusion and that's not from God. That's why He gave the calculated Hebrew calendar.

Here's another thing that occurred. I got this in an email; someone said, 'Well, the new moon was observed in Jerusalem Thursday night, so Friday had to be Trumpets.' I wrote him back; I said, 'The calculated Hebrew calendar is most accurate because you must coordinate the first day of the seventh month and the fifteenth day of the seventh month, because you must have the new moon and you must have the full moon.'

So guess when the full moon comes this year? October 12th! What is that? That's the beginning of the fifteenth day of the seventh month—right? The Feast of Tabernacles! Why was not the visible new moon seen then on Wednesday night, so that it would be Thursday for Trumpets? In the calculations of the Hebrew calendar you have this: You must have the full moon on the fifteenth and the new moon on the first.

Here's the problem, because of the difference of the moon. There must be 15 days between the new moon and the full moon. However, from the new moon to the full moon sometimes is 13 days and some odd hours. That's the short length between the new moon and the full moon. So, it's not a simple matter of go look. It's a simple matter of go look when it's sundown; everybody can see when that is.

Now then, on other occasions from new moon to full moon is almost 16 days, because of the perambulations of the moon. All of those are calculated in the calculated Hebrew calendar so that you always have a full moon on the night of the fifteenth of the seventh month and on the night of the fifteenth of the first month. Always! Any other calendar did not come from God. And you cannot prove it out of the Bible.

You need to have that information concerning the calculated Hebrew calendar so you can understand it. So this year, what were we confronted with? With the three days of Trumpets. From the new moon to the full moon had to be 15 days, but it wasn't quite 15 days from the new moon to the full moon, so therefore, Thursday was declared the first day of the month so that everything is in sequence—has to be calculated.

Some people don't believe in what is called the 'leap year,' which happened last year. In order to coordinate the 19 years of the earth going around the sun and the 19 years of the moon going around the earth—now they're all different speeds. There has to be the use of a 19-year time cycle. Why? Because that has to be adjusted so that it can be in synchronization. When you take the number of months of the lunar 19-year time cycle and the number of months in the solar time cycle and you compare them, the difference is roughly two hours [corrected]. Okay? Now you go along every year that roughly two hours and what do you come up with in 12-to 15 years[corrected]? You come up with another day. So, there must be an adjustment in that.

And lo and behold, there's another adjustment which comes along every 247 years. God has given the calculated Hebrew calendar to keep things on time, so people that get impetuous and hard-headed and hard-minded, that say, 'Well, we're going to go by the visible moon.' It's like a man who I first came across this back in 1980. I went on down to Texas to find out about it, to check it out. His name was Herb Salinski. He told me everything that he had and so forth, and what to do, and how to do it. I listened to all that he had to say and I asked him, 'Well, now, what do you do when it's cloudy and you can't see the new moon?' 'Oh, that's simple. I've got a program in my computer. You just call me and I'll tell you when.' I said, 'You mean you have it calculated.' 'Oh, yeah, we've got that calculated.'

I was standing right at his front door, ready to leave, and my last words were to him, 'That's interesting; however, I will go by the calculated Hebrew calendar, not Herb Salinski's calculated visible new moon when you can't see it.' And it turns out that if you try and do the visualization in the United States in the Northern Hemisphere, you're always going to be one day late for the most part, because what you think you see as the new moon, you're not seeing the new moon, because it's just a little sliver, and I'll show you what it looks like at the North Pole. I've got a picture of it here. That's visible for 20 minutes. So, if you don't know what you're looking for and God never commissioned you to do it, and some man says he's got it in a computer or you go by the NASA computer, God's calculated Hebrew calendar is more accurate than NASA and the Naval Observatory.

People who want to arrogantly go around and think that they can change the numbers that God has given and have their own calendar, they're going to be greatly disappointed. If this kind of makes the hair stand on the back of your neck, or if you're a little angry from what I've said, and you think, 'Well, the Jews made it and it's their tradition.' No, God gave it to the Levites. He gave it to the priests.

The year in which Jesus was crucified, guess what, there are two postponements. Hello, everyone! Does God use postponements? Yes, because He gave them—right? The year of His birth there were two postponements. What are you going to do with that? 'I don't believe in postponements because God doesn't believe in postponing times.' How are you going to answer that question? Is what you're doing self-righteous? Is what you're doing contrary to the Word of God? We need to think on those things.

One final say on the calculated Hebrew calendar. 'Well, Hillel II invented it in 354A.D.' No, he didn't! Hillel II was the great, great, great grandson of Hillel in the book of Acts where he counseled them, 'Don't try and destroy what these men are doing, because if it is of God, you're going to fight God. And if it's not of God, it's going to go away.' He was one of the priests in charge of the calendar court. So, Hillel II, with all the persecution that was coming against the Jews, and I think God inspired him to do it, thought that they're going to kill all the Jews and the knowledge of what the calculated Hebrew calendar is, since it was given to the priests and the Levites, will disappear if they're killed. So, 'we're going to make it public.'

In the material that you will get, if you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, you can calculate the Hebrew calendar. I had a hard time doing it when we had the test in college because I couldn't add, subtract, multiply, or divide correctly the first time. They didn't allow calculators to be in there at that time, because they didn't have calculators yet.

But it's simple. A ninth grader can figure it. So you write for the material. I better tell Kimberly to be prepared. You need to know and don't go stubbornly on your own way if you think you know. It's just like everything else that men do against God, they think they know better. The numerics in the Bible tells you, you don't know—to use the southern expression—nothing!

That's why we're going through them. Sorry for the little sidebar, but I think it's necessary to say, because they always go back to Gen. 1:14 and say, 'See, here.' Then you show me in the Bible where it tells us how to do it—it doesn't. That's what God gave to the priesthood. That's what Hillel II revealed, and it's accurate to this day. So enough on the Hebrew calendar for right now.

Questions:

• Why is it so complicated with the Hebrew calendar?
• Is the universe simple or is it complicated?
• Is it complicated to keep the movement of the earth and the sun and the moon going around it and the whole solar system traveling in the galaxy?
• Is that complicated or simple?

It's complicated, because you're dealing with astral-bodies out there.

Just to give you an example. How do you get from the earth to the moon? In a straight line? No! You have to go up and you have to come around, virtually make a double S curve to get to the moon. When you're shot off in a rocket, the moon is moving, so if you go in a straight line, you're going to miss it—right? It's the same way with the calculated Hebrew calendar.

• How do you know when to observe?

I've got a book that has the calculated Hebrew calendar from the year beginning 1900s clear to the 2100s, 200 years. (Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier) In it Spier says, 'Well, they originally observed.' The priests did. But what did they do?

Someone will come back and say, 'I saw the new moon.' Oh, really, where did you see it, how high was it, where was it located? And then they would have fake witnesses come in, just like today we have fake calendars. And they say, 'Well, I saw the moon, not yesterday, but today.' How did they resolve the answer? By calculations! The priesthood always calculated it. The witnesses came in and if it didn't agree with the calculations, they threw out the observation. This is why we send out a Holy Day calendar every year.

If you want to get that book, you can get it, and you can get the calculated Hebrew calendar. The Jews are going to lay hold of it that it is theirs. Well, no, God gave it to the priests and Levites.

• Let's answer the question concerning the New Testament Church. How were they to know when the Holy Days were?

• Matthew was a Levite, so he knew how to figure it
• His nephew, Mark, was a Levite
• Barnabas was a Levite
• John was of the priestly line

No problem figuring it.

• I'll just answer one other question here concerning the fourteen/fifteen Passover.

The Jews in the Diaspora do not keep a fourteenth Passover because they know that under the Old Covenant you had to be within the geographical territory of Israel to keep the fourteenth Passover. Because they've been in exile so long, they now call the first day of Unleavened Bread, the fifteenth, Passover and they call all of Unleavened Bread, Passover. That became a custom and is even recorded in the New Testament.

They get angry at us because we say we keep a fourteenth Passover. They don't want Gentiles keeping the Sabbath or the Holy Days. So when they find out you keep the Holy Days, they tend to get a little angry. One woman almost lost a tooth because her dentist, who was a Jew, was angry at her when she mentioned during what he was doing to her mouth, that she was going to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. They think it's theirs. No, it's God's given to the priest and Levites.

Why do we keep a fourteenth Passover? Answer, simple. When did Jesus keep it? I've got the Christian Passover book, 500 pages. And if that scares you, remember you can't have a McDonald's Christianity. It's not a drive-through, packaged, cooked and ready-to-go. Get the book and read it. If you don't want 500 pages, get the one, The Day Jesus the Christ Died. But that won't answer the question that we're covering here.

Why can we keep a fourteenth Passover and the Jews cannot?

• they rejected Christ
• they follow their traditions
• they're not in the land

All this is explained in the Christian Passover book. Why do we keep a fourteenth Passover when the Jews can't? Because they are no longer the chosen of God! They are the exiled or the rejected! Now if that makes some people mad, then be mad. If you don't think that is true, and if you're a Jew, look at the history from the time of Christ to now. How pleasant has it been? Has it been those in favor that fall within the favor and grace of God? or Has it been those who are out of the favor and grace of God? Out!

Why do we keep a fourteenth Passover? Because Jesus kept it on the fourteenth, and that's when He gave the New Covenant Passover—foot-washing, bread and wine. What did He tell His disciples just before He ascended into heaven? He said, 'Go into all the world'—correct? 'Teaching all nations to observe everything I have commanded you'—right? So all those that God would call would do what Jesus said.

If Jesus, as Paul wrote, 'in the night took the bread and broke it and took the wine in the night that He was betrayed,' what night was that? The fourteenth. If Paul says that we keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread because Jesus was sacrificed for us, we keep it on the fourteenth.

A Jew would get very angry at you. But having rejected the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus, they can't understand why we would do it. And they think, we're really wild in doing it. That's why. Even in the calculated Hebrew calendar they mark the fifteenth the Passover, but it's really the fourteenth. That's the command of God—is it not? Yes! Exodus, Leviticus, that's the command of God, on the fourteenth. When people get their own ways and mix it in with God, and mix it in with the Bible—when there is no authority to do so—they're going to get things wrong. That's what they've done with the Hebrew calendar.

We also have it online; you want to know when to do it, go online. You can go forward and backward in that. There have been people who have taken—we have the best-calculated Hebrew calendar calculated program in the world—better than the Jews—right on our website.

One man took the days on the calculated Hebrew calendar and then he went on to NASA for their astronomical things concerning how the phases of the moon were going backward and forward in the calendar—and guess what? The calculated Hebrew calendar is exactly accurate going clear back to the days of Hezekiah when the sundial was moved back ten degrees! I know a lot of people—this is going to make your head swim—are going to say, 'Oh, why does God make it so complicated?' Well, the universe in complicated, but He has simplified it; so, we'll simplify it for you. You write for the all the calendar material and the four videos. We'll send them to you.

Be sure and get on your thinking cap. Don't bring in the modern American mind of a 12-minute concentration and you're ready to take a break at the next commercial and go to the refrigerator and get a treat. Isn't that true? Yes! You're going to have to spend some time. You're going to have to use the gray matter. You're going to have to ask God to help you understand.

You can order the book if you want it really simplified, it's all there clear to 2100, all through 1900s and 2000s. Isn't that interesting in a time when there are more Christians who keep the Holy Days than at any time in the history of the world, and it's in the book.

• If you calculate it, can you make a mistake?

No, because the calculations came from God and they will work every time. It also gives the rules of adjustments, which are called postponements. And don't freak out over that word postponement. Remember the leap year in the Roman calendar. You keep it—don't you? Why? So that you don't lose time! Same way with the calculated Hebrew calendar, there has to be postponements to adjust it to keep it in time.

• What about the priests keeping the calendar today?

In the Jewish community there are those who are descendants of the priesthood and those who are descendants of Levites. Those who are descendants of the priests are called 'kohens.'

One other thing that's important to understand. The Jews have made this decision, because they have been assaulted with the same things the church has been down through the centuries. 'Let's adjust the calendar.' No, it's working fine! So, you know what their inspired conclusion was, because God can inspire even a carnal person to do something like He did with the soldiers beneath the cross. They did exactly as the Scriptures said and they didn't have a clue that it was God that made them do it.

So likewise, God made them make the right decision. 'No, we won't change the calendar; we will wait for the Messiah to come.' Hello! Isn't that correct? Yes! As you can see, I get very argumentative with the calendar. I've gone through this so many times. I am a wounded, calloused, veteran of calendar wars. You can't do better than what God has given, but you must prove it.

So we have the best-calculated Hebrew calendar digital program online. Use it, check it going back and forth. Do the split screen. Go to NASA and you get their astronomical calculations over here on one side and you get the calculated Hebrew calendar over here on the other side. One man did it for 5B.C. when Jesus was born and guess what? The information that we have here in the Faithful Version Bible, When was Jesus Born, Appendix E, the year of the two full eclipses of the moon he could actually see—because they have that all simulated on that program—and they came exactly as we have it written in the Bible here, because that's based on the calculated Hebrew calendar.

Question was asked of the program we have online. That is digital calculation based on the Hebrew calendar the way that God gave it. It is the most accurate because there are a few little adjustments that were done to make it more accurate than even some of the Jewish ones that they have online.

I didn't know this was going to be calculated Hebrew calendar session today, but if you have the questions. The week today is the same on both the Roman calendar and the calculated Hebrew calendar. So, the middle of the week when Jesus was crucified was the middle of the week on both calendars.

Later we will get into the numerics of the Passover and the selection of Christ, the day on which He was crucified. If you have it on a Thursday, you cannot—instead of a Wednesday the way it was—have Jesus in the tomb three days and three nights. You can't have it. He was the only one Who said, based upon Jonah. In the book of Jonah it doesn't say, 'And Jonah was in the whale three days and three nights and so will the Messiah be in the grave three days and three nights.' Doesn't say that! Jesus was the only one that said it.

I hope this takes care of the problem here.
References:
Books:

• Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier
• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• The Day Jesus the Christ Died by Fred R. Coulter

Material and Articles:

• Calculated Hebrew Calendar: Material and Videos by Fred R. Coulter
• When Was Jesus Born, (Appendix E, The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter)

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 10-21-11
Formatted: bo—10-24-11

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