Why We Use the Calculated Hebrew Calendar

Why We Use the Calculated Hebrew Calendar & Report
Fred R. Coulter—October 15, 2011

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This afternoon I want to talk about the calendar, the sacred calendar. You know about my cowbell—don't you? I ring the bell when I give you my opinion so you know it's not dogma. Someone came and brought me a little tinkle bell.

Postponements:

How many have been confronted with calendar problems or people telling you that the calculated Hebrew calendar is not what we should be using? I hope I can make this as understandable as possible.

• Do you believe that God inspired the Old Testament to be written in Hebrew? Yes!

Always remember when you're tackling a difficult problem, begin with the things that you know and then work up to the problem. God used 32 men to write the Old Testament and 8 men to write the New Testament.

• Do you believe that God inspired them?

He did Moses, because He said, 'Moses, you tell the children of Israel this...' We know He did to the prophets because 'the Word of the Lord came' to Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah—right?

• Do you also believe that God is true?
• Do you also believe that God is Holy?
• Do you also believe that God is righteous, that He's going to do things for our good?
• Do you also believe that God created the appointed times? Which are the Feasts. We find that in Gen. 1—right? Yes!
• Tell me in the Bible, from the Bible, where is the book of the sacred calendar?
• It's not there—is it? No!

You can't find it. We do find evidence of a calendar—don't we? God says we're to meet on certain days and certain months.

How do we know when those days will be? We'll start out, we'll answer those questions, but we'll start out with this. How many have heard someone say we should not have postponements? Those of you who have never heard that, I'm going to tell you that you believe in postponements and prove to you that you do. And also those who say that we should not have postponements actually believe in them. I'll keep this as simple and easy to understand as possible.

Normally in the spring, the 21st of March and in the fall, the 21st of September—and isn't it interesting, September we call the 9th month—correct?

• 'sept' is a derivative from seven
• October is a derivative of eight
• November is a derivative of nine
• December is a derivative of ten

The calendar that we have today, that I just mentioned, has how many days in a year? 365-1/4 days—correct?

How come fall started the 23rd of September this year instead of the 21st? What is next year going to be? Leap year! Let me show you how it works in the Roman calendar leap-year cycle, which is a postponement to coordinate the time accurately.

We have three years of 365 days. We take the quarter of a day, so I'll use a quarter, we keep track of it. We don't throw it away. Just like God, He keeps track of all time, every minute of every day. So, the second year comes along, 365-1/4 days—now we have two quarters that we're holding back—right? Then we come to the third year, which is this year and we have another quarter. So, we have three quarters.

Can you ever start a day at six hours? Let me give you an example. We calculate the time from midnight to midnight. How about if they took that quarter of a day and at midnight it is the last day of the month and at six at morning it begins another day; and you did this all around the world in all time zones, of which there are twenty-four.

Look at it another way. Let's use the good old IRS: the Institute of Ravenous Thieves. They say pay your taxes by midnight on the 15th of April. What if you changed the day at noon on the 14th and midnight then becomes only 12 hours of the day instead of ending the day. You've got a problem. You mail it, it comes in late and you get a fine.

To keep all of those things from happening—or how about this, if you wrote a check, eleven o'clock one day and then it changed to the next day at noon. You'd be in a problem, wouldn't you? What happens, they accumulate the four quarters, and every four years we have a leap year. We add a day to February and have February 29th. Does everybody accept it? Yes, indeed! Do all of those who don't believe in postponements for the sacred calendar accept it? Yes, they do, because they live here and go by those dates—correct? Yes, indeed!

Let's get back to the sacred calendar. We all agree that God inspired the Old Testament to be. We all know the Bible says that He gave the Word of God to the priesthood to preserve. Moses gave it to Aaron, Aaron and the Levites put it in the sleeves alongside the Ark of the Covenant, and that's where it was to be accumulated.

God also gave them the calculations for figuring the calendar. Some people say you have to observe—we'll talk about that a little later. Let me ask you another question. Since God gave to the Levites the job—that is through the Aaronic priesthood—of announcing the Feast days in advance and He gave them the calculations, do you believe that He's likewise capable of preserving them within the Levitical—the Aaronic and Levitical—priesthood family down through time? You believe He's able to preserve the Bible and since He commands these days to be kept, why then is God not able to preserve the calculations, too? Of course He can!

Let's look at some other things concerning the calendar. It's easy to figure every day—isn't it? Anyone, anywhere on the earth can stand and watch the sun go down and know that according to the Bible's definition the day ends at sundown—right? That's easy to do, because it only involved sunset. Are there more things involved when you include the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars? Yes! There are more things involved when you have to coordinate them.

Things on earth are relatively simple compared to the complexity of the universe—correct? Was it a simple challenge to get to the moon? Look at all the things they had to do: build the rockets, make sure that they work, build the moon-lander. Let me give you just a little example from a more simple thing. Have you ever been to a fair where they have a little shooting gallery? They have ducks going this way and they have dogs going that way and they have birds flying. And you buy so many shots and if you can hit so many ducks, you get a prize. But since they're moving, it's hard to hit—correct? It becomes a little more complicated! Likewise with the sun, the moon, and the stars, they all have to be coordinated and every minute has to be accounted for. I want you to write down these numbers:

• 365.25 days equals one year

That is the solar calendar. That's the earth going around the sun. Here's something very few people really understand: sometimes the earth is travelling faster at certain points in its orbit than it is at other points in its orbit. Also there are times when the earth is closer to the sun and times when it's further from the sun. That is a solar year.

• A lunar month = 29 days, 12 hours, 793 parts

God does not use seconds; He uses parts or minutes—1280 parts for an hour. So, you can see this is more than a half hour, but less than an hour. Remember, God keeps track of time.

We have the lunar month and we also have the lunar year. Who today uses a lunar year without coordinating it with the solar year? The Muslims! And they have their Feast of Ramadan. The truth is, is that 12 months of a lunar year is shorter than a solar year. So, what happens?

Let's begin with how the Muslims begin the month. They have three different people in three different areas of the world, geographically widespread. I'm sure there's one in Mecca. I'm sure there's the one in the U.S. and I'm sure there's probably one clear out east in Indonesia. I don't know exactly for sure those last two, but I would figure that that's pretty well right on.

The way that they do, they observe. I'll talk to you about observing the new moon here in a little bit. But all three of them get on a conference call. Could you do that back in the days of Ezra? No! And they ask: 'Did you see the new moon?' Yes! Ask the second one, 'Did you see the new moon?' Yes! The third one, 'Did you see the new moon?' No! So, they declare that day because two out of three said yes. That's the first day of the month.

We'll talk about the trickiness of finding the new moon by observation. Please note, just kind of keep track of this, when Ramadan is every year, you will find that every year it backs up in the calendar. Say it's in December one year, then it goes back into November the next year, then it goes back into the last part of October the next year, and on in maybe the last part of September and the first part of October the next year, and so on, and they cycle through the year, because they don't coordinate it with the sun. They don't coordinate it with what we will call the solar year. God does!

How many of you have a pocket calendar in your wallet here with you? I want you to get it out. As you're getting out your calendar, God says we're to keep them in season, which means we can't have a creeping back in the solar year like the Muslims do with their lunar year.

The world goes strictly by—that is the western world and most of the rest of the world—goes strictly by the solar year—isn't that correct? You have Christmas always on the 25th of December. Halloween the 31st of October, a little variance in Easter.

If you have your calendar, let's come to the fall festival seasons, let's come to the year 2010. You got that? I want to show you something. This year did spring appear to be late? Where we live, it was cold right up until about Passover time, then it warmed up. Then it got a little cold again and we've had a cooler summer. We didn't think we would get any tomatoes. But lo and behold, guess what? We had what is called an Indian summer.

Why did we have an Indian summer? Why does it come along on the solar calendar and every once in a while you have an Indian summer, which then is a later winter. With our tomatoes, we got all kinds of tomatoes. The tomato factory that does all the canning, they do tomato paste, tomato soup, tomato puree, the whole thing, right there in Hollister, one little factory. They opened three weeks late, but they have worked four weeks longer, because the harvest season was extended. Why?

I'll show you on the sacred calendar. I want you to watch the progression here. Come to Feast of Trumpets, 2010. My calendar says September 9.

• 2010—September 9
• 2011—September 29

Twenty days later. How did we get it 20 days later? Because there has to be a coordination between the lunar year and the solar year. So, not to lose the seasons, it's 20 days later this year.

• 2012—September 17—12 days earlier
• 2013—September 5—12 days earlier
• 2014—September 25

There are 12 months in the sacred calendar. They alternate—one month 30 days; one month 29 days. Every second or third year, according to the proper cycle, there is what is called a leap year, now this is a little different than what we have with the Roman calendar, because every fourth year we add a day.

However, because the sacred calendar is lunar/solar, and there must be a coordination between the lunar months and the solar months, every second or third year a 13th month is added as an adjustment. That month is called Adar II and it is called a leap year when it is added.

Now, if you have a Holy Day calendar that we send out to you, and if you would look at it, you will see that there is a difference every year when it is observed according to the Roman calendar, because the Roman Gregorian calendar that we have today is not synchronized with the sacred calendar.

Therefore, you will find, for example—remember that with the sacred calendar a year runs from Feast of Trumpets to Feast of Trumpets—in 2010/2011 the 12th month comes just before the 1st month, so a 13th month was added. This is why the dates advance as you see them.

For example, the Passover in 2010 was March 29th. In 2011, after the second Adar was put in, the next Passover in 2011 was April 18th. Then it backs up a little bit in 2012, April 6th. In 2013 it's March 25th and then it jumps ahead again because in 2013/14 there is another leap year and the Passover jumps ahead to April 14th.

This shows that all time must be accounted and this will show you why the calculated Hebrew calendar is figured differently than the Roman Gregorian calendar. Therefore, in order to keep everything in season according to the way that God reckons the seasons, you will see that it changes on the Roman calendar. But nevertheless, that is just a demonstration on how God keeps track of time, which is different than the way that the world keeps track of time.

When these adjustments are made—and they are called postponements—they do not delay time, they make up for lost time, just like in the Roman calendar every fourth year you have a leap year. It makes up for 24 hours that have been lost—right?

19-Year Time Cycle:

I need to talk to you about 19-year time cycles. We're not going to talk about whether there may or may not have been prophetic significance to 19-year time cycles. How many have heard of the Greek astronomer Mentone? It's said that Mentone invented the 19-year time cycle. No. He got the 19-year time cycle from the Hebrews. And the Hebrews kept it with the priesthood! They were responsible. God gave them the calculations.

Nineteen-year time cycles of the lunar months and the 19-year time cycle of the solar months comes within one hour and some odd minutes from being exactly coordinated. After 19 years that's a very smidgen of time—right? The 19-year time cycles are used to keep everything in sequence every 19 years.

But that one-hour of time, or two hours of time left over, is held in reserve until it accumulates to a whole day. Same way with the 793 parts on the lunar months—29 days, 12 hours, 793 parts. Likewise when you do any division, you have it equally divisible, and you have divisible with the remainder. Three divided by two is one, with one remainder—correct? Three divided into twelve is four, no remainder.

God accumulates all of these varying remainders that are left over and accumulates them to a whole day to keep everything on track. So 19-year time cycles are necessary. And every time you see a leap year that is calculated into the calendar. We have it. We don't lose time.

Let's come back to the visible new moon. I want you to turn to the back of the Bible, you have a map back there and I want you to go to the one that shows the Holy Land. Anyone right in the back of the Bible that shows the Holy Land. How many saw Netanyahu dress down President Obama publicly when Obama said, 'You got to get back to the '67 borders.' And he said, 'Mr. President…'—I thought he was very nice; I thought he did a real good job because unfortunately the President was totally out of line. What did he tell Obama? He said, 'If we went back to the '67 borders, Israel would only be six miles wide.' Now, six miles with a jet plane is a blink of an eye. You look at it even if you had clear down all the land from the Mediterranean Sea all the way down to the edge of the Dead Sea, what do you have? No more than 25 miles wide!

If you observe the new moon there, and it only applies to this 25-mile-wide strip of geography and if you are accurate in seeing the new moon that will be satisfactory. But even in the days of the priesthood, they had observers for the new moon. But look at this narrow geographical area.

They would come and report to the priest, because there was a calendar court. And the calendar court gave the final okay as to when the new year would begin. It's always calculated because of calculations from the first day of the seventh month—always!
Just a little aside: During the days of Ezra and Nehemiah there was a Jewish colony down in Elephantine, Egypt. Egypt has hardly any rain. We can all agree to that. They have virtually no clouds day and night. This Jewish colony down there in Elephantine did not observe the new moon by observation—they calculated.

If anybody could make a case that observing the new moon down there would be a snap of the finger—right? But they didn't. We'll see why they didn't.

Back to the calendar court: Remember, the account in the Bible about Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the wise young men from Judah that the king wanted. One of the things that they wanted was, they needed to get the calendar correct. Back in the days of Hezekiah there was the last major astronomical event that took place, which was like about 80 years before the captivity.

What was that astronomical event? Making the sundial go back ten degrees! How you going to make the sundial go back ten degrees without stopping the earth? And if you stopped the earth, what happens? Everything collapses—right? So God didn't do that. How did He make it go back? Someone who knows about astro-mathematics calculated this.

There was a time—and we find evidence in the book of Genesis—that a year was 360 days, solar year. How many degrees are there in a circle? Where did we get that from? Why don't we have 365-1/4 degrees in a circle? Because that was probably correct back then! Every month was 30 days long, exactly. And the year was twelve months long. What do you have with those three elements?

• 360
• 12
• 30

You have everything equally divisible: no leftovers, no fractions, everything perfect. What caused it to not be perfect? Man's sin! How did we come from 360 days to 365-1/4 days? This mathematician figured it out. You take the orbit of the earth going around the sun and you move it away from the sun at an angle, but take it out 1.4 degrees further from the sun and that makes the sundial go back ten degrees. That's probably how God did it.

What happens then? Now everything is all mixed up. What did God have to do for the priests and the Levites? Give them the new calculations for the calendar—right? That's why we don't have a set calculation chapter in the Bible. God gave it to the priests and Levites again. That's another reason why the Babylonian ambassadors came over to see Hezekiah. Their calendar was totally mixed up.

When Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were carried off as exiles to Babylon, put in the king's favor, wanted to know the wisdom, and one of the things they wanted to know: how do you straighten out the calendar? Well, the best we've been able to figure out is this: They had the priestly calendar with them. So the best we've been able to determine is this: Daniel—remember he was to be exalted to be second in command in the province of Babylon, the king's foremost trusted advisor. Did he give Babylon the Hebrew calendar with the correct calculations? And in order to placate the Babylonians, did he allow them to put the Babylonian names as the names of the months at that time? They were named different names before that—right?

We're all up to speed to Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra set up the great synagogue of the priests and the Levites, called the great assembly. They were the ones who then canonized the Old Testament and wrote it in the block-type Hebrew letters. Before that it was in the script type. But with the rebellion of the priesthood that went up to Sanballat in Samaria, they took the first five books of the Bible with them and said, 'We're going to follow this.' They were going to spread things around the whole Persian Empire.

So in order to head off this rebellion, Ezra and the priests canonized the Old Testament, rewrote it in the block Hebrew lettering and sent it to all the Jews in the Diaspora. Now at this time then, they are all out of this little narrow band from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea. They're scattered in Persia, they are in Babylon, they are in Greece, they are in Italy, they are in Spain, probably some clear up in England, Parthia and Scythia.

You have to have a means so that they can keep the calendar. With everything out of whack by six and a quarter days, you've got to have it calculated so that everybody everywhere can keep it on the same day. So that's why God gave them calculated Hebrew calendar. This carried right on forward, right down to the days of Jesus.

One of the leaders of the calendar court we find in Acts 4, Gamaliel. He was actually Hillel I. The calendar court did the calculations and sent it out in advance to all of those in the Diaspora. Now today with the church around the world in all nations, you double that problem—don't you? Some of them were in areas that you couldn't see the new moon. How you going to know when to observe it?

I'll give you a little sidebar here: How many have heard of Herb Salinski down here in this area? I first met him in 1980, because we crossed this problem back in 1980. So I said, 'Well, I'm going to go down and talk to Herb Salinski.' So he showed me everything about the observable calendar and blah blah this, and blah blah that. And I listened to him and took it all in.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, I was standing on the porch and he was inside the front door. And I said, 'I have a question. How do you see the new moon when it's cloudy?' 'Oh, we have that all figured out.' I said, 'Oh, really.' He said, 'I've got it all calculated in my computer.' BINGO!

I said, 'Well, now my choice is to believe the calculations that God has preserved with the priesthood or to accept Herb Salinski's calculations on the new moon.' I said, 'I'm going to stick with God's calculations.'

I've been at this calendar problem over 40 years. Checked it out. By the way, if you want to really go in depth into it, we'll send you all the calendar material, but you've got to take off your dunce caps. Going to take some reading and re-reading, but you'll understand.

Let's talk about observable again. As with the Muslims, you can't see the new moon everywhere on the same day. You can't do that, around the world. Let's bring things a little closer, just to show you how difficult it is to observe and be correct. Because I'll tell you this, I've noticed over the years those who declare the new moon declare it on the second day, not the first day, because they can't see it the first day. They're not trained to see it on the first day and they don't know what to look for on the first day. They think that they do.

Let me demonstrate this to you, which I've done on the four videos that come with all the calendar material. By the way, on our website we have the best-calculated Hebrew calendar in the world.

New Moon/Full Moon:

I got the material that told about two teams of scientists. They wanted to find out when is the earliest you could see the new moon? The new moon first appears in the west, right after sunset for about ten, maybe no more than fifteen minutes.

Here's another problem, and the calculated Hebrew calendar takes all of this into consideration. And I'll show you what happened this year. The old moon, that is when it sets and goes dark until you can see the first sliver of the new moon can come about in 14 hours and 50 some minutes, earliest. It can also take as long as 42 hours. Now you're stuck with a problem and that's why you need the calculations.

Let me finish with the new moon, then I'll get to the full moon here in just a minute. One team of these scientists went up to an elevation of 8,000 feet. They had their binoculars, they had their telescopes, they had all the equipment that they needed. The other team was eight miles away, down below 4,000 feet. The team at 8,000 feet saw the first little crescent of the new moon, just a little thin sliver, for ten minutes and it appeared 14 hours and 53 minutes after the moon set, before it went to the dark side. The team at 4,000 feet didn't see it. Now do you see the problem?

If you're doing observation, whose new moon is correct? The team at 4,000 feet didn't see it until the next night. You're a day off. But for the untrained professional, those who want to go out and create their own calendar scheme and say, 'Can't have postponements and you must see the moon.' Do they really know what they're looking at? No! That's why there are calculations.

Today you look on your calendar and it says new moon and you see a little black dot on your calendar—right? You know what that black dot is for? That's to say that the moon is in complete darkness and is lined up directly in line with the earth. That's the astronomical new moon. The ancients knew that and they knew how to calculate it. They were not ignorant. They also understood that there are 5,000 perambulations or variations of the moon. It wobbles, goes faster, goes slower; it is higher, it is lower. All of those are figured in the calculated Hebrew calendar. God gave it, because He made it. He made the bodies, He put them in motion, He changed the time—He gave the calculations.

Let's look at this year; come back here to Psalm 81. Now we need to talk about the full moon. The new moon and the full moon is a key. This is why there must be postponements in order to keep things coordinated.

Psalm 81:3: "Blow the trumpet at the new moon... [Which mountain are you on? 8,000 feet or 4,000 feet? What are you seeing, the first new moon? or Are you seeing the second day?] ...also at the full moon, on our solemn Feast day."

We have two solemn Feast days on the full moon—the 15th day of the first month and the 15th day of the seventh month. Have you ever gone out the Night to Be Much Observed and looked at the full moon? Now the full moon's a whole lot easier to see than a little sliver of the new moon—is it not?

In the 50 years that I've been following along with this calendar problem, I have never once seen that there was not a full moon on the 15th day of the first month or the 15th day of the seventh month. So we need to have the new moon and the full moon, not just the new moon; there has to be a coordination.
Here's another problem between the new moon and the full moon. When you get out in space it's complicated and there's no way you can simplify it except have calculations. Let me tell you something, the calculations are so easy that a sixth grader could do it, provided they could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. If you write for the calendar material, you'll get the booklet on how to calculate it.

When we did it at Ambassador College I couldn't get it correct because I couldn't add, subtract, multiply, and divide properly. Took me several times to do it. Here's the problem between the new moon and the full moon: there's a variation in time. It can be as short as 13-1/2 days and nearly as long as 16 days. Has to be some adjustments.

Let me tell you what happened this year. This year you had three days of Trumpets, three days of Atonement, three days of the first day of the Feast, and three days of the last day of the Feast, because those who believe in the astronomical moon, that is the dark side, they kept their Feast of Trumpets on a Wednesday. The calculated Hebrew calendar was on a Thursday. Observable new moon was on a Friday.

Look what happens at the Feast days, the Sabbath, in the fall when you have a Holy Day fall on a Friday. What do you have? You have Trumpets and Sabbath. Then following that you have Sabbath and Atonement, back-to-back. Following that, you have Holy Day and Sabbath. Following that for the Last Great Day you have a Holy Day and Sabbath again. There's no continuity or meaning in those days. The only ones we are commanded to keep that way is Sabbath and Pentecost, because God told us to.

So part of the rules of calendar calculation is you can't have days like I just mentioned to you back-to-back-to back-to back double Sabbaths. You lose all meaning of the days and how are you going to prepare for the Day of Atonement when the Sabbath is a Feast day or how are you going to prepare for the Sabbath when Atonement falls on a Friday, because you're not to do any work at all.

We have the simple pocket calendar—right? That's easy to follow. But what I'm telling you are some of the difficulties that are involved. Just to cover a couple of other things concerning the calendar and I'll finish here in just a bit.

Just remember, the calculated Hebrew calendar accounts for every part of every hour and every day and every week and every month and every year and coordinates the lunar year and the solar year in 19-year time cycles so that we keep these things and adjusts them.

Now I forget the year it was, I think it was the year 2000, I don't recall—we have a booklet on it, I haven't looked at it lately—but there was a big argument out there saying, 'Oh, the calculated Hebrew calendar is getting off, getting off.' Even some of the Jews were saying it's getting off.

I need to tell you about that when I'm done; that means I'm not done.

(go to the next track)

Passover:

All of these things are coordinated in it. When you get the calculated Hebrew calendar, the book The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier gives all the days calculated from 1900-2100 and it coordinates the Roman calendar with the calculated Hebrew calendar. When you look at that, you're immediately going to see a problem with the Passover. It's listed as the 15th day of the first month. The Bible says it's the 14th day. Why does it say the 15th day in the calculated Hebrew calendar? Because it's produced by the Jewish community!

The months and days are correct, but the designation of the day is incorrect because the Jews reject the New Testament. And the Jews know that if they are not in the Holy Land they cannot keep a 14th Passover. So in the Diaspora they keep the Night Much to Be Observed as the Passover and use a lamb shank, and they call the meal a Seder meal. They know they have to be in the land of Israel to keep a 14th Passover.

Why can we keep a 14th Passover and the Jews cannot? And they're quite legally correct in what they are saying without the New Testament. They cannot keep a 14th Passover unless they are in the land. But why are we correct when we keep it the 14th day of the first month and we're scattered all over the world? Ever had that question asked?

I know your brain is probably heavy right now thinking, 'Oh, no, how do we get all of these complications?' Remember, Satan wants to complicate it because the Passover is the key and the important thing. That's why The Christian Passover book ended up being 500 and some pages and I wrote first, second and third editions. The Passover is the covenant night renewal for all true Christians. That's why! Don't you think that Satan would like to confuse that? Don't you think that he would like to come along and say: 'You use the calculated Hebrew calendar, why don't you keep the Passover on the 15th like the Jews do?' You ever had that brought up? You can tell I've been put through the mill on this.

• When did Jesus keep the Passover? Night before He was arrested, evening before He was arrested!
• He was crucified on what day? Fourteenth day of the first month!
• What did He tell the disciples that night at His last Passover?
• What did He do?

• He washed their feet!

And He said, 'If you don't wash one another's feet, you have no part with Me.' He also said that this is to show you that 'I being your teacher have washed your feet and you are obligated to wash each other's feet.' Remember, this is on the night of the fourteenth. Sunset came, Passover began, this is the Passover on the fourteenth.

What did He tell the apostles? He said that 'this is to teach you that the messenger is not greater than the one who sent him.' What does that tell you? If you think you're greater, you're going to add to what Jesus said—right? He also said that, yes, the teacher and the messenger is not greater than the one who sent him and the disciple is not greater than the teacher. That's a Passover lesson. We read that—don't we? (John 13), the night of the Passover; very important. What happened after that?

• Then He broke the bread. Said, 'Take eat, this is My body which is broken for you. This do in the remembrance of Me.' Night of the fourteenth.

• He took the wine and He said, 'All of you drink of this. This do you for this is My blood of the New Covenant shed for the remission of the sins of many. This do in the remembrance of Me.'

That's clear; He did it on the night of the 14th. He was crucified on the day portion of the 14th, put into the grave just as the day was ending and was in the tomb sealed at the beginning of the 15th day. Why can we keep a 14th Passover and the Jews cannot?

Matthew 28:18: "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations... [That's going clear around the world, every place you can go to.] ...baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them... [Where? In all nations!] ...to observe... [What?] ...all things that I have commanded you…. [Did He command us to keep the Passover? Did Paul write 'in the night that He was betrayed, He took the bread'? Yes, indeed! How long is this to be in effect?] …And lo, I am with you always, even until the completion of the age'" (vs 18-20).

When you look at the book The Calculated Hebrew Calendar and it says Passover on the 15th, just back it up one day; we're to keep it on the 14th.

Pentecost:

Likewise with Pentecost; they keep it on the 6th of Sivan; they do not count. Bear with me. I know this is a little heavy, so have some patience if your brain is ready to spring.

Michael Heiss, who is the Hebrew consultant who did a lot of the heavy lifting of translating the Old Testament, when he was at Judaica University he asked his professor when they were going through Lev. 23, and the professor said, 'I want all you students to understand this. Whenever it talks about the weekly Sabbath, in almost every case it is called 'ha Shabbat.' 'Ha' is the; 'Shabbat'—Sabbath.' Well, they were in Lev. 23 and in Hebrew—we've got it properly translated. Not only did we correct the problems in the New Testament, we corrected the problems in the Old Testament.

Leviticus 23:11—this is what they were reading in Hebrew in the Hebrew class: "And he... [the priest] ...shall wave the sheaf... [the premier sheaf of the firstfruits] ...before the LORD to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath..."—'Ha Shabbat'—the Sabbath. That's why we know it's the weekly Sabbath. But the Jews use the day after the first Holy Day. But the first Holy Day is only called 'Shabbat,' the same way with Trumpets and Atonement, the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Last Great Day—'Shabbat.'

So, Michael looked at his professor and said, 'Professor, I have a question.' You know, like Fiddler on the Roof, 'Rabbi, I have a question. Is there a blessing for the tsar?' Remember that scene? And the rabbi said, 'Yes, my son, may the Lord bless him and keep him far away from us'—that is, the tsar of Russia.

Michael Heiss said, 'Professor, I have a question: Why is it that the Jews begin on the day after the first Holy Day, instead of the Sabbath, when right here in the Hebrew it says 'ha Shabbat?' You know what his answer was? Tradition, my friend!

Let's analyze this. Why would the Jews be wrong on those things when they have the calendar, they have the correct calculations, they have the Law, they have the Hebrew, why are they wrong on those things? Because in rejecting Jesus Christ they are blinded! And Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost have to do with what? The Church! That carries over from the true Old Testament to the New Testament. Therefore, they don't keep those days properly because they have rejected Jesus. That's the answer. They know when Trumpets is; they know when Atonement is; they know when Feast of Tabernacles and Last Great Day is—and guess what? Those things are going to be enacted when Messiah returns—right?

I hope I've helped answer some questions for you concerning these things. I have just a little something more to finish because I need to make this complete. You will find in the Bible here the Appendices: Appendix E: When Was Jesus Christ Born? and also the day Jesus died, Appendix J: Jesus' Three Days and Three Nights of Entombment and His Resurrection. We have these things in the appendices for a special reason. In Appendix E you will see a month-by-month calculation beginning on page 1263 of When was Jesus Christ Born? I want you to read that, becomes very important, because there's a hidden clue in Luke 1. Anyone know what that hidden clue is? Zacharias, who was the father of John the Baptist—right? He says he was of the 'course of Abijah.' Now you read over that and you don't know what that means—do you? Most people don't know what that means, but that's a hidden clue that is telling us something very definitive about when he worked.

All the priesthood was divided down into 24 courses. They would each work one week twice a year beginning with the first month. They would work from noon Sabbath to noon Sabbath. All the priests and Levites would be there for Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. So all the courses would work, all 24 courses. The course of Abijah is the 8th course, so if you count from the first week in the first month and count right on down to the 8th one, you come to the week before Pentecost and then the 9th week he was there.

Remember what happened to Zacharias when he was told that he and his wife were going to have a son? They were over 70! He couldn't figure this out. It was Gabriel, the one in the presence of God, coming to talk to him. Zacharias said, 'How's this going to be?' Well, I suppose at 70-years-old, you'd ask that question, too—right? Anybody here 70 want to get together with your wife some night and say, 'Hey, we're going to have a baby.' Uh, Ha! Ha! The plumbing ain't worked for a long time, but God does impossible things—right?

To top it off, since he didn't believe, he was made mute, couldn't talk. So he had to go home, write a note to his wife. 'Elizabeth, guess what?' What? 'You're going to have a child.' You're kidding! 'Come on. The angel...' What angel? 'One appeared to me.' Appeared to you where? 'In the temple. Come on, quit arguing. We're going to have a son.' Really!

Well, the long and the short was she got pregnant. Then we have another clue in the book of Luke 1. Angel comes, same one Gabriel, talks to Mary and tells her that she is going to be impregnated through the power of God and bring forth a son. And she asked the question, 'How is this going to be, since I have never had sexual relations with a man?' Now she must have been about 20 and Elizabeth was 70, so that made Elizabeth her aunt.

Then we have another clue buried there in the book of Luke. And in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, Mary after the conception went to visit her and stayed till just before the baby was born.

Okay, you put those together and we have the chart pages 1263-1266. And guess what the middle day for the likely two-week period of the birth of Jesus Christ actually turned out to be? Trumpets! Put this in your notes: Gal. 4. In the fulfillment of the time, or the appointed time, Jesus was born. There was the exact time that it would be done and we're given the clues in the book of Luke. And you can't figure it out unless you have the calculated Hebrew calendar, and this calculated Hebrew calendar is the same one that is in effect today—it has not changed!

Let me just mention this. How many have heard of Hillel II? Whenever you read anything in the translated Jewish material for us 'goyim,' or 'Gentiles,' we are still despised in spite of the fact that they want tolerance toward them. They present the arguments of various rabbis. And they argue about visibility or calculations and different things. They also obfuscate the information they put in the translated material, because they do not want Gentiles keeping the Sabbath or the Holy Days. They get angry.

One woman who told her Jewish dentist she was going to the Feast of Tabernacles almost lost a tooth as he was working on her mouth. Now here's the truth about Hillel II. He was the great, great, great, great, great grandson of Gamaliel, who was Hillel I. He was a priest. He did not, I repeat did NOT, invent the calendar. What he did was release the calculations to the public for the first time ever because he thought the Jews were going to be so decimated by the persecutions that the knowledge would be lost.

• He did not invent the calendar
• He did not change the calendar
• He just revealed what we have today

This is precisely what we have in figuring the birth of Jesus.

Now turn the page to 1268 (Appendix F). Here's something that is very important. Notice. Let me ask a question before I show you. How many witnesses does God demand in order to establish something? Two or three—correct? How many Gospels do we have? Three that are coordinated very nearly the same and the fourth one by John—and if you read in chapter 21, right toward the end it says and 'we testify that His testimony is true.'

Who are the 'we' there at the last of the chapter of John? That's Andrew and Philip and Mark, who helped John canonize the New Testament. So there we have three or four witnesses for the Gospel of John.

This chart then represents different ways of calculating time going back into antiquity here beginning with the Greek Olympiad in 179B.C. We have the Roman Year, the BC-AD Year, the Hasmonian Rule, the Roman Count, the Jewish Count. Then we have here the Reign of Herod, the Temple Built, Reign of Tiberius, Reign of Augustus, Life of Jesus Christ, Year of Rome.

How many witnesses do we have substantiating the year when Jesus was born? Eight! There we go, all coordinated. Pay attention to this: In the year 5B.C. when Jesus was born, guess what? There were two postponements! In the year that Jesus was crucified in 30A.D. and that was the time appointed from the foundation of the world—correct?

And Paul wrote in Rom' 5:6: "…at the appointed time Christ died for the ungodly." We covered that day—didn't we? Fourteenth day of the first month! The appointed time determined from the foundation of the world planned in Gen. 1, executed in 30A.D.—couldn't be any other year—and guess what? Two postponements in that year likewise!

What does that tell you? God uses postponements in order to keep the time for His appointed times synchronized for His plan! If there are no postponements, how was Jesus born at the appointed time and crucified at the appointed time when postponements are necessary to do it?

Anyone who says you don't need postponements knows nothing! They haven't studied the calculated Hebrew calendar. They don't know all the things that are involved with it. They don't know how accurate it is.

One man recently, he has a blog called The Shining Light blog and I've been answering him. He said, 'Well, you sound angry and you get emotional over it.' And I wrote back, I said, 'Absolutely true! Because what you are doing, when you go by the observable moon—because you don't know when to observe it—you don't know what it looks like and you don't understand the accounting for every minute and everything as God does in the calculated Hebrew calendar. You, therefore, are changing the Holy Days and that's the same as going from Sabbath to Sunday. You better believe that I get emotional over that, because you're leading brethren astray.'

That's why some people say, 'Fred Coulter's not very nice.' But that's the way it goes. I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover.

Scriptural References:

• Psalm 81:3
• Matthew 28:18-20
• Leviticus 23:11
• Romans 5:6

Scriptures referenced, not covered:

• Genesis 1
• Acts 4
• John 13
• Leviticus 23
• Luke 1
• Galatians 4
• John 21

Also referenced:

Books:

• The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar by Arthur Spier
• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter

Materials, Video and Articles:

• Calculated Hebrew Calendar  by Fred R. Coulter

From The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, a Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter:

• Appendix E—When Was Jesus Christ Born
• Appendix J—Jesus' Three Days and Three Nights of Entombment and His Resurrection
• Appendix F—A Synchronized Chart of Historical and Scriptural Records That Establish the Year of Christ's Birth

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 11-6-11
Formatted: bo: 12-8-11

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