Amazing Evidence
From Antiquity
From Antiquity
I
n His wisdom, and according to His covenant agreement, the Heavenly Father Yahuwah carefully built a symbolic wall of protection around the ancient Hebrew people. The stones of this great wall were inseparable divine truths, made from His Moral Law; Statutes; Judgments; New Moons; Feast days; and seventh-day Sabbaths. According to their covenant agreement, as long as they remained obedient they would also remain a sovereign and free people. If at any time Israel was to willfully break His Laws, creating a weak link in this wall, Yahuwah would chasten them by allowing them to go into captivity. Once in captivity they must succumb to keeping the laws of the ruling nation, along with its calendation system, festivals and holidays. In this way, and because of their unfaithfulness in keeping their covenant agreement, Yahuwah caused them to forget His ways.
These divine oracles of truth Yahuwah had entrusted to Israel, He would like to entrust to us today. Again, in His wisdom, they would only be safe within the walls of His covenant agreement. Israel's story of unfaithfulness is our story, and their captivity is our captivity. But the Yahuwah has a plan to restore all things to those who desire and diligently seek the restoration of His original divine covenant. Only to those who are willing to enter into His covenant will He open the way to discover His long lost and hidden truths.Within the pages of antiquity is recorded "the how and why" the seventh-day Sabbath, as well as His appointed Feast days, Statutes and Judgments; all became lost and forgotten in time. It is only through our understanding of how they were lost, that they can truly be found and restored, along with Yahuwah's other inseparable divine truths.
"I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, Her New Moons, Her Sabbaths-- All her appointed feasts," says the Lord. Hosea 2:11
Historical and Biblical record identify at least three times Israel went into captivity. The first was Israel's bondage in Egypt, followed by Babylon, and finally at the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by Rome. During those long years in Egypt, the majority of Israel completely lost the ways of Yahuwah, and had to be reinstructed through Moses. During the captivity in Babylon many forgot, but certainly not all, including Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah. But with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, began the first phase in a lengthy Roman captivity, and under a hard rulership that was bent on destroying the Hebrew Law and calendation of her Feast days and Sabbaths.
While it was Yahuwah's will that His truths should be hidden for a time, ultimately in the end, and by divine providence, all will be restored. "In the time of the end every divine institution is to be restored." Prophets and Kings, p. 678.
While it was Yahuwah's will that His truths should be hidden for a time, ultimately in the end, and by divine providence, all will be restored. "In the time of the end every divine institution is to be restored." Prophets and Kings, p. 678.
Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Ezekiel 22:26.
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: Malachi 4:4-5
And when the debate is, they shall stand in my (judgment) domes, and shall consider and believe my laws; and they shall keep my commandments in all my solemnities, and they shall hallow my Sabbaths. Ezekiel 44:24 Wycliffe Bible 1378.
And all the children of Israel will forget and will not find the path of years, and will forget the new moons, and seasons, and Sabbaths and they will go wrong as to all the order of the years. For I know and from hence forth will I declare it unto thee, and it is not my own devising; for the book (lies) written before me, and on the heavenly tablets the division of days is ordained, lest they forget the feasts of the covenant and walk according to the feasts of the Gentiles after their error and after their ignorance. For there will be those who will assuredly make observations of the moon -how (it) disturbs the seasons and comes in from year to year ten days too soon. For this reason the years will come upon them when they disturb (the order), and make an abominable (day) the day of testimony, and an unclean day a feast day, and they will confound the days, the holy with the unclean, and the unclean day with the holy; for they will go wrong as to the months and Sabbaths and feasts and Jubilees. Book of Jubilees 23:34-38
The week, which was based on the Mosaic Law that requires rest from labor every seventh day, was not recognized in the calendar of the ancient Greeks, and did not appear in the Roman calendar until about 400 A.D. Funk and Wagnall's Standard Reference Encyclopedia, 1961, Vol. 5, p. 1662 "Calendar"
The weeks do not continue in a regular cycle regardless of the moon. Each month has four weeks, the beginning with the New Moon. I have no doubt that this was the old Hebrew system. Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, p. 89.
The present Jewish calendar was fixed in the fourth century. Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Letter by Louis Finkelstein to Dr. L. E. Froom, Feb. 20, 1939. regarding the present Jewish calendar.
"The Sabbath depending, in Israel's nomadic period, upon the observation of the phases of the moon, it could not, accordingly be a fixed day. www.Jewishencyclopedia.com "Sabbath"
The (early) Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks, which ended with special observances on the seventh day, but none the less were tied to the moon's course. Rest Days, p. 254-255 by Hutton Webster
Historically, new moon spotters in Israel watched for the thin crescent to establish the beginning of each month. Once seen they reported their sighting to the calendar court authorities of the Sanhedrin. Note what one authority says, "Originally, the New Moon was not fixed by astronomical calculation, but was solemnly proclaimed after witnesses had testified to the reappearance of the crescent of the moon,"
Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 12, p. 1039.
The invention of the continuous week was therefore one of the most significant breakthroughs in human beings' attempts to break away from being prisoners of nature [and from under God's law] and create a social world of their own." The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, Eviator Zerubavel, New York: The Free Press, 1985. p.11.
"Most theologians and some scholars assume that mainstream Jewish society, at the time of Jesus...was practicing a fixed seven-day week which was the same as the modern fixed [cycling planetary designations] seven-day week. This is extremely doubtful. The change, from a lunar to a fixed week, was brought about by the power and influence of Rome. As long as the Nazarenes held power in Jerusalem, all Roman practices and customs, including that of THE CONSECUTIVE WEEK, WERE HELD AT BAY." Shawui Sabbath: Ancient Sabbath Observance
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Kerrie L. French
Freelance writer/Illustrator