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The Sacred Count to Pentecost
M
ankind is now living at the pivotal appointed time of prophetic fulfillment, and it is not business as usual. Yahuwah's faithful must not leave even one doctrinal stone unturned as we prepare our hearts and minds for the additional light of truth, as it will fall like rain from heaven according to the Pentecost model.
Also, it must not be assumed that those who have gone before had all the truths nailed down correctly. By clinging to doctrines that have not been accurately supported by Scripture, is like the proverbial child trying to force the square block in the round hole, and getting no where. Yahuwah's faithful have not been left without stunning council in this regards.
Also, it must not be assumed that those who have gone before had all the truths nailed down correctly. By clinging to doctrines that have not been accurately supported by Scripture, is like the proverbial child trying to force the square block in the round hole, and getting no where. Yahuwah's faithful have not been left without stunning council in this regards.
We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed. 1 Selected Messages, p. 37.
There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation. Councils to Writers and Editors, p. 35.
It has been said and loudly proclaimed, that the strongest support for Creation is the unbroken chains of successive weeks that rotate without any affect on months and years. Many Seventh-day Adventists have taken a stand that Ellen White believed and taught this as truth. There remains evidence to the contrary.
Like the Sabbath, the week originated at creation, and it has been preserved and brought down to us through Bible history. God Himself measured off the first week as a sample for successive weeks to the close of time . . . Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 111.
This quote in Patriarchs and Prophets supports the lunisolar Sabbath equally as well or better than a calendar with unbroken chains of weeks that cycle without end. The reason is because this quote does not specify unbroken successive weeks, nor does it refer to cycles without end, and that makes all the difference. Please note that no where in this quote of Ellen White, or in scripture, is there even one single mention of unbroken chains or cycles of successive weeks". Taking this one step further - since the word "successive" had the same multiple meanings in Ellen White's day, if she had intended it to mean unbroken successive weeks or cycles,, she would have specified it by including the word unbroken or the word cycles. Since she did not, she clearly did not intend this quote to mean unbroken cycles or successive weeks, but rather successive weeks that follow in their order.
Also, she states that the week was "preserved and brought down to us through Bible history," and not by the Jews or Romans who continue to present to us the modern Roman Gregorian wall calendars. This one statement powerfully clarifies that the Creator's calendar is preserved within the oracles of Scripture and not by any other method. All the prophets and writers of both the Old and New Testaments kept the timing declared from the heavens, the lunisolar calendar. These same writers and prophets of Yahuwah never utilized any form of a man made solar calendar for time keeping. The Roman Julian calendar was not pressed upon Israel until after A.D. 70, following the destruction of Jerusalem, when Israel went into captivity.
Also, she states that the week was "preserved and brought down to us through Bible history," and not by the Jews or Romans who continue to present to us the modern Roman Gregorian wall calendars. This one statement powerfully clarifies that the Creator's calendar is preserved within the oracles of Scripture and not by any other method. All the prophets and writers of both the Old and New Testaments kept the timing declared from the heavens, the lunisolar calendar. These same writers and prophets of Yahuwah never utilized any form of a man made solar calendar for time keeping. The Roman Julian calendar was not pressed upon Israel until after A.D. 70, following the destruction of Jerusalem, when Israel went into captivity.
Webster's Dictionary Definition:
succession:
1a: the order in which or the conditions under which one person after another succeeds to a property, dignity, title, or throne
2a: the act or process of following in order: sequence
3a: a number of persons or things that follow each other in sequence
3b: a group, type, or series that succeeds or displaces another
1a: the order in which or the conditions under which one person after another succeeds to a property, dignity, title, or throne
2a: the act or process of following in order: sequence
3a: a number of persons or things that follow each other in sequence
3b: a group, type, or series that succeeds or displaces another
successive:
1: following in order: following each other without interruption
2: characterized by or produced in succession.
1: following in order: following each other without interruption
2: characterized by or produced in succession.
The Genesis account outlines only seven specific days and the details that occurred on each. There are many calendation details that are completely missing from the narrative. For example, the first two chapters of Genesis say nothing about when the year began, nothing about when the month began, and nothing about how the week fits into the whole scheme of time. Yet, from the book of Exodus, we can know with certainty the truth regarding when Yahuwah's years begin, when His months begin, when His weeks begin, and when the day begins. In additions it is a second witness to when the day began with the morning sunrise. It is Exodus that provides the calendation details for Genesis and the entire Scriptures. Leviticus then becomes a third witness for calendation as the details of Exodus are applied to Yahuwah's Feasts. Remember, Moses under divine inspiration, wrote all three accounts. Therefore the calendation events described in Exodus will be in perfect harmony with the Genesis and Leviticus accounts and visa versa. In this way they provide an all inclusive checks and balances.
From a different angle, it is true that successive seven-day cycles have continued unbroken since creation, so have 9 day cycles and 13 day cycles- virtually the sky's the limit for unbroken chains of days since creation. The reason is that any variation of unbroken chains can be achieved when time is reckoned by solely the "sun." Any grouping of arbitrary units of time can be selected by man and sustained along its "continual" string of successive days that have transpired since creation. This is because the sun rises and sets with no apparent variations. Also, there is no accountability for these unbroken chains of weeks to fit into months or years with any precision. Amazingly, there is not even one Scripture verse that speaks of "unbroken chains of weeks since creation," and yet many hold this as a foundational doctrine of Scripture. Is it possible that we have been blind to this apparent discrepancy of the "week" as it relates to Scripture? Scripture defines its sequence of weeks very differently. But because the calendar we keep is in harmony with the unbroken chains of weeks we have not been able to recognize that Scripture does not utilize this same system of rotating weeks. Have we swapped standards? Have we unknowingly swapped calendars? Have those who would be faithful to Yahuwah begun to hold the Roman Gregorian calendar as the standard for Scriptures time keeping for weeks, months, days and years against the will of Yahuwah?
All have been taken in, and unaware that it is the Roman Julian/Gregorian calendar's system that has promoted this "unbroken chain of successive weeks since Creation" theory. As the Scriptural lunisolar calendar was outlawed, it was this apparent connection to the first week of Creation that made this new calendar system palatable among the Christians, after all this new week still contained the necessary seven days.
This belief places the seventh-day Sabbath on a separate time system from that of the rest of Scriptures ordained "units of time." For example, Scripture reveals in Genesis 1:14 that the Creator's time keeping system was to reckon four units of time- signs, seasons, days and years. Yet it has not been largely discerned that since the Council of Nicea in A.D.325, the "signs" unit of time, has disappeared from our recognition of it as viable. Now it is taught from the seminaries and pulpits alike, that the ancient Hebrew lunisolar calendar has always reckoned only three units of time- seasons (months), days and years. What happened to its reckoning of "signs" (Sabbaths complete also known as weeks)? "Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generation . . ." Exodus 31:13. It is now taught that the "signs" are only reckoned using the Roman Gregorian calendar's "unbroken chains of weeks," and not Scriptures lunisolar calendar as ordained by the Creator. Who is behind this calendar swap?
From a different angle, it is true that successive seven-day cycles have continued unbroken since creation, so have 9 day cycles and 13 day cycles- virtually the sky's the limit for unbroken chains of days since creation. The reason is that any variation of unbroken chains can be achieved when time is reckoned by solely the "sun." Any grouping of arbitrary units of time can be selected by man and sustained along its "continual" string of successive days that have transpired since creation. This is because the sun rises and sets with no apparent variations. Also, there is no accountability for these unbroken chains of weeks to fit into months or years with any precision. Amazingly, there is not even one Scripture verse that speaks of "unbroken chains of weeks since creation," and yet many hold this as a foundational doctrine of Scripture. Is it possible that we have been blind to this apparent discrepancy of the "week" as it relates to Scripture? Scripture defines its sequence of weeks very differently. But because the calendar we keep is in harmony with the unbroken chains of weeks we have not been able to recognize that Scripture does not utilize this same system of rotating weeks. Have we swapped standards? Have we unknowingly swapped calendars? Have those who would be faithful to Yahuwah begun to hold the Roman Gregorian calendar as the standard for Scriptures time keeping for weeks, months, days and years against the will of Yahuwah?
All have been taken in, and unaware that it is the Roman Julian/Gregorian calendar's system that has promoted this "unbroken chain of successive weeks since Creation" theory. As the Scriptural lunisolar calendar was outlawed, it was this apparent connection to the first week of Creation that made this new calendar system palatable among the Christians, after all this new week still contained the necessary seven days.
This belief places the seventh-day Sabbath on a separate time system from that of the rest of Scriptures ordained "units of time." For example, Scripture reveals in Genesis 1:14 that the Creator's time keeping system was to reckon four units of time- signs, seasons, days and years. Yet it has not been largely discerned that since the Council of Nicea in A.D.325, the "signs" unit of time, has disappeared from our recognition of it as viable. Now it is taught from the seminaries and pulpits alike, that the ancient Hebrew lunisolar calendar has always reckoned only three units of time- seasons (months), days and years. What happened to its reckoning of "signs" (Sabbaths complete also known as weeks)? "Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generation . . ." Exodus 31:13. It is now taught that the "signs" are only reckoned using the Roman Gregorian calendar's "unbroken chains of weeks," and not Scriptures lunisolar calendar as ordained by the Creator. Who is behind this calendar swap?
This change from the lunisolar to a fixed solar calendar occurred in Rome during the repressive measures which were enacted against ALL Jewish customs . . . during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. With the fall of the Nazarene headquarters...at Jerusalem, this new Roman calendar quickly spread throughout 'Christendom.' This new calendar not only replaced yearly festival dates such as Passover, but it also revamped the concept of the week and its seventh day. Iranaeus 2nd Century A.D.
In the years following Clement of Alexandria's time, an ominous change started to take place that was to radically change the Christian concept of the Sabbath." Records the Encyclopedia Biblica: "This intimate connection between the week and the month was soon dissolved. It is certain that the week soon followed a development of its own, and it became the custom -- without paying any regard to the days of the month (i.e. the lunisolar month) . . . so that the New Moon no longer coincided with the first day of the month. Then, on page 4179 of the same encyclopedia, we read: "The introduction...of the custom of celebrating the Sabbath every 7th day, irrespective of the relationship of the day to the moon's phases, led to a complete separation from the ancient view of the Sabbath . . . The MacMillan Company, 1899. P. 5290.
The modern seven-day week came into use during the early imperial period, after the Julian calendar came into effect, apparently stimulated by immigration from the Roman East. For a while it coexisted alongside the old 8-day nundinal cycle, and fasti are known which show both cycles. It was finally given official status by Constantine in 321. Roman Calendar Encyclopedia, Days of the Week.
Under the reign of Constantius the persecutions of the Jews reached such a height that . . . the computation of the calendar [was] forbidden under pain of severe punishment. The Jewish Encyclopedia, "Calendar."
Sabbath and New Moon (Rosh Hodesh), both periodically recur in the course of the year. The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle. Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 410. He shall insult the Most High, he shall torment/wear out the holy ones of the Most High, and he shall attempt to change the calendar and the ordinance. Daniel 7:25 (Knox 20th Century translation).
. . . and all the world wondered after the beast.
Revelation 13:3
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Kerrie L. French
Freelance writer/Illustrator