INSIGHTS INTO THE SABBATH AND CALENDAR

 

Our basic principle is to allow the Bible to interpret itself—not what we think or want it to say. Allow it to interpret itself through both the O.T. and N.T. as it is one complete book.

We also then look carefully at how things developed historically—this is key. History will show how man changed things.

Begin with Calendar – Gen 1.5 evening and morning day one. Gen 2.1-2 God rested.

Jewish calendar days and months are ordinal—they are numbered not named. Roman days, the calendar we now observe, the Gregorian Calendar, are named after Roman gods. Sunday is for the sun god. Saturday is for Saturn, August for Caesar Augustus, July for Julius Caesar, and so on.

1. yom rishon = "first day" = (Sunday)
2. yom sheni = "second day" = (Monday)
3. yom sh'lishi = "third day" = (Tuesday)
4. yom revi'i = "fourth day" = (Wednesday)
5. yom chamishi = "fifth day" = (Thursday)

6.       yom shishi = "sixth day" = (Friday)

                                                                                                                                                        

7.         Shabbat= “seventh day” = (Saturday)

The reason the days on the Hebrew calendar are merely numbered is because the Lord told them in the ten commandments to put no other gods before Him. They are also to have no other images that they would begin to worship—statues, pillars, etc. Numbering the days prevents that from happening.

Jesus said in John 4.22 to the woman at the well that “salvation is of the Jews.” He was speaking of Himself and the fact that the Jewish people were given the responsibility of the Holy Scriptures and were to be a light unto the gentile nations. The Hebrew calendar is in fact God’s Calendar. The Jewish people preserved all this information as God spoke to them.

Back to Genesis 1.5 we see that God called the light Day and the darkness Night. Then he says, “the evening and the morning were the first day.” I read that verse over and over in the past and never got it. The evening and the morning were the first day!

The Jewish and Biblical day begins at sunset and ends the following evening at sunset. They are following what the Bible describes as God’s day. So what we call Friday night as the sun sets, the Jews call Saturday night. As the sun sets on Friday night then, the Shabbat or Sabbath begins.

The Roman day as the world observes begins at midnight. So as the sun sets on Friday night the world calls that Friday night. God’s calendar does not agree with this man made calendar. Friday night on man’s calendar is Saturday night on God’s calendar. If we allow the Bible to interpret itself this is an undeniable fact. God’s day and months are much different than the Gregorian calendar which was established by the Pope in 1582.

The previous calendar to the Gregorian calendar was called the Julian calendar. That calendar was established by Julius Caesar (circa 44 BC) to correct the calendar of his day which was losing time and moving their pagan feasts from spring to winter—the seasons were changing because the calendar was losing time. Caesar’s calendar added the leap year every fourth year to correct this loss. (The earth rotates around the sun in 365.25 days thus every fourth year a day is added.)

When his calendar came out they made a mistake and had the leap year coming every third year. In time Caesar’s calendar lost time and the Gregorian calendar corrected that time loss.

The Gregorian calendar established by the Pope in 1582 was not adopted by Great Britain or her colonies (USA) until 1752. If you go to Monticello, Virginia and visit Thomas Jefferson’s burial tomb you will see something interesting on his tombstone.

It reads: Thomas Jefferson, April 2, OS 1743 – July 4, 1826. I wondered what the OS meant and discovered that his birth was before the colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar. His birth was recorded during the Julian calendar which was the Old Style (OS) calendar.

Today we celebrate Thomas Jefferson’s birth on April 13^th. This is because the Julian calendar lost 11 days over the centuries. The Gregorian calendar corrected that time loss.

In summary, if we search the Bible for the unadulterated truth, allow it to interpret itself, and accept it as God’s holy word, then we begin to see things in a totally different light. Man has changed many things in the Bible over the millenniums in order to better control things. We have gotten away from God’s way of doing things. Man has changed the time and seasons (Daniel 7.25) to accommodate man’s schedule. God is on a totally different calendar and time.

Here is a simple example: Read Acts 20.7…And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

There are two ways to interpret this verse. Do you see it?

If we read this in Roman time it appears that Paul began speaking on Sunday morning until midnight. Then he was going to leave the next day on Monday morning. This is an inaccurate interpretation of the verse.

Here is how it reads in God’s time which the Jews were observing. On Saturday at sunset it is the beginning of Sunday. The Shabbat tradition is to end Shabbat at sundown and have a meal together. As the sun set they broke bread together and Paul spoke until midnight. The following morning was Sunday, not Monday. He left early Sunday morning!

When we have an understanding of the Hebrew roots or foundations of our faith and allow the Bible to interpret itself our understanding of the Bible begins to change from what is false to the truth.

Once we understand the God’s calendar and time we can prove that Jesus was not buried on “Good Friday” but that he was really buried on what we would call Wednesday night—which is the beginning of Thursday on God’s clock. That means that Jesus was in the ground for 72 hours—three full days—just as He said it would be! Ref: Matthew 12.40 and handout.

The New Testament confirms all of this information. Jesus was a Jew and observed the Torah. All of His activities were according to God’s time and calendar as recorded in the New Testament. If we do not understand the Hebrew roots of our faith, and the Torah, we have a limited understanding of what, why and how things are taking place in the four Gospels.

Our “Christian traditions” have made us blind to the truth. Do we embrace the truth or hold to our traditions? This was the issue between Jesus and the leaders of His day. The wanted to hold unto the oral law and their man made traditions. Jesus was teaching and explaining the truth to them but they held to “the traditions of men” rather than the truth.

God tells us in His word that if we do not believe the truth He will give us over to the delusion:

…and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 2 Thessalonians 2.10-12

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4.4

"'By what means?' the LORD asked. "'I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said. "'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.' 1 Kings 22.22

There we have the three witnesses required by Torah for a thing to be true.