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| God's Sacred Calendar |
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Chapter ContentsAt creation God established the weekly cycle of seven days ending with the weekly Sabbath for this earth. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. The seven-day weekly cycle is the only Calendar feature accurately shared with the Gregorian Calendar. The Bible is not scientifically clear on how to know which day is the weekly Sabbath. There are no astronomical signals or evidences for the weekly cycle. God has preserved His weekly cycle throughout the 6,000-year history of the world only through the faithful observance of those who follow God's truth. This is important because there is no doubt of the Sabbath day when you accept it is the seventh day of the week and not the first. This is a surprising indication of a requirement to follow tradition in some circumstances. |
AffirmationsThere was a miraculous validation and reinforcement of the weekly cycle upon the Hebrews as they came out of Egypt. Manna appeared every day of the week except the seventh day. Gathering the manna for food was a significant part of their daily work. This was a witness to the command of God to abstain from work and participate in a holy time of gathering before God. The tradition of the seven day weekly cycle is deeply ingrained into our modern society dating back to at least the time of the Messiah. We can have confidence the Son of God correctly followed all of God's Law. The Jewish people and the Catholic Church were the faithful preservers and witnesses of the seven day weekly cycle. No reasonable person doubts this. The Bible is clear the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath. We depend on the witness of tradition to know the days of the week. We can only know which date on the calendar is the Sabbath because of this tradition. It appears the pattern of the days in the month and in the year had a more evenly divisible relationship at creation. I suspect the pattern will be restored in the new earth. These passages indicate 5 months was exactly 150 days or 30 days per month. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. |
Counterfeits and ApostasiesThere have been many attempts through the millennia by Satan and his followers to change or corrupt the seven day weekly cycle. History records Rome had an eight day weekly cycle for several centuries which it inherited from the Etruscans. Even in recent centuries, the atheists of the French Revolution attempted to establish a ten-day weekly cycle. In the early centuries of the Christian Church in Rome, the sacred plan for the weekly cycle was corrupted by claiming to change the sanctity of the seventh day of the Calendar to the first day. Much of the world practices this weekly corruption of God's plan and the corruptions of the months by the Gregorian Calendar while many observe some of the Christo-pagan yearly holidays promoted by the Catholic Church. In modern times, there have been attempts to corrupt the continuity of the weekly cycle by inserting 'non-weekly' days into the calendar. The most recent attempt to change the calendar is a very unusual adaptation of the extra leap year day introduced in the Julian Calendar and adapted in the Gregorian Calendar. The World Calendar was the original name attached to a proposed reform of the Gregorian calendar, making the year exactly 52 weeks long by creating a day, which was a world holiday and not part of the official week. On October 21, 1930, Elisabeth Achelis founded a movement in the United States to promote this calendar. The United Nations considered the proposal after World War II but the United States officially stopped the idea on March 21, 1955 in a memorandum forwarded to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The latest name attached to this attempt to corrupt the Calendar is the Benedictine Perpetual Calendar. It appears this group is attempting to appeal to the vanity of Pontiff Pope Benedict XVI. The pope has demonstrated the power and authority to oversee the introduction of a new calendar. I do not believe it will ever happen. Lunar SabbathThe most recent attempt to corrupt the weekly cycle is an idea, which says the weekly Sabbath should follow the phases of the moon. Some people refer to this as Lunarism, which I jokingly call Lunacism. The erroneous basis for this idea is the concept there must be an astronomical method for determining the day of the weekly Sabbath. This error is achieved by claiming the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd of the lunar month (or other variations) are always the “week†Sabbath. The result is unclaimed extra days at the end of the month, which are not part of the contrived “weekâ€. It is also interesting to note this method of determining the weekly cycle is often called the Hermetic Lunar Cycle so it is named after a pagan Greek God. The original proposal for this weekly cycle bragged it threw out the seven-day week. Later proposals by other misguided people restored the seven-day cycle for some weeks. This false teaching denies the idea God specifically made the weekly Sabbath without astronomical basis as a proof of the purpose of regular observance of a "holy convocation" on the weekly Sabbath. God has given His people the task of continuing the weekly cycle. The devil and his deceived followers try to destroy God's plan. This false teaching denies the continuity of the weekly cycle begun by God at creation. It denies the specific pattern of six days of work and a seventh day of rest sanctified by God. It substitutes a week, which has different numbers of days at the end of the month. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. The Biblical command to work six days then rest on the seventh is put to shame by claiming it is inaccurate since the erroneous lunar "weeks" are not always seven days. 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. I am also confident our Savior practiced a continuous cycle of seven-day weeks. Historical records are very solid since His day. A change of this magnitude would be clearly recorded. Claims, which say the observance was changed without record since His day, are quite outrageous. Nevertheless, argument never serves any purpose. Keep it simple and humble when confronted by these misguided ideas. Let the erring shout their "proofs". |
SymbolismsThe week is a unique part of the design of the Calendar because it is not astronomical in nature but has a very symbolic meaning as a reference to creation. I have pondered many possible symbolisms in the Calendar. I observe God incorporates many patterns and symbolisms in everything He does. The Bible is loaded with symbolism and describes some of the symbolisms found in nature. Some of these are explained and obvious and some are more subtle. When looking for symbolisms it is helpful to ask yourself what might seem to be unusual questions. Why does the day begin at sundown? Is there a symbolism to why God specified it that way? A possibility, light is a well-known symbol for truth and dark is a well-known symbol for error. The bright light of day represents the reign of truth in heaven before Lucifer's fall. The lengthening shadows as evening approaches represent the creeping advances of sin. The earth was created at the symbolic sunset of truth as it is shadowed by the spread of sin. Soon after sunset, the deepening darkness of sin began its spread. The approaching dawn of the resurrection morning represents the approach of the end of sin. The shadows still linger until the thousand years expire and final judgment signals the complete end of sin. The memories and the pain of sin fade as the brightness of the new day increases. There are also important symbolisms in numbers. By the time of the New Testament there were definitely 24 hours in a day. It is not clear how long this had been the normal custom. No significant symbolism occurs to me about this number though I note it is 2 times 12, which is a richly symbolic number, and 4 times 6, which is also a richly symbolic number. The number seven is a richly symbolic number, which appears in several places in the design of the Calendar. The seven days of the week are the first example of this symbolism. The seven days of the week remind us of the seven days of creation. The seven days of the week are also a well-known symbolism of the six thousand years of the reign of sin with the final thousand years of the earth's millennial Sabbath rest before the end of sin. The course of the month seems to have many possibilities for symbolism. The month begins as the moon moves from a conjunction with the sun in the west at sunset growing brighter each day as it sets later in the night. The moon follows the sun through the day settling more and more into the night, as it gets brighter. At its greatest brightness, it is completely in charge of the night and invisible during the day. Finally, the sun catches up with the moon at the end of the month. There is at least one interesting possibility. The day can represent heaven and the night can represent earth. The moon could represent the Messiah. He visited earth and for a time he was not in heaven at all but completely bound to earth. It is interesting to note the full moon was the time of His sacrifice. The symbolism of the sun moving through the backdrop of the constellations of the sky through the year has been noted by others. Modern life with its increasing emphasis on bringing light and daytime patterns into the night has destroyed our appreciation of God's Calendar as shown in the sky. The Roman Catholic Calendar has totally obliterated our understanding and appreciation of heavenly patterns as emphasized in God's Calendar. How often are you aware of the course of God's Calendar as you observe the phases of the moon? How often do you even notice the phases of the moon? In the year, 2008 the days of the seventh month exactly matched the days of September and continued into October. It was an interesting and special experience to see the phases of the moon match the days of the month as intended on God's Calendar. It is interesting to note that 2008 appears to have been a Sabbath year. (Book Contents) Next: The Sacred Month |
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Revised 2015-08-16 |