Yahshua (Jesus) is set to fulfill the Fall Festivals when He returns.
These are the festivals of Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Succot (the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles) .
Yahshua told us we'll know the season. He also said we would not know the day or the hour.
To illustrate that point, a phenomenon occurred recently which gives partial and practical insight into His statement.
This phenomenon was silent. No one heard it. Few observed it. But it impacts the entire world.
What it revealed is amazing to think about...
Modern man can't decide what day today is!
Let me explain.
Most of the world uses the Gregorian calendar.
It's a Catholic calendar given to us by Pope Gregory XIII in 1578. He sought to revise and correct the drift of the ancient Roman calendar called the Julian calendar. He introduced it only to countries that were mostly Catholic.
What is curious is that the Protestant Reformation (sometimes called the Protestant Revolution) had already begun when Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, called for reopening of the debate on the sale of indulgences.
That was in 1517.
By 1536 the separation from Rome of the Church of England under Henry VIII was completed.
Notice the timeline.
Gregory's calendar did not appear until 42 years later - well into the heart of the Protestant Reformation - which supposedly rejected anything Roman Catholic.
Today, there's a 99% chance the calendar hanging on a wall in your house - whether you are Catholic or Protestant - is Pope Gregory's calendar.
( This is off the topic, but hopefully the Protestants reading this will see another example of how Protestantism of the 21st century is not that of the forefathers.
It has been re-absorbed or re-conquered by Catholicism - which was precisely Pope Gregory's driving purpose in life. Apparently he succeeded.
The practice of faith that once called for 'Sola Scriptura' -Scripture only- is so infused now with Catholic traditions it is more appropriately called "Catholic Lite." )
But, the Gregorian calendar adopted a solar cycle as it's basis. It abandoned any correlation between the moon cycles and the month which is the pattern of the Creator's calendar.
As a result, you'll find the Pope's calendar is no help when you want to determine Yahweh's set apart times.
However, if you want to know when all the man-made religious holidays are, such as Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, Halloween, Christmas, etc., then this calendar is right on the money.
The Scriptural calendar has no date such as September 24th for Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets. In fact, even trying to correlate the Scriptural calendar with the Pope's calendars is difficult because the Scriptural day begins at sunset - not at midnight.
So, while you may say it is Tuesday according to the Pope, depending on the time of day it may still be "Monday", or could be already "Wednesday" according to the Creator.
Of course, the Creator doesn't glorify pagan deities by naming days or months after them. In fact, if you remember, He is a jealous G-d and gets quite upset with any glorification of false g-ds.
In Scripture the only days named are the Sabbaths. The rest are simply numbered. The same is true for the months.
But the Pope's calendar is the most popular in the world.
Even the Chinese have adopted it as their standard business calendar.
Nonetheless, it is not the Creator's calendar.
But, wait! What about the Jewish calendar?
It was created by a Rabbi Hillel II in the fourth century in order to keep the Jewish people scattered outside Israel unified.
The strength of the Gregorian calendar is still evident here as well.
When you buy a Jewish calendar you will see that it uses the Gregorian as a reference point. Under the large numbers of what looks like an ordinary calendar are the numbered days along with the names of the months of the Hillel calendar.
Take a note that this calendar is calculated.
That means that the days of the new moon - which are fundamental to the integrity of the Creator's calendar - are calculated when they should appear.
This is the curious part.
Recently, according to the Hillel calendar, the new moon was on Tishrie 1, or September 22nd. This day was calculated as the first day ( the new moon ) of the seventh month on the Creator's calendar, which Yahweh says is the time for the Feast of Trumpets.
If you check the US Naval Observatory you can indeed verify that astronomically speaking the new moon did occur on September 22.
From this can we conclude that the Jewish Hillel calendar is correct?
Hardly. We're missing one major detail.
The new moon for fixing the days and months doesn't start when modern astronomers say it does.
It starts when the new moon is actually observed.
In ancient times watchers waited on high places around Israel. When the moon was sighted, a bright fire was lit signaling to waiting Temple priests that the New Moon had been seen and that the new month had begun.
Determining the month was simple even for a poor shepherd.
But recently the new moon was not observed in Israel until Sunday the 24th when Hillel's calendar says the new moon was two days old.
Therefore, Scripturally speaking, the Feast of Trumpets began Sunday evening and lasted until Monday evening of the 25th. It did not occur Friday as calendars everywhere said it did.
So, here's our problem.
The Gregorian calendar says it is 2006. It is no help determining the set apart times of Yahweh's prophetic calendar.
The standard Jewish calendar by Hillel says it is the year 5767 and it just missed the new moon by two days. A few years ago there was a controversy that offset it with another Jewish calendar by a whole month!
I should interject to my Jewish and Messianic friends that I realize you are likely to be upset with me for these statements.
As with the Christian church, you must come to admit how powerful tradition is. Its tentacles are everywhere. Sometimes the grasp it holds on people is almost insurmountable. It is very difficult to discard a tradition or even admit that your favorite tradition is flawed.
It's easy to admit someone else's tradition has problems - but not your own!
Anyway, to make this topic muddier, some groups claim that the sighting of the moon has to be local - not in Jerusalem. That could make a difference of up to 24hrs for the setting of the new month on the west coast of America.
Still the other Jewish calendar I mentioned says it is the year 6006. Is it correct? We'll discuss this calendar another time.
So, was the Feast of Trumpets on September 22nd and 23rd, Tishrie 1? Or, September 24th and 25th, Tishrie 3 depending on the time of day?
Is the year 2006, 5767, or 6006? The Chinese say it's 4704, but that's only measured from after the time of the flood.
To sum this up I hope you can see that while we can know the season, there is confusion determining which day is today.
And, while all this is an interesting phenomenon, it is not the worst part.
The worst part is the evidence is clear and revealing about us and the modern church. We are so busy making sure we succeed in this man-made world that we don't know what time it is on the Creator's clock and probably couldn't care less.
At the same time, we are well practiced making sure we fit in and can do business on time in this pagan world.
We have alarm clocks, beepers, cell phones, text messaging, and PDA's all just to make sure we are not late for an important business deal. Yet, we have no clue about and little interest in eternally significant prophetic appointed times Yahweh has set into Scripture.
Specifically, how many believers know the importance of the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Festival of Tabernacles? They are all at our doorsteps and are prophetic shadow pictures of things to come given to us by the Creator.
Yet, most believers are totally unaware of these events.
I know I was. I spent 30 years studying Scripture. Like most I was pre-conditioned to dismiss all this "old" stuff.
It reminds me of a true story about a farmer in South Africa whose land was littered with black rocks. He tired of farming and sold out to go around the world diamond mining. He died penniless.
The tragedy of the story was that years later someone discovered those black rocks were actually coal-encrusted diamonds. He literally had acres of diamonds on his property that he sold for pennies on the dollar. He gave up the fortune under his feet to die among beggars.
How many of us are that way? We've discarded the riches of Yahweh's instructions to follow after things of the world.
As with the Gregorian calendar, the ways of the world are more popular than the ways of Yahweh.
Where are our priorities?
You have at your disposal acres of Scriptural diamonds. Have they become hidden by the hardened black rock of tradition?
Perhaps you should look around you. Don't step over an acre of diamonds to look for treasure elsewhere.
Think about it.
