The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2020 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 71

How God Sets the Feasts

For most of history, humans had no personal timepiece they could carry with them.

The personal watch came along about 1500. It was called a clock-watch and was like a clock you carried with you. It was bulky and expensive — those were pre-Timex days — and was worn around the neck or carried inside a coat. The clock-watch also lost several hours a day and was more for showing off than getting off on time.

“These early clock-watches were not worn to tell the time. The accuracy of their verge and foliot movements was so poor, with errors of perhaps several hours per day, that they were practically useless. They were made as jewelry and novelties for the nobility, valued for their fine ornamentation, unusual shape, or intriguing mechanism, and accurate timekeeping was of very minor importance,” Wikipedia, “History of watches.”

Those clock-watches were kinda like the Apple Watch of the time, but since they didn’t really work, they were more like a rotten Apple Watch.

An early watch from around 1505 by Peter Henlein
CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75187046

Since humans mostly had no timepiece they could carry with them, what did they do?

They went by the two great lights in the heavens. The sun and moon were always there, everywhere, for everyone on earth. The sun told the time of day, in a general way. For example, when the sun was highest in the sky, that was noon — sun time, not time zone time.

And the moon told the time of the month.

The lunar cycle — the period of time between one full Moon and the next — has been a common timekeeping device for human beings across the world. Each lunar cycle is 29.5 days long, a constant and handy time unit… https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-resources/native-american-full-moon-names/1/2/2020

When TV westerns were popular, Indians were often depicted saying, “Many moons ago…” Like many peoples around the world, Indians used the moon to mark time. You couldn’t miss when the moon went dark, you noticed when the silver sliver of the new moon slid down the western sky, and you gazed in awe at the awesome full moon. Just as the sun marked the days, so the moon marked the moonths, or months.

That’s what the sun and moon are for, to mark the passage of time; and to set Yahweh’s appointed times, the annual Feasts.

Gen 1 Lexham English Bible
14) And God said, “Let there be lights in the vaulted dome of heaven to separate day from night, and let them be as signs and for appointed times, and for days and years,

Using the moon and sun to mark God’s appointed times is very handy and very simple. Simple, that is, if you just go by what you can see and don’t try to calculate the appointed times for all eternity.

What happens if you do try to calculate God’s appointed times for all eternity?

You have the Jewish calendar.

Since the Pharisees became Judaism after the fall of the Temple, the Jewish calendar is the Pharisee calendar. There are other Jewish calendars, such as the Karaite and Essene, but the most used Jewish calendar is that of the Pharisees. So the well known Jewish calendar is the Pharisee calendar. They made it.

As you might expect, the Pharisee calendar is very, very complicated.

May I quote from an article about the complicated Pharisee calendar?

San Diego Jewish World, 9/17/14, “You Think Your Personal Calendar is Complex?”
Jewish days are divided into 24 hours, each hour into 1080 parts (ḥalaqim), and each part into 76 moments (regaim). The time of the new month, or molad, is counted from 6 P.M., sunset, the start of the Jewish day.

Using the appropriate equations, for example, the molad of the new moon for Rosh Hashanah 5775 is 4d 14h 339p, which we read as: day 4, 14th hour, 339 parts. This corresponds to Wednesday (day 4), 14 hours, 339 parts after 6 P.M. Fourteen hours after 6 P.M. is 8:00 A.M., the next day, and 339 parts computes to 18 minutes, 50 seconds. So the molad of Rosh Hashanah 5775 takes place on a Thursday at 8:18:50 A.M. (The actual date of Rosh Hashanah is determined by finding the number of days in a given calendar year and then counting forward from the previous Rosh Hashanah.)

In the secular calendar, the Gregorian calendar, common years have 365 days and leap years have 366 days. Leap years occur every four years, except on century years not divisible by 400. Regular or common Jewish years can have 353 (defective year), 354 (normal year), or 355 (abundant year) days. A Jewish leap year, a year in which an extra month of thirty days is added to the calendar, takes place at fixed intervals seven times (the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years) within a nineteen-year cycle, known as the Metonic cycle, giving rise to leap years with 383 (defective year), 384 (normal year), or 385 (abundant year) days.

Why so complicated?

First of all, because that’s the way the universe is.

Trying to calculate what God set as appointed times is necessarily very complex, because it involves both the moon and the sun and God did not intend for people to calculate it. He intended for people to observe it. The Roman calendar only goes by the sun, and the Muslim calendar goes only by the moon, but the Feasts are set by the moon and the solar season, so that is naturally complicated to calculate.

It’s actually impossible to calculate.

However — given how the Pharisees are — they took already complex calculations and then complicated things still further. As usual, they added their own rabbi-rules. When rabbis rule, they add their rules.

“You Think Your Personal Calendar is Complex?” Continued —
Unfortunately, the Jewish calendar is not really a lunisolar calendar either; it is rabbinic-Judaism’s mandated lunisolar calendar. Here’s why. Reason 1: if the molad of 1 Tishri (Rosh Hashanah) falls on a Wednesday or Friday, then Yom Kippur, ten days later, would fall either the day before or the day after Shabbat, a terrible, if not impossible inconvenience for observant Jews who cannot, among other things, prepare meals, as no work can be performed on either Shabbat or Yom Kippur. If the molad of 1 Tishri were to fall on a Sunday, then the holiday of Hoshana Rabbah (Seventh Day of Sukkot) would fall on the Sabbath, precluding the required Beating-of-the-Willows ceremony. Consequently, if the molad of 1 Tishri falls on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, then Rosh Hashanah is postponed one day.

There are three other reasons for Rosh Hashanah being postponed for up to two days in any given year:

Reason 2: since the Jewish day begins at 6 P.M., the day is three-quarters over at noon the next day, and the rabbis consider it an “old moon.” If the molad of 1 Tishri occurs after 12 P.M. on any given day, then Rosh Hashanah is postponed one day. If, as a result of this postponement, Rosh Hashanah now falls on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, the holiday is postponed one additional day.

Reason 3: if the molad of 1 Tishri falls in a common year on a Tuesday at or later than 9 hours (Wednesday, 3 A.M.) and 204 parts, then Rosh Hashanah is postponed two days, since it cannot fall on a Wednesday for reasons listed above. In addition, the rabbis understood that under this condition, the molad of 1 Tishri of the following year will fall after 12 P.M. on a Sabbath, thereby moving it to Sunday, which is not allowed and making the present common Hebrew year 356 days long, which is also not permitted.

Reason 4: if the molad of 1 Tishri falls in a common year following a leap year on a Monday at 15 hours (Tuesday, 9 A.M.), 589 parts or later, Rosh Hashanah is postponed one day for reasons similar to Reason 3; the preceding year will have only 382 days, which is unacceptable.

So we see that trying to calculate the Feast is already complex, but then the rabbis added all their rules, making a complex calculation even more so.

Okay, that article continues on with those fascinating complexities and the author even has a thrilling book about the world’s most complicated calendar, but we’ll ask for your forgiveness and stop quoting there. The point is already made. The Pharisee calculated calendar for setting Yahweh’s appointed times is very complex.

How complex?

That article concludes:
Now you know why people like Chassidic Rabbi Yanki Tauber say, “the Jew has what is probably the most complex calendar known to man,” and the late Wolfgang Alexander Schocken, mathematician, Jewish calendar expert, and concertmaster of the Israel Radio Orchestra, referred to the Jewish calendar as “the most sophisticated calendar system.”

The most complex calendar known to man — Is that the way God chose to set His Feasts?

Uncomplicated answer —

No.

Genesis 1:14 cited above says that God put the lights in the heavens as signs for the appointed times.

How did that work?

How were the Feasts set during Temple times, before the rabbis ruled?

In Egypt, Yahweh said to Moses:

Ex 12
2) This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.

The Hebrew word translated “month” is “chodesh.”

”H2320 (Mickelson’s Enhanced Strong’s Dictionaries of the Greek and Hebrew Testaments),
H2320 ×—(cho’-desh).
1. the new moon.
2. (by implication) a month.”

So chodesh means new moon, and then by extension a month.

For people all around the world, including the Hebrews, the month began when the moon reappeared. That was the natural way to note the passage of what we call months. So chodesh is a new moon.

The Pharisee rabbis later changed the definition of chodesh to mean the dark moon, when the moon can’t be seen at all. They did that for purposes of their calendar calculations. The maximum dark period of the moon can be calculated. The visible new moon cannot be exactly calculated. So for the Pharisee Jewish calendar, the Pharisees changed the application of chodesh to mean dark moon instead of new moon, so they could calculate it.

Pharisee rules notwithstanding, Chodesh means “new moon.”

The original meaning of the term new moon, which is still sometimes used in non-astronomical contexts, is the first visible crescent of the Moon after conjunction with the Sun.
“new moon”. Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005.

When the rabbis changed the meaning of chodesh from new moon to dark moon, that was a very big change. That’s similar to saying that day is night or that Sabbath is Sunday. Chodesh means new moon, when the moon is newly visible. It does not mean dark moon, when the moon is not visible.

When Exodus 12:2 says that the month when Israel left Egypt “shall be the first month [chodesh] of the year to you,” that literally said the first new moon of the year. That first month was called “Abib,” or green ears relating to the barley stage. The Jews later adopted the Babylonian name Nisan for this month.

Exod 13
3) Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
4) This day you go out in the month Abib.

The name of the first month was what it was, the time of green barley.

So Exodus establishes that a new moon begins the month, and Abib is the first month of the year, at the time of green ears of barley. When the plague of hail struck Egypt, shortly before Israel left, the barley was in the ear.

Exod 9
31) The flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom.
32) But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they had not grown up.

That was the time shortly before Israel left Egypt and the barley was in the ear. Abib.

Leviticus 23 is the Feast chapter in the Bible, with the most instructions about the Feasts.

Lev 23
5) In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is Yahweh’s Passover.
6) On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

24) “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest to you, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

27) “However on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement:

34) “Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tents for seven days to Yahweh.

In those feast instructions, the word translated month is again chodesh, literally “new moon.” Rendering chodesh as month tends to overlook its basic meaning of “new moon.” Chodesh is taken to mean month only because that is the period between new moons. Reading chodesh literally in those Feast instructions gives a different emphasis —

In the first new moon, on the fourteenth day of the new moon at evening, is Yahweh’s Passover.

On the fifteenth day of the same new moon is the feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh.

In the seventh month, on the first day of the new moon, shall be a solemn rest to you, a memorial of blowing of trumpets.

On the tenth day of this seventh new moon is the day of atonement.

On the fifteenth day of this seventh new moon is the feast of tents.

Reading chodesh literally emphasizes over and over that the month begins with the new moon. And it is very important that the months begin with chodesh, not darknesh.

As an academic site hosted by McGill University says:
The first commandment the Jewish People received as a nation was the commandment to determine the New Moon. The beginning of Exodus Chapter 12 says “This month (Nissan) is for you the first of months.”.
https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/h/Hebrew_calendar.htm

And again that verse says, “This new moon is for you the first of new moons.”

The Bible clearly teaches that months begin with the new moons.

The just cited article goes on:
Two major forms of the calendar have been used: an observational form used prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, and based on witnesses observing the phase of the moon, and a rule-based form first fully described by Maimonides in 1178 CE, which was adopted over a transition period between 70 and 1178.

Two forms of the calendar were used: an original one used at the Temple and a later one created by the rabbis, over a thousand year period. The Temple calendar was based on witnesses observing the chodesh, the literal, visible new moon. The Jewish/Pharisee calendar — “a rule based form” — is based on their rules.

The Temple Institute exists today to enable the building of a third Temple. They are trying to recreate everything that was involved with the Temple, so they discuss the chodesh and the Temple.

The commandment to declare the new moon and establish its appearance for all the children of Israel was the first commandment received by the Israelites, even before they had emerged from their bondage in Egypt,(sic) Establishing the new moon was of such great import for the entire nation of Israel, that it became a matter for the Great Sanhedrin – the highest court in the land. Two witnesses who had seen the appearance of the new moon were required to testify before the Great Sanhedrin, which convened in the Chamber of Hewn Stone, which was located on the northern wall of the Inner Courtyard of the Holy Temple. There they would be questioned and cross examined to verify their fitness as witnesses, and the truth of their words. Only when this had been done to the satisfaction of the sages of the Great Sanhedrin, would the new moon – Rosh Chodesh – be declared. Messengers would be sent forthwith to inform communities of Israel as well as the far flung villages of the diaspora.
The Temple Institute, “Introduction to the Holy Temple Calendar”

At the Temple, the Sanhedrin did not set the new moons and Feasts. They only confirmed what God had set and people had seen. And note too that when they executed their Messiah, the Sanhedrin was forced out of the Chamber of Hewn Stone.

The McGill University article confirms the chodesh:
In Second Temple times, the beginning of each lunar month was decided by two eyewitnesses testifying to having seen the new crescent moon. Patriarch Gamaliel II (c. 100) compared these accounts to drawings of the lunar phases. According to tradition, these observations were compared against calculations made by the main Jewish court, the Sanhedrin.

So, how about that?

The Feasts in Temple times were set not by myriad rules of men but by the creation clock put in place by the Creator. This creation clock is far too complex to ever be accurately calculated, and the Pharisees now admit that their calendar has failed in its attempt to do that. Moreover, if the sky was cloudy or hazy so that the new moon could not possibly be seen, the expected new moon day was automatically the next day, when it would definitely be visible.

How do you calculate that? How do you calculate “cloudy” a thousand years in advance?

You don’t.

God does.

You see, it is absolutely impossible to calculate a chodesh calendar. You have to wait on God and see what He does with His creation.

So that’s it. The two forms of calendar — We have the most complex calendar known to mankind, the Pharisee/Jewish calendar, compared with —

“Hey, there’s the new moon. It’s a new month.”

God makes things simple. Man makes things complex. Especially, Pharisee men.

Going by the creation clock with its visible new moon means you’re never sure which day will start a month. Even if you calculate that a new moon should definitely be visible, you never know — for sure — that the sky will be clear. And until you know the chodesh, you can’t know when God has set His holy days.

But not being able to calculate the Feasts a year, or a decade, or a millennium in advance —

How do you plan around that?

In our modern, helter-skelter, torrentially torrid pace of life, how do you plan for a holy day without knowing exactly what day it’ll be? Yeah, sure, they did that during Temple times but, hey — times have changed! We’re busy!

Can such a watch-and-wait visible system really be from God?

In the handy Pharisee calendar, you can calculate a holy day a hundred years in advance. You can plan for a holy day when you won’t even be alive. How convenient!

Isn’t the Pharisee system better, where you don’t have to wait on God?