There is a multitude of calendars operational in different cultures and peoples today. The Chinese, for example' have recently ushered in their "year of the dog". The Ethiopians, the Hindus, the Muslims and the Jews each have their own calendar. Some moot questions therefore arise: which calendar ought Bible believing humans use? And, does it really matter what calendar one uses? Finally, is there some hidden reason for the proliferation of calendars today and throughout recorded history? We will let the Bible guide us in answering these profoundly important questions.
In Psalms 90: 12 the Psalmist ardently prays; “Teach us to number our days ARIGHT, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90: 12, NIV, Emphasis mine). The import here is that unless we let our ALL - knowing and loving Creator teach us how to reckon the passage of time, we might be misled. Secondly, since it is God who stepped out of eternity and created everything include the gift of time (Genesis 1: 14 - 15, Psalm 74: 1), He is best placed to advice us on how to measure it. Furthermore, the scriptures are plain that in any situation of debate God will always be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4).This includes the makers of the over forty calendars in use today. We also learn in 1st Corinthians 14: 33 that God is not the author of confusion, disorder or chaos. Indeed, one has only to look at the beautiful starry order of an African night sky to appreciate this resonating fact: “The heavens declare the Glory of God....” (Psalm 19: 1). I could not agree more!
From whence then, cometh the confusion? Who has taught the children of men to lie? “The great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who “LEADS THE WHOLE WORLD ASTRAY....” (Revelation 12:9, NIV, emphasis added). One of the most consequential of these satanic deceptions has to do with the way human beings reckon time........ “He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and TRY TO CHANGE THE SET TIMES and the Law” (Daniel 7: 25 NIV, full caps mine). Though the text here refers to the Papal Roman religio - political power, it doesn’t not diminish the fact that the changes in the reckoning of time were diabolically inspired. “Men worshipped the dragon (Satan) because he had given authority to the beast (Papal Rome), and they also worshipped the beast and asked `Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?` ” (Revelation 13:4, NIV). But the Julio - Gregorian calendar is only liturgically used by a fraction of the world’s population (the Judeo - Christian cultures of Europe, the Americas, and some parts of Africa, Australia and New Zealand. So for Revelation 12: 9 to be completely true, one must face up to the fact that all the other remaining non - biblical based calendars similarly have Satan for their source of inspiration. They are all deceptions aimed at ensuring that human beings fail to number their days ARIGHT and therefore miss out on the spiritual wisdom and blessings promised in Psalm 90: 12.
What then contained in the Bible/Jewish/Hebrew calendar that is so important in proper spiritual orientation of human beings before God?
The Bible calendar is Luni - Solar i.e. it uses both the movements of the moon and the sun in its computations. Solar calendars (e.g. the Gregorian calendar) is based on the time it takes the earth to make one complete orbit around the sun, that is, approximately 365 ¼ days. Lunar calendars on the other hand (e.g. the Mohammedan Calendar), are based entirely on the movements of the moon. Such a calendar would therefore have 354 days in a year, with the months or dates drifting against the seasons.
The Hebrew Calendar reconciles the difference in days (364 - 354 = 11 days) by the Jewish Sanhedrin creating an extra month (Ve Adar or Adar II). This month is repeated seven times in every 19 year cycle. It is marked (or added) at two to three year intervals (i.e. 1st /19th year, 3rd year, 6th year, 11th year, 14th year and the 17th year.
The Bible Calendar has a thirty (30) day month. This is easily verifiable by looking at a few computations. In the account of the Great Flood, the scriptures tell us that the down pour began on the 17th day of the second month (the month of Zif as outlined in 1 Kings 6: 1 and 17). In Genesis 7: 24 we learn that the flood waters prevailed over the earth’s surface for 150 days. We are then told that Noah’s ark rested on the mountains of Ararat on the 17th of Ethanim (the seventh month as per I kings 8:2). It thus becomes evident that the earth remained flooded for five months (7 - 2 = 5). Since these five (5) months are equated to 150 days, it therefore becomes obvious that one month is equal to 150 divide by 5, which is 30 days.
Prophetic computations too, give us the same answer. In Revelation 12: 6 we learn that the woman (the true Church) fled into the desert where she was to be divinely protected and nourished for a period of one thousand, two hundred and sixty days (1,260 days). This same time period is reported to be one time, two times and half - a time (3 ½ times). In Revelation 11: 2, we are further told that the same time - span is equal to 42 months. We therefore only need divide 1,260 days by 42 to get the number of days in such a prophetic month. Indeed, the maths brings us to a 30 day month!.
This sacred calendar has a total of 70 Holy days broken into segments as follows:-
a) High Day Sabbaths
1. 15th Nisan/Abib-1st High Day Sabbath during the Feast of
Unleavened Bread.
2. 21st Nisan/Abib - 2nd High Day Sabbath during the Feast of
Unleavened Bread.
3. 6th Sivan - Pentecost / Shavuoth or Feast of weeks
4. 1st Ethanim - Rosh Hashannah or Feast of Trumpets
5. 10th Ethanim - Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)
6. 15th Ethanim - 1st High Day Sabbath during the Feast of
Tabernacles (Succoth)
7. 22nd Ethanim - 2nd High Day Sabath during the Feast of
Tabernacles.
b) Eleven (ii) New Moon Festivals
c) Fifty two (52) weekly or local Sabbaths
Therefore the seven High Day Sabbaths, plus eleven New Moon festivals, plus fifty two weekly Sabbaths gives us a total of seventy holy days (7 + 11 + 52 = 70).
So why is it important to keep this calendar? The first reason is the fact that God in his infinite wisdom has actually commanded festivals of precept: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying “speak to the children of Israel and say to them: “ the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts... (Leviticus 23: 1 - 2, NIV). The rest of that chapter then goes on to list the seven high holy days that we have already looked at. It goes without saying that one cannot know when to proclaim the stated divine feasts unless he/she is guided by the Bible Calendar. No other calendar holds these days sacred.
Concerning the Holy Sabbaths embedded within the Bible calendar, God expressly says that these are an eternal sign between him and his people. (Exodus 31: 16 - 17). This is further enunciated in Ezekiel 20: 12: “Moreover, I also gave them my Sabbaths (please note the plural, indicating not just the weekly Sabbath but also the high day Sabbaths are meant here), to be a sign between them and me that they may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them”. (Ezekiel 20:12, NIV). It is evident here, that since these days are sanctified and set apart to God, we sinful humans (compare with Romans 3: 23) are sanctified every time we come into his Holy presence during the festivals.
In Ezekiel 20: 19 - 20, the scripture further tells us that by keeping these holy high Sabbaths (again note the plural), we can rest assured that we are indeed serving him (our Maker) and not some loathsome demon - god. It is that serious. Satan knows that by keeping humans from using God’s calendar they cannot know when to honour his divine appointments with us. We therefore miss out on a multitude of blessings to be had, if we were to be in fellowship with Him during these appointed times.
Furthermore, epochal events in human liturgical history are tied to these holy days. Examples abound - the Israel Exodus from Pharaoh’s Egypt, the birth of the Messiah, and of john the Baptist, Pentecost, the Second Coming, the death and resurrection of Yahshua etc. Indeed, the festivals presage coming events in the Millennial Kingdom of Yahshua. That is why Paul tells us that they are a shadow of things to come (Colossians 2: 16). It is similarly the reason that Yahshua made a most profound statement in Luke 22: 15: “And he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the Kingdom of God”.
There are other numerous reasons for using the Bible Calendar, honouring our Maker in its sacred provisions. However time and scope of this brief work does not allow us to delve deeper into them. Suffice it to say that for the child of God, desiring to be part of the soon - coming Kingdom of God, just one of the reasons stated is enough for them to urgently seek to adhere to God’s time scale.
Finally, I would like to look at the various Biblical months, their names and the scriptural texts giving them. The first month of the Bible Calendar is named Nisan (Esther 3: 7) or Abib (Deuteronomy 16: 1). The second month is named Zif
(1 Kings 6: 1, 37), the third month is Nisan as we discover in book of Esther 8: 9. Up next is the fourth month which is simply not named but is referred to as fourth month (Zechariah 8: 9). In Jeremiah 52: 12 we find the fifth month, Ab while the sixth month is called Elul. We find evidence for this name in Nehemiah 6: 15. The seventh month is called Ethanim and we find it in 1 Kings 8: 28, while the eighth is named Bul according to 1 Kings 6: 38, we then come to the month of Kislev, which is the ninth in the Jewish calendar. We find it thus named in Zechariah 7: 1. The Book of Esther 2: 16 gives us the tenth month which is named Tebeth, while the eleventh month is given as Shebat in Zechariah 1: 7. Finally, the twelfth month is Adar according to Esther 3: 7 (last part). So dear reader, I plead with you, by the mercies of God, to turn away from the calendars honouring pagan deities and their idolatrous heathen holidays. Let us instead, joyously obey God and walk with Him, for we can only do so if we agree with Him. Indeed, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?”
(Amos 3:3, NIV).
Blessings.
By Ken Changandu
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