By Maria Merola אריאל
© Copyright Double Portion Inheritance, December 2002
Every year in the month of January, people around the world begin exclaiming to one another “Happy New Year!” But is January 1st really the “New Year” according to our Creator? Should we treat this time as a “New Year?”
We are constantly being confronted with the fact that we are not in control of our own lives, nor the elements in the cosmos.
For we know that YaHuWaH is our Creator, and it is he that has orchestrated the mechanism by which we measure times, seasons, and calendar dates.
Daniyel (Daniel) 2:
20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of Elohiym for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:
21 And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
Yahuwshuwa our Messiah is the one who has created all things (Colossians 1:16), and he is the one who has given us the method for which he wants us to divide the day from the night, and the seasons, days, and years:
Bereshiyth (Genesis) 1:
Bereshiyth (Genesis) 1:
14 And Elohiym said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And Elohiym made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And Elohiym set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Elohiym saw that it was good.
YaHuWaH, our Creator has given us the moon (lesser light) to rule the night, and the sun (greater light) to rule the day. He has established these luminaries to be like a giant clock to help us measure times and seasons.
Bereshiyth (Genesis) 1:5 And Elohiym called the LIGHT DAY, and the DARKNESS he called NIGHT. And the evening and the morning were the first DAY.
You will notice that our Creator, YaHuWaH separated the “light” from the “darkness,” by calling the light “owr,” (illumination), and the darkness “layil” (night). The English translation says that he “called the light day,” but that is not what it says in Hebrew.
The Hebrew word for “day” (yowm) can mean either the 12-hour period known as “daylight,” but it can also mean the 24-hour “calendar date.” To learn more, see my other blog: When Does a Biblical “Day” Begin?
According to Genesis 1:5, we learn that the beginning of a new calendar date begins at evening (sundown). The calendar date does not change at midnight, contrary to the way that we reckon time in our Western Culture. But who caused the date to change at midnight?
The prophecy states that“The beast shall think to change times and laws....” This is was one of the key identifiers that causes the the true followers of Messiah to recognize the office of the papacy as the office of the Anti-Messiah (Antichrist).
Pope Gregory also changed the “New Year” back to January 1st just like Julius Caesar had done back in 45 B.C. after the pagan god Janus for which the name January is named. He did this in order to manipulate the calendar so that “Easter” would fall closer to YaHuWaH’s Passover.
The Roman Catholic Church would then be able to assimilate the pagan celebration of the Queen of Heaven aka the pagan goddess Easter to our Messiah’s resurrection. The identity of the pagan goddess from Babylon called the “Queen of Heaven” (Jeremiah 7 & 44) had been conferred upon the mother of our Messiah (Miryam/Mary), by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 3rd Century.
The Catholic Catechism also states that “Mary cooperated in the crucifixion with Christ,” hence they also conclude that she bodily resurrected with him as well! The pagans from ancient Babylon believed that Semiramis (the wife and mother of Nimrod) was also resurrected on Easter Sunday as well (the Vernal Equinox on March 25th). See my other article entitled “The Queen of Heaven: Why Does the Church Celebrate Easter?”
This pagan myth was then carried over into Roman Catholicism and that is why the papacy has continually had to find a way to make Easter fall in the same week as Passover. That is why changing the New Year was important for Pope Gregory.
April Fool’s Day
The Roman Catholic Church would then be able to assimilate the pagan celebration of the Queen of Heaven aka the pagan goddess Easter to our Messiah’s resurrection. The identity of the pagan goddess from Babylon called the “Queen of Heaven” (Jeremiah 7 & 44) had been conferred upon the mother of our Messiah (Miryam/Mary), by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 3rd Century.
The Catholic Catechism also states that “Mary cooperated in the crucifixion with Christ,” hence they also conclude that she bodily resurrected with him as well! The pagans from ancient Babylon believed that Semiramis (the wife and mother of Nimrod) was also resurrected on Easter Sunday as well (the Vernal Equinox on March 25th). See my other article entitled “The Queen of Heaven: Why Does the Church Celebrate Easter?”
This pagan myth was then carried over into Roman Catholicism and that is why the papacy has continually had to find a way to make Easter fall in the same week as Passover. That is why changing the New Year was important for Pope Gregory.
April Fool’s Day
In those days, communication was not advanced like it is today, where news can travel by internet, radio, and television, etc., and so many people in other parts of the world had not been notified of the change. These people continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1st or sometime after the Vernal Equinox which fell around March 25th.
This was much closer to the biblical reckoning, as we read in Exodus 12:2 & 13:3-4 that the New Year was to begin fourteen days before Passover (in the spring) to commemorate the time when YaHuWaH delivered Yisra’el out of Egyptian bondage.
Many Protestants refused to go along with Pope Gregory’s change of the calendar, because they did not accept the spiritual authority of the papacy. These Protestants knew what the scriptures teach about when the New Year begins according to our Creator.
This was much closer to the biblical reckoning, as we read in Exodus 12:2 & 13:3-4 that the New Year was to begin fourteen days before Passover (in the spring) to commemorate the time when YaHuWaH delivered Yisra’el out of Egyptian bondage.
Many Protestants refused to go along with Pope Gregory’s change of the calendar, because they did not accept the spiritual authority of the papacy. These Protestants knew what the scriptures teach about when the New Year begins according to our Creator.
Consequently, those who rebelled against the papacy, and thus resisted the Gregorian calendar were called “April Fools.” All this confusion and mixture began with the Roman Emperor Constantine who outlawed the true biblical Passover in the third century and instituted Easter Sunday instead as the supposed day of our Messiah’s resurrection. If the Romans had not rebelled against the Mosaic Law (Towrah) of our Creator, which tells us how to reckon times and seasons, our calendar would not be so messed up to this day.
You see, Easter Sunday is not the true day of our Messiah’s resurrection. Easter was another name for Semiramis (the wife and mother of Nimrod) who supposedly resurrects in the East each year from the underworld (according to pagan mythology). Our Messiah actually resurrected on a biblical feast called First-Fruits (see Leviticus 23:10-11). You can also read my blog entitled: Three Days & Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth: The Good Friday Myth
In Daniel 7:23, the angel of YaHuWaH showed Daniel that “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom on earth.” Daniel saw in his vision, that this 4th beast, (which would be the Roman Empire), “Shall think to change times and laws” (Daniel 7:25). Daniel’s vision is accurately portrayed in Ferraris’ Ecclesiastical Dictionary:
“The Pope has the power to change times, to abrogate laws, and to dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ. The Pope has the authority and often exercised it, to dispense with the command of Christ.”---Decretal de Translatic Episcop. Cap (The Pope can modify divine law) Ferraris Ecclesiastical Dictionary.”
As for the “times” that were changed by Rome, not only has Rome changed the “time” of the Sabbath, Rome has also been instrumental in changing calendars. The Catholic Church changed the Sabbath to Sunday for the “sun-god” Ba’al (or Mithras) in whom the day of the week “Sun-day” was named after. The excuse that they used for changing the Sabbath to Sunday was that “Jesus,” they say “Resurrected on the 1st day of the week.”
There is no evidence, however in scripture that the Apostles, nor the first century believers changed the Sabbath to Sunday because of Messiah’s resurrection.
As a matter of fact, our Messiah did not resurrect on Sunday morning (contrary to popular belief). He actually resurrected on Saturday evening (the 7th day Sabbath) just as the sun was going down. He died on a Wednesday Passover in 30 A.D., according to the record of the Talmud in the account of the “Forty-Year Yom Kippur Miracle” leading up to the Roman Siege in 70 A.D.
However, since the time after Pope Gregory changed the calendar, all previous dates were moved up by one year. To account for these changes to the Gregorian calendar (which would set all previous dates one year ahead), something called “double-dating” was used when recording previous dates in history. Read more about double-dating here at this link:
Our Messiah would therefore have been crucified in 30-31 A.D. because of the discrepancy with the Roman calendars. He was also “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” according to Matthew 12:40. In other words, he was in the heart of the earth (the lowest parts of the earth) for 6-12 hour cycles or a total of 72 hours from the moment that he drew his last breath. This means that he resurrected at the end of the Sabbath as the sun was about to go down. There is therefore no excuse to call Sunday the Sabbath. See my other article entitled: The Sabbath Resurrection: “I Will Raise Him Up at the Last Day.”
There is no evidence, however in scripture that the Apostles, nor the first century believers changed the Sabbath to Sunday because of Messiah’s resurrection.
As a matter of fact, our Messiah did not resurrect on Sunday morning (contrary to popular belief). He actually resurrected on Saturday evening (the 7th day Sabbath) just as the sun was going down. He died on a Wednesday Passover in 30 A.D., according to the record of the Talmud in the account of the “Forty-Year Yom Kippur Miracle” leading up to the Roman Siege in 70 A.D.
However, since the time after Pope Gregory changed the calendar, all previous dates were moved up by one year. To account for these changes to the Gregorian calendar (which would set all previous dates one year ahead), something called “double-dating” was used when recording previous dates in history. Read more about double-dating here at this link:
Our Messiah would therefore have been crucified in 30-31 A.D. because of the discrepancy with the Roman calendars. He was also “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” according to Matthew 12:40. In other words, he was in the heart of the earth (the lowest parts of the earth) for 6-12 hour cycles or a total of 72 hours from the moment that he drew his last breath. This means that he resurrected at the end of the Sabbath as the sun was about to go down. There is therefore no excuse to call Sunday the Sabbath. See my other article entitled: The Sabbath Resurrection: “I Will Raise Him Up at the Last Day.”
The Roman Catholic Church Proudly Boasts of its Rebellion Against the Commandments of YaHuWaH:
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The Holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. ‘The day of the Lord’ was chosen, NOT from any direction noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power…People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become Seventh-day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.” (Saint Catherine Church Sentinel, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995.)
“Of Course the Catholic Church claims that the change (Saturday Sabbath to Sunday) was her act…And the act is a MARK of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things.” H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons.
“Sunday is our MARK of authority…the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is the proof of that fact”. ---Catholic Record of London, Ontario Sept 1, 1923.
“Protestants do not realize that by observing Sunday worship instead of Saturday Sabbath, that they accept the authority of the Holy Father of the Church, the Pope.”----Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950.
Rome, the 4th Beast & Changer of Times & Seasons
It should come as no surprise that Rome has consistently been the empire responsible for changing our times, calendars, and holidays. Whether through Caesars or Popes, the way that our Creator has command-ed us to measure time has been systematically altered by only one entity---Rome. This is why the angel revealed to the prophet Daniel in Daniel 7:23-25 that this fourth kingdom would be the one who would change the times and seasons (mowediym) established at creation.
Long before the papacy started changing the calendar, times and the seasons, the Caesars were famous for naming the months of the year and the days of the week after themselves or after pagan deities. To this very day, the days of the week on our Western Calendar and some of our months are named after pagan false deities (fallen angels). It is a well-known fact that the month of July was named after Julius Caesar and the month of August was named after Augustus Caesar.
At these websites you will find more scholarship showing that the constellations were originally designed by our Creator to testify of Messiah and the Twelve Tribes of Yisra’el:
Long before the papacy started changing the calendar, times and the seasons, the Caesars were famous for naming the months of the year and the days of the week after themselves or after pagan deities. To this very day, the days of the week on our Western Calendar and some of our months are named after pagan false deities (fallen angels). It is a well-known fact that the month of July was named after Julius Caesar and the month of August was named after Augustus Caesar.
At these websites you will find more scholarship showing that the constellations were originally designed by our Creator to testify of Messiah and the Twelve Tribes of Yisra’el:
This Hebrew word in Job 38:32, Mazzaroth is #4216 in the Strong’s Concordance, and it is translated as Mazzarah. This word literally means: “The twelve signs of the Zodiac and their 36 associated constellations.”
Yowb (Job) 38:
31 Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
32 Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?
33 Know you the ordinances of heaven? Can you set the dominion thereof in the earth?
*Example: The 6th Hebrew Month called “Elul” is the constellation called “Ariel the Lion of Yahuwdah” and is named after the tribe of Judah. But the pagans re-named this “Leo the Lion” instead.
It is for this reason that YaHuWaH commands us not to consult these stars (fallen angels) for divination purposes. We are commanded in the Towrah (Mosaic Law) not to consult your astrological forecast from the Zodiac. YaHuWaH gave these signs to us in the heavens for the sole purpose of illustrating his plan of redemption to Yisra’el and to all of mankind. We are not to consult these stars in order to gain hidden knowledge about our future. This is an abomination.
Debariym (Deuteronomy) 18:
10 There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto YHWH: and because of these abominations YHWH your Elohiym does drive them out from before you.
The “stars” represent the angels of YaHuWaH who watch over the 12 Tribes of Yisra’el (Revelation 1:20). Yet, Satan has assigned his fallen angels to persecute the Twelve Tribes of Yisra’el. Therefore, when people consult these fallen angels for divination purposes, they will end up being deceived, and ultimately destroyed.
Janus the Beginning & the Ending: A Counterfeit Messiah
The pagan deity Janus is called by the pagans the “god” of beginnings, and this is why the first month of the pagan Roman calendar has been named after him. It is said that the Roman god Janus has two faces. The first face looking to what lies ahead and the second face looking to what is passing. Janus is and was celebrated by the pagans as the representation of all that is passing and is getting old and “all that is new and yet to come.” Having the month of January named after him by Julius Caesar, he is in paganism the representative of the year that has passed and the year ahead, as the first month of the Julian & Gregorian calendar.
Janus, the god of two faces is celebrated on the pagan solar calendar in New Year’s Eve celebrations and he is honored by the heathen in the passing year on December 21st (the rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice).
Their rituals of getting drunk and partaking in orgies, are activities that would ordinarily take place on December 31st, and this is in part the way that the pagans all pay tribute to Janus.
Many people look at the pagan New Year as a time for reflection, which is why Janus’ face is looking to the past and he is said to be older, weathered and wise, at the end of the year. The Catholic Church canonized Januarius as a so-called “saint” in an attempt to redeem pagan deities and make them appear benign. But they are really calling these demons “holy” since the term “saint” in Latin is “santa” which means “holy.”
The ghost of St. Januarius to this day is said to appear to faithful Catholics and his dried blood is said to liquefy three times per year when Catholics make a pilgrimage to his see and touch his relics. One of these pilgrimages takes place on December 16th just in time for the month of January when the pagan god Janus is also honored.
The ghost of St. Januarius to this day is said to appear to faithful Catholics and his dried blood is said to liquefy three times per year when Catholics make a pilgrimage to his see and touch his relics. One of these pilgrimages takes place on December 16th just in time for the month of January when the pagan god Janus is also honored.
Janus is said to be the god honored daily in the celebration of birthdays with the making of wishes and blowing out candles. The greatest tribute to this pagan god was Julius Caesar naming the month of January in tribute to Janus. But then Pope Gregory followed his lead by making January 1st the official date of the Catholic New Year in the year 1582 A.D.
At this website, we read how the Julian calendar went off course by ten days over time, and it became necessary for Pope Gregory to attempt to make corrections to the calendar.
The Julian Calendar
In 45 B.C., Julius Caesar ordered a calendar consisting of twelve months based on a solar year. This calendar employed a cycle of three years of 365 days, followed by a year of 366 days (leap year). When first implemented, the “Julian Calendar”also moved the beginning of the year from March 1 to January 1. However, following the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the New Year was gradually realigned to coincide with Christian festivals until by the seventh century; Christmas Day marked the beginning of the New Year in many countries.
Ignorant of the Times & Seasons
At this website, we read how the Julian calendar went off course by ten days over time, and it became necessary for Pope Gregory to attempt to make corrections to the calendar.
The Julian Calendar
In 45 B.C., Julius Caesar ordered a calendar consisting of twelve months based on a solar year. This calendar employed a cycle of three years of 365 days, followed by a year of 366 days (leap year). When first implemented, the “Julian Calendar”also moved the beginning of the year from March 1 to January 1. However, following the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the New Year was gradually realigned to coincide with Christian festivals until by the seventh century; Christmas Day marked the beginning of the New Year in many countries.
By the ninth century, parts of southern Europe began observing first day of the New Year on March 25th to coincide with Annunciation Day (the church holiday nine months prior to Christmas celebrating the Angel Gabriel’s revelation to the Virgin Mary that she was to be the mother of the Messiah). The last day of the year was March 24th. However, England did not adopt this change in the beginning of the New Year until late in the twelfth century.
During the Middle Ages, it became apparent that the Julian leap year formula had overcompensated for the actual length of a solar year, having added an extra day every 128 years. However, no adjustments were made to compensate. By 1582, seasonal equinoxes were falling 10 days “too early,” and some church holidays, such as Easter, did not always fall in the proper seasons. In that year, Pope Gregory XIII authorized, and most Roman Catholic countries adopted, the “Gregorian” or “New Style Calendar.” As part of the change, ten days were dropped from the month of October, and the formula for determining leap years was revised so that only years divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600, 2000) at the end of a century would be leap years. January 1 was established as the first day of the New Year. Protestant countries, including England and its colonies, not recognizing the authority of the Pope, continued to use the Julian calendar.
*Note: as you can see, at one time, the New Year had been celebrated in the spring some time between March 1st and April 1st. Julius Caesar had changed the New Year to January 1st naming the month after the pagan god Janus. But as time went on, Christians began keeping the New Year in the spring because they believed that the Messiah’s incarnation was on March 25th (Easter) and they believed that his birth was on December 25th (just like Nimrod and Tammuz).
However, as the Julian calendar went off course by ten days, Pope Gregory changed the New Year back to January 1st again just like Julius Caesar after the pagan god Janus. Pope Gregory also continued the tradition of honoring the month of January after this so-called Saint Januarius. And thus, Rome continues to display the characteristics of the beast who “changes times and laws.”
However, as the Julian calendar went off course by ten days, Pope Gregory changed the New Year back to January 1st again just like Julius Caesar after the pagan god Janus. Pope Gregory also continued the tradition of honoring the month of January after this so-called Saint Januarius. And thus, Rome continues to display the characteristics of the beast who “changes times and laws.”
Ignorant of the Times & Seasons
In 2nd Keefa (Peter) 3, we are reminded that we should not be “ignorant” concerning the end-times and concerning the words of the prophets of old. Keefa (Peter) calls them scoffers who choose to remain “willingly ignorant” of the times and the seasons (feasts, mowediym) which lead us to end-time events that are yet to come:
2 That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of YHWH and Saviour:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of Elohiym the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
Keefa (Peter) is telling us that all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation, but yet there are those who have conformed to the altered calendar of this world, and they choose to be “willingly ignorant” by following the times, seasons, and the calendar rendering of this present world rather than the way that Yah has established things at creation.
Peter continues to use the word “ignorant” one more time in relationship to the fact that we are to under-stand Yah’s rendering of times and seasons. If we do not follow the times and the seasons laid out for us in scripture, when the Day of YaHuWaH comes, he will come as a “thief in the night” for those who are “ignorant:”
2nd Keefa (Peter) 3:
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with YHWH as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 YHWH is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of YHWH will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
The Thief in the Night
If the priest on duty as the “watchman” fell asleep on the job, and he allowed the fire to go out, the High Priest would take hot burning coals and using a shovel, he would scoop up some of the coals and dump them onto the garment of the priest who had fallen asleep!
As soon as the garment began to catch on fire, the sleeping servant would immediately wake up from his slumber and he began removing the burning garment from his body to prevent from being burned to death. When the shift was over for all the priests, the one who had fallen asleep was “caught naked” and all of the other priests would know that he had fallen asleep on the job thus causing him to be embarrassed and humiliated. The nick-name given to the High Priest (Kohen ha’Gadowl) was called “the thief in the night!”
And so now we can read this verse in Revelation 16 with better understanding:
Chazown (Revelation) 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Yahuwshuwa is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7) who will come to us as a thief in the night only if we are sleeping on the job! But if we are doing our job as a “watchman” by not allowing the fire to go out in our temples, and we are keeping our garments clean, we will not be found naked and ashamed at his second coming!
Now that we understand this Hebrew Idiom of what the “thief in the night” is, we can get a better understanding of what our beloved Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) was speaking about to the Congregation at Thessalonica.
Sha’uwl knew that the believers were not ignorant of “the times and seasons,” because they were being taught about YaHuWaH’s rendering of times and seasons from the Towrah (Mosaic Law). Sha’uwl (Paul) knew that keeping the Feasts of YaHuWaH and following His rendering of the appointed times, would keep the body of Messiah “in the light” so that they would not be caught off guard by “The Day of YaHuWaH.” Those who are of the “night” are in darkness and they do not know the time and seasons of his coming.
Yahuwshuwa will return as “a thief in the night” only for those who are in darkness. But for the children of light, he will not come to us as “a thief in the night.” The Apostle Sha’uwl (Paul) in his letter to the Thessalonians uses the term “times & seasons” which pertains to the Holy Feast Days of YaHuWaH. In the Strong’s Hebrew Concordance, the word for “times & seasons” is as follows:
#4150 mow`ed; moweadah (2nd Chronicles 8:13); an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; conventionally a year; an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); technically the congrega-tion; by extension, the place of meeting; also a signal as appointed before-hand:--appointed (sign, time), (place of, solemn) assembly, congregation, (set, solemn) feast, (appointed, due) solemnity, synagogue, a set time (appointed).
#4150 mow`ed; moweadah (2nd Chronicles 8:13); an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; conventionally a year; an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); technically the congrega-tion; by extension, the place of meeting; also a signal as appointed before-hand:--appointed (sign, time), (place of, solemn) assembly, congregation, (set, solemn) feast, (appointed, due) solemnity, synagogue, a set time (appointed).
This word is a singular word for “time” but the plural for this word is “mowediym.”
Each of the seven feasts that we are commanded to keep are represented by “lights” on the menowrah, as the Hebrew word for “day” is yowm which means “light.”
And thus, when we are keeping the appointed Feast Days of YaHuWaH, we are “walking in light!” There are also “seven spirits” of YaHuWaH spoken of in Isaiah 11:2, Revelation 1:4, 3:1, 4:5, & 5:6. These seven spirits also correlate to these seven feasts: The spirit of YaHuWaH, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understand-ing, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of the fear of YaHuWaH.
Now we know why the Apostle Sha’uwl wrote to these believers in Thessalonica and he told them that they are “children of the light, & of the day,” because they were already observing these seven annual feast days!
Because they were already observing these feasts that he said to them “of the times and seasons, you have no need that I write to you.” Beloved, those who are not keeping the appointed feasts (mowediym) are going to be caught off guard by the thief in the night!
1st Tas’loniqiym (Thessalonians) 5:
1 But of the times and the seasons (feasts, mowediym), brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of YHWH so comes as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
When Does the New Year Begin?
From the beginning of creation, linear time itself was measured starting on Yowm Kippur in the 7th Hebrew month known as Ethanim/Tishri (Deuteronomy 15:1). That usually falls around September or October on our Gregorian solar calendar today. How can we be sure that the New Year used to begin in the seventh Hebrew month of Ethanim/Tishri before the first Exodus out of Egypt? We have the record of the Towrah that tells us that the end of the year is at the Feast of Tabernacles:
Shemoth (Exodus) 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of your labours, which you have sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when you have gathered in your labours out of the field.
Shemoth (Exodus) 34:22 And you shall observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.
Debariym (Deuteronomy) 31:10 And Mosheh (Moses) commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles.
As you can see, every seventh year (called a shmitta in Hebrew) cycles around on the Feast of Tabernacles. That is why Rabbinic Jews call the 1st day of the 7th month of Tishri “Rosh ha’Shanah” meaning “head” (Rosh) and “the year”(ha’Shanah). They call this the “Civil New Year” because it is based on a 12-month cycle of measuring the “sabbatical years and Jubliee Cycles” (Leviticus 25). And then there is the agricultural and spiritual New Year according to Exodus 12:1 &13:4. This is a 7-month year of accounting “seed time and harvest.”
Consequently, there is a 7-month year for measuring seven feasts & the three harvests of agriculture (from Abib through Tishri). There is also a 12-month year whereby we measure every 7th year and we let the land rest as a sabbatical year. We are also commanded to hallow every 50th year on the 10th day of the 7th month by sounding the trumpet, and declaring national debt cancellation and freedom for slaves etc.
This is to take place on the “Day of Atonement” or “Yom Kippur.” While linear time itself is measured in the seventh month of Ethanim/Tishri, YaHuWaH commands us to celebrate “the first month of the year” in the month called Abib (Aviv) to commemorate the time when he delivered the children of Yisra’el out of Mitzrayim (Egypt).
As you can see, according to scripture, the New Year is described in Exodus 12:2 & 13:3-4 as the time when we are commanded to remember our deliverance out of bondage from Egypt and our deliverance from sin at Messiah’s sacrifice as the Passover Lamb.
This is 14 days before Passover (Pesach) which usually falls around March or April on the Gregorian calendar. In Leviticus 23:24, we are commanded on the “first day of the seventh month” to have a memorial of blowing trumpets, called “Yom Teruw’ah” which means “Day of Blowing” aka the Feast of Trumpets.
No place in scripture is this feast referred to as “Rosh Ha’Shanah.” The reason why in Judaism they refer to the 1st day of the 7th month of Tishri as “Head of the Year,” is because the Feast of Ingathering (Tabernacles) is referred to as the “end of the year” (Exodus 23:16 & 34:22). Thus the period of “seed time and harvest” cycles around at this time of year when Noah’s Ark rested in the seventh month of Tishri (Genesis 8:22).
The Jewish Talmud describes in the Mishnah “four New Years.” They refer to Deuteronomy 14:28 as a New Year for animal tithes on the 1st of Elul (August-September). They refer to Leviticus 19:23 as the New Year for trees called Tu’ Bshvat (January-February). They also recognize the first of Abib (Nisan) in March-April as the spiritual New Year for measuring the feasts. And then they refer to the first day of the seventh month as “Head of the Year,” because it is during this 15-day period of the three Fall Feasts, that the harvest is gathered which culminates at the Feast of Ingathering----the end of the agricultural year.
What Constitutes a New Moon?
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In the 4th Century however, under the Jewish Council called “Hillel II” the Sanhedrin determined that it was too difficult to keep the times and the seasons according to the “sighted moon” in Yisra’el and so they began using an alternate method of determining a new month based on a Greek Mathematician’s calculations.
Because, they were in diaspora and they could not site the moon from Jerusalem, a man-made calculation was used to determine the months in the year. Hence, today the calendar used in Judaism is based on the “conjunction moon” (the dark moon) rather than the “sighted moon” which our Creator commands us to keep.
In Deuteronomy 16:1, the command he gave is to “observe the month Abib.” The Hebrew word for observe is shamar, which means “to watch narrowly for, to be a watchman.” The Hebrew word for month is chodesh which literally means new moon. In other words, we are commanded to watch for the new moon!
Since 1948, when Yisra’el officially became a State, there has been no excuse to continue using a pre-fixed calendar, yet the Jewish Sanhedrin has not made a ruling on this matter and so the rest of the known Jewish world goes along with this calendar. See the link below for a more detailed explanation of what constitutes a new moon according to scripture:
After YaHuWaH delivered the children of Yisra’el out of Mitzrayim (Egypt), he wanted us to commemorate the time when he delivered us out of the bondage of sin and death. From that point moving forward, YaHuWaH commanded Mosheh (Moses) and Aharown (Aaron) to begin the year in the 1st month called “Abib” or in Modern Hebrew “Aviv” or Nisan.
Shemoth (Exodus) 12:
1 And YHWH spoke unto Mosheh and Aharown in the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt) saying,
2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
This was to fall every year 14 days before YaHuWaH’s Passover (Pesach) in the month of the Abib (Aviv). In Nehemiah 2:1 & Esther 3:7, this first month on the Hebrew calendar began to be called “Nisan” while the House of Judah were in Babylonian exile. Today, the rabbinic calendar still uses the Babylonian name of “Nisan” for the month of “Abib.”
The word “Abib” in the Strong’s Hebrew Concordance has the following definition:
The word “Abib” in the Strong’s Hebrew Concordance has the following definition:
Every year in Yisra’el, we determine a New Year by three things according to Genesis 1:14-18: the sun, the moon & the stars. We first determine a New Year by the full rotation of the earth around the sun (365 days) which is called a circuit. The Hebrew word for “circuit” in scripture is seen in the Strong’s Concordance as follows:
#8622 tquwphah tek-oo-faw’ or tquphah {tek-oo-faw’}; from 5362; a revolution of the sun, course, (of time) lapse:--circuit, come about, end.
Here, King Dawiyd (David) speaks of the revolution of the sun each year which is the same Hebrew word “tquwphah:”
Tehilliym (Psalm) 19:6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
Secondly, we look for the new moon following the Vernal Equinox (around March 21st - 25th) when the earth has made a full rotation (revolution) around the Sun. Thirdly, we look for the constellation of the Ram over Yisra’el (Aries) because the Ram is symbolic of the first-born son. The Ram was first seen caught in the thickets (Genesis 22:13) when Abraham offered up his first-born son Yitzchaq (Isaac).
Our Messiah also became the first-born of every creature (Colossians 1:15) when he resurrected from the dead, and he has given us the right to become first-born sons when we are born-again of incorruptible seed (1st Peter 1:23). When the Ram is seen over Yisra’el, and the first crescent moon appears, then we know that it is the month of Abib (when the barley is green). You can download the Stellarium software below to look for the constellations over Yisra’el which prophetically point to YaHuWaH’s Feasts.
*Note: we are commanded not to use the constellations for fortune-telling and divination according to Deuteronomy 18:10-11. The constellations are to be used only for determining the times and the seasons according to Genesis 1:14.
And then finally when the first ripening of the barley harvest is seen, we can know for sure that the New Year has arrived. We are not supposed to determine our calendar by some fixed pre-determined date that man calculates according to his confused rendering of time. As soon as the barley is “Abib” and the new moon appears following the Vernal Equinox, we can accurately say it is “Rosh ha’Shanah” or the “Head of the Year” according to Yah’s rendering of time:
Shemoth (Exodus) 13:
3 And Mosheh said unto the people, Remember this day, in which you came out from Mitzrayim (Egypt), out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand YHWH brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.
4 This day came you out in the month Abib (Aviv).
Now, some people have written to me questioning my use of the term Vernal Equinox, because the pagans also refer to this time of year as an important time for their sun-god worship rituals. But the dictionary also defines this term for us: Vernal Equinox:
Now, some people have written to me questioning my use of the term Vernal Equinox, because the pagans also refer to this time of year as an important time for their sun-god worship rituals. But the dictionary also defines this term for us: Vernal Equinox:
“Either of the two points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic; either of the two times each year (as about March 21 and September 23) when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are everywhere on earth of approximately equal length.
As you can see, this term Equinox is simply a marking point for spring & autumn wherein both times of the year, the day-time and the night-time are of equal length, indicating that the earth has made a full revolution around the sun on the Vernal Equinox in the spring. This is how we know that it is a new solar year. Our creator’s calendar is based off of these three heavenly luminaries created in Genesis 1:14: the sun, the moon and the stars. Therefore, all three witnesses must testify that it is a new year.
Our Heavenly Father is the one who has the authority to “know”the times and the seasons:
Ma’aseh Shlichiym (Acts) 1:7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own power.
And so we cannot presumptuously predict the when the New Year begins. It is not determined by the Pope, nor by the Rabbi’s within Judaism, nor by any scientist or astronomer. The times and the seasons are determined by our Heavenly Father who has put these things into his own power, and it is he who has given us the method for which he wants us to measure these times and seasons.
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