Moses and the gregorian calendar: Irony or Coincidence

What do Moses and the papal gregorian calendar have in common?

First, let’s look at The Exodus, as Moses led the Israelites from captivity in Egypt. Then we’ll look at the commonality with the captivity and the gregorian calendar.

The day the Israelites left Egypt apparently is a very special day to IAUA, our creator. That day, the 15th day of the first month of the biblical sacred year, is the day of some very significant events in biblical history.

Num_33:3  And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the Passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.

To begin with, the 15^th day of the 1^st month is the exact same day that the Israelites went into captivity, 430 years earlier. Scripture uses the term “selfsame” day to identify that this day was in fact the same day they went into captivity; and the same day they came out.

Exo 12:41  And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

Now, let’s look at some interesting facts about the gregorian calendar.

From Wikipedia, under the heading “gregorian calendar,” we find this information:

The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar.^[1][2][3] It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter gravissimas.^[4] The reformed calendar was adopted later that year by a handful of countries, with other countries adopting it over the following centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

 

This is but a small bit of information at Wikipedia on the gregorian calendar but it is this piece of information that we’re interested in for this comparison. NOTE: This is not an attempt at time-setting, predicting or prophesying that anything is going to happen in coincidence according to this information.

This is where it gets interesting. If you add 430 years, the length of the captivity of the Israelites, to the year 1582, the year of the decree enacting the gregorian calendar, the result is the year 2012. In addition, the day the decree was enacted, February 24, will fall on new moon day in the last month of the biblical year 2011-2012.

Now, is anything going to happen around that time, the spring of 2012? There certainly is a lot of hype going on about the year 2012, but mostly related to the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012. And the things we seeing happening in the world currently, suggest that we are probably on the edge of some cataclysmic events.

Have we been captive to a papal gregorian calendar for 430 years? The questions that surface out of this scenario certainly suggest that the timeframes involved could have some meaning. Should we be alert to possible events unfolding sometime in the spring of 2012, around February 24? Most assuredly. It’s for certain we will be looking for the visible crescent the evening of the 23^rd, beginning of the 24^th biblical day.

So keep your eyes to the skies and the heavens. We are no longer looking for the signs of the times; we are living in the times of the signs.

The Very Last Deception of Satan

Tossing out the Writings of Ellen White: Returning to Egypt

If you are a Seventh Day Adventist, or former SDA, and you have adopted the sunrise reckoning of the day, and daylight hours only for the Sabbath, you may have essentially fulfilled some of the end time prophecies of Ellen White. Ellen White told us that in the last days, near the end, that her writings, for all practical purposes, would be made void. The description of that fulfillment is found in the following quotes:

The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18). Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God's remnant people in the true testimony. He will bring in spurious visions to mislead, and will mingle the false with the true, and so disgust people that they will regard everything that bears the name of visions as a species of fanaticism; but honest souls, by contrasting false and true, will be enabled to distinguish between them.  {10MR 311.1}  (Ellen White's writings are often referred to as the Testimony of the Spirit of God. They are meant to enhance or confirm the words of scripture.)

One of the most blatant references in the writings of Ellen White that show this distinction and fulfillment, has to do with the events surrounding the crucifixion of our saviour Yahushua. It is found in the following quote:

"That was a never-to-be-forgotten Sabbath to the sorrowing disciples, and also to the priests, rulers, scribes, and people. At the setting of the sun on the evening of the preparation day the trumpets sounded, signifying that the Sabbath had begun."  (Desire of Ages 775)


"From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath." Said the angel: "Take the word of God, read it, understand, and ye cannot err. Read carefully, and ye shall there find what even is, and when it is. I asked the angel if the frown of God had been upon His people for commencing the Sabbath as they had. I was directed back to the first rise of the Sabbath, and followed the people of God up to this time, but did not see that the Lord was displeased, or frowned upon them. I inquired why it had been thus, that at this late day we must change the time of commencing the Sabbath. Said the angel: "Ye shall understand, but not yet, not yet." Said the angel: "If light come, and that light is set aside or rejected, then comes condemnation and the frown of God; but before the light comes, there is no sin, for there is no light for them to reject." I saw that it was in the minds of some that the Lord had shown that the Sabbath commenced at six o'clock, when I had only seen that it commenced at "even," and it was inferred that even was at six. I saw that the servants of God must draw together, press together. 


It is clear in the above statements, that the Sabbath (as well as all other days) begins at sunset. The statements support what has been observed for centuries by the Hebrews, albeit intermittent at times.

There are several implications, or problems when dealing with the statements above.

1. Sabbath, and all other biblical days begin at sunset, or Ellen White is wrong.

2. If Ellen White is wrong, and it's possible, then does this make her invalid as a prophet?

3. In any case, if she was accurate in this statement, and we disregard it's intended meaning, what have we done to her stature as a prophet? What have we done to the meanings of her words? And to the words of scripture? We may be on unholy or dangerous ground if we disregard, or even slightly twist the words and meanings to make them fit what we believe or want to believe.

In order to reckon the day by the rising of the sun, and observe the sabbath for only the daylight hours, we have to have TOTAL DISREGARD for the writings of Ellen White. We cannot pick and choose, using one principle here, another there, and tossing out what we don't like because it doesn't fit our framework of belief or thinking.

The Egyptians appear to have historically swapped the halves of the day, daylight, then darkness, instead of what appears to be the biblical reckoning of the day; darkness then daylight. So one has to ask; by using the sunrise reckoning of the day, beginning the day at sunrise, and observing the daylight hours only for the Sabbath, have we returned to EGYPT?

I admit the possibility that I could be wrong about this. If that proves to be the case, I will stand immediately corrected. In the meantime, Unless something absolutely concrete and without question surfaces, I will choose the path of least error. I will keep the hours that appear to be bibilically correct, sunset to sunset for the sabbath. I will observe the full 24 hour day as the sabbath until clear correction is made.

I'm keeping the part of the day sunrisers are anyhow, and one thing that I don't want to do, is to shortchange God on time and not be present when He has arranged to meet with me at a specifically appointed time.

(NOTE: Many verses in scripture are presented to "prove" the sunrise reckoning of the day. Most, if not all, are verses that can be interpreted in both ways; either sunrise reckoning or sunset reckoning. Because a verse can be interpreted in both ways, it does not make one position or the other valid unless the position can be supported by corroborating evidence.)