Dear Friends,

As we approach the Holy Days of the Seventh Month, it is essential to be aware that there is a very important element to God’s Temple calendar that is excluded from the rabbinical Hillel calendar due to one of its invented postponement rules. It will be shown how this postponement within the Hillel calendar system violates a principle of Scripture, and how it distorts God’s plan of redemption that is revealed through His Temple calendar.

Had Herbert Armstrong and the ministry of the Worldwide Church of God (WCOG) understood God’s Temple calendar, they could have avoided this blatant postponement error. However, its full impact was either not understood or not considered when the ministry retained the Hillel calendar within WCOG, and consequently this error continues within the calendar used by most of the WCOG offshoots.

This error has enormous spiritual implications and consequences. It distorts the picture of God’s 7,000-year plan of salvation for His creation by limiting the observance of Messiah’s sacrifice and the Wave-Sheaf Offering, as we shall see.

What is this error, and how does it distort the picture of God’s plan of redemption? Let’s first review this radical postponement rule as it is applied within the Hillel calendar system.

Rabbinical rule (postponement rule #1) eliminates the possibility that Tishri 1 (Feast of Trumpets) would ever occur on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday. The impetus and reasoning for this postponement rule goes like this:

• In order to prevent the occurrence of two consecutive (back-to-back) Sabbaths during the fall [Northern Hemisphere] holy day season, if the molad of Tishri would fall on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, then Tishri1 falls one day later, to a Monday, Thursday, or Sabbath, respectively.

• Since the seventh day of the week is a Sabbath, a postponement is reasoned to be necessary when Tishri1 falls on a Sunday or a Friday in order to avoid two consecutive Sabbaths (a weekly Sabbath and aFall Holy Day) back-to-back. This eliminates the preparation days for the Fall Holy Days from being weekly Sabbaths, and the preparation day for the weekly Sabbath being one of the Fall Holy Days.

• Tishri1 may not occur on a Wednesday to block the Day of Atonement (Tishri 10), a high Sabbath, from falling on a Friday. It is reasoned further that a Friday Day of Atonement would cause particular hardship for the people since food preparation could not occur on a weekly Sabbath day even though it followed a required fast day. Likewise, a Friday postponement also prevents the Day of Atonement from falling on a Sunday avoiding two consecutive Sabbaths.

• Additionally, and important to understand, this rule also precludes the first day of Unleavened Bread, the 15th of Abib, from ever falling on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.

• This postponement is for the convenience of the people.

It should be noted and worth repeating that the reason the Hillel calendar has this postponement rule is for the sake of convenience, and for no other purpose. Postponements are not supported by Scripture nor were they a part of the Temple calendar during Christ’s ministry, or at any other time during the Temple period.

The Mishnah, compiled approximately 200 C.E., presents evidence against this later Hillel postponement rule and records thatback-to-back Sabbaths were historically occurring before the invention of the Hillel calendar. The Hillel calendar is a Judaic calendar of rabbinical derivation, which commenced from 344 CE with the Babylonian rabbis, and was adopted by rabbinical Judaism under Hillel II. It was not finalized until modified and completed by Maimonides [also called Rambam] as late as the 11th century.

Below is the recorded evidence from the Mishnah showing that back-to-back Sabbaths were common and occurred during the Temple period:

• (Besah 2:1) On a festival which coincided with the eve of the Sabbath [Friday] a person should not do cooking to begin with on the festival day. [Friday] But he prepares food for the festival day, and if he leaves something over, he has it left over for use on the Sabbath. And he prepares a cooked dish on the eve of the festival day [Thursday] and relies on it (to prepare food on Friday) for the Sabbath as well.

• (Besah 2-2) If a festival day coincided with the day after the Sabbath [Sunday] the house of Shammai say, “They immerse everything before the Sabbath”. And the house of Hillel say, “Utensils are to be immersed before the Sabbath. But man may immerse on the Sabbath itself.”

• (Sukkah 5:7) Three times a year all the priestly watches shared equally in the offerings of the feasts and in the division of the Show Bread. At Pentecost they would say to him, “Here you have unleavened bread, here is leavened bread for you”. The priestly watch whose time of service is scheduled for that week is the one which offers the daily whole offerings, the offerings brought by reason of vows and freewill offerings, and the other public offerings. And it offers everything. On afestival day which comes next to a Sabbath, whether before or after it, all of the priestly watches were equal in the division of the Show Bread.

This text shows Atonement also fell on a Friday when the Mishnah was compiled:

• (Shabbat 15:3) They fold up clothing even four or five times. And they spread beds on the night of the Sabbath for use on the Sabbath, but not on the Sabbath for use after the Sabbath. D. R. Ishmael says, “They fold clothes and lay out beds on the Day of Atonement for the Sabbath”.

Now let’s examine how this postponement rule affects not only the Holy Days of the Seventh Month, but also Passover beginning with the 14th of Abib, the First Month. The rule has a cascading effect on Passover as it prevents the first day of Unleavened Bread, the 15th of Abib, from ever falling on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.

The chart below details all of the possibilities for the timing of Passover (beginning with the 14th of Abib through the 21st of Abib) that could occur, and how the week will flow in relation to which day of the week that the 14th of Abib/Nisan occurs.

The day of the week in the furthest left column numbers each day, 1 through 7, starting first with the first day of the week and progressing down to the 7th day. From this chart, we will see the negative impact of the postponement rule as it prevents the 1st, 3rd, and the 5th day of the week from beginning the Passover/Days of Unleavened Bread Feast days.

• * The 15th of Abib is not allowed to occur on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday within the Hillel calendar postponement system.

• ** Sunday-Wave Sheaf Offering.

When extrapolating this postponement rule out, we see its total impact within the Hillel calendar system. It becomes clear that:

1. the 14th of Abib, when Christ died, can never be observed when the 14th falls on the 1st Day (Sunday), 3rd Day (Tuesday), and 5th Day (Thursday) of the week, and

2. the 15th of Abib, first day of Unleavened Bread, can never be observed on the 2nd Day (Monday), 4th Day (Wednesday), and 6th Day (Friday) of the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread week, and

3. the Wave Sheaf Offering can never be observed when the 14th of Abib falls on the 1st Day, 3rd Day, and 5th Day of the week, thus eliminating the Wave Sheaf from ever occurring on the 7th, 5th, and 3rd day of the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread.

So how does it have a negative effect on the picture of God’s plan of salvation? The Apostle Peter states in 2Peter 3:8

“But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (RSV)

The seven-day week is symbolic of the seven thousand year period allotted by God for the salvation of His creation through the sacrifice and blood of His son, Yahoshua, or Yoshua the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Following the principle stated by the Apostle Peter that a day represents 1,000 years, then the first, third, and fifth Days/Millenniums of the Passover week are not represented in the Hillel calendar system. This postponement rule becomes a deception that does not allow for the observance of the Messiah’s sacrifice that covers the entire 7,000-year period, and the acceptance of Messiah’s sacrifice by our heavenly Father symbolized by the Wave Sheaf Offering for the same represented Days/Millenniums.

To illustrate this postponement error further, below in chart form are the years and dates of the 15th of Abib and the day of the week on which the 15th occurs. The chart will show the difference between God’s Temple calendar and the Hillel calendar. This chart will also show that the 15th of Abib in God’s Temple calendar will fall on any and all days of the week throughout the years listed below, whereas the Hillel calendar forbids the 15th of Abib to fall on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.

Please note in the above chart that the 15th of Abib does not occur on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday in the Hillel calendar.

The important element in God’s Temple calendar is that it reveals His plan of salvation as it applies to the entire 7,000-year period. Unlike the false Hillel calendar, God’s true Temple calendar does not restrict or eliminate any day of the week that the 15th of Abib can occur, nor does it restrict any day of the week on which the Fall Holy Days can occur.

The spirit of this postponement error should be obvious to all who desire to obey God, and who desire to be kings and priests under Messiah in the Millennium (Rev.1:5-6). Man obviously has no authority or authorization by the Word of the Almighty God to postpone the weekly Sabbath. By what authority does man even think he can postpone an annual Sabbath?

This postponement rule has a spirit of rebellion in it, which is the same as witchcraft.

1Samuel 15:23: For rebellion is the sin of witchcraft, and to break the word of the Lord [stubbornness RSV] is iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected thee from being king (JB2000).

God’s Temple calendar contains no postponements. It is based on the astronomical new moon conjunction determining the start of the month. A new year is determined by the new moon closest to the spring equinox providing that the 9th hour (3 p.m.) Passover sacrifice on the 14th of Abib does not precede the equinox.

For further information on God’s Temple calendar and information on postponements, go to http://www.ccg.org/_domain/ccg.org/Calendar/Gods_Calendar.htm for numerous scholarly, well-documented study papers, including study papers God's Calendar (No. 156) and Tishri in Relation to the Equinox (No. 175).

For Holy Day dates according to God’s Temple Calendar, see paper New Moon and Holy Day Calendar (No. C3).

It is beyond the time for the current Sabbatarian Churches of God to repent and remove the idolatrous Hillel calendar from among their midst and return to God’s true Temple calendar that the nation of Israel and its priests and prophets and Messiah and his true Apostles observed.

Tom Schardt,

Assistant Coordinator of California