What about our modern times?
Jump forward to more modern times. In Revelation chapter 3, God said to the Sardis church “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead”.
God’s Sabbath was under attack by Sunday keepers within the Church in the 1500’s and 1600’s in Europe! But God began reviving His Church in the United States. By 1884, a loose confederation of the Church of God groups around the country formed the Church of God General Conference. The wording “Seventh Day” was added later, and it was then known as the Church of God – Seventh Day. They kept the Sabbath and the Passover but did not use the Authorised Hebrew Calendar.
One elder saw the necessity of keeping all the Holydays, (not just Passover) and eventually, (after much investigation), also saw the necessity of adopting the calculated Hebrew Calendar as it was the only one in existence which God had authorised. The Church of God – Seventh Day disagreed with some aspects of these decisions and a separation took place between them and the elder in question, who was Herbert Armstrong.
And God restored His wonderful festivals and Holy Days to His Church through this one man – and THAT IS FACT! And over time, God has blessed His Church greatly in the understanding of these days!
Application today
We now understand that the gospel message is fully intertwined in the meanings of these days. We understand that Jesus Christ is central to each Holy Day and festival period. We have these blessings because we have observed HIS festivals joyfully before Him for years; even when years before, this information was unknown.
Is it not logical then, to believe that God would restore HIS Calendar to HIS Church at the same time He was restoring HIS Holydays to HIS Church? – because that’s what He did. Now – what authority do God’s ministers have in making decisions affecting the Church? Turn to Matthew 16:16! Here Jesus is asking Peter who he thought He (Jesus) was.
Matthew 16:16-19 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
This same wording of “binding and loosing” was used two chapters later when Christ was speaking to the other disciples who would also become the leaders of the Church. This term was a common expression among the Jews and was immediately understood by the disciples. The leaders of the Church were being given the same judicial authority to make determinations, based on scripture and the law, as were the Jewish teachers of the law.
Major fundamental decisions made
And this was what Mr Armstrong did concerning the Calendar after extensive study and discussions with his congregation. In early 1940, he gave a judicial ruling that the Church of God would adopt the authorized calculated Hebrew Calendar in these latter days.
To QUOTE one section of this ruling: “In conclusion, unless God has preserved His sacred calendar through the Jews, then we do not know how to figure Passover or any of the Holy Days this year. For there is no authority for any other way. There is no Bible authority whatsoever for figuring the 1st day of the 1st month from the new moon nearest the spring equinox! . . . God did not commit His oracles, or the preservation of His times to profane history, or to the Roman Catholics, but to the Israelites. And they have been preserved by the Jews.” End of quote.
In February 1997, after much study, the Council of Elders of United issued a judicial Statement or Ruling on the Authorised Calendar saying this: QUOTE “The Hebrew calendar is a valid calendar for Christians to use in setting the dates for the observance of God’s Holy Days”.
Today we use Hebrew Calendar because of the authority God gave His Church to make these judgements. But these judgements still have to be made in line with scripture and the law. Were they? Yes – for two reasons! Firstly – we have recognized the previous authority that God gave to the Hebrew judiciary and priesthood in Leviticus, to preserve this Calendar.
Secondly, it’s the only way that the unity of Psalm 133 can take place. There would be no unity if everyone had their own little private calendar – and kept the Holydays by themselves at home or in small scattered groups at different times. That is NOT what God wants! The Church made the correct decision!
When the State of Israel was formed in 1948 under Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, they also adopted the authorized Hebrew Calendar as their religious calendar. So within a space of eight years, 1940 to 1948, God restored His Authorised Calendar to both His revived spiritual Church of God and His restored physical nation of Judah. Coincidence? I don’t believe in that type of coincidence.
God is on His throne in Heaven and everything is being set up for end-time events. And we are close to the end? Today there are 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world. Only 100 are needed to kill off all human life. God is working hands-on in the realm of men to bring His plans to fruition – don’t you think He works in the Church as well?
Another judgement was made by the Church in 2004. How does one keep the Sabbath in the Arctic Circle when sunset is every six months? Does one keep the Sabbath every three years for a period of six months. That would be scriptural – keep it from sunset to sunset! The Church made a judgement that those in the Arctic Circle should observe the same sunsets – as someone living due south of them (at the equator for example). Good decision! WHY? Psalm 133 again. Conformity in worshipping God together at the same time.
There was another very important Judicial decision that the Church made in 1952 through Mr Armstrong. Again – who is Mr Armstrong? He is the one through whom God worked to restore the Holydays to the Church AND to bring in the only God authorised calendar in existence. So what was this third God-inspired decision? – it was the formal acceptance to adopt the world’s International Date Line(IDL). And it is a decision binding on the church today!
Jesus Christ kept the seventh day Sabbath in Jerusalem at the correct time. When travellers went west – across into Europe, they still kept the Sabbath when the sunset came to them. When travellers went east from Jerusalem, into India, even later into China on the Silk Road or on the high Seas, they kept the Sabbath when the sunset come to them. This is a matter of history.
The Catholic Church kept Sunday VERY strictly in the Middle Ages, but It was not until the 1100’s that Catholics circumnavigating the world, realised there was a problem when they gained a day or lost a day at the end of a voyage. Even Sir Francis Drake recorded the same problem when he returned to Plymouth on the 26th September 1580, but on his reckoning, it was still only the 25th. All this of course means, that there never was an International Date Line up to that time.
But now, with nations moving around the whole world, an IDL was needed. Yet the bible itself gives no clear instructions on the matter, other than God wants unity.
In 1884, 25 nations met and agreed that the best place to have an IDL, to cause least disruption to people, was to have an approximate line running down the empty Pacific Ocean, allowing local discretion by those few who were affected, so that order would prevail in the world and not chaos. The IDL was never a straight line.
This is the date-line that Mr Armstrong adopted for the Church of God in 1952. He said such a line was necessary on a round earth, and being in the middle of the Pacific and well away from Jerusalem and populated areas, he said that under God’s guidance, the world authorities got it right. Mr Armstrong saw God’s hand in man’s decision on this matter. And, of course, it does not in any way change the time that the Sabbath has always been observed in Jerusalem, Europe or Asia.
God also led the SDA’s to support the same International Date Line, and he led the Jews to mostly conform to it today! It is said in Daniel 5:21, that God rules in the Kingdom of men. Brethren, we better believe it. Right now, all the tribes or nations of the earth have the SAME seven-day weekly cycle, everywhere on earth. That is a miracle of God! What does that mean for the end time?
Ezekiel 20:19-20 I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.
It would not be a sign if we kept our weekly Sabbath on other people’s Sundays. Today, ALL THE WORLD keeps the same seven-day cycle – thanks to God’s involvement with the IDL. And Ezekiel 20:20 is now a valid end-time prediction.
Conclusion
Why do we observe the authorised Hebrew Calendar? The answer is because we have faith in God. 3 points:
- We have faith that when God gave His calendar to Moses, He also preserved it down to the time of Christ through the Hebrew nation (which did happen) – and HE has preserved it down to our time today, in the same way that the Old Testament scriptures and the weekly Sabbath have also been preserved by the Hebrews.
- We have faith that God was behind the decision of His Church to adopt His authorised Hebrew Calendar when He restored His Holydays to HIS Church, over 80 years ago.
- We have faith that Jesus Christ is the Living head of His Church and is actively leading us into His Kingdom!
So, as we head into the end-times, don’t get side-tracked by anyone who tries to take us away from the unity and sanctification that our Father in Heaven wants for us on HIS Sabbaths and HIS Holydays – as Psalm 133 makes so clear to us!
