Postponements:
(Will you accept error?)
A study by: Timothy M. Youngblood
I want to thank my wife Mary Sue for her many hours in research:
Copyright © The
Master's Table
When most of us who keep the seventh day Sabbath first learned that we were worshipping God on the wrong day by keeping the first day called "Sunday" we had to come to the point where we just put our will down and accepted God's will. We had learned that it was man that changed the worship day and that he had no scriptural authority to do so. This proved to God that we were in fact willing to put aside our long-standing beliefs when we were shown it was wrong. What if God would ask you to do the same thing today? Could you put aside a long-standing belief and obey God? Do you still have the humble mind and heart to yield to God no matter what you think is right? Well brethren, there is something we as a church have been doing for years that was given to us by a man. Not only was it given by a man, but this man was not even a Christian. In fact this man believed that Jesus was a false messiah, and had nothing to do with the people of God in the new covenant. In fact the error we have been given by this Rabbi is against the clear commands of God Himself, and was NOT even kept by our Lord Jesus the Messiah!
So why would we accept such an error, and just what is it?
The reason we have accepted it is because we have trusted men to do for us what
we should be doing, which is proving ALL things and find out if what we are
doing is in fact of God. In the year 358 A.D. (C. E. - Common Era) Rabbi Hillel
II introduced his new way of counting the holy days. His new system was called
"Delioth" which means, "postponements" (Encyclopedia
Judaica, Hillel II). He came up with this "Delioth" because the old
way (God's way) allowed some holy days to fall back to back thus people would
have to prepare food for two days instead of one. It's recorded by the Jewish
Publication Society of America, 1921, that New Year's Day should never be
appointed on either a Sunday, or Wednesday, or Friday. (Please notice the term
here (New Year’s day) and check out when their New Year is at the end of this
study.) Sunday is considered unfit, because with Rosh ha-Shanah falling on, the
seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Hosha'na Rabbah) on which the ceremony
of "beating the willow-twigs" would fall on the Sabbath, and then the
ceremony could not be permitted. Wednesday and Friday are likewise
inadmissible, because the Day of Atonement would then, to the great inconvenience
of the people, fall on either Friday or Sunday immediately before or after the
Sabbath. If, therefore, the new moon of the month of Tishri (The seventh month)
was observed in the night preceding one of these three days (Sunday, Wednesday,
Friday), New-Year was proclaimed on the day following; (a custom still in force
now that calculation has been substituted for observation,) the calendar having
been fixed in agreement with this rule of Talmudic origin [From: tractate Rosh
ha-Shanah 20a]. "Saadia Gaon: His Life and Works" by Henry Malter,
Note: Before common Era, (B.C.E.) or Common Era (C.E.) is used by the
Jews because they do not accept Jesus the Messiah as our Lord, however it is the
same time we note as A.D. (In the year of our Lord)
According to Encyclopedia Britannica
Vol. 4 under calendar pp. 580-581. The current Jewish calendar is the
result of long development; the present form is not from the original Jewish
calendar we find in history. The ancient Hebrew names of the months disappeared
in the exile and were replaced by the Babylonian names. The bible records only
four names: Abib 1st, Ziv 2nd, Ethanim 7th, and Bul 8th. (The Babylonian names
used by the Jews today were not given by God.) The calendar was originally
fixed by observation and ultimately by calculation. Up to the fall of the
The Jews did not derive the 19 year time cycle from the Babylonians because they did not possess a system of intercalation. However, the original Roman calendar, introduced about the 7th century BC, had 10 months with 304 days in a year that began with March. Two more months, January and February, were added later in the 7th century BC, but because the months were only 29 or 30 days long, an extra month had to be intercalated. It is believed that Hillel II used the Roman system to figure the postponements, and remember that Hillel II did not introduce the postponements until over 300 years after Jesus was living on the earth, thus, Jesus our example did not keep any holy days contrary from the commands given in the Old Testament.)
A minister who keeps Postponements stated that we must use postponements
because if the Passover was left unchecked by postponements it would fall back
into mid winter, but as you will see the truth is that this statement can only
be true if we use the postponement system. One reason is because the system of
postponements is founded on the month of
"Tishri" being the Jews New year, (“Tishri” is our month of
September) and this is why over a period of time the Passover could fall in the
winter months. With God's instructions of starting in the spring
("Abib" or "Aviv") there is no way at all this could
happen. The ministry has called the Jewish calendar "God's Sacred calendar
as given to His people for so long that they have come to believe it is God's
Sacred calendar, but is it God's Sacred calendar, or is it of man? Have we
truly looked far enough into it to know which is true? The ministry in many
Holy Day keeping churches holds to Rom. 3:1-3; as biblical proof that the
Jewish calendar is of God in that the oracles (words or sayings) of God were
given to the Jews, so they say we should accept Rabbi Hillel II
"postponements. This scripture may be true, in that the Jews "were
given" charge of the oracles of God, but that statement in Rom. 3:1-3 DID
NOT give them the right to change anything but only stated that they had
stewardship over the words of God, which means a person or persons that manage
another persons affairs and they by law are to be faithful with it. Let's
understand that a steward is not the owner and the fact that Rabbi Hillel II
was born and raised in
Could it be brethren that God is watching to see who will just go along not putting out the effort or who will study to prove all things? The truth is that what God has commanded is very simple to understand and can't become "OFF" if we just do it the way He instructed in the first place. The problem comes in because the changes were made hundreds of years ago and because of the time laps people only do what is called “surface study”, but let’s not continue in that error. Let's read for ourselves what God states concerning His holy days and when we should keep them. 'These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. 'On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD'S Passover. 'And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 'On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. 'But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.'" Lev. 23: 4-8. The first month always starts in the spring of the year and we know today that the first new moon after the spring equinox is the one that we should start with.
The reason for this moon clock you will view below is because
many Christian and Jewish faiths are using postponements to calculate the
time for their Holy days such as...
1) Passover, 14th day of the first month. Ex. 12:1-14;
2)Unleavened Bread, (7 days) 15th through 21st days of the first month.
(The 15th & 21st are holy days.) Ex. 12:15-20;
3) Pentecost, fifty days are counted, beginning with the first sabbath
during the Days of Unleavened Bread, The feast is observed on the fiftieth
day, which always falls on the first day of the week. Lev. 23:15-17;
4) Trumpets, 1st day of the seventh month. Lev. 23:23-25;
5) Atonement, 10th day of the seventh month. Lev. 23:26-32;
6) Tabernacles, 15th - 21st days of the 7th. month. (The 15th is a
holy day.) Lev. 23:33-44;
7) Last Great Day, 22nd day of the seventh month. (A holy day) Lev.
23:36;
We find that the word month in Hebrew is chodesh (kho'-desh); from Strong's number 2318; and means "the new moon; by implication, a month: or new moon." and that the month always start on the "Molad" which is the time called the birth of the moon, or the "New moon" which is when the moon is not visible from the earth because the earth is in between the sun and the moon called the conjunction. A conjunction is when something lines up in association with one another. As will made clear in the moon charts published with this study there are three days when the moon is not visible at all because it takes that long for the earth to move from one side to the other. The earth always moves at the same rate of speed, so from the time we see the waning moon's crescent to the waxing moon's crescent (Being three days) we know that the middle of the time has to be the new moon which would be one and one half days.
It is a fact that when dealing with a cycle, the ending is also the beginning and the start and ending of each month done according to God's creation is a cycle. By knowing that the earth is in-between (Or in conjunction) with the moon and the sun for three days, it stands to reason that we can count either one and one half days after we see the last light or we can count one and one half days back when we see the moon's waxing crescent to figure what would be half that time. Some teach that the new moon starts just after the waning moon in the period of the first dark part and others teach that it is the darkness prior to the waxing crescent. Either concept goes against good division reasoning in that to do it either way simply would appropriate dark time from either month. The beginning and the end are the same time and must be divided up the same in order to come out with equal time for each. The way one can verify their starting point of the Molad is that the "Full moon" will be half the time, fifteen days later. If they are not according to anyone's calculations then they did not start from the true new moon. Remember King David knew when the new moon would be before hand, 1 Sam 20:5. And David said to Jonathan, "Indeed tomorrow is the New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go, that I may hide in the field until the third day at evening." Again, it's just that simple.
If we altered our clock in any way we would cause time to be off one way or the other so I took the phases of the moon and arranged them into the form of a clock so we could see more clearly how the phases truly look. The months we are concerned with are months that occur after the spring and fall equinox. The full moon does occur on the 15th day after the new moon at these times and this is also the times of God's Holy Days. We are not concerned with the astronomy of the rest of the year and the reason the moon clock is round is to show the opposites of each phase. This helps us see the obvious beginning of the new moon that can be proven by the opposite moon being the true full moon. This is not intended as the actual orbit of the moon. Notice that there is a definite starting and ending of the moon phase. The exact new moon is just opposite of the true full moon. In order for this to occur we MUST start from the middle of the dark phase which will be one and one half days after the waning moon. One should start counting from the first dark area after the darkest in the middle which could be termed "Noon" on the clock. When you do this you will count fifteen days to the true full moon. Also you can prove out your counting by looking at where the quarter moon is which is at three, and nine O’clock. Please note that if anyone moves, or postpones any one day it will throw the whole thing off and then intercalations would be needed to get it straight again also causing a 19 year time cycle. However if man just leaves it alone and counts it the way God created it then all that mess is not necessary. Remember, if anyone does not come up with the true and exact full moon for the first day of unleavened bread or the first day of the feast of tabernacles 15 days after the first day of the seventh month which is the feast of trumpets they started from the wrong place to count as God commands. I Hope this new chart will help many come to see how simple it really is.
The Moon Phase below works with the clock
on your computer.
The Calendar from the Scriptures:
The universal time for the new moon or the month "Abib" or "Aviv"
this year (April 2000) is April 4th at 06:12p. Which means we should according
to God count 14 days from then to determine the Passover. Because the new
moon occurs after sunset we need to start counting on the 5th day. This will
place the Passover day on the 18th, which means we should observe it the previous
evening, which would be after sundown on the 17th of April. The first day
of unleavened bread will be on the 19th which is on the full moon. The Sabbath
that falls within the days of unleavened bread is where we begin counting
the seven Sabbaths plus one day to get to Pentecost which always falls on
a Sunday. The Jews postpone this day till the next thus having the day of
Pentecost on a Monday which again goes against God's clear commands. The seventh
month begins on Sep. 27th, this year of 2000, which is also the feast of Trumpets.
It also starts after sunset (07:53p) on the 27th. so we are to start the seventh
month on the 28th. Lev. 23:24. The 10th day is the Day of Atonement, which
is Oct. 7th. The 15th day is the First Day of the Feast of Tabernacles which
is Oct. 12th and it last seven days. And the 22nd day is the Eighth Day or
what is called the Last Great Day which is Oct. 19. Brethren, we have just
used the instructions of God to establish a calendar that follows what God
commands we do, and the first new moon after the next spring equinox starts
it all over again.
Because the church has accepted this Rabbi's postponements the Passover will be observed a full day late, thus placing the days of unleavened bread a day late. When God stated that we should not do any work on the first day of unleavened bread which according to God's counting should be on the 19th most of God's people will be working on that very day He command no work should be done. This would put us in the same place as those that keep the Sabbath on the wrong day. What makes it the wrong day? Because it's not the day God commanded for us to do it, just like the 19th is not the Passover, but is the first day of unleavened bread. Check it out for yourselves and then determine what you will do.
We need to first understand what the spring, and fall equinoxes are and how they affect the keeping of the holy days at the God commanded appointed times. We are to start all holy day counting according to the spring or fall equinox. We should always start with the first new moon after the spring equinox. Some say that God did not mention the spring equinoxes in the bible so we can't go by them. Well that is not the case at all because He not only mentioned them He also used them. Let's not forget that God also created the spring and fall equinox. Just because mankind did not know about them does not mean that they were not valid. The name of the first month is "Abib" or Aviv and it literally means "Green Ears" which denotes spring or beginning. God mentions not only the beginning of the year or the first month but He mentions it in the spring. He allows all things in His creation to begin new at this time. There can't be any doubt what-so-ever when spring occurs because all we need do is look around. In fact we all know that when this time comes around we all feel it. Just because the Catholics changed the beginning of the year to January (in the middle of the winter) and the Jews changed it to the seventh month does not change what God has established. It only shows their foolishness in their own vanity. We also must note that we don't believe the Holy days, or the seventh day Sabbath, are a matter of salvation because we believe that salvation comes by accepting the blood of Christ alone. We must be careful and not place a false savior in the church by making this subject a matter of salvation, but if we are going to keep them let's do so at the right time and not do the same as other Christian religions did with the Sabbath. Brethren: Please pray that God by His Spirit will show us all the truth, and then help us obey God rather than man.
Below are the vernal (spring) equinoxes for several years to come. By using
the
1999 Mar. 21 ----01H 46M ----Mar. 21 03H 46M ----17H 50M ----Mar. 21
2000 Mar. 20 ----07H 35M ----Mar. 20 09H 35M ----17H 51M ----Mar. 20
2001 Mar. 20 ----13H 31M ----Mar. 20 15H 31M ----17H 50M ----Mar. 20
2002 Mar. 20 ----19H 16M ----Mar. 20 21H 16M ----17H 50M ----Mar. 21
2003 Mar. 21 ----01H 00M ----Mar. 21 03H 00M ----17H 50M ----Mar. 21
2004 Mar. 20 ----06H 49M ----Mar. 20 08H 49M ----17H 51M ----Mar. 20
2005 Mar. 20 ----12H 34M ----Mar. 20 14H 34M ----17H 50M ----Mar. 20
Below is the chart of New Moons from the U. S. Naval Observatory, adjusted from
UT (Universal time) to JT (Jerusalem time) and checked against sunset to
correspond to the proper day (God's way).
New Moon Day Time UT Adjusted for JT (Time UT + 2 Hrs) Sunset
Jerusalem and New Moon (observed previous evening)
New Moon day Jan. 6, 2000 UT 06:14p, JT 08:14p Sunset
JT 4:50p New Moon Jan. 7
New Moon day Feb. 5, 2000 UT 01:03p JT 03:03p Sunset JT
5:16p New Moon Feb. 5
New Moon day Mar. 6, 2000 UT 05:17a JT 07:17a Sunset JT
5:41p New Moon Mar. 6
New Moon day Apr. 4, 2000 UT 06:12p JT 08:12p Sunset JT
6:01p New Moon Apr. 5
New Moon day May 4, 2000 UT 04:12a JT 06:12a Sunset JT
6:21p New Moon May 4
New Moon day Jun. 2, 2000 UT 12:14p JT 02:14p Sunset JT
6:40p New Moon Jun. 2
New Moon day Jul. 1, 2000 UT 07:20p JT 09:20p Sunset JT
6:49p New Moon Jul. 2
New Moon day Jul. 31, 2000 UT 02:25a JT 04:25a Sunset
JT 6:36p New Moon Jul. 31
New Moon day Aug. 29, 2000 UT 10:19a JT 12:19p Sunset
JT 6:07p New Moon Aug. 29
New Moon day Sep. 27, 2000 UT 07:53p JT 09:53p Sunset
JT 5:29p New Moon Sep. 28
New Moon day Oct. 27, 2000 UT 07:58a JT 09:58a Sunset
JT 4:54p New Moon Oct. 27
New Moon day Nov. 25, 2000 UT 11:11p JT 01:11p Sunset
JT 4:36p New Moon Nov. 25
New Moon day Dec. 25, 2000 UT 10:42p JT 12:42a Sunset
JT 4:42p New Moon Dec. 25
New Moon day Jan. 24, 2001 UT 01:07p JT 03:07p Sunset
JT 5:05p New Moon Jan. 24
New Moon day Feb. 23, 2001 UT 08:21a JT 10:21a Sunset
JT 5:32p New Moon Feb. 23
New Moon day Mar. 25, 2001 UT 01:21a JT 03:21a Sunset
JT 5:54p New Moon Mar. 25
The Calendar in Jewish History:
Please understand that the below information is the Jewish calendar and should
not be confused with God's calendar although there are some biblical truth
to some of this information. In the article The Calendar in Jewish History,
from Britannica Online, version 97 copyright 1996, It details the parts of
the calendar. "In the religious calendar, the commencement of the month
was determined by the observation of the crescent New Moon, and the date of
the Passover was tied in with the ripening of barley. The actual witnessing
of the New Moon and observing of the stand of crops in
The Day
"The Jewish day starts at sunset the previous evening rather than at
midnight." (Kushner, pg. 91)
The Month
"The Jewish calendar, with one interesting exception [postponements], is
based on the moon rather than the sun. Each month begins with the appearance of
the new moon, the first sliver of light after the moon has gone dark (the word
month comes from the word moon) and lasts twenty-nine or thirty days, the time
it takes for the moon to go through an entire cycle from new to half to full to
half to dark again. Several important Jewish holidays occur on the fifteenth
day of the month, when the moon is full." (Kushner, pg. 89) "The
moment that the moon passes between the Earth and the sun is called the Molad -
the birth of the moon. It is the theoretical beginning of the new month"
(Bushwick, pgs. 39-40)
"The Hebrew month, which is based on the lunar calendar, begins with
the appearance of the new moon. To the Jews of antiquity, the first of the
month was an important date, and the Torah speaks of it as one of the holidays.
'Also in the day of your gladness, and on your solemn days, and in the
beginning of months, you shall blow the trumpets [shofar] (Numbers 10:10) In the wilderness
the shofar was used to call the people together and signal that the time had
come to break camp and move on; in the Temple the shofar was counted among the
musical instruments. During the
"The months of the year are:
1. Nisan or Abib (Canaanite)
2. Iyyar or Ziv (Canaanite)
3. Sivan
4. Tammuz
5. Ab
6. Eul
7. Tishri or Ethanim (Canaanite)
8. Marcheshvan or Bu l(Canaanite)
9. Chislev
10. Tebeth
11. Shebat
12. Adar
The Babylonian equivalents are:
1. Nisanu: the month of sacrifice.
2. Ayaru: the procession month
3. Simanu: the fixed season or time of brickmaking
4. Du-uzu: the month of Tammuz the god of fertility
5. Abu: the month of torches
6. Elulu or Ululu: The month of purification
7. Teshritu: the month of beginning
8. Arah-samna: the eighth month
9. Kislimu: of uncertain meaning
10. Tebitu: the month of plunging (into water)
11. Shabatu: the month of storms and rain
12. Adaru: the month of the threshing floor."(Cox, pg 5)
These months are also detailed in the article The Calendar in Jewish History, from Britannica Online, version 97 copyright 1996, where it shows that the months as listed above consist of 30 day (full) months and 29 day (defective) months. The months Nisan, Sivan, Av, Tishri, Shevat, and, in a leap year, First Adar are always full; whereas, Iyyar, Tammuz, Elul, Tevet, and Adar (known as Second Adar, or Adar Sheni, in a leap year) are always defective, while Heshvan (Heshwan) and Kislev (Kislew) will vary. You can see then that they are fixed and do not truly start with the new moon.
The Year
"The Jewish Year consists of twelve months, alternating twenty-nine
and thirty days in length, which adds up to a year of 354 days long."
(Kushner, pg. 90) "The number of days in a year varies. The number of days
in a synodic month multiplied by 12 in a common year and by 13 in a leap year
would yield fractional figures. Hence, again reckoning complete days only, the
common year has 353, 354, or 355 days and the leap year 383, 384, or 385 days.
A year in which both Heshvan and Kislev are full, called complete (shelema),
has 355 or (if a leap year) 385 days; a normal (sedura) year, in which Heshvan
is defective and Kislev full, has 354 or 384 days; while a defective (hasera)
year, in which both these months are defective, has 353 or 383 days. The
character of a year (qevi'a, literally "fixing") is described by
three letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the first and third giving, respectively,
the days of the weeks on which the New Year occurs and Passover begins, while
the second is the initial of the Hebrew word for defective, normal, or
complete. There are 14 types of qevi'ot, seven in common and seven in leap
years. The New Year begins on Tishri 1, which may be the day of the Molad of
Tishri but is often delayed by one or two days for various reasons. Thus, in
order to prevent the Day of Atonement (Tishri 10) from falling on a Friday or a
Sunday and the seventh day of Tabernacles (Tishri 21) from falling on a
Saturday, the New Year must avoid commencing on Sundays, Wednesdays, or
Fridays. Again, if the Molad of Tishri occurs at noon or later, the New Year is
delayed by one or, if this would cause it to fall as above, two days. These
delays (dehiyyot) necessitate, by reason of the above-mentioned limits on the
number of days in the year, two other delays."
Review:
Let's break down what we have found. First, the day starts and ends at sunset.
Second, the month starts with the new moon. Third, The months of the year
alternate 29 and 30 days making up a year of 354 days. If the month follows the
cycle of the new moon it is correct. We have seen that the Hebrew/Jewish
Calendar is a fixed month calendar and is independent of the new moon. This
calendar uses the beginning of the seventh month as the New Year and is used to
determine the beginning of the first month. This is not what God commanded.
According to God's clear commands the beginning of the year is the first day of
the first month which occurs when the new moon occurs in the spring. The reason
the Jews and some Christian churches use the seventh month is to utilize the
postponements (delaying of a day) in establishing the first day of the seventh
month (Feast of Trumpets) which is also a part of the Babylonian calendar. Then
they count backward 177 days to establish the beginning of the year. 177 days
are half the 354 day cycle of a lunar year.
According to the Jewish calendar the first day of the seventh month (Feast
of Trumpets) can be moved to prevent back-to-back Sabbaths especially the Day
of Atonement and to allow for celebrating the seventh day of the Feast of
Tabernacles on a non-Sabbath day. It can't be found in the bible to
postpone, move, or delay the first of the seventh month, or any day set aside
by God for holy purpose. Also if the first of the seventh month is moved
and used to establish the first month then the rest of the Holy Days are
adjusted also. The "Jewish" calendar in use today is NOT the calendar
God gave Moses. It is NOT the calendar of the Bible that
In Jesus' service
Timothy