A TIME and a SEASON - for every purpose

Calendars are an interesting thought. Have you ever had a hospital stay for a critical issue? Before they release you, hospital personnel ask you, 'Do you know what day this is?' 'What year is this'? 'Who is the leader of our country?  Often, due to the toll of the infirmity or 'losing track of time', these simple questions leave the patient puzzled.

Because of the 'toll' of the infirmity called 'religious tradition', the question of the biblical calendar often leaves the Christian puzzled. Can you imagine being released from a church service to be asked, 'Do you know what day this is?  What year this is? Who your Lord is?  

CALENDAR from Latin kalendarium means 'account book,’  and from kalendae means  ‘first day of the month’ (when accounts were due and the order of days was proclaimed); related to Greek kalein  ‘call, proclaim.’.

The world marks time according to the 'solar calendar', correlating time by the sun.  The Muslims calculate according to  'lunar phenomenon'. The biblical calendar, which Jews and Christians ascribe, is 'lunar / solar', beginning as 'lunar'', which is why we read,  'and the evening [lunar] and the morning [solar] were the first day'.  'the people who sat in darkness saw a great light.'

It is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other, so there is no direct correlation between them. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, which is, about 12.4 lunar months.

God keeps a calendar - an 'account book' recording events by date, by people involved, and marking specific dates and times as 'celebrations' - feast days :

2 Kings 25:8
And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

The feast days were important then, and they are yet important.  The 'spring feasts' signaled Messiah's first coming.  The fall feasts signal his promised return. In Hebrew, these feasts are known as 'mow-ed's' meaning  'dress rehearsal' to bring to our remembrance His  'appointed times'.

John 6:4
Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.
         1Corinthians 5:7  For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us

Luke 22:1
Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.
         1Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, 
         nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, 
         but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 15:23
But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits,
        afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.

Acts 2:1 & 4

When the Day of Pentecost [the 50th day / Shavuot] had fully come, 

         they were all with one accord in one place. 

         and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak 

         with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

        John 4:24  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

                                                                                                                                        

Acts 2:19-22  And on My menservants and on My maidservants
        I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.
        I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs
        in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
        The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
        before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
        And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord

The Day of the Lord [1 - 2 Tishrei] is the 'Day of Trumpets. The book of Revelation details the 'trumpets'.  The Day of the Lord extends itself as  '10 days of repentance' - [10 Tishrei]  the DAY of ATONEMENT, which can only be declared in a 'jubilee (50th)' year.

John 7:2

Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

                                                                                                                                           
 

We take note of - celebrate God's feasts - not only to see 'what Jesus did', but 'what God is yet doing'. It's not so much that 'we keep the feasts', but that they 'keep us'.   Of God's seven ordained feasts, four (spring feasts) have seen fulfillment in Christ.   Three (fall feasts) are awaiting fulfillment when He returns.  According to the 'biblical calendar, which is marked by signs in the sun, moon and stars [Genesis 1:14], we are now - literally entering that 'time' on a 'yearly basis' - but now also on the greater (astronomic) scale (the witness of the sun, moon and stars)  that mark time (by the time of 'their appearance').

For the Jew they signal the 'coming of Messiah'.   For the Christian they signal the return of Messiah Christ.  For the world, they signal 'putting an end to evil'.

Just as your birthday never changes 'the date', God's feasts never change 'their date'.

WORLD CALENDAR:
                                                                                                                                                                  
          WINTER                         SPRING                           SUMMER                               FALL                
  12.  DECEMBER                3.  MARCH                          6.  JUNE                      9.  SEPTEMBER        
    1.  JANUARY                    4.  APRIL                            7.  JULY                     10.  OCTOBER             
    2.  FEBRUARY                 5.  MAY                               8.  AUGUST               11.  NOVEMBER          
 


BIBLICAL CALENDAR:
                                                                                                                                                                
             SPRING                           SUMMER                          FALL                          WINTER                
Mar-Apr   1.  Nisan (Abib)    Jun-Jul     4. Tammuz     Sept-Oct  7. Tishrei         Dec-Jan   10.  Tevet    
Apr-May  2.  Iyar                  Jul-Aug    5.  Av              Oct-Nov   8. Chesvan     Jan-Feb    11.  Shevat  
May-Jun  3.  Sivan             Aug-Sep    6.  Elul            Nov-Dec  9.  Kislev         Feb-Mar   12.   Adar     
                                

SPRING FEASTS:

14 Nisan:   PASSOVER                   (1):     Jesus crucified and died, placed in grave  
15 Nisan:   UNLEAVENED BREAD (2):     Jesus in the grave                                      
16 Nisan:                                                    Jesus in grave                                            
17 Nisan:   FIRSTFRUITS               (3):     Jesus raised from the dead                        

Jesus ascended into heaven on the 40^th day instructing the apostles / disciples to tarry in Jerusalem for 10 days, the time of the feast of Shavuot / Pentecost  [7 weeks / 50 days] ,  when the Holy Spirit would come upon them in power.   It was on this feast day [6 Sivan] that Moses received the LAW on Mount Sinai and now on this same feast day the disciples receive the HOLY SPIRIT.

  6 Sivan:   SHAVUOT / PENTECOST  (4):     Holy Spirit given    [Acts 2]                          

John 6:45

Do you not say, ‘There are still four months* and then comes the harvest’? 
* [from Sivan to Tishrei]

Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields,

for they are already white for harvest! 

The 'last feast that was fulfilled ' was in the 3rd month of Sivan. Count '4 months from Sivan':  Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei when the 'fall / harvest' feasts begin.  The month of Tishrei is the 'appointed time' of Messiah Christ return.  These feasts will reveal and fulfill:  the two witnesses, the new moon, the time of Jacob's trouble, the Day of the Lord, the 'awakening blast', the resurrection of the dead, the last trump, the coronation of Messiah King Jesus in heaven, the Day of Judgment and the Wedding of Messiah. 

1-2 Tishrei:   Rosh ha Shanah / Feast of Trumpets (5)
 10  Tishrei:  Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement          (6)
 15  Tishrei:  Sukkot / Feast of Tabernacles             (7)


GOD                                                                       WORLD

1 Passover                       (crucifixion)                    Easter (mixture)
2 Unleavened Bread        (grave)                
3 Firstfruits                       (resurrection)     


4 Shavuot / Pentecost     (Law  /  Spirit)                 New age / witchcraft


5 Rosh haShanah          (tribulation)
                                            [new moon]
6 Yom Kippur                 (reconciliation)
                                           [Jews / Jesus]
7 Sukkot                        (millenial reign) 
                                           [full moon]
           

Hanukkah                                                               Christmas (mixture)  
Purim                                                                                                     


God is an 'everlasting God'. God's calendar marks 'His appointed time'.  God's ordained feasts are a prophetic time calendar, a continual reminder, in which God reveals Himself in fullness to each man.

Selah
Shalom

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