Some Speculations About the Plan of God

God wants us to understand His mind, His intentions and His purposes. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans:

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, BEING UNDERSTOOD by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead (implied is: CAN BE UNDERSTOOD); so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:20 AV)

We understand that God does not act on impulse. For EVERYTHING that God does there is a reason. That includes the dates that God selects for certain events. So in this article I would like to examine the relationship between various dates that God has instructed us to observe.

I want to make quite clear up front that what I will present are speculations. Perhaps some of them are not correct? My purpose is to try to understand as much as possible of the overall picture of what God has planned, and how God has revealed this in the dates He has chosen. If nothing more, I hope that it will stimulate YOUR thinking about these things, and perhaps help you to come to a better understanding of the overall picture.

I have no problem with people disagreeing with any of the things I will suggest in this article. As the things I will present are somewhat speculative, I myself may come to a different understanding on some of these points in the future?

So let's start "in the beginning".

IN THE BEGINNING

Notice what we see in Genesis chapter 2:

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Genesis 2:8 AV)

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17 AV)

So God planted a garden and then told Adam that he could eat the fruits on the trees (except from one tree). Since there were fruits on the trees, IT HAD TO BE AUTUMN and not spring. Autumn is the season when fruits are ready to be harvested and eaten.

[Comment: For the sake of simplicity I will use the names of the months used in the present Jewish calendar. Thus I will use "Nisan" to mean the first month in the spring, rather than saying "March/April", and I will use "Tishri" to refer to the 7th month of the year, rather than saying "September/October". This is not intended to endorse the present Jewish calendar any more than I endorse our present Gregorian calendar when I use the names "March" or "September", etc..]

So in Genesis chapters 1-2 we see God creating man in the autumn, in the month of Tishri. So let's now go back to the start of Genesis.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were THE FIRST DAY. (Genesis 1:5 AV)

So, apart from the very first verse of the Book of Genesis, we see that THE FIRST DAY OF THE FIRST MONTH OF GOD'S ACTIVITIES ON EARTH would have been what is today known as the first day of Tishri, THE SEVENTH MONTH today.

When Genesis 1:2 tells us that "the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" and God then speaks, this is telling us that the first day of the seventh month (Tishri) is when JESUS CHRIST CAME TO THIS EARTH FOR THE FIRST TIME! That is the precise day GOD had determined He would come to this earth.

AND NOTHING ANYONE (be it Satan or be it human beings) CAN DO WILL MAKE GOD CHANGE FROM THIS INTENTION! It is very likely the same day of the year when He will come AGAIN!

Man was created by God on the sixth day of Tishri, and the first Sabbath day was the seventh day of Tishri. This was THE FIRST MONTH of God's presence on this earth.

Now God did NOT give the annual Holy Days and the Feasts at that point in time. At that point in time TISHRI was the FIRST month of the year. And with Tishri being the first month of the year there was simply NO WAY for the Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost to be accommodated in the annual calendar, since these days could not come AFTER the day (the first day of Tishri) which represented the coming (and later the return) of Jesus Christ.

What Genesis 1-2 shows us, with Tishri being the first month of the year, is that there was ONLY PROVISION FOR: TRUMPETS, ATONEMENT, TABERNACLES and (potentially at least) THE LAST GREAT DAY in the annual calendar. Think about this! IF the year starts in the autumn, and the spring only comes later, then Passover and Unleavened Bread and Pentecost would have to FOLLOW after Trumpets and Tabernacles ... but that cannot be without drastically changing the symbolism for these days.

A CHANGE IN THE ANNUAL CYCLE

In Exodus chapter 12 God tells us:

THIS MONTH [shall be] unto you the beginning of months: it [shall be] THE FIRST MONTH OF THE YEAR TO YOU. (Exodus 12:2 AV)

Here God was speaking IN THE SPRING. Several points to notice here. The word translated as "month" really means "new moon", and then by extension it means "month", because every "month" is supposed to start with "the new moon". So this "new moon" in Exodus 12:2 was to be from then onwards the first "new moon" of the year. And this "new moon" God was here speaking about was "in the spring".

Next, understand that God said that this was to be the first month of the year FOR US! It is NOT necessarily the first month of the year FOR GOD! Can we understand this?

GOD had clearly started the year back in Genesis 1 IN THE AUTUMN ... AND GOD IS NOT CHANGING WHEN HE STARTS AND ENDS A YEAR! But God tells us that FOR US the years would now start IN THE SPRING! We need to understand WHY God tells US to now start our years in the spring, even though FOR GOD HIMSELF years still start and end in the autumn.

THE REASON why God moved the start of the year to six months earlier was SO THAT THE YEAR COULD ACCOMMODATE THE PASSOVER, THE DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD AND PENTECOST! Without such a shift to six months earlier there was NO ROOM IN THE YEAR for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, nor was there any room for "a harvest of first fruits". You couldn't have Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles in the "first" month and then have the Passover and Unleavened Bread in the "seventh" month.

Understand this!

God was NOT going to move the time of year when He first came to this earth, on a precise anniversary of which He will return! He came on the first day of Tishri in Genesis 1, and that is the day when He will come again; and that is therefore the day that will always picture the coming of Jesus Christ. That day was simply not negotiable with God!

But with man having sinned, and needing the sacrifice of a Saviour to restore contact with God, therefore some things have to PRECEDE that day picturing Christ's coming. And therefore FOR US, for OUR benefit, God instructed Israel that the year should start in the spring, to enable us to have the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost before we ever get to Trumpets.

But as far as GOD is concerned: He came to this earth in Genesis chapter 1 IN THE AUTUMN; Jesus Christ was born IN THE AUTUMN; and Jesus Christ's second coming is scheduled to be IN THE AUTUMN! Jesus Christ started His ministry IN THE AUTUMN. The autumn is when GOD starts and ends a year.

Can we grasp this?

MAN SINNED

Man sinned very early on, back in Genesis chapter 3. So from then onwards there already existed THE NEED for the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. But throughout the Book of Genesis God was only dealing with specific individual human beings. These dealings were laying a foundation for things to follow.

WHEN THAT FOUNDATION HAD BEEN LAID, THEN God was ready to start dealing with a whole nation, the nation of Israel. And THEN God FIRST announced this shift for the start of the year to exactly six months earlier (Exodus 12:2). With that shift in the start of the year clearly established, God THEN gave Israel the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12) and all the Holy Days and the annual Feasts (Leviticus 23).

The instructions to keep God's Feasts and Holy Days were not given to a single individual or to a single family, but to the whole NATION of Israel. And the giving of the annual Feasts and Holy Days COINCIDED with shifting the start of the year to exactly six months earlier than had until then been the case.

Now let's look at all of the dates God has given us. But let's proceed in a somewhat different sequence from the way we usually examine these days.

Let's start by first looking at those dates that are in the month that ORIGINALLY was the first month of the year, which God said was FOR US to be the SEVENTH month. THEN we'll look at the dates that precede this seventh (originally first) month. All these dates were not given by God until the time of Moses, though their significance goes back to Adam's time.

THE DAYS WE ARE TO OBSERVE

1st Day 7th Month (originally the FIRST month) = The Day of Trumpets

This was the first evening and morning in Genesis 1:5, the day when Jesus Christ first came to this earth. This is THE PIVOTAL DAY in God's plan. Everything hinges on this day. That was the day, after Satan's original rebellion, which God used to start repairing the damage Satan's rebellion had caused to this earth. So obviously, THIS is the day God would ALWAYS use to picture, in the annual Holy Days, THE RETURN of Jesus Christ. And while I have no way at all to prove this, I suspect that THIS is also the day on which Jesus Christ was born as a human being, not that this necessarily makes a difference in any way.

10th Day 7th Month (originally FIRST month) = The Day of Atonement

This is exactly 9 days later. The number "9" is at times used to picture "FINALITY OF JUDGMENT". And so Atonement pictures Satan's FINAL judgment. Now whether mankind had sinned or not, Satan was STILL going to have to be judged, because of his rebellion against God BEFORE God had even created human beings. So the timing of Atonement was not really conditional on human beings having to sin. Satan was already guilty and he had to be removed from God's presence in some way. So Satan's FINAL judgment was going to be "9 days" after the coming of Jesus Christ.

15th - 21st Days 7th Month (originally FIRST month) = The Feast of Tabernacles

This "FEAST" pictures the GREAT HARVEST God will reap from His plan. Originally there was not necessarily any NEED for an earlier "smaller" harvest. And even as God had used exactly 7 days for the re-creation week (including creating the Sabbath by resting on it), so also God set aside exactly 7 days for this "Feast". Setting aside 7 days for the re-creation week and setting aside exactly 7 days for this "Feast" together show us that God INTENDED for there to be human beings for exactly 7000 years, and this 7-Day Feast represented THE HARVEST God would reap from this 7000-year period.

There is no reason why these three EVENTS (Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles) could not have featured in God's ORIGINAL intentions, even if God perhaps had originally intended slightly different details for each of these events? These three events would have shown the steps in which God would build a Family: God comes to this earth, Satan is then judged and removed, and that is followed by a harvest into God's Family.

22nd Day 7th Month = The Last Great Day

This day was very likely APPENDED to God's original plan at the same time as the other events (Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost) were INSERTED ahead of Trumpets, by shifting the start of the year to six months earlier.

So I suspect that God ORIGINALLY planned for THREE events (Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles). Because of Adam's and Eve's sins God expanded this to SEVEN events, inserting THREE events before the one that was intended to be first, and adding ONE event after the one that was intended to be last. Thus the picture changed to: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, and Last Great Day.

In so doing God preserved the PIVOTAL nature of Trumpets (His coming to this earth). The importance of Trumpets had been clearly established by God, by making it THE FIRST of the three events He planned. When it became necessary to insert certain events before Trumpets, God RETAINED the key nature of Trumpets, by having everything symmetrically arranged around Trumpets.

Thus:

Three events precede Trumpets, and three events follow Trumpets. Just before Trumpets is Pentecost, a 1-day event; and just after Trumpets is Atonement, also a 1-day event. Before Pentecost there is the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread; and after Atonement there is the 7-day Feast of Tabernacles. Immediately before Unleavened Bread there is the Passover; and immediately after Tabernacles there is the Last Great Day. AND IT ALL REVOLVES AROUND TRUMPETS, THE DAY ON WHICH GOD FIRST CAME TO THIS EARTH IN GENESIS CHAPTER 1, and the day when Jesus Christ will very likely come again.

SYMBOLISM FOR A PERIOD OF 1000 YEARS

God will at times use different ways to represent the same thing. For example, Jesus Christ compared the Kingdom of God to many different things. Likewise, God will at times use different time periods to represent 1000 years.

Thus:

A DAY may at times represent 1000 years.

A WEEK may at other times represent 1000 years.

A MONTH may at still other times represent 1000 years.

We will shortly look at some examples of this use of different periods of time.

The length of the week and also the length of the Feast of Tabernacles together had already laid out God's intentions to allot 7000 years for human existence. The original division of the week into six days for man and one day of rest (the Sabbath), on which God would be even more intimately involved with man showed that the total 7000 years would be divided into two parts: the first part consisting of 6000 years, and the second part consisting of 1000 years.

When, because of man's sins, it became necessary to modify the plan, God shifted the start of the year FOR MAN to EXACTLY six months earlier. He didn't shift it to 3 months earlier or to 9 months earlier, but to exactly 6 months earlier.

This shift by exactly 6 months shows that THE NATURE OF THE FIRST PERIOD OF 6000 YEARS HAD TO BE CHANGED from what God had originally intended (one month for each 1000 years). It CHANGED from autumn to spring, because man had to make "A NEW START" with God (spring being the season of new starts). Without that new start man could not proceed to the stage of being "reaped" by God (i.e. autumn).

Now here is my speculation.

I suspect that IF Adam and Eve had not given in to Satan's short-term temptations and sinned, THEN it is likely that Jesus Christ would have dealt with all subsequent humanity the same way He dealt with Adam and Eve, by communicating directly with them. When they sinned, they were cut off from God, and so Jesus Christ's "coming" was postponed by 6000 years. Instead of it being the 1st Day of the 1st Month, it became the 1st Day of the 7th Month. It was still going to be the same day, but exactly 6000 years later than Genesis chapter 1.

Now consider the following.

Because of Satan's role in mankind's sins, the binding of Satan is linked to THE NEED for a Saviour for mankind. Thus, where Satan is judged on the 10th Day of the 7th Month, EXACTLY 6 MONTHS EARLIER (i.e. exactly 6000 years of human existence) the need for a Saviour arose. So on the 10th Day of THE 1ST MONTH Jesus Christ was selected as "the Lamb of God" (see Scriptures like John 1:29, 36; Exodus 12:3; etc.), exactly 6000 years before Satan is judged.

Next, since it was appointed for Jesus Christ to become our Saviour 4000 years (in round numbers) before He would actually bring that sacrifice, so likewise the lamb was kept for 4 days (start of the 10th day to the start of the 14th day of the 1st month). This is the 1-day for 1000-years principle. Thus the Passover was destined to be on the 14th Day of the 1st Month.

From the selection of the lamb 4 full days passed before the Passover (10th - 13th inclusive is equal to 4 days). Jesus Christ then came at THE START of the 5th day (the 5th 1000-year period), and thus the Passover had to be sacrificed AT THE START of the 14th day, which is symbolically the start of the 5th 1000-year period.

[Comment: This understanding also demolishes the idea of a "LATE-14TH PASSOVER", as is observed by the Jewish religion today! A "late-14th Passover" would symbolize Jesus Christ's first coming having been scheduled for the end of the 5th 1000-year period (i.e. a "late-14th Passover" would picture Jesus Christ's first coming at just before the year 1000 A.D., or 1000 years too late.]

A question that sometimes arises is:

WHY didn't God place the Passover on the FIRST day of the first month? Why only on the 14th day? The reason, I suspect, is to show us that something WENT BEFORE the Passover was selected. The key is to start with the day that Jesus Christ came to this earth in Genesis 1, which is equal to Tishri 1. Realize that God starts "at the beginning" with the things He does. Now Tishri 1 is THE ONLY "first day of a month" that features in any of the Holy Days or Feasts.

This too is a clue that Tishri 1 is really where the whole story began.

To make this quite clear: IF the story had NOT begun with Tishri 1, THEN God would have indicated this by selecting DAY 1 of another month for us to observe in the course of the year! God starts at the beginning! And since the Day of Trumpets is THE ONLY DAY 1 OF A MONTH that God has instructed us to observe, THEREFORE this is God's way of telling us that everything started with the Day of Trumpets, on DAY 1 of what was originally the first month.

Exodus chapter 12 then shows that six months were simply inserted before Tishri. And because Satan is judged on the 10th Day of the 7th Month, THEREFORE this determined where the selection, and then the subsequent sacrifice, of the Passover would be placed in the annual calendar.

We should understand that God's plan did NOT really start with "the Passover". It really started with "the Day of Trumpets", the day when Jesus Christ first came to this earth in Genesis 1. Because of sins this plan was then modified by events that must precede Trumpets. But the Day of Trumpets was THE START.

Now before the 7-day Feast of the Great Harvest (Tabernacles) can take place on the 15th - 21st days of the 7th Month, there is the need for sinful mankind to put sins out of our lives. So EXACTLY 6 MONTHS EARLIER (again covering 6000 years) God inserted the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread on the 15th - 21st days of the 1st Month. It is no coincidence that these two 7-day feasts both fall from the 15th - 21st days, exactly six months apart.

When mankind sinned and God then in general cut mankind's access to Him off for 6000 years, God STILL provided for A VERY SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE (144000 out of perhaps 50 billion or more in the course of 6000 years?) the opportunity to have contact with Him in this present age. God determined that He would "reap" this group as a small and separate harvest of "firstfruits". This harvest God would picture by the Feast of Firstfruits (or Pentecost).

God the Father and Jesus Christ together had obviously determined even before the creation of Adam that Jesus Christ would become the sacrifice for human sins. It was inevitable that all human beings, including Adam and Eve, would eventually sin in some way, and therefore would require a sacrifice to remove the guilt incurred by such sinning. When God allowed Satan access to Adam and Eve in the garden, the question was NOT "will they EVER sin"? The question really was: "will Adam and Eve sin WITHIN A VERY LIMITED TIME FRAME"? They had seen God in the morning, and God would be back to walk in the garden that same evening, "in the cool of the day" (Genesis 3:8). And it really was NOT a foregone conclusion that Adam and Eve would be incapable of resisting Satan for a period of perhaps 12 hours, after they had seen God face-to-face at the start of that day.

The test God exposed Adam and Eve to was not purely a formality, with the inevitable foregone conclusion that it was impossible for them to resist Satan, even for as little as 12 hours! It was a REAL test, and the outcome determined which of two possible courses of action God would set in motion for all of humanity that would follow. The purpose of the test to which God exposed Adam and Eve was TO SHOW GOD SOMETHING, TO GIVE GOD SOME INFORMATION! The purpose was NOT to show Adam something which God already knew as a foregone conclusion!

The purpose of all the tests we human beings face is always to show God something about us. God tested Abraham to find out something about Abraham's character. As God said through an angel after Abraham had passed this test:

And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: FOR NOW I KNOW that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. (Genesis 22:12 AV)

Even as it was not a foregone conclusion that Abraham would pass this test, so also was it not a forgone conclusion that Adam and Eve would fail the 12-hour test they faced.

So once Adam and Eve sinned, and God had determined that Christ would be the sacrifice in our place, God then determined the day on which He, God the Father, would ACCEPT that sacrifice on our behalf. This acceptance God represented by the "wave offering", and God instructed that it was to ALWAYS be offered on the first day of the week (i.e. always on a Sunday) DURING the 7 Days of Unleavened Bread.

It was accepted by God on the first day of a 7-day week, to show that God accepts this sacrifice for humanity from the very beginning of human existence. And God also intended for that Sunday to cycle through ALL SEVEN of the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread, to show that this sacrifice is also accepted for people from every one of those seven 1000-year periods. But it is only accepted for people who have "deleavened" their lives.

So to make this quite clear:

1) The wave offering was to always be on a Sunday, to show that it would apply FROM THE START of the 7000 years allotted to human existence.

2) The wave offering was to cycle through all seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, to show that it would apply to THE WHOLE 7000 YEARS allotted to human existence.

3) BUT only those people who would make an effort to "deleaven" their lives would be given access to having that sacrifice applied to their sins.

So to place the wave offering OUTSIDE of the Days of Unleavened Bread (as we in the Worldwide Church of God sometimes did before 1974) fails to recognize the intimate connection between The Days of Unleavened Bread and the wave offering.

Moving on to Pentecost:

Since God the Father very clearly accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ ON A SUNDAY (i.e. the wave offering was ALWAYS on a Sunday), THEREFORE Pentecost must also ALWAYS be on a Sunday, exactly SEVEN WEEKS after God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

The seven week gap between God the Father accepting Christ's sacrifice, and then accepting "the harvest of firstfruits" shows that this harvest of firstfruits is drawn from amongst ALL HUMAN BEINGS WHO WOULD EVER BE BORN during the 7000-year period God had allotted for this purpose.

In practice this harvest of firstfruits will not include anyone who will be born during the 7th 1000-year period and only a handful of people (very likely less than ten) of those who lived and died during the 1st 1000-year period, and only a few more than that from each of the second and third and fourth 1000-year periods.

The overwhelming majority, so it seems, in that harvest of firstfruits will be people who lived during the 5th and the 6th 1000-year periods. That is how many of those who were "last" (before the second coming of Christ) will end up being "first" in entering into the Kingdom of God (see Matthew 20:16).

To place Pentecost on any day other than a Sunday (e.g. when we kept it on a Monday prior to 1974) destroys the seven weeks link between when God the Father accepts the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and when He accepts the firstfruits into His Family.

Understand that Pentecost does NOT picture the first resurrection! It really pictures ACCEPTANCE BY GOD THE FATHER INTO HIS FAMILY! But that "acceptance" is only put into practice at the time of the first resurrection (i.e. the Day of Trumpets).

Coming to the Last Great Day:

When God modified His original plan because of mankind's sins, He also introduced something that vividly demonstrates God's incredible mercy and compassion. And that is "the Last Great Day". By appending this day to the Feast of Tabernacles (and thus by appending a 100-year period to the end of the 7000 years), God has provided a way of access to salvation for all those people who were all their lives blinded by Satan. This is something other religions simply don't understand, that God is actually willing to give the vast majority of people who have ever lived THE OPPORTUNITY to live again physically, in circumstances where they will understand the truth and will have their minds opened.

Even as the Passover immediately precedes the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so the Last Great Day immediately follows the Feast of Tabernacles. And everything revolves around the day in Genesis chapter 1 when Jesus Christ first came to this earth, the Day of Trumpets.

Now consider the following:

Because of human sins God CHANGED some things.

God changed the start of the year to six months earlier, to accommodate the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. God not only changed WHEN the year FOR US is to start; He also changed THE LENGTH OF THE YEAR and THE LENGTH OF LUNAR CYCLES. Every indication we have is that GOD STILL reckons years to be 360 days long, and months to be 30 days long. But WE have to battle with awkward solar cycles and awkward lunar cycles, which include the fraction of a day in each cycle, and THESE are the cycles God expects US to deal with realistically.

Why did God do that? After all, these changed cycles have only caused confusion and difficulties, right? It has made life much more difficult for those who wish to live by all of God's commands.

Another question: WHY do we amongst ourselves (i.e. amongst the different organizations that comprise the Church of God today) have such calendar confusion? Why can't we agree?

I suspect that God allows this calendar confusion to exist amongst us because IT HIDES THE TIMING OF CHRIST'S SECOND COMING!

For example: there are people today who will start the first month (and also the seventh month) on four or five different days ... and some even believe they should start the month with the full moon. And then there are years when some people will pick the new moon before or after the new moon others pick for determining the start of the seventh month. So you have people differing by several days, and sometimes by a whole month as to when, for example, the Day of Trumpets should be.

THAT'S A PRETTY EFFECTIVE WAY TO HIDE WHEN JESUS CHRIST WILL RETURN!

Here we all accept that the Day of Trumpets pictures when Jesus Christ will return, yet we can't agree as to when the Day of Trumpets really is!

Furthermore, having a large majority stuck on the flawed Jewish calendar is a very effective way to see to it that "no man knows the day or the hour" of when Christ should come back. If the calendar that people follow is flawed for the year that really counts, THEN it certainly will obscure the timing of key events.

The fact that the Bible is totally silent about certain matters and thus forces us to make some decisions only reinforces the fact that "no man knows the day or the hour". It is naive to assume that God somehow expects us to follow the present Jewish calendar, which can be conclusively shown to violate clear biblical requirements, and that unquestioning acceptance of the present Jewish calendar will somehow "get us there". THE FLAWED JEWISH CALENDAR ONLY COMPOUNDS THE CONFUSION.

Consider again God's statement in Exodus 12:2 that "FOR US" the first new moon in the spring was to be the first new moon of the year. This hardly makes the calendar being established here in Exodus 12 "GOD'S calendar". And, as we go through the Bible, we see that every generation basically tried their best, with the means at their disposal, to get it right.

So Ezra in the fifth century B.C. accepted and implemented the Babylonian calendar in use throughout the Persian Empire at that time. In the early New Testament times, when the Romans had established the Julian calendar, which totally ignored the new moons, the Jews went by a calendar based totally on observation of the first new crescents.

Later, in the post-biblical times of Hillel II (in the 350's A.D.) the Jews were being scattered further, and so Hillel II made a calendar based on fixed calculations public. His calculations really ignored reality of when the new moons actually take place, and they also introduced traditions that transgress the biblical intent for the calendar; but they were very convenient for people anywhere to apply. So accuracy and correctness were sacrificed on the altar of "convenience".

What we see throughout biblical history is that AT NO STAGE AFTER EXODUS 12 DID PEOPLE HAVE WHAT COULD CORRECTLY BE CALLED "GOD'S CALENDAR"! At all times they simply did their best with the information available to them to start the months correctly. Hillel II with his fixed calendar went away from this. But for us the biblical example is that God expects US to do the best we can with the information that is available to us today. It will still not be "God's calendar", but it will at least be the calendar God expects FOR US to use in our circumstances today.

There is NO JUSTIFICATION AT ALL for the Jews to refer to the Day of Trumpets as "the New Year"! When they freely acknowledge that Trumpets is in fact the first day of the SEVENTH month, then calling that day "new year" is nothing more than an expression of Romans 8:7, the enmity of the carnal mind against God. Any amount of reasoning about "a religious calendar" and "a secular calendar" cannot do away with God's unequivocal statement in Exodus 12:2 that FOR US the year is to start in the spring!

However, one point we should take note of: if people REALLY accept the first day of the seventh month (Trumpets) as "NEW YEAR", then it means they don't really have access to salvation, as a calendar with the "new year" starting at Trumpets simply cannot accommodate the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread ... these can NEVER FOLLOW Trumpets in a year; they must ALWAYS PRECEDE Trumpets.

So the Jewish reference to Trumpets as "new year" is just another expression of their religious confusion. It is interesting that in the calendars they themselves print, from Trumpets to Trumpets, they do indeed show Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles to be BEFORE the Passover in the year (though they number the months correctly). But this (i.e. placing Trumpets before the Passover) is simply not possible without losing the meaning of these Feasts and Holy Days.

One thing I have wondered about is this:

WHY did God start the Feast of Tabernacles EXACTLY TWO WEEKS after Trumpets? It cannot be that each DAY of those two weeks represents 1000 years, as that would then cover 14000 years. IF each WEEK was supposed to represent 1000 years, THEN this would represent a 2000-year period. The only 2000-year period I can at present see is perhaps from Christ's first coming (Trumpets) to the start of "the world tomorrow" (Tabernacles). This is then followed by the ONE WEEK of Tabernacles, representing the 1000-year millennium. And this is then followed by the ONE DAY of the Last Great Day, representing the 100 years appended to the millennium.

If this speculation is correct (which I obviously don't know for sure), then this would mean that the Holy Days and the Feast in the SEVENTH MONTH cover the last 3000 years of God's 7000-year plan. They cover the time from Christ's first coming onwards. They cover the period of the New Testament and beyond. THREE WEEKS in the seventh month represent 3000 years in actual fulfillment.

If the timing of Trumpets and Tabernacles is supposed to signify the last 3000 years of the 7000-year plan, you may say to me: "well, in that case WHERE are the first 4000 years of that plan identified?" And my only possible answer to that question is: in the 4-day gap from the 10th day of the first month (the lamb is chosen for the Passover) to the 14th day of that month (when the Passover was sacrificed) representing the 4000 years from the time of Adam (when Christ's sacrifice became a necessity) to Christ's first coming.

As I said at the start, these are just some of my speculations.

Perhaps there are some things I have not considered? No doubt there are some things that I am currently not aware of. I do believe that there must be reasons for ALL of the dates God has selected in His instructions for us. And in due time God will help us to understand His purposes.

Frank W. Nelte