A Calendar for the Church of God Today

The debate over the calendar has been going on for several years now. By now many of God's people have come to see quite clearly that there are problems with the present Jewish calendar. Thus far it seems we have not been able to settle on a viable alternative; and for that reason many of God's people have continued to hold fast to the Jewish calendar, even though they can recognize the problems.

But next year, in 2000 A.D., the Jewish calendar contains a 2-day postponement to avoid having the day of atonement fall on a Sunday! And for many of God's people, across organizational boundaries, this will present a problem that they cannot reconcile with their consciences!

So I want to put forward in this article A SPECIFIC CALENDAR MODEL FOR CONSIDERATION BY GOD'S CHURCH TODAY. I want to make quite clear that SOME of the points in this suggestion are not absolutes; on some points different decisions could be reached which I believe could also be correct. In that sense this proposal could serve as a starting point rather than as a final solution.

The main underlying aspects of the proposal in this article are:

1) Any calendar model accepted by God's Church today MUST resolve the problems inherent in the present Jewish calendar.

2) Any calendar MUST be based on "a dateline" somewhere on this earth, a point that determines that there is in fact a 23-hour difference between two places that are only 1-hour apart in actual daylight terms. I believe that it is absolutely imperative that a calendar for the Church of God MUST be based on THE INTERNATIONAL DATELINE.

3) The calendar must also be PRACTICAL! It must be something that can be applied easily by ALL of God's people scattered around the globe. It should not make a difference whether a person is in California or in New Zealand or in Canada or in England or in New York or in South Africa or in Mauritius or in India or in Chile, etc.; we should all be ABLE to observe all of God's Feasts and Holy Days on exactly the same days in the year as everyone else, as has always been the case up until now.

4) The calendar must also be CONSISTENT! While it is self-evident that SOME decisions will have to be made on certain matters, those decisions must be applied consistently. THE MOTIVATION underlying any decisions is the key in determining whether such decisions are justified or not. The motivation of wanting to prevent certain Holy Days from falling on certain "inconvenient" days of the week is unbiblical and is NEVER acceptable.

Let's start off by first reviewing THE PROBLEMS with the present Jewish calendar.

THE PROBLEMS WITH THE JEWISH CALENDAR

The ways in which the present Jewish calendar goes against biblical principles, or simply does not agree with actual facts, are as follows:

1) THE MAIN PROBLEM with the present Jewish calendar is as follows:

The Jewish calendar is based on calculating the invisible conjunction of the new moon (known as "the molad") of the seventh month (Tishri) and then going back 177 days to determine the start of the year. These calculations themselves are very nearly correct, being only about 0.2 seconds in error for each "averaged-out lunar cycle". This error of less than 80 minutes over a period of 1900 years is not really much of a problem.

But while these calculations themselves do not present a problem, there IS a problem with the calculated molad not really corresponding to THE FACTS AS THEY EXIST TODAY! Lunar cycles do in fact vary in length, something the Jewish calculations simply do not take into account.

When the calculated molads are compared to THE ASTRONOMICAL FACTS, as recorded in almanacs, etc., it becomes obvious that the molads of Tishri are sometimes in fact up to 15 HOURS LATER than the actual conjunctions of the new moons at that time of the year. At other times the molads are ALMOST 4 HOURS EARLIER than the actual new moons.

So the main problem with the Jewish calendar is: the calculated new moons of the 7th month are TOTALLY UNREALISTIC!

2) Add to this the fact that "the postponement rules" have no biblical support of any kind. Rather, the historical evidence from the first century A.D. clearly contradicts the use of "postponement rules". Those rules are nothing more than a part of "the traditions of the elders", which Jesus Christ said violated God's intent and God's instructions.

3) A third and completely separate problem with the Jewish calendar is that it at various times places the Feast of Tabernacles TOO EARLY IN THE YEAR, having the Feast of Tabernacles start even before the end of summer, and having the first month of the year start well before the end of winter. This violates biblical principles.

4) When this violation of God's instructions occurs (having Tabernacles start too early), it also places the Days of Unleavened Bread too early in the year to have any barley available for the wave offering. Solving the problem with Tabernacles falling too early will also automatically solve this problem with the availability of barley in the spring. Put another way, solving the problem with the first month starting too early, will also solve the problem with Tabernacles sometimes starting too early.

5) A fifth problem with the Jewish calendar is that it always allots 177 days to the first six months of the year.

But in astronomical facts there are sometimes only 176 days from the conjunction of the first month to the conjunction of the seventh month; sometimes there are 177 days; and sometimes there are even 178 days. This means that the Jewish calendar is also OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY, as far as the start of the 1st month of the year is concerned!

The calendar is SUPPOSEDLY based on when the new moons (the invisible conjunctions) occur. But simply subtracting 177 days from the INCORRECTLY CALCULATED molad of Tishri to establish the 1st Day of the 1st Month shows a lack of concern with reality. It is a "hit-and-miss" method for establishing the new moon of the 1st month.

6) The rigidly fixed sequence of leap years in the Jewish 19-year cycle also does not make any provision for the 1-day shift of all 19 years in a cycle for every 216 years that pass, a roughly 5-day shift for every 1000 years. In the Jewish calendar all the Feasts and Holy Days are steadily drifting to later dates in the solar year.

ALL THESE PROBLEMS make the present Jewish calendar unfit for use by God's Church today.

I suspect that most people who still support the Jewish calendar have never considered the fact that the molad of Tishri calculation results in an error of up to 15 hours for the calculation of the Day of Trumpets. Nor are such people aware of the fact that astronomically there may be only 176 days between the new moons of the 1st and the 7th month; or there may indeed be 177 days; or there may be even 178 days.

It simply does not make sense to claim to follow a calendar that is supposedly based on the new moons, but where THE FACTS show that the calculations don't calculate the new moon of the 7th month at all!

So if we are going to reject the Jewish calendar as both, inaccurate and fraught with unjustifiable human traditions, then we need to be aware of the attributes a correct calendar must have.

ATTRIBUTES OF A CORRECT CALENDAR:

The points which a correct calendar must fulfil are:

1) The first month must be in the spring, northern hemisphere. It is not consistent if only 14 years out of every 19 years start in the spring, but 5 years out of every 19 years actually start before the end of winter. This lacks consistency.

2) The start of the first month and the start of the seventh month must have a direct and consistent relationship to the actual new moon conjunctions (or perhaps to the first visible crescents?). There must be consistency.

3) The Feast of Tabernacles (all 7 days of it!) must fall into the autumn. It may not start in the summer (i.e. it may not start before the autumn equinox).

4) The calendar must be able to be applied CONSISTENTLY by all of God's people around the world. It must be a calendar that can really work! It should not be something that creates confusion, with people in different areas observing the Holy Days on different days.

5) The calendar must also be PRACTICAL. THE PRINCIPLES on which the calendar is based should be fairly easy to understand. Today accurate prediction tables are available for all the new moons for the next 50 years. There is therefore NO NEED for any complicated "calculations" for us to perform. Prediction tables are readily available.

6) The calendar must be based on such accurate predictions, and NOT on VISUAL OBSERVATIONS. With the people of God today scattered around this globe it is utterly impractical to devise any system that will rely on visual observation. The very thought of using observation implies that observation would always be the standard in any situation where there was a discrepancy between observation and calculation, otherwise observation is nothing more than window-dressing. But the problems inherent in a worldwide calendar based on visual observation negate relying on such observation. The time of theoretical first visibility can also be accurately calculated in advance.

These are probably the main considerations we need to keep in mind.

So here is a suggested calendar model.

THE CALENDAR PROPOSAL:

1) Recognize and accept THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE.

2) Don't use the Jewish names for the months, but simply refer to them as: 1st Month and 7th Month, etc. (The other months have no effect on our observances of God's Holy Days anyway.)

3) For actual observances of Sabbaths and Holy Days start and end days at sunset for our local area.

4) For calendar determination purposes start and end days at 6:00 p.m. for the Jerusalem time-zone. At 35 degrees east Jerusalem is 2 hours 20 minutes ahead of Greenwich. So it is easy to convert any results into local Jerusalem time.

5) From accurate prediction tables that are available from several different sources select the 1st new moon on or after the spring equinox.

This ensures that the year does not start too early, that it does not start in the winter.

6) Apart from one specific exception (see point #10 below) use 6:00 p.m. as the start of a new day: make the sunset AFTER that conjunction DAY 1 of the new year (Day 1 of the 1st Month). Do this CONSISTENTLY ... irrespective of what day of the week that happens to be, and irrespective of what time of day the conjunction is shown to occur.

Examples:

IF the conjunction occurs at 5:25 p.m. on a Monday evening, THEN make TUESDAY (which starts 35 minutes later at 6:00 p.m.) Day 1 of the 1st Month.

IF the conjunction occurs at 6:33 p.m. on a Monday evening, THEN make WEDNESDAY (which starts Tuesday evening at 6:00 p.m.) Day 1 of the 1st Month.

Apply these rules consistently.

7) The result of CONSISTENTLY applying these rules will be that in most cases Day 1 of the 1st month will also be the day of first visibility of the new crescent, if not in Jerusalem then certainly in areas anywhere from Western Europe to the Americas to Hawaii (which is about 12 hours behind Jerusalem time). Somewhere on earth some of God's people in this age should then, theoretically at least, be able to see the first crescent of the new moon on that first day of the first month.

8) THE MOTIVATION for this rule is NOT to achieve the day of first visibility! The motivation for this rule is to be CONSISTENT! But A CONSEQUENCE of such consistency will be that Day 1 of the new year will usually also be the day of first visibility somewhere.

9) So "the calculations" of the calendar will NOT be based on first visibility! They will be based on the invisible conjunctions! But the first day of the year will then start at the sunset immediately following that conjunction.

10) In the occasional cases where the time of the new moon conjunction falls between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. local Jerusalem time establish the EXACT time for sunset in Jerusalem for the date in question. Around the equinoxes this will always be just before or just after 6:00 p.m.. In that way determine whether the new moon time is actually going to be before or after sunset. Then apply the steps as listed above. For all other new moon times (i.e. earlier than 5:00 p.m. and later than 7:00 p.m.) it is safe to work with the assumption that sunset is at 6:00 p.m., and this assumption will not affect the accuracy of the results achieved.

11) From accurate prediction tables also select the 7th new moon after the spring equinox.

12) Again using 6:00 p.m. as the start of a new day: make the sunset AFTER that conjunction DAY 1 of the 7th Month. Do this CONSISTENTLY, irrespective of what day of the week that happens to be, and irrespective of what time of day the conjunction is shown to occur. Proceed as above.

THE RESULT of basing the 1st Month and the 7th Month on the actual new moons is that sometimes those first 6 months will have 176 days, sometimes 177 days and sometimes 178 days. This is due entirely to fluctuations in the lunar cycles.

13) With both these months (1st and 7th) firmly established, it is easy to determine all of the Feasts and Holy Days for the year.

Thus:

- Passover = 14th Day of the First Month

- Days of UB = 15th - 21st Days of the First Month

- Pentecost = 7 Sundays after the Sunday during UB

- Trumpets = 1st Day of the 7th Month

- Atonement = 10th Day of the 7th Month

- F.o.T. = 15th - 21st Days of the 7th Month

- L.G.D. = 22nd Day of the 7th Month

14) After doing this for 19 years the whole pattern will repeat itself, with perhaps 1-day fluctuations for some years when compared to the previous 19 years. It takes over 200 years (i.e. 11 full cycles of 19 years each) before the whole system will have moved to 1 day later.

15) NOTE!

Our only aim is to always select THE CORRECT TWO NEW MOONS (for the 1st and the 7th months) based on accurate data! We have NOT in any way paid attention to "19-year cycles"! But even without having been motivated to establish a particular sequence of leap years for such a 19-year cycle, a specific sequence WILL unavoidably emerge from this process. This sequence we can THEN take note of; it will help us in making correct predictions, and we should be aware of it.

16) At times there will be an overlap with the dates derived from the present Jewish calendar. At other times we may differ by a day or two from the dates of the Jewish calendar. Occasionally we will differ by a whole month, in those years where the Jewish year starts before the spring equinox.

SOME COMMENTS REGARDING THE ABOVE SUGGESTIONS

1) The calendar will follow the sequence of new moon conjunctions. Thus the year will have 12 or 13 months with either 29 or 30 days each. [This is also the way it is in the Jewish calendar.]

2) However, there are ONLY TWO CONJUNCTIONS in each year that are of concern to God's people for the purpose of observing God's Feasts and Holy Days. They are the conjunction of the 1st month (for Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost) and the conjunction of the 7th month (for Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles and the Last Great Day). So months 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and (occasionally) 13 are not really of concern to us; which of those months have 30 days and which months have 29 days is immaterial so long as the 7th month also starts on the right day. And that start is determined by when the new moon actually takes place.

3) We base the calendar on THE INVISIBLE NEW MOON CONJUNCTIONS. Such conjunctions are far more precise points in time than "first visibility" of the new crescent. They are totally independent of our location on this planet. This also fulfils Genesis 1:14 more clearly:

- precise pin-pointed "turnings" (tekufah, two equinoxes and two solstices) being used to determine the four seasons that make up the year;

- precise new moon conjunctions that determine the various months within such a year.

4) We do NOT base the calendar on the times derived from calculating the Jewish molad of Tishri.

It is MORE important to implement a system that accurately reflects reality as it exists and as we are able to calculate it today, rather than to perpetuate a system that is out of touch with reality. We may never get to something that is perfect, but an error of over 15 hours in a calculation that professes to be accurate to within 3 seconds is not really something we should accept.

5) To be fair to the Jewish calendar:

The calculations the Jewish calendar employs are over 2000 years old, going back to about 150 B.C.. It is highly unlikely that at the time of Hillel II it was understood that all lunar cycles are not of the same duration. Therefore using the average length of a lunation was the best they could possibly do.

Aside from the unjustified human tradition of "postponements", it is not that it was "a bad system" at all! At times placing the Feast of Tabernacles too early was also not a problem due to the actual calculations; that mistake was simply a bad decision, and the following conjunction could have been chosen for Tishri simply by changing the sequence of leap years.

The point really is: TODAY there are very accurate prediction tables available, and we simply don't have any need for complicated calculations, which may still contain an error of 15 hours.

6) However, in recognizing the errors in the Jewish calendar, we are faced with TWO POSSIBLE COURSES OF ACTION:

A) We can try to "put a new patch on an old torn garment"; i.e. we can try to retain as much of the Jewish calendar as possible and attempt to only fix those things that are perceived as obvious problems. It is somewhat like trying TO REPAIR a building that has been neglected and started to fall apart.

B) We can recognize that there was NEVER, AT ANY TIME, anything about the Jewish calendar that could remotely be called "sacred" or "godly" or "divinely inspired"! Here we don't try to "patch up" the problems, or simply "repair" the broken-down building. Here we erase the past system and attempt to build correctly from the foundations upwards, without being shackled or tied down by the building plans of previous misguided builders.

Thus for the Jewish calendar:

- The times determined for the molads of Tishri were NEVER anything more than rough approximations.

- Going 177 days before that molad of Tishri to establish Nisan 1 was likewise nothing more than a rough approximation, since there are sometimes only 176 days, and at other times 178 days between those two new moons.

- There was never a conscientious effort made to always have the Feast of Tabernacles in the autumn. In 360 A.D., for example, Hillel II placed FoT so early that THE LAST GREAT DAY was on September 18, a full 4-5 days before the end of summer! The Jewish calendar was simply NOT constructed with biblical guidelines in mind. It was constructed to adhere to human traditions.

- The postponement rules were also nothing more than an attempt to make the calendar conform to human traditions.

7) It should be clear that I myself am in favour of "option B"; i.e. establishing a correct calendar that is not in any way shackled to Jewish traditions. We cannot assume that the Jewish way of doing things has God's approval.

Thus:

A) Exodus 34:22 makes clear that Tabernacles should be in the autumn. It is clear that even in the Jewish calendar the entire Feast of Tabernacles is in the autumn for about 16 years out of every 19 years. The question is: should Tabernacles EVER start before the beginning of autumn. WHY should it start 3 times in the summer for every 16 times it starts in the autumn? Where is the consistency?

B) It is equally clear that the first month must be in the spring, northern hemisphere. With the Jewish calendar today the year starts IN THE WINTER five times in every 19 years. For the other 14 years the year starts in the spring. The question is: should the year EVER start before the beginning of spring? What is God's intent in this matter? Where is the consistency when the year MOSTLY starts in the spring, but SOMETIMES starts in the winter?

These questions need to be answered without taking Jewish practices into consideration. We want to know God's will, not human traditions.

8) For the year 2000 A.D. the spring equinox is on March 20th at 9:35 a.m. for the Jerusalem time-zone. For the foreseeable future the spring equinox will remain on March 20th in the Gregorian calendar, and the autumn equinox will be on September 22nd.

9) There will always be a 29-day range over which a year may start. IF a new moon occurs 1 day earlier than the earliest permissible date, THEN it means that the next new moon 29 or 30 days later will be used as the start of the new year.

SUGGESTION:

WE ACCEPT THAT THE FIRST NEW MOON OF THE YEAR MAY NEVER FALL BEFORE THE START OF SPRING ON MARCH 20TH! WE APPLY THIS CRITERION CONSISTENTLY TO EVERY YEAR!

This will have the following consequences:

A) Therefore Day 1 of the 1st Month will never be before March 21st, the day that starts after the new moon conjunction. This is also the first FULL day of spring.

B) In this way the First Day of Unleavened Bread can never fall before April 4th. If in such a year April 4th happened to be a Sunday, then that would be the day when anciently the wave offering was required; thus some ripe barley had to be available by then. Barley is never ripe before the beginning of April in Palestine; so this suggestion would ensure that for EVERY year in every 19-year period some barley would be available. [Comment: While barley is not really required TODAY, this ancient requirement does give us a guideline for the timing of the year.]

C) The Feast of Tabernacles will never start before the start of autumn; the autumn equinox currently being on September 22nd. A March 21st start for the year will result in a 1st Day of the 7th Month (Day of Trumpets) on September 13th or 14th or 15th (depending on 176 or 177 or 178 days in the first 6 months) and a 15th Day of the 7th Month on September 27th or 28th or 29th (1st Day FoT).

D) The latest date on which a year may start is thus either on April 18th (based on a new moon on April 17th) or April 19th (based on a new moon conjunction on April 18th); as a new moon conjunction on April 19th (and perhaps even on April 18th ... because of 29 or 30 days between conjunctions) would imply that the previous conjunction occurred on March 20th, the first day of spring. Thus the conjunction on March 20th would have to be used for the start of the year and not the next new moon of April 18th or April 19th.

E) So the conjunctions for the start of the year will over a period of 19 years always fluctuate between March 20th and April 17th/18th. After 19 years this pattern of fluctuations will basically repeat itself; that is the nature of the astronomical realities that confront us today.

F) While with any system (including the present Jewish calendar) the year may ON MOST OCCASIONS not start before the start of spring, this suggestion will ensure that it CONSISTENTLY NEVER starts in the winter! With other systems the year may not start before the start of spring for 14 or 15 or even 17 years out of every 19 years; with this proposal it will NEVER start in the winter. So we have consistency!

10) Regarding making the day that starts with the sunset AFTER the new moon conjunction has taken place Day 1 of the 1st month (and the same for the 7th month):

This proposal may meet with some opposition? Some may claim that it is nothing more than "the postponement rules of the Jewish calendar" all over again. However, I don't believe that that is the case. Here is why I make this proposal:

A) We need to have some CONSISTENCY! This system never shifts the Holy Days away from "inconvenient days of the week". Rather, it consistently proclaims the first sunset that follows the invisible conjunction to be the start of the new year.

B) In effect: we wait for the conjunction to take place (having calculated this in advance) and THEN proclaim the sunset that follows this event to be the start of the new year.

C) This obviates the need for any rules "to postpone" the start of the year where the conjunction takes place VERY LATE IN THE DAY.

D) By proclaiming the day that starts AFTER the conjunction has occurred to be the first day of the month, this first day of the month will in most cases be the day of FIRST VISIBILITY of the new crescent for many areas on earth.

E) Proclaiming the sunset after the conjunction to be the start of the first day is also based on A PRINCIPLE found in Sabbath observance.

Consider this:

The days in our lives are not really separated by sunsets. They are in reality separated by the periods when we sleep. For us a Tuesday starts when we get up in the morning, and it finishes when we go to bed at night. The same applies to a Friday. For us it starts when we get up in the morning, and it concludes when we go to sleep that night. But at sunset that evening THE SABBATH started. Now the Sabbath started with sunset and it continues from there. But it does NOT lay any claim to the daylight portions of Friday BEFORE the sun actually set.

Similarly:

When the invisible new moon conjunction takes place at 5:00 p.m. or at 2:00 p.m. or at 8:00 a.m. or at 3:00 a.m. ... IT DOES NOT LAY ANY CLAIM ON THE TIME THAT PRECEDED IT! Therefore whatever portion of the day PRECEDED the new moon, that cannot be reckoned to be a part of the new moon; the new month can only lay a claim on the time that starts with the conjunction and the time that then follows. Since only a portion of a day cannot be the first full day of a new month, therefore starting the year with the sunset that follows the conjunction is really the most reasonable option. In practice this will also be the day of first visibility for many areas of the earth. Might this be a reconciliation between those who argue for first visibility and those who argue for invisible conjunctions?

First visibility of the new crescent, on the other hand, ALWAYS occurs within the first 20 - 60 minutes after sunset. That is very obviously right at the start of a new day. And so in any system that is regulated by first visibility it will be the day of first visibility itself that becomes Day 1 of the new month.

11) Regarding a dateline:

The weekly Sabbath is, and always has been, determined based on the International Date Line. Without such a fixed dateline we would not be able to determine the days of the week. Dividing the world into time-zones automatically requires a dateline. And without time-zones we would have total chaos in a world of instant global communications.

Similarly, we need to use the International Date Line for the calendar calculations as well. An internationally recognized dateline is absolutely essential for any viable calendar that will be used by people around the world. We MUST base our determinations for the first day of the first month on this internationally recognized and accepted Date Line. [This is also true for the present Jewish calendar.]

12) Regarding "the names of the months":

This calendar will frequently be at variance with the Jewish calendar. It will vary sufficiently from the Jewish calendar to negate us using the same names for the months that are used by the Jews. You would always have to clarify whether you meant "the Jewish month of Nisan" or "the Church of God month of Nisan", resulting in confusion. The origin of the names of the months in the Jewish calendar is just as much pagan as is the origin of the names of the Roman months. While there is no objection to using such names to identify what we are speaking about, neither is there any necessity for us to have specific names for each month.

In the instructions God gave for observing ALL of the Feasts and Holy Days (i.e. Leviticus 23), God only used NUMERIC ADJECTIVES to identify the months (the first month, the seventh month). This is also found in other places in the Bible.

Therefore we should simply refer to the months in such a calendar as: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th month, and in a leap-year, the 13th month. In practice we only have an interest in the 1st month and in the 7th month. [Pentecost in the 3rd month takes care of itself if we have correctly identified the 1st month.] The other months of the year have no meaning to us in a religious sense.

WHAT THIS CALENDAR PROPOSAL LOOKS LIKE IN REAL TERMS:

Keep in mind that I have done NOTHING AT ALL to seek any conformity with the Jewish calendar. I have not used any "19-year cycles". I have not used any "molads". I have not used any "calculations" to link the 1st month with the 7th month. In every case I have only looked at the actual new moon dates and times for both, the first month and the seventh month. I have not used any "postponements" to get away from any "inconvenient days".

Yet there is STILL going to be a large amount of agreement with the Jewish calendar!

Please ALSO keep the following things in mind about the Jewish calendar:

We ALREADY differ with them about when to keep Pentecost. We ALREADY differ with them about when to keep the Passover (which they keep on the 15th and the 16th). We ALREADY differ with them in not having all the extra days they have devised, about 17 days in all.

It is not as if all our observances are somehow taking place at the same time as when the Jews have their observances. The Jews have TWO DAYS EACH for all the Holy Days, except for the Day of Atonement. They also observe two days for Purim, which the Church of God does not observe.

So we shouldn't really feel any kind of pressure to somehow "have to conform with them" as far as possible.

NEVERTHELESS, HERE IS WHAT THIS CALENDAR PROPOSAL LOOKS LIKE FOR THE NEXT 26 YEARS (2000 - 2025):

1) 8 times all the Holy Days will be EXACTLY THE SAME as in the Jewish calendar. Those 8 years are: 2003, 2005, 2006, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2023, and 2025.

2) 4 times all the Holy Days will be EXACTLY ONE DAY EARLIER than the Jewish calendar. Those 4 years are: 2004, 2011, 2016, and 2020.

3) 1 time all the Holy Days will be EXACTLY ONE DAY LATER than the Jewish calendar. That 1 year is: 2024.

4) 3 times Passover and UB will be EXACTLY ONE DAY LATER than the Jewish calendar; but all the autumn Holy Days will be EXACTLY THE SAME as the Jewish calendar. Those 3 years are: 2001, 2008, and 2017.

5) 1 time Passover and UB will be EXACTLY THE SAME as in the Jewish calendar; but the autumn Holy Days will be EXACTLY ONE DAY EARLIER than the Jewish calendar. That 1 year is next year, 2000.

6) 1 time Passover and UB will be EXACTLY TWO DAYS LATER than the Jewish calendar; but the autumn Holy Days will be ONLY ONE DAY LATER than the Jewish calendar. That 1 year is: 2009.

7) 1 time Passover and UB will be EXACTLY ONE DAY EARLIER than the Jewish calendar; but the autumn Holy Days will be EXACTLY THE SAME as the Jewish calendar. That 1 year is: 2012.

8) 1 time Passover and UB will be EXACTLY THE SAME as the Jewish calendar; but the autumn Holy Days will be EXACTLY ONE DAY LATER than the Jewish calendar. That 1 year is: 2022.

9) 6 times the Jewish calendar starts the year BEFORE THE END OF WINTER. Thus for those 6 years all the Holy Days will be ABOUT ONE MONTH LATER than the Jewish calendar. Those 6 years are: 2002, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2018, and 2021.

So, in conclusion, what do we have in this proposal I have made?

WE HAVE:

1) Eliminated ALL the errors and problems with the Jewish calendar.

2) Relied totally and completely on the actual new moons for the 1st and the 7th months.

3) Not been influenced by ANY "traditions of men".

4) A system that can readily and easily be applied by all of God's people IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD.

5) For the 6 years in the next 26 years that the Jewish calendar starts in the winter, we have started the year exactly one new moon later than the Jewish calendar.

6) For the remaining 20 years we have 8 years when all the Holy Days are exactly the same as the Jewish calendar.

7) For another 5 years all the Holy Days are either one day earlier or else one day later than the Jewish calendar.

8) For the remaining 7 years we have EITHER:

- the same as the Jewish calendar in the spring, but a one day difference in the autumn;

OR:

- a one day difference with the Jewish calendar in the spring, but the same as the Jewish calendar in the autumn (except once where there is a two day difference).

9) We also have a close link to "first visibility of the new moon crescent", something that was a major consideration in the early New Testament.

IS THERE REALLY ANYTHING "RADICAL" IN THIS CALENDAR REFORM PROPOSAL?

The calendar question has been a very highly divisive and emotional issue for many people for the past four or more years. Many people are not willing to budge even in the slightest way from the solutions THEY have come up with. They are simply not concerned with whether their system can be applied equally by people in other areas without causing confusion. They have decided to do "their thing".

I myself could clearly see the problems long before I could see a viable solution. Those of you who have read my earlier "calendar articles" know that I have never before attempted to put forward a total solution for the problems with the Jewish calendar. It has been a learning experience for me. I have not tried to avoid facing up to the real problems with the calendar, even though at the time I myself had no complete answer.

The suggestions I have put forward here are not all just "my ideas". Many points are the result of discussions with other people, where I have recognized a good suggestion when it has been made.

And yes, perhaps certain details still need to be changed? But look at what it offers:

- It has rejected human traditions (the postponements)

- It relies exclusively on the REAL new moons

- It largely agrees with actual first visibility

- It is STILL largely in agreement with the Jewish calendar, because the Jewish calendar DOES get it right some of the time, even as they have their Sivan 6th Pentecost on the right Sunday some of the time.

We already keep the Passover one day earlier than the Jews. So what if we occasionally keep it TWO days earlier than they do, in order to be linked to the REAL new moon? So what if sometimes we keep the Passover on THE SAME DAY they do, again in order to be linked to the real new moon?

So what do you think?

Frank W. Nelte