Building on the Foundation

  The Biblical Calendar is a hotly debated topic with a plethora of different opinions.  How can we know which is the right one? Let's start with what the Bible actually requires.  Genesis 1:14 “ Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years .’” A Calendar must use the heavenly bodies. Furthermore, the feast of Passover must be in the spring. (this is discussed later.) That's it!   Those are the Biblical criteria for a calendar. Nothing less and nothing more. The purpose of a calendar is to keep people in synchrony with each other. This admission allows us to disregard any “calendar” that fails to do this. To find out which calendar to use we must whittle the pool down to what works, and what does not.  Let us explore the workings of a calendar that we will label as “ Calendar X ”   This calendar in following the Biblical guidelines for...

  For a number of years now, God’s calendar has been a favorite study topic of mine. It’s also one of the most controversial and hotly debated topics. So today, let’s take a gander at another topic of calendar controversy. When does a year begin on God’s calendar? Some say it begins in the spring; some say it begins in the fall. Who’s right? Surprisingly, both are right — but it depends on what type of year we’re talking about. God’s Word documents two different types of years, as we’ll see momentarily. Just as we have both civil and fiscal years today, so they did in Bible days, too. Nisan: The Religious and Civil Year How do we know that a Biblical year begins in the spring? Simple. We know that Passover is in the spring, and in Exodus 12:1-2, God gave these instructions for the Passover month: “Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ‘This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.’” So the month of Passov...

  Over the past thirty years or so, many people rejected the calculated Hebrew calendar in favor of sighted calendars, solar calendars, and probably others as well. But of all those who reject the Hebrew calendar, very few understand it. It seems to me that if people wish to reject the Hebrew calendar, they should at least understand it first. God’s Word tells us, “He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him” (Prov. 18:13). This post isn’t meant to wade into the calculated calendar vs. sighted calendar issue, but simply to show what the Hebrew calendar seeks to accomplish, and how it works. What Type of Calendar? Today, most of the world follows a solar calendar, the Gregorian calendar. In this system, the sun determines years, and the moon plays no role at all. Each time the earth completes one trip around the sun, that marks roughly one year. The calendar divides the year into twelve parts that are still called “months,” even though they have nothing ...