Building on the Foundation

  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...

  In our recent examination of Christmas , we saw how the holiday began as a church attempt to sanitize the devil worship of the heathens, and that nearly every modern Christmas tradition stems from the pagan celebrations of Saturnalia and Yule. The modern face of Christmas, Santa Claus, is a repackaging of false gods such as Odin, Saturn, and Kronos — nothing less than Satan the Devil in disguise. If you haven ’ t yet read that post, please do. It lays the groundwork for this one. So what about New Year’s Day, eight days after Christmas? The holiday of fireworks, parades, staying up until midnight, and dressing up in costume, as pictured above? New Year’s Day is just the first day of a new year, right? How could there be anything wrong with that? You may recall that Christmas embraces the whole “Christmas season,” and that it often encompasses 12 days from December 25th to January 6th. New Year’s Day is not only part of the Christmas season but, like Christmas itself, is steeped i...