Feast Schedules

ne of the first controversies presented to us when we began observing feasts was the subject of the calendar. We knew that some folks used the vernal equinox as the determining factor for beginning the first month of the new year, while others insisted that it's not the vernal equinox, but the state of the barley harvest that our Creator designed for determining the new year. Since we come from a farming background, we appreciated the understanding that Yahweh allows the changing season's agricultural conditions to determine when the new year starts. For this reason, we aligned ourselves with "Green Ears of Barley" proponents. For over ten years, we eagerly anticipated the report that green ears of barley had been found in Israel. Once we received the report, we knew that the next new moon would be the first "moon" of the year.

Our decision to switch from "Green Ears" to "Equinox" was not an easy one at first, but over the years we have seen enough confirmations to persuade us that our decision was the right one. Nevertheless, we have found that those who continue to use the green ears of barley as their "measuring stick" seem to apply what we believe is unsound reasoning in reaching their conclusions. We mean no offense towards those of the opposing view, but at the same time, since we continue to have our own reasoning questioned by the "Green Ears" folks, it is only fair that we should respond that their answers are (to us) unsatisfactory. With this in mind, we are supplying a very brief explanation as to why, at least in the year 2010, the reasoning we've seen from the "Green Ears" proponents does not seem sound.

For openers, this is the first year we can remember in which the "Green Ears" folks supplied videos of the green ears. As we watched the videos, we heard repeated cries of "Wow!" from the narrator. He was clearly excited about his find. At the same time, June and I were saying "Wow" as well, but our "wow" was a "wow" of disbelief. Yes, we saw an occasional sprig of barley, but the majority of the field was not yet headed out. Furthermore, it was my understanding that the ancient Jews would obtain their sheaf of barley from a cultivated field, not a wild one as shown in the videos. It doesn't make sense for wild barley to be considered "firstfruits" when it wouldn't have been harvested anyway. Yet this is what the "Green Ears" crowd was excited about. You can research wild barley for yourself to see how difficult and impractical it is to harvest.

The "Green Ears" proponents followed up their preliminary report with a "harvest-ready" report just prior to their Passover observance in March. Once again, as we watched their video, we heard exclamations of "Wow!" and once again, we were saying the same thing, but with a tone of disbelief. Interspersed among the predominantly brown barley crop were green shoots, exposing a considerable number of yet unripe barley. Having been raised on a farm, we raised a lot of wheat, which is very similar to barley. We would never have considered harvesting a wheat field that was so spattered with unripe stalks as the field that we saw on the "You Tube" video. Of course, this raises an important question: Did these men have any farming experience? Moreover, I can only wonder if, during the course of those years when we eagerly awaited the report of green ears of barley in Israel, from whence did those reports come? From inexperienced reporters who were overly anxious to jump start the new year?

We are acquainted with a gentleman who has done an amazing amount of research into the calendar. He has authored a document that is well over 200 pages in length and is chock full of evidence supporting the vernal equinox being the catalyst for determining the new year. However, to my surprise, he completely dismisses the need for barley. Does he not understand that Yahweh expected the priest to wave a sheaf of ripe barley on the morrow after the sabbath? If the barley is not ripe in time for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, then there is a problem! I explained to him that he is hurting his own position by dismissing the need for ripe barley in time for the feast because the fact is, you will ALWAYS have ripe barley in time for the feast if you begin the new month on or after the day of the vernal equinox.

Now that the "early" feast is over, some "Green Ears" folks are producing sensational reports of barley that is already falling off the stalk and reseeding itself, as though those of the "late" persuasion are really messed up and if they were farmers, they would be watching their barley crop waste away while awaiting the "late" feast. I would love to see the evidence of this "reseeding." Back on the farm, we would experience harvest delays due to rain or mechanical problems, but even after a month of waiting there was minimal loss due to grain dropping from the heads. Thus, I hate to say this, but something tells me some "Green Ears" folks were not only a little too anxious to start the new Scriptural year, but now they're trying to justify their earliness by depicting us "late" folks as losing the crop due to waiting too long to start the new year.

In our study entitled "Balancing the Calendar," we cover what I feel are the primary reasons for believing that our Creator wants us to begin the new year on or after the day of the vernal equinox. Historically, this is the way the ancients understood things. Nevertheless, we recently read a report from a "Green Ears" proponent in which he claims that the ancients didn't know how to determine the equinox. If that's the case, then I wonder why Philo, a first-century Jew, wrote, "Scripture thinks it proper to reckon the cycle of months from the vernal equinox"? If Philo didn't know how to determine when the vernal equinox occurs, then why did he write that this is the point from which, according to Scripture, the cycle of months is reckoned?

One thing we didn't cover in our "Balancing the Calendar" study is the timing of the Passover during the year when Yeshua was crucified. Many who research the timing of the "three days and three nights" understand that He could only have been crucified on a Wednesday, which in turn means that Passover fell on a Wednesday that year. When you research the possible years that He could have been crucified, the only viable candidate is the year 31 CE. As it turns out, that year would have been very similar to this year in that a new moon was sighted a little over a week before the equinox. I can well imagine that if today's "Green Ears" folks had been in Israel prior to the sighting of that March new moon, they would have excitedly produced stalks of green ears of barley and boldly declared that the next new moon was the "moon of aviv." However, that is not what first-century Judaism did. Instead, they declared the April new moon to be the first month of the year. During that month (not the previous one), Passover fell on a Wednesday. This is all information that is easily verifiable for those who desire to look into it.

We don't really expect to change anyone's minds with regard to determining the first month of the year, but hopefully this brief explanation will at least suffice to help you to better understand why we believe the way we do.

On our Abib 2010 calendar, we provide comparison photos of a barley field considered "harvest-ready" by Green Ears proponents and a truly harvest-ready field. Frankly, the video of the "harvest-ready" field seemed to hone in on the clearly ripe plants while not really providing clear close-ups of the rest of the field, which made it even more difficult to discern the overall state of the field. That which we did see in the video was mixed with unripe barley, indicating a field that could not have been harvest-ready in time for a March Passover.

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YOM TERUAH (Feast of Trumpets) 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

ave you been told that the holy days of Scripture were "done away"? That's what we were told when we started asking questions. Many folks, like us, as they ponder Scripture -- especially what is known as the "Old Testament" -- start to put "two and two together" and come to a realization that those days were not intentionally ordained only to later become disordained (or whatever you call it when a "holy day" becomes an "ordinary day"). Those same folks who told us that the holy days ordained in Scripture have been "done away" expected us to believe that they were replaced by days ordained by men who took it upon themselves to designate as "holy" days that had been previously honored by idol-worshipping heathens.

If this method makes sense to you, then that is certainly your prerogative, but as for us, we prefer to wait until our Creator's "holy days" are disordained by the One who declared them "holy" in the first place.

A common reason we've heard that the "holy days" of Old are no longer "holy" is that they've been fulfilled by Yeshua the Messiah. I would ask, "How does Yeshua fulfilling holy days make them no longer holy?" I know that Yeshua is our Passover lamb, without blemish, Whose blood redeems Yahweh's people from their sins. Although I do not understand how Yeshua being the fulfillment of the Passover lamb means, "Don't observe Passover any more," I guess I can see how some folks might think that's what it means.

Passover occurs during the first month of the Scriptural year, during the month referred to by Scripture as "Abib." The word "Abib" is a Hebrew word that means "to be tender; green, i.e., a young ear of grain." As implied by the meaning of Abib, this month does not fall during the winter; rather, the first month of the Scriptural year begins in the spring. If you would like to know more about the Scriptural calendar, you are welcome to read our perspective of the calendar ordained by our Heavenly Father by reading our study entitled Balancing the Calendar. It was during this month, on the very day of Passover, that Yeshua the Messiah was crucified, thus fulfilling the type/antitype of the Passover lamb commanded to be sacrificed every year on Abib 14. Once Yeshua fulfilled His role as our Passover lamb, did Passover henceforth become a regular, ordinary day? If so, June and I don't glean that understanding from what the Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 5:7-8:

⁶Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

⁷Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Messiah our Passover is sacrificed for us:

⁸Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Although Passover was never ordained as being a holy day, per se, it certainly wasn't an ordinary day, either. It was essentially a day of preparation for the seven-day festival that immediately followed it. An integral part of that preparation involved removing all leavening from each dwelling. Of course, Abib 14 was also the day on which the Passover lambs were slain. If, following Yeshua's resurrection, Passover became just an ordinary day, then the Apostle Paul missed an excellent opportunity to add that little disclaimer in his letter to the Corinthian believers. In fact, he admonished them to “keep the feast.” What feast was he referring to? It’s a feast that he suggested they keep with “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” The Apostle Paul refers to “leaven” metaphorically as representing malice and wickedness, whereas “unleavened” represents sincerity and truth. The feast that immediately follows the Passover is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when Yahweh’s people are commanded to live without leavening for seven days. Why were they commanded to do this? Well, for those who are familiar with the Exodus story, we understand that the Israelites left Egypt in haste, carrying their yet unleavened bread with them because it didn’t have time to rise before their sudden departure (Exodus 12:39). However, many of us also understand that Yahweh works in mysterious ways, so I don’t believe we should conclude that the symbolism of the unleavened bread ends with the remembrance of the unleavened cakes that the Israelites were compelled to take with them when they forsook their Egyptian homes. If “unleavened” has a dual meaning, it must be that of Paul’s “malice and wickedness” metaphor. More specifically, it can be understood as representing sin.

For the seven-day duration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we are commanded to be free of the leavening of malice and wickedness. This is not an easy task to fulfill, but certainly it was fulfilled by Yahweh’s Son, Yeshua the Messiah, who was the perfect Lamb, without blemish … without sin. Moreover, He is our Example in that we should also strive to live sinless lives. To accomplish this, we must make every effort to live by every Word of Yahweh (Matthew 4:4), and yes, that does include observing as “holy” the days our Creator says are holy.

For many who observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread (I don’t ever mean be so presumptuous as to think I’m speaking for everyone), those seven days without leaven (sin) serve as a model for what we should strive to attain throughout the remainder of the year. Being human, many of us tend to lose sight of our goal, whether it be at the moment in which someone cuts us off in traffic or when we gossip about someone. We need to work on cleaning up our daily lives, and observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread can be regarded as being akin to tying that string around your finger to help you remember what you’re supposed to do … or even what you should have done.

We don’t have to stop at merely regarding the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a seven-day reminder/reinforcement of how we should live during the rest of the year. June and I are acquainted with many fellow feast-observers who also regard those seven days of introspection as being the antitype of eternity, where sin (“leavening”) will be officially removed and eliminated. Thus, this feast is not only a time for us to check our “vital signs” and commit to living lives that exemplify the message of Scripture, but a time to look forward to that day when sin will be no more … when our Heavenly Father Himself will wipe every tear from the eyes of those who remained faithful to Him (Revelation 21:4).

As you can see, then, June and I are not yet persuaded that we Yahweh’s servants should have ever discontinued observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread, nor are we persuaded that the holy days commanded to be set apart during that feast are no longer “holy.” According to Leviticus 23:7-8, the first and last days of this feast are days on which to have a “holy convocation” and on which no servile work is to be done. This is why we consider those days to be “holy,” and we have yet to be shown where, according to Yahweh’s Word, those days have ever been declared “unholy” or days on which it is now permissible to do regular work. Many have tried persuading us of this belief, and perhaps we will eventually address those arguments, but for now, we hope you at least have a general understanding of why June and I choose to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Okay, I’ve spent a considerably large amount of space commenting on our perspective pertaining to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but there are other feasts referenced in Scripture that are also worthy of our attention. The feast that comes fifty days after the first day of Unleavened Bread is the holy day known as "Shavuot," which is Hebrew for "Weeks," also known as the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. This is one of the more controversial feasts of Scripture because some believers are persuaded that we should count the fifty days from the morrow of the weekly Sabbath that falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, whereas others are equally persuaded that the count begins on the morrow of the first day, which is often referred to as a “high day Sabbath,” i.e., a Sabbath that may fall on any day of the week. June and I have our own view on this topic, which we freely share with anyone interested. Our study is entitled Facing the Pentecost Controversy. As with the holy days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, many believe this holy day was fulfilled (and hence, "done away") on the day of Pentecost that fell during the year of Yeshua's resurrection. Again, I'm not sure I understand how this can be so construed as to mean, "Don't observe Pentecost any more" or even how it means that day is no longer a holy day, yet I know this is the approach commonly used by the majority (though certainly not all) of Christianity.

And now, we come to the holy days of the Scriptural seventh month. The first day of the Scriptural seventh month is the holy day commonly known as "The Feast of Trumpets." In Hebrew, it is called "Yom Teruah," which literally means "Day of Shouting," but it can also be understood as the day of blowing the trumpets, which is how the common designation "Trumpets" came into being. To most of Judaism, the first day of the seventh month is known as "Rosh Hashanah," which means "head of the year." This stems from their observance of the civil year, which starts with the seventh month.

Okay, this brings me to the point I'm hoping to make. I can almost understand why folks might avoid observing Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and I can sorta see why they might teach that Pentecost no longer needs to be set aside as a "holy day." However, no one has ever satisfactorily explained to us how or why the Feast of Trumpets was "done away." It seems to me that if this feast has a literal fulfillment, it will be a day yet future. Specifically, I'm referring to the day of the "last trump" described in I Thessalonians 4 and I Corinthians 15. Here is what we read in I Thessalonians 4:13-18:

¹³But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

¹⁴For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Yeshua will the Almighty bring with Him.

¹⁵For this we say unto you by the word of the Master, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Master shall not prevent them which are asleep.

¹⁶For the Master Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of the Almighty: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first:

¹⁷Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Master in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Master.

¹⁸Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Could there possibly be a connection between the “trump of the Almighty” and the Feast of Trumpets? The Apostle Paul made another reference to this wondrous, yet future, event in I Corinthians 15:51-52:

⁵¹Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

⁵²In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

As we all hopefully understand, the "last trump" will occur at the time of the Messiah's return. Is it possible that this ultimate trumpet blast, which will certainly be a day of shouting, represents the fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets – Yom Teruah? Can anyone state with all sincerity of heart that it cannot? If this “last trump” will be the fulfillment of Yom Teruah, one question that we must consider is, “Has this happened yet?” If not, then why should we regard the Feast of Trumpets as having been "disordained"?

If you observed Yom Teruah, we hope you had a wonderful and meaningful experience. The next holy day on our calendar is The Day of Atonement, otherwise known as "Yom Kippur." Like Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur is rich in meaning ... and although Yeshua the Messiah atoned for our sins, we don't believe this means that day has been fulfilled. More on that later!

-- Larry & June