WHICH IS THE CORRECT CALENDAR: THE PAGAN ONE THE WESTERN WORLD USES OR THE BIBLICAL ONE? IS IT TRUE THAT OUR DAY & MONTH NAMES ORIGINATE FROM GODS THE PAGANS DEARLY WORSHIPPED? WE INFORM – YOU CHOOSE PROFESSOR WA LIEBENBERG 0 WHICH IS THE CORRECT CALENDAR: THE PAGAN ONE THE WESTERN WORLD USES OR THE BIBLICAL ONE? By WA Liebenberg Proofread by: Lynette Schaefer All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or copied. Distributed by: Hebraic Roots Teaching Institute Pretoria – South Africa Email: [email protected] Mobile: +27 (0)83 273 1144 Facebook Page: “The Hebraic Roots Teaching Institute” Website: www.hrti.co.za 1 Preface YHWH “God” has called us to do two things. First, we are to never give up studying and seeking the correct interpretation of any given Bible passage. Second, such opportunities are golden moments for us to learn to show grace and love to others whose understanding of a given passage may differ from ours. Throughout the HRTI’s teachings we use a slightly different vocabulary to that which some might be accustomed. We have chosen to use what many refer to as a Messianic vocabulary. The reasons being: Firstly, using Hebraic-sounding words is another way to help you associate with the Hebraic Roots of your faith. Secondly, these words are not merely an outward show for us, they are truly an expression of who we are as Messianic Jews and Gentiles who have "taken hold" of our inheritance with Israel. Instead of saying "Jesus," we call our Saviour "Y’shua," the way His parents would have addressed Him in Hebrew. In addition, rather than referring to Y’shua as "Christ," we use the word "Messiah," which is an Anglicized version of the Hebrew word, Moshiach. "Yahovah" is the name of God in Hebrew, where it is written as four consonants (YHWH or YHVH, as the W and V is derived from the same Hebrew letter ‘Vaw’). These four letters are called the Tetragrammaton (Greek for "[a word] having four letters). Jews ceased to use the name in the Greco-Roman period, replacing it with the common noun Elohim, “God,” to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others; at the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered, and was replaced in spoken ritual by the word Adonai (“My Lord”). From about the 6 th to the 10 th century the Masoretes, Jewish scholars who were the first to add vowels to the text of the Hebrew Bible, used the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai or Elohim as the vowels for YHWH, and later on the artificial name Jehovah was produced. Christian scholars and translators after the Renaissance and Reformation periods replaced the sacred name YHWH with GOD and LORD (all in capital letters in the Bible); which was a strategic move of Satan as to not using the Name. The Sacred Name occurs 6,828 times in the Hebrew text of the Bible, proving YHWH wants us to use it. In the 19 th and 20 th centuries, biblical scholars again began to use the name Yahweh; and it is now the conventional usage in biblical scholarship, but leading Hebrew Scholars suggest YHWH should be pronounced as Yah-oo-VaH (Y’shua is derived from YaH-shuvah which means YaH saves) . 2 The Western Pagan Calendar versus YHWH’s Sacred Calendar Introduction The modern Gregorian Calendar used by most of the world is an invention of the Roman Catholic Church. This calendar, with pagan religious holidays designed and enforced by the Catholic Church, is a counterfeit of YHWH's Sacred Calendar. A return to all truth is also a return to understanding and observing YHWH's Sacred Calendar. The most widely used calendar was named after a Roman Catholic pope, Gregory, who decreed all should follow its definition. This calendar literally symbolizes the change of "times and laws". The true power of the Catholic Church is demonstrated by its widespread use and especially the observance of the Catholic pagan holiday substitutes for YHWH's holy days, the yearly Sabbaths placed orderly into His calendar (YHWH’s Sabbaths and feasts are already explained in one of our other products). There have been many different calendars used by different peoples and societies in the course of history. It is interesting to note, the further back you go in history, the closer other calendars match the principles you will learn about from YHWH's Sacred Calendar. When you consider this, you will realize it must be this way. The original calendar, and the one the Jews use from the Bible, is YHWH's Sacred Calendar. It is interesting to note that there was no other calendar for thousands of years, so why does the world today follow a pagan calendar that is merely 500 years old? Background The original Roman Calendar (circa 1 700 B.C.) appears to have been a luni-solar calendar 2 and started with the spring equinox 3, which is actually 1 “Circa (often abbreviated c. , ca. , ca or cca. and sometimes italicized to show it is Latin) means "in approximately" (it literally means "around"), referring to a date. It is widely used in genealogy and historical writing, when the dates of events are approximately known. When used in date ranges, a circa is applied before each approximate date, while dates without a circa immediately preceding them are generally assumed to be known with certainty” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circa 2 A luni-solar calendar is a calendar in many cultures whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. If the solar year is defined as a tropical year, then a luni- solar calendar will give an indication of the season 3 “An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the Sun being vertically above a point on the Equator. The term “equinox” can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day are equal in duration . It may be better 3 an approximation of when the Sacred Calendar starts. The Roman calendar was a very haphazard affair. The pagan calendars have always been at the mercy of kings and priests . The Julian Calendar (46 B.C.) was a solar calendar, 4 which was reasonably accurate for a time with leap years every four years. By this time, the New Year was starting at the winter solstice ,5 the birthday of the Sun . The current date of December 25 has actually moved around quite a bit as far as its relationship to the solstice is concerned. This will be obvious as you study about calendars. The Gregorian Catholic Calendar (1582), used in the world today, was imposed on the world by the power of the Catholic Church . It still took centuries of time to complete. Though the calendar is quite accurate now, there were arbitrary changes in the dates based on "traditions" which upset quite a few people. The power of the Catholic Church and tradition keeps this calendar in force. This calendar is also known as the Solar Calendar. A Solar Year is 365.2 days in length. Our present-day calendar has changed several times from the original calendar that it started out to be. With Romulus as the leader of Rome, the days and the months of the Roman calendar were set by the cycles of the sun and the moon. At that time, a year was considered to be ten months in length. The New Year began in the Spring on March 1 and ended in December. Numa then succeeded Romulus as the new leader and introduced a new calendar which consisted of twelve months. This calendar ended in February. Years later the New Year was changed from March 1st to January 1st , which is when the civil year began. The days of the year numbered three hundred and sixty-five days. Then, Julius Caesar , the famous Roman Emperor, entered the picture and he introduced the Julian calendar . This calendar began on January 1 in the year 45 B.C. understood to mean that latitudes +L and -L north and south of the equator experience nights of equal length” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox 4 A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the position of the earth on its revolution around the sun (or equivalently the apparent position of the sun moving on the celestial sphere) 5 "The Winter Solstice occurs exactly when the earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the Winter Solstice lasts only an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used as Midwinter or, in contrast, the first day of winter to refer to the day on which it occurs. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the Winter Solstice occurs on December 21 or 22 each year in the Northern Hemisphere" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice 4 Finally, Pope Gregory XIII brought into being his own version of the Gregorian calendar in the year 1582 , and that evolved into the calendar that we use today. BC, AD, BCE and CE To categorize calendars is by identifying their core event; that is, what the calendar is based on. The "Christian" or Western calendar is a solar calendar based on "Christ’s" birth.