AN ANSWER TO A FRIEND, TO QUESTIONS HE ASKED,
ABOUT THE CHURCH OF GOD, IN TRUTH,
AND THE CALENDAR FROM GOD'S WORD?
Dear friend,
While it is evident that we are not swimming on the same current of the river in so far as our
understanding of what God's Sacred Calendar is, yet your plea for tolerance among God's people persuaded me
to answer you back. After all, even the prophet Isaiah said, "come let us reason this out together......" (Isaiah
1:18).
You mentioned that the reading materials we sent you deal mainly with astronomy. You are right because
that's exactly what the calendar is all about. It revolves around God's heavenly bodies - the sun, the moon and
the stars. King David even said in psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God" Paul added, "For the
invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even His eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).
And wonder of all wonders, these heavenly bodies move on their respective paths in perfect harmony for
millions and millions of years. On the last page of his booklet, Does God Exist? Mr. Armstrong said, " ….... you
look up into the great vast sky at the master clock of the universe which never misses a second - the perfect
watch by which we must constantly set all our imperfect man made watches." And then the Hebrew calendar
advocates would tell me that one is hard pressed to come up with an absolutely correct calendar in the Bible?
If it is the most perfect master clock in the whole universe- then what is there for the Jews to calculate
time for us? All throughout Genesis 1:1-13 God already defined the start of day from the evening up to the
daylight time of day. From even to even. Then in verse 14, " God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of
the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years."
Certainly that's what calendar is all about. He added: "Are there not twelve hours in the day ... but if a man walk
in the night you stumbleth......?" (John 11: 9-10).
God's Calendar is amazingly simple. The day begins at sunset. The week begins at the end of the seventh
day. The month begins with a new moon and the festival year is determined by the earth's one revolution around
the sun. From one spring turn (equinox) to the next spring turn (equinox) is the most accurate count of a festival
year.
In the same token, we account for the start of the month at the sitting of the moon and never to wait for
the appearance of the faint crescent light three or four days later. "The moon is for season, (appointed times) the
sun knows his going down" (Psalm 104:19). Why look at a day being over when the sun has set and not look at
the moon in the same way?
Along this line I am reminded that hundreds of years before Judaism, as far back as the days of King Saul
they did not rely on cloud free skies and naked eye observation nor lighting of fires on hilltop to signal the
appearance of the faint crescent light to determine the new moon. David and Jonathan already knew the precise
day of the new moon ahead of time. "Then Jonathan said to David: Tomorrow is the new moon and thou shalt
be missed (at the king's table) because your seat will be empty" (1 Samuel 20: 17-34). See, those were the days
when Judaism has not yet entered the scene in the life of Israel.
A lot of things had also been said that Jesus was crucified not because He argued and disagreed with and
taught others to disregard the Jewish calendar. It is further alleged that He Himself observed and acknowledged
the same feast days. That the Jewish calendar was never an issue with Jesus Christ and His Apostles. It does
sounds good alright but the problem is - is it the truth? We will see!
Jesus Christ answered all of these issues some 2000 years ago. Notice what Christ told those so called
religious leaders of Judaism, " I know that ye have not the love of God in you. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had you believed Moses, ye
would have believe Me. But ye believe not his writings, how will ye believe My words?" (John 5:42-45-47).
This is Christ in the flesh speaking. The God of absolute truth. The God that cannot lie! Clearly, even
by this alone can anyone say that they are in agreement with one another? They have appropriated the name of
Moses to be the source of their authority sitting on Moses set yet here Christ is telling them straight to their faces
that they did not believe Moses.
He did not mention their calendar He just made a blanket statement that they did not believe Moses. That
automatically includes every one of his instructions which they have ignored or manipulated. If the Jewish so
called calendar experts did not follow the instructions given by Christ to Moses then clearly it is a calendar that
is not of God.
God saw to it that the Jews preserved what was entrusted to them, but carnal minded and unconverted
as they are, the preserved it alright, but they did not obey and believed it!
The Pharisees and the Sadducees, two prominent groups contesting for power on religious matters in the
holy land believe in the one true God but did not believe that God is a family. Shame to the Jews. They are not
even of one accord with regards to the resurrection. Imagine the oracles of God committed to them yet the
Sadducees did not even believe on the very essence of our only hope - the biblical truth as fundamental as the
resurrection of the dead? Neither group believed that Jesus was the Messiah despite of all the miraculous
evidences in their midst.
Throughout His ministry, Christ called them vipers, liars, hypocrites and blind guides (Matt. 23: 13-33).
Into their faces Christ bluntly told them, " You are of your father the devil and the lust of your father you will
do" (John 8:44). What a powerful denunciation of the so called religious leaders of His time. The New Testament
accounts with lots of harsh name calling and straight forward condemnation that Christ directed to the Jews
virtually every time He confronted them!
Later, fearful that they would lose their most coveted position in the temple they willfully conspired and
eventually succeeded in murdering Him with the most horrible and painful of death ever devised by man.
While it is true that when the curtain of human civilization was raised in the garden of Eden, the Israelites
and their descendants, the Jews in particular when they appeared on the scene have always been at the forefront
of the human drama, but their rejection of the Christ is its own clear indication that they understood very little
of that which they were entrusted with - the oracles of God.
"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men"
(Matt 6: 23:13). "For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men ….full well ye reject
the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition" (Mark 7:8-9).
"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?....an evil man out of the treasure of
the heart bringeth forth evil things" (Matt. 12: 27-34, 30:34-35).
With all of these facts at hand, can we still entertain the idea that Christ and the Jews are in agreement
with one another?
In the "Good News" magazine dated May 1964, Mr. Armstrong released the following statement that
settles this issue once and for all. He said, "It was God who actually preserved the exact same words in the true
Hebrew and Greek copies that He has inspired in the original writings. He (God) merely used the Jews as His
instrument in accurately copying and recopying (as copies become used, worn and old with age.) the Hebrew text
of the Old Testament. All these were true and accurate. God actually committed the oracles.............,.THAT IS
THE ACTUAL WRITTEN WORDS OF THE SCRIPTURES to the Jews". THERE YOU ARE! GOD'S
TWENTIETH CENTURY SERVANT, HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG, ACCURATELY AND
DOGMATICALLY STATED THAT THE "ORACLES OF GOD ARE THE ACTUAL WRITTEN WORDS
OF THE SCRIPTURES, which God Himself inspired! Read it again and consider God's end time messenger's
pronouncement. It agrees 100% with the Bible and absolutely excludes ALL WRITINGS OF MEN TO THE
CONTRARY! Clearly, anything outside of the written words of God in the Bible is not part of the oracles
entrusted to the Jews and that include their so called sacred calendar.
The life and works of the Jews are filled with exceptions. As a covenant people, they have been an
exception from the rest of the human race. The universally accepted arithmetical count starts from number one,
the Jews look for the 7th month to find the first month. The Bible declares that the New Month starts at the
instant of darkness (Gen:3-5). the Jews begin the new month at the start of the faint crescent light approximately
already on the 4th day. God in His immutable law declared Abib to be the first month of the year, the Jews in
open defiance declared that the 7th month start their new year and count back 177 days to determine the first
month. What a life of exceptions indeed. A life lived contrary to the law.
Mr. Armstrong used to tell us (sort of) that we went to see a movie and entered the theater when it was
about to end. So what do we come out of it? Naturally we have to sit for some time and see it from the beginning
to have a grasp of what the movie is all about. In the same way, we have to retrace back Israel's history, the Jews
in particular to understand what happened along the way.
Consider the degree of influence the Jews have been subjected to: From their Babylonian captivity, their
sad oppressive experience under the Persian Empire, the imposition of HELLENISM - by Alexander the Great
where Greco-Macedonian culture and ways of thinking spread all over their conquered territory (remember
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and their pagan belief of the immortality of soul, etc). It was during the
Greco-Macedonian Empire that the Sanhedrin ceased to exist that lead to the rise of Judaism, a blend of Greek
paganism and the Torah.
"To demonstrate that he had left all traditions of his race behind, Jason the High Priest himself sent a rich
present for sacrifices in connection with the great festival of Tyre in honor of the god Hercules." Kent, History
of the Jewish People pages 324-325. The extent of paganism that the Jews were observing at that time was
remarkably unbelievable. So strong was the influence of Hellenistic beliefs that even the High Priest himself was
offering sacrifices to pagan gods. (Part 6 page 3, 2nd to the last paragraph,) "Is Judaism the law of Moses."
And the worst is yet to come! When Antiochus Epiphanes gained control of the Seleucid Kingdom (168
B.C.) he issued "By Royal decree, the observance of the Sabbath or the sacred Feast and practicing the rites of
circumcision were absolutely forbidden under penalty of death. All copies of the law were destroyed. Heathen
altars and temples were erected throughout Judea and every Jew was compelled in public to sacrifice to idols,
swine's flesh or that of some other unclean beast, All woman who had their sons circumcised were publicly
marched the city of Jerusalem and then thrown from the high walls to their death." Such things were everyday
occurrences against the Jew who failed to abide by the decrees of the king (Margolis, History of the Jewish
People, pg. 137-138).
Under such circumstances and on pain of death, it is no wonder why the Jews have swallowed hook line
and sinker the anti-religious practices of the occupying forces. Down through the stream of time, the new breed
of Jews lost most of God's vital truth to include the understanding of the new moon.
Last but not the least, the reign of the Roman Empire where gladiatorial combat and persecution of
Christians in the Roman arena had become a spectacle for all the so-called civilized world to see. Above all else,
can the world forget the horrible crucifixion of Christ instigated by the Jews and Consented by the Roman
authorities? All these influences have been instrumental why the Jews have strayed so far away from the Bible.
Over time, they have completely adopted the ways and thinking of the pagans around them.
One thing is certain, the Hebrew Calendar in all its entirety - to include its procedural and operational
mechanics like the postponement rules is wrong. It is just but one of the many pagan calendars that came into
existence as a result of man's innovative ingenuity. A counterfeit skillfully woven by the rebellious nature of
people God had patiently welded in His loving arms. A clever look-alike riddled with errors and deceit. In all
respect, the Roman calendar, the Gregorian calendar, the Egyptian calendar, the Babylonian calendar, the Greek
calendar and the Hebrew calendar are all man-made calendars entirely different from God's Calendar of the Bible
designed to serve and worship a pagan god.
It is also strongly contended that Christ Himself observed and acknowledged the Jewish Calendar.
Really? Then why did Christ through the epistle of His most beloved Apostle John significantly put it on record
that the Jews observance of these feasts have been attributed in their own name instead of God's? Why? Notice:
* "And the Jews Passover was at hand" John 2: 13
* "After this, there was a feast of the Jews" John 5: 1
* "And the Passover, the feast of the Jews was nigh" John 6:4
* "Now the Jews feast of Tabernacles is at hand" John 7:2
Strange? But not strange enough if you know what I mean. After all, God call things for what they are.
If it is His feast, He calls it "My feast" (Lev. 23: 2). If Christ and the Apostles did observe and acknowledge the
feast days of the Jews then how is it explained that they held the last Passover on the 14th and not on the 15th
as prescribed by the Jewish Calendar?
The same holds true with the observance of Pentecost. How sacred is the Jewish calendar that Mr.
Armstrong can change its observance on a Sunday instead of a Monday? Does that not prove that the Jews did
not follow the Holy Book? To deny these facts simply expose the true stature of a hardened heart. As the saying
goes, "a convinced mind will remain convinced still no matter what." The Lord our God tells us, "Ye shall not
add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the
commandments of the LORD your God which I command you" (Deut 4:2).
Similarly, it would certainly be wrong to the point of being ungodly - raising an accusing finger to others
on something that has not even entered their minds. They say, that the Church of God, In Truth having found
the true calendar of God in the Bible are now pronouncing a verdict of doom to all people in the distant past, the
present and the future. They have put words in our mouth, something that we have not said at all. God says,
"Judge not according to the appearance, but JUDGE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT" (John 7:24). They added,
" What a shocking revelation and a spiritual catastrophe to learn that all those who clings to this Hebrew calendar
including the Jews of antiquities, the early apostolic Church of God and those who died in medieval times, the
past 70 years to the present have their faith in vain and had been condemned."
Not contented, they even added, "Except for the present chosen few who were given the ultimate
discovery and now are in the possession of the BIG calendar truth, the rest have been blinded and without any
hope." These are words that are foreign to me. In the Old Testament Isaiah was given instruction to "Cry aloud,
spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob
their sins"(Isa 58:1). It is a dangerous thing to hear a divine command if what is heard is not translated into
action, for hearing inevitably beings with it responsibility for corresponding action! The "sons of God" are
those who FOLLOW the leading of His spirit "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God" (Rom 8:14). Obedience transforms the words of Christ into personal character! John 5:24 expresses the
Lord's feelings, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." I'm afraid there
really is truism on what Mr. Armstrong have been saying all along - "They just did not get it."
All through the years since we joined the WCG in the Philadelphian era until now we have faithfully
observe the annual festivals of God - reflecting His plan of redemption that will ultimately set free the entire
human race from the clutches of sin. We have been made to understand that God in all His wisdom had set a
series of salvation to the world, each one in his own order.
Even Sodom and Gomorrah, the epitome of what a sinful life can be in recorded history will even be
given their chance - their first genuine chance to know the truth and be saved. How then can we condemn people?
Are they without any hope? Your answer is as good as mine.
Year in and year out, we assemble ourselves on a Holy Convocation to celebrate Pentecost but sad to say
it would seem we have already forgotten that today is but only a day God is saving the world.
Somehow, judgment is now in the house of God and we feel it is our responsibility to share this truth to
those who would dare care to know. As the cable Television News Network CNN at the end of its program, hour
by the hour used to say, WE PRESENT …. YOU DECIDE. French philosopher Pascal added, "Man is a reed,
the weakest thing in nature but he is a thinking reed. And from that comes his dignity."
It is not our intention to degrade the Jewish people. We are simply driven by our sincere desire to
establish the fact that Judaism is not the religion God gave to Moses.
Furthermore, how I wish I could treat all of those issues contained in your letter but this is already a very
lengthy one and I am compelled to close hoping that somewhere, maybe we may find some ray of light at the
end of the tunnel. We are simply motivated by our sincere desire and spiritual concern to people close to us.
Thus, we reiterate once more our invitation to at least take a second look at the issue of the calendar. You are our
friend and will always be. Thank you for a healthy exchange of ideas. May His divine guidance and mercy be
abundantly showered upon us all. Good day!
Romeo A. Samudio
We encourage people to read the article titled: "IS JUDAISM THE RELIGION OF MOSES?" Serialized in
the Good News Magazine, Dec. 1960 -to March 1962, published by Ambassador College, (Parts 1-14) It explain
in details how Judaism penetrated the very core of the house of Israel's lives.
We are admonished by the vision our Lords showed Isaiah! "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem..... "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; the
new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth: they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will
not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before
Mine eyes; cease to do evil " (Isaiah 1: 1,13-14-15).
"Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day (Ps. 81: 3)
"THESE ARE THE FEASTS OF THE LORD, EVEN HOLY CONVOCATIONS,
WHICH YOU SHALL PROCLAIM IN THEIR SEASONS"
2013
ABIB 1 PASSOVER DAYS OF U.B. PENTECOST FEAST OF TRUMPETS
MAR 11 MAR 24 MAR 25 - 31 MAY 19 SEPT 4
ATONEMENT FEAST OF TABERNACLES LAST GREAT DAY
SEPT 13 SEPT 18 - 24 SEPT 25