New Moon 1/5/37/120

Dear Friends

This day is the beginning of the month of Ab. It is always regarded as a disaster in Judah for in that month many of its greatest miseries occurred; specifically, the destruction of the temple and the lands of Judah. The fact is that 10 Ab is the day of the fall of the Temple and God’s dealing with Judah. In the text regarding the distortion of God’s Calendar by Judah under the Pharisees we see much of what they have done and continue to do in their heretical misuse of Scripture and their false Calendar. Their abuse of the Temple Calendar is easily identified and understood as we have explained in the paper Distortion of God’s Calendar in Judah (No. 195B). The greatest heresy in the churches of God in almost 2000 years was instigated by Herbert W Armstrong and his ministry and to this day they still lie about the calendar and claim that the Modern Jewish or Hillel calendar, which did not come into existence until 358 CE, was in use during the Temple period, which is a demonstrable lie and they know it is a lie. In fact we have the proof of the lies among our members who were told by a UCG minister simply that they could not tell their people the truth otherwise they would know they were keeping the wrong calendar or words to that effect.

In the text of Distortion of God’s Calendar in Judah (No. 195B) we deal with the Rabbinical texts as follows.

Rabbinical Texts

The Temple was destroyed in a post-Sabbatical year according to the commentaries on the Taanith (B. Taan, 29a). However, the text is understood as meaning at the end of the Sabbath day. The Jubilee was in 77 CE, the Sabbath was in 76 CE and the previous Sabbath was in 69/70 CE. The Sabbath year ended on the last day of Adar and the Roman Army surrounded Jerusalem on 1 Abib in what was 70 CE. The Temple did not fall until 10 Ab and the last of the city fell in Elul.

The Taanit in the Mishnah claims that both the First and Second Temple fell on 9 Ab (Taanit 4:6). The city was also allegedly ploughed up by Hadrian on 9 Ab (ibid.).

The commentaries from the Tractate Talmud say:

“Five misfortunes befell our fathers ... on the ninth of Av. ...On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the Temple was destroyed the first and second time, Bethar was captured and the city [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. -Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6

...Should I weep in the fifth month [Av], separating myself, as I have done these so many years? -Zechariah 7:3

In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month ...came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the LORD... -II Kings 25:8-9

In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month... came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the LORD... - Jeremiah 52:12-13

How then are these dates to be reconciled? On the seventh the heathens entered the Temple and ate therein and desecrated it throughout the seventh and eighth and towards dusk of the ninth they set fire to it and it continued to burn the whole of that day. ... How will the Rabbis then [explain the choice of the 9th as the date]? The beginning of any misfortune [when the fire was set] is of greater moment. -Talmud Ta'anit 29a

The destruction of the Second Temple is explained in detail in the paper War with Rome and the Fall of the Temple (No. 298).

The Mishah Arakhin makes no claim for the timing of the destruction of the Temple.

The Talmudic Rabbis made great errors in relation to the timing of the Temple system and that is openly acknowledged by Jewish scholars (Misunderstood Chronological Statements in the Talmudic Literature, Jacob Z. Lauterbach, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 5, 1933 - 1934 (1933 - 1934), pp. 77-84).

The later Rabbis claimed that the Temple was destroyed during the last part of a Septenate (B. Arak, 12b), and R. Hunna then claims in the third century that the Temple was destroyed in a Sabbatical year and computed the Sabbatical cycle based on that false deduction and in spite of the evidence of the Mishnah Taanith. R. Joseph Yose ben Khalapha, however, sets the record straight by saying that the Sabbath year was the year prior to the destruction of the Temple (Seder Olam Rab. 30). The year began in Abib and was never reckoned from Rosh HaShanah until after the third century, as Rosh HaShanah was not introduced as a festival until that century. The insertion of the title Rosh HaShanah into the Mishnah ca. 200 is an emendation of the third century when it was compiled.

As we have seen above, the cycle of the Jubilee was from 28 CE to 77 CE. The Sabbaths were the same each century and so the Sabbaths in the second century were in 134, 141, 148, 155, 162, 169, 176 (and the Jubilee in 177) from Abib to Abib.

The Jewish Revolt in 132 CE under Bar Kochba was crushed by Hadrian in 135 and all Jews were banished in what became the Diaspora. Documents in that period were also written in accordance with the Jewish system based from the Sabbath in 134 and the Sabbath to occur in 141. By 135, however, it was irrelevant. The Sabbath in the revolt saw leases and documentation in that year written to accord with the Sabbatical system. The 49-year cycles pushed by the rabbinical system were by now out by eight years over eight Jubilees, from 224 BCE to 127 CE.

The later chronologies of the Church writers such as Jerome were completely wrong and the errors continued for centuries until modern archaeology restored the data upon which the evidence might be examined.”

The years from 2014 onwards to end 2024 will see God deal with Judah and also the Churches of God and then all mankind. From the days of the witnesses God will tear the sheep out of the hands of the Shepherds and deal with them and the Rabbinical Jews and tear their false calendar apart. God will warn them through the witnesses and also what are now the nations of Israel. They will have 1260 days to repent. If they have not repented and begun to keep the Sabbaths, New Moons and Feasts of God correctly and on the correct days they will be consigned to the Second Resurrection. Every person who fails to keep God’s Laws and God’s Calendar correctly will be brought under the Vials of the Wrath of God (cf the paper Wars of the Last Days and the Vials of the Wrath of God (No. 141B)).

The Witnesses are the last chance to attain to the First Resurrection. If you have not qualified by then it is too late. If the Messiah is in Jerusalem you will have missed out. One’s only chance then is to enter the Millennial system as repentant adults and wait until the Second Resurrection. From this month onwards the problems will simply increase until the day and the hour in which the demons will be released from their confinement at Tartaros to bring war to the world through the Euphrates basin. Over that period we will see the wars of the Fifth and Sixth Trumpet and one third of humanity will be destroyed (Rev. 9:1-21). The Time of Jacobs trouble will increase now to the coming of the Messiah. Pray for our people.

Wade Cox

Coordinator General