Passover and the Equinox (No. 175B)

As we explained at the beginning of this year (2019) the 41st Year of the 120th Jubilee is an intercalary year due to a rare rule that forces the New Year to begin in April in what appears to be the second month of the Calendar and the equinox falls in what appears to be the 13th month.

It has to do with the ancient regulation that the Passover must not fall before the equinox. It does not refer to the Lord’s Supper which is not the Passover in spite of the erroneous teachings of the WCG and Offshoots. In March 2019 the New Moon falls on 6 March and the equinox falls on 20 March at 23.58 Israel time in Jerusalem which is the governing structure of the Calendar.

As a result of this timing the 14th day is on 19 March and the equinox falling at 23.58 on 20 March makes it fall then on the 16th day of the Month which is over 24 hours after the Sacrifice of the Passover which occurs at 3pm on the afternoon of the sacrifice of the Passover on the preparation day of the 14th Abib.

In the paper Tishri in Relation to the Equinox (No. 175) we see the rule concerning the Passover.

The postponement rules do not apply or relate to the northern Autumnal Equinox. The rule is simply that in all circumstances Passover must fall after the Vernal Equinox (Schürer, ibid., p. 590; based on the authorities, Schürer states: “when the sun stood in the sign of Aries”, ibid., p. 593). The sign of Aries begins on approximately 21 March and ends on 20 April, in Gregorian terms. Thus Passover after 21 April is clearly prohibited under the ancient rules. (It must also be remembered that Astrology and Astronomy were not separated into distinct areas of discipline until the Reformation. Thus this is an astronomical and not an astrological indicator.) Schürer notes that Anatolius, according to Eusebius (HE, vii 32, 16-19) says this is the unanimous view of all the Jewish authorities including Aristobulus, the philosopher, in the time of Ptolemy Philometor, and also Philo and Josephus (Schürer, op. cit.). The Macedonian calendar was used in Syria from the beginning of the Seleucid dominion until well into Christian times.

It is thus clear that Passover must fall before 21 April (which in this case it does as 21 April is the Wave Sheaf) and the 15th of the First Month must fall after the equinox as the sacrifice of 14 Abib must occur after the equinox.

In this case if the New Year were to be on 6 March then 14 Abib would be on 19 March which is over 24 hours before the equinox and thus the year must be postponed according to the ancient rules. This appears to be the only valid postponement. Thus CCG is postponing the New Year to 5 April this year (2019).

Were it not postponed there would be two Sacrifices in the same year which was a cardinal rule and the (major) reason why the Hillel calendar was completely rejected by the Churches of God in the Fourth century after it was issued in 358 CE and why indeed all the Sunday worshipping systems rejected Hillel also (see Hillel, Babylonian Intercalations, and the Temple Calendar (No. 195C)).

The Hillel heresy did not enter the Churches of God until the false prophets Herbert Armstrong and A.N. Dugger introduced it in the 1940s to the Sardis system. It is a fact that no Jew, or member of the COG (SD) under Dugger, or the RCG/WCG under Armstrong ever kept the correct calendar and the true Holy Days except by accident when Hillel had no other choice under their postponement rules. We were asked these questions by a group who were having difficulty in understanding the rule and its application in 2019.

The March New Moon is on Wednesday 6 March 2019 as the Conjunction is at 18:04 and EENT is 18:33. It is critical to get this timing correct as the New Year and the Sanctification process start with the New Moon in accordance with the conjunction. The problems below indicate why the New Moon must be on 5 April and not on 6 March. See the papers Sanctification of the Nations (No. 077), Sanctification of the Temple of God (No. 241) and Sanctification of the Simple and Erroneous (No. 291).

The questions posed to us were:

Q1. Can we be validly keeping the Lord’s Supper before the Vernal Equinox, which occurs at midnight March 20^th, Jerusalem time?

Answer: Yes there is one circumstance and that is if the equinox falls on 14 Abib before the Sacrifice at 3pm. If it falls after 3pm, as it does on 2019, it must be intercalated.

Q2. Can we begin keeping the Night to Be Observed on March 20^th before the Vernal Equinox has occurred, even though it will occur later in the night—after our celebrations have concluded?

Answer: No that cannot happen because the Sacrifice will have occurred previously and the meal is before it as well in this case.

Q3. What is the ‘Day of the Equinox’ this year, given that it’s at midnight March 20, Jerusalem time? Is the Day of the Equinox still considered to be Wednesday, March 20^th, or because it is so late, after sunset, is the Day of the Equinox considered to be March 21^st? Why/Why not?

Answer: The equinox occurs after EENT (End Evening Nautical Twilight) on Wednesday 15h Adar II which is in fact the 16^th day of the Month Adar II.

Q4. Our congregation believes that if the New Moon occurs too late in the day, the first day of the month should be postponed to the next day. I believe that the month begins anew at the time of the conjunction, unless it’s after sunset. How can I powerfully make my point?

Answer: Postponements are never permitted. The Temple system celebrated the New Moon on the day in which the conjunction occurs and the Month proceeds from Conjunction to Conjunction. There never has been a postponement until these Pharisees took over the System after the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE in accordance with the Sign of Jonah (cf. Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 013)).

Supplementary questions:

Q5. Please explain how, by failing to intercalate and keeping the Passover in March, we will effectively be having 2 Passover sacrifices that year. I’ve counted down the months without intercalation (there seem to be more than there should be) and cannot figure how this will be so.

Answer: The Passover must occur after the equinox as must the sacrifice itself. Thus if the equinox falls after the sacrifice and indeed after the Passover the entire event is within the same year as the previous Passover. Thus there are two Passovers within the Twelve month period. Thus the Passover in all circumstances must fall after the equinox which is the “Turn of the Year”. This does not relate to the equinox in Tishri as explained above in (No. 175).

Q6. Are there any problems with the fact that the Last Great Day, on October 20^th, is so late, far removed from the Autumnal Equinox?

Answer. The Autumnal Equinox as explained in Tishri in Relation to the Equinox (No. 175) is incorrectly linked by the Rabbinical Jews to the determination of the Calendar from their incorrect determination of the “Molad of Tishri” to determine the Hillel calendar within their traditions. It has no basis in the Temple Calendar which is determined from the Conjunction in Abib nearest the equinox. However, the Jews also intercalate this year because of the problem with the equinox in Abib.

Q7. There is also a rule that the First Day of Unleavened Bread, Abib 15^th, must occur after the equinox, isn’t there? Again, for us, Abib 15^th will begin at sunset on March 20^th, again before the equinox. This cannot happen, can it?

Could you please explain this answer a little more?

Answer: No it cannot fall before the equinox under any circumstances but your group also make a serious error which is to apply an invented postponement to the New Moon to the following day. You have invented a rule taken from the post Temple Jews determining the molad that: if the event in their case occurs after midday then it is postponed to the next day. No such rule occurs in the Temple system and the conjunction occurs before EENT at Jerusalem being 18:04 as opposed to EENT at 18:33. The conjunction determines the New Moon and nothing else.

The result of this rule is that your Holy Days are never on the correct days. This invented postponement rule of the Jews relates to the necessity to observe the crescent which cannot occur within six hours of the conjunction which is derived from paganism and Baal worship. The Day does not begin until dark and the sighting of three midstream stars and never did in the Temple system as the records of the Mishnah itself states. The Jews and their traditions are the reason why they were dispersed under the Sign of Jonah in 70 CE and the physical Temple destroyed (cf. The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 013).

The result of this error is that you can never hold the Sanctification of the Nations (No. 077) correctly, neither the Sanctification of the Temple (No. 241) and neither do you hold the Sanctification of the Simple and the Erroneous (No. 291) which was a mandatory fast kept by Christ and the Early Church as we know from the church records and which are contained in 291 above.

Most of the WCG system has been declared Dead and Spewed out of the Mouth of God in accordance with Revelation 3. Both the Sardis and Laodicean systems are in that category. (See Pillars of Philadelphia (No. 283) and also Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Historical Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No. 170).)

We should remember that God does not require some itinerant Jew or minister observing the moon to determine when His Calendar begins and ends and develops. It was never that way in the Temple system.

The explanation of the Calendar is at the papers:

God’s Calendar (No. 156)

Start of the Month and the Day (No. 203)

The Moon and the New Year (No. 213)

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