Recently I read Killing Jesus by (the now disgraced) Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, which was released on September 24, 2013. While reading it I found this statement.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke make it clear that Jesus was celebrating the Passover meal a day early. ... Other scholars resolve the issue by arguing that the Synoptics base their calendar days on the Galilean Method (used by Jesus, his disciples, and Pharisees), from sunrise to sunrise; while John bases his calendar days on the Judaean Method (used by the Sadducees), from sunset to sunset. This resolves the discrepancy, as the different calendars will place Passover meals at different times. (p. 218.)This is completely different from what HWA's organization so confidently taught. As may be seen in Herman Hoeh's 1961 article, "The True Reason Why the Jews Rejected Christ," they insisted that the Last Supper was the Passover. They insisted that Passover is to observed at the started of Nisan 14. They insisted that the Jewish community are in error by celebrating Passover a day later. They insisted that this alleged error originated from Hellenistic Egypt. But can we really be so sure that HWA's organization were correct on this matter?
It is clear that HWA had little idea of the complexity of the topic of determining dates for the Jewish festivals when he so cavalierly adopted them in his syncretist religion. There is no requirement for Christians to observe the Jewish festivals. We should leave these festivals alone and let the Jewish community enjoy these festivals without the COGs appropriating them for themselves and audaciously insisting that the Jewish community fails to celebrate them properly. We should leave these precious festivals alone.
There’s just too much smoke in the air. We can’t know when these days fall today for the purpose of knowing what is actually holy time, and what is not. The observation method used by the priests as celestial events occurred vs Hillel II’s fixed precalculated calendar is just the beginning of the confusion. At best, the ACOGs should call their versions of the festivals “tribute” holy days (like tribute rock bands). They don’t really know when they occur, and they don’t keep them in Jerusalem as the Bible plainly instructs under penalty of drought. Best doctrinal approach would be for the splinter leaders to use phrases like “Feast of Tabernacles, a tribute to Moses and the Levitical Priesthood”.
ReplyDeleteEven suggesting that the “keepers of the oracles” (the Jews) kept or keep the wrong Passover indicates that the oracle guardians are fallible. “Mr Armstrong says” got us the wrong day for Pentecost (or did it?) for years, so that is also unreliable. What’s the difference between that and observing the wrong date for Jesus’ birth?
If these were supposed to be important beyond Jesus’ death ending the Old Covenant, some day we’ll know when they are intended to be kept. Maybe God didn’t send the Germans in 1972 because they arent Assyrian, and the things HWA said we’d be punished for are just plain unknowable.
BB