Overview of the Holy Days I

Fred R. Coulter—September 1, 2012

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In about three weeks and two days we're going to start the fall Holy Days. Let's take an overview. Sometimes it's good to get into detail, other times it's good to back off and take an overview. I would like to call your attention to Chapter Two in The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, Faithful Version: God's Divine Design of the Holy Bible and Its Numeric Connection. There are far more numbers than we have listed here, but I want you to go back over that.

Today we're also going to find out that the Bible is in fact put together with the various numerics of God, #7 being very prominent. The way that the Bible is put together in their divisions becomes very interesting.

What we're going to see is that when it came time God set the earth, the moon and the sun in a synchronized fashion for very particular things, we find it on day four (Gen. 1). We're going to look at day four, when God set the timing for the appointed times. Isn't that interesting? It is 2 times 7 and it is in the 1st chapter?

Genesis 1:14: "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide between the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for appointed seasons..." That could also be translated 'appointed times.' We cover some of these things in the book, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah.

"...And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. And God had made two great lights..." (vs 14-16). Because the tense of the Hebrew is He didn't create them here, He put them into their proper position at this point.

"...the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; and God had made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good" (vs 16-18).

We'll just project ahead some very interesting things concerning the #4 & #7:

The middle day of the seven-day week

We're going to see some patterns because we know that everything begins with the Sabbath. But then #4 and #7 come into play as well; very important.

In Genesis 2 we find that God specially created the Sabbath. What you will find in the things in the Old Testament concerning the timing of things, that we have the correct translation so you know when the timing is and what it's talking about.

Genesis 2:1: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." Isn't it interesting that in six days God made all the physical things and the 7th day is the day for the spiritual connection with God? So, there was nothing that He did on this day to create.

Verse 2: "And by the beginning of the seventh day God finished His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." God puts His presence in this day and now it's in this day all the time for those who are seeking God, all the way through. Everything is based on the weekly cycle and the various numbers that are connected with God's plan.

Verse 3: "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."

Can you find any place in the Bible—Old Testament or New Testament—where we find the Scriptural authorization to change the Sabbath from the 7th day to the 1st day?

• What would that verse look like?
• Where would you find it?
• You would have to find it in the New Testament!
• Who would be the one to make the change?
• Since God created and made it and put His presence in it, who would be the one who would have to change it?

No man can change any laws of God! They cannot change them. The most that men can do is to render judgments in particular situations concerning people and concerning the observance of God's way, not to change the Sabbath. That is a created time; so are the appointed times.

Unless you can change the creation—which no man has the power to do—you have no authority, no means of changing it from the 7th day to the 1st day. Men have written many different excuses, many different philosophies, but one of the very 1st lessons that we learn in Gen. 3 & 4 is that man, if he goes against the Word of God, sins and God does not accept sin. He can forgive sin—which He will—but men, the 1st thing they like to do is to add to the words of God. We have various warnings in the Bible concerning adding to it.

When we look at the scheme of things concerning the Holy Days, the only chapter in the whole Bible that has all the Holy Days listed, with the days they are to be kept, is Lev. 23.
We find here that the Sabbath is important because the seventh-day Sabbath gives the overarching authority to all the Holy Days of God. Leviticus 23:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses saying..." This becomes very important. You will not find anywhere in the five books of the Law where Moses gave a commandment that God did not tell him to give. Moses was speaking for God!

"...the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, "Concerning the appointed Feasts of the LORD"'" (vs 1-2). Very important: 'of the Lord' shows ownership and possession. If you own it, you have authority over it—correct? Yes, indeed! So, this shows that man has no authority over the appointed Feasts of God and the 1st one that He gives after saying,

"'...which you shall proclaim to be Holy convocations, even these are My appointed Feasts'" (v 2). If you approach a Protestant from this point of view:

• Do you believe that God is omnipotent, all powerful? Yes!
• Do you believe that He is omnipresent, that is have the ability to know everything that's going on everywhere at all times? Yes!

These are His appointed Feasts. Now, if you believe that:

• Do you believe you can go to God and tell Him what to do?

Having the Bible in its right order, in its seven divisions, we're going to see upholds the Sabbath and Holy Days of God.

Verse 3: "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a Holy convocation. You shall not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings." It is a rest to the Lord that we do. It is a rest that God has created and given to us.

Then He says, v 4: "These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, Holy convocations which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons. In the fourteenth day of the 1st month, between the two evenings, is the LORD'S Passover."

Then it lists Unleavened Bread, 1st and last day, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, all the way down through there. But what we are going to see is this: Before God does anything you have to come to God with the sacrifice of God—Old Testament and New Testament.

Genesis 15—God called Abraham, gave him promises and now he's ready to enter into a covenant. Before he can enter into this covenant there has to be a sacrifice. This becomes important. I've covered this in other sermons, but let me just say this. We know from Exo. 14 and from Gen. 15 when we put it together, that what we are talking about here in Gen. 15 is the Passover Day and the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread.

The promise was given and God guaranteed it. He said He would do it. Remember, God cannot lie. God's law is perfect. God's Word is true. If He made it, created it, said to keep it, commanded it to be done and if we do it then God will reveal to us what we need to know.

He promised him a son and He guaranteed it by the heavens. Not only did He say, Genesis 15:4, you're going to have a son from "…your own loins…"

Promise of Isaac

Isaac was a type of Christ! Day 4 is going to be important because that is the day in which He gave this covenant to Abraham: the 4th day of the week, the 14th day of the 1st month. We get that from other Scriptures when we put it together.

Physical son first, v 5: "And He brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward the heavens and number the stars—if you are able to count them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your seed be.'" You read in TheChristian Passover book and in The Day Jesus the Christ Died that this has to do with the spiritual seed to shine as the stars of heaven as Daniel said in Dan. 12 and Jesus said in Matt. 13.

Then after that on the day portion of that day, which was the Passover Day, you must have the sacrifice first before you go forward. So then, here was this special covenant sacrifice that was done on the Passover, the day that became the Passover. What do we find before God finishes His judgment against Egypt? We're going to see there were two sacrifices on that Passover night.

Passover Day for the Children of Israel

• the sacrifice of God

They were told—and what we need to understand is the day that God gave the covenant to Abraham was the Passover Day in the middle of the week, the 4th day of the week. When we come to Exo. 12 we also know that it occurred, and we can get the correct chronology by things that we have in the Scriptures, to know that this Passover Day was also in the middle of the week on day 4.

• set the sun, moon and stars for the appointed times on the 4th day of creation
• created the Sabbath the seventh day
• the covenant given to Abraham

I'm sure as you go through and read the numerics there in Chapter Two (The Holy Bible in It's Original Order) that you will pick up on more numerics.

It was the 4th day of the week that He gave the covenant to Abraham. 4th day of the week that the Passover was with the children of Israel in the land of Egypt.

We're not going to go through all of the technicalities of it because this is an overview. First there had to be a sacrifice for the children of Israel. That is the Passover lamb. No one comes to God—God does not deal with anyone in a formal, direct way—unless there is, first, a sacrifice; can't be. The sacrifice was the lamb.

What did the sacrifice of the lamb and the blood do? Where did they put the blood? Above the door and on the sides of the door! That means you had God's protection. He spared the firstborn because of the substitute sacrifice of the lamb and the blood. Spared the firstborn of Israel. What was the second sacrifice?

• Killing of the firstborn of Egypt

What was that against? This also becomes important in understanding what we should not do. Let's see how important it is telling us what we should not do.

Exodus 12:11: "…It is the LORD'S Passover... [that agrees with Lev. 23] ...for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD" (vs 11-12). That was the second sacrifice. That devastated and destroyed Egypt. Now then, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is rest from their bondage, release from captivity.

Here's how we know that back there in Gen. 15 that it occurred on the Passover and the First Day of Unleavened Bread, v 40: "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it was even on that very same day... [the very same day that the covenant was given to Abraham] ...all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt" (vs 40-41).

You get into the chronology and you find out that it wasn't 430 years that they were in bondage. How was it that they were sojourning in Egypt 430 years when they were there just right at 200 years? Heb. 7 where it talks about Abraham tithing to the Lord! Then the commandment was given to the Levites to take tithes of the children of Israel. What did Paul write there in Heb. 7? That in a figure, Levi tithed because he was still in the loins of Abraham! From that we can deduce that all the children of Israel in God's plan were all counted within the loins of Abraham. It was to start then with the beginning with Isaac. Therefore, they were 430 years sojourning in Egypt.

• Did Abraham go into Egypt? Yes!
• Did Isaac go into Egypt? Yes!
• Did the children of Israel go into Egypt? Yes!

So, you see how you can take a verse like that and add to it.

We find in Exodus 16—give you a little clue: we have a footnote to explain the time there—Exodus 16:1: "And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai. And on the fifteenth day of the second month..."

This 15th day of the 2nd month was a Sabbath Day. What can you do once you know that the 15th day of the 2nd month is a Sabbath Day? That's the 7th day of the week. Very simple, you can count back and you come back to the 14th and 15th day of the 1st month in Egypt, and lo and behold, Passover was on the 4th day of the week.

God gave them manna. You know the rest of the story there. They come to Mount Sinai which then is the next Holy Day: Pentecost. We find that before God confirmed the covenant with the children of Israel they had the Ten Commandments given to them and that was the starting basis for the covenant. They were to be a nation of priests to take God's Word to the whole world. We won't go through the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 31 & 32 become very important concerning the Sabbath Day. Exodus 31:12: "And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 'Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, "Truly..."'" (vs 12-13). Truly means in truth, according to what God has given—correct? You can take this word truly, you can add a lot of things to it—can't you?

• God is true
• His Word is true
• His law is true
• His commandments are true

He is saying truly. This also, as we will see from chapter 32, that we are not to bring and add our ideas to God's way. That becomes important.

Verse 13: "Truly you shall keep My Sabbaths... [plural; every Holy Day is a Sabbath, so that includes all of them] ...for it... [not referring to the Sabbath Day alone, but 'it' refers to the keeping of 'My Sabbaths.' It's referring to the action of keeping the Sabbaths of God.] ...is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations to know that I am the LORD Who sanctifies you" (v 13). Then He reiterates the weekly Sabbath. This is the final thing that God is saying to Moses while he was on Mount Sinai.

Verse 14: "You shall the Sabbath therefore, for it is Holy to you. Everyone that defiles it shall surely be put to death, for whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, Holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath Day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant" (vs 14-16). This is a separate, single covenant that goes on down past the covenant with Israel that He had for what we call the Old Covenant.

Verse 17: "It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." Everything goes back to what God created.

Exodus 32 is one of the most ironic chapters in the entire Bible. As the people were waiting for Moses to come down, they got impatient. What happened? They got together with Aaron and instead of Aaron telling them, 'Look, he's up there with God. Doesn't matter how long he's going to be there, he's going to come down and bring us the words of God.'

No! They came to Aaron and said, 'Let's make us gods.' Aaron formed the golden calf, which is an idol of Egypt. The golden calf has the sun-disk between its horns. Here we have, right when God was giving the Sabbath, the people were wanting to go back to sun worship. Notice how they did it.

Exodus 32:5: "And when Aaron saw the calf, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.'" That's exactly what Sunday-keepers do—right? 'Tomorrow is the feast of the Lord.'

• which God did not say
• which God did not proclaim
• which God did not sanctify

But the ideas of men and the gods of Egypt. What did they do? They rose up and so forth. You know the rest of the story.

After they had done everything, finished everything, set up the tabernacle, let's come to the last chapter of the book of Exodus. The last chapter of the book of Exodus sets up everything that is contained in the book of Leviticus. Here's how God works.

Did they make the golden calf on the Sabbath? I don't know how long it took them to make the golden calf, but they certainly weren't keeping the Sabbath! It could have been the Sabbath. Everything was made according to the instructions of God. Let me just add one little thing in here as we go along: Aaron was the priest. The only reason that God did not take his life is because Moses pleaded for him and God forgave him. They set up everything, anointed Aaron, he put it all together.

Exodus 40:33: "And he set up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the court gate. And Moses finished the work. And the cloud covered the tabernacle of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tabernacle of the congregation because the cloud stayed on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel journeyed on in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey until the day that it was taken up; for the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel in all their journeys" (vs 33-38).

Then you go into the book of Leviticus and the book of Numbers and you find that this was set up on the 1st day of the 1st month of the 2nd year. Let's see something that happened. What was in Gen. 4? We had the offering of Abel and Cain! Cain brought what he wanted to bring, instead of according to the commandment of God. Let's see how that follows through right here:

Leviticus 10:1: "And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, and put incense on it, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had commanded them not to do." If God responded in this way for people who break the commandments of God, the rest who are living would hear and fear.

Verse 2: "And there went out fire from the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD." If you don't do things according to the way of God, there is a penalty to be paid. Let's take that principle, and what do we find in the New Testament? 'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God!' In order to remove the penalty of sin, you must have a sacrifice. That sacrifice we know is Christ.

But here again, you cannot carry out your will and try and replace God's commands. There was the fire that God started and they were to keep it perpetually burning, but they didn't do it. So, they thought, 'We will just make a fire ourselves.' You know what happened.

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There's another example you can find in Num. 14 and Deut. 1 where after the spies came back from spying out the land. God intended to bring them into the 'promised land' so they would be there for the Feast of Tabernacles—they would be dwelling 'in the land.' The spies came back, discouraged all the people. They moaned and groaned all night, accused God.

God said, 'All right, you're not going to go. You are going to wander another 38-1/2 years; 40 days spying out the land, a day for year. You're going to be 40 years.' Here's an example of false repentance. Once God has said He's going to do something, tells you to do it, He will bless you. They said, 'No, we won't go.' So then, God gave the judgment. We find out that you can't go and do what God says at a different time than when God said to do it.

Deuteronomy 1:41: "And you answered and said to me, 'We have sinned against the LORD... [Doesn't matter if you confess your sin when God has already made the judgment in this case.] ...we will go up and fight according to all that the LORD our God commanded us.' And when each one of you had buckled on his weapons of war, you were ready to go up into the hill. But the LORD said to me, 'say to them, "Do not go up, nor fight, for I am not among you, you will be beaten by your enemies."'.... [but they didn't do it] ...So I spoke to you. And you would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and went presumptuously up into the. Hill. And the Amorites who lived in that mountain came out against you and chased you, even as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, to Hormah. And you returned and wept before the LORD. But the LORD would not hearken to your voice, nor give ear to you. So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained there" (vs 41-46).

You cannot presume to do what God tells you to do in the way that you think you need to do it separately from the command of God. Now you can apply that to how many things? Everything!

• the Sabbath Day
• the Holy Days
• clean and unclean meats
• tithes and offerings

—all of the things of God you can apply that.

They finally did come into the 'promised land.' We're going to see that God uses His Holy Days to accomplish major things that He has planned to do. That's why the Passover becomes important. Day-4 becomes important. In this case the Passover Day was not in the middle of the week. It was rather on a Friday, actually a Sabbath. Here's what they did. They came in, crossed the Jordan, went over to Gilgal.

Joshua 5:9: "And the LORD said to Joshua, 'Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.' Therefore, the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day. And the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the old grain of the land on the next day after the Passover, unleavened cakes and roasted new grain in the same day. And the manna stopped on the next day..." (vs 9-12). So here we have God using His Holy Days again.

We won't go into other things in the book of Joshua and Judges, but let's come to 1-Kings. Here we have a very interesting situation that occurred. Solomon—the son of David—built the temple. God blessed him, appeared to him, and everything. We won't go through the life of Solomon here. But nevertheless, we find when the dedication of the temple occurred, here are all the offerings they gave. We will see when the dedication took place and the Feast of Tabernacles, both.

1-Kings 8:64: "On that day the king sanctified the middle of the court before the house of the LORD, for there he had offered the burnt offering, and the grain offering, and the fat of the peace offerings because the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to contain the burnt offering, and the grain offering, and the fat of the peace offerings. And at that time Solomon held a feast and all Israel with him, a great congregation—from the entering in the Hamath to the river of Egypt—before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days" (vs 64-65).

Notice v 66 because this gives us a timeframe. Notice the two portions of seven days are counted separately: "On the eighth day... [What day is that? That's the Last Great Day, because it's the Feast of Tabernacles. We'll see this confirmed in the book of Chronicles.] ...he sent the people away. And they blessed the king and went to their tens joyful and glad of heart for all the good that the LORD had done for David His servant and for Israel His people."

Let's come to the parallel account in 2-Chron. 5; here we have that God put His presence in the temple on the 1st day of the 7th month, being the Feast of Trumpets. This is an overview. There are other things we can use to fill in how we prove that. We prove that by using the information we just covered—seven days and seven days, and on the eighth day sent them away. We'll piece all of that together right now. But this is important to understand that now

• they are in the land
• they have peace from all their enemies
• the temple of God is complete
• the temple of God is being sanctified and it's being dedicated

Let's see what happened when they came to a certain point. They put the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.

2-Chronicles 5:11: "And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the Holy place (for all the priests present were sanctified, and did not wait by course), and the Levitical singers.... [so it lists all of them] ...being clothed in white linen, and having cymbals and with harps and lyres—stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with silver trumpets, it came to pass, as the trumpeters and the singers were as one, to make on sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the silver trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, 'For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever,' that the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD" (vs 11-13).

How did God do it when the tabernacle was dedicated? The same way, on the 1st day of the 1st month! That led up to keeping the Passover. Here in this case, this is the 1st day of the 7th month, being the Feast of Trumpets. That's why there are all the trumpets there. We will see the proof of this here in just a bit.

Now we get a date, 2-Chronicles 7:8: "And at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation..." We read earlier seven days to dedicate the temple. Now we have the Feast.

Verse 9: "And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly, for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents..." (vs 9-10). That is the Last Great Day—is it not?

What do we have, seven days and seven days? The 1st seven days started with the Feast of Trumpets! God put His presence there. We have a type of this with Christ returning—do we not? Actually, literally coming on the earth on the Feast of Trumpets.

We see all of these parallels as we go through the Bible. This is why it's good to do an overview. What comes between Trumpets and Tabernacles? Atonement! They kept the Feast of the altar seven days; that ended it. Then you had day 8 & 9. Then you had Atonement. That's the 10th day. Then you come down to the 15th day—seven days, plus the eighth day. This gives us proof that since God put His presence in the temple on the 1st day of the Feast of Dedication, that had to be on the Feast of Trumpets. Because we get a date right here, v 10: "...twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away…"

That's why with the book, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah, when you read about the birth of Christ, as I wrote in the book, God hides His plan in plain sight.

• you have to rightly divide the Word of Truth
• you have to be keeping the Sabbath
• you have to know the Holy Days of God

When you do, everything falls into place and makes sense.

How do we know when Jesus was born? The world says December 25th. But that's like saying, 'Up, let us make gods.' How does God let us know? It tells us in the book of Daniel, chapter 12, that at the end the 'wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.' Who are the wise? They are the ones who keep the commandments of God! They are the ones who love God and keep His Sabbath and His Holy Days and know the Word of God!

Here's why the Catholics and the Protestants, though they have the Bible and they could understand it, will never understand it because they don't obey God. They claim the birth of Christ; they claim the death of Christ, but do not know when it occurred. God gave us a few clues.

• Who did God give the authority to bring the laws, offer the sacrifices, pronounce the Feasts of God? The priests!
• How did God begin to fulfill the coming of Christ? By coming through the priesthood!

Luke 1:5: "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest of the course of Abijah..." What does that mean? What does the course of Abijah mean? If you've never read the Old Testament, you never read how David divided down the priests into 24 courses. He had the priests work at the temple according to the courses, from noon Sabbath to noon Sabbath, beginning in the 1st month. So if this is the 8th course, what can you do? The course of Abijah is the 8th course if you go back and see how David organized that. There's a marginal reference, 1-Chron. 24:10.

This tells you the approximate time then doesn't it? As a matter of fact, you can pick out the exact week. In addition to working for one week, when they had the three festival seasons—Passover and Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and later then Tabernacles—all the courses of the priests would work.

So, we have Abijah is the 8th course. You can read in the book, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah how to count down. We know that this occurred during the weeks—there's a two-week time frame here—the 8th week and the 9th week. The middle day of that is Pentecost. What can you do with that? Then you can figure pretty close to when John the Baptist was born!

That's why in the book, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah, and also in A Harmony of the Gospels we have the Calculated Hebrew Calendar bringing down all of these days to the birth of Christ and all of the facts involved in it. But it starts out here with the announcement of John the Baptist. Very interesting! From there we can project forward and understand when the conception of Jesus took place, within a two-week timeframe.

Verse 36: "Now behold, Elizabeth your kinswoman has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren."

If you have the dates that Zacharias served, now you can calculate when Mary became pregnant. You can carry forward and what happens? Lo and behold, you come to the Feast of Trumpets on a weekly Sabbath in 5B.C. that was the most likely day. You can't prove it totally absolutely, but knowing the pattern of the Holy Days, that was the Feast of Trumpets. So, God uses His Holy Days.

Ministry of Christ

Now we come to the ministry of Christ. Remember the #4? This year we have the same sequence of days in the Calculated Hebrew Calendar as when Jesus began His ministry. You can read this also in the book, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus began His ministry on the Day of Atonement. That's why He went out there and was fasting 40 days. That Day of Atonement, that's when He had to do it because that Day of Atonement was the beginning of the Jubilee Year. Jesus' ministry was a jubilee ministry! That Day of Atonement was on Wednesday, just like we have this year. What day is that of the week? The 4th day! I want you to tie that #4 in all the way through; Day-4 was the day:

• God set the appointed times
• The day that God brought the covenant to Abraham (Gen. 15)
• The Passover for the children of Israel was in the middle of the week
• That Jesus began His ministry on the Day of Atonement

You come forward with the time and because there were two leap years adding in an extra month in those two leap years, you have that He began His ministry with 40 days and that was probably four days after His baptism. So you have four and forty. Then you have for His ministry 44 months. Let's look at something interesting here, the chart—pg. 1280 Appendix J—we have in the appendices. Now you will see why we have the appendices that we do here.
Again we see something very interesting that ties in with how people try and do things toward God when He says not to do it. The world believes, because they had to look for a year in which there was a Friday Passover. The only one they had was 33A.D. They say Jesus died in 33A.D. when He did not. He died in 30A.D. It wasn't on the 6th day of the week. He died on the 4th day of the week because in 30A.D. the Passover is in the middle of the week.

He started His ministry on the 4th day, His physical ministry, and He ended it on the 4th day. But in this case it was the Passover Day. We've covered about this day. What day is this? When was this day selected? From the foundation of the world! Is that not important? Yes, indeed! That's the whole central point of reconciling the world.

When you look at this chart. According to the Calculated Hebrew Calendar coordinated with the Julian calendar. Passover Day was the middle of the week. When was He buried? Just right as the sun was going down. What day follows the 14th day? The 15th,the number of rest! He said He would be in the grave three days and three nights—correct? You can't do that from Friday afternoon till Sunday morning. How can you connect the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ with Ishtar the female goddess of Babylon? She was also Isis of Egypt. You can't!

When they tell people, the Catholics say, 'You don't have to read the Bible, but if you read it you better have a priest there so we can interpret it, because you may go insane.' You may go insane trying to find Catholic doctrines in the Bible, though they use Scriptures. They are not the doctrines of Truth. So therefore, they say, 'We can preach the Catholic gospel without using the Bible.'

The Protestants are not quite that blatant. They say that everything was fulfilled in Christ, so therefore, 'we don't have to read the Old Testament.' So therefore, they follow along with what the Catholics have done. They believe in Easter, they believe in a Friday crucifixion, and they do everything they can to try and justify their beliefs. But it never really fits because they reject the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. So this is why the chart is in the Bible.

Day-5 of the week is a number of grace. It's the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which is 3 times 5. So, we see those numbers tied in. It was also a Sabbath Day, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Does God use His Holy Days and His Passover? Yes! He doesn't use anything else.

Crucifixion of Christ—Passover Day

We have one night, one day; two nights, two days; third night, third day. He said He would be in the heart of the earth, which is the grave three days and three nights. That was the only sign. So, here you have it. The sign of Jonah (Matt. 12), the only sign. He only needed one sign—did He not? Yes, He did!

What did He say of His death? He said of His death that He would rise the third day! When did He die on the Passover Day? At three in the afternoon! There are approximately three hours from His death until He was finally all wrapped and prepared by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Put into the tomb and the stone rolled over it. That was beginning the 15th day of the 1st month. So, you have two things going here:

• He had to rise from the dead in the tomb right after the third day from His death occurred
• But He didn't leave the tomb until sunset because He said He would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

So, you're looking at two threes:

• the time He was dead
• the time He was in the earth

In the book, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah, what do we point out? What must He have done? He must have prayed while in the tomb!

We come over here to the day that He ascends. Day-17—the Sabbath—#7 is overcoming. Isn't it interesting? Seventh day—17th day of the month.

• 17 is overcoming
• 7 is completion.

Then He ascended in the morning on the 18th, the 1st day of the week.

• 18 is judgment against the enemy.

What did Jesus say concerning His death and resurrection? Who was judged? Satan! He is the enemy; that's why I want you to read Chapter Two in the commentaries and go over those numbers. I think you're going to find that is going to literally blow your mind!

The most important day, the Passover Day, then the three days and the three nights and then the ascension to heaven. Why do we not celebrate the resurrection and ascension? He never told us to! But those were two things between God the Father and Jesus Christ. We are to remember what? His death! We're also to remember that we are saved by His life.

We also have these in the book, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah. This is why, brethren, we have The HolyBible in Its Original Order.

Romans 5:6: "For even when we were without strength, at the appointed time Christ died for the ungodly." That was the Passover Day. Look at how #4 fits into that:

• It was the 4th day of the week
• It was in the 4th year of His ministry
• It was in the 44th month of His ministry
• He started His ministry on the 4th day of the week

Let's look at a broader picture and we will end here. How many divisions are there in the Bible according to its original order? Seven!

• the Law
• the Prophets
• the Writings
• the Gospels and Acts

How many books are devoted to the life of Christ? Four! Again see how four comes up all the time with the ministry of Christ, the Passover of Christ.

• the Book of Acts

That is the preaching of the Gospel, the preaching of grace and 5 is the number of grace. So within the Acts and the 4 Gospels we have the 4th division of the Bible. Let's carry this one step further. When did the preaching of the Gospel really start with the apostles? On Pentecost, which is the 50th day! Yes, indeed! It also involves the #4, because you count:

• Passover
• 1st Day of Unleavened Bread
• Last Day of Unleavened Bread
• Pentecost

Isn't that amazing? See how #4 comes in? Then what do you have after the Acts and the four Gospels?

• General Epistles—the writings of those who were directly with Christ for the three and a half years: James, Peter, John, and Jude.

Now then for all of us carnal people:

• The Epistles of Paul--as to how to get out of the mess of human nature and Satan the devil:

• The Book of Revelation--also structured on the Holy Days.

I know I've covered a lot of ground here with a lot of numbers, but you go back and you read Chapter Two (The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version) with all the numerics. Then read the book, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah, and go over those things and you will be absolutely amazed.

That's why when we came to Exo. 31, the keeping of the Sabbaths; then Exo. 32 with the making of the golden calf, that follows through, God is telling us what to do in Exo. 31. Men are saying what they're going to do for God in Exo. 32, according to the religions of this world being, i.e. Egypt. It is sin and they just don't understand.

That's why it's important that we have the Bible, we have in its original order, we understand the structure of it and then everything else fits on that structure.

You can have full confidence, guaranteed by God, that His Word is true and He's going to carry everything out according to His will and He's going to use the Passover and the Holy Days to do it!

Scriptural References:

• Genesis 1:14-18
• Genesis 2:1-3
• Leviticus 23:1-4
• Genesis 15:4-5
• Exodus 12:11-12, 40-41
• Exodus 16:1
• Exodus 31:12-17
• Exodus 32:5
• Exodus 40:33-38
• Leviticus 10:1-2
• Deuteronomy 1:41-46
• Joshua 5:9-12
• 1-Kings 8:64-66
• 2-Chronicles 5:11-13
• 2-Chronicles 7:8-10
• Luke 1:5, 36
• Romans 5:6

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Genesis 3, 4
• Exodus 14
• Daniel 12
• Matthew 13
• Hebrews 7
• Numbers 14
• 1-Chronicles 24:10
• Matthew 12

Also referenced:
Books:

• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• The Day Jesus the Christ Died by Fred R. Coulter
• The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah by Fred R. Coulter
• A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter

From: The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version:

• Chapter Two: God's Divine Design of the Holy Bible And Its Numeric Connection
• Appendix J: Jesus' Three Days and Three Nights of Entombment and His Resurrection

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 9-12-12
Formatted: bo—9-13-12

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