Bill Petrovic (23 Nov 2005)
"Re: Philip Newland - Rapture 2005"http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/nov2005/billp1123.htm
Philip,There is alot of calendar confusion this year...Abib and all.
Keep in mind that Michael Rood's calendar has November 27 evening as
the start of Hanukkah.
That's next Sunday.
This might actually be the month of Kislev and not Cheshvan.We can thank God on earth Thursday then face to face on Sunday. I can
only hope.YBIC
Bill Petrovic---From: Marilyn AgeeHi:I doubt that Rood is right. What dates are possible for Tishri 1.---The months Tishri and AbibTishre: From Aramaic shera or sherei, "to begin" ...In the twentieth century, its earliest beginning is September 6th and its latest beginning is October 5th (The Jewish Almanac, Bantam, 1980, p. 241)....
Nisan: Related to the Babylonian first month Nisannu, "to start", or perhaps to Hebrew nitzan, "blossoms." Its pentateuchal name is Aviv [or Abib], "spring"....In the twentieth century its earliest beginning is March 13th and its latest beginning is April 11th (ibid., p. 245)....
Genesis 1:14 tells us that the sun and moon [hence a solar-lunar calendar] are for "signs and for seasons (mo’ed = time(s); season(s); festival(s); assembly), and for days and years". The LXX confirms this translation. Targum Neofiti has (Gen. 1:14):
And the Lord [‘according to the decree of his Memra’][Memra is the equivalent term for Logos in the Hebrew and Aramaic; Cox ed.] said: "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the daytime from the night, and let them act as signs and (sacred) seasons [times] and so that the intercalation of moons (and) months may be consecrated by them (The Aramaic Bible, tr. Martin McNamara MSC; T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1992).
Another Aramaic Targum, Pseudo-Jonathan, says:
God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs and as festival times, and for counting the reckoning of days, and for sanctifying the beginnings of months and the beginnings of years, the intercalations of months and the intercalations of years, the solstices, the new moon, and the cycles (of the sun) (The Aramaic Bible, tr. Michael Maher MSC, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN, 1992).
It is generally accepted that these Targums pre-date the apostolic times and so their value in revealing the earlier understanding of Genesis 1:14 is rather graphically shown.
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TISHRI 1, RANGE SEPTEMBER 6 TO OCTOBER 5
If we look at the daily sky charts at YourSky (http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Yoursky) starting with Sept. 6, 2005, it is not until Oct. 5 that the sign in Rev. 12:1-5 appears. That would normally be Tishri 1, 5766. On Sept. 5, the Sun is in Leo instead of Virgo. On Nov. 5, the Sun is in Libra instead of Virgo.I think that every Tishri 1 since Adam was created is marked by the sign in Rev. 12:1,2,5. It says, "there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman (Virgo) clothed with the sun (i.e., when the Sun is in Virgo), and the moon (i.e., the New Crescent Moon) under her feet, and upon (or over) her head a crown of twelve stars (Corona Borealis): And she being with child (Jesus) cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.....And she brought forth a man child (Yeshua/Jesus), who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God (on Ascension Day, 40 days after the Resurrection), and to his throne".In 2005, this sign was not there on September 5. It was showing on October 5. It will not appear on November 5. To me that means that, according to the sky, October 5 is the right date for Tishri 1. The Hebrew Calendar is close. It has Rosh Hashana, Tishri 1, on Oct. 4. That's close enough. I wouldn't have deleted Adar II last spring.NISAN 1, RANGE: MARCH 13 TO APRIL 11Nisan 1 can be as early as March 13, but Michael Rood set Nisan 1 on March 12, when Adar II was to begin. I don't think it matters how early Abib barley is found. They just have to have Abib barley on the Feast of Firstfruits, and Passover must be at the time of the Full Moon.
The Official Hebrew Calendar is very accurate in the long run. I wouldn't disturb that by throwing out Adar II last spring. That would throw it off by one whole month, not just a fraction of a day. How could that huge error ever be fixed? In my mind, it would only be by admitting that dropping Adar II last spring was an error.
ACCURACY OF THE OFFICIAL HEBREW CALENDAR
---Calendar ConverterThe average length of a month is 29.530594 days, extremely close to the mean synodic month (time from new Moon to next new Moon) of 29.530588 days. Such is the accuracy that more than 13,800 years elapse before a single day discrepancy between the calendar's average reckoning of the start of months and the mean time of the new Moon. Alignment with the solar year is better than the Julian calendar, but inferior to the Gregorian. The average length of a year is 365.2468 days compared to the actual solar tropical year (time from equinox to equinox) of 365.24219 days, so the calendar accumulates one day of error with respect to the solar year every 216 years.---As for me, I'll go by the Hebrew Calendar. Hanukkah seems likely for the Rapture. It starts on Kislev 25 (our December 26, 2005) and lasts 8 days, because the cruse of oil for one day lasted 8 days. Why? God has reasons for doing miracles.KISLEV 24 - DATE OF JESUS' CONCEPTIONHaggai 2:18,19 says, "Consider now from this day and UPWARD, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month (Kislev 24), even from the day that the foundation of the LORD'S temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed (seed of the woman, Jesus, Gen. 3:15) yet in the barn (a feminine word)? yea (YES, Mary is now pregnant), as yet the vine (Jesus, John 15:5), and the fig tree (Israel, Joel 1:7,8), and the pomegranate (Bride of Christ, Song 4:3), and the olive tree (Israel, but the Gentiles can be grafted in, Rom 11:17), hath not brought forth (NASA, LIFTED UP, i.e., in the Pre-Trib Rapture): from this day (Kislev 24) will I bless you."Why should we consider from Kislev 24 (Dec. 25, 2005,.Christmas and the Eve of Hanukkah) and UPWARD? because it has something to do with our "NASA", lifting up at the Pre-Trib Rapture? Why is Hanukkah called The Feast of Lights? Is it because the wise virgins with their flaming lamps will be caught up (Mt. 25:1f)?In Rev. 3:11-13, Jesus said, "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."The lamp on the top of the pillar Boaz might symbolize the Pre-Trib Rapture of the wise virgins. The lamp on the top of the pillar Jachin might symbolize the later Rapture of the foolish virgins with the Tribulation saints..Why was one pillar called Boaz, because he was a kinsman redeemer and Ruth was his bride? They were types of Christ and his Bride.If Hanukkah is the time of the Rapture, when, during the eight days would the Rapture likely take place?Mat 24:36-42 says, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come."The coming in the clouds for the Bride of Christ is as the days of Noah.THE TYPE: The Lord shut Noah in the Ark on Cheshvan 17 (Gen. 7:11). It began to rain that same day. The rain lasted 40 days and 40 nights.THE FULFILLMENT OF THE TYPE: maybe the Rapture will also be at the end of the 40 days and nights. That may have been when the Ark floated free of the ground.Cheshvan 17 was Nov. 19, 2005. Forty days after Cheshvan 17 will be Wednesday, Kislev 27 (Dec. 28, 2005). Can you think of a better tie-in for the Rapture?In John 2:19, Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will RAISE IT UP....But he spake of the temple of his body." Both temples were begun in Iyar (I Kings 6:1, II Chron. 3:2, Ezra 3:8), so the Lord wasn't talking about the literal temple in Haggai 2:18,19. He was talking about "THE TEMPLE OF HIS BODY." We are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God, which is the same as the Spirit of Christ. Romans 8:9 says, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the SPIRIT OF GOD dwell in you. Now if any man have not the SPIRIT OF CHRIST, he is none of his."
Maybe, at last, we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air on Kislev 27 (December 28, 2005). That is the third day of Hanukkah, and Jesus was raised up on the third day.
Agape, Marilyn Agee