What is your opinion with the various calendar issues which can seem to divide the Messianic community?
The new month, as originally specified by the Torah, was to be determined by the changing of the moon or chodesh. Genesis 1:14 states how God originally made the lights of the sky, as the means by which His people were to keep time: “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years” (NASU). There were to be a variety of special offerings presented to the Lord, during the time of the New Moon (Numbers 29:6).
Since the Biblical period of ancient times up until modern times, there has been a diversity of opinion present within Judaism as to how time is to be reckoned. For practical purposes, this most often concerns the days on which the appointed times are to be observed. While residing within the Land of Israel in either the First or Second Temple periods, it would be quite easy for an enclosed group of Ancient Israelites or Ancient Jews to maintain a calendrical system via a visible sighting of the New Moon, things definitely changed in history with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. and widespread expulsion from the Holy Land. How was the Jewish community, the vast majority of which was now spread abroad in Diaspora, to keep the appointed times and maintain some level of cohesion and unity? A system of lighting signal fires on hilltops, to be passed around the Jewish world, announcing the arrival of the New Moon, was inexact. The Hillel II calendar was developed in the Fourth Century C.E. (358 C.E.), and was to be pre-calculated for the cohesion of the worldwide Jewish community.[1]
With a few modifications since, the Hillel II calendar—as a standard, fixed calendar for the beginning of the month and days for the appointed times—is followed by the worldwide Jewish community today, as well as the considerable majority of Messianic Judaism. One of the biggest areas of divergence, which is easily detectable between much of the independent Hebrew/Hebraic Roots movement and Messianic Judaism, is that the former largely rejects the validity of the mainline Jewish calendar. When various Hebrew/Hebraic Roots assemblies and fellowships gather to remember the appointed times, such as Passover, it is usually not at the same time when mainline Messianic Jewish congregations will gather.
The issue of the calendar, in general, is often regarded as one of authority. Do the Rabbis of Judaism have any significant place, or any place at all, in the halachah or Torah application of today’s Messianic community and Messianic Believers? It is not difficult for a Messianic Jewish person, in respecting his or her heritage, to conclude that the Hillel II calendar should be followed, since it provides common dates for all Jews the world over to observe the appointed times. Believing in Messiah Yeshua does not all of a sudden make such a person un-Jewish or significantly disconnected from the wider Jewish world, especially in matters like the calendar followed. Even if the Rabbis have been wrong in many theological areas, this does not mean that they are completely ignorant and totally devoid of basic wisdom. For the Messianic Jewish congregation or synagogue, serving as a place to facilitate Jewish outreach and evangelism, the bulk of Jewish non-Believers are likely to visit during one of the appointed times. It makes no logical sense at all, then, for Messianic Judaism to employ a religious calendar different from the rest of the Jewish community.
Within much of the Hebrew/Hebraic Roots movement, and other independent sectors, rather than the pre-calculated, fixed Hillel II calendar being followed, many instead prefer to follow the calendrical determinations by the Karaite movement. The Karaites were an ancient sect of Judaism which arose in the Middle Ages, which quantitatively rejected Rabbinical authority, the idea of any kind of Oral Torah or tradition, and the value of works like the Mishnah or Talmud. The Karaite movement in Israel, while extremely small, has its own calendar based on their visible sighting of the New Moon.
(It does have to be noted that a small number of people within the Hebrew/Hebraic Roots movement do still follow the mainline Jewish calendar. But even in doing so, there are disagreements often present with the date for keeping Shavuot, or referring to the Feast of Trumpets as Rosh HaShanah. A majority in the One Law/One Torah sub-movement are likely to follow the mainline Jewish calendar.)
Within many popular conference events which take place via the banner of “Hebrew Roots,” it is not uncommon to find various outspoken teachers who advocate things along the lines of, “The Father is restoring the Biblical calendar to us…” Within such teachings, one does not often find that much regard expressed for the complexities of ancient Jewish history, and the need for the Rabbinic authorities to develop a calendar which the worldwide Jewish community could use to keep them unified together as a people. Unfair accusations and disgust toward the Synagogue, and Jewish religion in general, are instead more easily detected.
Too much of the Hebrew/Hebraic Roots world has many “restored Biblical calendars” littering its ranks. While various persons have taken it upon themselves to produce their own “restored Biblical calendar,” this has tended to only cause more confusion and division, as one does not know which calendar is to be followed from congregation to assembly to fellowship. Not all agree with the determination of the Karaite movement in Israel, or when the New Moon begins and ends. The default calendar choice, for any Messianic, is understandably the mainline Hillel II Rabbinical calendar used by Judaism today.
What really needs to be recognized, about why there is so much diversity circulating out there regarding the apparent Biblical calendar, is that a group’s so-called “restored Biblical calendar” is not often as a means by which to determine the real or actual date for remembering Passover or Yom Kippur. Many have produced their own calendars as a means to promote their own predictions and calculations regarding the end-times and Second Coming. With this, the most amount of attention focused is not upon the determination of the New Moon, but rather the year. Many assumptions are made from mathematics, astronomy, chronology, and science. It is not too infrequent that someone’s so-called “restored Biblical calendar” gets proven wrong, and suggested dates and times have to be adjusted and recalculated when predictions come and go when nothing happens.
There is likely a season coming when some of the presuppositions which have gone into the different “restored Biblical calendars,” will need to be radically reevaluated. Recalculating and recalculating the presumed year of Yeshua’s return (2000, 2007, 2012, 2017, etc.) cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. The severe challenge to people reconsidering the various presuppositions which are associated with highly-packaged teachings like the so-called 6,000-year doctrine,[2] is that it will open up areas of theological discussion which have largely remained closed to all sectors of the Messianic movement, particularly as it concerns the material of Genesis chs. 1-11.[3] Anthropologically speaking, we see human cave paintings, such as those in Lascaux, France from an estimated 16,000 years ago[4] (with some of the other cave paintings in France and Spain dating to as many as 32,000 years ago). One need not be an evolutionist to legitimately recognize that the popular 6,000-year doctrine has made some assumptions, about both eschatology and Biblical genealogies (i.e., Genesis 5, 11),[5] which do not bear out in human history.
Yeshua will only return when the people of God are ready. The Apostle Peter said that Believers “ought…to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Peter 3:11-12, NASU). This statement employs the present active participle speudontas, “hastening,” to describe this action. The righteous behavior of Believers affects “the coming of the day of God,”[6] not any human being’s mistaken calculation of it.
Outreach Israel Ministries and Messianic Apologetics see absolutely no reason in principle, why today’s Messianic people should not be observing the appointed times on all of the same dates as the rest of the worldwide Jewish community. The areas where the Rabbinical authorities should be rejected concern matters like Yeshua’s Messiahship, or Jewish and non-Jewish equality in the people of God. Matters, like making sure that the assembly follows the same calendar, are in a quantitatively different category. Significant, unnecessary divisions have been caused by all of the “restored Biblical calendars” out there.
NOTES
[1] George Robinson, Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs, and Rituals (New York: Pocket Books, 2000), pp 79-80.
[2] Consult the Messianic Apologetics FAQ, “6,000 Year Teaching.”
[3] For a worthwhile review, the author recommends that you consider the views represented in a resources such as Hugh Ross, Navigating Genesis: A Scientist’s Journey through Genesis 1-11 (Covina, CA: Reasons to Believe, 2014).
If necessary, also consult the Messianic Apologetics FAQ, “Creationism.”
[4] Information on visiting the cave of Lascaux can be accessed on the French Ministry of Culture website: <http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/>.
[5] Consult the Messianic Apologetics FAQ, “Genesis 5, 11 Genealogies.”
[6] Consult the author’s blog editorial, “The Hastening of Righteousness” (appearing in When Will the Messiah Return?).
