It is written, "You shall guard and you shall do, for it is evidence, in the eyes of the nations, of the wisdom and understanding that has been given to you." What is the wisdom and understanding that Israel possesses "in the eyes of the nations"? We must say that it refers to the calculation of the seasons and months. Concerning one who knows how to calculate and does not do so, the verse says, "They did not contemplate God's deeds, and they have not paid attention to the work of His hands." (Yeshaya 5:12)

God proves His prophecy to be true by using the seven feasts in the Bible as His time piece and most of those who believe in the Rapture, believe that it will take place at the Feast of Trumpets. These trumpets have nothing to do with the seven trumpets just before Armageddon. These trumpets are two silver trumpets.

Numbers 10:2 "Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps." 1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

THE LAST FEAST EVERY YEAR IS THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES

It coincides with Thanksgiving, being the feast of harvest. People relate this feast to belong to the Millennium because young and old will be going to Israel annually to celebrate this Feast of Tabernacles.

 

Objectives:

To identify some of the main components of the Feast of Tabernacles.

To gain an understanding of how this feast was observed during the time of Christ.

To gain an understanding of how this feast applies to believers today.

To explore some of the possible prophetic fulfillments of this feast.

Approach:

With the dawn of a new millennium rapidly approaching, many of us have been concerned with the ramifications of the so-called "millennium bug." Stores that supply food for long-term storage, supplies for living "off the grid", and camping gear are seeing record sales and lots of back-ordered items. Despite the many projections of the so-called experts, no one really knows how our lives will be affected by Y2K but we have all probably thought some about the possibility of "roughing it." Y2K should serve as a reminder that nothing in life remains the same except the Giver of Life and that just as He provided for the Hebrews in the wilderness, He will provide for us. The feast we will be studying today serves as a reminder to Jew and Gentile alike that God keeps His promises and cares for His people. And that "roughing it" is not so bad when your Tabernacle is God Himself.

GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
The Feast of Tabernacles is known by several other names:
The Feast of Sukkot or Booths, since God commanded the Hebrews to live in temporary shelters for the seven days of the feast.
The Festival of Ingathering, since according to Lev. 23:39 it was to occur after the crops had been gathered. There was an agricultural component to this feast.
The Season of Our Joy--in contrast to the somber days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Tabernacles was a time of great joy and celebration.
The Feast of Nations--Zechariah 14:16-18 indicates that this is the one feast that will be celebrated by the nations during the millennial reign.
The Festival of Dedication--according to I Kings 3, King Solomon dedicated the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Festival of Lights--one tradition associated with this feast was the illumination of the Temple, thus the feast came to be called the Festival of Lights.
The Feast--the joy of Sukkot was so great that it simply came to be known as the feast.
B. This was the seventh feast, it occurred during the seventh month, which would have been during the seventh full moon of the year and it was to be celebrated for seven days. In Scripture, what does the number "7" signify? (the number of perfection or completeness).

C. Tabernacles was the third and final pilgrimage feast. All men age 13 and older were required to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast in the Temple. "During the Feast of Tabernacles, the people brought their tithes and offerings to the Temple, for they were not to 'appear before the Lord empty-handed' (Deut. 16:16)" (Howard, p. 136)

D. Tabernacles commemorates God's provision of shelter for the Israelites during the wilderness experience. "It is widely believed that the Puritan colonists, who were great students of the Hebrew Scriptures, based the first American Thanksgiving on Sukkot." (Kasdan, p. 92) http://brenda.ratcliffs.net/tab.htm

The Moon is the clock Jews use prescibed by the Old Testament to get ready for each event prophesied. Jesus fulfilled all the prophecys precisely as the Scripture foretold.

Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.

God is promising that Jesus will get the job done on the schedule foretold. The reason for the following verse in the New Testament is that God used this pattern foreshadowing what was to take place when Jesus Christ appeared in Israel and that He fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy. It is finished.

Colossians 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

Most of the feasts begin with New Moon Calculations which usually involve two days and are determined by watching the Moon. The year the following was written is an example how Israelis determine the day when they should celebrate a specific feast. They still do to this day go through these procedures and ignore the New Testament teachings. They will try to convince you that they accept Yeshua but in not following the New Testament teachings they deny it.

That the moon is most full on the 15th close to midnight, appearing equally full...
on the 15th at moonset (assumed sunrise) as at moonrise (assumed sunset), on the 16th at moonrise (assumed sunset) as on the 14th at moonset (assumed sunrise), on the 16th at midnight as on the 14th at midnight, on the 16th at moonset (assumed sunrise) as on the 14th at moonrise (assumed sunset).That the moon is not yet half empty at sunrise on the 22nd.I suggest that the adjustment be made not based on one sign, but with "two or three witnesses" witnessing at least two or three of these signs (without any contradicting signs) over a two month period. We want to avoid a hasty calendar change based on irregular data, as it would likely put the next few months out of sync with the moon. (This is because the moon is not perfectly regular in its lunation or its phases.) The adjustment should occur once every 15 or 17 months on average.I think the above demonstration shows that a Calendar based on observation of the moon need not necessarily rely on observation of the New Moon.

Provided that slight irregularities in the timing of the moon's phases be ignored, a very practical calendar can be created which links the phases of the moon more regularly to the date than one which relies on observing the Visible Crescent each month. What I mean is, if clouds obscure the otherwise visible Crescent on some months, and this affects the date, the moon in all its phases will appear too mature(too filled or too emptied) for the date in those months. But if we base the calendar on signs and their interpretation, and ignore the lack of signs, the moon's shape and fullness will regularly confirm our dates.What are your thoughts, reader?Can you devise a method for keeping the full moon on the 15th by observation?

They used the times of the half-full(quarter) moons and full moons to determine the time of the Astronomical New Moon.Such a method...can produce fairly accurate results, has a pleasant side-effect that the day of the New Moon can be known days or weeks or months before it happens, which is practical. [The Karaite method cannot be sure, for example, whether the "Feast of Trumpets" will be "tonight" or "tomorrow" night, as -even with all the astronomical data now available- it cannot predict whether a cloud will obscure the view. Did YHWH intend for us to be ignorant of the New Moon until it became visible? Why? To keep us on our toes? Perhaps this method has come about simply because men have assumed that the Visible Crescent is the New Moon, or that YHWH wouldn't expect man to use his brain to determine when the Astronomical New Moon will be?
According to the Oral Torah

1. The beginning of the lunar month occurs at the moment of conjunction between the sun and the moon; i.e. at the moment when the position of the moon is exactly between the earth and the sun. At this point, termed as the molad, or "birth", the moon is not visible from the earth. At least six hours must pass before a very small portion of the moon will reappear. The day on which this occurs is regarded as the first day of the new month. (Rashi)
Rosh HaShana is the Feast of Trumpets. All OT feasts begin with the New Moon. That is why the New Moon is so important. There are two days involved. The Feasts start the evening before that first sliver of 1% appears.
December 21, 2012 does not coincide with a new moon. But by some amazing coincidence, not only will we be intersecting with the Galactic Equator [the Milky Way], but we will be doing this precisely aligned with the center of the Galaxy where there is maximum mass! More mass means more gravity. More gravity means more influence from those barycenters in our Sun. That means exponential increases in solar disruptions -- all coinciding on the same day! Whew! Going through the Milky Way
http://viewzone.com/endtime.html

Astronomy Answers
21 December 2012
1. Introduction
One of the time periods of the Long Count of the Maya is the baktun, which lasts 144,000 days. In some texts of the Maya a new period of the Long Count is said to begin after 13 baktuns (exactly 1,872,000 days). Such a new period in the Long Count of the Maya will probably begin on 21 December 2012, when the Long Count returns to 0.0.0.0.0 (see the Historical Calendar Page), and some people expect to see special things in the sky or on Earth then that would not otherwise be expected.
The interest for 21 December 2012 seems to have been spurred by publications by John Major Jenkins, who (if I understand correctly) is of the opinion that the Maya designed their Long Count in order that the coming special date 0.0.0.0.0 corresponds to a southern solstice (when the winter begins in the northern hemisphere) when the Sun stands in the Milky Way in the sky. Mr. Jenkins reached this opinion based on extensive research of Maya texts and other traces. See http://alignment2012.com for his opinion.
As far as I know, no text by the Maya has been found in which they explain (unambiguously) how they chose the day on which their Long Count should start (or on which the special date of 0.0.0.0.0 should return), so we cannot be sure why the Maya designed their calendar in that way. We can form opinions about this, based on other knowledge we have of the Maya culture and of other calendars, and depending on how much weight we assign to each fact and each opinion. Different people can form different opinions about this.
2. Basic Arguments
The basic arguments of many stories about 21 December 2012 seem to be as follows:
On exactly 21 December 2012 there is a certain special astronomical conjunction that is so rare that it doesn't repeat for a long period of time (centuries, or even millennia) before or after that date.
21 december 2012 corresponds to the round date 0.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count of the Maya.
The Maya designed the Long Count in such a way that the special conjunction would correspond to the round date 0.0.0.0.0 in their Long Count, far into their future.
The Maya had the knowledge to predict that special conjunction precisely and accurately to one day.
Because of the conjunction, special phenomena are to be expected in the sky or on Earth on 21 December 2012.

3. Reaction

My claim is that nothing will happen on 21 December 2012 that is tied to the conjunction and that is of interest to the physical sciences. I explain my arguments below.

The conjunction is not clearly limited to a single day, but covers a period of many years.

The Milky Way is a luminous band in the sky that can be seen only (sometimes) at night, outside, from dark locations far from city lights and other lights. The Milky Way has a fixed location amidst the stars in the sky. The annual path of the Sun between the stars in the sky crosses the Milky Way in two locations, near the constellations of the Archer and the Twins. So, the Sun passes through the Milky Way in the sky twice a year.

The southern solstice (the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere, and of summer in the southern hemisphere) always falls around 21 December in the Gregorian calendar (around 11:13 UTC on 21 December 2012). The spot where the Sun then is between the stars slowly shifts between the stars, because of the precession of the equinoxes. In about 26,000 years that spot moves once around the whole sky (compared to the stars), roughly along the ecliptic (the annual path of the Sun between the stars in the sky), so the southern solstitial point moves through the Milky Way twice each 26,000 years.

The Milky Way has no very clear boundaries, but is on average about 12 degrees wide in the sky, and the solstitial point takes about 12°/360°*26000 = about 900 years to cover such a distance.

The Milky Way has no clear central line either, so there is uncertainty about when the solstitial point crosses that central line. Different groups of people can each use reasonable definitions for the central line that yet deviate from one another. If we estimate (for example) that the uncertainty about the "best" central line of the Milky Way is half a degree (which is only a small fraction of the width of the Milky Way), then the corresponding uncertainty in the date at which the solstitial point crosses the central line is 0.5°/360°*26000 = about 36 years.

The conjunction of the southern solstitial point and the Milky Way is therefore quite rare (it happens only once each about 13,000 years) but also lasts many years.

If you accept the central line that the IAU has defined for the Milky Way (see question 480), then (based on some experimenting with planetarium program Redshift 5) the southern solstitial point crossed the central line of the Milky Way already back in 1999.

It is quite likely but not entirely certain that the Long Count date of 0.0.0.0.0 corresponds to 21 December 2012.

The exact correspondence between the Long Count and modern calendars was lost when the Spanish conquistadors destroyed many Maya documents in the 16th century. In the course of time, the beginning of the Long Count has been proposed to correspond to dates in our calendars that varied by as much as 1000 years.

It seems unlikely to me that the Maya would be (almost?) the only people to define a calendar based on a date in their distant future.

It seems very unlikely to me that the Maya (or any other people) would design a calendar such that a certain round date in that calendar would correspond to some astronomical conjunction more than 2000 years into their future. All calendars that I know that have a certain specific day as a reference point have for that reference point a date in the past of the calendar makers that is important to them, such as the birth date or the date of the beginning of the reign of an important leader, or of the founding of an important city or of their country, or the (assumed) beginning of the world.

The idea that the Long Count was designed to have 0.0.0.0.0 on 21 December 2012 was invented when someone noticed not too long ago that the next beginning of a new period of 13 baktuns (on 21 December 2012) coincides with a solstice. Munro Edmonson writes [Edmonson, p. 119]:

There was, however, nothing arbitrary about the fixing of the end of the Long Count era. Victoria Bricker has pointed out to me that 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 3 Kankin corresponds to an astronomically correct winter solstice: December 21, 2012 A.D. (Julian day number 2456283). Thus there appears to be a strong likelihood that the eral calendar, like the year calendar, was motivated by a long-range astronomical prediction, one that made a correct solsticial forecast 2,367 years into the future in 355 B.C.

(The mentioned 13.0.0.0.0 corresponds to the 0.0.0.0.0 that I mention elsewhere.) Absent from this description (and from its neighborhood in the book) is any indication about this from texts of the inventors or users of the Long Count. That we think that it fits so nicely doesn't say anything about what the inventors had in mind when they designed the Long Count.

I don't think that the Maya had the knowledge to be able to predict the date of such a conjunction over 2000 years into their future to an accuracy and precision of one day.

The Maya could of course pick a certain day over two thousand years into their future, just like anyone can do, but they did not have the knowledge to be very likely to predict the correct day for the conjunction.

To be likely to calculate the correct day, the Maya would have had to be able to do the following:

Define the central line of the Milky Way very accurately, and hence also measure the positions of stars very accurately.

If that central line is not clearly defined, then you cannot determine either when the solstitial point crosses that central line. The solstitial point shifts by only about 360/26000 = 1/70 degree per year, so, to be able to predict the exact year in which the conjunction was suposed to happen, the Maya would have to define the central line of the Milky Way at an accuracy of better than 1/70th of a degree. That angular distance is at about the limit of what the human eye can distinguish. However, I have never heard of a star map from the Maya that shows the central line of the Milky Way or even the positions of stars with that kind of accuracy.

Accurately predict the motion of the solstitial point.

If you can determine from observations the time of a solstice or equinox accurately to one day (which seems reasonable if you have no modern equipment), then, to be able to make a prediction with a likely accuracy of one day, you need to have observations spanning as many years into the past as the number of years into the future for which you want to make a prediction.

To correctly predict the date of a southern solstice 2367 years into the future in the 4th century BC, the Central Americans must then have had accurate records of observations of solstices and equinoxes from the preceding 2400 years, but no indications of such records for so many years have been found.

The conjunction has no astronomical or physical scientific significance.

The conjunction is not visible from Earth, because the Sun is then in the solstitial point so the solstitial point is then above the horizon only during the day.
There are no special forces associated with the conjunction, so the planets and other celestial bodies will continue in their orbits as usual.
The positions of the planets on 21 December 2012 are not remarkable. Here are the geocentric ecliptic longitude ? and the elongation E of the Sun and all planets on 21 December 2012, measured in degrees:

http://www.astro.uu.nl/~strous/AA/en/2012.html

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author. If you have a problem with the correctness of the information, please contact the author.

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