Originally published on Friday, October 22, 2010, 6:29 pm in German at www.letztercountdown.org

What do the Gospels say?

For rounding off our insights, we have to examine a few statements on the use of wording in the Gospels, which were already discussed correctly in our Bible commentary, but which still give us more confirmation of our view in the new light.

The Synoptic Gospels use the following verses to describe the preparations for the Passover:

Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? (Matthew 26:17)

And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? (Mark 14:12)

Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. (Luke 22:1)

Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed. (Luke 22:7)

According to the festival rules of Leviticus 23, we understand the course of the feast as follows:

First came the Passover, and this was followed by the seven days of the feast of unleavened bread. The first day of the feast of unleavened bread (Nissan 15) was a ceremonial sabbath as also was the last day (Nissan 21). On the second day of the feast of unleavened bread (Nissan 16), the sheaf of firstfruits was waved. From that day on, we are to count another 48 days, observing seven ceremonial sabbaths until Pentecost was reached on the 50th day from the first day of the feast of unleavened bread (Nissan 15).

The day on which the Passover had to be slaughtered, according to this rule, never fell upon the first day of the feast of unleavened bread. Our Bible commentary correctly describes that at this time, the terms “unleavened bread” or “Passover” were used for the entire festival season and were interchangeable. It is important for the understanding of the third part of the Shadow Series that you learn the festival course even with its proper nomenclature.

The colloquial use of terms by the evangelists explains the apparent discrepancies of this problem’s solution with the Gospel of John:

Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. (John 18:28)

Our Bible commentary states that the choice of words “eat the Passover” quite well could mean that a ceremonial meal might have taken place on one of the days of the feast of unleavened bread. Now that we know precisely that the Passover lamb had not been slaughtered on Nissan 14 but always on Nissan 13 before the evening, the distinction between Passover and the first day of the feast of unleavened bread starts to really make sense. In the wrong idea of the festival course, these evenings fell together, but the correct idea is that two separate consecutive evenings are to be kept on different days. The Passover meal was a meal on an evening of a day that had not been declared a ceremonial sabbath. This meant a family meal to some extent, without compulsory attendance in the temple. Even at the exodus, only the families had joined in their homes and eaten the meal. This allowed the trials and the crucifixion of Jesus to take place on Friday, Nissan 14, because the day of the Passover was a normal working day and only the evening meal (at the beginning of the Jewish day) was observed.

The first day of the feast of unleavened bread, however, has always been a ceremonial shadow sabbath, and the priests had to perform special services in the temple. This is why the evening meal on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread was a ceremonial meal which the priests had to attend in the temple, and they had to take care not to be defiled beforehand. John spoke about this eating of the evening meal on the first day of Unleavened bread when he wrote “that they might eat the Passover”. We already discussed this fact in the section “Attempts to Explain” of the first article on this theme.

When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! (John 19:13-14)

Friday was certainly not the day of preparation for the Passover. “The preparation of the Passover” is an unusual and uncommon expression. Later, John said:

The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. (John 19:31)

There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. (John 19:42)

What John meant with “the preparation of the Passover” was not that it would have been the day of the preparation for the Passover meal, but that it was a Friday (the preparation day) for the coming seventh-day Sabbath during the celebrations of the feast of unleavened bread, as he expressed it in the course of the same chapter quite correctly.

This view has been recognized by many scholars to be correct.

Let us now compare the conclusions of our Adventist scholars with the reality we found:

a. There would have been a double celebration of the Passover, based on which religious disputes among the Jews whatsoever.

Partially wrong. At that time, there was no double celebration of the Passover and there probably never was. However, it is correct that trends had already surfaced at that time through different groups within the Jewish faith, which offered a distinct interpretation of the Passover in discord with Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23. When Jesus fulfilled all the types of the Passover feast in every detail, this must have been a major shock for the leaders of the Jews. They must have recognized that something had happened that could not be easily argued away. So, it was surely only a matter of time before they had the idea to accept the new interpretation of the Passover. They changed the course of the festival to the effect that Jesus would no longer have met in person all types with respect to time. Of course, they could not change anymore what had happened, but they could change the interpretation of the type and thus the procedure of this festival. And since the Passover after the year 70 ceased to be kept in this way, the modified version of the festival process and the fact that it had been changed was also very soon forgotten.

b. On Thursday evening, Jesus would have celebrated the Passover meal correctly with the disciples. This would have been Nissan 14 that had begun on sunset and was the true celebration of the Passover.

Absolutely correct! First “hit”!

c. Jesus died at the time of the evening sacrifice and slaughter of the Passover lambs on Friday, Nissan 14.

Wrong. It seems that our scholars did not consult the writings of Ellen G. White. They still succumb to the misconception that Jesus’ death on the cross was the antitype of the Passover lamb. No, the antitype of the Passover lamb was the Lord’s Supper, which was instituted as a memorial of Jesus’ sacrifice by Himself. Jesus died on Friday, Nissan 14, at the time of the slaughtering of the lamb for the daily evening sacrifice. However, the Passover lambs had already been slaughtered on Thursday afternoon. With the death of Christ, the entire sacrificial system ceased, and this was symbolized by the daily lamb and not by the Passover lamb that only had to be eaten once a year and represented the Lord’s Supper. Once we understand this, all the discussions about how many times per year (at least) we should celebrate the Last Supper are pointless. The type of the Passover lamb gives a clear answer: once a year.

d. In the year of the crucifixion the official celebration of the Passover took place on Friday evening after the crucifixion.

Wrong again. The whole article series “Cross Shadows” explains why. The problem was never researched to find a harmonious solution, and it remains a mystery that no one came up with the idea to relate the statements of God in the crucial chapters of the books of Moses to his understanding of the ancient Egyptian calendar.

e. Jesus rested in the grave during the seventh-day Sabbath, which this year coincided with the ceremonial Sabbath, Nissan 15, the first day of unleavened bread.

Yes, correct, a second “hit”!

f. Jesus rose from the grave on early Sunday morning, Nissan 16, the day on which the sheaf of firstfruits had to be waved in the temple. This typified the resurrection.

All good things come in threes! Three hits out of a possible six. Or, to put it the other way around: 50% wrong. So, if I might dare to grade our high academic doctors of theology, a “poor” seems appropriate, since “sufficient” does not correspond to the importance of the topic. Again and again, I have to recognize that one gets better results with the Holy Spirit than with the study of theology.

A final argument that could possibly rise against this solution to the two-Passover problem is the verse of Numbers 33:3:

And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians. For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the LORD had smitten among them: upon their gods also the LORD executed judgments. (Numbers 33:3-4)

These verses have been used by hordes of scholars to explain that the Passover lamb was slain on Nissan 14 and eaten in the evening of Nissan 15 (at the Jewish day beginning). The exodus subsequently took place at daybreak. Is there a contradiction with my solution? Again, take a look at the chart of the type:

In Patriarchs and Prophets, we read:

At midnight “there was a great cry in Egypt: for there was not a house where there was not one dead.” All the first-born in the land, “from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle” had been smitten by the destroyer. Throughout the vast realm of Egypt the pride of every household had been laid low. The shrieks and wails of the mourners filled the air. King and courtiers, with blanched faces and trembling limbs, stood aghast at the overmastering horror. Pharaoh remembered how he had once exclaimed, “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go.” Now, his heaven-daring pride humbled in the dust, he “called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said. . . . And be gone; and bless me also.” The royal counselors also and the people entreated the Israelites to depart “out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men.”

With their loins girt, with sandaled feet, and staff in hand, the people of Israel had stood, hushed, awed, yet expectant, awaiting the royal mandate that should bid them go forth. Before the morning broke, they were on their way. {PP 249.4–281.1}

If we compare the verse of Numbers 33:3 and the statement of Ellen G. White, we find only a contradiction if we assume that the times were given in Jewish reckoning:

... on the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out ... (Numbers 33:3)

The Passover definitely took place in the evening, and just before dawn the Israelites departed. According to Jewish time calculation, which begins in the evening, this would have been the same day and was not “the morrow after the Passover.” A total contradiction in the Bible, assuming the dates were Jewish.

Fortunately, the above chart provides information as it was really to be understood, if we look at the calculation in ancient Egyptian days. The day of the Passover meal was still Pesdjenet-X 14 and the Hebrews were waiting with their shoes on their feet for the start signal. Just before dawn, they hit the road, and at dawn a new day had already started, the ancient Egyptian Pesdjenet-X 15. Probably not even the entire Hebrew people had left Rameses at dawn, because a caravan of 1.2 million people needs several hours until the back rows are on the move. While we can easily forgive the author of the report of this small time difference of perhaps less than an hour on the basis of the ancient Egyptian day calculation, in the Jewish time calculation, an irreconcilable contradiction would have emerged.

The Rest of the Jewish Calendar

If we compare the real creation calendar with the complicated calendars of other cultures, we are surprised by its simplicity.

Beginning of the day at sundown.
Beginning of the month with the first crescent moon at sundown.
Beginning of the year with the month after or at the spring equinox.
Leap month, if barley could not be found.

Captivatingly simple and still spiritual in its ultimate dependence on the hand of God, who always has the last word in form of His creative power, just as He can grow the barley in its season and gives sunshine and rain.

After the Exodus from Egypt, Moses still had to learn how the exact start of the day, and how the leap months worked.

To the beginning of the day, I already mentioned the verse from Leviticus:

It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath. (Leviticus 23:32)

But in this short verse, there is still much more than we previously understood. Of course, the verse contains the precise statement of God—that God fixed the Jewish day beginning in the evening, which was in line with the creation account in which all the days started well in the evening. But again, many argue against this truth and try to ruin even this verse. They believe that God had set this principle of the day beginning just for the Sabbath, and the other days were exempt.

Wrong, because there is still more in the verse, as I said. What Sabbath are we talking about here? A ceremonial sabbath or the seventh-day Sabbath, or what?

This verse refers to the previous verses in which the Great Day of Atonement is described:

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath. (Leviticus 23:26-32)

We must always read Bible verses in their context, or we come to wrong conclusions. It would be impossible to explain the text of verse 32 without our new findings, which are based on the fact that Moses had not yet fully understood the creation calendar of God. For a Jew who was familiar with his calendar, the statement of Leviticus 23:27 would have already been clear as daylight. On the tenth day is the Day of Atonement. A Jew would never have thought to celebrate the feast on a different evening than at the evening at the beginning of the tenth day. Error excluded, as all Jewish feasts always started in the evening, since their day began with it and the next evening would have been the next day already.

But, why then does God explain so strangely the Day of Atonement in verse 32? “In the ninth day of the month at even...” What would that mean for a Jew? Great confusion, brothers and sisters! Because first of all, God says in verse 27 that of the Day of Atonement is on the tenth day of the month, and this means at the evening of the tenth, and a few verses later, God says that it should be at the evening of the ninth. A Jew who only knew the Jewish calendar would now have been hopelessly confused. For him, these verses would have created an irreconcilable contradiction. “So, when does God want us to keep the Day of Atonement, on the 9th or the 10th?” he certainly would have asked, helplessly and confused.

We understand, however, that God was about to teach Moses the Jewish calendar anew, and so we have no problem understanding this apparent contradiction. God explained in verse 27 that the Day of Atonement has to be kept from the evening (beginning of the day) of the 10th of Tishri (seventh month) and should last until the next evening—clearly in Jewish calendar language. But Moses still did not understand this very well, as we found out. So, God in His loving patience explained it once more to the confused Moses in his old understanding of the day, according to which the day began in the morning and not in the evening. For Moses, Tishri 9 would have just ended in the morning of Tishri 10, since he was still not used to the new calendar. So, the Great Teacher explained it once more to him in a language that Moses could not misunderstand: “In the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.”

The leap month rule, overwhelming in its simplicity, we find a few verses earlier. It is explained by God, briefly and to the point:

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you [prerequisite 1], and shall reap the harvest thereof [prerequisite 2], then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. (Leviticus 23:10-11)

There were two prerequisites for waving the sheaf of firstfruits that we came to know as the “barley harvest test” for the determination of the leap month in the first part of the Shadow Series:

1. The Israelites first had to have come into the land of Canaan for this festival rule to start for the second day of the feast of unleavened bread. “When ye come into the land that I will give you...”
2. The words “and shall reap the harvest thereof” include the second condition that the sheaf could be waved, namely that they must have been able to find some mature barley. If there were nothing, you could not harvest anything; and if there were nothing to harvest, you could not wave it.

We often have to read carefully if we want to find these small but profound in their effect not-to-be-underestimated hints from God in His Word. But some do not want to follow this rule...

The “Empire” Strikes Back

Recently, the lunar Sabbath keepers, led by a certain “truth warrior” as he calls himself, Walter Saar, addressed “thousands of German Adventists,” as they pretend, with a circular. It was regarding the satanic doctrine of the lunar Sabbath. The attached PDF file was about the year 31 problem, which for the lunar Sabbath keepers represents the main argument for their lunar worship day that they mistakenly call the seventh-day Sabbath. The study is titled “When was the crucifixion of Christ—12 pages that will change your lives”. There they propagate the same arguments that I was able to refute completely in the first part of the Shadow studies. These arguments are used to intimidate members of the church and to encourage them to violate the fourth commandment.

It was obvious that “they” had to quickly come up with some counterarguments to my research, but what they indeed brought up was miserable.

These are the lines of the lunar Sabbath keepers verbatim regarding the first part of the Shadow Series, Full moon at Gethsemane:

Might it not be possible that they had to wait for the first barley, and therefore a leap month was inserted and so the year 31 just began with the month of May?

Surprisingly, the Passover in the month of May indeed fell on the full moon of the 25th upon a Friday! But is it biblical, or merely a Jewish tradition, that the barley had to be considered for the beginning of the year? By the following incidents we will see that the biblical years HAD TO and COULD begin WITHOUT regard to the barley:

1st Incident: In the Jubilee year nothing was sown - no barley
in two consecutive growing seasons (Sabbatical and Jubilee year) no corn was planted, and therefore ripe barley wasn’t present to be searched for (Leviticus 25:1-24)

2nd Incident: Noah knew the beginning of the year despite the water - no barley
During the flood, Noah was able to determine the first day of the year, regardless of the barley harvest. Genesis 8:13: “And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth.”

3rd Incident: During the wandering in the wilderness (40 years) - no barley
During the 40-year wandering in the wilderness (desert), Israel kept an accurate record of the months and years - apparently without considering in any case the barley harvest in Canaan...

That was all! These three “counter-arguments” were all that they had to counter my findings of the entire first part of the shadow study.

The same day on which I received this circular of the lunar Sabbath keepers, I wrote a counter-response that I will copy here also. The Dutch brother, who maintains a large distribution list of German-speaking Adventists, refused to pass on my “Counter-response to the lunar Sabbath keepers” to the brethren. He had sent me some time ago a pretty shameless e-mail in which he called me a “false prophet” with big letters because the Sunday law had not come, as “I had predicted.” The complete e-mail reads (font size and color taken directly from his e-mail):

No greeting. No “God bless you.” This is how we “talk” nowadays among brethren! He probably did not read nor understand that I clearly stated in the articles of the series Behind Enemy Lines that I was just trying to decipher satanic messages from the Vatican, but—since I am not a Jesuit, nor of the Illuminati—without any guarantee of a correct interpretation. Therefore to call me, as a brother, “a false prophet” already borders on libel. But the confusion of the brethren is so great that they can no longer distinguish between good and evil.

But that he now refuses to pass on messages like the following, makes himself a servant of the lunar Sabbath keepers who are able to send such unsettling and sin-enticing letters to our brothers and sisters, unrestrained without a sound counter-response. This makes me very sad, because it shows once again how much ground Satan has gained to cloud the minds of those who once belonged to the elect. It would be good for our brethren to learn to distinguish between true and false “false prophets”.

Here is the text of my counter-response, which can be better understood now on the basis of the second part of the Shadow Series:

In response to the e-mail “Letter to the SDA leaders - The congregations and their members are called for revival and reformation! Z5 p. 15”

Hi Walter Saar, alias “Truth Warrior”!

Your quickly prepared “counter arguments” against Friday, May 25, AD 31 as the date of the crucifixion of our Lord, which I have described in detail in the new articles about the Shadows of the Future as a solution for the year 31 issue, are totally unsustainable and therefore you can only deceive those who do not understand (or do not want to understand) what really happened at that time.

Before I get into that, I want to give you and the lunar Sabbath keepers a quote from Ellen G. White. Ellen G. White says to you:

I was then carried back to the creation, and was shown that the first week, in which God performed the work of creation in six days and rested on the seventh day, was just like every other week. The great God, in his days of creation and day of rest, measured off the first cycle as a sample for successive weeks till the close of time. “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created.” God gives us the productions of his work at the close of each literal day. Each day was accounted of him a generation, because every day he generated or produced some new portion of his work. On the seventh day of the first week God rested from his work, and then blessed the day of his rest, and set it apart for the use of man. The weekly cycle of seven literal days, six for labor and the seventh for rest, which has been preserved and brought down through Bible history, originated in the great facts of the first seven days.  {1SP 85.1}

The weekly cycle of exactly seven days was therefore preserved up to the present day and never changed.

With the following statement you go completely against the Spirit of Prophecy, and expose yourselves as “false prophets” and the whole moon-sabbath-lie is debunked:

THEREFORE, THE SATURDAY-SABBATH WE HAVE TODAY
IS 100% NOT THE SAME SABBATH DAY
ON WHICH CHRIST WAS IN THE TOMB!!!
[quote of your study]

Ellen G. White confirmed several times that Jesus rested on the seventh-day Sabbath in the grave and that He died on the 6th day of the week. The rhythm (cycle) was never changed. It is a clear lie to say that the cycle has ever been changed. This can be proven historically and unequivocally.

So, you had read very quickly and discovered that you are in for it now with your lies, and that somebody finally found the truth about the crucifixion day of Jesus, May 25, AD 31, and thus you knocked out a few quick counterarguments. Let’s see whether they stand...

You say:

1st Incident: In the Jubilee year nothing was sown - no barley
in two consecutive growing seasons (Sabbatical and Jubilee year) no corn was planted, and therefore ripe barley wasn’t present to be searched for (Leviticus 25:1-24)

How do you “know” that the year AD 31 was a jubilee year? This is not historically verifiable anywhere. Anyone who searches for a clue as to when and if there were sabbatical and jubilee years after the Babylonian captivity doesn’t make a find. Therefore, the following statement of Jesus in spring of AD 29 represents for many the “new” declaration of the jubilee cycle, and they start to count from there on:

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:17-19)

This is the only indication of when a year of jubilee could have been, and that was definitely in the year AD 28/29 and not in AD 31 as you erroneously claim, and out of a historical void.

And even if it truly were a year of jubilee, this would not have in any way prevented barley from growing. Indeed, nothing would have been sown, but in the fields, there was still barley that produced barley grain in the seventh sabbatical year and in the year of jubilee. You can check this and reread for yourself in a nicely prepared way on the Karaite website at Karaite Korner. The fact that the barley sample was indeed necessary for the determination of the beginning of the year and whether a leap month had to be added or not can be studied there perfectly. It is all biblical, and you have no counterarguments.

The part about the “jubilee year” reads:

Question: How can the new year be set according to the barley in Sabbatical and Jubilee years? What about in drought years? Even if barley sometimes sprouts and grows “voluntarily” with no cultivation, isn’t this is less likely in the Jubilee year and in years of severe drought.

Barley grows every year in the Holy Land whether farmers intentionally cultivate it or not. Unintentionally cultivated barley, also referred to as “volunteer” barley, is present all over the Land of Israel in very large quantities. In areas where barley had been cultivated in previous years, fallen seeds would have grown “voluntarily” in relatively large concentrations. However, even in areas where barley has not been cultivated since at least 1948, it continues to survive in great quantities. Volunteer barley grows in such large quantities that Arab shepherds have been known to harvest it with sickles to feed their sheep. Modern wheat farmers in Israel complain that they have to actively root out volunteer barley from their wheat fields and even then they can never get all of it. It is specifically the “volunteer” crops which the Torah gives the poor and Levites to eat in the Sabbatical year, as we read in Leviticus 25,4-7:

But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. (Leviticus 25:4-7)

In a Sabbatical or Jubilee year there would have been no difficulty to determine the Abib based on the “volunteer” barley. Even in the severe drought of 1998-1999 the volunteer barley was abundant throughout the Land of Israel, even in the Negev desert!

Hence, your “1st Incident” against May 25, AD 31 as the crucifixion Friday is busted as completely false and unrealistic, not to say exposed as a lie.

You further write:

2nd Incident: Noah knew the beginning of the year despite the water - no barley
During the flood, Noah was able to determine the first day of the year, regardless of the barley harvest. Genesis 8:13: And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth.

We have only the biblical account of the festivals which were defined in Leviticus 23 to find out how God instituted the calendar of the Israelites at that time. This was, according to your own calculations on your root website [www.4angelspublications.org: this domain no longer exists] 820 years after the flood! If you understand why the barley test was introduced—and that, you will experience for the first time in the third part of my studies—then you will also understand that the feasts are a prophecy and that it was not necessary to check the barley before the declaration of the prophecy. The months blend in well with the annual cycle of the sun with the vernal equinox rule alone. The prophecy of the feast days that indicated more than just the first coming of the Messiah need to be fulfilled also at the second coming according to Ellen G. White. And to decode this prophecy, we need an understanding of the barley harvest test to determine the intercalary month (depending on the hand of the Creator who gives the rain and the growth). Anyone who denies the barley harvest test, like you, will fall in darkness forever. No one knows for certain, however, whether the barley harvest test was ever instituted by God before the scene of Leviticus 23 or not, and it is not even important. Neither does it matter, in connection with the year AD 31, how Noah found the beginning of the year, and if the year after the flood began with a leap month or not.

Your argument is completely useless in relation to the topic of the year AD 31. Missed the point. Insufficient!

Quite similarly, when it comes to your “3rd Incident”:

3rd Incident: During the wandering in the wilderness (40 years) - no barley
During the 40-year wandering in the wilderness (desert), Israel kept an accurate record of the months and years - apparently without considering in any case the barley harvest in Canaan...

Please, where do we find this “accurate record” and where are the years recorded with or without the leap months of the wandering in the wilderness? I will probably never get this ominous and certainly nonexistent “record” from you!

In addition, we have just read that barley could be found even in the terrible Negev desert and even in years of extensive drought. Even in the severe drought of 1998-1999, the volunteer barley was abundant throughout the land of Israel, even in the Negev desert!

But did the Israelites ever need barley during this time?

No, because once again you did not read your Bible carefully enough...

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: (Leviticus 23:10)

From what time on should the Israelites bring the sheaf of firstfruits? From the time when they had come into the land of Canaan. They had not come there yet while wandering in the desert. So, the barley harvest test was not instituted by God for that time, but only for the time when they could pursue farming again or find “volunteer barley” in the land of Canaan. Thus the “wandering in the wilderness” even becomes evidence that the barley harvest test was necessary, but only beginning with the entry into the promised land. Also, this sequence of gradual establishment of the true festival calendar, which is indeed the most beautiful prophecy of the Bible, which was first deciphered in our very last days, is by itself another prophecy, because only if we were very close to our promised land would we recognize what the festival calendar and the shadow sabbaths really mean.

Thus, your arguments have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

I hope that many among you only stepped into the trap of Laura Lee Jones, who definitely works for Satan, and the studies that I publish on www.lastcountdown.org may help to wake you up again and bring you to leave this pagan lunar sabbath. Please, remember once more what Ellen G. White said:

The weekly cycle of seven literal days, six for labor and the seventh for rest, which has been preserved and brought down through Bible history, originated in the great facts of the first seven days. {1SP 85.1}

You begin each new month by determining a new cycle of seven days, and thus you mock the God who fixed this cycle for all time at creation. You will never be able to harmonize this with the Spirit of Prophecy. Not so the year 31 problem, if you follow the scriptures. The crucifixion was on May 25, AD 31, and it was a Friday, and there was a full moon over Gethsemane as Ellen G. White saw and confirmed.

I am not a friend of those leaders you addressed, but this time I even hope to have helped them a little.

May the God of Creation be with those who love His truth and destroy those who want to lead His children to perdition with lies,

John Scotram

Some think that we should discuss things lovingly with these kinds of brethren. They overlook the fact that these “brethren” follow their organizations, which have clearly started one of the most cunning satanic attacks in history against our church. They work on the Jesuits’ and Luciferians’ side, who want to bring us to keep the Sabbath on a different day from the divinely chosen seventh day. No one who falls into this trap will receive eternal life when Jesus comes! They are all lost!

Therefore, I write these articles and provide you with an antiserum against these vampires who want to suck the blood of the innocent children of God. The theories propagated by the lunar Sabbath keepers are teeming with contradictions and “new insights”. Unfortunately, these “new insights” are all out of harmony with the old light that was given to us, but they try to replace it with their deadly poison.

Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Titus 1:9-16)

Can you distinguish between their message and the message I have for you? Do you see where disorder and chaos reigns, and which messages bring contradictions and problems that have been affecting the whole of Christendom for centuries, and which is in harmony and unity with the divine Word? Please pray about this, dear brothers and sisters!

If suddenly everything that seemed to be contradictory and in disarray comes into wonderful harmony, then we know that a mere theory has become present truth, for our God is a God of order and not chaos. Confusion is replaced by knowledge, and doubt by certainty.

With this presentation of the solution to a problem that seemed to be unsolvable for all Christianity for centuries, the two-Passover problem, I hope to have helped you come a little closer into all truth. In the following article, we will take a look at a slightly less difficult issue, which I have already introduced on several occasions. It will give us the answer to a question that has been asked by many Adventists with deep concern: “How long will the time of plagues really last, when we have to remain on this earth without an Intercessor?”

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