Can we do תפילות prayers for:
Double Portion Inheritance and Maria Merola?
That also through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?
Podcast Tonight: Sunday January 2nd 2011 @ 9:00 EST
Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 27750
Call ID: 27750
© Copyright Double Portion Inheritance, December 2007
Times, Seasons & The Thief in the Night: When is the Real New Year?
By Maria Merola
We are constantly being confronted with the fact that we are not in control of our own lives, and that our Creator, is the Almighty one, and he is the one who decides when the times, the seasons, and the calendar dates should change.
Daniel 2:
20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of Elohiym (God) for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:
21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
Yahu'shua our Messiah is the one who has created all things (Colossians 1:16), and he is the one who has given us the method for which he wants us to divide the day from the night, and the seasons, days, and years:
Genesis 1:
14 And Elohiym (God) said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And Elohiym made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And Elohiym set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Elohiym (God) saw that it was good.
Yahu'shua our Master YHWH is our Elohiym (God) who has given us the moon (lesser light) to rule the night, and the sun (greater light) to rule the day.
YHWH Elohiym (God) set things up at creation so that the new days begin at sundown, not at midnight:
Genesis 1:5 And Elohiym (God) called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
You will notice that YHWH rendered the evening and then the morning as one complete day! This means that a new day began at evening (sundown). As soon as the light was gone, the day ended. This means that as soon as the sun went down, that was the end of the day, not at midnight. So who changed the date to midnight?
In 1582, the Roman Julian Calendar was changed to the Gregorian Calendar decreed by Pope Gregory XIII. It was at this point, that Pope Gregory changed the new day from sundown to midnight, thus changing God’s rendering of times and seasons. He also changed the “New Year” to January 1st in order to manipulate the calendar so that Easter would fall closer to the Lord’s Passover, and thus the Catholic Church would be able to assimilate the pagan celebration of Easter to Messiah’s resurrection.
In Daniel 7:23, the angel of YHWH showed Daniel that “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom on earth.” Daniel saw in his vision, that this 4th beast, (which would be the Roman Empire), “shall think to change times and laws” (Daniel 7:25). Daniel’s vision is accurately portrayed in Ferraris’ Ecclesiastical Dictionary:
“The Pope has the power to change times, to abrogate laws, and to dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ. The Pope has the authority and often exercised it, to dispense with the command of Christ.”---Decretal de Tranlatic Episcop. Cap (The Pope can modify divine law) Ferraris Ecclesiastical Dictionary.”
As for the “times” that were changed by Rome, not only has Rome changed the “time” of the Sabbath, Rome has also been instrumental in changing calendars. The Catholic Church changed the Sabbath to Sunday for the “sun god” Baal in whom the day of the week “Sunday” was named after. The excuse that they used to change the Sabbath to Sunday was that Jesus resurrected on the 1st day of the week. But there is no evidence in scripture that the Apostles or the early church changed the Sabbath to Sunday because of Messiah's resurrection.
The Roman Catholic Church Proudly Boasts of its Rebellion Against the Commandments of YHWH:
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The Holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. ‘The day of the Lord’ was chosen, NOT from any direction noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power…People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become Seventh-day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.” (Saint Catherine Church Sentinel, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995.)
“Of Course the Catholic Church claims that the change (Saturday Sabbath to Sunday) was her act…And the act is a MARK of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things.” H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons.
“Sunday is our MARK of authority…the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is the proof of that fact”. ---Catholic Record of London, Ontario Sept 1, 1923.
“Protestants do not realize that by observing Sunday worship instead of Saturday Sabbath, that they accept the authority of the Holy Father of the Church, the Pope.”----Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950.
Rome: The 4th Beast & Changer of Times & Seasons of YHWH
It should come as no surprise that Rome was the empire that has been credited for changing our calendars, holidays and our rendering of how we measure time. This is why the angel revealed this to the prophet Daniel in Daniel 7:23-25. Long before the Papacy started changing the calendar times, and the seasons, the Caesars were famous for naming months in the year after themselves and after pagan deities (which are actually fallen angels). We still to this day have the days of our week and the months in the year named after pagan gods (fallen angels).
In the book of Enoch we read that YHWH revealed his constellations to Enoch. The constellations were named after the 12 Tribes of Israel and they were created to tell the message of salvation in the sky. These secrets were later on stolen by the pagan masses in Babylon, Greece and Rome as they began to re-name these constellations instead after these pagan gods or fallen angels.
Example: The Hebrew Month of Elul is the Constellation of Ariel the Lion of Judah and is named after the tribe of Judah. But the pagans re-named this "Leo" instead.
It is for this reason why YHWH commands us not to consult these stars (fallen angels) for divination purposes. That is why consulting your astrological forecast in the Zodiac is against Torah. YHWH gave these signs to us in the heavens for the sole purpose of illustrating his plan of redemption to Israel and all of mankind. We are not to consult these stars in order to gain hidden knowledge about our future. This is an abomination.
Deuteronomy 18:
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto YHWH: and because of these abominations YHWH thy Elohiym doth drive them out from before thee.
The '"stars" represent angels of YHWH who watch over the 12 Tribes of Israel. But Satan has assigned his fallen angels to persecute the 12 Tribes of Israel. And so when we consult these fallen angels for divination purposes we will end up being deceived, and ultimately destroyed.
Janus the Beginning & the Ending Counterfeit of Messiah
The pagan god Janus is the god of beginnings, and this is why the first month of the pagan Roman calendar has been named after him. It is said that the Roman god Janus has two faces. The first face looking to what lies ahead and the second face looking to what is passing. The representation is that all that is old must pass and all that is new is still to come. Janus is a Roman god that has no Greek Counterpart. Janus is represented on Roman coins and is a god that is Roman and Roman alone. Janus is and was celebrated as all that is to come. Having the month of January named after him, he is Representative of the year that has passed and the year ahead, putting him properly placed on the calendar.
Janus the god of the two faces is celebrated in our New Year’s Eve celebrations and is honored in the way that we continue to celebrate the passing each year on December 21st .
The rituals that we have of getting drunk and taking part in activities that we would ordinarily take part in on December 31, is in part the way we all pay tribute to Janus. Festivities for this original Roman God are celebrated through many races religions and cultures. The beginning of the year is fresh start and a time to put the bad in the last year to rest.
Many people look at the New Year as a time for reflection. Much in the way that Janus' face that is looking to the past is old and weathered and wise, at the end of the year we are older and more weathered and hopefully a little wiser.
The Catholic Church made Janus a saint. The Catholic Church has canonized many fallen angels as "saints" in an attempt to redeem pagan deities and make them appear benign. But they are really calling these demons "holy" since the term "saint" in Latin is Santa which means "holy."
This fuels ideas that the Holy Roman Church is a blanket pagan community. This is not all that unheard of considering many of the Catholic beliefs and actions are very ritualistic. It the idea that there is one god to govern all man and one god that rules all is not at all an unusual concept in the idea that the god's had the one who was above all other gods the most powerful god. Jupiter, Zeus, the one that controls all weather. Somewhere in the mix of it all it is believed by some that all of the god's just got thrown into one huge mixing pot of worship. It would seem that all of the offerings made to the gods would be easier if made to just one god.
Janus has been honored in many other types of festivities as well not just the New Year. Janus is represented at weddings, plantings and harvests. Janus is the god of all things new and old. Janus is honored daily in our celebrations of birthdays. This god is one of the most and least celebrated and known god of all of them. Many people honor Janus in ways that they don't know. The greatest tribute to this pagan god was Julius Caesar changing the New Year from March 1st to January 1st in tribute to Janus.
Ignorant of The Times & Seasons
In 2nd Peter, we are reminded that we should not be “ignorant” concerning the end times and concerning the words of the prophets of old. Peter speaks of those who are “willingly ignorant” of these things:
2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of Elohim (God) the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
Peter is telling us that all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation, but yet there are those who have conformed to the altered calendar of this world, and they choose to be “willingly ignorant” by following the times, seasons and renderings of this present world rather than the way that Yah set things up at creation!
Peter continues to use the word “ignorant” one more time in relationship to the fact that we are to understand Yah’s rendering of times and seasons, because if we do not, when the Day of YHWH comes, he will come as a “thief in the night” for those who are “ignorant”:
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with YHWH as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 YHWH is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of YHWH will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
The Thief in the Night
In Biblical Times, when the Second Jewish Temple was standing in Jerusalem, the priests were given a schedule. Each priest had a shift and a rotation where they were instructed to “keep watch” and to make sure that the fire on the altar did not ever go out. The High Priest (Kohen Gadol) would come around in the middle of the night to make sure that the priests were doing their job by not allowing the fire on the altar to go out. But if the priest on duty as a “watchman” fell asleep on the job, and he allowed the fire to go out, the High Priest would take some hot burning coals and using a shovel, he would scoop up some of the coals and dump them onto the garment of the priest who had fallen asleep! As soon as the garment began to catch on fire, the sleeping servant would immediately wake up from his slumber and he began removing the burning garment from his body to prevent from being burned to death. When the shift was over for all the priests, the one who had fallen asleep was “caught naked” and all the other priests would know that he had fallen asleep on the job, and he would be embarrassed and humiliated. The nick name given to the High Priest (Kohen Gadol) was “the thief in the night.”
And so now we can read this verse in Revelation 16 with better understanding:
Revelation 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Yahu'shua is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7) who will come to us as a thief in the night only if we are sleeping on the job! But if we are doing our job as a “watchman” not allowing the fire to go out in our temples, and keeping our garments clean, we will not be found naked and ashamed at his second coming!
Now that we understand the Hebrew Idiom of what the “thief in the night” is, we can get a better understanding of what our beloved Apostle Paul was speaking about to the church at Thessalonica.
Paul knew that the believers were not ignorant of the “times and seasons” of the Lord, because they were being taught about God’s rendering of times and seasons from the Torah (Five Books of Moses). Paul knew that keeping the Feasts of the Lord and following Yah’s rendering of the appointed times, would keep the body of Messiah in “the light” so that we would not be caught off guard at the “Day of the Lord.” Those who are of the “night” are in darkness and they will not be expecting the Lord’s return. Yahu'shua will return as a “thief in the night” only for those who are in darkness. But for the children of the light, he will not come to us as a “thief in the night”:
1st Thessalonians 5:
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of YHWH so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
When Does the New Year Begin?
From the beginning of creation, the New Year began in the 7th Hebrew month known as Tishri. That usually falls around September or October on our solar pagan calendar today. That is why even today, the Rabbinic Jews call the 1st day of the 7th month of Tishri “Rosh Hashanah” meaning “head” (rosh) and “the year” (Hashanah). They call this the “Civil New Year” but YHWH is not pleased with this rabbinic tradition, because he commands us to keep the “first day of the seventh month” as Yom Teruah meaning “Day of Blowing” or Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24).
We should not call the first day of the seventh month “Rosh Hashanah” according to rabbinic traditions.
Once YHWH delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, he wanted us to commemorate the time when he delivered us all from the bondage of sin and death. From that point, YHWH commanded Moses and Aaron to begin the year in the 1st month called “Aviv” or in the King James Version “Abib.”
Exodus 12
1 And YHWH spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,
2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
This was to fall every year 14 days before YHWH's Passover in the month of Aviv. Today, the rabbinic calendar has changed the name of the month of “Aviv” (which was named by our Creator in Exodus 12) to "Nisan" after a pagan god. This name was adopted by the House of Judah while they were exiled in the Persian Empire. Rabbinic Judaism has added man-made traditions to the word of Yah just the same as the Catholic Church has done. The word “Aviv” in the Strong’s Hebrew Concordance has the following definition:
# 24 'abiyb aw-beeb' from an unused root (meaning to be tender); green, i.e. a young ear of grain; hence, the name of the month Abib or Nisan:--Abib, ear, green ears of corn (not maize).
Every year in Israel when the first ripening of the barley harvest is seen, the New Year is determined by this and not by some fixed pre-determined date that man calculates according to his confused rendering of time. As soon as the barley is “Aviv” and the New Moon appears simultaneously, we can accurately say it is “Rosh ha’Shana” or the “Head of the Year” according to Yah’s rendering of time:
Exodus 13
3 And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand YHWH brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.
4 This day came ye out in the month Abib (Aviv).
In 2010, The New Year called (Aviv) or the true biblical Rosh Hashanah fell on March 17th at sundown, and so this year, we do not know THE DAY NOR THE HOUR, because it is our Father in Heaven who has the authority to “know the times and the seasons”:
Acts 1:7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
And so, let us not act presumptuously as if we know when the New Year begins. It is not determined by the Pope, or by the Rabbi’s within Rabbinic Judaism, it is determined by our Father who has put these things in his own power.
If you are interested in following Yah’s rendering of “times and seasons” so that you will not be “ignorant” at the Day of YHWH when he returns, then I want to suggest that you order the Biblical Calendar here at Michael Rood’s website:
I have been using this calendar for the past 4 years, and it has really opened up my understanding of biblical prophecy.
Another Great site that I have just recently found is called Torah Calendar:
Shalom to you in Yahu'shua, and Happy New Year when it comes in the month of Aviv this year 14 days before Passover!
Love to all in Yahu'shua Messiah!
Maria Merola
 | An Illustration of Messiah & The Christian Church.pdf 289K |
| Times, Seasons & the Thief in the Night.pdf 307K |
