The Burning Bush was an angel of the Lord that God used to get Moses attention when he was tending the flock of Jethro his father in law. (Read: Exodus 3:1-6.) This website address and name http://artscalendararticles.mysite.com/ was chosen as the name of this website to get the attention of those who may have attended the former Worldwide Church of God and those who now attend one of the many groups that split from the former Worldwide Church of God and continue to worship on the seventh day Sabbath (Saturday) and continue to celebrate the annual feasts of the Lord.  

 In June, 2002, a good friend brought to my attention that the annual feasts of the Lord are usually postponed or delayed one or two days and in some years they are delayed a month from the dates the Lord instructed in Leviticus, chapter 23, because of the postponement rules and traditions of Judaism, the Jews Religion. The Jew's postponement rules are not found in the scriptures, they are the commandments of men. Moses told Israel, you shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish ought from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you, Deut. 4:1-2; 12:32.  "Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made," 2 Kings 17:19.

 Jesus and his disciples did not follow the traditions and commandments of the Jew's Religion. Read in Matthew 15:1-14 and Mark 7:1-13 about the Pharisees and scribes which came from Jerusalem, to ask Jesus why his disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? Jesus answered and said unto them, why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

  Jesus then gave them an example of how they transgress God commandment which says: Honour thy father and mother. Jesus then stated: thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Jesus also stated: But in vain (Strong's #3155, folly, to no purpose) they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

  In addition to the Ten Commandments that God wrote on tablets of stone for Moses to teach Israel, the Jew's Religion has added 603 commandments of men which also include the postponement rules of the Jewish calendar.

  Many of you may not be aware that the former Worldwide Church of God used the Jewish seventh month new moon dates to calculate the date of the first new moon date or month of the festival year, which they identified as "First Day of Sacred Year." It is stated that way because it is very rare that the beginning of the dark new moon that the moon appoints for the Lord's appointed times, set feasts, in Leviticus, chapter 23, will occur on the calculated new moon dates of the Jewish calendar. This means that I have celebrated the annual feasts of the Lord in vain (folly, to no purpose) starting in  years 1967 through 2002.

  Now back to my good friend who brought to my attention the problems with the Jewish feast calendar.  I picked my friends brain with many questions about the festival calendar over a period of many months and wrote down the information learned from him. I also read every feast calendar article I could find. Through trial and error on several web sites that calculate the astronomical new moon which occurs in the middle of the dark new moon phase, we learned how to determine the beginning of the dark new moons and then by using the scriptures as a guide, we calculated our first correct feasts dates of the Lord for year 2003.  By reading in "The Journal News of the Churches of God," we found a feast site that had the same feast dates that we had arrived at, so we celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles with them for many years.

  My purpose for building a web site is to bring attention to the problems of the Jewish feast dates so others will not be celebrating the Jewish feasts dates in vain like I did for 36 years.  Most of the Church of God organizations and groups today who split from the former Worldwide Church of God continue to use the feast calendars which were calculated by Ambassador College which are determined by the Jewish postponement rules which are already calculated into the Jewish seventh month new moon dates.  All they had to do was count back from the Jewish seventh month date 177 days (three 30 day months and three 29 day months) to determine the date of the first month which they identified as "First Day of Sacred Year."  That calculated first month new moon date usually delays the beginning of the first month by one or two days, and in some years a month.

  In 2007, I became aware of another tradition of men that applies to the warning that the apostle Paul warned those and us about in Colossians 2:8. "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." The tradition of men using the man devised (H908, to invent) invisible equator of the earth to determine the beginning of the solar year at the time when the middle of the sun is over the man devised invisible equator. In Genesis 1:14-19, God gave the sun and moon rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from darkness.   We must beware as Paul said because Genesis 1:26-28 tell us what man was given dominion over, all the animals of the earth. More details about this tradition are in the article titled THE PURPOSE OF THE SUN AND MOON.

  When all the calendar articles are added to this web site, various related subjects will also be added. For those who would like to know how to calculate a feast calendar, instructions for that are available also.  After reading the various articles, if you have a question that was not covered in the articles, send an e-mail to: artryan2@juno.com and I will try to answer the question.

Welcome to http://artscalendararticles.mysite.com/

Updated 11-12-11, Art Ryan