Deuteronomy Part 23

Copied from the sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

June 24, 2018

Scripture Reading:  Deuteronomy 12:19: 

“Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth.”

There are three “take heeds” in this chapter. One was before verse 19, one is in verse 19, and the last is after verse 19:

1. Take heed to yourself that you offer sacrifices only in the one place chosen by God (v. 13-14).
2. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live (v. 19).
3. Take heed to yourself that you be not snared into following the nations which you are to dispossess (v. 30).

The Israelites were, at this time, to offer sacrifices only in the ONE place that their God chose. This one place has long been destroyed, so this first “take heed” is no longer in effect.

The third “take heed” warns Israel to not be fooled into behaving as the nations which were dispossessed. The nations that were dispossessed were the Canaanite nations of the Promised Land. Israel was to have nothing to do with their false god(s) and was instructed to forsake all rituals that they performed in honor of their god(s). This warning is still very good advice for the Israelites, as they still are breaking this simple command with other races. They have even mixed their religious ways with the LORD God of Israel.

Why were the Israelites to “take heed” and not forsake the lawyers, teachers, priests and others of like occupation in Israel? The Levites were not given territory in Israel like the other 12 tribes were in the days of Joshua. They were given cities to live in all throughout all the tribes of Israel, instead of inheriting a separate territory for their tribe to live and work in.

All the true priests of Israel were from the tribe of Levi. They were chosen after the Levites were the only tribe that defended what their LORD had commanded through Moses. The Levites quickly responded to the call of Moses to be on the LORD’S side and to slay all, even some of their closest relatives, who continued to rebel and refused to come back on God’s side after they had sinned in the “golden calf” incident. Three thousand held out in rebellion and were slain.

Exodus 32:26-28:

26) “Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

27) And He said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.

28) And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

The firstborn son in each family were the priests in the beginning of the kingdom. After the incident at Mt. Sinai, the Levites were chosen to take care of all priestly activities in the nation of Israel. They replaced the first-born sons:

Numbers 3:44, 45:

44) “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

45) Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD.”

Levi’s three sons made up the three main divisions of the priesthood:

1. The Gershonites,
2. The Kohathites, and
3. The Merarites.

Each of the three sons had specific duties in the keeping of the tabernacle and temple. The Levites were dependent on their brothers in other tribes, who gave their tithes and offerings to the temple service. God told the other 12 tribes of Israel to not forsake their support of the Levites.

No one could be a lawful priest in Israel besides the Levites. And there were many that were priests who were not from the tribe of Levi. In fact, all the priests of the house of Israel were not from the tribe of Levi! And these false priests didn’t even serve in the right temple! And these false ministries received gifts, offerings and tithes from their congregations.

The is certainly true today. There are pastors of practically every race trying to minister in churches of God. And every ministry needs money to operate. If there is no money, the ministry folds. We, at Fellowship of God’s Covenant People, are thankful for all the gifts, offering, and tithes that are sent our way. The church has been able to so far pay every bill; rent, energy, water, etc.; pay each minister about $5000 a year, pay for the printing and mailing of the New Covenant Messenger; pay for the website; give money to other ministries; etc. We are very thankful for the support that you have given us; especially your prayers that you offer daily or weekly.

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We will start off by looking at a chart depicting the futurists position. Notice that Daniel’s 70th week, referred to in Daniel, chapter 9, is separated from the rest of the 69 weeks by almost 2000 years. The actual date is unknown and will begin with the rapture of the church. This is the date that the church will be taken out of the earth. Once this occurs, there will be no believers on the earth. This is the position taught by the futurists, unknown in the Bible, but started by the haters of the Protestants—the Jesuits.

In this futuristic view, every verse beginning in Revelation 4:1 till the end of the book, is in the future.

Daniel 4:1:  “After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I hear was as it were of a trumpet, talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

This means to the futurists that from this date in 2018, everything in the last 19 chapters of Revelation will happen in the future:

• The two witnesses are in the future;
• The three unclean spirits like frogs are in the future;
• The seven seals are in the future;
• The seven trumpets are in the future;
• The antichrist is in the future;
• The literal rebuilt temple in Jerusalem is in the future;
• The 144,000 converted Jews are in the future;
• The abomination of desolation is in the future;
• Everything that you read from Revelation 4:1to the end of the book is in the future.

Putting the antichrist in the future was the means the Jesuits used to take the “heat” off the antichrist who was living in the present—the papacy. Look at this quote taken from The Beast of Revelation 666, p. xii, footnote 5, by Dr. Kenneth Gentry:

“Church historicism teaches that the Book of Revelation describes the course of history. This was the common view of the Reformation, in which all Protestant groups identified the Papacy as the antichrist. This was the only universally agreed-upon specifically Protestant doctrine that unites all Protestant groups.”

All Protestant churches identified the Pope as the antichrist. And if you get them to agree on one issue, that must be a powerful truth. From this position, what do you think was their attitude toward the catholic church?

One of the first Bibles that the Protestants used was the Geneva Bible. The Geneva Bible was first printed in Geneva, Switzerland, by refugees from England, fleeing the persecution of Protestants by Roman Catholic Queen “Bloody” Mary.

Many copies were smuggled back into England at great personal risk. In later years, when Protestant-friendly Queen Elizabeth took the throne, the printing of the Geneva Bible moved back to England. The Geneva Bible was produced by:

1. John Calvin,
2. John Knox,
3. Myles Coverdale,
4. John Foxe,
5. William Whittingham,
6. Christopher Goodman,
7. Anthony Gilby,
8. Thomas Sampson,
9. and other Reformers.

It is the version that William Shakespeare quotes from hundreds of times in his plays, and the first English Bible to offer plain roman-style type in some of its early printings. John Bunyan, author of the popular Pilgrim’s Progress, and John Milton used this Bible in their writings.

The Geneva Bible was the first Bible taken to America, brought over by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. It is the Bible upon which early America and its government was founded (certainly not the Kings of England’s Bible!) The Geneva Bible was also the first English Bible to break the chapters of scripture into numbered verses, and it was the first true “Study Bible” offering extensive commentary notes in the margins. It was so accurate and popular, that a half-century later, when the King James Bible came out, it retained more than 90% of the exact wording of the Geneva Bible.

The 1560 Geneva Bible translated: Revelation 11:7:  “And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh out of the bottomless pit, shall make wars against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.”  

The study notes attached to this verse stated the following:

“(10) And when they shall have (c) finished their testimony, (11) the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall (12) overcome them, and kill them.

(10) That is, when they have spent those 1260 years mentioned in (Rev 11:2-3) in publishing their testimony according to their office.

(c) When they have done their message.

(11) Of which after Chapter 13, that beast is the Roman Empire, made long ago of civil, ecclesiastical: the chief head of which was then Boniface the eighth, as I said before: who lifted up himself in so great arrogancy…

(12) He shall persecute most cruelly the holy men, and put them to death, and shall wound and pierce through with cursings, both their names and writings. That this was done to very many godly men, by Boniface and others, the histories do declare, especially since the time that the odious and condemned name amongst the multitude, first of the brethren Waldonenses or Lugdunenses, then also of the Fraticels, was pretended, that good men might with more approbation be massacred.”

And another note:

“That is, the Pope which hathe his power out of hell and cometh thence.”

Statements like this and others in the 1560 Geneva Bible, caught the attention of the Roman Catholic Church.  It was eventually vilified and rejected.  From the political protest that developed, the 1560 Geneva Bible was labeled “Calvinistic,” a term of derision.  Although it was rejected by the Roman Catholic Church, it was well received by the people.  It would serve as the household Bible for over three generations. In fact, the involvement of Knox and Calvin in the creation of the Geneva Bible made it especially appealing in Scotland, where a law was passed in 1579 requiring every household of sufficient means to buy a copy.

And as you can see from the notes taken from the Reformation leaders above, there is also the time element in the Bible. When was the 1260 years mentioned in the notes? What about the 2520 years? The 490 years? Every seven days? New Year’s Day? How many days in a year? When did the day begin? What were the names of the months, the days of the week?

And this brings us to another problem. What calendar do we use? Do we use the Hebrew calendar that was used in the Bible?

No. The calendar that we use was used in the Roman Empire followed by the Papal Roman Empire. By the sixth century A. D., the calendar was compiled by a monk of the Pope’s choosing, Dionysius. His job was to have a calendar which would prepare dates for the calculation of the false holiday of Easter! It was also the first time that every date on the calendar was centered on the birth of Jesus the Christ.

WAS JESUS THE CHRIST BORN IN THE YEAR 0?

Was Jesus born in the year 0? No, He wasn’t. Why not? The concept of a year “zero” is a modern myth (but a very popular one). In our calendar, AD 1 follows immediately after 1 BC with no intervening year zero. So, a person who was born in 20 BC and died in 20 AD, would have died at the age of how many years? The person would have died at the age of 39, not 40 years.

There is no argument that Jesus the Christ:

1. Was born in the year 0, for there is no year 0 in our calendar.
2. Was probably born in the year 4 BC to 7 BC.

What a calendar—Jesus Christ was born 4 to 7 years before He was born!

3. Was not born on December 25th, the birthday of the false god Mithras.

WHAT ELSE WAS WRONG WITH THE JULIAN CALENDAR?

And if that isn’t bad enough, remember that the Julian calendar served as the template for the Gregorian calendar, but it was inaccurate due to an error that caused it to be 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than the actual solar year. This inaccuracy caused a 10-day difference between the actual solar year and the time that the Gregorian calendar was created.

The solar year was calculated by observing and recording annual positioning of the sun and other stars. The Gregorian calendar was created to fix this error. It was calculated that the inaccuracy totaled three days every 400 years, and suggested that it could be fixed by removing the leap year from every century leap year that occurred between centuries that had digits divisible by 400.

This idea allowed the 10-day difference between the actual solar year and the proposed Gregorian calendar to be greatly reduced, increasing the calendar’s accuracy and causing it to be 52 weeks long. After the idea for the Gregorian calendar was accepted and put into effect by the Pope on Oct. 4, 1582, the following calendar day was announced as October 15 to correct the 10-day discrepancy. It took almost 200 years for all the Protestant nations to accept this change. In the United States it was changed 170 years later to correct an 11-day discrepancy in 1752. In fact, In North America, the month of September 1752 was exceptionally short, skipping 11 days.

Question: How do you keep the 7-day sabbath if this occurs? If you were living in America in 1752, and you skipped the 3rd of September through the 13th of September, there are only two days to Saturday and 3 days to Sunday.  How did they keep the seventh-day sabbath?

The Gregorian Calendar was first introduced in 1582 in some European countries. However, many countries used the Julian Calendar much longer. Turkey was the last country to officially switch to the new system on January 1, 1927.

The calendar, when finished, was gradually adopted throughout Christendom. Modern scholars have found that some of the dates of Roman History near the beginning of the Christian Era cannot be reconciled with the calendar of Dionysius. For example, according to the Roman annuals, Herod the Great, who ruled Judea when Jesus was born, died in the year 750 Anno Urbis. Dionysius placed the birth of Jesus in the year 754 Anno Urbis, in apparent contradiction of well-established dates of Roman records. It is the wrong date. Jesus was born at least years before Dionysius stated in his calendar.

WHAT ARE THE NAMES OF THE MONTHS?

Have you thought about the names of our months in our calendar? Where did they originate from? Did they originate from the Bible?

MONTH ORIGIN

• January Named after the god Janus.
• February Named after Februa, the purification festival.
• March Named after the god Mars.
• April Named after either the goddess Aphrodite or the Latin word “aperier”, to open.
• May Probably named after the goddess Maia.
• June Probably named after the goddess Juno.
• September From the word “septem”, seven, because it was the 7th month in the old Roman calendar.
• October From the word “octo”, eight, because it was the 8th month in the old Roman calendar.
• November From the word, “novem”, nine, because it was the 9th month in the old Roman calendar.
• December From the word “decem”, ten, because it was the 10th month in the old Roman calendar.

And then there were two additional months added. The calendar originally had ten months, but then Julius Caesar decided to honor himself and added the month July, named after himself. That made 11 months. And then, another Caesar, Augustus, thought he was as good as Julius, so he named another month after himself; August. Then we had 12 months.

WHAT ABOUT THE DAYS OF THE WEEK?

The days in who they are our calendar,  named after:

• Sunday: Sun’s day
• Monday: Moon’s day
• Tuesday: Tiw’s day
• Wednesday: Woden’s day
• Thursday: Thor’s day
• Friday: Frigg’s day
• Saturday: Saturn’s day

All the days of the week are named after foreign gods. No matter did you choose to worship our LORD, the day is named after a foreign god.

WHEN DID THE DAY BEGIN?

And then when did each new 24-hour day begin? At 12:01 AM? Or did the day end when the sunset and the next day began as soon as it got dark? So, if you kept the Sunday sabbath on our calendar, wouldn’t you start Saturday night till Sunday night? There is about a 6-hour difference in the each day between the two calendars.

Matthew 28:1:  “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

What time did the two Marys go and see the sepulchre? Most Bible commentaries will say it was sometime between sunset Saturday and sunrise Sunday. The resurrection had already happened.

So, if you keep a Sunday sabbath, if you are using a Hebrew calendar—it begins from sunset Saturday till sunset Sunday. That means that no one can conduct business during those times.

WHEN DID THE NEW YEAR BEGIN?

The official start of the year on the Julian calendar used to be Lady Day (25th March), and this was also the official start of the tax year. However, the introduction of the new calendar and the loss of the 11 days in 1752 meant this date was changed to 5th April in 1753, to avoid losing 11 days of tax revenue. Another change was made to the date in 1800, as this would have been a leap year in the Julian calendar but not in the new Gregorian calendar. So again, the tax year was extended and the date changed to 6th April where it remains to this day. England, however, did not make 1 January official until around 1750.

WHAT IF YOU LIVED IN NORTHERN  ALASKA?

And what if you lived in northern Alaska or Swenden? One day lasts for 6 months. Then night for 6 months. That would be a loooooong sabbath day!

And what if you lived in the southern hemisphere? When we begin summer, they are beginning winter. So, they celebrate Christmas [the Mass of Jesus Christ] in the Summer.

So, in the calendar that we now use:

• The months are not biblical,

• The days of the week are not biblical,

• The number of days in each month is not biblical,

• The leap days were not the same as they were in the Bible,

• The time each day began is not biblical,

• Jesus was born four years and more before he was really born,

• In every Pentecost there is a two-day, 48 hour Sabbath. Therefore, you can’t have the same day on our new calendar if you are trying to keep the seven-day Sabbath,

• The calendar we now use was started by the Roman Catholics to determine the date of the false holiday of Easter.

What? The present-day calendar was formulated to prepare dates for the calculation of the pagan holiday of Easter? In the sixth century the Pope determined to have a new calendar prepared which would date all events from the birth of Jesus. He commissioned a monk, named Dionysius, to do the work. The monk was to provide a calendar that would prepare dates for the calculation of Easter. So, the monk changed the common method of counting the number of years from the Emperor Diocletian to the birth of Jesus the Christ.

There are a couple of theories as to what Dionysius did to come up with the new dating of the calendar.

1. According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was “about thirty years old” shortly after “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar”. Tiberius became emperor in 14 AD. This information may have been used to calculate the birthdate of Jesus.
2. Dionysius’ original task was to calculate an Easter table. In the Julian calendar, the dates for Easter repeat every 532 years. The first year in the calendar was used was AD 532. So, Dionysius could have thought that Jesus birth was 532 years ago!

No one knows for sure, but it is man’s calendar. They will go to no end trying to figure it all out. But they will always fail. God’s calendar is no longer used.

The Council of Nicaea defined Easter as “The Sunday following the full moon which falls on or next after the vernal equinox.” This rule must be qualified as follows:

1. For determining Easter, the phases of the moon were assumed to have a cycle time of 19 years, i.e. if the moon was full at a certain time on a certain date, it would be full at the same time on the same date 19 years later.
2. The moon was assumed to be full on the 14th day.
3. The date of the vernal equinox was taken to be 21st of March.

One consequence of this rule was that the limits of Easter were fixed as the 22nd and 25th April both inclusive.

Under the Julian Calendar, which was then in force, a leap year occurred every fourth year. The property of the Julian Calendar together with the 19-year Lunar Cycle made the determination of Easter relatively straightforward and resulted in the dates of Easter repeating themselves every 4 x 7 x 19 = 532 years.

Please don’t ask me about these calendars. I have just given you a quick review of what happened, but I don’t understand them. And now we have daylight saving time which is another strange dilemma.

Some Protestants viewed the Gregorian calendar as a Catholic plot. Though Pope Gregory’s papal bull reforming the calendar had no power beyond the Catholic Church. Catholic countries—including Spain, Portugal and Italy—swiftly adopted the new system for their civil affairs. European Protestants, however, largely rejected the change because of its ties to the papacy, fearing it was an attempt to silence their movement.

WHAT WAS DANIEL’S SEVENTIETH WEEK ABOUT?

What was the 70 weeks of Daniel all about? It couldn’t have been about what the vast majority of Protestant haters have made it to be, could it? 69 weeks of years, 434 years, and then it stops. It says nothing about all the different empires that have arisen and fallen. It says nothing about all the difficulties that the covenant people of God have suffered throughout almost 2000 years: The invasion of Islam, the Reformation, the antichrist persecutions, etc. have all been omitted.

Daniel 9:24:  “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people…”

Gabriel, an angel of God, was explaining what the vision was going to be about as he introduced it to Daniel. He told Daniel that the Seventy weeks vision was determined upon his, i.e., Daniel’s, people. Who were Daniel’s people?

Was it the Israelite people? Partly true, but not all of them. What was the situation? Daniel and his people were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. Practically everyone was taken away. The capital city was destroyed. The Temple was destroyed. Daniel, of the royal seed, was taken to the university in the foreign land. Daniel’s people were the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel.

The other kingdom, the house of Israel, had ceased to be a kingdom with the invading army of the Assyrians. The Assyrians had also captured most of the kingdom of Judah, too. That had occurred over 135 years previous to Gabriel’s telling Daniel about his vision. The house of Israel had ceased to be a kingdom—it was divorced. It had no hope. It was cut off from the commonwealth of Israel.

The house of Judah wasn’t much better. After most of their people were taken captive by the Assyrians 135 years earlier, their temple and capital city were destroyed and the remnant of people were either killed or taken captive by the Babylonians. Would their kingdom cease to be too?

Didn’t one of their prophet’s (Micah) prophesy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem? How could that happen when no one from the kingdom of Judah was living there? In fact, what had happened to the kingdom which at one time had God as their king? It was also almost impossible for Israel’s redemption to occur.

During the time of Daniel’s vision, Israel’s chief enemies had taken over Daniel’s kingdom. They had taken over the kingship, the priesthood, and had become many of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They even attempted the murder of the Messiah when he was less than two years old. His family didn’t even live in Judea because of the threat of their enemies. They lived in Galilee; the northern part of the kingdom. The Messiah, after He started His ministry, also lived in Galilee. How would it all come to pass? Gabriel told Daniel what would happen to the kingdom of Judah. And it affected both kingdoms! You don’t think that God would forsake Joseph’s kingdom.

Remember what was said about the birth date of our Savior as it has an influence on what time Daniel’s vision concludes. It will be explained next sermon.

To be continued.

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel.