FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
The tenth day of the seventh month: Sept. 23 or Oct. 22?
QUOTE FOR THE WEEK
“Conditional prophecy is when the fulfillment is dependent on the compliance of those to whom the promise is made, with the conditions on which it is given.”
– Sylvester Bliss, “Commentary on the Apocalypse,” pp. 7.
WHEN is the Day of Atonement, commonly known as Yom Kippur? It depends on what calendar one is following: the Rabbbinical Calendar which is based on the Oral Tradition or the Karaite Calendar which is based on the written text.
It is vital to remember that Jesus himself and all His disciples and apostles presented and defended the truth of the gospel based on “it is written,” not “spoken,” though they came by way of spoken voice of the invisible God or by the inspiration of the invisible Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead.
Here we will find out why the early Adventist pioneers, circa the advent movement of 1840-1844, generally referred to as the Millerite Movement (with many misconceptions surrounding it, both intentional or plain ignorance), concluded that the longest time prophecy of 2300-days in Daniel 8: 14 ended on October 22 not September 23, the former commonly observed today. They followed the Biblical instructions on prophetic interpretation, particularly, time prophecies, and thus begun reckoning the 2300-day prophecy (2,300 literal years) starting with 70-week (490 literal years) time prophecy of Daniel 9: 24-27, which reckoning starts with the 70-week of Daniel 9: 24-27.
The Type. The typical Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23: 27, 28), also known as Yom Kippur, was considered, as Jehovah instructed Moses, to be the most holy day of all the ceremonial feasts and festivals of ancient Israel that would meet their antitypes at Calvary and onward. The Day of Atonement occurred once a year, at the end of the year, specifically on the tenth day of Tishri which is the seventh month of their Sacred Calendar—from which festivals were computed. A separate Civil Calendar was used as the official calendar of kings, childbirth, and contracts. These calendars were lunar, not solar based, and originally based on the new moon sightings.
Who were the Jewish Karaites? The word Karaite (also also spelled as Quaraite), literally means “people of the scriptures.” This is the first important clue. From Wikipedia, art. “Karaite Judaism,” we obtain the following (itals. mine):
“Karaite Judaism or Karaism, also spelt Quaraite Judaism or Quaraims is a Jewish religious movement characterized by the recognition of the Tanakh alone as its supreme authority in theHalakha (Jewish religious law) and theology. It is distinct from mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, which considers the Oral Torah, as codified in the Talmud and subsequent works, to be authoritative interpretations of the Torah. Karaites maintain that all the divine commandments handed down to Moses by God were revealed in the written Torah without additional Oral law or interpretation. As a result, Karaite Jews do not accept as binding the written collections fo the oral tradition in the Midrah or Talmud.
“When interpreting the Tanakh, Karaites strive to adhere to the plain and most obvious meaning(peshat) of the text; this is not necessarily the obvious literal meaning, but rather the meaning that would have been naturally understood by the ancient Israelites, when the books of the Tanakh were first written. By contrast, Rabbinic Judaism relies on the legal rulings of the Sanhedrin as they are codified in the Midrash, Talmud, and other sources to indicate the authentic meaning of the Torah.
“Karaite Judaism holds every interpretation of the Tanak to the same scrutiny regardless of its source, and teaches that it is the personal responsibility of every individual Jew to study the Torah and ultimately decide personally its correct meaning. [Note: This lines up with principle of individuality of religion and liberty to choose how what one believes in and manner of worship based on one’s conscience and personal convictions, not church and/or state legislation and enforcement]. Karaites may consider arguments made in the Talmud and other works without exalting them above other viewpoints.”
“Karaites do not accept the existence of the Oral Law because:
1. The Mishnah quotes many conflicting opinions.
2. The Mishnah does not define in which opinion that truth lies [sounds strangely familiar!]. Rather, the Mishnah sometimes agrees with neither one nor the other ,contradicting both.
3. They argue that the truth of the Oral law given to Moses could only be in one opinion, not many opinions.
4. They question why the Mishnah does not solely speak in the name of Moses.
5. They say that the Oral Law is not explicitly mentioned in the Tanakh.
6. When God told Moses to come up to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, he said, ‘Come up to Me into the mountain, and be there: and I will give you tablets of stone, and a law, and commandments that I have written.’ (Exo. 24: 12). The text states that the commands are written, and no mention is made of an Oral law.
7. The Tanakh reports that the written Torah was both lost and completely forgotten for over 50 years and only rediscovered by the Temple priests (2 Kings 22: 8;2 Chron.34:15). It is [therefore] inconceivable that an Oral Law could have been remembered when the written law was forgotten.
8. The words of the Mishnah and Talmud are the words of people living in the 2nd to the 5thcenturies C.E., in contrast to the Torah, which they held to be a direct revelation by God through Moses.
9. The Torah states, ‘You shall not add to the word that I am commanding you; nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of YHVH your God, which I command you.’ (Deut. 4: 2). They argue that this excludes the possibility of later interpretations being viewed as divine ordained. [See also Rev. 22: 18, 19].
10. Joshua 8: 34, 35 states: ‘After that he [Joshua] read all the words of the Torah, the Blessing and the Curse, according to all that is written on the Torah scroll. There was not a word of all that Moses had communicated that Joshua failed to read in the presence of the entire assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that walked among them.’ Since Joshua read from the Torah every word that Moses had written, this implies that Moses had not been given an Oral Law from the written Torah. Secondly, there could not have been additional commandments outside of the written Torah, since all the commandments that existed could be read from the Torah scroll. In addition to this, Joshua 1: 8 states: ‘This book of the law is not to depart out of your mouth, but you are to meditate on it day and night, so that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.’
Q, What is the difference between the Torah, Talmud, Tanakh, and the Hebrew bible?https://answers.yahoo.com/question/ index provides the following best answers:
“The Torah is the first 5 books of the Tanakh, the Hebrew bible known to Christians as the Old Testament. The Talmud are collections of rabbinical commentaries of the Hebrew bible (Tanakh), Jewish history, and other such things. You can consider the Talmud to be an encyclopedia of commentary.
“The Hebrew bible is not the Complete Jewish Bible. The Hebrew bible is another way of saying that the Tanakh or a printed bible containing the Old Testament.
“The Torah is the first 5 books of the Bible, also called the Law of Moses or the Pentateuch. The Talmud is something else completely. It is the Oral Tradition written by the Rabbis. It contains a lot of history and commentaries about scripture.”
Q. What is the difference between the Karaite calendar and the Rabbinical calendar?
See “The Jewish Calendar” by Isaac Hazar, posted Jan. 11, 2017 on https://beneimikra.wordpress.com/2017/01/11/the-jewsih-calendar.
“The Karaites & 1844 (Karaite Reckoning vs. Rabbanite Reckoning. Was October 22 the Right Date, or Was It September 23?” See this excellent treatise by Bob Pickle of Pickle Publishing 1354 County Road 21, Halstad, Minnesota, 50548 (215) 456-2586 www.pickle-publishing.com . The writer clearly proves, in harmony with the foregoing, that it is October 22, not September 23 that is the true end of the 2300-day prophecy, thus the beginning of the antitypical Day of Atonement. The type was one literal day occurring at the end of the year—a fall (or autumn) feast corresponding to October 22 of our calendar. This antitype is a period of time with no more prophetic time attached it. The last time prophecy is the longest time prophecy in the Bible—the 2300-days. After 1844 there are no more time prophecies. To try to figure out any particular time for the few remaining unfulfilled prophecies is to ensnared by the deception of time-setting which shall all end in failure and disillusionment.
October 22, 1844 to October 22, 2018 next month marks the 74th year that the antitypical Day of Atonement or the pre-advent judgment also known as the Investigative Judgment has been taking place in the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary with Jesus conducting His closing work of atonement, cleansing the sanctuary of the record of sins that have been recorded and overcome by His faithful –in His exclusive office and authority as merciful High Priest, all-powerful Mediator and Advocate, and righteous JUDGE of all the earth!
Peter warned of this event: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?” 1 Pet. 4:17, 18. Solomon long prophesied of this event: “Fear God and keep His commandments for this the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment whether they be good or evil.” Eccl. 12: 13, 14. Contemplate this most solemn truth:–
“The lives of all who have believed on Jesus pass in solemn review before God. Beginning with those who first lived upon the earth, our Advocate examines the cases of each successive generation, and closes with the living. Every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated.Names are accepted, names rejected. From age to age, all who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice have had pardon written against their names in the books of Heaven, and in the closing work of Judgment their sins are blotted out [see Acts 3: 19,20], and they themselves accounted worthy of eternal life. . . . Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of atonement. Momentous are the interest involved. The Judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. . . . Soon—none know how soon—it will pass on the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to up in review. At this time above all others it behooves every soul to heed the Savior’s admonition, ‘Watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is.’ Mark 13: 33, 35, 36.” – E. G. White, Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, pp. 309, 324 1884 ed. (Continued next week)