Originally published on Thursday, February 18, 2010, 4:16 pm in German at www.letztercountdown.org
Many of you have probably been wondering why I haven’t published any new articles in nearly two weeks. It was because I needed to answer your many questions, and also because I received many new confirmations for the Clock of God. But of course the enemy is not asleep! A message such as is contained in the Clock of God is a thorn in Satan’s side, because the truth would free us from him and from sin.
I always expected there to be a prompt attack against me if I would publish the Clock of God, but what came was so skillfully done that it has taken me some time to distinguish truth from falsehood.
First, a few emails arrived from “brethren” who apparently had deep interest in studying the Orion clock. They commended the study, but they also said that they had a little problem with it. “My” clock didn’t take into account the true Jewish calendar. So, I examined their statements and found that it could be true on a single date, which could be in the year 1986. Since the Seventh-day Adventist Church had applied for membership with the ACK (Council of Christian Churches in Germany) in the spring of 1986, it could possibly fall into the old Jewish year, which would have been 1985. However, I explained that there were indeed two particularly important events in 1986. The first was the application for membership with the ACK. The second event, which could also be the reason for God’s mark on the Clock happened shortly afterward on October 27, 1986.
An unofficial (and still unofficial) representative and ambassador of the Seventh-day Adventist Church participated in the first World Day of Prayer for Peace at Assisi, which was convened by Pope John Paul II as the world’s first and largest ecumenical prayer meeting ever. Since then, the meetings happen on a regular basis. There, praying for the peace of the world were Seventh-day Adventists, along with Buddhists, magicians, Hindus, witches, Voodoo priests, Catholics, worshipers of dead ancestors and other religions that are clearly anathema to our biblical God. And October 27, 1986 is in the Jewish calendar year of 1986. By 2002, Bert B. Beach participated as the official representative of the Seventh-day Adventist Church at the third World Day of Prayer for Peace.
I thought that would solve the problem for these brethren who had carefully studied the biblical calendar and was glad to be able to continue studying with them. What came next surprised me. They explained that the clock could not be correct and must be adjusted because Christ would come again at the Feast of Tabernacles. Wait a minute, where is that in the Bible? And I had not even mentioned the actual return of Christ in that first version of the clock study! They could not explain, but they firmly maintained that it would be so. To this day they have not explained what exactly I should change on the clock...only that I would necessarily have to change it...and that I would be keeping the false Sabbath besides! The true Sabbath of the Bible (they said) should be calculated according to the moon, and for 166 years all of us were keeping a false Sabbath because our Sabbath was not adjusted to the moon how it was for the Jews...
According to them, keeping the Sabbath correctly “according to the Bible” would work like this: At the first crescent after a new moon would be the first Sabbath. Then seven days later the second Sabbath, that’s on day number eight. Then the other Sabbaths on the 15th, the 22nd, and 29th of the Jewish month, always in a seven-day rhythm. The problem, however, is that the moon has an orbital cycle of about 29.5 days, so the seventh-day Sabbath rhythm cannot be linked to the moon. That would only be possible if the orbital cycle of the moon were exactly 28 days, so these people resort to a trick. They say that the cycle for each lunar month begins at the first crescent moon, making the Sabbath day shift to a different day of the week almost every month. For me, this seemed at first sight somewhat ambiguous, but they sent material. Some were very friendly and had an understanding that I should take my time to study and they would pray for me. Most of the others were like masters of theology that would pressure me by saying that if I did not immediately repent and change “my” clock, I would be responsible for the eternal death of my and my wife’s soul.
In the past, the responses of many Seventh-day Adventists were very similar regarding “my” clock. I am used to it, but the lunar Sabbath still surprised me! I made the mistake, and I stress that it was clearly a mistake, to read some of their studies. I can only describe what came out of it as abysmal “confusion”. Many of those “brethren” are very clever with words and understand perfectly how to turn biblical simplicities into lunar complexities. Anyone who is not firmly grounded in the Word of God could easily stumble there. Many arguments seem so obvious that sometimes I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. New studies were sent to me from all directions if I asked even a single question. Again and again I received 20 or 30 pages of new material, sometimes three or four times per day!
I went into prayer. Something seemed fishy about the matter! Did I really find some interested brethren and friends of the Clock of God, or was something else going on here? I asked them why so far none of them said anything about the real meaning of the clock. We are not talking here so much about the second coming of Christ; we all know that it will be very soon! It is even less about a Jewish calendar or a lunar Sabbath. It is still very much about the message of the fourth angel and the knowledge from God as to when and how His people have fallen from truth! The “brothers and sisters” wanted to know nothing about that, however. Again they just sent me a bunch of new PDFs on the lunar Sabbath.
After almost two weeks of asking God to clarify the matter, I “arrived”. I wondered what these studies could mean, and what their purpose could be, if per chance these were not even brethren who were trying to keep the biblical Sabbath carefully, but actually enemies? And then it was clear to me, and I must admit that I am a little ashamed that I did not think to do this sooner: “Investigate whether there is any religion that keeps such Sabbaths or days of rest according to the moon!”
So I did what I usually do, I started researching on the Internet. Even the first search brought it up.
On http://doormann.tripod.com/asssky.htm—and this is just one example of many—we read that these days are the worshipping days of the ancient Babylonian and Sumerian moon cult:
These texts tell us that the Babylonian prognosticators evaluated the match between what the calendar predicted and what the sky actually did. Departures from the expected order were viewed with concern. In Mesopotamia it was probably the Sumerians, the people who built the formative civilization of the region, who put the first formal calendar into use. The Sumerian calendar was lunar, but its months began when the first crescent was sighted in the west. A passage in the Babylonian creation myth echoes, in Marduk's instructions to the moon, a concern for the lunar cycle:
He bade the moon come forth; entrusted night (to him) assigned to him adornment of the night to measure time; and every month, unfailingly, he marked off by a crown. “When the new moon is rising over the land shine you with horns, six days to measure; the seventh day, as half (your) crown (appear). and (then) let periods of fifteen days be counterparts two halves each month. As, afterward, the sun gains on you on heaven's foundations, wane step by step, reverse your growth!” The “crown” is the moon's fully lit disk, and the horns refer, of course, to the waxing crescent. On the seventh day a “half-crown” describes the half-lit first quarter moon, and the rest of the text narrates the way in which the moon should continue to measure out the months.
Some of the Sumerian month names have survived in cuneiform texts and, like the Egyptian names, refer to the months' principal feasts: “the Month of the Feast of Shulgi” and “the Month of the Eating of Barley of Ningursu.” Feasts were scheduled by the moon's phases, with regular celebrations at the first crescent, first quarter (seventh day), full moon (fifteenth day), and last day.
If you read the above text and compare it with the studies of the “brethren”, you will realize that this is one and the same language and the same subject matter. It’s about the monthly moon festivals of the ancient Babylonian religion.
I talked to the Lunar Sabbath keepers about it, and immediately the answer came back that these “evil” days of Babylon do not coincide with the Jewish Lunar Sabbaths. Here is a short message of a “sister” who was already pretty upset with me:
Dear John,
Just for the records, the Babylonian 'evil days' as they were called were on the 1st, 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th. Not on 8, 15, 22, 29 as the Bible one. So your argument does not stand either.
With His Love,
O.
Look carefully! They are admitting here that “Babylonian evil days” do exist, and what a surprise, those are always just one day before the “Jewish” Lunar Sabbaths. Definitely suspicious, right? How can this be? The answer is quite easy if you carefully study the Bible with some background information. We all should know that the Jews use a so-called inclusive counting system. For them, the first day of the beginning of a period is always included in the total. So: first day + seven = eighth day. By contrast, the Babylonian method of calculation is exclusive. The first day is not counted. So: first day + seven = seventh day. (Incidentally, this also solves a problem with the times of the government of Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel. Once again, we have different Jewish and Babylonian time reckoning.)
Let’s bring this to a conclusion! For both, the day of the first crescent moon was the first day, so it is clear that both kept the first “Sabbath” of every month on exactly the same day. However, the Babylonian 7th day is the Jewish 8th. The Babylonian 14th day is the Jewish 15th. The 21st is the 22nd, and the 28th is the 29th. So all of the days are EXACTLY THE SAME DAYS! They are the evil days of Babylon!
Now, of course, the question arises as to who the goddess was that was worshiped there. It’s simple: Ishtar! See my articles on the papal coat of arms, especially St. Corbinian’s Bear and A Gift of Heaven. Again, we get the whole picture: it is the Babylonian Ishtar, the Egyptian Isis, the Phoenician Astarte, the Greek Demeter, the Roman Diana, and Mary—the Mother of all Nations and Queen of Heaven who has the moon under her feet—the Catholic goddess!
So once again it is about the worship of the ancient Babylonian goddess of the moon, which is represented today in the Catholic world through Mary. Pure paganism and anathema to the true Creator God! That is why God chose the seven-day cycle based on the creation week, and not depending on the lunar cycle. It was to distinguish His true day of rest once and for all, to ensure a clear separation from all non-biblical religions that worship the heavenly bodies instead of their Creator. In the Shadows of the Future article series I address the real meaning of the biblical moon-based Sabbaths and show that the “Lunar Sabbath Lie” is designed to block a wonderful message from God to His people.
The reaction of the “lunar brethren” was very interesting when I sent my findings to them. I was admonished not to condemn their “valuable new insights” carelessly and throw it into the fire, because I would be eternally punished for it! Well now, doesn’t that way of thinking sound vaguely familiar to you? It does to me! My hunch is that this entire Lunar Sabbath idea was developed by the Jesuits. Don’t think that it is a simple thing to refute all this with the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy! There are clever minds behind these studies in order to deceive even the elect if it were possible! There is already a study of over 3000 pages regarding the years 1937/38. It was discussed by the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference and to this day not all the arguments have been completely clarified. It is called the Grace Amadon Collection. If you would like to waste a lot of time like I did, just google and search for it. As for me, it is clear now that if somebody wants to make me keep these irregular Sabbaths aligned with the first crescent moons, and these “just happen” to fall on the exact same days of worship of the Babylonian moon goddess and the Queen of Heaven, then at least I know where it stems from! Do you too, dear brothers and sisters?
For me, the result of the whole ordeal is that I lost almost two weeks on the study, while the real message I have for you suffered a temporary setback. However, I want to mend this now with this short warning and explanation.
So please don’t be deceived by this nonsense and fraud! Don’t let yourself be confused by seemingly biblical studies that the Millerites came to the date of October 22, 1844 through lunar calculations. Miller and the “Seventh Month Movement” (the second angel) used this type of calculation in order to calculate the Day of Atonement and the beginning of the investigative judgment in accordance with the Karaite calendar, and never to calculate the seventh-day Sabbath. Even the Karaite Jews, who take the Bible very seriously and calculate their feast days as described on www.karaite-korner.com (which I recommend for you to study) do not keep a moon-based Sabbath, but the normal seventh-day Sabbath of the Creator.
These “lunar brethren”, however, mix everything into moon worship. After I had suggested to some of them that I could believe that they are Jesuits themselves, and that I would publish some of my experiences with them on my web site, I did not receive a single word about “Moon-Sabbaths” until...you guessed it...until I began the Shadow Series. They recognized that I was about to reveal the true purpose of the lunar-based Jewish festivals and their whole doctrine would burst like a bubble, because the truth sets you free!
There is still one last question as to why I was attacked by them so heavily in the beginning. It was almost like a concerted effort, because I got e-mails almost simultaneously from Canada, the United States, and other countries. Why did the Jesuits want me to change “my” clock? Friends, if my studies of the Orion clock are wrong, as some claim, why would Satan want to attack me with a false Sabbath? He would surely be happy and satisfied that the clock were already a heresy! But that is not true. Actually, the Clock is God’s last message for His people, the message of the fourth angel. God leaves nothing to chance and is always with us, leading us, especially in these last hours of history.
Thank God for the Sabbath, which is not dependent on the moon, but is dead easy to calculate using seven fingers! Shabbat shalom!
