Program 252
Decoding Revelation

Learn what Revelation is really predicting. (It’s not foretelling a Great Tribulation prior to Christ’s return!)

Welcome to WLC Radio, a subsidiary of World’s Last Chance Ministries, an online ministry dedicated to learning how to live in constant readiness for the Savior's return.

For two thousand years, believers of every generation have longed to be the last generation. Contrary to popular belief, though, Christ did not give believers “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, he repeatedly warned that his coming would take even the faithful by surprise. Yahushua urgently warned believers to be ready because, he said, “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [Matthew 24:44]

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

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Part 1: (Miles & Dave)

Miles Robey: Years ago I watched an interview with British rock star, Sting, in which the interviewer played a clip from a previous interview done some years before. In the earlier interview, Sting was expressing his belief that every man is an island; we’re all solitary creatures; what we do, we do alone and our actions don’t really impact anyone else, etc., etc. Then, in a clear attempt to embarrass the singer and make him feel foolish, the interviewer played a clip from a more recent interview in which Sting stated his current belief that everyone is connected and we’re all part of a greater whole.

With a barely concealed smirk, the reporter asked him about his change beliefs. Rather than being embarrassed, Sting casually shrugged and said, Well, it shows I’m thinking. I’m studying. I’m learning. To never change your beliefs shows you’re not exploring new ideas.

If you’ve been following WLC for a while, you know that one of our biggest areas of study and interest has been prophecy. We’ve had a lot of articles, videos and radio programs on various aspects of prophecy and what it means for the last generation. So, no one is perhaps more surprised than we are that, with more study, we have come to see that the evidence supports many of the prophecies we believed were yet future have actually already been fulfilled!

Hi, my name is Miles Robey and you’re listening to World’s Last Chance Radio where we cover a variety of topics related to Scripture, prophecy, Biblical beliefs, practical piety and constant readiness for Yahushua’s return, whenever that may be.

We’ll be covering all aspects of this honestly quite monumental shift in our beliefs, in up-coming episodes, but today I’ve asked Dave Wright to give us an overview of how we are to interpret the book of Revelation when there are so few prophecies yet to be fulfilled. In the past, we’ve focused on the trumpets, on the seven last plagues. A lot of Christians have built up huge theological structures and painted scary scenarios speculating about the mark of the beast, and much more.

So how are we to understand Revelation if most of these prophecies have already been fulfilled? Dave’s going to be shedding some light on that for us today. Later, during our daily mailbag segment, Dave will be answering a question about where the idea of a lunar Sabbath originated and if this is a reliable source. Then, Jane Lamb

has a promise about Yahuwah’s faithfulness as the best friend you will ever have.

Dave? The time’s all yours.

Dave Wright: Thanks, Miles! Do you know what an oxymoron is?

Miles: Sure! It’s where two words that contradict themselves appear in the same phrase. For example, “kind cruelty,” or “happily morose.” Those are all oxymorons. It’s basically a contradiction in terms.

Dave: For most Christians—myself included—the Book of Revelation has been a contradiction in terms. You take almost any Bible, turn to the Book of Revelation, and you’ll see that this book has one of the longest, if not the longest, title of any book of the Bible. It reads: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John.”

What’s a “revelation”?

Miles: It’s, uh … the act of making known something that was secret. It’s disclosing or “revealing” some previously unknown fact.

Dave: And yet, talk to any believer who’s ever tried to make it through the Book of Revelation, and they’ll all tell you it’s a struggle! The book is fully of symbology and Christians can’t even agree on what parts are to be taken literally and what parts are to be interpreted metaphorically.

It's really hard to make sense of the Book of Revelation. It ranks right up there with Daniel as one of the most difficult books in Scripture to understand.

Miles: I’d say it’s harder than Daniel. At least in Daniel, you’ve got Gabriel coming along and interpreting the visions for him. You don’t get that in Revelation. A “revelation” it is not!

Dave: That’s because we are 21^st-century readers. We lack a lot of the knowledge that John’s first-century audience had. The Book of Revelation assumes a lot of knowledge on the part of its audience. First century believers had this knowledge. Believers today?

Ehhh … not so much!

Miles: Yeah. We can read the words translated into English but to actually understand what it means? It’s like reading a foreign language!

Dave: Well, in a very real sense, we are! It’s the language of symbology, and if you don’t know what the symbols mean, you’re going to be out of luck in figuring out what the message is that John’s trying to convey.

Remember, at this time, the pagan Roman empire was very strong and believers were being horribly persecuted. John himself was sentenced to be boiled in oil which, miraculously, he survived by Yah’s grace, but the authorities were going to suspect any message dispersed amongst the scattered believers of sedition. By cloaking the message in symbolism, Yahuwah was able to get the information needed to believers throughout Asia minor and the Levant.

Miles: So how are we supposed to decode John’s message? I mean, the very name of the book tells us that Yahuwah wants us to know what it means. It’s to be a “revelation.” How do we figure it out? You read of the “four horsemen” and “bowls of wrath” and beasts “rising up out of the sea.”

You have to admit, it’s really strange imagery.

Dave: To “decode” Revelation, as you put it, we need to obtain the knowledge that John’s intended audience had.

It’s easy to assume they were primarily uneducated peasants. We speak of the disciples as “uneducated fishermen.” But there was one area in particular in which they were all very well-versed and that is the Holy Scriptures. For them, that was the Old Testament.

It’s not that they had a lot of books floating around and they all had their own copy. But every week in the synagogues across Israel, the Old Testament was read. It was very common for people to have memorized vast swaths of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Miles: I remember reading once that Paul, as a member of the Sanhedrin, would have had all five books of Moses fully memorized to even be considered eligible to join the Sanhedrin.

Dave: And you can see it in his writings. When you read through the books of Paul, his writings are littered with quotes from the Old Testament. Now, he doesn’t give “chapter and verse” like we do today. The books of the Bible weren’t broken up into various chapters and verses until much later. The Byzantines added in subheadings in the fifth century, but it wasn’t until around 1227 CE that Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, added in our modern chapter divisions. But you can see Paul’s vast knowledge of the Old Testament by how frequently he quotes it.

And he’s not the only one that does. Jude quotes extensively from the Book of Enoch which, while not in our modern Bibles, was accepted as inspired by the early Christians.

Miles: Do you accept it as inspired?

Dave: I do, yes.

My point is, if we want to understand the message of the Book of Revelation, we have to understand the Old Testament. We have to go back and study it first, and there we’ll find the symbols used in Revelation explained.

See, first century believers didn’t have access to the glut of written word that we have today. There were no digital books or audio books. There were no movies. But they did have the Scriptures.

The most helpful tool for decoding Revelation isn’t sermons on YouTube. It’s not the latest book on Biblical exposition or the most clever Bible study tools. It is Scripture itself. You want to understand Revelation? You need to know—and I mean really know—the Old Testament. That’s where you’ll find the symbols explained and once you know the symbols, the whole thing just opens up.

Miles: I’ve got a friend who’s got his Doctor of Divinity degree. When he was in university, he was able to take a class on Revelation from a well-respected New Testament scholar. On the first day of the class, the professor told the students, “I’m going to tell you right now how to get a good grade in my class. And that is: Read … the book … of Revelation. You get through it, read it again. I’m not going to be assigning you a lot of busy work. Most of your grade will come from what you get on your exams. Use that time to read through Revelation. Get to know it like the back of your hand and you’ll do well.”

Dave: So what happened?

Miles: Well, the first exam comes along and my friend spends hours and hours studying his notes. He hadn’t spent much time reading through Revelation because he had other classes and the lack of busy work for this class freed him up—so he thought—to spend more time on his other classwork. So he studies his notes really well. It gets down to the exam … and he bombs. He didn’t fail, but it was a near thing. He did not do well at all.

After that, he decided that if he wanted to pass the class, maybe he should try doing it the way the professor recommended. So that’s what he did. He set aside time every day to read through the Book of Revelation. He’d get through, and he’d start it again. He read it through over and over, and in the end, he ended up getting a very high grade in the class as well as a very thorough knowledge of the book.

Dave: That’s excellent. That’s what we need to do with the Old Testament in order to understand the Book of Revelation. The Bible itself is the most important tool you could ever use to decipher the meaning of Revelation.

Miles: Well, that’s letting the Bible interpret itself. Letting Scripture be its own expositor.

Dave: Exactly. You want to know what John’s message in the Revelation means? You’ve got to become well-versed in the body of knowledge that his first-century audience held. Then it will start to make sense.

There are no shortcuts to understanding Revelation. You have to know the Old Testament, and once you do, then you can decipher Revelation.

Let me prove it to you. There are a grand total of 404 verses in Revelation. Now, within those 404 verses, how many references would you guess there are that refer to passages in the Old Testament?

Miles: Uhhh … I don’t know, uh …

Dave: Pick a number.

Miles: I don’t know. A hundred? A hundred and fifty?

Dave: Try five hundred.

Miles: Are you serious??

Dave: Well, scholars don’t actually agree on the exact number. It’s sort of dependent on how you count, but all do agree that there are at least 500 Old Testament references contained in the Book of Revelation.

Miles: Incredible! That’s more than one per verse! Averaged out, anyway.

Okay, we’re going to take a quick break. When we return, maybe you could share a few of those references with us?

Dave: Certainly.

Miles: We’ll be right back.

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Part 2: (Miles & Dave)

Dave: Do you know someone who’s a movie buff? Someone who, no matter what the circumstances are, always comes up with a quote from some movie?

Miles: Oh, yeah. My brother-in-law is that way. Doesn’t matter what’s happening, he somehow always manages to come up with an apropos quote – usually hilarious – from some movie.

Dave: In a way, John reminds me of a movie buff except he’s an Old Testament buff. His writing in Revelation literally overflows with Old Testament references.

But instead of actual quotes like Paul does, his references are typically more subtle. His references are phrases, sometimes just words in a certain setting. They’re allusions and symbols. John expects his audience to be as well-acquainted with the Old Testament as he is.

This is where we’ve failed in the past. You want to understand Revelation? You’ve got to know your Old Testament.

Miles: Can you give us some examples? For example, uhh … what about the dragon?

Dave: He first appears back at the fall, in Genesis 3. The “bowls of wrath”? You find a clear correlation to the plagues of Egypt. Egypt experienced 10 plagues; Revelation speaks of seven “last” plagues, but the correlation is there.

Miles: Beasts rising out of the sea? That sounds like Daniel.

Dave: That’s exactly where it’s from. And that’s how we also know that “seas” represent many nations and tongues and peoples.

Miles: What about the four horsemen?

Dave: Straight out of Zechariah.

Miles: Really?? Wow.

Dave: One New Testament scholar who’s done a lot of study in Revelation made a statement I’ve always found very intriguing. He said, and I quote, “All books end in the book of Revelation.” Unquote.

For example:

• Revelation 13 verse 8 speaks of a lamb “slain from the foundation of the world.”

John the Baptist referred to Yahushua as the Lamb of Yah that takes away the sins of the world. But there’s more.

All through the books of Moses, beginning back at the fall, you’ve got the death of Yahushua symbolized by animal sacrifices. Knowing this, you know that the lamb “slain from the foundation of the world” is a direct reference to the Savior.

• Uhh, what else? Uhh … Babylon! In Revelation 17, John sees a woman sitting on a scarlet colored beast. Read verses 4 and 5 of Revelation 17 for us.

Miles:

The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery:

babylon the greatthe mother of prostitutesand of the abominations of the earth.

Dave: The next chapter, Revelation 18 verses 6 and 7 says, “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”

Now read what Isaiah says in Isaiah 47 verses 7 and 8.

Miles:

You said, ‘I am forever—
the eternal queen!’
But you did not consider these things
or reflect on what might happen.

“Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure,
lounging in your security
and saying to yourself,
‘I am, and there is none besides me.
I will never be a widow
or suffer the loss of children.’”

Dave: It’s an accurate claim to say that all books end in the Book of Revelation.

Miles: Soooo … what does this mean for modern believers? I don’t think any of us know our Old Testaments as well as the first century believers.

Dave: It means we need to get to know them! The problem a lot of Christians face is that they’ve been taught they can safely ignore the Old Testament. Just set it aside and focus on the new and exciting, grace-filled New Testament epoch.

But we miss so much when we do that! Christ himself never taught that the Old Testament was to be set aside. What did he say in Matthew 5 verse 17?

Miles: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.“

Dave: But you’re not going to know just what Christ “fulfilled” if you don’t first know the Law and the Prophets, what they had to say.

Look at it this way: look at the entire conflict between the dragon and Yahuwah as a play acted out on a cosmic stage. The Old Testament is what gives you the players, the setting and even the plotline for the New Testament. And Revelation is the climax of the whole thing. But you’re going to miss the meaning if you ignore the Old Testament. It’s like buying tickets for a two-act play and deciding to skip Act 1 and only go to Act 2 because that’s when the climax occurs.

Miles: So where do we start? I don’t have the Old Testament memorized; there’s no way I’ll ever have it memorized. It honestly feels a bit overwhelming. Are there any baby steps we can take to work towards understanding Revelation?

Dave: Absolutely. And don’t be discouraged. As we put forth efforts to learn and understand, Yah will bless our efforts and our study.

The first thing to do is get the right Bible. Now, I can’t speak for all languages, but in many languages, there are dozens of different translations you can choose from. Choose one you can most easily understand.

Miles: But what about mistranslations? Some people are adamant that only THIS translation or THAT should be used. I even read a book once that adamantly claimed certain translations should not be used.

Dave: We’re dealing with translations. Frankly, all versions have some mistranslations, but that’s why we’ve got commentaries and Bible dictionaries. The most important thing is getting a Bible that you can understand. What’s the point in reading a translation with vocabulary and grammar from 500 years ago if you can’t understand it?

Remember, the Bible was written for the common man. It was written to be understood.

Miles: That’s true. And, of course, you never want to study Scripture without prayer. You’re going to be asking Yahuwah to lead your understanding as you study.

What’s next?

Dave: Don’t go faster than you can understand. You’re not in a race! Take your time. It’s all right to go as slow as you need to go in order to understand what you’re reading. And this brings me to my next point.

A good concordance will not only be very helpful but will make your study of the Bible very enjoyable. This is probably the easiest way to find themes woven throughout Scripture. Look a key word up in the concordance and read every verse that has that word in it. Guaranteed, by the time you finish that, you’ll know more than you ever thought you could on the subject.

Miles: That’s very true. And let me just add that there are a lot of resources online. If you can’t afford a copy of your own concordance, see if you can find one online.

Now, when it comes to Bible study, a lot of people suggest starting with the New Testament, specifically the gospels. They’re easier to understand.

But when we’re trying to learn the Old Testament, how are we to go about that? Just start at Genesis 1:1 and go straight through to whatever is the last verse in Malachi?

Dave: You can, although some people might get bogged down doing it that way. One way you can do it is by reading the Bible in chronological order. The order of books that we have in our Bibles is different from the way the Jews arrange them. Look up online and find out the chronological order of when the books were written and read them in that order.

Miles: Huh! Great idea!

Dave: Another thing you can do is divvy them up by content and choose a category to start with. Maybe you want to start with the books of Moses. After that, you might want to read the books of poetry, the books of wisdom. Then try for the books of history before moving to the major prophets and finally the minor prophets. That’s what I did the first time I read the Bible through. It made it easier to break it up into more manageable pieces.

How about you, Miles? Any Bible study tips work for you?

Miles: Yeah. One thing is paying attention to how the individual stories fit into the larger narrative. Some of the stories in the Old Testament, at a surfacing reading, can be horrifying and heart breaking.

Dave: Scripture doesn’t sugarcoat anything, does it?

Miles: It really doesn’t! But by seeing how the individual stories fit into the grander scheme of Yah’s goodness and love, it can really help.

My wife enjoys using colored pencils to mark certain passages. For example, in Scripture, blue represents the law. So, for any passages that are clearly about the law of Yah, she marks them in blue. The color green symbolizes hope. So, she marks promises in green. I don’t know what all the categories are, but it works great for her and really makes it easy to find something in the Bible.

Dave: I like that. I write in the margins, too. It helps! Make the Bible your workbook. Read it! Use it!

Miles: What about … uh. Now, this is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I think most people will be able to relate to this. What can you do if you find yourself getting bogged down in a passage. How can you keep on pushing through? How do you keep going?

It’s really easy when you start getting bogged down to just set it aside and then it’s really hard to get back into reading it again. Any words of wisdom for those of us who find ourselves getting bogged down? This probably never happens to you, but it’s something I really struggle with sometimes.

Dave: Oh, I think it’s safe to say it happens to all of us at one time or another. My suggestion, if you’re starting to get bogged down, is simply to skip that passage or that chapter and go on to something else.

We get this idea that we can’t do that. You can’t skip a chapter or a passage because you might miss out on something big the Holy Spirit is trying to teach you. You ever feel that way?

Miles: Oh, yeah!

Dave: Of course! We all do. I mean, reading some unpronounceable name begat some other unpronounceable name who begat still some other unpronounceable name gets old really fast.

Miles: So you do know what I’m talking about!

Dave: Oh, yeah. Here’s the thing, though. You’re right that if we get so bogged down that we lay the Bible aside and just stop, it then becomes very hard to come back to it. It’s much better to skip a chapter or two and keep reading, keep studying, then to stop altogether. You can always come back! Just because you skipped a chapter or two doesn’t mean you can’t come back later and read it some other time.

Just don’t stop reading; don’t stop studying.

One thing that I’ve found that really brings Scripture to life is to use a Bible dictionary and start looking up words in Scripture. You wouldn’t believe the depths you can dig, the insights you can gain when you start looking up the definitions of key words in any given passage.

Miles: That’s really true. Sometimes, you can find a whole other meaning you never realized was there before.

Dave: You can even do this with the begats! You’re bound and determined to get through a chapter of the begats? All right. Start looking up the meanings of the various names of the people listed. Israelite names always had significant meanings. For example, the name of prophet Elijah? It means “My god, or my el, is Yah!” Isn’t that a beautiful name?

Miles: That really is.

Dave: You start looking up the meanings of the various names and it won’t be boring anymore.

One benefit to reading the Bible through, even if you have to break it up into sections, is that you’ll be able to see the grand sweep of events in context.

Now, if you’re still feeling overwhelmed and you just want a short cut to delve into Revelation, here are two passages you can start with: Exodus chapters 7 to 11, and Daniel 7.

The plagues of Egypt were a foreshadowing of the plagues in Revelation. As you read through these passages, analyze why Yahuwah sent the plagues on Egypt. What was He trying to do? Did He accomplish what He wanted? Then, make the same analysis of the plagues described in Revelation. You’ll learn a lot that way.

The other passage is Daniel 7. All of Daniel is excellent, but especially chapter 7. Here you’ll find the key that explains many of the symbols used in Revelation.

And finally, remember that what you put into something is what you’ll get out of it. You want to understand Revelation? Put in the time studying the Old Testament. That’s how you will gain the background knowledge John assumed his audience had.

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You are listening to World's Last Chance Radio.

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

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Daily Mailbag (Miles & Dave)

Miles: Okay, full disclosure: typically when I get questions for our daily mailbag segment, I kind of spring them on Dave. I know he’s got a deep understanding of Scripture, so I might tell him what the subject is about in general, but nothing really specific.

Every once in a while, though, we get a question that is so … uh, obscure? Specific? Specifically obscure? That I feel it’s only fair to give him a chance to study into it first, and that’s the case with today’s question.

Dave: I have to say, I’m glad you did. Why don’t you go ahead and read the question so our listeners know what we’re talking about?

Miles: All right. Jean, from the United States, writes: “I’ve been studying into the lunar Sabbath. While I have more to learn, I am in awe at the beauty of this truth. Certain things I have wondered about in the past just fall into place when harmonized with this truth. I shared it with my husband. At first he was interested, but then our pastor told him that this was a theory invented by a man named Jonathan David Brown who did time in federal prison after being convicted of hate crimes and perjury. Now, my husband wants nothing to do with the lunar Sabbath. Is it true that this man came up with the idea of the lunar Sabbath? If it is, how can we know for sure that it’s true? Just how trustworthy is the proof for the lunar Sabbath?”

Dave: I’d never heard of Jonathan David Brown, so I had to do a bit of research into this to know for sure what she was talking about.

All right. Let’s answer a few questions:

First, who are we talking about? Jonathan David Brown was an American audio engineer and record producer in the contemporary Christian music industry. In 1992, he was sentenced to serve 27 months in federal prison as an accessory after the fact for two counts of hate crimes and one count of perjury.

Miles: “After the fact.” Does that mean he didn’t actually commit the crimes himself?

Dave: No, he didn’t. The court found him guilty of helping a teenager who was involved hide from the authorities and, I think, disguise his car or something.

The second question we need to ask, and the one that gets to the very heart of Jean’s question is: Is this man a credible source on which to base your belief in the Biblical, lunar Sabbath? My answer is: No. You should never base any belief on anyone’s word for anything. You should always do your own research and then, based on the weight of evidence, accept truth or reject error, whichever one the holy spirit convicts you that it is.

Miles: Right. We’ve always said we don’t want anyone taking our word for anything; do your own research. But … still …?

Dave: You’re wanting to know if Jonathan David Brown invented the lunar Sabbath?

Miles: Well … or at least, maybe, did Yahuwah restore this truth through him? And if He did, would Yah use a felon to restore such an important truth?

Dave: I’m not going to presume to state what Yahuwah will or will not do.

Did Brown discover the lunar Sabbath? Yes. He did. For himself. But he’s not the only one to discover the Biblical Sabbath. Some years ago, a home-churching group in … I can’t remember whether it was Costa Rica or Cuba, reached out to us. They had discovered the truth of the Biblical calendar simply by studying Scripture and noticing that in the Bible the Sabbath always falls on the 8^th, the 15^th, the 22^nd, or the 29^th day of the month. They did more research and discovered how the luni-solar calendar works.

So, if the question is, did the idea of the lunar Sabbath originate with Jonathan David Brown or was it “restored” through him, again the answer to both questions is an unequivocal no. Various Christians in different times and different places have stumbled upon the truth that the modern papal calendar does not align with the Biblical calendar.

Miles: Which is a problem if you believe the day on which you worship does matter, or if you wish to celebrate the actual day of Yahushua’s resurrection.

Dave: Right. Back in 1995, an order originating from the office of the president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists commissioned a study group to look at this very issue. Seventh-day Adventists are, I think, the largest Saturday-Sabbath observant Protestant denomination in the world. They’ve always taught that the day on which you worship definitely matters. So, this was especially important to them.

Miles: What happened? Last I heard, Adventists are very opposed to the Biblical Sabbath.

Dave: Well, the study group—which was comprised of some of the top scholars and apologists in the SDA Church, studied into this topic and discovered, to their shock, that the Biblical calendar does not align with the modern calendar. Consequently, Saturday is not the Biblical Sabbath. This may have been around the time Jonathan David Brown discovered the Biblical calendar, but it was not connected to his discovery.

I have here a quote from one of the committee members. It’s quoted in an article called “The Hiding of the Lunar Sabbath: The experience of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” It’s a rather lengthy article. Just go ahead and read where it’s marked.

Miles:

When asked if the church officials who appointed the committee, in their ignorance of the topic, actually thought that the Study Committee could refute the lunar Sabbath, [a committee member said]: “In their ignorance, they actually thought they had a committee that would rubber stamp whatever they were told to agree to. But after a few meetings they saw that they couldn’t get a consensus from us, they couldn’t bully us, and they shut it down. They saw that they were about to open Pandora’s box and so they shut it down.”

Dave: This same committee member later said that it was “voted” to shut the whole topic down because it was feared the subject would, quote, “blow up the church.” Unquote.

Miles: Wow.

Dave: Seventh-day Adventist Church leadership has been aware that Saturday is not the Biblical Sabbath since at least the 1930s, and there is some indication they knew even earlier. And they’re not the only ones. Grace Communion International—formerly known as the Worldwide Church of God—also was well aware that Saturday was not the Biblical Sabbath. But, like the Adventists, this was not a topic the church leadership wanted to pursue.

Miles: Yeah. It’s hard enough worshipping on Saturday when most of the Christian world celebrates Sunday. Trying to get your church members to worship by the Biblical calendar would not go over well.

Dave: Well, it would impact the church financially. Churches are also financial institutions. They employ a lot of people. They’re not going to rock the boat.

But these Saturday-observant Protestants aren’t the only ones. Jewish scholars are well-aware that the Biblical calendar is luni-solar and that the weekly cycle in Bible times restarted with the first of every new month.

Dr. Eviatar Zerubavel is a Jewish scholar. He’s a professor of sociology at Rutgers University. He’s also written a number of books. One of them I have here. It’s called The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week. In here, Zerubavel talks about what he terms “quasi-weeks.”

Miles: What’s that?

Dave: Well, our modern calendar has a continuous weekly cycle. For example, Saturday, December 31, 2022, was immediately followed by Sunday, January 1, 2023. There’s never any disruption in the weekly cycle. Even when there’s a leap day, it’s just intercalated in there without any disruption to the seven-day weekly cycle.

That’s not how it worked in the Biblical calendar where the weekly cycle restarted every single month. That’s why all these different observant Bible students have noticed that any time a date is connected with the Sabbath in Scripture it always falls on one of only four dates: the 8^th, the 15^th, the 22^nd, or the 29^th of any given month. New Moon days were always the first of the month.

This is what Zerubavel refers to as “quasi-weeks.” Now. Turn to the front of the book. When was it published?

Miles: Uhhh … let’s see. It says it was published by the University of Chicago Press … um, 1985?

Dave: Years before Brown ever connected the dots.

Zerubavel documents in his book how, several centuries after Christ, the early church wanted to distance itself from its Jewish roots, and that is why they stopped worshipping on Sabbath and began celebrating Sunday instead. Let’s see what he has to say about the lunar-based weeks. Would you please turn to page 10 and read where it’s underlined?

Miles: “The first people to have established a continuous weekly cycle that was entirely independent of the lunar cycler were the ancient Egyptians. Possibly as a result of being sun-worshipers, which essentially freed them from the necessity of observing lunar rites, they practically ignored the moon in their civil calendar, which was based on twelve 30-day months, each of which was, in turn, subdivided into three 10-day weeks.”

Dave: It’s interesting to note that our modern calendar, the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII, who instituted it, is based on the pagan Julian calendar. It is a solar calendar and has no connection whatsoever to the moon. Weeks were always tied to the moon, but not on a solar calendar. Solar calendars are pagan and always have been.

But the point I’m wanting to emphasize is that this is old news. This is documented historical and archeological fact. It has nothing to do with some man sitting in prison who had the time on his hands to connect the dots of what he was seeing in Scripture.

Again, the Jews know this. Here’s a quote from the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia. I don’t remember the precise year of its publication, but it was in the first half of the twentieth century. It’s from an article entitled “Holidays,” page 410.

Miles:

The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle. Both date back to the nomadic period of Israel. Originally the New Moon was celebrated in the same way as the Sabbath; gradually it became less important, while the Sabbath became more and more a day of religion and humanity, of religious meditation and instruction, or peace and delight of the soul, and produced powerful and beneficent effects outside of Judaism.

Unquote.

There’s another quotation here. From the same encyclopedia in an article entitled “Weeks” it says: “. . . Shabbat [the weekly Sabbath] originally arose from the lunar cycle, containing four weeks ending in Sabbath, plus one or two additional unreckoned days per month.”

Dave: These are lunar months, months based upon the moon.

Miles: Well, even the word “month” comes from the word “moon.” The original word was actually “moonth.”

Dave: Kind of a funny word, but yes. In many languages, “moon” is the old word for “month.”

Okay. One final quote. This is from an article entitled “Pastoral Feast” in the Jewish Encyclopedia. When you read it, note the close tie between New Moons—which were a class of holy day and which were the first day of every new month—and the seventh-day Sabbath.

Miles:

At first the New Moon festival was not counted among the seven days of the week; after 28 days had elapsed [7 days x 4 weeks], one or two days were intercalated as New Moon days, whereupon a new cycle of four weeks began, so that the Sabbath was a movable festival….

Later the week and the Sabbath became fixed [on the cycling planetary week]; and this gradually resulted in taking away from the New Moon festival its popular importance. . .

Dave: Truth is truth regardless of who says it. The truth about the lunar Sabbath was not invented by a felon. Nor does it make it any less the truth simply because he was one of the first that began widely discussing it.

Miles: That’s a good point. He likely had less to lose than, say, a pastor or a priest or Bible scholar whose pay cheque comes from an organization that doesn’t want the status quo disrupted.

Dave: I just want to add one more thing: any time you try and share something with anyone, and the response is to attack the person—such as Jonathan David Brown teaching the lunar Sabbath—it’s a logical fallacy.

Miles: Yeah, the Ad Hominem logical fallacy, or “attack the man.”

Dave: Right. You find this happening a lot when people don’t have facts to back up their arguments. They then resort to emotional arguments. That’s where “attacking the man” comes in.

So Brown spent time in prison. So what? We don’t know his heart. But we do know the US has the highest per capita prison population in the entire world. The thief spent time on a cross, right next to the Savior. Martin Luther was antisemitic. He was instrumental in getting the Jews expelled from Saxony in 1537.

Miles: Yeah, I remember how shocked I was when I read his On the Jews and Their Lies. He actually recommended that Christians should “set fire to their synagogues or schools” and went so far as to say that, quote: “their rabbis be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb.”

Dave: That’s harsh. And yet, through him, the glorious truth of justification by faith was restored to the world. Yahuwah works with fallible humans and He has to take us where we are. We think we’re so superior, but even now, there are truths we still have yet to learn. So let’s give each other the freedom to learn and grow, and give Yahuwah the freedom to use whomever He wishes to spread His truths.

Miles: That’s true. That’s the sort of compassion and understanding we want shown us as we learn and grow.

Up next: Jane Lamb with your daily promise.

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* * *

Daily Promise

Hello! This is Jane Lamb with your daily promise from Yah’s Word.

Art was a Jewish kid from Queens, New York. He enrolled at Columbia University where he was assigned a dorm room with another young man named Sandy. The two young men quickly became best friends, hitting it off over their mutual love of music and literature.

Sadly, during the first semester of his junior year, Sandy noticed his vision was becoming blurry. He went to a doctor who diagnosed him with conjunctivitis. But his vision got worse. The doctor referred him to a specialist who gave Sandy a devastating diagnosis. Sandy was going blind. In January, his vision loss was complete.

Sandy was devastated. He gave up on his dream of going to law school and returned home. His family was poor and his worry about being a financial burden deepened into depression. He cut off all contact with his friends and former classmates.

Not too long after, there was a knock at the door. It was Art and he refused to let his best friend just give up on life. It took a lot of talking, but Art convinced Sandy to try to finish his education. Art promised he’d stay by his side and make sure he didn’t fall, either literally or academically. And that’s exactly what Art did. Art accompanied Sandy to his classes and the cafeteria. He never wanted Sandy to feel alone so he even started referring to himself as “Darkness.” When he’d read to Sandy from his textbooks, he’d joke, “Darkness is going to read to you now.” Art totally dedicated himself to helping Sandy adjust to his new reality.

But Art wanted more for his friend. While he was happy to help Sandy, he wanted his friend to regain the self-confidence he had lost. One day as the two young men were navigating their way through Grand Central Station, Art “suddenly remembered” something very important he just had to do right that very minute. After assuring Sandy he’d be just fine, Art left.

Sandy was terrified. He bumped into people and luggage and the wall. He fell down and cut his leg. After struggling a couple of hours, he finally managed to find his way to the right train. Getting out at 116^th street, he bumped into someone who quickly apologized. It was Art! Sandy immediately understood what had happened. Art hadn’t left him after all. He’d stayed with his friend during those terrifying, difficult hours. He’d made sure he was safe and in doing so had gifted Sandy with a renewed sense of independence.

Years later, Sandy wrote: “That moment was the spark that caused me to live a completely different life, without fear, without doubt. For that I am tremendously grateful to my friend.”

Sandy graduated from Columbia on time as president of his class. He then went on to earn a Master’s and a PhD degree from Harvard. He also spent a year at Oxford as one of 24 Marshall scholars named that year.

But that’s not the end of the story. While at Oxford, Sandy got a call from Art. This time it was Art who needed help. He had formed a folk-rock duo with a friend of his and needed $400 to be able to record their first album. At that time, Sandy and his wife had exactly $404 in their bank account, but Sandy didn’t hesitate. He got Art the four hundred dollars he needed. The album wasn’t a success . . . but a year later, one of the songs reached #1 on the charts in the United States. The opening words of the song paid tribute to Sandy, calling darkness his old friend and saying that he’s come to talk to him again. Art—Art Garfunkel—and his friend, Paul Simon, went on to achieve international success while Sandy—Sandford David Greenberg—achieved his own success.

He married his high school sweetheart and became an extremely successful businessman, inventor, author and philanthropist. In 1966, he was voted one of the ten “Outstanding Young Men” of America. Through the years, he continued to give back and he and Art have remained best friends. Art was even godfather to Sandy’s three children. Sandy is known for gracefully navigating through life without the typical aids used by the visually impaired. He doesn’t use a cane or a seeing-eye dog. He doesn’t use Braille, either. And yet … he taught himself to play basketball by using his other senses!

Art has said that when he became friends with Sandy, quote, “my real life emerged. I became a better guy in my own eyes and began to see who I was – somebody who gives to a friend.” Sandy, in return, describes himself as “the luckiest man in the world.”

Proverbs 18 verse 24 tells us, “There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” That friend is Yahuwah. His promise to you in Hebrews 13 verse 5 is: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

We’ve been given great and precious promises. Go and start claiming!

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Part 3: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: On behalf of Dave, myself and the entire WLC team, I want to thank you for tuning in today. Today’s program is called “Decoding Revelation,” and it’s number 252. If you enjoyed it and would like to share it with friends or family, you can find it on our website at WorldsLastChance.com. We also post previously aired programs on YouTube, so just look for the program called “Decoding Revelation,” Program number 252.

If you’re listening to our program on YouTube, let us know what you think in the comments. If you enjoy our programming, consider giving us a thumbs up to help others find our channel. You can also click on the alert button to receive notifications when new episodes are uploaded.

As always, we hope you can join us again tomorrow, and until then, remember: Yahuwah loves you . . . and He is safe to trust!

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You have been listening to WLC Radio.

This program and past episodes of WLC Radio are available for downloading on our website. They're great for sharing with friends and for use in Bible studies! They're also an excellent resource for those worshipping Yahuwah alone at home. To listen to previously aired programs, visit our website at WorldsLastChance.com. Click on the WLC Radio icon displayed on our homepage.

In his teachings and parables, the Savior gave no “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, the thrust of his message was constant … vigilance. Join us again tomorrow for another truth-filled message as we explore various topics focused on the Savior's return and how to live in constant readiness to welcome him warmly when he comes.

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.