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did, between what is preserved in writings and what is practiced. The oracles, or as Strong's
definitions have them, the utterances of God, have been preserved by the Jews as it is written in
Romans 3:1-2. The practical application of those oracles however cannot be taken at face value
and assumed to have divine sanction based on this scripture when Christ Himself declared
otherwise!
If we agree with Mr. Dankenbring's conclusions about the postponements, and I certainly
do, then we should probe further and ask why, after more than 4000 years, was the sacred calendar
of annual and weekly Sabbaths no longer deemed workable without tampering with the timing of
the annual Sabbaths as they relate to the weekly Sabbaths? Postponements were not in effect at the
time of Christ and there is no mention of any such calendar conflicts up to then. Only after the
Jews had been in Babylonian exile for about 290 years was God's Holy Calendar found wanting.
Surely there must be more here than meets the eye. Can we really just accept that after 4000+
years of harmonious annual and weekly Sabbaths juggling the dates just seemed like a good idea
whose time had come? To make this assumption is, I believe, very dangerous indeed. Let's look a
little more closely at the events of the 4th century AD for clues.
Were there any other significant calendar changes in Babylon during this period? History
records that in 321 AD Emperor Constantine abolished the previous eight day Roman week and
established the modern Roman seven day week that we continue to observe today. This week was
based on the then seven known "planets": Sun, Mercury, Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.
In addition to reducing the number of the days in the week from 8 to 7, he also made the counting of
weeks perpetual. Whereas the eight day week was repeated without breaks until the new year's
day when it started over at day 1, the modern seven day week would form an unbroken chain in
perpetuity beginning in 321 AD. Is it mere coincidence that one generation after the introduction of
a new system of weeks that the Jews in Babylon found it necessary to refine God's calendar? We
can look to our own time to see that significant shifts in weights and measures, calendars and even
moral attitudes take about a generation to take firm hold and become standard practice. We do not
need to be students of history to understand that principle and, human nature being what it is, we
can count on the fact that it was no different in the 4th century AD.
John Keyser has written a series of articles which uncover the origins of our pagan week
and reveal the simplicity and perfection of God's system of calendar reckoning. In Have We Been
Observing the Sabbath At the Wrong Time All These Years? he traces the historical roots of a
single, unified system so perfect and so unassailable by any human devices that it renders all hu-
man tampering and self-righteous administration of no consequence whatsoever! God's calendar is
not dependent on human ingenuity, it does not require doctoring up or refinement by man's ordi-
nances. It is written in the heavens, locked into the intricate synchronicity of the very Earth, Moon
and Sun that by His Word He set in motion! Once the very simple keys to its understanding are
found it becomes impossible to pervert by any human calculation, regulation or "wisdom."
In these articles John Keyser uncovers God's system of weeks as tied to and heralded by
the phases of the moon. Permanently marked out in the heavens for all who will see and untouch-
able by Satan's subterfuge. Here we find a key to understanding the real reason behind the institu-
tion of the postponements in 359 AD, one generation after the introduction of the Roman planetary
week in 321 AD! In the lunar week the Sabbath can NEVER come into such a conflict with Yom
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