Marvin Moore's "FOOLING WITH TIME". Signs of the Times, November 2018.Issue.

My many thanks to both author and this magazine. (John B)  TO ORDER CALL 1-800 545-2449 [USA] [CAN] 1-800 765-6955 THIS MONTHLY MAGAZINE.  [Contains NO advertisements, but a call to Jesus] 

Marvin Moore reflects on the meaning of time, how we organize it, and how it can be an important part of our Spiritual life.

  Please, do me a favor...... define the word TIME!   Take a moment to think about it before you continue to read on.


       WHAT DID YOU come up with?   When I first tried to define it, I had a hard time coming up with an idea without using the very word TIME! "TIME is the TIME, in which we do things." "TIME is the TIME, in which we do things."  "TIME  is the TIME, in which things happen."   Eventually, I came up with the word PERIOD: "TIME is the PERIOD, in which we do things."  "TIME, is the PERIOD in which events happen."   Webster's o n-line Dictionary agrees, it defines time as "the measured or measurable PERIOD during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues."  I like the definition of TIME, my wife Lois, came up with: "TIME is a way to measure how long it takes from one event to another."

      TIME is such a basic part of our existence that it's impossible for us finite humans to imagine a "TIME" when TIME didn't exist. Throughout every day we're aware of passing, TIME. We have appointments to meet on TIME, Jobs to complete on TIME, and bedtime, daytime, and nighttime. Toward evening we'll say "Where on earth has the TIME gone?" Plus by the middle of June, we are exclaiming, "The year's barely started, and we're already halfway through it?"
    TIME and living are practically synonymous. Without time we'd never get anything done! Stop and think about this...... "We couldn't even exist without time!?

ORGANIZING TIME.

    We humans have been fooling with time for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found evidence of time keeping as far back as thousands years ago. However primitive this would be compared to our methods today. We divide time into milliseconds, [1/1000 ths] seconds minutes hours days weeks months years and decades and eons, even millenniums. We have clocks and calendars that help us keep track of time. That way we can make appointments, and keep them on time\, and we can  even plan for our retirement at a future time..

      However, watches, clocks are a fairly recent innovation. The ancients kept track of time by the movements of the heavenly bodies, which helped mankind to divide time b y day\s, months and seasons, and years. The Jews of the Bible times divided the light and dark parts of their days into 12 parts each. For example, Christ was crucified at about, "The Third hour, and He died at about "the ninth hour", which would have been about 9 AM and about 3 PM in our time system, today.
     Mark 15:25  "And it was the third hour, and they crucified him."
     Matthew 27:45-50 "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.  Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost."   [His  Spirit/Breath of life/breath His last]

    We must know that these times in hours are but our estimates,as THEN, the length of an hour depended on the time of year, During the summer months the day would be longer , thus making the hours in winter shorter than summer hours!...,...> Cont.

NOTE(JB) : At their Latitude, the simmer's longest day, of daylight, would be from 5:30- AM to about 8 PM., but in the winter it would be from about 7:00 AM to about 4:30 PM. This is the reason why of the time frames in Genesis 1: 5,8,13. From sunset to sunset as one full day, thus all would be able by the sun's position to know the time beginning for the Seventh-day Sabbath, and when it would end!
Bur, sadly men think they know better and changed the Sabbath from the Seventh-day, to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, PLUS changed the day's beginnings and endings to midnight. The time of darkness, that much, but not all, earth embraced Rome's edicts,  of Sunday's Sacredness, in 321 A.D. by the order of Constantine, the Emperor,  and the time of the starting of a new day, at midnight in 1503 AD, by the decree- Papal Bull- by Pope Gregory III, {The Great}He also is known for the calendar we use today, The Gregorian, for in 1582 A.D. he dropped 10 days from the month of October, as Rome's "EASTER" was getting too far away from the SPRING SOLSTICE. Thus Monday October 4th was followed by Tuesday October the 15th. This changed the Julian {Caesar} calendar began in January 1, 45 B.C. . Yet please make note, there's not ever been a change made to the same rotaion and sequence we use then and now, regarding the order of the seven days within a week. The Sabbath still falls on the original Seventh day, and the FIRST day of the week is still named after the Sun-god...... Sunday!  Monday= Moon day: Tuesday =  Thor's day?   Wednesday = Woden:  Thursday = Thor's day: Friday = Freidah : Saturday = Saturn. Sunday = The Sun-god.

Cont....> Calendars have been around for some 500 years. Wikipedia lists more than 80 cultures's calendars, from the Mayan to the Hebrew one of the Jews, to today's Gregorian calendar.

COORDINATING MONTHS WITH YEARS.

     I mentioned a moment ago that the three most obvious ways to divide the passing of time, are to base it on the cycles of the heavenly bodies: the rotation of earth on its axis to mark our days, the orbit of the moon, around the earth to mark our months, plus the orbit of the earth around the sun to mark our years. In addition we mark our year into seasons, which are also based on the rotation of the earth around the sun.[ We''l discuss the division of time into weeks, in a moment]
     A major problem, presents itself to every culture, has to be with its synchronizing lunar months with solar years. The earth orbits sthe sun about every 365,25 days, while the moon orbits the earth about every 29.53 days, which means that there are about 12>53 months in a Lunar Year. Thus, the months don't fit neatly into the years the way round pegs fit into round holes. Some cultures have solved this problem by using strictly the Lunar Calendar, others with a combination of Lunar and Solar calendars, and still others with strictly solar calendars.
        LUNAR CALENDARS: In a strictly Lunar year, such as the one the Muslim's use the months are about 11 days days short of completing a year, which is the why the date of the Muslim Ramadan varies to widely from Solar year to Solar year.
       LUNAR-SOLAR YEARS:  To solve the problem presented by the difference in the Lunar months, and the Solar Year, many ancient cultures tried to align the Lunar with the Solar year to year.One of the most common ways to do this was to add a month every second or third year. The Hebrew religious calendar is an example of this calendar system.. Of course, with this calendar system, the time for the seasons varies quite widely from year to year.
      SOLAR CALENDARS: The Roman Emperor Julius Caesar adopted a strictly Solar calendar on January 1, 45 B.C., and it became the norm throughout the empire for more than 1,600 years. Its years had 365 days divided into 12 months, with a leap year added to February every four years.. However even this system was slightly longer that a full year. Thus by the year of 1500 A.D. the spring planting season had slipped about 10 days back into February.
     To correct this problem, and the fact that the Spring Solstice {EASTER}had also moved back, Pope Gregory III introduced a revised calendar that compensated for this "slippage" of time. This calendar cut out 10 whole days out of October calendar of 1582, so that Monday October the 4th was followed by Tuesday October the 15th! To prevent continued slippage the Gregorian calendar also cut out some of the leap February days. The LEAP DAY in years that are divisible by 4 is maintained EXCEPT for the years that are divisible by 100 [1800, 1900 etc] . However the years that are divisible by 400, such as 1600 and 2000 are LEAP YEARS.
    All nations ruled by the Catholic Church adopted this immediately, but the last one was Greece, in 1923. By the end of the 20th Century, nearly all nations had adopted it at least for the political and economic reasons. Orthodox Jews continue to use the Hebrew religious calendar, and as noted, dthe Muslims still use their religious Lunar calendar.

THE WEEK.

      THE WEEK, is the only measure of time that isn't based on the movements of earth, moon, or sun. Today the seven=day week is almost universal. However, throughout the world's history various cultures have used weeks that range form four to ten days. The ancient Romans.held an 8 day week, and during the French revolution, they observed a 10 day week. So where and why do we observe this seven day week? Where was the foundation for it?

    Genesis 1:5  "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."
NOTE(JB) : This set the parameters of the 24 hour day, from Sunset to Sunset.

     Genesis 2:1-3  "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made"

NOTE(JB) : This then set boundaries for the Sabbath day, from Friday;'s Sunset to Saturday's Sunset.
                   By His BLESSING the SEVENTH Day, He created a weekly MEMORIAL to the CREATION WEEK, and by HIS SANCTIFICATION, made this day a HOLY DAY, set aside for a religious purpose! This means that man/men have no right, no power, to change this day period!

    Exodus 20:1-17  And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.COMMANDANT 1  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  #2Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.  

#3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.   #4.  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.   #5  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.     #6. Thou shalt not kill.    #7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.       #8. Thou shalt not steal.     #9.   Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.     #10.   Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

NOTE(JB) : The above are the whole and full Ten Commandments, in the books of Catholic Catechism, and the last Number ten has been split into two parts so that they can show ten! However, they've removed many, many words from each of them especially the fourth the sabbath Command. Not ever wondered nor questioned the why of this? Please THINK, no church no man can save YO U but Christ!   LOOK......

    Revelation 22:18-21 " For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.  He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."

Note(JB) :  Yes I've heard this, "Well but that is only concerning the Book of Revelation!" To which I ask, "Are Y O U sure you want to hang your eternal life on this remark?"

WHAT'S THE THEOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WEEK AND ESPECIALLY OF THE SABBATH?

    Exodus 31:17 " It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed."

NOTE(JB) : Rome's big argument is that "This is for the Jews ONLY! "  Oh really????
      Galatians 3:7 " Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham."
      Galatians 3:14 " That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

It is one's love and faith in Jesus Christ, that makes ALL a "Child of the Promise", or a "Spiritual Israelite,"   ARE YOU, MY FRIENDS, BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND, THAT BIBLICAL ILLITERACY, CAN BE DETRIMENTAL TO SALVATION?  YOUR SALVATION?  NEVER EVER TAKE WORDS OF MAN/MEN, FOR THE WORD OF GOD, LEARN THAT FOR SELF!!!

  Please take note that the weekly Sabbaths, are also a point in time. So that from the very beginning of human history, God did something very special with time.Next take notice of the first words in the statement of time/Sabbath: "By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing."

   Genesis 2:2 " And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made."

    If you've ever looked real close at anything found in nature, you'll appreciate His consummate artistry.  Its plants, animals and especially its twoans, as His 'Masterpiece".  We humans are prone to mark our "SPECIAL DAYS" right? Birthdays, Anniversaries, graduation Weddings, and so on, so God did the very same thing! He "SET-ASIDE", for a holy purpose the Seventh-day Sabbath, as a special weekly memorial, to celebrate His CREATION!

     Genesis 2:3  "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."

SANCTIFIED: (SANK'TA-FI`D) adj. dedicated,consecrated, made holy.affecting sanctity. New World Dictionary, Simon & Schuster. 2nd College Edition.

Note(JB) QUESTION: "What can man make holy"?   NOTHING! Thus "Sunday Sacredness" is but of human tradition!  Mark 7:9  "And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition."
    Disagree? Speak to the Author of the Bible about this question, He's eager to hear from Y O U!

 .....>  Remember the story of Moses, and the burning bush? Moses was told to remove his shoes for he was on Holy Ground?   [Exodus 3:1-5] So also does He expect us all to show this special respect for the Holy Time on HIS ....yes HIS .......Sabbaths! By honoring His Memorial Day the Seventh day Sabbaths! No need to remove one's shoes.Just surrender one's heart.

THE SABBATH A SPECIAL DAY FOR HUMANS.

    REMEMBER... all that The Creator created during the six days of Creation week had to do with the physical world: a planet with its atmosphere, plants, animals and humans. BUT... on the SEVENTH DAY God created something special, that's especially for intelligent human beings. To the animals, the seventh day of the week is just like any other....>

NOTE(JB) : Science has shown that many life forms, from plants to bacteria, really slow down their activity on the Sabbath. WHY IS THAT?  IF THERE'S NO GOD.HOW CAN THIS BE SO????

.....> Only thinking humans can recognize the significance of the Sabbath sd holy time. Thus the Sabbath is God's special Creation action, a TEMPLE IN TIME!. That only Humans can understand and be participants in it!
     There's a profound reason for this....the most fundamental aspect of the Sabbaths is for a Loving and personal relationships, with the all the members of the Godhead as well as with our fellow believers.You see, God created millions of angels......

     .Revelation 5:11  "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;"
      Daniel 7:10  "A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened".

....> He wanted intelligent beings whom He could love and who could love Him in return, and He as far as we can know, created each one individually, one by one. However, He gave humans the ability to koin Him in creating more humans. Given enough time, there's no limit to the number of people we humans are capable of creating.. That's how much God enjoys having relationships with other intelligent beings.
      And, of course, these relationships take time......>

NOTE(JB) : no human can love an unknown being, and the only source we have to know God is from his Holy Book, the Bible! Most don't read it!

...> That's why God set-aside the Sabbath at the very beginning of world's history as a TIME. He could then relate to us and we to Him. And He embed this principle in His law of the Ten Commandments. It's why He made the day holy---  so that we would set it aside as time for enjoying a loving relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.

     Y O U, may say, as many do, "I worship God every day," That's good, and God is pleased. But HE also set aside an entire day for us to fellowship with Him and each other in a special way.
      OR, Y O U may say, "It doesn't matter which day I keep so so long as it's one day in seven."
Well, God is pleased when we spend time with Him on other days but there's only ONE 24 hour day that He asks us to observe in honor of His Creation of our world and us.. There's but ONE day He asks us to spend time with Him and each other in a special relationship with Him and others.
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     Exodus 20:9-10  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

    Mark 2:28  "Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath."

Obey man? OR obey God?  Who can save you, man?  NO! Man can't even save himself! Thus not YOU either.

.....>; God longs so much, to have a specail relationship with Him, that when we turned against Him, He gave His Son to die for us, to save us from our own sins. [John 3:15-16]. He made this great sacrifice just so that He could spend time with us, just so that we could love him as He loves us.
   He also is a God of order, but there's ONE DAY e set aside at the very beginning of time as a special celebration of our Creation.. There's just that ONE day, the Holy Sabbath, the day for us to have a corporate special personal relationship with Him. And its high danger to fool with that time!

NOTE(JB) Sabbath in the Hebrew means REST, yet in 80 of earth's 190 languages, plus all the dialects, the 80 has for their name of the day we call Saturday, is THEIR WORD FOR REST!   Pluis:

    Genesis 11:7-9  "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."

QUESTION:  WHO CREATED EARTH"S LANGUAGES?  THINK, use your mind, your intellect, and not your emotions! 
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