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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Eighteen Reasons

Eighteen Reasons, Pt. 1

Eighteen Reasons, Pt. 2


Many businessmen feel that a change will soon be made in our calendar. The item has already appeared on United Nations Committee agendas. The suggested world calendar would hopelessly confuse our present weekly cycle. I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about lost time. Hello this is Joe Cruz in the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, 1 of the most frequent questions raised about the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath concerns the authenticity of our present calendar. It's believed by many that somehow, somewhere, time has probably been lost in the centuries since calendars were first invented. This does raise an interesting issue, friends, and 1 that should be explored thoroughly. If the days of the week have been confused and the weekly cycle changed, then it would be impossible to discover the true seventh-day Sabbath as the 1 specified by the 10 Commandments. So in today's broadcast we'll just answer questions that have been raised by those who seek to discredit the observance of a certain day of the week for the Sabbath.

In particular, I'll consider actual objections that have been made to the keeping of Saturday, the seventh day of the week, on our present calendar. There's more than just a passing interest in this, friends, since there is presently a world opinion move to seek a complete change in the calendar. But does this move reflect upon the accuracy of our calendar? Has time possibly been lost or confused in the recording of days, weeks, and years? Let's briefly examine the origin of our Gregorian calendar.

You see, the calendar was first invented, at least the 1 upon which our present calendar has been based. It was started by Julius Caesar before Christ was born even. This calendar was made up of 365 1⁄4 days. In other words, this was giving room for the leap year that comes every fourth year. But now listen, actually, instead of being exactly 365 1⁄4 days in length, that year was approximately 11 minutes less than that.

In other words, it was 11 minutes less than 365 and a fourth days. So in the course of a few centuries, the calendar was not in harmony with the solar system. Now that may not seem like very much time, just 11 minutes in a year, but over a period of hundreds of years, it would accumulate in the calendar and in the numbering of the calendar, and throw it out of harmony with the stars and the heavenly bodies. By 1582, the numbering of the calendar was out of harmony by 10 days with the heavenly bodies. So Pope Gregory XIII adjusted this condition by calling October 5th the 15th.

Now let's try to imagine a calendar for a moment, and it's Thursday, October 4, 1582. The next day, of course, should be Friday, October 5, but instead of making Friday the 5th, it was called the 15th instead, so 10 days were simply dropped out of the numbering of the calendar. Great Britain made this adjustment in 1752, and it was necessary to retrench 11 days at that time, making September the 3rd, September 14th. Now under the present plan, we retrench a day once every 129 years. But now, friends, notice that the weekly cycle is not affected by the change that was made.

It was only in the numbering of the calendar. Friday still followed Thursday, Saturday still followed Friday, and the weekly cycle remained historically as it always was. There's never been a change, in fact, to affect the order of the days of the week or the weekly cycle itself. Well, somebody says, time has been lost surely in these countless generations. But friends, can we be sure of that?

How do we know that the real seventh-day Sabbath of today on our calendar is the very same 1, for example, that Jesus kept, and the very same 1 that was sanctified at the time of creation? A great many have wondered about this. No, no, friends, time has not been lost and we can be sure of the right Sabbath of the day. Now, follow closely and let's prove this point. The Bible says that in the beginning God made everything in 6 days and rested the seventh day.

There we have the origin of the week. God made the weekly cycle, and woe to the person who tampers with anything God made! After 2000 years roll by, we come to the time when God is leading His people from Egypt to the Promised Land. During their sojourn in the wilderness for 40 years, God poured out manna, or bread, from heaven every day of the week except the Sabbath. Now surely God knew which day was the Sabbath then, and it was the very point that He tested the people on.

There's no chance of a day or any time being lost down that far because God Himself was handling the situation. Then at Mount Sinai, God wrote the 10 Commandments on tables of stone for the children of Israel and He said, remember the Sabbath day, the seventh day is the Sabbath, For in 6 days the Lord made heaven the earth, and wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and holiday." All right, another 2, 000 years roll by, and the Son of God is born into this world. Now friends, surely He would know which day is the true Sabbath, and whether any days had been lost or added. And in Luke 4, 16 we read that he kept the Sabbath as his custom was. So friends, no time has been lost thus far.

Even Joshua, commanding the sons to stand still, could not confuse the Son of God as to which day the true Sabbath was. Anyway, God blessed the seventh day and not just the seventh part of time. Some people say, well, He just blessed 1 day in 7. If we keep that, it's quite sufficient and acceptable. But no, that's not the way the Bible reads, friends, and dare we change or modify any part of God's Holy Scripture.

It says the seventh day is the Sabbath. The calendar that's used today is the same as the 1 that was used in Christ's day, except that 1 slight change we mentioned a moment ago which did not affect the weekly cycle at all. And what is more, how could the whole world lose or gain a day when it's impossible for even 1 family to get confused without their neighbor soon setting them straight. The Jewish race is the most powerful evidence that the Sabbath has never been lost. They've been observing every seventh day from the time of Abraham.

How could a whole nation lose track of counting time? It would be impossible unless the whole nation just slept over an extra 24 hours and then nobody ever put them straight about it afterward. But of course that would never happen. That's impossible. Now just in case you still have a question, Let me read you some statements from the great astronomers of the world.

First of all, from Edward Larkin, who is the director of the Mount Low Observatory, and here's what he said in answer to a letter. Astronomy... Astronomers dare not depend upon any human device nor human chronologies, save as they are attested by the movements of the time pieces in the sky. Our days, weeks, and years only exist as unit measurements in computing the unerring revolutions of the heavenly orbs. Lost or changed time would be instantly detected by the modern astronomer." So you see, friends, no time could ever be lost.

If it were, these men would know about it, they would tell us. But on the contrary, they tell us it has never been lost. Here's a statement from the New Astronomy, a book by Dr. Todd. He says, the uniformity of the Earth's rotation has been critically investigated by Newcomb and no change in the length of the day as great as 1 one-thousandth of a second in 1000 years could escape detection.

For more than 3, 000 years, science has gone backward and with profound research reveals the fact that in that vast period the length of the day has not changed by the hundredth part of a single second of time. Well, that's pretty conclusive too, friends, isn't it? And now a statement by W. W. Campbell, director of Lick Observatory in Mount Havilland, California.

The week of 7 days has been in use ever since the days of the mosaic dispensation, and we have no reason for supposing that any irregularities have existed in the succession of the weeks and their present days from that time to the present. Well, I think that's quite sufficient to show that there can be no astronomical loss of time, none whatsoever. All right, we'll move on to another objection that's sometimes raised. Somebody says the law was fulfilled by Christ and we don't have to keep it anymore. Oh, how many people have been deceived by this argument.

They think Christ kept the law and that ended it for them. They don't have to worry about it at all. And many a sincere person has accepted that kind of reasoning. Now let me ask you a question. What kind of person would want to do away with a law that's holy, spiritual, perfect, righteous, truthful, and unchangeable?

All these words are used in the Bible to describe the 10 Commandments. And who would want to live in a country where there is no law? In Matthew 5, 17, Jesus said, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Now what does it mean, fulfill?

Some folks think that means to bring it to an end. But notice Matthew 3, 15, And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Now there is the same word even in the original, the word fulfill. What does it mean, fulfill all righteousness? Well that means to obey or fill it up with obedience, That's what it means.

It doesn't mean to bring to an end at all. You'll find that Jesus put emphasis on the idea that the law could never be changed or destroyed. In fact, he said, whosoever would think of breaking even the least of these commandments and would teach others to do so would be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Now we ought to examine 1 more argument that's often used, and that is that we only have 2 commandments to go by Now, love to God and love to man. This reason is often given for not keeping the Sabbath.

A minister once said that Jesus did away with the 10 Commandments and gave us only 2. But let's look at Matthew 10, 26. Jesus said that the first and great commandment is to love God with all thy heart, soul, and mind, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now verse 40, on these 2 commandments hang all the law and the prophets. In other words, the 10 Commandments hang on these 2 great principles, love to God and love to man.

It says they're all hanging there, friends. That means a Sabbath commandment must be hanging there among them. And really, if we love God with all our heart, soul and mind, we'll surely want to keep the first 4 of the 10 Commandments, because they have to do with our relationship to God. And if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we'll want to keep the last 6 as the standard of a Christian, because it relates to our duty to our neighbor. Remember what Jesus said, the first and great commandment is to love God.

If a person loves Jesus, he'll want to worship Him. That's why the Sabbath was given. That's why it's so very important for us to remember it and to keep it holy. Oh, friends, the Sabbath is a great, wonderful gift from heaven to us, so that we might remember the fact that God made us. He created all of this world in 6 days, including man on the sixth day.

It verifies week by week the story of creation is found in the Bible. The Sabbath is written into the very heart of the 10 Commandments by the very finger of God Himself. And that law can't be changed, it can't be erased. No words of that 10 Commandment could ever fade out or disappear, friends, because they were inscribed there by the very finger of God, the only part of the Bible that was written by the finger of God, so that there could never be any doubt or question as to whether it was valid or not, or whether it was eternal or not. So we have a summary then of the 10 Commandments in those 2 love commandments of Jesus.

Love God with all your heart, love your neighbors yourself, and if you do these 2 things, you will surely fulfill all of the 10 Commandments. You

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