RESPONSE TO ASSERTION #7 of “Metaphorical Mephisto”
The following is an extract from the article “Metaphorical Mephisto” (http://www.nabion.org/html/metaphorical_mephisto.html) that is critiquing the Biblical Calendar as well as other doctrines espoused by Harold Camping, General Manager and CEO of Family Radio, a Christian radio ministry:
Another good example of this can be found in the extent that Camping took to applying an actual date to Christ’s baptism. He says it was on September 28, 29 AD, in order to make it fit a Jewish feast day, the Feast of Trumpets, a sign of proclaiming the gospel and the coming of the Lord— a parallel to the rapture that would take place sometime between September 6 through 28, 1994.
The gospels are clear, however, that the first feast Jesus went to after being baptized, after being in the desert 40 days, then after choosing his disciples, was Passover. This feast is in the spring of each year; that first Passover where his disciples tell him that the temple was 46 years in the building (26 or 27 AD). Camping uses September 28 and the 1335 days of Daniel 12 laboriously to calculated Christ’s ministry to the day from September 28 (29 AD, of all things) and pin the crucifixion to 33 AD. Yet he forgets that the Feast of Tabernacles falls in October, one of the most important feasts, one which John 7 says Jesus attended. If Christ was baptized on September 28 and then being in the wilderness 40 days thereafter, he totally missed the feast.
It must also be injected here before continuing that Camping must be one of the few men remaining who believe that Christ was crucified in 33 AD. It is universally accepted today that Christ was crucified in 30 AD, and there is much information confirming this, including the gospels. Moreover, it is known that Herod the Great died in 4 BC, and yet we know this was soon after Christ’s birth. 4 BC + 26 AD equals 30, the age that the gospel of Luke says Jesus was about. These years, however, tie into no significant time spans in Camping’s calendar. This must be the reason he rejects them.
The assertion made above is:
Jesus’
baptism could not have been on Ethanim 1 (Feast of
Trumpets) because He was in the wilderness for forty days following His baptism
which means He would have spent the Feast of Tabernacles falling 15 days later
than Feast of Trumpets in the wilderness and not in Jerusalem as God had
earlier commanded all Jewish males to come to Jerusalem and keep the feast.
Also, the baptism of Jesus was not 29AD but two to three years earlier which
would bring the cross forward to 30AD and not 33 AD.
Commencement of Response:
Firstly, we will deal with the so-called 1335 days of Jesus’ ministry starting from His baptism to Pentecost as espoused by Mr. Camping. A study has already been completed on this matter when the same error discovered in Mr. Camping’s work was discovered in early September 2007 and caused great consternation in the Family Radio (FR) circles when the study was revealed. Of course, the study was not accepted by the FR chorus but they could not refute by Biblical means any portion of the study. So, it is very providential that seven months later we are being confronted with the same evidence of Mr. Camping’s error via this independent source—“Metaphorical Mephisto”. The study that was done in early September 2007 is titled “The 1335 Days of Jesus’ earthly ministry from baptism to Pentecost?”
And its
findings are that Jesus was baptized probably early in Summer
of 29 AD and definitely not on Feast of Trumpets as claimed by Mr. Camping.
However, the last 1335 days of His earthly ministry did commence on Ethanim 1, 29 AD (Feast of Trumpets) and really is a
foreshadow of the final 1335 days as declared in Daniel 12:12 which we
currently believe started on the first day of Feast of Tabernacles, September
26th 2007 as depicted in the study “Daniel
12-Spiritual implications for us today”.
The context of Daniel 12 dictates that the 1335 days must
fall at the second coming in its ultimate fulfillment!
So, we affirm that Christ was not baptized on Feast of Trumpets
in 29AD.
Next, we will look at the claim in the assertion that Jesus
was crucified in 30 AD and not 33 AD. We know of a surety that Jesus was
crucified on a Friday as that was the day of preparation for the Saturday
Sabbath that would commence that same Friday evening:
Mark
15: 37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave
up the ghost.
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the
bottom.
39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so
cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary
Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses,
and Salome;
41 (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered
unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto
42
¶ And now when the even was
come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,
43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also
waited for the
44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already
dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had
been any while dead.
45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to
Joseph.
46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the
linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out
of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.
47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses
beheld where he was laid.
Joh 19:31
The Jews therefore, because
it was the preparation,
that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath
day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their
legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
Now upon examination of the moon phases for all the years
from 27 AD and 35 AD from NASA moon phases,
the only one that the Passover fell on a Friday was 33 AD on April 3, (Julian
dating, April 1 by Gregorian dating):
Year New Moon First Quarter Full Moon Last Quarter Delta T
