Have you ever encountered the idea that biblical years are 360 days? I have, and I have seen all kinds of End Times calculations based on a 360 day year.

Truthfully, several of the bibles End Times timelines, such as the Great Tribulation, in the book of Revelation, are indeed based on a 360 day year, but does this mean that Israel always used 360 days for a year? If they did then you would occasionally have winter weather in the summer months, and vice-versa.

David, who died at 70 years of age would have only lived 69.04 years by our calendar! Moses would have only lived 118.36, instead of 120 years, and the millennial reign of Christ would only be 986 years!

I had always assumed that the addition of a leap-month in the Hebrew calendar, was a modern innovation, and wouldn’t have an application in End Times calculations. I was wrong.

Look at what the law says about the yearly Hebrew calendar;

And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.Exodus 23:16

And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.Exodus 34:22

Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. Leviticus 23:39 

Think about what is being said here; The harvest festival was always held in the seventh month, at the end of the growing season. If the end of the year occasionally occurred in the winter or spring it would make this festival ludicrous! Harvest was always in the seventh month, which means that their calendar had to follow the solar year!

About the Passover;

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Exodus 12:18

Passover always occurred in the spring.

While the months did follow the lunar 28 day cycle, Israel, from the very beginning had to add the occasional leap-month to keep their years in line with the seasons. Consequently the Hebrew year does indeed match up with our 365-day year, on average, and it always did!

This is why Passover always occurs in the spring. The total time that the Jewish feasts vary from year to year, has only ever been about a month. Their feasts are always in the same season, every year.

Oh, how often we just take for granted the things our “scholars” tell us, and we don’t check into it for ourselves!  Check out what I am saying!

This is why I wrote The Spirit of Prophecy; I want to challenge my readers to check these things out for yourselves. Don’t accept anything your leaders say unless you first compare Scripture with Scripture! Do a thorough search, and never cherry-pick verses to support a favourite doctrine. If all Scripture doesn’t support it, it is wrong, even if it sounds “good”.