Have a look at the Lords' Witnesses Calendar of Holy Conventions in Excel Format A4 Size
The LWs spent 1260 days of Revelation 12 in the wilderness away from the face of the serpent from 1995Adar (the disfellowshipping of Gordon) to 1999Elul when Gordon got on his horse and started riding as the first horseman of the Apocalypse, having fed the Watchtower exclusively for 7 years from 1992Elul. For John Wayne said to his son: Either you get on a horse or you get out of the movie business, whereas Jesus (the antetypical Jacob), said to his son, Gordon, (the antetypical Joseph, the present bible dream decoder), through an understanding of Revelation 6:2 deduced in the Canary Islands in 1999Elul: Pick up your bow, put on your crown, saddle up and start conquering (paraphrasing the verse). Now when the Wilderness ends, then the Promised land begins. But the LWs first advertised www.bibledecoded.com by fax on 2000 January 25, 1999Shebat14 (the site was uploaded a few days earlier. Before then we had only made our interpretations available to the Watchtower). So 1999Shebat was the first month when the LW promised land was open for business. So 7th month of the LW Promised land was 2000Ab.
The monthly Sabbath system of the land of the LWs is the word symbolic meaning of Leviticus 25
2 Speak to the sons of Israel [sons
of the JAC], and you must say
to them, 'When you eventually come into the land [the
administration of the true church] that I am giving you, then the
land must observe a sabbath to Jehovah.
3 6 years
[months] you should sow your field [sow
the kingdom message in the world], and
6 years you should prune your vineyard [judge
matters in the congregation], and you must gather her produce [understandings,
wine from the congregation].
4 But in the year,
the 7th, there should occur a sabbath
of complete rest for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. Your field you must not sow, and your vineyard you must not prune.
5 The growth from spilled kernels of your harvest
you must not reap, and the grapes of your unpruned vine you must not gather.
There should occur a year of complete rest for the land.
6 And the sabbath [system] of the land must serve
you people for food [spiritual food], for you and your slave man and your slave girl and your
hired laborer and the settler with you, those who are residing as aliens with
you,
7 and for your domestic animal and for the wild beast that is in your
land. All its produce [understandings]
should serve for eating.
8 And you must count for yourself 7 sabbaths of
years [months], 7 times 7
years [months], and the
days [hours]
of the 7 sabbaths of years must amount to
49 years [months]
for you [there are 17640 days in 49 years and
there are 17640 daylight hours in 49 months].
9 And you must cause the horn of loud tone to sound
in the month [day],
the 7th, on the 10th [hour] to the month
[day]; in the day
[hour] of atonement you people
should cause the horn to sound in all your land.
10 And you must sanctify the year
[month] of the 50th year
[months] and proclaim
liberty in the land to all its inhabitants [LWs
living off the land, living under the administration]. It will become a Jubilee for you,
and you must return each one to his possession and you should return each one to
his family [all disfellowshipped or
disassociated people can be re-instated if they so choose. The Sabbath and Jubilee provisions apply to the entire
congregation].
11 A Jubilee is what the year
of the 50th year will become for
you. You must not sow seed nor reap the land's growth from spilled kernels [a
new understanding from the administration that our harvesting process missed] nor
gather the grapes of its unpruned vines [new
understandings from individual members of the congregation].
12 For it is a Jubilee. It should become something
holy to you. From the field you may eat its produce [which
means that produce is spiritual food].
13 In this year of the Jubilee you should return
each one to his possession (Leviticus 25).
Year (9), Month (2), Day (2). Year=Month, Month=Day, Day=Hour.
The english word Jubilee comes from the latin iubilaeus, which is from the hebrew yohvel, meaning ram's horn.
So the Jubilee release, the Jubilee atonement happens at the 10th hour of the day of Iyyar7, 2008.
The trouble with the word symbolic interpretation of these sorts of accounts is that one has to decide whether the grapes, spilled kernels, produce etc are understandings or Christians. Obviously food/understandings one eats, Christians one does not eat! Our first attempt at this was incorrect (as usual), and our second attempt was not much better. The words 'with seed' in the NWT are not in the Hebrew BHS text and so are omitted from the translation above. The way into the symbolism is to recognise that food is not pruned but congregations are. So the vine is to do with congregation. But the grapes are not Christians as we had first thought, since they are removed from the vine at harvest, not grafted on to it. Each branch is a christian. The grapes on that branch are his understandings. For the word produce, which applies to the vine in verse 3, means edible spiritual food as we see from verse 7.
7 All its produce should serve for eating (Leviticus 25).
Plainly then 'produce' is spiritual food. Furthermore one cannot spill Christians, but one can spill the Kingdom message, for people can overhear it and one can miss new understandings. So the growth from spilled kernels is further understandings that were missed by the administration. With these keys, we can unlock the account. Remember too that Jesus said...
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He that remains in union
with me, and I in union with him, this one bears much fruit; because apart from me
you can do nothing at all.
6 If anyone does not remain in union with me, he is cast out as a
branch and is dried up; and men gather those branches up and pitch them into the fire and they are
burned (John 15).
The symbolism works as follows:
Land is the LW administration (land can stand for administration or for
congregation when there are mountains)
Vineyard is the congregation, since it is pruned, judged by its administration. It contains vines
The vines are brothers in the various sanctification covenants who are water
baptised (since we prune them).
Each branch of a vine is a Christian in the congregation.
The grapes on a branch are new understandings had by that Christian.
The ungathered grapes are ideas from within the congregation that have not yet
been process by the administration.
The Seed is the Kingdom Message given to those outside the congregation in the field
The Field is the world.
Sowing is planting the kingdom message in the consciousness of mankind. These may grow into
further ideas and these may then get planted into further people and if they
germinate and grow again will give rise to more ideas, until the whole bible is
decoded.
Reaping the land's growth from spilled kernels is collecting new and previously
missed understandings from those in the LW administration.
Do not prune means do not consider judicial matters in the congregation
One cannot prune (judicially warn or disfellowship) in a sabbath. But one can
baptise people into the church on a sabbath, contrary to our earlier
understandings. Jesus cured many people on the sabbath, and each miracle was a
1AC baptism as well. After all a sabbath is a release to Jehovah.
5 And he said to them: Who of you, if his son or bull falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day? (Luke 14)
Falling into a well and being pulled out would constitute a water baptism!
10 and, look! a man with a withered hand! So they asked him,
Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?" that they might get an accusation against
him.
11 He said to them: Who will be the man among you that has one
sheep and, if this falls into a pit on the sabbath, will not get
hold of it and lift it out?
12 All considered, of how much more worth is a man than a
sheep! So it is lawful to do a fine thing on the sabbath [such
as a baptism of a faithful person].
13 Then he said to the man: Stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored sound
like the other hand (Matthew 12).
So we can baptise people and we can cure any spiritual malaises they may be suffering from on a sabbath. But we cannot sow the kingdom message either in the Sabbath or in the Jubilee.
4 But in the 7th year there should occur a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. Your field you must not sow with seed, and your vineyard you must not prune.
11 A Jubilee is what that 50th year will become for you. You must not sow seed nor reap the land's growth from spilled kernels nor gather the grapes of its unpruned vines.
But in the Jubilee one can listen to and discuss ideas from people in the world:
12 For it is a Jubilee. It should become something holy to you. From the field you may eat its produce.
So both in the Jubilee and in the Sabbath we can act as a spiritual doctor, we can reactively cure interpretational malaises. But we should not proactively evangelise. We should not get involved in bible research discussions with those inside or outside the congregation on the Sabbath. We can however get involved in bible research discussions with those inside and outside the congregation on the Jubilee. To summarise this:
| Function | Sabbath | Jubilee |
| First True Water Baptism | Yes | Yes |
| Re water baptism | Yes | Yes |
| Spirit baptism | Yes | Yes |
| Evangelise, sow the kingdom message in people outside | No | No |
| Consider Judicial matters | No | No |
| Congregation Meetings for teaching of the flock | Yes | Yes |
| Teaching interested ones who chooose to come to congregation meetings | Yes | Yes |
| LWs Submit new interpretations to the LW administration | No | No |
| LW administration considers new interpretations submitted by anyone | No | No |
| LWs discuss do bible research in groups and discuss new interpretations amongst themselves (sowing in the vineyard) | Yes | Yes |
| LWs or the LW administration helps people inside or outside with interpretational malaises or distress | Yes | Yes |
| LWs do their own personal bible research seeking new interpretations or with any other intention, but not recording them in anyway. | Yes | Yes |
| LWs write down or record in any way new bible interpretations. | Only priests in the temple can write new ideas down and show it only within the temple/the church. | We can also accept new understandings from outside the church. |
| LWs read the bible for general guidance from God | Yes | Yes |
The LW administration should act and be treated just like an individual LW except that it has a rest during the Jubilee which individual LWs do not have. For we should not be hypocrites and the LW administration should aim to act like Jesus Christ himself would act, as should every LW.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He that remains in union
with me, and I in union with him, this one bears much fruit; because apart from me
you can do nothing at all.
6 If anyone does not remain in union with me, he is cast out as a
branch and is dried up; and men gather those branches up and pitch them into the fire and they are
burned (John 15).
In the Jubilee you can eat what the field produces, because such food is not the growth from spilled Kernels, because you did not harvest in the previous year, so you did not spill any Kernels then. It is actually the growth from seed produced by the grain that grew from the spilled Kernels of your harvest two years ago.
In a monthly sabbath there is no pro active field service. However if someone approaches us and asks for help then we can teach them, they become honourary members of the congregation and we can sow in the vineyard during the sabath and the Jubilee. Alternatively they are sheep who recognise that they are in a pit and ask for help. It is not wrong to do a good deed on a sabbath as Jesus said.
Personal bible research is ok in a Sabbath so long as the results, if new, are not recorded/harvested. But the administration of the LW has complete rest and closes down basically. There should be internal bible discussion groups, internal joint research, informal bible research meetings. The sabbath is a time of spiritual regneration, it is not a fast. It is a time a internal LW planning and stregizing. We should not send out books, we should not update the website, but the website need not be taken down, it is merely an electronic book.The sabbath is a time of no research work and no evangelical work and instead consolidation, revision and family gatherings for teaching. It is a group huddle.
Here is the Sabbath timetable:
Given that the system started on or a few days before 1999Shebat14, Shebat 1999 was the first month of feeding. So the timetable would look like this:
2000Ab
2000Adar
2001Tishri
2002Iyyar
2002Chislev
2003Tammuz
2003Shebat
2003Adar (Jubilee)
2004Tishri
2005Iyyar
2005Chislev
2006Tammuz
2006Shebat
2007Elul
2008Nisan
2008Iyyar (Jubilee)
This second attempt at the timetable is correct, because the Jews started eating the fruit of the land the minute they got there, ending the Exedenic Times on 1473Nisan15.
Thanks to Bill and Sylvia on the forum for their food on this one!!!
23 Tomorrow there will be a sabbath observance of a holy sabbath to
Jehovah. What you can bake, bake, and what you can boil, boil, and all the surplus that there is save it up for
you as something to be kept until the morning.
24 Accordingly they saved it up until the morning, just as Moses
had commanded; and it did not stink nor did maggots develop in it.
25 Then Moses said: Eat it today, because today is a
sabbath to Jehovah. Today you will not find it in the field.
26 6 days you will pick it up, but on the 7th day is a
sabbath. On it none will form.
27 However, it came about on the 7th day that some of the
people did go out to pick [it] up, but they found none.
28 Consequently Jehovah said to Moses: How long must you people
refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? (Exodus 16).
10 But the 7th day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You must
not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter, your slave man nor your slave girl nor your domestic animal nor your alien resident
who is inside your gates.
11 For in 6 days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea
and everything that is in them, and he proceeded to rest on the 7th day. That is why Jehovah blessed the sabbath day and
proceeded to make it sacred (Exodus 20).
On a monthly land sabbath we do not teach (tending the crops) we do not record research (reap understandings), we do not evangelise (sowing understandings), we do not do church administration, but we do baptise and help people who are in trouble.
On a weekly sabbath we cannot pick up manna, so we cannot harvest research ideas. Also we cannot bake or boil manna, so we cannot prepare new food for people, we cannot update the site. But we can teach as Jesus did on the sabbaths, giving manna prepared earlier to people.
10 But he was teaching in one of the synagogues [partitive genitive] in the sabbaths (Luke 13).
We can also evangelise. So a weekly sabbath is a research recording holiday, no harvesting, no cooking. But it is also a rest from secular works as we see from Exodus 20 above.
1
And Jehovah went on speaking to Moses, saying:
2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you
must say to them, 'The seasonal festivals of Jehovah that you should proclaim
are holy conventions. These are my seasonal festivals:
3 'Six days may work be done, but on-the-day,
the 7th is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy
convention. You may do no sort of work. It is a sabbath to Jehovah in
all places where you dwell.
4 'These are [the]
seasonal festivals of Jehovah, [the] holy conventions,
which you should proclaim at their appointed times:
5 In-the-month, the first, on the 14th day
of the month, between the 2 evenings is the passover to Jehovah.
6 'And on the 15th day of this month is
the festival of unfermented-cakes to Jehovah. 7 days you should eat unfermented-cakes.
7 On-the-day, the first, you will have a
holy convention occur. No sort of work of labour may you do.
8 But you must present an offering made by
fire to Jehovah 7 days. On the 7th day there will be a holy convention. No sort
of work of labour may you do.
9
And Jehovah continued to speak to Moses, saying:
10 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you
must say to them, 'When you eventually come into the land that I am giving you,
and you have reaped its harvest, you must also bring a sheaf of the firstfruits
of your harvest to the priest.
11 And he must wave the sheaf to and fro
before Jehovah to gain approval for you. Directly the day after the [first]
sabbath the priest should wave it to and fro.
12 And on the day of your having the sheaf
waved to and fro you must render up an unblemished lamb [#bk],
son of year of him, for a burnt offering to Jehovah;
13 and as its grain-offering 2 10ths of an
ephah of fine flour moistened with oil, as an offering made by fire to Jehovah,
a restful odor; and as its drink offering a 4th of a hin of wine.
14 And you must eat no bread [mxl]
and roasted-grain [thing roasted]
and new-grain [meaning eat nothing made out of new
grain until you have offered it to Jehovah] until this
very day, until your bringing the offering of your God. It is a statute to time
indefinite for your generations in all places where you dwell.
15 'And you must count for yourselves from
the day after the sabbath, from the day of your bringing the sheaf of the wave
offering, 7 sabbaths. They should prove to be complete.
16 To the day after of the
sabbath, the 7th, you should count, 50 days, and you must present a
new grain-offering to Jehovah.
17 Out of your dwelling places you should
bring loaves [mxl], 2, as a wave offering. Of 2
10ths of an ephah of fine flour they should prove to be. They should be baked
leavened, as first ripe fruits to Jehovah.
18 And you must present along with the
loaves [mxl], 7 of unblemished male lambs [#bk],
sons of a year, and a bull, a son of
the herd, one? [like tiV],
and rams [mly)],
2. They should serve as a burnt offering to Jehovah along with their grain-offering
and their drink offerings as an offering made by fire, of a restful odor to
Jehovah.
19 And you must render up kid
of the goats, one? as a sin offering and 2 of male lambs [#bk],
sons of year, as a communion sacrifice.
20 And the priest must wave them to and
fro along with the loaves [mxl] of the first ripe
fruits, as a wave offering before Jehovah, along with the 2 of male lambs [#bk].
They should serve as something holy to Jehovah for the priest.
21 And you must make a proclamation on
this very day; there will be a holy convention for yourselves. No sort of work
of labour may you do. It is a statute to time indefinite in all your dwelling
places for your generations.
22 'And when you people reap the harvest
of your land, you must not do completely the edge of your field when you are
reaping, and the gleaning of your harvest you must not pick up. You should leave
them for the afflicted one and the alien resident [leave
some faithful ones behind outside the congregation to help people in the world].
I am Jehovah your God.'
23
And Jehovah went on speaking to Moses, saying:
24 Speak to the sons of Israel, saying,
'In-the-month, the 7th, on the first of the month, there should occur for you a
complete rest, a memorial by the trumpet blast, a holy convention.
25 No sort of work of labour may you do,
and you must present an offering made by fire to Jehovah.'
26 And Jehovah spoke further to Moses,
saying:
27 However, on the 10th of this 7th month
is the day of atonement. A holy convention should take place for you, and you
must afflict/deny your souls and present an offering made by fire to Jehovah.
28 And you must do no sort of work on this
very day, because it is a day of atonement to make atonement for you before
Jehovah your God;
29 because every soul that will not be
afflicted on this very day must be cut off from his people.
30 As for any soul that will do any sort
of work on this very day, I must destroy that soul from among his people.
31 you must do no sort of work. It is a
statute to time indefinite for your generations in all places where you dwell.
32 It is a sabbath of complete rest for
you, and you must afflict your souls on the 9th of the month in the evening.
From evening to evening you should observe your sabbath.
33
And Jehovah continued to speak to Moses, saying:
34 Speak to the sons of Israel, saying,
'On the 15th day of this 7th month is the festival of booths for 7 days to
Jehovah.
35 On the first day is a holy convention.
No sort of laborious work may you do.
36 7 days you should present an offering
made by fire to Jehovah. On-the-day, the 8th, there should occur a holy
convention for you, and you must present an offering made by fire to Jehovah. It
is a solemn assembly. No sort of work of labour may you do.
37 'These are the seasonal festivals of
Jehovah that you should proclaim as holy conventions, for presenting an offering
made by fire to Jehovah: the burnt offering and the grain-offering of the
sacrifice and the drink offerings according to the daily schedule,
38 besides the sabbaths of Jehovah and
besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your
voluntary offerings, which you should give to Jehovah.
39 However, on the 15th day of the 7th
month, when you have gathered the produce of the land, you should celebrate the
festival of Jehovah 7 days. On-the-day, the first, is a complete rest and on the
day, the 8th, is a complete rest.
40 And you must take for yourselves on the
first day the fruit of splendid trees, the fronds of palm trees and the boughs
of branchy trees and of poplars of the torrent valley, and you must rejoice
before Jehovah your God 7 days.
41 And you must celebrate it as a festival
to Jehovah, 7 days in the year. As a statute to time indefinite during your
generations, you should celebrate it in-the-month, the 7th.
42 It is in the booths you should dwell 7
days. All the natives in Israel should dwell in the booths,
43 in order that your generations may know
that it was in the booths that I made the sons of Israel to dwell when I was
bringing them from the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.'
44 Accordingly Moses spoke of the seasonal festivals of Jehovah to the sons of Israel (Leviticus 23).
Bread/Loaves (4), Work (1), Booths (3), Unfermented-cakes (1), Grain-offering (3), Drink-offering (3), Roasted-Grain (1), New-Grain (1), Month (0/3), Priest (4), Lamb (4), Bull (1), Goats (0) Ram (1), Land (1/2), Offering-made-by-fire (8). ('in' and 'from' inseperable prepositions?)
This account has 4 threads. The 3 word symbolic threads must aply to FDS1,2,4. These sabbaths and festivals have greater fulfilments in 3 of the 4 true Christian churches.
Rams [mly)]
also means Princes/Chiefs
Kid of the goats also means Hairy one of the goats
Complete rest = no sort of work = secular and sacred
sabbath
no sort of work of labour = secular sabbath only
Afflicting/denying your soul = no food, no sex, no attending to your
body at all for 24 hours (no jacuzzi, no slap up meal!) This
is not supposed to be harsh. It is supposed to be a token. If you need to take
medication obviously please take it. Young persons will fast or not according to
the will of their parents. Jesus was actually baptised in water on
29Tishri10. So you can wash in water for cleanliness purposes. But do not
luxuriate in a bubble bath etc. Washing should be purely functional.
Tishri10 is the only sabbath that is policed. If it is not obeyed then the result is Disfellowshipping (if the brother or sister knew the rules and deliberately did not obey them).
Atonement day is a literal 24 hour day fast. Please end the fast on the minute you started it the previous day. That will be fine. It is an affliction of the soul but not an affliction of the spirit. In fact it represents the victory of the spirit over the soul. So you can play music, watch films etc and entertain the spirit and be happy. But you must ignore all of your fleshly desires! Forget the soul - Go spirit!
A secular sabbath means no paid labour. You cannot work for money on that day. You can do odd jobs around the house. But if you run a business or are self employed you should not work on the sabbath at all for that business. If you own a business, you should close the business at Sundown on Friday ideally. But we do not want to be Pharisaical about this. The sabbath is supposed to be a breath of fresh air from God to support you, not another burden from Satan upon you. So we will not police secular sabbath adherence. If you forget the whole thing or work for the first few hours of it this will not be an issue. But God is recommending that you take a break, please bear that in mind!
We must eat no new non salvation teachings and put no new non salvation food on the website from Nisan1 until Nisan16 from Leviticus 23:14.
We must eat nothing leavened (either cake or bread or scone) and we must eat some unleavened cakes every day from from Nisan15 to Nisan21. This is literal.
How does one offer up a lamb? The lamb offers a sacrifice of the lips, not a baptism which is a private affair.
8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.
9 Do not be carried away with various and
strange teachings; for it is fine for the heart to be given firmness by
undeserved kindness, not by eatables, by which those who occupy themselves with
them have not been benefited.
10 We have an altar from which those who
do sacred service at the tent have no authority to eat.
11 For the bodies of those animals whose
blood is taken into the holy place by the high priest for sin are burned up
outside the camp.
12 Hence Jesus also, that he might
sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.
13 Let us, then, go forth to him
outside the camp, bearing the reproach he bore,
14 for we do not have here a city that
continues, but we are earnestly seeking the one to come.
15 Through him let us always offer to God
a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips which make
public declaration to his name.
16
Moreover, do not forget the doing of good and the sharing of things with others,
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased (Hebrews 13)
The city that does not continue is any true church, they are all temporary. Going outside the camp is leaving one true church for another.
A grain offering might be non salvation related understandings and a drink offering would be salvation related understandings (since water keeps the body and spirit alive and food builds up the body). The one bringing these does not have to have worked them out for himself. He merely presents them in a talk to the congregation.
And offering made by fire consists of the burnt animal, the grain and the drink. Fire consumes completely. And fire pictures acceptance by God. So an offering made by fire is an person who offers to serve God with his whole soul, i.e. stop working for Satan, i.e. full time work for God. Really the offering by fire is a commitment to work full time for Jesus. The church obviously has to be able to sustain such a commitment financially/physically. Such a person can have business investments, but he cannot do a full time or a part time job for the world. To exit this commitment one must leave the church, or the church must admit that it can no longer physically sustain the offering or a monthly sabbath ends it.
A communion sacrifice is taking a position serving the congregation as a ministerial servant or elder etc. You are serving God by serving the congregation.
A sin offering is merely confessing your sin to the elders. Then your life, your blood can remain in the church even though your body may in fact be thrown out depending upon the sin. Dealing with sin in this way is a good thing. It is to be celebrated. The sinner who confesses and is prepared to face the justice of the congregation is saving himself through his faith in that justice, which is faith in God's justice. If you turn up with a DF sin. You admit and repent in front of the congregation (by which we mean the elders). Then you are rebaptised in advance effective 7 months in the future or at the next Jubilee...
23
Then they brought the male goats of the sin offering near before the king and
the congregation and laid their hands upon them.
24 The priests now slaughtered them and
made a sin offering with their blood upon the altar, to make atonement for all
Israel; because it was for all Israel that the king said the burnt offering and
the sin offering [should be] (2 Chronicles 29).
So you leave unclean in the flesh but with a promise that in 7 months time you are cleansed and re-admitted period. 7 months later you become an LW again, no questions asked, nothing for you or the congregation to do. If you committed a DF before you became an LW which defiled your conscience. Then you can admit that as a sin offering and get batpised in which case your sin is forgiven without a 7 month exit period.