Oh Noes!!!!! Don't You Just Hate When This Happens!

It has been a sad day in Israel, as no ripe barley was found.  Thanks to that misfortune, another month has been added to the calendar!  Don't you just hate it when that happens!

7 Mar:  The New Moon was not seen this evening at Jerusalem, therefore the first day of the 13th biblical month will begin at sunset on Friday. 

No Aviv barley was found near Jerusalem or anywhere else in Israel.  Therefore an intercalary thirteenth month will be added at the next visible new moon [tomorrow evening], and the first month of the new year will begin in April. 

Lest you think this silliness cannot get any worse, read the following legalistic nonsense:

7 Mar: Except for a report by Brian Convery of isolated patches of barley mixed with a high concentration of oats south of S’derot by Gaza [which are not Aviv anyway since this is barley plants mixed with standing oats, and is also not acceptable due to their location so far from Jerusalem]; NO Aviv was found anywhere near Jerusalem at this time.    

The difference between Brian and the Karaites is that the Karaites [the ancient scribes] standard, is that the barley harvest must be Aviv by the end of the 12th month; while Brian’s standard is that he can forecast the harvest to be Aviv by the Wave Sheaf day.   

I cannot accept the position that the Aviv can be forecast without any error two weeks before the fact, because it relies on human judgment rather than an actual observation.  What if it is forecast with the best of intentions and information, and there is an unexpected weather issue and the barley is not Aviv by Wave Sheaf day?   

This explains the 12th month or offering day issue between them; but still does not meet the command for all persons to be present at Jerusalem for Passover and the Feast, which necessitates the cutting of the sheaf immediately outside the temple.  Which  was accepted practice during the temple period and accepted by Christ as the standard.  

What is the command?  To keep the Passover and Feast at Jerusalem!What does the Wave Sheaf mean?  It is symbolic of the resurrection of Christ!   

Where was Christ resurrected from?  A tomb immediately outside the walls of Jerusalem!  

Where was the Sheaf cut, throughout the temple period?  Just outside the walls of Jerusalem! 

To cut it anywhere else is to break God’s command,  and obscures the true meaning!  See more below.   

Of course the temple no longer exists and we will not offer sacrifices until Christ comes and builds a new temple, but we should certainly use the temple site as the basis for establishing the new year. 

Because of this fact an intercalary thirteenth month will begin at the next visible new moon [tonight or tomorrow evening], and the first month of the new year will begin in April. This is way too early, placing Trumpets in August,  Brian made the same error  of mistaking a few isolated advanced patches as establishing Aviv in 2016.  

This year his pics showed a little barley mixed with standing oats which is a dead giveaway that the barley is NOT Aviv since the oats will always fall over a week before the barley becomes Aviv.   

Devorah Gordon: no Aviv found anywhere in Israel.  

“We carried out our Aviv Search on March 6, 2019 and concentrated our search in the regions in Israel where the barley first ripens, namely the Jordan Valley and the Northern Negev. The barley in the Jordan Valley was extremely immature, either still in the boot or in the flowering or cotton stages. When we first started our search in the in the Northern Negev we were finding that there too the fields were in the flowering and cotton stages. However as we progressed more South, we found fields that contained a significant amount of barley in the worm and soft dough stages.  

We even found some patches of aviv barley. However, these aviv patches were clearly micro environments and by far not representative of the state of the barley in the fields they were found in. One of the places we found patches of aviv barley was growing on a slightly raised mound, which for whatever reason seems to have caused the barley to develop quicker [James, this is because of better drainage drying the plant and forcing maturation]. The other place we found patches of Aviv barley was on the West side of a Tel, which due to its position and direction was receiving a lot of direct sunlight.  

I want to reiterate that the little Aviv we found, were patches found in micro environments and by far not representative of the state of the barley in the fields they were found in, nor will it significantly affect the harvest yield if these patches are not harvested before their heads break.  

It was the unanimous consensus of the team that they personally will NOT be beginning the new year with the upcoming new moon.“
6 Mar:   Brian Convery seems satisfied with a little barley in the Gaza area and has decided to terminate his search.   

Report from Jerusalem:  The barley at the Temple Mount (just north of the Eastern Gate) is either just coming out of the boot (Zadoks stage 5) or in flowering stage (Zadoks 6). The hulls where the kernels form are still empty. Aviv is Zadok Scale 8 and harvestable barley is Zadok Scale 9.Becca Biderman reports that the barley is not ready anywhere north of S’derot and around Jerusalem the oats were still vibrant green and the barley was mostly in bloom, basically, it was in the same condition as itwas in the north region. There are storks, swallows, doves, figs,leafing grapes, lambs and kids, etc. but the barley is not ready.  

Brian Hoeck reports some fields in the south with patches of Aviv, and others intend to visit those fields tomorrow.  

Unless this changes tomorrow, the barley at Jerusalem is NOT Aviv for a new year and the next new moon will begin an intercalary thirteenth month, and  Passover will be in April. Final Report tomorrow.   

This is the kind of legalistic bullshit that James Malm wants to enforce upon the world.

Kevin Dean Arrested After 7 Years On The Run

After 7 years on the run, Kevin Dean has been arrested.  He was accused in 2012 of child molestation and 12 other accounts and then failed to appear at the court hearing.

COG Pharisees Still Straining At Gnats

It has always been amazing to watch various people from the church who have gone even further off the deep end of legalism to the point they embrace all kinds of silliness instead of following the one who cast off the bondage of all those rules and regulations while setting people free.  In the COG it is always more important to have rules and regulations running every aspect of a persons life than it is to revel in freedom and uncertainty by not having to worry about constantly screwing up.

This is the latest by the Chief Pharisee James Malm.  While he sits in his kitchen cranking out legalistic mumbo jumbo to keep his few followers enslaved,  he relies upon people traipsing all over Israel looking for a perfectly ripe piece of barley. They look in fields, on hillsides, in barnyards and along roadsides as they look for a few growths of wild barley. Meanwhile, Jesus stays abandoned outside the garden gate where Pharisee Malm refuses to let him in.

5 Mar:   2019 New Year Report- With two or three days left until the new moon, Brian Convery reports that he has found sufficient Aviv barley in the Gaza area.  

Since God commanded that every able person appear before him at Jerusalem for the Passover, the barley would necessarily need to be ready for cutting at Jerusalem and I cannot agree with Brian.  

I would add that in the time of Christ in the flesh, there was no way that the sheaf could be cut at sun set in Gaza and then be transported to Jerusalem and prepared in time for the Temple Wave Offering just after the morning sacrifice that same day.

I understand that Brian will be looking elsewhere tomorrow and I will wait for final reports, however all available information is that the barley is not ready in any place outside of the Gaza envelope, not even in Beer Sheva (See this FB Biderman video).

Larry Hardison writes; “We are following 5 search groups of which 4 have reported their findings. Only the Karaite Jews (Devorah Gordon’s group) have not reported as yet.  So far the results have been generally negative, with barley in the flowering stage (Northern Israel), still in “the boot,” just out of “the boot” and in the “milk” stage all which means the barley grain is not mature enough at this time to be considered Aviv.” 

Final reports on March 7

Then he has this mess:

Later the command came  regarding the Wave Offering once they began to cultivate the promised land came into play, and gave us a firm starting point from that time on. 

Originally there were 12 thirty day months in a solar year, this changed later and they had to begin to intercalate to keep the months in line with the solar year. Early civilizations around the world used calendars with months of 30 days and years of 360 days. These calendars functioned well until sometime in the 8th century BC when suddenly it became necessary to change them. Then most civilizations around the world began to modify their calendars to allow for 5 extra days for the year and 6 fewer days for a lunar year of 12 full months; a modern lunar year is 354 days (12 months x 29.5 days).

The number of days in a year change was marked by the second King of Rome, Numa Pompilius, and by his Jewish contemporary, King Hezekiah. Later other civilizations adopted the new 365 day year as well. These events are often linked with the shadow on the sundial going back 10 degrees in the days of Hezekiah around 700-750 BC. 

Contrast the above nonsense to this:

Matthew 11:28-30 English Standard Version (ESV)

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 

That damn Jesus just has to go and ruin everything these fraudulent COG leaders set out to enforce!

This is what Jesus had to say about the unclean pigs like Malm and the others who enslave members:

Jesus Condemns the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law of Moses

(Mark 12.38-40; Luke 11.37-52; 20.45-47)

1Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:

2The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law are experts in the Law of Moses. 3So obey everything they teach you, but don't do as they do. After all, they say one thing and do something else.

4They pile heavy burdens on people's shoulders and won't lift a finger to help. 5 Everything they do is just to show off in front of others. They even make a big show of wearing Scripture verses on their foreheads and arms, and they wear big tassels+ for everyone to see. 6They love the best seats at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues. 7And when they are in the market, they like to have people greet them as their teachers.

8But none of you should be called a teacher. You have only one teacher, and all of you are like brothers and sisters. 9Don't call anyone on earth your father. All of you have the same Father in heaven. 10None of you should be called the leader. The Messiah is your only leader. 11 Whoever is the greatest should be the servant of the others. 12 If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.

13-14You Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses are in for trouble! You're nothing but show-offs. You lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. You won't go in yourselves, and you keep others from going in.+

15You Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses are in for trouble! You're nothing but show-offs. You travel over land and sea to win one follower. And when you have done so, you make that person twice as fit for hell as you are.

16You are in for trouble! You are supposed to lead others, but you are blind. You teach that it doesn't matter if a person swears by the temple. But you say it does matter if someone swears by the gold in the temple. 17You blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

18You also teach that it doesn't matter if a person swears by the altar. But you say it does matter if someone swears by the gift on the altar. 19Are you blind? Which is more important, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20Anyone who swears by the altar also swears by everything on it. 21And anyone who swears by the temple also swears by God, who lives there. 22 To swear by heaven is the same as swearing by God's throne and by the one who sits on that throne.

23 You Pharisees and teachers are show-offs, and you're in for trouble! You give God a tenth of the spices from your garden, such as mint, dill, and cumin. Yet you neglect the more important matters of the Law, such as justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These are the important things you should have done, though you should not have left the others undone either. 24You blind leaders! You strain out a small fly but swallow a camel.

25You Pharisees and teachers are show-offs, and you're in for trouble! You wash the outside of your cups and dishes, while inside there is nothing but greed and selfishness. 26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of a cup, and then the outside will also be clean.

27 You Pharisees and teachers are in for trouble! You're nothing but show-offs. You're like tombs that have been whitewashed.+ On the outside they are beautiful, but inside they are full of bones and filth. 28That's what you are like. Outside you look good, but inside you are evil and only pretend to be good.

29You Pharisees and teachers are nothing but show-offs, and you're in for trouble! You build monuments for the prophets and decorate the tombs of good people. 30And you claim you would not have taken part with your ancestors in killing the prophets. 31But you prove you really are the relatives of the ones who killed the prophets. 32So keep on doing everything they did. 33 You are nothing but snakes and the children of snakes! How can you escape going to hell?

34I will send to you prophets and wise people and experts in the Law of Moses. You will kill them or nail them to a cross or beat them in your synagogues or chase them from town to town. 35 That's why you will be held guilty for the murder of every good person, beginning with the good man Abel. This also includes Barachiah's son Zechariah,+ the man you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36I can promise that you people living today will be punished for all these things!

Jesus Loves Jerusalem

(Luke 13.34,35)

37Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Your people have killed the prophets and have stoned the messengers who were sent to you. I have often wanted to gather your people, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you wouldn't let me. 38 And now your temple will be deserted. 39 You won't see me again until you say,

“Blessed is the one who comes

in the name of the Lord.”