In the 1930's the SDA Church was challenged as to the validity of the October 22, 1844 date for the Day of Atonement, so the SDA Church at that time set up a committee to study the matter out. This committee was composed of serious Bible students who studied this matter out for an entire year. During this year they reconstructed the reasoning/rationale/proofs that the SDA Church pioneers went through in 1843 and 1844 to determine the correct date for the Day of Atonement in 1844, since they believed the Second Coming was going to occur on this date. Coming up with the correct date was very serious business for them because of their belief. These articles show that our church pioneers determined that it was the barley in Israel, and not the equinox, that follows the Bible for determining the correct dates for the yearly feasts. These six articles go through, in great depth, how our pioneers came up with the dates for the feasts in 1844. Part II and Part VI are the sections that especially deal with the barley vs. equinox controversy. The committee in the 1930's determined that among our church pioneers in the 1844 movement were some very highly educated people who knew a lot about astronomy, such as Joseph Bates, and that they were correct. One of the committee members was Elder Andreasen. Elder Andreasen wrote a letter in which he stated that the ending of the 2300 day prophecy in Daniel chapter 8 had to occur on the same timing that it began. In other words, the 2300 day prophecy began with the sighting of the new moon and the barley in Israel and therefore had to end with the same timing--the sighting of the new moon and the barley in Israel. This makes absolute sense. The prophecy has to end on the same timing as it began. Therefore, since the 2300 day prophecy ended in 1844, this shows that well after the cross, God Himself is going by the timing of the new moon and the barley in Israel for the computation of the feasts. Andreasen further states that their committee concluded that when God invented the timing to calculate the feasts, that God intended for this calculation to be done according to one point on the globe--and that was Israel. That's because if you go by the barley and new moon in whatever point you are on the globe, you will come up with different timing from Israel. God intends for His people to all be on the same date and the only way to do this is to go by the timing on one point on the globe--and God picked Israel as this point. The proof is that the 2300 day prophecy began with the timing of the Day of Atonement in Israel and it ended on that same timing. So that you can read this for yourself, we included Andreasen's letter, in both its original form and its typed form. Dear friends, this controversy over whether we use the barley or the equinox was settled a long time ago--by our church pioneers. We would do well to heed their work. Study these articles out for yourselves and see the truth. Here they are.
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