My responses will be in green (with some red and blue from time to time) and also [in inserted bracketed statements].

Transcription

1 Here is yet another attack on the Father s Creation Calendar offered by men who should know better, but their pride of opinion prohibits them from being wrong or from accepting correction. Therefore, I offer this as a means of helping the people who may look up to the leader(s) of Yahweh s Restoration Ministry (YRM) as I have no confidence that my rebuttal will make a difference in the thinking of the leader(s) themselves. I do know that I would not want to be these folks come judgment day. I hope they see the error of their ways and repent. Perhaps this rebuttal will assist them on this journey. Once again, I have not yet read a single word of this study against the Lunar Sabbath, and once again I will make a prediction that Yahweh s Restoration Ministry (YRM) will make nary a scratch against the Creation Calendar. So far, no one has ever made a successful claim against the Creation Calendar, but that has not stopped the nay-sayers from trying. Fighting against YHVH always proves to be an effort in futility. What is so shocking is that this futility is passed of with smug contempt as triumph by those in opposition to the true calendar of YHVH. I can only hope at this point that YRM will not slander those who believe the Creation Calendar. It is one thing to go after the doctrines of others. It is yet another thing to go after people. YHVH has a habit of defending not only His laws, but His people as well. My responses will be in green (with some red and blue from time to time) and also [in inserted bracketed statements]. Posted Biblical months are based on the moon, and they begin at the first appearance of the visible crescent new moon. Our word month even derives from the word moon, moon(th). But a surprising doctrine is taking hold among a few contending that the weekly Sabbath is also set by the new moon each month. It teaches that the weekly Sabbath day floats all over the week. 1. I assume that YRM will try to point out that the lunar Sabbath is pagan in origin, yet the observation of the first visible crescent as the beginning of the lunar month that they promote is a pagan observation. 1 Me thinks the pot calleth the kettle black. 1

2 2. The surprising doctrine that is taking hold does not teach that the weekly Sabbath floats all over the week. That is the claim of YRM. The Sabbaths in Scripture are found exclusively on the 8 th, 15 th, 22 nd and 29 th days of each lunar month. This calendar existed LONG before the pagan 7 day planetary week presently employed by the more modern papal Gregorian calendar. In truth, the Roman calendar days float all over the Creation Calendar dates, not the other way around. The question that YRM does not answer and does not want you to ask is which week? Whose week is the Sabbath of Creation found embedded in, the calendar established at Creation or the pagan/papal Gregorian calendar? Answer this question honestly, and you won t need to read the rest of this rebuttal. Once you recover from your utter disbelief at first hearing such a teaching, you entertain the possibility of trying to fit this lunar sabbath notion into Scripture. You quickly realize that no matter how you try to coax it, twist it or force it, establishing the weekly Sabbath by this method is impossible. It does violence both to historical fact and to Yahweh s clear commands. Does it now? It s strange that I could successfully claim (and am about to prove) that this same paragraph would accurately describe satyrday of the Gregorian calendar and the seventh day of all other man-made calendars. Here is how the scheme works: The new moon is considered like a sabbath -- a day of no work. [Not true. Indeed, there are some Creation Calendar observers who observe new moon in this manner, but only the seventh new moon is called a Sabbath in Scripture.] Every month begins with a new moon. The first work day is the second day of the count followed by 5 more work days. That gets you through the 7th day of the month (new moon day plus 6 work days). The 8th day of the month is also the first weekly Sabbath of the month. Six more days of work gets you to the 15th as the next weekly Sabbath. Six more days of work and you come to the 3rd weekly Sabbath on the 22nd. Six more work days gets you to the 29th of the month, which is the last weekly Sabbath in the month. Then comes the next new moon, which is a not a work day but is a sabbath, [Not a Sabbath, this is a false claim by YRM, but the new moon IS a third category of day, it DOES interrupt the weekly cycle, and below the Scriptural evidence will be provided.] but not a weekly Sabbath. Thus the weekly Sabbaths will always land on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of month. Some months will end with the weekly Sabbath on the 29th followed by the new moon Sabbath the next day. More often, months will have an extra day or two between the last Sabbath and the next new moon day. Therefore you often have two or three Sabbaths or non-work days in a row before the new month begins. As stated above, the new moon days are not Sabbaths. There are no commands regarding what is to be done on new moon days other than blowing the trumpets and having a Set-Apart convocation as well has offering certain sacrificial offerings. However, there ARE three distinct categories of day listed in Scripture as the following verses will attest to. The passages below reveal this distinction of days showing the contrast between the work days, which are very different from the worship days and unequal to the new moon. They are not similar in nature. In fact, the new moon days are eliminated from falling during the work week entirely. Behold the Word 2

3 Thus saith the Sovereign YHVH; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened. Ezekiel 46:1, see also verse 3. What happens if new moon falls on a Tuesday (on man s calendar)? Is the gate open or shut? There is no right answer. The solution is that the new moon NEVER falls on a work day because it is NOT a work day. It is a third category of day. The gate is closed on all SIX work days. This passage in Ezekiel is the only one in Scripture that mentions all three types of days in the same passage, but the following passages very clearly imply that the work days are separate from the new moon days and Sabbaths. In context of the passage, it was during a work day that the Shunammite woman s husband asked? Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor Sabbath. II Kings 4:23. Where was this man when he asked his wife this question? Out in his field, working. Future work days will also be observed as separate from the worship days: And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith YHVH. Isaiah 66:23 Which days will we NOT come up to worship YHVH? On any of the 6 work days. When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? Amos 8:5 These wicked retailers were seeking to set out their goods on the appropriate days, the six working days, lamenting that they would not be able to setout their produce on either new moon or Sabbath. As indicated by the above texts, the New Moon is not a weekly Sabbath; a new moon day is a non-commerce day; a commerce day is not a worship day. The Sabbath and new moons are worship days. Do the math you will discover that there are 3 separate categories of days in YHVH s calendar: new moon days, work days and Sabbaths. Since Scripture reveals that these days cannot take place at the same time, do not overlap or share the same space, then we need to rework our understanding of the calendar. Clearly, the Gregorian calendar has not been ordained by YHVH and no true doctrine will lose anything by close examination. As we will show, the new moon is not a day of rest or a sabbath. In addition, the word week derives from a Hebrew word meaning sevened (sheb-u-wah). [<= Agreed] It is connected to a sequence of sevens, not to the new moon and not to more than seven. It begins with day one and ends with the seventh day, not the eighth day. Neither is Sabbath in any way linked etymologically to the word moon. We agree, the new moon days are not Sabbaths, with the exception of the 7 th new moon (Feast of Trumpets). Everything after the first two sentences above is a lie or taken out of context. I will address each sentence separately: YRM wrote above: It [the week] is connected to a sequence of sevens, not to the new moon and not to more than seven. 3

4 This is a partial truth, but a part truth is also partly a lie. Agreed, the week is a sequence of sevens, but where in Scripture does it say that the week is part of an unbroken cycle of seven day weeks? You can read all of Scripture, Old Testament (OT) or Newer Testament (NT) and in every place it says that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. Period. It NEVER says that the Sabbath is every seventh day in succession. EVER. I don t expect you to believe me, I expect you to go look for yourself because you will not (and should not) believe me until you prove it to yourself. And when you discover that what I have said is true, you will understand this partial truth from YRM and the deception behind it. I am willing to give YRM the benefit of the doubt and say for the record that at this point, I believe that this is an unintentional deception. If they continue to hold this position after it has been exposed as fraudulent, then feel free to judge their sincerity as you see fit. YRM wrote above: It [the week] begins with day one and ends with the seventh day, not the eighth day. Totally out of context. We are not so ignorant as to believe that the Sabbath is the eighth day of the week, as is implied above. Shame on YRM for answering the matter before hearing it. Proverbs 18:13. Day one of the month is new moon. It is not numbered as one of the six working days or the weekly Sabbath, which Scripture revealed to you earlier. Which means that the first Sabbath is the 8 th day of the MONTH, not the week. Naturally, it is the seventh day of the week, and is the seventh day of EVERY week, but these sheb-u-wahs fall on the 8 th, 15 th, 22 nd and 29 th days of each month. This accusation actually shows YRM s ignorance of the Creation Calendar and Lunar Sabbaths. YRM concluded above: Neither is Sabbath in any way linked etymologically to the word moon. This is another half truth. The true part is indeed, the words Sabbath and moon are not linked etymologically, but YRM did not look very deeply before coming to this conclusion, thus again showing their ignorance. And by this adjective I do not imply in any way that these are not intelligent men. Ignorance is only a lack of knowledge, which is easily remedied. I shall attempt to allay this ignorance presently. Here is the first and original calendar statement in Scripture And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And Elohim made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. Genesis 1:14-16 The underlying Hebrew word for seasons is mo edim, meaning set feasts or times appointed. Now please note that referring to the calendar, the Psalmist says of YHVH that He [YHVH] appointed the moon for seasons [same Hebrew word, mo edim]: the sun knoweth his going down. Psalm 104:19 4

5 Here the Psalmist nearly quotes part of Genesis 1:14, but specifically points out that the MOON regulates the appointed times of YHVH. And finally, speaking of the weekly Sabbath, YHVH says And YHVH spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of YHVH [same Hebrew word, mo edim], which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. [SAME Hebrew word, mo edim] Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of YHVH in all your dwellings. Leviticus 23:1-3 Please note that the FATHER Himself TWICE calls the weekly Sabbath a mo edim. And as Genesis has shown, the calendar appointments are regulated one of the two great lights and the Psalmist more specifically states that these times appointed are regulated BY THE MOON. Thus the claim by YRM that the word Sabbath is not in any way linked to the moon is utterly without merit. The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge. Elbert Hubbard There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance; that principle is contempt prior to investigation. Herbert Spencer Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do. James Harvey Robinson. Sacred cows make the best hamburger. Mark Twain Falling on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th day of each lunar month initiated by the new moon means the Sabbath would also fall about the time of the new moon, First Quarter, Full Moon, and Last Quarter. Most lunar sabbatarians do not consider the new moon day to be a day of the week, but rather a day of no regular work. The first day of the actual week for them comes on the second day of the lunar month, making the eighth day the first weekly Sabbath and not the seventh as Yahweh commands. We observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath just as YHVH commands, the first one just happens to be the eighth day of the month. If one were to extrapolate the foolishness above out far enough, we could only keep ONE Sabbath a month because there is only ONE seventh day in a 29 or 30 day month. Lunar Sabbatarians observe the 8 th day of the month as the seventh day Sabbath of the first week of the month. Where does YRM get off saying that we observe the 8 th day not the seventh as Yahweh commanded? Has it never occurred to them that they are comparing apples and oranges? We are not observing the 8 th day of the week, or the 15 th day of the week or the 22 nd or 29 th days of the WEEK as the Sabbath. These are days of the MONTH. They just happen to coincide with the seventh days of each of the weeks in a lunar month. 5

6 But dissension exists in the lunarian ranks because some lunar sabbatarians believe that the weekly Sabbath falls on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days of the month. None that I know, and I know plenty, but this is an easy mistake to make. It is also very easily overcome once one understands that Ezekiel 46:1 et al, demands that the new moon is not the first day of the first week of the month. It is the first day of the month, but it is a third category of day, never included in the work week in Scripture. Such details aside, the general thrust of this theory is that just by looking at the moon you are supposed to be able to tell when the weekly Sabbath occurs, always falling on specific lunar phases. That is the main point for this doctrine--to produce a heavenly marker to determine when the Sabbath occurs, instead of associating the Sabbath with Yahweh s own example of rest as we are commanded, Exodus 20:11, 31:17. We will show the fallacy of the heavenly marker notion momentarily. And the effort to prove the lunar Sabbath doctrine is a fallacy will find YRM fighting against YHVH and nature. Lunar Sabbatarians are not making it a point to produce a heavenly marker, we are making it a point to FIND the heavenly marker already indicated in Scripture. Let s ignore Psalm 104:19 for the moment. Since YHVH in Leviticus 23:1-3 twice calls the weekly Sabbath a mo edim, and Genesis 1:14 says that the mo edim will be regulated by one of the two great lights, why it is fallacy to try to figure out which of the two heavenly lights will regulate (mark) the Sabbath? Since it seems to be beneath YRM to make the effort to discover truth for themselves, I will do it for them. Someone has to do the heavy lifting. If the reading audience receives the benefit of this, so be it. The sun rises each morning. It looks the same every morning. Can a marker that looks the same each day regulate the days of the week? No. The days are solar (Yah called the light day, Genesis 1:5), but the sun does not differentiate between the days. OK, the sun rises each Sabbath morning. Does the sun look any different than it did for the 6 common work days preceding it? No. There is no solar week in Scripture OR in nature. Is the sun on a 28, 29, 30 or 31 day cycle? No. Therefore, can one determine the length of a month by looking at the sun. No, so there is no such thing as a solar month (moonth). It is claimed that the Gregorian is a solar calendar. The Gregorian year begins january 1. Is there a significant difference in the appearance of the sun seen on january 1 than on january 2 through december 31, the previous or the coming year? No. While science recognizes a solar year (a point where the sun returns to the same location in the sky as the previous year, completing its circuit), the Gregorian year is not tied to this. The Gregorian calendar is not linked to the solar cycle defeating the claim of its solar advocates. It is entirely devised by man. Some feast keepers will try to incorporate the spring equinox into the equation that determines the new year. Is there a command in Scripture to start the year at the spring equinox or to recognize the equinox in any way? No. Deuteronomy 4:2. The first day of the first month of the new year begins with a NEW MOON, not a solar marker of any sort whatsoever. 6

7 You see, accepting Psalm 104:19 for what it says could have saved me this entire exercise. The sun regulates the day, but the moon tells us what day it is. And for the record, the sun and moon work in tandem to determine the beginning of the year. The sun produces the spring and increasing light of the sun in spring produces the barley that is to be waved at wavesheaf, but the MOON tells us when to begin the first day of the first month. In Scripture, however, the weeks (including the Sabbath) and months are uniquely lunar. Want some more evidence? In Exodus 31:13, Ezekiel 20:12 and 20:20 YHVH calls the weekly Sabbath a sign, using the SAME exact word found in Genesis 1:14. And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And as the exercise on the previous page revealed, of the two great lights, the sun cannot in any way be linked to the weekly Sabbath. If one of the two great lights can be summarily eliminated, that means the remaining light is the only candidate available. Now factor in Genesis 1:14-17 reveals that the calendar of Yah is established in the heavens and the two great lights, and considering that Psalm 104:19 says that the calendar mo edim (at least) are regulated by the lesser light (the moon), and the Sabbath is the first mo edim listed in Leviticus 23:1-3, and you have what is called an open and shut case. This is called evidence. YRM can offer no evidence that the Sabbath is regulated by the sun, nor can they offer any evidence that proves that the moon does NOT regulate the Sabbath. Case closed. The scheme also means that the Sabbath floats around and can land on any day of the week each month. If the new moon falls on a Tuesday, the Sabbath will be on succeeding Tuesdays of that month. Then it will flip to another day of the week the next month when the Sabbath is re-set by the appearance of the new moon. As if the current weeks and months in use today originated with YHVH? Excuse me, but the first 8 months are named after pagan gods, the last 4 are still called by their Roman ordinal number, september meaning 7 th month (rather than the 9 th month, which it is). The Latin for October means 8 th month, November means 9 th month and December means 10 th month, not 10 th, 11 th and 12 th month respectively. Do you honestly think that the Father has asked us to use a pagan calendar that requires us to take the names of pagan deities upon our lips (contrary to Torah, Exodus 23:13) or that He cannot accurately number His calendar months? The week grafted into the Gregorian calendar in A.D. 321 was the original pagan seven day planetary week, and the name of each day still bears the name of the god to which it was consecrated. Do you honestly expect the righteous body of believers to adopt a pagan/papal calendar and demand that all who dare question must accept this as the actual the calendar of Creation? Come now, let us reason together. 7

8 When challenged with these facts, pondering whether the segments of time in Scripture are indeed regulated by one of the two great lights (which is exactly what Torah says) is not such a silly idea after all, is it? Would you rather learn the way of the heathen who were dismayed by the signs in the heavens (condemned in Jeremiah 10:2) or learn how to read the calendar signs in the heavens, put there by YHVH where no man could mess with it? Consider the logistical nightmare for a moment. If you as a lunar sabbath follower have a regular job or are responsibly self-employed, you are continually taking off work to observe the Sabbath on different days of the week depending on the moon. Does Yahweh require playing musical chairs with the Sabbath and make earning a living nearly untenable for the vast majority of believers? Hardly. He is an Elohim of order and consistency, not confusion (1Corinthians 14:40, Malachi 3:6). Consider for a moment the logistical nightmare that disobedience to and disregard of the calendar that YHVH wrote in the heavens will cause come judgment day. Somebody at FRM is not thinking very clearly here. We are supposed to be IN the world, not OF the world. Joshua said that as for he and his family, he was going to serve YHVH. Joshua 24:15 Peter said it was better to obey YHVH than man. Acts 5:29 Let me pose this issue to you another way. The calendar you observe tells you when to work and when to worship. WHICH day you worship tells heaven and the on-looking universe WHO you worship. So getting the day right is THAT important. What is musical chairs about keeping the Sabbaths dictated by the calendar lights in the heavens? What is inconsistent about observing the 8 th, 15 th, 22 nd and 29 th days of each month as the Sabbath? What is inconsistent is observing the lunar calendar for the annual feasts, but looking to a pagan/papal calendar to regulate the primary feast listed in Scripture, the weekly Sabbath (Leviticus 23:1-3). What is confusing is having supposed righteous men promote a pagan calendar to their followers while condemning the calendar established by Yah at Creation. Is it Yah s fault that the vast majority of believers are in bondage working for NON-believers who do not understand and will not give them Yah s mo edim off? Everyone in Scripture was either self-employed or worked for Israelites who also took the Sabbaths and feasts off in recognition of the 4 th commandment and Leviticus 23 which commanded that the employees be given these days off as well. When you are ruled by non-believers, you are in bondage. YRM, call a spade a spade. Stop making spineless mealy-mouthed excuses. You damage your witness further with each and every idle word you speak in your rebuttal of the Creation Calendar and Lunar Sabbath. If no one else will hold your feet to the fire; I will. You are on notice. Heaven is recording your every word, move and act against Yah s calendar truth and against His children who are rediscovering it. Many more difficulties than this, however, are presented by the lunar sabbath doctrine. As noted, when the end of the month comes it will typically have an extra day or two left over before the next new moon arrives. [Not true.] That s because the month is 29.5 days from new moon to new moon and not four sevens (28 days). These extra days don t fit in anywhere. The Scriptures nowhere recognize them or address them. So what do you do with these leftover days? 8

9 They are not left over days. When there is a whole, 30 day lunar month, of these 30 days, 28 of them are illuminated by either a waxing of waning moon. In the lunar calendar month, there are 28 week days, 4 sets of 7 day weeks. In the lunar cycle, there are 4 quarter phases of the moon. In the lunar month, there are 4 weekly Sabbaths at the end of each week. These quarter phases just happen to line up with the 8 th, 15 th, 22 nd and 29 th days of the month. In Scripture, the only Sabbaths that can be date identified by either word or context are always on either the 8 th, 15 th, 22 nd or 29 th days of the month. Is this merely a coincidence? After the 29 th day of the month, there are 1-2 dark days, days when there is no visible moon. Interestingly, after the last Sabbath of the calendar month, there are 1-2 days of new moon celebration. Friend, did you see any days that were left over or that were not accounted for? The 28 days of an illuminated moon lines up with 28 week days. Of these 28 days of an illuminated moon, the 4 quarter phases line up with the 4 weekly Sabbaths, and finally the 1-2 dark days line up perfectly with the 1-2 days of new moon celebration. I m sorry, we just went over it again, and nothing is missing, left over or out of place. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what is your verdict? Many lunar sabbatarians just ignore them. Others keep them as Sabbaths, meaning they observe an additional sabbath or two or three in a row. Try explaining that to your employer, or to Yahweh for that matter. The Fourth Commandment says to work six days and rest the seventh, which is the Sabbath, not Sabbaths. Scripture nowhere allows for or addresses multiple consecutive Sabbaths. No day can be added in and none can be ignored. All days must fit into the Fourth Commandment command of work for 6, rest the 7 th. Did you find that we ignored anything? YRM ignores that there is a commanded calendar in the heavens listed in Genesis 1:14-17, that one of the two great lights would regulate the calendar mo edim. They ignore that Psalm 104:19 says that the moon regulates the mo edim. And YRM ignores that the weekly Sabbath is twice called a mo ed in Leviticus 23:1-3. And YRM has the gall to say that lunar sabbatarians ignore the days that follow the last Sabbath of the month? Me thinks the pot calleth the kettle black again. If some lunar sabbatarians keep the new moon days as Sababths, that is on them. There is no command to do so, except for the seventh new moon. It s like tithe. If you give 20%, you don t get brownie points for the extra 10%, nor does anyone get extra credit for keeping Set-Apart days that are not Set-Apart as Sabbaths. There is, however, a worshipful convocation called for on new moon days (Isaiah 66:22-23). If some are willing to keep the entire day as a Sabbath (even though it is not called for) should be of no concern to anyone else. That is between them and YHVH. Nothing in Yahweh s Word says the moon has anything to do with the weekly Sabbath. [Agreed] Regardless, there are Herculean efforts to force the lunar sabbath teaching into the Scriptures. [Force? I m laughing in spite of myself.] Some lunar proponents also say that the seventh-day Saturday Sabbath is pagan, and that even the universal weekly cycle is pagan in origin. [The 7 th day Sabbath is not pagan, but the universal weekly cycle is irrefutably pagan.] 9

10 They have a problem with the Sabbath falling on Saturn s day (Saturday) but apparently have no issue at all when it falls on Sun s Day, Moon s Day, Tiw s day, Woden s Day, Thor s Day or Frei s Day (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday all honoring heathen deities). Which came first, Saturn s-day or the seventh day? Man s spin is irrelevant. We don t have a problem with the pagan satyrday falls on the weekly Sabbath. We are just unwilling to call every satyrday the Sabbath just because it falls on the seventh day of the pagan planetary week in use today. The seventh-day Sabbath came first, which is why we cannot for the life of us figure out why otherwise intelligent men would demand that the Father s Sabbath is found exclusively on the pagan planetary week which did not exist until about 700 B.C. I m sorry, but this is a discrepancy of about 3300 years. Here is a pencil sketch from a clay calendar tablet that dates to the first century A.D. Even though Roman numerals are shown on the block s face, this was not an official Roman calendar. That s apparent because early Romans used an eight-day week, not one of seven days. Please note that the days (in order) are saturn s day, sun s day, moon s day, mar s day, mercury s day, jupiter s day, venus day. Satyrday was and IS still the first day of the planetary week that was invented in Babylon. Roman soldiers stationed in Egypt became accustomed to the pagan seven-day week and began to introduce it into their own homeland to replace their eight-day marketing week. Octavian (Caesar Augustus) and succeeding Roman rulers permitted this practice but it wasn t made official until the emperor Constantine took that step in A.D

11 In A.D. 321, Constantine (who converted to Mithraism, the Persian version of sun worship) venerated the day of the sun by bumping satyrday from the coveted Number One position in the week all the way to the seventh day, which was vacated by all the other days moving up one position in the weekly cycle, permitting the sun s day to hold the preeminent position. YRM, satyrday is the seventh day of the week by the sole virtue of the Roman Emperor Constantine. You are hanging your hat on a Sabbath peg placed there by the church of Rome. You don t openly worship the beast, you have just adopted the beast s calendar system and are feebly trying to worship the creator by the use of a pagan/papal calendar. Your blissful ignorance is not only confusing and inconsistent; it is nearing blasphemous. As with every teaching, to be true it must stand up to the scrutiny of the unadulterated Word of Yahweh. If not, it s bogus. In that case we abandon the teaching. For what? You have not proved that satyrday is the seventh day of creation yet. Nor have you proven that the Sabbath is not regulated by the moon. Are we to just roll over and pretend that the evidence supporting the lunar Sabbath does not exist and that your conclusions are without error? Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, who, thus far, has presented evidence that is even close to being able to stand up to the scrutiny of the unadulterated Word of Yah? That s what I figured. YRM, sit back down. We aren t even close to done yet. Genesis 1:14: A Generic Proof Text Genesis 1:14 is often cited to support a smorgasbord of calendar teachings, including a sunrise Sabbath doctrine and a solar-based, calculated calendar [There is no solar based, calculated calendar supported by this verse.]. Not to be left out, the lunar sabbatarians also seize on this Scripture as the preeminent proof for their doctrine. Because the passage is so general in its wording it can be applied to any number of anomalous teachings a one-size-fits-all scripture. The Spirit of YHVH only inspired Moses in a very general manner in Genesis 1? Wow. Now that is a scary observation. YRM can t refute the lunar sabbararian s use of Genesis 1:14, so they stoop to saying that the Spirit of Yah got tired and lazy after only the first 13 verses of Genesis 1 and spoke only in general terms after that? Wow. I m nearly speechless. I think I would rather have YRM go after me personally than to have uttered such absolute nonsense. For the record, Genesis 1:14 has no bearing on a sunrise Sabbath, Genesis 1:4-5 does. Here is Genesis 1:14: And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And Elohim made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. And Elohim set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Elohim saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 11

12 Most lunar sabbatarians will make the following assumptions from this verse: only the lights in the heavens determine the Sabbath, and As shown above several times, this is exactly what this verse is saying. to determine the monthly cycle of Sabbaths requires the use of both heavenly lights the sun and the moon. This is only partially true. The sun is involved only in the most minor details. The sun rises, and the day begins And Elohim called the light part of the cycle Day, and the dark part of the cycle, He called Night. Genesis 1:5. The sun tells you when a day begins, that s it. It is the moon that tells you which day of the month it is. And unless the Sabbath is NOT a day of the month, the nay-sayers would do well to be still. Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. In truth, what the passage does specifically tell us is that the sun is to mark the day and the moon is to rule the night and that Yahweh set the sun and moon in their orbits on the fourth day of creation. That is the end of the specifics. Asked how this passage directly links the moon with the Sabbath, the lunar sabbatarian begins a game of dodge ball. He must do that because nothing in this pericope (sic) links the moon and its phases directly to the weekly Sabbath. Incidentally, what role the stars play the lunar sabbatarian does not explain, giving only a selective interpretation to the passage. Please note that the text in question is still Genesis 1:14. YRM does err, not knowing the Scriptures. The verse that says that the sun would rule the day and the moon would rule the night is Genesis 1:16. Also, YRM knows, they just choose to ignore that the lights in Genesis 1:14 are for the express purpose of regulating signs, seasons (mo edim) days and years. These are all segments of time in Yah s calendar. How YRM can say that the only specific task given to these lights is for the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night in the face of this kind of evidence is truly perplexing. Do you want to follow spiritual leaders who are this awful at rightly dividing the Word of Yah? Dodge ball? I have dodged nothing. I used the principle in Isaiah 28:9-10, here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept. Genesis 1:14 says that the lights in the heavens would regulate the signs (owth), seasons (mo edim), days and years. Exodus 31:13, Ezekiel 20:12 and 20:20 say that the Sabbath is a sign (owth). Psalm 104:19 flat out says that the moon will regulate the mo edim. Naturally, this is referring to the calendar mo edim, not every appointed time on the planet (when birds migrate, a woman s delivery date, etc, are also called mo edim in Scripture). In Leviticus 23:1-3 YHVH Himself twice calls the weekly Sabbath a mo edim. Again I shall ask you, WHAT did I dodge? There is nothing in Scripture that explains the roll of the stars in the calendar. How is this selectively interpreting the passage? They are neither the greater light, nor the lesser light. A person can learn to identify the months of the year from the stars if they are willing to make the effort, but since Scripture makes no demands to do so, we likewise make no demands. 12

13 Attempts at a Sabbath in the Sky Lunar Sabbath proponents believe that the moon must be used to identify the Sabbath because the seventh-day Sabbath rhythm is not otherwise evident in nature. That is not entirely true. Science is finding a continuous, rhythmic, seven-day behavioral cycle built into both the plant and animal kingdoms. Even humans need a regular rest every seven days to maintain good physical and mental health. And why is not the seven day lunar cycle from one phase to the next an applicable cycle of seven? The lesser light has a seven day cycle. In Scripture, the lesser light is inextricably linked to the Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath is on a seven day cycle. I find perfect harmony here. By the science of continuous, rhythmic seven-say behavioral cycles, YRM is referring to biorhythms. This is all fine and well, but can YRM find any reference to biorhythms in Scripture? Can they link the weekly Sabbath to this rhythmic seven-day behavioral cycle? Where Scripture is silent, silence is golden. Not even seasoned astronomers can simply look at just the moon s phases and distinguish one day from another with 100 percent accuracy every time. Quarter phases can be confusing in their closeness. Because of such close resemblances in the moon s appearance the average person would need technical training to determine the Sabbath. He would also need a lot of clear skies during each of those critical phases in order to get the Sabbath right. That s odd, when my children were 4 years old, they were able to accurately point out the Sabbath moons on their own, without assistance. They were even able to accurately tell when looking at a mid-phase moon how many days it was until the Sabbath. Reason why my children can do this and YRM can t (or thinks they can t)? By beholding, we become changed. My family has been beholding the lights in the heavens. YRM refuses to, so to them, it is confusing. So this objection to the lunar Sabbath has fallen on deaf ears. I think the man from Galilee was right when he said: I thank thee, O Father, Sovereign of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Matthew 11:25. One does not need clear skies at any phase of the moon to get it right. Just as ancient Israel had spotters in the hills looking for the new moon, the body of believers simply needs to build a network of believers who are also looking at the marks/signs in the heavens. If I m socked in with weather, perhaps my friends will have clear skies (or vice versa). If this was not a confusing issue to ancient Israel, why should it be a deterrent to modern believers? When it comes to the Full Moon it gets really uncertain, with three or four consecutive moons every month all appearing full. [He that answereth the matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. Proverbs 18:13.] Which one do you choose as the Sabbath moon? Note this from scientists: Although Full Moon occurs each month at a specific date and time, the Moon s disk may appear to be full for several nights in a row if it is clear. This is because the percentage of the Moon s disk that appears illuminated changes very slowly around the time of Full Moon. 13

14 The Moon may appear 100% illuminated only on the night closest to the time of exact Full Moon, but on the night before and night after will appear 97-99% illuminated; most people would not notice the difference. Even two days from Full Moon the Moon s disk is 93-97% illuminated. (quotation from U.S. Naval Observatory). I assume that YRM are long time feast keepers, so they begin the month with new moon. Obviously, they use the Babylonian first visible crescent, but they are feast keepers nonetheless. The answer to their gross ignorance here has been right at their finger tips all along. There is only ONE full moon a month. Now there s a newsflash! If you start the month correctly, the full moon is the first of the full looking moons that rises at or after sunset. One that rises an hour before the sun sets is not full it is still a waxing gibbous moon. Ones that rise 2-3 hours after the sun sets is not full, these are waning gibbous moons. If in doubt, wait for a lunar eclipse, either partial or full, as there can NOT be a lunar eclipse unless it in the full moon phase. An eclipse can NEVER happen on the other 2-3 evenings when the moon looks full to the casual observer. Lunar Sabbatarians are anything BUT casual observers of the lights in the heavens. Truth be told, if you will count backward from a lunar eclipse 14 days, you will learn what the Biblical new moon is: The Dark Phase of the Moon, NOT the first visible crescent. The sun and moon are the hour and minute hand of the Father s celestial clock. All YRM needs to do is learn to read time on this clock, and they wouldn t make half-baked comments like this. But that s not all. Every 2.7 years there are two full moons in a month, the second of which is known as the Blue Moon. So how would the average believer know when that will happen, not to mention decide which full moon is the correct one? Oh my stars! I can t believe what I just read. YRM acts as it feast keepers care one whit about the pagan months. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, there is only ONE full moon in a lunar month. Last I knew the LUNAR months observed by Israel all through Scripture are what we are discussing here. The pagan months (moonths) are no longer linked to the moon; so naturally, the phases of the moon have no rhyme or reason when superimposing the lunar phases over the man-made months. I am stunned. This is worse than gross ignorance; this borders on stupidity. Now be honest: [now here s a novel idea.] does Yahweh establish His weekly Sabbath amid all this uncertainty and confusion? [Of course not.] He is not the author of confusion, 1Corinthins 14:33. Are His people supposed to be aware of and distinguish among all the anomalies and similarities in lunar appearances when they keep the day of rest? [Start the month right, and there are no anomalies that need to be worried about.] Do we need college degrees in astronomy to observe the right Sabbath holy? [No, just a teachable heart like a child.] Does that sound like the design of a wise Creator who gives plain and simple laws for us to keep? [That the Creator would put His calendar in the heavens? Sure that sound just like Him. Why does YRM think He embedded His Sabbath in a pagan calendar?] What about David out tending his flocks in the field, did he know all of this? Or did he just need to know how to count to seven for the proper time to observe the Sabbath? Frankly, the lunar Sabbath scheme appears like the shenanigans of mythical Greek deities trying to frustrate their human subjects just for the fun of it. 14

15 He that answereth the matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. Proverbs 18:13. YRM does not know because they have not looked. I actually expected to encounter intelligent objections to the Creation Calendar from these folks and I must admit that thus far I have been terribly disappointed. Of course David out tending his flocks understood all of this. He makes a perfectly understood lunar calendar statement in I Samuel 20 when speaking with Jonathan. He knew in advance that tomorrow (and the following day) would be days of new moon celebration, as he was expected to sit at meat with the king for both days. If all David and YRM need to know is how to count to seven, from what did the count begin? They can t even count backward by seven to A.D. 320 because the first time in history that satyrday was the seventh day of the week was in A.D In 320, satyrday would be the FIRST day of the week, so YRM can t count backward by seven all the way to Creation because they can t even get past A.D. 321 without their count blowing up in their face. Let s paint YRM a picture of how futile this counting to seven really is Let s say that all the leaders of YRM and I are on a cruise ship. We have agreed to this cruise so we can debate the Creation Calendar/Satyrday Sabbath face to face with witnesses. Suddenly, there arises a vicious storm that lasts for days. All power has been lost on the ship, and we have not seen the sun or moon for days or perhaps it was weeks, when suddenly the ship strikes a rock and sinks near a deserted island. We are all in various stages of conscious when we wash up on the shore of the island. None of us know how long we have lain there in the surf and all our watches have been ruined by the salt water. We have no idea what day it is. Unless YRM had someone come up with a Gregorian calendar, they would have NO IDEA how to find their Sabbath. It should be easy, right? Just count to seven. But the sun is not on a seven day cycle. Count to seven from what? I could take one look at the first visible moon seen from the island and within 1-48 hours (depending on whether we were in the illuminated or dark phase of the moon), I could correctly identify the weekly Sabbath. We all know how to count to seven, but YRM would still need to have someone tell them what day of the pagan week it was. If we all died of old age on the deserted island, the YRM crew would NEVER know if or when they were ever keeping the correct Sabbath. Pretty easy, just count to seven, right? Pretty sad actually when the hour and minute hand of the Father s clock was over their heads day and night. The creation account in Genesis 2 plainly teaches that the weekly Sabbath cycle was not based on the heavenly luminaries but simply on the seven days in the original creation week put in perpetual motion by Yahweh: But Genesis 1 does, so YRM does err, not knowing the Scriptures. And unless YRM has an accurate frame of reference, they would have no idea where they were in the weekly count. 15

16 While we agree, that the original week was put into perpetual motion at Creation by YHVH, that week has never been an uninterrupted cycle of seven days. The very first new moon (found in Genesis 1:1-2, a time consuming creation event) was not included in the work week, and no new moon has EVER been a part of the work week as evidenced by the fact that the gate to the inner courtyard is shut on all six working days, but open on the Sabbath and new moon. Ezekiel 46:1 And on the seventh day Elohim ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And Elohim blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which Elohim created and made (Gen. 2:2-3). The reason the Sabbath is the Sabbath is not because of an association with the new moon and other lunar phases, but because Yahweh Himself blessed it and set it apart on the final day of creation week. No wonder He commands us to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. We remember the original Sabbath He created by keeping it exactly as it has been passed down through the millennia. Man-made calendars may tweak the months, but the Sabbath continues in its cycle unchanged and unfazed by any calendar. That is correct. The Creator blessed the seventh day OF THE WEEK. He did not bless every seventh day in an unbroken cycle of seven days because He full well knew that new moon interrupted the weekly cycle. That is correct, the Sabbath continues in its cycle unchanged and unfazed by any man-made calendar. My question is why YRM believes that papacy can be trusted as the calendar they believe was given as a sacred trust to protect the Sabbath was invented by Pope Gregory XIII? Also, YRM seems to think that man has never lost track of the Sabbath, which is utter nonsense. And He [YHVH] hath violently taken away His tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: He hath destroyed His places of the assembly: YHVH hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest. Lamentations 2:6 Every time Israel went into apostasy, they lost sight of the Sabbath. And since man HAS lost track of the Sabbath, YRM has NO CONCRETE evidence that satyrday is still in line with the Sabbath of Creation. And in fact, the historical record and nature proves that it is not. The Sabbath and its sequence in the week is the result of a direct action of Yahweh originating entirely from His own personal rest on the seventh day. [That is correct.] Because of His own activities the weekly Sabbath is directly tied to worship of Him following His own example. It is His day made for man. No wonder He says the Sabbath is the one sign identifying His people. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: [now notice the special link:] for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed, Exodus 31:17. Now notice the special instructions, strike that, the direct command given in Genesis 1:14: And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 16

17 And isn t it just amazing that the Hebrew word sign (owth) above in Exodus 31:13 is also found in Genesis 1:14 and is one of the calendar events that would be regulated by the lights in the heavens? What is the compelling reason to ignore this YRM? Notice further that the week is not mentioned in Genesis 1:14. The reference is simply to seasons [moedim], days, and years. Clearly, Yahweh established the weekly cycle differently, basing it upon His own example of rest and not on what is seen or reasoned by man. Otherwise He would have included the word weeks in the list of things to be determined by the greater and lesser lights of Genesis 1:14. Yet He did not not in Genesis or anywhere else. That is correct, the word week is not found in Genesis 1:14, but sign (owth) is, and the weekly Sabbath is the first calendar sign mentioned in Scripture (Exodus 31:13, 2 nd and 3 rd witnesses in Ezekiel 20:12 and 20:20). Last I knew, the weekly Sabbath concluded the week and there is a weekly cycle in each month. The months in ancient Israel were lunar and the Sabbaths are days of the month, being an integral part of each month. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I don t know about you but I am shocked that YRM expects the Father to write the calendar instructions the way THEY think He should have. I guess YHVH did not get YRM s memo that the calendar instructions needed to be written in a certain way before they would accept it. Sorry YRM, but the tail does not wag the dog. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith YHVH. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 But seasons means appointed times and the Sabbath is an appointed time, will be the argument. That is correct. But where does this passage or any other specifically link the new moon to the weekly Sabbath? Nowhere but in the imagination of the lunar sabbatarian. Considering that ample evidence from Scripture has been offered, I think this verse is appropriate here Ye shall not add unto the Word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of YHVH your Elohim which I command you. Deuteronomy 4:2 Is the New Moon Day a Sabbath of Rest? Some say the new moon was a day of rest because David was to meet with the king at his table on the new moon, 1Samuel 25. They also say that sacrifices were offered on the new moon, Ezekiel 46:6, just as they were commanded on the Sabbath. When does a meal with a king constitute a weekly Sabbath? [Agreed.] Wouldn t a Sabbath be indicated by a meeting with a priest at the temple? [Actually, a meeting with YHVH at the tabernacle is more like it.] Neither do sacrifices in themselves prove a Sabbath, because there were sacrifices commanded every day, Numbers 29:6 and Hebrews 7:27. This is a non-argument. Yes, some lunar sabbatarians in error accept new moon as being equal with the Sabbath. They will eventually see the light and move forward. Will YRM? 17

18 Was the new moon celebrated with rest in the same way as the Sabbath, as one branch of lunar sabbatarianism claims? If so, why does Yahweh command work on new moon days, and why do we find labor being done on new moon days? Because the new moon days are not Sabbaths (except the seventh one). Exodus 40:1, 2 and 17 reads: And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying, On the first day of the first month shall you set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up. (Read all of Exodus 40 to learn just how much work was done on the new moon day.) If every new moon day is a Sabbath or a day of no work, why does Yahweh command Zerubbabel to gather wood and build the temple upon the first day of the month? (Haggai 1:1, 2, 8, 12). Both excellent examples proving that the new moon days are not normally Sabbaths, other than Feast of Trumpets. If every new moon day is a Sabbath, why do we not find any command to rest upon it (with the exception of the Feast of Trumpets, which falls on the new moon of the 7th month)? Shouldn t we find it listed as a Sabbath among the Appointed Times of Leviticus 23? What explanation can be given to the fact that nowhere in Scripture is the command to cease from labor upon the new moon day, or upon the extra days that fall out each month? There is no excuse. Lunar Sabbatarians can be in the dark just like YRM is. We don t try to justify observing false doctrines, we try to educate against false doctrines. Shabbat and Shabbatown: Different Kinds of Sabbath Another contention by lunar sabbath proponents is that because the seven annual feast day Sabbaths are determined by counting from the new moon, so also should the weekly Sabbath be set by the moon because an annual Sabbath is no different from a weekly Sabbath. Not so. [Indeed, one is weekly the other set are annual. They are not the same, but they are similar, thus the following information from YRM.] The word used for the weekly Sabbath (in Hebrew) is shabbat (7676) while the word behind the feast day Sabbath is shabbatown (7677). High-day Sabbaths are different from the weekly Sabbath. From Exodus 12:16 we learn that on the high day Sabbaths of Unleavened Bread, for instance, some work to prepare food is allowed so that all may eat. No such leeway is given for the weekly Sabbath. I am sorry, YRM, but the command in Exodus 12:16 was a ONE time offer. Israel was JUST leaving Egypt and carried their food with them, so preparing food on the 15 th of Abib during the exodus was a given. Yah permitted it. YRM, have you ever used a Strong s Concordance? The Hebrew word for servile in Leviticus 23:7, Numbers 28 and 29 is H5656. The Hebrew word for work in Exodus 20:10 and Leviticus 23:7, Numbers 28 and 29 is H4399. Leviticus 23:7 is the command later given regulating Feast of Unleavened Bread. 18

19 H5656-servile, From H5647; work of any kind: - act, bondage, + bondservant, effect, labour, ministering (-try), office, service (-ile, -itude), tillage, use, work, X wrought. H4399-work, From the same as H4397; properly deputyship, that is, ministry; generally employment (never servile) or work (abstractly or concretely); also property (as the result of labor): - business, + cattle, + industrious, occupation, (+ -pied), + officer, thing (made), use, (manner of) work ([-man], -manship). Servile work means ANY kind of work/employment. Work (by itself) means employment, never servile work. It seems to me that servile work covers more work than just plain work. But YRM never considered that. They just looked at the English and came to their false conclusion. However, to be perfectly honest with the text (the only way I can be), the work in the fourth commandment is preceded by the word, any (H3605). H3605-any, From H3634; properly the whole; hence all, any or every (in the singular only, but often in a plural sense): - (in) all (manner, [ye]), altogether, any (manner), enough, every (one, place, thing), howsoever, as many as, [no-] thing, ought, whatsoever, (the) whole, whoso (-ever). Servile work means any kind of work/employment. Any work means all manner of work/employment, but not servile work. And in reality, these phrases are nearly identical. There would be no food preparation on the Sabbath of Unleavened Bread, the exception given was the first day of the exodus. Forgive me, but YRM needs to learn how to rightly divide the Word of Yah. The weekly Sabbath is a memorial to Yahweh s creative act and His subsequent rest. He did not create high day Sabbaths by resting on them. To say the weekly Sabbath changes every month according to the cycles of the moon is to make the memorial to the creative rest of Yahweh into a memorial to the moon. It is true, the first Sabbath on earth was not an annual Sabbath, but everyone reading this knows full well that the Father rested on the Feast days because they were shabbatown, they were rest days of a different sort. That said, can YRM explain why H7677 is used several times in Scripture to describe the WEEKLY Sabbath? And he said H559 unto H413 them, This H1931 is that which H834 the LORD H3068 hath said, H1696 To morrow H4279 is the rest H7677 of the holy H6944 sabbath H7676 unto the LORD: H3068 bake H644 that (H853) which H834 ye will bake H644 to day, and seethe H1310 that H834 ye will seethe; H1310 and that which H3605 remaineth over H5736 lay up H5117 for you to be kept H4931 until H5704 the morning. H1242 Exodus 16:23 Six H8337 days H3117 may work H4399 be done; H6213 but in the seventh H7637 is the sabbath H7676 of rest, H7677 holy H6944 to the LORD: H3068 whosoever H3605 doeth H6213 any work H4399 in the sabbath H7676 day, H3117 he shall surely be put to death. H4191 H4191 Exodus 31:15 Six H8337 days H3117 shall work H4399 be done, H6213 but on the seventh H7637 day H3117 there shall be H1961 to you an holy H6944 day, a sabbath H7676 of rest H7677 to the LORD: H3068 whosoever H3605 doeth H6213 work H4399 therein shall be put to death. H4191 Exodus 35:2 19

20 Six H8337 days H3117 shall work H4399 be done: H6213 but the seventh H7637 day H3117 is the sabbath H7676 of rest, H7677 an holy H6944 convocation; H4744 ye shall do H6213 no H3808 H3605 work H4399 therein: it H1931 is the sabbath H7676 of the LORD H3068 in all H3605 your dwellings. H4186 Leviticus 23:3 I didn t think so. In order for YRM s claim to have any traction whatsoever, H7677 should be NO link to the weekly Sabbath. It does. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what is your verdict? You know, I m well over half way through this rebuttal, and so far, all I ve encountered is complaints about the lunar Sabbath, evidence that YRM does not really even grasp the basic concepts of the Creation Calendar and provide absolutely no Scriptural evidence against it. Usually when someone has a problem with a doctrine, the first order of business is to either prove your own position is Scripturally supported, or to prove that the other guys position is not supported in Scripture. Thus far, YRM has not even adequately shown that they can rightly divide the Word of Yah, much less present evidence against a doctrine they do not agree with. I am surprised, really. All YRM needed to do is to prove that satyrday is the Sabbath of Scripture or to prove that the weekly Sabbath is the seventh day of an uninterrupted cycle of seven days. They ve done neither, and cannot prove either. More Problems Using Genesis 1:14 A key problem with the lunar sabbath doctrine is that events surrounding the creation of the moon in Genesis 1:14-16 did not take place until the 4th day. The week was more than half over by the time the moon was placed into orbit, so how can the moon establish the start of the week? Simple. What did YHVH make on the first day? Light you say? Friend, did you miss the Creation event that occurred prior to the creation of light? It says, In the beginning, Elohim CREATED heaven and earth. This was a time consuming event that took place. Obviously, there were many things created prior to day one when light was created. What was the first thing created (as far as humans are concerned)? The heavens and the earth! However, it does not say, and the evening and the morning were the day, after this first creation event. Why? Two reasons. 1. Because the sun had not been lit yet. 2. Because this segment of time was new moon, not numbered in the week. How do I know it was new moon? Well, the second month after Creation began with a new moon. LAST month began with a new moon. What do you suppose the FIRST month of earth s history began with? New Moon! When we read about the first day of Creation, Elohim said, Let there be light, and there was light And the evening and the morning were the first day. What light regulates the day? Is there any light in the universe that does not have a source? It would be ridiculous to say that YHVH was the light source during day one because He is a Being of light. On day one of earth s Creation Week He didn t create the light that emanates from Himself. The light referred to in Genesis 1:3-5 separated light from darkness, creating Day and Night, with 24 hour cycles as a result. The light from YHVH does not do this. The book of Revelation says that where YHVH is there is no night. There is only one luminary in the cosmos, as seen from earth, that can regulate an evening and morning; that can divide light from darkness, and cause day and night to come upon the earth. 20

21 The SUN! Isn t it interesting that after Elohim created light, then and ONLY then was there an evening and a morning that made the first day. Houston, we have a problem... How can we have a day as seen from earth before the sun was created on day four? Interestingly, there is an evening and morning for the second day of creation and an evening and a morning for the third day of creation all BEFORE the sun was made on day four. Days are regulated by the sun! How is this possible? The evidence from Scripture reveals that the sun was ignited on DAY ONE! Friends, YHVH created the heaven and the earth on this un-numbered creation event that took place before the first day. Earth was without form and void. Evidently the other heavenly bodies must not have been in much better shape. During this un-numbered creation event Yah put into place all the material He would need, then He advanced upon this material for six days before He rested. Evidently, after this un-numbered creation event, the sun was just a big ball of gas, then on day one And the evening and the morning were the first day. 21 I know what you are thinking I ve never HEARD of such a thing. Scripture doesn t say that, does it? Yes, it does. Not in English, but the underlying Hebrew supports this understanding. The star in our solar system is our major source of light. Is it not also rightly said that this star is the only light source that can possibly divide day from night on this earth? So as strange as it sounds, it appears that the other heavenly bodies were created at the same moment that this blob of earth was initially created. This is made evident by the phrase: In the beginning, Elohim made the heaven and the earth. So YHVH lit the sun on the first day of creation therefore creating light (and Day and Night as a result). The moon would have been created in Genesis 1:1-2 as well, and illuminated for the first time when the sun was lit on day one of Creation week. The proof for such an odd statement is found in the language used in the fourth day creation account: And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

22 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis 1:14-19 This word made (Strong s H# 6213) is used several times during the creation week. This is the Hebrew word asah, (ah-saw). The Hebrew word bara means something was created from scratch. Asah means advanced upon or appointed, made, like making a bed in the morning. For example: He appointed (asah) the moon for seasons Psalm 104:19. Here David very nearly quotes Genesis 1:14, only he s very specific about the role of the moon. Seasons here in Psalm 104:19 is the same Hebrew word found in Genesis 1:14; mo edim, appointed times or set feasts. Here s the scenario: YHVH created the earth and other celestial bodies at a certain point in time. He doesn t call it a day because the time piece that regulates the day was not yet ordained as such. And this creation event is not numbered in the creation week because this segment of time is new moon, the first day of the first month of earth s history. Then on day one, YHVH lights the sun creating light and, of course, day and night as a result. If the earth and sun were created during the initial event, it is plausible that the planets, moons, etc., were created at the same time as well. We are not wresting Scripture when we make this statement because the underlying Hebrew could have been (and we are suggesting should have been) translated in this way. Later on day four, YHVH advanced upon these 4 day old luminaries that He had created earlier [when He created the heavens and the earth and then illuminated on day one], and ordained them, appointed them as time keepers. The moon rules the week/sabbath (signs) and the month (seasons). The sun rules the day, and the sun and moon regulate the year. The moon is listed as having a roll in the Creation Calendar as well as the sun, so the Creation calendar is NOT solar only. Never did Yahweh ever say He re-set the week after four creation days by utilizing the noworbiting new moon. That is a critical piece of information we must have if we are to base Sabbath observance on the moon s cycle as shown by Yahweh. That is correct. He did not have to. All heaven and earth was created in Genesis 1:1-2, including the sun (which was lit on the first work day), and the moon. Illuminated or not, these celestial orbs would have immediately moved off along their orbits because these two lights ARE the hour and minute hands of the Father s clock. Time began on earth in Genesis 1:1-2, therefore the clock had to have been created at that moment. It s not rocket science. Attempting to be free of this difficulty, some lunar sabbatarians speculate that the moon was created in an advanced phase and that the Sabbath would be made to synchronize with it later on; others speculate that perhaps the moon was already in its orbit the first day of creation but was just hidden behind heavy mist. Or that Yahweh s creation week and our week are different. To which we ask: where is the chapter and verse supporting these hypotheses? [Indeed! And where is the chapter and verse that says satyrday is the Sabbath?] Genuine doctrine does not rest on supposes or maybes. There is not a shred of evidence in Scripture to support such assumptions. 22

23 We needn t be freed from any difficulty, but thank you for your concern. Actually, I admit that this idea presented here by YRM (underlined above by me) was my first conclusion when trying to figure out the heavenly clock. I just had not figured out that the sun was the divider of Day and Night all the way from Genesis 1:3-5, so if the sun was lit on day one, the moon had to have been created and illuminated at the SAME time as the sun. Genesis 1 and 2 are crystal clear that Yahweh created the heavens and the earth in six days and then He rested on the seventh. Lunar sabbatarians ignore Yahweh s rest on the seventh day and go solely with a Sabbath-setting lunar phase. And if you include that unnamed, unnumbered segment of Creation time in Genesis 1:1-2, it appears as if we have another proof text that certain work can be done on new moon day. We ignore nothing at all in the Creation account. YRM has to date ignored several aspects of the Creation account, namely the creation event that took place in Genesis 1:1-2, that the sun (the only light in the cosmos that can divide day and night on earth) is clearly lit on day one, and that the calendar in the heavens has TWO great lights that regulate the signs (owth), seasons (mo edim), days and years. In addition to this YRM ignores the other sister passages that help truth seekers understand that the moon regulates the calendar mo edim (Psalm 104:19), that the Sabbath is the first calendar sign (owth) listed in Scripture (Exodus 31:13), and that the Sabbath is also the first named mo edim listed in Leviticus 23. Come now YRM. Show us what we have ignored, and show us the evidence that you have NOT ignored all the things pointed out above. I adjure you in the Name YHVH Most High, stand up and be counted or sit down and be quite. Mysterious Math The count to the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost also reveals the error in the lunar sabbath teaching. Not only must there always be exactly seven days every week in every month of Yahweh s calendar (by Fourth Commandment authority), but the count to Pentecost also must also be seven complete weeks of seven days each, all adding up to exactly 49 days. I was hoping YRM would foray into this particular treasure trove of evidence. The only weeks we know of consist of seven days. But WHERE in Scripture does it say that the seventh Sabbath is the 49 th day from wavesheaf? YRM, have you not ADDED this to the text (Deuteronomy 4:2)? Yahweh commanded, And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete, Leviticus 23:15. Pentecost means 50 th. It takes exactly 50 days to arrive at Pentecost seven Sabbaths of precisely seven days each or 7 x = 50. Partial weeks or extra days don t compute. Yes, but we add the 50 days where we were told to. From the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, shall you number 50 days. What text said to number 50 days from wavesheaf? 23

24 Counting seven Sabbaths means counting seven Sabbaths. Period. Why are you numbering the days in between? Were you told to? No, you were not. As already proven time and again, the new moon days are NOT numbered in the week. There will be anywhere from 2-4 new moon days during the counting of the Sabbaths complete, meaning that when you get to the seventh Sabbath, it will be days from wavesheaf. But please note, you were NOT told to number the days from wavesheaf, you were told to number the Sabbaths only. Period. Stop adding to the text instructions that are not there! Deuteronomy 4:2 Numbers 28:26 says the Feast of Firstfruits or Pentecost comes after your weeks be out. Weeks is the Hebrew shabua and literally means sevened not lunared. After your seven sevens are over and complete, then you observe the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. The Bible, An American Translation by Goodspeed says, counting fifty days to the day following the seventh Sabbath, and then you shall present to Yahweh a grain-offering from the new crop. The New English Bible says, The day after the seventh Sabbath will make 50 days Indeed, shabua means sevened not lunared. I m not sure lunared is even a word, but the weeks that are regulated by the moon are indeed seven days in length. What is the problem? And all of these translations agree with the King James Catholic translation of The King James translators did a terrible job of translating Leviticus 23:15-16, but at least they were unable to change the underlying Hebrew, leaving it intact for honest truth seekers to discover for themselves. An accurate translation will be offered below at the appropriate time. The Catholic Church observes a counterfeit Pentecost, and YRM is in lock step with the beast power of Rome. Is it any wonder that I adjured them in the Name YHVH Most High to account for themselves? Whose side is YRM on anyway? You can t have 7 Sabbaths totaling 51 or 52 days. [But we can because the new moon days are not week days. And you were not told to number days from wavesheaf, you were told to number Sabbaths. If you include the new moon days, the seventh Sabbath will be the 51 st to the 53 rd day from wavesheaf.] Because you are spanning two months it is impossible to accomplish this as commanded when a new moon interferes with one of those weeks by adding extra days. You cannot get 7 Sabbaths to equal 49 days under the lunar sabbath scheme. [This is true. But where in Scripture were you told that the seventh Sabbath is the 49 th day from wavesheaf? This is the Catholic version of Pentecost.] This fact alone proves the lunar scheme bogus. [On the contrary, it proves that the Catholic count is bogus.] One lunar sabbatarian claims that Pentecost is counted for seven weeks and then 50 days are added on top of that, making a combined 99 days. He has apparently never looked at the Hebrew behind the command. Oh yes we have; YRM has not looked at the Hebrew behind the command. YRM has just assumed that the Hebrew will back them up because they presume their own infallibility. We read in Leviticus 23:15-16: And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering unto Yahweh. [This is what it says in the King James English, not Hebrew.] In the phrase unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath, the word unto is the Hebrew ad and means against or until. Therefore the count goes all the way up to, until, the seventh Sabbath. And the numbered count totals 50 days, not an additional 50 days. 24

25 YRM does err, not knowing how to rightly divide the underlying Hebrew of Scripture. Observe As YRM has pointed out, ad or od (Strong s H-5704, H-5703) does NOT mean FROM the morrow after the 7th Sabbath, but H-4480 DOES. Guess where THAT word is? Leviticus 23:16 Even unto 5704 the morrow 4480, 4283 after the seventh 7637 sabbath 7676 shall ye number 5608 fifty 2572 days; 3117 and ye shall offer 7126 a new 2319 meat offering 4503 unto the LORD Look at what Strong s says about H-5704 though: whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until). Leviticus 23:16 is about time, not space, so we ve been applying the word in the wrong manner all along because the King James translators blew it BIG time. The Hebrew actually should be translated: WHILE 5704 FROM the morrow 4480, 4283 (after the) seventh Sabbath (shall ye) number fifty days (and ye shall) offer a new meat offering (unto) YHVH. The Fenton Translation is the ONLY translation that seems to be honest with this evidence: You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath that you bring the Wave- Sheaf, seven Sabbaths. They must be complete. Then after the seventh Sabbath, you shall count fifty days, when you shall present a new offering to the Ever-Living. Leviticus 23: st Month wave sheaf > <1 st Sabbath complete <2 nd complete week nd Month <3 rd complete week <4 th complete week <5 th complete week <6 th complete week 1.. 3rd Month <7 th complete week morrow after > th Sabbath th Month Feast of Weeks/Pentecost, days from the morrow <= after the Seventh Sabbath. JUST like it says. And guess what, the only wheat harvest found in Scripture is in the summer, not late spring. 25

26 Thus hath the Sovereign YHVH showed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit. And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said YHVH unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Sovereign YHVH: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence. Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? Amos 8:1-6 This summer fruit is apparently grapes, maybe olives, but there is wheat is on the scene. Let s keep looking But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in. And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her. And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives. Judges 15:1-5 Some might say that the wheat was destroyed which also burnt up the not yet ripe vineyards and olives. This is not the context of the passage, but for the sake of discussion, let s say that this is a possibility and continue studying Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. Daniel 2:35 Chaff comes from the threshing of wheat. Notice that the season is not in the spring, making the verses above lean in one direction. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. But the wheat and the rye were not smitten: for they were not grown up. Exodus 9:25, The wheat was not destroyed because it had just been sown. It takes 4 months for Spring wheat to mature making a summer crop, on or about the end of the fourth month. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in YHVH your Elohim: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. Joel 2:23-24 The threshing floors are full of wheat AND the vats are overflowing with wine and oil at the same time that the wheat is on the ground. Grapes and olives are as summer harvest, not spring. All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto YHVH, them have I given thee. Numbers 18:12 First fruits are only offered at pilgrimage feasts. Olive oil and new wine are summer crops, so is this first fuits of the wheat. There is no spring harvest of wheat in Scripture. 26

27 Early Sivan (June) is still the spring of the year. In Scripture, the wheat harvest is in the summer meaning Feast of Weeks occurs in the summer. The cloud is moving. We need either to follow or be left in the wilderness. Consider how the manna was regularly provided each week. When Israel was in the wilderness Exodus plainly teaches that the manna fell for six days, with a double portion falling on the sixth day because none would fall on the seventh-day Sabbath. This went on continuously for 40 years, Exodus 16:35. Nothing is said about a big interruption of this weekly manna cycle every fourth week by a couple of additional days at the end of the month when the new moon resets the week. Scripture says nothing, but there is anecdotal evidence in ancient Hebrew manuscripts and Hebrew scholars that Israel fasted on new moon days. Here are but two of many quotes Each new moon was celebrated with a fast (Jewish Family Celebrations, p. 35). And we also find the following: the sacred festival of the new moon, which the people give notice of with trumpets, and the day of fasting, on which abstinence from all meats and drinks is enjoined... (Philo, Book 26, XXX, 159). I find it interesting that science has shown that fasting once a month is great for your health. YRM, who has knowledge of the health message should jump up and shout, but they won t because they must also admit defeat regarding the manna issue. The land Sabbaths were important enough to the Father to cause Israel to go into captivity for 70 years in Babylon for NOT observing them. These land Sabbaths were also in 7 year sequences (like the days of weeks). Israel could sow and reap for the 6 years, but on the land Sabbath, they were to abstain. The Father caused a triple portion of produce to be harvested on the 6 th year to provide food for Israel during the 6 th year, the 7 th year (land Sabbath) and the first year of the subsequent 7 year sequence, since there was no sowing/reaping during the 7 th year land Sabbath. Also, there was neither sowing, nor reaping during the year of Jubilee. So the 48 th year of the Jubilee cycle had to provide produce for FOUR years (the 48 th, 49 th, 50 th and the first year of the subsequent Jubilee cycle). My point: Just because there is nothing said about eating manna on new moon days during the 40 year wilderness sojourn does not prove anything. This in no wise disproves the Creation Calendar. Actually, the Jubilee cycle proves just the opposite. The day(s) of new moon interrupt(s) the weeks, and the 50 th year interrupts the seven 7 year counts, it cannot double as the first year of the following Jubilee cycle because you can sow and reap on the first year of each land Sabbath, Leviticus 25:3. Israel apparently fasted on new moon, and in similar fashion, no one could sow and reap during the 50 th year of Jubilee, Leviticus 25:11. New moon days are a third category of day; the year of Jubilee is a third category of year. It is neither one of the six year of sowing/reaping, nor is it a 7 th year land Sabbath. Nothing is said that Israel starved for a few days at the end of each month because of additional Sabbath days or non-work days added to the month. For those who count those extra days as non-days, did it mean that a quarter of the time Israel got not 6 but 7, 8 or 9 days of manna gathering? If so, where in the Word is it found? 27

28 No, nothing is said, but when no manna fell, did anything have to be said? Must there be a positive command from YHVH what to eat if no manna fell on new moon? If no manna fell, Israel did not eat. Hello? I would not have thought so, but it appears that YRM must think with their stomachs, not their brains. Friends, no one starved after not eating for a mere 2 days at most. To mention such a critically important lunar interruption in the 7-day week could not possibly have slipped Yahweh s mind. It is inconceivable that He would not have warned Israel to prepare for it! After all, He warned them to be sure to gather extra on the sixth day to make up for none on the weekly Sabbath. So why did He not tell them also to gather extra manna the sixth day to eat on the seventh, eighth and possibly ninth day at month s end? Obviously no lunar-added days ever existed. That is correct. Israel was permitted to eat on the weekly Sabbath because it is numbered with the other feasts of YHVH. Had YHVH wanted them to eat on new moon, He would have told them to gather an extra portion, but unless Yah WANTED them to eat on new moon, the manna would have spoiled since it only lasted two days when collected on preparation day for the Sabbath meals. YRM, you have NO evidence to support your claim here. And a lack of a positive command in Scripture does not disprove our contention that ancient Israel fasted on new moon days. We have the anecdotal evidence. Since there is no command to fast on new moon, then eating IS permissible on new moon, as long as one is not waiting for extra manna (which apparently did not fall). This monthly lunar disruption is found nowhere in the Word because the Sabbath cycle that began in Genesis continued unabated. No additional, interpolated days ever interfered with it. That s funny, the very first new moon day (Genesis 1:1-2) is not counted in the first work week. As we said before, if the second month after Creation began with a new moon, and LAST month began with a new moon, what do you suppose the FIRST month of earth s history began with? New Testament Dynamites the Lunar Theory When it comes to the proper Biblical calendar, we need go back no further in time than when our Savior walked this earth. Some proponents claim that the lunar sabbath was established in Genesis but was replaced by today s continuous Sabbath cycle soon after the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity. Thus, lunar sabbatarians would have us believe that the remnant who returned to the land of Israel were (sic) keeping a false sabbath. We ve never made that claim. YRM, this is a false allegation, and is bordering on bearing false witness against thy neighbor. This would have been front-page news! Yet, not one word in Scripture about it. Israel (the 10% that returned with Ezra and Nehemiah) was observing the correct Sabbath upon their return from Babylon. It was the 90% who remained behind in Babylon that started the trouble, adopting several pagan Babylonian calendar observations, presented below in endnote 1. 28

29 The Sabbath set in motion by Yahweh continued to be in effect down to the first century, when Yahshua came in the flesh. We know that He came as one under the law, and that He never sinned (i.e., transgressed the law, 1Pet.2:22).We find Yahshua keeping the same Sabbath day holy as did His fellow Jews around Him (Matt 12:1-12/Mark 2:23-28; Mark 1:21; 3:1-4; 6:2; etc.). Yahshua never rebuked the Pharisees for keeping the wrong weekly sequence. Agreed, the first century residents of Israel were observing the Creation Calendar and lunar Sabbath, thus Yahshua needed not correct them. Now note these events in Yahshua s life. In John 7:37 it is recorded that on the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles (a high Sabbath that always falls on the 22nd day of the month) Yahshua cried out, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink! In chronological sequence, John 8:1-2 says, Yahshua went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. So now it s the 23 rd day of the month. I was hoping YRM (as feast keepers) would point this out. Even still, it is very sad because not only does this show their ignorance of Scripture, but also of the feasts of YHVH. Try reading Leviticus 23 again Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto YHVH. On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto YHVH Leviticus 23:34-36 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 YHVH seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. Leviticus 23:39 And ye shall keep it a feast unto YHVH seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths. Leviticus 23:41-42 Three times in Leviticus (3 witnesses) Tabernacles is a SEVEN day feast and it begins on the 15 th day of the seventh month Seven days. The 15 th is a Sabbath. The eighth day (22 nd day of the month) was not part of Tabernacles; it is an additional day APART from Tabernacles, Israel did not have to dwell in booths on the 8 th day, yet it is a Sabbath every year. If the 8 th day was part of Tabernacles, Israel would have to have dwelt in booths that day. Might have looked like this: (30) 29

30 Indeed, YHVH added an eighth day, but YHVH also said that the feast was SEVEN days in duration. The last great day of the SEVEN day feast that begins on the 15 th is the 21 st day of the month. There are 8 consecutive days of course, just as there are 8 consecutive days for Passover and Unleavened Bread, but YHVH also said that Unleavened Bread is only a seven day feast. Please read Leviticus 23:5-6. Chapter 9 is a continuation of the events of that same day when he heals a man of blindness. We are told that this was the weekly Sabbath, the 23 rd of the month, verse 14. [This verse does not say anything about it being the 23 rd day of the month. Have you considered reading this verse in context?] But lunar sabbatarians say the lunar sabbath falls on either the 21st or 22nd. Either scheme misses this provable 23 rd day Sabbath. (See John 7:37-38; 8:1-2, and John 9:1-3, 14, 16.) None of these verses say that the 23 rd is the Sabbath either, but that does seem to deter YRM from making these false claims. Every weekly Sabbath in Scripture that can be date identified falls on either the 8th, 15th, 22nd or 29th day of the month, without exception. This includes the New Testament. Every Sabbath observed by the man from Galilee, his disciples and later the apostles, that can be date identified also fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd or 29th days of the month. Let s address the one in question John 7:2 to John 9:14. You can read the whole narrative; but here is a short commentary 7:37 Yahshua spoke during the last great day (John 7:2 says this was the feast of Tabernacles.) 7:43-53 There was contention between the people and the religious authorities. After which every one went home. 8:1 Yahshua went to the Mount of Olives. I was taught that the eighth day of the Feast, the 22 nd day of the seventh month, is the last great day of Tabernacles. However, scripture does not teach this. Leviticus 23:34-36 says that Tabernacles begins on the 15th day of the seventh month and is a seven day feast. Count the days So the last great day of a seven day feast that begins on the 15 th is the 21 st day of the month. The EIGHTH day was a Set-Apart convocation, a day added to the seven day feast. The eighth day would be the 22 nd day of the seventh month. Let s see what Scripture calls the day after the last day of the feast. Watch now 8:2 The next day (the 22nd of the month), Yahshua returned to the temple. (Why? We shall soon see ) There, another lengthy debate took place 8:59 After which Yahshua was nearly stoned, but he passed through 9:1 as Yahshua left the temple, he passed by a blind man.read John 9:14: Now it was the Sabbath when Yahshua made the clay and opened his eyes. 30

31 Yahshua returned to the temple because it was the Sabbath. Let me say it again, the last day of the SEVEN day feast that begins on the 15 th, is the 21 st of the seventh month. The eighth day was the day AFTER the last great day. This proves that the 22 nd day of the 7 th month was and is the weekly Sabbath, just like it says in Leviticus 23. A weekly Sabbath, not an annual Sabbath. And Yahshua attested to this fact--without protest, I might add. Yahshua, his disciples and all of Israel observed this Sabbath, not as part of the seven day feast, but as the EIGHTH day. For this very reason, the eighth day is used as a Hebrew idiom for the weekly Sabbath in some instances in Scripture. What is complicated about this? It is merely reading the verses and using simple addition. Another math meltdown for the lunar sabbath scheme comes with Passover, which falls on the 14 th of the month of Abib. Yahshua was laid in the tomb at the end of Passover day the 14 th, just before sunset when the 15 th started. He rose three days later (Matt. 12:40), making it the end of the 17 th of Abib. He came out of the tomb just before sunset the weekly Sabbath because the two Marys found the tomb already empty at the end of the Sabbath, Matthew 28:1. Lunar sabbatarians say that the Sabbath must fall either on the 14 th or 15 th, but here on the most important week in all of human history the weekly Sabbath falls on the 17 th. What do you mean another math meltdown? When was the first one? Where does Scripture day he rose on the 17 th? Last I knew, he rose on wavesheaf as the firstfruit offering, and wavesheaf is ALWAYS the 16 th day of the first month, the morrow AFTER the Sabbath of Unleavened Bread (which is always the 15 th of Abib). Talk about taking a verse OUT of context. Matthew 28:1 does not say he rose three days later or that the two Marys came to the tomb at sunset, in fact, it says JUST the opposite In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. The arrived at the tomb at DAWN, not sunset. And please note that it was dawn of the FIRST day of the week. The first day of the week follows the seventh. Everyone accepts that Yahshua died and was interred on the 14 th day of the first month, aka Passover. And everyone generally accepts that this was a friday, because the next day was the Sabbath. Well, everyone but YRM apparently. Of the day Yahushua died it is said And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of Elohim, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. Mark 15:42-43, read verses to get the context. And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of Elohim. This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. 31

32 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. Luke 23:50-54 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 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. John 19:30-31 Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this phrase an high day means that it was the weekly and the annual Sabbath that is being spoken of. The 15 th day of the month is the second Sabbath of the month anyway, but in the first month, it is also the first day of Unleavened Bread. Yahshua was crucified on Passover day, Abib 14, and the day after was the WEEKLY Sabbath. This means that the Sabbath was the 15 th day of the month, NOT the 17 th as YRM would have you believe. YRM has wrongly divided the Word regarding the date of the weekly Sabbath and misinterpreted the meaning of the three days in the heart of the earth. More about this below. Having no other response, some lunar advocates take issue with Matthew 12:40, saying Yahshua s words about being in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights does not mean in the tomb. [That is correct. Heart of the earth does not mean tomb.] Yahshua, however, directly compared it to Jonah s being three days in the fish s belly. And Jonah describes his experience this way: And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto Yahweh, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell [sheol, grave] cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst [heart] of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me, Jonah 2:2-3. Midst means to be enclosed (Hebrew labab). Jonah was encompassed about by water. Obviously Yahshua was enclosed by the tomb in the earth for three days just as Jonah was enclosed in the belly of the beast for three days. Heart of the earth means the land of Israel. Please understand that Scripture is its own dictionary and the FIRST time this phrase is used is in Genesis 48:16. Matthew was writing his gospel to Israelites so he wrote in terms that they would readily recognize. In the heart of is very much a Hebrew idiom or expression, a figure of speech. This phrase is found several times throughout the Old Testament, which was the only Scripture extant at the time Matthew wrote. Let s examine some of them. The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth, Genesis 48:16. See also Exodus 8:22, Psalm 74:12, and Daniel 4:10 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he showed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. Deuteronomy 4:36 There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid. Proverbs 30:

33 Midst of the earth and heart of the earth are the same thing. Heart of the earth is a Hebrew idiom used in both the OT and the NT and it is never used to mean grave. If Yahshua had wanted to say he was going to be in the grave for 3 days and 3 nights, he had plenty of words and expressions to choose from: grave, sheol, hell, the pit, gehenna, tartarus, the abyss, hades, etc. Granted, some of those are Greek, not Hebrew/Aramaic, but the Greek translators did not use the Greek equivalent for grave either. He is saying that he will be in the middle of Israel for three days and three nights. What exactly is meant by this is open to debate, but what cannot be successfully argued is that this phrase means grave when it literally means something on the surface of the earth, not 6 feet under (so to speak). How can we know? Do any of the above passages in any way indicate a location beneath the surface of the earth or sea? Is a ship that is in the heart of the ocean on the surface or has it sunk to the bottom? Was the heavenly voice heard from underneath the fire or out of the middle of it? Many (including me at one point) thought that the sign of Jonah meant the time he spent in the belly of the great fish. And if you only read Matthew s account, this is easy to think. But stopping there will show our lack of studiousness. Read Luke s account. If you compare Matthew 12 to Luke 11:29-32, the sign of Jonah is about the message Jonah gave the Ninevites, not the interesting journey Jonah endured getting to Ninevah. Evidence: What was the only sign Jonah gave the Ninevites? It was repent or die. The Ninevites had no knowledge of Jonah s interesting ride to the shore. In case you have never considered this, Ninevah is about 600 miles from the shore where Jonah was vomited out on the beach. Do you suppose that it was one of Darwin s fish that had sprouted legs permitting this great fish to walk on to Ninevah? There is no evidence that Jonah gave this testimony in Ninevah, so the Ninevites had no knowledge of it. So how could it be a sign for the Ninevites if they knew nothing of it? What was the ONLY sign Yahshua gave to the scribes and Pharisees? The same one Jonah gave Ninevah. Repent or die. There is always perfect harmony in the truth. In order to have Yahshua in the tomb for three full days and be resurrected on a Sunday some say that Passover must have been on a Wednesday. Even then the resurrection is forced to take place minutes after sundown on the Sabbath (from sunset on the 14th to sunset on the 17th) when Scripture said it took place shortly before dawn on the first day of the week. (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1 and John 20:1) This segment of their calendar looks like this: Interestingly, if you were to count backward by seven using today s calendar, Passover was on what we now call tuesday (if 31 A.D. is the crucifixion year), not friday or wednesday. Look at the calendar model above. Let s assume for a moment that the remark about the sign of Jonah WAS Prophetic, the prophecy was for 3 Days and 3 Nights (in that order). Order is everything in a prophecy. That is one way to determine if it was a false prophecy or a false fulfillment. If he was buried at even (at sunset) on the 14th, then he was in the tomb for 3 nights and 3 days, not 3 day and 3 nights. Which would be a false fulfillment, right? And in order for him to be the wavesheaf, he would have had to be resurrected right at dawn, the morrow after the Sabbath. 33

34 Yet by forcing a 3 day/3 night prophecy onto this passage (and applying it to a calendar) he would have been raised at sunset on the 17th, the seventh day, not at dawn the first day: 14th n, 15th d/n, 16th d/n, 17th d -- that s 3 nights and 3 days. And according to the NT record, he was resurrected on the first day of the week, not the seventh (see passages above). Understanding the weekend of the crucifixion in this manner creates another very critical problem. See the first calendar model above. It is correctly said that the Sabbath that occurred after Passover was the first day of Unleavened Bread (Abib 15). The problem is that this forces the 17th of Abib to be some spurious weekly Sabbath after which would follow resurrection Sunday (the 18th as presented here). Now, count backward seven days from the 17th. Do you know what the 10th day of Abib was for? See calendar illustration at the bottom of previous page. Every year, on the 10th day of Abib, Israel was commanded to go into the field and select the Passover lamb and set it aside. In the first century, folks who did not have livestock went to the temple and purchased a sacrifice. There are no instructions to postpone the purchase or to make the purchase a day early if the 10th just happened to fall on the Sabbath. Isn t that odd? You cannot say that this was Holy Work or a Holy Purchase because these were common men, not the priests. There is no such thing as a Set-Apart (holy) purchase. Commerce is commerce. Those who force Passover (Abib 14) to fall on a wednesday have a problem. See again the calendar model on the previous page. If the 17th was a Sabbath, so was the 10th. The 17th is nowhere called a Sabbath, but the 10th IS a commanded work day, see Exodus 12:3-6. If you will read Leviticus 23 you will find that the Passover is the 14th of Abib, the Sabbath is the following day, the 15th so the morning AFTER the Sabbath is the 16th. Unless I ve missed something somewhere, it is always best to make things line up with Torah. The resurrection took place on the 16th in the NT if the OT is to be believed. What is NOT to be believed is that the phrase in the heart of the earth has anything to do with a grave/tomb. The day after Passover in the year of the crucifixion was most certainly the weekly Sabbath, see Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54-56, John 19:31. Now, let s put the Abib 14 back where it belongs as preparation day for the Sabbath (see below) and add the false prophecy of 3 days and 3 nights IN THE TOMB, and now Yahshua would have been raised at sunset on the 17th, the second day of the week, not the first day at dawn. There is nothing about the statement in Matthew 12 that is prophetic or that found fulfillment at the crucifixion There are many places where the man from Galilee said he would rise on the third day. Third day and 3 days and 3 nights are two different things. Let me explain. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. If the text said it had only rained for 40 days, that would mean it stopped raining at night, raining only during daylight hours. That s why the flood account reads as it does, specifically mentioning day AND night. Third day means exactly that. We have an example in Exodus 19:11. 34

35 And YHVH said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, And be ready against the third day: for the third day YHVH will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. Exodus 19:10-11 Look at the context (verse 10). Today, tomorrow and the third day comprises the three days in question. There are MANY places in the 4 gospels where the man from Galilee says he will rise on the third day. Only one where he says in three days he would rise (John 2:19), and in this account he distinctly does not add three nights to his statement. In the context of how days are counted, he was killed on the 14th, rested on the 15th, and raised on the third day (the 16th). The accounts in Matthew 12 and Luke 11 taken together say nothing about him being in the grave for any amount of time. There isn t a word or phrase that means grave in either passage. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20 A couple of things: 1. Leviticus 23:4-14 gives the timeline for this particular event. If it is prophetic, then anti-type has to line up with it to the letter. Leviticus 23 is Torah. In this passage, Abib 14 is passover, the next day is the Sabbath of unleavened Bread, and the morrow after the Sabbath (Abib 16) is wavesheaf. If you want a historical reference for this, is Josephus acceptable? In The Antiquities of the Jews, Chapter 10, section 5, he has this to say about the Passover season: (248) In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of the year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians, and law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so we do celebrate this Passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. (249) The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month and continued seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened bread (250) But on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day, they do not touch them.. (251) They take a handful of ears, and dry them, then beat them small and purge the barley from the bran; they then bring one tenth deal to the altar, to Elohim; and, casting one handful of it upon the fire they leaven the rest for use of the priest; and after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest. Josephus is explaining to the Gentile nations how the barley could be harvested on the 16th, and says exactly what Leviticus 23 says about the feast of Passover, Unleavened Bread and wavesheaf. 35

36 2. If you are going to apply the timeline of Leviticus 23 to the crucifixion, than you are obliged (dare I say, forced) to stay within the parameters of the text. That means you have the 14th, 15th, and 16th to work with. If it speaks not according to this word, there is no light in it. Yahshua clinches it when He Himself began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again, Mark 8:31. See also John 2:19 and 21. Paul confirms it as well in 1Corinthians 15:3-4: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Even the chief priests and Pharisees testify to Yahshua s statement that after three days He would rise again, Matthew 27:63. And as pointed out, after three days and three days and three nights means two different things. Rising on the third day is synonymous with after three days. Furthermore, those who contend that the 14 th of each month is a Sabbath of rest and no commerce must explain why this 14 th day of the month of Abib is called in the New Testament a preparation day (which is Passover day, the day of preparation for the high Sabbath and not a Sabbath itself). This 14 th day is a day of work and commerce, not a day of rest. See Mark 15:42-46; Luke 23:53-54; John 13:29. No lunar Sabbath keepers think that the 14 th is the weekly Sabbath for the reasons YRM pointed out above. If the DO think this, it is a short lived thought as the evidence does not support the 14 th day of any month being the Sabbath. However, on a positive note, at least they are thinking. Please remember that ANY passage in Scripture that provides evidence of one Sabbath falling on the 8th, 15th, 22nd or the 29th day of the month proves the calendar below: New Moon Days First Week Day Second Week Day Third Week Day Fourth Week Day Fifth Week Day Sixth Week Day Seventh Week Day (30) As a side note, which further destroys the concept of satyrday being the Sabbath, let me give you some passages that prevent the Sabbath from falling on certain other dates... Abib 10, the Passover lamb must be purchased. As pointed out by YRM, Abib 14 is always the preparation day for first day of Unleavened Bread, see Leviticus 23:5-6, Matthew 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54--24:1, John 19:14, 31, 42 John 20:1. The barley could be harvested on the 16th after the Wave Sheaf had been offered the morning of the 16th, Leviticus 23:9-14. The fact is that the 10th, 14th and 16th days of Abib (which all float around on the Roman calendar) are, without exception, commanded work days. 36

37 There isn t one, but IF there was a continuous 7 day cycle in Scripture, every few years either the 10th, 14th, and 16th of Abib will fall on a satyrday. Evidence: Abib 10 fell on a satyrday in The 14th of Abib fell on satyrday in 2004, 2008 and The 16th of Abib fell on a satyrday in 2002, 2006 and There is no legislation provided to do the tasks commanded to be performed on these days a day early or a day late IF these dates just happened to fall on the Sabbath; these work dates are fixed. And YHVH never has Israel do common work on a rest day. He is not the author of confusion. Please look at the calendar above. Since the 10th of Abib can never fall on the weekly Sabbath, neither can the 3rd, 17th or 24th days of the first month. Since the 14th of Abib can never fall on the weekly Sabbath, neither can the 7th, 21st or 28 th days of the first month. Since the 16th of Abib can never fall on the weekly Sabbath, neither can the 2nd, 9th or 23rd days of the first month. Since the Sabbaths in the first month can NEVER fall on days 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 14, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24 or 28, that is a pretty BIG dent in the days of the first month that the Sabbath can NEVER fall on. Can any pagan/papal/man-made/solar-only calendar satisfy these demands? Hardly! If you are looking for evidence, this ALONE blows up the Gregorian calendar! Those who believe a switch to the universal Sabbath cycle came after the time of the Messiah and who believe the Jews (including Yahshua) were still keeping lunar sabbaths must explain why both Scripture and subsequent history show the contrary. The switch from the lunar Sabbath to the universal Sabbath as YRM calls it came after A.D. 70. Scripture says nothing about the Sabbath being satyrday, or that it is the seventh day in an unbroken, uninterrupted cycle of seven days, so Scripture does not show anything contradictory to the lunar Sabbath. In fact, Scripture contradicts YRM s Sabbath at every turn. So does history. It s odd that YRM thinks that history contradicts Israel s lunar Sabbath. If this is true, then what are all these quotes about? The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle. Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p No quote can be clearer than this. each lunar month was divided into four parts, corresponding to the four phases of the moon. The first week of each month began with the new moon, so that, as the lunar month was one or two days more than four periods of seven days, these additional days were not reckoned at all. Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, p Article "Week." The Sabbath depending, in Israel s nomadic period, upon the observation of the phases of the moon, could not, according to this view, be a fixed day. the Hebrew Sabbathon was celebrated at intervals of seven days, corresponding with changes in the moon s phases... Encyclopedia Biblica, p In the time of the earliest prophets, the New Moon stood in the same line with another lunar observance, the Sabbath. Ezekiel, who curiously enough frequently dates his prophecies on the New Moon describes the gate of the inner court of the (new) temple looking eastward as kept shut for the six working days, but opened on the Sabbath and the New Moon. Scribner's Dictionary of the Bible (1898 edit.), p

38 The Hebrew month is a lunar month and the quarter of this period one phase of the moon appears to have determined the week of seven days. Encyclopedia Biblica, p And why have we never been taught any of this??? The [early] Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks which ended with special observances on the seventh day but none the less were tied to the moon s course. Hutton Webster, in his book, Rest Days, page 254. In the article Shawui Calendar: Ancient Shawui Observance, we find confirmation of a radical change in YHVH s calendar. The [lunar]...calendar was used by all the original disciples of Yeshua... This original Nazarene lunar-solar calendar was supplanted by a Roman planetary week and calendar in 135 C.E. -- when the Bishops of the Circumcision (i.e. legitimate Nazarene successors to Yeshua) were displaced from Jerusalem. This began a three hundred year controversy concerning the true calendar and correct Sabbath. This intimate connection between the week and the month was soon dissolved. It is certain that the week soon followed a development of its own, and it became the custom -- without paying any regard to the days of the month (i.e. the lunar month) --...so that the New Moon no longer coincided with the first day [of the month ]. Encyclopedia Biblica, (1899 edit.), p the custom of celebrating the Sabbath every 7th day, irrespective of the relationship of the day to the moon s phases, led to a complete separation from the ancient view of the Sabbath... Encyclopedia Biblica, (1899 edit.), p The calendar was originally fixed by observation, and ultimately by calculation. Up to the fall of the Temple (A.D. 70), witnesses who saw the new moon came forward and were strictly examined and if their evidence was accepted the month was fixed by the priests. Eventually the authority passed to the Sanhedrin and ultimately to the Patriarch. Gradually observation gave place to calculation. The right to determine the calendar was reserved to the Patriarchate; the Jews of Mesopotamia [Ed. this is the land of Babylon] tried in vain to establish their own calendar but the prerogative of Palestine was zealously defended. So long as Palestine remained a religious centre, it was naturally to the homeland that the Diaspora looked for its calendar. Uniformity was essential, for if different parts had celebrated feasts on different days confusion would have ensued. It was not until the 4 th century A.D. that Babylon fixed the calendar Encyclopedia Britannica: Vol. 4, article Calendar. These imported [from Babylon] superstitions eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn Shabbti, the star of the Sabbath, [and]...it was not until the first century of our era, when the planetary week had become an established institution, that the Jewish Sabbath seems always to have corresponded to Saturn s Day [Satyrday]. Hutton Webster in his book, Rest Days, p Thus the condemnation in Amos 5:26 was set in stone. In Amos 5:26, the prophet is recorded as reminding Israel of their apostasy. Israel started worshipping Chiun, a star-god of their own making. In Acts 7:43, Stephen quotes Amos and is translated into Greek as saying Remphan, the star-god Chiun and Remphan are the respective Hebrew and Greek words for Saturn. The Sabbath of Scripture is based upon the lunar cycle. So Israel did indeed come to worship Saturn on his day, but at a much later date and not by Divine command. 38

39 With the development of the importance of the Sabbath as a day of consecration and the emphasis laid upon the significant number seven, the week became more and more divorced from its lunar connection... Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: Vol. 10, 1943 edit. Article, "Week," p The four quarters of the moon supply an obvious division of the month...it is most significant that in the older parts of the Hebrew scriptures the new moon and the Sabbath are almost invariably mentioned together. The [lunar] month is beyond question an old sacred division of time common to all the semites; even the Arabs, who received the week at quite a late period from the Syrians, greeted the New Moon with religious acclamations. We cannot tell [exactly] when the Sabbath became disassociated from the month. Encyclopedia Biblica, 1899 edit., pp How is it that Scholars cannot tell when the Sabbath was disassociated from the lunar cycle while modern satyrday sabbath keepers in general deny that the Sabbath was ever connected with the moon in the first place? The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider. Isaiah 1:3 The Pagan Part Oh, this ought to be good! I just showed you the evidence that satyrday observance is pagan in origin, now YRM thinks they are going to pin this label on the lunar Sabbath of YHVH. Throughout history men have instituted their own calendars for determining time. The Assyrians and Babylonians set up a weekly cycle based upon the moon somewhat like the lunar sabbatarians of today. That does not mean they took their idea from Israel and the Jews. If that were the case did the Babylonians also observe the Sabbath just like the Jews? Or did they pervert it by basing it on the moon? These were idol worshipers. Of course they perverted worship. Ancient societies also practiced human sacrifice; does that mean the Jews originated the practice of human sacrifice? Clearly not. Actually, all nations at a certain point in time had a lunar solar calendar that consisted of 12 thirty day months for a 360 day year. This was the calendar instituted at Creation. To answer YRM s question, the Babylonians (and all other nations) did indeed pervert the calendar of Creation by adding their false gods to it. As they ceased to worship the Creator, they began to worship what YHVH created the sun, moon, planets, etc. Lunar sabbatarians would have us believe that the pagans corrupted only the nature of Sabbath worship, not the actual weekly cycles supposedly based upon the moon. Ancient Babylonians worshiped the moon ( Asherah ) as part of their shabbatum veneration. This fact strongly suggests that they also perverted the weekly cycle in order to complement their devotion to the moon. 39

40 Most lunar Sabbatarians have not studied this at all. Those who have understand that up to a certain point it time, all nations had the same calendar, just as up to one point, all peoples had the same language (the language of Eden). And just as the Father confused all languages, forcing the heathens to worship their false gods via a language other then the language of Eden, He later forced all these heathen nations to re-work their calendars by shaking up the order of things in our solar system. Scholars admit and agree that there was a cosmic disturbance in the 8 th or 7 th century B.C., but cannot agree on the exact event. Before this time, EVERY nation on earth had the same identical calendar (mentioned above). Here is the evidence in Scripture for a 360 day year that consists of 12 thirty day months. Genesis 7:11 says that the flood began on the 17th day of the second month. Genesis 8:4 says the water prevailed upon the face of the earth until the 17th day of the seventh month. That is 5 months. Genesis 7:24 and 8:3 say that the water prevailed upon the earth for 150 days. 150 divided by 5 = 30. So there were 5 consecutive 30 day months in Scripture, which is not possible with the current relationship between the earth and moon. So, we have solid Scriptural proof that the months were all originally 30 days in length. The lunar cycle is now 29.5 days rather than 30 day in length. Ever wondered why a year in prophecy is 360 days long? Now you know. A 360 day lunar-solar year was the one established at Creation. It was not until YHVH dented His clock that there were 29 day months. Feel free to ask more about this dent. While studying ancient calendars, a scholar named Immanuel Velikovsky discovered that in approximately one generation, all nations suddenly had differing calendars. Why? Because the sun and moon are the only time keepers mentioned in Scripture and something happened in the cosmos to alter the relationship earth has with the sun and moon. That would be the handiwork of YHVH. No different than He stopped all heathens from profaning His Name using the language of Eden at the tower of Babel, the Creator shook up our solar system, effectively shaking out the pretenders knowing that only His people would find a way to continue to observe His calendar. HalleluYah. No longer would the heathens worship their pagan gods using the lunar-solar calendar established at Creation. So, yes, there is evidence that Assyria and Babylon had lunar-solar calendars. All it proves is the point I ve just made. Israel retained their lunar-solar calendar, all other nations fell away, adopting solar only calendars of their own devising. Again we ask, is there any place in Scripture saying that the weekly cycle is established by the sun or moon? If lunar sabbaths are truly based in Scripture, why would we have to search all over its pages with a magnifying glass to find even a hint of them? [You don t need a magnifying glass, all you need is a teachable spirit. If you acknowledge that there is a hint of evidence, why have you not tried to ferret it out? How can you sleep nights knowing you have left something undone?] When something so simple as the continuous weekly cycle is made so complicated, then something is instinctively wrong. [The Creation Calendar is so simple a child can understand. The Gregorian calendar is so complicated, that it is taught in school. And something that IS taught is that it was invented by Pope Gregory in 1582, not by YHVH at Creation.] When a doctrine lacks scriptural evidence and must be explained with suppositions, human explanations and forced or twisted scripture, then it is always suspect. Forced? Twisted? Suppositions? Hmmph! 40

41 Ok, since you asked for the evidence again, here it is Genesis 1:14 says that the two great lights would be for signs (owth), seasons (mo edim), days and years. Thus the calendar of Yah is in the heavens. Exodus 31:13, Ezekiel 20:12, and 20:20 all say that the Sabbath is a sign, using the SAME Hebrew word found in Genesis 1:14 (owth), meaning signal or beacon. Psalm 104:19 says that the moon will regulate the seasons (mo edim the calendar appointed times, set feasts in context). Leviticus 23:1-3 shows the weekly Sabbath to be the first feast (mo edim--appointed times, set feasts). This alone is enough to prove that the Sabbath is by the moon. Ha Satan is working with all power and lying wonders to deceive even the very elect (Matthew 24:24). His greatest desire is to cause those who are under the sign of the covenant the Sabbath to become confused about that sign and turn away from the covenant. If he cannot get them to keep Sunday in place of the true seventh-day Sabbath, then He will be satisfied just to have them turn to floating sabbaths as taught by lunar sabbatarians. Either way the true Sabbath is violated and the Adversary is pleased. The very elect deceive themselves. If Satan wanted to steal away Yah s children, he should be going after those with hearts that are teachable like children. Various Verses Vindicated Here are common passages used by lunar sabbatarians equating the new moon day with the Sabbath. Leviticus 23:2-4: Yahweh s command for the seven annual Feasts is prefaced in verse 2 by the statement that these are the Feasts of Yahweh and holy convocations. Then He notes the weekly Sabbath in verse 3, placing the Sabbath equal in significance to the Feasts. [This is quite an admission.] Yet it is not one of the annual Feasts because verse 4 restates that these (meaning what is to follow) are the Feasts of Yahweh. [That is correct, the weekly Sabbath occurs on a weekly basis.] Not being an annual Feast, the Sabbath is not set by the monthly new moon as are the annual Feasts. How so? How can the annual feasts, which are specific dates of a LUNAR month be regulated by the moon, but the weekly Sabbaths, which are also days of the LUNAR month, are not? And these two types of Sabbaths, weekly and annual, are BOTH called mo edim, which is without question one of the calendar segments that the Creator commanded to be regulated by one of the two great lights. While Psalms 104:19 specifically states that the moon would regulate the calendar mo edim. YRM has no answer for this, nor dare they try, because there are folks out here who know how to rightly divide the Word of Yah without filtering it through their own traditions. 41

42 Ps. 81:3: Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. The reference in Psalm 81:3 is to the Feast of Trumpets on the first of the seventh month, the only festival that falls on a new moon; the verse calls it a solemn feast day because it is Trumpets, not because it is a new moon. Other versions split the verse and speak of two different observances: the new moon and a separate feast day: The Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament Sound the ram s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our Feast. New Living Translation Blow the ram s horn at new moon, and again at full moon to call a festival! The New Jerusalem Bible Blow the trumpet for the new month, for the full moon, for our feast day! Psalm 104:19: He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down. Seasons is moedim, meaning fixed times, festivals. In His commands for the Feasts, Yahweh clearly gives the day of the month when they occur, such as Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Tabernacles and the exact count to the Feast of Weeks. [Indeed, and it is not the Catholic count observed by YRM.] All are based on the start of the month and its new moon. But He never describes the weekly Sabbath as being so many days from the beginning of the month or new moon. The Sabbath link to the new moon is nonexistent....in the minds of YRM anyway. For the record, Psalm 81:3 is speaking about two different appointments. New moon and more than likely the Feast of Unleavened Bread since in the context of the passage, it speaks of Israel s release from bondage in Egypt. Israel left Egypt on the first day of Unleavened Bread, which was announced by a full moon the evening before. For the record, full moon in this passage is mistranslated. The underlying Hebrew means fully covered moon (hidden or concealed), so that part is about the new moon segment also. However, in context the phrase solemn feast day is referring to the 15 th day of Abib, the first day of Unleavened Bread. Amos 8:5: When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? Is this passage saying the new moon is a Sabbath with no commerce allowed? As shown, work on the new moon was prescribed by Yahweh and therefore the new moon cannot be a non-labor Sabbath. Amos 8:5 is likely speaking of the Feast of Trumpets, a Feast that is also a new moon day. On a Feast high day no work or commerce is to be performed. Commerce was not performed on new moon according to this verse, but this does not prohibit certain types of non-commerce labor, such as creating heaven and earth, erecting the desert tabernacle, relaying the foundation of Solomon s destroyed temple, or going into battle on at least two occasions. 42

43 It is possible that Feast of Trumpets is implied in Amos 8:5, but there is no hard evidence that this is the case. Few lunar Sabbatarians observe the new moon as a Sabbath, so this argument is weak from its inception. Another possibility centers on the Hebrew. Because the Hebrew word translated new moon here (chodesh) can also mean month, some scholars (going back 2,000 years) have interpreted Amos as referring to a harvest month: Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it of the month of harvest, when the poor found what to eat in the fields; when they gleaned there they got a sufficiency of bread, and so had no need to buy corn [Lev. 23:22]; and hence these rich misers, who hoarded up the grain, are represented as wishing the harvest month were over that they might sell their grain to the poor, having had no demand for it during that month. (John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible, Amos 8:5 note) Month is how the Douay-Rheims version translates new moon. I d say this is a stretch as in context the verse mentions nothing of these misers waiting an entire month to sell their wares. It mentions new moon and Sabbath as the only time these misers were separated from the poor. At most this is a 2 or 3 day interruption. Regarding sacrifices, if every new moon day is a Sabbath then we should find the command to make the Sabbath offering on new moon days as well. Yet, no such command is given (Numbers 28:1-15). And finally, once again, the new moon days are not Sabbaths. Congratulations to YRM for figuring this out. So, that s it? Well, I have to say on a whole that coming from well known feast keepers, this has been very poorly researched, very poorly documented, and not very well prepared. Then again, when you go up against YHVH, mere men never gain any traction. Even still, I expected YRM to offer something that at least on the surface looked like evidence against the Creation Calendar. Most of what YRM presented for not keeping the lunar Sabbath of the Creation Calendar was excuses, not evidence against the Calendar of Creation. Online Studies Q&A Search Free Literature Free DVDs Home Copyright Yahweh s Restoration Ministry. All rights reserved. I have maintained the copyright of YRM. I have not altered a jot or tittle of their work, nor am I charging anything for the copy of the rebuttal you now hold. Respectfully submitted, Troy Miller 43