Calendar Conflicts!
Saturday Sabbath
CANNOT
be reconciled with the
Annual Moedim of Scripture
You may have heard the old adage, “Don’t let the facts get in your way!” Well it seems we’re rather adept at not letting the facts of Calendar Conflicts get in the way of our false and untimely observation of YHWH’s Moedim. This article will bring you face to face with unresolvable Calendar Conflicts that have existed for over 1600 years! Apostate Jews suffering the indignation of an angry ALMIGHTY via the persecution of the Roman Empire sought to relieve themselves of this persecution and by doing so revealed their true colors by uniting the set-apart Calendar of the Creator with the calendar of the Roman Empire eons ago in an unholy union and if you want to become the Bride of Messiah then time is long past due for us to site ‘irreconcilable differences’ and have the Calendar of the Creator divorced from this abominable alliance in our minds and actions.
As a Full Moon Rosh Chodesh Lunar Sabbath observer I love to share what I have gleaned from other people’s fields of study and discovery regarding the true Scriptural Calendar, let’s call it The Creator’s Cosmological Calendar, also known on this website as ‘THE MASTER’S CLOCK!’ It is somewhat amazing or should I say disappointing when people don’t respond to my witness on the Lunar Sabbath calendar of Scripture the way I did once I finally allowed the message to be heard. It has only been recently that I realized, “Why should they?” They haven’t had the foundation laid for them as it had been for me to take it seriously. To those who have experienced the witness of Lunar Sabbath Observance and rejected it, it’s as though Lunar Sabbath Observance was ‘just another option’ from a smorgasbord of calendars. The response is often either ridicule or a ho hum, “I think I’ll stick with what I’ve got.” As though one is as good as the other, just a different flavor. Brothers and Sisters, it is anything but that! It has finally dawned on me that we need a simple, straightforward education on today’s ‘Calendar Conflicts!’ The status quo must go!
If a person doesn’t know there are unresolvable ‘can’t be so’ problems in keeping two different calendars, one for the Annual Moedim and the other for the weekly Sabbath, resulting in huge Calendar Conflicts that seem to just get swept under the rug, then why should they respond to the message I bring of a restored Scriptural calendar which removes ALL of the problems that presently exist?
Now, before you too blow this article off as unimportant please realize that I am not talking just about one or two pesky Calendar Conflicts of no real consequence but rather about a dozen or so ‘unresolvable problems’ that exist mostly by keeping a Saturday Sabbath that rolls around every seven days according the Gregorian calendar. These ‘unresolvable problems’ include workdays landing on Sabbaths, preparation days for the Sabbath landing on the Sabbath, New Moon Days landing on workdays and Sabbaths, High Sabbaths landing on workdays, the beginning of days and believe it or not the postponement of the months. None of these Calendar Conflicts should exist in a set-apart time keeping method of YHWH. That should be obvious.
Over the millennia there have been many calendar changes made, let me begin with several quotes from Jewish sources taken from a video produced by Worlds Last Chance titled ‘In Defense of Lunar Sabbath' (Part 1)… remember, these are Jewish sources!
The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle….
(“Holidays,” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 410.)
The months of the year were lunar, and began with the new moon.
(The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, “Calendar,” p. 631.)
Declaring the new month by observation of the new moon, and the new year by the arrival of spring, can only be done by the Sanhedrin. In the time of Hillel II [4th century A.D.], … the Romans prohibited this practice. Hillel II was therefore forced to institute his fixed calendar….
(“The Jewish Calendar; Changing the Calendar,” www.torah.org.)
“The present Jewish calendar was fixed in the fourth century.”
(Louis Finkelstein)
the modern Jewish calendar is based upon the “…. mean motions of the sun and moon, the true [calendar] having been set aside.”
(Maimonides, Kiddusch Ha-hodesch.)
Friend, it is a historical fact that the calendar the Jews keep today is not the calendar of Scripture, it was set-aside in the 4th Century, if not earlier! In setting aside their Scriptural observance of the 7th Day Sabbath Hillel II fixed the new Jewish 7th Day Sabbath observance to the 7th Day of the revised Julian calendar, which utilized a 7-day pagan planetary god week. Once the Roman Emperor Constantine ‘venerated the Day of the Sun’ by promoting it from its 2nd Day position in the pagan planetary god week to the 1st Day of the pagan planetary god week I believe Hillel II saw an opportunity to gather the troops so to speak in unity in the midst of great persecution via fixing their 7th Day Sabbath observance to the new 7th Day of the Julian calendar… Saturn’s Day! Via Constantine’s ‘venerating the Day of the Sun’ Saturn’s Day had been bumped from the 1st Day of the pagan planetary god week to the 7th Day of the pagan planetary god week! Unity became more important than observance of the true 7th Day Sabbath of Scripture! Sadly, we still see this today.
There is a quote that is incredibly apropos here…
“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
(Edmund Burke)
It was an incredible blunder, even in the face of horrendous persecution, for the Sanhedrin of Hillel II to have compromised observance of the true 7th Day Sabbath of YHWH by fixing the 7th Day Sabbath observance of the Jews to the 7th Day of the pagan planetary god week of the Julian calendar for the sake of unity or even survival in tough times. And today, because the vast majority of people who are seeking to keep the true Scriptural 7th Day, but don’t know this history, are repeating the same mistake!
It is ‘A HUGE ASSUMPTION’ to believe Saturn’s Day is the 7th Day of Scripture!
I believe it is through the Roman persecution of the Jews that YHWH sorts out those who truly follow His Torah and therefore His Cosmological Calendar from those who follow the traditions of men. Due to the Roman persecution there can be no doubt that observance of the true Scriptural Sabbath of YHWH was becoming more and more difficult from at least 70 A.D. onward. With that persecution it is totally reasonable to believe ‘a great falling away’ had taken place and a great part of that falling away included false calendar observation. It is therefore reasonable to believe that when Hillel II ‘fixed the calendar’ to the Julian calendar he was actually only revealing the method the Sanhedrin had been using to calculate the calendar for quite sometime. The apostasy of Saturn’s Day observance may have been in play ever since the Roman Emperor Constantine ‘venerated the Day of the Sun’ somewhere around 321-325 A.D. In revealing the ‘fixed calendar’ in 359-360 A.D. Hillel II may have merely revealed the secret method the Sanhedrin had been using to calculate the calendar that included a special ‘postponement rule’. That ‘postponement rule’ has been added to since then and now there are four ‘postponement rules’ and they are the ‘elephant in the room’ that nobody seems to acknowledge! The fact is these ‘postponement rules’ are the ‘smoking gun’ that unequivocally demonstrates that a problem came into existence when the Sanhedrin and Hillel II ‘fixed the calendar’ of Jewish observance to the Julian Calendar requiring the development and implementation of a method of ‘manipulating’ the Annual Moedim according to the new calculated calendar that brought about the problem in the first place. So what caused the problem requiring a ‘postponement rule’ to manipulate the beginning of months and therefore the Annual Moedim? It was adopting Saturn’s Day as the new 7th Day Sabbath of the Jews! I’ll be talking more about the ‘postponement rules’ later.
Let’s briefly compare these two vastly different calendars.
As noted in the Jewish quotes above the true Scriptural calendar begins its months via the sighting of the New Moon and the Sabbath was also dependent upon the lunar cycle, the weekly cycle being reset with every New Moon Day. This is substantially different from the Julian calendar to which Hillel II fixed the Jewish 7th Day Sabbath observance. The Julian calendar ignored the moon altogether in reckoning the months and the weeks, as does today’s Gregorian calendar! The New Moon sighting will fall on any given day of the Gregorian calendar’s months and the weekly cycle runs uninterrupted through the months and years. These are two of the greatest differences between the Scriptural calendar and the Gregorian calendar that join forces to create the Calendar Conflicts that exist today! And if you are not aware of these Calendar Conflicts why would you pay any attention to those of us who are striving to restore a Scriptural calendar or why should you go looking for a calendar that fixes the conflicts if you don’t know Calendar Conflicts exist?
I am so thankful for having stumbled into the Worldwide Church of God as I was exiting Sunday Christianity. It was through this Saturday keeping group of people that I was introduced to the many Calendar Conflicts that exist today when trying to keep two different calendars, the COG's semi-Scriptural calendar for the Annual Moedim and the Gregorian calendar for the COG's weekly Sabbath. This introduction of mine to Calendar Conflicts began back in 2003 give or take, I read countless articles written by very scholarly individuals trying to reconcile the Scriptural calendar to the Gregorian calendar. These individuals came to differing conclusions that led to great division; even church splits. They were caught up in a battle they couldn’t win as long as they clung to the Gregorian calendar, it simply can’t be done. Little did I know at the time, but these debates within the Worldwide Church of God set the stage for me to immediately realize the importance of Lunar Sabbath Observance when I was exposed to it approximately seven years later! In 2010 I had been given 4 DVD’s on Lunar Sabbath observance via a strange encounter, I ignored them for several months but when I finally sat down to watch the first video I went from thinking ‘I really do have more important things to do!’ to having an “Oh my goodness, what have we done?” moment within 30 minutes! I was seeing a method of calendar observation that completely resolved ALL of the disputes that I had read about within the Worldwide Church of God! Having had the stage set for me back in 2003 via a knowledge of the Worldwide Church of God disputes over the calendar I was ripe for the picking in 2010! The foundation for acceptance of Lunar Sabbath Observance had been laid for me and now I hope to lay that same foundation for you!
When a person is searching for TRUTH, it is incumbent upon that individual to take on a bit of an attitude, an attitude of ‘I don’t care!’ I have adopted such an attitude! I don’t care what the TRUTH is, I only care that I discover the TRUTH for I know whatever the TRUTH is it is good for me! I couldn’t possibly care less about the traditions of men. I couldn’t care less if the TRUTH was that the Sabbath of YHWH fell on Saturday or Sunday, or on Tuesday for that matter, ‘I don’t care!’ I only want to know what is TRUTH! Once I have discovered what the TRUTH is, I can then decide as to whether I want to take action to follow that TRUTH. What I am discovering the TRUTH to be however is that the Sabbath of YHWH is none of the above!
It is impossible in my mind to talk about Calendar Conflicts without going back to Genesis 1 where there can be no doubt the debate begins and ends. Before we get into the thick of it I must tell you I am an unapologetic, ardent Full Moon Rosh Chodesh observant man. In Genesis 1:14-19 quoted below when the ‘Lesser Light’ is referred to it is talking about a single, specific phase of the moon to mark ALL of the Moedim from a single date, i.e. New Moon Day. It is not talking about the moon in all of its phases, just one! When YHWH speaks of the ‘TWO GREAT LIGHTS’ He does so in a single breath drawing a comparison between the two. There is ‘one and only one’ phase of the moon that qualifies as a ‘GREAT LIGHT’ that ‘RULES THE NIGHT’ and there are no close, second place finishers! The Full Moon as the ‘Lesser of the TWO GREAT LIGHTS’ is the only phase of the moon that is comparable to the Sun, which is the ‘Greater of the TWO GREAT LIGHTS’. The Full Moon is the only phase of the moon that rules the night from beginning to end, no other phase of the moon even comes close!
And Elohim said, “let lights come to be in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and appointed times, and for days and years, and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.” And it came to be so. And Elohim made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars. And Elohim set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And Elohim saw that it was good. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, the fourth day. (Genesis 1:14-19 Scriptures ’98)
Once a person becomes mindful of the verses above it becomes obviously apparent The Creator’s Cosmological Calendar hangs in the heavens, not on a nail in your wall! This section of Scripture defines the mechanisms the Creator uses to mark His Moedim which are recorded in Leviticus 23, the first of which is the weekly Sabbath! So let’s go to Leviticus 23 and work our way through each of the Moedim recorded there and search out the Calendar Conflicts that exist between The Creator’s Cosmological Calendar and the Gregorian calendar that the whole world uses today.
And YHWH spoke to Mosheh, saying, “Speak to the children of Yisra’el, and say to them, ‘The appointed times of YHWH, which you are to proclaim as set-apart gatherings, My appointed times, are these: (Leviticus 23:1-2 The Scriptures ’98)
Let me first note that the phrase ‘appointed times’ in verse two quoted above is the English translation of the Hebrew word Moedim (plural), it is Strong’s H4150 and it is the same word that is used in Genesis 1:14. In other words the 7th Day Sabbath of Leviticus 23 is one of the Moedim marked by the TWO GREAT LIGHTS of Genesis 1!
The Weekly Moed
Calendar Conflict! #1
‘Six days work is done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a set-apart gathering. You do no work, it is a Sabbath to YHWH in all your dwellings. (Leviticus 23:3 The Scriptures ’98)
Please notice there is not one word in the commandment above or anywhere else in Scripture that demands a recurring weekly cycle! Rather, Scripture demands something altogether different! There are two predominate witnesses that work synergistically to refute the belief in an unbroken chain of recurring weekly cycles that extends all the way back to Genesis 1:1 and therefore to the beginning of Creation. Those two predominate witnesses are Genesis 1:1-2 and Ezekiel 46:1, there are many others however, which I’ll list later. Genesis 1:1-2 makes it clear that there was a period of time, ‘a day’ prior to the creation week of seven days. That being the case, the 1st Day of Creation IS NOT the 1st Day of the Creation Week! That 1st Day of Creation would had to have been New Moon Day since logic would tell us the creation of space, time and matter begins with the 1st Day of the 1st Month of the 1st Year, we must accept the fact that New Moon Day is not a weekday and that New Moon Day preceded the Creation Week! The 1st Day of the 1st Week on the other hand begins with Genesis 1:3-5. Ezekiel 46:1 makes it clear that this New Moon Day with which the Creation began resets the weekly cycle from the very beginning of time! Because New Moon Day resets the weekly Sabbath cycle in The Creator’s Cosmological Calendar according to both the Genesis 1 account of the beginning of time and Ezekiel 46:1 the weekly Sabbath ALWAYS falls on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th Days of EVERY lunar cycle. It is no coincidence that in Scripture there is not a single weekly Sabbath recorded to fall on any other day than the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th Days. This is in contrast to the unbroken chain of weekly cycles that the Gregorian calendar utilizes. Because the Gregorian calendar ignores the moon for beginning its months and because it never resets the weekly cycle the 7th Day Sabbath of Scripture will fall on any day of the Gregorian calendar’s pagan planetary god week and Saturn’s Day, the 7th Day of the Gregorian calendar, will fall on any day of The Creator’s Cosmological Calendar's week! This reality hits home hard when a person begins to consider The Creator’s Cosmological Calendar and they realize the 7th Day Sabbath rest of Scripture will more often than not fall on a Gregorian calendar work day that the whole world follows after today, it’s tough out there folks! You really have to want this! That of course, is another reason people won’t give Lunar Sabbath Observance a fair hearing! YHWH continues to prove and sort His people from those who follow the traditions of men.
Unless you have done ‘in depth’ studies on ancient calendars you have probably never considered these things.
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why do I keep Saturn’s Day as a day of worship and Sabbath rest to my Creator, does this weekly cycle really go all the way back uninterrupted to the Creation Week?”
The Annual Moedim
‘These are the appointed times of YHWH, set-apart gatherings which you are to proclaim at their appointed times. (Leviticus 23:4 The Scriptures ’98)
Leviticus 23:4 introduces us to the Annual Moedim that are marked by the TWO GREAT LIGHTS and the STARS of Genesis 1:14-19 quoted in the beginning.
Calendar Conflict! # 2
And YHWH spoke to Mosheh and to Aharon in the land of Mitsrayim, saying, “This new moon is the beginning of new moons for you, it is the first new moon of the year for you.” (Exodus 12:1-2 The Scriptures 2009)
In YHWH’s economy the months begin with the beaconing of the New Moon and although those to whom I’m mainly addressing this article to recognize the need to begin the Scriptural calendar months with the New Moon the Gregorian calendar from which they get their weekly 7th Day Sabbath (Saturn’s Day) does not! Is it any wonder that the vast majority of people who strive to keep the Annual Moedim of Scripture but continue to keep the 7th Day of the Gregorian calendar as their Sabbath NEVER keep the New Moon Days throughout the year with the exception of possibly the 1st and 7th Month? It is only when you begin to mark your weekly Sabbaths via the New Moon that you begin to observe the New Moons throughout the entire year.
There is a second problem here and that is how we calculate the beginning of what we deem to be the Scriptural New Year. That method usually employs the New Moon that falls directly after the Vernal Equinox. There are also those who search for Aviv Barley to begin the New Year. However, there is not a single word in Scripture that would support the search for aviv barley, it is the result of human reasoning. The Creator’s Cosmological Calendar uses the Sun, Moon and Stars to beacon all aspects of time; it is left to us to figure out how to do that according to those mechanisms!
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why don’t we keep the New Moon Days of the Scriptural calendar throughout the entire year as we’re commanded to do?”
or
“Why don’t we use the Sun, Moon and Stars to mark the beginning of the New Year?”
Calendar Conflict! #3
“Speak to all the congregation of Yisra’el, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month each one of them is to take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household… And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then all the assembly of the congregation of Yisra’el shall kill it between the evenings. (Exodus 12:3,6 The Scriptures ’98)
Although this does not refer to one of the ‘appointed times’ or ‘set-apart gatherings’ of Leviticus 23 it does pose a huge problem if you’re serious about reconciling the Gregorian calendar to the Creator’s Cosmological Calendar. It is on the 10th Day of the 1st Month according to the Creator’s Cosmological Calendar that a man is to sort out a lamb from his flock to offer as the Pesach sacrifice, it must be without blemish. If a man does not have a flock to pick from he must buy a perfect lamb. It is a workday when this ‘sorting’ or ‘buying’ must be done; it can NEVER land on a weekly Sabbath when no ‘work’ or ‘buying’ can be done. There is no other day provided in Scripture for this to be done. Nevertheless, occasionally the 10th Day of the 1st Month of the Scriptural calendar, an obvious 'work day', will fall on the Gregorian calendar’s Saturn’s Day.
If you have been striving to keep the Annual Moedim for any extended period of time, say seven years or more, this Calendar Conflict has surely arisen within your envelope of experience.
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why is a workday like the 10th Day of the 1st Month falling on my weekly Sabbath?”
Calendar Conflict! #4
‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evenings, is the Passover to YHWH. (Leviticus 23:5 The Scriptures ’98)
The 14th Day of the 1st Month, which is the day of Passover, is also known as ‘the preparation day’. It ALWAYS falls on the 6th Day of the week. As a matter of fact both in Scripture and Jewish tradition the 6th Day of every week is ALWAYS a day of preparation for the weekly Sabbath and can clearly be seen in the giving of manna in Exodus 16 where two portions of manna are given on the 6th Day of the week that it might be prepared (either boiled or baked) to be kept over for the 7th Day Sabbath. We also have confirmation that the 14th Day of the 1st Month was the preparation day, which precedes the Sabbath, the year of the crucifixion of Messiah in Mark 15:42 which reads…
And when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, (Mark 15:42 The Scriptures ’98)
The 14th Day of the 1st Month is always a preparation day for the Annual High Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread which falls on the very next day, i.e. the 15th Day of the 1st Month. High Sabbaths are weekly Sabbaths that have one of the Annual Moedim fall on them every year, as is the case with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which falls on the 15th Day of the 1st Month. However, the 14th Day of the 1st Month, which is a ‘preparation day’, which should ALWAYS fall on the 6th Day of the Scriptural week, can fall on the 7th Day of the Gregorian planetary god week, Saturn’s Day. You simply cannot have the 14th Day of the 1st Month, a ‘preparation day’ for the Sabbath, falling on the Sabbath!
If you have been striving to keep the Annual Moedim for any extended period of time, say seven years or more, this Calendar Conflict has surely arisen within your envelope of experience.
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why is a workday like the ‘Preparation Day' for the Sabbath falling on my Sabbath?”
Calendar Conflict! #5
‘And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Unleavened Bread to YHWH – seven days you eat unleavened bread. On the first day you have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work. And you shall bring an offering made by fire to YHWH for seven days. On the seventh day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.’” (Leviticus 23:6-8 The Scriptures ’98)
This 15th Day of the 1st Month is a High Sabbath. A ‘High Sabbath’, as I explained above, is a weekly Sabbath that has an Annual Moed fall on it. This is made known in John 19:31.
Therefore, since it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the stake on the Sabbath – for that Sabbath was a high one – the Yehudim asked Pilate to have their legs broken, and that they be taken away. (John 19:31 The Scriptures ’98)
It is impossible for the Annual Moed of the Feast of Unleavened Bread which falls on the 15th Day of the 1st Month to fall on a 7th Day of the Gregorian calendar’s pagan planetary god week to make the 7th Day of that week of the Gregorian calendar a ‘High Sabbath’ year after year, every year! More often than not the 15th Day of the 1st Lunar cycle will fall on a work day on the Gregorian calendar! An Annual Moed falling on a workday does not make for a ‘High Sabbath’!
If you have been striving to keep the Annual Moedim for any extended period of time, say seven years or more, this Calendar Conflict has surely arisen within your envelope of experience.
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why is the 15th Day of the 1st Month, the High Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread falling on one of my 6 workdays?”
Calendar Conflict! #6
And YHWH spoke to Mosheh, saying, “Speak to the children of Yisra’el, and you shall say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before YHWH, for your acceptance. On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest waves it. (Leviticus 23:9-11 The Scriptures ’98)
This is the commanded day of First Fruits, the 16th Day of the 1st Month. Ordinarily “...the morrow after the Sabbath...” is a ‘work day’. I used to believe this was the only given day to reap the harvest of First Fruits but I now believe the harvest begins once the barley is ripe regardless of the date. Nevertheless, there is no reason from the commandment that barley near the place where YHWH has placed His Name couldn’t be harvested on the 16th Day of the 1st Month and then offered that same day. A sheaf of barley is counted as the amount of cut barley plants that you can wrap your arms around and carry. The problem is… for those who follow the Gregorian calendar to keep their Sabbaths the 16th Day of the 1st Lunar cycle will from time to time fall on the 7th Day of the planetary god week of the Gregorian calendar when you shouldn’t be carrying anything if Saturn’s Day was actually the Sabbath of Scripture!
Oops… that can’t happen!
If you have been striving to keep the Annual Moedim for any extended period of time, say seven years or more, this Calendar Conflict has surely arisen within your envelope of experience.
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why is the 16th Day of the 1st Month, when the work of the First Fruits barley harvest is culminated ‘on the morrow after the Sabbath’, falling on my weekly Sabbath?”
Calendar Conflict! #7
“On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest waves it.” (Leviticus 23:11 The Scriptures ’98)
There have been countless arguments over this verse! Because people of the Worldwide Church of God could not think far enough outside the ‘Gregorian calendar box’ they were confined to they couldn’t decide whether this ‘morrow after the Sabbath’ meant the day after the 15th Day of the 1st Month, which was always the Annual Moed known as a ‘High Sabbath’ that began the feast, or whether it meant the day after the Gregorian weekly Sabbath that fell within the seven days of the feast. This is where Lunar Sabbath observance really jumped out at me since the 15th Day of every month in Lunar Sabbath Observance is ALWAYS a weekly Sabbath! The answer to the question which cannot be answered authoritatively via the Gregorian calendar as to whether the wave sheaf offering followed the day after the 1st Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread or whether the wave sheaf offering followed the day after the weekly Sabbath which fell during the festival is ‘YES’! As they are one and the same! The 15th Day of the 1st Month is an Annual Moed that ALWAYS falls on a weekly Sabbath making that weekly Sabbath a ‘High Sabbath’! It therefore follows that the ‘morrow after’ in verse 11 is the 16th Day of the 1st Month and it is the day of the wave sheaf offering of First Fruits!
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“If Saturn’s Day is the 7th Day Sabbath of Scripture and the 15th Day of the 1st Month is a High Sabbath then after which of the Sabbaths am I to keep ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ as the day of First Fruits, the High Sabbath or the weekly Sabbath?”
Calendar Conflict! #8
‘And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths. Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to YHWH. (Leviticus 23:15-16 The Scriptures ’98)
These are the instructions for the count toward Shavuot. This count is totally dependent upon you knowing when to begin the count, which begins on First Fruits (Calendar Conflict #7). There is a Jewish tradition that says Moses received the tablets of stone upon which The Ten Commandments were written on this very day, the same day Aharon had proclaimed as a ‘chag’ to YHWH, i.e. Shavuot. It is also Jewish custom to take these instructions and reduce them via a redundant reading to mean a 50-day count only. If the count begins with the wave sheaf offering on the 16th Day of the 1st Month then a 50-day count would take us to the 6th Day of the 3rd Month. If that is the true count then Moses certainly didn’t receive the tablets of stone upon which The Ten Words Covenant was written on Shavuot for Moses and the Israelites hadn’t even arrived at Mount Sinai by the 6th Day of the 3rd Month! If however, the tradition is true then there has to be a different method of counting to Shavuot! It is according to that line of thought that Lunar Sabbath reckoning reveals an amazing truth. If you count to Shavuot utilizing a literal interpretation of Leviticus 23:15-16 by counting 7 Lunar Sabbaths complete AND THEN count 50 days you will end up with a total of over 100 days, that places Shavuot near the end of the 4th Month, making Shavuot a summer festival! A summer festival when the wheat planted in the spring is actually ripe and ready for harvest, which is not possible if Shavuot is to be kept early in the 3rd Month (Spring wheat requires 110-120 days to mature). But does this ‘7 Lunar Sabbaths complete plus 50 days’ count to Shavuot reconcile the tradition of Moses receiving The 10 Words Covenant on Shavuot as recorded in Exodus 19? Yes it does! Not only does it reconcile the tradition with the Scriptural narrative and the wheat harvest to the festival but, it is only possible according to the Lunar Sabbath method of reckoning Sabbaths, it cannot be done on the Gregorian calendar no matter how hard you try! For more details on that please read ‘Shavuot, the Summer Festival!’
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“How could Shavuot be a spring festival if the wheat planted in the spring and offered to YHWH on Shavuot isn’t ready for harvest until the summer?”
or
“Why do the Jews believe Moses received The 10 Commandments written on tablets of stone on Shavuot if Shavuot is the 6th Day of the 3rd Month since Moses and the Israelites hadn't even arrived arrive at Mount Sinai until several days later?”
Calendar Conflict! #9
And YHWH spoke to Mosheh, saying, “Speak to the children of Yisra’el, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you have a rest, a remembrance of blowing of trumpets, a set-apart gathering. You do no servile work, and you shall bring an offering made by fire to YHWH.’” (Leviticus 23:23-25 The Scriptures ’98)
It seems laughable to have to point this out but this is the instruction to keep the 1st Day of the 7th Month set-apart, a day of rest. The trouble is this day has no choice but to fall on either a workday or 7th Day of the pagan planetary god week of the Gregorian calendar. Furthermore this will take place typically somewhere in the middle of the 9th or 10th Month of the Gregorian calendar, not the 1st Day of the 7th Month! This is the 7th New Moon Day according to the Scriptural calendar, keep in mind New Moon Day is a 3rd category of monthly days that the Gregorian calendar knows nothing of! It totally ignores New Moon Days as though they don’t even exist! Just as an, ‘oh by the way’, the word ‘month’ comes from the word ‘moon’! I’ll talk more about this 3rd category of monthly days later on.
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why is the 1st Day of the 7th Month of the Creator’s Cosmological Calendar falling on one of my 6 workdays or weekly Sabbath in the middle of the 9th or 10th Month of the Gregorian calendar?”
Calendar Conflict! #10
And YHWH spoke to Mosheh, saying, “On the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a set-apart gathering for you. And you shall afflict your beings, and shall bring an offering made by fire, to YHWH. And you do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before YHWH your Elohim. For any being who is not afflicted on that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. And any being who does any work on that same day, that being I shall destroy from the midst of his people. You do no work – a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It is a Sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your beings. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you observe your Sabbath.” (Leviticus 23:26-32 The Scriptures ’98)
The Jews traditionally use these instructions for keeping the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) to prove that all whole days begin and end at sunset whereas on the Gregorian calendar a whole day begins and ends at midnight. Neither view is Scriptural in my opinion. It is clear that whole days begin at sunrise and end at sunrise, for more on that you can read the article titled ‘When Does a Day End?’ This is meant as a joke but it does make a point, “Come on people, let’s not let our chickens out smart us! After all, they know when a day begins and ends!”
Let’s take a look into the traditional Jewish perspective. In Jewish observance a whole day begins with sunset, the evening belonging to a day is the beginning of that day and then that day ends at the following sunset, sunset to sunset. The instructions quoted above tell us that we are to afflict our being as a Sabbath of rest that begins on the evening of the 9th Day and ends at the evening of the 10th Day, evening to evening. If it is true that a whole day begins at sunset and ends at sunset then the entire day of affliction takes place on the 9th Day! But the commandment tells us the Day of Atonement is the 10th Day!
If however, a whole day begins at sunrise the affliction of our souls begins at the midpoint of the 9th Day (when the sun has set), carries through the sunrise into the beginning of the 10th Day and ends when the sun sets midway through the 10th Day. With that understanding in place we see the affliction (fasting from food) taking place entirely on the 10th Day since you go to bed with a full stomach and don’t normally eat when you’re sleeping on the evening of the 9th. When you wake up on the morning of the 10th you afflict your being by fasting until the evening of the 10th arrives, which is at sunset. This, mind you, is the strongest case the Jews have for keeping a sunset-to-sunset beginning and ending of a day! And yes, they know they have a problem but don’t hold your breath waiting for them to change!
On a completely different subject, understanding that a day begins and ends with sunrise changes the entire timeline of The Lord’s Supper, crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua completely prohibiting any chance that The Lord’s Supper was the Passover Seder, which then begs the question, “What was it?” The answer to that question can be found by reading ‘THE MASTER’S TABLE ~ The Entry Rite Into THE NEW COVENANT!’
Once the Sanhedrin fixed the 7th Day Sabbath observance of the Jews to Saturn’s Day, the 7th Day of the Julian calendar, they realized they had a problem, actually they had a lot of problems but this one they felt they couldn’t overlook, the problem revolved around the Day of Atonement, the most sacred day in Judaism! To fix the problem Hillel II employed a ‘postponement rule’ to keep the Day of Atonement from falling on either the 6th Day of the Julian week or the 1st Day of the Julian week. They didn’t want the Day of Atonement, a day of fasting, falling next to their new 7th Day Sabbath, a day of feasting, that they had just fixed to Saturn’s Day! That ‘postponement rule’ has been added to in the 15th century and there are now 4 ‘postponement rules’ to keep the Day of Atonement from landing either before or after a weekly Saturn’s Day Sabbath! If you are keeping a Saturn’s Day Sabbath without observing the Jewish ‘postponement rules’ then you will from time to time end up keeping back-to-back Sabbaths, one as a feast and the other as a fast, as the Day of Atonement will land on either side of Saturn’s Day, i.e. the 6th Day or the 1st Day of the Gregorian calendar’s pagan planetary god week.
From what I’ve read, obviously I’m no expert on the matter; there is another reason for these ‘postponement rules’. The Jews believe the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles which both begin on the 15th Day of the 1st and 7th Months respectively should begin beneath a Full Moon! Therefore they use the ‘postponement rules’ to ensure both mid-month feasts begin beneath the bright light of the Full Moon by postponing the beginning of the month. Since there is not a single verse of Scripture that supports a Full Moon lighting up the nighttime sky in the middle of the months the only way the Jews can justify a belief that there is a Full Moon on the 15th of the 7th Month is by twisting Psalm 81:3 into referring to Yom Teruah AND The Feast of Tabernacles! However, a brief study of the verse makes it clear that it is referring to the New Moon of the 1st Month as the context of Psalm 81:3 is a poetic retelling of Exodus 12 when YHWH told Moses 'this new moon is the beginning new moon for you", you can read more about that by reading this article titled ‘Is Psalm 81:3 Schizo?’ To show you the Jewish perspective let me quote to you Psalm 81:3 from the Jewish Orthodox Bible!
Blow the shofar at Rosh Chodesh, at the full moon, on Yom Chageinu. (Paslms 81:3 Orthodox Jewish Bible)
What they’re trying desperately to convey here is that the shofar should be blown on Yom Teruah (Rosh Chodesh 7th Month) AND at the Feast of Tabernacles (Yom Chageinu) while remaining faithful to the Hebrew text. But there is one and only one blast of the shofar or silver trumpets, which is on Rosh Chodesh (New Moon Day), which is on the Full Moon which is a chag (festival). Once they adopted the wrong phase of the moon for the New Moon they then had to begin to use the ‘postponement rules’ to ensure the Full Moon would arrive on the 15th Day of their corrupt month. By applying the ‘postponement rules’ the Jews would postpone the 1st Day of the Month from the molad by either 1 or 2 days! The molad is an average time between conjunctions and a large percentage of the time the day that the molad fell on was deemed the 1st Day of the Month. A corrupt man-made New Moon mixed with a corrupt man-made Sabbath requires corrupt man-made ‘postponement rules’. The Scriptures are clear, the New Moons, Sabbaths and Annual Moedim have been taken from the Jews and their Northern Tribe brothers as we're told in Lamentations 2:6 and Hosea 2:11
Brothers and Sisters, the Scriptures know nothing of these ‘postponement rules’! The true Scriptural Calendar of YHWH has no need for ‘postponement rules’ since the 10th Day of the 7th Month ALWAYS falls on the 2nd Day of the 2nd Week of the 7th Month!
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why do people believe a day begins and ends at sunset or at midnight? Do chickens know something we don’t?”
or
“Shouldn’t the New Month begin with the sighting of the New Moon?”
or
“Where are those ‘postponement rules’ in Scripture?”
or
“Why do the Jews need ‘postponement rules’ to regulate their calendar, after all, I don’t see ‘postponement rules’ in Scripture and why am I following the Jews?”
Calendar Conflict! #11
And YHWH spoke to Mosheh, saying, “Speak to the children of Yisra’el, saying , ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Booths for seven days to YHWH. On the first day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work. For seven days you bring an offering made by fire to YHWH. On the eighth day there shall be a set-apart gathering for you, and you shall bring an offering made by fire to YHWH. It is a closing festival, you do no servile work. These are the appointed times of YHWH which you proclaim as set-apart gatherings to bring an offering made by fire to YHWH, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a slaughtering and drink offerings, as commanded for every day – besides the Sabbaths of YHWH, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your voluntary offerings which you give to YHWH. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the fruit of the land, observe the festival of YHWH for seven days. On the first day is a rest, and on the eighth day a rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of good trees, branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream, and shall rejoice before YHWH your Elohim for seven days. And you shall observe it as a festival to YHWH for seven days in the year – a law forever in your generations. Observe it in the seventh month. Dwell in booths for seven days; all who are native Yisra’elites dwell in booths, so that your generations know that I made the children of Yisr’el dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim. I am YHWH your Elohim.’” Thus did Mosheh speak of the appointed times of YHWH to the children of Yisra’el. (Leviticus 23:33-44 The Scriptures ’98)
To begin with the Feast of Tabernacles begins on the 15th Day of the 7th Month, it is to be a day of rest, a Sabbath. But on a Gregorian calendar the 15th Day of the 7th Lunar Cycle will more often than not fall on one of its 6 workdays!
As if ABBA thinks we might be just a little slow He reminds us in His instructions to keep the Feast of Tabernacles for ‘seven days’ six different times! I think He is trying to tell us something! Could it be that we are to dwell in booths for ‘seven days’? The seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles falls on the 21st. But then He also tells us there is an ‘eighth day’! But He does not tell us to dwell in booths on the ‘eighth day’. He also tells us that these are the offerings to bring on His appointed days ‘besides the Sabbaths of YHWH’! The only way there can be two weekly Sabbaths of YHWH in an eight-day feast is if the feast begins on a weekly Sabbath and ends on a weekly Sabbath! Scripture never alludes to a Sabbath taking place in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles. The 1st Day of the Feast of Tabernacles is the 15th Day of the 7th Month, in Lunar Sabbath Observance the 15th Day of every month is ALWAYS a weekly Sabbath. The last day of the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles is the 21st Day of the 7th Month, which is then followed by the ‘eighth day’, a ‘set-apart gathering’ and the 22nd Day of the 7th Month. In Lunar Sabbath Observance the 22nd Day of every month is ALWAYS a weekly Sabbath, a ‘set-apart gathering’!
There has developed some confusion as to when the ‘last great day’ of the feast is, most believing it is the 22nd. If however, we read the gospel of John and keep everything in context we can clearly see the ‘last great day’ does not fall on the 22nd Day of the 7th Month.
And on the last day, the great day of the festival, Yeshua stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and let him who believes in Me drink…” (John 7:37 The Scriptures ’98)
Following the context through chapter 8 into chapter 9 we find Yeshua healing a blind man on the weekly Sabbath, the day ‘after’ the last great day of the feast. The ‘seventh day’ of the feast is the ‘last great day’ of the feast and it falls on the 21st Day of the 7th Month. The healing of the blind man took place on the ‘eighth day’ of the feast, the 22nd Day of the 7th Month, which was a weekly Sabbath!
All of this is impossible on the Gregorian calendar! You cannot have the Feast of Tabernacles beginning and ending on weekly Sabbaths year after year according to the Gregorian calendar. It just doesn’t work! The only calendar upon which this extraordinary demand is met with expectation is the Creator’s Cosmological Calendar governed by the Sun, Moon and Stars. It is only according to the Scriptural calendar, where New Moon Days begin the months and reset the weekly cycle, that the 7th Day Sabbaths ALWAYS fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th Days of EVERY month, every year!
If you have been striving to keep the Annual Moedim for any extended period of time, say seven years or more, this Calendar Conflict has surely arisen within your envelope of experience.
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why are the beginning and ending Sabbaths of the Feast of Tabernacles nearly always falling on the workdays of my Gregorian calendar?”
Calendar Conflict! #12
‘Thus said the Master YHWH, “The gate of the inner courtyard facing east is shut the six days of work, but on the Sabbath it is opened, and on the day of the New Moon it is opened.” (Ezekiel 46:1 The Scriptures ’98)
This is the greatest Calendar Conflict of all! New Moon Day is a 3rd category of monthly day that the Gregorian calendar, which the whole world wanders after today, knows nothing of! It does not begin its months with New Moon Day and it does not reset the weekly cycle with New Moon Day, even though Scripture demands it! It is no coincidence that every weekly Sabbath that can be linked with a date of a month ALWAYS falls on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th Days of the month, with no exceptions!
If the gate to the inner courtyard facing east is shut the six days of work, then the day of the New Moon can NEVER land on a work day since the gate is to be opened on the day of the New Moon!!! This powerful revelation demands that the weekly cycle be reset by the New Moon Day, it is not a workday nor a Sabbath day, it is a 3rd category of monthly day. This same truth is contained in 2 Kings 4:23, Amos 8:4-6 and Isaiah 66:22-23. This is one of those hard truths that just won’t go away. It forces us to realize that the Gregorian calendar and its predecessor the Julian calendar are both false calendars upon which the 7th Day Sabbath of Scripture cannot be found!
Have you ever thought to ask yourself,
“Why do the weekly Sabbaths of Scripture ALWAYS fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th Days of EVERY month?”
I hope these Calendar Conflicts have laid a foundation that will enable you to more easily grasp the need for calendar reform. Knowing these Calendar Conflicts helped me immensely to immediately grasp the wonder of how Lunar Sabbath Observance fixed EVERY SINGLE ONE of these ‘unresolvable problems’ when considered against the framework of the Gregorian calendar’s New Moonless months and unbroken chain of weekly cycles. It is impossible to harmonize the Annual Moedim of YHWH with the 7th Day of Pope Gregory XIII.
If we’re willing to let these facts get in our way, we’ll have to admit that the true 7th Day Sabbath cannot be found on the Gregorian calendar! If we’re willing to no longer turn a blind eye, we’ll see the need to divorce ourselves from the Gregorian calendar over ‘irreconcilable differences’! We can ill afford to continue to keep two calendars, one for the Annual Moedim and the other for the weekly Sabbath!
If it is our heart’s desire to become the Bride of Messiah we must make changes in our Sabbath observance for we’re told…
And YHWH spoke to Mosheh, saying,
“And you, speak to the children of Yisra’el, saying, ‘My Sabbaths you are to guard, by all means, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, to know that I, YHWH, am setting you apart.
And you shall guard the Sabbath, for it is set-apart to you. Everyone who profanes it shall certainly be put to death, for anyone who does work on it, that being shall be cut off from among his people.
Six days work is done, and on the seventh is a Sabbath of rest, set-apart to YHWH. Everyone doing work on the Sabbath day shall certainly be put to death.
And the children of Yisra’el shall guard the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant. Between Me and the children of Yisra’el it is a sign forever. For in six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”
And when He had ended speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Mosheh two tablets of the Witness, tablets of stone, written with the finger of Elohim. (Exodus 31:12-18 The Scriptures ’98)
Those are the last words YHWH spoke to Moses before Moses descended the mountain for the last time, they were saved for the last and you had better believe they are extraordinarily important. Just as any good parent reminds a child of the most important instructions they are to carry out to accomplish a task by repeating them to the child as the child walks out the door, so too has YHWH reminded Moses of the most important instructions that He has given to the children of Israel.
Brothers and Sisters if we want to become the Bride of Messiah we must esteem the Sabbath of YHWH…
The 7th Day Sabbath of Scripture IS NOT the Gregorian calendar’s Saturn’s Day.
Lunar Sabbath...
"It’s Not Just Another Option!"
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