Principles for finding New Moon

The King James Version (KJV) is mostly used in these lessons. Click here to access the KJV online.

Principle #3: God Gave "Lights" to Beacon His Signs, Seasons,Days & Years.

But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Ephesians 5:13 In the beginning of recorded scripture Genesis 1:14-18 states:

And God [Yahuwah] 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, 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 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. Genesis 1:14-18

• Of paramount importance, notice that Yahuwah was making a distinction between darkness and light by separating them.
• The "lights" are plural.
• Let them be for signs: In an orchestrated dual action process, the sun and moon work together for signs and seasons specifically. This would not hold true for the New Moon if it were the dark phase or conjunction. This is because if you have a dark moon it is because the sun is not shining on it, as seen from our vantage point. Nothing is shining or working together, but all would be invisible in the darkness.
• Pure light is the signature of Yahuwah and His creative power, and not darkness, or any mix of darkness with light. Therefore, something as important as the New Moon to beacon a month of His holy seventh-day Sabbaths must itself be of the "light".
• There are "three" purposes of the sun and moon as they work in tandem: 1) To give "light" upon the earth. 2) To "rule", measuring time for the day and for the night. 3) To divide the light from the darkness. . .

The sun and moon were ordained by the Creator to work together in dual orchestration to separate the light from the darkness. This is a principle that Yahuwah continues to use as an illustration of the contrast between righteousness and sin, between good and evil. By its very nature, a dark conjunction lunar phase is not visibly able to either work together, or "divide the light from the darkness". But this is a requirement of the sun and moon as His beacons for signs in the heavens. It is, also, a consistent feature of truth and light. This shows that what Yahuwah set in motion during the first week of creation was to continue forever, both as a physical principle and as a moral symbol of truth.

Principle #4: William Miller and October 22, 1844

In the 1840's, William Miller, a student of prophetic time and a leader of a great religious awakening around the globe, believed the Lord was to return very soon. Together with Samuel Snow, they reckoned from Scripture and ancient Hebrew luni-solar calendation that the prophetic 2300 evenings and mornings were symbolic of literal years. They discovered that this prophetic period that began at the time of Artaxerxes' decree in 457 B.C., was to end in October 22, 1844. While this date was to clearly mark the anti-typical Day of Atonement and the cleansing of the Sanctuary on earth, it was wrongfully assumed by Miller that this marked the second coming of Christ Yahshua in the clouds of heaven. Because of this error as to the event to take place, they, along with all the believers world wide, experienced what is commonly known today as the "Great Disappointment of 1844".

The participants in this religious movement were Christians from all religious faiths and were called "Adventists" because they looked to the soon return or second "advent" of Christ Yahshua. The Seventh-day Adventist church was born out of this great disappointment, but was not officially organized until 1863. William Miller died in December of 1849 before the Seventh-day Adventist church was organized. Therefore, his teaching and preaching must not be confused with those of the Seventh-day Adventist church and visa versa.

William Miller and Samuel Snow were basing their detailed calculations of the fulfillment of the prophecy from the "first visible crescent" New Moon just as the Hebrew people of antiquity would have had to do. Otherwise, we would be recognizing either October 20 or 21 of 1844, instead of October 22. Later, Ellen White, a leader of the newly organized Seventh-day Adventist church, placed her stamp of approval from the Lord upon the date of October 22, 1844, but not upon the event the Millerites had believed was to happen.

All those teaching that the New Moon is the dark "conjunction" lunar phase, either don't know or reject the value of William Miller's calculations of October 22, 1844. This was referred to as the Seventh Month Movement, because the Day of Atonement is always on the 10th day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the luni-solar calendar. October is always the tenth month of the Gregorian calendar. It was only Miller's calculated and pinpointed conclusion that received the stamp of approval by the Lord Yahuwah, as stated by Ellen White.

Principle #5: The New Moon, U.S.N.O. and N.A.S.A.

Much of the New Moon confusion today arises because both the United States Naval Observatory (U.S.N.O.) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.) label the dark conjunction phase as the "New Moon". No doubt the same is true of all other nationally based astronomical organizations. These are the same organizations that, in many of their illustrated models, depict the lunar month as only 28 days in length. This is a contradiction of the detailed records they themselves keep in numeric form, which do show the lunar month to be 29 or 30 days in length. In this way they are speaking out of both sides of their mouths. All lunar months in recorded history have always been either 29 or 30 days in length. Anyone can check this out for themselves simply by making note of each phase over a 30 day period. When the lunar phase you start your count with comes back around again, then you know that you have completed your count on the previous day.

The real confusion lies in the records that are kept by these organizations where they consistently refer to the dark conjunction lunar phase as "New Moon", rather than the first visible horned crescent. However, all is not lost. Because of the consistency of these organizations, it is possible to calculate utilizing all the data given to determine when the first visible crescent New Moon for any given month would have been. The following example is from N.A.S.A. using the dark conjunction lunar phase for the year of Christ Yahshua's Crucifixion.

The year was A.D. 31 and the first month of that year was April. Since N.A.S.A identifies the Gregorian 10th day to be the conjunction, all we must do is add a day to arrive at the first visible crescent as viewed in the night sky following sunset on the 11th of April. The following day April 12 is then New Moon day, which is also the first day of the luni-solar month of Abib/Nissan (Month 1). Since we know from Scripture that Christ Yahshua died on the 14th of the luni-solar month of Abib/Nissan, then we simply count to 14 and, therefore, arrive at Wednesday April 25, A.D. 31, as the day of Christ Yahshua's crucifixion.

The following luni-solar calendar is for the entire year of A.D. 31 and begins in the spring in the month of Abib (Month 1). The purpose of this illustration is multifaceted as it reveals the calendar used by Christ Yahshua, proclaiming Him to be the Messiah. To view the details of this illustration it is necessary to increase your screen visibility to 200%.

• The first visible crescent New Moon announces that the following day is New Moon Day, and that a new month will begin.
• The first visible crescent New Moon also announces New Year's Day to begin on the first day of Abib (Month 1) in spring.
• The Full Moon was visible on the night of the 13^th.
• In this chart notice first how the Gregorian months float through this luni-solar calendar as depicted in black boxes. Then notice how the weeks and Saturday's float through this calendar that was kept faithfully by Christ Yahshua. The Sabbath that was kept by Christ even while in the tomb was according to this luni-solar calendar as you see in neat rows of dark blue.
• Notice by the color coding that when the New Moon refreshes each new month, it also refreshes the weekly cycle. Every month the weekly cycle is broken by the New Moon day, which according to Ezekiel 46:1 is neither a week day nor a seventh-day Sabbath.
• There are exactly 354 days in a regular twelve month luni-solar calendar year. (Refer to the gold text in the far right column.)
• An Embolismic Year containing a thirteenth month is simply 354 days plus 30 days, which brings it to a total of 384 days.
• Notice how the color coded rows of seventh-day Sabbaths connect the spring Feast of Unleavened Bread to the fall Feast of Tabernacles.