Question: Originally in the Garden of Eden there was no sin. There was no recorded lunar calendar until the law of Moses and the ordinances. Therefore, why should something that was given over 2,000 years after Creation be binding on people today?
Answer: Yes! WLC is in complete agreement that originally there was no sin in the Garden of Eden. However, that is precisely when the Sabbath was established and why it should be observed now! The fourth commandment given at Mt. Sinai merely repeats what is stated in Genesis 2:2-3: “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.” The Sabbath was not given after sin, but before, at Creation. It is, therefore, still binding.
In order to have a seventh-day Sabbath, there must also be a calendar by which to keep track of the days. Yahuwah’s calendar was created in Creation week, before sin. Therefore, the lunar calendar which was established before sin is the calendar that is still binding on people today.
Anciently, all societies used lunar calendation. Egypt, as a nation of sun worshippers, was the first to move to a strictly solar calendar, although even Egypt was originally on a luni-solar calendar. Even the ancient Sumerians with their advanced applied mathematics and astronomy used luni-solar calendation as that was the calendar which had come down to them from before the flood.
Genesis 1:14 establishes that the lights set in the heavens during Creation week were for the purpose of establishing mo’edim or worship times. (Mo’edim is translated “seasons” in Genesis 1:14.) Psalm 104:19 also links the Sabbaths (established at Creation week) to the moon (created during Creation week): “He appointed the moon for seasons.” Seasons is, again, mo’edim while the word “appointed” comes from âsâh (#6213) which means to “create.” Scripture itself thus links the first Sabbath in Eden to a method of time-keeping which is calculated by the moon.
As for no mention of a lunar Sabbath prior to Moses, Psalm 81:3-6 contains an intriguing reference to lunar-calculated holy days prior to Moses:
Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the Eloah of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not. I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
Remember that the word “Israel” originated as a name divinely given to Jacob because as a prince he had “power with Elohim and with men, and hast prevailed.” (Genesis 32:28.) The word Israel literally means “he will rule as Elohim” (#3478). Because the Creator assures us that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), anyone receiving such high commendation and reward from heaven as did Jacob, would necessarily have to be in agreement with Yahuwah (or holy).
Psalm 81 reveals that solemn feast days at times appointed by or calculated from the new moon, was a statute for Israel, the man, as it was a law of His Eloah with whom he was in agreement. This knowledge was handed down to his son, Joseph who also kept these solemn assemblies when he was appointed prime minister of Egypt.
The Sabbath reaches back, past the exodus, to the very beginning of earth itself and it extends into the future. Once sin and sinners are no more, the seventh-day Sabbath, calculated by the Creator’s ordained system of time-keeping, will once again be the day of worship for all Yahuwah’s loyal people living on the re-created new earth:
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith Yahuwah, so shall your seed and your name remain. 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 Yahuwah. (Isaiah 66:22-23.)