At the heart of WLC is the true God and His Son, the true Christ — for we believe eternal life is not just our goal, but our everything.
This is a non-WLC article. When using resources from outside authors, we only publish the content that is 100% in harmony with the Bible and WLC current biblical beliefs. So such articles can be treated as if coming directly from WLC. We have been greatly blessed by the ministry of many servants of Yahuwah. But we do not advise our members to explore other works by these authors. Such works, we have excluded from publications because they contain errors. Sadly, we have yet to find a ministry that is error-free. If you are shocked by some non-WLC published content [articles/episodes], keep in mind Proverbs 4:18. Our understanding of His truth is evolving, as more light is shed on our pathway. We cherish truth more than life, and seek it wherever it may be found.
WLC NOTE: While WLC continues to uphold the observance of the Seventh-Day Sabbath, which is at the heart of Yahuwah’s moral law, the Ten Commandments, we no longer believe that the annual feast days are binding upon believers today. Still, though, we humbly encourage all to set time aside to commemorate the yearly feasts with solemnity and joy, and to learn from Yahuwah’s instructions concerning their observance under the Old Covenant. Doing so will surely be a blessing to you and your home, as you study the wonderful types and shadows that point to the exaltation of Messiah Yahushua as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah, and the Lamb of Yahuwah that takes away the sins of the world.
Those who teach that the annual feasts remain obligatory for believers under the New Covenant (as WLC once did) must advocate for the rebuilding of a third temple if they are to be consistent with their doctrine, for none of the annual feasts can be “kept” outside of Jerusalem, or without a temple and functioning priesthood, according to Scripture. They must be willing to erect a new curtain in place of the one that Yahuwah Himself tore from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 10:19-22). WLC believes that the earthly temple and all of its ceremonies and accoutrements were established to point forward to the saving work of Messiah Yahushua, and that the temple’s destruction in 70 AD was the divinely sanctioned end of the Old Covenant system. As demonstrated in the following article, the annual feasts cannot truly be “kept” today, if we are to make Scripture the sole source of our doctrine and practice – rather than simply doing what is right in our own eyes.
David Roberts. The Israelites Leaving Egypt (oil on canvas), c. 1830.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England.
What is going to be presented is not meant to offend anyone trying to keep the festivals now, but it is given to inform you of some concepts that you may not have been presented with for consideration from Yahuwah’s word. . . .
The ordinances of Yahuwah, like the services in Temple and the festivals, cannot be changed by any human authority, not even the sons of the High Priest.
In Lev 10.1-5, Nadab and Abihu found out the hard way that they could not change the services from the blueprint Yahuwah had commanded. It was the eighth day of their consecration as a priest and offered “strange fire” before Yahuwah. They tried to offer incense at an unauthorized time that was not part of the service Yahuwah gave, and Yahuwah never said two people could do it, either. Did they consult their teachers, Moses and Aaron? Independent thought and inspiration must be channeled through the Word of Yahuwah. The ordinances of Yahuwah, like the services in Temple and the festivals, cannot be changed by any human authority, not even the sons of the High Priest.
They did what was right in their own eyes and they died. What should have been a happy occasion became a day of grief. Aaron had lost two of his sons in one day because they did not “keep and observe” what Yahuwah commanded them to do. What makes people think they can “keep and observe” the festivals outside of the Temple, a functioning priesthood and Jerusalem today! It is “ground zero” for all of the festivals.
Deut 12.13-14 says they were not to bring their offerings to just any place they “see” but to where Yahuwah has put his name. In King Solomon’s prayer of dedication in 1 Kings 8.22-53, he said that place was the Temple, the covenantal center, and Jerusalem. Isa 33.20 says, “Look upon Zion (Jerusalem), the city of our appointed feasts; your eyes shall see Jerusalem an undisturbed habitation.”
In another example, we know the Philistines returned the Ark to Israel by placing the Ark on a “new cart” in 1 Sam 6.7. In 2 Sam 6.3, David is bringing the Ark into the city and the Ark is put on a “new cart” following the example of the Philistines. But the Ark is to be carried by Levites with poles on their shoulder (Num 7.9; 1 Chr 15.2). What is strange about this is there were priests and Levites around who knew better and did nothing about it. They were not “keeping and observing” the Torah but followed what the non-Jews did, or they thought that because other items were carried on carts this could be applied to the Ark as well (Num 7.1-8). Who really knows why they did what they did, but it was not what Yahuwah had told them to do. Yahuwah was very specific on how this was to be done.
When the Ark returned from the Philistines it was eventually brought to the house of Abinadab, which was on a hill, and his eldest son Eleazar was set apart to care for the Ark (1 Sam 7.1). We learn later that Abinadab had two other sons named Uzzah and Ahio (2 Sam 6.3). The Scriptures are silent about where Abinadab and Eleazar were, perhaps they were dead, but it was up to his remaining two sons to bring the Ark to David. They drew the cart along with oxen, with Ahio leading the oxen (2 Sam 6.4). When they reached the threshing floor of Nachon, Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark because the oxen nearly upset it (the road was rough) and he touched the Ark, killing him instantly (2 Sam 6.7).
The lesson is clear. If they had followed and “kept” the Torah (the tavnit, pattern, blueprint) this would have never happened. But they may have followed what the Philistines did and Uzzah died. David finally realized what they did wrong and corrected it, following what Yahuwah said to do by doing certain things at certain places at certain times by certain people.
In 1 Sam 15.22 it says, “And Samuel said, ‘Has Yahuwah as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Yahuwah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams.’” Sadly, this is the problem today with people who think that they can keep the biblical festivals and to ignore what Yahuwah has said about them. Israel still refuses to listen to Yahuwah and keeps certain festivals, like Passover, while ignoring the fact that there is no Temple, holy vessels or functioning priesthood. But Israel hasn’t followed Moses for over two thousand years.
The Book of Deuteronomy will refer to the Temple as the place that Yahuwah will select to establish his name. When the Torah refers to the Temple as the place where Yahuwah’s name will be established, it is a telling statement of the Temple’s purpose: the Temple is a house for Yahuwah’s name and symbolizes a public declaration of Yahuwah’s sovereignty (“The Temple: Its Symbolism and Meaning Then and Now” by Joshua Berman, p. 63).
Deut 12.26-27 says, “Only your holy things which you may have and your votive offerings you shall take and go to the place which Yahuwah chooses and you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Yahuwah your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Yahuwah your God, and you shall eat the flesh.” This verse clearly states that the offerings can only be brought to the place where Yahuwah chooses to place his name, and that became the Temple in Jerusalem.
Deut 12.5-8 says, “But you shall seek Yahuwah at the place which Yahuwah your God shall choose from all of your tribes, to establish his name there for his dwelling, and there you shall come. And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.” Again, that became the Temple in Jerusalem.
Every festival involved these offerings (Lev 23) and if you can’t have the offerings because there is no Temple, altar, and priesthood, then there is no festival as Yahuwah prescribed.
Every festival involved these offerings (Lev 23) and if you can’t have the offerings because there is no Temple, altar, and priesthood, then there is no festival as Yahuwah prescribed. For example, why don’t people kill a lamb for Passover today or offer any of the korbanot? They will say, “Because there is no Temple.” Exactly! So if you can’t have a lamb because there is no Temple, how can you keep any of it? The lamb WAS Passover, and even called “the Passover.” . . .
Deut 16.1-7 says that the Passover lamb can only be slain “where Yahuwah chooses to establish his name” and they could not keep the Passover in any of their towns. We know his name was at the Mishkan once they entered the land (Lev 23.10; Josh 4.19 through 5.11), and eventually in Jerusalem at the Temple. Deut 16.16 says that all males were to appear before Yahuwah “in the place which he chooses” three times a year, at the festivals of Hag Ha Matzah (Unleavened Bread), Shavuot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Booths). When a person could not keep the Passover at the time prescribed by the Torah, you could do it a month later (Num 9.10-11). But they still had to come to Jerusalem and the Temple, and this included the believers in the first century.
One of the reasons given for being able to do this a month later was that you were “on a distant journey” and could not be in Jerusalem. However, if you could keep the festival in some other place like people do today, there would have been no reason to give this commandment, they could just keep it wherever they were. But Yahuwah said they could not do that. Why do people think they can do it today? Because they are doing what is right in their own eyes. They spiritualize everything and say “Things are different in the New Testament. Yeshua is our lamb and we can keep it anywhere.”
There is no biblical evidence that Israel ever kept any festival outside of the land, in Babylon, or anywhere else without a Mishkan/Temple, a functioning priesthood, holy vessels, or korbanot.
If that was true, why wasn’t it true for the people who wrote the Gospels and Epistles? They were believers but came to Jerusalem and the Temple for the festivals. … There is no biblical evidence that Israel ever kept any festival outside of the land, in Babylon, or anywhere else without a Mishkan/Temple, a functioning priesthood, holy vessels, or korbanot.
This not only applied to Passover, but the three pilgrim festivals (three “foot” festivals called the Shelosh Regalim because you walked to Jerusalem to keep them) of Unleavened Bread, Shavuot (Weeks), and Sukkot (Tabernacles) as well (Exo 23.14-17; Deut 16.16). If you could keep the festivals anywhere, why would Yahuwah tell them to walk to Jerusalem and the Temple? But you can’t keep them outside of Jerusalem and the Temple so they walked to get there. Why do people think they can keep them anywhere today? The Torah observant in the Scriptures didn’t think so. . . .
The book of Ezra tells the story of the second aliyah of exiles back to Jerusalem. In Ezra 8.31-32 the delegation departed on “the twelfth day of the first month” or Aviv/Nisan 12. Passover is on Nisan 14. There is no indication in the scriptures that they kept Passover on the road to Jerusalem and it would have been highly unlikely that they did, in fact, it would have been impossible. Why? Because they did not keep the festivals outside of the land!
In the Book of Esther, Esther calls for a three-day fast. The fast went from Nisan 13 through Nisan 16. Her first banquet was on the 16th, and the second one was on the 17th. Now, that means they fasted through Passover (Nisan 14) and the first day of Hag Ha Matzah because they were not keeping Passover or Unleavened Bread outside the land, Jerusalem, or the Temple. Daniel fasted for 21 days, beginning on Nisan 3, and that meant he fasted through Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Bikurim (Dan 10.2-4,13). There is not one verse that says Daniel or captive Israel kept the festivals in Babylon. . . .
In Acts 18.21, Paul said “I must by all means keep the feast that comes in Jerusalem” and we know that feast was Shavuot (Pentecost) because it says in Acts 20.16 that “he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.” So, even Paul understood that he could not keep the festivals outside of the Temple in Jerusalem. Why didn’t he just stay where he was and keep it like people do today? He was a “temple” like people say they are today wasn’t he? Why the big hurry to get to Jerusalem for the festival? Can you keep the festivals outside the land? Can you keep the festivals with no Temple, altar, or priesthood? Paul didn’t think so because it is impossible to fulfill, and it was contrary to the Tanak so he came to the place Yahuwah had chosen.
The Torah requires that the people go to the place where Yahuwah chose to place his name (Deut 16.16). Not only must there be a place where he put his name (Jerusalem), but there must be a functioning Temple, altar, and priesthood there (Lev 23.1-44; Ex 12.24-25; Deut 12.5-9; 14.22-23; 16.2-6; 2 Chr 30.1-27). If you were in Jerusalem and there was no Temple, altar, or priesthood, you still couldn’t keep the festivals. If that is true, why do people think they can keep the festivals outside of the land (Lev 23.10)! If there was a functioning Temple, altar, and priesthood and you were outside of the land, you still could not keep the festivals where you were, like in the case of Paul. You would still need to come to Jerusalem where the Temple was.
Gathering together in far-off places to keep any festival was never allowed, and if you did, you were not fulfilling the commandment. A “memorial” is acceptable as long as it is not an attempt to keep the festival, so don’t dress them up in those terms.
Gathering together in far-off places to keep any festival was never allowed, and if you did, you were not fulfilling the commandment. A “memorial” is acceptable as long as it is not an attempt to keep the festival, so don’t dress them up in those terms. People can begin to think they are doing the right thing when in fact they are disobeying Yahuwah, as Saul did. We would try and “keep the festivals” in the past and after a while, Yahuwah began to show us this was right in our own eyes, but not right in the eyes of Yahuwah. . . .
Many believers in Yeshua follow man-made rabbinical traditions and they are making the same mistake Jeroboam and the Samaritans did. You cannot celebrate and keep the festivals outside of the land, outside of Jerusalem, and outside of the Temple with a functioning priesthood. The Temple, an altar, and a functioning priesthood does not exist today, so one cannot keep the festivals. End of story. We have seen some rationalize that they can, but that is how men think, not Yahuwah.
Hopefully, we have presented some new things for you to consider on this issue, and how you can apply them in your life.
This is a non-WLC article. Source: https://whitefeatherministries.com/can-you-keep-the-festivals-outside-jerusalem/
We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team
This is a non-WLC article. When using resources from outside authors, we only publish the content that is 100% in harmony with the Bible and WLC current biblical beliefs. So such articles can be treated as if coming directly from WLC. We have been greatly blessed by the ministry of many servants of Yahuwah. But we do not advise our members to explore other works by these authors. Such works, we have excluded from publications because they contain errors. Sadly, we have yet to find a ministry that is error-free. If you are shocked by some non-WLC published content [articles/episodes], keep in mind Proverbs 4:18. Our understanding of His truth is evolving, as more light is shed on our pathway. We cherish truth more than life, and seek it wherever it may be found.
Where did the custom of exchanging valentines originate? How did Christians come to inherit this ancient Roman custom? Why do we find no such practice commanded anywhere in the Bible?
A Christian Custom?
It is time we questioned why parents encourage children to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day – when it is never so much as mentioned in the Bible.
Did you know that centuries before Christ’s birth, the pagan Romans exchanged valentines at this same season? On February 14, they celebrated an idolatrous festival in honor of their “valentine” Lupercus, the “hunter of wolves”? The Romans called the festival the “Lupercalia.”
Lupercalia rituals took place in a few places: Lupercal cave, on Palatine Hill and within the Roman open-air, public meeting place called the Comitium. The festival began at Lupercal cave with the sacrifice of one or more male goats—a representation of sexuality—and a dog.
The sacrifices were performed by Luperci, a group of Roman priests. Afterwards, the foreheads of two naked Luperci were smeared with the animals’ blood using the bloody, sacrificial knife. The blood was then removed with a piece of milk-soaked wool as the Luperci laughed.
Feast of Lupercal
In Ancient Rome, feasting began after the ritual sacrifice. When the feast of Lupercal was over, the Luperci cut strips, also called thongs or februa, of goat hide from the newly sacrificed goats.
They then ran naked—or nearly naked—around Palantine, whipping any woman within striking distance with the thongs.1
The custom of exchanging valentines and all the other traditions in honor of Lupercus—the deified hero-hunter of Rome – “have been handed down from the Roman festival of the Lupercalia, celebrated in the month of February when names of young women were put into a box and drawn out by men as chance directed,” admits the Encyclopedia Americana, art. “St. Valentine’s Day.”
When Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, there was some talk in church circles of discarding this pagan free-for-all, but the Roman citizens wouldn’t hear of it! So they agreed that the holiday would continue as it was.
But how did this pagan festival acquire the name “St. Valentine’s Day?” And why is the little naked Cupid of the pagan Romans so often associated today with February 14th? And why do little children and young people still cut out hearts and send them on a day in honor of Lupercus the hunter of wolves? Why have we supposed these pagan customs in honor of a false god are Christian?
Who Was the Original “St. Valentine”?
Valentine was a common Roman name. Parents often gave the name of their children in honor of the famous man who was first called Valentine in antiquity. That famous man was Lupercus, the hunter. But who was Lupercus? Why should he have also borne the name Valentine among the heathen Romans?
But why should Nimrod have been called “Valentine” by the Romans?
Valentine comes from the Latin word Valentinus, a proper name derived from Valens, meaning “to be strong,” as defined in Webster’s unabridged dictionary. It means “strong, powerful, mighty.”
We read in the Bible that Nimrod was ”the MIGHTY hunter” (Gen.10:9). It was a common proverb of ancient times that Nimrod was the Mighty hunter before the Lord.” Nimrod was their hero – their strong man – their VALENTINE! The Romans would say, – a Valentinus, a Valentine – meaning a mighty man!
The original Valentine was Nimrod, the mighty hunter of wolves. Another of Nimrod’s names was “Santa,” meaning “Saint.” No wonder the Roman Lupercalia is called “St. Valentine Day”! But why do we associate HEARTS on a day in honor of Nimrod – the Baal of the Phoenicians and Semites?
Baal – sun god
The surprising answer is that the pagan Romans acquired the symbol of the heart from the Babylonians. In the Babylonian tongue, the word for heart was “Baal.” (see Young’s or Strong’s concordance)
One may ask, what is the origin of the heart–shaped symbol commonly seen today? In Egypt, “this infant divinity was frequently represented with a heart, or the heart-shaped fruit of the Persea [Avocado; Persea gratissima], in one of his hands” (The two Babylons, Alexander Hislop, p. 189). Hislop continues: “ thus the boy-god came to be regarded as the god of the heart, in other words, as cupid, the child name for Nimrod meaning “desire” ( Encyclopedia Britannica,” article “Cupid”). As Nimrod grew up, he became the child hero of many women who desired him. He was their Cupid! He provoked so many women to jealousy that an idol of him was often called the “image of jealousy” (Ezek. 8:5). Nimrod, the hunter, was also their Valentine – their strong or mighty hero!
Nimrod A Saint?
Later, in Constantine’s day, the pagan Babylon Mystery religion, masquerading as Christ’s Church, made Nimrod – the St. Valentine of the heathen – a saint! But why should the Romans have chosen February 15th and the evening of February 14th to honor Lupercus – the Nimrod of the Bible? (Remember that days in ancient times began at sunset the evening before.)
Nimrod – the Baal or sun-god of the ancient pagans – was said to have been born at the winter solstice. In ancient times the solstice occurred on January 6. Later, as the solstice changed, it was celebrated on December 25 and is now called Christmas.
It was the custom of antiquity for the mother of a male child to present herself for purification on the fortieth day after the day of birth. The fortieth day after January 6 – Nimrod’s original birth date – takes us to February 15th, the celebration of which began on the evening of February 14th, the Lupercalia or St. Valentine’s Day! On this day in February, Semiramis [pictured to the left], the mother of Nimrod, was said to have been purified and to have appeared for the first time in public with her son as the original “mother and child.”
The Roman month of February, in fact, derives its name from the februa that the Roman priests used in the rites celebrated on St. Valentine’s Day.
As Nimrod grew up, he became the child hero of many women who desired him. He was their Cupid! No wonder the pagans commemorated their hero-hunter Nimrod, or Baal, by sending heart-shaped love tokens to one another on the evening of February 14th as a symbol of him.
Alexander Hislop states in his book “The Two Babylons”: “Now, this Ninus, or “Son,” borne in the arms of the Babylonian Madonna, is so described as very clearly to identify him with Nimrod. “Ninus, king of the Assyrians, …first of all changed the contented moderation of the ancient manners, incited by a new passion, the desire of conquest. He was the first who carried on war against his neighbors, and he conquered all nations from Assyria to Lybia, as they were yet unacquainted with the arts of war.” This account points directly to Nimrod and can apply to no other.
“Ninus, the most ancient of the Assyrian kings mentioned in history, performed great actions. Being naturally of a warlike disposition and ambitious of glory that results from valor, he armed a considerable number of young men that were brave and vigorous like himself, trained them up a long time in laborious exercises and hardships, and by that means accustomed them to bear the fatigues of war, and to face dangers with intrepidity.”
As Diodorus makes Ninus “the most ancient of the Assyrian kings” and represents him as beginning those wars which raised his power to an extraordinary height by bringing the people of Babylonia under subjection to him, while as yet the city of Babylon was not in existence, this shows that he occupied the very position of Nimrod, of whom the Scriptural account is, that he first “began to be mighty on the earth,” and that the “beginning of his kingdom was Babylon.”
As the Babel builders, when their speech was confounded, were scattered abroad on the face of the earth and therefore deserted both the city and the tower which they had commenced to build, Babylon as a city could not correctly be said to exist till Nimrod, by establishing his power there, made it the foundation and starting-point of his greatness. In this respect, the story of Ninus and Nimrod harmonize. The way, too, in which Ninus gained his power is the very way in which Nimrod erected his. There can be no doubt that it was by inuring his followers to the toils and dangers of the chase that he gradually formed them to the use of arms and so prepared them for aiding him in establishing his dominions; just as Ninus, by training his companions for a long time “in laborious exercises and hardships,” qualified them for making him the first of the Assyrian kings.”
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.
Revelation 17:4-5
It is about time we examine these customs of the pagans – now falsely called Christian. It is time we stop this Roman and Babylonian practice – this idolatry – and get back to the faith of Christ delivered once and for all. Let’s stop teaching our children these pagan customs in memory of Baal, the sun god – the original Valentine – and teach them instead what the Bible really says!
We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team
A careful study of history, Scripture, and astronomy reveals the shocking fact that Saturday is not the seventh-day Sabbath of Scripture, nor is Sunday the day of the Saviour’s resurrection!
Arthur S. Maxwell told the story of an assumption made in time of war that changed the outcome of history. According to Maxwell, the Spanish Armada was chasing smaller, out-gunned British ships commanded by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson. The Spanish ships outnumbered the British ships and an easy victory seemed assured. Suddenly, however, a British sailor fell overboard. Under the circumstances, most commanders would continue sailing on. Why risk the lives of all just to save the life of one?
That is not what happened, however. The command was given to rescue the British sailor. The British ships slowed. A lifeboat was lowered and sent to save the lone man.
Seeing this, the Spanish commander could not believe that anyone would risk defeat to save the life of a single sailor. He made the assumption that the British commander must certainly have seen reinforcements on the horizon. Why else would they have stopped and taken the time to save one man? Under this mistaken assumption, the Spanish ships turned and fled, leaving the British ships unscathed to fight another day.
Ultimately, this assumption contributed to the virtual annihilation of the Spanish navy when Spain joined France to fight the British at the Battle of Trafalgar. The British victory at Trafalgar, “Destroyed Napoleon’s maritime strategy and invasion plans . . . [This] set the limit to Napoleon’s empire, and plotted the course of his downfall.”1 Had the Spanish commander not made the false assumption he did, Nelson might have been defeated earlier, and the Battle of Trafalgar could have had a much different ending, if fought at all. History would have been very different save for one small false assumption.
The Danger of Assumptions
Assumptions use known facts (or accepted-as-true ideas) to extrapolate beliefs about something that is actually unproven. The problem arises when an incorrect assumption is accepted as rock-solid truth.
Extrapolate: “To infer or estimate by extending or projecting known information.”
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Some assumptions are funny. Take, for example, Dr. Dionysius Lardner’s warning in the early 1800s that anyone traveling full speed on trains would asphyxiate from lack of oxygen. Other assumptions can be dangerous, such as the assumption made in the 17th century that all blood is the same, leading doctors to transfuse animal blood into humans. The humans typically died. And the more widespread the assumption, the stronger its power to delude.
Today, Christendom has been caught in a delusion. A delusion based on an assumption. Sadly, the assumption has the weight of nearly 1,600 years supporting it, trying to silence all who would reveal the truth.
This assumption is that the modern week, Sunday through Saturday, has cycled continuously and without interruption since Creation. This assumption has created the delusion that Saturday is the seventh-day Sabbath of Scripture, while Sunday—as the first day of the week—is the day on which Yahushua arose from the grave. The delusion is the affect of the assumption. But the assumption is wrong.
The truth is today’s Saturday is not the original Sabbath on which Yahuwah rested at Creation. It is not the ancient Sabbath enshrined in the 10 Commandments at Sinai, and observed by Yahushua and the disciples. It is not the true Sabbath kept by the early Christians in the first few centuries of our common era. Neither is Sunday the day on which Yahushua arose from the dead. Such statements can be shocking and it is normal to have a knee-jerk reaction, dismissing them as wrong. However, history, Scripture, and even astronomy all prove the assumption of a continuous weekly cycle is wrong.
Rather than immediately rejecting these statements as heresy—“Because they just have to be wrong!”—WLC invites you to carefully study the facts forgotten in history, and lost in Scripture, but still accurately preserved in the heavens. Please keep an open mind: a mind that is willing to accept and obey if the Spirit of Yah convicts you that it’s true. You can trust Yahuwah to keep your mind safe as you carefully review the evidence, drawing together “Precept . . . upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and there a little.” (Isaiah 28:10, KJV)
Forgotten in History
The conversation was equal parts frustrating and surprising. I respected my friend. He was well educated. He held a Master’s of Divinity degree. I believed him to be an intellectually honest, truth-first man. As a Seventh-day Adventist minister, I’d heard him speak in evangelistic meetings, explaining why worshipping on a precise day (the seventh-day Sabbath) was important; that not just any day (read: Sunday) would do.
So, when I learned that the Sabbath in Bible times was calculated by a different calendar, he was one of the first with whom I wished to share. With his love of the truth and his careful scholarship, I just knew he would want to hear this, too. (I had not yet learned that it is often hardest to share with those who believe they know more than you.)
At first, he dismissed the idea that the concept of a continuous weekly cycle ever since Creation is nothing but a false assumption.
“When the calendar transitioned from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian, no days of the week were lost. Thursday, October 4, was immediately followed by Friday, October 15,” he said, explaining facts I already knew.
He was correct, but he wasn’t going back far enough. The truth is hidden in the misty past, but to find the truth, it is necessary to dig much deeper and go back much further than a mere 400 years ago. The change in the weekly cycle—and even the length of the week—occurred over a millennia earlier than the introduction of the modern Gregorian calendar.
The most ancient calendars, from the most advanced societies, were luni-solar. Egypt was the first nation to move to a solar calendar, but originally, calendars were always linked in some way to the moon, either as strictly lunar calendars (which had the problem of months drifting through the year, and seasons coming at unexpected times) or luni-solar, where the months (lunations) were anchored to the solar year, thus preventing seasonal “drift”. This fact has been repeatedly established by various archeologists. As Dr. Nicholas Campion of the University of Wales writes: “The use of astronomy for collective purposes, both religious and political, is apparent in the earliest astronomical records, from the evidence for Palaeolithic lunar calendars to megalithic monuments and Mesopotamian celestial-omen reports.”
Time itself is, of course, continuous. However, that does not mean that the method by which it is counted has always been continuous as well. Weeks on the modern calendar do cycle continuously. But, this has not always been so and we do not have to go clear back to Paleolithic lunar calendars to establish this fact.
The Planetary Week
Scholars refer to the modern week in use today as the “planetary week.” This is due to the fact that the days of the week are named after various planets or, more precisely, planetary gods. In English, the names for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, were derived from the Norse gods: Tiw, Woden, Thor, and the goddess Frigg, Woden’s wife.2
Depending upon the language, this is a difficult concept to get across, because once in power, the Roman Catholic Church wanted to hide the pagan origins of the planetary week and delude people into believing that it was but an extension of the Biblical week. (Their success can be seen in the fact that many today still assume the modern Saturday is the Sabbath of Scripture.) A concerted effort was made to change the pagan day-names to Biblical day-names. In other words: “First Day,” “Second Day,” “Third Day,” etc.
In this attempt, the Catholic Church was only partially successful. In a number of languages today, the original “Saturday” (or Saturn’s day) was replaced by the word “Sabbath” while the original “Sunday” (day of the Sun) is referred to as “Lord’s Day.”
Obfuscate: “To make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand. To render indistinct or dim; darken.”
Let there be no mistake, however. The purpose was to deceive and hide the true, Biblical Sabbath. Eviatar Zerubavel, an Israeli professor of sociology at Rutgers University, wrote a fascinating book entitled The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week. In it, he clearly documents the pagan origins of the modern week as well as the Roman Catholic attempt to obfuscate those origins. He writes:
Despite its obvious effort to provide the week with a distinctively Christian content, the Church nevertheless chose to preserve its Jewish seven-day rhythmic form. This should not be taken too lightly; as it could have chosen to assemble regularly in accordance with the traditional Roman eight-day weekly cycle . . . After all, in abrogating the Sabbath, the Church also destroyed the raison d’être [reason for existence] of the Jewish seven-day week.
The preservation of the seven-day rhythm was, in part, the obvious result of the Church’s deep, unconscious attachment to Judaism, as well as a pragmatic attempt to avoid alienating the rather significant Jewish component of its membership unnecessarily. However, a brief glance at the names of the days of the week in most European languages ought to remind us that the Jewish week is not the only context within which the evolution of the ecclesiastical seven-day cycle ought to be viewed. As we shall see, it was the convergence of both Jewish and astrological weeks around the time Christianity was being introduced into the Roman Empire that produced the seven-day cycle that has since spread throughout most of the civilized world.3
In other words, Zerubavel is saying, the construction of the modern week was a deliberate choice, not an automatic extension of how time was calculated earlier. Other week-lengths were deliberately rejected while a week of seven days was deliberately chosen to emulate the Jewish seven-day week.
When people are presented with the facts of history: that the modern Saturday is not the Biblical Sabbath, many point to the demonstrable fact that plenty of languages refer to the seventh day of the week as “Sabbath” rather than using the original planetary designation of Saturn’s day. Zerubavel explains this as well. He says:
While the Roman Catholic Church has officially clung to the traditional Jewish nomenclature [system of naming] of the days of the week, planetary designations of these days appeared as early as the second century in the writings of the church fathers, and were popularly used by Christians at least since A.D. 269. (The only significant organized Christian attempt to restore the original Hebrew nomenclature of the days of the week seems to have been the official elimination of the “heathen names” by the First General Assembly of Pennsylvania, obviously representing the spirit of the Society of Friends, between 1682 and 1706. Incidentally, to this day, Quakers still call their Sunday schools “First-Day schools.”) As we can tell from the etymologically curious fact that no planetary designations of days of the week are to be found in either Greek or any of the Slavic languages, it is only the Eastern Church that seems to have succeeded in suppressing the considerable influence of astrology. Rome was obviously much less successful, as the planetary names of at least some of the days of the week in English, German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish, Finnish, Lapp, Hungarian, Albanian, Rumanian, Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, Breton, Gaelic, Welsh, and Cornish seem to indicate.
It is clear from the etymological [history of language] evidence that astrology had spread throughout the Roman Empire earlier, and probably much faster, than Christianity. Thus, by the early fourth century, when the Church finally gained control over the Empire, it was evidently too late for any serious ecclesiastical effort to fully eliminate the astrological associations of the seven days of the week. . . . even at the very heart of the Roman Empire, where languages that have derived from Latin prevail, it is only with respect to the two “key” days of the Judeo-Christian week, namely Saturday (the Sabbath) and Sunday (the Lord’s Day), that the Church has managed to supersede astrology. The astrological influence is obviously even more pronounced around the fringes of the Roman Empire, where Christianity arrived only much later.English, Dutch, Breton, Welsh, and Cornish, which are the only European languages to have preserved to this day the original planetary names of all the seven days of the week, are all spoken in areas that were free of any Christian influence during the first centuries of our era, when the astrological week was spreading throughout the Empire. Neither have these languages derived from either Greek or Latin, the languages most closely associated with the Church. That, incidentally, is also true of all the other languages that have preserved the planetary designations of at least one of the two “key” days of the Judeo-Christian week—German, Gaelic, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish, Finnish, Hungarian, and Albanian.4
This is why many languages have replaced the old “Saturday” with “Sabbath” and the original “Sunday” with “the Lord’s Day.”
A survey reveals that in at least sixty-five languages the days of the week are named after the seven planetary gods of ancient paganism—Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. And the practice of calling the days after those pagan deities is now most general in those lands where the profession of the Christian religion is dominant.
“Prayer to the planets on their respective days was a part of the worship of the heavenly bodies.”
Robert L. Odom, Sunday in Roman Paganism, p. 158.
It would be absurd, however, to suppose that the dedication of the days of the week to the heavenly bodies is of Hebrew or Christian origin.The Holy Scriptures reveal that the ancient Jews and the early Christians designated the days by numbers, the sixth and the seventh being called also “the Preparation” and “the Sabbath” respectively.
The dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other general sources of information are practically unanimous in attributing the calendar names of the days to a pagan source.5
Again, as previously stated: the planetary week was not drawn from the Biblical week. It came from paganism. The Church attempted to hide this fact by changing the names of the days of the week and in this, they were only partially successful.
Origins of the Planetary Week
The modern week is the same length as the Biblical week. But, as noted, the names of the days of the week, as well as the manner in which the week cycles, do not come from Scripture. As Zerubavel stated earlier, “The Church nevertheless chose to preserve its Jewish seven-day rhythmic form. This should not be taken too lightly; as it could have chosen to assemble regularly in accordance with the traditional Roman eight-day weekly cycle.” More shall be said on this point later, but for now it is enough to understand that the modern week was not a natural extension of the Biblical week. Rather, it was drawn from paganism and deliberately chosen to emulate the length of the Biblical week from which it was not drawn.
A stick calendar found in the Baths of Titus in Rome.
The planetary week has a history all it’s own, independent of Scripture. When the planetary week first encountered and began to be accepted into the Julian calendar, the new seven-day week began on Saturday! Note, for example, this “stick” calendar found in the Baths of Titus, which was constructed in Rome in A.D. 81. Across the top are the seven planetary gods, in order of the days of the week. The very first god shown is Saturn. He is holding a scythe because he was considered “god of the harvest.”
The next god in line, on the second day of the week, is Sol, or the sun god, crowned with rays of light. The third day has the moon goddess, Luna, crowned by the crescent moon. The other gods follow in order: Mars, god of war, wearing a helmet; Mercury, wearing his winged helmet and holding a caduceus; Jupiter, clutching his customary bundle of thunderbolts; and finally, the last day of the week has the goddess of love, Venus.
This clearly establishes that the modern week could not have been drawn from Scripture as, at the time it began to be used in the Julian calendar, it began on Saturn’s Day and ended on Venus’s Day, Friday. Only later was the week standardized to begin on Sunday and end on Saturday.
The Early Julian Week
The Julian calendar was a fairly recent invention when the Saviour walked the earth. The Romans had originally used the calendar of the Roman Republic, which was, like the Hebrew calendar, luni-solar.
The calendar of the Roman Republic was based on lunar phases. Pagan Roman priests, called pontiffs, were responsible for regulating the calendar. . . .
By the time of Julius Cæsar, months were completely out of alignment with the seasons. Julius Cæsar exercised his right as pontifex maximus (high priest) and reformed what had become a cumbersome and inaccurate calendar.6
Julius Cæsar invited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer to come up with a new way to calculate time.
Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged on a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year was used, as in the Egyptian calendar . . . The great difficulty facing any [calendar] reformer was that there seemed to be no way of effecting a change that would still allow the months to remain in step with the phases of the Moon and the year with the seasons. It was necessary to make a fundamental break with traditional reckoning to devise an efficient seasonal calendar.7
The pagan, solar, Julian calendar is named for , who was responsible for setting aside the lunar-based calendar of the Roman Republic.
The new calendar was called the “Julian” calendar after Julius Cæsar. In 45 B.C.E., a full 90 days were added to the calendar to bring the months back into proper alignment with the seasons. But right here is an important fact of which most people are ignorant. The new Julian calendar had a continuous weekly cycle . . . but the weeks were each eight days long! “Early Julian calendars were not constructed in grids as are modern calendars, but the dates were listed in columns, with the days of the week designated by the letters A through H.”8
This is a fact easily established by history and archeology. In fact, every single one of the early Julian calendars, called fasti, still in existence show an eight-day week. Furthermore, they all date from the period of Cæsar Augustus to Tiberius Cæsar, or 32 B.C.E. to 37 C.E. This more than encompasses the life of Yahushua on earth. The eight-day week of the Julian calendar was in use by the Romans during the life of Yahushua. It is what the Roman legions stationed in Palestine were using. Which brings us to an interesting point: There were two calendars readily known to the Jews in Yahushua’s day:
The solar calendar of their Roman conquerors with its continuous eight-day weekly cycle; or,
The luni-solar calendar of Creation, re-established at the Exodus, with its seven-day week that restarted each New Moon day.
Which calendar do you think the Jews would have used? It is interesting to note that the majority of the Dead Sea scrolls contain little more than attempts to correlate two different methods of time keeping. This alone reveals that there were at least two different calendars known in Palestine at that time. It also provides circumstantial evidence that the Jews were using a different calendar than the one used by their Roman rulers.
These stone fragments from an early Julian calendar show the months August through December. The letters A through H designated days of the week. This can clearly be seen on the stone fragments, proving the eight-day length of the early Julian calendar.
The Julian calendar was both pagan and solar. The Gregorian calendar in use today is, likewise, both pagan and solar. It is almost identical to the pagan, solar Julian calendar, and has virtually no resemblance to the Biblical luni-solar calendar of Yahuwah.
Sepulchral inscriptions
Inscriptions carved by Christians onto sepulchers provide additional archeological evidence that the earliest Christians had knowledge of both the Julian calendar and the Biblical calendar, and the difference in the two calendars’ weekly cycles. Thus, it is not unreasonable to infer that they chose to worship by the Biblical calendar even as they conducted business by the secular, Julian calendar. In Inscriptiones Latinæ Christianæ Veteres, Ernst Diehl records the following sepulchral inscription from 269 C.E.:
In the consulship of Claudius and Paternus, on the Nones of November, on the day of Venus, and on the 24th day of the lunar month, Leuces placed [this memorial] to her very dear daughter Severa, and to Thy Holy Spirit. She died [at the age] of 55 years, and 11 months [and] 10 days.9
This is one of the oldest dated Christian sepulchral inscriptions to be found in Rome and is fascinating because it gives two different dates! The “Nones” of November refers to November 5. That year, this fell on “the day of Venus” or Friday. In that particular lunation, this corresponded to the 24th day of the lunar month which would have been “Second Day” on the Biblical week.
This is extremely important because if “Second Day” in that lunation fell on Friday, the seventh day—and the Sabbath—coincided with the pagan Wednesday or “day of Mercury”!
Admissions of Jewish Scholars
For too long, the fact that Jews worship on Saturday as the Sabbath has been used to “prove” that Saturday is the Bible Sabbath. But that is nothing more than circular reasoning: The Jews worship on the Sabbath. Therefore, Saturday is the Sabbath because that’s when the Jews worship.
The fact is, Jewish scholars are well aware that Saturday is not the original Sabbath of Scripture. The following are all quotes from Jewish scholars, all emphasis supplied.
In a letter to Dr. L. E. Froom, dated Feb. 20, 1939, [Rabbi Louis] Finklestein [of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America] readily admitted, “The present Jewish calendar was fixed in the fourth century.” Maimonides and most other Jewish chronologers agree that the modern Jewish calendar is based upon the “mean motions of the sun and moon, the true [calendar]having been set aside.”10,11
Maimonides (1135-1204), rabbi, philosopher and physician.
The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle . . . Originally, the New Moon was celebrated in the same way as the Sabbath; gradually it became less important while the Sabbath became more and more a day of religion and humanity, of religious meditation and instruction, of peace and delight of the soul.12
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 . . . .13
The months of the year were lunar, and began with the new moon (hodesh, which came to mean “month.”) During the era of the Kings the new moon was observed by a two-day festival (I Sam. 20:24-47.)14
Notice in the quote above that Rabbi Finklestein openly admitted that the present Jewish calendar is different from the one used prior to the fourth century and Maimonides went still further by saying the original had been “laid aside.”
This was due to the extreme persecution conducted by the early Christian (Roman Catholic) church once it gained power in the fourth century C.E. Again, Jews are very open about these facts of history, readily admitting that they changed the calendar under the pressure of extreme persecution.
“Under the reign of Constantius (337-362) the persecutions of the Jews reached such a height that . . . the computation of the calendar [was] forbidden under pain of severe punishment.”15
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 C.E.], the last President of the Sanhedrin, the Romans prohibited this practice. Hillel II was therefore forced to institute his fixed calendar, thus in effect giving the Sanhedrin’s advance approval to the calendars of all future years.16
The Council of Nicæa is still considered one of the most influential church councils ever held.
Interestingly enough, Roman Catholic scholars are also very blunt about the fact that they are responsible for the calendar change that influenced Christianity’s day of worship. This occurred at the Council of Nicæa and is best summarized by
Heinrich Graetz in his monumental History of the Jews, which was published by the Jewish Publication Society of America in 1893!
Then the world witnessed the hitherto undreamt-of spectacle of the first general convocation of Nice [Nicæa], consisting of several hundred bishops and priests, with the emperor at their head. Christianity thought to celebrate its triumph, but only succeeded in betraying its weakness and internal disunion. For on the occasion of this, its first official appearance, in all the splendor of its plenitude of spiritual and temporal power, there remained no trace of its original character . . . At the Council of Nice the last thread was snapped which connected Christianity to its parent stock.The festival of Easter had up till now been celebrated for the most part at the same time as the Jewish Passover, and indeed upon the days calculated and fixed by the Synhedrion [Sanhedrin] in Judæa for its celebration; but in future its observance was to be renderedaltogether independent of the Jewish calendar, “For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforward let us have nothing in common with this odious people; our Saviour has shown us another path. It would indeed be absurd if the Jews were able to boast that we are not in a position to celebrate the Passover without the aid of their rules (calculations).” These remarks are attributed to the Emperor Constantine . . . [and became] the guiding principle of the Church which was now to decide the fate of the Jews.17
There can be no doubt that it was the actions of the Roman Catholic bishops at the Council of Nicæa that were directly responsible for the ecclesiastical change in calendar used for worship by both the Jews and the apostolic Christians. As chronologist, David Sidersky explained, “It was no more possible under Constance to apply the old calendar.”18
In subsequent years, the Jews went through “iron and fire.” The Christian [papal Roman] emperors forbade the Jewish computation of the calendar, and did not allow the announcement of the feast days. Graetz says, “The Jewish [and apostolic Christian] communities were left in utter doubt concerning the most important religious decisions: as pertaining to their festivals.” The immediate consequence was the fixation and calculation of the Hebrew calendar by Hillel II.19
The decrees of Nicæa, “destroyed the Temple of the Law in Judea,” as it were, and the ancient regulation of Moses for harmonizing the course of the moon with that of the sun was ultimately replaced by calculations involving the vernal equinox, after which the nearest full moon was chosen to be the paschal moon. From this equinoctial point, the [Catholic] church built up her ecclesiastical calendar and its Easter feast. It is easy to gloss over the real significance of the Council of Nicæa and its bearing upon the Jewish system of time, for though the church desired to depart from Jewish calculation, and to adopt a movable feast,yet in the end, it turned out that both the Jewish and Roman Catholic festivals came to be computed from the same point of time – . . . the vernal equinox.20
“To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity – now far sunk in idolatry . . . to shake hands.”
Alexander Hyslop, The Two Babylons, p.105, emphasis supplied.
Catholic scholars know this. This is why, the American Catholic Quarterly Review could publish a statement such as: “The Sunday…is purely a creation of the Catholic Church.”21 Or, as published in the Ecclesiastical Review:
“They [the Protestants] deem it their duty to keep the Sunday holy. Why? Because the Catholic Church tells them to do so. They have no other reason . . .The observance of Sunday thus comes to be an ecclesiastical law entirely distinct from the divine law of Sabbath observance . . . The author of the Sunday law . . . is the Catholic Church.”22
This is significant because it proves that Sunday is not the day of Yahushua’s resurrection. While Saturday-Sabbatarians have long insisted that the fourth commandment is still binding and that it does matter to Yahuwah which day one worships on, most Sunday-keepers dismiss such claims by insisting, “I worship on all days.”
This is an argument based on ignorance. First, the fourth commandment does not just say to worship on the seventh day. It also that while no work be done on the seventh day, work should be done on the other six days of the week. Furthermore, the reason traditionally given for worship on Sunday is based on the argument that Sunday is the day of Yahushua’s resurrection. However, as we have seen, Sunday did not exist on the eight-day week of the early Julian calendar. Therefore, the Saviour could not have risen on that day. Sunday has no basis for worship since it is a tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, just as they have always claimed.
Catholic author and radio host, Patrick Madrid.
Even modern Catholic scholars know this for a fact. Patrick Madrid is an American Roman Catholic author, apologist, and radio host. On January 5, 2006, Madrid was on EWTN, the Global Catholic Radio Network. On “Open Line,” a call in radio show, a listener called in with a question. The listener’s brother-in-law had said that the Catholic Church had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Madrid’s response, while giving a Catholic “spin” to justify no longer worshipping on the Biblical Sabbath, reveals he is well aware of the facts of history and Scripture. He stated:
What your brother-in-law may not understand is that the Catholic Church did not change that [Sabbath] commandment. The Catholic Church observes the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath, but it does so on the Lord’s Day, and the earliest Christians transferred their observance of that commandment from Saturday to Sunday.
First of all, because there was a distinct break between the Old Testament requirements: the rituals and Mosaic covenant demands dealing with the Sabbath worship and animal sacrifices, and that sort of thing. And they wanted to show that Christianity was distinct from Judaism. It came from Judaism, but it was distinct from it. . . . Celebrating the Lord’s resurrection and death on the day that He rose from the dead seemed to be the most appropriate.
The other thing that we should remember, too, is that our calendar that we follow, including Seventh-day Adventists, is not only a calendar that was devised by the Catholic Church, but also it is a calendar that’s based upon the solar year, not the lunar year. And the Jewish calendar that was observed in the time of Christ follows a lunar calendar, which is several days short of the solar calendar.
So the great irony is that even the Seventh-day Adventists themselves are not worshiping on exactly the same Sabbath day as the Jews of the time of Christ, because it’s several days off now having switched [from] following the lunar calendar.23
This whole subject is much bigger than merely Saturday versus Sunday. It has to do with an entire system of false worship: pagan/papal sun worship versus pure, Biblical worship of the All-mighty.
When I laid out the facts of early calendar history to my Seventh-day Adventist pastor friend, he was silent a long moment. Finally, he said: “You’re right. But all God requires is that we keep holy the seventh-day of whatever calendar society is using.”
I was stunned. Such a statement clearly contradicted every single statement he’d ever made that the Father expects us to worship on a precise, specific day.
Lost in Scripture
There is one mistake almost everyone makes when reading the Bible. It’s a very common one and very understandable. That is, when people read the Bible, they do so wearing a specific set of ideological “glasses.” These glasses are crafted by their individual cultural and educational backgrounds and shape how they interpret what they read.
Christians worship on either Saturday or Sunday because they assume the week as it is today has cycled continuously and without interruption since Yahushua’s day.
Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the subject of the Sabbath. The entire world has been united in using the papal Gregorian calendar since the 1940s. Therefore, it is natural that when people read about the Sabbath in Scripture, they assume it is referring to the seventh day of the modern week: Saturday. This assumption, however, is wrong.
The biggest difference between the calendar of the Bible and the modern calendar is found in the weekly cycles of each method of time keeping. As mentioned before, the modern calendar has a continuous weekly cycle. This means that each month starts on a different day of the week. Not so with the Biblical calendar. The weekly cycle on Yah’s calendar restarted with each new month. But what is more, the modern calendar, being founded upon the sun, has no link between weeks and anything in nature. By contrast, the weekly cycle of Yahuwah’s calendar is irrevocably tied to the phases of the moon.
There is no one text in Scripture that explains how the Biblical calendar worked for one very simple reason: it was assumed knowledge. Everyone used that calendar. There was no need to spell out how the calendar worked any more than today. It is not necessary to explain how the Gregorian calendar works because everyone just knows.
However, clues exist and are liberally scattered throughout the Bible. When the Biblical principle of precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little is applied, the differences become very apparent.
New Moon Days
The Bible contains many references to a particular category of day that simply does not exist in the modern calendar: New Moons. Clearly, a different way of calculating time was used. This is first encountered during Creation week on the fourth day: “Then Elohim said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years . . .’ and it was so.” (Genesis 1:14, 15, NKJV)
The word translated “signs” comes from the Hebrew word owth, which means a signal, monument, beacon, sign or token. Even more significant is the word translated “seasons.” This comes from the Hebrew word mo’ed which means a fixed time or season, specifically, a festival. It is used throughout Leviticus 23, referring to the feasts of Yahuwah: “And Yahuwah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of Yahuwah, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts.” (Leviticus 23:1-2, KJV) The very first feast listed was the weekly feast of the seventh-day Sabbath. Then the others given were the annual feasts.
“Since the Jewish festivals occurred at regular intervals, this word becomes closely identified with them . . . Mo’ed is used in a broad sense for all religious assemblies. It was closely associated with the tabernacle itself . . . [Yah] met Israel there at specific times for the purpose of revealing His will. It is a common term for the worshiping assembly of [Yah’s] people.”24
The foundation of the calendar established by Yahuwah at Creation is the movement of the moon. Only by movement, is time measured. The purpose of tracking the moon’s movement was to establish holy days! “He appointed the moon for seasons.” (Psalm 104:19, KJV) Here again, the word translated “seasons” is mo’ed, or, “the worshiping assemblies of Yah’s people.”
New Moon days are the most important days, function-wise, of the entire Biblical luni-solar method of time-keeping because they are the days that regulate the beginning of the months as well as the beginning of the weekly cycle. Just because these facts are unknown to most Christians, does not mean that Christian scholars are equally ignorant:
The month was a unit of time closely tied to the moon. The Hebrew word for “month” also meant “moon” . . . The reason for the connection between the month and the moon is that the beginning of a month was marked by a new moon. The moon was carefully observed by the people of Bible times.25
The Weekly Cycle
The difference in weekly cycles is usually the hardest thing for people studying the luni-solar calendar to wrap their brain around at first.26 And yet, again, scholars are well-acquainted with these facts, even if they never manage to preach sermons about it. Emil G. Hisrch, in an article entitled, “Week: Connection with Lunar Phases” in the Jewish Encyclopedia states:
The week of seven days was connected with the lunar month, of which it is, approximately, a fourth. The quadripartite division of the month was evidently in use among the Hebrews and other ancient peoples; but it is not clear whether it originated among the former. It is unnecessary to assume, however, that it was derived from the Babylonians, for it is equally possible that observations of the four phases of the moon led the Hebrew nomads spontaneously and independently to devise the system of dividing the interval between the successive new moons into four groups of seven days each. . . . The emphasis laid on the requirement [Leviticus 23:15] that the weeks of Pentecost should be “complete” (“temimot”) suggests that weeks might be reckoned in such a way as to violate this injunction.
This quote is interesting because, first, it correctly connects the ancient weekly cycle to the lunar phases; and, secondly, it brings out that the count to Pentecost requiring “complete” weeks does seem to infer that the weekly cycle being used would not automatically provide complete weeks.
The Proof of the Dates
Because the first day of each month (New Moon day) always restarted the weekly cycle, the Sabbath always fell on the same dates of each and every lunar month. New Moon day was in a class all by itself, but it was a worship day. Thus, the second of each month was also the first day of every workweek. Even on the Gregorian calendar, we occasionally have a month layout like this. For example, April of 2017 was one such month:
The only difference between the Gregorian April layout for 2017, and the luni-solar months is that this is the monthly/weekly layout for each month on the luni-solar calendar. Because the first of each month was a New Moon worship day, the seventh-day Sabbath always fell on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the lunar month. This is supported by the fact that every time a date for the seventh-day Sabbath is given in Scripture, it always falls on these dates. Additionally, every single time a date for the seventh-day Sabbath can be extrapolated from surrounding texts, it also falls on these same dates. This would be impossible with a continuous weekly cycle.27
Lost Sabbaths
“Every place in the Bible where Sabbaths and New Moons are indicated, the 2nd day of the moon or month is always the 1st work day, and the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the month are Sabbaths without exception!”
John D. Keyser, “Biblical Proof for the Lunar Sabbath.”
Interestingly enough, the people who have the hardest time accepting the fact that Saturday is not the true Sabbath are those who understand most clearly its importance: those who worship on Saturday already. They will protest, “God would never have allowed the Sabbath to be forgotten! It’s impossible! Therefore, Saturday must be the Sabbath.”
Such an argument is a logical fallacy. Not only can Saturday be proven to not be the true Sabbath, but in Scripture, Yahuwah Himself declares that the Sabbath will be forgotten and that He will be the one who insures that it is forgotten!
The prophet, Jeremiah, was lamenting what had befallen Jerusalem when it fell to the Babylonians. But because “Babylon” is also a symbol for the entire infrastructure of false worship, Jeremiah’s lament has a secondary, prophetic application pointing forward to a time when the knowledge of the original, ancient Sabbath was, truly, lost.
Yahuwah was as an enemy: He hath swallowed up Israel, He hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
And He hath violently taken away His tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: He hath destroyed His places of the assembly: Yahuwah 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 2:5-6, KJV)
Nor is this the only place in Scripture where Yahuwah declares He shall cause the Sabbath to be forgotten. The book of Hosea illustrates the unfaithfulness of Yah’s people by likening them to an unfaithful wife who goes whoring after other lovers. Yahuwah is a divine husband to believers. “For thy Maker is thine husband; Yahuwah of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall He be called.” (Isaiah 54:5)
By turning aside to false worship, Yahuwah’s “bride” (believers) have been unfaithful to Him.
There are many beautiful promises recorded in the second chapter of Hosea. We like to read those promises; we like to claim them. But they must be read in context, and the context is that first comes a denouncement for spiritual unfaithfulness.
Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers. (Hosea 2:2, 3, 5, KJV)
The punishment for spiritual adultery? Having the gift of the Sabbath taken away:
And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her New Moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. (Hosea 2:10-11, KJV)
The “New Moons” are a clear reference to the calendar by which the Sabbaths and “solemn feasts” (mo’edim) are calculated. “It was by compromise with paganism that the early Christian church lost its apostolic purity. This opened the floodgates to all of the deceptions of Satan. By not valuing and preserving the truth, the people of [Yah] lost it. When the truth of heaven is not cherished as it should be, [Yah] removes it; He causes it to be forgotten.”28 And that is precisely what happened.
The adoption of the pagan week by ecclesiastical authorities uniting their power with secular authorities in the fourth century led to the persecution of all who wished to cling to Biblical calendation. As Robert Odom observed in his seminal work, Sunday in Roman Paganism: “It seems as if some spiritual genius having control over the pagan world had so ordered things that the heathen planetary week should be introduced just at the right time for the most popular Sun cult of all ages to come along and exalt the day of the Sun as a day above and more sacred than all the rest. Surely this was not accidental.”29
This slow metamorphosis from pure, apostolic Christianity, to a Christianity intertwined with pagan calendation principles is largely responsible for the lack of knowledge existing today regarding the true calendar of the Creator. The pagan continuous weekly cycle reaches so far back in history, it is assumed that a continuous weekly cycle has always existed. The historical facts of the Julian calendar have been forgotten and circular reasoning has been used to “prove” that Saturday is the Bible Sabbath: i.e., the modern Gregorian week has continuously cycling seven-day weeks therefore weeks have always cycled continuously. Saturday, then, must be the “seventh-day Sabbath” of the fourth commandment.30
Heaven’s Calendar
Throughout Scripture, the Sabbath is important. From Genesis to Revelation, it is a golden thread, weaving Yah’s promised rest through all. It makes no sense whatsoever that the Creator, the Ruler of the heavens and the earth, would not have also established a method of time-calculation whereby anyone, anywhere and at any time, could know when the Sabbath comes. This point is well illustrated by the experience of a Saturday-Sabbath keeping minister arrested by the KGB and thrown into prison during the Soviet-era. At first, he was kept in solitary confinement. Later, he was sent to the gulag. He very carefully kept track of every single day so that he could know when the Sabbath came. Eventually, though, he lost track. Whether he lost consciousness for a time due to their ill-treatment of him, or something else, ultimately doesn’t matter. Whatever the cause, he eventually lost track of what day of the week it was.
Oh, what fun the guards made of him then! They tormented him mercilessly. And he did truly suffer mental agony. He loved Yahuwah and wanted to honor Him. He was in prison precisely because he refused to compromise on his beliefs. And now, he did not know when the Sabbath came and whether or not he was working on it.
This is the result of ignorance of the true Sabbath and Yahuwah’s true calendar established at Creation. It is not His will for any to remain in ignorance. Nor did He hand Adam and Eve a piece of paper to tack up to a tree in order to keep count. Something so important would never be entrusted to anything so easily destroyed or so easily changed!
Yahuwah, remember, is the Creator of All. He didn’t need to give Adam and Eve a calendar printed on a piece of paper. He embedded His time-keeping system into the very fabric of creation and implanted it in the skies for all to see regardless of where they were on earth.
The function of the moon as a calendar is explicitly spelled out in both Psalm 104:19 and Genesis 1:14-15. The unchanging nature of the moon’s function is even referenced in another psalm: “It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.” (Psalm 89:37, KJV)
Just as it makes no sense whatsoever that Yahuwah would entrust the knowledge of His time-keeping system to a piece of paper or even a block of stone, it is likewise beyond all logic to assume that He would entrust the calculation of His holy Sabbath into the care of His enemy, Lucifer. And yet, that is precisely the case if, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, a person insists that Saturday is the seventh-day Sabbath of the Bible.
The modern “Gregorian” solar calendar is a papal invention. It is even named after Pope Gregory XIII! When it was first introduced, only three countries accepted it and those were all Catholic countries. The other countries rejected it for being Catholic.
And yet, the Julian calendar is no better as it was a pagan solar calendar. Only the luni-solar calendar of Creation has the ability to pinpoint Yah’s true mo’edim, Heaven’s appointed times for worship.
All time is based on movement. There are, therefore, only four types of calendars. All time keeping is some form of one of the following:
Sidereal: Sidereal calendars track time based on the observed relative movement of the stars. The Hindu calendar uses a combination of sidereal and solar time keeping.
Solar: In solar calendars, the year is based on the time it takes the sun to return to the same position within the cycles of the seasons, or 365 days. The Julian and Gregorian calendars are both examples of solar time keeping. On a solar calendar, there is nothing connecting the weekly cycle to anything in nature.
Lunar: A lunar calendar is based solely on the phases of the moon. Because the lunar year, at 354 days, is shorter than the 365-day solar year, months on the lunar calendar drift through the seasons. The calendar used by Muslims is a lunar calendar, which is why Ramadan drifts backward through the year, from one year to the next.
Luni-Solar: Luni-solar calendars are the most elegant and accurate of all calendars in use. The weekly cycle and the months are based on the movements of the moon, while the year is anchored to the sun. Thus, there is no season drift as with a strictly lunar calendar. The Biblical calendar is luni-solar.
Recorded in the Heavens
Truth has been so scattered and buried under centuries of error and assumption, it requires patience and painstaking attention to detail to assemble the various missing “puzzle pieces” of truth. However, recorded in the starry heavens are two more pieces of evidence that help to establish beyond a doubt that Saturday is not the Bible Sabbath. These are the date of the crucifixion, and the International Dateline.
Date of the Crucifixion
Setting aside fun sci-fi speculation about rifts in the “space-time continuum,” time itself is, of course, continuous. That is why most modern people have a hard time wrapping their brains around a system of time-calculation in which the weekly cycle is not continuous. People assume the modern weekly cycle has always existed. Therefore, they tend to think in terms of modern calendar dates even when remembering events of history.
Take, for example, the Battle of Marathon. The generally accepted date is September 12, 490, B.C.E. Do you notice a problem? Actually, there are several (rather amusing) problems with that date. First, the Gregorian calendar did not exist in 490 B.C.E. Furthermore, although the Julian calendar had a month called September, the date is nearly 450 years before the Julian calendar came into existence, either!
Finally, “September” did not exist in the Greek calendar of 490 B.C.E. The Greek calendar, like the Israelite calendar of the time, was luni-solar with some variations between the differing Greek city-states. The months in Athens were called:
Hekatombion
Metageitnion
Boedromion
Pyanepsion
Maimakterion
Poseidon
Gamelion
Anthesterion
Elaphebolion
Munychion
Thargelion
Skirophorion
An early Greek calendar from c.a. 1600 B.C.E.
Notice not a single “September” among them! So what does it mean that the Battle of Marathon took place on September 12?
Using modern calendar dates before that calendar actually came into being is actually a useful tool. It enables people today to understand, relative to the modern system of time keeping, when an event occurred. Counting backward using modern calendar dates is called using a proleptic calendar. A proleptic calendar is simply a calendar that extends its dating system backward to time before its actual introduction. However, while useful, it is important to know when this is happening. Believers today have tried to count backward to the time of Yahushua, to “prove” that He was crucified on a Friday. Others have done the same, attempting to “prove” He was actually crucified on a Wednesday.
As has already been established, both are impossible for no other reason than the fact that neither “Friday” nor “Wednesday” had yet been introduced into the Julian calendar. During Yahushua’s life on earth, the Julian calendar still used a week of eight days. Therefore, any claims that the Saviour sacrificed His life on a Friday or a Wednesday is based on proleptic dates, nothing more.
It is true, however, that Yahushua was crucified on the sixth day of the week. Leviticus 23 gives the date for the Passover: “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is Yahuwah’s passover.” (Leviticus 23:5, KJV) On the luni-solar calendar, the 14th day of every month always falls on the sixth day of the week. So, without a doubt, Yahushua died on the day before the seventh-day Sabbath.
It was for this very reason, that the Jewish leaders asked Pilot to break the legs of the three men crucified, so that they would die quickly from asphyxiation and could be buried: “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 19:31, KJV)
The day following the Passover is not only the seventh-day Sabbath, it is also the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto Yahuwah: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.” (Leviticus 23:6, KJV) In other words, a “high” Sabbath.
Many scholars have argued over what year the crucifixion occurred because, over and over, they are looking for a year when the 14th day of the lunar month (the Passover on Abib 14) coincides with a proleptic Friday. Using calculations from the Astronomical Applications Department of the United States Naval Observatory, it is possible to prove that the 14th day of the lunar month could not have coincided with a proleptic Friday in the only year possible for the Saviour’s crucifixion: 31 C.E.31 These are astronomical facts, preserved in the heavens, easily calculated because they are so predictable.
Yahuwah would not leave the final generation ignorant of such important matters. He established the principles of astronomy that allow us to know with extreme accuracy the movements of the moon 2,000 years ago! And it is these same movements, when applied to a luni-solar calendar and compared with the modern week that establish beyond a doubt that Yahushua, while crucified on the sixth day of the lunar week, was not crucified on a Friday.
This is significant because it establishes two additional facts:
The day of Yahushua’s resurrection—the reason given for worshipping on Sunday—was not a Sunday.
These two facts alone reveal the error in calculating one’s worship days by using the modern solar calendar. Saturday is not the true, ancient Sabbath of the Bible, and Sunday is not the day of Yahushua’s resurrection and, therefore, not a day on which one should worship specifically in honor of the resurrection.
International Dateline
The International Dateline is one of the most obvious, and most amusing, proofs that the modern calendar cannot be used to establish the Biblical Sabbath. It is a man-made invention. It is purely arbitraryand it has changed a number of times for no other reason than convenience.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States Department of Commerce admits to the purely arbitrary nature of the International Dateline, stating:
The International Date Line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth. It is located halfway round the world from the prime meridian—the zero degrees longitude established in Greenwich, England, in 1852.
The International Date Line functions as a “line of demarcation” separating two consecutive calendar dates. When you cross the date line, you become a time traveler of sorts! Cross to the west and it’s one day later; cross back and you’ve “gone back in time.”
Despite its name, the International Date Line has no legal international status and countries are free to choose the dates that they observe. While the date line generally runs north to south from pole to pole, it zigzags around political borders such as eastern Russia and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.32
The eastern most part of Russian is actually further east than the most western part of Alaska! A quick glance at a map of the International Dateline shows how arbitrary it is.
A world map showing the path of the International Dateline, zig-zagging its way across the Pacific Ocean.
Most recently, the International Dateline was changed in 2012. This created a problem for Saturday-Sabbath keeping Christians in Samoa. Were they to worship on the new seventh-day Sabbath? Or, did they cling to the old, which meant that, with the new date, they were now worshipping on Sunday?
The International Dateline is imaginary and completely arbitrary. It is laughable to assume that Yahuwah would allow something as important as His Sabbath to be dependent on something so changeable as the modern calendar which, with a simple vote, can be changed.
The man-made International Dateline is necessary only if you are going to calculate the Sabbath by the papal Gregorian calendar. However, if you use the moon to establish the beginning of months, and thus the Sabbath, such an artificial device is not necessary. The moon was created for establishing seasons (mo’edim). It is accurate regardless of where one lives.
Only One True Sabbath
Pseudo-religion is like pseudo-science. It’s fake, a fraud masquerading as the truth. In pseudo-science as well as pseudo-religion, a hypothesis is based on an assumption and then efforts are expended to prove the hypothesis, rather than to arrive at the truth. However, if the assumption is incorrect, no amount of “proof” will transform error into truth.
Likewise, a long tradition of calling Saturday, the “Sabbath” does not make it so. The fact that modern Jews now worship on Saturday proves nothing more than what their scholars have already admitted: they no longer worship by the Biblical calendar.
The facts of archeology, Scripture, and astronomy demonstrate the truth: the original Sabbath of the Bible was calculated by the luni-solar calendar, based on the movements of the moon. This means that Saturday is not the “Sabbath of Yahuwah thy Eloah.” (Exodus 20:10, KJV) It also means that Sunday is not the day of Yahushua’s resurrection. Both are counterfeit days of worship, established by Satan in order to usurp the worship due Yahuwah alone.
However, these facts will still never convince anyone who does not want to acknowledge the truth because it is inconvenient. Abraham Lincoln once observed: “When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease being honest.” WLC appeals to you to lay aside every assumption and cherished prejudice. Put the truth first and follow the Lamb wherever He leads.
The decision now is yours. With the facts spread before you, what will you decide? In closing, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are strikingly appropriate: “Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.”
2 “Some scholars say her name was Frigg; others say it was Freya; other scholars say Frigg and Freya were two separate goddesses. Whatever her name, she was often associated with Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility. ‘Friday’ comes from Old English ‘Frīgedæg.’” (https://www.livescience.com/45432-days-of-the-week.html)
3 Eviatar Zerubavel, The Seven Day Circle, p. 23, emphasis supplied.
14The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, “Calendar,” p. 631.
15 “Calendar,” The Jewish Encyclopedia, emphasis supplied.
16 “The Jewish Calendar and Holidays (incl. Sabbath)”: The Jewish Calendar; Changing the Calendar, www.torah.org, emphasis supplied.
17 Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, Vol. II, pp. 563-564, emphasis supplied.
18 David Sidersky, Astronomical Origin of Jewish Chronology, Paris, 1913, p. 651, emphasis supplied
19 Grace Amadon, “Report of Committee on Historical Basis, Involvement, and Validity of the October 22, 1844, Position”, Part V, Sec. B, pp. 17-18, emphasis supplied; Box 7, Folder 1, Grace Amadon Collection, Center for Adventist Research, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
A close examination of the International Date Line irrefutably proves that the modern weekly cycle has not cycled continuously without interruption since Creation. To suggest otherwise is to bow to tradition and assumption – to the exclusion of the evidence.
What is the International Date Line?
The International Date Line is an imaginary line that runs through the middle of the Pacific ocean. It was officially1 established in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. for the sole purpose of differentiating between days on the Gregorian calendar.
The International Date Line functions as a “line of demarcation” separating two consecutive calendar dates. When you cross the date line, you become a time traveler of sorts! Cross to the west and it’s one day later; cross back and you’ve “gone back in time.”2
For the most part, the Date Line follows the 180° meridian, which is opposite the Greenwich meridian (Prime Meridian) in London, England.3 This line is far from being straight, though, as there are several contrived deviations to accommodate the political and economic affiliations of nearby areas. The location selected for the International Date Line is arbitrary; its location is a matter of convenience and has no ties whatsoever to anything in nature.
180 degrees was chosen [for the International Date Line] because it runs mostly through open ocean in the central Pacific, zigging and zagging to keep nearby nations on their own day and date. So the choice of 180 degrees was arbitrary, but it established the IDL in use today.4
The International Date Line can be anywhere . . . But it is most convenient to be 180° away from the defining meridian that goes through Greenwich, England. It also is fortunate that this area is covered, mainly, by empty ocean. However, there have always been zigs and zags in it to allow for local circumstances.5
“The 180° meridian was selected as the International Date Line because it mostly runs through the sparsely populated Central Pacific Ocean. It was decided at the International Meridian Conference in 1884 in Washington, D.C. where 26 countries attended.” (https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dateline.html, retrieved on May 20, 2017.)
International Date Line (IDL) Summary:
The IDL is imaginary.
The IDL was contrived by a committee of men in Washington, D.C. in 1884.
The location of the IDL is arbitrary and has no link to anything in nature.
Because the IDL is arbitrary, it is movable. (It has been moved several times for political/economic convenience. We will touch more on this later.)
What is the Luni-Solar Date Line?
The Luni-Solar Date Line is the line of demarcation established on earth by the sun and moon at the luni-solar conjunction.6 This phenomenon takes place at the beginning of each lunar cycle and is very predictable. Unlike the man-made Date Line, the Luni-Solar Date line is not arbitrary; rather, it is based upon the motions of the heavenly bodies, just as Yahuwah intended.
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 [worship times7], and for days, and years. (Genesis 1:14)
Notice that Genesis does not say…
“And Elohim said, Let a committee of men (about 6,000 years from now) create an imaginary line at their discretion to divide the day from the night; and let it be for signs, and for seasons [worship times], and for days, and years.”
What makes the Luni-Solar Date Line so remarkable is that it allows us to differentiate between calendar days without man’s inventions (i.e. the International Date Line).8 When reckoning New Moon Day as commencing at dawn after the luni-solar conjunction, the entire world is united in the observation of not only the feasts and Sabbaths, but every day. That is to say that everyone on earth begins their day within the same 24-hour period.
How the Luni-Solar Date Line Works
The first dawn after the luni-solar conjunction marks the beginning of the date line. Dawn then moves forward from that point bringing with it New Moon Day to the world. Subsequently, six work days follow and then the seventh-day Sabbath (Lunar Sabbath). Although Yahuwah’s date line, which could also be called His “dawn line,” changes geographically from one lunation to the next, commencing New Moon Day at dawn after the conjunction ensures that everyone on earth begins their day within the same 24-hour period. Consequently, there is no need whatsoever for man’s counterfeit date line.
Had the Father’s feast days never been forgotten and His calendar never forsaken, there would have been no reason to conjure up the man-made IDL.
How does the International Date Line compare to the Luni-Solar Date Line?
(1a) Is the International Date Line based on observable phenomenon?
No. The IDL is 100% imaginary and arbitrary.
(1b) Is the Luni-Solar Date Line based on observable phenomenon?
Yes. It is based on the motions of the heavenly bodies (in accordance with Gen. 1:14).
(2a) Can the International Date Line be moved by man?
Yes. Men have moved the IDL several times for political/economic convenience.
(2b) Can the Luni-Solar Date Line be moved by man?
No. Because the Luni-Solar Date Line is determined by the heavenly bodies, it is out of man’s reach. The Luni-Solar Date Line is under the direct supervision of Father Yahuwah, who by wisdom founded the earth and by understanding established the heavens. (Proverbs 3:19)
(3a) Who created the International Date Line?
The IDL was contrived by a committee of men in Washington, D.C..
(3b) Who created the Luni-Solar Date Line?
The Luni-Solar Date Line was established by Yahuwah. It is determined at the beginning of each lunation by the motions of the heavenly bodies (in accordance with Gen. 1:14).
(4a) When was the International Date Line established?
The IDL was established in 1884.
(4b) When was the Luni-Solar Date Line established?
The Luni-Solar Date Line was established at Creation with the ordination of the sun and moon.
Which date line do you suppose Heaven endorses?
International Date Line
Luni-Solar Date Line
Imaginary & Arbitrary
Real; it is objectively established by observable phenomenon in the heavens.
Can be moved my men (The IDL has been moved several times for political/economic convenience.)
Cannot be moved by men (Because the Luni-Solar Date Line is determined by the heavenly bodies, it is out of man’s reach. The Luni-Solar Date Line is under the direct supervision of Father Yahuwah.)
Contrived by a committee of men gathered in Washington, D.C.
Ordained by the Creator (The Luni-Solar Date Line is established at the beginning of each lunation by the motions of the heavenly bodies, in accordance with Gen. 1:14.)
Established in 1884
Established at Creation
Waking Up…
Many, today, are waking up to the half-truths and outright lies being promulgated within the institutionalized church and are returning to covenant torah. They are being enlightened to the perpetual nature of Yahuwah’s feast days and are zealously promoting a return to set-apart living and the observance of all that Yahuwah has commanded. Often overlooked, though, is that the calendar being used to calculate the feast days is irreparably pagan. Not only that, but it is inexorably dependent upon the International Date Line. This is a huge problem for those who profess to adhere to Scripture alone. To zealously proclaim sola scriptura9 while making Yahuwah’s feast days subservient to the man-made International Date Line is utterly inconsistent. Pause for a minute and think about this. How can the Sabbaths and the annual feasts be dependent upon a 130 year old man-made invention?
To zealously proclaim sola scriptura while making Yahuwah’s feast days subservient to the man-made International Date Line is utterly inconsistent.
SDAs & the International Date Line: Cognitive Dissonance at its Best
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been blessed with a wealth of Scriptural truth. One area, in particular, is their recognition of the tremendous importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. Sadly, though, SDAs have adamantly rejected the fullness of the three angel’s messages and the increasing light of Biblical calendation. Consequently, they continue to blindly cling to the lopsided theology of exalting the Papal Gregorian Saturday (as determined by the man-made IDL) while professing Scripture as the sole rule of faith and duty.
A Closer Look at SDA Theology
If you are an SDA, we humbly implore you to stop and think about this for a moment: If the final conflict is to be as simple as Saturday versus Sunday, how can it be that the only difference between these two days is an imaginary line contrived in 1884 by a committee of men in Washington D.C.?
Seventh-day Adventists ardently claim that Saturday is the Biblical Sabbath (“the seal of Yah”) and that Sunday is the pagan day of worship (the “mark of the beast”), yet they ignore the fact that it is the man-made date line alone that separates the two days. They recognize the importance of keeping the Sabbath and the grave error of exalting the pagan sun-day, yet they have no problem allowing man to determine when the seventh day ends and the following day begins (via the International Date Line). This makes no sense. The only difference between the “Seal of Yah” and the “Mark of the Beast” in SDA theology is the man-made date line. If you are an SDA, we humbly implore you to stop and think about this for a moment: If the final conflict is to be as simple as Saturday versus Sunday, how can it be that the only difference between these two days is an imaginary line contrived by a committee of men in Washington D.C.? And if Saturday is the ancient Sabbath of Scripture, why is it governed exclusively by an 1884 invention?
On the Move
The International Date Line has been relocated for convenience several times since its inception. Not only that, but even the unofficial10 makeshift line that preceded the IDL was moved on at least two occasions:
The course of the makeshift date line after the Alaska adjustment of 1867, but neglecting the Philippine adjustment of 1844/45, as published in the 4th edition (1885-90) of Meyers Konversationslexikons (longitudes are reckoned from the meridians of Ferro and Paris) Source: https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/idl/idl_philippines.htm
The Philippines: In 1844, the Philippines (along with the Mariana Islands, Guam, and the Caroline Islands) removed Tuesday, December 31 from its calendar, shifting the make-believe date line to the east. Consequently, what had previously been recognized as Friday, became Saturday, and what had previously been recognized as Saturday, became Sunday. SDAs in the Philippines disregard this conundrum entirely, though, by worshipping on the new Saturday and boasting, “Our Sabbath is the New Testament Sabbath.”11 By default, SDA theology demands that those who exalt what had previously been Saturday (the new Sunday) are in danger of receiving the “mark of the beast.” This is both illogical and inconsistent. How can an honest truth seeker continue to cling to the erroneous doctrine of a continuous weekly cycle in the face of such clear evidence to the contrary?
Alaska: When the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, the makeshift line was moved to the west. Consequently, Alaska observed two Fridays in a row.
At the instigation of U.S. Secretary of State William Seward, the United States Senate approved the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 on April 9, 1867, and the United States flag was raised on October 18 of that same year (now called Alaska Day). Coincident with the ownership change, the de facto International Date Line was moved westward, and Alaska changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, for residents, Friday, October 6, 1867 was followed by Friday, October 18, 1867; two Fridays in a row because of the date line shift.12
This means that what had previously been recognized as Saturday, became Friday, and what had previously been recognized as Sunday, became Saturday. Think about it; Saturday Sabbatarians in Alaska today worship on what was Sunday only 150 years ago. Again, the ramifications for the SDA Church are huge because their theology insists that those who persist in Sunday observance will ultimately bear the mark of the beast. How can this be, when only 150 years ago, their day of worship (Saturday) was Sunday? Integrity demands that Yahuwah’s faithful acknowledge the egregious fallacy of making Heaven’s holy days subordinate to a man-made date line.
Samoan Islands and Tokelau: In 1892, the IDL was moved to the west of the Samoan Islands. This was achieved by observing Monday, July 4 for two consecutive days in the islands. 119 years later, in 2011, Samoa shifted the IDL back to the east by removing Friday, December 30 from its calendar. Tokelau, a nearby island belonging to New Zealand, made the transition as well. Today, the IDL passes between the islands of Samoa and American Samoa.
The majority of SDAs in Samoa now worship on the new Sunday because, they say, the continuous weekly cycle is what matters. Yet, they ignore the fact that the 2011 adjustment was only returning Samoa to the calendar week it was observing prior to 1892. This is utterly nonsensical and again makes clear the fallacy of claiming that the modern week has cycled continuously and without interruption since Creation.
According to SDA theology, the seal of Yah (seventh-day Sabbath observance) and the mark of the beast (Sunday observance) must be one and the same in Samoa. This, alone, should be enough to make any honest SDA re-evaluate their paradigm. (Suggested Reading: International Date Line Change: The Sabbath Unchanged?)
Kwajalein Atoll: In 1993, Kwajalein (one of the Marshall Islands) removed Saturday, August 21 from its calendar, causing the IDL to be moved to the east. This brought Kwajalein into harmony with the other islands which, up to that point, had been on a different day.
Eastern Kiribati: In 1995, Kiribati moved the IDL to the east for “administrative convenience.”13 (Prior to this, the Republic of Kiribati was divided by the date line.)
Modern “Jews” Admit a Problem
Within modern Judaism, there are four major opinions14 regarding where the date line should be:
90° East of Jerusalem
180° East of Jerusalem
Mid-Pacific: Closely Resembling the International Date Line
There is No Specific Date Line (observe when the locals do)
While no genuine truth seeker should be looking to the Ashkenazi “Jews” for anything, the fact that there is any debate at all among the self-styled rabbis is indicative of a larger problem.
The Patriarchs & Prophets
So, how did the Patriarchs and Prophets manage time? Are we to believe that the antediluvian men of Yah and the post-flood patriarchs/prophets used a zigzagging imaginary date line in the middle of what is now the Pacific ocean to determine when the Sabbaths and feast days arrived? This is truly absurd. Again, the modern date line was created in 1884 by mere men for the purpose of worldly commerce.
Noah’s Descendants
Think about this for a moment: When Noah’s family began to grow and replenish the earth after the flood, some would have travelled east and some would have travelled west. Eventually the two groups would have met each other on the other side of the world.15 Now consider this: If Noah’s descendants were observing a continuous weekly cycle, they would have been one calendar day apart when they met on the other side (e.g. one group would be observing the sixth day, while the other group was observing the seventh day). The reason for this is that those who travelled east were travelling towards the rising sun (beginning their days earlier with each eastward movement), while those who travelled west were travelling towards the setting sun (beginning their days later with each westward movement). Consequently, when the two groups met on the other side of the world, those who had been travelling east would be one day ahead of those who were travelling west. So, who would be right? Who’s calendar would have been correct? The answer: If they had been observing a continuous weekly cycle, they would both be correct, which is not possible. This again demonstrates the fallacy of a continuous weekly cycle.
Question: If these ancient men and women of Yahuwah were not using the modern counterfeit date line to measure time, what were they using?
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. (Genesis 1:14)
Answer: They were using the Luni-Solar Date Line, which is established each lunation by the “lights in the firmament of heaven.” If erring men had not abandoned Heaven’s calendar and neglected Yahuwah’s feast days, the counterfeit date line would never have been necessary. The man-made IDL is the result of open rebellion against Heaven.
Challenge for all Saturday Sabbatarians (teachers and pastors included):
Question: How can you consistently observe a Saturday Sabbath without using the man-made International Date Line?
Answer: You can’t. It is irrefutably impossible to use the Roman Papal Gregorian Calendar without also using the man-made date line – for it is this very line that tells you when to transition from one day to the next; it is this very line that tells you which days to reckon as holy, and which days to reckon as common. This perhaps makes no difference to the institutionalized Sunday-keeping churches that teach lawlessness, but to those who are zealous for the things of Yahuwah and who recognize the eternal value of His Sabbaths and feast days, this makes all this difference in the world!
If we are to serve the Father without compromise, we must allow His word alone to distinguish for us that which is holy from that which is common. That is to say we must use Heaven’s calendar and Heaven’s date line to determine when the Sabbaths and feast days arrive, not man’s counterfeit date line that’s been zigzagging its way throughout the Pacific ocean for the last 130 years.
Ask Questions
If you are a Saturday Sabbatarian, ask your pastor, “How can we consistently observe a Saturday Sabbath without using the 130 year old man-made International Date Line?” If he is honest, he will have to concede that it is impossible. The world simply cannot be united in observing a Gregorian day/date without using the International Date Line. The question that logically follows then is, “How can Saturday be Heaven’s ordained seventh-day Sabbath?” There is simply no way around it; if the day matters, then the method used to calculate the day matters, too. You cannot have it both ways, i.e. you cannot say that the seventh-day Sabbath is of the upmost importance to our Father in Heaven, while also saying it is acceptable to let worldly men determine when the seventh-day Sabbath begins and ends (via the International Date Line).
Embrace Truth
Now that your eyes have been opened to the deceit of the modern calendar, what will you do? Will you obey at once and begin studying/observing Heaven’s calendar? or will you obstinately plug your ears, cover your eyes, and turn your back to the light? Will you pick up your cross and follow the Lamb wherever He goes? or will you shrink from the invitation and return to the complacency and darkness from whence you were called? It is our prayer that you will shake off the spirit of Laodicea and flee Babylon while there is yet time.
Please do not make the mistake of believing that there is safety in numbers. Your pastor might choose to remain in darkness. Your church family might prefer the comfort of a pew over the discomfort of bearing the cross. Everyone you know might reject the latter rain and the increasing light of the Father’s calendar. This, however, does not excuse you from your responsibility to embrace the truth. Yahuwah has made it known to you. Incomprehensible blessings await those who trust and obey.
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (Proverbs 4:18)
1 “The International Date Line was not established officially until the 1880s, but the need for such a line on Earth to adjust the day was inadvertently discovered by Magellan’s crew who, from 1519 to 1521, were the first to circumnavigate the world.” (Peterson, James F., Sack, Dorthy., Gabler, Robert E.. “Physical Geography.” 11th ed. Cengage Learning, Feb. 4, 2016. Education. 672 pp. p. 34. http://tinyurl.com/kps2efn, retrieved on May 11, 2017.)
3 The Greenwich meridian (Prime Meridian) was established in 1851 by Sir George Biddell Airy, an English mathematician and astronomer. It is the Greenwich meridian that today establishes Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Selecting Greenwich as the anchor point for measuring time “was arbitrary. It was based more on national pride and convenience.” (http://www.livescience.com/44292-international-date-line-explained.html, retrieved on April 29, 2017.)
6 The sun, because of its slightly faster motion, pulls ahead of the moon by about 12.2° each day. Consequently, it gets so far ahead of the moon that it circles around behind it and overtakes it again after about 29.5 days (12.2° x 29.5 = 360° = a full circle). The luni-solar conjunction is the precise moment in time when the sun is again in line with the moon (the same celestial longitude) before it once again moves ahead of the moon at the beginning of the next lunar cycle. The time of conjunction is often referred to as the astronomical “new moon.”
7 The word translated as “seasons” in Genesis 1:14 is mo’ed. “Mo’ed is used in a broad sense for all religious assemblies. It was closely associated with the tabernacle itself. . . . [Yahuwah] met Israel there at specific times for the purpose of revealing His will. It is a common term for the worshiping assembly of . . . [Yahuwah’s] people.” (“Lexical Aids to the Old Testament,” Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, p. 1626.)
8 While we do utilize modern technologies to determine precisely when the conjunction will occur, we do not use the man-made date line; rather, we use the heavenly bodies alone to reckon time, just as we are instructed in Genesis 1:14. The ancients were much smarter and in tune with the heavens than we are today. This is evidenced by the countless ancient structures around the world that can accurately predict eclipses, equinoxes, solstices, etc. Consequently, they were able to accurately forecast heavenly phenomenon without the use of modern amenities.
9 Sola Scriptura was the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation. It is a Latin phrase, meaning “Scripture alone.”
10 “The necessity of a calendar date line was popularized by 13th century geographers who marveled how a circumnavigator would ‘paradoxically’ gain or lose a date depending on his travel direction. . . . Various popes and empires subsequently declared calendar date lines in accordance with their needs.” (The Jerusalem Post [emphasis suppied], http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Judaism/Ask-the-Rabbi-A-matter-of-time-167236, retrieved on May 18, 2017.)
15 The noted illustration is not specific to a globe. If both groups start at the same point and move in opposite directions on the flat earth, they will be one day apart when they meet on the other side of the flat earth. “The reason for this is that those who travelled east were travelling towards the rising sun (beginning their days earlier with each eastward movement), while those who travelled west were travelling towards the setting sun (beginning their days later with each westward movement).” Related Content/Illustration: https://www.worldslastchance.com/flat-earth/countless-explorers-have-circumnavigated-the-globe.html
Increased light in recent years has revealed that the Biblical day—and thus, the Sabbath—begins at dawn. The chronology of events covering Yahushua’s death and burial conclusively prove that the Jews of Yahushua’s day still observed the Sabbath beginning at dawn.
Have you heard of a coup de grâce? Journalists occasionally report on a coup d’état in one political hotspot or another. But a coup de grâce is different. A coup de grâce is a swift kill strike.
It started back when battlefield medicine left much to be desired. Basically, a coup de grâce was a mercy killing in which an obviously dying comrade would be killed as quickly and painlessly as possible. The phrase has evolved until, in modern use, it means “an action or event that finally ends or destroys something that has been getting weaker or worse.”1
The argument that the Sabbath is a 24-hour period, from sunset until sunset, has been growing weaker and weaker with the discovery, among other proofs, that the primary text on which the practice is based, Leviticus 23:32, has been taken out of context and does not apply to the seventh-day Sabbath at all.
The coup de grâce that annihilates forever the belief in a sunset-to-sunset Sabbath is found in the account of the Saviour’s death and burial. This important chronology of events establishes with absolute certainty that the hours of the Sabbath begin in the morning, not at sunset.
CHRONOLOGY
Death of Yahushua:
“And about the ninth hour Yahushua cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? … Yahushua, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” (Matthew 27:46 & 50, KJV)
Before the invention of mechanical clocks, the daylight hours were evenly divided into 12 segments. When Yahushua asked, “Are there not twelve hours in a day?” (John 11:9, KJV) no one argued with Him. Everyone could read a sundial and knew the day began with the coming of light. Consequently, winter “hours” were shorter than hours in the summertime.
Yahushua died “about the ninth hour” on Passover, Abib 14. This equates to roughly three o’clock in the afternoon. For that time of year, shortly after the spring equinox, it was actually a little bit past three p.m. Those who insist that the Sabbath begins at sunset believe Yahushua was taken from the cross and buried by the time the sun dropped below the horizon. In Jerusalem at that time of year, the sun sets between 6:59 p.m. and 7:19 p.m. Careful study reveals that it would have been impossible for everything recorded in Scripture to have transpired in the roughly four hours that elapsed between the Saviour’s death and sunset.
Yahushua died shortly after 3 p.m.
Yahushua’s body requested
“When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Yahushua’s disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Yahushua. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.” (Matthew 27:57-58, KJV)
There are two passages of Scripture that explicitly reveal the day begins at dawn, one of them is the crucifixion account. However, due to tradition and mistranslation, these passages are glossed over by those who insist the Sabbath begins at sunset.
Tradition: People have traditionally assumed Genesis 1 teaches the day begins at sunset because of the oft repeated phrase: “And the evening and the morning were the [first, second, third, etc.] day.” However, this phrase is taken out of context. In the first chapter of Genesis, Yahuwah had already clarified what constituted a day: light! “And Elohim said, Let there be light: and there was light.And Elohim saw the light, that it was good: and Elohim divided the light from the darkness.And Elohim called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.” (Genesis 1:3-5, KJV)
Out of the impenetrable blackness of pre-Creation, the first day of Creation began when Yahuwah declared, “Let there be light.” His next act was to divide light from dark. He then named the two things He had divided. Yahuwah “called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.” To insist, therefore, that the “day” begins with the darkness is to join together what Yahuwah has separated.
The phrase, “and there was evening, and there was morning, one day” must be understood in the context of light being “day” and associated with light, and “night” the period of darkness.
The word translated “evening” and incorrectly assumed to be the night hours comes from the Hebrew word, ereb.
This word represents the time of the day immediately preceding and following the setting of the sun. … The phrase “in the evening” [literally, “between the evenings”] means the period between sunset and darkness, “twilight.”2
The word here translated into English cannot refer to the period of darkness the Creator called Night, because it starts prior to sunset! The light rules the day; the darkness rules the night. Therefore, if there is any bit of light still in the sky, it still counts as Day.
Mistranslation: The second time Scripture clarifies that sunset does not begin a day is, as stated, in the account of the burial of Yahushua. Specifically, when Joseph of Arimathea went and asked Pilate for the body. Because English does not have a direct translation for the Greek word, translators chose to use the word “even.” Since it sounds like the word “evening” used in Genesis 1, the result has been confusion and a continued belief that the day starts at sunset.
However, this is not supported by Scripture. In fact, this brief passage in Matthew provides the clearest confirmation that the Sabbath does not start at sunset. Consider the passage again: “When the even was come, there came a rich man … named Joseph, who … went to Pilate, and begged the body of Yahushua.” (Matthew 27:57-58)
The word “even” here comes from the Greek word opsios and, while similar, its common usage does not have an identical meaning to the Hebrew word used in Genesis 1. This word means: “Nightfall … The word really signifies the ‘late evening,’ the latter of the two ‘evenings’ as reckoned by the Jews, the first from 3 p.m to sunset, the latter after sunset; this is the usual meaning. It is used, however, of both.”3
Even without any of the additional chronological evidence, this alone should be sufficient to establish forever that the Sabbath does not begin at sunset because the common usage of the word reveals Joseph did not even approach Pilate for permission to take the body until after sunset!
The purpose of this study, however, is not to prove that Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate after sunset. It is to demonstrate the impossibility of finishing the burial of Yahushua prior to sunset. The common usage of opsios refers to after sunset. But because it was occasionally used of the period of time from mid-afternoon to sunset, the earlier time will be used here. Again, this is not the common use of the word, but because it was used occasionally to refer to the late afternoon hours prior to sunset, that will be the starting point for our study.
For the sake of argument, throughout this study the shortest, most conservative time estimates were always chosen.
The gospels were careful to specify which of the Saviour’s followers were present at His time of death. Neither Joseph of Arimathea nor Nicodemus were listed as being there in any gospel account. The presence of such high-ranking followers would most certainly have been mentioned had they been there.
Due to the length of hours at that time of year, Yahushua most likely died around 3:10 p.m. It would have taken time for Joseph of Arimathea to learn of His death. Some of the Jews that had come to gloat over the Saviour’s death returned to Jerusalem afterward, frightened by the darkness and the earthquake. “And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.” (Luke 23:48, KJV) It still would have taken time for word to reach Joseph.
It is not unreasonable to assume it took at least 45 minutes to an hour or more for Joseph to learn Yahushua had died. It would certainly have taken him a little time to recover from the sheer shock and grief, decide on a course of action and proceed. He may even, at this point, have consulted with Nicodemus. We are talking about real human hearts with real human emotions and responses. Even if Joseph learned of the Saviour’s death in fairly short order, it is not realistic to assume that the minute he received word, he went to ask for the body. He would have spent at least a little time grieving. It then would have taken a few minutes to walk from his home to where Pilate was staying. He would have arrived there no earlier than 4:30 in the afternoon.
Joseph may well have been a high-ranking Jew, but Pilate still outranked him. It would have taken a few minutes for the guards to send Joseph’s request to Pilate and return with an answer, granting him an audience.
Conservatively estimating that Joseph went to Pilate at around 4:30 p.m., the very soonest he would have made it into Pilate—and this is rushing it a bit—would be 4:45 p.m.
The earliest Joseph would have had an audience with Pilate would have been 4:45 p.m., probably later.
Pilate is shocked and disbelieving
Death by crucifixion was a slow and agonizing death. It is from the word “crucify” that we get the word “excruciating,” signifying extremely intense agony. It usually took several days for the muscles to finally collapse and the victim to die of asphyxiation. However, Yahushua did not die of asphyxiation. He died from a burst heart.
Pilate did not know this. So, when Joseph asked for permission to take the body, “Pilate marveled that He was already dead.” (Mark 15:44, NKJV) To put it bluntly, Pilate did not believe anyone could die from crucifixion so quickly. He “called unto him the Centurion, and asked of him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew the truth of the Centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.” (Mark 15:44-45, 1599 Geneva Bible)
This took some time. Pilate did not live in Jerusalem. He lived in Caesarea. Records indicate he only came to Jerusalem at the times of national festivals when the Jews were known to be more likely to riot. Recent archeological discoveries reject the previously suggested scenario of Pilate staying at the Antonia Fortress and indicate that it was far more likely Pilate was a guest of Herod Antipas in the palace built by Herod the Great.
Model of Herod’s Palace, where Pilate is believed to have stayed as a guest of Herod Antipas.
Gaining admission to the palace to speak to Pilate likely took longer than the 15 minutes allotted in this study. Certainly by the time Joseph was ushered into see Pilate, had exchanged greetings in accordance with Oriental custom, stated his request, listened to Pilate’s astonished questions, then listened again as Pilate gave command for a messenger to send for the centurion in charge at Golgotha, more time would have elapsed. At the very earliest, it would have been 5:00 p.m., and more likely 5:15 p.m., or even later, depending upon when Joseph arrived and began seeking permission to gain an audience with Pilate.
For the sake of argument, however, we will put the time at a conservative 5:00 p.m.
The place of crucifixion was about 1 kilometer (or less than a mile) away from Herod’s Palace.4 A healthy soldier could traverse this in a matter of minutes, particularly if he were on a horse. But it must be remembered that the centurion would have been slowed by the multitudes of pilgrims that had thronged to Jerusalem for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. By the time (1) a messenger was called for, given a message and sent, (2) made his way through the masses of people, (3) relayed the order, (4) the centurion gave orders appointing another soldier to remain in charge while he was gone, (5) and then the centurion made his own way back through the crowds, the time would likely have been at least 5:15 p.m.
By the time the centurion arrived to answer Pilate’s question, it would have been at least 5:15 p.m.
Pilate grants permission for Joseph to take the body
“And when he knew the truth of the Centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.” (Mark 15:44, 1599 Geneva Bible)
It is impossible to know whether Pilate simply gave a verbal command to the centurion to release Yahushua’s body to Joseph of Arimathea, or whether he wrote out a command on parchment. Regardless, by the time the centurion was granted entrance, answered Pilate’s questions, assured him of the Saviour’s death, Pilate granted permission, and Joseph took his leave, the quickest elapsed time would be at least another 15 minutes, bringing the time to 5:30 p.m. If Pilate sent for a scribe to write out the command, and sealed it with his signet ring, it would have pushed back Joseph’s departure from the palace by another 15 minutes at a minimum.
Joseph would not have left Pilate before 5:30 p.m.
Golgotha was about 1 kilometer away from Herod’s Palace. Anyone traversing the distance would be slowed by the throngs of visitors gathered for the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Joseph prepares for the burial
“And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen …” (Mark 15:45-46, KJV)
Joseph did not immediately rush to Golgotha. He had not known if he would even get permission to take the body of a convicted criminal. After obtaining permission, he did the following:
1) He returned home to give instructions to his servants to begin gathering together the tools and supplies needed to remove the body from the cross, carry it to the burial site, and there cleanse and prepare it for burial.
2) He likely sent word to Nicodemus, since Nicodemus knew to come bringing spices for burial.
3) He went (or sent a servant to go) and purchased burial linens. (Mark 15:46)
While some might question how Joseph could purchase burial bindings late in the afternoon on Passover, there are three important points to remember. These apply equally to the scenario if the common use of the word opsios is accepted, indicating that Joseph went to Pilate after sunset.
1) Passover was a work day
2) Either the shops were still open; or,
3) He was able to track down shop owners who would not hesitate to sell him some, even at night, due to the rigorous burial requirements of the Jews that necessitated immediate burial.
It is conceivable that Joseph could purchase burial cloths after sunset. The Jews, always known for their unrelenting drive to make money, would still have had shops open after sunset. In Amos 8, the Jews were not denounced for selling at night. Rather, they were denounced for wanting to hasten past the sacred hours of the Sabbath.
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? (Amos 8:4, 5, KJV)
Note that if all the shops routinely closed by sunset, there would have been no expressed desire to rush the sacred hours because all would know they could not open up shop until the next day anyway.
Golgotha, the skull-shaped hill, was about 1 kilometer from Herod’s Palace.
If the shops were closed, however, Joseph would have tracked down those who sold burial wrappings in their homes. In many countries, even to this day, owners live above or behind their shops. It would not have been a difficult thing for him to purchase burial cloths even late in the afternoon or evening. But this would have taken still more time as the shopkeeper would be celebrating (or getting ready to celebrate) Passover with extended family and friends. Assuming Joseph knew right where to go and did not make any unnecessary detours, just getting there would have taken some time, too. Jerusalem was not a modern city, laid out with broad, straight boulevards. Its streets were narrow, twisting, and crowded with stalls and pilgrims.
Golgotha was only a few hundred meters outside the city gate. However, it was fully one kilometer from Herod’s palace. If one adds to that one kilometer distance the additional distances walked by Joseph as he returned to his home, went to find and purchase burial cloths, returned home to gather the rest of what was needed, traveled to the city gate, it all adds to the accumulation of time passing.
From when Joseph took his leave of Pilate, to when he left for Golgotha, at least two hours would have passed, very likely even more. It is reasonable to assume that Joseph and Nicodemus likely met at the city gates and proceeded to Calvary together. Adding up the other activities that occurred since Joseph first went to Pilate, this would have brought him, at the earliest, to about 7:30 p.m. as he started out toward Golgotha with servants and probably a donkey or two to carry necessary supplies.
When the realistic time constraints involved in this process are carefully considered, it quickly becomes apparent that burial by sunset (6:59 – 7:19 p.m.) is impossible. Therefore, if the earliest and shortest times possible are assumed, the sun had already set by the time Joseph left the city.
Joseph, with servants and supplies, would have left for Golgotha after sunset.
Removing the body
“… And took him down …” (Mark 15:46, KJV)
It would not have taken long for Joseph, Nicodemus and the servants to reach Golgotha. It was, after all, purposely situated along the main road into Jerusalem. Arriving there with Pilate’s permission to remove the body, they would have found a busy scene.
Some time after Yahushua died, the Jews observing the proceedings decided none of the bodies could remain upon the crosses as the next day was the Sabbath and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
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. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Yahushua, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs. (John 19:31-33, KJV)
This passage provides still additional proof that the Sabbath could not have begun at sunset. Consider the following facts:
Pilate was shocked anyone could die so quickly from crucifixion, so he sent for the centurion in charge of the execution to question him.
The centurion confirmed Yahushua’s death.
Had the Jews gone to Pilate for permission to break the legs of the condemned before Joseph went to him, the governor would not have needed to send for the centurion to confirm Yahushua’s death. He would have already known He was dead from the asphyxiation brought on by having His legs broken.
“Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
“There laid they Yahushua therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.” (John 19:41-42, KJV)
The Jews thus went to Pilate for permission to hasten the death of the other two prisoners after5 Joseph had received permission to take the body. They presented their request to Pilate most likely while Joseph was coordinating with Nicodemus for the burial of Yahushua.
Removing the Saviour’s body from the cross would have been a time-consuming, laborious task. Scripture records that none of Yahushua’s bones were broken, in accordance with prophecy. Joseph, Nicodemus and their servants, would have been extremely careful while removing the body, but even so, it was no easy task to remove such large spikes, driven deep into wood. In fact, archeologists have uncovered bones in an ossuary (bone box) still containing spikes. Clearly, whoever buried the body had been unable to remove the spike or, at the least, deemed it not worth the effort.
Joseph and Nicodemus would have spent whatever time necessary to very carefully, reverently remove the body from the cross. They were not rushing to go eat the Passover meal. They were engaged in the most important event of their lives. They then would have had servants carry it to the Garden Tomb, which was close by. This could easily have taken an hour to complete, bringing the accrued time lapse to 8:30 p.m.
Removing the body without further damage was a difficult task.
It would have been at least 8:30 p.m. by the time they were finished.
Cleansing the body for burial
“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.” (Luke 23:53, KJV)
Preparing a body for burial is always time-consuming. With the severe abuse suffered by the Saviour prior to death, combined with the rituals of the Jewish burial process, it would have been even more so. Joseph, as a very wealthy man, had a freshly hewn tomb prepared for his wife and himself in a restful garden. There was, in that location, an extremely large reservoir for the collection of rainwater. They had plenty of water available, but it would still have been an extremely lengthy, difficult task to cleanse a body so torn and marred. Every bucketful of water would have to be lowered and raised; the hair and what remained of the beard, washed. Ritual cleansing goes far beyond a quick rinse. The degree of cleansing needed would likely have necessitated at least two hours. By this point, it would be around 10:30 at night.
Cleansing the body would have been difficult, bringing the elapsed time to 10:30 p.m.
Wrapping the body for burial
“And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Yahushua by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Yahushua, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.” (John 19:39-40, KJV)
The Garden Tomb.
Once the body was thoroughly cleansed, the pain-staking work of wrapping it with the binding cloths and spices yet remained. Unlike bodies placed in coffins in the western world, no one part of the body was supposed to touch another part. The arms and legs all had to have cloth separating them. The hands and feet were typically bound separately as was the face. That this was the typical practice can be concluded from the description given in Scripture of Lazarus after his resurrection: “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Yahushua saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.” (John 11:44, KJV)
To the Jewish mind, the burial process was tremendously important. If a body were not properly buried, the individual was considered cursed of Yahuwah. Therefore, the process of burying a body, particularly that of one well loved, would have been a thorough and meticulously careful process.
Not everyone was buried wrapped in spices. Only kings and the very wealthy could afford embalming spices. King Hezekiah stored spices in his treasure house. They were considered part of his wealth. “The spices mentioned as being used by Nicodemus for the preparation of our Lord’s body, Joh[n] 19:39,40 are ‘myrrh and aloes,’ by which latter word must be understood not the aloes of medicine, but the highly-scented wood of the Aquilaria agallochum.”6 Some researchers have suggested that the value of the spices brought by Nicodemus was upwards of $200,000 dollars in today’s market.7
A “hundred pound weight of spices” is an immense quantity of extremely expensive spices! Myrrh was a liquid. Aloes were powdered. The ritual of wrapping a body with spices was far more than just a quickie mummy-job, with handfuls of incense tossed in. Each part of the body must be wrapped individually in several layers. The mixture of liquid and powdered spices was applied to each layer, carefully and reverently. It was an extremely time-consuming process.
The meticulous wrapping of the body with the spices, could easily have taken up to two hours (if not more) to complete. The time thus accumulated would have brought them to shortly after midnight.
Wrapping a body with spices was an extremely time-consuming process.
It would have been at least 12:30 a.m. by the time they were finished.
Burial
“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.” (Luke 23:53, KJV)
By the time the body was wrapped, it would have taken only a few minutes to finally lay the body to rest in the tomb. Rolling the stone into place, bundling up bloodied rags, and collecting the tools used to remove the Saviour from the cross, would not have taken very long. By 12:50 a.m., the sad party would have turned its exhausted steps toward home.
The men and the women would have returned to Jerusalem around 12:50 a.m.
It would have taken the women about 15 to 20 minutes to return from the Garden Tomb.
The women
“And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.” (Luke 23:55-56, KJV)
In Middle Eastern cultures, family members are the ones to prepare bodies for burial. The women of the family prepare the body if the deceased is a woman, while male family members prepare the body if the deceased is a man. Various sources suggest that Joseph of Arimathea was of the family of Yahushua, so it is logical that he would have been involved in the Saviour’s burial.
As recorded in Scripture, the women stayed back and were not involved in the burial process. They longed to do something for the burial as well, but the preparation of the body for burial was the work of the men. Instead, they watched from a respectful distance, determining to gather spices and ointments to anoint the body after it was wrapped.
Once the stone was rolled into place, there was nothing more to do at the tomb. The women returned home, probably in the company of the men for protection. This was not a hurried journey. They had been up all night. They were mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. There is, of course, no way to determine precisely where the women lived, but if they lived in the general vicinity of the upper room, they were over a kilometer away from the sepulcher. If they lived in the lower city, it took even longer to return home. Going with the shorter distance, however, it would have taken them around 15-20 minutes to tiredly traverse the distance from the sepulcher to their homes.
Area of the Upper Room is in the bottom right corner of this image of a model of Ancient Jerusalem. Also note Herod’s Palace in the upper left.
The women may well have used the time to discuss their next course of action. They wanted to anoint their beloved Master’s body. They wanted some small part in honoring Him, too. Upon returning to their homes, they made diligent search of the anointing spices they had available. Luke says the women “prepared spices and ointments.” However, it is clear from the Biblical account that, when comparing and assembling what they had on hand, they realized they did not have a sufficient amount. Nothing could be done at that point because the Sabbath was beginning to dawn. Therefore, they “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” (Luke 23:56)
Once the Sabbath was past and the market stalls reopened for business, the women “bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.” (Mark 16:1, KJV) As much as they longed to return to the tomb to anoint Yahushua’s body, they waited. They couldn’t buy the additional spices they needed until the Sabbath was past anyway. They knew the best way to honor Him was to obey Him. He had said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15, NKJV) They kept the Sabbath day holy to honor the “Lord of the Sabbath.”
As previously stated, it is reasonable to assume that the women returned to Jerusalem with the men. Allowing 15 minutes for the return trip, this would have had them back home around 1:05 in the morning. The women returned to their individual homes, looked through the supplies they had, then gathered together once more to consult on what supplies they lacked that must be purchased once the Sabbath was past. As this was the middle of the night, obviously no shops would be open. Reasonably speaking, this would have taken a minimum of an hour, bringing the time to just after 2 a.m.
By conservative time estimates, it would have been around 2 a.m. by the time the women laid aside their preparations.
The Sabbath dawns
“And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.” (Luke 23:54, KJV)
The gospel account of the death and burial of Yahushua is greatly abbreviated. The Bible only hints at the amount of time involved in the burial process. However, when the list of events is taken, step by step, when important words are looked up in the Greek, the facts become clear: the burial of Yahushua could not have occurred prior to sunset. If the more common use of opsios is accepted, it took almost the entire night! Everything that occurred during the night hours was considered part of the sixth day of the week, the preparation day. According to the gospel of Luke, they did not finish until the next day when the Sabbath began to dawn.8 Although this is not apparent in the English translation, the original Greek establishes this without question.
The phrase translated “drew on” in this text, is the Greek word, … (epiphosko). The definition is startling: “to begin to grow light:–begin to dawn.”9 It is a form of #2017, … (epiphauo), which means “to illuminate … give light.”10 Because they waited until evening to even begin the process of seeking permission to take the body, taking it down, cleaning and wrapping it, etc., it took them the night hours to do their work. They did not finish until the Sabbath began as it started to grow light.11
TheNew Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words expounds on this definition, stating epiphosko “is said of the approach of the Sabbath.”12 If the word is used in reference to the approach of the Sabbath, and if the word itself means to “begin to dawn,” the conclusion is obvious: the Sabbath began with the dawning of light, not the setting of the sun and the subsequent gathering of darkness.
In Jerusalem, sunrise at that time of year occurs between 5:54 and 6:27 a.m. However, dawn—the beginning of light—arrives even earlier. Astronomical twilight in Jerusalem for April comes between 5:05 a.m. (early in the month) and 4:25 a.m. (at the end of the month as the days lengthen toward the summer solstice).
As stated previously, the shortest time estimates were deliberately chosen for this study. There is no need to artificially inflate the time blocks involved. Either the entire process could be completed before sunset or it could not. Assuming Joseph sought permission to take the body before sunset, brings us now to the women preparing spices for anointing. They would have realized they did not have enough and no way to purchase more in the middle of the night. They laid aside their efforts until they could buy more at once the Sabbath was past. By our calculations, this was about seven hours after sunset. Amazingly though, our conservative estimates are off by about four hours. In other words, Scripture makes clear the process actually took more time than allowed for in this study!
The Bible clearly states that the Sabbath was beginning to dawn as they laid aside their preparations. Therefore, by the time the burial work of the men was complete, they had returned to Jerusalem, the women had gathered the anointing spices they had and realized they needed more, was actually closer to 5 o’clock in the morning! The Sabbath, Abib 15, arrived with dawn and the women rested according to the commandment.
The Bible states the entire process ended as the Sabbath began to dawn or, about 5 a.m.!
The listed activities literally took all night.
The Resurrection
“And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.” (Mark 16:1-2, KJV)
It is here that there is yet one last confirmation that the day begins with dawn, not sunset: “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.” (Matthew 28:1, KJV) The phrase “began to dawn” comes from the exact same word as used in Luke 23:54 to indicate that the Sabbath “drew on” as the women laid aside their preparations because the Sabbath was beginning. It means, “to begin to grow light:— begin to dawn.”13
“Toward” is a word that indicates movement in the direction of something. It is a good translation of the Greek word, eis, which also expresses motion and indicates a point reached.14 This word would not have been used if First Day had started at sunset the evening before. It was only as the light “began to dawn toward the first day of the week” that the day began.
If the Jews began their day at sunset, they would have begun every day at sunset, including the first day of the week. However, Matthew 28:1 clearly states that after the Sabbath was over (it ended with the leaving of light the night before) as it began to grow light toward the first day of the week, (the first day of the week had not started at sunset the night before), the women returned to the tomb to anoint Yahushua’s body. This was on Feast of First Fruits, Abib 16.
He is not here! He has risen!
“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” (Psalm 119:18, KJV)
The omniscient wisdom of Yahuwah had deliberately designed the death of His only begotten Son in every particular. His foreknowledge knew that the truth of the Sabbath would be hidden for nearly 2,000 years. The very last act of a selfless life was to leave on record a chronology of events which, when studied out carefully, could demonstrate to believers of the last generation the truth about when the Sabbath begins.
Saturday Sabbatarians who observe the Sabbath from sunset Friday evening to sunset Saturday evening, want to fit the entire chronology of events in between Yahushua’s death shortly after 3 p.m. and sunset around 7 p.m. – less than four hours! However, this is an impossible task. As demonstrated, the most conservative time estimates reveal the process would have taken nine hours at the very least! And, as proven by the times for astronomical twilight (dawn), the entire process actually took longer than estimated.
There is simply no way to fit in everything that took place within a four-hour time span. Furthermore, to do so contradicts the following facts as spelled out by Scripture:
If the common usage of the word opsios is accepted, Joseph of Arimathea did not approach Pilate for permission to take the body until after sunset. (Matthew 27:57-58) Even if Joseph went to Pilate prior to sundown, it still would have been impossible to fit the entire chronology of events into a narrow, four-hour window of time.
After receiving permission to bury the body, Joseph went to purchase burial cloths. (Mark 15:46)
The burial process was so lengthy, Scripture states the new day was already beginning to dawn as the women laid aside their preparations and rested over the Sabbath. (Luke 23:54)
After the Sabbath was past, the women went and purchased more spices with which to anoint the body. (Luke 23:56 and Mark 16:1.)
The women returned to the sepulcher as the day “began to dawn toward the first day of the week.” (Matthew 28:1)
The chronology of events of Yahushua’s death and burial solidly establishes the fact that the Biblical day, and the seventh-day Sabbath, begins at dawn, not sunset. It is past time to lay aside the errors of tradition and assumption and welcome the holy Sabbath hours as intended: from the coming of light at dawn, until the light leaves at night. Anything else is merely tradition based on faulty assumptions.
WLC challenges all who continue to cling to a sunset-to-sunset Sabbath to offer an alternative chronology to prove their position. It would necessarily have to fit in between Yahushua’s time of death shortly after 3 p.m. and sunset, roughly 7 p.m. Demonstrate time, distance and chronology. If it is truth, it can be proven. If not, it is time to reexamine the traditional understanding.
2The New Strong’s Expanded Dictionary Of Bible Words, 2001 ed., #6153, emphasis supplied.
3Ibid., #3798, emphasis supplied.
4 The “traditional” place of crucifixion promoted by Roman Catholics as Golgotha can be ruled out for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it lies to the immediate west of the city. Jewish ritual purity laws as well as wind-related factors decreed that no one could be buried on the western side of Jerusalem. Since the Bible clearly states that the tomb in which Yahushua was buried was close to the place of execution, this excludes the traditional site as the genuine place of execution.
5 John 19 describes the soldiers breaking the legs of the other men, but not that of Yahushua since He was already dead. Verse 38 is translated as stating that “after this Joseph of Arimathaea, … besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.” Here again arise issues of translation. The word rendered “after” actually denotes “accompaniment; ‘amid’ … (gen. association, or acc. Succession) with which it is joined; occupying an intermediate position.” (Strong’s Expanded Dictionary, #3326, emphasis supplied.)
In other words, it is describing a passage of time in which a lot of different things are happening all at once, overlapping with no clearly delineated chronological sequence. It is still possible to pinpoint precisely when the Jews approached Pilate by taking into consideration Mark’s account of the same events, which prove that Pilate was unaware of any of the prisoners’ deaths at the time Joseph went to him.
7 The Bible does not say that Nicodemus went and purchased the burial spices. This, too, is consistent with how the rich of that time preserved their wealth. With no banks in which to deposit money, it was common to purchase “real” assets that could, when needed, be sold.
8 Luke actually places the comment that the Sabbath began to dawn immediately following the text describing the men rolling the stone into place. However, all gospel accounts must be taken into consideration. This was obviously a generalized conclusion, reinforcing the fact that the events of the burial encompassed all of the night hours, rather than pinpointing a specific moment in time.
9The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, #2020,1990 ed.
10Ibid.
11 eLaine Vornholt and Laura Lee Vornholt-Jones, The Great Calendar Controversy, p. 40.
12Op. cit., #2020, emphasis supplied.
13Ibid.
14Strong’s Expanded Dictionary, #1519.
The Creator’s Calendar is based on the Moon and the Sun, as specified in Scripture. As support for the true Calendar grows, so do the silly arguments against it. When was the Moon actually created and how does it affect its ability to be an accurate Heavenly timepiece? Can we honestly trust the wisdom and pattern set forth in Genesis? Let’s find out.
In need of a fun rainy day activity to get the stir-crazy children out of the house, Alex and Sophia piled into their old station wagon and went with their parents to a big car factory to watch the assembly line and see how cars were made. The family passed large warehouses where pre-fabricated parts and wheels were stored. Entering the gigantic and quite technical car factory, they watched in awe as large robots and meticulous workers started with a few odd shaped parts and slowly but systematically assembled each piece to form a car. As each new part was put into place, Alex grew more anxious. His favorite part of all his toy cars and trucks were the rubbery wheels that made them speed across the kitchen floor. Alex asked his dad, “But where are the wheels? How will these cars ever go anywhere?” “Just be patient,” his dad responded. “The designers have a plan and specific timing for all the parts. I am sure they will be added when the time is right.” Alex was still not sure. The wheels were the most important part in his eyes. He eagerly urged his family to the end of the assembly line. Sophia and Alex both asked to be picked-up so they could get a better view over the solid guardrail at the end. There they were! Beautiful, shiny new cars were literally rolling off the assembly line…with wheels! “Wheels!” Alex exclaimed. He was quite relieved to see them finally. “And guess what?” their parents grinned. “That one is ours!” Alex and Sophia squealed with joy! How exciting to see their new car actually being made! They would remember this day forever.
In this story, we see how Alex was apprehensive about trusting the designers. To him, the wheels needed to come first; however, the designers clearly had a plan and an order to the creation of the car. If earthly engineers can efficiently design and build a car, how much more can we trust our Heavenly Father’s plan and pattern laid out in the Creation week?
There is a popular argument against the Creator’s Lunar-Solar Calendar which suggests that since the Moon was not created, or at least ordained1, until the 4th day of Creation, it cannot play an integral role in the Creator’s Calendar, especially not in regard to the weekly cycle. While skeptics are quick to offer this supposition as “evidence” against the Lunar-Solar Calendar, a closer examination will show the fallacy of this reasoning.
Our Heavenly Father is the Creator of order, reason, and the governing laws of our incredible Universe. We see the wisdom in His pattern set forth in the Creation week of Genesis. He began with nothing and created everything in the right time and in the right order. He would not have created Adam and Eve on the first day because they were to, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” There was nothing for them to have dominion over on the first day; the Earth was without form and void. So naturally, they were created after their place of habitation was created, likewise with the plants and animals that were to also grow and reproduce. Let us examine the order Yahuwah created in Days 1, 2, and 3 and see how they relate to Days 4, 5, and 6.
It is clearly demonstrated that Yahuwah created and refined the Earthly habitation and then He populated it. Yahuwah…
Day 1: Created Light – darkness separated. First Day and Night.
Day 2: Separated the waters that covered the Earth (created the firmament).
Day 3: Gathered the waters on Earth into one place, creating dry land; populated the land with grass and fruit-baring plants and trees.
At this point in Creation, it seems Earth was ready to sustain animal life. In His infinite wisdom, Yahuwah continued fine-tuning our amazing world.
Day 4: The two great Lights, the Sun and Moon, were ordained and the Stars were placed in their perfect locations. Their intended purpose of tracking time and establishing worship times was explained:
“. . . and let them be for signs, and for seasons [H4150], and for days, and years.” (Genesis 1:14)
H4150: “Mo’ed is used in a broad sense for all religious assemblies. It was closely associated with the tabernacle itself. . . . [Yahuwah] met Israel there at specific times for the purpose of revealing His will. It is a common term for the worshiping assembly of . . . [Yahuwah’s] people.” (“Lexical Aids to the Old Testament,” Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, p. 1626.)
It was here that the Creator fine-tuned the appointed time-keepers in the heavens. In addition to establishing worship times, notice what Moses records the heavenly bodies were to do,
“to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:18)
This is a clear restatement and refining of what was originally done on Day 1 – a dividing of Light and Darkness. This is a huge point. This is where He put the “wheels on the car” of His Calendar, if you will. It is evident that the Sun and Moon had, in fact, already been created and were serving the Master’s will, dividing light from darkness, the day from the night (in what had been the three literal 24-hour days preceding Day 4); their divinely appointed roles, however, were further defined and refined along with the Stars on Day 4. This becomes even more apparent when you consider the Hebrew words and phrases employed by Moses when recording these passages. (H6213). (More on this very important point in a moment.)
Day 5: He filled the seas abundantly with life, and filled the skies with every winged bird. Notice how on Day 5 He populated what He divided on Day 2 of Creation.
Day 6: On the final Day of Creation, Yahuwah filled the dry land with living creatures and then He created Man and Woman. They were to be fruitful and multiply and take care of His Creation. Notice how on Day 6 He populated the foundation that He laid on Day 3.
In review…
On Days 1, 2, and 3, the Creator laid His foundation.
On Days 4, 5, and 6, He populated the foundation in the same order in which He established it.
Day 1
Day 4
Day 2
Day 5
Day 3
Day 6
Isn’t it interesting that the only thing created on Day 4 was time? On Day 4, according to Genesis 1:14, the heavenly bodies were ordained for the purpose of time and calendation. In addition, notice that nothing living (rightfully understood) was created until after the calendation principles had been established. Moses did not record the week of the month in Genesis 1 but we would suggest that it would have been like this:
New Moon Day relates to Genesis 1:1-2
Work Day 1 relates to Genesis 1:3-5
Work Day 2 relates to Genesis 1:6-8
Work Day 3 relates to Genesis 1:9-13
Work Day 4 relates to Genesis 1:14-19
Work Day 5 relates to Genesis 1:20-23
Work Day 6 relates to Genesis 1:24-31
Sabbath Day relates to Genesis 2:1-3
To further unpack the pattern set out in the Creation Week, as mentioned before, the sun, moon, and stars (everything in the heavens) were actually created in Genesis 1:1. This belief has been further strengthened recently while studying the Creation account. Here is what WLC believes Scripture communicates:
“In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) (including the sun, moon, and stars, which reside in the heavens).
The word “created” here is bara (H1254). Its use in Genesis 1 seems to denote creating something in an absolute sense, as in from nothing. This word is only used 5 time in Genesis 1: (1) “…created the heavens and the earth.” (2) “…created great whales…” (3) “…created man in His own image…” (4) “…created He him; male and female (5) created He them.”
The other word translated as “made” throughout Genesis is asah (H6213). This word means “to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application: – accomplish, advance, appoint, …”2 This word, in the first chapter of Genesis, seems to signify advancing upon something already created, or appointing something. For example: Yahuwah “made” (H6213) the firmament by separating the waters that were already there; He “made” (H6213) two great lights.” Psalms 104, when restating what appears to be a chronological account of the Creation week, uses exactly the same word used by Moses in Genesis 1:16; only, here is translated as “appointed.”
“He appointed (H6213) the moon for seasons [mo’ed].” Psalms 104:19
This understanding illuminates Genesis 1:1 and the first day of Creation (pun intended). “Let there be light” on “Day 1” was the lighting of the sun, which clarifies how there could be literal days (light/darkness cycle) before “Day 4.” The sun being lit on “Day 1” explains how there was day (H3117-yom: “to be hot; a day”) and night before “Day 4.” The sun, moon, and stars were simply “appointed” their divine calendrical role on “Day 4.” However, they were “created” (bara – H1254) in the beginning where it is stated that “Elohim created the heavens…” (Genesis 1:1).
To think because Yahuwah had yet to ordain the Sun and Moon on the first day that they cannot be used for His Calendar is completely unreasonable. He clearly states that the Sun and Moon are, “for signs and for seasons [mo’edim], and for days and years,” (Genesis 1:14) and even stronger evidence for the Moon in Psalm 104:19, “He appointed the moon for seasons [mo’ed]: the sun knoweth his going down.” New Moon Day is clearly a worship day throughout Scripture. See Numbers 29:6, 2Kings 4:23, Psalms 81:3, Isaiah 66: 23, Ezekiel 46:1-6, and Amos 8:5.3
Ironically, people have no problem using a solar calendar even though the sun was not ordained until the 4th day. Why would the moon be any less functional as a calendar, especially in light of Psalms 104:19?
He appointed the moon for seasons; The sun knows its going down.
This argument is nothing more than hypocrisy. The whole dispute loses even more credibility as it has been established from Scripture that both the Sun and Moon were created in Genesis 1:1.
At first glance, some might see merit in the argument that the Moon was not ordained on the first day so it cannot be used for His Calendar. However, Scripture illustrates something quite different. The Moon was and is still clearly established for use in His Holy Assemblies, worship times, and therefore integral in His Calendar. The Moon stands as an immovable calendar in the heavens. Praise Yahuwah, now and forever, for His perfect plan, His wisdom, His Providence, and for His beautiful perpetual Calendar in the sky!
1 We add the caveat “or ordained” because there is room in the Hebrew text both contextually and grammatically to postulate that the Sun and Moon were included in the call for Light on day 1 of Creation and they were rather ordained to their specific place and order on day 4 of Creation.
2 Strong’s Dictionary
3Numbers 29:6 besides the burnt offering with its grain offering for the New Moon, the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings, according to their ordinance, as a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahuwah.
2 Kings 4:23 So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.” And she said, “It is well.”
Psalms 81:3 Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, At the full moon, on our solemn feast day.
Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass That from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says Yahuwah.
Ezekiel 46:1 ‘Thus says Yahuwah Elohim: “The gateway of the inner court that faces toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and on the day of the New Moon it shall be opened.
Ezekiel 46:6 On the day of the New Moon it shall be a young bull without blemish, six lambs, and a ram; they shall be without blemish.
Hosea 5:7 They have dealt treacherously with Yahuwah, For they have begotten pagan children. Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage.
Amos 8:5 Saying: “When will the New Moon be past, That we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, That we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, Falsifying the scales by deceit,
The “70 weeks” prophecy of Daniel 9 is one of the most remarkable prophecies in all of Scripture, as it unassailably identifies the precise years of the Saviour’s baptism and crucifixion. Sadly, many either grossly misinterpret1 this great prophecy or overlook its larger implications. A close examination of Daniel’s “70 weeks” irrefutably disproves a “Friday Crucifixion” and the notion that the modern 7-day week has cycled continuously without interruption since Creation!
The 70 Weeks Prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27)
In the 9th chapter of Daniel, we find the prophet making a very emotional appeal to Yahuwah on behalf of Jerusalem and the exiled children of Israel, for he had recently received a very alarming vision (Daniel 8), the meaning of which he did not entirely understand. As Daniel is praying, the angel Gabriel appears to him and begins explaining in much detail the timing of the events that would precede the prophetic cleansing of the sanctuary2. It is this explanation that makes incontrovertibly clear the precise years of Yahushua’s baptism and crucifixion. Gabriel begins by telling Daniel:
Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. (Daniel 9:24)
Here, Heaven makes clear that 70 prophetic weeks had been determined for Daniel’s people (the Jews) and for the holy city (Jerusalem) in which the following was to be accomplished:
finish the transgression
make an end of sins
make reconciliation for iniquity
bring in everlasting righteousness
seal up the vision and the prophecy
anoint the Most Holy
Before moving forward, it imperative that we understand the value of a prophetic week. When studying prophecy, we must always allow the Bible to interpret itself. Yahuwah has provided in His word the explanation for every symbol employed by the prophets. In Scripture, one prophetic day = one literal year.
. . . I have laid on you a day for each year. (Ezekiel 4:6)
After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall you bear your iniquities . . . (See Numbers 14:34.)
From this, we must conclude the following:
One prophetic week = 7 prophetic days = 7 literal years
70 prophetic weeks = 490 prophetic days = 490 literal years.
Now, let us continue to the next verse of the prophecy. In verse 25, Gabriel begins explaining in great detail the nature and timing of the events that were to transpire during the 70 prophetic weeks. Yahuwah’s messenger, here, begins by giving the starting point and the ending point for the first 69 prophetic weeks of the count.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. (Daniel 9:25)
Here, we learn that from the “command to restore and build Jerusalem” until the coming of the Messiah would be 69 prophetic weeks (7 weeks + 62 weeks). This is the equivalent of 483 literal years.
69 prophetic weeks = 483 prophetic days (69 weeks x 7 days) = 483 literal years
There are four events which can be taken as answering to “the command to restore and build Jerusalem.” These are:
The decree of Cyrus to rebuild the house of Yahuwah in 536 BC (Ezra 1:1-4)
The decree of Darius to continue the work that had been hindered in 519 BC. (Ezra 6:1-12)
The decree given by Artaxerxes to Ezra in 457 BC (Ezra 7)
Nehemiah’s commission from Artaxerxes in 444 BC (Nehemiah 2)
Three of these four decrees we can immediately dismiss.
The decree of Cyrus in 536 BC and the decree of Darius in 519 BC must be dismissed from the outset because counting 483 years from either of these decrees will fall short of the coming of the Messiah which was the specified ending point of the first 69 prophetic weeks. Counting 69 prophetic weeks from the decree of Cyrus would bring us to 53 BC. Counting from the decree of Darius would bring us to 36 BC. Again, both fall short and must be dismissed.
The third commission that we can dismiss is that which was given to Nehemiah by Artaxerxes in 444 BC. While the king did allow Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem, there appears to be no official decree. Artaxerxes simply granted Nehemiah’s personal request to return to Jerusalem for a specified time. When Nehemiah arrived at Jerusalem, he found the people already engaged in the work of building the city. They were apparently acting under the decree given to Ezra thirteen years earlier. Nehemiah finished the work he wished to accomplish in Jerusalem after only fifty-two days (Nehemiah 6:15).
This makes clear which decree was to be the starting point for the 70 prophetic weeks, the first 69 of which were to extend to the coming of the Messiah: The decree given by Artaxerxes to Ezra in 457 BC.3
Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the [Eloah] of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time. I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. (See Ezra 7:12-13.)
Now, that we have established with certainty when the 70 prophetic weeks commenced, let us count forward 69 weeks (483 years) to see if this takes us to the time of the Messiah as the angel had prophesied.
Counting forward 483 years from 457 BC brings us to 27 AD.
-457 + 483 = 26 AD
However, we must add one year because there is no year 0.
26 AD + 1 Year = 27 AD
What happened in 27 AD? Yahushua, the Messiah, was baptized! “The Most Holy” was anointed (Daniel 9:24) at the precise time specified by Gabriel.
That word, I say, you know . . . after the baptism which John preached; How Yahuwah anointed Yahushua of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. . . (See Acts 10:37-38.)
Yahushua knew well that the first 69 weeks of Daniel’s prophecy had been fulfilled at His baptism, for it was after this that He began calling men to repentance, saying “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of Yahuwah is at hand.” (Mark 1:15)
We can be certain that 27 AD was the year of Yahushua’s baptism because Luke tells us that it took place in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar . . . (Luke 3:1)
Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Yahushua also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (See Luke 3:21-22.)
Tiberius began to reign officially as co-regent in 12 AD and as Emperor in 14 AD.4 Counting fifteen years from 12 AD, the first year of Tiberius’ rule, brings us to 27 AD. This is in perfect harmony with what the angel had revealed to Daniel about 600 years earlier!
Recall also the angel’s words regarding the city of Jerusalem itself:
. . . the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. (Daniel 9:25)
The walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt during the first seven prophetic weeks (49 literal years) following Artaxerxes decree in 457 B.C. Truly, these were “troublesome times.” Nehemiah tells us that, because of the incessant threat of attack, the workers “loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.” (Nehemiah 4:17) In 408 BC, the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple was completed.
-457 + 49 = -408 (408 BC)
Amazing! The prophecy, however, does not stop there. Let us continue now to the next verse.
And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26)
Here, we are told that sometime after the 69 prophetic weeks had been fulfilled, the Messiah would be “cut off” and then the city would be destroyed. Continuing on to the final verse in the prophecy, Gabriel sheds light on the details of the 70th prophetic week:
Then He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)
Here, the angel says that for the duration of the 70th prophetic week, He (the Messiah) would confirm a covenant with many. He then goes on to say that the Messiah would cause the sacrifices and oblation to cease in the middle of this final prophetic week.
Let us first examine what took place in the middle of the 70th week. Counting forward 7 years (one prophetic week) from Yahushua’s baptism in the autumn of 27 AD takes us to the autumn of 34 AD. This would place the middle of the 70th week in the spring of 31 AD. What occurred in the spring of 31 AD that caused the sacrifices and oblation to cease? The Messiah was crucified at the time of the Passover, and the veil of the temple in which the sacrifices were performed was rent by Yahuwah Himself from top to bottom!
And Yahushua cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. (See Matthew 27:50-51.)
Yahushua, our Messiah, was the ultimate sin offering to which all of the animal sacrifices prescribed in the law pointed. He was “cut off, but not for Himself” (Daniel 9:26); He was crucified, not for what He had done, but for what you and I have done.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of Yahuwah in Him. (See 2 Corinthians 5:21.)
Following His Crucifixion, the temple sacrifices were to forever cease.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He [Yahushua, the Messiah] came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come– In the volume of the book it is written of Me– To do Your will, O Yahuwah.’ ” . . . He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Yahushua the Anointed once for all. (See Hebrews 10:4-10.)
We know now with certainty that Yahushua was crucified in 31 AD, but Gabriel said that the Messiah was to “confirm a covenant with many for one week” (the duration of the 70th week which terminated in the autumn of 34 AD). How is this possible? The New Covenant that Yahushua the Messiah preached throughout His 3 1/2 year ministry was carried forward by the apostles following His crucifixion! The invitation to accept the New Covenant was extended to the Jewish nation until the autumn of 34 AD, when in a final act of rebellion against Heaven, the Sanhedrin murdered Stephen, the first Christian martyr (Acts 7). After delivering a remarkably powerful speech to the Sanhedrin, making clear the guilt of the Jewish nation in refusing Yahuwah’s prophets and rejecting the Messiah, Stephen was taken by the council and stoned.
The divine inspiration of Stephen’s final plea was confirmed by Yahuwah when the heavens were opened to him and he saw Yahushua standing at the Father’s right hand.
But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of Yahuwah, and Yahushua standing at the right hand of Yahuwah, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of Yahuwah!” (See Acts 7:55-56.)
Rather than repenting, the members of the Sanhedrin became exceedingly angry and refused to hear. They obstinately rejected their final opportunity to accept Yahuwah’s covenant.
Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. (Act 7:57-58)
(Note: The members of the council here laid down their clothes in front of Saul, the very man who would shortly thereafter have his name changed to Paul and be commissioned by Heaven to carry the gospel to the gentiles.)
As Heaven’s final confirmation that the 70 prophetic weeks allotted for the Jewish nation and earthly Jerusalem had been fulfilled, the city and the temple were destroyed in 70 AD just as the angel had prophesied.
. . . And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26)
Note:“The people of the prince that shall come” denotes that Rome was carrying out Heaven’s judgment in destroying the earthly city and temple. “The end of it shall be with a flood” denotes the swiftness with which the judgment fell. “And till the end of the war desolations are determined”: (1) foretold the swift destruction of Jerusalem, which was fulfilled in 70 AD ;(2) foretells the fact that from the time of the destruction of the temple until the End of time [i.e. the Second Coming of Yahushua], the land occupied by ancient Israel will never see peace and stability. This is confirmed today by the endless wars between Israel and its neighbors. This desolation is also alluded to in Daniel 9:27.
Thus, the 70 prophetic weeks were fulfilled in perfect detail and all that Heaven declared would take place was accomplished:
finish the transgression: alludes to the Jewish nation’s opportunity to end their transgression/rebellion and Yahushua’s victory over transgression (sin).
make an end of sins: alludes to Jewish nation’s opportunity to repent of sin and Yahushua’s victory over sin.
make reconciliation for iniquity: alludes to Yahushua’s reconciliation for iniquity on the cross.
bring in everlasting righteousness: alludes to the everlasting righteousness made available through faith in Yahushua and His sacrifice.
seal up the vision and the prophecy: alludes to the perfect fulfillment of each prophetic detail of the vision.
anoint the Most Holy: alludes to the Yahushua’s anointing with the Holy Spirit.
The time allotted for the Jewish nation now fulfilled, the gospel was now to be carried to the gentiles. (See Matthew 21:33-43 for a remarkable parable pointing forward to the time in which “the kingdom of Yahuwah” would be taken from the Jewish nation and given to another.)
Putting it all together….
Now that we have established with certainty that 31 AD was the year of Yahushua’s crucifixion according to Scripture, let us examine the larger implications of this fact, namely that the weekly 7-day cycle that we observe today has not been cycling without interruption since Creation! The modern Gregorian calendar is a counterfeit.
The Crucifixion
According to Scripture, Yahushua was crucified on the day of the Passover, which is always on the 14th day of the first lunar month. The divinely orchestrated timing of the crucifixion testified that Yahushua of Nazareth was in fact the Passover “lamb of Yahuwah that takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29)
In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is Yahuwah’s Passover. (See Leviticus 23:5.)
Scripture also tells us that this was “the day before the Sabbath,” which is the 6th day of the week.
And when the centurion, which stood over against him [Yahushua], saw that He so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of Elohim. And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea . . . went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Yahushua. (See Mark 15:39-43.)
Some have suggested that the “Sabbath” referenced in the above passage is referring to the first day of Unleavened Bread, which they say can fall on any day of the week. The fallacy of this suggestion can easily be demonstrated in that the day following this “Sabbath” was “the first day of the week.”
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. (Matthew 28:1)
Some Saturday Sabbatarians claim that the Saviour was crucified on a Gregorian Wednesday, that Thursday was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (a feast “Sabbath”), and that the “Sabbath” mentioned in the above passage is Saturday. The error of this belief, however, can be seen in the fact that this scenario would place Abib 10 on a Gregorian Saturday, the day erroneously believed by Saturday Sabbatarians to be the Bible Sabbath.
This scenario cannot be correct because the Israelites were instructed to select their lamb on the 10th day of this month (Exodus 12:3); if they did not possess the necessary livestock from which to select a lamb, they were to purchase one. Buying and selling is of course forbidden on the Seventh-day Sabbath, so those who erroneously cling to Saturday as the Sabbath must admit the fallacy of this scenario.5
We know now from Scripture that Yahushua was crucified:
on the 6th day of the week
on the 14th day of the first lunar month
in the year, 31 AD
Now, we must put all of these details together. Below is a chart of the moon’s phases in 31 AD, the year of the Crucifixion. (Note: The Astronomical “New Moon” column shows the lunar-solar conjunction times.)
There are different schools of thought as to when a Biblical month and a Biblical Year commence. It is WLC’s studied conviction that New Moon Day commences at dawn following the lunar-solar conjunction and the New Year commences with the New Moon closest to the vernal equinox.8We will examine the year of the crucifixion from all angles and using all possible reckoning methods, though, to see if it is at all possible to have a “Friday Crucifixion.”
First, we must note the time of the conjunction for both March and April in 31 AD, for the New Year could have begun in either of these months when all reckoning methods are equally considered.
Conjunction:
March 11 @10:20 PM (UTC)
April 10 @11:33 AM (UTC)
When reckoning New Moon Day (day one of the lunar month) as the day after conjunction, we find that Passover (the 14th day of the Lunar Month) would have fallen on March 25 (the equivalent of what the Gregorian calendar today calls “Sunday”) or on April 24 (the equivalent of what the Gregorian calendar today calls “Tuesday”). You can view the 31 AD planetary weekday calendar6 here: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=31&country=34
This does not even come close to a “Friday Crucifixion.”
Now, let us try using the first visible crescent to begin the month, as many traditionalists advocate. According to scholars and astronomers, the earliest crescent generally becomes visible about 17-23 hours after the conjunction, while some have reported seeing it “as early as 15.5 hours after New Moon [conjunction]” (United States Naval Observatory).
“In 1855, Sir G. B. Airy prepared . . . astronomical calculations . . . relating to A.D. 29 to 34. . . . He considered that, especially in March and April and in the climate of Judaea, 18 hours after conjunction should suffice for visibility. But, as a precautionary measure, he calculated also for 23 hours.” (“The Moon’s visibility and the date of the Crucifixion,” Courtenay R., The Observatory, Vol. 34, p. 228-232 (1911))
According to the Historical Research Committee of the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, the first visible crescent becomes visible in the Near East less than 42 hours after conjunction:
“In the Near East it takes 16.5 to 42 hours after conjunction, depending on whether her movements in relation to her distance from the earth are fast or slow-before the moon becomes visible again in the form of a thin crescent, waxing larger and larger until the time of the full moon.” (The Chronology Of Ezra 7, A Report of the Historical Research Committee Of the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, p.11)
To recap, the earliest crescent:
can generally be seen 17-23 hours after conjunction.
can sometimes take up to 42 hours after conjunction before becoming visible in the Near East (e.g. Jerusalem).
That means that we should expect the first visible crescent to consistently appear 17-42 hours after conjunction in Jerusalem.
Now that we have clearly defined parameters for identifying the first visible crescent moon (i.e. 17-42 hours after conjunction), let us examine the month of March in 31 AD to see if it is possible to arrive at a “Friday Crucifixion” using the first visible crescent to begin the month.
Conjunction = March 11 @10:20 PM (UTC) = March 12 @12:20 AM (Jerusalem time, UTC+2). Below is the approximate time between conjunction and sunset of the given date. (Sunset in Jerusalem occurs around 5:45 PM in mid-March.)
March 12 @5:45 PM = 17.5 hours (possibly visible) = would place Passover on March 26, the equivalent of the modern “Monday.” (Note: The moon with 1% illumination set around 6:15 PM, about .5 hours after the sun.9)
March 13 @5:45 PM = 41.5 hours (definitely visible) = would place Passover on March 27, the equivalent of the modern “Tuesday.” (Note: The moon with 3% illumination set around 7:15 PM, about 1.5 hours after the sun.)
March 14 @5:45 PM = 65.5 hours (definitely visible) = would place Passover on March 28, the equivalent of the modern “Wednesday.” (Note: The moon with 8% illumination set around 8:15 PM, about 2.5 hour after the sun.)
Clearly, it was not possible to have a “Friday Crucifixion” in the month of March in 31 AD. Now, let’s examine the month of April to see if it is possible to arrive at a “Friday Crucifixion” using the first visible crescent to begin the month.
Conjunction = April 10 @11:33 AM (UTC) = April 10 @2:33 PM (Jerusalem – Daylight Saving Time, UTC+3 ). Below is the approximate time between conjunction and sunset of the given date. (Sunset in Jerusalem occurs around 7 PM in mid-April.)
April 10 @7 PM = 4.5 hours (impossible to see)
April 11 @7 PM = 28.5 hours (likely visible) = would place Passover on April 25, the equivalent of the modern “Wednesday.” (Note: The moon with 1% illumination set around 8 PM, about 1 hour after the sun.)
April 12 @7 PM = 52.5 hours (definitely visible) = would place Passover on April 26, the equivalent of the modern “Thursday.” (Note: The moon with 5% illumination set around 9 PM, about 2 hours after the sun.)
April 13 @7 PM = 76.5 hours (A 76.5 hour old moon is far beyond the reasonable and accepted parameters for the crescent moon’s earliest visibility, especially for Jerusalem, yet it must be maintained as the earliest possible sighting in order to arrive at a “Friday Crucifixion” on April 27.) Note: The moon with 10% illumination set around 10 PM, about 3 hours after the sun.
Here, again, we see that it is not possible to arrive at a “Friday Crucifixion.” In order to maintain that the Crucifixion took place on a Friday in 31 AD, traditionalists must posit that the first crescent was not visible until it was 76.5 hours old with a 10% illumination! This is far beyond the acceptable parameters of 17-42 hours.
Remember, again, that the earliest crescent:
can generally be seen 17-23 hours after conjunction.
can sometimes take up to 42 hours after conjunction before becoming visible in the Near East (e.g. Jerusalem).
The moon would most likely have been spotted on April 11 when it was 28.5 hours old. If, however, it was not, it would surely have been seen on April 12 when it set about 2 hours after the sun at the age of 52.5 hours with 5% illumination.
To suggest that the moon was 76.5 hours old before it could be seen is simply not reasonable. Even if such an anomaly were possible, this assertion carries with it irreconcilable repercussions which undeniably attest to its absurdity:
Holding to a “Friday Crucifixion” in April of 31 AD would mean that for 5 consecutive months (February-June), the moon deviated far from the recognized parameters for establishing visibility (17-42 hours after conjunction). If one is to maintain that the Crucifixion happened on Friday, April 27 in 31 AD, they must believe that the youngest moon that could be seen between February and June of that year was 47.75 hours old.
Conjunction = February 10 @12:15 PM (Jerusalem time, UTC+2)
February 10 @5:30 PM (Sunset) = 5.25 hours = impossible to see
February 11 @5:30 PM = 29.25 hours = likely visible
Illumination = 2%, Moon Set: 6:24 PM (about 1 hour after the sun)
February 12 @5:30 PM = 53.25 hours = definitely visible!
Illumination = 6%, Moon Set: 7:29 PM (about 2 hours after the sun)
Traditionalists who cling to a Friday, April 27 Crucifixion in 31 AD must accept February 13 as New Moon Day because a lunar month can never have more than 30 days. Counting backwards 30 days from New Moon Day in March brings us to February 13. This means that those adhering to this paradigm must believe that the moon could not be seen until February 12 when it was 53.25 hours old. (Note: This moon set about 2 hours after the sun with 6% illumination.) The moon most likely would have been visible on February 11 when it set about 1 hour after the sun at the age of 29.25 hours with 2% illumination.
Conjunction = March 12 @12:20 AM (Jerusalem time, UTC+2)
March 12 @5:45 PM (Sunset) = 17.5 hours = possibly visible
Illumination = 1%, Moon Set: 6:14 PM (about .5 hours after the sun)
March 13 @5:45 PM = 41.5 hours = definitely visible!
Illumination = 3%, Moon Set: 7:14 PM (about 1.5 hours after the sun)
March 14 @5:45 PM = 65.5 hours = definitely visible!
Illumination = 8%, Moon Set: 8:12 PM (about 2.5 hour after the sun)
Traditionalists who cling to a Friday, April 27 Crucifixion in 31 AD must accept March 15 as New Moon Day because a lunar month can never have more than 30 days. Counting backwards 30 days from New Moon Day in April brings us to March 15. This means that those adhering to this paradigm must believe that the moon could not be seen until March 14 when it was 65.5 hours old. (Note: This moon set about 2.5 hours after the sun with 8% illumination.) The moon would definitely have been visible on March 13 when it set about 1.5 hours after the sun at the age of 41.5 hours with 3% illumination.
Conjunction = April 10 @2:33 PM (Jerusalem – Daylight Saving Time, UTC+3 ).
April 10 @7 PM (Sunset) = 4.5 hours = impossible to see
April 11 @7 PM = 28.5 hours = likely visible
Illumination = 1%, Moon Set: 7:59 PM (about 1 hour after the sun)
April 12 @7 PM = 52.5 hours = definitely visible!
Illumination = 5%, Moon Set: 8:57 PM (about 2 hours after the sun)
April 13 @7 PM = 76.5 hours = definitely visible!
Illumination = 10%, Moon Set: 9:55 PM (about 3 hours after the sun)
Traditionalists who cling to a Friday, April 27 Crucifixion in 31 AD must accept April 14 as New Moon Day. This means that those adhering to this paradigm must believe that the moon could not be seen until April 13 when it was 76.5 hours old. (Note: This moon set about 3 hours after the sun with 10% illumination.) Again, the moon would most likely have been spotted on April 11 when it was 28.5 hours old. If, however, it was not, it would surely have been seen on April 12 when it set about 2 hours after the sun at the age of 52.5 hours with 5% illumination.
Conjunction = May 10 @4:58 AM (Jerusalem – Daylight Saving Time, UTC+3)
May 10 @7:30 PM (Sunset) = 14.5 hours = impossible to see
May 11 @7:30 PM = 38.5 hours = definitely visible!
Illumination = 2%, Moon Set: 8:44 PM (about 1.25 hours after the sun)
May 12 @7:30 PM = 62.5 hours = definitely visible!
Illumination = 6%, Moon Set: 9:42 PM (about 2.25 hours after the sun)
Traditionalists who cling to a Friday, April 27 Crucifixion in 31 AD must accept May 13 as New Moon Day. This is the best case scenario for this paradigm because counting an extra day to make the previous lunation a 30-day month would demand embracing an even older moon as the first visible crescent. This means that those adhering to this paradigm must believe that the moon could not be seen until May 12 when it was 62.5 hours old. (Note: This moon set about 2.25 hours after the sun with 6% illumination.) The moon would definitely have been visible on May 11 when it set about 1.25 hours after the sun at the age of 38.5 hours with 2% illumination.
Conjunction = June 8 @8:06 PM (Jerusalem – Daylight Saving Time, UTC+3)
June 9 @7:45 PM (Sunset) = 23.75 hours = likely visible
Illumination = 1%, Moon Set: 8:31 PM (about .75 hours after the sun)
June 10 @7:45 PM = 47.75 hours = definitely visible!
Illumination = 3%, Moon Set: 9:24 PM (about 1.75 hours after the sun)
Traditionalists who cling to a Friday, April 27 Crucifixion in 31 AD must accept June 11 as New Moon Day. This is the best case scenario for this paradigm because counting an extra day to make the previous lunation a 30-day month would demand embracing an even older moon as the first visible crescent. This means that those adhering to this paradigm must believe that the moon could not be seen until June 10 when it was 47.75 hours old. (Note: This moon set about 1.75 hours after the sun with 3% illumination.) The moon would likely have been visible on June 9 when it set about 45 minutes after the sun at the age of 23.75 hours with 1% illumination.
Adherents to the above model must believe thatthe youngest visible moon between February and June of 31 AD was 47.75 hours old. The ages of the earliest visible crescent that must be accepted, respectively, are: 53.25 hours, 65.5 hours, 76.5 hours, 62.5 hours, and 47.75 hours. Everyone of these, without exception, extends well beyond the established parameters for determining visibility.
Remember, again, the earliest crescent:
can generally be seen 17-23 hours after conjunction.
can sometimes take up to 42 hours after conjunction before becoming visible in the Near East (e.g. Jerusalem).
Note:The above model is the best possible scenario for those clinging to a “Friday Crucifixion” in 31 AD. To make even one adjustment to the number of days in these lunar months would necessitate accepting an even older moon as the first visible crescent. Everything must be counted from the immovable New Moon Day anchor point of April 14, for it is from this day that the 14th day of the the lunar month (Passover/Crucifixion) is counted. To change this day would result in day 14 of the lunar month not landing on a “Friday.” Counting backwards from this point (April 14), you cannot number more than 30 days because lunar months never have more than 30 days. Counting forward from this point (April 14), you must count at least 29 days because lunar months never have less than 29 days.
This means that in order to have a Friday, April 27 crucifixion in 31 AD, one must accept not only one anomaly (unexplainable irregularity), but 5 in a row! How can anyone, in good conscience, embrace such an outrageous proposition? Honesty demands that we follow the evidence wherever it may lead, even if it does not agree with our traditions and cherished presuppositions.
The fact that there could not have been a “Friday Crucifixion” in 31 AD has been confirmed by scholars across the board, including the late Sir Isaac Newton (the man esteemed by many as the “father of modern physics”).
“He [Newton] thus excluded AD 31, 32 and 35 because 14 Nisan could not have been a Friday, which has been confirmed by all modern researchers.” (“Newton’s Date for the Crucifixion,” Pratt, J. P., Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol.32, NO. 3/SEP, P.301, 1991)
Conclusion:
Scripture makes clear through Daniel’s remarkable “70 weeks” prophecy that the Saviour was crucified in 31 AD. Scripture also makes clear that the crucifixion took place on the 6th day of the week, and on the 14th day of the first lunar month. When all of the calendrical details are brought together, it is incontrovertibly clear that the Israelites were using a different calendar than the world observes today. They were not using the Julian calendar, which was the precursor to the modern papal Gregorian calendar with its continuous weekly cycle.
Clinging to a “Friday Crucifixion” in 31 AD is not at all the result of honestly following the evidence to its logical conclusion. Rather, it is the consequence of cherishing tradition and obstinately rejecting the weight of evidence.
Many sincere Christians believe that Saturday is the Bible Sabbath for no other reason than it is the day observed by modern “Jews.” While it is true that the Jews today worship on Saturday, this was not always the case. Jewish scholars are very clear that the original method of calendation was different from the modern calendar and that under intense Roman persecution during the fourth century A.D., the Jews gave up the original lunar-solar calendar.
“Under the reign of Constantius (337-362) the persecutions of the Jews reached such a height that . . . the computation of the calendar [was] forbidden under pain of severe punishment.” (“Calendar,”The Jewish Encyclopedia)
“The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle.” (Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 410)
Those who teach that Saturday is the Sabbath base this belief exclusively on assumption and tradition. None can vindicate a Roman Gregorian Saturday Sabbath from Scripture alone. All who cling to Saturday are basing their practice upon the traditions of those who, as a nation, rejected the Messiah and the modern calendar promulgated by those who crucified Him.
Contrary to popular assumption, nowhere in Scripture does it say that the Sabbath is to be observed “every seven days.” Rather, it says that the seventh-day Sabbath is to follow the six working days.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Yahuwah thy Elohim. (See Exodus 20:8-10.)
It is only when a continuous weekly cycle is assumed that one concludes the Sabbath must fall every seven days. When Scripture is accepted for precisely what it says and all of the texts pertaining to the calendar and the feast days (including the Sabbath) are carefully studied, it becomes abundantly clear that the Biblical calendar is lunar-solar and is not at all synonymous with the modern papal Gregorian calendar and its precursor [the Julian calendar].
In Scripture, each lunation starts with the celebration of a special day of worship: New Moon Day.10 Six work days follow and then a seventh-day Sabbath on the eighth of the month. Three more weeks follow, ending on the 29th. The weekly cycle then restarts following the next New Moon Day. (No month ever has more than 30 days.)
Every time a seventh-day Sabbath in Scripture is assigned a date,
it always falls on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the month.
Originally, all ancient calendars were luni-solar with the weekly cycle (of varying lengths) restarting every new moon. Chronologists date the first calendar with a continuous weekly cycle to Babylon around 600 BC. Prior to that time, no calendar utilized a weekly cycle that had no interruption. The weekly cycle restarted either at the beginning of the month/lunation or at the beginning of the year following five intercalated days that closed the previous year but were not part of any weekly cycle.11
“We implore you, beloved of Yahuwah, not to take our word for it. Please investigate these things for yourselves. Many objections to the lunar Sabbath, that on the surface seem valid, fail miserably under close examination.”
The fact is that the modern papal Gregorian Saturday Sabbath cannot be substantiated by Scripture or calendar history.12 The erroneous doctrine of a continuous weekly cycle is established on nothing more than assumption. It is high time that Yahuwah’s faithful step free of this deception make Scripture alone the rule of faith and practice.
We implore you, beloved of Yahuwah, not to take our word for it. Please investigate these things for yourselves. Many objections to the lunar Sabbath, that on the surface seem valid, fail miserably under close examination.
We implore you to dig deep into this issue with an honest heart.
Click here for a list of articles and videos on the Lunar Sabbath.
Click here for a list of articles and videos on the Biblical Calendar.
3 The accession year of Artaxerxes I was 465-464 BC; his first regnal year stretched from the autumn of 464 BC to the autumn of 463 BC. We know that the “going forth” of Artaxerxes’ decree was in 457 BC because Ezra tells us that he departed Babylon in the spring, in the first [Biblical] month, and arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth [Biblical] month of Artaxerxes’ seventh year. “And he [Ezra] came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his Elohim was upon him.” (Ezra 7:8-9)
5 Using the Biblical lunar-solar calendar established at Creation, this is never an issue. The Pharisees who penned the Talmud had to create special rules for dealing with these types of situations, none of which can be supported by Scripture. http://www.truthontheweb.org/postpone.htm (Note: WLC in no way endorses the teachings found on this site. The link provided, however, illustrates well the multitudinous postponement rules created by those who rejected both the Messiah and Heaven’s calendar.)
6 Rome, at the time of Christ, was not observing the 7-day planetary week observed by the world today. Rather, they were observing the 8-day cycle of the Julian calendar:
7http://www.moonsighting.com/faq_ms.html – WLC in no way supports the doctrines espoused by this site, as it is affiliated with the teachings of Islam. None can argue, however, that those practicing Islam, while deceived, are very serious and very diligent in their study of the moon and its earliest visibility following conjunction, for it is by this observation that they begin their months.
8 By WLC’s method of reckoning, Passover would have fallen on March 25 in 31 AD.
9 The listed rise/set times of the moon, as well as the percentage of illumination are confirmed by Starry Night Pro, Quick Phase Pro, and Stellarium software. You can download Stellarium for free at the following link: http://www.stellarium.org/
10 The importance of New Moon can be seen in the fact that the sacrifices prescribed for New Moons were considerably more than those prescribed for the weekly seventh-day Sabbath. (Numbers 28:11-15)
11 Eviatar Zerubavel, The Seven Day Circle, pp. 7-8.
The Creator’s calendar has two categories of days that do not exist in the modern papal/pagan calendar: New Moons and translation days. Once these are understood, it is easier to grasp how time was originally calculated.
For nearly 2,000 years, parts of the western world have regulated time by the same seven-day weekly cycle. This has created the illusion among Christians that the modern week of Sunday through Saturday has cycled continuously and without interruption since Creation. This is simply not true. The last country to officially adopt the modern Gregorian calendar was Greece in 1923,
“Time is an abstraction at which we arrive by means of the changes [motion] of things.”
Austrian Physicist, Ernst Mach (1838-1916)
although it was not until 1949 that the entire world was unified in its use. Knowledge of time, and how it is calculated, allows one to understand the significance of the New Moons and translations days that appear in the Biblical method of time keeping.
Time can only be measured by movement.
Humans relate and measure time with reference to movement. The hands of a clock moving around a clock-face describe hours, minutes and seconds. A year is described by the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. A month is described by the rotation of the moon around the Earth. A day is described by the rotation of the Earth itself.1 [Note: WLC in no way endorses the deceptive heliocentric model or the erroneous suggestion that the earth is a globe: Flat Earth Truth]
Differences in Time Calculation: The Confusion of Weeks
Without movement, time cannot be measured. The modern calendar is a solar calendar, which bases its days and years exclusively upon the sun. On the modern calendar, weeks and months are not based on anything in nature. They are completely arbitrary. This is different from the luni-solar calendar established by Yahuwah at the creation of the world.
The calendar of creation is based entirely on nature. From its years, to months, from weeks, to days, it is all based on movement. The word “month” was originally “moonth” and comes from the word moon. In ancient times, months were always based on the movement of the moon. Weeks, in turn, were divisions of the month, or lunation. “[T]he Hebrew Sabbathon … was celebrated at intervals of seven days, corresponding with changes in the moon’s phases…”2 The fact that the months and weeks of the Biblical calendar are also based on movement in nature creates the biggest difference between Yahuwah’s luni-solar calendar and the pagan/papal solar calendar in use today. It also creates the most confusion.
Both calendars keep track of how much time it takes for the earth to complete one revolution around the sun (a year). Both break that year into smaller, more manageable segments. But there, the similarity ends. The modern calendar has months ranging in length from 28 days to 31 days. The months are not tied to anything in nature. Consequently, the week cycles continuously and without interruption from one month, to the next; from one year, to the next.
“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.”
jewishencyclopedia.com
The Creator’s calendar, on the other hand, bases each month on the movement of the moon. Each month begins with the new moon. The week, being a division of the month, restarts its cycle every New Moon. “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.”3 This is the hardest point to comprehend when first beginning to study the calendar of Creation: the modern, solar calendar has a continuous weekly cycle. The calendar of Creation does not.
New Moons are significant components of the Biblical method of time-keeping since they are the point in time at which the weekly cycle restarts for that month. The phrase “New Moon” in Scripture comes from the Hebrew word, Chodesh.The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible defines chodesh as “the new moon; by impl. [implication]a month.” The New Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words expounds on this, explaining: “Chodesh can refer to a ‘month,’ or the period from one new moon to another. . . . In a related nuance the word refers not so much to a measure of time as to a period of time, or a calendar month.”4
Thus, in Scripture, “New Moon” can refer to:
The first day of the new month.
The period of time between one new moon and the next.
A calendar month.
Scripture contains multiple references5 to new moons as the day on which the new month began. The extremely close correlation of the month as a period of time linked to a lunation of the moon can be seen in the fact
“As the new moon and the Sabbath were lunar feasts, the Passover (with the Feast of Unleavened Bread), Pentecost, and Tabernacles were solar festivals, i.e. festivals which followed the seasons of the year.”
A Dictionary of the Bible: Dealing With Its Language, Literature, and Contents Including Biblical Theology, 1898, Vol.1, p.860.
that there are even more Scriptural references6 which use the word chodesh to refer to a calendar month than there are to its use as the first day of the month. Chodesh is used 20 times in the Bible to refer to the first day of a new lunation. It is used 251 times to refer to a calendar month, or lunation.
Another Hebrew word that links a calendar month to the moon is yerach, (#3391). This word for “month” does not refer to a new moon, but does connect a calendar month with a lunation: “a lunation, i.e. month: — month, moon.”7Both words connect a month on the calendar to a lunation of the moon:
Chodesh: new moon; month; lunation.
Yerach:month; lunation, moon.
New Moons have no corresponding day in the Gregorian calendar with its months divorced from anything in nature. Thus, many people are confused over what to do on New Moon or how to observe it. Scripture reveals several things about the observance of New Moon:
New Moons were non-commerce days.
New Moons were days of thanksgiving.
New Moons were days of worship.
New Moons are non-commerce days
Jews have always had a reputation for being very “good” with money: i.e., taking advantage of every opportunity to make money and extract high interest from gentiles. The Jews of Bible times were no different. When in apostasy, the Jews resented having to close their stores for Sabbaths and New Moons. The Bible records the lament of these greedy merchants:
“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?”
Yahuwah hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.” (Amos 8:5-7)
Work done for the tabernacle, however, was allowable.
And Yahuwah spake unto Moses, saying,
On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
Thus did Moses: according to all that Yahuwah commanded him, so did he.
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. (Exodus 40:1-2, 16-17)
It is possible, but unknown, that other forms of “work” were acceptable to perform on New Moon. However, no work that generated income, no commerce, was to be performed on New Moon nor any other routine labor that could be performed on other days.
“In the time of the earliest prophets, the New Moon stood in the same line with another lunar observance, the Sabbath.”
Scribner’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1898 ed., p. 521.
New Moons were days of Thanksgiving
New Moons were a time for families to get together, share a meal and rejoice over the blessings of the past month, rededicating themselves to Yahuwah for the new. Both the Bible and extra-Biblical sources present New Moons as a day for taking time to spend with family and friends over a meal. Some sources suggest it was a day when women in particular were freed from the many burdens of housework. Other passages of Scripture reveal that New Moons, like Sabbaths, were a time when people would go to make special inquiries of the prophets.
New Moons were originally days of worship
Where Scripture is silent, history can shed additional light. An early edition of the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia states that New Moons were originally days for worship:
Sabbath and New Moon (Rosh Hodesh), both periodically recurring in the course of the year. The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle. Both date back to the nomadic period of Israel. Originally the New Moon was celebrated in the same way as the Sabbath; gradually it became less important while the Sabbath became more and more a day of religion and humanity, of religious meditation and instruction, of peace and delight of the soul.8
Translation Days
Translation days, like New Moons, have no direct correlation in the modern solar calendar. However, it is necessary to understand what they are in order to have a clear comprehension of Yahuwah’s calendar.
“Translation day” is an astronomical term that is not found in Scripture. However, the fact that the Biblical months were based on the cycles of the moon is sufficient proof that they exist in the Biblical calendar. According to the United States Naval Observatory, a lunation is 29.5 days long. Generally speaking, this equates to every other month having 29 days, and off months having 30 days. A lunation never has less than 29 days or more than 30 days. This is a demonstrable astronomical fact.
Astronomers use the term “translation day” to designate the 30th day of a lunation. It falls at the end of a lunar cycle on the “black moon” when the moon cannot be seen.
Because time itself is continuous, many have believed that the system by which time is calculated must also, by default, be continuous. This is an error of assumption. Originally, all ancient calendars were luni-solar with the weekly cycle (of varying lengths) restarting every new moon. Chronologists date the first calendar with a continuous weekly cycle to Babylon around 600 BC. Prior to that time, no calendar utilized a weekly cycle that had no interruption. The weekly cycle restarted either at the beginning of the month/lunation or at the beginning of the year following five intercalated days that closed the previous year but were not part of any weekly cycle.9
All time must be accounted for. Thus, translation days are not “non-days” as some have suggested. They have a date: the 30th of every thirty-day month. The 30th of the month, like the first of the month, was not part of the seven-day weekly cycle. However, it was counted and did have a date.
Confusion over translation days has led some people to reject the Biblical luni-solar calendar. The fourth commandment clearly states: “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of Yahuwah thy Eloah.” (Exodus 20:9-10) Not understanding translation days has led to the false assumption that in a thirty day month, there are a total of nine days between the seventh-day Sabbath on the 29th of one month and the next seventh-day Sabbath on the 8th of the new month. This appears to create a problem because that time span is greater than the six-workday interval between Sabbaths prescribed in the fourth commandment. However, because New Moons are a type of holy day, there are never more than six workdays in between worship days. (A lunar month never has more than 30 days and is never shorter than 29 days. Thus, the day following the 30th, which is New Moon, always begins the new month. There are occasionally consecutive months having 29 days or 30 days as regulated by the moon.)
The assumption that there will be too many work days between Sabbaths comes from not understanding that the New Moon itself is a worship day that starts a new cycle of four weeks: six work days, each followed by a seventh-day Sabbath. As the New Moon begins the new weekly cycle for the new month, translation days are not part of that weekly cycle, even though they are a day with a date. Translation days, which are always the 30th on a lunar month, can never be transferred to the next month or counted as a date in the new month because the next month always starts with New Moon day, which is the day following translation day. With the New Moon, a new cycle of four weeks begins. Interestingly enough, this confusion always arises among those in the west who have only ever known a calendar with a continuous weekly cycle. In countries that use lunar calendation for their religious calendars, it is an easier concept to grasp.
Yahuwah has always clearly specified by name or date which days are to be kept holy. Thus, all days that are not specifically designated as holy days are workdays. There are never more than six workdays in between rests, as New Moons are rest days.
Categories of Days
The Gregorian solar calendar has different categories of days: Work/school days, weekends (when most people take off work), and national holidays. The Biblical calendar has three categories of worship days:
Weekly (seventh-day Sabbaths)
Monthly (New Moons)
Annual (yearly feasts)
The importance of New Moon can be seen in the fact that the sacrifices prescribed for New Moons were considerably more than those prescribed for the weekly seventh-day Sabbath!
Many people who have been convicted to worship by the Biblical calendar observe the weekly and yearly observances, but the monthly observance of New Moon is frequently overlooked. This is partly through ignorance of how to observe New Moon. However, the importance of New Moon can be seen in the fact that the sacrifices prescribed for New Moons were considerably more than those prescribed for the weekly seventh-day Sabbath! The sacrifices required for the seventh-day Sabbath were simply the two lambs offered every day plus two additional lambs and a small food and drink offering. The sacrifices for New Moons, however, included two young bullocks, a ram and seven lambs, plus a sizable food and drink offering – in addition to the two lambs that were always offered every day.
Under the old covenant system of sacrifice, the priests burnt a morning and an evening sacrifice every single day. Yahuwah specified which sacrifices were to be offered on which days. The average daily sacrifice was a lamb. Larger, more expensive sacrifices were offered on the yearly feasts. If days were to be ranked based on the type of sacrifice specified for that day, it would be as follows, from least to most important:
4. Every day work days
3. Weekly seventh-day Sabbaths
2. New Moons
1. Annual feasts
The Calendar: Reminder of Creation
All of Creation was designed to reveal truths about the Creator and to draw the hearts and minds of man to his Creator in grateful acknowledgement. The calendar devised by Yahuwah is divinely designed for that very thing. The seventh-day weekly Sabbath is to be segregated, set apart for the worship of the Creator. The word “Sabbath” comes from shabath (#7673) and means “to repose, i.e. desist from exertion.”10 But it was not just the weekly Sabbaths that were to be set apart. Originally, the monthly New Moons and, of course, the yearly feasts were all times to remember the goodness of the Creator.
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.11
Yahuwah’s holy convocations, including New Moons, are a time for renewed commitment to the Creator; a time to slow down, acknowledge the Father’s gifts of family, friends and other blessings. New Moons bring a blessing to all who will set aside this time to acknowledge the blessings of Yahuwah. They will be kept throughout all eternity as the saved rejoice in the endless blessings of the loving Creator.
“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 66:23)
7New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.
8Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 410.
9 Eviatar Zerubavel, The Seven Day Circle, pp. 7-8.
10The New Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words, p. 833.
11Encyclopedia Biblica, op cit., pp. 4178-4179.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath.” Exodus 20:8-10
For people wanting to obey the Bible commandments, the question is: “Which is day one?” All can count to seven, but where does the count begin? How can you know which is the true seventh day? The Creator Who made the week also designed a month in which to place that week. The calendar of Creation begins with New Moon Day followed by four complete weeks. Each week contains six work days and a seventh-day Sabbath rest.
In the beginning, the Creator designed the movement of the sun and the moon to measure time.
“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 [H41501; religious gatherings], and for days, and years: . . . Two great lights [were set] . . . in the firmament of the heaven . . . to rule over the day and over the night.” (Genesis 1:14, 16-18)
Time can be measured only by movement. The revolution of the sun measures a day. In 365 and a quarter days, the sun returns to the same relative position above the earth. This is one solar year. The moon’s 29 and a half day cycle measure a lunation, which is the basis of the month. Twelve and a third lunations are the same length as a solar year.
There are three basic calendar formats using the movements of the sun and the moon:
Solar: Solar calendars use the sun for measuring the length of the year only. Months of arbitrary length have no link to nature. On the Gregorian solar calendar, weeks cycle continuously. Even leap day, every four years, does not disrupt the continuous weekly cycle.
Lunar: Lunar calendars are based strictly on the cycles of the moon. Months, which begin the first dawn after conjunction, cycle continuously without adjustment to the solar year. Because 12 lunations are 11 days shorter than a solar year, lunar months float through the seasons.
Luni-solar: The sun and the moon functioning together make a luni-solar calendar. Lunations are adjusted to the longer solar year by adding a 13th month seven times in 19 years. The weekly cycle restarts with every new moon. Each lunation has four complete weeks.
The calendar established at Creation is luni-solar. It is the most accurate and precise of all time-keeping systems.
In Scripture, each lunation starts with the celebration of a special day of worship: New Moon Day. Because it is a worship day, it cannot be counted as part of the 6 work days in the first week of each month. New Moon Day starts with the first dawn after the astronomical new moon also known as the conjunction. Six work days follow and then a seventh-day Sabbath on the eighth of the month. Three more weeks follow, ending on the 29th. Through measurement and calculation in the days leading up to the 29th, the time of conjunction is revealed so one can determine if the month has 29 or 30 days. No month ever has more than 30 days.
The true luni-solar calendar is very user-friendly. Days of the week always fall on the same dates of the month. Every time a seventh-day Sabbath in Scripture is assigned a date, it always falls on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the month.
Scripture states that the moon was created specifically to measure times for worship.
“He appointed [created] the moon for seasons [H41501; worship times].” (Psalm 104:19)
Creation week ended with a Sabbath day’s rest. Exodus 31 states that the Sabbath is to be kept throughout all generations.
Verily My sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am Yahuwah that doth sanctify you. (See Exodus 31:13.)
The seventh-day Sabbath was designed by the Creator to be the sign of loyalty between Himself and His people. The enemy, Lucifer, has changed the civil calendar and stolen the worship due to the Creator. Through tradition and assumption, Lucifer has united the world in using a solar calendar with continuously cycling weeks. When one worships reveals whom he worships. All who use a solar calendar for calculating their days of worship are, unknowingly, giving their allegiance and worship to the great Deceiver.
Those desiring to show their allegiance to the Creator will worship Him on the day He has designated. To find the correct day of worship, the luni-solar calendar established at Creation must be used.
Scripture reveals that the calendar used for worship throughout all eternity will be based upon the new moon:
“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.” (Isaiah 66:23)
Whom do you worship? To whom to do you give your allegiance? The calendar you use to measure time for worship reveals the deity you worship.
Concerning the Video Below: This video was made before WLC accepted the geocentric Flat Earth truth as opposed to the heliocentric globe model. Consequently, it still contains elements of the heliocentric model. The primary point of the video, though, (i.e. The Biblical Calendar is luni-solar) remains intact and is important for Yahuwah’s faithful to understand. Consequently, WLC has decided to leave it published.
1 “Since the Jewish festivals occurred at regular intervals, this word becomes closely identified with them . . . Mo’ed is used in a broad sense for all religious assemblies. It was closely associated with the tabernacle itself . . . [Yahuwah] met Israel there at specific times for the purpose of revealing His will. It is a common term for the worshiping assembly of . . . [Yahuwah’s] people.” (See #4150, “Lexical Aids to the Old Testament,” Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, KJV.)
While WLC continues to uphold the observance of the Seventh-Day Sabbath, which is at the heart of Yahuwah’s moral law, the Ten Commandments, we no longer believe that the annual feast days are binding upon believers today. Still, though, we humbly encourage all to set time aside to commemorate the yearly feasts with solemnity and joy, and to learn from Yahuwah’s instructions concerning their observance under the Old Covenant. Doing so will surely be a blessing to you and your home, as you study the wonderful types and shadows that point to the exaltation of Messiah Yahushua as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah, and the Lamb of Yahuwah that takes away the sins of the world.
Moses took a tent and pitched it far outside the camp of Israel. He called it Tent Mo’edim. This was not the tabernacle in the midst of the camp. That sanctuary had not yet been built. Tent Mo’edimwas a common, ordinary tent set aside for a special purpose: meeting Yahuwah at His appointed times. Mo’edim is translated as: appointed time, congregation, assembly, days, sign, synagogue, season, and feast. This list of words does not capture the full meaning of the Hebrew word, however.
“Mo’ed is used in a broad sense for all religious assemblies. It was closely associated with the tabernacle itself. . . . [Yahuwah] met Israel there at specific times for the purpose of revealing His will. It is a common term for the worshiping assembly of . . . [Yahuwah’s] people.” (“Lexical Aids to the Old Testament,” Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, p. 1626.)
Of the various meanings of mo’ed, “the appointed ‘time’ is most basic.” (Mo’ed, #4150, The New Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words.)
The Creator is very specific about which times are appointed for worship. In the beginning, He created a time-keeping system, a calendar, by which His appointed times, His mo’edim, are calculated.
“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 [appointed times], and for days and years.” (See Genesis 1:14.)
The lights in the heavens were designed to measure time by their movement. Without movement there is no time measurement. The sun was given to measure days . . . and years. The moon measures months, or lunations, as a part of a year. Six work days followed by a seventh day of rest was the pattern for the week. This smaller segment of time within the month was established at Creation.
The modern pagan/papal calendar has continuously cycling weeks. The calendar of Creation restarted the weekly cycle after each New Moon day. Thus, every time a date is given for a seventh-day Sabbath in Scripture, it is always the 8th, 15th, 22nd or 29th of the lunar month.
The heavenly Designer created the moon specifically for measuring His times appointed for worship, His mo’edim.
“He appointed the moon for seasons [#4150].” Psalm 104:19
In other words,
“He created the moon for mo’edim, His appointments for worship.”
These divinely appointed times can only be found on a calendar that uses the moon for time measurement. Leviticus 23 quotes Yahuwah as saying that the seventh-day Sabbath and the yearly feasts are all His mo’edim, His times appointed for worship.
And Yahuwah spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts [appointed times] of Yahuwah, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts [appointed times].
Every time a date is given for a seventh-day Sabbath in Scripture,
it is always the 8th, 15th, 22nd or 29th of the lunar month.
‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of Yahuwah in all your dwellings.
‘These are the feasts [appointed times] of Yahuwah, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times [mo’edim].
‘On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is Yahuwah’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread . . . [And the priest] shall wave the sheaf before Yahuwah . . . on the day after the Sabbath . . . .
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 Everliving. . . [Fenton Translation]
‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation . . . Also on the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you . . .
‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to Yahuwah.
‘These are the feasts [appointed times] of Yahuwah which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations . . . [in addition to] the Sabbaths of Yahuwah.'” (See Leviticus 23.)
Leviticus 23 establishes that the seventh-day Sabbath and the yearly feasts are all mo’edim: times appointed for worship. They are all precious gifts, calculated by the Creator’s designated luminary, the moon.
“Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens . . . and let them be for signs and for seasons [appointed times].” (Genesis 1:14)
In addition to being the measurement of time, the Creator assigned the heavenly lights to function as a sign of loyalty which separates the obedient from the rebellious. Yahuwah’s calendar system is the sign that separates the Children of Light from the Children of Darkness.
Throughout all eternity, Yahuwah’s faithful will unite in pledging their loyalty to the Creator by worshipping Him on His appointed times, His mo’edim.
“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,
All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says Yahuwah.
(See Isaiah 66:23.)
Do you want to pledge your allegiance to your Creator? Join with the faithful and loyal in heaven and on earth. Worship the Creator on His appointed times, calculated by His clock: the moon.
It is time we questioned why parents encourage children to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day – when it is never so much as mentioned in the Bible.
he Luperci cut strips, also called thongs or februa, of goat hide from the newly sacrificed goats.
t was the custom of antiquity for the mother of a male child to present herself for purification on the fortieth day after the day of birth. The fortieth day after January 6 – Nimrod’s original birth date – takes us to February 15th, the celebration of which began on the evening of February 14th, the Lupercalia or St. Valentine’s Day! On this day in February, Semiramis [pictured to the left], the mother of Nimrod, was said to have been purified and to have appeared for the first time in public with her son as the original “mother and child.”
Arthur S. Maxwell told the story of an assumption made in time of war that changed the outcome of history. According to Maxwell, the Spanish Armada was chasing smaller, out-gunned British ships commanded by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson. The Spanish ships outnumbered the British ships and an easy victory seemed assured. Suddenly, however, a British sailor fell overboard. Under the circumstances, most commanders would continue sailing on. Why risk the lives of all just to save the life of one?
that he could know when the Sabbath came. Eventually, though, he lost track. Whether he lost consciousness for a time due to their ill-treatment of him, or something else, ultimately doesn’t matter. Whatever the cause, he eventually lost track of what day of the week it was.
Pseudo-religion is like pseudo-science. It’s fake, a fraud masquerading as the truth. In pseudo-science as well as pseudo-religion, a hypothesis is based on an assumption and then efforts are expended to prove the hypothesis, rather than to arrive at the truth. However, if the assumption is incorrect, no amount of “proof” will transform error into truth. 
![Date Line Deception: What it is & Why it matters! [MUST READ: SDAs] image](https://media.worldslastchance.com/2025/08/PkKbp9jZ-quotation-marks-right.png){kind=small}
Question: How can you consistently observe a Saturday Sabbath without using the man-made International Date Line?
Have you heard of a 
Here, the angel says that for the duration of the 70th prophetic week, He (the Messiah) would confirm a covenant with many. He then goes on to say that the Messiah would cause the sacrifices and oblation to cease in the middle of this final prophetic week.
Conjunction = February 10 @12:15 PM (Jerusalem time, UTC+2)
Conjunction = March 12 @12:20 AM (Jerusalem time, UTC+2)
Conjunction = April 10 @2:33 PM (Jerusalem – Daylight Saving Time, UTC+3 ). 
Conjunction = May 10 @4:58 AM (Jerusalem – Daylight Saving Time, UTC+3)
Conjunction = June 8 @8:06 PM (Jerusalem – Daylight Saving Time, UTC+3)
Without movement, time cannot be measured. The modern calendar is a solar calendar, which bases its days and years exclusively upon the sun. On the modern calendar, weeks and months are not based on anything in nature. They are completely arbitrary. This is different from the luni-solar calendar established by Yahuwah at the creation of the world. 
“Translation day” is an astronomical term that is not found in Scripture. However, the fact that the Biblical months were based on the cycles of the moon is sufficient proof that they exist in the Biblical calendar. According to the United States Naval Observatory, a lunation is 29.5 days long. Generally speaking, this equates to every other month having 29 days, and off months having 30 days. A lunation never has less than 29 days or more than 30 days. This is a 
divinely designed for that very thing. The seventh-day weekly Sabbath is to be segregated, set apart for the worship of the Creator. The word “Sabbath” comes from shabath (#7673) and means “to repose, i.e. desist from exertion.”10 But it was not just the weekly Sabbaths that were to be set apart. Originally, the monthly New Moons and, of course, the yearly feasts were all times to remember the goodness of the Creator.
The calendar of Creation begins with New Moon Day followed by four complete weeks. Each week contains six work days and a seventh-day Sabbath rest.
Every time a seventh-day Sabbath in Scripture is assigned a date, it always falls on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the month.
meeting Yahuwah at His appointed times. Mo’edim is translated as: appointed time, congregation, assembly, days, sign, synagogue, season, and feast. This list of words does not capture the full meaning of the Hebrew word, however.
The 