Biblical Proof of Lunar Sabbath: By T D Mkwananzi
This is going to be a long study/ presentation, so I ask you to be patient and persevere. I shall begin exploring the question in Genesis, because I believe that if a doctrine is not first presented or revealed in Genesis it is not biblical. I will begin looking at the first Sabbath after creation. Lunar Sabbaths are always on the 8th 15th 22nd and 29th of each month.
As a background our Heavenly Father uses the Astro-Luni-Solar calendar refer Gen.1:14 “And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:” simply put this text says let them tell the days, months and years, which by application is being a calendar.
Let’s begin; Gen. 1:1 says in the beginning Elohim created heaven and earth, the question is, what is the beginning? It has been suggested by others that it is a long period of time, so that between the creation of heaven and earth and the creation of light there is a big gap. All answers must come from scripture. The beginning suggests that there is an end, and so what the end is, so is the beginning. Gen 2:1, 2 says:” Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.” The end was a day not a long period of time, so the beginning was a day, not a long period of time. Next question: Of what is the beginning? If one says to you come at the beginning of the month to start work when will you go? It is reasonable to go on the first of the month, in fact it is the only beginning of the month. The same goes for the beginning of the year, it is the first month of the year. So the beginning mentioned in Gen. 1:1 would be the first day of the first month of the first year. We can then read the text as: On the first day of the first month of the first year (01/01/0001) Elohim created heaven and earth!
Is the beginning the same as the first day mentioned in Gen. 1:5? It will come as a surprise to many, that they are not the same day. The beginning is a stand-alone day and it is not counted with the other seven days. The beginning began and ended with creation of heaven and earth which came enveloped in darkness. Then came the events of the first day when light was created; Elohim created light and also named light as day and darkness as night, so making the period/time when light was created the first day or the first light. The beginning had no light therefore cannot be referred to as the first day or first light. The first day would be the period/ time following the beginning i.e. the second day of the first month of the first year (02/01/0001).
What does all this mean? It means that from the beginning of Elohim’s work to the end of Elohim’s work, there is a total of seven time periods of a day’s duration and from the creation of light named day there are six time periods ending on the same time period as the end, which is the seventh time period since the beginning and being the sixth time period since the first day.
Let us put it in grid format.
01/01/0001 02/01/0001 03/01/0001 04/01/0001 05/01/0001 06/01/0001 07/01/0001 08/01/0001 Beginning First day Second day Third day Fourth day Fifth day End/sixth day Sabbath Heaven earth Light & darkness Firmament Land seas Sun moon Birds Animals Rest Darkness only Day and night Plants Stars Marine life Man No light no day First day Second day Third day Fourth day Fifth day Sixth day Seventh day
The beginning of Elohim’s work is on the 01/01/0001 and the end on the 07/01/0001, so Elohim began His work on the 01/01/0001 and ended His work on the 07/01/001 hence “And on the seventh day God ended his work.” The first day is not only the first day of creation but also the first day created. From the first day created to the end of work is six days and on the seventh day created Elohim rested. So from the 01/01/0001 Elohim begins His work and on the 07/01/0001 Elohim ends his work and on the 08/01/0001 which is the seventh created/ counted day, He rests making it the first Sabbath ever! If the 08/01/0001 was a Sabbath it follows that seven days after it on the 15/01/0001 was a Sabbath, so was the 22/01/0001 and the 29/01/0001. The biblical month is determined by the movement of the heavenly luminaries/ lights, the moon in particular. It either has twenty nine or thirty days never less than twenty nine nor over thirty days. The cycle restarts at the beginning of each month. The first of each month is not counted together with the first seven days, but is as the beginning (01/01/0001) a stand-alone day and the second of each month is the first day of each first week of each month.
During that period i.e. from the 01/01/0001 to the 08/01/0001 He did not only create heaven and earth and all therein but also created the day, week, Sabbath, the month, and the sequence of days and the number of days in each month and He set the moon to determine which month shall have twenty nine or thirty days. When the month ends with twenty nine days the last day is the last Sabbath of that month and is followed by the new moon day or first of the new month, which as was the beginning, a stand-alone day not counted with the week days. If the month ends in thirty days the last day is as the first day a stand-alone day not attached to a week of seven days. This explains how Elohim can end His work on the seventh and rest on the seventh. He ends His work on the 7th of the first month and rests on the 7th day since the first day of creation of light/day.
To sum up the fore going Gen.1 and 2 establishes that the first Sabbath was on the 8th of the first month of that first year, making the subsequent Sabbaths to be on the 15th 22nd and 29th of that first month. The cycle restarts each new month so that since the first year to the current year, the Sabbaths have been on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of each month. The question would be, is there proof of that in the bible? I will in addition to the account in Gen 1and 2 proffer at least three proofs.
Proof number one. The children of Israel left Egypt on the 15th Abib which was a Sabbath, and the first day of unleavened bread. “And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt” Ex. 12:17 “And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the Passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.” Nu.33:3. Some may pose an objection that they couldn’t have been travelling and carrying their belongings on the Sabbath. Remember the Sabbath belongs to YAH and His Son is Lord of the Sabbath, and the children of Israel belong to YAH. He is their Elohim and Master, and as Yahushua said: “… hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?” Luk. 13:15. YAH as owner of Israel was quite entitled, even obligated to free them on the Sabbath and lead them away. Yahushua was answering the Pharisees who were accusing him of healing on the Sabbath. “And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” We
can paraphrase Yahushua’s words as “And ought not this Yisrael, being a seed of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these four hundred and thirty years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” There is no biblical inhibition against travelling and freeing someone from sin, sickness and bondage on the Sabbath; so back to the proof: “And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.”; how was He going to prove them? By the Sabbath observance! We today are being proved by the observance of the proper Sabbath! “And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Yisrael was to have one measure of manna a day but on the sixth day two measures of manna and on the seventh day or Sabbath no manna came down.
Now let’s go on. “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.” This is the even of the fifteenth Abib (the Sabbath) and the morning was the sixteenth Abib, the first working day. So they had flesh on the even of the fifteenth and manna in the morning of the sixteenth and they gathered manna for six days counting from the sixteenth day on the sixth they gathered twice as much. “And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.” Ex.16:22, 23. Counting from the sixteenth day the twenty first is the sixth day, the following day the twenty second is the Sabbath. If the twenty second is a Sabbath counting backwards the fifteenth was a Sabbath and still counting backwards the eighth was a Sabbath. It was so in the first month and it was so in the second month. Remember the eighth of the first month of the first year was the first Sabbath, and the cycle is the same over two thousand years later. Meaning it did not change since the first year! “For I am the LORD, I change not.” Mal.3:6. They left Egypt on the 15th Abib which was a Sabbath and arrived at the wilderness of Sin on the 15th of the second month which was a Sabbath, for the morrow of it was the first work day on which they gathered manna and did so for six days till preparation day on the 21st of the second month and the morrow the 22nd was the Sabbath. So if the 22nd was a Sabbath the 29th would be a Sabbath too and going backwards the 15th was a Sabbath and so was the 8th .Is it possible to have the Sabbath fall on the same dates two months in a row on the Gregorian calendar?
Proof two. In exodus 40 the tabernacle is set up on the new moon day of the first month of the second year after coming out of Egypt. New moon is a worship day. Some may think this is prohibited on a worship day notice what Yahushua says when the Pharisees queried why His disciples were doing that which was unlawful on a Sabbath: “But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for
him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?” So Moshe could set up the tent on the new moon and be blameless. With the rearing up of the tabernacle, Aharone and his sons were confined to the entrance of the tent for seven days from the new moon day. Counting from the new moon day the confinement ended on the seventh of the month which was preparation day and the following day the eighth was the Sabbath and YAHUWAH appeared in the tent of congregation. It is clear that the eighth of the first month of the second year after Egypt was a Sabbath, which makes the 15th, 22nd and 29th Sabbath days also in conformity with Genesis 1 and 2 already explained above.
Proof three. In 2 Chronicles 7, Solomon is dedicating the temple in the seventh month. Careful reading will reveal that there are two events that were celebrated one following the other. The first was the dedication of the temple that commenced on the eighth of the seventh month and went through for seven days to the fourteenth, then commenced the feast of tabernacles that commenced on the fifteenth day of the seventh month through to the twenty second of that month; then after the feast, on the morrow the twenty third Solomon dismissed the people. Let’s unpack it; the dedication of the temple began on the Sabbath on the eighth and ran for seven days till the fourteenth, which is preparation day for the Sabbath and feast of tabernacles in the seventh month. The feast of tabernacles ran for seven days from the fifteenth till the twenty first, then on the eighth day the twenty second was held a solemn assembly. The only reason why there was a solemn assembly on the eight day after the fifteenth is that, that day the 22nd was a Sabbath meaning the 29th after it was also a Sabbath as the 15th and the 8th before it. Again we see that the 8th, 15th 22nd and 29th were Sabbath days. In scripture each time a date of the Sabbath is given or inferred it is always on either of these the 8th, 15th, 22nd or 29th. This is possible only with the Astro-Luni-Solar calendar as ordained by YAH at Creation: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:” Gen. 1:14 “He appointed the moon for seasons” Ps.104:19. Seasons is moedim in Hebrew which means worship times, the new moon, the Sabbaths together with the annual feasts are worship times determined by the phases of the moon.
The first of each month is new moon day which is a worship day Proof one: talking of worship in the new heaven and earth YAH by Isaiah says “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.” It is plain that as the Sabbath which is a worship day now and was a worship day in the past and will be a worship day in the new creation, the new moon day will still be a worship day in the new heaven and earth; so it follows that as the Sabbath it must be a worship day for the people of YAH now.
Proof two: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened. And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening. Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the Sabbaths and in the
new moons.” This gate was shut the six working days but opened on the new moon and Sabbath to enable the prince and the people to worship on those days. It’s plain that on those days YAH was present in that location, in a special way to receive worship from the people and bless them. Ancient Yisrael worshiped on the new moon and the redeemed will worship on the new moon in the new heaven and earth, is modern Yisrael exempt from worshiping on the new moon now, but to do so in eternity? YAH does not change, “I am the LORD, I change not” Mal. 3:6. Solomon says:” I know that, whatsoever Elohim doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it.” Ecc.3:14 Elohim set His calendar at creation and his worship days to be on the 1st 8th 15th 22nd and 29th, He has not changed it and they still stand.
Dear reader the fore going presentation shows that the Sabbath is determined by the phases of the moon and that the new moon is a worship day. This was established at creation more than five thousand seven hundred years ago. The Gregorian calendar in use was established in 1582 more than five thousand years since creation, this was necessitated by error. The Julian calendar before it was adjusted in 45BC by making that year longer by ninety days. These errors and adjustments indicate that they could and cannot be trusted to point the correct Sabbath and further they don’t show the new moon days which are important worship days.
If you have proof from scripture that we must worship according to the Gregorian calendar, and also disregard worshiping on the new moon days, please forward it to me.
Elohim Bless you!
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