This is a short argument against the Creation Calendar. I hope to keep my response as short. I will respond in blue font. All [bracketed statements] are my own unless otherwise noted.
LUNAR SABBATH
By Pete Vacca
There seems to be a growing interest in an old idea that has been told and retold in the Sacred Name movement for many years. It will surface ever so often and we are obliged to confront it because of the new brethren that have joined us since the last time it was discussed. The subject I am speaking about is “the Lunar Sabbath.”
Just what is the doctrine of the Lunar Sabbath? My understanding is that the new moon that begins a new month also begins a new seven-day cycle, which would change the Sabbath every new moon day. [The Sabbath never changes. It is always on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the month. Bro. Pete is making the mistake all the nay-sayers make. He is assuming that the Sabbath is found on the pagan/papal calendar. It is not. The Roman calendar floats on the Creation Calendar, not the other way around. It is the correct observance of new moon that KEEPS the Sabbaths in the correct place.] There are many things to take into consideration when we look at the Sabbath Day. The commandment does not end with “keep the Sabbath holy.” Let’s take a closer look at that Sabbath commandment.
It begins in Exodus 20: 8, 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 Yahweh thy Elohim; in it you shalt not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your manservant or maidservant nor your cattle or the stranger that is within your gates. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Notice the instructions in that commandment are to work for six days and get your work done and then rest on the seventh day. Let’s say that the new moon falls on the 4th day of the week, the day that we call Wednesday. That means we would only have four days to get our work done and then have another Sabbath. We would be breaking that commandment by only keeping part of it. Working for six days is just as important as keeping the Sabbath holy. If it weren’t, Yahweh would not have put it in there. Yahweh does not write words just to take up space. He writes the words for us to follow. By keeping a lunar Sabbath, we automatically break the Sabbath command.
Here, Bro. Vacca shows his ignorance of the Creation Calendar. I’m not saying that Bro. Vacca is stupid, just that he is answering the matter before he hears it. Proverbs 18:13. Ignorance is repairable; it just means he does not know something.
The new moon days never fall during the common week; they are a third category of day. Ezekiel 46:1 says that the gate to the temple is shut on all six working days, but open on the Sabbath and new moon.
A few months ago, new moon was on a wednesday. If the tabernacle were still here and I asked you, “Would the gate have been open or shut?” how would you answer? If you say open because it is new moon day, I would respond that wednesday is a work day, it must be shut. If you agreed, “Of course wednesday is a work day, it must be shut.” I’d reply, “But friend, it is new moon, it must be open.” Bro. Pete has no correct answer because he is applying a pagan/papal/Roman/solar-only/man-made calendar to this Scriptural calendar event. Isaiah 66:23, II Kings 4:18-23, Amos 8:5 are three more witnesses that the new moon cannot fall on one of the six work days. New moon, work day, Sabbath. Looks like this:
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What were the lights supposed to do that Yahweh created? Let’s go back to the Book of Genesis and see if we can determine their use. Genesis 1:14 says they were made for signs and seasons, days and years. Then Genesis 1:16 says the greater light would rule the day and the lesser light would rule the night, and He also made the stars. So it sounds like although the moon would tell us when the new month began, it had nothing to do with which day it was. Plus, Psalms 104:19 says that He appointed the moon for seasons.
So close, yet so far. You overlooked one text in this sequence.
Genesis 1:14 says that the two great lights would be for signs, seasons, days and years. Thus the calendar of Yah is in the heavens.
Psalm 104:19 says that the moon will regulate the seasons (Mo’edim--appointed times, set feasts).
Leviticus 23:1-3 shows the weekly Sabbath to be the first feast (Mo’edim--appointed times, set feasts).
The sun tells you when a new day begins; the moon tells you which day it is. Here are a few examples. The new moons are days of the month that are regulated by a very particular phase of the moon. Exodus 12:2 reveals YHVH pointing to a very specific looking moon, telling Moses that this particular phase will reveal when it is the first day of the new year. Here is another example: The full moon (every year) shows up at the evening of Abib 14, which is Passover. This full moon announces the following day as the Sabbath of Unleavened Bread. Interestingly, this particular full moon is linked to the weekly Sabbath. Please see Deuteronomy 5:12-15. This is the 4th commandment as it reads in Deuteronomy, and it is linked to the day of Israel’s deliverance. They were freed from bondage on the 15th of Abib, a day announced by the full moon. In fact, every one of the annual feast “days” in Leviticus 23 are regulated by the moon, and they each begin at set, fixed “days” every year.
YHVH does not say in Genesis 1:14 which lights regulate what. By if you look here a little, there a little (Isaiah 28:9-10), you can find plenty of texts that fill in the blanks.
We can find no mention in Scripture where the moon has any authority in determining which day it is. [Bro. Vacca does err, not knowing the Scriptures. See above.] I cannot find one Scripture that says the Sabbath is any other day than the seventh day. [Does this mean you only keep the Sabbath once a year or once a month, or do you keep it once a week? New moon never falls on a week day, remember? Where do you put your new moon days?] If we believe in a lunar Sabbath, then the Sabbath could fall on any day of the week. The seventh day would change every new moon. Maybe I should say the Sabbath would change every new moon.
This paragraph above is typical of someone who has no idea how the Creation Calendar works.
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The Sabbaths on the lunar calendar are each and every one the seventh day OF THE WEEK. The Sabbath does not fall on the Gregorian, a pagan/papal calendar. Bro. Vacca is trying to compare apples (the calendar he understands) with oranges (the Calendar of Scripture). The Calendar described in Scripture looks like the one above, every month.
Yahweh says that His laws are not a burden to us; that they are for our good. [Agreed] What good is that? Is it that every seven days we are worn out from work and need a day of rest? [Where does it say in Scripture that the Sabbath (or rest day) is every seven days?] Scripture says that Yahweh rested after He finished His six days of work. [That would be six work days, but you are forgetting new moon day.] And do you think it would be a burden to try and hold down a job and have to take a different day off for Sabbath every month? Do you think that would be fair to your employer? Would Yahweh expect your employer to have to be burdened in that manner? [You know what? YHVH doesn’t care about our employers or what they think. YHVH cares whether we obey Him or not. No law should be a burden if it is a righteous law. We will either obey, or not.] I think Yahweh tries to make our lives simple. We are the ones that complicate things.
Scripture also has a segment of time before the first week that did not count against the week. Genesis 1:1-2 reveals a segment of time and a Creation event that took place before the first day of the week. Creating heaven and earth was the first Creation event, and it took place inside the parameters of “time”. Every month since then has begun with a new moon, so what do you think the FIRST month of earth’s history began with? New Moon. It looks like this:
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Light was created on the first day of the week, but it was the SECOND Creation event. So you see, the first Sabbath was the seventh DAY of the week, but it was the 8th day of the month. YHVH said this was a fitting time for a rest day, and I agree fully. I also observe this day on Yah’ calendar, not man’s.
We have already looked at Genesis 1 when the lights were created. Did the days of creation begin with the first day of the new moon? Certainly not! The moon was not visible on the first day of creation. But Yahweh counted seven consecutive days to get to the Sabbath. Yahweh created a seven-day weekly cycle in the very beginning, even though the moon was not visible until the fourth day. A second witness to the seven-day weekly cycle can be found in Exodus 16 when Yahweh provided manna for six days, but did not provide any on the seventh day. We must never forget the information provided for us in Isaiah 28:9, Whom shall He teach knowledge and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast.
So, Bro. Vacca wants to invoke Isaiah 28:9. Very good.
Moses used two different words in the creation account. One means created from scratch (H#1254, Bara), the other doesn’t. Created from scratch (bara) is found in Genesis 1:1, an example of the other is found in verse 16.
The sun, moon, stars and all the heavens were created when YHVH spoke the earth into existence in Genesis 1:1. In Genesis 1:3-5, YHVH creates a light that divides day from night, light from darkness. There is only ONE light that does that in our universe. YHVH lit the sun on the first work day so the moon was illuminated that night as well. This was THREE days before the 4th day of creation, yet there were three DAYS and three NIGHTS of this work week all before day 4. You cannot have a day (yom) without the sun as yom means heat (as from the sun). Since the sun was there before day 4, so was the moon because they were all created at the same time in Genesis 1:1. This is what the Hebrew SAYS in context.
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis 1:16-19
This word “made” (Strong’s H# 6213) is used several times during the creation week. This is the Hebrew word asah, (ah-saw). It means advanced upon or appointed. For example: He appointed (asah) the moon for seasons… Psalm 104:19. Here David very nearly quotes Genesis 1:14, only he’s very specific about the role of the moon. Seasons here in Psalm 104:19 is the same Hebrew word found in Genesis 1:14; mo’edim, appointed times or set feasts.
If I “made” you a general in my army, does that mean you did not exist until I pinned the stars on your lapel? No, it means I advanced upon or appointed you as a general in my army. You existed prior to your appointment.
Here’s the scenario: YHVH created heaven and the earth at a certain time consuming point in time. He doesn’t call it a day because the time piece that regulates the day was not yet illuminated. Then on day one, YHVH lights the sun creating light and, of course, day and night as a result. If the earth and sun were created during the initial event, it is plausible that the planets, moons, etc., were created at the same time as well. We are not wresting Scripture when we make this statement because the underlying Hebrew could have been (and we are suggesting should have been) translated in this way.
So on day four, YHVH advanced upon the luminaries that He had created earlier [when He created the heavens and the earth and then illuminated on day one], and ordained them, appointed them as time keepers. The moon rules the week/Sabbath (signs) and the month (seasons). The sun rules the day and the year. The moon is listed as having a roll in the Creation Calendar as well as the sun, so the Creation calendar is NOT solar only.
Men have wrested Scripture to mean something it does not. There were 3 Yom’s (meaning heat from the sun), or 3 days before the 4th day of creation. The Hebrew word used then does not mean created from scratch, rather it means advanced upon, meaning that the light created on day one was none other than the sun. Notice that the first day of the month (Genesis 1:1-2) the moon was not illuminated, it was dark. Bro. Vacca is right on one point, the moon was not visible on the first day of creation (Genesis 1:1-2).
Lunar Sabbath keepers who have done their homework know that the first visible crescent does not announce new moon day, this is a Babylonian (pagan) practice.1 Scripture and nature reveals that the dark of the moon is the renewal phase. The first visible crescent announces the first work day, not new moon.
Then in Isaiah 28:10, we are given the instructions to activate the information. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.
Very true. This is precisely how we have learned that the Sabbath is regulated by the moon. Genesis 1:14 says that the two great lights would be for signs, seasons, days and years. This would be either the sun or the moon. Thus the calendar of Yah is written in the heavens (where man can’t mess with it). The underlying Hebrew word for seasons above is mo’edim, meaning appointed times, set feasts.
Psalm 104:19 says that the moon will regulate the seasons (mo’edim--appointed times, set feasts). Leviticus 23:1-3 shows the weekly Sabbath to be the first feast (mo’edim--appointed times, set feasts).
ONE of the great lights in the heavens will regulate the Sabbath. This chain of texts alone is enough to prove that the Sabbath is by the moon. Unless of course you can go outside and look at the sun and tell whether it is satyrday. If so, someone please contact me and tell me how this is done.
That is how doctrine and Scriptures are understood. If those instructions are not followed, then what you end up with is doctrine made with Scriptures taken out of context. You must search diligently and find everything to do with the subject. Then you must make sure you do not change the context that is being carried out by those Scriptures. If you maintain that understanding, then the truth will shine through.
This is exactly what I have just done above. This is why I can speak with authority because I know for a fact that Scripture supports the Lunar Calendar and Lunar Sabbath. The utter LACK of evidence in Scripture for the seventh day of the pagan/papal calendar (satyrday) or a Sabbath on a repeating seven day cycle is also authoritative. Before disproving the lunar Sabbath, Bro. Vacca, try proving your own using Scripture alone (sola scriptura).
Let’s take the Feast of Weeks, for example. We believe the Scriptures teach us to count fifty days from the weekly Sabbath within the week of Unleavened Bread. [This is what you believe; it is not what Scripture teaches.] This year, we would count from Sabbath, April 7th, seven Sabbaths complete to Sabbath May 26th, which would be not only 49 days, but it would be 7 Sabbaths complete, from Sabbath to Sabbath. Then Sunday (the first day of the week) May 27th would be day number 50 and we would celebrate Pentecost.