The Lunar Sabbath Illusion

By DON ESPOSITO

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn

Right-click to download PDF version

 

The very first thing that Yahshua warned His disciples to be careful about in the end time was deception.

Mat 24:3 And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be? And, what is the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?

Mat 24:4 And answering, Yahshua said to them, see that no man deceives you.

 

Today it is easy to understand why He said this. Since the age of the Internet you see deception absolutely everywhere, but I don’t think there is any greater deception than in the false doctrine of the Lunar Sabbath.

I would like to conclusively show in this article clear cut precise biblical reasons why it is impossible according to Scripture for the Sabbath to rotate according to the moon cycle.

First of all, let’s define what the lunar Sabbath false doctrine is. The Lunar Sabbath is the belief that the 7th day is NOT the Sabbath, which is commonly understood by all today, including all Jews worldwide, to be Saturday on the Roman calendar. The Lunar Sabbath observers start the weekly cycle by the new moon and they change the weekly cycle each month according to which day of the week the new moon falls on. One month their Sabbath may be on a Monday, the next month it may fall on a Thursday. If the new moon this month is on a Tuesday, then Wednesday would be day one and their Sabbath that month would be on Monday. If the next month the new moon occurred on a Thursday, then they would start their count from Friday and their Sabbath that month would be on Thursday.

Also, because the Lunar Sabbath ignores the current weekly cycle in use today, their Sabbath may fall on any day of our modern week. It depends completely and solely on the moon phases. One major problem that Lunar Sabbath keepers face is the fact that the moon cycle is a 29 or 30 day cycle and the weekly cycle is a 7 day cycle. Proof positive number one that it is impossible to calculate the weekly cycle and the 7th day Sabbath by the moon cycle is plain and simple that 29 or 30 is Not divisible by 7.

The moon moves through one complete cycle (new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter, conjunction) in approximately 29.5 days. Since we cannot have half a day, this means that some lunar months will last 29 days, but other lunar months will last 30 days.

So what do Lunar Sabbath keepers do on the 1st and 30th days of each month?

This is where some may differ. Some keep them as an extension of the Sabbath day on the 29th and will keep the Sabbath for two or even 3 days straight. This presents a problem though because there are scriptures which show men working (Exodus 40) and traveling (Ezra 7:9) on the new moon day. Also, it is not commanded anywhere that we must rest on any new moon day except the new moon day of the 7th month, which is the Feast of Trumpets.

Others simply call these “nothing days” and make believe they don’t exist to keep their month 28 days and divisible by seven. This is quite ridiculous as the sun rises and sets every day and you cannot simply make 2 nothing days every month to fit some heresy.

What this would also mean is that they don’t truly get a day of rest every seven days. They would have to wait for up to nine days to get a day of rest for the extra days at the end of each month that they are not counting. This means a person could potentially work 8 days rather than the 6 that Yahweh commanded, and rest on the 9th day instead of the 7th day that Yahweh commanded.

Why this confusion? Because these people do not understand Hebrew nor even the concept of the Sabbath day to begin with. In Hebrew every word goes back to a 2 or 3 letter root word and there are nouns, verbs, etc that all come from this same root and all have some kind of meaning compared to the root. The word Sabbath comes from the root shin, bet, tav, and in any form means seven. The word for week, “Shavoa”, and the word for seven in Hebrew “Sheva” all come from the same root of the meaning of seven.

So, however you calculate which day of the week the Sabbath falls, once you believe it falls on that day it will NOT rotate but would always be in a 7 day cycle on the SAME day; that is the main problem why it is impossible for the false doctrine of the lunar Sabbath to be correct, because the moon cycle is a 29 or 30 day cycle each month and the weekly cycle is a 7 day cycle each week. Do the math, it just doesn’t fit.

Let’s go back to creation again and see what was the pattern set down by Yahweh at creation. Like anything else that you want to solve, it is always prudent to go back to the very beginning.

Yahweh set out certain patterns at creation and if you look at the creation week you will see that each thing created on the next day was essential for the survival of the thing created on the previous day.

On day 3 the seeds were created and on day 4 the lights (moon, sun, stars) were created. Without daylight and night working together to give carbon dioxide and to take it back, plants could not survive. Then, day five, the living creatures were created and on day six mankind. If the food was not created on day 3 and the night and day on day four, life that was created on day five and six could not survive. Everything was in perfect order. This also clearly shows that there had to be 7 literal days of creation and not simply time periods as some falsely believe.

Also, according to the false lunar Sabbath belief, the Sabbath cycle changes monthly according to the when the new moon appears, but here on creation week, we clearly see the moon, and sun and stars being created on day 4 and the Sabbath is still on day seven and not counted seven days from the new moon that occurred on day 4. This in itself should conclusively show that the Sabbath was set down by creation and being made on the 7th day of creation apart from the moon cycle that started on the 4th day.

 

Day seven of creation was the Sabbath day. This is very clear and a pattern throughout Scripture. We never see the Sabbath occurring in any other cycle but a 7 day cycle.

Exo 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (set apart);

Exo 20:9 six days you shall labor and do all your work;

Exo 20:10 and the seventh day is a Sabbath to YAHWEH your Elohim; you shall not do any work, you, and your son, and your daughter, your male slave and your slave-girl, and your livestock, and your stranger who is in your gates.

Exo 20:11 For in six days YAHWEH made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all which is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; on account of this YAHWEH blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.

Exo 23:12 You shall do your work six days, and on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your slave-girl and your alien may be refreshed.

Exo 34:21 You may work six days, and on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.

Exo 35:2 Work may be done six days and on the seventh day it shall be holy to you, a Sabbath of rest to YAHWEH; everyone doing work in it surely shall die.

 

Friday, as we call it today is day six and Saturday as we call it today is day 7. End of story! Clearly from these scriptures there is not even a hint of the Sabbath being three days long at the end of the month or having the last days after the 4th Sabbath of the month nothing days. There is simply a consecutive 7 days cycle all throughout Scripture, and in each and every case it clearly states that 6 days you shall work and the 7th day is the Sabbath. There is absolutely nothing that would make one think that you must extend your Sabbath at the end of each month or ignore days to fit a lunar calendar.

 

In the Bible, the Sabbath is called in the original Hebrew language “H’Shabbat”. In Hebrew, whenever you have the perfect article “H” which equals “the” in English, it is clearly meaning one specific day and NOT a rotating day. We will clearly prove this by the scripture below.

Exo 16:22 And it came about on the sixth day, they gathered double bread, two omers for one. And all the leaders of the congregation came and reported to Moses.

Exo 16:23 And he said to them, That is what YAHWEH said, Tomorrow is a rest, a holy Sabbath to YAHWEH. What you will bake, And boil what you will boil. And lay up for yourselves all that is left over, to keep it until the morning.

Exo 16:24 And they laid it up until the morning, as Moses And it did not stink and no maggot was in it.

Exo 16:25 And Moses said, Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to YAHWEH. Today you will not find it in the field.

Exo 16:26 You shall gather it six days, and on the seventh day is a Sabbath; in it none shall be found.

Exo 16:29 Behold! Because YAHWEH has given the Sabbath to you, therefore He is giving to you two days of bread on the sixth day. Each one of you remain in his place. Do not let anyone go out from his place on the seventh day.

Exo 16:30 And the people rested on the seventh day.

 

Here we see the command to gather manna for 6 days and the 7th day is “H Shabbat” or the Sabbath day. It is again one specific day in the original Hebrew and cannot be a rotating day each month. Also, which is most interesting about this scripture is that the 6th day in Hebrew is called “H She sheand it also uses the perfect article “The” to refer to the gathering of manna on the 6th day. So whatever day of the week you are going to constitute as day six to gather your manna, it will always stay on that seven day cycle and cannot change according to the rules of the Hebrew grammar.

In addition, when Yahweh is telling them to gather manna for 6 days and on the 6th day (H’ She she) to gather for 2 days, He never mentions about gathering for 3 or 4 days for the long Sabbath or no days at the end of the lunar Sabbath month.

If one is logical, they must admit that it is inconceivable that if the Israelites were using a lunar Sabbath calendar, which was not divisible by 7, and had 2 extra days after the 4th Sabbath each month that Yahweh would have mentioned something about it in calculating the gathering of the manna as they did gather it for almost 40 years. Lunar Sabbath believers today can call these nothing days but the fact of the matter is that the sun will still rise and will also set and people still need to eat on these days. Yahweh mentioned nothing about these extra days because they clearly were not using a lunar Sabbath.

If we look into antiquity whether it is the writings of Josephus, or the Jewish Talmud or Mishnah, there is absolutely zero evidence that would make someone believe that the nation of Israel was using a rotating weekly Sabbath according to the moon cycle. In addition, we also have the Essene sect from the Dead Sea scrolls which again mention nothing about using the lunar cycle to calculate a different Sabbath day each month. As mentioned, in the original Hebrew language you can only calculate the Sabbath on a 7 day cycle that is repeated week by week and the day of the week for the Sabbath DOES NOT CHANGE!

This is why even today whether you look at the word for Saturday in Italian which is “Sabato”, or Spanish which is “Sabado” or Hebrew Shabbat, or other ancient languages you can actually see the word Sabbath in the name of the week that is commonly known as Saturday.

 

Also, when you look at your count to Shavuot you must count 50 days starting with the first day after the weekly Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread.

Lev 23:15 And you shall number to you from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day you bring in the sheaf of the wave offering; they shall be seven complete Sabbaths;

Lev 23:16 to the next day after the seventh Sabbath, you shall number fifty days; and you shall bring near a new food offering to YAHWEH;

 

If you are using a lunar Sabbath calendar with 9 day weeks at the end of each month you will never come up with a 50 day count to Shavuot in a 7 complete Sabbath count. Do the math, it is impossible and another clear proof from Scripture that the lunar Sabbath is no true according to Scripture.

Exodus 31:12-19 – tell us that Yahweh gave the 7th day Sabbath as a sign for Him and His children forever. It is the very sign from creation that sets the people of Yahweh apart from the rest of the world and proves Him to be the only true Elohim and Creator.

These people have given up the very sign that makes them a family member of the family of Yahweh and they have done so without even one clear cut scripture that would even remotely make one think that you must count your weekly count according the each new moon every month.

There is no evidence that Israel ever kept this irregular weekly cycle and there is no proof that our brother Judah ever kept this type of false calendar in antiquity. If someone is going to change something so serious as the weekly seven day Sabbath, one must have clear cut conclusive evidence from Scripture that this is so, and it just isn’t there.

Yahweh is very precise in Scripture from Creation; in six days He made heaven and earth and all that is in them and rested on THE SEVENTH DAY, and every scripture in the Bible also confirms that we work six days and rest on the seventh day without consideration of the moon cycle.

Right-click to download the PDF version

Please download our DVD on this subject at www.coyhwh.com in the video section

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn