To be able to keep the lunar sabbath, which is based upon the moon and not on the independent 7 day weekly cycle that God set up at creation, you have to
skip one or two days every month, this is because there are at least 8 days between the last sabbath of the lunar calendar (29th) and the first sabbath of the next month (8th).
But let us observe the first clear fact regarding the 7th day sabbath that Jehovah set up for us to keep:
Genesis 2:2-3 ...'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.
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.'
Exodus 20:8-11 ...'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 Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the
sabbath day, and hallowed it.'
Exodus 31:14,15,17 ...'Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore ... Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord ...
for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.'
Over and over again Jehovah reminded His people that they could work SIX days, but the SEVENTH day is the holy Sabbath rest day that God blessed and sanctified at
the end of creation week. This is the cycle that God set up and clearly established to be kept just as He said. So any cycle that is NOT in accordance with this
very specific cycle that the LORD our God set up cannot be in accordance with His will. Now, can lunar sabbath keepers keep to this cycle? No, it's impossible,
because EVERY month they have one weekly cycle that contains at least 8 days, so therefore they break the specific command and cycle of Jehovah every month.
But lunar sabbath keepers say that new moon day (1st day) and the last day of the month (30th) are NOT counted in the weekly cycle.
They are classed as 'extended worship days' or 'non-days' by lunar sabbath keepers. Thus according to them, they do keep the 7 day weekly cycle for the Sabbath.
Problem is, they cannot provide one single scripture from God telling us NOT to count the 1st or last day of the month. And
once you interrupt the weekly cycle with 'extra days,' then the one specific day (7th day) that God blessed and sanctified disappears.
In Exodus 16 God tested the Israelites regarding the Sabbath to see if they would obey Him or not. He rained manna down for them and they were to gather twice as
much on the 6th day as God provided none on the 7th day Sabbath. Exodus 16:35 says that
the Israelites gathered manna for 40 years! Now what if they kept the lunar sabbath and had 8 days for a week once every month? This cycle of gathering the manna would
be completely messed up! Not only that, once every month, they would supposedly have either 1 or two "extended worship" days, the 30th and 1st. Did God
say anything about giving them enough manna to last these 'extra' days? No, nothing!
Let me repeat this important point - for lunar sabbath keepers, the Israelites would need enough manna on the 28th of each month to
last them 3 days some months and 4 days other months, and yet God only set up the cycle of twice the manna on the 6th day of each week to last the 6th day and the
weekly Sabbath. God NEVER said they would need more for the end of each month.
So you can see straight away there is an issue with this lunar sabbath teaching. There must be a consecutive period of 6 days in between the 7th day Sabbath, otherwise
the cycle that God put in place is completely lost! But as we mentioned, lunar sabbath keepers will say that there are 'transitional days' or
'non days' between the end of the month and the next sabbath that isn't reckoned in the counting of the days of the week. But they fail to show any evidence for this
in the scriptures. And yet God was so specific over and over again regarding the 6 days of work and the 7th day to be the Sabbath. If there were to be
days that should not be counted among the days of the week once a month, then the scriptures would be very clear on it, just as the scriptures are very clear on
the 6 days of work and 7th day Sabbath of rest.
Now let me show you some major Biblical issues with the lunar sabbath teaching:
There are two accounts in the Bible, one in the Old Testament and one in the new, where lunar sabbath keepers have to use two DIFFERENT methods of time to arrive at
their lunar sabbath. The one account is in Leviticus 23 regarding the feast of weeks and the other is in the book of Acts, regarding Paul's journeying. Let's take
a look:
In Leviticus 23:15-16 we find the specific
instructions for how the Feast of Weeks (also called Pentecost) is to be calculated. "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from
the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number
fifty days." Deuteronomy 16:9 simply says 'seven weeks' regarding this feast. So it could just be 7 weekly cycles.
So the "7 Sabbaths", plus the "day after the last Sabbath" is to equal "50 days". Let us test
both the 7 day weekly Sabbath and the Lunar sabbath against this and see which one fits:
WEEKLY 7 DAY SABBATH: "7 Sabbaths" X 7 days = 49 days. PLUS "day after last Sabbath" = 50 DAYS!
LUNAR SABBATH: Seven Sabbaths = 49 days + two new moon days and maybe one 30th of the month, plus the "day after last Sabbath"
= 52 or 53 DAYS!
Remember, God says to number 50 DAYS! Is 'new moon day' a DAY? Yes! Is the 30th of the month a DAY? Yes! The ONLY
way lunar sabbath keepers can make this fit is to REMOVE new moon day and the 30th day of the month! Not only is this unbiblical, let me show you how they
contradict themselves:
In Acts 20:6-7 we have an account of Paul travelling and staying in Troas. We are told that he leaves Philippi 'after the days of unleavened bread.' Unleavened
bread is celebrated from the 15th of the month to the 21st. So we can conclude that Paul travels to Troas on the 22nd (which interestingly is a 'sabbath' for lunar
sabbath keepers). But even if Paul left for Troas on the 23rd, you will still see this doesn't work out for lunar sabbath keepers. So let us base it on Paul leaving
Philippi on the 22nd of the month, and use the lunar calendar:
THEY JOURNEY FOR 5 DAYS = 22nd to 26th
THEY STAY IN TROAS 7 DAYS = 26th to 2nd (this INCLUDES the 30th and new moon day)
LEAVE THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK = 2nd
According to lunar sabbath keepers, the first day of the week always falls on the 2nd of the month. So this fits the
lunar sabbath right? But did you notice something? We have to INCLUDE new moon day and the 30th of the month in the numbering of DAYS to make Acts 20 fit the
lunar sabbath calendar and teaching. Whereas you have to REMOVE new moon day and the 30th of the month to make the lunar calendar fit the feast of weeks (50 days)
as shown above! That is a major contradiction!
Let me show you some more issues with the lunar sabbath teaching. There is an instance when Israel had to depart from their camp at Sinai to journey to Paran
which shows the lunar sabbath as wrong. This is recorded in Numbers 10:11-12. We are told that the cloud was
taken up from Sinai on the twentieth day of the month (vs 11) and the Israelites departed and journeyed 3 days according to verse 33. Now which day of the month
would have been included in that 3 day journey of the Israelites? the 22nd of the month. A date which the lunar sabbath keepers say is the 7th day Sabbath. And yet
God made the Israelites journey on this day, which is supposed to be a day of holy rest! Do you see the issue? In Numbers 15 we are told of the account of God putting
a man to death for gathering sticks to make a fire on the 7th day Sabbath. And yet here in Numbers 10, we are supposed to believe that God made the whole camp of
Israel journey with all their belongings on the Sabbath? I don't think so. The 22nd of each month could not be the Sabbath.
Also, we are told in Exodus 16:1 that the Israelites journeyed from Elim and came to the wilderness of sin on 15th day of the 2nd month. The 15th day of the month,
according to the Lunar Sabbath keepers is another weekly Sabbath, and they use Exodus 16 as evidence of the Lunar Sabbath due to Israel arriving at the wilderness of
sin on the 15th and then God telling them He would give them manner for six days, but none of the 7th, making the assumption that the next 7th day Sabbath was the 22nd.
But for Israel to arrive at the wilderness of sin on 15th, it means they would have still journeyed during part of that day and then also set up camp
on that day. Again, would God have caused them to journey on any part of the weekly Sabbath and also set up camp? No.
Now to make their lunar calendar fit, lunar sabbath keepers have to make new moon day a 'special' set apart day that is not included in the weekly cycle. And yet
when we look at certain scriptures, this doesn't fit at all, as God got the Israelites to do work on the first day:
Exodus 40:2,17 ...'On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation ...
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.'
Number 1:1-2,18 ...'And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of
the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel,
after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls ... And they assembled all the congregation together
on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names,
from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.'
Now some will say that new moon day is NOT the "first day of the month", but rather that day 2 is the "first day of the month." Does that
sound illogical to you? Of course it is! You cannot NUMBER new moon day as number 1 (as lunar sabbath keepers do) and not call it the first day of the month,
yet call the day they NUMBER as number 2 as the first day of the month. This is completely illogical. But they have to do this, otherwise their dates for the
sabbath do not match anything in God's Word. Lunar sabbath keepers should simply call new moon day just that - "new moon day" and NOT give it a number.
Then change the day they number as 2, to number 1. But they have to do gymnastics to make their sabbaths fit certain dates.
Genesis 1:16-19 ...'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 2:2-3 ...'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. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.'
So when did God make the moon? He made it on the FOURTH DAY of creation. And what about the sabbath day? He instituted it on the SEVENTH DAY of creation. Now we
know that Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day. So what was the first full day that Adam and Eve spent together? It was the seventh day sabbath. And was
this sabbath day that Adam and Eve spent together determined by the moon? No, because the moon was only created 3 days prior. Ok, so what about the NEXT sabbath
day that Adam and Eve observed? That was SEVEN DAYS later right? Was that one determined by the moon? Clearly not. What about the NEXT sabbath day? Determined
by the moon? No!
Also, take a look at the following quote from a letter from the Greenwich Observatory in London in 1932, responding to a question about the weekly cycle:
"In the Nautical Almanac for 1931, p.740, in the last paragraph, a very learned chronologist, Dr.Fotheringham, states - 'When we come upon clear evidence, the period
of seven days was reckoned independently of the month and in fact of all astronomical periods. From the Jewish church it passed into the Christian church."
(Astronomer Royal, Greenwich Royal Observatory, London, 4th March, 1932 - SOURCE)
Just take that in. All observable evidence shows that the 7 day weekly cycle is independent of the monthly cycle!
"It is probably true that the Chaldeans and Egyptians did get their year in the manner indicated [observing the first rising of Sirius before the
sun]; but it is very far from the truth to say that either they or any other nation got the week from the changes of the moon. There is absolutely
nothing in nature to suggest the weekly cycle; and so patent is this fact that the 'Encyclopedia Britannica,' article 'Calendar,' says - "As it [the week]
forms neither an aliquot part of the year nor of the lunar month, those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss, as Delambre remarks, to assign to it an
origin having much semblance of probability." (Signs of the Times, November 18, 1889, p.695)
Do you see the clear Biblical truth here friends? The weekly 7th day Sabbath from creation week is the only one that fits. The institution of the weekly sabbath had no bearing on the moon and the moon had no bearing on the weekly
sabbath. The moon was created on day four and there is no mention whatsoever that it would have any bearing on when the sabbath day would be. Instead, God simply
setup a weekly seven day cycle from creation that continued. And it is this that determined the seventh day sabbath, not the cycle of the moon.
Now take a look at the following important truth concerning the sabbath day contained in the 4th commandment.
Exodus 20:8-11 ...'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 Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.'
Do you see what event God is pointing to in His 4th commandment? He is pointing to creation week. And He is confirming that it is this creation event
from where we get the seventh day sabbath, as the weekly sabbath is a memorial of God's creation and a day that shows our allegiance to our Creator God, the
one true God. And as we have already shown above, the seventh day sabbath of creation was NOT determined by the moon.
Do a search of Genesis and Exodus and you will only find one mention of the moon, and that was concerning Joseph's dream
of the sun, moon and stars bowing down to him. Nothing to do with the sabbath day.
The lunar sabbath teaching basically teaches that the 7th day Sabbath is based upon the moon and
not on a separate weekly cycle, and that the weekly sabbath occurs on the same dates every month. Even though there are differences of opinion out there as
to when the new moon date is, the dates that seem to be consistent with
lunar sabbath keepers for the Sabbath day are the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of each month. They believe correctly that the new moon begins a new month, as this is actually Biblical, but they also believe
that the Sabbath day is not based on the original 7 day cycle that God set up at creation, but rather that the weekly cycle is based on the new moon and begins afresh
at every new moon.