TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 

ORIGIN OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE.

UNDERSTANDING THE DOCTRINE.

USING THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA AS YOUR SOURCE.

SEASONS.

REFUTING THE LUNAR SABBATH DOCTRINE.

THE HEBREW ROOTS MOVEMENT.

 

 

ORIGIN OF THIS FALSE DOCTRINE.

 

 

Here is the true ORIGIN of this FALSE doctrine.

 

This doctrine comes from the “Jewish Encyclopedia,” in the 1901-1904 editions.  It must be understood that the authors, editors, and contributors, do not believe what the Bible says (their own “Torah,” if you will).  Since this is the source of this doctrine, I will be discussing and quoting it a lot.

 

To be fair, what is stated in the “Jewish Encyclopedia,” is that “The Sabbath originally was, and the month still is, based upon the moon.” Nowhere in the lunar cycle, the rotation of the earth, or anything to do with the solar system (other than the sun), bases the weekly Sabbath “upon the moon.

 

Backing up, there are many Jewish sources that you can find online that back up the Biblical truth that the Jewish months are based upon the journeys of the moon.  However, we are interested in the “Lunar Sabbath Doctrine.”

 

The modern “Lunar Sabbath” movement largely began in the late 1990’s, with Jonathan David Brown, often credited as the key proponent who popularized it in his 1998 book, “Keeping Yahwen’s Appointments.”He based it on ancient Mesopotamian Lunar theories; the specific movement promoting a Sabbath that resets every new moon.

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Again, the only source we have for the “Lunar Sabbath Doctrine” comes from the “Jewish Encyclopedia.” So, let’s read its statements carefully.  What it says is that their scholars take “a critical approach.” Therefore, what is “a critical approach?”

 

What the “Jewish Encyclopedia” authors really mean is that “We don’t believe what the Bible says, so we are going to employ the tools of Bible Criticism.” A little history. “Bible Criticism” is a method that was developed originally among what these Jewish scholars label as Gentiles; although you can blame Barak Spinoza for being the first Bible critic. “Bible Criticism” starts off with, “We don’t believe Moses wrote the Torah,” which is not to say that God did either, because they also say, “We don’t believe in God.” SERIOUSLY.  That should stop this doctrine right there.

 

Since they cannot get their every seventh day Sabbath from the Bible, it has to come from nature.  Therefore, what in nature has a seven-day cycle?  Their answer is, “If you take the month and divide it by four it comes out to seven days.” Let’s consider their statement for a minute.  This principle only works if we take the shortest month, even by lunar standards.  We take 29 days in this month and divide it by 4, using day one as the first Sabbath and we can make it work out correctly.  Forget the 30- or 31-day months.

 

Now as you dig further, the “Jewish Encyclopedia” does not tell you how to observe the Sabbath, “because it has Never been done!” The first place it appears is in “Bible Critics” literature in the 19th Century.  It then shows up in later editions of the “Jewish Encyclopedia.” But it has never been implemented until the 1990’s, when people in the “Hebrew Roots Movement” saw this information on-line.  How?  It was out of copywrite and someone (no one is sure who) put it on-line.

 

 

UNDERSTANDING THE DOCTRINE

 

 

Each Moon month beings on the 1st day of each month, which would then correspond to the next 7 days of the calendar.  Meaning, the 1st day of the month is a Sabbath, then the 8th day, then the 15th day, then the 22nd day, and lastly, the 29th day of the month.  These never change.

 

Next, Genesis 1:14 -16, is used to establish the Lunar Sabbath from the word translated “seasons” in the “KJV” and others.  You then go to Psalm 104:19, to establish the “moon [being used] for seasons.”

 

 

USING THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA AS YOUR SOURCE

 

 

So, there you have it!  An extinct version of the “Jewish Encyclopedia” is the source for the “Lunar Sabbath Doctrine.” If you sighted or quoted the “Jewish Encyclopedia” in any university you should be and most likely would be laughed out of the room.

 

It must be realized that the “Jewish Encyclopedia” was written before the discovery of the “Dead Sea Scrolls.”  The “Jewish Encyclopedia” was also written before the “Aleppo Codex.” Both of which shed even more light upon the factuality of the Bible.  It was even completely outdated before the “Cairo Geniza” was fully studied.  My point is, that these prove the Encyclopedia to be wrong.

 

Note:  The “Cairo Genizah” is a collection of some 300,000 Jewish manuscript fragments that were found in the genizah, or storeroom of the “Ben Ezra Synagogue,” in “Fustat,” or, Old Cairo, Egypt.  These manuscripts outline a 1,000-year continuum (870 A.D. to 19th Century) of Jewish Middle-Eastern and North African history, and comprise the largest and most diverse collection of medieval manuscripts in the world.

 

In other words, the “Jewish Encyclopedia” is completely outdated and has, if any, very little value, especially to any Bible believing, “Torah” believing, Christian or Jew.  And you would have to vet it based upon all of the discoveries of the last 120 years, of which, by the way, the newer versions of the “Jewish Encyclopedia” (2000 edition as an example) have attempted to incorporate (Though remember, with their twisted view of no Bible and no God).

 

 

SEASONS

 

 

Therefore, we must take a careful look at this Hebrew word for “seasons,” that being “mo’ed,” translated 223 times in the “KJV.” It is meaning and translated 150 times as “congregation,” 23 times as “feast,” 13 times as “season[s],” 12 times as “appointed,” 12 times as “time,” 4 times as “assembly,” 4 times as “solemnity,” 2 times as “solemn,” such as a “solemn” assembly,” 1 time as “day,” 1 time as “sign,” and 1 time as “synagogues.”

 

As we can see, the vast majority has nothing to do with an actual day, but more like an appointed time for a meeting.  However, there are set times such as, the “Feast Days,” which are the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, etcetera.  And sometimes the moon may have happened to correlate with these days (logically it would eventually fall on them).  But more precisely, the date of the month was the time appointed, not the moon beginning the month.  Such as “Passover,” beginning “In the fourteenth day of the first month,” Leviticus 23:3.  Not, “when the moon falls on the fourteenth day,” as an example.

 

 

REFUTING THE LUNAR SABBATH DOCTRINE.

 

 

Nowhere in Scripture does It teach us to count from the lunar beginning of the month to the next Sabbath day.  Nowhere does Scripture teach that since it took the moon to cycle 31 days for a particular month, that we should start counting the Sabbath days all over again.  Nor does Scripture teach anywhere to count the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, or 29th days as a Sabbath Day.  In fact, the Sabbath day is NEVER a particular or fixed day (such as always falling on the 8th day of the month).

 

The simplest way to discount this false doctrine is to find in Scripture where the Biblical Sabbath Day does not fall on any of the prescribed Lunar Sabbath Days (1st; 8th; 15th; 22nd; 29th).  And the easiest way to understand when the Bible Sabbath occurs is found during the creation week of Genesis, Chapter One, through Genesis, Chapter Two, Verses 1-3.  Obviously, the Seventh-Day Sabbath falls on day 7, not on day 8.

 

Lunar Sabbath-Day keepers fix this discrepancy by stating that the “New Moon” falls on Day 1, and Day 2 is the Biblical 1st day, or day One.  Thus, the 8th day on their calendar is the Seventh-Day Biblical Sabbath.  Good luck with that.  For Exodus 20:11 mentions no day before the 1st day.  Instead, the Scriptures clearly teach that God made everything in six (6) literal days.  And there was no “new moon day” before the 1st day of creation.

 

According to Luke 4:16, Jesus Himself “went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath Day.” Not on the eight day, or 15th day of the month.  But every “seventh day Sabbath.” There is NEVER any mention of any “moon” given in reference to the Biblical Sabbath in the Scriptures.  See also Luke 13:14.

 

According to Joshua 5:11-12, Israel was to keep “the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month.” If we then go to Leviticus 23:10-11, we learn that the 14th would be “the day after the Sabbath.” Thus, that would be the 13th of the month that the Biblical Sabbath fell upon.  Destroying the Lunar Sabbath of falling upon the 15th of the month.  Plus, according to Joshua 5:12, “the manna ceased on the morrow.” In other words, on the 16th, not on the 15th.

 

Now here is another example.  According to Leviticus 23:15-16, here is where we get our 50 days until “Pentecost.” The Old Testament, “Feast Of Weeks.” See also Deuteronomy 16:9-10.  The only way to count 50 days using the weekly Seventh-Day Sabbath (49 days), and come up with the one day after the Sabbath, making 50 days, cannot be done starting with the Lunar Sabbath, starting on day 1, unless you drop day 30 and add the remaining 21 days.  To lose a day does not help your doctrine.

 

Try it for yourself.  Take the “Luner Sabbath Calendar” (on-line at “The Creator’s Calendar” dot com), or your Western Calendar, and count 50 says until Pentecost.  Starting with your new moon (whichever that day falls upon).  You will not land on Saturday every time.

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