Herbert Armstrong was challenged about keeping the Sabbath and he wanted to prove that the woman telling his wife about the Sabbath was completely wrong. He researched the Bible and concluded that indeed, Scripture establishes the Sabbath to keep holy. This is no surprise. An elderly man — an acquaintance of mine — was a staunch Southern Baptist who had grown up in the faith. He told me that they usually had a conference every year that lasts a week, but they wanted to settle whether or not the seventh day Sabbath was to be kept or not, so one year (I believe he said it was in the 1930s), the Southern Baptists had a three week conference. They invited Catholics, Rabbis and other religionists to present their position. When the conference finally finished, the Baptists concluded two things:
- The seventh day was the Sabbath to be kept by Christians;
- If they switched to the Sabbath, they would lose three-fifths of their congregation.
Go for it. 20% ain’t bad.
These days, it’s just not that simple. Just when you think you’ve got the tiger by the tail and you understand the world, something seems to pop up that completely obliterates your position, and it’s no different with the Sabbath.
I learned about this particular perspective a few weeks ago from my good friend and all around nice guy Christian, xHWA over at the As Bereans Did blog from the Lying for God Part 8 blog entry; the article actually begins at a previous Lying for God entry. As Byker Bob commented, this is something that just didn’t make it into the Has Time Been Lost? booklet by Herbert Armstrong. To save you time, we’ll demystify it for you: Apparently (although that wasn’t what Herbert Armstrong was reaching for).
How does this work?
Long ago, before the Israelite captivity, there was a time when the new moon marked the Sabbath. After the new moon, every seventh day would be the Sabbath until the end of the month. Since the moon takes approximately 29.5 days to cycle to the next new moon, there’s always going to be a day or two left over. Some took the days off and others kept the days as sort of a ‘bonus’ Sabbath rest day. No matter. One month, the Sabbath might be on a Tuesday and the next it might be on a Thursday or Friday. Throughout the year, you’d end up keeping the Sabbath on every day of the week. The Karaite Jews have no problem with it. In fact, the calendar as defined by the Karaite Jews makes perfect sense without all that mucking about with postponements and such. According to the theory, the Jews adopted the seventh day (of the week) Sabbath only after being captive in Babylon.
And for you skeptics out there, there is a site that offers $10,000 for anyone who can ‘prove’ otherwise. Good luck with that!
Of course, not unlike the Southern Baptists, it simply doesn’t matter whether it is true. Can you imagine the chaos if the Armstrongists went to keep the Lunar Sabbath? Any leader of a cult sect would have a large scale rebellion on his hands. How do we know this? We know this because David Hume tried to veer away from British Israelism and a good part of his ministry left him along with their followers. You just can’t tamper with success. Nothing is going to change no matter how stupid or wrong it may be: Herbert Armstrong said it, we believe it and that is that!
xHWA doesn’t have a problem with this as a New Covenant Christian, and, as a matter of a fact, the majority of the 30% of the 7 billion people on planet Earth who call themselves Christians don’t either.
But suppose.
Just suppose.
Suppose that you knew, absolutely knew, that the Lunar Sabbath was true and it was required to be kept for your salvation? Would you keep it? Would you change to do the right thing?
And if we knew the answer to that, we would know a whole lot more about your commitment to faith….
I’ve said for years that it almost looks as if someone deliberately tried to make it impossible to “keep” the Old Covenant. Somehow, that doesn’t keep people from getting hung up on it and trying. There’s actually a passage in the Bible that states that if you keep part of it, you are required to keep all of it, or else you are under a curse. So, it’s not just sabbaths. It’s all of the washings and rituals to maintain a stare of ceremonial cleanness. The Seventh Day Adventists parse the law in order to show what has supposedly been done away, but it all stands or falls as a unit. There is no pick and choose.
BB
“There is no pick and choose.”
It would have been so simple for the SDAs, CG7, COGs and splinters to argue that since there is no Temple, there are no Levites, and no Aaronic Priesthood, a lot of the Laws can’t be kept. But to do that would be to obviate tithing as well – especially triple tithing.
It always gets back to money…
Lunar Sabbaths are for lunatics. The statement that the Israelites got their form of the Sabbath from the Babylonians is totally incorrect. In fact, the Babylonians are the ones that came up with this concept of the Lunar Sabbath. What has happened is that this truth was turned 180 decrees so that the seventh day Sabbath is Babylonian.
When Yahweh created the moon on the fourth day, did He restart the count of the week? No, He didn’t. People that believe in this Lunar Sabbath nonsense are just being useful idiots for the sin master, Satan the devil.
Sweetblood, I’m with you all the way.
Now, if you could just bring us some viable proof, it would be really great!
Which do you want proof on? Number of days to number to make the Sabbath? The count for the new moon? Not quite sure what you are seeking.
Yeah, proof is good. I certainly didn’t take one dissertation or article as gospel and arbitrarily decide to kill the sabbath with it. My personal belief is that the New Covenant had done that quite effectively already. Still, I wanted more solid information and, there is additional information on this topic on the internet. The problem becomes that when you Google the topic, the vast majority of what comes up is from sabbatarian church groups, and it is mostly of an apologetic nature, not based on primary or original sources.
For one thing, they claim that lunar sabbaths are a recent concept, started and advanced by an antisemitic Nazi within the past few decades. God help us when it comes to racists getting involved in theology and prophecy! Vaguely reminds me of someone else, but somehow, I just can’t put my finger on it just now.
I don’t believe that most of the people who are defending their sabbatarian beliefs know the difference between fixed and non-fixed calendars (it has nothing to do with repair), or solar and lunar calendars. They also don’t know that there were non-biblical portions, fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which pertained to, and described the Essenes who had secreted and preserved the scriptural scrolls. These defenders are also the types that write off the Antenicene Fathers, such as Irenaeus, and Clement, and historians such as Jules Africanus as being Catholic, and therefore of no value. They will cite Josephus as an authority when he agrees with them, and tar and feather him as a traitor and Roman sycophant when he disagrees. The fact is that all of those whose names I’ve just dropped did share some clues and information on the topic of lunar sabbaths, and it’s available on the internet if someone were willing to spend a couple of hours researching it out.
The bottom line is that lunar months are not going to be one of those bombshell discoveries that is easily dismissed or goes away. People certainly should ask themselves why a God that does not send manna to His people on the sabbath would have them march around Jericho, making noise and blowing trumpets for seven days in a row, presumably working far harder than simply bending down to gather food on a sabbath.
It’s funny. Some do not understand how relativity affects the reckoning of time, and the fact that an eternal, omnipresent God would not be bound by the time-space continuum. Until the fourth day of the creation narrative, the 24 hour days that are relative to planet Earth could not possibly exist, because up until then, there had been no sun or moon. This 24 hour period is not even a constant throughout the rest of the planets in our solar system!
I’ve come to the conclusion that even if “the Martians” (or Nephilim) suddenly landed, Armstrongites would simply factor that into the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong, and it wouldn’t change a thing.
BB
Howdy from NE Texas…
I hardly ever add my comments to articles, so this is a rare exception.
ABOUT THE ARTICLE:
* That’s very interesting about the Baptists conclusion on the Sabbath. I was not aware of this.
* Yes, I thought I had the Sabbath tiger by the tail … until I went to prove the stupid “Lunar Sabbath” theory wrong and my position was completely obliterated.
* Yes, the Israelites (and all the faithful before them) kept the Sabbath according to the lunar cycle. The evidence is right there in the scriptures and in historical writings – one just has to take off the Jewish rose-colored Saturday glasses and put on clear-unbiased ones to see “the plain truth.”
* The Jews did NOT adopt Saturday as the permanent Sabbath via Babylon (but the seed was planted there) – it was due to Hillel II being pressured by Rome to pick a day on the NEW solar 7-day weekly cycle that Constantine decreed at the Council of Nicea (changing from the 8-DAY week).
* Yes, I know, absolutely know, that the so-called Lunar Sabbath (I like “real” or “true” or “original” or “The”) is true and required to be kept for salvation. I’ve kept it since 2008 and haven’t looked back. Yet I still continue to study it (both sides!) – being an anally-retentive Berean, and all! 😉
ABOUT THE COMMENTS:
Byker Bob:
“The Old Covenant”?? WHICH one? The one written by YHWH on stone and put IN the Ark? Or the one written by Moses on a scroll for the Levites and put BESIDE the Ark? Or is it just the one where Moses says: “his covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Deu 4:13).
And the New Covenant? It’s just “THE old one” that YHWH writes on our new hearts – with the spirit giving us the will to WANT to obey.
About most sabbatarians not really knowing about calendars: I’m an exception to the rule. I started studying this calendar confusion in 1995, and haven’t stopped yet. This endeavor has involved studying most current and historical calendars, as well as astronomy – including “the key heavenly law” to understanding the original calendar: the precession of the equinoxes.
Also, a past friend and I were the ones who organized “the landmark calendar conference in Dallas, Texas, in January 1997” (The Journal, #148, Feb 2012) that really got the ball rolling on this whole “Confusing Calendar Controversy.” So, I do have earned credibility when it comes to this subject.
The march around Jericho: The first day of marching was on the 1st day of the month (the “new moon day” – not a Sabbath day or one of the 6 work days). The marching continued on the next 6 work days – ending on the 7th day of the month with the fall of Jericho. The next day was the 8th day – the Sabbath!!
No sun or moon until the 4th day? No, not so! The “Jews” have altered the chronology of Gen 1 and 2 (Jer 8:5-8) in order to conceal the truth about the Sabbath! (See thebiblewar.blogspot.com/2009/06/genesis-1-2-final.html for the corrected version.)
Hoss:
Yes, there are no Levites or Aaronic Priesthood – therefore no need for the Mosaic Covenant that Moses wrote down and gave to them.
Triple tithing? No such thing! There was one, and ONLY one, tithe: the one that each family set aside for Tabernacles. However, every 3 years, they had to share their tithe. Then there is the giving of the first fruits (of each harvest) that had to be given to the priests.
Sweetblood777:
Come on now, don’t label us – rather, search for the truth of this matter!!
As stated above, the Israelites didn’t get their form of the Sabbath from the Babylonians. Nor did they (Babylonians) come up with the concept of the Lunar Sabbath. This “concept” was from the beginning: when YHWH renewed the Earth in 6 days (2nd-7th days) and rested on the 7th day (which was the 8th day of the month).
So no, the Moon was not “created” on the 4th day. It’s light (crescent along with the stars) was re-revealed at the end of that really looooong night of Gen 1:2 – just before the Sun’s light dawned on the very first “New Moon” day … followed by 6 days of renewing THE EARTH and resting on the 7th (yet 8th!) day!
I hope this long commentary was of some help…
TheDailyWarrior
[email protected]
In a way, and with all due respect to our new friend, the Daily Warrior, this is exactly what I had envisioned the moment the lunar sabbaths issue was raised. We see it from the perspective of invalidating Armstrongism, or rendering Armstrongism impossible, but I knew that someone would surface who actually believed that lunar sabbaths were critical to salvation, someone who might have even grafted them into a basic framework of Armstrongist beliefs, including the false prophecies based on British Israelism.. We have seen this with other issues in the past, such as in the case of the old covenant washings.
BB
‘I knew that someone would surface who actually believed that lunar sabbaths were critical to salvation’
Oh ya. Then there are those that believe that every new moon is a sabbath. In reality the whole rotten thing is untenable. It just don’t work. Any religion that fails to change with society will find its doors closing in a generation.