God asks for a Sabbath every seven days. The day is reckoned by the sun, not the moon. The doctrine of Lunar Sabbaths is not a true doctrine according to the Bible.

This document contains:

- A peek into the Lunar Sabbath theory.
- A brief description of the Sabbath
- The Biblical definition of a “day.”
- A definition of a “week.”
- The consecutive 7-day period.

Lunar Observation—an overview of the Lunar Sabbath Doctrine

Some people have proposed that lunar observation can determine the day for the Sabbath. They propose that you observe the new moon; the day following this is Day 1 as you begin to count to the Sabbath on Day 7. You repeat this until the final Sabbath of the month falls on the 28^th day of the month. After that, there would be a brief waiting period for 4 or 5 days until the next new moon initiates the count again. This makes the count to the next Sabbath from 9 to 14 days later, depending on the sighting of the next new moon.

A lunar synod, or the number of days before the moon completes a cycle, is twenty nine and a half days. This number does not even equate to a whole number of days, and it also does not factor evenly by seven. If you were to use the observation of the lunar cycle in order to begin counting the seven days to the next Sabbath, each month would need leap days after the final Sabbath in order to begin counting seven again from the next lunar sighting. And if you must add in a few days to reach the next moon sighting, then the Sabbath is no longer on the seventh day, in disobedience to Scripture.

But God has laid out very plainly that He desires the weekly Sabbath to be guided by the sun, not the moon. Since the creation of the earth, every seventh-day is declared as Sabbath. And God’s pattern of seven evening mornings, ending on the Sabbath, has been continual ever since.

- The SUN is the light in the heaven that governs a day.
- A “Day” consists of the night and then the day. The sun goes down, the sun comes up and this is a day.
- The new day begins and ends at sunset.
- God’s weekly Sabbath is found by counting seven of these DAYS and is not found by observing the MOON.

The Sabbath

“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Genesis 2:2-3

At Creation God established a memorial of the work that He had done in making planet Earth. God formed the world in three days. He populated the heavens, the sea and the land in three days. On the seventh day He finished all this work. He pronounced a special blessing on this seventh day. This day would stand as a memorial of Him as the Creator. God called this memorial on the seventh day, the “Sabbath.”

“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:11

Down through time God continued to ask for honor on each and every seventh day. Even into the book of Revelation we find the 24 Elders in the heavenly court continuing to hold a memorial of God as the Creator:

“The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: ‘You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.’” Revelation 4:10-11

God asked a simple thing from us on the Sabbath in memorial of His work. He asked us to:

- remember this day
- consecrate, or set apart, time to honor Him
- rest from our every-day labors, and
- allow all those in our household to rest
- He also asked us to call His Sabbath “a delight” and respect the Sabbath as “honorable.”

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11

“…Call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy day of the Lord honorable…” Isaiah 58:13

Day

The SEVENTH DAY is when God asked us to keep the Sabbath. A day is identified by the sun. God defines the day the way He sees it:

“God called the light Day,^H3117 and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1:5

Strong’s Concordance defines this word “day” as the Hebrew word yom:

Strong’s H3117 יום yôm
[pronounced: yome]
From an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literally (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next). . . .

God divided the day into two parts and tells us the dark part of the day comes before the light. “… So the evening and the morning were the first day.” He repeats this when He also tells us that the Sabbath day begins at sunset.

“. . . from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath.” Leviticus 23:32

The Week

The term “seventh” is an ordinal number—meaning that it is a numerical sequence, in this case starting from 1 and proceeding to 7. In the example that God gave us at Creation, the count ends at 7 when “God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” (Genesis 2:2)

In order to have a “seventh day,” you must be able to count to seven from a starting point. This starting point for counting the Sabbath began with the Creation Week and has been kept consistently ever since. How do we know it has been consistent? Jesus did not correct the Jews regarding when they should be counting the Sabbath. In fact, He continued to acknowledge the Sabbath and join with the people on the Sabbath day, as He said, “For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:8).

“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.” (Luke 4:16)

We know that there was a first day of the week, as we read in the account of Jesus’ resurrection.

“Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.” (Mark 16:9)

“Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.'” (John 20:19)

From this we know that the Sabbath pattern had been maintained up to Christ’s day. Afterwards, the weekly Sabbath has been preserved by a faction of Jews, Karaites, and even through the Dark Ages by the Waldensians from the Piedmont Valley in Italy.

From the first day of the week until the seventh, we have no account of any week in the Bible having a greater number of days than seven. The seventh-day is counted from the last time you had a Sabbath and then the count of seven days begins again until it arrives at the next Sabbath day. Because of this pattern, the Sabbath defines what we consider to be a “week.” There is no evidence in the Bible that says we should begin our count over again at the observation of the moon. And there is no mention of a week that is longer than 7-days.

This pattern honors the Lord of the Sabbath as it continues to memorialize the 7 Days of Creation and the Day that God finished His work, pronouncing it “very good!” And this repeating pattern of 7 days is a “perpetual covenant,” so no changes are to be expected.

“Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” (Exodus 31:15-17)

How Do We Know the 7-Day Pattern is Consecutive?

We have 2 witnesses to this: The Manna and the Firstfruits

The Manna

This same 7-day interval is again found when the the Children of Israel gathered manna and God linked this gathering with the Sabbath:

“‘Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.’ Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the LORD said to Moses, ‘How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?'” (Exodus 16:26-28)

“So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted. And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, ‘This is what the LORD has said: “Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD.”‘” (Exodus 16:21-23)

The Bible reveals that the interval is a continuous 7-day pattern by telling us the number of days in between is 6——not more, not less. They gathered manna “every morning” for 6 days and did not gather on the 7th day. Then they turned around and repeated the 7 day pattern.

They only gathered manna for 6 days and they never went without eating. There are no extra days when they did not gather food and went hungry, or we would still be able to hear the echoes of their bellowing. At no time did God tell them to gather for 8 days or for fewer than 6. This 7-day pattern repeats and remains consistent or there would have been hungry people and a whole lot of detailed instructions as to why they had to hold off collecting manna for those extra days in between months.

And they continued this pattern for 40 years!

“And the children of Israel ate manna forty years….” (Exodus 16:35)

The Firstfruits

The next witness to the repetitive 7-day interval is found in the command for the 2 Wave Sheaf offerings. Seven Sabbaths in between them adds up to 49 days. And these 49 days extend beyond the period of one month, again denying that the Sabbath can be counted according to any lunar observance. Within a 49 day period, there are 7 Sabbaths and seven 7-day periods.

“And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.” (Leviticus 23:15-16)

Seven Sabbaths = 49 days. This indicates that there is
a Sabbath every 7 days, repetitively and consistently.

“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy day of the Lord honorable,
And shall honor Him,
Not doing your own ways,
Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking your own words,
Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord;
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
The mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 58:13-14

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