Is Our Saturday God's Sabbath ?

Is Our Modern Saturday God’s Sabbath?

Most of the time no, sometimes yes. Is anyone going to actually follow God’s law on the Sabbath? To do so is exceedingly hard in modern life.

For an excellent and dramatic video on this matter go to You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU34hpA91iE

For a study of the Jewish Calendar go to http://www.bible-history.com/jewishyear/index.html and click the various links, go too to http://www.bible-history.com/ to do in-depth research.

Decide for yourself!

One cannot properly worship God on every modern Saturday or Sunday as God’s Sabbath, or any other regular day of our calendar because, we go by the Gregorian Calendar, and not the ancient Jewish lunar calendar. Though no doubt ancient Jews followed the lunar calendar, we do not.

God said:

“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” (Gen. 2:2-3 NIV)

In the account above God is not talking about the Jews, this was hundreds, perhaps billions of years before God called Abram, known latter as Abraham, who fathered the Jewish people.

Moses told the Israelites: “Six days you are to gather it [manna], but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.” (Ex 16:26 NIV)

On our calendar, which is as stated above, the Gregorian calendar, Saturday is the 7^th day of the week, but this is not the ancient Jewish Calendar. On the Gregorian calendar there are seven months with 31 days (Jan., Mar., May, July, Aug., Oct. and Dec.); four with 30 days (April, June, Sep. and Nov.), and February has either 28 day or, on leap year, 29. This is not the lunar calendar used by ancient Jews. They used the lunar calendar, comprised of 12 months of either 29 or 30 days each, and the month began at the new moon. What they did with the extra days in a year, I have no idea, I’ve not studied it that deeply.

(Added Jan. 29, 2011 -- I've since learned that some years had, and still have, 13 months, a leap month added every few years making their leap year, instead of a leap day every four years like our Gregorian Calendar, for our leap year. I have since found a Christian site that promote a 12 month year of 30 days each, equaling a 360 day year -- see http://www.crivoice.org/calendar.html -- but the Jewish sites – see http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm -- do not seem to support this rendition of their calendar, I personally would use a Jewish source on their ancient calendar, you choose.)

As a Christian, what I do know is that this is not the way we calculate the seventh day of the week by the Gregorian Calendar. In Biblical times, the High Priest would set the first day of the month, by the new moon, and that would start the seven day cycle for that month, whether a 29 day month or a 30 day month. . (see http://www.bible-history.com/jewishyear/jewishyear_the_month.html)

(Added Jan. 29, 2011 – I’ve also learned that the High Priest would call the sliver of moon known as the “new moon” at sun-set, or evening twilight, when it was first visible, I believe that this is why the Israelites’ day started at sunset, which is unlike ours which starts at a nano-second past midnight or God’s rendition of the day which starts a first light. Gen. 1:5b “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” NIV © 2011, the first day ended at first light on the second day)

Our January 2011 is an ancient Jewish 29 day month -- January 4, 2011 (January’s new moon) to February 2, 2011 the next new moon – which, in ancient times, started the next Jewish month. January 4^th to February 1^st equals 29 days. Their next month would run from our February 2, 2011 to March 3, 2011, a 30 day month. April 4^th would start the next month and so on. In our January 2011, God’s Sabbath falls on each Monday, in February it falls on each Tuesday by our calendar, Wed. the 2^nd being the new moon; in our March God’s Sabbath falls on Thursday all month long, Friday the 4^th being the new moon; in April new moon's on Sunday the 3^rd making Saturdays God’s Sabbath, in May the new moon is Tuesday the 3^rd, making Mondays God’s Sabbath, in June the new moon falls on Wednesday the 1^st, making Tuesdays the Sabbath, in July our first new moon in July falls on Friday the July 1^st making the Sabbath Thursdays, the next new moon in 2011 falls on Saturday, July 30, 2011, making the Sabbath in our August Fridays, the next new moon falls on Sunday, August 28, 2011, causing God’s Sabbath to fall on Saturdays in September, Tuesday, September 27, 2011 is the next new moon making October’s Sabbath on Mondays the next new moon is Wednesday, October 26, 2011, making the Sabbath fall on Tuesdays in our November 2011, the next new moon is on Friday, November 25, 2011, making Thursdays God’s Sabbath in our December 2011, the next new moon is on Saturday, December 24, 2011, making this day a new month, and by out calendar, a new year.

(Added Jan. 29, 2011 – I’m not a calendar scholar so at this time, if I learn I will update this blog, I do not know if our modern calendars adds the new moon on the day that it first appears in that day’s evening sky, or if we consider the new moon day to be the day after we first see the new moon in the sky the evening before, this also makes a difference to “God’s Sabbath”.)

This would be the new year by our calendar, but, again, the ancient Jewish new year started on the first new moon of spring, and their year was many days short of the Earth's trip around the Sun. What happened if the new moon was obscured by clouds, smoke or something else, I guess they corrected it the next month, if they were wrong that month, I’m a Christian and don’t need to study the ancient Jewish calendar that deeply, but, of course, any mistake in the new moon affected the next month, either lengthening or shortening it from the 29 or 30 day cycle, they did always know that the next new moon was coming in either 29 or 30 days later, what the ancient Jews did with the rest of the days of the year I don’t know, but they had to incorporate them somehow (added Jan. 29, 2011 they had a leap year, like us, but unlike us -- with a thirteenth month -- see http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm). Are there any scholars out there on the ancient Jewish calendar that knows? If there are please let me know. In 2011 the ancient Jewish calendar would be, as I calculate it, 10 days short of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. They had to incorporate them somehow each year, or their spring would get way off after just a few years.

Ancient Jews could figure exactly the Summer and Winter solstices, (as could most ancient peoples) the Summer solstice being that day wherein the sun is at its highest and is the longest day of the year and the Winter solstice wherein the Sun is at its lowest and is the shortest day of the year, but I don't know if they had any significance in ancient Jewish life. Now, I’m not an expert, but I’m sure it was much harder for them to figure out the spring and autumn equinoxes, the two days out of the year that the night and day are approximately equal. (see http://www.answers.com/topic/equinox)

(Added Jan. 29, 2011 certainly they could figure out within a day or so which days these were, but without accurate clocks it seem a bit hard to do, I’ve never tried living by a sundial, perhaps they could do it with one. They are north of the Equator about equal with the panhandle of Florida – see http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=jerusalem+israel&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Jerusalem,+Israel&gl=us&ei=RsUqTJHPIZPknAeyuuTVDg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ8gEwAA )

Christians, you cannot follow God Sabbath by the Gregorian calendar, it is not possible, you cannot even follow God's Sabbath by our new moon cycles found on many modern calendars. The first of the month was controlled by the new moon, but the Jewish High Priest announced that day, no Christian can!

(Added Jan. 29, 2011 --  another thing to remember is that our Saturday starts just after Friday’s midnight, their 7^th day, i.e., Sabbath, started at sunset on the evening of the 6^th day. Our Saturday starts at exactly the same time each week, their Sabbath started at sun-set, on what we call Friday, and the start of their Sabbath varied every week, it started much later in summer and much earlier in the winter. Believe it or not, there’s another thing to consider, our Saturday is exactly the same length every day – see http://www.universetoday.com/14700/how-long-is-a-day-on-earth/ their Sabbath day was set simply by the setting of the sun on our Friday and the next setting on our Saturday, a bit less accurate that our modern day calculation of 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4seconds, how are the extra three minutes and 56 seconds made up, it gets complicated, but that is corrected by the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, Ancient Israel did not calculate to this degree of accuracy. Really, it’s more complicated than the foregoing because they did not use a solar calendar, they used a lunar calendar. The foregoing is based on a seemingly very accurate solar calendar, but is it accurate after many, many millennia(?) – see http://www.bdm.id.au/calendar/leap_year_calculation.html )

Agape, Ric copyright 2011