Appointed Times

The LORD gives us appointed times, known as ‘moed’, seasons or feasts of the LORD during which he meets with mankind. You may be familiar with the spring feast of Passover, during which Israel was brought out of slavery in Egypt in 1446 BC and Jesus was crucified as our Passover lamb in 32 AD. Then there are the summer feasts of Shavuot and Pentecost, and finally the fall feasts, when we expect Jesus to return. These feasts are known as The Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day (of Tabernacles) known as the Atzeret, but commonly translated as solemn assembly. In order to understand the roadmap of the tribulation and major movements of the LORD, you must learn the timeline of these feasts. It is by understanding His feasts that the Day of the LORD is identified with the Last Great Day, the Atzeret. The chapters before this one carry the proofs of the calendar those feasts run on — when the day, the month, and the year begin. This chapter is about the feasts themselves: what the LORD appointed and how to keep it, whatever day your reckoning lands it on. What follows is an outline of the key appointed times that you will want to observe as a sign that the LORD is your Elohim (God).

The feasts also contain commands for us to observe and remember, so those seeking to obey the least of His commands do well to understand the days and their meanings.

Each calendar day starts at first light and goes until the next first light. First light is about an hour before sunrise. This is contrary to the Jewish tradition of sunset-to-sunset days, which they inherited from Babylon. A later chapter will dive into the biblical evidence for this conclusion.

Every day there is supposed to be a morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb by the High Priest. This is not something we can do directly, because we are not priests. That said, we can still offer morning and evening prayers in remembrance of this appointed time.

The month starts in the morning at first light after the night of the full moon. A full moon can be identified as the first day on which the sun sets at or before the full moon rising.

This translation of Psalm 81:3 reflects the literal order of the Hebrew words and factors in all the prefix and suffix letters. Common translations, such as the KJV, substitute “appointed time” for “full moon,” but all modern texts, such as the NKJV, NASB, and ESV, recognize it as the full moon. By tradition, all other cultures started the month on the dark or sliver moon. This is why NASA considers the dark moon the “New Moon” because it was the moon phase at the beginning of the month. That said, I have found nothing in Scripture that contradicts the interpretation of the full moon in Psalm 81:3 as the start of the month. The evidence that the LORD reckons His Holy Days from the full moon is carried in the chapter When Does the Month Start?. The Bible gives specific instructions for the first day of the month, which suggests that this day was of greater significance than ordinary days and Sabbaths.

Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins and other sacrifices can only be offered by priests; therefore, these instructions are not for us to follow at this time. Nevertheless, they still indicate the value the LORD placed on the start of the month. At the very least, if you have a Shofar, you can blow it on the daylight after the Full Moon.

This verse clearly establishes that there are three kinds of days on the LORD’s calendar: working days, sabbath days, and new moon days. It further establishes that the month starts with the full moon, because scripture compares the sky to a tabernacle.

The east gate, or front gate, of the sky is the area where the sun and moon rise, and on the new months the east gate opens for the full moon to rise. Notice that this verse also provides evidence for the day to begin at first light because this is the beginning of the circuit (circle, cycle) of the sun. The sliver moon can only be sighted in the west at sunset. On New Moons there is no buying or selling:

Many people are probably familiar with the Sabbath being the 7th day of the week during which everyone is to rest and there is no buying and selling.

More broadly, the term Sabbath refers to a week ending in a day of rest. The Hebrew word yom is typically translated “day,” but its range is wider than one English word: the daylight as opposed to the night, the 24-hour period, an abstract division or span of time, a year, even a lifetime. With that range in view, a week ending with a daylight of rest can itself be called a “day” — an abstract division of time. With this context, it makes sense why Exodus 20 mentions all seven days. You could therefore translate it as:

Now that we understand that the Sabbath is a group of seven days ending in a day of rest, we must ask ourselves: When does the week start? Some people believe the Sabbath daylight is Saturday; others believe it is Sunday; and still others, Friday! Scripture gives us some insight:

Years are divided into months; months are divided into “New Moons” and “Sabbath Weeks”; and “Sabbath Weeks” are divided into “six workdays” and “one rest day.” We know that months are not evenly divisible into the year; therefore, there are some years with a 13th month. Likewise, “Sabbath Weeks” are not evenly divisible into some months; therefore, some months have an extra day after the 4th Sabbath week before the next New Moon day. Scripture is silent on the nature of the 13th month and on the 30th day of some months. Through careful study of Scripture and tests of history, I have proven beyond reasonable doubt that the Sabbath is the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th day of each lunar month. On these days there is a half-moon, dark-moon, or full moon. A later chapter is dedicated to proving this out.

We know that the sun, moon, and stars are for signs and appointed times, and we also know that the Sabbath is a sign and appointed time; therefore, it makes sense that the Sabbath should be governed by the sun, moon, and stars.

With the Sabbath days connected to the phases of the moon, we have a clear sign for our appointed times with the LORD that cannot be corrupted by the tradition of men. The traditional continuous weekly cycle has a number of contradictions and ambiguous situations that make it a logical impossibility. For starters, if you count your days as the number of sunrises you observe, with the Sabbath starting every seventh sunrise, then two people leaving the Garden of Eden in opposite directions (one eastward and one westward) will meet on the opposite side of the globe and forever disagree about which day is the Sabbath. With a Full Moon Lunar Sabbath, any disagreement would be resolved at the start of the next month; at historical travel speeds before trains and airplanes, they would be synced up before they even met. A benefit of the Full Moon Lunar Sabbath understanding is that there are never any conflicts between the weekly Sabbath and other appointed times. Sabbaths are days of rest, healing, and coming together to read the Bible. It would be challenging to keep the Sabbath on Preparation Day for Passover which involved a lot of work. A future chapter will provide the extensive proofs that this is the true Sabbath. Jesus and Paul both had a custom of teaching in the synagogues on the Sabbath. I blow the shofar in the morning to announce it and in the evening to close it while avoiding buying, selling, and chores. To remind myself to avoid work and relax, I wear pajamas. Do not fall into the trap of the Pharisees, who added traditions of men that prohibited travel, war, fasting, gleaning grain, and healing on the Sabbath.

The first month of the year begins on the daylight after the first full moon after the spring equinox.

The word “Abib” means fresh, young barley ears, which means the first month of the year begins in the spring. This is critical because the first fruits of barley are waved on the 16th day of the first month. The spring equinox currently falls on March 20th. Because there are an average of 29.5 days per month, there are only 354 days in a lunar year. This means that in some years, the 12th month will end before the equinox, and in those years, there is a 13th month. This occurs an average of 8 out of 19 years.

The feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread is a remembrance of two of the most important events in biblical history: the Exodus from Egypt and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. From the evening of the 14th until the evening of the 21st you shall eat unleavened bread. More specifically, no leaven should be found anywhere in the homes of the people and community. We no longer have priests to kill a Passover lamb, and Jesus was the final Passover lamb to be offered as a sacrifice for sin. That said, it is still possible for us to eat lamb and unleavened bread as a memorial. The Last Supper was on the 13th of the month, and we were instructed to “do this in remembrance of him.”

The text of Leviticus appears to point to the 16th in two different ways. First, it says it is the day after the Sabbath; second, it references the day the sheaf was offered, which we know was the 16th. I added the implied [week] to clarify that the “Sabbath day/period of time” likely refers to six workdays followed by a Sabbath daylight, not a single calendar day, as we discussed earlier. This interpretation is confirmed by Jewish historian Philo of Alexandria, Egypt, who wrote around the time of Jesus.

Since the Passover Atzeret is on the seventh day of Unleavened Bread, we have historical evidence that the Jews interpreted “the morrow after the Sabbath starting the sheaf wave offering” to be after the 21st of the month rather than starting on the 16th, which is what would be implied if “Sabbath” were interpreted as a single day rather than seven days. Next, we have evidence from Biblical history that First Fruits was on the 16th day of the month.

The book of Joshua documents that they ate of the land on First Fruits of Barley, which is the 16th of the month. We can confirm this interpretation with the writings of Josephus. Josephus and Philo aren’t Scripture, but they are valuable second or third witnesses.

We are also told that Jesus was the first fruits of those who slept—that is, the first to rise from the dead. This clearly implies that Jesus rose on the 16th day, which was the 3rd day after he was killed as our Passover lamb on the afternoon of the 14th day of the month.

We know that the seven “Sabbaths” are units of “weeks” because this is also called the “Feast of Weeks.”

On closer study of the Hebrew, the word for “first fruits” has a ‘yod’ suffix, which indicates “beginning of” and implies going to the harvest at the cycle’s end, which is the first fruits of oil. The very next verse lets us know that there are three first fruits celebrations in this period. Combined with the first fruits of barley, there are a total of four first-fruit harvests: barley, wheat, wine, and oil.

As you can see, wheat, wine, and oil are used together throughout the Bible and are associated with the first fruits, which we are to give to the LORD. Each of these first fruits is separated by seven complete sabbaths (weeks), starting after the first week after Unleavened Bread. This gives us the following dates:

That said, depending upon the year, New Oil might be on the 30th day of the 6th month, being the last day of the cycle. Typically, Rosh Hashanah is considered the “head of the year,” which lines up exactly with Exodus 34:22 when it says, “Feast of the harvest at the year’s end.” An alternative interpretation is that first fruits is always offered on the first day of the week; therefore, the first fruits of oil might be the 2nd day of the 7th month.

The narrative of Moses descending Mount Sinai in Exodus 32, during the events surrounding the Golden Calf, offers a scriptural foundation for recognizing a "New Wine Feast" as an appointed time (moed) in the biblical calendar. This feast, declared by Aaron as a legitimate observance "to YHWH," aligns with the principles of harvest dedication and the inauguration of new wine. The Septuagint’s unique phrasing in Moses' identification of the camp’s noise emphasizes the initiatory aspect of wine in the celebration, connecting it to Torah laws on first fruits. Without delving into judgments on the execution, this account establishes the feast as a divinely oriented moed, marking the proper beginning of the vintage season through consecrated offerings and joyful partaking.

As the Israelites awaited Moses' return from Sinai, Aaron responded to their request by creating the Golden Calf and proclaiming a feast. The text presents this as an intentional religious observance dedicated to the God of Israel, framing it as an appointed time for communal celebration. In Exodus 32:5:

The Hebrew word for "feast" here is chag (חַג), often denoting a pilgrimage festival or appointed time (moed) in the Torah’s liturgical calendar (e.g., Leviticus 23). By declaring it "to YHWH," Aaron positions the event as a legitimate moed, akin to the appointed times outlined in Leviticus 23:2: "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD [moedim of YHWH], which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts." The following day involved offerings, eating, drinking, and revelry (Exodus 32:6), elements consistent with biblical harvest feasts where wine plays a central role.

Upon descending the mountain, Moses hears the sounds of the feast and discerns its nature. The Septuagint (LXX) rendering of Exodus 32:18 provides a key insight into the wine-focused inauguration:

The Greek φωνὴν ἐξαρχόντων οἴνου—literally "the sound of those leading off with wine" or "beginning with wine"—highlights the feast’s initiatory character. The verb ἐξαρχόντων (from ἐξάρχω) conveys starting or leading a ritual activity, such as commencing a harvest celebration with the new vintage. This aligns with the feast’s declaration as a moed, where the "beginning with wine" marks the appointed time for accessing and celebrating the fresh produce of the vine.

The Scriptures integrate wine into appointed times through laws ensuring its consecrated use, particularly via first fruits offerings. These establish the proper framework for a feast inaugurating the vintage, as implied in the narrative’s harvest-like elements.

The Golden Calf narrative, with its declared feast "to YHWH" and Moses' recognition of the "beginning with wine," establishes this as a moed tied to the vintage’s commencement. Assuming the observance followed Torah principles—focusing on dedication and joy—the account models a New Wine Feast: an appointed time in which first fruits of wine are offered, followed by communal celebration. This resonates with broader harvest moedim (e.g., Shavuot in Leviticus 23), where wine symbolizes abundance and thanksgiving. Prophetic echoes, like Joel 2:24 ("The floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil"), affirm such a feast as a time of restoration and divine blessing.

In essence, this biblical moed invites recognition of the New Wine Feast as a consecrated appointed time: declare it to YHWH, begin with the first fruits of the vintage, and partake in holy rejoicing, rooted in Scripture’s calendar of sacred observances.

This feast is the least well known by traditional Christian and Jewish teaching, but once you study the scriptures it becomes a secret hidden in plain sight.

When the Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost, they were accused of being drunk on New Wine, which is only available when grapes are freshly harvested at the end of July. Peter’s defense is even more telling because, by law, you could not partake of New Wine until after the First Fruits were offered, and they were offered at the 3rd hour of the day (about 9 AM). We can connect Pentecost to the worship of the Golden Calf by comparing the 3,000 killed with the 3,000 saved. The timeline of Exodus has the Golden Calf incident occur at least 50 days after they arrived at Mount Sinai on the 3rd day of the 3rd month. That would line up perfectly for the 9th day of the 5th month.

Historically, this is a tragic day for the Jews because both the first and second temple were destroyed on the 9th of Av, which we now know to be Pentecost. After I had independently discovered that Jesus was born on the 9th of Av, I learned that Jewish tradition expects the Messiah to be born on this date.

Most Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on the birthday of the pagan sun gods, December 25th. If you wish to celebrate his birthday, then Pentecost is the proper time to do so. We are not to worship the LORD in the same way that the pagans worshiped their gods. This is what happened when Moses came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments and found them having a “feast to the LORD” where they worshiped the LORD via a golden calf.

Clearly, worshiping the LORD on the “sun gods’” birthday is similar to having a feast for the LORD celebrated with a golden calf.

The Feast of Trumpets is often associated with Rosh Hashanah (the head of the year) and the first fruits of new oil. This is the time of year when olives are ripe. Not much is known about how to celebrate this, but from Nehemiah, it appears they gathered and read the Scriptures.

Many people expect the Feast of Trumpets to be the rapture, but on the day of the rapture he comforts those who mourn. Since Nehemiah had to instruct the people not to cry, we should assume that on this day we also should not cry.

Because the Feast of Trumpets always falls on a New Moon (full moon) day, we should also blow the trumpets along with the shouting. This day also serves as a 10-day warning for the Day of Atonement, which is a day of judgment.

The Day of Atonement is considered a day of judgment, and the 10 days leading up to it are traditionally focused on examining our lives and repenting of our sins. When the Day of Atonement arrives, we discover whether the LORD accepted us or not. This is the only feast day on which we are expected to fast from the evening of the 9th day to the evening of the 10th day. It is also a sabbath day of rest where there is no buying or selling. It is on this day that our sins may be forgiven and every seven years we are commanded to forgive all debts to those in the body of Jesus.

Because Jesus is our High Priest and He is not guilty of any sin, this part of the Day of Atonement is no longer necessary. Going forward, Jesus makes atonement for our sins using his own blood.

Jesus is our “scapegoat,” and we put our sins on him, and he takes them away. After we confess our sins, we are commanded to be baptized, and this is a reflection of the instructions given to the priests on the Day of Atonement.

It is on the Day of Atonement in the 49th year of the cycle that we proclaim liberty (freedom from debts) throughout all the land and consecrate the 50th year, the first year of the next jubilee cycle.

It was on the Day of Atonement that Jesus went to Nazareth, opened the scriptures, and read Isaiah 61. He then proclaimed it fulfilled in his hearing.

When Jesus read it, he stopped just before “and the day of vengeance of our God.” That day will be proclaimed on the Day of Atonement in the last year of 70 jubilees.

Notice that the debts are only canceled among those in Israel, and Israel is who we are grafted into as the body of Jesus. The foreigners are those outside the body of Jesus. It is only by the blood of Jesus that we obtain forgiveness of sins and our resulting debt to the LORD. This day is one of the most anticipated days for the LORD’s people.

The next feast is known as the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Nations. It starts on the 15th day of the 7th month. This is a week-long feast during which people dwell in temporary structures (tents) and are expected to allocate a sizable portion of their income to the celebration so that both the rich and the poor can celebrate. Traditionally, people would travel to Jerusalem for this feast, but now we honor it in spirit and truth wherever we find ourselves. Every seventh year the entire book of the law, the first five books of the Bible, is to be read in the hearing of everyone during the Feast of Tabernacles. This reading belongs to the Tabernacles of every seventh year, the year of release.

The feast of tabernacles is not just for the past. The Prophet Hosea declares that the LORD will make us dwell in booths again in the future.

The Atzeret always falls on the 22nd day of the 7th month and is considered the 8th day of Tabernacles which starts on the 15th day. The Atzeret is the last feast day of the Biblical year. The true calendar of the LORD has been hidden in the scriptures and I believe modern Jews have given us a tradition inherited from the Pharisees in which there is no profit.

These teachers who lean heavily on a particular calendar in their teachings conceded right out of the gate that they had no meaningful evidence from the canon.

The very first command or statute given to Moses was:

The first statute mentioned in Deuteronomy 16 is observing the month of Abib, which means we must know when that month begins and ends if we are to walk in it as a sign that the LORD is our God.

So the question one must ask is, what were the statutes of their fathers that they were not to walk in?

The Egyptology of the last century answered it: the ancient Egyptians began their lunar months on the morning the waning crescent first failed to appear — the day of the old moon’s invisibility — as Richard A. Parker established in The Calendars of Ancient Egypt (1950).

Here is what we know. Every ancient culture from Babylon to Egypt to China had a calendar that started the month on the dark or sliver moon. This is a tradition of the entire world! The question is: Did the whole world happen to follow the LORD’s calendar, or were the Jewish people coerced or otherwise corrupted into following the world’s calendar? How could we even determine which is true? Were “some of the statutes” of our fathers, such as their Egyptian calendar months, “okay” and others “not okay”? If so, how could we tell? Right off the bat, the LORD addresses the calendar and gives them an instruction about the start of the year, and it is in this context that they were told not to walk in the statutes of their fathers, which could include the calendar of Egypt.

Anyone who has ever attempted to keep a Full Moon Lunar Sabbath or celebrate Holy Days on dates different from everyone else knows the extreme pressure to conform, even in a “free” society where you are not threatened with violence for observing a different calendar. Now imagine your town was overthrown, half of its population was carried away as slaves, and an entirely new generation or two was born and raised. You would be a minority in a culture that uses a different calendar. You can imagine the pressure to conform, potentially under threat to your life. An entire generation of children would have no memory of prior ways of doing things, just as people have no memory of a gold standard or life before income tax! This is the context of the Jewish people after they returned from exile in Egypt and Babylon. Some people would clearly study history, and prophets from the LORD would speak to them and guide them until about 400 BC. Therefore, at least some of the population could know and follow the true calendar, while the rest would follow the tradition with which they grew up, assuming there was a difference.

Once again, we have the Bible warning us that in the last days, people would return to the LORD’s ways from the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies.” Daniel tells us that among those lies from the spirit of the antichrist are changes to the times and the law.

This is a major red flag that the antichrist seeks to change the LORD’s law, especially the calendar.

Given this reality, we know that everything dealing with the calendar is shrouded in deception and that the majority will be deceived. This means extra diligence must be given to all studies of calendar-related things. The first trap we must be careful to avoid is what I call the “reactionary,” mindless behavior of doing the opposite simply because it is the opposite. Basically, knowing the times are corrupted and changed doesn’t actually tell us what the truth is, only that Satan’s goal is to deceive, coerce, or otherwise hide the truth from as many people as possible and that he will be successful against our fathers. This means that all “tradition” must be rejected as evidence for a calendar. It doesn’t automatically mean all “tradition” is wrong, only that arguments built upon it are potentially building upon the lies we were warned that we would inherit from our fathers. In effect, Scripture tells us that “tradition” carries no useful positive information and, if anything, is more likely to be wrong than correct. Basically, it can be supporting evidence, but not proof in itself of what the calendar is not. We must identify an alternative approach to discovering the truth rather than assuming our fathers properly interpreted and maintained it through thousands of years of exile and dispersion because the Bible explicitly tells us we cannot trust the teachings we inherit.

Before going forward, we must get a clear understanding of the difference between the map and the territory, or actual land. There are an infinite number of maps, but only one territory or physical reality. Proving that a map existed 2,000 years ago does not prove that it was accurate or even that it was in use. We can prove that many different maps existed, and they all disagree with each other. A calendar is a map of time, and the physical reality is the LORD’s appointed times. If you want to test a map, you must go out into the physical world and see if the map accurately directs you to your destination. If you want to test a calendar, you must know with near certainty that a particular point in time was one of the LORD’s appointed times, and you must know this without a direct or indirect circular reference back to an assumed calendar. Just because your map says the treasure is buried under the X doesn’t mean the X is in the right place. Instead, we must first find some treasure, then see which maps have an X in the right place.

The first thing you will discover when searching for the scriptural evidence that the month starts with the dark or sliver moon is that everyone references books outside the canon. The book of Enoch, Jubilees, or Sirach are examples. This opens up a broader debate about whether these books are indeed “flawless Scripture,” merely commentary on Scripture, or even writings of false prophets. However, if they contradict the canonical Scriptures, then they cannot be trusted for doctrine. In other words, these extra-biblical books could be just another source documenting the tradition of men we were warned to avoid. If canonical Scripture didn’t say anything about the moon, then we would have no basis for judging or testing these extra-biblical books to determine whether their additions are consistent with known Scripture. But if the Scriptures do provide even a hint of evidence in a different direction, then we begin to have an argument that these noncanonical books are clearly not Scripture. So while extra-biblical books can provide useful confirmation of concepts proven by canonical Scripture, they cannot be relied upon to introduce new doctrines, such as calendars. It is my contention that the calendar is such a critical key to understanding prophecy, knowing Him, and knowing his laws and statutes that His calendar will be embedded implicitly throughout the canonical text in a way that is hard to corrupt. Consider for a moment: If the Scriptures were too overt in describing the calendar, then the enemy would have a very easy target to corrupt by changing a word or two. But if the Scriptures capture evidence of the calendar indirectly, then it wouldn’t be an obvious target to corrupt. So those advocating the sliver or dark moon who admit right out of the gate that they have little to no canonical evidence have already conceded the point. I am going to present an abundance of verses from the canon that support a full moon. This leaves a high burden for Enoch, Jubilees, and Sirach to overcome if they are to be considered Scripture that doesn’t contradict the canon. All of that said, because dark- and sliver-moon advocates rely on tradition and other works, it might simply be that they haven’t dug deep enough to find the evidence in the canon. This is a wake-up call to stop lazily relying on tradition, start looking for real evidence, and avoid logical fallacies.

Genesis 1:14 tells us that the sun, moon, and stars are the basis of the calendar.

It then goes on to tell us about the two great lights, which have authority or dominion: the sun over the day, and the moon over the night with the stars.

Many translations list the stars as an afterthought, but the Hebrew clearly establishes that the moon rules with the combination of the night and the stars. In other words, the sun has authority to define the day and the moon in combination with the stars has authority at night. This authority is directly related to their purpose for signs, appointed times, days, and years. This already eliminates using the dark moon, the “no moon,” as a sign for when the month starts because it isn’t a light. Furthermore, there can be two or three days when no moon is visible; therefore, by observation alone, it isn’t possible to know which of those days starts the month. Modern Jews keep a calendar that doesn’t even look at the moon and is entirely predetermined based upon the dark conjunction, similar to ancient Egypt’s months. What this tells us is that they are knowingly following a tradition that goes against the Bible and their own prior tradition simply because it is more convenient to keep their more recent tradition. Their own historical records document that they were forced to stop their tradition of looking for the moon and adopt a fixed calendar. But once they regained their freedom, most didn’t go back to the old ways. If we have this proven example of modern Jews knowingly abandoning what they used to believe the Scriptures taught and failing to return once persecution ended, then we have evidence that this kind of behavior could easily have occurred when leaving Egypt and Babylon. In other words, they love the modern tradition of men more than the word of the LORD and more than their ancient tradition. One major clue that they adopted the Babylonian calendar is that they adopted the Babylonian names for the months. If they borrowed names that include references to foreign gods, such as Tammuz, then what other aspects of the Babylonian calendar did they adopt?

The sliver moon does not rule the night with the stars because the sliver sets during sunset, long before the constellation that the moon is present in becomes visible. The sunset in which the sliver moon is visible washes out all stars. After all, the sliver moon is located next to the sun while the light of the sun is still washing out the western sky. The only “stars” visible at sunset are usually Mercury and Venus and only occasionally are they visible with the moon. The 12 main constellations are often referred to as 12 gates that divide the sky. This is known as the Hebrew Mazzaroth.

According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, the Hebrew term “Mazzaroth” is a plural form for constellations, which in Greek are called the zodiac. Taken together, we can reasonably assume that the moon only has authority when ruling all night with the Mazzaroth. This fits a full moon perspective because on the full moon it rises in the east at the same time the sun sets in the west and is then out all night. Furthermore, Genesis 1:16 says, “And God made two great (big) lights.” The full moon and the sun have the same great size in the night sky and are indeed great lights; however, the first visible crescent is so hard to spot that tradition required two witnesses to verify. This is hardly a “great light” to serve as a sign to start a month. On the other hand, the full moon is observed by having the sun set at the same time the moon rises. This produces two infallible witnesses in the sky.

One problem with the sliver moon is that there are often more than 24 hours between when the first visible sliver can be seen in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. This becomes obvious at the extremes of the North and South Poles, where 24 hours of darkness during part of the year means the sliver isn’t visible because the sliver is only visible when the moon is near the sun. Meanwhile, other phases of the moon can be visible in broad daylight. At more moderate latitudes, this difference in visibility between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres can cause two people at the same longitude to be on different calendar days. Because the sliver is visible for such a short period during a given night, it could easily be below the horizon or too close to the sun. In contrast, on a full-moon calendar, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are synchronized by longitude in all regions that have at least some short period of darkness every night, which includes the majority of habitable land.

Some will claim that the full moon is a sign that marks the feast days; however, that would apply to only two days out of the year and ignores the fact that feast days are defined by counting from the start of the month, not by looking at the moon. If you have to wait until halfway through the month to know whether you are on the right day, then you have a major problem. An even bigger problem is that there is no objective definition of what is technically visible. This means that every town could come to a different consensus, or two witnesses could collude and lie. Before speed-of-light communication, it would be impossible to coordinate with a central authority. The very idea of a central global authority runs in the same kind of rebellion as the Tower of Babel because it would be a small group of men in authority telling all mankind the LORD’s appointed times.

So here we have the sun starting its race in the east at sunrise. Where it rises is compared to the door or gate of a chamber from which it runs its cycle from beginning to end. This could also be interpreted as evidence for the day starting at sunrise.

The sky has already been compared to a Tabernacle in Psalm 19, and Ezekiel tells us the gate of the tabernacle facing east shall be opened in the day of the New Month. It is only opened if something is supposed to come through it! This verse could easily imply that we must look to the east for the sign of the new month. The sliver moon rises in the east just before the sun on the day before the dark conjunction, like the Egyptian calendar, but once again it is so close to the stars that it lacks authority. The full moon rises in the east at the start of the night and reigns all night, having full authority.

Given that there are 12 gates and 12 constellations, and that constellations are compared to gates or divisions of the sky, it is not unreasonable to make a connection between a full moon and a pearl. The sun rises in the east, beginning the daylight. The gate looking east is to be opened on the start of the new month. And the word “east” also means to begin or go in front of. This would suggest that we should be looking to the east for signs in the sun, moon, and stars of when things begin. But Pharisee tradition has everyone looking to the west for when things begin. In order to see the first sliver, you must look west at sunset. In order to see the “start” of the Pharisee day, you must look west for sunset. Yet another bit of evidence for the day beginning at sunrise.

The Morning Star, Venus, is seen in the east at sunrise.

He is our Prince, and he comes through the East Gate. From this perspective, anyone looking to enter (or start) by another gate—say, the West Gate of sunset and the sliver moon—could be compared to a thief.

The text pretty clearly implies that the new moon is the full moon, but this is so incongruent with the traditions of men that they torture the text, add words, reorder words, and redefine words to make it mean something—anything—that allows them to rationalize their tradition. Some people will claim “full moon” means “covered moon,” as in covered in darkness instead of covered in light. By that theory, the sliver moon is ruled out because it is neither covered in darkness nor light. Others introduce the word “and,” which isn’t found in the text, to imply that trumpets should be blown on both the new moon and the full moon, and then assume the feast day is on the full moon in the middle of the month; however, the word for “feast day” applies equally to the New Month celebrations and to Passover or other celebrations, so it cannot disambiguate by ruling out the New Month feast. Others will attempt to link this verse to the context of many later verses that refer to Egypt, but then forget that the first ordinance given upon coming out of Egypt was the start of the New Month at the start of the year. For all this effort to manipulate the English translation to fit the dark or sliver moon, a closer look at the Hebrew clearly shows that even the traditional English translations that already imply the full moon have failed to render it as strongly as the Hebrew declares when translated literally, in order, and with all prefix and suffix characters accounted for and no words added.

You shall blow with the New Moon Shofar in the full moon for the day of our festival sacrifice.

Some people have presented the case that surely Moses wouldn’t lead everyone out of Egypt at night without a full moon to travel by! They then imply that this is evidence that Passover occurs on the full moon.

This verse can be interpreted as having them travel on the 3rd day of the month. By the logic above, this would imply that the start of the month was the full moon. There are some who maintain that “same day” means the 15th, but that is debunked by other Scriptures that document the timing of Shavuot as counted with seven complete Sabbaths from First Fruits.

Even though Jasher isn’t canon, it provides a witness that “same day” likely means the 3rd day, something that is also established in the canon by less direct means. Furthermore, we know that Ezra traveled at the start of the month and arrived at the start of the month, and he didn’t have the benefit of a pillar of fire to light the way.

So if we assume travel by full-moon light, then we have several verses that clearly place traveling at the start of the month. Consider also that many people had to travel several days to arrive at Passover and Unleavened Bread. Holding a feast day, when no travel is required, on the dark moon reserves the quarter- to full-moon light for the journey home.

The three hours of darkness seen around the world at the time of the cross are clearly an appointed time. What is strangely absent from all reports on this darkness is any reference to it occurring on a full moon, a time when eclipses of the sun were known to be impossible. It would be very noteworthy to those whose government job is to make notes on celestial events if the sun was darkened anywhere near a full moon. This reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes story in which he deduced a criminal’s identity because a guard dog failed to bark at the time of the crime, implying that the criminal and the dog’s master were one and the same. Astronomers failed to bark about the darkness that people claim occurred around the time of a full moon. It looks like the dog’s silence may have given away those trying to frame the full moon as the day of the cross. That said, it may have been noted by someone, and we just haven’t found it, so absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Most people will claim that at the time of Jesus, the Jews kept the sliver moon, and this is based upon historical records documenting the sliver moon from Josephus to Philo to the Talmud and noncanonical works of Enoch, Jubilees, and Jasher. They also claim the Sabbath was Saturday at this time. This evidence, combined with limited records documenting the keeping of the full moon at the time, is used to imply that Jesus must have been killed on a Passover set by a sliver moon. The first logical fallacy in this argument is the assumption that absence of evidence is evidence of absence. I have just presented a ton of biblical and astronomical evidence to support a full moon, but historical evidence is sparse. Anyone who has been around archaeology knows that secular scholars like to claim the Bible is inaccurate or mistaken, or that it even invented people such as King David, because they could find no historical evidence. Then, time after time, they eventually find tangible evidence that the Bible was true. Traditional biblical scholars can make the same mistakes because they are essentially making the exact same argument when they say, “They couldn’t possibly have kept a full-moon-based Passover in 32 AD because we don’t have any written evidence.” The second fallacy is an assumption that everyone agreed on a single calendar at that time. This is easily debunked by the evidence of the Essene calendar found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. At least one sect of Jews kept a different calendar. Throw in variations on the Enoch calendar, and we have three or four different documented calendars. There is also evidence of a Lunar Sabbath calendar starting at a sliver moon from that time and earlier, in addition to the Roman calendars. Clearly, there was no universal agreement on a single calendar. You can view this type of argument as similar to the claims that “all the experts agree” or that no opposition exists. A related fallacy known as the “appeal to a common belief” says that most Jews generally accept Saturday as the Sabbath and the dark or sliver moon as true; therefore, it is probably true. The phrase “New Moon” could be best interpreted as “the phase of the moon that starts the month”; however, because almost everyone around the world has the tradition of starting the month around the dark moon, even science has adopted the term “New Moon” to mean “dark moon.” If, by tradition, the full moon were widely adopted as the start of the month, do you really think we would still call the dark phase of the moon the New Moon? It is impossible to separate this tradition from how the phrase “New Moon” got its meaning. Consider that New Moon has at least two meanings, referring to either the sliver or the dark conjunction. If it can have two meanings, then why not more?

My theory, for which I have no direct evidence beyond what is implied by Scripture and the stars, is that the Jews in charge of the Temple, those who derived their authority by virtue of being Levites, followed the true calendar of the LORD until sometime after 32 AD. Meanwhile, the Pharisees attempted to usurp the divine right of Levitical priests by claiming authority derived from their status as “experts” at “teaching the law” and through other political processes, and adopted the Babylonian sliver-moon calendar. When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, all records of the Levitical priests were burned, and their authority over the temple was shattered along with any remaining power over the calendar schedule for feast days. This created a power vacuum into which the Pharisees assumed power over teaching and tradition. They naturally destroy or simply fail to preserve any evidence that is contrary to their position or supports the authority of the Levites. On top of all this, the Spirit of Antichrist was alive and well, seeking to change the times and seasons, and destroying or persecuting those who followed the true calendar.

While some people take this out of context to justify disregard for His calendar, I believe it is better understood as highlighting a division among Jews as to what calendar to follow. The Pharisees could have persecuted or judged those who kept the full moon calendar (or any calendar different from what we have inherited from the Pharisees).

Clearly, Isaiah is implying that the start of the month was corrupted or prophesying that it will be corrupted, and that the people were keeping different feasts and Sabbaths rather than the LORD’s New Moons. The Epistle of Barnabas, while not scripture, offers one ancient interpretation of Isaiah:

Finally, he says to them: “I cannot bear your new moons and sabbaths.” You see what he means: it is not the present sabbaths that are acceptable to me.

Granted, he had a broader take that the true Sabbath is the 1,000-year Sabbath. Nevertheless, it is easy to interpret Isaiah to say that they changed the Sabbath day. Taken as a whole, this means that evidence of the Pharisees’ tradition is more likely to indicate (but not prove) which calendar is wrong. And by process of elimination, we are left with the full-moon start of the month as the most likely true calendar, which also happens to be the most strongly supported by canonical Scripture and the stars by a wide margin.

We know from the Gospels that at the time of Jesus, people appeared to take keeping the Sabbath very seriously. But imagine that sometime after the cross, political pressure from the Romans, the Pharisees, or both to conform with other calendars caused the Levites to change their official calendar. People would be keeping a false Sabbath just as religiously but would end up doing work on the true Sabbath, leading to the destruction of the temple.

Since the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed, we can conclude that the Jews did not heed the LORD and lost track of the Sabbath. Following the Pharisee tradition risks survivorship bias because the antichrist spirit didn’t shoot it down. The Jews may have systematically moved to a false Sabbath and forgotten the true Sabbath, meaning there would be little trace of the true Sabbath left by the time the temple was destroyed.