The Ultimate Guide to the Prophetic Calendar and The Rapture
If you are studying scripture and prophecy to prepare for Judgment day then you need an accurate map or you are bound to get lost. In my experience, most people don’t even know which way is up when it comes understanding God’s map of time.
I seek to discover the truth above all and that means that anything other people say, especially tradition, must be validated by as objective means as possible. There are many claims about the start of the month from being the dark conjunction, to being the first visible sliver, to being the full moon. Some people even suggest the moon shouldn’t be used at all! I want to devise a way of testing them all in order to discover the truth.
To that end, this guide comes with a up to $1000 tip bounty for those who provide new useful, unique, and reasonable arguments in my judgment. So be sure to watch it all and be ready to provide your well argued evidence that I don’t already address.
This guide will take you through a mountain of evidence from the Biblical cannon, the stars, and well documented historical events that will help prove the Prophetic Calendar our Creator’s appointed times follow.
Why Does it Matter?
This question is more than mere “biblical trivia” because its answer impacts when the appointed times where YHUH meets with man occur and it impacts the Sabbath day, the keeping of which is one of the Top 5 commands. These appointed times are a sign between YHUH and his people, that we may know that YHUH is our God.
“But I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols. I am the Lord your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them; hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am YHUH your God.” — Ezekiel 20
So straight from scripture we know that walking in his statues is a sign between YHUH and us that identifies who our true God is. It is also a strong indication that this would be an area where we could expect a lot of deception so we must approach this very carefully.
He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. — Proverbs 28:9
This Proverb, being true by definition, is simply pointing out that if you won’t even hear nor seek to understand his law which includes his calendar, then why should He hear and seek to understand your prayers?
If we ask, seek, and knock we will find the good gifts He has for us.
We are not saved by our works, but only by his grace. Even if we perfectly kept all of his commands from birth to death, we are still condemned by Adam’s sin through our flesh. All have sinned and fall short; therefore, our salvation is a free gift that we could never earn.
Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” — Luke 17:9
So even if we do all He commands, we are still unworthy. But if we do love him we will attempt to do all he commands.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” — John 14:15
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 1 John 2:4
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:23
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. — Matthew 22:27
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3
So the greatest command is to love him and that means seeking to follow even the smallest command, just like we seek to do even the smallest of things that please our spouse.
Time to Repent from Ignorance
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men every where to repent:
Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. — Acts 17:31
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Hosea 4:6
Do not let your pride in your current understanding hinder you from hearing me out. If your current understanding is truly correct, then you may have the keys that will help rescue me from ignorance and earn you some cash!
Bounty for Evidence
I produce these videos in a large part because I want others to challenge my understanding and test it and hopefully correct me if I have missed something. When two honest brothers disagree at least one of them is in error and both benefit by working together to uncover the truth. So even if you disagree with my conclusions, you can benefit by understanding how I arrived at them and then helping me understand logical and factual errors. Keep in mind that the process of seeking the truth is more important than any current conclusion and I believe my process is a useful tool for all areas of biblical study. I am so serious in seeking the truth that I even try to financially incentivize people to discover and produce new evidence contrary to my understanding.
To that end, I will offer up to a $1000 tip to anyone who can produce a canonical scripture and interpretation that gives contradictory evidence to my conclusions and that I haven’t already addressed in this ultimate guide nor paid already nor already received from someone else. I will be the judge, so you will have to trust my integrity and desire for truth and obedience to YHUH above winning or saving money. For legal disclaimer reasons I must state that this offer is not intended to be a binding contract but an open bounty that I can amend or cancel at any time or opt not to pay for any reason. If I find your scripture unique and your argument even remotely rational or plausible, then I will be grateful for the information and gladly tip in a non-binding way. I will even consider tipping those who provide supportive evidence of my conclusions, but because I expect scripture to be consistent and non-contradictory, I expect there may be many other confirming witnesses, therefore will tip less accordingly. If there are any other laws that prevent payment then, I will abide by those laws.
Flat Earth Arguments
Don’t bother with any evidence claimed to support a flat-earth model. Someone famous once told me, “If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry.” and it became a viral meme with t-shirts and everything. I think is appropriate to use that meme in this instance.
For the record, 14 years later we were both right. My initial concern regarding Bitcoin scalability and use with micropayments and Satoshi, the Anonymous creator of Bitcion, who claimed that everything would centralize into large data centers, the opposite of the goal of monetary decentralization. But enough about that, back to the prophetic calendar.
As far as I can tell there are no commands regarding the shape we believe the earth to be and there are multiple legitimate ways of interpreting the ambiguous scriptures used to argue flat earth.
Topics I will cover include:
- What moon starts the month?
- What moon starts the year?
- When does the Day Begin?
- When is the Sabbath?
- When was the Jordan Crossing?
- When was the Cross?
- The Sign of Jonah
- How does a Lunar Sabbath Work?
Does the Bible Prove the Sliver or Dark Moon Starts the Month?
If you know Betteridge’s law of headlines, then you know that “Any headline that ends in a question mark is likely answered with ‘no’”. This is because the author lacks the evidence to make a definitive claim that they can support with facts. Likewise, I have looked long and hard for evidence of the dark or sliver moon starting the month in the Bible and haven’t found much.
I’m friends with several prominent YouTuber teachers from well known ministries who hold to traditional Pharisee calendars and I challenged them with serious money on the line to prove their calendar using only Stellarium and the Cannon. Both of them told me I was rigging the challenge by not allowing them to introduce evidence of tradition and non-canonical texts. We never implemented the challenge because of logistics in judging, but never the less 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 cannon and yet not even money could motivate them to address this fundamental issue at the heart of their desire to keep the true Sabbath and feast days.
This post will review everything I could find and the most scientific process I could devise for determining the most likely truth.
The First Statute given Moses
The very first command or statute given to Moses was:
And YHUH spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you… Exodus 12
Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto YHUH thy God…And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks… and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. — Deut 16
The first statute mentioned in Deut 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 YHUH is our God.
“But I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers’. — Exekiel 20
So the question one must ask is what were the statutes of their fathers that they are not to walk in?
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 YHUH’s calendar, or did the Jewish people get coerced or otherwise corrupted to follow 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 “Ok” and others “not ok”? If so how could we tell?
Right off the bat, YHUH addresses the calendar and gives them an instruction about the start of the year and it is in this context they were told not to walk in the statues of their fathers, which could include the calendar, of Egypt.
Pressure to Conform to Pagan Calendar Systems
Anyone who has ever attempted to keep a 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 and half of its population was carried away as slaves and an entire new generation or two was born and raised. You are 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 like 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 YHUH would speak to them and guide them until about 400 years BC, so at least some of the population could know and follow the true calendar and the rest would follow the tradition they grew up with, assuming there was a difference.
O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. — Jeremiah 16:19
Once again we have the Bible warning us that in the last days people would return to YHUH’s ways from the ends of the earth and shall say “surely our fathers have inherited lies”.
Daniel tells us that among those lies from the spirit of antichrist are changing the times and the law.
He shall speak words against the Most High,
and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,
and shall think to change the times and the law — Daniel 12:25
This is a major Red flag that the anti-christ seeks to change YHUH’s law, especially the calendar.
This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time. — 1 John 4:3
Given this reality, we know that everything having to deal with the calendar is shrouded with 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 “reactionary” mindless behavior of doing the opposite just 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, it 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.
Map vs Territory
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 a map existed 2000 years ago does not prove that it was accurate or even that it was in use. We can prove many different maps existed and they all disagree with each other.
A calendar is a map of time and the physical reality is YHUH’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, we must know with near certainty that a particular point in time was one of Yah’s appointed times and we must know this without a director 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 what maps have an X in the right place.
Signs as Treasure in the Stars
If we assume from scripture that the sun, moon, and stars were created for signs and to mark appointed times, days, and years then it is reasonable to expect that wondrous signs in the stars would occur in alignment with the true calendar.
I am going to assume that programs such as Stellarium accurately report the position of the Sun, Moon, and Stars going back at least until Joshua’s long day. Based upon this, we have a number of potential signs in the sun, moon, and stars that are described by scripture. I say potential signs because interpreting the stars can be a tad subjective. Never the less, a potential sign is vastly better evidence than no sign at all.
The years and associated feast days of each of these signs can be proven independently from the sign itself, which gives credibility to the legitimacy of the sign. The sign only serves to anchor the true calendar.
My key assumption is that all signs in the stars described by scripture would occur on appointed times because they mark events that occur on appointed times. These signs are treasures in “reality” that we can compare against the various maps of time to see what maps indicate an appointed time on the date of the sign.
We already have a massive signal in favor of the full moon because only one of the 7 identified signs occur on an appointed time on the other calendars, and even then it occurred on the wrong feast day for what it was signaling. But there is more if you consider the incredible Aleph / Tav eclipse pattern over the USA in the past 7 years.
These eclipses form a very rare pattern at an auspicious time in history and the following table shows where they fall on the various calendars.
In this table I use green to represent appointed times that are unique, and orange represents appointed times that always line up with blood moons or solar eclipses by definition because blood moons always occur on the full moon and solar eclipses always occur on the dark conjunction. By always occurring on those dates their value as a sign is reduced. Purim is a special case because it is a feast day created by the Jews and not via an explicit “thus saith command from YHUH”. Therefore, I consider it a second-class feast because there are no prescribed sacrifices nor commands. In other words, it is a tradition of men.
I included the Start of Year as an appointed time because it was the first statute given upon leaving Egypt and so a Blood Moon at the begging of the months is more significant than a Blood moon on a random month.
As you can see there are an abundance of signs on the Full Moon calendar that starts the year on the first Full Moon after the equinox, but only one distinct sign for sliver moon.
You could argue that none of these “signs” are true signs or that “signs” need not occur on an appointed time and therefore dismiss this entire class of evidence, but doing so denies the existence of signs the Bible tells us have occurred (Star at Birth) and signs that will occur warning of the last days.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; — Acts 2:19
So at the very least there should be other signs of similar quality that align with scripture and occur on appointed times. I have yet to see them, but if an alternative calendar is true then it should be a simple matter to study the sky on its appointed times and see if anything remotely resembling the quality of the signs associated with the Full moon calendar can be found.
Eclipse at the Cross & The Dog that didn’t Bark
The 3 hours of darkness seen around the world at the time of the cross is 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 it is to make notes on celestial events if the sun was darkened anywhere near a full moon.
This reminds me of the story from Sherlock Holmes who 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 a darkness people claim occurred around the time of a full moon, but did record an unusually long and dark solar eclipse. 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.
Chinese Records of Cross Eclipse
The Chinese kept detailed and highly accurate records of astrological events. The following quotes were taken from these records which document some very relevant information that aligns perfectly with Passover week in 31 AD and the Full Moon calendar.
“Yin and Yang have mistakenly switched, and the sun and moon were eclipsed. The sins of all the people are now on one man. Pardon is proclaimed to all under heaven.” History of Latter Han Dynasty, Volume 1, Chronicles of Emperor Guang Wu, 7th year.
“In the day of Gui Hai, the last day of the (3rd) month, there was a solar eclipse. [The emperor] avoided the Throne Room, suspended all military activities and did not handle official business for five days.” History of Latter Han Dynasty, Vol. 1, Chronicles of Emperor Guang Wu, 7th year.
“Eclipse on the day of Gui Hai, Man from Heaven died”. History of Latter Han, Annals, №18, Gui Hai.
“During the reign of Emperor Guang Wu, on the day of Bing Yin of the fourth month of Jian Wu, a halo–a rainbow–encircled the sun.” History of Latter Han, Annals №18, Gui Hai.
A Google search for “Reign of Emperor Guang Wu” will provide a helpful answer:
Guangwudi (born c. 6 bc, Nanyang [now in Hubei province], China — died ad 57, Luoyang) was the Chinese emperor (reigned ad 25–57) who restored the Han dynasty after the usurpation of Wang Mang, a former Han minister who established the Xin dynasty (ad 9–25)
From the earliest records, the beginning of the year occurred at a New Moon near the winter solstice. The first new moon after the winter Solstice in 30 AD was Jan 11th, and the last day of the 3rd month would have been around April 10th. Here is the list of all eclipses calculated by NASA.
As you can see, the May 10th, 31 AD eclipse is the only eclipse visible in China to occur in the fourth month. There are no eclipses recorded by NASA in the third month of any year during the reign of Emperor Guang Wu. This means the darkness recorded by this record was likely the supernatural eclipse at the cross regardless of any claims of mistranslation of “The sins of all the people are now on one man”. Furthermore, it is impossible to have two solar eclipses that are just 1 month apart.
Since we know that the Chinese start their months around the dark phase of the moon and we know they reported the supernatural darkness occurring on the last day of the month, we can conclude that this evidence suggests Passover must have been on the dark phase of the moon and therefore the month must have started on a full moon.
This is an example of using evidence from history without relying upon an argument from tradition. We know the Chinese months in their celestial records started on the dark moon because the same records record the sun, moon, and stars. The records are internally consistent and don’t have to make reference to outside traditions.
Scripture & The Calendar
The first thing you will discover when searching for the scriptural evidence that the month starts with with the dark or sliver moon is that everyone references books outside the cannon. The book of Enoch, Jubilees, or Sirach are examples. This opens up a broader debate about whether these books are indeed “flawless scripture” or 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 scriptures didn’t say anything about the moon, then we have no basis to judge or test these extra-biblical books to know whether what they are adding is consistent with known scripture. But if the scriptures do provide even a hint of evidence in a different direction, then we start to have an argument that these non-canonical books are clearly not scripture. So while extra-biblical books can be useful confirmation of concepts proven by canonical scriptures, 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 and knowing Him and his laws and statutes that His calendar will be imbedded 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 with the change of 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 conical evidence for a sliver or dark moon have already conceded the point. I am going to present an abundance of verses from the cannon that support a full moon. This leaves a high burden for Enoch, Jubilees, and Sirach to overcome to be considered scripture that doesn’t contradict the cannon.
All of that said, because dark and sliver mooners rely on tradition and other works, it might be a case that they just haven’t dug deep enough to find the evidence in the cannon. This is a wake up call to stop being lazy regarding relying on tradition and start looking for real evidence and avoiding logical fallacies.
Evidence for Full Moon
Genesis 1:14 tells us that the sun, moon, and stars are the basis of the calendar.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons (moed), and for days, and years. — Gen 1:14
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.
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 and appointed times and 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 up to 2 or 3 days where 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 pre-determined based upon the dark conjunction similar to ancient Egypt’s months.
What this tells us 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 YHUH 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 reference to foreign gods like Tammuz then what other aspects of the Babylonian calendar did they adopt?
Authority with the Stars
The sliver moon does not rule the night because it sets at evening long before the constellation that the moon is present in becomes visible. After all, the sliver moon is located next to the sun and 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 Mazzorath
The 12 main constellations are often referred to as 12 gates that divide the sky. This is known as the Hebrew Mazzaroth.
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven (night sky, abode of stars)? canst thou set the dominion (rule) thereof in the earth?” (Job 38:31–33))
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 is out all night. Furthermore, Genesis 1:16 says “And God made two great 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 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.
Synchronizing The Hemispheres
One problem with the sliver moon is that there are often over 24 hours difference between when the first visible sliver can be seen in the Northern and Southern hemisphere. This becomes obvious at the extreme of the North and South poles where the 24 hour 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 of time in a given night that it could easily be below the horizon or too close to the sun, but on a full moon calendar northern and southern hemispheres are synchronized by longitude in all regions that have at least some short period of darkness every night which is the majority of habitable earth.
Marking the Feast Days
Some will claim that the full moon is a sign that marks the Feast days; however, that would only apply to 2 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 half way through the month to know if 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 of mankind YHUH’s appointed times.
Location of the Sign
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it. — Psalms 19
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 be interpreted as evidence for the day starting at sunrise, but more on that later.
Gate for the Moon
Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon (month) it shall be opened. — Ezekiel 46:1
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.
The Pearly Gates
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl
Given there are 12 gates and 12 constellations, and 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.
Hebrew word for East also means Beginning or to go Before
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.
“Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the [east/front] gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. But the one who enters by the [east/front] gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper (watchmen) opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen for his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not recognize his voice.”” — John 10:1
I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star. — Revelation 22:16
The Morning Star, Venus, is seen in the East at sunrise.
Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate. — Ezek 46:12
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.
Psalm 81:3 Translation
I saved this verse toward the end because it is one of the most scrutinized by people looking to defend tradition against a scripture that appears to strongly contradict them. By having a strong case for the full moon already established, the Hebrew is easier to accept at face value.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day. — ESV
Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, At the full moon, on our solemn feast day. — New King James Verson
Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and at the full moon on the day of our Feast. — Berean Standard Bible
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, At the full moon, on our feast day. — NASB
The text is pretty clear in implying the new moon is the full moon, but this is so incongruent with people following tradition of men that they torture the text, add words, re-order 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 the new moon and the full moon and 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 as it does to Passover or other celebrations so it is unable to disambiguate by ruling out the New Month feast.
Others will attempt to link the context of many verses later that refers to Egypt, but then forget that the first ordnance given coming out of Egypt was the start of the New Month at the start of the year.
For all of this effort at manipulating 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 and in order without adding words.
Traveling by Full Moon
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.
In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same (3rd) day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. — Exodus 19
This verse can be interpreted as having them travel on the 3rd day of the month. Which, by the logic above, 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 7 complete Sabbaths from First Fruits.
Jasher 82:6 And in the third month from the children of Israel’s departure from Egypt, on the sixth day thereof, the Lord gave to Israel the ten commandments on Mount Sinai.
Even though Jasher isn’t cannon, it provides a witness that “same day” likely means 3rd day, something that is also established in the cannon 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.
For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. — Ezra 7:9
So if we assume travel by the 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, where no travel is required, on the dark moon reserves the quarter to full moon light to travel home.
Why Didn’t Yashua correct the Calendar?
Most people will claim that at the time of Yashua 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 non-canonical works of Enoch, Jubilees, and Jasher. This combined with a limited records documenting the keeping of the Full moon at the time is used to imply that Yashua 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 archeology knows that secular scholars like to claim the Bible is inaccurate or mistaken or that it even made up people like 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 31 AD because we don’t have any written evidence.”
Survivorship Bias
The second fallacy is an assumption that everyone agreed on a single calendar at that time. This is easily debunked by the evidence of 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 3 or 4 different documented calendars. There is also evidence of a Lunar Sabbath calendar starting at a sliver moon from that time and earlier. All of that on top of the Roman calendars. Clearly, there was not universal agreement on a single calendar.
You can view this type of argument like those who claim “All the experts agree” or those who deny the existence of opposition.
Appeal to a Common Belief
A related form of the argument says that most Jews generally accept Saturday as Sabbath and dark or sliver moon as true; therefore it is probably true.
Appeal to Tradition & Meaning of New Moon
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 was 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 as referring to either the sliver or the dark conjunction. If it can have two meanings, then why not more?
Theory on the Absence of Evidence
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 YHUH until some time after 31 AD. Meanwhile the Pharisees attempted to usurp the divine right of Levite Priests by claiming the authority derived from their status as “experts” at “teaching the law” and other political processes, adopted the Babylonian sliver moon calendar.
When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD all records of the Levite 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 of this the Spirit of Antichrist was alive and well seeking to change the time and seasons and destroying or persecuting those who followed the true calendar.
Calendar Dispute with Yashua’s Followers
Consider the following “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” — Colossians 2
While some people take this out of context to justify disregard for His calendar, I believe it is better understood to highlight 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 than what we have inherited from the Pharisees).
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies —
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing them. — Isaiah 1:13–14
Clearly Isaiah is implying that the start of the month was corrupted or prophesying that it will be corrupted and the people were keeping different feasts and sabbaths and not YHUH’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 1000 year Sabbath. Never the less, it is easy to interpret Isaiah to say that they changed the Sabbath day.
Taken as a whole, this means all evidence of tradition of Pharisees is more likely evidence (not proof) of what the wrong calendar is. And by process of elimination we are left with the Full Moon start of month being the most likely true calendar which just happens to also be the most strongly supported by canonical scripture and the stars by a wide margin.
Sabbath Changes and Destruction of Temple in 70 AD
Thus says YHUH: “Take heed to yourselves, … hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.
“And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully,” says YHUH, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.
“But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, …, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” — Jeremiah 17:27
We know at the time of Yashua via the gospels that the people took keeping the Sabbath very seriously, but imagine that sometime after the cross political pressure to conform with Roman calendars from either or both Romans and the Pharisees caused the Levites to change their official calendar? People would be keeping a false Sabbath just as religiously but end up doing work on the true Sabbath leading to the destruction of the temple.
Following the Pharisee Tradition risks Survivorship Bias because the anti-christ spirit didn’t shoot it down. The Jews may have systematically moved to a false Sabbath and forgot the true Sabbath meaning there would be little trace of the true Sabbath left by the time the temple was destroyed.
Start of the Year
When it comes to identifying the start of the year there is only one approach that is consistent with keeping Passover in the spring over a span of 6000 years and that is to use the first New Moonth (aka Full Moon) after the spring Equinox.
If you connect the start of the year to the position of the fixed stars relative to the sun or moon then the procession of the equinox will slowly push Passover into the middle of summer and on a long enough timeline Passover would be in October or December!
Others have suggested the equalux (or equal light), but this would change depending upon your latitude. Any change from the first full moon after the equinox would also invalidate many of the signs in the sun, moon, and stars that confirm the calendar leaving us with no candidate calendars.
Start of the Day
The Pharisee teach that the day begins at Sunset. Yeshua warned us to beware the levin (doctrine) of the Pharisees.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light. — Isaiah 5:20
If the tradition has swapped the dark moon for the full moon to start the month, and they start they year in the fall instead of the spring, perhaps they also start the day at night instead of morning.
Consider the following:
Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. — 2 Peter 3:8
Now consider the following chart, adapted from september2021.com that teaches the “Hebrew day starting at night” while showing that Yeshua rose “in the morning” that happened to be the start of the 5th day of creation.
If Yashua rose at sunrise on the 3rd day, and we, by analogy will rise at the start of the 3rd 1000 year day, then a consistent parallel interpretation would assume the day should begin at sunrise. This aligns with prior points regarding the sun starting it circuit in the east and then ending back where it started. The Hebrew word for East also means beginning.
While not scripture, I think it is fascinating that “everyone agrees” that 500 AD to 1000 AD is called the “dark ages”. This is not direct Evidence, but I find nothing happens by “chance” with YHUH.
What other evidence from “scripture” do we have for sunrise start of day?
Passover Instructions
YHVH said to Moses… “Take care of the lambs until the fourteenth day of the same month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them between noon and sunset… that same night they are to eat the meat… do not leave any of it until morning. … on that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn”. — Exodus 12
Day of Atonement
YHVH said to Moses, “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to YHVH… It is a day of sabbath rest for you, and you must deny yourselves from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath” — Leviticus 23:26–32
If a day was defined as evening to evening, then all YHUH would have to say through Moses is you shall observe your Sabbath on the 10th day, just like they say you should observe your Sabbath on the 7th day. The very fact that Evening on the 9th day is mentioned tells you that the fasting spans two calendar days and that the day must start with sunrise.
Some try to expand this to suggest that “Evening” starts during the “pre-evening daylight” at the end of the 9th day. I believe this is an attempt to read tradition into the text rather than interpret the text for what it says on face value. After all, it requires two different definitions of evening to be used in the same sentence.
- Evening is associated with the end of daylight and is part of the same calendar day as the daylight (9th day).
- Evening is associated with the beginning of night and is part of the same calendar day as the night (10th day).
This same verse gives some evidence that could suggest the weekly Sabbath to be aligned only with Daylight Hours of the Temple because otherwise there would be no need to provide additional instruction.
Order of Words Day and Night
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold (frost /morning) and heat (afternoon), summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. — Genesis 8:22
There is a parallel verse in Jubilees, which is not scripture and cannot define doctrine, but does support what the cannon already established by listing 4 things that have a definite order. The word “frost” comes from a translation of Aramaic Peshitta Holy Bible translated to English. Since summer and winter are also listed, we can assume cold does not mean winter and therefore frost is likely referring to morning.
All the days of the earth, seed-time and harvest shall never cease, cold and heat (afternoon), summer and winter, and DAY and NIGHT shall not change their order nor cease forever. Jubilees 6:4–5
In this instance I am using Jubilees as evidence that at least one ancient commentator on scripture agrees with my interpretation of Genesis 8:22 that this verse is demonstrating order by example. I consider this use of non-biblical text ok. If this were not a parallel to Cannon of Genesis 8:22 then I would reject it as introducing new doctrine.
If you search the bible for the phrases “Day and Night” and “Night and Day” you will find :
It is fascinating that 31 and 13 are reversed just like day and night are reversed. “Day and Night” is used over twice as often as “Night and Day”, so from a purely democratic perspective, it gets 2/3 of the vote.
In our modern culture 13 is considered evil and “unlucky”, but what meaning is associated with these numbers in the bible?
Meaning of 31:
Part of the meaning of the number 31 in the Bible comes from one of the Hebrew names for God. Gematria is a way of interpreting Scripture by substituting the letters of a Hebrew (or Greek) word by their equivalent numeric values and arriving at a total. One reference to God is El (see Deuteronomy 32:15, 17, Job 3:4, etc. in Hebrew), which is composed of the Hebrew letters Lamed and Aleph. Their numeric values are 30 and 1, respectively, for 31 total.
One of the most commonly occurring names in God’s word is Moses, a type of Messiah. It appears in 31 King James books.
Proverbs 31 is famous for being the “virtuous wife” chapter.
And, as I will prove later, Yashua was resurrected in 31 AD.
Meaning of 13:
The number 13 is symbolic of rebellion and lawlessness in the Bible.
The Greek word drakon, Strong’s Concordance #G1404, occurs 13 times in Greek New Testament verses. The word is used only in the book of Revelation. It is always translated as the word “dragon,” a symbolic reference to God’s adversary Satan the devil.
Nimrod, the mighty hunter who was “before the Lord” (meaning he tried to take the place of God, Genesis 10:9), was generation 13 in Ham’s line (Ham was one of Noah’s three sons who survived the flood).
13 represents all the governments created by men, and inspired by Satan, in outright rebellion against the Eternal.
King Solomon spent a little more than seven years building Jerusalem’s temple, God’s house of prayer for the nations (1Kings 6:38). In contrast, He spent 13 years building a home for himself! Solomon is also related to the number 666 and the dragon.
End at the Beginning — The “Technical Definition”
In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of Elohim was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then Elohim said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. Elohim saw that the light was good; and Elohim separated the light from the darkness. Elohim called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day. — Genesis 1
The opening verse is an introduction to what will happen, creating the heavens and earth, but the heavens(stars) and earth are not created and named until days 3 and 4. The next verse establishes that there was nothing, darkness being the absent of light. However, “formless and desolate emptiness” is a way of saying a “void” or “nothing exists” which also include the absences of time.
However, “In the beginning Elohim (God)” combined with “Elohim is light and in Him there is no darkness” from 1 John 1:5 establishes that Light created the heavens and the earth and that it came before darkness because God exists outside of time.
Furthermore, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim.” combined with the first spoken words “Let there be light” makes a strong case for Light entering the picture before darkness.
By saying “Darkness existed in the beginning” you could implicitly be putting Satan in the beginning.
The meaning of “Evening” is the transition from Day to Night. The meaning of “Morning” is the transition from Night to Day. Therefore, the period of time from Evening to Morning could be understood as the period of time from transitioning from Night to Transitioning to Day and we call that time “Night”.
He named the light “Day” first, before naming the darkness “Night”.
How silly and inconsistent is it that Pharisees try to define a 24 hour “day” with the phrase “Evening to Morning” and then also try to define a 24 hour day as “Evening to Evening” when referring to the Day of Atonement?
Truth lies in logical consistency.
Nehemiah 13:19
When the evening shadows began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem, just before the Sabbath, I ordered that the gates be shut and not opened until after the Sabbath. I posted some of my servants at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day.
This verse is used to argue that the Sabbath “day” began with the “evening shadows” and therefore imply that Nehemiah understood the day to begin at sunset.
There are several ways to interpret this that are compatible with the day starting at sunrise. First, evening shadows could suggest that it was already after sunset and in the evening. Others will argue that the “evening shadows” start during the “daylight” before the “evening”. So this is ambiguous and not able to provide definitive information. The next understanding is that you close up at the end of business one day rather than closing up in the morning. They didn’t have lights to work at night and they could keep the gates closed at night for security reasons anyway.
In any event, this evidence is not definitive and cannot override the abundant other evidence given there is a way to interpret it consistently.
Sabbath
A major part of any calendar discussion is understanding when Sabbaths occur. Once again, we need to come back to the map vs terrain or reality. Evidence of Tradition is not evidence of reality, and in fact evidence of tradition might be evidence of lies we inherited from our fathers.
We must determine whether a certain Sabbath calendar, such as every Saturday or Lunar Sabbath is compatible biblical history without making reference to any existing calendar.
One of the most documented periods of history in the Bible is the week of the cross where we are given detailed day counts around events connected to appointed times and days of the week. Regrettably, most people use their assumptions about the calendar to choose the year rather than proving the year independent of the calendar and then using the proven year to be evidence for or against the various calendars.
It is easier to convey the rest of this guide as a keynote presentation, so Watch this keynote presentation for the rest of the Guide and learn the proof of the Sabbath, the Jordan River Crossing, and the year of the Cross.
