Does the Lunar Calendar or the Weekly Cycle Govern the Sabbath?

Does the Lunar Calendar or the Weekly Cycle Govern the Sabbath?
(A 1958 Refutation of an Early Version of Lunar Sabbath Error)
By
Victor T. Houteff
(The Symbolic Code; Vol. 13, No. 7,8, May-June 1958; pages 9-14)

We now turn our attention to another Sabbath theory and ism, concerning which another Truth-seeker writes: "A brochure entitled The Bible Sabbath in God's Perfect Plan of Redemption contends that the Sabbath is governed by the lunar month, not by an independent weekly cycle.  Please give me your answer from the Bible."

Assuming that the seventh-day Sabbath is governed by a lunar calendar, instead of by the independent weekly cycle,

THE BROCHURE SAYS:

   "Yes, all Christendom, with the exception of some Saturday keepers, keep a heathen day of the Sun.  But the Saturday keepers also keep, and honor a day of heathen origin -- the day of Saturn....

   "Exodus 12:1, 2: 'And the Lord 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 [moon] of the year to you.'  The moon was made to measure the months.  Compare 1 Samuel 20, verses 5, 18,  24, 27, 34.  And also to mark the seasons (Gen. 1:14 and Psa. 104:19).  The moon and the sun and the stars is God's calendar in the firmament that all men can see and mark God's times together with the earth....

   "The Sabbath of the Bible, therefore, is the Sabbath upon which the Passover comes every year.  The Lord has purposely placed the Passover celebration upon the second Sabbath of the first Moon (Abib), every year, for a reminder of the Sabbath every year (Ex. 20:8).  It is the second Sabbath of the first month, by reason of the Passover being upon the fourteenth of that month, which is the first full moon after the Vernal equinox when spring begins."
-- The Bible Sabbath in God's Perfect Plan of Redemption, pp. 9, 13, 16.

To the exponents of the aforequoted Sabbath  reckoning THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH GIVES THE REPLY:

   In the preceding quoted paragraphs, the well-intentioned but grossly misinformed author is attempting to overthrow the seventh-day Sabbath by ignoring the original weekly cycle, God's septenary cycle of creation, and by setting up in its place a moon-controlled septenary cycle of his own devising, so as to make the seventh, the fourteenth, the twenty-first, and the twenty-eighth days of each lunar month commemorative Sabbaths of the week of creation.

   It is true that the names of the months and the days of the week are of mythological origin, but the cycle of the week, as we shall see is from time immemorial.  True, the Lord said to Moses, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you." Ex. 12:2.  But He did not say, It shall also be the beginning of weeks to you.  Thus the question, "How readest thou?"  sharply confronts the lunar-Sabbath author for answer.  Plainly God could not have said, "this moon shall be the beginning of weeks to you," for such a course would be as we shall see, contrary to Nature, Scripture, and Logic.

   Had He intended the moon to fix the time of the holy Sabbath, He would have made it complete its revolution around the earth once either in exactly four weeks or in exactly one week.  But since the moon does not do so, it cannot be taken as the Divine regulator of the weekly holy Sabbath day.  Moreover, Sabbath begins at "even," whereas the new moon may appear at any hour of day or night.

   The following paragraphs briefly bring forth solar, lunar, and Biblical facts, not implications, that the weekly cycle never has been and never can be controlled by any lunar or solar calendar, and that the church under God's direction has never either in the Old or in the New Testament kept a lunar Sabbath.

   The Sabbath which the Lord hallowed was celebrated on exactly the seventh day after the creation of the earth began, not on the seventh day after the creation of the moon began (Gen. 2:2).  So the weekly cycle which God set in motion, and the Sabbath which He Himself celebrated, were not measured by the revolutions of the moon, but by the revolutions of the earth.  Had the Lord blessed and observed a Sabbath that is governed by the moon, then the Sabbath hours could not have fallen on the seventh day from the beginning of creation, but rather must have fallen within the tenth day, for the moon was not created and set in motion until after the fourth day of creation. (See Genesis 1:14-19).  Since the week was not then governed by the moon, it certainly cannot be governed by it now and still be the week of creation.

   As creation week was three days older than both the sun and the moon, the fact conclusively follows, therefore, that neither of these heavenly luminaries could have ever regulated the week of creation. Moreover, such a solar-lunar regulatory force would, except it be in cycles of tens, deprive Time and Creation of the first three days, leaving them as a phantom "lost period."

   Furthermore, were we to standardize the seventh, the fourteenth, the twenty-first, and the twenty-eighth days of the lunar month for the observance of the Sabbath, as the booklet advocates, we could not keep up with the moon anyway, for the lunar month is not actually four weeks (28 days) long, but approximately twenty-nine and a half days.

   All these significant facts completely invalidate the idea of the weeks being dependent upon the monthly orbit of the moon, and should therefore render unnecessary any further discussion of  the subject.  But since the lunar-sabbath author claims that history supports his contention, we shall therefore quote the following three paragraphs:

   "The use of the week was introduced into the Roman Empire about the 1st or 2nd century of the Christian era from Egypt, and had been recognized independently of Christianity before the Emperor Constantine confirmed it by enjoining the observance of the Christian  Sabbath.  With the Mohammedans the week has also a religious character, Friday being observed by them as a Sabbath." -- Twentieth Century Cyclopaedia, Vol. 8, p. 487

   "The period of seven days...was used by the Brahmins in India with the same denominations employed by us, and was alike found in the calendars of the Jews, Egyptians, Arabs and Assyrians." -- Standard Dictionary, definition "Calendar."

   "The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions, -- a circumstance to which it owes its unalterable uniformity.  It was employed from time immemorial in almost all eastern countries; and, as it forms neither an aliquot part of the year nor of the lunar month, those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss, as Dalambre remarks, to assign it to an origin  having such semblance of possibility." -- Encyclopedia Britannica.

   There is history's testimony.  Plainly, it no more supports the lunar-sabbath author's claims than do logic and Scripture.  On the contrary, it reveals that the present Roman week is the same as the ancient Jewish and Christian week, that it has been and still is the world's week "from time immemorial" -- from creation.  The week, moreover, explains Encyclopedia Brittanica, "is a period of seven days having no reference whatsoever to the celestial motions."