An elementary note concerning initial Sabbath study:

       With so many convincing yet differing on-line articles written about the Sabbath issue, how can anyone know which position to believe?  The answer is simple.  As with any study on any issue, the truth seeker must start on a solid and firm foundation and a true beginning premise.  If a person starts a journey in "mid-ocean" there is no way he can  retrace his position back home.  No matter which way he turns he is lost to find solid ground, and even though he may be proud that he is making "good travelling time" there is nowhere to go but in endless circles tossed about from wave to wave.   This is also similar to starting a baseball game at second base instead of home plate, and would result in massive confusion no matter how many eloquent instructions are given about batting stance, pitching, fielding, or individual players' conditioning.  None of that would matter if we do not realize that the rules of the game require to start at home plate.  Likewise, this is the same train of mixed thoughts which reason that the Hebrew calendar of the Bible is lunar or soli-lunar based on shere volume of Sabbath promoter's lengthy and vehemently debated presentations.  A claim that the divine calendar is lunar, based upon all manner of unrelated Biblical conclusions, means little if we do not start at the beginning.

    Specifically, the Moon is not a "light" that has the ability "to divide the day from the night", and this precise ability is the qualifying element set forth in Genesis 1:14 that sets the initial Biblical foundation on how to determine the Sabbaths and Holy Feast Days of Yahweh Almighty.   The Moon is clearly out and visible in the bright daylight hours many times, and there are nights when the Moon is not out at all.   We need only to look upward and observe this for our own conclusive evidence.  Thus, the visible appearance of the Moon brings forth neither night nor day, and subsequently the Moon is forever disqualified as the "light in the heavens" that has ever been used or can be used  "to divide the day from the night" (Gen. 1:14)  Folks, this plainly can't be done and is locked in nature -- permanently! The division of day from night takes place at Sunset and Sunrise.  The Moon has absolutely nothing to do with this, and simply does not fit this basic and most fundamental divine requirement set forth by the Word of God as what He has given to man for the true calendar divisions in knowing His appointed times.  My notes added in red below:

    Yes, ONLY these "dividing" lights in the sky are given to us for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years -- in other words -- as Yahweh's fixed and stable calendar time keeping system for us. (The Moon is not one of these lights, nor would be comets, asteroids, lightning, or infrequent unexplained natural phenomena) This is our foundation.  This sets the rules.  This is where we start.  Any elaborate, drawn out, mathematically calculated, seemingly convincing, or eloquently devised so called "proof" of any Sabbath calendar WHICH IS NOT BASED AND BUILT upon the above Scriptural DISCIPLINE is nothing more than a non-factor in the  Bible student's attempt to determine which calendar is the true Hebrew calendar.  This means that the lunar and soli-lunar calendars of the anti-Christ Muslims and anti-Christ Jews never did have anything to do with Yahweh's method in Genesis for reckoning times. The ancient Saxon Hebrews only used the lunar based calendar after they had been corrupted in Babylon during their captivity in that heathen land:

    "Most early calendars were based on the moon, which takes roughly 29 1/2 days to circle the Earth.  The ancient Babylonian calendar, adopted by the Hebrews, was entirely lunar based, with 12 months of alternately 29 and 30 days and thus a 354 day year.  But this calendar rapidly got ahead of the seasons, so it was adjusted to keep it roughly in step with the solar year.  The Babylonians observed that 235 lunar months coincided with a cycle of 19 solar years.  So around 380 B.C. they decided that 7 of every 19 years should have 13 months instead of 12.  The Jewish calendar still follows this lunar-solar arrangement, but the Muslim calendar remains lunar based, with regressive months." (Source:  Reader's Digest Strange Stories, Amazing Facts, 1976, page 537.)

What lights in the heavens divide the day from the night?  Again, this is simple, it is basic, it is natural.  It is the Sun and the stars which divide the day from night and light from darkness.  The Sun appears in the day, and the stars appear at night when the Sun goes down.  It is by observation of the Sun and the stars that we know the easily determined Sabbaths and Feast Days as written in the Bible.  Now of course our Sabbath Lessons distributed by this ministry teach on all seven of the Feasts as well as the weekly Sabbath, but basically we determine "light from darkness", "day from night" because of the Sun and the stars, and never the Moon. But what about the "two lights" (the greater one and lesser one) of Genesis 1:16?  Isn't this the Sun and the Moon?  No --- but let's quote the verse first:

No problem here either.  All scholars agree that the Sun is obviously "the greater light", but the authors of the KJV-King James Version Bible (and other translations too) sought out help of the Rabbinical scholars to translate their texts.  Of course, the Rabbis were fanatically biased in promoting their Babylonian lunar calendar of Judaism so the KJV translators were at a loss to translate this verse correctly, although the way they did translate it was indicative that they knew something wasn't "kosher".  The Babylonian Judaic thought was to imply that the Moon was included in this verse as "the lesser light", but such is far from the truth.  If the reader will take their  KJV Bible in hand and turn to Genesis 1:16, it is immediately seen that the words "he made" in this verse are in italics, which means they are not in the original Hebrew manuscripts but they were inserted here by the English translators.  Upon further examination, we may reference the word "also" in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and it reveals that the word "also" has no entry in this verse.  That word ("also") was likewise added in a feeble attempt to imply that the Moon is the "lesser light", but in fact the lesser light is none other than "starlight"!  In our Sabbath Lessons this verse is further detailed in a word for word study, however, correctly translated in a non altered KJV verse, Genesis 1:16 reads:

    This, by reason of consistency in lexicon research and obedience to the "day/night" division requirement, explains what denominational Judeo-Christianity theology has not explained for centuries.  Namely, the Genesis time keeping method, quite frankly, never was lunar or soli-lunar nor could it be without framing an entire calendar upon disobedience to the intent and purpose of Yahweh God as declared in Genesis chapter One.  It is solar and purely solar as only that system can provide a fixed standard whereby the Sabbaths and Feasts don't change times from year to year.  All lunar and soli-lunar calendar Sabbaths and Feasts change days from year to year anywhere from one day to three weeks, and never occur at the same time from one year to the next.  Such a system is chaos, and is what happens when the foundational beginning is based on a faulty premise.  As divine truth and logic both demand, any long written collection of articles trying to "prove" the Hebrew calendar to be lunar is a moot point because all such sub topic articles that first ignore Genesis 1:14 & 16 stand upon an incorrect and faulty platform -- that being the blatant denial that the Moon does not divide "light from darkness", "day from night".  Period.

   Searchers, don't be deceived by great swelling words of Judaic thought on the lunar Sabbath calendars as their explanations are endless.  Keep it simple and things will all fall in place.  As the Bible teaches, Yahweh's calendar is based on the Sun, since the Sun itself is the fixed luminary body in our solar system by which we can reliably tell time.  May our Father bless you in your search for His Truth and testimony for His Kingdom.

                                                                                                                      in YHVH ----  Kenneth Lent