I can't help but think that the name of the author, Charles Whitaker, is familiar to me, but it is also possible that I am mixing the names of two different men. At any rate, his is the anti-Lunar Sabbath article that YHWH has led be to rebut next. Forgive my confidence (which is commonly misidentified as arrogance by some) but after reading just the title below, Bro. Whitaker will bring no successful challenge against the Creation Calendar Sabbath. Many have tried, all have failed. This is not because of any special talent I possess; anyone can dispute and prove what is not true if they have examined the evidence. I have. Bro. Whitaker has not. Charles Whitaker's original article below can be found at the link below. If you know him, feel free to pass this rebuttal along to him. If you trust him or follow his ministry, you might want to reconsider. http://www.sabbath.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/RA/k/1652/Lunar-Sabbath-or-Seventh-Day-Sabbath-Which.htm. If he does not examine the evidence in THIS article, what else has he neglected to share? Bro. Whitaker writes exclusively in black with his texts and a few words of interest in a blue link. I will respond in green, [bracketed in green in mid paragraph], along with a little blue, red and perhaps some purple. I have altered neither jot nor tittle of his original article. Dated: 3-??-2018 The Lunar Sabbath or the Seventh-Day Sabbath: Which? by Charles Whitaker Forerunner, "Ready Answer," November-December 2014 “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. . . .”—Genesis 2:3 The Lunar Sabbath IS a seventh-day Sabbath. It IS observed on the seventh day of the week, we just use the natural weeks defined in Scripture, not the pagan/papal week adopted and enforced by the present Gregorian calendar. For millennia, most of the world has been using a week of seven days. These seven days continuously repeat in their accustomed order week after week after week. The first day of the week invariably follows the seventh day of the previous week with enduring regularity. That is how it has always been. ALWAYS? The very first thing out of Bro. Whitaker's mouth is verifiably false. He believes it because the Gregorian calendar is the only one he knows. It has been the calendar of "the majority" since 1582, about 436 years (as of this writing). But "always" begins at Creation, and if Bro. Whitaker thinks this truth seeker is going to let this slip by without comment, he does not understand the nature of truth seekers. Immanuel Velikovsky (http://www.britam.org/megaliths/velikovskyworlds.html) discovered that anciently all nations at the same time had a 360 day year that was made up of twelve 30 day months. Philo, the first century Hebrew historian admits that the Hebrew month was divided into 7 day weeks based on the phases of the moon. 7 x 4 = 28. The other days were New Moon days and were not included in the week. Meaning they INTERRUPTED the weekly cycle EVERY month. More on Philo a bit later.

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The ancient Egyptian calendar, Annus Vagus, circa 2700 B.C., was arranged into 30 day months that consisted of 3 ten day weeks. http://calendars.wikia.com/wiki/Egyptian_calendar. The French Republican Calendar from 1793 to 1805 offered a 10 day calendar week. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar. It is one thing to make a claim based on one's opinion, it is quite another to proffer a FALSE opinion about the continuation of the week that is easily contradicted by the historical record.... “The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle.” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 410. No quote can be clearer than this. “… each lunar month was divided into four parts, corresponding to the four phases of the moon. The first week of each month began with the new moon, so that, as the lunar month was one or two days more than four periods of seven days, these additional days were not reckoned at all.” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, p. 482. Article "Week." “…the Hebrew Sabbathon … was celebrated at intervals of seven days, corresponding with changes in the moon’s phases...” Encyclopedia Biblica, 1899. p. 4180 “In the time of the earliest prophets, the New Moon stood in the same line with another lunar observance, the Sabbath. Ezekiel, who curiously enough frequently dates his prophecies on the New Moon … describes the gate of the inner court of the (new) temple looking eastward as kept shut for the six working days, but opened on the Sabbath and the New Moon.” Scribner's Dictionary of the Bible (1898 edit.), p. 521 “The Hebrew month is a lunar month and the quarter of this period—one phase of the moon—appears to have determined the week of seven days.” Encyclopedia Biblica, p. 4780. And why have we never been taught any of this??? “…The [early] Hebrews employed lunar seven-day weeks…which ended with special observances on the seventh day but none the less were tied to the moon’s course.” Hutton Webster, in his book, Rest Days, page 254. In the article Shawui Calendar: Ancient Shawui Observance, we find confirmation of a radical change in YHWH’s calendar. “The [lunar]...calendar was used by all the original disciples of Yeshua... This original Nazarene lunar-solar calendar was supplanted by a Roman ‘planetary week’ and calendar in 135 C.E. -- when the ‘Bishops of the Circumcision’ (i.e. legitimate Nazarene successors to Yeshua) were displaced from Jerusalem. This began a three hundred year controversy concerning the true calendar and correct Sabbath.” “This intimate connection between the week and the month was soon dissolved. It is certain that the week soon followed a development of its own, and it became the custom -- without paying any regard to the days of the month (i.e. the lunar month) -- ...so that the New Moon no longer coincided with the first day [of the month ].” Encyclopedia Biblica, (1899 edit.), p. 5290. “… the custom of celebrating the Sabbath every 7th day, irrespective of the relationship of the day to the moon’s phases, led to a complete separation from the ancient view of the Sabbath...” Encyclopedia Biblica, (1899 edit.), p. 4179.

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“The calendar was originally fixed by observation, and ultimately by calculation. Up to the fall of the Temple (A.D. 70), witnesses who saw the new moon came forward and were strictly examined and if their evidence was accepted the month was fixed by the priests. Eventually the authority passed to the Sanhedrin and ultimately to the Patriarchate. … Gradually observation gave place to calculation. The right to determine the calendar was reserved to the Patriarchate; the Jews of Mesopotamia [Ed.—Babylonian Jews] tried in vain to establish their own calendar but the prerogative of Palestine was zealously defended. So long as Palestine remained a religious centre, it was naturally to the homeland that the Diaspora looked for its calendar. Uniformity was essential, for if different parts had celebrated feasts on different days confusion would have ensued. It was not until the 4th century A.D. that Babylon fixed the calendar…” Encyclopedia Britannica: Vol. 4, article “Calendar”. “These imported [from Babylon] superstitions eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn Shabbti, ‘the star of the Sabbath,’ [and]...it was not until the first century of our era, when the planetary week had become an established institution, that the Jewish Sabbath seems always to have corresponded to Saturn’s Day [Satyrday].” Hutton Webster in his book, Rest Days, p. 244. Thus the condemnation in Amos 5:26 was set in stone. In Amos 5:26, the prophet is recorded as reminding Israel of their apostasy. Israel started worshipping Chiun, a star-god of their own making. In Acts 7:43, Stephen quotes Amos and is translated into Greek as saying “Remphan, the star-god…” Chiun and Remphan are the respective Hebrew and Greek words for Saturn. The Sabbath of Scripture is based upon the lunar cycle. So Israel did indeed come to worship Saturn on his day, but at a much later date and not by Divine command. “With the development of the importance of the Sabbath as a day of consecration and the emphasis laid upon the significant number seven, the week became more and more divorced from its lunar connection...” Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: Vol. 10, 1943 edit. Article, "Week," p. 482. “The four quarters of the moon supply an obvious division of the month...it is most significant that in the older parts of the Hebrew scriptures the new moon and the Sabbath are almost invariably mentioned together. The [lunar] month is beyond question an old sacred division of time common to all the semites; even the Arabs, who received the week at quite a late period from the Syrians, greeted the New Moon with religious acclamations. … We cannot tell [exactly] when the Sabbath became disassociated from the month.” Encyclopedia Biblica, 1899 edit., pp. 4178-4179.. How is it that Scholars cannot tell when the Sabbath was disassociated from the lunar cycle while modern Satyrday sabbath keepers in general deny that the Sabbath was ever connected with the moon in the first place? The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider. Isaiah 1:3 If there is any possible remaining doubt that Israel observed a lunar Sabbath in Scripture, let this quote settle your conscience:

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“Luni-solar calendar foundations of the Jewish calendar extend from the earliest verses of scripture. Natural, uniform motions of the heavenly spheres are the pivotal markers of time reckoning. The list of ancient characters mentioned in the Old Testament used this lunar-solar calendar system of time recording. Observation of lunar phases coupled with solar positioning graduated the lifetime ages of Adam and his descendants. . . . “Changes in the appearance of the moon provided the seven-day week. Originating with ancient interpretations of lunar time, divisions of seven days separate the four basic lunar phases... Starting with a dark new moon, the moon gradually comes into view on following nights. In about seven days the first half of the moon is visible. The second half waxes until full moon at the end of two weeks. Lunar light reverses progression in the third week, waning to half visibility again. A fourth week completes the month, and visibility again diminishes toward a new moon. Completion of four lunar phases comprises the month.” Ages of Adam, published in 1995, by Clark K. Nelson. The cloud is moving. We need either to follow or be left in the wilderness. Indeed, the week in Scripture is seven days long, but it was embedded in the lunar cycle, and regulated by the phases of the moon. And the week in history has NOT always been an uninterrupted seven day cycle, contrary to Bro. Whitaker's conclusion. Some people who keep the Sabbath are attempting to change that, believing that we have been wrong all along on how to determine the weekly Sabbath. They call this Sabbath the “lunar Sabbath,” so designated based on its relationship to the new moon, which is the marker for the start of Hebrew months. In their conception, our lunar Sabbaths occur during each Hebrew month, incrementally at intervals of seven days from the new moon. Hence, lunar Sabbaths fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of each Hebrew month. (Instead, some lunar Sabbatarians observe the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days of each Hebrew month.) I will give Bro. Whitaker credit for at least accurately presenting what Lunar Sabbatarians believe. That said, the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days of the lunar month are NOT announced by the quarter phases of the moon, and are actually the Babylonian sabbaths, not Hebrew. A few Lunar Sabbatarians begin this calendar journey observing these days, but it is very quickly apparent that they moon does not line up with them and a bit of study will reveal the pagan link to these dated sabbaths. Every weekly Sabbath that can be date identified in Scripture falls on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the month, without exception, in both the OT and NT. The evidence can be discovered here: http://www.creationcalendar.com/CalendarIssue/28-8-15-22-29_Proof.pdf. The lunar month, designated in the Hebrew calendar from new moon to new moon, is 29.5 days long. [Now, but not originally.] Since a calendar cannot divide days in half, in practice, some Hebrew months last 29 days, others last 30 days. [Now, but not originally.] (Lunar Sabbatarians express divided convictions concerning the way the “extra” days are handled. Not all of them treat them in the same way.) The parenthetical statement is accurate. New Moon days are considered as being Sabbath to some Lunar Sabbath keepers, most do not. The New Moon IS however, a third category of day that is never numbered in a week, nor falls on a weekly Sabbath. Churchianity ignores New Moon days entirely even though YHWH commanded their observance (Numbers 10:1-10).

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Click here for a short study: http://www.creationcalendar.com/CalendarIssue/03-QT-ThreeDistinctDays.pdf The luni-solar year was originally 360 days long. Twelve 30 day months = 360 day year. Genesis 7:11 says that the flood began on the 17th day of the second month. Genesis 8:4 says the water prevailed upon the face of the earth until the 17th day of the seventh month. That is 5 months. Genesis 7:24 and 8:3 say that the water prevailed upon the earth for 150 days. 150 divided by 5 = 30. So there were 5 consecutive 30 day months in Scripture, which is not possible with the current relationship between the earth and moon. So, we have solid Scriptural proof that the months were all 30 days in length. As Bro. Whitaker pointed out, the lunar cycle is now 29.5 days rather than 30 day in length. Which equates to some months being 29 days long, some being 30 days long. It was not until YHWH dented His clock that there were 29 day months. I personally agree with Immanuel Velikovsky this dent occurred in the 8th or 7th century B.C. Even more proof that the original Scriptural calendar is a 360 day lunar solar affair is found in prophecy where the prophetic year is 360 days. Time, times and the dividing of time (1260) was a combination of 360 days + 720 days + 180 days. Why would the prophetic year model be 360 days, yet different from the original calendar in nature? It would not, which is why you can prove that all the months at the flood were 30 days in duration. These extra day(s) in the lunar month mean that the lunar Sabbath falls on a different day of the week from lunar month to lunar month. The lunar Sabbath will fall on the same day of the week only four consecutive times before the end of the lunar month arrives and the lunar Sabbath is “reset” based on the next new moon. Another accurate representation of the Lunar Sabbath calendar. I have to admit that I am impressed and a bit surprised. Most who argue against the Lunar Sabbath are not this candid for fear that their readers MIGHT examine the evidence and discover that the Lunar Sabbath is indeed the calendar Sabbath of Scripture. So, either Bro. Whitaker is confident that he can overwhelmingly prove that satyrday is the weekly Sabbath or confident that his readers are too indolent to examine the evidence further. For example, it may fall on a Thursday in one Hebrew month, but on a Sunday in another lunar month, since the lunar Sabbath is reset after the passage of 29 or 30 days, that is, reset with the coming of another new moon. (The “mathematical” way of looking at this is that seven, the number of days in a week, does not divide evenly into either 29 or 30.) Again a true statement, but the calendar is not observed mathematically. We go outside and look at it with our eyes. As I said, and took the time to prove from Scripture, New Moon days are NOT week days. They are not numbered in the week. Ever. That leaves 28 days. Last I knew, 7 goes quite evenly into 28. There is a reason for that... There are 28 days in the lunar cycle that present a visible phase of the moon. There are 28 week days in a lunar month. This is not a coincidence. And of these 28 visible appearances of the moon, the moon enters a quarter phase approximately every 7 days. Of the 28 week days in a lunar month, there is a weekly Sabbath every seventh day. This too is not a coincidence. After the last Sabbath of the month, there are 1-2 dark days in the lunar cycle.

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After the last Sabbath of the month, there are 1-2 New Moon days in a lunar month. You do the math. There is always harmony in the truth. How Does the Lunar Sabbath Differ from the Seventh-Day Sabbath? Oh, that is easy. The Lunar Sabbath is found on the calendar established at Creation. The Seventh-day Sabbath is found on the pagan/papal calendar that was created exclusively for the worship of false gods, circa 600 B.C. and in A.D. 321 adopted by the Roman empire and later still by the papacy. The weekly Sabbath observed by the Jews and by the churches of God is called the “seventh-day Sabbath.” It is so named because it is the seventh day of a recurring seven-day cycle that came into existence at the end of Creation Week, when God pronounced the seventh day as holy (Genesis 2:3). [First of all, Bro. Whitaker can only assume the previous sentence to be true until he provides the corroborative evidence. Secondly, he has no corroborative evidence and offered none because this statement is false. Bro. Whitaker does err, not knowing the Scriptures. There is no recurring 7 day week in Scripture, and the remainder of this rebuttal will prove this over and over again.] He taught the seventh-day Sabbath to the children of Israel just after they left Egypt by controlling the way manna fell during the week, as related in Exodus 16. It fell every day except on the seventh-day Sabbath. The Sabbath became enshrined in the Hebrew calendar. The Jews have been observing that recurring seventh day ever since that time. I am going to isolate the three differing false statements in this paragraph above and rebut them separately rather than include these lengthy rebuttals [in a bracketed statement] in mid paragraph. These errors are egregious and unforced. Rather than verify his conclusions before he prints it, Bro. Whitaker simply assumes he is correct, and that you, his readers, will fall for it. Behold... (Unforced error #1) It is so named because it is the seventh day of a recurring seven-day cycle that came into existence at the end of Creation Week, when God pronounced the seventh day as holy (Genesis 2:3). Creation Calendar 101: Genesis 1:14 says that the two great lights would be for signs, seasons, days and years. Thus the calendar of Yah is in the heavens. Exodus 31:13, Ezekiel 20:12, and 20:20 all say that the Sabbath is a sign, using the SAME Hebrew word found in Genesis 1:14 (owth), meaning signal or beacon. Psalm 104:19 says that the moon will regulate the seasons (mo’edim--appointed times, set feasts). Leviticus 23:1-3 shows the weekly Sabbath to be the first feast (mo’edim--appointed times, set feasts). According to Scripture, the Sabbath is to be ruled by at least one of the two great lights in the heavens. Bro. Whitaker, can you go outside and look at the sun and tell whether it is satyrday or the Sabbath? No? If not, try the other light. The sun looks the same every day. The sun regulates the days, tells when a new day has begun. The moon, however, tells what day it is.

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Looks like this, every month....

New Moon

(Genesis 1:1-2)

Day 1 of week

(Genesis 1:3-5)

Day 2 of week

(Genesis 1:6-8)

Day 3 of week

(Genesis 1:9-13)

Day 4 of week

(Genesis 1:14-19)

Day 5 of week

(Genesis 1:20-23)

Day 6 of week

(Genesis 1:24-31)

7th day Sabbath (Genesis

2:1-3) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

(30) Please remember that the weekly Sabbath was not the only thing established at Creation. Every lunar month begins with a New Moon day including the FIRST month of earth's history. The Hebrews observed lunar months because that was the month established at Creation. So unless you place the New Moon into the Creation account, none of man's calendar models will be correct. Additionally, to assume that Israel observed the pagan seven day planetary week in the first century when Rome themselves did not is sheer lunacy. Rome did not officially adopt the seven day planetary week until A.D. 321 when Emperor Constantine became a “christian”. At that time, saturn’s day was the 1st day of the seven day planetary week that Rome adopted, not the 7th. Below is a sketch of the pagan planetary week, circa 100 B.C.

saturn’s day, sun’s day, moon’s day, mars’ day, mercury’s day, jupiter’s day, venus’ day

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Rome ruled the world in the first century B.C., thus the Roman numerals, but this is not a Roman calendar. This is a bona fide pagan seven day planetary week as it existed from about 600 B.C., until A.D. 321 when Constantine venerated the day of the sun. You see, Constantine worshiped Mithra, the Persian version of the sun god. He did not want the day of the sun taking a back seat to saturn, so when he venerated the day of the sun all he did was bump satyrday from the coveted

#1 position of the week all the way to the seventh day, which was vacated by all the other days moving up one position in the weekly cycle, permitting the sun’s day to hold the preeminent position. The sketch above came from this clay calendar tablet (at left). You see, the dirty little secret is out. Satyrday was not the seventh day of the week anywhere on earth until A.D. 321, and only then by virtue of Constantine, not the Creator Almighty, so it certainly was NOT the Sabbath of Israel at any time in earth’s history.

Bro. Whitaker, you can assume that satyrday is the seventh-day of the week (because you are looking at Pope Gregory's calendar) all you want, you can count backward by seven all you want, but your Sabbath calendar count will blow up in A.D. 321. Prior to that time, satyrday was the FIRST day of the week. It is NOT the seventh day of the week all the way from creation, thus you do err, not knowing history, or the Scriptures. (Unforced error #2) He taught the seventh-day Sabbath to the children of Israel just after they left Egypt by controlling the way manna fell during the week, as related in Exodus 16. It fell every day except on the seventh-day Sabbath. Exodus 16 is the first place where the word “Sabbath” is used in Scripture. In the first verse, YHWH is speaking to Moses and Aaron on the 15th day of the 2nd month and gives them what turns out to be a simple math equation. From day 15 add 6 days of manna = 21. Next day (22nd) is the Sabbath. Israel was to collect one portion of manna from the 16th to the 20th and a double portion on the 21st because the morrow was the Sabbath. Bro. Whitaker, please look at the last column below. If the 22nd is a Sabbath, so is the 15th (as well as the 8th and the 29th).

NM x1 x1 x1 x1 x1 x2 Sabbath 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

(30)

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As I said, EVERY weekly Sabbath in Scripture that can be date identified always fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd or 29th days of the month. And it won't matter whether you, Bro. Whitaker, bring them into evidence or I do. Thank you for offering this one. I expected it, and was already prepared for you to do so. (3) The Sabbath became enshrined in the Hebrew calendar. The Jews have been observing that recurring seventh day ever since that time. Indeed, the Sabbath is enshrined in the Hebrew calendar. So why, Bro. Whitaker, are you suggesting that the seventh-day of the pagan/papal calendar is the weekly Sabbath? Israel has never observed a recurring 7th day Sabbath, and Lamentations 2:6 reveals that (when in apostasy) the Father TOOK the Sabbath from them, causing them to forget. So they have NOT been observing the Sabbath (lunar OR papal) ever since YHWH gave them manna to introduce the weekly Sabbath in Exodus 16. And for the record, the Jews are not Israelites. But don't take my word for it, hear it from their own lips. Pay attention to the authors... “Here is a paradox . . . A most ingenious paradox: an anthropological fact, many Christians may have much more Hebrew-Israelite blood in their veins than most of their Jewish neighbors.” Jewish author, Alfred M. Lilienthal, What Price Israel, p. 223. The 1980 Jewish Almanac, p. 3, in the first chapter entitled, “Identity Crisis” said… “Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a ‘Jew’ or to call a contemporary Jew and ‘Israelite’ or a ‘Hebrew.’” A percentage of the people who are known today as Jews are descendants of Abraham and Isaac, but not of Jacob. History reveals that they are actually the descendants of the fierce Turkish, Khazar tribes which roamed regions of southern Russia and who adopted Judaism between 7th and 9th centuries A.D. “No one can deny that the Jews are a most unique and unusual people. That uniqueness exists because of their Edomite heritage. You cannot be English Jews. We are a race, and only as a race can we perpetuate. Our mentality is of Edomitish character, and differs from that of an Englishman. Enough subterfuges! Let us assert openly that we are International Jews.” Manifesto of the “World Jewish Federation,” January 1, 1935, through their spokesman, Gerald Soman. [Emphasis my own.] From the above, we can clearly see that the Jews fully understand their Edomite heritage and as the third edition of the Jewish Encyclopedia for 1925 records: “Chazars [Khazars]: A people of Turkish origin whose life and history are interwoven with the very beginnings of the history of the Jews of Russia. The kingdom of the Chazars was firmly established in most of South Russia long before the foundation of the Russian monarchy by the Varangians.” (855).

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Hasdai ibn Shaprut, who was foreign minister to Abd-al-Rahman, Sultan of Cordova, in his letter to King Joseph of the Chazars (about 960 A.D.) speaks of the tradition according to which the Chazars once dwelt near the Seir Mountains. The ‘Seir Mountains’ are none other than the original land of Esau-Edom - ‘Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom’ (Genesis 36:8). Seir was a mountain range south of the Dead Sea and was also known as the ‘land of Edom’ (Genesis 36:21). The Seir Mountains were the home of the Edomites for nearly a millennium (The Edomites arrived in Edom or Seir at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 13th century B.C. Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 6, p. 372). Thus we have it from Jewish sources that the Khazars originally ‘dwelt near the Seir Mountains’ so are racially of Edomite stock, not Israelite. But how and when did Edomites get to Khazaria? There is evidence that in the 6th century BC, some of the Edomites fled their homeland of Seir and migrated north, ‘After the fall of Jerusalem, in 586 BC, the Edomites began to press northward (Ezekiel 36:5). The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, ed. by Henry S. Gehman, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1970, p. 418.” (The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. IV, (1905), p. 3). “Today, the Khazars are known as ‘Jews,’ not because of any racial question, but because of their religion.” (Jewish historian, Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe, New York: Random House, Inc. 1976) “Edom is modern Jewry.” —The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1925 edition, Vol.5, p.41 A full 90% of Israel did NOT leave Babylon to return to the promised land with Ezra and Nehemiah. The descendants of the rabbis who remained in Babylon are responsible for the calendar war mentioned at the bottom of page 2 above, they are responsible for the Talmud (the most foul religious manual this side of the Satanic Bible) and the adoption of several pagan doctrines found in Judaism. In A.D. 700, trying to adopt a state religion, the king of Khazaria sent for ambassadors from the three major religions. They interviewed a Babylonian rabbi, a Catholic priest and a Muslim Imam (or whatever they were called then). They adopted Babylonian Judaism, which is why there is an egg (Ishtar's egg) on the table of modern "Jews" for Passover, their Sabbaths are from sunset to sunset and they begin their months at the first visible crescent. These are all pagan Babylonian practices that were adopted over time by the rabbis who remained behind in Babylon. By the time Khazaria had adopted Judaism, the calendar therein employed was the Hillel II version, which was a corruption between the Roman calendar and the original Hebrew lunar calendar. Now, because the "Jews", who are actually Edomites, are thought to be Israelites, many accept their doctrine as gospel, when it is actually the pagan doctrine of devils. History records the calendar wars in the second to fourth centuries regarding the Hebrew calendar. These "wars" were so contentious that Rome finally put and end to it and demanded Hillel II affix the calendar once and for all, binding it to the current Roman calendar but allowing for him to create postponement laws when the Hebrew festivals ran afoul of the Roman calendar in which it was embedded. Originally, the New Moon, Sabbaths and feasts never ran afoul of one another, but did frequently once the Sabbath began to be observed on the Roman calendar. One of the better resources I have found is here at World's Last Chance: https://www.worldslastchance.com/yahuwahs-calendar/constantine-hillel-two-men-who-deceived-the-whole-world.html

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Sorry to burst your bubble Bro. Whitaker, but you deserve to know the truth and SOMEONE had to tell you. You were free to practice pagan doctrine without penalty as long as you did so in ignorance. Now you are responsible for your actions because you know the truth. Now you know what they mean by the term "burden of truth." Sure, the truth sets you free (from false doctrine), but it also brings responsibility. The primary difference between the seventh-day Sabbath and the lunar Sabbath is this: The seventh-day Sabbath does not “reset” with the coming of each lunar month. [Which actually proves that it is the false Sabbath.] The lunar month is irrelevant to determining the arrival of the seventh-day Sabbath, which is based simply on a recurring seven-day cycle. [Whitaker's assumption, and without evidence, nothing more than an assumption. Please notice, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that he has STILL offered no proof that the Sabbath is on an unbroken, repeating seven day cycle.] Hence, the seventh-day Sabbath always falls on the same day of the seven-day week. It falls on a day the Jews call Sabbath, which the Romans named Saturday. Guffaw! And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. PROOF from his own mouth that Bro. Whitaker did NOT examine any evidence before he thought to undo the Lunar Sabbath, PROOF that he has no idea who the Jews are, and PROOF that he is promoting the pagan/papal Roman calendar, not the Scriptural/Hebrew calendar. Unbelievable! I would rest my case against Bro. Whitaker's version of the sabbath here, but he does not yet appear to be done convincing you of his error. By all means Bro. Whitaker, carry on.... Is There Scriptural Basis for the Lunar Sabbath? Lunar Sabbatarians defend their notion of pegging the weekly Sabbath on the lunar month by citing primarily two scriptures. One is Genesis 1:14 (Holman Christian Standard Bible [HCSB]): “Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years.’” The Hebrew word translated as “festivals” is moedim, a word that is key to lunar Sabbatarians’ arguments. Moedim, a plural noun (#4150 in Strong’s Hebrew Concordance) occurs for the first time in this passage. Translators often render it as “seasons” or “times.” Properly, it denotes “appointed seasons” or “appointed times,” referring to the festivals of God, His feast days. Today, we generally call these festivals by the term “holy days.” Lunar Sabbatarians, looking at Genesis 1:14, correctly conclude that the sun—and particularly the moon—play a key role in establishing the seasons, and most specifically, the appointed feast days, the holy days of God. I am not real impressed with his choice of translation [HCSH], but again, Bro. Whitaker seems to have done his homework on what Lunar Sabbath keepers believe. If only he had done the same sort of research about the history of the Lunar Sabbath and ancient calendars. The biblical chapter that summarizes these festival days, these moedim, is Leviticus 23. This is the second passage on which lunar Sabbatarians focus. Most specifically, they cite Leviticus 23:1-4. (Note: Moedim is translated as “appointed times” in verses 2 and 4.)

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The Lord spoke to Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: These are My appointed times, the times of the Lord that you will proclaim as sacred assemblies. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you live. These are the Lord’s appointed times, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.” (HCSB) (emphasis ours) The remainder of Leviticus 23 discusses the moedim, the holy days, in their sequence through the year. Here is the thrust of the lunar Sabbatarians’ arguments. They note that the weekly Sabbath, discussed in Leviticus 23:3, appears in the midst of the discussion of the moedim, the appointed times, mentioned in verses 2 and 4. They submit that the inclusion of the weekly Sabbath in verse 3, in the context of the moedim, the focus of the chapter, proves that the weekly Sabbath is connected to the moedim. [An unmistakable connection at that.] Hence, they conclude that the moon, as mentioned in Genesis 1:14, is the basis for determining the weekly Sabbath, just as it is basic in determining the arrival of the holy days. Well, not exactly. Indeed, the claim is made about Genesis 1:14, but no conclusion is made using Genesis 1:14 alone. It is in conjunction with Psalm 104:19 and Leviticus 23:1-3. And YHWH spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts [mo'edim] of YHWH, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts [mo'edim]. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of YHWH in all your dwellings. Leviticus 23:1-3 This cannot be understood other than the first feast listed in Leviticus 23 is indeed the weekly Sabbath. If the weekly Sabbath is NOT the first feast in a long list of appointed times, then why does YHWH say the following about the annual feasts in verse 4...? These are the feasts [mo'edim] of YHWH, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. Leviticus 23:4 The weekly Sabbath is not proclaimed "in their seasons" because the Sabbath is throughout the year, but they ARE mo'edim. But the annual Sabbaths are proclaimed by the cycles of the moon in their appropriate seasons. Genesis 1:14 reveals that either the sun or moon or both will regulate the signs, seasons [mo'edim], days and years, but does not specify which will do what. Psalm 104:19 very specifically identifies the moon as the luminary that will regulate the mo'edim, and Leviticus 23:1-3 clearly and without question identifies the weekly Sabbath as the Father's first feast [mo'edim]. In other words, lunar Sabbatarians argue that the moon, which determines when a new month begins, also determines when the count toward the weekly Sabbaths begins.

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That is correct. So to answer the question asked in the subheading above (Is There Scriptural Basis for the Lunar Sabbath?), the answer is absolutely yes. The Holy Days: One Cycle Lunar Sabbatarians’ a priori dismissal of an important fact has led them to a wrong conclusion. That fact is this: God recognizes two distinct cycles in determining Sabbaths: He created an annual cycle. He also created a weekly one. They are not the same. And I suppose that you are going to provide evidence for this statement? This is a rhetorical question because I already know you don't HAVE any evidence, I am merely asking for the benefit of the ladies and gentlemen of the jury. That YHWH created annual appointed times and a weekly appointed time is certainly correct. That the weekly cycle (7 days) is not the same as an annual cycle (360 days) is so obvious as to border on the absurd. But to "assume" that the calendar counts for each run separately is equally absurd in light of the evidence. That would mean that the Father would have to have created TWO calendar counts that are not connected. A conclusion that is utterly false. What I have shared above already disproves Bro. Whitaker's conclusion above. But I have barely scratched the surface in defending the Sabbath and calendar of Scripture, so let us put our alleged a priori dismissal to the test and see if the evidence supports two distinct cycles running simultaneously in the Father's calendar... Exodus 12:2-6 and Leviticus 23:4-14 introduce us to three fixed date work days. Abib 10, Abib 14 and Abib 16. The 10th day of Abib is the day to set aside the Passover lamb. This is a work/commerce day. A sheepherder may have a suitable lamb, but a fisherman or a tent-maker may not. Abib 10 is the day to PURCHASE a suitable lamb. Abib 10 floats on the Gregorian calendar [translation: satyrday falls on Abib 10 at times]. Commerce is prohibited on the Sabbath and there is NO legislation in Torah to purchase the Passover lamb on either the 9th or 11th of Abib IF satyrday just happens to land on Abib 10. The 14th day of Abib is always the preparation day for the first day of Unleavened Bread. Matthew 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54--24:1, John 19:14, 31, 42—John 20:1. Satyrday falls on Abib 14 from time to time. The fact is that the 10th, 14th and 16th of Abib are, without exception, commanded work days. The barley could be harvested on the 16th after the Wave Sheaf had been offered, Leviticus 23:9-14. Can we harvest our fields on Sabbath? If there is a continuous 7 day cycle, every few years satyrday will fall on either the 10th, 14th or 16th day of the first Hebrew/lunar month. Evidence: Satyrday fell on Abib 10 in 2003. Satyrday fell on the 14th in 2004, 2008, 2011 and 2018. Satyrday fell on Abib 16 in 2002, 2006, and 2009. There is no legislation provided to do these tasks a day early or late in case these days "just happen" to fall on the Sabbath, these work dates are fixed. And YHWH never has Israel do common work on a rest day. He is not the Author of confusion. His calendar looks like this, every month, all year long...

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New Moon Day

First Week Day

Second Week Day

Third Week Day

Fourth Week

Day

Fifth Week Day

Sixth Week Day

Seventh Week Day

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

(30) If the weekly cycle run separately from the monthly cycle, please also explain the following... The battle of Jericho was a seven day event. Every able bodied Israelite male took with him every available weapon at his disposal. The priests even carried with them the sacred Ark of the Covenant. In this battle/siege, Israel is on the offensive, they are the aggressors. Read the account in Joshua 6. Only Joshua knew it would be a 7 day affair, the men were told they would attack when Joshua gave them the signal. These soldiers were marching around Jericho for seven days in attack mode, on a full tilt adrenalin rush, not knowing for sure when the signal would come. Which day was the Sabbath? There is also another 7 day engaged battle found in I Kings 20. Did YHWH ever send Israel into battle on the Sabbath? The battle of Jericho is more a calendar statement than it is about the conquest of Canaan. How do I know this? Simple. Israel had JUST come out of the wilderness after a 40 year sojourn, having to relearn the law (including the Sabbath) of Yah. Do you suppose that the VERY first thing YHWH commanded Israel to do would be to break the Sabbath with a 7 day siege? If the Sabbath is every seventh day in an unbroken cycle, then ONE of the days Israel marched around Jericho had to have been the weekly Sabbath. You think about this. If you are interested in knowing how they took Jericho WITHOUT breaking the Sabbath, ask (or look at the calendar model above). It is so simple a child can figure it out. Let me know your response on this one, OK? The only way for Israel to be engaged in a seven day siege or battle without violating the weekly Sabbath is if the first day of the seven is New Moon day (see illustration below). There is a convocation that takes place on new moon day, but the convocation is called "holy", not the day. For the Sabbath, the DAY is called "holy". Day one (1) below is New Moon, the first day of the month.

x1 x1 x1 x1 x1 x1 x7 Sabbath 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 And I can prove it:

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And it was in the second month, on the first day of the month, that YHWH said to Joshua, Rise up, behold I have given Jericho into thy hand with all the people thereof; and all your fighting men shall go round the city, once each day, thus shall ye do for six days. And on the seventh day they went round the city seven times, and the priests blew upon trumpets. The Book of Jasher 88:14, 17 This not only proves the Lunar Sabbath it also proves that New Moon days interrupt the seven day weekly cycle AND that the weekly cycle does NOT run on a different timeline than the monthly cycle. The Father always sends and demands 2-3 witnesses in order to verify the truth. So how about one more... Scholars have generally agreed that the only dates that the crucifixion could have taken place was A.D. 30, 31 or 33. The reason for these years is that there are other historical events that took place at known dates that must be taken into consideration and placed in the timeline of the events in the NT. You cannot count backward by 7 to any of the years accepted by scholars for the crucifixion [30, 31 or 33 A.D.] and find a fri, sat, sun. crucifixion weekend. There are two reasons for this. 1. In the first century, Israel was still observing the natural calendar established at Creation. 2. Nature [the cycle of the moon] does not lie. Passover was a lunar event, the 14th day of the first lunar month. The moon's phases are not a secret and the lunar cycle can be determined in either the past or future with a great deal of accuracy (within seconds). If you know what Israel identified as New Moon, any moon phase calculator will tell you that... Passover would have been on the pagan we-day in A.D. 27. It would have been on the pagan mo-day in A.D. 28. On the pagan su-day in A.D. 29. On the pagan th-day in A.D. 30. On the pagan t-day in A.D. 31. On the pagan su-day in A.D. 32. And on the pagan th-day in A.D. 33. What this proves is that there were no fri-sat-sun weekend Passovers on ANY of the dates between A.D. 27 and A.D. 33 covering all the suspected years of the crucifixion. And the day after Passover in the year of the crucifixion was most certainly the weekly Sabbath, see Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54-56, John 19:31, which means that if satyrday is the Sabbath, friday would have been Passover. This proves that the pagan planetary week was not employed by Israel in the first century. They observed the Lunar-solar calendar established at Creation, a fact corroborated by historians and proved in Scripture.

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It also proves that the weekly cycle does NOT run separate from the monthly or yearly cycle. These segments of time are found on the SAME calendar and are regulated by the lights in the heavens, JUST as established at Creation. Three tests, same conclusion. The weekly cycle does not run on a distinctly different cycle than the month or year. The annual cycle, which defines the appointed feasts (moedim), is intrinsically connected with the moon, as Genesis 1:14 says. Specifically, the annual cycle is connected with the new moon, which in Hebrew is khodesh (Strong’s #2320). The annual cycle actually begins on a new moon, the one starting the Hebrew month of Abib. The fall of most moedim, that is, most appointed festivals, is determined by the occurrence of a new moon. Au contraire. According to Scripture, ALL calendar appointments are determined by the moon. Not most. All. For example, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread falls on the fifteenth day of Abib. It falls fifteen days into the month of Abib—fifteen days after the new moon [14 actually. New Moon is day one. Unleavened Bread is Abib 15. That is 14 days after New Moon] that ushered in Abib. Likewise, the Feast of Trumpets is the first day (that is, the new moon itself) of the seventh month, Tishri. The Day of Atonement falls on the tenth day of Tishri. Tishri is the name of a pagan month. The Hebrew months were numbered. Israel picked up these pagan names while in captivity in Babylon (4-5 of them actually appear in Scripture), but Tishri is NOT the Scriptural name of the 7th month. For the record, Abib is not a name, it is an adjective. In Hebrew it means green ears. This the first Hebrew month was consider the month of green ears, referring to the barley that was seen at the first of the month. Otherwise, all Hebrew months were known by their ordinal numbers. See Leviticus 23. As an illustration of the importance of the new moon in determining the “appointed feasts,” notice Leviticus 23:4-6 (HCSB), which renders khodesh as “month”: “The Passover to the Lord comes in the first month, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month. The Festival of Unleavened Bread to the Lord is on the fifteenth day of the same month.” Khodesh appears ten times in Leviticus 23, always in reference to determining the day on which the moedim arrive. This stress on the new moon is consistent with God’s comments in Genesis 1:14 that the moon would “serve as signs for festivals.” True, and according to Leviticus 23:2-3 and Psalm 104:19, mo'edim defines the weekly Sabbath as well. So, the fall of the annual “appointed feasts” is based on the arrival of new moons, which define the start of the Hebrew lunar months. The annual holy days define one cycle, a cycle of seven holy days throughout the year.

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WHAT cycle of seven? Naturally, when Bro. Whitaker wrote this, he had no idea how foolish his conclusion was. But, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you have the luxury of reading this along with a spirited defense of the Lunar Sabbath. You know that there is no uninterrupted 7 day cycle, someone needs to tell our uninformed author. Has Bro. Whitaker proven there is a separate and unbroken 7 day weekly cycle? No. He simply assumes there is one because he attempting to describe the Scriptural calendar while only looking at the pagan/papal Gregorian calendar. A man who is honestly mistaken, once he is shown the truth will either stop being mistaken or cease to be honest. The Weekly Sabbath: Another Cycle The fall of the seventh-day Sabbath is defined according to a second cycle. [Your reading audience may not ask for chapter and verse, but we are not your average pew warmer. Chapter and verse please. Show your cards, Bro. Whitaker, I'm calling your bluff. Saying you have truth when you have never offered any evidence will not work, and unless you can show proof that you have the winning hand, you are merely bluffing. And you ain't fooling anyone reading this rebuttal.] It is a separate cycle, a different one. [Says the man behind the curtain, saying things he cannot prove.] Importantly, in the description of the seventh-day Sabbath, the concepts of moedim and khodesh are not at all present. For example, neither word appears in Leviticus 23:3: “Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you live” (HCSB). Bro. Whitaker is either getting desperate or forgetful. At the top of page 12, he wrote the entire passage, Leviticus 23:1-3. Here, he only offers you verse 3 which taken out of context says EXACTLY what he wants it to say. The problem is that he was not expecting a spiritual carnivore to get a hold of this article. I was weaned of mother's milk a long time ago. I have teeth, and Bro. Whitaker is trying to feed us pabulum. In context (again): And YHWH spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts [mo'edim] of YHWH, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts [mo'edim]. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of YHWH in all your dwellings. Leviticus 23:1-3 Oddly enough, mo'edim is used TWICE to describe the weekly Sabbath in the context of this passage in spite of the fact that Bro. Whitaker says that the Hebrew word mo'edim is not used anywhere in this passage to describe the weekly Sabbath. Shame on him. This cannot be understood other than the first feast listed in Leviticus 23 is indeed the weekly Sabbath. If the weekly Sabbath is NOT the first feast in a long list of appointed times, then why does YHWH say the following about the annual feasts in verse 4...?

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These are the feasts [mo'edim] of YHWH, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. Leviticus 23:4 The weekly Sabbath is not proclaimed "in their seasons" because the Sabbath is throughout the year, but they ARE indeed mo'edim. But the annual Sabbaths are proclaimed by the cycles of the moon in their appropriate seasons. One calendar, one cycle. The days, New Moon, month and year all started at the same moment. New Moon is a third category of day according to Scripture, thus the week started the day after New Moon was over and is interrupted by New Moon every month. All based on the cycles of the sun and/or moon and repeats every month. Looks like this...

New Moon

(Genesis 1:1-2)

Day 1 of week

(Genesis 1:3-5)

Day 2 of week

(Genesis 1:6-8)

Day 3 of week

(Genesis 1:9-13)

Day 4 of week

(Genesis 1:14-19)

Day 5 of week

(Genesis 1:20-23)

Day 6 of week

(Genesis 1:24-31)

7th day Sabbath (Genesis

2:1-3) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

(30) Genesis 2 records God’s creation of the seventh-day Sabbath and hence, the institution of the weekly occasion. In this passage as well, neither the word moedim (appointed feasts) nor khodesh (new moon) appear even once: This is a rather ridiculous argument. Let me explain. I will make this simple. In Genesis 1:1, it says that Elohim created heaven and earth. So the "God" of Genesis 1 is the Creator. Later in Joshua 1, Moses is telling that Joshua that he will take command that that he will lead Israel into the promised land and that "the LORD God" (YHWH Elohim) will lead him. But NOWHERE in Joshua 1 (or the entire book of Joshua) is this Elohim called the creator. According to Bro. Whitaker, the Elohim in Joshua 1 cannot be the Creator Elohim in Genesis 1. This is the same premise of his argument above. This is how strong of an argument he offered. And here is how anyone can determine that Bro. Whitaker does err, not knowing the Scriptures.... Ok, Genesis 1:1 identifies Elohim as the Creator, but gives us no other details. Elohim (which translates to Mighty One or Almighty) is a title, not a name. Isaiah, on the other hand is a little more descriptive... Thus saith YHWH, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am YHWH that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; Isaiah 44:24 Isaiah identifies a deity by the name YHWH as the Creator of heaven and earth. Read on and Isaiah identifies a Mighty One (Elohim) by the name YHWH as the Creator...

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Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting Elohim, YHWH, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding. Isaiah 40:28 Thus saith Elohim YHWH, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: Isaiah 42:5 For thus saith YHWH that created the heavens; Elohim Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am YHWH; and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18 JUST because the Elohim in Joshua 1 is not identified as the Creator does not mean that He is not the same Elohim as the one in Genesis 1:1. And JUST because the weekly Sabbath in Genesis 2 or Leviticus 23:3 is not described or identified in the very verse by the terms khodesh or mo'edim does not mean that the weekly Sabbath is not regulated by the moon. Genesis 1:14, Psalm 104:19 and Leviticus 23:1-3 very clearly proves that it is. See what I mean? Bro. Whitaker's argument is rather impotent because he has no clue how to discern or present what is truth. Here is how Scripture tells us to determine what is truth... 1. In Scripture: If I find 2-3 witnesses, texts saying the same thing, (Genesis 41:32, Deuteronomy 19:15, II Corinthians 13:1) then it is truth that I must admit and comply with. 2. In Scripture: If I find a single text saying "thus saith YHWH", (Deuteronomy 8:3b, Luke 4:8, Matthew 4:10) it is truth; it is my duty to obey His command whether there are 2-3 witnesses or not. 3. In Scripture: If I find a chain of texts where there is an unfolding of truth, one expounding upon the other, (Isaiah 28:9-10), this reveals truth that I am responsible for. For example, Genesis 1:14 says that the luminaries in the heavens regulate the seasons (Hebrew: mo'edim). Psalm 104:19 reveals that the moon alone regulates the seasons (mo'edim). Leviticus 23:1-3 calls the weekly Sabbath a feast (mo'edim). This is a chain of evidence that cannot be questioned. 4. If it is in the law [Torah] or the prophets, it is true, Isaiah 8:20. If something outside of Torah and the prophets agrees with the Torah and the prophets, neither adding nor diminishing aught (Deuteronomy 4:2), it is the straight truth. The standard listed in Isaiah and Deuteronomy (above) was given to trump Test 1 IF the 2-3 witnesses are false witnesses (speaking not according to the Torah and the prophets). 5. A doctrine or accepted belief that fails any of the above 4 tests means that it is NOT true. YHWH says that He will do NOTHING unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets, Amos 3:7. If the prophets are silent, then it did not come from YHWH. If there is no "thus saith YHWH, no 2-3 witnesses, no chain of inter-textual evidence and thus no support found in the Torah and the prophets, then it is my privilege to admit it and tell others that it has no foundation in truth.

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6. Any historical evidence that agrees with Scripture (e.g. the Torah and the prophets) is acceptable as supportive evidence of the truth. Any historical record that disagrees with or contradicts Scripture, failing the first 4 tests above, is a lie in the highest order of magnitude. 7. If someone makes a statement, it does not matter if 1000 witnesses come later saying that he did NOT say such and such or did not MEAN such and such; the spoken word of the person in question (Almighty Yah, the prophets, you or I) takes precedence over that of all his defenders OR detractors. 8. If someone claims to be Messiah, or a prophet, or to have a special message for the body of believers, but fails to pass Tests 1, 2 and 3 above, then Isaiah 8:20 and Deuteronomy 18:18-22 (in essence, Tests 4 and 5) must be applied. If what they say doesn’t come to pass or they speak not according to the Torah or the testimony of the prophets, fear them not, there is no light in them. Included here are the tests that the NT authors recognized and taught their converts. John and Paul instructed their converts/followers to try the spirits (I John 4:1), to prove all things and hold fast that which is good (I Thessalonians 5:21), and also to search the Scriptures daily to see whether these things (that Paul taught them) were so, Acts 17:10-11. The carpenter from Nazareth never quoted a verse from the NT because the ONLY Scripture in existence during the first century was the Old Testament. In other words, the NT must meet the standard of the OT, not the other way around. In truth, if a NT writer does not meet the standard of the law [Torah] the testimony of the prophets, there is no light in this writing either. By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation. (Genesis 2:2-3 [HCSB]) What is strikingly stressed in this passage is the cycle of the seventh day, not the arrival of a new moon. Other verses that stress the concept of “the seventh day” as a definitive element in the seventh-day Sabbath’s timing include Exodus 23:12; 31:15, 17; 34:21; 35:2; and Deuteronomy 5:13-14. Oh brother. Bro. Whitaker, how many lunar months begin with a New Moon? If you said all of them, that is the correct answer. Including the first lunar month...

New Moon

(Genesis 1:1-2)

Day 1 of week

(Genesis 1:3-5)

Day 2 of week

(Genesis 1:6-8)

Day 3 of week

(Genesis 1:9-13)

Day 4 of week

(Genesis 1:14-19)

Day 5 of week

(Genesis 1:20-23)

Day 6 of week

(Genesis 1:24-31)

7th day Sabbath (Genesis

2:1-3) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

(30) The month began in Genesis 1:1, not Genesis 1:3. New Moon was established at Creation too, not just the weekly Sabbath.

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Finally, khodesh and moedim are conspicuous by their absence in the Sabbath commandment itself—not even a hint: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11 [HCSB]) Ladies and gentlemen, have you noticed a distinct difference when I say "without exception", "utterly false", or that Bro. Whitaker "does err, not knowing the Scriptures" than when Bro. Whitaker makes a statement of fact? At this point, when Bro. Whitaker says, "always" or "not even a hint", there just isn't the same ring of authority is there? I would like to suggest that the reason you feel this way is because you are not an idiot. I do not expect you to believe a single thing that I say, so I give you 2-3 witnesses (from Scripture, nature and/or the historical record) that build a foundation underneath my rebuttals. I offer you something concrete upon which to base your conclusion because you have the evidence before. Bro. Whitaker does not afford you this opportunity, he just wants you to accept his conclusion as gospel and without examination. In each of these pivotal passages concerning the weekly Sabbath, the word moedim is absent. Its absence shows that the weekly occasion is not an “appointed feast” and therefore not part and parcel with the annual occasions, which are defined by a separate cycle. [What separate cycle? As long as you offer no evidence, I will continue to question your authority to decide what is true Bro. Whitaker.] In addition, in each of these same passages, the word khodesh is also absent, indicating that the new moon is not a factor in determining the coming of the seventh-day Sabbath. I am guilty of repeating things ad nauseam, but this is bordering on maniacal. Bro. Whitaker continues to repeat the same thing over and over again (that mo'edim and khodesh does not describe or define the weekly Sabbath and this separate cycle business) as if he is trying to convince YOU (his readers) of something. If my eyes are glazing over because of it, what are the unsuspecting among his readers experiencing? In summary then, lunar Sabbatarians ignore the clear fact that God has instituted two discrete cycles and with them, two different methods of determining the fall of Sabbaths. [Now Bro. Whitaker is invoking the Almighty into his "separate cycle" doctrine. One must wonder what Almighty Yah thinks of this. He did not create separate cycles, I am looking and cannot find one, yet Bro. Whitaker insists that it is there. Amazing.] Lunar Sabbatarians apply the method of counting the holy days—which at its core does involve the new moons—to determining the occurrences of the weekly Sabbaths. However, the Scriptures do not support using the same method for both cycles. To reiterate: The new moon and the lunar month are irrelevant in determining which day the seventh-day Sabbath falls on.

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In spite of all the evidence I have presented to the contrary? Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what say you? Did Christ Keep the Lunar Sabbath? Yes, along with all his followers. Christ, our example, did not observe the lunar Sabbath. As recorded in Luke 4:16-17 (HCSB), Christ “came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him. . . .” And this study at this link, http://www.creationcalendar.com/CalendarIssue/28-8-15-22-29_Proof.pdf, proves that every Sabbath that can be date identified in the NT also fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the month, without exception. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction (I am no prophet)... Bro. Whitaker will not produce a single text in the New Testament that says satyrday is the Sabbath, that the Sabbath is every seventh day in an unbroken cycle or offer a Sabbath that falls on a date of the month other than the dates given above. This is not a bet, it is a promise. He will not offer or even try to offer any of the above. The Jews, as Paul wrote in Romans 3:2, had received the “oracles” (that is, the revelation or the words) of God. The Torah contains many of those “oracles,” including the oracle of the seventh-day Sabbath. God deeply engrained the correct Sabbath day into the consciousness of the children of Israel during their wanderings in the wilderness of Zin, and, as a result of this weekly reminder by the absence of manna on the Sabbath, they came to enshrine that day into what has come to be called the Hebrew calendar. The manna proved that the weekly Sabbaths that month fell on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the month. One point for the Lunar Sabbath. During Christ’s time on earth, the Jews continued to keep the correct weekly occasion. If Christ had kept the lunar Sabbath, chances are He would have been reading to an empty room that day in the synagogue. There would have been no one present there to hand Him the scroll of Isaiah. The Jews would have been elsewhere. Whoa, whoa, whoa there! If "Christ" observed the same Sabbath as first century Israel (and he clearly did), then whether it was the seventh day in an unbroken cycle or the Lunar Sabbath, the room would have been full of Israelites. This is about the most ignorant argument I have ever come across. First Bro. Whitaker ASSUMES that the Sabbath was NOT lunar, then makes a dismissive statement that if "Christ" had observed the Lunar Sabbath, that no one would have been worshipping with him. This SUGGESTS that there might have been two different Sabbaths going on in the NT when there clearly was no Sabbath argument in the NT. So, can Bro. Whitaker PROVE that this NT Sabbath was a satyrday? NO! And yet he blathers on in spite of the mountain of evidence that proves his position false. Unbelievable!

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For the record: I've noticed that Bro. Whitaker has used the words Christ and God (so far) in his presentation. God is the name of the Scandinavian pagan sun deity (throughout history and by various tribes) and was called God, Gott, Goth, Gawd, etc. The Creator has a Name, but it is not God. Christ is translated from the Greek word Cristos, and means anointed (same as the Hebrew word Meshyach--Messiah). This might merely be a translational issue if it weren't so sinister underneath. Cristos and Messiah have the same meaning (anointed) but Cristos is also the name of a pagan Greek god. Christian means Christ-like. Why would a believer in the Most High want to be like a pagan Greek god? In fact, YHWH commanded that we not take the names of false "gods" upon our lips. And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. Exodus 23:13 The Jews certainly took exception to the way Jesus kept the Sabbath. For instance, they expressed their dismay when His disciples plucked corn on the Sabbath or when He healed on the Sabbath. However, the Jewish leadership had no issue with the day He kept. If they had such an issue, we certainly would read about it in the Gospels. Yet, that issue never arose. Because they were all observing the same Lunar Sabbath. Hellooooo? The absence of any dispute over the correct day is an “argument from absence” that Christ kept the same weekly Sabbath that the Jews did—the same day they still keep. He kept the same weekly occasion the church of God keeps today. It is the seventh-day Sabbath, the Sabbath described in Genesis 2:2-3 and in Exodus 20:8-11. And yet satyrday fails EVERY single Scriptural test it is put to. Surely YHWH is not the Author of confusion. Wanna see what day a first century Hebrew historian who was ALIVE during the NT era has to say about the Sabbath? Remember when I said I would get to Philo? Let's read what he has to say on the subject of the Sabbath and the moon and the placement of each in the week... In order to have a lunar Sabbath, you must have a lunar “week”. Did Philo link the Sabbath or the “week” with the phases of the moon? The answer is yes, in fact the lunar week and lunar Sabbath are the only week or Sabbath mentioned in Philo’s writings. In fact, Philo never links the Sabbath to satyrday. Please note below that the number 7, the weeks, the Sabbath and the moon are all linked together in Philo’s writings. In Allegorical Interpretation, 1 IV (8), it says… “Again, the periodical changes of the moon, take place according to the number seven, that star having the greatest sympathy with the things on earth. And the changes which the moon works in the air, it perfects chiefly in accordance with its own configurations on each seventh day. At all events, all mortal things, as I have said before, drawing their more divine nature from the heaven, are moved in a manner which tends to their preservation in accordance with this number seven. … Accordingly, on the seventh day, Elohim caused to rest from all his works which he had made.” …

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Notice that Philo says the moon is perfect in its shape or appearance on each seventh day. Wonder what he meant by that? Had he been writing to Hebrew speaking audience he would have said “it perfects chiefly in accordance with its own configurations on each Sabbath day instead of each “seventh” day because elsewhere in his writings, Philo identifies that when he mentions the seventh day [of the week] he is referring to the Sabbath. Above, he tells us that the moon perfects its own configurations on each seventh day. It was understood, that at the end each period of six work days there would be a weekly Sabbath, thus he is clearly referring to the Sabbath of Creation. Continuing on with Philo: In The Decalogue XXX (159), it says... “But to the seventh day of the week he [YHWH] has assigned the greatest festivals, those of the longest duration, at the periods of the equinox both vernal and autumnal in each year; appointing two festivals for these two epochs, each lasting seven days; the one which takes place in the spring being for the perfection of what is being sown, and the one which falls in autumn being a feast of thanksgiving for the bringing home of all the fruits which the trees have produced”… Let’s look carefully at what Philo is saying. To the seventh day of the week He [the Father above] has assigned the greatest festivals, in other words the greatest (longest) festivals have been assigned to the seventh day of the week. Thus Philo is referring to and keeping the same luni-solar calendar established in Scripture, and he calls the first day of each of these seven day feasts the “seventh day of the week”. Scripture says that both of the seven day feasts (Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles) begin on the 15th day of their respective months. See Leviticus 23:5-6 and 23:34. Friend, the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath, is it not? If the 15th is the weekly Sabbath, so are the 8th, 22nd and 29th days of the month. In fact, the 4th commandment listed in Deuteronomy 5:12-15 links the weekly Sabbath to the day of the exodus. 12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as YHWH your Elohim has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14 But the seventh day shall be the sabbath of YHWH your Elohim. In it you shall not do any

work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger inside your gates, so that your manservant and your maidservant may rest like yourself.

15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and YHWH your Elohim brought you out from there with a mighty hand and with a stretched-out arm. Therefore YHWH your Elohim commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Indeed, the weekly Sabbath is linked to Creation week in Exodus 20:8-11, but the Sabbath is linked to the day of the exodus in Deuteronomy. That day was Abib 15. Exodus 12 proves that Israel was delivered the day after Passover, which is Abib 14. You do the math. For the mathematically challenged, the day after Abib 14 is Abib 15. Numbers 33: 2-3 is a second witness. Are you going to tell me that YHWH, the Creator Almighty is going to link the weekly Sabbath with Creation week AND the exodus, but is not smart enough to establish a calendar where Abib 15 is the Sabbath every year? Come now, let us reason together.

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Notice Philo did not say they would receive two holydays of festivals, but one, the 15th. Satyrday Sabbath keepers insist that there will be a satyrday Sabbath that falls during these seven day feasts, and indeed, if the Gregorian calendar were the calendar of Scripture that would be true. But Scripture says nothing of a [satyrday] Sabbath in the middle of these 7 day feasts. To prove the seventh day of the week is the same as the 15th, elsewhere Philo states: “And this feast is begun on the fifteenth day of the month, in the middle of the month, on the day on which the moon is full of light, in consequence on the providence of Elohim taking care that there shall be no darkness on that day.” Philo’s Special Laws II, The Fifth Festival, Section XXVIII (155) In other words, Philo is saying the weekly Sabbath begins these feasts, and is on the 15th AND is linked to the full moon. I'm so sorry Bro. Whitaker, but this evidence proves the Sabbaths by the lunar calendar is true and the Gregorian false because there is no way a satyrday Sabbath can begin these two festivals on the 15th in the 1st and 7th month each year, on a continuous seven day cycle presented by the Gregorian calendar we have today. The correct calendar of Scripture (and the one described by Philo) looks like this:

New Moon Day

First Week Day

Second Week Day

Third Week Day

Fourth Week

Day

Fifth Week Day

Sixth Week Day

Seventh Week Day

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

(30) Speaking of “lunar” intervals, in Special Laws I. (178), Philo writes… “…there is one principle of reason by which the moon waxes and wanes in equal intervals, both as it increases and diminishes in illumination; the seven lambs because it receives the perfect shapes in periods of seven days—the half-moon in the first seven day period after its conjunction with the sun, full moon in the second; and when it makes its return again, the first is to half-moon, then it ceases at its conjunction with the sun.” [All emphasis supplied by author/complier of this study.] The half-moon (first quarter moon) announces the first Sabbath of the month. It is the seventh day of the week, naturally, but this is the 8th day of the month. New moon day is not counted against the week. The full moon rising at the end of the 14th day of the month announces the 15th as the second Sabbath of the month. If the new moon was counted, the quarter phases (or as Philo describes them, the moon as it perfects in its own configurations on each seventh day) would not come at the end of the week, disconnecting the perfection of the lunar cycle from the Sabbath. What Yah has joined together, let not man put asunder. Philo gives a second witness in On Mating with the Preliminary Studies, XIX (102)…

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“For it is said in the Scripture: On the tenth day of this month let each of them take a sheep according to his house; in order that from the tenth, there may be consecrated to the tenth, that is to Elohim, the sacrifices which have been preserved in the soul, which is illuminated in two portions out of the three, until it is entirely changed in every part, and becomes a heavenly brilliancy like a full moon, at the height of its increase at the end of the second week”. Please let what Philo just said sink in. His readers in those days understood that the weeks were by the moon, same as in Scripture, and that at the end of the second week there would be a full moon. This statement needs no interpretation and is impossible to misunderstand. Bro. Whitaker, you have not brought much by way of evidence against the Lunar Sabbath, and I have not even come close to running out of evidence that proves it. We will keep doing this (with the same result) until you have exhausted your words. Pentecost and the Lunar Sabbath Probably one of the best arguments against the lunar Sabbath concerns Pentecost. God instructs that the Day of Pentecost, correctly counted, will always occur on the day after a Sabbath: Odd Bro. Whitaker should say this. When studying the Lunar Sabbath in the early 2000's, I made the statement, "If the Lunar Sabbath is true, I wonder if it solves for all the arguments regarding the count to Pentecost?" New feast keepers disagreed with veteran feast keepers. Messianic feast keepers disagreed with the Catholic count. Christian feast keepers disagreed with the Jews. There are at least 3 different calendar counts involving Pentecost, which are further compounded by there being 4 different ideas about what Israel identified as New Moon which serves to make the count to Pentecost a morass of opinions all based on someone's tradition or private interpretation. These counts all ended in either the 6th, 7th or 8th day of the third month (late spring). The first problem with this is that the wheat harvest in Scripture that is associated with Pentecost is a summer harvest, not spring. More on this later. Interestingly, the Lunar Sabbath issue solved for every single argument involving the count to Pentecost. A few false counting methods are sure to be below, and you can rest assured that Scripture will blow them all out of the water. You are to count seven complete weeks starting from the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the presentation offering. You are to count 50 days until the day after the seventh Sabbath and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. (Leviticus 23:15-16 [HCSB]) Ugh! Probably the worst translation I have ever seen for this verse, and probably the root cause of the counting errors you are about to face from Bro. Whitaker. In Hebrew, the verse says that From the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number 50 days. It does NOT say, You are to count 50 days until the day after the seventh Sabbath... So, the requirement that Pentecost fall on the day after the seventh Sabbath becomes a “check point” to ensure that we have counted correctly.

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Actually, landing on the day after the seventh Sabbath proves you have used a false calendar count because the day after the seventh Sabbath is still in the spring. First, here is the correct calendar count, then I will address the summer harvest issue.... If you will read the context of Leviticus 23:15-16, the 50 days are numbered from the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, not from Wave Sheaf. Consider the following calendar with the New Moon days put in an easier position, yet still outside the ranks of the common work day. There are actually 4 steps, and I will follow all 4 of the commands for the count to Pentecost given in Leviticus 23:15-16:

1. The count is required to start “from the morrow after the Sabbath” [Abib 16] 2. There is required to be seven complete Sabbaths as a part of the complete count 3. New Moon days are not part of the week, so they are not included while numbering

Sabbaths. If New Moon days WERE included, there are actually 51-53 days from wavesheaf to the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, not 50.

4. There is to be a total of fifty days numbered from the morrow after the seventh Sabbath Here is how you count seven Sabbaths Bro. Whitaker, you ignore New Moon days (in blue)...

1………….. 1st Month 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

wave sheaf > 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 <1st “Sabbath complete” 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 <2nd complete week 30 1…………… 2nd Month

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 <3rd complete week 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 <4th complete week 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 <5th complete week 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 <6th complete week

1………….. 3rd Month 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 <7th complete week

morrow after >9 10 11 12 13 14 15 7th Sabbath 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

1………….. 4th Month 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Feast of Weeks/Pentecost, 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 50 days from the morrow 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 <= after the Seventh Sabbath

Some have pointed out that “ad” or “od” (Strong’s H-5704, H-5703) does NOT mean “FROM” the morrow after the 7th Sabbath, but H-4480 DOES. Guess where THAT word is? Leviticus 23:16 Even unto5704 the morrow4480, 4283 after the seventh7637 sabbath7676 shall ye number5608 fifty2572 days;3117 and ye shall offer7126 a new2319 meat offering4503 unto YHWH.3068

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Look at what Strong’s says about H-5704 “whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until)”. Leviticus 23:16 is about time, not space, so we’ve been applying the word in the wrong manner all along. The Hebrew actually could be translated: WHILE FROM the morrow (after the) seventh Sabbath (shall ye) number fifty days (and ye shall) offer a new meat offering (unto) YHWH. The Fenton Translation is the ONLY translation that seems to be honest with this evidence: You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath that you bring the Wave-Sheaf, seven Sabbaths. They must be complete. Then after the seventh Sabbath, you shall count fifty days, when you shall present a new offering to the Ever-Living. Leviticus 23:15-16 This is how you count 50 days. Please count the underlined days listed above. The 9th day of the third month is the morrow after the seventh Sabbath. This is not the first day of the 50 because the command is to count 50 days FROM the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, not 50 days from the seventh Sabbath. Also, when counting 50 days, New Moon days must be included because they are individual days on the monthly calendar, they are just not included when counting Sabbaths complete (complete weeks). The count to Pentecost ends on the 29th day of the 4th month, in the summer. And guess what? The wheat planted in Scriptural time was harvested in the summer, the same season as the grapes and olives and figs. For a short study on this issue, click here: http://www.creationcalendar.com/CalendarIssue/16-QT-WhatSeasonWheatHarvested.pdf. For a complete study on the REAL count to Pentecost, click here: http://www.creationcalendar.com/CalendarIssue/17-FeastOfWeeks.pdf Can a “summer” Pentecost be proven by either the Scripture or in the natural world? Absolutely. Historical record—see Nehemiah 12:44. There are only three times in the year when Israel was to bring a tithe of first fruits. Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Harvest or Tabernacles. Which feast time is Nehemiah in reference to here? Nehemiah 13:5 and 13:12 tells us that new wine and oil was also offered at this time. This is, by default, the tithe of Feast of Weeks because the new wine and oil are summer harvests. Nehemiah 13:15 even records that the sheaves were being brought in from the fields along with wine and grapes. In Joel 2:15-19 and 2:24, he speaks of a time when wheat is still on the threshing floor while new wine and new oil are in the vats. See also Haggai 1:10-11, Numbers 18:11-12. Early June (the 6th of Sivan) is still the spring of the year. The grapes and olives are summer crops, not spring. This is an issue that feast keepers must resolve. The Natural world—it takes wheat more than 50 days to reach maturity. Now there are some who say that the wheat spoken of for the Feast of Weeks is sown in the fall along with the barely and matures a few weeks after the barley is harvested. And yes, this would permit a wheat harvest on or about the 6th day of the third month. The problem with this theology is that there are too many witnesses placing the wheat harvest in summer, late in the fourth month.

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Nature: The compelling fact is that there are 2 types of wheat. Winter wheat is planted in late fall and takes 7 months to mature (about early June), then there is spring wheat (planted in the spring) which takes 4 months to mature. (< Remember this). Which one was planted in Exodus 9 and is referred to for Feast of Weeks? We agree that maybe both types of wheat are now planted in the Middle East. But this doesn’t answer the second part of the question above. Scripture: Let’s examine Exodus 9:18-35 and the plague of hail that destroyed Egypt. In verses 31-32 we will find our answer. The flax was ready to harvest and the barley was near ready. Both crops were a total loss. When sown, winter wheat very quickly sends up a 4-6 inch blade of grass which winters over, then as the days get longer and warmer, it begins to mature. The wheat was not destroyed in the plague of hail because it was “not grown up”. The Hebrew for this phrase means hidden or in the dark. By calculating the time between plagues, the hail fell on or about the 10th day of Abib. The significance of this is that the wheat in question had just been sown a short time before the plague and had not yet germinated. It was hidden in the dark, buried in the earth. This phrase “hidden in the dark” does not mean that the wheat grass was dark green (not ready to harvest) and somehow survived the hail. Scripture does not permit this understanding. At the time of the barley harvest, winter wheat would already be sending up stalks. Said another way, it would be very much above ground. If in doubt, notice that “every herb of the field” was also smitten, Exodus 9:22-25. Strong’s concordance (H# 6212) says that this word herb means “to glisten (or be green); grass (or any tender shoot): grass, herb.” If the winter wheat had not yet sent up a stalk, it was certainly in grass form, and therefore would have been destroyed by the hail. The Torah says that the wheat was not destroyed. So what wheat was used for Feast of Weeks? Regardless of what type is traditionally held, this wheat is indisputably spring wheat. Now that we have established that the ancient wheat crop was planted in Spring followed by a Summer harvest, would you like to see if I can provide any other witnesses? Speaking of the ancient Near East, The Historical Atlas of the Bible, page 11, says this… “Cereals were the main agricultural crops, as wheat and barley are indigenous to the region. Barley was a currency in Mesopotamia as early as 2000 BC. Modern bread wheat is a hybrid

crop, but the ancient native emmer wheat is still grown widely as it is much hardier.” Do you suppose that emmer wheat was also planted in ancient Egypt? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmer says: “Emmer [Triticum dicoccum] had a special place in ancient Egypt, where it was the main wheat cultivated in Pharaonic times….” Care to guess when emmer wheat is planted and harvested? Early Spring, and amazingly it is harvested 16-20 weeks [4-5 months] after being sown. Which can be learned here: www.bountifulgardens.org/Wheat-Red-Emmer-Organic/productinfo/GWH-7525/.

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http://archaeology.about.com/od/eterms/qt/Emmer-Wheat.htm says this: “The earliest evidence of the use of emmer wheat is from the site of Ohalo II, where hunter-gatherers collected wild emmer [thousands of] years ago, on the shore of the sea of Galilee in what is today Israel.” Friends, I’m not smart enough to make this up. Would you consider what I’ve presented above to be something akin to rocket science, or something a 5-6 year old child COULD have read and understood? The truth is so simple a child can understand. Nature is far from finished weighing in on this subject. The rye was also not smitten along with the wheat in Exodus 9:32. As any farmer knows, and one farmer in particular that I know who caught this and brought it to my attention, rye is planted in the fall and WOULD have been destroyed by a hail storm in the spring. The underlying Hebrew word translated as rye is spelt or fitches. Spelt is also planted in the fall, so this can also be ruled out as it would have been destroyed by the hail also. However, fitches (vetch or black cumin) IS planted in the spring after the last frost and it is native to northern Africa meaning it would have been planted in Egypt in Exodus 9:32. Scholars admit that “rye” is a bad translation for this verse. Naturally, spelt would have been an equally bad translation, so it should have been translated as fitches, which are sown in early spring and harvested 4 months later, JUST like spring wheat. Regarding vetch or black cumin: “Throughout its history, and still to this day, this spice is harvested by hand which takes place about 4 months after sowing.” http://www.bespokespices.com/cumin-plant.html But don’t take my word for it. Judges 15:1-5 says that Samson not only destroyed the wheat, but the vineyards and olives as well. Feast keepers say that this took place at Feast of Weeks. There are no grapes or olives in early June (the first week of the third month on YHWH’s calendar is when Elder Zaqantov wants you to observe his feast, 50 days after wavesheaf). Acts 2:1, 13 says that the disciples were accused of being drunk with new wine after Pentecost had “fully come.” These men knew that there was new wine available otherwise there would be no basis for this claim. Peter doesn’t correct their agricultural assessment, but simply says that they were not drunk as supposed. There is no new wine in early June, but there is at Pentecost. Regarding the barley harvest, when they came into the land, they were to harvest a handful and bring YHWH a wave sheaf offering, Leviticus 23:10-11. This would have been barley planted by the Canaanites because Israel didn’t cross the Jordan until the 10th of Abib, Joshua 4:19. After wave sheaf (the 16th of Abib) they were to number seven Sabbaths complete (and then some, but let’s stop here for now). Now Exodus 23:16 (part of the perpetual covenant) says that the first fruits of the wheat harvest would be that which Israel had sown in the field. They did not arrive in the land promised to Abraham until Abib, the first month. If they were to offer a “new meat” offering at the Feast of Weeks and this had to be from their labors that Israel had sown in the field, then they would have had to plant spring wheat after they arrived in the land in the first month. It is a physical impossibility for this wheat to mature in 50 days (early in the third month). Do you suppose they brought emmer wheat out of Egypt with them?

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In order to have a “new meat” offering (in compliance with the covenant) after they numbered 7 Sabbaths complete they had to count 50 more days from the morrow after the 7th Sabbath. They could not have counted a mere 50 days from Wave Sheaf itself. Do you remember when I asked you to remember that it takes 4 months for spring wheat to mature? This event recorded below took place in the month of Abib, shortly after Passover when the man from Galilee cleared the temple the first time, John 2:13-16. After an evening meeting with Nicodemus (3:1-21), he headed to Judea for a short visit with John who was in that region (3:22-36), then headed toward Galilee, (4:1-3). On the way, the carpenter from Nazareth, exhausted by the quick trip, stopped in Samaria to rest (4:4) where he encountered a woman at the well, (4:7-26). Later when his disciples had returned with food, they said, …Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Yahushua saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. John 4:31-35 It was the first month when Yahushua made this statement! Wheat is white when it is ready to harvest! From the beginning of Abib to the end of the 4th month, is four months. When the disciples turned around, all they saw were little spikes of green because the wheat had just been planted, however Yahushua spoke of a harvest of souls, not the wheat. According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture it takes 110-120 days for spring wheat to mature. Since this wheat was probably planted on or about the first work day of spring (Abib 2), if you count the underlined days below, from the 2 day of the first month to the preparation day of Chag HaChavu'ot, you have 116 days. Does 116 fall between 110-120?

1………….. 1st Month 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

wave sheaf > 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 <1st “Sabbath complete” 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 <2nd complete week 30 1…………… 2nd Month

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 <3rd complete week 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 <4th complete week 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 <5th complete week 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 <6th complete week

1………….. 3rd Month 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 <7th complete week

morrow after >9 10 11 12 13 14 15 7th Sabbath 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

1………….. 4th Month 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Wheat is harvested 116 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 days later, wave offering 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 <= offered on the 29th.

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For the record, the Pentecost that Bro. Whitaker wants you to observe is the Catholic version. Chag HaShavu'ot is the Hebrew name, but 50 days after wavesheaf is the papacy's attempt to time the count to Pentecost. This is the ONLY feast listed in Leviticus 23 that is not given a specific date. There is a reason for this. Rather than a date, an equation is given. And as long as you are using a pagan/papal/Roman/man-made/solar-only calendar you will NEVER find and accurately observe this feast. This feast's equation is a speed bump that identifies and eliminates all false calendars. The ONLY way to meet YHWH when He commanded us to observe this feast is to use the Creation Calendar that He established in Genesis 1:14. Lunar Sabbatarians do that. Bro. Whitaker does not. Please tell me which count fits Scripture and nature? Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what say you? Oh, and for the record, I have not yet presented all the evidence that proves that Pentecost is a summer feast and that it can only found using the Lunar Calendar. A person keeping the lunar Sabbath will never find an occasion where the count of those fifty days brings him to the day after the Sabbath he is keeping. [Correct. That is because the day after the seventh Sabbath is not the 50th day from wavesheaf, much less Pentecost. If one counts 50 days from wavesheaf, (even though we were told to number seven Sabbath or complete weeks, not days) there are 2-4 New Moon days involved that are NOT included in any week. That means that the morrow after the 7th Sabbath would be the 51st to 53rd day from wavesheaf, not the 50th.] Try it for yourself with paper and pencil; it will soon become clear that absolutely no scenario exists where Pentecost falls on the day after a lunar Sabbath. It will never happen. True, Pentecost falls ON the Lunar Sabbath, the 29th day (and last Sabbath of) the 4th lunar month. Another first century historian, Josephus, told his readers that wavesheaf always took place on Abib 16. In The Antiquities of the Jews, Chapter 10, section 5, he has this to say about the Passover season: (248) “In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of the year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians, and law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so we do celebrate this Passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. (249) The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month and continued seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened bread… (250) But on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day, they do not touch them. …. (251) They take a handful of ears, and dry them, then beat them small and purge the barley from the bran; they then bring one tenth deal to the altar, to Elohim; and, casting one handful of it upon the fire they leaven the rest for use of the priest; and after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest.” Josephus is explaining to the Gentile nations how the barley could be harvested on the 16th, and says exactly what Leviticus 23 says about the feast of Passover, Unleavened Bread and wavesheaf. On the morrow after the Sabbath, Israel could wave the sheaf of first fruits.

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Josephus identifies the date for wavesheaf as Abib 16. If Abib 16 is the morrow after the Sabbath according to Josephus, then the Sabbath is Abib 15. Please read Leviticus 23:6, this is the FIRST day of Unleavened Bread. It is a weekly AND an annual Sabbath, EVERY year. Looks like this:

New Moon Day

First Week Day

Second Week Day

Third Week Day

Fourth Week

Day

Fifth Week Day

Sixth Week Day

Seventh Week Day

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

(30) I bring this up here because Bro. Whitaker WAITS for a satyrday to occur during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which can fall anywhere from Abib 15 to Abib 21, the seven days of the feast. The problem is (which is painfully obvious by now) is that the sheaf was waved after the LUNAR Sabbath, not satyrday, which during Josephus' day was the FIRST day of the week, not the seventh. So I can guarantee you that there is absolutely no scenario where Pentecost falls on a pagan sunday, 50 days from Abib 16. It will never happen, because Pentecost is the 29th day of the 4th month, in the middle of summer when the wheat harvest took place in Scripture. If the concept of the lunar Sabbath were correct, the requirement that Pentecost fall after a Sabbath would be impossible to meet. [But friend, Scripture does not say that Pentecost falls on the day after the Sabbath, the morrow after the seventh Sabbath falls on the morrow after the Sabbath. It is from this point that the 50 day count begins. You were NEVER told anywhere to number 50 days from wavesheaf, you were told to number 7 Sabbaths. Period. The number you will have when you get to the end of that count is 7, not 49 (days).] The model that lunar Sabbatarians use to determine the Sabbath does not mesh with the instruction concerning Pentecost, as stated in Leviticus 23:15-16. Au contraire. It meshes with the instructions perfectly. There is nothing Bro. Whitaker offered that was true regarding the count to Pentecost. He starts it on a day after a satyrday and ends it a mere 50 days later on a sunday. This is the Catholic version of the count, and uses days that are found exclusively on the pagan/papal Gregorian calendar. The proof is in the pudding. More Than a Minor Miracle If we counted the number of days from any seventh-day Sabbath back to the original (seventh-day) Sabbath, that is, all the way back to the one described in Genesis 2:2-3, we would come up with a large number. As we tirelessly counted, we could “count” on this: Whatever number of days defines that interval of time, it would always be divisible by seven, the number of days in a week. The number of days from any seventh-day Sabbath to the original Sabbath will be divisible by seven. Yeah, we tried this and it blew up on A.D. 321. Before that time, satyrday was the 1st day of the week, and satyrday was a day on the pagan calendar beginning in about 600 B.C., not Creation.

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So, this hypothetical count backward by seven will prove only ONE thing: That satyrday is not the Sabbath of Scripture. That is an amazing fact. [And what fact is that, Bro. Whitaker? You have offered so few.] Throughout history, God has preserved the knowledge of the seventh-day Sabbath. Considering all the various calendars that have been developed over the years by pagan, godless individuals, some of those calendars basing their weeks on more than seven days, it is indeed a miracle that God has preserved the knowledge of the true Sabbath day to the present. Considering all the troubles that the Jews, who preserved that knowledge in their calendar, have encountered, it is more than a minor miracle. Bro. Whitaker does err, not knowing the Scriptures... And He hath violently taken away His tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: He hath destroyed His places of the assembly: YHWH hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest. Lamentations 2:6 Indeed, the Father has preserved the knowledge of the true Sabbath, but it has not always been through Israel. The Jews, as shown earlier, were not Israelites and have never observed the true Sabbath, adopting satyrday in about A.D. 700, LONG after Israel had been scattered in A.D. 70 and Hillel II had altered the Hebrew calendar, adopting the Roman week. It is fitting that we thank God for preserving a knowledge of the seventh-day Sabbath over the years for us. [You thank Him, but you don't observe the Sabbath that he preserved. Curious.] He did not command that the seventh day be kept and then hide it from us. [The Lunar Sabbath is not a new doctrine. It dates back to Creation. Just because Bro. Whitaker has not known this does not mean that the Father hid it from us. He merely hid it from non-believers.] Rather, our Provider has taught us the correct day; not a day has been lost in the count. We should not be deceived by the false notion of the lunar Sabbath, which is in fact one of the lies Satan has developed to hide the correct seventh day.

© 2014 Church of the Great God PO Box 471846

Charlotte, NC 28247-1846 (803) 802-7075

Ok, Bro. Whitaker, now you've gone and stepped in it. Remember when I said I had barely scratched the surface in defending the Lunar Sabbath? I was not holding this back, and there is plenty more where this came from, but Bro. Whitaker only just now invoked the name Satan and is calling the Lunar Sabbath a false notion and one of Satan's lies. I shall not sit idly by and listen to this, nor shall you. OK, I admit it, Israel worshiped on satyrday. But you have borne the tabernacle of your moloch [king] and Chiun your images, the star of your god which you made for yourselves. Amos 5:26. Chiun is the Hebrew word for saturn. But that does not mean their worship was acceptable to YHWH. In this verse Amos sees a day where Israel worships a star-god that they would make for themselves which means that Israel would have been in apostasy at the time.

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Stephen, in Acts 7:43, quotes Amos and is translated as Remphan, which is Greek for saturn. Satyrday is a day found exclusively on the pagan seven day planetary week. Satyrday was the first day (not the seventh) of this pagan calendar week from at least 600 B.C. and perhaps further back. The Father’s calendar is found in the sun and moon (the two great lights), not in the planets. Why am I spelling it satyrday instead of saturn’s day? Because saturn and the satyr are both linked to the same false system of worship. Do this word study with your concordance. Isaiah 13:21 says… But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. Isaiah 34:14 In both cases, the Hebrew word here translated as satyr is Strong’s H8163. It would seem that the Father stopped Israel’s satyrday observance early on. Speaking to Israel after their deliverance from Egypt, YHWH said… And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations. Leviticus 17:7. Notice the word for devils below. And they shall no 3808 more 5750 offer 2076 (853) their sacrifices 2077 unto devils, 8163 after 310 whom 834 they 1992 have gone a whoring. 2181 This 2063 shall be 1961 a statute 2708 forever 5769 unto them throughout their generations. 1755 Same Hebrew word, H8163, satyrs. Jeroboam and his sons were later cursed for leading Israel BACK into idolatry. II Chronicles 11:15 says… And he [Jeroboam] ordained 5975 him priests 3548 for the high places, 1116 and for the devils, 8163 and for the calves 5695 which 834 he had made. 6213 Same Hebrew word, H8163, satyrs. Jeroboam brought back what YHWH had removed from Israel in Leviticus 17. And nearly every time Jeroboam’s name is mentioned thereafter it is either prefaced or followed by the statement, who has made my people Israel to sin. Amos reminded Israel of their satyrday idolatry, Stephen repeated it and it got him killed. Let me share with you why I believe it is a good idea to examine the foundation of the day that most Sabbatarians call “Sabbath”. Watch for the purple font below because at least one particular scholar DOES believe that satyrday worship is linked to saturn worship, and he proves it VERY convincingly. Ever heard of a dual counterfeit? Only the enemies of YHWH would accept an obvious counterfeit, but for the more elect, the Adversary has a not-so-obvious counterfeit.

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How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be Almighty, follow Him: but if Ba’al, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. I Kings 18:21. Ba’al is the obvious fraud, but what about “the LORD”? Every time you read LORD or GOD in all capital letters in Scripture, the underlying Hebrew is YHWH, the Creator’s Name. Ba’al means “Lord” in Hebrew. In Hebrew there is no deception, His Name is YHWH, (which is how the Hebrew reads) but in English there is no right answer from which to choose, both mean Lord. In Hosea 2:16, YHWH tells us to stop calling Him “my Lord” (Baali means “my Lord”). Friends, what we have here is a dual counterfeit; one is obvious, the other not-so-obvious. Which day do YOU keep holy?

• Sunday, the current first day of the pagan Roman/papal calendar

• Saturday, the current seventh day of the pagan

Roman/papal calendar. I say “current” because these days were not always the first and seventh days of the week, respectively. As a side note, I find it very interesting that we pronounce the “n” in woden’s day (wednesday), but we don’t for “saturn’s day” (saturday). Have you ever heard of a satyr? The cloven footed half-man, half-goat—the universal symbol of Satan himself? Sunday is the obvious fraud. Only the enemies of YHWH would observe sunday, in honor of the pagan sun-god. But every satyrday, of every week, of every year,

Sabbatarians everywhere, in spite of themselves, worship on satyrday — a day named after Satan himself. Very cleverly, the Adversary receives his worship every week, all year long, by sincere folks who believe they are following YHWH. Friends, what we have here is a dual counterfeit; one is obvious, the other not-so-obvious. Even if saturday really is named after saturn, don’t think we are going to get off the hook so easily. Saturn worship is the oldest form of Satanism and is clearly and historically linked to satyr, the horned goat. The Adversary does not care how you spell his many different names, or which one you worship, as long as you do not worship YHWH. Please feel free to connect the dots… Satan (or Pan) is also called the “Horned God” Pan a lusty satyr, half-man, half-goat, was given to every form of licentiousness and debauchery.

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Kronos, the father of the gods……for a certain wicked deed, was called Titan, and cast down to hell. Kronos is none other than Satan himself. Titan, or Teitan, as it is sometimes spelled, is the Chaldee form of the Hebrew word Sheitan (Satan), the common name for the Adversary. In the region where the Chaldean Mysteries were originally concocted,--that Adversary who was ultimately the real father of all the pagan gods,--and who (to make the title of Kronos (Saturn), “the Horned One,” appropriate to him also) was symbolized by the Kerastes, the Horned serpent. Horned goat, horned serpent, father of the gods….hmm. Kronos claims to be in charge if TIME! Kronos is where we get our word Chronology, the study of time. Kronos, said another way, is also known as Father Time. Cue Scriptural support: Daniel 7:25, see also Isaiah 14… For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of Elohim: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Isaiah 14:13-14 The word congregation here is the Hebrew word Mo’edim, which means “appointed times”. A mountain in Scripture is a controlling power or seat of government. The prophecy above is proclaiming that someone will claim to sit on the mount of YHWH’s appointed times. He is saying that he will control the calendar, and the appointed times. And indeed he does, but only in the hearts and minds of his followers, having no control of YHWH’s calendar appointed times or the Children of the King. Now, the name Saturn in Chaldee is pronounced Satur; but, as every Chaldee scholar knows, consists only of four letters, thus — S T U R. This name contains exactly the Apocalyptic number 666… S = 60 T = 400 U = 6 R = 200

666 The information in the purple font above was gleaned from Alexander Hislop’s classic, The Two Babylons. Truth is a two edged sword. If we are going to condemn “sunday” observance as worshipping on the “venerable day of the sun,” satyrday Sabbath keepers need to look in the mirror. Is worshipping on a day named after Satan any better? Satyrday bears the name of our enemy. Saturday has only been the seventh day of the week since A.D. 321. Satyrday is found only on the pagan/papal calendar, a calendar created exclusively for the worship of false gods. Bro. Whitaker, you did a WONDERFUL job of describing and defending the seventh day of the pagan/papal Gregorian calendar. The problem as I see it is that you thought you were describing and defending the seventh-day Sabbath of Scripture. If the ladies and gentlemen of the jury can overlook that, then we must applaud your effort. You did a magnificent job of proving which Sabbath is NOT the Sabbath of Scripture.

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Respectfully submitted, Troy Miller www.CreationCalendar.com.