Many Sabbath keepers have probably never had any contact with this topic. It is, however, a lesson with dramatic implications. The thing that unites all Seventh-day Adventists of all kinds, the Sabbath, is being questioned here. But not by making Sunday a proper day of rest, as most Christian churches do. Also, the doctrine is not proclaimed that there is no more biblical day of rest in the New Testament, that every day is the same, as the Mormons or the Witnesses preach, for example. Rather:

The Lunar Sabbath introduces itself

New moon. On this day there is rest as on a Sabbath. This is followed by four weeks, all of which end with a Sabbath. Then the holy new moon follows again, so that the Sabbaths are always on the 8th/15th/22nd. and 29th of a month beginning with New Moon as day 1. Due to astronomical circumstances, however, a leap day sometimes has to be inserted after the four weeks so that the new moon day actually coincides with the new moon, the first appearance of the delicate crescent moon.

With this type of calendar, the Sabbath falls on a different day of the week on our calendar each month. It will certainly seem very peculiar to most people, Christians and Adventists, and yet it has recently been espoused by individual Adventists and small Lunar Sabbath-keeping groups around the world. To illustrate this, here is a graphic:

This graph shows how the lunar Sabbath falls on a different day of the week in each lunar cycle. Only relatively rarely is it on a Saturday. Rest would be on all lunar Sabbaths and new moon days.

A special "church of God"

Few Seventh-day Adventists know that in 1863 not only our church was founded, but also what is called the Church of God, Seventh Day. This was a coalition of Sabbath-keeping Adventists who rejected Ellen White's writings. Today this congregation has around 300.000 members.

Clarence Dodd and the Sacred Name Movement

A member of that church named Clarence Orvil Dodd founded the magazine in 1937 TheFaith (The belief). This magazine, like no other, began to advocate the teaching that God's holy name must be spoken, and if possible in its correct form.

This gave rise to the Sacred Name movement, which in Christianity most clearly opposes the Jewish view of not pronouncing God's name because of its holiness, especially since the exact pronunciation is no longer known. Rather, it encourages its frequent, reverential, and faithful pronunciation. The correct pronunciation of the name of Jesus is also important to the followers of this movement.

The Biblical Feasts

Likewise, from 1928 onwards, Dodd advocated observing the Mosaic-Biblical feast days instead of the pagan Christian feasts. Herbert Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God, in particular, took up this teaching and disseminated it through the magazine clear and true. However, the same doctrine also finds its adherents sporadically among Seventh-day Adventists.

Jonathan Brown and the Lunar Sabbath

The Sacred Name movement has developed across denominations and even into Pentecostal circles. A supporter of this movement is Jonathan David Brown, a member of the Jesus Music band Seth, producer of the Christian rock group Petra, in which popular singer Twila Paris and other Christian singers sang. Jonathan David Brown was the first to spread in writing the doctrine of the lunar Sabbath, which is now making its way into all sorts of Sabbath-keeping circles.

Is the Sabbath based on the moon?

The lunar Sabbath is often justified with Genesis 1:1,14. There the sun and moon are assigned a function in determining the time of festivals (Hebrew מועדים mo'adim), days and years. Since the sun is sufficient to determine days and years, the moon must have been intended to determine festivals. Leviticus 3 appears to add the Sabbath to these lunar festivals. This is an important argument in the doctrine of the lunar Sabbath. But in numerous other texts the Sabbaths are explicitly distinguished from the feasts (מועדים mo'adim): 23 Chronicles 1:23,31; 2 Chronicles 2,4:8,13; 31,3:10,34; 2,6; Nehemiah 44,24:45,17; Lamentations 2,13:XNUMX; Ezekiel XNUMX:XNUMX; XNUMX; Hosea XNUMX:XNUMX. And nowhere is the Sabbath specifically mentioned as a feast (מועד mo'ed).

The Sabbath is also a festival, but a special one. It is precisely because it is not based on the moon and takes its rhythm solely from the fact of the six-day creation that it becomes the commemoration day that it is. The Sabbath and with it the seven-day week are so special because they have no astronomical basis at all. The seven-day division is arbitrary and is not based on the phases of the moon. In doing so, she draws attention away from the heavenly bodies as God's creation and concentrates entirely on the Creator. If it were otherwise, the week could be explained in purely evolutionary terms.

One may indeed conclude from Genesis 1:1,14 the importance of the moon for the calendar and appreciate the Jewish lunisolar calendar, according to which the Jewish festivals are based. But this verse says nothing about lunar Sabbaths, which are inserted with a few leap days between the seven-day weeks.

Do we honor Saturn?

Lunar Sabbath followers criticize our understanding of the Sabbath by pointing out that Saturday is the day of Saturn. So, by keeping the Sabbath, we would be worshiping the cruel god Saturn, who ate all his sons except Jupiter. This overlooks the fact that the weekly Sabbath is much older than its connection with the god Saturn by name. Historians believe that the Romans adopted the seven-day week from the Jews and gave the days of the week names of their own gods. We also know that the ancient Romans, among their gods, compared Saturn to the god of the Jews and therefore dedicated Saturday to Saturn. But that has nothing to do with the actual determination of the weekly Sabbath.

In Hebrew there is no connection between the days of the week and specific deities, as we have in most European languages. Here the days are called: first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, Sabbath. Each day of the week is already geared towards the coming Sabbath and thus confirms the validity of the weekly Sabbath.

Where is the historical evidence?

Neither the Karaites, who adhere more strictly to the moon than traditional Judaism, nor other Jewish sects in history have ever kept the lunar Sabbath. Even the apostles followed the Jewish festival calendar of their time. There is no evidence that they sought calendar reform. So where does one get the certainty that the lunar Sabbath is actually the biblical Sabbath?

The Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus (37-100 AD) reports: "There is not a single city of the Greeks or Barbarians or any other people into which our custom of resting on the seventh day did not penetrate!" (Mark Finley , The Almost Forgotten Day, Arkansas: Concerned Group, 1988, p. 60)

The Roman author Sextus Iulius Frontinus (40-103 AD) wrote that they "attacked the Jews on the day of Saturn, when they are forbidden to do anything serious." (Samuele Bacchiocchi, A New Attack Against the Sabbath - Part 3, December 12, 2001) Saturn's day is not known to have aligned with the new moon.

The historian Cassius Dio (AD 163-229) says: "Thus Jerusalem was destroyed on the very day of Saturn, the day which the Jews to this day most venerate." (Ibid.)

Tacitus (AD 58–120) writes of the Jews: “They are said to have devoted the seventh day to rest because that day put an end to their troubles. Later, because idleness seemed tempting to them, they dedicated every seventh year to laziness. Others claim they do this in honor of Saturn.« (The Stories, Book V, quoted in: Robert Odom, Sabbath and Sunday in Early Christianity, Washington DC: Review and Herald, 1977, page 301)

Philo of Alexandria (15 BC-40 AD) writes: "The fourth commandment refers to the holy seventh day... The Jews keep the seventh day regularly at intervals of six days." (The Decalogue, Book XX quoted in: ibid. p. 526) This particularly early source knows nothing of inserted new moon or leap days.

Don't these quotes make you think, considering that today all Jewish groups around the world observe the Sabbath on Saturday? Jews never argued about when the Sabbath is to be kept, at most like it is to be held and what time it begins on Friday.

Jewish calendar reform

The Jewish calendar reform of 359 AD did not abandon a lunar-week rhythm that is now assumed, but rather the natural observation of the moon and barley as clues for the new moons and the beginning of the year. Instead, the new moons and leap months were calculated astronomically and mathematically from then on. However, nothing changed in the weekly cycle.

The testimony of the Talmud

The Talmud writes in great detail about the calendar, the festivals, the new moon, the weekly Sabbath. Why is there no mention of the lunar Sabbath anywhere?

How can the new moon be outside of the weekly cycle when reading the following quotes from the Talmud?

"The new moon is different from a festival... When a new moon falls on a Sabbath, the house of Shammai ruled that one should recite eight blessings in one's supplementary prayer. The House of Hillel decided: seven.« (Talmud, Eiruvin 40b) According to the doctrine of the lunar Sabbath, however, the new moon could not fall on a Sabbath.

"If the sixteenth [of Passover] falls on a Sabbath, they (parts of the Passover lamb) should be burned on the seventeenth, so as not to break either the Sabbath or the feast." (Talmud, Pesachim 83a) According to the teaching of the lunar Sabbath, the 16th day would be .but always the day after a lunar Sabbath.

The quotations make it clear that the Sabbath was not on fixed days of the lunar cycle, but moved independently through the year.

What do the Babylonian roots of the lunar Sabbath mean?

The Babylonians are said to have had a weekly rhythm similar to that advocated by the Lunar Sabbath followers. It also began with a new moon and the last week of the month then had more than seven days, as in today's lunar Sabbath teaching. But since when can Babylon have any role model function for us?

The Babylonians celebrated a shapatu mentioned moon festival on every 7th/14th/21st/28th of a month, i.e. one day earlier than the alleged lunar Sabbaths. Some scientists suspect that the Israelites took over the Sabbath celebration from the moon cult of Mesopotamia and detached it from the lunar cycle when they settled in Canaan. In doing so, however, they deny God's existence and explain the Jewish religion in evolutionary terms, or they do not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures, which have known the Sabbath since creation.

How does the eight-day week relate to the fourth commandment?

How should one behave on the leap days that sometimes appear at the end of a lunar cycle? They would not be rest days, nor would they be working days. But the fourth commandment says: You shall work six days and rest on the seventh! Why isn't the Bible directing this?

Why didn't Exodus 2 indicate that at least once a month on the Preparation Day three or four times the manna had to be gathered up if there really was a long weekend of two or three days?

When exactly is new moon day?

There are several ways to determine the new moon: astronomically, by eye, in Israel or where you live, etc. What standard should you use? In practical life, the followers of the lunar Sabbath can thus have their Sabbath celebrations separated by at least one day.

Ellen White and the Lunar Sabbath

How do the Lunar Sabbath keepers feel about the following statements by Ellen White? "The weekly cycle of seven literal days, six to work and the seventh to rest, originates in the grand reality of the first seven days." (spiritual gifts 3, 90)

“Then I was taken back to creation and saw that the first week, when God accomplished the work of creation in six days and rested on the seventh day, was just like any other week. The great God, in his days of creation and his day of rest, measured the first weekly cycle, which was to serve as a model for all the weeks that followed until the end of time.« (Spirit of Prophecy 1, 85)

Why am I letting myself be taken on ice?

The historical origin of the Lunar Sabbath doctrine and the numerous questions it raises show that we are not dealing with a biblical doctrine. The Lunar Sabbath therefore belongs in the enemy's bag of tricks. However, those who hold this doctrine should not be seen by us as enemies, but as people who are especially in need of our prayers and love. Haven't we discovered in ourselves the qualities that lead people to accept these and other heresies? There can be very noble motives for this: The desire to only do what seems to be the truth to one's own conscience, even against the tide. Or: The fire of a devotion that wants to show God what sacrifices it is willing to make. But also good faith, the longing for the eccentric and unfortunately all too often pride. How healthy are my family and community relationships? Could it be that I already have a marginal place in my social fabric that has opened me up to a doctrine likely to bring great confusion into my work, community, and community life? It's not for nothing that the devil is called diabolos, i.e. mess-maker. Because he wants to thoroughly thwart the mission of God's church.

Test me, Lord!

Unfortunately, credulity is particularly widespread among believers: one believes without actually checking. You trust the research of others, not because their arguments are convincing, but because they strike a chord within us. Adventists are »believing« people, unfortunately often »gullible« too. The harder something is to implement, the more you feel motivated. Because I have to overcome my ego! Perhaps martyrdom is already part of the self-image? Some outsiders have made a virtue out of necessity and voluntarily take refuge in the unusual, also in their faith. Worst of all, if we lack humility, we will go astray despite high intelligence and truthfulness.

The good news

The good news: God knows how to save us from all of this if we sincerely long for salvation and are willing to do his will against our will. He will give us discernment, knowledge of His will, balance and humility in our life of faith. He will also fill loneliness with His presence and comfort us. If we sincerely seek his face, he will lead us to our goal – if necessary through detours.