Is the Lunar Sabbath Biblical or Pagan? I have some new information on this topic that you need to hear.
There are two main theories about when the Lunar Sabbath is to be calculated. The majority argue that the Sabbath will always fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th day of every lunar month, while a minority say it falls on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days of the month.
When we compare the Lunar Sabbath with the Bible we quickly see that it doesn’t line up with the Biblical Sabbath.
The first problem I see has to do with the transition from one month to the next. They reset their count each month, and because of this, there is not a consistent seven-day cycle.
So, the first question we need to ask is what do you do on the extra days between months?
Lunar Sabbath people say the 1st day and the 30th day of the month are neither workdays nor Sabbath days but are treated as “transition days” or “non-days”.
What the heck is a “non-day”?
I was told by one lunar sabbath keeper that only when the moon is visible is it considered a day, so when the moon is hidden or dark, they are neither workdays nor sabbath days, but are simply considered “non-days”.
- Where is that in the Bible?
- What do you do on those days?
- Do you work or do you rest?
The Bible doesn’t give any instructions for “non-days,” it only talks about workdays and Sabbath days.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
– Exodus 20:8-11“Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.”
– Exodus 23:12“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.”
– Exodus 34:21“Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.”
– Exodus 35:2“Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.”
– Leviticus 23:3
Do you see the pattern?
The pattern is to work six days and rest on the seventh. No mention of “non-days”. So, these transition days don’t fit the Biblical pattern. Are they workdays or Sabbath days? This is an important question because those are the only two options we have. If they are workdays, then you have anywhere from 7 to 9 days between sabbaths, and if they are rest days, then you have 2 to 3 rest days in a row before you start your workdays again. In either case, this does not fit the pattern established in the Bible.
Some say the 1st day of the month is a Sabbath, which means you only have one workday between the 29th and the 1st. That doesn’t fit the command to work for six days and rest on the seventh either.
In the beginning, when God established the Sabbath, the moon was not created until the middle of the week. So, we can safely assume that the first Sabbath was not based on the moon, but simply on counting days.
Now, let’s take a look at the giving of manna. This is when God established the pattern of keeping the Sabbath for Israel after they left Egypt.
God established the Sabbath by supplying manna for 6 days, then no manna was given on the 7th day.
“Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none.”
– Exodus 16:26
We are also told that on the 6th day there was extra manna given for the people to store up and eat on the Sabbath.
“See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth-day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”
– Exodus 16:29
This consistent seven-day cycle continued for 40 years in the wilderness and would have deeply ingrained the pattern for the Sabbath in their minds.
“And the children of Israel ate manna forty years until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.”
– Exodus 16:35
Now, let’s see how the Lunar Sabbath lines up with this.
Was manna provided on the 1st and 30th days of each month?
Was there any indication that extra manna would be given at the end of the month to supply for those “non-days”?
Or are those days meant to be fasting days?
If the Lunar Sabbath is true, then God must have failed to mention such details concerning the “transition days” between each month.
The manna instructions establish a continuous uninterrupted seven-day cycle that causes no questions about what to do when the month starts over because the Sabbath doesn’t reset each month.
Now, let’s look at the Feast days.
The Lunar Sabbath theory says that all of the appointed times are based on the moon, but that’s not true. Some of the Appointed times are based on the moon, but we are also told to count days for others.
For example, Passover is the 14th day of the first month, but we are told to count seven Sabbaths (49 days) to Shavuot (also known as Pentecost), which is on the day after the 7th Sabbath (day 50). If God wanted us to keep Shavuot on the 15th day of the 3rd month, then He would have commanded us to do so, but that’s not what He said. He told us to count days.
In fact, counting the days to Shavuot is another way to see that it’s a continuous seven-day cycle that does not reset each month. Counting seven Sabbaths must always equal 49 days because Shavuot is always on day 50 (the day after the seventh Sabbath).
The Lunar Sabbath people know this is a huge problem, but to work around it they count seven sabbaths (which is more than 49 days on the lunar calendar when you consider the “reset days”), then they count another 50 days on top of that, placing their Shavuot about seven weeks later than everyone else.
However, when they do this, they do not land on the day after the seventh Sabbath, and in most cases, they do not land on the day after any Sabbath. This is a huge problem because the Scripture specifically says it is on the day after the seventh Sabbath.
“And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. COUNT FIFTY DAYS TO THE DAY AFTER THE SEVENTH SABBATH; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.”
– Leviticus 23:15-16
This difference is very significant because when you count only seven weeks the grain is at the right stage to begin harvesting. But if you count seven sabbaths then add 50 more days, the grain is seven weeks past the time for harvest. This is a huge problem.
Likewise, the Sabbath command is not based on the lunar cycle, it’s found by counting. We are told to work 6 days, and rest on the 7th.
God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, and He called it “the Sabbath day.” But the lunar sabbath sanctifies the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days. The fact that God blessed and sanctified one specific day demonstrates that it’s a cyclical pattern. If that cycle is interrupted by extra days the pattern is broken and the Sabbath is violated. So, you can’t say the Lunar Sabbath is every seven days.
A better way to describe the Lunar Sabbath is to say, “they keep a Sabbath on certain days of the month.” If God wanted us to rest on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of every month, He would have told us to do it that way. But God didn’t do that. He told us to count days.
Now consider the fact that the Hebrew word for week is “shabua” meaning seven. The reason a “week” is called “shabua” is because it always contains seven days. In the same way a “dozen” always means twelve in English, a “shabua” always means seven in Hebrew. That being the case, a Biblical week can never be 8 or 9 days.
If a week is interrupted by extra days, we are no longer keeping the Sabbath on “the seventh day.” If we change the pattern that God set forth in the Bible, we are violating God’s commandments and thus we are not keeping the Sabbath on “the seventh day.”
“Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord…”
– Exodus 31:15
There are two parts to the Sabbath command. The first part is that we work for 6 days and the second part is we rest on the 7th day. This is an uninterrupted cycle. But the Lunar sabbath creates an interruption in this pattern every month. There is one week at the beginning of the month where you work more than 6 days and one week at the end of the month when you work less than 6 days.
The fact is, there is not a single verse in the entire Bible that tells us to base the Sabbath on the moon.
But, I actually found some very interesting evidence that the Babylonians did keep a lunar sabbath.
“The Babylonians appear to have observed a Sabbath on every seventh day of the lunar month, and it is probable that this usage was originally connected with the four quarters of the moon. Among the Jews the seven days’ week was reckoned independently of the moon…”
– Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, p.63
That quote was from the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, and listen to what else it says about the Babylonian lunar sabbath.
“Counting from the new moon, the Babylonians celebrated every seventh day as a “holy-day”, also called an “evil-day” (meaning “unsuitable” for prohibited activities). On these days officials were prohibited from various activities and common men were forbidden to “make a wish”, and at least the 28th was known as a “rest-day”. On each of them, offerings were made to a different god and goddess, apparently at nightfall to avoid the prohibitions: Marduk and Ishtar on the 7th, Ninlil and Nergal on the 14th, Sin and Shamash on the 21st, and Enki and Mah on the 28th. Tablets from the sixth-century BC reigns of Cyrus the Great and Cambyses II indicate these dates were sometimes approximate. The lunation of 29 or 30 days basically contained three seven-day weeks, and a final week of eight or nine days inclusive, breaking the continuous seven-day cycle.”
– Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. p. 889–891
It sounds like the lunar sabbath has more in common with Babylonian paganism than it does with the Bible.
Anyone who wants to keep the Biblical Sabbath needs to be aware of this dangerous pagan deception that’s been creeping in among us. The Lunar Sabbath is not Biblical, and if you’ve been keeping a lunar sabbath, then you need to repent for practicing paganism.