IS THERE
BIBLICAL REFERENCE FOR THE CORRECT TIME TO KEEP THE
HOLY DAYS?
SHOULD WE KEEP
THE NEW MOON TODAY?
HOW DO WE KEEP
THIS TODAY?
WILL IT BE
KEPT IN THE FUTURE
WHAT IS THE
CORRECT OBSERVANCE FOR US TODAY?
This is a very
interesting subject, which we have known very little
about. We have thought
that this special day was done away with the old
covenant rituals. But the new
moon is mentioned many times in the Old Testament and
a few times in the New
Testament.
When is the
correct time to keep the Holy Days? Many people
have many ideas as to how
to calculate the correct days. Why?
Many people have reams of writings on how and
when these days should be
calculated, one has to have a degree in astronomy to
have a vague idea of what
all these writings mean. Why all this
confusion, when there is
simplicity in Christ? The Holy Days were meant
to be observed by God’s
people, God instructed us to observe, remember, and
keep the Holy Days.
This could not happen if knowing when they fall is
difficult to calculate.
Remember we are
not wise people, by the world's standards.
1Co
1:26 For
you see your calling, brethren,
that not many wise according to the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble, are called.
Now let’s look at
what God says about His Holy Days. The way we
know when all the Holy Days
fall is by the moon.
Gen
1:14 Then
God said, "Let there be
lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the
day from the night; and
let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and
years;
The new moon,
falls on the 1st of the month, the Feast of Trumpets
is on the first of the
month and is on the new moon.
Lev
23:24 "Speak
to the children of
Psa
81:3 Blow
the trumpet at the time of the
New Moon, At the appointed time, on our solemn feast
day.
The above
scriptures show that the new
moon falls on the first of the month, therefore all
the Holy Days in any given
month can be calculated simply by knowing which day is
the new moon and
counting from there. The phases of the moon are
available on the internet
under the astronomical information put out by the
government.
The new moon is
simply the day that is
stated by the government for that month.
There is no need
to watch for crescents of
the moon etc, the new moon is clearly stated to be on
a certain day of the
month, and that is the 1st of the month on God’s
calendar.
The only thing we
need to be careful of is the actual time of the new
moon. The Government
site will tell you the exact time of the new moon, we
need to look and see if
it is before or after sunset. For example if
sunset was at 6 pm on a
Sunday, and the new moon at 6.30 pm on a Sunday, then
the new moon would be the
Monday, starting at sunset on the Sunday night at 6
pm. This is the only
tricky bit in calculating the time of the new moon. Remember the
world starts days at midnight
and God says the day starts at the setting of the sun.
We need to take
the time to look up the scriptures on this subject,
check into things, have an
open mind, and ask God to lead us and show us the
truth.
What does God tell us to do?
Do we believe the bible, and are we prepared to have a
teachable attitude with
regard to new truth?
All things will
be restored in the end time. God will give new truth
and restore all things to
His end time church. Be prepared to change, examine
and believe what God is showing
us. This is important, God expects His firstfruits to
be teachable.
Let’s look at the
verses about this special day in the bible, and let’s
see what God says about
these new moon observances.
SHOULD WE
OBSERVE THE NEW MOON TODAY
Num
10:10 Also
in the day of your gladness,
in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of
your months, you shall blow
the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the
sacrifices of your peace
offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you
before your God: I am the
LORD your God."
Notice these
points, in the beginnings of your months {this is the
new moon} we shall blow
trumpets over our burnt offerings and sacrifices of
peace offerings, for a
memorial. We know that today we do not have burnt
offerings or peace offerings,
but these should be substituted by prayer to God, as
per the following Psalm.
Psa
116:17 I
will offer to You the sacrifice
of thanksgiving, And will call upon the name of the
LORD.
We do not blow
trumpets today either, but they were used for many
reasons in the Old Testament
times, for a warning, for festive occasions, meeting
of the leaders, meeting of
the people, God meeting with Israel at Mt. Sinai. The
trumpets were used to
herald an important event. So this would indicate that
the new moon is
important to God.
The new moon was
for a memorial. We must not forget these days. A
memorial is something that has
to be remembered.
2Ki
4:22 Then
she called to her husband, and
said, "Please send me one of the young men and one
of the donkeys, that I
may run to the man of God and come back."
2Ki
4:23 So
he said, "Why are you going
to him today? It is
neither the
New Moon nor the Sabbath." And she said, "It is well."
We see by this
verse that it was the custom to seek out the man of
God on the new moon.
However, it is not stated in the scriptures that the
new moon is a Holy Day, it
is not a sabbath either, so on the new moon we need to
spend a lot more time on
bible study and prayer than we would on a normal day.
If we have a few brethren
living close by it would be appropriate to get
together for a bible study. If
we do not have this luxury, then we need to fellowship
with God ourselves in
prayer and bible study.
There is a good
possibility that most of the new moons fall on a work
day, so because it is not
a commanded religious assembly, we need to spend a
good deal of our time on
that day in prayer and study.
1Ch
23:31 and
at every presentation of a
burnt offering to the LORD on the Sabbaths and on
the New Moons and on the set
feasts, by number according to the ordinance
governing them, regularly before
the LORD;
We see here quite
clearly that the new moons are mentioned along with
the sabbaths and the feasts
of God. So it is obvious that God wants them kept
today. The sabbaths and the
feast days are binding forever and we will prove in
this article that the new
moons are also to be observed by the people of God
today.
2Ch
2:4 Behold,
I am building a temple for
the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it
to Him, to burn before Him sweet incense, for the
continual showbread, for the
burnt offerings morning and evening, on the
Sabbaths, on the New Moons, and on
the set feasts of the LORD our God. This is
an ordinance forever to
Again we see the
new moon mentioned with the sabbath and the feast
days, but notice the last
line of the above scripture, this is an ordinance
forever to
Isa
1:13 Bring
no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the
Sabbaths, and the calling
of assemblies I cannot endure iniquity and the
sacred meeting.
Isa
1:14 Your
New Moons and your appointed
feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am
weary of bearing them.
Isa
1:15 When
you spread out your hands, I
will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make
many prayers, I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.
Some people might
read this above scripture and think that the new moons
are hated by God. This
is not so, notice it says your new moons and your
appointed feasts. That means
that the people keeping them are not doing so in the
right heart and spirit,
these festivals and times are God’s when they are kept
correctly. If we don’t
talk about God on the Sabbath day amongst the
brethren, if the sermons are weak
wishy washy stuff with no meat and no meat in due
season, if they are
not truthful and only man’s ideas and not God’s words,
how can God be pleased
with them? It
is not the sabbath or
festivals or new moons that God hates it is the way
some people keep them that
is upsetting to God.
The above
scriptures state plainly that the new moon should be
observed today.
HOW DO WE
OBSERVE THE NEW MOON TODAY?
1Sa
20:5 And
David said to Jonathan,
"Indeed tomorrow is the
New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king
to eat. But let me go, that
I may hide in the field until the third day
at evening.
Here we see that
the king held a meal with family and friends on the
new moon.
1Sa
20:24 Then
David hid in the field. And
when the New Moon had come, the king sat down to eat
the feast.
1Sa
20:25 Now
the king sat on his seat, as
at other times, on a seat by the wall. And Jonathan
arose, and Abner sat by
Saul's side, but David's place was empty.
The above
scripture indicates that it was also David’s custom to
have a meal with family
and friends on the new moon.
It would seem
appropriate that on the new moon we have a family meal
or a meal with brethren.
If this is
possible, also as stated
above 2 Kings 4 v 22-23 it is also a time to consult a
man of God. As
stated above if we cannot meet together on
this day it is appropriate to spend the day with God
in prayer and study. This
is as much as possible if the new moon falls on a work
day.
Eze 46:1 'Thus says
the Lord GOD: "The gateway of
the inner court that faces toward the east shall be
shut the six working days;
but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and on the
day of the New Moon it shall
be opened.
Eze
46:2 The
prince shall enter by way of
the vestibule of the gateway from the outside, and
stand by the gatepost. The
priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his
peace offerings. He shall
worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall
go out, but the gate shall
not be shut until evening.
Eze
46:3 Likewise
the people of the land
shall worship at the entrance to this gateway before
the LORD on the Sabbaths
and the New Moons.
This scripture
indicates that the people will worship on the new moon
at the door of the gate
to the inner court. Notice that it is shut the rest of
the week but on the
sabbath it is open and on the new moon.
Col
2:16 So
let no one judge you in food or
in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or
sabbaths,
The new moon is
mentioned in the New Testament, so it would appear
that the disciples observed
the new moons.
It is plain that
we should have a meal with family and friends and
spend as much time as
possible in prayer and study on the new moon.
WILL THE NEW
MOON BE OBSERVED IN THE
Isa
66:23 And
it shall come to pass That
from one New Moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall
come to worship before
Me," says the LORD.
In the
WERE THERE ANY
MAJOR EVENTS ON THE NEW MOON?
Gen
8:5 And
the waters decreased continually
until the tenth month. In the tenth month,
on the first day of
the month,
the tops of the mountains were seen.
Here we see that
the first sighting of land, after the flood in Noah’s
day occurred on the new
moon.
Exo
40:2 "On
the first day of the first
month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of
meeting.
Exo
40:3 You
shall put in it the ark of the
Testimony, and partition off the ark with the veil.
On the new moon
the tabernacle was set up and the ark put inside.
Notice that work is done on
the day of the new moon thus proving that it is not a
sabbath.
Num 1:1 Now the
LORD spoke to Moses in the Wilderness
of Sinai, in the tabernacle of meeting, on the first
day of the second month, in the
second year after they had come
out of the land of Egypt, saying:
Num
1:2 "Take
a census of all the
congregation of the children of
The Israelites
were numbered on the new moon.
2Ch
29:17 Now
they began to sanctify on the
first day
of the first month,
and on the eighth day of the month they came to the
vestibule of the LORD. So
they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days,
and on the sixteenth day
of the first month they finished.
The sanctification of the Lords house was
started on the new moon.
Ezr
10:14 Please,
let the leaders of our
entire assembly stand; and let all those in our
cities who have taken pagan
wives come at appointed times, together with the
elders and judges of their
cities, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned
away from us in this
matter."
Ezr
10:15 Only
Jonathan the son of Asahel
and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah opposed this, and
Meshullam and Shabbethai the
Levite gave them support.
Ezr
10:16 Then
the descendants of the
captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with
certain heads of the fathers' households,
were set apart by the fathers' households,
each of them by name; and they sat down on the first
day of the tenth month to
examine the matter.
Ezr
10:17 By
the first day of the first month
they finished questioning
all
the men who had taken pagan wives.
On the new moon
all the men whose wives were not Israelites pledged to
put them away.
Neh 8:1 Now all
the people gathered together as one
man in the open square that was
in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the
scribe to bring the Book of
the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded
Israel.
Neh
8:2 So
Ezra the priest brought the Law
before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on
the first day of the seventh
month.
On the new moon
the book of the law of Moses was read to all the
people who could hear with
understanding. This was the feast of Trumpets.
The following
scripture shows the feast of Trumpets falls on the new
moon, the first of the
seventh month.
Lev
23:24 "Speak
to the children of
We see quite
plainly that the new moon was and still is important
to God.
Amo
8:5 Saying:
"When will the New Moon
be past, That we may sell grain? And the Sabbath,
That we may trade wheat?
Making the ephah small and the shekel large,
Falsifying the scales by deceit,
We know by other
scriptures that the new moon is not a sabbath. This
verse is talking about
abolishing God’s calendar so business can be carried
out on every day of the
week. Remember that the moon is used to calculate
times and seasons, so if the
moon was not observed then God’s sabbaths and Holy
days would be lost in time
by man.
Gen
1:14 Then
God said, "Let there be
lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the
day from the night; and
let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and
years;
Gen
1:15 and
let them be for lights in the
firmament of the heavens to give light on the
earth"; and it was so.
We see here that
God sets the sun and the moon for signs, seasons, days
and years. They are a
method of telling the start of the day and the month.
God has set them for us
to know these things.
They are for light
and warmth as well.
For today, on the
new moon, it would be appropriate to have a meal with
family and friends, do as
much prayer and bible study as is possible and observe
it from the sunset to
sunset.
There are many
schools of thought on when the actual new moon is, but
we have to follow our
calendar as we do for the Sabbath.
As stated above
the Government of your country should have a web site
showing what time the new
moon is. In
We must be
extremely careful to worship God and not the moon. The
new moon is for a sign.
It is God who we worship.
