I thought to entitle this series of papers “Sacred Calendar Confusion”, but “chaos” describes it more accurately, as “confusion” simply means to “make mentally uncertain” while “chaos” means “complete disorder”, a juncture which we have nearly reached. If one will search the scriptures, one will find that Yahshua Christ Himself placed His stamp-of-approval on Israel’s true calendar, which I will address more thoroughly before this subject is concluded. If Christ’s word cannot be trusted, pray tell, whose word can we trust? Some proclaim that the Sacred Calendar should be totally lunar while others claim that it should be totally solar, and neither of these premises are correct. And if the premise is flawed, so is the final conclusion. Thus, we must categorize these two splinter-groups into an anti-solar camp and an anti-lunar camp; those in the one camp voicing the reputed evils of the other.

From the solar-only (anti-lunar) camp comes Eli James in his introduction to an article entitled Yahweh’s Solar Calendar sent to yours truly by Eli Fri. 24 Aug 2007 saying:

“Our present lunar-based calendar is fraudulently derived from the ideological ambiguities of the Jews. It is NOT Scriptural. As a matter of fact, the lunar-based calendar of the Jews originated in Babylon, with the pagan Babylonians, not with the Hebrews. The Jewish Masoretes, who were the successors of the abominable cult of Pharisees in Judea, operating in the first millennium after Christ, successfully tampered with the paleo-Hebrew Scriptures by utilizing corrupted translations, which make it appear that ‘new moons’ are part of the Hebrew Calendar! The fact is that their deceptive, lunar theology and calendar dating were introduced into our Bible many centuries AFTER the Hebrew Scriptures were given. I will first proceed to explain how lunar reckoning was inserted into the Scriptures and then explain how the solar calendar works.”

Eli makes several general statements here which demand a more in-depth explanation to be correctly understood. Subsequently I will address some of these vague assertions. Eli continues eight paragraphs later:

“Bear in mind that this is a subject on which there is literally tons of misinformation. Let it be understood that no doctrine, which lacks Biblical support, is acceptable to Yahweh. We are to do it His way, not the Jewish way, not the Babylonian way, nor the Egyptian way. As will be amply demonstrated herein, this means that there is to be NO recognition of the moon’s phases in Yahweh’s solar calendar. There are two lights in the sky which divide times and seasons. They are the Sun by day and the stars by night; and this is an eternal absolute, which is true every day and every night. We can navigate the oceans by these lights, but not by the moon. We can distinguish the seasons by the Sun’s angles and by the constellations. When the moon is in conjunction with the Sun, it does not reveal itself on these nights, because it is on the same side of the sky as the Sun, reflecting the Sun’s light away from the earth. The moon does not tell us seasons or times of day. Nor does the moon shine by its own light, so the moon is a non-factor. We may appreciate the time and effort that some of our well-meaning Israelites have made in order to incorporate the moon into Yahweh’s calendar, but, as I will show, it is a simple fact that any lunar calendar or lunar-solar calendar is not Scriptural and therefore unfit for true Israel.”

Continuing, Eli says under a subheading “New Moons Versus Months in the Hebrew”:

“I hereby wish to acknowledge my fellow Christian Israelites, who have contributed much research into this subject: Pastor Kenneth Lent, Scott Vaught, Russ Walker, and Dan Raber. Raber, Vaught and Walker have developed a calendar, which is very similar to that of Pastor Kenneth Lent’s; but various details still need to be worked out. This document is an attempt to sift through the work done by all these dedicated men in order to arrive at the most logical and Scripture-based Solar Calendar.”

I am not familiar with Kenneth Lent, but have personally met Scott Vaught, Russell Walker, and Dan Raber. Vaught, Walker and Raber (along with Buddy Johnson, whom I have also met) are the fabricators and promoters of the heresy-based “In Search Of The Lost Birthright”, where they falsely claim that Yahshua Christ is of the tribe of Ephraim rather than Judah (a doctrine derived from the bad-fig-jews). It seems their latest scheme is named somewhat like: “In Search Of Yahweh’s Lost Solar Calendar” (I read it in an E-mail, and forget the exact wording). Reasonably speaking, I have trepidation regarding their latest endeavor!

Before I get this thing started, however, I would like the reader to know that I am on good speaking terms with Eli James, though we don’t agree on this issue. I have E-mailed Eli stating clearly my position along with quoting the passage where Christ gave instruction on what Biblical calendar we are to follow, yet Eli remains firm.

THE MOON AS A SATELLITE OF THE EARTH

Over the years, I have read and heard by spoken word several comments concerning the evil attributes of the moon in comparison with the sun. Eli James mentioned only a few. According to the anti-lunar camp, the moon is a dead body and serves no beneficial purpose. If that were true, which it isn’t, we should call up a good star-and-planet towing service and have it hauled to a moon-junkyard or black-hole in outer-space somewhere! I will have more to say about this later. Let’s now determine, once and for all, whether or not “the moon is a non-factor” as Eli James states.

First of all, it is imperative that we take an overall view of this matter to see where we fit as a dweller of the earth. The following is a portion from Bertrand L. Comparet’s The Bible Is Scientific:

“... Let’s not just stay on earth, nor even in the solar system, let’s examine our entire galaxy, the multitude of stars which form the Milky Way. There are at least thirty billion stars in this one galaxy, which is shaped like a biconvex lens. Our own sun is one of the minor stars in this system, and its position is about 2/3rds of the way out toward one edge of the galaxy. We are some 30,000 light years away from the center of the galaxy.

“Since one light year is about 5,870,000,000,000 miles, our distance from the center of the galaxy, being 30,000 times farther, is more than one sextillion miles. In numerals it is 1,761 followed by 15 zeros. The entire galaxy, this vast lens shaped mass of stars, rotates around its collective center of gravity, the whole galaxy making one rotation in about 200 million years.

“The center of gravity of the galaxy is marked by the star Alcyone, which is the brightest star in the constellation Pleiades. Considering that this is nearly two sextillion miles away from us, it wasn’t easy to get acquainted with it. Our knowledge on the subject came within the lifetime of men still alive. It is amazing, but in Job 38:31 Yahweh asks Job, ‘Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades?’ Yes, it is a sweet influence, for it keeps us on our course so we don’t wander aimlessly through space until we collide with some mighty solar system. It is also worth noting that the Hebrew word for Pleiades, is kee-maw, which also means pivot or hinge. I guess we will have to admit that Yahweh is pretty much up-to-date after all.”

I added this critical footnote to Comparet’s comment: “Here Comparet brings to us some amazing insight on how our galaxy works, yet there are those in Israel Identity today who speculate that in ancient times Earth had a perfect 360 day year. If our entire galaxy is influenced by Pleiades, how do these gainsayers account for such a change? Did they live 200 million years ago to verify such a claim?” May I also suggest, with this paper, that our Earth, with its satellite moon, may have made hundreds, if not thousands, of orbits around the edge of the Milky Way, taking 200 million Earth-years each time around. Those who advocate a 360 day year are mistaking a calendar year for a prophetic year. A prophetic day = one year; a month in prophecy = 30 years; 42 months in prophecy = 1260 years etc. Let’s now glean some data concerning the moon from the Collier’s and World Book encyclopedias.

I shall limit my citations from these sources and avoid technical terms such as perigee and apogee but rather use simple terms and stick to the basics of space mechanics. In Collier’s under the heading “Moon” and the subheading “Motions”, it says: “The moon’s motion, though influenced primarily by the earth, is also influenced to a considerable extent by the sun. As a result the explanation of this motion is one of the most complex problems of mechanics ...” For the novice, it can be boiled down to two simple basic laws of motion: (1) gravity, and (2) centrifugal force. If gravity is greater than centrifugal force, two or more heavenly bodies are doomed to come together and be formed into one mass. If centrifugal force is greater than gravity, a heavenly body is doomed to wander aimlessly through space. It is only when gravity and centrifugal force are delicately balanced that heavenly bodies find a stable, enduring useable orbit. Among the various orbits, there are some that are quite unique, such as those of comets and twin stars. There are some twin stars in the universe having no planets, or that have moons that revolve around each other like a cat chasing its tail (or should I say two cats, each chasing the other cat’s tail).

Now narrowing our subject down to our particular solar (sun) system and just considering the motion of our Earth and Moon around our Sun, we must analyze how our Earth works in tandem with our Moon. Our Earth and Moon are very similar to the motion of the twin star system (like two cats chasing each others’ tail), except the earth has a mass approximately eighty-one times that of the moon and a surface gravity about six times that of the moon.

Quoting from Collier’s under the subheading “Earth-Moon System” we read: “It is of course not strictly correct to say that the moon revolves about the earth; rather, they both revolve about their common center of mass, which lies well below the earth’s surface ...” It could be likened to a wheel on an automobile which is badly out of balance causing the wheel to wobble. In other words, the average mass of the earth combined with the mass of the moon is not at the center of the earth but is offset to a point where they average out. Thus, both the earth and the moon are in a secondary wobbling motion in their orbit around the sun. The midpoint of the earth-moon “center of mass” of gravity lies below the earth’s crust and has passed under our feet many times. Our Earth has been intimately connected with our Moon since time immemorial, and will remain that way as long as Christ sits on His Throne. Several animated diagrams can be found on the Internet. Just type “tides, lunar, solar” into a search engine.

Therefore, if the moon were suddenly removed from the earth, as the solar-only camp would have it, the average mass would be lessened, and the earth would change its course for parts in outer-space unknown. The moral of the story is, though we do not worship the moon, we better be thankful to Yahweh for placing it where it is, and pray He will never remove it. But this is only one of the important reasons we should appreciate the influence of the moon.

THE MOON’S INFLUENCE ON OUR WATERWAYS AND ATMOSPHERE

The moon is hardly a “non-factor” when it comes to tides and atmospheric changes. It is the height of foolishness to advocate otherwise! From the World Book Encyclopedia under the topic “Tide” and subtopic “Tides Follow the Moon” ¶ 5, we read:

“Both the sun and the moon exert a pull on the earth called gravitation. The force of this pull depends on the body’s mass (amount of matter) and on the distance of the body from the earth. The force is proportional to the mass of the body. Therefore, if the body’s mass could be doubled, the body would exert twice as much force on the earth. The force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance (the distance multiplied by itself) between the body and the earth. Therefore, if the distance of the body from the earth could be doubled, the body would exert only one-fourth as much force on the earth.

“The sun and the moon pull harder on the side of the earth nearest them than they do on the center of the earth, because the center is farther away. It is this difference in pull that produces the tides. The difference is inversely proportional to the cube of the distance (the distance multiplied by itself twice) between the body and the earth. Therefore, if the distance of a body from the earth could be doubled, the body would exert only one-eighth as much tide-producing force on the earth.

“The sun has about 27 million times as much mass as the moon. Therefore, if the sun and the moon were the same distance from the earth, the sun would exert about 27 million times as much tide-producing force as the moon. But the sun is about 390 times as far from the earth as the moon. So the tide-producing force of the sun is only 46 per cent as great as that produced by the moon. As a result, the tides caused by the sun are only 46 per cent as high as those caused by the moon. The tides caused by the sun and by the moon combine to produce the tides seen along the seacoast.”

Collier’s Encyclopedia, under the topic “Tides”, and sub-topic “Tidal Inequalities”, ¶ 3 & 4:

“... Until now, we have been concerned only with the tide-raising effect of the moon. The sun’s gravitational field also affects tides, but, although the sun is much more massive than the moon, its distance is so much greater that its tide-raising force is less than half that of the moon’s. Nevertheless, when the sun and moon are in line, either on the same side or on opposite sides of the earth – at new or full moon – and their gravitational forces pull together along a common axis, the high tides due to the sun are superimposed upon the high tides due to the moon; similarly the alignment of the sun’s gravitational force detracts from the low tides due to the moon. The result is that the high tides are higher, and the low tides lower, than those produced by the moon alone. Tides showing such effects of reinforcement of gravitational action are called spring tides.

“When the gravitational forces of sun and moon act along lines at right angles to each other – as at first-quarter and last-quarter moon – the tide-raising effects of sun and moon tend to cancel each other, since the high tide produced by the sun is superimposed upon the low tide caused by the moon. Under such conditions, the high tides are not as high, nor the low tides as low as produced by the moon alone, and these intermediate tides are known as neap tides. The range between high and low, in this case, is reduced by a factor of about one third, as compared with spring tides. In the Atlantic Ocean, both spring and neap high tides usually follow the appropriate phase of the moon by a full day; in the Pacific, the delay is only five hours. At New York and San Francisco harbors, and in the Gulf of Mexico, spring tides are 40 per cent greater than neap tides. This effect is additive to other possible effects.”

Like the ocean lunar and solar tides, there are lunar and solar tides in the atmosphere. The solar atmospheric tides have a considerable influence on the weather, though from what I can gather, the lunar atmospheric tides have little effect. And like the ocean lunar and solar tides the atmospheric tides can work in tandem when in phase. Maybe in the future, it will be found that the lunar atmospheric tides have more effect on the weather than ever anticipated. If so, it might account for the immense lightning storms which produce tons of nitrogen for our crops. Be that as it may, there are other beneficial effects caused by the ocean lunar tides which as yet have not been considered.

Ocean tides have a profound effect on coastal marine life. Studies have shown that upon removal of these species from their natural environment that their biological lunar time-clocks continue to function. Some of these marine species even time their reproductive cycle to the tides. This should not surprise anyone, as a woman’s menstrual cycle is in harmony with the moon, both at conception and birth of a child. Ask any nurse who has worked in a maternity ward and she will say: “a full moon, a full house”. Though born at other times, most children are born on or near either the new or full moons. Christ Himself was born at a new moon as hidden in allegory at Rev. 12:1-5. This would put Christ’s birth on Sept. 11 (Tishri 1), 3 B.C. shortly after sunset. I go into detail on this subject in my brochure The Day The Word Became Flesh. If a woman’s menstrual cycle is attuned to the moon, our very existence may be in jeopardy without it!

Other aspects of lunar and solar tides include aids for navigation. For example many rivers and harbors have a shallow bar at the entrance which will prevent boats with a significant draft from entering at certain low water depressions of the tide, and such navigation must be made without error to avoid disastrous results. Tides also serve to help sweep out the main channels and keep them deep. They also help keep the harbors clean and healthful by picking up all sorts of waste material, such as dead marine species, from the thousands of miles of coastlines of the world, carrying it to deeper water where it can become part of the food-chain or settle to the bottom and decompose. Had we not had this natural disposal system caused by the tides, we might have died out long ago of various plagues and diseases. Are we really sure we want to badmouth the moon?

It is not clear whether Eli James is a disciple of Kenneth Lent or Lent a disciple of James, but under the influence of Lent, Eli states: “... There are two lights in the sky which divide times and seasons. They are the Sun by day and the stars by night; and this is an eternal absolute ...” Yet in Charles Thomson’s translation of the Septuagint at Psalm 135[136]:8-9 it states: “the sun to rule the day: for His mercy endureth forever – the moon and the stars to rule the night ...” Brenton’s LXX reads: “8 The sun to rule by day; for his mercy endures for ever. 9 The moon and the stars to rule the night ...” Now Eli put his stamp-of-approval on the Septuagint, so is it correct here or not? Brenton’s LXX at Psalm 148:3 says: “Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all ye stars and light.” KJV has: “... stars of Light ...” Brenton’s LXX at Ecc. 12:2 reads: “While the sun and light are not darkened, nor the moon and the stars; nor the clouds return after the rain.” Brenton’s LXX at Jer. 31:35 (Bible Works) says: “Thus saith the Lord [sic Yahweh], who gives the sun for a light by day, the moon and the stars for a light by night, and makes a roaring in the sea ...” Thus the LXX speaks consistently of three types of entities, not two. Brenton’s LXX at Gen. 1:16 reads: “And God made the two great lights, the greater light for regulating the day and the lesser light for regulating the night, the stars also.” [Notice the KJV added “he made” in italics before “the stars also” whereas Brenton didn’t since “he made” is not in the Greek.] So again three entities. At Psalm 103[104]:19 in Brenton’s LXX the moon is appointed especially over the seasons: “He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knows his going down.” And searching all of Scripture, there is not a single passage which assigns the seasons to the sun or stars in any translation! Yahshua Christ sanctioned the Hebrew calendar of His day when He said at Matt. 23:3 “All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” Hence, if Christ was not crucified at the appointed time, it was all for naught!