Warm hellos friends, brethren, co-workers, spiritual family, and scattered children of God from here on the Gulf Coast. My wife and I pray and hope this finds you doing well, and that again your week has been blessed.

I need to correct something that was stated in my letter sent out last Friday evening. I had written that “Noah and his family left the ark exactly 371 days, or 53 seven day weeks, after they had entered it.”

The time period is actually 378 days (which is 54 seven day weeks). Noah and his family were in the ark seven days before the Flood began. Genesis 7:1 “Then the LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark” . . . Genesis 7:4 “For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth.” The calculations are based on Genesis 7:24 “And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days” and the date the Flood began, (second month, the seventeenth day of the month Genesis 7:11) and the date the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat, (seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month – Genesis 8:4) which is exactly 5 months. 150 days divided by 5 months = 30 days per month. I know this can be puzzling because the present lunar cycle is approximately 29-1/2 days. There were tremendous geological changes that took place during and after the Flood. Maybe there were astronomical changes affecting the speed of the rotation of the earth? We can only speculate about such things from our vantage point.

So, let’s continue. The following are several quotes from an article entitled “Creation and the Seven-Day Week.”

“The human race never lost the septenary [seven day] sequence of week days and that the Sabbath of these latter times comes down to us from Adam, though the ages, without a single lapse.”- Dr. Totten, professor of astronomy at Yale University.

“Seven has been the ancient and honored number among the nations of the earth. They have measured their time by weeks from the beginning. The origin of this was the Sabbath of God, as Moses has given the reasons for it in his writings.”- Dr. Lyman Coleman.

“There has been no change in our calendar in past centuries that has affected in any way the cycle of the week.”-James Robertson, Director American Ephemeris, Navy Department, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., March 12, 1932.

The article also refers to and has a link to a chart prepared by well-known British researcher Dr. William Meade Jones, about a hundred years ago. Dr. Jones claims that “Well over a hundred languages prove that the week, everywhere, has seven days – and that, in most languages, the native word for the seventh day is “Sabbath” (which means “rest” or “rest day”) or “rest day.” Jones presents a long list of languages in which the vast majority indicate a seven day weekly cycle, and the seventh day means Sabbath or Rest.

Here are a few for example: * Hebrew Bible Yom Hash Shabbath or Day of the Sabbath * Hebrew (ancient and modern) Shabbath or Sabbath * Ancient Syriac Shabbatho or Sabbath * Chaldee Syriac (Kurdistan; Urumia, Persia) Shapta or Sabbath * Samaritan (Nablas, Palestine) (use old Hebrew letters) Yoma Hasheviah or Day the Seventh and Shabbath or Sabbath * Babylonian (Euphrates and Tigris Valleys, Mesopotamia)  Sabatu or Sabbath * Assyrian (Euphrates & Tigris Valleys, Mesopotamia) Sabatu or Sabbath.

Let’s take a quick moment to examine the counting of Pentecost or the feast of Weeks. Leviticus 23:15-16 states: “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.” The term “Sabbath” (Hebrew shabbath) is introduced at the beginning of the chapter and is defined as the seventh day of the seven day cycle. This must be considered in determining the day for the wave sheaf offering. It was to be waved on the day after the Sabbath (Hebrew shabbath) or on the first day of the week.

The obvious implication of Leviticus 23:15-16 is that 7 consecutive weekly Sabbaths are to be counted off, and then the count of 50 days comes to or arrives at the day after the seventh weekly Sabbath. (7 X 7 +1 = 50). Because the lunar months are determined to be either 29 or 30 days in length, the count to the day after the seventh Sabbath determined by the lunar new moon-Sabbath construct would be either 51 or 52 days instead of the 50 days. This would be in error, and  this method to determine the weekly Sabbath would simply not be correct.

I hope I’ve not belabored the analysis and examination of the Lunar Sabbath Theory, but I thought it was important to look at the evidence that refutes it. We must be careful as to not teach ideas that are not congruous with God’s Word.

The Church of God Ministries continues to use the Hebrew or Jewish calendar to determine the calendar dates for celebrating the Biblical festivals or Holy Days. This has been the practice of most of the church of God community for a long time. The Jewish or Hebrew calendar does not mention using the new moon or molad of Tishri to determine the weekly cycle. I might add, we also don’t use the Gregorian calendar as the basis for determining the biblical festivals.

Some thoughts to consider as we near the end of another week, and look forward to God’s Sabbath.

Arms up friends! Our sincere prayers and thoughts are with you daily. Thanks in advance for your heartfelt prayers for us.