Dear All,
There are some new videos out there on Youtube purporting that the reason the rapture didn't happen this week is because the Jews and Christians are all using the wrong calendar, therefore they say the actual date of the Feast of Trumpets and the rapture is October 7-8, while another one says October 6-7. They use Psalm 81:3 as their key text. And the videos are multiplying rapidly.
My research on the new moon and full moon referred to in Ps 83:1 reveals that these are antonyms not synonyms. They do NOT mean the same thing. A man named Scotty created a video on Youtube stating that the actual Feast of Trumpets this year that was observed by Jews on September 23rd and 24th is actually supposed to be on October 7th and 8th. This is based on his wrong assumptions that 1) the three hours of darkness during the Lord’s crucifixion was a solar eclipse, 2) the Hebrew lunar calendar is completely backwards, 3) the Julian calendar is correct, and it is the one used in the Bible by the inspired authors, and 4) the words “new moon” and “full moon” mean the exact same thing. Based on these wrong assumptions, he states with certainty that the Jewish months actually begin on the full moon each month, thus when the Feast of Trumpets that starts on Tishrei 1 is actually beginning with a full moon, which does not occur until the next full moon, which he says is October 7-8th, 2025 this year, but it is actually October 6th. Here is my response to him:
Please allow me to share some important information that I have learned since watching your video last night, then praying about it and doing my own research in Scripture, Bible commentary, Hebrew language, solar eclipses, and logic.
1. Your first premise is faulty, because you assume that the 3 hrs of darkness during our Lord's crucifixion was due to a solar eclipse, but that was supernatural, just like the 3 days of darkness in Egypt (Ex 10:19-21) was supernatural. It was not caused by an eclipse. Total solar eclipses last anywhere from 10 seconds to about 7.5 minutes. In the span of 12,000 years from 4000 BCE to 8000 CE, the longest total solar eclipse will occur on July 16, 2186, and will last 7 minutes 29 seconds.
2. Jews have been using the lunar calendar back to the very beginning and are experts at it. They are following ancient traditions that have been handed down for thousands of years. It is critical for them, since they based their entire calendar, along with all Sabbaths and appointed feasts, on the lunar calendar, so it MUST be 100% accurate, or else they would be in violation of God's commandments, which could cause desecration of holy days. So the notion that you have just discovered, whereby you suppose that the Jews today, and ever since people in various countries switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, are completely wrong and have their lunar calendar backwards, is completely untenable. They are meticulous about this and experts at it, so it would be completely unreasonable to assume you have proved all Jews through the centuries to be wrong about their own calendar that they've maintained without intermission for thousands of years.
3. Logic and common sense tell us that if you were a Jew, and were going to come up with a name of what to call the moon when it is not reflecting any light yet, it would make perfect sense to call it "new", since it waxes from invisible to full and then wanes back to invisible again. The starting point of the lunar cycle is with the invisible moon, not with the one completely illuminated. Moreover, it would also make perfect sense to call a completely illuminated moon a "full" moon, since it is full of light or fully illuminated. It makes perfect sense to consider the invisible moon as the start of the cycle.
4. But a Jew coming up with the original name for the invisible moon would certainly know that God commanded Moses to begin all months with a certain type of moon that God called the "new moon". It would make no sense to assume that God commanded the Jews to begin every month with a full moon, when he used the term "new moon". To assume God commanded for all months to begin with a full moon would mean that immediately after the month begins, the moon would be waning until it became invisible at mid month and there would be one day in the middle of every month without any moon, then it would wax back to full, which would make no sense. It is completely counterintuitive to have no moon in the middle of every month. But it makes perfect sense that the moon would be invisible only at the beginning, and then always be visible throughout the month until the end of the month when the next month begins. Thus on day 1 it is transitioning from invisible to sliver crescent, and on day 2 the crescent is slightly larger, and so on with growth until mid-month.
5. The Hebrew word in Ps 81:3 that is translated into English as "new moon" is חדשׁ (chodesh). It appears frequently throughout the Old Testament, where it can refer to the "new moon," the "first day of the month," and the entire "lunar month" itself. The word is rooted in the Hebrew verb chadash, which means "to renew," highlighting the moon's renewal at the start of each month from invisible to a sliver crescent. It's a complete reset of the day counter to zero at the start of each month.
6. The most common Hebrew word for "month" is חודש (chodesh), which comes from the root meaning "new" or "renewed".
7. The Hebrew word for "moon" is Yareach (יָרֵחַ), which is the most common term for "moon", referring to the celestial body itself, and is also related to the concept of a "month". Another word, Levanah (לְבָנָה), is sometimes used in poetry and refers to the moon's whiteness.
8. Another ancient Hebrew word for "month", ירח (yerach), is related to the word "Yareach" for "moon" (see #7 above), emphasizing the lunar basis of the Hebrew calendar. This is similar to the English word "month" being related to "moon". Greek has the same thing whereby word Mene (μήνη), meaning "the Moon" also "the lunar month". For "month," the word is **mḗn (μήν).
9. You assume that the Jews were using the Julian calendar, but that was invented by Julius Caesar, a pagan Roman emperor in 45 BCE to reform the Roman calendar. It fixed the calendar to a 365-day solar year with a leap year every four years and introduced January 1 as the start of the year. This new system, named after Caesar, was used by the Western world for over 1,600 years before being replaced by the more accurate Gregorian calendar in 1582. It is not correct to say this was the biblical calendar of the Jews in the Old Testament, and they would have no reason to switch to it when Caesar established it in 45 BC, since that would be an abomination to use a pagan calendar for such a holy purpose. Even today, all Jewish holidays are based on the Hebrew calendar that they have maintained accurately for thousands of years, not on the Gregorian calendar.
10. You are saying the next full moon is October 7th, and that the Feast of Trumpets would occur on Oct 7th and 8th, but the next full moon is Oct 6th. So if Jews were to base their feast on the full moon being the first day of the feast and the first day of the month of Tishrei, and the first day of their new year, they would celebrate it on Oct 6, not Oct 7th as you say. You are claiming to know better than the Jews themselves when they should be celebrating their New Year, all their months, and their appointed holy feasts.
So I'm not being negative toward you, but based on your faulty initial premise about the solar eclipse, your entire argument is faulty and contradicts Scripture, Hebrew language, history, the lunar cycle, the correct date of the next full moon, and common sense, so it doesn't bear up under proper scrutiny.
Attribution Notice: Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible NIV, copyright Zondervan, used by permission.
Author's note: You must take responsibility for your own actions. Nobody knows the day or the hour, and in no way am I date setting. This is only to provide you with information, so that you can make your own decisions, for which you will be accountable to God.
Jacob's Trouble About to Be Fulfilled, Advance Preparations for the Bride of Christ, Seven-Year Peace Deal at September UN Summit?, How to Prepare for the Rapture, Must the Man of Sin Be Revealed Before the Rapture?, Noah and Lot Parallels with Rapture, The Great Shaking of 2025, and Warning Dream: The Tribulation Follows Rapture, Left-Behind Christians Hunted. You may also visit our Signs of the Times Directory, and access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master.
Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus. Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?
“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15). He preached that we must repent and believe.
Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"
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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International. He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org
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