Over the three decades I have known and taught about the true restored sacred calendar, I've run into some very adamant opponents with their own agenda, leaning to their own misunderstandings on this vital topic.
Most would-be "sacred calendar" proponents are, in fact, guilty of lunatic misinterpretations of the scriptural commandments related to the Feasts AND sabbaths.
One typical present-day false teacher on the subject says:
"…the calendar is solar and lunar, requiring light from both luminaries. The moon reflects light from the sun, and at Chodesh (rebuilt moon), the full moon rises on the eastern horizon as the sun is setting on the western horizon. The simultaneous glow on the two horizons signals the end of one month and the beginning of another."
Of course, scripture does NOT say anything like this.
In fact, when read correctly, scripture unquestionably disproves this entire notion.
For example, Pentecost's 50 days includes seven sabbaths prior to Pentecost, which begins not on a sabbath, but the day after the last feast day sabbath of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:15-16).
This is not just my own idea, as the NIV Study Bible footnote to Numbers 28:26-31 admits:
"The Feast of Weeks came 50 days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread (see Lev. 23:9-22); from this number the term "Pentecost" (meaning "fifty") was used in the NT (see Acts 2:1 and note)."
Lunar Misdirection
More anciently, approximately half a century earlier, the numerical variation "penteconta" (meaning "fiftieth") of this same word was used in the Greek Septuagint translation of Leviticus 23:16.
According to these two verses of scripture, Pentecost itself is a Feast sabbath that falls the day after the seventh sabbath -- and this always falls on the 16th day of the 3rd Sacred Calendar "month," exactly 50 days following Unleavened Bread (hence the name Penta-cost, or count fifty).
According to Exodus 19:1, 10-11, 16-19, it was this date in the third cycle "month" when the commandments were first given through Moses.
In no way can luni-solar "calendars" fit into such scriptures as Exodus 16, which reveal the true sabbaths as yearly dates and not any particular day of the present calendar week.
The term "chodes" never refers to the moon in scripture, just as the word yerach never refers to anything other than the moon or a lunar cycle, which is why both words are sometimes found in the same verses, the former referring to the true scriptural cycle months and the latter referring to pagan lunar "months," which are not and never were the same thing at all.
The books of Enoch and Jubilees reveal how lunations are the means by which the true calendar was prophesied to become corrupted, by foolish men whose hearts have become darkened and unable to learn the truth.
Which is that the true Sacred Calendar is a breath of fresh air compared to the confused and confusing mishmash false calendar advocates call a "luni-solar calendar," in which supposed "sabbaths" are often two, three, four, five, six, eight or even nine day "weeks" (number of days from one supposed "sabbath" to another), in total violation of the fourth commandment.
That commandment reveals that every regular sabbath is exactly seven days after any other sabbath (and must include six days of work or labor), which implies that when a Feast sabbath, such as Pentecost, falls sooner the next regular sabbath must fall seven days after that yearly Feast sabbath!
For example, one such "calendar" has "Pentecost" falling the day before a "sabbath," which is the exact opposite of what scripture commands (Leviticus 23:16; Pentecost, in truth, falls the day AFTER and not the day BEFORE a regular sabbath).
A Common Mistake
Such false teachers have erred, not knowing the scriptures, by following their own sinful human hearts and carnal human "religious" reasoning, and not the guiding Spirit of the Ancient of Days.
The moon is symbolic of the false adversarial light that often leaves those relying upon it in utter and total darkness, which modern men follow to their great harm and ultimate chagrin (by violating our Creator's commandments, to follow the rules or dictates of such false religious men or women), just as primitive peoples were/are astonished and frightened by eclipses.
In response, the same false calendar (of his own devising) proponent, told me:
"Rip this verse out of your bible along with the other evidence in the attached article:" [Sent without my request or prior consent.]
"'And thou shalt observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.' (Ex. 34:22).
"The 'year's end' is not the solar year's end; it is the agricultural year's end of the pilgrimage feasts when bread made from the wheat harvests are baked into leavened loafs for the feasts."
And my accurate scriptural response to this typically obtuse and inaccurate misinterpretation, was as follows:
"Tequphah, in Exodus 34:22 (also translated more accurately as: 'turn of the year' in the NIV translation), comes from the word naqaph, meaning in the Hilphil Preterite, Future and Imperative tenses: 'compass(ing)' or as in Isaiah 15:8, 'gone round about.'
"Tequphah is known by its context in other scriptures where the word also occurs, such as I Samuel 1:20 ('when the time was come about' or 'in revolution of days,' or 'in the course of time' in the NIV, in reference to Hannah's pregnancy), II Chronicles 24:23 ('at the end of the year' or 'in the revolution of the year,' or 'at the turn of the year' in the NIV, likely referring to the Spring equinox, according to an NIV Study Bible footnote), and particularly and most tellingly in Psalm 19:6, in reference to the sun (verse 4): 'and his circuit unto the ends of it' ('the heavens'), or: 'It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat' (NIV, obviously referring not to an agricultural year's end, or even to any year's end, but rather to the spring and fall equinox changes of season, the latter of which ends the heat of summer with the start of the fall season).
"Whether you personally like it or not, these seasonal changes are at the very heart of creation, and the true Sacred calendar Feasts and sabbaths.
"Unlike your tortured and twisted, thoroughly unscriptural and false interpretation of this verse, the meaning of tequphah in Exodus 34:22 is the change of season, or fall equinox (the Feast of Reva -- a 'joyful shout,' 'clapping of the hands' or 'loud noise-making' -- Sabbath, which is the first day of fall and a new cycle sabbath celebration, commonly misnamed 'Trumpets').
"You might as well chuck your whole bible, since you apparently care little for its historical and scriptural contexts (I will keep Numbers 34:22 and all the related verses and scripture which reveals its true meaning, despite your wickedly sarcastic and accusatory self-righteous suggestion).
"You will be judged by its every word one day, as will I; and I for one don't wish to follow your grievous and unrepentant errors into condemnation and damnation.
"And unless you repent (change of heart and direction) of this, you will also stand in judgment for all those you have had a hand in deceiving with your personal idolatries and self-made false religion (II Peter 2:1-3)."
Opposing Carnal Error
The typical response of such manipulative false teachers is to accuse the messenger of the pure truth of having an "attitude problem" (as in fact these false teachers do anyone who disagrees with them in the slightest way).
Such was this particular opponent's misjudgment:
"Your attitude reveals more than you know. A lot more."
My reply to this insinuation being:
"Saying you 'know' my attitude (in the context of there being something impliedly wrong with it) is judging my heart, which you do not know and are in no position to judge.
"'Judge not that you be not judged, for in the same way you judge others you will be judged, and with the same measure you use it will be measured to you' ('Matthew' 7:1-2; 'Forgive and you will be forgiven' Luke 6:37).
"Will you also accuse the Ancient of Days of having a 'bad attitude' because you are failing to heed the stern rebuke necessary to bring about effective repentance, when He calls you to task for this?
"I have done you no wrong in opposing your heresy with the pure truth.
"Remember, all those who seek to teach truth will be judged more strictly ('James' 3:1), and you will note that I did include myself in the next to last paragraph of my last reply.
"Before you can assume or accuse another of lack of humility (having a wrong 'attitude') you must first be capable of true humility (a righteous attitude) yourself.
"And righteousness (truth) is defined by the Commandments (Psalm 119:7, 75, 151, 172), of which the fourth is one which also must be perfectly obeyed, with no exceptions other than those commanded by our Creator Himself (the New Cycle, Feast and Fast sabbaths, which assume the next regular sabbath must always fall seven days thereafter unless another such commanded yearly sabbath falls less than seven days thereafter; example: Pentecost is the day after the seventh sabbath from Unleavened Bread, but the next regular sabbath falls on the seventh day after Pentecost, not six days after Pentecost or seven days from the prior regular sabbath, because the sabbath of Pentecost, like all yearly sabbaths, cannot be a work day else the sabbath command is meaningless).
"Try reading that last paragraph over a few times for clarity of understanding and comprehension before you mistakenly dismiss it out of hand.
"If you are ever willing to learn about the true restored Sacred calendar (and the restoration of all things, of which it is a part, as first revealed in 1979), I'm here to answer and help you and anyone else who humbly inquires.
"Just don't come preaching and proselytizing your heresy to someone who knows and reveres the Law of Creator Yahveh better than you apparently do!"
An End To All Controversy
As a general rule I have found the nature of false teachers, such as this, revealed by the "deafening" silence following the exposure of their falsehoods to the scriptural light of day.
This fellow was no exception, though the scriptural facts presented to him are indisputable and without contradiction, as evidenced by his pedantic and cursory attempt to dismiss them out of hand, unexamined and unheeded.
Such is the nature of the calendar controversy that, after three decades, the restoration of the pure truth on this hotly volatile subject (in the eyes of the false "sacred calendar" proponents and their followers) has yet to make any headway or gain general acceptance.
When Galileo declared the earth round, and stated that it revolved around the sun and not the reverse, he faced a similarly entrenched religion-based heresy of denial and accusatory condemnation as I have faced for the past three decades.
This precious truth, however, will prevail in the end -- and all the controversy will finally cease, along with the lives of everyone who opposes it and refuses to repent of their error.
That is the only way the new day of pure truth and the restoration of ALL things can and finally will take hold, at long last.