If we want to keep the appointed times of our Creator, then we need to know His calendar. Perhaps the most important appointed time is His Sabbath which is the 4th of the 10 commandments.
“You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, YHVH, sanctify you... Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever." -- Exodus 31
If we are to remember the Sabbath that means we need to know what days we are meant to assemble, worship, and refrain from commerce. You would think that identifying the 7th day of the week would be easy, but there are major problems with assuming that Saturday is the Sabbath. This post will document the problem, and then propose a theory that resolves the issues.
Stubborn Facts of Crucifixion Week
I have reconstructed the timeline of Yeshua's ministry and factored in over a dozen historical facts that help triangulate the true date of the crucifixion. There is very little room to deviate from this date without discarding some very credible evidence. You would think that this would be fantastic news, except that it completely invalidates the modern understanding of the historical calendar used in Yeshua's day.
Tradition holds that Passover was Wednesday, April 25th in 31 AD. In my last post I made the biblical case for days beginning at sunrise instead of sunset. There is simply no logical way to arrive at 3 days and 3 nights with the death on the 14th of the month and the resurrection before sunrise on the 1st day of the week if Saturday is the 7th day of the week and Wednesday is the 14th day of the month.
Popular ministries such as 119ministries.com and A Rood Awakening hold to a Wednesday theory in the years 31 AD and 28 AD respectively. To achieve this they must have Yeshua rise in secret over 12 hours before Mary discovers him and use exclusive counting that has Yeshua rise exactly 72 hours after he died. Alternatively there are attempts to only count the time he was in the tomb. This runs counter to inclusive reckoning, counting any part of the day or night that he was dead as a full daylight or night. By inclusive reckoning this timeline has at least 4 days and likely 4 nights and inclusive reckoning was the standard of understanding all other passages in the Bible.
Even if you are willing to accept this stretched accounting, you must ignore all of the evidence in my post about the biblical case for days beginning at sunrise instead of sunset.
Once you reject the Pharisee tradition inherited from Babylon of starting the day at sunset, you are left with at least one and a half days between the resurrection (R) and Mary (M) discovering the empty tomb. By inclusive reckoning it becomes 5 days and 5 nights!
This means that the true 7th day Sabbath is either Thursday or the creators calendar is based upon a Lunar Sabbath with a sunrise start of day. In my opinion, the Lunar Sabbath theory fits like a glove and the Rabbinic Judaism is as corrupt in nullifying the law of Elohim with the tradition of men as it was in Yeshua's day.