THE MORNING AFTER!

 

Is There A Need

For

A Second Witness?

 

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I’d like to address an important issue that has invaded Full Moon Rosh Chodesh Observance like a cancer in my opinion. It is a man-made tradition that has misled more Full Moon Rosh Chodesh observers, caused more confusion and I believe more error, than can be imagined and I’d like to do my part in combating this man-made tradition. I strongly believe and hope there will be many who will agree with me that "It's better to be stung with the truth than kissed with a lie." The reason for saying that is because this article will fly in the face of most Full Moon Rosh Chodesh observers. I'm a no-nonsense kind of guy and yet approachable, but I am passionate about this subject! A person should rarely use the word 'hate' but I 'hate' the doctrine that Full Mooner's have conjured up demanding a 'Second Witness' from YHWH and His TWO GREAT LIGHTS 'THE MORNING AFTER' the TWO GREAT LIGHTS have already spoken once the evening before. I also 'hate' the endless, corrosive debate I see everyday on social media, it's sickening, but there is a war going on, a war for truth, regardless of how the message is delivered! You can read this article and accept it or reject it without arguing over it. Be Bereans!

 

When I first switched to Full Moon Rosh Chodesh from Dark Moon Conjunction I thought I had finally left behind the confusion I experienced trying to harmonize the Dark Moon Conjunction method with what I was actually 'observing' in the heavens throughout the weeks. The phase and position of the Moon before Shabbat constantly had me doubting whether I had marked Rosh Chodesh properly during the unobservable Dark Moon Conjunction, things just didn't seem to line up correctly as expected. My introduction to Full Moon Rosh Chodesh Observance had the Full Moon 'beacon' rising either before or after the Sunset on the evening of the 29th and accordingly you either kept a 30th Day Chodesh or 1st Day Rosh Chodesh, that was pretty simple and I like simple! There was no emphasis placed on the Moon's phase and position throughout the month which was the source of my constant confusion. I was horribly disappointed to discover shortly after switching to Full Moon Rosh Chodesh that there were Full Moon Rosh Chodesh proponents who demanded a ‘Second Witness’ from THE MASTER’S CLOCK in order for Rosh Chodesh to be determined via the Full Moon. They make this demand upon the created order as though THE MASTER’S CLOCK couldn’t get it right the first time with a single witness the evening before!

 

Those Full Moon Rosh Chodesh observers who demand a 'Second Witness' from the TWO GREAT LIGHTS are totally inconsistent in their application of their false misapplied 'Second Witness' doctrine. If every matter is to be established with a 'Second Witness' when it comes to the time keeping proclamations of the TWO GREAT LIGHTS then they should also establish a 'Second Witness' to confirm the beginning and end of each and every hour of the day! They should establish a 'Second Witness' to confirm the beginning and end of each and every day. They should establish a 'Second Witness' to confirm the beginning and end of each and every year. They should establish a 'Second Witness' to confirm the beginning and end of each and every Shmita year. They should establish a 'Second Witness' to confirm the beginning and end of each and every Jubilee. But they don't! They only apply their false doctrine of a 'Second Witness' to the beginning of the New Moon. It is an insane, inconsistent, double standard misapplied to the beginning of the New Moon.

 

According to this 'Second Witness' method the harmony of the Full Moon Rosh Chodesh 'beacon' with the attributes of the moon throughout the lunar cycle is destroyed and it conflicts with the simple method that others use, including myself, resulting in different factions of Full Moon Rosh Chodesh Observers keeping Rosh Chodesh and the 7th Day Lunar Sabbaths on different days half the time! They use Psalm 104:19 to justify their demand for a 'Second Witness' and in doing so they corrupt the clear teaching of Psalm 104:19 and unintentionally slaughter the very character of our Creator and Redeemer who is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33) or a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19) as He speaks to us through His two time keeping mechanisms, the TWO GREAT LIGHTS in relationship with the Earth’s Horizons.

 

Let me say this as clearly as I can...

 

YHWH DOES NOT NEED A 'SECOND WITNESS'!

 

If YHWH says something once, you can carve it in stone, it is not going to change! Get THE METHOD right and there is no need for YHWH to speak twice! YHWH is not a man and therefore is not a liar!

 

God is not a man, that he should lie: neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Numbers 23:19 KJV)

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Here is another version of the same verse, pay special attention to the word 'vacillates'...

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God is not a human male - he doesn't lie, nor is he a human being - he never vacillates. Once he speaks up, he's going to act, isn't he? Once he makes a promise, he'll fulfill it, won't he? (Numbers 23:19 ISV)

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Remember that translation and that 'YHWH NEVER VACILLATES' it will come into play later on!

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YHWH is not a man that He should lie but men do... which is why the law of second witnesses exists; the law of second witnesses is required of men to settle disputes between men. It does not apply to the Creator! I challenge anyone to provide a verse that supports a need for a ‘Second Witness’ from YHWH or His creation. If you’ll do your homework here are the verses you will find regarding a ‘Second Witness’ and hopefully you’ll be honest enough to admit that in every instance the verses are describing the need for a ‘Second Witness’ to resolve issues between men. Look these verses up for yourself, examine the context, and set yourself free of a need for a ‘Second Witness’ from YHWH and His TWO GREAT LIGHTS to confirm the beacon for Rosh Chodesh... Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15, Matthew 18:16, 26:60, 2 Corinthians 13:1, 1 Timothy 5:19 and Hebrews 10:28.

 

There is no excuse to continue to demand that the Sun rise and view the Full Moon before its setting 'THE MORNING AFTER' the Full Moon has already beaconed the 1st day of the New Moon the evening before. If YHWH’s 1st Witness has spoken its proclamation is true, trustworthy and worthy of all acceptance. There is no need for a 'Second Witness' and Psalm 104:19 most certainly doesn’t have anything to say regarding a 'Second Witness'! There is not so much as a single word in Psalm 104:19 about the Sun viewing the Moon’s setting in the morning, not one word!

 

For people to interpret Psalm 104:19 as though ‘the Sun knows the Moon’s going down’ is 'flagrant eisegesis'! They are reading into the Psalm what they want the Psalm to say! There is not a single translation that I know of that translates the verse that way. The verse is clearly stating ‘the Sun knows its going down’ in the sense of the Sun knowing its ‘own’ setting as the following selection of translations leave no doubt.

 

... the sun knoweth his going down. (Psalm 104:19b KJV)

 

... The sun knows when to go down. (Psalm 104:19b EasyEnglish)

 

... The sun knows when to set. (Psalm 104:19b HNV)

 

... and the sun sets according to a regular schedule. (Psalm 104:19b NET)

 

These translations do not mince words, they are very explicit as to what they are saying, they leave no doubt that the verse is talking about the setting of the Sun, not its rising in time to witness the setting of the Full Moon. You may be asking how we can know for sure the translators above got their translations of the verse correct seeing as how nearly all other translations can be read to mean either, ‘the Sun knows its own setting’ or ‘the Sun knows the Moon’s setting’. Context, context, context! Psalm 104:19b is not written in a vacuum; rather it is the first verse in the Psalm that begins to talk about what happens during the night in YHWH’s creation. It is followed by two verses describing the creeping of the nocturnal animals and the roar of the lions as they seek their prey in the darkness.

 

... The sun knows its going down. You put darkness, and it is night, In it all the beasts of the forest creep. The young lions are roaring for prey, And seeking their food from El. (Psalm 104:19b-21 The Scriptures 2009)

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It is overwhelmingly clear that Psalm 104:19b along with verses 20 and 21 are talking about what happens after the setting of the Sun. Psalm 104:19b says absolutely nothing regarding a 'Second Witness' requiring the risen Sun to view the setting of the Full Moon 'THE MORNING AFTER' the Full Moon has already beaconed the next day as the 1st Day of the New Moon.

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And as if that wasn’t enough we read in verses 22 and 23...

 

The sun arises – they withdraw And lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work, And to his labour, till evening. (Psalm 104:22-23 The Scriptures 2009)

 

Psalm 104:22-23 begins to talk about what happens after the rising of the Sun. This would be the perfect place to mention the Sun rising in time to view the setting of the Full Moon but no such statement is made! Why? As you can see, where it would have been perfectly appropriate to proclaim the 'Second Witness' the Psalmist remains silent! Psalm 104:22-23 says absolutely nothing regarding a 'Second Witness' requiring the risen Sun to view the setting of the Full Moon 'THE MORNING AFTER' the Full Moon has already beaconed the next day as the 1st Day of the New Moon, even though it was the perfect place to do so!

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Do not allow yourself to be sucked into this pit of deception! But if you do, I can think of three things you’ll need to turn a blind eye to.

 

The first thing you’ll need to turn a blind eye to is this... If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll have to admit the so-called First Witness in the evening is reduced to being no witness at all. The dominating factor in this method is the so-called 'Second Witness' which demands the Full Moon must remain above the Western Horizon until the Sun greets it with its rising above the Eastern Horizon 'THE MORNING AFTER'. Don’t buy into that misapplied doctrine of ‘two or three witnesses’, it doesn’t apply here and both of these so-called witnesses are contrived, man-made traditions, the vacillating First Witness being a reverse-engineered parameter demanded by the dominant 'Second Witness'. Constructed as it is, the 'Second Witness' in the morning has no need of the First Witness the evening before! The First Witness becomes the slave of the 'Second Witness', it's whipped into submission. The false man-made parameters of the First Witness allowing it to be the First Witness whether it remains hidden as far as 12 degrees below the horizon or up to 12 degrees above the horizon at the moment of sunset renders it so stripped of meaning that the First Witness is of no significance. This is a fool’s game attempting to pacify the doctrine of ‘two or three witnesses’, which has no appropriate application in THE MASTER’S CLOCK!

 

It will be established forever like the moon, a faithful witness in the sky." (Psalm 89:37 ISV)

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I find it astonishing that most Full Mooners boldly proclaim Psalm 89:37 where YHWH says the moon is His 'faithful witness'. And yet those same Full Mooners require a 'Second Witness' from YHWH's 'faithful witness' to establish the beginning of the New Moon as though YHWH's 'faithful witness' could lie! I have to wonder, what part of 'faithful witness' don't these Full Mooners understand? It's a classic case of compartmentalized thinking in the minds of these Full Mooners. The attributes of the 'faithful witness' of Psalm 89:37 are never allowed to oppose the false tradition of a required 'Second Witness' from the Full Moon. The mental disconnect is truly staggering!

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The second thing you’ll need to turn a blind eye to is this... Not knowing it is Rosh Chodesh until Rosh Chodesh has already begun! If you have to wait for the rising of the Sun the morning of Rosh Chodesh to confirm with a 'Second Witness' via the Full Moon still being above the Western Horizon at Sunrise then where is your ‘beacon’ that tells you it’s Rosh Chodesh ahead of time? You wouldn’t know it was Rosh Chodesh until Rosh Chodesh has already begun! In Genesis 1 we’re taught that the Greater and Lesser Lights and the Stars are to be ‘beacons’...

 

And Elohim said, “Let lights come to be in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and appointed times, and for days and years, (Genesis 1:14 The Scriptures 2009)

 

It is the Hebrew word ‘oth’ (Strongs H226) that is being translated into the English word ‘signs’ in Genesis 1:14 above. English words that can be used to translate the Hebrew word ‘oth’ include ‘sign’, ‘signal’, a distinguishing mark, banner, remembrance, miraculous sign, omen and ‘warning’. Its origin probably comes from the Hebrew word ‘‘ûth’ (Strongs H225) (in the sense of ‘appearing’); a ‘signal’ (literally or figuratively), as a flag, ‘beacon’, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence, etc.: - mark, miracle, (en-) ‘sign’, token.

 

The point I’m trying to make here is that for the Full Moon and Sun working together to be a beacon for Rosh Chodesh the ‘beacon’ must ‘appear’ BEFORE Rosh Chodesh arrives, that should be obvious! I like the inclusion of the word ‘warning’ in the definition. Why? Because you don’t place Railroad Crossing signs to warn highway drivers ‘AFTER’ the railroad crossing! That would be disastrous! Railroad Crossing ‘signs’ are appropriately placed ‘BEFORE’ the Railroad Crossing so that highway drivers can be sufficiently ‘warned’! So also, should the ‘warning’ for Rosh Chodesh be appropriately placed ‘BEFORE’ Rosh Chodesh arrives!

 

(By the way, you can eliminate Dark Moon Conjunction from your list of candidates for the ‘beacon’ which ‘signals’ Rosh Chodesh ‘before’ Rosh Chodesh arrives since the Dark Moon doesn’t ‘appear’ according to the definition above!)

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But there is so much more that this Hebrew word 'ôth is telling us! It qualifies the words used to translate it into English with the phrase (in the sense of appearing). That means more than the 'signs' are merely visible and can be located anywhere in the sky, it means the moment the 'signs' become visible, that transitional moment when they first appear above the horizon. The Moon is no different than the Sun in respect to how it sends forth its 'sign'! That truth demands that the phase of the Moon that beacons the Moedim be the Full Moon which sends forth its 'sign' to begin a New Month just as the Sun sends forth its 'sign' by rising above the Eastern Horizon to beacon the beginning of the days. That fact eliminates the Second Witness method! You can read much more about THE SCRIPTURAL METHOD for determining Rosh Chodesh at this link, The 'SIGNS' Of Time!

 

The third thing you’ll need to turn a blind eye to is this... If you demand the Full Moon to remain above the Western Horizon until the Sun rises above the Eastern Horizon as a 'Second Witness' 'THE MORNING AFTER' the Full Moon has already beaconed Rosh Chodesh the evening before as the First Witness, then you’ll need to reverse-engineer that First Witness into a ‘vacillating witness’ for marking the rising of the Full Moon as the First Witness, which for all intents and purposes eliminates it from being a witness in the first place! And that is exactly what has been done according to this method with their Full Moon First Witness being allowed to be between 12° above and 12° below the Eastern Horizon at Sunset from one month to the next. This ‘vacillating witness’ is a totally contrived parameter! Take a moment to remember what we're told in Numbers 23:19... YHWH NEVER VACILLATES! A ‘vacillating witness’ is totally contrary to the very character of YHWH! By demanding a 'Second Witness' they have reverse-engineered the First Witness into a ‘vacillating witness’, a puppet on a string that will tell them anything! Because of the elliptical orbit of the Moon around the Earth and the Earth’s constant rotation before the Sun, the rising of the Full Moon and the setting of the Sun are no longer in synch with one another as would be the case if all months were still 30-Days long and the year was exactly 360-Days long. Their relationship with the Earth’s Horizons has become very dynamic. In order to ensure the Full Moon remains above the horizon until the Sun rises into view in the morning as a 'Second Witness', the inventor of the method must then accept the beacon of the First Witness whether it is up to 12° above the horizon or 12° below the horizon the evening before the 'Second Witness', basically removing the horizon from the equation! But is that faithfully consistent with the Full Moon’s position relative to the Eastern Horizon at Sunset days ‘BEFORE’ and ‘AFTER’ Rosh Chodesh? No, it most certainly is not! The Moon beacons information every day or night with its phase and position in the heavens, it is never silent! For the first two weeks of every month the Moon is rising ‘AFTER’ the Sun has set. For the last two weeks of every month the Moon is rising ‘BEFORE’ the Sun has set. THE METHOD of beaconing Rosh Chodesh MUST remain consistent with that reality, and a ‘vacillating Rosh Chodesh beacon’ as a First Witness, i.e. the Full Moon either above or below the horizon at Sunset, fails miserably to do so! Further more, how can you determine the Full Moon is 12° or less below the horizon at the setting of the Sun without some sort of technological crutch in order to qualify the First Witness? The harsh reality here for Full Moon Rosh Chodesh observers who follow this method is that the parameters of the First Witness demand the Full Moon to be within the range of 12° above to 12° below the Eastern Horizon at the 'moment' of Sunset. While 12° above the horizon is clearly observable, 12° below the horizon is not, it's no more observable than the Dark Moon Conjunction, it fails to 'appear' as a 'sign' at the moment of Sunset just as Dark Moon Conjunction fails to 'appear' as a 'sign'! I refuse to go there, THE METHOD must be simple enough for a shepherd boy watching his flock at night to discern what he is 'seeing' in the heavens! It must be observable!

 

It becomes obvious that to demand a 'Second Witness' from YHWH is an abominable manmade tradition, a pit of deception to be avoided at all cost! Without support from Psalm 104:19 the ‘Second Witness’ doctrine of the Full Moon remaining above the Western Horizon until the Sun rises above the Eastern Horizon is clearly Un-Scriptural!

 

But you say, “Wait... What about The Book of Enoch?”

 

My response... The Book of Enoch is not Scripture! It’s a fraud! There is a consensus view amongst Scholarship that The Book of Enoch is a relatively late writing that is not from the hand of the Scriptural Enoch, the seventh from Adam, much less inspired by the Ruach HaQodesh. It is a common thing for a Jewish Rabbi, Sage or Scribe to write something in the name of another, who is more highly esteemed, in order to gain greater credibility and acceptance for the otherwise unknown or unrespected author’s writing. The Book of Enoch is well known as a pseudepigrapha, which is a ‘two bit’ Latin word which means...

 

pseud·e·pig·ra·pha

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spurious or pseudonymous writings, especially Jewish writings ascribed to various biblical patriarchs and prophets but composed within approximately 200 years of the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

Succinctly stated... Enoch didn't write The Book of Enoch! In Genesis 5:23-24 the Scriptures tell us Enoch lived for 365 years and was taken by YHWH. Enoch’s life span stretched from 622 to 987 A.M. (Year After Creation) therefore dying, yes I said dying, approximately 2300 years before 705 B.C.E. when the year changed from 360 to 365 days, which is an interesting detail since The Book of Enoch proclaims a 365-day year, something the real Enoch of Genesis 5 knew nothing of. Scholarship has dated the writings of the suspected Jewish authors, i.e. more than one writing with more than one author, that make up The Book of Enoch between 200 B.C.E. and 100 A.D. From what I’ve read, from other people’s research, the Enochian calendar does not count Yom Kippur and therefore The Book of Enoch should be understood to be proclaiming a 365-day year rather than the 364 acknowledged days of the Enochian calendar. Would that have anything to do with why the suspected Jewish authors chose to attribute their writings to Enoch’s name since Enoch lived 365 years? Others have speculated just such a thing. And since there has been a long-standing tradition that Enoch was translated to heaven, never having died, he then becomes the perfect person to attribute the book to, for according to the book, Enoch got his calendar insights directly from the angelic servants of The Most High. Unfortunately for Enoch, John 3:13 says, "And no one has gone up into the heaven except He who came down from the heaven - the Son of Adam." So, with that being resolved, Enoch’s death in 987 B.C.E. takes place approximately 2,800 to 3,100 years before the ascribed dates for the origin of the different parts of The Book of Enoch!

 

The interesting thing for me is the dating of the early portions of The Book of Enoch, the origins of which Scholarship has established as being no earlier than 200 B.C.E. Remember, this date range falls in the second half of the 400 year 'sound of silence' from The Almighty; no prophets, no "Thus saith the Lord..." This places the origin of the early writings of The Book of Enoch in the same time frame as the Maccabean Revolt in 160 B.C.E. The reason that is so interesting to me is that the last known ‘observed’ Jubilee year is believed to have occurred in 172 B.C.E. It is not known whether the Jubilee in 122 B.C.E. was observed or not. The reason for the Jubilee year being abandoned probably has to do with taxation from Israel’s overlord nations. It’s difficult to pay taxes when the land is allowed to lay fallow during the Jubilee. It is in this season of the Hasmonean Dynasty, which came to power in Israel after the Maccabean Revolt, that the 50th Year of the Jubilee Cycle disappears leaving only the 7x7-year cycle of 49 years without the 50th year separating one 49-year cycle from the next 49-year cycle. The cycle simply continues on as an ‘unbroken chain’ of 7-year cycles within 49-year cycles and the 50th Jubilee year of release is lost! This is fascinating because the Enochian calendar has its origin in this same time frame when it disconnected the Moon from the beginning of the months. Without the Moon as a 3rd category of monthly day which resets the weekly cycle, the Enochian calendar then also creates a man-made ‘unbroken chain’ of its own. It’s an ‘unbroken chain’ of 7-day weekly cycles resulting in the 364-day year being evenly divided by 7 for a year of 52 weeks. It would also be a calendar with more workdays since the non-commerce, worship days of 30th Day Chodesh and 1st Day Rosh Chodesh are eliminated. There had to be a driving force for the creation of the Enochian calendar, could it be that it would also make it easier to pay those taxes? Or, was there another reason? Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to ask, was this ‘coincidence in time’ a factor in the creation of the Enochian calendar recorded in The Book of Enoch? Was the one, the precedent for the other? In other words... Was the ‘unbroken chain’ of yearly cycles brought about by the abandonment of the Jubilee year after the Maccabean Revolt the precedent for the ‘unbroken chain’ of weekly cycles brought about by the abandonment of the New Moon as the beginning of the months according to the Enochian calendar? It is clear that the Essenes knew of the Enochian calendar for they had it in their possession, but were they keeping the Enochian calendar prior to the advent of Messiah Yeshua? It really seems difficult to believe that is true. If so, was it localized within and limited to the community of Qumran? Or, did it reach beyond? Surely Jerusalem remained under the set-apart Lunar/Solar calendar of YHWH, even though the Priesthood was corrupt, for Yeshua to have died as the recognizable Lamb of YHWH on the true date of Passover over a hundred years later. It truly is an interesting speculation!

 

From Wikipedia...

 

The Astronomical Book

Main article: Enoch calendar

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