THE TRUTH ABOUT NEW MOONS
by Richard Burkard
A separate section of this web site has been following the United Church of God's Good News Bible Reading Program, and making our own comments alongside the church's. As we've conducted this, certain topics seem to have surfaced over and over again. Note what we've written on one of those topics, which we'll focus on in this article:
I SAM. 20: B.R.P. says concerning 20:5: "Each month, on the occasion of the new moon, Saul held a feast at his court...." Wasn't Saul keeping a Biblical "New Moon festival," as Num. 10:10 and 28:11 specify?
EZEK. 45: Based on 45:17, B.R.P. declares "God's Sabbath and feasts will be observed during the Millennium." But doesn't it also show New Moons will be kept in the millennium? If so, why are they not kept by Church of God groups in general now?
ZECH. 14: B.R.P. contends 14:16-19 proves "this festival [of Tabernacles], along with God's other feasts listed in Leviticus 23, are not just for the Israelites but are, rather, for all humanity. " So why aren't New Moons "for all humanity" -- especially now (as noted in Isa. 66:23)?
In UCG's 2007 doctrinal book The New Covenant, the index shows plenty of references to feasts, Holy Days and Sabbaths - and absolutely nothing on moons, new or otherwise. But in a boxed section on Colossians 2:16-17, author Roger Foster writes: "New moons.... were used as the biblical markers of time but never declared to be sacred Sabbaths, nor are they listed among the annual sacred festivals." (p. 119)
Is this statement accurate and issue-settling? Or are new moons something believers should mark today, every bit as much as Churches of God insist you should keep the feasts of Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles?
Who started it?
We note at the outset that practically every COG keeps one New Moon festival each year. The Feast of Trumpets occurs "on the first day of the seventh month...." (Lev. 23:24; Num. 29:1) We're not talking about that here. Our focus is on the beginnings of the other 11 or 12 sacred months.
The first reference in the Bible to such a New Moon festival occurs in Numbers 10, which we referenced above. "Also at your times of rejoicing - your appointed feasts and New Moon festivals - you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God." (Num. 10:10)
Note several points about this instruction. It comes from the Lord (verse 1). New Moons are included with the feasts, which we can only assume to be the feasts ordained by God (although the Bible Reading Program admittedly doesn't come out and say that). And the New Moons are to be memorials, just as the King James Version calls the Feast of Trumpets a "memorial" in Leviticus 23:24 (with the same Hebrew word).
Move ahead to Numbers 28:11-15 and you'll find specific offerings were required on the New Moons - first commanded by God, then by Moses (II Chr. 8:12-13). I Chronicles 23:31 notes burnt offerings "were presented to the Lord on Sabbaths and at New Moon festivals and at appointed feasts." So to go back to the UCG book's quote, while New Moons aren't "listed among the annual sacred festivals," these monthly festivals certainly are listed with them and alongside them.
See the Man
What else occurred in ancient Israel on the New Moon? The trumpet-blowing and offering-giving seemed to occur in the context of a worship service. Notice what the husband of a faithful Shunammite said when she desired to see "the man of God," Elisha: "Why go to him today?.... It's not the New Moon or the Sabbath." (II Kng. 4:22-23)
Is it a mere coincidence that the New Moon is mentioned first? Before the Sabbath is mentioned? (The Contemporary English Version reverses the order.) The implication is that the monthly event was considered every bit as important, if not more so.
At this point, Bible commentaries show some disagreement. The New Bible Commentary: Revised claims of Sabbaths and Holy Days: "....these were already observed in Israel, but there is no support for the theory that on such days the people went to the prophet's house for religious service or instruction." (1970 ed., p. 351)
But the NIV Study Bible says regarding the passage in II Kings, "The Sabbath and New Moon were observed by cessation from work." (1995 ed., p. 524) This is reinforced by God's words through Amos: "Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, 'When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?'" (Amos 8:4-5)
Even beginning Sabbath-keepers learn the seventh day is considered a time to refrain from selling merchandise. These words from Amos put the New Moon festival on that same level.
Advice to Colosse
So the New Moons in Old Testament times had memorial festivals, special offerings, a possible time of worship when no regular work was done - and above all, instructions from God supporting them. Yet this brings us back to Colossians 2:16-17, which we must admit seems to be the only place in the New Testament where New Moons are mentioned.
"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of things to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."
The UCG book says the outside judging came from "pagan areas such as Asia Minor, Italy and Greece.... pagan philosophies, some with very ascetic beliefs." Under this view, the pressure was on the Colosse church to hold to Old Testament customs - yet UCG certainly is not as adamant in defending New Moons as it is the other points Paul mentions.
Yet other commentaries reach a very different conclusion on the source of the pressure. "Paul is here referring to any system which makes salvation dependent on the observance of certain food taboos or rigid adherence to the observance of certain days as sacred." (N.B.C., pg. 1148)
The NIV Study Bible adds: "The ceremonial laws.... symbolically depicted the coming of Christ; so any insistence on the observance of such ceremonies is a failure to recognize that their fulfillment has already taken place." (pg. 1817)
So did the heat come from liberal pagans or conservative Jews? Perhaps it came from both sides. Perhaps the final answer depends on how you interpret Colossians 2:14 about a "canceled.... written code," or verse 21's chiding against tasting and touching rules (note Lev. 11:24 along those lines, although that's really a topic for another article).
The Future, and Now
Moving past the present, we also find a couple of Bible verses indicating New Moon keeping will be part of God's coming Kingdom. Seventh-day groups love to quote the next-to-last verse of Isaiah, as confirming an eternal Sabbath custom. But the start of that verse also should poke at their thinking: "'From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,' says the Lord." (Isa. 66:23)
Bowing down again is emblematic of worship. Some might contend the sun and moon won't be needed for figuring worship times anymore, based on Revelation 21:23. But if Churches of God are going to argue the Sabbath remains forever, should not New Moon celebrations remain as well?
Not that many verses in the Bible admittedly talk about New Moon celebrations, or what the King James Version calls the "beginnings of months." But what we've seen is enough to raise some probing questions. Yes, it's a "Biblical marker of time" as the UCG book states. But the circumstantial evidence of Scripture shows it was more than that - and soon will be again. As Smith's Bible Dictionary puts it, New Moons "were regarded as a peculiar class of holy days...."
So we leave these questions for your own prayer, meditation and decision:
1. Can Churches of God ignore New Moons in this New Testament time, while saying the world should not ignore Sabbaths and Holy Days?
2. If something is not directly commanded in Scripture, can a string of verses about that thing be assembled to show it's still something God wants believers to do?
3. Should believers use New Moons as an extra opportunity for worshiping God - even if their church groups and denominations do not? Should they go so far as to take days off from work to do so?
4. How is the New Moon festival a "shadow of things to come," finding reality in Jesus?
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© 2007, Richard Burkard, All Rights Reserved.