Answer # 29

At creation week God made the day to consist of evening and morning (Gen. 1:5). He also created the Sabbath day to make the week complete (Gen. 2:2-3).

The month, according to God's method of reckoning time, begins at the new moon (Gen. 1:14). We visually recognize the beginning of a new month by the first, thin crescent in the western sky just after sunset.

God commanded observance of the weekly Sabbath, but not the new moon, as a day of worship.

Later, when the Church was in the wilderness (Acts 7:38), God commanded observance of annual Holy Days according to His plan for adding members to His Family (Ex. 23:14-17). But He gave no instruction to worship on each new moon.

When Israel sinned by grievously disobeying God's commands, the Eternal instituted the sacrificial system to remind Jacob's people of the consequences for sin and point to the human need of redemption (Jer. 7:21-28, Heb. 10:4-12).

The sacrificial offerings were made evenings and mornings (daily), every Sabbath (weekly), on new moons (monthly) and on Holy Days (annually). This act of worship on new moons has no more bearing on God's Church today than Mosaic sacrifices do on any other day.

The only biblical reason for special activity on new moons in Old Testament times was the Eternal's command to assemble when two trumpets were blown on a new moon during the wilderness wandering (Num. 10:1-10). These trumpets are not blown now.

The Bible commands only one assembly for the Church on a new moon. That is on the Festival of Trumpets, the first day of the seventh month.

The Church of God takes note of the new moon just as God intends (Col. 2:16) — as the beginning of the month in His solar-lunar calendar, so we can know when to keep His Holy Days.