New Moon Thoughts and Calculations

The next new moon will soon be here with the promise of 8 times the gift of the living bread from heaven than the daily sacrifice provision. For more explantion on the detail of this principle please read the booklet Living Bread from Heaven. 

The calcuation of the New Moon involves a number of factors but for those of us who live in the relational value system of the kingdom of our Father there is no merit in being right in order to prove others wrong, The whole purpose of the time of the New Moon is to receive the gift of the Spirit of Jesus in greater measure. Any spirit that causes a person to point out the perceived errors of others is not the Spirit of Christ and is one of Satan's methods of destroying the blessing designed to come at this time. 

The time from when the Moon is completely dark called the Conjunction until a clear sighting of the New Moon can take up to 3 days at least and occasionaly 4 days. This could be the possible reason as to why the New Moon feast in the time of Saul and David was a three day feast. The object of the feast was to receive as much of the extra Spirit as possible for as long as possible. 

1 Sam 20:5  And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even.

1 Sam 20:27  And it came to pass on the morrow, which was the second day of the month, that David's place [at the feast] was empty: and Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to meat, neither yesterday, nor to day?

I receive a monthly report from a UK observatory regarding the New Moon. Here is the report I received this morning:

Dear Observer,

This message was sent by the HM Nautical Almanac Office / Institute of Physics Crescent Moon Watch project from its server at the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office in Taunton. Your e-mail address has been submitted to the Crescent Moon Watch alert program.

The next new moon occurs on 2017 March 28 at 02:57 UT/GMT.

Please try and observe the new crescent moon in the western sky after sunset on each of the three or four days following the instant of new moon given above. Observations, both positive and negative, should be submitted at http://www.crescentmoonwatch.org/report.htm.

PLEASE NOTE: If you no longer wish to receive these warnings, use the UNSUBSCRIBING option at http://www.crescentmoonwatch.org/signup.htm.

Thank you for your continued participation in this project.

The IoP MoonWatch Project Team

The conjunction new moon will occur at just before March 28 at 3am GMT in the area of London or 5am in Eastern France and Germany. As the report indicates, you should look for the first crescent in the 3 or four days after this event. March 28 at 3am in London is March 28 1pm in Australia and is also March 27 at 9pm in the Eastern states of the USA. The sunset on March 28 in Australia ocurs only 5 hours after the conjunction or dark moon which means that the first crescent will not appear in Australia on the evening of the 28th of March. There is a very good chance of the seeing the first cresent in Australia on the evening of the 29th of March which makes March 30 in the daylight hours of the actual New Moon.

In the part of Europe that operates on GMT + 2 such as Berlin the time from conjunction till the next sunset is about 12 hours. In the Eastern parts of the USA the time to the next sunset would be about 20 hours. This means there is a possibility of the Europe seeing the New Moon on the evening of the 28th thus allowing the possibilty for the New Moon being on the 29th. It is very probable that the New Moon could be seen in the USA on the evening of the 28th thus making the daylight of the New Moon the 29th of March. This is all confirming the fact that the dating system we all operate by means that a universal event on the earth occurs at different times and even dates in different time zones.

It is interesting that the SDA pioneers calculated the date of Oct 22 1844 from the sighting of the New Moon in Jerusalem rather than from their own local sighting.

This movement on their [the attacking mob] part was so sudden, simultaneous, and extensive, with its manifestation on the first day of the Jewish 7th month-the new moon being probably seen in Judea on the second evening from its change, when it would be one day and seventeen hours old, and which corresponded with 11am in Boston-strengthened us in our opinion that this must be the month. The Advent Review, (48 Page special) Sept, 1850. 

The question that naturally arises is should we take the new moon sighting from Israel or from your local position on the earth? The Bible does not directly address this question. The pioneers were doing calculations for the calendar based on sightings in Israel in order to work out the date 3 weeks later for Oct 22. But what about when you are planning a gathering for a future new moon? If you wish to do any forward planning of an event then you have to make a calculation. The beauty of the New Moon as we see in the time of Israel is that the feast took place over at least 3 days. This reflects the mindset we need today. For the calculation of prophecy and precise events I believe the pioneers use of the New Moon in Jerusalem should be followed. Yet for a New Moon gathering the joy of a local sighting of the moon adds to the blessing that this time brings and is great for children to engage in the sighting of the Moon. The precise date for a gathering is probably best arranged by the local audience for local gatherings. My experience with the New Moon is a steady increase in the Spirit over the three day period like a tide in the ocean.

I suppose I try to combine the calculation in Israel with the local calculation for a gathering based on a New Moon report from the UK regarding the conjunction and then taking the next local sighting evening for the timing of the New Moon. Can we be absolutely certain this is perfectly correct. No. The Bible is not that specific about how to do these things in Australia and I believe this is by design in order that groups that pray for and have a healthy confidence in their local elders will be at peace with the exact detail used within the Bible parameters.  

Another reason why we here in Australia have difficulty with basing our New Moon gatherings directly from Israel is that we are ahead of Israel in terms of time. We are GMT+10. We also celebrate the Sabbath ahead of Europe and the USA. I believe that the correctness of this position was established by Ellen White when she crossed the Pacific Ocean and kept the Sabbath in Australia that we keep today which is ahead of the USA and Europe. Having said all these things what profit is it if I have all knowledge and have not love, it profits me nothing and weakens the whole purpose of the New Moon and that is together in love and joy of the Spirit of Jesus.   

So based on the information we have it appears that the New Moon will most likely occur in the USA the evening of the 28th and the daylight hours of the 29th. In Europe it possibly with be the same but might also be the next evening based on a local observation. In Australia the first possible local sighting after the conjunction in the Israel will be the evening of the 29th of March and the daylight hours of March 30.

I hope this offers some context for how to approach this subject for the purposes of gathering to receive the blessing of the Spirit of Jesus in greater measure. As happened to Saul during the feast of the New Moon his heart was filled with jealousy towards David and anger towards both David and his son Jonathan. This certainly means that Saul received no blessing at all from the New Moon even though he celebrated it. May this not be our exprience. May we all enjoy the rising tide of the Spirit in preparation for when we shall gather around the throne of God and the Lamb each month and partake of the new fruit that comes at that time.