In the interest of promoting Yahweh’s Truth, YPTC is making the following information available in order to explain our position on reckoning time according to the scriptural calendar.

The Calendar Question

As the world draws near to the end of the secular year, it is time to obtain a calendar for the new year. Calendars play an important role in our day-to-day lives, especially as we make future plans. Yahweh’s sacred calendar is no different, and infinitely more important. By projecting future new moon dates it is possible to create a calendar that, as close as is humanly possible, shows Yahweh’s annual holy days. Because new moons must be sighted in order to be sanctified, a calendar serves the purpose of showing us when to look for the new moon. Once the new moon has been confirmed by witnesses, then it is just a matter of counting days to establish w hen Yahweh’s holy days take place. The most critical new moons are those for the first and seventh months since they regulate those convocations. As long as the new moon dates are found to be correct, then the calendar will be correct.

From month-to-month, Yahweh’s calendar is based upon a lunar cycle. A lunar month is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8 seconds long. Therefore, a scriptural month will be either 29 or 30 days long. If, for instance there are no sightings of the new moon at the end of the 29th day of the month, then that would mean you have a 30 day month. That is the reason why in 1 Samuel 20:5, David knew the next day was the new moon.

From year-to-year, Yahweh’s calendar is regulated by the cycle of the moon in conjunction with the solar year. A lunar year of 12 months is 354 days and a solar year is 365 ¼ days, making the annual lunar cycle 11 ¼ days shorter than the solar cycle. It is therefore necessary to adjust the lunar year by adding an extra month approximately every three years. This seasonal adjustment fulfills Deuteronomy 16 where it mentions that Passover occurs in the season of the year when Israel came out of Egypt. The growth stage of the Holy Land barley crop is the deciding factor which keeps the lunar year in sync with the seasonal solar year. The month of Abib begins with the verification of the new moon in which the barley is mature enough to offer the wave sheaf offering during the Days of Unleavened Bread. For this reason, YPTC has, for the last two years, sent representatives to Israel to participate in the annual Abib inspection tour conducted by a Karaite and scholar Nehemia Gordon. This year Yahweh willing we will again be sending representatives to Israel.

In order to produce an accurate calendar, it is necessary to consider all the astronomical information for new moons along with the seasonal evidence which regulates when the month of Abib begins. In this day and age, through the use of computers and sophisticated programs, common people are able to access knowledge which, in times past, only scholars and mathematicians were able to access. Our knowledge has been greatly increased (Daniel 12:4). This is truly a blessing from Yahweh because it gives us the ability to project the visible new moon sightings far into the future.

Using all these tools, YPTC publishes a yearly calendar for our members. This calendar will be used as the guide to unify us all as to when to look for the new moons. By integrating the scriptural calendar with the secular calendar, we can know when Yahweh’s Holy Days should be observed. The rest is up to Yahweh as these dates must be confirmed by witnesses who see the first visible crescent of light which occurs after the astronomical conjunction.

New Moon Controversy

The subject of confirming new moons can be quite controversial. The Feast of Trumpets observances in 2005 and 2006 were observed on different days by various feast day observers. This disagreement has to do with the criterion set by these different groups. Some groups will only accept and sanctify new moons seen in Israel. Others will accept only continental USA. There are those who will only accept witnesses who are members of their group. And there are those who will not accept the testimony of Moslems or others whose witness they consider to be unacceptable. And the list of differences goes on and on.

In YPTC, it is our position that we are living in the time of the dispersion of the 12 tribes of Israel. James addressed his epistle to “the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad.” Furthermore, before Yahshua ascended into the heavens, He gave the apostles His plan to take the message of the coming Kingdom of Yahweh to the world. “He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’” (Acts 1:7-8; NASU)

As spiritual Israel, we are presently living in the “time of the dispersion.” For this reason, we do not believe that the new moons should be set exclusively from Jerusalem. Right now, Jerusalem is the “Holy City” in name alone. In fact, it is occupied with literally dozens of different religions that are not teaching the Truth of Yahweh’s Word. These are the ones who will celebrate the death of the two witnesses as described in Revelation 11. Notice how Jerusalem is described in Revelation 11:8. “And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Master was impaled.” (NASU) That city is Jerusalem.

Because we are in the era of the dispersion, and because Jerusalem is a hot bed for idolatrous religions of modern Babylon, we believe that new moon sightings should be acceptable from all locations on the earth. The members of YPTC are found as far east as Kenya, East Africa and as far west as the Pacific coast of California. We therefore designate new moon day by any credible witnesses found between those locations. If brethren see the new moon, we designate that whole day as new moon day, even if it was not seen in the USA. The same is true for the west coast of the USA. If the new moon is seen and verified there, then the entire day would be designated as new moon day. Even if no one east of the west coast saw it, we would still accept it as new moon day for all of our membership.

Then there is the question of who is acceptable as a witness. We always accept trustworthy witnesses who are in the truth, but we will also consider others regardless of race, nationality or religion and prayerfully judge based on perceived credibility. The Word of Yahweh teaches us that there is one law for the home born and the foreigner, Exodus 12:49. Yahweh is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34; Deut. 10:17). It should be noted that Moslems are avid new moon observers. This is a tremendously important part of their religious beliefs. They are extremely knowledgeable about new moon observations. Historically, they have developed the most accurate mathematical equations to project new moon sightings. The computer program used by YPTC is the work of Dr. Monzur Ahmed. He is a highly respected Moslem astronomer and professor at the University of Birmingham, England.

It is not our intention to criticize or berate those who go by different criterion for sanctifying new moons. We are merely stating our position on this important subject. Since we accept credible witnesses from East Africa to the California coast, we base the new moon dates on our calendar on the information for seven different locations around the world. At these locations we either have members or we know of other believers whose testimony can be trusted. After we examine the astronomical information, we determine which day will be the new moon. Primarily, we take into account seven different characteristics to make our decision. Some of the more important considerations are the moons: age, elongation, magnitude of light, width of the new moon and the amount of time between sun set and moon set. The final determination for verification and sanctification is that the moon is observed and confirmed by multiple witnesses who have seen the new crescent with the unaided naked eye.

The following information was determined by this method.

YPTC Projected Dates for 2007-2008 New Moons and Holy Days

New Moons

Abib 1 (New Year Day)	March 20, 2007
2nd Scriptural Month	April 19, 2007
3rd Scriptural Month	May 18, 2007
4th Scriptural Month	June 16, 2007
5th Scriptural Month	July 16, 2007
6th Scriptural Month	*August 15, 2007
7th Scriptural Month	Sept. 13, 2007
8th Scriptural Month	October 13, 2007
9th Scriptural Month	Nov. 12, 2007
10th Scriptural Month	Dec. 11, 2007
11th Scriptural Month	January 10, 2008
12th Scriptural Month	February 9, 2008

New Year Day	March 20, 2007
Passover	April 2, 2007
Feast of Unleavened Bread 1st High Day	April 3, 2007
Feast of Unleavened Bread Last High Day	April 9, 2007
Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)	May 27, 2007
Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah)	Sept. 13, 2007
Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)	Sept. 22, 2007
Feast of Tabernacles 1st High Day	Sept. 27, 2007
Last Great Day	October 4, 2007

Purim	March 4, 2007
Shushan Purim	March 5, 2007
Day of Yahshua’s Ascension	May 17, 2007
The 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av)	July 24, 2007
Hanukkah	Dec. 6-13, 2007

The days shown above begin the evening of the previous day at sundown.

* Indicates that under ideal conditions, the new crescent could possibly be seen the day before in some areas.

We hope that this information is useful in helping others understand the method used by YPTC to arrive at these dates for the new moons and Yahweh’s holy days.