After observing sunset to sunset happily for many years, I saw an ad promoting an article in the 'Sabbath Sentinel' magazine stating that the weekly Sabbath did not begin at sunset. For some reason it bothered me and I tried to ignore it. I continued to see the ad over time and I decided to finally order the information. I read the article which claimed that a Biblical day in general and the Sabbath in particular ran from dawn to dark. This made me angry, because I thought I had the truth and I had many sunset to sunset believers to back me up. On the other hand, I had many Sunday keepers to back me up when I observed Sunday. I decided that if I had the truth the Bible would support my belief.

These events led me to a study from Genesis to Revelation so I could prove this article wrong. I began to see a consistant pattern of days beginning at dawn and I could not find days that began with the evening. Well, what can I say, the article was Biblical. I now have been observing a dawn to dark Sabbath for many years.

What is your story?



Last edited by blueonblue on Sat Jun 28, 2008 2:09 pm; edited 6 times in total

After keeping the Sabbath for many years, sunset to sunset. My folks and I discovered things in the scriptures that didn't add up to the Sabbath starting in the evening. So we started to observe the Sabbath from dawn until dawn for many years.
One day while I was on the Internet, I wondered If their were others that started the Sabbath with the dawn. So I but in my search engine sunrise Sabbath keepers. That's when I discovered "The 12hr. Sabbath" web site. It certainly caught my attention; and I researched up on it. What can I say, things came together and made even more sense to me.
The author of "The 12hr. Sabbath", out of the goodness of his heart has since put this fellowship web site together.
So, I'm hoping like a quote I heard once, "Build it and they will come".

Hi Jade3,

I am fascinated by the fact that you and your family discovered that the Sabbath begins at dawn because you saw things in the scriptures that did not add up to the Sabbath starting in the evening. This can be a very emotional topic because many people (including myself) had observed sunset to sunset for many years believing that they had finally found the truth of this matter. Often it takes another party to present this truth before a person (including myself) starts to see the light. Of course God has to open our minds, but I have only known a few people who arrived at this conclusion by looking at the scriptures alone (without outside help). Right now I can think of one person from Mississippi who arrived at the same conclusion based on the scriptures without hearing about it from someone else.

I would be interested to know what are some of the things that did not make sense to you and what information was the turning point that eventually brought you to this understanding that a day begins at dawn?

I would like to know who else out there discovered this truth from the scriptures without hearing about it from someone else.

Hello blueonblue

Nice to hear from you.
I will try to answer your question about what my family and I found in the scriptures that didn't add up.
In the book of Exodus ch 12:17 it talks about the children of Israel leaving Egypt on the day of unleavened bread.
And also in verses 43 through 51 talking about Passover day being the same day the children of Israel left Egypt.
Of course at the time we weren't keeping the first day of unleavened bread and passover on the same day; and we thought
how can this be, we must not be doing something right. So we went back to Leviticus 23:5 and determined that on the fourteenth
day of the month at even, is Yahweh's passover literally like it says. That would make the first day of unleavened bread and passover
day fall on the same day. Like it says in Exodus ch.12. And of course we realized in order for that to occur the day would have to begin with the light.
This all took a lot of soul searching and prayer. When we discovered this we just sat around and looked at each other in kind of a disbelief. But
we couldn't deny the scriptures. I hope this is not all to confusing I'm not very good at explaining things to well. If you have any more questions feel
free to ask and I will try to answer better.
This is the first time I have been into a forum and still trying to get the hang of it. But its fun.
Hope all is well with you and your family. Have a most pleasant Sabbath tomorrow. Deborah

Hello Blueonblue,

I first had doubts about the tradition of after sunset start of day in 1965.

I had started doing a WCG bible correspondence course and did not accept this jewish teaching from the 2nd torah oral law Talmud etc, that they followed or the keeping of pentecost on monday.

Was it a salvation issue - I did not think it was so I fellowshipped with a group of families in Perth, Western Australia.

I did not really approve of paid ministry , tithing or a hierarchal structure in fellowship. But the people were sincere and we continued with WCG till 1986-90, when deceived and/or
corrupt men took over and about 160,000 people were attacked as it were by many false doctines.

We do not fellowship with any corporate church now but with friends in the faith. The new testament example is of family or house church.

As a farmer I well understood that animals and crops were geared to a dawn a start of day.

In the early 90's I started studying the calendar and start of day. My conclusions were to confirm dawn start of the first day when "let there be light" created the first dawn.
The example of the Passover in Exodus also reinforces the killing of the lamb in the late afternoon the eating and staying the home with the blood on the door frame and lintel till morning, the spoiling of the egyptians on the day of the 15th and the going out by night of the 15th with the pillar of fire leading them.
But for me the strongest example was that the creator of the light, the one who became Christ, each day overcoming the darkness, each new day. Christ the new 2nd light of the world, overcoming satan who disbelieved, rebelled and was changed from Lucifer the first light bringer to adversary.

Many who keep the sabbath and holy days accept the "Hebrew calendar" - it is not according to the bible instructions, but a calculated postponed calendar.
It starts each month according crescent moon instead of the full moon. It the calendar that the prophets wrote of as being hated by God.

Vic.

A messianic friend told me I needed to check out when a day started. They had a study on a sunrise day start on their website. I had never questioned the start of a day before that.

At first all I had to do was read a few of their scriptures. This seemed to convince me to a large degree.

I then did a deeper study on it using the ancient Hebrew pictographic definitions of the words day, night, evening and morning and found that the sunrise was almost certainly the start of a day.

I have also done a study that I believe proves that it is very likely that the Day of Atonement starts at sunrise also, and that the "ninth day" of Lev 23:32 contradicts and nullifies a plethora of other scriptures.

Both of my studies
"Days start at sunrise" and
"Day of Atonement Starts at Sunrise"
can be found at
http://yehspace.ning.com/

We also have a fellowship group called
"Sunrise-Start SHaBaT Keepers"
and many of our social network members keep sunrise-start shabats.

Excellent to have stumbled upon your page!
Be Blessed!