Ruling Luminaries
Shine from East to West

Discover in this short study that the Second Coming of Yahusha the Messiah will occur in like manner as all ruling luminaries shine from east to west. This identifies the true New Moon and the precise night that it rules. A well-covered-up secret to the true New Moon is that ALL the Creator’s luminaries, the sun, stars, and moon, visibly shine from the eastern horizon unto the western horizon when they are in the act of ruling time, whether by day or by night.

Lightning or Luminaries

The first thing to address in this extremely important verse of Matthew 24:27 is the Greek/translator’s choice of the word “lightning.” As you can see in the Scripture Study link above, it appears that a covert error has occurred in this case to steer the reader off course. But why here in this verse? Our first clue is that the word “lightning” simply cannot be harmonized with the rest of the verse. The physical source of lightning is not derived from the east, nor does it shine to the west.

The corrected word placement of the term “luminaries” adds a great depth of meaning to this verse and brings it into harmony with itself. Genesis 1:14-18 defines three major

types of luminaries, namely the sun, moon, and stars. Each was given rulership of either the day or the night. When in their rulership, they each arise visibly from the eastern horizon and shine in their fullness of light all the way to the western horizon, where they sink out of view. As a result, they each fill the sky for a visual display of approximately 12 hours as they journey west. In contrast, lightning is produced by electrically charged storm clouds, and it instantly seeks the shortest path to the ground. Lightning flashes in all directions, and NOT specifically from east to west.

It is this easterly to the westerly journey of the Creator’s “luminaries” and not “lightning” for which the second coming of Yahusha, our Savior, will be patterned after.

A Visible New Moon Must Rise in the East and Set in the West

In the word study link above, the brilliantly shining luminaries are found to be visible. The visible sun defines the parameters of the day from sunrise to sunset, from east to west. Yet, it is only the visible moon, together with the visible stars, that defines the parameters of the night from sunset to sunrise on the one night that the full moon rules, from east to west. It is only the full moon that rises nearest the eastern horizon after the sun has set. Its rising and setting are exactly opposite to that of the sun and testify that, indeed, the day ends at precisely sunset. As the daylight ends with sunset, the full New Moon rises in the east, marking the starry constellation that shares the ruling responsibility for the new lunar month. So it is that on the night of the full New Moon, it rules with the stars in total opposition to the sun throughout the entire night in all their pure and marvelous radiance and then set in the west. While the stars quickly disappear with the dawn, on this first day of the lunar month, the moon remains in the western sky for 5-30 minutes after sunrise, announcing New Moon Day because the new month commences at sunrise and not at sunset.

It is this principle of the full New Moon that brings the beacon of the moon into perfect harmony with the sun and stars as they declare time by displaying their fullness of LIGHT. So what can be done with the Greek word (#796 astrape) that is truly translated as “lightning?” There is no answer other than this may be a perfect example to support the belief that the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew, then later translated to Greek for the purpose of causing honest folks to miss the connection and never realize the primary importance of the sun, moon, and stars in this verse. This chosen Greek word demonstrates it is simply not in harmony with the intended meaning of the verse. Evidence supporting this view comes from the Aramaic English New Testament, which is translated in the following way:

For as the sunshine comes out from the east and is seen even in the west, thus will be the coming of the Son of man. Matthew 24:27 Aramaic English New Testament

In this Aramaic text, we find that, indeed, the word (#796 astrape) can be translated as “sunshine,” one of the luminaries, illustrating that “lightning” appears to be a word choice translated wholly out of context.

Testimony of the LIGHTS

The sun is consistent day after day with no apparent visual change in its rising and setting. Yet, nearly imperceptibly, it shifts further north or south with the seasons as viewed from the perspective of earth. The stars advance from the eastern horizon, clicking off approximately one degree each night of its 360-degree whole circuit.

The moon is uniquely different, as every 24 hours along its westerly journey, it falls behind its previous position by approximately 12 degrees. Each night it appears both as a distinctly altered lunar phase and in a receded location in the sky. This occurs because its position in the sky relative to earth always determines its phase.

And then the moon, ever punctual to mark the times, [as] an everlasting sign: It is the moon that signals the Feasts, a luminary that wanes after being full. The month derives its name from hers. She waxes wonderfully in her phases, a banner of the hosts on high, SHINING in the vault of heaven [the shamayim].” Ecclesiasticus 43:6-8, c.a. 19-180 B.C.

The moon’s purpose was preordained from the beginning to demarcate each day from the next as it cycles through its 29 or 30 numbered calendar dates. However, it is only on the night of the brilliant (Selene #4582) full New Moon that it highlights, with its arising in the east, the precise starry constellation that is to rule for the subsequent month. So it is that the brilliant full moon, which receives its fullness of light from the sun, identifies each ruling starry constellation that arises together with it in the east among the advancing wheel of stars.

Facing North, the image below illustrates the full New Moon arising just after sunset on 04-15-2014 from the eastern horizon in the constellation Virgo (Bethula). According to Revelation 12:1, this is the great sign in the shamayim of Yahuah’s obedient followers from Creation to the end of time. This lunar position in the night sky announces New Year’s Day and defines the rhythm of the years, months, and counting to each Feast day and Sabbath. The curved red line identifies the moon’s path along the ecliptic plane as it follows the Mazzeroth wheel of stars, falsely referred to today as the Zodiac. The other red lines define the constellation boundaries along the ecliptic pathway.

Perhaps you have read Revelation 12:1, “Then an exceedingly important sign appeared in the shamayim (heavens); a woman arose [in the east], arrayed with the sun and the brilliant moon (#4582 Selene – brilliant moon) at her feet, and above her head was a crown of twelve stars.” More . . .

Every good gift and ever perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the FATHER OF LIGHTS, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning [full sun, full stars, and full moon]. James 1:17

Are you aware that the moon is the only LIGHT that ever displays a shadow of a turning orbit? The sun and stars remain consistent from day to day, shining in all their brilliance. Yet, among the 29 lunar phases that occur monthly, there is only one lunar phase that has no shadow of a turning orbit. As a result, there is no other lunar phase that can correspond to the verse above in James 1:17 other than the FULL MOON. A popular belief has developed that applies this verse to the crucifixion, symbolizing the LIGHTS of the sun and full moon on that day. But this is exactly the opposite of what is described in Luke 23:44-45, as the sun was darkened from the sixth to the ninth hour. When the sun is eclipsed, it is always the occulted moon that causes this to occur. Read More.

The LIGHTS of the sun, moon, and stars work in perfect orchestration when they are in their fullness, arising in the east and setting in the west. But to accomplish this, the boundaries were defined and preordained that the sun was NEVER to rule the sky at the same time as either the moon or the stars.

The parameters that our Creator set for this arrangement are ETERNAL, for it changes not, just as He changes not. All the time-measuring models that utilize the dark or crescent lunar phase challenge the truthfulness of the above three Scripture verses. Knowingly or unknowingly, they have aligned the dark or crescent moon to the sun, then utilized the sun to mark the ruling constellation on the opposite side of the universe by day when the stars are not visible. This is 180 degrees out of sync with the direction given by Moses, David, and Jeremiah. While this is the most commonly practiced modern lunar month tradition, it is nothing short of REBELLION to our Creator!

The Day of Our Messiah’s Crucifixion

This illustration is of the daylight sky in A.D. 31. This is how the sun, moon, and stars might appear if the sun were completely darkened at this 12:00 noon position in a Total solar eclipse.

This is what was described by Dionysius the Areopagite, the Greek astronomer eyewitness who recorded this occurrence on the day of the crucifixion.

The starry constellations became visible when the occulted moon fully obscured the sun in this extreme occulted solar eclipse. On this 14th day of the lunar month of Nisan, the eclipsed sun and the dark moon were visible in Aries, the epic sign of the true LAMB, for all to witness, lasting from the sixth to the ninth hour of the day.

Was this not precisely what Flavius Josephus recorded had occurred at the time of Moses and Israel’s first Passover? Might this have been the prophetic signal of Passover that was to reveal the promised Messiah? Might this have been a visual declaration of the loving Father through His sorrow, “BEHOLD THE LAMB OF YAHUAH THAT TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD?”

Dionysius the Areopagite

In letters written under the name Dionysius the Areopagite, the author claims to have observed a solar eclipse from Heliopolis at the time of the crucifixion. Parker, John (1897). “Letter VII. Section II. To Polycarp–Hierarch. & Letter XI. Dionysius to Apollophanes, Philosopher.” The Works of Dionysius the Arepagite. London: James Parker and Co. pp. 148–149, 182–183.

According to the Orthodox Church in America, Dionysius, who is mentioned in Acts 17:34, was from Athens and received a classical Greek education (i.e. Atticism). He studied astronomy at the city of Heliopolis, and it was in Heliopolis, along with his friend Apollophonos where he witnessed the solar eclipse that occurred at the moment of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ [Yahusha, the Messiah] by Crucifixion. (The connection between the events was surely realized by him at a later date.) But even so, at the time of the eclipse he said, “Either the Creator of all the world now suffers, or this visible world is coming to an end.” Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite the Bishop of Athens, Wikipedia.org

The Sun in Aries

In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians,) the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so we do celebrate this Passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened bread. . . Antiquity of the Jews, Flavius Josephus, Book 3, Chapter 10, No. 5.

A gradual change in this accounting of time began to develop following the Messiah’s crucifixion, which Scripture records as both the 14^th of the lunar month and that it occurred upon the day of the occulted sun and conjunction moon. Read more.

disciples-crucifixion By the time of Constantine in the 4th century, the Jews, and later the Romans, began to declare the dark occulted moon to be the New Moon, the first day of the month, in rebellion against the rules given by the Creator. All had forgotten that the rules of time remain unaltered since creation. These rules from two witnesses declare it IMPOSSIBLE for a dark occulted moon, which is in its closest proximity to the sun, to rule the night together with the stars. This is true for the very reason this occulted moon never visibly occurs together with the brilliant stars but only occurs during the daylight hours along with the sun. When this occulted moon arises, it does so simultaneously with the rising of the sun. The sun was ordained to rule the daylight only and is not part of ruling with the moon or stars.

This also applies to the first (FVC) and second visible crescent following the occultation of the moon, although too small to see, these lunar phases are consistently lit in the day sky together with the sun, with only forty-five minutes to two hours in the night sky that follows before setting in the west.

The crescent moon doctrine was fabricated by the rebellious hearted of ancient Babylon around the period of Nimrod and Semiramis. At that time, it was given the name “Sin,” the crescent moon god. Might the Babylonians have traded the truth for error in abject disobedience to their Creator, who had established the LIGHT of the brilliant (Selene NT#4582) full moon as His beacon for months and years? Might the Babylonians have named it Sin, in defiance, as they knew it was an unshameful and unrepentant sin against their Creator?

Taking this one step further, just as the New Moon was changed by 180 degrees, so too it was fraudulently changed from the brilliant (Selene #4582) full moon to the dark occulted lunar phase. The Mazzeroth wheel of the stars (commonly referred to today as the Zodiac) was also transformed by the same 180 degrees. As a result, the Creator’s years that were appointed to commence with the constellation Bethula (Virgo) arising in the east in the spring and highlighted with the full moon were utterly transformed to commence with the constellation Pisces, otherwise known as Dagon.

In the modern Zodiac, Pisces is most often highlighted as starting the New Year with the dark occulted moon (or first visible crescent) that arises together with the sun. Thus, crossing the boundaries set by the Creator, who defined that the sun and moon were NEVER to rule the sky together with the stars. Yet strikingly, this is precisely what has occurred.

Ironically, this starry constellation of Pisces is not visible when it is highlighted by the sun and occulted moon for the very reason that this occurs during the daylight in which the stars are invisible. According to the rules above, the sun was NEVER to rule together with the stars any more than it was allowed to rule with the moon. Therefore, by definition, it is an impossibility for the occulted lunar phase to meet any of the criteria from Matthew 24:27, James 1:17, Genesis 1:14, or Psalms 136:7, which define that the moon and stars are to rule the entire boundaries of the night from the eastern horizon to the western horizon as brilliant LIGHTS, with no shadows of turning.

In Jeremiah 33:19-21, Yahuah speaks of the evil that He would bring upon the house of David and the kingdom of Israel if they broke His covenants. What was the covenant that He was stressing that His people not break?

Thus says Yahuah, who gives the sun for a LIGHT by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a LIGHT by night, who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar, Yahuah of hosts is His name: “If those ordinances depart from before Me, says Yahuah, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.” Jeremiah 31:35-36 NKJV

This is specifically referring to the boundary lines of the sun for a LIGHT by day, and the boundary lines of the moon and the stars for a LIGHT by night. This verse explicitly reveals the boundaries of the Creator’s ordained divisions of time as defined by His astro-lunar-solar celestial timepiece. This verse from Jeremiah is our Eternal Father’s promise that these ordinances, as defined in this study, will never be changed by Himself, as He changes not. However, the curse of Israel ceasing to be a nation barakah (blessed) by Yahuah remains a viable possibility, according to this same verse, if the covenant is broken by Israel.

Has this occurred? Has the nation of Israel (modern Rabbinical Jews/Pharisees) changed the Creator’s set ordinances of the sun, moon, and stars to rule at times other than when they were ordained to rule? YES! As evidenced by the order of the modern Zodiac and highlighted by the occulted moon that rules together with the sun, to mark the starry constellation by daylight!

So, based upon this verse alone, does the nation of Israel remain in a Covenant Agreement with the Most High today as they once did 2,000 years ago? NO! Israel broke their end of the covenant agreement with the ever-living Yahuah when it changed His ordinances, the boundary markers in the shamayim, His times, and His laws. Thus, it is that all the LIGHTS in the shamayim once created to measure time accurately, have all been transformed into the utter darkness of the OCCULT, used to bring all humanity into the worship rhythms of the enemy of souls.

Conclusion

To answer the question that is presented in the first paragraph— the Prince of Darkness has long been engaged in changing the times and laws of the Creator (Daniel 7:25) in hopes that all may perish on that great day. If it could be projected through a faulty Greek translation that this verse in Matthew 24:27 refers only to “lightning,” then a profound witness to the truth would be completely missed. This is that in addition to the visible sun and stars, the visible and brilliant New Moon must also arise in the east and set in the west, so by design, it must be the full moon, after all.

Most lunisolar believers today continue to uphold the modern Rabbinic Jewish (Pharisee) tradition of either the dark or first visible crescent lunar phase as the true New Moon. There have been few definitive markers for the New Moon in either the Tanakh (OT) or the Brit Hadasha (NT) translations, as they appear to have been obscured somewhat in the Scriptural record. However, this otherwise hidden witness from the book of Matthew declares that the one lunar phase that arises in the east and sets in the west is the one that rules the entire night, just as the sun and stars do. The only lunar phase that answers this description is the brilliant (Selene #4582) full moon.

It is my prayer that this short study has opened your eyes to the truth with regard to our Creator’s signs in the shamayim, as they are consistent with each other, but also as they proclaim the pathway of the LIGHTS in which YAHUSHA, our Messiah and Redeemer, the LIGHT of the world, will return in all His majesty and power, from the east and even unto the west. All Yahuah’s obedient will be in one accord on that last great day, in harmony with the count of years, months, days, and weeks as beaconed by the full New Moon. For it alone displays its fullness of LIGHT in harmony with the boundaries given in Scripture.

For more evidence on this subject of time commencing in the East, refer to The East-West Time Continuum.

For more evidence on the full moon being the original Chodesh (New Moon) and the start of lunar years and months, refer to: Evidence the Full Moon Announces Lunar Months.

The Creators Calendar

the original calendar of Creation

Ruling Luminaries Shine from East to West – Matthew 24