The legalistic malarkey that some in Armstrongism go to in order to please their god gets worse every day.
Prophet, revelator and the All Knowing One, regarding scripture, James Malm, has a silly little screed up today about 28 day months and the sighting of the new moons. Apparently if a cloud is in your way the moon is actually not visible - even though it is above the cloud layer. What if a person is flying in a plane and sees the exact same moon over the same location. Who is right?
The above picture is one that Malm used on his blog and was taken by an Armstrongite who sits outside for hours on end looking for new moons and also traipses through fields of barley and wheat looking for matured kernels.
Why was last month only 28 days?
The cycle of the moon
is approximately 29 1/2 days, and because no day begins in its middle
and we use full days beginning at sunset, this means that no month can
exceed 30 days in length, This also means that the cycle of the moon
will not be less than 29 days.
Therefore we look for
the first visible light of the new moon at the end of the 28th day, and
if it is seen at the end of the 29th day, a new biblical month begins;
however if the light of the moon is not seen, then the end of the 30th
day begins the new month regardless of whether any light was seen,
simply because the moon’s cycle is less than 30 days.
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Recently this
year, there was a 30 day month, followed by what was expected to be an
easily visible new moon on the 29th day, which was to be followed by
another 29 day month.
However, while
astronomically the moon would have been visible, making a 29 day
month; it was obscured by heavy cloud cover and a dust storm. Therefore
the new moon was delayed one day to fulfill 30 days and then became the
new moon by default through circumstance, even though it was
astronomically a 29 day month.
