PENTECOST Section Four of Biblical Holy Days Compiled by Richard C. Nickels Distributed by: Giving & Sharing PO Box 100 Neck City, MO 64849 Revised Edition, copyright 1995 by Sharing & Giving, Inc. Introduction Section Four of Biblical Holy Days covers Pentecost, the festival with many names. As with the other sections, our purpose is not to convince others to observe the Sabbaths of the Almighty. It is to provide resource material and in-depth instruction for those who already observe these sacred times. Even though I personally observe a Monday Pentecost, our material on Pentecost is not intended to be a comprehensive proof that a Monday Pentecost is correct. Our study material gathers resource material from a wide variety of sources as a research source for serious students. Here is a summary collection of Pentecost data: Pentecost Feast of Weeks (Chag Shavuot) Feast of Harvest (Chag Qatsiyr) Day of Firstfruits (Yom Bikkurim) Festival of the Covenant Closing Sabbath (Shavuot Atzeret) Season of the Giving of God's Law Holy Spirit Day Birthday of the Church An Ordinance Forever (Chuqqah Olam) Count a full fifty days, then keep Pentecost. Begin counting on the day after the weekly Sabbath which falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Incorrect Pentecost dates are any fixed calendar date (Sivan 6, 7, etc.), and Whitsunday, which was brought into the Catholic Church from paganism. Proper keeping of Pentecost involves the following: Being in Holy Convocation on the correct date, at one accord with God's people, in the attitude of prayer and supplication, with obedience to the Laws of the Covenant, exhibiting the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost -- Table of Contents PENTECOST: Its Message for Christians Today 1 Pentecost scriptures in the Old and New Testaments. History and traditions of Pentecost observance, date controversy. Pentecost and the Ten Commandments, the Spirit to keep God's Law. Whitsunday a pagan counterfeit of Pentecost. Ruth, Exodus, Psalms 42-72, Psalms 68 and Habakkuk 3 and Pentecost. Pentecost: The Day of Difference 16 Reasons for a Monday Pentecost. Explanation of Deuteronomy 16. Counting Jubilee years proves Monday Pentecost. Many who have changed from a Monday to a Sunday Pentecost accept wide-open divorce and remarriage. Fruits of a Sunday Pentecost are not good. Twenty Four Reasons Why I Believe in a Monday Pentecost 26 Twenty-four profound reasons for a Monday Pentecost given by Raymond C. Cole. Proof that the Worldwide Church of God never kept a Sunday Pentecost prior to 1974. A New Look at Pentecost in Light of the Calendar Adjustment of the Second Century 33 Why the Sacred Calendar needs periodic adjustments. Herman L. Hoeh's 1973 proof that the Hebrew calendar had to be adjusted in 161 A.D. by Simon III to avoid Monday Pentecost from falling in the summer, contrary to Sacred Calendar rules. If Pentecost were on Sunday, the adjustment would not have been required until two centuries later. Historical proof that the calendar was adjusted at this time demonstrates a Monday Pentecost. Let Us "Tarry" for Pentecost 37 What does "tarry" for Pentecost mean to us today? We must sit down and patiently wait, be taught by the Eternal, have an intimate relationship with Him, and listen to Peter's sermon of Acts 2. Pentecost is NOT Sivan 6 41 An investigation of the "Sivan 6 Theory." Reasons why Pentecost is not Sivan 6. Meaning of the wavesheaf offering. When Does the Pentecost Count Begin? 53 This article shows proof that Wavesheaf Sunday is the day following the Sabbath that falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Pentecost Quiz 65 Matching, Fill in the Blanks, and General Questions on Pentecost, based on material found in our Pentecost articles. Pentecost: Its Message for Christians Today Pentecost has a great deal of meaning for Christians today. The first part of this study deals with the Biblical words relating to this important Feast Day. The second part contains reference material relating to Pentecost. All word numbers refer to those given in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. PENTECOST From the Greek #4005 pentekoste, pronounced "pen-tay-kos-tay'," feminine of #4004 pentekonta, (fifty), fiftieth from Passover, the festival of Pentecost. Church Founded at Pentecost Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Paul Wanted to be at Jerusalem for Pentecost Acts 20:16 For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia, for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. Paul Wanted to Stay at Ephesus Until Pentecost I Corinthians 16:8 But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. His reason for staying at Ephesus until Pentecost? Verse 9 For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. FIRSTFRUITS -- Bikkuwr Hebrew #1061 bikkuwr pronounced "bikkoor'," from #1069 bakar (to burst the womb, bear or make early fruit, firstborn, firstling), the firstfruits of the crop, hasty fruit. Pentecost One of Two Harvest Feasts Exodus 23:16 And the feast of harvest [Pentecost], the firstfruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering [Tabernacles], which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. Exodus 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks [Pentecost], of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end [margin: revolution of the year]. See also Leviticus 23:10. Sacrificial Offering of Firstfruits Exodus 23:19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk. See also Exodus 34:26. Leviticus 2:14 And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears. Leviticus 23:17, 20 [on Pentecost] Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD . . . . And the priest shall wave them [the special sacrifices for the feast] with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. Day of Firstfruits, No Work, A Holy Convocation Forever Numbers 28:26 Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the LORD, after your weeks be out, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work. Leviticus 23:21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. Firstfruits Given to Elisha Fed One Hundred Men II Kings 4:42, 44 [during a severe drought, verse 38] And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people that they may eat . . . . So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof . . . . Firstfruits Brought Year By Year to God's House Nehemiah 10:34-35 . . . at times appointed year by year . . . . And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the LORD. Nehemiah 13:31 . . . at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. The Sons of Zadok Will Receive the Firstfruits Ezekiel 44:30 And the first [chief] of all the firstfruits of all things . . . shall be the priests. FIRSTFRUITS -- Re'shiyth Hebrew #7225 re'shiyth pronounced "ray-sheeth'," from the same root as #7218 ro'sh (the head, captain, chief, first), the first, in place, time, order or rank; beginning, chief, firstfruits; principal. Firstfruits and Sacrificial System Leviticus 2:12-13 As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor. And every oblation of thy meat offering, shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering. Wavesheaf Offering of Firstfruits Leviticus 23:10-11, 14 When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and reap the harvest . . . then ye shall bring a sheaf [Hebrew: omer] of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it . . . . And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Priests Given Tithes and Firstfruits Numbers 18:12 All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given thee [Aaron and his sons]. II Chronicles 31:5 . . . the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things they brought in abundantly. Firstfruits a Reminder of Exodus and Promised Land Deuteronomy 26:1-11 . . . when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance . . . thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth . . . and put it in a basket, and go to the place . . . unto the priest . . . and say . . . the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand . . . [therefore] I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou O LORD, hast given me . . . . And thou shalt rejoice . . . thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. Nehemiah Reinstituted Tithing and Firstfruits Nehemiah 10:37 And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites . . . . Nehemiah 12:44 And at that time were some appointed over the chambers for the treasures, for the offerings, for the firstfruits, and for the tithes . . . . Honor God With Your Firstfruits -- You'll Be Blessed Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Israel Is Special -- God's Firstfruits Jeremiah 2:3 [JPS] Israel is the LORD's hallowed portion, His first-fruits of the increase; all that devour him shall be held guilty, evil shall come upon them . . . . Firstfruits Are Holy Unto God Ezekiel 48:14 And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land: for it is holy unto the LORD. Firstfruits Will Be Required in the World Tomorrow Ezekiel 20:40 For in mine holy mountain . . . there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. Firstfruits Reminder of Second Exodus Ezekiel 20:41-43 I will accept you with your sweet savor, when I . . . . gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered . . . . And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel . . . . And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled . . . and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. Note: Compare with Acts 2:36-38. FIRSTFRUITS -- Aparche Greek #536 aparche pronounced "ap-ar-khay'," from a composite of #575 apo (separation, departure) and #756 archomai (to commence, begin), a beginning of sacrifice, firstfruits. Christians Are Firstfruits Romans 16:5 Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ. I Corinthians 16:15 . . . the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia . . . . James 1:18 Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. Christians Have Firstfruits of God's Spirit Romans 8:14, 23 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God . . . which have the firstfruits of the Spirit . . . . Christ the Firstfruits of the Dead I Corinthians 15:20, 22-23 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept . . . in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. The 144,000 Are a Firstfruits Unto God Revelation 14:1, 4 And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads . . . . These were redeemed from among men, being the [a] firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. WEEKS Hebrew #7620 shabuwa or shabua or shebuah pronounced "sheb-oo-aw'," seven, a week. This is distinct from the Hebrew word for Sabbath, #7676. Pentecost Also Called Feast of Weeks Exodus 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest . . . . Deuteronomy 16:9-12 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee. And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place His name there. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times in a year shalt all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which He shall choose: in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty: II Chronicles 8:13 . . . on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in a year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks and in the feast of tabernacles. Pentecost Is Feast of Weeks Because It Must Be Counted Numbers 28:26 Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the LORD, after your weeks be out, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: Deuteronomy 16:9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. Leviticus 23:15-16 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days . . . . Feast of Weeks Offering Given God Deuteronomy 16:10, 16-17 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks . . . with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God has blessed thee in the feast of weeks . . . and they shall not appear before the LORD empty: Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which He hath given thee. Feast of Weeks a Feast of Rejoicing at a Special Place Deuteronomy 16:10-12 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks . . . . And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God . . . in the place which the LORD thy God has chosen to place His name there. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. Passover to Pentecost a Type of the Spiritual Harvest Jeremiah 5:15, 17, 24-25 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far . . . . And they shall eat up thine harvest . . . . Neither say they [Israel] in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that given rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest . . . . your sins have withholden good things from you. USE OF FIFTY IN THE BIBLE Ark Fifty Cubits Wide, It Rained a Hundred Fifty Days Genesis 6:15 The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. Genesis 7:24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. Genesis 8:3 . . . and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. Sodom Would Have Been Spared For Fifty Righteous Genesis 18:24, 26, 28 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: . . . . And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous . . . . I will spare all the place for their sakes . . . . Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty . . . . Moses Placed Judges Over Fifties Exodus 18:21-22 [Jethro speaking:] . . . thou shalt provide . . . able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: and let them judge the people at all seasons . . . . Deuteronomy 1:15 So I took . . . wise men and known, and made them captains over thousands, . . . hundreds . . . fifties . . . tens . . . . Fifty Loops On the Ten Curtains of the Tabernacle Exodus 26:1, 5-11 Fifty loops shall you make in one curtain . . . fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to another with the clasps, that the tabernacle may be one whole [JPS]. Tabernacle Court Fifty Cubits Wide Exodus 27:13, 18 The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where . . . . Pentecost Fifty Days From Wavesheaf Day Leviticus 23:15-16 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number fifty days . . . [KJV]. And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the day of rest, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the waving; seven weeks shall there be complete; even unto the morrow after the seventh week shall you number fifty days . . . [JPS]. Levites Had to Retire at Age Fifty Numbers 4:3 From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. Numbers 8:25-26 And from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting upon the service thereof, and shall serve no more: But shall minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation, to keep the charge, and shall do no service. Jubile the Fiftieth Year Leviticus 25:10-11 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A Jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself . . . . Fifty in a Company of Soldiers I Kings 1:5 . . . and fifty men to run before him. II Kings 1:9 . . . a captain of fifty with his fifty . . . . God's Fifty Prophets and Disciples I Kings 18:4 . . . when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water. Luke 9:14 . . . for they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, make them sit down by fifties in a company. PENTECOST -- THE THIRD MONTH Israel Came to Sinai in the Third Month Exodus 19:1-2 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai . . . and there Israel camped before the mount. Asa's Covenant With God in the Third Month II Chronicles 15:3, 10-13 Now for a long season Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law . . . . So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa . . . . And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their soul; That whosoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death . . . . Hezekiah Brings Firstfruits and Tithes in Third Month II Chronicles 31:7 In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. Jews Permitted to Defend Selves in Third Month Esther 8:9-11 Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof . . . . Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life . . . . Ezekiel's Third Month Prophecy for Egypt and Assyria Ezekiel 31:1-2 And it came to pass . . . in the third month, in first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt . . . . NOTE: Some "scholars" have noted that Pentecost is not mentioned in Ezekiel 45 and 46, although Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Tabernacles are specified. This does not show the invalidity of Pentecost in the World Tomorrow, because the general term "feasts, new moons, and sabbaths" is used in these chapters to refer to all the feast days. FULLY COME Greek #4845 sumpleroo pronounced "soom-play-ro-o," from #4862, sun, (completeness) and #4137, pleroo, (accomplish; complete, expire, fill up, make full, perfect), to accomplish completely, fill up, fully come. Pentecost Was Fully Come When Holy Spirit Given Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come . . . . Ship of Jesus and Disciples Filled With Water Luke 8:23 . . . and there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. Jesus Knew When His Time Was Come Luke 9:51 . . . when the time was come that He should be received up, He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. NOTE: The Englishman's Greek New Testament translates Acts 2:1 literally as "and during the accomplishing of the day of Pentecost . . . ." The spiritual meaning of Pentecost was accomplished in the morning (around the third hour, nine o'clock) when the wave loaves were offered in 31 A.D. when God's Holy Spirit came. WITH ONE ACCORD Greek #3661 homothumadon pronounced "hom-oth-oo-mad-on'," unanimously, with one accord or mind, from #3674, homou, (at the same place or time, together) and #2372, thumos, (passion, as if breathing hard, fierceness, indignation, wrath) which comes from #2380, thuo, (to rush or breathe hard, blow; to sacrifice, kill slay). Just Before Pentecost the Apostles Were With One Accord Acts 1:14 These all [eleven apostles, verse 13] continued with one accord in prayer and supplication . . . . At Pentecost, the Disciples With One Accord in One Place Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. After Pentecost, Christians Continued With One Accord Acts 2:44-46 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Church Prayed for Peter and John with One Accord Acts 4:24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord . . . . The result? Verses 31-32 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. Miracles and Converts Because Christians With One Accord Acts 5:12, 14 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch . . . . And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Fighters Against God Were With One Accord Acts 7:57-58 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him [Stephen] with one accord . . . . and stoned him . . . . Acts 12:20 And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him . . . . Acts 18:12 . . . the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat. Acts 19:29 And the whole city [Ephesus] was filled with confusion . . . they rushed with one accord into the theatre. Samaritans Gave One Accord to Philip's Preaching Acts 8:6 And the people [of Samaria] with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. Ministers With One Accord at Jerusalem Conference Acts 15:25 . . . being assembled with one accord . . . . Glorify God With One Mind Romans 15:5-6 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to [margin: after the example of] Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God . . . . PENTECOST REFERENCES This section gives summaries from various references on Pentecost, along with our comments. Date Controversy The phrase, "the morrow of the Sabbath," Leviticus 23:15, is interpreted by the rabbis as Nisan 16. Reasons supporting their position are: (1) Leviticus 25:2 shows that the Bible uses the word "Sabbath" to indicate not a seventh day but a period of rest or a festival. (2) The Septuagint (c. 300 B.C.) translates the disputed phrase as "the morrow of the first day," while the modern JPS renders it "the morrow of the day of rest." (3) Some feel that Joshua 5:11 should be translated so that Israel ate of the new produce of the land on the morrow of the Passover. (The JPS translation of Joshua 5:11 is "and they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover . . . .") (4) Josephus wrote that "The offerings of the sheaf (omer of barley) took place on the 16th (of Nisan), the first busy work-day of the harvest, in relation to which the preceding day might well be called a Sabbath or rest day." The Sadducees, the party dominated by the high priestly family, took the phrase "the morrow of the Sabbath" literally, and began counting with Sunday as the first day. For them, Shavuoth (Pentecost) falls on a Sunday. Shavuoth could thus fall anywhere from the 6th to the 13th of Sivan. The Talmud, slanted to the Pharisee position, records Pharisee-Sadducee debates on the subject, and infers that the Sadducees themselves felt very uncertain about the validity of their own arguments. Centuries later, the Karaite sect (of the Crimea) rejected all rabbinic interpretation and held that the Scriptures alone are the only valid authority. They received their name because they emphasized the literal meaning of the Bible (Hebrew word kara means "to read"), and they too began counting from Sunday. The "negro Jews" or Falashas of Ethiopia began their count from Nisan 22, because they interpreted "morrow after Sabbath" as after the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The underlying reason of the Pentecost date conflict between the Pharisees and Sadducees is that the Pharisees (rabbis) felt that Shavuoth was the date of the giving of the commandments, and thus had to have a fixed date, while the Sadducees found no Bible evidence that the Revelation was given at Shavuoth, and thus saw no reason for a fixed date. (See A Guide to Shavuoth by Chaim Pearl. Jewish Chronicle Publications, London: 1959.) [Comment: We believe that Pentecost is the anniversary of the giving of the commandments, but that this does not dictate it being a fixed calendar date.] The vague Biblical references to the dating of Pentecost have provoked disputes among scholars. Sadducees and the Samaritans believe the word "sabbath" in Leviticus 23:15 is to be taken as the weekly Sabbath. They count Sunday as the first day, and always observe Pentecost on a Sunday. The Pharisees interpret "sabbath" as the annual Sabbath, and they keep Pentecost fifty days from Nisan 15, or Sivan 6 ("The Feast of Weeks" from Festivals of the Jewish Year by Theodor H. Gaster, William Morrow & Company, New York: 1953). Both Jews and traditional Christianity count only seven weeks, not 50 days. Jews mistakenly use Deuteronomy 16:9 for instructions on how to number these days. Deuteronomy 16:9 states: "Seven weeks shall you number unto you: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as you begin to put the sickle to the corn." Thus, it would seem from this passage that you would begin to count from Nisan 16, the first real harvest day of the season (The Sabbaths of God, by James L. Porter, Exposition Press, New York: 1966). [Comment: See section 4.1 for an explanation of Deuteronomy 16.] Modern Jews hold Pentecost on Sivan 6, which never falls on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday. Orthodox Jews have added a day, making two days of Shabu'ot. Regarding the expression "on the morrow after the Sabbath," Leviticus 23:11, the Pharisees held that "the Sabbath" referred to Passover (Nisan 15, the first Holy Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread). But the Sadducees (Boethusians), and later the Karaites, held that it meant the weekly Sabbath, and began counting "seven weeks" from the morrow after the first Saturday during Passover, "so that Pentecost would always fall on Sunday." Thus, they felt that Moses gave them an extended holy day by tying Pentecost with the Sabbath. The Septuagint translates the phrase to support the Pharisees ("on the morrow of the first day"), and Talmudists substituted the word "Azeret" (solemn assembly) for "Shabuot." The Sadducees' contention that Pentecost was on a Sunday was one of the reasons used by the Catholic Church in fixing Easter on Sunday, in 325 A. D. The Book of Jubilees (part of the Apocrypha), written about 135 B.C., interprets "on the morrow after the Sabbath" as Nisan 21, the last day of Passover; consequently some Jews kept Pentecost on Sivan 12 or Sivan 15. Jubilees maintains that the covenant with Abraham, the birth of Isaac, Abraham's death, Judah's birth, and the vows between Jacob and Laban, all occurred on the Feast of Weeks (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1904 edition, article "Pentecost"). Sadducees held that the beginning of the ecclesiastical year was so arranged that the Passover (Nisan 15, first high day) always fell on the Sabbath, so that the "morrow after the Sabbath" would always be a Sunday. (This would make Nisan 1 on a Sabbath.) Keil's argument against "the morrow after the Sabbath" referring to the weekly Sabbath is that "if the Sabbath was not fixed, but might fall upon any day of the seven days' feast of Mazzoth [Unleavened Bread], and therefore as much as five or six days after the Passover, the feast of Passover itself would be forced out of the fundamental position which it occupied in the series of annual festivals" (Lange's Commentary on Leviticus 23 relating to Pentecost). Time of the Giving of the Law Some rabbis interpret "the same day" of Exodus 19:1 as meaning the same day of the month, hence they [incorrectly assert that] Israel came to Sinai on Sivan 1. They believe that Moses ascended the mount on the second day, came down on the third and warned the people and received their willing reply to obey God. He then made another ascent on the fourth and was commanded to institute three days of preparation, the last of which the Revelation (giving of 10 Commandments) took place, Sivan 6 (see Pearl). COMMENT: If three additional days is meant, it would be Sivan 7, the day reached if you count fifty days from Nisan 16. By their own reckoning, the Jews are keeping Pentecost a day early. Some Jews have added a day and keep both Sivan 6 and 7. Exodus 19:1 shows that Israel reached Sinai in the third month, on the same day of the week (Thursday) that they left Egypt. Further calculations show that Pentecost was the day the Ten Commandments were given. It is thus the birthday of Israel, and is known as "the season of the giving of Our Law." Jews believe two important events occurred at Sinai: (1) the giving of the Law, and (2) the Covenant (contract) relationship between God and Israel. Physically, Pentecost marks the end of seven weeks collaboration between God and man in the reaping of the barley harvest. Spiritually it is the end of the first spiritual harvest, which began with Israel's deliverance from Egypt. Just as Israel had to gather the crops to ensure prosperity in the coming year, so Sinai was necessary for Israel's spiritual continuance. Physically, Israel offered to God two loaves of the new bread as a symbol of cooperation. Spiritually, God offers to man two tablets of the Law. As the harvest is renewed year by year, so is the event at Sinai recalled (Gaster). A feast celebrated by Asa in the third month of the fifteenth year of his reign to renew the Covenant, II Chronicles 15:10-12 may refer to Pentecost. The first unequivocal statement that the giving of the Law was on Pentecost is given in the late noncanonical Book of Jubilees. The Qumran community followed the Jubilees calendar and celebrated Pentecost as the chief feast because of its association with the Covenant. Ezekiel 45:18-25 does not mention Pentecost. Orthodox Jews after the Exile relegated it to a secondary feast. Not until the Second Century, A. D. was the connection with the giving of the Ten Commandments generally admitted by most Jewish rabbis (New Catholic Encyclopedia, article "Pentecost, Hebrew Feast of"). "The Feast of Pentecost was instituted, first, to oblige the Israelites to repair to the temple of the Lord, there to acknowledge His dominion over their country, and their labours, by offering to Him the first fruits of all their harvests. Secondly, to commemorate, and to render thanks to God for, the law given from Mount Sinai, on the fiftieth day after their coming out of Egypt" (Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, 1801 edition, article "Pentecost"). A possible reason for the Pentecost custom of eating dairy foods is that it is in honor of the Law, which is likened to "honey and milk" in Song of Solomon 4:11 (Jewish Encyclopedia, "Pentecost"). There are seven days of Pesach and seven days of Sukkot, why not seven days of Shabuot? "Because Shabuot commemorates the day when all Israel was as one heart in accepting the Torah." -- Zohar, iii, 96a There are 613 letters in the Decalogue, equal to the number of commandments. -- Bemidbar Rabbah, 13:15 How the Patriarchs kept every one of the Ten Commandments: (1-2) Jacob accepted the Lord as God and ordered removal of strange gods, (3) Joseph swore by the life of Pharaoh and not by God, and (4) prepared a Sabbath table before his brethren, (5) Isaac honored his father and made no protest when led to the sacrifice, (6) Judah opposed the murder of Joseph, (7) Joseph was opposed to adultery, (8) Judah identified Joseph's bloody shirt and did not lie, (9-10) Abraham refused to plunder Sodom. -- Pesikta Hadashah, Otzar Midrashim, p. 489 The ten sayings with which the world was created correspond to the Ten Commandments: (1) Let there be light corresponds to the first commandment, for God is the Eternal Light. (2) "Let there be an expanse," reminds us that all heavenly bodies are creatures only. (3) "Let the waters assemble," reminds us that the sea does not hold lightly the name of God, and does not overflow its bounds. (4) "Let the earth bring forth grass," reminds us of God's bounty to him who honors the Sabbath. (5) "Let there be lights," reminds us of two lights in the life of man, his father and mother. If he honors them he will walk next to the Eternal Light. (6) "Let the waters bring forth fowl, etc.," reminds us that we may slay these creatures for our use, but not men. (7) "Let the earth bring forth creatures after their own kind," reminds us that only beasts may multiply promiscuously, but man must not commit adultery. (8) "Let us make man . . . who shall have dominion," reminds us that man should make use only that over which he has dominion, and not steal that which others have dominion. (9) "I have given . . . every tree on which is the fruit," reminds us that as the tree truthfully grows, so should man's lips speak the truth. (10) "It is not good that man should be alone," reminds us that just as Adam did not covet another's wife, we also should not covet (Jewish Talmud). A Harvest Festival Passover and Tabernacles are each observed for seven days. Why not Pentecost? Because it is a time of labor, and the others are not, thus God is considerate and does not keep His people from the necessary work of the harvest. -- Sifri, Re'eh Shavuoth, in addition to being the end of the grain harvest, is also the beginning of the fruit harvest. Before Shavuoth, the farmer would inspect his fruit and indicate his choice for the bikkurim, or firstfruits offering of the best and earliest of his crop. All the inhabitants of a district assembled in that district's chief city, to gather together the firstfruits and go to Jerusalem. Those who lived near brought fresh figs and grapes, while those from a distance brought dried figs and raisins. Each man as he brought his offering to the Temple priest said the benediction prescribed in Deuteronomy 26:5. It was permissible to bring the bikkurim offering at any time between Shavuoth and Succoth (Pearl). Pentecost represents the consummation of the first harvest, after seven weeks of backbreaking labor, and also commemorates the arrival of the Israelites at Mount Sinai after seven weeks of weary wandering, the giving of the Law and the conclusion of the Covenant between God and His people. Pentecost was the end of the barley harvest and the presentation to God of an offering of two loaves made out of new grain Leviticus 23:17. It takes place seven full weeks after the sickle has been first applied to the standing grain, Deuteronomy 16:9. The presentation of the firstfruits to God is a kind of payment to God, who owns everything. It is also a recognition that God is one's partner, not just a lord and boss (Gaster). The grain harvest in Palestine lasted seven weeks. It began with the barley harvest during Passover and ended with the harvesting of wheat at Pentecost. Wheat is the last cereal to ripen. Pentecost was thus the concluding festival of the grain harvest, just as the Last Great Day concluded the fruit harvest (Jewish Encyclopedia, "Pentecost") There are three designations of the term, "firstfruits" (Hebrew: bikkurim): (1) the "firstfruits of the harvest," or wavesheaf, which the Pharisees offered on Nisan 16 and deliberately made a ceremony out of, to counteract the Sadducees, (2) the "bread of the first-fruits," or the two baked loaves of new wheat offered on Pentecost, and (3) the firstfruits of all the land (Hebrew: reshit), Exodus 23:19, Deuteronomy 26:2, which according to interpretation, was only of the seven famous products of Palestine: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olive oil, and honey. The amount of this reshit was a ma'aser, or tithe. Thus the concept of the firstfruits is closely related to that of the tithe (Jewish Encyclopedia, article "Firstfruits"). Modern Jewish Shavuoth Observance The first night of Shavuoth, devout Jews stay up in an all night vigil [like Catholics do on Whitsunday], and read a special abbreviated portion of the whole Bible termed the Tikkun. Most synagogues are decorated with flowers and plants which are supposed to indicate the harvest festival, the Bikkurim, and that Sinai was covered with vegetation in honor of the great event of the Revelation. And dairy foods, especially cheese, are associated with Shavuoth because it is a late spring festival (Pearl). Parallels between the "Jewish" Pentecost and "Christian" Pentecost: (1) tongues of fire were over the heads of the Apostles, while " . . . all the people saw the thunders and the flames" Exodus 20:18; (2) Christians emphasize Christ the resurrected Savior, while Jews hold that Pentecost was the date of David's death, and the book of Ruth ends with David's genealogy (Gaster). Reform Jews have made Pentecost their annual confirmation day. The young conferments having previously received many months of thorough instruction in the Law, are confirmed as "sons of the covenant" on Pentecost by the laying on of hands by the rabbi, in accordance with the Jewish custom of the ordination of rabbis and judges, that by the laying on of hands they are ordained to a spiritual priesthood (Jewish Laws and Customs, by A. K. Glover, 1900). Pentecost is the concluding day of the Passover season, from which Jews derive its most common current name, Atzeret (solemn closing day) (Biblical Cyclopedia by McClintock and Strong, article "Pentecost"). Covenant Festival Pentecost is called the Feast of Weeks, Feast of Firstfruits, the Festival of the Covenant and by the Jews Shabuoth (Weeks). Pentecost, like all festivals, is a living experience. It signifies not just the confirmation of the covenant with Israel then, but with all Israel forever. Pentecost is an annual reaffirmation of the bond of covenant between the chosen people and their God (Gaster). As noted previously, the Book of Jubilees states that the covenant with Abraham occurred on the Feast of Weeks. Pagan Whitsunday "Among the early Jewish Christians, observance of the Hebrew feasts continued, doubtless with fresh significance derived from the new revelation." By the Second Century Pentecost was an established Church feast (Hastings' Bible Dictionary, article "Pentecost"). [But by this time it had become paganized.] Traditional Christianity holds that Whitsun, or Pentecost, is the birthday of the Church, as shown in Acts 2. Pagan customs have been copied by traditional Christian churches, as well as Judaism, and applied to Pentecost. In Europe it is customary to deck the churches at Whitsun with wreaths and bunches of flowers. In Italy, rose leaves are often scattered from church ceilings during services, supposed to represent "tongues of fire." In many Latin countries, the festival is called Pascha Rosatum, which is a "Christian transformation" of the pagan Roman festival of Rosalia, celebrated about a month earlier, in which Venus was worshipped by decorating her images with roses. Jews also adorn their synagogues with flowers on Pentecost. Another Pentecost custom is that of eating dairy dishes [compare the U. S. custom of "June is dairy month"], especially those made from cheese. In Psalms 68:15, the mountain on which the Law was given is described as "a mount of gabnunim, a Bashan-like mount." Gabnunim means "gibbous, many-peaked," but the Jews connected it with the word gebinah, "cheese," and thus it was maintained that the eating of cheese was a reminder of the giving of the Law at this season. A strange connection indeed! Ancient pagan festivals, such as the Roman rural festival of Parilia (April 21), parallel Pentecost. Parilia fell at the same time of year as the beginning of Palestine's barley harvest, on which milk and must were drunk and sprinkled on the image of the pastoral god Pales. Seething a kid in his mother's milk was part of the Canaanite equivalent of Pentecost, which is inferred by the fact that in the two passages where this is forbidden to Israelites, Exodus 23:19 and 34:26, it is mentioned in connection with the offering of firstfruits. A recently discovered Canaanite text refers to seething a kid in milk in connection with a spring festival (Gaster). [COMMENT: Satan has his counterfeits!] Whitsunday derives its name from the custom of newly baptized persons presenting themselves for service all dressed in white. The Catholic festival originally lasted seven days, but in 1094 was by Papal decree limited to three days. Tuesday was abolished in 1711 and in 1911 Pope Pius X excepted Monday as a day of holy obligation. Nevertheless, most European countries still observe the Monday following Whitsunday as a legal holiday (Concise Dictionary of Holidays, by Raymond Jahn, article, "Whitsunday"). Whitsunday commemorates the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ. It is called Whitsunday from the white garments worn by those who were baptized during the vigil on the preceding Saturday night (Catholic Encyclopedia, article "Whitsunday"). Pentecost (Whitsuntide) was not established as one of the great church festivals until the Fourth Century. The entire period from Easter to Pentecost is termed the Pentecostal season (McClintock and Strong, article "Pentecostal Effusion"). Pentecost Sacrifices Sacrifices on Pentecost included seven yearling male lambs, two young bullocks, and one ram (or one bullock and two rams, as shown in Leviticus) as a burnt offering, cereal offerings of flour and oil, libations of wine and blood from the slain animals, a he-goat slain as a sin offering, and two additional male yearling lambs as a thanksgiving sacrifice (New Catholic Encyclopedia, article "Pentecost"). In Temple times, each individual was expected to bring a free-will offering, a portion of which was given to the priests and Levites and the rest eaten by the respective families, who invited the poor and strangers to share it. Pentecost more than Passover was a family gathering, resembling Tabernacles. Deuteronomy 16:11 shows that at Pentecost the Levite, stranger and fatherless are not to be forgotten. This is why Leviticus 23:22 (about leaving corners of the field) is part of the passage on Pentecost: at Pentecost we are reminded to be liberal to others, because God was liberal to us in freeing us from bondage in Egypt, Deuteronomy 16:12 (McClintock and Strong, article "Pentecost"). Later Jews regarded the Leviticus and Numbers Pentecost sacrifices as supplementary, not contradictory. On Pentecost, there were three series of sacrifices: (1) the daily burnt-offerings, (2) the special offerings for a feast day (from Numbers) and (3) the waving of the loaves and lambs, and connected sacrifices (from Leviticus). Finally, "sacrifices" of freewill offerings of individuals were given to the sanctuary and to the poor, Deuteronomy 16:10-11 and Leviticus 23:22. Notice the parallel between Passover and Pentecost: (1) one sheaf of barley was waved during Passover, versus two loaves of wheat on Pentecost; (2) one lamb was slain on Passover, versus two at Pentecost, with accompanying burnt and sin offerings. Pentecost fulfills the harvest begun during Passover season. No voluntary offerings of firstfruits could be made before Pentecost (see Exodus 23:19). How Pentecost was celebrated in Temple times: A portion of the best wheat, previously selected, was cut, thrashed, brought to the Temple, ground, and passed through twelve sieves to ensure its fineness. On the day before Pentecost, two omers of flour were baked into loaves. According to the Mishna, the loaves were four handbreadths wide, seven long, and four fingers high. Soon after midnight the Temple gates were opened that offerings for the next morning might be examined by the priests. At sunrise of Pentecost morning, was the regular daily sacrifice, soon followed by the feast offerings of Numbers 28:26-31. Amid the singing of the Hallel, the two lambs were waved alive, sacrificed, and their breasts and shoulders were laid beside the loaves and "waved." Then followed the other sacrifices of Leviticus 23, and the freewill offerings. The rest of Pentecost was spent in festive gatherings to which the poor, stranger, and Levite were invited. Attendant festivities often continued for several days, as multitudes attended the Feast and could not all give their firstfruits on the same day (Hastings, article "Pentecost"). The list of grain and animal offerings for Pentecost in Numbers 28:26-31 differs somewhat from those in Leviticus 23:15-22. These offerings were in addition to the fixed daily offering. In the Talmud (Menahot 4:5, x.4) the Leviticus list is said to be the sacrifices directly connected with the loaves, and was designated for the journeyings in the desert; and the Numbers list gives special Pentecost sacrifices added after Israel entered Palestine (Jewish Encyclopedia, article "Pentecost"). The difference in the Pentecost sacrifices of Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28 is that those in Leviticus are especially connected with the wave loaves, and were in addition to the regular feast day sacrifices in Numbers. It is noticeable that the Pentecost offering of two young rams is the only peace offering required of the whole congregation (Lange's Commentary). Importance of Pentecost Why count out Pentecost? Maimonides said that God wants us to count every day from Passover until Pentecost, as one reckons the days of an important personal event. The fact that Pentecost has to be counted out emphasizes its importance. (See Ben M. Edidin, Jewish Holidays and Festivals, page 166.) In the Talmud, Pentecost is compared to a king who riding one day found an important personage bound in a pit. The king said: "I will loose your bonds, take you from the pit, and after a set time give you my daughter to wife." The man was overjoyed, and began to count the days. So it was that God freed Israel from Egypt and promised to give them His law at a certain time (Minhagei, Mahari Tirna). They were also prepared for the day three days in advance. Pentecost is thus the festival most prepared for in advance. It is likened to the marriage of Israel with God (Israel said, "all that God has commanded we will do"). The three main festivals are Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Passover is the festival of political freedom, Tabernacles of economic freedom, and Pentecost, the central and most important, is a festival of spiritual freedom. See Harris L. Selig, Links to Eternity, page 370. "The Festival of Shavuot [Pentecost], when we commemorate our receiving the Torah, is considered by our Sages the greatest event in Jewish history. They say that when three great people walk together, the greatest must walk in the center. So it is with the three major festivals." The nation of Israel was not born at the Red Sea, but at Sinai. It was the Torah which made them a distinct people (Selig., pages 377-379). Jewish Readings on Pentecost A standard element of the traditional Jewish liturgy on Pentecost is a recital of rhymed versions (Azharoth) of the 613 commandments in the Law. Also read at Pentecost are the following: (1) Ezekiel 1, which shows the glory of God, His awesome power which was demonstrated on Mount Sinai, (2) the Prayer of Habakkuk -- Habakkuk 3 -- written during difficult days of the Assyrian Exile, recalling God's revelation at the time of the Exodus and the conviction He will deliver His people and His promises will never fail; (3) Psalms 68, the "Pentecost anthem," shows that the events of the Exodus and Revelation assure God's continuing providence and bounty; (4) the book of Ruth, which is set in the background of the barley harvest and relates how a former pagan woman came to embrace the faith of Israel and God's law -- Ruth 1:16 (Gaster). Ruth -- Exodus -- Psalms 42-72 From Dr. Ernest L. Martin's The Design and Development of the Holy Scriptures we learn that Ruth was read at Pentecost, and the book has a late springtime theme (1:22, 2:23), and tells how Ruth (a Gentile) married Boaz (a Jew) and how she gave up her religion and worshipped the true God. It shows that both Gentiles and Israelites can be united together and be part of the firstfruits. Exodus and the Second book of Psalms (Psalms 42-72) parallel Ruth. Exodus describes the beginning of the Old Testament Church, in which Israel was to be the firstfruits of nations, and relates the giving of the Law at Pentecost. The Second Book of Psalms shifts from the personal happenings of David to what happens to Israel -- God's Church -- as a whole. And it too tells about the beginning of the Old Testament Church. Why is Ruth read on Pentecost? Not just because the book tells of David's descent or that it has a harvest setting, but that it took place during the time of the judges, when Israel was disunited, went their own way, and did evil, intermarrying with gentile nations and forgetting God. Samuel, who wrote Judges (and Ruth) saw this demoralization, and the Book of Ruth is the result. Abimelech (husband of Naomi) and his family were rich aristocrats of Ephraim. When the famine broke out, he thought the poor would beg him to death, so he left and settled in Moab, and married his two sons to Moabite princesses. He and his sons soon died, and Naomi was left in poverty. The only thing to do was to go back home and hope her kin would help her. Why was Abimelech's family so punished? "Because they left their homeland and religion to live in a foreign land." Thus, Jews read the book of Ruth on Pentecost "to demonstrate that in Judaism there must be combined both elements -- Torah and land" (Selig, pages 383-385). COMMENT: And for Christians, the Pentecost lesson of Ruth is that one must keep God's law and be IN His Church to be blessed with eternal life. Psalms 68, "The Pentecost Anthem" This psalm is a prayer at the removing of the ark of the covenant, see Numbers 10:33-36. Thus Psalms 68 reminds us of God's covenant and His laws, for the two tables of stone containing the ten commandments were in the ark. Verse 5, as God is the father of the fatherless and judge of the widows, we too are to include them in our day of Pentecost, see Deuteronomy 16:10-11. Verses 6 and 7 remind us that God took us out of Egypt and He goes before us, just as the ark went before Israel. Verse 8 reminds us of Sinai which shook when God thundered His ten commandments, Exodus 19:18 and 20:18. Also, Psalms 68:8, "the earth shook, and the heavens also dropped at the presence of God" reminds us not only of what happened at Sinai, but that on the Monday, the second day of creation week, the firmament and the waters were divided, as the Heaven -- atmosphere -- was created. Also, the heavens dropped on the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. as the rain of God's Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles. Verses 15 and 17 show that at Sinai God was present, and He "gave the word," there, verse 11. Verses 29 through 31 speak of the World Tomorrow when all nations, Egypt, even Ethiopia, will bring their tithes and firstfruits (which Pentecost pictures) to God at His temple at Jerusalem. Verse 35 ties the whole idea of Pentecost together, as the season of the giving of God's law and the giving of the Holy Spirit to keep that law: "the God of Israel is He that gives strength and power unto His people." Throughout Psalms 68, the strength of God is emphasized, especially in verses 33-34. In verse 35, God shows He will give His strength and power to His people if we remember to obey the laws given on that Pentecost day at Sinai. Habakkuk 3, A Pentecost Message Habakkuk 3 (and sometimes Habakkuk 2:20) is read by Jews in the synagogue during Pentecost. Habakkuk prophesies of the time when the modern Chaldeans (people of northern, industrial Italy) will be used by God to judge (invade and conquer) Israel. Chapter 3 is a prayer of Habakkuk during shigionoth, or turbulent times. Shigionoth can also refer to a mournful dirge, indicating that this prayer or song is read, or played, with great emotion. Verse 2 shows that God's work needs to be revived in these turbulent times when our nation is spoiled by the Chaldeans. Mount Paran is in the area of Sinai, see Deuteronomy 33:1-4, where the ten commandments, "a fiery law," were given in God's awesome power, because He loves His people. God's great power is emphasized throughout the chapter. The point is, as the Living Bible translates it, that "the Lord is in His Holy Temple" (2:20) and "His power is just the same as always" (3:6). Even though there is no new fruit and all the cattle die so we can't bring God any firstfruits, verse 17, we should rejoice in God because He gives us His strength, verses 18 and 19, and when God's work comes to fruition, the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of God (2:14). Miscellaneous In Acts 2, the word "cloven tongues" is better translated "parting asunder," or "distributing themselves" (Hastings, article "Pentecost"). Why did Peter say that the apostles were not drunk, since it was only the third hour of the day (nine o'clock in the morning)? Because on festival days, Jews did not eat before noon, and especially tasted nothing before nine in the morning, the hour of prayer (Calmet).ê Pentecost: The Day of Difference Why Pentecost is Different Pentecost goes by several different names. At the first recorded Pentecost, the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai, the day is not even given a name. Exodus 19:1-11 plus the overall Bible time sequence, as well as Jewish tradition indicates that the Commandments were given on Pentecost. It was a time when God came down in the sight of all the people and spoke His great law with a voice like a trumpet. The basic lesson that God was trying to impart is that we should fear Him, have no false gods, and sin not, Exodus 19-20. Contact with the Eternal is what Pentecost is all about. Israel became God's peculiar people because of the establishment of the Covenant, with the law of God as its focal point. They were different from others, Exodus 19:5-6. This made Pentecost the "day of difference." Fifteen hundred years later at the Temple in Jerusalem, about 120 men and women were made different. After being filled with the Holy Spirit like tongues of fire, they spoke inspired messages as the Spirit gave them utterance, Acts 2. This difference made them noticeable to all gathered from around the world for the Feast day, each one hearing the messages in his own language. Today, Pentecost can still be considered a "day of difference." Most who believe that this Holy Day should be observed, keep it on a day different from what we do. Most Jews don't need to count Pentecost because they have chosen Sivan 6, which is only 49 days from Nisan 15. Most believers in the Messiah who observe the Holy Days, keep Pentecost on Sunday. This often coincides with the Catholic-Protestant Whitsunday-Pentecost. A few like us, always observe Pentecost on Monday, counting 50 full days from the day after the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread as it states in Leviticus 23:15-16. This observance really is a "day of difference." Pentecost Must Be Counted Each Year Pentecost must be freshly counted each year. It is a unique Holy Day Feast. This counting symbolizes the continued necessity for constant renewing of the Holy Spirit, essential for us to continue to be Christians, II Corinthians 4:16, Philippians 1:19. Most Jews are wrong in saying that "the Sabbath" of Leviticus 23:15 is the annual Holy Day Sabbath of the Feast (Nisan 15). They have a fixed day on the calendar for Pentecost (Sivan 6 and 7) and do not have to count Pentecost each year. Catholics, Protestants and most Holy Day believers are likewise wrong. They only count 49 days (seven times seven weeks), when the Scripture says to count fifty days, then keep Pentecost. The original Hebrew, the King James Version, and all modern translations show that Leviticus 23:15-16 says to count fifty days (beginning on Wavesheaf Sunday, the morrow after the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread), then keep Pentecost, an annual Holy Day Sabbath and Feast. Jews are honest in admitting that they count only 49 days. Just to be "safe," however, they keep both Sivan 6 (after 49 days) and also Sivan 7 (after 50 days). Others violate plain English (and Hebrew and Greek) to "prove" that Pentecost is on Sunday. The resulting day they arrive at takes away the difference of the day, making them no different from the Catholics and Protestants. For technical proof of a Monday Pentecost and how Sunday Pentecost proponents twist their own sources, I refer you to an article I wrote (revised by Bryce Clark), "The Plain Truth About Pentecost," 60 pages, published by Church of God, The Eternal, Eugene, Oregon. Unfortunately, this paper is out of print. Only one Holy Day can ever fall on a Sunday (see Exodus 12:16), the first Holy Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Nisan 15, which happens only rarely. See our articles, "Calendar Controversy," and "How Does God's Calendar Work?" Pentecost is a Pilgrimage Feast Leviticus 23 does not give a name for the Feast of Pentecost. But in Exodus 23:14-17, the festival is called "the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field," verse 16. Here again, this passage points out another reason why Pentecost is a "day of difference." Verse 14 tells us that there are three times in a year that we are to keep a feast unto the Eternal. The word "times" in the Hebrew means "feet." There are three pilgrimage feasts during which we are told to move our feet and keep a feast unto the Eternal. These times are Unleavened Bread, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Almost no Jews believe and practice this today. Even among Messianic believers who observe the Holy Days, few believe and follow this simple command either. Only at the Feast of Tabernacles time do they move their feet to keep a pilgrimage feast. Very few keep an eight day Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread, meeting with others of God's people instead of pursuing their normal business. Fewer still keep the full Feast of Pentecost, which since the holy day falls on Monday, logically must include at least a three day weekend of Sabbath, Sunday and Monday. If you think I'm adding to God's Word, read Exodus 19, especially verses 10-11 which show a three day sanctification period leading up to Pentecost. Leviticus 23 distinctly mentions "the seventh Sabbath" and "the morrow" after it (Sunday). These days leading up to Pentecost are important. For further proofs of three pilgrimage feasts, read the article "Pilgrimage Feasts" in the Encyclopedia Judaica. The Hebrew word for "times" in Exodus 23:14 is Strong's #7272, regel, on page 1155 of Englishman's Hebrew Concordance. The word for times in Exodus 23:17, Deuteronomy 16:16 is Strong's #6471, pa'am, Englishman's pages 1038-39, and means "to beat regularly, strike in a beat, footstep in order." Will our footsteps follow God's beat? Pentecost is more than just a Holy Day. It is a pilgrimage feast. Keeping it this way certainly makes it a "day of difference." Pentecost Changers in Danger of Losing Holy Spirit By sincerely following the Bible, we sometimes find ourselves different from the world. From the late 1930's to 1973, the Worldwide Church of God kept Pentecost on Monday. I learned to keep the Holy Days from the church and have kept them ever since my baptism in 1969. In 1974, the Worldwide Church of God changed to a Sunday Pentecost. Like many, I had not proven every doctrine of the church of which I was a member. However, this change led me to do an exhaustive study on the subject of Pentecost. From dusty volumes in research libraries to heartfelt prayer, at one time all night, I came to the proof that Pentecost is after all on a Monday. Few in the Worldwide Church of God seriously questioned this 1974 doctrinal change. Fewer still questioned a subsequent change a couple of months later when the Worldwide Church changed its teaching on Divorce and Remarriage. This latter change should have been a jolt to the entire membership, when the sanctity of marriage as it was once taught, was reduced to the cesspool of church-sanctioned adultery and fornication. The Divorce and Remarriage change is another great proof that Pentecost is on Monday, because it shows what happens when truth is discarded. Spiritually, as one minister stated, it was as if the lights were turned out. Faithfulness in marriage is a foundational teaching of the Bible. Those who changed Pentecost from Monday to Sunday, cannot seem to understand the vital truth that marriage is for life. Switching from Monday to Sunday Pentecost created a spiritual blindness. Over the years I have met many scattered individuals who have left the Worldwide Church of God for reasons other than I did (doctrinal issues of Pentecost and Divorce and Remarriage were the reasons why I left). When I mention that I still observe a Monday Pentecost and believe in the life-long permanence of marriage as once taught by the Worldwide Church of God, there is usually a total lack of interest. There is little discussion or interest as to why I still hold to these beliefs. It is almost as if the lights are turned out spiritually. It seems to make no difference to them that I have made a serious prayerful investigation of every "Pentecost paper" or article that I have ever come across. I have yet to see any real proof for a Sunday Pentecost. I'd certainly be willing to change, if I can see any proof of their position. Almost every person I've met so far who has changed from Monday to Sunday Pentecost just isn't all that interested in the issue. It makes you wonder if they took the time to study the doctrine as thoroughly as myself and others have before they changed? Is Pentecost really as important as I think it is? Does It Make a Difference Which Day We Keep? Some will try to tell you that Pentecost doesn't make any difference, that it doesn't matter which day one keeps, as long as he "keeps" (??) Pentecost. Somehow, it does make a difference regarding which day is the Sabbath, but it doesn't make any difference which day we keep Pentecost. The logic of this argument escapes me. Suppose the disciples held this view. Would they have been "all with one accord in one place" on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:1, and all have received the Holy Spirit? No, only the ones keeping the right day would have received the Eternal's Spirit. Our Maker is a particular God. It does make a difference with Him how, where, when and why we worship Him, John 4:9-24. Yes, Pentecost is a day of difference. Numbers 28:26, calls it "the day of the firstfruits." In Deuteronomy 16:10 (as well as Exodus 34:22 and II Chronicles 8:13) Pentecost is called "the feast of weeks." Different names are given to this feast with a difference. Here in Deuteronomy some have stumbled over the statement that we are to number seven weeks, while in Leviticus 23:15-16 we are told to number fifty days. In order to reconcile these seemingly diverse instructions, some have given preference to Deuteronomy 16 and only count seven weeks (seven times seven equals 49 days), and observe Sivan 6 or Sunday. For them, Pentecost isn't Pentecost (fiftieth count) at all, but just the Feast of Weeks (seven weeks). Deuteronomy 16 and Pentecost Deuteronomy 16 doesn't give me any problem with Pentecost on Monday. Examining it carefully, keeping in mind that it was written after Leviticus 23, is the key to avoid the seeming confusion over the instruction to count 49 or 50. (1) Notice all of Deuteronomy 16, the whole chapter. It doesn't tell when Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are specifically to be kept, other than in the month Abib, verses 1-8. Neither does Deuteronomy 16 state when the seven day Feast of Tabernacles is kept, verses 13-15. Deuteronomy 16 is not specific about when to observe the three pilgrimage feasts. Leviticus 23, on the other hand, is very specific about when to observe them. Deuteronomy 16 is, however, quite specific about where to keep these feasts: "in the place which the LORD shall choose to place His name there," verse 2, also verses 5-7, 11, 15-16. Deuteronomy means "the second law," and it was written forty years after Israel had left Egypt to prepare them for finally entering the Promised Land, Deuteronomy 1:1-3. So, Deuteronomy 16 is not intended to be the sole authority in telling us how to keep Pentecost. It merely generalizes the more detailed instructions given in Leviticus 23:15, without stating the complete counting instructions of Leviticus 23:16. God's Word is often like this, here a little, there a little, Isaiah 28:9-11. Notice the Savior's complete instructions relative to divorce and remarriage in Matthew 5:32, 19:9. In Luke 16:18 the "exception clause" is missing. Just because "except for fornication" is missing in Luke, do we then make it have precedence over Matthew which has this exception clause? Nonsense! So then, why give precedence to Deuteronomy 16 (number seven weeks) over Leviticus 23 (unto the morrow after seven Sabbaths number fifty days)? Notice also that Deuteronomy 16 only mentions the last day of Unleavened Bread as an annual Sabbath on which no work is to be done. It ignores the fact that the first day of Unleavened Bread is a Holy Day and that Pentecost and the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles are Holy Days. Deuteronomy 16 is inspired scripture, but it doesn't tell the whens that Leviticus 23 does. It emphasizes the wheres, and also the family aspect of the pilgrimage feasts, verses 11, 14, and the offerings required, verse 16-17. Leviticus 23 is silent on these topics. Put the whole Bible together and it makes sense. (2) The Hebrew word for weeks in Deuteronomy 16 is shavuoth (Strong's #7620). This is not the same as the Hebrew word for Sabbaths in Leviticus 23:15, shabbath (Strong's #7676). Shavuoth can mean any period of seven days, and not necessarily a Sunday-Saturday week, Genesis 29:27-28, Leviticus 12:5, Jeremiah 5:24, Daniel 10:2-3. (3) Deuteronomy 16:9 refers to the day of putting the sickle to the corn. This phrase indicates harvesting for oneself (see Deuteronomy 23:24-25), not offering a wavesheaf to the Eternal. One could not harvest for oneself without first offering the wavesheaf, Leviticus 23:10-14. So there is a day devoted to the offering of the wavesheaf, "wavesheaf Sunday" as we refer to it. The next day is the day when the harvest is for oneself, and this could be what is referred to in Deuteronomy 16:9. (4) Jews admit they don't count fifty days, as Leviticus 23 commands. They count only 49 days, then keep the next day as Pentecost. Encyclopedia Judaica, article "Commandments, The 613," page 767, says "Starting from the day of the first sheaf (16th of Nisan) you shall count 49 days. You must rest on Savuot." The scriptural reference is Leviticus 23:15. At least they know how to count, although they have forgotten how many days to count. The Assemblies of Yahweh "Statement of Doctrine" article 16 says that Pentecost "is to be observed seven weeks after Passover, beginning our count with the day following the weekly Sabbath falling on Passover or during the week of Unleavened Bread . . . . always observed on the first day of the week." Like the Jews, they are correct as to how to count: you count "x" number of days and then the following day you observe the Holy Day. However they are totally wrong in the number of days to count. Leviticus 23:15-16 says to count or number (same Hebrew word shaphar, Strong's #5608) fifty days, not 49 days. Let's follow the Bible! Leviticus 23 does say to number fifty days (it does not say to count seven Sabbaths, it merely mentions that seven weekly Sabbaths pass along the way to the following Sunday, the last day of the count). Following the correct counting method with the correct number of days to count -- fifty -- brings us through to the end of Sunday, and the next day, Monday, is Pentecost. Deuteronomy 16 and Leviticus 23 do not contradict. Deuteronomy 16 apparently was not intended to give specific counting instructions about Pentecost. If it does, items (2) and (3) above, explain how the two passages can be reconciled. One thing is clear: if you are going to finish counting on the same day, and are going to count fifty days according to one instruction, and supposedly seven times seven = forty-nine days according to a second instruction, you cannot start counting on the same day! How people have tried to count differently with fifty days and forty-nine days, starting and ending on the same days in both cases! I wonder if they failed in mathematics! It can't be done, unless in one case you use a different rule of counting. We understand that Deuteronomy 16 does not give specific counting instructions but that Leviticus 23 does. This clears up all these problems at once. True Pentecost Dispels Sunday "Proof" Pentecost is a day different from the world. A time when true believers can be together with one accord. Many Sabbath-keepers are aware that the Messiah was not resurrected on Easter Sunday morning. They go to great pains to disprove this false concept by showing that Christ was exactly three days and three nights, 72 hours, in the grave. He was crucified on a Wednesday, placed in the grave just before sunset, and was resurrected just before sunset on Saturday. As Matthew 12:40 shows, He was precisely three days and three nights in the grave. How many Sabbath-keepers are aware of the other major "proof" for Sunday worship? Sunday-keepers keep Sunday rather than the Sabbath because of their belief that (1) Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, AND (2) that the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples on Sunday. In fact, these two concepts were instrumental in the change from Sabbath to Sunday. Peter Geirmann in the Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, page 50, tells us: Q. Which is the Sabbath day? A. Saturday is the Sabbath day. Q.Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A.We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday. Q.Why did the Catholic Church substitute Sunday for Saturday? A.The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday because Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles on a Sunday. Q.By what authority did the Church substitute Sunday for Saturday? A.The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plentitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her. As we know, Daniel 7:25 shows the power of the "little horn" which thinks to change times and laws. We must obey the Eternal and not man. Both Easter Sunday and Pentecost (Whit)Sunday are false pagan holidays, counterfeits of the true Holy Days. The Catholic Church twisted the truth. Both Easter and Whitsunday are non-scriptural. Both major pillars of Sunday worship are FALSE! The Savior meant exactly what He said when He predicted He would be three days and three nights in the grave. Not parts of days, but 72 hours. God also is precise when He says to count fifty days -- not parts of days -- then keep Pentecost. It is hypocritical to rigorously prove three days and three nights so as to disprove Sunday worship, and then turn around and count parts of days in the count towards Pentecost. Keeping the true Sabbath and true Pentecost sets us apart from other professed believers. They are indeed "days of difference." Pentecost and Jubilee Some commentators state that Pentecost is a type of the Jubilee Year. They say since we are to count 49 years, then keep Jubilee, that Pentecost is counted in the same way. Leviticus 25:8-11 shows we are to number seven times seven years (49 years), then keep the fiftieth year as Jubilee. Leviticus 23:15-16 shows to number fifty days, then keep Pentecost. The same word for "number," the Hebrew shaphar, Strong's #5608, is used in both passages. We are to shaphar forty-nine years toward Jubilee, and shaphar fifty days toward Pentecost. Pentecost and Jubilee are counted exactly the same, but there are different numbers to count! The way Jubilee is counted is a major proof that Pentecost is on Monday. Is Pentecost a type of the Jubilee Year? Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2 does not compare Pentecost to Jubilee. Peter links Pentecost with Joel 2 and the Day of Trumpets and Day of Atonement. Some, in an apparent attempt to stretch the truth, have concluded that the Greek word sabbaton, "sabbaths," Strong's #4521, means "Pentecost." In Luke 4:16-21, the Savior gave a sermon in Nazareth on the Sabbath day (sabbaton), saying that that day fulfilled Isaiah 61:1-2, "to set at liberty [Jubilee means liberty] them that are bruised." The "sabbaton theory" advocates say this was the Day of Pentecost. We haven't seen any proof of this assertion. Actually, Luke 4:31 disproves the sabbaton theory. This verse says that Jesus went on to Capernaum, and taught them on the sabbath days (sabbaton). The Greek word sabbaton does not mean Pentecost. The Greek word pentecoste means Pentecost. There is, however, scriptural support for a tie between Jubilee and the Day of Atonement. Jubilee began on the Day of Atonement, Leviticus 25:9. I have found no direct scriptural basis for stating that Pentecost is a type of Jubilee. J. Franklin Snook in his book To Heal The Nation (Salem, Oregon, 1977), presents another theory about Pentecost and Jubilee. It is true that after the Jubilee Year, the Sabbatical cycle begins all over again. The Jubilee is followed by six years of farming, then a Sabbatical Year. After the Seventh Sabbatical Year (forty-ninth year) is the Jubilee (fiftieth year). Then another fifty year Jubilee cycle begins. Snook takes the fifty year Jubilee cycle and applies it to the weekly cycle in the matter of Pentecost. He says (pages 46-47) that after Pentecost, the weekly cycle begins over again, so that the seventh day Sabbath we have today is not the same as that observed by Israel. This argument is prevalent among Anglo-Israel Identity people, and has no scriptural basis. Where Is Evidence of Holy Spirit? People who keep a Sunday Pentecost might well say: "If the proper day for Pentecost is as important as you say it is and your Monday Pentecost is the right day, why doesn't your life evidence the power of the Holy Spirit like the disciples on that great Pentecost day in 31 A.D.?" I could just as well ask the same question of them, and of the Jews that keep Sivan 6 and 7. I'm sure that Sunday-keepers could ask a similar question of us relative to the Sabbath. Why doesn't God make it plain who His people are? Because if He did, there would be no small stir about that way, Acts 19:23. It isn't God's time to draw a dividing line between His true firstfruits, James 1:18, Revelation 14:1-4, and the world. That time will come. One of the lessons of Pentecost is that we must wait until the fulfillment of Pentecost to be endued with power from on high, Luke 24:49. It is not surprising that almost all Sunday Pentecost believers cannot understand foundational Bible truths, such as the sanctity and life-long permanence of marriage. The flow of the Holy Spirit has been cut off! Some Monday Pentecost believers understand and practice Biblical Law relative to marriage. But even they await greater spiritual power to spread the gospel with great power, signs and miracles, to the world. The Fruits of Sunday Pentecost Let's look at some of the fruits of Sunday Pentecost. What happened to those who pushed for the 1974 Worldwide Church of God doctrinal changes in Pentecost and Divorce and Remarriage? The most vocerifous Sunday Pentecost supporter was Dr. Ernest L. Martin, a respected pastor and scholar. In 1961, Martin wrote a pro-Sunday Pentecost paper which finally led to the doctrinal change in 1974. Martin and other supporters had privately kept a Sunday Pentecost for years before 1974. Martin's many doctrinal questions and disagreements precipitated a mass exodus from the church of thousands of members and scores of ministers. Dr. Martin's teachings devolved into liberal Protestantism, as he rejected the Sabbath, Holy Days, Tithing, and trusting God for healing. Instead of growing in grace and knowledge, Dr. Martin's Sunday Pentecost teaching led to gross apostacy. The great rebellion led by Martin strongly influenced the church to change Pentecost and its teachings on marriage, in order to stem the tide of membership loss. Raymond F. McNair, who brought the Sunday Pentecost issue to Herbert W. Armstrong's attention, faced great personal tragedy and public embarrassment. When McNair's wife followed Martin in leaving the church, McNair claimed she had deserted him and divorced her, later remarrying. A jury unanimously decided against McNair and the Worldwide Church, agreeing that she had been libeled and falsely slandered by McNair and Roderick C. Meredith. An out of court settlement gave Mrs. McNair $750,000 of church funds as compensation. It may be just a coincidence that the instigators of the Pentecost change met such unsavory fates. One day we may know for sure. Were the overwhelming majority of the Worldwide Church of God doctrinal changes of the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's good or bad? See the article, "90 Doctrinal Changes of the Worldwide Church of God," by Lloyd Cary, as well as our book, Biblical Doctrine. You decide for yourself. Were the 1974 Pentecost and Divorce & Remarriage changes the result of incontrovertible scriptural proof, or were they instead planned changes, whose timing were politically motivated to stem the loss of membership? The excellent article by Paul Royer, published by The Church of God, The Eternal, answers this important question. What is Trinity Sunday? Celebrated by the Catholic Church and some Protestents, Trinity Sunday is the Sunday after Pentecost. It is a celebration in honor of the Trinity, and was declared part of the church calendar by Pope John XXII in 1334. Previously, it had been celebrated locally at various dates for hundreds of years. Corpus Christi, once the principal (main) Catholic feast, is the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. It celebrates the presence of the body (corpus) of Christ in the Eucharist. Is there a connection between the Trinity and Sunday? In Catholic thought, the answer is yes, definitely. Eusebius of Alexandria (ca. A.D. 500) said, The holy day of Sunday is the commemoration of the Lord. It is called the Lord's because it is the Lord of all days . . . . It was on this day that the Lord established the foundation of the creation of the world and on the same day He gave to the world the first-fruits of the resurrection . . . . This day is thereforefore for us the source of all benefits; the beginning of the creaton of the world, the beginning of the resurrection, the beginning of the week. Since this day contains three beginnings, it prefigures the principle of the Trinity (De die Dominico, PA 86, 416). Here we see that belief in a Sunday Pentecost, and/or a Sunday resurrection, leads to the Trinity doctrine. The Eighth Day Since the Sabbath was the seventh day of the Biblical week, some early professing Christians, such as Gregory of Nazianzus (A.D. 329-389), considered Sunday as "the first day with reference to those that followed and as the eighth day with regard to those that preceded" (Oratio 44 In novam Dominicam, PG 36, 612C-613A). Catholic literature in the first five centuries often dwelled on the numerical symblism of "the eighth day," Sunday. As Samuele Bacchiocchi, a native Italian, admits, "the irrationality of an eighth day in a seven-day week did not seem to bother the ancients" (From Sabbath to Sunday, page 278). Italians count inclusively, which may seem strange to modern Americans. Bacchiocchi (page 278) says, "an Italian will often set an appointment on a Sunday for the following Sunday not by saying, I will meet you a week from today,' but rather oggi otto -- eight days today' since both Sundays are counted. This is called an octave by Catholics. By the same token, professing Christians, influenced by Rome, used the Roman Italian inclusive reckoning for time. Tertullian (ca. A.D. 160-ca. A.D. 225) said that Christians celebrated their Sunday festival "every eighth day," meaning every Sunday. How did Sunday become associated with the eighth day? Some, such as W. Rordorf (Sunday, page 277), say that "Sunday came to be associated with the number eight because baptism was administered on Sunday and we know that baptism was early connected with the sumbolism associated with the number eight." Circumcision was to be performed "the eighth day," and eight souls were saved from the waters of the flood. Justin Martyr (ca. A.D. 100-ca. 165) interprets the eight persons of the ark as "symbol of the eighth day, wherein Christ appeared when He rose from the dead, for ever the first in power" (Dialogue 128). Origin (ca. A.D. 185-ca. 254) views the eighth day as symbol of the resurrection of Christ which provided global circumcision, baptismal purification of the world: Before the arrival of the eighth day of the Lord Jesus Christ the whole world was impure and uncircumcised. But when the eighth day of the resurrection came, immediately we were cleansed, buried, and raised by the circumcision of Christ (Selecta in Psalmos, 118). Origen added, "The resurrection of the Lord is celebrated not only once a year but constantly every eight days" (Homilia in Isaiam, 5, 2). Finally, some built upon the Jewish understanding of seven millennial periods, followed by the eternal new age, which could be viewed as "the eighth day." Thus, Sunday worship could be instituted as a continuation of the Sabbath, and viewed as superior to the Sabbath, just as the eighth aeon (the Gnostic term is ogdoad, meaning eight ages, or eight gods) is superior to the preceding seven millenia. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 150-215) said, "The rest of the spiritual men takes place on the day of the Lord in the ogdoad which is called the day of the Lord" (Excerpta ex Theodoto 63). Since the New Heavens and New Earth follow seven thousand years, they are better and Sunday, the eight day, was thought to be a type of the never ending kingdom. Clement shows that in Ezekiel 44:27, the priests were purified for seven days and on the eighth day sacrifices are offered. Origen, Cyprian, and other Catholic fathers wrote of their belief that the eighth day is superior to the seventh day, and supercedes it. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers (ca. A.D. 315-367) writes, "Although the name and the observance of the Sabbath had been established for the seventh day, we [professing Christians] celebrate the feast of the perfect Sabbath on the eighth day of the week, which is also the first" (Tractatus super Psalmos 12). Easter a Counterfeit Passover Passover and the Sabbath symbolized to Old Testament believers the future Messianic deliverance. When Jesus associated himself as "Lord of the Sabbath," He was emphasizing His messiahship. As Bacchiocchi states, "as the Sabbath became for the Israelites the weekly extension of the annual Passover, so Sunday later became for many Christians the weekly commemoration of the annual Easter-Sunday" (From Sabbath to Sunday, pages 23-25 ). Eusebius states, "While the Jews faithful to Moses, sacrificed the Passover lamb once a year . . . we men of the New Covenant celebrate every Sunday our Passover" (De solemnitate paschali 7, 12). Even today, Italians still refer to Sunday as pasquetta, which means "little Easter." Now why did professing Christians substitute Easter for Passover? They wanted to break away from Judaism. As J.B. Lightfoot records, Rome and Alexandria adopted Easter-Sunday to avoid "even the semblance of Judaism" (The Apostolic Fathers, 1885, page 88). Catholics even repudiated the Jewish calendar, making their own time calculations. Emperor Constantine, in the Nicene conciliar letter, wanted to establish a religion completely free of any Jewish influence: It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebraton of this most holy feast [Easter] we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of sour . . . . Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd . . . . (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, 3, 18-19). Easter and Pentecost are inextricably tied together. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon (from about A.D. 176), said that Catholics did not kneel from Easter to Pentecost, because both feasts are "a symbol of the resurrection" and that Pentecost "is of equal significance with the Lord's day" (Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, 7). Since Constantine, and others who changed sacred times, wanted to avoid Jewish reckoning of Holy Days, it would be entirely out of line for them to reject Passover for Easter, yet accept a Sunday Pentecost, if a Sunday Pentecost was a traditional Jewish holiday. Can you imagine the Council of Nicea rejecting a "Jewish" Passover, yet accepting a Jewish Sadduccean Pentecost? It does not make sense. Here is a strong indication that a Sunday Pentecost was never a major component of Jewish belief. If it had been, then Catholics would never have accepted a Sunday Pentecost. To Catholic believers from the time of the "fathers," Easter-Sunday, Pentecost-Sunday, and weekly Sunday were regarded as one basic festival commemorating at different times the same event of the resurrection. Bacchiocchi concludes that Irenaeus was correct in designating Sixtus, Bishop of Rome (A.D. 115-125) as the first non-observer of the Quartodeciman Passover (From Sabbath to Sunday, pages 203, 273). Easter, the counterfeit Passover, and Sunday Pentecost, are branded with the mark of Rome. Sunday "Events," if Sunday Pentecost is Correct Do you realize that if Sunday Pentecost is correct, then you have a very significant list of important Sundays in the plan of God. Indeed, those who support a Sunday Pentecost believe in one or more of the following: The Ten Commandments were given at Sinai on a Sunday. Jesus began His public ministry and preached His inaugural sermon on a Sunday, Luke 4:16-21. Jesus was resurrected on a Sunday. The Holy Spirit was given to the disciples on a Sunday. The Worldwide Church of God now believes in all four of the above! Do you believe the above events occurred on Sunday? The Lord of the Sabbath would hardly have placed His presence so strongly on Sunday, if He wanted us to always remember the Sabbath. Bacchiocchi says that since the Sabbath of the Old Testament pointed to the Messiah, "In light of this fact the claim that Christ made in His inaugural address to be the fulfillment of the redemptive function of the Sabbath, acquires added significance. By identifying Himself with the Sabbath [Luke 4:18-19], Christ was affirming His Messiahship" (From Sabbath to Sunday, page 25). For the Worldwide Church of God, Jesus did not affirm His messiahship in this way. They believe He began preaching on a Sunday Pentecost, that the Ten Commandments were given on a Sunday, that the resurrection was on Sunday, and that the Holy Spirit was given on a Sunday. Yet they still, for the time being, hold to the weekly Sabbath, in spite of the fact that these beliefs are major components of Sunday worship. How Do You Change Your Doctrinal Beliefs? Some people change doctrinal beliefs like they change an old pair of socks. The minister preaches something different, they accept this "new truth," and that is the end of discussion. For them, changing doctrines generates as much emotion as discarding a pair of worn out socks. How should you change a doctrinal belief that you have formerly proved, believed, and practiced? You should make no changes unless there is absolute, overwhelming, incontrovertible Biblical proof. Marriage gives us a good example. Under what circumstances would you leave your wife and family and live separately? Only if there is absolute proof, from the Bible, that your union is in violation of God's laws of marriage. And if there were such proof, the decision to separate would be traumatic and emotional, and result only after a great deal of prayer, fasting, crying out to God. In 1974, when some 90,000 people changed from observing Pentecost on Monday to Pentecost on Sunday, there was no such an emotional crying out to God in repentance. The "scholars" gave their findings, the church leaders made the pronouncement of the change, and the membership (except for a tiny few) followed in line. In similar fashion, doctrinal changes since then, both in the Worldwide Church of God and other groups, have been instituted without emotion. There is, however, an example in the Bible of a godly people returning to the Eternal's ways after a long period of rebellion. The Jewish captives who returned from Babylon did not change their doctrinal beliefs like discarding an old pair of socks. They had lapsed into many errors, and had actually gone into captivity for breaking the Sabbaths of the Almighty. Now they were receptive to the Truth and the reading of the Law. Nehemiah 8:8-12 shows that the people wept when they heard the Law, because they knew they were guilty for breaking it. They rediscovered the Law concerning keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, and zealously with great joy kept it, verses 13-18. This was a highly emotional time in the history of Israel. This is how we should react when we are convicted by the Truth and need to make adjustments in our lives to live according to Biblical doctrine. This is NOT how almost all people we know of have reacted to doctrinal changes. The "cold turkey" doctrinal changes most have made are a convincing proof to us that they merely followed the crowd. It does nobody any good to blindly follow someone else, be they right or wrong. We shall all stand individually before God. Pentecost Is a Day of Difference Will we be honest with the scriptures? Will we all study the issue thoroughly, with our nose in the Bible and our knees bowed in humble earnest prayer? Will we be ready for that final "day of difference"? Until then, "I will accept new views, provided they are proven to be true views." See I Thessalonians 5:21. Many accepted one way without proving it to themselves, and then changed to another way also without proving it to themselves. There are many different "days of Pentecost" kept by religious people. May the time soon come, and forever endure, when all mankind may see eye to eye, Isaiah 52:8, and there will be no more differences, when not only the firstfruits in God's plan are harvested, but the great fall harvest as well. Then God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh, Joel 2:28, which was fulfilled in a small way in Acts 2:1-4, 16:21. Until then, Pentecost will be a "day of difference," since its professed observers cannot agree when to keep it. Every time I keep the true Pentecost, I am aware of the difference between clean and unclean, good and evil, Exodus 11:7, Leviticus 10:10, 11:47, especially Leviticus 20:22-26. How do I know I am keeping the true Pentecost? Those who know God's will and do it have a proof which others do not comprehend. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself," John 7:17. What a difference to know you are following the Eternal!ê Twenty-Four Reasons Why I Believe In A Monday Pentecost In 1974 the Worldwide Church of God changed its doctrinal teaching on Pentecost from a Monday to a Sunday Pentecost. This article is based on a Sermon by Raymond C. Cole delivered on Pentecost, May 19, 1975 at Florence, Oregon. Is the tradition of the Worldwide Church of God a Sunday or a Monday Pentecost? The Worldwide Church of God never observed a Sunday Pentecost until 1974. Here are twenty-four reasons for a Monday Pentecost. Another Language God has put the Bible together in such a way that man is incapable of technically arriving at a knowledge of the truth, Isaiah 28:7-13. Truth must be revealed to those simple enough to believe implicitly in faith, Matthew 11:25. More than that, God said He would speak to us in a different language than Hebrew, Isaiah 28:11. The truth in this age has been revealed in English, not Hebrew. Every mistake that has been made to this point has been based on an attempt to get back to those original languages and you and I are incapable of understanding them. There are many difficulties in understanding an ancient language. Classical Greek and Hebrew are vastly different from the modern usage. No one, not even the scholars, have perfect knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek. When one begins to doubt and question the truths revealed in a simple language, the simple truth of God becomes clouded and lost. "Progressive" Revelation? In Isaiah 1 and 2 God speaks of the condition of His people in the latter days, at the time of the return of Jesus Christ, Isaiah 2:10-19. His children have forsaken the Eternal, and He is very angry, Chapter 1:2-4. God's people have gone away backward. The fact is, people never go uphill. There is not such thing as a progressive revelation of God's truth. It's given to the people of the Eternal God, and then they begin to go downhill, Chapter 1:4. Punishment is futile, because they will revolt more and more. Certainly these prophecies were fulfilled in type to the physical nation and church of Israel in the past. The major fulfillment is for the last days, Chapter 2:2. We know who is the physical nation of Israel. Do we not also know who is the spiritual church of Israel, the "daughter of Zion," Isaiah 1:8? These prophecies are for our day! Only a small remnant of God's people will remain faithful to God's laws and statutes, Isaiah 1:9. The world stands because of the presence of those few righteous ones. Somewhere along the line, there was a perversion of God's laws, statutes, sabbaths and Holy Days. He says, that He hates what His people are doing, verses 13-14. Let's look at ourselves. Are we true and faithful to Almighty God? Original Truth Changed In Ezekiel 5 there is another prophecy for the last days. Only a little handful will be God's faithful. Jerusalem, the headquarters of the nation and the church, has changed God's judgments into wickedness more than the nations around her, verses 5-6. Because of perversion of God's statutes and Holy Days, God will execute judgments upon His people, verses 7-8. One cannot pervert, or change, what he never had in the first place. The very words, "pervert," and "change," demand an original obedience to the truth. It's just that simple. God's people were given God's truth and then departed from it. God's People Have Forgotten His Law Hosea 4 likewise tells of God's people "in the latter days," Hosea 3:5. God has a controversy with His own people because knowledge of His laws has been forgotten. Lying, stealing, adultery and striving with the ministry are going on, verses 2, 4. God says "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children," Hosea 4:6. Once again, you can't forget what you didn't know. The only possibility based on these easy-to-understand words is that at one time God's people knew, and understood, but now have forgotten God. As growth in numbers proceeded among God's people, so did their sins grow. As a result, God will change their glory into shame, verse 7. Their glory was in direct proportion to obedience to God's laws. Do you know any Protestants that were obedient to God's laws and then turned from them? Someone was obedient and then left off to take heed to the Eternal, verse 10. Who are God's people in the last days? Verse 12, the spirit of whoredoms has caused them to err. They hide their sins, verse 13. The people that do not understand shall fall, verse 14. You cannot fall if you weren't originally where you should be, can you? Now notice Hosea 2:1-13. It speaks of God's people who have obtained mercy, forgiveness of their past sins, "at that day," verse 16, the end time. They have committed whoredoms and say "I will go after my lovers" -- illicit relationships with Gentile nations, verse 5. Verse 11, God will cause her mirth to cease, her feast days and sabbaths. Is Israel as a nation keeping the Feast Days? Or is this speaking of the Church? "She went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD," verse 13. How can one forget what was never known? God's people in the end time have turned aside from proper observance of His sabbaths, New Moons, and Feast Days. Will we follow suit due to the arguments of scholars? Why I Believe in a Monday Pentecost The initial twenty-four reasons for my response in continuing to keep a Monday Pentecost did not involve technicalities at all. A study of technical words was ensued only subsequently. Here are those initial reasons: Preparation Day Necessary (1) Sunday as the Wavesheaf Day was an entire day for the preparation and offering of the Wavesheaf. Likewise, the Sunday following the seventh Sabbath was necessary to prepare for Pentecost. I could not figure out how it was possible to do all that had to take place in the preparation for Pentecost without a Sunday in there. Specifically, there had to be large waveloaves baked with leaven offered to the Eternal on Pentecost, Leviticus 23:17. If you insist on a Sunday Pentecost, you're going to have to prepare on the Sabbath. That breaks the Sabbath law and produces death (see Exodus 16:23-30, and 35:2). So I decided the change to Sunday must be wrong. Order of Salvation (2) The second reason why I believe in a Monday Pentecost is that God clearly delineates the order of salvation. Christ is the first of the firstfruits. How can you be the first of the firstfruits if you are just among others? Wavesheaf Sunday is devoted solely to Christ. I Corinthians 15:22-23 tells us that Christ is the firstfruits of those resurrected from the dead, followed by those that are Christ's at His coming. There is a difference between begotten Christians and Jesus Christ. Monday the Tradition of the Church (3) The third point is the tradition of the Church. I'm not interested in the tradition of the Sadducees (Sunday) or the Pharisees (Sivan 6) or any other sect regarding which day to observe Pentecost. But I am awesomely interested in the tradition of the Church of God. The apostle Paul was also. In Titus 1:9 Paul stated that the true minister of God must be "holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught." And so I deliberated at great length and asked "how can I hold fast to it and turn right around and change it?" To hold fast to something is to keep it without changing. Unless we can finally come to the "logical" deduction that "Oh well, that was for Titus." Granted, it was for Titus. But what Paul wrote to the Corinthians was for the Corinthians. And what he wrote to Timothy was for Timothy. So why bother? I am still of the conviction that according to II Timothy 3:16-17 that it's the inspired word of God which is for you and me. It was essential for Titus and for us. Because human nature is the same and tends not to hold fast to God's truth. II Timothy 3:14 says "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." How can I continue and yet at the same time change? Since I couldn't find the term change here, I decided to continue. I knew what I had learned and I decided to continue in it. I was assured of it because I had proven it. And I knew from whom I learned it, because I had also proven that. I could do nothing else. Now notice II Thessalonians 2:15, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle." These are three out of 30-40 such proof texts. The tradition of the Church for about thirty-five years prior to 1974 had been a Monday Pentecost. Now there is a subtlety going out now that the original which was given to Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong was a Sunday. Don't you believe it! There were several years in which Mr. Armstrong was following the Rabbinic custom of Sivan 6, which meant that it could fall at various times, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday or Friday. Now it did so happen that Sivan 6 fell on a Sunday on one or two years during the time when Mr. Armstrong accepted the modern Jewish Rabbinical date for Pentecost. This is what confuses some. He had not had time to study it out until later, but he always had misgivings about it. Just like the Apostle Paul, it took Mr. Armstrong several years to be taught before he was commissioned. [Editor's Note: the following is a proof of what Mr. Cole stated.] Converted and called in 1927, Mr. Armstrong was ordained to the ministry in 1931. He began keeping the Holy Days with others in 1934. Truth was revealed to him, as he has said, one doctrine at a time. A calendar was published in 1937 showing Pentecost corresponding to the Jewish date of Sivan 6. But it must have been that very year that Monday observance was begun. For a diary of an early church member, Mrs. Lorinda (Stoneberg) Le Bleu (baptized in 1936 by Mr. Armstrong), shows that she did keep Pentecost on a Monday in the years 1937, 1940, 1941 and following. There is an interesting relationship between Passover, Pentecost and Sivan 6 that helps to explain why some have mistakenly thought that a "Sunday Pentecost" was kept for a couple of years. The following table shows all possible combinations, and specifics for the years 1934-1941: Year Passover Pentecost Jews' Pentecost 1936, 1939, 1940 Monday Sivan 11 Sivan 6 Wednesday 1935 Wednesday Sivan 9 Sivan 6 Friday 1934, 1937, 1938, 1941 Friday Sivan 7 Sivan 6 Sunday (none during period) Sabbath Sivan 13 Sivan 6 Monday Notice that when Passover falls on a Friday, Sivan 6 is on a Sunday, while the true Pentecost is on the very next day, Sivan 7. Jews sometimes keep both days, Sivan 6 and 7. So it may have been that the Pentecosts observed by Mrs. Le Bleu in 1937 and 1938 were still during the time when Mr. Armstrong had accepted the Jewish reckoning. However, her diary records the actual meeting on the Monday of those years, not the Sunday. The church often met at individual homes during the early years. Mrs. Le Bleu's diary records a Pentecost meeting on Monday, May 17, 1937 at the Conn's and Monday, June 6, 1938 at the White's. 1939 is a key year: The Jewish Pentecost and the true Pentecost were five days apart. Mrs. Le Bleu's diary records a meeting on Monday, May 29, 1939 at Wilma Christenson's home. This is definite proof that at least by 1939, Mr. Armstrong had been shown the validity of a Monday Pentecost rather than the commonly accepted Jewish Sivan 6-7. According to the diary, 1937 was the first "Monday" year. Thus, Sivan 6 was observed for the years 1934, 1935, and 1936. According to the table on the previous page, 1934 was the only year in which Sivan 6 fell on a Sunday. In 1935 the Jews' Pentecost fell on a Friday, and in 1936 it fell on a Wednesday. According to an article published in early 1940, "How to Figure Passover," Mr. Armstrong had printed a calendar in 1937 showing Holy Day dates for several years in advance. June 12, 1940 was the date projected in the 1937 calendar as Pentecost. This was Sivan 6 of that year, which fell on a Wednesday. The 1940 article changed the date to Tuesday, June 18. This must have been a typographical error, for Mrs. Le Bleu's diary records that the Eugene church observed Pentecost of 1940 on Monday, June 17 at Hendricks Park, with about fifty members present. Even the "Pentecost Study Material" published in 1974 by the Worldwide Church of God in support of the change from a Monday to a Sunday Pentecost proves that Mr. Armstrong never did originally observe a Sunday Pentecost. On page 61, the paper states, "After learning of God's Sabbaths from the Bible, Mr. Armstrong turned to the Jews for basic knowledge of the Sacred Calendar . . . Using the Bible as his guide, Mr. Armstrong studied the Jewish Encyclopedia -- accepting the laws of the calendar but rejecting traditions which did not seem to square with the Bible . . . . Jews now keep it [Pentecost] on a fixed calendar date, Sivan 6. Studying further, Mr. Armstrong found the priestly Sadducees had counted from the weekly Sabbath (which usually falls within the two annual Sabbaths) and had observed a Sunday. At this point he discarded Jewish practice and established Monday as the proper day." Rather than observe the extinct Sadducean tradition of a Sunday Pentecost, Mr. Armstrong discarded the Jewish practice of Sivan 6 for a Monday Pentecost. Thus, Mr. Herbert Armstrong never did observe a "Sunday" Pentecost during the early years of the Eugene Church of God. Those who teach otherwise are spreading a lie! Don't forget that the tradition of the Church is a Monday Pentecost. The blessings came under the Monday obedience. That's when the growth of the Church took place. Divine Revelation (4) I knew there was no way for an ordinary man, no matter how intelligent, to arrive at truth. It had to be revealed by divine revelation. Now if God hadn't revealed it, we've all been deceived all these years, and there's nothing to it anyway. If we were the Church of God and are still the Church of God, then God revealed His truth to him at that time. If God did reveal it, it is immutable and unalterable. I had to make a choice. I continue to honor and respect Mr. Armstrong. I will continue in those truths God revealed to him. I still honor him because he was God's apostle to whom He revealed that truth, which can't be changed. If God did not reveal the truth to him, then all of us were taken for a good ride. Appearances of Christ Forty Days (5) Next was the correlation of events in Luke 24 and John 20. That's a long study in itself (explained in our detailed paper, "The Plain Truth About Pentecost"). The meeting that transpired between the resurrected Christ and the disciples in John 20:19 was after sundown. I know it says "first day of the week." But John uses Roman time, as every commentator knows. Fruits of Those Given to Change (6) The sixth point is the fruits of those contending for change. God says by their fruits you shall know them, Matthew 7:15-20. So I started writing the fruits down. They didn't add up too well. Now you couldn't know what I do, the "garbage." So all I could do was go and pray that somehow that knowledge would come to you on the basis of doctrine, and not the sins of others. Good fruits weren't there. That was a proof the change was wrong. Miraculous Signs (7) The seventh reason why I believe in a Monday Pentecost concerns a significant event. My parents were with Mr. Armstrong since 1936, and I was a boy at the time and grew up in the Jefferson, Oregon area where he was originally the pastor. I was aware of the story of a particular individual years ago in the Eugene area. Before she had ever heard of Mr. Armstrong, she had an unusual messenger, "James' Messenger" to be specific, who showed up on her doorstep and a man who was never seen before nor afterwards. He told her the entire story about the Holy Days and emphasized two or three times that Pentecost is always on a Monday. And so she recognized the truth of God the first time she heard it. Unique to say the least! I can't discount it. Although it is not the major proof, I won't throw it out either. She soon heard of Mr. Armstrong and that here was a group keeping all the Holy Days, with Pentecost on a Monday. Before her contact with the Messenger, she didn't even know what Pentecost was. Signs follow the teaching of the truth of God, Mark 16. Don't Follow Wrong Jewish Traditions (8) Sunday is a Sadducean custom. And I don't follow the tradition of any Jewish sect, Matthew 15:1-9, 16:12. Pentecost is Foundational (9) Is a foundation constructed at or near the conclusion of construction? What are foundational principles? Mr. Armstrong has written several times in the past, that the law is foundational, including the Holy Days. I've never seen a building with the foundation laid at the conclusion of construction. Have you? If the foundation was not laid until 1974, then everything before was not built on the one and only true foundation, I Corinthians 3:9-17. Prophesied Departure From the Truth (10) God said in place after place in the Bible that in the last days there was going to be a departure from the truth. Not growth into truth through progressive revelation. First the truth was revealed, then it was departed from. See II Thessalonians 2:1-10, II Timothy 3:1-17, II Peter 2:1-22 and the entirety of the Book of Jude. Statements of An Apostle (11) Next, I believe in Monday Pentecost because of the numerous statements of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong re: Pentecost, Divorce and Remarriage, etc., when eyeball-to-eyeball he looked at me and thundered, "Raymond, God revealed those truths to me and they will never be changed!" You can imagine my shock when they were. I worked there and was many times in his presence. He said, "Why if we were to change, we would be spued out of God's mouth." Good Fruits of Monday Observance (12) The fruits of long observance of a Monday Pentecost were growth, excitement, inspiration, love, marvelous fruits that were good. Have we forgotten the old adage which says "Don't change a winning game?" After the change came numerous divisions. Not Growth, But Change (13) Sunday does not denote growth, it denotes change. Basis of Change Was Not Bible (14) The basis of the change was not Biblical, but history, words, technicalities, and scholars. Is that the premise for your belief? It's not mine. That was the basis for the change, not faith and revelation. See Ephesians 3:1-5; I Corinthians 2:9-10, 14; Matthew 11:25; and II Timothy 2:13-26. Historical Tendency Is to Degenerate (15) Historically the tendency is to depart from truth, not grow closer to it. See Jeremiah 7:22-24, Isaiah 1:4. Ancient Israel, the type of the Church today, went backward and not forward. It is directly prophesied that the majority of God's people will utterly corrupt themselves "in the latter days," Deuteronomy 31:29 and the entirely of chapters 31 and 32. Personal Conviction and Proof (16) Personal conviction and proof, as well as that of Mr. Herbert Armstrong, convinced me of a Monday Pentecost. We had proven the subject after much study and prayer. The subject had been tested many times before, against those who maintained in a Sunday Pentecost. Were we lying to ourselves? If the work were of God, pray tell why didn't He make it known forty years earlier? Is Jesus Christ derelict? I don't believe so. I think human beings have become derelict to the truth that God gave to us. God's Promises (17) In the quest for the truth, I had asked for the truth. Matthew 7:7-12 is a promise that God will answer the PRAYERS of those truly seeking Him. If you ask Jesus Christ for the truth, will He give you the wrong day, will he give you a serpent? No! See verse 10. You can count on God to give you what is good for you, the truth. Now do we say that God has given us a test of obedience to Church authority without Biblical proof in these last days? That's what I am told. I don't buy that. I believe Christ heard the petition of His servants and gave us the truth. Truth Does Not Change (18) Truth in us is Christ in us. Christ changes not. He said, I am the Word, the truth and the life. The hope of glory is Christ in you, Colossians 1:27. Christ is the Word of God personified. You are His if He dwells in you. Now we are told we didn't have Christ in us, because we were wrong on everything. Truth changes not, neither does Christ in us. I brought these things up and said that before we get into the technicalities of the subject, I want every one of these answered to my satisfaction. You know what I was told? Get away from those and let's just look at the subject. I said I'm sorry I'm not going to. I want an answer how this could possibly happen before I will review any law or statute which God has given to us. God changes not, Hebrews 13:8-9, Malachi 3:6, James 1:17. Sunday Pentecost Was a Planned Change (19) I was well aware of the fact that Pentecost was only an initial subject. That already there was a calculation of many changes to come. It wasn't the fact that study produced "new light" that we had been wrong. It was one of the many calculated moves. We have subsequently learned through public statements that these changes were planned several years before they transpired. Is that the quest of truth? Can An Apostle Depart From Truth? (20) One of the big problems was: how could we possibly equate the fact that Mr. Armstrong is an apostle when there has been a departure from the truth? Can an apostle be mislead? Yes! A comparison of Acts 10:9-48 and Galatians 2:1-14 will tell you that an apostle can even depart from the revelation God gave him. Paul said that he could pervert the Gospel of Christ, Galatians 1:6-10, that he could be a castaway and utterly reject God, I Corinthians 9:27. Do we believe God's Word? They have to stay right with the truth. Apostles can go wrong, can go astray. Any one of us can go astray. Since I accepted a man as an apostle of God, does that mean it is impossible for him to ever go astray? Then why am I in I John 4:1 commanded to continually try the spirits whether they be of God? Why then in the last days are only the very elect going to avoid deception? Christ said, Take heed that ye be not deceived, Matthew 24:4. If it were an impossibility for a man to be deceived, to go astray because he was in a unique office, there would be no need for any of these injunctions. God tells you to check out every one. That includes me. I would be horribly disappointed if you don't check me out. Follow Jesus Christ. Check out every man. No man is immune from going astray. Church Messages (21) Compare the instructions to the two churches of Philadelphia and Laodicea in Revelation 3 re: the Pentecost change. A Problem in the Ministry (22) When I evaluated what was transpiring, I saw that there was no problem with the doctrine we had held over the years. The problem was with certain individuals in the ministry. The problem was not with God in originally revealing the truth. The problem was with men not living up to that truth. Biblical Prophecies For the Church (23) I read the prophecies of Malachi, chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 and Isaiah 28, 29 and 30. They sounded awesomely similar with the things that were transpiring. Hold Fast the True Doctrines (24) Finally, a comparative study of I Timothy 1 and Hebrews chapters 10, 12, and 13 showed me the circumstances of our time. SUMMARY Fifty days must be completely counted. A day is counted when it is over, Genesis 1:5. Counting Pentecost is simple. It doesn't take great scholarship. In Isaiah 48:16-18 God tells us that He spoke to His people from the beginning. He taught us from the beginning. Many of those that heard the inspired words of the Apostle Paul did not believe he was led by God. Now we accept his writings as Scripture. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Will we receive that word of God we have heard of God's Apostle in these latter days not as the word of a man, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, I Thessalonians 2:13? Every prophet God ever sent was rejected. Will we believe God's Word and commandments, or will we be cut off, Isaiah 48:18-19? The Apostle John confronted the same kind of problem extant today. He had to write and exhort true Christians to not go back and review everything they had been taught, in aura of doubt. Why is it that we were in doubt and troubled? We practiced it for thirty-five years. We were confident. In I John 2:27, John wrote that "the anointing which ye have received [the Holy Spirit] of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you . . . ." No need to be taught the truth again. You had it initially. God called you. God revealed the truth to you. Why question what God gave you initially? The Spirit of God did not lead us in error, John 16:13. Hebrews 3:14 is an awesomely significant admonition. "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end." He that endures unto the end shall be saved, Matthew 24:13. This is why I believe in a Monday Pentecost. -- written by Raymond C. Cole, edited by Richard C. Nickelsê A New Look at Pentecost in Light of the Calendar Adjustment in the Second Century [This article is an adaptation of a Bible Study by Herman L. Hoeh at Ambassador College Pasadena, California, April 20, 1973. At the urging of Richard C. Nickels, Herman Hoeh put his study in this written form.] A number of people have, over the years, questioned how Pentecost is counted. The mistakes stem from a misunderstanding of the events concerning the wave sheaf and a lack of knowledge of the Hebrew calendar. The Jews Knew! Even though traditional Rabbinic Judaism regards the Sabbath of Leviticus 23:15 as the high day of the Days of Unleavened Bread, when the Jews translated the passage, they were forced to render it correctly: "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the day of rest, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the waving; seven weeks shall there be complete." Verse 16: "even unto the morrow after the seventh week shall ye number fifty days . . . ." So the Jews were well aware of how it ought to be translated. While the Rabbis observed Pentecost differently, they knew what the original truth was. They knew that Pentecost was a spring festival1 (see Note 1 at end of article), not a summer festival, and that the calendar had to be regulated by a Pentecost on Monday, not Sunday or Sivan 6. We shall shortly see why Pentecost's being a spring festival is so important. Calendar Rules A well-known calendar rule (see The Jewish Encyclopedia) limits how early Passover may fall. Passover, Nisan 14, must be no earlier than two days before the spring equinox. That is, spring must have arrived on or before Nisan 16. This was to provide that when Passover fell on Friday and the wave sheaf was cut the following Sunday, Nisan 16, that Sunday would occur in spring. Otherwise the harvest would have begun in winter. There is no rule determining how late in spring Passover can be.2 However, there is a rule which indirectly limits the lateness of Passover. The rule is that Pentecost must be observed in the spring, not the summer. The Passover of A.D. 31 was remarkably late (the spring equinox at that time took place on March 23). The year of the crucifixion, A.D. 31,3 was intercalary4 and Passover of that year occurred, according to the sacred calendar, on Wednesday, April 25, not a Monday, March 26, the fourteenth day of the previous month. Now jump to our day. The year 1931 is one hundred 19-year cycles from A.D. 31, so it, too, one might expect, would be intercalary. Yet the year 19315 was not intercalary by the calendar the Jews use today. Why not? The answer is that the sacred calendar was adjusted. Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong long ago brought to the attention of the Sardis Era of the Church, headquartered at Stanberry, Missouri, in an article in The Bible Advocate, that the Jews have correctly preserved the calendar. (See Romans 3:2.) Then what rule governed the calendar adjustment so that the tenth year of the 19-year cycle in Jesus' day was intercalary but is not intercalary today? God ordained that the sacred festivals should be kept not only on specific days in the year, but in the proper seasons. Notice Leviticus 23:4 in the Jewish Publication Society translation: "These are the appointed seasons of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their appointed season." The basic reason for a calendar adjustment is that God's law requires that the annual holy days occur in the correct seasons. This means that the lunar months (Nisan, Tishri, etc.) must coincide with the right seasons. Genesis 1:14 shows that God provided man with both the sun and moon "for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years." Thus, the Hebrew calendar is lunar-solar. The duration for an average solar year in the sacred or Hebrew calendar does not quite correspond with the true astronomical value.6 Though this difference is small, it amounts to a one day's variation in 216 years. After a thousand years, a given Hebrew month will be approximately 4.6 days behind actual sun time, which governs the seasons. Without a calendar adjustment, God's holy days would eventually get out of synchronization with the seasons. The six-minute difference in the Hebrew calendar's solar year and the true astronomical value causes Passover to occur one day later every 216 years. Sooner or later Pentecost would be in the beginning of the summer. But that's not permitted! From the days of Moses through the first century A.D., there was no calendar adjustment required. Pentecost was always celebrated in the spring. The Year of the Adjustment In the Patriarchate of Simon III, between A.D. 140 and 163, a great controversy arose pertaining to the intercalary years and the Holy Days. As we count it, Pentecost would have fallen, for the first time in summer, June 23, 161 A.D.7 In A.D. 161 June 23 was the beginning of summer, the solstice occurring about 3 P.M., [see P.V. Neugebauer, Hilfstafeln zur Berechnung von Himmels-Erscheinungen (Tables for the Calculation of Heavenly Phenomena) Leipzig, 1925]. So the intercalary month that would have been added that year needed postponement in order that Pentecost would not fall in summer. In A.D. 161, if the calendar used at Jesus' time had not been adjusted by Simon III, a Monday Pentecost would have been observed on the beginning of summer. The Jewish Patriarch Simon III imposed a needed postponement of the intercalated year from the seventh year (A.D. 161) to the eighth year.8 What is significant is that in A.D. 161, Pentecost would have been in the summer only if it were observed as we do today -- on a MONDAY! If Pentecost were observed on a Sunday, June 22, it would not have been in summer and the postponement of intercalary years would not have occurred until the time of Constantine. One would then face an unanswerable enigma: why in the late A.D. 160's was Passover suddenly observed earlier in the spring than ever before? Simon III determined this calendar postponement not according to the Pharisees' Sivan 6 Pentecost, but by a true Monday Pentecost. This was a controversial decision. Simon III knew how Pentecost was originally counted. Counting Incorrectly The Jewish Talmud, a very remarkable Bible commentary, shows that the Sadducees observed Pentecost on a Sunday9 counting inclusively, from the morrow after the weekly Sabbath. They counted the 50 days wrongly, but from the right day. The Pharisees did not want the priestly Sadducees to determine which day to offer the wave sheaf. So the priests who were Pharisees changed the custom and offered it on Nisan 16, the day after the first high day, and counted 50 days from the date. Jewish tradition preserved by Rabbi Jose declares that in the year of the Exodus, Nisan 15 occurred on a Thursday, and Nisan 16 on a Friday. Thus the Pharisees initially came to the conclusion that the Pentecost on which the law was given was on Sivan 7, and on the seventh day of the week. Unlike the Sadducees they counted 50 days correctly (not inclusively) but from the wrong date. Later the Pharisees became divided on how to count Pentecost. The argument is in the Talmud. Some Pharisees began to conclude falsely that the Passover of the Exodus was on a Thursday (which it can never be) and the Exodus on a Friday (which Nisan 15 cannot be). They continued to conclude that the wave sheaf was offered on a Saturday. The counting was for these Pharisees inclusive and Pentecost was in the year of the Exodus assumed to be Sivan 6, a Saturday. The period of this mixup was between the time of Alexander the Great and Antiochus Epiphanes. How could both Sadducees and Pharisees justify counting inclusively? Originally the wave sheaf was offered Sunday morning, but the Sadducees later adopted the custom of offering it Saturday night. The Talmud shows that the wave sheaf also came to be offered by the Pharisees, not in the morning, but at the end of the first holy day at the going down of the sun. The Pharisees did the Sadducees one better in their heresy by offering it at the end of the wrong day, the first Holy Day. By this means they, too, could justify counting the first day when the wave sheaf was offered as day one out of fifty. In Deuteronomy 16 we read that the Israelites were to reap their fields from the time the sickle was put to the barley. If the sheaf was reaped on Saturday night, the people could not start reaping their fields -- it was still night. So if one had only the Old Testament to go by, he would have to conclude that the wave sheaf would have to be offered on Sunday morning10 and one could not count inclusively as the Jews now do. In Conclusion The calendar we are using today is the same calendar Jesus used -- except the rule governing Pentecost has necessitated a postponement, by one year, of the intercalary months. The fact that this change would not have occurred at the time it did, if Pentecost were on a Sunday is proof that Pentecost occurs on a Monday! The calendar thus becomes just one more witness to a Monday Pentecost.11 FOOTNOTES By Herman L. Hoeh Note 1 In a note to the Sanhedrin Tractate (section 12b) of The Babylonian Talmud, the translator, Rabbi Epstein states, "Though according to Biblical tradition our months are to be lunar (cf. Ex. XII, 2), yet our Festivals are to be observed at certain agricultural seasons; Passover and Pentecost in the spring; Tabernacles, or Feast of Ingathering, in the autumn." Note 2 For several years in Theological Research, it had been assumed that Passover could occur over a 38-day span around the equinox, one day before, on, or 36 days after. This was a historic deduction and is now superseded by the new information contained in this paper. Note 3 Spring of A.D. 31 was the 10th year of the 19-year cycle, which began in the fall of A.D. 30 and had 385 days. Note 4 Intercalary means that the year had 13 months, instead of twelve. The extra month was added prior to Nisan and was called V'Adar. Note 5 The tenth year of the 19-year cycle started in the fall of A.D. 1930 and had 354 days. Note 6 The average length of each year in a 19-year cycle is 365 days, plus 5 hours, 55 minutes, and 25.438 seconds. But the actual astronomical magnitude for the tropical sun year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46.069 seconds. (A. Speier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, 1952, page 226). The duration of an average tropical solar year in the Hebrew calendar is 6 minutes and 39.371 seconds longer than the true astronomical magnitude. Note 7 The pattern of common years and leap years in any 19-year cycle results in the Hebrew solar-lunar calendar being slightly ahead or behind sun time. This is normal variation. In the pattern of intercalary years used in Jesus' day, years 2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, and 18 of a 19-year cycle were intercalary. In a 19-year cycle with that pattern, Passover would be earliest (with respect to the spring equinox) in the fifteenth year of the cycle and the latest in the seventh. The accumulated variation in the Hebrew calendar (one day in 216 years) would be most serious in the seventh year of the 19-year cycle, when Pentecost would tend to be pushed closest towards summer. During the jurisdiction of Simon III, the spring of the seventh year of the 19-year cycle occurred in A.D. 142 and again in A.D. 161. With no change in the pattern of leap years, Pentecost was on Monday, June 19 in 142. But in 161, with Pentecost on a Monday, it would have been on June 23. Note 8 The cycle during transition was 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 19 and then the cycle thereafter continued as we have today: 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, 19 (except when certain festivals fell too early). Beginning in A.D. 167 we have the first evidence of controversy over the earliness of the Passover in the Christian community, in the writing of Melito of Sardis, titled On the Passover. The Jews were accused by some of observing Passover too early. Before A.D. 70, however, Passover was never observed at the beginning of spring, but always after the beginning of spring; hence, the adjustment in this time period. Note 9 See the Hagigah Tractate (section 17a) of The Babylonian Talmud. In a note to that section, the translator, Rabbi Abrahams states, " . . . the Sadducees . . . understood the word Sabbath' in Lev. XXIII, 11, 15 literally, and hence maintained that Pentecost must always fall on a Sunday . . . . But the Pharisees explained the word Sabbath' to mean day of rest', i.e. holy day' (cf. Lev. XXIII, 32, 39 . . . ) and referred to the first festival day of Passover." Note 10 Sometime after sunrise Sunday morning, Jesus ascended to Heaven, Matthew 28 [John 20:17, 19]. The wave sheaf offering does not picture the time of the resurrection, but the presence of Christ at the throne of God in heaven, on the first day of the week. The antitypical meaning of the wave sheaf cutting is the resurrected Christ cut off from (leaving the earth) Sunday morning prior to appearing before the Father. Note 11 Since the festivals are again occurring later each succeeding century, another postponement of intercalary months will occur in approximately five centuries. Or Pentecost once again would occur at the beginning of summer. This future adjustment of the Hebrew calendar is discussed in The Jewish Encyclopedia and in Speier's Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar. Comments by Richard C. Nickels Acts 2:1 states that Pentecost was "fully come" when "they [the disciples] were all with one accord in one place." Why use the phrase "fully come?" Unless the Pentecost the disciples kept was a day or two later than the one some Jews kept? Some of the "Jews, devout men" were at Jerusalem that time, may have kept Sivan 6, or Sivan 8. If so, they would still be at Jerusalem because Sivan 7 was a Sabbath -- not time for travel -- and Jews tended to stay on a few days anyway. All the firstfruits could not be offered on Pentecost itself. Even if the Pharisees had been keeping Pentecost on the right day and at the same place they would not have been "all with one accord." They sharply disagreed with the disciples. The Pharisees may have kept Pentecost that year on Friday, Sivan 6, and the Sadducees on Sunday, Sivan 8. Both they and the multitude came running, not recognizing the Holy Spirit. They had kept Pentecost on the wrong days and in the wrong attitude. Thus, they missed the giving of the Holy Spirit. Those who listened to Peter finally recognized the disaster of following the Pharisees and Sadducees and that they were responsible for the death of their long awaited Messiah. Hence their question, "What shall we do?" Based on the historical and Biblical record, it is clear what we should do: keep Pentecost on Monday!ê Let Us "Tarry" For Pentecost Wait and Watch After the last Passover supper, in which our Savior instituted the new symbols of bread and wine, He and the eleven disciples sang a psalm (the Hallel) and went out to the Mount of Olives, Matthew 26:30. They came to the garden of Gethsemane, where the Savior often prayed, John 18:1-2. It was a custom to stay up all the night of the Passover, or at least until midnight. Faithful Jews would read scripture, pray, and help each other to stay awake. So the Messiah, soon to be offered as a sacrifice for our sins, asked Peter, John and James to stay awake with Him, as He readied His mind for the awesome ordeal He knew was on its way. Matthew 26:38, "Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me'." Being weak human beings, the disciples could not fulfill this desire of their Master. Finding them all asleep, He exclaimed, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing [ready], but the flesh is weak," verses 40-41. Without the Almighty's Holy Spirit united with their spirit, they could not overcome weak flesh. Three times they could not rise to His commands, Mark 14:34-42. When He was taken captive, "they all forsook Him, and fled," verse 50. Not Ready to Receive Holy Spirit Peter denied His Lord three times. He and the other disciples were not ready to receive the Holy Spirit to enable them to conquer the weak human nature within them. Though with the Savior for three and one half years, Peter was not yet converted, Luke 22:31-32. He protested this, saying that he was ready to go with the Savior to prison or even die with Him. Knowing better, the Master told Peter that he would deny Him thrice, verses 33-34. The spirit of Peter was ready, but the flesh was weak. It was not the Almighty's time for the Holy Spirit to come. It was the time for the Passover sacrifice, not for Pentecost. So, that night, our Savior was taken. He was executed the following day. Joseph of Arimathaea laid His body in a garden tomb, John 19:28-42. There was a three day wait. The disciples huddled together in secret. The chief priests and Pharisees were not about to wait for Yahshua to be a martyr. They remembered that He had said He would rise after three days, so they obtained Pilate's permission to seal the tomb and post a watch, lest the body be stolen away by the disciples, Matthew 27:62-66. Why Messiah Hid After Resurrection The orderly procession of events continued. Very early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the sepulchre, John 20:1 and following. The huge stone was rolled away! He was gone! She ran and told Peter and John, who came running and went into the empty tomb. After they left, Mary wept outside the sepulchre, not knowing were the body had been taken. The Master appeared to her and she exclaimed "Rabboni" (Master)! The resurrected Savior of mankind said: "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father and to my God, and your God," John 20:17. It was not time for the giving of the Holy Spirit, the conversion of Peter, the coming of power to overcome weak flesh. It was time for the acceptance of the wavesheaf, Leviticus 23:9-14. The harvest of the Almighty could not start without this special time in which the firstfruits from the dead were accepted by the Father, I Corinthians 15:12-23. At the end of this day devoted to the wavesheaf, the firstfruits, the first day of the week (Sunday evening), the accepted, sanctified firstfruits from the dead, the glorified Savior, appeared to the disciples as a group, John 20:19-23. He had avoided physical contact with them for approximately 24 hours after His resurrection. Even in the Emmaus incident, Luke 24:13-35, His contact with them had been limited. From human eyes this delay of showing Himself openly may have been hard to understand, just like the request to tarry with Him in the garden that fateful Passover night. They were ready to see Him. Or were they? Could They Wait Fifty Days? When the two disciples who saw the Messiah on the way to Emmaus rushed back and told the eleven what had happened, Y'shua Himself stood in the midst of them. They were terrified, supposing they had seen a ghost, Luke 24:33-37. Then He calmed them down, and patiently let them touch Him, to see that it was really Him. Now it was time for the evidence to be revealed, verses 38-40. It was also time for their understanding to be opened, just as the tomb had been opened the day before. Even the wavesheaf day, when Peter and John saw the empty tomb, they did not understand the scripture, that He must rise from the dead, John 20:9. Now He opened their minds, Luke 24:44-48. It was almost time now that repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, verse 47. First, they had to wait: "And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power [Holy Spirit] from on high," Luke 24:49. They failed to tarry with Him at Gethsemane. Would they now be able to tarry 50 days for the Spirit of power? What does it mean to "tarry"? What "Tarry" Means Some have the mistaken notion that "tarry" in Luke 24:49 means merely "wait." It is much more than that. The Greek word is kathizo, and everywhere else is translated "sit" or "sit down." An example is Matthew 5:1, where the Savior was set on the mount when He gave His famous sermon to the disciples; In Luke 5:3 He sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. In John 8:2 He sat down in the temple and taught all the people that came to Him, and Acts 8:31 shows the Ethiopian eunuch who desired Philip to sit with him in his chariot and teach him. Another aspect of this word for "tarry" is that of sitting in judgment: Matthew 19:28, where the Savior said He shall sit in the throne of His glory, the disciples shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Revelation 3:21, "To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcome, and am set down with my Father in His throne." Revelation 20:4, "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them . . . and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Besides sitting in judgment, the above verses also show that "sit down," or "tarry" means to have an intimate, close relationship with others, especially the Father. It is often expressed of the Son that He is set down on the right hand of the Father, Hebrews 1:3, 10:12, 12:2, Ephesians 1:20. Very often, kathizo, "sat down" is associated with a throne, as in Acts 2:30. Further, Luke 14:28, 31, where we are admonished to sit down and count the cost. Acts 13:14 shows that Paul sat down in the synagogue on the Sabbath and worshipped. The Savior told the disciples to sit--kathizo--while He went a short distance to pray, Matthew 26:36, Mark 14:32. Again, in Luke 24:49 they were told to tarry (sit) in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit would be given. What does it mean "to tarry"? As we have seen from the above passages, it means (l) to sit down and be taught, and teach, (2) to sit in judgment, (3) to have an intimate relationship with the Father, (4) to sit on a throne, (5) to sit down and count the cost, (6) to sit down and worship, (7) to sit down and pray with others. This is what the disciples were to be doing until it was time to receive the Spirit. This time, unlike Gethsemane, they were patient. They did not go to sleep. The Messiah was seen by hundreds of disciples, I Corinthians 15:1-9. There were many infallible proofs during the forty days of the resurrected Savior's teaching, Acts 1:1-3. During a meal, after they had been with him for 40 days, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:4-5. This power would enable them to be witnesses of the Messiah in all the world, verses 6-8. The promise had actually been made the night of the Passover, before they left to go to Gethsemane, John 14:16-17, 16:7-16. Ten More Days to Wait! After forty days, the Savior was not to be seen again by them. He was taken up to Heaven into a cloud and out of their sight. He gave them a blessing, and departed from them, and was carried up into heaven, Luke 24:51. Two angels announced that He would return on this very spot, the Mount of Olives, Acts 1:9-12, Zechariah 14:4-9. Ten more days to tarry! What an eternity it must have been! So they returned, gathered together, continuing with one accord in prayer and supplication, Acts 1:12-14. They were joyful, worshipping Him, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing the Almighty, Luke 24:50-53. The eleven had to sit in judgment, because a replacement for Judas had to be found. So, the lot of judgment fell upon Matthias, who was now to be numbered with the others who would sit upon the twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Acts 1:15-26. They had to sit down, count the cost, sit down and pray, worship, have an intimate relationship with the Father and with one another in prayer, teaching and supplication. They were not yet ready to go out and be witnesses of Him to all the world, with great power and miracles. It was time to sit down. It was time to tarry--kathizo. With One Accord in One Place So they tarried together, worshipping with one accord, in one place. The place they were in was the temple, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:14, 2:1, 2:46. The temple had vast corridors or "porches" which served as regular meeting places for the various Jewish sects and groups. It was said that 210,000 people could gather there. "Solomon's Porch," mentioned in Acts 3:8, 11, 5:12, John 10:23, had benches so that large crowds could be addressed. Both during the Savior's ministry, during the ten-day wait from the ascension to Pentecost, and afterwards, this porch was a regular meeting place for followers of the Messiah. The "upper room," Acts 1:13, was where some of the disciples lived; but the temple was where they worshipped. How many disciples were in the Temple on that day of Pentecost? Only 120? It doesn't say. There were 120 present at the time Matthias was chosen, Acts 1:15. One hundred and twenty was the number of men that the Jews required to form a council in a city, enough to make this major judgmental decision. As we have seen, more than 500 brethren saw the resurrected Messiah, I Corinthians 15:5-6. Certainly these did not all backslide from the time of the resurrection until Matthias was chosen. At Pentecost, they were all with one accord in one place, Acts 2:1, the temple, verse 46. They had tarried, counted the days, sat down in an intimate relationship, etc. Now it was time for the Spirit to come. It came about 9:00 A.M. (third hour of the day). With the sound of stormy, mighty, wind, there appeared unto them cloven tongues like fire, and it sat (kathizo, tarried) upon each of them. All the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke with other languages, Acts 2:1-4. Hundreds nearby, in other porches of the Temple compound, heard the noise and came, each hearing his own language spoken. Peter's Powerful Sermon Peter, standing up with the eleven other apostles (witnesses of the resurrection), gave a positive clear direction to the seemingly chaotic situation. The powerful voice of the big fisherman came booming out, Acts 2:14. These spirit filled men are not drunk, he said, but the Spirit of the Almighty has been poured out upon all flesh as the prophet Joel foretold. The Spirit will be poured upon the Eternal's servants and handmaidens. And, there shall be heavenly signs, the sun turned into darkness, the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. Whoever calls upon His name shall be saved. Joel 2:28-32. Why did Peter cite this end-time prophecy, which points to events just prior to the terrible "Day of the Lord"? Was it just rhetoric to gain the attention of the crowds? Peter was not saying that the heavenly signs were happening, but that it was time for the pouring out of the Spirit. It was as Isaiah 44:3, "I will pour my spirit upon thy seed," and it was starting now with this mighty sign, to the amazement of these devout men out of every nation under heaven. The name of Jesus (Yahshua, or "Yah is salvation") was now proclaimed by Peter. The Almighty wrought many miracles and signs and wonders through Jesus in the sight of all. "You wicked men," Peter thundered, "have taken Him and crucified Him." But now He is risen from death, as David foretold in Psalms 16:8-11. As the Almighty swore in an oath to raise up the Messiah out of the loins of David, so He has done, and we are witnesses to the fact. Being exalted to the right hand of the Father, and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit. He has now given us the Spirit, the evidence of which you now see and hear. Yahshua, whom you have crucified, is both our Lord (Yahweh) and Messiah. Pricked to the very core of their hearts, these devout men were ready. The time was ripe. They cried out, "What shall we do?" Peter gave the Eternal's answer, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit," Acts 2:38. Mankind had tarried long enough. The Son of the Almighty, and the Father were now ready to pour forth the promise of the Spirit. This promise wasn't just to those Parthians, Medes, etc. standing there near Solomon's Porch. It was to their children, to all afar off, even as many as the Lord shall call, Acts 2:39 compared to Deuteronomy 29:14-15, Joel 2:32. What is recorded in Acts 2 was only part of the many words of testifying and exhorting that Peter proclaimed, Acts 2:40. The message was: "Save yourselves from this untoward generation, this perverse, crooked people and their impending fate," Deuteronomy 32:5, Philippians 2:15. Less than 40 years hence, the very Temple they were standing in would be destroyed, torn to the ground, and many thousands would be dead of famine, pestilence and the sword. It was time for action! About 3,000 responded, gladly receiving the word, being baptized the same day. The New Testament church had begun. The great joy the disciples had when they returned from the Mount of Olives was now shown forth to others also. From the grief of guilt came the release of sin in baptism and the Spirit of love and joy being poured out on so many. They continued in the Temple with one accord, and at their houses did eat together with gladness and singleness of heart, praising the Almighty, and having favor with all the people. Tarry Lesson For Us The lesson of Pentecost is: tarry. This critically important day is worth patiently waiting for. Although the majority are too hurried on their way to destruction to tarry for Pentecost, there are a few who wait patiently. Today they are sitting down and being taught, they have an intimate relationship with the Father, they sit down to worship and pray with others. In the world to come, they will sit on thrones of judgment, because in this day they had the patience to listen to Peter's sermon of Acts 2:38-40. Let us tarry (wait patiently) for the divine promise of Pentecost.ê Pentecost is NOT on Sivan 6 Many are aware that the majority of today's Jews, in line with the tradition of the Pharisees, observe Pentecost on the sixth (and also the seventh, according to Orthodox Jews) of the third month of the Hebrew Calendar, called Sivan. The sixth of Sivan can fall on the first, second, fourth, or sixth days of the week. TABLE 1: Passover, Sivan 6 and Monday Pentecost Passover Abib (Nisan) 14 Sivan 6 Monday Pentecost Monday Wednesday Sivan 11 Wednesday Friday Sivan 9 Friday Sunday Sivan 7 Sabbath Monday Sivan 13 What is the basis for the belief in a Sivan 6 Pentecost? Why do we reject this teaching and instead keep Pentecost always on the second day of the week, a Monday? How to Count Pentecost Leviticus 23 is the key Bible chapter to understanding when to keep all of God's Holy Days. In verse 10, the Eternal told Israel to bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of their harvest to the priest. Verse 11 says, "And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath [Hebrew: mi-mohorat ha-shabbat] the priest shall wave it." This "Wavesheaf Day" is critical to determining the correct day for Pentecost. Verses 15-16 refer back to the Wavesheaf Day in verse 11, "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD." Verse 21: "And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be a holy convocation unto you [the day of Pentecost] . . . ." We believe Wavesheaf Day is the Sunday after the Sabbath that falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is "day one" of the count toward Pentecost. Fifty days are completely counted, then Pentecost is observed, always on a Monday. The "Sivan 6 Theory" Recently, the argument in favor of a Sivan 6 Pentecost has gained prominence among Sabbath keepers through William F. Dankenbring, former writer for the Worldwide Church of God, who heads Triumph Publishing Company. This article will examine some of the arguments for a Sivan 6 Pentecost, showing them to be invalid. The "Sivan 6 Theory" contains these elements: (1) It is said that we are to count Pentecost from the first High Day Sabbath, not the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Wavesheaf offering (Leviticus 23:9-14) is claimed to have been performed always on Nisan 16, the day after the first high holy day Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Since Leviticus 23:10 follows verse 7 which mentions the first holy day, an annual Sabbath, of Unleavened bread, it is assumed that the "the morrow after the Sabbath" actually means "the morrow after the first holy day." This is the key point of the Sivan 6 theory. (2) Joshua 5:10-12, some believe, "proves" that Wavesheaf Offering day is always Nisan 16. (3) It is claimed that Matthew 23:2-3 shows we are to follow the Pharisees in the Holy Days we observe, including Pentecost. The great Jewish historian Josephus was a Pharisee and he says that Wavesheaf Offering day was on Nisan 16. Paul was a Pharisee, Acts 23:6, and it is assumed all Pharisees believed in a Sivan 6 Pentecost. (4) The Sadducees, who agreed with us that the Sabbath of Leviticus 23:11 was the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, are not to be believed because they were "liberal Hellenistic Jews." (5) The Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament), also known as the LXX, is said to be 100% inspired scripture without any translation errors. It supposedly translates the Leviticus 23 passage with the understanding that Wavesheaf Offering day is Nisan 16. (6) Some say that none of God's Holy Days can ever fall on a Sunday. God abhors His people observing the PAGAN day of the Sun God, Sunday. (7) The Wavesheaf offering was an integral part of the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread and "must" fall "within" it. (8) It is believed by some advocates of a Sivan 6 Pentecost, that Christ fulfilled the Wavesheaf Offering on Friday, Nisan 16, 31 A.D., when supposedly His sacrifice was accepted by God. (9) Counting the fifty days to Pentecost is said to be not necessary, but counting down the days adds to the anticipation and excitement of Pentecost when at last it arrives. These arguments and others have been presented by proponents of a Sivan 6 Pentecost. Proof that Sivan 6 Theory is Wrong If the "Sivan 6 Theory" is correct, then "the morrow after the Sabbath" in Leviticus 23:11, and 15 must be interpreted as "the morrow after the annual Sabbath," that is, forcing Wavesheaf Day to be always Abib (Nisan) 16. And most importantly, verses 15-16 must be interpreted in this erroneous way: "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the first holy day, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven weeks shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh week shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD." The original Hebrew absolutely prohibits such an interpretation. With the use of Englishman's Hebrew Concordance, you can prove this for yourself. The words for "sabbath" and "sabbaths" in Leviticus 23 are Strong's #7676, Shabbat and #7677, shabbaton. Englishman's Hebrew Concordance, page 1235, shows every place these words are used. NOT ONCE DO THESE WORDS EVER MEAN "WEEK" OR "WEEKS"! In other words, the Hebrew word for "Sabbath" never means "week"! What is the Hebrew word for "week"? It is Strong's #7620, shebuah. Englishman's Hebrew Concordance, page 1224, proves conclusively that nowhere in the Bible does this word ever mean "Sabbath"! So the Hebrew words for Sabbath never mean week, and the Hebrew word for week never means Sabbath. The foundation for the Sivan 6 Pentecost Theory is totally false. Some have pointed to Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, which defines #7676 as "sabbath, . . . perhaps a week, like the Syrian and Greek (Matt. 28:1) Lev. 23:15; compare Deu. 16:9." As we show in our article, "Basic Bible Study Tools," lexicons are Bible word dictionaries which contain the lexicographer's understanding of what words mean in Bible context. In this case Gesenius is in error. Shabbat does not mean week. It means Sabbath. Deuteronomy 16:9, which uses a different word, #7620 shebuah, does not interpret Leviticus 23:15. We have proven that shabbat does not have the same meaning as shebuah. See the copies from Englishman's Hebrew Concordance on the next page, and look up the scriptures for yourself. Word Studies on Pentecost Mi-mohorat ha-shabbat occurs in Leviticus 23:11 and 15, and means "from [on] morrow of [after] the Sabbath," that is, the day after the Sabbath. This is the key phrase regarding the counting of Pentecost. From the Hebrew-English Interlinear Old Testament, by Jay P. Green, Sr., we see the Strong's numbers for the Hebrew: The Hebrew word for Sabbath, Shabbat, is Strong's number #7676. Shabbat is derived from #7673, shavath, which means "intermission, desist from exertion, to cease, rest, celebrate." A related verb is #7677, shabbaton, meaning "the act of keeping the Sabbath, resting." The Hebrew word for "seven" is #7651, sheba or shibah, the word for "seventh" is #7637 shebiyiy. As we have seen, the word for "week" is #7620, shebuah which is not necessarily a "perfect week" of Sunday through Saturday. In verse 15, "seven sabbaths shall be complete [KJV]," the word for "complete" is #8549, tamiym, meaning "perfect, without blemish." The literal words say "seven sabbaths perfect." There are seven PERFECT sabbaths that fall between the day of the wavesheaf until day fifty of the count toward Pentecost. What is a perfect Sabbath? Why, God's Holy Day, the seventh day of the week! Not an imperfect "week" of just any seven days! Tamiym is used in verses 12 and 18 in reference to lambs offered "without blemish." Tamiym used with shabbat leaves us no doubt that Leviticus 23:15-16 means seven sabbaths, not seven imperfect weeks. The inspired Hebrew in both verses 15 and 16 says SABBATHS, shabbatot (plural), not WEEKS, shebuat. Verses 15-16 say literally, "seven sabbaths perfect they shall be to the day after the Sabbath [ha-shabbat] the seventh [ha-shebiyit] you shall number fifty [fiftieth] day." Notice the unusual usage of the definite article "the" (Hebrew ha). It is not just any Sabbath that is the day before day fifty of the count. But THE Sabbath THE seventh. Certainly this precludes counting imperfect weeks that do not run from Sunday through Sabbath. Indeed, we are not told to count seven Sabbaths at all. We are told there will be seven perfect Sabbaths on the way to a full count of fifty days. And through the next day after the seventh perfect Sabbath, a Sunday, day fifty of the count toward Pentecost is completed. Notice the usage of shabbat elsewhere in Leviticus 23. Verse 3, in reference to the seventh day of the week, says literally, "and on day the seventh, Sabbath resting, a gathering holy . . . ." Verse 24 refers to the Day of Trumpets, a time of "resting." #7677, shabbaton. Verse 32 commands the Day of Atonement, "Sabbath resting [shabbat shabbaton] it is to you . . . you shall keep your sabbath." Finally, in verse 38, in reference again to the weekly Sabbath, Shabbatot, is used. Only in verses 11, 15 and 16 is the definite article "the" (Hebrew ha) used. Why? Because although Trumpets is a resting and Atonement a Sabbath resting, only the weekly Sabbath is THE Sabbath. In Ezekiel 46:1, ha-shabbat is used to refer to every weekly Sabbath. Thus, the definite article ha used with Shabbat shows that this Shabbat is the weekly Sabbath, not the first annual Holy Day. The word for weeks, #7620, shebuah, is not used at all in Leviticus 23. In Leviticus 23, we are not told to count seven weeks (shabutot) toward Pentecost. Instead, there are seven PERFECT Sabbaths, and we are to count the day after the seventh Sabbath, not the seventh week. A day is counted when it is completed. When day fifty is counted, then we are to keep Pentecost, always on a Monday. Shebuah is used twenty times in the Old Testament. Only once, in Daniel 9:27, is shebuah used to refer to a perfect week of Sunday through Saturday. The Messiah was cut off in the midst of a week, on a Wednesday. In other cases, shebuah refers to any period of seven consecutive days. In referring to the first holy day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Abib (Nisan) 15, the word Shabbat is not used. We are merely told to have a mikra kodesh, a "gathering holy." And likewise the last Holy Day of the Feast, Abib 21, is not called a Shabbat, but a mikra kodesh. I have not found a single reference to Abib 15 being called a Sabbath, nor any annual Holy Day referred to as "ha-shabbat." A serious investigation of the original Hebrew of Leviticus 23 absolutely precludes a Sivan 6 Pentecost. There is no evidence that mi-mohorat ha-shabbat refers to anything other than the day after the weekly Sabbath. Which Sabbath Do We Count From? Leviticus 23, verses 9-21, is the Wavesheaf and Pentecost section of this "Holy Day Chapter" of the Bible. It is the only place in the Bible where we are given detailed instructions how to count Pentecost (also known as Feast of Weeks, Feast of Harvest, and Feast of Firstfruits). And yet, verse 11 does not explicitly say which Sabbath precedes the Wavesheaf Offering Day, "day one" of the count to Pentecost. Pharisees said this Shabbat was not the weekly Shabbat but the first annual Shabbat, Abib or Nisan 15, the first Holy Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. However, as we have seen, the Hebrew prohibits this interpretation. The "Sivan 6 Theory" says that since verse 11 follows verse 7, therefore Wavesheaf Offering Day must be Nisan 16. However, we must not ignore verse 8, which refers to Nisan 21, the last Holy Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Consistent reasoning would have to admit that verse 8 is closer to verse 11 than verse 7 is to verse 11. Using this logic, Wavesheaf Offering Day would have to be on Nisan 22. Indeed, this is the very position taken by the Ethiopian Falashas, or "Negro Jews" of Africa. The truth is, that neither Leviticus 23:7 or 8 call the two annual Holy Days during Unleavened Bread "Sabbath" or Shabbat. (The Day of Atonement, verse 32, is called a "Sabbath of rest.") Verse 3 clearly refers to the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. So which weekly Sabbath does verse 11 describe? It has to be associated with the firstfruits of harvest, which occurred in the springtime in Palestine, around the time of the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, when the barley grain is ready to harvest. By deduction, Leviticus 23:11 must refer to the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Joshua 5 and the Old Corn Joshua 5:10-12 states that Israel kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even, and ate of the old corn of Palestine on the morrow after Passover, when the manna ceased. Somehow, Sivan 6 advocates deduce that this passage "proves" Wavesheaf Offering Day is Nisan 16. This was old corn, or produce carried over from the East Bank of the Jordan River. It was NOT new grain from the harvest. Before Israel could eat of new grain, they had to harvest and offer the Wavesheaf Offering. And yet this verse specifically states they ate old corn, the original Hebrew meaning "carried over" corn. Israel crossed the Jordan on Nisan 10. The males were circumcised and were very sore for at least three days or more. Thus, it is very likely that the Joshua 5 Passover was the Passover of the second month, as described in Numbers 9, not the normal first month Passover. After circumcision, the male Israelites were in no shape to engage in a grain harvest and Wavesheaf Offering. Joshua 5 does not support a Nisan 16 Wavesheaf Day. Should We be Pharisees? Should we should follow the Pharisees, those "conservative guardians of the law,"(according to Dankenbring) in their counting of Pentecost? Some interpret Matthew 23:3 to say that we have to follow the Pharisees in ALL that they command us to observe. In keeping with following modern Pharisees, some now believe in a Nisan 15 Passover, rather than the Biblical Nisan 14 Passover. Although much of Jewish history is dominated by the Pharisees' influence because they gained complete ascendancy after 70 A.D., the Pharisees were by no means a united group, especially so during the time of Christ. The rival schools of Hillel and Shammai argued over points of the law. The priestly Sadducees disputed the Pharisees. And Essenes and Zealots were other competing Jewish sects of the First Century. The Apostle Paul, a Pharisee prior to his conversion, strongly disagreed with them on many points when he became a messianic believer. Interpreting history to favor the Pharisees, when they were and are chock full of errors is certainly no proof that Wavesheaf Day is Nisan 16 and Pentecost is Sivan 6. John 18:3 indicates that the ones who were instrumental in killing Jesus were Pharisees and priests. This same band of evil men kept the Passover a day later than Jesus did, verse 28. Matthew 23:3 cannot mean for us to follow the Pharisees in their errors, but only as they follow God. The rest of the chapter is clear that the Pharisees were loaded with hypocrisy and iniquity. Yes, the Pharisees did preserve some valid oral tradition which included the Hebrew Calendar and its rules. But we must not become Pharisees, slavishly following them even in their errors. Jesus said that we should beware of "the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees," Matthew 16:12. Should We Be Sadducees? On the other hand, some say the Sadducees were liberal Hellenistic Jews. They were of the wealthy priestly class, and a distinct minority compared to the majority Pharisees. Should we reject the Sadducee teaching that the Sabbath preceding Wavesheaf Offering Day is a weekly rather than an annual Sabbath? Or, should we follow the teaching of the sect of the Pharisees? John the Baptist referred to both the Pharisees and Sadducees as a "generation of vipers," Matthew 3:7. We should follow the Bible! We should not be modern Sadducees or Pharisees. The "Holy" Septuagint? The Septuagint is the old Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures, commonly designated LXX, because 70 or 72 translators were reputed to have been sent from Jerusalem by the high priest Eleazar to translate the Torah, at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 288-247 B.C. Supposedly, most Jews had lost a working knowledge of Hebrew, and Jews outside of Palestine mainly spoke Greek. Therefore, Jews of Alexandria, Egypt sought to overcome the opposition of Jerusalem authorities against the writing of Scripture in any but the old Hebrew scrolls. At first, only the Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy) was translated from Hebrew to the Greek Septuagint. Later, the rest of the Bible, along with spurious Apocrypha books were added to the Septuagint. In support for a Sivan 6 Pentecost, Dankenbring lauds the Septuagint as "God inspired." Why the interest in the Septuagint? Because the disputed Hebrew phrase, mi-mohorat ha-shabbat, "morrow after the Sabbath" (KJV) was translated by the Septuagint as "the morrow of the first day," meaning the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The modern Jewish Publication Society translation, in line with Pharisee belief, renders it "the morrow of the day of rest." In other words, the first day to count toward Pentecost is this "morrow of the first day," or "morrow of [after] the day of rest." The Septuagint is held by some to support the position of the Pharisees. But is it valid? Is the Septuagint version really God inspired rather than the Masoretic Text which forms the basis for the Old Testament portion of the King James Version? The Encyclopedia Britannica, article "Septuagint," describes the LXX as "corrupt." Further, "we need not assume that in cases of difference [between the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text] the Greek is to be preferred. The LXX translators made some palpable mistakes; their knowledge of Hebrew was often inadequate; they occasionally interpreted as well as translated . . . ." Also, the Septuagint includes the non-inspired historical books known collectively as the Apocrypha, while the Masoretic Text did not canonize these uninspired books. Why didn't the Jews of Alexandria, Egypt know their Hebrew? Because they had become liberal Hellenists, watering down and rejecting the Laws of the Torah and the Hebrew language. Biven and Blizzard demonstrate in their book, Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus (Austin, Texas, 1984), that Hebrew, and not Greek, was the main language of Palestinian Jews during the time of Christ. However, the diaspora (dispersed Jews) often neglected Hebrew and became enmeshed in Greco-Roman culture. After the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D., the Jewish scribes sought to renew their efforts to preserve the original Hebrew Scriptures. The Masorete scribes were much more faithful preservers of the Bible than the Alexandrian Jews who had authored the Septuagint. Masoretes faithfully preserved the mi-mohorat ha-shabbat of Leviticus 23:11, 15. Wavesheaf Offering Day is indeed on the first day of the week, the day after the weekly Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Today, liberal Bible translators are enthralled by corrupt Alexandrian manuscripts, which form the basis for many modern translations of the Old Testament. The King James Version, however, drew solidly from the inspired Masoretic Text. Some have pointed to a supposed usage of the Septuagint by New Testament writers. The facts show otherwise. Two out of every three quotations from the Old Testament found in the New do not agree verbally with the reading of the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. The Septuagint became so corrupt that Jewish authorities forbade Jews from using it. (See "Do We Have the Complete Bible?" by Herman L. Hoeh.) Others say that the "Dead Sea Scrolls" prove the Masoretic Text wrong. Since their initial discovery in 1947, the First Century A.D. Essene Qumran scrolls have been studied by scholars. The monastic Essenes withdrew from the mainstream of Jewish civilization, even refusing to worship at the Temple. Their scrolls, hidden in caves, sometimes differ markedly from the Masoretic Text. Previous to the discovery of these Old Testament portions, the earliest Old Testament manuscript dated from only the 10th Century A.D. The Revised Standard Version (1951) makes use of a number of "emendations" (alterations of text) of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most scholars have now come to see that the Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrate the superiority of the Masoretic Text. Jewish tradition says Ezra and the "Great Synagogue" canonized the Old Testament, and entrusted "scribes" (Hebrew Sopherim, meaning "counters") with the sacred duty of preserving the official canonized text. In an age before computers, the scribes devised an ingenious method to insure scripture accuracy and purity. Careful records were kept of the number of words and even letters in each book, the middle word and middle letter of each book, how many times a letter was used in each book, and other statistics which minimized the possibility of mistakes in copies. If an error was discovered, the entire scroll was thrown away! Old and worn manuscripts were thrown away. That is why we have no official copies before the 10th century. That is why Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law," Matthew 5:18. Not even the smallest letter, or stroke of a letter! Although the Dead Sea Scrolls are "older" than extant copies of the Masoretic Text, they are not better, but instead are corrupted. (See "Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls," January 1971 Plain Truth.) The liberal, corrupted Septuagint is not a proof for a Sivan 6 Pentecost. None of God's Holy Days -- Oops! -- Can Ever Fall on a Sunday William F. Dankenbring, in his article, "How Do You Count' Pentecost?," says that it is a "fact" that none of God's Holy Days can ever fall on a Sunday. God abhors His people observing in honor to Him the PAGAN day of the Sun-god (Sunday). Unfortunately for Mr. Dankenbring, his Pentecost, Sivan 6, in 1988 was on Sunday, May 22. In a later paper, Dankenbring quietly deleted his earlier statement that "God's annual holy days NEVER fall on a Sunday'!" Such a mistake is typical of hasty, careless "research." Unfortunately, many are willing to accept "shocking new truth" without independent study and verification. Some believers approach God's truth like a rabbit. They hop about going after this or that teacher and doctrine. They are not grounded and settled in the Truth. Sensationalism gives them an emotional "high." "New truths" are exciting. Digging into, proving and re-proving "old truths" is like slogging through the trenches. But that's what it takes to be an overcomer. According to the Hebrew Calendar, Nisan 15, an annual Holy Day, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, does fall on the first day of the week on the rare occasion when Passover, Nisan 14, falls on the weekly Sabbath. It happened in 1974, and will again in 1994. This is the only Holy Day that can (and even so, rarely) fall on a the first day of the week. How Long is the Passover Season? Mr. Dankenbring insists that Wavesheaf Offering Day MUST fall within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He opposes our belief that when Passover falls on the weekly Sabbath (which is a rare case), that Wavesheaf Offering Sunday is Nisan 22, which is OUTSIDE the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Dankenbring admits that Pentecost is not an entirely separate festival, but is closely tied with and interrelated with the Passover festival. TABLE 2: Passover, Wavesheaf Sunday and Pentecost Passover Wavesheaf Abib (Nisan) 14 Sunday Monday Pentecost Monday Nisan 20 Sivan 11 Wednesday Nisan 18 Sivan 9 Friday Nisan 16 Sivan 7 Sabbath Nisan 22 Sivan 13 As the Jews understand, the WHOLE PERIOD from Passover through Pentecost is known as the "Passover Season." Pentecost is referred to as the atzeret, or closing day, of the Passover season. So the rare occurrence of Passover (Nisan 14) falling on Sabbath, making Wavesheaf Sunday on Nisan 22, does not put Wavesheaf Offering Day outside of the Passover season. Meaning of the Wavesheaf Offering Emphasis needs to be placed on the meaning of the Wavesheaf Offering Day. According to the "Sivan 6 Theory" of Mr. Dankenbring, the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins was accepted by God the Father "immediately" after his death, on Friday, Nisan 16, 31 A.D. The wave sheaf offering typified the accepted Christ. He rejects the common interpretation of John 20:17 that Jesus ascended to Heaven on Sunday morning to be accepted by His Heavenly Father, which is why He didn't allow Mary to touch Him. Dankenbring ridicules the idea that Christ's sacrifice wasn't accepted by God until 3 1/2 days after His death. Yet his concept places the acceptance of Christ's sacrifice 1 1/2 days after Messiah's burial, which was certainly not "immediately" after His death and burial. When we examine all the Holy Days, we see that the Messiah is intimately involved in every one of them, in their spiritual fulfillment. The Savior was our Passover Lamb. "Christ in us" gives us the power to lead unleavened (sinless) lives, symbolized by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Messiah gave the Ten Commandments and gives the Holy Spirit of power to help us keep the Law (Pentecost). Messiah will return to raise the dead, regather Israel and win the Battle of Armageddon, typified by the Day of Trumpets. He will put Satan away and make mankind at one with God (Atonement). Jesus will establish the Millennium (Feast of Tabernacles). He will judge sitting on a Great White Throne (Last Great Day). Can you see we have an ACTIVE Savior? However, for Mr. Dankenbring, the Savior "slept" in the grave on Friday, Nisan 16, 31 A.D., doing nothing, yet nevertheless fulfilling the spiritual meaning of the Wavesheaf Offering. Does this make sense? Absolutely not! The cutting of the wavesheaf early Sunday morning represented Christ's ascension to Heaven. The wavesheaf being accepted represented Christ's blood being accepted as payment for our sins. He actively participated in the spiritual fulfillment of our atonement, Hebrews 9:11-12. Why couldn't Mary touch Jesus before He ascended to the Father? (Later that evening, the disciples could and did touch Him.) Because He was a Holy Sacrifice and could not be touched by human hands prior to His offering of Himself to the Father as our Wavesheaf. Wavesheaf Day should be recognized and honored by Christians today. We do not offer the wavesheaf offering, but we should take note of and be grateful that our wavesheaf of the firstfruits, the Messiah, was accepted by God as sacrifice for our sins. If possible, it would be proper to have services in commemoration of this great event. Although there is no specific command for a holy convocation, we know that since the eight days of Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread are a pilgrimage feast, just like the Feast of Tabernacles, there should be daily services during this festival period, including Wavesheaf Day. However, there could be danger in carrying this too far. The early New Testament Church knew that Wavesheaf Day was always on a Sunday, but not always on Nisan 16. They held commemorative services on Sunday, and later apostates used this practice to abandon the weekly Sabbath for Sunday. Wavesheaf Sunday's counterfeit is Easter Sunday. They often fall on the same day. Because of the connection between Wavesheaf Sunday, day one of the Pentecost count, and Pentecost itself, some writers on the subject of Holy Days have confused terms and refer to Wavesheaf Sunday as the "Feast of Firstfruits," a separate Feast from Passover and Unleavened Bread. Pentecost is at one place called the "Day of Firstfruits," Numbers 28:26, while elsewhere it is termed "the feast of weeks of the firstfruits of wheat harvest," Exodus 34:22, and "the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labors," Exodus 23:16. There is no Bible indication that Wavesheaf Sunday is properly called "Feast of Firstfruits." Meaning of Counting Pentecost We should actively count the fifty days toward Pentecost. Unger's Bible Dictionary, article "Festivals," shows that "the Jews regularly count every evening the fifty days . . . . The three days preceding the festival . . . are called the three days of separation and sanctification, because the Lord commanded . . . that the people should sanctify themselves three days prior to the giving of the law . . . ." Counting the days is a special observance in itself, heightening the joy and anticipation of the coming of the day of Pentecost, or Firstfruits, itself. It is good for us to count the days toward Pentecost, and to realize that Pentecost is closely tied to the spring Passover festival. Leviticus 23 gives the calendar date for all the feasts and Holy Days except two: Wavesheaf Day and Pentecost. If the Pharisees are correct, then why didn't God say in Leviticus 23 that Wavesheaf Day is the 16th day of the first month, and Pentecost is the sixth (or seventh) day of the third month? The only logical reason is that there is no fixed calendar date for these two sacred times, and they need to be counted each year. Count Day Fifty, Then Keep Pentecost Jews know that the days toward Pentecost are to be counted every evening. A day is counted at evening, when it is completed. The fiftieth day is counted, at evening, THEN Pentecost is observed. A fact seldom noticed is that the Masoretic Text has carefully preserved the inspired message of the Eternal. In Leviticus 23:16, the original Hebrew literally states: "to the day after the sabbath seventh you shall number fifty day [singular]." Day Fifty is numbered, then Pentecost is observed. Sivan 6 and Sunday Pentecost advocates generally admit they only count 49 days, when the Bible says to number day fifty. Wavesheaf Offering Day is Nisan 16 only when Passover is on a Friday. Pentecost is NEVER Sivan 6. Wavesheaf Day is always the Sunday after the weekly Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Pentecost is always on Monday. Ten Commandments and Pentecost Jewish tradition is replete with statements that the Feast of Pentecost is associated with the season of the giving of the Law, the Ten Commandments, at Mt. Sinai. Do the events of Exodus 19-20 give us an indication of the proper date of Pentecost? The KJV translates Exodus 19:1, "In the third month when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai." The Worldwide Church of God, and others, have explained this verse as follows: The expression "the same day" can only mean one of two things. Either this was the "same day" of the month or the "same day" of the week. Israel had departed from Rameses on the 15th day of the month (Numbers 33:3). It is likely this was on the fifth day of the week, Thursday, since Passover of the year of the exodus was probably on a Wednesday. Israel was already near Sinai on the 29th of the second month, Exodus 17:6, 18:5. So this "same day" of Exodus 19:1 could not refer to the fifteenth day of the third month, but instead refers to the fifth day of the week, the same weekday they had left Egypt. Therefore, Exodus 19:1 means they came to the foot of Sinai on a Thursday, Sivan 5. Some modern translations (such as the RSV), following the Septuagint, have mistranslated Exodus 19:1 as "on the first day of the third month after the departure." (Source: Ambassador College Bible Correspon-dence Course, Lesson 35s.) Green's Interlinear shows the literal Hebrew of verses 1-2 says, "In the third month of the going out of the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, on this day they came to the wilderness of Sinai. And they journeyed from Rephidim and came to the wilderness of Sinai, and they camped in the wilderness; and Israel camped there before the mountain." In other words, Israel came into Sinai on the same day as they left Egypt. Israel left Egypt on the night of the 15th day of the first month, Abib or Nisan, Exodus 12:40-42, Numbers 33:3. Each Sabbath along the way to Sinai, they pitched their tents and rested. They crossed the Red Sea on Abib 21, the last holy day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. At Abib 24, Sabbath, they were at Marah; on the first day of the second month, Iyar, they were at Elim. Iyar 8, by the Red Sea; Iyar 15, the Wilderness of Zin. Exodus 16 shows that they stopped for a week at the edge of the wilderness of Zin on Iyar 15, where God taught them about the Sabbath. Then they went through the desert, to Rephidim on Iyar 29, Exodus 17:1, and had no water. Dophkah and Alush were intermediate stops along the way so that thirsty stragglers could catch up (Numbers 33). Rephidim was near Sinai, so it took only a few days, not a full week, to arrive before the mount. If Israel camped at Rephidim on Iyar 29, there would be no way they would have arrived at Sinai on the very next day, Sivan 1. Because the next day the Israelites fought against Amalek, and then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law met him for a few days, Exodus 17-18. Israel arrived at the foot of Sinai on Sivan 5. Moses went up the mountain the next day, Exodus 19:3, receiving a message from the Eternal. Verse 7, the people were not already in assembly, so Moses called for the elders and gave them the "wedding proposal" from the Almighty. The people agreed, and Moses returned to the mountain to give their words to God, verses 8-9. Then, verses 10-11, the Eternal told Moses to have the people sanctify themselves "to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai." Moses came down and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. God called Moses up the mountain on this third day, Pentecost, instructing him to go down and keep the people back from touching the mountain. Then the Creator gave the Ten Commandments in a thundering voice to all the people, verses 14-25, 20:1-17. The people were frightened, and asked Moses to commune with God for them. Moses went back up the mountain, the Almighty gave him the judgments of Exodus 21, 22, 23, he came and told them to the people, and they said, "All the words which the LORD hath said will we do," 24:3. Then, verse 4, Moses wrote all these words down. Early the next morning, the day after Pentecost, Moses built an altar and confirmed the covenant with the people, verses 4-8. Thus the marriage ceremony of Israel and the Creator occurred on a day after the giving of the Ten Commandments. There was a "marriage supper" between God and the children of Israel, represented by Moses, Aaron and his sons, and seventy elders of Israel, verses 9-11. These events square well with a Monday Pentecost. TABLE 3: Possible Calendar of Events at Sinai SIVAN (Third Month) Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sabbath 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Pentecost Sivan 5, Thursday Israel arrives at Sinai. Sivan 6, FridayMoses ascends Mt. Sinai, talks with Eternal, returns and gets Israel to say "I do." Sivan 7, SabbathMoses returns to mountain, told to sanctify the people today and tomorrow, and for them to wash their clothes, be ready for the third day. Sivan 8, Sunday Wash day. Sivan 9, MondayGiving of Ten Commandments on Pentecost. Sivan 10, TuesdayOld Covenant Marriage Ceremony and Supper. There are two important days: one for the giving of the Ten Commandments and statutes and judgments, and another day for the sealing of the Old Covenant marriage between the Creator and Israel. Sunday Pentecost believers have a big problem with the events of Exodus. Wash day preceded the day of giving of the Law, which most agree is Pentecost. The weekly Sabbath can't be a wash day! Bible evidence suggests that the giving of the Law was during the Pentecost season. However, there are no definitive statements that tie Pentecost with the day of the giving of the Law. "New Truth" About Pentecost? When someone comes to you talking about "new truth," you should "see" red warning lights. There is no such thing as "new" truth. Truth is absolute. It does not change. Some former members of the Worldwide Church of God who now keep Pentecost on Sivan 6 claim that they now have "new truth," which was unknown to Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of that church. Supposedly, he failed to consult Jewish "authorities." This is not true. For ten years, Armstrong kept a Sivan 6 Pentecost, before changing to a Monday Pentecost. (For proof, see Section 4.2, pages 5-6 of our book, Biblical Holy Days.) TABLE 4: "Pentecosts" Kept by Worldwide Church of God 1927-1936 Sivan 6 1937-1973 Monday 1974-? Sunday There is no new thing under the sun. Doctrinal changers justify themselves by claiming to have "new truth." Too many people let others do their thinking for them, switching from one practice to another because some minister or writer says so. Don't accept what anyone says without checking it out in your own Bible. The Pentecost debate probably won't be resolved until the return of the Messiah. Let us continue to search the Scriptures diligently and become able to spot the contradictions and errors being promulgated so freely today.ê When Does the Pentecost Count Begin? In 1974, when the Worldwide Church of God changed the Church's observance of Pentecost from Monday to Sunday, Passover of that year fell on a weekly Sabbath. This is a rare occurrence which happens on the average only about once in ten years. There had not been a Passover Sabbath since 1954. A Passover Sabbath occurred again in 1977, 1981, and 1994, and will not happen again until the year 2001. As most Bible students know, the fifty-day count to Pentecost begins on the Wavesheaf Day. The Pharisees, who dominate modern Judaism, consider the fixed date, Nisan 16, to be Wavesheaf Day, and always celebrate their Pentecost on Sivan 6 (and 7). Sadducees considered the Sunday after the weekly Sabbath that falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread as Wavesheaf Sunday, and celebrated their Pentecost on a Sunday 49 days later. In 1974, the Worldwide Church of God (WWC) not only changed their Pentecost to Sunday, they kept it a full week early. Instead of considering the "morrow after the Sabbath," i.e., Wavesheaf Sunday, to be the Sunday after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as the Sunday-Pentecost-keeping Sadducees did, the WWC changed Wavesheaf Sunday to the Sunday during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which in 1974 was the first Holy Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The "Pentecost Study Material" distributed to WWC ministers in 1974, gives no scriptural support for the Church's assertion that Wavesheaf Sunday must always fall during the days of Unleavened Bread. We now have at least three different possible wavesheaf days to consider: (1) Nisan 16, a fixed date, which is supported by most modern Jews (the Pharisees), and William Dankenbring. (2) The Sunday after the Sabbath which falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is the pre-1974 Worldwide Church of God teaching. It is supported today by many Messianic groups who keep a Sunday or Monday Pentecost, such as Church of God, The Eternal; Church of God, Sonoma; Church of the Great God. (3) The Sunday during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, supported by the Worldwide Church of God since 1974, and several of its breakaway groups (Church of God, International; Christian Biblical Church of God; Global Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God). Our paper, Pentecost is Not Sivan 6, refutes a fixed date Wavesheaf Day, and hence a fixed date Pentecost. Let us consider the latter two possibilities for Wavesheaf Sunday. Can it be proven, from the Bible, which day is Wavesheaf Sunday? When the Passover falls on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, there is no argument. In this case, all Sunday and Monday Pentecost believers agree that Wavesheaf Sunday is the following Sunday. Only on those rare occasions when Passover falls on a weekly Sabbath is there disagreement. Eight Days of Unleavened Bread? Fred R. Coulter, pastor of the Christian Biblical Church of God, in 1994 wrote a paper, "Count to Pentecost--From Which Sabbath? and Beginning on Which Sunday?" In his article, Coulter gives the following scriptures (shown in the box below) as proof for his assertion that "the wavesheaf cannot be waved outside the days of Unleavened Bread": No, this is not a typographical error! Mr. Coulter's 15-page article does not give a single scripture reference to support his point. He wants us to believe that in 1994, Wavesheaf Sunday is on Nisan 15, which is an annual Holy Day. Can Wavesheaf Sunday be on an annual Holy Day? We shall see. Instead of giving us solid Bible proof, Coulter concludes that Passover, Abib (Nisan) 14, is a required day of unleavened bread, so we have a total of eight days of unleavened bread, instead of seven days of unleavened bread. He maintains that all leaven must be removed from our dwellings before the beginning of the 14th day of the first Bible month, and that we must abstain from all leavened products for a total of eight days. He concludes by quoting various Jewish rabbis, who are rethinking the 14th as an unleavened day. It is true that the 14th day of the first month is a "first of the unleaveneds," Matthew 26:17, literal translation. This means that the Passover observance is the first use of unleavened bread in the Passover/Unleavened Bread season. It does not follow, as Mr. Coulter concludes, that Passover is always a day which we are to consume no leavened products at all. He gives no support for his claim that Nisan 14 is the same as the seven days of unleavened bread. Let us look at the Bible. Leviticus 23:5-6 gives us the definitive answer to the question of how many days of unleavened bread there are: In the fourteenth day of the first month at even (ben ha-erivim, between the two evenings) is the LORD's passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. There are seven days, not eight days, that we are required to eat unleavened bread and have no leavened bread in our quarters. Passover is a separate feast from, and precedes, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, although through popular usage, Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread are often used interchangeably in the Bible. This is just like we do today, in referring to the Feast of Tabernacles as eight days, when in reality the Last Great Day is a separate Holy Day which follows the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles. We are required to dwell in booths seven days, not eight days, Leviticus 23:42. Likewise, we are required to eat unleavened bread only seven days, not eight days. Let us not add to God's inspired Word, in order to support our pre-conceived notions. In Exodus 12:15, it says, "Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel." Mr. Coulter correctly states (page 5) that verse 15 should be translated "shall have put out leaven," because it is already put out by Nisan 15, the first holy day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It does not follow, nor does he give any scriptures to show, that Nisan 13, two days before, is the day to remove all leaven from one's dwelling. Exodus 12:15 demonstrates that the day before the first holy day is the day for final removal of all leaven from our houses. Will we believe what God says, or instead add to His Word? Exodus 12:8 says that Passover is to be eaten with unleavened bread. It does not say that on Passover there is to be no leaven found in our dwellings. Again and again the Almighty repeats His instructions regarding unleavened bread. Seven days, never eight days, we are to have no leavening in our houses, Exodus 12:18-20, 13:6-7, 23:15, 34:18; Numbers 28:16-17; Deuteronomy 16:3-4. Even our children know that there are seven days of unleavened bread, not eight. Some have tripped over Exodus 12:18-19, which at first glance seems to say that Passover is a day of unleavened bread. But read it carefully: In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even [ba-eriv, at the end of the day, not at the beginning], ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even [ba-eriv]. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses . . . . If this says to begin eating only unleavened bread at the beginning of the fourteenth day, and cease eating only unleavened bread at the beginning of the twenty-first day, then Passover is a Holy Day, and Nisan 20 is a Holy Day, the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Indeed this is exactly what one Seventh Day Church of God group, headquartered in Caldwell, Idaho, has concluded! But, this would contradict other plain scriptures which prove that Nisan 15 and 21 are holy days, not Nisan 14 and 20. To his credit, even Mr. Coulter does not misuse this scripture to support his false contention that Passover is a required only unleavened bread day. Popular Usage Does Not Alter God's Law Although we commonly refer to Tishri 15-22 as the Feast of Tabernacles, actually we know that the 22nd day of the seventh month, Tishri 22, is not part of the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, but a separate Holy Day, the Last Great Day. As we have seen, the Last Great Day is not a required day to dwell in booths (temporary dwellings). Our figures of speech do not contradict, change, or supersede, the Almighty's commands. Because Passover precedes the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, the children of Israel commonly interchanged the terms "Passover" and "Feast (or Days) of Unleavened Bread." Luke 22:1, 7, illustrates how common parlance interchanged these two back-to-back festivals: "Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the passover. . . . Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed." Popular usage does not alter the Eternal's law. Because people generally referred to the entire eight-day period of Nisan 14 to 21 as the Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, does not mean that the Passover is eight days, nor does it mean that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is eight days. The book of Leviticus tells us specifically that the Passover is on the fourteenth, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread follows for seven days. When did the custom of interchanging the words "Passover" and "Feast of Unleavened Bread" begin? At least by the time of Ezekiel, for, "In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten," Ezekiel 45:21. Notice how Ezekiel 45:25 compares this seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread with the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month. Ezekiel does not contradict the Eternal's command in Leviticus. It is a figure of speech to refer to the seven-day festival of the first month as "Passover." Likewise, in Mark 14:1, 12, we have similar usages of this figure of speech: After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: . . . . And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, His disciples said unto Him, Where wilt Thou that we go and prepare that Thou mayest eat the passover? Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:12; and Luke 22:7 do not alter the commandment of God in Leviticus 23. They do not tell us that we must have all leavening out of our dwellings when Nisan 14 arrives, nor do they command us to abstain from all leavened products for a total of eight days. If the Eternal would have wanted His people to observe a total of eight days of only unleavened bread, He would have said so. What about Deuteronomy 16:1-8? Do these verses show that Passover is a day of Unleavened Bread, like the rest of the Feast of Unleavened Bread? No, not even Mr. Coulter believes that. He correctly shows in his book, The Christian Passover, pages 156-172, that this passage of scripture does not refer to the Passover lamb on Nisan 14, but the animal sacrifices given on Nisan 15. Coulter shows that Ezra edited this portion of scripture to combat the Samaritan religion, and that the "Passover" of these verses refers to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, not the Nisan 14 festival of Passover. So, where are the scriptures which prove that Passover, Nisan 14, is a day of unleavened bread only, like the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread? There are no such scriptures to be found. Old Corn, or New Corn? Although Mr. Coulter is adamant in favor of Nisan 15 being Wavesheaf Sunday when Passover falls on the weekly Sabbath, his paper does not discuss the only [weak] scriptures which I have seen supporting such a notion. The 1974 Worldwide Church of God Pentecost Study Material attempts to demonstrate that Nisan 15 is Wavesheaf Sunday when Passover is on the Sabbath because of Joshua 5:10-12. They also infer from the typical prophetic meaning of the Wavesheaf that their position is correct. It is most odd that Coulter does not use the arguments from the 1974 study paper, although as a former WWC minister, he had a copy and read the original. The 1974 Worldwide Church argument goes like this: The Passover kept by the children of Israel in Gilgal at the plains of Jericho was on the weekly Sabbath. They ate new grain of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes and parched grain. Therefore, Nisan 15 had to have been Wavesheaf Sunday. Thus, when the Passover falls on the weekly Sabbath, Nisan 15 is Wavesheaf Sunday. The WWC argument is fallacious. The word translated "old corn" in the King James Version, and "produce" in the New KJV is Strong's #5669, abuwr, which according to Strong means "passed, i.e. kept over; used only of stored grain:--old corn." Joshua 5:11-12 is the only place in the Bible where this word is used. Abuwr comes from #5674, abar, which among other things means "carried over." Clarke's Commentary suggests that this was produce purchased from the inhabitants of the land. It could also mean grain that Israel had carried with them over the Jordan; hence it was "passed over grain," which is what abuwr means. Now what is the command in Leviticus 23:10-14 regarding the wavesheaf? It says that once they came into the land, Israel was to offer a sheaf of the firstfruits of their harvest. Only then could they eat grain from the new harvest. They were not to offer the wavesheaf from grain purchased from the local inhabitants, or from grain carried over the Jordan. It had to be from "your harvest," verse 10. Israel did not have a harvest when they had not yet conquered Jericho. It is a BIG assumption that the Passover of Joshua 5:10 was on a weekly Sabbath. Actually, there is strong evidence that this Passover was the Passover of the second month, not the first. Remember, all the Israelite males had been circumcised just shortly before. They came up out of the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month, Joshua 4:19. In Joshua 5:2-9, all Israelite males were circumcised. If this happened on the 11th day of the first month, they would be too sore to slay the Passover, let alone walk around. They would likely still be in bed after this operation. An eight-day-old baby boy doesn't have the severe problem that an adult male has when he is circumcised. Three days after the Shechemites were circumcised, when they were still very sore, Simeon and Levi were able to single-handedly slay all the defenseless male Shechemites, Genesis 34:24-25. My Hungarian friend who was circumcised as an adult can testify that it is mandatory to stay in bed for some time after the operation of circumcision. Therefore, it is very likely that the Passover in Joshua 5:10 was the second-month Passover, as specified in Numbers 9. This is more evidence that the Worldwide Church theory that Wavesheaf Sunday can be on Nisan 15 is faulty. The shakiness of their theory is probably the reason why Mr. Coulter does not mention this "proof," and had to come up with other reasons for his position. Meaning of the Wavesheaf After keeping the Holy Days for some years, one would expect that the faithful observer would grow in understanding of the meaning of these important days and the Plan of God. The Holy Days picture God's Plan for mankind in bringing many sons into glory, into His divine family. The plan begins with the sacrifice of the Messiah for our sins. The plan continues with the resurrection of Christ, His Ascension to the Father to be accepted by Him. Then there is our part in the plan, by putting out sin, followed by the receipt of the Holy Spirit to enable us to keep His law and produce fruit for Him. Finally, the plan comes to fruition in the fall of God's harvest season with the return of Jesus Christ to set up the millennial kingdom on this earth, the putting out of Satan, and the wonderful world tomorrow of peace on earth, followed by the second resurrection and final judgment. The wavesheaf offering of Leviticus 23:10-14 was fulfilled in type by the ascension of Christ to Heaven to be accepted by the Father. When did this happen? It took place on the Sunday after the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, John 20:16-19. See also Hebrews 9:12. Messiah entered the Holy of Holies, not in 1844, but in 31 A.D., to make atonement for us. This was a most significant event in the plan of salvation for mankind. Jews believe that if a person has been dead for three days, there was no doubt he was really dead and would not revive. Daniel 9:26-27 seems to indicate that Messiah would be cut off in the midst of the week, i.e., be slain on a Wednesday. He knew that He would be in the grave for three days and three nights, Matthew 12:40. We know that by Saturday night, Jesus was gone from the tomb. All of this evidence points to the fact that Jesus was crucified on a Passover Wednesday. He could not have been impaled on a Passover that fell on the weekly Sabbath. All the prophecies pointed to a Wednesday Passover crucifixion. Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemas rushed to bury Jesus just before the High Day Sabbath, John 19:31, 38-42. Now let us suppose that the crucifixion had actually taken place on the weekly Sabbath, and it was a Passover that year. Could Wavesheaf Sunday, be Nisan 15, the following day after the crucifixion? No! The meaning of the Holy Days could not be fulfilled under such a circumstance. This scenario leaves no time for Messiah to be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, no time for His resurrection. Could the following Sunday, Nisan 22, be Wavesheaf Sunday? Yes indeed, it could have been, had Passover been on the weekly Sabbath. Jesus would have been in the grave three days and three nights, and been resurrected. He would be ready by Wavesheaf Sunday to ascend to the Father to be accepted by Him. Even if Passover had been on Friday the year of the crucifixion, which it was not, there would be some time for Jesus to be dead in the grave (but not for three days and nights), and be resurrected to be accepted. A Nisan 15 Wavesheaf Sunday does not square with God's Plan of Salvation. The 1974 Pentecost Study Material, pages 56-58, has us believe that the fulfillment of God's Plan must occur in the following order: (1) Passover sacrifice of Messiah, (2) acceptance by the Father of that perfect sacrifice, (3) the believer putting out sin by accepting that sacrifice. They say that a Nisan 22 Wavesheaf Sunday (when Passover is on the weekly Sabbath) wrongly pictures the believer putting out sin before the sacrifice of Christ is accepted by the Heavenly Father. As we know, we eat unleavened bread to signify putting out sin. However, the Feast of Unleavened Bread starts at the beginning of Nisan 15. The Worldwide Church of God's Nisan 15 Wavesheaf Day would not have the acceptance of the wave offering of Christ until the morning of Nisan 15. Even their wrong teaching shows that one begins putting sin out of his life even before the sacrifice of the Messiah is accepted by the Heavenly Father! Remember, the Savior was figuratively slain for our sins before the foundation of the world. Our part in the Plan of Salvation, and Christ's part, overlap. Is Nisan 22 Outside the Passover Season? The Jews understand that the WHOLE PERIOD from Passover through Pentecost is the "Passover Season." They refer to Pentecost as the atzeret, or closing day, of the Passover season. So the rare occurrence of Passover (Nisan 14) falling on the Sabbath, which makes the correct Wavesheaf Sunday on Nisan 22 (NOT Nisan 15), does not put Wavesheaf Sunday outside the Passover season. Nisan 22 is always inside the Passover season, but not inside the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Alfred Edersheim, a noted historian of Jewish practices, says, The Feast of Unleavened Bread' [season] may be said not to have quite passed till fifty days after its commencement, when it merged in that of Pentecost, or of Weeks' (The Temple: Its Ministry and Services as they were at the time of Christ, page 260). The reason for the linkage of Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost is simple. Passover represented the liberation of Israel from Egyptian bondage. The Feast of Unleavened Bread represented Israel's departure from Egypt and crossing the Red Sea. And Pentecost completed their liberation from Egypt as the Almighty gave them His law and entered into a covenant with Israel at Sinai. Notice that our part of God's Plan of Salvation is putting out sin (Feast of Unleavened Bread), followed by the receipt of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) to enable us to keep His law and produce fruit for Him. One cannot put out sin without the superior power of God. The Feast of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost are inextricably linked together. Wavesheaf Sunday -- A Harvest Day Can Nisan 15, the Holy Day, be a harvest day? No! Leviticus 23:7 says the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Nisan 15, is "an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein." Referring to the Wavesheaf Day, verses 10-14 show that it is a harvest day, upon which there is no restriction of labor at all. The Pentecost Study Material (page 58) states that on the supposed Nisan 15 Wavesheaf Sunday, the Israelites harvested grain from the land. Now let us suppose the WWC is correct. Let us suppose that the Passover of Joshua 5:10 was on the weekly Sabbath, and the manna was not available on the next day, Sunday, the first holy day. Let us suppose that each of the 3,000,000 Israelites needed one ounce of grain. That would mean that on the Holy Day, they would have harvested 187,500 pounds of grain, and prepared and baked or parched it. All this supposedly done on a holy convocation day, on which no servile work is to be done! Josephus says in his Antiquities of the Jews (10.1.5), that Wavesheaf Day was a busy workday. All this doesn't support the notion that Nisan 15 can be the Wavesheaf Day. The events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus show that Wavesheaf Sunday is a workday. The day Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemas laid Jesus in the tomb was at the end of Nisan 14: And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment, Luke 23:54-56. The women rested on the Holy Day, Thursday, Nisan 15. They bought and prepared spices for anointing Jesus' body on Friday, Nisan 16. They rested on the weekly Sabbath, Nisan 17. Then on Nisan 18, Wavesheaf Sunday, they brought the prepared spices to the tomb to finish anointing His body. This scripture disproves the Good Friday and Easter Sunday theory, disproves the fixed Nisan 16 Wavesheaf Day theory, and also disproves the concept that the Wavesheaf Day could be a Holy Day. New Testament Key to Old Testament Our original question was: Can it be proven, from the Bible, which day is Wavesheaf Sunday? We have shown that Wavesheaf Sunday cannot be Nisan 15. If you only had the Old Testament, and had no preconceived ideas, you might not know which day is Wavesheaf Sunday. Although it can be demonstrated from the Hebrew that "the Sabbath" in Leviticus 23:11 is a weekly Sabbath, the Wavesheaf verses do not specifically tell you after which Sabbath the Wavesheaf Offering day is offered. One could only deduce that "the Sabbath" refers to the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. However, righteous people during Old Testament times faithfully observed Pentecost, counting fifty days from Wavesheaf Sunday. How did they know which day was Wavesheaf Sunday, to begin the count towards Pentecost? Calendar rules are not spelled out in the Bible either. They were handed down through oral tradition. So likewise, instructions on which day was Wavesheaf Sunday must have been part of oral tradition. But now we have the New Testament. And it is quite clear that the Messiah is our wavesheaf, and He was accepted on the morrow after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, John 20:16-19. Now we do not have to rely on oral tradition to understand the proper Wavesheaf Day. The New Testament is the key to the Old Testament. God's Word is one, and His Spirit allows us to fit it all together. One Wavesheaf or Many? Mr. Coulter, along with advocates of a Sivan 6 Pentecost, would have us believe that there was only one wavesheaf offering for the whole nation of Israel. A reading of Leviticus 23:9-14 precludes such an interpretation. The truth is that each faithful Israelite was to bring a sheaf of his harvest on Wavesheaf Sunday. The Eternal spoke to Moses, and told him to speak to the children of Israel. Moses was to tell them that when they came into the promised land and reaped the harvest, they were to bring a sheaf (Hebrew omer) to the priest. The priest would wave the sheaf before the Eternal to be accepted for the Israelite who brought of his harvest. There was a required burnt, meal, and drink, offering with the wavesheaf. The Israelite could eat none of his new harvest until he brought the wavesheaf offering. Who were the farmers in Israel who reaped a harvest? Not the Levites and priests, but the other tribes of Israel. Just as the individual Israelites were to eat unleavened bread seven days, verse 6, so the individual Israelites were to bring a wavesheaf, to the priest who waved it. The priest was not to bring the wavesheaf to himself to wave! When the Eternal wanted Israel to have one representative sacrifice for the whole nation, He made it very clear. An example is the two goats offered on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16:5-8, 29, where the Eternal specified that Aaron the priest was to take two goats from the congregation of the children of Israel. There is no such indication in Leviticus 23:9-14. Therefore, we must conclude that the wavesheaf offering was an individual responsibility. Exodus 23:19 refers to the first of the firstfruits brought to the house of the Lord. Since it came from the very beginning of the harvest, the wavesheaf can be called the first of the firstfruits. Comparing Exodus 23:14-19; 34:22-26; Leviticus 23:10-11; Deuteronomy 18:4, 26:1-11; II Chronicles 31:5; Nehemiah 10:37, 12:44; Proverbs 3:9; Ezekiel 20:40, 44:30 The sheaf of the wavesheaf offering is from the Hebrew omer, Strong's #6016. During the years in the wilderness, every Israelite was to gather an omer of manna each day for himself, Exodus 16:16, except on Friday, when he was to gather twice as much, verse 22. On the weekly Sabbath, nobody was to gather manna. An omer has been estimated to be five to seven pints, or others say, a little over two quarts. It was not merely a handful, it was a basketful. Just as every man was to gather an omer of manna in the wilderness, so likewise, when Israel entered the promised land, every man was to bring an omer of his harvest to the priest. The omer is symbolic of a man's daily bread, Job 24:10. An Unscriptural Wavesheaf Offering Instead of following the Almighty's instructions, Israel perverted God's ways continually. The Pharisees especially corrupted the scriptures by substituting one wavesheaf for all Israel in place of the individual wavesheaves. Furthermore, they cut their one wavesheaf just as Nisan 15 was ending. Alfred Edersheim, in his book The Temple, page 258, records their practice: When the time for cutting the sheaf had arrived, that is, on the evening of the 15th of Nisan (even though it were a Sabbath), just as the sun went down, three men, each with a sickle and a basket, formally set to work. . . . they first asked of the bystanders three times each of these questions: Has the sun gone down?' With this sickle?' Into this basket?' On this Sabbath . . . ?' Shall I reap?' These questions and Edersheim's comments clearly indicate that this "harvest" began when the Holy Day, Nisan 15, was not quite over. This practice is wrong for several reasons. A harvest never begins at sundown. The Almighty never instructs His people to begin a harvest at sundown, much less gather their sickles on a Holy Day and march out to the field to start work at sundown. As we have seen, the individual Israelite was to bring an omer from his own harvest and bring it to the priest to be offered for himself. Finally, Leviticus 23:9-14 does not specify a time for the cutting of the wavesheaf. It only says to offer the wavesheaf on the morrow after the Sabbath. More on this later. Now why did the Pharisees institute such an unscriptural practice? The main reason was to justify their Sivan 6 Pentecost. They quickly reaped and offered a counterfeit wavesheaf in order to support Nisan 16 being a fixed Wavesheaf Day. They taught against the individual offering his own wavesheaf, to make themselves exalted. "Day One" of the count to Pentecost is counted when the day is completed. The beginning of Nisan 16 cutting of the wavesheaf, which is contrary to scripture, led to the Pharisees counting the first day as Nisan 16 began, rather than when it ended. The Almighty counts days when they end: "And the evening and the morning were the first day," Genesis 1:5. Cutting of the Wavesheaf Scripture is silent on when an individual would cut his own wavesheaf. During the time of Christ, the average Israelite lived outside the environs of Jerusalem, and traveled on an annual pilgrimage to attend the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem. For those in Galilee, it took three days or more to travel to the Feast. It is obvious that such Israelites would cut their wavesheaf before they left their homes, and take the omer with them to the Feast. They didn't eat any of their new harvest for themselves until the wavesheaf offering was completed. The Messiah, as we know, ate His last Passover meal with the disciples on a Tuesday night, was crucified on a Wednesday, and put into the tomb just before the end of Nisan 14, as the Holy Day was approaching. He was in the grave for exactly three days and three nights, and was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath, just before the beginning of the first day of the week. On Nisan 16, which was on a Friday that year, the Saviour was still in the grave, the whole day. In opposition to the claims of Sivan 6 advocates, no prophetic events were fulfilled on Nisan 16! But on Nisan 18, Wavesheaf Sunday that year, the resurrected Savior ascended to His Heavenly Father as the spiritual type of the wavesheaf, to be accepted as our wavesheaf before God. This is concrete proof that Sivan 6 Pentecost advocates are wrong. There are some who believe, falsely, that the Messiah was crucified on a year when Passover was on a Friday, and resurrected on Easter Sunday, in spite of the fact that you cannot get three days and three nights from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, Matthew 12:40. Believe it or not, even some Sabbath-keepers adhere to this erroneous teaching. In an effort to support a Sunday Pentecost, some have followed the Sadducees (also known as Boethusians, or temple priests). Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees believed in one representative wavesheaf. The Sadducees cut their wavesheaf at the close of the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened bread and the beginning of the first day of the week (see Menahoth, Soncino ed., page 389). Dr. J. van Goudoever's Biblical Calendars, page 18, states, "The Boethusians reaped [the firstfruits sheaf] at the going out of the Sabbath." Moses Maimonides' Temple Service, page 280, gives additional information. Cuttings began on the Sabbath, and continued over into the first day of the week, when the bulk of the work was done. In the case of both the Pharisees and the Sadducees, this one representative wavesheaf offering cut at the wrong time demonstrates their departure from the Eternal, and helps explain why they did not accept Him as the Messiah. Since 1978, the Worldwide Church of God has taught that Jesus' resurrection was on a Sunday. More on this later. When Passover is on a Friday, Wavesheaf Sunday falls on Nisan 16. So with a slight of hand, one can teach a Friday crucifixion, a Sunday resurrection, and a Sivan 6 Pentecost all at the same time! Cutting of Wavesheaf Begins Harvest Some would have us believe that the cutting of the wavesheaf represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a forced interpretation not supported by scriptural evidence. If you cut a sheaf of grain, what happens? Cut off from its roots to the earth, the barley plant dies. Cutting the wavesheaf signifies the death of the Messiah for our sins. He was slain from the foundation of the world. When the individual cut the wavesheaf, he signified his acceptance of the sacrifice of the Messiah for his sins. It is a personal matter between the individual and his Heavenly Father. No one else can figuratively cut your wavesheaf for you. That is why the scriptures are clear that the individual is to bring the first of the firstfruits, the wavesheaf, to the house of the Eternal, Exodus 23:19, 34:26; Nehemiah 10:35; Ezekiel 44:30. Prior to the 1970's doctrinal changes, the Worldwide Church of God taught that the wavesheaf represented the resurrected Christ being accepted by His Father in Heaven. Then the teaching was changed. From at least 1978, it was taught that the wavesheaf represented the resurrection. I believe that this doctrinal change opens the door for a total repudiation of the Sabbath. Remember, Sunday-keeping entered the Christian Church because of the false teaching that the Messiah was resurrected on the first day of the week, and that Pentecost was on Sunday. Some believe that a harvest is a type of a resurrection to eternal life, birth into the Kingdom of God. While the resurrection is the end result of the Almighty's spiritual harvest, it is not correct to say that the harvest, of itself, is a type of the resurrection. Let's look at the scriptures. In John 4:35-36, Jesus said, "Say not ye, There are yet four months [four months from Pentecost is the Feast of Tabernacles], and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white ready to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." Jesus went on to say that He was sending His disciples to reap the results of other men sowing the truth [such as John the Baptist]. Here, the harvest clearly signifies the baptism and conversion of many of God's people at that time. They were not resurrected to eternal life at that time; yet they were "reaped" for God. The harvest of God concludes with the resurrection to eternal life, it does not begin with the resurrection. In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus demonstrated His compassion for the shepherd-less, scattered Israelites by telling His disciples, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." This harvest of souls was going on then, in the First Century A.D. God's harvest continues to our time. It includes much more than the final resurrection, and mainly concerns the removal of chaff from the minds and hearts of mankind. That is why scriptures concerning the spiritual meaning of the harvest emphasize the judgment Christ will administer. The judgment aspect of the harvest is shown in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, found in Matthew 13:24-30, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat . . . . Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." The disciples were curious as to the meaning of this important parable. So Jesus explained the meaning in verses 36-43, "He that sowed the good seed is the Son of man; The Field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels." What actually goes on at this harvest at the end of the world? There are two "reapings" of this harvest, one of wicked and the other of the just. First, the tares, children of Satan, are bound up to be burned. Then, the children of the kingdom are reaped and safely deposited in the protection of God's barn. Jesus did not define what the barn represents. Perhaps it is the place of safety. The righteous do not shine forth as the sun until the establishment of God's kingdom. In speaking of the baptism of fire, John the Baptist said that the Messiah will thoroughly purge his threshing floor. The wheat will be gathered into the garner, but the chaff will be burned up, Matthew 3:11-12. Thus the important parable of the wheat and tares concerns the sifting out judgment of the Messiah. We all have "tares" and "chaff" amongst us. Nothing but the wheat shall remain at end of the harvest. Revelation 14:12-20 gives us more information on the end time harvest. Here, the order is reversed from Matthew 13. The first reaping is of the righteous, those who will die in the Lord during the end time, Revelation 14:12-16. These faithful martyrs will be gathered into God's barn. Then, verses 17-20 describe another reaping with another sickle, of which we should not receive. The wicked rebellious people who have the mark of the beast are likened to grapes ripe for the harvest of God's wrath. They are put to death in a bloodbath. Far from representing a resurrection, the Parable of the Wheat and Tares and the end time harvest prophecy of Revelation represent the judgment of God. Could Pentecost relate to the end time harvest? May we all get the tares and chaff out of our lives! Sunday Resurrection and Sunday Pentecost To illustrate the bizarre nature of the effect of tares in the Church of God, I relate the history of a doctrinal perversion that few know about. If I did not have the facts, I would not believe this had occurred. In 1974, when the Worldwide Church of God changed Pentecost from Monday to Sunday, they published a paper called Pentecost Study Material. Although I did not "catch it" at the time, the paper stated that the Church now believed that the resurrection was on Sunday. In fact, a Sunday resurrection was used as a major proof that Pentecost was on Sunday. Pages 42-43 of Pentecost Study Material state: If He [Christ] was seen of them 40 days' and if He was seen of them on SUNDAY, first (day) of the week, then Luke's 50th day' (Greek Pentecostes) seems to mean 50 days after His resurrection, or 50 days after His first ascension to be accepted of the Father. Then that 50th day has to be SUNDAY! . . . Luke's Pentecost was literally the fiftieth day since Christ's resurrection! Did you see it? The resurrection of Christ and his ascension to Heaven are held to be on the same day of the week, Sunday! On page 75, the paper cites a number of religious encyclopedias to demonstrate a Sunday Pentecost tradition: Whitsunday, OR PENTECOST, a feast of the universal Church which commemorates the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ, on the ancient Jewish festival called the feast of weeks' or Pentecost . . . . Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 ed., Vol. XV, Whitsunday.' Most people in the Worldwide Church of God, like myself, did not see in 1974 that the Church had changed its teaching relative to the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet in 1974, the Church had changed its teaching from a Sabbath resurrection to a Sunday resurrection. Dr. Herman L. Hoeh, the Church's renowned scholar, in a June 9, 1978, Bible Study in Pasadena, clearly said, "We might as well face it, -- that the resurrection occurred minutes following the close of the Sabbath -- Saturday night, when the wavesheaf was [supposedly] cut." Richard Ames, on the World Tomorrow television program of April 15, 1990, said, "That Saturday evening, just after sunset, then, Jesus rose from the tomb . . . ." The program has been broadcast more than once. Most members of the Worldwide Church of God do not know that their Church teaches that Jesus rose on the first day of the week! Not one of the several catalogs of the many doctrinal changes of the Worldwide Church of God shows that the WWC, since 1974, has taught that the resurrection of Christ was on the first day of the week. Of course, the WWC thinks they have an out. They have reinterpreted the beginning of a day from the Biblical sunset to dark. In other words the Worldwide Church of God believes that the Sabbath begins and ends at dark, not sunset. (See our article in Biblical Holy Days, "When Does Your Sabbath Begin?" which refutes this error.) Now, why did the Church conclude that the resurrection of our Savior was actually after sunset of Saturday evening? Because they believe, contrary to Scripture, that the Sadducees were correct in cutting one wavesheaf for all Israel at the end of the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And, to support their Sunday Pentecost belief, they assert that the cutting of the wavesheaf represents the resurrection of our Savior. Scripture actually indicates that the individual Israelite was to cut his own wavesheaf to bring to the priest, Leviticus 23:10-11. However, Herman Hoeh reported in 1978: What we have is not the old saying that I used to have to use, that the wave sheaf represents the resurrected Christ, but it represents the resurrection! This is the prophesied resurrection that we have never seen in the ceremonies of the law. And was properly done in Jewish tradition (pages 506-7 of the Mishnah) -- it was a rule that it should be reaped by night, at the very beginning minutes [of Sunday], so there would be no delay in preparing it, and then the next morning, it was waved . . . . The resurrection occurred when that wave sheaf was cut, ascension occurred when it was waved before the alter -- and the Holy Spirit came on the same day of the year -- Pentecost -- that the law of God was first given to define what human character, in this broad expanse should be (June 9, 1978, sermon in Pasadena, California). What is wrong with this picture? Jesus Christ was exactly three days and three nights in the grave, Matthew 12:40. Seventy-two hours from late Wednesday when Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemas put Him in the tomb, brings us to late Sabbath. Jesus was resurrected late on the Sabbath, not after sundown on the beginning of the first day of the week. Now before 1974, why did Herman Hoeh "have to use" the "old saying" that the wavesheaf represents the resurrected Christ? Because Herbert Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, taught this. By 1978, when Armstrong was old, Hoeh could then proclaim his own deviant beliefs. In the summer of 1927, shortly after his baptism, Herbert Armstrong learned the "shocking truth" that the resurrection of Christ did not occur on Sunday. Instead, he discovered from the Bible that "The resurrection was late Sabbath afternoon, just prior to sunset" (Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, page 326, 1967 edition). His early article, "Does Easter Really Commemorate the Resurrection?" shows that the foundation for Sunday sacredness crumbles. But Armstrong's teachings have now been turned upside down. The 1974 heresy of a first day resurrection is being reiterated today, but almost no one realizes it. The February, 1993, Plain Truth magazine, page 23, says, "Applied to Jesus, the sign of Jonah was the resurrection, proof that Jesus was the Christ." Not the time period involved, but the resurrection itself! The May/June 1993, issue says, Traditionally, . . . Christians throughout the world celebrate Easter in remembrance of Jesus' resurrection. The Christian Easter season continues to Pentecost, which commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and Jesus' other followers. . . . [Christ's resurrection was] about three days after Jesus' burial . . . (pages 7-8). It was only one left turn, and see the results. Satan came and sowed his tares, and they are growing along side God's people. The most shocking part of the whole episode is that so few in the Church noticed. One of our correspondents in Ohio, however, did notice. And, in 1983, when she quoted Dr. Hoeh's 1978 sermon to her local Worldwide Church minister in Cincinnati, he flew into a rage and said Dr. Hoeh never said such a thing, and disfellowshipped her on the spot. Denial will never cover up heresy (tares). And so, tares continue to grow among the Church of God, until the judgment at the return of Christ, when they will be burned. I Corinthians 3:11-15 shows that false works will be "revealed by fire," destroyed in the Day of Judgment. Two Kinds of Unleavened Bread There are at least two different meanings for unleavened bread. The first meaning relates to Passover, and the second relates to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The unleavened bread we eat at the Passover meal represents the body of the Messiah, which was broken for us. With His stripes, we are healed, I Peter 2:21-25. This type of unleavened bread is eaten only on the fourteenth day of the first month at the annual Passover ceremony. The unleavened bread we eat for seven days during the Feast of Unleavened Bread represents sincerity and truth, a righteous life which comes by the Spirit of Christ living in us, I Corinthians 5:7-8. The emphasis is not on the sacrifice of the Savior, but living a pure life by His power within us. The number seven represents perfection, and for seven full days we are to eat this kind of unleavened bread, symbolizing perfection, complete Truth. Merging the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread into one eight-day festival, confuses the meaning of both. Although the composition of the unleavened Passover bread and the unleavened festival bread is the same, the spiritual meaning of the two is dramatically different. Does Change Depend on Scholarship? I believe that God allowed the 1974 Worldwide Church of God Pentecost change to occur during a year when Passover fell on a weekly Sabbath for a very important reason. The unjustified moving of Pentecost a week early should have been a "red warning flag" to those spiritually awake, that the change of Pentecost from Monday to Sunday was wrong. It is much easier to disprove a Nisan 15 Wavesheaf Sunday, than it is to decide whether Pentecost is on Monday, Sunday, or Sivan 6 or 7 or 13 or 14. And now, many years later, it is not too late to wake up. We have been asleep at the switch. Now is high time to be awake for the Almighty and not be duped by deceivers. The October 25, 1975, Ministerial Bulletin of the Worldwide Church of God states: "Our basic understanding [on Pentecost and Divorce and Remarriage] depends on scholarship." However, the Bible states that the Almighty's Truth is revealed and unchanging, and that scholars are often fools, Malachi 3:6; I Corinthians 1:20, 2:9-16. What an indictment against the "scholarship" of 1974, that Fred Coulter in 1994 makes no mention of the half-baked ideas contained in the WWC's Pentecost Study Material. He had to come up with new half-baked ideas of his own. God has not abandoned the little old widow who is not a Bible scholar. Keep seven, not eight, days of unleavened bread. Count fifty, not forty-nine, days to Pentecost. You do not have to be a "scholar" to understand these simple Biblical instructions. All that is required is a ready mind and God's revelation. The evidence is overwhelming. The count for Pentecost begins on the Sunday following the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a seven-day festival from Abib (Nisan) 15-21. When the Passover falls on the weekly Sabbath, Nisan 22 is Wavesheaf Sunday. In 1994, Wavesheaf Sunday was April 3, not March 27. There is no Bible authorization for keeping Pentecost a week earlier than it should be.ê Pentecost Quiz Answers to the following quiz are at the end of this section. Matching -- Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) 1. count 2. Ethiopian Falashas 3. firstfruits 4. Jubilee 5. morrow after Sabbath 6. Pentecost 7. Pharisees 8. Psalm 68 9. Sadducees 10. Ten Commandments 11. two wave loaves 12. Wavesheaf Sunday 13. week 14. Weeks 15. Whitsunday __ a. Hebrew bikkuwr, Lev. 23:17; re'shiyth, Lev. 23:10, Greek aparche, I Cor. 15:23 __ b. shebuah or shabua, Dan. 9:27 __ c. Shavuoth or Shabu'ot, Dt. 16:9 __ d. began Pentecost count on Nisan 22 __ e. Sunday Pentecost __ f. Sivan 6 Pentecost __ g. counterfeit Christian Pentecost __ h. "Pentecost Anthem" __ i. mi-mohorat ha-Shabbat, Lev. 23:15 __ j. baked with leaven, Lev. 23:17 __ k. given near Pentecost, Exodus 19 __ l. caphar, or shaphar, Lev. 23:15-16 __ m. Easter a counterfeit of this day __ n. Count 50 days, then observe it __ o. Count 49 years, then observe it Fill in the Blanks 1. "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the _______, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the ____ ________; seven sabbaths shall be ________: Even unto the morrow after the seventh _______ shall ye number _____ ____; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD," Leviticus 23:15-16. 2. "And when the day of Pentecost was _____ come, they were all with one ______ in one place," Acts 2:1. 3. On the Feast of Pentecost, Peter admonished the people to "______, and be ________ every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the _________ of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the ____ ______," Acts 2:38. 4. The Holy Spirit is "given to them that ____ Him," Acts 5:32. 5. "For as many as are ___ by the Spirit of God, they are the ____ of God," Romans 8:14. 6. "Howbeit when he [it], the Spirit of truth, is come, he [it] will guide you into all _____, . . . " John 16:13. 7. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, . . . the things which God hath prepared for them that ____ him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his ______ . . . " I Corinthians 2:9-10. 8. "For God hath not given us the spirit of ____; but of _____, and of ____, and of a _____ mind," II Timothy 1:7. General Questions On a separate sheet of paper, give your answers to these questions: 1. Give the Biblical names for the festival of Pentecost. Exodus 23:16, 34:22, Numbers 28:26, Deuteronomy 16:9-12,16, II Chronicles 8:13, Acts 2:1, 20:16. What additional name do the Jews give to it? 2. Which Bible portions do Jews read on the Feast of Weeks? 3. Leviticus 23:15-16 says to count fifty days from the day of the Wavesheaf Offering to the Feast of Weeks. Deuteronomy 16:9-12 says to number seven weeks from the time of putting your sickle to the corn. How can you reconcile these seemingly contradictory scriptures? 4. The Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, is one of three times a year to keep a feast (Hebrew chag). What does this mean? 5. What does it mean to "tarry" for Pentecost? Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4 6. What are nine evidences of the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Galatians 5:22-23 7. Why is the date of the Hebrew Calendar Adjustment, 161 A.D., significant regarding the correct day of Pentecost? 8. What are two reasons given by the Catholic Church for their change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? 9. What do the following all have in common? Jesus, the 144,000, those led by the Holy Spirit, Israel, things holy to the Eternal, way to honor God from your increase, associated with the tithes, a reminder of the exodus and entrance into the Promised Land, given to the Priests, given to Elisha to feed one hundred men, first converts from a new church district. I Corinthians 15:20-23; Revelation 14:1, 4; Romans 8:14, 23; Jeremiah 2:3 (JPS); Ezekiel 20:40, 48:14; Proverbs 3:9-10; Nehemiah 10:37, 12:44; Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Numbers 18:12; II Chronicles 31:5; II Kings 4:42, 44; Romans 16:5' I Corinthians 16:15. 10. What is the relationship of Pentecost to marriage? 11. How do Psalm 68 and Habakkuk 3 give a Pentecost message? 12. What does "speaking in tongues" mean? Is speaking in tongues a necessary evidence of receipt of the Holy Spirit? Acts 2:1-20, I Corinthians 14. 13. What are the different kinds of spiritual gifts? I Corinthians 12. What is the greatest spiritual gift? ANSWERS Matching -- Pentecost (Feast of Weeks): 3a, 13b, 14c, 2d, 9e, 7f, 15g, 8h, 5i, 11j, 10k, 1l, 12m, 6n 4o. Fill in the Blanks: 1. Sabbath, wave offering, complete, Sabbath, fifty days; 2. fully, accord; 3. repent, baptized, remission, Holy Spirit; 4. obey; 5. led, sons; 6. truth; 7. love, Spirit; 8. fear, power, love, sound. General Questions: 1. Feast of Harvest, Feast of Weeks, Firstfruits of Wheat Harvest, Day of Firstfruits, Day of Pentecost; atzeret (closing day) of the Passover season 2. Ruth, Exodus, Psalms 42-72, Ezekiel 1, Habakkuk 3 3. Deuteronomy 16 is emphasizing the "wheres" as far as the festivals, and does not give specific "whens." In Deuteronomy 16, the word for "weeks" is shavuoth, while the word for "sabbaths" in Leviticus 23 is shabbath. "Putting the sickle to the corn" is harvesting for oneself, Deuteronomy 23:24-25, which would be the day after Wavesheaf Offering day. Therefore, the count in Leviticus 23 begins with Wavesheaf Sunday, for 50 full days, and the count in Deuteronomy, if it is intended to specifically tell us how to count, begins with the first full day of personal harvest, the day after Wavesheaf Sunday. Both counts expire at the end of a Sunday, making Pentecost on Monday. 4. Pentecost is a Pilgrimage Feast. We need to assemble with God's people for worship, if at all possible. 5. To wait patiently, sit down and be taught, have an intimate relationship with the Heavenly Father, worship and pray with others. 6. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. 7. The Hebrew Calendar year is six minutes longer than the astronomical year, and must be adjusted every several thousand years. Pentecost must occur in the spring, not the summer. The adjustment made by the Patriarch Simon III in 161 A.D. was based on a Monday Pentecost. If those in charge of the calendar had believed in a Sunday or Sivan 6 Pentecost, the calendar adjustment would not have been necessary until at least the fourth century, A.D. 8. Their belief that (1) Christ rose from the dead on Sunday and (2) the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles on Sunday. 9. They are all called "firstfruits" by the Bible. 10. The Ten Commandments were given during the Pentecost season, Exodus 19-20, sealed with the "wedding ceremony" of the Old Covenant agreement, Exodus 24. Old Testament Israel was figuratively "married" to the Eternal at Pentecost (see Jeremiah 3, Ezekiel 16). The New Testament Church was founded on Pentecost, Acts 2, and became the espoused bride of the Messiah, Revelation 19:7-9, Matthew 22, 25:1. The purpose of the human marriage relationship is to teach us to be faithful to the Messiah for all eternity, with no divorce ever, Ephesians 5, Romans 7:1-4, I Corinthians 7:39. Just as physical intercourse between a lawfully wedded couple faithful to each other makes them "one flesh," so the Holy Spirit producing fruits in our lives, and us living exclusively for the Eternal, makes us "one spirit" with God, preparing us to be resurrected as the firstfruits unto Him. Pentecost and marital faithfulness are inseparable doctrines! 11. Psalm 68 is in the "Book II" section (Psalm 42-72) of Psalms, which corresponds to the Book of Ruth, the "Pentecost Book." Psalm 68 shows the power of God, as expressed when He came down on Sinai. Verse 35 concludes that it is God alone who gives strength and power to His people. Habakkuk 3 describes the power of God for the salvation of His people, and concludes that God is our strength. Both show the destruction of the wicked, "as smoke is driven away," Psalm 68:2. Pentecost brings us into the presence of God, and only He is the source of our power and strength, the Holy Spirit. 12. "Speaking in tongues" means to speak in one language, and be instantly understood in many languages, Acts 2:4-12. Speaking in tongues is not speaking in gibberish so nobody can understand. All do not speak in tongues, I Corinthians 12:29-30. When the Eternal wants to give the gift of speaking in tongues for His work's sake, He will! 13. Spiritual gifts listed are: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, different languages, interpretation of languages, I Corinthians 12:7-10. These gifts can accompany the offices of apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healings, helps, governments, different kinds of languages, I Corinthians 12:28. The greatest spiritual gift is love (charity), I Corinthians 13:13. Everyone who has the Holy Spirit has one or more spiritual gifts, I Corinthians 12:7,11. Are you using your spiritual gifts for His service?ê