Building on the Foundation

  EDITORIAL NOTE: This series of blog posts represents a majority, not a unanimous, view of the writers on this blog. Today’s blog post differs from most. For one thing, it’s actually a miniseries of posts. For another, this isn’t a deep dive into one facet of a topic, but a 50,000-ft overview of a huge picture. If you’re interested in more details, you’ll find a link at the end. The word “Pentecost” derives from the Greek pentekoste (Strong’s # G4005), which is a form of pentekonta (Strong’s # G4004), or “fifty.” This name comes from God’s command to count 49 days and observe this day on the 50th (Lev. 23:16). In honor of Pentecost being the 50th day, I present to you 50 reasons Pentecost isn’t always on Sunday, as commonly taught today, but rather on Sivan 6: the 6th day of the 3rd Biblical month. This is the day most Jews have kept Pentecost throughout history, as we’ll see later. It’s also the day the Worldwide Church of God (then called the Radio Church of God) originally ke...

This is the second part of a 4-part miniseries on the Biblical date of Pentecost. Part 1   |  Part 2  |    Part 3   |  Part 4 Section 2: Count Seven Sabbaths or Seven Weeks? Having seen that “the day after the Sabbath” in Leviticus 23 best applies to the second day of Unleavened Bread, here’s the next question: What does it mean to count seven sabbaths, as God instructed in Lev. 23:15-16? Does this mean “seven Sabbath days,” or something else? Reason 12: Seven Sabbaths = Seven Weeks Notice what God said: “You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD” (Lev. 23:15-16; NASB). The “seven sabbaths” add up to 49 days and the next day, the 50th day, is Pentecost. If seven sabbaths = 49 days, and 49 days = seven wee...

  This is the third part of a 4-part miniseries on the Biblical date of Pentecost. Part 1   |  Part 2   |   Part 3  |  Part 4 Section 4: The Wave Sheaf Most Sunday Pentecosters seem to base their doctrine on a symbolic interpretation. They argue that Jesus Christ fulfilled the wave sheaf offering by either, A) ascending to His Father on Sunday morning after His resurrection, or B) rising from the dead on Sunday. This proves, they say, that the wave sheaf was always offered on Sunday. Such reasoning is flawed, as we’ll see in a moment. But any study of Pentecost would be incomplete without analyzing the wave sheaf, since the count began on the day the wave sheaf was offered. So let’s take a look at the wave sheaf and see what it really shows about the timing of Pentecost. Reason 19: No Calendar Link Between Christ’s Resurrection and the Wave Sheaf On the Hebrew calendar, there’s no connection between the wave sheaf and Jesus’ death or resurrection....