How to Count Pentecost

The Day of Pentecost is fast approaching. For years, the Church of God observed the Day of Pentecost on a Monday. How many of you were in the Church back when we kept Pentecost on a Monday? Could I see your hands? We've got a lot of old-timers here. It looks like about 50-60% of us or more. In 1974, you might remember that was changed. Why was it changed? Now, this caused no small stir in the Church. There was quite a discussion about this. Actually, we had an evangelist leave the Church because he felt that Mr. Armstrong could not be wrong, even though Mr. Armstrong made the change. He felt that what Mr. Armstrong had decided doctrinally in the early years was correct. Therefore, he left and started his own little group. Why was there a misunderstanding on this topic for years? When you look in the Bible, you find that there are at least three different approaches, three different ways that you can prove when Pentecosts occur. Why does God say, count? Why do we count this day? Is there a lesson that God wants us to learn by counting? Any time you count, guess what? You come up with different answers. God wants us to learn. We've covered this in the past. In fact, I've covered it here. I've given you a handout. You may recognize the handout. I think I've given you that before. I find that this is a technical type of subject. It's easy to forget. It's easy to become confused. You and I need to know and know that we know what we believe. We need to be able to prove it. We need to know what the Scripture says. Everyone of us here, when you walk away today, should be able to sit down and to explain clearly and concisely to anyone why you keep Pentecost and why you keep it on the day that you do. Let's start logically by asking the question, why was it unclear in the past? Why did we have a problem with it years ago? Let's go back to the book of Leviticus, chapter 23.

I want you to notice that all of the Holy Days except Pentecost have a definite date given for them. You don't have to guess. All you have to do is have the sacred calendar, what a lot of people call the Jewish calendar, but the sacred calendar. You'll find that you can know when the dates are. Let's begin here in verse 5. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. So the Passover is on the fourteenth day of the first month of Abib or Nisan. Then verse 6, on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, seven days. So the days of Unleavened Bread began on the fifteenth. So that's a fixed day on the calendar. Now notice verse 24. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, seventh month is a month of Tishri. On the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial, a blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. So the first day, seventh month, is the Feast of Trumpets. Verse 27, on the tenth day of the seventh month, shall be the day of Atonement. So that's very clear. There's really not any confusion over that. Now verse 34. Speak to the children of Israel, saying that on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, shall be the Feast of Tabernacles, for seven days to the Lord. So you have the Feast, beginning on the fifteenth. But then let's notice verse 36. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, and on the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation. So there's an eighth day, which is a separate Feast, what we call the last great day. And so all of those are clearly marked out, the last great days on the twenty-second. You begin counting seven days for the Feast of Tabernacles, and then you come to the last great day. But let's back up to verse 15. And I want you to notice Pentecost, and what we have here. You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the Sheba the Wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall offer a new great offering to the Lord. Now here we're told to count. It doesn't say, observe this day on seven to six, or any other day says, count. So you're supposed to count. Now, confusion comes when people start counting.

Because when you count, sometimes people come up with different answers. You know, there was confusion even among the Jews in Christ's day concerning how to count. Verse 15 says, the day after the Sabbath. So the question was, which Sabbath are you counting from? The weekly Sabbath or the annual Sabbath?

So some Jews thought weekly, some thought annual. And so therefore they came up with different dates. Notice the King James Version. And one of the reasons why this was a little confusing was back in the early 50s, 60s, and 70s. We used the King James Version.

And it didn't really clarify it like the new King James Version, or some of the more modern translations. Verse 15 says, you shall count under you, King James Version, from the moral after the Sabbath. Now, how many of us use the terminology moral? You say, what are you doing moral? Now, you say, what are you doing tomorrow? I mean, we use that. What are you going to do the day after today? You know, you might use that. But from the moral after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheep of the wave offering, even seven Sabbaths shall be complete.

Now, the Pharisees interpreted the Sabbath here as the first day of Unleavened Bread. So Pentecost, for them, always fell, and it does today, because Judaism today is basically a Pharisaical. It always falls on seven to six. So if it falls on seven to six, why didn't God just say, keep this day on seven to six?

He didn't say that. He said, count. So God wanted us to count this. Now, the Sadducees took the word to mean literally, the Sabbath after the beginning of the Passover Festival. Notice, the Sabbath after the beginning of the Passover Festival. So therefore, Pentecost, the Sadducees said, would always fall on a Sunday. Now, the Sadducees were the ones who were responsible for the Temple until it was destroyed in 70 AD. They were the ones to set the dates on which the nation observed the Holy Days. So when Christ was on the earth, the Sadducees were the ones who set the dates.

Now, if they had been wrong, of course, he would have done something different. But I want you to notice the new Bible Dictionary, Article, Calendar. What we find is that the Sadducees were accurate. The Pharisees are wrong. Notice the new Bible Dictionary under the Article, Calendar. In general, the Jewish Calendar, New Testament times, at least before AD 70, followed the Sadduceeing reckoning, since it was by that reckoning that the Temple services were regulated. Thus, the day of Pentecost was reckoned as the 50th day, after the presentation of the first harvested sheave, a barley, the 50th day, inclusive.

Now, notice the terminology, inclusive. From the first Sunday after the Passover, inclusive means you count the Sunday. It includes it. It doesn't exclusive, would be you would exclude it. So the word inclusive means you include it. Hence, it always fell on a Sunday, as it does in the Christian calendar. The Pharisees' reckoning, which became standard after AD 70. Now, remember in AD 70, the Temple was destroyed. The Jews were scattered. You had the Diaspora. Jews were scattered all over the world. The Pharisaical teachings began to hold domination.

So therefore, they changed it. You find that same teaching today. The Pharisaical reasoning, which became standard after AD 70, interpreted Sabbath in Leviticus 23.15 as the festival day of unleavened bread and not the weekly Sabbath. In that case, Pentecost always fell on the same day of the month, but not on the same day of the week.

For us, it falls on the same day of the week. It's always on Sunday. For the Pharisees, it's always on the same day on the calendar, the sixth of seven. Now, where did we become confused? You see, if there's room for confusion, human beings will have it. We became confused, and it all revolved around the little word from. F-R-O-M. From. Fifty days from a Sunday can be counted no other way than one day from Sunday is Monday, and fifty days from Sunday always falls on a Monday.

That's the way we counted it. Now, take a look at your handout I gave you. Notice the calendar at the bottom of the page. Now, I will show you that this calendar is accurate, that we began to count the fifty days, including Sunday. Now, what Mr. Armstrong did when he read this scripture years ago, he read, You shall count for yourselves from the day, it didn't say after the Sabbath, or from the moral, you know, after the Sabbath. He said, okay, what's the day after the Sabbath? That's a Sunday. If you count from Sunday, you don't count Sunday, he said, you count from that day.

So therefore, he began to count on a Monday. So if you would count on a Monday, notice everything moves over. Monday would be day one, Tuesday, two, Wednesday, three, Thursday, four, Friday, five, Saturday, six, Sunday, seven. The next day would be a Monday. And so we always came up with Monday, based upon that reasoning. And that's where we came up with that. So our confusion revolved around that. Let's go back to Leviticus 23 again, and we will be using this chart I gave you quite extensively. And I want you to notice, let's read verses 15 and 16 again.

Or at least verse 15, it says, you shall count for yourself from the day after the Sabbath. And we all agree that the day after the Sabbath is a Sunday. Now, if you're going to count from that, what does that mean? Okay, if you'll look on the chart up here at the top, number one, under this, it says, Leviticus 23, 15 says, count 50 days beginning on the day Sunday after the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread. And how do we know that? Notice, the preposition from here is the Hebrew word, me. Me is a shortened form of the Hebrew preposition, mem, and has various meanings that can be translated in several different ways. It can be translated from, of, by, at, in, on, but. When it is used in conjunction with the element of time, you're counting time, which we are here, it is always used inclusively and never exclusively. So what does that mean? Well, inclusively means that you include that day, the first day that's mentioned. So let's read verse 15. You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath. The better way of translating this would be, on the next day, you shall begin counting beginning on the day after the Sabbath, or the next day after the Sabbath, which was a Sunday. So you begin counting on that day. That's why, again, if you'll look at the chart, the next day after the Sabbath is a Sunday. So you begin to count beginning on that day. And you count forty-nine days, that seven Sabbaths, and then you come to the fiftieth day, which is on a Sunday. Now, this was brought to Ms. Armstrong's attention, and he didn't believe it to begin with. But he said, okay, I'll check it out. And so he had various ones, and he even called up and talked to a leading rabbi, I think, in Israel, talked to a number of rabbis and a number of Hebrew scholars, and they all had the same thing to say about this preposition. That when it includes the element of time, then it's inclusive and it's counting. Inclusive means it limits the period of time being counted. It includes the day after the Sabbath as the first day that you begin to count. So what I've done, I've just simply written in my Bible, which helps to clarify this. I have the word from, I put a little arrow out to the margin, and say, beginning on the next day. That's what it means. So beginning on the next day after the Sabbath. Now, let me show you...turn over here to chapter 22 and verse 27.

Just a couple of examples of where me is used in the Old Testament that will give you a better understanding of how the word is translated when it's connected with the element of time. Leviticus 22 verse 27, When a bull or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall be seven days with its mother. So in other words, it can nurse on its mother for seven days. And from the eighth day and thereafter it shall be accepted as an offering. Now, when it says from, it means beginning on the eighth day and forward. For seven days, you cannot offer that calf up as an offering or a sacrifice because it was nursing. But beginning on the eighth day, you could do so. So very clearly, you find from the eighth day or beginning on the eighth day, it is the proper understanding of this. Now, notice also, me-muhorath, point B here.

Me-muhorath, which is complete expression here, is used 28 times in the Old Testament. In 26 times, it's rendered on the moral. King James version, that's how it's translated into King James. Once it's translated from, guess where that is? Leviticus 23.15. That's where the confusion came from. If it had been translated on the moral, I don't know that we would have had that confusion. Once it's translated from Leviticus 23.15, and once it's translated onto Leviticus 23.16. So it's verses 15 and 16, where we have the confusion. A complete listing of where me-muhorath is found in the Old Testament is given for you. So if you want to go look every one of these up and mark them, be my guess. This is where they are mentioned. So what you find is me-muhorath is just the complete expression as the preposition. And it means, again, beginning on or beginning with that particular day.

Now let me show you back up to chapter 19, the book of Leviticus. A couple of examples where me-muhorath is used in the Old Testament where you can understand. Let me read to you, first of all, from the King James Version, the way it was translated in the King James. Verse 5, if you offer a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord, you shall offer it of your own will.

It shall be eaten the same day you offer it on the morrow. So the expression on the morrow is me-muhorath on the morrow. And if all remains unto the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. Now notice verse 6 here in the New King James Version. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the next day it can be eaten.

Or on the morrow, the next day. If any remain unto the third day, it shall be burned in the fire. So me-muhorath could not mean from the second day. It has to include the second day. And then Numbers 33 verse 3, talking about the Passover. Notice Numbers chapter 33 beginning here in verse 3. Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, it says, They departed from Rameses, and the first day, on the fifteenth day of the month, on the day after the Passover, the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all of the Egyptians.

Well, the King James Version basically says they departed on the morrow after the Passover. But it's very clear when you say, on the next day after. And so, with that understanding, Mr. Armstrong, when he took a look at this passage, going back here to Leviticus 23 again, in verse 15, he looked at it, getting the best advice and input that he could from Hebrew scholars, rabbis. Verse 15 of Leviticus 23, As you shall count for yourself from or beginning on the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the wave-sheaf offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete.

Now, I want you to notice, seven Sabbaths would have to refer to weekly Sabbaths because they're not seven annual Holy Days between the first day of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost. So it has to be referring to that. So you begin to count on the next day after the Sabbath, and notice you count seven Sabbaths. And those have to be weekly Sabbaths. And the day after the seventh Sabbath would be a Sunday. And I've given this outline to you. If you have trouble understanding that, cut this out, reduce it down, stick it in the bottom of your Bible. And you'll always be able to take a look at it and know exactly how it's explained.

Now, there's another problem that comes up because of some of the modern translations, and especially because of the NIV translation, the New International Version. I do not recommend you using the NIV as your basic Bible. The New King James Version, I think you'll find, is very handy. The NIV is not based upon the bulk of the Greek manuscripts. It's based upon one or two manuscripts that are a little older, I think the Alexandrina. But they're not as accurate. We have over 5,000 partial and complete Greek manuscripts. And when you compare them, you can find out where they go astray.

If somebody made a scribal error somewhere, well, when you compare a thousand of them together, you can find out the errors. You can find out basically what it had to say. Notice the section here, point to section A. The words translated in the King James Version, for as Sabbath in Sabbath, in other words, the word Sabbath, singular, Sabbath, plural, is Shabbat, singular, or it's plural, Shabbathoth, of the 110 places where these words occur in the King James Version of the Old Testament. Not once is it translated in any other way than Sabbath or Sabbath.

Now, the point here is simply that these words mean simply that. That's the only thing they mean, Sabbath or Sabbath. However, you find that the NIV translates it differently. Let's notice here again in verse 15. Leviticus 23 verse 15, the NIV translation. From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheave of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks.

Seven full weeks instead of, as it says here, seven Sabbaths. The Hebrew word is Shabbathoth, meaning Sabbaths. It does not mean weeks. So, they have put their own interpretation on that word. The word means Sabbaths. It should not be translated weeks. When you translate seven full weeks, you change dramatically how you count here. So, we need to understand that. Notice section B here. There are Hebrew words that are translated for week. They're different words. Point B under 2 here says another Hebrew word is used for week or weeks.

The Hebrew word Shabuah, week, or Shabbat, weeks, is never used for the Sabbath. This word is never translated Sabbath. It means weeks or week. Modern Jews use Shabbat to mean a complete, perfect, Biblical week. We're talking about modern Jews from Sunday through Saturday, inclusive. When an imperfect or non-Biblical week is used, an example would be, I'll come by your house a week from Tuesday. We know that's a week from Tuesday. You're going to do it. Modern Hebrew uses Shabuah and not Shabbat. Consequently, even if the word Shabbat can be stretched to mean week in Leviticus 23.15, which it does not, but even if you wanted to argue and say that it could be stretched to mean that, it seems to only mean a Biblical week, which would be from Sunday through Saturday.

Nothing changes. Still the same thing. So I think that's important to understand. Now, having said all of that, let's go over to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 16.9, and we find a second way of counting Pentecost. That does have to do with weeks. My point is, the book of Leviticus is clear. We should not in any way confuse that. But let's notice here in chapter 16 of the book of Deuteronomy in verse 9, You shall count seven weeks for yourself. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time that you began to put the sickle to the grain.

And then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks. So I want you to notice here that it's called the Feast of Weeks. So what you find here is that we have weeks that we are told. The Hebrew words here are not Shabbat or Shabbat. It's the word Shabuah or Shabbat. The word that is just simply translated weeks. Weeks in verse 9, you just put it this way, mean weeks.

We're not talking about the Sabbath here. We're talking about counting seven weeks here. So they were told here in the book of Deuteronomy to count seven weeks. But notice when they were to begin to count. You shall count seven weeks to yourself and begin to count the seven weeks from the time you began to put the sickle to the grain.

When did they begin to put the sickle to the grain? When did they offer up the wave-sheaf offering? It was the day after the weekly Sabbath. So therefore, they're supposed to count seven weeks. Well, if you'll notice the chart I gave you at the bottom, you can do the same thing here. Just count seven weeks. You come seven, fourteen, twenty-one, twenty-eight, thirty-five, forty-two, forty-nine days. Seven weeks, seven times seven is forty-nine, if you begin to count on the Sunday when they offered up the wave-sheaf offering. You have forty-nine days, the next day is the fiftieth day, and it comes out on a Sunday, likewise. So you count seven weeks from after the Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread.

You count on a Sunday, a day that the wave-sheaf offering was offered up. Now, let's go back to Leviticus 23 again, and go back to verse 9. Let's see when the wave-sheaf offering was offered up. Leviticus 23 verse 9. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheave of the first-roots of your harvest to the priest.

And he shall wave the sheave before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf, on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. What is the day after the Sabbath? It's Sunday. So the wave-sheaf had to be offered up first, and then they could begin the spring harvest at that point. And so you find that this is what is referenced here in verse 9. Count seven weeks, and you begin to count from the time that the sickle was put to the grave, and then you come to the fiftieth day.

Now, we have always felt, brethren, that the wave-sheaf offering was a type of Jesus Christ. Let's go over to the New Testament, and you might hold your place here because we'll come back. John chapter 20, verse 11. You find that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, and Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. When did she come? What day? It was a Sunday. Notice verse 1, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early.

So she went on a Sunday. And as she wept, she stooped down and she looked into the tomb. But Christ wasn't there, and she wondered, what have they done with His body? Well, if you'll remember going on here in the story, verse 16. Well, let's just go on here. She saw two angels, and they told her that Christ had been resurrected. In verse 16, Jesus said to her, Mary, and she turned and said to Him, Robonai, which is to say, teacher. And Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go you to my brethren, and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, and to your Father, and to my God, and your God.

Well, we have always felt that that wave-sheaf offering, being offered up before God, was a type of Jesus Christ, who, after He had been resurrected, ascended to the Father, was accepted of the Father, His sacrifice as our High Priest.

He came back to the earth. He was here for forty days. And then He ascended to be on the right hand of the Father in heaven. So, Christ told her, Don't touch me. Why? Because I haven't yet ascended to my Father.

And yet, later on, we find that the disciples did touch Christ. And you find that He allowed them to touch Him. So Deuteronomy 16, verses 9 and 10, show how to count. It's basically the same way. But instead of counting seven Sabbaths, you count seven weeks. And the next day after the seven weeks are over is the fiftieth day. Now, I want you to notice that the book of Deuteronomy was written 38 or 39 years after. The book of Leviticus was written. So the Israelites, while they wandered in the wilderness for the forty years, did not have the book of Deuteronomy. You don't need the book of Deuteronomy to interpret the book of Leviticus.

They had the book of Leviticus. They knew when to keep Pentecost from what Leviticus said. The book of Deuteronomy was written probably during the last year before they entered into the Promised Land. And it was written, it's a reiteration of what had happened to Israel in their wanderings. And God bringing them out of Egypt. And it was written to that younger generation, those who were twenty and under, that were going to be able to enter into the Promised Land. By this time, they were sixty and fifty and forty, and they had their own families. The book of Leviticus was written within one month and twenty days of the second year when they left Mount Sinai.

And so you find it was written way before the book of Deuteronomy was. So you don't need one book to interpret the other book in this particular case. Now let's notice going over to the book of Acts, something that for years I don't think we ever paid attention to. But in Acts 1, beginning in verse 1, I think we have a clear indication, again, as to how to count Pentecost. Acts 1, verse 1. It says, Now let's go over to Luke, chapter 24.

We'll see another situation. Luke 24, verse 1. It says, Notice it's the first day of the week. That's a Sunday. Now, verse 13. Now, behold, two of them were traveling that same day. Well, what day is that? What's the first day of the week? Verse 1. To a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And you find that Jesus Christ appeared to them. They were talking about everything that happened. In verse 15, so it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know Him. And then He went on and talked to them and later on revealed Himself. In John 20, verse 19, we find that the same thing Jesus appeared to His disciples on that day. Chapter 20, verse 19 of the book of John. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them and said, Peace be with you. So what we have is the first day that Christ appeared to His disciples was on a Sunday.

Count 40 days forward and notice the number 40 on the chart here. Number 40 brings you to a Thursday. Apparently, Jesus Christ ascended to heaven on a Thursday, the 40th day. Now what happened on the 50th day? Chapter 2, verse 1, when the 50th day had fully come. That's what the word Pentecost in the Greek means. Pentecost does not mean count 50. Pentecost means the 50th. And it's implying the 50th day. When the day of Pentecost, the 50th day, had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

So notice if you'll look at your chart, they were told in Acts chapter 1 by Christ to wait, tarry, remain in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. They had to wait 10 days. So they waited from the 40th day when Christ ascended to the Father to the 50th day, Pentecost, and it was on that day that the Holy Spirit was sent.

So if we had looked very carefully at what the book of Acts had said, we could have actually figured out when Pentecost occurred. But in hindsight, you don't always think about that. Now we have one additional problem. And some of you will know what that problem is. You begin to count 50 days on the Sunday the wave-sheaf offering is offered up.

Is it imperative, is it commanded, that the wave-sheaf offering always fall during the days of Unleavened Bread? Can it fall outside of the days of Unleavened Bread? You say, well, what are you talking about? Well, one out of every five years, I'm using round numbers, doesn't occur every five years, but on an average, one out of every five years, you find that the final day of Unleavened Bread falls on a weekly Sabbath. One out of every five years, it falls on a weekly Sabbath. This was true in 1974, 1977, 1981, 1994, 2001, 2005, 2008. It happened last year, if you'll remember. Remember last year, 2008? The Passover Day was a Saturday, right? We kept the Passover Friday night.

The first day of the days of Unleavened Bread occurred on a Sunday. Now, look at your chart again. Just use this for a reference. If Sunday is the first day of Unleavened Bread, and the last day of Unleavened Bread would be on a Saturday, day seven, which day was the wavesheep offering offered up? On Sunday, where we have number one, or the Sunday after seven, because that's the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread.

So, which Sunday would you count from? The first day of Unleavened Bread occurs on a Sunday. The last day of Unleavened Bread occurs on a Saturday. The weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread is a double Sabbath on the final day of the days of Unleavened Bread. You have a weekly Sabbath, you have an annual Sabbath, so you have a double Sabbath. The Sunday after the Sabbath falls outside of the days of Unleavened Bread, the day's already over. Should the wavesheep offering always be offered during the days of Unleavened Bread? That's the question.

Well, we have a section in the Bible that gives the answer. So, let's go back and see if we can find the answer. If we can always find a scripture that deals with it, it's better than our guessing. Joshua 5, verse 10. Joshua 5, verses 10 and 11.

Now, let's notice the implication of what is stated here. Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover. Now, how could they do that unless the wavesheep offering had been offered up? Well, notice, they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, Unleavened Bread and parched grain on the very same day.

Then the manna ceased. Okay, the wavesheep offering was offered up on the day after the Passover. Therefore, Passover Day that year had to be a Saturday. The next day was a Sunday and an annual Sabbath, a Holy Day. They also offered the wavesheep offering up on that day. I mean, that's the example we have here in the Scripture.

So therefore, the wavesheep offering should be offered up during the Passover, during the days of Unleavened Bread. Normally, that's going to be a weekly Sabbath, but one out of five is an annual Sabbath, and it's going to be on that Sunday. And so you find this example in the Old Testament. Now, Leviticus 23, verse 11, we find that the day after the Passover that very day, and I'm reading here, this is Joshua 5, verse 11, the NIV translation, says the day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened bread and roasted grain.

They could only eat the produce of the land, and new grain after the wavesheep offering had been offered. So the Passover was on the Sabbath, the first day, Holy Day was the next day, Sunday. The wavesheep offering was offered up on that Sunday. That means the wavesheep should always be offered during the days of unleavened bread, not afterwards. Otherwise, it would make pentacles occur one week later. So that resolves that problem. Now, why does the Bible place such an emphasis on counting? Why count? Why does God say count?

Well, you may have all kinds of ideas. I have a few as to why God says to do it. You'll find in the Bible this day is called by different names. But all the names have something to do with the meaning of the day. The day Pentecost, which is Greek, means the 50th, and it refers to the fact that Pentecost is the 50th day.

Now, in Deuteronomy 16 and verse 10 that we read earlier, it says, "...you shall keep the feast of weeks." Here it's referred to as a festival of weeks, feast of weeks, because they were to count seven weeks. And then, Exodus 23, let's go back to the book of Exodus, in chapter 23.

Let's notice here, Exodus 23, verse 14, three times, "...you shall keep a feast of me in the year." Verse 15 talks about the feast of unleavened bread. Verse 16 says, "...and the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of your labor, which you have sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering." The feast of ingathering is the feast of tabernacles. The feast of harvest is the feast of Pentecost. Now, Numbers 28, 26 is referred to as the day of your firstfruits. So, it refers to firstfruits. Now, why does God say count? Well, because God is placing an emphasis on the fact that there is a harvest season.

The seven weeks picture the early harvest season, the first harvest, a small harvest. You might remember, Mr. Armstrong used to explain every year that the Holy Days, the spring harvest was a small harvest. It was the early harvest. It pictured the fact that God is not trying to convert all of humanity. Right now, God is only calling a handful of people in the first six thousand years. We are called the firstfruits. The vast number of people will come later on. What the feast of tabernacles and the last great day picture.

That's the great harvest, the fall harvest, when the majority of people will be saved. The harvest begins with a firstfruits, Christ. You know, Jesus Christ is referred to in 1 Corinthians 15 as the first fruit.

You and I are referred to as firstfruits, and it ends with firstfruits. So it began with Christ. The first harvest ends in the resurrection, the first resurrection, where we will be born into the very family of God. What you find is that we are part of the harvest. You and I are the firstfruits, but we also work in the harvest. We are the called ones of God, but we're also out here assisting Christ in calling others. By our tithes, our offerings, our prayers, our personal involvement.

So we're the first ones that God is dealing with to bring to salvation. We're given a period of time to grow, to be prepared, to do the work of God. So God wants us to focus on this whole period of time. So He says, count, be cognizant in essence of this whole period of time of what our job is. We're not just called for salvation, but we are called to be teachers and kings and priests. We are called to work also in the harvest, in the way that those who come later will not, to the same degree. So rather than in a couple of weeks, we will be observing the day of Pentecost. We will have two services on that day. We will have expounded for us more deeply, more completely, the meaning of Pentecost. The sermon today was not to give you an in-depth look at the meaning of the day, but to help all of us understand what day we should keep, why we keep it on the day that we do keep it, the purpose of the day, why God has called us at this time. We have the responsibility of being first-fruits, the first that God has called. So hopefully, every one of you can walk away from here, totally assured that you're keeping the right day, you're keeping it at the right time, and that we will be able to answer the questions that anyone might ask you on, are you keeping the day of Pentecost accurately? So, brethren, let's realize that our observance of Pentecost on a Sunday is what the Bible commands, and there are several different ways of proving that. So I would suggest that you go back over this. As I said, it's a little technical. I've given you a handout so you can go back, have it, and look at it, and know that you know what days you should be keeping.