The following suggested or possible grouping of Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and limited commentary are, hopefully, obviously thematically related. And the concept behind this High Sabbath’s selection is Pentecost.

Clickable hymns on this page require RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. The download is free.

Possible songs include the following hymns:
How Long, Eternal, Hide Thou Away
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Turn Thou From Evil
Declare His Works To All Nations!
Old Hundreth

Readings for Pentecost

June 15, 2008

The person conducting Pentecost services should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.

The first passage read should be Leviticus chapter 23, verses 1 and 2, then verses 9 through 22, followed by Deuteronomy chapter 16, verses 9 through 12, and 16 and 17, then Exodus chapter 23, verses 14 through 17.

Commentary: The Feast of Weeks occurs fifty (50) days after the Wave Sheaf Offering and was one of the three times a year when all males in Israel were to appear before the Lord where He placed His name. Pentecost means fifty, and is usually said to mean “count fifty”; thus it occurs on the same day as the Feast of Weeks, thereby suggesting an association between these two observances. But the Feast of Weeks signals the end of the harvest of firstfruits, the early barley harvest of Judean hillsides. In type, it represents the harvest of spiritual firstfruits, those human beings who have been born of spirit in the so-called Church era as well as those who received the promise of inheriting eternal life prior to the Church era. It would, then, represent the resurrection of the firstfruits, with this resurrection being symbolically portrayed through typological baptism by fire. And that is what is seen on Pentecost: the first disciples were baptized by spirit and by fire (cf. Matt 3:11; Acts 2:2-3) in a shadow representation of the world being baptized in spirit when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28) and baptized in fire with the coming of the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21:1).

As Judea brought forth two grain harvests that together represented the single harvest of the Promised Land, there will be two harvests of humanity, one when the firstfruits are resurrected to either everlasting life or to damnation, and one when the mass of humanity is resurrected from death through receipt of the divine breath of the Father in the great White Throne Judgment. This latter harvest equates to the late summer or autumn wheat harvest in Judea, and in this latter harvest every person not previously born of spirit who has drawn breath will be like one of the two thieves crucified with Jesus: without a conscious awareness of a passage of time, the person will returned to life and will either seek to save his or her physical life, or the person will acknowledge that he or she is indeed worthy of death. Those who seek to save their physical lives will lose both their physical as well as their spiritual lives whereas those who acknowledge that they are worthy of death will receive life. And no one can make this determination for another, for as Peter acknowledged, “‘If the righteous is scarcely saved’” (1 Pet 4:18) what hope does the unrepentant sinner have? Repentance will be an acknowledging that the person is worthy of death.

There were not three grain harvests in Judea, only two, with the Wave Sheaf Offering not being a separate harvest, but the first of the harvest of firstfruits that ran for seven weeks, with these weeks being analogous to the seven days of Unleavened Bread when, for all of Israel, leavening represented sin, a representation that some endtime disciples now challenge. This understanding that the Wave Sheaf Offering is not a separate harvest permits disciples to see that the Feast of Unleavened Bread, referred to as the Sabbath by John in his gospel (see 19:31 — both the high day, the 15^th day of Abib, and the entire Feast of Unleavened Bread are called F"$$VJå/F"$$VJ@L), represents the entirety of the so-called Church era, with the last high day of Unleavened Bread being a memorial to the resurrection of firstfruits at the Second Advent in exactly the same way that the Feast of Weeks represents the resurrection of firstfruits, making these seven weeks analogous to the seven days of Unleavened Bread. Thus, this so-called Church era is a form of a Sabbath in that disciples, because of grace, enter into the presence of God, with Jesus, who sat down at the right hand of the Father, serving as high priest for disciples … “entering into God’s rest” is a euphemistic expression for entering into God’s presence; therefore, whenever disciples enter into God’s presence, they have entered into “rest,” or into a Sabbath—which does not negate their responsibility and need to observe the weekly and annual Sabbaths of God for the disciple is not the tent of flesh in which the new creature, born of spirit as a son of God, dwells. This new creature is to bring the tent of flesh, his only possession, into God’s presence on weekly and annual Sabbath days. If this new creature neglects so great a responsibility, this new creature takes or carries the name of God in vain. Yes, the new creature, a son of God and a disciple of Christ, carries the name “Christian” in vain if the tent of flesh in which this new creature dwells will not enter into God’s presence on the weekly and annual Sabbaths of God.

Jesus as high priest entering heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father is the reality of the high priest of Israel entering into the Holy of holies on Yom Kipporim [two “coverings,” not one]. There are some Sabbatarian Christians (specifically, Seventh Day Adventists), lacking in spiritual understanding, who contend that because Yom Kipporim occurs in the fall of the year [the 10^th day of the 7^th month] and because Unleavened Bread occurs in the spring of the year, disciples should not observe the high Sabbaths of God, an argument that on its surface would seem to be logical, but only until a person thinks briefly about the logic involved. If Christ ascends to heaven to enter into the Father’s presence on the fourth day of Unleavened Bread, which He would have to do to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish (a whale), then that portion of the reality of Yom Kipporim represented by the lamb sacrificed on the altar occurs on the Preparation Day [the 14^th of Abib] for the great day [the first high day, the 15^th] of the Sabbath, with this “Sabbath” now expanded to include both the Preparation Day and the day when the paschal lamb was selected [the 10^th] and brought into Jerusalem by the high priest. Therefore the last three and a half days of Unleavened Bread would form the reality of the Azazel goat bearing the sins of Israel in a far land, or in the wilderness. So what occurs in the heavenly realm that is foreshadowed by the days between the 10^th of Abib and the 22^nd of Abib is the reality of the what happens when two goats are selected as Israel’s sin offering, one to be sacrificed on the altar for the sins of Israel and one to have the sins of Israel read over its head then to be lead into the wilderness by the hand of a fit man, with the high priest entering into the Holy of holies with the blood of the sacrificed lamb before he returns outside, having made an end of atoning for himself, the Holy Place and the tent of meeting [the temple], to confess the sins of Israel over the head of the Azazel goat.

The high priest of Israel, on Yom Kipporim, entered into the presence of God (i.e., into the Holy of holies) between sacrificing the goat on the altar and confessing over the Azazel goat the sins of Israel. This entrance into the presence of God is analogous to Jesus’ ascent to the Father as the Wave Sheaf Offering before He returns the same day to breathe on ten of His disciples, thereby directly transferring to them the Holy Spirit (John 20:22) … the Church does not begin on Pentecost, but on the same day that Jesus ascends to the Father as the accepted sin offering for Israel and as the high priest for Israel. The Church begins on the 4^th day of Unleavened Bread as a representation of the Holy Spirit being poured out on all flesh halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation, thereby liberating the third part of humankind from sin and death (cf. Zech 13:9; Rev 11:15; Dan 7:9-14 — the single kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of the Father and His Christ, one like a Son of Man, on only one occasion, not on many occasions).

Because the realization that Yom Kipporim is a representation of what happens during Unleavened Bread will be an unfamiliar teaching to many Sabbatarian disciples, the above will be repeated:

· By custom and prevailing usage, the entire period when an Israelite male journeyed to Jerusalem to observe the Passover, the first of the three seasons when all males were to appear before the Lord, was called Sabbath and was an entering into the presence of God.

· The first high Sabbath of Unleavened Bread was, now, the great day or Sabbath of the Sabbath, which was a period of afflicting the soul [i.e., flesh] of every Israelite male.

· Unleavened bread is called bread of affliction (Deut 16:3), and the seven days of Unleavened Bread are remembrance of the affliction Israel experienced in the wilderness, affliction encapsulated in Yom Kipporim [the Day of Atonement], affliction analogous to what endtime Israel will experience during the Tribulation.

· By eating bread of affliction for the entire period when an Israelite male would have been in Jerusalem to observe the Sabbath, the Israelite male would have been “afflicting his soul.”

· Jesus enters Jerusalem as the selected Passover Lamb of God on the 10^th day of Abib (cf. John 19:31, 42; 12:1, 12); He enters as the paschal lamb and as the next generation of high priest (the symbolism of riding the colt).

· When Jesus eats the Passover on the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib, He changes the sacrifice symbolism: by directing His disciples to eat unleavened Bread as a representation of His flesh and to drink from the cup as a representation of His blood, He identifies Himself as the Passover Lamb of God, analogous to the goat sacrificed on the altar on Yom Kipporim as the sin offering for Israel.

· Drinking from the cup on Passover, taken the night Jesus was betrayed, now becomes the covenantal covering for sin and will remain the covenantal covering for sin until the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:8-12) is implemented after the Passover covenant ends.

· A covenant made in the flesh goes from the shedding of blood to the shedding of blood (Heb 9:22-23); thus, the Passover covenant that began in Egypt with the death of Egyptian firstborns (Isa 43:3; Ex 12:29) has been in effect ever since and will remain in effect until the lives of firstborns are again given as ransom for Israel (Isa 43:4) at a second Passover liberation of Israel, now a spiritually circumcised nation.

· The resurrected Jesus enters into the presence of God on the 4^th day of Unleavened Bread as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, but He returns to His disciples on this same day, breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).

· On Yom Kipporim [day of coverings], two male goats are selected as Israel’s sin offering. The high priest enters the sanctuary, and after making atonement for himself with the blood of a bull, he sprinkled this blood with his finger on the front of the Mercy Seat—

· In the second temple was neither the Ark of the Covenant nor the Mercy Seat so it was not technically possible for the high priest to make atonement for himself or his family, or for Israel after a remnant of Israel returned from Babylon.

· The glory of God had left the first temple (Ezek chap 10) and did not return until the man Jesus entered Herod’s temple to cleanse it at the beginning of His ministry (John 2:13-22).

· In the first temple after making atonement for himself and his family, the high priest left the Holy of holies and killed the goat selected to die on the altar for Israel’s sins. He then brought its blood inside the veil and did with it what he had done with the blood of the bull when he made atonement for himself.

· He would then leave the Holy of holies and make atonement for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting [a type of the temple, which was a type of the Church], and when he finished atoning for the Holy Place, the tent of meeting, and the altar, he would lay hands on the live goat and confess over it the sins of Israel.

· Christ Jesus, as the high priest of spiritually circumcised Israel, did not enter into the presence of God with an atoning of bull’s blood but by His own righteousness.

· He became the sin offering for Israel when, at Calvary, He took on the sins of Israel (and all of humanity as all of humanity will become Israel) and with His blood entered into the presence of God as natural Israel’s high priest entered into the Holy of holies.

· Jesus takes on the sins of Israel on the Preparation Day, the 14^th of Abib; thus, the reality encompassed by the high priest on Yom Kipporim entering the Holy of holies to make atonement for Israel occurs on the 14^th through the 18^th of Abib.

· After making atonement for Israel, the high priest left the Holy of holies to confess the sins of Israel over the head of the Azazel goat. Likewise, after appearing before the Father and being accepted, the glorified Jesus returned to His disciples and gave to these ten disciples spiritual life through the direct transfer of the Holy Spirit by breathing on them.

· With these ten disciples receiving a second birth through receipt of the Holy Spirit, these ten have life in the heavenly realm, and Jesus, as the reality of the Azazel goat bears their sins in this far land.

· It is possible to sin in that portion of the heavenly realm within the bottomless pit, for the disciple born of spirit who looks on another person with lustful intent but never acts upon this lust commits no sin or transgression of the law in this world, but sins mentally or spiritually; hence, this person will have sin that needs “covered” by grace in the heavenly realm.

· Jesus will continue to bear the sins of Israel as long as disciples are covered by grace, which is the reality of Jesus covering His disciples with His righteousness as if His righteousness were a garment or cloak covering His Body (i.e., the Church).

· Israel, now a nation circumcised of heart, lives without sin being imputed to it when these sins are covered by grace.

· But when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:30), the garment of grace will be stripped away and disciples will be then covered by their obedience.

· The seven days of Unleavened Bread represent that period when Israel lives without sin;

· Therefore the entirety of the Church era that has disciples covered by grace is represented by the six hours of the great day of the Sabbath between when the Passover lamb is sacrificed and when the death angel passed over all the land to slay firstborns not covered by the blood of the paschal lamb.

· The affliction of the Tribulation is now the seven endtime years when Israel will be empowered by the Holy Spirit and liberated from indwelling sin and death in the reality foreshadowed by natural Israel’s liberation and exodus from Egypt.

· The last high Sabbath of Unleavened Bread represents the glorification of disciples, with those who have received the promise of everlasting life and those who have died in the faith preceding to glory those who are still alive by the twinkling of an eye.

The entirety of the selection and harvest of the firstfruits, beginning with Christ Jesus and continuing through to the glorification of the saints, is a period when Israel is without sin; hence, a period when Israel symbolically eats bread of affliction, thereby “afflicting” the flesh of this holy nation. The compression of this period will cause Israel to fast on Yom Kipporim, the day symbolically representing when Christ Jesus both covers the sins of Israel in this world with His death at Calvary and when He covers the sins of born-again disciples in the heavenly realm by bearing their sins until a spiritual life is given for them. Disciples afflict the flesh for one day in the fall of the year by fasting as a representation of the harvest of firstfruits that have lived without sin being imputed to them. The reality of Yom Kipporim encompasses all that occurs between when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the 10^th day of Abib through to when Christ Jesus no longer bears the sins of Israel.

There will be a second—and much larger—harvest of the earth in the great White Throne Judgment, and it is this latter harvest that is the focus of the fall holy day season which is the reason for the compression of the early harvest to a single day in the fall. Most of those “harvested” in the great White Throne Judgment will have lived as contemporaries with firstfruits, meaning that most of this harvest has been separated from firstfruits only by the firstfruits having been born of spirit while the Adversary still reigned over humankind as the prince of the power of the air.

Those ignorant Sabbatarian disciples who argue that because Christ has entered into the presence of the Father as the reality of the high priest entering into the Holy of holies on Yom Kipporim, disciples do not and should not observe the annual Sabbaths of God are, collectively, false teachers and false prophets. They are without spiritual understanding—and following in the example of the Apostle John who in his last years would not be under the same roof as Kerinthus because of Kerinthus’ false teaching about the nature of God, endtime disciples should be hesitant to enter services of fellowships that spurn observing the high Sabbaths of God. This means, simply, those who are of Philadelphia will find that they have no fellowship with disciples who follow Ellen G. White’s teachings.

In earlier readings, now would be when the person conducting services would direct that a plate or basket be passed to take up an offering … this practice has been abandoned as being not appropriate to the example the Apostle Paul left in not being a burden upon the saints at Corinth when he taught there so as not to place a stumbling block before them. The passing of a plate carries with it the implied dictate to place an offering in the plate. Not having an offering produces guilt in the person without—and the work of this guilt will cause reluctance in the person to appear before God on Sabbaths. The taking up of an offering will become a stumbling block over which the destitute trip. And within Sabbatarian fellowships, there will be many more destitute than wealthy once the seven endtime years of tribulation begin.

In recognition that need exists within every fellowship for moneys to pay for basic services, a word said by the person conducting service about where offerings can be made should be sufficient to cause those able to contribute to do so. The person who has the ability to contribute should do so, not grudgingly but thankfully that this ability exists. The person who is without through no fault of the person should not feel guilt but should contribute in whatever manner as the person is able, with this contribution being between God and the person. It is presumptuous of the person conducting services to make any reflection about what has or hasn’t been contributed, for Christ will, at a time and in a way He chooses, address problems concerning need.

The three seasons or times a year when the natural nation of Israel was to appear before the Lord are Unleavened Bread (or Passover as the entire season is sometimes called), Pentecost, and Tabernacles, these three seasons regulated by the ancient grain harvests of Judea. Although it has been commonly taught within the Churches of God that these three seasons equate to the three seasons involving harvests of the Lord, with Jesus being the first harvest or the Passover harvest; the firstfruits (i.e., the Church) representing the second harvest or the Feast of Weeks barley harvest; and the great White Throne Judgment representing the Sukkoth or Tabernacles harvest, the main crop wheat harvest, this understanding of the Holy Day calendar is imperfect, factually wrong, and exhibits little if any spiritual awareness.

For the past seventy years or so, the churches of God have taught some variation of a three harvest doctrine, with Christ not being the First of the firstfruits but the sole first harvest of God, thereby separating Christ from His disciples by the period represented by the seven weeks between the Wave Sheaf Offering and the Feast of Weeks. This separation has tended to cause Sabbatarian disciples to make Christ into a created being, the error of Bishop Arius—and here is where error posing as enlightenment has taken many disciples far from God, for once Christ becomes a created being and the only begotten Son of the Creator, importance is assigned to the flesh. What Paul taught is lost, and Paul’s reliability as a teacher becomes suspect; for with importance assigned to the flesh, disciples are Jew or Greek, male or female. Importance is assigned to how God’s name is enunciated, to construction of a physical temple in earthly Jerusalem, to those things reported in the Jerusalem Post, to the rise of a united Europe and to the decline of the English-speaking peoples. But the demise of the United States has been continually prophesied to occur in only a few short years ever since Hitler’s rise to power; for with importance being assigned to the flesh, the English-speaking peoples of the world become the endtime house of Israel.

What is true is that every person who has drawn breath will appear before the Lord during one of two harvest seasons to have his or her judgment revealed. But both the barley harvest and most of the main crop wheat harvest have grown to maturity in fields figuratively separated by the firstfruits having the Spirit of God and the wheat not yet receiving birth from above, a second birth that “raises the dead” (John 5:21). And therein lays the typological difficulty that kept the plan of God concealed from both the natural and the spiritual nations of Israel until the time of the end: Judean hillsides only brought forth two grain harvests, not three, with the first harvest [the barley harvest] stretched over a seven week period, from the Wave Sheaf Offering to the holy convocation at the Feast of Weeks (a.k.a. Pentecost). As the crop ripened, barley was harvested every day of these seven weeks, with more harvested toward the end of the seven weeks than at the beginning of these weeks. Barley wasn’t harvested only on the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering, then again seven weeks later.

There was only one harvest of firstfruits, with this harvest occurring as an on-going event for seven weeks, a daily activity as fields ripened. Jesus as the First of the firstfruits begins the same harvest that will see His disciples glorified as younger brothers (Rom 8:29). He is the uncovered Head of the Son of Man as disciples form the now covered (by grace) Body of this same Son of Man …the Son of Man represents the entire harvest of firstfruits.

The reality of the Logos entering His creation as His only Son then following baptism receiving a second life through receipt of the divine breath of the Father, which descended as a dove to light and remain on Him, is actually more than those disciples who are physically minded can comprehend. Inevitable, these physically minded disciples insist that the man Jesus was the Son of the Father from conception, which makes the Father the Creator of all that has been made. These disciples absolutely refuse to hear anyone who attempts to tell them what John said (John 1:1-3) in the only gospel written to address Christological problems that did not trouble the very early Church. These disciples actively and aggressively attack John, contending that he is mistranslated or that his gospel was corrupted by early transcribers. They simply cannot abide the idea that Jesus entered His creation as His only Son and didn’t become the Son of the Most High until he received the Spirit of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø]. Above all else, they do not want to be younger brothers to Jesus—and they won’t be if they persist in teaching what they believe.

Continuing with refuting popularized false teaching, although it has been taught that the Law was given at Sinai on Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks, Scripture does not supply the “exactness” necessary to make this teaching true. In fact, Scripture makes this teaching not true; for Israel came to Mount Sinai and the wilderness on Sinai on the 1^st day of the third month, which would have been six weeks after the Passover liberation of Israel, and in the middle of the fifth week after Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds, meaning that when the Law was given from atop Mount Sinai on the 3^rd day (or 4^th day) of the third month, six weeks would have passed since Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds. Now, following the giving of the Law and Israel saying with one voice, “‘All the words of that the Lord [YHWH] has spoken we will do’” (Ex 24:3), and the shedding of blood that makes this marriage covenant a temporary thing and a shadow of a heavenly reality (cf. Ex 24:5-8; Heb 9:23), Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up on Sinai and saw the Lord (Ex 24:9-11). Then the Lord said to Moses to come farther up the mountain (v. 12). For six days Moses waited while a cloud covered the mountain, then on the seventh day, Moses was called to enter into the cloud (v. 16). This 7^th day would have been the 10^th day of the third month … the 10^th day of the month becomes a day of selection—and this 10^th day would have been Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks as Sadducees reckoned when the first handful of barley is presented to God as the Wave Sheaf Offering. The Law wasn’t given on Pentecost; it was given a week earlier. Israel coming to Sinai would have been on the day Jesus left His disciples (Acts 1:2-3).

After ascending to His Father on the day of His resurrection, Jesus returned to be with His disciples for 40 days … for 40 of the 50 days between the Wave Sheaf Offering and the Feast of Weeks, Jesus was with His disciples, making the last 10 days analogous to the period between when Israel arrived at Sinai on the 1^st day of the third month until Moses entered into the cloud on the 10^th day of the third month. This would make Moses entering the cloud analogous to the resurrection of firstfruits, with Moses being a type of Christ Jesus, the First of the firstfruits. But Pentecost represents two baptisms, one by spirit and one by fire.

Baptism by fire is a euphemistic expression for resurrection to glory, when the mortal flesh puts on immortality so that it can pass through the fires separating the dimensions (i.e., the supra-dimensional heavenly realm from the physical creation). Baptism by spirit is a euphemistic expression for being empowered by or filled with the Holy Spirit, or in other words, “‘clothed with power from on high’” (Luke 24:49). Thus, instructions to Israel to consecrate themselves and to wash their garments before receiving the law on the third day becomes analogous to John the Baptist preaching repentance in preparing the way to the Lord, with the coming of the law and the Sinai marriage covenant being analogous to Jesus’ seven years of ministry, half of which was as a physical human being in ancient Judea and half of which will be His ministry during the last three and a half years of the Tribulation (Rev 14:1-5). Therefore, the giving of the law on the 3^rd day (or 4^th day) of the third month to ancient Israel forms the shadow and copy of the second Passover liberation of Israel, when the Son of Man, Head and Body, will be revealed at the beginning of the seven endtime years of tribulation.

Death reigned from Adam to Moses (Rom 5:14), but with the giving of the law, Israel knew what sin was and what the cause for death was; for the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). With the giving of the law, Israel was made responsible for its lawlessness for before the law was given, sin was not counted as sin even though all died (Rom 5:13). An example of Israel being made responsible for its lawlessness is seen by comparing Exodus 16:27-30 with Numbers 15:32-36.

With the empowerment of disciples at the second Passover liberation of Israel, disciples will become responsible for their lawlessness, their sin. The Son of Man will be revealed; the garment of grace will be removed. Disciples will be liberated from indwelling sin and death so that no longer will weakness cause disciples to succumb to the lawlessness residing in the flesh. As Israel when breaking the Sabbath before the giving of the law at Sinai received a rebuking from God (but not the immediate execution of a death sentence), the Church when breaking the Sabbath before the second Passover liberation of Israel has not immediately died for this transgression of the law. But all of this will change with first the liberation of the Church (spiritual Israel) at the beginning of the seven endtime years of tribulation, then the liberation of the remaining third part of humankind at the middle of these seven endtime years. Once liberated from sin and death, every person will be responsible for his or her transgressions of the law, with the penalty for transgression being the second death.

Therefore, the reality of what is foreshadowed by the two symbolic baptisms (of spirit and of fire) on Pentecost is fulfilled during the seven endtime years of tribulation, with the reality of baptism of Israel by spirit beginning these seven years and the baptism by fire [i.e., the resurrection of firstfruits] ending these seven years. The harvest of firstfruits begins with the resurrection of Christ Jesus and continues until He returns to take to Him those who are His at the end of the Tribulation. Hence, the reality of both Pentecost and the Feast of Weeks moves into the reality represented by Unleavened Bread.

Christ Jesus is, ultimately, the substance or reality of every festival, new moon, and Sabbath (Col 2:16-17), which does not give a disciple excuse to neglect observing these festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths; for without observing these Sabbaths when disciples consciously enter into the presence of God, disciples will have no understanding of the plan of God and will say silly things about God.

The question remains, though, can a symbol represent more than one reality? Yes, it can. Thus, the Feast of Weeks can be legitimately construed to represent the great White Throne Judgment and the resurrection of the wheat harvest without excessively torturing the Holy Day calendar—such a representation will have both harvests of God represented in the spring Holy Day calendar [i.e., Passover through Pentecost] and both harvests of God represented in the fall calendar [Trumpets through the Last Great Day]. But this is not the best representation of the Feast of Weeks, nor the most logical representation.

It is difficult for a disciple who has spent decades believing that the Feast of Weeks represents the harvest of firstfruits (which it does) as a separate harvest from the Wave Sheaf Offering to perceive that the entirety of the harvest of firstfruits is represented by Unleavened Bread when the two loaves to be waved before the Lord on the Feast of Weeks are baked with leavening (Lev 23:17). But when remembering that the two millennia of the so-called Church era is represented by the six hours between when the Passover lamb is slain between the evenings and the midnight hour when the death angel passed over Egypt, it is not so difficult to understand why the two waved loaves are baked with leavening.

This will conclude the Pentecost reading for this year. If a person wishes to further explore Pentecost, the reviewing of the reading for last year is suggested. The person can see the growth that has occurred within Philadelphia just this past year.

The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.

* * * * *

[ Home ] [ Sabbath Readings ]