Calendar Fundamentals
By Ben Whitfield
There
are 7 fundamental keys that have helped me concerning the “Counting of
Pentecost.”
1.) There are 3 Sabbaths during the Days of UB, but only one of them is the
"weekly Sabbath" that one counts "...from the morrow after the
Sabbath..."
Mi-mochorath: Hash-Shabbath:" ... or the "Wave Sheaf" Day, which
is always
the first day of the week, after the weekly Sabbath that falls during the
Days of UB or Sunday. You
"include" this day, Sunday or the 1st day, when
you begin your count...i.e. Sunday, 1st, Monday, 2nd, and so on until you
get to the 7th Sabbath, which is the 49th day...then Lev 23:16 ...
" Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty
days;
and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
you'll end up on the "fiftieth" day, which is Sunday, this year May 27th,
2001.
2.) What was Christ's example? Lk 22:15/1 Cor 11:23...He kept the Passover
on the early part of the 14th, died on Wed. 31AD and ascended to the Father
on Sunday (John 20:11-23)...which was the ultimate "Wave Sheaf." This
Sunday
fell "during" the days of UB...not before or after the
"octave."
3.) You begin your count of "seven full-weeks" (NIV/NAS), plus one and
come
up with the "Fiftieth" day which will always be a Sunday…if you
start with Sunday. Unlike the
Pharisees which begin their count from the "day after the 1st Holyday of UB"
they will end up with Sivan 6...so their Pentecost or "Festival of
Weeks" will always fall on a "fixed day" -- Sivan 6. If this was
God's intent of
the original instruction in Lev 23:15-17, there would be no need to count. The
Sadduces kept Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks on a the 1st day of the
week. If you remember the temple
mount was filled with pilgrims who were there because of Pentecost that had
“fully come” or was being accomplished.
4.) You count off ..."7 full weeks." Deut 16:10...the meaning here is
7 full
and complete weeks...not parts of. If one counts (as did HWA prior to 1974) with
"counting from" exclusively you'll start your count on a Monday and
will end
up on a Monday...thus having "parts of 7 weeks" and not 7 complete
full
weeks. The count is to include both the 50th and 7 complete weeks. One starts
with the count of “7 full weeks” with the 1st day…on the morrow
after the Sabbath, inclusively…by “counting with” or beginning with or
“on” that Sunday…not away from. (as was HWA’s original position. Even in
1940 Mr. HWA kept Pentecost on a Tuesday…this shows he struggled with the
“counting” also.)
5.) Start your count with the Sunday (Omer...or Wave Sheaf) that is waved during
the Days of UB…on the morrow after the Sabbath.
You do not begin your count with the weekly Sabbath.
As we see from this year the weekly Sabbath that fell during the Days of
UB would make the Omer fall outside the Days of UB...the Sunday after the last
HD of UB. Otherwise you'll end up with Pentecost this year being June 3rd or
June 4th. However,
Pentecost this year, if counted
from the ONLY Sunday that fell during the days of UB, will be on May 27th,
2001.
(Another example is Joshua 5:10...using the NKJ or RSV translation or CJB.
The word for "old corn" in the KJV is a misleading translation, it
should read
"produce." (Joshua's sequence of events was...according to the
Companion Bible by Bullinger...after the 1st Passover, according to some
text...and the day after the Passover that year was on a Sunday, just like this
year.)
6.) What was actually going on when Acts 2 happened originally? The
disciples were all assembled on Pentecost 31AD...and when it was fully
come..."accomplished" meaning the 2 wave loaves were being offered on
the
temple mount itself, as the Sadduces had control of all the offerings during
Christ's time on the mount, the Holy Spirit came upon them. This was around
the @3rd hour...9am…the 1st day of the week, Pentecost 31AD.
7.) Ex 12:1 and Lev 23:4 tells us that God instructed Moses and Aaron to
"proclaim" (Qara" in the Hebrew) and "set" the festival
days according to
the Luni-Solar Calendar that He (God) gave them. It became an
ecclesiastical decision or one that was within the "church authority"
to do
so. The High Priest and those he appointed actually began a long history
that has been preserved thru the Jews today in the Hebrew Calendar and was
"codified" with Hillel II in @358CE.
One has to "submit" to church authority inorder to properly be
"In Sync" with God's desires and wishes, even when it comes to His
Holy Days and calendar. We do agree with what the Jews have preserved
(Rom3:1-3)...concerning the Word of God, the Torah and the Calendar, it's that
we don't always agree with their interpretations. When it becomes obvious
in our differences (i.e. Lk 22:15/1 Cor 11:23 vs their 15th of Nisan being
their Passover ...John 11:55...we must go with the example of Jesus and the
Apostles during the early "Apostolic" period of the church in
application, not according to Jewish custom.)