Basic HTML Version
The GOOD NEWS
LETTER
===================================================================
A personal letter to all the brethren of The
Churches of God, from your pastor, co-laborer,
and fellow-servant in Christ, Herbert W.
Armstrong, Box 111, Eugene.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Number 2
June 8th, 1943
-------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW TO F I G U R E PENTECOST
GREETINGS, Brethren! Next Monday, June 14th, is a very
sacred annual SABBATH-day! It is the annual day of PENTECOST, or
Festival of First Fruits. On that day we are commanded to cease
our work, just as on the weekly Sabbath, and to assemble in holy
convocation.
The Original PENTECOST
Notice Acts 1:1: "And when the day of Pentecost was
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." They were
ASSEMBLED! Why? And they were all with ONE ACCORD about it, not
divided as to which day.
The word "Pentecost" is a GREEK word. It was not used in
Old Testament times. It signifies "Fifty," because this day was
determined by COUNTING fifty days FROM the morrow after the weekly
Sabbath which falls during the days of unleavened bread.
Literally, the Greek word "pentecost" means "fifty-count." Count
fifty. Count fifty FROM a certain day. The day we count from is
the morrow AFTER the Sabbath. The Sabbath we now call "Saturday."
The morrow after Saturday is Sunday. Count one day FROM Sunday.
Any little child would readily know it is Monday. Sunday is not
one day FROM Sunday. Sunday is Sunday, and one day FROM Sunday is
Monday. Seven days from Sunday is the following Sunday. Seven
WEEKS from Sunday is the seventh Sunday. And the morrow after that
seventh week is Monday. 49 days FROM Sunday is the seventh Sunday,
and 50 days after, or counted FROM any Sunday always falls on a
MONDAY. That is simple second-grade arithmetic. Yes, thank God,
these things are not difficult; they are plain and simple; and they
are revealed to BABES who are surrendered of heart and mind and
willing to learn God's way, and hidden from the wise and the
prudent.
In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the word "Pentecost"
is not used. "Pentecost" is a Greek word, used only after the
Jews of Palestine came to speak the common language of the time,
Greek. Originally, in the Hebrew, this festival was called
primarily by two names, "Feast of FIRST FRUITS," and "FEAST OF
WEEKS," because it is COUNTED by numbering seven WEEKS from the
morrow after the Sabbath, and then adding one day to make fifty.
Hence, in the Hebrew, the festival was named "Feast of WEEKS,"
signifying seven WEEKS were counted from a Sunday, to the morrow
after that seventh week, or to a Monday; while in the New Testament
it was named Pentecost, meaning "count FIFTY" days from a Sunday,
(morrow after the Sabbath), to a MONDAY. Thus the method of