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ves t / firstfruits connection to that
event.
Th e ancien t Levítica! pr iests
made a special "wave offering" of
firstfruits o f the barley harvest, the
firs t g rain crop to ripen in the
spring. This symbolically pictured
the resurrected Christ's ascension to
heaven. But st ill in the category of
firstfruits was the other · special
"wave offering" 50 days later, a t
Pentecost, this time probably of
wheat , which ripens next after bar–
ley (Lev. 23: 16- 17). That offering o f
firstfruits represented the Church;
unlike the offering representing
Christ, the loaves that were o ffe red
contained leaven, the symbol of sin ,
for not one individual Christian is
perfect.
Does the New Testament say
Christians are firstfruits? "Of his
[God's] own will he brought us fo rth
by the word of truth that we should
be a kind o f first fruits of h is crea–
tures" (James
1: 18).
And Revelation
14:4 s peaks of 144,000 who are firs t–
fruits. So this is the Bible's own in–
terpreta tion o f the meaning of at
leas t one aspect of Pen tecost.
Pentecos t- the day of firstfruits–
is ind icative of the fact that God is
no t calling everybody to salvation
today. The enti re Christjan era.
from the resurrection and ascension
of Christ to His return a nd in–
auguration of the millennial King–
dom o f God, is only a firstfru its
phase of God's plan. To fully ex–
plain that- and to explain how the
ha rves ts of the year are involved in
the meaning of additional biblical
holy days- would require another
article- or severa!. For a full ex–
planation, request our booklet
Pa–
gan Holidays- or God's Holy Days–
Which?
a nd the article " Is This the
Only Day ofSa lva tion?"
It's true. Today is
the
day of sal–
vation - th e only one- for those
whom God is calling
now
as fi rst–
fruits,
a
tiny fraction of the majo rity
ofhumanity ultima tely to be called.
A Oay of Christian Promise
It took the coming of New Tes ta–
ment times and Christianity to fully
reveal the depth of the spi ritua l
meaning of Pentecost.
The Inrer–
prerer's Dicrionary of the Bible
(a r-
The
PLAIN TRUTH May 1978
Christians Kept Pentecost
T ertullian was a prolific writer
1
and one of the most famous of
the church fathe rs. He flourished in
Roman North Africa during the
years just before A.D. 200, to about
222. In the fashion of his day, he
denounced the wrongheadedness,
as he saw it, of the
way
the Jews
observed the holy days and Sab–
baths. But did he believe such days
were all abolished? Not a t a ll. He
himself kept at least sorne of them,
while insisting on a new Christian
manner of observance more suited
to their meanings.
" If[since] there is a new creation
in Christ (the New Testament
Christian], our solemnities (man–
ner of observing the festivals] will
be bound to be new [diffe rent from
the Jewish manner, and filled wi th
new meaning]; else, if the apost le
(Pa ul , in Galatians 4:10, for ex–
ample] has erased
al/
devotion ab–
solute ly 'of seasons, and days, a nd
months and years,' why do we cel–
ebrate the Passover by an
annual
rotation in the
first monrh?
(Tertul–
lian's meaning is that Paul did
not
do away completely with festivals
and holy days, but only pointed to
a more proper mode of obser–
vance; o therwi se Christians in Ter–
tullian 's day , a nd Tertulli a n
himself. would not have kep t on
celebrating the New Testament
Passover o r Lord's Supper once
each yea r.] Why in the
fifly days
ensuing [to and including Pente–
cost] do we spend a ll our time in
exultation?" ("On Fasting," ch. 14,
A nte-Nicene Farhers,
IV,
p.
11 2).
Date of Pentecost
T
he Worldwide Church of God
will observe Pentecos t this year
on Sunday, June
11 ,
in accordance
with the lunisolar holy day calendar.
We do not consider correct the
Whitsunday date which is derived
by counting the fifty days. not
from the "morrow a fter the Sab–
bath" following Passover, but from
Easter, a day neither taught nor
mentioned in the Bible. (The men–
tion of " Easter" in the King J ames
Version [Acts 12:4] is a mis–
translation of thc Greek wo rd
Pas–
e
ha ,
meaning " P assove r.")
Influenced by anti-Semitism, in or–
de r "that none should hereafter
follow the blindness of the Jews"
(Socrates Scholasticus.
Ecc/esiasri–
ca/ History,
i.
9.
in
Nicene and
Posr-Nicene Fathers,
Second Se–
ries. vol.
11).
the Constantine-dom-
inated Counci l of Nicea, A. D. 325,
decreed that Eas ter Sunday s hould
completely replace the Passover
and be tied directly to the solar
year, specifically to the spring
equinox. Centuries of confusion
followed. Not only have Chri stians
disagreed with the Jews. they have
cont inually disagreed wi th one an–
other. With Passover (and Easter)
no longer necessarily falling in the
first month nor Pen tecost in the
third, the British and Celtic Chris–
tians for centuries frequently kept
a different day tha n the Romans ;
whil e the French , Spaniards,
Egypti a ns, e tc. somet imes di s–
agreed with bo th a nd with each
o ther. Up to modern times the
Eastern (Orthodox) Church's ca–
lendar has continued to differ from
the calendar o f the West.
29