Count to Pentecost #2

Refuting False Doctrine Concerning the Count to Pentecost

Fred R. Coulter—April 21, 1990

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• Why is it important that we doctrinally understand the Bible?

• Why is that important?

We just went through everything concerning the Passover, a very detailed thing. Let's go to the New Testament and find out why it is important that with sound doctrine we may be able to learn.

Titus talks about bishops or teachers. The word 'bishop' is not there. It's elder: 'presbuteros.'

Titus 1:6: "If any man be blameless, the husband of one wife… [that doesn't mean that the rest of you can have two] …having faithful children, not accused of debauchery or rebellion. For it is obligatory that as God's steward an overseer…" (vs 6-7). What's the difference between an overseer and an overlord?

• overlord will 'lord it over' or be a dictator
• overseer is not to be a dictator but to over see what is going on

There's a vast difference! The word translated 'bishop' from the Greek is overseer.

"…that as God's steward and overseer…" (v 7)—that he is working for God. Any minister who will not admit that you belong to God. In other words, if he says, 'You are my flock,' that's not true; you are God's flock, that is true!. If a minister says, 'I brought you and you belong to me,' that's not true. If a minister says, 'God called you and God brought you in,' that is true! A steward is to take someone else's property/belongings and if you have the Spirit of God, you are His. So then, you take care of God's property or His children, because they belong to Him! It's talking about stewardship.

"…be blameless, not self-willed…" (v 7). I want to tell you something very important about that. That's where all of this false doctrine and heresies, twists and turns are coming from. We are told that we are to 'beware of false prophets' If you don't know the Scriptures, there is no way that you can beware of them.

• if you don't study
• if you don't read
• if you don't stay close to God
• if you don't really use the Word of God the way it ought to be

how are you going to know?

We just had some people who went off and thought the 15th Passover was the greatest thing to come along since the telephone was invented. How do you know? It wasn't by a Catholic priest who came and said, 'Oh, by the way. All you people in the Church of God, you need to be doing this.' No! It was someone who has been in the Church of God, or still is in the Church of God, who goes, DING! 'I've got an idea.'

"…not self-willed…" and that's were a lot of these things come in. Are we willing to go by the Word of God? If we are, then it's not my will but 'Your will be done'!

I was just talking with a fellow some time ago. We got on the subject of adultery and remarriage and things like this. He said, 'All that stuff is old fashioned.' Maybe to you, but I'll guarantee you two things:

• you're still human and God does still exist
• adultery, therefore, does still exist

If you think you can fight God and get away with it, then you do it. You put the onus back on them.

"…not quick-tempered, not given to wine…" (v 7). I've heard some sermons that were very angry and that's not to say that you're not to be angry concerning sin, but I'm sure you can all remember some sermons that were in hostile anger.

"… not a bully, not greedy for material gain; but hospitable, a lover of good, sound-minded, just, Holy, self-controlled, holding steadfastly to the faithful word, according to the teachings of Jesus Christ… [which he has been taught] …so that he may be able both to encourage with sound doctrine… [teaching, by correct teaching] …and to convict those who are gainsayers. For there are many rebellious and vain talkers and deceivers, especially those from the circumcision party" (vs 7-10). Very interesting statement there. People who go around saying, 'I know God's Word.'

Verse 11: "Whose mouths must be stopped; who are subverting whole households…"—not only just houses, but that can also have an oblique reference to churches. Remember the church that met in the 'elect' lady's house (3-John) and the church that was in Phoebe's house (Acts 16)?

"…teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of selfish gain. One from among them, even one of their own prophets, said, 'Cretans are always liars, and evil, wild beasts, and lazy gluttons.' This testimony is true. For this reason you must rebuke them severely, that they may be sound in the faith; not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men, which turn away from the Truth" (vs 11-14).
I think that's exactly where the 14th/15th Passover controversy fits, right into that. The same way with what we're going to cover now, which has to do with Pentecost, which day is the correct day to observe it?

I have another one of these little 'study papers' written by Mr. William F. Dankenbring. The title is, Which is the Correct Day To Observe Pentecost. I'm going to read some of the things, here. It always starts out with something that is true. It starts out at the top:

Which is the Correct Day to Observe Pentecost? by William F. Dankenbring: Astounding New Truth:

The Worldwide Church has been doing it wrong. How to count Pentecost.

I will get into some of it a little bit later as we go on.

What I want to do first is get to the situation concerning what Dankenbring claims that the Septuagint Bible was the inspired Word of God.

I have a Septuagint Bible that has the Greek and that has the English. After reading the Greek, I find that in places that it's very good and in places it's really very bad. I want to read to you just a little bit out of the introduction, because the long and the short of it is this: The Septuagint Greek Version, hence it's English translation that we have today, we have absolutely no way of knowing if that was the one that was written in 252B.C..

The Septuagint comes from Alexandria, Egypt. Let me give you a little history of Alexandria, Egypt: During the days of Jeremiah when the Jews were told not to go down there, they went down there and they settled in Egypt. Not many people realize it, but they now have discovered that there was a Jewish Gnostic temple in the Egyptian city called Elephantine where they practiced sun-worship and all of what is known as the Gnostic religion, plus the Holy Days and circumcision.

When Alexander established the city of Alexandria, which has become one of the major port cities in Egypt today, that became a city of great learning. There was the greatest colony of Jews outside of Palestine, in Alexandria, much like we have in New York today, in relationship to Palestine.

There they had one of the biggest libraries in the world. As a matter of fact, they say that one of the reasons that we don't understand a lot of ancient history is because one of the conquerors burned the library in Alexandria burning all of those books. The other great, major, ancient library that was destroyed was at Laodicea. When Laodicea was destroyed and Alexandria was destroyed, all that ancient knowledge was cut off and lost!

There are, in the Pharisees, two branches:

• the Palestinian Pharisees who spoke Hebrew and Greek
• the Hellenic Pharisees who were in Egypt

That's why the Septuagint was translated, to have a Greek translation of the Old Testament for the Hellenic Jews who spoke Greek. The Septuagint would probably be pretty good if we had the original copies. Obviously, we're not going to have the original text, but at least the copies—the accurate copies—of the original.

What I want to do is read part of the introduction, here, to let you know about the Greek manuscript, because you can't trust what is in here. If we find, as we do in Mr. Dankenbring's paper:

from How to Count Pentecost?: Proof of the Septuagint

Why should the fact that the translators of the Septuagint Version understood it that way be significant? Just what was the Septuagint anyway? The Septuagint is the old Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures and the earliest complete translation of them. It is called Septuagint, commonly designated, capital L-X-X or LXX, because seventy or seventy-two translators were reputed to have been employed in translating the Pentateuch during the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, in 285-246B.C..

Josephus gives a little account of this how that Eliezer, the high priest at Jerusalem…

There is nothing that authenticates this at all. There is no other history which authenticates it other than Josephus:

…sent 72 interpreters, six from each tribe, to make the translation of the Hebrew Books of the Law into Greek. They arrived at Alexandria, Egypt, were assigned a quiet house on the Island of Syros in the harbor and translated and interpreted the law in 72 days. From Egypt, the Septuagint would spread to all parts of the Hellenistic Jewish world.

Remember, there were Hellenistic Pharisees, very important to remember. Later, when the Catholic Church came into being, the ones who brought in that 'religion' into the Catholic Church, were Hellenistic Pharisees, whether they were Gentiles or Jews. That's another interesting bit of history. It says how they did it by each being put in a room and they all did it miraculously; they all translated it every bit the same. Therefore, it's got to be inspired.

We could take all of us who have God's Holy Spirit and if we all had the ability, tell you to go ahead and translate it. Remember, they didn't have the Holy Spirit. We're going to have some different versions of it. We know that that is a fabulist story.

Here, says the New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible: the Septuagint became the Old Testament of the Christians who used it in their controversies with the Jews. The quotations from the Old Testament, in the New Testament, are usually citations from the Septuagint.

Not so! There are only about eight in the New Testament, which you could say are directly from the Septuagint.

These were either verbatim or with unimportant verbal changes. In other cases, New Testament writers, apparently themselves, translated from the original Hebrew. The Ethiopian eunuch whom Phillip met was reading the Septuagint.

It doesn't say. It says that he was reading the Scriptures; we don't know what he was reading. Let's see what it says. We assume many things. Can you make that kind of assumption?

Acts 8:30: "And when Philip ran up, he heard him… [the Ethiopian eunuch] …reading the words of the prophet Isaiah, and said, 'Do you understand… [he was reading out loud; he heard him read] …what you are now reading?' And he said, 'But how am I able to understand, without someone to guide me?' And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him. Now, the passage of Scripture that he was reading was this, 'He was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb is dumb before the one who is shearing it, so He did not open His mouth. In His humiliation, His judgment was taken away; and who shall declare His genealogy? For His life is taken from the earth'" (vs 30-33).

Does this tell us that it is the Septuagint? It doesn't tell us!

Isaiah 53:7: (Septuagint): "And because of His affliction, opens not His mouth. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. In His humiliation, his judgment was taken away and who shall declare His generation, for His life is taken away from the earth because the iniquities of My people, He was led to death. I will give the wicked for His burial and the rich for His death" (vs 7-9).

Isaiah 53:7 (FV): "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet, He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and with His generation who did consider that He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken" (vs 7-8). The consequence we see, that even the Septuagint today is not the same as the original text King James. Why?

(continuing from Dankenbring):
Jesus and the apostles usually quoted from the Septuagint, thus bestowing upon its authority as God's inspired Word. This acknowledgment of its authority and usefulness on the part of the New Testament writers, under God's inspiration, is additional evidence that the Wave Sheaf Offering was to occur on the day after the first day of Unleavened Bread and not the weekly Sabbath. The Septuagint translates the original Hebrew in this way. Since the writers of the New Testament and early Christians all used the Septuagint in many cases, though not exclusively. This fact establishes reliability and authenticity of the Septuagint and its usefulness in areas of Bible research, including the matter that's before us.

—which is Pentecost. The Introduction is interesting, but should we trust it?

from the Introduction in the Septuagint Bible:

In the course of the second century, three other complete versions of the Old Testament into Greek were executed: these are of importance in this place, because of the manner in which they were afterwards connected with the Septuagint.

The first of the Greek versions of the Old Testament executed in the second century…

from 100-200A.D..

…was that of AQUILA. He is described as a Jew or Jewish proselyte of Pontus, and the date commonly attributed to his version is about the year A.D. 126. His translation is said to have been executed for the express purpose of opposing the authority of the Septuagint: his version was in consequence upheld by the Jews. His labour was evidently directed in opposing the passages which the Christians were accustomed to cite from the Septuagint as applicable to the Lord Jesus.

Now we have some Jewish authorship trying to change the fact of Jesus being here, which by the way, Josephus never accounted for. There's one little place in Josephus, which everybody acknowledges that someone later put it in there. Josephus' writings obliterated any knowledge of Christ.

If you want something very interesting, go down to any library and get the Encyclopedia Judaica and read Jesus Christ in the section under Jesus Christ. Then get any vernacular history written by a Jew about that time. They pass over it like you would not believe. It is really incredible.

I went down to the library and I did just that very thing; I was shocked. {Note sermon series: Scripturalism vs Judaism showing what the Jews did to destroy the knowledge of Christ and separate themselves from Him}—which is tied to Passover and I think could very well be tied to Pentecost.

To make a long story short, Aquila had his translation. There were others called Symmachus and Theodosia, and Origen came along and whether he was one of these Hellenic Pharisaic Jews, or whether he was a Gentile and was converted to Judaism really doesn't make any difference. He took the:

• Septuagint Greek
• Symmachus Greek
• Theodosia Greek
• Aquila Greek

and several others, and he put the Hebrew along side of it, and then he made notations where they all differed a little from each other. That was called the hexapla. Then there was one where there was an oxpola , or eight.

What happened was that all of these translations in Greek became merged into the one that Jerome wrote that came out to be what we call the Septuagint today, which is now the Codex Vaticanus, or the Textus Receptus.

The one that Jerome wrote was a redo. What happened after Origen did his thing, then Constantine came along and started the Roman Catholic Church. They had to have a Bible for it. Constantine had Eusebuis take Origen's copy, which was now all mixed up, all six of those translations worked together, and Eusebuis made a copy, but there's a problem with Eusebuis making a copy. He made 50 copies and this became the central thing, which now all the Catholic priests would use in a new Catholic Church. He did his in Classic Greek. Jerome later corrected that by making it into Koiné or common Greek.

So, for someone today to say that the Septuagint that we have today can be relied upon for establishing technical doctrine is not correct. I'll point out the reason when we get to Lev. 23 a little later. Therefore, when someone makes a claim, we should either prove it or disprove it!

I didn't intend for it to be quite this drastic. I did not insert the Introduction in the Septuagint. I will have to say that the Greek in the Septuagint does not have the 'punch and the power' that it does in the New Testament; it just doesn't, except in some of the Psalms and some places in the Old Testament.

Let's begin counting for Pentecost. Let's see what is done and how it is done, the way it is put together. I will have to say that after checking this out in the Hebrew, the King James translation is exactly correct. Before we get to Lev. 23, what I want to do is give you the word for Sabbath: 'shabbat.' So, if you hear a Jew say 'shabbat shalom,' it means Peace on the Sabbath. There is another word that is pronounced 'shabathon,' which means literally to Sabbathize. There is another word very similar to 'shabbat,' which is 'sha-bath.' That's why it is very easy to get them mixed up. They are spelled almost exactly the same except for the vowel points.

The word 'sha-bath' means to rest. The word 'shabbat' means a Sabbath, which is a rest. We will see that there's literally a place that is 'sha-bath,' which is Sabbath of rest. There is another word for week. That word is entirely different and it's 'shabua'—week. One thing you can know for sure, nowhere in the King James Bible is 'shabbat,' Sabbath, translated week and nowhere is 'shabua' translated Sabbath. That's very important.

Exodus 16:23: "And he said to them, 'This is that which the LORD has said, "Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath…"'"—would be where we find these two words, 'sha-bath,' rest and then it is Holy 'shabbat,' remember the emphasis is different. To make the difference, we would say 'sha-bath' and the other one would be 'shabbat.' That is the same word that is used when we get to Lev. 23.

Verse 27: "And it came to pass that some of the people went out on the seventh day in order to gather, but they did not find any. And the LORD said to Moses, 'How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See, because the LORD has given you the Sabbath…'" (vs 27-29)—'shabbat.'

Exodus 20:8: "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy."

Exodus 31:13: "…Truly you shall keep My Sabbaths…" and it goes through the same thing—Sabbath, 'shabbat.'

Generally you can make the Sabbath as such that if you have someone that's staying with you and they didn't believe in the Sabbath, I think if you just told them, 'Today's our Sabbath, we don't do any work around here. Does that bother you?' If they're visiting probably not, because they came to visit to get away from work! That commandment is literally true.

Lev. 23—we'll find some very interesting things here as we go along. I've got a very literal letter by letter analysis to make sure that what I am to say is correct. I did that in the Hebrew. I will tell you the simplest way to understand it is this: The translation in The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version is correct. It has to do with the Feast of Unleavened Bread. One thing I want to call your attention to is this:

Leviticus 23:6: "And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. You must eat unleavened bread seven days. On the first day you shall have a Holy convocation…." (vs 6-7). I want you to pay particular attention that even in the Hebrew, this does not call it a Sabbath. It does not call it a 'shabbat.'

"'…You shall not do any servile work therein, but you shall offer a fire offering to the LORD seven days. In the seventh day is a Holy convocation. You shall do no servile work therein.' And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, "When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it, then you shall bring the premier sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest"'" (vs 7-10).

There are several misunderstandings concerning that interpretation; the correct one which you read:

"…you shall bring the premier sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord…" (vs 10-11). Some people have misinterpreted this to mean that every farmer must bring a sheaf of his firstfruits. Bring it to the temple and all of those sheaves must be waved. That is incorrect! There is only one sheaf, a special ceremonial sheaf.

Verse 11: "And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it." The word here is 'shabbat,' everywhere translated and meaning the Sabbath.

Let me read something out of this paper on how to count Pentecost by Mr. Dankenbring. I just wonder how many people get papers and read them and think they know their Bibles and don't check it out. That can be very dangerous. That is the most dangerous position for anyone to take. You get a paper from someone and you read it and you think you know your Bible. Maybe you don't know your Bible the way you ought to know your Bible, which then can set you up for a fall. Listen to this:

(continuing from Which is the Correct Day to Observe Pentecost?)

What Sabbath Day do you count from? What did God mean, "from the morrow after the Sabbath"? What Sabbath was that? Some believe that the Sabbath intended is the regular weekly Sabbath. However, others believe that the Sabbath in question is plainly the first High Holy Day Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In verse 7 of this chapter, God plainly shows that the first day of Unleavened Bread was ordained as a Sabbath.

That's almost correct. No servile work was to be done therein.

What is the difference between a Holy Day Sabbath and a weekly Sabbath? The Holy Day is a High Day, and you can do whatever work that's necessary for the preparing of food or the keeping of the Feast! You could kill a bullock. That's a lot of work. You could go to the temple. You could make the offering there. You couldn't do that on the weekly Sabbath!

It says clearly concerning the Sabbath that it is a Holy Convocation, that is true, but He specifically says of the weekly Sabbath:

Verse 3: "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a Holy convocation. You shall not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings." There is a difference.

On the first day Holy Day and the last Holy you shall do no servile work therein! What is the most stringent Sabbath of all? Atonement!

Let me read this again so you get the way he thinks and the story flow, here.

Some believe that the Sabbath intended is the regular weekly Sabbath, as we find in verse 11, 'And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it.' Some believe that the Sabbath in question is plainly the weekly Sabbath. Some others believe that the Sabbath is the first High Holy Day Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

(go to the next track)

In verse 7 of this chapter, God plainly shows that the first day of Unleavened Bread was ordained as a Sabbath.

He does not plainly show it here—does He? What would 'plainly show' mean that it was a Sabbath? The word itself! Since it's not used, it doesn't plainly say here, that it is a Sabbath.

No servile work was to be done therein, it was a Holy convocation.

You see how subtly something like that can shift in there. Even though it is call the Sabbath, it doesn't plainly say it here. It does in John 19 'for that Sabbath was a high Sabbath.'

Immediately following this commandment, God introduces the sheaf of the firstfruits, verse 10.

Does v 10 follow v 7? Or Is there 8 and 9 in between it? There is 8 and 9 between it!

Verse 7: "On the first day you shall have a Holy convocation. You shall not do any servile work therein… [v 8]: In the seventh day is a Holy convocation. You shall do no servile work therein. And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, "When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it… [v 11]: And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it" (vs 7-11). So, it's not immediately following!

Verse 11 then explains, continuing on with the same thought, 'And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow after the Sabbath shall the priest wave it (Lev. 23:11). It is obvious that the CONTEXT ITSELF PROVES that this Sabbath is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

If it were obvious that it proved that, why would there be a controversy? If you follow his logic carefully, it would be obvious under the assumptions of his logic that the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, also being the equivalent of a Sabbath, it would logically follow that you would have to start on the day after the last day of Unleavened Bread. It doesn't logically follow!

It is obvious that the CONTEXT ITSELF PROVES that this Sabbath is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, otherwise confusion would have set in. If God meant the regular weekly Sabbath and thus changed the thought…

How dare God change the thought, I will add!

…He would have said the weekly Sabbath, in order to distinguish it from the annual Sabbath, which He had just ordained in verse 7 of this chapter.

So, if He ordained the first day as a Holy Day, then the seventh day is a Holy Day and his logic falls apart because it would have to be construed as the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Notice his logic:

…and sequence of events during this pivotal Spring Festival of seven days. First, the Passover lamb was observed on the evening of the 14th of Nissan symbolizing Jesus Christ our Passover. Then the first day of Unleavened Bread was observed as an annual Sabbath with a Holy meeting. Then, the following day, after the integral part of the spring Feast, on the morrow after that Sabbath, the very next morning, the Wave Sheaf Offering was performed by the priest. This event was an integral part of the spring festival. It was not delayed until the morrow after the weekly Sabbath. If the weekly Sabbath was the same as the first or the last Holy Day of Unleavened Bread by coincidence, then those who claim it is the correct day, claim the Wave Sheaf Offering then, came after the seven day Festival.

I still can't make logic out of that sentence.

That is sheer nonsense. It was an integral part of the spring festival. Therefore, it did not occur after the Festival, but it had to occur during it.

The Septuagint does say, 'And on the first day…', but that is not a translation from the Hebrew. All that is an interpretation. The Hebrew word for Sabbath is 'shabbat,' which is seventh-day Sabbath.

There are several important things for us in Lev. 23:15. This is correctly translated. You don't have to change a single thing here.

Verse 15: "And you shall count to you beginning with the next day after the Sabbath, beginning with the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete." We used to say years ago when we tried to show a Monday Pentecost, that that was weeks. However, that's entirely incorrect. It is Sabbaths--'shabbat'—no problem, no doubt! Clear is can be!

"…seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the day after the seventh Sabbath…" (vs 15-16). In order to count just weeks alone, you have to change that to weeks. Here Sabbath is properly translated from 'shabbat.'

"…you shall number fifty days. And you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD" (v 16).

Deut. 16—we have the word weeks. Weeks is from a different word, which is 'shabua.' There's a big difference between 'shabbat' and 'shabua.'

Deuteronomy 16:9: "You shall count seven weeks to yourselves. Begin to count the seven weeks… ['shabua'—plural] …from the time you first began to put the sickle to the grain." When do you begin? It's not clear—is it?

It just says "…from the time you first began to put the sickle to the grain." It's not clear! It doesn't tell us when to start, it just says when you begin count seven weeks.
Verse 10: "And you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God according to the sufficiency of a freewill offering from your hand…" This does not tell us when to begin and it doesn't tell us when to stop. It gives us a generality of when to begin, "…from the time you first began to put the sickle to the grain."

What else is missing in Deut. 16 and the reason why we need Lev. 23? Though we are to keep the Feast of Weeks, there's something missing on how to calculate it. Counting after the Sabbath? It's there to count seven weeks, but what else is missing? The fiftieth day! Deut. 16 is informational, but it cannot establish a definite day. It would be like, 'Keep the Sabbaths of the Lord.' That establishes the fact that we are to keep the Sabbaths of the Lord, but it doesn't tell us which day. Deut. 16 is general information but it does not give a specific day. That's why we have to come back to Lev. 23.

Leviticus 23:15—we have to count: "And you shall count to you beginning with the next day after the Sabbath, beginning with the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete…" You have to have seven Sabbaths.

Verse 16: "Even unto the day after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days…." (vs 15-16). What we have here is double entry bookkeeping. What does double entry bookkeeping do to accounting? It makes everything balance! The beginning has to be the same and the ending has to be the same. That's why God did it this way so you'll get the right day.

This does mean on the morrow after the Sabbath is the weekly Sabbath. It can't be any other. Why can't it be any other? If I make that statement I must prove it. We will prove it!

[transcriber's Note: Fred is referring to a handout calendar. You may understand this section better if you refer to the booklet: How to Count Pentecost (pdf at truthofgod.org]

The way that it is presented in this paper, suffice to say, Mr. Dankenbring has said that it is incorrect to keep a Sunday Pentecost, because that is a pagan day, and if you keep a pagan day you can't be following God.

Pray tell what happens when Christmas falls on the Sabbath. Are you keeping a pagan day if you keep the Sabbath that day? According to the Roman Calendar every day is a pagan day. So, you got him in his reasoning; it is wrong. There's no such thing as a pagan day. There is a day that pagans observe, that they have named for what they want. If you go through their observations, you are keeping a day that the pagans claim for their own, but God did not create any time inherently pagan!

The reason that I have you view 1988, is because I want you to see how they must count for Pentecost using the Pharisaical way of counting. You will see that if you count that way, you will always come to the 6th of Sivan. This calendar makes it very easy. Just drop down seven seeks until you come to where it says 6/7, which is in the month of Sivan. The 6th of Sivan falls on a Sunday. When he wrote this article, he didn't have enough sense to check it out and prove it first, that it could possibly fall on a Sunday.

They say that 'on the day after the Sabbath' means the first Holy Day. That's the way the Pharisees say. Look at this little 'trusty' calendar, here and sure enough you come to the 15th day, which we already have determined was a regular weekly Sabbath. In this case it would be correct to have the Wave Sheaf Offering on the next day, the 16th. Why? Because the first Holy Day and the weekly Sabbath are the same day in that particular year!

• What do the instructions say? 'Even unto the day after the seventh Sabbath!
• Can they be right in their calculations some of the time? Yes!

Let me read this again. So, we go through it:

Leviticus 23:15: "And you shall count to you beginning with the next day after the Sabbath, beginning with the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the day after the seventh Sabbath…" (vs 15-16). They must change this word from 'shabbat' to 'shabua' in order to make it read weeks. In Hebrew, it is 'shabbat,' not 'shabua.'

"…after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days…." (v 16). That's very specific. Seven times seven is 49, plus one is 50! In this particular case is the 6th of Sivan.

 [transcriber's note: again continuing counting from handout; refer to booklet How to Count Pentecost]

When the Passover is in the middle of the week and the first day of Unleavened Bread is on a Thursday the 15th and the 16th is Friday. Count seven Sabbaths, not weeks. Where it does say weeks, those are complete weeks, which means days 1-7. That's a complete week.

What is a deficient week? Any part of a week that is less than a whole!

Leviticus 23:16: "Even unto the day after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days…." We have seven Sabbaths, but how only 43 days! That's why He says, count 50 days. Double entry bookkeeping!

You come to the seventh Sabbath and the day after the seventh Sabbath is the 1st of Sivan. The 6th of Sivan does not come until Friday in the particular year on the handout.

That's why you don't count from the first Holy Day during the days of Unleavened Bread, because you cannot come up with seven Sabbaths and then come to the morrow after the seventh Sabbath; you are short five days (in this particular case). If you're 43 days, the 43rd day is the day after the seventh Sabbath, not 50 days.

What do you have to do to make it fit that formula? You have to say that 'even unto the day after the seventh week,' instead of Sabbath and you violate the Scriptures because the word is not 'shabua,' the word is 'shabbat!'

The only way to solve this problem is to sit down and look a several calendars. You have to have seven Sabbaths. Deut. 16 says that you have to have seven complete weeks, not two deficient weeks and five complete weeks, but you must have seven complete weeks. You do not have these in this case.

When it is counted the way the Pharisees count it, does it fluctuate from day to day during the week? Yes, it does! It's mostly Wednesday, Friday, a Sunday and Monday. Dankenbring says in another paper that anyone who keeps a Monday has got to be absolutely the worst nerds in the world. He goes to the 6th of Sivan and there's a Monday Pentecost. Now, what is his logic going to do? Be shattered! When we get tough, sticky, false prophets running in our midst, we've got to dig a little deeper to make sure we're right.

If you go counting from the first Holy Day, being the 16th of Nissan and you count 7 Sabbaths, you come up 5 days short. Why do you come up 5 days short? Because you do not have complete weeks, days 1-7! Instead of starting on the first day of the week to count, you're starting on the sixth day of the week. So, you count your first Sabbath—is that a week? or one day? That's one day! That's why you're short. That's why accountants can catch you wrong in your accounting. In this case, if you put $2.00 in the till and count it for $7.00, you're going to come up $5.00 short!

Remember, if the Wave Sheaf Offering, as claimed by the Pharisees and Mr. Dankenbring, if you begin counting including the 16th of Nissan. In this particular case, the weekly Sabbath is the 19th of the first month. To properly count—this time we're going to properly count—'from the morrow after the Sabbath,' of the 19th, the 'morrow' is the 20th. From, including that day, you count seven weeks.

[transcriber's note: again continuing counting from handout; refer to booklet How to Count Pentecost]

Notice, we're going to count the way the Pharisees count, to begin with. They say, according to their calculations, that the day the Wave Sheaf Offering was to be given was on the 16th. The very next day is the first Sabbath. That is the way they count:

• Sabbath 1, is the 17th
• Sabbath 2, is the 24th
• Sabbath 3, is the 1st
• Sabbath 4, is the 8th
• Sabbath 5, is the 15th
• Sabbath 6, is the 22nd
• Sabbath 7, is the 29th

You don't count just weeks, you count Sabbaths, 'unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath.'

If you take the next day after the seventh Sabbath, you come to the 1st of Sivan and not the 6th of Sivan. That's why they are short. That's how you can tell that that's incorrectly counted.

In order for them to count, they have seven Sabbaths, but two deficient weeks. Instead of taking seven complete weeks, they have five complete weeks and two deficient weeks, being the first week and the last week. Therefore, the 6th of Sivan in this particular year comes on Friday. Does that make it clearer as to how they counted incorrectly?

In the case we just reviewed, you don't have 50 days, after the seventh Sabbath, to the day. Your 49th day must always be a Sabbath Day!

There are times when that Pharisaic counting is correct. Here we have the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a regular weekly Sabbath. If the first day is a regular, weekly Sabbath, when do you wave the sheaf offering? On the 16th! Part of the time they are correct. Then you can just go down and count the weeks, again:

'Unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath,' the 6th of Sivan is the correct day in that particular year. It is correct only in those years when the first Holy Day and the weekly Sabbath coincide! That is why God tells us to 'count!'

If it was a set 6th day of the month always, what would the command be in the Bible? He would say, 'Moreover, on the 6th day of the third month you shall have a Holy convocation!' No need to call it Pentecost. Why? Because that means, counting fifty! There's no need to count 50 if it's always the 6th of Sivan. Why would you have to count? You wouldn't have to count!

I might also mention in this sermon that someone wrote in and asked, 'By what authority are the Holy Days established?' I have here a comprehensive Hebrew calendar. It has everything in here. We don't have to worry about getting those little pocket calendars from anywhere. We'll have it right here.

In the year 1950 the 15th day of the 1st month was a Sunday. How do you do that? The Passover was on a regular Sabbath, the 14th was on a Sabbath. How do you handle that?

I think the way that should be handled is this way: It has to occur during the Feast of Unleavened Bread! The Passover is on the Sabbath. Since there is no day after the Feast, you would have to wave it on the 15th, in that particular case, after the weekly Sabbath. That comes along very, very, veryrarely. That is a really rare one indeed!

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible In Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)

Scriptural References:

• Titus 1:6-14
• Acts 8:30-33
• Isaiah 53:7-9
• Exodus 16:23, 27-29
• Exodus 20:8
• Exodus 31:13
• Leviticus 23:6-11, 3, 7-11, 15-16
• Deuteronomy 16:9-10
• Leviticus 23;15-16

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• 3-John
• Acts 16
• John 19

Also referenced:

Article: Which is the Correct Day to Observe Pentecost?by William F. Dankenbring

Books:

• Septuagint Bible (http://www.bible-researcher.com/brenton1.html) pdf
• Josephus
• Codex Vaticanus
• Textus Receptus

Sermon Series: Scripturalism vs Judaism

Booklet: How to Count Pentecost (truthofGod.org)

FRC:nfs
Transcribed:09/22/16
Proofed: bo—9/29/16