Pentecost Revealed

By: John H. Dugan

Pentecost is determined by starting a count to fifty at some precise time. You then end up at another precise time. What are these times and what is their significance? This paper shall answer these questions from the Bible and from the Lord’s created universe.

The Bible tells us when to start the count in Leviticus 23: 9 to 12

Everybody agrees that this is where the Bible tells us how to do the count.

Leviticus 23: 9 to 12, [9] “ Moreover the Lord Spoke to Moses, saying, [10] “Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them, When you are come into the land which I give you, and are about to reap the harvest thereof, you shall bring a sheaf, as the first fruits of your harvest, to the priest, [11] and he shall offer up the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you. On the morrow after the first day, the priest shall offer this up.” [12] And on the day when you bring the sheaf, you shall prepare a lamb without blemish, of the first year, for a whole burnt offering for the Lord,” (Thomson, Septuagint Old Testament)

Leviticus 23: 9 to 12, [9] “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying. [10] Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them, When ye shall enter into the land which I give you, and reap the harvest of it, then shall ye bring a sheaf, the first fruits of your harvest, to the priest; [11] and he shall lift up the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you. On the morrow of the first day the priest shall lift it up. [12] And ye shall offer on the day in which you bring the sheaf, a lamb without blemish of a year old for a whole burnt offering to the Lord.” (Brenton, Septuagint)

Leviticus 23: 9 to 12, [9] “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, [10] Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. [11] He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. [12] And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord.” (New King James Version.)

Clearly there is a significant difference between the Septuagint text and any text based on the Masoretic text. That difference is the word, “First” used in the Septuagint versus the word “Sabbath” used in the Masoretic text.

Some contend this means that the weekly Sabbath is the day indicated to precede the morning of the wave sheaf offering. Is this a valid assumption or does the context of the text and the nature of sacrifices offered to the Lord, and the Created Moon show us that indeed the Sabbath intended is the First annual Sabbath of the year the First Day of Unleavened Bread.

The sacrifice of the wave sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest like all sacrifices is a sacrifice of dead things to the Lord. The wave sheaf of barley has been plucked and killed and is burnt on the altar. The unblemished lamb has been slaughtered and is dead when it is burnt on the altar.

The Bible instructed the children of Israel on how to sacrifice to atone for sin to the Lord.

Lev. 1:5 “ And they shall kill the young bull before the Lord;”

Lev. 1:11 “ and they shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the lord.”

Lev. 1:15 “and the priest shall carry it to the altar and wring off the head.” (birds head)

The Bible instructed the children of Israel that every sacrifice must be a dead thing. The Lord does not accept living sacrifices. [Jesus was crucified on the North side of Jerusalem and the temple.]

Lev. 18:21 “Thou shalt not give any of thy seed to serve an Archon;” (Thomson)

Lev. 18:21 “And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech,” (NKJ)

The Bible condemns sacrificing live children to Moloch or Archon. The Lord hates the practice of the pagan nations of live murderous sacrifice and forbade it.

Clearly the wave sheaf offerings of the first fruits are dead offerings.

What does this have to do with determining the Sabbath day intended in Leviticus 23:11?

Those who hold to the belief of the weekly Sabbath being the intended Sabbath also see the wave sheaf offering day of the first fruits as being a Sunday and see Christ as being our living wave sheaf offering. They believe that Christ, on that Sunday morning in AD 31, after His evening resurrection, ascended to Heaven as our wave sheaf offering.

They believe Christ was our living resurrected wave sheaf offering. The first of the first fruits. They believe that after He saw Mary Magdalene He ascended to Heaven to the Father as our wave sheaf offering and that this is why He told her not to touch Him as He had not yet ascended to His Father. [See John 20:17.]

Clearly the living Christ would not have been an acceptable wave sheaf offering after His resurrection as He was living and no living thing may be offered to the Lord.

Lev. 2:11 “Every sacrifice which you bring to the Lord, you shall prepare without leaven; for you must not bring any kind of leaven, not even honey, as a gift to pay homage to the Lord. [12] You may bring them as gifts of first fruits to the Lord; but they shall not be laid on the altar for a smell of fragrance for the Lord.” (Thomson)

The risen Christ is however an acceptable gift of first fruits to the Lord. Gifts however are forbidden to be put on the burning altar. Gifts are forbidden to be burnt up as a fragrant smell of incense to rise in the air up to the Lord. Sweet things, living things are not acceptable wave sheaf offerings.

The living Christ could not rise up in the air, the clouds, as an acceptable wave sheaf offering. The living Christ can however ascend to His Father in the clouds as a gift. This pictures how Christ will come for His elect. The elect will be either dead things or changed in the twinkling of an eye to non-mortal gifts of first fruits to the Lord.

Since Christ must have been a dead, slaughtered sacrifice to be an acceptable wave sheaf offering then He must have been our wave sheaf offering while He was in His grave. He could not have been our wave sheaf offering when they carried Him to His grave because the wave sheaf offering is in the morning. Joseph of Arimathea hurried to place Jesus in His grave before the first Sabbath began.

A dead corpse smells and stinks to high heaven. This is a type of a burnt offering. This is similar to Jonah who was dead and rotting in the belly of the great fish till he was vomited up and resurrected to mortal life like Lazarus.

The Septuagint Bible clearly tells us that the wave sheaf offering is offered on the morning after the first annual Sabbath of the year. This is then exactly 36 hours after the first Sabbath begins and exactly 36 hours after Christ was placed in His grave. That is 24 hours from sunset beginning the 15^th of Abib and 12 hours from the sunset beginning the 16^th of Abib till the morning.

Is there any possible significance to this timing?

Jesus gave only one sign to an evil and adulterous generation that He was the Messiah. He gave only one sign that He was our acceptable wave sheaf offering to atone for our sins. That is the sign of Jonah. Jesus entered his grave as sunset approached and the 14^th ended and 15^th began.

Matthew 12: 39 to 40, [39] “ An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. [40] For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth.” NKJ

The sign of Jonah is a part of Pentecost and the Wave Sheaf Offering. In order to SEE the connection we need to know when the wave sheaf offering morning is and we need to know how to count to 50 and we need verification that we did the count right. God has provided His faithful elect the means to know this truth and be set free from sin and bondage.

Again the Septuagint makes it crystal clear that the “first day" is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the 15^th of Abib. Lev 23:7, “Now the first day shall be a holy set day for you.” The following day, “epaurion” is the 16^th of Abib and is the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering. Abib 16 is the day that they first put the sickle to the harvest. The very first harvest of the first fruits cut by the sickle is the wave sheaf offering. It is cut dead by the sickle and handed to the priest to wave. This occurs on the morning of the 16^th of Abib and is the day that the count to Pentecost starts.

In 31 A.D. the 16^th of Abib was Friday morning. Jesus was in his tomb 36 hours on Friday morning the 16^th of Abib. This is exactly one half of the 72 hours Jesus said He would be in the grave, the sign of Jonah.

Jesus went into His grave as sundown approached on Wednesday night April 25^th as Passover the 14^th of Abib was about to end.

The 15^th of Abib, the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened begins.

Thursday morning April 26^th comes.

Thursday night April 26th at sunset Jesus is now 24 hours in his grave. The 15^th of Abib ends

The First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread ends and Abib 16 begins.

The morrow of the 16^th of Abib is sunrise and Jesus is now in His grave 36 hours. The Wave Sheaf is waved by the High Priest, on the morrow, at this time. The count to Pentecost begins.

OK so what happens next. We count to 50. We count to a holy set day in its’ set time.

Leviticus 23:4, [4] “These are the festivals for the Lord, holy set days, which you shall proclaim in their set times.” (Thomson, Septuagint Old Testament)

There are two ways to correctly count Pentecost assuming you count from the morrow after the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Count 51 days as the 16^th of Abib starts or 50 days as the 17^th of Abib starts. Both methods end up in the same place.

Leviticus 23: 15 – 16, [15] “That from the morrow of these Sabbaths—from the day on which you offer up the dedicated sheaf, you shall reckon for yourselves seven whole weeks, [16] even till the morrow after the last week, you shall reckon fifty days, and then offer a sacrifice of new corn to the Lord.”

Leviticus 23: 15-16, [15] “And ye shall number to yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day on which ye shall offer the sheaf of the heave offering, seven full weeks: [16] until the morrow after the last week ye shall number fifty days, and ye shall bring a new meat offering to the Lord.” (Brenton)

Leviticus 23: 15-16, [15] “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.” (NKJ)

Deuteronomy 16:9, [9] “Seven weeks thou shalt number for thyself, from thy first beginning to put the sickle to the harvest thou shalt begin to number the seven weeks. And thou shalt keep the festival of weeks, to the Lord thy God.” (Thomson)

Deuteronomy 16:9, [9]“Seven weeks shalt thou number to thyself; when thou hast begun to put the sickle to the corn, thou shalt begin to number seven weeks. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks to the Lord thy God,” (Brenton)

Deuteronomy 16:9, [9] “You shall count seven weeks, [NOT SABBATHS], for yourself, begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God,”(NKJ)

In Leviticus 23:11, Charles Thomson correctly translates the Greek word “epaurion”, Epaurion is Strong’s # 1887 and means “occurring on the “following day”. His translation in Leviticus 23:11 is, “On the morrow after the first day.”

Sir Lancelot Brenton understood the meaning of “epaurion” but obviously made a mental or typographical error as his translation, “On the morrow of the first day” requires the reader to understand that, “following” is intended. That is, it should read “On the morrow following the first day” as it says in the Greek. That Sir Lancelot intended this is obvious as his rendering of Leviticus 23: 15-16, correctly translates that the wave sheaf offering is the day after the Sabbath. In Deuteronomy 16:9 he also correctly translates that the count to Pentecost begins when the sickle is put to the corn, that is on the 16^th of Abib the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering. And in Leviticus 23:11 he translates it as” on the morrow of the first day.” Sir Lancelot was also an Anglican who believed in Pentecost / Whit Sunday so it may be a deliberate error.

Thomson gets the meaning exactly right and his use of the plural Sabbaths in Leviticus 23:15 is interesting because the Wave Sheaf Day is also a Sabbath as the Septuagint makes clear. So indeed

There are two Sabbaths the First Day of Unleavened Bread and the Wave Sheaf Day. “These are the Festivals of the Lord, holy, set days which you shall proclaim in their set times.” Leviticus 23:4

Paul evidently counted from the 16^th of Abib because he mentions that the day of Pentecost was fully come. When you count from the 16^th you must make sure you count to the day of Pentecost fully, completely, then on the, [next], morrow, [epaurion], you have the correct day and not a false Sabbath.

The way to determine the correct counting to Pentecost is by verifying it with the moon, God’s timepiece in the sky. If the moon is half full, 50%, on the night your Pentecost begins you got it right. If it is not Half full that night you got it wrong. When the sunsets, and Pentecost begins, at evening the moon is exactly half full and on the meridian, directly overhead. [The meridian is the imaginary line connecting the North Pole & South Pole. Depending on the year the Moon’s altitude may be high or low upon the meridian.]

The Half Full Moon is a visible sign in the heavens. It is a symbolic type of Jesus’ coming in the clouds of heaven for the elect. It is a part of the sign of Jonah. You count from half the time Jesus was in His grave 50 days to a 50% full moon. It is beautiful symbolism.

The reason the Bible instructs us count to 50 is because this Half Moon is the 4^th half moon that follows the 16^th of Abib. If the Bible merely said wait till the half moon, or wait till the second half moon waxing following the 16^th of Abib it could have been confusing. By instructing the children of Israel to count 50 days from the morrow after the First Day they automatically end up on the correct Half Moon.

I hope you GET IT. Do you see God’s beautiful symbolism in His method of timing the Holy Days. No? Yes? OK, here it is in a chart for you.