We know that Pentecost was on the correct date in Acts 2 because Christ and the apostles observed it. Whoever established that day did it correctly and that was evidently the Pharisees. The fact that Pentecost was accurate adds further credence to the approach of the Pharisees. If the Pharisees were correct then and there has been no change to their method since then, I propose that their method remains correct. There is no historical record of the Jews changing and no historical record of true Christians differing from them over keeping Holy Days that I have encountered. The only people who have changed are the Nicene (Trinitarian) Christians but that is another story.

back to Pentecost timing part 1

Pentecost timing - Acts 2

Pentecost was one of the three pilgrim Feasts where Israel was commanded to go to a place where God placed his name (Ex.34:2223, Deut.16:16). Leading up to Acts 2 Jesus had told the disciples to wait for Him in Jerusalem in order to receive power

Since Jerusalem was the headquarters of Judaism it was overflowing with Jews seeking to obey Gods command.

God confirmed that they were keeping Pentecost on the right day with his tongues of fire. It was the same day that everyone else was celebrating. There was no question or dispute among them as to when that day came. They all knew God's requirement and were united in when it was to be observed.

...In Josephus time, the offering of the first sheaves was fixed on the sixteenth day of Nisan (Ency of Religious Knowledge, 1920 ed., Vol.VIII).

Although I believe the above statement to be somewhat misleading it does establish a basic understanding of the approach that was used to determine the wave sheaf and consequently Pentecost.

Jews know when Pentecost is and always have. There is no record in history of them ever changing. The early Christians were indistinguishable from Jews in their keeping of Holy days. In keeping with our earlier calculation of the Resurrection, the Omer must have been on a Sunday that year and so Pentecost was a Sunday.

The only reason that it was a Sunday is because Passover was the previous Thursday, not because it was always a Sunday. This has created problems for people over the years.

The Debate in WCG

Acts Chapter 2 does not help you if you ignore History and the rest of the Bible no matter how well intentioned you are, and the debate in WCG is a case in point. The counting issue in Worldwide Church of God (WCG) was surrounding how to count to Pentecost rather than when it should be counted from. An article called found on Giveshare.org at http://www.giveshare.org/HolyDay/mondaypentewhy.html , Why I Believe in a Monday Pentecost, written by Richard C. Nickels, (last accessed January 2021) traces the history of the Pentecost timing issue in WCG. I am not a believer in either the Sunday or Monday Pentecost but in seeking the truth we must consider the honest reports of eye witnesses. He begins his report this way.

I was baptized into the Church of God in 1969. When I was employed in the Church Administration Department at Pasadena in 1973 as Raymond Cole's assistant, I became aware of the undercover plan of several ministers to change the date of the Church's observance of Pentecost. There were a few Pentecost papers being secretly circulated at that time, which advocated switching from a Monday, to a Sunday, Pentecost. I had the opportunity to carefully study the issue for a number of months before the doctrinal change occurred in early 1974.

Under the caption Didn't Herbert Armstrong Originally Keep a Sunday Pentecost? it is pointed out that originally the WCG celebrated Pentecost Just as the Jews from 1934.

Didn't Herbert Armstrong Originally Keep a Sunday Pentecost?

Some have said that Herbert Armstrong originally kept a Sunday Pentecost. This is not true. The diary of Mrs. Lorinda (Stoneberg) Le Bleu, who was baptized in 1936 by Mr. Armstrong, shows that she kept a Monday Pentecost in the years 1937-1941, and following. Mr. Armstrong was ordained to the ministry in 1931, and began keeping the Holy Days in 1934. He originally kept Pentecost according to the majority of the Jews, i.e., Sivan 6-7. Sivan 6 can fall on a Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Sivan 6 was on a Sunday in the years 1934, 1937, 1938, and 1941. Armstrong published in advance a calendar for 1937, showing Pentecost corresponding to the Sivan 6 (Sunday) date. This may have been the very year he changed from a Sivan 6 Pentecost to a Monday Pentecost, because Mrs. Le Bleu's diary records a Pentecost meeting on Monday, May 17, 1937, at the Conn's house. She also records a Pentecost meeting on Monday, June 6, 1938, at the White's.

The historical record is clear. Mr. Armstrong grew in understanding. As early as 1937, he was observing a Monday Pentecost.

This suggests that in the early part of the year the church recognised the Jewish calculation as accurate but changed by the time Mrs. Lorinda Le Bleu was baptised.

Somehow about 1936-37 Herbert Armstrong became convinced that the Sadducees were correct in their way of determining Pentecost. He was never perfect in what he supported as some would want to preserve. In my own lifetime he was given to setting dates that were never fulfilled e.g. 1975 in prophecy. Also, like many others, he was associated with prophecies that identified Mussolini as the beast and World War II as ending with Armageddon. Some conclude that at this time he had drifted away from God but as I see it, it was more of being pulled away, like any other person striving for the Kingdom is subject to.

Compare WCG and Mr. Armstrong to the most celebrated evangelist of our day, Billy Graham, who started around the same time. He is supposed to have turned from his original stance against modern Christianity to being a proponent of its fundamental tenets. Is it possible that Satan might have had an agenda and Mr. Armstrong survived but not without some bruises?

Billy Graham: His Early Life and Ministry
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After all, in 1948, at the annual convention of the fundamentalist 'Conservative Baptist Association', Billy Graham was asked: "What do you expect the World Council of Churches to do this August when you visit Copenhagen?" Graham replied, "I believe they are going to nominate the Anti-Christ" (from Ian R. K. Paisley's "Billy Graham and the Church of Rome" [1970], p. 46). Contrast that to Graham's 1974 statement at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland: "I have nothing but the warmest of relations with the World Council of Churches" (from Dr. Bert Oately-Willis' "Billy Graham: The Facts" [Toronto Free Presbyterian Church]). "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24).

Tom StewartBabylon the Great (Part 5) Or, The Coming Destruction of the One World Religionwhatsaiththescripture.comWEBJanuary 2021

So Billy Graham changed completely and Mr. Armstrong came to believe (contrary to the Bible and history) that the Sadducees were right in starting the count from the weekly Sabbath except that they needed to start counting from the following day and end on a Monday. In that doctrinal change in 1974 (also recorded in the article by Richard C. Nickels) no attempt was made to question the date from which the count to Pentecost is begun! The primary focus was to choose between a Sunday or Monday reckoning. The critical matter was the meaning of the word translated from to determine if their counting should be inclusive or exclusive. The choice of course came to be Sunday.

Somehow people who had no significant track record in keeping God's Holy Days, decided that they knew better than the Jews with no evidence that the Jews ever changed their practice. They based their philosophy on an unproved an unhistorical assumption that the Sadducees were right. You cannot start wrong and end right by adding a bit of Bible, even when it is Acts 2.

Whose Day is Sunday?

For a comprehensive look at Sun Day worship I refer you to the website en.wikibooks.org topic Hebrew Roots/Neglected Commandments/Idolatry/Sunday https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Hebrew_Roots/Neglected_Commandments/Idolatry/Sunday

The mere fact that the WCG method to count coincided with Sunday should have sent off warning bells. There is no Sun-Day worship of God in the Bible. Sun-day worship occurs when we set the first day of the week for the worship of the sun deity, known in Babylon as Tammuz, in Persia as Mithra (the Roman Cult of Mithras was based on this earlier Persian diety), in Greece as Helios and in Rome as Sol Invictus, the "unconquerable sun" and Today as Nicene Christianity.

The Sun and The Trinity

Sun worship originated in Babylon with Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-12). His wife was Semiramis who became identified as the Queen of heaven now deified in Mary. After his death, Semiramis became pregnant with Tammuz and claimed he was now the risen Nimrod. This trio is the origin of the Trinity. Tammuz was worshiped as the promised messiah. The Sun as the physical giver of life, became his symbol in worship and sun worship developed from there. We adopted Sunday from the Roman calendar because it was dedicated to the worship of the sun. Rome gave rise to the mother of all Harlots and they are all attached to Sunday.

Infiltration into the Church

Constantine had a critical effect on the Church when he made Christianity the state religion and legislated the sun into Church practice. He changed the observance of the Sabbath to the first day of the week, in honour of the Invincible Sun by civil law. This was supported by Nicene Christianity. He filled his church with the commonly used pagan holy days, images and symbols of the sun. I believe that was also the time when  Weeping for Tammuz was attached to Pentecost so that people would count Sundays up to Nicene Pentecost instead of weeks up to to the Judeo/Christian festival corresponding to Shavuot. His edict in the year 321 legislated the venerable day of the Sun to be a rest-day. Constantine commanded worship on Sunday in honour of the sun-god, and not in honour of the Son of God. In 364 AD at the Council of Laodicea, Canon 29:

Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord's day they shall especially honour, and as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ. [ Council of Laodicea, Canon 29]

If it is true that the Nimrod worshippers subtly whitewashed their holidays with holy-days' trappings then which one could Pentecost be? Tammuz appears to be a harvest god. Which harvest could he be attached to?

At 2020-05-26 New World Encyclopaedia https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Tammuz#cite_note-16

In Babylonia, the month Tammuz was established in honor of the eponymous god Tammuz, who originated as a Sumerian shepherd-god, Dumuzid or Dumuzi, the consort of Inanna (the Akkadian Ishtar).

In cult practice, the dead Tammuz was widely mourned in the Ancient Near East. A Sumerian tablet (Ni 4486 from Nippur reads:

She can make the lament for you, my Dumuzid, the lament for you, the lament, the lamentation, reach the desertshe can make it reach the house Arali; she can make it reach Bad-tibira; she can make it reach Dul-uba; she can make it reach the shepherding country, the sheepfold of Dumuzid

"O Dumuzid of the fair-spoken mouth, of the ever kind eyes," she sobs tearfully, "O you of the fair-spoken mouth, of the ever kind eyes," she sobs tearfully. "Lad, husband, lord, sweet as the date, [...] O Dumuzid!" she sobs, she sobs tearfully [Prince, J. Dyneley. "A Tammuz Fragment." Journal of the American Oriental Society 33 (1913). 345-348].

We know that Tammuz seems to start at Easter and the Jews celebrated it in Babylon. This would be the logical origin of the name of the month among Jews.

The Jews have a month called Tammuz that occurs around June-July. It is a time of mournful practises. Nobody apparently knows how it developed. https://www.nehemiaswall.com/dont-call-tammuz. It is associated with mourning for Hadad-Rimmon (the Canaanite Baal) in the valley of Megiddo (Zech 12:11) who is believed to be the same as Tammuz. If it in facts starts at Easter and ends around June then the closest related event would be Pentecost. This period accounts for the death and ascension of Christ and would naturally fall in line with the Death and rebirth of Tammuz.

In an article Don’t Call It Tammuz!, from the website Nehemia's Wall - Uncovering Ancient Hebrew Sources of Faith, https://www.nehemiaswall.com/dont-call-tammuz Posted on June 15, 2018, the author exposes the origin of this month as having to do with Jews adopting the Canaanite practice. They mourned because the fertility God Tammuz died and was reborn in the planting of the grain of wheat to produce a new harvest.

It is clear that up to around the fourth century it was not possible to distinguish a Jew from a Christian on the basis of the days that they kept. The decree from The Council of Laodicea, #29:

Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ. (Percival Translation).

About 100 years after the Sunday law Socrates made this statement: Although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this. -Socrates Scholasticus, quoted in Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, chap. 22 [written shortly after A.D. 439].

Changing to Sunday was even strange to Socrates. Many of the pagan sunbursts, including the halo, derive from linking the Sun-god to Christianity.

Claiming that we base our evidence on Acts 2 will not guarantee true worship of God. We must put all of the relevant scriptures together For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little, Isaiah 28:10 - King James Version.