A. Pentecost has always been seen as the birth of the Church because of the events of Acts 2.  True, the disciples did receive the Holy Spirit  on the evening of the Resurrection (John 20:22) but later were told to wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them in power (Acts 1:4-5).  He came on Pentecost, and the Church was born.

I have read much about Pentecost on your site and am wondering if it is possible for His return on this Pentecost, May 31, or does that not give enough time if something still needs to be fulfilled.   I find myself completely absorbed in thinking and longing for His return, and almost feel like I wont be able to bear it on June 1st.   How does one balance longing for him and keeping on in this lifetime.

I feel like I am  holding my breath waiting for the moment when with one blink I close my eyes here, and open them in heaven.   Will it happen that fast??  Sorry, I am just truly longing to go home.

A. There are no prophecies that must be fulfilled before the Rapture can happen.  All that remains is for the Church to achieve its predetermined number, and no one on Earth knows what that number is or how close we to achieving it.

A Rapture on Pentecost is possible but no more so than any other day. What I’ve said was if the Rapture has to occur on a Jewish Feast day then Pentecost is the one we should be looking at.  Personally, I don’t believe any Jewish Feast days will be fulfilled by the Rapture of the Church, but mentioned Pentecost with its connection to the birth of the Church as being a more likely candidate than the Fall Feasts that are the focus of so much speculation each year.

Finding a red heifer is required to ritually purify Jews so they can work on construction of the coming Temple without defiling it, but that has nothing to do with the Church.

The Lord wants us to  be watching and waiting for Him to come for us.  He doesn’t keep the date secret to tease us, but to keep the enemy off guard.  The fact that we’re getting so excited is a sign that the time is near.  When we get to the Bema Seat judgment we’ll find that there’s a crown waiting for all those who have longed for His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8)

A. Pentecost comes 7 weeks (49 days) after First Fruits (Lev. 23:15-16) The confusion comes because the first day after the Sabbath that follows Passover is First Fruits, and the 50th day after the same Sabbath is Pentecost. That makes the two feasts 49 days apart, both being on Sunday.  First fruits was fulfilled in the Resurrection and Pentecost was fulfilled in the birth of the Church.  Each Levitical feast is fulfilled on the day of its occurrence.

One thing I am wondering is… Why is there 10 days between the ascension of Yeshua and His giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost?   Numbers are always significant and so I am wondering what this means or is symbolic of?   Why didn’t he send the Holy Spirit right away?  Thanks!!

A. I think the Lord wanted to send the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Pentecost was a memorial to the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai, and on its anniversary the dispensation of Grace officially began.

Resurrection Morning occurred on the Feast of First Fruits. Pentecost was seven weeks later. That’s why it’s sometimes called the Feast of Weeks. The actual dates of both were established by counting from the first Sabbath after Passover. First Fruits was the first day after the Sabbath and Pentecost was the 50th day, so there were only 49 days between First Fruits and Pentecost.

Acts 1:3 says that Jesus ascended into Heaven 40 days after His resurrection. That means Pentecost was 9 days later, not 10. In Scripture, the number 9 often marks the end, or conclusion of a matter. The arrival of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost marked the end of the Lord’s personal ministry on Earth.

In John 16:7 the Lord had told His Disciples, “I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

A. Most scholars don’t see the Lord’s 1st Coming as a partial fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, partly because the Jewish people didn’t recognize Him as God. Remember, the “us” in “God with us” refers to Israel, and Tabernacles is a Jewish Feast.

The historical fulfillment of Tabernacles came during the time in the wilderness, and the prophetic fulfillment will come in the Kingdom Age.  This fits with the view that the spring feasts were fulfilled in the 1st coming and the fall feasts are for the 2nd coming, leaving Pentecost in the middle for the Church Age.

A. Since Passover commemorates the Jews being freed form bondage in Egypt, it’s not necessary for Christians to celebrate it. But attending a Messianic Passover can be very instructive in seeing how the Lord fulfilled the prophecies in the Passover in His first coming.

Our main interest in Passover lies in the fact that the following Sunday is the real Resurrection morning. Easter is a pagan holiday that was adapted to Christianity in the 4th century.

I am not real familiar with the exact period of time that Ester lived and affected the life of the Persian King but I believe it was during the time of the Babylonian exile. Is it possible that this Darius is the same king that gave the order to rebuild the Temple?

A. If Esther had a son named Darius, as Jewish tradition suggests, he would not have been the same Darius, called Darius the Mede, who helped the Persian King Cyrus conquer Babylon and free the Jews in 535BC to rebuild their Temple. According to Ezra 6:15, the Temple was completed in 516BC.

The Book of Esther tells of events that took place just prior to the very first Feast of Purim, which Esther 8:12 places on March 7, 473 BC, 43 years after the Temple was completed. The Persian King she married was Xerxes I, who reigned from 485 to 465 BC. He was the son of Darius the Mede.

The Persian King who gave Nehemiah permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city walls in 445 BC was Artaxerxes Longimonus. (Nehemiah 2:1) He reigned from 465 to 424BC and was the son of Xerxes I, but it’s not clear if Esther was his mother.

Some suppose it was Good Friday, you say Thursday is the only day, while others say Wednesday. The gospel accounts all added together give us the clearest picture of all, setting aside Jewish traditions. Some say you must account for the traditions, I say the Holy Bible alone will give you the answers. Studying the Gospels, in conjunction with the old testament, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday that He went into the temple for the first day of inspection. Therefore the  three day inspection ended on Tuesday.

The reasons I believe this are the two scriptures in Mark and Luke. The gospels say there was and earthquake when Jesus gave up His Spirit. The graves were open. The following day they could do no work. The day of the resurrection there was another earthquake. This leads to Friday.Luke 23:55 say the women followed to see where Jesus was laid, vs. 56 says “they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.” Some believing this Sabbath to be Saturday correctly.

Mark 15:47 says the women beheld where He was laid. Mark 16:1 says, “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him.

My question is how the could buy and prepared the spices before and after the sabbath, if the Sabbaths were not Thursday and Saturday? Was Jesus therefore crucified on Wednesday? Thank for your answer.

A. You’ve read my article on the Holy Week events so you know I think the Bible says that Thursday is the only possible day. Exodus 12:3 says that the 10th day was for selecting the Lamb. Then came 3 days of inspection, the 11th, 12th, and 13th, and then Passover the 14th.

Palm Sunday was the day of selection.  It was the only day in His life that He allowed them to call Him the Messiah and can’t be counted in the inspection process.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were for inspection, and that makes the Crucifixion on Thursday, Passover.  Friday was the Feast of Unleavened bread, a special Sabbath where no work was allowed, Saturday was the regular Sabbath, and Sunday was the first day of the week when the women went to the tomb and found it empty.

Neither Luke 23:55-56 nor Mark 15:47-16:1 contain anything to dispute that. Assuming they didn’t know in advance when Jesus was going to be executed, the women had two opportunities to buy spices after the time He was condemned to death and before they saw the open tomb. The first was anytime Thursday before sunset, and the other was Saturday evening after sunset when the second Sabbath ended. John 19:39-40 supports the earlier purchase, saying that Nicodemus and Joseph had 75 pounds of spices with them when they laid the Lord in the tomb. The fact that Mark 16:1 says that the women had bought spices, which implies some time before Sunday morning, gives further support to the early purchase.

There is one thing that I disagree with you based on three articles I have read over the past couple of years that seem to have the mathematical evidence for Yeshua being born at Succot rather than Rosh Hashanah as you stated in “Tis The Season”.

A. I assume you know that Rosh Hashanna and Succot are only 15 days apart.  In several studies I’ve written that while I prefer the Rosh Hashanna date because of it’s historical significance I’m not willing to make a fuss about a 15 day difference in opinion, and that’s all it is.  I know that some in the Messianic community prefer Succot but I happen to think that the prophetic significance of Succot is that it identifies the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom.

The point is that the Lord was born in the early fall, not the dead of winter. Trying to determine the exact day and year has caused too many people to be distracted from the fact that we shouldn’t be celebrating the Lord’s birth on one of the year’s most significant pagan holidays because it didn’t happen then.  If you like Succot better than Rosh Hashanna that’s fine with me.

(This article was originally published in November of 2005 when the controversy over the Christmas season was first heating up.  It’s even more relevant today. I’ve expanded and updated it for this holiday season.)

For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.” (Jeremiah 10:3-4)

A friend once observed that when you see the Christmas decorations begin to go up on Main Street, you know that Thanksgiving must be near. That’s because in the US, Thanksgiving weekend officially kicks off the Christmas season. Special school programs, parties, shopping, all the things Christmas has become these days begin in earnest on the day after Thanksgiving.

Of course there’s a concerted effort on several fronts to make the holiday season as non-Christian as possible, so that it’s no longer for Christians only. Anti-Christians want to deprive Americans of all our public religious observances, so taking manger scenes off of court house lawns, and Christmas Carols out of school concerts is right up their alley. And neo- pagans rightly say that Christians hijacked what used to be their holiday, the Winter Solstice, so it shouldn’t be exclusively Christian anyway.

There’s More Here Than Meets The Eye

But I suspect there’s also another motive behind this effort, and it’s an attempt to further increase the traditionally high levels of Christmas spending. Many US retailers depend on a strong Christmas shopping season to be profitable for the year, and holiday sales tax receipts are an important part of every state and local government’s annual revenue. Getting more shoppers into stores makes good business sense all around.

Maybe this is why other religions have been encouraged to join in the season, too. In recent years, some denominations of Judaism (there are 72) have made their Hanukkah into a Christmas-like celebration, and now we have Kwanzaa, an African holiday that first came on the world scene in 1966 and is based on seven principles arrayed as a seven branched candlestick that looks surprisingly like a Jewish menorah. (Its official website claims 18 million celebrants.) Like Christmas and Hanukkah, Kwanzaa involves gift giving, special decorations, and lots of good food. It begins on Dec. 26 and includes a big feast on New Years Eve. Both these movements bring millions of new shoppers into stores during what’s now called the “holiday” season.

But That’s Not All.

A few years ago American Moslems began petitioning  some school districts for days off and special programs in recognition of their December holiday, Eid-Ul-Adha, (December 11in 2008) . In frustration one district has canceled all holiday programs, including the Christmas ones, to avoid the problems this could cause. It’s not Politically Correct to favor one religion over another in America, even with traditions as old as Christmas. Having no special programs at all is the easiest way out.

That’s the problem when multi-culturalism and freedom of religion meet. If you encourage every religious group to celebrate its own holidays, which ones should get official sanction? It has to be either all of them or none of them, because anything in between is discriminatory toward someone.

So far the multi-culturalists seem only to be offended by the observance of Christian holidays. Maybe that’s because for the most part they’re the only ones officially recognized in the US. Government offices typically aren’t closed on Passover or Ramadan. 1700 years ago the Romans solved this problem by re-making former pagan Holy Days into Christian ones. That’s how we got Christmas and Easter in the first place. Of course they were only trying to replace one religion with another. Today we’re trying to recognize all religions. See the problem?

What’s The Solution?

Personally, I’d like to see all religious holidays observed by followers of the religion to which they apply, but none of them officially recognized by the various branches of government. If we’re going to have separation of church and state, let’s have it. The US constitution does address freedom of religious expression, even if it doesn’t guarantee freedom from religion. How much more productive could our government be if it didn’t have to be closed for all our holidays?

And as for the people who don’t follow any religion, why should they be forced to observe Holy Days they don’t believe in? Even more productivity could be realized if they just went to work like it was any other day. To be non-discriminatory, we could create an un-holiday for them, sort of like the un-birthday in Alice in Wonderland.

I’d also like for Christians everywhere to give the winter and spring solstices back to the pagans and celebrate the Lord’s birth and His resurrection on the actual anniversary of their occurrence. That would go a long way toward restoring the original meaning to the two most important events in human history. We could stop spending money we don’t have to give meaningless gifts to people we don’t even like at Christmas time, and we could stop teaching our kids pagan fertility rites instead of the wonder of the Lord’s resurrection at Easter.

I realize I sound little like Andy Rooney here, but before you start calling me a spoil sport, think about it. The Lord’s birth and His resurrection are cause for extraordinary celebration on the part of all who understand their significance to humankind. And if the focus of our celebration was on that significance instead of some meaningless pagan ritual, wouldn’t we all approach our Holy Days with a lot more reverence and celebrate them with a lot more gratitude? And wouldn’t the non-believers who know us be a lot more curious as to why we’re so grateful? And wouldn’t that lead to more conversations about our eternal destiny, and theirs? Certainly some of them would be saved because of this, and wouldn’t the Lord be blessed by all of that? Tell me this doesn’t make sense.

Here’s Another Good Reason

Many Christians are increasingly offended by the commercial excesses of Christmas, and if all of its original purpose is just about lost anyway, what’s the point in continuing it? Best to abandon it altogether and have a real Happy Birthday Jesus celebration in the early fall when He was actually born. And as for Easter, let’s call it by its real name, Resurrection Morning, and celebrate it on the Sunday morning after Passover when He actually rose from the grave.

Researching the origin of the two most important Holy Days in Christianity, you’ll find that right from the beginning the motivation had more to do with profit than piety. There were already pagan festivals in place on these dates that involved celebrating, exchanging of gifts and riotous public banquets, all of which generated lots of income for merchants. Superimposing Christian customs upon these pagan festivals was an accommodation to commercial interests, pure and simple. It allowed them to keep selling stuff to their customers as in the past, just under a different banner. Isn’t it about time we abandon this offense to our Lord, and begin paying Him the homage due Him as our Savior and Redeemer?

The anti-Christians have just about succeeded in stripping away every last vestige of religious meaning from these holidays, and the Lord permits it because they’ve been counterfeit right from the beginning. Let’s let them have their way, and follow the example of our Christian ancestors who for 400 years or so refused to participate in what they knew were really pagan celebrations re-packaged as Christian Holy Days. They were no more fooled by this than the Lord is.

Over the years there’ve been several attempts to steer us back toward the original purpose of the holidays without abandoning them altogether. As a kid I remember an effort to “put Christ back into Christmas.” And a few years ago a clever marketing strategy reminded us that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” Neither of these attempts was successful. It’s time for something more dramatic, like starting over from scratch.

Where Do We Start?

Lately, people have been asking me what we can do to prepare for our soon coming departure.  Since some economic forecasters are saying that our economy will be a long time recovering, if it ever does, I think Christians could make a great start by changing the way we look at our two most significant holy days.  I’m not naive enough to think this could all happen overnight, and perhaps we’ll never be completely successful. But if we each commit to a small start, and begin talking to others of a like mind, who knows how soon we could change things for the better.

One thing we could do is start celebrating the Lord’s birthday on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, usually mid to late September. That’s the most likely time of His birth, when the God of the Universe became a man and dwelt among us. We could start reading the “Christmas Story” then, and exchange gifts within our family and circle of friends that sincerely express our joy that our Savior came into the world on that day. Instead of telling our little ones that their gifts came from an imaginary person called Santa Claus, we could tell them they came from a real person named Jesus.  Then we could tell them who Jesus is, and why we’re so happy to know Him. We could explain to anyone who’ll listen what we’re doing and why.

We can start toning down our Christmas holiday observance right now.  Why not ask your friends and extended families to donate a small amount in your name to a favorite Christian charity instead of sending you gifts, and agree to do the same for them?  You’ll be helping the less fortunate and storing up treasure in Heaven at the same time.  Learn the origin of pagan symbols like the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, mistletoe, etc, and begin eliminating them from your traditions. Within a year or two you’ll be placing more emphasis on the Lords’ birth and less on the material excess we’re accustomed to seeing.

As for Easter, remember the word comes from Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of fertility. That’s how the rabbit and colored eggs got included. They’re symbols of fertility. Jesus rose from the grave on the Sunday morning after Passover. It’s the Jewish Feast of Firstfruits, and it’s the day He became our Redeemer, conquering death to prove that all our sins had been forgiven. That’s why He’s called the Firstfruits of those who’ve fallen asleep (died). (1 Cor. 15:20)  Let’s get the pagan stuff out of our celebration of His great victory.

What greater cause for celebration could you imagine than these? What better ways of thanking the Lord than by honoring Him on the days when the two greatest expressions of His love actually happened?  What better way to prepare our hearts for the face-to-face meeting that’s almost upon us?  Selah 11-29-08