How To Count Pentecost

The first of the firstfruits wave offering was made on the day after a weekly Sabbath – always on a Sunday. This was the Sunday that occurred during the Days of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:11).

The date for the Feast of Weeks must be counted beginning on the day the first of the firstfruits was offered (Lev. 23:14-16, Deut. 16:9-10).

The authorities in the Church of God are to count the days towards Pentecost, not “from,” but “beginning with” the starting point, as per the original Hebrew wording of Leviticus 23:15-16. The English word “from” is therefore misleading. The New American Bible (1970) makes the correct method of counting very clear: “Beginning with the day after the sabbath, the day on which you bring the wave-offering sheaf, you shall count seven full weeks, and then on the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day,” you shall keep the feast of firstfruits (Lev. 23:15-16).

The day of the wave offering, the Sunday during the feast of Unleavened bread, was day one. Day seven would be the next weekly Sabbath. Day 49 would be the seventh Sabbath, and the 50th day would be a Sunday, the day after the seventh week, or seventh sabbath. This is how the original Hebrew and the authorized version state it. Thus, Pentecost always falls on a Sunday.

The Truth About Fasting And Healing!

What is fasting? No one seems to know the real truth about this subject. Some call it the fast way to health, and others call it a starvation diet. If you miss a meal or two, will you die or be in serious health danger?

On the one hand sensible fasting is not a “starvation diet,” and those who have the “starvation fear” are at one erroneous extreme — whether ignorant layman or professional physician. Most doctors, incidentally, have studied medicine, not fasting as an aid toward elimination of disease.

In the “healing arts” — (an unfortunate and incorrect term) — professional men have tended to specialize each in his one field only. The medical physician seeks the cure almost exclusively by drugs, or surgery. The Chiropractor seeks to cure everything by manipulating the spine — perhaps with the aid of prescribed diet. The Naturopath by “natural” means. Medical doctors generally ridicule fasting in the case of sickness or disease, just as they would avoid recommending chiropractic treatments, or any other method outside their one field of medicine. Fasting is simply outside their field. A few medical doctors have advocated fasting, but certainly they are in the minority.

But to look on sensible fasting as “starvation” is an untrue extreme, based on plain ignorance. On the other hand, some go to the opposite extreme of regarding fasting as a cure-all. Neither extreme is the truth!

How To Know If You Have God's Truth, When Others Are Wrong!

How can you know that you are any nearer to understanding God’s truth than others? Who is right among the hundreds of squabbling denominations; thousands of confused sects or millions of “loner” Christians. God says we can be absolutely sure to know we are biblically correct in what we practice, by “proving all things.”

1. The very recognition of that fact is the beginning of right knowledge. That is the first step toward coming out of the fog of error and deception, starting toward truth. It is not a matter of who has the greater intellect. A man may have the highest IQ in the world, and in his intellectual vanity refuse to admit he could be wrong—reject all correction—and thus embrace error and deception.

1. The second step  is to be willing to admit being deceived, or in error, and to reject it and accept truth—when proved—even though unpopular. Are you willing to act on it— obey the truth—no matter what the cost?”

This is why “all the great theologians—the noted preachers and heads of great religious denominations” are in error. There are few people of great intellect who don’t have the kind of vanity that shrinks from confessing he has been wrong. To find and live the truth of God requires a humbled mind. The greatest, ablest intellect in the world is still human—still fallible—still imperfect. Those who are deceived and steeped in error have simply not stopped to realize their own imperfections—their proneness to error. They assume, in their egotism, that whatever they believe is true. And they are unwilling to humble themselves and confess their wrongs.

Ironclad Logic: Big Freeze Caused By Global Warming

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According to the Times, arctic freeze and snow are wreaking havoc across the planet (January 5; emphasis mine):

Arctic air and record snow falls gripped the Northern Hemisphere yesterday, inflicting hardship and havoc from China, across Russia to Western Europe and over the U.S. plains.

There were few precedents for the global sweep of extreme cold and ice that killed dozens in India, paralyzed life in Beijing and threatened the Florida orange crop. Chicagoans sheltered from a potentially killer freeze, Paris endured sunny Siberian cold, Italy dug itself out of snowdrifts and Poland counted at least 13 deaths in record low temperatures of about minus 25°C (-13°F).

The heaviest snow yesterday hit northeastern Asia, which is suffering its worst winter weather for 60 years. More than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of snow covered Seoul, the South Korean capital—the heaviest fall since records began in 1937.

In China, Beijing and the nearby port city of Tianjin had the deepest snow since 1951, with falls of up to 8 inches and temperatures of minus 10°C. In the far north of China, the temperature fell to minus 32°C. …

Diversity Education, Social Engineering, Cultural Competence: A Hidden Disaster In The Making!

If you think everything is alright with your kids in school, you had better sit up and take notice. In Minnesota, a task group believes teachers lack  “cultural competence,” which contributes to poor academic performance of minority students. In other words, minorities are not properly educated to succeed.

Sounds great, if  you don’t read the fine print. The plan would require teachers to teach minority kids that America is an oppressive, racist, sexist, homophobic country. These teachers, of course, must properly understand how “white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression” have impacted their thinking. If teachers don’t accept these new liberal dictates (hey, some tend to have common sense), then they will have to be browbeaten into submission.

This line of thought jives perfectly with that of William Ayers’ “social justice”  (read cultural competence). The bottom line is that the younger generation of minorities must understand that they are victims of an oppressive and unjust America, and need to organize and demonstrate to take power and money away from those who have those things. No word yet on how to do all this without a proper education, but I digress.

Now President Obama has appointment six radicals to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), whose mission is to evaluate whether accrediting agencies are properly assessing the quality of colleges and universities. Does anyone have doubts whether these appointees will try to enforce diversity mandates and social engineering on institutions seeking accreditation? Probability: Extremely high!

Perhaps, just perhaps, we should have a hand in teaching our kids how to read and write properly ourselves? But then, that would take some time and an actual father in the family (with some – gasp – applied discipline), rather than single welfare moms struggling to make the family work. Naahh, that would put common sense front and centre, and we know how little that works, right?

Read it and weep here – Townhall.com

The Human Mind Versus Animal Brain: Is There A Difference?

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Did you ever wonder about the vast difference between human mind and animal brain? The physical brain of the higher vertebrates in the animal kingdom is essentially the same in physical form, design, constituency, as human brain. The brains of whales, elephants, dolphins are larger–and chimp almost as large. Yet the output of the human brain is indescribably greater.

Many passages of Scripture show that there is a spirit in man (e.g., I Cor. 2:11). Spirit is not matter, and man is matter. To distinguish it from God’s Holy Spirit. For simplicity, we can call it the “human” spirit,” which imparts the power of intellect to the human physical brain. The spirit cannot see, hear, taste, smell or feel. The brain sees through the eye, hears through the ear, etc. The “human” spirit cannot of itself think. The physical brain thinks.

What, then, is the function of this “human” spirit? It is NOT a “soul.” But, 1) it imparts the power of intellect–of thinking, and of MIND power, to the human brain; and 2) it is the very means God has instilled, making possible a personal relationship between human MAN and divine GOD.

Many speak loftily of human worth as of supreme value in itself. They speak of the “god” within you–of tapping the innate hidden resources within yourself. They teach SELF-reliance, self-glorification. But in fact, they are smugly ignorant and unaware of the true values and the incredible but real human potential. Human life is at once of infinitesimally less value than they suppose, and at the same time of supremely greater potential than they know.  

Why The Resurrection Instead Of Going To Heaven?

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Most people believe that Christ completed God’s plan of redemption by dying on the cross. But if salvation was made full and complete by Jesus’ death, then why does the Bible still speak of a resurrection from the dead?

We often hear the saying, “Christ died to save sinners,” but this is not even a Biblical quotation. If you believe that Christ’s death imparts to us eternal life — that the blood of Christ — His death, actually saves or imparts everlasting life, then you are wrong in your assumption. Nowhere in the Bible does it say this is so!

So why did Christ Die for us ? First, realize that all have sinned and the penalty for sin is death (Rom. 3:23, 6:23)! The Bible definition of sin is the transgression of God’s law — summed up by the Ten Commandments (I John 3:4). It was established by God for the happiness of man, something that has eluded him in a world of strife and war, fear and worry, poverty and want, discontent and suffering.

This world believes God’s salvation merely imparts eternal life! Jesus said He came that we might have eternal life, yes. But He also said something more: “I am come,” He said, “that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Not merely continuous existence — but a life full of happiness for all eternity!

Hebrew Inscription Confirms Biblical Record

Once again, the Bible is right, and the critics are wrong. A pottery shard from the remains of a town dating from the 10th century b.c. has been proven to be written in ancient Hebrew—making it the oldest known Hebrew inscription. Prof. Gershon Galil of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa translated the text, proving that the Israel of that time was a major nation—not the backwoods tribe that some biblical scholars say it was.

“It can now be maintained that it was highly reasonable that during the 10th century bce, during the reign of King David, there were scribes in Israel who were able to write literary texts and complex historiographies such as the books of Judges and Samuel,” said Galil.

The shard was discovered in an excavation led by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel inside a fortified town on a hilltop near the valley of Elah, where David battled Goliath. The town has a 30-foot-wide gate, a central fortress, and a wall running 2,300 feet in circumference. These fortifications are too elaborate to have been constructed by
the city’s inhabitants, Garfinkel says. They would have required the resources of an organized kingdom, like that of King David. …

If Jesus Was Not Teaching Celibacy By Example, Why Did He Not Marry?

Bride Of Christ - fineartamerica.com

I Peter 2:21 says, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.” If Jesus were not teaching celibacy by His example, why didn’t He marry?

In Matthew 19:4-6, Jesus confirmed the sanctity of marriage in the eyes of God by quoting from the creation account (Gen. 1:27, 2:24). He further sanctified marriage in verses 8 and 9, by strictly teaching against divorce.

But Jesus had valid reasons for not marrying. The harsh physical circumstances surrounding His ministry, prophesied in Isaiah 53, would have prevented Him from being the parent and husband He would have wanted to be to set us an example. And Jesus knew He would die an early, agonizing death that would have left His young wife a widow.

It would have been easier for Jesus to go off, get married and live a “normal” life, forsaking His mission on earth. But His desire to do the will of His Father (Matt. 26:39) made Him willing to forsake physical marriage, a “good thing” (Prov. 18:22), for a better thing. And so He said:

“All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: for there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it” (Matt. 19:11-12).

Is The Day Of Death Better Than The Day Of One's Birth?

Ecclesiastes 7:1 reads, “A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” What exactly does this mean?

Notice the strong parallel in this verse: The day of one’s birth is compared with precious ointment. There is certainly nothing wrong with precious ointment; Jesus even commended its proper use (Matthew 26:6-13). The point is that the day of one’s death is of far greater importance to God, assuming that our lives have been used properly.

Near the end of his life, the apostle Paul realized that he had “fought the good fight” and “kept the faith.” Therefore he had a crown of righteousness awaiting him (II Timothy 4:6-8).

If we as Christians run the Christian race successfully, as Paul did, we, too, will be able to say at the end of our lives that we have obtained an incorruptible crown (I Corinthians 9:24-27). The day of our death, then, will certainly be a greater joy to God than the day of our birth.

Can Christians Be Saved Without Obeying God's Commandments?

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The Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Many believe this verse says we don’t have to obey God’s commandments, but that we can still be saved just as long as we believe. Is this right? Not if you understand your Bible!

What do you mean by believe? The word believe implies faith, conviction, trust, certainty.

If we believe on or in Jesus Christ — and, more important, if we believe what He says — we come to know Him. Notice what I John 2:4 says about those who claim to know Jesus Christ: “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ ” — that is, he who believes on Christ — “and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

This is about as strong as a verse can get in the Bible. It is also abundantly clear and straightforward. Anyone who says he believes but refuses to obey is a liar, according to God. He doesn’t really believe what Jesus Christ said. What did Jesus say? What did He command us to believe? “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15, Authorized Version). The Gospel deals with obedience! Notice:

• “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).
• “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (I John 2:3).
• “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (I John 5:3).
• Acts 5:29 says, “We ought to obey God.” And to whom does God give His Spirit? “To those who obey Him” (verse 32).
• “Faith [belief] without works is dead” (James 2:26).

Why is obedience so necessary? Because “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). The law of God is good for you. Sin is bad for you. That’s why Jesus Christ commands you to obey God’s law — it’s for your own good! Will you believe Him?

Why Did God Kill In The Old Testament?

It’s probably happened to you.  You were debating God, and someone pulled out the question, “If God is a God of love, how come he killed off so many tribes of non-Israelites in the Old Testament?”  Could you answer this question?

Many have unjustly accused God of being a murderer in the Old Testament because He either killed people or He allowed Israel to kill. However, this is a basic misunderstanding of the character of God, who does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. So why was this practice allowed then, and not now, in the New Testament? Let’s explain!

In I Samuel 15:3, God commanded Saul to “go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” Why did God have to deal so harshly with these people, even down to little children and animals? Was this unjust, cruel, barbaric?

God said: “All who behave unrighteously are an abomination to the Lord your God. Remember what Amalek did to you [Israel] on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God” (Deuteronomy 25:16-18).

Notice how harsh and unfair the Amalekites were. They waited until their enemy was extremely weak, and even then, they attacked from behind, killing the laggers one by one.

Where Did Baptism Originate?

Water Baptism - Immersion Into God's Way Of Life

One of the greatest miracles of the Old Testament was a forerunner and type of what true baptism pictures today. It was the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt.

In I Corinthians 10:11, God reveals that these Old Testament events occurred to be examples to Christians. Now read verses 1-2: “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”

The word here translated “baptized” means “immersed” or “plunged into.” Let’s understand the full meaning of this event.

Israel had just come out of captivity in Egypt. God said that He was going to bring them up out of that land of oppression — that pagan land of strange customs and evil ways. So God sent Moses to deliver them from their bondage in that land of sin. Israel was in sin, living the wrong way. And God set His hand to deliver them.

After Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, God brought them to encamp “beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon” (Exodus 14:9). To Israel’s amazement, they found themselves trapped, with the Egyptians closing in on them. The only way of escape was through the Red Sea.

Bible Chapter Summations: Book Of Exodus

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EXODUS

The name means “going out” or departure”. While it refers to one of the most important events of the book, the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, other highly significant events are also found here, such as the oppression of the Chosen People in Egypt, the flight and call of Moses, and God’s covenant with the nation Israel at Sinai – an experience climaxed by His giving of the law (Ten Commandments) through Moses to the people. A code of secular laws is also included, and the latter part of the book contains an elaborate description of the sacred Ark of the Covenant and its ten (tabernacle), God’s place of dwelling among His people.

Bible Chapter Summations: Book Of Exodus

Exodus 1 – Tribe of Israel multiplies, new Pharaoh enslaves Israel

Exodus 2 – Pharaoh’s daughter finds child in river, raises Moses as own son, Moses kills Egyptian and flees to Midian

Exodus 3 – God speaks to Moses from burning bush, promises to deliver Israel from bondage (slavery)

Exodus 4 – God angry at Moses for unbelief, Aaron given as spokesman, Moses sent to Pharaoh to free the Israelites

Exodus 5 – Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh, Pharaoh makes Israel work even harder

Which Type Of Music Is Spiritually Destructive?

http://www.northwestern.edu

We like to think we know our music. But how much do you really understand it? The Bible tells us that we cannot simply take a cursory glance at music and determine whether it is good or not. Amos 6 shows that music is one of the major factors bringing down our nation in the end time (see verses 3-6).

Amos 6:5 says the people are into music “like David.” To them it looks righteous, but it leads them into captivity! (verse 7). How can that be? Satan himself poses as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

Christians must know how to discern good and evil when it comes to this ever-elusive subject of music. Heb. 5:14 commends those Christians who “by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” This can only be done through God’s perspective, as music’s has a spiritual nature and profound influence.

So the scriptures tell us that we must have our physical senses exercised “by reason of use.” God wants our senses to play a part in discerning, because he equipped us with the sense of hearing. This requires a lot of individual judgment.