365 Amazing Answers to Big Bible Questions: A Daily Devotional by Doug Batchelor

Author:Doug Batchelor
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Christian Living, Religion & Spirituality, Spiritual Growth, Christian Books & Bibles, Devotionals
ISBN: 9781580196284
Publisher: Amazing Facts
Published: 2014-09-28T22:00:00+00:00

For Further Study: Romans 8:29; John 1:14; 1 Corinthians 15:12–23

July 3 / Pentecost

What day of the week was Pentecost?

“You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain” (Deuteronomy 16:9).

Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks (Leviticus 23:15–21), occurred on what we would call Sunday and was a celebration of the spring harvest. The root word “pente” means five; for example, a pentagon has five sides. After Passover, there are seven weeks, and after the last Passover Sabbath, which is the 49th day, comes the day of Pentecost. The word literally means “fiftieth day.”

Unfortunately, some people use this ceremonial day as a justification for going to church on Sunday, ignoring the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. But that is quite a stretch. There is nothing in the Bible that says to keep Pentecost, Sunday, or even the day of Jesus’ resurrection holy as a replacement for the seventh-day Sabbath.

By that logic, we could keep Thursday as the Sabbath because that’s when the Lord instituted the New Covenant at the Lord’s Supper. You could even argue that it should be Friday, because that’s when Jesus was crucified.

But nowhere in the Bible does God pick any other day to replace the seventh day. I think it’s pretty reckless for Christians to start altering the law of God, the one He spoke with His voice and wrote with His finger. Jesus said, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3).

If you can show me a Scripture that says, “Keep the first day as the Sabbath,” then I’ll do just that. But until I find it, should I take men’s traditions over the very clear Word of God? The Bible says that the Lord blessed and sanctified the seventh day. He wrote it in stone with His finger; He spoke it with His voice, saying, “Remember,” meaning that we’re not to forget it. We can’t simply ignore the Word of God. “And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9).

Dear heavenly Father, help me to weigh every teaching by the Word of God and never substitute the Bible with the traditions of mere humans.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.