THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF THE CHURCH?

According to Acts 2:1-47, the Church was "born" on the day the Jews celebrated the Feast of Pentecost fifty days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:15-22).  And even though the Church has already celebrated the Crucifixion, the Burial, and the Resurrection of Jesus ("Good Friday," through "Easter"), the Jewish calendar says that the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First-fruits, the feasts which are the basis for those holy days, will actually be April 22-30, 2016.  That means the Feast of Pentecost will occur on May 15, 2016.  Why such a discrepancy?  Because 2016 is a leap year, and it happens to coincide with the year the Jewish calendar has 13 months (the leap year is called Adar Beit).

Now before my readers accuse me of "date-setting" (I have no idea when the Rapture of the Church will actually occur - I am merely attempting to suggest the possibility it could happen on Pentecost of this year, or any of many years to come!), so please just allow me to state the basis upon which I believe it could be on a Feast of Pentecost.

Of the seven Feasts of the Lord (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First-fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles), only one is totally unique in that it stands alone.  The first three feasts occur in the first month of the Jewish calendar (Nissan or Aviv), and the last three occur in the seventh month (Tishri or Ethanim).  But the Feast of Pentecost (actually "the Feast of Weeks" or Shavuot - Lev. 23:17) occurs by itself.  There does not appear to be much said about this feast, but it is one of three that requires Jews to go to Jerusalem.  Deuteronomy 16:16 says, "Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which He shall choose; in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and in the Feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty."  That explains why we are told in Acts 2:5-11, that there were Jews in Jerusalem from "every nation" on the day the Church was "born."  They all wondered what was going on because the Church was a complete mystery to Israel (Eph. 5:32).

The Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, is the only feast that allows leaven.  In fact, it is mandatory that the two loaves be leavened (Lev. 23:17).  Because the Church is made up of imperfect Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ, I believe each loaf represents one of the two.  Leaven is always connected in some way with sin and false doctrine (Hos. 7:4; Mt. 16:12; 1 Cor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:9; etc.).  It is clear from Romans 7:15-25; 1 Jn. 18-10; etc., that born again believers still sin.  Therefore, the loaves represent the two groups of less than perfect believers!

Because the Church Age has lasted nearly 2000 years, and it appears to be a parenthetical period between Daniel's Sixty-ninth and Seventieth Week (Dan. 9:24-27), a pause, why then could it not be Raptured on a Day of Pentecost; Daniel's prophecy simply resuming where it left off?  Like I said before, I don't know when the Rapture will happen, whether it will be on a Pentecost, or not, but the world is certainly as bad as it was in the days of Noah (Mt. 24:37-38)!  We don't know when He will come for us, but I am hoping it will be soon, maybe even May 15th!

Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20)!