You’ve probably heard the question before: “What is the meaning of life?” To most, it sounds like a sanctimonious religious question which nobody can answer. Yet, there is an answer and you can understand it.
God says that both man and the universe were not created in vain (Isa. 45:18). So how could an all-powerful, loving God create billions of humans, let most of them live unhappy lives, then let them die after about 70 years with no other purpose? Very few human beings, past and present, have ever heard about Jesus Christ, salvation or eternal life.
The good news, or the gospel, that Jesus Christ brought, is that everything is not all over at the end of this life. God has a wonderful plan which you and all mankind feature in somewhere. Jesus Christ was murdered for bringing this good news, and men still reject it today. Soon, however, they will discover God’s plan to be real, as it affects everyone’s lives!
Keeping Pentecost
The late Herbert W. Armstrong referred to the time of Christ’s return and the Kingdom of God being established as the wonderful World Tomorrow. We can’t understand God’s plan through science, technology, secular education, politics, nor through the world’s religions. The answer is written in the Bible, but the understanding of it is revealed only through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, which God gives to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32).
In Leviticus 23, God lists seven annual Sabbaths, or holy days. They are not “Jewish,” or “Old Testament days.” They are God’s holy days which are to be kept as “a statute for ever in all our dwellings” (v. 21).
Pentecost is the third of these holy days and represents the third stage of God’s master plan.
Many have heard of the word pentecost, from which the term Pentecostal comes. But how many understand the full purpose of keeping the feast of Pentecost as God ordained it? Even many in God’s true Church do not understand it as they should.
Mr. Armstrong wrote in the May 1981 Good News, “King Hezekiah of Judah had discovered these days ought to be kept—after both Israel and Judah had ceased observing them for a long time. The temple at Jerusalem, through disuse, had been filled with filth. Hezekiah had the temple cleansed. He sent out proclamations to keep the feasts of God. Judah did.
“Hezekiah sent messengers up into Israel, the northern kingdom, from city to city in Ephraim and Manasseh, to teach them God’s holy days must be kept. But ‘they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them’ (II Chron. 30:1-10).”
Mr. Armstrong and his wife, Loma, were also laughed to scorn. They kept Pentecost and the six other holy days for 14 years before God revealed their full meaning.
God records, in Hebrews 11:1-16, that His faithful servants have always been “strangers and pilgrims” in this world. They also are a very small, mustard-seed minority. In Jeremiah 3:14-15, God says that He calls them “one of a city, and two of a family,” showing that God’s people will be few in number and scattered.
Acts 1:15 and 2:1 show that there were only 120 in Jerusalem keeping the Feast of Pentecost. This was after 31⁄2 years of Christ’s ministry. Where were all the others who considered themselves disciples? “And he [Christ] said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:65-66).
The 120 were with one accord in one place, in Jerusalem, because they were keeping God’s command to observe His holy day of Pentecost. Pentecost is a Greek word in the New Testament signifying the 50th day. In the Old Testament it is called the feast of firstfruits or the feast of weeks.
In the land of Judea, the modern nation of Israel and the surrounding areas, there were two annual harvests: a small firstfruits harvest in spring and the major harvest in autumn.
The first harvest begins on the day the wave sheaf was offered, on the morrow after the Sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread. It ended on the feast of firstfruits, seven weeks after Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:10-15). Pentecost is held on the 50th day of the spring harvest. That is how the date of this third holy day is calculated. “And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations” (v. 21).
The keeping of God’s Sabbaths is a sign between Him and His people. Unless we have this weekly and annual Sabbath day sign, God does not recognize us as His people (Exod. 31:13, 16). Man’s purpose and his future are revealed through keeping these holy days, which are a foreshadow of things to come (Col. 2:16).
Pentecost foreshadows a time when a group God calls the elect and firstfruits, having His Holy Spirit, will be in the first resurrection at Christ’s return (Rev. 20:6). This is the small first harvest to eternal life. Only those who are called, chosen and faithful before Christ’s return will be in that first resurrection to rule with Christ as Spirit-born sons of God. God is not calling and trying to save the whole world now, but He will once the government of God is established on Earth.
Mr. Armstrong wrote, in the May 1985 Good News, “[Pentecost] teaches us that we of the true Church are the ‘firstfruits’ only— the first to receive salvation through Christ. It teaches us that all others are not yet called.”
But what about the majority of human beings who have ever lived? Most have died not knowing about salvation. They will be resurrected and offered salvation 1000 years after Christ returns and rules with the saints of the first resurrection.
God wants all men to be saved, but every man in his own order—either at the first or second resurrection (Rev. 20:4-6). “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall allbe made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (I Cor. 15:22-23).
To understand our future, we must first look back to the past. In Genesis 3:24, the Bible shows that after mankind chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God closed off access to the tree of life, so His Holy Spirit was not to be generally available, except to a few whom He would call.
These “firstfruits” are the advance party to the Kingdom of God. Mr. Armstrong stated in the Good News, May 1982, “Probably the highest and most lofty positions in both Church and State in the world to come already have been allotted. We know that each of the original 12 apostles will be ruler over one of the 12 nations springing from the 12 tribes of Israel. We know that David will be king over them and those under them. We may well assume that Abraham will have even a higher position.”
God’s government will be structured from the top down, ruled by resurrected members of the God family under Jesus Christ. No fleshly human beings will be in that government.
Pentecost symbolizes great past, present and future events: Over 3,400 years ago the nation of Israel was established through the Old Covenant, which provided physical blessings only. On the day of Pentecost 1,970 years ago, the New Covenant became available to those called by God—a covenant for eternal life through the begettal of God’s Holy Spirit. Read the account in Acts 2 when the Church was established on Sunday, June 17, a.d. 31. The day of Pentecost foreshadows those called to the first resurrection to rule with Christ at His coming.
Where Now?
If we understand the truth that God has revealed through His end-time Elijah; if we repent from breaking God’s laws; if we are prepared to come under the government of God and support His work; if we are prepared to overcome Satan with the help of God’s power, overcome our evil human nature and this evil society, then we are called to the first resurrection, just as those saints were called in the past.
Whether or not we are “chosen” will depend on what we do with our calling.
The New Covenant is a marriage covenant. The true and faithful Church will be the bride to marry Christ at His coming. We must urgently prepare for that event. The Church will be ready, but we need to be ready individually to be part of the bride of Christ!
Now is the time to prepare for that great event. But if we just want to “get” into God’s Kingdom as one of the firstfruits, then we are too self-centered and won’t be there. Our lives should be dedicated to preparing for the great fall harvest when we can bring salvation to the majority of all humans who have ever lived. To do that, we need to be born as firstfruits.
“Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isa. 66:8).
God is going to teach this world, through the firstfruits, the way to salvation and eternal life. “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).
We will be kings and priests, ruling with Christ on Earth (Rev. 5:10).
When Christ returns soon to rule from Jerusalem, the Earth will be in ruin from the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord. In addition to bringing salvation to Earth’s survivors and those to follow, the firstfruits will be involved in a massive rebuilding program to restore the world to an Eden-like paradise.
With Jesus Christ as King of kings, the firstfruits will usher in the wonderful World Tomorrow and bring peace, plenty and happiness to all mankind.
We have a big, exciting, fulfilling, creative job in the near future. Let’s make the best of our short time here now, because the whole creation, as Paul writes in Romans 8:19-23, is groaning in misery awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God.