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Acts 2:1 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Jesus did not abolish Pentecost or any other annual holy day. Quite to the contrary, Christ told His disciples to be in Jerusalem so on that holy day they would receive God's Spirit. If the disciples had not been observing God's holy days, they would not have been there to receive God's Spirit (Acts 2:1)! And long after Christ's death, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, kept the festival of Pentecost with Gentile converts (Acts 20:16; I Corinthians 16:8). The Encyclopedia Britannica has this to say about the New Testament church's observance of Pentecost: "The Jewish feast was primarily a thanksgiving for the Firstfruits of the wheat harvest, but the rabbis associated it with remembrance of the Law given by God for the Hebrews to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The church's transformation of the Jewish feast to a Christian festival was thus related to the belief that the gift of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus was the Firstfruits of a new dispensation that fulfilled and succeeded the old dispensation. . ." (article "Pentecost," 15th edition).
Pentecost: Only 'Firstfruits' Now Called!
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