Pentecost 2010

ABD would like to wish a meaningful Pentecost to all of the Armstrongists who will be observing it tomorrow, Sunday, May 23rd. And even the ones who will be observing it on Monday, May 24th.
I don't think anyone was left out, since this year the first day of Unleavened Bread was not on a weekly Sabbath and therefore the Church of the Great God will be observing the day with the general community.

God loves each of you with His whole heart, and calls you on this day to look towards the New Covenant, when the Holy Spirit first came to make a temple within men.

I pray that all that is said and done will be to the glory of God.

I pray that your messages will be centered on the sacrifice of Christ that is the pinnacle of God's work and the very cause of Pentecost and the in-dwelling of the Spirit. Without the cross, there is nothing for us.

I pray that if your messages must spend time in the Old Covenant, that those messages serve to reinforce and increase your faith in the New Covenant, being viewed through the lens of the New Covenant. I pray this knowing that the understanding of the things said and done in the Old were not revealed to us until Christ died and was resurrected into the New.

(JON. 1: 17) For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

(II COR. 3: 12-16) 12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

These great mysteries of faith were not revealed even to the Apostles themselves until they first began being revealed at Pentecost, when Jesus sent the Comforter to teach us and be with us always.

I pray that your messages don't waste time speculating on the timings and order of what may be in the future. If they must spend time on prophecy, may that be to edify you and build you up in the joy of eternity with God -- all of which hangs on what Christ did on the cross; the first major blessing resulting from that work being the indwelling of the Spirit, first given on Pentecost.

So, a blessed Pentecost to you according to your understanding, and a wonderful future in the grace of God to you, from your vigilant and hopeful friends here at ABD.