Readers of The Plain Truth are aware that the calendars that most Christian and Jewish Observers follow are wrong. God's calendar is perfect, and the same holidays fall exactly the same time each year. Today is the 50th day since the Feast of First Fruits (The last day of Passover Week). For Christians, Pentecost is a holiday on which we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the early followers of Jesus. Before the events of the first Pentecost, which came a few weeks after Jesus’ death and resurrection, there were followers of Jesus, but no movement that could be meaningfully called “the church.”
Thus, from an historical point of view, Pentecost is the day on which the church was started. This is also true from a spiritual perspective, since the Spirit brings the church into existence and enlivens it. Thus Pentecost is the church’s birthday.
Pentecost is actually the Christian version of the old Greek and Latin name for the Jewish Festival of Weeks (Hebrew חג השבועות Chag ha-Shavuot) which can be found in the Hebrew Bible. It is called by that name in Exodus 34:22 and Deuteronomy 16:10. It is also called the Festival of Reaping (Hebrew: חג הקציר, Chag ha-Katsir) in Exodus 23:16, and Day of the First Fruits (Hebrew יום הביכורים, Yom ha-Bikkurim) in Numbers 28:26. Jews traditionally read the Book of Ruth at Pentecost, as the story links with the grain harvest theme of the festival.