From Ronald L. Dart’s Program Notes

Pentecost and Prophecy

May 15, 2014Volume 19, Number 5

Christian Educational Ministries

The holy days in Israel wereprophetic. They looked forward, theypictured God’s plan. A little “drama”was acted out on the stage of theTemple. The days ancient Israelcelebrated had an annual cycle thatshowed forth God’s plan and what hewas doing. Some people understoodGod’s plan from these holy daysbetter, others understood them less.Probably few in Old Testament timesunderstood them all that well. Thefact is that the holy days probablyhave more meaning for Christiansthan they ever had for Israel of old.And this is very important for us tounderstand.

But in the scheme of things, theIsraelite festivals were all organizedaround the harvest season. The ideawas that you were not supposed toeat any fresh grain from the newharvest until after you had offered thefirstfruits to God. This spring harvestbegan during the Days of UnleavenedBread with the wave sheaf offering.This wave sheaf was a little basketfull of grain that was from a sheaf thatwas harvested. It was taken into theTemple and presented before God,and after making that offering youcould then eat the harvest, and beginharvesting. This ushered in a straightseven weeks of work. As theinstructions came, there would be

seven weeks complete. You wouldwork six days, rest the seventh, worksix days, rest the seventh, work sixdays, and rest the seventh. It was aharvest time.

“You shall count unto you fromthe morrow after the Sabbath, fromthe day you brought the sheaf of thewave offering, seven Sabbaths shallbe complete. Even to the morrowafter the seventh Sabbath shall younumber fifty days and offer a newmeal offering to the Lord” (Leviticus23:15). This is an interesting passageand it’s something that has occupiedthe technicians of the church for manyyears—the questions about Pentecost,when Pentecost should be observed,and the meaning behind Pentecost.

But what the church has notthoroughly explored are the daysleading up to Pentecost. Though thisis really an interesting passage, that is

not difficult to understand. The holydays in Israel were, as we all by nowunderstand, prophetic. And by thetime you come to what we callPentecost, which is probably bettercalled the Feast of Firstfruits, youhave reached a completion of thefirstfruits harvest, the entire crop isin. On Pentecost, we tend to forgetwhere our grain—barley andwheat—come from, because we havegotten divorced from our roots of theland. However, it was a festival ofthanksgiving for a harvest passed.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Pentecost and Prophecy ...........1 From Ronald L. Dart’s notes

How Often Should You Give to God?1

2014 Feast of Tabernacles Granbury, Texas ......................2

Listener Feedback ......................2

In Memory .................................4

continued on page 3 . . .

How Often Should You Give to God?. . .Have you ever noticed that we don’t pass the offering plate everySabbath at CEM’s worship services? Why? God commands us to titheof our increase. But there is something else he requires of all males. InDeuteronomy 16:16 it says: “Three times a year shall all thy malesappear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; inthe feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks (Pentecost), andin the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD

empty: Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing ofthe LORD thy God which he hath given thee.”

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2014 CEM Feast of Tabernacles

Granbury, TexasAll things are being prepared foryou to enjoy an exciting, spiritual2014 Feast of Tabernacles. Socome to the Feast in Granbury! Wewant to see you. Granbury has moreto offer than you’d ever dream ispossible including:

The Granbury ResortConference CenterLake GranburyThe Creation Evidence MuseumDinosaur Valley ParkFossil Rim Wildlife Park

There is so much you and your

children will love and can’t findanywhere else plus a wide varietyof housing options. There arehotels, bed and breakfasts, RVparks, campgrounds, and lakeproperties available. Check themall out at www.cemfot.com orwww.borntowin.net. There’s moreto come. Keep checking forinformation on discounts andcoupons for housing and activities.A copy of the Feast schedule isenclosed in this newsletter. As youcan see there are many

opportunities for fellowship andworship and with these come manyopportunities for service. To makethis the best Feast ever we needmusicians, seminar leaders, activitycoordinators, ushers, YEA teachers,and many more. If you are interestedin helping with any of the activities,seminars, or worship servicesplease let us know by sending anemail to Linda Benton,lsb@borntowin.net or by calling1-888-242-5344 and asking forLinda.

WKGMI used to dread my long ride fromwork, almost an hour but, now I amso thankful to God because that rideled to the discovery of the Born toWin broadcast on WKGM 940 AM,Smithfield, VA. I am also sothankful to God for Ronald L. Dartbecause Sir you make the Bible somuch easier to understand.

The Born to Win program hasmade me excited about the approachof 5:30 p.m. eastern standard timebecause I know I am about to hearand understand my Father in Heavenbetter with each broadcast. Themost important thing that I havelearned or maybe I have known mywhole adult life but was unwillingto face is that, I am responsible formy closeness to God. He doesn’tleave me, I leave Him. Now that Ihave faced that simple fact, it putsmy relationship with Him in the

Listener Feedbackproper perspective.

God bless CEM, God blessBorn to Win and, God bless RonaldL. Dart.

KBXDI wanted to thank you and your stafffor all you do to educate people onthe word of God. I listen to you onAM 1480 (Dallas) every day on theway home from work. My threechildren and I also listen to your

radio archive sermons everySunday evening—our SundaySermon, so to speak.

KNZZI just want to say how much Iappreciate your fearlesspresentation of God’s Word. Ialways want to hear what you haveto say.

I appreciate that you use reasonand logic in understanding theWord. I know God is not afraid ofscrutiny, He can take it, and ourtrust is enhanced by it.

I especially appreciated yourlast two teachings: tithing and thisSunday’s presentation on propheticreproof. The truth heals.

I learn much from your style aswell. You consistently invite thelistener to stand along side you,even when saying some veryconfronting things. Well done.

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Pentecost and Prophecycontinued from page 1 . . .

If you want a newer, deeperunderstanding of what you are to doabout the Feast of Pentecost that fewothers understand, please call 1-888-BIBLE-44 (1-888-242-5344) oremail adm@borntowin.net and ask forsermons and other written informationabout the Feast of Pentecost. Ronald L.Dart has gone over the aspects of thisfrom the New Testament in so manydifferent sermons in the past.

The seven weeks leading up tothe Feast of Firstfruits, actuallyrepresent the work of the Messiahfrom the time he was accepted byGod as the first of the firstfruits,until his return and sets up hisKingdom on this earth (1Corinthians 15:20). So we need tounderstand that the seven weeksleading up to Pentecost were a timeof work and they had to be punctuatedby periods of rest. And so there werethe seven Sabbaths leading up toPentecost. They represent, in theprophetic scheme of things, the factthat there would be a long period oftime in which Christ would workgathering in his firstfruits. That wouldculminate in the Feast of Firstfruits orthe return of Christ. If you’ll turn backto the Book of Acts, we can perhapsunderstand from this perspective theimportance of the festival and how itplayed out, and why Peter said someof the things that he said.

In years gone by, we were sort oflocked into a certain way of lookingat these festivals. The time sequenceof them had us a little buffaloed, in thesense that we thought that thePassover represented Christ’ssacrifice and the Days of UnleavenedBread, putting sin out of our lives.And then came Pentecost, whichrepresented receiving the Holy Spirit

—a logical presumption consideringwhat happened on the Feast ofPentecost. Then the Feast ofTrumpets, the return of Christ. TheDay of Atonement, the binding ofSatan. And then finally the Feast ofTabernacles.

But what was oftentimes almostentirely overlooked in the past, wasthe prophetic significance ofPentecost. And what it really lookedforward to. Not merely what it hadlooked back upon—the receiving ofthe Holy Spirit. In Acts 2 we’re told“When the day of Pentecost [the 50th

day] was fully come they were all withone accord in one place. And suddenlythere came a sound from heaven like arushing mighty wind, and it filled all thehouse where they were sitting. Andthere appeared to them, distributedtongues like fire, and it sat upon each ofthem. And they were all filled with theHoly Spirit and began to speak withother languages as the Spirit gavethem utterance. Jews, devout men outof every nation under heaven weredwelling in Jerusalem.”

So when it was noised abroad, allthese men came into the Temple tofind out what was happening. Therewas a rather spectacular display andall of a sudden a group of ratherignorant men were beginning to speakin foreign languages, and tounderstand them in the languageswherein they were born. You canimagine it was like a group of us whoall speak English, finding ourselves ina multilingual society. Peoplesuddenly speaking German, otherswere speaking French, others speakinga dialect of India, and other languages.It was even more remarkable to beable to speak fluently in thoselanguages the wonderful works ofGod and to be understood by people.It was a remarkable occurrence, to

say the least—a miracle.What happened on this day is not

that difficult to understand. The work,which we can look back on andunderstand, was a 2000 year or morework. Because these gentlemen didn’tknow how long they had until Christwould return. But the work, the 2000year work was beginning and theywere being empowered to do it. Itwas necessary, since they did nothave, or had not been out into a worldas multilingual as ours or with thecapacity for electronic disseminationof the Gospel as ours. They weregoing to have to go places and speakto people in their own languages. Andso these men were empowered to goout and do that job.

Everyone who came and watchedthis saw the spectacle. It was unusualenough in appearance that they said,what’s going on, are these guysdrunk? Peter stood up with the 11 andlifted up his voice and said unto them,“Men of Judea, and all you that dwellat Jerusalem be this known to you andlisten to my words. These are notdrunken as you suppose seeing it isbut the third hour of the day. But thisis that which was spoken by theprophet Joel.” Now, what isfascinating about this is that Peterunderstood fully what he was saying.There has been much made over theyears that the Apostles reallyunderstood or believed that Christwould come back in their lifetime.They did not believe they had 2000years of work to look forward to. Itcould have been very defeating tothem had they imagined that they had2000 years ahead of them. They hadno idea, they had heard Jesus say noman knows the day or the hour. Andso they did not know the day or thehour. But they had instructions, also

continued on page 4 . . .

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Pentecost and Prophecycontinued from page 3 . . .

from Christ, that they were to be readyall the time. And pursuing it all the time.Little hints in their work showed theyreally anticipated that it would takeplace within their own generation. Theyhad reason to feel that way about it.And so Peter, understanding theimplication of this, spoke of theculmination of the Feast of Pentecost.Not the inception of the Feast ofPentecost.

In other words, Pentecostoriginally was a simple agriculturalfestival, a harvest festival ofthanksgiving to God for what hadbeen given. In its prophetic sense itmeant much more than that. In itsimmediate sense for the church itmeant being empowered to do thework. Receiving the Holy Spirit, butnot merely receiving the Holy Spirit,being empowered by the Holy Spiritto actually preach in whateverlanguage that is necessary. And ofcourse that power also included thepower to heal, the power to cast outdemons, and generally other thingsthat were the work of the ministry. ButPeter fully understood that there wasa prophetic element of Pentecost thatlooked well ahead into the future. Andit was much more than the simpleagricultural festival, and much morethan merely the receiving of the HolySpirit. Much more than a display ofspiritual gifts for whatever reason.

The idea that we should all speakin tongues perhaps and dance aroundhere under the spirit would be aninteresting display and everyonemight enjoy it, and feel uplifted by it.But that’s not what Pentecost wasabout, as Peter well understood. Hisresponse to it, and him telling themthat the fulfillment of it comes straightout of the Prophet Joel, is significant.This is what was said by the Prophet

Joel. “It shall come to pass in the lastdays saith God. I will pour out myspirit upon all flesh, your sons andyour daughters shall prophesy, youryoung men shall see visions and yourold men shall dream dreams. And onmy servants and my handmaids I willpour out in those days of my spirit andthey will prophesy.”

What is fascinating about this isthat there is not one word to suggestthat they would speak in tongues.How then is this the fulfillment ofthis? The point is that the tongueswere not what was important, theywere prophesying in otherlanguages. It was fulfilled, not in thetongues, the tongues were merely ameans to an end. The end was theprophecy that they were making andthe prophesying that they were doing.

But do you fully understand theimplication of this miracle ofspeaking in tongues and that themessage in it is for us today?

We don’t know how long wehave, but we have a work to be done.No, not just the ministry. But if Godhas called you, you have a job todo—you will have to present thefruits of your harvest when youappear before God. He can empoweryou as he did the Apostles on theDay of Pentecost 31 A.D. Time maybe running out. So it is urgent thatyou understand this message andstart working to bring a harvest ofmany sons to glory. Return theenclosed card, or call us today at 1-888-BIBLE-44 or 1-888-242-5344 toget your CD of Pentecost andProphecy, and also ask for the BibleStudy on 50 Days of Evangelism. It isthe “How to.” Invite your neighborsand church members and get involvedin fulfilling the message Pentecost hasfor you in spreading the Gospel.

In MemoryIn MemoryIn MemoryIn MemoryIn MemoryChristian Educational Ministries is verygrateful for the generous contributionsmade in memory of Travis Kubena of

Houston who recently died in his sleep.Lois Kubena, Travis’ wife, and theirson, Bryan preceded Travis in death.His son, Rodney Kubena of Houston

survives him. Travis, Allie Dart’sbrother-in-law, was a long-time

member of the Houston church. Hewill be missed. Any help and

encouragement anyone can giveRodney would be greatly appreciated.

If you are interested, you can callCEM’s office at 1-888-BIBLE-44 to

get his phone number.

Christian Educational Ministries isvery grateful for the generous

contributions made in memory ofEloise Dilworth of Gadsden,Alabama. Eloise, Allie Dart’s

dearest sister, lost her battle withcancer. Her husband Patrick

Dilworth and her daughter, Beverly,preceded her in death. She issurvived by her daughter, JanCofield, and son-in-law Steve

Cofield of Gadsden, Alabama, twograndchildren, and two great

grandchildren. Allie shared andenjoyed a close childhood

relationship with Eloise. She isgreatly missed.

PO Box 560Whitehouse, Texas 75791 phone: 1-888-BIBLE-44

fax: 903-839-9311e-mail: adm@borntowin.netwebsite: www.borntowin.net

That the man of God may be proficientand equipped for every good work.

Christian Educational

Ministries