Counting of the Omer - The 7 Sabbaths until Pentecost

Omer or "counting of the Omer" is the biblical term for the sheaves (grain stalks; wave offering) at the first barley harvest in spring. In addition, the seven-week period between Passover and Pentecost (Shavuot), during which this sacrifice was offered, is also called omer (Lev 23:15-16). The days between Passover and Pentecost are called the "omer days." Today there is no longer a Jerusalem Temple, but nevertheless the 7x7=49 days between Passover (Pesach) and Pentecost (Shavuot) are still counted (see Wikipedia). 

Lev 23:15-16: "You shall count seven full weeks [literally: "seven full/complete Sabbaths"; not weeks] from the day after the Sabbath [i.e. the 15th Nisan], from the day [that is, from the 16th of Nisan] that you brought the sheaf [lit.: omer] of the wave offering. 16 You shall count 50 days [7x7=49 +1 = 50 days] to the day after the seventh Sabbath [lit.: the sabbath the seventh]. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord."

The 14th Nisan falls on a Wednesday (4th day of the week) about every third year. If a weekly Sabbath fell on the 14th Nisan, then the Passover lamb was slaughtered the day before (13th Nisan). The counting of Omer (the 7x7=49 days with the 7 Sabbaths until Pentecost) starts from the day after the High Sabbath (15th Nisan). Between the first yearly Sabbath (15th Nisan, Passover) and the third yearly Sabbath (Pentecost) there are always seven weekly Sabbaths. If the 14th Nisan falls on a Wednesday, then the "first Sabbath" (Mark 16:9) is always on the 17th Nisan in the count of the 7 weekly Sabbaths until Pentecost. That was the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. Since the annual Sabbaths fall on different weekdays, the feast of Pentecost can also be on different weekdays. The following table shows the calculation of the 7 Sabbaths between the years 2000 to 2030 according to the Jewish calendar of today:

It is EXTREMELY important that the symbolic connection of the 50 days between the first High Sabbath (Nisan 15, the great feast of the Exodus from Egypt and, of course, Jesus' deliverance from the death penalty) and the Great Jubilee Day (Shavuot, Pentecost) is exactly a Jubilee period (50 days) after that of the deliverance Jesus obtained for us. This connection between the first and the 3rd High Sabbath of the year is spiritually extremely important and must not be postponed, otherwise it will not properly describe the relationship of the Bride to the Bridegroom. Again, it is very important not to change the symbolic Jubilee Feast of Pentecost, exactly 50 days after the first High Sabbath (15th of Nisan), i.e. after the physical and spiritual exodus. Only this perfectly shows the spiritual relationship of the preceding bridegroom with His bride (who follows Him wherever He goes). The day of resurrection (Nisan 17) was never the decisive criterion to calculate the day of Pentecost, because no one could prevent the resurrection of Jesus anymore, just as no one can prevent our resurrection. More important was the physical and spiritual exodus from sin and this was to be celebrated immediately after the death of Jesus, that is, on the 15th of Nisan. Only this was an annual high Sabbath, but not the day of Jesus' resurrection on a small weekly Sabbath (Nisan 17). After Jesus fulfilled His mission, He rose on His day of rest, nothing could fit symbolically better in the overall context. But the counting of the Omer was always done from the first Jubilee day (High Sabbath Passover, Nisan 15) to the next Jubilee day (High Sabbath Pentecost) after exactly 50 days. 

At the introduction of the first Passover at the time of Moses and also in the year when Jesus was crucified, the 14th Nisan fell on a Wednesday. The resurrection of Jesus took place after "3 days and 3 nights" "early on the first Sabbath" (Mark 16:9). Between the first annual Sabbath (15th Nisan, Passover) and the third annual Sabbath (Pentecost) there are exactly seven weekly Sabbaths. The date in today's Gregorian calendar can be easily determined. The following table shows the years in the Jewish calendar in which the 14th of Nisan falls on a Wednesday: 

Since the Jewish calendar is based on statistical averages, Pentecost always falls on the 6th Siwan (the 3rd month of the year). But in the biblical calendar of God, each month begins with the first visible moon crescent over Jerusalem. Therefore there are years in which Pentecost does not always fall on the 6th Siwan in God's calendar (see calendar). 

After the women had rested on the High Sabbath (15th Nisan), the day after the Sabbath they bought the oils to prepare the ointments (Mk 16:1; Lk 23:56a). According to Neh 10:31-32, no goods could be sold on the Sabbath. Therefore, the earliest possible day for shopping was the day after the High Sabbath.

• Neh 10:31: "And if the peoples of the land bring in goods or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day."
• Ex 20:8: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

The evangelist Mark makes this very clear, but unfortunately most Christians overlook his important words: 

• Mk 16:1: "When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him."

Which Sabbath was meant here? It is of course the High Sabbath (15th Nisan), because the Bible emphasizes that the preceding preparation day (14th Nisan) on which Jesus was crucified was not a normal preparation day for a weekly Sabbath, but a preparation day (definition) for the "High Sabbath" (definition). Since no work was allowed to be done on this High Sabbath, and Jesus was only provisionally embalmed in a hurry on the preparation day, the women had to wait until the day after the High Sabbath to buy and prepare the ointments. This second calendar day after Jesus' death (the day after the High Sabbath) includes the second night and the third day of light on which Jesus was dead or in the "heart of the earth": 

It is important to clear up a misunderstanding concerning the time of cutting the first cereal stalks in the field. All the festivals of God were related to the harvest, and the Passover festival was the spring festival where the harvest was first allowed to begin (Leviticus 23:9-21). A sheaf (also called omer) is a bundle of grain stalks with the ears from the first harvest of the early grain (barley). The priests went into the field on the day after the High Sabbath (Nisan 15), that is, on a workday and harvested the sheaf of the firstfruits. The priests solemnly offered these ears of grain as a wave offering to thank God for the first crops (firstfruits). Only after this ceremony could the work in the field begin and the harvest of the early grain (barley) could be started. 

There are many sources confirming the Omer cutting from the 16th Nisan onwards (Septuagint, Philon, Flavius Josephus, Jewish and Christian Bible dictionaries). If the 16th Nisan fell on a weekly Sabbath, then according to the Jewish Encyclopedia (Link) only three ears of corn (instead of five) were harvested, the field had to be nearby, and only one person (instead of three) was to cut the barley ears. However, on a weekly Sabbath no remains of the Passover lamb were scented to be burned. This is also confirmed by the Talmud (Seder 2, Mishna Pesachim, chapter VII, verse 10; page 165, translation by Georg Beer, 1912, Digitalsat of the University of Frankfurt, free download). In it there are some explanations: The remains of the Passover lamb were to be burned on the 16th Nisan. However, if the 16th fell on a weekly Sabbath, the remains did not have to be burned until the 17th, so as not to affect either the feast day or the Sabbath. After the scattering of the Jews to all the countries of the earth in 70 AD, the calendar of God was changed by Hillel II in 359 AD in such a way that the 16th Nisan could never fall on a weekly Sabbath. Thus, the firstfruits could always be offered on the 16th of Nisan.  

Very ancient Jewish sources repeatedly emphasize the 16th of Nisan (i.e., the day after the High Sabbath) as the first day of the census:

• Sifra, Behar, Section 1:3: "We find, then, that when Israel crossed the Jordan, they became subject to (the ordinance of) challah, orlah, and chadash. On the 16th of Nissan they became subject to the omer. After 50 days, they became subject to the two loaves. [referring to the wave offering with the 2 leavened loaves at Pentecost]..." [Source].
• Sifra Emor (chap. 12:8) "Count 49 days from the second day of the Passover to the feast of Pentecost, and sanctify the 50th day as in the Jobel (the 50th year)" [Zuckermann: "Über Sabbatjahrcyclus und Jobelperiode", in: Jahresbericht des jüdisch-theologischen Seminars, Breslau, 1857]. The second day of the feast can only be the 16th of Nisan, because from the first day of the feast (High Sabbath on the 15th of Nisan) was never counted, but always only from the day after this High Sabbath, that is, the 16th of Nisan. The 14th Nisan was only the preparation day for this 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread which was counted from the 15th to the 21st Nisan.

Also, in many European countries where Jews have reported on the harvest seasons in Israel (or Palestine), there has been repeated reference to Nisan 16 as the first day of the barley harvest (or counting of the Omer). A quote from Hermann Vogelstein in 1894 serves as an example:

• „The barley harvest began on the second day of the Feast of Passover [i.e., Nisan 16] with the mowing of the omer of barley required for the sacrifice, which, according to biblical prescription, was offered from the first thing that had been harvested.“ (Source: "Agriculture in Palestine at the Time of the Misnah: Part 1. Cereal Cultivation," Berlin, 1894, p. 57; Original: „Die Gerstenernte begann am zweiten Tage des Passahfestes [also am 16. Nisan] mit dem Abmähen des für das Opfer erforderlichen Omers Gerste, der nach biblischer Vorschrift von dem Ersten, was geerntet worden war, dargebracht wurde.“ In: "Die Landwirtschaft in Palästina zur Zeit der Misnah: Teil 1. Der Getreidebau", Berlin, 1894). 

During the seven days of Passover, no leaven was allowed to be eaten, but work could be done on all days (except on the three Sabbaths during the Passover festival). What is the meaning of this Omer commandment? God did not introduce meaningless rules, but He wanted to reveal His plan with mankind from the beginning: The first ears of grain (grave) of the early grain are symbolic of Jesus, the firstfruit of all who have fallen asleep (1Cor 15:20; Col 1:18). The summer harvest stands for the Christians, the firstfruits (Rom 8:23; 16:5; 1Cor 16:15), who died in the Lord and will participate in the first resurrection. They will rise from the dead at the Rapture. The term omer counting refers to the counting of each of the 49 days (7x7=49) between the biblical feasts of Passover and Pentecost. The Bible reports counting Omer up to the feast of weeks as follows:

• Lev 23:15-16: The Feast of Weeks. „You shall count seven full weeks [literally: seven Sabbaths completed] from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. 16 You shall count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath [literally: the Sabbath the seventh]. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord.“
  Note: All 7 weekly Sabbaths following the 15th Nisan were counted. The „first Sabbath“ was the first weekly Sabbath after Passover (Nisan 15) and the „seventh Sabbath“ was followed by the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot, Pentecost).
  
• Dt 16:9-10: „You shall count seven weeks [literally: shabuot, Seveness, perod of seven, in LXX: "7 ebdomadas"]. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God...“
• Lev 23:10-11: „Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath [i.e. 15th Nisan] the priest shall wave it.“
• Jos 5:10-11: „While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. 12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.“
  Note: The Israelites came into the land which God gave them, slaughtered the Passover lamb on the 14th Nisan, still eating the old grain and manna, and celebrated the Passover feast on the 15th Nisan (the great Sabbath), and on the day after, that is, from the 16th Nisan on, the manna stopped, because from that day on they were allowed to reap their own harvest. Everything was fulfilled exactly as God had announced it in Lev 23. This is a further proof that the Jews counted from the 16th Nisan until the 50th day.

When was the first time in the year that the sickle was placed on the grain stalks? That was, of course, on the first working day after the High Sabbath of the year (15th Nisan, Passover), that is, on the 16th Nisan, when the first harvest of the year was allowed and the first yarrow was cut. Thus, this first working day (16th Nisan) is the first day in the count of 49 days with the seven Sabbaths until the 50th day (Pentecost). The first weekly Sabbath, which followed this working day (16th Nisan), was thus clearly the first of seven Sabbaths in the count to Pentecost. It was therefore also briefly called the „first Sabbath“ or „first of the Sabbaths“ (because there are seven Sabbaths). This „first Sabbath“ exists only once a year. It is not only spoken of in the Old Testament, but also the evangelist Mark chooses it in Mark 16:9. It literally says:

„Risen from the dead but early on the first sabbath [πρωτη σαββατου, Sabbath in singular], He [Jesus] appeared first to Mary...".

All Jews and all Christians in the early Christian church knew exactly what was meant by this, because they knew the biblical calendar (see link). Only when the calendar of feast days was changed a few centuries after Christ's death and Sunday was officially prescribed as a weekly holiday binding for all Christians, only then did the knowledge of this „first Sabbath“ fall into oblivion. Only Christians and Jews who are faithful to the Bible have preserved this knowledge over all centuries. They know that there are not only the four Sundays of Advent until Christmas, but since 3,500 years the seven Sabbaths between Passover and Pentecost.

If someone today would ask a Christian what the „first Sabbath“ or the „first of the Sabbaths“ is, he would only get a surprised face in reply. But in the first Christian congregation, the so-called "early church," all people knew this term and knew that the first weekly Sabbath after the annual High Sabbath (Nisan 15) was meant by it, counting from seven weeks to Pentecost. But the sheaf was not cut after this first weekly Sabbath, but already after the High Sabbath. This was a prophetic way of giving thanks from the beginning for the harvest of the firstfruits of Jesus and the forthcoming Ascension to the Father. If someone claims that the omer was offered at the exact same time that Jesus rose from the dead, then this ceremony should have taken place in the dark period of the Sabbath. Harvesting was not allowed on a Sabbath, so the sheaf had to be cut the day before, for all the evangelists unanimously mention the resurrection of Jesus „on a Sabbath“ (Mk 16:2; Lk 24:1; Jh 20:1) just as the day was beginning to dawn (see illustration above). The offering of Omer as a wave offering was intended to indicate the imminent resurrection of Jesus.

Often the statement of Lev 23:11,15-16 and Dt 16:9 is used in order to prove that Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday and ascended to the Father on a Sunday. Even some churches that keep the Sabbath have been influenced by this thought. Since many Christians are not familiar with the biblical calendar or with the Israeli holiday order, because they pay little attention to the Old Testament, even though it was the foundation of Jesus and the first Christian church, they cannot differentiate between the Sabbaths. They overlook the fact that here God was not speaking of the first day after the normal weekly Sabbath, but of the first day after the High Sabbath, the Passover feast day. There is a big difference. This "day after the Sabbath" does not therefore always mean Sunday, but rather any day of the week. On a Sunday the sheaf cannot have been cut at all, there are several reasons for this: 

1. God never determined that the sheaf should be swung on the first day of the week (Sunday), but on the day after the High Sabbath (15th Nisan), which can fall on different days of the week. The calendar of God is the yardstick here and not the Gregorian (Catholic) calendar. This "day after the (high) Sabbath" (Lev 23) falls every year on different days of the week, otherwise God would say that we should "count from the first day of the week". He never said that. It is never about Sunday, but about the fiftieth day following the seventh Sabbath, but between the seventh Sabbath and the fiftieth day (Pentecost) there is a different number of days every year. Every Jewish calendar shows this very clearly. This is easy to understand.
2. Jesus said that it would be "3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth". This was the sign of the Messiah for the world. If he had been crucified on Friday and resurrected on Easter Sunday, it would have been only 1.5 days and the sign of the Messiah would not have been fulfilled. Symbolically it was not meant, but Jesus knew exactly what he was saying and what not. With this most important sign for the whole world he made himself clear.
3. In the overall context in Lev 23, from verse 4 onwards, the issue is the enumeration of the "Feasts of the Lord" (Lev 23:4), that is to say the seven annual High Sabbaths, and not the usual weekly Sabbaths. The expression "day after the Sabbath" in Lev 23:11 follows immediately after the enumeration of the first annual Sabbath (Passover, 15th Nisan). Consequently, this expression can only refer to the day after the first annual Sabbath and not to the day after a weekly Sabbath, which, depending on the year, can follow several days after the solemn Sabbath (15th Nisan). This is also how the Talmud sees it. Although in some years this day after the High Sabbath may fall on a Sunday, it usually falls on another day of the week (see image above). On the day after this High Sabbath, the counting began until the Feast of Weeks. In Lev 23:15-16, then, it is clearly not a question of a day after a weekly Sabbath, but of the day after this first yearly feast Sabbath, the Passover Sabbath (15th Nisan), from which the fifty days (7 Sabbaths, 7x7=49+1=50 days) were to be counted up to the feast of weeks (literally the Feast of Sevens, Shavuot). In the New Testament the Greek word Pentecoste (translated: the fiftieth) was used for this feast day, from which the English word Pentecost was derived.
4. To this day the Jews calculate Omer counting like their fathers, that is, after the 15th Nisan, from the 16th of Nisan, which can fall on different days of the week from year to year (see Jewish calendar and figure above)
5. Those who claim that the sheaf was not cut after the feast Sabbath, but on the day after the weekly Sabbath (i.e. on a Sunday), celebrate the Omer exactly one day too late, since Jesus had already risen the day before. All evangelists stress that Jesus rose from the dead "on one of the Sabbaths" during Passover and "early on the first Sabbath" (Mk 16:2). This is the statement of the basic Greek text, the Latin Vulgate and also of many translations worldwide, which have not been falsified by the church. See the many examples in chapter Old Bibles. This is another clearer proof that the omer had to be cut on the 16th of Nisan to point to the coming resurrection. If it was to be after the weekly Sabbath, the ceremony would be pointless, because everyone knew for a day anyway that Jesus had already risen and ascended to the Father. It would be much too late. Jesus already rose from the dead in the night phase of the Sabbath (Mt 28:1) and he ascended to the Father shortly after he appeared to Mary and later returned to earth again, where he was with the disciples for another 40 days. If the Omer sacrifice was to be swung only after the weekly Sabbath, it would already be more than 24 hours too late. 
6. Jesus Christ is the firstfruits (1Cor 15:23) and his resurrection took place only a few hours after the cutting of the firstfruits, namely immediately after this working day, namely on a weekly Sabbath, the day of Jesus. This did not happen on the day of the Lord Sol, but on the day of the Lord Jesus (Lk 6:5; Mt 12:8; Mk 2:28). Sunday, however, was never the day of Jesus. The first day of the week was also never sanctified by God, it is an unsanctified day. Sunday is the day of the sun, or more precisely, of the sun god standing behind it (Sol, Lucifer), who was worshipped by the ancient pagan peoples.
7. The offering of the sheaf was a reference to the UPCOMING resurrection of Jesus Christ (the firstfruits of the departed) and his ascension to the Father. It was never an indication of the NOW RIGHT coming resurrection and ascension to the Father. The offering of the sheaf and the resurrection cannot possibly have taken place at exactly the same time on the same day. Jesus rose on a Sabbath morning, but the sheaf was to be offered "the day AFTER the Sabbath. So only the 16th Nisan can have been meant, because the literal translation of the Bible reports 7 times that Jesus rose from the dead "on a Sabbath morning", "early on the first Sabbath" (Mark 16:9) of the 7 Sabbaths until Pentecost. 
8. If God had wanted Sunday, then he could have simply said in the days of Moses: "cut the sheaf on the first day of the week" and all discussions would have come to an end. But this is impossible, because the 15th Nisan (annual Sabbath) falls on different days of the week. Thus the "day after the [High] Sabbath" also falls on different days of the week and only rarely on the first day of the week ("Sunday", see table above). Since Jesus also rose from the dead "on a Sabbath" and ascended to the Father, the earliest possible time to cut the sheaf was the day AFTER the annual Sabbath and BEFORE the weekly Sabbath. Interestingly, Jesus was resurrected immediately at the night following the cutting of the first sheaf. This is a clear indication of Christ, it could not have come more precisely. The cutting of the sheaf was a prophetic hint for the people at the time of Jesus, because they knew: the resurrection and ascension of the Messiah is imminent and nobody can stop it!
9. The text below describes the dispute between Pharisees and Sadducees. From the words of Jesus it is clear that He himself defended the practice of the Jews at that time (counting from the 16th Nisan) and never questioned or criticized it. It was common practice in Israel during his lifetime on earth. This is confirmed by many historical sources, Talmud and encyclopedias)
10. Flavius Josephus, the famous Jewish-Roman historian, confirms that the Jews at the time of Jesus started counting and harvesting from the sixteenth Nisan (see text below). He came from a family of priests and knew the calendar of God and the Omer counting very well. God gave us this extra-biblical source so that we would not argue and be sure that the 16th Nisan in Israel was always the first day of Omer counting. According to the biblical calendar, the day of Pentecost at the time of Jesus fell on the 5th, 6th or 7th Sivan, but according to the current Jewish calendar of Hillel from the 4th century, Pentecost always falls on the 6th Sivan, because the Jewish calendar is based on statistical averages and does not pay attention to the astronomical beginning of the month (first visible crescent of the moon over Israel). But this does not change the fact that Omer was always counted from the 16th Nisan.
11. After the Roman emperors replaced the biblical calendar, which they hated, the calculation of the Passover (Easter) and the counting of the feast of Pentecost was also changed so that they could always celebrate these days on the "Day of the Lord Sol" (Sunday). Thus they had created their Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday. But according to the Bible Jesus ascended to the Father even before Sunday, namely "on a Sabbath", the day of Jesus. It was the "first Sabbath" (Mk 16:9) of the seven Sabbaths beween Passover and Pentecost. Any child can understand that.

Some Christians had a problem especially with the verse in Lev 23:16 where "until the day after the seventh sabbath". Literally it says: "until the next/following the Sabbath the seventh you shall number 50 days". So they thought that this must mean the day directly after the seventh weekly Sabbath, that is, a Sunday. But they did not consider that verse 16 in most Bibles was translated inaccurately. For in the context it is about the 50th day after the seventh Sabbath, which can fall on different weekdays from year to year. Besides: the Hebrew "yom" means not only "day" but also "time". This is also how the following time after the seventh Sabbath was understood. The first occurrence of the word "yom" (day, which many add in Lev 23:16) is found for the first time in Gen 2:4: "It was at that day [or time] that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens". Here (and also in other places) the Luther Bible translates the same word with "time". In Leviticus, the emphasis in the calculation of the Feast of Pentecost is on counting exactly fifty days after the high Feast Sabbath (15th Nisan), regardless of which day of the week the 50th day falls. That is why counting is necessary, otherwise it would be superfluous if the Sunday of Pentecost always came out. Then God could have simply spoken of the "first day of the week after seven weeks". So Pentecost would always fall on the same day of the week, not on different days (hence the counting), as is the case in God's calendar. However, it was counted from the 16th Nisan on. Many biblical scholars see this in exactly the same way, and the Jews also count in the same way to this day, and no differently.   

Already at the time of Jesus there was a dispute between the Pharisees and the Sadducees (and Karites, Samaritans) about which "day after the sabbath" was meant, from which time on the counting should be done. In contrast to the Pharisees, who always offered the sheaf on the 16th Nisan (i.e. always after the annual Sabbath), for the Sadducees the "day after the Sabbath" was meant the day after the weekly Sabbath. They therefore always celebrated the Omer offering on the first day of the week and thus Pentecost on a Sunday. However, the priests, Jesus and the people did NOT adhere to this small splinter group. They regarded the day after the Sabbath in Lev 23:11 as the first day after the High Passover Sabbath (Nisan 15). This is why they always performed the offering of the Omer on the 16th of Nisan, which falls on different days of the week from year to year, because the 15th of Nisan also falls on different days. The calculation has been used by the Jews for thousands of years and has not changed to this day. 

The doctrine of the Sadducee sect must be evaluated with the utmost caution, because they did not believe in angels or in the resurrection (Mt 22:23), so it is not surprising if they also erred in the question of the calculation of the feast day and could not grasp the deep meaning in God's plan. How can someone who does not believe in angels and the resurrection even understand the calendar and the plan of God? That is not possible at all. They would therefore never have been able to understand the connection between the spiritual symbolism of the liberation of the Church of Israel on the High Sabbath of Passover (15 Nisan) and the founding of the New Testament Church on the High Sabbath of Pentecost after exactly 50 days, even though this all happened during their lifetime and in their state of Israel. Jesus himself judged harshly about the ignorance of the Sadducees and He answered them, „You are wrong, because you [the Sadducees] know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God“ (Mt 22:29). This lack of knowledge of the Word of God (the Bible), which Jesus clearly mentioned, was also reflected in their false Omer counting. While the Pharisees were a group of lawful priests who were self-righteous and had little love; on the other hand, they were meticulously accurate and at least had maintained the correct count until Pentecost. Jesus also said that the Pharisees (and not the Sadducees) should sit in Moses' seat and that the people should listen to the Pharisees, including the counting of Omer:  

Mt 23:1-3: "Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees [not the Sadducees] sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they [the Pharisees] tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice."

Many Christians reject all the teachings of the Sadducees. The only exception is the miscalculation of the omer to get them to the desired Sunday. But Jesus Christ has personally told us which of these two groups we should listen to. He meant the scribes and the Pharisees, but not the Sadducees. Part of "do and observe whatever they tell you" is to keep the correct biblical calendar, which includes the Omer count.

From the time of Joshua (Jos 5:10-12) until the time of Jesus, the High Sabbath was celebrated on the 15th of Nisan and on the 16th of Nisan the counting of Omer began and we cannot find a single Bible passage that says that Jesus complained about it or that he changed the way of counting and thought up Pentecost Sunday.

Another fact that many Christians ignore: Paul himself was a Pharisee, he knew very well that in Israel the counting of omer began from the day after the high Sabbath. 

• Acts 22:3-5: "I [Paul] am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished."
• Acts 23,6-8: "Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” 7 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all."
• Acts 26:4-5: "My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. 5 They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee."
• Gal 1:13-14: "For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers."
• Phil 3:5: "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee." 

In the book of Acts there is much reported about Paul and never a word is mentioned from which it could be deduced that he would have been against the counting method that was usual in Israel at that time. The wave sacrifice was offered on the 16th of Nisan. It was the day after the high Sabbath and not after a weekly Sabbath. The former Pharisee Paul also wrote 14 epistles and in none of them did he claim that the Jews were not calculating the days correctly or that anything in the calculation should be changed. So it is not surprising that even Flavius Josephus regards the calculation of Paul and the Pharisees in the state of Israel as binding (see below). Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

1Cor 16:8: "But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost."

The biblical feast of Pentecost, which falls on different days of the week from year to year, which some Christians describe as Old Testament or "too Jewish" (because they always want a Pentecost Sunday), also existed after the resurrection of Jesus. The New Testament church was founded on this day, and Paul also mentions this day in his letter to the Corinthians. This raises the question: How did he calculate Pentecost? Certainly not the way the Sadducees did and also not the way many Christians do today by following the Pope's calendar (which did not even exist at the time), as Amir Tsarfati does, for example. Paul also did not count like the Church of God or some Messianic Jews, who follow the Omer from a Sunday according to the new Jewish calendar, which was only invented in the 4th century (i.e. long after Paul's death) by rabbis who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Paul reckoned the 50 days like the Pharisees, i.e. always from the 16th of Nisan. Anyone who disagrees should please prove it to us from biblical and historical sources, which no one has yet succeeded in doing. These people simply quote the biblical passage "day after the Sabbath" and want to persuade the Israelites and us that this supposedly always means the day after Saturday, i.e. Sunday, and not the day after the High Sabbath, which many do not even know. No, today we know exactly how the Pharisees and therefore also Paul calculated the Omer.

Wikipedia also makes clear that until the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD, the omer was always cut on the second day (16th Nisan) of Passover, that is, after the high Sabbath (15th Nisan):

• „When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, a sheaf of new-cut barley was presented before the altar on the second day of Unleavened Bread... Since the destruction of the Temple, this offering is brought in word rather than deed“ (source).
• „Beginning on the second night of Passover, the 16th day of Nisan, Jews begin the practice of the Counting of the Omer, a nightly reminder of the approach of the holiday of Shavuot 50 days hence. Each night after the evening prayer service, men and women recite a special blessing and then enumerate the day of the Omer. On the first night, for example, they say, "Today is the first day in (or, to) the Omer"; on the second night, "Today is the second day in the Omer." The counting also involves weeks; thus, the seventh day is commemorated, "Today is the seventh day, which is one week in the Omer." The eighth day is marked, "Today is the eighth day, which is one week and one day in the Omer," etc.“ (source).
• „Karaite Jews and Israelite Samaritans begin counting the Omer on the day after the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread – Passover, rather than on the second day of Passover (the 16th of Nisan)... A difference between Karaites and Samaritans as opposed to Rabbinic Jews is the understanding of "morrow after the day of rest". Rabbinic Jews take the "day of rest" as the 1st day of Passover, while Karaites and Samaritans interpret this Sabbath to be the first weekly Sabbath that falls during Passover. As a result the Karaite and Samaritan Shavuot is always on a Sunday, although the actual Hebrew date varies (which complements the fact that a specific date is never given for Shavuot in the Torah, the only holiday for which this is the case). The counting of Karaite and Rabbinic Jews coincides when the first day of Passover is on the Sabbath. Because the date of the Samaritan Passover usually differs from the Jewish one, often by as much as a month, the Karaite and Samaritan counting rarely coincides“ (source).
• „In Judaism the Festival of Weeks (Hebrew: שבועות‎ Shavuot) is a harvest festival that is celebrated seven weeks and one day after the first day of Passover (the Feast of Unleavened Bread) in Deuteronomy 16:9 or seven weeks and one day after the Sabbath referred to in Leviticus 23:16. The Festival of Weeks is also called the feast of Harvest in Exodus 23:16 and the day of first fruits in Numbers 28:26. In Exodus 34:22 it is called the "firstfruits of the wheat harvest [not grape harvest]." The date for the "Feast of Weeks" originally came the day after seven full weeks following the first harvest of grain. In Jewish tradition the fiftieth day was known as the Festival of Weeks. The actual mention of fifty days comes from Leviticus 23:16“ (source).

Many Christians wish to have the offering of the omer after a weekly Sabbath, that is, on a Sunday, in order to be able to defend this unbiblical day. The Bible (especially Jesus' own words), the Jewish calendar, and numerous historical sources speak against this, speaking of the day after the annual Sabbath. Another important and clear proof that the Israelites calculated the Omer from the day after the Feast Sabbath, that is, from the 16th Nisan, is given by the Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus (*37; †after 100), who came from the same Jewish people (and even from a family of priests), lived at the same time and in the same geographical area as Jesus and the apostles. He wrote around 94 AD, a work in which he describes the history of the Jewish people. It is especially interesting that he refers to Lev 23:11 and describes exactly from which day the Omer was counted:

„In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the 14th day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians,) the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so we do celebrate this passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the passover, and falls on the 15th day of the month, and continues seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened bread; on every one of which days two bulls are killed, and one ram, and seven lambs. Now these lambs are entirely burnt, besides the kid of the goats which is added to all the rest, for sins; for it is intended as a feast for the priest on every one of those days. But on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the 16th day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day they do not touch them. And while they suppose it proper to honor God, from whom they obtain this plentiful provision, in the first place, they offer the first-fruits of their barley, and that in the manner following: They take a handful of the ears, and dry them, then beat them small, and purge the barley from the bran; they then bring one tenth deal to the altar, to God; and, casting one handful of it upon the fire, they leave the rest for the use of the priest. And after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest. They also at this participation of the first-fruits of the earth, sacrifice a lamb, as a burnt-offering to God“ (The Antiquities Of The Jews: 3rd book, chapter 10, v.5, translated from Greek by William Whiston).

The Wikipedias page quotes similarly:

"On the second day of unleavened bread, that is to say the sixteenth, our people partake of the crops which they have reaped and which have not been touched till then, and esteeming it right first to do homage to God, to whom they owe the abundance of these gifts, they offer to him the first-fruits of the barley in the following way. After parching and crushing the little sheaf of ears and purifying the barley for grinding, they bring to the altar an assaron [it was a volumetric measure] for God, and, having flung a handful thereof on the altar, they leave the rest for the use of the priests. Thereafter all are permitted, publicly or individually, to begin harvest" (source).

Like all their fathers through all generations, today's Jews also count the day of Pentecost according to the biblical calendar and begin counting the first day also after the High Passover Sabbath (15th Nisan), that is, on the 16th of Nisan. That this is indeed the case can be proved quickly on the many Internet sites that show the Jewish calendar. Here is an example from the year 2020, in which exactly the same order of days at the Passover existed as in the year in which Jesus was crucified. And also here the calculation starts from the 16th Nisan:

Omer counting thus means the counting of each of the 49 days (7x7=49) between the Jewish feasts of Passover and Shavuot. This period includes a series of seven weekly Sabbaths (see first figure above). The "first Sabbath" of this series was mentioned by the evangelist Mark in Mk 16:9. The 50th day is Shavuot (Pentecost). 

Below are the two compared examples from the years 2000 and 2020, in which the 14th Nisan fell on a Wednesday, the 15th Nisan on a Thursday and the "first Sabbath" or "first of the Sabbaths" on a 17th Nisan. The dark blue fields show the three Sabbaths of the year (15th, 21st Nisan and Pentecost). On the right side the 7 weekly Sabbaths until Pentecost are listed. The numbers marked in green show the conting of the Omer, i.e. the 49+1=50 days:

The two tables show the counting of the seven weekly Sabbaths up to Pentecost in the Jewish calendar 2000 and 2020 according to Hillel. This shows which day of the week the feast Sabbaths fall on. The areas marked in green show the first day of the counting of the Omer and therefore also the 7th, 14th, 21st and 49th days. The "first Sabbath" of the 7 weekly Sabbaths up to Pentecost can fall at the beginning, middle or end of the Passover week. This means that the High Sabbath of Pentecost also falls on different days of the week. In the biblical calendar, Passover 2000 was celebrated a month earlier, and in 2020 and 2023 the biblical and Jewish calendars fell on the same days. 

When the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, this did not happen on the day according to the Pope's calendar, but also according to God's biblical calendar. And anyone expecting the Rapture and return of Jesus on a specific biblical feast day must of course be guided by the biblical (divine) calendar and not the Catholic calendar. But it does not necessarily have to be the case that the Rapture has to take place on a biblical feast day, for we do not know when God will finish the spiritual harvest of the first fruits and when the last Christian is called to be the spiritual bride of Christ.

On April 8, 2020, the preparation day of the 14th Nisan fell again to a Wednesday. So every Christian could experience exactly the same sequence of days as in the year when Jesus was crucified. The first omer (16th Nisan) was again counted from the day after the High Sabbath (15th Nisan), as it has always been (see calendar illustration above).

Under the keywords "Jewish calendar" there are many websites in which the counting of the Feast of Weeks is given with exact dates. The top image on this website shows the Omer count for the years 2000 to 2030 The years 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2020, 2023, 2026, 2027 and 2030 have exactly the same order of feast days as the year in which Jesus was executed. You can recognize the first three major annual Sabbaths (1st and 7th day of Passover and Pentecost; dark blue fields) and the 7 minor Sabbaths (light blue fields) in between. 

Unfortunately, there are many Christians and even Messianic Jews who misstate the feast of Pentecost and often speak several times of a "true Pentecost", which they postpone again and again (sometimes even several times in one year). They claim that the Jews themselves are allegedly not able to calculate their own feast days correctly and need Christians to present them with new feast day calculations every year. No, certainly not. The Isarelites have always calculated their Pentecost correctly. The information shown here in our video and on the website does not contradict the calendar of the Jews. The only difference is that they still do not currently use God's biblical calendar, but rather the calendar of the Patriarch Hillel, which was developed in the 4th century AD and is based only on inaccurate statistical averages because the Jews, who were scattered around the world after 70 AD, could no longer see the first crescent moon over Jerusalem and thus could not accurately determine the beginnings of the months. But the way they count the feast days is correct and is even confirmed by Flavius Josephus. In the year 2020 the calendar of God and the Jewish calendar of Hillel fell on the same feast days of Passover, thus there was also the feast of Pentecost on the same day of the week. Any Christian can see the 7 Sabbaths between Passover (15th of Nisan) and Pentecost (50th day after the first High Sabbath) in any Jewish calendar. The Israelites always begin counting the Omer (as their fathers always did) from the day after the first annual High Sabbath, that is, from the 16th of Nisan. This is extremely important because it is the only way to maintain the direct connection between the first festival (Exodus from Egypt and deliverance from sin and death penalty by Jesus) to the Jubilee period of 50 days (Pentecost) after that first High Sabbath. But if counting starts from Sunday, then the connection to the first High Sabbath is destroyed. Many Christians absolutely wish the unbiblical resurrection of Jesus on a Sunday, therefore they delete 6 Sabbaths in the Greek NT (see Interlinear) and replace them 6 times by Sunday. Therefore, they miscalculate Pentecost and start counting the Omer, not after the first High Sabbath, but after the first weekly Sabbath, that is, from Sunday. They make the Catholic Easter Sunday the new festive Sabbath "First Fruits" to one of the 7 Annual Feasts of God, and for this they erase the 7th Annual Sabbath Shemini Atzeret (Last Great Day of Assembly), so as to come back to the number 7. These Christians want Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost Sunday and prefer to follow the Pope's calendar, but not God's biblical calendar. 

Hes 3:17-21: „Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 18 If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for[d] his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. 20 Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.“

1Thess 5:21-22: „Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.“

Epheser 5:11: „Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.“

The turbo resurrection of Jesus that many theologians wanted never happened, but rather he fulfilled the sign of the Messiah (3 days and 3 nights):

None of this is difficult to understand. The Jews know that at the time of the Exodus, the 10th of Nisan fell on a Sabbath (Shabbat ha-Gadol), the 14th of Nisan on a Wednesday and the 15th of Nisan on a Thursday. And we too have experienced the same sequence of days in numerous years as in the year in which our Lord was crucified:

On You Tube, various Christians publish completely new calculations of the Omer, which the world has never seen before. They calculate 99, 100 or even 102 days. Some have seen special star constellations and would like Pentecost to move on this day and calculate 50+50+x days. We published a comment on these channels, which was deleted by the channel operator after a short time, because other Christians evaluated this contribution positively and rejected these new calculations. As these people have no arguments, and cannot refute us, they simply delete all critical messages, so that the church (the Bride of Christ) is put on a wrong calculation. In contrast to this, we are not at all afraid of communicating with biblical passages, and do not run away, so here is the text again: 

QUOTE: It is really sad to see, how some Christians are twisting the Word of God to create a new private Pentecost date that has not existed for 3,500 years and is confusing the Bride of Christ. It is a real PAIN to hear how some old familiar verses are twisted. Not a single verse could confirm this new theory, NONE. And it is a great insult to all Jews, who allegedly would not be able to understand their own language (the Hebrew mother tongue) and would need Christians to set up completely new dates and rules of the feasts for them. Terrible. The word "Pentecost" is biblical and is written three times in the NT, this word was used by God (!!!) and it means 50, not 99, 100 or 102 or 50+x days. There is only one "true Pentecost" but many "fake Pentecost" calculated by Christians.

Such new private Pentecost that never has been and never will be accepted in Israel. When God speaks of 50 days and 7 Sabbaths, He means it and does not mean 99 days or 102 days and 14 or 15 Sabbaths. You are destroying the numerical meaning of the Bible with 7x7=49+1=50 days. This is the same order as the calculation of the Jubilee years, Pentecost is also a kind of Jubilee day, because on this day the Holy Spirit was poured out and the Church was founded. Thus began the age of the church and of grace and the rapture will end this era. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came from heaven to earth; but at the Rapture the Holy Spirit goes from earth to heaven. Only God knows when the spiritual harvest of the first fruits will be completed. But Christians who are watching will NOT be surprised. The meaning of numbers (especially 50 and 7) is extremely important. Pentecost means the 50th day after the first high Sabbath of the year on the 15th of Nisan (Passover). This is the most important day, because on this day was the Exodus from Egypt and on this day we remember our salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

In 2020 the calculation very simple because God's astronomical calendar (first visible crescent of the moon determines the beginning of the month) falls on the same day on the 1st of Nisan as the mathematical Jewish calendar of Hillel. Thus, the 14th Nisan and the 15th Nisan (High Sabbath, Passover) and the "first Sabbath" (17th Nisan) of a series of seven weekly Sabbaths also fell on the same day. Jesus died on the 14th Nisan and He rose from the death "early on the first Sabbath" (17th Nisan, Mk 16:9, i.e. the first of the seven Sabbaths to Pentecost) so Jesus gave the answer how we should calculate PENTECOST (50) and the seven Sabbaths (and the "first Sabbath"). 

The first Christian church calculated Pentecost in the same way as the Hebrews did. Omer is to be counted from the day after the High Sabbath, just as the Jews do today. There is much evidence of this in the Bible and even in extra-biblical literature:

1. This "day after the (high) Sabbath" (Lev 23) falls on different days of the week (depending on the year), so God never said that we should count from the "first day of the week", never. Therefore, the mention of the day "after the Sabbath" is very logical and the Jews have kept this counting tradition correctly for thousands of years, even though some OTHER changes have been made in the calendar of Hillel (4th century). Counting has never been changed. So it means a future 50th day following the seventh Sabbath. But if Christians do not know the calendar of God, then they cannot possibly know that between the seventh Sabbath and Pentecost there are different numbers of days from year to year. This is the reason why God has determined that we should count. This is easy to understand. 
2. Leviticus 23 counts in context the seven High Sabbaths of the year, and the first High Sabbath was Passover (15th Nisan). This mentioned High Sabbath in the OT was the Sabbath from which to count "the next day". This "day after the (high) Sabbath" falls on different days of the week (depending on the year), otherwise God would say that we should "count from the first day of the week". He never said that. The second High Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on 21st Nisan cannot possibly be meant, because then the "first Sabbath" would be too far behind. Jesus rose from the dead "on the first Sabbath" (Mk 16:9). If this were after the 21st Nisan, then he would have had to spend more than a week in the tomb and not "3 days and 3 nights".
   Do you really believe that the Israelites were not intelligent enough to understand their own mother tongue and now, after 3,500 years, need Christians to explain to them when Pentecost is according to Leviticus 23? No. What an arrogant attitude. You are wrong, and from year to year you calculate always new Pentecost dates, which no one in Israel will ever accept. Today we know 100% exactly how Pentecost was calculated at the time of Jesus. Even in Wikipedia the counting of the omer is explained correctly and this was even confirmed by Flavius Josephus, who came from a family of priests. You are making completely new interpretations of Leviticus, which shows how poorly you understand the Hebrew language and the plan of God. 
3. Jesus himself judged harshly about the ignorance of the Sadducees (they started counting Omer on the day after the weekly Sabbath, i.e. Sunday) and He "answered them, “You are wrong, because you [the Sadducees] know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God" (Mt 22:29). This lack of knowledge of the Word of God (the Bible), which Jesus clearly mentioned, was also reflected in their false Omer counting. While the Pharisees were a group of lawful priests who were self-righteous and had little love; on the other hand, they were meticulously accurate and at least had maintained the correct count until Pentecost. Jesus also said that the Pharisees (and not the Sadducees) should sit in Moses' seat and that the people should listen to the Pharisees, including the counting of Omer:
   Mt 23:1-3: "Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees [not the Sadducees] sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they [the Pharisees] tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice."
4. Many Christians reject all the teachings of the Sadducees. The only exception is the miscalculation of the omer to get them to the desired Sunday. But Jesus Christ has personally told us which of these two groups we should listen to. He meant the scribes and the Pharisees, but not the Sadducees (and not he Karites). Part of "do and observe whatever they tell you" is to keep the correct biblical calendar, which includes the correct Omer counting. Jesus himself answered the question how we should count Omer, namely like the Pharisees and not like the Sadducees.  Passover (Liberation from the death penalty) this is the most important day and not the 50th day after Passover for an additional 50 days.
5. Another fact that many Christians ignore: Paul himself was a Pharisee (!!!), he knew very well that in Israel the counting of omer began from the day after the high Sabbath. He was “educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers” (Acts 22:3-5), “the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee" Acts (26:4-5), “so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers" (Gal 1:13-14), “a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee" (Phil 3:5). In the book of Acts there is much reported about Paul and never a word is mentioned from which it could be deduced that he would have been against the counting method that was usual in Israel at that time. The wave sacrifice was always offered "after the High Sabbath (on the 16th of Nisan). It would be a huge sensation if Paul were to postpone the day of the counting and accept the counting of the Sadducees, of all people, which Jesus criticized the most and warned us not to listen to them. Such a tremendous change would have had to be explained in the NT and the Israelites would hate and criticize Paul extremely because of it, if he should change the ancient order of the fathers. But we do not find a single word about it in the NT, because such a thing has never happened. 
6. The famous historian Flavius Josephus (he came from the same people of Israel, he lived at the same time and in the same geographical area where the NT was written) ENDS the last doubt that Christians could have. He said it so clearly that it could not be any clearer: “But on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the 16th day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day they do not touch them.” The first day of Unleavened Bread was always the High Sabbath (15th Nisan, Passover). Any more questions? So we have five great witnesses for the counting of Omer after the High Sabbath: [1.] The 7 High Sabbaths of the OT (Lev 23), [2.] the tradition of the Jews (preserved by the strict Pharisees), [3.] Jesus, [4.] Paul and Mark, [5.] Flavius Josephus.
7. Many Christians miscalculate because they reject the calendar of God and absolutely want Pentecost Sunday. But this year 2020 there was the same sequence of days during Passover as in the Exodus and the year Jesus was crucified: 10th Nisan = Palm Sabbath, 14th Nisan (Wednesday; Crucifixion), 15th Nisan (high Sabbath, Thursday), 16th Nisan (the Omer calculation begins; the women prepared the ointments), 17th Nisan (first weekly Sabbath of the seven Sabbaths until Pentecost, the resurrection day of Jesus; Mark 16:9 literally means in Greek: "early first sabbath" - proi prote sabbatou - in the singular genitive, for which there is only one correct translation: "early on the first Sabbath", the first of the [seven] Sabbaths). 17th Nisan was the Resurrection Sabbath and Jesus rose from the dead after "3 days and 3 nights", he fulfilled the sign of the Messiah, the most important sign in the history of the universe. The very most Christians and even Messianic Jews deny the sign of the Messiah because they want Sunday with all their might. That is why they distort the clear words of our Lord Jesus Christ so that they can come to their desired holiday (Sunday) of those who killed Jesus.
   However, GOD personally said in Mk 16:9 which Sabbath was the "first" of the seven sabbath of the counting of the Omer until Pentecost. He told aus when the "first Sabbath" was, it was on the 17th of NISAN!!! Gods word, not our words.
   However, we must be especially vigilant because we are still in the harvest of the first fruits and only GOD knows when the LAST OF THE FIRSTFRUITS (Rom 11:25) will get the holy spirit. After this there will be the raputure and the harvest of the firstfruits is OVER. Which book will be read during Pentecoste (Shavuot)? The book Ruth, which is about the wedding of the bride and groom at the time of the spring harvest (BUT NO DATE WAS SET UP). Please note the events at midnight when something shocking happened (Strong No. 2729: to tremble, be terrified) and Ruth was at the feet of the Lord (Ruth 3:8). The 27 stands for the 27 letters of the ancient Greek alphabet and the 27 books of the Bible and the sum of the 4 numbers (4 directions in the sky) makes 20. Hopefully the year 2020 is meant, I don't know. The two loaves of bread to be offered as a wave sacrifice could propably symbolize the first called of the OT and NT (the first fruits of God's spiritual harvest). In contrast to the first wave sacrifice (Firstfruit Jesus, Passover), the two loaves of bread were allowed to contain leaven, for we have all sinned. And the loaves should be taken out of the houses. This could symbolize our corona quarantine when we are taken out of our homes? The church was founded at Pentecost and a rapture at Pentecost (we are till in this area, see Noahs Arc and the 7 days) would end the age of the church and of grace. God could give us a specific rapture date. But He rather tests us how we react and how we watch and how we treat others. Only He knows when the "fullness of the Gentiles" will be fulfilled. Rom 11:25: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, UNTIL THE FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES BE COME IN.” It is THE LAST OF THE FIRSTFRUITS. Then the Holy Spirit will be removed from the earth (Rapture), because the harvest of the first fruits is finished forever. Then comes an other harvest and the further part (the next chapter) in God's plan, the 7-year Tribluation.
   Being alert is always good, because our knowledge is limited. If God raptures us on Yom Teruah or Pentecost 2021 or any other day, ok, as long as we get away from this evil and godless planet.
   We do not know in which year the rapture will be, but we know exactly how Pentecost is calculated. And this year 2020 Pentecost falls on the same day as in the biblical Calendar of God and the Jewish Calendar.
   Please do not change the age-old order which the Jews and the Christians have preserved up to the present day. Pentecost is always in the third month (Sivan; first fruits harvest) of the year and never in the fourth month. In the fourth month is your private Pentecost, which the Jews have never accepted and will never accept in the future. It symbolizes the left behind, the new harvest after the harvest of the first fruits. -  UNQUOTE 

One reply with a silly answer with which some pastors defend these new omer countings:

"In Acts chapter 2 the Apostles were accused of being drunk on new wine. The grape harvest in Israel is not until late July early August."

Our answer:

With this one verse you want to postpone the 50th day (Pentecost) of God to 99, 100 or 102 days and ignore all other Bible verses? No, there has always been wine in Israel throughout the year. Jesus himself said that we should put new wine into new wineskins (Mt 9:17). He said: "But new wine must be put into new bottles [literally: wineskins]; and both are preserved. 39 No man also having drunk OLD wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The OLD is better" (Lk 5:38-39, KJV). We ourselves come from a wine-producing family and know exactly what "young wine" or "new wine" are and what they are not. In Israel there was always wine and the old one was the best and most expensive. You can be drunk all year round, but you can't ignore all the other important Bible verses all year round unless you are drunk. Apparently you have never read that Jesus and the disciples drank wine at the Last Supper (in the first month of Nisan)? Did they just harvest this grapes and made a fresh wine? No. Already at the Passover feast (spring) wine must be drunk, as Lev 23:13 proves. This was either an expensive old wine of good quality or a cheap new (young) wine from the last autumn harvest. In other words: If new wine was drunk at Pentecost, it was from the last harvest in autumn, just like the wine that was drunk before at Passover. We do not know whether Jesus and the apostles drank a "young wine" of the last harvest or an "old wine" of several years. But we do know that in Israel "young wine" has always been drunk in the spring, not only at Pentecost (at the beginning of the summer). A postponement of Pentecost would also change the symbolic meaning of the harvest times in God's plan with the spiritual first fruits (the church of God). This aspect is much more important and has nothing to do with the main harvest time of wine in autumn.

The first grapes are harvested in Israel already at the beginning of the month of Siwan (third month). This is no secret, because they are part of the festival ceremony on Pentecost. For this you do not need to postpone the ancient holy day of the Jews by another 50 days. They are early varieties of grapes for food, which are not suitable for wine production. Therefore no wine was made from these grapes. The harvest of the first ripe grapes always began only from the feast day of Tu B'Av (see calendar) on the 15th day of the 5th month (which was the end of the Pentecost season and the end of the wheat harvest, first fruits), when the virgins went to the vineyards to look for a bridegroom and danced on the night of the full moon (see Rapture Pentecost 2021). However, even if the disciples were to make wine from these new grapes, it is still no reason to postpone Pentecost and to brake the laws of God, which were described in the Torah. Hebrew is the mother tongue of the Jews and they understand better than many Christians what the text in Lev 23 means. They do not need Christians who want to postpone their "Feast of Weeks" (Shavuot, Pentecost). And if the fermentation is not yet sufficiently advanced, then it is not possible to be drunk. Young wine is still present during Pentecost since the last harvest, as well as old wine from previous years. Even if someone translates Acts 2:13 not with "sweet wine" (the word is derived from glucus, cf. glucose) but with "young wine", it is no problem at all. "Young wine" is wine from the last or at most the second-last production. The EU wine market organisation defines it as follows: "Young wine: wine whose alcoholic fermentation has not yet finished and which has not yet been separated from its lees." The longer the fermentation lasts, the more sugar is converted; the result is then a "dry wine".

The grapes suitable for wine production were harvested in Israel around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), that is, in September/October. Yes, the Bible answers us itself when the grape harvest was in Israel: "Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine [literally: winepress]" (Dt 16:13). Sukkot was the period when grapes were pressed for wine production.

An exapmple from Europe is the Beaujolais Nouveau (Primeur), an early wine from the French Beaujolais wine region (Lyon). "The grapes are harvested between late August and early September. It is fermented for just a few days and released to the public on the third Thursday of November - "Beaujolais Nouveau Day". It is the first French wine to be released for each vintage year" (Wikipedia). 

In professional circles, the "young wine" of the last harvest season is tasted in winter, spring and summer. It is still called "young wine" because the fermentation process is not yet fully completed. With increasing age, the quality also increases. That's why most people prefer to drink old wines, which are more expensive than young wines that are not yet mature. The new wine from the last autumn harvest is also called "young wine" at trade fairs in spring and summer. An additional quote from a wine book:

"Every year in SPRING, the wine scene eagerly awaits the "new" vintage to comment on the results achieved by the weather of the previous year and the winemakers. The wines are then naturally "young" and have just slipped from tank or barrel into the bottle. Wine trends are identified and forecasts are made about the development of the vintage".

However, the one Bible verse in Acts 2:13 can by no means be misused to postpone Pentecost from 50 days to 102 or more days after Passover. This is confirmed by many other Bible verses on the same subject, which have already been shown above.

There are 3 harvest seasons in Israel that are related to the feast days of God. They also have symbolic meaning to the spiritual harvest of the people in God's 7,000 year plan. Those who do not realize this properly will never know the difference in God's plan that God makes between the firstfruits (the Bride of Christ) and other people, because there are different resurrection seasons. The passover season belongs to the first fruit Jesus (barley sheaf), the Pentecost season belongs to the firstfruits (grain, wheat) and has nothing to do with the harvest of the autumn fruits (grapes, fruits) that follows later:

The barley harvest lasted from Passover to Pentecost.

The wheat harvest lasted from Pentecost to Tu'B'Aw.

The grape harvest lasted from Tu'B'Aw to Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).  

It is important to recognize the distinctions God makes in God's plan and not to change His times and His Calendar.

 "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil"

(1Thess 5:21-22)

"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them"

(Epheser 5:11)