The Miracle and Meaning of Pentecost. PENTECOST PROVES THE SABBATH. How Much Cancer Does Processed Meat Cause?

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The Miracle and Meaning of Pentecost

“Noisy and amazing things were happening in Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago. But a silent miracle turned out to be the most powerful of all—and it continues to happen to this day!

As thousands of people came streaming to see the miracles unfolding that morning, little did they know that these stunning events would pale in comparison to the unseen, silent miracle coming later that day.

It was the Day of Pentecost, A.D. 31, in Jerusalem. Just over seven weeks had passed since another world-changing event had occurred nearby—Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

For His disciples, it had been the most dramatic two months they could imagine—going from the depths of despair at seeing Him murdered to the heights of amazement at seeing Him alive again. After being with Christ for another 40 days, they had watched as He ascended into heaven.

And then they waited—as He had told them—until “the Promise of the Father,” the Holy Spirit, would be given to them.

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,” He had declared, “and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

But how would that happen, they wondered, and what would it mean?

Now they were finding out!

In a remarkable display of power, “suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2), followed by flames of fire appearing over each of them.

And then, the most astonishing miracle so far: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (verse 4).

Jerusalem was overflowing, as it was every year in the holy day seasons, with pilgrims, “devout men, from every nation under heaven” (verse 5). Word of these wonders quickly spread among them. The crowds came running, probably hoping to see a miracle, but not expecting to be included in one. However, when they arrived, the miracle now fell on them! Not only were Christ’s disciples speaking other languages (not “unknown tongues”), but “everyone heard them speak in his own language” (verse 6).

Making it relevant

Okay, you might say, that’s a great story, but why should I care? How is what happened nearly 2,000 years ago relevant to my life today?

Good question. The answer is in what happened next.

While the miracles grabbed the crowd’s attention, the apostle Peter grabbed the opportunity to enlighten them. In these physical signs and wonders, he explained, you are seeing evidence of the spiritual fulfilling of one of the greatest prophecies for humanity. Centuries earlier the prophet Joel had foretold the time when God would pour out His Spirit, Peter said—and this is it!

The Jews listening to him certainly knew this prophecy, but Peter still had much to explain. He continued, ending the section from Joel 2 with this: “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (verse 21).

He then quickly transitioned from Joel to “Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know” (verse 22).

They knew well the string of miracles Jesus had performed for over three years. Furthermore, the greatest miracle of all was undeniable: Jesus—whom they had “taken by lawless hands, … crucified, and put to death”—God had “raised up” (verse 23)!

The exalted Christ, Peter said, was now at the right hand of God, and “having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (verse 33).

Making it personal

They had to find Peter’s explanation interesting, but now he was about to make it uncomfortably personal.

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (verse 36).

Those three words—“whom you crucified”—were an unmistakably personal indictment. The thousands gathered there could have scorned Peter at this point, arguing that they bore no responsibility, that they were not even there, or that the Romans had killed Him.

But it seems that many of them clearly grasped what Peter meant. If Christ had to come and die for all of our individual sins, then we are all individually guilty of His death. Those who accepted this reality were deeply convicted—“cut to the heart,” as Luke so aptly describes it—and asked remorsefully, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (verse 37).

“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter offered a simple, but demanding, answer: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

And, he added, “the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call,” just as Joel had prophesied.

Spiritual problems need spiritual solutions

This was the crux, but not the end, of Peter’s sermon that day. He continued with “many other words,” we’re told, exhorting them to “be saved from this perverse generation” (verse 40). The point was clear. We cannot save ourselves, we cannot live the way we ought, without the Spirit of God living in us.

There exists within each human, as Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 2:11-12, a spirit in man. God also has a spirit, known in the Bible as the Holy Spirit. Where has our human spirit—our mind with its ideas and attitudes—brought us at this point? History shows it has always been a two-edged sword, capable of mind-boggling creations and technological advancements, yet incapable of finding peace or solving our deep-seated problems of selfishness, lust, hatred, prejudice, greed, envy, lack of self-control, etc.—the list of our character-related problems seems endless.

Why? It’s because our problems are spiritual in nature, and spiritual problems require spiritual solutions!

This Day of Pentecost takes us back to the time when God acted, as He had promised, to open the door to us for the only possible solution—to receive a different spirit. His Spirit.

And Pentecost today brings us back to the reality that we need His Spirit more than ever. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can our minds be renewed and our lives transformed (Romans 12:2). No greater miracle can happen to someone—and God is still working that miracle today!

Pentecost pictures even more than that, though. Having the Spirit of God, Paul stated in Romans 8:16-17, means that “we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”

Furthermore, the children of God comprise the Church of God. Jesus had promised His disciples that He would build His Church, and He did not mean a building or denomination. “Church” in the New Testament Greek language is ekklesia, which means “a calling out,” especially “a religious congregation,” or an “assembly” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, #1577). The word designates the body of believers of which Jesus Christ is Head.

Changing your life:     More at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/life/plan-of-salvation/pentecost/miracle-and-meaning-of-pentecost/?

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Pentecost Proves the Sabbath.

“In Leviticus chapter 23, God revealed a series of celebrations to be observed throughout the year. One of them is called Pentecost. It also goes by other names such as Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, and First fruits (of the wheat harvest). It is a unique festival in two aspects. Firstly, it is the only holy day that does not fall on a specific day of the Hebrew Calendar. Instead, we must calculate its timing. Secondly, we must know when the weekly Sabbath occurs.

The verses about this celebration are found in Leviticus chapter 23:15-22. We will look at a few of these verses: “15 And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord…21 And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.”

Notice that Pentecost is the day after the seventh weekly Sabbath from Unleavened Bread. This means it always occurs on the first day of the week. Any church body who celebrates Pentecost on Sunday is acknowledging that the true Sabbath is from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. This includes the Catholic Church. Some of their authors and clergy have admitted this!

John Laux, an author of textbooks for Catholic schools, wrote: “If we consulted the Bible only, we should still have to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is, Saturday, with the Jews, instead of Sunday…” (Laux, p 51).

John Gibbons, a Catholic Cardinal, wrote: “But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify” (Gibbons, pp 72-73).

The Catholic Church acknowledges the timing of the Biblical Sabbath. Any church that celebrates Pentecost on Sunday reflects the same belief. Pentecost proves the Sabbath.

Kelly McDonald, Jr, BSA President    www.biblesabbath.org

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How Much Cancer Does Processed Meat Cause?

“I quantify the risks of colon and rectal cancers from eating bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausage, and lunch meat.

Transcript of YouTube: https://youtu.be/y4dZbSU6Ka0

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

“In 2018, arguably the most prestigious cancer research institution in the world, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), within the World Health Organization, published their report on processed meat, concluding that foods like bacon, ham, hot dogs, lunch meat, and sausage are cancer causing, classifying processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen.

“These findings,” concluded the director of the agency, “further support current public health recommendations to limit intake of meat.” Critics questioned putting processed meat in the same carcinogenic classification as asbestos or tobacco. Or, as a pesticide company roughly put it, how can eating processed meat fall into the same category as mustard gas?

The classifications only relate to the strength of evidence that the agent causes cancer or not––not how much cancer. This does not mean that they are all equally dangerous. It’s safer to eat a sandwich filled with pastrami than plutonium, even though they are both Group 1 carcinogens––both substances known to cause cancer in people.

Okay, so just how dangerous is meat? The relative risk of colorectal cancer was 18 percent for every 50 grams a day. Okay, so what exactly does that mean? Well, 50 grams is about one hot dog, or two breakfast links, or two slices of Canadian bacon or ham. So, a daily sandwich with one or two slices of baloney would increase your colorectal cancer risk by 18 percent. But a half-pound pastrami on rye would bump it up more like 80 percent.

Okay, but what does the 18 percent increased risk really mean? One way to look at it is absolute risk versus relative risk. Assuming that the lifetime risk of colorectal cancer is about 5 percent (1 in 20), increasing your risk about 20 percent would only bump up your absolute risk of getting colorectal cancer from 5 percent to 6 percent. Now, on a population scale, an 18 percent drop in risk could mean about 25,000 fewer cases of colorectal cancer every year in the United States: 25,000 fewer families a year dealing with that diagnosis––if we swapped out the daily baloney sandwich for hummus, or chose veggie dogs instead. So, it all depends on how you look at it.

Colorectal cancer is our second leading cause of cancer death for men and women combined, after lung cancer. So, if you don’t smoke, colon and rectal cancer may be your greatest cancer nemesis. But we can drop the risk of getting it by about a fifth with a single dietary tweak: cutting a serving of processed meat out of our daily diet.

How does 18 percent increased cancer risk compare to other risky behavior? In my testimony before the Dietary Guidelines Scientific Committee, I made what may sound like a hyperbolic metaphor. I asked, “We try not to smoke around our kids; why would we send them to school with a baloney sandwich?” That is not hyperbole. According to the Surgeon General, living with a smoker increases your risk of lung cancer by 15 percent. So, breathing secondhand smoke day in and day out increases your risk of lung cancer almost as much as eating a serving of processed meat day in and day out increases your risk of colorectal cancer.

The meat industry responded by saying that the risks and benefits must be considered together before telling people what to eat or breathe. Think about all the baloney benefits. Lunch meat isn’t just about cancer, but convenience.

Indeed, processed meat isn’t just about cancer. An article railing against the World Health Organization’s “meat terrorism” cited the Global Burden of Disease studies comparing how many cancer deaths are caused by processed meat consumption, compared to tobacco or alcohol use. But if you look at the study they’re referencing, the 30-something thousand deaths attributable to higher processed meat intake are just the colorectal cancer deaths, and don’t also include the 100,000 deaths from diabetes, or the 400,000 deaths from heart disease. So, in actuality, we may be talking a half million deaths attributable to processed meat. And it’s not just colon and rectal cancer. If you look at the science since the IARC decision was published, processed meat may also increase the risk of prostate cancer, breast cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

Unfortunately, despite growing public health concerns about processed meat consumption, there have been no changes in the amount of processed meat consumed by U.S. adults over the last 18 years. Of course, it would have helped if the last Dietary Guidelines for Americans had happened to mention that processed meat was a carcinogen. An explicit and science-based statement on processed meat in the next Dietary Guidelines would certainly help. But the scientific committee made no such recommendation.

Sadly, even those diagnosed with colorectal cancer hardly improve their overall lifestyle after diagnosis, though that may be because “70 percent of cancer patients had never received nutrition advice from their [medical] providers during or after treatment.” That just blows me away.

“Despite the continued obfuscation of the issue by the meat industry—they learned well from the tobacco merchants—meat should continue to be a focus of public health action.” New York City is leading the way, passing legislation to ban processed meats from school meals. What a concept, not giving our kids carcinogens.

Meanwhile, the processed meat industry is trying to reformulate its products. It’s kind of like in the pharmaceutical area, where you try to mitigate the potential adverse effects of one drug by prescribing an additional drug. Like you could add fiber to hot dogs or something to try to counterbalance the risk, potentially reducing the cancer load by changing how it’s processed, rather than by banning processed meat altogether."  From: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-much-cancer-does-processed-meat-cause/

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