Pentecost and Sinai are two events that are closely linked to each other and form a framework we can use to understand the significance of what happened at Kirtland and something of the role the miraculous or supernatural plays in our faith. Because I came as an adult to the LDS faith from other Christian churches, I have been exposed to many of the different ways that Christian denominations understand the Holy Ghost, spiritual gifts, and the supernatural.  One of my earlier experiences as a teenager was in the youth program of an Assemblies of God church; the AoG denomination is a loose coalition of independent churches that are “Pentecostal” in their doctrine. Among Christian denominations “Pentecostal” is a descriptor that applies to churches that emphasize the personal experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost for each believer.  This personal experience is considered to be essential as evidence of Christian faith and is expected to manifest through spiritual gifts and experiences of the supernatural. Because this movement within the Christian faith takes as its inspiration the events of Acts 2 the ability to speak in tongues has primary significance. But this isn’t the tongues of Acts 2 where people from other nations can understand what is being said, in Pentecostal churches it has morphed into what is often called a “personal prayer language” that sounds like gibberish to an outside observer. It is so important that believers have a “personal prayer language” that at some church gatherings and youth events people are encouraged, and in some cases, not allowed to leave the meeting until they speak in “tongues”. The ability to speak in a gibberish-esqe language while in a state of ecstasy is treated as a litmus test for the quality of a person’s faith and whether or not they have been “baptized” by the Holy Ghost. I have known people who have faked it just to be able to leave a meeting, and in my case I was told to “fake it ‘till you make it”, essentially, “speak gibberish in faith and it will eventually become a real prayer language when God sees your faith”.  I understand how this is so wholly outside the experience of a member of the LDS faith that it likely is baffling, strange, and perhaps you find it a bit uncomfortable. In my opinion I have found that the LDS church accomplishes what Pentecostalism is aiming at – which is a lived experience of the gift of the Holy Ghost in the believer’s life that can, and frequently does, manifest in the supernatural acquisition of other languages, signs, wonders, and miracles. I have heard more regular testimonies of the Spirit manifesting itself in the everyday life of members of this church than I ever did in the many years I spent in other churches that eagerly sought such things. This is not to say that miracles and signs did not happen in these other churches, but they do seem to be more commonplace among Latter Day Saints, to the extent that they may be mistaken for being mundane or un-miraculous. Large “flashy” manifestations of the supernatural are rare and based on what I understand of history and from the witness of scripture, serve a specific purpose. 

In the events at Mount Sinai, beginning in Exodus 19, there are several key details that will play into the events at Pentecost. The people of Israel arrived at Sinai “in the third month” after leaving Egypt, tradition puts the exact date at 50 days after the first Passover when Moses ascended the mountain to speak with God. Mountains and high places are recognized as being places where temples are built or are stand-ins for temples themselves, due to their height mountains are places where Heaven and Earth meet. So when God descended on Sinai it could be said that he dwelt at the Temple of Sinai even before the Divine Presence took up residence in the Tabernacle or Solomon’s Temple. The nation of Israel was commanded to purify themselves in preparation and when God did descend on the mountain he “descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace”. God then proceeded to speak the 10 commandments and “all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking”. In the Hebrew, the verse literally reads, “And all the people saw the voices and the torches.” [2] In the traditions of the Jewish people the scriptures are describing when each individual at Sinai “not only heard the Lord’s voice, but actually saw the sound waves as they emerged from the Lord’s mouth. They visualized them as a fiery substance. Each commandment that left the Lord’s mouth traveled around the entire camp and then came back to every Jew individually” [3]. Following the giving of the 10 commandments God spoke further with Moses and gave more specific commandments that formed the basis for Israel’s covenant with God and their national constitution as a new nation. This was the moment when, in my opinion, that dispensation officially began. It built upon previous dispensations and laid the foundation for the next; previously the word of God existed spiritually but at Sinai it was made material and existed in stone and as physical laws. In the next dispensation it would be made flesh. 

At the time of the first Apostles the commandments of God had been made manifest in all their perfection in the person of Jesus, the word of God at Sinai had become flesh but that flesh could not dwell with us forever until the time of the Messianic Era. So Christ instructed his disciples not to go home to Galilee but to stay in Jerusalem until they are baptized by the Holy Ghost. They are told to “camp out” in the city where the “mountain of the Lord”, the Temple, was. This may have been practical advice on the part of Christ because in just 10 days would be the second major pilgrimage feast mandatory for all Jewish men, the roads and city would have been clogged with pilgrims for days before and after, and it was crucial that the disciples be at the festival. 50 days after Passover all Jewish men would be purifying themselves to go to the Temple and celebrate Shavu’ot, the Feast of First Fruits. Jews from all over the known world would have filled the temple courts, an area the size of 37 acres with the Temple in the center. The Apostles likely gathered for the Temple services at Solomon’s Colonnade, the area on the east side of the court of Gentiles marked by a double row of columns, as this was where Christ often taught during his ministry and where the Apostles were later known to frequently gather.