The How, When and Why of Easter (Part 3)
We have seen how church tradition by church father’s evolved the annual Easter observance without due consideration to the authority of the Word of God. Read about it “…the emperor convened a council of 318 bishops in the first council of Nicea in 325AD in the city of Nicea…They passed certain ecclesiastical canons at the council besides, and at the same time decreed in regard to the Passover that there must be one unanimous concord on the celebration of God’s Holy and supremely excellent day”. This audacity and impunity of the Roman power/church to change times and Laws was already spoken of by God in Daniel 7:25. “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and Laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
We are all too aware how the time of the birth of Jesus Christ the Son of God was changed by substitution for the day the sun god is worshipped by Pagan Rome annually, December 25th. Christians observe this day as “Christmas”. But assuredly it is well known that this date and observance has no scriptural backing except that the world recognized as a witness against them that Jesus Christ, the Son of God was indeed born. “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21).
We know also that “Good Friday” and Easter Sunday” that the world celebrate as the day Jesus died and resurrected respectively is a church celebration involving amongst others the Lenten fast, festive family meal, Easter egg decorations, gift giving, sunrise services, a feast regarded as the high point of all ecclesiastical celebrations in the year. No matter how much the celebration worldwide try to make it fit the sacred mold, it will never feed the soul of a truly born again Believer. Never before in the history of mankind has the whole world tuned-in to a single form of celebration as it has today with Christmas and Easter. And over and over again, the manner and conduct of the festivity has proven itself to be the enemy of Christ and one of the most effective means by which the Devil gains control over the lives of people and drags them into spiritual blindness and wickedness.
Again as said in 2 Peter 2:1-2 “… even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies … and many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of”.
OF THE THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS
According to the commonly accepted tradition of the church, Jesus was crucified on Friday … and raised from the dead very early in the morning of the following Sunday. Many readers of the Bible are no doubt puzzled how the interval between late Friday afternoon and early Sunday morning can be figured out to be three days and three night. Because Jesus clearly spoke of this time period as being three days and three nights. “As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, he said, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matt. 12:38-40). Jesus often said he would rise “the third day” (Matt. 16:21, Mark 10:34). God is a God of exactness. He does everything right on schedule. Nothing is accidental with Him.
However, the interval between late Friday and early Sunday seems rather to be two nights, one day and a very small portion of another day. The Bible nowhere says or implies that Jesus was crucified and died on Friday. It is said that Jesus was crucified on the day before the Sabbath. The Bible does not leave us to speculate in regard to which Sabbath is meant in this instance. It was not the day before the weekly Sabbath (Friday), but it was the day before the annual Passover Sabbath “And it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover”, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests … And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him.But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people” (Matt. 26:2-5).Now the weekly Sabbath (Saturday’s) is not the same day as the annual Passover Sabbath. The later certainty came before the weekly Sabbath that year. There is nothing in favor of Friday crucifixion, but everything in the scriptures is perfectly harmonized allowing Jesus in the grave for three days and three nights, before corruption set in, He arose, He arose, hallelujah Christ arose. Not early on Sunday morning being the first day of the week as church tradition claim, but in all verity, Bible did not make a statement on the actual time He resurrected. So Easter Sunday as the actual day of Christ resurrection is a fiction.
However, God in the Scripture did not give the date of His death and resurrection. Jesus did not die on a Good Friday and resurrected on an Easter Sunday. The assumption that He rose on the first day of the week (Sunday) was never mentioned or substantiated in the Holy Bible. The account in John 20:1 gave us an insight “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher”. It is assumed that Jesus rose on that first day but there is never any record in the Bible in all the scriptural references collaborating the time of His resurrection. Jesus had risen before Mary got there but at what time, it was not given.It implies that God is not particular about us knowing the day of the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Rather, the WHY of His death and resurrection (not the WHEN)is the issue of significance to our Salvation.
SEEK THE WHY? OF CHRIST DEATH.
The ordinances associated with the death of Jesus Christ are the reason for our redemption. That is Water Baptism in the NAME of Jesus Christ (Acts 2: 38, 8:16, 10:48, 19:1-7), feet washing (John 13:1-17) the Lord’s Supper “Verily, verily I say unto you, … whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:53-54). “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come”.(1 Corinthians 11:26)
The commemoration of the annual Easter observance as instituted by the church tradition will amount to nothing in bringing about the dare spiritual change in the life of the ardent seeker of God, because it is a mere ritual celebration that lack the power to change life. “Ye have made the Word of God of none effect because ye keep the traditions of men. Mark 7:13.
