The TRUTH about EASTER (PART 2)
REASON FOR THE MIXTURES OF PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY
Catholic scholars know and recognize that there are customs within their church which were borrowed from paganism. But they reason that many things though originally pagan, can be Christianized. If some pagan tribe observed forty days in honor of a pagan god, why should we not do the same, only in honor of Christ?
Though pagans worshipped the sun toward east, could we not have sunrise services to honor the resurrection of Christ, even though this was not the time of day he arose?
Even though the egg was used by pagans. can’t we continue its use and pretend it symbolizes the large rock that was in front of the tomb? In other words, why not adopt all kinds of popular customs, only instead of using them to honor pagan gods, as the heathen did, use them to honor Christ?
It all sounds very logical yet a much safer guideline is found in the Bible itself. “Take heed… that you inquire not after their gods (pagan gods), saying: How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God…. Whatsoever thing I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add there to”. (Deut. 12:30-32)
OF THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS.
Jesus often said he would rise “the third day “(Mark 16:21, Mark 10:34). But he also 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). In Genesis 1:4-13, Scriptural calculation is thus “And the evening and the morning were the first day, provided an example how a day can be counted up and shown to include day and night.
According to the commonly accepted tradition of the church, Jesus was crucified on Friday….. and was raised from the dead very early in the morning of the following Sunday. Many readers of the Bible are no doubt puzzled to know how the interval between late Friday afternoon and early Sunday morning can be figured out to be three days and nights. It seems rather to be two nights, one day and a very small portion of another day. There are many persons whom this solution does not altogether satisfy and the writer is free to confess it does not satisfy him at all, it seems to me to be a makeshift.
CRUCIFIED BEFORE PASSOVER SABBATH
The bible nowhere says or implies that Jesus was crucified and died on Friday. No where indeed sir! It is said that Jesus was crucified on the day before the Sabbath…. Now 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 (That is Friday), but it was the day before the Passover Sabbath, which came that year on Thursday-that is to say the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified was Wednesday. John makes this clear as day. “Jesus was buried just about sunset on Wednesday, Seventy-two hours later… he arose from the grave. When the women visited the tomb just before dawn in the morning they found the grave already empty. There is nothing in favor of Friday crucifixion, but everything in the scriptures is perfectly harmonized by Wednesday crucifixion.
GOD IS A GOD OF EXACTNESS
He does everything right on schedule. Nothing is accidental with Him. It was “When the fullness of time was come” not one year too early or one year too late-“ God sent forth his son “ (Gal 4:4). The time for his anointing was foreordained and spoken of by the prophet Daniel as was also the time when He would be “Cut off” for the sins of the people (Dan. 9:24-26). Those who tried to kill Him before this time failed, for His “time” was not yet come (John 7:8).
“Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying. My counsel shall stand and I will do my pleasure…”.(Isaiah 46:10).
Before the foundation of the world, God purposed His plan of salvation. He made decisions about how this plan of redemption would come to fulfillment. Amidst the history of mankind, the plan of salvation is coming to pass, and it is imperative that we recognize what God has in mind for His own and that we let ourselves be placed in this plan. Peter in his first sermon said this about the Redeemer. “Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands had crucified and slain (John 19:16-37) whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. (Acts 2:23-27, Psalm 16-8-11)
In his second sermon, Peter emphasized that God had declared His intentions in advance. But those things which God before had shown by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. (Acts. 3:18; Psalm 22; Isaiah 53).
In Acts 4:27-28, Peter proclaimed in his third sermon of the death of Christ in the hands of Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and people of Israel that it was to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Not only the Jews, God’s chosen people but also all of the believers from the Gentle nations are included in His plan of Redemption far beyond what we human beings can comprehend.NOW CHRIST HAD SAID IT IS FINISHED. WHOEVER NEGLECTS THIS GREAT SALVATION CANNOT ESCAPE THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD.
