THE TRUTH ABOUT EASTER

THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  EASTER

To prevent this article from being too lengthy, I will not write out all the biblical quotes, instead just list them for the reader to reference in the bible!

As in my article ‘THE TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTMAS’, Easter also has elements of biblical inaccuracy and pagan attachments! The pagan origins of Easter, (hot-cross buns, rabbits and eggs etc) can be found via Google; I’m going to concentrate only on the biblical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Easter was instituted by the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), before any governments were founded, placing Friday as the death day of Christ, and Sunday as the resurrection day, and these two days were given ‘holy day’ status, along with the made up day of December 25th!! Then later, they set about forcing governments to make them ‘no work’ days and a public holiday!!
So what’s wrong with that you may ask?
Well, if one is trying to follow biblical instructions, then making up holy days is a no-no! We are warned not to add or takeaway anything from the scriptures! (Deut 12:32, Proverbs 30:5-6, Eccl 3:14-15, Gal 3:15, 2Peter 3:2, and Rev 22:18-19)
A lot of people have tried to use Romans 14:5-6 to justify the holy day observance of these days, but if that were so, then the apostle Paul would have been contradicting Jesus statement in Luke 16:15, and also himself via Galatians 4:9-11? It should also be noted that before his conversion (Acts 9), Paul was a very strict Pharisee, persecuting the new Christians for not adhering to the old laws, so in Romans 14:5-6 he would have been referring to the ‘holy days’ instituted by God, not any possible new ones, allowing us to keep observing the originals if we wished, but if we didn’t that was also OK!

Apart from the weekly Sabbath, (7th day = Saturday) there were only 7 holy days instituted by God, and these can be found in Leviticus 23.
Of those the first two are relevant to Easter, or Jesus death and resurrection.
1/ the first day of the week of unleavened bread (15th day of the month, Lev 23:6-7)
2/ the last day of the week of unleavened bread (Lev 23:8)
Lev 23:5 says, ‘On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lords Passover’; no mention of the 14th day being a holy day! It’s also referred to as the ‘preparation day.’
This matches the original Passover in Exodus 12:6. Reading all of Exodus 12 gives an insight of how it all works! It must be remembered that back then a day started and ended at sunset! So both Exodus 12:18 and Lev 23:5 match! The 14th day was used to prepare the lamb and at midnight the Lord struck all the first born, (Exodus 12:29)
So, what has all this got to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Well, as will be seen, this whole Passover procedure was repeated when Christ was crucified and therefore fulfilled by him as he became the Passover lamb!
A point to keep in mind here as we move to the New Testament is that no work was to be done on a holy day; the 15th day was a holy day, therefore the 14th day was the day the lamb was killed and eaten and the Lord coming at midnight.....all work oriented!
The scriptures don’t tell us what day of the week Jesus died; only that he was resurrected on the first day of the week, that being today’s Sunday. (Math 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1 John 20:1) So, we have to work backwards to find the actual day he was crucified?
In Math 12:38-40 Jesus declared he would be in the tomb 3 days and 3 nights as was Jonah the prophet in the belly of the fish! (Jonah 1:17)
Some have tried to justify Good Friday as the day of his death, because parts of a day in Hebrew are considered a whole day, therefore allowing 3 days and 3 nights between Friday and Sunday, but this is frivolous to say the least! The RCC probably instituted Friday because they took the word ‘Sabbath’ to mean Saturday (the weekly Sabbath), but the word Sabbath means to rest and refers to any of ‘Gods’ holy days!
To settle the days and nights argument we can use Jesus statement in John 11:9 that there are 12 hours in a day, therefore leaving another 12 hours for a night!? It’s also interesting to note that the time of year Jesus was born and died was close to the ‘equinox’! (Equal day and night hours)
After sharing the evening Passover meal with his disciples, (Math 26:20-21) Jesus was arrested at night by the Jewish priests and by morning they had decided he should be put to death and took him to Pontius Pilate. By reading Math 27:11-31, it becomes clear that it was the Jews who determined that Jesus should be crucified and pressured the Romans to physically carry out the crucifixion!
His trial and beatings and subsequent execution, were all carried out on the 14th day; his death occurring at 3pm (Math 27:45-50).
Now this is where the ‘Sabbath’ confusion reigns!! Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54 and John 19:31, all agree that the preparation day was followed by a Sabbath! However John 19:31 explains it the best, so I’ll write it out. ‘Therefore, because it was the preparation day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away’. (NKJV)
From that we know the ‘high’ Sabbath was the first day of the week of unleavened bread (15th day) not the weekly Sabbath.
The urgency to get the body into the tomb was due to the approaching sunset, being the start of the 15th day; after which nobody was allowed to do anything physical!
This information determines that the day Jesus was crucified was not a ‘holy’ day!  
So, given that he arose sometime after sunset on Saturday, and by counting back 3 days and 3 nights, we arrive at sunset on Wednesday! This means he died at 3pm on Wednesday!
Since the resurrection was on Sunday, and referring back to Lev 23:6-8 as above, that would be the middle of the week of unleavened bread, therefore not a ‘holy’ day!
To summarise:-
Jesus was not sentenced to death by the Romans, but by his own people, the Jews. The Romans simply carried out the sentence.
Jesus was not crucified on a Friday, but on a Wednesday.
The day he was crucified was not a holy day.
The day he was resurrected was not a holy day.
Good Friday and Sunday and Christmas day never were ‘holy’ days in the bible; they were invented and instituted by man, (the Roman Catholic Church), and the protestant denominations have been obsequious to the RCC by also observing these days and treating them as ‘holy.’

But what about the ‘last supper’ observance you ask?
Well, when I consider that it was an evening Passover meal Jesus had with his disciples, and I read what Paul said in 1Cor 11:23-29 I understand that at every meal, (verse 26) or at least daily, I should give thanks for his sacrifice, because his body and blood are represented by the food and drink; not just once a year or once a week, and forget about it in between!?
I also shouldn’t do it in an ‘unworthy’ manner, (verse 27) like adding in any pagan items or calling it a holy day!
Inventing traditions which aren’t scriptural is not the realm of the RCC alone; the Pharisees and priests in the Old Testament were up to it as well, and this comes to light when reading how Jesus severely admonished them over this! (Math 5:20 & Mark 7:1-9 explains this well) So if he took a dim view of inventing stuff back then, surely he would take the same dim view of us now? Also read all of Math chapter 23.
So, taking a personal stand on these things is necessary. At the judgement we won’t be able to say, ‘oh he or they said it was OK’? Unlike a thousand years ago, we are allowed to read the bible to find the ‘truth’!?
‘All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them!’ (Galileo)

Peace to all, Colin Bowater.