Some Common Misperceptions About the Date of Pascha/Easter

Public Orthodoxy ^ | 4/25/16 | John Fotopoulos

[marshmallow]

There is a common misperception among Orthodox Christians that the reason why Orthodox Easter (i.e. Pascha) often occurs so much later than Western Christian Easter is because the Orthodox Church abides by the rules for calculating the date of Pascha issued by the 1st Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 AD and thus the Orthodox must wait for Passover to be celebrated by the Jewish community before Pascha can occur. Despite this view being held by so many Orthodox Christians as well as being promoted in popular essays written by some Orthodox priests, it is not accurate.

The reason why Orthodox Pascha frequently occurs so much later than Easter celebrated by Roman Catholics and Protestants has nothing to do with the Orthodox Church following the Paschal formula of Nicaea and the Western Churches not doing so, nor is it because the Orthodox must wait for Jewish Passover to be celebrated. Rather, Orthodox Pascha frequently occurs later than Western Easter because the Orthodox Church uses inaccurate scientific calculations that rely on the inaccurate Julian Calendar to determine the date of Pascha for each year. Some background information is in order to help explain precisely what the problems are.

Historically, Jesus’ death and resurrection occurred in association with Jewish Passover, although the synoptic gospels (Mk, Matt, Lk) and the Gospel of John contain differences regarding the precise day of Passover at that time. Because of these differences, early Christian churches developed different practices regarding when they were to celebrate Christian Pascha and how the date of Pascha was to be determined. Some ancient Churches celebrated Pascha on the Sunday immediately following Jewish Passover while others emphasized Jesus’ suffering and death on Pascha and thus celebrated the feast on the same day as Jewish Passover, regardless of what day of the week Passover.....

[patlin]

Oy-vey

[vladimir998]

Thanks for posting this.

[Mr. M.J.B.]

Yes.

Usurping one religion’s calendar and trying to make it work for a *different* religion presents problems.

2130 words later and neither method works and never will.

Those who know God’s calendar have absolutely no difficulty knowing exactly when Passover starts. Everyone observes on the CORRECT day and the SAME day.

Next year Passover starts on.....Passover, just like always.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Muslim calendar (lunar only) - Doesn’t work.

Christian calendar (solar only) - Doesn’t work.

Jewish calendar (lunar & solar) - God’s calendar

Bereishis 1:16
— — — — —

“And God made the TWO great luminaries: the great luminary to rule the day and the lesser luminary to rule the night, and the stars.”

It really is that simple: No mega contortions, no disagreements that will never be resolved, no incorrectness.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

I heard that the Catholic Church was considering defining Easter as the Second Sunday in April, period.

[GBA]

For what it’s worth, here are a few of the messages in True Life In God that call for our unifying the date Easter is celebrated:

Message - Call To Unity
March 27, 1992

When Will They Pass A Decree By Unanimous Vote To Celebrate The Feast Of Easter All In One Date?
December 21, 1992

Let My Manna Fill Your Mouth
April 8, 1993

For The Sake Of Your Love I Will Summon The Churches To Unify The Dates Of Easter
April 15, 1994

Unite The Dates Of Easter
One Section Of My Church Has Been Blinded
May 31, 1994

My House In The West Is Being Plundered
The East And The West Will Be One Kingdom
October 24, 1994

There are more messages with similar, but you get the idea.

We cut Him up and He wants us to bend so that we put Him back together and bend to bring ourselves together at the same time.

To Unite You Must All Bend
June 2, 1987

[delchiante]

quote from article-Historically, Jesus’ death and resurrection occurred in association with Jewish Passover, although the synoptic gospels (Mk, Matt, Lk) and the Gospel of John contain differences regarding the precise day of Passover at that time.

those differences or contradictions in the gospels can have some mystery and riddles built into them that are cool to study.

The Scriptures are plain though, The Word (The Old Testament) Made Flesh, was slain for our sins when the Passover lamb was to be slain in the Old Testament Law-(Exodus 12:6)
The Lambs were to be kept till the 14th of the 1st month and killed In the evening- the Hebrew word for that evening is EREB and it can mean ‘evening, sunset, twilight, fading of day)

We can know that the gospels record the Lamb died around 3:00 PM so not ‘in the evening’ as the Word required.
But that is why the gospels also record the supernatural darkness!

It was to ensure not one jot or tittle of the law would be broken.

The Word Made Flesh, The Lamb of God, died in the dark, on the 14th Day, just as the first Passover lambs were slain at night on the 1st Passover in Egypt.

[GBA]

Here's a newer message that sums things up:

June 2, 2015.

If you're interested, do read the next and newest message from Feb. 2016 that follows it. Yikes! Time is running out...