To: safisoft
Your post is very confusing.
Unlike every other Christian holy day, Easter is still based on the lunar calendar. That's why it falls on different days every year, and why it almost always coincides with Passover.
11 posted on
12/24/2007 6:13:48 AM PST by
Alberta's Child
(I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
To: Alberta's Child
Read the history of "Easter" and you will see that there is indeed a long controversy, stemming from the fact that in the Second and Third Century, some church "fathers" wanted to divest themselves of everything Jewish, and it bothered them no end that their "holy day" was dictated by Jewish dating. So they changed it. Wholesale. It is dated not on the basis of the Lunar calendar, but on the solar with a nod toward the moon to make it line up for them. But not according to Scripture.
It rarely coincides with Passover - but more importantly, why doesn't it always.
In the Second Century, the churches in Asia held that the resurrection should be celebrated in conjuction with Passover, on the 14th of Nisan. They were original adherants, and were dubbed by the Roman adherants to "Easter" with the title, "Quartodeciman." So popular was Quartodecimanism (naturally, it was tied to original actual events in Matthew 27), that it caused the Roman establishment to threaten them.
From Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus:
We for our part keep the day [14th of Nisan = Passover] scrupulously, without addition or subtraction. For in Asia great luminaries sleep who shall rise again on the day of the Lord's advent, when He is coming with glory from heaven and shall search out all His saints such as Philip... there is John, who lent back on the Lord's breast
there is Polycarp, bishop and martyr
All these kept the fourteenth day of the month as the beginning of the Paschal Festival [Passover], in accordance with the Gospel, not deviating in the least but following the rule of the Faith. Last of all, I too, Polycrates, the least of you all
and my family has always kept the day when the people put away the leaven [Feast of Unleavened Bread]. So I, my friends, after spending sixty-five years in the Lord's service and conversing with Christians from all parts of the world, and going carefully through all Holy Scripture, and not scared of threats. Better people than I have said: 'We must obey God rather than men'."
Eventually, man's tradition (the Roman tradition) used the force of the Emperor to get their way and divest themselves completely of all things "Jewish."
Here are the words from the Council of Nicea:
Constantine, August, to the churches
When the question arose concerning the most holy day of Easter, it was decreed by common consent to be expedient, that this festival should be celebrated on the same day by all, in every place.
it seemed to every one a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this most holy solemnity, who, polluted wretches having stained their hands with a nefarious crime, are justly blinded in their minds. It is fit, therefore, that, rejecting the practice of this people, we should perpetuate to all future ages the celebration of this rite, in a more legitimate order, which we have kept from the first day of our Lords passion even to the present times. Let us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews."
So there you have it. "Easter" has nothing to do with "Passover" - by church decree.
He said to them, All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. Mark 7:9
41 posted on
12/24/2007 2:01:44 PM PST by
safisoft
(Give me Torah!)
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