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Beyond Today - How Christian is Easter?
Beyond Today ^ | Today | Beyond Today

Posted on 03/22/2013 10:51:40 AM PDT by DouglasKC

Easter customs mix pagan myths, rituals, symbols and practices with just a little truth. What's wrong with this picture?

Link to YouTube video:

How Christian is Easter?


TOPICS: Current Events; General Discusssion; History
KEYWORDS: christ; easter; holydays
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To: ifinnegan

All paganism is abomination. Not just easter.


61 posted on 03/22/2013 12:10:40 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: pgyanke
You are ignorant. Israel celebrated the first Passover just prior to their Exodus from Egypt. In the desert, they were commanded to keep the Passover celebration every year in remembrance of God's salvation from slavery. This celebration was to continue in perpetuity.

You listed a day known as "Holy Thurday" and one called "Good Friday". I stated, correctly, that there are no such days in scripture. The holy days of the Lord are listed in Leviticus chapter 23. These days are not there and are in fact later inventions of the traditional church.

62 posted on 03/22/2013 12:11:50 PM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: editor-surveyor

How is Easter paganisim?


63 posted on 03/22/2013 12:13:38 PM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Hilda

>> “Actually, one of the earliest controversy in the church was whether to commemorate it on Passover or on the Sunday following” <<

.
NO! - There were two and a half millenia of scriptural worship exactly setting out how and when. The “controversy” was not Christian, it was pure satanic defiance. Polycarp got it all correct because he was John’s right hand man.


64 posted on 03/22/2013 12:15:42 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: DouglasKC
This night was Passover, an annual holy day commanded by Christ and kept by Christ. It was the last holy day that Christ observed while in the flesh.

So close... but missed the whole point. Christ celebrated the traditional Passover with His Apostles on Holy Thursday. He sanctified it by changing the elements from commemorative food to his own flesh and blood as the sacrifice of the New Covenant. He then went out and lived the sacrificial offering of the Lamb in His Own Flesh on the Cross on Good Friday.

What was once symbolic of an historical event (Passover) became the once-for-all sacrifice for the redemption of all men.

65 posted on 03/22/2013 12:16:20 PM PDT by pgyanke (Republicans get in trouble when not living up to their principles. Democrats... when they do.)
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To: DouglasKC
I stated, correctly, that there are no such days in scripture.

If I recall, Luther and his dogma of "the Bible alone" isn't in Scripture either.

So nyah!

66 posted on 03/22/2013 12:16:26 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: pgyanke
The Talmud tells us that in the time of the Messiah all sacrifices would end... except for one; the offering of praise and thanksgiving. Ironically (and totally a coincidence I'm sure!) this was the bread and cup offering of Christ at the Last Supper... in praise and thanksgiving for our new Exodus across the waters of Baptism from slavery in sin to rebirth in the Family of God. He commanded us to continue this celebration in remembrance of Him.

I don't think it's wise to base Christian beliefs on Jewish tradition...

67 posted on 03/22/2013 12:17:25 PM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: editor-surveyor
By pagan calendar days, Yeshua was crucified on Wedneaday afternoon...

What day of the week is the Sabbath?

68 posted on 03/22/2013 12:19:41 PM PDT by pgyanke (Republicans get in trouble when not living up to their principles. Democrats... when they do.)
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To: DouglasKC
I thought about that, too!

As I said, I have mixed feelings on organized religion.

I am not anti-organized religion by any means. Organized religions accomplish a great deal of good which would not get done otherwise. Catholic Charities, the Mormon Church's network of family history centers, our local Protestant Mega-church which puts on an awesome Easter program, are just three examples which come to mind.

OTOH, too many of them also allow themselves to be transformed into feel good clubs of political correctness or engage in petty mudslinging against other denominations for minor doctrinal differences. I don't need to name specific examples.

Most people need the reinforcement offered by fellow believers and, face it, there are a lot of good things which an organized group can accomplish which an individual cannot.

69 posted on 03/22/2013 12:19:47 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Responsibility2nd

The art and act of the sighting of the new moon and the testing of the barley are deeply scriptural, and absolutely necessary for the maintenance of a scripturally accurate calendar.

Good friday is the worship of Fish god Dagon, and easter the worship of ishtar. Paul would in no way allow respect for such abominations.


70 posted on 03/22/2013 12:21:15 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: editor-surveyor

[>> “Actually, one of the earliest controversy in the church was whether to commemorate it on Passover or on the Sunday following” <<

.
NO! -]

Yes. It’s called Quartodecimanism, and what you are claiming is provably false, I don’t CARE what your church told you.

Easter has been commemorated since AT LEAST the early 2nd Century, and probably earlier.


71 posted on 03/22/2013 12:21:47 PM PDT by Hilda
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To: pgyanke
So close... but missed the whole point. Christ celebrated the traditional Passover with His Apostles on Holy Thursday.

Almost! He observed Passover on Passover!

He sanctified it by changing the elements from commemorative food to his own flesh and blood as the sacrifice of the New Covenant.

Passover was already sanctified by the Lord before this night (it still is).

He then went out and lived the sacrificial offering of the Lamb in His Own Flesh on the Cross on Good Friday.

Again, this was on Passover...an annual holy day commanded by Christ...

What was once symbolic of an historical event (Passover) became the once-for-all sacrifice for the redemption of all men.

Well Passover is an historical and the of Christ was redemptive and he commanded us to remember that redemptive death on Passover.

72 posted on 03/22/2013 12:22:12 PM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: DouglasKC
"Yeah but Passover got bastardized. Bibilically it occurs on Nisan 14 and was observed by early Christians (and many today) as a memorial of the Lord's atoning death on the cross."

THAT'S your problem? Whether it's on Nisan 14 or the Sunday following? Talk about straining out gnats and swallowing camels. If THAT'S your big concern, Nisan 14 now and Nisan 14 then are two different things. The Jews now have a fixed system for adding the extra month; then they didn't. Oh, well.
73 posted on 03/22/2013 12:24:44 PM PDT by Hilda
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To: pgyanke
Correction:

Well Passover is an historical event and the death of Christ was redemptive and he commanded us to remember that redemptive death on Passover.

74 posted on 03/22/2013 12:26:46 PM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: editor-surveyor

“Lent is not a Christian celebration; it is the remembrance of the 40 years of Tammuz’ life before he was executed by Shem. Christians do not practice Lent.”

Yes, it has NOTHING to do with Jesus fasting forty days in the wilderness. Or Moses fasting forty days on the mountain. Or the people of Nineveh fasting forty days for the purpose of repentance. Just a remarkable coincidence.


75 posted on 03/22/2013 12:28:09 PM PDT by Hilda
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
Luther and his dogma of "the Bible alone" isn't in Scripture either.

Excellent point. Martin Luther added some excellent perspective to Christianity. So did C.S. Lewis. Neither claimed to be the second coming of Jesus Christ.

76 posted on 03/22/2013 12:31:57 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Hilda
THAT'S your problem? Whether it's on Nisan 14 or the Sunday following? Talk about straining out gnats and swallowing camels. If THAT'S your big concern, Nisan 14 now and Nisan 14 then are two different things. The Jews now have a fixed system for adding the extra month;

Well, that's not my ONLY problem... :-)

Number 1 I do think it's important that we observe the Lord's holy days WHEN he said to observe them.

But number 2 the focus of Passover is and should be on the DEATH of Christ on the cross and his redemptive sacrifice. Modern Christianity has altered that message and them by making Easter ABOUT his resurrection. Two different things that lead believers astray...which is why we have easter eggs and easter bunnies.

77 posted on 03/22/2013 12:32:10 PM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: DouglasKC

>> “This night was Passover” <<

.
Actually, no, that is a common misunderstanding. The Lord’s Supper was on a night of preparation for the days of unlevened bread, and was the beginning of the fourth day, one day before the passover. The bread was normal levened bread, which can be clearly seen in the fact that he dipped a piece and passed it to Judas as a “sop” which just doesn’t work with the matzo breads.

The machinations before the trial were later that night, and he was crucified in the late afternoon on the forth day, shortly before passover began with the fifth day.


78 posted on 03/22/2013 12:33:49 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: DouglasKC

I see.

It shouldn’t be about the resurrection.

Bye.


79 posted on 03/22/2013 12:35:20 PM PDT by Hilda
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To: editor-surveyor
He said that it would be as with the prophet Jonah who was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.

The phrase "three days and three nights" is a Jewish idiom for denoting a period of time. There are other examples of its use in the Bible. In Esther 4:16 to 5:1 we find her telling that she would fast for three days and three nights before going before the king and yet she shows up in the king's presence on the third day. Here's another that shows that Jesus was understood idiomatically by His listeners: "Sir, we remember that while living that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise.' Therefore, order the grave to be secured until the third day, lest his disciples come and steal him away and say to the people, 'He was raised from the dead,' and the last deceit will be worse than the first." (Matthew 27:63-34). Note that they didn't ask for the grave to be secured until after the third day had passed. Even His enemies understood Jesus's meaning better than we do in our language today.

Here are some quick quotes for my point of view:

Matthew 16:21 [ Jesus Foretells His Death ] From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.

Matthew 17:23 and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.

Matthew 20:19 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”

Luke 9:22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”

80 posted on 03/22/2013 12:37:50 PM PDT by pgyanke (Republicans get in trouble when not living up to their principles. Democrats... when they do.)
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