The Obituary

I can't believe how hard this was to post.  I think weird things were happening as it took me waaaaay too long to post this. 

I'm not sure why the paragraph breaks didn't come through, nor my font sized which I sized up.

Weird. 

 

The tomb is empty. 

Happy Resurrection Sunday D.

Yes T and to you as well.

"He's not here!  He is Risen! 

 

 

Hey, it's Easter!

Happy Easter to both of you. Celebrate accordingly.

Happy Easter to you too SC.

Interesting Easter is in March and Passover is in April this year.

Hmmmm,

Hope you had a good Easter.

Out of curiosity KFC do you plan on doing a resurrection day this year on April 22 or 23?

Hurray for pagan holidays turned into Christian holidays!

not really.  How does your church handle this Jay?  I'm not one to mix easter egg hunts with the resurrection myself, so I don't like it when churches follow the pagan world in this regard. 

Well since I celebrate the Christian Holiday of the Resurrection and not the Passover Holiday I would go for what just passed.  What about you?   I am going to a Passover Seder tomorrow tho.  Have you ever heard of Marv Rosenthal?  He has a magazine out called Zion's Hope which I've read for years.  He's the leader of my Tuesday morning BS and he's fabulous.  We lose him the next two weeks to Jerusalem.  He goes twice a year. 

I knew the two were quite a bit apart this year.  It must be about time to add that 13th month on the calendar? 

 

Most churches I've attended handle it this way.....Jesus created the egg, doesn't matter what pagans or anyone else chooses to make it, call it, do with it, so long as we honor God when we partake.

 

I so missed my Easter egg hunt this year. (:(

Oh well. Mom said she'd save some chocolate for me in a cool, dry place. Gotta have my Cadbury eggs and bright pink Peeps bunnies!

We need to start using the Mayan calendar, it was cooler. 18 months of 20 days, and then a Holy Week so important it got its own 5-day month at the end of the cycle.

KFC, if you choose to celebrate a Christian Holiday that is directly connected with Passover with the implication of resurrection day have you ever looked into why they are so different?

We don't really make a special day for 'resurrection day' due to the fact that the whole picture of this time is Jesus IN the Passover. He is our passover lamb. We have just changed the way we view and observe passover with the inclusion of Jesus and the New Testament scriptures that correspond. A beautiful picture of his redemptive plan.



Great to hear. I would strongly encourage you to observe it during the 'appointed time' rather than in the general season.



Today is 18 Adar II (Adar II being the leap month) you are correct.

Ya, I'd say that's what alot of churches do.  Some, mainly the ones I have attended try to stay away from the Paganism as much as possible.  Sometimes tho, I don't think they even know what is and what isn't or they've just made it sound "Christian". 

For instance I was told today that the Sunrise Service that most churches do on Easter has its roots in Paganism.  I didn't know that.  It's a tradition we all celebrate but like alot of traditions we don't question them.  It seems as tho the Pagans would get up early at the rising of the sun and would worship the Sun.  Many, if not most Pagan Gods were related to the Sun.   Of course, as Christians, we think of the tomb and the women rising early. 

On the Seder Table in the modern Passovers they have an egg.  If you ask the Rabbis they don't have a good answer for the egg.  It's not in scripture.  Only three ingredients were commanded by God to be used for Passover, the lamb, the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread.  So where did the egg come from?  Most just say tradition.  Ask a Rabbi and he'll say...."Not sure."  "I don't know."  "It's tradition." 

They have the egg just like we who celebrate Easter have eggs and bunnies.  Comes from Paganism.  Bunnies  and eggs represent fertility, quick life.  We get "Easter" from the Pagan god "Ishtar."   Some of this stuff you can find in Jeremiah and Ezekiel....some has come from tradition. 

when you say "we" whom are you referring to? 

I don't think it really matters as long as you celebrate he is The Passover Lamb that was slain.   He is the substance of the shadow they had been celebrating for all those generations.

The lamb was good from Moses until that final Passover when he broke that matza in the Upper Room and said "from now on, this bread will represent my body, broken for you."  Back then it was a lamb sacrificed for a shepherd and his family.  Now we know the shepherd himself was sacrificed  for His lambs. 

When Christ broke that bread and administered that wine at the Last Supper I find it very interesting that he said the same as was said way back in Exodus.  That this would be a memorial that we would tell our children.  There was ONLY one Passover.  All the rest were memorials.  There was ONLY one Last Supper....the rest are memorials. 

When he said this was his "covenant" with us I didn't really know way back that the root word is "to cut."  Covenants were always sealed with blood.  Christ sealed his covenant with blood.  And it was a done deal, never to be rescinded.

It reminds me of God causing a deep sleep to come over Abraham as He, God himself, walked between the pieces of the slain animal.  Usually when this was done two people making a covenant would walk together in the midst of these bloody pieces basically saying "may it happen to me what has happened to this animal if I break the covenant." 

Pretty cool! 

 

 

My understanding is that this was instituted during the Babylonian exile. I do suspect some assimilation during Babylonian rule and place the entrance of the egg at that time. Egg has most often represented fertility throughout multiple cultures. Ishtar was known as the goddess of fertility (hence the egg during this time). Ishtar's son was Tammuz which happens to be the name of the 4th month in Jewish calendar a Babylonian name.


The we would be the group of Messianic.



Do you suggest G-D is a G-D of order or randomness?

Do you have anything on this AD?  From what I understand alot of things changed after 70AD when the temple was gone for good thus no lamb on the table, instead a bone and the egg,  Also the afikomen came later also.  The thought is the first Christians were Jews (3,000 on Pentecost alone).  The Jews continued to observe Passover but things were added like the breaking of the afikmen signifying Christ after dinner "breaking the bread." 

But having said that....your Babylonian thought does make sense as well.  So I'm not sure if there's really a way to know for sure.   But even in the early church by reading the scriptures and secular history it's clear that Paganism and Christianity kind of got mixed together especially later on when Christianity was declared the State Religion in Rome.  But Paul was fighting some of this stuff creeping into the early churches  by the reading of his letters.

no, not at all, but I would suggest he's a God of Liberty. 

Both of us celebrate the Resurrection so it's just a matter of Roman time or Jewish time?     When you read the scriptures you actually see both.  Did you know that?  You see the Roman timing in the book of Mark and the Jewish time in either Matthew or John or both.  When the Jewish calendar gets back in line with the Roman one we'll both be closer in the timing again.  But with one calendar going by the moon and the other the sun eventually that 13th Jewish month will be needed to bring us back together once again. 

Otherwise, the Jews would be celebrating the Passover in the summer. 

 

 

 

Not likely since the month of Abib or Nisan (the Babylonian name) rely on the green head of barley which was necessary for the wave offering. I'm trying to find the explanation but until then I'll offer my understanding. The beginning of year (biblically not rabbinically) begins with this month (Ex 12). The month of Abib begins on the Rosh Chodesh (first sliver after new moon)following the green heads of barley.



I disagree. You celebrate on a Sun calendar brought mainstream by Julius Caeser (see Julian Calendar), later reorganized by Pope Gregory in 1582 and I am looking for the Biblical time the one that G-D put in place (assuming you believe the Bible to be G-D inspired).

I think it does matter or else why would G-D tell us when to celebrate?

That's kinda my point though. Just because Pagans do something "first" doesn't mean they own it. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Technically then since many pagans made a tradition of breathing and living and enjoying their days, we can't do that either.  

They may have gotten up early to worship the sun, so what? They don't own the time of day or the sun. If they have a good idea and we pick it up or like it, I don't think God cares as long as HE is the focus. So we get up early to worship the SON. The same motions, completely different meaning.

I didn't let my kids do easter eggs, bunnies, or any of it for a long time because I thought it was "pagan."

Then a very savvy lady at my last Baptist Church pulled me aside and said basically....you want to paint eggs, paint them. Pagans don't own eggs. God made eggs long before Pagans even thought of fertility Goddesses. She suggested the meaning of the resurrection be placed on the egg, new beginnings, and the church put scripture in plastic eggs and made a game of the kids finding them.

If Christianity gets so legalistic that we can't honor God with our traditions, no matter there so called "origins" then something is wrong in the kingdom.

Possibly late spring like May, pertaining to those that are ceremonially unclean in Numbers 9.

It's been a few years since I researched this. I'm doing good to just remember what I learned.

Well some do take this POV and I don't criticize them for it. You could say the same about Christmas. I'm not really legalistic about such things really. But remember we've far removed from this now. If you lived back in the time that you had to chose between the real resurrection day to celebrate or the Pagan eggs and bunnies I'm thinking you'd stay away, as a Christian, from the Paganism. Does time make it better? Maybe. I do know that it really does come down to the heart so it's really up to every individual to make this decision.

Like Paul said in Colossians "let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ."

I actually have resurrection eggs with scripture on them. But again, it's really individualistic. I, myself, would rather see Christian families stay away from the Pagan aspect of anything as much as possible or at least make sure it doesn't take more time and effort than the real deal. Remember the true reason to celebrate. You know Satan...and how he operates.

We did the easter thing at home. We did the eggs and such. But we spent more time on going to church and doing the Passion Cantatas and stuff like that, not falling for the lies of Satan.

BTW Tova you know that song you quoted? It is from Psalm 118:24 and is a song usually sung at the Passover along with v22. Remember when Christ went out to be Crucified after the dinner? Scripture said they went out singing hymns? This Psalm 118 that you mentioned is one of them.

Well when it came to the Passover he was very specific. It was to happen on the 14 day of the first month. This was to be the beginning of their year. So yes, it did matter. But when Jesus came that was the end of it. He came to free us from sin and the law.
His was the Last Supper also the Last Passover.

At that Last Supper he instituted a New Covenant which we celebrate as the Lord's Supper and we do that periodically, some more than others. So, no I don't believe he gave us a day or frequency......he only said "as often as you do this, do in rememberance of me."

and what was he doing when he said this?

the christians unknowingly just finished a celebration unto ishtar and mithra,both roman dieties whom constantine the great christian also celebrated before forcing his religon upon the followers of yahoshua and forcing them to come into his way or die.

messiah is a hebrew,a jew,a israelite,he celebrated the customs of his people not the customs of the pagans around him,he did not eat pork,have sunrise ishtar services,he kept the way of the hebrew,the called out one.

this is what i speak on alot is how people will buy into a religous system without finding out the facts of that religous system,they just take what is offered at face value as truth instead of seeking out that truth for themselves.

all christianity is,is mithra worship a parasitic religous system that adapts to and takes over other religons making them its own.

mw

He was having the Last Passover (also called Last Supper) before he became the Passover. 

And again...he sealed it (this new covenant) with his blood. 

From then on he was OUR Passover Lamb that represented us.  Now, we as Christians keep this memorial alive when we celebrate the Last Supper in what we call Communion. 

 

 

I actually agree quite a bit here with you on this.  We need to not rely on others but to be reading the Holy Scriptures like the Apostles and early believers did. We need to be truth seekers.  Too much legalism has crept into the churches and tradition has become the order of the day and many are falling for this thinking their leaders know more than they.  Quite often tradition is held higher than scripture. 

now this I don't agree with.  Don't you know that whenever you put the word "all" down, it can't be right? 

There is true Christianity (those who follow Christ) and pseudo Christianity (those that pretend to be following Christ) and there is a difference.   Christ himself even made mention of the difference himself.