Here Comes Peter Cottontail...

[robycop3]

Once again, Easter season is upon us!

"Here Comes Peter Cottontail,

Hopping down the Bunny trail...

TRIPPIN' OUT ON CRACK!"


But is GOD behind it? DEFINITELY NOT!

LET'S START WITH MARDI GRAS & ASH WEDNESDAY.


It has PAGAN roots, coming from a Roman rite which they obtained from Vedic India. Ashes were said to be a symbol of the purifying blood of the god Shiva, which washed away sins. Mardi Gras is the day of excesses before the austerity of Ash Wednesday & Lent.

In fact, the whole Lent/Ash Wednesday/Mardi Gras/ Maundy Thursday/Easter thingie is assembled from various PAGAN sources, interspersed with Biblical truths to attempt to make it appear authentic to gullible Christians. Lent comes from the ancient rite of the springtime revival of Tammuz. Maundy Thursday comes from a Celtic spring rite of 3 days' duration. It was mixed into Anglo-Saxon rites after they invaded the Celtic lands & were in turn invaded by the Vikings who gave Thursday the name we use (Thor's day) & later added to the Lent observance. And we've seen that in the 300s AD, Constantine's missionaries to the Germans worked the story of Jesus' resurrection into the Germans' spring rite of Ostern to create Easter. The RCC put the whole mess together to form this "season".

Thus, the whole RCC version of Easter season is one big blort of pagan rites from various sources that have been brought together into one "season", with Biblical material worked in to make it seem legitimate. Take away the Biblical truths & it's all phony, pagan, & false, assembled from Indian, Roman, Babylonian, Celtic, & Teutonic/Germanic paganism. It follows the pattern & PAGAN SOURCES of many other RCC rites, ceremonies, customs, & observances, from all sortsa sources except GOD'S WORD.

[Julie L]

Hopefully this helps,I noticed you had missunderstood the RCC's teaching:

Jesus returned to Jerusalem on Thursday (Holy Thursday), to share the Last Supper with His apostles. He was subsequently arrested and tried. He was crucified at Calvary on Friday (Good Friday), outside the gates of Jerusalem. He was buried the same day, and arose three days later, on Sunday (Easter Sunday).

Ash Wednesday:
In the RCC, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent (the season of preparation for the resurrection of Jesus Christ). During Mass, the ashes which gives Ash Wednesday its name are blessed and the faithful come forward to receive them. The priest dips his right thumb in the ashes and, making the sign of the cross on each person's forehead, says, "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return"
The distribution of ashes reminds them of their own mortality and calls them to repentance!!!
The ashes that are receive are a reminder of their own sinfulness, and many Catholics leave them on their foreheads all day as a sign of humility.

Holy Thursday:
The Holy Thursday liturgy is celebrated in the evening because Passover began at sundown, also shows both the worth God ascribes to the humility of service, and the need for cleansing with water (a symbol of baptism) in the Mandatum, or Jesus' washing ?washing the feet of His disciples? Cleansing, in fact, gave this day the name Maundy Thursday.

Easter Sunday:
Although Easter is probably the oldest Christian celebration aside from the Sabbath, it wasn?t always the same as what people currently think of when they look at Easter services. The earliest known observance, Pasch, occurred between the second and fourth centuries. These celebrations commemorated both Jesus? death and his resurrection at once, whereas these two events have been split up between Good Friday and Easter Sunday today.

Christian celebrations of Easter were originally tied to Jewish celebrations of Passover. For Jews, Passover is a celebration of deliverance from bondage in Egypt; for Christians, Easter is a celebration of deliverance from death and sin. Jesus is the Passover sacrifice; in some narratives of the Passion, the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples is a Passover meal. It is argued, then, that Easter is the Christian Passover celebration.

Jules

[HappyChristian]

Hopefully this helps,I noticed you had missunderstood the RCC's teaching:

Jesus returned to Jerusalem on Thursday (Holy Thursday), to share the Last Supper with His apostles. He was subsequently arrested and tried. He was crucified at Calvary on Friday (Good Friday), outside the gates of Jerusalem. He was buried the same day, and arose three days later, on Sunday (Easter Sunday).
Jules

Jules = just wanted to note - there is no way Christ coudl have been crucified on Friday and raised on Sunday three days later. Doesn't work.

[Julie L]

I was taught that Friday counts as the first day because Jesus was in fact dead for a good part of that day. And we know that Jesus' was resurrected on Sunday because John 20 verse 1 says: "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre."

No where in the bible does it say that Jesus was dead for 3 full 24 hours to the minute.

What are you taught?

Jules

[HappyChristian]

I was taught that Friday counts as the first day because Jesus was in fact dead for a good part of that day. And we know that Jesus' was resurrected on Sunday because John 20 verse 1 says: "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre."

No where in the bible does it say that Jesus was dead for 3 full 24 hours to the minute.

What are you taught?

Jules

Actually, there is an extra Sabbath during passover, so the latest Christ could have been crucified would have been Thursday. If he were crucified on Friday, he couldn't have been the grave for a good part of that day - he hung on the cross til afternoon (the ninth hour would be about 3:00) and they had to remove him before the Sabbath time began - at 6 p.m. The timing just doesn't work for it to be Friday.

Matthew 16:21 "16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day."

Matthew 12:40 "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Christ is pretty specific here - 3 days and 3 nights...

[Julie L]

You make a good point. You may laugh, but you are the first person to bring this point up to me. I just assumed that since everyone celebrates Easter on the same day, that everyone agreed Jesus died on the same day. I never knew there was a difference of opinion. If you will, let me get back with you after I do my homework on this.
Jules

[HappyChristian]

You make a good point. You may laugh, but you are the first person to bring this point up to me. I just assumed that since everyone celebrates Easter on the same day, that everyone agreed Jesus died on the same day. I never knew there was a difference of opinion. If you will, let me get back with you after I do my homework on this.
Jules

No, Julie - I would never laugh at something like this!! Many people don't know about differences of opinion - of many things!!

[OLD fashioned preacher]

As was noted above, Jesus Himself gave the time reference of three days and three nights, even if you counted Friday and Sunday you don't have 3 nights.

Let's get even more hairy -- the Jewish day started at 6pm (see Genesis -- "and the evening and the morning were the first day") so he wasn't in the grave most of that day anyway, just less than 3 hours of 24.

[John81]

Wasn't Jesus crucified on Wednesday and then spent all day and night Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the grave (three days and nights), rising on Sunday morning?

[HappyChristian]

Wasn't Jesus crucified on Wednesday and then spent all day and night Thursday' date=' Friday and Saturday in the grave (three days and nights), rising on Sunday morning?[/quote']


That's what I've always thought.

It would work like this:

Wed 6 p to Thurs 6 a would be one night

Thurs 6 a to Thurs 6 p - one day

Thurs 6 p - Fri 6 a - second night

Fri 6 a - Fri 6 p - second day

Fri 6 p - Sat 6 a - third night

Sat 6 a - Sat 6 p - third day

Sometime between Sat 6 p and Sun 6 a Christ arose.

[John81]

That's what I was taught once I found my way to a Baptist church. Even a child, an unsaved one at that, I could see the math just doesn't work with a Friday crucifiction and Sunday resurrection when Jesus was to be buried three days and three nights.

[Germany4Christ]

Yep

[robycop3]

Remember, Scripture sez that when Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb early Sunday AM, Jesus was ALREADY RESURRECTED. Most likely He was raised just before sunset Saturday.

Actually Passover Week can have THREE Sabbaths-the two Holy Convocation days on the 1st and 7th days, as well as the regular weekly Sabbath. The specIal Sabbaths are known as HIGH SABBATHS, and we see Jesus was crucified on the day before a High Sabbath, the day following the paschal lamb day.

[Julie L]

Ok, I have discovered that there are way more than 2 opinions on this matter and much has been written about it. I completely understand why there are so many opinions, and maybe it doesn't matter which opinion is wright. What really matters is that we can all agree that Jesus DID die, and that he DID resurrect. All of Christianity hinges on this point.

But I also promised you an answer that supported a Friday crucifixion, so below is what I found. I in no way wish to offend your beliefs. I hope I am not doing so. It has been fun to do this research and I owe you a thanks for mentioning the differences we have. I look forward to your reply!

1- Since there are so many different opinions, who's opinion would be the most trustworthy? Would it be the oldest? The oldest opinion I found was one practiced in the 4th century. There were Christians in the 4th century that observed the Friday before Easter as the day associated with the crucifixion of Christ. (that makes this practice seriously old)

2- The saying, "Three days and three nights" I am told was a Hebrew idiom. It means: "A short period of time."
And it was not meant to be taken literally. We use similar idioms today, like: " I worked all day" doesn't mean we worked literally 24 hours. or " It took me forever to read that book" doesn't mean literally "forever" but a long period of time.

3- two thousand years ago, the Jews counted any part of a day as a whole day when looking back and counting days of time. So, when the bible tells us that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday morning, sometime before dawn, then everyone knew that Jesus was still dead for some hours on Sunday. (which now counts as a whole day) So Sunday, according to them, was a day Jesus spent in death. (since it was also the last day he spent in death, and Jesus said he would raise on the 3rd day) Sunday would have to be the 3rd day.

Working the math backwards from Sunday (3rd day)
that makes Saturday the (2nd day)
and Friday the (1st day)

(Even though they are not all 3 full days.)

Yes, that only gives us 2 nights that Jesus would have been dead. But as I already mentioned, the saying: 3 days and 3 nights, meant a short period of time, and not an exact number of days and nights.

4- It is also possible to interpret scripture to support a Friday crucifixion, because John says the day our Lord died was also the Day of Preparation for the Jewish Passover. It is incredibly significant that our Lord died at 3:00 on the Day of Preparation, for on that very day and at that very hour, the Jewish priest were sacrificing many thousands of lambs in the Temple in preparation for the Passover meal, because Jesus is the true Paschal Lamb of God.

[Revelation3:20]

2- The saying, "Three days and three nights" I am told was a Hebrew idiom. It means: "A short period of time."
And it was not meant to be taken literally. We use similar idioms today, like: " I worked all day" doesn't mean we worked literally 24 hours. or " It took me forever to read that book" doesn't mean literally "forever" but a long period of time.

The scriptures show that isn't true. The Pharisees themselves believed he meant three literal days. Pilate was a Roman and if they asked him for soldiers to guard the sepulchre three days, literal 24 hour days is what they would have meant.

Matthew 27:62-66 Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.