NO!
They're not Biblical and authorized by Christ.
Why? I've been doing this for years.
Well, let's explain some things that we may not know.
Acts 12:4 (KJV) "And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people."
It’s interesting to find the word “Easter” in the KJV (King James Version). In fact, it’s a deliberate mistranslation of the Greek word.
(Olive Tree Enhanced Strong's Dictionary) g3957. πάσχα pascha; of Aramaic origin (compare h6453); the Passover (the meal, the day, the festival or the special sacrifices connected with it): — Easter, Passover.
AV (29) - Passover 28, Easter 1;
the paschal sacrifice (which was accustomed to be offered for the people's deliverance of old from Egypt)the paschal lamb,
i.e. the lamb the Israelites were accustomed to slay and eat on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan (the first month of their year) in memory of the day on which their fathers,
preparing to depart from Egypt, were bidden by God to slay and eat a lamb, and to sprinkle their door posts with its blood, that the destroying angel, seeing the blood, might pass over their dwellings;
Christ crucified is likened to the slain paschal lamb the paschal supper the paschal feast, the feast of the Passover, extending from the 14th to the 20th day of the month Nisan.” Vine's Expository completely "disconnects" Easter from Passover. Which we'll see later in this blog.
I’ve stated in a video that the Jewish Passover dates and the dates of Easter and Good Friday are different because of the lunar calendar that’s used by the Jews.
Speaking of "Good Friday," where did this come from?
Easter and Good Friday are based on the Gregorian calendar and Passover for the Jews falls on the Jewish lunar calendar.
According to Matthew 26 and Exodus 12, the Lord Jesus was crucified on the 14th day of Nisan. So no matter what day Easter and Good Friday falls on, the Jews follow the 14th day of Nisan based on the way the Lord determines a full day.
Genesis 1:3-5 (NKJV) “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
We call a day, “from sunrise to sunset” but the Lord calls a day "So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
What's the difference?
The Sabbath h7676. שַׁבָּת šaḇâṯ; intensive from 7673; intermission, i.e. (specifically) the Sabbath: — (+ every) sabbath.
Or Sabat or Shabot starts at sunset and ends at sunset the next day.
From Wikipedia…..
“Observance in the Hebrew Bible was universally from sixth-day sundown to seventh-day sundown[3] on a seven-day week.”
Confusing, isn’t it?
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Regarding the start of the Passover, we find in Leviticus 23:4-5 (NKJV) “These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD’s Passover.”
Passover, the 14th day of Nisan, in AD 33, fell on the 6th day of the week. Christ was crucified on the 14th day of Nisan. The Lord was raised from the dead on the 1st day of the week. Also count the days of Pentecost back to the Sabbath in AD 33.
The math doesn’t add up to “three days and three nights.’
And in our finite minds, it will never add up.
Just like when we see in Revelation 11, 1260 days which is 3.5 lunar years. And then we read in Daniel 12, 1290 days and 1335 days. And then the Lord tells us “unless those days be shortened, no flesh will be saved, but for the elect’s sake, they shall be shortened.’
Nothing makes sense with man, but with God, it all makes sense. Even when it appears contradictory.
The Feast of Weeks is also known as Pentecost.
Why?
Leviticus 23:15-16 (NKJV) ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.”
Deuteronomy 16:9-10 (NKJV) “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.”
Hidden in this correct definition, the definition was intentionally implemented and blatant error is found in our faces. The word “Easter" was deliberately added to "Passover" in hopes that we wouldn’t figure out what’s going on here.
So satan tried to pull a fast one (John 8:44, Genesis 3).
The error isn’t in “paschal” or “Passover.”
The error is the translators sneaking into the passage the word “Easter.”
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary caught the blatant lie found in the “revered” KJV.
(Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary) pascha (πάσχα, 3957), mistranslated “Easter” in Acts 12:4, KJV, denotes the Passover (RV). The phrase “after the Passover” signifies after the whole festival was at an end.
The term “Easter” is not of Christian origin.
It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven.
The festival of Pasch held by Christians in post-apostolic times was a continuation of the Jewish feast, but was not instituted by Christ, nor was it connected with Lent.
From this Pasch the pagan festival of “Easter” was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity.”
Based on Vine’s Dictionary, I concur.
Another holiday before “Easter” is “Lent.”
What’s Lent?
From Wikipedia….
“Early Christianity records the tradition of fasting before Easter.[38] The Apostolic Constitutions permit the consumption of "bread, vegetables, salt and water, in Lent" with "flesh and wine being forbidden."[38] The Canons of Hippolytus authorize only bread and salt to be consumed during Holy Week.[38] The practice of fasting and abstaining from alcohol, meat and lacticinia during Lent thus became established in the Church.[38]
In AD 339, Athanasius of Alexandria wrote that the Lenten fast was a forty-day fast that "the entire world" observed.[39] Saint Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–AD 430) wrote that: "Our fast at any other time is voluntary; but during Lent, we sin if we do not fast."[40]
Three main prevailing theories exist on the finalization of Lent as a forty-day fast prior to the arrival of Easter Sunday: First, that it was created at the Council of Nicea in 325 and there is no earlier incarnation....”
There’s no Scripture that said that if we don’t fast, it’s a sin.
The only sin about fasting is found in Matthew 6:16-18 (NKJV).
“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance.
For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
Included in Lent is Ash Wednesday where black ash is placed on the forehead the form of a cross or crucifixion to indicate “sackloth and ashes” as a sign of repentance from sin.
While there’s nothing wrong with repentance from sin and then placing faith in Christ, we could see that these are “works based” efforts to attain righteousness.
We can’t work for salvation based on our own merits.
It’s called “grace and mercy.” Unmerited or unearned favor.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (NKJV) “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Christ completed or finished the work of salvation on the cross.
Even John 19:30 is slightly misunderstood but nonetheless…..
John 19:30 (NKJV) “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”
The word “finished” means….
(Olive Tree Enhanced Strong's Dictionary) g5055. τελέω teleō; from 5056; to end, i.e. complete, execute, conclude, discharge (a debt): — accomplish, make an end, expire, fill up, finish, go over, pay, perform.
(Olive Tree Enhanced Strong's Dictionary) “…of tribute - "It is finished or paid" John 19:30 Christ satisfied God's justice by dying for all to pay for the sins of the elect.
These sins can never be punished again since that would violate God's justice. Sins can only be punished once, either by a substitute or by yourself.”
Since these sins can never be punished again, we get the verse of Scripture….
Hebrews 10:10-14 (NKJV)
“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
“And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
(Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary) 3. teleo (τελέω, 5055), “to finish, to bring to an end” (telos, “an end”), frequently signifies, not merely to terminate a thing, but to carry out a thing to the full.”
Many of us know that when you’ve paid your mortgage or car note, that the debt’s been completely satisfied.
That’s what took place on the cross. The Lord became a “propitiation” or appeased the just and holy demands of the righteous God, that sin must be paid for with sinless blood.
Christ satisfied the Father’s righteous demand that sin must be paid for with sinless blood.
Christ’s expiatory sacrifice satisfied the Father God's just demand.
No work of man is qualified to satisfy the just and holy demand of the righteous God.
Finished means that there’s nothing more to be done, or there’s nothing more to do.
Titus 3:4-7 (NKJV) “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Romans 2:3-11 (NKJV) “And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?
Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;
but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For there is no partiality with God.”
Conclusion?
Believers in Christ don’t have to celebrate Good Friday, should never celebrate Easter, or the holiday that leads to Easter called Lent.
Neither should we dare to assume that since Christ finished the work of salvation on the cross, that we could sin at will.
Romans 6:1-4 (NKJV) “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
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