SUB: Another heresy: Good Friday and Easter.
TEXT: Acts 17:11
Intro: 1) The paramount importance of the Scriptures in determining Doctrine and Practice. 2 Tim 3:16,17. 1 Pet 1:21.
2) Historical accounts of heathen practices. Eg: christmas, lent etc.
1. THE TIME OF THE CRUCIFIXION.
A. Matt 12:40: Consider the duration in the tomb as Jesus said it. The sign of Jonah.
B. John 11: 9,10. Jesus differentiating between the 12 hour day and a night.
C. The Jewish day began at sunset. Lev 23:32. Note "even to even".
D. He died on the Day of Preparation. John 19:31.
E. Passover began on the 14th of April (Nisan). Lev 23:5.
F. The day following was always a High Sabbath. The annual Passover Sabbath Lev 23:5-7.The Sabbath that immediately precedes Passover is called Shabbat ha-Gadol ("great Sabbath"). Encyclopedia Britannica.
G. Now we look at the Resurrection.
a. Matt 28:1 Note "early, when it was dark". The beginning of the First Day and the Jewish
day started at our evening.
b. John 20:1. Mark 16:2 Another visit, followed by another visit this time accompanied by
others.
H. The conclusion as to when He died.
a. Since a day and a night constituted 24 hrs, He said that he will be in the grave three days and three nights, that constitutes 72 hours.
b. Since we know that on the evening of Saturday, the time of Mary's first visit, the tomb was already empty, then we know by simple mathematical reasoning He was crucified on Wed at nine a.m. died at 3 p.m and was buried in the evening before the Jewish High Sabbath.
I. Good Friday is pure fiction.
11. EASTER SUNDAY. Another heresy that modern Christianity has embraced.
A. What is Easter? One of Rome's most valuable pagan observances, transplanted from Babylon, in pretense of remembering Christ's resurrection, yet in reality a festival of a Chaldean goddess.
B. Its origin: Taken from several enclyclopedias on line.
a. The word Easter is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Eostre or Ostrae. The Anglo-Saxon
Goddess of Spring and fertility, to whom the fourth month, answering to our April, thence called 'Eoster-monath' was dedicated.
b. Easter takes its name from Ishtar, the Babylonian and Assyrian goddess of love and fertility. The Phoenicians knew her as Astarte, sister and consort of Baal, a God worshiped in much of the Middle East and Mediterranean. Some of the ancient Hebrews also worshiped Baal.
c. Astarte spread through Europe, becoming Ostara, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring,
fertility, and the rising sun. The Old English word for Easter, "Eastre" refers to Ostara.
d. Easter is nothing but the name 'Astarte" or "Ishtar," one of the many names of the Babylonian goddess, Semeramis. Semiramis , mythical Assyrian queen, noted for her beauty and wisdom. She was reputed to have conquered many lands and founded the city of Babylon. After a long and prosperous reign she vanished from earth in the shape of a dove and was thereafter worshiped as a deity, acquiring many of the characteristics of the goddess Ishtar.
111. EASTER TRADITIONS. Eggs and Rabbits.
A. The egg and the rabbit, two of Easter's most common symbols, also have ancient associations with spring.
a. Eggs symbolize birth and fertility in many cultures. Ancient Egyptians and the Persians
colored eggs to give as gifts during their spring festival.
b. The legends of ancient Egypt connect the hare, which comes out at night to feed, with the moon. Rabbits have remained fertility symbols in other, later cultures.
c. According to Anglo-Saxon myth Ostara, wanting to delight some children one day, turned her pet bird into a rabbit. The rabbit proceeded to lay brightly colored eggs, which Ostara gave to the children.
CONCL: 1) We believe that those who have respect to holy days and new moons and sabbath
days are Shadow worshippers. The term Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Whit
Sunday, Easter Sunday, Blue Monday, Sad Tuesday, by what ever name, these terms are
meaningless to the informed new Testament Christian. While we believe in the resurrection of Jesus, since the moment of His resurrection, we cannot accept the Roman Catholic dogma of Easter anymore than we can accept their dogma on the virgin Mary and purgatory. Because of this conviction, Baptists have been persecuted and rivers have run with Baptist blood, because Baptists would not accept a Roman Catholic decree that contradicted their conscience and their Bible. For the Resurrection we have everything. For Eostre, the pagan goddess of spring and fertility, for whom the Easter festival was evidently named, we have no place for her in our religious life.
2) "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen." (Jeremiah 10:2)
3) "Come out of her, my people, that ye may not have fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities" (Rev. 18:4, 5).
