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#Post#: 11626--------------------------------------------------
The Easter Story
By: guest8 Date: April 6, 2020, 10:08 pm
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As always I urge you not believe a word that is written in this
thread but rather be a good Berean and find out for yourself in
Acts 17:11......For GOD in Pro 25:2..(KJV).."It is the glory of
God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out
a matter."
Because the Easter Story is so important for all to know, I
present you with an article from one of the most read scholars,
Chuck Missler.
If you wish to leave a comment (s) click on the following link:
HTML https://3169.createaforum.com/theologians-men-of-god/the-easter-story-comments/
************
The Easter Story
by Chuck Missler • March 31, 2019
Every spring, we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ by hiding colored eggs and chocolate bunnies for our
children. Little girls run around in white frilly dresses and
boys sport handsome braces to hold up well-pressed trousers.
It's nice to attend church Easter morning wearing our new best
clothes.
Most of us are aware that the celebration of Christ's
resurrection has nothing to do with fluffy chicks and bunnies,
and this book is not a lecture about ancient spring fertility
religions. Many people are even aware that the word “Easter”
comes from the name of a fertility goddess, the famous Ishtar of
Babylonian fame. There are other misconceptions about our third
favorite sugar-coma holiday, misconceptions that I want to
consider and unravel.
When we celebrate “Easter” in our culture, we are no longer
offering sacrifices to Ishtar. It's the term we use to refer to
the Christian holiday that derived from the Jewish Passover. We
are celebrating the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ, the Savior of the world. It's astonishing to discover
that much of what we've been taught about Easter are
misconceptions. Some of them very deliberate misconceptions, and
I want to get into the background of some of these myths and
misunderstandings that plague the Easter story. What really
happened that day in Judea two millennia ago?
Mel Gibson did a phenomenal job in his effort to reproduce the
brutal abuse that Jesus Christ suffered that fateful morning.
Despite some artistic license, The Passion of the Christ is a
very moving cinematic portrayal of Christ's crucifixion, and
Jesus did suffer enormously at the hands of the Roman soldiers.
However, I think the film has a major shortcoming; it creates
the impression that the crucifixion was a tragedy. That is one
of the big misconceptions about the death of Jesus Christ — that
it was a tragedy. Certainly, those standing at the foot of the
cross that day felt the battle had just been lost. Their Lord,
Master and Friend was being slaughtered, and all their dreams of
His conquering Rome and setting up His kingdom were smashed to
bits. However, our Lord's death wasn't a tragedy. It was the
greatest achievement of all time. It was a massive triumph, and
that victory was completed three days later when Jesus rose from
the dead as the Conqueror over sin and death.
We need to recognize that Christ's death was not an accident or
an afterthought. Its specifications were laid down before the
foundation of the world. It was the climax of a mission. Jesus
came to earth to undo the damage done by Adam, to cancel the
curse and buy back our lives from destruction.
The second shortcoming of Gibson's movie is that it doesn't get
across who Jesus really is. It assumes the audience already
knows, so it doesn't bring full attention to the true identity
of Jesus. The Creator Himself became incarnate to die on our
behalf.
Those are two critical issues that we must confront, the death
of Christ was an achievement planned from the beginning of the
world, and the Creator Himself died on that cross.
There's another misconception about the Easter story that is
shared by most of the Christian world. The death and
resurrection of Jesus fulfilled a multitude of Old Testament
prophecies and should be celebrated in conjunction with three
Jewish celebrations: the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread,
and First fruits. In the fourth century AD, after Constantine
became emperor of Rome, there were still Christians who wanted
to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord in connection to
Passover. Jesus had died on Passover and was raised again on the
Feast of First fruits. These men were called “Quartodecimans”
because they wanted to celebrate the Passover on the 14th of
Nisan, according to the Jewish calendar.
The Latin word Quartodeciman means “14th” or “14th people.” In
the first, second, and third centuries, the Christians
celebrated the death of Jesus on the Passover and His
resurrection three days later. They clung to the Torah
specifications of Passover, which was given as an everlasting
feast, a perpetual ordinance.
We discover that contentions started brewing in the Roman church
in AD 115 to 125, because the Roman church celebrated Passover
on Sunday, not on Nisan 14. Eusebius records that in AD 154,
Polycarp visited Rome to discuss the difference in Passover
calculation with Bishop Anisettes and they reached an amicable
compromise. Polycrates of Ephesus and Irenaeus wrote in support
of the Quartodecimans.1
However, by the time of the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, the
Quartodecimans were considered an oddity. It was officially
decided that Christians should not celebrate the Lord's death
and resurrection in conjunction with Passover, and the council
arranged it so that Easter would never be celebrated on
Passover. It unanimously ruled that the Easter festival should
be celebrated throughout the Christian world on the first Sunday
after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. What's
more, if the full moon should occur on a Sunday and thereby
coincide with the Passover festival, Easter should be
commemorated on the following Sunday. They sought to
deliberately worship on a day other than what was ordained in
the Bible.
The Quartodecimans were not given a choice in the matter. They
were excommunicated if they persisted in what was seen as a
Jewish error. Antisemitism had crept into the church with such
fervor that the church under Rome attempted to eradicate any
vestiges of Judaism from the teachings of Christianity. As
result of the Council of Nicaea, the formal church desperately
attempted to design a formula for Easter, as they called it,
which would avoid the possibility of falling on the Jewish
Passover, even accidentally. Those that wanted Christianity to
remain based in the Old Testament became outcasts. In his Life
of Constantine, the Christian historian Eusebius quoted
Constantine as saying:
[I]t appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this
most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who
have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are,
therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. ... Let
us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd;
for we have received from our Savior a different way.
In the epistle of Emperor Constantine to the bishops after the
Council of Nicaea, Constantine wrote heatedly against
celebrating Easter in conjunction with the Jewish celebration of
Passover, saying:
Let us, then, have nothing in common with the Jews, who are our
adversaries. For we have received from our Savior another way. A
better and more lawful line of conduct is inculcated by our holy
religion. Let us with one accord walk therein, my much-honored
brethren, studiously avoiding all contact with that evil way.
They boast that without their instructions we should be unable
to commemorate the festival properly. This is the highest pitch
of absurdity. For how can they entertain right views on any
point who, after having compassed the death of the Lord, being
out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by an
unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries
them...Therefore, this irregularity must be corrected, in order
that we may no more have any thing in common with those
parricides and the murderers of our Lord... that it is most
pious that all should unanimously agree in that course which
accurate reasoning seems to demand, and which has no single
point in common with the perjury of the Jews.2
That is shocking language. We need to realize that the early
church became so anti-Semitic that they altered their practices
away from the biblical text and ushered in all kinds of
confusion. That confusion still reigns today, which is why we
need to sift through some of our Easter traditions.
To top it all, the Roman church was under the Julian calendar,
which had an astronomical problem; there was a discrepancy
between the solar and lunar year. The lunar calendar drives the
Jewish calendar. Numerous alternatives for fixing the date of
Easter were tried by the church, but proved unsatisfactory,
which resulted in different dates for Easter celebrations
throughout the Christian world. In AD 387, the dates of Easter
in France and Egypt were separated by 35 days. Utter confusion
was reigning.
About AD 465, the church adopted a system of calculation
proposed by the astronomer Victorinus to reform the calendar and
fixed the date of Easter. Some of his methods are still in use,
although the Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus made significant
adjustments to the Easter cycle in the sixth century. Refusal by
the British and Celtic Christian churches to adopt the proposed
changes lead to a bitter dispute between them and Rome in the
seventh century.
The Julian calendar was finally reformed in 1582 under Pope
Gregory XIII. This eliminated some of the difficulties in fixing
the date of Easter and arranging the ecclesiastical year, but it
was not accepted for two centuries by Great Britain and Ireland.
Easter was finally celebrated on the same day in the Western
part of the Christian world after 1752.
The Eastern churches, however, never did adopt the Gregorian
calendar, and they commemorate Easter on the Sunday either
preceding or following the date observed in the West.
Occasionally the dates coincide by coincidence, such as in 1865
and 1963. In 1928, the British Parliament enacted a measure
allowing the Church of England to commemorate Easter on the
first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. Thus, Easter is
still considered a “moveable” feast day.
All this trouble, and the formulas, were unnecessary in the
first place. They were designed simply to avoid celebrating the
feast at the time of the Jewish Passover. This is the height of
senselessness, because Jesus was put to death on Passover. In
fact, He was executed on Passover by God's very specific design,
in fulfillment of the Scriptures.
Jesus knew that He was the fulfillment of prophecies that filled
the Old Testament. In Revelation 13:8, John calls Jesus “the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The God who is
outside of time itself knew long before Adam and Even sinned
that He would send His Son, God incarnate, into the world to
hang on a cross in our place and pay for our sins. From the
beginning of Genesis, God foretold this would happen. He set up
feasts to help explain it to the Jewish people. He offered types
and examples all through the Old Testament, “here a little,
there a little,” as prophesied in Isaiah 28:9-13. We see that
Jesus Christ is written constantly on every page of the Hebrew
Scriptures.
God told the Jewish people in advance what He would do to save
the world, but they didn't understand. Jesus' own disciples
didn't get it. Even when He told them plainly, using straight
forward Aramaic, they didn't comprehend that He was going to
die:
And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these
sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days
is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to
be crucified. Matthew 26:1-2
The whole sacrificial system had been set up so the Jews, and
the rest of the world through them, could understand that a
sacrifice had to be made to pay for sin. Blood had to be
spilled. Jesus had come to fulfill, not just a few verses, but
the whole sacrificial system of the Law. John the Baptist got
it, and when he introduced Jesus to the world, he did not cry
out, “Here is the Messiah!” No, what did he say in John 1:29? He
said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world.”
From the beginning of His ministry, the disciples should have
recognized the role of Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb, because
John had declared that role for Him right then — right there at
the start.
Isaac
Back in Genesis 22, we read about the Akedah, the binding of
Isaac. God ordered Abraham to go and sacrifice Isaac, his
beloved son, his “only son” on a mountain in the land of Moriah.
Abraham did not argue or question. He simply went out and cut
wood and got the donkey ready, and he headed out. After three
days, he saw the place ahead, and he left his two servants
behind and went on ahead alone with Isaac. Isaac was
understandably puzzled about the arrangement, and he asks his
father a question.
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My
father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the
fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering: so they went both of them together. Genesis
22:7-8
Abraham bound Isaac and got ready to slay him when God
intervened and stopped him. The Lord didn't allow Abraham to go
through with it, of course, and He provided a ram in Isaac's
place.
Throughout the Old Testament, God consistently condemns child
sacrifice. The people had a habit of falling into the pagan
practices of the Canaanites, which included sacrificing their
children in the fire to the god Molech. Abraham, however, didn't
believe he was truly losing his son. God had promised him that
Isaac would become the father of nations and kings in Genesis
17:16-19, which meant that Isaac had to live. It's the writer of
Hebrews who explains to us that Abraham believed God would raise
Isaac from the dead.
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and
he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten
son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be
called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from
the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. Hebrews
11:17-19
Abraham knew he was acting out prophecy, because he named the
place Jehovah Jireh. As Genesis 22:14 explains, “And Abraham
called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to
this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.” There is a
song that goes, “Jehovah Jireh, my provider, His grace is
sufficient for me.” It's a good song, but Jehovah Jireh does not
mean “the LORD provides.” It means, “the LORD will see.” God
would see this take place.
Indeed, the act that Abraham played out was truly seen two
millennia later when the Lamb of God was made the eternal
sacrifice in our place. Two thousand years later, a Father would
sacrifice His beloved Son, His only Son, on Mt. Moriah, and I
believe Jesus Christ died in the exact spot where God had
directed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.
As we begin to study the Scripture, we quickly discover that
every detail there is a thread in an elegantly designed
tapestry, and two major pictures are portrayed in it. The first
is Christ's sacrifice, and the second is Christ's eternal
victory and reign as King.
Lifted Up and Pierced
The manner in which Jesus dies is actually very unusual from a
Jewish perspective. Jesus was accused of blasphemy by the Jews,
and according to Leviticus 24:10-16, the punishment for
blasphemy was stoning. However, we notice that every time the
Jews tried to stone Jesus, He just walked out from among them.3
Jesus knew He was going to be crucified. In John 3, He likens
Himself to the fiery brazen serpent that Moses made and put on a
pole. The word for “pole” here is better translated “standard”
or “flagstaff” — which means it had a crossbar on it; and it
would have been about 10 feet tall, and Moses made a brass
serpent and attached it to this flagstaff. It was a bronze
serpent hanging on a cross. All who looked at that brass serpent
were healed, and all who look to Jesus are healed. This is what
Jesus explains to Nicodemus in John 3:
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:14-15
Why a serpent? Because Jesus would become sin for us, that we
could become righteous, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21. The
Messiah would be lifted up. He would take on Himself all the sin
of the world, and those who trust in Him are saved.
We also find in the Scriptures that Jesus would be pierced. In
Psalm 22, we see a prophetic view of Jesus as He hangs on the
cross. It's written from His point of view, and we see the
events of the crucifixion play out — in a psalm written by David
1000 years before Jesus was born. In Psalm 22:16, it says, “For
dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the
wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.” The
root word for “pierced” here is ari or “lion.” They didn't just
stab his hands and feet. They pounded big metal spikes through
them, like lion's teeth.
Zechariah 12:10 speaks of a time in the future, when the
inhabitants of Jerusalem will see their Messiah and grieve,
saying, “and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and
they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son” The
word for “pierced” here is daqar, which means “stabbed” —
referring to the spear in His side.
Jesus knew that He would be crucified, and He repeatedly said
so.4 He knew He would be scourged and killed and that He would
rise again the third day, and He repeatedly said so.5 The
disciples were grief-stricken after His death, fearful and
hiding away. He had repeatedly explained to them in advance what
was going to happen, and it didn't make sense to them. They
didn't understand. Yet, on the road to Emmaus, He tells the two
disciples that it was all written in advance in the Law and the
Prophets.
Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to
have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke
24:25-27
Jesus was the One in charge that Passover day, the day of His
death. He died because that was His mission. That is what He had
come to do, and it was the greatest victory, the greatest
achievement of all history.
A Man Forever
There's another aspect to Christ's sacrifice that we might not
appreciate. John 1 tells us that Jesus was in the beginning with
God, and nothing was created without Him. Colossians tells us
that all things were created by Him and for Him:
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things
were created by him, and for him: Colossians 1:16
Jesus is the Creator. He is the King of the Universe. He had to
completely humble Himself to be made into a little human baby
and die on a Roman cross so that we might live. Yet, there's an
aspect to this we might not appreciate. When Jesus became flesh,
He remained a man. He didn't just transform into a man for 33
1/2 years. He remained a man forever. There is a human being
sitting on the throne of God as we speak, and I think we will
spend eternity learning to comprehend the enormity of the
sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf.
Why did Jesus do that? Why did He agree to come here, taking our
form in order to heal, and feed, and teach His fellow humans
until the day they tore Him to shreds? Why did He do that?
We get the answer when Jesus goes out into the Garden of
Gethsemane to pray. He walks a little distance from His men and
falls on His face, pouring out His heart to the Father. He is so
overwhelmed by emotional agony. Dr. Luke relates to us that He
begins sweating blood.6 Three times Jesus begs the Father, “O my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:
nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”7
Why did He go through with it? Because it was the only way for
us to be rescued, for us to be saved from eternal punishment. He
did it because there was no other way. If there was any other
way, then Christ died for no reason. But, because there was no
other way, God the Father allowed His Son to be cruelly mocked,
and battered, and torn and killed that Passover. That was His
mission. It was the very purpose for which He became one of us.
This is an excerpt from Chuck Missler's book The Easter Story:
What Really Happened.
Available now from
HTML http://store.khouse.org
1 Eusebius, History of the Church, 5.24.17.
2 Emperor Constantine, �The Epistle of the Emperor
Constantine, concerning the matters transacted at the Council,
addressed to those Bishops who were not present� in The
Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret, I.IX.
3 John 8:59, 10:31-39
4 Matthew 10:38, 16:24, 26:2; Mark 8:34, 10:21; Luke 14:27,
24:7; John 8:28, 12:32-34
5 Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19, 27:63-64; Mark 9:31, 10:34; Luke
9:22, 13:32, 18:33
6 Luke 22:44
7 Matthew 26:39
***********
*The Authorized King James Edition (1611, 1769) was used
exclusively as other versions are somewhat different depending
upon the year of their printing.
*All verses in the Bible are: “All scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (Note: we
have placed all scripture in RED for your convenience)
*Thus God is considered the author of all 66 books through 40
writers including those of Psalm 2.
**We welcome your comments and questions..Please keep them
precise and clean.
1 Cor 15:3-4.."For I delivered unto you first of all that which
I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures:"
***********
________________________________________________________________
________________
Sources:
by Chuck Missler • March 31, 2019
Founder of Koinonia House and Koinonia Institute
***********
This article was originally published
in the
2/24/2020, 'Sharing God's Word' @
Justifiedends.blogspot.com
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