Acts 12:1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. 2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) 4 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.
The secular world has suggested that this week is “holy week”. According to online data this week was first referred to in this way in the latter part of the 3rd and 4th century. It was not known as such in Bible times. There is nothing in the Bible to suggest this week should be called “holy week”. It is of Catholic origins. Fundamental Baptists claim to take their faith directly from the Bible. Yet most if not all Fundamental Baptist churches follow the Catholic traditions of this week. They have a “good Friday” service and some may have a Sunday sunrise breakfast, etc. In the Bible this week is no more holy than any other week. The problem is that the Catholics combined the pagan events surrounding “Easter” with the Biblical events of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The two are not the same, but the Catholics made them the same. The common response to this is that the timing and association are not important, but it is important that we emphasize the events of the week. The world sees it differently. The world sees the observation of this event according to their calendar as another indicator of the ecumenical nature of religion. We have services in a couple of seniors’ homes. The one home is predominantly Catholic. The head of the activities events continues to want to refer to our service as a “Protestant Mass”. Every time I hear her say that, I correct her, but it has not yet sunk in with her. She has asked what the difference is between our church and the Catholics and I have tried to explain that to her in a very brief manner. She continues to be inquisitive, but having been raised as a Catholic, in her mind they are the dominant religion and the rest are all subservient to them. That is a very common position in the religious world. When true saints follow the Catholic calendar rather than the Word of God, they give credence to this assumption. Lest anyone reading this assume that I am bringing in some heresy here, stop and read the opening verses of the devotional again. Pay attention to the words God directed Luke to write down. The translators of the Bible were also careful to keep the meaning of words correct when they translated the Bible from the original languages to the English, at least in the King James Bible. This cannot be said of the perversions. Our secular calendars refer to this week as “holy week”. The world also refers to the pope as “holy father”. The Bible refers to God as Holy Father. The Bible refers to the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ as the fulfilment of the Passover week. The Passover began with the killing of the lamb and catching the blood in a basin. The blood needed to be sprinkled on the door posts and lintel of the house. Those who obeyed God on this matter discovered that their firstborn child and their firstborn livestock were alive the next morning. Those who ignored this matter found their firstborn child and firstborn livestock dead the next morning. The Passover date was set by God, not the determination of the people as they observed the moon and the sun. It was set by God for the 14th day of the month Abib/Nissan. The Jews were commanded to keep the Passover every year after that first time, at the same time of the year. It was a 7 day event. It began with the Passover and then were the days of unleavened bread. The New Testament tells us that Christ is our Passover.
I Corinthians 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
Those who are saved are not commanded to keep the Passover as given by God in the Old Testament. We are told to keep the “Lord’s Supper”. We are told to keep that “as oft as ye do this”. We are to keep the Lord’s Supper as a reminder of Jesus’ death, until He come. Those who are saved, should be reminded of the fact that we are saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In salvation we are made new creatures in Christ. We are to learn to be separate from the world. We live in the world, we work in the world, we shop in the world, but we do not follow the customs of the world. The world needs to be reminded of the importance of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and why He came. We cannot do this when we accept the world’s timing for anything. When we simply adopt the Easter traditions and try to make them holy we fail to show the world the importance of Jesus’ death. The chocolate bunnies and eggs and the painting of eggs and the hunting for eggs, etc. has nothing to do with Jesus’ death. When you read Acts 12:1-4 and pay attention to what is written, you discover that the Jewish feast of Passover/unleavened bread, was a different time than Easter. The Jews kept the feast of unleavened bread. The Romans kept Easter. God protected the purity of His Word and made sure that Luke wrote these events down correctly. God also preserved His Word so that the translators of the King James version would continue to keep the purity of His Word. In the Gospels we find that the Jews were very careful to keep the Passover at the prescribed time. Jesus also was careful to follow that timing. There is no mention in those records of Easter. The Jewish Passover was not combined with that event. As mentioned above, it was the Catholics who combined those two events. Protestants accepted that, but true saints did not. Over time, more and more saints became careless and just allowed the world to move in and corrupt the Biblical truth. I realize that when we build our lives on the Word of God we will truly be a “peculiar people.” The world will not get it. However, when we build our lives on the Word of God we will have the blessing of God. We will be able to show the world the truth and God will work in the heart of people to bring some to repentance and salvation. When we adopt the world’s ways we create confusion in the hearts of the people. The Holy Spirit is able to cut through that confusion, but we need to be willing to listen to what He shows us from God’s Word. We cannot shrug our shoulders and use the excuse that we have always done it this way. We want those who are saved to understand the blessing of following God’s Word and God’s way. We want the saved to exalt God, not Catholicism. We want others to see the blessing of honouring God’s Word and not diminishing its place with the traditions of men. Pastor Bartel
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