Resurrection Sunday Question

[Spock]

Okay, I waited until after Easter to start this.  I'm sure this has been discussed previously, but I really need to vent here and I really hope to get good replies to help ease my pain.

Why can't "we" change the date we celebrate this important event for Christians to the date that is Biblical?  3 days after Passover, which happens to be the Feast of First Fruits (Jewish calendar). 

Now, I don't know who the we is, but I wouldn't think the Pope would do it, so who, if anybody,  has that power to implement this change world wide.

The first Sunday after the first full moon of the Spring equinox....REALLY!!!!! Who believes this stuff?  And why would anyone want to celebrate his resurrection with bunny rabbits and eggs? What does that have to do with his resurrection?  Don't you see how those traditions have become more important than his resurrection? 

Why does anybody follow this obvious erroneous tradition in lieu of clear instruction from the Bible. Jesus was crucified on the morning right before Passover, right?  So, why not celebrate Resuurection Sunday on the first Sunday AFTER Passover. 

I look forward to reading your thoughts and words. Thank you.

spock

[Guest shiloh357]

18 minutes ago, Spock said:

Okay, I waited until after Easter to start this.  I'm sure this has been discussed previously, but I really need to vent here and I really hope to get good replies to help ease my pain.

Why can't "we" change the date we celebrate this important event for Christians to the date that is Biblical?  3 days after Passover, which happens to be the Feast of First Fruits (Jewish calendar). 

 

*Cues up the song "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof."*

[Spock]

57 minutes ago, shiloh357 said:

*Cues up the song "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof."*

lol Shiloh.  But you can't tell me God fearing, Bible believing Christians are more comfortable with TRADITION over TRUTH!  Are you saying that? I'm serious. I really want my brothers and sisters in Christ to explain to me why they celebrate Resurrection Sunday on the wrong Sunday most of the time. 

And once a believer gets wisdom and learns that this "holiday" was piggybacked on a pagan festival to honor Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven, certainly this must cause anger, no?  

I really do want to hear people explain to me why do they keep honoring this day!  

[Neighbor]

Oh boy , fun fun fun!

Till daddy took her T-bird away...

Now that I have that out of my way. To champion one date over another we have to study calendars and especially the Jewish holy calendar and manner of making seasons and times and Sabbaths. Having spent a couple years on that one I realize most people's eyes glaze over immediately when discussing that subject. So let me just say  first the day began  at evening, evening was marked  by the shofar being blown at the wall at the temple at Jerusalem and the sound was relayed by other shofars being blown.So when was the tomb found to have been opened. Was it Saturday evening at the end of the travel retrictions of the  weekly Sabbath? Not the high holiday Sabbath or actually two  sabbaths that preceded this one weekly Sabbath on that year only.

Now how do we extrapolate that one date in all of Jewish religious calendar sequence, a calendar that does not repeat itself for some 674,000+ years and find the commonly used calendar we are most familiar with  coming up with one particular Sunday morning every  year,  not  one particular Saturday evening? Guess you could go with the work of The  Greek Orthox Church  and come up with something close.

If you really want to have fun with the subject may I recommend the works of Remy Landau, much of it available at http//:hebrewcalendar.tripod.com and be sure to scroll down and click on additional notes.Then study how the Hebrew calendars have drifts. Also look at the Pesach dating problem, again see Remy Landau at http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-judaic&month=9703&week=a&msg=JV2bjsB4QoQfsgiKQQJzdQ&user=&pw=

Pretty soon into such studies I think we end up with  a possible conclusion for consideration; that God may not really want us having an exact day and annual date as an "anniversary". Perhaps instead He  wishes us to have the memorial of His son  and the joy of His victory in our heart, mind, and soul every day all day.

Edited April 18, 2017 by Neighbor

[Spock]

Thanks for sharing Neighbor.

Are you aware of the Festival, First Fruits?  If so, don't you see the beauty and duo application for both OT and NT? 

Im aware of the Saturday night Sunday morning debate but I was hoping to keep this to First Fruits vs. Easter.  I think most people are aware of how Easter is determined. I put that in my OP if you don't. 

One simple question Neighbor just so I understand - why do you celebrate his resurrection on Easter and not First Fruits, the Sunday after Passover?  Or, why do you celebrate it on Easter? Thanks. 

Edited April 18, 2017 by Spock

[Neighbor]

And yes what do Eggs and rabbits have to do with resurrection of our Lord? 

Lots of stuff there too- But hey, if no one minds their kids playing the part of what  races and chases after eggs, it is okay with me.

As for the rabbits, I guess there is some historical  reference for that tradition. Kind of odd- I don't know if I believe it or whether even the folklure is contrived. The explanation that  real live rabbits bare a second litter long after conception while still carrying the first litter. and that speaks to the virgin birth, well let me see if I can find it online. Here is one version that I had not read before: http://www.catholic.org/lent/story.php?id=67999

Anyway  all fun stuff, don't find it to be a salvation issue anymore than Christmas trees or whatever other offense is to be found in the brothers and sisters in Christ jesus. 

Seems to me our Lord is a whole lot more generous  to us in acknowledging our limitations and counting what we know as faith, than we are to  each other.

 

[Neighbor]

30 minutes ago, Spock said:

Thanks for sharing Neighbor.

Are you aware of the Festival, First Fruits?  If so, don't you see the beauty and duo application for both OT and NT? 

Im aware of the Saturday night Sunday morning debate but I was hoping to keep this to First Fruits vs. Easter.  I think most people are aware of how Easter is determined. I put that in my OP if you don't. 

One simple question Neighbor just so I understand - why do you celebrate his resurrection on Easter and not First Fruits, the Sunday after Passover?  Or, why do you celebrate it on Easter? Thanks. 

Hi again. 
 I had spent several years reading watching listening and studying under the influence of one of the very bright men of the Christian church Zola Levitt. Nothing special on my part, nothing at all. But it sure is for his part! God gave me  the very special privilege of meeting him, having Him speak at a Christian school's Jerusalem Market, and at my local body  of Christ. We then played a round of golf and his wife went antiquing with mine. I share of that for the sole purpose of adding emphasis to the fact that I favor his teaching, and love the teaching of his staff theologian, and am so pleased to have had some exposure to it. I recommend it to anyone and everyone.

 I am not an academic in any sense of the word. I am a janitor. This janitor wishes to share  of Zola's teaching via https://www.levitt.com/essays/first-fruits/

Thanks for the opportunity to praise the servant of God that was Zola.

 

-Pray for the peace of Jerusalem-

Edited April 18, 2017 by Neighbor

[just_abc]

hi Spock

Just a few small notes.

Firstly ..if I am not mistaken.. there is another day for Resurrection Sunday [Easter].  The Orthodox Church or at least some Orthodox Churches celebrate it on a different date than the Protestant churches and Roman Catholics.  I am not sure of the exact date though sorry.

Secondly..  in my country.. when I was growing up.. if I am not mistaken the easter bunny stuff was usually not common among churches [though I am not sure if that is changing or not] .  However eggs on that day were / are  sometimes / often considered or used as a symbol of new life in Christ  {i.e. a symbol of new birth or being born again].  So full boiled eggs with the shells dyed in food colouring a pretty colour etc - might be given out by some churches or be used in sunday school etc perhaps.

So - at least with regard to chicken eggs - it has been used as a symbol by Christians / churches - at least in my country.

Thirdly.. if Christians want to change the day to another date.. that can be done perhaps...  But perhaps something to  keep in mind is that there are many different cultures and religions around the world with different cultural and religious days and sometimes / often different calendars too [ so the date of a particular cultural or religious day might vary from year to year]....

So whichever date in the year that Christians might pick.. there is the possibility that there might also be a non-Christian religious event / day on that particular date.. at some year.

So if the purpose of changing the date is simply to avoid it falling on the same day as a non-Christian religious event / day... that could be very difficult or perhaps even not possible.

 

Just some thoughts that's all.  No offence intended.  Thank you.

 

Edited April 18, 2017 by just_abc

[Your closest friendnt]

In the past about two thousand years, the life was different. 

No print or radios or education and so on. 

The people had a different culture of communicating .

They use symbolic languages. 

And symbols do say a story, instant of books. 

Let's say, how would the people symbolize the redemption that is in the blood of Jesus Christ. that Jesus Christ has die on the Cross and shed his blood for all the people .

So the paint the eggs red, and on resurrection Sunday, after they had selebrated his death on good Friday, they greed one another with the greeting, "CHRIST is risen, is risen indeed", and they have a custom to knock the top or the bottom of the eggs, to see who is the winner. 

Now this is why the have this tradition. 

The egg symbolizes the children of God,  of the blood of Jesus Christ. 

One time we were not the children of God, (white egg), but now we are ( not through any other way , but only through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

God has children through the death of Jesus Christ. 

Now we belong to Jesus Christ. The new covenant has come. 

What else to you want, pretend you live in those times and you have to teach people this part of how people who were not his people before now has become the people of God. Use your own creative story. 

Now how about the rabbit , perhaps the rabbit has something to do. 

It symbolize the evangelist who like the rabbit quickly spread in all directions bringing the good news of the Gospel. 

As a result the children of JESUS quickly multiple, like how the rabbits multiple. 

That's what I could think right now. 

You can also think your own interpretation of these symbols. 

 In the old times , even now if the catch people with red eggs in their homes or in their possession, in a non welcome Christian territory, they prosecute them. 

That's why many were frame by others planting Easter eggs in their homes or goods. 

As a result to protect them selfs, the Christians began to paint artistic eggs. 

From the art on the eggs , you could tell where the person comes from. 

This I figure it from some thing I know from the background coulture. 

Now the Holidays have nothing to do with the pagan celebration. 

It is the same when the Lord gave the Israelites a calendar with their holidays and most of them they were on or about the Egyptian Holidays, so when the people were selebrating the new holiday , the can not partake in the pagan holiday, because was about the say time. 

My own thoughts, and I think they are OK.

[Your closest friendnt]

The rabbits also may symbolize the Christians who live in the Catacombs during the Roman prosecution, and their strong desire to bring the Gospel to others.