Another Letter to the Editor

The Effingham Daily News published the following Letter to the Editor in Saturday's edition:

Cardboard Christians

Easter. The churches are celebrating Easter this weekend, four weeks before God said to celebrate it. Once again, the church is following the doctrines of men rather than the commands of God. Passover is always on the 15th day of the first month of Nissan, that is Sunday, April 20, this year. Easter, the Feast of First Fruits,” begins that evening. The religious will say, what’s the difference? It’s a big difference to God. Yeshua (Jesus) tells the church leaders in Matt. 15:3, “And why do you yourselves reject the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” He goes on to say in verses 7-9, “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. For they worship me in vain, rejecting God’s commands and replacing them with the doctrines of men.”

The Lord says in John 4:23, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers.”

God said through His prophet Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Churches, now you know, so if you continue to follow the doctrines of men rather than the commands of God, you are knowingly and willingly disobeying God. The choice is yours. These are not my words, I am only repeating God’s words. At the Messiah Training Center, we are dedicated to teaching the way, the truth and the life as the Lord taught His disciples, teaching the “SECRETS” of the Kingdom of God. We welcome all questions and comments. You can contact us at therevelationarythevoiceofthelord@hotmail.com.

You'll recall that I've addressed similar questions here. My reply to this particular letter follows:

The Date of Easter

In a recent letter to the Effingham Daily News published 21 March 2008, Mr. N. incorrectly suggests Easter is celebrated “four weeks before God said to celebrate it” and that “the church is following the doctrines of men rather the commands of God.”

In the first few centuries Easter was celebrated the day after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, close to the celebration of Passover but not coinciding with it, following the lunar calendar of Judaism. The presence of the full moon on this night was seen as symbolic of Christ, the light of the world, whom the darkness has not overcome (see John 8:12 and 1:5).

Naturally, the fourteenth of Nisan usually fell on a weekday. This bothered some who knew that the tomb in which Jesus was laid was found empty “on the first day of the week” (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).

The first day of the week is the day we know as Sunday, the day on which we celebrate Easter, following a decision of the Church in a.d. 325, which in no way contradicts Scripture, but sought the unity of Christians in the celebration of the Resurrection.

Furthermore, the year that Jesus died, the Passover occurred on a Friday (see Matthew 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54 and John 19:31). Jesus rose from the dead – according to the Jewish way of reckoning a day beginning at sunset – on Sunday. Therefore the celebration of Easter is not the same as Passover but is its fulfillment for “our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed” (I Corinthians 5:7).

When Jesus condemns the Pharisees – not the “church leaders” as Mr. N. claims – he is not speaking of the celebration of Passover or of Easter but of the practice of claiming to give all of one’s property to the Temple to avoid caring for elderly parents (see Matthew 15:5-9; Exodus 20:12, 21:17; and Deuteronomy 5:16).

The Messiah Training Center purports to teach the “secrets” of the Kingdom of God. Whatever these “secrets” may be, they should be viewed with great suspicion for Jesus says: “I have spoken publicly to the world…and in secret I have said nothing” (John 18:20). Before attempting to discover hidden knowledge historic fact should be sought.

I'm not sure what a "cardboard" Christian is or what it has to do with anything in the letter, but I'll leave that alone.

This Mr. N. is not the same as the last Mr. N., but I suspect they are connected.