My Position On Easter

This year 'Easter Sunday' fell on 1st April.  However, I, for one, did not be treat it as a special day, even though I am a Bible-believing Christian! Why not? The Bible is silent about keeping any day to remember or celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! (Human reason almost demands that followers of Jesus celebrate the resurrection anyway but we are not at liberty to worship Him as we see fit. God has told us in His Word how He wants us to worship Him! The choice we have is to worship Him as He has commanded or re-write the Bible as we see fit.) Those who introduced 'Easter' to the Church calendar and the other 'special' days of 'Holy Week' added their own ideas to the Bible. They disobeyed Scripture! (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:6; Rev. 22:19 etc.) That is a BIG mistake to make! This is no minor matter! This subject deserves your full attention!

The Bible tells us after Jesus was dead in the tomb for three days and three nights (ie. a period of 72 hours!), (Matt. 12:40), He rose to (eternal) L-I-F-E, not just the temporary physio-chemical existence we call life! There is a BIG difference! After He rose from the dead, Jesus' body changed into spirit. His earthly body disappeared and, as before His birth to the virgin Mary, He had a body composed of spirit, since He was again fully God and 'God is a spirit' (Jn. 4:24).  We read He appeared to His disciples by just materializing in their midst in a shut room (Jn. 20:19-26)! Following His resurrection, He was a spirit being capable of becoming flesh and bone at will or if He desired, vanishing at will (Lk. 24:31).

Note, the majority who call themselves Christians think the resurrection itself was the sign that Jesus was the Messiah who was prophesied by the the Old Testament prophets - not so! Jesus Himself said, "An evil and an adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah..." (Matt 16:4; 12:39-40). What did Jesus mean by these words?

Jonah was the OT prophet who tried to run away from his mission of preaching a warning message to the fierce vast city of Nineveh. In the book named after him, Jonah ran away in the opposite direction because he 'knew that (You) are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love...' (Jonah 4:2). Jonah had a 'gut feeling' the people of Nineveh would indeed heed his warning message and repent and avoid the total destruction God had planned for this entire vast city. He was right but 'it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry' (4:1). In fact, Jonah was one of the only OT prophets who succeeded in his mission from God. Why he didn't want to succeed is a very interesting study in human nature. Check out the eye-opening article about Jonah by clicking on his name at the beginning of this paragraph. I'm sure you will find it very interesting and enlightening.

Back to the 'sign of Jonah' Jesus mentioned in Matt. 16:4  and 12:40. Jonah got on a ship sailing away from Nineveh so God punished him by causing him to be thrown overboard by the other people on the ship at his suggestion. God caused a huge sea creature to swallow Jonah and for 'three days and three nights' Jonah was in the belly of this creature until he was vomited up near? Nineveh (Jonah 2:1; 10-3:3).  Obviously, Jesus regarded Jonah as a real historical person who was actually in a giant sea creatures' belly for 'three days and three nights'. The sign of Jonah was the length of time he was in 'the belly of the fish'! Jesus said, "Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish" His only sign proving He was the Messiah was that He would spend a similar amount of time in the 'heart of the earth' (ie. the grave) thereby fulfilling the 'sign of Jonah'. It is important to realise the fact of the resurrection itself is not proof of Jesus Messiahship, according to Jesus Himself! If Jesus did not spend three days and three nights in the grave, He must be rejected as the Messiah! It's that serious! Remember, the length of time He would be in the grave would be His only sign! notwithstanding all the other miracles He performed during His public ministry. Jesus did fulfill His sign by rising from the dead as He said (He would) (Matt 28:6; 1 Cor. 15:3-4)!  Jesus provided the proof He promised to convince all open-minded seekers of Truth that He was, and is, the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel (eg. Isa. 12:6), very God (the Son/Word) (Jn. 1:1-3,14). So, if Jesus was not crucified on a Friday and did not rise from the dead on a Sunday, what days did He die and rise on? If we accept He was dead in the tomb for a full 72 hours, virtually to the second! which is my belief, we must check the Gospels to see if we can determine when He was laid in the grave following His six hours on Calvary's Cross, ie. from 9am until 3pm (Cp Matt. 27; Mk. 15:25, 33-37; Lk. 23, esp vs 44-46; Jn 19) on Passover Day, 14th Nisan. We read in John 19:31, the day on which Jesus was crucified 'was the day of preparation' for the Sabbath and 'that Sabbath was a high day'. This is very important information indeed! NB. Every year, according to the Sacred calendar, the Passover is followed by an annual 'high day' Sabbath (Lev. 23:5-7). The day following the crucifixion was the first of the seven annual Sabbaths, not just the weekly Sabbath, although sometimes annual 'high day' Sabbaths do fall on the weekly Sabbath. (Such days are called 'double Sabbaths' and are not too uncommon.) So, was the high day Sabbath that followed Jesus' crucifixion a weekly Sabbath or a weekday Sabbath? The vital clue that will help us answer that question can be found in Luke 23:54-56. We read in v. 54, 'It was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning' when Jesus body was laid in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever been laid' (v 53). So, Jesus' body was placed in the tomb as the preparation day of the high day Sabbath was drawing to its end as the sun was setting. (Throughout the Bible, a day ends and the next day begins at sunset.) Jesus was buried on the Passover Day and the following day, every year, in the spring, is an annual Sabbath called the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Cp. Lev. 23:4-7; 1 Cor 5:7b-8). In verse 8, Paul was clearly commanding the gentile Christian disciples to 'keep the Feast (of Unleavened Bread). ('Therefore, let us keep the Feast', 1 Cor. 5:8, KJV).  Arguing otherwise is to do grave injustice to the inspired text, in my opinion. A careful study of the New Testament verifies all God's annual Sabbaths were observed by the first century disciples that made up the 'Church of God'!  (The annual holy-days listed in Lev. 23 are called 'Feasts of the Lord', not 'Feasts of the Jews' or any other such thing! Consider Gal. 3:28-29.)

From Luke 23, we learn Jesus' body was laid in the tomb at the close of the Passover as the sun set. The high day Sabbath began at sunset as soon as Jesus body was placed in the tomb. This was a mid-week Sabbath, not the weekly 'Lord's Day'! We can see this from vs. 55-56. After Jesus' body was placed in the tomb, 'The women who had come with Him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how His body was laid (v. 55). 'Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments' (to put on Messiah's body after that high day Sabbath. Of necessity, they must have had to wait until after that Sabbath to buy and prepare the spices and ointments. This may have taken them several hours. Then, 'On the (weekly) Sabbath they rested according to the commandment (v. 56). This of course was the weekly Sabbath, sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, which all Jews kept as it was the 4th of the Ten Commandments God gave to His people, the children of Israel, under Moses in the wilderness, following their miraculous release from Egypt (Ex. 1-19; 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-15).

So, we see that Jesus was crucified on the Passover; His body was placed in the new tomb at the close of the Passover as the high day Sabbath following it began at sunset. The day after the annual holy day, the women who were Jesus' faithful companions went out and bought spices and ointments and prepared them to put on Jesus' body to preserve it from decay for as long as possible. The following day was the weekly Sabbath, ie. sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. All righteous Jews' rested on this day also. This shows there were two Sabbaths during the week of Jesus' crucifixion! The following day, 'toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb' (Matt 28:1). By the time they arrived, it was already empty. Verse 5, 'But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. Verse 6, He is not here, for He has risen, as He said".....' So, Jesus was risen before sunrise on Sunday morning ('toward the dawn', v. 1) or 'on the first day of the week, at early dawn..., Lk. 24:1) or 'on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb' (Jn. 20:1). Jesus had been resurrected before sunrise on Sunday morning. So, now we can see that Jesus did indeed spend 72 hours in His tomb. The Passover must have been on Wednesday. Jesus' body laid in the tomb from sunset at the end of that day. His body was in the tomb Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night and daylight hours Thursday, Friday and Saturday so He did indeed spend three days and three nights in the hearth of the earth, just as He said He would. He fulfilled the only sign He gave that He was the Messiah of all those who would believe in Him (Jn. 3:16). He died on a Wednesday and rose from the dead 72 hours later very late Saturday as the sun set. So, the Good Friday-Easter Sunday tradition is unbiblical and a lie!  Those who believe it do not follow the Truth.

That resurrection of Jesus Christ indeed is wonderful news but isn't it strange the Bible does not tell us to keep this day special every year? Instead, Jesus, God in the flesh (Jn. 1:1-14; 20:28), commanded His disciples to remember His death every year on the anniversary of His last Passover  supper (Matt. 26:17-19; Mk. 14:14) and His betrayal soon afterwards in the Garden of Gethsemane (Lk. 22:19b). Jesus, as Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament inspired Solomon to write, 'A good name is better than than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth (Eccl. 7:1). That's why He inspired King David, a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22) to write, 'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints' (Ps. 116:15). This is just one example of how our ways are not God's ways (Isa. 55:9). God is not very interested in the day of our birth; He is much more concerned with the day of our death whereas we are preoccupied with our birthdays and try not to think of the day on which we will die. This brings to mind the saying, It's not where you begin but where you end that counts.

In conclusion, I only observe days the Scriptures commands us to keep. God does not command us to observe nearly all the days religious people keep. God does not require or want His people to observe  'Ash Wednesday', 'Lent', 'Palm Sunday', 'Good Friday', 'Easter Sunday' and others besides. They are not commanded to be observed in the Bible. Therefore, we are adding to Scripture if we decide to keep them without God's instructions. Rest assured, He did not forget to command us to keep any of them! There is enough we are commanded to observe in God's Word; we don't need to add more so-called 'holy days' that God hasn't commanded us to keep! Our duty is to observe the days (and laws) He has commanded us to keep. That is why, every spring, I observe the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, treating the 1st and 7th days as holy annual high-day Sabbaths.

Much of what you have just read above may be very new to you. Hopefully, you will want to do more reading and research on this important subject. I enclose some useful links that will help you see where the vast majority of Christians have gone astray from the Bible.


was Jesus executed on good friday or a wednesday?

read this about easter

resurrection connection

true origin of easter

resurrection not on sunday