Traditions of men cont’d:
We continue our examination of traditions in present day Christianity.
Good Friday: It is commonly believed that Messiah was crucified on a Friday and was resurrected on a Sunday. That means he was in the grave for a part of Friday, a full day on Saturday and a part of Sunday. This does not make it three days and three nights as prophesied (Matt.12:40, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" ). If Messiah was in the tomb from Friday evening to Sunday morning, then this prophesy is not fulfilled and we make him a liar.

The Gospels tell us that on the evening before Jesus was condemned and crucified, He kept the Passover with His disciples (Matthew 26:19-20; Mark 14:16-17; Luke 22:13-15).  In 31 A.D. which was the year he was crucified, the Passover meal was eaten on Tuesday night and Wednesday sundown marked the beginning of the "high day," the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Messiah then, was crucified and entombed on a Wednesday afternoon, not on Friday. Wednesday from sunset was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was a Sabbath (Lev.23:6-7).

 Luke 23:55-56: "And the women who had come with [Christ] from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment." So they bought the spices after the Sabbath, and then they prepared the spices before resting on the Sabbath. We can clearly see that two different Sabbaths are mentioned along with a workday in between. The first Sabbath was a "high day"—the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which fell on a Thursday. The second was the weekly seventh-day Sabbath. John 20:1, as noted earlier, tells us that "on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb." Because counting three days and three nights from Wednesday sunset, we come to Saturday sunset, which is when He rose again, and not on Sunday morning!
The key to understanding this is to study the feast days in the Old Testament.

Easter: In his book The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop explained, “Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing.” The Bible records in Genesis that Nimrod, also known as Tammuz or Baal, was the founding father and builder of Babylon. His mother-wife, Semiramis, also called Ishtar, was Babylon’s first queen. She was worshipped as a goddess. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven… Each year citizens in pagan nations celebrated her son’s death and resurrection during spring.  Easter, with all its pagan customs, replaced Passover.  Constantine summoned the council of Nicaea in 325. The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and ‘that none should hereafter follow the blindness of the Jews’…”
Easter Sunday was the spring festival of Ishtar or Astarte. The Easter sunrise service was originally known to the sun worshippers as well as worshippers of the false god Baal. (Ezek.8: 16)
                                                
All Souls’ Day: All Souls’ Day, also known as “Commemoration of All Faithful Departed” is basically a Roman Catholic tradition. Praying for the dead is a documented practice in Christianity of the early centuries. The origins of All Souls’ Day in the church can be traced back to the ancient Roman custom of ‘Lemuria’. During this feast, the ancient Romans held rites to get rid of bad and fearful ghosts from their homes. The commemoration of saints existed in the early Catholic church and slowly a day for commemorating the dead also was started. 2nd November as the date for All Souls’ Day was first popularized during the eleventh century. This day also reflects the idea of purgatory. Ringing bells was meant to comfort the dead in purgatory, while lighting candles was meant to bring light to the dead suffering in purgatory. After the Reformation, the Protestant church could not completely shake away the traditions that Christians had followed for hundreds of years. Thus All Souls’ Day has continued into the Protestant churches along with many other customs. These days we find pastors in full attendance in the cemeteries on 2nd November, ready to pray for the dead who have turned to dust, instead of praying for the living who still have a hope of salvation if they repent and turn to Yahweh. The dead have lived their lives and no amount of prayers can change the judgment that is in store for them.

Millions of Christians believe that their pastors are leading them into the truth not knowing that the pastors themselves were misled. They observe all these man made customs without stopping and thinking why they do so. ‘In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men”. Our Saviour, while he lived on this earth in human form, spoke against the traditions of men. Thousands of preachers daily speak in flowery language what they believe is the truth. Paul warned in2 Cor.11:14-15,’ And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.’

If we seriously study the Bible we will know for ourselves the truth and the truth will set us free from these man made traditions. May Yahweh give us all the gift of discerning of spirits (1 Cor.12:10).

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