“Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (John 19:31).
Most people today would see the word Sabbath and assume this means Saturday, since the regular weekly Sabbath day taught in the Bible is from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. But most miss the fact that John called it a “high day.” What did he mean? Let’s quickly go back to Leviticus 23. What comes right after the Passover (the 14th)? “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it” (Leviticus 23:6-7).
This First Day of Unleavened Bread
This First Day of Unleavened Bread was an annual Sabbath day—a high day. And it doesn’t always fall on Saturday. So the logical explanation is that Christ was exactly right about the three days and three nights. People today are just confused about when He died and was resurrected. It couldn’t have been on a Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.
The accompanying chart shows the math that works—the chronology of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection that matches the biblical festivals and confirms the only sign Jesus said He would give! How did we get Good Friday and Easter Sunday customs?
If Jesus and the apostles celebrated the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, how did the Christian world today come to have the nonbiblical customs and celebrations of Good Friday and Easter Sunday?
The Spread of a new Christian religion
As the new Christian religion spread, it met persecution and faced new ideas from within and without. Over the decades, fragmentation and doctrinal drift occurred. For many, the teachings of the Bible began to take a backseat to the desire to avoid persecution or to win new converts. The apostles warned of these trends even in the first century.
Historian Will Durant explained the fragmentation of Christianity as various beliefs were being absorbed. “Faced with the hostility of a powerful government, the Church felt the need of unity; it could not safely allow itself to be divided into a hundred feeble parts by every wind of intellect, by disloyal heretics, ecstatic prophets, or brilliant sons. Celsus himself had sarcastically observed that Christians were ‘split up into ever so many factions, each individual desiring to have his own party.’ About 187 Irenaeus 17
listed twenty varieties of Christianity; about 384 Epiphanius counted eighty. At every point foreign ideas were creeping into Christian belief, and Christian believers were deserting to novel sects” (The Story of Civilization, Vol. III, 1944, p. 616).
New Testament Passover
Dr. Durant explains that a controversy arose between the Eastern churches that were still observing the New Testament Passover on the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar, and the Western churches who had adopted a Sunday date for what later became known as Easter. “Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, visiting Rome about 156, tried and failed to persuade Anicetus, Bishop of Rome, to have the Eastern date [the biblical date] observed in the West; and on his return he rejected the Pope’s suggestion that the Eastern churches should accept the Western date” (ibid., p. 617).
The Roman church and its pope grew in power, absorbing elements of the Roman Empire. “As Judea had given Christianity ethics, and Greece had given it theology, so now Rome gave it organization; all these, with a dozen absorbed and rival faiths, entered into the Christian synthesis” (ibid., p. 618). Dr. Durant explained that the church “took over some religious customs and forms common in pre-Christian Rome .”
The Emperor Constantine
By the fourth century, Emperor Constantine saw the church as a political ally he could exploit if he could unify it. Though not then claiming to be a Christian himself, he called the Council of Nicea in 325 and presided over it to restore unity. One of the decisions of this council was that all churches must celebrate Easter Sunday. Those who were faithful to the biblical command had to flee.
As the government-recognized church spread through Europe, the Easter celebration began to evolve. Often new converts remained attached to their pre-Christian religious practices, which then became connected with the Easter celebration. “Around the Christian observance of Easter … folk customs have collected, many of which have been handed down from the ancient ceremonial and symbolism of European and Middle Eastern pagan spring festivals brought into relation with the resurrection theme” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, article “Easter”).
Vain they worship Me
That’s how pagan fertility symbols like the rabbit and eggs became connected with Easter. Even the name itself seems to come from Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. Many would be shocked to know the Easter bunnies and colored eggs they share with their little children were connected to pagan fertility rites. Others 18 FROM HOLIDAYS TO HOLY DAYS will just see this as quaint, and the cleaned up paganism as acceptable when used to honor Jesus Christ. But is God pleased when pagan customs are appropriated to worship Him? “And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men,” Jesus said (Matthew 15:9).
God has always wanted us to serve Him in the way He wants to be worshipped. He inspired this strong command to not follow the religious customs of the pagans: “Do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way” (Deuteronomy 12:30-31). 88888 Easter became the most important holiday of the Christian calendar in spite of the fact it is not commanded in the Bible. In fact, its pagan customs are condemned in the Bible. Christians are commanded to observe Christ’s death each year, but nowhere commanded to celebrate His resurrection
