"A righteous man falling down before the wicked, is a troubled well and a corrupt spring."

Pr 25

The second Passover is recorded this way; Numbers 9:4 — 5, “So Moses told the Israelites to observe the Passover, and they did so in the Wilderness of Sinai, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.”

QUARTODECIMISM

One of the oldest and longest running controversies in Christianity was (and still is - though little known today) the Quartodeciman Controversy. It is older than the initial arguments for trinitarianism, older than the the notion of “church”, older even than Arianism.

And the Quartodeciman Controversy carried on for over 200 years until the very same ecumenical council which is known for having crushed the aforementioned form of Christianity aswell, also dead ended this biblical practice.

The Council of Nicaea settled a number of matters by democratic vote, the popular demand of the West against the East, and that in extreme ignorance of Hebraic matters and with a bias toward Greco-Roman norms.

Quartodecimism believed (believes) that the Passover should be celebrated on the 14th day of the first month of the new year, as was practiced in the East, as ever it had been done since the beginning, and as the Scriptures command it must be.

Contrariwise, Western Christendom held to several different traditions but predominantly celebrating Passover on whatever Sunday followed the 14th day.

Until AD 325 it was debated which manner of behavior was proper practice, but despite what your modern Christian pastor may say on Sunday in church, it was not a settled issue until the time of Constantine, nor even a very serious issue until the Emperor brought it to the forefront demanding uniformity in Christianity.

And so as part of the purpose of bishops’ gathering at Nicaea, the official Christian position was to settle this matter aswell as many others the believers were diverging over.

Thereafter as so often happens the majority not only dictates to the minority what they should do, but in time the dominant party begins to demand of the lesser group what they must do aswell and soon after to command what they will do too…or else!

And this was no different with Christendom from Nicaea onward. The Passover was officially moved by the authority of the council to the first Sunday following the “Jewish Passover”. (Eventually the date would come to be settled as the “first Sunday following the full moon that falls on or after the vernal equinox”. But that’s much later.)

The decision was never made based on Biblical practice or original intent or the need for obedience. The bishops were not set upon maintaining behavior like the Savior or His disciples or any of the first century sect. The goal was never to try to do what is right, to be pleasing to the Heavenly Father, or to hold to the truth.

Instead the decision of the council was entirely focused upon being different from the Jews.

Under the assumption that the Passover as commanded in Scripture to be remembered on the 14th day of the first month of the year, was a Jewish practice, as opposed to simply the biblical commandment, the council opposed it. And they ruled that any who continued in obedience to the biblical commandment were Judaizing and therefore heretical.

In the begining these were deemed merely divergent and shamed by the rest of nominal Christendom that declared differently. But eventually that disapproval became disgust and disdain and demanding destruction of the “other”. Quartodecimism was outlawed on pain of death in the worst way and thus driven underground or out of the reach of the Roman Empire, which was fast becoming the Catholic Church.

So what are you doing this passover season? Are you following blindly the lies of long ago and later replacements, or are you getting back to the basics long branded baleful by biased bishops and cowardly councils?

Question Everything

Get Biblical

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Thought for Today: Sunday April 06

Think of it this way today: A glove is formed in the image of the hand. When the hand is inside the glove, it serves a purpose. Without the hand, the glove is nothing. The same is with us humans – We are formed in the image of YHVH. When YHVH is in us, we serve a purpose but without YHVH, we are nothing, useless – only fit to be in the furnace.

The preacher was wired for sound with a lapel mike, and as he preached, he moved briskly about the platform, jerking the mike cord as he went. Then he moved to one side, getting wound up in the cord and nearly tripping before jerking it again. After several circles and jerks, a little girl in the third pew leaned toward her mother and whispered, "If he gets loose, will he hurt us?"

It was a cold winter day, when an old man walked out onto a frozen lake, cut a hole in the ice, dropped in his fishing line and began waiting for a fish to bite.

He was there for almost an hour without even a nibble when a young boy walked out onto the ice, cut a hole in the ice not to far from the old man and dropped in his fishing line.

It only took about a minute and WHAM! a Largemouth Bass hit his hook and the boy pulled in the fish. The old man couldn't believe it but figured it was just luck.

But, the boy dropped in his line and again within just a few minutes pulled in another one. This went on and on until finally the old man couldn't take it any more since he hadn't caught a thing all this time.

He went to the boy and said, "Son, I've been here for over an hour without even a nibble. You have been here only a few minutes and have caught about half a dozen fish! How do you do it?" The boy responded, "Roo raf roo reep ra rums rrarm." "What was that?" the old man asked.

Again the boy responded, "Roo raf roo reep ra rums rarrm." "Look," said the old man, "I can't understand a word you are saying." So, the boy spit a glob into his hand and said,

"You have to keep the worms warm!"

An elderly gentleman had serious hearing
problems for a number of years.

He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to
have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that
allowed the gentleman to hear 100%. The elderly
gentleman went back in a month to the doctor
and the doctor said, "your hearing is perfect.
Your family must be really pleased you can hear
again."

To which the gentleman said, "Oh, I haven't told
my family yet. I just sit around and listen to
the conversations. I've changed my will three
times!"

Irving Benson & Jessie Carter were married on Oct 24 in the church.
So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again,"
giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be
"What Is Hell?"
Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM. Please use the large
double door at the side entrance.

"As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun."

Ps 58