Daily Bible Portion (Sunday)
Daily Bible Portion – 1 of 7
"PASSOVER - UNLEAVENED BREAD"
(And the History of Easter)
(Weekly Reading>>Exodus 13:17-15:26, Numbers 28:19-25, 2 Samuel 22:1-51, John 19:38 to 20:23, Acts 1)
Have you wondered what happened to the early Hebrew followers of Christ's day and how the Christian church came into being? Or how the Sabbath and God's Feast Days disappeared from the church creed? Taking a look into the history of the church background reveals how this came about and why through most of history the Christian church never fully embraced the Feast of Passover or the other Scripturally appointed Feast Days of God.
History
(The Bar Kokhba Revolt)
Between 132 – 135 CE a Jewish leader, Simon bar Kokhba, the commander of the Jewish army, led a revolt against the Romans in Jerusalem. Prior to this event, the Rabbinical authority deposed the long standing Levitical Kohath lineage of Zadok priests. Led by Rabbi Akiba many of these false religious leaders proclaimed Kokhba (Kokva) as the Messiah. This Rabbinic authority then became the principal spiritual rule over Jerusalem, overriding God's Kingdom instruction and priesthood. During the revolt, the Jews failed in their attempt to secure Jerusalem from the Romans. So serious was their defeat that for the first time in history all Jews were barred from Jerusalem. In Judea and Samaria most of the Jewish population had either been killed or carried off into slavery by the victorious Romans. Simon bar Kokhba, the rabbinical choice for Messiah, turned out to be a false messiah.
Up until this event the religious leaders of Jerusalem had all been Levities from the Kohath tribe. After the Bar Kokhba uprising the Roman Empire forbade all biblical observances of the Feasts among the Jews. Jewish Rabbi's were killed and replaced with gentile pagan leaders called bishops. These gentile bishops and their followers naturally began thinking of themselves as having replaced the Jews, which laid the foundation for a man-made doctrine called "replacement"(displacement) theology. These bishops brought with them a mix of pagan beliefs from the Roman/Greek mythology; thus syncretism (mixing pagan beliefs with God's word/Torah) became acceptable and began to root itself among the assemblies(ekklesia) at the time. With the advent of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the 'old' Hebrew texts, the Greek gospel grew to become the religion of choice across the Greek believing world. This new religion far outweighed the truth and intent of the original Hebrew gospel that Yeshua preached, thus the Greek gospel had a new look (Jesus) and a new following called Christianity.
Early Church Fathers:
(Marcion, Origen, Eusebius and Constantine – History Explored)
Marcion - The Heretic
Marcion was reportedly a wealthy ship owner who arrived in Rome in 140 CE soon after the Bar Kokhba revolt. Marcion's teaching introduced a two-deity principle where the Hebrew God of the Old Testament was a wrathful God and lower in status and power than the God of Jesus and Paul in the New Testament. Even though Marcion was declared a heretic by the church at the time, his teachings lived on, flaming anti-Semitism and eventually influencing the translation of the King James Bible. His teachings became mainstream and are found in the church even to this day.
continues tomorrow...
"PASSOVER - UNLEAVENED BREAD"
(And the History of Easter)
(Weekly Reading>>Exodus 13:17-15:26, Numbers 28:19-25, 2 Samuel 22:1-51, John 19:38 to 20:23, Acts 1)
Have you wondered what happened to the early Hebrew followers of Christ's day and how the Christian church came into being? Or how the Sabbath and God's Feast Days disappeared from the church creed? Taking a look into the history of the church background reveals how this came about and why through most of history the Christian church never fully embraced the Feast of Passover or the other Scripturally appointed Feast Days of God.
Leviticus 23: 4-8, 21 "These are Yahweh's appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: Yahweh's Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month Yahweh's Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For seven days present an offering made to Yahweh by fire. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.'"
History
(The Bar Kokhba Revolt)
Between 132 – 135 CE a Jewish leader, Simon bar Kokhba, the commander of the Jewish army, led a revolt against the Romans in Jerusalem. Prior to this event, the Rabbinical authority deposed the long standing Levitical Kohath lineage of Zadok priests. Led by Rabbi Akiba many of these false religious leaders proclaimed Kokhba (Kokva) as the Messiah. This Rabbinic authority then became the principal spiritual rule over Jerusalem, overriding God's Kingdom instruction and priesthood. During the revolt, the Jews failed in their attempt to secure Jerusalem from the Romans. So serious was their defeat that for the first time in history all Jews were barred from Jerusalem. In Judea and Samaria most of the Jewish population had either been killed or carried off into slavery by the victorious Romans. Simon bar Kokhba, the rabbinical choice for Messiah, turned out to be a false messiah.
Up until this event the religious leaders of Jerusalem had all been Levities from the Kohath tribe. After the Bar Kokhba uprising the Roman Empire forbade all biblical observances of the Feasts among the Jews. Jewish Rabbi's were killed and replaced with gentile pagan leaders called bishops. These gentile bishops and their followers naturally began thinking of themselves as having replaced the Jews, which laid the foundation for a man-made doctrine called "replacement"(displacement) theology. These bishops brought with them a mix of pagan beliefs from the Roman/Greek mythology; thus syncretism (mixing pagan beliefs with God's word/Torah) became acceptable and began to root itself among the assemblies(ekklesia) at the time. With the advent of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the 'old' Hebrew texts, the Greek gospel grew to become the religion of choice across the Greek believing world. This new religion far outweighed the truth and intent of the original Hebrew gospel that Yeshua preached, thus the Greek gospel had a new look (Jesus) and a new following called Christianity.
Early Church Fathers:
(Marcion, Origen, Eusebius and Constantine – History Explored)
Marcion - The Heretic
Marcion was reportedly a wealthy ship owner who arrived in Rome in 140 CE soon after the Bar Kokhba revolt. Marcion's teaching introduced a two-deity principle where the Hebrew God of the Old Testament was a wrathful God and lower in status and power than the God of Jesus and Paul in the New Testament. Even though Marcion was declared a heretic by the church at the time, his teachings lived on, flaming anti-Semitism and eventually influencing the translation of the King James Bible. His teachings became mainstream and are found in the church even to this day.
continues tomorrow...