RUSSELL SANDERS
4-2-2021
DANIEL THE PROPHET – LESSON 10
SATAN’S DECEPTION – PART 1
Yesterday we saw from Daniel 10:13, 20 about the warfare waged by Satan and his huge army of demons against God’s people. The demon, “Prince of Persia” and the demon “kings” who fight for him had delayed God’s answer to Daniel.
Now I wish for us to consider Satan’s overall “battle plan” against mankind, especially those who are Christian or Jew.
Satan’s ultimate aim is to deceive us. We are now in a period of “Christian Holiday Celebration” this week. Today, April 2, of 2021 is called “Good Friday” to highlight Jesus’ crucifixion. Sunday, April 4 is called “Easter” to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection to life which brings us “new life” in Him. This whole Christian “Spring Holiday” season was part of Satan’s plan of deception that he perpetrated.
Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian under the Church of Rome in 313 A.D. The pagan Romans and their subjects had several holidays where no work was to be done. The Christians would not observe those holidays and that created conflict. In fact, Christians had no holidays that were unique to them. Constantine set about to remedy that.
By calling church councils with the Pope of Rome and other Christian leaders, he set about to codify Christian doctrine and establish Christian holidays. The first such council was the Nicene Council (325-327 A.D.) followed by another one a few years later.
Three holidays were established: Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter. Since today is the traditional Good Friday, we shall look at it first. Tomorrow we will tackle Easter.
The mood of the Roman Church was very anti-Semitic. They hated Jews and called them “Christ killers.” They did not want their new holidays to be associated in any way with Judaism. This led them to totally disregard scripture. This resulted in establishing Friday as the day of crucifixion and Sunday as the day of resurrection. It would always be a Friday-Sunday event every year.
First of all, it all moves around Passover which is the 14th of Adar on the biblical calendar given by God to the Jews. It appears on a different day each year, not on the same day of the week. The bible is ignored. Jewish tradition (biblically based) is ignored.
Also ignored is that Jesus (by His own words) had to be in the grave three full days and three full nights. You cannot get that from a 3 p.m. Friday crucifixion and an early Sunday morning (Saturday night) resurrection.
The fact is that Jesus was crucified on the “Day of Preparation” when the Passover lamb is slain. This was a Wednesday. He was then placed in the tomb as the sun was going down that evening, which began Passover on a Thursday. The next day was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a high holy Sabbath on Friday. The third day, Saturday (sundown on our Friday to sundown Saturday) was the regular weekly Sabbath. That completed His 3 days and 3 nights. Following sundown Saturday, He rose from the grave. The first day of the week, Sunday, began at sundown on our Saturday.
Therefore, the Roman church was deceived by not understanding scripture. But the greater deception relates to Easter which we will see tomorrow.
I have no problem with anyone celebrating Good Friday and Easter. I just want folks to understand what they are celebrating and how it came about that way.
Commemorating Christ’s death and resurrection is a good thing. Let us just understand it better. Jesus’ death and burial are all about becoming our personal “Passover lamb” to redeem us from the bondage of sin and death.
Good Friday is a myth. Passover is real. Passover this year was last Sunday, March 28, 2021. It changes every year.
