False Lent and Pagan Festivals Cont.

By The Late Apostle Bishop S.C. Johnson

Palm Sunday is usually distinguished by the wearing of Palm. They say this is derived from the time when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people spread their garments in the way, and others cut down branches of the trees and strewed them in the way. They went before Him and followed Him crying, "Hosanna; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." Mark 11:8-9.

To show how quickly people can be persuaded to change their minds, some of these people were with the mob, who a few days later cried out, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Yet the people are so deceived as to commemorate something done by murders of Christ by pinning on Palms.

But the Spirit tells us not the outward man but the hidden man of the heart. To those who were baptized in Jesus' name and have the Holy Ghost, palm is not necessary for us to cry Hosanna to the Lord. But the Holy Ghost which is in our souls is crying a constant Hosanna, not only on one Sunday of the year.

One of the earliest references to Friday's being a holiday is found in the Mithraism cult, an off shoot of Zoroastrianism, in Persia during the sixth century, this day was called Black Friday and the story goes that Mithras slew a bull one Friday, subsequently the bull laid in a tomb for three days and supposedly arose on the third day.

The Mithras cult believed that from the blood of this bull sprang forth all life. It was this same pagan cult that was very powerful in Rome before and after the rise of the Catholic organization, The influence of Friday was so strongly felt until the Catholic Church associated it with the death and resurrection of Christ. So then, five days after this day they call Palm Sunday comes a day which the people refer to as "Good Friday."

However, the Bible tells us everything the Lord made was good and Paul, speaking in Colossians, blasts out against keeping of holy days. The world ignored these scriptures and claims the Friday before Easter to be a holy day because they believe Christ was crucified on that day. They say Christ was hung on the cross from 12:00 noon to 3:00 P. M. and was taken down, buried, and arose the third day which they call Easter Sunday.

Have you ever stopped to count the days from Friday to Sunday? Let us count: A part of Friday, one day; Friday night, one night; Saturday, two days; Saturday night, two nights. Now even if we counted Sunday morning as a day, it would still only be three days and two nights.

But, we hear Jesus speaking from Matthew 12:40, "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

This means then that Christ had to be crucified on Thursday to have been in the earth three days and three nights.

It is no use of the world's trying to get around it, there is absolutely no other way for Him to have been in the grave three days and nights unless He was placed in the grave on a Thursday.

The thing that confuse the people, is that the scripture says the day on which Jesus was crucified was the preparation for the Sabbath because it was the day before the Sabbath, Nevertheless, we must remember Paul speaks of Sabbath days. There was the seventh day Sabbath and there were other days of rest observed under the Law, which did not occur on the seventh day and they were called high Sabbaths. It was for one of these such days that the Jews were preparing.  Read More