I didn't come to believe in the Lord as my hope for salvation from out of any “traditional” church. As a matter of fact, my background was that of a, very militant against Christianity, agnostic. I had spent a lot of my time debunking the veracity of the scriptures.
Some of the most fertile ground for arguments put forth by agnostics and atheists against the dependability of the scriptures is found in the gospel accounts concerning the events of “Passion Week”.
More than one critic has said that the accounts of that time period as presented in the various gospels are so rife with contradictions that they should cause any Bible believer to reexamine his faith in Jesus Christ as their savor. I found that to be true and I exploited it to the best of my “evil” ability as a skeptic. I found, as have most critical skeptics, that few if any Christians were prepared to defend their traditional belief concerning the events of Easter or even the dependability of the scriptures in general.
After my rather radical conversion to a belief in the Lord as my savor – I determined not to be among the many Christians who simply winked at the contradictions and inaccuracies of tradition when compared to the scriptures. I determined (with a rather “Berean” attitude IMO) to either get these things straight to the best of my ability or not to teach that the scriptures were an infallible guide for our life and faith.
I have been a very active teacher of the Word of God now for many decades (I’m over 70 now). I have always endeavored to teach about the events of Easter accurately whenever they came to be discussed – usually in the Easter season.. It seems that it is more likely the younger believers in God’s Word who have the most difficulty with the traditions of Easter. The longer one has been active in the practice of “traditions” it seems the more difficult it is to get them to question their traditions.
This is not often the case with children and young people in general. It doesn’t give them much pause at all to question authority. Rather – they seem to relish it. I made the mistake of saying in a previous thread that even a child could see that Christ wasn’t crucified on Friday. Apparently that was a little too strong of a statement and I took some heat for it. Nevertheless – after teaching Bible to both children and adults for a great many decades now – I find that it is the children who question the error of the Friday crucifixion almost every Easter time.
I make it a point not to bring these controversies up at Easter time unless appropriate to do so. But when it does come up(or when I’m involved in a forum like this) I am not reluctant at all to do so.
I go to church myself at Easter and participate in many of the various traditions (including Good Friday celebrations) usually without complaint. But in my own life and the life of my family we know and teach the differences between what the scriptures teach and the various errors of tradition.
But I have been a teaching elder in the church for a long time now and many people have come to celebrate traditions with a more skeptical eye toward tradition as do I.
A great many churches around the world have corrected these errors of tradition as well. Most of them (understandably) are of the Bible believing, evangelical, Protestant variety.
Understandably it is the believers who have vested a lot in the authority of the leaders of their churches who have resisted correction concerning their traditions. That is often the rather “liturgical” minded churches.
Well – with that background out of the way – I will list just a few of the areas where traditions have strayed away from scriptural accuracy.
The first step in seeing them is usually to question the so called “Good Friday” crucifixion. I have found that it is here where most people who want to believe the scriptures have a question. Sad to say - their questions are not often addressed properly. As a result of this inability of their teachers to address the problem properly they just forget all about it and go on to be persons who simply ignore the supposed “errors” found in the gospel accounts.
I suppose it depends on the individual exactly how that effects their faith in the Word of God over the years. But I suspect that it is at least a subconscious reason for the lack of faith we often encounter when it comes to standing on the Word of God.
Some ways that a “scripture based” tradition celebration of the events of Easter vary from many other traditions follow.
Christ was resurrected on “Saturday” evening and not on Sunday morning.
Good Friday is really Good Wednesday.
Palm Sunday is really Palm Saturday.
The Last Supper eaten by Christ and His disciples was not the “Passover” meal where the Passover lamb was eaten.
The day after the crucifixion was not the Saturday Sabbath- but the Passover Sabbath – one of 7 “high” Sabbaths celebrated by the Jews.
The rather obvious, so called, errors in the gospel accounts concerning the buying and the preparation of the spices for the anointing on Sunday morning are not errors at all – simply to be winked at and ignored as believers whistle through the grave yard of the apparent “contradictions “ in the gospels accounts.
The events of Easter Week are in reality a very concise and detailed fulfillment of the type of the Passover and the Exodus with the crossing of the Red Sea and the open show of Pharaoh etc. as found in Exodus 12-14; Leviticus 23 and such.
This prophecy – in particular when combined with the ones concerning the suffering Messiah as found in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Isaiah – is the most fantastic prophecy imaginable. Unfortunately it’s significance is usually missed because of a less then scripture based celebration of various traditions by the church.
It's difficult to keep an OP like this short. But I tried.
There’s a lot more detailed discussion to be had concerning Easter tradition errors of course - but I don’t know how willing people here are to work through these things.
Some of the most fertile ground for arguments put forth by agnostics and atheists against the dependability of the scriptures is found in the gospel accounts concerning the events of “Passion Week”.
More than one critic has said that the accounts of that time period as presented in the various gospels are so rife with contradictions that they should cause any Bible believer to reexamine his faith in Jesus Christ as their savor. I found that to be true and I exploited it to the best of my “evil” ability as a skeptic. I found, as have most critical skeptics, that few if any Christians were prepared to defend their traditional belief concerning the events of Easter or even the dependability of the scriptures in general.
After my rather radical conversion to a belief in the Lord as my savor – I determined not to be among the many Christians who simply winked at the contradictions and inaccuracies of tradition when compared to the scriptures. I determined (with a rather “Berean” attitude IMO) to either get these things straight to the best of my ability or not to teach that the scriptures were an infallible guide for our life and faith.
I have been a very active teacher of the Word of God now for many decades (I’m over 70 now). I have always endeavored to teach about the events of Easter accurately whenever they came to be discussed – usually in the Easter season.. It seems that it is more likely the younger believers in God’s Word who have the most difficulty with the traditions of Easter. The longer one has been active in the practice of “traditions” it seems the more difficult it is to get them to question their traditions.
This is not often the case with children and young people in general. It doesn’t give them much pause at all to question authority. Rather – they seem to relish it. I made the mistake of saying in a previous thread that even a child could see that Christ wasn’t crucified on Friday. Apparently that was a little too strong of a statement and I took some heat for it. Nevertheless – after teaching Bible to both children and adults for a great many decades now – I find that it is the children who question the error of the Friday crucifixion almost every Easter time.
I make it a point not to bring these controversies up at Easter time unless appropriate to do so. But when it does come up(or when I’m involved in a forum like this) I am not reluctant at all to do so.
I go to church myself at Easter and participate in many of the various traditions (including Good Friday celebrations) usually without complaint. But in my own life and the life of my family we know and teach the differences between what the scriptures teach and the various errors of tradition.
But I have been a teaching elder in the church for a long time now and many people have come to celebrate traditions with a more skeptical eye toward tradition as do I.
A great many churches around the world have corrected these errors of tradition as well. Most of them (understandably) are of the Bible believing, evangelical, Protestant variety.
Understandably it is the believers who have vested a lot in the authority of the leaders of their churches who have resisted correction concerning their traditions. That is often the rather “liturgical” minded churches.
Well – with that background out of the way – I will list just a few of the areas where traditions have strayed away from scriptural accuracy.
The first step in seeing them is usually to question the so called “Good Friday” crucifixion. I have found that it is here where most people who want to believe the scriptures have a question. Sad to say - their questions are not often addressed properly. As a result of this inability of their teachers to address the problem properly they just forget all about it and go on to be persons who simply ignore the supposed “errors” found in the gospel accounts.
I suppose it depends on the individual exactly how that effects their faith in the Word of God over the years. But I suspect that it is at least a subconscious reason for the lack of faith we often encounter when it comes to standing on the Word of God.
Some ways that a “scripture based” tradition celebration of the events of Easter vary from many other traditions follow.
Christ was resurrected on “Saturday” evening and not on Sunday morning.
Good Friday is really Good Wednesday.
Palm Sunday is really Palm Saturday.
The Last Supper eaten by Christ and His disciples was not the “Passover” meal where the Passover lamb was eaten.
The day after the crucifixion was not the Saturday Sabbath- but the Passover Sabbath – one of 7 “high” Sabbaths celebrated by the Jews.
The rather obvious, so called, errors in the gospel accounts concerning the buying and the preparation of the spices for the anointing on Sunday morning are not errors at all – simply to be winked at and ignored as believers whistle through the grave yard of the apparent “contradictions “ in the gospels accounts.
The events of Easter Week are in reality a very concise and detailed fulfillment of the type of the Passover and the Exodus with the crossing of the Red Sea and the open show of Pharaoh etc. as found in Exodus 12-14; Leviticus 23 and such.
This prophecy – in particular when combined with the ones concerning the suffering Messiah as found in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Isaiah – is the most fantastic prophecy imaginable. Unfortunately it’s significance is usually missed because of a less then scripture based celebration of various traditions by the church.
It's difficult to keep an OP like this short. But I tried.
There’s a lot more detailed discussion to be had concerning Easter tradition errors of course - but I don’t know how willing people here are to work through these things.
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