Most important day in Christian year

The Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What is the most important day in the Christian year? 
Ask the average person in the United States and chances are you will hear

Christmas.

But in the early centuries of the church, first they remembered the Last Supper and the gathering for the remembrance of the exodus out of Egypt. In later years several Christians started to put the accent on the day of the resurrection, finding that more important than the Egyptian exodus.

Some may think that

From its earliest days, the church annually celebrated the anniversary of Jesus' resurrection, often calling the holiday the Christian Passover. (The Greek name for Passover was Pasch, so Easter is sometimes called Paschal; Easter is an English word... Read More

but that was not at all the case. Eostre feast or Easter was the pagan Spring festival, very popular in the West of Israel, and the Roman Empire.

The real followers of rabbi Jeshua, very well knew that God had ordered to yearly remember the exodus of God's people out of Egypt. They kept to the same Jewish remembrance day as the Jews, for years, until there came division by those who agreed to go with the Roman requirement to integrate the Roman pagan gods in their religion, starting the trinitarian Catholic Church.

Though not all members of "the Way", like the Jewish sect was often called, agreed to accept that human doctrine of a three-headed god and to let their holy days to coincide with the Greek-Roman pagan festivals. The true Christians kept celebrating the by God given holidays, which where the Jewish religious holidays and festivals.

Today nothing should be different. We too should celebrate those special or set apart (holy) days which where ordered by God for man to remember or to keep special in their heart.
as such the 14th to 22th Nisan should be a special time, where on the 14th of Nisan we take more time to remember what Christ Jesus has done for mankind.

Coming April the 10th it shall be that special remembrance day when real Christians come together to think about the Gift which is given to mankind., the Grace of Salvation, which is given for free, but which each individual has to accept and take the responsibility for himself or herself concerning the faith in Jesus, the Way to God.

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Please read also

1. 1691 years ago on June the 20th in 325
2. Altered to fit a Trinity
3. Who Celebrates Easter as Religious Holiday
4. High Holidays not only for Israel
5. Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection
6. 14-15 Nisan and Easter
7. Seven days of Passover
8. Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs
9. Fraternal week-end at Easter in Paris
10. Risen With Him

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Additional reading

1. Spring playing hide and seek
2. Family happiness and little things we do
3. Christian values, traditions, real or false stories, pure and upright belief
4. Looking for answers on the question Is there a God #2 Pantheon of gods and celebrations
5. Who Gets to Say What the Bible Says?
6. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
7. Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things
8. Holidays, holy days and traditions
9. Seven Bible Feasts of JHWH
10. Easter holiday, fun and rejoicing
11. Entrance of a king to question our position #1 Coming in the Name of the Lord
12. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
13. A Messiah to die
14. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
15. The Weekend that changed the world
16. Pesach and a lot of brokenness in the world
17. 14 Nisan a day to remember #4 A Lamb slain
18. Welcome to Easter 2014
19. Easter: Origins in a pagan Christ
20. Exodus 9: Liar Liar
21. Hanukkahgiving or Thanksgivvukah
22. Irminsul, dies natalis solis invicti, birthday of light, Christmas and Saturnalia
23. Christmas in Ancient Rome (AKA Saturnalia)
24. Different approach in organisation of services #1
25. Why we do not keep to a Sabbath or a Sunday or Lord’s Day #3 Days to be kept holy or set apart
26. For ever changed by spiritual experience
27. White Privilege Conference (WPC) wanting to keep the press out for obvious reasons

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Is there an Immortal soul

In the 2001 Translation – An American English Bible we did find:

The Immortal Soul Problem

One of the reasons why there can be no Hell of eternal torture is because a person would need an 'immortal soul' to be sent there. In other words, a portion of his or her personality would have to be incapable of dying. And although this doctrine is taught by almost all religions, it simply can't be found in the Bible. In fact, one of the things that differentiates the Bible from most (if not all) pagan religions and their sacred writings (such as the Koran), is that the Bible alone teaches that a dead person can be resurrected (brought back to life)… but only if God wills it. So nothing inside us is incapable of dying (immortal).

Why, if you go to Genesis the Third Chapter, you'll find that it was the Opposer (Satan) who first taught that men wouldn't die, for we read at Genesis 3:5, 'Then the snake told the woman, You won't stop living and die. But, God knows that on whatever day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be gods who know good and evil.'

We find this first lie directly contradicted what God had just said at Genesis 2:16, 17, 'You are free to eat from all the trees of paradise, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Bad. Because, on whatever day you eat from it, your life will end and you will die (Gr. thanato apothaneisthe, or, death from dying).'

Obviously souls can die, for notice what a soul is. Genesis 2:7 tells us this: 'Then God formed man from the dust of the ground, breathed the breath of life against his face, and he became a living creature (Gr. psychen zosan, or, person/soul living).'

Now, the words we translated as living creature here were psyche in Greek and Nephesh in Hebrew, and both words are the same ones that are translated as soul in other Bibles. So the Bible's own definition of a soul, is that it's something made from the dust of the ground and has the breath of life… thus, it is a whole living person or animal, not something that lives inside. In fact, throughout the Bible animals are referred to as souls also. So psyche really means (as we have often translated it) a living creature.

Actually, the best true Bible definition of the Greek word psyche is what the word implies in modern psychology, 'the inner person,' not, 'the immortal person.' With this understanding, we can see how God could refer to 'My Soul.' He wasn't speaking of the individual we all believe that we know, but of the person He is on the inside.

As history shows, the pagan Egyptians believed that they had immortal souls, but righteous Hebrews made no mention of such a belief anywhere in the Sacred Scriptures of Israel (OT). It was only in the latter part of the millennium proceeding the time of Jesus that we first see this doctrine starting to creep into Jewish teachings.

Then, did Jesus and his Apostles teach that we have an immortal soul? No, for those two words (immortal soul) don't appear together anywhere in the Bible. In fact, the words immortal and immortality (Gr. athanasia or undying) can only be found in three places in the Bible, and let's see how the word is used in each of these cases:

• 1 Timothy 6:15, 16 – 'He will show himself at his own set time… the blest and only ruler, the King of those who rule as kings and Lord of those who rule as lords; the only one who has immortality and who lives in unapproachable light; he who no man has seen or can see.
• 1 Corinthians 15:53, 54 – 'Then that which is decaying will put on cleanliness, and that which is dying will put on immortality. But, when that which is dying puts on immortality, the words that were written are fulfilled, Death is swallowed in victory.'

So in the first case, we can see that Jesus is immortal, and in the second case we can see that immortality is offered as a reward to the righteous… so, it is not a possession of the wicked… thus they have no immortal soul that can be sent to burn in Hell.

Dying or not

Are there people who have no death in them? According to Scriptures nobody is going to escape death. Since what happened in Eden we all have to face pain, ageing, deterioration, dying. Immortality is not given to us worldly people.

We are all going to die, which means that we are going to cease to exist until resurrected.  In death, the grave, there is no knowledge, no remembrance, no praise. There is no extra element of us, an extraordinary being or sort ghost which is going to live on. Man is dust and to dust he returns (see Genesis 3:19; Job 10:9; Psalm 90:3).
A separate soul was not joined to a prepared body when we came into existence on this earth. We were born by receiving the breath of life.  Man became a living soul (being RSV) when the breath of the spirit of life was breathed into his nostrils. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7, KJV).

All our live we may have chosen to follow God, but this even lets us not live on after our death. Once we come to that point we also shall not be able to feel or do anything anymore. Even not praising God.
"For in death there is no remembrance of thee; in Sheol who can give you praise?" (Psalm 6:5)
"What profit will thee be in my blood when I go down to the pit?  Shall the dust praise thee?  Shall it declare thy truth?" (Psalm 30:9) "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence" (Psalm 115:17). We shall not be able to do anything, even not praise God. Because we would be like in a deep sleep. And we have to wait until we got woken up by Jesus like he called Lazarus (John 11:11). In "the last days", when God will show His power once more on the earth, at "a time of trouble such as never was "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:1-2). Some people will be raised from the dead when Jesus comes and others will sleep forever in the dust of the ground.

We die and return to the earth. If we have died "in Christ" we have that marvellous hope that we will rise again to eternal life. But that is not going to happen straight ahead after our death. That's why believers who have died in the new testament are said to be "asleep" while those who "understand not" as the Psalmist puts it have been destroyed.
Subjectively the dead have no sense of time between the moment of death and that of the resurrection. Objectively, thousands of years may have passed before they shall get resurrected.

“If (God) should set his heart on it, if he should gather to himself his spirit and his breath, All flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (Job 34:14,15) and stay dust, but He has given His promises and by those we do find life.

Whilst it is easy to focus on the mention of dust, and to think of the bodily corruption that occurs when anybody dies, think instead about what is being told us about life.
Life is a gift from God. He energised Adam in the Garden of Eden and made it possible for mankind to come into existence and He has perpetuated the race that Adam and Eve fathered.
Someone once said about God: “He gives to all life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25), and that generosity is evident all around us, all the time.  Life is the most marvellous thing we
possess: it is God’s free gift to all of us.

He gives and we receive. He is the source of life and we are creatures dependent upon Him. When our breath leaves the body, try as we might, we cannot get it back. Nobody can bring a dead body back to life: when it is dead it is dead. So here is a stark reminder of the difference
between God and mankind: He is immortal and we are not. The Bible often makes that  distinction and that is hard for some people to accept, but see for yourself.

It is our Almighty God who has given immortality to His angels and to only one man. Namely Jesus who at his return to earth will manifest in his own time.  It is this Jesus who shall appear "our Lord Yahshua the Messiah: Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting.  Amen." (1 Timothy 6:14-16 KJBPNV)

If we want it or not, we are the lesser one. We are always given up to death. “For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11); “Here mortal men receive tithes…” (Hebrews 7:8).

God alone has inherent immortality. He is the only one who is eternal. Though certain Christian denominations proclaim that we become eternal, this shall always be impossible because we always had somewhere a beginning. And a person who had a beginning can not be eternal because that is one of the implications of eternity, having no beginning and no end.

We are mortal – dying creatures. But God, who first gave mankind the breath of life, can also give us life that lasts forever. The Bible calls this “eternal life” or “immortality” but there you have to be careful how you want to understand that immortality. Please do have before your eyes that you have two forms of immortality: 1. having no way to die or 2. the one (how I would put it and believe in) were we have the possibility in us to die but are give (by grace) the possibility to stay for ever, which is to stay a life in eternity. Here’s one of God’s promises about that wonderful
prospect: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). It is that life for eternal what we can get, because Jesus brought his Ransom Offer. "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concernmg them which are asleep (he means in death), that ye sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope .... For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven ... with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise . . ." (1 Thessalonians 4:13,16) Christ personally (note "himself") will descend from heaven; and the faithful dead will rise-from the grave of course. Here are basic teachings which are found throughout the New Testament. They are foundation truths of the Gospel. ". . . The hour is coming, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his (Jesus') voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:28-29).

The bad news is that we could earn death; the good news is that there is an alternative. We could be given eternal life: the chance to live forever in a perfect world. What a choice and
what an opportunity!

The reward of the righteous does not consist of some "spirit existence" somewhere; it will be the granting of an incorruptible body, one that will not waste away and perish as our present one does, but will no longer be subject to death.

Not having to endure pain or to be frightened to hurt ourselves or to die we shall be able to enter the "paradise" of the new Kingdom of peace and joy which Christ will establish when he returns to the earth.

Those who have listened to what God has to say, have taken the time to understand it, and who have made those promises their life’s aim, they shall, when they have repented and chosen to keep God's Commandments, be able to trust the Lord and shall receive the opportunity to live for eternal in God's Kingdom as true members of the family of God .

The Bible explains that we must be baptised if we want to enter the Kingdom of God and start to live with Him, here and now. It was the Lord himself who said: “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3) and he went on to explain that this means that we must be born again “of water and the Spirit” (3:5). do not postpone it, because you never what tomorrow brings.

Dutch version / Nederlandstalige versie: Al of niet onsterfelijkheid

Secret or public return of Jesus

As brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus, we believe that Jesus (Yeshua) will return from heaven to raise the dead to life and judge the world in righteousness.

How Jesus is coming back to the world can be open to debate and already opinions are formed about this.

It appears there are many shades of view that range between the secret return and the public return. There are also many who say that they are just not sure at all. Andy Walton has written an article wherein he looks at the evidence in the scriptures and tries to piece together the order of events surrounding the return of Jesus – especially from the viewpoint of those who are still alive and remain at his coming.

He looks at a the order of events of which we can be certain like Jesus returning in physical clouds whereby all mankind on earth shall witness this and trumpets shall be blown by the angels. Also we are told that the elect shall be gathered. There does appear to be some delay between the dead being raised when the trumpet sounds and the living believers being gathered to be with Christ.

We also can ask if the tribes of the earth are already mourning and have seen or are seeing the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven.

Andy Walton wonders what the “sign of the Son of man” is that causes the earth to mourn? He recognizes that we have some people with faith and some without faith. But all grow weary of waiting for Christ to return.

Revelation 1:7 says: “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindred’s of the earth shall wail because of him.” The word translated “wail” here is only used 8 times in the NT. It is exactly the same word translated “mourn” in Matthew 24:30. Revelation says that Jesus comes with the clouds and every eye shall see him. We now know these are literal clouds and we also will witness this. But when the earth sees him and the angels, men wail and mourn. They literally beat their chests in grief. For me it looks strange that Jehovah Witnesses keep to their idea that Jesus has already returned, though we do not find any writings where it is confirmed that several people saw him.

Andy Walton recognizes that we often think of Jesus descending quickly to the earth. But why should he? For every eye to see him he only has to descend to earth over a 24-hour period and as the world turns everyone would see him. What if his descent took days or weeks? He wonders. Jesus will finally descend though and his feet will come to rest on the very Mount he left from – the Mount of Olives (see Zechariah 14).

We don’t know the day or the hour when Jesus shall come as a thief in the night (1
Thessalonians 5:2) andwill appear in heaven, for when he does appear, it will be too late to change the outcome. But Andy Walton thinks that to those who are watching and remain sober (verse 6), Jesus will not come as a thief because they shall recognize the great noise(2 Peter 3:10).We have to have faith now! “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”

>About how Jesus might return. >

The Return of Jesus Christ – The Possible Order of Events –
For Those who are “alive and remain” at his Appearing

Click here to download the PDF of this article

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Geheime of publieke terugkeer van Jezus

1 Corinthians 15 Hope in action

"Our future in Christ is secure. Nothing can shake the promise of resurrection to God's faithful people. Resurrection is a certainty - more sure than anything else we can have in this life. Our resurrections will also be a time of great reward when we will receive a new and immortal life - a life that has none of the problems and pains of the life we now live. Resurrection is an incredible hope.

English: Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is because of the certainty and the awesomeness of the resurrection, that Paul says this at the end of the chapter: "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15 v 58)

Take a look at your own life. Do we stand firm in our faith?

Do we always give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord? If either of those answers are "no," then it follows that either our faith in God's promises is lacking, or that we do not fully understand the implications of the resurrection.

This life is not worth the time and energy we give it. Let's focus on God's promises and the resurrection and always give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord."

- Robert Prins, Thinky Things

"O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."
1 Corinthians 15:55-58

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2013 update:

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We will all be changed

Listen, I tell you a mystery:
We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed
-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

1 Corinthians 15:51-53, New International Version

Dutch version / Nederlandse vertaling> We zullen allen veranderd worden

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    I'm going to be changed! You're going to be changed! We're not talking about a new wardrobe or haircut. We're not talking about a new car or a new place to live. We are talking major, heavy-duty overhaul! We're going to be made immortal. We're going to become indestructible. We will no longer be perishable goods! We're bound for glory.

    Inspire my faith, dear Lord, to trust your timing and to lean upon your grace. I believe that you not only know all the mysteries, but that you hold all triumphs in your hand. Please make me victorious, O LORD Almighty, through the mighty work of your Son. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Read also:

Raptureexposed

1.       Rapture what does it mean?
2.       The Rapture or admittance with Christ
3.       Gather together with Jesus Christ
4.       Raptured in clouds

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