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February 9, 2026 |
| A Step Too Far | ||
Not long ago I put out a message called "Stuck in the Physical." It is similar to this message but different. In that one, I was talking about the lack of a spiritual sense that kept people from thinking in spiritual terms. In this one, we'll talk about a lack of desire to please God that keeps people from making changes. That leaves them stuck in orthodoxy.
After I returned to the faith, I started attending a small church with traditional, mainline Protestant beliefs. That was where God wanted me to begin my growth. But God had already taken me on development steps and would continue doing that until 9 years later, he would step me out of that church.
One of the reasons for that was that the church was unwilling to take those steps with me. Even the smallest step was beyond their abilities.
These were the steps that I took from the time I converted back to Christianity.
None of this happened quickly or was easy for me. It took me time to adjust to each step and to adjust to thinking about things in new ways. Also, each step usually began a cascade of realizations as other aspects of what I had learned dropped into place. I spent 9 years at that church.
Unlike some other changes the Church of Rome made to church teachings, the history of what they did to Passover is very clearly recorded in history.
The Church of Rome moved Passover on the calendar to the Sunday following Passover. When this was done, there was a man named Polycarp, who had worked directly with some of the Apostles. Polycarp traveled from the area of Revelation's Seven Churches to Rome to tell them that all the apostles he knew or knew of had observed Passover on the 14th of Nisan. The Bishop of Rome responded that their change was now a tradition, and they weren't going to change it.
Later the Church of Rome ordered all the other churches to start observing Passover on that Sunday. The Bishop of the Eastern Churches responded that they were going to continue to observe Passover on Nisan 14, just as Polycarp had said, as they had been doing, and as the apostles had done. The Church of Rome did not have the power to enforce that order.
Later the Church of Rome moved the day of the Wave Sheaf offering (which symbolizes Jesus' resurrection), which followed Passover by 3 days, to a Sunday schedule that just happens to never occur on the same day as Passover.
The Roman church was now so popular and growing so fast that they mowed down the churches that had refused them, driving them out of Roman territory.
This moved day continued to be called Pasha, which is passover. In most cultures, it still goes by that name. In Germanic and English cultures, though, it picked up the name of the goddess Eostre, which became Easter in English.
As time passed, an odd change came about in this holiday. It began to pick up some of the characteristics of the goddess it was named after. By this time, most people had forgotten that "Easter" was the name of a fertility goddess. But it began to pick up things like rabbits and eggs, which were the fertility symbols of the goddess.
For Jews and Early Christians, Passover had always been a shared meal. Over time, it became a small cracker and a thimble of grape juice.
This new day was nothing like Passover, and it was full of other junk it had picked up.
In the movie "A Bridge Too Far," soldiers are given a task that will prove to be more than they can accomplish.
When I came to understand the real story of Easter, as mentioned in the "Easter was a mess" point above, I talked to the Pastor about it. He did some research and confirmed that Easter had a lot of problems, not just the date, but the name, the practices, and more.
I suggested that the church stop observing Easter. There were a lot of reasons that made this possible for them.
It was a step too far for him. I never knew the reason for rejecting the idea. Instead he decided that he and the other ministers would stop calling it "Easter." The next Easter, they tried that but failed. It was just too automatic for them to say "Easter". The best they could do was to say "Easter," stop themselves, and say "Resurrection Day." They were never able to stop saying "Easter" while I was there.
How was that a step too far? Is it too much to ask that you do things the way God said, and the way the apostles did? Was it the fear of breaking tradition that stopped them? Jesus spoke directly on that topic. Did they just not care? I can't read their minds. I think some of it was a fear of losing people and the financial support that keeps the expenses paid.
Not caring, or maybe caring more for other things, is a huge problem in most of the modern churches. How will they fight back against the world when they can't fight back against their own church brothers?
The reformers of the Reformation risked their lives to try to correct false teachings in the church. The denominations split based on differences as small as how to baptise. The leaders of the modern church don't seem able to reform the church even in small ways.
The only recent reformation has been the Messianic movement, and Satan is beating on them. They began as a grassroots movement because the leaders could not change.
The most recent changes in doctrine and practice are coming from liberals, who are Satan's minions.
We've covered these points: