Building on the Foundation

  A brother in the faith recently sent me a document called “Passover Observance History,” which is the appendix to a book recently released by a pastor in the United Church of God. While I haven’t read the rest of the work, it seems (based on the title) to be a harmony of the Gospels and not specifically about Passover. But this appendix makes claims about the history of Passover observance which deserve careful, Berean-style scrutiny. Here’s a summary of its five major claims: That Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread began as two separate feasts, That the Jews drifted in their understanding of Passover, moved the Passover sacrifice from the beginning of Nisan 14 to the end, and merged the two feasts into one, That this happened because the Jews briefly abandoned the Scriptural practice of beginning days at sunset and copied the Egyptian custom of beginning days at sunrise, That it wasn’t possible to kill all the Passover lambs at the temple, And that there were therefore t...

There are many go-to verses that we are quite familiar with in the Church of God; verses for just about every situation you might come across, and to refute all kinds of modern pagan religion. The Bible is a sword, after all, and it is quite powerful in the real sort of warfare we engage in on a daily basis. For instance, people in the world will tell you to “follow your heart,” meaning that whatever desire might cross the screen of your heart should be followed. You should essentially let your desires and emotions rule your life rather than any form of discipline or written code as in the case of the Christian religion. Though the problem with this is obvious, many Christians buy into this false idea that the heart is something to be followed. Jeremiah said something about this when he said, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9 (AFV) This is similar to the ideas that are echoed in Genesis and in Proverbs, the idea that the he...