Pope, Bede, Easter, and “Christian Europe”
Pope Benedict XVI
This week the Roman Catholic Benedict XVI praised an Englishman named Bede and called for others to rise up and provide his version of Christian unity:
Pontiff Lauds a Maker of Christian Europe
Considers Contribution of Venerable Bede
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 18, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Venerable Bede contributed to the makings of a Christian Europe, says Benedict XVI, and thus it is right to pray that God raise up people of his stature.
The Pope affirmed this today in the general audience held in St. Peter’s Square. He dedicated his reflection to Bede, who lived from the early 670s to 735. The Holy Father concentrated on Bede’s contribution to Scripture studies, the history of the Church, and liturgical theology…
He continued: “[Bede] registered the first six ecumenical councils and their development. […] Finally, he wrote with documentary rigor and literary expertise the already mentioned ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People,’ for which he is recognized as ‘the father of English historiography.’…
“The calculation elaborated scientifically by him to establish the exact date of the Easter celebration, and thus of the entire cycle of the liturgical year, became the text of reference for the whole Catholic Church.”
Finally, the Holy Father pointed to Bede’s contribution as “an illustrious teacher of liturgical theology.”
He said that Bede’s “way of making theology, interlacing the Bible, the liturgy and history,” enabled him to give a “timely message for the different ‘states of life.'”
The Bishop of Rome noted that Bede already in life enjoyed “fame of holiness and wisdom.” Just over a century after his death, he was equated with “a new sun that God had made arise not in the East but in the West to illumine the world.”
The Pope contended that “it is a fact that, with his works, Bede contributed effectively to the making of a Christian Europe, in which the different populations and cultures amalgamated among themselves, conferring on them a uniform physiognomy, inspired by the Christian faith.”
“Let us pray,” he thus concluded “that also today there be personalities of Bede’s stature, to keep the whole Continent united; let us pray so that all of us are willing to rediscover our common roots, to be builders of a profoundly human and genuinely Christian Europe.”
Thus, the Pope is waiting for leaders to rise up to unite behind a religion in Europe. Bible prophecy warns of a time when the world will all worship a beast power that rises up there (Europa, the Beast, and Revelation).
What most do not realize is that when Bede worked on the calculation of “Easter“, Bede’s writings actually contain admissions that the Apostle John kept Passover on the 14th and not on a Sunday like the Roman Catholics do (early Christians clearly kept Passover on the 14th, but because of cowardice in the face of imperial persecution they switched the observance to Sunday, the name pagan name Easter was added to it in languages such as English, but most other languages still refer to what in English is termed as Easter as some version of the words Pascha or Passover).
Now let’s notice something about Bede, Easter, and Passover from The Catholic Encyclopedia:
Easter…The English term, according to the Ven. Bede (De temporum ratione, I, v), relates to Estre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring…The connection between the Jewish and the Christian Pasch explains the movable character of this feast…Since Christ, the true Paschal Lamb, had been slain on the very day when the Jews, in celebration of their Passover, immolated the figurative lamb, the Jewish Christians in the Orient followed the Jewish method…For this observance they claimed the authority of St. John and St. Philip (Holweck F. G. Transcribed by John Wagner and Michael T. Barrett. Easter. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume V. Copyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton Company. Online Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. Knight. Nihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York).
Notice what Bede’s writings (specifically from the book that Benedict XVI mentioned) admit:
Far be it from me to charge John with foolishness: he literally observed the decrees of the Mosaic law when the Church was still Jewish in many respects, at a time when the apostles were unable to bring a sudden end to that law which God ordained…They feared, of course, that they might make a stumbling block for the Jewish proselytes…So John, in accordance with the custom of the law, began the celebration of Easter Day in the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, regardless of whether it fell on the sabbath or any other day. (Bede (Monk). Edited by Judith McClure and Roger Collins. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford University Press, NY, 1999).
Since it is even admitted that the Apostle John, the last of the original apostles to die, observed Passover on the 14th, then it should be clear to everyone who observes Easter on a instead of Passover on the 14th, that those who observe have changed!
Yet the Bible teaches,
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines (Hebrews 13:8-9).
Is not changing the date of Passover to a Sunday holiday named Easter after a pagan goddess the type of strange doctrine that the Bible warned against?
Furthermore, notice that the Apostle John specifically warned about those who changed and did not continue in his practices:
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us (1 John 2:18-19).
So what may have been the first specific departure from the practices of John that we have a historical record of (involving John’s name)?
The changing of the date of Passover!
Would then, the changing of Passover be one of the doctrines of Antichrist? Is that not what the uniting of Europe under the name of compromising “Christianity” bringing about–the rise of Antichrist?
Some articles of possibly related interest may include:
Passover and the Early Church Did the early Christians observe Passover? What did Jesus and Paul teach? Why did Jesus die for our sins?
Did Early Christians Celebrate Easter? If not, when did this happen? What do scholars and the Bible reveal?
Some Doctrines of Antichrist Are there any doctrines taught outside the Churches of God which can be considered as doctrines of antichrist? This article suggests at least three. It also provides information on 666 and the identity of “the false prophet”. Plus it shows that several Catholic writers seem to warn about an ecumenical antipope that will support heresy.
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”? What is ahead for Europe?
The History of Early Christianity Are you aware that what most people believe is not what truly happened to the true Christian church? Do you know where the early church was based? Do you know what were the doctrines of the early church? Is your faith really based upon the truth or compromise?
Which Is Faithful: The Roman Catholic Church or the Living Church of God? Do you know that both groups shared a lot of the earliest teachings? Do you know which church changed? Do you know which group is most faithful to the teachings of the apostolic church? Which group best represents true Christianity? This documented article answers those questions. Português: Qual é fiel: A igreja católica romana ou a igreja viva do deus? Tambien Español: Cuál es fiel: ¿La iglesia católica romana o La Iglesia del Dios Viviente? Auch: Deutsch: Welches zuverlässig ist: Die Römisch-katholische Kirche oder die lebende Kirche von Gott?
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