When is Easter? In my opinion, Easter should be the most celebrated annual event in our lives. There is nothing more important than the infinite atonement of our Lord and Savior. The Lord’s glorious resurrection capstone is the most important event in history.
Most of the Christian world follows the Catholic tradition of Easter being on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the 21st of March. They take the 21st of March being the Vernal Equinox. Thus, this year the Christian world generally celebrates Easter Sunday on the 31st of March.
I am writing this on Thursday the 28th of March 2024, which following the Catholic dating for Easter, is for me Good Thursday. Their tradition indicates that Christ was crucified on Friday, and they call that Good Friday. But we know this is wrong from John 19:31 and from apocryphal literature. In the Hebrew calendar, the Lord had orchestrated two Sabbaths in a row for this most important event.
Thursday – Fulfilling Prophecy
He was crucified on Thursday fulfilling His prophecy to the Jews. He gave them a sign: Jonah spent three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, He would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth (Matt. 12:40). I document the three days in a podcast and in a blog article. Good Friday is a false tradition that originated with Catholicism and the world has followed.
What we know of in the scriptures is that He was crucified on Thursday. Crucified at noon He endured indescribable suffering for the sins of the world for those three hours (Matt. 27:45; 3 Nephi 8:5-19). The Earth, which He had created mourned with him with enormous destructions and tempest. We also know that it happened on the fourth day of the 34th year after His birth. This is described in Third Nephi, Chapter 8, verse 5. What we don’t know is if the Nephites counted their years as the earth went around the sun. They may have followed a Hebrew tradition for their calendar.
His Glorious Resurrection
His glorious resurrection, the first Easter, occurred that Sunday morning, the 7th day after the 34th year after His birth. Because of the vision of the brother of Jared (Mahonri Moriancumer), he knew the end from the beginning. The Jaredites constructed 4 ½ square mile earthworks mapping out the plan of salvation near Newark, Ohio. They made them so that the moon would align with the Divine ratio, 51.8 degrees—coming up at the time of his birth. At the time of His birth, the moon aligned perfectly with the line going through the millennial epoch and the celestial kingdom. These earthworks were refined by the Nephites, who knew the same.
Dr. John Lefgren, the historian, documents this nicely in a booklet he prepared. On the front cover of his booklet, he has an author’s conception of what the Jaredites constructed. The picture denotes the lunar rising moment of the birth of our Savior occurred at 6:29 P.M. Tuesday evening in Ohio. This was Wednesday morning on the 6th of April in Bethlehem, Judea. Bethlehem means the “House of Bread.” He is the Bread of Life for all of us.
English Word – Easter
The English word Easter, which parallels the German word Ostern, is of uncertain origin. It likely derives from the Christian designation of Easter week as in alibis, a Latin phrase that was understood as the plural of alba (“dawn”) and became eostarum in Old High German. The Latin and Greek Pascha (“Passover”) provide the root for Pâques, the French word for Easter.
Our son, Nathan, and I wrote a paper sharing that the Tropical year is 20.4 minutes shorter than the Sidereal year. The Tropical year is defined as the time from one Vernal Equinox to the next. The Sidereal year is the time it takes the Earth to go around the sun with respect to the celestial sphere. The celestial sphere is nominally the fixed stars. If anyone wants a copy of that paper, send me your email address. It is entitled: “Uncovering Unknown Long-term Periodicities and Variabilities in the Earth’s Spin Axis using Time-Domain Analysis Techniques.”
Christ – Center of our Lives
What is most important for us is to have Christ be the center of all that we do. As we lose our life for Him, we find it! He did and is doing the will of the Father perfectly. His angels are there for us to help us do the same in fulfillment of our divinely appointed missions. That is the path to the greatest happiness in this life and a fullness of joy in the life to come. THANK YOU, LORD, for Your infinite atonement. This year Easter Sunday should be on the 7th of April. The day after is the solar eclipse crossing over Missouri. With the two other eclipses this one completes an “A” (Alpha and Omega) over America. It crosses seven cities in the United States by the name of Nineveh. Is the Lord telling us that if we repent, we can be like Nineveh after Jonah reluctantly went and preached to them.
David W. Allan
Photo: Christ Resurrection – CC Flicker