The title to that post may give the wrong impression.  I will clarify that Mormons celebrate Easter with family, but we generally don’t hold special worship services.  We believe that Jesus died on the cross, rose on the 3^rd day, and we believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus.  However, for some reason, our church seems to eschew large celebrations or special worship services in celebration of all holidays, including Easter and Christmas.  (In fact, I would go so far to say that Pioneer Day on July 24^th has larger celebrations than either Easter or Christmas, at least in Utah.  Pioneer Day is not a big deal outside of Utah.)  The church seems to like to keep these Easter and Christmas celebrations low-key, and seems to prefer that families do their own thing for Easter and Christmas celebrations.

I wish LDS church leadership would encourage special worship services, or hold a special Easter fireside.  (They do hold a Christmas fireside the first Sunday in December, though it seems odd to me that they don’t do something closer to Christmas.  I guess they want to spend their time with family too.)  In other churches, you can attend a sunrise Easter celebration or Midnight Mass to celebrate these special holidays.  Such special services are completely absent for Mormons during these holidays.  In some congregations (aka wards), the bishop may decide to have a special theme for Sacrament (aka Communion) Meeting, but this is entirely up to the discretion of the bishop.  I have been in some wards with a special theme, but more wards than not seem to pay little attention to Easter or Christmas.  (I think part of the reason is that Mormons have a lay ministry.  The bishop may not have time to plan anything special because he is already busy with his full-time 40 hour job and part-time 10-20 hour bishop.)

Every 4 years, Mormons take a different book of scripture as the topic for Sunday school.  This year we are studying the New Testament.  Last year was the Old Testament.  We also spend a year on the Book of Mormon, and another year on the Doctrine and Covenants.  If you look at the Sunday School manual, the lesson for our ward scheduled for Easter Sunday is “Who is My Neighbor?” Since we’re studying the New Testament this year, it might be easier to tie Easter into the lesson.  If we’re studying the other 3 books of scripture, the teacher is obviously going to have to do some stretching of the lesson to make it tie in with Easter.  If we’re studying the Book of Mormon, we do so chronologically, so Christ’s resurrection doesn’t happen until late in the year.  Good luck to the teacher for tying Easter into the lesson when studying the D&C or Old Testament.

If you want to know something that Mormons don’t celebrate, that would be Good Friday.  We took a family vacation to visit my parents and my wife’s parents in St. George.  On Good Friday, I asked my wife, “Do you know what today is?”  She responded, “Earth Day.”  Well, that’s correct, but not the answer I was looking for.  (I wouldn’t have known that either if Bored In Vernal hadn’t asked me for a photo to commemorate Earth Day.)  I asked her what other day it was, and she did not know.

In my job, I am working on an international medical study.  We hold weekly meetings to discuss issues with the study.  Two weeks ago, one of the principal investigators (I’ll call him John) asked to cancel our meeting scheduled for Good Friday.  If he hadn’t mentioned it, I would not have been aware of Good Friday (and frankly I didn’t know when Easter was—I wish it had a set day like Christmas does or even Thanksgiving to make it easier to remember.  This bouncing around in March and April makes it practically impossible to remember.)

Mormons don’t acknowledge Good Friday at all.  For those Mormons reading this who don’t know, Good Friday is the traditional day that Jesus was raised and died on the cross.  It is always the Friday before Easter. I believe Good Friday is a big deal in the Catholic Church.  I am not sure how well Protestants follow the holiday (and I would love to hear some Protestants comment on this—my guess is that it varies by denomination.  I would also like to hear how Catholics celebrate Good Friday.)  My boss is Presbyterian, and she didn’t seem to be aware of Good Friday or seem to have plans for it.  She came to work Friday (just like I did).

So Mormons technically celebrate Easter, but we don’t really celebrate at church.  We do it at home.  We hold Easter Egg hunts and consume lots of Easter candy.  Some families talk about the resurrection, but some don’t make a big deal about it.  I have tried to remind my children that Easter is celebrated in commemoration of Christ’s resurrection, so they know that.  But I think they were more excited about the Easter Egg Hunt held at Worthen Park in St. George than remembering the resurrection.

While milling about the park following the Easter Egg Hunt, a person handed me a card advertising a non-denominational Sunrise Service at 8 AM in Tuacahn.  (I think sunrise is about 6:47 in St. George.)  They have a 2^nd service at 11 AM with nursery and “child ministry” so that adults can enjoy the services without interruption from kids.  I asked my in-laws if they wanted go.  My mother-in-law kind of wrinkled her nose and said that she didn’t want to be up in time for the 8 AM meeting, and the 11 AM meeting conflicted with her ward.  My wife looked at me like I was crazy for suggesting such a thing.  (My parents and brother-in-law said they really aren’t interested in other church services.)  I went to the 8 AM service this morning, but it was rained out.  My parents ward had a nice choir and talk on Easter.

So why do you think Mormons don’t acknowledge Good Friday?  Why are there no special worship services in celebration of Easter or Christmas?

The Bible says that 600,000 men left Egypt.  …

However, archaeologist Jim Hoffmeier of the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School says the number is probably far fewer, due to a mistranslation dating thousands of years.  The original Hebrew says there were 600 elith.

Hoffmeier, “The word elith can be translated 3 different ways:  it can be translated thousand.  Elith can also be translated to the clan.  The third option is that it’s a military unit, which I think is a more plausible scenario.”

According to Hoffmeier’s interpretation, instead of 600,000 men and their families, there were as few as 5000.

I was a bit surprised that the above quote was not referenced in Bible Battles, because there are quite a few points of agreement between Hoffmeier and Richard A Gabriel, PhD and author of Military History of Ancient Israel.  In the Bible Battles video, Gabriel said,

“If you read the Bible text in Hebrew, it uses the word “avadeem”.  Avadeem is not the word for slave, it is the word for “worker” or even servant.  The fact of the matter is that the Israelites in Egypt were not slaves.”

Narrator, The notion that the Israelites might not have been slaves in Egypt contradicts fundamental Judeo-Christian beliefs.  But by examining the Exodus from a military perspective, new light may be shed on this historic journey.

Aaron Shugar, PhD, Archaeomettalurgy, Lehigh University, “This is a tricky subject because outside the Bible there is no definitive corroborating text that can either support or refute the fact that the Israelites were slaves.  But if we ask the simple question, could a nation of mere slaves, be able to go up against the mighty Egyptian army and survive?  Logically, it doesn’t seem like they could.”

Mark Schwartz, Professor of Anthropology, Grand Valley State University, “Now what if they weren’t slaves?  What if they actually were a group with military experience.  Remember Abraham and some of his military exploits.  Now a group of people leaving Egypt with a military arm puts a completely different spin on the story.”

Narrator, “To better understand the Exodus, one must travel back in time about 200 years to the land of Canaan.  Here Abraham and his Israelite descendants are forced to flee the land because of famine and drought.  They migrate to the eastern edge of Egpyt and settle in the land of Goshen, where the earth is fertile and flocks and crops thrive.

But some scholars believe they are also in this area fighting as mercenary soldiers in the Egyptian army.  Their job would be to serve as a first line of defense against invaders from the north.

Schwartz, “These ‘habiru’ were mercenaries, they were soldiers of fortune.  They would fight for who ever it was in their best interest at that time to fight for.  It seems like they had a good thing going in Egypt for a few hundred years.”

Narrator, “But eventually, a new pharaoh rises to power.  Some scholars believe he is Seti I, and he does not seem to care much for the Israelites.”

Exodus 1:9-10, “And he said to his people, ‘Look the Israelite people are much too numerous for us.  Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase.  Otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.’

Gabriel, “The sheer location of where the habiru are in the land of Goshen, sitting astride the key route of invasion or defense of Egypt, probably convinced Seti himself, a professional warrior that something had to be done either to remove them, or weaken their influence, or at least remove them from their geographical area.  Thus it is that Seti becomes, most historians think, the pharaoh in the Bible who first sets the Israelites to physical labor.”

Narrator, “Many believe this physical labor amounts to slavery.  But this may be a historical inaccuracy.  While forced labor is practiced, some scholars believe that ownership of another person is rare at this time.”

Gabriel, “There was no slavery in Egypt right from the beginning until the end of the empire.  Well, if in fact they were not slaves set to labor, what were they?  The answer is corvee labor.  That is the term used to describe, essentially conscripted civilian workers to work on public works projects.  These people were not slaves, they were paid and they were well treated, and we know that from the military medical texts which stations military doctors with the workmen in order to make sure they are well-treated and well fed.”

Narrator, “Whether slaves or not, the demotion from soldier to common physical worker probably signaled to the Israelites that it was time to leave Egypt.”

Gabriel, “They had lost their status as noble allies.  They were now being treated like common workers.  It was time to go!”

Shugar, “So Moses says to Pharao, ‘Listen, God told me personally to lead my people out of here.  So you’ve got to let my people go.  But Pharaoh resists, then what follows is the Passover story and the plagues that wrought devastation upon Egypt.  With the 10th and final plague, the killing of the First Born,  this culminates in the pharaoh allowing the Israelites to leave Egypt.  But the Bible says something very interesting right after this episode, something that actually makes us question whether they really in fact were slaves or not.”

Exodus 13:18, “Now the Israelites went up armed, out of the land of Egypt.”

Gabriel, “It’s very clear, of course, that slaves do not march out armed from their oppressors.  So what we have is the military arm now is formed, as it had always been, to protect the rest of the habiru clan, as it begins to move out of Egypt, and reach its homeland back in Canaan.”

Narrator, “Almost immediately however, Pharoah changes his mind, and sets his army in pursuit of the Israelites.  But it is unclear exactly why Pharaoh does this.  The answer may be found in Exodus 12 verse 35.”
Exodus 12:35-36, ‘The Israelites had done Moses’ bidding and borrowed from the Egyptians objects of silver, gold, and clothing, and the Lord had disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people, and they let them have their request.  Thus they stripped the Egyptians.’

Gabriel, “Well, it just stretches credibility to think that the Egyptians would have done such a thing, especially so when you read the text.  The term that is used is nes-ai-al in Hebrew, which means to despoil.  What seems to have happened is that the Israelites are fleeing Egypt, they are not equipped to be in the desert.  They need food, shelter, water, animals, and what they do is they take it.  So the reason, I think one could argue, that changed in Pharoah’s mind was news that Israelites were leaving had simply raided a town, and sacked it and took all the supplies, and the text bears me out on this.  For it says, that Pharaoh found the Israelites were leaving Egypt boldly.  Keep in mind, this is not just a group of nomads.  This is a habiru group of some size with a military arm, and they used that military might to provision themselves in order to survive in the desert.”

Narrator, “In response to this possible attack, pharaoh unleashes his army in pursuit.  The hallmark of the Egyptian force is the horse-drawn war chariot.  ”

Gabriel, “The Egyptian army was armed with the lightest, fastest, and most maneuverable chariot in the world. ”

…

Narrator, “With the Egyptian chariot force in hot pursuit, the Israelites quickly leave the Nile delta area.  But now, Moses does something surprising.  According to the Bible, he turns off the main road leading to Canaan and heads into the desert.”

Gabriel, “One can only imagine what the young junior officers must have thought, and that was that Moses had lost his mind.  Why would Moses do such a thing?”

Narrator, “While the move to lead the Israelites into the desert surprises many, it seems Moses has a plan.  Some believe he is luring Pharaoh into a trap.

…

The Bible states that Moses had previously spent 40 years in this desert, and like all good military commanders, has an intimate knowledge of the terrain.  Some believe he knows exactly where he is, and exactly where he is heading, and according to the Bible, God is leading the way.”

Exodus 13:21-22, ‘The Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, to guide them along the way and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light that they might travel day and night.’

Rabbi Jonathan Hecht, PhD, Temple Chaverim, Plainview, NY, “The pillar of cloud, and the pillar of fire that we read about in the Bible are what led the people through the desert and it represented the fact that God’s presence was always with them.”

Narrator, “Though the pillar of smoke and fire has religious significance, it can also be explained from a military perspective.  Ancient Egyptian stone reliefs depict a scene in which Pharaoh Ramses is sitting in front of two soldiers, each of whom is holding up a large pole.

Gabriel, “On top of one of those poles is the hieroglyph for flame, and on top of the other is the hierglyph for a closed brazzier which of course, if you put a cover on a brazzier you get smoke.”

Narrator, “Erected at the front of a marching column, a pillar of smoke and fire is a way for a military commander to communicate with the rest of his troops.”

Gabriel, “So the pillar of smoke, and the pillar of fire is a very common, at least for the Egyptians,  military mechanism for leading troops and pitching camp.”

Narrator, “At the end of the third day of marching, the Israelites make camp.  That night, Pharaoh arrives and sees the pillar of fire directly in front of him.  Pharaoh might believe that he has the upper hand.  Understanding that the pillar of fire always leads the group, it looks to him as though Moses has gotten himself turned around and is heading back to Egypt.

Gabriel, “The first rule of military tactics: always decieve your enemy as to your intentions.  Moses is trying to decieve pharaoh into thinking that he is lost in the desert.”

Narrator, “The placement of the pillar of fire seems to be integral to Moses’ strategy into losing the Egyptians because on the other side of the Israelite army is the Sea of Reeds.”

Schwartz, “Perhaps no event in the Book of Exodus, in fact the entire Bible has captured the imagination much like Moses parting the Sea of Reeds.  I mean who hasn’t seen the Cecil B. DeMille classic with Charlton Heston raising his arms and parting the Sea of Reeds.  It’s an incredible moment.  But I think if you look at it from a critical eye, especially the point of view of a military historian, what you see is that Moses is using an intimate knowledge of the terrain to defeat the Egyptian army without even raising a sword.”

Gabriel, “Night falls upon the encampments.  The pillar of smoke changes to a pillar of flame, and behind that pillar of flame is the escape route that Moses has planned.  Now anyone who’s been a soldier understands at night, you never look into a bright light.  If you look into a bright light, it affects your eyes for as much as 30 minutes.  So here you have a situation of a bright light burning in front of the Egyptians.  They can see the light, but they are blind to anything behind that light.  At the same time, in the midst of the night, and east wind begins to blow.”

Narrator, “An easterly wind mentioned in the Bible likely quite loud convinces Dr. Gabriel that the Egyptian soldiers on night watch might now be deaf, as well as blind.  It is at this point that Moses moves his people across the Sea of Reeds.”

Exodus 14:21, “Then Moses held out his arms over the sea, and the Lord drove back the sea with a strong east wind, all that night and turned the sea into dry ground.”

Narrator, “Some biblical historians believe the crossing of the Sea of Reeds occurs about 20 miles south of the Mediterranean Sea in an alluvial swamp–a swamp subject to tides.  One explanation of this phenomenon is that the tide goes out making the swamp passable.  The easterly wind is likely quickening the process.”

Gabriel, “Very simply, what probably was an alluvial swamp of perhaps 8-10 inches of water suddenly over a period of 45-50 minutes becomes dry.  At that point, the Israelites safely behind their bright light still blinding the Egyptians with the wind howling so they cannot hear, begin to withdraw across the Reed Sea.”

Narrator, “At dawn, Pharaoh discovers an abandoned camp.  He immediately gives chase.  But while the tide may be out, the ground is too soft to handle the weight of pharaoh’s chariots.”

Exodus 14:24, “At the morning watch, the Lord looked down upon the Egyptian army from a pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic.  He locked the wheels of their chariots so that they moved forward with difficulty.”

Gabriel, “Now while stuck in this mud, probably the tide begins to come in–perhaps some people drown.  But what is important is, that tide is going to be in for almost 8 hours now.  There’s no way for pharaoh to pursue.”

Narrator, “Pharaoh would have to march 2 hours north to a crossing at a down called Migdol to continue the pursuit.  By that time, he most likely would have lost the Israelite scent.”

Gabriel, “So here you have a fine Israeli strategic and tactical commander, making great use of his knowledge of the terrrain that he had gathered throough his own life in that area.”

The Hebrews have eluded the Egyptians…”

The film then goes on to discuss Moses training warriors for the future battle for Canaan, as well as the military campaigns of Joshua.  So what do you make of the Sea of Reeds, and this theory of the Exodus?

Palm Sunday

It is always celebrated exactly one week prior to Easter.  The celebration refers to Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey.  It is one event captured in all 4 gospels, but only The Gospel of John talks about people waving Palm fronds in front of Jesus.  The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and of victory in Jewish tradition, and it is evident that many Jews believed Jesus was more of a political/military king than a spiritual king.  There’s some interesting information at this Wikipedia Entry.  MSNBC has a nice photo of Pope Benedict the 16th celebrating Palm Sunday Mass earlier today.

I have often wondered why Palm Sunday is completely ignored by Mormons.  Palm Sunday is the beginning of the last week in the life of Jesus, and I just can’t figure out why Mormons wouldn’t want to celebrate with the rest of Christendom.  Do you have any ideas?

Passover

I didn’t realize that Passover is an eight-day celebration.  I remember attending a Passover meal and celebration with a college friend–it was a lot of fun!  I must say that Jews really know how to celebrate, and I think Mormons could learn some celebration techniques from them.  Passover is one of the most important Jewish holidays, which is also known as Pesach,  Chag he-Aviv, Chag ha-Matzoth and Z’man Cherutenu.

As you’re probably aware, the Passover celebration commemorates Moses leading the Jewish liberation from Egyptian slavery approximately 1500 years ago.  ABC annually broadcasts Cecil B. DeMille’s film, The 10 Commandments on Easter Sunday.  Moses told the Egyptian pharaoh that if he did not let the Israelites go, God would issue 10 plagues to afflict Egypt.  The term ‘Passover’ specifically refers to the 10th plague.  Moses told pharaoh that God would kill all the firstborn sons of Egypt.  Moses instructed the Israelites to spread the blood of a lamb on their doorposts so the destroying angel would “pass-over” their homes, leaving the firstborn Israelite sons alive.  This last plague finally caused pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery, and the Exodus story follows.  I plan another post specifically devoted to the Exodus theories, but I want to talk specifically about the Passover and these 10 plagues in this post.

A 2-time Emmy award winner for investigative journalism named Simcha Jacobicivi (pronounced Sim-ka Yah-cob-oh-vitch) teamed up with Titanic Director James Cameron to put together a documentary titled The Exodus Decoded.  It aired on the History Channel in 2006; you can rent it via Netflix.  Jacobovici is not a stranger to controversy.  You may be familiar with another documentary of his titled The Lost Tomb of Jesus in which he claims to have discovered the bones of Jesus and his family in Jerusalem.  He has another documentary titled Quest for the Lost Tribes in which he believes he has discovered the Lost tribes in areas such as Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, China, Burma, and Africa.  Here is a website questioning Jacobovici’s Exodus claims, and another website questioning the Lost Tomb of Jesus DVD.

Jacobovici makes a very interesting case for the 10 plagues of Egypt; he believes they were the result of the Santorini Volcano eruption of 1500 BC.  He notes similarities between the Passover narrative and a volcanic eruption in 1986 in Cameroon.  I must say that there are some startling similarities, and Jacobovici seems to have some very interesting parallels.  Let’s talk about the actual 10 plagues of Egypt.

1.  The Nile will be turned to blood. Jacobovici notes that in 1984 and 1986, separate volcanic eruptions turned Lake Monoun and Lake Nyos in Cameroon blood red.  Dr George King of the University of Michigan explained that both of these lakes contained high levels of iron.  An underwater natural gas leak created a disturbance, turning the lake red in color.  Jacobovici notes that the Nile is near a fault line.  An underground gas leak could have turned the river blood red as mentioned in the Bible.

2.  A frog infestation.  Jacobovici says that all living things in the Nile would have died due to lack of oxygen in the water resulting from the gas leak and subsequent iron stirred up in the water.  However, frogs would have been able hop out of the water, explaining the frog infestation.

3.  Lice.  With all the dead fish, lice would have been a problem.

4.  Flies.  Once again, dead fish would have attracted flies

5.  An epidemic.  Disease would have spread to everyone following the death of so many fish in the Nile.

6.  Boils.  Jacobovici notes that many people developed Boils following the 1986 eruption at Lake Nyos, Cameroon, and shows several photos of these awful boils.  Jocobovici explains that “It turns out that carbon dioxide mixed with air put people into a kind of coma, reducing circulation to the skin and causing the kind of boils described in the Bible as plague #6.”

7.  An Unusual Hail storm.  I’ll abbreviate Jacobovici as SJ in the quotes below; I want to quote directly from the DVD here.

Rabbi Chaim Sacknovitz, “The seventh plague was the plague of hail, but the Bible describes hail in a very unique manner.  The hail was together with ice with fire, the idea being that the fire and the ice mixed together, that they coexisted together.  The Bible then describes God as making a miracle within a miracle, taking opposites in nature, and having them coexist together.”

SJ, “Incredibly, there is an Egyptian papyrus that tells the exact same story.  It’s called the Ipuwer Papyrus and is dated by many scholars to the Hyksos period.  The Ipuwer Papyrus specifically states that Egypt was struck by a strange hail, made of ice and fire mingled together.  Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place.  It now seems clear that the biblical and Egyptian texts are describing what scientists call ‘accretionary lapilli”, volcanic hail, and could have only come from earthquake induced Santorini volcano.

Dr. Catherine Hickson, Geological Survey of Canada, “When the ash cloud goes up into great distances in the stratosphere, essentially what happens is that you have moisture in the atmosphere, you also have a lot of water vapor in the cloud itself, so small fragments of ash and crystal actually form the nucleus, very similar to a hail stone.”

8.  Plague of Locusts. Jacobovici says the volcano causing weather changes, and this hail storm would have excited the locusts.  He says,

Cold weather produces a drop in their body temperature and makes them land en masse.  The Volcanic hail and weather disruptions caused by the Santorini eruption would have forced great clouds of locusts which are common in this part of the world to suddenly land in Egypt.  As the hail storm cleared, and the temperature rose, so did the locusts, exactly as the Biblical account describes.

9.  Darkness. Following the Mount Saint Helens eruption, ash blocked out the sun and made it appear very dark.  Jacobovici quotes scientists as saying the cloud of ash from the Santorini eruption could have been 40 km from top to bottom, 200 km across–that would be approximately 25 miles high, and 122 miles across.  He quotes Prof Jean-Daniel Stanley of the Smithsonian Institution saying that ash was found at the ancient Egyptian capital of Avaris:  “We had to look through 10 to 20,000 grains to find one ash grain.  So, we found a total of 40 ash grains.  Not all ash looks the same.  Ash has an imprint aspect.  The ash particles that we find in the northern and northeastern Nile Delta are individual grains that came in from Santorini.”

10.  The Firstborn of Egypt die, and Israelite children are spared.  Jacobovici has an explanation for this phenomenon as well.  Once again, he cites the Cameroon eruption at Lake Nyos in 1986.

SJ, “The final plague took place at midnight, after Moses ordered the Israelites to sit down to what became known as the first Passover meal.  While the Israelites were involved in the Passover ritual, the Egyptians slept, and then it happened: every firstborn male Egyptian died.  Every house was affected.  No one has ever been able to offer up a plausible scientific explanation for the death of the firstborn until now.  According to our scenario, at this point in the sequence of events that began some 6 months earlier, the gas leaks that set the chain of plates in motion would have finally erupted.  Carbon dioxide would have seeped to the surface, and being heavier than air, would have killed animals and sleeping people before it dissipated harmlessly into the atmosphere.

In case you think all this is conjecture, consider this.  It happened in exactly the same way in 1986 at Lake Nyos, Cameroon.  On the fateful night of August 21, the villagers at Nyos went to sleep.  They couldn’t have known that the carbon dioxide gas which had turned the lake blood red, was now reaching a critical point.  As the people of Lake Nyos slept, the top of the lake was keeping the carbon down like a cap in a pop bottle.  But then the earth rumbled, and a landslide took place sending rock into the water, disturbing the surface pressure and releasing the gas.  The gas then rose to the surface, and like some alien monster, emerged from the water, droplets forming on it, turning the invisible gas  into a visible fog.  The fog then rolled across the water, and across the land, suffocating everything in its path.  And as suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared, dissolving harmlessly into the atmosphere.

The next day those who had been sleeping on higher ground woke up to find some 1800 people dead, hundreds of cattle and small animals also dead, all around there was deadly silence.

Villager, “I was sleeping among the dead people, inside the house, some of them were outside.  Animals every where lying cows, dogs, everything.  All the family, we were 56 but 53 died.”

SJ, “After the death of the first born, Pharaoh finally relented, letting Moses take his people out of Egypt.  According to the Bible, what made pharaoh give up was the selectivity of the deaths: the fact that it was only male, firstborn who died.  It was this selectivity that demonstrated to him that God himself was involved.  How can we account for this?

Well, Egyptian firstborn males had the privileged position.  They were the heirs to the throne, to property, title, and more.  They slept on Egyptian beds low to the ground, while their brothers and sisters slept on rooftops, sheds, and wagons.  The Israelites sitting up at their first Passover meal did not feel a thing, while the low traveling gas suffocated the privileged Egyptian males sleeping in their beds.  This conclusion is backed by the archaeology.  At Avaris, Professor Manfred Biatek has found mass graves dating to before and during our date for the Exodus.  The earlier graves are classic examples of ancient epidemics and killed men, women, and children.  But at the time of the Exodus, the mass grave he found has only males in it.

Biatek, “Here you see bones of burials in the early 18^th Dynasty.  They are all male victims. By the size of the graves, and the number of individuals in the graves, we think people died in rapid succession and the individuals were just thrown into the pit, some of them lying on their stomach, some lying on their side.  Some of the people were just 20 cm deep and just some dust put on top of them.  The bible says that pharaoh’s son also died during the plagues of the firstborn.  Since we claim that Ahmose is the pharaoh of the Exodus, we should be able to prove that Ahmose son died young.

Searching the Cairo museum, we found Ahmose’ son, the prince had died young, he was only 12.  For the first time ever, we have a face and a name to a victim of the biblical plagues.

So, I found this to be a really interesting scientific explanation for the plagues.  What do you think?  I found James Cameron and Simcha’s final words regarding these plagues interesting.  They discuss how these explanations will bother both skeptics and believers.

Cameron, “It seems that the Bible, geology, and archaeology, are all telling the same story.  But skeptics, who would like to regard the Exodus as myth, might resist the idea that it actually happened, because this would imply that God does indeed exist.  Believers on the other hand may feel that a scientific explanation of the Biblical story takes God out of the equation.“

SJ, “But in the book of Exodus, God does not suspend nature, he manipulates it.  In other words, according to the Bible, we should be able to understand the science behind the miracles.

Easter

You’ll notice that date of Easter varies considerably from year to year.  The reason for this is because of it’s relationship to the Passover.  Christ died during the Passover festival, and rose on the first day of the week (Sunday.)  There’s a Jewish joke that goes like this.

“When is Chanukkah this year?”

The other man smiled slyly and replied, “Same as always: the 25th of Kislev.”

There is a really interesting article on the Jewish calendar at Judaism 101.  (It’s a fantastic website.)  The Jewish calendar tries to correlate

the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year).

…

Months are either 29 or 30 days, corresponding to the 29½-day lunar cycle. Years are either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.The lunar month on the Jewish calendar begins when the first sliver of moon becomes visible after the dark of the moon. In ancient times, the new months used to be determined by observation. When people observed the new moon, they would notify the Sanhedrin. When the Sanhedrin heard testimony from two independent, reliable eyewitnesses that the new moon occurred on a certain date, they would declare the rosh chodesh (first of the month) and send out messengers to tell people when the month began.

So, you can see that a 12 or 13 month year (they have leap months instead of leap days) can wreak havoc on knowing when holidays will be as we try to correlate the Jewish calendar with our Gregorian Calendar.  As Christians were debating when to celebrate Easter, the consensus was to keep Easter near the Passover festival.  As a result, the date of Easter changes with the changes in celebration of the Passover Festival.  Another Jewish joke says that every Jewish holiday can be boiled down to “They tried to kill us.  Let’s eat.”

I wish Mormons celebrated, rather than simply observed, the Easter holiday.  It would be nice to have more of a celebration of Easter; I really like Easter gets the short shrift for celebrations, but I think that Christmas celebrations in our church are lacking as well.  Two years ago, I posted the question, Why don’t Mormons celebrate Easter? It is my #2 post over the past 2 years. I always receive a spike in hits for that post around Easter.  If you do a Google search asking “do Mormons celebrate Easter”, my post comes up on the #2 position.  I expect that as Easter approaches this week, my 2 year old post will get another spike in views, and will probably be #1 by the end of the month.

So to answer my own question is, yes, we observe Easter, but we don’t celebrate Easter.  Do you wish there was a greater emphasis on Easter?

I probably should give a review of these 3 sources.  Of the 3, I liked The Jesus Tomb best.  Jacobovici does DNA tests on the bones, chemical tests on the ossuaries, and uses statisticians to try to locate the probability of find a tomb with Jesus, two Mary’s (mother and wife), a brother James, and son of Joseph.  You may disagree with his results, but he did make a valiant effort to be scientific about it.  (A note about an ossuary.  Apparently at the time of Christ, people were often buried in a tomb.  After about a year, the body would decompose, leaving only the bones.  To save space, it was a custom to take the bones and “re-bury” them in a much smaller limestone box.  The largest bone in the body is the upper leg, so the box would only need to be about 2 feet long, and the bones would be placed there to save considerable space.  Often names were etched into these limestone boxes to identify the bones.)

Bloodline was dreadful.  Honestly, it was so hokey, I actually couldn’t pay attention to the whole thing.  It was supposedly a real life cloak and daggar documentary.  The producers would set up interviews with experts of Jesus’ bones in France, and they would either end up dead prior to the interview, or would just refuse.  Of the experts they managed to actually interview, most seemed like whack-jobs to me.  I give it no credibility.

I have just briefly skimmed the India site–I came upon it a few weeks ago.  I don’t quite know what to make of it yet.  I have heard people compare Christ to Buddha, and some claim they might have been the same person.  I do know of an ancient tradition that the Apostle Thomas (yes, Doubting Thomas) served a mission to India.  (Apparently, these claims about Thomas seem pretty credible.)  I also know that India has an ancient Christian history.  Really, I need to learn more, but it is interesting to me.

So, with Christ being resurrected, Christians would obviously find these 3 sources as problematic.  If Christ was really resurrected, there should be no bones, right?  I must say I was really intrigued by Simcha Jacobovici’s position.  Simcha is a Jew, and said that if the bones were really discovered, then it would actually give credibility to Christianity, because it would in fact give proof that Jesus was an actual person.  (Of course, there are many who claim Jesus never existed, citing lack of evidence.)

So, it got me thinking.  Obviously, all 3 can’t be right.  But what if one of them is right?  Critics of Christianity would loudly trumpet the fact that the resurrection couldn’t have happened if the bones were found.  They already make claims that say this discovery “would shake the foundations of Christianity”, seeming to imply that Christianity would somehow disappear.  But would it really disappear?

I don’t think so.  Let’s assume for sake of argument that one of these positions was scientifically proved correct–Jesus bones have been positively found.  Now, while I am sure it would cause much re-evaluation among Christians, I do not believe Christianity would vanish.  I suspect that many Christians would have to re-evaluate the resurrection.  Here’s some possible scenarios that I see happening.

(1)  The resurrection is actually not a physical resurrection.  I believe many people already believe this.  When we look at it, it’s a little tough to reconcile with the scriptures, because Jesus ate fish and honey after his resurrection.  “Touch me” was his reply–so it does seem to be a fact that he was physically resurrected.  But perhaps this physical resurrection would only apply to him, and not us?

(2)  Perhaps there was some sort of stem-cell/cloning technique for the resurrection.  Perhaps Jesus “corruptible” body is on the earth, but his new “celestial” body looks/feels the same, but is basically a perfected clone of his human body.

(3)  Perhaps the resurrection is not important at all.  Perhaps the Gnostics had it right, and the body is not needed in heaven.  Perhaps, Jesus true purpose is not the resurrection, but rather his purpose was to teach spiritual truths.  In this scenario, the resurrection is meaningless, and Christ’s atonement and teachings are what really matters.

I’m sure there are other options.  Can you think of some?  If Christ’s bones were truly found, would it really spell the end of Christianity, as skeptics claim?

Yes Mormons do believe in Easter-I just wish we did a better job of celebrating the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, rather than the Easter bunny.  Related to this current post, I did a similar, smaller post over at Mormon Matters, where I primarily asked the question if there is a Mainstream acceptance of the Mormons’ Easter story?  My post there was very short, but I have much more information here from a National Geographic DVD titled, In Search of Easter, produced around Easter 2004.  Here are some of the things I found interesting.

Discrepancies in the Gospels telling of the Easter story

Three days after the death of Jesus, comes the breathless incident, where God reveals he has awakened Jesus from the grave.  But each gospel has a slightly different version of these moments.  John offers the briefest account.  He writes that Mary Magdalene, the most prominent female disciple, discovers that the stone sealing the tomb of Jesus, has been rolled away.  She is shocked to find that his body is missing.

In Mark’s version, additional women join Mary and they also encounter an angel.  “On entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment.  And they were affrighted, and he saith unto them, Be not affrighted, ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here.  Behold the place where they have laid him.”

Luke’s gospel adds another angel to proclaim the resurrection while Matthew tells of an earthquake which has rolled the stone away.  The sentries that only Matthew mentions have been rendered unconscious.

Alternative explanations of Jesus Resurrection

The ancient Romans were anxious to dispel the rumors of Jesus resurrection.  In Matthew, there is the familiar ancient tale that the followers of Jesus stole the body.  However, the DVD has some other interesting ideas.

Prof of Biblical Studies, Daniel Smith-Christopher, Loyola Marymount University, “Why didn’t the enemies of the early Christians, particularly the Romans who killed him in the first place, simply quash this whole Christian business at the source and simply say, ‘Look, here is the body!  Enough of this nonsense!’  The fact that they cannot do that, this obvious move, lends an even greater mystery to the events that we see as the resurrection of Jesus.”

If the body of Jesus was missing from the tomb, is it possible that it was never there in the first place?

Thomas Sheehan, professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, “Probably no one knew where Jesus’ body was located because he was executed as a common criminal, the chances are he was buried either in a common grave, or left for animals to devour.”

John Dominic Crossan, Professor emeritus, DePaul University, “The Roman execution and crucifixion tended to leave the body there until there was nothing left to be buried.  That’s what crucifixion meant.  It wasn’t a question of making you suffer; it was a question of annihilating your identity, not even leaving enough to be buried.  That is the awful possibility that that’s [sic] what the Romans did to the body of Jesus.”

Luke Timothy Johnson, professor of New Testament and Christian origins, Emory University, “History has to do with the exceptions, rather than with the norm, that is Jesus had followers, he had sympathizers.  He had people who cared for him. It’s far more plausible to me historically, that something like the version that Jesus was buried in a tomb by somebody who was sympathetic to him, is roughly reliable.”

Women’s role in the Resurrection

Women who announce Resurrection actually lends credibility to the story, according to scholars.

Smith-Christopher, “If you were to make up this story, and to make it more believable, you certainly wouldn’t choose the witness of women, because at the time of Jesus, women’s social standing was very low indeed.  Women would not have been trusted as the most reliable witnesses.”

(Luke 24:9)  “And they returned from the tomb and reported all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest.  And these words appeared unto them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.”

According to John’s gospel, only Peter and an unnamed disciple are curious enough to investigate the empty tomb for themselves.  (John 20:6)  “Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and a napkin that was about his head, not lying within the clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.’  John’s Gospel goes onto report that the amazed Peter, and his companion, depart the tomb, leaving Mary Magdalene to behold the impossible.”

Amy Jill-Levine, Professor of New Testament studies, Vanderbilt University, “A man calls her, she turns and sees, she supposes him to be the gardener.  And she says, ‘please sir, tell me where you have taken the body so that I can claim it.  And when the man calls her by name, Miriam, she recognizes in fact that this is no gardener, this is her resurrected Lord, appearing to her in the flesh.”

Why did people fail to recognize Jesus?

Smith-Christopher, “The way John  goes on to tell the story, Mary has, what we would take to be a very natural reaction-she wants to grasp and hug Jesus, and Jesus tells Mary, ‘no, not yet.  I can’t be touched yet.’  And it lends an interesting any mysterious air to the whole episode.”

Mary’s encounter, according to the Gospels, is only the beginning.  Luke describes another sighting that occurs later that day.  Two of Jesus’ followers, who have just witnessed the crucifixion, are travelling on the road to Emmaus, a road north of Jerusalem.  They are not aware that their martyred teacher intends to extend their education.

Johnson, “The two disciples are walking along disconsolate, after the events that have taken place in Jerusalem.  And they’re discussing what had happened.  And as they’re walking along, they’re joined by a stranger, who they don’t recognize, and who enters into conversation with them.”

Jill-Levine, “They’re surprised that the stranger had not heard about the death of Jesus, and as they continued to talk and to walk, they describe to this stranger, what Jesus had done, what he stood for.  And as day started to progress toward night, the stranger announced that he would leave.  And the followers said, ‘No, no, no.  Why don’t you come and have supper with us?”  And the stranger agrees. And as they’re sitting at supper, the stranger begins to explain to them the truth of the story of Jesus, unpacked through the sacred scripture that all Jews held at the time, what Christians today would call the Old Testament.”

Crossan, “And the stranger gives them almost a graduate course in the interpretation of scripture, showing them that if they understood their scriptures, they would not have been surprised that even the messiah would be executed.  Then comes the crucial point of the story.  Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and hands it out, the Eucharistic formula, and they recognize Jesus!”

Smith-Christopher, “And it’s only  as they begin to comprehend the significance of what this stranger has been saying, we have this movement of comprehension, when they recognize their former teacher.  I think that this is very important, the sense of which, the gospels tells us, it’s when we recognize the importance of what he taught us, that we suddenly recognize him.”

Luke’s account then takes an abrupt twist.  At the very moment that the disciples recognize Jesus, he suddenly vanishes.

Why does Jesus keep disappearing?

Johnson, “This odd appearing/disappearing of Jesus and the appearing accounts has a very important message, and that is the resurrection is not resuscitation.  Jesus does not open an office.  He’s not there permanently.  He’s not there in his former somatic limitedness.  He’s a surprising presence.  He intrudes, he interrupts, he is not predictable, he is not controllable, and in that sense, he shares the life of the living God.”

Smith-Christopher, “The appearing and disappearing are kind of moving us towards the reality that we are going to live with for the rest of time, and that is that we don’t  have the physical presence of Jesus anymore with us, we have as it were the spiritual presence of Jesus with us.  There’s a sense of we’re getting used to the fact that now, the physical presence of Jesus is no longer going to be accessible to us.”

The Mormon Easter Story

Could yet another possibility exist that explains Jesus sporadic appearances.  Is it possible that he did not limit his visits to ancient Israel?  This is the intriguing scenario described in the Book of Mormon.  The book which emerged in 19^th century America is revered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as God’s Holy Word.”

Kathleen Flake, Assistant Professor of American Religious History, Vanderbilt University, “The Book of Mormon is an account of a civilization that lived in the Americas between about 600 years before Jesus was born, until about 400 years after he died.  The centerpiece of this story, is Jesus’ appearance to them, after he died, and was resurrected.  He comes to the Americas with business in mind.  Jesus will say to these people in the Americas, now I said to the Jews in Palestine ‘other sheep I have which are not of this fold, and they misunderstood me.  They thought I meant the gentiles, but no.  I meant you.  I meant you’re the other sheep; I must come visit you, I must manifest myself unto you so that you can bear witness to the world about the nature of God, and how to receive a forgiveness of sin, or more to the point, how you can overcome the circumstances of the world and be made one with God.’”

According to the Book of Mormon, the risen Jesus remains with America’s ancient tribes for 3 or 4 days.  He then vanishes and then makes sporadic appearances for an unspecified period of time.

Jesus appearance to 500

One episode in the New Testament’s eastern narrative cries out as perhaps its greatest paradox.  Why would Jesus’ appearance before the greatest number of people, be described in the fewest number of words?

Johnson, “In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul gives a recitation of those who had experiences and appearance of Jesus.  He includes a puzzling reference to 500 at one time, some of whom are still around and are able to bear testimony to this fact.  The most puzzling thing about this is that there is no story about it in the gospels as such.  We would think that if there were such an event, it certainly would be included among the resurrections stories of Jesus, or the appearances.”

Smith-Christopher, “Now for Paul, he just sort of mentions this in passing.  Now of course, when we moderns read that, we want to say, “Stop!  Wait!  Back up!  What do you mean 500 people?  Who were they?  What were they?  Where were they?  When did this happen?’  And we’re terribly frustrated about the fact that Paul just sort of mentions it in passing.  Clearly, his concerns were elsewhere.  He was already arriving at the issue of ‘what does all this mean’?  Not, ‘did it actually happen?’”

I could write more, but what do you think of some of these things?  Are Mormon scriptures beginning to get some mainstream acceptance?  Were Jesus bones never found because there was nothing left?  Why don’t we know more about this appearance to 500?

In 410 AD, the Roman Empire stretched from Africa to Britain. Christianity was the official faith of the Empire. At this time, the empire started to fail, and barbarians descended on Rome. Troops were recalled to protect the city, leaving outlying areas unprotected. Fifth century Ireland was untouched by Rome and Christianity. These Norsemen descended on Britain, capturing a boy 16 year old boy named Succat, later to be known as Patrick. He entered Ireland as a slave, where he was a shepherd. He was a slave for 6 years, before God told him in a dream to run away. Quoting from the DVD,

“Escaping across the Irish sea, the now devout youth was reunited with his overjoyed parents. But Patrick seemed changed, restless, unable to settle down. One night in a dream he has a vision of the Irish people. They asked him, with one voice, to return to them and to bring them the word of God. Thus Patrick’s journey to sainthood begins.

Patrick studies for 12 years to prepare himself, and in 432, he is sent to Ireland as a missionary bishop. This is his long-awaited opportunity to spread the Gospel among the Irish. Patrick is not blinded to the risk of challenging the gods of the war-like Irish, yet he defies the Druid priest by lighting the forbidden fire high on the hill Swain to celebrate Easter.

Despite these obstacles to converting the Irish, Patrick succeeds where others might have failed, perhaps because he teaches the Irish a Christianity that harmonizes easily with their indigenous religion.

Terence Murphy, professor of history at American University says, “The groundwork was laid by the Celtic religion of Druidism, which had an emphasis on the sacred number 3. The Irish were already used to gods who had 3 persons. There was an emphasis on immortality, the immortality of the soul, and an emphasis on resurrection in the afterlife in the Druidic religion.

Patrick also presents to the Irish a benevolent, rather than a punishing God, a god who created the world for human beings to enjoy. These beliefs are expressed in an ancient prayer, attributed to him.

…

Legends about St. Patrick abound. It is said that he used the shamrock to explain the trinity, that he drove the snakes from Ireland. By the time of Patrick’s death in 461, Ireland is overwhelmingly Christian. With Patrick now gone, what emerges from the Irish landscape, is a new society, a society of monks. They are the spiritual heirs of Patrick. Neither they, nor Patrick could know that they would preserve the best of classical civilization, not only for Ireland, but for all of Europe. Within a decade of Patrick’s mission, there are hundreds of monasteries all over the countryside.

In contrast to the European continent, where the bishops of large cities hold authority, in Ireland, it is the abbots of monasteries who preside over religious life. The role of the abbot is not the only unique aspect of Celtic Christianity. Irish priests hear private confessions, while a Roman Christians must confess their sins before the entire congregation. The Celtic Church also refuses to legislate private moral and social behavior. One of the ways the faith of the Irish takes flight is reflected in the roles of women. Bridget of Kildare is a powerful leader of the Irish Christian church.

Terence Murphy relates that ‘In Ireland, there are female saints, like Bridget. Bridget stands out because she is the female equivalent for Ireland of Patrick. She is regarded in a special way. One of her names in the Middle Ages was ‘Mary of the Gael,’ In other words, the virgin Mary equivalent of the Irish people.’

This Mary of Ireland would found, build, and supervise, an immense monastery, housing both nuns and monks. And now something amazing begins to transpire in the great monastic centers of Ireland. A society that before Patrick, had relied solely on an oral tradition, now becomes literate under the guidance of Christian missionaries. In a matter of a generation, Irish monks not only read and write, but had become the world’s finest scholars in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.

Terence Murphy relates that ‘The Irish monks had an ethos of study, as a way of worshipping God: work, and prayer, and study. Their work was largely copying down manuscripts, preserving learning, as well as augmenting learning. So at the center of every Irish monastic institution, there would be a Scriptorium, a place of writing and a library, a place for studying.

The flowering of Irish learning comes not a moment too soon. In the chaos of the barbarian invasions, all the great libraries of Western Europe are destroyed. Yet, while the ancient classical civilizations are crumbling, Irish monks are devoting themselves to copying and preserving the literature of the vanishing culture.

Paul L Maier, professor of History, Western Michigan University states, ‘I think it would be safe to say that every book written before the year 1000 AD—that includes all of the Greco-Roman classics, that includes all of Holy Scripture, Old and New Testaments, that includes all the theological works, from the Jewish side, that includes Josephus, from Augustin or anyone else, we would not have these books today, if it had not been for the manuscript recopying in these monasteries.’

And so it is in western history and culture, are preserved intact by the hand of a few Irish monks as the monks on this wind-swept island toil away at their illuminating manuscripts. Western Europe enters the period that would come to be known as the Dark Ages, ushered in by the barbarian invasions and the fall of Rome.

It seems that Mormons often look down on other religions when we refer to the Apostasy.  I can remember attending a Lutheran Bible Study class years ago.  When I spoke to the Lutheran priest, he said that Mormons act like nothing happened between 100 AD and 1830.  He found that Mormons were completely unaware of most history, and I must say I still agree with him.  I have endeavored to learn more.

Without St Patrick, and the conversion of Ireland, Christianity would have lost some priceless treasures that all Christians enjoy.  I think St Patrick’s missionary stories should be better known, and lauded by all Christians.  I think his life is an example of Christian service, and forgiveness, that we all should emulate.

Here are some of the more interesting quotes from the article:

“Some Christians will find it shocking — a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology — while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism,” Mr. Boyarin said.

“This should shake our basic view of Christianity,” [Mr. Knohl] said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. “Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”

The article states that many scholars believe that the gospel stories where Jesus predicted his own death were actually manufactured stories by Jesus’ followers.  However, this tablet would seem to refute that argument, since it dates before the time of Christ.

So, after reading the article, what are your thoughts?  Is your faith in Christianity strengthened, weakened, or about the same as before?

First of all, let me state that I am a believing mormon. I believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, I believe in the Book of Mormon, I believe in the Bible, I believe going to church is a good, worthy endeavor, and I am very supportive of the good service that is performed in every ward in the church. (I guess you could call these my personal Articles of Faith.)

For many, Church is a social club. If they don’t feel welcome in a congregation, then keep shopping around until you find one they like. I think there is some merit to this. For people who are not strong believers in Christ, it is important to be edified in order to become more Christian. Christian fellowship is an important and powerful tool for good. Church should be very welcoming, or people will not want to come to church. I do go to church for social reasons, but it is not the only reason I go.

The Sabbath Day has a very interesting history. According to the Bible, God created the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th. Jesus observed Sabbath on the 7th day. On my mission, I had an interesting experience. I was talking to someone on the phone who told me they believed that the Book of Mormon was the Word of God, as well as the Doctrine & Covenants, and felt that Joseph Smith was a prophet. However, this man refused to be baptized, because he couldn’t figure out why Mormons didn’t observe the Sabbath on the 7th day (Saturday.) I asked him if he would change his mind if I could find a revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants stating that the Sabbath should be on Sunday. He said if I could find it, he would be baptized.

At first I thought this was an easy challenge. I decided to research, but couldn’t find anything specifically commanding Joseph to observe the Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday. Then I remembered that Joseph was commanded to organize the church on April 6, 1830. I figured that of course that day must be a Sunday. To my surprise, I discovered that Joseph Smith organized the church on Tuesday, April 6, 1830. (To verify, here is a link–of course I didn’t have the internet on my mission, but found it another way.)

Thus began an interesting search into Sabbath Day observance for me. I learned that early Christians continued to observe the Sabbath on the 7th day, as Jesus did, but as it says in Acts 20:7, they also met on the first day of the week, “to break bread” and Paul preached until midnight.

The most important reason to attend church is the sacrament. This is one of the first church services that is specifically mentioned on the first day of the week. Why did they choose to meet on the first day? That is the day Jesus was resurrected. It is in remembrance of Jesus. So in a sense, every Sunday is Easter. (Now you know why I think Easter should have more importance in our church.)

The change of the Sabbath from the 7th day, to the 1st day fulfills Old Testament prophecy in Hosea 2:11, which says concerning Israel, “I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.” So the 7th day Sabbath worship was too cease, and we don’t celebrate jewish feasts any more either.

I got transferred before I found this information out, and never talked to the man again. Since he was a staunch 7th-Day Adventist, I’m not sure how convinced he would be anyway. Are you convinced? (I can provide more scriptures, but I think this will do for now.)

So, I go to church to remember Jesus. I go to remember the resurrection. I go to partake of the sacrament. The resurrection is especially important to me–I have lost a brother and sister within the last 10 years, and I am extremely grateful for the gift of the resurrection so that I can see them again.

As for the social reasons of going to church, I have been in many different wards. Some are very spiritual, some social, some with really odd people, and some quite boring. In my teenage years, I lived in a ward that I referred to as the “Nursing Home ward.” There were maybe a dozen teenagers in the ward, and it was full of really old, retired, wealthy people. The funeral to baby blessing ratio was about 20 funerals for every baby.

My current ward is just the opposite. We have about 3-5 baby blessings every month, and except for a few infants who have died at or near birth, we haven’t had any funerals. There is an excellent primary program in my ward, and my kids love to go because they have great teachers. On the other hand, sacrament meeting is quite noisy, and the teachers for Sunday School and Priesthood generally say things like, “I’m not a very good teacher”, I hope you can make a lot of comments today or we will get out really early,” and are generally quite unprepared.

I suppose I’m a little jaded, because I was the Gospel Doctrine teacher until a few months ago. I taught every other week, and often spent about 10 hours preparing my lessons. (Ok, I’m one of those weird people who actually likes to teach, and study the scriptures.) I often had videos like “Mysteries of the Bible” which illustrated a specific point of the lesson. Often I had powerpoint slides. When studying Isaiah, I even referenced non-King James Versions of the Bible to help us understand the archaic language. (The Blue Letter Bible website has KJV and about 14 other versions of the Bible.) I stayed on the topic of the lesson, and tried to ask pointed questions to elicit thought.

I frequently got compliments, but apparently my use of materials outside the LDS church made people uncomfortable. I was called into the bishop’s office, and told not to use non-KJV bibles, because “a stake visitor” (who I think was my bishop) thought it might harm some of the weaker testimonies in the ward. Are you kidding me? I thought Joseph Smith said we were supposed to “study the words of Isaiah”. How can we study it if we can’t even understand what he’s saying? Anyway, I was released soon after this.

So, I was replaced with people who didn’t want the calling (unlike me, who loved the calling), and they practically read the lesson manual, asking all the same questions we’ve all answered 100 times since seminary. So that’s part of the reason I complain, because I care. But I still go to church, because remembering the Savior and the Sacrament are much more important to me than teaching Sunday School. And helping my kids gain a testimony of Jesus Christ, learning Christian ideals, and being a good person is very important to me.

I still watch “Mysteries of the Bible”, read non-KJV bibles, and use the bloggernacle to edify me for my Sunday School lessons….. That’s why I’m a heretic. So let me pose some questions to you: Why do/don’t you go to church? For the non-religious types, does the Bible/BOM/Koran trouble you? Does religion in general trouble you? Are my reasons good/bad/misinformed?

Certainly we believe in the resurrection. However, in comparison to other Christian denominations, mormon celebration is a yawner. There is no Easter fireside by the first presidency. Congregation celebrations depend solely on the bishop. Some wards have nice Easter services, while others barely mention it.

Shouldn’t there be more celebration of Easter?