Discover the spiritual depths of Easter as I, Arlo Johnson, guide you through the profound origins of this pivotal Christian event. Together, we'll strip away the veil of commercialization—bunnies and eggs—to contemplate the Last Supper, Jesus' sacrifice, and how His trials were written into divine law for the salvation of humanity. This episode, far from a typical holiday narrative, unearths the solemnity buried beneath today’s festive façade and challenges modern traditions with an alternative timeline that aligns more closely with Biblical scripture.
Prepare to be moved as we juxtapose the humble locust with the formidable force they represent en masse, mirroring the biblical forces that will accompany Jesus Christ's foretold return. We'll grapple with the symbols of divine power and the futility of resisting such forces, reflecting on the true humility and gratitude we owe for the sacrifice of Jesus. As we approach Easter, I encourage you to say His name with conviction, fostering a practice of recognition that transcends mere tradition. This episode is not just a conversation but a heartfelt invitation to engage with the deeper spiritual significance of this sacred time.
Discover the spiritual depths of Easter as I, Arlo Johnson, guide you through the profound origins of this pivotal Christian event. Together, we'll strip away the veil of commercialization—bunnies and eggs—to contemplate the Last Supper, Jesus' sacrifice, and how His trials were written into divine law for the salvation of humanity. This episode, far from a typical holiday narrative, unearths the solemnity buried beneath today’s festive façade and challenges modern traditions with an alternative timeline that aligns more closely with Biblical scripture.
Prepare to be moved as we juxtapose the humble locust with the formidable force they represent en masse, mirroring the biblical forces that will accompany Jesus Christ's foretold return. We'll grapple with the symbols of divine power and the futility of resisting such forces, reflecting on the true humility and gratitude we owe for the sacrifice of Jesus. As we approach Easter, I encourage you to say His name with conviction, fostering a practice of recognition that transcends mere tradition. This episode is not just a conversation but a heartfelt invitation to engage with the deeper spiritual significance of this sacred time.
Good afternoon. This is Arlo Johnson in Vernon, british Columbia, coming to you today at 3.04pm on the 28th of March. Tomorrow is the 29th Friday, the Good Friday. Hope you're all well. Good Friday, hope you're all well. So I guess we're going to be celebrating Easter, starting in a few hours 2,024 of them so I thought maybe we should talk about that a little.
Speaker 1:
According to what we know about it, jesus had a Passover what he called a Passover and had his disciples there and broke bread and wine with them. You know, said eat this in remembrance of my body, drink this in remembrance of my blood, and all the other things that they did in that. And I imagine the people, the disciples, sitting there were most likely wondering you know what the heck is going on? You know what is this all about? I mean, wouldn't you think so? I mean they didn't have a clue what really what he was talking about, except they believed what he was saying, but they weren't too sure what it meant. You know, he went on about a lot of things, on about a lot of things. What he was doing at that supper was the culmination of something that had been decided like thousands of years before, when the Godhead decided that he was the one who was going to die for the sins of the people that God was going to create, so that God could have sons. God could have sons. God had to make it so that the had to be, so that they wanted to keep his law, because his law was final and it was a law for all. You know, all universe, I guess that if you broke this law, your penalty was death. So God, in His wisdom, said you will have to die in their place to satisfy the law, because my law is supreme, can't be broken. I can't break it, even if it's my law, even if I'm, you know for me to be just and true, I can't break my own law. Now, when they said, when Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, he was sweating blood, he didn't like to do what he had to do and then, of course, he asked his father if he could take this cup away from me. What he meant is you know, can I get this Some way? We can do without this? And because he would have full knowledge about what was going to happen to him and, being he was in a human body, he would suffer and the suffering would be horrendous and his suffering had to equal the death of all the human race and in God's eyes it did so.
Speaker 1:
When people celebrate Easter with Easter bunnies and eggs and stuff, like we do, it's a far cry from acknowledging what really happened. You know, it's sort of been hijacked. In fact, I would say it's been hijacked. Yeah, bunnies and chocolate, eggs and rabbits. And yeah, parades, easter parades, parades, easter parades. Tomorrow, no, sunday, we'll be having a big Easter Sunday lunch, full bore deal. I think it'll be an all-Turkey lunch and people all over the world will be celebrating.
Speaker 1:
But I wonder how many really think about it when they're celebrating. This thing that really makes it binding is that God has said since that has taken place and that has been done, not because I couldn't get it done and you couldn't get it done. Way back in history they couldn't get it done. Nothing could affect that. That was God's choice to do that Before there was a world, before there was anything, long before. And I don't know how many people think about that, because now God says to them, I guess in the Bible and through other means and whatever else if you believe that Christ died for you and that I sent him to this planet to be born as a man and to live as a man, a human, and to take the punishment that I was going to punish everybody with all on him, so that you could be saved as my sons. Now that gets pretty deep, you know. For most people that's pretty deep. And the thing is, once you kind of realize that, you stop and think and you say you know, this is a hard thing to understand, but it's also, you know, it's a, it's an earth-shattering thing, it's, it's a biggest, one of the biggest things that ever happened in the universe, I would think, and comes around every year. I mean, I wouldn't mind going somewhere and take a communion on it or something there. I think, if that represents, I think it does, but I don't know of any right now. So I could. I know one place I could go.
Speaker 1:
Now the thing is why I'm mentioning it is just mentioning it to you, to sort of remind you about this and to say that the whole, not the whole world you can't say the whole world, a good chunk of the world will celebrate this Good Friday and then Saturday, and then he didn't rise on Sunday. That's the problem. He didn't Because you can't. There's no way you can have a person, somebody crucified dead, killed on Friday at three o'clock in the afternoon, and rise from the dead on Sunday morning at six am or something and say that's three days, it's not three days, so that Good Friday business doesn't work. I think he has to be crucified on a Wednesday, thursday, wednesday, thursday, three o'clock one day, friday three o'clock. That's two days. Saturday, whatever, that's three days. And he raises on Sunday morning, saturday night, sunday morning, that would be it and that is the way the Bible actually reads it, because they have the two Sabbaths in there, the high Sabbath and the regular Sabbath day. So Good Friday is not Good Friday, good Wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, and when that is over, let's say it's three or four in the afternoon when he actually died. Three or four in the afternoon on Saturday, after, say, three four o'clock would be total of three nights, three days and three nights.
Speaker 1:
So I mean you can't change that, you can say all kinds of things, but there's no place that says in the Bible that it's a lot like his birthday, december 25th. There's no shepherds caring for their flocks out in the hills on December 26th, maybe September 26th, maybe September 26th. They were caring for their flocks at night. They were there and it was not December because they have winter. They have winter in Israel, december because they have winter there, have winter in Israel. And when you hear, when you think about the whole thing, the you know when they, when the three shepherds, came and told them that they had seen this light and they heard the angels sing or do whatever, and said you know, unto you this day is given a Savior, and the good news is he is the savior of the world and you will find it. They told the shepherds. You will find him lying in the manger. And so they went and they found him. And I don't know how these stories get so mixed up. If you know, I'd like you to tell me, because there's some pretty obvious things that happen. Like it was not in December.
Speaker 1:
Now, why is it celebrated in December? It's celebrated with another I forget who, it was some other holiday mixed in with it that they combined the two to get the people to agree to their type of Christianity. Same as the Yule Log Log. That's from Scandinavia, saint Nicholas is like from Germany, and all these different customs. Not in the Bible, mind you, people.
Speaker 1:
Christmas is one of the biggest holidays of the year. It is the biggest holiday of the year, biggest holiday, biggest money maker. You know, the money makers of this world are not Christian holidays, they're pagan holidays, but the Catholic Church makes sure that they celebrate them and all through history and stuff there's been all these traditions't keep all kinds of them. I mean, the Jews do, but we don't. I think we should, I imagine we should. You know, it's a Feast of Tabernacles, feast of oh, I forget what they are. There's about five, or I think four or five.
Speaker 1:
Feast of Tabernacles is the main one and God has said, when this thousand year reign of Christ takes place, that if, if, leaders of countries on earth do not come up and worship Christ on the Feast of Tabernacles, that their country, their nation or whatever will not receive any rain. So what are they going to do? They may not do it for one year, but the next year they'll be there. Huh, you know, I have said this before and it's kind of amazing is that God does not have submarines, battleships, b-20, b-52s, missiles, atomic bombs, none of those things, and yet he can demolish any army anytime he wants, but just natural things burning sulfur like balls of it, 75 pound chunks of ice, winds, hurricanes, all kinds of things, locks of all kinds of things, flocks of what do you call them Locusts?
Speaker 1:
I guess they're kind of like grasshoppers, but they're locusts, not flocks. But just you know, the whole sky turns black with them. It'll stop anything, doesn't matter what, because it's enough of it, just blankets everything. So isn't that strange the difference between, and then the power it says. You know, it's amazing where it says Jesus Christ comes back to this planet to save it from destroying itself. This is a shining light, coming dressed in this robe, soaked in blood and whatever else, and he has a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth, huge sword that's hard to imagine. Like, I mean, how big is this sword? Is it three feet, three hundred feet? He swings this around and wipes everything out, fire, make fire come down and engulf them all in fire. Yeah, ice water and fire and wind and hail. Ice water and fire and wind and hail. There's nothing that can stand up to that, no earthly thing.
Speaker 1:
So you know, I'm going to try, and I'm going to try and think about what Jesus went through on Good Friday and hopefully I'll feel humble enough to thank him for it. Hopefully I'll feel humble enough to thank him for it. I mean, there's no way I can really understand what it was, or neither can you, but you know, I think it would be incumbent on people to recognize what was sacrificed for you and me, and that's what Easter is supposed to be about. So we'll leave it there and I wish you a very, I hope, a good Easter I don't know if I should say happy, but a good Easter, one that humbles people and makes them realize what Jesus Christ actually did.
Speaker 1:
And I think a person has to practice saying Jesus Christ and acknowledge him so that that name does not stick in your throat. Like he said and I think that's true there's people that bring up his name. They don't like to hear it, they stiffen up, and that should not be the case. It should be the other way around. So, anyway, have a good, great Easter and hopefully, hopefully, we'll pay attention to what it really should mean. So God bless you and good night.