Do Born Again Christian Celebrate Holy Week

Past Jun P. Espina | Last updated on April 2nd, 2021 at 08:29 am

One significant question is that if we are 18-carat born-again Christians, exercise we need to celebrate or observe the Holy Week? In just a mouse click away, we could Google dozens of the list of religious holidays (or holydays?) The Jewish religion, Islam, Catholicism, Seventh Mean solar day Adventism, among other religious groups observe "holidays requiring absence from work beyond existing Statutory Holidays." What is the significant of the Christian Holy Week observance among the Catholics and other Christian denominations?

Is Holy Calendar week observance a biblical requirement or ordinance for the real born-again followers of Christ?

The Holy Week, co-ordinate to Wikipedia, is "the last week of Lent, and includes Palm Dominicus, Holy Midweek (Spy Wednesday), Maundy Thursday (Holy Th), Good Friday (Holy Friday), and Holy Sat." Lent, some other source tells the states that, it "is the twoscore day season prior to Easter. It is a penitential fourth dimension of prayer and fasting."

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Such Christian denominations as the Baptist, the Lutheran, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Evangelical Fellowship, etc. don't take religious holidays requiring absence from work.

The Core Didactics Backside the Christian Holy Week Observance

The Holy Week, taught the adept Catholics, is the "penitential time of prayer and fasting." I had a Catholic relative who practiced fasting during the Holy Week and would also look sorry the entire week. When I asked her what happened, she was quick to tell me that "Today (Holy Fri), God died." Okay, Jesus Christ is God the Son and not but Son of God (I posted the same idea on Twitter, and I got a 'violent reaction'!) and He died over 2,000 years ago. Not only that. He rose from the grave with a glorified body and so ascended to sky. Now, why should I mourn when my Lord Jesus Christ is live today? What is Holy Calendar week? My Lord and Savior is alive forever!

I noticed the less educated Filipinos in the remote villages preparing their amulets and other forms of witchcraft on Holy Friday for the witless reason that God is dead. The unabridged gild of demons would convincingly exist in full force during the Holy Calendar week since demonism ever thrives on the dehydration of fanaticism. The Christian Holy Week observance requires a thorough test based on the Holy Bible if, indeed, God demands its keeping.

The Christian Holy Calendar week Observance: A Misunderstood Religious Commemoration?

Baptists and other Christian denominations don't brand the Holy Week a biblical ordinance to observe. One reason is that real Christians make the essence of the Holy Week the core foundation of their faith. It is the entire Gospel (1 Cor. fifteen:ane-4) that Christ died and rose again. We don't take the Holy Week every bit a once-a-year observance but rather the daily content in our meditation—that Christ died and rose again for me to live forever in heaven!

"We don't take the Holy Calendar week as a once-a-year observance but rather the daily content in our meditation—that Christ died and rose again for me to live forever in heaven!"

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A few ultra-fanatical men would volunteer to exist crucified every Holy Week in the Philippines to allegedly "nail their sins." Such a exercise happens for lack of knowledge of the Scriptures. Christ said in John 19:thirty: "It is finished." A imitation copy of what our Lord did is just Satanic, Satan being the number one glory-grabber. Concerning God'southward jealous nature, observe Isaiah 42:8:

I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not requite My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.—Isaiah 42:eight

While writing this lilliputian article, a grouping of decent and well-educated good Catholics of our village passed by my house praying "Hail Mary" using a loudspeaker. Listening to them, I asked myself: Why, what happened? My Jesus Christ rose from the grave over 2,000 years agone; He won't die again today, Holy Friday, volition He?

The Christian Holy Calendar week observance is Non Fasting or Week of Mourning

They said the Holy Week is "a penitential time of prayer and fasting." Penitential ways a "voluntary self-punishment in order to absolve for some wrongdoing." In short, the Christian Holy Week observance is going to be a remorseful week of reflection and confession (for the Catholics) for everything incorrect that nosotros did the whole year before the Holy Week. Am I correct in saying that we need to spend the Holy Week as a fourth dimension of "voluntary self-punishment in order to absolve for some wrongdoing"?

Biblical righteousness does not come through obedience to the Law, otherwise, "Christ died needlessly."

If so, then Christ, to borrow from the campaigner Paul, "died needlessly." Hither is the total message of Paul: "I practise not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Constabulary, then Christ died needlessly." (Gal. ii:21) What'due south the point? Well, nosotros don't need a penance or a "voluntary cocky-penalisation" to be forgiven by God, since righteousness does not come through obedience to the Constabulary, otherwise, "Christ died needlessly."

The Bible said that righteousness comes through organized religion (in Christ who died for our sins!) and not through obedience to the Law.

JUSTIFIED Past Organized religion, NOT BY WORKS

21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed past the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the celebrity of God,
24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
25 whom God displayed publicly every bit a propitiation in His claret through organized religion. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, and then that He would exist just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Where then is boasting? Information technology is excluded. By what kind of constabulary? Of works? No, only by a law of religion.
28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. (Romans three)

OF FASTING AND MOURNING

Fasting is okay; exercise it if you like—it is even good for the health. Only by fasting this Holy Week, you lot meant penance or voluntary self-penalization to pay off your sins, then you are doing it in pure ignorance of the Holy Scriptures. Outset, we desire to reiterate that the Christian Holy Week observance is not a biblical ordinance or decree for usa to observe as in the example of baptism and the Lord'south Supper. You'll find real believers of Christ on the beaches or other tourist destinations during the Holy Week while well-nigh good Catholics are sorrowing for Christ's struggles with His cantankerous. As built-in-again Christians, these two but mentioned are the just ordinances we need to observe. The Holy Week is not decreed scripturally for Christ'southward followers to continue.

To think Christ during the Holy Calendar week is a source of awareness for the non-Christians. But, we, born-again believers, believe in Christ Jesus more than the and then-called Christian Holy Week observance. For we are doing "Holy Calendar week" in our hearts daily — even hourly. We are happy for our biblical Jesus for He died and rose over again to give u.s. eternal life — through our faith in Him every bit but Lord and Savior! We continue the Holy Week like keeping our loved ones in our hearts every moment — non just once a twelvemonth!

What about human foot washing? Well, a few denominations introduce human foot washing but no scripture to authorize information technology as an ordinance for the Christian believers' observance.

HOW DID BAPTISM BY IMMERSION AND THE LORD'S SUPPER BECOME AN ORDINANCE?

Roman Catholicism taught Baptism and Communion or Lord's Supper as sacred and a necessary rite beingness a office of the salvation of the soul from sin. The Biblical Christians, on the other mitt, see Baptism and the Lord'due south Supper as representations of the gospel that Christ died and rose once more and that they cannot salvage a single soul at all. "For past grace," wrote the campaigner Paul, "y'all take been saved through religion; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not every bit a result of works, so that no i may boast." (Eph. two:eight-9) If you recollect that doing some fasting and mourning is necessary for your spiritual life during the Holy Week to increase your chances of conservancy and forgiveness, so you are non a biblical "Christian." Christ died to save you since you lot can not salve yourself—you can not exist saved past your good works (fasting, etc.) "and then that no one may boast."

How did baptism by immersion (not sprinkling, definitely), you may enquire, and the Lord's Supper become an ordinance? Well, firstly, an ordinance means it was required by Christ, taught by the apostles, and practiced by the early Church. Hither's how Christ required His followers to submit to h2o baptism: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the proper noun of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt. 28:19) As mentioned above, baptism is a type of the Gospel that Christ died and rose again. Discover the following Scripture:

3 Or practise yous not know that all of united states of america who have been baptized into Christ Jesus accept been baptized into His decease?
4 Therefore we have been cached with Him through baptism into decease, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Male parent, so we likewise might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have go united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our sometime self was crucified with Him, in social club that our body of sin might exist [d]washed away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
vii for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, nosotros believe that we shall also live with Him,
nine knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die over again; death no longer is master over Him.
10 For the expiry that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Even so consider yourselves to exist expressionless to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 6:3-xi)

For the Lord's Supper, Christ required us to do it "in remembrance of Me." And then, the campaigner Paul interpreted the ordinance past saying "For equally often as yous consume this bread and drink the loving cup, you proclaim the Lord'southward death until He comes." Compared with the once-a-year Holy Week observance, all we can say is that nosotros practise recollect Christ's sufferings and victory "equally often equally you eat this bread and drink the cup" — not just during the Holy Calendar week!

What about the sacrament of communion practiced by the Roman Catholics, is it not the remembrance of Christ'due south sufferings? The respond is Yes. The problem is that in Catholicism, the emphasis is non Christ but the power of the priest (and the Cosmic Church building, in general) to convert the bread into Christ's existent and actual body during the Mass.

This is how Wikipedia puts it: "Transubstantiation (in Latin, transsubstantiatio, in Greek μετουσίωσις metousiosis) is, co-ordinate to the education of the Catholic Church, the change of substance by which the bread and the vino offered in the sacrifice of the sacrament of the Eucharist during the Mass, become, in reality, the torso and blood of Jesus the Christ."

As it is not biblical, so nosotros cannot have it. In Marking 7:6-eight, Christ taught that if the education is man-made (not scriptural), so the worship service is useless.

vi And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of y'all hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips,b Simply their heart is far away from Me.
7 'Just in vain do they worship Me, Pedagogy as doctrines the precepts of men.'
eight Neglecting the commandment of God, you lot hold to the tradition of men."
— Marker 7:6-8

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The following Scripture proves that the born-again Christian doctrine about the Lord'southward Supper is indeed biblical. 2nd, the education we call "Transubstantiation" is nowhere to be plant in the Holy Scriptures. In one case again, have note that both baptism and the Lord'south Supper are types of the Gospel, which is about the expiry of Christ for the remission of our sins and His resurrection to ostend all His promises concerning our eternal life with Him in sky.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thank you, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way, He took the cup likewise after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as ofttimes as y'all drink it, in remembrance of Me." For equally often as you lot eat this bread and drinkable the cup, you proclaim the Lord'due south expiry until He comes.
—1 Corinthians 11:23-26

The Christian Holy Week Observance is a Daily Memorial for the Genuine Christians

Wrote the campaigner Paul to the Galatians that since they nevertheless "observe days and months and seasons and years," he feared that perhaps his spiritual piece of work with them did not conduct fruit. In short, we don't allow ourselves to be enslaved by religious rules concerning special days or months, except that we are encouraged to assemble during the first day of the week, Dominicus, to worship Christ corporately. (Acts 20:seven; John 20:19; Mk xvi:1-2; one Cor. 16:1-2; Matt. 28:1)

The Christian Holy Week observance is, therefore, not biblical! Nosotros keep it in our hearts like clockwork since we dearest Christ for what He did (for our soul) on the cantankerous. Simply nosotros don't demand a special holiday to commemorate His expiry and resurrection. Nosotros detect Easter Sun like being thankful for the long-awaited pelting to come. We love the thought of our Lord'due south resurrection. But just like the meaning of His expiry for our soul, we praised Him and treasured His resurrection every tick of the clock and non just every Easter Sunday. The Christian Holy Week observance is meaningless when yous start to treasure Christ's expiry and resurrection every wink of your waking hours.

However at that time, when yous did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are no gods. Merely now that y'all have come to know God, or rather to exist known past God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you lot desire to be enslaved all over over again? You lot discover days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over y'all in vain. (Gal. 4:8-11)

All born-again followers of Christ do not celebrate the Christian Holy Calendar week observance the way well-nigh Catholics discover. But let us brand it articulate: all real Christians do not venerate the Holy Week like it has magical or supernatural connection to ane's forgiveness of sins. The Holy Calendar week is real. It was an effect that could impossibly exist forgotten or deleted from all the aboriginal chronicles of the world.

Christ died over 2,000 years ago every bit our bribe considering of our inherited and committed sins. And He resurrected thereby confirming His promised eternal life to all who believe and trust in His atoning blood. It is the essence of the Holy Week.

Doing penance during the Holy Week, however, is the 1 thing we couldn't discover as a biblical doctrine. Doing good works is the stamp of existent Christianity, but it is Not God's method for saving our sinful souls. Y'all may kneel on the threshold of your church for long hours during the Holy Week. Merely no single sin of yours would be removed by such cocky-reproach. Why because the Forgiver of sin is Christ and He demands FAITH (non good works!) that He died on the cross every bit payment of our sins.

He begs that we believe in His atoning blood shed at Calvary. "Come to Me," He said. No one is justified past obeying the Law or doing all forms of self-penalty, according to the apostle Paul. "In Him we take redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." (Eph. 1:7)

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Nevertheless knowing that A MAN IS NOT JUSTIFIED [Made RIGHTEOUS] By THE WORKS OF THE LAW BUT THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, even nosotros accept believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may exist justified past organized religion in Christ and not by the works of the Constabulary; SINCE BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW NO Mankind WILL BE JUSTIFIED.
—Galatians ii:16

The Christian Holy Week observance may be historic if one likes observing it, but without giving an inkling of any spiritual or magical significant attached to the flavour.

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Do Born Again Christian Celebrate Holy Week

Source: https://bythisverse.com/christian-holy-week-observance-examined-biblically/