Thursday, March 27, 2025

It is the 27th of March 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Come gather round for a special story time with your uncle Dan… that’s right- yeah, it’s still the Almanac- and today’s story relates to it, but we begin with a personal anecdote that kicks off the story.

The other day, we had some of the zealous door-knocking variety of an American new religious movement adjacent to Christianity… (that’s the much longer way of saying “JW”), and after we had convinced them no one was home by whispering and ducking I found a tract they had left inviting us to a celebration that looked kind of like Easter… and the main character looked like Chris Pine/Jesus mashup. Anyways- it’s happening at my local Kingdom Hall on April 12th.

I’m the guy who knows all the computations for various tradition celebrating easter and this one is baffling me. It’s close to one tradition, but not exact and nowhere near the others.

Well, I then begin to look into the various upcoming shows to see today, March 27th marked as the date of Easter for the Palmarian church. What?! As complicated as Christian traditions can make things it’s kind of cool Easter is really just “Gregorian” or “Julian” and even then, they both align this year. What are these groups, the very few lone calendar dissenters.

The Palmarians can go first- it’s their easter today- but they are very small, maybe 1,000 in total. They are a splinter group from the Roman Catholic church in Spain, and they always have easter on March 27th, this is based on a vision from one of their leaders and dates back to 2012. So… we can just…put that there.  But the Jehovah’s Witness dating had me baffled- because it almost looks like the dating used by a third group, albeit much fewer in number- but worth looking at.

The Gospels link the death of Jesus to the Passover- this happens in all 4 Gospels. And so, it would make sense that if we were to want a “how it actually happened,” we too would pin our celebration to Passover. For various reasons, including calendar reform and a desire to separate the new Christian observance from the old Jewish tradition, the date was set- the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. And at Nicaea in 325, this was established. But not everyone agreed.

There were the “Quartodecimans” or the “14ers”- the ones who wanted to observe the death of Christ on the 14th of Nisan- the same day as passover.

And this year, the 14th of Nisan is, on our calendar, the 12th of April. The day of the event I’ve been invited to at the local Kingdom Hall. So it’s not Easter that they are recognizing but the last supper/passion/crucifixion linked in the Scripture to Passover on Passover. That’s interesting enough, but there’s more.

Many of the Jehovah’s Witnesses ideas about holidays, birthday, blood transfusions etc… can be seen as aberrant but usually harmless. But it is their answer to the 64,000 dollar question: “Who do you say that I Am?” That they take the side of the argument that was also explicitly rejected at Nicaea on the eternal existence of the second person of the Trinity.

So the Jehovah’s Witness Easter-ish celebration isn’t Easter- they don’t celebrate that, but they do have a celebration linked to passover and that on the 14th of Nisan which is the 12th of April. Interesting.

So there it is, kids, how Uncle Dan got real confused about a celebration date on a tract but figured it out with some Pre-Nicaean easter computation!

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and 2 Corinthians 4:

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ² Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, ³ because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 27th of March 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows about the 14th of Nisan but wonders if that’s pre or post season of Toyotathon- he is  Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man wishing you a happy opening day- and could today’s Angels White Sox game be a preview of the American League Championship Series? No, absolutely not. But we’ve got a few hopeful weeks before it goes downhill. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.