Patriot Day and Resurrection Day

(Thanks Jerry!)

William J. Federer and I talked about Patriot Day, The anniversary of the Shot Heard Round the World, The Ride of Paul Revere, and the start of the American Revolution.

Then we spoke of the Resurrection and it's effect on Western Civilization. It can be, and has been, argued that without the Resurrection, there would be no Patriot Day, or an American Revolution. Because the Resurrection supports a Revolutionary idea. You can be free.

Free of sin and death.

Just switch sides. Swear your allegiance to the King of Kings. The One Who beat death and the grave.

 "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Audio:

Your American Heritage 4 19 2023a Bill Federer Patriot Day

Transcript:

Your American Heritage 4 19 2023a Bill Federer Patriot Day Transcript.pdf

Audio:

Your American Heritage 4 19 2025b Bill Federer Resurrection Day

Transcript:

Your American Heritage 4 19 2025b Bill Federer Resurrection Day Transcript.pdf

Ed Bonderenka (01:01):

Good afternoon and welcome to your American Heritage,

Ed Bonderenka (01:05):

My name is Ed Bonderenka and I am

Sean Todd (01:08):

Not your normal, fluffy insurrectionist

Ed Bonderenka (01:11):

Producing the show. And the guy that answers your calls is Derek Stone. Derek Stone is the host of Stone

Cold Sports Truth Sundays at noon 30 right after my friend Sean Todd hosts the intersection at noon.

The intersection is of course

Sean Todd (01:25):

Not your normal fluffy Christian show.

Ed Bonderenka (01:28):

You need to tune in on Sundays so you can listen to those two shows and you can listen to Dr. Dave

Janda, and of course then you can listen to Thayrone's Bone Conduction Music show after that. So tune

in, just stay tuned to this station. Dick Cupka says, take the knob off your radio and throw it away. You

don't need it. Before we get to our guest today, it'd be William j Federer, who is the host of American

minute.com, and he's going to talk to us about the effect of Christianity, actually the resurrection on

Western civilization. I'd like to talk about Good Friday for a moment. So bear with me here.

Okay, the question is often, what's so good about Good Friday? And when they take the son of God and

put him to death, why is that considered good? And if you don't believe he was the Son of God, bear

with me.

(02:22):

I want to show you something. Well, why would that be considered good? Because when he died that

horrific tortured death on Calvary, he took the punishment to us for our rebellion against God. It was

good for us. Was it good for him? When he arose from the dead on Easter, he proved that what he said

was true. He had been predicting these moments to his followers for a couple of years, and they did not

believe him until he did it. The Bible says, and this is in Hebrews chapter two, verse two, who for the joy

that was set before him, the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne

of God. So if Jesus came down from glory, endured the cross and went back to glory, what was his net

gain? I mean, glory came down, suffered glory.

(03:17):

What was the point? Us, we were the joy set before him. We are the bride. He traveled to a far land to

obtain just like Jacob did. Among other examples like Isaac, granted we're not the finished product yet,

but if we cooperate with his plan, he sees something in us he wants to spend eternity with. Well, I'm

good with that. That's good. I mean, really, that is very good. It's good for us. And like I said, he saw

something he wanted like the pearl of great price, and he bought the land, cost him a cost, cost him a

price, his death on the cross, and he purchased the pearl of good price, which is the church. Now, I want

to share a cool thing with you. If you're not a Christian, please listen anyhow because it never hurts to

have a little information about what those wackos like us around you believe.

(04:18):

A few people know that Psalm 22 is a description of the crucifixion of Jesus that was written hundreds of

years before the event. David saw it in a vision and it shook him up so much that he starts out Psalm 22

with my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You got to remember that it was told to David that

his throne would last forever. So if he died this horrific death, he saw in a dream, he would think that

God abandoned him and he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now, many Christians

have been taught that as he was crucified, Jesus was crying this out to his father in heaven because the

Father could not bear to look on Jesus who was the scapegoat for our sins, that Jesus was separated

from the Father, that Jesus was cursed, and that the Father could not be in fellowship with Jesus

because it would violate his holiness, because Jesus was carrying the penalty of the sins of the world.

(05:20):

Well, please give me a break. One Corinthians 12, three says, wherefore I give you to understand that no

man speaking by the spirit of God calls Jesus a cursed. Jesus himself wasn't a cursed. Jesus was carrying

the curse. And there's quite a distinction. Jesus and the Father had this worked out since before the

universe was created. You think at the last minute, the all powerful ruler of more than the universe

flinched? No. If the Father and the Son who with the Spirit are referred to as the Godhead in perfect

unity ever separated, I believe the universe would crumble. Now, some say that, well, it happened

momentarily that God had to look away momentarily and that Jesus was not God. Further most infinite

of moments, and I'm thinking, yeah, right In that most infinite of moments, once again, the universe

would crumble. Jesus was always God.

(06:19):

He always will be God. And there's never a moment He's not God, even when he's carrying the sins of

the world. So as you read the gospels, particularly Johns, you see that the Pharisees, and you got to

remember some of the Pharisees like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, they were good guys.

Remember Joseph of Arimathea gave his tomb up for Jesus. So they were asking Jesus for a sign that he

was the Messiah. He continually answered them. When they saw him lifted up, that would be their sign.

When you see the son of man lifted up, well, here he is on a cross lifted up in front of them. He's

surrounded by strong bulls, prison slanging for guards, and the crowd is taunting him. It's the scene

predicted in Psalm 22. Then he quotes the first verse of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why is thou

forsaken me?

(07:10):

This is called a remez. It's a teaching tool. Jesus had used it for three years. When they hear this verse,

they remember the rest of the psalm. It's like if somebody says the lady doth protest too much, you

remember the whole rest of the story in Shakespeare, there's a problem with this woman protesting too

much. She's really guilty. Well, similarly, when the Jews hear this verse, they immediately think of Psalm

22. They remember the rest of it. The Pharisees had asked Jesus for a sign. He said that they would have

it when the son of man was lifted up. I remember that joke. Here's your sign. Can you imagine the look

on their face when they get it? This death on the cross by this man was predicted hundreds of years ago,

and here was their sign. The ramifications are huge. Many of them didn't get it because of their religious

blindness.

Do you get it? If you get it, then Jesus is who he said he was. He is God. He didn't just say He's the son of

God. He said He is God. He claimed it. And if he is and if he died for your sins and you don't accept that

punishment and you don't accept that gift, a free gift of God, all you got to do is accept that sacrifice and

then pledge allegiance to Jesus. You got to get out of hell free card. Who can turn that down? But if you

don't accept it, you're spitting in the face of the God that gave you this gift. That's not a place I'd like to

be. Joining me today is William j Federer, bill Federer's, friend of the show. He's an author. He's the host

of

Bill Federer (08:57):

American minute,

Ed Bonderenka (08:58):

American minute.com, and that's where you can go to sign up for his email newsletter and find his

books and discs and more information about your American heritage there. And he's got some good

books about socialism, who's the King of America, miraculous moments in American history, God's

influence on our country, and that's what I really appreciate about you. And so coming up on this

Resurrection Day holiday just after Good Friday, I wanted to ask you to talk about the effect of, now we

all talk about Christianity and its effect on Western civilization, but Christianity is nothing without the

death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, particularly the resurrection. So I was hoping to have you speak

about that influence.

Bill Federer (09:56):

Yeah, well, it is interesting that many of the colonies would have an annual day of fasting, and it usually

was on Good Friday. And so Connecticut and the colonial governor would issue a day of fasting, and

these were observed within the different states. And I put together several books where I document all

these, it's quite fascinating, but well name one or two.

Ed Bonderenka (10:26):

Name one or two.

Bill Federer (10:28):

Yeah. Well, Connecticut is one that I've written about because I went through the different states and I

did a book called Prayers and Presidents, and it begins in the colonial era where when there was a crisis,

they would have a day of prayer. When the crisis got real bad, they would've a day of fasting and prayer.

And then when things turned around, they would've days of Thanksgiving. And so it was the attitude of

a relationship with God and that it wasn't the deist. So in the deist thought, God made it all the rules,

and then he went off and left everything to go on its own.

Ed Bonderenka (11:22):

Found another hobby.

Bill Federer (11:24):

Yeah, so don't even bother praying that was. And so none of the founders fit into that category. Even

Ben Franklin had days of prayer, days of fasting. Let's see, here's a day of fasting from Connecticut in

1798. Let's see if I can pull this up here. And let's see. It was March 28th, 1789, and it was declaring April 22nd, 1789 is the day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. It was the Governor Samuel Huntington. And it

says, considering the inestimable duty of a people to acknowledge the overruling hand of divine

providence and their constant dependence on the supreme being for all the favor and blessings they

may enjoy and hopes to receive that so and so forth. 22nd day of April next to be observed as the day of

fasting humiliation, prayer throughout the state, earnestly exhorting ministers and people of all

denominations to assemble for divine worship coming with humility and United Hearts confess and beal

our manifold sins and transgressions, and through the mediation of Jesus Christ, our only savior, but that

was the Connecticut. But almost all the states had something similar. And that was on Good Friday. So

the country at the time of the founding was 98% Protestant. Each colony was started by a different

denomination. Virginia was Anglican, Massachusetts was Puritan, Rhode Island was Baptist, Connecticut,

New Hampshire were Congregationalists. New York was Dutch reformed. Delaware and New Jersey

were originally Swedish, Lutheran, Maryland, Catholic, and Pennsylvania, Quaker. They didn't get along.

They tar and feather each other,

(13:23):

But then they had to work together against the King of England during the revolution. And afterwards,

their attitude was, we may not always agree, but we need to work together. But anyway, it's worth

noting that the word Easter is not in the Bible. It appears one time in the King James Bible Acts 12, four.

But if you actually look at the Greek, it's not Easter, it's Passover. Matter of fact, every other word

referring to this holiday in the King James, it says Passover and every other translation, the word is

Passover Easter. Esther is a pagan Babylonian name of their fertility goddess, which happens to be

around the spring equinox. And that word got into the King James Bible and it sort of stuck. But the

Passover, that is the day that is the most important date in the Christian calendar. So Passover, there are

seven major Jewish feasts beginning around 1400 BC when they come out of Egypt.

(14:35):

And Moses gets the law, and these feasts are grouped in three. So you have three spring feasts,

Passover feast of unleavened bread, feast of first fruits 50 days later in the Feast of Pentecost. And at

the end of the summers, the Feast of Trumpets, David Toman feasts the Tabernacles. So three times a

year, the Israelites would go to Shiloh where the temple was or the Tabernacle tent was, but then once

it was in Jerusalem, they'd go to Jerusalem. And so let's look at these. Passover first observed around

1400 BC the night before the Exodus from Egypt, every Israelite family killed the lamb and put the blood

over the doorpost of their house. So the Pharaoh was killing Jewish or Israelite young boys by making

throw their sons in the Nile River. And of course, the mother put little Moses in a basket because she

didn't want to have him die.

(15:34):

And he was found by the daughter of the Pharaoh. But God said, okay, since you were killing my sons,

the sons of Israel, I'm going to kill your firstborn there in Egypt. And so that's what the final plague was.

And the angel of death went through and killed the firstborn of all the Egyptians. And so the Israelites

killed each family, killed a lamb, put the blood over the doorpost to the house, basically saying that this

house has already been judged. The judgment went on a lamb. The lamb gave its life. And so no more

judging is needed here. You can pass over and go to the next house. And so the Exodus 12 eight gave

instructions regarding the Passover lamb. They shall eat. The flesh of it at night, rose with fire and

unleavened bread. Lemon is yeast and it takes a while for the bread to rise.

(16:31):

And God is saying, no, we're in a hurry. So you're not going to wait for the yeast besides lemon is

symbolic of sin. And then they'll eat the Passover with bitter herbs where it's not a pleasant experience.

So the Jewish day is as important. The Jewish day begins at sunset and goes to the next sunset. So our

day usually begins at dawn. I mean it begins at after midnight. But as far as in our mind, we think, okay,

the dawn is the beginning of the next day. Well, the Israelites sunset was the beginning of the next day.

And so around 33 ad is when Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples that evening. And

then the next morning is when he was crucified, but it was considered the same day in the Jewish

calendar. And so Jesus was sacrificed as the Passover lamb on the Feast of Passover. The apostle Paul

wrote in one Corinthians five, seven, for even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us, and the lambs

considered the most innocent of all animals. John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and said, behold the lamb

of God that take away the sins of the world.

(17:45):

Now, the way that a lamb was traditionally roasted was on crossed spits. And so Justin martyr, a church

leader who lived 101 65 ad. So the lamb is commanded to be holy roasted. It's a symbol of the suffering

on the cross that Christ would undergo. The lamb is roasted, dressed up in the form of a cross, one spit

transfixed right through the lower parts up to the head and the other across the back to which the legs

of the lamb are attached. Crucifixion was the most painful torture. Dr. Alexander Mere writes, the pain

was absolutely unbearable. In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe. They had to invent a new

word, excruciating, literally excruciating means out of the cross. Whoa. So crucify, excruciating.

(18:35):

And so they would put nails through your wrist just up from your palms and then hang you on the cross.

And so you'd be hanging from the nail holes, but then you would have to actually pull yourself up on

your arms, on the nail holes just to get a breath of bear. And then you would collapse down again. And

then you'd have to pull yourself up to get. And so that's when the two thieves that were crucified next

to Jesus when they said, well, we don't want them to be on the cross after evening, so let's break their

legs. And you say, well, how can breaking their legs kill 'em? Well, they'd suffocate. They couldn't pull

themselves up on the cross any longer. Cicero called crucifixion of the most cruel and hideous of

tortures. Romans reserved it for slaves and rebels and historian Will Durant said that even the Romans

pitied the victims, Isaiah 53 describes what the Lamb of God, the Messiah would suffer.

(19:33):

Surely he has took our pain, bore our suffering. We considered him punished by God, stricken by him

and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment

that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds, we are healed. The Lord has laid on him the

iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led like a lamb to

the slaughter. And as a sheep of for shears his silent, he was cut off from the land of the living for the

transgression of my people, he was punished. Yet it was for the Lord's will to crush him and to cause him

to suffer. The Lord made his life an offering for sin. My righteous servant shall justify many who'll bear

their iniquities, for he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the tre transgressors. So the

concept is God is a just God. He has to judge every sin, but he's a loving God and that he provided the

lamb his own son, to take the judgment for the sin. And so since Jesus is our Passover, he took the

judgment so we're safe. We don't go to hell because he's suffered and paid the penalty. Now, the next

feast after Passover is the feast of Go ahead.

Ed Bonderenka (20:39):

Yeah, let me interrupt you for a second. So you're saying that basically the Passover, Jesus was crucified

on the Passover. I mean, that's a real coincidence, isn't it?

Bill Federer (20:48):

Yeah. On the exact day of Passover and

Ed Bonderenka (20:55):

God's little in your face, people in your face, right?

Bill Federer (20:59):

Yeah. And then when he died, it says the curtain of the temple, and it was like two or three stories tall.

This huge curtain was ripped from top to bottom, which means that they would go through the curtain

to get into the holy of Holies. And this curtain was ripped. And so showing that, okay, this is the final

sacrifice. There's not to be anymore. So that's Jesus crucified as the Passover lamb on the feast of the

Passover. And then the very next day is called the feast of unleavened bread and leave is yeast, and the

Jews would get all the leave or yeast out of their home, and that is symbolic of sin. And so Jesus is in the

tomb taking the sin out of the world on the feast of unleavened bread. The Apostle Paul said in one

Corinthians five, let us keep the feast not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and

wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

(22:05):

And we thought, well, what did Jesus experience when he was in the tomb? Theologians debate that

quite a lot. We have Matthew 12 where those were demanding a sign. Jesus said, none will be given

except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Whereas Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the

great fish. So the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And so if we

read Jonah, Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God, out of the fish's belly, out of the belly of hell, cried eye.

And thou heard is my voice for thou has cast me into the deep, into the midst of the seas. The floods

compass me about all they billows and waves pass over me. Then I said, I'm cast out of thy sight. The

depths closed me roundabout, the weeds wrapped around my head. I went down to the bottoms of the

mountains. The earth with her bars was about me forever. Now the next feast is the feast of first fruit.

So on the third day,

Ed Bonderenka (23:04):

Bill,

(23:06):

Let's take a break for commercial there.

Ed Bonderenka (23:04):
And folks joining me today is William j Federer, host of American minute.com, author of many good books, some of which describe what we're listening to right

now. And you should go there and you should sign up for his newsletter. But what I'd like you to do is

come back after the break and listen to more. So come on back after the break for more of your

American heritage.

Well, welcome back folks. Your American Heritage. Joining me is William j Federer, as I said, and we're

talking about the resurrection and its influence on western civilization. Bill's given us a rundown of the

Hebrew feast are actually very important to the story because you got to know how we got to where we

are and the significance of these feasts. They're actually sort of like a prophetic utterance of dates and

times. I mean, these feasts mean something. It's no coincidence that Passover occurred the same time

Jesus was crucified. And then of course, there's shortly after the Passover and the unleavened bread,

then there's the feast of,

Bill Federer (24:40):

Yeah, well, feast of first fruits. So the barley is the first crop to mature to be harvested in the Israel

agricultural year. And so when the first shoots of the barley come up, they would cut 'em off and take

the sheaths of the barley harvest to the temple and wave it before the Lord. In Thanksgiving, Leviticus

23, when you enter the land and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheath of the first fruit. So

your harvest, the priest shall waive the sheath before the Lord for you to be accepted. And so Jesus rose

from the dead on the feast of first fruits.

Ed Bonderenka (24:59):

Wow, what a coincidence. How's that work? That's crazy.

Bill Federer (25:03):

So the Apostle Paul, one Corinthians 15, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first

fruits of them that slept. But every man in his own order, Christ, the first fruits afterwards, they bet are

Christs at his coming. And of course, back to the book of Jonah, it says, Jonah declared thou has brought

my life up from corruption. Oh Lord, my God, when my soul fainted within me, I remember the Lord. My

prayer went up into your holy temple salvation as of the Lord. So the Lord spoke to the fish and it

vomited Jonah onto dry land. Now the fact that the first ones to see Jesus after he rose from the dead as

the first fruits were women. And that's significant because it proves that the disciples did not make up

the story because women's testimony was not admissible in the Israel legal system at the time.

(26:00):

Josephus wrote in his antiquity in the Jews, let not the testimony of a woman be admitted. And so if you

were going to fabricate a story, you would've had men witnessing the resurrection, not women. And so

it shows that they didn't make this story up. And now a friend of mine, he's passed away years ago in

1997, but is Sir Lionel Ku, and he's listed in the Guinness World Book of Records as the world's most

successful criminal attorney. And so we knew him for a decade before he dies, but he said the bones of

Muhammad are in Medina. The bones of Confucius are in Shang Tung, the cremated bones of Buddha in

Nepal, thousands paid pilgrimage to worship at their tombs, which contain their bones. But in

Jerusalem, there's a cave cut into the rock. The tomb is empty, yes, empty because he has risen.

(26:53):

He died physically, historically, he rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God. And on

George Washington's tomb in Mount Vernon is engraved the scripture, I'm the resurrection of the life,

sayeth the Lord. He believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live? Martin Luther said, our Lord

has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime. And now

the feast of first fruits is then followed 50 days later by the feast of Pentecost. Penta means 50. And so

it's 50 days after the feast of first fruits. It's also called the Feast of Weeks. So it's seven weeks of seven

days. And so that's 49, and it would be the day after. So the 50th day, the Feast of Pentecost, it officially

marks the beginning of the main harvest season, which is wheat.

(27:47):

And so Jesus rose from the dead on the feast of first rou, but 50 days later is the feast of Pentecost. And

the apostles are in the upper room and they're praying and the Holy Spirit comes down and Peter gets

up and preaches, and 3000 people come to the Lord in one day. And then by the end of the week, 8,000,

and it's the beginning of the harvest of souls. And now just a little pause here. In studying history, you

pieced together some things. So it's around 1400 BC when Moses gets the law with these seven feasts

and the three in the spring, then Pentecost and then three in the fall. And these Jews would go to

Jerusalem these three times a year. Then you go up to 700 BC and you have Assyria conquers the 10

northern tribes of Israel and scatters them. And so now you have pockets of Jews scattered all around

the known world.

(28:52):

And the faithful ones would go back to Jerusalem these three times a year. And then around 500 bcs,

Rome is founded and Rome begins to build roads. All roads lead to Rome. And now you have a road

system that goes across the whole known world. And then around 3 34 BC is Alexander the Great, and

he conquers the whole known world spreading the Greek language. So now you have a common trade

language that you can speak. And then around 40 BC is the beginning of the pox Romana, a 100 year

period where the whole world is at peace. And so now you have

Bill Federer (29:35):

Rome 33 ad. You have this feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit's poured out and they say, we hear them

speaking in their own language and the Elamites, which is Persia and the Ians up there by Turkey and the

Arabians and all these people. And at the end of the week they go in the time of peace, the P romana on

the road system, the Roman road system, speaking to all the people they meet along the way in the

Greek language to get back to their pockets of Jewish communities. All in other words, the whole world

has been set up for 1400 years for the rapid spread of a message. If any one of those was missing, I

mean if there was wars going on, it'd be really hard to witness to somebody in the middle of a war if

they didn't speak a language. I mean, look how long it takes Wco Bible translators to translate a

language. I mean, it could take decades, but yet there was a Greek language and then you had the road

system and then the pockets of Jews to go to that they were already being taught the Old Testament. So

you could say, okay, these are being fulfilled. Just fascinating that the whole world was set up for this

rapid spread of a message beginning on what the day of Pentecost,

Ed Bonderenka (30:50):

You're absolutely right, bill. And that before I became a Christian, that was a real tripping point for me,

was that why then? Why at that time in history, why would he appear then instead of modern days with

satellites and what have you? And the Bible says that he came in the fullness of times and you've just

spelled out exactly why. Then the only thing I had to do when I got saved became a Christian was just

admit that, well, something happened that's outside of my rationalization.

Bill Federer (31:25):

Yeah, yeah. It's one of those things where you drive by a cornfield and then you turn the corner and you

see the rose line up, it's all there, but from one point of view it makes no sense. But from another point

of view it makes perfect sense.

Ed Bonderenka (31:43):

Exactly perspective.

Bill Federer (31:46):

So then in the Jewish year, you have the long summer months, and this is when the harvesting is going

on. They're in the fields working, they're threshing where you take the wheat and you have to bang it so

that the little kernels pop off. Then you winnow where you take a rake and you are on the top of the hill

and you throw it all in the air and the wind blows the chaff away, and then the grain falls down, and

then you sift the grain to get out the tares. And then you put the grain in a mill and you grind it into flour

and you have to do all this before the latter rain. And then you have harvesting grapes, figs, almonds,

pomegranates. At the end of the long summer harvest is the feast of trumpets, and that's when the

trumpet is blown. And the call is that the harvest is over and come to the temple to celebrate. And so

Jesus says in the last days that the trumpet will blow and there'll be two in the field, one will be taken,

the other left, two ladies will be grinding the flower and one will be taken the other left. And so it's a call

that feast. The trumpets is the end of the harvest. And then you have the most serious day in the Jewish

calendar. It's called Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

(33:09):

Some think that this would be fulfilled with the tribulation or maybe the judgment seat of Christ. And

then finally is the Feast of Tabernacles. And these Jews would build little booths or tent like structures in

their front yard and they would live in it for a week to remind them what it was like. For 40 years, Jews

living in tents in the wilderness, and this is thought to foreshadow being in heaven with the Lord forever.

And Jesus said, in my father's house, there are many mansions or many dwelling places, and I go to

prepare a place for you. If it wasn't so, I would tell you and where I am, I'm going to come and get you

and bring you. And so we're going to be dwelling with the Lord. Now, it's interesting that Gary Habermas

is a professor at Liberty University and he studied non-Christian historians to see what they had to say

during this time.

(34:12):

And lo and behold, they tell what if you piece it, you can piece the gospel together from what all they

write down. So we studied Josephus who lived 37 to 100 AD, Seutonius who lived 70 to 160 ad, Pliny,

the younger who lived 61 to one 13 AD Tacitus, 56 to one 20 Ad, Mara Bar, 72 Ad, Lucian 125 AD and the

Babylonian Talmud. These are non-Christian sources, but and a lot of 'em are critical of Christianity.

Yeah, they're followers, their leader died, but they claim that he rose from the dead and they meet once

a week on a Sunday and they won't pinch incense to the Roman idols and they're sort of reclusive. And

so you could piece together from these non-Christian historians that the gospel story itself was being

passed the same way we know it right back there in that very first generation.

(35:13):

It wasn't something made up in the Middle Ages or so forth, so you can piece together that Jesus did in

fact die, and he did in fact die by crucifixion. And these are secular non-Christian sources saying this,

Jesus was buried. His death caused his disciples to despair and lose hope. His tomb was empty. A few

days later, the disciples believed, they literally saw isn't Jesus. And so again, that's fascinating. Now, one

third of the Bible is prophecies, and over 350 of these prophecies are about the Messiah. And it's

interesting, the prophecies had to be not clear enough so the devil couldn't figure him out and try to

stop him. What do I mean? Well, remember three wise men came to Herod and said, we're here to

worship the king of the Jews. Herod goes to the scribes, says, where's this king supposed to be born?

(36:09):

They dig through the prophecies of Micah. Bethlehem. What was Herod's response? Kill all the babies in

Bethlehem. If the devil could have figured out these prophecies, he would've tried to kill everyone along

the way so they could never be fulfilled. So the prophecies had to be not clear enough so the devil

couldn't figure 'em out, try to stop 'em, but clear enough so that when Christ rose from the dead, he

could walk along the road to a Emmaus with the disciples and say, see, I was prophesied here, here,

here, here, here. Moses Helms prophets all the way up to the present to prove that he was who he said

he was. Now, there are 350 prophecies regarding the Messiah, but let's just pick eight of 'em. Jesus

would be born in Bethlehem, Micah five, two. He would be born of a virgin. Isaiah seven 14. He would

be descended of David Isaiah nine, seven. He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver Zechariah 11, 12.

He would be mocked. Psalms 22, he would be crucified. John 3 14, he would be pierced Psalms 22, he

would die with the wicked, yet be buried with the rich.

Ed Bonderenka (37:13):

Yeah. How's that happen? He does that.

Bill Federer (37:15):

Yeah. I mean, if you're going to be dying with the wicked, they're going to throw your body in a ditch

type of grave. I mean, think of how long it takes to carve a tomb out of solid rock. We're talking decades,

and you wouldn't put a criminal in there. And so for one person, by random chance to fulfill just these

eight prophecies, we're not talking about the 350, just these eight is considered a statistical

impossibility. So Josh McDowell and his son Sean, wrote a book called Evidence that Demands a Verdict,

and they quoted Professor Peter Stoner, chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy

at Pasadena City College, and he stated, we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to

the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in 10 to the 17th power. That's one with 17

zeros behind it that you could randomly have one person fulfill just those eight prophecies talking about

the 350.

Ed Bonderenka (38:26):

That's part of the completeness of the hoax, that they could do all these things and manipulate Jesus'

lives, that he fulfilled all of these, including arranging his own death on across it. You weren't present

when I opened the show and talked about Psalm 22, which is just such a, it just blew me away. When I

was finally exposed to Psalm 22 after being a believer, I thought, how come nobody ever told me this

before? This so clearly spells out the crucifixion.

Bill Federer (38:55):

Yeah, yeah, it does. Now, the date of Easter affected the calendar that we have today. And in a nutshell,

you had Romans conquered, and Julius Caesar is the emperor, and he decides he wants one common

calendar for the entire Roman world because a lot of the countries he conquered Egypt and the Holy

Land and Cappadocia, they all had their own calendars, mostly they were lunar based. And their

beginning of the year was March 25th, which was the spring Equinox. And Julius Caesar said, no, I want a

year with a solar calendar, 365 days a year and a leap year. A leap day every four years. And so it's called

the Julian Calendar, and we know there's remnants of the old calendar still there. So Sept for

September, Sept is Latin for seven, but now that's the ninth month. October OCT is Latin for eight, like

octagon, eight sided, and that's the 10th month. And Nov is Latin for nine, and that's the 11th month.

And then December decimal, that's Latin for 10. And so Caesar's the one who moved the beginning of

the year from March to January 1st, and he even named the old fifth month after himself Quintiles, and

he called it July. And then it only had 30 days. So he took a day from the old end of the year, February,

and he added it to make July 31. Well, the next emperor is Augustus Caesar. Guess which month he

named after himself?

(40:36):

August, right? It only had 30 days. He took a day from the old end of the year, February, and he added,

so that's why July and August have 31 in February 29th. Anyway, but now we're skipping up to the

fourth century ad. You have constant time. He stops the persecution of Christians. He makes Christianity the defacto religion of the entire Roman Empire, and he wants to have a unified date to celebrate

Easter. Now, why is this important? Because the Christians had been asking the Jews when Passover is

this year, and that's when they would celebrate Easter. The Passover is based on the lunar calendars,

the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. And it could be any day of the week, it could be earlier in

the year, it could be later in the year, in the spring. But Constantine didn't want that. He wanted a

unified date for Easter the same every year.

(41:36):

So they cut the ties with the Jews and they came up with a brand new formula. It's the first Sunday after

the first full moon, after the spring equinox. And that's, this was the beginning of the split between the

Jewish Christian Church and the Gentile Christian Church. And there was Encyclopedia Britannica. It

stated that a final settlement of the dispute, and it was called the au Deim controversy, and that was

whether you should celebrate on the Sunday or whatever. And so the final settlement to the dispute

was one among other reasons, which led Constantine to summon the cons. And I see in 3 25 ad, the

consul unanimously voted that Easter would be kept on Sunday, same Sunday throughout the world,

and that none should hereafter follow the blindness of the Jews. And so this cut the ties with the Jewish

church. And so now you have a completely gentile Christian Church.

(42:43):

Peter Shaft wrote in history of Christian faith at Christian Church, ed naia, the Roman and Alexandrian

usage with respect to Easter triumph and the Judaizing practice of the Quato de Simians who always

celebrated Easter on the 14th day of Nissan Passover became Vince forth a heresy. So now it's a heresy

to celebrate the Passover Jesus being crucified on the Passover. On Passover. Now it's the first Sunday

after the first full moon, after the spring equinox. And so people are beginning to look back in history

and say, was it really that important to have it on a Sunday? Couldn't you just kept it on the Passover?

And you could have still have a nice Sunday service, but to actually celebrate now it gets even more

complicated. So they wrote down tables of when the first Sunday after the first full moon, after the

spring, Equinox would take place and they would do the church calendar way into the future.

(43:43):

And they didn't realize that the Julian calendar was 11 minutes off a year. And so it's not a big deal, but

after a thousand years, you're in the year 1582. And the first Sunday after the first full moon, after the

spring equinox is the tables that were made are 10 days ahead of that. So now you have this arbitrary

formula that's not even matching with the tables for the arbitrary formula that's not matching at all with

the Jewish Passover. So Pope Gregory the 13th in 1582 decided to revise the calendar, simply erase 11

days, 10 days out of the calendar, and then he set a leap year every year, but skipped a leap year, every

400 years.

Speaker 1 (44:36):

Amazing.

Bill Federer (44:37):

And it sounds complicated, but it's still the calendar we use today. It's called the Gregorian calendar, and

it's international use. That's what we're using. But he wanted, so the calendar we're using the Gregorian,

by the way, he's the one who in 5 67 consulate tours, they moved the beginning of the year back to

March 25th, because they said January 1st is Pagan, because the Julius Caesar was pagan. So it was this

Greg Gregorian calendar that moved it from March 25th back to January 1st. And so the calendar we're

using today, the impetus for instituting it was to try to correct the date of Easter.

Ed Bonderenka (45:20):

Wow. And we have a couple minutes left and wow, we can see if nothing else, how the resurrection of

Christ influenced our calendar. I was hoping to get more into how philosophers and the like were

influenced by the freedom and liberty that Jesus provided us and the equality that he'd given us as

believers and how it influenced our founding. But maybe we'll get into that in another episode with you,

bill.

Bill Federer (45:48):

Yeah, yeah. Well, in closing, the concept is in mathematical equations, there are constants and variables

and the equation of redemption, the constant is God is just He forever was, is and forever will be just,

which means he has to judge every sin. If he doesn't judge a sin, by default, he's giving consent to the

sin. And if God gives consent to one sin one time, he denies his just nature. He denies himself and he

cannot deny himself. So the constant in the equation is he has to judge every sin. The variable is who

takes the judgment. You are a substitute. And so God, in his infinite wisdom provided the substitute, his

own son would become the lamb and take the judgment for our sins. So God is just, and that he judges

every sin, but he's loving that He provided the lamb to take the judgment for the sin.

Ed Bonderenka (46:45):

Amen. Well, thanks Bill. I appreciate you coming on and giving us this explanation. And God bless you,

and may you and your family have a happy Easter Resurrection Day and we'll see you again soon.

Bill Federer (46:58):

Yeah, we're looking forward to it. If anyone's interested, I have a book called Believe and it's on my

website, american minute.com.

Ed Bonderenka (47:05):

Alright, thank you very much, bill, folks, thank you very much, folks. Derek, you all have a blessed

Resurrection Sunday, and we'll see you next week. Your American Heritage.