I will not cite their proclamations of death sentences again. I would rather their names not get air time, and you will just ignore the citations anyway, as you have done the last few times.
It is a shame you still resort to lies. Please, if there are any Orthodox Saints who executed Christians who celebrated the Jewish Feasts of the Old Covenant, then list them, otherwise stop with the lies and the false accusations.
By Venerable Bede:
Far be it from me to charge John with foolishness: he literally observed the decrees of the Mosaic law when the Church was still Jewish in many respects, at a time when the apostles were unable to bring a sudden end to that law which God ordained…So John, in accordance with the custom of the law, began the celebration of Easter Day in the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, regardless of whether it fell on the sabbath or any other day (Bede (Monk). Edited by Judith McClure and Roger Collins. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford University Press, NY, 1999).
Please notice and really read what you quoted here because without knowing you proved my point.
First, it says how obedient St. John was
when the Church was still Jewish in many respects. No one is doubting this was true. St. John was extremely obedient, if not the most obedient of the Apostles. When the Church was still Jewish in many respects (in other words,
before the Church stopped being Jewish in many respects), St. John followed obediently the Lord. You make the claim earlier that the other leaders of the Church said he didn't know any better and that there was a controversy. You have yet to prove that.
The controversy was about the dating of Pascha, which is something decided upon by the Church given the authority by God to do so within the Church.
The transformation of the Church of Christ from a Jewish sect of believers into a worshiping universal Church open to all believers did not happen overnight my friend, and of course there was a natural process through time. Only Christ could make the fig tree barren by a command. This took more time and work for the Church to shed certain of its Old Covenant customs and traditions because of the pride and obstinacy of men. The example par excellence is Church's handling of the commandment of God for physical circumsicion.
Some of the Apostles and leaders thought circumcision was necessary for several years after the Day of Pentecost, and it ultimately reached the limits of controversy that it led to the first great council of the Church, and I HIGHLY DOUBT St. John wasn't on St. Paul's side on this one, or perhaps you think he was? Until it came to the time for the Church to speak in Council, which has always been the method to resolve doctrinal differences and opinions within the Church as seen in the Book of Acts, there did exist various traditions which at times would come to a head on account of the divisions it produced.
It was the will of God through the Holy Spirit working within the Church that certain laws and customs of the Old Covenant were phased out to be supplanted by the law in Christ, and His Church which was neither Jewish nor Greek.
Bede goes on in the quote above:
he literally observed the decrees of the Mosaic law when the Church was still Jewish in many respects, at a time when the apostles were unable to bring a sudden end to that law which God ordained…
This here demonstrates that the apostles were unable to bring to a sudden end the law which God ordained. Not that it
wasn't their will or desire to end the old worship which God ordained in the Old Covemant and introduce the new worship, for that is exactly what they eventually did and what was done through those they taught and ordained. Rather, they were unable to bring it to a
sudden end because of the difficulties it is for a man to change his habits and rid himself of the baggage he has brought along. The operative word in the sentence by Bede is
sudden.
He then says:
So John, in accordance with the custom of the law (That is, according to the custom which existed in those early days- TER) , began the celebration of Easter Day in the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, regardless of whether it fell on the sabbath or any other day
Notice how the celebration was not of a Jewish Passover or a Seder, but of Easter, that is, the Christian Pascha. Bede is not referring to a major controversy on how to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection, but rather
when. What did at one time become a controversy in the early history of the Church was
the dating of Pascha, that is, whether it should be solely celebrated on the Lord's Day or which ever day it landed on in the week according to the Jewish cycle. I think this controversy was in the second century, and it led to various Churches celebrating Pascha on different days. This, of course, was less than ideal, and just like the circumcision dilemma in the past, this led to a Council of the leaders of the Christian Church and it was decided on celebrating Pascha on the Lord's Day following the new moon, which had been the practice of the great Churches in Rome and Alexandria, to name two.
No one condemns St. John for celebrating Pascha on a particular day and for having celebrating it according to the custom of his local Church in the time prior to the decision of the Church in Council.
What would have condemned St. John is
if he continued to celebrate it on another day after the Church in Council made a decision for which day to celebrate it on, the same way the Judaizing Christians were cut off from the Church who persisted in making circumsicion a requirement upon the baptized in Christ after the Church already decided on it. These disobedient heretics argued it was the older commandment of God and immutable. It was not their ignorant or incomplete understanding of what Christ accomplished on the cross which condemned them, but the fact that they considered their indivual opinions and interpretations to be above the decision of the greater Church together in the Holy Spirit.
So you see, when you read the quote from this seventh century Western Saint in the light of history and the mind of the Church, you see how it does not at all take the position that celebrating the Old Jewish Feasts was an immutable law and still applicable commandment of God upon the New Covenant faithful, but rather shows how in the time before the Apostles could bring to an end the Old Law and the old observances which were old wineskins to the Church, the practice of celebrating Pascha was one of the things which varied in local Churches.
Play close attention to Bede's quote, for he specifically states that whatever the day Pascha was celebrated, they did not celebrate the Jewish Passover, but the Christianized Feast of Pascha which he calls Easter, whereby they recited verses from Jonah and chanted prophetic Psalms of David, and sang together Christian hymn, and the catechumens were baptized and they all communed together of the Holy Eucharist. That is the early Christian Pascha celebration in a nutshell, whatever day or calendar the Church decided to celebrate it on.
Later, when it became necessary, this tradition and custom of celebrating it on the same day of the Jewish Passover was also shed in Council just as circumsicion was, to the benefit of the Church and the defense of the apostolic truths that the Church was not made for the Sabbath, but rather the Sabbath (and in fact, every holy day and celebration) was made for the Church, for it is the Church in its ordained episcopy which has been given the authority by the Holy Spirit to forgive sins and shepherd the flock, and direct the laity to greater communion with Christ through their very consent.
Does this happen flawlessly? No, there were bad Bishops with the good Bishops, but the Church survived and flourished in spite of them and through the Church, many grew in Christ and the Lord's Name was glorified.
