Letter created a challenge to study

To the editor:
I want to respond to a few points from Jackie E. Wall’s letter in The CR Saturday.
1) “Yashua was nailed to a ‘stake’, not a cross.”
A stake is a post to which a person is bound for execution by burning. A “cross” was made of two beams, either crossing at the top like a T, or in the middle of their length like an X. The body of the criminal was fastened to the upright beam by nailing or tying the feet to it and to the transverse piece by nailing or tying the hands to it. Call it what you want, it was the worst and most horrible kind of suffering expressed by the word “crucify,” or to cause great pain.
2) “If you worship on Sunday you have already taken the mark of the beast.”
Ellen G. White (founder of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church) wrote “no one has yet received the mark of the beast. The testing time is not yet come. There are true Christians in every church.”
We are no longer (since Calvary) under the law because Jesus “took it out of the way, nailing it (Moses’ law) to His cross.” Colossians 2:14
Then Paul said, “Let no man judge you … in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days …”
Jesus has set us free from the bondage. The law made no provision for redemption. It only cursed and killed all men because all broke the law and none could possibly keep it.
Hosea 2:11 predicted a time when “… her Sabbaths” would end.
In “the teachings of the Apostles” written 105 A.D., we read, “The Apostles therefore appointed on the first day of the week let there be service and reading of the holy scripture and … the Lord’s supper, because on the first day of the week our Lord arose upon the world and ascended to heaven.”
3) “Satan and the churches changed Yahweh’s sacred name to ‘God.’”
Our ancestors, the Anglo-Saxons, made many attempts to define the “good being,” a fountain of infinite benevolence. So, “good being” and “God” were correlative terms. This in no way replaced the name “Elohim,” Yehovah,” “El,” etc.
4) Jesus is used 983 times in the New Testament and it is the Greek form of the Hebrew “Yehoshua,” meaning “Saviour” or “God who is Salvation.” Jesus (Yehoshua or Joshua) was and is Jehovah in the flesh. He is Lord.
5) What day did Jesus die? Friday or Wednesday?
Jesus was put in the grave Wednesday just before sunset and was resurrected at the end of Saturday’s sunset. Good Friday should be changed to “Good Wednesday” because no statement says he was buried Friday at sunset. This would make him in the grave only one day and one night. Going to the Holy Scriptures as our final authority, 11 times in the New Testament the phrase “the third day” is used in connection with His resurrection. Mark 8:31 and Matthew 27:63 say “after three days.” The Jews understood Christ to mean “after three days” or three full days and three full nights. From Wednesday sunset to Saturday sunset was three full days and three full nights. Then in Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:4, Luke 24:1 and John 20:1, they all agree. “In the end of the Sabbath (the weekly Sabbath), as it began to dawn toward the first (day) of the week, came Mary to see the sepulchre.” Sometime between sunset Saturday (very early in the morning – Mark 16:2) and dawn Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead just like He said He would. Matthew 12:40
6) “Easter” is found only once in Acts 12:4, and is “Pascha” in Greek, meaning “the Passover.”
As Mr. Wall brings out, “Easter” was one of several different old Saxon modes of spelling the name of the goddess Easter, whose festival was celebrated by our pagan forefathers in April. This translation, “Easter,” instead of “Passover” shows how gross it was to retain a name so absurd.
Thank you, Jackie, 
For challenging us to study the truth and the word. I look forward to your next letter.
Sincerely,
Phill Jellison
Portland