Saturday, April 3, 2021

Are You Sure About Those Three Days and Three Nights? What Difference Does It Make Whether You Observe The Days of Unleavened Bread or Easter? Is the Beef Industry Lying?

Are You Sure About Those Three Days and Three Nights?

“The traditional Easter holiday is this Sunday—which means Friday was Good Friday, the traditional time of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. While our secular world has submerged much of the solemnity attached to this weekend, there remains faint echoes of what once was the main religious occasion on the Church calendar.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central feature of the New Testament story. Jesus said the sole sign He was the Messiah, the Son of God, was He would be in the grave for three days and three nights. He said it would be a sign and He referenced the Old Testament story of Jonah—who spent three days and nights in the belly of a great fish. To the question put to Him by the scribes and Pharisees, seeking a sign, He replied: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:38-40).

If this is the key sign Jesus gave to prove who He was, then ask yourself a simple question: how do you get three days and three nights between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning? You can’t! Despite all the explanations, justifications and technical exceptions, some still make strange attempts to fit it into the tradition. But it does not work! You cannot use the explanation that Jesus meant “parts” of three days and three nights. That does not work either when you understand what Scripture is saying.

However, when you properly understand what happened the week of Jesus’ death, it makes complete sense and you don’t have to invent an explanation to fit the Good Friday, Easter Sunday tradition. The truth of the events of that week verify the biblical record and offer convincing proof Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, sent as our Savior and a fulfillment of Scripture concerning the Passover Lamb.

But don’t take my word for it. Look at this chart which combines all the relevant scriptures about the crucifixion and resurrection. Study these verses with your Bible and you’ll see the truth revealed. Jesus was killed on a Wednesday, put into a grave, and after three days and three nights was resurrected by the power of God on Saturday evening. That is the truth your Bible reveals.

This truth matters in your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He died for your sins—that you might be justified before the Father and made free from the law of sin and death. This is not abstract theological talk with no relevance to your life. It can mean the difference between a sound mind and a troubled mind. It can make the difference between a successful life and one that struggles to understand meaning and purpose in daily existence. It can mean the difference in your eternal life.

Beyond Today’s mission is to help you understand God’s purpose for your life. Take the time now to examine this truth about Jesus Christ—against whatever you have thought or been taught about His life and death.”

Until next time,    Darris McNeely         Beyond Today.TV


What difference does it make whether you observe the Days of Unleavened Bread or Easter? Don't both honor Christ?

“Is it a big deal to keep both?



The simple answer is that there is a huge difference between these two observances. One is a biblically sanctioned festival of God; the other is a man-made festival without biblical authorization. One teaches us how to live godly lives; the other masks this important truth.

The Days of Unleavened Bread, commanded by God (Leviticus 23:6) and observed by the early Christians (1 Corinthians 5:6-8), teach us to put sin (represented by leavened items such as bread and cake) out of our lives. This festival teaches us that we must overcome sin with the help of God's Spirit and live righteously.

Easter, in contrast to the Days of Unleavened Bread, not only lacks biblical authorization but was instituted by men who deliberately replaced God's commanded festival with one derived from paganism to make Christianity more accommodating to converts who wanted to hold on to pagan traditions. In doing so, they imposed on this festival a Christian meaning—to celebrate Christ's resurrection.

As wonderful as Christ's resurrection is, the Bible specifically tells us to annually commemorate His death, which we do in the annual Passover observance (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25), but it does not give the same instruction about His resurrection. We do essentially commemorate Jesus' resurrection, though, in the commanded festival of God during which it happened—the Days of Unleavened Bread. His resurrection is crucial to the plan of God and the process of leading us out of sin. Indeed, we must progress beyond the fact that Jesus was raised to following our living Lord in the way we live our lives.

By the way, where do you read about using rabbits and Easter eggs to remember Christ's resurrection in the Bible? Answer: Nowhere.

Given the history of Easter, it is quite understandable why so many people today think of Christianity as only a celebration of what Christ has done for us instead of the honorable quest to live godly lives. If you want all the facts, read our free Bible Study aid booklet Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Observe?     



Is the Beef Industry Lying?

“Is beef necessary for babies? Is it essential for athletes? The beef industry wants you to think so. On a new episode of The Exam Room, Lee Crosby, RD, and Neal Barnard, MD, join "The Weight Loss Champion" Chuck Carroll to fact check surprising nutrition claims made on the Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association's website. Follow along as we review and fact check these nutrition claims: “     YouTube:


Saturday, March 27, 2021

Is the Passover Jewish or Christian? For the Kids: Spring Festivals. Egg Industry Response to Choline & TMAO.


Is the Passover Jewish or Christian?

“Jews keep it to remember the Exodus, while most Christians disregard it as a Jewish national holiday. But what should Passover mean to you?

Is the Passover Jewish or Christian?Every year Jews celebrate Passover with a special meal called the seder (meaning order). The service involves reading, drinking wine, telling stories, eating foods, singing songs, and other traditions. The service involves four cups of wine, which represent various aspects of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. A cup is also poured for Elijah, whom Jews are waiting for to announce the coming of Messiah. The meal consists of foods used to remind them of the bitterness of the slavery and the joy of their freedom.

On the other end of the spectrum, most of Christendom believes the Passover ended with Jesus’ death on the cross and was later replaced with Good Friday and Easter.

However, both the Bible and history show that the early Church continued to observe the Passover. Polycarp, a pupil of the apostle John, fought zealously against those who proposed changing the Passover to a day not prescribed in the Bible (Leviticus 23:5). To learn more about this interesting history, read “Church History: Polycarp and Polycrates.”

Passover, a memorial of …

For Jews, the Passover is a memorial of the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage after God used 10 plagues to show His power over the “gods” of Egypt (see “A Deeper Look at the 10 Plagues”). In His 10th plague, God killed the firstborn of all the households that didn’t have lamb’s blood on their doorposts. The Israelites were spared from death through the blood (Exodus 12:22-23, 30).

About 1,500 years after the Passover was instituted through Moses, Jesus came as the ultimate Passover Lamb of God. But does the Passover have any connection with Christianity? Many are surprised to learn that Passover is just as Christian as it is Jewish. About 1,500 years after the Passover was instituted through Moses, Jesus came as the ultimate Passover Lamb of God (John 1:29). He was sacrificed for our sins on the Passover (Matthew 26:2). The apostle Paul describes Him as “Christ, our Passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Jesus did not abolish the Passover, but actually transformed it by revealing its deep spiritual significance. He introduced new symbols: taking unleavened bread and wine as a remembrance of His sacrifice (Luke 22:15, 19-20). The apostle Paul later reinforced this, explaining that Jesus said we should “do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24) on the “same night in which He was betrayed”—which was the evening of Passover (verse 23). Paul’s letters never mention anything about Good Friday or Easter.

New symbols

The truth is that the events of the Old Testament foreshadowed what Christ would do when He came as the Son of Man. Here is a brief description of the primary symbols of the New Covenant Passover:

Foot Washing: Represents Christ’s deep love, humility and serving attitude, which we are to emulate (John 13:1, John 13:5-8, 9-11, 12-15; 1 Peter 5:6).

Unleavened Bread: Represents Christ’s sinless and broken body for our sins (Matthew 26:26; 1 Corinthians 11:24). When Christians observe the Passover, they remember the suffering Christ endured to bear our sins and our need to have Him living within us to receive eternal life (1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:5; John 6:53-55, 56-58; Colossians 1:27).

Wine: Represents Christ’s blood, which was poured out for us. His shed blood instituted the New Covenant (Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 11:25). When Christians observe the Passover, they remember the covenant they made with God at baptism. The New Covenant is based on God’s writing His laws on our hearts, forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life (Hebrews 8:8-9, 10-12; 9:15).

The Passover is the first of seven festivals God commanded His people to observe (Leviticus 23). Each of these festivals pictures a part of God’s plan to bring humanity into His family. None of the other parts of God’s plan can happen without forgiveness through Jesus Christ—the meaning of the Passover.” From:

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For the Kids: Spring Festivals


“This weekend, the annual cycle of God’s festivals begins again, starting with Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

This month’s release focuses on the “sign of Jonah” given by Jesus Christ Himself: the three days and three nights He would be in the grave.


3 Days and 3 Nights Activity

Create a timeline of the events that occurred during the 72 hours that Jesus Christ was in the grave.



How Do You Count Three Days and Three Nights?
Discover why a literal three days and three nights matters in this helpful study resource.



Counting 50
Start your count to Pentecost with our updated "Counting 50" resource.


Have a wonderful Feast of Unleavened Bread!

Join other parents, grandparents and guardians to discuss how they are using the EEI Parenting Manual to teach their children in our Facebook Group.”


Egg Industry Response to Choline & TMAO

“How the egg industry funded a study designed to cover up the toxic trimethylamine oxide reaction to egg consumption.

Transcript of YouTube:


“Metabolomics is a term used to describe the measurement of multiple…metabolites in biological specimens, [like] bodily fluids,” with the goal of “identifying the molecular signatures.”

For example, if we compare the metabolic profile of those with severe heart disease to those with clean arteries, maybe we could come up with a cheap, simple, noninvasive way to screen people. If heart patients happen to have something in their blood that healthy people didn’t, we could test for that. And, maybe, it would even help us understand the mechanisms of disease. “To refer to metabolomics as a new field,” though, is to do “injustice to ancient doctors who used ants to diagnose…[people with] diabetes”—because the ants could detect the sugar in their urine.

The first modern foray discovered hundreds of substances in a single breath: for example, thanks to the development of computer technology that made it possible to handle large amounts of information. And, that was in 1971, a time when computers looked like this. “[N]ew…technologies have allowed researchers to measure hundreds, or even thousands, of metabolites at a time”—which is good, since more than 25,000 compounds may be entering our body through our diet alone.

The data come out looking like this, which computers can turn into maps that allow researchers to try to piece together connections. Metabolomics is where the story of TMAO started.

“Every[one] knows that a bad diet can lead to heart disease. But which dietary components are the most harmful?” So, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic screened blood from patients who had experienced a heart attack or stroke, and compared the results with those from blood of people who had not.

Using all sorts of fancy technology, they identified a compound called TMAO, which stands for trimethylamine oxide. The more of this TMAO stuff people had in their blood, the greater the odds they had heart disease, and the worse their heart disease was.

Where does this TMAO stuff come from? Our liver turns TMA into TMAO. Okay, where does TMA come from? Certain bacteria in our gut turn something in our diet called choline into TMA. Where is the highest concentration of choline found? Eggs, milk, and meats, including poultry and fish. So, when we eat these foods, our gut bacteria may make TMA, which is absorbed into our system, and oxidized by our liver into TMAO, which may then increase our risk of heart attack, stroke, and death.

But, just because at a snapshot in time, people with heart disease tend to have higher TMAO levels doesn’t mean having high TMAO necessarily leads to bad outcomes. We’d really want to follow people over time—which is what they did next. 4,000 people followed for three years, and those with the highest TMAO levels went on to have significantly more heart attacks, strokes, or death.

Wait a second, though. If high TMAO levels come from eating lots of meat, dairy, and eggs, then maybe the only reason people with high TMAO levels have lots of heart attacks is they’re eating lots of meat, dairy, and eggs. Maybe having high TMAO levels is just a marker of a diet high in “red meat, eggs, milk, and chicken,” that’s killing people by raising cholesterol levels, or something, and has nothing to do with TMAO at all. “Conversely, [the reason] a low TMAO level” seems so protective may just be because it’s “indicative of a [more] plant-based diet.”


But, what about the rest of this sequence? How can we be certain that our gut bacteria can take the choline we eat, and turn it into trimethylamine in the first place?  Easily—they’d just have to administer a simple dietary choline challenge. How do you do that? Just give ’em some eggs.

Have people eat two hard-boiled eggs, and you get a bump of TMAO in their blood within about an hour of consumption. Ah, but what if you then gave them antibiotics, to wipe out their gut flora? Then, you can give ’em eggs, and nothing happens. In fact, their TMAO levels are down at zero, showing gut bacteria plays a critical role. But if you wait a month, give their gut some time to recover from the antibiotics, TMAO levels come creeping back up.

These findings did not thrill the egg industry. Imagine you work for the American Egg Board, tasked with designing a study to show no effect of eating nearly an egg a day. How could you rig it to show no difference? Well, if you look at the effect of an egg meal, you get a bump in TMAO levels. But, your kidneys are so good at getting rid of this nasty stuff, by hours 4, 6, 8, you’re back to baseline.

So, all you have to do is just make sure they hadn’t eaten those eggs in the last 12 hours, and you can show no effect and get your study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and collect your paycheck.” From:


Sunday, March 21, 2021

Is Christ Our Passover? Equality Act. How Our Gut Bacteria Can Use Eggs to Accelerate Cancer.


Embedded1616160924075Is Christ Our Passover?

"The title of this piece might raise a question for some of you. How can Christ be our “Passover”? Isn’t Passover a Jewish holiday? Didn’t Jesus do away with those Jewish laws and customs? Didn’t the early Christians observe Easter, the day on which Jesus rose from the dead? Surely, some will say, a Christian should have nothing to do with a Jewish custom?

The truth is, in a few days many Christians will gather to remember the suffering and death of Jesus of Nazareth for the sins of the world as the Lamb of God. They will gather in a simple but profoundly moving service and take the symbols of the bread and wine in a service directly instituted by Jesus Himself, and later written about by the apostle Paul. I will be one of those Christians.


On the night before His death Jesus instituted a new manner of keeping an ancient service of Passover which began with Israel’s exodus from Egyptian bondage. Paul was referring to what Jesus did and what all Christians from that time should do. Neither Paul, nor any other apostle in the first century Church, kept Easter. Easter is a heresy that crept into the Church during the second century and corrupted the faith and practice of the Church.

The story of that controversy is well documented in history books. Ministers and members who faithfully held to the example and teaching of Jesus were eventually pushed out of the Church by those who wanted nothing to do with things “Jewish.” Those who continued keeping the Passover and festivals of God correctly held to the teaching of Jesus but were branded heretics for being behind the times.

Your sincerely held practice in observing Easter is something you should examine next to the teaching from the Bible. Jesus kept a Passover with His disciples. Paul taught Gentile Christians to observe the Passover along with a seven-day festival called the Days of Unleavened Bread.

You can follow the story with the help of our study guide, God’s Holy Day Plan. It will challenge your belief. It will help you understand what many Christians are discovering as they examine world religious traditions in the light of biblical teaching. The two are vastly different.

Jesus Christ is our Passover. How we worship Him does matter. He is worshipped in spirit and in truth. Nothing less."        From: Beyond Today. and:


Equality Act

“We are facing another battle in the moral revolution and our ability to preach the gospel is being challenged.

Transcript of YouTube:

[Darris McNeely] “The United States and much of the Western world is in the midst of a complete moral revolution. You know that.

But recently, a piece of legislation passed through Congress, and as I speak is now before the United States Senate called the Equality Act. That is a far-sweeping broad legislative effort to overturn essentially the moral order, not just of America, but of life itself against the created order that God Himself has put in place. The Equality Act is a centerpiece of legislation that the new presidential administration in America under Joseph Biden says they want to publish or to enact within the first 100 days of their administration. As I said, it's before the Senate. Why is this so important to understand? Because it strikes as I've said at the very moral order in legislating for the equality of gender issues under the rubric of the LGBTQ acronym that has become a part of our life and the very fabric of so much in America today. And legislating now, gender issues, sexual identity to where it cannot be discriminated against and it will go so far as to remove freedoms that churches, institutions of faith have in place guaranteed by the Constitution.

Now, with this being enacted, it is going to have the danger of stripping much of this away. Schools and churches, healthcare organizations are now in a sense reclassified as what will be called public accommodations, which means that in the public expression of the faith of a church or a faith-based institution, that will be something that then falls within the purview of this Equality Act, and therefore, then can be legislated against. In other words, a church, a religious college, or other institution will have to hire ministry, workers perform certain actions that are against their faith and people whose lifestyle and actions are contrary to their faith as well. And to even to express that will then be something that can be enacted legally against.

This has been going on for a long time in our culture, academia, entertainment. The Supreme Court has made judgments about same-sex marriage, abortion, and other matters that have gone against the Bible and other churches and religious organizations now for decades. The swing of the pendulum morally and culturally through business, through big tech, has, in effect, happened. And now, this is the movement's final effort, at least to enact legislation that will, in effect, amend the 1965 civil rights law and extend those privileges and equality to gender issues. And now, it will be the law of the land.

This is something that is going to impact every part of America, probably create some kind of a backlash, but it is huge. It is important. It will impact the lives of virtually everyone. This is big. This is a moral revolution that is coming to pass it seems.

What can we do? What can you do? Many have called for certainly prayer that it would not happen, but it is a movement that has been going on for a long time. And in many ways, prophesied biblically to be a part of what the world and nations are a part of close of the age before Christ's return.

And so, for you and I praying thy kingdom come is going to be even more vital and more important, but also being aware watching and understanding what is taking place to understand the impact that's going to have upon our world, our life, and the gospel is very, very important. Something to watch. Something to understand.”         From:


How Our Gut Bacteria Can Use Eggs to Accelerate Cancer

“The reason egg consumption is associated with elevated cancer risk may be the TMAO, considered the “smoking gun” of microbiome-disease interactions.”

Transcript of:

“We are walking communities comprised not only of a Homo sapiens host, but also of trillions of symbiotic commensal microorganisms within the gut, and on every other surface of our bodies.” There are more bacterial cells in our gut than there are human cells in our entire body. In fact, only about 10% of the DNA in our body is human. The rest is in our microbiome—the microbes that we share with this walking community we call our body. What do they do?

Our “[g]ut microbiota [our gut bacteria microbiome] serve as a filter for our largest environmental exposure—what we eat. Technically speaking, food is a foreign object that we take into our bodies [by the pound] every day.” “And, the microbial community within each of us significantly influences how we experience [those meals].” “Hence, our metabolism and absorption of food occurs through [this] filter of bacteria.”

But, if we eat a lot of meat, poultry, fish, milk, cheese, eggs, we can foster the growth of bacteria that convert the choline and carnitine in these foods into TMA—trimethylamine, which can be oxidized into TMAO, and wreak havoc on our arteries, increasing our risk of heart attack, stroke, and death.

We’ve known about this troublesome transformation from choline into trimethylamine for over 40 years. But, that was way before we learned about the heart disease connection. Why were they concerned back then? Because these methylamines might form “nitrosamines [which] have marked carcinogenic activity”—cancer-causing activity.

So, where is choline found in our diet? Mostly from meat, eggs, dairy, and refined grains. The link between meat and cancer probably wouldn’t surprise anyone. In fact, just due to the industrial pollutants alone (like PCBs), children probably shouldn’t eat more than like five servings a month of meats like beef, pork, or chicken, combined. But, what about cancer and eggs?

Studies going back to the 70s hinted at a correlation between eggs and colon cancer. But, that was just based on so-called ecological data, showing that countries that ate more eggs tended to have higher cancer rates. But, that could be due to a million things, right? It needed to be put to the test.

This started in the 80s, and by the 1990s, 15 studies had been published: ten suggesting “a direct association” between egg consumption and colorectal cancer, and five showing “no association.” By 2014, there were dozens more studies published, confirming that eggs may indeed be playing a role in the development of colon cancer—though no relationship was discovered between egg consumption and the development of precancerous polyps, which suggests that “egg[s] might be involved [more] in the promotional [stage of cancer growth—accelerating cancer growth, rather than] initiating [the cancer in the first place].”

Which brings us to 2015. Maybe it’s the TMAO, made from the choline in meat and eggs, that’s promoting cancer growth. And, indeed, in the Women’s Health Initiative study, women with the highest TMAO levels in their blood “had…approximately [three] times greater risk of rectal cancer”—suggesting “TMAO [levels] may serve as a potential predictor of increased colorectal cancer risk.”

Though there may be more evidence for elevated breast cancer risk with egg consumption than prostate cancer risk, the only other study to date on TMAO and cancer looked at prostate cancer, and did, indeed, find a higher risk.

Diet has long been considered a primary factor in health. However, with the microbiome revolution of the past decade, we have begun to understand how diet can” affect the back-and-forth between us-and-the-rest-of-us inside. And, the whole TMAO story is like “a smoking gun in [gut bacteria]-disease interactions.”

Since “choline…and carnitine are [the] primary sources of…TMAO production, the “logical intervention strategy” might be to reduce meat, dairy, and egg consumption. And, if we eat plant-based for long enough, we can actually change our “gut microbial communities,” such that they may not be able to make TMAO, even if we try. “The theory of “you are what you eat” [is] finally…supported by scientific evidence.”

We may not have to eat healthy for long, though. Soon, we may yet be able to “‘drug the microbiome’” as a way of “promoting cardiovascular health.”          From: