Monday, April 7, 2014

Easter or Passover?

I recently had a good friend email me and ask how I felt about Passover. She was curious about what our responsibilities as Christians are to celebrate the Passover. I was SO honored that she valued my opinion on the topic enough to reach out to me! I only hope that I helped her find the information she was seeking.

Easter versus Passover is a very controversial topic, especially for Christians. We grow up learning stories and singing songs - and we build traditions that have deep connections to our soul.

For this reason, I want to disclose something right up front:
I am NOT trying to condemn or judge what you believe. Your relationship with God is just that... yours. How you express your love and gratitude to Him regarding His birth and resurrection - is between you and Him. I've celebrated both Easter AND Passover and felt spiritually fulfilled with both at the time I was celebrating them. For this reason - I don't condemn anyone. We're all on a journey. We're all at different stages. We all interpret things differently and we're all learning.

That being said, I've been a truth-seeker for most of my life. I grew up being taught certain principles that I didn't understand, so I left that path and landed on the opposite end of the spectrum. Neither side had all of the answers and I learned a very valuable lesson to always seek the truth for myself. I feel like for the first time in my life, I've uncovered the answers I was searching for. The puzzle pieces fit nicely and I can clearly see the picture.

The information I'm about to share is what I've learned throughout my journey, especially within the last year and a half. It has roots in both historical and biblical accounts.
Jesus spoke to the Jews who had believed him. “If you obey my teaching,” he said, “you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth. And the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32

The truth about Easter and Passover – is that one is biblical and the other is not.

Many people think of Passover as one of the plagues of Egypt where the angel of death passed over the houses and killed the first born children. This is the origin of Passover. It’s been celebrated in remembrance of that event for thousands of years. Every year on Passover, the priests slay a Passover lamb and the Jews commemorate the event. The day after Passover ends, the Jews celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread where they remove leavening from their home. Three days later, they celebrate the Feast of First Fruits.

How does this tie into the story of Jesus? Well, everything in Judaism is calculated. God gave specific instructions for specific times to carry out the celebrations. Jesus died on Passover at the exact moment when the rabbi's were sacrificing the Passover lamb. It's no coincidence that Jesus is called the "lamb of God". He literally became the Passover lamb that was slain for our sins. At the exact second that the priests were killing the lamb for the Passover celebration, God sacrificed a Passover Lamb of His own.

http://www.doctrinalhomilyoutlines.com/2013/01/three-parallels-in-the-passover-and-the-eucharist/

Jesus was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In Judaism, as soon as the sun sets, the current day ends and the next begins. If I were to tell you that Jesus was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, you might assume that he was buried the next day. But this is incorrect. He was buried on same day that he died, but because the sun had set, it was considered the next day already. At the exact moment when the Jews were removing leavening from their home, he was removing sin from our record.

Three days later, Jesus rose from the grave on the Feast of First Fruits. At the exact moment that the Jews were bringing the first of their spring crops to present to the Lord, Jesus was taking the place of our tithe to God. He was our first fruits offering to God.

I wont go into much detail on this, but it is widely believed that because He fulfilled the spring feasts in His first coming, He will fulfill the fall feasts in his return. (Feast of Trumpets - his return to earth is always accompanied by trumpets throughout the Bible, Atonement - where we're getting ourselves right and turning from our sins - possibly the tribulation period, and then Feast of Tabernacles - where we're caught up together with him and celebrate in our new heavenly homes.)

Rather than observing the original story of Passover, we have a new meaning and a new reason to celebrate Passover in remembrance of HIM. After all, God commanded that this holy day be celebrated forever. (Exodus 12:14, Leviticus 16:29, Leviticus 16:31, Leviticus 23:21) You even see the disciples keeping Passover after Christ had ascended. (Acts 2:1, Acts 20:16, Acts 18:20-21, Luke 22:1, Luke 22:19)

http://thespiritmagnus.blogspot.com/2013/03/rome-is-where-heart-is-eucharist-food.html

Christ commanded his disciples to remember Him on Passover in the famous passage where he's having communion with them. The "last supper" actually took place on the first night of Passover. He took the bread and broke it, and the wine and drank it and then said, "Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 1 Corinthians 11:25

He wasn't actually telling them to remember Him every time they drank. They were celebrating a special occasion, so naturally the next time they would drink in this particular way would be on the same occasion... Passover. In the same way that they had been celebrating Passover for thousands of years in remembrance of their ancestors being freed from slavery, Jesus was asking them to remember HIM on Passover in the future... and commemorate His sacrifice which freed US from the bondage of our sin.

I can't think of a more beautiful reason to celebrate Passover, as a Christian.

EASTER

Here's where we're going to tap into LOTS of controversy. Strap yourselves in.

The truth is that Easter really has nothing to do with Jesus. The name “Easter” is the English translation of the name “Ishtar” who was a fertility goddess in ancient Babylonia. That's why Easter is associated with eggs and bunnies, both symbols of fertility.  Back in ancient times, people worshiped the sun, moon and stars as their gods. This is why most of the ancient “gods” were sun gods and goddesses.

Here are some of the most well known sun gods and goddesses worshiped in ancient cultures: Baal and Ashtoreth (Phoenicia), Osiris and Isis (Egypt), Adonis and Aphrodite (Greece), Cupid and Venus (Rome) and Nimrod and Semiramis (Babylon), who later became known as Ishtar.

http://ancientpeoples.tumblr.com/post/26838754545/ishtar-is-the-assyrian-and-babylonian-goddess

Notice a trend with the sun goddesses? Venus and Aphrodite were both known for love and seduction. So it's no coincidence that Ishtar was known as a fertility goddess. She declared a ceremony to be performed every year on the sun-rise immediately following the first full moon after the spring equinox. This is where we get our “sun-rise service” that is still practiced today on Easter Sunday. I wont go into the specifics of her ceremony, but it's very vulgar. You can research it on your own.

Ishtar had a son with her husband Nimrod (the same Nimrod who built the tower of Babel). They named him Tammuz. Ishtar's name is not specifically mentioned in the bible, however she is commonly referred to as the "queen of heaven" in scripture. Tammuz's name, on the other hand, is found in the Bible, along with Nimrod. So are Baal and Ashtoreth. (1 Kings 11:5)  - Keep in mind that they're all the same people, but they were called by different names according to different cultures.

https://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2006/10/30/who-was-nimrod.aspx

Tammuz grew up to be an incredible hunter. According to Babylonian legend – he was out hunting in his 40th year and was killed by a wild boar. This was a HUGE event in ancient times because he was considered to be a “god”. The Bible actually backs this story up. “Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz.” Ezekiel 8:14

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/582039/Tammuz

The mourning of his death was taken very seriously in the ancient world. In fact, Ishtar commanded that her followers give up something of importance to them for 40 days each year on the anniversary of his death. She believed that if they sacrificed something that they enjoyed, then her son could enjoy it in the afterlife. This is the origin of the Catholic practice of lent. She also commanded her followers to eat ham on the anniversary of his death– because he was killed by a boar. This is where we get our Easter ham.

Throughout scripture, you see God trying to protect and separate his people the Jews. Clearly, there was a lot of paganism going on in the background of history. Lots of sun gods and goddesses that the rest of civilization were worshiping. God was continually trying to keep his people away from it all. He put strict boundaries on their practices to keep them from being corrupted. He even put these at the top of the 10 commandments!

The first 3 commandments establish who the true God is, and His disdain for the worship of other gods and idols. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. I can see why it was so important for him to drill this in.

Throughout history, as Christianity evolved and we accepted more and more outsiders into our faith –they brought with them portions of their own heritage.  Apparently, these cultural beliefs, through one form or another, were slowly merged into the Christian story. This is the exact merge that God was trying desperately to warn us against.

History has proven that we've merged beliefs across the board - including our Sabbath.

http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/roman-catholic-sun-worship-eucharist.html

Sunday was originally the date that the pagans worshipped their "sun" gods. It was the Roman Emperor Constantine that changed the date of worship for Christians from Saturday to Sunday. He was trying to make Christianity more appealing to pagans. In his seemingly innocent desire to make Christianity the most popular religion in the world, he basically told the pagans – “We’ll change our date of worship so that you can keep worshiping on the date you always have, just worship our God instead.”  This new date of worship got passed down into what eventually became the Roman Catholic Church.

The origins of Easter/Ishtar date back all the way to Nimrod, and was being celebrated long before Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. It's no coincidence that this pagan sun-rise service, falls so closely to the Passover celebration that God commanded his children to observe.

There's a book out by an author I like - and I LOVE the title. It's called the "Cosmic Chess Match." The whole idea is that this underlying war of Satan against God is constantly a game of move and then counter-move. God moves and Satan counter-moves. Whatever God has, Satan tries to beat him to the punch and put something in place that is very similar in appearance and yet opposite end of the spectrum spiritually. Case in point: Easter vs Passover.

The Bible does forewarn us that Satan's whole purpose is to "kill, steal and destroy". (John 10:10) This not only applies to us on a personal level, but also to our spiritual relationship with our creator - the very thing that God desires the most. If the devil can lead us astray and manipulate us to believe that we're doing something that honors God, then he not only has us fooled, but He's also hurting the heart of God in the process.

If you think about it... it's pretty conniving!

I realize that this is a big pill to swallow, and I also realize that not everyone will want to believe this as truth... and that's OK. I'm simply sharing what I've learned - take it or leave it. There are those who are seeking answers for the puzzle pieces that don't quite fit. I only hope that I've helped you find what you were looking for.

Be Blessed!

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