On easter
WHAT I DIDN’T
KNOW THAT I DIDN’T KNOW, ABOUT passover
(based
on conversations I have had with professing christians)
-five-
We began this journey
with YHWH sending a man to Israel with a promise
to deliver them from bondage. That man was Moses. He challenged the powers that be,
working powerful miracles with which Almighty God established Himself as Lord
& King, mightier than any of the so-called
gods of the Egyptian pantheon.
They were systematically defeated,
stripped & judged. The Lord demonstrated His sovereign power over life & death meticulously. ‘When
Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.’ (Hosea 11:1). This
being the case, it’s only fitting that we finish this journey with YHWH sending
a Saviour to Israel with a promise
to deliver them from bondage. That Saviour was Jesus Christ. He challenged the powers
that be, working powerful miracles with which Almighty God established Him as Lord & King, mightier than any of
the so-called princes & the
god of this world. They were systematically defeated,
stripped & judged. The Lord demonstrated His sovereign power over life & death meticulously. ‘And
was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.’ (Matthew
2:15). John says, ‘And ye know that he
was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.’ (1st John
3:5). He is The Lamb of God that
takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He is typified in Exodus, but in The Gospel, He is the
substance. Buckle up. This is
quite a thing.
Let’s put something to
bed before we go any further. Several of you who have been reading through this
series have asked why The KJV uses the word Easter
in Acts 12:4. In short, I don’t know. The Greek word
translated there is ‘pascha’ (derived from the Hebrew ‘pesach’),
which is otherwise rendered Passover. It only occurs once & therefore I can’t see that a case can be built from
that for Easter & Passover being synonymous.
In the first century,
Jewish believers would have referred to The Feast as Passover & it
would have been kept faithfully, having its fulfilment in
The Lord Jesus Christ. As it stands now, what is called Easter today bears little
or no resemblance to The Feast. The whole aim & object of our
worship at this time has to be Jesus Christ & Christ
alone. Easter & Passover are not the same & although some
may kid themselves that they share Christ in common,
I assure you that they do not.
As I have said
previously, I would dare to venture that our actual beliefs
are clearly
revealed in our doctrines & in our
practices.
These in turn must be obtained from Scripture. Wherever there is deviation,
there is also dilemma. Paul says, ‘For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I
hear that there be divisions among
you; and I partly believe it. For there must
be also heresies among you,
that they which are approved may
be made manifest among you.’ (1st
Corinthians 11:18-19). Notice that Paul says these things as he is
about to give instructions concerning The Lord’s Supper. Who are the heretics
& who are the approved that Paul identifies? He tells Timothy, ‘Study to shew
thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.’
(2nd Timothy 2:15). When did heresy
& division
set in & plant the seeds of Easter within The Church at large?
‘The Council of Nicea
in 325 AD established Sunday as the fixed date for Easter…One of the purposes
of the Council of Nicea in 325 was to settle that date. Constantine did not want Easter to be celebrated on the Jewish
Passover. He said it was a
Christian "duty to
have nothing in common with the murderers of our Lord"...The
Council of Nicea accordingly required the feast of the resurrection to be
celebrated on a Sunday and never on the
day of the Jewish Passover. Easter was to be on the Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring equinox.’.
Christianity.com.
Compiled quotes adapted from an earlier Christian History Institute story by
Diane Severance, Ph.D. Chinews. "Today in History, March 22."
"Easter." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone.
Oxford, 1997. Gibson, George M. The Story of the Christian Year. Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1945 (emphasis added)
As well as the obvious
racist anti-Jewish rhetoric, it is clear that the Gentile Church wanted
to distinguish itself. Did no one mention the admonition of Paul to
The Church in Rome? ‘Boast
not against the branches. But if thou boast,
thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.’ (Romans
11:18). What flowed into the vacuum created by the Council’s decisions? Ask
their theologians. I believe they were named Tom, Dick & Harry. Also, bear
in mind The Venerable Bede’s observation concerning the renaming of Paschal
Month; ‘.. calling the joys
of the new rite by the time-honoured
name of the old observance.’. We covered this in our second
offering in this series.
The earliest believers
kept The
Feast. The Apostles kept The Feast. The Lord Jesus kept The
Feast. Surely we would have been told if there was indeed a ‘..Christian duty to have nothing in common with the murderers of our Lord..’. The murderers of Our Lord has to include
Gentiles. Surely? They must have missed that. Over time, the
systematic inclusion & sanitisation of any & all things
that took The Church’s fancy, were woven into the fabric of its doctrine
& practise.
This includes Easter. The Church at large has drifted off course &
has contented itself to rebrand ungodly themes instead
of revealing
Gospel
truths. For true believers, Christ is our Passover, not our Easter.
He laid the
foundation. He established the parameters. He set the
table.
Instead of drawing on the
biblical types
& shadows
that have been given to us, we have turned to heathen elements &
justified drawing our examples from there. This is why Easter is associated with eggs,
chicks & rabbits in the world; because it’s associated with the same things
in The Church. Stop a stranger in the street & ask them what
they think of when they hear the word Easter. Then ask them what they think of
when they hear the word Passover. Answers on a postcard please. Easter
is not Passover.
Not only is the label on the jar different; so are the
contents. So I have to ask brethren; do you even know what you’re consuming?
Well, it has been said,
at the time of Christ the different Jewish sects kept The Feast in alternative
ways. This
is true. Aren’t we just doing the same thing? No. It is important to
point out the fact that none of these sects drew any inference
or influence
from the unbelieving world around them, in order to repurpose its symbolism
& Judaise it in the way that The Church has blatantly christianised the
ungodly. These very same elements vehemently deny the exclusivity
of Christ & His Gospel. Can you see what has happened?
The True Lamb of God gave
us His memorial.
What have we The Church done with it? Paul says, ‘Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,
nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of God; Who hath saved
us, and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death, and hath
brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel.’ (2nd Timothy 1:8-10).
Through. The. Gospel.
Easter & its elements
reveal new
life. Passover
& its elements reveal eternal life. They are not the same.
Remember, the Israelites were actually demonstrating Messiah’s death, until
He came. Just as we The Church do, when we receive communion. In
Passover, we are looking back as well as looking forward to The Marriage
Supper of The Lamb (Matthew 26:29, Revelation
19:9).
When The Lord shared
Passover with His disciples before He suffered (Luke 22:15), He
made it clear that the Seder represented Him, tying Him to the Mosaic
Exodus. He announces a New Covenant in the language of a wedding
proposal. Remember His words. This is my body, given for you. This
is my blood, shed for you. These are His solemn vows & as a
Gentile, this is what makes Passover the sweetest of the sweet. The cream
in the biscuit.
This is also why I do not want The Feast to be diluted
or polluted, because it reveals the heart of the salvation offered to us by The
Son of God & He paid the entire bride price with His own blood.
‘When viewed through
the lens of ancient Jewish wedding customs and from the perspective of a Jewish
believer in Jesus, this event takes on a deeper significance: it becomes a betrothal ceremony. In
Jewish tradition, betrothal (kiddushin) was a legally binding covenant, often sealed by the sharing of a cup of wine between the groom and bride. This
analysis argues that Jesus’ actions at the Last Supper mirror this ritual,
positioning him as the Bridegroom who pledges himself to his disciples, representing
the Church, his Bride, within a covenantal framework based on the template of
the Mosaic Marriage Covenant… Betrothal,
in Jewish law, is the first stage of the marriage process, whereby a man and a
woman become legally committed to each other.
This covenant was formalized through a ceremonial act, often involving
the groom offering a cup of wine to the bride. Her
acceptance, by drinking from the cup, signified her consent to the betrothal… This act established a binding promise, with the groom
departing to prepare a home, returning later for the wedding feast.’.
Messianic Bible, “Ancient
Jewish Wedding Customs and Yeshua’s Second Coming,”. Chabad.org, “The Four Cups
of Wine,”. (emphasis added)
I put it to you that The
Church at large does not know Who or what it’s missing, most especially since
it has willingly removed & replaced crucial representative
elements of the covenant from its language, liturgy
& litany.
In this context, these actions would be considered adulterous & unfaithful.
Why? Because that’s exactly what they are!
There are no covenantal
elements
in The
Equinox, so why has The Church deliberately embraced things that
are so diametrically
opposed to the truth? Because The Church at large has absolutely no
idea what The Exodus means & probably doesn’t care. Pagan men
introduced these pagan things. Beyond that, many have no idea what The
Gospel means either. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Paul
admonishes individuals to examine themselves before taking
part in communion (1st Corinthians 11:28).
20 For ye
are bought with a price: therefore glorify
God in your body, and in
your spirit, which are God's (1st
Corinthians 6:20).
23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men (1st
Corinthians 7:23).
2 For
I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for
I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ
(2nd Corinthians 11:2).
The Church would do well
to carefully consider its course. Religionists, atheists & agnostics alike
have already been laughing, pointing fingers & levelling the accusation
that we are no different to or better than them. YHWH smashed the
Egyptian pantheon of false gods for this very reason. So why has The Church been
having an affair with them?
7 But
against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against
man or beast: that ye may know how that
the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel (Exodus
11:7).
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