Passover Tidbit No. 11

Is Passover = to Easter?

Many Christians seem to have a vague understanding of the Passover/Easter connection, sometimes thinking Passover is sort of a Jewish Easter, perhaps in the same way they see Hanukah as a Jewish Christmas ... not so much.

Let’s take a quick look at how we came to associate Easter and Pesach. Y’shua, as we know from reading the Second Testament, always celebrated Pesach, and was in fact on His way to Jerusalem to celebrate Pesach when He was betrayed, arrested, tried, and crucified, all per the prophecies found in the TaNaKh (Old Testament).

Y’shua told the assembled group of Disciples also celebrating the Pesach Seder (meal), that He would not drink the 4th cup, the cup of redemption, until they were together again. OK Matthew 26:29 actually says "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Fathers kingdom"there are no cup numbers identified in Scripture those came later added by Rabbi's.

But do not miss the point here; Y’shua seems to be saying after the His second advent, or at least after the redemption, has taken place, he will celebrate Pesach in fact all the Feasts of YHVH again. That means that we will be celebrating Pesach after Y’shua returns, during the 1000 years. There are many unnecessary arguments about, if or how many, glasses Y’shua drank, but that is missing the point. Some groups have 3 others 4 and some 5. But the obvious point is that He is expecting us to continue to celebrate the Pesach until His return, and celebrate with Him after he returns.

The Yehudiym (Jews) and members of the new sect known as The Way, or Christians as we now call them, celebrated Pesach and the other Feasts of YHVH every year for more than 300 years after the death of Y’shua, there was no debate among any of them about keeping the Feasts.

Around 324 AD Emperor Constantine claims to have seen a vision of a Cross and heard the words "conquer by this" and in that moment embraced The Way. At first glance that might seem odd, Y’shua was about humility, not about war; perhaps the vision was a result of a bad burrito or maybe YHVY really did send a vision to Constantine. But whatever it was, the believers in Rome approved, as perhaps theologically unsound, but it bettered their day-to-day life. But it did come at a price, as every compromise does; they had to abandon the instructions and truth contained in Scripture and embrace the new rules set up by Constantine and his new church, the Roman Catholic Church

Constantine hated the Yehudiym (Jews), and everything Hebrew, apparently not realizing Y’shua was Yehudiym, the writers of every word of Scripture were Yehudiym, and the context and background of the Scriptures were all from a distinctly Hebrew background. Even the so-called first Pope, Kepha (Peter) was Yehudiym, but no matter, the children of Elohiym had to go. To that end he felt the need to eliminate the Feasts of the YHVH, but needed to replace them with something ... well ... less Hebrew.

Fortunately for Him the pagan Spring celebration of Ishtar fell on the Sunday after the spring equinox, it was a great time with drinking partying and tons of pagan worship, so it seemed logical to him to change the Feast of Unleavened Bread (which includes Pesach) to coincide with Ishtar to further separate believers from their Elohiym.

In 336 Pope Julius of the, now think about this carefully .... The Roman Catholic Church, that is to say, the new universal church founded in Rome at Constantine’s request, wrote an edict changing the Biblical day of Pesach from Nisan 14 to the first Sunday after the spring equinox if it was after March 21st. Ishtar became Easter in English, and as Ishtar was a fertility festival, spring and all, it featured lots of bunnies, eggs and the like. Additional days were added called Good Friday, Lent, and a wide verity of non-Biblical events designed to separate the Believer from YHVH

To many this seemed like a lot of fun, and no harm was done, right? As expected, many of the true followers of Y’shua objected and continued to celebrate Pesach on the correct and ordained day, along with their Yehudiym brethren.

The true believers would not buckle and continued to celebrate Unleavened Bread as Yahuah instructed. It was in 1451 that another Pope, this time Nicholas, flat outlawed any Christian from “engaging in any Jewish practices". The penalty was forfeiture of all property to the Roman Catholic Church and forfeiture of their life.

So pervasive was the continued celebration of Pesach that in 1582 Pope Gregory wrote another edict formally changing the date of Pesach, eliminating the Feasts of Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits, changing them to the pagan celebration of Ishtar, now known as Easter, and actually providing the reasoning as to why he thought this was a good idea. Gregory believed that by changing the days he would be able to "corrupt" the pagan celebration of Ishtar into a “Christian” event honoring Y’hsua, and thus he codified the rules. This has been pretty effective as now most who believe they are following YHVH, are instead now following the Pope.

It should seem obvious that if most believers were not celebrating YHVH’s Feasts as commanded in Scripture, there would have been no need for Nicholas’s or Gregory’s decrees. The Popes, it would seem, have always had a rather tenuous relationship with the Word of Elohiym, and the truth.

So pervasive was this idea of Easter marking the day of Y’shua’s resurrection, that many Bible translations even to this day, like the King James for instance, actually changed the Words of Scripture and removed “Passover” and replacing it with the word Easter. Check your Bible and see if Acts 12:4 says Easter or Passover. Clearly the Yehudiym in Yerusalem at the time of Shau’al (Paul) were not celebrating Easter, it had not been invented yet.

To this day many churches around the world, not attached to any major denomination of course, still recognize the Feasts of YHVH and celebrate them on the days instructed. And in any case when Y’shua returns we will be celebrating with Him, on the correct days.

750 years after Nicholas, 1500 Years after Gregory and 1900 years after Julius, and Constantine, observant Christian believers, followers of Y’shua, were still holding to the Word, and Instructions of Yahuah, and are joyfully celebrating as He had commanded, waiting for His Son’s to finish the Pesach Seder with Him.

Celebrating the Feast is not a “Jewish” thing, and I am not converting by to Judaism by joining with the words and instructions of Scripture. I celebrate the feasts to honor YHVH and to zaw-kar', or remember, (to act on something I know to be true), I know that He is a jealous God, He is jealous for His name, jealous for His land, jealous or His people, jealous for Yerusalem, jealous for Zion. He is, jealous for His traditions and His D'var (Word).

Today many of the Yehodiym have become blind and lost their way, (read all of Romans chapter 11) and they will continue to be blind "until the fullness of the gentiles be come in". There is great profit and comfort in celebrating the "cycles of righteousness" or the cycles of the feasts, as they are called the very account of YHVH's salvation, from the first sin in the garden, to the end in the New Yerushaliym. They contain the promises and truth of Yahuah, but these celebrations are not a means of salvation, they are something I can do to please my Adonai, but there is one even more important reason for embracing the Feasts.

As Shau’al is instructing here, one of the jobs of the believer, if I can say it that way, is to make the Yehudiym jealous for their Elohiym. One of the ways we can do that by embracing the truths they now neglect. In one sense our celebration of the Pesach and the other feasts of YHVH, is a ministry to our Hebrew neighbors. I believe the phrase "the fullness of the Gentiles" has far more meaning than we traditionally grant it, and I believe one of those meanings is that, we as Gentile believers in YHVH, will not be complete until the time when our Yehudiym brethren are able to come to the true understanding of Y'shua. Read Mal-akiy (Malachi) chapter 4. Yechezq-el’ (Ezekiel) chapter 37 and Hebrews chapter 11.

Today reminds us that for 1800 years ungodly men have sought to separate Elohiym’s people from YHVH’s Feasts. That truth alone may be enough to cause many to look into the feasts, but the truth, pictures, promises, glory, and power of YHVH is to be found when we celebrate them together with our Elohiym in obedience to His Word, not because we have to, or for any reward, but because we want to honor Him, not to be saved, but because we are saved.

CB