What if the Easter traditions you’ve always known have a deeper story—one that could transform how you understand this holiday? In this eye-opening teaching, you’ll uncover the historical roots, biblical context, and spiritual implications behind Easter and the symbols that surround it.
In this lesson, you are invited to step beyond assumptions and explore what the Bible actually reveals about Easter, Passover, and the traditions that developed over time. We walk through history, Scripture, and cultural influence so you can clearly see the difference between biblical instruction and later customs.
So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about Easter.
#Easter #EasterHistory #PassoverVsEaster #EasterOrigins #EasterTruth #WhatIsEaster #BiblicalEaster #EasterForBeginners #PassoverAndEaster #GodHonestTruth
AI Research
GHT Notes
Transcript
Teaching Introduction
You’ve heard about Easter your whole life. You probably even think you know what Easter is all about. After all, you’ve seen the rabbits and the eggs and the crosses every single year. But here’s the hard question. Are those traditions actually rooted in the Bible? Or did they come from somewhere else entirely?
In this teaching, we confront the uncomfortable questions that many believers have never been asked to consider. Not to attack the faith, but to purify it. If you care about honoring God with truth instead of tradition, then stay with us because what you’re about to learn may change the way you look at Easter forever.
Video Start
All right. All right. So, this teaching is all about Easter and specifically the overall uh view that Easter as we know it today is a painting over of the resurrection. Don’t understand what I’m talking about? Well, stay tuned for this particular teaching and you’ll understand as we go through this.
But first, I want to let you know that we have cut down a whole bunch of stuff from the notes that we took on this particular subject. If you would like more information on this particular subject, then by all means, we do encourage you to go forward and do your own study and research further than what you learn here. But if you want some more notes, you can actually go to our website at godhonesttruth.com, click on the post for this particular episode, and there you’ll be able to find the on demand video.
You’ll find the draw slides as well as some research papers into the history and facts and evidence surrounding Easter and the notes that we personally took for this particular subject. It’s all right there on www.godhonesttruth.com. And even better, we have placed a convenient link for you down below in the description and you should be able to find that whether you’re on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform. It should still be down there all the same. Just click on that link in the description and that’ll take you directly to the article post where you’ve got the on demand video, the notes, all that good stuff.
The Root For Remembrance
So, usually we start out with some foundational stuff on a topic as far as dictionary entries, as far as lexicon entries and things like that. And that’s how we usually start with the foundation of a teaching. So, you know the words, you know the concepts, stuff like that. Everyone’s pretty familiar with this particular subject and most of the concepts that are involved with it. So, we decided to change this up just a little bit and we’re going to start with what we think the very basis of this actually was and that is going to be the root for remembrance and this comes straight from scripture.
Tonight, we’re going to start out straight from scripture and just go ahead and dive head first right in. So, let’s do it. Looking at Luke 2:40-41. And Yeshua grew and became strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom, and the favor of Elohim was upon him. And his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the festival of the Pesach.
And there’s many instances and evidence to show that Yeshua, our Messiah, kept Passover, and they did this. It says here, every year at the festival of Pesach. Then we look in John 2:13-14 and verse 23. And the Pesach or Pascha as they say in Greek of the Yehudim was near. And Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim. And he found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers sitting. And when he was in Jerusalem at the Pesach or Pascha at the festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he was doing.
So all throughout Yeshua’s life, you can see Pascha or Pesach or Passover going on and you find this all throughout the B’rit Hadashah or the New Testament. We go on and look at Luke 22:7-13. And the day of unleavened bread came when the Pesach or Pascha had to be slaughtered. And he sent Kefa and Yohanan saying, “Go and prepare the Pascha for us to eat.”
And they said to him, “Where do you wish us to prepare?” And he said to them, “See, as you enter into the city, a man shall meet you carrying a jar of water. Follow him into the house he enters, and you shall say to the master of the house, the teacher says to you, ‘Where is the guest room where I might eat the pascha with my disciples?’ And he shall show you a large furnished upper room. Prepare it there.” And going, they found it as he had said to them, and they prepared the Pascha.
So when Yeshua was young and was growing up, they constantly celebrated and observed the Pesach or the Pascha. When he was an adult, he taught his disciples to do the same thing. And there’s a couple instances here in the B’rit Hadashah where we actually see Yeshua telling his disciples to go and prepare the Pascha for them to eat. And this is going to be important coming up in just a minute. So make sure to remember that. Make sure you have your notes ready.
So now let’s look at Luke 22:14-20. And when the hour had come, he sat down and the twelve emissaries with him. And he said to them, “With desire I have desired to eat this pascha with you before my suffering. For I say to you, I shall certainly not eat of it again until it is fulfilled in the reign of Elohim.”
And taking the cup, giving thanks, he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I shall certainly not drink of the fruit of the vine until the reign of Elohim comes.” And taking bread, giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Likewise, the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the renewed covenant in my blood which is shed for you.”
Notice something very important. We just read in the verses leading up to these verses that Yeshua told his disciples to go and prepare the pascha, the Passover meal. So they do that. They go and find the room that he told them and they prepared the Passover meal. And this is what they are eating in this particular section of verses. They’re eating the Pascha, the Passover meal. And Yeshua even calls it that. He says, “I have desired to eat this pascha with you before my suffering. For I say to you, I shall certainly not eat of it again until it is fulfilled in the reign of Elohim.”
So Yeshua is not going to be able to or doesn’t look like from this passage, he’s not going to be able to take part in the Pascha until the end times and he returns. But the biggest thing I want you to take away from this particular passage is it says down below that says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Now, what does this mean when Yeshua says that in the context of this passage? Well, if you want to get very specific, you might be able to make a case for the bread because it just says right before that, they took the bread, gave it to them, and said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” But I think in the grander context, he’s actually referring to the Pesach or Pascha meal that they’re doing here. It says, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Now, why would he tell the disciples in the world and us and everyone else to remember and do the Pascha in remembrance of him? Well, it’s because he was the Passover lamb. He was the Passover sacrifice for our sins. He was sacrificed on Passover for us. It all lines up. The Passover meal, the Pascha meal, and Yeshua’s sacrifice, it was foreshadowing before Yeshua came. It was fulfilled in Yeshua. And now we remember Pascha because of the Exodus from Egypt and also Yeshua’s sacrifice. So when he’s saying, “Do this Pascha in remembrance of me.” Now we know why he’s telling us to do that.
Then we go on and we look in Acts 12:1-4 and it says, “And about that time, Herod the sovereign put forth his hand to do evil to some of the assembly. And seeing that it was pleasing to the Yehudim, he proceeded further to arrest Kefa as well. And they were the days of unleavened bread. So when he had seized him, he put him in prison and delivered him to the four squads of soldiers to watch over him, intending to bring him before the people after the Passover.”
Now, as we looked at last week in our Pesach teaching here in this verse 4 of Acts 12, the King James makes a mistake and calls it Easter. But we know that is anachronistic. I mean, it’d be like looking at the plays of Shakespeare and finding references to Facebook in AI generated photos. It would make no sense because there wasn’t a thing back then. And just like finding internet slang in the works of Shakespeare, you also if you know what you’re doing and you know have any education at all, you’d also know that you wouldn’t find the word Easter or celebration of Easter in the Bible either because that would be anachronistic. It comes way way later which we’ll show you as we go through this particular one. But just let it be known at this time there was no such thing as Easter. Not especially not within the assembly of the faithful but also take note that they’re referencing Passover or Pascha and these events here in Acts chapter 12 actually happened about 44 of the common era. This is about 13 years after the death, burial and resurrection and ascension of Yeshua.
Why is that important to know? Well, because some people within mainstream churchianity say that the law, the law was done away with on the cross. It was nailed to the cross and done away with. And they would put things like Passover Pascha in with the law that was nailed and done away with. However, we can still see here in Acts chapter 12, that they were still celebrating Pascha, even 13 years and beyond after the death, burial, and resurrection and ascension of Yeshua. So, it’s just further evidence that the law and the feast days were not done away with.
Now, you may be saying, “Okay, I get what you’re trying to say, but they were just referencing the Jews and what the Jews were doing here at this time.” Okay, I get what you’re saying from this passage and that a case could be made for that. I understand as we go through the rest of this information, you’ll see that even the faithful, not the Jews, but those of us who are actually accepting of the true Messiah, they were still practicing Pascha even after this and into the early formative years of quote unquote the church. Stay tuned for that coming up. But anyways, moving on. We look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5:6-8. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the entire lump? Therefore, cleanse out the old leaven so that you are a new lump as you are unleavened. For also Messiah our Pesach was slaughtered for us. So then let us celebrate the festival not with old leaven nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Now, what is Paul referring to here when he writes to the church at Corinth? Well, those of us who have done any kind of study or education in Easter or Passover, we know that he’s referencing Pascha. It’s obvious from the terminology that’s being used. And he also says that Messiah was our Pascha for us for our sins. So, it’s obvious when he says, “Let us celebrate the festival.” The festival he is referring to is Pascha. Paul, the Apostle Paul, the one that mainstream Christianity points to to say that he was against the law. That Paul is telling us in first Corinthians to celebrate the festival. More evidence that the law and the feast days were not nailed to the cross and done away with.
Now, here’s another thing. I looked this up and this is actually written about 23 years after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Yeshua. So again, further evidence that those within the B’rit Hadashah still continued with the Torah, the feast days, the moedim, etc., etc. So put that down in your notes for further reference. Now also think about it like this. When Paul writes to the Corinthians here in 1 Corinthians 5 and he writes these references that doesn’t specifically say in each individual reference that’s about Passover but we know that because we have studied it and we have celebrated Passover Pascha and it just comes naturally to us well if he did not think that those in Corinth would be of the same mindset or the same habits then it would make no sense to write that to them because they wouldn’t understand what he was writing. They would have to be a group that would be educated on Pascha, who would be celebrating, who would know about Pascha in order for this letter in this particular passage to make any sense at all to them.
If Paul wrote this letter right now to a Baptist church in modern day Southeast America, they might scratch their heads and like, “What? What are you talking about?” because they don’t know the Tanakh. They don’t know the Torah because they think it’s all done away with. But the people in Corinth back during the apostolic times, back during the time of the B’rit Hadashah, they were still keeping these feast days, these moedim. So when these references come up, it automatically clicks in their mind and they understand what Paul is trying to tell them.
So some things to take away from this. Number one, Yeshua is our Passover lamb. That’s going to be more important than you may be thinking right now. So, just stay with me on this. Yeshua commanded that we observe the Passover in remembrance of him. Remember when we read that passage where he says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” In the context, it’s the context is them eating a pascha meal. Believers in the B’rit Hadashah continued to commemorate and observe Passover. This is just obvious from all the evidence that we have and the evidence that we’ll see coming up in the formative years of the quote unquote church. And there was no new observance of Yeshua’s resurrection that was commanded, created, or observed in the B’rit Hadashah. You look all throughout the B’rit Hadashah. You’ll never see them ever doing some kind of yearly, daily, weekly, whatever commemoration of Yeshua’s resurrection. That’s what Easter is supposed to be about. But you don’t find any commemoration, any kind of meal or gathering or even somebody writing down on a calendar the day of the year when the resurrection was supposed to happen back during that time. You don’t find that in the B’rit Hadashah. No, you find zero observance of the resurrection in the B’rit Hadashah.
Now, does that make it wrong? Not necessarily. It could be a tradition that you come up with, but don’t think that everyone should do it or think like you. Moral disagreements coming up. There’s some very interesting stuff about disagreements that we can learn from in some of the early church writings. You’ll see that coming up in just a minute, too. But the timing of the resurrection also when you read through scriptures, the timing of the resurrection was always foretold in scripture by the number of days that elapsed after the death of Yeshua. It wasn’t any particular day of the week it was pointing to. Think about this. When Yeshua is talking, he says that only the sign of Jonah would be given to this wicked and adulterous generation. What is he referring to? That Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale. He also specifically said that the son of man would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Then it says on the third day he rose again or of course I’m paraphrasing this time but you know every single time you read about this it’s always referencing the number of days after the crucifixion after he died. And never once says that, oh, the son of man has to be scourged and crucified and raised again on the first day of the week. No, doesn’t say that. It never says, oh, well, the son of man has to be scourged and crucified and buried and risen on the fifth day of the week. No, it says three days and three nights after the death. That’s the point that comes across every single reference you see in the B’rit Hadashah. So take that into your notes as well and remember that that when it comes to the B’rit Hadashah and the resurrection the reference is to the number of days elapsed not the specific day of the week that is the important part.
An Isolated Custom
So, as we go through the B’rit Hadashah and we look, we see evidence that Yeshua and the disciples and the early believers in the B’rit Hadashah continued on with the celebration of Pascha. And then we get on into the early years or the formative years of the quote unquote church and things starts being added a little bit by time at a time and then goes off into different tangents and eventually some things don’t make it and other things get brought in who that override other things. You’ll see all that as we go through this as well.
But in the early formative years, a lot of people still kept the 14th of Nissan, the first 14th of the first month. And other people also kept the Sunday uh for the celebration of the resurrection. But it was a very small minority in the beginning. Eventually, it grew, but in the beginning, it was very isolated. It is only a very small minority.
We look at various references to this such as the Council of Nicaea ruling on Easter day in 325 from Christianity.com says here, quote,
“From its earliest days, the church annually celebrated the anniversary of Jesus’s resurrection, often calling the holiday the Christian Passover or Pascha or Pasque as it’s sometimes called, I think, in Latin even.”
And for the most part, it’s pretty much true because the early believers did keep the Passover. They kept the Pascha. They did not keep Easter because Easter wasn’t a thing yet. Not for several hundreds of years. But keep that in mind because we’re going to work our way up to it.
In the early early days, the early believers did keep Passover. They kept Pascha. Different things came in and different thought processes and egos got in the way and there was some clash at times with these new customs and the old customs.
We look at Polycrates the bishop of Ephesus and he writes quote then there is Polycarp both bishop and martyr at Smyrna and Thraseas from Eumenia both bishop and martyr who rest at Smyrna. Why should I speak of Sagaris, Papirius, and Melito, the eunuch? These all kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in accordance with the gospel without ever deviating from it, but keeping to the rule of faith. End quote.
Then he goes on and writes again Polycrates does and he says quote moreover I also Polycrates who am the least of you all in accordance with the tradition of my relatives some of whom I have succeeded seven of my relatives were bishops and I am the eighth and my relatives always observe the day when the people put away the leaven.
Two things to note real quick. They’re noting that here even in the early 2nd century that the believers are keeping the 14th day of the month to celebrate Passover. Pascha, nothing new, nothing different. It’s the Pascha. And he also says that they observed the day when the people put away the leaven. Notice he says there the people. He didn’t say those Jews, nothing like that. He says the people in general from this I take that he’s just assuming that that’s what believers do. They put away the leaven. Obviously they should if they’re going to be following scripture. But I thought that was interesting to note.
Anyways, so here in the early formative years the people are keeping the people the believers are still keeping Pascha or Passover. And notice this guy Polycarp that he mentions up here at the very beginning. Polycarp was actually a disciple of John the Apostle, not John the Baptist, but John the Apostle. So he was actually trained by one of the people who were taught by Yeshua. He is, I guess you could say, the spiritual grandson of Yeshua. So he’s very very closely connected to the source as it were from the horse’s mouth. Not to be, you know, mean or belligerent or anything, but yeah, that’s how close Polycarp was. And Polycarp was keeping the 14th day of the month. Nothing else, nothing different.
And we go on and look at what Tertullian writes and he says, quote,
“If it were true that the apostle has erased all devotion absolutely of seasons, days, months, and years, why do we celebrate Pascha by an annual rotation in the first month?”
End quote. Then Origen writes,
“We ourselves are accustomed to observe certain days. For example, there is Pascha. He who considers that Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us and that it is his duty to keep the feast by eating the flesh of the word never ceases to keep the Paschal feast. For Pascha means a Passover. So he is ever striving in all his thoughts, words, and deeds to pass over from the things of this life to God.”
End quote. So Origen is writing here in the middle about the middle of the 3rd century and he’s still referring to Pascha and believers keeping the Pascha and said keeping the Paschal feast and those who would want to do his duty would never cease to keep the Paschal feast. It’s start looking into this and it is absolutely eyeopening.
One thing to take note of if you are going to do your own research and you start looking at the early church writers such as Tertullian, Origen, Polycrates, etc., etc., make sure that you understand what’s actually going on. And if you can try to learn a little bit of Greek, too, because if you look here in the translations from like Origen and Tertullian and Polycrates that we just looked at, if you looked in a lot of these translations, they’ll actually use the word Easter there. But remember they didn’t know about Easter back then. There was no concept of Easter within Christianity at that point. So they definitely did not say Easter when they wrote that. But the translations will translate it as Easter and that is anachronistic. That is incorrect and it leads people astray. They think that Easter is actually been from the very beginning and it hasn’t. Pascha was Passover but not Easter.
So, what I’ve done, you can see here when I quote these, I actually return it back to the Greek where it says Pascha and be more accurate than what some of these modern translations actually do. So, keep that in mind as you go through these various writings from the early quote unquote church. And note that they don’t use the word Easter, they use the word Pascha.
Then moving on, we look at the Jews encyclopedia and says, quote,
“Under the first 15 bishops of Jerusalem who were all Jews, no difference occurred between the Jewish and the Christian dates.”
End quote. This is talking about the dates for Pascha. There was no difference between what the believers, the Christians, Messianics observed and what the Yehudim observed. It was the same thing because they had the same exact Bible. And that Bible says 14th to the first month period.
And we look at the Jewish encyclopedia again and it says quote greater stress was laid in the western church at least on the connection of Easter with the vernal equinox of the sun than with the full moon of the 14th of Nissan. In other words, Easter became a solar date, whereas Passover was essentially lunar. End quote. And for the most part, they’re absolutely correct.
And this is where it starts diverging off from the way that the Bible says to do it, the way that Yeshua and the disciples said to do it. And it was going on that straight path right there. And then new people came in and it start diverging a little bit. And then one of the things that started diverging was the date on when they should keep Pascha or the Passover.
And from the Catholic Encyclopedia, quote,
“The Alexandrians, on the other hand, accepted it as a first principle that the Sunday to be kept as Easter Day must necessarily occur after the vernal equinox, then identified with 21 March of the Julian year.”
End quote. But where do we get this dating for Easter from? Well, we get it from the Alexandrians down in Egypt. What are some other things that also come from Alexandria? We get Platonism. We also get a lot of Gnosticism and there’s a bunch of stuff actually, but that’s the two biggest evil things uh that you should take note of. Gnosticism and Platonism really did come out mostly from Alexandria, Egypt. That was a big hub. So, it kind of makes sense.
Anyways, but there’s a bunch of other things there. The two opponents in the first council of Nicaea um came from um Alexandria. So Arius and um uh it wasn’t Alexandria. I know that. But anyways, yeah. So there’s a whole bunch of scandalous stuff that comes out of Alexandria. So take note of that. We actually get the dating for Easter from Alexandria as well. And notice that 21 March that’s going to come up to play as we go throughout the rest of this history search on Easter.
Moving on, we look at Irenaeus writing in about the end of the second century. And he writes, quote,
“When the blessed Polycarp was visiting in Rome in the time of Bishop Anicetus, they were at once well inclined toward each other. They were not willing that any quarrel should arise between them upon this matter. And Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp to forego the observance of his Pascha customs. For these things had been observed had always been observed by John the disciple of our Lord and by other apostles with whom Polycarp had been conversant. Nor on the other hand could Polycarp succeed in persuading Anicetus to keep Pascha in his way. For Anicetus maintained that he was bound to adhere to the usage of the presbyters who preceded him. And in this state of affairs they held fellowship with each other.”
End quote. Now, this raises some very good things I want you to take note of real quick. Number one, notice here that Polycarp and Anicetus are having a difference of opinion on how to celebrate or observe Pascha. But notice they were still keeping Pascha. Take that note. But they were having a disagreement. So, one of them couldn’t uh convince the other to go his way and the second one couldn’t convince the first one to go his way. So, what do they do? Do they excommunicate each other? They get in a fight. There’s their bloodshed like we see in later history. No. We see a disagreement here over the customs of Pascha between these two people in the early I mean in the second century. And what do they do? They still fellowship together. They said right here, they were at once well inclined towards each other and they were not willing that any quarrel should arise between them upon this matter.
And that I mean for a moment just forget the whole Passover and Easter thing. This little historical tidbit about two people in the faith disagreeing about something and they’re still getting along. They’re still fellowshipping. That is something for us to look at and take note of nowadays because nowadays there’s been disagreements and splits over in churches over the color of the carpet. I mean, it it gets absolutely ridiculous. But back then they were disagreeing over Pascha customs and they still fellowship together. They still got along. They still didn’t want to quarrel. And that is absolutely wonderful.
Also, take notice. They’re both appealing to tradition. They’re both saying this is the way it was handed down to me. And Anicetus says, “Well, those people who came before me, the presbyters, etc., etc. came before me always did it this way.” Polycarp on the other hand said, “Well, same here. I was taught by John the disciple and other disciples how to do it. So, I’m going to go with this.” And I kind of side with Polycarp. He was a direct spiritual descendant of Yeshua. Like we can clearly see it was Yeshua and then John the disciple and then Polycarp. He’s pretty close to the source there. So I think Polycarp would probably have more accurate information than Anicetus would. But notice they’re still celebrating Pascha. They’re both appealing to tradition. But even though they both disagree, they still fellowship. And also notice neither one of them accused the other of Judaizing or being legalistic or claiming that the law had been done away with or that the Pascha had been nailed to the cross. That that was all excuses that came much later in history. It wasn’t a thing at this point. So yeah, this is history. I love history. This is so much to learn from just this one little passage right here. But yeah, it’s that is absolutely amazing. There’s a bunch more good stuff coming up. So, make sure you stay tuned.
Now, we saw in the B’rit Hadashah that there was no new observance of the resurrection on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis, anything like that. Nothing about continuation of the resurrection, no new spring feast, being ordained or commanded, nothing like that. Yeshua told us to remember what the Pascha, the Passover, the Pesach. Nothing new though, so keep that in mind. And then we see the early church and a lot of them are still keeping Pascha like they’re supposed to. We saw that they kept it on the 14th like they’re supposed to, like scripture tells us.
Disregarding Facts
But then there’s this divergence that comes in at some point in history before the 4th century even. And then things just absolutely go haywire and people start disregarding actual facts and scripture and things like that. And the unfortunate part is that the people who start disregarding this and making authoritative decisions are the ones in power and they have the sword and etc etc.
But anyways, we look at the first canon of the council of Arles. And this is something I recently learned. I always thought it was Nicaea, but it’s not. The first time that Easter was pretty much mandated uniformly was in the early 4th century about 11 years before Nicaea actually at the council of Arles in 314. And here in canon one it says quote
“In the first place concerning the celebration of Easter Sunday that it be observed by us on one day and at one time in all the earth and that you should send out letters to all as is the custom.”
End quote. So here is where it really starts getting how I say it uh pressured or forced a particular date and there were disagreements before we saw that and they would still had fellowship. Now there was starting to be a some form of ruling council ruling group and this is just the very beginnings of it but they make the ruling that this Pascha Sunday and remember back then it was said Pascha not Easter so this is another example of the mistranslation of modern translations but anyways they said back then that this Pascha Sunday should be observed by everyone one on the same day at the same time and sent out letters to everyone telling them this.
Now the dating has already been coming up or has already been come up with by the Alexandrians. We already saw that now is saying okay let’s do this on the same day everybody and this is where they start disregarding scripture to start disregarding the faith that was handed down once and for all to the saints start disregarding all that.
Then we look at the letter from the emperor Constantine and he wrote this letter after the council of Nicaea. Now just to clarify the council of Nicaea did not address the issue of Easter. You look into the canons, you look into the debates and there is nothing there about what day Easter should be on, what’s how to calculate it, all that stuff. You do find it in the extra writings where people write to one another and stuff like that. And here’s one of those from the emperor Constantine to others who were not present at the council. This is very eye opening if you’ve never heard this. So take this listen to this very very closely.
This is from Emperor Constantine. He says, quote,
“When the question relative to Pascha arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one date. We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews. We desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews. For it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction, we could not keep this feast. You should consider not only that the number of churches in these provinces make a majority, but also that it is right to demand that our reason approves and that we should have nothing in common with the Jews. By the unanimous judgment of all, it has been decided that the most holy festival of Pascha should be everywhere celebrated on one and the same day, except joyfully the divine favor, and this truly divine command, for all which takes place in assemblies of the bishops ought to be regarded as proceeding from the will of God. Keep this most holy day according to the prescribed mode. We can thus celebrate this holy Pascha day at the same time.”
End quote. And if you have any questions about why modern Christianity does things so much differently than the way scripture actually describes it or commands it, right here, this is where it really started branching off and dividing off is because of anti-semitism, because of racism in the very early church. And granted, full disclosure, this was on both sides. The Jews of the time also and some Jews even now really did not like Messianics. So that’s yeah understand the a little bit of the dynamics is going on back then but yeah the reason we diverged so much was because of this anti-semitism that started so so early in the quote unquote church and here in this letter from Constantine he doesn’t try to hide it he he just says directly those detestable Jews detestable company of Jews have nothing in common with those Jews etc etc I mean it’s for it.
And that’s why the official command or decree came was because of anti-semitism. Now remember back in 314 at the council of Arles, they said everyone should celebrate on the same day on the same Sunday and this pretty much solidified it from the emperor cuz back in 314 and far as I can remember that was a during the reign of Constantine as well but Nicaea was the the really big one. Anyways, but going on, we see this whole dating of Easter done and the Alexandrians come up with the dating schedule surrounding the vernal equinox.
Now, as you look in scripture, think to yourself from what you know and what you’ve done in your studies, how many of the commanded feast days or moedim are based upon the solar calendar about on the vernal equinoxes or the solstices or anything like that. Zero. There is zero events commanded in scripture for us to keep that we base off of the equinoxes or the solstices. So we’ve got now decrees that it should be held on a Sunday and based off the vernal equinox. And we’ve got the dating come from Alexandria which also put out a lot of Platonism and a lot of Gnosticism. We’ve got the creed should all be kept by all of the quote unquote Christian world on the same day. And when they done the this went on for a a long long time, but during that time the council of Nicaea and for a long time after that they had the Julian calendar and eventually they started realizing that this was off.
So when they wanted to reform the calendar and do a new calendar, one of the things they based this whole new reform calendar reform off of was Easter. That was that important to them for whatever reason. And when it comes to the Gregorian calendar, here’s what the Britannica.com says. Quote,
“Gregorian calendar was proclaimed in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a reform of the Julian calendar. Pope Gregory based his reform on restoration of the vernal equinox then falling on March 11th to March 21st the date it occurred in 325 CE Nicaea which was the time of the first council of Nicaea and not the date of the equinox at the time of the birth of Christ when it fell on March 25th. The change was effected by advancing the calendar 10 days after October 4th 1582. The day following became reckoned as October 15th.”
End quote. Now, if you stayed with us through the Christmas in Detail series, we went into a lot more information on this particular change. But let it be known, this whole change when they did the reform and went into the Gregorian calendar, it was all revolving around Easter and especially that vernal equinox which they had placed on March 21st. So this is how important the Easter was to the quote unquote church, to the popes and the cardinals, etc., etc. And it’s all for not in my opinion because they’re not basing it on what scripture tells us.
If you knew nothing about the resurrection of Yeshua, nothing about tradition or anything else, and you wanted to start a tradition of celebrating the resurrection, and you looked in scripture, how would you come up with the date for celebrating the resurrection? Well, you would look at scripture and where it says you shall celebrate the Passover and eat the Passover on the 14th and the between the evenings on the 14th and 15th, right? And then you also read that Yeshua was raised on the third day after his crucifixion. The third day. It never says anything about he shall be raised on a particular day of the week. It says the third day. So if you’re doing this yourself, you’ll look at when Passover is. Take that date, add three days and three nights, and then you’ve got the date for the resurrection, regardless of what day of week it is.
But no, not according to the quote unquote church. They based it off of a solar calendar. And when you base it off a solar calendar, especially Catholic church, they also make sure it always comes on a what? A solar day, the Sunday, day of the sun god that they adopted. Sol Invictus, etc., etc. And this is other stuff that’s crept in to the church. They always make sure that it’s going to be on a Sunday, not three days after Passover, but a Sunday. They place more importance on the Sunday than they do on the biblical Passover. It’s Oh, it’s disappointing. Really is. But anyways, moving on.
We look here at Pope Gregory’s statement that when he put out the or during this whole time of the change over to the Gregorian calendar, Pope Gregory put out this particular statement on the new reform. He says, quote,
“The reform of the second part which first requires the restoration of the calendar because the various calendar reform projects did not maintain intact the ancient rights of the church and that was our first concern in this business. It is necessary to rule at the same time on three points to restore the celebration of Easter. First, the precise date of the vernal equinox. Then the exact date of the 14th day of the moon which reaches this age the very same day as the equinox or immediately afterwards. Finally, the first Sunday which follows this same 14th day of the moon. So thus that the vernal equinox which was fixed by the fathers of the first Nicene council at March 21st is replaced on this date. We prescribe an order that there is removed from October of the year 1582 the 10 days which go from the 3rd before the nones to the day before the ides inclusively.”
End quote. So, even Pope Gregory says that they were doing this whole calendar reform and revolving it around Easter, around the vernal equinox. And I ask you again, when in all of scripture does it ever tell you the date for anything based off an equinox or a solstice? It never does.
Painting Over The Resurrection
And so, as time goes on, different things come into the faith, come into the what used to be the celebration of the Passover. That’s how it originally started out. And then this got changed about the celebration of Passover. And this got changed about the celebration of Passover. And this and this and this and this. And it’s no longer now what it used to be. It’s completely unrecognizable what we have today than what happened back in 60 AD or 90 AD.
As time went on, these different things crept in and it eventually painted over the resurrection. So much so that it’s nothing like what it originally was. And what are some of these various things that crept in? Let’s examine that.
We look at Socrates Scholasticus and he says here, quote,
“And it seems to me that just as many other customs have been established in individual localities according to usage, the feast of Easter came to be observed in each place according to the individual peculiarities of the peoples in as much as none of the apostles legislated on the matter.”
End quote. True, they did not legislate on the matter because they didn’t care. They wasn’t establishing some annual remembrance like this. And another good point he makes is that the customs are established and done according to these individual localities and peculiarities. And in a way, I I kind of don’t disagree with that, but you’ve got to stick to the main thing, the the main part of it, the the main point, the the main issue. And Yeshua says, “Remember, do this in remembrance and may eat the Passover. Observe the Passover in remembrance of me.” It is his death in the shedding of his blood on the cross. That is the Passover part of it.
He’s no one ever in the B’rit Hadashah, no one ever celebrated or had a tradition or a feast day about the resurrection. I’m not saying it’s not important. I’m just saying there’s no evidence for a celebration in the B’rit Hadashah. So if you want to have these differences and nuances with the way you do certain things, that’s fine. But don’t contradict and go against what’s clearly taught in scripture.
But then we go on and look at the Encyclopedia Britannica and it says, quote,
“Easter, like Christmas has accumulated a great many traditions, some of which have little to do with the Christian celebration of the resurrection, but derived from folk customs.”
End quote. Amen. In fact, all these little folk customs that they’re referring to here that have crept in and painted over top of the resurrection, they have, like I said, zero to do with the actual resurrection part. You don’t see anything any mention of them in scripture. And some you actually find that run contradictory to scripture. We’ll get into that in just a minute. But yeah, these different folk customs and things that come in that have been added to Pascha as it was known in the early days, it was known in the scriptures, all these different things have been added to it have covered up and painted over the resurrection to where you don’t even recognize it anymore. All you see is what we now call Easter.
We look at the Jewish encyclopedia. Quote,
“Easter from Eostre or Ostara, the Teutonic goddess of the rising day, particularly of spring, name given by Anglo-Saxons to the Christian Passover as the feast of resurrection and rather incorrectly used for the Hebrew Passover. Originally Pascha or Passover was the name given by the Christians to the 14th day of Nissan as the day of the crucifixion corresponding to the eve of the Hebrew Passover, the season of the sacrifice of the paschal lamb. This was followed by the memorial of the resurrection on the succeeding Sunday.”
End quote. So here you can see one of the things that came in and started painting over the resurrection was this pagan name of Easter who came which came from a pagan fertility goddess up in Europe. One of the Celtic I think uh Teutonic sorry Teutonic goddess. And this is just one of the many things that started painting over what we would know of as the resurrection. Started covering that up. Start hiding the actual reason and what we should remember Passover for not Easter but Passover.
We go on and look at the Encyclopedia Britannica and it says quote the name Easter German Oster like the names of the days of the week is a survival from old Teutonic mythology. According to Bede, it is derived from Eostre or Ostara, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring to whom the month answering to our April and called Eostre Monath was dedicated. End quote. And from the Catholic Encyclopedia. Quote,
“The English term according to the venerable Bede relates to Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring, which deity, however, is otherwise unknown even in the Edda. Anglo-Saxon Easter Eostron old high German Ostara German Oster April was called Easter Monath.”
End quote. So this spring fertility goddess is where we have our name that we know of nowadays as Easter.
Now a little bit of tangent side note here. This name Easter is actually very rare throughout the world. I think it’s only in like English-speaking countries and also German where you get this name Easter or Eostre something like that. Everywhere else I’ve looked it had some derivation of Pascha. You have pascha, pascal, uh, pasque, things like that. So, it still retains that word for Passover and it hasn’t been replaced by a pagan goddess name. If you want to look in the notes on our website, there’s actually more information on that as well. Actually, some charts that we have outlined there.
Then, we look at Jacob Grimm and his Deutsche Mythologie. Quote,
“Ostara Eostre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn of unupspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection day. Bonfires were lit lighted at Easter. And according to popular belief of long-standing, the moment the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, he gives three joyful leaps. He dances for joy. Water drawn on the Easter morning is like that at Christmas, holy and healing. Here also heathen nation notions seems to have grafted themselves on great Christian festivals. Maidens clothed in white who at Easter at the season of returning spring show themselves in cliffs of the rock and on mountains are suggestive of the ancient goddess.”
End quote. And it’s so sad that this number one you should not bring this stuff in anyways. But as you look and start studying history, you find that not only was were these pagan things brought in to the faith, they actually ended up replacing various things within the faith. And here, as we go through the rest of the study, you’re going to see how that actually occurred. And we’re going to show you some of these things that we know nowadays actually run contradictory to what the scriptures actually say.
We also get into things like eggs because that’s part of what we know of as Easter. Nowadays. And we get this little quote from the Farmer’s Almanac. Quote,
“The oval shaped egg has been a universal symbol in many religions across the millennia, symbolizing new life, rebirth, and fertility. In Germany and other countries, the eggs are pierced and made hollow so that they can be suspended from shrubs and trees during Easter week. Much like decorations on a Christmas tree, eggs play a symbolic role in many cultures and religions. Its oval shape is a symbol of fertility, eternity, and the circle of life, neither beginning nor end. In the Egyptian myth of creation, eggs were linked to the creation of the universe, suggesting that the earth itself may have been born out of an egg. The new life that lies dormant in the egg came to be associated with life energy. Painting or decorating eggs has been a popular tradition in many cultures for thousands of years.”
End quote. Wow. Where do we even start on this? This is where the eggs came from. It doesn’t come from a book in scripture. It doesn’t come from a commandment of Yeshua. Nothing like that. No, it says from fertility rites, a symbol of pagan cultures. This is where the eggs came from. There’s other stories, too, that I haven’t been able to verify talking about the actual human sacrifice, too. But if anyone has actual source material that you can send my way to verify that, I would really appreciate it.
These eggs, the symbolism of eggs comes from paganism. That’s why I recommend to people not to have an egg when you have your seder plate because that doesn’t come from scripture. No way, no how. That comes from paganism. Another thing, too, is you’ll notice here that some of these traditions it says here with eggs is they’ll actually suspend them from trees. Now if anyone remembers from our Christmas in Detail series, the idolatry, the worship of trees or the veneration of trees within religious ritual is not something you find in scripture. That is something that comes directly from paganism. Easter like Christmas is incorporating dendrite cultures around the world as well.
Now think about it. When you read through scripture, how many times do you ever see an egg prescribed for a celebration in scripture, one of the moedim or anything like that? You never do. In fact, no part of any ceremony ever involves an egg. You see the sacrifices in the Tanakh, it never says to bring an egg and burn it in the fire as a part of the sacrifice. Nothing like that. You got bread and wine and oil and meat and etc etc. Never eggs. There might be a reason for that. Eggs as far as religious matters are concerned comes from paganism, not scripture. And it’s something that we should not incorporate. Eat eggs. That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with eating eggs, but don’t incorporate it into any sort of religious kind of event.
So now moving on, we look at rabbits. We look at livescience.com. Quote,
“Some historians attribute the rise of egg and rabbit imagery on Easter to the holidays roots in springtime fertility celebrations.”
End quote. And from National Geographic, quote,
“Over the years, Easter has merged with pagan spring celebrations. Popular traditions include a visit from the Easter Bunny, a folk symbol of spring, who bears eggs that symbolize new life.”
End quote. So just like the egg symbolizes fertility within a lot of pagan uh faiths, so also does the rabbit or the hare or whatnot. Some people want to try to make a distinction without a difference when they say, “Well, we have the Easter bunny, but the pagans use the hare.” It’s all a rabbit in my opinion. It’s got long ears, big legs, and they hop around with fuzzy little tails. It’s the same kind as the scripture puts it. There’s no difference there. It’s the same thing. The Easter rabbit is Easter hare is a Easter rabbit. But yeah, the the rabbits and the hares are known for fertility as well. They’re known to breed prolifically. So they have been considered for a long time and in many pagan customs and faiths as a symbol of fertility. But how many times you ever seen a rabbit or even a hare incorporated in scripture into a religious sort of custom or commandment or anything like that? You don’t. In fact, about the only time you find a hare or rabbit mentioned is in the dietary laws and it says don’t eat that. That’s about it. You never find it as part of one of the sacrifices. You never find people eating it. Nothing like that. So this whole symbolism of rabbits that comes from paganism as well.
And there’s many many other things that get incorporated into what we know of nowadays as the celebration of Easter. We look at the standard reference encyclopedia. Quote,
“Although Easter is a Christian festival, it embodies traditions of an ancient time antedating the rise of Christianity. The origin of its name is lost in the dim past. Some scholars believe it probably derived from Eostre Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility to whom was dedicated Eostre Monath corresponding to April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox and traditions associated with the festival survive in the familiar Easter bunny symbol of the fertile rabbit and in the equally familiar colored Easter eggs originally painted with gay hues to represent the sunlight of spring.”
End quote. Time and time again. So we got the name Easter which comes from paganism. We got the symbols of eggs which comes from paganism. We got the trees that they hang the eggs on that comes from paganism. We got the Easter bunny or the Easter hare that comes from paganism. We got the date, the vernal equinox that comes from paganism. All of this Easter stuff comes from paganism.
We go and look from the history of the Easter sunrise service from the Columbus Banner Press. And it says here, quote,
“The first recorded Easter sunrise service was an impromptu gathering at Herrnhut, Germany. Early on Easter morning in 1732, a small group of young Moravian men went to the local cemetery for a special time of worship.”
End quote. Sunrise service is also something you do not find in scripture. Not in a positive note, you actually do find it in a negative light. Take this for example. Ezekiel 8:16. And he brought me into the inner court of the house of Yahweh. And there at the door of the hekal of Yahweh, between the porch and the slaughter place were about 25 men with their backs toward the hekal of Yahweh, and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing themselves eastward to the sun.
So, this is something that is negative. He’s he’s talking about this in a not good way. He says that these men had turned their backs on the temple on the hekal of Yahweh and instead they were facing toward the sun toward the east and bowing themselves down eastward to the sun. Now take this into account because we’re going to get into some more about this in just a moment. It’s really going to be jaw-dropping and eye opening as we go through the scriptures. So remember this. But here in Ezekiel is talking about this whole sunrise service not being a good thing. Now this is actually turn your back on the temple and on the way of Yahweh going on.
What about hot cross buns? This is very interesting as well. We look in Jeremiah 7:18. The children are gathering wood. The fathers are lighting the fire and the women are kneading their dough to make cakes for the sovereignness of the heavens and to pour out drink offerings to other mighty ones to provoke me. So here it’s talking about the people and they’re making dough. They’re making cakes for a goddess and other gods to provoke the almighty Yahweh.
Now where does this whole thing about hot cross buns come from? We look at Zingerman’s Bake House, which does a lot of baking obviously, and they say, quote,
“When celebrating the arrival of spring and the rebirth of nature, heralded by the spring equinox, the Saxons are reputed to have baked small cakes or buns marked with crosses to honor the mythical Eostre known as Ostara. The Saxon goddess of dawn and personification of spring fertility and rebirth. Folklore historians posit that these sacred cross marked cakes or buns to Eostre were thought to symbolize the rebirth of the earth after winter. The four quarters or faces of the moon that make up the lunar cycle as well as the four seasons of the wheel of life.”
End quote. Now I think the name hot cross bun is just it’s false because it’s actually not a cross. It’s a plus sign. You look at what we think of as a cross. You got a longer part and then you got a cross part and then you got a short upper part. That would be a cross in my opinion. But these hot cross buns, they are equally divided, equally lines, four equal sections. And this corresponds to the four seasons that are demarked in paganism by the solstices and the equinoxes. That is where the hot cross buns come from. You start doing some historical research and you find out that even way back in Greece that people would bake these round cakes as offerings to their gods as part of their feasting sacrifice, ritualistic feasting to these various Greek gods. And it continued on down into Eostre and various other Teutonic pagan stuff that came down to us as the hot cross buns. Now. So, very, very, very interesting stuff.
So, it could have went on a whole lot more and like I said, there’s a whole lot more information in the notes if you want to continue to go on and do some additional research and I encourage you to do so because we can’t get into everything here without making it a a one week symposium. And I don’t think anyone wants to sit through that and I can’t. But as as much fun as it would be, I can’t do that. So go on and do your own research and take the way information you see here, verify it, do some additional research, learn even more.
Careful Consideration
And here’s some things that I was able to come up with or as I was going preparing this particular teaching and some things that came to mind that I would like for you to just take in your mind and consider what scripture has to say and how all this kind of correlates with the subject we’re studying and that is the subject of Easter.
Let’s start out with Genesis 3:22-24. And Yahweh Elohim said, “See, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.” So Yahweh Elohim sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. And he drove the man out. And he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
So when Yahweh drove them out, which way did he send them? He sent them eastward and then at the eastern entrance where they had been kicked out through, he put the cherubim to guard them. So if Adam and Eve wanted to return to the Garden of Eden, how would they have had to go? They would had to have faced and went westward get back into the garden of Eden but they couldn’t because there’s cherubim etc like that but take those directions into your mind and consider that they were cast out eastward and if they wanted to return they would have to go back westward so eastward has that connotation of bad not so good bad things are happen eastward but not so much as far as westward goes. That’s just one passage. Yeah, I’ll grant you that. That’s just one passage.
But let’s look at some other very, very interesting stuff here. Exodus 26:30. This is talking about the tabernacle. And it says here, “And you shall raise up the dwelling place according to its pattern which you were shown on the mountain.” And what did Moses see? He saw the pattern in the heavens. And that’s how he was supposed to do the tabernacle when he built the tabernacle. And then subsequently the temple etc etc. But then it goes on it says in Exodus 27:13-16 and the width of the courtyard on the east side was 50 cubits and the screens on one side of the gate 15 cubits and the with their three columns and their three sockets and on the other side screens of 15 cubits with their three columns and their three sockets. And for the gate of the courtyard, a covering 20 cubits long of blue and purple and scarlet material in fine woven linen made by a weaver. Four columns and four sockets.
So here, this is one passage. We’re talking about the east side. You’ve got two different parts on either side of a gate that was on the east side of this whole tabernacle complex. So that kind of mirrors what was happening at the Garden of Eden. If people wanted to come into the tabernacle, they had to enter through the east gate while they were traveling west as they went into the tabernacle. Just to further confirm that, it says in Exodus 26:20, “And for the second side of the dwelling place on the north side, 20 boards.” Exodus 26:18, “And you shall make the boards for the dwelling place 20 boards for the south side.” Exodus 26:22. And for the extreme parts of the dwelling place westward make six boards. So on the north side, the south side and the west side that was solid. You couldn’t get through there. There was no gate. It was only on the east side. So in order to go into the tabernacle, you had to travel west. You had to walk west get into the tabernacle and then travel east to get out of the tabernacle.
Now compare that with what we read in Isaiah, I’m sorry, Ezekiel where it says the people had turned their backs on the hekal and were facing eastward toward the rising sun, that sunrise service. The east is more the connotation of bad. You got the the pagan sun worship eastward sunrise service but behind you at the west that’s how you would actually turn around to go towards scripture towards Yahweh etc etc. The westward has the connotation of good returning to Yahweh especially with these examples. Anyways just something to consider as you go on into your studies. Anyways, that’s kind of relating to the whole sunrise service where you know, yeah, the whole solar god thing that’s it’s bad enough in itself, but then scripture has these whole connotations about east and west. And maybe it’s just me that blew my mind, but I was absolutely astounded when this came in front of me.
But yeah, also some other things to uh consider if you would. Why does the scripture command that in order to commemorate the Passover, we get rid of leaven? We eat bitter herbs. We eat unleavened bread and eat roasted lamb. That’s all things that are commanded in our observance of Passover. But in contradiction, Easter trains us to forsake all of that and instead eat sweet desserts instead of bitter herbs, to eat hot cross buns and other leavened bread instead of unleavened bread, and eat an Easter ham instead of lamb. And it’s also contradictory to the general dietary laws.
So according to scripture, if we’re going to commemorate the death of Yeshua or the death and burial and resurrection of Yeshua, we eat unleavened bread, we eat bitter herbs, and we eat lamb. The church tells us to eat leavened cakes, hot cross buns, to eat sweet desserts, to eat pork, two polar opposites. Decide for yourself. This is all on you. Again, you make your own decisions for you and your family. But this is Yeah, that’s how Easter stands in contradiction to scripture.
Again, most people describe Easter as a celebration of the resurrection and/or Passover and that it is the oldest holiday on the Christian calendar that has been observed since the earliest times. But how can such a claim be made when nowadays the date, the customs, the food, etc., etc., run contradictory, even counter to what we find in scripture? Is it really what we know of today? Is it really what they were doing back in the earliest parts of the quote unquote church? I don’t think so because back then back in the first century second century they were keeping Passover not Easter Passover.
Now eventually as new people new converts new ideas came in it started corrupting what we know of as Passover and it completely diverged into what we have nowadays as what we know of nowadays as Passover. I’m sorry Easter. And that was the whole title of this teaching where they brought in these customs and they painted over the resurrection. So now we just see Easter. We see absolutely zero about the resurrection or the crucifixion. Well, they like to say it’s about the the crucifixion and the resurrection, but it’s not. Not the date, not the food, not the customs, none of it. Is nothing like what we find in scripture. And if it’s not found in the Bible, and if it’s not commanded in the Bible, then there is no way that one is able to state that it’s important or required. That’s on a good note. At the very least, or at best, it’s nothing more than a tradition. And at worst, it’s syncretizing paganism, which Yahweh hates.
And we didn’t put this in the slides, but you know, time and time again in scripture, it says, “Do not worship Yahweh in the way the pagans worship their gods.” Period. And we go on and we see that not honoring the actual crucifixion day. If we do another day instead of the crucifixion day, how is that honoring Yeshua as our Passover lamb, as our Passover sacrifice? How is that honoring him at all as the Passover lamb? If we do it on a different day, we make up our own day. We use a pagan day. How is that honoring Yeshua? Scripture describes in detail the date on the calendar for the Passover sacrifice and the associated food and the associated observances that come along with it. Is any of that contained in what we know of as Easter today? Nope. Not a single thing that I can think of. Not the date, not the food, not the customs, nothing.
We see that not honoring the actual resurrection day is not honoring him as the first fruits from the dead. Now, he was our Passover lamb and then you got what? Three days and three nights afterwards, he was the first fruits from the dead. That’s when he actually was resurrected. So if we don’t honor the actual resurrection day, are we really honoring him as the first fruits from the dead? Something to think about. Scripture describes in detail the date on the calendar for the observance of first fruits. So take that into your account as well. You read back in the it tells us in the Torah when first fruits occurs, when Passover occurs, when Shavuot, etc., etc. It wants us to know this, but it never uh one single time in scripture ever describes a new spring celebration or anything. Not the resurrection or anything. So, it’s just very interesting stuff. Yeah.
Summary
So, in summary, Yeshua is our Passover lamb, our Pascha lamb, our Pesach lamb. He is not our Easter ham. Yeshua commanded that we observe the Passover in remembrance of him. The Pascha, not Easter, the Pascha. No new observance of Yeshua’s resurrection was commanded, created, or observed in the B’rit Hadashah. No timing of the resurrection. I’m sorry, the timing of the resurrection was always foretold in scripture by the number of days elapsed after death, not any particular day of the week.
During the formative years, most of the those in the faith, the Messianics, the Christians, kept the Passover as remembrance with a few keeping Sunday. But over time, that gradually diverged. The early Christians did not celebrate Easter in any way, shape, fashion, or form. That didn’t come till many hundreds of years later. In 314, the council of Arles declared that all should keep the Pascha on the same Sunday. At the same time, Emperor Constantine revealed that a counterbiblical date was chosen due to his and the council of Nicaea’s anti-semitism, due to their racism. That’s why they went and done away with the Bible was because of their own racism. That’s why they did it.
Over time, the church makes pagan elements into Easter. We saw that clearly. The name Easter, the Easter Bunny, Easter egg, sunrise service, all of that comes from the worship of a pagan goddess and other pagan influences. Scripture tells us not to follow after the ways of the pagans, not to follow after the ways of the heathen, not to follow after the ways of the Gentiles. We may have been Gentiles, but when we become saved, we are no longer Gentiles. We are now Messianic, Christian, whatever you term you want to use. We’re no longer Gentiles and we should no longer do the ways of those Gentiles, those pagans.
And finally, Yahweh does not want us to worship him in the way that pagans worshiped their false gods. And that includes the pagan fertility spring goddess. And that is just the God Honest Truth.
So, thank you for joining us for this teaching on Easter. We hope there was something there that really resonated with you or something new that you learned. If you did learn something new or something really stuck out at you, go down in the comments below the video and put that in the comments, let us know what it was that stuck out to you.
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And finally, before we leave, I want to let everyone know one more time that you can go down below in the description, click on the link, and that will take you to the article post on our website where you can find the on demand video, the draw slides that you can go through at your own pace, and also the AI research reports as well as the notes that we took for this particular episode. It’s all right there once you click on that link or go to our website at godhonesttruth.com. Thank you for joining us for another production from God Honest Truth Ministries. We really do appreciate your time and hope that we have been of service to you. If you have any feedback, then please reach out to us by writing to team at godhonesttruth.com. And make sure to visit our website for more information on our social media links, audio bibles, teaching resources, and so much more.
