He Is Risen

Shalom to everyone that is reading this blog. It has been a long while since my last post and I do apologize for my long absence. But I have returned and I hope my thoughts will bless everyone who reads this.

Today there are a lot of people who are celebrating what has been called the Easter resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have celebrated this, "holiday", for many years also. I did until I as challenged by something during my study time. I was reading in the World Encyclopedia a few years ago concerning the death, burial, and resurrection and found an interesting comment in one article. It stated that the Christianity of today closely resembles what was known as Mithraism in Greek and Roman times. Needless to say, this piqued my curiosity and made me look into this claim.

The article pointed out that some time during the 4th century, Mithraism mysteriously vanished. The explanation that is given was this: Christianity replaced Mithraism. "How can this be?", I asked my self. Researching further, I found out that the church fathers combined the practices of Sun worship with Christianity, taking out a few of the rituals of Mithra worship and totally eradicating the Feasts of the Lord, sighting them too "Jewish".

I say all these things because we have, as one article stated, been too long in the sun. We have adopted sun worship in place of the Lord's sabbath. We have adopted Christmas, saying that no one knows when Jesus was truly born but when you do a little biblical research, it's not that hard to find. And we have taken Yeshua's time of redemption and replaced it with an Easter celebration saying that God does not mind since He knows my heart.

It is with great sadness that I tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. God does care! God spoke about what we should and should not do when it comes to mixing our worship. As we are about to find out, our ways are truly not His ways and our thoughts have most definitely not been His thoughts. But I pray for all who read this. I pray that your heart will be pricked and that you will study for yourself and truly see what thus saith the Lord.

This past week my family and friends observed the Passover celebration which is found in Exodus 12. This time was so important to the Lord that He tells Moses and Aaron in Exodus

12:1 Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 " This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.

In our society, we celebrate January 1 as the new year. But according to what we just read in Exodus 12, God already established what the new year would be for those who believe on Him. As a matter of fact, God knew that it would be said that this was for the "Jews" only. But several times in Exodus God says that one law shall be to him who is home born and to the stranger that sojourns with you. God makes this point very plain in Exodus 12:38, "And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks and herds very much cattle".

God also makes it clear that He wants His people to keep His passover. But what about Easter? In the King James bible, Easter is found in Acts 12:4 "And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaterions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. . . ".

Notice the word, "Easter", has been inserted there. Looking up this word in the Strong's concordance, it is the #3957 which is Passover. Why would the translaters substitute this? The reason is simple; it was deemed too Jewish. This was a deliberate attempt to hide what God calls, "My Feast"! If that is wrong, then what else is incorrect? And why do I think it is important that we celebrate His death, burial, and resurrection at the appropriate time?

My birthday is January 14. That date never changes. Every year I know that my birthday is the same. But the day that my birthday falls on is always different. It is the same for Passover. Passover is the same date every year; Abib (now called Nisan on the Hebrew calendar) 14, at evening. That date never changes but it does come up on different days according to our Gregorian (or Greek) calender. Does that mean we should ignore the date and celebrate what God has done on our time? Or should we pay attention to the time He set? I would think the answer is obvious.

It breaks my heart to see my brothers and sisters, year after year, dress up in their Easter outfits and eating colorful eggs that have supposedly lain by a rabbit. And say that somehow I am off because I choose to follow scripture. I have heard it said that many people know that Easter has it's roots in pagan ways but t church has turned it around and now uses it to give God the glory. What happened to just obeying what God said to do in the first place? Jesus met with His disciples before He died and told them of His great desire to have this Passover with them. (Luke 22:15) But we have had no desire to do as He commanded by doing this (Passover) in remembrance of Him. Instead we have taken on Easter, which is the pagan fertility goddess, Ishtar, who according to legend came down from heaven in an egg. When she landed and the egg opened, out she came, the bare-breasted goddess of fertility who in a show of her power, turned a bird into an egg laying rabbit.

God commanded us in Jeremiah 10 not to learn the ways of the heathen and use them for His glory. But that is exactly what we have done. We shun the Lord's feast days and times because people have told us those things are for the Jews. we have been in errror not knowing the scriptures. Instead of taking on the practices that are rooted in the Word of God, we would much rather have fun in the pagan practices.

For years I have been a part of the same thing. God in His mercy and kindness saw fit to have mercy on me and many of you who are reading this article. There are no accidents. You are not reading this by mistake. God desires for His people to repent and come back to His ways. When Jesus took the Passover and later on that night was tried and in the morning executed on the cross, He took all of our sins upon Him. It is interesting to note that during that time, the priests in the temple would have 2 loaves of bread set on 2 high pillars. The idea was that every family was supposed to remove the leaven out of their homes and it is to be transferred to a place where everyone brought their leaven. Leaven is of course a representation of sin. The temple priest at a certain time (around the 5th hour which is about 11am) would take one of the loaves down which signified that time was running out to get rid of your leaven. Then, at the 6th hour (12pm our time), the priest took down the final loaf and it is interesting that the scriptures record that at that time, darkness fell upon the whole earth.

It was at that time that the leaven was fully transferred out of each families house; just as the leaven of our sin was transferred onto our Lord and Savior. Not just the sin that was there at that time, but also the sins of the past and future. He saw us and took it upon himself. Is it a small thing for God to ask that we remember the atonement of His only begotten Son during l. the time that He appointed? Let's get rid of the paganism in our hearts and let us do as Paul said and keep the feast. Why? Because He is Risen. He died during Passover by becoming our passover sacrifice. Right after Passover, it became time for the feast of Unleavened bread. It was after that high holy sabbath (the first day of unleavened bread) that Jesus rose. It is time to put aside the pagan practices that have infected our beliefs. It is time to admit that the feasts of the Lord are not Jewish but for all who belong to God. It is time to admit that He is risen on the 3rd day. That Jesus' death came at 3 pm and so He rose around 3 pm 3 days later.

I know it may be hard to let go but I pray that the Lord opens your heart to His word. It does not matter how long we have been saved or how many degrees we have. All that matters is what the bible says. Shalom in Messiah Yeshua, Amen.