Passover, never ever Easter for the Christian.
Jesus was three days and three nights in the tomb, not Friday to Sunday.
We are entering Passover, a special time when an extra emphasis is on the death and resurrection of Christ. I have personally sought for greater revelation of the cost the Lord paid for my ransom. Jesus fulfilled 25 Old Testament prophecies in the last 24 hours of His live. Prophecies made by different people in different locations thousands of years apart but so perfectly fulfilled. “The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.” Psalm 12:6
Jesus said that when “the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” John 16:13. Jesus also said that “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24. The Holy Spirit not only reveals truth to us, He leads us to the truth Himself, Jesus. The Holy Spirit will disclose the scriptures to us, for they were written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and can only be accurately understood by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 1:20-21. And Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-19 that He came to fulfill the law and the Prophets. And He said that not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.
So if the scriptures are so perfectly fulfilled in so many details like, “not a bone shall be Brocken”, “they pierced His side”, He was with the rich in His death” and so many more details that were so perfectly fulfilled, then what about Jesus rising after three days and three nights? Friday evening till Sunday morning do not make up three days and three nights as we see in Matthew 12:40 “for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Mark 8:31 “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Mark 9:31-32 “For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” John 2:19 “Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
I hope the following scriptures and time table will help to clarify the fact that Jesus was three days and three nights in the grave.
Passover started in Exodus chapter 12. And that is also when God gave Israel new calendar. And from that time Passover always starts on the eve of the 14th and ends on the eve of the 22nd of the month of NISAN, which is the first month of the year. The 15th and the 22nd of this month are always special Sabbaths. John, in John 19:31 says “for that Sabbath was a high day” which was NOT the weekly Sabbath according to the command. That happened to be on a Thursday that year.
Passover falls on different days of the week every year because the calendar God gave to Israel is a lunar calendar. Once in a while, the thirteenth month is added to continue with the cycle of the sun and annual seasons. When we understand this calendar, the Passover season and their Sabbaths, then we begin to understand that Jesus was three days and three nights in the tomb, perfectly fulfilling another prophecy.
This fulfills the scriptures that He would be in the grave three days and three nights. If He was buried on Wednesday evening, He arose perhaps on Saturday evening. Remember, in Jewish culture the day starts at 6pm so that would be considered already the first day of the week. Also, when God created the heavens and the earth, it always says that “and there was evening and morning” meaning the day starts in the evening.
Passover, never ever Easter for the Christian!
As mentioned above, Passover started in the book of Exodus chapter 12 and was to be celebrated every year and was always called Passover, even in the time of the early Church. Then why is the word Easter in the Bible? I believe it is only in the King James Version and it is WRONG! It should always be Passover!
Acts 12:4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Acts 12:4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. Hallelujah! As the blood of Jesus is applied to our hearts and minds, as during Passover it was applied to the doorposts and lentils, we are protected from evil and death, and we shall only leave this earthen vessel when we have fully accomplished our purpose!
My prayer for you is Ephesians 1:17-18 I pray the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
Jacob Reddekopp
Following is a study of how Easter came to be married into the church. I copied this from Paul Keith Davis. (White Dove Ministries) White Dove Ministries is a trustworthy ministry that has been a blessing to my quest in seeking the deeper things of God.
This passage is not talking about Easter. How do we know? The word translated Easter is the Greek word pascha (derived from the Hebrew word pesach; there is no original Greek word for Passover), and it has only one meaning. It always means Passover—it can never mean Easter. It is used 29 times in the New Testament and translated Passover on every occasion.
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, in its entry “Easter,” states: “The term ‘Easter’ is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover] held by Christians in post- apostolic times was a continuation of the Jewish feast . . . From this Pasch the pagan festival of ‘Easter’ was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity” (W.E. Vine, 1985, emphasis added throughout).
Easter isn’t a Christian or directly biblical term, but comes from a form of the name Astarte, a Chaldean (Babylonian) goddess known as “the queen of heaven.” (She is mentioned by that title in the Bible in Jeremiah:7:18 and 44:17-19, 25 and referred to in 1 Kings:11:5, 33 and 2 Kings:23:13 by the Hebrew form of her name, Ashtoreth. So “Easter” is found in the Bible—as part of the pagan religion God condemns!)
“In ancient Egypt and Persia friends exchanged decorated eggs at the spring equinox, the beginning of their New Year. These eggs were a symbol of fertility. Easter has its origin in pagan festivals representing symbols of fertility. The question of Passover versus Easter was a disputed issue among various early leaders. Not until A.D. 325— almost three centuries after Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected— was the matter settled. Regrettably, it wasn’t settled on the basis of biblical truth, but on the basis of anti-Semitism and raw ecclesiastical and imperial power.
As The Encyclopaedia Britannica further explains: “A final settlement of the dispute [over whether and when to keep Easter or Passover] was one among the other reasons which led [the Roman emperor] Constantine to summon the council of Nicaea in 325 . . . The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and ‘that none should hereafter follow the blindness of the Jews'” (ibid., pp. 828-829).
Abundant evidence supports the fact that the Greco-Roman church tended to amalgamate idolatrous rites into the Christianity they were introducing to heathen cultures. The philosophy was that non- Christians would be more likely to embrace Christianity if they were allowed to retained their pagan practices, especially if some Christian correspondence with their traditions could be established.
