"Easter and Passover"
(Originally Published April 20, 2000)

Easter:
Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary teaches us the following about 'Easter': "Easter was originally a pagan festival honoring Eostre, a Teutonic (Germanic) goddess of light and spring. At the time of the vernal equinox (the day in the spring when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are of equal length), sacrifices were offered in her honor... The only appearance of the word 'Easter' (KJV) is a mistranslation of pascha, the ordinary Greek word for "Passover" <Acts 12:4>.

New Unger's Bible Dictionary further tells us: "By the eighth century Anglo-Saxons had adopted the name {Easter} to designate the celebration of Christ's resurrection."

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia defines Passover in the Hebrew as: "... ‘to pass’ or ‘spring over’ or ‘to spare’. Other conjectures connect the word with the ‘passing over’ into a new year, with assyr pasahu, meaning ‘to placate,’ with Hebrew pacah, meaning ‘to dance,’ and even with the skipping motions of a young lamb; Aramaic paccha', whence Greek Pascha; whence English ‘paschal.’ In early Christian centuries folk-etymology connected pascha with Greek pascho, ‘to suffer’..., and the word was taken to refer to Good Friday rather than the Passover". Under the word, 'Easter', International Standard Bible Encyclopedia informs us that, ‘The Jewish Christians in the early church continued to celebrate the Passover, regarding Christ as the true paschal {Passover} lamb, and this naturally passed over into a commemoration of the death and resurrection of Our Lord, or an Easter feast.’"

Easter and the true Passover do not always coincide due to a difference in the calendars we use today and the original religious Hebrew calendar given to the Hebrews by God. For example, in the year 2008 Easter is on March 23, 2008, and Passover, according to some calendars, is between April 20-27. I am convinced that the calendars the Jews use today and the original Hebrew calendar do not always agree. I have often had God tell me to celebrate a feast on a day other than what is appearing on either calendar.

The Passover Feast:
Jesus told us, in such verses as Matt 26:2, that He was crucified during Passover: "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified" (NKJ). Jesus was in Jerusalem honoring God’s Mosaic Law that required all Hebrew males to attend this feast yearly at the Tabernacle/Temple, when He was taken and crucified.

The first Passover and Unleavened Bread Feasts took place as Israel prepared to, and exited from, Egypt. In Exodus 5:1, our LORD instructed Moses and the elders of Israel to go to the Pharaoh in Egypt and demand that he let God’s people go into the wilderness so that they could hold a feast and offer sacrifice(s) to God. Although those who previously walked with God had made sacrifices to God as individuals and families, this particular sacrifice and feast was to be Israel’s first as God’s new "congregation" and "nation". They were to sacrifice a "lamb without blemish" <Ex 12:13; 1 Pet 1:19>. This physical Passover was a foreshadow of Jesus Christ the final sacrifice for sin.

The LORD prepared His "congregation" telling Moses and Aaron, "Speak to all the ‘congregation’ of Israel, saying: 'This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood {of Jesus, our sacrificial lamb} and put it on the two doorposts {worshiping hands} and on the upper door post {head; forehead} of the houses {our spiritual & physical body; Christ’s Body and Church} where they eat it. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh {Christ Jesus’} on that night {during darkness}; roasted in fire {Fire Baptism}, with unleavened bread {Christ’s Body} and with bitter herbs {suffering of Christ, and His followers} they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire {Fire Baptism} — its head {Jesus is the one Head over His one Body} with its legs and its entrails {center, innermost part; Christ’s Spirit/Soul/Mind/Heart}. 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall (1)eat it: with (2)your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and (3)your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover.

12 'For I will pass through {pass over} the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn {later, satan murdered Jesus, God's FIRSTBORN from the dead} in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD {Eternal Self Existent}. 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses {bodies; families} where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over {hop, skip over, dance} you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 'So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep {move in a circle; march in a sacred procession; celebrate} it as a feast to the LORD {Eternal Delf Existent} throughout your generations {your dwelling/the circle of time}. You shall keep {move in a circle; march in a sacred procession; celebrate} it as a feast {enactment/an appointment} by an everlasting {eternal/forever} ordinance. [Ex 12:1-14; NKJV]

For many years now, God has told me to take Communion daily. He recently told me that because of this I am protected from harm which includes His wrath. In this way, He is marking me/us with the sacrificial blood of protection just as He did the Israelites. Through Christ, our sacrificial lamb, God has promised " I am the LORD. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses {bodies; families} where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over {hop, skip over, dance} you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike."

As you re-read the book of Revelations, please notice that it is God’s Wrath one should fear in the "end times": "And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
[Rev 6:15-17; NKJV]

Exodus 12 Definitions and Associated Verses: {all definitions are from Strong’s Concordance of the Bible, except where stated}

LORD’S PASSOVER: "(a)pretermission, i.e. exemption; used only... of the Jewish Passover (the festival or the victim {offering}). This Hebrew word comes from a word defined as, "to hop, i.e... skip over (or spare);... to hesitate; also (literally) to limp, to +dance: KJV-- halt, become lame, leap, pass over."

(1) EAT IT:

(2) WITH YOUR LOINS GIRDED:
(Luke 12:35-44) "Let your loins {waist} be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will GIRD HIMSELF and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them... Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect... Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food {Christ's Body; inheritance} in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that He will make him a ruler over all that he has. (NKJ)

(Eph 6:14) Stand therefore, having your LOINS GIRT about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness" (KJV)

(1 Pet 1:13) Therefore GIRD THE LOINS OF YOUR MIND, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the {spirit of} grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (NKJ)

(3) "YOUR STAFF": Suggested Reading: January 10, 2008 "Blossoming Children With Adult Angels" AND March 9, 2008 "I Blossom, Mine Blossom"

PASSOVER is the LORD'S Feast, and we are to celebrate it forever even into our Eternal life. It is to commemorate the death and resurrection of our sacrificial lamb, Jesus Christ. We are to celebrate it as God's family, in memory of Jehovah's sacrifice of His son and Christ's sacrifice of Himself. This is more appropriate and pleasing to God than the 'Easter eggs' that represent the celebration of the false goddess Eostre and her fertility. As we have read, Passover is to be honored and celebrated with God and all our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ forever [beyond time].

God has spoken to me many times about our 'Passing Over' from the physical into the Spiritual realm. As we are reborn into the Kingdom of God, we 'pass over' from the physical world into the spirit, and from death into resurrection.  

Christ began His earthly ministry as He was led into the wilderness by God’s Holy Spirit to be tempted by satan: "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." (Matt 4:1; NKJ) In the Greek, the word translated as 'wilderness', above, is defined by Strong's Concordance of the Bible as "lonesome'. In 'loneliness' Christ became separated from family, friends and all His comfortable, well known surroundings. He walked through the valley of 'loneliness', but He was not alone. He walked with His Father through the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit.

Jesus PASSED from, walked out of, what He had previously accepted as reality, and entered into God's separation: Jesus' time of loneliness. As He walked out and away from the tests and temptations in 'loneliness', He came forth with a new commitment to His Father's Will. Jesus departed from the desert as our Savior. He came forth commissioned, totally committed and submitted to the Will and Way of God His Father.

We do not see Jesus 'tempted' again until He is in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He fought, as we must, against His "SELF". "Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this CUP be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will’ (Matt 26:39; NIV). Jesus is not only our example of righteousness, but also our source of God’s righteousness. All else is "self" righteousness: "For He {God our Father} made Him {Christ} who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him {Christ}." (2 Cor 5:21; NKJ)

It is in this mental (soul) 'state of submission' that Jesus Christ became Christ Jesus the risen, resurrected Savior of mankind, and the 'birth giver' to untold numbers of previously dead souls (minds and hearts): "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; he has put Him to grief. When You make His soul {mind} an offering for sin, he shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD {our Father} shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor {travail} of His soul {mind}, and be satisfied. By His KNOWLEDGE My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their {our} iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong {us}, BECAUSE HE POURED OUT HIS SOUL {MIND} INTO DEATH, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isa 53:10-12; NKJ)

Jesus is the FIRSTBORN from the dead. When He said, 'let the dead bury the dead', He told us that all of mankind is under the curse/sentence of death, and that all remain dead until they are made alive in Him: a member in His Body, who is Risen, Amen.

As we submit and become one with Christ in His sacrifice, He overcomes the test/temptation of SELF for us. We must sacrifice our 'all'. In this way, we are crucified with Him, and PASSOVER into the resurrected eternal life and nature of Christ.  Thus, many walk into Eternity while on earth. As you "Passover" from death into eternal Life, praise God for His goodness, mercy and gift(s).

Passover Week (The Foreshadow Of Things To Come)
Israel
Israel’s Passover (Nisan 14):
The yearly celebration commonly called Passover consists of three separate feasts and feast days within the Hebrew month of Nisan {Mar-Apr}. On the first Passover, or the fourteenth day of Nisan, God commanded Israel to eat the "sacrificial lamb" as their exodus supper. It was during this time that Yehovah also separated His people and marked their homes in the Lamb’s blood. In order to persuade the Egyptian Pharaoh to let His people go, God sent forth His death angels and destroyed all the "first born" Egyptian males. The same angels however "passed over" all the Israelite homes marked in the blood of the "pass-over" lamb.

Feast Of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15):
The next day, on the fifteenth of Nisan, now known as the Feast Of Unleavened Bread, the Israelites left their physical bondage in Egypt and began their journey towards Yehovah’s Promised Land.

Feast Of Firstfruits (Nisan 17 {some references say Nisan 16}):
On the seventeenth of Nisan, or the Feast Of Firstfruits, Israel crossed through the Red Sea as God‘s hand miraculously split the sea and created a physical walkway for His beloved people. Of these events Paul said: "brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." [1 Corinthians 10:1-4]

Christ
Christ’s Passover (Nisan 14):
On the 14^th of Nisan, over a thousand years later, Jesus, Yehovah’s {Jehovah’s} first Son born through both the Spirit and flesh, sat down in honor of the Hebrew exodus Passover Feast and ate what Christians commonly call His last Supper. Jesus also taught Communion at the Memorial {Passover/Last} Supper, and He prayed in Gethsemane and submitted to His Father's Will.

Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15):
The next day, on the fifteenth of Nisan, or Feast of Unleavened Bread, Christ became our sacrificial "Passover lamb" and set all of mankind free from captivity under satan. All Christians begin their journey into our Father’s spiritual promise, or Promised Land, as they accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. (1)The veil separating man from God, in both the physical and spiritual Temple, was torn, or split, in two as Jesus died. Jesus was buried.

Feast Of Firstfruits (Nisan 17 {some references say Nisan 16}):
Christ, who is Yehovah’s firstfruit, rose from the dead on the seventeenth of Nisan and became our way, or walkway, into our Fathers Spiritual Promised Land. Despite the age in which we are physically born, God’s people all eat the same "spiritual food...". We all must keep our hearts and minds focused on the one Savior, our Messiah and Christ.

The Three (3) Days Between Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection {sometimes called "Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday"}:

Please note:  recently someone said to me that Jesus was three days in the belly of the earth and this is true.  He was in Hell three days.  However, please remember that Hell is separation from God our Father, and that one can be in Hell while on earth.  Please remember also that Jesus cried from the cross before His descent into hell, and thus was already experiencing this separation on earth: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  [Matt 27:46; NKJV]

We assume that the two witnesses will die in Jerusalem on top of the earth, and most likely they will; but pay special attention to the Revelations 11:8: "And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. [Rev 11:8; NKJV]  I prefer to believe that Jesus ate the "Last Supper", or Passover memorial, on the eve, or at the beginning of Passover and then the three days began.  Passover is on a different date each year and this has to do with the full moon.  I personally am not aware of when the full moon was that specific year, but I understand that God is all truth. The teaching below, given to me by Christ many years ago may help.  We all want to discern the importance of Christ Jesus' sacrifice:

JONAH:
Several years ago, our Lord woke me up in the morning as He whispered the word "Jonah". This meant nothing to me, and I didn't pay too much attention to it. Later that day, Jesus asked me, "How did I leave Hell? How did I fight and win over satan?" As He asked this, He reminded me of the scripture, "Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matt 12:40; NIV)

He then asked me to go read "JONAH", and took me directly to Jonah 1:15-2:10:
[all words within { } are from Strong’s Concordance of the Bible]

Jesus Rose from the Dead, and So Do We Through Him:
In answer to Jesus' question to me, I/we answer, "you rose from the dead through recognition of sin (our sin), you REMEMBERED God your Father, AND YOU ROSE FROM THE DEAD USING PRAISE! You beat satan using the Word, the "voice of thanksgiving". You PRAISED God, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak {give utterance} through you in Thanksgiving, or the giving of thanks. Because You are the Word <Rev 19:13>, You fought satan using the power of, and in, the Word. Psalms 8:2 verifies this saying, "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger" (NKJ). Psalms 22:3 adds to this saying, "...You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel." NKJV

Literally, during Israel's Passover, Jesus Christ laid down His physical/spiritual life for the sake of His "friends", His spiritual family, His Father’s Sons and Daughters, you and me, mankind and again rose into His resurrected Spiritual life. In John 15:12-19, Jesus Himself teaches us, "This is My commandment, that you LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. GREATER LOVE HAS NO ONE THAN THIS, THAN TO LAY DOWN ONE'S LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS. YOU ARE MY FRIENDS IF YOU DO WHATEVER I COMMAND YOU. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for ALL THINGS THAT I HAVE HEARD from My Father I HAVE MADE KNOWN TO YOU. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain {just as Mine has}..." (NKJ)

Within His risen spiritual and physical Body, we are free from all Satanic captivity. Previously born into the world, and the loveless nature of satan, we have now, through Christ Jesus our risen Savior, received our eternal new nature. Through the death of Jesus Christ, we have PASSED OVER into the NEW 'risen life' of Christ Jesus. Christ is all giving, unconditional love, Amen. As He is, so MUST we be, Amen.

We pray that God Bless all of us with the Fullness of Himself, Amen. In His Love, Chris Williams

If you would like to print this and share it with your brothers and sisters in Christ, or the world, please feel free to do so. However, I ask that you always leave my name on the messages God writes through me; and never sell them. Thank you so much for your love.

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