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Do we celebrate Passover or Easter?

Most of us who have done our homework know the pagan origin of the holiday called Easter. In addition it is also known that the English word Easter long antedates Christianity. Originally it referred to the celebration of the spring sun and new life in the spring season and was named after the ancient Teutonic goddess “Eostre” a mystical figure said to be the goddess of sunrise and spring. This mother goddess was variously known as Astarte, Ishtar, Ashtoreth, Cybele, Demeter, Ceres, Aphrodite, Venus, Semiramis and Freya. Easter is therefore just another name for the ancient goddess. We read about it from the ‘World Book, Vol.1, p.782’ as follows: ‘Astarte was the most important goddess of the pagan Semites. She was the goddess of love, fertility, and maternity for the Phoenicians, Canaanites, Arameans, South Arabs, and even the Egyptians, Her name was Ishtar (hence the name Easter) in Babylon and Assyria, where she was the goddess of war. Some Old Testament stories call her Ashtoreth and describe the construction of her altar by King Solomon and its destruction by King Josiah. Astarte was identified with the planet Venus, the Greeks called her Aphrodite, and the Romans knew her as Venus.”

Astarte was the Great Mother goddess and her worship culminated at the vernal equinox around March 21 each year when the day and night is equal in length; we call this the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of the fall season also known as autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. The historian Will Durant explains how Astarte’s lover Adonis was celebrated by the pagans on that day by orgies, in this way: ‘Religious prostitution flourished, for in Syria, as throughout western Asia, the fertility of the soil was symbolized in a Great Mother, or goddess, whose sexual commerce with her lover gave the hint to all the reproductive processes and energies of nature; and the sacrifice of virginity at the temples was not only an offering to Astarte, but a participation with her in that annual self-abandonment which, it was hoped, would offer an irresistible suggestion on the earth, and inspire the increase of plants, animals, and men. About the time of the vernal equinox, the festival of the Syrian Astarte, like that of Cybele in Phrygia, was celebrated at Hierapolis with a fervor bordering upon madness. The noise of flutes and drums mingled with the wailing of the women for Astarte’s dead lord, Adoni; eunuch priests brought a mystic illumination to the scene, opened the tomb of the young god, and announced triumphantly that Adoni, the Lord, had risen from the dead. Touching the lips of the worshippers with balm the priests whispered to them the promise that they, too would some day rise from their graves.’ ‘Will Durant, History of Civilization, Vol. 1.pp.296 – 297.’ Our Israelite forefathers referred to Astarte as ‘Ashtoreth’, a pagan goddess which the Prophets of YHVH denounced, but many of the people worshipped, together with her consort, Baal the sun god. This was done amid groves of trees and on the summits of mountains. Here they worshipped sacred stones, practiced divination and engaged in orgies as part of their worship of Ashtoreth and Baal. We all know by now that the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed because of such idolatry. Later King Josiah of Judah tore down all the altars of Baal. Venus (also called Aphrodite) was equivalent to the earth-fertility and love goddess of other Near Eastern nations. According to some stories, her son was Aeneas, the ancestor of the Romans; according to others, Cupid. In Rome, every month was dedicated to a god and April belonged to Venus. However, later they dedicated their days to gods and borough from the Persians the sacred Sunday, the first day of the week and worshipped the Persian sun god Mithra on that day. Mithras birthday was December 25 and was later christened and adopted as Christmas by the Roman church.

Since Mithra was always shown with a solar halo around his head, portraits and statues of C*h*r*i*s*t (and Mary and the so-called saints) with halos around their heads became abundant. Because worshipers of Ishtar presented her with two fertility symbols – eggs and bunny rabbits – these became part of the Christian Easter servicebecause sunrise on Sunday morning at the beginning of spring was, besides December 25th, the holiest day in the Mithraism calendar, the practice of Easter sunrise service continued on into pagan Christianity. Since Mithra was worshipped on the first day of the week, which Persians and Romans called Sunday, Sunday sacredness which is nowhere to be found in the Scriptures, came into the Christian church. In addition, since Mithra the sun died and rose to life each year on December 25, the birth of C*h*r*i*s*t began to be celebrated on that date. Eusebius the early church historian who lived in the fourth century relates that Bishop Sixtus of Rome was the first not to observe the Passover and began observing Easter Sunday in its place between 116 – 126 CE. This was during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117 – 138 CE) who adopted Roman policy of radical repression of Jewish rights and customs. Early Nazarenes observed the Passover until 135 CE when the Romans conquered Jerusalem and the headquarters of the Nazarenes was discontinued and Jews were banished from the city. The New Greek bishop appointed by the Romans to oversee the new Gentile Christian church in Jerusalem, observed the Roman Easter and by 135 CE the Easter tradition was strong enough to challenge the Passover. Around 154 CE Polycarp, who had observed the Passover with Yochanan and other of Messiah’s disciples whom He sent out to proclaim the good news about the kingdom of Elohim, traveled to Rome to discuss the growing controversy arising in the congregation in Rome and those who started to observe the pagan Easter instead of the Passover. The meeting ended in a deadlock and later in the days of Victor of Rome (189 – 199 CE), the dispute became very serious as Victor started enforcing his views on the other religious leaders. The controversy continued simmering and reach boiling point by the fourth century when Emperor Constantine called the Council of Nicea in 325CE to settle among other the Easter question once for all. At that time the Council decreed: ‘All the brethren in the East who formerly celebrated Easter (sic, he really meant Passover) with the Jews, will henceforth keep the SAME TIME AS THE ROMANS WITH US…’

J.B. Lightfoot asserts that Rome and Alexandria (symbols of Babylon and Egypt – the two countries which Elohim called His servants to come out of) both adopted Easter Sunday in order to avoid resembling the Jews. He wrote accordingly in ‘The Apostolic Fathers, 1885, II, part 1.p88’, saying: ‘In the Paschal controversy of the second century, the bishops of Jerusalem, Caesarea, Tyre and Ptolemais ranged themselves not with AsiaMinor, which regulated the Easter festival by Jewish Passover, but Rome and Alexandria, thus avoiding even the semblance of Judaism.’ The Emperor Constantine sought to establish a new World Religion totally free from Jewish influence! Rav Shaul wrote that a little leaven leavens the whole lump in 1 Corinthians 5: 6 & 7. The leaven of Easter began to pollute and contaminate congregations, leading the way for a host of auxiliary doctrines, dogmas and pagan practices to infiltrate the set-apart ones also. Alexander Hislop describes how the pagan forty-day fast of Lent and Easter were both incorporated into Church doctrine by the Roman Catholic Church with abbot Dionysius the Little as the chief instrument in the change-over, as follows: ‘This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the Grossest Corruption and the Rankest Superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent. Let any one only read the ATROCITIES that were commemorated during the ‘sacred fast’ or Pagan Lent as described by Arnobius and Clemens Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush for the Christianity of those who, WITH THE FULL KNOWLEDGE OF ALL THESE ABOMINATIONS, ‘went down to Egypt for help’ o stir up the languid devotion of the DEGENERATE CHURCH, and who could find no more excellent way to ‘revive’ it, than by borrowing from so polluted a source; the ABSURDITIES and ABOMINATIONS connected with which the early Christian writers had held up to scorn. That Christians should ever THINK of introducing the Pagan abstinence of Lent was a sign of evil; it showed how LOWTHEY HAD SUNK, and it was also a CAUSE OF EVIL; it inevitably led to DEEPER DEGRADATION. Originally, even in Rome, Lent, with the preceding REVELRIES OF THE CARNIVAL, was entirely unknown….But at last, when the worship of ASTARTE was rising into the ascendant, steps were taken to get the whole CHALDEAN LENT of six weeks, or forty days, made imperative on all within the Roman Empire of the west.’ (ibid.,p.106 – 107).

Hislop points out how Lent became mandated by a council of the church held at Aurelia about 519 CE. This council decreed that Lent should be solemnly observed before Easter. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find Elohim’s people observing Lent or Easter. In fact Elohim commands very plainly in Jeremiah 10: 1, saying: “Do not learn the way of the nations.”Yahshua never observed Lent or Easter, nor did He command His disciples to do so. The evidence clearly show that as YHVH is busy calling Israelites from the lost ten tribes to come out of the false religious systems of the world, the more these churches try to hold-on to those who remain, by appealing to the desires of human nature, using the same techniques and reasons as the Roman Catholic Church used to do. We need to certainly ask: Does Elohim no longer command His people to come out of the religious practices and beliefs of Babylon introduced to the house of Israel by the Catholic Church? When we acknowledge and honor (YHVH)’s authority in our lives and obey His Torah teachings fully we become lights to the world and when they eventually see the many blessings and benefits we have because of obedience, they will start following us in obedience to our heavenly Father. I can certainly attest of it, since it is almost forty nineyears ago, six months before my wife and I got married, when I started studying the truth about the gospel of the kingdom ofElohim and His plan of salvation for all mankind. Even so, during the next year at the beginning of Autumn in South Africa (in the Southern Hemisphere), we got invited to attend an Easter Sun-rise service with a number of other Christian denominations in the area where we lived, because we were still involved with a Christian Churchat the time. Fortunately, not fully realizing how pagan that was at the time, in that it is nothing other than sun-worshipping, we somehow declined the invite. The odd thing about my family is the fact that my grandfather taught my father Torah and he in turn taught me many Torah principles which I only fully understood when I started studying the same in June of 1971.In fact Elohim specifically commanded us in Jeremiah 10: 1, saying: “Do not learn the way of the nations.”In addition YHVH warned about the pagan customs adopted by Christianity around Easter time in Ezekiel 8: 12 - 18 , as follows: ‘Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘YHVH does not see us; YHVH has forsaken the land.’” (13) And He said to me, “Yet you will see still greater abominations which they are committing.” (14) Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of (YHVH)’s house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz (Lent kept by the Catholic Church for forty days before Easter). (15) And He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these.” (16) Then He brought me into the inner court of (YHVH)’s house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of YHVH, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of YHVH and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun (this was nothing other than an Easter sunrise service, where these men were worshipping the sun) .”’  A further warning comes from Jeremiah 7: 18, as follows: “Then children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and pour out libations to other gods in order to spite Me (This is where we are warned against the baking and eating of hot-cross buns baked with raisins for the queen of heaven, namely Ishtar also identified as the fertility goddess).”

We see from the Scriptures that Elohim powerfully condemns the worship of Baal and Astarte in Judges 2: 11 – 16, in this way: ‘Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of YHVH, and served the Baals, (12) and they forsook YHVH the Elohim of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; thus they provoked YHVH to anger. (13) So they forsook YHVH and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. (14) And the anger of YHVH burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. (15) Wherever they went, the hand of YHVH was against them for evil, as YHVH had spoken and as YHVH had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed. (16) Then YHVH raised up Judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them.’ We read further how Elohim condemns Solomon for doing the very same thing in 1 Kings 11: 3 – 5 & 11 & 12, as follows: ‘And he (Solomon) had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. (4) For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to YHVH his Elohim, as the heart of David his father had been. (5) For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Malcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. (11) So YHVH said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. (12) Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.”’ This was the beginning of the end for the house of Israel. But, if we go back to worshipping such pagan gods after learning the truth, YHVH will also take away our right to rule nations and cities during the Kingdom of Elohim.

 

Those of us who have been studying the Scriptureswill know that the words,Christmas and Easter cannot be found anywhere in the Scriptures. The word ‘Easter’ as found in the King James Version of the Scriptures in Acts 12: 4 is an incorrect translation of the Greek word ‘pascha’, which refers to the Passover, as it has been corrected in versions such as the New American Standard Bible and other newer translations and as may be understood from reading from verse 3, where we read: ‘And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrestKepha also.Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread.’  The Roman government was since its inception anti-Semitic. During the reign of Hadrian (117 – 138 CE), Jews (and even some Christians) were persecuted and Jewish customs and practices were forbidden. This resulted in the Christian Churches abandoning the Sabbath and Scriptural Festivals for Sunday worship and other pagan festivals. It was also at this time that there was much confusion and disagreement regarding the crucifixion and resurrection of Yahshua the Messiah, whom they referred to as J*e*s*u*s* C*h*r*i* s* t*. Christianity keeps Easter Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox, in commemoration of the resurrection. However, Yahshua instituted an annual commemoration of His death and there is no Scriptural commandment by Yahshua to celebrate His resurrection.   We see that Yahshua emphasized that He was the Lamb of Elohim sacrificed for the sins of the world, as may be read from John 1: 29.The Passover kept by Yahshua and taught by Him in Matthew 26: 19 – 30 and 1 Corinthians 11: 23 – 26, was substituted by the Christian Church for Easter, but neither He nor the apostles approved such a change.  In fact by keeping ‘GoodFriday’ as the day upon which Messiah died and was buried and Easter Sunday as the day upon which He was resurrected, the Christian Church is denying that Yahshua is the Messiah, as is witnessed in Matthew 12: 38 – 40, as follows: ‘Then some of the scribes and the Pharisees answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” (39) But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; (40) for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”’ This adds up to 72 hours, which is twice as much as the Christian church believes.

 

True to the prophecy about Yahshua’s death in Daniel 9: 26 & 27, He was cut off in the middle of the week or the fourth day of the week, known today as Wednesday. We see from verse 27 of Daniel 9, ‘but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering.’ This means that Yahshua has done away with the Sacrificial Law, where the people of Israel had to bring clean animals to the High Priest every time they sinned, to be killed for the atonement of their sins, as we read from Hebrews 10: 5 – 12, in this way: ‘Therefore when He (Messiah) comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING THOU HAST NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY THOU HAST PREPARED FOR ME;  (6) IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN THOU HAST TAKEN NO PLEASURE. (7) THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE ROLL (scroll) OF THE BOOK (Torah) IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO THY WILL O ELOHIM.’” (8) After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN THOU HAST NOT DESIRED, NOR HAST THOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered according to the {Sacrificial} Law), (9) then He said, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO THY WILL.” He takes away the first (sacrifice) in order to establish the second. (10) By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Yahshua Messiah once for all. (11) And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; (12) but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHTHAND OF ELOHIM.”’Yahshua was the lamb without defect offered as a sacrifice described in Leviticus 23: 12. If we believe and follow Yahshua, the way, the truth and the life, as He said about Himself in John 14: 6, we will inherit eternal life as we read from Romans 8: 11, as follows:  ‘But if the Spirit of Him who raised Yahshua from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Messiah Yahshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.’  Yahshua also became the first-fruit grain (wave sheaf) offering, which was cut-off on the 14th of Aviv to be offered after the first annual Sabbath on the Hebrew calendar otherwise known as the First Day of Unleavened Bread, as described in Leviticus 23: 13. When He was resurrected three days and three nights later, He became the first ‘human being’ to be born again of all creation  as may be understood from Colossians 1: 15 and Romans 8: 29.

The sequence of events resulting in Yahshua’s death and resurrection is set-out, below:

  • Yahshua and His disciples partook of the Passover in accordance with Torah (Exodus 12: 18 and Leviticus 23: 5) in the evening part or the beginning of the fourth day of the week – the 14th of Aviv according to the Hebrew calendar (where a new day begins at sunset). This was in fact 24 hours before the Jews of His day kept the Passover, as may be read from Mark 14: 14 -26 and is confirmed in 1 Corinthians 11: 23 – 26.

  • Yahshua is betrayed by Judas, one of His disciples and is arrested, tried (during the night) and impaled at about 9 a.m. the next morning (i.e. the day part of the fourth day).

  • Yahshua dies at about 3 p.m. in the afternoon as recorded in Matthew 27: 46 – 50. This was essentially on the preparation day for the first annual Sabbath (the First Day of Unleavened Bread) on the 15th of Aviv, as we read from John 19: 30 & 31, in this way: ‘When Yahshua therefore had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head, and gave up his spirit. (31) The Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high {or Set-apart} day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.’ Most translations of The Scriptures include the section in brackets. This was not the regular Sabbath, spoken about here but the First Day of Unleavened Bread. Because Yahshua was already dead, there was no reason for the soldiers to break His legs, as confirmed in verses 32 - 34 of John 19, as follows: ‘The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other man who was crucified with Him; (33) but coming to Yahshua, when they saw that He was already dead,  they did not break His legs;  (34) but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.’

  • Joseph of Arimathea buried Yahshua’s body before the commencement of the First Day of unleavened Bread at twilight as per John 19: 38 – 42.

  • The High Day Sabbath or the First Day of Unleavened Bread occurred on the fifth day of the week (Thursday), as may be read from Matthew 27: 62.

  • When the High Day was over (on the sixth day of the week or Friday) the women bought and prepared spices to anoint Messiah’s body (see the first part of Luke 23: 56).

  • The women rested on the weekly Sabbath as commanded in Exodus 20: 8 – 11.

  • Yahshua rose at the end of the day around sunset, exactly three nights and three days later as He said, as is also confirmed by Rav Shaul in 1 Corinthians 15: 3 & 4, in this way: ‘For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4) and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.’ The women brought the spices that they prepared to the tomb early on the first day of the week (known as Sunday today) as per Luke 24: 1; and since the first day of the week starts immediately after sunset, it was during the night part of the 1st day and therefore still dark as per John 20: 1.

  • Yahshua had already risen at the end of the (weekly) Sabbath, and His tomb was empty as per Matthew 28: 1 – 6.

 

According to these Scriptural witnesses Yahshua fulfilled the sign about Him being the Messiah exactly. The prophet Daniel wrote the prophecy in Daniel 9, about the seventy weeks, during the first year of Darius’s reign about 539 BCE Daniel predicted Messiah’s ministry to commence during the Spring of 27 CE, and end three and a half years later in the middle of the week. Yahshua was almost 30 years of age when He was immersed. Most competent Bible scholars know that Messiah’s ministry was 3½ years in length. Yahshua was impaled as our Passover Lamb during the spring of 31 CE according to the Roman calendar. According to both the British and U.S. Naval Observatories that year was one of only a few erratic years which had a mid-week Passover. The reason why Christianity assumes that Messiah died and was buried on a Friday is because they do not keep the Feast Days given in Leviticus 23 any longer, since they believe it is only for Jews. If they kept the Feast Days listed in Leviticus 23, they would have realized that these Feast Days are also known as annual Sabbaths or High Day Sabbaths, but also as the Feast Days of YHVH, as witnessed in verses 1 – 4, in this way:  “YHVH spoke again to Moses, saying,(2) ‘Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, ‘(YHVH)’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations – My appointed times are these:(3) For six days work may be done; but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a Set-apart convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a Sabbath to YHVH in all your dwellings.’ (4)These are the appointed times of YHVH, Set-apart convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.” Yahshua was impaled on a Wednesday, which was the day of preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread kept annually from the 15th to the 21st of Aviv, as is corroborated by Leviticus 23: 5 - 8 as follows: ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is (YHVH)’s Passover. (6) Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to YHVH, for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. (7) On the first day you shall have a set-apart convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. (8) But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to YHVH. On the seventh day is a set-apart convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’

As outlined before, our Savior was put to death on a Wednesday, the day of Passover. He was placed in the tomb just before sunset as Wednesday came to a close and Thursday commenced. The woman had no time to anoint His body with spices, due to the High Day Sabbath. They kept the First Day of Unleavened Bread which started on Wednesday after sunset (the 15th of Aviv). They bought spices on Friday after the Set-apart day for embalming Messiah’s body. They rested the next day on the weekly Sabbath, and prior to sun-set, came to see the tomb. This is when as described in Matthew 28; they find that Yahshua was already risen at the end of the weekly Sabbath. This was definitely not an Easter sunrise visit to the tomb. A second reason why Christianity believes in a Sunday morning resurrection is that, as opposed to the Scriptural method of determining a day (explained before), a day according to the Gregorian calendar starts and ends at midnight. They therefore assume ‘after the Sabbath’ quoted from Matthew 28: 1 to mean, after midnight and ‘as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week’ to mean, at daybreak on the 1st day of the week, known to them as Sunday. They stopped observing the true Sabbath hundreds of years ago and have also forgotten the Scriptural way of determining time. We find further proof in the sequence of events listed before in Matthew 28: 1. Most English translations agree that the women came to the grave ‘after the Sabbath’. According to the New American Standard Bible, we read: ‘Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.’ The “DuTillet” Hebrew version of Matthew reads: ‘Now on the evening of the Shabbat, as it dawned toward the first day of the week, came Miriam the Magdalene and the other Miriam to see the sepulcher.’  Reading further in Matthew 28, we see that after a great earthquake an Angel of YHVH rolled away the stone (which the Roman guards sealed) and sat upon it. The angel told the two Miriam’s that Yahshua who was impaled is not in the grave any longer as He has risen, as He said. It is very clear from these Scriptures that Yahshua was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath, just before the start of the first day of the week, known as Sunday today. However, the wording in Mark 16: 1 & 2 in most English translations is also confusing, as it appears to imply that  the women purchased the spices after the weekly Sabbath, rather than on the Friday. But, this is explained in Luke 23: 56, where we see clearly that the spices were purchased prior to, and not after the weekly Sabbath, as follows: ‘And they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. Yahshua fulfilled Jonah’s sign of three days and three nights accurately, just as He said. He rose late on Saturday afternoon, just before sunset, having been buried on Wednesday just before sunset.

We as Nazarene Jews/Israelites can have confidence that Yahshua is indeed the prophesied Messiah and Savior of the world, who paid the penalty for our sins and showed us by His resurrection, how we who are immersed in His saving name, may also be resurrected, as we are assured in Ephesians 1: 13 & 14, in this way: ‘In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Set-apart Spirit of promise (at immersion), (14) who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of Elohim’s own possession, to the praise of His glory (or esteem).’  A second witness comes from 1 Corinthians 15; 51 & 52, as follows: ‘Behold, I (Rav Shaul) tell you a mystery; we (believers in Messiah) shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet (pictured by the Feast of Trumpets); for the trumpet will sound, and the dead (in Messiah) will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.’  It is only once we start keeping the Feast days of Elohim, given in Leviticus 23 that we come to know about Elohim’s plan of salvation for all mankind.  Those who keep pagan festivals such as Easter and Xmas are blinded to these Scriptural truths.                       

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