Easter in the Book of Acts
Nearly 100%, let’s say around 98% of Christians prefer tradition over truth. Too many fond memories have been built around our ancient pagan traditions, thanks to Roman influence in today’s western Babylon. Most ignore the truth if it means changing traditions, others know and continue.
Ooops! There went 75% of my subscribers that will miss the rest of this post. That is the average, 20-25% continue reading after the subject line according to the analytics service provided by the web host. Is it really that bad?
As more Europeans arrived to the shores of the New World in the 1600’s, Roman traditions followed them until the original Protestant pilgrims were simply outnumbered in their own democracy. But if you had been an American in 1659, you would have been fined 5 shillings for celebrating the “papist holidays of Christmas or Easter”. As an originally Christian founded nation, this is how far we’ve drifted from biblical knowledge and scriptural customs.
King James II began to fear that Roman traditions would be lost, and sent a governor to regulate the New England Colonies named “Edmond Andros”, sent to restore these “papist holidays”. In 1686 he restored the Maypole celebration in Charleston, VA, sparking outrage among the original puritan settlers. “May Day” is the traditional day for the Maypole celebration, whose origins date back to the early days of Britain and Germany under Roman rule 2000yrs ago. But taking notice of the traditions surrounding the Maypole, it certainly appears to have Babylonian roots. The Maypole celebration was a holiday festival to usher in spring with dancing around a pine tree that represented the male phallus, dressed in flowers, symbolic of fertility and abundance.
To the restoration of the Maypole Festival in 1686, a Puritan Minister named “Increase Mather” wrote in his memoirs, “And onward goes the march of the devil…..”
But I digress. Ask yourself this question:
If Easter is to celebrate the Resurrection and Passover or “pascha” in the Greek, why not just call it “Passover”? Why call it by the ancient name transliteration of Ashterah/Ishtar of Babylon, if it is indeed a Christian celebration of the Passover and subsequent Resurrection? The answer is because it is a papist holiday that became a Christian celebration during the time of Emperor Constantine of Rome who stopped the persecution of Christians in exchange for blending Christianity with Roman paganism. Constantine was the 1st pope by every definition, not Peter as claimed by the catholic church. Peter would be appalled at what Christianity has become because of Rome!
Then ask yourself another question:
If Easter is in fact a totally Christian celebration honoring the resurrection, what do rabbits and baby chicks have to do with anything? Beyond that, why is the Passover not until April 22nd this year, when Easter is in March? You can thank Pope Gregory the VIII for our calendar that totally confuses biblical holy days, and solidifies the papist holidays. Certainly, at least one of the antichrist possibilities mentioned by Daniel in chapter 7 vs 25 is very visible in the papacy of Rome when he says “he will think to change times and laws”……
Rabbit: “I’m so glad Jesus died for me too….” AH! How did this happen! Babylon is fallen, not yet fallen a 2nd time….but hang in there!
My frustration is that we Americans scarcely represent anything our protestant forefathers could have possibly foreseen in this information age, where the truth is literally at your fingertips if you can discern it. But my goal today was not to be a downer on Easter weekend, though by now most have already quit reading and will miss the point of this post, sadly ☹
Christians that are eager to shoot me down on the Easter downer will readily point to the Book of Acts 12:4, where the only place you will find Easter mentioned in the bible.
And when he (Herod Agrippa) had apprehended him (Peter), 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.
Well there it is, case closed, even evil ol’ Herod Agrippa wouldn’t dare to kill Peter on Passover, right?
Then to further confirm that this was definitely a reference to a Christian Easter during the time of the apostles, Christian scholars will use the context of verse 3 to solidify that yes, Easter was the official name of Passover just decades after the crucifixion! They already had a day set aside for it by that name!
And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
Yep! There it is! These were the days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread! King Herod certainly didn’t want to kill Peter on a Christian or Jewish holiday! He was a good man and loved Christians, right?
An old boss of mine in Texas was a very tough and astute business owner, and he would sometimes tell us, “We’re all going to make mistakes. This doesn’t make you stupid. We always want to minimize our mistakes, but mistakes are just a consequence of being proactive. What makes you stupid is trying to defend a mistake.”
When is Passover? On Nissan 14, the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread which begins Nissan 15, at sundown of the Passover. If in verse 3 “then were the days of unleavened bread”, then Passover had already passed. The reason that Easter and Passover overlap within close proximities goes back to the time of Babylon and Ashterah when Easter, named after her, was a spring fertility ritual. This is where the baby rabbits and chicks originated in association with Passover. Ishtar and Passover were blended together during the time of Emperor Constantine, not during the time of Herod Agrippas 300yrs earlier!
The easter mentioned in Acts 12:4 was a Roman traditional holiday, NOT PASSOVER!! Passover was 1 day BEFORE the days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Thank God for this context in verse 3!! Herod would wait until after the Roman Easter holiday to execute Peter in keeping with Roman traditions, with no regard for newly formed Christian traditions or old Jewish customs.
On a more technical level, if you dig into the pre- King James and look at the Greek, the translators made certain that we would not be so goofy as to think this Easter was referring to a newly formed Christian holiday in ancient Rome. Where the word Easter appears in the King James, was chosen to clarify that it was not Passover or the Jewish Pesach (Passover) or Greek Pascha (Passover) because of their similarity. In the original Greek appears;
μετὰ τὸ πάσχα – Meta Pascha = AFTER PASSOVER
The translators placed Easter where meta was used with pascha to make it clear that this was NOT PASSOVER, it was after Passover! THIS WAS EASTER, A ROMAN HOLIDAY, as referenced in verse 3 if we understand that Passover is on the day before the 7 day Feast of Unleavened Bread begins. The King James translators used Easter to make certain we would not confuse it with The Passover, which had already passed before the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Yet here we are…….
In Acts 12:4, there is no there, there. Easter was a Roman holiday. Unless you believe that suddenly a Jew/Christian hater was observing Passover a week later + 1 day………huh?
What else would you like to know? How about the prophecy of Yehshua in Matthew 12:40 that He would spend 3 days and nights in the tomb, just as Jonah did in the whale? Passover is Nissan 14, the Resurrection Nissan 17, 3 days and 3 nights. Good Friday is March 29th this year, Ishtar Sunday is March 31st. The missing day is still in Rome. The missing 3 weeks between now and Passover you’ll have to discuss with Pope Gregory VIII but I fervently hope you will never meet him.
In the foreknowledge of God, and in His unparalleled wisdom, He accounted for every aspect of deception we might encounter with precise wording and prophecy, yet here we are……
The first American settlers left Europe to escape the pagan customs we embrace today as uninformed Christians, and they didn’t have the internet!
Thank you to the 3 people that made it this far into today’s post 😊 No one wants to hear these things, yet the bride is so close to the rapture.
Hug a catholic today and tell him you forgive him.
For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ 6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Amen!!!
Colossians 2:5-10
Or forget all of this and chalk it off to the crazy old man in the desert that lost his skittles….
Wait for it……………………3 more weeks!!!