Passover has been passed over….and over…and over…
Today is Nisan 17, the day of the Resurrection of our Lord and the day that death was forever conquered.
I have been working on a couple of books since my last post almost a year ago. One was rejected by the first publisher (too far outside their theological guidelines ha!) and has been submitted to a 2nd publisher. It is running behind schedule but should be in print in another 60 days or less. The 2nd book is close to completion and hopefully will be published in the fall of this year. When I have the copyrights, I’ll let you know the titles. They will be published in several languages, FYI. For now I want to focus on another important matter.
In the 1st book, I cover the 7 biblical feasts, their history and prophetic purposes. Of the 7 feasts, 3 are harvests. The harvest feasts are also prophetic, and we are grossly unaware and uninformed of God’s appointed times. We’ve lost track of the Sabbath, the feasts, and many will miss the harvests as they unfold. The 3 harvest feasts were correlated to the barley and wheat harvests in spring and summer, followed by the fruit harvests in the fall.
A few rare Christians actually take an interest in knowing when Yehshua was crucified, and will try to reconcile the Hebrew calendar to the Papal Gregorian calendar which is impossible. When I began researching this, I would read academic studies regarding the day of the Passover, and that it had to have been on a Thursday or Wednesday or whatever day on the Gregorian calendar. We are constantly trying to reconcile the irreconcilable. The Hebrew calendar will never align with the Papal Roman calendar. It is too confusing to use Roman dates for a Hebrew festival! Use the Hebrew calendar to know God’s appointed times that will never appear on a pagan Roman calendar.
Leviticus 23 begins the requirements for the feasts. The new year according to Exodus 12 begins with the new moon in the month of Aviv. The destruction of the 2nd temple in 70AD began an era in Jewish history known as the Talmudic or Rabbinical period. The name Aviv was changed to Nisan by the Talmudic priesthood. The new year after the Talmudic period would be Nisan 1. Now read Leviticus 23:
‘These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.
Leviticus 23:4-5 (NASB)
If the new year and new moon were on Nisan 1, then the 14th day of the month would be signified by a completely full moon. Nisan 14 on the Hebrew calendar will always fall on a full moon. The full moon will mark the Passover. Hold that thought….
As Rome was losing control and popularity in the early stages of its fall in the early AD centuries, Christianity was exploding across the Roman Empire in spite of the relentless persecution of Christians by the Caesars. Emperor Constantine knew that to restore Rome, he would have to embrace Christianity. He ceased the persecution of Christians at the beginning of his reign, but continued to oppose the Jews vehemently. Constantine would not allow a Passover celebration because of the Jews, even though it was the most celebrated day in Christianity. (Remember Christmas is not a Christian festival!)
Under Constantine’s direction, the bishops of Rome would convene at the Council of Nicea in 325AD. The pagan Easter fertility celebration of Rome was at the spring equinox. This is where we get flying rabbits and colored eggs, going back to the days of Nimrod and Semiramis of Babylon that carried over to Rome by the Chaldean Priesthood under Attalus III of Pergamos. (More on that in the book.) The Council of Nicea would determine that the Christian “Paschal” which was Greek for Passover, would be celebrated on the 1st Sunday after the full moon of the spring equinox, thereby making it impossible to ever fall on the Jewish Passover.
Since 325AD, it has never been possible to celebrate the Passover on what we call Easter. Prior to 325AD, they were 2 distinctly different festivals, one polytheistic and the other monotheistic, but it was possible at times that they could have been celebrated on the same day. The Council of Nicea guaranteed that the Passover and Easter could never again be celebrated on the same day.
How many opportunities has the papacy of Rome had to change this over the last 17 centuries but chooses to leave it as is? If our bible says clearly what day it is to be celebrated and is the most important celebration of the year for Christians, why hasn’t the papacy changed it to align with the Passover? When we think of the Church of Rome, we should think of the “Church of Pergamum” (Revelation 2:12-17). They are one and the same. I cover this in the book, I guess you’ll have to read it!
Another conundrum is that we have all been taught that the last supper was Yehshua’s Passover meal on the Passover. Yehshua could not have been the Passover Lamb and also ate the Passover meal on Passover! He was slaughtered at precisely 3pm on the Day of Preparation BEFORE THE PASSOVER! (More on this in the book.)
How many days between “good Friday” and Easter Sunday? Well, not 3, yet we know Yehshua rose on the 3rd day. He was crucified on the Day of Preparation which would have been the afternoon of Nisan 13. He was taken down from the cross, laid in the tomb on the Sabbath eve of the Passover that began Nisan 14, at precisely the hour that the angel of death “passed over” the Jews in Egypt (Exodus 12). On the eve of Nisan 16 that begins Nisan 17, Yehshua’s resurrected body would exit the tomb at precisely sunset and fulfil the Matthew 12:40 prophecy. Nisan 17 would mark the day that would forever free us from death’s hold.
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:40 (KJV)
In the heart of the earth? This was the barley harvest, when the following happened:
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
Matthew 27:51-54 (KJV)
More on the feasts and harvests in the book. The wheat harvest followed the Passover 50 days later on Pentecost. The wheat is the church, and is the next harvest to be fulfilled!
Celebrate today as the day that death was forever conquered, and Yehshua…………
Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
1 Peter 3:22 (KJV)