Early Easter

[Coco]

Easter is early this year. Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.Based on the above information, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) that is rare.

Here's the interesting information.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here's the facts:

* The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2160. The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).

* The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

 

[dhalltoyo]

Easter As We Know It

Easter, as we know it, comes from the ancient pagan festival of Astarte. Also known as Ishtar (pronounced "Easter"). This festival has always been held late in the month of April. It was, in its original form, a celebration of the earth "regenerating" itself after the winter season. The festival involved a celebration of reproduction. For this reason the common symbols of Easter festivities were the rabbit (the same symbol as "Playboy" magazine), and the egg. Both are known for their reproductive abilities. At the center of attention was Astarte, the female deity. She is known in the Bible as the "queen of heaven" (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-25). She is the mother of Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14) who was also her husband! These perverted rituals would take place at sunrise on Easter morning (Ezekiel 8:13-16). From the references in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we can see that the true Easter has never had any association with Jesus Christ.

Problem: Even though the Jewish passover was held in mid April (the fourteenth) and the pagan festival Easter was held later the same month, how do we know that Herod was referring to Easter in Acts 12:4 and not the Jewish passover? If he was referring to the passover, the translation of "pascha" as "Easter" is incorrect.

To unravel the confusion concerning "Easter" in verse 4, we must consult our FINAL authority, THE BIBLE. The key which unlocks the puzzle is found not in verse 4, but in verse 3. (Then were the days of unleavened bread... ") To secure the answer that we seek, we must find the relationship of the passover to the days of unleavened bread. We must keep in mind that Peter was arrested during the "days of unleavened bread" (Acts 12:3).

Our investigation will need to start at the first Passover. This was the night in which the LORD smote all the firstborn in Egypt. The Israelites were instructed to kill a lamb and strike its blood on the two side posts and the upper door post (Exodus 12:4,5).

Exodus 12:13-18: "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

15Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.

17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.

18In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even."

Here in Exodus 12:13 we see how the passover got its name. The LORD said that He would "pass over" all of the houses which had the blood of the lamb marking the door.

After the passover (Exodus 12:13,14), we find that seven days shall be fulfilled in which the Jews were to eat unleavened bread. These are the days of unleavened bread!

In verse 18 we see that dates for the observance were April 14th through the 21st.

This religious observance is stated more clearly in Numbers 28:16-18: "And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the passover of the LORD.

17 And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.

18 In the first day shall be an holy convocation;ye shall do no manner of servile work therein:"

In verse 16 we see that the passover is only considered to be the 14th of the month. On the next morning, the 15th begins the "days of unleavened bread."

Deuteronomy 16:1-8: It is worth noting that the passover was to be celebrated in the evening (vs.6) not at sunrise (Ezekiel 8:13-16).

We see then, from studying what the BIBLE has to say concerning the subject that the order of events went as follows:

(1) On the 14th of April the lamb was killed. This is the passover. No event following the 14th is ever referred to as the passover.

(2) On the morning of the 15th begins the days of unleavened bread, also known as the feast of unleavened bread.

It must also be noted that whenever the passover is mentioned in the New Testament, the reference is always to the meal, to be eaten on the night of April 14th not the entire week. The days of unleavened bread are NEVER referred to as the Passover. (It must be remembered that the angel of the Lord passed over Egypt on one night, not seven nights in a row.

Now let us look at Acts 12:3,4: "And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) 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."

Verse 3 shows that Peter was arrested during the days of unleavened bread (April 15-2 1). The Bible says: "Then were the days of unleavened bread." The passover (April 14th) had already come and gone. Herod could not possibly have been referring to the passover in his statement concerning Easter. The next Passover was a year away! But the pagan holiday of Easter was just a few days away. Remember! Herod was a pagan Roman who worshipped the "queen of heaven". He was NOT a Jew. He had no reason to keep the Jewish passover. Some might argue that he wanted to wait until after the passover for fear of upsetting the Jews. There are two grievous faults in this line of thinking.

First, Peter was no longer considered a Jew. He had repudiated Judaism. The Jews would have no reason to be upset by Herod's actions.

Second, he could not have been waiting until after the passover because he thought the Jews would not kill a man during a religious holiday. They had killed Jesus during passover (Matthew 26:17-19,47). They were also excited about Herod's murder of James. Anyone knows that a mob possesses the courage to do violent acts during religious festivities, not after.

In further considering Herod's position as a Roman, we must remember that the Herods were well known for celebrating (Matthew 14:6-11). In fact, in Matthew chapter 14 we see that a Herod was even willing to kill a man of God during one of his celebrations.

It is elementary to see that Herod, in Acts 12, had arrested Peter during the days of unleavened bread, after the passover. The days of unleavened bread would end on the 21st of April. Shortly after that would come Herod's celebration of pagan Easter. Herod had not killed Peter during the days of unleavened bread simply because he wanted to wait until Easter. Since it is plain that both the Jews (Matthew 26:17- 47) and the Romans (Matthew 14:6-11) would kill during a religious celebration, Herod's opinion seemed that he was not going to let the Jews "have all the fun ". He would wait until his own pagan festival and see to it that Peter died in the excitement.

Thus we see that it was God's providence which had the Spirit-filled translators of our Bible (King James) to CORRECTLY translate "pascha" as "Easter". It most certainly did not refer to the Jewish passover. In fact, to change it to "passover" would confuse the reader and make the truth of the situation unclear.

PS. So much for this misconception that we are left to our own interpretation of God's Holy Word.

 

[greg334]

Rev,
With all due respect, your version is not close to Coco’s which is what I was taught and studied.

Here is what I am remembering, maybe it is old news. I got to warn you that I am remembering things 30 years old.

Your version of the word Easter derives from Bede’s de temporum ratone which for the most part is based the theory the word came from the goddess Eostre, a Germanic pagan goddess.

The goddess Astarte who you mentioned, if I remember right is from Hebrew, Phoenician and Egyptian mythology and has an alternate name of Aphrodite in Greek mythology – the goddess of war, fertiliy and sex.

There is a controversy that our English term for Easter actually does derive from Eostre but because English is also spun off of a combination of Germanic dialects, it is supported by the fact that the Anglo-Saxon/Old English term for Easter is Eostur monath (I think that is how you spell it) which in fact didn’t pertain to Easter but to the reference to the goddess Eostre, the goddess of spring and the celebration died out a while before Bede wrote his de temporom ratone.

Now the word Pascha actually is derived from derived from Pesach which is Hebrew for Passover.

And

I don’t know if the world council of churches has simplified the way the date for Easter is determined, I assumed that they would screw up another tradition but it is (was) based on a rather complicated formula that has been in place for a long time. This is why Easter and Passover are closely related (date wise that is). The dates are based on lunisolar calendar, which is like the Hebrew calendar. Now if I remember right, the western Christian Easter is determined to be the Sunday after the 14th or 15th day of the full moon (or lunar month) that falls on or around march 21st – also know as the vernal equinox (someone correct me if I am wrong, I forget a lot). Now there is a difference between eastern and western Christian churches because the eastern will celebrate it later in the year due to the differences in the Gregorian and Julian calendar, western using the former, eastern using the latter.

There are still issues with the date(s) after 1700 years. With the early history of Christianity having serious divisions, the fact that Christians celebrated Passover. The political infighting that led to the expulsion of Christian groups like the Quartodecimanism (meaning the ones who celebrate the Passover on the 14th day of Nisan) during the reign of Pope victor and a hundred or so years later the separation of Easter from Passover during the first Council of Nicaea in eastern Rome, points to the political problems within the church during the first 300 or so years. In my studies a long time ago and without knowing how deep the involvement of Constantine, emperor of Rome, was during the first Council of Nicaea the fact that the separation took place more for a political need to separate Hebrew holidays from Christianity holidays due to the roman upper classes, who were embracing Christianity, were not too happy with the fact that Passover was actually being celebrated.

 

[Moot]

Let us all thank the Gipper for this article!

THANK YOU DR. SAMUEL C. GIPP

 

[dhalltoyo]

Thanks Moot.

Due to the 10,000 word limit I had to edit some of the information from Dr. Gipp's article. Unfortunately, the editing required for the word count limitation inadvertently deleted the author’s information; hence, my apology to Dr. Gipp and to you for the oversight.

On a personal note, my mentor, pastor and teacher is a graduate of the same Bible College as Dr. Gipp. I have met Dr. Gipp on several occasions and he has visited our church. Even though Dr. Gipp only lives about a two-hour drive from us, his schedule is so full, it is nearly impossible for him to fulfill all of the requests to visit, teach and preach.

What a pleasant surprise to see that you knew Dr. Gipp.

Greg, with all due respect, Dr. Peter S. Ruckman, Dr. Samuel C. Gipp and Dr. William P. Grady have probably forgotten more about the Bible than World Council of Churches could ever hope to know. For example, the WCC still marks Good Friday as the day of my Lord’s crucifixion and Sunday as the day of His resurrection, yet they all agree that He was in the grave three days and three nights. So let all of the highly educated members of the World Council of Churches show us their new math; how they can squeeze three days and three nights within the period of Friday until Sunday. That is why your version sounds different, churches still have egg hunts and we move ever closer to the fulfillment of the Laodician church.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Ok you Americans...if Easter is such an important religious day why don't you guys have a national holiday? Like as in Canada??? I mean a FULL statitory holiday?

 

[greg334]

David,
I understand what you are saying, I used the WCC because of the hoopla that was made when they were discussing it back in 90's about the need to revise the formula.

It really don't matter to me, honestly. I am too numb from the bible thumpers' at this point in my life. I am dealing with too many devote people in my family that say I am the heretic but they act less Christian than most Muslims do. They, like many like people I met in my life time are repeaters of others, not thinkers and still don't see things objectively or understand that much comes from man.

My knowledge comes from the catholic and eastern orthodox upbringing and a lot of study as I mentioned before. I forgot my Latin, I forgot my Greek and I only recall a little of my Hebrew. It is strange to be taught one thing that was consistent between two major factions of the religion, knowing it has been that way from some 1700 or 1800 years and then be told it is wrong by modern scholars.

 

[dhalltoyo]

I don’t stand in the parking lot at the “J” and tell folks to: “Turn or Burn”. I do sit inside and answer questions when someone asks. I’ll just show them what the Bible says. If they get mad and call me a Bible thumper…well, I guess they will just have to take it up with God, because it is His book. I am not the author…I am just the mailman.

When speaking with folks about their concerns I try to keep this verse in mind:

Ecclesiastics 12:10 The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.

I came to the same understanding as Dr Gipp, and others mentioned previously, long before I had the opportunity to fellowship with these men. Only after reading their comments did I fully understand the passage that reads:

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Until I spoke with those men, I had some doubts. If I were to live the life as God would have me to live, according to what I was reading in the Scriptures, folks might think I was a few bricks shy of a load. For example, even my wife had some reservations when I dumped a case of wine down the drain, got rid of my cigars, tossed the Christmas tree and the Easter baskets. I didn’t do all of that because some man told me that I should get rid of those things. I did so simply because I saw it in the Bible and was convicted by His words.

Previously, I had been studying the Bible as a means to justify my wayward life. Oh, I was saved, but definitely not walking in fellowship with my Lord. When I had a change of heart, I began to study with the understanding that I was a believer and the study was a means to draw me closer to Him. From that day forward...my eyes were opened. God revealed passages to me that I had read before, but really never grasped the depth of His words.

It is no wonder folks are confused. 95% of Christian Churches teach a salvation by works. A works salvation allows church hierarchies to hold members under their thumb. Besides, how could they have missed: Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

My lovely wife was reared in a family who attended a Roman Catholic Church. She was never encouraged to study, or even read, the Bible. After we began attending church (I wasn’t when we first met) she was encouraged by our pastor (A former public school teacher) to read and study the Bible. For years after, she would come up to me everyday and say, “Did you know the Bible really does say…” She remains a dedicated daily reader to this day. We both were previously married. What we couldn’t do in our own strength before, God has provided to get us through those difficult moments.

The Bible really does say:

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13