Tragedy struck nearly two years ago on April 21, 2019 when Muslim extremists bombed several Catholic churches in Sri Lanka. Over 290 people were killed.
The Christian community decided to focus not on the tragic deaths, but rather on the off-colored wording of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Hillary Clinton when they used the term “Easter worshippers” instead of Christians.
“I’m praying for everyone affected by today’s horrific attacks on Easter worshippers and travelers in Sri Lanka.” – H. Clinton “The attacks on tourists and Easter Worshippers in Sri Lanka are an attack on humanity.” – B. Obama
Though it was an odd choice of words, I didn’t understand the offense considering Christians themselves call the holiday Easter. Christians were killed during their Easter worship service on Easter Sunday. They were in fact, Easter worshippers. It wasn’t offensive when Pope John Paul II said, “We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.” Yet, Christians simultaneously posted photos of their kids with the Easter bunny and dying Easter eggs saying, “Hoppy Easter!” while professing their offense to the use of the words “Easter worshippers.” If the word Easter is so offensive, why use it to describe the celebration in the first place? Perhaps we should not be using pagan traditions and words when celebrating the Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection. I made a comment on Facebook stating such, and, instead of addressing my statement about the topic, I was, instead, accosted for celebrating Passover.
During this time, I also questioned the use of Easter Egg hunts in the church. I was met with something to the effect of, “It is used to bring people into church that otherwise would never come.” This strategy has been used to try to convert the pagans since the early Catholic church and has proven to not only be ineffective, but to also strip the original meaning of the celebration of God’s holy days.
Using pagan practices to draw people into church takes away from the real meaning of the celebration. We’re putting our trust in the world rather than our trust in the Word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword. I do not believe for one moment that our Elohim would have us use pagan traditions to spread the gospel. In fact, I would dare say He despises such acts. Committing such idolatry is to commit adultery against our Heavenly Father.
So, what is the difference between Easter and Passover and why should followers of Yeshua the Messiah forsake Easter and honor the Messianic Passover instead?
We’ll start with the origins of Easter.
What is Easter?
“All roads to paganism go back to Nimrod and the tower of Babel.” Author unknown, truthunedited.com
The name Easter, Eostre, Ishtar, Isis, Ashtoreth, Madonna and other variances of the name all point to one person- Queen Semiramis, who is believed by the pagans to have dropped from the moon and landed in the Euphrates River in a giant moon egg. Semiramis married Nimrod. Nimrod was the great-grandson of Noah and built the city of Babel, a place with ungodly worship practices. When Nimrod died, Semiramis needed to stay in power so she declared that Nimrod was the sun god and claimed that he impregnated her after his death. She claimed the birth of her son Tammuz, born December 25th during the winter solstice, was a virgin birth. Semiramis said her son was the child promised by God. She later married Tammuz. The people worshipped Semiramis as mother god (the moon goddess), Nimrod as father god (the sun god), and Tammuz as the son of god. Semiramis and the people of babel committed human sacrifice, idolatry, astrology, and Satan worship, which continued until and after the tower of Babel. Semiramis and her various names came to be worshipped as a goddess who symbolized the rebirth of the day and new life in spring, as well as the queen of heaven. Nimrod was also given other names and worshipped as such- Baal, Baalim, Molech, the god of fire, and the great life giver.
The Easter celebration was a springtime festival that began on the first Sunday after the full moon that followed the spring equinox, which is the date Easter is held to this day. The date was determined by Rome at the counsel of Nicea 325 AD. Easter was initiated by Semiramis in celebration of fertility, new life, and the conception of Tammuz. During her reign, the Easter festival involved sex orgies, drunkenness, and cakes offered to the mother goddess. These cakes were later called “hot cross buns.” “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.” Jeremiah 7:18 NKJV The infants born of these orgies were sacrificed by the priests on the following Easter. Easter worshippers consumed their blood and used it to dye eggs offered up to the goddess of fertility. This is the origin of the Easter Egg.
The Easter egg continued to be a tradition in many cultures that followed the pagans of Babel. Egyptians hung them in the temple. Romans used them in processions honoring the mother goddess. The Druids used them as their sacred emblem. The Chinese used them in springtime festivals to represent new birth. Europeans used them to ward off evil and bring good fortune. And, now, the Christians use them to bring people in to the church.
After her son, Tammuz, was killed by a wild boar (noted in Ezekiel 8:14), Semiramis declared that every spring a boar would be sacrificed and eaten in his honor after 40 days of sorrow in which no meat was to be eaten. This remembrance of Tammuz’ death is the origin of the Easter Ham as well as lent.
As for the Easter Bunny, also known as Oschter Haw, some scholars also believe the practice of incorporating them in the Easter tradition can also be traced back to Semiramis as rabbits are known as a symbol of fertility. The rabbit was the symbol of Eostra.
What is Passover?
The first Passover is laid out in the book of Exodus Chapter 12 when the last plague was heaped upon Egypt- the death of all the firstborn. The Israelites were to put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts and lintels as a sign to Elohim to pass over their house and spare their firstborns. This first Passover was a direct representation of the Passover Lamb of Elohim, Yeshua the Messiah. It was and still is celebrated on the first new moon of the Hebrew calendar on the tenth day. This date is not the same date as the Easter celebration and is even as far as a month apart from the pagan holiday.
Yeshua celebrated the Passover in what we now call “The Last Supper.” “And before the festival of the Pesah (Passover), Yeshua knowing that his hour had come that he should move out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And supper taking place, the devil having already put into the heart of Yehudah (Judas) from Qerioth, son of Shim’on, to deliver him up, Yeshua, knowing that the Father had given all into his hands, and that he had come from Elohim and was going to Elohim, rose from supper and laid aside his garments and having taken a towel, he girded himself. After that he put water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the taught ones, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.” John 13: 1-5 The Scriptures version
Is Passover for the Israelites only? The Israelites are still looking for their foretold Messiah. Our messiah Yeshua has already come. Therefore, the Messianic Passover celebrates His death, burial, and resurrection and we should indeed celebrate. It is a time of celebrating the salvation of our Master and Messiah. (Leviticus 23:4)
What does the Passover timeline look like?
Biblical days go from sundown to sundown. The Passover for 2021 begins the evening of Saturday, March 27 and ends the evening of Sunday, April 4. Easter for 2021 begins on “Good Friday” April 2 and ends Sunday April 4. The celebration of the Resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah should always align with the Passover (Leviticus 23:4-6).
Tuesday evening/ the beginning of Abib 14:
Yeshua ate what we call “The last supper, the Passover Seder, in which he had communion. He and his disciples went to the Mt of Olives. Yeshua prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yeshua got arrested and was taken to Caiaphas.
Wednesday at dawn/ 6 a.m. (still Abib 14):
Yeshua is taken to Pilate. He is flogged and a crown of thorns is placed on his head. Pilate washes his hands. Yeshua carries the cross to Golgotha. At the 3rd hour (of daylight) 9 a.m. Yeshua the Messiah was crucified. At the 6th hour/ 12:00 p.m. darkness fell on the earth. After hanging on the cross for 6 hours (at 3 p.m.), Yeshua died. “It is accomplished!” This is the moment Yeshua died for you. “For Elohim so loved the world that he gave his only brought-forth son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but possess everlasting life. For Elohim did not send his son into the world to judge the world but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not judged but he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only brought-forth son of Elohim.” John 3: 16-18 The Scriptures version
Still Abib 14- before sundown:
“Therefore, since it was the preparation day, that the bodies should not remain on the steak on the Sabbath for that Sabbath was a high one…” John 19:31 There were 2 Sabbaths this week, the weekly “Saturday” Sabbath and a High Sabbath for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began Wednesday evening. This has caused confusion as many believe Yeshua died on the Friday preparation day for the weekly Saturday Sabbath. This does not fulfill prophesy in Daniel 9:27 “And in the middle of the week he shall put an end to slaughtering and meal offering.” And in Matthew 12:40 “For as Yonah was 3 days and 3 nights in the stomach of the great fish, so shall the son of Adam be 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the Earth.” Yeshua died on the preparation day for the High Sabbath for the Feast of Unleavened bread.
Before sundown, the body of the Messiah was lain in the tomb.
Wednesday evening Abib 14 at sundown:
The Feast of Unleavened Bread began and our Passover Lamb has been slain. The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins Abib 15 and ends Abib 21 at sundown.
Thursday
Abib 15, a stone is placed and guards are set to watch the tomb for 3 days.
Friday
Abib 16 (the preparation day for the weekly Sabbath) Yeshua preaches to spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:18-20)
Friday at sundown
Abib 17, the weekly Sabbath begins. The saints rested (Luke 23:56)
Saturday at sundown (6 p.m.), the first day of the week begins which is Abib 18:
He is Risen! Yeshua the Messiah is resurrected!
“And when the Sabbath was past, Miryam from Magdala and Miryam the mother of Ya’aqob, and Shelomah bought spices, to go and anoint him. And very early on day one of the week they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, who shall roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb for us? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, for it was extremely large. And having entered into the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right, wearing a white robe, and they were greatly astonished. And he said to them, do not be much astonished. You seek Yeshua of Natsareth who was crucified. He was raised he is not here see the place where they laid him.” Mark 16: 1-6
Sunday Abib 18: the Day of Firstfruits
Yeshua appeared to Mary. Yeshua ascended to heaven with the Firstfruits of the Resurrection, which is the saints that arose at the time of the earthquake (Matthew 26:53; 2 Corinthians 15:23). Yeshua is the High Priest. Yeshua appeared again to the women and later to his disciples.
Yeshua remained on the earth for 40 days.
Passover was re-branded as Easter, mixing the holy with the profane, which is committing adultery against our Elohim. Yah warns against doing this in Deuteronomy 12: 29-32 “When Yah your Elohim does cut off from before you the nations (pagans/ heathens) which you go to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, guard yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, that you do not inquire about their mighty ones (gods), saying, ‘How did these nations serve their mighty ones? And let me do so too.’ Do not do so to Yah your Elohim, for every abomination which Yah hates they have done to their mighty ones, for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their mighty ones.”
To worship your God in the same manner in which the pagans did is an abomination to Him. Many will say, “But, God knows my heart (Jeremiah 17:9), He knows I’m not using Easter and eggs and bunnies as worship to Molech or Ba’al.” It doesn’t matter what you think about this worship practice, it matters what Yahweh thinks about it and He has declared it profane and idolatrous. We are to be set-apart from the pagans, not assimilated. We should not mix the holy with the profane. Enter into the narrow gate! (Matthew 7:13)
In His Service,
Rebecca Hamilton, Founder/ Executive Director
For Every Great Battle, There is a Great Victory!!