Christians will be celebrating Easter on April 16, 2017. The Jews will be celebrating Passover from April 15-22. Which is which? Which is biblical? Is there even a difference?
Exo 12:2 KJV This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Truth is the actual Passover is connected to what man y call “the communion” but I will go step by step.
CALENDARS
There are any calendars in the world. For a very long time, the Romans colonized much of the world. This is why in the days of Jesus they controlled Jerusalem and had Pilate overseeing Jerusalem for them. They decided the rename the original months after their gods and emperors. It is this calendar most people use today. The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582
It begins with January and ends in December. January was named after Janus the Roman god of gates. January till August was re-named by the Romans. For one reason or the other, they did not re-name the rest of the months from Sept-ember to Dec-ember. –ember means month.
There is also the two separate Jewish calendars—sacred and civil. There are also Chinese calendars etc. Which is the correct one?
BEGINNING OF MONTHS
The calendar God himself gave the Jews is the correct one. It marks times and seasons using the movement of heavenly bodies.
Gen 1:14 KJV And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and FOR SEASONS, AND FOR DAYS, AND YEARS:
God in Ex 12 said the year will begin physically and spiritually when the lamb [Jesus] was sacrificed and man was given a new beginning via his resurrection. This season in the calendar God gave his people, the Jews, is called Passover or Pesach.
In the same Ex 12, verses 11, 21, 43, and 48, the scripture tell us that this time of the year is the “LORD’s Passover”—not the Jews’ Passover. Passover foreshadows a day when the real lamb—Jesus came and took upon himself SIN, nailed it to the cross and pressed the reset button for humanity giving us a NEW BEGINNING—a New Year starting with his death and resurrection.
The Passover marked the end of the Law and the introduction of Grace & Truth. This is why God said this shall be he beginning of months. It symbolized or foreshadowed a NEW BEGINNING for humanity. The Kingdom of God which eluded humanity in the OT was brought back when the Passover occurred.
HOW DO WE KNOW THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF MONTHS
Nature testifies to it. This is why this is the season of SPRING when things such as vegetation which had died through the winter come back or SPRING to life.
When we look at the months that the Romans did not change, we can count back to the true first month. For the mathematicians among us, Sept = 7, Oct = 8, Nov = 9 and Deca = 10. –ember means month. So Sept-ember means 7th month not 9th month like the Gregorian calendar says. Deca-ember is 10th month and not the 12th month. And so on. Counting back from these months which were not tampered with through renaming, the actual beginning of a year is March/April.
EASTER vs. PESACH
Easter is not a biblical word. It is not in the original biblical Hebrew or Greek. It is also based on the Gregorian calendar and only lasts for one day. In 2017, April 16 has been set in Gregorian calendar as Easter. Why is EASTER not biblical? Because it was smuggled into the NT by the translator in the following scripture:
Act 12:4 KJV 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.
This word translated easter here is actually Gk. pascha which is actually Gk. for Hebrew PESACH which is Passover.
PESACH 2017
Passover 2017 by Jewish calendar is not only one day like it is in the Gregorian calendar. Scripture says it should be for 7 days. Read scripture below.
Pesach, or Passover, falls on the Hebrew calendar dates of the month Nissan 15-22. That corresponds to April 10-18 in Gregorian calendar.
See verse 18. Passover always begin on 14th day of Nissan and end 21th. 14th day for the Jews begin at 6pm on the 14th and ends at 6pm on the 15th because that is how God measures days according to the book of Genesis 1: 5,8,13,19,23, 31.
Gen 1:5 KJV And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the EVENING AND THE MORNING were the first day.
The day begins at evening–not morning. This is how the Jews and many believers live till today.
So in summary, Pesach 2017 is Nissan 15-22 or April 10-18.
But the focus is not on a physical lamb but bringing to remembrance thereal lanb of God’s death and resurrection for you and what it means.
HOW DO BELIEVERS OVERCOME?
Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the LAMB.
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the LAMB, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
IS IT WRONG TO CELEBRATE GREGORIAN EASTER?
In my opinion, NO. All the days were created by God. The enemy never created any day. Men may have given it to him but it belongs to Papa God. The important thing is to celebrate the true meaning of Passover—his death and resurrection and the mysteries contained therein. But it is better if we commemorate his death and resurrection everyday. He himself said, we should commemorate this his death and resurrection often.
Believers call this Passover the Holy Communion. Passover is the shadow. The Holy Communion [Fellowship, Koinonia, Sharing Together] is the reality.
More on that some other time. Shalom Shalom!
Exo 12:2-28 KJV
(2) This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
(3) Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
(6) And ye shall keep it up until the FOURTEENTH DAY
of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
(15) SEVEN 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, and in the SEVENTH 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.
(18) In 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.
