The North American Union, modeled after the European Union (created by Nazis) is all part of the GRAND DESIGN:
Germany's Fourth Reich Spreads It Wings Over the World
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Israeli Sheeple & Nazi-Muslims
By David Ben-Ariel
An exchange between an Israeli who voted for the defeatist Kadima party of fools, and a staunch American Christian-Zionist.
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The Economist Assaults Jerusalem
By David Ben-Ariel
Doesn't the Economist know that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel? Doesn't the Economist know that Israel is the Jewish homeland? Doesn't it stand to reason, then, that the capital of the Jewish homeland should be a large Jewish city?
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Kadima Wins, Israel loses!
By David Ben-Ariel
Kadima is a bought and paid for political party serving foreign interests, alien powers out to dismantle the Jewish homeland and destroy Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.
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Europe Misses the Mark - Will It Return as the Sign of the Cross?
By David Ben-Ariel
Europe needs a figurehead and symbols to rally around. Will the pope soon present them with both?
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Europe to take out Iran for Jerusalem
By David Ben-Ariel
Jerusalem is in danger of becoming the capital of Europe's Crusader Kingdom. The German-Jesuit EU will defeat Iran for Jerusalem. "Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the City where David dwelt!"
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Ariel Sharon: From Zionist to Traitor
By David Ben-Ariel
Ariel Sharon sold out to foreign interests and brutally betrayed those who brought him to power.
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Israel's Chief Rabbi Invites Foreign Occupation
By David Ben-Ariel
Israel's Chief Rabbi petitions representatives of the world's religions to establish a United Nations in Jerusalem, representing religions instead of nations, like the UN currently based in New York.
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Europe Swings Both Ways
By David Ben-Ariel
Europe swings. Hard core proof: the EU overwhelmingly passed a resolution last month against "Homophobia in Europe."
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Robert Novak: Useful Idiot for Catholic Schemes?
By David Ben-Ariel
This is just another opportunity for the bloody Roman Catholic Church to get involved and exploit feigned interest for traditional "Christians" to further demand UN/EU occupation of the Jewish homeland.
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Will the Atlantic Times Address the German threat?
By David Ben-Ariel
Germany is destined to lead the European Union against the American, British and Jewish peoples.
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EU to Conquer Anglo-Saxons and Jews
By David Ben-Ariel
Israeli leaders have often sold out their land and people to foreign interests, bloating their personal bank accounts at Israel's expense, encouraged by America, and both will fall before the European Union.
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Germany Behind the Mask: Monster or Marshmallow?
By David Ben-Ariel
"So long as we wear the mask, we remain hidden and continue to conceal the situation from ourselves.”
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Vatican Linked to the Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
By David Ben-Ariel
Will Israel expose the connection between the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Vatican's drive to possess Jerusalem?
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Mt. Zion Under Siege: Who Will Be King of the Mountain?
By David Ben-Ariel
The German-built Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion (next to the yeshiva) is an exact replica of the German Church that crowned emperors: Charlemagne's Aachen Cathedral.
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The Intelligence Summit Misses the Mark: the German-Jesuit Threat to World Peace
By David Ben-Ariel
While the international intelligence community focuses on Islamofascist threats, the hard core EU Catholics prepare to take the whole world by surprise.
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The Secret Nazis Covet the Temple Mount
By David Ben-Ariel
The Nazis merely went underground and put on suits and ties. Why are most Americans ignorant of a declassified US document that exposes German plans to try again?
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Paint Israel Black: Jews to Lose Jerusalem!
By David Ben-Ariel
With Israel's rejection of their 1967 miracle, how can God continue to bless them with freedom? Have Israeli leaders sold out to EU interests? Will Jerusalem be forcibly divided?
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UN Resolution 181: Blueprint of the Beast?
By David Ben-Ariel
Could the groundwork have been laid decades ago for the dreadful appearance of the biblical BEAST? Isn't the "Anti-Christ" going to wield both political and spiritual powers? Could a gentle but firm person deceive the nations into imposing his peace plan upon the Middle East to save the whole world from nuclear catastrophe?
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006
European Union Pimps Peace Now
Foreign Governments Are Key Backers of Peace Now
16:42 Jun 20, '06 / 24 Sivan 5766
by Scott Shiloh
Peace Now, a far-left Israeli-based organization promoting Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 borders and removal of all Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria, is largely funded by foreign governments.
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Shimon Peres has sold out Israel to Euro-Nazis for a long time, following other kapos of compromise like Ariel Sharon. Remember the bloody vulture Shimon Peres came to power over the dead body of Yitzhak Rabin and now circles over Israeli sovereignty with the Vatican in view.
16:42 Jun 20, '06 / 24 Sivan 5766
by Scott Shiloh
Peace Now, a far-left Israeli-based organization promoting Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 borders and removal of all Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria, is largely funded by foreign governments.
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Shimon Peres has sold out Israel to Euro-Nazis for a long time, following other kapos of compromise like Ariel Sharon. Remember the bloody vulture Shimon Peres came to power over the dead body of Yitzhak Rabin and now circles over Israeli sovereignty with the Vatican in view.
Friday, May 19, 2006
The Da Vinci Code, Christianity and the Bible
The Da Vinci Code, Christianity and the Bible
The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40 million copies and has been made into a major movie. But how much of the story is fact and how much is fabrication? And how important is it for you to know?
by Don Hooser
The Da Vinci Code is a fictional thriller that is supposed to be set against a backdrop of real history. But how much of its "history" is actually true?
The timeless and perfect standard of historicity and truth is the Bible. It contains true history—God's flawless account of the past, present and future.
The Da Vinci Code attempts to reconstruct Jesus Christ, reinvent Christianity and radically revise the Bible. One of the book's major characters presents its major premise on page 235: ". . . Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false."
Which should we believe, The Da Vinci Code or the Bible? Popular Christianity isn't much help. Ironically, the Bible discredits much of today's Christianity as well, as we shall see.../
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
Sorcerer-Pope to Bewitch Europe and Mislead the Masses!
The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40 million copies and has been made into a major movie. But how much of the story is fact and how much is fabrication? And how important is it for you to know?
by Don Hooser
The Da Vinci Code is a fictional thriller that is supposed to be set against a backdrop of real history. But how much of its "history" is actually true?
The timeless and perfect standard of historicity and truth is the Bible. It contains true history—God's flawless account of the past, present and future.
The Da Vinci Code attempts to reconstruct Jesus Christ, reinvent Christianity and radically revise the Bible. One of the book's major characters presents its major premise on page 235: ". . . Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false."
Which should we believe, The Da Vinci Code or the Bible? Popular Christianity isn't much help. Ironically, the Bible discredits much of today's Christianity as well, as we shall see.../
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
Sorcerer-Pope to Bewitch Europe and Mislead the Masses!
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Christ would never marry a Catholic or Protestant!
Yeshua will not be unequally yoked with those who refuse to submit to Him as the Head of the Body, who stubbornly refuse to keep the same biblical Sabbath and festivals as Him, following His lead, who instead prefer the idolatrous traditions of Roman wolves in sheep's clothing, eating abominations, and engaged in every unclean pagan practice whitewashed as "Christian."
The true Bride of Christ, not some cheap whore or prostitute (Rev. 17:5), is washed in the blood of the Passover Lamb (not Easter bunny) and loves God with all her heart, pioneering the biblical ways and days that will be taught throughout all the earth when Yeshua returns and reigns supreme from Jerusalem with us at His side forevermore!
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
The Plain Truth about Easter
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
The true Bride of Christ, not some cheap whore or prostitute (Rev. 17:5), is washed in the blood of the Passover Lamb (not Easter bunny) and loves God with all her heart, pioneering the biblical ways and days that will be taught throughout all the earth when Yeshua returns and reigns supreme from Jerusalem with us at His side forevermore!
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
The Plain Truth about Easter
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres & the Kempler Video
Shimon Peres Charged with the Murder of Yitzhak Rabin?
By David Ben-Ariel
The Justice for Rabin Coalition charges the Israeli authorities with a massive cover-up of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.
[READ FULL ARTICLE]
The Yitzhak Rabin Murder Video (the Kempler Video)
By David Ben-Ariel
Pressure is on for Israel to reopen the Rabin file. This article will help you understand what will soon make world news.
[READ FULL ARTICLE]
Kempler video of Yitzhak Rabin assassination
By David Ben-Ariel
The Justice for Rabin Coalition charges the Israeli authorities with a massive cover-up of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.
[READ FULL ARTICLE]
The Yitzhak Rabin Murder Video (the Kempler Video)
By David Ben-Ariel
Pressure is on for Israel to reopen the Rabin file. This article will help you understand what will soon make world news.
[READ FULL ARTICLE]
Kempler video of Yitzhak Rabin assassination
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Amazon reviews by David Ben-Ariel
Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall, April 27, 2006
Reviewer: David Ben-Ariel - See all my reviews
For the record, I am David Ben-Ariel and am glad to see that the politico-religious subjects addressed within Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall have so "moved" someone to vainly impersonate me and write reviews, including of my own book! How sad.
I have written a few favorable reviews concerning the excellent books by Israeli author Barry Chamish and American author Ryan Mauro, but anybody can clearly see the difference in style, attitude and content between the few I've written and the "others" by a confused person who fears THE TRUTH IS GETTING OUT.
I've reported these desperate infractions to Amazon and trust they shall see to it, but felt it appropriate to mention these facts meanwhile for the general public's sake.
Reasonable folks will acknowledge what I've written is the plain truth and the others will only get frustrated when they fail to subvert (and actually further) what is destined to grow and become a national debate and an international controversy.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Born Again: The Kingdom of God!
Is God reproducing Himself? What is Christian conversion all about? What does it mean to be born again? Has traditional Christianity "toned down" our incredible human potential?
Born Again: The Kingdom of God!
Born Again: The Kingdom of God!
Monday, April 17, 2006
Shimon Peres Came to Power Over Rabin's Dead Body
Shimon Peres Came to Power Over Rabin's Dead Body
by David Ben-Ariel
I met Yitzhak Rabin in the Israeli Parliament in 1982 during Hanukkah. I was able to talk with him briefly and mention I was associated with Ambassador College in Pasadena, California.
That was a tactful way of saying I'm a Christian since I knew he personally knew Herbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God, including the Plain Truth magazine. Mr. Armstrong had presented him with a gift of Steuben crystal before.
I was a volunteer at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan at the time, in Northern Israel near Haifa. Just so happens Rabin had lived there for over a year in the late '50s.
I initially considered Rabin - born in Jerusalem - a traitor for surrendering too much to sworn Arab enemies who had not changed their goal of genocide, only their tactics; for going against clear security concerns he once expressed. (I was in a cafe in Jerusalem when he was shot in Tel Aviv). I refused to attend his funeral, although I had attended Rabbi Meir Kahane's some years before.
Later I found out Yitzhak Rabin was apparently being pressured by the dark powers that be to continue to go against what he knew was wrong and that he resisted and was therefore MURDERED by them for coming to his senses.
I do not believe Yigal Amir murdered Rabin. ( I've met Avishai Raviv several times at demonstrations - he's the government agent provacateur who goaded Raviv to murder Rabin). Amir is a patsy, the fall-guy, as is thoroughly expounded upon in Who Killed Yitzhak Rabin by Barry Chamish, his first book that broached the subject and clearly indicts the traitor and murderer Shimon Peres (whose Hebrew name appropriately means vulture).
I repeatedly condemn Shimon Peres as a kapo of compromise, a prostitute who serves his German-Jesuit EU masters, a traitor who has sold and is selling out Jews, Jerusalem and Israel and say as much in my book Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall I am on public record against his perfidy and continue to expose him. He was the Bolshevik in charge during my unjust deportation, who was very much aware of an article published in Jerusalem where I mention the EU plans for Jerusalem's occupation.
The Israeli Secret Police (six men interrogated me) had a computer disk with Beyond Babylon on it and said many would read it/examine it during their investigation of me during their wild goose chase. I told them to make sure Peres read it.
New evidence further PROVES Yigal Amir did not kill Yitzhak Rabin. It's past time Israelis demand: REOPEN THE RABIN FILE.
The Kempler Video Blog
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
by David Ben-Ariel
I met Yitzhak Rabin in the Israeli Parliament in 1982 during Hanukkah. I was able to talk with him briefly and mention I was associated with Ambassador College in Pasadena, California.
That was a tactful way of saying I'm a Christian since I knew he personally knew Herbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God, including the Plain Truth magazine. Mr. Armstrong had presented him with a gift of Steuben crystal before.
I was a volunteer at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan at the time, in Northern Israel near Haifa. Just so happens Rabin had lived there for over a year in the late '50s.
I initially considered Rabin - born in Jerusalem - a traitor for surrendering too much to sworn Arab enemies who had not changed their goal of genocide, only their tactics; for going against clear security concerns he once expressed. (I was in a cafe in Jerusalem when he was shot in Tel Aviv). I refused to attend his funeral, although I had attended Rabbi Meir Kahane's some years before.
Later I found out Yitzhak Rabin was apparently being pressured by the dark powers that be to continue to go against what he knew was wrong and that he resisted and was therefore MURDERED by them for coming to his senses.
I do not believe Yigal Amir murdered Rabin. ( I've met Avishai Raviv several times at demonstrations - he's the government agent provacateur who goaded Raviv to murder Rabin). Amir is a patsy, the fall-guy, as is thoroughly expounded upon in Who Killed Yitzhak Rabin by Barry Chamish, his first book that broached the subject and clearly indicts the traitor and murderer Shimon Peres (whose Hebrew name appropriately means vulture).
I repeatedly condemn Shimon Peres as a kapo of compromise, a prostitute who serves his German-Jesuit EU masters, a traitor who has sold and is selling out Jews, Jerusalem and Israel and say as much in my book Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall I am on public record against his perfidy and continue to expose him. He was the Bolshevik in charge during my unjust deportation, who was very much aware of an article published in Jerusalem where I mention the EU plans for Jerusalem's occupation.
The Israeli Secret Police (six men interrogated me) had a computer disk with Beyond Babylon on it and said many would read it/examine it during their investigation of me during their wild goose chase. I told them to make sure Peres read it.
New evidence further PROVES Yigal Amir did not kill Yitzhak Rabin. It's past time Israelis demand: REOPEN THE RABIN FILE.
The Kempler Video Blog
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Restoring the Faith once delivered
Helping to restore the Faith once delivered:
Isaiah 62:10
Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, Build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples!
Exposing the plain truth about the Babylonian Mystery religion of traditional Christianity:
Jeremiah 50:2
“Declare among the nations, Proclaim, and set up a standard; Proclaim—do not conceal it— Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; Her idols are humiliated, Her images are broken in pieces.’
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brushfires in people's minds." — Samuel Adams
Isaiah 62:10
Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, Build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples!
Exposing the plain truth about the Babylonian Mystery religion of traditional Christianity:
Jeremiah 50:2
“Declare among the nations, Proclaim, and set up a standard; Proclaim—do not conceal it— Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; Her idols are humiliated, Her images are broken in pieces.’
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brushfires in people's minds." — Samuel Adams
Get back to the basics!
Call to return to the Faith once delivered:
2 Chronicles 30:6-12
2 Chronicles 30
1And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh [whose descendants today are the Anglo-Saxons], that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the PASSOVER unto the LORD God of Israel.
2For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the Passover in the second month.
3For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
4And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation.
5So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.
6So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
7And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see.
8Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were [with your idolatrous traditions and religious lies] , but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.
9For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.
10So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.
11Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.
12Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD.
The Plain Truth about Easter
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
The Plain Truth About the "Lost Ten Tribes" and Why You Need to Know!
2 Chronicles 30:6-12
2 Chronicles 30
1And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh [whose descendants today are the Anglo-Saxons], that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the PASSOVER unto the LORD God of Israel.
2For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the Passover in the second month.
3For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
4And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation.
5So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.
6So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
7And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see.
8Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were [with your idolatrous traditions and religious lies] , but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.
9For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.
10So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.
11Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.
12Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD.
The Plain Truth about Easter
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
The Plain Truth About the "Lost Ten Tribes" and Why You Need to Know!
Friday, April 14, 2006
Jerusalem Sin Drone
"NEXT year in Jerusalem" - always next year.
That's what I call the Jerusalem sin drone! God knows I yearn to return.
That's what I call the Jerusalem sin drone! God knows I yearn to return.
A Jewish Homeland
Nothing Kosher About Easter!
"In Old English, Easter, or Eostre, means 'Goddess of the Dawn,' and she was celebrated annually on the vernal equinox, according to Bede. The goddess' symbol was the rabbit or the hare, which many historians believe to be the origin of the modern-day Easter Bunny."
Easter was Baal's playboy bunny!
The Plain Truth About Easter
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
The Chronology of Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection
The Chronology of Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection
Tuesday: Jesus Christ ate an early-evening Passover meal with His disciples (at the beginning of Nisan 14, Jewish reckoning) and instituted the New Covenant symbols (Matthew 26:26-28). Jesus was then betrayed by Judas, arrested and during the night brought before the high priest.
Wednesday: Jesus was crucified and died around 3 p.m. (Matthew 27:46-50). This was the preparation day for the annual, not weekly, Sabbath, which began that evening (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31). Jesus' body was placed in the tomb at twilight (Matthew 27:57-60).
Thursday: This was the high-day Sabbath, the first day of Unleavened Bread (John 19:31; Leviticus 23:4-7). It is described as the day after the Day of Preparation (Matthew 27:62).
Friday: The high-day Sabbath now past, the women bought and prepared spices for anointing Jesus' body before resting on the weekly Sabbath day, which began at sunset (Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56).
Saturday: The women rested on the weekly Sabbath, according to the Fourth Commandment (Luke 23:56; Exodus 20:8-11). Jesus rose around sunset, exactly three days and three nights (72 hours) after burial, fulfilling the sign of Jonah and authenticating Jesus' Messiahship.
Sunday: The women brought the prepared spices early in the morning while it was still dark (Luke 24:1; John 20:1). Jesus had already risen (Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:2-6; Luke 24:2-3; John 20:1). He did not rise on Sunday morning, but at sunset the day before.
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'The Son of Man Will Be Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth'
Jesus Christ plainly said He would be entombed for three days and three nights. Can this be reconciled with a "Good Friday" crucifixion and burial and an "Easter Sunday" resurrection, which allows for barely a day and a half in the tomb? Or do the Gospels spell out a surprising, simpler solution that fits perfectly with what Jesus foretold?
Tuesday: Jesus Christ ate an early-evening Passover meal with His disciples (at the beginning of Nisan 14, Jewish reckoning) and instituted the New Covenant symbols (Matthew 26:26-28). Jesus was then betrayed by Judas, arrested and during the night brought before the high priest.
Wednesday: Jesus was crucified and died around 3 p.m. (Matthew 27:46-50). This was the preparation day for the annual, not weekly, Sabbath, which began that evening (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31). Jesus' body was placed in the tomb at twilight (Matthew 27:57-60).
Thursday: This was the high-day Sabbath, the first day of Unleavened Bread (John 19:31; Leviticus 23:4-7). It is described as the day after the Day of Preparation (Matthew 27:62).
Friday: The high-day Sabbath now past, the women bought and prepared spices for anointing Jesus' body before resting on the weekly Sabbath day, which began at sunset (Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56).
Saturday: The women rested on the weekly Sabbath, according to the Fourth Commandment (Luke 23:56; Exodus 20:8-11). Jesus rose around sunset, exactly three days and three nights (72 hours) after burial, fulfilling the sign of Jonah and authenticating Jesus' Messiahship.
Sunday: The women brought the prepared spices early in the morning while it was still dark (Luke 24:1; John 20:1). Jesus had already risen (Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:2-6; Luke 24:2-3; John 20:1). He did not rise on Sunday morning, but at sunset the day before.
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'The Son of Man Will Be Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth'
Jesus Christ plainly said He would be entombed for three days and three nights. Can this be reconciled with a "Good Friday" crucifixion and burial and an "Easter Sunday" resurrection, which allows for barely a day and a half in the tomb? Or do the Gospels spell out a surprising, simpler solution that fits perfectly with what Jesus foretold?
Passover for Christians and Jews!
The Apostle Paul, following the example of Jesus Christ and all the other holy apostles, commands converted Jews, Israelites and Gentiles to commemorate the Passover and celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread (since they were never "done away" as Satan lies, but magnified in their meaning):
"For even Christ our PASSOVER is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the FEAST...with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 7-8).
The Passover Memorial
The Plain Truth about Easter
Easter is an abomination
"For even Christ our PASSOVER is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the FEAST...with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 7-8).
The Passover Memorial
The Plain Truth about Easter
Easter is an abomination
Saturday, April 08, 2006
God's Holy Day Plan
The Bible reveals seven annual festivals, several of which are mentioned in this article. The Gospels, the book of Acts and Paul's epistles show that Jesus Christ, His apostles and the early Church observed them. What about you? How much do you know about these Holy Days of God and what they teach us about His plan? Request or download your free copy of the eye-opening booklet God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind.
Remember the Passover Lamb
Could God's holy days, which portray His plan of salvation, exclude Jesus' sacrifice? How could Jesus' ultimate sacrifice be less than holy? Didn't God have the Israelites smear lamb's blood on their doors to avert death? Didn't that clearly represent Christ's offering for mankind? Yes!
The Passover lamb was to be kept from Nisan 10 until the 14th (Ex. 12:1-6). It was then to be killed on the 14th. It was to be killed in the evening. How do we know for sure which evening is being discussed? Because God the Father set us a PERFECT EXAMPLE!
When did God decree that Jesus could declare "it is finished" and die on the stake? Why at the very same time that THE JEWS were sacrificing their Passover lambs at the Temple! The Jews had always killed the Passover lambs during the final hours of the 14th. It was towards the end of the 14th, not at the beginning of the 14th, that the Passover lambs were killed.
After the lambs were killed they were prepared (which took some time) to be eaten, naturally, that evening - which began the 15th and the FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. Nothing of the Passover lamb was to be left over until the morning (Ex. 12:8-10).
God decreed that only unleavened bread should be eaten with the Passover lamb, and that only unleavened bread should be found throughout our property for seven days: "neither shall there anything of the flesh, that you sacrificed the FIRST DAY AT EVEN, remain all night until the morning...you shall sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun..."(Deut. 16:1-7; Matt. 27:45-46).
Here God clearly shows that He considered the Passover sacrifice, done at "the going down of the sun." as the FIRST DAY of the SEVEN DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD (Mark 14:12). If we're to blindly follow popular Church tradition that kills the Passover lamb at the beginning of the 14th, rather than at the end of the 14th, then we end up with eight days of unleavened bread! Does it make sense that the lamb must be eaten with unleavened bread and then somehow afterwards for a whole day you can eat leaven again?! How preposterous! At least a child could figure this out. And that's what we all need to become again, like humble little children, hungry for God's truth, eager to please our Father and let His will be done, and commandments kept, rather than attempting to defend vain traditions (Mark 7:7).
God's Word shows that from the end of the 14th (the beginning of the 15th) until the 21st day of the first sacred month is seven days (Ex. 12:18).
The Passover lamb is killed at the end or afternoon (between the two evenings in Hebrew) of the 14th and eaten at the beginning of the 15th with unleavened bread: "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast...with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth"(1 Cor. 7-8). Christ is our PASSOVER - not our "Lord's Supper." Jesus' last supper with His disciples offered Him the perfect opportunity to replace the traditional lamb with a bread and wine ceremony symbolic of His offered body and blood. (Even the rabbis decreed after the Temple's destruction that it was permissible to not eat a Passover lamb).
As we partake of these holy emblems, what are we remembering? Are we commemorating the night of Jesus' betrayal or are we commemorating Jesus' DEATH? We're to eat the BREAD in remembrance of Jesus' body that was sacrificed at the end of the 14th and we're to drink the WINE in remembrance of Jesus' shed blood on our behalf at the end of the 14th (1 Cor. 11:23-26). [And Jesus clearly associated His hour of trial and crucifixion with wine, not grape juice. See John 2:3-4].
We're to remember Jesus' sacrifice as our very personal Passover Lamb - the Lamb of God! Passover - with the bread and the wine substituted for the lamb - is the annual holy day, observed at meal time on the evening of the 15th, that commemorates Jesus' sacrifice.
The Passover is both a memorial and a feast (Ex. 12:14). The PASSOVER MEMORIAL is the FIRST of the seven days of unleavened bread (not eight), and the FIRST of God's seven holy days that portray His plan of salvation for all mankind.
It's important to note and get this straight with the first of God's festivals and new year: How would God's Church know when to celebrate God's holy days or even what they are if it weren't for the Jews? God has made the Jews His custodian and has committed His truths into their care, specifically the Pharisees (Matt. 23:2; Rom. 3:2-3; 9:4).
God's holy days are faithfully proclaimed from Moses' Seat each year "in their seasons" (Lev. 23:4) by His Jewish stewards who keep God's SACRED CALENDAR. How would we know which "season" is which, or which month is the "beginning of months," if God hadn't ordained the JEWS to preserve that knowledge for us? (Gen. 1:14; Ex. 12:2; Rom.3:2-3).
Thankfully, God's quite capable of ensuring that the Jews - despite themselves - will continue to fulfill this special calling (Num. 23:19; Rom.11:29). So everyone can put away their "calculators" (that only add up to confusion, everybody determining for themselves what's right and what's wrong). God's "business" has a full-time "Jewish accountant" who's solely responsible for the calendar.
Let's not attempt to interfere with God's business as He's chosen to run it. God - through His Jewish agent - has preserved the knowledge of His holy days and the correct dates to observe them for all who truly want to know and share in celebrating God's truth.
For additional vital information on the biblical festivals, I recommend the following free literature (although I disagree with them on the dates for Passover and Pentecost):
Pagan holidays or God's Holy Days - Which?
God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind
Passover and Pentecost Differences Settled!
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
The Passover lamb was to be kept from Nisan 10 until the 14th (Ex. 12:1-6). It was then to be killed on the 14th. It was to be killed in the evening. How do we know for sure which evening is being discussed? Because God the Father set us a PERFECT EXAMPLE!
When did God decree that Jesus could declare "it is finished" and die on the stake? Why at the very same time that THE JEWS were sacrificing their Passover lambs at the Temple! The Jews had always killed the Passover lambs during the final hours of the 14th. It was towards the end of the 14th, not at the beginning of the 14th, that the Passover lambs were killed.
After the lambs were killed they were prepared (which took some time) to be eaten, naturally, that evening - which began the 15th and the FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. Nothing of the Passover lamb was to be left over until the morning (Ex. 12:8-10).
God decreed that only unleavened bread should be eaten with the Passover lamb, and that only unleavened bread should be found throughout our property for seven days: "neither shall there anything of the flesh, that you sacrificed the FIRST DAY AT EVEN, remain all night until the morning...you shall sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun..."(Deut. 16:1-7; Matt. 27:45-46).
Here God clearly shows that He considered the Passover sacrifice, done at "the going down of the sun." as the FIRST DAY of the SEVEN DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD (Mark 14:12). If we're to blindly follow popular Church tradition that kills the Passover lamb at the beginning of the 14th, rather than at the end of the 14th, then we end up with eight days of unleavened bread! Does it make sense that the lamb must be eaten with unleavened bread and then somehow afterwards for a whole day you can eat leaven again?! How preposterous! At least a child could figure this out. And that's what we all need to become again, like humble little children, hungry for God's truth, eager to please our Father and let His will be done, and commandments kept, rather than attempting to defend vain traditions (Mark 7:7).
God's Word shows that from the end of the 14th (the beginning of the 15th) until the 21st day of the first sacred month is seven days (Ex. 12:18).
The Passover lamb is killed at the end or afternoon (between the two evenings in Hebrew) of the 14th and eaten at the beginning of the 15th with unleavened bread: "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast...with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth"(1 Cor. 7-8). Christ is our PASSOVER - not our "Lord's Supper." Jesus' last supper with His disciples offered Him the perfect opportunity to replace the traditional lamb with a bread and wine ceremony symbolic of His offered body and blood. (Even the rabbis decreed after the Temple's destruction that it was permissible to not eat a Passover lamb).
As we partake of these holy emblems, what are we remembering? Are we commemorating the night of Jesus' betrayal or are we commemorating Jesus' DEATH? We're to eat the BREAD in remembrance of Jesus' body that was sacrificed at the end of the 14th and we're to drink the WINE in remembrance of Jesus' shed blood on our behalf at the end of the 14th (1 Cor. 11:23-26). [And Jesus clearly associated His hour of trial and crucifixion with wine, not grape juice. See John 2:3-4].
We're to remember Jesus' sacrifice as our very personal Passover Lamb - the Lamb of God! Passover - with the bread and the wine substituted for the lamb - is the annual holy day, observed at meal time on the evening of the 15th, that commemorates Jesus' sacrifice.
The Passover is both a memorial and a feast (Ex. 12:14). The PASSOVER MEMORIAL is the FIRST of the seven days of unleavened bread (not eight), and the FIRST of God's seven holy days that portray His plan of salvation for all mankind.
It's important to note and get this straight with the first of God's festivals and new year: How would God's Church know when to celebrate God's holy days or even what they are if it weren't for the Jews? God has made the Jews His custodian and has committed His truths into their care, specifically the Pharisees (Matt. 23:2; Rom. 3:2-3; 9:4).
God's holy days are faithfully proclaimed from Moses' Seat each year "in their seasons" (Lev. 23:4) by His Jewish stewards who keep God's SACRED CALENDAR. How would we know which "season" is which, or which month is the "beginning of months," if God hadn't ordained the JEWS to preserve that knowledge for us? (Gen. 1:14; Ex. 12:2; Rom.3:2-3).
Thankfully, God's quite capable of ensuring that the Jews - despite themselves - will continue to fulfill this special calling (Num. 23:19; Rom.11:29). So everyone can put away their "calculators" (that only add up to confusion, everybody determining for themselves what's right and what's wrong). God's "business" has a full-time "Jewish accountant" who's solely responsible for the calendar.
Let's not attempt to interfere with God's business as He's chosen to run it. God - through His Jewish agent - has preserved the knowledge of His holy days and the correct dates to observe them for all who truly want to know and share in celebrating God's truth.
For additional vital information on the biblical festivals, I recommend the following free literature (although I disagree with them on the dates for Passover and Pentecost):
Pagan holidays or God's Holy Days - Which?
God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind
Passover and Pentecost Differences Settled!
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Counterfeit Christianity is Synagogue of Satan
Many "Christian Identity" groups (who taint the Israelite origins of the West) claim that most who refer to themselves today as Jews aren't really Jews but dangerous imposters.
Such misguided souls rely heavily upon two scriptures, taken out of context, to stoke their unwarranted hatred:
"And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art rich and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." (Revelation 2:8-9 KJV)
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." (Revelation 3:7-9 KJV)
Both messages were given by Messiah through the apostle John to two different Church of God congregations in what today would be modern Turkey. Unlike Jerusalem, the Jews were no major power or threat in either Gentile city.
The Sabbath-keeping Churches of God, who follow the plain truth of the Bible as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong, have always understood such scriptures about imposter Jews to refer to professing Christians who were following the false convert, Samaritan sorcerer Simon Magus:
"Simon had bewitched the people of that country, and they followed him as their leader in the Babylonian mystery religion "from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God" (Acts 8:10)...
[After being rebuked by Peter]...Simon proclaimed himself a Christian apostle, nevertheless, and called the pagan Babylonian mystery religion "Christianity." He accepted the doctrine of "grace" for the forgiveness of sin (which the pagan religions had never had), but turned grace into license to disobey God (Jude 4). He aspired to turn his pagan religion, under the name "Christianity," into a universal religion, to gain thereby the political rule of the world.
Simon, the "Pater" (Peter) of his counterfeit religion, did not accomplish this in his lifetime. But succeeding leaders, with the headquarters moved to Rome, did, later, gain political control over the Roman Empire and its medieval successor, called "The Holy Roman Empire." This empire is in process of again being resurrected in Europe now!" (Mystery of the Ages, Herbert W. Armstrong).
Spiritually speaking, all truly converted Christians are spiritual Jews. Ethnic Jews and physical Israelites who reject Messiah are spiritually Gentiles. Paul explains:
"For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 So if the uncircumcised [Gentile] man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? [a spiritual Jew/Israelite] 27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God." (Romans 2:28).
When Yeshua mentioned the "synagogue of Satan," Yeshua was speaking to the Smyrna and Phildelphia Churches of God in Asia Minor. He was referring to some "synagogue of Satan" opposing them there. He was not referring to Jews as an ethnic group (whom He acknowledged as literal physical descendants of Abraham and so did Paul) or to the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem.
Again, spiritually speaking, anybody who professes to be a true Christian is claiming to be a spiritual Jew, as Paul spoke of such circumcision of the heart. Therefore, TRADITIONAL CHURCHIANITY CONSTITUTES THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN -- cleverly misleading the masses for a Gentilized Jesus, a counterfeit gospel, a different spirit and pagan holidays and ways of the Babylonian Mystery religion -- in those days and in these days! (2 Corinthians 11:4, Revelation 17:5).
Any literal, physical Israelite or Jew remains such regardless of whether they're blind to Jesus' identity at this time, as Paul made reference to his ethnic Jewish brethren and didn't reject them as such, even though admitting they were enemies of the gospel. Paul didn't once call them counterfeit Jews or synagogue of Satan or any thing like it. Instead he praised their zeal (having shared it) but said it was "not according to knowledge." However, Paul, like true Christians, knows in God's good time the blindness that afflicts ISRAEL (Anglo-Saxons and Northwestern Europeans) and JUDAH will be history.
Some persist in their error and state that the physical Jews in Israel today aren't Jews in God's sight any more since they reject the Priest-King of Israel and therefore aren't worthy to live in the Holy Land, saying God would never give it to them.
Others compound their sin against our Jewish brethren (ethnically, tribally speaking) by refusing to believe that they're even physical Jews, repeating the lie that they're all Khazar converts, exaggerating claims made by those who refuse to submit to God's Word that clearly reveals LEGITIMATE JEWS would again be living in the Promised Land of Israel, exercising sovereignty over Jerusalem, contested by the international community of fools, just before the False Prophet and Beast occupy Jerusalem.
The Bible, the inspired Word of God, calls them Jews and refers to "the cities of Judah" (not occupied "Palestinian" towns) so we should believe the Bible over men who would say otherwise, as I bring out in Jewish Homeland.
Both Israel and Judah have been blessed because of ABRAHAM'S OBEDIENCE. Our ethnic Israelite folks, mostly professing Christians, were not denied the physical inheritances God unconditionally promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their heirs would inherit -- even though we're acting like Gentiles. Yes, we're Gentilized Israelites just like our pagan forefathers who rejected God's holy days for pagan holidays.
Yet God has blessed Joseph primarily, the leader of the Northern Ten Tribes, with the United States and British Commonwealth. Likewise, God has not denied Judah a homeland despite their current serious spiritual condition that -- like our Israelite countries -- is in desperate need of repentance and healing or we'll all suffer national destruction, defeat and deportation (Dan. 9:11, Malachi 4:4). God has faithfully given us the blessings He promised Abraham but now their continuance is conditional upon our obedience.
Both counterfeit Christians and jaded Jews must come to NATIONAL REPENTANCE. The Jews have rejected Jesus, blinded by their traditions, and Churchianity has rejected Jesus for their idolatrous traditions, both against the biblical traditions the Jewish apostles have shared with us (Titus 1:16, 1 John 2:4). Such blindness, in large part, was prophesied. But now that God is revealing these things, bringing it to light, exposing the darkness in traditional Judaism and Christianity, we're to confess and forsake our sins and get back to the biblical basics, back to the Faith once delivered -- so help us God -- or we'll go back into national captivity.
The good news is even if we insist upon learning the hard way, going through the "hell" of the Great Tribulation, the Time of Jacob's Trouble, Two Witnesses will see us through the long night and help us prepare to meet our God, to receive our King: Yeshua the Messiah.
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out his Beyond Babylon blog.
Such misguided souls rely heavily upon two scriptures, taken out of context, to stoke their unwarranted hatred:
"And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art rich and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." (Revelation 2:8-9 KJV)
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." (Revelation 3:7-9 KJV)
Both messages were given by Messiah through the apostle John to two different Church of God congregations in what today would be modern Turkey. Unlike Jerusalem, the Jews were no major power or threat in either Gentile city.
The Sabbath-keeping Churches of God, who follow the plain truth of the Bible as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong, have always understood such scriptures about imposter Jews to refer to professing Christians who were following the false convert, Samaritan sorcerer Simon Magus:
"Simon had bewitched the people of that country, and they followed him as their leader in the Babylonian mystery religion "from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God" (Acts 8:10)...
[After being rebuked by Peter]...Simon proclaimed himself a Christian apostle, nevertheless, and called the pagan Babylonian mystery religion "Christianity." He accepted the doctrine of "grace" for the forgiveness of sin (which the pagan religions had never had), but turned grace into license to disobey God (Jude 4). He aspired to turn his pagan religion, under the name "Christianity," into a universal religion, to gain thereby the political rule of the world.
Simon, the "Pater" (Peter) of his counterfeit religion, did not accomplish this in his lifetime. But succeeding leaders, with the headquarters moved to Rome, did, later, gain political control over the Roman Empire and its medieval successor, called "The Holy Roman Empire." This empire is in process of again being resurrected in Europe now!" (Mystery of the Ages, Herbert W. Armstrong).
Spiritually speaking, all truly converted Christians are spiritual Jews. Ethnic Jews and physical Israelites who reject Messiah are spiritually Gentiles. Paul explains:
"For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 So if the uncircumcised [Gentile] man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? [a spiritual Jew/Israelite] 27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God." (Romans 2:28).
When Yeshua mentioned the "synagogue of Satan," Yeshua was speaking to the Smyrna and Phildelphia Churches of God in Asia Minor. He was referring to some "synagogue of Satan" opposing them there. He was not referring to Jews as an ethnic group (whom He acknowledged as literal physical descendants of Abraham and so did Paul) or to the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem.
Again, spiritually speaking, anybody who professes to be a true Christian is claiming to be a spiritual Jew, as Paul spoke of such circumcision of the heart. Therefore, TRADITIONAL CHURCHIANITY CONSTITUTES THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN -- cleverly misleading the masses for a Gentilized Jesus, a counterfeit gospel, a different spirit and pagan holidays and ways of the Babylonian Mystery religion -- in those days and in these days! (2 Corinthians 11:4, Revelation 17:5).
Any literal, physical Israelite or Jew remains such regardless of whether they're blind to Jesus' identity at this time, as Paul made reference to his ethnic Jewish brethren and didn't reject them as such, even though admitting they were enemies of the gospel. Paul didn't once call them counterfeit Jews or synagogue of Satan or any thing like it. Instead he praised their zeal (having shared it) but said it was "not according to knowledge." However, Paul, like true Christians, knows in God's good time the blindness that afflicts ISRAEL (Anglo-Saxons and Northwestern Europeans) and JUDAH will be history.
Some persist in their error and state that the physical Jews in Israel today aren't Jews in God's sight any more since they reject the Priest-King of Israel and therefore aren't worthy to live in the Holy Land, saying God would never give it to them.
Others compound their sin against our Jewish brethren (ethnically, tribally speaking) by refusing to believe that they're even physical Jews, repeating the lie that they're all Khazar converts, exaggerating claims made by those who refuse to submit to God's Word that clearly reveals LEGITIMATE JEWS would again be living in the Promised Land of Israel, exercising sovereignty over Jerusalem, contested by the international community of fools, just before the False Prophet and Beast occupy Jerusalem.
The Bible, the inspired Word of God, calls them Jews and refers to "the cities of Judah" (not occupied "Palestinian" towns) so we should believe the Bible over men who would say otherwise, as I bring out in Jewish Homeland.
Both Israel and Judah have been blessed because of ABRAHAM'S OBEDIENCE. Our ethnic Israelite folks, mostly professing Christians, were not denied the physical inheritances God unconditionally promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their heirs would inherit -- even though we're acting like Gentiles. Yes, we're Gentilized Israelites just like our pagan forefathers who rejected God's holy days for pagan holidays.
Yet God has blessed Joseph primarily, the leader of the Northern Ten Tribes, with the United States and British Commonwealth. Likewise, God has not denied Judah a homeland despite their current serious spiritual condition that -- like our Israelite countries -- is in desperate need of repentance and healing or we'll all suffer national destruction, defeat and deportation (Dan. 9:11, Malachi 4:4). God has faithfully given us the blessings He promised Abraham but now their continuance is conditional upon our obedience.
Both counterfeit Christians and jaded Jews must come to NATIONAL REPENTANCE. The Jews have rejected Jesus, blinded by their traditions, and Churchianity has rejected Jesus for their idolatrous traditions, both against the biblical traditions the Jewish apostles have shared with us (Titus 1:16, 1 John 2:4). Such blindness, in large part, was prophesied. But now that God is revealing these things, bringing it to light, exposing the darkness in traditional Judaism and Christianity, we're to confess and forsake our sins and get back to the biblical basics, back to the Faith once delivered -- so help us God -- or we'll go back into national captivity.
The good news is even if we insist upon learning the hard way, going through the "hell" of the Great Tribulation, the Time of Jacob's Trouble, Two Witnesses will see us through the long night and help us prepare to meet our God, to receive our King: Yeshua the Messiah.
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out his Beyond Babylon blog.
Polycarp and Polycrates kept Passover not Easter!
No wonder the Israelites remain lost - they stubbornly refuse to repent of their Gentilized "Christian" religion that mixes and matches, polluting and diluting the Word of God with pagan practices that Scripture clearly condemns!
Thankfully, every generation has the chosen few who follow the Faith once delivered, and who faithfully remember the important holy days and dates GOD has given and commanded us to keep and celebrate in spirit and in truth. Soon the whole world will trash their idolatrous Roman/Babylonian/Egyptian traditions for God's biblical festivals when Christ returns and reigns supreme in Jerusalem!
“We…therefore observe the genuine day [Passover]; neither adding thereto nor taking therefrom. For in Asia great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again in the day of the Lord’s appearing, in which he will come with glory from heaven, and will raise up all the saints; Philip, one of the twelve apostles [Author’s note: This was “the other” Philip, as the original apostle Philip died in 54 AD.]…Moreover, John, who rested upon the bosom of our Lord…also Polycarp…All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith” (Ecclesiastical History, “Eusebius,” bk. 5, ch. 24, sec. 2, 3, 6).
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, highlights the accounts involving Polycarp and Polycrates’ opposition to the increasing errors of the Roman bishops and growing infiltration of paganism into professing Christian beliefs:
“There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be observed… Generally speaking, the Western churches kept Easter on the first day of the week, while the Eastern churches followed the Jewish rule, and kept Easter [Pascha, or Passover] on the fourteenth day…At that time the Syrians [Nazarenes] and Antiochenes (Quartodecimani) were the solitary champions of the observance of the fourteenth day.
“The few who afterwards separated themselves from the [the majority were wrong and refused to repent] unity of the [Roman] church, and continued to keep the fourteenth day, were named Quartodecimani, and the dispute itself is known as the Quarto-deciman controversy” (Article: “Easter,” vol. 8, pp. 828-829).
Polcarp and Polycrates, both faithfully observed the PASSOVER just like Jesus and the early Church at the right time, annually, both Jews, Israelites and Gentiles, and the chosen few of the Sabbath-keeping Church of God follow their holy example while the rest, the vast majority, fell for the creeping paganism of the Roman wolves in sheep's clothing.
Both the Bible and history serve as two witnesses against pagan Easter and for holy Passover.
*************************
The Plain Truth About the "Lost Ten Tribes" and Why You Need to Know!
The Church Jesus Built
Holidays or Holy Days?
Thankfully, every generation has the chosen few who follow the Faith once delivered, and who faithfully remember the important holy days and dates GOD has given and commanded us to keep and celebrate in spirit and in truth. Soon the whole world will trash their idolatrous Roman/Babylonian/Egyptian traditions for God's biblical festivals when Christ returns and reigns supreme in Jerusalem!
“We…therefore observe the genuine day [Passover]; neither adding thereto nor taking therefrom. For in Asia great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again in the day of the Lord’s appearing, in which he will come with glory from heaven, and will raise up all the saints; Philip, one of the twelve apostles [Author’s note: This was “the other” Philip, as the original apostle Philip died in 54 AD.]…Moreover, John, who rested upon the bosom of our Lord…also Polycarp…All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith” (Ecclesiastical History, “Eusebius,” bk. 5, ch. 24, sec. 2, 3, 6).
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, highlights the accounts involving Polycarp and Polycrates’ opposition to the increasing errors of the Roman bishops and growing infiltration of paganism into professing Christian beliefs:
“There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be observed… Generally speaking, the Western churches kept Easter on the first day of the week, while the Eastern churches followed the Jewish rule, and kept Easter [Pascha, or Passover] on the fourteenth day…At that time the Syrians [Nazarenes] and Antiochenes (Quartodecimani) were the solitary champions of the observance of the fourteenth day.
“The few who afterwards separated themselves from the [the majority were wrong and refused to repent] unity of the [Roman] church, and continued to keep the fourteenth day, were named Quartodecimani, and the dispute itself is known as the Quarto-deciman controversy” (Article: “Easter,” vol. 8, pp. 828-829).
Polcarp and Polycrates, both faithfully observed the PASSOVER just like Jesus and the early Church at the right time, annually, both Jews, Israelites and Gentiles, and the chosen few of the Sabbath-keeping Church of God follow their holy example while the rest, the vast majority, fell for the creeping paganism of the Roman wolves in sheep's clothing.
Both the Bible and history serve as two witnesses against pagan Easter and for holy Passover.
*************************
The Plain Truth About the "Lost Ten Tribes" and Why You Need to Know!
The Church Jesus Built
Holidays or Holy Days?
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Would Jesus Keep Easter?
Would Jesus Keep Easter?
For millions of people Easter Sunday is the most important religious observance of the year. But, if Jesus walked the dusty roads of Galilee today, would He keep Easter?
by Jerold Aust
Each spring the excitement of Easter fills the air. Many churches prepare special Easter programs about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At home mothers color Easter eggs, and parents hide the brightly colored holiday symbols around the house and lawn so that, come Easter morning, their children can excitedly hunt for them.
Stuffed Easter bunnies and chocolate rabbits are seen everywhere in the weeks leading up to this major religious observance. Then there are the Easter sunrise services, where churchgoers gather to hear about Jesus' resurrection and honor that miraculous event by watching the sun come up in the east.
But what do colored eggs and the Easter rabbit have to do with Jesus Christ's resurrection? How did these seemingly irreligious symbols come to be associated with that event?
Can we find any historical or biblical record of Jesus or His disciples keeping Easter or teaching parents and children to dye eggs and display bunnies on this holiday? Did Jesus or His apostles instruct any of His followers to meet to honor His resurrection at sunrise on Easter Sunday-or at any other time, for that matter?
If Easter were not sanctioned by Jesus or instituted by His apostles, then where did Easter come from? In other words, if Jesus were living among us as a flesh-and-blood human being, would He keep Easter or encourage others to do so?
Answers to these questions are readily available. Some may take a little research, but they become clear when we look into history and the Bible.
The apostles' record on Easter
As surprising as this may sound, nowhere in the New Testament can you find any reference to Easter. In the King James Version of the Bible (in Acts 12:4) you do find the word Easter, but it is a blatantly erroneous mistranslation that has been corrected in virtually every other Bible translation. The original Greek word there is pascha, correctly translated Passover in virtually every modern version of the Bible everywhere it appears in the Scriptures. It refers to the biblical Passover originally instituted when God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-14).
The original apostles, from the inception of the New Testament church to near the end of the first century, when the apostle John died, left absolutely no record of keeping Easter or teaching others to do so. From Jesus to John not one of the apostles gave even the slightest hint of keeping or advocating the observance of what we know today as Easter Sunday.
However, that doesn't mean the early Church did not hold to specific religious observances. The apostle Paul, some 25 years after Jesus' death and resurrection, spoke plainly to members of the church at Corinth that they should continue to keep the Passover as Christ commanded. Paul wrote: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'
"For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:23-27).
Paul was concerned that the Church members in Corinth observe the Passover in the right way, with reverence and proper comprehension of its meaning.
The writings of Paul and Luke, his traveling companion and author of the book of Acts, regularly mention keeping the weekly Sabbath day and the biblical festivals listed in Leviticus 23. But Easter is conspicuously absent (1 Corinthians 5:6-8; 16:8; Acts 2:1-4; 13:42, 44; 17:1-3; 18:4; 20:6, 16).
Since Easter wasn't introduced by Jesus or the apostles, where did it come from, and how did it come to be such an accepted part of traditional Christianity?
The origin of Easter
It's not that difficult to trace the surprising origins of Easter and what it really represents. Many scholarly works show that Easter is a pre-Christian religious holiday, one that was created and developed long before Jesus' time and carried forward to the modern era through such empires as Babylon, Persia, Greece and finally Rome.
Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words notes: "The term 'Easter' is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean [Babylonian] goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover] held by Christians in post-apostolic times was a continuation of the Jewish feast ... From this Pasch the pagan festival of 'Easter' was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity" (W.E. Vine, 1985, "Easter").
Alexander Hislop in his book The Two Babylons (1959) explores the origins of Easter. He discovered that a form of Easter was kept in many nations, not necessarily only those that professed Christianity. "What means the term Easter itself? ...
It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was ... Ishtar" (p. 103).
Easter and the practices associated with it can be traced back to various pagan rituals. Hislop explains that "the forty days' abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess"(Hislop, p. 104). In Egypt a similar 40-day period of abstinence "was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god" (Hislop, p. 105).
A pre-Christian spring festival
How, then, did 40 days' abstinence come to be associated with a resurrection? Hislop continues: "Among the pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing" (Hislop, p. 105).
Tammuz was a chief Babylonian deity and husband of the goddess Ishtar. Worship of Tammuz was so widespread in ancient times that it even spread into Jerusalem. In Ezekiel 8:12-18 God describes that worship and calls it an abomination-something repugnant and disgusting to Him.
The Babylonians held a great festival every spring to celebrate Tammuz's death and supposed resurrection many centuries before Christ walked the earth (see "The Resurrection Connection," below). Hislop comprehensively documents evidence that shows Easter's origins precede the modern Christian holiday by more than 2,000 years!
Hislop cites the fifth-century writings of Cassianus, a Catholic monk of Marseilles, France, on the subject of Easter's being a pagan custom rather than a New Testament observance. "It ought to be known that the observance of the forty days (i.e., the observance of Lent) had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate" (p. 104).
Sir James Frazer describes Easter ceremonies entering into the established church: "When we reflect how often the Church has skillfully contrived to plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Christ was grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen Adonis [the Greek name for Tammuz], which ... was celebrated in Syria at the same season" (The Golden Bough, 1993, p. 345).
Why eggs and rabbits?
What about other customs associated with Easter? One Catholic writer explains how eggs and rabbits came to be connected with Easter. You will quickly notice an absence of any link or reference to the Holy Bible when it comes to these mythic rituals:
"The egg has become a popular Easter symbol. Creation myths of many ancient peoples center in a cosmogenic egg from which the universe is born. In ancient Egypt and Persia friends exchanged decorated eggs at the spring equinox, the beginning of their New Year. These eggs were a symbol of fertility for them because the coming forth of a live creature from an egg was so surprising to people of ancient times.
Christians of the Near East adopted this tradition, and the Easter egg became a religious symbol.
It represented the tomb from which Jesus came forth to new life" (Greg Dues, Catholic Customs and Traditions, 1992, p. 101; emphasis added).
Like eggs, rabbits came to be linked with Easter because they were potent symbols associated with ancient fertility rites. "Little children are usually told that the Easter eggs are brought by the Easter Bunny. Rabbits are part of pre-Christian fertility symbolism because of their reputation to reproduce rapidly. The Easter Bunny has never had a religious meaning" (Dues, p. 102).
Honest Bible scholars freely admit that Jesus never sanctioned this pre-Christian holiday, nor did His apostles. Not until Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea in 325-almost three centuries after Jesus was killed and rose again-did Easter replace the Passover, the biblical ceremony Jesus and the apostle Paul told Christians to observe.
Says the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "A final settlement of the dispute [whether and when to keep Easter or Passover] was one among the other reasons which led Constantine to summon the council of Nicaea in 325 ... The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and 'that none should hereafter follow the blindness of the Jews'" (11th edition, pp. 828-829, "Easter").
Constantine's decision was a fateful turning point for Christianity. Those who remained faithful to the instruction of Jesus and the apostles would be outcasts, a small and persecuted minority (John 15:18-20). A vastly different set of beliefs and practices-recycled from ancient pre-Christian religions but dressed in a Christian cloak-would take hold among the majority.
Would Jesus keep Easter?
Since the pagan symbols of eggs and rabbits were adopted by the Catholic Church centuries after Christ's ascension, should Christians keep this holiday or encourage others to observe it?
To answer that question let's go back to the title of this article, "Would Jesus Keep Easter?" He certainly could have told us to. So could the apostles, whose teaching and doctrine are preserved for us in the book of Acts and the epistles written by Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John. But nowhere do we find a hint of support for Easter or anything remotely resembling it. What we do find, as pointed out earlier, is clear instruction from Jesus and Paul to keep the Passover and other biblical-and truly Christian-observances.
Holy Scripture does not support this pre-Christian holiday and in fact condemns such celebrations. Because Scripture condemns pagan practices and the worship of false gods (Deuteronomy 12:29-32), we know that God the Father and Jesus His Son have no interest in Easter and do not approve of it.
Jesus, in fact, is diametrically opposed to religious rituals that supposedly honor Him but in reality are rooted in worship of false gods. He makes clear the difference between pleasing God and pleasing men: "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men ... All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition'" (Mark 7:6-9, emphasis added throughout).
Easter is a tradition of men, not a commandment of God. But it's more than that.
It is a pagan tradition of men that, like other traditions involved in the worship of false gods, is abhorrent to the true God. Jesus and His apostles would never sanction its observance because it mingles paganism with supposedly Christian symbolism and ritual. It is rooted in ancient pre-Christian fertility rites that have nothing to do with Jesus.
In reality, most of the trappings associated with Easter reveal that the holiday is actually a fraud pawned off on unsuspecting and well-intentioned people. God wants us to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24), not to recycle ancient customs used to worship other gods.
Even the timing of the events used to justify celebrating Jesus' resurrection on a Sunday morning-that He was crucified on the afternoon of Good Friday and resurrected before dawn on Sunday morning-are demonstrably false, as an examination of the Scriptures shows.
For those who want concrete proof that He was indeed the Messiah and Savior of mankind, Jesus made a promise: "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:39-40).
Try as some might, there is no way to calculate three days and three nights from late Friday afternoon to Sunday morning before daylight. At most this amounts to barely more than a day and a half. Either Jesus was mistaken, or those who say He was crucified on a Friday and resurrected on a Sunday are mistaken. You can't have it both ways.
Jesus' instructions remain consistent
If Jesus walked the dusty roads of Galilee today, would He keep Easter? Certainly not. But He would be consistent because He does not change (Hebrews 13:8). For instance, He would keep the annual Passover in the same manner as He instructed His followers to keep it (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:15-17). And Jesus would observe the Days of Unleavened Bread in the way He inspired Paul to instruct early Christians (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
Anyone who wants to be right with God, who wants to be a true disciple of Christ, the Master Teacher, will carefully examine his beliefs and practices to see whether they agree with the Bible. Such a person will not try to honor God with ancient idolatrous practices, violating His explicit commands (Deuteronomy 12:29-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 7:1). Easter, as we have seen, is filled with idolatrous trappings.
Simply claiming that something is Christian or is done to honor God doesn't make it acceptable to God.
Easter doesn't represent a resurrected Jesus Christ. Rather-difficult as it may be to admit-it merely continues the practices pagans followed thousands of years ago to honor their nonexistent gods. If we are to escape the calamities prophesied to come on those who place the ways of this world ahead of God, then we must repent of following traditions that dishonor Him (Revelation 18:1-5).
God would much rather have us honor and obey Him according to His instructions in His Word. Then He can use us to represent His holy Son, our Savior and the Messiah, who will return to earth. No greater calling can be extended to human beings. May you have the heart to seek understanding and God's perfect will.
For millions of people Easter Sunday is the most important religious observance of the year. But, if Jesus walked the dusty roads of Galilee today, would He keep Easter?
by Jerold Aust
Each spring the excitement of Easter fills the air. Many churches prepare special Easter programs about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At home mothers color Easter eggs, and parents hide the brightly colored holiday symbols around the house and lawn so that, come Easter morning, their children can excitedly hunt for them.
Stuffed Easter bunnies and chocolate rabbits are seen everywhere in the weeks leading up to this major religious observance. Then there are the Easter sunrise services, where churchgoers gather to hear about Jesus' resurrection and honor that miraculous event by watching the sun come up in the east.
But what do colored eggs and the Easter rabbit have to do with Jesus Christ's resurrection? How did these seemingly irreligious symbols come to be associated with that event?
Can we find any historical or biblical record of Jesus or His disciples keeping Easter or teaching parents and children to dye eggs and display bunnies on this holiday? Did Jesus or His apostles instruct any of His followers to meet to honor His resurrection at sunrise on Easter Sunday-or at any other time, for that matter?
If Easter were not sanctioned by Jesus or instituted by His apostles, then where did Easter come from? In other words, if Jesus were living among us as a flesh-and-blood human being, would He keep Easter or encourage others to do so?
Answers to these questions are readily available. Some may take a little research, but they become clear when we look into history and the Bible.
The apostles' record on Easter
As surprising as this may sound, nowhere in the New Testament can you find any reference to Easter. In the King James Version of the Bible (in Acts 12:4) you do find the word Easter, but it is a blatantly erroneous mistranslation that has been corrected in virtually every other Bible translation. The original Greek word there is pascha, correctly translated Passover in virtually every modern version of the Bible everywhere it appears in the Scriptures. It refers to the biblical Passover originally instituted when God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-14).
The original apostles, from the inception of the New Testament church to near the end of the first century, when the apostle John died, left absolutely no record of keeping Easter or teaching others to do so. From Jesus to John not one of the apostles gave even the slightest hint of keeping or advocating the observance of what we know today as Easter Sunday.
However, that doesn't mean the early Church did not hold to specific religious observances. The apostle Paul, some 25 years after Jesus' death and resurrection, spoke plainly to members of the church at Corinth that they should continue to keep the Passover as Christ commanded. Paul wrote: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'
"For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:23-27).
Paul was concerned that the Church members in Corinth observe the Passover in the right way, with reverence and proper comprehension of its meaning.
The writings of Paul and Luke, his traveling companion and author of the book of Acts, regularly mention keeping the weekly Sabbath day and the biblical festivals listed in Leviticus 23. But Easter is conspicuously absent (1 Corinthians 5:6-8; 16:8; Acts 2:1-4; 13:42, 44; 17:1-3; 18:4; 20:6, 16).
Since Easter wasn't introduced by Jesus or the apostles, where did it come from, and how did it come to be such an accepted part of traditional Christianity?
The origin of Easter
It's not that difficult to trace the surprising origins of Easter and what it really represents. Many scholarly works show that Easter is a pre-Christian religious holiday, one that was created and developed long before Jesus' time and carried forward to the modern era through such empires as Babylon, Persia, Greece and finally Rome.
Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words notes: "The term 'Easter' is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean [Babylonian] goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover] held by Christians in post-apostolic times was a continuation of the Jewish feast ... From this Pasch the pagan festival of 'Easter' was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity" (W.E. Vine, 1985, "Easter").
Alexander Hislop in his book The Two Babylons (1959) explores the origins of Easter. He discovered that a form of Easter was kept in many nations, not necessarily only those that professed Christianity. "What means the term Easter itself? ...
It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was ... Ishtar" (p. 103).
Easter and the practices associated with it can be traced back to various pagan rituals. Hislop explains that "the forty days' abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess"(Hislop, p. 104). In Egypt a similar 40-day period of abstinence "was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god" (Hislop, p. 105).
A pre-Christian spring festival
How, then, did 40 days' abstinence come to be associated with a resurrection? Hislop continues: "Among the pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing" (Hislop, p. 105).
Tammuz was a chief Babylonian deity and husband of the goddess Ishtar. Worship of Tammuz was so widespread in ancient times that it even spread into Jerusalem. In Ezekiel 8:12-18 God describes that worship and calls it an abomination-something repugnant and disgusting to Him.
The Babylonians held a great festival every spring to celebrate Tammuz's death and supposed resurrection many centuries before Christ walked the earth (see "The Resurrection Connection," below). Hislop comprehensively documents evidence that shows Easter's origins precede the modern Christian holiday by more than 2,000 years!
Hislop cites the fifth-century writings of Cassianus, a Catholic monk of Marseilles, France, on the subject of Easter's being a pagan custom rather than a New Testament observance. "It ought to be known that the observance of the forty days (i.e., the observance of Lent) had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate" (p. 104).
Sir James Frazer describes Easter ceremonies entering into the established church: "When we reflect how often the Church has skillfully contrived to plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Christ was grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen Adonis [the Greek name for Tammuz], which ... was celebrated in Syria at the same season" (The Golden Bough, 1993, p. 345).
Why eggs and rabbits?
What about other customs associated with Easter? One Catholic writer explains how eggs and rabbits came to be connected with Easter. You will quickly notice an absence of any link or reference to the Holy Bible when it comes to these mythic rituals:
"The egg has become a popular Easter symbol. Creation myths of many ancient peoples center in a cosmogenic egg from which the universe is born. In ancient Egypt and Persia friends exchanged decorated eggs at the spring equinox, the beginning of their New Year. These eggs were a symbol of fertility for them because the coming forth of a live creature from an egg was so surprising to people of ancient times.
Christians of the Near East adopted this tradition, and the Easter egg became a religious symbol.
It represented the tomb from which Jesus came forth to new life" (Greg Dues, Catholic Customs and Traditions, 1992, p. 101; emphasis added).
Like eggs, rabbits came to be linked with Easter because they were potent symbols associated with ancient fertility rites. "Little children are usually told that the Easter eggs are brought by the Easter Bunny. Rabbits are part of pre-Christian fertility symbolism because of their reputation to reproduce rapidly. The Easter Bunny has never had a religious meaning" (Dues, p. 102).
Honest Bible scholars freely admit that Jesus never sanctioned this pre-Christian holiday, nor did His apostles. Not until Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea in 325-almost three centuries after Jesus was killed and rose again-did Easter replace the Passover, the biblical ceremony Jesus and the apostle Paul told Christians to observe.
Says the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "A final settlement of the dispute [whether and when to keep Easter or Passover] was one among the other reasons which led Constantine to summon the council of Nicaea in 325 ... The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and 'that none should hereafter follow the blindness of the Jews'" (11th edition, pp. 828-829, "Easter").
Constantine's decision was a fateful turning point for Christianity. Those who remained faithful to the instruction of Jesus and the apostles would be outcasts, a small and persecuted minority (John 15:18-20). A vastly different set of beliefs and practices-recycled from ancient pre-Christian religions but dressed in a Christian cloak-would take hold among the majority.
Would Jesus keep Easter?
Since the pagan symbols of eggs and rabbits were adopted by the Catholic Church centuries after Christ's ascension, should Christians keep this holiday or encourage others to observe it?
To answer that question let's go back to the title of this article, "Would Jesus Keep Easter?" He certainly could have told us to. So could the apostles, whose teaching and doctrine are preserved for us in the book of Acts and the epistles written by Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John. But nowhere do we find a hint of support for Easter or anything remotely resembling it. What we do find, as pointed out earlier, is clear instruction from Jesus and Paul to keep the Passover and other biblical-and truly Christian-observances.
Holy Scripture does not support this pre-Christian holiday and in fact condemns such celebrations. Because Scripture condemns pagan practices and the worship of false gods (Deuteronomy 12:29-32), we know that God the Father and Jesus His Son have no interest in Easter and do not approve of it.
Jesus, in fact, is diametrically opposed to religious rituals that supposedly honor Him but in reality are rooted in worship of false gods. He makes clear the difference between pleasing God and pleasing men: "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men ... All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition'" (Mark 7:6-9, emphasis added throughout).
Easter is a tradition of men, not a commandment of God. But it's more than that.
It is a pagan tradition of men that, like other traditions involved in the worship of false gods, is abhorrent to the true God. Jesus and His apostles would never sanction its observance because it mingles paganism with supposedly Christian symbolism and ritual. It is rooted in ancient pre-Christian fertility rites that have nothing to do with Jesus.
In reality, most of the trappings associated with Easter reveal that the holiday is actually a fraud pawned off on unsuspecting and well-intentioned people. God wants us to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24), not to recycle ancient customs used to worship other gods.
Even the timing of the events used to justify celebrating Jesus' resurrection on a Sunday morning-that He was crucified on the afternoon of Good Friday and resurrected before dawn on Sunday morning-are demonstrably false, as an examination of the Scriptures shows.
For those who want concrete proof that He was indeed the Messiah and Savior of mankind, Jesus made a promise: "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:39-40).
Try as some might, there is no way to calculate three days and three nights from late Friday afternoon to Sunday morning before daylight. At most this amounts to barely more than a day and a half. Either Jesus was mistaken, or those who say He was crucified on a Friday and resurrected on a Sunday are mistaken. You can't have it both ways.
Jesus' instructions remain consistent
If Jesus walked the dusty roads of Galilee today, would He keep Easter? Certainly not. But He would be consistent because He does not change (Hebrews 13:8). For instance, He would keep the annual Passover in the same manner as He instructed His followers to keep it (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:15-17). And Jesus would observe the Days of Unleavened Bread in the way He inspired Paul to instruct early Christians (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
Anyone who wants to be right with God, who wants to be a true disciple of Christ, the Master Teacher, will carefully examine his beliefs and practices to see whether they agree with the Bible. Such a person will not try to honor God with ancient idolatrous practices, violating His explicit commands (Deuteronomy 12:29-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 7:1). Easter, as we have seen, is filled with idolatrous trappings.
Simply claiming that something is Christian or is done to honor God doesn't make it acceptable to God.
Easter doesn't represent a resurrected Jesus Christ. Rather-difficult as it may be to admit-it merely continues the practices pagans followed thousands of years ago to honor their nonexistent gods. If we are to escape the calamities prophesied to come on those who place the ways of this world ahead of God, then we must repent of following traditions that dishonor Him (Revelation 18:1-5).
God would much rather have us honor and obey Him according to His instructions in His Word. Then He can use us to represent His holy Son, our Savior and the Messiah, who will return to earth. No greater calling can be extended to human beings. May you have the heart to seek understanding and God's perfect will.
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