How
Christianity Replaced Passover
with Weekly Communion and Easter
By James Scott Trimm
In speaking of the so-called ¡°Lord¡¯s Supper¡± Paul writes ¡°For as often
as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show our Adon¡¯s death
till he come¡± (1Cor. 11:26)
For many modern Gentile Christians this means ¡°communion¡± and ¡°¡as often
as you eat.. and drink¡¡± has left serious question in Christian circles
over how often to observe communion (or ¡°sacrament¡± or ¡°Eucharist¡± or
¡°the Lord¡¯s Supper¡± or whatever else it is called by a given
denomination).
Christians inherited communion from the Catholic Church which began
having ¡°Eucharist¡± as the central point of weekly ¡°Mass¡± (offering).
In fact to the Jewish reader the phrase ¡°as often as you eat¡± points
undeniably to the annual Passover meal (see Exodus 12).
How did Passover and the Sader become replaced in Christianity by Easter
and the Weekly Communion?
When the day of worship was moved to Sun-Day fundamental changes had to
be made.
First of all, the central element of the Synagogue Sabbath service is
the bringing out and reading of the Torah. This could hardly remain the
center of the Sunday morning church service, since the main thrust of
Christianity is that the Torah is bondage from which "Jesus" gives it
freedom.
Instead a form of pagan Sun god worship was retained by gentile
Christians. The pagan Sun worship practice of the "bloodless sacrifice"
of round wafers and wine replaced the Torah as the central element of
the new Sunday worship.
(For details on this pagan practice see: http://philologos.org/__eb-ttb/sect43.htm).
Traditional annual Passover continued to be practiced by the Christians
in Asia for some time. However the rest of the world replaced Passover
with Sunday communion crowned with Easter Sunday. The custom in the rest
of the word was described by Ireaneus as a duty of ¡°celebrating the
mystery of the resurrection of our Lord, only on the day of the Lord.
[i.e. Sunday].¡± (Eusebius,Eccl. Hist. 5:24).
Around 153, near the end of his life, Polycarp visited the Roman Bishop
Anicetus to discuss the differences that existed between Asia and Rome
"with regard to certain things" especially the observance of Passover.
They ¡°disputed much with each other¡± over Passover. Ireaneus says:
¡°Neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe it,
because he had always observed it with Yochanan the disciple
of our Lord, and the rest of the Apostles, with whom he associated;
and neither did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe,¡¡±
(Ireaneus; quoted by Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 5:24)
Then in 194 C.E. this conflict between Rome and Asia arose again when
the Asian representative Polycrates of Ephesus wrote a letter to the
Roman Bishop Victor. Eusebius describes the event this way:
A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes
of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of
the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb,
should be observed as the feast of the Saviour's Passover...But it was
not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world...But the
bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold to the old custom
handed down to them. He himself, in a letter which he addressed to
Victor and the church of Rome, set forth in the following words the
tradition which had come down to him.
(Eusebius,Eccl. Hist. 5:24).
Polycrates wrote as follows:
We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia
also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day
of the Lord's coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and
shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve
apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin
daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now
rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a
teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest,
wore the sacerdotal plate. He fell asleep at Ephesus. And Polycarp in
Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr
from Eumenia, who fell asleep in Smyrna. Why need I mention the bishop
and martyr Sagaris who fell asleep in Laodicea, or the blessed Papirius,
or Melito the Eunuch who lived altogether in the Holy Spirit, and who
lies in Sardis, awaiting the episcopate from heaven, when he shall rise
from the dead? All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover
according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule
of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to
the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed.
For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my
relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven.
I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and
have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through
every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those
greater than I have said 'We ought to obey God rather than man'...I
could mention the bishops who were present, whom I summoned at your
desire; whose names, should I write them, would constitute a great
multitude. And they, beholding my littleness, gave their consent to the
letter, knowing that I did not bear my gray hairs in vain, but had
always governed my life by the Lord Jesus
(Eusebius. Eccl. Hist. 5:24).
Bishop Victor attempted to cut off from the common unity Polycrates and
others because they were observing Passover, but later reversed his
decision after Irenaeus and others interceded.
At the Nicene Council the Roman Catholic Church decreed concerning
¡°Easter¡±:
¡°It was decreed by common consent to be expedient, that this festival
should be celebrated on the same day in every place¡ it seemed to
everyone a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the
Jews in the celebration of this most holy solemnity, who, polluted
wretches! Having stained their hands with a nefarious crime, are justly
blinded in their minds. It is fit, therefore, that rejecting the
practice of this people, we should perpetuate to all future ages the
celebration of this rite, in a more legitimate order, which we have kept
from the first day of our Lord¡¯s passion even to the present times. Let
us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the
Jews. We have received another method from our Savior¡.¡±
In his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation
(http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pgc.asp?page=basis/bede-book1.html)
Book 3 Chapter 25 Bede recounts that this controversy arose again in
Scotland in the 7th Century C.E. between those who observed Passover on
the 14th day after the New Moon and those who instead ¡°deliver the
sacraments of the New Testament, to be celebrated by the church, in
memory of his passion.¡± (i.e. weekly Communion) and ¡°Easter¡±.
EASTER
2000 B.C. to Date
"Prove all things" (I Thes. 5:21)
Is the name "Easter" of divine origin simply because it is found in
Bibles, in the King James translation of Acts 12:4¡ª"¡intending after
easter to bring him forth?" The R.V. renders it "after the passover," as
it is given in the original. In reading lines every honest mind will be
able to discern whether or not the celebration of Easter and also
Christmas has divine sanction.
The setting of different dates for Easter from year to year is explained
thus, in Schaff-Herzog Ency. Of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 2, p. 682:
The present variable time was appointed by early Romanism in
amalgamation with the very ancient pagan spring festival to the goddess
of the spring. It was fixed on the Sunday immediately following the 14th
day of the paschal moon which happened on or first after the vernal
equinox.
The Babylonian "queen of heaven," Semeramis, the wife of Nimrod, was the
original imperonation of the heathen goddesses, Astarte and Venus of
the Greeks, Juno of the Latins, Ashtoreth, of the Zidonians, Ishtar, of
the Babylonians, and Eostre, the goddess of spring, of the early
Anglo-Saxons. The Druids held religious festivals in her honor and the
sun-god in April, calling it Easter Monath. Hence the careless insertion
of the word "easter" instead of "passover" in Acts 12:4 by the King
James Translators.
This Ishtar, or Eostre, was worshipped as the goddess of love and
fertility, and as the life of nature. In Babylonian mythology this
"queen of heaven" was worshipped as the goddess of the sexual impulse.
In Hasting¡¯s Ency. On Religious Ethics, p. 117, we read of these ancient
"easters":
A spring feast was celebrated. These occasions were marked with great
sexual license.
This is the vile phallic worship referred to in Isa. 57:5-8 and Ezek.
16:17. The "groves" connected with "high places" that Israel so
frequently "went whoring with" (Ps. 106:28-39) were the images and
places where these filthy "queen of heaven" festivals were carried on.
The word "groves," found forty times in the KJV English, comes from the
Hebrew word asherah and is always associated with the worship of
Ashtoreth, alias Ishtar, Eostre, the goddess of spring, Easter.
The so-called "Lent season" is of purely Babylonian origin. The word
"Lent" came from the Saxon word "Lenct", meaning "spring." Pagan
Mexicans also celebrated forty days in April. Forty days in the vernal
equinox in April was celebrated by the devil worshippers of Koordistan
in honor of the sun-god. This was brought from Babylon where 2000 B.C.
It originated in the weeping for Tammuz, the supposed reincarnation of
Ishtar¡¯s (o.e. Semeramis¡¯) husband (Nimrod). In the spring, his death
and reappearance was celebrated. A time of mourning was followed by one
day of joy. God condemned Israel¡¯s partaking in this celebration as
given in Ezek. 8:13-14:
He said to me, "turn you yet again and you shall see greater
abominations that they do." Then he brought me to the door of the gate
of the House of YHWH which was toward the north, and behold there sat
women weeping for Tammuz.
Modern Easter Customs
One may well ask, What connection have buns, eggs, rabbits and new
clothes with the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah? The origin of
modern "hot cross buns" is sufficiently explained in Jer. 7:18;
44:17-19:
The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women
knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out
drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger,
Surely God¡¯s anger is still being provoked when believers take up these
pagan customs in connection with the resurection of His beloved Son.
The custom of giving eggs in April can be traced the philosophy and
theology of the Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans, among
whom the egg was an emblem of the universe¡ªthe work of the Supreme
Being. The dyeing of eggs can be traced to the Chineses. Eggs were the
sacificial emblem of the Druids. Rome made the egg to become the
consecrated emblem of Messiah¡¯s ressurection. Pope Paul V taught people
to pray at Easter:
Bless O Lord, we beseech thee this thy creature of eggs that it may
become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in
remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ancient Babylonians believed an egg fell from heaven into the Euphrates
river and the fishes rolled it to the shore where the doves hatched out
"the Queen of Heaven", or Ishtar. Hence the egg became a symbol of
Ishtar, the licentiously worshipped goddess of the ancients, and is used
today by deluded unthinking Christendom in its celebration of Easter.
What ungodly travesty!
The rabbit fad at Easter time can be traced back to pagan Germany.
Children were told that if they were good, a white hare would steal into
the house while they were asleep and secrete any number of beutifully
colored eggs in odd corners of the house. Here originated the modern
"Easter egg hunt" provided for innocent children.
The hare, from ancient times was a symbol of the moon (the consort of
the Sun Venus or Ishtar), it being a nocturnal animal. The hare is the
only rabbit born with its eyes open. The Egyptian word for hare is "un",
meaning "to open". Thus the hare was associated with the opening of a
new season, spring, in April, at the vernal equinox. The hare and eggs
were mutually symbolical in Egypt of the opening of their new year, at
which eggs were ceremoniously broken.
But from where did the custom of wearing new clothes at Easter come
from? Answer: In early England it was considered unlucky not to wear
some new article of clothing at Easter time.
Lastly, what about Easter sun-rise services? Do they too come under
divine condemnation? We need only look to the criticism of the Tenach
itself. When Israel took to the idea of "sunrise services", God
expressed His disaproval in Ezek. 8:15-18:
Turn you yet again and you shall see greater abominations than these.
And he brought me into the inner court of the House of YHWH and behold,
at the door of the Temple of YHWH between the porch and the alter, were
about five and twenty men with their backs to the Temple of YHWH and
their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the
east¡ and though they cry in my ear with a loud voice, yet will I not
hear them.
Reading this in the Tenach and knowing the sun-god, Ba¡¯al, or Tammuz,
the "husband-son" of Semeramis (Ishtar) has been given idolatrous homage
from the very beginning of all idol worship, the sincere follower of
YHWH will have no part with a Messiah rejecting world in seemingly
innocent and sentimentally "beautiful" Easter sunrise services or in any
and all Messiah-deflecting customs which are of proved, HaSatan
inspired, pagan origin.
"Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them."
(Eph. 5:11).
The Torah reminds us:
"You shall not follow a multitude to do evil"
(Ex. 23:2)
And as Y'shua himself said:
"That which is highly esteemed among men is abominable in the sight of
Elohim"
(Luke 16:15)
And as Paul writes:
"Be you not conformed to this world but be you transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may know what is that good and
acceptable and wholehearted will of G-d."
(Rom. 12:2)
Ed Stevens (Edited by James Trimm)
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