By Helena Lehman
of the
Pillar of Enoch Ministry
Originally
Published on the POEM Blog on April 7th, 2009
Revised and
Updated on February 19th, 2013
The Christian Celebration of Easter, which
usually falls during Passover Week, is a particularly good time to revisit the story
of Christ’s arrest, trial, scourging, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.
After much research, I’ve concluded that the Master of the Universe and Author
of our Salvation probably died to pay for our sins on a Wednesday in April of
31 AD, and rose from the dead before dawn on the following Sunday after being
dead three full days. Serendipitously, on the day that Christ rose, the Firstfruits
wave sheaf offering was made in the Temple in Jerusalem. The ritual of
waving a sheaf of new barley before the curtain in the Temple’s Most Holy Place
marked the first day of counting the Omer, or the days leading up to Shavuot or
Pentecost.
This year, as in the past, the Celebration of Easter or Firstfruits will fall
on the Sunday after the regular Sabbath following Passover during the Feast of
Unleavened Bread. As the symbolic day of the Firstfruits offering of the first
or early barley harvest, Easter or Resurrection Sunday signifies the
Firstfruits of the First Resurrection, which included Christ and the fortunate saints
who rose on the same day that He did. As such, they were the first harvest of
souls entering Everlasting Life in the Kingdom of Heaven
with pristine new bodies.
Yes, you heard me right! Since the
saints who rose with Christ were resurrected after His death on the Cross, they
did not die again after that. They rose to Everlasting Life instead, and it is
my firm belief that Yahshua appointed some of them to remain on the Earth after
He ascended to Heaven in order to help advance God’s will in every age leading
up to His Second Coming. This intriguing idea will be the subject of an
upcoming 2013 POEM Blog article.
In honor of what Yahshua did for us on the Cross as our Passover Lamb, I am
presenting this section about Passover that was taken from my 665-page book “
The Language of God in Humanity.”
As
you read this section of the book, I hope you will be blessed by it, and will
find much joy in your Passover and Easter celebrations this year.
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Excerpt
from the book; “The Language of God in Humanity”, Chapter Nine: Our Blood
Covenant with Yahweh, Section 9 Entitled “Easter Not Pagan, But A Celebration of
Firstfruits!” on pages 373-380:
The
Pagan spring feast days that once fell on the same day that Christians
celebrate Easter have ritual elements that are said to have originated among
the ancient Pagans in Europe and elsewhere.
Like other festivals that fall in the spring including Passover, the date for
Easter is determined using the first Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox. In addition, Easter usually falls on
the day that the Firstfruits offering of the barley harvest would have been offered
in the Temple
during the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Christ’s era.
Since
Passover is a Full Moon celebration, and Easter follows the Sabbath day after
that Full Moon, Passover and Easter were most likely associated with major
holidays for the righteous descendents of Seth prior to the Flood as well since they
understood God’s Will through Sacred Astronomy and the Gospel in the Stars.
Indeed, long before Passover, the righteous followers of Yahweh probably saw this
time of rebirth and renewal on the Earth as sacred unto Yahweh. In addition,
they saw the Sun as a symbol for Yahweh and therefore likely chose to celebrate
various divine blessings on the equinoxes and solstices - but in a markedly
different way than the Pagans who worshipped themselves or demons would have
chosen to.
Due
to their great knowledge of Sacred Astronomy and the Precession of the Equinoxes, the Sethites and Semites knew that the
Spring Equinox would move from Taurus at the time of Adam, to
Aries later on. Furthermore, because of the Gospel in the Stars, they knew that both signs represented a
holy altar to Yahweh covered with acceptable blood sacrifices - sacrifices that
symbolized the coming Messiah. As shown in Book One, Aries is a symbol for
Christ’s mercy and love for the righteous, and Taurus is a symbol of His New
Covenant with mankind, His power over sin and death, His universal kingship,
and the meting out of His wrath upon the wicked when He comes again in Glory.
Due
to their understanding of Sacred Astronomy and the Gospel in the Stars,
righteous Sethites and Semites also knew that the Sun is an
allegorical symbol for Yahweh God. As a result, though they did not worship the
Sun, they honored its place as the divider
of the year, and determiner of the seasons. They knew that the Sun symbolizes
the fact that Yah determines the times and seasons for all things in each human
life, and this is true whether or not people acknowledge His place in their
lives.
Sadly,
however, the Pagans invented false stories around the Zodiac signs and
misinterpreted most astronomical events surrounding the Sun, Moon, and planets.
Worst of all, they began to worship the stars and planets as deities, and made
idols to represent them in human form. They thereby perverted the teachings of
Sacred Astronomy, and obscured the truths about the one true God that the stars
and our Solar System were intended to teach. Stars, planets, the Sun, and the
Moon became idolatrous objects of worship instead of sanctified teaching mechanisms
meant to educate mankind about the nature of God and mankind’s place in God’s
Plan of Salvation.
Symbols in nature that may have once represented the
idea of everlasting life also came to be associated with Pagan gods and goddesses, thereby masking their true
significance. These include once godly symbols such as flowers, eggs, and
evergreen plants. Using the principles behind the
Language of God, however, it should be easy to see that
eggs, flowers, and evergreens could be symbols of something far greater than
human fertility, the fecundity of the soil, and the Pagan view of everlasting
life through reincarnation. Rather, they could symbolize spiritual rebirth in
the symbolic womb of the Spirit of God, and the
promise of everlasting life through the Resurrection.
The
first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox was probably always meant to symbolize
the triumph of life over death through the Resurrection. But because spring is
the time of year when animals of all kinds mate and give birth, it became
associated with sex and fertility as well. This association, though not
unwarranted, led to the abominable practice of viewing promiscuous sex as a
kind of virtue when performed to honor some god or goddess. As a result, the
Full Moon nearest the Vernal Equinox, and the day of the Vernal Equinox
itself, were both eventually viewed as a ready excuse for the rampant
fornication openly encouraged at that time of year in many
Pagan societies. In addition, the pure symbols associated with these celestial
events were eventually connected to erroneous beliefs such as reincarnation,
and to acts of ritual murder and infant sacrifice.
In
contrast to the evil Pagan practices that became falsely associated with the
Christian celebration of Easter, the
traditional Jewish Passover “Haggadah” or religious service is biblically
ordained and embellished with beautiful symbolism. The Jews have performed
Passover and the accompanying Feast of Unleavened Bread in
a manner that has not changed significantly for thousands of years. It follows,
then, that if we truly want to honor Yahshua, we should celebrate Yahshua’s
death and resurrection at the same time that some Jews celebrate Passover Week,
which is in the seven days beginning with the Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox.
Since
the Christian date for Easter is the technically correct date that the
Firstfruits Offering would have been made in the Temple during Passover week, it would be
fairly easy for Christians to connect their Easter celebrations with the
rituals surrounding Passover, which are rich with symbolism directly pertaining to Christ
and His redemptive work on the Cross. Because of this, Easter and Passover
should be the most important religious holidays in the Messianic and Christian
year. Though Messianics and Christians should choose to keep the
biblical feasts to honor Yahshua and our heavenly Father, they do not have to
keep the Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the same way that
Orthodox Jews do. Instead, they are free to celebrate biblical feasts in any
way that honors Yahshua and His teachings.
Though
Spirit-filled Christians do not have to keep the Passover or Easter, there
are many reasons why Passover Week is important for both Jews and Christians to
remember and study. The major reason is that, as mentioned before, Yahshua instated the ritual of Communion on
the Passover before He died. In the following excerpt from Mark’s Gospel,
Yahshua offers the third cup or Cup of Redemption at
the Passover service He shared with His apostles. At this time, He tells them
that this cup signifies His blood - the symbolic blood of the true Passover
Lamb. Before this, He offers them the
unleavened bread of the Passover, called “matzo” by contemporary Jews, to
signify His flesh:
“While they were eating,
Jesus (Yahshua) took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his
disciples, saying, ‘Take it; this is my body.’ Then he took the cup, gave
thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the Covenant, which
is poured out for many,’ he said to them. ‘I tell you the truth, I will not drink
again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.’ ” - Mark 14:12-25 (NIV)
In
the preceding Scripture, Yahshua vows that He will not drink from the Passover
cup again until He drinks it in the “kingdom of God.”
Yahshua was, of course, referring to the Millennial Kingdom
- where He and His saints will rule the world for a thousand years. The clear
inference here is that Yahshua intends to keep the Passover during His entire
reign, and it follows that His subjects will be asked to do the same. Though
those who are already resurrected at that time will not need to keep the
Passover to be spiritually instructed by it, they will nonetheless keep it
joyfully because they will fully know and appreciate what it represents. This
knowledge will give them every cause to rejoice even as they set a perfect
example for those in Yahshua’s Millennial
Kingdom who are still
mortal.
To
understand why Yahshua wants the world to keep the Passover during His reign,
we need to use our imaginations to go back in time and become familiar with the
events of the very first Passover. On that day, at twilight, Yahweh
ordered each Israelite family to slaughter a year-old male kid or lamb in front
of the doorway leading into their home. The blood from the sacrifice was pooled
in a small drainage ditch dug below the doorway. After dipping a branch in the
blood, they used it to smear the blood onto the lintel (i.e. top beam) of the
doorway and then the two side-posts in succession. They thereby
literally drew the sign of the Cross in blood over their doorways. This
blood-marked doorway was prophetically significant, but initially only promised
to temporarily protect the Israelites from physical death:
“The blood will be a
sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass
over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” -
Exodus 12:12,13 (NIV)
On
that first Passover, the blood of a lamb marked on the doorways of
Israelite homes signified the blood of a Covenant that Yahweh cut with Israel alone.
It was a conditional and temporary Covenant that only promised Israel protection from the Angel of Death that
swept over Egypt
for one night. On that night, those who ate the Covenant sacrifice (the
lamb), and stayed inside houses marked with its blood survived to leave Egypt -
a place that had become a terrible prison of oppression and slavery for Israel.
In
the blood-dipped branches and blood-marked doorways that were a part of the
first Passover, we see an analogy for the Tree of Life, since the doorframes
were most likely constructed of wood. The blood-painted doorways, in fact, represented
three things. First, as deadwood obtained from once living trees, the doorposts
on that first Passover represented the Tree of Life destroyed. Secondly, they
symbolized Christ’s blood-soaked Cross of execution. Third, the doorposts
represented life to the inhabitants of each house. Therefore, these
blood-marked doorways represented the bloodstained gate or doorway we all must
symbolically pass through to find redemption and everlasting life.
When
Yahshua said “I
am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me,” He
was declaring that He is the Gate to Heaven -
and that everlasting life can only be found through belief in Him. Yahshua is
therefore the symbolic gate, door, or portal we must pass through in order to
get into Heaven. That is why Yahshua used analogies to
doors or gates when He referred to the purpose of His ministry to mankind:
“Therefore Jesus
(Yahshua) said again, ‘I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and
robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved…’ ” - John 10:7-9 (NIV)
All
the Jews throughout Goshen were to go through the blood-marked doorways
of their humble homes and lock themselves in. They were to remain inside all
night while the Angel of Death passed over Egypt, killing all of the firstborn children
and animals of the sinful Egyptians who had enslaved them. While this happened,
the Israelites did as they had been commanded, roasting the slaughtered lamb
whole. Then they divided the lamb into portions without breaking any of its
bones, and provided one piece for each member of the family to eat so that they
would be spared from the Angel of Death. They also ate bitter herbs and
unleavened bread (Exodus 12:8). See the Book of Exodus, Chapters 11 and 12 to
read the complete account of the first Passover.
In a
similar manner, Yahweh God pronounced the death sentence on all mankind, and
allows the Angel of Death to eventually claim everyone. Nevertheless, for
anyone who symbolically paints the blood of Yahshua on the door of their hearts
and symbolically eats His flesh in Communion, Yahweh will deliver them from
eternal death and separation from God. Those who choose to drink the wine that
symbolizes Christ’s blood marked Cross and eat the bread made without yeast
that symbolizes Christ as our Passover Lamb will live forever. The Bible
declares that Yahshua is
the Passover Lamb and the Bread of Life for all believers:
“Get rid of the old
yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast-as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed. Therefore
let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and
wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.” -
1 Corinthians 5:7,8 (NIV)
“Then Jesus (Yahshua)
declared, ‘I am the bread of
life.
He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never
be thirsty.’ ” - John 6:35 (NIV)
Like
the Manna that rained down from heaven for the Israelites in the desert,
Yahshua feeds those who seek Him. He is the unleavened bread of humility and
repentance, not the leavened bread puffed up with the yeast of pride and
arrogance. He accepts only those who eat the unleavened bread of His truth.
Unlike all the other innocent animal blood sacrifices the Israelites made to
Yahweh, which were to be without obvious physical defects, Yahshua was both
physically perfect and pure and sinless in character and spirit. The Jews
unwittingly sacrificed the only truly perfect sacrificial lamb when they
conspired with the Herodians and Romans to
crucify Yahshua on Calvary.
In
all the rituals surrounding the blood sacrifices offered by the Aaronic
priests, fine flour mixed with salt and oil were to be offered on the altar -
along with the fat and skin of the slaughtered animal. When flour, salt, and
oil are mixed together, the dough formed can be used to make unleavened bread,
which signifies sinlessness. Therefore, the flour, salt, and oil offered on the
altar symbolized the unleavened bread that alludes to Yahshua as the yeast-free
(i.e. sinless) Bread of Life. Consequently, offering oil, flour, and salt with
blood sacrifices was not a senseless ritual. Instead, it was
clearly ordained by Yahweh as a symbol for Yahshua –
the Messiah and Redeemer who became the unleavened Bread of Life through the
sacrifice of His body and blood for our sins:
“On the first of every
month, present to the LORD (Yahweh) a burnt offering of two young bulls, one
ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. With each bull there is to be a grain
offering of…
fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, a grain offering of… fine flour mixed with oil…” - Numbers 28:11-12
(NIV)
Through
the symbolic Language of God hidden in the ritual acts surrounding each
blood sacrifice, the Israelites were being shown the true Path to Salvation. Yet, even with these clear allusions to
Christ symbolized in the many thousands of sacrifices performed by the Levites on
behalf of their people every year, the Jews were still blind to the purpose of
their Messiah Yahshua when He came. The Jews, however, had no excuse for not
recognizing their Messiah except the ignorance that comes from practicing
rituals automatically - without analyzing the reasons why the rituals were
instituted in the first place.
In
analyzing the symbolism behind Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it
is evident that these two feasts are riddled with symbols that are unmistakably
a part of God’s allegorical Language. Sadly, however, many Jews practiced the
ritual religious acts associated with these feasts without regularly analyzing
their purpose. They therefore forgot the spiritual instruction symbolically
built into each ritual through the Language of God. One goal of this book is to
right their wrong. By analyzing the rituals and symbols connected to these two
important Jewish feasts, great spiritual wisdom can be gleaned from them.
Though
the rich symbolism of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread have only been
briefly touched upon here, enough has been explained to show that Christians
should remember and observe them in some special way. For more information
about the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread, and suggestions on how
Christians can keep these feasts, visit my web site at
http://pillar-of-enoch.com and look for
the article entitled:
“A Christian View of Passover” in the “Free Articles and Downloads” section.
******************************
End of Excerpt from the book:
“The
Language of God in Humanity” By Helena Lehman
This excerpt was taken from the second book in
my four-book Language of God Book Series, and it explores the meanings of many
rituals and symbols in the Bible that pointed ahead to Christ. It also explores
the Bible heroes that prefigured Christ, and prepared the way for His First
Advent, as well as the meaning of many of Yahshua’s Parables. Finally, it explores the Signs in the Heavens and the
Gospel in the Stars that surrounded His First Advent, and that are tied to the
Christ’s Ministry for us. To purchase an autographed copy of my book, please
go to the Pillar of Enoch Ministry Bookstore.
Since 2007, when this excerpt was originally shared, I also created a short
introduction for another long excerpt from the same book that can be found in the
“Free Articles and Downloads” section of the Pillar of Enoch Ministry Web
Site at http://pillar-of-enoch.com/essays/.
This excerpt surrounds the
Christian Celebration of Easter or Resurrection Sunday. Click this title: “The Timing and Heavenly Signs at Christ’s Death and Resurrection” to go directly to the links connecting
to the article at my ministry web site. I hope that you will take the time to
read it, as it shares some amazing insights into the Star Gospel that is
connected to the most likely time for Christ’s death and resurrection.
For further study on the holiness of the Christian Celebration of Easter or Resurrection Sunday and its connection to Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Please refer to the following articles that are published at my Ministry Web Site:
__________________________________________
A Christian View of the Meaning of Passover -
Includes A Passover Haggadah/Meal Service Plan
Description: This Christian version of the Order of Service for a Passover Meal was made in 1991, long before I became involved in the Messianic Movement. It was created in an effort to educate the people in my Evangelical Congregation of the importance of Easter, Passover, and Firstfruits as the central rituals identifying and defining the Christian faith. Since this essay is meant to serve as a “Haggadah” or “storyline” for a Christian Passover Seder or “order of service,” it is not identical to a Jewish Haggadah. Instead, with the exception of the use of “Yahshua” for Christ’s name, it is a Christian reinterpretation of a traditional Passover Seder. Recipes are included in this Haggadah to aid those who wish to prepare a special dinner, and follow this guide for their own Passover Seder. Please feel free to download, print and use this Christian Passover Haggadah at your own Christian Passover celebrations, and to add your own favorite recipes and religious songs, if desired: http://pillar-of-enoch.com/essays/#Lamb
__________________________________________
Easter and Its Connection to Passover and Firstfruits
Hallelu-Yah for Passover, which shows the purpose of Yahshua’s death on the Cross, and Hallelu-Yah for Easter/Firstfruits, which correctly celebrates Yahshua’s resurrection from the dead as the firstfruits offering. The firstfruits offering was always made in the Temple to Yahweh on the SUNDAY of Passover week, and on Resurrection Sunday, Yahshua was presented in the heavenly Temple to Yahweh as the Firstfruits of the Resurrection into everlasting life! Read all about the truth about Easter in relation to Passover Week in Helena’s 30-page article derived from her book “The Language of God in Humanity.” http://pillar-of-enoch.com/essays/#Firstfruits
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Note: With the exception of the Bible verses, the written material in this
article is copyrighted by Helena Lehman of the Pillar of Enoch Ministry through
the Copyright Office of the United
States of America. Therefore this article
may not be used in whole or in part in any paid commercial, digital,
electronic, or printed publication without permission from the author.
All the Scriptures used in this excerpt were taken from the PC Study Bible: New
King James Version copyrighted by Thomas Nelson Publishers in the USA
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Yahshua is coming SOON! Maranatha!
