Passover, The Lord’s Supper or Easter (The Resurrection)?

1 Corinthians 11:26 NKJ: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” In Luke 22:19 Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Nowhere in Scripture are we commanded to memorialize Jesus’ resurrection, however we are commanded to memorialize His death.

The Old Testament Passover was a type and shadow of the Lord’s Supper; the sacrificial lamb slain on the day of Passover prefigured Christ Jesus, our sacrificial lamb in the New Testament. The Passover was established to be a reminder to the children of Israel of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The Lord’s Supper was established to be a reminder to New Covenant believers of our deliverance from sin’s bondage. And this is what we are commanded to observe by divine authority.

Make no mistake! The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a GREAT EVENT! The fact of Christ’s resurrection was the very cornerstone for the faith of the apostles; the reason for their deep conviction and conversion; the reason they could maintain their courage in the face of martyrdom! Yet, for all its significance, there is not one scripture in the Bible telling us to set apart a day to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus however did give us clear and solemn instructions to memorialize His death.

Furthermore, Easter does not accurately represent Jesus Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, though it appears to do so to those who blindly accept religious tradition. In fact, it distorts the truth. What do the symbols of the Easter bunny, colored eggs, egg hunts, 40 days of Lent and sunrise services have to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and His dying for the sins of the world? Once again, a pagan holiday overshadows the cross of Jesus.
“Easter correctly belongs to the Babylonian goddess it’s named after whose worship is directly and explicitly condemned in the Bible. The ancient religious practices and fertility symbols associated with pagan deities existed long before Christ, and regrettably they have largely replaced and obscured the truth of His death and resurrection.” [The Encyclopedia Britannica and the Encyclopedia of Religion]

Christians have come to believe Jesus died on a Friday [Good Friday], and was resurrected on Sunday. But Scripture clearly teaches He spent 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb and arose before Sunday morning. You can’t get 3 days and 3 nights from Friday to Sunday morning [1 1/2 days]. Jesus did not rise on Easter Sunday morning; He rose the night before at the end of His prophesied three days and three nights. [The Jewish Sabbath begins Friday evening at sunset and ends Saturday evening at sunset. Genesis 1:14] Scriptures tells us when the women arrived at His tomb in the dark of the morning, He was already gone. John 20:1 says when Mary Magdalene came to the tomb ‘it was still dark…and the stone had been rolled away.” Jesus did not rise from the grave on a Sunday. When Mary came to the tomb before sunrise on Sunday morning, she found the tomb empty. Scripture indicates that He rose from the grave just before sunset on Saturday.

When confronted with these facts about Easter, many professing Christians might raise this question to justify its continuance: “With hundreds of millions of Christians observing Easter, doesn’t this please the Lord? Jesus has already answered this question in Matthew 15:9: “In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

The celebration of Easter comes out of the great whore church of Roman Catholicism under the pretension of Christianity. The true church of Jesus Christ has always existed outside this brothel of a mother church and her harlot daughters [those who follow her practices]. Revelation 18:4-5 NLT warns those who are caught up in her worldwide system in opposition to God to “Come out of her, my people, Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her. For her sins are piled as high as heaven, and God remembers her evil deeds.”

Modern day scholars, so-called higher critics, pastors, and teachers have for some years challenged the truths regarding Easter and the unbiblical decrees of the Roman Catholic Church in an attempt to cover up the truth about this supposedly Christian holiday. Steeped in the traditions of men, they have attempted to legitimize the celebration of Christ’s resurrection and the lies they tell their children by discrediting reputable historians and those who have exposed the pagan roots and practices that have been grafted into the Christian Church. This is a manifestation of a spirit of antichrist in an effort to hold us captive through erroneous teachings and deflect our focus away from the purity and truth of God’s Word.

In essence, Christianity has proclaimed as “holy” that which the Bible declares “unholy.” God once issued a scathing indictment against the priests of Israel because they did the very same thing. Consider the words of the prophet Ezekiel in the book of Ezekiel 22:26 GW “Your priests violate my teachings and dishonor my holy things. They don’t distinguish between what is holy and what is unholy. They don’t teach the difference between what is clean and what is unclean. They ignore the days to worship me. So I am dishonored among the people.”

Aaron made this same mistake of thinking he could worship God the way he wanted and it didn’t work out very well for him. Exodus 32:4-6 tells us that Aaron made a pagan golden calf so that the Israelites could have a visual representation of God, and then he proclaimed the next day as a holiday – a festival in honor of the Lord. The next morning the people got up early and sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord, celebrated with an abundance of food and drink, then began to engage in the pagan practices they had been taught in Egypt. They let their fascination with the Egyptian pagan practices lapse into idolatrous worship.
But God was fiercely angry at their mixture of pagan practices with the worship of God; He threatened to destroy all the Israelites and make a great nation through Moses. Moses pleaded with God on their behalf and God relented, but 3,000 men were killed that day. The remaining adults who had been on the verge of entering the promised land, instead were sent into the wilderness where they would die for their sins of rebellion.

Millions of Christians believe God is pleased with their Easter worship services because their intent is good; they claim when they celebrate Easter, their focus is on Christ and His resurrection, and that means it is not the same as the pagans. This is foolishness; God commands us not to learn the way of the heathen and provides numerous examples throughout the OT, where those who tried to worship in ways other than his prescribed ways were considered rebellious. (Jeremiah 10:2; Ezekiel 23:37-39]

Today many of God’s people turn themselves East to the rising sun on a Pagan Sun Day that has no biblical foundation what-so-ever. They have Easter egg hunts, baskets full of candy, and lavish meals, and call it a festival to the risen Savior. We are not allowed to take unauthorized liberty to blend pagan customs and occult practices with the worship of God. Just saying something is Christian does not make it so.

1 Cor. 10:21-22 NKJ tells us “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and the table of demons. Now do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”

These words should stand as a powerful reminder that God takes very seriously the way in which He is worshiped. When man takes upon himself the right to determine how he will honor God, he assumes a right that he does not have. God alone determines what honors or dishonors Him.

This article was written by Lynette Hughes and I share her writing because this is well written and this is the revelation God showed me personally to what we today disciples of Jesus should celebrate.