| Passover & Unleavened Bread |
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| Written by Carl & Julie Parker | |
| Friday, 18 April 2008 | |
ScripturesExodus 13:17 to 15:26 Passover Part One:
Passover Is the Time Yeshua Chooses His Bride
The Bride is found in the wilderness. She is separated and drawn out from the realms of death to the realms of life. She is told to receive the Saviors’ blood and apply it to the doorposts of her house; upon her heart. Blood contains DNA, the pattern for life. The complete pattern for her new life with her Savior is in His blood. His life is in the blood and it is this blood that is applied to her heart. This is the foundation she will build her house on.
A nation is birthed. The Bride crosses over and becomes a Hebrew, meaning one who has crossed over. At Passover the Bride sees all the signs of wonders of how her Savior saved her. She examines her way and in haste leaves to join Him. She leaves behind the leaven, her sin nature and all that brought sin and death upon her. She discards her old way of life and surrenders her heart to Him to seek after His righteousness. She goes out into the wilderness alone to meet him. The day after the Passover she departs for the wilderness. This next seven days is her personal consecration time called the feast of Unleavened Bread.
The Bride Knows the Way
She now comes into covenant relationship and lifestyle with her Savior and begins to dedicate herself to the One who released her from bondage, Yeshua Ha Mashiach.
It will not be until Shavuot/Pentecost, fifty days after Passover/ Unleavened Bread that the Bride enters into betrothal with her Savior. Here she totally, wholeheartedly sets herself aside for him alone. No other love will satisfy her. After this the Bridegroom will leave her for a time to go and prepare a place for her and will return at the Father’s appointed time. The betrothal is the first of three steps in marriage of the Lamb. In the betrothal the Bride waits, keeping her lamp lit while preparing herself for His return.
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of YHVH. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of YHVH is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge (Deliverer) is standing at the door! (James 5:7-9).
Passover Part Two: Early Church Father’s HistoryHave you ever wondered how YHVH’s feast days became separated from man’s celebrations of God? Taking a historical look into the background reveals how this happened and why the Church never fully embraced the feast of Passover or any of YHVH’s appointed feast days. Early Church Fathers: Origen, Eusebius and Constantine – History ExploredFirst: A Look at Eusebius For Eusebius, there was no longer a precise and definite distinction between the Church and the Empire or State. They appeared to merge into each other. If the kingdom was to be fulfilled through a personal earthly reign of Yeshua the Messiah from Jerusalem following the repentance of Israel, then the Jews were inescapably part of that kingdom. In which case, God’s faithfulness to the Jews had not expired and the kingdom was still future. On the other hand, if Constantine, the emerging Holy Roman Empire, and the State-exalted Church were the kingdom, then there was no need for the Jews - the fullness of the kingdom was in the present. Moreover, if the Jews held no special significance for the fulfilled kingdom of God, then God had no need or plan for them. Thus the rejection and replacement of the Jews was the means of fulfilling the kingdom. Instead of being natural citizens of the kingdom, the Jews, whether devout to Judaism or not, became the enemies of the kingdom. And if that were the case, then the Church needed to recognize and proclaim it. In the fourth century, Eusebius firmly believed that the Church was the New Israel, replacing the Jews. Upholding his mentor, Origen’s, philosophy, Eusebius either rejected the normal meaning of the Scriptures that promised the restoration of not only the Jewish people but all the twelve tribes of Israel, or he ignored these Scriptures altogether. Eusebius was intentionally inaccurate. He had his own agenda. Eusebius was the product of the Alexandrian school of theology (that of Origen), “the first thoroughly dishonest historian of antiquity.” The Church that he wanted to help create was more important to him than the historical, biblical reality. Beginning in the third century he is credited with being the father of the allegorical method of interpretation and made allegory the only way to truly understand the Scriptures. He often denied the ordinary sense of the text, instead replacing it with allegories that he made up. These allegories then became the “real” meaning of the text. When the text said “Israel”, it meant “the Church” and not the Jews, so long as the promise or comment was good. If the promise or comment was not good, then “Israel” still meant “the Jews”, and not “the Church”. Origen “The Heretic” In his youthful zeal for ascetic holiness, Origen committed the act of self-emasculation (castration), which he repented for in his later years. Nevertheless, in 228 CE, he was ordained presbyter by two friendly bishops. True “Early Church” History From the end of the Bar Kokhba rebellion on, all Jews were forbidden to even enter the precincts of Jerusalem. The city itself had been destroyed and renamed Aelia, in honor of the divine Aelia Hadrianus, also known as the Emperor Hadrian (who destroyed Jerusalem), who was thought to be the very nature of Roman god Jupiter. Up until that time, the bishops of Jerusalem had all been Jewish. The Roman Empire destroyed or removed the Jewish bishops and Gentile ones replaced them. The Gentile bishops and churches naturally began to think of themselves as having replaced the Jews, thus the start of Replacement theology began. For Origen the whole debate between the Church and the Synagogue could be reduced to the one question of the interpretation of Scripture. Thus he viewed the difference between Judaism and Christianity as follows: Christians perceive the mysteries which are only hinted at in the Bible, whereas Jews are only capable of a strictly literal understanding of the text. Unfortunately, Origen chose to ignore or alter reality to make it fit with his beliefs. Origen decided to portray them as disgraceful “Jews” who were rejecting YHVH. Anyone who did not accept his allegorical system of interpretation was nothing more than “a Jew,” and really did not belong in the Church. Origen distorted the reality rather than change his beliefs. Pamphilus ~ The Presbyter and Promoter The views of Origen had been declared to be heretical but, led by Pamphilus, the churches in “Palestine” established a theological school and library dedicated to establishing Origen’s views as the true orthodoxy throughout the entire Church. Pamphilus taught Eusebius, and Eusebius wholeheartedly gave himself to the task of publishing six volumes in defense of the views of Origen. Origen’s heresy inevitably triumphed in the fourth century at the Council of Nicea through Eusebius, Constantine, and those who followed them. The Council of Nicea settled two main issues. The first concerned the heretical writings of Arius, a Presbyter in Alexandria. The second was in respect to the proper day of keeping Easter, because some were celebrating that festival in the manner of the Jews, while others, in the custom of Christians. Emperor Constantine assembled a general council of 318 bishops to meet at Nice, in Bithynia. When they assembled, Constantine admonished them against disunity. Constantine had united the Empire, now he intended to deliver the Church from “internal sedition” as well. Easter Versus PassoverYeshua – Our Passover Lamb A “New Day” For the Church ~ Easter Sunday Vs. Passover (Nissan 14th) The Council of Nicea in 325 CE finally settled the issue. There it was decided that all the churches should celebrate the Passover, or actually Easter, on the ecclesiastically chosen Sunday rather than the Biblical date. All the churches were thus informed, or rather, ordered, as Constantine did so under the threat of death if anyone should resist unifying with his decision. A breakaway from the Word of YHVH, called Torah, and an institution of man’s word became the new law. Constantine said that “the most holy feast” of Easter should be celebrated on one and the same day. This was the new divine will of Constantine. The letter sent to the churches officially established an anti-Biblical foundation for the doctrine and practice of the Church, and declared contempt for the Jews, and separation from them as the only proper Christian attitude. An excerpt from the Council of Nicea states, “…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, Easter in a more legitimate order…Let us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews…In pursuing this course with a unanimous consent, let us withdraw ourselves…from that most odious fellowship.” It was Eusebius who provided the new calendar for determining the day to be celebrated so that no believer could celebrate Passover on the Biblically ordained day of Nissan the fourteenth. Thus Rome axed God’s feast of Passover regardless of God’s word in the Scriptures. God’s remaining feast days would shortly follow, as it was soon heresy to practice celebrating them upon threat of death. Church Religion Versus God’s Religion Constantine saw himself as the incarnate sun god, following the example of his father and earlier 3rd-century emperors. Constantine in his early life was a solar henotheist, believing that the Roman sun god, Sol, was the visible manifestation of an invisible Highest God, who was the principle power behind the universe. This god was thought to be the companion of the Roman emperor. They saw the rebirth of life in the spring after the death of winter as a spiritual and holy phenomenon, and invariably connected the rebirth of life with the resurrection of a deity, the archetypal symbolism once again readily apparent. The Origin of Easter Of pre-Christian origin, the Teutonic Dawn-goddess, Ishtar, is called "the queen of heaven." Sunrise services began with ancient peoples who wanted to worship the sun as it came up to celebrate this "cross" of the heavenly bodies; it was and still is a pagan holiday. On this day the temple prostitutes would hold wild orgies and get pregnant. Then the next year the three-month-old babies would be sacrificed to her by fire on an altar. Eggs, symbols of fertility from the supposed egg laying rabbits, would be dipped in the blood of the infants who were sacrificed up to the goddess, and then hidden. Later on during the day, the children of the Canaanite parents would often go and hunt for the eggs, which were symbolic of sex, fertility and new life. It was believed that these eggs came from rabbits, which in the pagan world were symbolic of lust, sexual prowess and reproduction. The modern Easter egg hunt, decorating eggs and eating candy eggs has become an accepted tradition for Easter celebration today, yet many who celebrate this, even Christians, are not aware of its origin. The underlying scientific explanation is that at the vernal equinox the sun is directly over the equator, apparently moving northward from an earth based vantage point, and will soon be "born again" into the northern hemisphere as the light increasingly floods the earth with longer days, more warmth, and the return of vegetation from its dormant or "dead" state, a clear connection of journeys to, and return from, the underworld. Again, the dominant idea is the link to the sun as the giver and protector of life, the "savior" of the world. Constantine – “The Sun God” Rome also intervened with the date of the birth of Yeshua, who biblically was born during the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall season. Constantine desired to retain continuity (control) among the churches and so again arranged for Yeshua’s accepted birth date to coincide with his Roman calendar. December 25th had long been recognized in antiquity, over 300 years before the birth of Yeshua, as the return of the sun. In ancient times, before the establishment of the Gregorian calendar, it was the date of the winter solstice, the point when the sun reaches its southern-most trek below the equator, where it appears to stand still for three days. After that time it begins to move back toward the Northern Hemisphere, gaining strength with each passing day as the "sun is born," or the "light comes into the world," or "the light of the world" is at hand. All terms we use today for the birth of Christ introduced by the Roman rule of Constantine, who saw himself as the incarnate sun god. Also in the fourth century, Pope Julius I commanded a committee of bishops to establish the date of the nativity of Jesus. December 25 (the day of Sol Invictus, the invincible sun) was decided upon. Not coincidentally, that is the day when the “pagan world celebrated the birth of their sun gods – the Egyptian Osiris, Greek Apollo and Bacchus, Chaldean Adonis and Persian Mithra - when the Zodiacal sign of Virgo (the sun is born of a virgin) rose on the horizon. Thus the ancient festival of the Winter Solstice, the pagan festival of the birth of the Sun, came to be adopted by the Christian Church as the nativity of Jesus, and was called Christmas.” Prior to convening the council, Constantine had already declared that whoever would disturb the unity of this Church doctrine would be a “malignant foe” motivated by a “malevolent demon,” exposing God’s law to “slander and detraction.” Constantine had achieved political victory by the sword in the name of YHVH. From that point on, Church doctrine was to be enforced by the sword of the State. The books of heretics were to be burned and exterminated from the earth. In an attempt to erase all Hebrew content of Yeshua, the Church ceased to be the Church of Jesus but became the Church of Constantine. It was no longer the bride of Messiah. It had become the bride of Caesar. The light within turned to darkness. The Church changed from a means of salvation into a means of destruction. Through the centuries, the Constantinian Church has sought and brought about the death of millions of people the world around. Many of them have been Jewish. Under Constantine, Eusebius wrote a history of the Church, mentioned earlier, that pointedly eliminated any positive reference to the restoration of Israel and the earthly reign of Yeshua. The Church was now officially “Contra Judaeos” and “Adversus Judaeos” – set against and set in opposition to the Jews. Thus was established the anti-Judaic foundation on which both doctrine and practice were then built. The historical and theological eradication of the Jews prepared the way for the “lawful” attempts to physically eradicate them. The Church itself replaced the power of God with the might of the Roman Empire. The Church became its own kingdom. God’s Truth was henceforth to be determined by Church councils, and not by the Word of God. It is remarkable that this change was made over such a clear but seemingly insignificant issue as when the Church should celebrate the Passover. The Bible sets the date for Passover as the fourteenth of Nissan, the first Biblical month. That is when Yeshua celebrated the Passover. The apostles did the same. Again, we read in Acts that the apostle Paul, whose ministry was to the Gentiles, celebrated YHVH’s feasts thirty years after Yeshua’s death (Acts 20:7, Acts 20:16, Acts 27:9). The Church built by the Apostles knew when Passover was. But three hundred years after, from the Council of Nicea on, the Church authority, with which Constantine governed the people, would no longer observe or allow the Biblical dates to be observed, because they were “too Jewish”, just as the Bible itself was “too Jewish.” The doctrines of men on the other hand could be whatever men wanted them to be. The city of Jerusalem had her name taken away, and she was placed in subjection to the church that had embraced Origen. Constantine and Eusebius institutionalized many serious errors. They made changes that plunged the Church and the world into a literal thousand years of darkness. They laid a different foundation than Yeshua and His apostles had lain. A new era in the history of the Church had begun. In actuality, a new divergent Church began, one that separated itself from YHVH. Did Constantine’s plan succeed? Did he override God and His plan for His people Israel and their redemption? God’s feast days are prophetic for all Nations and will unfold at their appointed times as stated in His Word. What Constantine did (and others like him) with the cross by turning it upside down to become a sword against God’s people will not prevail.
Shabbat Shalom, References: Various web sites and the Catholic web site: Past Parshot: www.messianicisrael.com/sheepfold-gleanings/ |
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