What does God say about the Passover-Easter issue in His Holy Bible. Who really wants to know? Those who will honestly and openmindedly “study (His Word) to be approved by Him” (2 Thes. 2:15), who will, through intensive study of His Word, “grow in knowledge and grace (2 Pet. 3:18), knowing that “he that answers (gives an opinion on) a matter before he hears (understands) it” is operating in shameful folly (Prov. 18:13). Note that “knowledge” of God’s Word comes before “grace,” meaning that we must know what He said and obey it before He will gracefully forgive our past failings to do so. Rule to live by: NO KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH AND OBEDIENCE TO IT=NO GRACE. Satan has deceived the Counterfeit Church into believing that Jesus died so that she doesn’t have to obey God’s Truth. See the Introduction to the website. With the  Scriptures given above in mind, let us set aside all church-provided “truth” concerning the Passover-Easter question; let us tremble before the Holy Word of God, humble ourselves and ask Almighty God to direct our thoughts as we “prove all things” relative to God’s Truth (1 Thes. 5:21). Warnings: God’s Truth will contradict what you have been told. If you voice the Truth you will be attacked. If you obey the Truth you will find yourself alone.

If you persist in believing and obeying God you will find several arguments coming from Satan’s surrogates, the primary one being that the annual Sabbaths (Holy Days) and the weekly Sabbath were part of the sacrificial, ritualistic law of Moses and therefore not part of New Testament Church theology– that both were supposedly “nailed to the cross.” A favorite verse used to do away with them is Collossians 2:16: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a Holy Day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.” In verse 18 he tells them not to let anyone “beguile” them (talk them out) of their reward for observing those days. Question: If those things had been done away with by Jesus, why was Paul telling the church not to allow anyone to stop them from observing them? Bear in mind that this was some 25 years after the establishment of the church. AND THEY WERE STILL OBSERVING THOSE THINGS. Obviously, Jesus had not “nailed them to the cross?” Those who use this passage to do away with God’s Holy Days do so out of ignorance of Biblical history and basic Scriptural principles. Fact: ONLY THOSE ITEMS FOUND IN THE LAW OF MOSES WERE ELIMINATED BY JESUS. THE ITEMS LISTED IN COLLOSSIANS 2:16 WERE NOT PART OF THE LAW OF MOSES. The law of Moses was added several months after his meeting with God on Mt. Sinai where he was given the Ten Commandments, which specifically included the weekly Sabbath. The ritualistic, ceremonial, sacrificial law was forced on the Israilites because they refused to obey His moral, Ten Commandment Law (Covenant) which he wrote in stone and stored in the Ark of the Covenant. If the weekly Sabbath commandment (#4) was nailed to the cross, then so were the other nine (Jam. 2:10,11). And if the weekly Sabbath was eliminated, then were also the annual Sabbaths. Nowhere in Scripture are we told that any of the Sabbaths were done away with. The author of that rumor is the author of all lies–Satan.

In the 12th chapter of Exodus, before Israel left Egypt and before Mt. Sinai, we find God commanding the Israelites to observe the first of His annual Holy Days–Passover. Following their extraction, He reminded them to do so. In the 23rd chapter of Leviticus we find Him commanding His people to observe all of His Holy Days. He goes to some length to describe each: General statement (vs 2,4); the weekly 7th day Sabbath (vs 3); Passover and days of unleavened bread (vss 5-8); Pentecost (vs 16); Feast of Trumpets (vs 24,25); Day of Atonement (vss 27-32); Feast of Tabernacles (vss 34-37). Jesus did away with all rituals relative to the Holy Days, commanding that we recognize them as non-work Sabbaths which include feasting and a holy convocation (meeting of the church). The exception to the feast rule is the Day of Atonement in which we fast from sundown to sundown. To be continued. L.J.