Updated: Easter, Babylon And The Antichrist
Our LORD and Savior rules in the kingdom of men as noted in both the books of Daniel and Revelation. The precipitated Middle East situation has become the tipping point for major geopolitical world paradigm altering events, with the West's unipolar US "rules-based order" versus the Global South's multipolar system led by Russia and China. "Multipolarity only will be viable when the current political and economic regimes of the great capitalist powers, the U.S. and Europe, cease to exist." The potential of WW3 rapidly is taking place in these last days. These events are an effect as spelled out in the Biblical prophecies concerning us. The subject of this article lays out the underlying cause of these events for the Christian nations of the West. Simply stated, despite any self-righteous beliefs, we have not walked in the truth of the word of God. The prophecies in Revelation tell us about the Antichrist, the Lawless One. This is a reference to the emerging Babylon the Great. It's not a coincidence that secular events now have intersected the Biblical prophecies. Our near-term future no longer is ink on paper.
Christians are warned not to learn the ways of heathens that run contrary to the word of God. As our last days prophet Ezekiel makes clear in our LORD's warning to us, “And you shall know that I am the LORD; for you have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgements, but have done according to the customs of the heathens that are round about you.” [Eze. 11:12]. And while this may be difficult for us to absorb initially, we do observe customs of the heathens. We have been deceived into believing Easter is all about the resurrection of Christ. It's not. The Biblical record is clear as we'll discover. Christ was not resurrected on a Sunday morning as is the modern day custom.
Easter is about a resurrection, but from a deadly wound, which has great prophetic implications for us in the immediate future. [Rev. 13:3, 4; see the Sneakers article, Beware The Sackbut ... Not To Mention AI And 666!]. As will be made clear, Easter and the resurrection of Christ are two different, and theologically unrelated events according to the Biblical record. And the reason why Easter is so menacing is because its slick modus operandi is manipulated by none other than the powers behind Babylon the Great, the emerging Beast and false prophet of Revelation, whose capital will be in Jerusalem. Skeptical? Then ask yourself this ...
... Besides the festive eggs, jelly beans and chocolate bunnies, what do we really know about Easter? What do the eyewitnesses from the first century say in the Biblical record? Was Christ resurrected on an Easter Sunday morning as is the common Roman church tradition? When was the current Easter celebration started, and by whom? When we examine the account closely, we discover some unexpected answers. The truth is more remarkable than tradition. If you possess a holy curiosity, as Einstein phrased it, please continue reading.
We need to begin with a simple question. What, or more correctly, who is Easter? Yes, who. As was pointed out by the 8th century English monk, Bede, who, among many other noted works, wrote "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People," 731 CE, and whom Pope Leo XIII in 1899 named, rather posthumously, a "Doctor of the Church," Easter is the Anglo-Saxon name for the Near-Eastern pagan goddess of spring.
This revelation alone should hit us like a ton of jelly beans and chocolate bunnies. After all, the words pagan goddess in there should give us a clue that Easter isn't a Christian personage. She's more to do with the customs of the heathens. To be sure, the Babylonian goddess Easter is anti-Christian. This fact can't be stated any plainer. But does it register? Easter all has to do with the Sun, which rises in the east, the spring equinox and its related pagan religious fertility practices, aka the rite of spring, versus Christ as the Passover sacrificial lamb. [See the Feature article, The Relevance Of The Holy Days In The Plan Of God In The Last Days].
The pagan Babylonian queen of heaven and goddess of spring is Ishtar. Easter, the anglicized name of this religious deity as noted by Bede, celebrates the customs of the heathens in honor of this spring goddess. Her history, at minimum, goes back about two millennia before the resurrection of Christ. So, it is no coincidence that about two millennia after Christ we read in Rev. 17:5, "And on her forehead was written a name of mystery [Greek, mysterion, religious secrets]: Babylon the Great [the 6th head of the Beast, and false prophet, aka 666, Rev. 13:18], mother of whores [Greek, pornē] and of the earth's abominations" who "... makes the earth and all its inhabitants to worship the first beast ..." which is, surprise, surprise, Babylon.1
Make no mistake, the celebration of Ishtar, the pagan goddess, is as Satanic as any in your face children's Satan story hour or drag queen show for kids. It's just subtle, and gradually has crept in over time. [Rev. 13:12; Dan. 2:37-43; also chapter five in The Blind Man's Elephant].
In ancient Babylon, the Ishtar Gate was a grand entrance to the inner part of the city of Babylon. [Ishtar Gate]. Ironically today, Ishtar/Easter is the religious gateway through which a deceived Christian population is being taken to Babylon the Great. It's not coincidence that the Christian celebration of Easter is derived from Babylon's goddess ... who "makes the world's inhabitants to worship the first beast." It's prophecy. [Rev. 13:7]. So, fyi, we're never getting back to "normal." Our situation only gets worse from here according to the prophecies ... unless we fully change our ways. [See Jonah 3].
We're in the last days of the last days [read Eze. 22:4-16], on a direct track to Babylon the Great's emergence. Our only hope to avoid destruction and death is for our collective nations to wholeheartedly forsake the devilness of heathen practices, the lies of our adversary, and return to the truth of the world of God. These are not idle words on your device's screen. These are the words of warning to us from our Lord and Savior who rules in the kingdom of men. [Eze. 33:11; Dan. 4:17].
Recall from our other articles, when we don't know our place in Biblical history, we can't know our place in Biblical prophecy. It's one reason why we are unsuspecting of the danger posed to us by this anti-Christian Babylonian goddess. Christianity has evolved away from its first century canon. We are oblivious to having morphed into the duplicitous celebration of Easter, insulting our Lord's sacrifice on our behalf, while claiming to be Christians. [See the Feature article, And It's Still A Mystery].
It's a bit odd, but some of the temporal populace in the corrupt corporate print, radio, television and internet social media have proclaimed of late that there is a religious/secular duality with Christ's death and resurrection for the remission of sins, and the God-given promise of eternal life, resurrection from the dead. [See the Sneakers article, Name Those Tenets]. Easter is alleged to be a secular celebration apart from the theological observance of Christ's resurrection. It isn't. They're lying. And like all lies, it's intent is to deceive.
In this case, it's our adversary's intent to keep us from the truth of the word of God that would save us out of our predicament, and keep us firmly embedded with heathen customs. [Eph. 6:12; see the Sneakers article, A Life And Death Pickle Of A Predicament]. So, what atheists, agnostics and the vast majority of Christians don't realize is that Easter is a sneaky religious misdirection, most recently from the second century Roman church.
In the Biblical record, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are tied to the Passover, which occurs on the fourteenth day after the spring equinox, in Nisan, the first month of Biblical Israel's, all 12 nations, not just Judah, the Jews [Gen. 49], sacred calendar year. [Lev. 23:5]. The day after Passover is the first annual high holy sabbath day of the year. Yet, while some countries and denominations may refer to Christ's resurrection by the name Passover, Christ wasn't resurrected on the Passover either. That was the day of his crucifixion.
As was intended from before the foundation of the world, Christ was resurrected during the Days of Unleavened Bread, which have significant meaning for Christians in this age. So thorough is the Easter deception, however, most Christians never have heard of these days. We've lost all track of their relevance because we've lost track of our Biblical history. Yet, their relevance was common knowledge among the apostles and our first century Christian ancestors. And our understanding their relevance today is of vital importance. [See chapter three, p. 83ff, in The Hijacked Elephant, a complimentary PDF on the Home page; again see the Feature article, The Relevance Of The Holy Days In The Plan Of God In The Last Days].
It's no accident that these diametrically opposed religious events, the resurrection of Christ in relation to the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread and the pagan goddess of spring, Easter, with all the fertility symbols, have become entwined in our modern day. But don't be fooled. There is nothing secular about this bait and switch pagan goddess Easter, and her shill, the Easter Bunny. And while some false prophets ignorantly proclaim them harmless, they are deadly religious frauds according to our LORD. [Pro. 14:12].
We should not be surprised, then, to discover that the Babylonian goddess of goddesses, Ishtar, is the prostitute goddess of fertility, sex and war, which, in an egg shell, is symptomatic of the current state of US and Western societies, in particular, its political elite. It explains our society's obsession with war, be they hot, cold, economic sanctions or trade wars, pedophilia, transgender identity, and now with a genocidal Trojan Horse virus "vaccine." The fertility symbols of this goddess, festively colored Easter eggs and chocolate bunny rabbits that "Christians" so perilously delight in every Ishtar Sunday, saturate so-called Christian celebrations. Know it or not, in deed, Christians have become Babylonian Easter worshipers. The evidence is all around us if we have eyes to see.
The truth about Ishtar's religious Babylonian heritage is intentionally kept secret, and the Easter treachery is promoted. Akkadian is the oldest Semitic language of which we have a written record, going back to c. 3500 BCE. The Akkadian hymn, c. 1600 BCE, to Ishtar,2 we read in the last four lines of this hymn, "By her orders she has subjected to him [the Beast, king of Babylon, Dan. 11:36-39] the four world regions [N, E, W, and S] at his feet; and the total of all peoples she has decided to attach them to his yoke." This sounds like what we read in Rev. 17, the "mother of prostitutes and of the earth's abominations" who "... makes the earth and all its inhabitants to worship the first beast ...." It is the female Ishtar, the queen of heaven, that subjects the Babylon the Great order of slaves to the "first" Beast. [See Rev. 13:7, 8; Globalist Mother Church]. Easter already has Christianity celebrating her day. "A ruse by any other name ...."
And is it coincidence that the Roman Catholic [i.e., universal, globalist] church, aka Christianity's "mother church," with its deification of the "Virgin Mary," [even the Quran has a chapter about Virgin Mary, Muhammad is to marry her in heaven], the originator of the Easter tradition in Christian times, is found in all four regions of the globe today celebrating this Babylonian goddess? [Easter In Communist China; Easter in Sri Lanka]. For as we just read in Revelation, " ... she makes the earth and all its inhabitants ["the total of all peoples"] to worship the first beast," Babylon. Now see Gal. 5:1 and Rev. 17:15, also 17:5. If you're not a true believer, this Easter deception should be coming into focus.
Why the secretiveness and deception? Because the emerging Lawless One's interests are best served by having us hooked up with anti-Christian heathen religious fables, lies and social movements, deceptively leading us down the road to the sea like a pied piper, hoping we never return to the truth to fully follow Christ. [See Hosea 4:6]. "And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name ... and they worshiped [at his feet] the beast saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? ... All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." [Rev. 13:1-8; also see our Feature article, Back To Square One].
I
Our domestic brave new world has changed rapidly during the past two decades, taking a decidedly Orwellian direction in terms of putting a yoke on personal liberties. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the biggest US budget item, despite talk of cut backs in manpower, will continue to be for militaristic [overt and covert] and so-called war [homeland, foreign and "covid"] expenditures, outspending much of the rest of the world combined. This is the Big Brother fall-out of the military-industrial-political complex President Eisenhower warned about when he left office saying, "We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes." Too late.
While the populations of the Western nations have been focused on the "Covid-19" reset, the loss of liberties, and the myriad of tipping points that beset our societies, it will be the prophetic war to take place in the Middle East, involving Russia, China, the US and the West centering on Syria, Damascus in particular, that will culminate in the demise of the Western Christian nations prior to the emergence of Babylon the Great. And it is by the hand of God that this happens according to the prophecies. [See the updated Feature article, Damascus A Heap Of Ruins].
Note that the Middle East is the location of the Pentagon's CENTRAL COMMAND, not the US, which is NORTHCOM. And likely it's only a matter of time before CENTCOM HQ moves to Jerusalem. The question before us, is the Pentagon bringing Israel into its fold, or is Zionist Israel openly bringing the Pentagon under its control? [Axis Of Resistance Forming For War; Preparation Under Way; Stoking The Coals Of War; Russia Patience Wearing Thin With Israel; Russia-Syria Joint Air Patrols; see the Feature article, Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares].
Too late now, the largely autonomous Pentagon long ago experienced its Frankenstein moment. [The Pentagon's Missing Trillions]. It is now a colossus with upwards of 1000 military bases ["... he shall honor a god of fortresses ..." and " ... shall live by the sword ...." See Dan. 11:37, 38; Gen. 27:40] scattered around the global village overseen by its regional command centers, or areas of responsibility. This doesn't include its naval battle fleets on which the sun never sets. And now with GPS coordinates in hand, and its new Space Force [flying saucers?], at will it can rain down fire from the sky on any city, town or house on the planet, including those in the good ol' US of A, with its fleet of drones and military satellites [See Rev. 13:13; also Military Drones Flying In US Skies] as the office of the US President, through executive orders and kill lists, has the self-appointed authority to order the assassination of US citizens without Constitutional due process of law. This is the Lawless One after all. [See America Lost]. Arguably, it was the mightiest war power [both militarily and economically] in the history of mankind's tenure on Earth. Although in recent war games conducted by Western think tanks, the US, and the West, always lose in a war with Russia and China. And according to the prophecies, Dan. 11:44, 45, shows this to be the case.
We're beguiled by the fictitious characters, and are lovers of the anti-Christian fables that have become the hollow twin pillars of our "Christian" religion, which portray the white male Christ either as a helpless baby in a manger, or dead on a cross.
As our adversaries can deride us, This is how you portray your almighty savior to your kids and the world? We put more thought, as Western Christian nations, into the optics promoting breakfast cereals than we do Christ. Depicted this way, Christ doesn't stand a chance against the characters in Tekken or Mortal Kombat played on Nintendo Switch, Xbox or Playstation, much less the highly promoted traditional Santa and the Easter Bunny.
More fitting, we should depict Christ as told to us in Revelation 6. "And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. The kings of the Earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” [Rev. 6:12-17]. Instead, our counterfeit "Christian" holidays are perfect idealizations for creating atheists and religious snowflakes. And parents probably give their kids Nintendos or Playstations for Christmas. We are such a clever "shoot ourselves in the foot" bunch. [Shooting Ourselves In The Other Foot].
We sheep are being funneled into Babylon's pen and abattoir [sheep in, lamb chops and wool blankets out]. However, they only have power over us when we are not in tune with the truth of the word of God. [See Micah 2:12, Gen. 27:40. Read chapter six, The Genesis Birthright, in our book, The Blind Man's Elephant for a full explanation; also be sure to read the commentary on verse 4 in our Feature article, Revelation 17: Big Brother The Beast Of Babylon].
The US, in front of our collective "Christian" noses, officially honors this Babylonian prostitute goddess, Ishtar, every spring. It holds the annual White House Easter Egg Roll [see Easter Egg Roll, Easter Egg Roll 2015]. President Obama read on "Christianity's most sacred holiday," a non-Christian fairy tale book written by a non-Christian Jewish author, with an underlying message not unlike the Christian writer Dostoevsky's warning in The Brothers Karamazov. [See the Feature article, Is That You, Big Brother?]. We must ask, why was the president not reading a Christian children's book? Because Easter is not Christian, she's Babylonian. Why was he not reading from one of the New Testament gospels about Christ's resurrection? Because Easter is about Babylon's resurrection, not Christ's. 1+1 = 2.
President Trump made his appearance with Ishtar's shill as well. One wonders if we will see Biden pose with the Babylonian bunny this Easter, and if he will be wearing a bacterial pneumonia inducing, submission mask too. 2023, he did. [Yep, Keeping The Babylonian Goddess Myth Moving Forward; 2022, "Secret Service" Easter Bunny Protects Biden From Himself]. And he dug the hole a bit deeper with his 2024 "Transgender Day."
The White House annual event is billed as where we "Celebrate Easter," i.e., the Babylonian goddess, but not Christ our Savior, who's not mentioned at all. Clever deceit, eh? [WH Easter Egg Roll 2023; White House Easter 2018 "... weaving new [albeit anti-Christian heathen] traditions into the fabric of our Nation" ["according to the customs of the heathens"]; WH Ishtar 2019]. This official gathering is assumed by "Christians" to be in honor of Christ, even though it clearly is all about Easter. However, in an oxymoronic display a giant Easter Bunny entertains and delights parents and children in attendance from every state in the country. Yet, Christian leaders of mega and minor churches remain silent. Have we become this blind and deceived? The years 2020 through 2024, provide us our answer.
It is illuminating that on the White House site concerning Easter eggs, it states, "Traditional Easter Eggs have existed for thousands of years, dating back to Mesopotamia." They're correct about this. Thus, modern day "Christian" symbols are infused with the spirit of ancient heathens. [See the blue Ishtar Gate in Babylon]. It's hardly a Christian first century tradition, is it? Also, they make the false claim, "[The Easter] Eggs were dyed red to represent the blood of Christ spilled on Good Friday." This is a deceit on many levels, but mainly because Christ wasn't crucified on a Friday as we'll discover. It's another deceit.
Ironically, the red Babylonian eggs are a reflection of end-times prophecy. In truth, the red on these eggs represents the blood of deluded Christians who will die by the sword, famine, and pestilence at the hand of our LORD for participating in this heathen custom of the Babylonian Easter. "For thus says the LORD: ‘Your affliction is incurable, your wound is severe. There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines. All your lovers have forgotten you; they do not seek you [the emerging multipolar world led by Russia and China]; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased. Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you." [Jer. 30:12-15].
The reasons for our predicament is stated twice to make it clear to us. And if there is any doubt about our believing Easter is so wonderful, here's the fruit of that deception. "Thus says the Lord GOD: “Pound your fists and stamp your feet [Ezekiel, Eze. 3:1], and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the House of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence." [Eze. 6:11]. If you happen to be dyeing eggs this year, remember, our LORD warns us, it's our blood on those eggs. "I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy." [Isa. 63:1- 3].
So, can't you picture that original Sunday? What a jolly morning it must have been for the freshly resurrected Christ. No doubt Christ was totally surprised hunting for all those Mesopotamian Easter eggs, especially the red ones, that Mary Magdalene and the apostles colored for him while he was dead. "Oh, you guys! You didn't have to go through all that trouble for me!" And can't you just see Christ and the apostles rolling their eggs in delight for the very first time!? I wonder which apostle dressed up as the Easter Bunny? One can only imagine that after all that excitement, Christ sat down with the apostles to munch some chocolate Easter bunnies, probably comparing which color jelly beans were their favorites. Yeah, right.
Preposterous? Yet these are the lies that are imprinted on us as trusting children, impressionable little biological tabla rasas, in the name of the heathen Babylonian goddess, Ishtar and the Easter Bunny. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." [Pro. 22:6]. Babylon the Great, 666, will continue counting on it because it's worked so far. [For example, see Easter Training Our Kids, Rolling Easter's Eggs]. It's time for Christians to wake up out of our apathetic slumber, stand with the truth of the word of God, and ditch the Babylonian Easter and her bunny.
As Christ plainly said, however, "He who is not with me is against me ...." [See Mat. 12:29, 30]. When we celebrate the pagan Easter, we betray our Savior the same as did Judas. For the love of the lie of Easter is not put into our hearts by God, but by our adversary who we allow to destroy us. [See John 13:1-30]. Thus, there is nothing secular about Ishtar or her frontman, the Easter Bunny. Fusing Christ's resurrection into the pagan Babylonian Ishtar celebration is a sacrilegious abomination setting us against Christ, changing the truth into a lie that we so readily embrace, " ... doing according to the customs of the heathens ....” [Luke 13:22-28].
It is amazing to read the amount of BS out there glorifying the pagan fertility symbols now part and parcel of what passes for the Christian celebration. It's like mixing a bit of dog turd with ground sirloin, then proclaiming it makes for a better burger. [Not to give Bill Gates any more hare-brained ideas]. No doubt some folks would come up with all sorts of turd symbolism to glorify and justify this practice too. And if we spoke out against this, no doubt one of those anonymous fabulist "fact checker" outfits would label us anti-turders. Nevertheless, we would be rudely insulted if someone served one of these Easter "turdburgers" to us. We'd spit it out of our mouths in outrage. Theologically, then, why do we think we honor Christ by mixing Babylonian practices into the truth? Ignorance and stupidity are two reasons that come to mind. [See the Feature article, Our Corrupted Compass].
As Paul and the other apostles noted, false prophets began to appear in the first century. Now, millennia after the first beast Babylon, its queen of heaven and spring goddess, Ishtar, has been resurrected, and subtly, right before our eyes, with US presidents leading the way, seamlessly merged into the fabric of our nations, and mainstream Christianity as prophesied in Revelation about the coming Babylon the Great. But we don't see it. It is as we were warned about in the Book of Jude, " ... false prophets creeping in unawares." [See the Feature article, Moving Forward]. Oblivious to all this creeping, Churchianity's Ishtar celebration has turned us away from the word of God to worship the first beast. In this regard, we're no different than Eve and Adam. [See Gen. 3:1-4; also the Sneakers article, Bum's Rush].
Our Easter/Ishtar celebration mocks Christ and honors a pagan religious deity of Babylon, whether we're astute enough to recognize it or not. It's no different than recognizing the covid hoax or not, or calling experimental gene technology injections "vaccines." One's theological, the other secular. Lies are lies.
People of ancient times had similar, but differing names for this same deceitful spring goddess, the queen of heaven, Easter. The Egyptians had their own name for her. The Greeks called her Aphrodite. The Phoenicians and Caananites called her Astarte. [Heb. עַשְׁתָּרֹת,ʿaštārōṯ, star, hence queen of heaven, Babylonian, Ishtar/Easter]. The Sidonians called her Ashtoreth/Ashtaroth. In fact, God refers to this goddess Easter/Ishtar/Ashtaroth [1 Kng. 11:5] as an abomination. [See Jdg. 2:11-15; 1 Sam. 7:3; Heb. 13:8].
Unwisely, King Solomon of Israel "built the mount of corruption for Ashtoreth [Easter] ...." [2 Kng. 23:13]. And what did God say about the king of Israel's corrupting actions regarding Easter/Ishtar/Ashtoreth? "Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not fully follow the LORD, as did his father David ... So the LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel." [1 Kng. 11:6-9; see Tts. 1:14 and Jer. 44:14-23]. It's no different for us today. This is why our LORD divided the Jews, the House of Judah, from which Solomon was descended, from the rest of Israel, the House of Israel. That's us. [See 1 Kng. 12:20; Mat. 15:24].
Why would we think that our actions would be any less evil and corrupt in the eyes of God? And why do we think God wouldn't be angry with us, even more so after Christ's crucifixion and resurrection for the remission of our sins, by our unfaithful participation in the whorish celebration of the Babylonian goddess Easter again? We are blindly committing the same dull-witted mistakes as did our Biblical ancestors. [For an explanation, read the Feature article, Mirror, Mirror On The Wall]. What is it called doing the same things over and over and expecting different results? Stupidity. This has to make one question the motives, and perhaps the intelligence of those low IQ operators who blatantly promote the alleged secularness of the Easter Bunny in our society, and pander the heathen lies to gullible Christians rather than the truth of the word of God. [See the Sneakers article, Who Is Dan, And Where Did He Go?]
As a matter of historical fact, our Biblical ancestors were ripped from their land, taken as slaves by the Assyrian empire. God was so angered by our ancestors following false gods that he told the prophet Hosea, "I will cause to cease the kingdom of the House of Israel [this is not the House of Judah, the Jews] ... I will have no mercy upon the House of Israel, but I will utterly take them away [first taken captive in the areas of Naphtali and Zebulon] ... for you are not my people and I will not be your God." [Hos. 1: 4, 6, 9]. God divorced the House of Israel. [Jer. 3:8]. This was the first fulfillment of Isaiah's "the fortress shall depart from Ephraim" prophecy. The next is the final Middle East war mentioned above. We are the descendants of the House of Israel. And we're hopping down the same bunny trail again, following the wrong Peter, destination Apocalypse. [Again, see the Feature article, Damascus A Heap Of Ruins].
However, more than seven centuries after the divorce from God, the House of Israel was redeemed. [Again see the Feature article, And It's Still A Mystery]. This is why Christ plainly said, "I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." [Mat. 15:24]. And why the prophecy in Hosea says, "... in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there it shall be said to them, You are the sons of the of the living God." [1:10; Rom. 8:14]. It was fulfilled by Christ when he began his ministry according to the gospel of Matthew [see the Feature article, What Exactly Is The Gospel?], "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Hosea the prophet, saying, "The land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, [sons of Israel, Gen. 49] by way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations [of the House of Israel, Greek ethnos, nations], the people which sat in darkness saw a great light ...." [Mat. 4:14-16; see the Feature article, The War Dispatches].
Yet, we've thrown away this great blessing of redemption in exchange for a bunny rabbit and colored eggs. Unless we change our ways, we will continue in darkness, repeating the mistakes of the past only with greater consequences this time around. "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." This is the path we currently traverse, whose end point is clearly in sight. [Mat. 24:21; see the Feature article, And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor]. Because we have lost knowledge of our Biblical heritage, our history, and our Biblical identity, we are suckers for the heathen Easter fraud, deceived into thinking we are a bunch of gentiles. Therefore, we believe Christ's warning doesn't apply to us. As a result, we are lead to our destruction by our ignorance.
As religious snowflakes unable to handle the truth of the word of God, we eagerly accept the Santa Claus and Easter Bunny fables as fact, and shun Christian truths as if they were fables. This seems to be the way of our society today. If in any way we feared and respected our LORD, we would be wise to remember the prophecy directed at us for the great day of our trouble, which we call the "Apocalypse," but in Jeremiah 30, it is referred to as the time of Jacob's trouble. As we noted above, our LORD God tells us, "Why do you cry about your affliction, your pain that has no cure? Because of your great guilt and many sins, I have done these things to you." [Jer. 30:15].
We aren't fighting against those infringing our constitutional rights, or pushing nefarious, so-called vaccines on us. It makes no difference which party sits at the levers of power in Washington or London or Jerusalem, or who it is that pulls the strings behind the scenes. [Eph. 6:13-20]. "This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men." This should be so very obvious to anyone right now whose little grey cells still function. [Dan. 4:17; see Heb. 2:8].
This is why we read in Revelation, "... he [the Beast] was given authority to continue for forty-two months." [Rev. 13:5]. God gives the Beast and false prophet their authority because we've made ourselves enemies of God by forsaking the love of the truth, and running after heathen fables. [For a synopsis of what lies in store, read Isa. 13:6-16; Rev. 6:13-17; see chapter five, The Blind Man's Elephant, p. 157ff, for Daniel's prophetic account of the first five empires].
The divorce from God, and the subsequent death and enslavement of our ancestors of the House of Israel by the Assyrians is not a myth. The five empires in the Book of Daniel, including Babylon, are not fables or myths. [See Rev. 17:10]. They're all in our history books. And the prophecies warning us about the Babylonian sixth empire aren't fables or myths either. In a state of utter madness, we are now heading towards " ... a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to this time." Yet, this fact bounces off our craniums like a ping-pong ball off concrete. We blithely continue to celebrate the Easter fable, happy to give our children coloured eggs and chocolate bunnies leading them to their enslavement and death, rather than the blessing of the truth of the word of God.
Deliberately false and misleading information has come to be perceived as knowledge. It's not only the corporate mass media that cranks out fake news. This is the upside down world we live in. We are foolish if we to look to politicians, government and Churchianity leaders to turn it right side up. But our dire situation needs to be righted. And each of us can start now. [Waking Up]. We don't need to wait until Easter time to ditch the bunny. We need to teach our children and families the truth of the word of God without delay. We need a great Christian reset. And we need it now. [See the Feature article, The Little Horn: First Century Antichrist].
When we no longer can discern the lies, we lose the liberty the truth provides. [See Gal. 2:4; 2 Pet. 2:19]. And a cursory look at the maelstrom of world events, both foreign and domestic, swirling around us should make this clear as can be. As the prophet Micah says of our people, "Her rulers judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us." [Micah 3:11; Leaders Judge].
Do not our pastors and ministers continue to remain silent, rather than rebuking the heathen Easter worship? Why? Because we falsely believe we adhere to the tenets of Christianity, and believe that the anti-Christian Zionists, who control the nations of the West, including the state of Israel, are Jews of the Bible. They're not. [Judaism Is Not Zionism; Religious Jews Are Anti-Zionists; see Rev. 3:9]. We think we're safe because the LORD is our savior. What harm can come upon us? So, we ignore the truth of the word of God given to us by our Lord and Savior in favor of heathen customs. It's a foolish choice.
The choice to walk back to the knowledge of the truth lies within each of us. Are we wise enough to heed God's word and change? What will we do regarding Easter? Will we stand up with the Easter goddess' Bunny, wallowing in mortal Babylonian ignorance and self-pity on our way to slavery and death, or will we stand up with the conviction of the truth of Christ's words? [Mark 13:31]. Are we virtue signalling religious snowflakes or are we Christians? [Virtue Signalling].
While some folks may be devout and sincere, allegedly celebrating Christ in the name of a mythic goddess is an endeavor in futility that is having dire consequences in our nations according to the Biblical prophecies. We cannot afford to remain lukewarm in regard to the truth as Christians. We need to passionately embrace it. Where is the genuine relevance of chocolate pagan goddess Ishtar bunnies to one's Christian faith in the resurrection of Christ? There isn't one. We're putting our eggs in the wrong basket.
Have you ever been injured or ill to the point where, by comparison, you realize how wonderful everyday good health is, free of debilitating pain and misery? We often take good health for granted until we no longer have it. It's a lesson in appreciation. The same spiritual principle applies to loving the truth of the word of God and the blessings of living it daily. When we do, we realize just how much the daily lies and deceit, by comparison, are such a dark, dead weight in our lives. Living the truth of God's word is like shaking off a long, depressing cold winter and deeply breathing in the clean, fresh scent of spring, welcoming the warming touch of sunlight on our face. We have no desire to go back to the dead of winter, the lies and deceit that made us miserable. The truth, indeed, does set us free, but only when we live in the Light of the truth. We, and our Christian shepherds, need to stand with up Christ, and resolutely walk away from the lies and deceit of Babylon's Beast and false prophet rather than to them. Christians need to ditch the Babylonian Easter immediately, and humbly ask God for deliverance. You don't need to wait for Easter to roll around. Take a deep, fresh breath of truth. Welcome the blessings of our LORD into your life. [See Heb. 5:12].
II
In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the truth is no longer the supreme value. In what passes as Christianity today, the ease of religious fables has replaced the truth. Yet, we're happy for this heathen convenience. It doesn't interfere with our lives. Compliantly childlike snowflakes, we don't even have to think about our beliefs. Someone else has done it for us. We just have to blindly trust them. [Covid is a prime secular example of our brainwashing; see the Sneakers article, We Don't Believe You]. And like the submissive sheep we've become, we dutifully make our way over to the mall, or go on-line, a couple times a year to buy the requisite prepackaged items, be they Christmas presents or colorful bunny baskets chock full of fertility symbols. Blinded by false traditions, we don't connect the dots that we are participating in Satan inspired anti-Christian festivals. Think of it as participating in soft-core paganism rather than hard core Satanic rituals. Make no mistake, they are both of the same cloth. [Speaking Of The Devil ...]. If we happen to think it's not a big deal, look at what's happened the past three years and the direction in which our nations are headed. Would you classify this as blessings, or curses?
As Huxley observed, however, the emphasis in life has switched "from the truth and beauty to comfort and happiness." Truth and beauty requires maturity and strength of character; comfort and happiness only an immature, and woke lack of interest. It's making me feel good by telling me what I want to hear, even if it is a lie. I can believe what I want [including gender identity or experimental gene modifying injections expecting that we will be happy to get back to our comfortable "normal"] regardless of the truth of the word of God. [Gen. 1:27]. Welcome to the not so brave, new world order, snowflake. The truth and beauty of God's word were given to us by Christ in the first century. [Luke 21:33]. Two thousand years later, as Easterarians in the last days of the last days, we've cast the truth of the word of God aside for a duplicitous bunny rabbit, eating fruit of the wrong tree. [See the Sneakers article, As It Was In The Beginning, So It Is At The End and Rev. 3:14-22].
The plain fact is that Christ's apostle Peter [not Easter's Peter Cottontail], John and the other apostles had nary a brightly decorated egg between them at Christ's sepulcher when they showed up that Sunday morning when the big spring egg, the Sun, was about to rise in the east. Due to our training and constant reinforcement, it's comfortable and easy teaching our children the ways of the Babylonian Ishtar, the Easter Bunny happily hopping down the trail to perdition [Peter Cottontail], as well as with Santa Claus and his flying reindeer, rather than with the firm conviction of the truth regarding Christ [see 2 Tim. 4:3,4] because our understanding of the word of God is weak and infirm. "For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a little child." [Heb. 5:13].
Just asking, but where exactly, according to the Biblical record from the first century, was the Easter Bunny that morning? Precisely. Yet, no doubt there will be those who prefer milk and will continue to justify and defend this Ishtar religious Babylonian turdition in Churchianity not wanting to move outside their comfort zone of deceit. We've slid into the swamp of the familiar darkness, rejecting the effort of rising up into the unfamiliar light of the truth. And no doubt, this Easter turdition will continue to be pushed towards its "secular" heathen roots at least until " ... the son of perdition ... the Lawless One be revealed ...." [hence the US rules based order rather than the rule of international, and domestic, law; 2 Ths. 2:3, 8]. "And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods ...." [Dan. 11:36].
The fruit of deceit and lies is the fear of the truth. When we stand with Christ, we have the love of the truth, rather than a fear of it. Otherwise, we remain comfortably seated in the company of lies and deceit. But, "the fear of our LORD is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom." [Pro. 1:7]. Many virtue signal that the truth is important, but few diligently seek its company. Are we strong enough to grab hold of the truth to stand with Christ? If not, we will continue the celebration of this Babylonian Ishtar, falsely cloaked with the name of Christ justifying our love of the lie. [See the Feature article, Why Do We Believe The Lies?]. However, we shouldn't delude ourselves. There is no wiggle room in "He who is not with me is against me ...." [Rev. 13:7]. The price of our apostasy will continue to rise unless we get our spirit and hearts right with our Lord. [See Eze. 18:31; again, see the Feature article, And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor].
A modicum of common sense tells us that all the superficial religious Ishtar bunkum and balderdash has nothing to do with Jesus Christ especially as Christ was not resurrected on a Sunday morning according to the Biblical record's accounts from the first century. The Sunday morning resurrection story is another false tradition of the Roman church, which didn't exist then, and which they readily admit is "a different tradition" from what happened in Jerusalem in the first century as we'll see. So why are we, if we claim to be Christians, following pagan Roman church tradition rather than what the Biblical record tells us? Because even the religiously educated among us have been manipulated, cunningly baited and switched. We've left the majestic, beautiful rugged shores of the truth for the comfort of the warm, soft sands of deceit.
Perhaps the epitome of deceit is the woke ideology thought process rationale that it isn't a lie if it's what we want to believe. If we want to believe that the Sun orbits the Earth, then it does? If we want to believe that getting an experimental "covid" injection will get life back to normal, rather than injure and kill us, then it will? If we want to believe the fairy tale that Easter is all about the resurrection of Christ, rather than Babylonian idolatry, then it's not a lie to keep telling our children and grandchildren because it's what we want to believe? So, we eagerly gobble up this turdburger, spiritual junk food, taking our children with us on the road to destruction and death, the worst time in the history of the world as the prophecies warn us.
Question, would you handover your children and grandchildren as slaves to ISIS? No? Yet, if we celebrate Easter, then we already have, albeit by a different homonym. The ancient female deity, the Egyptian goddess of goddesses, the queen of heaven that we call Easter is ... Isis. In Egyptian mythology, the goddess Isis was instrumental in resurrecting her brother, Osiris, from the dead.3 [See Isis]. It's just as Ishtar is resurrecting her brother, Babylon, from his "deadly wound" to come back to life as Babylon the Great. No surprise then that Easter is also referred to as Resurrection Sunday. [Rev. 13:3, 4; also see footnote 1 in Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares]. While Isis worship began in Egypt, going back millennia BCE, by the 2nd century CE it had spread to Rome, a melting pot of the empire's religions, the queen of heaven's name of choice morphed from the Egyptian Isis to the Babylonian Ishtar along the way. The Babylonian goddess of goddesses we call Easter has embedded herself into what we believe is a practice that honors Christ's resurrection, not Babylon's. All that's left is changing the nameplate. Slick, eh?
Now is the time to walk away from our love of the deceitful heathen practices that are all around us and back to the love of the truth because all the snowflakes, trans, religious or otherwise, are in for a damn rude awakening. Once Christ stretches his hand upon us, there is no escaping the word of our LORD. [See Luke 13:22-28]. "[Babylon the Great], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deceit in the hearts of those who perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved ...." [See 2 Ths. 2:9-12; Mat. 24:35]. We need to be mindful. It's not reading about or acknowledging the truth. It's having the love of the truth put into practice in our daily lives that is of consequence. Lip service gets us a dead end.
III
For those of you in possession of a holy curiosity with the love of the truth, rather than pagan goddesses, let's begin by making a sincere and earnest examination of the timing of Christ's resurrection in the Biblical record. Christ was not resurrected on a Sunday morning because he was not crucified on a Friday according to the Biblical record. This is the key that unlocks the door to the truth as Christ's resurrection is the preeminent event in the Biblical record's history. It changed the entire theological landscape that previously had been in place for millennia, and initiated the prophesied Christian age of the last days.
Likewise, Christ's return will end the two thousand year Christian age, and initiate the kingdom of God on Earth, 1000 years of peace, a sabbath rest from the lies and evilness of this world. [See chapter six in The Blind Man's Elephant, a complimentary PDF on our Home page; also the updated Feature article, And It's Still A Mystery]. Let's read about it in context from the Biblical source rather than taking the duplicitous Ishtar fables at face value. [See the Feature article, The Relevance Of The Holy Days In The Plan Of God In The Last Days].
In Mark's chapter 16 account, he says Mary Magdalene arrived at Christ's sepulcher at the rising of the Sun. Luke's account in chapter 24 says it was early dawn. John's account in chapter 20 says that when it was yet dark, Mary arrived at the tomb. Taken together, it appears that while it was still dark, just before the initial light of dawn, Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb. She saw that it was empty. Christ was gone. He was risen by then. She ran back to tell Peter and the others that Christ was not there. Mary then ran back with Peter and John this time to see for themselves. All this running would indicate that the apostles and others were fairly close by, perhaps just outside the area of the tombs.
This course of events began when it was still dark and by the time that Mary arrived back with the apostles, the Sun was rising, becoming dawn. In either case, Christ was not resurrected at sunrise on a Sunday morning because he was gone from the sepulcher when Mary first arrived when it was dark. So where do we get this idea? The theological idea of a Sunday morning sunrise resurrection results from a mistranslation, which in turn led to the misunderstanding of a verse, and vice versa in the case of the King James translators, in Mark's account, no doubt influenced and reinforced by centuries of false Roman church tradition as we'll discover.
Mark 16:9, the KJV English, as well as other translations, says, "Now when [Jesus] was risen early the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he cast seven devils." There are two possibilities in English as to how this verse is interpreted using punctuation.
If we put a comma after risen, and after week, it would read that Christ was risen on the first day of the week, or Sunday morning before sunrise. However, if we put the comma after risen, and then after Magdalene, it would read that Christ appeared first to Mary before seeing anyone else, and that this was on Sunday morning. The latter appears to be the case, because we know for certain from the Biblical record that Mary was the first person he appeared to, and it was Sunday morning.
Most telling, however, is that in the Greek manuscript texts of Mark 16:9, the initial first used by Mark in this verse is the Greek adjective, protos, meaning first in time or place. The key KJV English phrase in Mark, " ... [day] of the week" is the single Greek word sabbaton, with the English word [day] not in the Greek manuscripts. Sabbaton is the seventh day of each week, which for religious purposes is the weekly sabbath day. It never is the first day of the week, or a Sunday. In 16:9, Mark is referring to the timing of the protos sabbaton, or first sabbath. Whereas in Mark 16:2 or John 20:1 or Luke 24:1, they are referring to the first day of the week, which in Greek is "on the one of the week," or mia sabbaton, our Sunday. Remember, in the first century in Judea, Sunday was the first day of the week, a work day. It never was a weekly day of religious observance. Please read footnote.4
The particular sabbaton referenced by Mark in 16:9, as it relates to Christ, was the first what? Christ was resurrected on the first weekly sabbath after his crucifixion. In the Greek manuscripts, the beginning of verse 9 reads, Ἀναστὰς δὲ πρωῒ πρώτῃ σαββάτου, which transliterated is Anastas de proi protos sabbaton .... So reading Mark 16:9 with this in mind, it is much clearer to understand a correct English translation, “And raised up [Anastas de, as in resurrection from the dead] earlier [adverb, proi], on the first [adjective, protos] sabbath [sabbaton], he appeared first [Greek adverb, proton] to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.” Anastas is from the feminine noun anastasis, which we call resurrection, or risen from the dead. The verb form to resurrect or to raise up is anistemi. This wording is much clearer and reflects what, indeed, did take place as we’ll read.
It's plain and simple what Mark said here in 16:9: "Christ, resurrected earlier on the first weekly sabbath5 after his crucifixion, appeared first to Mary Magdalene on Sunday morning."
What a difference understanding what Mark stated makes for Christians. It completely undermines the deceit of the pagan Easter Sunday celebration by "Christians," which is a major tectonic shift away from the truth to the Babylonian Beast exactly as the prophecy says in the book of Revelation. It has become a major heathen celebration, choking Christianity, that has overtaken and replaced the truth of Christ's resurrection.
The questions before us, however, are plain and simple too. Do we have the love of the truth, and will we make the needed changes? Or do we shrug our shoulders, and keep walking with the herd through the wide Ishtar gate along the well-worn path "with all unrighteous deceit [wicked lies] in the hearts of those who perish?" Given the world's current events and the direction in which they are headed, our actions will have profound implications for us, one way or the other, in the immediate future.
Neither use of the Greek words protos or proton, i.e., first, by Mark refers to Sunday, or mia sabbaton. It's pretty simple and straightforward especially when we understand the relationship of the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread and the weekly sabbath. It's only when Mark's protos sabbaton was wrongly redefined as mia sabbaton, [day] one of the week rather than first sabbath, Christ's resurrection on the weekly sabbath got switched to early Sunday morning. And the rest literally is Roman church history, readily embraced by Protestant denominations and our trusting, jelly bean eating little children.
Two millennia later "Christians" are blindly participating in, exactly as the prophecy in Revelation states, the Babylonian instigated Ishtar Sunday sunrise services each spring, handing out gaily painted eggs and chocolate bunny rabbits to their children based, in large part, on the misinterpretation of Mark's verse. [Read 2 Ths. 2:8-10]. Not only is this mind-boggling, but it is absurd beyond belief. Seriously, how in the world do we connect the dots between the sanctity of Christ's death and resurrection on our behalf as the Redeemer of his people, the children of the House of Israel with the promise of eternal life, being kings and priests in his kingdom, to frivolously celebrating with eggs and bunny rabbits in honour of a pagan fertility deity, and justify calling ourselves Christians? Connecting these things to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, well that's fairly obvious, or at least it should be for anyone truly a Christian.
But will the masses stop these practices to fully follow Christ rather than "worship the first beast?" According to what the prophecies tell us, that bus already is over the cliff. While those in the bus may argue that they're flying not falling, the difference becomes obvious upon landing. Therefore, it comes down to individuals. Are you individually strong enough, recognizing the full worth of the beauty of the truth, to leave the compliant, dogma driven, lemming-like herd? Or will you remain a theological snowflake, frozen in the lies, fearful of the radiant light of the truth? [See Heb. 4:15, 16].
As the apostle Paul warned us, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." [Eph. 6:12]. Our adversary has done a masterful job of exploiting our subconscious weaknesses, our proclivity for the false comfort of the fables rather than the beauty of the truth. As Christ said of our adversary, "... you savor not those things that be of God, but those that be of men." [Mat. 17:23]. Our celebration of Easter is savoring those things that be of Satan.
The fruit of the duplicitous Easter fable, in reality, is misery and suffering, curses and death. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. We are increasingly burdened down by the ever growing piles of lies and deceit we've placed on our backs, given to us by our adversary through our religious and political leaders. [Mass Formation Psychosis]. Life is so much better when we believe the truthful words of our LORD and Savior. "Come to me, all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." [Mat. 11:28-30].
Yet, the heavy burdens of deceit are offered up in our society as something for all to seek. Mass psychosis communication prompts us incessantly [See Eph. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:4-6], reinforcing the inescapable propaganda while appealing to the basest instincts of the flesh. If you read that hymn to Ishtar referenced above, it might as well be a blueprint for the underlying basis of modern day advertising and our myriad entertainment venues. Like some voluptuous elixir, the religious lies have been merchandised as though they were secular consumer products promising us a better, happier life. [See 2 Pet 2:1-3].
Beguiled, we've become the "Don't worry, be happy" generation. Everything is gonna be alright, snowflake. Just get your shot, get woke, and life will return to normal. Trust us. "Is not the LORD among us?" After all, are we not a Christian people? In light of this addictive behavior of self-destruction, the advice Paul gave us holds today. Take a stand against the lies by "having our loins girt about with the truth." This is to say, protecting our lives with the knowledge and love of the truth. We need the tough love of the truth to shake us out of our dependency on heathen fables.
There is no spiritual/secular duality when participating in pagan Easter goddess celebrations. This is a cunning lie worthy of Babylon the Great. Indeed, this Babylonian goddess is subjecting the regions of the world to the Babylonian Beast. To be 100% clear, it has no place with the truth in any true Christian's life regardless of the justification used. We can't call ourselves Christians and celebrate Easter. We can't call ourselves faithful, and have a mistress or a lover.
Paul made a strong point regarding the seriousness of tolerating adultery, be it physical, or with Ishtar, religious. He said, "Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge the old leaven [Easter in this case] that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb [and not our Easter bunny], has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival [the seven Days of Unleavened Bread 6 during which Christ's resurrection did take place on that first weekly sabbath], not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." [1 Cor. 5:6-8].
Evidently, our infidelity with the goddess Easter has given us a case of STDs, spiritually transmitted deceptions. And, indeed, our societies are burdened with the malice and wickedness that passes for normality. This is not the Christian normal according to the word of our Lord and Savior. [For the relevancy of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread for Christians, as opposed to the sham Easter, read chapter three in The Hijacked Elephant].
IV
Perhaps most startling to 21st century Christians, is that all the gospel accounts make the same point that when Mary, the disciples and the others went to Christ's tomb, they weren't expecting that Christ was resurrected, "For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." [John 20:9]. Even after Mary saw and talked to Christ, and she told the apostles, they still didn't believe her. [Mark 16:11]. They didn't know for certain that Christ was risen until later in the day when he appeared to them. In fact, when he appeared to them, "He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen." [Mark 16:14; also see Luke 24:10-48 and the Feature article, The Good News Colour Revolution, v. 31 commentary, for details].
When the apostles saw the empty tomb, their concern was that someone had stolen Christ's body and taken it someplace else, allegedly to prevent them from doing the same thing and falsely proclaiming Christ's resurrection as the Pharisees, and especially the Sadducees [Mat. 22:23] would see it. [See Mat. 27:64-66]. Disheartened no doubt, they left, their vigil by the tomb site to prevent the theft of Christ's body was for naught, so they thought at the time.
However, Mary Magdalene stayed behind at the tomb. A voice asked Mary, where was Christ? Weeping, Mary answered, "... they have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have taken him." It is perfectly clear from her reply, at this point in time well after sunrise that Sunday morning, that Mary and the apostles did not know Christ was risen from the dead, particularly because Christ was the one who asked Mary this question.
It’s obvious then, that the first time Mary was at the tomb that Sunday morning, Christ was already risen. Mark's account prior to verse nine, in 16:5, 6, says, "And entering the tomb, they saw a young man [an angel of the Lord] sitting on the right side in a white robe; And they were amazed. And he said to them, 'Be not amazed: you seek Jesus the Nazarene which has been crucified: he is risen; he is not here.'" Remember, it was dark, before sunrise, at the time when the Marys first arrived at the tomb.
Even when Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James were told he was risen, "... they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulcher; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they anything to anyone; for they were afraid." [Mark 16:8]. Recall, neither Mary expected that Christ would have been resurrected. We would think they must have been thunderstruck by what the young man sitting in the tomb told them, instantly flashing back on all Christ had said and the miracles he performed during his ministry. But, his resurrection didn't register with them. Instead, they were in shock, shaking and stunned that his body was missing, assumed stolen by the Pharisees and or the Sadducees with the approval of Pilate. It was why Mary Magdalene ran to get the apostles so they could see for themselves. But neither Mary said anything about what the young man in the white robe had told them. In their collective disbelief, they concluded Christ's body had been stolen away. [John 20:2]. Christ's resurrection did not enter their minds.
The question remains, aside from Mark's now clear statement, can we determine when the resurrection took place? Yes we can. It just takes a little common sense, understanding the Passover and its relationship to the Days of Unleavened Bread, some elementary deductive reasoning, and we can find the surprising answer in the very pages of the gospels merely by taking Christ at his word.
First, how long was Christ to be in the grave? Christ tells us, in answering some of the scribes and Pharisees who were looking for a sign, when he said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall be no sign given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah: for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the great fish’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The definition of the Hebrew word three in Jonah, shalowsh, actually means three, and not portions of three.
Okay, Christ seems clear about this. Three days and three nights. Yet, not believing Christ, some folks today, including Biblical scholars, take it upon themselves to say that Christ didn't really mean three days and three nights, but just parts of three days. Yes, no doubt Christ our LORD was totally confused, rather than ourselves two thousand years later, about the timing of his own death and resurrection. [John 10:18]. Most people make this claim because they are ignorant of the fact that Christ wasn't put into the tomb before the weekly sabbath as we'll see.
If we go back and look at the account of Jonah in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word used there for “days,” is yowm. Yowm refers to 24 hour days, and not portions of days. So three yowms or days and nights, repeated twice for emphasis by Christ, certainly would mean a 72 hour period.
Now the Greek words used in John for three days are treis hemera. Treis means three, not parts of three. Hemera can refer to a civil day, which like yowm refers to a 24 hour day. Also, it can refer to the natural day meaning sunrise to sunset. Thus, Christ would be either in the grave for a 72 hour period and or he would be resurrected during the natural day meaning sometime between sunrise and sunset three days hence. This would exclude a sunset to sunrise timing for the resurrection as is mistakenly believed today.
In fact, the day after Christ's crucifixion, Pilate was reminded by the chief priests and Pharisees, sometime on the sabbath day in question [this would be a Saturday if Christ was placed in the grave on a Friday, but he wasn't], that Christ told them [not his disciples], "After three days [treis hemera], I will rise again," so he instructed the guards to seal and secure, as best they knew how, the tomb of Christ "until the third day [Greek, tritos hemera] ...." [See Mat. 27:59-66]. If this was a weekly sabbath day when the chief priests made their request to Pilate, then the guards would have to be posted until the third day. If the chief priests and Pharisees had an audience with Pilate on Saturday, and he commanded that the guards seal the tomb for three days, that means the guards would not let anyone near or into the tomb until sometime Tuesday if the chief priests and Pharisees had come to Pilate on a weekly sabbath. But they didn't. This was an annual holy Sabbath day as we are about to discover. This is why both Marys, and a bit later the apostles were in the tomb itself on Sunday morning.
When Pilate commanded the tomb to be sealed until the third day, he was clearly referring either to the third 24-hour day or the third day hence, between sunrise and sunset. Therefore, why would Pilate, by the request of the chief priests and Pharisees on this alleged weekly sabbath, command this security until the third day as a Friday crucifixion and Sunday morning resurrection would require security just for one night? It makes no sense.
From the gospel accounts we know that the Marys bought spices after the end of the sabbaths7 to place on, what they thought, would be an odorous, decaying corpse. So they went to the sepulcher on Sunday morning when yet still dark. But, there was a great earthquake, and the angel of the Lord rolled back the giant stone that blocked entry to the tomb. The appearance of the angel was such that the astonished and frightened guards "became as dead men." [Mat. 28:11-15]. Afterwards, the Marys showed up and were, as we read above, very scared. They looked inside to see the angel sitting there telling them that Christ was not there. "He is risen."
This leads us to one of the great questions of Christianity: When was Christ put into the grave? Was it a Friday afternoon? If so, the resurrection took place on a Monday afternoon before sunset. But Monday is not the seventh nor day one of the week. It is day two. This would seem to preclude Friday afternoon as the time when Christ was placed in the grave. Let’s read the account. We are told Joseph of Arimathaea “… took the body of Jesus … Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden: and in the garden a sepulcher never used. There they put Jesus because of the Jews’ preparation day ….” [John 19:31].
A preparation day is the day before a sabbath day, in which all work was completed, including cooking, etc., so the sabbath could be a day of rest. But a Friday afternoon before sunset doesn’t mesh with 72 hours, three days and three nights according to the account of Christ being resurrected by Sunday morning, day one of the week. Is it possible there is some other explanation? Yes, very much so. But let the gospels tell us their answer rather than making up our own stories that Christ meant parts of three days and nights to get the Roman church Babylonian Easter tradition to fit from a Friday evening to an alleged Sunday morning resurrection.
John tells us, “The Jews therefore, because it was a preparation day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath was a high [Greek, megas, great ] day)….” [John 19:31]. This is where most Christians make the mistake of assuming that the preparation day before this sabbath was a Friday. They overlook this vital fact in John's gospel. And in doing so, this fatal flaw skews their entire thinking about the resurrection day of Christ. And it all stems from the fact that we have abandoned, and therefore are ignorant of, our heritage as the House of Israel. [Mat. 15:24].
John is telling us this was not a normal weekly preparation day, which always occurs from Thursday sunset to Friday sunset, day six of the week. When Christ was put into the grave, it was a preparation day for an annual high holy day, which is a great or annual Sabbath, that can vary year to year as to which day of the week it occurs. The weekly sabbath always is the seventh day of the week, sabbaton. A high holy day is one of the seven days of observance, within three times of the year, given to all the children of Israel, not just the Jews, by Moses, who was not Jewish, but a Levite. [See Exd. 12:14-20; 23:14, 15; Lev. 23; also the Feature article, Why Was Jesus Jewish, But Not Moses?]. The day before each of these seven annual high sabbath days is a preparation day too. As the nations of Israel began days at sunset, a high Sabbath day would start and end at sunset.
Now Christ was our sacrificial Passover lamb [See 1 Cor. 5:7]. That day, which would be the 14th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, he prepared to be the sacrifice for our sins. [See Heb. 9:23-28; also Acts 2:36-39]. And if we were familiar with the holy days given to us by our LORD, rather than the heathen fakes we embrace, we would fully understand that the Passover is a preparation day because the day after Passover is the first annual high Sabbath day of the sacred year being the first Day of Unleavened Bread. This is the day John refers to above. It is not the weekly sabbath. Thus, Christ was put into the grave before the start of the first annual high holy Day of Unleavened Bread at sunset, which would be the 15th of Nisan. It is as stated by John, "Therefore, because it was the preparation day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day)." [See the Feature article, The Tale Of Two Covenants].
This is what this holy day prophetically pointed to for all Israel with our ancestor's Old Testament observance. Also, it points back to the the night before our ancestors left their Egyptian captivity, the original passover. [Exd. 12:1-20]. This knowledge is lost on us in the 21st century. We think it is something only referring to the Jews. But, it was well understood by the first century apostles who preached it to the House of Israel, and not to the House of Judah or the gentiles. [See the Feature article, Paul Was Not An Apostle To The Gentiles]. The fulfillment of this day by Christ marked what we call the gospel, or good news. Understanding this, we realize the Passover was not a weekly sabbath preparation day, or Friday.
Thus, we can eliminate Friday before sunset, then, as this is a normal preparation day for the weekly, not the annual or high Sabbath being discussed. Now, we can use a little deductive reasoning. As Christ said, he was in the grave for 72 hours or three nights and three days. And he was placed there before sunset, prior to the start of the high annual sabbath. Therefore, he would be resurrected before a sunset.
Now, according to the correct wording in Luke 24 and John 20, Mary showed up on "day one of the week," a Sunday morning, initially when still dark, and Christ was gone. When was the first sunset prior to early Sunday morning when it was still dark? That’s easy. It’s Saturday, which is the weekly sabbath day or sabbaton. Therefore, Christ was crucified on the Passover before the first annual Sabbath day of the year. He was resurrected before sunset on the first weekly sabbath, protos sabbaton, after three nights and days, exactly as Christ, and Mark's 16:9 account says, "Ἀναστὰς δὲ πρωῒ πρώτῃ σαββάτου ..."
We know that the Marys and the apostles were at the tombs on a Sunday morning initially when it was still dark, and Christ was gone by then, because Mark 16:1 tells us clearly that when the sabbath [sabbaton] was past, which in Matthew's account was after sunset toward dawn the next morning, the Marys and Salome brought spices [Greek, arōma], likely perfumed oils, to anoint the body of Christ. Thus, their arrival immediately followed the first weekly sabbath [protos sabbaton] after Christ's resurrection, which also is indicated by the different wording used in the other gospel accounts for day one of the week [mia sabbaton], meaning Sunday.
Somewhere along the line the wording for the timing of Christ's resurrection, or being raised up, in Mark 16:9 got switched from the original Greek's first sabbath, using the adjective protos sabbaton to the English's first [day] of the week, most likely wrongly influenced by the wording in Luke 24 and John 20, mia sabbaton. Subtle changes, the errant placement of a comma, centuries of false Roman church tradition, and the KJV English wrongly became Christ rising early on the first day of the week.
By the second century, this conveniently led to the cunning insertion of Christianity into the Babylonian's "Queen of Heaven" Ishtar resurrection celebration, including Sunday sunrise worship services and all those eggs and bunnies we have today that lead us away from the truth. The entire lump is leavened as Paul said. And, according to the Biblical prophecies, our daily acceptance of heathen falsehoods, such as the Babylonian Ishtar, lead us further astray, bringing us one step closer the events of the Apocalypse and Babylon the Great as Churchianity already has been duped into celebrating a Babylonian religious festival courtesy of the Roman church.
V
As we are warned by Paul, "Don't kid yourself: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." [Gal. 6:7; see the Feature article, Christ Against Christians]. The longest journey begins with just one step. We took that first step away from the truth a long time ago. It doesn't take much to see that our society is reaping what we've sown. We need to change direction by walking away from the Babylonian pied piper and the Ishtar leaven permeating our lives because, as of right now, we've made ourselves enemies of Christ. Otherwise, the merchant of Babylon will be given his pound of our flesh.
It's time we get back on track with a sense of urgency and a love of the truth. That track begins by knowing that Christ was risen before sunset on the first weekly sabbath after his crucifixion. Knowing this, we come to understand that three days and nights before this puts Christ into the grave on a Wednesday afternoon before sunset, which was the end of the Passover, the 14th of Nisan, and preparation day for the first high Sabbath day of the year. Thus, Christ was crucified on the fourth day of the week. Just before the beginning of day five, he was placed in the tomb. So the days of the 15th, 16th and 17th in the month of Nisan, which were days five, six and seven [sabbaton] of the week, until shortly before sunset, were spent in the grave.
This annual high Sabbath, which began at sunset on that Wednesday, also fits with Pilate ordering guards at the tomb until the third day. If the Pharisees came to Pilate on a Thursday morning, the guards would probably be at the tomb until Saturday evening or to Sunday morning depending when Pilate determined the three days to begin. This is why the guards were there and dropped like dead men when the angel rolled back the massive stone to the tomb, likely that Saturday evening when dark or by early Sunday morning when still dark. [Mat. 28:1-4].
Using the Greek treis hemera as the words for the three days and three nights, not only was Christ in the grave a full 72 hours in terms of civil days, but accordingly, he was resurrected during the third natural day between sunrise and sunset fulfilling both uses of the word exactly as Christ said.8 Therefore, if we truly wish to mark Christ's resurrection, we'd need to do so on a Saturday afternoon before sunset, the weekly sabbath day of his resurrection, which was the 17th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar.
Wonderfully the truth sets us free from the pied piper, the merchant of lies, the old leaven of Easter, the Babylonian prostitute goddess of fertility, sex, and war, which corrupts the death and resurrection of our Savior. As Aldous Huxley pointed out in the Brave New World Revisited, "The power to respond to reason and truth exists in all of us ..." but then so "does the tendency to respond to unreason and falsehood." This sounds a lot like the mass dichotomy we are experiencing in society daily.
According to the first century historian Flavius Josephus, Christ was "a teacher of the people who receive the truth with pleasure." [Antiquities of the Jews, 18.3.3]. As participants in this last days drama, are we up to the measure of those first century Christians? Do we receive the truth of the timing of his resurrection with pleasure, or with fear and trepidation realizing we may have to make some changes in our life? If we are of a true Christian character, then we will eagerly embrace the truth and fully follow Christ, for repentance from dead works is the first tenet of true Christianity. [Heb. 6:1]. Therefore, let us hold on to the profession of our faith, the conviction of the truth without wavering, for God is faithful to his promises. [Heb. 10:23-25].
1 When the apostles wanted to know when the end of the Christian age would occur, they asked Christ. "And as he [Christ] sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, 'Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of your coming [the Christian age prior to Christ's return], and the end of the world?" Christ responded by telling them that no one knows of the end of the world, this heaven and Earth, except our Father in heaven. However, regarding Christ's return, he told the disciples, "Now learn the parable of the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near-- at the doors!" [Mat. 24:32, 33]. Of course, the fig tree putting forth its leaves is a reference to the spring time of the year.
We know that at the end of the events of the Apocalypse, the opening of the sixth and seven seals in Revelation, Christ shall return. Just prior to his return, fulfilling the memorial of Trumpets, [Lev. 23:24; for a full explanation, see chapter five, The Hijacked Elephant], it will be marked by the blowing of trumpets. "And seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound." [Rev. 8:6; 1 Ths. 4:16]. The Day of Trumpets was a day of holy convocation, or assembly, that was the first of the autumn annual Sabbath days, and occurred in the third time of the year. It marked the end of summer. [See the Covenants Flow Chart in the Feature article, The Tale Of Two Covenants].
We also know that the sixth beast mentioned in Revelation, and the false prophet, 666, once they have manifested themselves to the world, shall have dominion for forty-two months. "And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months." [Rev. 13:5]. Forty-two months is a period of three and a half years. This three and a half years will begin in the spring as Christ noted. When the fig tree puts forth its leaves, we know summer, and therefore the end of this age, is near. And we know that Trumpets, heralding the return of Christ, occurs at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. Starting at spring, three and a half years ends at the end of summer, and the beginning of autumn.
It appears then that the sixth empire, this Babylonian Beast will make its official debut in the spring, most likely on Easter, the resurrection of the beast whose deadly wound was healed. And forty-two months later, at the beginning of fall, will see its demise.
As we just read, "And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." [Rev. 13:12]. As noted, the first beast was Babylon. Hence, the healing of the fatal wound is the resurrected Babylon, in this manifestation the sixth head of the beast, Babylon the Great.
The deadly wound referred to here is the fact that the original Babylon, mentioned in Daniel, the head of gold in chapter two, came to an end as did all five of the heads, or empires discussed in Daniel. "There are seven kings. Five are fallen, one is, and one is yet to come ...." [Rev. 17:10]. Thus, the sixth beast, one is, will be a resurrection of the first Babylon, only greater. [See the Sneakers article, Who Inflicted The Beast's Deadly Wound?].
We should ask ourselves, what Babylonian festival occurs in the spring, and celebrates a resurrection? The obvious answer is Easter, the spring goddess and queen of heaven, the mother of this born-again Babylon. As the "Christian" world already gladly celebrates Easter, it will be a relatively easy matter to further deceive the masses [think covid hoax], especially once the miracles and great wonders begin. [See 2 Cor 11:14, Rev. 13:12-14]. For this Antichrist, who will exalt himself above God, it won't take much to remove the little remaining vestiges of a man, Christ, [who's been downgraded from the Son of God to mortal teacher status in the Roman church as of December 2015, see footnote 1 in the Feature article, Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares] from the Easter resurrection tradition, switching to the resurrection of an empire, Babylon the Great, celebrating the healing of its deadly wound. [See 2 Ths. 2:8-12, YLT]. As we delight in the celebration of the heathen goddess Ishtar, we are set to receive a three and a half year dose of the real thing.
"He was granted power to give breath [AI?] to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed." [Rev. 13:15]. "Then shall the king [of Babylon the Great] do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath [the events of the Apocalypse] has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done." [Dan. 11:36].
2 HYMN PRAISE OF ISHTAR
"Praise the goddess, the most awesome of the goddesses.
Let one revere the mistress of the peoples, the greatest of the Igigi.
Praise Ishtar, the most awesome of the goddesses.
Let us revere the queen of women, the greatest of the Igigi.
She is clothed in pleasure and love.
She is laden with vitality, charm, and voluptuousness.
Ishtar is clothed in pleasure and love.
She is laden with vitality, charm, and voluptuousness.
In lips she is sweet; life is in her mouth.
At her appearance rejoicing becomes full.
She is glorious; veils are thrown over her head.
Her figure is beautiful; her eyes are brilliant.
The goddess - with her there is counsel.
The fate of everything she holds in her hand.
At her glance there is created joy,
Power, magnificence, the protecting deity and guardian spirit.
She dwells in, she pays heed to compassion and friendliness.
Besides, agreeableness she truly possesses.
Be it slave, unattached girl, or mother, she preserves (her).
One calls on her; among women one names her name.
Who - to her greatness who can be equal?
Strong, exalted, splendid are her decrees.
Ishtar - to her greatness who can be equal?
Strong, exalted, splendid are her decrees.
She is sought after among the gods; extraordinary is her station.
Respected is her word; it is supreme over them.
Ishtar among the gods, extraordinary is her station.
Respected is her word; it is supreme over them.
She is their queen; they continually cause her commands to be executed.
All of them bow down to her.
They receive her light before her.
Women and men indeed revere her.
In their assembly her word is powerful; it is dominating.
Before Anum their king she fully supports them.
She rests in intelligence, cleverness, (and) wisdom.
They take counsel together, she and her lord.
Indeed they occupy the throne room together.
In the divine chamber, the dwelling of joy,
Before them the gods take their places.
To their utterances their attention is turned.
The king their favorite, beloved of their hearts,
Magnificently offers to them his pure sacrifices.
Ammiditana, as the pure offering of his hands,
Brings before them fat oxen and gazelles.
From Anum, her consort, she has been pleased to ask for him
An enduring, a long life.
Many years of living, to Ammiditana
She has granted, Ishtar has decided to give.
By her orders she has subjected to him
The four world regions at his feet;
And the total of all peoples
She has decided to attach them to his yoke."
During a trip to Europe, I came across a startling display at the back of a Roman church on a dark, short side street, too narrow for cars, and devoid of windows, except for one. Behind an iron scissor barrier and a massive glass window was a gold altar. The large altar is inside a room about ten feet [3m] wide, about 15-20 feet deep [5-6m] and at least twelve feet [4m] high. Behind the gold altar, from side to side, reaching all the way to the ceiling is an elaborate and detailed ornate gold sculpture of rococo design reminiscent of the late baroque period in Europe, the late 17th century.
The bright, lighted centerpiece of this gold sculpture is the image of a female deity about 4 feet [1.3m] in size. Clothed in a flowing garment, she is displayed as the queen of heaven. Behind and above her head is a golden orb, which has rods of gold projecting outwards like rays of the Sun. Beneath her feet is another orb. This telluric globe is dull and brown. Explaining this presentation, no doubt Rev. 12:1, 2 would be referenced. However, the image of this female was not with child. Reading the poem cited above, Praise of Ishtar, it is as if whoever created this room with its gold altar, and the image of a female deity above the Earth in heaven, created it in her honor. It is a perfect representation of Ishtar, or the same goddess by a different name. The problem is that this exalted female deity, in name only, to the casual passerby would be viewed as the Virgin Mary, who is, according to the word of God, asleep in the grave, not alive in heaven. See footnote 3 below.
Looking in, off to the front left of this gold altar, but several feet below it, and about a third in size of the female deity sculpture, is a poorly lighted, earth-toned image. It is an image of Christ dead on the cross.
The symbolism was startling. And it could not be clearer. Christ is represented as a dead mortal. By comparison, he is small in every detail compared to this exalted heavenly female deity who lives. And while it is not yet apparent, it is she that is celebrated at Easter, not Christ, as the queen of heaven and fertility. Along these lines, just prior to Easter, the media is ripe with photos from around the world with re-enactments of the crucifixion or of Christ dead on the cross. But come to the resurrection, Christ is gone and we get the Ishtar/Easter Bunny, eggs, and chocolate bunnies, etc., symbols of this queen of heaven. It's a subtle, and subliminally effective message.
Reflecting this symbolism, there are those who tell us that Christ is wrong, that it's perfectly fine to incorporate pagan symbols into Christianity and to learn pagan ways. The Christian Post ran an article in April 2014 which said, "Thomas Burke, dean of Humanities at Hillsdale College and a professor of philosophy and religion, however, believes that it is acceptable for Christians to partake in rituals during Easter that may have pagan roots." In an interview with The Christian Post, Burke explained that given that these secular [?] Easter traditions "no longer have those pagan associations and meanings," they are "perfectly legitimate for Christians. Insofar as such practices and symbols now represent Christ [?], they are perfectly legitimate for Christians." Problem is, these practices and symbols don't represent Christ. But they do have associations and meanings with the emerging Antichrist, the beast and the false prophet.
Our shepherds tell us these practices represent Christ now, so it's okay to incorporate them into our religious practices. This rationale sounds familiar. "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die." [Gen. 3:3, 4]. So go ahead, jump in feet first into pagan traditions, God doesn't mind. "There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." [Pro. 14:12]. We're back to that conundrum faced by Adam and Eve. Do we heed the word of God or find ways to justify what we think is right? We know how that worked out. [See the Sneakers article, As It Was In The Beginnig, So It Is At The End].
3 The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, lives on in "Christianity" as the popular image of Christ's mother Mary suckling Jesus as a baby, from the fifth century onward, according to Rowena Loverance in her book, Christian Art, p.117, 2007. See Mary Suckling and Isis Suckling. Note that in these depictions, Christ is in an inferior position to Mary, the helpless baby. And again in the Roman church, we see the focus on the mother rather than our Savior. And when the Savior is depicted, we see him dead on a cross. She is portrayed as the crowned queen of heaven.
And even in Henry Longfellow's epic poem, The Song Of Hiawatha, he presents Christ in an inferior position to Mary in the eyes of the native peoples. "Then the Black Robe chief, the Prophet, Told his message to the people, Told the purport of his mission, Told them of the Virgin Mary, And her blessed Son, the Saviour." This is a huge theological step down in perspective from the Biblical record's account. "Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the God of the living.'” [Mat. 16:16, Nestle's Novum Testamentum Graece, 21st Edition].
By the fifth century, the Christianity delivered in the first century by Christ and the apostles [our original theological DNA if you will] had been "genetically modified," replaced by false doctrines and the Easter tradition in the Roman church [artificial DNA that has taken the place of the innate truth that would save us, 2 Ths. 2:10]. The Roman church cleric Jerome, in the fifth century, reordered and changed the number of the books in the Old Testament in his Latin Vulgate translation, changing what had been a purposeful and meaningful order of the books, not only for ancient Israel, but for modern day Christianity as the House of Israel. [For details, see the Feature article, Moving Forward]. And today, it is illuminating to see the collection of ancient mythological graven images in the Vatican, which underlies the true origin of the Roman church. [See Vatican Art; Apollo].
4 The wording in Luke 24:1 is "But on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre ...." The wording in Greek for "But on the one of the week" is, "τῇ δὲ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων ...," is different than in Mark 16:9. The word for sabbath here is plural, sabbaths, as it is in Mat. 28:1. See footnote 7 below as to why the plural is used rather than the singular. While the word sabbaton is the seventh day of the week, it was also used with cardinal numbers to denote the other days of the week. The Israelites did not name their days, but rather they numbered them. Day one [Sunday], day two [Monday], up to day seven, the sabbaton in keeping with the account in Genesis 1. And all their days began at sunset symbolizing light coming out from the darkness, dawn to sunset for the natural day.
While the Greek used in Luke here uses the word sabbatons or sabbaths, it references a numbered day of the week as is the common Greek usage, "But on the one of the week ...." or "on the one of the sabbaton." The feminine one is mia [μιᾷ], which is the cardinal number one. So in this case, we have mia sabbaton, which is day one of the week or day one of seven, our Sunday. Tria sabbaton would be day three of the week, day three of seven, etc. Luke, John and Mark in 16:2 specifically are telling us that the two Marys did show up on the particular day one, mia sabbatons, of the week or what we call Sunday morning, but Christ was already risen. And this is why Mark in 16:9 does not use the cardinal number, mia sabbaton as he did in verse 2, but the adjective, protos sabbaton in describing the timing of Christ's resurrection.
5 Christ was on Earth for six weekly sabbaths after his crucifixion. We read in the beginning of the book of Acts, "In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day in which He was taken up, after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." [Acts 1:1-3]. Including the first weekly sabbath after his crucifixion, the forty days would be inclusive of six weekly sabbath days. The timing of these forty days on Earth shows that Christ was taken up into heaven six weeks from his crucifixion on the Passover.
6 The misunderstanding of Christ's role ["I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel," Mat. 15:24], with the Passover/Days of Unleavened Bread has lead to a bizarrely mangled interpretation of Christ's resurrection, which somehow came out the other end as our turdburger, Easter. Christ was our sacrificial Passover lamb to cover our sins. In modern day Churchianity, the Lamb of God has been replaced by the Bunny of Easter. Note that while lamb is a clean food Biblically, rabbit is considered unclean.
The heathen Easter celebration shows a total lack of understanding of the continuity between the Old and New Testaments, which purposefully is explained in our book, The Hijacked Elephant. It is the missing big story of Christianity that explains who we are, where we are, and where we're headed in the plan of God taken directly from the Biblical record. Our ignorance of the truth in this regard, however, has led us down the road where liberty and freedom reach a dead end in the form of Babylon the Great. Lacking vigilance, our society has fallen prey to the hollow fables with the predicable results. [1 Pet. 5:8]. This is why Christ asked the question, " ... when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” [Luke 18:8]. The word faith is the Greek pistis, which means a conviction of the truth. Churchianity's celebration of Easter is the conviction of the lie. [John 8:43-45].
The seven Days of Unleavened Bread, of which the first and seventh days are high sabbath days, annual holy days, pictured the removing of sin, leaven, out of our lives. [See Exd. 12:19; Lev. 6:17]. Sin results in death. [See Rom. 5:21]. Christ as our Passover sacrifice took us out from under the penalty of sin, death. Christ's death broke the law covenant that Passover day [See Zec. 11:10, 11] whereby sin is imputed. [See Rom. 5:13]. Therefore, that Day of Unleavened Bread, after that Passover, marked the first day the law covenant was broken and sin was no longer imputed to the children of Israel, which would be us. Good news indeed. However, it does not mean we are free from the fruits of evil deeds, including following pagan customs and traditions.
The annual observance of the Days of Unleavened Bread prophetically pointed us to what Christ fulfilled. Easter, seen in this context, is the square peg in the round hole of Biblical evidence. The apostle Paul told us, "Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us." [1 Cor. 5:7; also see Heb. 10:1-10]. Thus, the Passover was the day of Christ's death, a Wednesday, a full three days prior to his resurrection on the first sabbaton, the weekly sabbath, during the Days of Unleavened Bread exactly as planned from the foundation of the world. [1 Pet. 1:19, 20]. For a detailed understanding of the significance of Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread for Christians, see chapter three, The Hijacked Elephant, which is available as a complimentary PDF book on our Home page.
It should be noted that the KJV's use of the word Easter in Acts 12:4 is, in reality, the Greek word, pascha, or passover. Some translator decided to use the word Easter, which clearly is a mistranslation, rather than Passover. Many European countries refer to the Easter celebration by the name of Passover: the Spanish, is Pascua; the French is Paques; the Swedish is Pask, etc. But a rose is a rose, a pagan celebration by any name is still a pagan celebration. It also should be noted that the term Passover commonly came to include the actual Passover day and the seven days of Unleavened Bread, an eight day period, although theologically, they are separate events.
Perhaps adding to the confusion is the fact that the Passover meal was to be eaten with unleavened bread, symbolically representing the bread of life without leavening, or sin. However, the Days of Unleavened Bread would not start until the next evening at sunset. [See Exd. 12:8-11]. When we look at the Old Testament context of what is being fulfilled by Christ, Easter has no standing, but Passover does. Easter does have great standing with Babylon, and with the emerging last days Babylon the Great.
Easter or Ishtar or Astarte is not a Roman god, she was a Babylonian and Greek goddess. She certainly wasn't an Israelite god, except when Solomon did "evil" in the sight of our LORD. The apostle writing the book of Acts, most likely Luke, never would have referred to this day as "Easter." If anything, Luke would have referred to it by the name of a Roman god counterpart, Bona Dea, Juno, Diana or Regina. But this too would not have entered into the written account of an Israelite apostle in Judea. Not understanding the historical and prophetical context of the holy days has lead to confusion as to the timing of Herod's imprisonment of Peter "after Easter." [See Acts 12:1-4]. Therefore, it correctly refers to the time after the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, an eight day period.
According to the Roman Catholic Encyclopedia on "Easter," "Since Christ, the true Paschal Lamb, had been slain on the very day when the Jews, in celebration of their Passover [14th Nisan], immolated the figurative lamb, the Jewish Christians [correctly the House of Israel, Mat. 15:24] in the Orient [Asia Minor or modern day western Turkey, where the seven churches, established by Peter, in Revelation 2 and 3 are located; see the Sneakers articles, Seven Churches, Seven Prophecies and Nope To Pope] followed the Jewish [all 12 nations of Israel, not only Judah] method, and commemorated the death of Christ on the 15th of Nisan and His Resurrection on the 17th of Nisan [three nights and days, not parts thereof, inclusive of the 15th], no matter on what day of the week they fell. [This would be the case using the Hebrew lunar calendar]. For this observance they claimed the authority of St. John [who canonized the New Testament] and St. Philip ...." Keep in mind, this is what the Roman church admits to in writing. They are saying that there are three nights and days from the time of Christ's crucifixion to the resurrection. Also, this is a wholly Israelite event, all twelve nations of Israel, not only the Jews, in Jerusalem. It had nothing to do with the Roman church, which did not exist at that time. And Peter never was pope.
Christ was crucified and put in the tomb before sunset on Nisan 14, which was a Wednesday daytime, the Passover day. It was the preparation day for the first annual sabbath. The 15th of Nisan began on that Wednesday evening at sunset and continued through the daytime of the 15th of Nisan, a Thursday, until sunset. It was the first high holy day or annual sabbath of the sacred year, the first Day of Unleavened Bread. This day marked the first full day of Christ in the tomb. The third day, the 17th of Nisan was the weekly sabbaton, or our current Saturday. It was during the daytime of this weekly sabbath before sunset when Christ was resurrected. It was the first weekly sabbaton after his crucifixion on the previous Wednesday, the 14th of Nisan, Passover.
The timing of the three nights and days in the tomb corresponds to the Julian calendar 10th of April, 27 CE or the 15th of Nisan daytime, which was a Thursday. The daytime 17th of Nisan was Saturday, the sabbaton, the 12th of April, 27 CE on the Roman Julian solar calendar. Our current day Roman Catholic Gregorian solar calendar did not come into use until October 1582. Thus, from before sunset on Wednesday the 9th, to the 10th, 11th and until the 12th before sunset in April 27 CE are three full nights and days exactly as Christ said.
Also, the year 27 CE places the birth of Christ in 6-7 BCE, which is in the range of 4 to 7 BCE that Biblical scholars estimate for the year of his birth. The closest years to 27 CE that the Passover also fell on a Wednesday, or day four of the week, puts the year of Christ's birth much earlier or later than the 4 to 7 BCE time frame. The year of birth is derived from the timing of Herod the Great's death, which is thought to be about 4 BCE. [See Mat. 2:19-23].
Compare the above with the Roman church tradition, which they call Easter. The Roman church encyclopedia continues, " ... In the rest of the [Roman] empire [excluding Jerusalem, see 2 Chr. 35:1, Judea and the churches established by Peter and the other apostles] another consideration predominated. Every Sunday of the year was a commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ [again, this is a non-Biblical practice instituted by the Roman church, celebrated at an altar, a place of sacrificial killings/offerings, before an effigy of Christ, not resurrected, but dead on a cross], which had occurred on a Sunday. [Of course, we've read where this is an incorrect understanding of Mark 16:9 and the annual high Sabbath day versus the weekly sabbath]. Because the Sunday after 14 Nisan [the Passover] was the historical [not the actual] day of the Resurrection at Rome, this Sunday became the Christian [more correctly, the Roman Catholic anti-Christian] feast of Easter."
Notice, the Roman church determines the timing of its false prophet "Easter resurrection" celebration from the Sunday after the Passover, and not explicitly from the "fixed Good Friday" burial that people use in an attempt to justify counting three nights and three days to Sunday morning. Notice too that the Roman church has shifted the focus of Churchianity away from Jerusalem to Rome. However, “Thus says the LORD: ‘I will return to Sion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, The Mountain of the LORD of hosts, The Holy Mountain.’" [Zec. 8:3].
And as we read, Easter is the pagan goddess of spring according to the monk Bede, a "Doctor of the Church." One has to wonder why the Roman church chose to associate the resurrection of Christ with the pagan goddess, Easter. Could it be the prophetic "false prophet" of Revelation and Babylon the Great, especially as it has downgraded our Savior to the status of "mortal teacher?" Regardless, we know now where the pagan Easter tradition began for "Christianity." It began with the Roman church in Rome. And it also states, "A letter of St. Irenæus is among the extracts just referred to, and this shows that the diversity [sounds familiar today] of practice regarding [the heathen goddess] Easter had existed at least from the time of Pope Sixtus (c. 120)."
"Christians" today follow the Roman church heathen tradition of Easter, not the truth of the Biblical record. Rome was the fourth head of the beast in Daniel two. Babylon was the first head of the beast. And Babylon the Great is the sixth head of the beast and false prophet. This is quite the lineage. Pagan tradition says, Friday night to Sunday morning for a Sunday resurrection [the Sun, aka symbolically the heathen giver of life] versus Christ and the Biblical record showing Wednesday before sunset to Saturday before sunset is three nights and three days. Do the math.
Therefore, according to the Roman Catholic Encyclopedia, the pagan feast of Easter Sunday was introduced into "Christianity" in Rome, not Jerusalem where Christ was resurrected on the weekly sabbath. The Roman church, not a secular institution by any means, itself points to a date of its celebration of Easter sometime in the second century in Rome and not in the early first century in Jerusalem. Again, the apostle Luke writing the Book of Acts in Judea would not have referred to this time after Passover as Easter especially as it was Christ's fulfillment of the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread as written in the Law and Prophets. It was a mistranslation that entered into the English text at a much later date due to the Roman church's introduction of the pagan Easter festival. See The Hijacked Elephant for details.
As a side note that may be of interest to Americans, seven of the current Supreme Court justices are Roman Catholics, Biden is Catholic as was Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House. And now we have the US Roman Catholic president bowing down on a knee before the Zionist Israel president. [Biden On Knee]. This ties in to the Vatican acknowledging the "Jews," in truth those descended from Edom, [see Rev. 3:9] as the mother of the Roman church. The current Senate majority leader and the other Supreme two court justices are "Jewish." So even though the legal founding US documents were written by Protestants, there are none on the US Supreme Court today.
"On December 10, 2015, the Vatican’s COMMISSION FOR RELIGIOUS RELATIONS WITH THE JEWS published a remarkable document in which they proclaimed Catholicism to be a child of Judaism, praying to the same god and casually rejecting Jesus as living God, but talking about Him as a Talmudic teacher. [Note: The Babylonian & Jerusalem Talmuds are comprised of non-Biblical, Antichristian writings, Satanic Talmud, two to five hundred years after Christ, see Talmud, also see Dan. 11:37; also the Feature article, The Tie That Binds. The Roman church is denying that Jesus Christ was Jehovah, the anointed one is salvation, that is, he was the son of God in the flesh. They are saying he's just another guy. This is the Antichrist, or those not of God, that the apostle John describes in 1 John 4:1-3, 15].
"They branded millions of Catholics as lesser Jews. They reminded that “The permanence of Israel is to be perceived as an 'historic' fact and a sign to be interpreted within God’s design.” They said that Judaism is not to be considered simply as another religion; the Jews are instead our “elder brothers” (Saint Pope John Paul II), our 'fathers in faith.'" [See footnote 1 in the Feature article, Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares].
7 Matthew 28:1, like Mark 16:9, has created problems for Biblical scholars and translators largely due to the incorrect idea that Christ was crucified on a weekly sabbath preparation day, Friday. However, when we realize that he was put into the grave on the Passover preparation day before sunset, and we have a basic understanding of the relationship between Passover and the first Day of Unleavened Bread, an annual Sabbath, and Christ being in the grave a full three nights and days as he said, the conundrum solves itself. The correct translation here is sabbaths, plural, even though most translations in English incorrectly go with the singular sabbath.
What Matthew is pointing out here is that Christ was resurrected on the first weekly sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread, which have two annual high Sabbaths within a seven day period. Luke's account, 24:1 makes the same point. It is recorded in Matthew 28:1. "ψὲ δὲ σαββάτων τῇ ἐπιφωσκούσῃ εἰς μίαν σαββάτων ἦλθεν Μαριὰμ ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ καὶ ἡ ἄλλη Μαρία θεωρῆσαι τὸν τάφον." [Nestle Novum Testamentum Graece]. It states that, "But late of [the] sabbaths, [i.e., after the sabbaths, σαββάτων, i.e., after sunset], at the drawing on [to lighten, to dawn] towards one of [the] sabbaths ..." indicating that this was day one of the week, meaning a Sunday. However, this particular Sunday followed the second sabbath within a week [the annual high holy Sabbath on Thursday, and on Saturday, the weekly sabbath], hence the plural sabbaths. So what Matthew, and Luke, are telling us is that "After the sabbaths [the annual one and the weekly one, during the Days Of Unleavened Bread], as it began to dawn on the first day of the week [Sunday] ...." And during the coming new week, the same double sabbaths would occur again. The week of the 18th to the 24th of Nisan would have two sabbaths, the seventh Day of Unleavened Bread, the 21st of Nisan, the second annual Sabbath, and the normal weekly sabbath on the 24th. [See Lev. 23:6-8].
Having double sabbaths in a week is similar in nature to having double full moons in a month, what we call a blue moon. In describing this unusual occurrence, we could say, "After the full moons, as it began to dawn on the first day of the month ...." Both these statements provide a time element that lets us know they are not the normal course of events. In fact, we had a double double occurring in 2018, with both January and March having blue moons. And the day after the blue moon, the second full moon of the month, was the first day of a new month, February 1 and April 1. And so it was with the Days of Unleavened Bread back in 27 CE. We had a double double, two sabbaths in a week followed by two sabbaths the following week. The day following the preceding sabbaths was the first day of the new week, Sunday, mia sabbaton.
Therefore, being the Days of Unleavened Bread, the first annual high holy day Sabbath, σαββάτου, occurred on Nisan 15, which was the preceding Thursday. When Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the grave, and from the chapters 20 and 24 of the apostles John and Luke's account respectively, this was on a Sunday morning when still dark, or as it was beginning to dawn. This Sunday followed the second sabbath or sabbaths, σαββάτων, within a week, which was the weekly sabbath. The Marys would have shown up on the 18th of Nisan, with both the 15th, Thursday, and 17th of Nisan, Saturday, being sabbaths, one an annual Sabbath, and the other the weekly sabbath. Remember, we need to look at this through first century Mosaic law governing the keeping of sabbaths in Jerusalem, and not through Roman church tradition, which is contrary to teachings of the first century apostles. [Rom. 16:17, 18].
8 The Passover meal was eaten on what is our Tuesday night as days began at sunset for the House Israel and the House of Judah. Christ was crucified on a Wednesday and placed in the tomb before the end of the day, or sunset. Three nights and days later, Christ was resurrected before sunset on the first weekly sabbath after his crucifixion, which is our Saturday afternoon. Because modern day Churchianity, following the false example of the Roman church from the second century, doesn't understand the significance of the annual holy day sabbath, the first Day of Unleavened Bread, and instead times its Easter celebration based on the weekly sabbath preparation day and a Sunday morning resurrection after the Passover. The Roman church celebrates Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, completely missing both the day of Christ's crucifixion, a Passover Wednesday, and the day of his resurrection, Saturday, protos sabbaton, the first weekly sabbath.
See the Feature article, The Relevance Of The Holy Days In The Plan Of God In The Last Days.
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"Christ, resurrected earlier, on the first weekly sabbath after his crucifixion,
appeared first to Mary Magdalene on Sunday morning."