Should We Celebrate Easter? Today we are going to examine what the Scriptures may have to say regarding the observance of Easter. My name is Tom Martincic and I am the author of a website called EliYah.com or EliYah Ministries, E-l-i-Y-a-h.com, like Elijah, with a ‘Y’ instead of a ‘J’. And this ministry has been online since 1995 and I am a full believer in both the New Testament and Old Testament Scriptures. And even though there are some things I’m going to be sharing today that are different than what most Christians believe, I do love our Savior. And it is actually out of a love for Him I am sharing these things with you today.

And what I am sharing is from the heart. I hope no one watching feels as though I’m trying to condemn anybody. That’s not my intention. My goal is not to condemn. My goal is to share the love and the Word of our Savior as He leads me to do so.

Now, directly behind me you’ll see these things, you know, normally associated with Jewishness. I see nothing wrong with Jewish things as long as they’re biblical Jewish things.

And so I know the Messiah and the Savior I serve is Jewish. All the apostles were Jewish. And since I love Him, I love these kinds of things. These are symbols and signs that He created actually. And for instance, the Torah scroll here directly behind my ears, as I want Yahweh’s Word to be right there symbolically. I want every word coming out of my mouth to be in agreement with His Words. Not that it does anything spiritually, but just a sign and a symbol.

And there’s a shofar also often I put back there. I don’t have it this time. And then there’s a menorah which is a seven candled candlestick thing back there. And that’s where Heavenly Father told Israel to place in the temple symbolizing the light of the Messiah and the Holy Spirit.

And so, you’ll see the Hebrew letters actually back here also, this side, are actually important letters. Those are Hebrew letters and those are how our Heavenly Father’s name is represented. And His name, as I’ve come to understand it, is pronounced ‘Yahweh.’ And I want to glorify His name, praise His name, lift up His name, proclaim His name, pray in His name, do all things in His name.

And underneath is our Savior’s name, ‘Yahushua.’ And most people call Him ‘Jesus,’ but I like to call it by what He was originally called, what He’s actually called in heaven today. Because I do believe the Hebrew is the heavenly language. And so I call Him ‘Yahushua’ and I call our Heavenly Father ‘Yahweh.’ Yep.

And so, those are the names I use regularly because my goal is to return to the teachings and practices of the first century believers. And those are the names they used in those days. And if you watch the ‘Hebrew Roots of Christianity’ video on this website, you’ll find out more about that.

But I’m sharing these things so you understand that even though I’m going to be sharing some things today that are very different than what you might hear in mainstream churches, I’m not trying to lead anyone into Orthodox Judaism either, okay?

I love our Savior. I know I’m completely broken and lost and without salvation unless I have Him in my life. He is my righteousness and without Him I have no righteousness or goodness in me at all.

So, I’m going to start this study today with some assumptions about you, the listener. I’m going to assume that you are genuine believers in our Savior. You’re not just playing religion. You truly love Him with all of your hearts. And I’m going to assume if you ever found anything in your life that was ever offensive to Him, you would stop doing it immediately. And I’m going to assume that your goal as a believer is to live your life the way He would want you to, and that you have a genuine desire to live the way He called His disciples to live.

And so, what I want to do in this study is focus on the Scriptures. I’ve seen a lot of studies on this topic where they spend all this time talking about paganism, how it developed from Nimrod, and all the pagan ways of worship, mimicking the way Easter is done today. And I really don’t care too much about that, as far as how much you can prove it. I don’t need to do that. I can share some basics.

What I want to do is place an intimate focus on our relationship with Him. And our focus on the Scriptures, and what He is trying to tell us with His love language. And I want to seek our Heavenly Father’s will on this topic, because really, what your church says, and people I hang out with say, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what He says.

And so, now when it comes to Easter, I want to take this objective, honest point of view. If I do that, I know I have to acknowledge there are some things that people do during the Easter celebration that are not bad. They focus on the resurrection, the fact that our Savior is resurrected, and sometimes people are drawn to these churches on Easter, and people get saved, and you know, that part’s all good. And so that’s why a lot of people have a difficulty saying, “Well, how could there be anything wrong with it? If it wasn’t for this, my friend down the road, you know, who I brought to church that day, would not be saved today.” Look, there’s nothing wrong with taking time to give thanks for the resurrection of our Savior, and the One who’s commonly called ‘Jesus.’ I choose to call Him by His name Yahushua.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to celebrate and remember His resurrection, and His ascension into heaven. Halleluyah! Actually, I’ll be sharing with you some things that will show you that His resurrection and ascension is something that Yahweh Himself wanted to be commemorated, and remembered, and memorialized! So stay tuned for that. Really fascinating information, I think, will build up your faith.

But one thing we have to understand immediately is when it comes to the worship of Yahweh, our Father, we don’t get to decide whether or not He approves. He does! He decides! So if I do something to someone, say, my friend, and they think it’s hurtful, it doesn’t matter whether I think it’s loving.

I mean, man, you ever do something you thought was being helpful to your wife, and she didn’t feel like it was very loving? The real issue is whether they’re receiving that as love, right? For instance, suppose a woman decided to celebrate her husband’s birthday, but then for some bizarre reason she decided to do it on the birthday of her ex-husband. I mean, it wouldn’t matter whether or not she thought it was harmless. The husband that she’s currently married to, it would be hurtful, and so she’s not really loving her husband, right? And that brings us to Easter.

Now the name of the day Easter, as I’m going to show you, is the name of a goddess of fertility. Now imagine celebrating your wedding anniversary while calling it by the name of the person with whom you had an affair. I mean, that wouldn’t be very loving, right? So why would you call the Resurrection Day by the name of a goddess? I mean, that’s not love. That’s not any relationship, I don’t care who it is, your wife, your husband, whatever; it’s not love. Just off the bat, that’s what I see.

And so we have to remember Heavenly Father, He is holy, and He does not want to be associated with the unholy and the profane, the things that are rooted in the worship of creation, rather than a sincere worship of the Creator. And what I’ve found is that all paganism really stems from this worship of the creation rather than a worship of the Creator.

Creation-centered traditions centered on someone trying to understand their world based on observation of the creation. So really it’s not all that much different than even modern ‘evilution’ evolution, which makes all of its assertions based on what? Observation. The only difference is that evolution suggests that we made ourselves, and so man honors himself rather than acknowledging a power higher than himself, or acknowledges the creation itself than any, you know, like that’s our creation. Our creation created us.

Now I don’t know which one’s worse. I mean, at least ancient paganism recognizes someone greater than themselves, a higher power, but they do share one thing in common, and that is a desire to give credit to creation rather than a creator.

Pagans made idols from various earthly materials, said to these idols, “You made me, you are in control of my world.” Modern atheism essentially does the same. Humanism says to creation, “You made me and you are in control of my world.” It’s no different, it’s just the same thing repackaged for people that happen to have intelligence, okay, but are not very wise. You might have intelligence, but you may not be very wise.

Now, ancient paganism looked at our world and invented various gods and goddesses based on observation. They observed the sun coming back to the northern hemisphere and made a conclusion that a new god was born. They saw the reproduction happening in the springtime, green trees coming back to life, and next thing you know, they worship goddesses they believe to be responsible for reproduction, like women are responsible for reproducing a child, or at least carrying a child that’s been reproduced.

So, Satan will put this fear in people that if they didn’t give proper honor and worship to these pagan idols and those gods, what Scripture says actually are demons, as I’m going to show you, would not send them any rain, “Those gods won’t send you any rain unless you give proper sacrifices to these idols.” And so, then one year they don’t get enough rain and they’re thinking, “Maybe I should have offered it to the idol,” they were afraid.

So really it’s not really any different than what people do today when they follow the spirit of fear, leading people to fear things that are not true. But we as believers should only worship and believe and respond to things that are actually true. And that’s why we must be lovers of the truth in order for us to be saved, Scripture says in 2 Thessalonians, because He’s of the truth. There’s no lie in Him.

The father of lies wants us to believe the lies. And the celebration of Easter has its roots in the beliefs of those lies! And so, the people today are simply mimicking the traditions and the customs of those who believed in those doctrines, which I’ll show you are actually doctrines of demons.

I don’t think our Savior wants anything to do with lies. Much less be associated with things that are from these lies in our worship of Him. So how do I know? Well, one time there was actually an opportunity for Israel, when they come into the land of Canaan, to adopt maybe some of their practices that they’re doing, you know, and perhaps incorporate them into the true worship. But here’s what our Heavenly Father told them.

He said (Deuteronomy 12:29-30) – “When Yahweh your Mighty One cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land,
³⁰ “take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their mighty ones, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their mighty ones? I also will do likewise.’
³¹ “You shall not worship Yahweh your Mighty One in that way; – The way they worship their mighty ones; He does not want to be worshiped in the way that pagans honored and worshiped their deities, their idols. Okay? – for every abomination to Yahweh which He hates they have done to their mighty ones; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their mighty ones.
³² “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.” –

He wants to be worshiped in a very specific way. And we need to be sure today that we investigate the origins of our customs and see whether or not we are unknowingly worshiping our Heavenly Father in their way; by adding to and taking away the things He told us to do. So, we have to find out. I think it behooves us, it’s necessary, it’s loving for us to find out. It’s relationship. Because we love our Father, we want to find out whether we’re doing what He really doesn’t want us to do.

And what I’ve discovered is that observing Easter is little more than an attempt to add to one’s life a manner of worship Yahweh never commanded, the very elements of worship found in other religions, and trying to honor Him with those customs. He is not honored with those things. He is dishonored.

And, you know, our Holy Savior does not need us to come up with ways to worship Him. By observing those who worship idols and demons, and how they did their worship, He doesn’t need that! We don’t need that! Nor does our Heavenly Father allow that, as we see in this Scripture.

And so, how do I know that there are customs associated with this Easter celebration that are from pagan religions?

Start with the very name of the actual holiday. The name of it is ‘Easter’. The name, actually, Easter is the name of a goddess that was once worshiped in ancient times. And we know this based on the writings of a very respected scholar who was there when these things were going on a way long time, fourteen, fifteen hundred years ago. He, a scholar by the name of Bede, wrote ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People.’

And in this, he says, “Eosturmonath, which is a month, has a name which is now translated ‘Paschal month’, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, – Okay. In whose honor those feasts – in whose honor feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honored name – time-honored name – of the old observance.” – Okay. Interesting.

In light of this, now, this man wrote this back in the year, late 600s, early 700s. So, we’re not talking about some encyclopedia, a modern interpretation. This is a man who was there and part of that culture and knew the history of things. Okay? And so, in light of this, actually there’s some that try to say that Bede was not, Bede made this up.

But then in 1958, there was over 150 Germanic votive inscriptions that were found. Names of different gods and goddesses, and among those was ‘Astarte,’ or the cognate of the English ‘Easter.’ And so, it shouldn’t be a surprise really, because Scripture even speaks of female goddesses with a word that’s strikingly similar to our word called ‘Easter’. In 1 Kings chapter 11 verse 5 – For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, – So, Ashtoreth, Easter, Ashtoreth, Easter, Ashtoreth. Okay, not all that far off. Other translations have ‘Astarte’.

Now, Ashtoreths were typically what they called ‘female co-consorts’, or ‘sidekicks’, you know, wives of basic male idols. The male idols had female companions as queens of heaven, okay?

Now, Yahweh never had a consort. There was no wife there. But some actually in Israel, in Jeremiah 7:18, were worshiping these idols. And Jeremiah 17 says – “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women need dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other mighty ones, that they may provoke Me to anger.” – And so, they saw a female counterpart as the one worthy of worship, because they believed these female goddesses were the ones responsible for reproduction.

It says in the ‘Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature’ – “Her presence was thought to guarantee fertility, and in her absence the land, humans and animals could not reproduce.” – Interesting.

Now, so the cakes for the queen of heaven actually may have been what they call now ‘hot cross buns’. According to the book entitled, ‘Holiday Symbols and Customs’ by Sue Ellen Thompson, she writes –”The pagans worshiped the goddess Eostre by serving tiny cakes, often decorated with a cross, at their annual spring festival. And when archaeologists excavated the city of Herculaneum in southwestern Italy, which had been buried under volcanic ash and lava since 79 C.E., they found two small loaves, each with a cross on it among the ruins.” – Interesting. Now, they were not worshippers of our Savior at all.

And then there are the eggs. The eggs were fertility symbols way, way back. The egg is a symbol of fertility, of renewed life, going back to ancient Egyptians and Persians. They had also the custom of coloring and eating eggs during their spring festival. In ancient Egypt, an egg symbolized the sun, while for the Babylonians, the egg represents the hatching of the Venus Ishtar, who fell from heaven to the Euphrates. This is old stuff. What you’re seeing today is just old stuff. That were ways that those who worshiped idols honored their goddesses and their gods, okay?

Now, I already hear what some of you are saying, “It doesn’t matter what it meant to them. What it means to me is something different.” Now, some today believe it’s okay, you can Christianize these pagan things. And that’s actually a way of the Messiah conquering paganism. For instance, on the website Christianity.com, they say, “Christians remember that Jesus, after dying on the cross, rose from the dead, showing that life could win over death. For Christians, the egg is a symbol of the tomb [. . .] while cracking the egg represents Jesus’ resurrection.” – So, they’ve taken what was once a pagan symbol, and they’re trying to make it represent the Messiah coming out of the tomb. The egg representing the resurrection, the cracking of the egg, okay? – “In Orthodox tradition, eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood Jesus shed on the cross. Easter traditions can be redeemed. And the fun of Easter – they say – is still permissible.”

Oh, okay, that’s nice for you to tell us that, Christianity.com. I guess since you said it’s okay, it must be okay. No, I don’t believe it. Just because they say it’s okay, it’s okay. We have to look into the Scriptures.

I want to bring out your other points here. Actually, Kirk Cameron wrote in a movie he had developed called ‘Saving Christmas’. He said, “We need to make traditions of our own. We need to infuse old symbols with new meaning. We need to arrange our lives and our homes so that every single thing points to Jesus.” – So, apparently in Kirk’s mind, for us to acknowledge the pagan origin of any Easter or Christmas custom or symbol is actually giving Satan rulership over those things.

And Kirk believes that we can take these customs and symbols and we can reorient them so that they point to the Messiah. Now, I have to wonder, how far would Kirk go with this idea? For instance, I would like to know how he would Christianize the swastika, you know. How would he do this? Any ideas? I mean, we know what this means. You don’t have to take a symbol and Christianize it. It’s wickedness. That’s what it means. It’s wickedness. It’s racism. It’s evil. That’s what it means. And we don’t have to Christianize it.

How about this? The 666 and the satanic star with the goat head and everything. Do we make that point to Yahushua somehow? No, we don’t. You see, look, I understand the desires to take old symbols, infuse them with new meaning so everything points to the Messiah. And that basically summed up the whole movie. But what does He want us to do? That is the real question! What does He want us to do? You might think you can do this, but what does He want us to do for Him? Maybe Kirk Cameron feels it’s okay to take these pagan things and convert them to Yahushua. But is that what Yahushua told us to do?

Again, there was one time in biblical history where there was actually an opportunity to do that. Yahweh brought the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. A lot of pagan things there. They could convert and sanitize for the Israelite faith. There are lots of opportunities to infuse old pagan things with new meanings and arrange them so they would all point to the one true creator of all things. But what did He tell them to do? (Deuteronomy 7:5) – But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire. –

And He said (Deuteronomy 12:2-4) – Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their mighty ones.
³ Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their mighty ones and wipe out their names – wipe out their names, wipe out their names – from those places.
⁴ You must not worship Yahweh your Mighty One in their way. – Understand?

Now, didn’t Yahweh make the rocks? Yes. He made the wood from the Asherah poles? Yes. Any one of their names wiped out. Not memorialized and used as a name for some new holiday they might invent. Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with rocks. They happen to be from an altar, a pillar, a wood. Wood’s not bad, but once it’s dedicated devoted to an idol, Yahweh instructed Israel to destroy it, not figure out some way to honor Him with it. He’s not honored with those things. He said, “Don’t worship me in their way.” He doesn’t want to be worshiped in their way. Now, this was His perfect opportunity to sanitize all that stuff. He didn’t do it.

So, He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is. And here’s what He told us. He told Israel, He said (Leviticus 18:3-4) – According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. – He doesn’t want their laws and their customs, their traditions. He doesn’t want them. He wants us to –
⁴ observe His judgments, His ordinances, and walk in them: – That’s what He wants.

So, we see His will. Because look, you might think pagan 666 is far worse than this idol worship. It’s not. It’s not. Because even Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:20 – the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to Elohim, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. – ‘Elohim’ is the word commonly translated ‘God’ in our language.

Now, the point I’m going to share here is that the ones who are worshiping and sacrificing to idols, they’re actually worshiping and sacrificing to demons and to Satan the devil. And so, from our Savior’s perspective, everyone bowing down to an idol and sacrificing to an idol, is actually doing this to a demon.

It’s important that we get that into our minds, that the truth is that all paganism is actually Satanism! All paganism is Satanism! And the reason why I’m pointing this out is because we want to look at things from our Savior’s perspective, how He sees it!

The heathens, they said they wanted to celebrate their view of the world by honoring a female deity they thought was responsible for reproduction. And so they looked at creation, they saw the rabbits, these little fertile creatures, you know. The average rabbit reaches the age to which they can reproduce only three months old, three to eight months old. And they have the rest of their nine to twelve years to reproduce. They breed nine months out of the year and they’re more or less ready to mate all the time. And actually they don’t have a menstrual cycle. The intercourse actually stimulates the ovulation and they gestate for only 30 days and they got new rabbits, new babies; four to twelve of them. And as soon as they have the babies, they’re already ready to reproduce again the next day. That’s a hundred babies a season.

So these rabbits being the sign of fertility and the worship of the female goddess. And then Christianity comes along and says, “Well, let’s take these heathen practices and try to Christianize them,” even though rabbits have absolutely nothing to do with the resurrection of the Messiah and everything to do with how those nations worship the idols. And somehow eggs get associated with rabbits, even though rabbits can’t lay eggs. I mean, I know how this happened—the symbols of fertility, the fertility symbols coming from demonic religions found its way into our faith. The world does not see these things as demonic, they don’t.

But because we believe in the Scriptures, we know there are two kingdoms at war with one another. There’s the Kingdom of Light and there’s the kingdom of darkness; and there’s nothing in between. You’re either on one side or you’re on the other. You’re either on the Kingdom of Yahweh and His Messiah, which is at war against demon worship, which is at war against idols, and false images, and false theologies, and the character and festivals to these sun gods. They’re at war!

And so we need to look at things the way He looks at it. Our Savior gave us His life to defeat the kingdom that Satan is trying to build, with all of its idol worship, all of its demon worship, all their false images, all their false theology, all their false festivals.

He’s trying to defeat those things and other things associated with Satanism. But then believers in Yahushua are going to take the worship of the Messiah look more like the worship of demons by associating those things with His resurrection? He’s trying to defeat those things!

He isn’t defeated by converting them to make it look like Him, because He has nothing to do with those things. He has nothing to do with those things! It is an attempt to insert observances and doctrines of demons into the purity of Yahweh’s Holy Son! And they do not mix. They cannot mix. You cannot mix lies with truth. You cannot mix light and darkness. He is Holy. You can’t mix holiness with unholiness!

And I understand, Christians are trying to get more converts here, and so they basically Christianized idolatrous pagan feasts to make Messiah more attractive to the unbeliever. But the truth is they didn’t Christianize anything. What they really did was paganized the Holy Precious Son of Yahweh.

So the real question would be, “Who converted who?” I mean really, the Christians were converted to doing worldly things rather than the worldly people being converted to doing righteous things. And because brothers, listen, you don’t win the world by imitating the world. You don’t! You win the world by imitating the Messiah Yahushua! That’s how you win the world. And the demon worshippers had pressured them into accepting their customs; come on, you have to admit it. Cultural pressures overcame them. Same thing’s happening today. Same thing.

And what Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 19 – What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? – No. –
²⁰ Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to Elohim, and I do not want you to have fellowship with the demons.
²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Master and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Master’s table and the table of demons. – And so, by observing Easter we are memorializing satanic theology and giving some credence to their ways, almost like a nod to their ways, as if they had some things right when they use these things; these rabbits, these eggs, hot cross buns, and Easter, and all these things. All they did really was confuse the world they were trying to convert. They did.

Tertullian, a man fairly well respected among Christians today, he said actually, “Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that the sun is the God of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact that we pray toward the east, or because we make Sunday a day of festivity.” (Tertullian [155-225 AD.], Ad Nationes, I 13, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. III, p. 123) – The day of the Sun.

I mean the fact that they did these things, it caused people to get confused. Who do you really worship? What our Heavenly Father wants is pure worship. He does not want syncretism. Syncretism is the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles.

Our Heavenly Father has different and opposing principles and practices and parties, as in philosophy or religion. You can’t mix things that are opposed to one another.

Job 14:4 says – Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.

Ephesians 5:11 says – and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

1 Corinthians 10:14 – wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from my idolatry. – Not incorporate their practices into your worship.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. – 1 John 5:21.

And so, for us to take these things and try to bring it into our worship is not fleeing from idolatry, it’s incorporating their customs into our worship. He doesn’t like it. If He doesn’t like it, we don’t like it.

Now some of you may be saying, “Well, you’re right, they should not have done that. But you know, what about today? I mean, it doesn’t mean those things anymore. It doesn’t mean those things to me. Does it really matter? I mean, it doesn’t mean that to me.”

Well, let me ask you a question. Is it supposed to be about us? Or is it supposed to be about Him? And maybe you’ll say, “Well, Easter doesn’t remind me of paganism. It reminds me of my Savior.” But the question is not what it reminds you of. The question is what it reminds Him of. It’s not about us. It’s about Him. He is the One we’re supposed to be honoring here. He stands across the centuries of time, and the only thing that matters is what He sees. He’s the One being worshiped. It’s so important we look at things from His perspective!

We’re not following some religion that’s taking our fancy, you know. We want to be a people that are after His own heart. And the world, instead of honoring Him for all of His goodness toward us, basically taught us that demons were deserving of worship. And that’s how Israel played the harlot.

And those things have to hurt Him because He’s the One true Mighty One. And if we want to be after His own heart, we need to reject these things and their elements. And for some reason we just assume, because we offer something to honor Him, He has to accept it. But did you know that biblically He doesn’t have to accept it? Even if you accept it.

I’m reminded of King David when he actually tried to worship Yahweh in a pagan way. He did that one time, he did. King David, unknowingly, tried to worship Yahweh in a pagan way. And Yahweh crashed the party. I’ll show you. 2 Samuel 6 verse 3 and 4 – So they set the ark of Elohim on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the cart, the new cart.
⁴ And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of Elohim; and Ahio went before the ark.
⁵ Then David and all the house of Israel played music before Yahweh and all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals. – Having a great old time. –
⁶ And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of Elohim and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.
⁷ Then the anger of Yahweh was aroused against Uzzah, and Elohim struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of Elohim.
⁸ And David became angry because of Yahweh’s outbreak against Uzzah; and called the name of the place Perez Uzzah to this day.
⁹ David was afraid of Yahweh that day; and he said, ‘How can the ark of Yahweh come to me?’
¹⁰ So David would not move the ark of Yahweh with him into the City of David; but David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite.

But then David realized his error, what he had done wrong. He realized, I mean, look in 1 Chronicles 15 verses 1 and 2. It says – David built houses for himself in the City of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of Elohim, and pitched a tent for it.
² Then David said, “No one may carry the ark of Elohim but the Levites, for Yahweh has chosen them to carry the ark of Elohim and to minister before Him forever.” – And later –
²⁸ Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh with shouting with the sound of the horn, with trumpets and with cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and harps. – So it worked out. No crashing of the party this time. David realized they were transporting the ark in the wrong way. Yahweh even supplied poles for the ark to be carried, and little rings on the side of the ark for this ark to be carried by Levites.

So where did they get this idea about putting the ark on a cart? From the pagans. 1 Samuel chapter 6 verse 11 – And they set the ark of Yahweh on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their tumors. – Philistines. – Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beth Shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. And the lords – master – of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh. – So, they came up with this idea to transport the ark on a cart. And then David copied that idea, which is from the pagans, and tried to worship Yahweh in a way that they were trying to honor Yahweh through their carts. And so, the Philistines taught Israel to do it this way.

And David was actually setting up a huge celebration. Everybody’s happy and singing rejoicing before Yahweh, but Yahweh was offended. Because the entire ceremony was an attempt to worship Him using concepts that came from the heathen.

And so what I’m trying to say is this—it doesn’t matter how many people you saw saved on that Easter service, or how happy everybody was, or how much they were praising our Father for the entire event. What matters is how He sees it!

And you know, I know where you say, you might say, “We’re in the age of grace now, He doesn’t care.” Yes, He does. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does care.

You never want to use grace as an excuse to do something He’s displeased with. So He does not have to accept our celebrations. Cain made an offering, it was not accepted. Nadab and Abihu offered incense, it was not accepted. He called it ‘strange fire’.

Just because we want to honor Him with something doesn’t mean He has to accept it, or He’s honored by it. We might think He is, but really He isn’t. And whether He sees it as something that honors Him is the only thing that matters! Because He has a love language.

Have you ever heard of love languages? You know, some people have their love language as a gift of touch, another might be gifts of service, another might be acts of service. I’m sorry, acts of service is a different love language.

Yahweh our Father has a love language. He gave it to us. He told us how He wants to be worshiped, how He wants to be honored. And He deserves to be honored and worshiped with unblemished worship, unblemished offerings. And He wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Our Savior said that, “You must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24b)

He wants to be worshiped in the purity of His Holy Spirit, the purity of 100% complete truth, not connecting Him to demonic observances that were not of the truth. So, in spite of the fact that celebrating His resurrection isn’t wrong, doing so as part of an Easter celebration, we should not participate. And we should not ever lie to our children and tell them the Easter bunny is going to come and hide candy and baskets of candy for children to find.

We don’t have to look very far into Scripture to learn how much Yahweh’s displeased about lying. He hates lies because He is of the truth. And He wants to be worshiped in spirit and in truth!

And so, Scripture even says (Revelation 22:15) – But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and makes a lie. – So, He doesn’t want to be in it. And here we got these Easter bunnies going around that are lies. These creatures do not exist. We’re lying to our children in honor of a Savior who’s of the truth? Doesn’t mix! You can’t mix it.

So, how did this mess all get started? And what I found, a lot of this actually got started through anti-Semitism. It seems that some Gentiles, who became believers in the Messiah, were frustrated with the Jewish people for not becoming converts.

That frustration, historically, seemed to turn into bitterness and hatred. There’s probably plenty of them hating from the Jewish side too. But we’re the ones supposed to be representing a loving Savior who loves people in spite of the hate.

Right? Now, 2nd century Christians were actually keeping a form of Passover, even though they were calling it, even though they were using it, they were celebrating the resurrection actually, but they were calling it ‘Passover.’ In some countries of the world, this celebration of the resurrection is not even called ‘Easter.’ They call it ‘Passover’ or ‘Pascha.’ Even though it’s not kept on the biblical day of Passover, they’ll call it ‘Passover.’ And it doesn’t always have the pagan elements seen in our modern day culture here in America.

Now, many will partake of the body and blood at this time, at the day, at this time of the resurrection, even though the emblems, the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine were actually commemoration of His death, not His resurrection.

And so, there are actually two things in Scripture. One celebrated His resurrection, but another thing commemorated His death. 2nd century Christians were actually doing this initially on Passover or during Passover, but then anti-Semitism seems to have been a driving force behind trying to find some other date.

For instance, Constantine said, “. . . it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast, we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way.” And so, then this huge controversy lasted many centuries, and it plagued the Church because they could not seem to come up with a date in which they would celebrate His resurrection. They just knew they didn’t want to do it however the Jews did their Passover. And so, even though the day actually is in the pages of Scripture of His resurrection, they didn’t want anything to do with it.

Another historian wrote, “It was, in the first place, declared improper to follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this holy festival, because, their hands having been stained with crime, the minds of these wretched men are necessarily blinded. . . . Let us, then, have nothing in common with the Jews, who are our adversaries. . . . Let us . . . studiously avoiding all contact with that evil way. . . . For how can they entertain right views on any point who, after having compassed the death of the Lord, being out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries them. . . . lest your pure minds should appear to share in the customs of a people so utterly depraved. . . . Therefore, this irregularity must be corrected, in order that we may no more have any thing in common with these parricides and the murderers of our Lord. . . . no single point in common with the perjury of the Jews.” (Ecclesiastical History by Theodoret. Book 1 Chapter 9)

Wow. These men were so blindingly hateful of the Jewish people. They simultaneously hated the Jews for killing Yahushua, and yet held up the cross as a sign of their faith, the very instrument the Jewish people used to kill Yahushua! It makes no sense. I mean, hate can be so blinding.

The truth is, Israel, actually the Jewish people in the first century and 1500 years before Yahushua ever was born on the earth, Israel was celebrating our Savior’s resurrection. Yahweh commanded it. You heard me right! Israel was celebrating the resurrection of our Savior, Yahushua, 1500 years before He was ever even sent to earth! They didn’t know it, but they were.

Just as they didn’t know they are actually memorializing our Savior’s death when they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the 14th day of the first month on the biblical calendar, they also did not know they’re celebrating His resurrection on the day called ‘The Day of Firstfruits.’ Leviticus 23 verse 10 says – “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.
¹¹ ‘He shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it.'” – It sounds kind of simple and somewhat benign, but there’s a lot packed in those two verses. And what’s packed in those two verses contains all the information I need to know in order for me to want to celebrate and commemorate our Savior’s resurrection; but without the pagan rooted traditions we have in our culture today.

Now, first of all, this word ‘sheaf,’ as in ‘wave sheaf,’ doesn’t even mean sheaf. It comes from the Hebrew word ‘omer,’ which actually is a measurement—about two liters of barley. So, the omer was a unit of dry measurement. They would have this omer of barley that they would wave before Yahweh on this particular day. They would wave it before Yahweh. And the day that they would wave it was indeed the day after the Sabbath. It says here – “on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it.” As I understand it, it was the Sabbath that occurred during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Interesting, because Yahushua ascended to heaven on the day after the Sabbath, which is the first day of the week. And they were told that they had to bring the firstfruits of the harvest to the priest. Okay?

Now, remember when our Savior said, “The fields are all ripe for harvest?” He sees Himself, He sees us as a harvest. He sees Himself as part of, symbolically being symbolized in these grains. Okay? And actually, 1 Corinthians 15 verse 20 says that – But now Messiah is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits – firstfruits – of those who have fallen asleep. – So, we saw the firstfruits here on the first day of the week being offered, and we know our Savior was resurrected on the first day of the week, and He is also the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. No man had ascended up into heaven into Yahweh’s throne room up to that point. Yahushua was the firstfruits. And so, it happens that what they were waving was barley.

Now, barley is the very first crop Israel harvested in their growing season each year, the very first thing that came out of the ground. The very first food coming out of the ground, shooting up out of the ground each year, was barley. Interestingly enough, Israel actually is one of the only places on earth where barley grows in the wild. Really. I think there’s only one other place. It is therefore quite fitting that our Savior was born, raised, died, and resurrected in Israel, the only place in the world where barley grows in the wild; or one other place maybe, I have to research that more. Well, He was actually, He’s the first man also that rose up out of the ground to ever be with Yahweh, just as barley was the first food to come up out of the ground at the beginning of Yahweh’s new year in the spring.

Now, barley has a wonderful ability to get nutrients from the soil because it has very deep roots, to the extent that if we–like our Savior is deep-rooted, right?–if we are joined to Him and therefore become deep-rooted, we will become established in the faith. As it says here in Colossians chapter 2 in verse 6 – As you have therefore received Messiah Yahushua the Master, so walk in Him,
⁷ rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you’ve been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. – And this barley harvest was rooted deep, as our Savior was rooted deep, and we connect to Him, we become rooted deep. If we’re abounding with thanksgiving, this barley harvest was something that was offered up with thanksgiving. –
⁸ Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Messiah. – He was saying what I’ve been saying this entire message today.

Let’s be rooted in Him. Let’s be rooted and connected to the things that Scripture uses to symbolize Him. He’s the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. He causes us to be established in the faith. He causes us to avoid the traditions of men, which are according to the world, rather than according to the Messiah. Easter is a tradition of men, at least the customs on it.

The Day of Firstfruits is not a tradition of men. It’s a practice our Heavenly Father Himself commanded to be observed, a practice that glorifies and pictures our Savior’s resurrection and ascension into heaven.

And from the very beginning, it was always the firstfruits that belong to Yahweh. Yahweh is first. He deserves the first from us. He deserves to be first in our lives, to the extent that Israel actually would be tested every year. He commanded them to not eat any of the barley until the priest offered the first of the firstfruits. He said (Leviticus 23:14) – ‘You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your Mighty One.’ – So He would test them, sort of like even Adam were tested—You can’t have that food. You see it, it’s growing out of the ground, but you can’t eat any of it.

So they had to deny themselves and refuse to eat the barley coming up out of the ground until the firstfruits had been waved before Yahweh on that ‘Day of Firstfruits.’ And every year, opportunity then was to put Yahweh first by giving Him the first, by choosing Him over the ‘God of the belly.’

Actually, if you garden, you should do the same. You should give Him the first of your harvest. And you can do that by giving the first of your harvest to the poor. Actually, Scripture says (Proverbs 19:17) – He who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh, . . . – And so you’re giving it to Yahweh, in a sense. I actually have a full study on that, ‘Giving and Tithing,’ on the video archives.

But now, since Yahushua is our wave sheaf offering, the first of the firstfruits, we must recognize He has the preeminence. Because Yahweh chose to make Him first, and therefore He must be regarded as first. (Colossians 1:18) – And He is the head – the beginning, the first, the head – of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. – Firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. To have preeminence is ‘to be first.’

And so, on the ‘Day of Firstfruits’ is to be a reminder of our Savior’s resurrection. It’s a reminder that since Yahweh made Him first, we must therefore recognize His firstness by giving Him the proper esteem and proper honor. And since He is the first man ever to make it into Yahweh’s throne room, that wonderful heavenly Holy of Holies, we know, if we follow Him, we will find ourselves seated next to Him in the age to come, reigning with Him as rulers and as priests. As it says (Revelation 20:6) – Blessed and holy is He who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of Elohim and of Messiah, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

The ‘Day of Firstfruits’ is also our reminder, He is the one that made us holy. (Romans 11:16-21) – For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; – That’s us, we’re the lump. – And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
¹⁷ And if some of the branches were broken off, and you being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, – Talking about Gentiles being grafted into this wild olive tree, – and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, – I’m sorry, cultivated olive tree, but we’re brought into, we were a wild olive tree, we’re being brought into a cultivated olive tree. –
¹⁸ do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
¹⁹ You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.”
²⁰ Well said. – Talking about Israel, broken off – that Gentiles might be grafted in. Well said. – Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, – Do not be haughty, he says. – but fear.
²¹ For if Elohim did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. – So we are this lump of dough made holy by Yahushua.

Instead of seeing ourselves as these Gentiles who are needing to divorce ourselves from these terrible Jewish people and the Hebraic roots of our faith, I think it’s time we see ourselves as men and women who were brought into the olive tree of Yisrael. And we need to go in a different direction than the haughty men who wanted nothing to do with Israel. And so they fought and argued for centuries on coming up with an alternative date for celebrating the resurrection. And they saw themselves as so so superior, even though Paul said, “Don’t boast against the branches, don’t be haughty, but fear.” And I think in some ways the Church was blinded because of anti-Semitism. But now in this age after the Holocaust and re-establishment of Israel living in the land, I’m seeing this anti-Semitism just kind of melt away.

Instead, I’m seeing this love for Israel and love for the nation of Israel from many Christians today. And now the eyes are being opened and will continue to be opened as we see things more biblically. Like—this is the ‘Day of Firstfruits,’ it’s not ‘Easter.’ Okay?

And we can see how that very much relates to the teachings in Scriptures like these (1 Corinthians 15:22-24) – For as in Adam all die, even so in Messiah all shall be made alive.
²³ But each one in his own order: Messiah the firstfruits, afterward those who are Messiah’s at His coming. – So Yahushua being the firstfruits. –
²⁴ Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to Elohim the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. – So on the Day of Firstfruits, remember—it’s our risen Savior who became that wave offering that was offered up to heaven and made us acceptable to Yahweh as we joined to His body, thereby giving us the hope of the resurrection.

For unless He was that firstfruits, we would not have that hope. Unless He was resurrected, we would have no life or hope for eternal life in us. But since He was resurrected, we have this hope of the resurrection.

Now picture it for a moment. Israel was waiting all winter long for this new harvest to come in. Not just some cute thing, their very existence depended upon the harvest. And without the harvest coming in, they die of starvation. In the same way, without Yahushua’s resurrection, His harvest, that firstfruits being ascended up into heaven, there’s no hope for us to live either beyond the grave. Because He lives, we live.

And so, the firstfruits of the barley harvest is found. A new year begins and the priest takes this omer of barley, representing our Savior Yahushua, waving it before Yahweh, waving it. He can’t make the barley ascend up into heaven, so he just reaches skyward in a gesture that symbolizes our Savior’s ascension toward heaven.

As it says (Leviticus 23:11) – ‘He shall wave the (sheaf) – omer actually – before Yahweh, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath (the priest shall wave it)’ – And so, on this day Yahushua ascends up into heaven. Remember He said to Mary, “Oh, don’t touch Me, I have not yet ascended to My Father.” He was probably waiting for that time of the wave sheaf offering. And as the priest lifted up his hands, our Savior ascends up into heaven as a sweet-smelling aroma. Yahushua having been perfected and being victorious on the day after the Sabbath.

And so we have already in Scripture this connection from the earthly tabernacle, earthly temple, raising its hands up toward the heavenly temple, saying, “I need this and I give this to You.” As a priest raised the omer of barley up skyward toward the heavenly temple, we know Yahushua is that connection between us, our earthly bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit, to the heavenly temple.

So Yahushua ascends up to heaven on this day after the Sabbath. And because He lives, He lives in us. And because He reigns, He reigns in us. And because He reigns in us, we will reign with Him forever. One day Yahushua will raise us up from the dead. And that’s the wheat harvest coming, and Pentecost, that’s the other feast coming up next.

But you cannot properly celebrate His resurrection, really, while missing out on these heavenly-inspired elements.

You cannot properly celebrate His resurrection by picturing Him to be like a chicken or a bunny coming out of an eggshell on Easter Sunday. I’m sorry. You see how ridiculous that sounds? I mean, rabbits don’t even lay eggs. There’s no Easter bunny going to come and hide candy anywhere, guys, okay? This has nothing to do with anything biblical, nothing!

Yahushua’s resurrection and ascension to heaven is an event worth celebrating and remembering, yes! But we don’t need Easter bunnies and Easter egg hunts, these traditions which are Scripturally offensive to our Heavenly Father, in order to do it!

All these things came about when the Church decided to divorce itself from the original Hebraic roots. And they essentially said, “Oh, it’s better to take customs coming from doctrines of demons and incorporate those into our worship, than it is for us to take a look at the actual signs and symbols that Yahweh Himself gave us in His Holy Word! And use those things to point to the resurrection. And maybe if they did, the Jewish people would never have been so ignorant that the things that were written in Scripture all point to Him!

And if the Church has celebrated these things with the Hebraic roots, with the signs and symbols that Scripture had given! Maybe the Church has blood on their hands, historically. I don’t know. Yahweh knows all things.

But I say this, let’s not divorce ourselves from the Hebraic roots. When we do that, we’re actually divorcing ourselves from Scripture. Everyone wants to take communion, but many don’t realize unleavened bread represents the Word, the Law of Yahweh, supposed to be in us. And that’s why we put it into our bodies, because we want the Word to be in our hearts, in our minds. And we do it in commemoration of His death, not His resurrection. Paul said, “We do it to proclaim our Master’s death till He comes.”

Well, He didn’t die on Easter Sunday. He died on Passover day. And He’s the One that sets us free from our own personal slavery to Egypt. That is the house of bondage. It’s our carnal nature. This body is our house of bondage. He sets us free from that.

And just as Israel was baptized in the sea and in the cloud, we’re baptized. And just as Israel was tested in the wilderness, we’re tested in this wilderness known as ‘the world.’ Yet just as they were learning the commandments of Yahweh during that time, we’re learning His will for our life in this wilderness as strangers and pilgrims in the land.

And just as Mosheh was not able to lead them across to Jordan into that promised land, why? Because he himself had sinned. It’s true. Mosheh, the law of Mosheh, can’t save us. He can’t take us to the promised land. We need a man named Yahushua to do that for us. Just as they had a man named Joshua, which Hebraically is pronounced Yahushua, the exact same way as their Savior’s name.

You see the pictures here, the beautiful artistry, the beautiful symbolicness of all these things that Yahweh Himself made, object lessons. He made symbols. He wants us to study them! He wants us to use these things to glorify Him! We don’t have to go find some demon-worshiping pagan divine symbols to honor Him aside. We don’t need that!

And so, just as Israel honored Yahweh for the firstfruits, and the firstfruits was an assurance that Yahweh indeed provided a harvest, so it is with us. We know that Yahushua the Messiah is the firstfruits, and because of Him we have the evidence of a fuller harvest—us.

These are the things we ought to be gathering and talking about on the day of His resurrection; not painting eggs and hiding in the bushes.

If you want to really bless your children, talk to them about the Scriptures when you rise up, when you lie down, when you walk by the way. Spend the day talking to them about the hope of the resurrection, the glories of the age to come. Tell them there’s hope beyond the grave and the miserable things of this world!

Tell them Yahushua proved there was hope when He became that firstfruits offering to Yahweh—just as the priest was connecting to heaven, our Savior connected to heaven. Talk to them about how the firstfruits speak to the importance of putting Yahweh first in our lives and giving Him our very best, because He loved us enough to send us His best, His only begotten Son, to give His life for us. He provided the barley, He provided the Savior, so we might spend eternity with Him.

That’s what they need to hear, my friend! The eggs and the Easter bunnies only distract from the real message and cause their minds to be consumed, not with the resurrection of Messiah and the hope of that, but carnal things like an unhealthy pile of candy they’re going to probably consume like a glutton, okay? I mean, it’s kind of fitting actually, because we also don’t need to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior with the spiritual junk food. We don’t need it!

Fertility symbols, nods to pagan goddess, we don’t need that. Let’s rid ourselves of that junk and go back to the Holy Scriptures, so that we might truly worship our Father in spirit and truth the way He wants to be worshiped and deserves to be worshiped. With no traditions of men needed. That’s Yahweh’s love language.

It’s the only love language we should ever want to practice in our love for Him, in our relationship with Him. We simply have no business changing it. His signs and symbols are already perfect, inspired by His Spirit, and that’s the only Spirit I want to get the inspiration from when it comes to how I honor my Savior, the One who gave everything for me.

Let’s pray. Oh, Father Yahweh, thank You for the first fruits. Thank You for our Savior.

Thank You for all that You have done for us. We are amazed at Your awesome Word. We are amazed at how You wrote the plan of salvation, literally, the plan of salvation in the history of a nation, the nation of Yisra’el, the nation we become joined to.

Even if we were Jewish ourselves, we have to be grafted back in to the true olive tree, the remnant of Israel. Father, we thank You for the promises, for the pictures, and the signs, and the symbols, and all the different ways that You have shown us the truth. And any in the sound of my voice who agrees with the message today, to turn away from these idolatrous customs and turn toward Your Holy Word, and by that remember our Savior’s resurrection.

We ask for forgiveness. We ask for Your teaching to enter the hearts of all of us, that we might, in Messiah, our Savior Yahushua, truly glorify You with the love language You’ve already given us. And truly we know, Yours is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

In Messiah Yahushua Ha-Mashiach, Yahushua the Messiah, we pray all these things in His name.