The Significance of Passover

[Download MP3]
How does the Passover point to Jesus? Is it just a Jewish holiday, or does it have meaning to believers in Jesus today? Join Dr. Brown as he talks about the prophetic significance of passover!

Hour 1:

Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: There ought to be no separation between Passover and Easter on our calendars; and where there is a separation, let the church join with the Jewish community and celebrate the Passover season, the death and resurrection of Jesus season–along with the Jewish Passover, unleavened bread calendar. And let us emphasize not Easter egg hunts, but the death and resurrection of the Messiah, and within the context of the Passover let us provoke the Jewish people to jealousy by showing them not only was there redemption from Egypt, but there is redemption from sin and death. The Messiah has come, and He will come again, in accordance with the Scriptures.

Hour 2:

Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: Jesus’ death and resurrection must be central. If you are able to do that in conjunction with the Passover season and incorporate that into the Jewish calendar, all the better. It has biblical roots, and it will further identify our faith with the Jewish people, and perhaps even more, provoke the Jews to jealousy. If the Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday schedule is sacred to you, as long as Jesus is central and He is exalted, and as long as you do not separate that in your thinking from the Passover and your Jewish roots, so be it! Hold to Jesus, hold to your roots, and move forward!

Featured Resources:

What Do Jewish People Think About Jesus? by Dr. Brown: Dr. Michael Brown answers sixty common questions about Jewish people and Jewish culture. He also addresses questions Christians have about their own relationship to the Old Testament Law.

_

Answering Jewish Objections To Jesus – Volume 1 by Dr. Brown: In the first volume of this multi-part series, Dr. Brown addresses the most fundamental objections to Jesus raised by Jewish people, including the claim that you can’t be Jewish and believe in Jesus. Brown also provides reflections on anti-Semitism in Church history

___

Our Hands Are Stained with Blood by Dr. Brown: This shocking and painful book tells the tragic story of the “Church” and the Jewish people. It is a story every Christian must hear.

_

Is Christianity Jewish? [Think it Thru DVD] with Dr. Brown: It seems that the major religious faiths have little or nothing in common at all. Dr. Michael Brown travels to the Bible Belt of the United States to explore what people know of Judaism and its relationship to Christianity.


Should Christians Observe The Biblical, Jewish Holidays? Online Article by Dr. Brown

40 Comments
  1. If by Easter I mean the recognition of Jesus as the Passover Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, his suffering, the cross, his death, and resurrection, then don’t I mean the Passover celebration?

    I believe that I do.

    I wonder how many Jews celebrated the resurrection of Jesus when they celebrated Passover, in the few years after Jesus became our Passover on the cross.

    I didn’t live at that time. I don’t really know.

    Today, I assume there are many Jews who do celebrate the resurrection of Christ during their Passover celebration.

  2. Isn’t the Bible very clear about the mixing of the clean and unclean, holy and unholy? And what about the mixing of Paganism with God ordained festivials? Isn’t that what Easter is doing??? And didn’t God always say, worship the Lord Your God and serve Him only? And when the Kings of old participated in pagan traditions, weren’t they found evil in the eyes of God? Easter is mixing paganisn with the Passover, correct? Even though Constantine seperated them earlier on. But Easter is still using the Passover concept and mixing it with the Paganisn associated with Easter itself.
    God killed Nabad and Abihu for offering strange fire–mixing the clean and unclean and not rendering the offering as holy (Lev 10). It became a foreign offering that God didnot recognize, and they clearly disobeyed God.
    The Resurrection is the Christian. Without it, Christ has been removed and replaced–with bunnies and egg hunts here in the west. Because majority of Christians celebrate Easter here in the west, there has obviously been a slow fade on the importance of the Resurrection of Christ our Saviour.
    As Christians, God tells us to clearly know the difference between what is clean and unclean and that we are to be a seperated people, yes?
    But because Easter has been mixed and paganism has been allowed, the focus has been taken off of Christ Jesus and put on the entertainment of what Easter has to offer.
    Passover clearly focus’s on what Christ has done for us. Easter clearly does not. If something does not draw you closer to Him, then the Bible says STAY AWAY from it.
    I don’t celebrate Easter. But I do teach my children about the Passover each year–and we are not Jewish. Our family focus is to always have Christ as our center. And we do not feel Easter, here in the West, has Christ at it’s center.

  3. I think Christianity today and Judaism today both need to purge the “leaven.”

    Christianity today attempts to justify paganism within it, and Judaism justifies the man-made doctrines of the Rabbinate.

    Both are deeply wrong in that respect. But God has made His thoughts and intentions very clear on both accounts (man-made doctrines and pagan admixture) in the complete Bible, so I don’t know why they still exist today except that people simply prefer to follow other people instead of God, and actually prefer to make Him into their image.

    No wonder it’s called a “narrow way”, and not the broad path!

    May He give us all more understanding!

  4. Some people use the term Easter differently than
    others. Sometimes we use the word Easter in different ways.

    People often play word games by taking what someone said and applying the wrong defintion to a word that they used. I find that this is why it’s good to use a dictionary.

    If someone says something, and I take the wrong meaning to a word they said and do so either on purpose or without intending to do so, isn’t it then that I’m not hearing them properly?

    Isn’t this one reason the Lord said, “Take heed how you hear.”? (Luke 8:18)

    The word Easter may speak of the name of a pagan festival or it may speak of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, depending on how it is used. It may speak of a certain Sunday, or it may speak of a type of egg.

    It’s used in a lot of ways. It can be used in ways that honor God. It can also be used in ways that destroy the things that God has built.

    Just because the word Easter has been used in ways that dishonor God, that is not to say that it can not be used in ways that do honor him.

    We don’t have to refuse to use a word if we find that the word has had some use in times past for things other than what is good.

    I don’t have to throw away a wrench simply because someone used it in a bad way once or even if an evil man gave it to me. Maybe an evil man manufactured it. I could still use it to glorify God. I think that could be a part of redeeming the time.

    There’s a need to beware of legality and legalism.
    Such things are not what we should want to be guardians of.

    I find it significant that the last meal they ate in Egypt was the Passover and that by eating it according to the commandment of God they kept their firstborn alive and well.

  5. When I walked into the Walmart yesterday the first thing you see are candy eggs, baskets, stuffed bunny rabbits, etc. I say …What does all this have to do with the resurrection of Jesus? What does all this stuff have to do with Jesus?

    Again its the world vs the Lord. Choose this day who you will serve.

    Joshua 24:15
    But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

    I’ll celebrate this Sunday as Resurrection Sunday.

    As for the Passover, well I wasn’t rescued out of the hands of Egypt nor were my relatives. However, I do realize that Passover is symbolic to what Jesus the Christ did for us all. Its all about the blood of Jesus.

    Thank you Lord for giving your life to us sinners. Thank you for your forgiveness. I’ll be forever grateful for your love for us.

  6. There’s quite a difference though, between a wrench used for murder not affecting all other wrenches used for good — AND — God’s Word on pagan admixture:

    Deuteronomy 12:29-31 (ESV)

    “When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way…”

    In Leviticus 23, we are given how to calculate Passover, by the moon. Easter refers to Ostara, or Ishtar, a Babylonian goddess of the dawn, and its date is calculated by the sun. She was worshipped at sunrise.

    The historic reasons for separating Passover from Easter reveal an anti-Jewish bias and a clinging to pagan roots instead of Hebraic ones…remember, we are grafted in to the cultivated olive tree.

    The Free Online Dictionary defines “Legalism” as:
    “1. Strict, literal adherence to the law or to a particular code, as of religion or morality.”

    Have you considered that by that definition, Jesus would be considered a legalist, because didn’t He say, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” [Matt 5:18]

    Why is it that people throw the term “Legalist” at someone when they are referring to God’s word, yet have no qualms about defending pagan tradition, which is against God’s word?

    This just doesn’t make sense to me, except in that people wish to justify themselves.

  7. There’s a lot of similarity between using a wrench to help a friend fix his car and loving one’s neighbor as oneself.

    At the grocery store where I live there are two tables one may see not long after entering it.

    One table has colored grass, colorful baskets, chocolate bunnys, and other candy.

    The other table has Motzo products, small candles,
    jars of some kind of sweet fish product, grape juice that bears an unfamiliar name to me, and I saw a bag of marshmellows.

    I wondered if the marshmellows were left there by someone who planned on making the purchase but changed their mind before they got to the checkout.

    I don’t know that much about the item group to know for sure if something is out of place. I also saw coconut macaroons.

    Words are like tools that can be used for good or evil. Just like a tool, a word can be used one way for evil and the next time it is used it can be used for good.

    Lot’s of times a tool isn’t damaged by using it for evil, but sometimes it is.

    I wonder if words are? I tend to think that words are not so much damaged by how they are used, yet if a word is repeatedly used in an evil way, I suppose it is viewed as damaged goods in the eyes of many.

  8. “I tend to think that words are not so much damaged by how they are used, yet if a word is repeatedly used in an evil way, I suppose it is viewed as damaged goods in the eyes of many.” – Ray

    Would you use curse words in diverse (non-evil) ways publically even though many view them as ‘damaged goods’. Who would have allegiance to something of pagan root? There are different ways of communicating those ideas without the use of pagan references or curse words.

    On the other side, it is very rare if anyone knows what these pagan roots are. And then it’s far more rare that anyone would be enticed by the pagan connection. Whereas the filthy usage of curse words is well understood.

    In the end, I reckon, one may as well adopt clean language, even if they had good intentions previously.

  9. Since what comes out of the mouth defiles a man (Matt 15:18, Prov 18:21) and also has power to give life (Rom 10:9,10) we should seek to purge ourselves from sin and keep the feast, for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. (I Cor 5:7,8)

    Were there not two trees in the garden, one for life and one that brought death? Because death entered the world through sin, Jesus came to save us, giving his life as a ransom for many.

  10. He is our passover. I wonder too, since eggs and bunnies are usually spring discoveries for kids, how forum participants will remark about the fact that four churches in my town have an annual Easter egg hunt for their collective Sunday school kids. They use plastic eggs which are easily separated. In these they put the Gospel written and illustrated in terms kids can comprehend, where it takes three primary colored eggs to assemble the whole story, and chocolate in found others. Usually friends of the children from their neighborhoods are also invited. There are prizes for getting the most eggs in a certain time. And a few of the eggs contain extra treasures as well.

    For kids it seems to create both mystery and adventure. Many Sunday schools involve crafting, Bible storytelling, dressing up to act out the stories, etc.–provided just as background information here.

    What are forum contributors thoughts on this?

  11. I’ll answer this one Jabez. Now that I know the Lord, I question the idea as what does candy eggs, bunnies, baskets filled with toys, etc. have to do with Jesus.

    However, I also believe that what the devil meant as bad God can turn it around to make it good.

    It seems like those churches are taking something that has nothing to do with Jesus or His word and turning it towards Jesus and His word.

    I think that is quite a fun way for kids to learn about the Lord’s word.

    Just as long as the kids know that Passover- Resurrection Day isn’t about the “bunny rabbit.”

  12. I knew of a church where the teacher had those plastic snap together eggs ready for the teaching,
    and he had put different items in each one, something that should remind us of something from the gospel. One egg might have a sponge, another might have dice, another might have a piece of cloth with a red stain, or something striped.

    I suppose a piece of string could remind us of a whip. Inside one egg could be a cross. A stone could be used to remind us of what was put over his grave and what the angel rolled away.

    This afforded the students the opportunity to share the gospel in their own unique way.

  13. Yes, this is done, but centuries-old fertility symbols (eggs) need not be used at all to teach children about Jesus’ sacrifice.

    Jesus asked us to commemorate his death on the cross for us. It IS solemn and frivolity is not really appropriate for it. Paul also instructed us about the self-examination and repentant attitude that one should have while partaking of the cup and bread in 1 Corinthians 11:23-34. He warned, as well, about how it should NOT be observed.

    Children can be taught with visual aids about the Passover, and the flight from Egypt, and how Jesus (Yeshua) is our Passover Lamb without spot. One pastor I saw recently uses toy frogs, for example, to teach about the various plagues. Is it wrong to teach children about this? They’ll watch Batman use his spidey-sense to wrap up villains in his web, but the true story of God’s actual miracles in Egypt are off limits? Scripture instructs us to teach our children what’s in it. They know more of comic book “heroes” and other works of fiction than about the greatest Hero who ever lived: Jesus.

    Spring is a wonderful time, and there is everything right about enjoying the natural wonders of it. But the Passover itself is not a time of frivolity. And it is good for children to develop a sense of the solemnity of it. They are fed a steady diet of sugar and fluff all year. They are taught about gods and goddesses on television, in books, and in movies. They are saturated with falsehood and fantasy. I was a child once. (: I know that children can handle the truth. They are far more capable of that — indeed, they hunger for it — than adults realize!

    Enjoying the season of spring is natural, and teaching our children about how God made the four seasons is a great opportunity to share with them about the resurrection of life in the Spring from the dead, symbolized by Winter. It is a daily miracle, as seeds sprout and buds form and leaves open. Springtime need not be paired, though, with pagan fertility symbols which call to mind Ishtar’s festivals, just because this is traditional. It’s done because people have been doing it for so long, and the candy manufacturer’s have come to depend on it, but in whatever way we bring our children up, that’s what they’ll come to expect, and to perpetuate. Some traditions are worth leaving behind in favor of Scriptural truth.

    I know we need to leave everyone to their own consciences, and rather than point out their errors, it is better to highlight the alternative, and this is what we ought to do, so that the annual Passover becomes a part of their life, and their appreciation for His sacrifice deepens over time.

    In time they will come to appreciate sound teaching.

  14. If people don’t like to use plastic Easter eggs to use as a teaching aid they don’t have to.

    I wonder what would happen if one mother spoke up against it to the Sunday school teacher about it,
    saying that the teacher could use a toy lamb without putting it inside of an egg.

    I wonder if the teacher should decide to never use plastic eggs in the future because one mother was offended by it, or ask the mother why she is so offended by the use of the plastic eggs.

    The apostle Paul talked about eating meat that was sacrificed to devils, that such a thing was OK, but that one should not do so if a brother is offended by it.

    We that are strong need to bear the infirmities of the weak don’t we?

    I suppose next year there should be no plastic eggs, yet I see nothing inherently wrong with using them as a teaching aid.

    I’ll assume the children know nothing of eggs being used by pagans as fertility symbols centuries ago.

    I heard about a child who wanted to take some of those Easter eggs filled with some type of candy to a public school to share with the class, and the teacher decided to call them “spring spheres”
    instead.

    It was because the word Easter has a connection to Christianity and the resurrection of Christ is what I assume.

  15. With all the different kinds of automobiles in this world and all the different people that drive them, I’m wondering if it would be right if
    a Christian owned a certain brand and if someone else did some research and found out that the founder of that auto maker (who died a long time ago) was not a Christian,
    should the Christian get rid of his car?

    Should be buy another brand in the future?

    I’m reminded of how the apostle Paul noted the fact that to the unclean there is nothing clean.
    (Titus 1:15)

  16. “I suppose next year there should be no plastic eggs, yet I see nothing inherently wrong with using them as a teaching aid.” – Ray

    From a practical standpoint they are useless and wasteful…there are other better ways to teach. Bothering with plastic eggs is doing a disservice to life itself, so, if you can you should find another way.

  17. Juan, I suggest you do a google search on “Resurrection Eggs”, you know, and catch the ministry drift coming through the plastic factory.

  18. “Juan, I suggest you do a google search on “Resurrection Eggs”, you know, and catch the ministry drift coming through the plastic factory.” – Jabez H.

    It is funny to imagine the disciples peddling Resurrection Eggs, but it would be a little disturbing if real.

  19. To the pure all things are pure?

    Really? Did Paul mean that so broadly?

    What else did he write to Titus in that letter?

    Titus 2:11-14

    11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

    Did Paul mean, then, that we can commit “lawless deeds” because Christ redeemed us from them? Did that mean there were no more “lawless deeds” because we’re pure? Does that mean that we can, for example, commit adultery (which is against the law of God) if we do it with a pure heart? How many people have been trapped by this thinking? “But I love him/her! More than his/her spouse! It’s not a sin because we have true love!” Sin is still sin, isn’t it?

    Paul saw the idolatry in Athens, and it grieved his heart. He knew that they were really searching for the one, true God, though. But he didn’t counsel them anywhere to transform their pagan rituals into the worship of God, because Paul knew the Scriptures. He knew Deuteronomy 12:29-31, and other passages about this. He was able to convince Greek-speaking Jews who knew the Scriptures and who searched them out to see if what he was saying was true. He led pagans away from their worthless rituals, to feed their hearts on truth, and on the good news of the reconciliation between God and man, most importantly. He led them to the only Scriptures he had.

    We could bake cakes to the “Queen of Heaven” though it is admonished by the prophet Jeremiah, but say to ourselves, “Mary is the Queen of Heaven” (as has been done and is being done) — but is this what God commanded us to do?

    We can perpetuate traditions by taking them up. And we can let certain traditions die by letting them go. We have the power of choice. We can only change the world within the place we occupy. But we can, collectively, change the world.

  20. What Paul was referring to as “the grace of God that brings salvation” was Jesus. He wasn’t referring to lawlessness.

    Because the law had no power to save anyone, it’s not a surprise to those who are being saved by the grace of God, that so many who try, or would seem to try to hold to the law, have become so lawless.

    It was the lawless ones that had Jesus arrested and crucified wasn’t it? Yet the law was given to help save men from their sins. But the law couldn’t do the whole job of salvation could it?

    It takes Jesus to do that.

    David being under the law, believed in his heart
    the good news of Christ and out of his mouth he prophesied of that salvation.

    There were a few who were under the law who were being saved, but it seems to me….how very few, so for the grace of God and the glory of his name, Christ came for our salvation. That was his purpose from before the beginning of the world, to come willingly and lay down his life as a payment for many.

  21. Ray, you can have and deeply appreciate Grace (thank God!) and still keep the Law. They are not mutually exclusive!

    In my personal life, I know it is His GRACE shed in atonement and forgiveness that enables me (at last) to keep His laws without difficulty. Because it is a transformative grace.

  22. The inside of the cup needs to be washed first, as it matters most. Then the outside of the cup. But they both need washing! The inner life (the heart/soul/mind/spirit)is the inside of the cup and the outward life (the flesh; acts, deeds) is the outside of the cup.

  23. There’s something about a word of praise that though it may seem subtle, it has the power to translate a man. It can take him to the place where the presence of the Lord is, a place where it has been said gives the knowledge of God, a revelation, where sin looses it’s power.

    Kim Clement gave a word about this and it is so.

    Psalm 150:6.

  24. Ruth, because you wrote of an enablement of grace whereby one may keep the laws of God without difficulty, (#25) I have a concern.

    What about what the apostle spoke of in Acts 15:10? Isn’t this about a salvation by grace rather than by the works of the law?

  25. I’m preparing an answer to your question to me, Ray…but today I am finishing up the Book of Daniel…so I will get back to your Q. in the very near future, God willing. It has been a pleasure to delve deeper into Acts 15, so thank you. ( : May God bless you….

  26. I know the answer to the question I ask. Yes, the gospel that I read of in Acts 15:10 is the same as the one Paul preached in Romans and Galatians.

  27. Once all of Acts 15 is unpacked, Ray, it contains quite a bit more than meets the eye.

    Hope to post tomorrow. ( :

  28. I wonder if we realize that YHWH gave us inspired directions on how to symbolize Messiah’s death, resurrection and ascension?…Passover, the feast of unleavened bread and first-fruits on the first day of the weak during the unleavened bread.

    Why do we pridefully decide that we are smarter than He is, and substitute our own symbols and celebrations? His thoughts are higher than ours. When we persist in pagan and man-made traditions, instead of obeying YHWH’s instructions, why are we not the same as king Saul?…thinking that our sacrifice is accepted, when obedience is what is asked for. We can be rejected the same as he was.

    The things that were written before, were for our instruction. We have the choice to continue in ignorance and apostasy or to humbly submit to our Elohim’s instructions. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Fence riders and man pleasers will be spewed out. The sin of mixture is does not produce true repentance. The gospel in fertility eggs…is this not abomination?

    Shalom

  29. The ways that God in the past symbolized the gospel was to bring men to Christ. I don’t believe he wants us to go back into any bondage by law concerning past symbolizations which was by his design. I believe they had a purpose for their time, and that they may still bring to men
    a rememberance of how things were as well as what they pointed forward to.

    Today many Christians symbolize the gospel by a cross.

    I don’t believe that to be necessarily wrong.

    I know of no Christian who symbolizes the gospel by colored eggs, though they might partake of eating colored eggs during the Easter season.

    I believe many Christians partake of things which are concerning the Easter season without thinking of them as a symbol of the gospel, or treating them as such.

    To judge them for doing that, if they are not, is wrong.

    Some people eat Motzo products during the Easter season (which they call Passover) or eat other things. Some of those things might have some symbolic significance, I don’t know, but I assume that much of it does not hold any symbolic significance concerning the gospel, but rather some foods and activity has become a tradition in their family, and so when Passover comes, they partake of those activites whether they do have special significance symbolically or not.

    The Passover Lamb came into this world to deliver men from the bondage their sins and also the bondgage of the law, to bring them into the liberty of Christ himself.

    We have a lot of liberty in Christ. In him we have a lot of freedom.

    If a man makes Easter eggs, or a chocolate bunny some kind of religious symbolic item to himself and his family, I think there may be something seriously wrong with him.

    In all my life I’ve never known a man to do such a thing. If such things are that to some people, I haven’t noticed it.

  30. Hey Ray,

    I lost a couple of responses by forgetting to fill in the fields above the comments box before pressing “Submit Comment”. (Aarghh!)

    But as I was re-writing my response to you, it occurred to me that maybe I am misunderstanding you.

    So I have a question for you if you don’t mind:

    Are you of the opinion, Ray, that the rules the Apostles agreed upon at Jerusalem Council to give to the Gentiles (listed in Acts 15) are the only parts of the Law Gentiles need to be concerned with from that time up to now and until the end of this present age?

  31. Seems we’ve lost contact – I wasn’t able to get back to this site due to pressing family matters. If you read this, Ray, see my Q. two posts above….Thanks

  32. Ray,

    You Wrote:
    “The Passover Lamb came into this world to deliver men from the bondage their sins and also the bondgage of the law, to bring them into the liberty of Christ himself.”

    We need to be delivered from the law of sin and death, not the rules of righteous behavior. The law of YHWH is not against YHWH’s promises.

    Galatians 3
    21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

    YHWH’s Torah/law is a good law and shows us what sin is.

    Romans 7
    7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet…
    12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
    13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid…

    The breaking of the law is still sin, and Messiah came to deliver us, not only from the penatly of sin, but from continuing in sin.

    1 John 3
    4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
    5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
    6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
    7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
    8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

    If we continue to break the law (sin) we of the devil. John said it, not me. Paul says basically the same thing.

    Romans 6
    1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
    2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?…
    15 What then? shall we sin (sin being the transgression of the law), because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

    As often as we eat the unleavened bread of Passover and drink the wine of Passover we show Messiah’s death till he returns for His righteous, holy bride. As long as we partake of pagan and man-made elements we proclaim that we do not wish to be set apart to YHWH.

    The feasts of YHWH were kept before Moses, by the early believers in Messiah, and are to be kept in the millennium. It is highly unlikely that we are “free” to ignore YHWH’s instructions at this point in time.

    Do not think that Messiah came to destroy the law or the prophets. To think that the Son of YHWH came to declare YHWH’s instructions obsolete is not only against Paul’s and John’s writings, but against the concept that the Father and Son are one with each other. The Son did not come down to tell us that the Father’s family rules were out of date. He did not want us to entertain such a thought for even a moment.

    Matthew 5
    17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
    18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
    19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

    As Paul would say:

    Romans 3
    31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

    Shalom

  33. I am trying to follow the interchange here since I planted an inquiry. My inquiry was about practices of churches childrens’ ministries using hollow eggs to reinforce discovery of the Gospel to children. It does not take a PhD to see that this is done for children, to link the message found in the eggs planted under bushes and trees, and tall grass with their natural curiosity. This natural curiosity did not lead them astray.

    It does not seem that anyone did a web search on Resurrection Eggs, as such here. It is really not a matter of family practice, or serving other Gods, but a learning tool used for Sunday School age children to take in their natural curiosity, as such. They come away with pictures of Jesus life, not remembrance of hollow eggs.

    We visited a church with the 14 stations of the cross on last Friday Evening–not because we did not prefer Passover calendar observances, but because they had set up response material for children and adults. The kids material involved coloring, rubber stamps, and key phrases simple understanding of each station. The kids plunged into the material because it involved their natural curiosity. The second to last station involved scenes from ‘The Passion”, which, after the other leads, the children wanted to know all about, and view at home. We spent all of Monday doing crafts, where these two precius ones painted crosses with tempra paint, then wrote something they remembered from Friday evening as kept inside. Both wrote Jesus in red on their craft crosses. They did watch more of the Passion too, as desired from what transpired Friday PM. THese are beginning inquiries by children into what is a never ending story of Redemption, and its nuances, given through Scripture in time.

    As for the law of Moses it has been debated throughout these forums in many cases. Disagreements on what Jesus fulfilled, taught, and instructed the Apostles to teach for our obediance have happened on LOF forums. Grace is indeed the beginning point of confession and belief for most, even with the example of Peter repenting later throughout his recorded life. We simply do not get all that is meant by truth and grace in fullness coming with Jesus the Messiah. It takes time spent with His Spirit, His word, and His people. We cannot expect children to get the details intellectually ; we find again and again that if the presentation of heart and encouragement is right, they then get their hearts right, and the details fall in place too, over time.

    I recall being in a private school in Ft. Lauderdale as a kindergardener, and once every few weeks an older woman stopping by and using a felt board to tell Bible stories, by moving in and out the characters of the storytelling. My heart was fascinated, and engaged, primarily because of the media, which in combination with other indicators over a lifetime leading to age 22m led to eventual direct inquiry of the Jesus of the scriptures as an adult. Looking back, each and every signpost the Lord put in my life along its passage led to faith in Yeshua as my savior.

    Humility for receiving grace through faith as a beginning of the life of belief and observance is planted in a soul many ways. No two stories or testimonies align like a template. Some from here have covenanted together to form the North American Continent Day of Atonement call to repentance, prayer, and requested visitation of our Lord (however He seems fit to do so). We would not strain a camel through a difficult gate into the chosen City to make it so. Let the Lord do the work, in spite of our limited understanding of purity of heart, obedience indeed, and the teachings of Jesus. Let it be so.

Comments are closed.