The greatest Passover since apostolic days is just ahead!
Last year, some brethren "forgot" this commanded assembly!
STUDY this article — and REMEMBER the Passover!
"LET me color this one, Mommy!" said little Mary, holding a hard-boiled egg in her tiny little hand. "Mommy" .was busily preparing Easter eggs for her children!
In a short time, all over this Western "Christian" world millions of little children are going to greedily and excitedly search for "Easter eggs" at lawn parties, seeking to find the brightly colored and decorated eggs supposedly laid in little nests of grass by bunnies!
WHY? What does it all mean? What is the significance of this greatest among "Christian" holidays?
That's just it! There IS no real significance! The original significance of the egg, the rabbit, and other accoutrements of the pagan Easter festival have long since become obscured. People today do not understand the symbols that have become identified with Easter sunrise services — supposedly commemorating the resurrection of Christ! They would be SHOCKED if they knew! (If you have not yet studied the booklet on Easter and the resurrection, write for them immediately)
A World of Confusion
You're living in a world of absolute Babylon, a world of total confusion! Satan the Devil, the god of this world (II Cor. 4:4) has darkened and blinded the minds of all nations! (Rev. 12:9).
There is no real positive TEACHING behind the silly and seemingly ridiculous trappings of a pagan Easter ceremony! It does not TEACH anything constructive! Rather, it is Satan's method of bedazzling the minds of greedy little children with gifts of candy, and attractive, colorfully painted eggs — keeping them deluded and deceived so they cannot see the truth! God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 14:33). He instructs us to COME OUT of this Babylonish chaos around us (Rev. 18:4) which is confusing and blinding a gullible society to the PLAN of God.
The First Passover
God's annual Holy Days really make sense! There is a definite picture — a constructive pattern they portray. They are given to teach us something!
In calling our forefathers out of the land of Egypt, God said to Moses "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you.
"Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb . . . and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it between the two evenings [dusk)" (Ex. 12:2-6).
The Israelites, while still slaves in Egypt were told to roast the lamb, and to "eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste {'in fear,' margin): it is the Eternal's Passover" (Ex. 12:11).
Notice it! The first Passover was to have been a very hasty meal, eaten in trepidation or "fear," looking apprehensively toward the time on the very next evening when they would flee out from the land of Egypt and the scene of their abject slavery!
God said, "And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a FEAST TO THE ETERNAL throughout your generations, you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance [statute] forever"! (Ex. 12:14).
Then, God immediately instituted the Days of Unleavened Bread! "Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread, even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses, for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
"And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
"And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for in this self-same day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt, therefore shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance [statute] FOR EVER"! (Ex. 12:15-17).
The first Day of Unleavened Bread was to commemorate the occasion of the delivery of millions of Israelites from abject captivity — being the servants and slaves of Egypt — a type of SIN!
All Catholics, Protestants, and the majority of all people calling themselves "Christian" understand that this Passover service in the land of Egypt was looking forward to the necessity for a Savior!
What they DO NOT UNDERSTAND is its deep spiritual significance for US TODAY!
Christ did not come to ABOLISH the Passover, the Holy Days of God, nor the Laws of God! Rather, Jesus changed the symbols of the Passover from the killing of the lamb, and the eating of its flesh, to the unleavened bread and the wine symbolizing His broken body and shed blood!
If this deceived world understood the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, by themselves — without knowing of any of the other Holy Days — they would automatically KNOW their counterfeit "plan of salvation" is in rank error!
Today, the world teaches all you must do is "accept"! Or, "receive" Christ as your Savior! THEN — there is nothing more YOU must do! Christ has done it all for you! After you receive Christ, you STAND STILL!
But notice that the ancient Israelites were to have eaten the Passover in trepidation or apprehension! That is because God said they were to get ready to travel!
By killing the firstborn in the land of Egypt, God saw to it that the Pharaoh and the Egyptians THRUST OUT (Ex. 12:39) the Israelites from Egypt and said, "It is a night to be much observed unto the Eternal for bringing them out of the land of Egypt, this is that night of the Eternal to be observed of all of the children of Israel and their generations" (Ex. 12:42).
They didn't stand still.
That's where the Days of Unleavened Bread come in!
After WE observe the PASSOVER, showing our acceptance of the blood and body of Jesus Christ — there is SOMETHING MORE to perform! God intended we should UNDERSTAND that just "accepting" Christ IS NOT ENOUGH!
Christ died for us — that is something WE CANNOT DO! But Christ DID NOT observe the Days of Unleavened Bread FOR us — He left something we must DO! We cannot STAND STILL after repentance, and after receiving the sacrifice of Christ — but we, too, MUST COME OUT OF EGYPT! We are told to be NOT conformed to this rotten, filthy, foul, evil WORLD, (Romans 12:2).
Now, let's notice some of the deep spiritual significance behind this solemn time of the year.
Christ the Lamb
From the beginning of the Bible to the end there are dozens of prophecies about the first coming of Jesus Christ as the Savior!
Think of it! Many different men, in widely scattered places, not knowing each other, and writing hundreds of years apart, foretold minute, technical details of the first coming of Jesus Christ!
The exact TIME of His coming was foretold, even to the exact date of the beginning of His ministry, and of His crucifixion. It was foretold that He was to have been born of a virgin — at Bethlehem. His childhood was to be spent in Egypt, and He was to have been reared in Nazareth. God foretold that He would be preceded by an Elijah-like predecessor, that He would speak in parables, that He would be a man of sorrows, that He would enter Jerusalem riding on a colt. He was prophesied to be rejected by the leaders of His own nation, to be betrayed by a friend — and for exactly thirty pieces of silver! Then, God prophesied that the thirty pieces of silver were to be spent for a potter's field!
Christ was to have been led like a "lamb" to the slaughter. Even His very dying words were foretold, the exact manner of His death, that His hands and feet were to be pierced, but not a bone was to be broken! The prophecies foretold that lots would be cast for His garments — that He would be buried with the rich — and be in the tomb EXACTLY three days and three nights!
It was prophesied that He would RISE from the dead, and ascend to the right hand of God!
And these are just a few of the remarkable and infallibly proved prophecies of Jesus, who IS the Christ!
Again, even Catholics and Protestants, and all Bible commentaries admit that Jesus Christ IS the "paschal lamb" being pictured by the Old Testament observance of the Passover.
John, being projected forward in spirit into our day wrote: "And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures [margin] and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain . . . (Rev. 5:6).
Later John heard the angels crying aloud in praises to God and "saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." And John heard all of these millions of spirit beings saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever"! (Rev. 5:11-13). Just as the lamb was to have been chosen by the Israelites on the tenth day of Nisan, and kept till the fourteenth, Jesus was "singled out" by the murderous Pharisees and priests on the tenth day of the month, or the Sabbath preceding His crucifixion!