Let’s keep it simple.

The Biblical/Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar based on the moon revolving around the earth.  Every time there is a new moon, this marks the beginning of a new month. This new moon is called “Rosh Hodesh” meaning head of the month. The Feast days are based on the Jewish calendar. God set the Hebrew month of Nisan as the first month of the year on the Biblical calendar (Exodus 12:2). Passover is always in the middle of the month of Nissan when the moon is full. The Greco-Roman Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar that originally came from Egypt and was passed on to the modern world from Rome. It is based on the movement of the earth around the sun.

As the Jewish message of Jesus spread to surrounding nations, Jesus was accepted by the Gentiles who unfortunately were anti-Semitic. This obviously presented the emerging Gentile church with a problem. Jesus was a Jew, His teachings were from the Torah, and all His early followers were Jews, including the apostle Paul who was faithful to the Torah and did not start a new religion that would later be called Christianity.

But the Gentiles embracing Jesus did not want their Christian faith to be connected to the Jews so they changed the date to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from Passover week to a different date already familiar to the Greco-Roman world. This date was based on the Spring Equinox which occurs on March 21 on the Greco-Roman Gregorian calendar. Passover was changed to Easter and the date for Easter was to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21. This decree was enforced with the sword by the Roman Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea which met in 325 AD.

Here is the blasphemous statement Constantine wrote to all the church bishops:

It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom of the Jews, who had soiled their hand the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. In rejecting their custom, we may transmit to our descendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter … We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews for the Savior has shown us another way … we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews.

This horrific statement from Constantine established anti-Semitism as official church policy for European Christianity. For more details, please order Dr. Booker’s book, How the Cross Became a Sword at www.rbooker.com.

I am grateful for everyone who celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. God bless one and all. But in these times when God is so clearly awakening believers to the Biblical Hebraic roots of Christianity, and since He is returning as a Jew not as a Christian, shouldn’t we all ask ourselves the following question, “Would I rather celebrate our Lord’s resurrection on the correct time given in the Bible or “another way” chosen by a quasi-Christian pagan emperor sun worshipper who hated God’s chosen people, persecuted them without mercy and separated Christianity from its Jewish roots?” Even Pope Francis said “It is time for Christians to rediscover their Jewish roots.” Incidentally, these are Feasts of the Lord not Feasts of the Jews and are to be celebrated by all of God’s people for all time.

What is the Spring Equinox?

As the earth revolves around the sun, in the spring, the sun is exactly above the equator on March 21. This is called the Spring Equinox because the word equinox means “equal night.” That is the length of day and night is nearly equal in all parts of the world during the equinox. The March Equinox is the day when the Northern Hemisphere starts to tilt toward the sun, which means longer and sunnier days. The March Equinox is called the Vernal Equinox because it signals the beginning of spring (vernal means new like the spring). For obvious reasons, ancient people celebrated the vernal equinox as a pagan festival (Ishtar) of new life. Eastern Orthodox Christians follow a different calendar.