Why Must Rome
Fix Easter to the Full Moon?

Part 1

Welcome to an exploration of the intriguing mysteries behind Easter! Have you ever pondered why Roman tradition aligns Easter with the full moon each year, unlike the fixed dates of holidays such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day? And what about the elusive nature of Easter Sunday, which doesn’t adhere to a specific date on the Roman Gregorian calendar each year? Join us on a journey to uncover the origins of Easter and clarify long-held misconceptions. Let’s delve into the history and symbolism that have shaped this Christian tradition. 

Discover the surprising realities of what Easter is and what it is not. 

Origin of Easter

The truth is that the Easter holiday is an altogether human invention crafted originally in ancient Babylon to honor Ishtar, the ultimate sex symbol and goddess of fertility. This is why eggs and bunnies are connected to the yearly Easter Sunday holiday. She was the renowned wife of Nimrod and mother of Tammuz, whose birthday is celebrated every December 25th.   It has nothing to do with the Old Testament (Tanakh) or the Messiah of the New Testament (Brit Hadasha) but is a holiday of the pagan kind.   

“Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols (or did you actually think eggs and bunnies had anything to do with the resurrection?) After Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire [circa A.D. 325], Easter was changed to represent Jesus. But at its roots, Easter (which is how you pronounce Ishtar) is all about celebrating fertility and sex.”  

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter/

Roman Emperor Constantine, at the Council of Nicaea (circa A.D. 325), utilized this ancient pagan day as a Roman holiday replacement for the Hebrew Passover (Pasch).  It was designed to honor his new god, Iesus Christus (known since the 17th century as Jesus Christ), a substitute name for Yahusha haMashiach, the long promised Hebrew Messiah.  So it was that Easter was formulated as a new Roman holiday to honor Constantine’s new god, on a unique day and under a unique name, entirely divorced from PASSOVER’S prophetic types and shadows, as recorded in the Scriptures Old Testament (Tanakh), utilized by the Yahudim (Jews) at that time, and the Messiah followers after its fulfillment.  

While both the Catholic and Protestant Christianized Churches have welcomed the theory that the institution of Easter was the Eternal Father’s plan to replace the Jewish Passover (Pasch) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Matzah), nothing could be further from the truth.  It all started because Emperor Constantine abhorred all things Jewish. While there was a concerted effort to include the Messiah in the long list of Roman gods, Constantine was not willing to honor Him in the Hebrew ways and sacred traditions as delineated in Scripture, such as 1) According to the Torah’s prophetic Passover placement on the 14th day, counted from the New Moon in spring; or 2) To honor the Scripture’s Messiah by His correct name – YAHUSHA haMashiach.  Refer to the article:  The Creed of Constantine, the Forgotten Foundation of all Christian Churches.

Easter Sunday Fixed to the Full Moon

Emperor Constantine’s edict was declared far and wide that Easter was to be consistently and unitedly celebrated upon the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the vernal equinox to place it in general proximity to the Jewish Passover and yet remain utterly separate.  Wanting no ties to the Jewish/Hebrew astro-luni-solar calendar, they erroneously presumed that their own manufactured worship schedule designed to honor a god of their own making (under the changed identity of Iesus Christus) fully supplanted the Jewish Torah Law recorded by Moses. They afforded themselves license to choose a day that suited their own interests as a contrast to the Jews whom they maintained had killed the Messiah.

The fact that Rome continues to fix Easter to the Full Moon is one of the most significant signs and evidence that PASSOVER and all the other sacred Feast Days were originally lunar-based. They were each placed in a lunar month, as counted from the Full New Moon as the start of lunar months. 

Add to this that it is discovered that in every instance that PASSOVER is mentioned in Scripture, the following day was the seventh-day Sabbath: 1) Such as when the Children of Yashar’al (Israel) were led out of Egypt;  2) Forty years later when they entered the promised land;  3) It continued to occur 1,500 years later when our Messiah died as the true PASSOVER LAMB, who laid down His life, shedding His blood, to cover the confessed sins of all mankind.  In each occurrence, the seventh day of Sabbath followed Passover the next day. 

This little detail places the seventh day of the Sabbath on the 15th of the first lunar month of every year, in the spring.  This Scriptural fact causes the Sabbaths to consistently occur on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th day of each lunar month of every year, as each is systematically counted from the New Moon.  So, by default, the authentic seventh-day Sabbath was originally lunar.  For more, refer to Sabbath’s Consistent Lunar Month Dates.  

Easter Sunday – the Anchor Stone of Christianity

Easter Sunday was not only set to be the most significant of the Roman Holidays, but it was also proactively determined to be the anchor stone of the Roman Julian/Gregorian solar calendar system.  It was established to set Sunday as the preemptive first day of the new seven-day continuous-weekly cycle. It was the purpose of Roman Emperor Constantine to create the illusion that “SUNDAY” (planetary name) has always been the first day of the Scriptural week, even as far back as creation.  He then utilized the historical facts surrounding the resurrection of our Messiah to cause it to appear that our Messiah arose from the tomb at sunrise, early Sunday morning, the new first day of his solar calendar week cycle.  

Thus, permanence was established, causing Easter Sunday to appear as though YAHUAH, the Eternal Father, ordained it. In this way, “All the world have wondered after the Beast,” as they have ignorantly been taken captive by the Roman Catholic Church via her fraudulently crafted solar calendar and counterfeit months, cycling weeks, and sacred days.  Add to this that all the protestant churches continue unwittingly to guzzle from the Roman Kool-Aid cup. Why?  Because their leaders, the reformers, and presumed modern prophets either had little knowledge of church history or no inspired revelation concerning Easter Sunday and its counterfeit Holiday fraudulent calendar and continuous week cycle.   

Historical Overview of the Great Easter Controversy

The great dispute, known as the Easter Controversy, spanned 200 years from the 2nd-4th century A.D. Roman Emperors and Bishops sought to unite their entire kingdom, the eastern Asiatics (Israel and surrounding areas) with the western Roman churches (Italy and surrounding areas) for celebrating their version of the Crucifixion and Resurrection upon a specific Sunday of the newly revised Roman calendar.

Up to this time, the obedient followers of Yahusha, the Messiah, known as the Natsarim (Nazarenes), had celebrated this most marvelous and significant set of events, according to the ancient astro-luni-solar calendar model contained in the Tanakh (OT) as was traditionally kept among the Jews, when faithful. In the early days, these true believers were dubbed by the Roman Bishops as the name Quartodecimen (Fourteeners) because they celebrated Passover on the 14th day as counted from the full New Moon in the lunar month of Aviv.

These same folks, including all the Apostles along with their disciples after them, such as Polycarp, also remained consistent in celebrating the Resurrection and Feast of First Fruits on the 16th day of the New Moon every year, which had always been the first day of the lunar week since the time of Moses. Thus, the day between Passover on the 14th and Feast of First Fruits on the 16th of the lunar month is itself, every year, the true and sacred seventh-day Sabbath found consistently on the 15th day according to the count from the New Moon. This places all other seventh-day Sabbaths for the month and year on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th lunar dates. (Leviticus 2; Isaiah 66:23; Ezekiel 46:1-3)

“In 325 CE the Council of Nicea was held… This council made no practical change in the “existing civil calendar,” but addressed itself to the reform of the Church calendar, which was soli-lunar on the Jewish system. Great disputes had arisen as to the time of celebrating Easter. Moreover, the Church was not fully established, many Christians [Messiah followers] being still simply Jewish sectarians. A new rule was therefore made, which, while still keeping Easter dependent on the moon, prevented it from coinciding with Passover.” Jewish Encyclopedia.com, the unedited full-text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, “History of the Calendar,” “Talmudic Period,” by Joseph Jacobs, Cyrus Adler, Vol. 3, p. 500.

 

The question relating to the observance of Easter [Passover], which was agitated in the time of Anicetus and Poly carp, and afterwards in that of Victor, was still undecided. It was one of the principal reasons for convoking the council of Nice, being the most important subject to be considered after the Arian controversy. It appears that the churches of Syria and Mesopotamia continued to follow the custom of the Jews, and celebrated Easter on the fourteenth day of the moon, whether falling on Sunday or not. A Historical View of the Council of Nice, p. 22, translated by Isaac Boyle, D.D. New York: Thomas N. Staintford, 637 Broadway, 1856. [Emphasis Mine]

 

There was a considerable discussion raised about this time, in consequence of a difference of opinion respecting the observance of the paschal season. The churches of all Asia, guided by a remoter tradition, supposed that they ought to keep the fourteenth day of the moon for the festival of the Savior’s Passover, on which day the Jews were commanded to kill the paschal lamb; and it was incumbent on them, at all times, to make an end of the fast on this day, on whatever day of the [Roman] week it should happen to fall. The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, Bishop of Caesarea, in Palestine, translated by Christian Frederick Cruse, D.D., Tenth Edition, Chapter 23, p. 207. 1850. [Emphasis Mine]

 

But notwithstanding the decision of the council [of Nicaea] there were some Quartodecimens, as they were termed; who remained pertinaciously attached to the celebration of Easter [Passover] on the fourteenth of the moon, and among others the Audeans, schismatics of Mesopotamia. They found fault with the council, reproachfully remarking, that this was the first time that the ancient tradition [of properly locating Passover by the moon], through compliance for Constantine, had been departed from. A Historical View of the Council of Nice, p. 23, translated by Isaac Boyle, D.D. New York: Thomas N. Staintford, 637 Broadway, 1856. [Emphasis Mine]

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me. Because you have forgotten the law of your Alahim, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6

In the mid-1st century B.C. Julius Caesar invited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, to advise him about the reform of the calendar, and Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged on a seasonal basis, and a tropical (solar) year used, as in the Egyptian calendar. “The Julian Calendar,” Encyclopedia Britannica.

 

The modern seven-day [cycling] week came into use during the early imperial period, after the Julian calendar came into effect, apparently stimulated by immigration from the Roman East. For a while it coexisted alongside the old 8-day nundinal cycle, and fasti are known which show both cycles. It was finally given official status by Constantine in 321. Roman Calendar Encyclopedia, Days of the Week.

 

This change from the luni-solar to a fixed solar calendar occurred in Rome during the repressive measures which were enacted against ALL Jewish customs . . . during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. With the fall of the Nazarene headquarters…at Jerusalem, this new Roman calendar quickly spread throughout ‘Christendom.’ This new calendar not only replaced yearly festival dates such as Passover, but it also revamped the concept of the week and its seventh day. Iranaeus 2nd Century A.D.

 

The invention of the continuous week was therefore one of the most significant breakthroughs in human beings’ attempts to break away from being prisoners of nature [and from under God’s law] and create a social world of their own.” The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week, Eviator Zerubavel, New York: The Free Press, 1985. p.11.

Easter is to Passover
as Saturday and Sunday are Scripture’s
real and original lunar Sabbath.

Below is an illustration designed to depict the inherent differences between how each week’s model works within its respective month. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Since the 2nd and 3rd century A.D., the Rabbinical Yahudim (Jews) have caused it to appear that Passover is calculated on the 14th from the dark or crescent moon as the New Moon. The Romans also ecclesiastically determined that March 21 shall be the designated day of the vernal equinox rather than the natural fluctuation between the 19th, 20th, and 21st. 

Although this method of locating the true Resurrection date is bogus, it has still achieved its intended purpose to consistently keep the Roman Easter Sunday from ever occurring upon the perceived Jewish Passover, which in reality is Yahuah Alahim’s Scriptural mandate of the Torah for all His faithful followers.  The designation of Easter Sunday has also served to deceive many, who trust their church leaders who repeat the false narrative repeatedly each week.

Almost the whole Diaspora [Jewish Dispersal] depended for the legal observance of the feasts and fasts upon the calendar sanctioned by the Judea Sanhedrin; yet danger threatened the participants in that sanction and the messengers who communicated their decisions to distant congregations. . . . As the religious persecutions continued, Hillel II determined to provide an authorized calendar for all time to come, though by so doing he severed the ties which united the Jews of the Diaspora to their mother country and to the patriarchate. (I. Singer and S. Mendelsohn, “Hillel II,”  www.JewishEncyclopedia.com.)

 

“The Greek Church had no such facilities of examining the authentic records . . . till the Julian Calendar had been adopted; still the true date of the crucifixion was less disguised by the Greeks than that of the nativity, but he [Constantine] wished, almost the necessity, of so keeping Easter as to make the day of crucifixion Friday, and of the resurrection Sunday, caused differences of opinion that led to persecution and bloodshed.” Mazzaroth, The Constellations, Frances Rolleston, p. 133. Rivingtons, London, 1862.  [Emphasis mine]

 

“Under the reign of Constantius the persecutions of the Jews reached such a height that . . . the computation of the [Jewish lunisolar] calendar [was] forbidden under pain of severe punishment.” The Jewish Encyclopedia, “Calendar.” [Search for “Calendar.” Select “Calendar, History of.” The Quote is the last paragraph under the Talmudic Section. [Emphasis mine]