Sermon: The New Passover

The New Passover: The Resurrection Faith of The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ

Sermon for 8 April 2012

The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ is a Resurrection Church – a church celebrating and honoring with all dignity the atonement, sacrifice and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The time of year set aside for such a remembrance has long been called “Easter.” But  “Easter” did not always symbolize Christ's resurrection from the dead and the Christian meaning of  the celebration was originally quite different from today’s celebration of eggs and bunnies.

The feast day of Easter was originally a pagan celebration of renewal and rebirth. Celebrated in the early spring, it honoured the pagan Saxon goddess Easter. When the early missionaries converted the Saxons to Christianity, the holiday, since it fell around the same time as the traditional memorial of Christ's resurrection from the dead, was merged with the pagan celebration, and became known as Easter.

This is far from its original meaning. The first Christians honoured the Lord with reverence and dignity, without the admixture of paganism and frivolity.

But the Church fell away, and was lost, only to be restored and resurrected once more in Ancient Britain, amongst the People of the Light, as has been revealed in modern times with the restoration and translation of the Book of Jeraneck.

There, in Chapter sixteen, the Lord revealed to the Prophet Jeraneck, saying, “and I saw that he was in a garden and I saw that he bled from his skin and the Lord said unto me ‘Behold I bleed for you and your people behold I bleed for all that have lived and will ever live.  I bleed and take upon my self the sins of the entire world.’ and then I saw that the people spat on him and whipped him and they placed thorns on his head and they nailed him to a tree in the form of a cross and there he died.  And my heart sank that the people would do this.  Now the Lord commanded me to look and I saw that he had risen from the dead and that he walked upon the earth once again and that he did many great things unto the people.”

Thus, the proper focus of this holy and sacred holiday was restored to His people.

And again, the Lord appeared unto His people in the Americas, and in the Book of Mormon, the Lord testifies that there is a resurrection, “therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death, is swallowed up in Christ.” (Mosiah Chapter 8)

In today’s restored Latter Day Church, which has been resurrected in our time just as it has been in ancient times amongst ancient peoples, these pagan additions have been stripped away from the original holiday and the wheat has been separated from the chaff, and the day is once again focused on the Lord’s sacrifice on our behalf.

On the 8th of March 2007, He gave to His church a new revelation and outlined His will concerning the celebration of Easter. The Lord said,

"I, the Lord, am most displeased with the world for they have taken my sacrifice and they have desecrated it and they have set it at naught. Behold I say unto you that it is not pleasing unto me that Easter be celebrated amongst my church in the manner in which it is being done. … Wherefore come unto me at the time you call Easter and lay a feat at your table in my honour and lay upon the alter table well prepared and cooked lamb which is a similitude of me and also bring before me unleavened bread mixed with bitter herbs that you may remember that I suffered in the garden and upon the cross for you. Behold I say that this is not to take away the sacredness of the sacrament but it is to prove unto me that I, the Lord, am remembered amongst you and that my sacrifice is not set at naught.”

Therefore, we choose to obey the Lord, and to stand firmly with the traditional teaching of Easter, the New Passover of the Lord, who has commanded us to keep this celebration special and holy. It is not just another holiday to be spent in frivolity and overindulgence, but a celebration and remembrance of the Lord’s sacrifice for us.

In these last days the Lord has seen fit to call a people forth to set right what has for so long been in error. He has seen fit to enlighten humanity with more revealed scripture and has enabled us to read the words of others who also worshipped at the feet of Christ. And so today he has chosen to do away with the errors of the Easter season.

In these last days the church of God has been commanded to set aside all the unrighteousness of Easter and has been commanded to remember the Passover of Christ from mortality to immortally from corruptible to incorruptible. The Feast of the New Passover is a true celebration of the true meaning of the celebration of a wonderful time of year named by the world as Easter.

To all our members worldwide, we ask that you remember the words spoken in the Book of prophecies and Revelations when the Lord said:

“Hearken, O my servant, my Prophet, for verily I say unto you that I, the Lord, am most displeased with the world for they have taken my sacrifice and they have desecrated it and they have set it at naught. Behold I say unto you that it is not pleasing unto me that Easter be celebrated amongst my church in the manner in which it is being done. For it is a celebration that mocks me and it is done in memory of a pagan God. Now I say unto you that it is expedient unto me that these things are done away with and that they not be done in my name, for my name is sacred and shall not be cast down amongst the swine for them to feast upon.”

So let us brace ourselves to our duty to do as the Lord commands and leave behind all the trappings of Easter eggs and bunny rabbits and let us instead look to Christ, for He is our Lord and it is to Him that our minds must be turned this time of year.

God bless you, my brothers and sisters, members of the Lord’s Resurrection Church in these Latter days, and may you all have a wonderful and happy and Christ-centred New Passover weekend.