Q.Why is Easter before Passover this year

A.This is a perfect example of how Christianity has
departed from the Word of God and follows man-made
traditions. Constantine presided over the Council of
Nicea in 325 A.D. He did not want Christianity to have
anything to do with Judaism because he thought the
Jews were a cursed people and Christians should have
nothing to do with them or their religion. Little did
he realize that the festivals were given by God and
were His holy days, but Constantine didn't let truth
get in his way. Sadly, many professing Christians
believe the same thing and blindly follow along.

Among
many other changes, Constantine wanted to "root out
the last vestiges of Judaism"( his actual quote) being
practiced by professing Christians. One of the items
being discussed at this council was when to set
Easter. Now, God had set biblical festivals in the
Scriptures and they can be found in Leviticus 23.
Yeshua was crucified on Passover, buried on the first
day of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits
was to be on the first day of the week during the
seven days of Unleavened Bread. He resurrected from
the dead just after sundown on the Sabbath and the
beginning of the first day of the week (Saturday to
Sunday).

The biblical festivals are blueprints to
God's plan of redemption. The 7th day Sabbath and
these seven festivals teach eschatology and Yeshua has
fulfilled( given meaning to) the first four biblical
festivals on the day God has commanded us to celebrate
them. These are called the Spring Festivals. The
remaining three are called the Fall Festivals and
have a future fulfillment and they are also related to
the redemptive plan of God. Yom Tereuah, or Rosh Ha
Shana teaches the catching away of the Bride and the
resurrection of those dead in Messiah. It also teaches
the Judgment of believers (in heaven) and the wedding
and coronation of Messiah. These festivals have been
commented on in past articles.

The next festival is
Yom Kippur and it teaches the second coming of
Messiah, the death of the false Messiah and the
beginning of the judgment of those who have survived
the tribulation period. There are five days between
Yom Kippur and the next festival it is during these
five days that Yeshua will judge those survivors in
Jerusalem. This judgment is described in Matthew 25.
Then five days after Yom Kippur the final festival is
called Sukkot (tabernacles) and this festival teaches
the Messianic Kingdom and the setting up of that
Kingdom on earth by Yeshua, to be administered by His
Queen, the true believers who have been born-again and
have followed Him in this life.

With that brief
overview, we can get back to what happened.The Romans
didn't like the Jews and this goes back centuries
before Constantine. Julius Caesar allowed the Jews to
practice Judaism in the empire when other defeated
nations were not allowed to practice theirs. This
brought on jealousy among the people and an
anti-Jewish attitude. Their laws and practices were
far diferent than any other religion also, but all
that was a part of God's plan. From 70 A.D. to 325
A.D. three major wars were fought between Rome and
Israel. Many lost loved ones and anything Jewish was
seen as unpatriotic as far as the Romans were
concerned. At the same time Gentiles were coming into
the faith and did not like the idea of practicing a
religion so many didn't like or even want to
understand. Jewish leadership and influence became
less and less in the congregations the further you got
way from Israel. This allowed pagan influences to
cloud interpretation of the Scriptures because these
people had not grown up in the faith practiced by the
very people they were reading about. So, tiny changes
began to creep into the one, true faith given by God
and then the Gentile voice became louder than the
Jewish voice, one change upon another till finally
something had to be done.

The epistles are full of
admonitions to believers to continue in the Torah as
delivered by the apostles which centered on Torah
observance with Yeshua at the center and not the
rabbinic additions that were also being taught. So the
Messianic believer was being influenced by rabbinic
traditions on one side and apostate Gentile influences
on the other. This continued until 325 A.D.
Constantine was pragmatic and a politician and he knew
all these religious factions were tearing apart the
Empire. You had Gentile Christianity, Saturnalia,
Bacchanalia, plain paganism, Mithraism to name just a
few. Apostate Christianity was stronger than most so
he called a council to get these groups together on
doctrines and creeds. What he did not want is anything
that resembled Judaism at all. One of the areas
discussed was what festivals were to be observed.
Constantine was a sun-worshipper at the time he
presided over this council.

He was the high priest of
Mithraism called the "pontifus maximus" (sound
familiar?)and he favored things that was "mithraic" in
nature. You can do a Google search on Constantine and
Mithraism to find the full story, but he wanted the
Jewish roots out and fast. I think it is very sad that
Christianity claims to have Jewish roots when in fact
the church fathers condemned anything Jewish and tried
to stamp it out by changing everything. This attitude
is alive and well even today, believe me.
Christianity's roots are more Mithraic paganism than
Jewish. But, to answer your question now, Constantine
did not want their "Easter" (look up what that name
means) to coincide with the Jewish Passover for all
the above reasons. So, they decided to set Easter for
the first Sunday (remember he was a sun-worshipper)
after the first full moon after the spring equinox.

They changed God's seventh day Sabbath (Saturday) to
the first day of the week ( called Sunday) because
Constantine worshipped the sun and that became the
"Lord's Day" and they did not want to keep the same
Sabbath Day the cursed Jews were keeping. Little did
they realize that this day was designated by God
Himself, not the Jews. Easter was the same way and
Constantine got his wish and so did the other church
fathers and so their Easter would have nothing in
common with the Jewish Passover, including the date
and that is what has been practiced by Christians ever
since.This council evolved into the Roman Catholic
Church and then the protestant churches came out of
that. But, the protestants follow many of the same
apostate beliefs and have more in common with each
other than differences. Few probably even noticed or
cared that they had they celebrated the resurrection
before the Passover this year, but at least now you
know why.