The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his075/kill.lzh/KILL.TXT

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CUL:Kill the Easter Bunny

   The Lord is after your Easter bunny. Will you let him kill it? God
wants to bless His people with a deep understanding of His Holy Word.
Will we let God show us life through death? In this case by letting the
cross of Christ kill our Easter Bunny? For as Hosea 4:6-8 says:

   "...my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have
rejected knowledge, I also reject you as priests...The more the priests
increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory
for something disgraceful."

   It has now been several years since God had us start sending out
tracts on Easter or First Fruits. They were sent especially to the
"priests", but they continue to refuse to change Easter back to First
Fruits. They continue to hold onto and defend Easter bunnies, colored
eggs and gathering sweets for self. How the church seems to love the
"disgraceful" Easter Bunny over the "Glory" of First Fruits. Those who
read this tract, let the Holy Spirit move you to call your church to
repentance! How many blessings the church is missing because it will
not rid itself of earthly traditions. In some cases those churches are
being destroyed because the priests are rejecting knowledge and
covering over this whole issue with "whitewash", (Ezekiel 13).

   EASTER IS A SIN BEFORE GOD

   That cute little bunny is a sin before the eyes of God. That
chocolate bunny that grandma brings is an abomination toward God.
Hiding Easter eggs is a vile and corrupt tradition in God's mind. For
we read of the sin of human traditions and customs in 1 Kings 12. First
notice that satan, in order to keep men from worshiping the pure Word
of the Lord, will instigate an alternative festival, that is, a
different way to worship God.

   "Jeroboam thought to himself, 'The kingdom will likely revert to the
house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple
of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will give their allegiance to their
lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King
Rehoboam.'" 1 Kings 12:26-27

   The spiritual lesson in all this is: 1. Satan knows that men might
worship God in Truth and Spirit, for Rehoboam of the house of Judah was
the only one who remained faithful to the word of the Lord, (1 Kings
12:20). 2. He is fearful that if they do that then they will "kill"
him. Satan too is terrified that if we live the Word we will kill him.

   In order to keep people from worshipping God in the way God intends
it to be done satan has instituted new ways of worshiping God that look
just as good as God's ways. This is exactly what Jeroboam did. For we
can take warning from God by reading, 1 Kings 12:32:

   "Jeroboam instituted a festival on the fiftieth day of the eight
month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the
altar."

   Just like today, Easter, which the priests support and preach about,
looks like the resurrection of Jesus. But it is not the festival of the
Lord! Easter with all of it's terminology and doings must be taken out
to the city dump and burned. We are after your Easter bunny. We have a
holy sword called the Word of God and we will not quit until it is
dead. That cute bunny has to go if you are going to be blessed by
staying in step with the Holy Spirit. You priests, if you are not going
to be false prophets, must repent, and teach and demand what is in
accordance with the Word of God.

   God gave ample warning to Jeroboam, but he refused to repent. God is
giving the church ample warning also, and if we do not repent it will
be written about us the same thing that was written about Jerohoam and
his church:

   "This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall
and to its destruction from the face of the earth." 1 Kings 13:34

   THE LORD'S PURPOSE

   The purpose of this tract is to show you the difference between what
is "clean" and "unclean". What God desires, what man has brought about
and what the church has supported because they keep refusing the Holy
Spirit. The Lord's purpose is to increase your joy in the Lord that
comes from the Holy Spirit.

   Let the priests of God repent, with great zeal, of the "violence"
they have done to God's Word by accepting the customs of the world. And
even justifying pagan holidays with God's Holy Word.

   "Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they
do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach there is
no difference between the unclean and the clean..." Ezekiel 22:26

   FIRST FRUITS

   The following is a section from Zola Levitt's book, The Seven Feasts
of Israel. Most of you know Zola is a Jew who loves our Lord. Of course
Jesus was and is his Lord first, (Romans 1:16). We do well to ask the
Holy Spirit to make alive in our hearts his teaching about the Word.

   "The third feast is held on the Sunday following Unleavened Bread:
'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am
going to give to you and your reap its harvest, bring to the priest a
sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before
the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is the wave
it on the day after the Sabbath.' Leviticus 23:10-11

   God wanted a special feast during which the Israelites would
acknowledge the fertility of the fine land He gave them. They were to
bring the early crops of their spring planting, (First Fruits), to the
priest at the Temple to the be waved before the Lord on their behalf.

   This was to be done "on the day after the Sabbath", or Sunday. Since
the feast of Unleavened Bread was seven days long, one of those days
would be Sunday and that Sunday would be the First Fruits each year.

   We have come to call this "Easter" after the Babylonian goddess,
Ishtar, the pagan goddess of fertility. We even continue to worship the
objects of fertility: the rabbit, the egg, new costumes, etc. But the
celebration was to be over God's replanting of the earth in the spring.

   We miss a very important biblical truth by not using the term "First
Fruits" as the name of this feast, because "first" implies a second, a
third, and so on, and that is the real meaning of the feast. We do not
merely celebrate the resurrection of the Lord on First Fruits, on which
it indeed occurred, but more so, the resurrection of the entire Church!
We shall all be resurrected and go to heaven, just as the Lord did,
'Every man in his own order'. The apostle Paul presented this
brilliantly:

   "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be alive. But
every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that
are in Christ at his coming." 1 Corinthians 15:23

   Paul makes very clear the real point of the feast. The resurrection
of the Lord Himself is happy news indeed, and worthy of a celebration,
but we are not so surprised by it. After all, the Lord could raise the
dead Himself; He walked on water. He is God's Son. The real miracle is
that each of us ordinary, mortal sinners will experience this
resurrection!

   We apparently all have a number and will go in that order. Jesus
Christ's number was one; He was the first fruits - the first man
permanently resurrected. Your father has a lower number than you, and
your grandfather a lower then he, if you were saved in that order. But
in any case, we shall all go! Obviously, ' The dead in Christ shall
rise first', 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, since they have a lower number.

   How simple it all is if we understand these feasts. Jesus of course,
celebrated the Sunday of the week of His crucifixion by rising from the
dead. It was not some other day He chose but the very day of First
Fruits, of course, just as He performed on Passover and Unleavened
Bread, each with the appropriate action. Jesus even presented the His
proper First Fruits offering to the Father. Graves were opened and dead
people rose and were seen after His resurrection in Jerusalem, (Matthew
27:53). The Lord, not unlike a Jewish planter, gratefully showed the
Father the early crops of what will be a magnificent harvest later on."
-Zola Levitt

   YOUR RESPONSE TOWARD GOD

   When I was a child I played with childish things, (1 Corinthians
13:11). That is, Easter bunnies, eggs, jelly beans, chocolate bunnies
and songs about Easter. You know, "here comes Peter cotton tail,
hopping down the bunny trail...hippity hop...Easter's on its way." By
the way do you see any Apostle's names in that song?

   Why is it that man always takes the gospel of self-sacrifice and
turns ever celebration into a gathering for self? With all the
gathering of food, eggs, toys and merriment, one cannot tell Jesus said
"deny self" and be a "living sacrifice" unto God! When was the last
time you ever saw a "wave offering" at First Fruits time?How many even
know what a "wave offering" is and how it points to Jesus Christ.

   As we grow up in the Lord, we put aside childish things of the past
and press on toward maturity in the Lord. We can't help but be blessed!
How few teachers offer the flock the greater joy of celebrating First
Fruits. Every child in the church should have a rich understanding of
what the Feasts of God are, for all the things God point to are
"inexpressible joy". Many will say, "What harm does it do to call it
Easter and to have Easter bunnies?. We don't do it unto the pagan
goddess of fertility, Ishtar. We do it in the name of Jesus". This
statement declares to the world our willing rebellion and distaste
toward God's Word. The church should be a source of rich knowledge
concerning the feasts of God. Instead, ignorance and worldliness rob
many of the joy of God's Spirit. Let it be so no more!! Amen!

   "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." 1 John 5:21

   "Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people
there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice
the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols..." Revelation
2:14

   Are we by the preachers of God being duped into eating food
sacrificed to idols; Easter baskets, eggs, beans, sugar bunnies,
chocolate eggs, etc. The answer is a sad "yes". Let it happen no more!

   We just killed your Easter bunny with the Word of God, live in the
ways of the world no more!