Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.’ ~ Leviticus 23:10-11, NASB

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, ~ 1 Corinthians 15:22-23, NASB

Based on the mandated annual First Fruits feast that is found in both the Old and New Testaments, it is evident that Father God planned the exact day of the week our crucified Savior would arise from the dead—the Sunday after the regular weekly Sabbath. For centuries, on First Fruits, the third of four Spring festivals commanded by God, Jewish people have revered and celebrated this day as the day the first and very best of their agricultural crops, which spontaneously and miraculously had come up out of the ground after a long “dead” Winter, would be offered to God. This undisputed truth is why it is no coincidence that God chose this same First Fruits day as the appointed time when He spontaneously and miraculously would raise His only begotten Son from the “dead.”

For the above-stated reasons, it is a very sad day for Christ followers everywhere, when they do not take God at His Word. It also is a sad day for Christ followers, when they do not know or will not believe AND accept God’s Divine Truth. He clearly says in His Word that His only begotten Son arose from the grave on First Fruits—NOT on Easter Sunday and NOT on Resurrection Sunday! What God says, thus, should settle for believers in Christ, once and for all, which day they also should revere and celebrate as their Lord’s true resurrection day!

It should matter that some religious leaders, by deciding that Easter Sunday would be the day Christ Jesus arose from the grave (i.e., the 325 AD Council of Nicaea), have rejected God’s Divine Truth concerning the Lord’s First Fruits Sunday resurrection. It also should matter that some religious scholars/teachers, by assigning a fixed date for First Fruits (i.e., the rabbis who compiled the Talmud after the 70 AD destruction of the Temple), have rejected God’s Divine Truth concerning the Lord’s First Fruits Sunday resurrection. For sure, these mentioned Gentile Christians AND these mentioned Jewish Sages’ decisions have just about erased the fact that Christ Jesus, the biblically prophesied Messiah, was crucified on Passover, buried by Unleavened Bread, and risen on First Fruits, which was the Sunday after the weekly Sabbath during the week of Unleavened Bread.

Now some Christians might ask: What’s the big deal? What does it matter what anybody calls the day Christ Jesus arose from the grave? First off, the big deal is that God NEVER calls His First Fruits feast Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday. Secondly, the big deal is that God DOES NOT say in His Word that His mandated First Fruits feast always takes place on 16 Nisan. For sure, what God makes clear in His Word is that, regardless of which days of the month of Nisan the mandated Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread might fall on, His First Fruits feast always would be on the day after the regular weekly Sabbath. In other words, the First Fruits feast always was meant to fall on the first day of the week or Sunday instead of always falling on the same numeric date! That’s why First Fruits is a moveable feast, which means Pentecost also has to be a moveable feast, as well!

Thirdly, the big deal is that by continuing to call First Fruits either Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday, Christians are helping Satan fulfill his desire to erase the significance of the Feasts of Passover and First Fruits. Similarly, by redetermining a fictitious date for God’s First Fruits, which has resulted in the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread becoming an eight-day holiday in which there is NO emphasis placed on the significance of First Fruits Sunday, Jewish rabbis are helping Satan fulfill his desire to alter God’s seasons and His Law.

Put differently, First Fruits Sunday has just about become nonexistent, all because some Gentile Christian religious leaders—those who participated in the First Council of Nicaea—and some Jewish Sages—those who assigned the 16 Nisan date—have failed to accept and/or declare the Divine Truth about Jesus Christ having been raised from the grave on the Sunday following Passover. Consequently, most of today’s Jewish people, Gentile Christians, and Jewish Christians are missing the significance of God’s First Fruits prophetic feast! The missed message is that because the Messiah (Christ Jesus) arose on First Fruits ALL of His true followers (those who are in Christ; those who belong to Him) also will be raised! The latter part of this last sentence, thus, is the reason why every believer in Christ Jesus should celebrate/commemorate God’s First Fruits feast day!

The bottom line then is that Christ Jesus revered and celebrated First Fruits in the most proper and best way—He arose from the dead on that very day. Additionally, He gave Father God His appropriate First Fruits offering—the early crops/early fruits of what will be the full harvest of born again, saved souls. In other words, Christ Jesus presented Himself AND the saints who arose out of their graves AFTER He arose (cf. Matthew 27:52-53) to God as a First Fruits offering. Put differently, unlike the Jewish farmers, who primarily raised agricultural crops to offer as their “firstfruits” to God, Jesus Christ raises souls (resurrects lives), everyone in his or her own order (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:22-23). This raising souls’ Divine Truth is why there can be no doubt that the Lord’s bodily resurrection on First Fruits, and those saints who bodily arose from the grave after Him, were His guarantee to every dead AND alive in Christ believer that He positively will raise them triumphantly—He will raise the rest of His First Fruits’ crops of souls.

A word to the wise should be sufficient. Amen!

HAPPY First Fruits!