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Should Christians Celebrate Easter?
Egg-laying bunnies, sunrise services, Lent—such strange customs.
What do they have to do with Jesus’ resurrection, anyway?
Maybe there’s something you haven’t been told.
by Philip Neal
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Millions of professing Christians will rise a little early come
Easter Sunday—just so they can participate in a local “sunrise service”
ostensibly honoring Jesus’ resurrection. Later that day, little children
will hunt for beautifully-decorated Easter eggs, supposedly laid by the
Easter bunny. Catholics, of course, weeks earlier began the season with
Lent, a forty-day period of abstinence and “mourning” leading up to
Easter.
What does it all mean? Where’s the biblical connection of
Easter to Jesus’ resurrection? And why didn’t Jesus teach His disciples
to observe Easter?
Ask the average Christian
why he or she holds to a particular belief or practice and you’ll
probably get a blank stare. “It’s a tradition,” some might answer. Or,
“The church teaches it.” But the fact is, most people don’t have a clue
as to the origin of much of what they embrace as truth. Typically,
people tend to just accept what they are told—without thinking.
The result is that many “Christians” unknowingly find themselves
participating in what are actually ancient traditions founded in pagan
mystery religions that flourishing thousands of years before Christ!
The Amazing Historical Origin of Easter
It comes as a surprise to many to learn that the only place in
the King James Version of the Bible that even mentions “Easter”—Acts
12:4—is a gross mistranslation. Here, the Greek word Pascha
(translated Easter) always means “Passover.” The widely
acknowledged error has been corrected in all modern translations.
Referring to the passage, Barnes’ Notes comments that there “was
never a more absurd … translation than this.”
So, if there is no
biblical basis for Easter, where and how did it originate?
Astonishingly, Easter has its roots in ancient, polytheistic pagan
religions. Countless scholarly books and reference materials document
the historical development of Easter—clearly demonstrating that it is
fully pagan in origin.
In Come Out of Her My People, Dr. C. J. Koster, writes: “The
whole subject of Easter, its Sunday-emphasizing date, and its pagan
emblems and rites, such as Easter sunrise services, is crowned by the
general admission that the word ‘Easter’ is derived from the name of a
goddess, the dawn-goddess, the spring-deity, the goddess of fertility.
“Easter had a
pre-Christian origin, namely [involving] a festival [held] in honor
of Eostre, the Teutonic dawn-goddess…. This Eostre was also known to be
the spring goddess of fertility. [As] another form of sun-worship
… Eostre, also called Eastre, Eostra or Ostara, was adopted by or
merged with Christianity. This same dawn-goddess was also well known
… [as] the Assyrian Ishtar, goddess of the morning” (emphasis added).
1
In the ancient Middle East, people were deeply connected to the land
and to the naturally-occurring agricultural cycle. The land’s fertility
was the key to survival. The spring of the year was highly
anticipated—when productivity and fertility returned after a long
desolate winter. Many cultures celebrated the coming of spring as an
integral part of the worship of their gods or goddesses, particularly
those associated with fertility. Koster adds that eggs and rabbits were
common symbols of fertility, and that the Easter goddess was “not only
goddess of dawn but also goddess of spring with all its fertility
symbols and fertility rites.”
The Encyclopedia Americana states that the word Easter is
“derived from the Norse Ostara or Eostre, meaning the festival of spring
… when nature is in resurrection after winter. Hence, the rabbits,
notable for their fecundity, and the eggs, colored like rays of the
returning sun….” 3 According to The Catholic
Encyclopedia, “a great many pagan customs celebrating the
return of spring gravitated to Easter…. The rabbit is a pagan symbol
and has always been an emblem of fertility” (emphasis added). 4
Alexander Hislop, in
The Two Babylons, writes that Easter “is not a Christian name. It
bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing [more]
than Astarte … the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the
people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use
in this country [England]. That name, as found … on the Assyrian
monuments, is Ishtar.”
5 In other words, the ancient Assyrians pronounced
Ishtar the same way we pronounce Easter today!
The origin of Easter, however, is actually quite ancient—going all
the way back to the post-flood biblical Tower of Babel. Nimrod—who stood
in opposition to the true God of heaven (Gen. 10:8-9)—was the key
founder of the ancient Babylonian “mystery religion.” After his death,
his wife, Queen Semiramis, was determined to maintain their “religion”
by deifying him as the sun-god. Later, Semiramis gave birth an
illegitimate son, Tammuz (also known in Greek culture as Adonis), who
she claimed was actually Nimrod reborn. Semiramis herself was
deified as the “queen of heaven.” Fred Coulter, in Occult Holidays or
God’s Holy Days—Which?, writes that Easter is in part a tradition
that “celebrates the return of Semiramis into her reincarnated form as
the Spring Goddess…. The Babylonian goddess, Ishtar … is another
pseudonym for Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod, and the real founder of the
Babylonian cult.” 6
Tammuz is central as well to the Easter amalgamate. Following his
untimely death at age forty, a tradition began in which he both
died and was resurrected each spring. Coulter says “the Easter bunny and
Easter egg symbolize the sexual union that produced Tammuz, the son and
false messiah of Semiramis, the queen of heaven…. The son of Nimrod,
Tammuz was the ancient false messiah who allegedly died and was
resurrected each year.” 7
Indeed, an obvious death and resurrection drama-theme reappears in
many pagan religions. It seems that anciently Ishtar and Tammuz were
both
involved in a mythological death and resurrection cycle—one as the
moon-goddess of spring and fertility, the other as the sun-god messiah
figure—making them perfect forerunners of the modern Easter tradition.
According to Coulter, sunrise services originated with the Babylonian
priesthood to symbolically hasten the resurrection of both. 8
Historically, laments were held for the departed Tammuz for forty
days—a day for each year of his life. The period ended, of course, in
the early spring at his “resurrection.” Hislop writes: “The forty days
[of] abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of
the Babylonian goddess [Ishtar].” 9
Is it a mere coincidence that Orthodox Christendom today
practices a peculiarly similar custom—Lent’s forty days of mourning and
abstinence leading up to Easter?
Sir James Frazer, author of The Golden Bough, adds this: “The
sorrow of the worshippers was turned to joy…. The resurrection of the
god [Tammuz] was hailed by his disciples as a promise that they too
would issue triumphant from the corruption of the grave.” 10
Note the uncanny parallel between the so-called “resurrection” of Tammuz
and the biblical teaching on the resurrection of the saints (Rom. 6:5; I
Cor. 15:12; etc.).
How Easter Crept Into the Orthodox Church
Considering its clearly pagan origin, just how did Easter find its
way into Christianity? The answer has to do with syncretism—the
reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief. After the death
of the apostles, the Church began to grow rapidly among Gentiles,
particularly in the West. After several decades, the church at Rome—now
apostate but possessing considerable political and financial
clout—became dominant. Determined to bring the masses of pagans into the
church, Orthodox leaders in Rome were careful not to force them
to abandon their idolatrous celebrations. Craftily, church leaders found
a way to blend various ancient customs and pagan practices—and then
apply them to Christian doctrine. Easter itself is largely a
convergence of various heathen traditions applied to Jesus’ death and
resurrection.
Koster, for example, writes that “festivals were celebrated [by
pagans], with the rites of Adonis or of Tammuz … [and with
Christianity’s] dead and risen Messiah being
assimilated to the pagan celebration of the dead and risen Adonis
(Tammuz)” (emphasis added). 11
Referring to the fusion
of the Passover with pagan spring celebrations, Hislop writes: “To
conciliate the pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual
policy [of syncretism], took measures to get Christian and pagan
festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skillful adjustment of
the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get
paganism and Christianity—now far sunk into idolatry—in this as in so
many other things, to shake hands.” 12
Concerning the syncretism of Easter, Frazer says: “When we reflect on
how often the Church has skillfully contrived to plant the seeds of the
new [Christian] faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise that
the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Messiah was grafted
upon a similar celebration
of the dead and risen Adonis…. Taken altogether, the coincidences of the
Christian with the heathen festivals are too close and too numerous to
be accidental. They mark the compromise which the Church … was compelled
to make…” (emphasis added). 13 Frazer adds
that “the Church may have consciously adapted the new festival [of
Easter] to its heathen predecessor for the sake of winning souls for
Christ.” 14
The Catholic Church also uses the term Christianization to
describe this mixing of pagan rites with Christian practice.
Easter Becomes an “Official” Church Holiday
As Easter gained in popularity—and the Roman church grew in
influence—a long and bitter controversy developed between those faithful
in the East who adhered to the Passover and those in the West who
preferred Easter. The issue came to a head around ad 197, when
Polycrates of Asia Minor paid the Roman church leadership a formal
visit. In
Ecclesiastical History, the well-known church historian
Eusebius writes: “A question of no small importance arose at that time.
For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the
fourteenth day of the [new] moon … should be observed as the feast of
the Savior’s Passover…. [The] bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates,
decided to hold to the old custom handed down to them. He himself, in a
letter which he addressed to Victor [bishop of Rome] and the church of
Rome, set forth in the following words the tradition which had come down
to him: ‘We observe the exact day [commanded in Scripture]; neither
adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen
asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s coming, when he
shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints.
Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles … and, moreover,
John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom
of the Lord … and Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr…. All
these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the
Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith.’ ”
15
But Roman efforts to induce those from the East to abandon Passover
observance were unsuccessful. As The Encyclopedia Americana
brings out, the “early Christians were Jews and the Hebrew [Passover]
tradition was powerful in their minds. A party of such conservatives
[led by Polycrates] known as the Quartodecimans thus pressed for a
continuance of the Jewish Passover … even to the point of schism, but
they were overruled by the [Roman] Church as a whole….”
16 (Quartodeciman comes from the Latin word for
“14th”—and was a label given to those who followed the Scriptural
command to observe the Passover on the evening of the 14th.)
In From Sabbath to Sunday, Samuele Bacchiocchi writes of this
time: “On the one side, bishop Victor of Rome championed the Easter
Sunday custom … and threatened to excommunicate the recalcitrant
Christian communities of the province of Asia which refused to follow
his instruction. On the other side, Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus and
representative of the Asian churches, strongly advocated the traditional
Passover date of Nisan 14. Polycrates … refused to be frightened into
submission by the threats of Victor of Rome.” 17
When Polycrates firmly refused to agree to the demands of the Roman
church, Victor proceeded to excommunicate him—as well as all Christians
who continued to observe Passover. The excommunication, as it turned
out, lacked authority; nothing really changed except East and West
drifted further apart on numerous issues.
In time, however, the Passover versus Easter controversy became
pivotal; the church at Rome ultimately saw it as a test of their
authority. Koster continues the story: “The Passover dispute between the
Western Church and the more Scripture-adhering believers of the Near
East was finally settled by Constantine’s Council of Nicaea in the year
[ad] 325, where it was decided that Easter was to be kept on Sun-day….
[With] Constantine taking the lead, the Council of Nicaea decided to
reject [the Passover] … in favor of Easter Sun-day…. Constantine
exhorted all bishops to embrace [Easter Sunday observance].” 18
With the authority of imperial Rome finally behind it, Easter soon
came to replace the Passover within visible, organized “Christianity.”
True, faithful Christians were forced underground in order to continue
their observance of the biblical Passover.
Are the Scriptures Silent on Easter?
While there is clearly no biblical support for Easter, the Scriptures
actually do have much to say
against Easter—both directly and indirectly. Interestingly, the
Babylonian Astarte—and the Assyrian Ishtar—are referred to dozens
of times in the Old Testament using the Hebrew word Ashtaroth (Ashtoreth,
Asherah), typically translated as groves in the KJV. Such
groves were used in idolatrous ritual celebrations. For example, “And
the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the
LORD their God, and served Baalim and the Asherahs” (Judges 3:7, New
King James Version). This verse could just as well be translated, “and
served Baalim and Easter”!
Virtually all scholars agree that Asherah is none other than
Astarte—also known as the “queen of heaven.” Notice Jeremiah 7:18: “The
children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women
knead their dough, to
make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink
offerings to
other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.” Verse 10 calls
the practice an “abomination.” The Jamieson Fausset & Brown Bible
Commentary has this to say about Jeremiah 7:18: “Cakes were made of
honey, fine flour, etc., in a round flat shape to resemble the disc of
the moon, to which they were offered…. The Phoenicians called the
moon Ashtoreth or Astarte: the wife of Baal or Moloch, the
king of heaven. The male and female pair of deities symbolized the
generative powers of nature….”
The cakes offered to the queen of heaven—Astarte/Ishtar—are the “hot
cross buns” of today’s Catholic “Christianity”! Koster adds, “The
‘buns,’ known by the identical name boun, were used of the queen
of heaven already 1500 years before the Christian era…. Even the round
shape … with the cross on top exactly represents the very ancient symbol
of the sun, namely the cross with a circled around it. This was
especially known to be the symbol of the Babylonian Sun-deity.”
19
Surprisingly, “sunrise services” are mentioned in the Bible as well—but
only in a negative way. The prophet Ezekiel was shown, in vision,
an important prophecy concerning the sins of God’s people—then and
today. “And He said to me, ‘Turn again, and you will see greater
abominations that they are doing.’ So He brought me to the door of
the north gate of the LORD’S house; and to my dismay, women were sitting
there weeping for Tammuz”—the false messianic figure who dies
and is resurrected every spring!—“Then He said to me, ‘Have you seen
this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations
than these.’ So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house;
and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and
the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple
of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping
the [rising] sun toward the east. And He said to me, ‘Have you seen
this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to
commit the
abominations which they commit here?’ ” (Ezek. 8:13-17).
Can we begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together—Asherahs, the
“queen of heaven” with her cakes, worship of the sun, Tammuz—and see
that the “Christian” Easter has been contrived of ancient myths, and is
itself nothing but a pagan abomination?
Consider God’s warning to Israel as they possessed the land He had
promised to them: “Observe and obey all these words which I command
you…. [And when you] dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you
are not ensnared to follow them … and that you do not inquire
after their gods, saying,
‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’
You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every
abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods….
Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add
to it nor take away from it” (Deut. 12:28-32).
God tells Christians: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles….” (Jer.
10:2)—do not even mention the name of their gods! (see Ex.
23:13). The apostle Paul wrote: “Do not be unequally yoked with
unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness
have in common? And what fellowship does light have
with darkness? And what union does Christ have with
Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an
unbeliever? And what agreement is there between a temple of God
and idols? For you are a temple of the living God, exactly as God
said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their
God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore, ‘Come out from the midst
of them and be separate,’ says
the Lord, ‘and touch not the unclean, and I will receive
you’ ” (II Cor. 6:14-17).
Do we really believe these plain scriptures? Clearly, a true
Christian can never mix what is godly with what is pagan—or the true
with the false! For God can only be worshipped in a
spirit of truth (John 4:24).
Jesus Only Gave One Sign That He Was Messiah
Today’s Easter tradition is developed around a “Good Friday”
afternoon crucifixion and an “Easter Sunday” sunrise resurrection. What
most Christians fail to realize is that this scenario threatens to annul
the only sign
Jesus gave as proof that He was the Messiah—that He would be in
the grave exactly three days and three nights. “For just as Jonah
was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, in like
manner the Son of man shall be in the heart of the earth three days and
three nights” (Matt. 12:40).
You don’t have to be a math genuis to see that from Friday afternoon to
Sunday morning is not three days and three nights. Thus, on this count
alone, Easter is shown to be fraudulent. 20
What’s more, Scripture nowhere instructs Christians to honor Jesus’
resurrection. Rather, we are commanded to commemorate His death
through the Passover (see Luke 22:19-20; I Cor. 11:23-26; etc.). Again,
Easter—which focuses on Christ’s resurrection—is proven false.
This all begs the question: What god is really being honored by Easter?
Who is the real savior central to the Easter Sunday tradition? Is it the
Jesus Christ of the Bible? Or, could it be that traditional Christianity
is unknowingly worshipping a false savior—another “Jesus”?
It’s been said that “the most dangerous counterfeit is the one that
most closely resembles the truth.” The master counterfeiter is Satan the
devil, the “god of this world” (II Cor. 4:4)—and he is actively
deceiving the whole world (Rev. 12:9).
Could you too be deceived?
References:
1. Koster, Dr. C. J, Come Out of Her My
People, Institute for Scripture Research, South Africa, 1998; pp.
24, 27.
2. Koster, p. 25.
3. The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956
edition, p. 506.
4. The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5, p.
227.
5. Hislop, Alexander, The Two Babylons,
p. 103. (Click here for online Version)
6. Coulter, Fred R., Occult Holidays or God’s
Holy Days—Which?, York Publishing, 2006; p. 55.
7. Coulter, pp. 56, 61.
8. Coulter, p. 56.
9. Hislop, p. 104.
10. Frazer, James, The Golden Bough, p. 350.
11. Koster, p. 25.
12. Hislop, p. 105.
13. Frazer, pp. 345, 261.
14. Frazer, p. 359.
15. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book V.
16. The Encyclopedia Americana, p. 506.
17. Bacchiocchi, Samuele, From Sabbath to Sunday, p.
198.
18. Koster, p. 24.
19. Koster, p. 26.
20. For a detailed accout of Jesus’ death and resurrection,
see The Day Jesus the Christ Died
by Fred Coulter.
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