Ancient Pagan Religious Expression
The New
International Dictionary Of The Christian Church gives the following information
about the Christian celebration called Easter:
EASTER. The celebration of Christ's
resurrection. Although the
Scriptures make no provision for the observance of Easter as the day of
resurrection,
all the evidence suggests that the celebration of the death and
resurrection of Christ began at a very early date in the history of the
church, probably as early as the apostolic age. It would seem also that
the Christians of the first century consciously sought to create a
Christian parallel to the Jewish Passover, since the close relationship
between the significance of that event in the O.T. and the crucifixion
in the N.T. made a transformation
of that Jewish feast into Easter both
logical and easy.
Easter does not come from the Scriptures. This pagan custom has another source. As we have read, there was a transformation of the Jewish Feast (Passover) into Easter. Remember though, this was done by man and not by Yahweh.
The New
International Dictionary Of The Christian Church, page 322,
tells us how this
transformation was accomplished:
From early times
Christians kept a commemoration of Christ's
resurrection. This was held at Passover time and was
finally
fixed on the Sunday following Passover.
When
Constantine the
Great presided over
the Council of Nicea in 325 c.e., his main objective was political: how
to merge religion and politics efficiently. Since there were more
politically powerful pagans than there were politically powerful
believers, the celebrations that the pagans were accustomed to
observing were the celebrations which were accepted. Reading from Funk
and Wagnall's Standard Reference Encyclopedia, Volume 8,
we
find the following:
An
important
historic result of the
difference was that the
Christian churches in the East, which were closer to the birthplace of
the new religion, and in which old traditions were strong, observed
Easter according to the date of the Passover festival, while
the churches of the West, whose communicants were descendants of
Græco-Roman civilization, celebrated Easter on a
Sunday.
Settlement
of this
difference was one
of the objects of the
Roman emperor Constantine in convoking, in
325 a.d. the Council of Nicæa (see NICEA COUNCILS OF).
At the Council of Nicea, it was decided that Easter should be celebrated in accordance with the Alexandrine Computation. The Alexandrine Computation for the setting of Easter, is written in Collier's Encyclopedia, Volume 8, page 492.
EASTER, the church
feast which commemorates
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is considered the most ancient and
most important festival of the Christian year.
Prior to the time of Pope
Victor I (189-c. 198), the
Western churches as a rule kept Easter on the first day of the week,
while many of the Eastern
churches, conforming to the Jewish
rule, observed it on the fourteenth of the month of Nisan.
Through the energetic efforts of Pope Victor, the latter
practice gradually disappeared. But another problem came to
the fore: granted
that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, how
was that Sunday to be determined? The
Council of
Nicaea (325)
paved the way for a final settlement by ruling that Easter is to be
observed by all on the same Sunday, that this must be the Sunday
following the fourteenth day of the paschal moon, and that
that moon was to be accounted as the paschal moon whose
fourteenth day followed the vernal equinox.
The Catholic
Church's justification
for using
the Vernal Equinox to set their date for Easter
Sunday—which the Protestant Churches have accepted
completely, comes from Constantine the Great, at the Council of Nicea
in the year 325. According to the calculations adopted at the Council
of Nicea, which are still in effect in every Christian
Church and Assembly in this world, we read:
If the Passover fell
on a Sunday,
Easter was to be the
following Sunday, so as to
have nothing in common with the
Jews.
Constantine and his followers were not rejecting the Jews, they were rejecting Yahweh's Laws which established the Feasts. Christianity has nothing in common with Yahweh and His Feasts, but it has everything in common with paganism and its holidays.
Reading from Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, Volume 4, page 140, we find that Easter is the greatest festival of the Christian Church, which festival was named after the ancient Anglo Saxon Goddess of Spring.
EASTER. The
greatest festival of
the Christian church
commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ...
The name Easter comes from
the
ancient Anglo-Saxon
goddess of spring, Eostre or Ostara,
in whose honor an annual spring
festival was
held. Some
of our Easter customs have come from this and other pre-Christian
spring festivals.
Unger's
Bible Dictionary,
page 283, goes on to corroborate this fact.
The word Easter is
of Saxon origin,
Eastra, the
goddess of spring, in whose honor sacrifices were offered about
Passover time each year. By the 8th century
Anglo-Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of
Christ's resurrection.
It is a historical fact that the day which was chosen by the Christian Church to celebrate this resurrection, was a day which had been celebrated by pagans from antiquity. The only difference between these two celebrations, is the fact that its name was changed to veneer it with Christian respectability. It is no secret that Easter originated with the worship of a pagan Goddess.
Compton's
Pictured Encyclopedia,
Volume 4, says the following about Easter:
Many Easter customs
come from the Old
World...colored eggs and
rabbits have come from pagan antiquity as symbols of new life...our
name Easter comes from Eostre, an ancient Anglo Saxon goddess,
originally of the dawn. In pagan
times an annual spring
festival was held in her honor. Some Easter customs have come
from this and other pre-christian spring festivals.
Reading about this
pre-Christian spring
festival from Funk & Wagnall's
Standard Reference
Encyclopedia,
Volume 8, page 2940:
Although
Easter is a Christian
festival, it embodies
traditions of an ancient time antedating the rise of Christianity. The
origin of its name is lost in the dim past; some
scholars
believe it probably is derived from Eastre,
Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility,
to whom was dedicated Eastre
monath,
corresponding
to April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of
the vernal equinox, and traditions associated
with
the festival survive in the familiar Easter bunny,
symbol of the fertile rabbit, and in the equally familiar colored
Easter eggs originally
painted with gay hues to represent
the sunlight of spring.
The
Dictionary of Mythology,
Folklore, and Symbols, Part 1, page 487 tells us more
about
this Spring Festival.
It incorporates some
of the ancient
Spring Equinox
ceremonies of sun worship in which
there were phallic
rites and spring
fires, and in which the deity or offering
to the deity was eaten...The festival is symbolized by an ascension Lily...a
chick breaking its shell, the colors white and green, the egg, spring
flowers, and the Rabbit. The name is
related to Astarte,
Ashtoreth, Eostre and Ishtar, goddess who visited and rose from the
underworld.
Part of this spring
festival centered
around phallic rites. Collier's Encyclopedia,
Volume 9, page 622, tells us of the Babylonian Ishtar Festival phallic
rites.
The Ishtar
Festivals
were symbolical of
Ishtar as the goddess of love or generation. As the daughter of Sin,
the moon god, she was the Mother
Goddess who
presided over child birth; and women, in her honor, sacrificed their
virginity on the feast day or became
temple prostitutes...
Ishtar, pronounced
Easter, of Assyria was
worshiped in pagan antiquity during her spring festival. Collier's
Encyclopedia,
Volume 15, page 748, gives us the following
information.
Ishtar, goddess of
love and
war,
the most
important goddess of the Sumero-Akkadian pantheon. Her symbol was a
star inscribed in a circle. As
goddess of war, she was often represented
sitting upon a lion. As
goddess of physical love,
she was patron of the temple prostitutes.
Astarte
of Phoenicia
was the offshoot of
Ishtar of
Assyria. To the Hebrews, this abomination was known
as Ashtoreth—Ashtoroth. From Collier's Encyclopedia,
Volume 3, page 13:
ASHTAROTH the
plural of the
Hebrew `Ashtoreth, the Phoenician-Canaanite
goddess
Astarte, deity of fertility, reproduction,
and war.
Watson's
Biblical and
Archaeological Dictionary, 1833, tells us more about
this
mother Goddess, Ashtaroth.
ASHTAROTH, or
ASTARTE, a goddess of the
Zidonians... She
was also called the queen of heaven; and
sometimes her
worship is said to be that of "the host of heaven." She was certainly
represented in the same manner as Isis, with
cow's horns on
her head, to denote the increase and decrease of the moon.
The
Interpreter's Dictionary,
Volume 3, page 975, tells us of Ishtar's role as The Queen of
Heaven:
Ishtar, the goddess
of love
and fertility,
who was identified with the Venus Star and is actually entitled "Mistress
of Heaven'' in the
Amarna tablets. The title "Queen
of Heaven'' is
applied in an Egyptian inscription from the
Nineteenth Dynasty at Beth-shan to "Antit,'' the Canaanite
fertility-goddess Anat, who is termed "Queen of
Heaven and
Mistress of the Gods.'' This is
the most active goddess in
the Ras Shamra Texts, but in Palestine her functions seem to have been
taken over largely by Ashtoreth.
From Unger's Bible Dictionary, we have found that Astarte is the Greek name for the Hebrew Ashtoreth. From Collier's Encyclopedia, Volume 3, page 97, we find that Astarte-Ashtaroth is merely the Semitic Ishtar, which we have already learned is pronounced Easter.
The Babylonian worship of the Great Mother spread throughout the known world. This Mother Goddess was known by different names, but the form of her religion has not transformed since antiquity.
The egg was a sacred
symbol to the
Babylonians. They believed an egg of wondrous size fell from heaven
into the Euphrates River; from this marvelous egg the Goddess Astarte
(Easter) was hatched. Each pagan nation had its own representation of
this wonder. The Greeks had their sacred egg of Heliopolis, and the
Typhon's Egg.
From The Two Babylons,
by Hislop on page
109, we learn about the Mystic Egg of Astarte:
From Egypt these sacred eggs
can be
distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. ...the egg became one
of the symbols of
Astarte or Easter; and
accordingly, in Cyprus, one of the chosen seats of the worship of
Venus, or Astarte.
From The
Encyclopedia Britannica,
we find the following information about Easter:
Like the
Easter Egg, the
Easter Hare came to
Christianity from antiquity. Through
the fact that the
Egyptian word for hare means also open and period. The hare
came to be associated with the idea of periodicity both lunar and human,
and with the beginning of new life in both the young man and young
woman, and so a symbol of
fertility and of the renewal of life.
Easter eggs and
rabbits are the symbols of
sexual fertility in the ancient, pagan religions. The
Reader's Digest Book of Facts, page 122, gives the
following
information.
EASTER AND THE
BUNNY—Children's
stories in many countries tell how Easter eggs are brought not by a
chicken but by hares and rabbits. These long eared hopping mammals have
represented
fertility in many
cultures because they
breed so quickly. In traditional Christian
art the hare
represents lust,..
From The
Last Two Million Years
by The Reader's Digest Association, page 215, we learn how the worship
of a pagan Goddess became the most important Christian festival.
By
a stroke of tactical genius the
Church, while intolerant of
pagan beliefs, was able to harness the powerful
emotions
generated by pagan worship. Often,
churches were sited where
temples had stood before, and many
heathen festivals were
added to the Christian
calendar. Easter, for instance, a time of
sacrifice
and rebirth in the Christian year, takes its
name from the
Norse goddess Eostre, in whose
honour rites were held every
spring. She in turn was simply a northern version of the Phoenician earth-mother
Astarte, goddess of fertility. Easter
eggs continue an
age-old tradition in which the egg is a
symbol of
birth; and cakes which were eaten to mark the festivals of Astarte
and Eostre were the direct ancestors of our hot-cross buns.
Due to the fact that Christianity could readily transform its beliefs, compromising church leaders saw their opportunity. They found similarities in Christian customs with those of the Mother Goddess—and brought people by the droves into their fold.
Who did these compromising church
leaders find to worship,
instead of the Great Mother Ishtar-Easter? They found Miryam, the
mother of Yahshua Messiah. Through Mary worship, the pagans could
continue their customary prayers and devotion to the mediating
Goddess—just change her name to Mary. This would give the
pagan worship of the Mother the appearance of
respectability—the same respectability that it still holds
today.
There is no Scriptural proof for the Good Friday__Easter Sunday traditions. The foundation for Easter is in pagan antiquity, although this tradition is taught to deceived Christianity as Scripture. Was Yahshua, our true Savior resurrected on Easter Sunday morning? The answer is, NO!
Most people today are deceived into
believing that the
Messiah was resurrected on Easter Sunday morning. They believe they are
honoring His resurrection by celebrating an Easter sunrise service.
This belief is based on the following Scripture from The King
James Version
which says:
Matthew 28:1 KJV—
In the end of the
Sabbath, as it
began to dawn
toward the first day of the week, came
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
Preachers will tell you this dawning toward the first of the week is at the time of day called sunrise. This is a false conclusion. This dawning toward the First Day of the week was actually at a time of day called sunset.
To know what time of day this Scripture is referring to, we must first know the time sequence in a day. Yahweh our Heavenly Father, the Creator of the day, tells us the time sequence of a day.
Genesis
1:5—
And Yahweh called
the light day, and
the darkness He called
night. And (notice) the evening
and then
the morning were the First Day.
Yahweh created a day to be an evening (darkness) first, and then the morning (light). Genesis 1:4-13 gives the story of the creation of the first three days in a week; each day was one night, then one day—which is one day, Yahweh's Way.
The words coming from Yahshua's own mouth about His resurrection, were that He would be in the grave three days and three nights.
Mattithyah
12:40—
For as Yahnah was THREE days
and THREE nights in the
belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Yahnah
1:17—
Now Yahweh had prepared a great fish to
swallow up Yahnah. And
Yahnah was in the belly of the fish three days AND three nights.
The teaching of the majority of Sunday keeping Christianity is that the Messiah was put in the grave on Good Friday at sunset, and was resurrected at sunrise on Easter Sunday morning. Our Messiah said that the only sign He would give that He was the true Messiah, was the sign of the Prophet Yahnah—the sign that He would be in the grave three days and three nights. Can you get three days and three nights from Christianity's Time Sequence?
Friday
Night__One
Night
Saturday Day__One
Day
Saturday
Night__One
Night
Resurrected
Sunday at Dawn__No Day
Even a child can figure that there are not three days and three nights from Friday sunset to Sunday sunrise__yet Satan has caused the majority of people in this world to accept this lie.
Was our Messiah confused, or is this
whole world deceived as
the Holy Scriptures say in Revelation 12:9? Yahshua
knew how long He would be in the grave. It was absolutely necessary
that Yahshua Messiah fulfill this prophecy, or otherwise He would not
prove to be the true Messiah. The true Messiah sent by Yahweh must have
remained in the grave three days and three nights.
Yahshua did remain in the grave three days and three nights, proving that He was the true Messiah sent by Yahweh. Read Mattithyah 28:1 again for affirmation that the two Miryams came at the end of the Sabbath. Just after sunset, while it was still twilight, the two Miryams went to the sepulcher, and found it empty. The malak told them Yahshua had already risen and departed.
Our Messiah was not resurrected Sunday morning at sunrise. Yahshua rose Saturday Sabbath evening, which makes it exactly three days and three nights that He was in the grave, thereby fulfilling the only sign He gave that He was the true Messiah.
The cross was offensive to the Jews, absurd to the Gentiles. A Roman execution is shown in this figure found at Halicarnassus. - Eerdman's Handbook To The Bible, page 591.
Throughout the Holy Scriptures we find warnings from our Creator Yahweh and His Son, Yahshua Messiah, to beware of spiritual deception. As far back in time as the Scriptural books of the kings, this female Goddess was being worshiped. The Holy Scriptures plainly show that the adoption of pagan practices and the worship of Easter is condemned.
I Kings
11:33—
I will do this
Because they
have
forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the Goddess of the
Phoenicians, (Sidonians), Chemosh the God (El) of the Moabites, and
Milcom (Molech) the God (El) of the people of Ammon, and have
not walked in My Ways, to do that which is right in My Eyes, and to
keep My Statutes and My Judgments, as David his father did.
Deuteronomy
12:30-31—
30 Be careful not to be
ensnared into following them
by asking about their gods (elohim), saying: How did these nations
serve their gods (elohim)? I also will do the same.
31 You must not worship
Yahweh your Father in their
way, for every abomination to Yahweh, which He hates, they have done to
their gods (elohim).
They even burn their sons and daughters
in the fire as sacrifices to their gods (elohim).
Every Easter Sunday Morning, almost the entire religious world will participate in a sunrise service that they believe to be in celebration of the resurrection of Messiah. Factually, this is a pagan custom celebrated long before the Savior was born. Yahweh condemns this pagan practice through the pages of your Holy Scriptures.
These same Christians reject the wonderful Feasts of Yahweh which are ordained by Yahweh and will be kept forever in the Kingdom of Yahweh. Read of Yahweh's Feasts in Exodus Chapter 12, Leviticus Chapter 23, Yechetzqyah 45:21, Isayah 66:23 and Zecharyah 14:16-21.
The only ones who will be given eternal life in Yahweh's Kingdom are the ones who obey every Word that proceeds from Yahweh's mouth.
Deuteronomy
6:25—
And it will be our
righteousness, if we observe to
do all these commandments; His Law, before
Yahweh our Father, as He has commanded us.
Mattithyah 4:4—
But He answered, and said; It is
written: Man does
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the
mouth of Yahweh.
Deuteronomy 8:3—
So He humbled you, and allowed you to
hunger, and fed you with
manna, which you did not know of nor did your fathers know of it; so He
might make you to know that man does not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh,
does man live.
Revelation 22:14—
Blessed are those
who do His
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life,
and may enter in through the gates into the city.
There is no salvation to the worshipers of Baal and Ashtoreth. When Yahweh's Kingdom is established on earth, all Baal and Ashtoreth worship will stop entirely. Only our Father Yahweh, through His Son Yahshua our Messiah, will be worshiped.
It would be much better to obey Yahweh voluntarily now, thereby qualifying to reap the joyous reward of eternal life, rather than to disobey Yahweh, thereby qualifying yourself to be one of those who will be cast into the lake of fire to be burned up and gotten out of the way. It is time to come out of pagan worship and start obeying Yahweh.
Only Yahweh is able to give eternal life.