Easter
There is absolutely no instruction in the Bible to keep holy a
day or a period called Easter. The English word "Easter" is used once only in
the Scriptures and, as in all other 28 occurrences of the original Greek word
"pascha"; it should have been translated as "Passover".
The word 'pascha', in its reference to a period in time,
relates to the 'paschal festival', the feast of Passover, extending from the
14th to the 20th day of the first month (Nisan), of the Jewish year.
The reason for the Passover
It was a Jewish festival memorializing the deliverance of
Israel out of slavery in Egypt. The Jews were commanded by the Father to
sacrifice a lamb without spot or blemish, and to paint the sacrificial blood on
the lintels of the doorposts of their houses in order to ensure the "passing
over" of the 'angel of death'. Any house that was not protected by that
sacrificial blood suffered at the hand of the angel... the eldest child, the
firstborn, died.
Whilst the slaying of the paschal lamb was to Israel a type of
something that was to come, in the form of the sacrifice of their Messiah, they
failed to recognize that type when it occurred, and they therefore were not
covered by the sacrificial blood of the Lamb. The results were disastrous, for
more than a million Jews lost their lives and thousands more were led away into
slavery in the years AD 70-135.
Leviticus 23 contains God's instructions to Israel concerning
Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Passover was to be kept on the 14th
day of the first month (Abib/Nisan), and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to
commence on the 15th day -- for 7 days all Israel was to eat unleavened bread.
The first day of the feast of 'unleavened bread' was to be a 'holy day', a day
of holy convocation, on which no Israelite was to labor in any way. The 7th day
was likewise. These days were in addition to the normal 7th day Sabbath Holy
Day.
Why the Easter Festival?
The simple answer is to be found in the 'take-over' of
Christianity by Rome in AD 325, when Constantine declared Christianity to be the
'religion' of the Roman Empire. The Empire included many religions, and all of
them had their own 'gods' which they continued worshipping under the guise of
Christianity. The 'sun god' of Babylon was Tammuz; the 'moon god' Ishtar was
known as Ashtoreth to many people, including the Jews. The Jews incurred the
Father's wrath by making the round cakes with 'T' on them for use in the
festival of worship to Ashtoreth, the 'moon god', and for this idolatry God
severely punished them (Jer 7:17,18).
The 'Christianity' that the Roman Empire now embraced was thus
a mixture of the beliefs of the original Church at Rome and the beliefs and
practices of the pagans who were welcomed into the Church. The festival in honor
of Ishtar became a Christian celebration, complete with the original pagan idea
of 40 days of fasting before the celebration of their worship to Ishtar. That 40
days became the 40 days of 'Lent'.
Eggs, bunnies, and sunrise celebrations
Semiramis was the wife of Nimrod, and this beautiful woman,
the Queen of Assyria, was worshipped as the goddess of love and fertility. She
convinced her people that Nimrod had become the 'sun god' and she was the 'moon
god', worshipped under the Babylonian name of Ishtar (Ashtoreth to the Jews and
many others, Venus to the Romans and Astarte to the Phoenicians). To many of
these people, the egg was a symbol of fertility, and this pagan idea was carried
over into Christianity. In later generations, because the humble bunny rabbit
multiplied so speedily, it also became a symbol of fertility and thus the two
became associated with this pagan festival of Easter. Because the Easter/Ishtar
celebration had its roots in worship to the 'sun god' and the 'moon god' as the
king and QUEEN OF HEAVEN, so the Easter celebrations commenced as the sun came
up and its light obliterated the moon. The celebration of Easter in its present
form is completely pagan in origin and cannot be acceptable to the Father. One
worldwide religion worships Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus (who is, they
claim, "God the Son"). They portray her as the QUEEN OF HEAVEN, in a sad parody
of the Old Testament apostate worship.
What is the truth?
Does it matter what we believe? Do you think the Father would
be pleased with us if we kept a pagan festival? Surely the answer is NO. It is
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus that is our HOPE, not a pagan festival that
honors the 'gods' of the sun and the moon.
