Celebrate Easter?

Do you celebrate Easter? If not, why not?

The most important event in the history of mankind happened on that third day when Jesus rose from the grave. No one has ever predicted their death, or resurrection and achieved it except Jesus Christ. No one has ever achieved it since. None!

Without resurrection, there would have been very little difference between Christianity and all the other religions of the world. Resurrection separates Jesus Christ from every other religious leader.

Hinduism has over 330 million gods and none of them died and were resurrected. The prophet of Islam, Muhammad, died and he is still in the grave. Siddhartha Gautama (popularly known as Buddha), who founded Buddhism, died and was cremated, meaning that his opportunity to resurrect his human body was terminated. A publication by Thomas Chen and Peter Chen stated that Buddha “succumbed to the disease pig-bel, necrotizing enteritis caused by the toxins of Clostridium perfringens infection”.¹

I could list a page of so many religious leaders who died and are either still in the grave or were cremated. Jesus Christ was the only One who never suffered decay nor was held down by death in the prison of the grave.

With those facts out of the way, we need to see what made Christians start celebrating Easter and the effect it can have on their relationship with God. The real Gospel of Christ is the power of resurrection living inside a believer.

Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus every year. This resulted from the commandment of Jesus when He was predicting His death and resurrection. He told His disciples: “Remember Me”. And the disciples remained faithful to the ordinance ever since.

Over time, Church history informed us that “The Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox (March 21). Easter, therefore, can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25.”²

But what exactly is Easter? Is it the same as The Resurrection Day? Did Easter start with Jesus or was it much earlier than before Jesus was born, let alone His death and resurrection?

Council of Nicea and Easter
A while ago someone said, “If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.” He probably rephrased the words of Jesus, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” [Acts 8:32]

Easter is the principal festival of the Christian church, which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. The earliest recorded observance of an Easter celebration comes from the 2nd century, though the commemoration of Jesus’ Resurrection probably occurred earlier.

“Easter” was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre. At least, this is what author Bede stated in the book he wrote back in the eighth century. This goddess in particular was known for springtime celebrations and fertility. Some believe that Eostre (also sometimes spelt “Eastre”) also had a connection with two other big Easter items — hares and eggs.

The ignorance that the word Easter was only mentioned once in the Bible is a huge basis of distraction, diversion and ultimately, deception is a huge problem for believers.

It was mentioned by Luke in the Book of Acts when he relayed the story of Herod’s arrest of Peter after he had shed the blood of James for no apparent reason other than hatred and jealousy of their faith.

“And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.” [Acts 12:4]

Herod’s actions were not different from what had been happening at Easter thousands of years before Jesus was born. Suffice it to say that Eostre is a Germanic goddess of spring and dawn. She symbolizes fertility, renewal, and the rebirth of nature. She was worshipped by the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon people of Europe before the rise of the Church. She is believed to be the origin of the name of the Christian holiday of Easter. Her sacred animal was probably the hare, popularized as the Easter bunny.

It is perplexing that just because the word “Easter” was mentioned in the Bible once then it is the same thing as its festivities or justifies its observance. People even ignore the context of its mention. They ignore the fact that it was a period when paganistic rituals were observed and use the apron of Jesus’ resurrection to cover it up.

The Christian church’s determination to eradicate any remnants of pagan religions further complicated the preservation of such knowledge, even through indirect or academic channels. All it took for the Church to accept Easter was the spirit of Balaam. It served polluted food to the Church and the majority accepted it.

Consequently, reliable information about Eostre is extremely limited. While shrines and records of Greek and Roman gods still endure, with their respective cults being relatively well-documented, the same cannot be said for the Germanic peoples and their religious practices.

Abraham Walked Away From Easter!
Eostre is frequently mentioned in a significant portion of Pagan literature, accompanied by customary assumptions and misunderstandings. These include connections with hares and eggs, festivities held during the Equinox, and various other aspects.

Ishtar was an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of fertility, love, and war, and her worship involved celebrating the spring equinox and the renewal of life. It doesn’t stop there, the Sumerians* called her Inanna, and other groups of the Near East referred to her as Astarte. Ishtar is also known as the queen of heaven.

It was one of the gods worshipped in the place where Abraham was born and probably the main idol. They all knew Ishtar, the queen of heaven. But, once Abraham decided to follow God, God led him away from the influences of these Semitic gods.

“Ishtar Principal goddess of Assyro-Babylonian mythology. She is the daughter of Anu, the sky god, and Sin, the moon god. Through the centuries, she came to exhibit diverse attributes, those of a compassionate mother goddess and a lustful goddess of sex and war. Ishtar is identified with the Sumerian Inanna, Phoenician Astarte and the biblical Ashtoreth.”³

This Semitic pagan goddess, who had a particular influence over the Babylonians as well as other foreign nations, gave “birth” to Baal, which was a stumbling block for Israel. Ahab and Jezebel replaced Yahweh, the God of Israel, with Baal. It is the same practice that has persisted until today!

Christianity from the 4th Century, despite its strict stance against heresy and heathenism, demonstrated a willingness to incorporate elements from earlier faiths. Pope Gregory I’s letter to Abbot Mellitus highlighted the practical approach of allowing certain practices to be assimilated to facilitate the conversion of populations to Christianity.

Easter is Resurrection?
The adoption of the name Easter for Pesach (Passover} raises questions about the extent of similarities between the rituals and myths of Eostre and the concepts of life and rebirth linked to Pesach. Should this suggest that we have enough common ground to justify integrating certain aspects of pre-existing beliefs into Christian practices?

What many Christians pretend not to see is the fact that the Romans stole all the Greek gods and slapped different names on them. The Greeks had stolen all the Egyptian and Semitic gods and renamed them as well.

From ancient sources such as the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and records unearthed by archaeologists from long-ruined Mesopotamian and Egyptian cities, we can reconstruct subsequent events.

The origin goes back to the times of Noah. This is where the account of genealogies in the Bible becomes important. After the Great Flood, Ham gave birth to Cush and Cush married Semiramis and bore Nimrod (Genesis 10:8). The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest archaeological literature, revealed that Nimrod married his mother. Nimrod would eventually die.

Soon after the death of Nimrod, Semiramis bore a son, named Horus or Gilgamesh. She declared that she had been visited by the spirit of Nimrod, who left her pregnant with the boy. Horus, she maintained, was Nimrod reincarnated. With a father, mother, and son deified, a deceptive, perverted trinity was formed.

Semiramis and Horus were worshipped as “Madonna and child.” As the generations passed, they were worshipped under other names in different countries and languages. Fortuna and Jupiter in Rome; Aphrodite and Adonis in Greece; and Ashtoreth/Astarte and Molech/Baal in Canaan.⁴

Ishtar was believed to be the representation of the planet Venus, and the eight-pointed star is a symbol commonly associated with her. As an extension of her role as the goddess of sexual love, Ishtar was also the protector of prostitutes and alehouses. Prostitution was an important part of her cult, and her holy city Erech was known as the town of the sacred courtesans (prostitutes).

Nowhere in the Bible did God ask us to celebrate Easter or Ishtar or Eostre. None. The renaming and adoption of rites is an abomination before God. Accept it or reject it, celebrating Easter is paying homage to this goddess.

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.” [Jeremiah 44:25]

Without a shadow of a doubt, it is clear that God did NOT institute the ordinance of Easter. All the festivals (feasts) and holy-days (holidays) of God for His people are clearly stated in the Bible. Easter is definitely not one of them.

• Passover (Pesach) commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
• Unleavened Bread, which follows Passover and lasts for seven days, during which no leavened bread is eaten.
• First Fruits, which celebrates the first harvest of the barley crop and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• Pentecost marks the giving of the law at Mount Sinai and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early church.
• Trumpets, which announces the beginning of the seventh month and the impending Day of Atonement.
• Atonement, which is the most solemn day of the year, when the high priest makes atonement for the sins of the people.
• Tabernacles, which is a joyful celebration of God’s provision and protection in the wilderness and His dwelling among his people.

Before adding to the feasts of the Lord, have you kept all the ones He instituted? Religious leaders added Easter and you believe God would be forced to accept it? Paul calls it religion:

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” [Romans 10:3]

Easter is not God’s righteousness. Easter is a strange fire in God’s Tabernacle, which you are.

Some believers may still want to justify the celebration of Easter that it is the same as the Resurrection, why not? It is a free world, feel free to do whatever you want to do (Ecclesiastes 11:9) and justify it as such, but the truth is clean and without any controversy, Jesus NEVER asked anyone to celebrate Easter. He only asked us to remember His death and resurrection as often as we met.

“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.” [Leviticus 10:1]

The consequences of presenting strange fires in the presence or worship of God are frightening as in the case of Nadab and Abihu. When you look at the etymological root words in Strong’s Concordance, the actions of these two men with their names are truly scary!

Nadab = impel, driven forward, to present spontaneously
Abihu = worshipper
Incense = fumigation in a close place and perhaps thus driving out the occupants (smoke to drive away)
Offered = present, approach, bring forth
Strange = turn aside, foreign, profane, commit adultery

When we put these words together, in this context, it should serve as a warning to us. It simply means a worshipper who is driven to present profanity. It was as if they were trying to force God away from His temple. You can’t make it up!

God is a holy God. He can’t be a part of our religion, we don’t dictate to Him, it is the reverse. He is God – the God of all Creation. We don’t have the right to dictate the terms of walking with Him, He does the setting of rules and regulations.

More of these examples are cited all over the Bible. The worst part of it is that it alienates God from your gatherings, which is good news for the devil when he sees God’s people dancing and rejoicing at the table of devils covered with the name of Jesus.

Jesus calls Easter celebrations with all those eggs and bunnies foods sacrificed to idols (Revelation 2:14, 20). The flesh hates the truth. So, your flesh must be irritated by what you are reading, unfortunately, it has to be confronted someday, and the earlier the better.

As usual, some will hate his article for bringing this ordinance of darkness under the light of truth, while others will appreciate or search through their Bible if it is the truth (John 5:39). I am only a messenger and I love you enough to tell you the truth because there is absolute freedom in the truth. Jesus prayed to the Father to sanctify us through the truth, and His word is truth.

Religion taught you that Jesus died on Friday afternoon and rose again early Sunday morning. This is false and not what your Bible says. Your Bible says that Jesus died on Wednesday at 3 pm and rose again on Saturday just after 3 pm. It’s all in YOUR Bible – if you will STUDY it.⁵

What Jesus Commanded
“And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” [Luke 22:19-20]

This simple ordinance is what the spirit of Ishtar has manipulated just like Satan did with Eve in the Garden and also tried to do with Jesus in the Wilderness – twist the Word of God for her worship!

Beloved, I ask you a very simple question: Would you be excited to eat a faecal-polluted meal at an expensive table just because it has a famous name? Why would God, who lost His only begotten Son to a sin-ridden world, be excited to sit with us at the table of Ashtoreth to eat her polluted food?

We are to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, not Ishtar/Easter. Besides, it is not a once-a-year event, it is as often as we meet. If we meet daily, we must do so daily.

Paul wrote, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” [1 Corinthians 11:26]

We must do everything to flee from all appearances of evil. Uncle Abraham did. He chose to walk with God.

References:

1. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/096777200501300208
2. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday
3. https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/ancient-religions/ancient-religion/ishtar
4. https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/770/Semiramis.htm
5. https://brotherjohn.org/jesus-is-alive/