PART 4: EASTER

The modern-day Easter is supposed to be a celebration of [*Christ's resurrection], yet we incorporate such things as bunnies, and colored eggs, etc. Once again, the origin of Easter, and these peculiar symbols, is rooted in paganism. Like Halloween and Christmas, the origins of this day included idol-worship, worshiping other gods, sexual perversion, etc. We are told many times in the Bible to abstain from such behaviors.

*Note: Jesus did not rise on "Easter Sunday". Click here for "The Biblical Chronology of Jesus Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection"


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PART 4: EASTER (continued)

Easter's Pagan Origins:
Easter's origins are connected to Spring fertility rites. The term "Easter" is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven, who is the goddess of spring and fertility. Many pagan cultures believed that the god of fertility died each year during the winter but was reborn each year in the spring. Ancient fertility rites revolved around gross sexual immorality and perversion. The Babylonian and Assyrian fertility goddess was Ishtar, whose name may well have been the origin of the word Easter. To the pagans, Ishtar symbolized "mother earth" in the natural cycles of fertility on earth. She was the goddess of love, and the practice of ritual prostitution became widespread, both men and women. Temples to Ishtar had many priestesses, or sacred prostitutes, who symbolically acted out the fertility rites of the cycle of nature. Other cultures had their various forms of Ishtar: the Phoenician Astarte, the Semitic Ashtoresh, and the Sumerian Inanna. There are also strong similarities between Ishtar and the Egyptian Isis, the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venue. Associated with Ishtar, was the young god Tammuz, considered both divine and mortal. In Babylonian mythology Tammuz died annually and was reborn year after year, representing the yearly cycle of the seasons and the crops. The pagan belief later was identified with the pagan gods Baal and Anat. The pair of Ishtar and Tammuz were later recognized in the Mediterranean region, including Israel, under other names: Baal and Astarte (Ashtoreth), Attis and Cybele, and Adonis and Aphrodite.
Early Christians had nothing to do with Easter. Instead they kept Passover, instituted by God centuries earlier at the time of the Exodus. Later Jesus Christ and His apostles introduced the added meanings regarding Jesus, the Lamb of God, offered as the true Passover sacrifice for the sins of the world. (John 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7). Even in the second century, Christians were still following the examples of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 2:6) in observing the Passover.
The universal theme of death and resurrection in the pagan rituals makes them the forerunner of the modern-day Easter.

How did these pagan rituals become our modern-day Easter?
As Christianity spread through the Roman empire, religious leaders apparently merged customs and practices associated with this earlier mythological "resurrected" god (Tammuz, Attis, etc.) and applied them to the Son of God. In this respect Easter followed the pattern of Christmas, being officially sanctioned and welcomed into the church. Once again, the leaders of the Roman church, at that time, felt it better to co-mingle the two events, allowing the converts to keep some or all of their pagan traditions. The pagan traditions eventually overshadowed the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.



From the following verses you will be able to see how much the Lord detested the sensual and perverted worship of these false gods.

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and Asherahs. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cush-Rishathaim, king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years.
Judges 3:7-8 NIV


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PART 4: EASTER (continued)

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served Him, He became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites...
Judges 10:6-7 NIV

Additional verses: Judges 2:11-15; 1 Kings 11:4-6, 31, 33; 1 Kings 16:30-33; 1 Kings 22: 51-53



Letters from God and His Christ • Personal Letters
Regarding the Celebration of Easter

Timothy, go and honor your family, for as I have said regarding the December holiday, do likewise to this holiday called Easter, for they are the same in My eyes.
Love the Lord, also love your family. Let My light shine in your eyes. Embrace those with whom you disagree. By your example will they see Me in you. Worry not, nor judge not, only educate your own children. And if asked, answer with love, saying you do not celebrate in your own house those things of the world and those things rooted in paganism, but strive each day to please your God, love your neighbor, and rejoice in your Savior, Christ Jesus.

Keep the peace, and they will listen.
Do not yet serve food for adults to the infants.
The babes will not eat it, nor can they yet digest it.
It must be given in small portions,
and softened with the Water*, before accepted.
Trust in Me.

*Water is belief, faith, the Bible and Christ who softens the hard-hearted.


PART 5: SUMMARY

We know that the instruction and examples given in the Bible were recorded for our spiritual instruction and benefit (Romans 15:4). From the verses listed in this study and the Letters from God and His Christ, we see that God abhors His people following the customs of the pagan cultures. We also know that He finds idol-worshiping and false gods detestable. To honor any of these pagan rituals, symbols or characteristics in our own life, would be to dishonor the Lord. Once we know the truth about how God feels about these practices, we must remove them from our lives.

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. ~ John 4:24 NIV
(We cannot worship God in truth and spirit with false practices adopted from the worship of nonexistent gods, originating from those who reveled in sins of the flesh, acting in the manner of demons.)


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PART 5: SUMMARY (continued)

This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. ~ Mark 7:6-7 NIV

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. ~ Colossians 2:8 NIV

Other verses regarding walking in the truth of the Lord:
2 Timothy 3:16; Matthew 15:6-9; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Mark 7:13
1 Peter 2:9, 1 Corinthians 13:11, 1 John 2:6; 1 Corinthians 11:1

From God the Father, given to Timothy:
He who has received of the Truth, and accepted, must walk in its ways. For he shall be judged by the way he has taken and walked...this is the narrow path. For those, who know the path and stray far from it, shall be condemned...this is the wide path that leads to destruction.

So then, should we keep the Holidays or God's Holy Days?
Answer: We should keep what God has set aside for us, the Holy Days, for in these is their a greater joy and understanding in the knowing that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all things! And nothing that man has made can come close to the glory of what God has planned for those who love Him, forshadowed and revealed in the 7 Holy Days of God.

God has given us seven annual festivals, or feast days, on which to worship and honor Him. By observing them according to His Word and Christ, we can understand His ultimate plan for humanity. These holy days include Passover, the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles(the Last Great Day which is part of F.O.T.), of which ALL FIND THEIR FULFILLMENT IN CHRIST. Mention of all seven holy days are found in both the Old Testament (Leviticus) and the New Testament (throughout).

From God the Father, given to Timothy:
[God] The seven are the Plan of the Ages, and are all in all manifest through Christ who shall bring them to actualization...three have passed, one is, and three are to come.


Final note from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, given to Timothy:
[Jesus] So then My children, seek to please My Father in all your ways. For He is also your Father, as I am your Father. He who obeys the Father comes to Me and I show him the way. I am the Good Shepherd. I separate My sheep from evil and shelter them in My Father..s barn. So then, so shall you separate yourself from all things of evil and this world. Fall not into temptation, call on My name and I shall set a hedge about you and hide you and keep you until I come and deliver you from these evils.

The Lord takes away and that left open to Him is filled with living water.
I am He who takes away your burden which is sin,
and lightens that within you through My Spirit and Truth.
You wish for holy days (holidays) to honor Me...
I have given seven, plus one which falls on Saturday of each week, which is the seventh day.

Remember My children, those who have planted their feet in uprightness before the Lord, testifying on My behalf, may no longer walk where others walk. This is where iniquity and hypocrisy abounds.

*To read this entire study and more Biblical and historical evidence regarding these MODERN HOLIDAYS and their origins click here --- TrumpetCallofGod.com and then click on the "Bible/Letter Study" icon on the website.