Easter The Pagan Festival
Easter Sunday, sunrise services, Easter egg hunt, bunny rabbits, all are advertised in order to observe Easter. What do they all have in common with our Lord’s resurrection? Does a rabbit have a symbol in regarding Jesus? Where did they all originate? Are they all considered holy to our Lord? How can something so holy, pure, and important have rabbits, eggs, and ham involved? Are we actually honoring our Lord on Easter Sunday morning when we go to sunrise services? Let’s go to our Bible and see what God thinks about these services.
Chances are you never stopped to ask yourself is Easter Holy or a tool of Satan? You have been taught since childhood to accept Easter as the chief of the Christian Holidays, and you have supposed it is part of the true Christian religion to observe Lent, Holy Week, Good Friday, buy Hot Cross Buns at the bakery, to have colored Easter Eggs, and dress up and go to Church for Easter Sunrise Services.
What is the meaning of the name Easter? You have been led to suppose the word means “Resurrection of Christ.” For 1600 years the Western World has been taught that Christ rose from the dead on Sunday morning. But that is merely one of the fables the apostle Paul warned readers of the New Testament to expect (2 Timothy 4:4). The Resurrection did not occur on Sunday!
The name Easter, which is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian goddess Ishtar, coming to us from old Teutonic mythology where it is known as Ostern. The Phoenician name of this goddess was Astarte. She was the consort of Baal, the Sun God, whose worship is denounced by the Almighty in the Bible as the most abominable of all pagan idolatry.
The idea that Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week was not taught in the second century and not until the Apostasy from the true faith began to develop into the Papacy; and then everything possible was done by a Paganized cult, going under the name of Christianity, to get as far away from Jewish practices as possible.
The very first canonical action taken by any one of the early Church Councils was in the middle of the fourth century and introduced the element of opposition to Judaism. The following is a copy of the 29th Canon of the Council of Ladicea, A.D. 364: “Christians ought not to Judaize, and to rest on the Sabbath; but preferring the Lord’s Day, should rest if possible as Christians. Wherefore if they shall be found to Judaize, let them be accursed from Christ,” Bishop Hefele.
The proof of Christ’s Resurrection on the Sabbath, and not Sunday is so complete that one only makes himself appear foolish to oppose it, and shows a disposition on the part of those who reject the evidence to follow Roman Catholic traditions rather than the Word of God.
Pagan philosophers, claiming to be converted to Christ, became Christian Bishops and Teachers, and brought with them many Pagan rites, Festivals, and Holy Days. These converted pagans hated the Jews and everything Jewish; so they tried to get as far away as possible from everything Jewish, even substituting pagan festivals for the Holy Days and Seasons of the Jews.
They were simply accepted and Christened by a Paganized Church, (Papacy), and when the Reformation caused a breaking away from that system, they retained many of these Pagan institutions, such as Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, with its rabbits and eggs, and other institutions and rites, as well as the observance of Sunday, the wild solar holiday of all Pagan times.
The King James Version has Easter in the scripture (Acts 12:4), but the correct translation should be Passover, The Greek word Paischa, (Hebrew Passover), rendered Easter in Acts 12:4 of the KJV, is correctly translated Passover in AVS. Easter is the day on which the Catholic Church and most Protestant churches celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There is no celebration of the Resurrection in the New Testament. The Jewish Christians linked it with the Passover, and so observed it on the 14th day of Nisan regardless of the day of the week. But Gentile believers celebrated the Resurrection on the Lord’s Day; Sunday. The Council of Nicea settled this difference in 325 A.D. The very first law or legal enactment of any kind we find in history is the law of Constantine, which ruled that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Vernal Equinox. This is the system followed today, the date of Easter varying between March 22 and April 25, (the Zondervan Bible Dictionary).
Let no one think the law of Constantine was a Christian law for the keeping of a day already observed by Christians, for when he, Constantine, made his law or decree it was solely as a day in Reverence of the Sun, the God of the Romans, while he himself was a sun-worshipper. At this time he was not, and did not even profess to be a Christian, nor did he make such professions until two or three years later, and even after his profession of Christianity the very best that can be said of him is that he was such only in name. Let it also be remembered that his Sunday law referred to Sunday as the “Venerable Day of the Sun;” that his decree was in the interest of his God Apollo, the God of the Sun, and had no reference to Jesus Christ or to Christianity. Sunday never was, never will be, anything more than a Pagan festival in honor of the Sun God. It never will, and never can take the place of God’s Seventh Day Sabbath (Matthew 12:8).
The festival of Easter came into the Christian worship very early indeed. Little by little, the intense hatred of the Pagan converts to Christianity, against everything Jewish and against the Jews themselves, caused the Western Church, made up mostly of these Gentile converts to reject everything received from that hated people, the Jews; and Sunday and Easter began to take the place of the Sabbath and the Passover. At this Council of Nicea every whim and wish of Constantine was carried out to the letter. On the one side were the Apostolic Tradition, while on the other were the paganized bishops, with Catholic spirit of getting rid of everything pertaining to the Jews, and a complete separation from Jewish ideas.
Easter and Sunday keeping is a relic of Ancient Sun Worship, a Christianized Pagan Feast Day, not found in God’s Bible and should not even be thought of as sacred by God’s people. Every form of idolatry is an abomination to God, but there is no form that was as detestable in His sight as Sun Worship, for the simple reason that all Sun Worship was nature worship or Devil Worship.
Is it possible that God can accept the Sunday and Easter institution which was dedicated to Sun Worship of all Pagan times before it was adopted and Christened by the Papal, the Catholic church?
The Bible gives us an illustration of the iniquity of Sun Worship, and how God regards it, it is found in the book of Ezekiel, “And they faced toward the “East” and they worship the sun” (Ezekiel 8:6-16). After showing the prophet all manner of abominations committed by Israel, with the “women weeping for Tammuz” the Babylonian messiah; also known as Nimrod, the Babylonian God, (Genesis 10:8-9; Ezekiel 8:14) the greatest abomination to the Lord, was turning their face to the east and worshipping of the Sun. The Babylonians, in their popular religion, supremely worshipped a goddess Mother and a Son, who was represented as an infant or child in his mother Semiramis’ arms. From Babylon, this worship of the Mother and Child spread to the ends of the earth. (See study on Christmas).
Also, in this chapter Ezekiel shows us all manner of creeping things and abominable beasts portrayed on the wall around about. Thus, according to God’s own words; the greatest abomination was Sun Worship. The tabernacle in the wilderness was always pitched with its entrance facing east, as was also Solomon’s Temple; so that when God’s people came to worship before Him, they were obliged to turn their backs on the sun-rising, because the sun was always worshipped at its rising. Can anyone read these things and yet presume that it is pleasing to God to take a day that was dedicated to the Sun; Easter and Sunday worship in place of the Passover and the Lord’s Sabbath?
Israel with all of God’s blessing was warned by God when He told them “be strictly on guard, therefore, not to degrade yourselves by fashioning an idol to represent any figure. And when you look up to the heavens and behold the sun or the moon or any stars among the heavens host, do not be lead astray by serving them” (Deuteronomy 4:19).
Jeremiah criticized his people when they was worshiping and burning incense to other Gods, especially the queen of heaven (Assyrian Goddess) (Jeremiah 44:17), burning incense to the sun, moon and planets (2 Kings 23:5). These people will rise up and go whoring after the gods of strangers” (Deuteronomy 31:16).
Can it be that God will bless, in this dispensation what He cursed in the old? Can it be that God can accept Sunday and Easter institutions, which was dedicated to Sun Worship of all Pagan times before it was adopted and Christened by the Papal Apostasy Catholic Church? As before stated, the Pagan philosophers who claimed to accept Christianity in the latter days of the first century and during the second century found a church with little spirituality; conforming more and more to the world, seeking favor and worldly honor, and willing to accept almost any innovation or new doctrine. The church lost its simplicity and gradually but surely Pagan festivals took the place of the Christian institution.
In view of the above statement, can any fail to see how these institutions borrowed from Paganism are handed down to us? They were simply accepted and Christened by a Paganism Church, (the Papacy), and when the Reformation caused a breaking away from that system they retained many of these Pagan institutions; Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, with its rabbits and eggs, and other institutions and rites, such as Christmas, Halloween, as well as the observance of Sunday; the wild solar holiday, (holy), of all Pagan times.
This gigantic system of moral corruption and idolatry is described in the passage under the emblem of a woman with a “golden cup in her hand” (Revelation17:4), “making all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Revelation 17:2), is divinely called “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots” (Revelation 17:5). Paul calls it “The Mystery of Iniquity” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).
Then came this observance, the forty days abstinence of Lent, which was directly borrowed from the worshipers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, “in the spring of the year,” is still observed by the Pagan Devil worshipers who have inherited it from their early masters; the Babylonians. Lent of forty days was held in the spring by the Pagan Mexicans: “Three days after the Vernal Equinox, began a solemn fast of forty days in honor of the Sun.” The Pagan Mexicans observed such a Lent of forty days in the spring of the year long before Columbus discovered America.
Instead of the Passover season, the old heathen custom of observing Lent a forty days season of fasting soon came to be observed, for it should be most distinctly understood that nearly all of the Sun Worshipping nations from the most remote ancient times, observed such a forty day fasting season.
There is scarcely a nation where Paganism and sun worship prevailed where they did not have their forty days of Lent in the Spring of the year, just as our Catholic friends and many so called Protestants do, but with different ceremonies and for a different purpose.
Among the Babylonians, this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, which in many countries it was considerable later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine and Assyria in June and in other countries at a different time. To bring together the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals together, and by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter to get paganism and Christianity far sunk into idolatry, in this as in so many other things, to shake hands. Every reader of history should know that Lent is foreign to Christianity.
Christianity today has turned to pagan customs instead of the Commands of God in the Bible! Lent is nowhere commanded or mentioned in the New Testament and it is not mentioned in the Old Testament! Lent was an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tummuz-Babylonian counterfeit of the Messiah.
They wept for Tammuz. That weeping preceded the festival in honor of a supposed resurrection of Tammuz. Fasting was joined with weeping for a period of 40 days before the festival in honor of Tammuz. The period of weeping and semi fasting fell during springtime that is why the word Lent means Spring! Lent is a continuation of the pagan springtime custom of abstaining from certain foods just prior to celebrating a supposed resurrection of a pagan Babylonian deity.
That is why Christ and the true New Testament Church never observed it! Paul forbade Christians to observe these pagan “times” or “seasons.” God calls these pagan Easter and Lenten customs abomination, because they commemorated a supposed Sunday morning resurrection. The Catholic authorities acknowledge that there is no command for sanctification of Sunday.
The entire apostate family, mother, (Catholic Church), and hundreds of daughter denominations, (Protestants), all divided against each other and in confusion of doctrines, yet all united in the observance of festivals derived from the Pre-Christian heathen has a family name! They call themselves, “Christians,” but God calls them something else, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, (Revelation 17:5). “Then all the women knead their dough, to make a cake to the queen of Heaven” (Jeremiah 44:17-19).
“Babylon” means confusion! God always named people and things by calling them what they are! And here are the identical ancient Babylonian Mysteries now wrapped in the false cloak labeled “Christianity” but in fact it is the same old “Babylonian Mystery System.”
The popular observances that still attend the period of its celebration simply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. The Hot Cross Buns of Good Friday and the dyed Eggs of Easter Sunday figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The famous Hot Cross Buns, which are made and eaten on Good Friday, are also relics of Paganism, and can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates, and to Greece. At least 1500 years before Christ “Buns” known by that identical name were offered in the worship of “the Queen of Heaven,” otherwise known as the Goddess Ishtar or Easter. These practices also prevailed among the Egyptians in the worship of Isis, the mother goddess, or, as they called her, “the Mother of the Gods.” She was perhaps regarded more highly than any other of gods of Egypt. The Romans celebrated a festival in honor of Vesta, very much after the order of the Easter festival. In this festival service, the cake was very much in evidence. The offering of these cakes, (buns), was common among all the Pagan nations of antiquity, and were always connected with their gods, all of which, in some way were connected with the worship of their chief divinity; the Sun. So the offering of Buns is a relic of Sun Worship, and our modern “Hot Cross Buns” are merely so much of Sun Worship carried into the Christian worship by a fallen church along with Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Colored Eggs, Holy Water, and other Pagan relics.
Can any person think for a moment that the heathen custom of eating Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday is pleasing to God today, when it was displeasing to Him in the days of Jeremiah? From first to last, Lent, Good Friday, and Easter with its ceremonies of Eggs, Rabbits, and Hot Cross Buns, is a survival of Paganism and should be rejected by those who love the Lord. God is calling upon us to get ready for the soon appearing of Jesus Christ, which does not include pagan customs or traditions.
The difference, in point of time, betwixt the Christian Easter, observed in Britain by the native Christian, and the Pagan Easter enforced by Rome, at the time of its enforcement, was a whole month; and it was only by violence and bloodshed, that the Easter Festival of the Chaldeans goddess came to supersede that which had been held in honor of Jesus Christ.
The origin of the Easter Eggs is just as clear. The ancient Druid bore an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. In China at this hour, dyed or painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country. In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temple. From Egypt these sacred eggs can be traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonian was; “An egg of a wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fish rolled it to the bank where the doves set upon it and hatched it and out came Venus who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess,” that is, Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter.
The occult meaning of this mystic egg of Astarte, in one of its aspects, had reference to the ark during the time of the flood, in which the whole human race was shut up, as the chick is enclosed in the egg before it is hatched. If then the world is seen shut up in an egg and floating on the waters it may not be difficult to believe, however, the idea of the egg may have come, that the egg thus floating on the wide universal sea might be Noah’s family that contained the whole world in its bosom.
Now the Church of Rome adopted this mystic Egg of Astarte and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection. A form of prayer was even appointed to be used in connection with it. Pope Paul 5th taught his superstitious votaries thus to pray at Easter: “Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this thy Creature of Eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Why do people who believe themselves to be Christians dye eggs at Easter? Do they suppose the Bible ordained or commanded this heathen custom? There is not a word of it in the New Testament. Certainly Christ did not start it, and the Apostles and early Christians did none of it. Then why should we do it today? Why follow heathenism and try to convince ourselves we are following a Christian example? God calls these things: abomination.
According to Babylonian mythology, this goddess was born in the first year of the foundation of Babylon. The egg was her symbol and was regarded as a sign of her birth. It was everywhere held in high esteem among the Pagan nations. Although Easter is called a Christian festival, it embodies traditions of ancient times. Easter derived from the Anglo-Saxon name of “Teutonic” Goddess of Spring and Fertility. Ashtoreth or Easter; the Persian word for “Star,” is connected with Venus, the Goddess of Love. This Roman and Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty was sometimes said to be the daughter of Jupiter, the Mother of Spring and Fertility. Tradition associated with the festival survived in the familiar coloring of eggs, baking hot cross buns, and the familiar Easter bunny, symbol of the fertile rabbit, suggest more than revelry and drunkenness, and orgies.
In the ancient Chaldean idolatrous Sun Worship, as practiced by the Phoenicians, Baal was the Sun God, Astarte, his consort or wife. And Astarte is the same as Ishtar or English Easter. This is not Christian! It is pagan to the core! Today Easter is more commercial than religious. Millions of dollars are wasted every year on Easter paraphernalia that have absolutely nothing to do with Christ’s rising from the tomb. Besides all the Eggs, Rabbits, and Buns, wardrobes are expanded for appropriate attire for the spring rite.
More people attend religious services on Easter than any other day of the year, it even surpasses the other heathen holiday, Christmas. Is it because of the weather, or to show off one’s new finery, or just to be sociable, or could it be that we wish to be seen as a Christian?
Easter aids and supports hypocrisy. The appeal of observing Easter is the sanctimonious felling which accompanies it. A person may never offer one moment of his time in service to the Lord, but on Easter he feels he can at least appear to be a little Christian! This is what hypocrites are made of, pretense.
You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify, according to James Cardinal Gibbons; the book, “The Faith of Our Fathers,” (1917 edition, Pages 72, 73). “Among the doctrines laid down in a letter of Pope Innocent I, written in the last year of his Papacy (416A.D.), is that Saturday should be observed as a fast day, a day of worship.” Easter observance is totally a Roman Catholic Church practice. Protestants have no foundation what so ever to observe that Roman Catholic Holy Day. To do so is to deny the validity and the authority of Scripture, and to condone Easter with its paganistic system.
God’s people need to go back to the Bible to find their belief for their religious exercise. For more information on studying about the pagan customs that has infiltrated the Christian Churches today, go to your Christian Book store and purchase, “The Two Babylons” by the Rev. Alexander Hislop.
Most Christian theologians reply the reason we worship on Sunday is because that is the day that our Lord rose from the grave early Sunday morning. But, did he go to the tomb on Friday at sunset and rose early Sunday morning? Let’s see just what information we can receive from the Holy Rite.
If Jesus is the Messiah, as is believed and taught in Christianity today, He must have to fulfill His own sign as well as all the prophecies in the prophets and Psalm concerning Himself (Luke 24:44). It is believed and taught that Jesus was crucified on Friday and was resurrected Sunday morning. This belief has been handed down by tradition until it is generally taken for a fact without question or investigation. The theory although believed and taught by many theologians, and believed by many honest Christian hearted people makes Jesus own prophecy untrue. When asked by the scribes and Pharisees for a sign as proof of Him being Christ, He said, “there shall no sign be given but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was Three Days and Three Nights (72 Hours) in the whale’s belly (Jonah 1:17), so shall the Son of man be Three days and Three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40). There cannot possibly be Three days and Three nights between Friday just before sunset and Sunday morning before sunrise. First, God’s time is from sunset to sunset, 24 hours. God’s Sabbath begins at sunset, or evening (Leviticus 23:32; Mark 1:32).
Now, Jesus was the Christ and therefore did fulfill that sign and that the Scripture will enlighten us concerning the same. So did Jesus fulfill this prophecy or we to look for another?
The apostle Matthew is the only one of the four who wrote the account of this event that tells us when the resurrection took place. “At the end of the Sabbath day as it began to dawn (draw near) toward the first day of the week (Sunday), came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see sepulcher (Matthew 28:1). And behold there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. And the angel answered and said unto the woman, fear not ye, for I know that you seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for He risen” (Matthew 28:2-6).
The above is the first visit to the tomb and the women came only to visit the tomb, not to anoint the body. Matthew is the only one who records this special visit in detail, therefore is the only one who tells the time of the Resurrection. The other writers Mark, Luke, and John all record visits made upon the first day of the week (Sunday) and each time He was gone.
Let us see what each of these writers tell us concerning the resurrection of Jesus and see if it was Easter Sunday morning, which at each visit He was gone, Risen. Luke tells us “that when the women came to the sepulcher early Sunday morning the stone was already rolled away from the tomb and they entered and found not the body of the Lord Jesus” (Luke 24:1-3). Now, in John we are told how Mary Magdalene made a visit to the tomb alone, while it is yet dark and seeth the stone taken away. She ran and told Peter and the others "they had taken Him away" (John 20:1-2). Jesus also appeared unto her later that morning (Sunday) (John 20:14-17).
Now, Mark tells of a visit, evidently the same one that Luke recorded at the rising of the sun, Sunday Morning and the angel tells the visitors that Jesus "is not here, He is risen" (Mark 16), verse 6 but verse 9 tells us that Jesus was risen, when He appeared to Mary Magdalene early Sunday (John 20:14-17).
What Sabbath were they preparing for? It was the preparation Passover Sabbath, not the 7th Day Sabbath; it was a High day Sabbath of the first month of the Jewish New Year (Exodus 12:6-16; Leviticus 23:4-7; Exodus 13:4). The preparation of the Passover was the day proceeding of the fourteenth day, the day in which they killed the Passover lamb, which upon the preparation of the Passover on the fourteenth day on Abib or Wednesday which corresponds with Daniel’s teaching that Christ would be cut off in the middle of the week. “HE (Jesus) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease” (Daniel 9:27).
The middle of the week is Wednesday and in order to fulfill this prophecy of Daniel, He must be crucified upon Wednesday, the Passover, Thursday was the Day of Unleavened Bread, and Friday was the preparation of the weekly Sabbath and it was after the weekly Sabbath, the 7th Day Sabbath had passed, when the women who had prepared the spices came to anoint the body as they would not have time to prepare them before the Passover Sabbath came on, because Jesus was laid in the tomb just before sunset, (Leviticus 23:4-6; John1:29).
Sunday keeping is a relic of ancient sun worship, a Christianized Pagan feast day not found in God’s Bible, and should nor even be thought of as sacred by God’s people. Every form of idolatry is an abomination to God, but there is no form that was so detestable in His sight as sun worship, for the simple reason that all sun worship was nature worship or devil worship (Deut 32:16-17).
Can it be that God will bless in this dispensation what He cursed in the old? Can it be that God will approve today, what the disciples and apostles of Christ condemned? Is it possible that God can accept the Sunday institution, which was dedicated to the sun worship of all Pagan times before it was adopted and Christened by the Papal? Who will dare answer yes?
Let us get back to the blessed old book, the Bible, and then and not till then can we expect that God will pour out His blessed Spirit upon us as He did on the disciples on the day of Pentecost. After studying this oracle on Easter, and if you are guilty of going to sunrise services, and see that it is an abomination to God then ask the Lord to change your heart and become a true believer.
Easter Sunday, sunrise services, Easter egg hunt, bunny rabbits, all are advertised in order to observe Easter. What do they all have in common with our Lord’s resurrection? Does a rabbit have a symbol in regarding Jesus? Where did they all originate? Are they all considered holy to our Lord? How can something so holy, pure, and important have rabbits, eggs, and ham involved? Are we actually honoring our Lord on Easter Sunday morning when we go to sunrise services? Let’s go to our Bible and see what God thinks about these services.
Chances are you never stopped to ask yourself is Easter Holy or a tool of Satan? You have been taught since childhood to accept Easter as the chief of the Christian Holidays, and you have supposed it is part of the true Christian religion to observe Lent, Holy Week, Good Friday, buy Hot Cross Buns at the bakery, to have colored Easter Eggs, and dress up and go to Church for Easter Sunrise Services.
What is the meaning of the name Easter? You have been led to suppose the word means “Resurrection of Christ.” For 1600 years the Western World has been taught that Christ rose from the dead on Sunday morning. But that is merely one of the fables the apostle Paul warned readers of the New Testament to expect (2 Timothy 4:4). The Resurrection did not occur on Sunday!
The name Easter, which is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name of the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian goddess Ishtar, coming to us from old Teutonic mythology where it is known as Ostern. The Phoenician name of this goddess was Astarte. She was the consort of Baal, the Sun God, whose worship is denounced by the Almighty in the Bible as the most abominable of all pagan idolatry.
The idea that Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week was not taught in the second century and not until the Apostasy from the true faith began to develop into the Papacy; and then everything possible was done by a Paganized cult, going under the name of Christianity, to get as far away from Jewish practices as possible.
The very first canonical action taken by any one of the early Church Councils was in the middle of the fourth century and introduced the element of opposition to Judaism. The following is a copy of the 29th Canon of the Council of Ladicea, A.D. 364: “Christians ought not to Judaize, and to rest on the Sabbath; but preferring the Lord’s Day, should rest if possible as Christians. Wherefore if they shall be found to Judaize, let them be accursed from Christ,” Bishop Hefele.
The proof of Christ’s Resurrection on the Sabbath, and not Sunday is so complete that one only makes himself appear foolish to oppose it, and shows a disposition on the part of those who reject the evidence to follow Roman Catholic traditions rather than the Word of God.
Pagan philosophers, claiming to be converted to Christ, became Christian Bishops and Teachers, and brought with them many Pagan rites, Festivals, and Holy Days. These converted pagans hated the Jews and everything Jewish; so they tried to get as far away as possible from everything Jewish, even substituting pagan festivals for the Holy Days and Seasons of the Jews.
They were simply accepted and Christened by a Paganized Church, (Papacy), and when the Reformation caused a breaking away from that system, they retained many of these Pagan institutions, such as Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, with its rabbits and eggs, and other institutions and rites, as well as the observance of Sunday, the wild solar holiday of all Pagan times.
The King James Version has Easter in the scripture (Acts 12:4), but the correct translation should be Passover, The Greek word Paischa, (Hebrew Passover), rendered Easter in Acts 12:4 of the KJV, is correctly translated Passover in AVS. Easter is the day on which the Catholic Church and most Protestant churches celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There is no celebration of the Resurrection in the New Testament. The Jewish Christians linked it with the Passover, and so observed it on the 14th day of Nisan regardless of the day of the week. But Gentile believers celebrated the Resurrection on the Lord’s Day; Sunday. The Council of Nicea settled this difference in 325 A.D. The very first law or legal enactment of any kind we find in history is the law of Constantine, which ruled that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Vernal Equinox. This is the system followed today, the date of Easter varying between March 22 and April 25, (the Zondervan Bible Dictionary).
Let no one think the law of Constantine was a Christian law for the keeping of a day already observed by Christians, for when he, Constantine, made his law or decree it was solely as a day in Reverence of the Sun, the God of the Romans, while he himself was a sun-worshipper. At this time he was not, and did not even profess to be a Christian, nor did he make such professions until two or three years later, and even after his profession of Christianity the very best that can be said of him is that he was such only in name. Let it also be remembered that his Sunday law referred to Sunday as the “Venerable Day of the Sun;” that his decree was in the interest of his God Apollo, the God of the Sun, and had no reference to Jesus Christ or to Christianity. Sunday never was, never will be, anything more than a Pagan festival in honor of the Sun God. It never will, and never can take the place of God’s Seventh Day Sabbath (Matthew 12:8).
The festival of Easter came into the Christian worship very early indeed. Little by little, the intense hatred of the Pagan converts to Christianity, against everything Jewish and against the Jews themselves, caused the Western Church, made up mostly of these Gentile converts to reject everything received from that hated people, the Jews; and Sunday and Easter began to take the place of the Sabbath and the Passover. At this Council of Nicea every whim and wish of Constantine was carried out to the letter. On the one side were the Apostolic Tradition, while on the other were the paganized bishops, with Catholic spirit of getting rid of everything pertaining to the Jews, and a complete separation from Jewish ideas.
Easter and Sunday keeping is a relic of Ancient Sun Worship, a Christianized Pagan Feast Day, not found in God’s Bible and should not even be thought of as sacred by God’s people. Every form of idolatry is an abomination to God, but there is no form that was as detestable in His sight as Sun Worship, for the simple reason that all Sun Worship was nature worship or Devil Worship.
Is it possible that God can accept the Sunday and Easter institution which was dedicated to Sun Worship of all Pagan times before it was adopted and Christened by the Papal, the Catholic church?
The Bible gives us an illustration of the iniquity of Sun Worship, and how God regards it, it is found in the book of Ezekiel, “And they faced toward the “East” and they worship the sun” (Ezekiel 8:6-16). After showing the prophet all manner of abominations committed by Israel, with the “women weeping for Tammuz” the Babylonian messiah; also known as Nimrod, the Babylonian God, (Genesis 10:8-9; Ezekiel 8:14) the greatest abomination to the Lord, was turning their face to the east and worshipping of the Sun. The Babylonians, in their popular religion, supremely worshipped a goddess Mother and a Son, who was represented as an infant or child in his mother Semiramis’ arms. From Babylon, this worship of the Mother and Child spread to the ends of the earth. (See study on Christmas).
Also, in this chapter Ezekiel shows us all manner of creeping things and abominable beasts portrayed on the wall around about. Thus, according to God’s own words; the greatest abomination was Sun Worship. The tabernacle in the wilderness was always pitched with its entrance facing east, as was also Solomon’s Temple; so that when God’s people came to worship before Him, they were obliged to turn their backs on the sun-rising, because the sun was always worshipped at its rising. Can anyone read these things and yet presume that it is pleasing to God to take a day that was dedicated to the Sun; Easter and Sunday worship in place of the Passover and the Lord’s Sabbath?
Israel with all of God’s blessing was warned by God when He told them “be strictly on guard, therefore, not to degrade yourselves by fashioning an idol to represent any figure. And when you look up to the heavens and behold the sun or the moon or any stars among the heavens host, do not be lead astray by serving them” (Deuteronomy 4:19).
Jeremiah criticized his people when they was worshiping and burning incense to other Gods, especially the queen of heaven (Assyrian Goddess) (Jeremiah 44:17), burning incense to the sun, moon and planets (2 Kings 23:5). These people will rise up and go whoring after the gods of strangers” (Deuteronomy 31:16).
Can it be that God will bless, in this dispensation what He cursed in the old? Can it be that God can accept Sunday and Easter institutions, which was dedicated to Sun Worship of all Pagan times before it was adopted and Christened by the Papal Apostasy Catholic Church? As before stated, the Pagan philosophers who claimed to accept Christianity in the latter days of the first century and during the second century found a church with little spirituality; conforming more and more to the world, seeking favor and worldly honor, and willing to accept almost any innovation or new doctrine. The church lost its simplicity and gradually but surely Pagan festivals took the place of the Christian institution.
In view of the above statement, can any fail to see how these institutions borrowed from Paganism are handed down to us? They were simply accepted and Christened by a Paganism Church, (the Papacy), and when the Reformation caused a breaking away from that system they retained many of these Pagan institutions; Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, with its rabbits and eggs, and other institutions and rites, such as Christmas, Halloween, as well as the observance of Sunday; the wild solar holiday, (holy), of all Pagan times.
This gigantic system of moral corruption and idolatry is described in the passage under the emblem of a woman with a “golden cup in her hand” (Revelation17:4), “making all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Revelation 17:2), is divinely called “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots” (Revelation 17:5). Paul calls it “The Mystery of Iniquity” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).
Then came this observance, the forty days abstinence of Lent, which was directly borrowed from the worshipers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, “in the spring of the year,” is still observed by the Pagan Devil worshipers who have inherited it from their early masters; the Babylonians. Lent of forty days was held in the spring by the Pagan Mexicans: “Three days after the Vernal Equinox, began a solemn fast of forty days in honor of the Sun.” The Pagan Mexicans observed such a Lent of forty days in the spring of the year long before Columbus discovered America.
Instead of the Passover season, the old heathen custom of observing Lent a forty days season of fasting soon came to be observed, for it should be most distinctly understood that nearly all of the Sun Worshipping nations from the most remote ancient times, observed such a forty day fasting season.
There is scarcely a nation where Paganism and sun worship prevailed where they did not have their forty days of Lent in the Spring of the year, just as our Catholic friends and many so called Protestants do, but with different ceremonies and for a different purpose.
Among the Babylonians, this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, which in many countries it was considerable later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine and Assyria in June and in other countries at a different time. To bring together the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals together, and by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter to get paganism and Christianity far sunk into idolatry, in this as in so many other things, to shake hands. Every reader of history should know that Lent is foreign to Christianity.
Christianity today has turned to pagan customs instead of the Commands of God in the Bible! Lent is nowhere commanded or mentioned in the New Testament and it is not mentioned in the Old Testament! Lent was an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tummuz-Babylonian counterfeit of the Messiah.
They wept for Tammuz. That weeping preceded the festival in honor of a supposed resurrection of Tammuz. Fasting was joined with weeping for a period of 40 days before the festival in honor of Tammuz. The period of weeping and semi fasting fell during springtime that is why the word Lent means Spring! Lent is a continuation of the pagan springtime custom of abstaining from certain foods just prior to celebrating a supposed resurrection of a pagan Babylonian deity.
That is why Christ and the true New Testament Church never observed it! Paul forbade Christians to observe these pagan “times” or “seasons.” God calls these pagan Easter and Lenten customs abomination, because they commemorated a supposed Sunday morning resurrection. The Catholic authorities acknowledge that there is no command for sanctification of Sunday.
The entire apostate family, mother, (Catholic Church), and hundreds of daughter denominations, (Protestants), all divided against each other and in confusion of doctrines, yet all united in the observance of festivals derived from the Pre-Christian heathen has a family name! They call themselves, “Christians,” but God calls them something else, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, (Revelation 17:5). “Then all the women knead their dough, to make a cake to the queen of Heaven” (Jeremiah 44:17-19).
“Babylon” means confusion! God always named people and things by calling them what they are! And here are the identical ancient Babylonian Mysteries now wrapped in the false cloak labeled “Christianity” but in fact it is the same old “Babylonian Mystery System.”
The popular observances that still attend the period of its celebration simply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. The Hot Cross Buns of Good Friday and the dyed Eggs of Easter Sunday figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The famous Hot Cross Buns, which are made and eaten on Good Friday, are also relics of Paganism, and can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates, and to Greece. At least 1500 years before Christ “Buns” known by that identical name were offered in the worship of “the Queen of Heaven,” otherwise known as the Goddess Ishtar or Easter. These practices also prevailed among the Egyptians in the worship of Isis, the mother goddess, or, as they called her, “the Mother of the Gods.” She was perhaps regarded more highly than any other of gods of Egypt. The Romans celebrated a festival in honor of Vesta, very much after the order of the Easter festival. In this festival service, the cake was very much in evidence. The offering of these cakes, (buns), was common among all the Pagan nations of antiquity, and were always connected with their gods, all of which, in some way were connected with the worship of their chief divinity; the Sun. So the offering of Buns is a relic of Sun Worship, and our modern “Hot Cross Buns” are merely so much of Sun Worship carried into the Christian worship by a fallen church along with Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Colored Eggs, Holy Water, and other Pagan relics.
Can any person think for a moment that the heathen custom of eating Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday is pleasing to God today, when it was displeasing to Him in the days of Jeremiah? From first to last, Lent, Good Friday, and Easter with its ceremonies of Eggs, Rabbits, and Hot Cross Buns, is a survival of Paganism and should be rejected by those who love the Lord. God is calling upon us to get ready for the soon appearing of Jesus Christ, which does not include pagan customs or traditions.
The difference, in point of time, betwixt the Christian Easter, observed in Britain by the native Christian, and the Pagan Easter enforced by Rome, at the time of its enforcement, was a whole month; and it was only by violence and bloodshed, that the Easter Festival of the Chaldeans goddess came to supersede that which had been held in honor of Jesus Christ.
The origin of the Easter Eggs is just as clear. The ancient Druid bore an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. In China at this hour, dyed or painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country. In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temple. From Egypt these sacred eggs can be traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonian was; “An egg of a wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fish rolled it to the bank where the doves set upon it and hatched it and out came Venus who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess,” that is, Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter.
The occult meaning of this mystic egg of Astarte, in one of its aspects, had reference to the ark during the time of the flood, in which the whole human race was shut up, as the chick is enclosed in the egg before it is hatched. If then the world is seen shut up in an egg and floating on the waters it may not be difficult to believe, however, the idea of the egg may have come, that the egg thus floating on the wide universal sea might be Noah’s family that contained the whole world in its bosom.
Now the Church of Rome adopted this mystic Egg of Astarte and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection. A form of prayer was even appointed to be used in connection with it. Pope Paul 5th taught his superstitious votaries thus to pray at Easter: “Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this thy Creature of Eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Why do people who believe themselves to be Christians dye eggs at Easter? Do they suppose the Bible ordained or commanded this heathen custom? There is not a word of it in the New Testament. Certainly Christ did not start it, and the Apostles and early Christians did none of it. Then why should we do it today? Why follow heathenism and try to convince ourselves we are following a Christian example? God calls these things: abomination.
According to Babylonian mythology, this goddess was born in the first year of the foundation of Babylon. The egg was her symbol and was regarded as a sign of her birth. It was everywhere held in high esteem among the Pagan nations. Although Easter is called a Christian festival, it embodies traditions of ancient times. Easter derived from the Anglo-Saxon name of “Teutonic” Goddess of Spring and Fertility. Ashtoreth or Easter; the Persian word for “Star,” is connected with Venus, the Goddess of Love. This Roman and Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty was sometimes said to be the daughter of Jupiter, the Mother of Spring and Fertility. Tradition associated with the festival survived in the familiar coloring of eggs, baking hot cross buns, and the familiar Easter bunny, symbol of the fertile rabbit, suggest more than revelry and drunkenness, and orgies.
In the ancient Chaldean idolatrous Sun Worship, as practiced by the Phoenicians, Baal was the Sun God, Astarte, his consort or wife. And Astarte is the same as Ishtar or English Easter. This is not Christian! It is pagan to the core! Today Easter is more commercial than religious. Millions of dollars are wasted every year on Easter paraphernalia that have absolutely nothing to do with Christ’s rising from the tomb. Besides all the Eggs, Rabbits, and Buns, wardrobes are expanded for appropriate attire for the spring rite.
More people attend religious services on Easter than any other day of the year, it even surpasses the other heathen holiday, Christmas. Is it because of the weather, or to show off one’s new finery, or just to be sociable, or could it be that we wish to be seen as a Christian?
Easter aids and supports hypocrisy. The appeal of observing Easter is the sanctimonious felling which accompanies it. A person may never offer one moment of his time in service to the Lord, but on Easter he feels he can at least appear to be a little Christian! This is what hypocrites are made of, pretense.
You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify, according to James Cardinal Gibbons; the book, “The Faith of Our Fathers,” (1917 edition, Pages 72, 73). “Among the doctrines laid down in a letter of Pope Innocent I, written in the last year of his Papacy (416A.D.), is that Saturday should be observed as a fast day, a day of worship.” Easter observance is totally a Roman Catholic Church practice. Protestants have no foundation what so ever to observe that Roman Catholic Holy Day. To do so is to deny the validity and the authority of Scripture, and to condone Easter with its paganistic system.
God’s people need to go back to the Bible to find their belief for their religious exercise. For more information on studying about the pagan customs that has infiltrated the Christian Churches today, go to your Christian Book store and purchase, “The Two Babylons” by the Rev. Alexander Hislop.
Most Christian theologians reply the reason we worship on Sunday is because that is the day that our Lord rose from the grave early Sunday morning. But, did he go to the tomb on Friday at sunset and rose early Sunday morning? Let’s see just what information we can receive from the Holy Rite.
If Jesus is the Messiah, as is believed and taught in Christianity today, He must have to fulfill His own sign as well as all the prophecies in the prophets and Psalm concerning Himself (Luke 24:44). It is believed and taught that Jesus was crucified on Friday and was resurrected Sunday morning. This belief has been handed down by tradition until it is generally taken for a fact without question or investigation. The theory although believed and taught by many theologians, and believed by many honest Christian hearted people makes Jesus own prophecy untrue. When asked by the scribes and Pharisees for a sign as proof of Him being Christ, He said, “there shall no sign be given but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was Three Days and Three Nights (72 Hours) in the whale’s belly (Jonah 1:17), so shall the Son of man be Three days and Three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40). There cannot possibly be Three days and Three nights between Friday just before sunset and Sunday morning before sunrise. First, God’s time is from sunset to sunset, 24 hours. God’s Sabbath begins at sunset, or evening (Leviticus 23:32; Mark 1:32).
Now, Jesus was the Christ and therefore did fulfill that sign and that the Scripture will enlighten us concerning the same. So did Jesus fulfill this prophecy or we to look for another?
The apostle Matthew is the only one of the four who wrote the account of this event that tells us when the resurrection took place. “At the end of the Sabbath day as it began to dawn (draw near) toward the first day of the week (Sunday), came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see sepulcher (Matthew 28:1). And behold there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. And the angel answered and said unto the woman, fear not ye, for I know that you seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for He risen” (Matthew 28:2-6).
The above is the first visit to the tomb and the women came only to visit the tomb, not to anoint the body. Matthew is the only one who records this special visit in detail, therefore is the only one who tells the time of the Resurrection. The other writers Mark, Luke, and John all record visits made upon the first day of the week (Sunday) and each time He was gone.
Let us see what each of these writers tell us concerning the resurrection of Jesus and see if it was Easter Sunday morning, which at each visit He was gone, Risen. Luke tells us “that when the women came to the sepulcher early Sunday morning the stone was already rolled away from the tomb and they entered and found not the body of the Lord Jesus” (Luke 24:1-3). Now, in John we are told how Mary Magdalene made a visit to the tomb alone, while it is yet dark and seeth the stone taken away. She ran and told Peter and the others "they had taken Him away" (John 20:1-2). Jesus also appeared unto her later that morning (Sunday) (John 20:14-17).
Now, Mark tells of a visit, evidently the same one that Luke recorded at the rising of the sun, Sunday Morning and the angel tells the visitors that Jesus "is not here, He is risen" (Mark 16), verse 6 but verse 9 tells us that Jesus was risen, when He appeared to Mary Magdalene early Sunday (John 20:14-17).
What Sabbath were they preparing for? It was the preparation Passover Sabbath, not the 7th Day Sabbath; it was a High day Sabbath of the first month of the Jewish New Year (Exodus 12:6-16; Leviticus 23:4-7; Exodus 13:4). The preparation of the Passover was the day proceeding of the fourteenth day, the day in which they killed the Passover lamb, which upon the preparation of the Passover on the fourteenth day on Abib or Wednesday which corresponds with Daniel’s teaching that Christ would be cut off in the middle of the week. “HE (Jesus) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease” (Daniel 9:27).
The middle of the week is Wednesday and in order to fulfill this prophecy of Daniel, He must be crucified upon Wednesday, the Passover, Thursday was the Day of Unleavened Bread, and Friday was the preparation of the weekly Sabbath and it was after the weekly Sabbath, the 7th Day Sabbath had passed, when the women who had prepared the spices came to anoint the body as they would not have time to prepare them before the Passover Sabbath came on, because Jesus was laid in the tomb just before sunset, (Leviticus 23:4-6; John1:29).
Sunday keeping is a relic of ancient sun worship, a Christianized Pagan feast day not found in God’s Bible, and should nor even be thought of as sacred by God’s people. Every form of idolatry is an abomination to God, but there is no form that was so detestable in His sight as sun worship, for the simple reason that all sun worship was nature worship or devil worship (Deut 32:16-17).
Can it be that God will bless in this dispensation what He cursed in the old? Can it be that God will approve today, what the disciples and apostles of Christ condemned? Is it possible that God can accept the Sunday institution, which was dedicated to the sun worship of all Pagan times before it was adopted and Christened by the Papal? Who will dare answer yes?
Let us get back to the blessed old book, the Bible, and then and not till then can we expect that God will pour out His blessed Spirit upon us as He did on the disciples on the day of Pentecost. After studying this oracle on Easter, and if you are guilty of going to sunrise services, and see that it is an abomination to God then ask the Lord to change your heart and become a true believer.