What do rabbits laying coloured eggs have to do with the resurrection of Christ?
Introduction: When I was a youngster I used to go to church on Easter Sunday.
After services, celebrating the resurrection of Christ, we would have "Easter
egg hunts," supposedly the "Easter Rabbit" had laid. As I grew older I often
wondered what did a rabbit have to do with the resurrection of Christ. In mid
1955 1 came across this booklet. It opened my eyes to the truth of God ... I
hope that it will help you to have a better understanding.
Tom Justus, Pastor
Church of God, Sabbath Day
Springdale, Arkansas
January, 1998
The Resurrection was not on Easter Sunday! Easter is not a Christian name,
but the title of the idolatrous "queen of heaven. " Here's the true origin and
meaning of Lent, Easter eggs, hot cross buns!
Presented By: Church of god UK
WHY DO you believe the things you believe, do the things you do?
The chances are you never stopped to ask yourself that question. You have
been taught since childhood to accept Easter as the chief of the Christian
holidays.
You have supposed it is part of the true Christian religion to observe Lent,
"Holy Week," "Good Friday," to buy hot-cross buns at the bakery, to have colored
Easter eggs, to dress up and go to Church Easter Sunday-perhaps to attend an
Easter sunrise service!
Because of the "sheep" instinct in humans most of us believe a lot of things
that are not true. Most of us do a lot of things that are wrong, supposing these
things to be right, or even sacred!
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.
The resurrection did not occur on Sunday! For the astonishing proof setting
forth the exact time of the Resurrection, write for our free booklet, "The
Resurrection."
The name "Easter" is merely the slightly changed English spelling of the name
of the ancient Assyrian goddess Ishtar, pronounced by the Assyrians exactly as
we pronounce "Easter." The Babylonian name of this goddess was Astarte, consort
of Baal, the Sun god, whose worship is denounced by the Almighty in the Bible as
the most abominable of all pagan idolatry.
Look up the word "Easter" in Webster's dictionary. You will find: "AS.
(Anglo-Saxon), from name of old Teuton goddess of spring."
In the large 5-volume Hastings Bible Dictionary, only six brief lines are
given to the name "Easter," because it occurs only once in the Bible-and that
only in the King James translation. Says Hastings: "Easter, used in Authorized
Version as the translation of 'Pascha' in Acts 12:4, 'intending after Easter to
bring him forth to the people.' Revised Version has substituted correctly 'the
Passover.' "
The World Almanac, 1950 edition, page 704, says: "In the second century,
A.D., Easter Day was, among Christians in Asia Minor" (that is, in the Churches
at Ephesus, Galatia, etc.,-the so-called "Gentile" churches raised up by the
Apostle Paul) "the 14th of Nisan, the seventh month of the Jewish calendar." In
other words, the 14th day of the first month of the sacred calendar, and it was
not then called by the name of the pagan deity "Easter," but by the BIBLE name
"PASSOVER."
Passover, the days of unleavened bread, Pentecost, and the holy days God had
ordained forever were all observed by Jesus, and the early apostles, and the
converted Gentile Christians (Acts 2:1; 12:3; 20:6; 18:21; 1 Con 5:7-8; Acts
20:16; 1 Con 16:8). Passover is a memorial of the crucifixion of Christ.
Passover, observed by the early true Church, occurred not on Sunday or any fixed
day of the week, but a calendar day of the year. The day of the week varies from
year to year.
Easter is one of the pagan days Paul warned Gentile converts they must not
return to observing.
How, then, did this pagan festival enter into and fasten itself upon a
professing Christianity? That is a surprising story-but first, notice the true
origin and nature of Easter.
Easter, as Hislop says ("The Two Babylons,") "bears its Chaldean origin on
its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of
Beltis, the , queen of heaven,' whose name, as pronounced by the people of
Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country."
The ancient gods of the pagans had many different names. While this goddess
was called Astarte in Babylon, it appears on Assyrian monuments found by Layard
in excavations at Nineveh as Ishtar (Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, page 629).
Both were pronounced "Easter." Likewise, Beltis, or Bel (referred to in the Old
Testament) also was called Moloch. It was for sacrificing to Moloch (1 Kings I
1: I - I 1, especially verse 7, where Moloch is called an abomination) and other
pagan gods that The Eternal condemned Solomon, and rendered away the Kingdom of
Israel from his son.
In the ancient Chaldean idolatrous Sun-worship, Baal was the Sun-god, Astarte
his consort, or wife. And Astarte is the same as Ishtar, or the English Easter.
Says Hislop: "The festival, of which we read in church history, under the
name of Easter, in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a different festival
from that now observed in the Romish (and Protestant) church, and at that time
was not known by any such name as Easter. IT WAS CALLED PASSOVER, and was very
early observed by Christians ... That festival agreed originally with the time
of the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified. . . . That festival was not
idolatrous, and was preceded by no Lent. "
"It ought to be known," wrote Cassianus in the fifth century, "that the
observance of the forty days (Lent) had no existence, so long as the perfection
of that primitive Church remained inviolate."
Jesus observed no Lent. The apostles and the early true Church of God
observed no Lenten season. Then how did this observance originate?
"The forty days' abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the
worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, 'in the spring
of the year,' is still observed by the Yezidis or pagan Devil-worshippers of
Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians.
Such a Lent was held by the pagan Mexicans, in honour of the sun. . .
Such a Lent was observed in Egypt (Wilkinson's Egyptians). This Egyptian Lent
of forty days was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great
mediatorial god." (The Two Babylons, by Hislop, pages 104 and 105, and Sabean
Researches, by Landseer, p. 112).
Do you realize what has happened? God Almighty commanded His people to
observe the PASSOVER forever! (Ex. 12:24). This command was given while the
Israelites were still in Egypt, prior to the Old Covenant, or the Law of Moses!
It pictured, before the Crucifixion, Christ's death for the remission of our
sins, as a type looking forward to it. At His last Passover, Jesus changed the
emblems used from the blood of a lamb and eating its roasted body to the bread
and wine.
Jesus did not abolish Passover-He merely CHANGED the emblems, or symbols
used. All the apostles of Christ, and true Christians of the first century true
Church observed it, on the 14th day of the first month of the sacred calendar.
It is now a MEMORIAL of Christ's death, reaffirming, year by year on its
anniversary, the true Christian's FAITH in the blood of Christ for the remission
of his sins, and the broken body of Christ for his physical healing.
But what has happened? DO YOU REALIZE IT? All western nations have been
deceived into dropping the festival God ordained forever to commemorate the
death of the true Saviour for our sins, and substituting in its place the PAGAN
festival in commemoration of the counterfeit "saviour" and mediator of Baal, the
SUN GOD, named after the mythical Ishtar, his wife-actually none other than the
ancient Semiramis, who palmed herself off as the wife of the sun-god, the
idolatrous "QUEEN OF HEAVEN."
THIS is not Christian! IT IS PAGAN TO THE CORE!
Yet scores of millions of Americans are deceived into observing this form of
heathen idolatry, under the delusion they are honouring Jesus Christ the Son of
the Creator GOD!
Easter does not honour Christ! And yet, have you not been, like a blind
sheep, following the other millions in this custom? "The times of this ignorance
God winked at, but now commandeth to come to repentance." (Acts 17:30)
But did you know the hot cross buns, and dyed Easter eggs also figured in the
idolatrous Chaldean rites, just as they do in Easter observance today?
Yes, these are pagan, too. The "buns," known by that identical name, were
used in the worship of the "queen of heaven," the goddess Easter, as early as
the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens, 1500 years before Christ. (The Two
Babylons, pgs. 107-108).
"One species of sacred bread," says Bryant, in Mythology, Vol. 1, p. 373,
"which used to be offered to the gods, was of great antiquity, and called Boun."
It will astonish you, but it's true-one of the reasons God drove the Jews
into Babylonian captivity was this very idolatry-their whole families joined in
this idolatrous worship, in making and offering HOT CROSS BUNS!
Read the entire 7th chapter of Jeremiah. Here is God's stern sentence upon
Judah, thru Jeremiah the prophet, "If you really amend your life and doings, "
God warns them, "I will allow you to remain in this place (Palestine) for all
time." But they would not listen. Then "I will cast you out of my sight," says
God to Judah. And to Jeremiah He says, "Seest thou not what they do in the
cities of Judah ... ?
"The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women
knead their dough, TO MAKE CAKES TO THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN ... that they may
provoke me to anger. . . . Therefore thus saith the Eternal God: Behold, mine
anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, upon beast ...
and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched." (Verses 18-20.)
The Hebrew word for "cakes" as Jeremiah originally wrote it is "kavvan," and
really means "BUNS." The word "bun" seems, says Hislop, to have been derived
from this word. This Hebrew word is used nowhere else in the Bible, except Jer.
44:19, where again the same idolatrous worship to the queen of heaven by these
hot cross buns is mentioned. Every other place in the Bible where the English
word "cakes" is used, a different Hebrew word was used in the original.
Jeremiah was referring to HOT CROSS BUNS exactly the same kind hundreds of
you who read this have been buying and eating at "Easter season!"
The origin of the Easter egg is just as clear. It is recorded in Davies'
Druids, p. 208, that the ancient Druids bore an egg as the sacred emblem of
their idolatrous order. On p. 207, same history, it is recorded that in the
mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, part of the idolatrous ceremony
consisted in the consecration of an egg. Hindoo fables celebrate their mundane
egg as of a golden colour. It has been ancient custom in Japan to make their
sacred egg a hard brazen colour. In China dyed or painted eggs are used on
"sacred" heathen festivals. In the idolatry of ancient Egypt and Greece eggs
were used in their religious rites.
WHY do Americans who believe themselves to be Christians dye eggs at Easter?
Do they suppose the BIBLE ordained, or commands, 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 YOU DO IT TODAY? Why follow heathenism and try to convince
yourself you are a Christian? God calls such things ABOMINATION!
Such is the origin, and early history of Easter.
How, then, was this pagan festival injected into the professing Christian
religion, as a substitute for an ordinance of God?
Before revealing briefly the astonishing account of this great deception, two
facts must be firmly fixed in mind.
First, Jesus and the apostles foretold, not a universal, wide-spread popular
growth of the true 'New Testament Church, but A FALLING AWAY FROM THE TRUTH on
the part of the great majority. Prophesying a popular, universal FALLING AWAY
from the faith once delivered, to the Thessalonians Paul stated, "the mystery of
iniquity doth already work," only some 30 years after the Church began! He
referred to the very "Chaldean Mysteries," of which Easter and Christmas were
the two chief festivals! (2 Thes. 2:7)
Second, although Jesus said the gates of hell would never prevail against His
Church, yet it is everywhere prophesied thru the New Testament as the "Little
Flock"-never as a great, large, popular universal church.
This is the very fact the world does not realize today!
In New Testament prophecy TWO CHURCHES are described.
One, the great and powerful and universal church, a part of the world,
actually ruling in its politics over many nations, and united with the "Holy
Roman Empire," brought to a concrete focus in Rev. 17.
This church is Pictured with great pomp, ritual and display, decked in
purple, scarlet and gold-proud, worldly, boastful. She is pictured as a
universal DECEIVER-the whole western world spiritually DRUNK with her false
doctrines, their spiritual perception so blurred by her paganized teachings and
practices they are unable to clearly distinguish TRUTH! She boasts she is the
true Church, yet she is drunken with the blood of the saints she has caused to
be martyred!
But how could she have deceived the whole world, as foretold in God's Word?
Surely, the Protestant world isn't deceived!
Oh, but it is! Notice, verse 5, she is a MOTHER church! Her daughters are
also churches who have come out of her, even in protest, calling themselves
Protestant-but they are fundamentally of her family in pagan doctrines and
practices! They, too, make themselves a part of this world, taking active part
in its politics-the very act which made a "whore" out of their MOTHER!
The entire apostate family-Mother, and more than 500 daughter denominations,
all divided against each other and in CONFUSION of doctrines, yet all united in
the chief pagan doctrines and festivals has a family NAME! They call themselves
"Christian," but God calls them something else!"MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT!"
"Babylon" means confusion! God always names people and things by calling them
what they are! And here is the same identical ancient BABYLONIAN MYSTERIES now
wrapped in the false cloak labelled "Christianity"-but in fact it is the same
old "CHALDEAN MYSTERIES!" THUS GOD NAMES THIS RELIGIOUS SYSTEM!
But where, then, was the TRUE Church?
Did the true Church of God, of which Jesus Christ is the Living, Directing
Head, become perverted-did it merely apostatize into the system described above?
NO! The gates of hell have never prevailed against the true Church of God,
and never will! The true Church has never fallen! It has never ceased!
But the true Church of God is pictured in prophecy as the "Little Flock!" The
New Testament describes this Church as continually persecuted, despised by the
large popular churches because it is not OF this world or its politics, but has
kept itself unspotted from the world! It has always kept the Commandments of God
and the Faith of Jesus. It has kept God's festivals, not the pagan holidays. It
has been empowered with the Spirit of God!
That Church never degenerated into the great popular church at Rome, as the
protestant world supposes! That Church always has existed, and it exists today!
Then where did it go? Where was it during the middle ages?
First, remember this Church was never large, never politically powerful, or a
world-known ORGANIZATION OF MEN. It is a SPIRITUAL ORGANISM, not a political
organization. It is composed of all whose hearts and lives have been CHANGED by
the Spirit of God, whether visibly together, or individually scattered.
Under the lash of continual persecution and opposition of the organized
forces of this world, it is difficult for such a people to remain UNITED and
ORGANIZED together.
Daniel prophesied the true people of God would be scattered (Dan. 12:7). Ezekiel foretold it (34:5-12). Jeremiah, too, (23:1-2). Jesus foretold it (Mat. 26:31). The apostolic church was soon scattered by persecution (Acts 8: 1). James addresses his letter to Christians scattered abroad (Jas. 1: 1).
You don't read much of this true Body of Christ in the secular histories of
this world! No, the world little notes, nor long remembers, the activities of
this "LITTLE FLOCK," hated and despised by the world, driven to the wilderness
by persecution, always opposed, usually scattered! But there are enough
references to it in authentic histories to show that it has continued thru every
century to now!
The prophecies bring this Church into concrete focus in the 12th chapter of
Revelation. There she is shown spiritually, in the glory and splendour of the
Spirit of God, but visibly in the world as a persecuted, Commandment-keeping
Church driven into the wilderness, for 1260 years, thru the middle ages!
Even in Paul's day, many among those attending at Antioch, at Jerusalem, at
Ephesus, at Corinth, and other places, began to apostatize and turn away from
the truth. Divisions sprang up. Those individuals, unconverted or turned from
God's TRUTH and WAY OF LIFE, were no part of God's true Church, tho visibly
assembling with those who were. The ,'mystery of iniquity" was already working,
INSIDE these visible churches.
This apostasy increased! By the year 125 A.D. the majority in most churches,
especially those Gentile-born, were continuing in many of their old pagan
beliefs and practices, tho professing to be Christian! Gradually, a smaller and
smaller portion of the VISIBLE churches going by the name "Christian" remained
truly yielded to God and His Truth, and led of His Spirit. After Constantine
took virtual control of the visible, professing Church in the early fourth
century, this visible organization became almost wholly pagan, and began
excommunicating and persecuting all who held to the true WORD OF GOD!
Finally, it became necessary for real Christians who, even as a scattered
people, alone composed the TRUE Christian Church, to FLEE from the jurisdiction
of Rome in order to worship God! Thus, the visible, organized Church which rose
to power was the FALSE Church-the "Great Whore" of Rev. 17.
Nothing illustrates this very fact more vividly than the actual history of
the injecting of Easter into the western Church.
Here is the quick, brief history of it, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
11th edition, article on "EASTER:"
"There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New
Testament, or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. . . . The first
Christians" (the original TRUE Church) "continued to observe the Jewish" (that
is GOD'S) "festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which
those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added
to it, of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb and the first fruits from the dead,
continued to be observed.
"Although the observance of Easter was at a very early period the practice of
the Christian Church, a serious difference as to the day for its observance soon
arose between the Christians of Jewish and those of Gentile descent, which led
to a long and bitter controversy. With the Jewish Christians ... the fast ended
. . . on the 14th day of the moon at evening . . . without regard to the day of
the week. The Gentile Christians on the other hand" (that is, the beginning of
the Catholic church, now substituting pagan for true Christian doctrines) ". . .
identified the first day of the week with the resurrection, and kept the
preceding Friday as the commemoration of the crucifixion, irrespective of the
day of the month.
"Generally speaking, the Western Churches" (Catholic) "kept Easter on the 1st
day of the week, while the Eastern Churches" (containing most of those who
remained as part of the TRUE Christian church) "followed the Jewish rule." (That
is, observing Passover on the 14th of the first sacred month instead of the
pagan Easter.)
"Polycarp, the disciple of John the Evangelist, and bishop of Smyrna, visited
Rome in 159 to confer with Anicetus, the bishop of that see, on the subject, and
urged the tradition which he had received from the apostle of observing the 14th
day. Anicetus, however, declined. About forty years later" (197), "the question
was discussed in a very different spirit between Victor, bishop of Rome, and
Polycrates, metropolitan of proconsular Asia" (the territory of the Churches at
Ephesus, Galatia, Antioch, Philadelphia, and all those mentioned in Rev. 2 and
3the churches established thru the apostle Paul). "That province was the only
portion of Christendom which still adhered to the Jewish (the writer should have
used the words "true Christian" instead of "Jewish") usage.
Victor demanded that all should adopt the usage prevailing at Rome. This
Polycrates firmly refused to agree to, and urged many weighty reasons to the
contrary, whereupon Victor proceeded to excommunicate Polycrates and the
Christians who continued the Eastern usage" (that is, who continued in GOD'S
way, as Jesus, Peter, Paul, and all the early true Church had done). "He was,
however, restrained" (by other bishops) "from actually proceeding to enforce the
decree of excommunication . . . and the Asiatic churches retained their usage
unmolested. We find the Jewish" (true Christian Passover) "usage from time to
time reasserting itself after this, but it never prevailed to any large extent.
"A final settlement of the dispute was one among the other reasons which led
Constantine to summon the council at Nicaea in 325. At that time the Syrians and
Antiochenes were the solitary champions of the observance of the 14th day. The
decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and
on the same Sunday throughout the world, and that 'none hereafter should follow
the blindness of the Jews.' " (That is, in plain language, the Catholic church
now decreed that none should be allowed to follow the ways of CHRIST-of the TRUE
Christian Church!)
". . . The few who afterwards separated themselves from the unity of the
church" (Roman church), "and continued to keep the 14th day, were named 'Quarto
decimani,' and the dispute itself is known as the 'Quarto-deciman controversy."'
Thus you see how the politically organized church at Rome grew to great size
and power by adopting popular pagan practices; how she gradually stamped out the
true teachings, doctrines, and practices of CHRIST, and the true Church, so far
as any collective practice is concerned.
It was only by violence and bloodshed, at last, says Hislop (The Two
Babylons, p. 107), that the idolatrous festival of the Chaldean goddess Easter
came to supersede that which God had ordained to be observed forever!
The New Testament reveals that Jesus, the apostles, and the New Testament
Church, both Jewish and Gentile-born, observed God's Sabbaths, and God's
festivals-weekly and annually! Take your Bible and carefully read Acts 2:1,
12:3-4 (the word "Easter" here is a flagrant false translation in "King James"
version-originally inspired "Passover," and so corrected in the Revised
version); Acts 18:21; 20:6, 16; 1 Con 16:8.
Eusebius, historian of the early centuries of the Church, speaks of the true
Christians observing Passover on the 14th of Nisan, first month of the sacred
calendar.
The historian Gieseler wrote that "the Gentile Christians observed also the
Sabbath and the Passover," during the latter half of the first century.
But as the false paganized Church grew in size and political power, decrees
were passed by 363 A.D. imposing the death sentence upon Christians found
keeping God's Sabbath, or God's festivals. Finally, in order to keep the true
Way of God, a large portion of the true Christians (composing the true Church)
"fled into the wilderness," as foretold in Rev. 12:6, where they were fed on the
pure Word of God 1260 long years!
But another large portion of the TRUE Church of God, failing to flee, yet
remaining true to God's Truth, paid with their lives in martyrdom (Rev. 6:9;
13:15; 17:6; 18:24). History records that more than 50 million were martyred!
They loved obedience to God more than their lives! DO YOU?
But through all generations, thru every century, though persecuted,
scattered, unrecognized by the world, many true Christians have kept alive the
TRUE CHURCH OF GOD-the Church composed of those Satan cannot deceive! (Mat.
24:24.)
You think Easter sun-rise services are beautiful? LISTEN! God was showing the
prophet Ezekiel the sins of His people in a vision-a prophecy for today!
"Turn thee yet again," said God, "and thou shalt see greater abominations
than these" (Ezekiel had just been shown, in vision, idol-worship among
professing people of God). "And he brought me (in vision) into the inner court
of the Eternal's house, and behold ... between the porch and the altar were
about five and twenty men, with ... their faces toward the east,. and they
worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, 0
son of man? Is it a light thing..... that they commit the ABOMINATIONS which
they commit here? . . . Therefore, will I deal IN FURY. mine eye shall not
spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud
voice, yet will I not hear them!" (Ezek. 8:15-18.)
Do you grasp what this most abominable thing is?
It is the same identical thing millions are doing every Easter Sunday
morning-the sun-rise service- standing with their faces toward the east, as the
SUN is rising, in a service of worship which honours the SUN and his mythical
idolatrous consort goddess Easter. Yes, deceived into believing this is
Christian, millions practice every Easter the identical form of the ancient
SUN-WORSHIP of the Sun-god BAAL! Throughout the Bible this is revealed as THE
MOST ABOMINABLE of all idolatry in the sight of the Eternal Creator!
Do you think this makes no difference, today? It makes all the difference
between life and death between being SAVED and LOST!
It is a serious thing to write to you, my readers, these truths-for now you
have the KNOWLEDGE of the TRUTH! And "if we sin willfully after we have received
the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a
CERTAIN fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall
devour the adversaries!" (Heb. 10:26-27.)
Yes, it makes a difference! Thousands had to flee the jurisdiction of
"civilization" to keep God's ways! Other thousands paid with their lives for
obeying God-but they shall LIVE forever, in the Resurrection!
This world's ways have brought only sorrow, suffering, chaos, death! GOD'S WAYS are the only ways that lead to Peace, lasting Prosperity, Happiness, Joy, Eternal Life! If Baal is god, then go serve him; but if The ETERNAL is your God, then SERVE HIM!
