What Christian's Should Know About Easter?

Men are likened to sheep. And sheep have a tendency to follow the crowd without questioning. Jesus however came and taught us to examine everything by God's word. The Pharisees exalted human traditions. Jesus exalted God's word. Man was to live by every word that proceeded from God's mouth (Matthew 4:4).

⁴ But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

The battle that Jesus was constantly engaged in with the Pharisees was the age-long battle of God's Word versus the traditions of men. In the church, we are engaged in the same battle today. God's word is the only light that we have on earth. And when God created light initially, He immediately separated it from the darkness. The darkness is both sin as well as human traditions. We also are called to separate both these from the pure word of God so that there is no mixture in the church

 

Easter

The word 'Easter' comes from one of the titles of the queen of heaven, 'Ishtar' or `Astarte' (see 1 Kings 11:5) - one of the idols that Solomon worshipped. There were slightly different forms of that name in different countries.

⁵ For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

 

The Encyclopedias Britannica states,

"The English word 'Easter' corresponding to the German 'Oster' reveals Christianity's indebtedness! to the Teutonic tribes of central Europe. Christianity, when it reached the Teutons, incorporated in its celebration of this great Christian feast day, many of the heathen rites and customs that accompanied their observance of the 'Spring' festival. That the 'festival' of the resurrection occurred in the spring that it celebrated the triumph of life over death, made it easy for the church to identify with this occasion, the most joyous festival of the Teutons, held in honour of the death of winter, the birth of a new year and the return of the sun. Eostre (or Ostera), the goddess of the spring, gave its name to the Christian holy day. The conception of the egg as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Persians who had also the custom of colouring and eating eggs during the spring festival. This ancient idea, of the significance of egg as the symbol of life, readily became the idea of the egg as a symbol of resurrection. According to old superstition, the sun rising on Easter morning dances in the heavens; this belief has been traced to the old heathen festival of spring, when the spectators danced in honour of the sun ... The Protestant churches also followed the custom of holding sunrise services on Easter morning" - (1959 edition, Vol. 7, pages 859, 860).

The Babylonians believed that a great egg fell from heaven into the River Euphrates and that Astarte came out of it. Thus began the distribution of eggs in connection with the worship of the sun in the spring festival. The 4th century Christians took this over, and even today Easter is celebrated with eggs, supposedly symbolising Christ's coming out of the grave as the chick comes out of the egg!!

Sacred bread cakes called `bouns' (or hot cross buns) were offered to the queen of heaven by the heathen, many centuries before Christ (see Jeremiah 7:18). These became the 'hot cross buns' of Good Friday, when Christians took over these pagan customs!

¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

The death and resurrection of Christ are the central message of the gospel. The only way that Jesus intended us to commemorate this was through the 'breaking of bread' which we are to take part in together as a church. This was certainly not to be just once a year at Good Friday/Easter time, and certainly not with eggs and buns!

When we break bread, we testify not only of Christ's death, but also our death with Him. The emotionalism of Good Friday and sentimentality of Easter turns the attention of men away from the necessity of following Jesus, to empty ritualism.

 

I would like to share the following additional information which ties in with  Easter (Ostara, Queen of heaven, Ishtar, wiccan, satan)  who is but a copycat deceiving many to the truth of YHVH  biblical holidays days and calendar which Easter falls in the same month of Aviv/Nissan Passover known in Hebrew as Pesach in March/April.

Additional Information taken from 3^rd new moon 2023:

VERNAL EQUINOX

Another significant event is the VERNAL EQUINOX in the northern hemisphere and the AUTUMNAL EQUINOX in the southern hemisphere (e.g., South Africa).
The equinox (i.e., the moment that the Sun crosses the celestial equator and enters the celestial northern or southern hemisphere) occurs at 03:51 UT on March 20; pray from the night of March 19 into March 20.

A major effect of the equinox is that there is equal day and equal night. From this time on, darkness will decrease, and daylight will increase until Summer Solstice when we have the longest day of the year.

 

Praise the Lord for the spring (resurrection) in the north and the fall (autumn, harvest) in the south. God is faithful. As we thank the Lord for the season change, let us remember His promise in: Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

Satanic Feast of Ostara

In addition, we want you to be aware of OSTARA, A WITCHCRAFT SABBAT that will be celebrated during the Vernal Equinox. This is the time of the so-called sacred marriage between goddess Ostara and the sun god. Sorcerers consider it as a time of great fertility, new growth, and new birth. Usually, the desired goal is that they will have an abundance of harvest from season to season: spring-summer-fall - the harvest of stealing, killing, and destroying!

PASSOVER – FIRST BIBLICAL MONTH (Abib/Nisan) [March/April].

In God’s Calendar, the weeks before the spring equinox round up the old spiritual year and prepare us for the New Religious Year marked by the month of Abib / Nisan – month of Passover.

See, nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are reckoned as a dust on the scales (Isaiah 40:15).

Our God is weighing nations and rulers on His scales – the humble will be rewarded, the arrogant and prideful will be judged (Daniel 5: 22ff, Isaiah 47, Revelation 17-18). We have already seen evidence of shakings in the nations, but as we go through equinox and enter a new year in God’s Spiritual Calendar, we will see an increase in the move of God’s righteousness and justice. The wicked cannot hide any more.

God will stand in the congregation of the mighty to judge:

• the ruthless gods (Psalm 82),

• scornful men (Isaiah 28:14-22, 2 Peter 3: 2-7), and

• Jezebel (Revelation 2:20-23).

Please humble yourself before the Almighty God, so that you may experience Him as your merciful Father.

 

God's Word Or Man's Tradition?

Behind the celebration of Christmas and Easter lies the far more deadly principle of following the traditions of men even when they have no foundation in God's Word. So strong is this power of tradition that many believers who follow the Scriptures in other areas still find it difficult to give up celebrating Christmas and Easter.

It is amazing that many believers are not willing to accept what even secular writers (like the authors of Encyclopedia Britannica) have understood clearly - that Christmas and Easter are basically pagan festivals. You can call an ass a lion, but it is still an ass. Changing the names has not made these festivals Christian! There is no difference between Christmas and Easter and Ganesh Puja and Dussera.

It becomes clear from what we have seen that what Christians are celebrating on Christmas day is the birthday of another 'Jesus' - Nimrod of Babylon. And at Easter time they are actually celebrating the resurrection of another 'Jesus' too - the sun-god that has brought summer to the northern hemisphere! Behind Nimrod and the sun-god stand Satan who actually receives that worship. The Israelites called their golden calf 'Jehovah', but it was Satan who received that worship (Exodus 32:4, 5). Let all those who celebrate Christmas and Easter remember that and beware!

⁴ And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. ⁵ And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.

As we said at the beginning, Jesus was engaged in a constant battle with the Pharisees over this very issue - man's traditions versus God's Word. He faced more opposition for opposing the empty traditions of 'the fathers' than for preaching against sin. We shall find our experience to be the same, if we are just as faithful as He was.

It is the calling of the church today to expose these empty Babylonian celebrations that Satan has promoted in Christendom and to refuse everything (however innocent looking) that has no foundation in God's Word.

Some may quote Romans 14:5, 6, about those who keep a day as unto the Lord. This is referring to the sabbath-day, which some converted Jews still did not have light on to give up. Paul exhorted those who had the light of the new covenant to bear with these weaker Jewish brethren. But this certainly cannot be applied to the celebration of Ganesh Puja or Christmas or Diwali or Easter by Christians today!

⁵ One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. ⁶ He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

God's Word alone is our guide and not the example of even godly men in those areas where they do not follow the Word of God. "Let God be found true even though every man be found a liar" (Romans 3:4). "Check (their) words against the Word of God, says the Lord. If their messages (teachings) are different from Mine, it is because they have no light" (Isaiah 8:20 LB). The Bereans searched the Scriptures to check up even on Paul's teaching, and the Holy Spirit commends them for it (Acts 17:11). That is a good example for all of us to follow.

 ⁴ May it never be! But let God be true but every human being a liar, just as it is written, “In order that you may be justified in your words, and may prevail when you are judged.”

²⁰ To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

¹¹ These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

David was a man after God's own heart. Yet, for forty years, he permitted the Israelites to worship Moses' bronze serpent without realising that this was an abomination to God. He did not have light even on such obvious idolatry. It was a much lesser king, Hezekiah, who was given light to expose and destroy this idolatrous practice (2 Kings 18:1-4). We can follow godly men in the saintliness of their lives and not in their lack of light on human traditions. Our safety lies in simply following the teaching of God's Word and not in adding to or subtracting from it.

18:1-4, Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. ² Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. ³ And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. ⁴ He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

True spirituality is to follow Y’shua (Jesus) in all aspects of life. This involves primarily a taking up of the cross and obeying God's word in the power of the Holy Spirit in daily life. It also involves a forsaking of all human traditions that are not found in the New Testament. God desires a pure testimony in every place - a church that is not only free from all sin, but also free from Babylonian traditions.

 

Part 1 - Part 2 to be Continued: