WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT EASTER
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ABOUT THE COVER
The coming of spring brings the beginning of 'new' life to earth. This regeneration of life' has been attributed in times past to the return of the heathen goddess of spring and fertility. The worship of this ancient deity has crept into the worship of Western civilization, even by her very name-Easter.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT EASTER
Because of the human instinct to follow the crowd, many of us do what is wrong, often thinking that what we are doing is right. The human mind reasons that the majority must be right. Besides, it is always easier to follow the crowd than to take a stand when others are in error. Have you ever noticed how people don't want to differ from those around them? For example, would you wear clothing styles from the 1930s? Wouldn't people look at you rather strangely if you started wearing clothing that was decades out of fashion? Human nature makes us feel uneasy to be considered different from everyone else.
But because the crowd is of a certain opinion that does not make their opinion necessarily correct. Recall that at the trial of our Savior the crowds chanted, "Kill him! Kill him!" And they sentenced to death the most righteous man on earth.
Have you ever thought that some of what you were taught from childhood could possibly be very wrong? Fantasies about Santa Claus and the Easter bunny come to be real in the minds of children because these notions are encouraged year after year. When the truth is finally revealed, it sometimes hurts. The Bible clearly says, "Thou shalt not lie." Why, then, do we lie to our children?
Let's take a close look at our present day Easter celebration, in light of the Bible and history.
Easter Customs of Western Civilization
It is the custom of most of western civilization to observe Lent, Holy Week, Good Friday, and to attend church on Easter Sunday morning. Easter has been accepted without question as one of the most sacred of Christian holidays.
But where did our Easter customs originate? Just what do colored eggs, rabbits, roasted ham, and hot cross buns have to do with the resurrection of our Savior? Why is this spring festival called Easter?
It is known from history that the apostles and early followers of the Messiah did not observe a holiday called Easter. The word Easter is nowhere found in any ancient Greek or Aramaic manuscripts of the New Testament.
The word
Easter is used, however, in
Albert Barnes acknowledges that "Easter" is a mistranslation in the King James Version. In his well-known Bible commentary, Barnes' Notes, he says, "There was never a more absurd or unhappy translation than this. The original is simply after the Passover. The word Easter now denotes the festival observed by many Christian churches in honor of the resurrection of the Savior. But the original has no reference to that, nor is there the slightest evidence that any such festival was observed at the time when this book was written. The translation is not only unhappy as it does not convey at all the meaning of the original, but it also may contribute to foster an opinion that such a festival was observed in the time of the apostles."
Origin of the Word Easter
Encyclopedias and dictionaries reveal the~t the word Easter is of Anglo-Saxon origin. It can readily be traced to Eostre, the goddess of spring.
The
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia verifies this in its article,
"Easter": "The English word comes from the Aseastre or Estera, a
Teutonic goddess of whom sacrifice was offered in April. So the name was
transferred to the paschal (Passover) feast. The word does not properly occur
in Scripture, although the Authorized Version has it in
In
Pfieffer's Old Testament History, we find that the goddess Easter, rose to
prominence in
"The
concepts of love and warfare are both represented in Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna).
At one time or another Ishtar was linked with the "great god" of
almost every Mesopotamian city. Her presence was thought to guarantee
fertility, and in her absence the land, humans and animals could not reproduce.
Ishtar served the same function in
In the Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, we find under "Easter," "Easter is a word of Saxon origin and imports a goddess of the Saxons, or rather, of the East, Estera, in honor of whom sacrifices being annually offered about the Passover time of the year (spring), the name became attached by association of ideas to the Christian festival of the resurrection, which happened at the time of the Passover. . . . So the present German word for Easter, Ostern, is referred to the same goddess, Estera or Ostera."
The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1909 edition states, "A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. . . . The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility."
Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, 1949 ed., vol. 1 p. 335, states, "Children roll pasch eggs in England. Everywhere they hunt the many-colored Easter eggs, brought by the Easter rabbit. This is not mere child's play, but the vestige of a fertility rite, the eggs and the rabbit both symbolizing fertility. Furthermore, the rabbit was the escort of the Germanic Goddess Ostara who gave the name to the festival by way of the German Ostern."
The Westminster Dictionary of Bible states under "Easter": "Originally the spring festival in honor of the Teutonic goddess of light and spring known in Anglo-Saxon as Eastre. As early as the 8th century the name was transferred by the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian festival designed to celebrate the resurrection of Messiah. In A.V. (Authorized Version) it occurs once (Acts 12:4), but is a mistranslation."
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. 8, p. 828 reads, "There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first [followers of the Messiah]. The ecclesiastical historian Socrates (Hist. Eccl., v. 22) states, with perfect truth, that neither our Savior nor His apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival. . .and he attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of an old usage, 'just as many other customs have been established.'"
Barnes' Notes also states that Easter is not of biblical origin: "The word Easter is of Saxon origin, and is supposed to be derived from Eostra, the goddess of love, or the Venus of the North in honor of whom a festival was celebrated by our pagan ancestors in the month of April. As this festival coincided with Passover of the Jews, and with the feast observed by Christians in honor of the resurrection of the Messiah, the name came to be used to denote the latter."
Webster's New World Dictionary states under the word "Easter," "Orig., name of pagan vernal festival almost coincident in date with paschal festival of the church; Eastre, dawn goddess; see EAST."
Originally, Easter was the name of the spring goddess of vegetation or fertility. Interestingly, Webster's New World Dictionary states under the word "East," "to shine, dawn, whence L. aurora, dawn."
Now the connection between the worship of this goddess of spring and the traditional Easter sunrise services emerges.
The Oxford English Dictionary says under the heading Easter that this deity "was originally the dawn-goddess."
Bible Condemns Easter
Easter, as
we know it, has no basis in the New Testament nor even in the Bible. This
spring festival came from the worship of the dawn goddess believed to he
responsible for fertility. Her name in the Hebrew language was Ashtaroth. She
was also called the "Queen of Heaven." Her worship is mentioned in
the Bible in
In this
passage, our Heavenly Father warns, "See not what they do in the cities of
Alexander Hislop in his well-known book, The Two Babylons, clearly shows that the "Queen of Heaven" mentioned in the above passage from the Bible was indeed the goddess Easter. He frankly states, "Easter 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."
Hot Cross Buns
The
"cakes" in the above passage from
These hot cross buns that Jeremiah spoke of are the same kind baked by those who celebrate Easter today. The cross with which they are marked is used as the symbol for woman. In hieroglyphics cross means living or life. Worship of life and fertility led to including rabbits in the rite of Easter because of their fruitful reproduction. The Easter egg, similarly, represented life in the ancient mystery religion.
Easter Ham
In
The fact that the pig was the sacrificial animal accounts for why baked ham is still eaten during this festival today.
The pig was sacred to the goddess Demeter. Demeter is just another name for Astarte or Easter. Fraser says about Demeter-or Easter- in The Golden Bough, "In art she was represented carrying or accompanied by a pig; and the pig was regularly sacrificed in her mysteries, the reason assigned being that the pig injures the corn and is therefore an enemy of the goddess. But after an animal has been conceived as a god or a god as an animal, it sometimes happens, as we have seen, that the god sloughs off his animal form and becomes purely anthropomorphic: and that then the animal, which at first had been slain in the character of the god, comes to be regarded as a victim offered to the god on the ground of its hostility to the deity; in short, that the god is sacrificed to himself on the ground that he is his own enemy. This happened to Dionysus, and it may have happened to Demeter also. And in fact the rites of one of her festivals, the Thesmophoria, bear out the view that originally the pig was an embodiment of the corn-goddess herself. . . The scholiast tells us that it was customary at the Thesmophoria to throw pigs, cakes of dough, and branches of pine trees into 'the chasms of Demeter and Proserpine,' " Fraser continues (p. 48). ". . .In Hessen and Meiningen the flesh of pigs is eaten on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas, and the bones are kept till sowing time, when they are put into the field sown or mixed with the seed in the bag; so, lastly, the corn from the last sheaf is kept till Christmas, made into the Yule Boar, and afterward broken and mixed with the seed-corn at sowing in spring. Thus, to put it generally, the corn-spirit is killed in animal form in autumn; part of his flesh is eaten as a sacrament by his worshipers; and part of it is kept till next sowing-time or harvest as a pledge and security for the continuance or renewal of the corn-spirit's energies."
In so doing, these worshipers used the pig as a sacrament to the corn spirit, while part was saved to renew the spirit's energies at spring planting.
What does
our Heavenly Father think of this practice? "A people that provokes Me to
anger continually to My face; that sacrifices in gardens, and burns incense
upon altars of brick; which remain among the graves, and lodge in the
monuments, which eat swine's flesh and broth of abominable things is in their
vessels; Which say, Stand by yourself, come not near to me; for I am holier
than you. These are a smoke in My nose, a fire that burns all the day,"
The
practice is also found in
DEMETER
was the Greek name for the goddess Easter, the great com mother. The pig was
sacred to her and it was regularly sacrificed to her. In
Easter Plants and Flowers
The gardens mentioned above are likely the gardens of Adonis (Hebrew Tammuz). Fraser says, "These gardens of Adonis are most naturally interpreted as representatives of Adonis or manifestations of his power; they represented him, true to his original nature, in vegetable form," The Golden Bough, p. 282.
These gardens of Adonis were surprisingly carried over to our present-day Easter celebration in the form of potted Easter plants. The Golden Bough, pp. 295-296, states, "The last example of the gardens of Adonis which I shall cite is the following. At the approach of Easter, Sicilian women sow wheat, lentils, and canary-seed plates, which are kept in the dark and watered every two days. The plants soon shoot up; the stalks are tied together with red ribbons and the plates containing them are placed on the sepulchres which, with effigies of the dead Christ, are made up in Roman Catholic and Greek churches on Good Friday, just as the gardens of Adonis were placed on the grave of the dead Adonis. The whole custom - sepulchres as well as plates of sprouting grain - is probably nothing but a continuation, under a different name, of the Adonis worship."
In this country
at Easter, stores stock up for a big rush on potted plants. King Solomon was
correct when he said, "There is nothing new under the sun." The
worship of Adonis and Astarte continues, even by way of their very names.
Interestingly, the word Adonis literally means the "lord" in English.
This fact is documented in The Golden Bough. "The worship of Adonis was
practiced by the Semitic peoples of
It is interesting to note from the above account that Adonis (English-lord) was the lover of Aprodite, or Easter. Remember, Aprodite, or Easter, was responsible for bringing things back to life in spring. This is where the worship of these two deities merge. As you can see from the above account, Adonis was brought back to life the day after his death. It therefore follows that Aphrodite, or Easter, was responsible for his resurrection. This is why the worshipers of Adonis gather on hilltops at the break of the dawn on the anniversary of his resurrection to pay homage to the goddess Easter-the one responsible for his resurrection. This holiday is still kept in the very same way today.
It should be
stated that the resurrection of our Savior was not Easter Sunday, but that it
occurred the previous evening around sunset. The account found in
APHRODITE
(left) was another name for the goddess Easter. In
Easter Parades
Each year at Easter in towns and cities across the land, images and crucifixes are borne through the streets by marchers in the annual Easter Parades. These processions are another carryover of the worship of Adonis and Astarte. In Pfieffer's Old Testament History, pp. 76-77 we find these processions mentioned.
"Classified
as a mystery cult by modern students of religion is the worship of Adonis,
which became popular in Hellenistic times. Adonis was the son of Cinyras,
mythical king of
Interestingly,
a Catholic historian writing of the Easter celebrations in
"With
Holy Thursday our miseries began. On this disastrous day we went before nine to
the Sistine chapel. .. and beheld a procession led by the inferior orders of
clergy, followed up, by the Cardinals in superb dresses, bearing long wax
tapers in their hands, and ending with the Pope himself, who walked beneath a
crimson canopy, with his head uncovered, bearing the Host in a box; and this
being, as you know, the real flesh and blood of Christ, was carried from the
Sistine chapel through the intermediate hall to the Paulina chapel, where it
was deposited in the sepulchre prepared to receive it beneath the altar. . . It
remains there till. . . He is supposed to rise from the grave amidst the firing
of cannon, and blowing of trumpets, and jingling of bells.'
As you can see from the above quotes, the annual Easter parades are nothing but a carryover from the ancient processions of the worship of Adonis. Sadly, this pagan custom has invaded the worship of the Testament faith, as have other Easter customs.
Easter
Throughout history man has been highly fascinated with heavenly bodies, especially the sun. Our Creator, however, has strictly forbidden the worship of them in His Word.
Modern
Christianity wishes to ignore those warnings. Each Easter, before the rising of
the sun, groups of worshipers gather on hilltops to hold what is called Easter
sunrise services. We find
"And
He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh's house, and behold, at the door
of the temple of Yahweh, between the porch the altar, were about five and
twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Yahweh, and their faces
toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east. Then He said unto
me, 'Have seen this, O son of Man? Is it a light thing to the house of
This worship
is as much an abomination to the Eternal Yahweh today as it was then. For our
Heavenly Father said, "I am Yahweh the Eternal, I change not,"
These
passages illustrate how pagan customs infiltrated worship of our Heavenly
Father, going so far as to influence man's mind,
The very
ministry of Yahweh was engaged in these pagan rites, for the 25 men standing
between the porch and the altar were ministering priests (Joel
The Bible openly condemns the Easter sunrise service. But not a word of condemnation ever is spoken by those who observe it, though they profess to believe in the Bible. Why do so many people blindly continue to follow the crowd down the road of perdition? It is not our Heavenly Father's' will that anyone should perish: but that all should have everlasting life through His Son. However, He has given us all free choice, as He did Adam and Eve. We can either choose to obey and forsake the worship of these foreign deities, or we can continue to serve them and reap the consequences of our stubborn disobedience. Your choice makes all the difference between life or death - between being saved, or lost.
EASTER
As
the sun begins to rise over the horizon, groups of worshipers gather outside at
the Hollywood Bowl on Easter Sunday. These Easter sunrise services were being
conducted long before the birth of our Savior in a very similar fashion. The
Bible mentions this practice in
Eggs and Rabbits Fertility Symbols
The coloring of eggs on Easter is another custom associated with this ancient fertility worship.
In the Encyclopedia Americana we find the following: "According to the Venerable Bade, English historian of the early eighth century, the word Easter is derived from the Norman Ostara or Eostre, meaning the festival of spring at the vernal equinox, March 21, when nature is in resurrection after winter. Hence, the rabbits notable for their fecundity, and the eggs, colored like rays of the returning sun and the northern lights or aurora borealis. The Greek myth Demeter and Persephone, with its Latin counterpart Ceres and Persephone, conveys the idea of a goddess returning seasonally from the nether regions to the light of day."
Colored eggs and rabbits of the Easter holiday are a carryover the ancient fertility rites of the pagan goddess of love and fertility.
This is
further shown in the book, The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop. According to
historical accounts, "The ancient Druids bore an egg, as the sacred emblem
of their order. In the Dionysaca, or mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in
Hislop
continues his narrative with the origin of the Easter egg, "An egg of
wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river
Lent Preceded Tammuz Celebration
ln the Church of Rome, a fast of 40 days precedes the Easter observance. Adherents deny themselves their most favorite luxury food over these 40 days, which is known as Lent.
Lent is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. The historian, Cassianus, writing in the 5th century, said, "It ought to be known that the observance of the forty days (Lent) had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive congregation remained inviolate."
Our Savior, the apostles, and early believers did not observe Lent. If this observance did not have its roots in the Bible, then where did it originate?
We find the
history of Lent in The Two Babylons. "Among the pagans, Lent seems to have
been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration
of the death and resurrection of Tammuz [Adonis], which was celebrated by
alternate weeping and rejoicing, being observed in Palestine and Assyria in
June, therefore called, 'the month of Tammuz' in Egypt in the middle of May,
and in Britain sometime in April." Hislop continues, "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 of forty
days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt,
where he gives account of Mexican observances; "Three days after the
vernal equinox. . . began a solemn fast of forty days in honor of the
sun." Such a Lent of forty days was observed in
How did this unscriptural custom get into the beliefs of the New Testament converts? "To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity - now far sunk in idolatry - in this as in so many other things, to shake hands... This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption and the rankest superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent.
"Let anyone only read the atrocities that were commemorated during the 'sacred fast' or Pagan Lent, as described by Arnobius and Clemens Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush for the Christianity of those who, with the full knowledge of all these abominations, 'went down to Egypt for help' to stir up the languid devotion of the degenerate Church, and who could find no more excellent way to 'revive' it, than by borrowing from so polluted a source; the absurdities and abominations connected with which the early Christian writers had held up to scorn.
"That followers of the Messiah should ever think of introducing the Pagan abstinence of Lent was a sign of evil; it inevitably led to sunk[??], and it was also a cause of evil; it inevitably led to deeper degradation. . .But at last, when the worship of Astarte (Easter) was rising into the ascendant, steps were taken to get the whole Chaldean Lent of six weeks, or forty days, made imperative on all within the Roman empire of the West. The way was prepared for this by a Council held at Aurelia in the time of Hormisdes, Bishop of Rome, about the year 519, which decreed that Lent should be solemnly kept before Easter." (The Two Babylons, pp. 105-107)
The
observance of Lent as we can see from the above historical account, was the
40-day period of weeping for Tammuz, or Adonis. This weeping for Tammuz is
mentioned in
It is clearly obvious from the above account that our Heavenly Father totally disapproves of Lent. He calls this practice an abomination. Yet millions of people observe this holiday, thinking that what they are doing is pleasing to our Heavenly Father.
How Easter Entered our Worship
We have seen from historical accounts the origin of our present-day Easter holiday. Clearly it did not come from the Bible. The Bible itself condemns this custom. We know that our Savior did not start it, and the apostles did not engage in it. We have seen from the Bible that this holiday is very displeasing to our Heavenly Father. He calls it an abomination. Perhaps our Creator's disapproval of this holiday will offend some. Many no doubt will use clever human arguments to continue in their annual observance of Easter. However, human argument and reason do not change the facts. Easter remains one of the most abominable observances condemned by our Heavenly Father.
It was prophesied by the apostles that there would be a great falling away (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Even while the apostles were still alive the "mysteries of iniquity" were already at work, (2 Thessalonians 2:7).
These mysteries of iniquity were well at work in some of Galatian assemblies; some were returning to pagan holidays.
The Apostle Paul openly chastised them for returning to these observances. Paul said, "Howbeit then, when you knew not Yahweh, you did service unto them which by nature were not the Almighty. But now, after that you have known the Eternal Yahweh, or rather are known of the Eternal, how then turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in bondage. You observe days, and months, and times, and years." (Galatians 4:8-10).
It is
apparent that they were trying to drag these Babylon Mysteries into the faith.
They were going back to observing "days, months, and times" as
forbidden in
Following the death of Paul and the other apostles, the converts of Gentile decent began to return to the observance of these holidays again. They began to reject Passover, which was commanded to be observed forever, in favor of Easter, one of the Chaldean Mysteries.
The Encyclopedia of' World Religions, p. 90, tells how the corruption of the New Testament faith came about.
"The expansion of Christianity and the Church's involvement in society brought changes and corruptions. A religion cannot expand without adapting itself to the language and customs of its converts, and while this process may win converts it may at the same time pervert the religion. The pacifism of early Christianity disappeared completely in the Middle Ages, with many kingdoms, all professing Christianity, fighting between themselves. . .
"Wealth was corrupting. A monk described the history of western monasticism in this sequence: piety produces industry, industry creates wealth, wealth destroys piety, piety in its fall dissipates wealth. . . The papacy, too, experienced... decay."
It was our
Savior and the apostles who instructed the New Testament assembly to continue
to observe the Passover on the l4th of Abib,
Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, was one of those who remained faithful to the apostles' instructions regarding Passover. He continued to observe Passover on Abib 14. Abib was the first month of the sacred calendar.
It was Anicetus, the Bishop of Rome and his successors, who "neither observed it [Passover] nor did they permit those after them do so." (Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, p. 247). They rejected the biblical commandment to keep the Passover on Abib 14, in favor of their former pagan religious traditions. They allowed themselves to be influenced by the prevailing customs of the religious world around them and instituted Easter Sunday in place of Passover.
The history of this change from Passover to Easter Sunday is confirmed in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed., vol. VIII, pp. 828-829). "There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers...[the New Testament assembly] continued to observe the Jewish 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 the Messiah 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 in 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 believers . . . 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 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 kept Easter on the first day of the week, while the Eastern Churches followed the Jewish rule.
"Polycarp,
the disciple of John the Evangelist, and bishop of
"A
final settlement of the dispute was one among the other reasons which led
". .. The few who afterwards separated themselves from the unity of the church, and continued to keep the 14th day, were named 'Quartu-decimani,' and the dispute itself is known as the 'Quartu-Deciman cantroversy.'"
This same record of how Easter supplanted Passover is found in other historical account from this time. One account of this was written by Eusebius, who wrote the following, "A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jew were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Saviour's Passover. . .the bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold to the old custom handed down to them. He himself, in a letter which he addressed to Victor and the church of Rome, set forth in the following words the tradition which had come down to him:
"'We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of our Saviour's coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip . . . John . . . Polycarp . . .Thraseas . . .Sagaris . . . Papirius . . . All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith'" Ecclesiastical History, book V, chs. XXIII and XXIV).
Council of Nicea Decides Fate of Passover
It was at the
Council of Nicea that the Roman Emperor Constantine, along with the council he
presided over, forbade the observance of the Passover and installed Easter
Sunday in its place. However, many of the faithful continued to follow the
plain teachings of the Bible and our Savior and continued to observe the
Passover on the 14th of Abib. It was then that
Since the Church of Rome had the backing of the Roman Emperor, it grew greatly in size and influence. It soon had political power to pass decrees imposing the death sentence upon anyone who continued to observe the Passover and biblical Sabbaths. Those who remained faithful to the plain teachings of the Bible were martyred and their property confiscated.
What if this were the law today? How many would give up their lives and property to serve the Almighty according to his commandments? Would you? Or would you continue following the crowd in keeping Easter Sunday? Today we all have a free choice, but our salvation depends on making the correct choice.
Easter and Ancient
We know
from the Bible that ancient
Is not our Heavenly Father's anger being kindled against those who continue to perpetuate this worship today? It appears that churchianity today has much in common with ancient Israel, for as Israel "forsook the Eternal Yahweh, and served Baal and Ashtaroth (Easter)," - so has modern churchianity (Judges 2:13).
Our
Heavenly Father still speaks to his people today through His word, calling out
a people from the midst of modern
The prophet
Samuel has a message for us today. Writing in
There is only one hope for deliverance and that is through the shed blood of our Savior, commemorated by the Passover observance. Each year those who serve our Heavenly Father remember His Son's sacrifice by taking the emblems of the Passover. Will you observe the Passover, or will you continue to keep holidays steeped in worship our Heavenly Father condemns?
You cannot
serve the Heavenly Father while celebrating a festival in honor of the goddess
Easter. Our Savior said, "No servant can serve two masters: for either he
will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other,"
If you love
the Heavenly Father and want to serve Him totally, then you will keep His
commandments,
-
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