Easter is another form of Astarte, a Chaldean goddess, queen of heaven. Pasach is a Jewish festival, what we call Passover (feast of unleaven). The combination of the two fesivals was an attempt to adapt pagan festivals with Christian festivals (W.E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, William White, Jr., Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament Words, article: Easter, p. 192). Ish*tar: Mythology-The chief Babyolonian and Assyrian goddess, associated with love, fertility and war. A counter part to the Pheonecian Astarte. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Forth Edition. 2000) Term Easter was derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'Eostre,' the name of the goddess of spring. Sacrifices were offered at the time of vernal equinox. By the 8th century it became to apply to the anniversary of Christ's resurrection (International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, edited by Geoffrey Bromiley, Vol. 2, p. 6:Easter)
"Eggs were a primitive symbol of fertility; but Christians saw them a symbol of the tomb from which Christ rose, and continued the pagan practice of coloring and eating them at Easter." (New Age Encyclopedia, Vol 6. China: Lexicon Publication, 1973, p. 190). "...the egg as a synbol of fertility and of renewed life comes from Ancient Egyptians and Persians...custom of colouring and eating eggs during their festival" (Encyclopaedia Brintanica, Easter). "This [Easter egg hunting] is not mere child's play, but the vestige of a fertility rite"Funk & Wagnalls' Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, Vo. 1, p. 335) The hare is the symbol of fertility in ancient Egypt. It is accredited with laying and hiding eggs away for children to find them on Easter. (The New Encyclopaedia Britinanica, 15th ed. Chicogo. 1992 p. 333)
I have not celebrated Easter, nor Christmas, for many years. God has said, "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them" (Jeremiah 10:2). God has shown his hatred for paganism in destroying Dagon (1 Samuel 5). He tells us "Little Children keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21). You may say, "Many come to the Lord on our Easter service." Paul said some preach out of contenction, not sincerely...but let them preach (Philippians 1:15-17).
I am not condeming those that celebrate Easter. The Word says "This is the condemnation, that Light has come into the world, an men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every on that doeth evil hateth the Light, neither cometh to the Light, lest his deeds should be reproved" (John 3:20-21). What about practicing a pagan holiday in not evil? There are many feasts in the Bible, but God has said for us to keep 3 for every generation, Passover, Feast of Trumpets, and Day of Atonement. As Christians, most do not even know what these feasts are. Greek thinking phylosophy's will say the Bible condems the keeping of the feasts. Read carefully, what God condems is keeping the feasts for righteousness sake. We do not steal, kill, commit adultery for righteousness sake, we are only righteous by the blood of Yeshua (Jesus). We keep the commandments because we are Christian and because we Love Yeshua, If you love Him you will obey Him.
Come into the full blessing of the Lord, get rid of our idols, believe in Him and His Word, not in traditions as the Pharisees or the church since 325 AD, but believe every Word that comes from the Fathers mouth. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God...Yeshua is the Word and every man in liar. If we say we can serve both God and man we are a liar.
There are many things in the Jewish customs that the church has tried to immitate. The Church is full of tabernacle traditions, but not tabernacle truth's. Priests/pastors: dress in adorning clothing as did the levites, have the final authority over doctrine as Moses and the priesthood did, command we come to their buildings to hear the truth and be forgiven as the Pharisees did, claim to have the right doctrine and put all others down as the Pharisees did, and the list can go on. The ministry of Yeshua the Messiah is that we all work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, obeying His commands. We are going to stand individually before a holy and righteous God and stand account for everything we have done. The blood of Yeshua will wash away all the sin repented of and all the unknown sin we have committed. Repentance is the key. We cannot remain in our sin and be right with God.
A tradition of the Rabbi is to hide the one of the pieces of matza that was broken. This piece represents Yeshua being broken for us. The children would then try to find, representing us finding Yeshua. This is not what is happening with the egg hunt. We may say we are putting Messiah first on our celebration, but we are mixing Him with idols (Read Hosea). Most the children will remember the eggs and the fleshly desire for the prize of candy, not Messiah and the idea of getting the leven out our our lives.
Messianic eat unleaven bread for 7 days during this time. They get all the leaven out of their homes, to represent the searching of our hearts to get the sin out, that we may not sin against the Lord. Some Greek phylosophers again say this is bondage, but the Bible speaks of sin being bondage as he who commits sin is a slave to sin. God has put forth this time of year to help us keep from the bondages of Egypt, which represents flesh.
It is amazing how these idols of easter are all in Egypt the very place God delivered us from. All through the journey to the Promise Land, God's children (us) would have rathered gone back to Egypt and the slavery they were in than to fight for their freedom and happiness. AMAZING! The same bondage holds us today. We say we have to sin and the Bible says "Get rid of your sin."
Let God be true and every man a liar
For more detailed paganism of Easter go to Truth On the Web Ministries
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