Colossians 2:8 KJV Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
FIRST READ:
The True Meaning of Easter
http://www.thebibleistheotherside.org/message23.htm
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2010/02/true-meaning-of-easter-and-passover.html
UNVEILING THE GREATEST LIES IN CHRISTENDOM: CHRISTMAS AND EASTER ARE SIMPLY BOGUS PAGAN HOLIDAYS
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2009/10/unveiling-greatest-lies-in-christendom.html
Lent, Good Friday and Easter are just catholic Man Made traditions
We live in a dotcom era, an information revolution, but the dark ages still dawns our churches. I always laugh with amazement whenever I hear ‘pastors’ tell their flock that Jesus died on Good Friday (John 19:14) and Rose from the dead on Easter. I thought these are people who should know better. Mathew 12:40 says categorically that our Lord Jesus Christ spent three days and nights in the heart of the earth. Now, if Jesus died on Friday afternoon (Good Friday) and rose on Sunday morning, that means he spent less than two days in the grave.
Let us do some kindergarten counting: from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon (one day ), from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning(less than one day).This definitely contradicts Matthew 12:40.Christ was crucified on Wednesday afternoon. Now if one is to correctly understand Mathew 12:40 about how many days Jesus spent in the grave, this would put His resurrection on a Saturday afternoon. This also is the very reason why Mary Magdalene, and the others with her saw angels on Sunday morning rather than Christ (Luke 24:6).
Where did the very popular holiday called ‘’Easter’’ come from and did the New Testament believers set a series of days in order to celebrate Easter ? Prior to 325 AD there is no record of what the modern era is now celebrating. In 325 AD at the Council of Nicaea, Emperor Constantine claimed being converted to Christianity but was still very much involved with paganism. His objective as the very first Pope was to unite both pagans, and Christians under his leadership. Constantine sought out to add festivals which appealed to pagans and adopt it into to church worship which would appeal to the church community who were making professions of faith in the Lord. So by Constantine’s degree at the Council of Nicaea, Easter became a holiday celebrated which was to be on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.
Most Christians either DO NOT KNOW--------or DO NOT CARE, about the history of EASTER and the meanings of it’s varied celebrations world-wide. The history of Easter is decoded in it’s very NAME. This yearly celebration is named for the ancient Babylonian goddess “ISHTAR” of the very same pronunciation [eester]. The celebration, like most ancient holy days, begins in Babylonian religious myth. In the days of ancient Babylonia, there was a renowned King by the name of Nimrod. You may remember Nimrod from the Old Testament. Nimrod was married to Ishtar. After Nimrod’s death; in order to consolidate power, and to keep power in the hands of Ishtar and her son. Ishtar married her own son who’s name was Tammuz.
One day as Tammuz was hunting for wild boar [for he was a great hunter as was his father Nimrod], he [Tammuz] was gored by a wild pig. He became very ill from this injury and later died of his wounds. In torment, and grief,. Ishtar prayed to the gods of the underworld to release her son from the bondage of the underworld. In the mythology; the god’s of the underworld agreed to release Tammuz from his captivity for one day per year. This DAY came to be known as ISHTAR , and the day of the week was that ancient, weekly pagan holy day of SUN-DAY. Each year at SUNRISE of ISHTAR SUN-DAY------all of the empire was compelled to celebrate the yearly freedom of Tammuz-------but NOT WITHOUT TRAVAIL AND WEEPING.
How about lent? Lent which means "spring time" was originally a pagan practice that was first invented by the Babylonians in honor of their "Queen of Heaven and Her son Tammuz". "He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz" Ezekiel 8:13,14.The reason why the women were weeping for "Tammuz" was because of his death. The belief also states, "Tammuz" comes back to life from the dead. Eventually Lent was adopted by the Egyptians in honor of one their of gods which happens to be another version of Tammuz named; Adonis.
Kizito Michael George
Kizitomg@gmail.com
The Author is the President of Watchman Africa Discernment Ministry
Happy EASTER everyone----Heather McDoughall
Easter is a pagan festival. If Easter isn't really about Jesus, then what is it about? Today, we see a secular culture celebrating the spring equinox, whilst religious culture celebrates the resurrection. However, early Christianity made a pragmatic acceptance of ancient pagan practises, most of which we enjoy today at Easter. The general symbolic story of the death of the son (sun) on a cross (the constellation of the Southern Cross) and his rebirth, overcoming the powers of darkness, was a well worn story in the ancient world. There were plenty of parallel, rival resurrected saviours too.
The Sumerian goddess Inanna, or Ishtar, was hung naked on a stake, and was subsequently resurrected and ascended from the underworld. One of the oldest resurrection myths is Egyptian Horus. Born on 25 December, Horus and his damaged eye became symbols of life and rebirth. Mithras was born on what we now call Christmas day, and his followers celebrated the spring equinox. Even as late as the 4th century AD, the sol invictus, associated with Mithras, was the last great pagan cult the church had to overcome. Dionysus was a divine child, resurrected by his grandmother. Dionysus also brought his mum, Semele, back to life.
In an ironic twist, the Cybele cult flourished on today's Vatican Hill. Cybele's lover Attis, was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, rising to a crescendo after three days, in rejoicing over the resurrection. There was violent conflict on Vatican Hill in the early days of Christianity between the Jesus worshippers and pagans who quarrelled over whose God was the true, and whose the imitation. What is interesting to note here is that in the ancient world, wherever you had popular resurrected god myths, Christianity found lots of converts. So, eventually Christianity came to an accommodation with the pagan Spring festival. Although we see no celebration of Easter in the New Testament, early church fathers celebrated it, and today many churches are offering "sunrise services" at Easter – an obvious pagan solar celebration. The date of Easter is not fixed, but instead is governed by the phases of the moon – how pagan is that?
All the fun things about Easter are pagan. Bunnies are a leftover from the pagan festival of Eostre, a great northern goddess whose symbol was a rabbit or hare. Exchange of eggs is an ancient custom, celebrated by many cultures. Hot cross buns are very ancient too. In the Old Testament we see the Israelites baking sweet buns for an idol, and religious leaders trying to put a stop to it. The early church clergy also tried to put a stop to sacred cakes being baked at Easter. In the end, in the face of defiant cake-baking pagan women, they gave up and blessed the cake instead.
Easter is essentially a pagan festival which is celebrated with cards, gifts and novelty Easter products, because it's fun and the ancient symbolism still works. It's always struck me that the power of nature and the longer days are often most felt in modern towns and cities, where we set off to work without putting on our car headlights and when our alarm clock goes off in the mornings, the streetlights outside are not still on because of the darkness.
What better way to celebrate, than to bite the head off the bunny goddess, go to a "sunrise service", get yourself a sticky-footed fluffy chick and stick it on your TV, whilst helping yourself to a hefty slice of pagan simnel cake? Happy Easter everyone!
