EASTER, A TRADITION OF MAN

By: Robert Wells

What about Easter? How did this pagan, fertility festival enter the Christian calendar? Most certainly there is no mention of Easter eggs in the Scriptures; no mention of bunny rabbits. Where did they come from?

Is it wrong to celebrate Easter? The facts will surprise you; but here are a few quotations about Easter from Alexander Hislop’s famous book, The Two Babylons, published by S. W. Partridge & Co., 4 Soho Sq., London. (ISBN 0 7136 0470 0).

-“Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its 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. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. The worship of Bel and Astarte was very early introduced into Britain, along with the Druids, ‘the priests of the groves’.” (page 103).

-“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.” (page 105).

-“The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The ‘buns,’ known too 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 – that is, 1500 years before the Christian era… The prophet Jeremiah [Jer. 7:18] takes notice of this kind of offering when he says, ‘The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven.’ … Astarte;” (page 108).

-“In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians; and thus its tale is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome, in the time of Augustus, who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country: ‘An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess’ – that is, Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter;” (page 109).

Hislop continues on page 127 with this sobering comment:
-“The guilt of idolatry is by many regarded as comparatively slight and insignificant guilt. But not so does the [Elohim] of heaven regard it. Which is the commandment of all the ten that is fenced about with the most solemn and awful sanctions? It is the second: ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I [Yahweh] thy [Elohim] am a jealous [Elohim], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.’

These words were spoken by [Yahweh’s] own lips, they were written by [Yahweh’s] own finger on the tables of stone: not for the instruction of the seed of Abraham only, but of all the tribes and generations of mankind. No other commandment has such a threatening attached to it as this. Now, if [Yahweh] has threatened to visit the sin of idolatry above all other sins, and if we find the heavy judgments of [Yahweh] pressing upon us as a nation, while this very sin is crying to heaven against us, ought it not to be a matter of earnest inquiry, if among all our other national sins, which are both many and great, this may not form ‘the very head and front of our offending’?” (page 127).

Easter is a pagan tradition which has crept into the Christian calendar. It is not endorsed in the set apart Scriptures. It is a pagan practice, through and through. It was adopted by a spiritually blind ecclesiastical hierarchy which had absolutely no idea of the sinfulness of its actions. Celebrating this pagan festival is nothing but baptized idolatry; and as such is abhorrent to Almighty Yahweh and His Son.

To be sure, there is nothing wrong with a human tradition – if it does not clash with a command of Almighty Yahweh. But if a tradition conflicts with a commandment of Yahweh, as most Christian festivals do, then once they are recognized for what they are, their continued acceptance will neutralize one’s worship, make it vain, pointless and futile. They can even jeopardize one’s salvation. This frightening fact is clearly taught by the Master himself –

Mark 7:7-9, “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of Elohim, ye hold the tradition of men … And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of Elohim, that ye may keep your own tradition.”

Matthew 15:9, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

The Christian church is guilty of placing the traditions of men above the commandments of Yahweh. The celebrating of Easter is a human tradition. This festival was not authorized by the Almighty. It is a spiritual weed in the Garden of Salvation. Celebrating it in preference to Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread is no more than self-deluding idolatry. These facts may stun or even anger some who read them. But they must be told, because replacing a commandment of Yahweh with a human tradition is a very serious sin. At the coming Judgment would you forgive me for not telling you the truth?

Matthew 15:12-14, “Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”