Keeping Easter in Easter

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:7-8

There is an interesting documentary I recently watched called The Way, that had an interview with a practicing pagan witch. At their spring festival they had a sign that read “Keep Eostre in Easter”. I thought that was a clever play on the Christian saying “Keep Christ in Christmas”. The term “pagan” and “Christian” didn’t start out as endearing titles for these people groups, but they seemed to become acceptable over time. Generally speaking, a pagan is a polytheist that practices the ancient religions of the world, involving, but not limited to, the sun, moon, equinox’s and solstices. Easter is a spring festival celebrating the spring fertility goddess, Easter. Other names for Easter in different cultures are Ishtar, Isis, Venus, Astarte, Asherah, and the queen of heaven. The following video is the trailer of The Way documentary.

Jer 7:17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 7:18 The children are gathering wood, and the fathers are kindling the fire, and the women are kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods for the sake of provoking me to anger.
Jer 7:19 Are they provoking me to anger? ” declares Yahweh, “Is it not themselves they hurt, for the sake of the shame of their faces?”
Jer 7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Look, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on the humankind, and on the animal, and on the tree of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will not be extinguished.”

These sacrificial cakes are still part of Christianity and the Easter festival today. Please see the following website for more on that subject: https://gathervictoria.com/2018/03/28/hot-cross-buns-cakes-for-the-moon-goddess/.

One could argue that Jeremiah 7:20 is prophetic and referring to the great day of Yahweh, because of its apocalyptic references. They are similar to those found in Malachi.

Mal 4:1 “For look! The day is about to come, burning like an oven, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says Yahweh of hosts. “It will not leave behind for them root or branch.

With Jesus Christ being such a big part of the Easter festival, along with the sex goddess, fertility egg hunts, ham dinners, and the fertility goddess’s rabbit symbols, it begs the question; “Is the Christian Jesus the son of Yahweh, the Creator God of the Jewish Bible, or is He actually Tammuz?”.

Eze 8:13 And he said to me, “Still you will see again greater detestable things that they are doing.”
Eze 8:14 And he brought me to the doorway of the gate of the house of Yahweh that is toward the north, and look! There were the women sitting weeping for Tammuz.
Eze 8:15 And he said to me, “Have you seen, son of man? Still you will see again greater detestable things than these.”
Eze 8:16 And he brought me to the inner courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and look, at the doorway of the temple of Yahweh, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing down toward the east before the sun.
Eze 8:17 And he said to me, “Have you seen, son of man? Was it too small a thing for the house of Judah to do the detestable things that they did here? For they filled up the land with violence, and they provoked me to anger again, and look! They are putting the branch to their nose.
Eze 8:18 And so I will act in rage, and my eye will not take pity, and I will not have compassion, and they will cry in my ear with a loud voice, and I will not hear them.”

Some churches have realized the pagan blending issues and started calling Easter “Resurrection Sunday”. It still involves the fertility goddess’s egg hunts and ham dinners, but at least it is a step in the right direction. Many non-Christians see the hypocrisy of the pagan blending and the polytheist themes of Easter. Unfortunately, most Christians will fight tooth and nail to dismiss any notion that their traditions around Easter are not Biblical, and go against basic commandments of Yahweh.

Deu 12:29 “When Yahweh your God has cut off the nations whom you are about to go to, to dispossess them before you, and you have dispossessed them, and you live in their land,
Deu 12:30 take care so that you are not ensnared into imitating them after their being destroyed from before you, and so that you not enquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods, and thus I myself want to do also.’
Deu 12:31 You must not do so toward Yahweh your God, because of every detestable thing they have done for their gods Yahweh hates, for even their sons and their daughters they would burn in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32 All of the things that I am commanding you, you must diligently observe; you shall not add to it, and you shall not take away from it.”

Yahweh says we are not even to mention other gods, and Christianity has named their single, most important, holy day after an ancient sex goddess. It is really hard to understand, to say the least.

Exo 23:13  “‘And you will be attentive to all that I have said to you, and you will not profess the name of other gods; it will not be heard in your mouth. 

Performing a quick search on the internet, it is possible to find those who will say that Easter is not the name of the fertility sex goddess; however, they are either uninformed, lying or in denial. Note this definition from Cyclopedia of Biblical Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature:

“(πάσχα, a Greek form of the Hebrews פֵּסִח, and so Latinized by the Vulgate pascha), i.e., Passover. 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: hence we say Easter-day, Easter Sunday,, but very improperly; as we by no means refer the festival then kept to the goddess of the ancient Saxons. So the present German word for Easter Ostern, is referred to the same goddess, Estera or Ostera.”

The image of “Jesus Christ” has become far removed from the son of Yahweh, due to myths and the imaginations of men, so much so, that many people like to use the Hebrew name of the saviour, Yeshua, when referring to the son of God. Yeshua means the salvation of God. One distinction between Yeshua and Jesus is that Yeshua was crucified on Pasach, not on Good Friday. There is no mention of “Good Friday” in the Bible because it is an invention of man. Likewise, there is no mention of “Resurrection Sunday” in the Bible. Jesus had ample time to explain to the Apostles these new festivals and feasts that He allegedly wanted the church to adopt after His resurrection, including the Sun-day Sabbath. There is no mention of any changes because the feast days, Sabbaths and festivals were already established which Jesus walked out and the Church celebrated until these Greek and Roman influences arrived.

The Jerusalem council tried to deal with the issue of the pagan fertility gods by instructing the new converts to leave these practices.

Act 15:19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,
Act 15:20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

Paul warned the Galatians not to return to their festivals, that many will try to claim are speaking of the festivals of Yahweh; however, the people of the nations, such as the Galatians, never honoured these days of Yahweh when they “did not know God”. This is how they were cut off from Yahweh in the first place; by turning to other gods and their practices for generations.

Gal 4:8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
Gal 4:9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Gal 4:10 You observe days and months and seasons and years!
Gal 4:11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Peter also warned the Galatians not to return to their pagan ways.

1Pe 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
1Pe 1:15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
1Pe 1:16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1Pe 1:17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
1Pe 1:18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
1Pe 1:19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

This blog post is for those who look at these things, cannot reconcile them with scripture, and are unable to get adequate answers from church leadership. It is for those who think Jesus is a myth because of the contradictions found with these festivals and scripture. It is even for those in the Jewish faith who can in no way recognize Jesus as their Messiah due to all the false things attributed to Him, such as eating of unclean meats, rejecting the Creator’s Sabbath for the day of the sun and the general disregard for the Torah.

One discrepancy is the notion that Jesus was crucified on a Friday and rose on a Sunday. With a little knowledge of Yahweh’s feast days listed in Leviticus, and reading the Gospel accounts, it can be easily determined that Jesus was not put on the cross on a Friday, resurrecting on a Sunday. The only sign Jesus would give was the sign of Jonah, and it is completely ignored.

Mat 12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
Mat 12:39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Mat 12:40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

I have been told by church leadership that back in Jesus’s time any part of the day was considered “a day”, so Friday night , Saturday and Sunday morning were considered three days. Thankfully, Jesus himself defined what a day was considered in His time. It is much like our day in 2021.

Joh 11:8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?”
Joh 11:9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
Joh 11:10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

Jesus told us there was twelve hours in a day and that He would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth. By the definition Jesus gives us of a day, He would be in the ground 36 hours of daylight. This leaves another 36 hours of night time to complete three days and three nights. That cannot be done between Friday night and Sunday morning, and it doesn’t have to be. The Apostle John explains that Jesus was taken off the cross before the start of Unleavened Bread. This Sabbath started at the end of Passover.

Joh 19:31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

The day after Passover is a day that no regular work is done.

Lev 23:4 “‘These are Yahweh’s appointed times, holy assemblies, which you shall proclaim at their appointed time.
Lev 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month at the evening is Yahweh’s Passover.
Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of this month is Yahweh’s Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
Lev 23:7 On the first day there shall be a holy assembly for you; you shall not do any regular work.

If Passover was on a Wednesday, Jesus was taken off the cross and placed in the tomb before dark, because the day started at sundown. Thursday was the first day of Unleavened Bread and a Sabbath. The three days and three nights can be reconciled with Jesus rising before sundown on the regular Saturday Sabbath, then meeting the woman at the tomb early Sunday. Sunday after Passover was considered First Fruits, a time an offering would be made at the temple. Paul calls Jesus the first fruits of the resurrection.

1Co 15:15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
1Co 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
1Co 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
1Co 15:19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
1Co 15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

People steeped in church tradition will pay little attention to these details wanting to carry on in their false traditions. Yahweh hates the blending of traditions from other religions as stated in the verses in Deuteronomy we looked at earlier. This is what Jesus was telling the Samaritan woman from the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They were cut off from the promises of Yahweh for these same practices the church does today. Jesus came to make a way for the Northern Kingdom and as a result, all the nations to come back into covenant.

Joh 4:19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
Joh 4:21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
Joh 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Joh 4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

How can a person worship in spirit and truth with all the myths we have inherited about His things? This is prophesied, and I am afraid for the church that has followed in the footsteps of the Northern Kingdom.

2Ti 4:3 For there will be a time when they will not put up with sound teaching, but in accordance with their own desires, they will accumulate for themselves teachers, because they have an insatiable curiosity,
2Ti 4:4 and they will turn away from the hearing of the truth, but will turn to myths.

Jer 16:19 O Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our ancestors have inherited only lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.

Most people do not realize that Jeremiah is largely speaking to the church today and in the future. There will be a reckoning or tribulation when people will have to decide who they worship, and return to the true worship Yahweh always wanted, which is obedience to His word.

Deu 4:23 Watch out for yourselves so that you do not forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he had made with you and make for yourselves a divine image of the form of anything that Yahweh your God has forbidden,
Deu 4:24 for Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
Deu 4:25 “When you have had children and grandchildren and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger,
Deu 4:26 I call to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you are crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; you will not live long on it, but you will be completely destroyed.
Deu 4:27 And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to where Yahweh will lead you.
Deu 4:28 And you will there serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell.
Deu 4:29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deu 4:30 In your distress when all these things have found you in the latter days, then you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice.

What are we to do then? Continue in the traditions of other gods and anger Yahweh, or abandon these vain traditions of foreign gods and keep the feasts that He gave us forever? Both Jesus and the early church kept the feasts of Yahweh. If Jesus ate clean food, observed the Saturday Sabbath and kept the feasts that Yahweh commanded us to keep, why does the church not teach us to do the same?