Easter: Pagan or Christian?
Concerning today's Easter Sunrise Service, courtesy of your local denomination, we have an amazing revelation that lays it out on several levels:
And [the Lord GOD] said unto [Ezekiel], Go in
[to the temple], and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. And there stood before them
seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with
every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth. 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. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were
about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo,
they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
The branch? Yet another custom used by idolaters in honour of the idols they served. We're all aware of the "hug a tree" crowd. And we're warned not to partake of the phallic "Christ-mass" tree ritual:
Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: 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. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
Further, we read of
garlands used in their idolatrous worships - in this instance, they intended to worship Barnabas and Paul!:
And when the people saw what Paul had done [healed a lame man], they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. Then
the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and
garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. (Acts 14:11-13)
Paul goes on to tell the idolaters to turn from their worship of the creation to the worship of the Creator, barely succeeding in preventing the ppl from sacrificing to their idols:
Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that
ye should turn from these vanities [worshipping the sun and the host of heaven] unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that
he [not creation idols] did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.
When God made us, he also created our desire to worship, which worship Satan is always attempting to co-opt. One way or another, each of us is going to partake of worship; the question, as it's always been, is: Who/what will be the object of our reverence/worship??? The idolatrous rituals of fallible men, or the pure majesty of the King of kings? Which do you defend?
The English word
Easter derives from Old English Ēastrun or Ēastre, likely referencing a pre-Christian spring goddess, Eostre, whose feast was in April. It is closely related to German Ostern and related to the concept of dawn and the "east," representing the renewal of life.
Fertility rituals and sun worship.
Touch not the unclean Easter thing.
