It may be the culmination of observances going back to Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Good Friday in preparation for the festive day. Many of these people have no idea that their Easter celebration owes far, far more to pre-Christian myth than to anything Jesus Christ or His Apostles believed, practiced or taught. A few think they can “sanctify the pagan” by turning old worship of Astarte or Ishtar into a “Christian” rite; others just assume that this is what Christians have always done.
The truth is that Jesus Christ did command His followers to keep annual observance in memory of His death. And He gave His followers one sign that would prove or disprove His Messiahship. Shockingly, very few people alive today realize that the Good Friday to Easter Sunday tradition is actually in utter opposition to the truth of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as foretold in Scripture. If you want to learn that truth, read on!
Every year, professing Christians celebrate the holiday known as Easter, but few understand its true origins. How is it that a day supposedly picturing the resurrection of Jesus Christ came to be known by the name of the pagan goddess, Eostre? What are the origins of celebrating the day with rabbits and colored eggs and how did they come to be associated with it? What do these have to do with the resurrection of Christ? Do you realize that the Good Friday crucifixion and Easter Sunday resurrection tradition contradicts the one sign Jesus said He would give to prove He was the prophesied Messiah? Shockingly, literally hundreds of millions profess that Jesus Christ is their Savior, but their very traditions deny the one and only sign Jesus said He would give that He was who He claimed to be—the Son of God. Consider what this means! Either Jesus is not the Messiah He claimed to be, or the professing Christian tradition is wrong. It cannot be any other way!
It is time to dust off your Bible and look into the one and only true source that reveals what really happened at the time of Jesus' crucifixion! The truth of what happened—and what your Bible records—is not what most people think! If you are willing to look into the biblical record and the facts recorded by well-respected historians, you can know the truth about Easter and its pagan past; and you can know the truth of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
For many professing Christians, Easter is the most sacred holiday of the year. For others, it is a time to show off a new set of clothes and perhaps a hat or bonnet. For children, it is an exciting time to search for brightly colored eggs that were hidden in the garden or around the house. Some children even receive live chickens or rabbits from well-meaning parents. But consider, what does all this have to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ? The simple answer is, absolutely nothing! Nevertheless, most people look at such customs as harmless fun for the children. But, are they? Or do they obscure the truth about the most important event in the history of mankind: Christ's life, message, crucifixion and resurrection?
From where do these seemingly harmless lies and quaint customs originate? Historians reveal a great deal about the origins of Easter traditions, starting with the very name itself. Easter is nothing more than another spelling for the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, but where did this goddess originate? The New World Encyclopedia suggests a connection between Eostre and Easter with the very popular and ancient goddess Ishtar: "Scholars likewise speculate that Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring whose name later gave rise to the modern English 'Easter,' may be etymologically connected to Ishtar" (article "Ishtar").
Interestingly, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church admits this about the origin of the name Easter, but gives a slightly different spelling from that of Ishtar. Our modern English word "Easter" comes from Old English, and referred originally to the Norse goddess of fertility, Istra—who was symbolized by a rabbit. Thus the connection between Easter and rabbits, but why was Istra symbolized by a rabbit? Historians confirm this goddess, spelled variously as Ishtar, and Istra was known as the goddess of fertility, and the rabbit is a well-known fertility symbol. Even today people can be heard using the expression, "breeding like rabbits." An example of this is seen in a November 2011 Scientific American article titled, "Why Pioneers Breed Like Rabbits."
The rabbit is not the only fertility symbol passed down from antiquity. The Oxford Companion to World Mythology explains this about Easter: "The holiday comes in the early Spring and is clearly related to ancient fertility myths of reborn heroes.… For many, Easter is synonymous with fertility symbols such as the Easter Rabbit, Easter Egg, and the Easter Lily" (article "Easter," p. 111).
While the egg is clearly a fertility symbol, many historians trace the origin of the Easter egg back to the Babylonian myth of a large egg falling from the sky into the Euphrates River, from which the goddess Astarte was hatched. Astarte was revered by the ancient Phoenicians as goddess of the moon and the measurer of time. But who was Astarte? Is there any connection with this goddess and Easter traditions? Historians tell us Astarte is merely another name for Ishtar.. "The name Ishtar is likely Semitic in origin, and was identified in ancient times with Canaanite goddess Ashtoreth or Astarte" ( New World Encyclopedia , article: "Ishtar"). As we are beginning to see, this goddess—from which we derive the name of what is supposed to be a most solemn Christian celebration—has quite a past. She was no obscure figure, but was known by different names in different languages and cultures. The highly respected Encyclopaedia Britannica confirms the connection between Astarte and Ishtar: "Astarte was worshiped in Egypt and Ugarit and among the Hittites, as well as in Canaan. Her Akkadian counterpart was Ishtar. Later she became assimilated with the Egyptian deities Isis and Hathor (a goddess of the sky and of women), and in the Greco-Roman world with Aphrodite, Artemis, and Juno" (article "Astarte").
These all refer to the same goddess, either with different spellings or with different names in various cultures. Here is a quote tying Ishtar with another important name: "Ishtar, a goddess of both fertility and war, is the Akkadian name of the Sumerian goddess Inanna and the Semitic goddess Astarte, the three names referring to the same deity in different cultural contexts. She inspired great devotion in the ancient Babylonian empire, as evidenced by the many grand temples, altars, inscriptions, and art objects devoted to her" ( New World Encyclopedia , article "Ishtar"). Interestingly, just as there came in ancient cultures to be a connection between the moon and the various goddesses of fertility, the rabbit became entwined in many of these myths. Why the rabbit? With a gestation period of just about one month, the rabbit's cycle came to be associated with the lunar cycle, across a number of cultures.
With our modern understanding of biology we may laugh at this today, but many in the ancient world believed the rabbit to be a hermaphrodite—an animal that could reproduce without losing its virginity. This led to an association between the supposedly virgin rabbit and the Virgin Mary, as typified by the painter Titian's Madonna of the Rabbit. When former goddess-worshipers discovered Christianity, it was easy for them to take their old reverence to a goddess and transfer it to Mary, in contradiction to Scripture and actual Christianity. Thus the various myths expanded and prevailed. Of course, just as there were variations of myth across the different world cultures, there were also variations of worship from one culture to another, just as we see variations in spellings and customs in our modern world in the worship of gods that transcend national and cultural boundaries. But does any of this matter? As long as we are celebrating Christ's resurrection, what difference does it make? If there were no God, it probably would not matter, but if the God of the Bible does exist, it matters plenty! God told Moses to warn ancient Israel that they were to make "no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth" ( Exodus 23:13 , KJV ). Yet most of professing Christianity has done just that! And we cannot rely on the tired argument that this admonition applied only to the Jews under the Old Covenant. Malachi 3:6 tells us that God does not change, and Hebrews 13:8 tells us, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever"! This same Jesus Christ, prior to His human birth, was the very God family member who inspired Exodus 23:13 : "Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ ( 1 Corinthians 10:1–4 ). Is it any wonder that Jesus protests, "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?" ( Luke 6:46 ).
If Jesus Christ had proclaimed the observance of Easter, we would of course be obliged to do as He had instructed us. Even if it were His Apostles who had begun the observance in harmony with His instructions, we would do well to follow their example. But neither Christ nor the Apostles left us any example of observing such a festival.Indeed, as we will see throughout this booklet, the vast majority of nominal Christians today are observing a festival that Scripture reveals is not just non-Christian—it is actually repugnant to God. Worse yet; most are neglecting the actual festival that Jesus Christ observed and taught His disciples to observe in memory of His sacrificial death. Read on and learn the amazing truth that may change your life forever!
