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Wrong! While almost all nominal Christian churches celebrate Easter, why don’t they stop to consider that the pagan goddess of fertility and love, Ishtar or Ashtoreth, has the preeminence here even in the name of the occasion – “Easter”? As with Christmas, carnal religious leaders long ago decided to bring the heathen into their fold by “Christianizing” their idolatrous worship practices, cleverly paralleling them to, and interweaving them with, Biblical events and practices.
But these “Christian” leaders also embraced sensual and ridiculous traditions. Celebrating fertility, “Christians” bless eggs, paint them up, introduce rabbits (prolific animals) who lay eggs and deliver them in “Ishtar baskets.” Catholics and others practice many such abominations in the Name of Christ.
Easter obscured the Biblical Jewish Feast of Passover, in which the lamb was slain by God’s commandment, commemorating the time the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt. They were told to daub the blood on their doorframes, so that when the death angel of God passed through the land to slay every firstborn, the blood would exempt that household from the judgment, the angel “passing over.” The firstborn of Israelites were spared, the Egyptian firstborn weren’t, and there was great sorrow in Egypt, as you can well imagine.
The Passover lamb was to be sacrificed at the same time every year thereafter until Christ came, fifteen centuries later, in fulfillment of this solemn Feast. He was willingly slain on schedule, at Passover, being the Lamb the Feast was all about.
Do nominal Christians call it “Passover”? No, it’s “Ishtar,” in honor of the seductive and fertile goddess with six breasts! Even the acclaimed Protestant King James Bible changed the name of the Passover feast to Easter.
At Easter, do they eat the Passover lamb representing the Lamb of God Who gives His life for mankind? They eat not the Passover lamb, but the Easter ham! In God’s order of things, sheep were clean and swine unclean. Now we have unclean pigs gracing the tables of those for whom the Lamb of God died, essentially making Him a pig. Blasphemy? You know it!
It’s significant that when a lamb is butchered, it accepts its demise submissively. Not so with a pig. As a child raised on a mixed farm, I personally observed a few swine slaughters. Pigs fight death with everything they’ve got. The screams can be heard for great distances if the event isn’t done effectively. Was that the way Jesus laid His life down for us, screaming and squirming?
“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I might take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down from Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment from My Father” (John 10:17-18 MKJV).
What can ham possibly have to do with Passover? Does it matter? It’s a symptom of worshipping a pagan goddess. And when you attach the Lord Jesus Christ to all this, it doubly matters! Why do you think the wrath of God is upon your household with all sorts of troubles – darkness, fear, despair, strife, rebellions, failure, addictions, plagues, disease, unemployment, financial problems, divorce – briefly, Hell and death?
Nominal Christians add confusion to confusion and abomination to abomination. They criticize the Jews for celebrating Passover because the Jews don’t realize what it’s about, but let’s briefly describe what “Christians” don’t realize:
Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and other churches have “Mass” every week (if not daily), a ritual which supposedly represents what is commonly called “the Lord’s Supper.” This ritual is derived from what the Lord said at His fulfillment of Passover, as related by Paul:
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and giving thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me’” (1 Corinthians 11:23-24 MKJV).
These religious also have a special Mass at Easter that is supposed to somehow represent the annually observed Passover.
So they have a Passover on top of a Passover in the Name of Jesus Christ the Passover Lamb, to celebrate the Passover they are having in the name of Easter, the queen of Heaven, whose worship Jeremiah condemned by the Word of the Lord (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-25)!
Besides this, evangelicals have “the Lord’s Supper” or “the breaking of bread” any time and any way they judge feasible – and there are many dogmatic variations in terms of method, content, vessels, those permitted to administer and partake, frequency, and timing. What a circus! Is it any wonder the church systems of this world are called “Babylon” (meaning “confusion”)?
Let’s ask this: If Passover (one of three solemn Feasts ordained by God) should continue to be observed, then what about the other Feasts? What about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in conjunction with Passover? Little is mentioned of that… probably because it speaks of sincerity and truth, ridding ourselves of all hypocrisy. Who but the godly repentant will go there?
Wasn’t the Feast of Pentecost highly significant and important? Pentecost was the birth of the Church of God by the indwelling of the Spirit of God – no minor event. If we ought to celebrate the birth of the Bridegroom, the Head, according to those who celebrate Easter and Christmas, then what about celebrating the birth of the Bride, His Body (the Church)?
And what about the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement included? Why are not any of these continued in observance by those who insist in celebrating their blasphemous version of Passover – “Easter”? The Day of Atonement was the most solemn day of all; why do they ignore that? Because revelers aren’t interested in repentance of sin, truth, and solemnity.
All these Feasts are now fulfilled in Jesus Christ, however – all of them. Now they must be fulfilled in us, so we may benefit from His sacrificial work on our behalf and be saved through an inner resurrection from the dead by the power of His Spirit. This comes not by pagan celebrations, adding insult to injury, but by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, our One and Only Lord and Savior Who, as the Lamb of God, took away the sin of the world.
In ignorance, nominal Christians think they serve the Lord and wonder why their prayers aren’t heard, their kids are sick or dying, and their creditors are at the doors. They stumble in darkness, without understanding or peace, incurring God’s wrath in doing what they shouldn’t, and not doing what they should. Don’t these things grieve the Lord? He once said to me, “I am hurting! I am hurting! My people are suffering (without knowledge)!”
Watch “Ishtar Sunday” by the Reverend Martin Van Popta:
Consider the alternative to the pagan practice of Easter: Christ has fulfilled the Passover Feast, and its physical observance ended at His coming. Honor Him Who gives life, not false gods who bring death.