Be careful what you choose to celebrate.  The name Easter comes from the pagan fertility goddess Ishtar (pronounced Easter) and her spring festival which includes bunnies and eggs as symbols of fertility.  Through out the kingdom years of Israel (described in the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Bible), Israel almost constantly stayed in trouble with God because they participated in the religion of Baal and Astoreth (Ishtar) that they learned from the people living around them.  God ultimately punished them for this great sin by allowing them to be destroyed as a nation and taken into captivity.  The Book of Revelation indicates that this ancient occult religion that originated in Babel/Babylon is still alive and powerful today.

Revelation 17:3-6

       MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

  6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

So just what is this mystery religion, and where did it began?  After the great flood, Noah’s son Ham had a son named Cush who had a son named Nimrod.  This is the same Nimrod mentioned in Genesis 10 – 11 who ruled over Babel/Babylon and attempted to build the tower of Babel as part of his mystery religion.  When Cush died, Nimrod married his own mother Semiramis (aka Ishtar, Ashtoreth, the Queen of Heaven and many other names), became a powerful king and established his own religion to worship him as a god and his mother/wife as a goddess.  This mystery religion included astrology, the worship of the sun, the moon, and various stars, and human sacrifice.  When Nimrod was killed, Semiramis claimed that he had ascended to the sun and became the sun god Baal (aka Molach and other names).  Semiramis claimed to be the moon goddess and the goddess of fertility.  She later had an illegitimate son named Tammuz who she claimed was immaculately conceived and was Nimrod reincarnated, so she altered the mystery religion to include worship of the mother and the child (but more so the mother of course).  Tammuz was eventually killed by a wild boar, and Semiramis claimed that he was reincarnated every spring in the renewal of vegetation, and initiated a yearly spring festival of Ishtar (Easter) on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox to celebrate his "resurrection".  This pagan festival included bunnies and eggs as symbols of fertility and of the goddess herself.

For more detailed information, go to
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html

Practically every form of idolatry and false religion imaginable has evolved from this mystery religion of Semiramis and Nimrod.  When God confused the languages of the people and scattered them from the tower of Babel, they took this mystery religion with them to all parts of the Earth, only using different names for the primary characters in their new languages.  The Adversary, Satan, is the ultimate author of this religion and its propagation through time, and he still uses it today in trying to tempt people away from the true worship of Christ.  Its ties to Easter are just one form of this.

So ask yourself, even if we are focusing on the true resurrection of the Son of God, Christ Jesus, and celebrating Him, is it pleasing to Him for us to incorporate the symbols of this ancient abomination into that celebration?  How many Christian churches will have a sun rise service this Sunday (worshiping the rising sun, Baal)?  How many churches will have an Easter egg hunt for the children?  Why don’t we completely focus on Jesus and celebrate Resurrection Sunday, and honor Him by divesting this celebration of ALL pagan symbolism including the name Easter.

And if you have yet to come to know Christ in person, what better time than the weekend of His Passion?

© 2007 (originally posted April 5, 2007)