Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everybody, Bill and all the rest who actually take time out to pop in and see what I have to say.

My favorite "Easter" passage is found in Luke 24:25-27. It's a piece of the Emmaus road story -
Then he [Jesus] said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
I put Easter in quotation marks because the word comes from a pagan holiday, the feast of Ishtar, I believe. Ishtar was the Babylonian goddess of fertility. This fit nicely with the spring theme, hence all of the bunnies and eggs. In the really ancient days of Babylon, babies were sacrificed to Ishtar.

There is nothing new under the sun.

There's no point in getting all caught up in these details. The important thing is that He rose and we're celebrating. Do I care what day? Not really, although I know it has some prophetic significance. But it is fascinating to study the history of these things. It was a hobby of mine for awhile.

Okay, now that I've completely bored you with all of that, He is risen! He is risen indeed.

On to the videos.

Why I chose this one, I don't know. I'm up for some feel-good fluff this morning, I guess:

8 comments:

penman@truegosp.org said...

You are right to point out that Easter comes from pagan origins.

I am surprised to find that many people know this, today. I did not know it when I was growing up. What most people do not know however, as I point out in chapter 2 of my book on the true gospel, is that God gave specific instructions in the Bible that His people are NOT to borrow customs from paganism to worship Him.

Unknown said...

happy easter and bless you lord jesus for dieing for our sins.

Bill589 said...

Did you know you can lift a few lines out of scripture to say just about anything?
It is exactly the weapon used against Jesus in the wilderness: Satan quoted scripture.

I spoke with many ministers about Christian holidays that fall on pagan feast days. All say it’s what’s in the heart that counts.

I’m not up to getting one of my bibles right now, so I’ll paraphrase Paul from memory, maybe you’ll recognize it. As a peacemaker, it’s one of my favorites -

Some people keep certain days as holy; some people keep all days as equally Holy. Both are good. Some people fast when some people eat. The people who fast do so to honor God. The people who eat thank God for their meal. Both are good.

Kelsey said...

Hope I didn't open a can of worms. :)

"Easter" does have pagan origins. But I don't equate that with Resurrection Sunday. If you will, it's two separate holidays celebrated on the same day.

Of course, most aren't even aware of this.

Ultimately, it is the heart that counts.

As for the borrowing pagan customs to worship God, I don't think anyone is worshipping God with their Easter eggs, at least, not that I'm aware of.

I think there is a line. Take the Mormon temple, for example. It features the Pentagram. Those who frequent it say that to them it represents something other than the obvious devil-worshipping connection.

But why would you want to get anywhere near that? Turn the star right-side-up. There. It still can mean the "Star of the Morning" or whatever they claim it means and it's not a symbol of Satanism.

Kelsey said...

Also, things obviously change meaning over time. "Easter" may have pagan origins, but not many are aware of them and still fewer actually recognize them.

Tons of things we deal with today have "pagan" origins. The word "estrogen" for example is said to also come from the "Easter/Ishtar" thing. Ishtar was the goddess of fertility. Does that mean we shouldn't use the word "estrogen" anymore? How absurd.

The worship of Ishtar has fallen to the wayside. Not many are running around worshipping Apollo or Zeus anymore either. (gasp!) Maybe we should change the name of those space shuttle missions. /sarc

I just find the history of it fascinating is all.

The Pentagram, on the other hand, still very much has a Satanic meaning. While you might be able to get away with it claiming that to you it means something else, I don't know why you would want to.

And I love this one Mormon guy's justification. He said that symbols in the Bible can often be used for something else. He used the serpent. He was like, "The serpent in Genesis stood for something bad. It stood for sin. Yet Moses was instructed to use a brass serpent on a pole as a symbol of Christ. See? Same symbol, two different meanings."

LOL! Not quite. You missed the whole point.

The brass serpent on a pole was still a symbol for sin. It's meaning was revealed in II Corinthians 5:21 - "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Jesus became sin on the cross, of which the serpent on the pole was a symbol and a foreshadowing.

penman@truegosp.org said...

It's not just the symbols of the Easter eggs and bunny rabbits. I know that no one tries to worship God with eggs. These things are not important, in fact, they serve a purpose in helping us clearly identify where Easter comes from.

The important thing is that we are showing disrespect for God's wisdom and authority when we substitute days we make up for the days God commanded, the seven holy days and feast days God commands in Leviticus 23. Each of those days has important meaning for the Church, yet people ignore those and focus on what THEY think is important. If God wanted us to devote a day of yearly observance to the resurrection of Christ, or his birth for that matter, He would have commanded it. Instead, God gave us days to focus on the things HE wants us to focus in, things that the holy days and feasts in Leviticus 23 represent, such as the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay for our sins, our repentence, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the second coming of Christ, the putting away of Satan, the millennial rule of Christ, and the white throne judgment and the opportunity the billions will have who have lived and died without ever having heard the name of Christ to finally receive forgiveness and salvation. But when we abandon those days to keep days we invent, we tell God that we are wiser than Him and we know what is best. That is the real problem, not eggs and rabbits.

Kelsey said...

Short answer - I'm not Jewish.

penman@truegosp.org said...

I know you do not want a long reply, so I will keep this short. But I can show evidence from the Bible for these things if you are interested.

The commands and instructions from God in the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, such as commands against murder and adultery, are not for the Jews only but are God's law for all mankind.

Even though you are not a Jew physically by heredity, in order to be a Christian you have to be a spiritual Jew, that is, you must be a Jew "inwardly" as Paul puts it (Romans 2:28-29).

Even though you are not physically of Jewish descent, if you live in the United States or Britain you are probably of Israelite descent. "Jews" and "Israelites" are not the same thing. The command not to use customs from paganism or to add to the commands and observances God gives was addressed to all twelve tribes of Israel, not just the Jews (the tribe of Judah).