Easter or Ishtar?
by Al Perez
The word Easter appears once in the King James version of the Bible.Herod has put Peter in prison, "intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people" (Acts 12:4). Yet in the original Greek text the word is not Easter, but Pesach, that is Passover. So why was the name changed? Please read on, and remember Exodus 34:14; For you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous G-d.
"Asherah" the Greek form of this word from the Septuagint is "Astarte", who is the Babylonian goddess of the sea, sea being symbolic of people, and consort of the god El. She was the mother of several gods, including Ba'al, the Babylonian god of the sun. These deities were soon adopted by the Canaanites when they named these female deities the Asherah or Asherim. These deities were made of wood carved from a type of evergreen tree, or often they were set up in Canaanite homes as full trees cut down from a forest. The Asherim normally were highly acknowledged during two specific occasions. First and foremost, they were the fertility gods of the spring equinox, when the days and nights were approximately the same in length, signifying the beginning of living things growing for the summer season. A very common practice in the Canaanite religion was performed on the first Sunday of the equinox. The families would face east to await the rising of the sun, which was the chief symbol of the sun god, Ba'al. Later on during the day, the children of the Canaanite parents would often go and hunt for eggs, which were symbolic of sex, fertility and new life. It was believed that these eggs came from rabbits, which in the pagan world were symbolic of lust, sexual prowess and reproduction. The Canaanites, however, were not the only ones who worshiped rabbits as deities. The Egyptians and the Persians (Babylon) also held rabbits in high esteem because they believed that rabbits first came from the divine Phoenix birds, who once ruled the ancient skies until they were attacked by other gods in a power struggle. When they were struck down, they reincarnated into rabbits, but kept the ability to produce eggs like the ancient birds to show their origins.
Other stories concerning the egg rose later in the Middle Ages by the Anglo-Saxons, where they believed the origin of the Universe had the earth being hatched out of an enormous egg. Decorating eggs came about to honor their pagan gods and were often presented as gifts to other families to bring them fertility and sexual success during the coming year. And secondly, they were highly worshiped and celebrated during the winter solstice. As according to Jer. 10:1-5; Is. 40:19-20; 41:7 and 44:9-20, the pagans would go out into the forest and do one of two things. Either they chopped down a tree and carved a female deity out of it, or they would simply bring the tree into the house and decorate it with gold and silver ornaments symbolizing the sun and the moon while nailing a stand on the bottom so it would not totter or tip over.
Out of this practice came many other variations of these pagan festivals until the Roman Catholic Church adopted the Asherah worship and named it EASTER around 155 A.D. According to the CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, Easter was named after a pagan goddess of the Anglo-Saxons named Eostre, the goddess of the dawn. A great controversy arose between the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church in 325 A.D. on whether to celebrate Easter on Sundays or on whatever day the Jewish Passover fell upon. Unfortunately, the Greeks lost a lot of followers and the Catholics contended that keeping Easter on Sundays would stimulate the practices of both the Christian world and the pagan worshipers. Note that the word CATHOLIC means "universal" or "one world" in thought, concept and practice. Hence, since the original practice of Asherah worship we now have in our time the celebration of Easter, a counterfeit holiday to the true Christian festival of the Passover which was instituted in the Bible and completed in the New Testament when Christ died on the cross as our Passover Lamb.
"...For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us"
ldolphin.org
3 comments:
EASTER IS THE MOTHER OF BAAL
Should Christians use the 'E' word? What does the term Easter mean? In the Old Testament times the Bible talks about Ashtoreth and Baal worship in I Kings 11:5-6, "For Solomon went after Ashtoreth [Easter in english] the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father." Ashtoreth is the mother of Baal. The short form is Ashtar or Ishtar and the English form of the word is "EASTER". Easter is nothing other than the mother of Baal and the celebration or worship of Ashtoreth is forbidden in the Old Testament Scriptures. Look at the Scriptures in Judges 2:13-14, "And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtoroth. And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel…" Easter is Ashtoreth! EASTER IS AN EVIL WOMAN!
In AD316 Constantine was in charge of the known world and in AD321 he declared Christianity to be the only religion. The pagan religions did not go away. They simply gave their practices new names. Ashtoreth and Baal became Mary and Jesus. Many today know Mary as the 'queen of heaven'. This pagan title belonged to Ashtoreth in the Old Testament. Ashtoreth and Baal were adored and worshipped and many today adore and worship Mary and Jesus (read Jeremiah 44). We must ask ourselves, who is the real Mary and who is the real Jesus? Unless we examine what we believe in the light of the Scriptures, we might well be deceived. According to the Scriptures, only God is to be adored and worshipped (Exodus 20). Watch out!
As Christians, we celebrate the RESURRECTION of Jesus Christ from the dead. We should use the 'R' word as in Resurrection. Certainly, we do not celebrate Easter (the mother of Baal), but we do celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Easter does not occur in the Bible at all. There is one appearance of the word 'Easter' in Acts 12:4 in the King James Bible, but it is a mis-translation and should be translated 'Passover'.
That's why i never said "happy easter" but i always said "happy passover"
Good to know that there's a children of GOD that still have an awareness like you Mr. Mark
Visit my latest post also
http://metanoialive.blogspot.com/2008/03/nephilim.html
GOD bless u..
Brothermark,
I wrote a short post on Easter a few days ago, but just now found this post. Thank you for the eye-opening information!
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