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to do with Christ's resurrection?
Where d id the "Easter Sunday"
trad ition come from? How did it
find its way into tbe professing
Christian church? Wby is it ob–
served ttuoughout the entire West–
ern world today?
Where Easter Carne From
Believe it or not, Eas ter was ob–
served thousa nds of yea rs before the
t ime of Cbrist and the beginning of
tbe Christian e ra !
"Easter"
is
merely the slightly
changed English spelling of the
name of the ancient Assyrian god–
dess Ishtar. It was pronounced by
the Assyria ns exactly as we pro–
nounce "Easter" today.
Hislop says in
The Two Baby lons
tha t Easter " bears its Chaldean ori–
gin on its very forehead . Easter is
nothing else than Astarte, one of the
t itles of Be lti s, th e 'q ue en of
heaven,' wh ose nam e, as p ro–
nounced by the people of Nineveh,
was eviden t ly identical with that
now in common use
in
this count ry"
(p.
103).
In the Bible, God condemns the
worship of Asta rte, the "Queen of
Heaven,"
as
the most abominable of
all pagan idola tries.
In
connection
with the Easter celebra tion, God
specifica lly condemns sunrise ser–
vices (Ezek. 8: 13-18) and the mak–
ing of " hot cross buns" (Je r. 7:
18-
20; 44 :19).
How d id this pagan celebration
ever become one of tbe two most
important holidays of the professing
Christian church?
Easter a Counterfeit of
God's Passover
Now read the facts for yourself.
The
Encyclopaedia Brilannica,
11th
ed ition , a rt icle "Eas ter," says:
' 'There is no indication of the obser–
vance of tbe Easter fes ti val in the
New Testament or in tbe writings of
the Apostolic Fathers ... The tirst
Christians continued to observe the
Jewish festiva ls, though in a new
spi rit, as commemorations of events
wh ich those fes ti vals h ad fo re–
shadowed . Thus the Passover, with
a new conception added to it, of
Chr ist as the true Paschal Lamb and
the fi rstfrui ts from the dead, contin–
ued to be observed ."
Hislop sta tes, "The festival, of
20
which we read in church history, un–
der the name of Easter, in the third
and fourth centuries ... a t tha t time
was not known by a ny such name as
Eas ter.
It
was called . . . Pass–
over .... Tha t fes tival agreed origi–
na lly with the time of the Jewisb
Passove r, when Christ was cruci–
fied.... Tha t festival was not idola–
tro us, a nd was preceded by no
Lent" (p. 104).
God's Passover pictured Christ 's
dea th.
Contras t thi s with Eas ter.
It
claims to commemora te Christ's res–
urrection - not bis death.
When did this clever counterfeit
creep into the professing Christi an
church?
How Easter Recame "Christian"
Eas ter was a pagan festiva l long
before Christianity a nd the New
Testament Church ever existed . lt
ancienlly commemora tes the Friday
dea th and supposed Sunday resur–
rection of N imrod , the false pagan
savior.
In the grea t a postasy which swept
through the New Testament world
in the latter part of the first centu ry,
this pagan "Good Friday-Easter
Sunday" tradition was fa lsely ap–
plied to lhe dea th and resurrection
of the true Savior, Jesus Christ.
It
was made to appear "Christ ian."
This teaching became especially
popul ar in the area around Rome.
But in Asia Minor, where the
a p os tl e P a ul h ad es tab li s h ed
churches, the New Testament Pass–
over continued to be observed on
Nisan 14.
The
Encyclopaedia Britannica
ar–
ticle "Easter" states: "Generally
speak.ing, the Western Churches
kept Easter on the first day of the
week, while the Eastern Churches
followed the Jewish rule."
This difference soon led to serious
controversy. Gradua lly the G reek
and Asían churches bega n to suc–
cumb to the pagan tradit ion. The
a r t icle referred to a bove s ta tes:
" Polycarp, the disciple of John the
Evangelist, a nd bishop of Smyma,
visited Rome in 159 to confer with
Anicetus, the bishop of tha t See, on
the subject, and urged the tradition
which he had received from the
apostle of observing the 14th day.
Anicetus, however, declined."
Th e s to ry d oes n ' t e nd he re.
"About forty years la ter [A.D. 197]
the q ues tion was discussed in a very
different spirit between Víctor,
bishop of Rome, and Polycra tes,
melropolitan of proconsular Asia
[the terri tory of the chu rches estab–
lished by the apostle Pa ul]. That
province was the only portion of
Christendom which st ill adhered to
the Jewish usage. Víctor demanded
tha t a l! should adopt the usage pre–
vai ling a t Rome. This Polycra tes
fi rmly refused to agree to, and urged
many weighty reasons to the con–
trary, whereupon Víctor proceeded
to excommunica te Polycra tes and
the Christians who continued the
Eastem usage. He was, however, re–
strained from actually proceeding to
enforce the decree of excommu–
ni ca ti o n . .. a nd t h e Asia ti c
Chu rches reta ined their usage un–
molested. We find the Jewish usage
from time lo time reassert ing itself
after this, but it never prevailed lo
a ny large extent."
lt
did, however, crop up from
time to time as an irksome and an–
noying issue that caused disunity in
the professing Christian church.
When the pagan Roman Emperor
Constant ine convoked the Council
of N icaea in A.D. 325, be ordered
the bishops to setlle the ma tter once
and for a ll.
It
was one of the two big
issues of the council.
Council Confirms Roman Usage
"The decision of the counci l was
unanimous that Easter was to be
kept on Sunday, and on the same
Sunday th roughout the world, and
tha t 'none hereafter should follow
the blindness of the Jews'"
(ibid.).
In the spiritua lly darkened minds
of those at the council, anything
that was bíblica ! - anyth ing tha t
God commanded - was "Jewish."
The bishops a t Nicaea so ab–
horred anything they thought to be
Jewish tha t they "decided that Eas–
ter Day should always be on a Sun–
day, but never a t the same time as
the feast of tbe J ews. l f the 14th
Nisan fe ll on a Sunday, Eas ter Day
was transferred to the following
Sunday" ! (Burns,
The Counci/ of
Nicea,
p.
46.)
"For how," expla ins Constantine,
"could we who a re Christians possi–
bly keep the same day as those
The
PLAIN TRUTH Apri i-May 1976