REFLECTIONS ON EASTER
By Nell Stevenson (Ontario)

Sometimes circumstances lead to a person having much time on their hands, perhaps more than wanted. This happened to me over the past year but it did afford me with good opportunity to listen to Christian tapes, read, pray, reflect and study. Appropriate to this month are some thoughts on Easter that I would like to share with you.

Easter eggs, hot cross buns, sunrise services and bunnies! These are the familiar signs of a spring tradition we all grew up with. To most of us, Good Friday and Easter Sunday are the most important days on the church calendar.

Yet, what are we celebrating and what does all this have to do with the Resurrection of Christ? What does the Bible say about it?

“The word Easter is of Saxon origin, Eastre, the goddess of spring, in whose honour sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. By the 8th century, the Anglo-Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection”. (Unger’s Bible Dictionary)

In its original form, Easter is the same name as Astarte or Ashteroth. She was a heathen goddess, the wife of Baal, considered to be the mother goddess or the Queen of heaven. Jeremiah the prophet refers to her in ch.7 v.18. “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the Queen of heaven.” This is the origin of the hot cross buns so popular at Easter time.

In the Old Testament, Judges 2: 11-13 we read, “Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord … followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them,… and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashteroth”. The worship of the God of Israel had been adulterated by the inclusion of these two prominent Babylonish deities. Perhaps they had done this to make their faith more palatable to the strangers in their midst. Yet this deliberate mixing of the false with the true was an affront to God, for He says, “they forsook the Lord”.

Many sincere Christians and Church leaders will argue that for them Easter is strictly a commemoration of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. But will God be pleased with the fact that we are again mixing remnants of Babylonish beliefs with Christian worship? We can see these signs plainly in the Roman Church but difficult as it is to admit they are also found and condoned in our Reformed Protestant churches.

If we do a search through the Bible we may be surprised to find that there is no reference to a festival of Easter and that its celebration is not scriptural. We do find reference to heathen deities and practices. Their very mention indicates that these things are significant to God and must be taken seriously by His people.
As Babylonish worship spread to other nations the characteristic gods presented with different names. In “ Two Babylons” Hyslop says, “As Egypt wept over Osiris, the Phoenicians and Assyrians wept over Tammuz, whereas in Greece and Rome they lamented over Bacchus”.

Tammuz is found in the Bible (Ezek.8:13,14) “he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house …and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz”. Notice that this heathen practice, now performed by God’s people, took place in the Lord’s house!

Now, here is our introduction to the 40 days of Lent celebrated by the Roman Church but also recognized in the Book of Common Prayer. Tammuz, supposedly born of Baal and Ashteroth, means “true son”. It is said that he met a violent death at the age of forty; so 40 days were set aside in Babylon before the feast of Astarte for the people to practice fasting and self affliction to sympathize with Ashteroth for the death of her son, and also to pray for his rebirth! In return they expected her to bless them with a good spring and fertility; hence the rabbit and egg symbolism.

This “true son” Tammuz, allegedly was cruelly killed on Friday, and rose two days later at sunrise. This would be on Sun(worship)day; the Christian term being The Sabbath or Lord’s day.

“But what of our sunrise service?” one may ask. Is this not glorifying to God? “Turn again” says the Holy Spirit in Ezek.8:15,16. “Thou shalt see greater abominations than these…at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east ”. What were they doing here? They were celebrating Astarte in the house of God!

Remnants of these pagan beliefs, seemingly harmless, have been adapted to fit into our Christian worship. Shall we be so easily deceived? Is it not gross arrogance to think that our modern day mingled worship is not also an abomination to Almighty God? - because we consider it a lovely tradition? We are commanded, “Ye shall not go after other gods, of the people which are round about you.” (Deut.6:14)

“Babylon” means “confusion”, and certainly, great confusion has infiltrated our Christian churches! God created a people to be “separate” or “holy” unto Him. “No other gods before me” says Exodus 20:3. “Thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Ex.34:14) There is no ambiguity here; “no other god.”.

The question to answer is, “will we follow the doctrine of man or the law of God?”.

Encyclopedias and religious dictionaries will confirm that Easter has purely Pagan origins linked to the rites of spring and fertility in ancient Babylon. This celebration has no basis in scripture.

There is one day in seven that is to be set aside exclusively to worship God “in spirit and in truth”. This is God’s perpetual covenant with the children of Israel that set them apart from the other nations.

Every Lord’s Day is equally important in celebrating His Death and Resurrection and any addition detracts from the glory that he alone deserves