The observance of Easter is of pagan origin, as the word "Easter" clearly
implies. It is the same as Astarte or Astaroth, one of the titles of Semiramis
the Babylonian queen of heaven in whose honour an annual feast was held
in the month of April. The keeping of Easter was unkown in the days of
the apostles and the early Christian Church. Like many other pagan feasts
and ceremonies adopted by the Church of Rome to conciliate the pagans to
nominal Christianity, Easter was introduced into the Church about the middle
of the fifth century. It is, therefore, of pagan and popish origin, without
any divine warrant for its observance.
The word "Easter" in Acts 12:4 is a mistranslation of the original.
The Greek word there is "pascha", meaning "PASSOVER". In all other places
in the New Testament it is translated "PASSOVER". Even in the Roman Catholic
Douay Bible the word is "PASCH".
HOT-CROSS
BUNS AND EASTER EGGS
The popular observances that still attend the celebration of Easter
amply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character.
The hot-cross buns and the dyed eggs of Easter Sunday figure in the Chaldean
rites just as they do now. The 'buns' known by the identical name, were
used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Easter. 'One species
of sacred bread;', says Burant, 'which used to be offered to the gods,
was of great antiquity, and called boun'. (Mythology, Vol. 1 p 373)
Diogenes Laertius, speaking of this offering made by Empedocles, describes
the chief ingredients of which it was composed, saying - 'He offered one
of the sacred cakes, Boun, which was made of fine flour and honey'.
The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering when he says:
Jeremiah 7:18
'The children gather the wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the
women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven
The hot-cross buns are not now offered but eaten on the festival of
Astarte; but this leaves no doubt as to whence they have been derived.
The origin of the Easter eggs is just as clear. In ancient times eggs
were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks and were
hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. From Egypt these sacred eggs
can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The egg was one
of the symbols of Astarte - or Easter - and accordingly, in Cyprus, one
of the chosen seats of Venus, or Astarte, the egg of wondrous size was
represented on a grand scale. (The Two Babylons, by Rev. Alex. Hislop
LENT
In the fifth century also the Church of Rome decreed that Lent should
be kept before Easter. "It ought to be known" - said Cassianus, the monk
of Marseilles, writing in the fifth century, and contrasting the primitive
Church with the Church in his day - "that the observance of the forty days
had no existence, so long as the perfection of the primitive Church remained
inviolate". Whence then, came this observance? The Church of Rome, pursuing
her usual policy of absorbing pagan rites and ceremonies in order to gain
nominal adherents to the Church, added yet this evil of a "sacred fast"
to her list of idolatries. The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly
borrowed from the worshipers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of
forty days in the spring of the year is still observed by the Yezidis or
Pagan Devil-worshipers of Koordistan. They inherited this heathen fast
from Their early Babylonian masters. A Lent of forty days was held in the
spring by the Pagan Mexicans. A Lent of forty days was held in Egypt in
honour of Adonis or Osiris. (The Two Babylons, by Rev. Alex. Hislop, Ch.
III) So we can see Rome is by no means original in observing her pagan
Lent.
In connection with Lent, R.F. Becker writes - "Rome has so modernized
and streamlined her Lent to fit the present". And the Lukewarm so-called
Protestants (of which true Baptists have never been a part of) have followed
her, as is their habit. In their observance of Lent they only prove how
the virus of Jesuit paganism has numbed their sense of sin. Well could
our Lord say of the professing Christians who observe Lent: "Ye
do dishonour Me" (John 8:49)
"Perhaps it is needless to remark about the ordinary individual's observance of Lent"- continues Mr Becker. "It does not even deserve comment. The world's fast is no fast at all, to say nothing of a 'sacred fast'. One gives up chocolate bars. Another does not eat butter. Another smokes one cigarette per day instead of ten or twenty. Still another refrains from drinking only one glass of beer or wine or whisky per day!!" So sunk in sin is man that by these Romish pagan denials of the flesh, he supposes he is placing himself in God's favor.
"FLEE FROM IDOLATRY(1
Cor. 10:14)
How dishonouring to the Saviour to have His Resurrection darkened by pagan festivities! The divine memorial to the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, on the first day of the week, is the lord's day, when we meet to worship and praise Him in the way He instructed His church to do. To add to the divine memorial, the pagan and popish festival of Easter is a device of Satan to turn away sinners from true worship of God, as he did the people of Judah and Jerusalem when they were making "cakes to the queen of heaven". It was in connection with this abomination that the lord said to the prophet:
"But
thou shalt say unto them, this is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of
the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction (instruction, in the marginal
reading): truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. Cut off.
thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on
high places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of
his wrath. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith
the LORD; they have set their abominations in the house which is called
by my name to pollute it."
Are not Lent and Easter,
both of pagan origin, abominations in the house of the Lord?
1 CORINTHIANS 10:14
"Wherefore my dearly beloved - flee from Idolatry."
CHRISTMAS
Christmas, too, was originally
a heathen festival celebrated on the 25tth of December in honour of the
birth of Tammuz. (Ezekiel 8:14), also called Baal the Sun-god, the son
of Semiramis, the Babylonian queen of heaven. The celebrations included
hymn-singing in the street, riotous merry-making, feasting, drunkenness
and the giving of gifts. Among the Romans these pagan ceremonies, known
as the Saturnalia, were held in honour of the victory of Sol Invictus (the
unconquerable Sun-god), over the darkness of the winter solstice. The Sun-god
in the Saturnalia ceremonies was likened to a small child.
Yule-day is another name for Christmas. "Yule is the Chaldee or Babylonian name for "an infant", or "little child". The 25th of December was called by our Pagan ancestors (the Anglo-Saxons)
"Yule-day". "The child's
day", long before they came in contact with Christianity. (A. Hislop).
THE
CHRISTMAS CRIB
This pagan festival was taken over by the Church of Rome in the fourth century to be kept in honour of the birth of Christ. Christmas is a combination of the "mass" and the name of Christ. The festivities associated with Christmas are of pagan origin. They belong to the worship of Baal. Instead of the child Sol Invictus, we have the popular Christmas Crib with a doll as the Child Jesus. What a flagrant flouting of the Second Commandment! How awful the blasphemy to represent the eternal God who took on a human form as a Doll! How idolatrous and worthless the religion that has a doll for its god!.
ACTS 17:29
"We
ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver or stone,
graven by art and man's device."
THE
CHRISTMAS TREE
The decorating of an evergreen
tree was part of the worship of Tammuz or Baal, the Sun-god of ancient
Babylon. Through the Church of Rome this act of Baal-worship has been handed
down through the centuries, and deluded Christians, by setting up Christmas
trees in their homes, in their schools and churches, are guilty before
God of upholding and perpetuating a practice peculiar to the worship of
Baal. How can anything connected with the worship of Baal be pleasing to
the Lord? Was it not for countenancing such worship that the judgments
of the Lord repeatedly fell upon the people of Israel o f old? (See 1 Samuel
12:9,10)
THE
MADONNA AND CHILD
The Madonna and Child on Christmas Cards, and Christmas stamps is just Semiramis, the Babylonian queen of heaven with her son Tammuz, adopted by the Church of Rome to represent the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus. "The Babylonians in their popular religion," wrote Alex. Hislop, "supremely worshiped a goddess Mother and a son, who was represented in pictures and images as an infant or child in his mother's arms. From Babylon this worship of the Mother and Child spread to the ends of the earth. In Egypt the Mother and Child were worshiped under the names of Iris and Osiris. In India, even to this day, as Isi and Iswara; in Asia as Cybele and Devious; in Pagan Rome as the great Mother, with the babe on her breast, or as Irene, the goddess of Peace with the boy Plutus in her arms; and even in Tibet, in China, and Japan, the Jesuit missionaries were astonished to find the counterpart of Madonna and her child as devoutly worshiped as in Papal Rome itself; Shing Moo, the Holy Mother in China, being represented with a child in her arms, and a glory around her, exactly as if a Roman Catholic artist had been employed to set her up." (The Two Babylons. By Rev. Alex. Hislop. P. 20)
"FELLOWSHIP
WITH DEVILS"
How dishonouring to the Saviour
to have the purpose of His birth into this world darkened by rites and
ceremonies belonging to the idolatrous worship of Baal!
1 CORINTHIANS 10:20
"But
I say into you, that the things which the Gentiles worship, they sacrifice
to devils and not to God, and I would not that ye should have fellowship
with Devils."
We have no warrant whatsoever
from the word of God for observing Christmas. The only warrant that can
be advanced is the warrant of the Pope. The Lord's Churches, who insisted
on fully serving the Lord, opposed and were opposed by the Church of Rome
down through the centuries, ever since Christ started His Church. They
did not incorporate these pagan practices into the true worship of the
Lord. They never started practicing Christmas, Lent and Easter along with
the rest of the abominations of Rome. They acted on the Scriptural principle:
Deuteronomy 12.32
"What thing soever I command
you; observe to do it: Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it."
"All worshiping or honouring or other service invented by the brain of men in the religion of God, " wrote John Knox, "without His own express command is idolatry,"
MATTHEW 15:9
"But
in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men."
CHRISTMAS
CARDS, ETC.
How sad in this degenerate age of widespread apostasy to see professing Christians bowing at the pagan and popish shrine of Christmas! How guilty parents are who under solemn obligations to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the lord, to be leading them into these heathenish customs! "For thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen -- for the customs of the people are vain" (Jeremiah 10:1-3). Seek to honour Christ according to His Word as our godly fore-fathers did. Have nothing to do with Christmas parties, Christmas trees, Christmas gifts, the selling or sending of Christmas cards or Christmas stamps. Avoid as you would the plague the Christmas Eve Midnight Service and the Christmas Crib. They all point to Pagan Babylon. The observance of Christmas is largely responsible for the subtle infiltration and advancement of pagan idolatry along with the blasphemous worship and veneration of the virgin Mary. Anew we are confronted with the question -
1 KINGS 18:21
"How long halt ye between
two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, ten follow Him."
May it be ours to say in truth -
Psalm 119:101
"I
have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Thy Word."
These articles were taken from a book written by:
Pastor Joe Bell
Grace Missionary Baptist Church
1004 Jonathan St
Dothan,
Ala.
Material for this article was obtained from: No.24: A Westminster Standard Publication. Westminster Standard / 183 Rutene Road / Gisborne, N.Z.