I remember the fun we had at Easter when I was a kid.  Nearly every year we would buy a dyeing kit from the grocery store and color hard-boiled Easter eggs many different shades and colors on the Saturday evening before Easter.  Waking up on Easter morning and finding a large basket for each one of us kids, though not quite equal to the thrills of Christmas morning, was nevertheless exciting.  Each basket would contain colored, artificial "grass," usually green, and many colored eggs, which mom insisted we eat within the first day or so lest they should go bad.  And lots of jelly beans.  And small chocolate bunnies and candies.  And the prize item - a large, sometimes solid sometimes hollow, chocolate Easter bunny.

We would also get dressed up special that day for church.  The girls had brand new spring dresses and big bonnets.  And I (as a small boy) dressed up in a suit and a hat.  My dad would always want to take a picture of everyone dressed up and holding their Easter baskets full of the goodies.  So we would line up on the front porch steps and pose with our best smile.

Sunday services that day were special, too.  The church would usually be packed with all the regulars and the folks who, out of some sense of obligation, would show up only on Christmas and Easter.  I guess they figured that it would be better to go at least a couple times a year than not at all.  God would have to look at that act of righteousness with some sort of favor, they must be thinking!  After all, it was the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.  Or so we thought....

What we were doing was in line with a tradition which the Christian church had been doing for over 1600 years.  Now that kind of long history is hard to argue with.  We had supposed, in some moment of reflection, that even the apostles of Jesus had celebrated Easter, just like we were doing.  Well, a little bit of research, coupled with a sobering realization that traditions are not always from our Creator, had proved us wrong in our assumptions.  And somewhat shocking and disturbing are the results of our investigation of the roots of Easter.

Come to find out that the celebration of Easter is not biblical after all!  The Torah, Elohim's instructions to his covenant people, does not teach the celebration of Easter.  Jesus never taught his disciples to celebrate Easter.  Nor did Paul or any of the other prophets, apostles or disciples in the Bible.  The celebration of Easter is not in the Bible because it is not from our Maker!

Lent

In the interest of providing some history and background to the popularly observed season of Lent and to impart some perspective about what the Bible has to say about the Lenten season, I offer this summary and analysis.  Many of the customs, practices and traditions of the Christian Church, which are believed to be based on the New Testament and the story of Jesus, are actually ancient customs which pre-date Christianity.  The forty day fast and abstinence called Lent is one such tradition. 

On the liturgical calendar, Lent is the period of time between Ash Wednesday and Easter.  The term Lent is a shortened form of Lenten, which derives from the Old English term lencten, which means spring.  This word is from the Old English root word lang which means long (Online Etymology Dictionary, www.etymonline.com).  And you can probably guess that we also get our word lengthen from that term.  Presumable, Lent refers to the spring because it is the season when the days begin to lengthen.

Lent is celebrated worldwide by Roman Catholic Christians.  But it is also popular among some Protestant Christians, including Episcopals, Lutherans, Methodists, some Presbyterians and Anglicans.

The Christian Practice of Fasting and Self-Denial

Lent purports to be a continuation of the custom of fasting as Jesus fasted.  We are told in Matthew's gospel that following his baptism, Jesus went out into the wilderness and fasted for forty days and nights.  It is alleged that Lent is the season when Christians do as their Master did and fast.  Often this fasting takes the form of giving up some favorite food, or meat, or promising to stop bad habits for these forty days prior to Easter.

The Lenten season begins after Mardi Gras, which means "Fat Tuesday."  The party of Mardi Gras is just an excuse to indulge in excesses and debauchery (getting "fat") before the fast.  This festival is most famous in Rio de Janeiro, but is held elsewhere around the world including New Orleans.  Mardi Gras is the last chance for these religious zealots to indulge themselves in all manner of sinful behaviors before they have to deny themselves of some earthly pleasure.  Then, on "Ash Wednesday," Christians have an ashen mark placed on their foreheads to symbolize the beginning of the sacred fast.

Lent officially became a "Christian" celebration at the edict of the Council of Laodicea in A.D. 360.  Nevertheless, even the well-known Catholic Saint Abbot John Cassianus, monk of Marseilles, in the fifth century contrasted the primitive Church with the Church in his day, "It ought to be known that the observance of the forty days had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate."

If Lent didn't exist during the early years of the Messianic community (the Christian Church), then where did it come from?

The Ancient Practice of the 40 Day Fasting and Weeping

Alexander Hislop, in his classic work, The Two Babylons, in the section entitled, Easter, explains the origin of the Lenten fast:

The forty days' abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers 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-worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of Mexican observances: "Three days after the vernal equinox...began a solemn fast of forty days in honour of the sun." Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt, as may be seen on consulting Wilkinson's Egyptians. This Egyptian Lent of forty days, we are informed by Landseer, in his Sabean Researches, was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god.

Thus, the testimony of many historians is that Lent was a borrowed festival from Babylon.  It is a part of the ancient sun god worship which has found its way into nearly every culture of the world throughout time.  Since the early church had no such custom (as Cassianus told us), the Council of Laodicea must have affirmed for the church a celebration which was observed in antiquity by the pagan sun god worshippers.

But there is more.  Hislop finds more evidence of the pagan roots of Easter and Lent:

At the same time, the rape of Proserpine seems to have been commemorated, and in a similar manner; for Julius Firmicus informs us that, for "forty nights" the "wailing for Proserpine" continued; and from Arnobius we learn that the fast which the Pagans observed, called "Castus" or the "sacred" fast, was, by the Christians in his time, believed to have been primarily in imitation of the long fast of Ceres, when for many days she determinedly refused to eat on account of her "excess of sorrow," that is, on account of the loss of her daughter Proserpine, when carried away by Pluto, the god of hell. As the stories of Bacchus, or Adonis and Proserpine, though originally distinct, were made to join on and fit in to one another, so that Bacchus was called Liber, and his wife Ariadne, Libera (which was one of the names of Proserpine), it is highly probable that the forty days' fast of Lent was made in later times to have reference to both.

Wikipedia explains who Proserpine is:

The full story of the rape of Proserpina is told at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proserpina.

Tradition also shows that all the observances from other cultures and peoples throughout ancient times were mere copies or modifications of the original story of Nimrod, his wife Semiramis and their son Tammuz.  The story is told that the wife of Nimrod, the King of Babylon, after the death of her husband, claimed she had been supernaturally impregnated by the Sun god and gave birth to Tammuz. When Tammuz was forty years old, he went hunting and was killed by a wild boar.  His mother and her family mourned for 40 days, at the end of which Tammuz was brought back from the dead.  So, Lent is evidently the time when Tammuz is remembered and mourned during the "Fast of Tammuz." The Wycliffe Bible Commentary states, "Mourning for the god was followed by a celebration of resurrection."

Hislop goes on to link the Lenten season with Tammuz of biblical fame:

Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, and which, in many countries, was considerably later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine and Assyria in June, therefore called the "month of Tammuz"; in Egypt, about the middle of May, and in Britain, some time in April. To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity--now far sunk in idolatry--in this as in so many other things, to shake hands.

All these stories derive from a common original story of the Babylonian sun god saga.  So a pagan connection between Tammuz and Lent is apparent.

The prophets of Scripture allude to the practice of weeping for Tammuz at the temple site.  Elohim described the abominations that were going on by the priests and in the temple of those who worshiped Tammuz.  The prophet Ezekiel was brought, in vision, into the temple of Yahuwah and was shown what abominable things were happening there:

Again, he said, "You will see them doing things that are even more detestable." Then he brought me to the entrance to the north gate of the house of Yahuwah, and I saw women sitting there, mourning for Tammuz. (Ezekiel 8:13,14).

The whole modern day season of Lent is the carry over of the 40 days of weeping for Tammuz.  And Yahuwah hates this.  Yahuwah hates all that is associated with the Easter season, especially when we try to pass it off as legitimate worship of the Master Yahusha.

Good Friday

Another element of the Easter season is "Good Friday."  This is believed by Christians to be the day that Christ died on the cross and was buried.  Theologians do a lot of interpretive gymnastics to arrive at a Friday death of Messiah, followed by a Sunday morning resurrection.  This flatly contradicts what the Messiah himself said about the length of time he would be in the grave. 

; He specifically and repeatedly instructed his disciples that he would be in the tomb for three days and three nights.

The major problem with insisting that Messiah died on Good Friday is that the math just doesn't add up.  Jesus said that he would be in the grave for three days and three nights:

He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Yonah.  For as Yonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:39-40)

There is clearly only one day and two nights between Friday at sunset when Messiah was placed in the tomb and Sunday morning, when the women found the tomb empty.  This is obviously a huge problem for those who hold this view.

But even giving the benefit of the doubt, it still may be feasible to count three days as: day one - the final few minutes of Friday before sundown; day two - Saturday; day three - the first few minutes of the daytime portion of Sunday.  But there just simply aren't three nights between Friday evening and Sunday morning.  So, unless you ignore what the Master taught, you MUST conclude that he did not die on the tree on Friday.  (See a detailed study of this prophesy and its fulfillment in our companion article, The Sign of Jonah: 3 Days and 3 Nights).

So Friday was not, in fact, the day Messiah died.  But it fits in really nicely with the activities which were traditionally practiced by the pagans on Friday.  Thus, it's convenient for Christians to force fit the death of Messiah into a "Friday" frame, because Friday and Sunday were significant days when the pagans practiced the worship of their god-idols.  And these practices were amalgamated into the worship of the early Church.

Good Friday Customs

The Catholic Church has some very interesting customs for Good Friday, which don't jive with what the Bible teaches believers.  First, there is the "re-enactments" of the suffering and death of Christ.  And many believers undergo a "crucifixion" on Good Friday so as to imitate their Lord.

On Good Friday, at Rome and Madrid, and other chief seats of Roman idolatry, multitudes flock together to witness the performances of the saintly whippers, who lash themselves till the blood gushes in streams from every part of their body. They pretend to do this in honour of Christ, on the festival set apart professedly to commemorate His death, just as the worshippers of Osiris did the same on the festival when they lamented for his loss. But can any man of the least Christian enlightenment believe that the exalted Saviour can look on such rites as doing honour to Him, which pour contempt on His all-perfect atonement, and represent His most "precious blood" as needing to have its virtue supplemented by that of blood drawn from the backs of wretched and misguided sinners? Such offerings were altogether fit for the worship of Moloch; but they are the very opposite of being fit for the service of Christ. (The Two Babylons, p.144)

The Torah clearly teaches believers NOT to do these kinds of things to their own bodies:

You are the sons of YHWH your Elohim; you shall not cut yourselves nor make baldness between your eyes on behalf of the dead (Devarim [Deuteronomy] 14:1)

There.  The Bible tells us not to cut ourselves on behalf of the dead.  So this means that we should not cut ourselves to re-enact the suffering and death of Messiah on the tree.

And Paul concurs:

So it turns out that the crucifixion re-enactments are nothing more that the adoption of biblical forbidden, pagan worship practices!

Friday and the Fish God Dagon

For the pagans, Friday was the day of honoring and worshipping the fish god Dagon.  Dagon, a Semitic deity was originally a fertility god.  He was worshipped by the Amorites, and was probably the supreme deity of the Philistine pantheon.  Scripture speaks of Dagon, the fish god (pictured to the right):

The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their elohim and to celebrate. They said, "Our elohim has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us." (Shoftim [Judges] 16:23)

And again,

The Philistines took the ark of Elohim and brought it to the temple of Dagon, where they positioned it beside Dagon.  When the residents of Ashdod got up early the next day, Dagon was lying on the ground before the ark of Yahuwah. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place.  But when they got up early the next day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of Yahuwah. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon's body was left intact.  For this reason to this very day neither Dagon's priests nor anyone else who enters Dagon's temple step on Dagon's threshold in Ashdod. (1 Shemuel 5:2-5)

Another take from this passage is that we shouldn't engage in the silly superstitions about stepping on a crack.  This would be pandering to the worship and respect of Dagon, which is a clear violation of the commandment not to worship any other elohim except Yahuwah.

Though the fish god is condemned by Scripture, Christians still have a certain fascination with the fish.  Friday is a day on which Catholics traditionally eat fish during the Lenten season.  Michael Rood describes the source of the fish eating attraction in Christian circles:

In later years “Good Friday,” the day that the Philistines sacrificed to Dagon, the Philistine fish god, also became an integral part of the Easter pageantry (if you are over 40 years of age, you will recall eating fish on Friday in the public school system in America). This entire menagerie of satanic festivities is the pinnacle of the abominations that God had pronounced to the Children of Israel before they entered the Promised Land. (John Michael Rood, The Mystery of Iniquity, Chapter 8)

It seems that eating fish on Friday is out of respect for the ancient fish god.

During the time of the Messiah and afterward, Friday was well known in pagan circles to be a celebration of Dagon.  And so, as the Scriptural practices of appointed times were being abandoned and the pagan sun-god and other deity worship began to get folded into the worship of the early church, the blending of Dagon\fish-god worship as a legitimate practice of these Christians became established.

The Pope and His Fish Hat!

Note again the picture above of Dagon, the fish god.  He is covered by a fish as with a garment, with the fishes head as his hat with its mouth open and pointing upward.  When we take a look at the Pope, the Head of the Roman Catholic Church, we see the same hat! Is it merely a coincidence that the Pope's mitre (hat) looks exactly like the head covering of Dagon?

Note the picture to the right comparing the Pope's hat with Dagon.  It's the same fish!  The Pope seems to be Dagon the fish god.  Something's terribly wrong here.

Hot Cross Buns

Another custom of Good Friday is the eating of the hot cross buns.  That seems innocent enough, until you find our where this custom comes from.  Again, Hislop explains:

The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The "buns," known too by that identical name, were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Easter, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens-- that is, 1500 years before the Christian era. "One species of sacred bread," says Bryant, "which used to be offered to the gods, was of great antiquity, and called Boun." Diogenes Laertius, speaking of this offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed, saying, "He offered one of the sacred cakes called Boun, which was made of fine flour and honey." (The Two Babylons, p. 105)

Jeremiah the prophet wrote about the abominations he saw in the temple of Yahuwah.  He was shown a vision of the women of Israel partaking in the pagan rite of making these hot cross buns for Ishtar (Easter):

It is from the very word here used by the prophet that the word "bun" seems to be derived. The Hebrew word, with the points, was pronounced Khavan, which in Greek became sometimes Kapan-os (PHOTIUS, Lexicon Syttoge); and, at other times, Khabon (NEANDER, in KITTO'S Biblical Cyclopoedia). The first shows how Khvan, pronounced as one syllable, would pass into the Latin panis, "bread," and the second how, in like manner, Khvon would become Bon or Bun. It is not to be overlooked that our common English word Loa has passed through a similar process of formation. In Anglo-Saxon it was Hlaf. 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. (Ibid., p. 105)

So, what's wrong with eating hot cross buns near the Easter holiday?  Nothing - if you don't mind a little pagan mixed into your faith and if you don't mind the condemnation from the prophets of Yahuwah that comes with it.

The Adoption of the Fish Symbol by Christianity

Concerning this fascination Christians have with the fish - the Christian Church had adopted the symbol of the fish as their own.  We all know how the third century Christians took the symbol of the fish and used it as a representation of faith in Christ.  The justification goes something like this:  The Greek word for fish, ivcqu,j (pronounced ick-thus), allegedly represents Christ because the letters which spell it also are the beginning letters of these words: the iota begins the Greek name of the Christ, Iaysous; the chi is the first letter in the Greek Christos (Xristos or "Christ"); the theta begins the word "theos" or "God"; the upsilon begins the word hwee-os ("son"); and the sigma represents "sotayr" or Savior.  Thus, the reasoning goes, ickthus ("fish") represents "Iaysous Xristos theos huee-os sotayr" - or "Jesus Christ God('s) son (and) Savior."

Of course, this is pure nonsense.  The fish symbol really has nothing to do with the Messiah of Scripture.  But in order to make palatable the practices of fish god Dagon worship in "Christian" circles, the word "fish" had to be given a Christian meaning!  And thus was born the adoption of the very pagan fish symbol and fish god into the worship practices of those who follow the Savior of the world.  Maybe its time to lose these abominable customs.

Easter

It's not hard to find information about the customs of Easter.  It turns out that Easter is an old pagan worship day which Yahuwah hates.  Our modern day version of Easter is just a remake of some very ancient pagan traditions and practices.  If the Christian would really think about the source of "Easter," he would most assuredly abhor it.

What or Who is Easter?

This brings us to the million dollar question: Who or what is Easter?  Where did we get this word from?  And where did the customs of Easter come from?  I yield again to the renowned scholar of ancient customs - Alexander Hislop, who gets right to the point:

Pictured to the right is Astarte, the goddess of love, usually depicted as a well endowed, bare-breasted woman.  It is no secret about Ishtar or Astarte.  You can find information and pictures of this idol goddess all over the internet.  You can find Easter all around you.  You find her in the Statue of Liberty, also known as Lady Liberty, in New York harbor.  Her is donned by the seven rays of the sun and a plaque below her dedicates her to Mother Earth, or Ishtar.  And you, therefore, also find her on some of our coins and stamps.   And in churches!

Yet, in spite of the wealth of information available about the identity of Easter / Astarte / Ishtar, Christians don't care where this Easter came from with all its customs and practices.  They prefer to hide their faces from the facts about Easter, like an ostrich hiding her head in the sand when danger comes near.  They love Easter and embrace it regardless of the evidence that it is an abomination.

The entire Babylonian religious system, which is the theme of Hislop's book, The Two Babylons, is that of the false religious systems in all countries and cultures throughout all human history, which had its origin in the story of Nimrod.  The Book of Revelation speaks a great deal about the ultimate collapse of Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.  The harlot of Babylon is Semiramis, also known as Venus, aka Beltis, aka Ishtar, aka Ashteroth, aka Easter.  As she was the mother of harlots, those harlots are all who follow after her pernicious system of worship.

Nimrod and Semiramis and Tammuz

Easter comes from the story of Nimrod of biblical fame.  History books describe Ninus (called Nimrod in the Bible) as a mighty warrior, city builder and ruler of the ancient world after the flood.  Nimrod founded the city of Nineveh, the capitol of Assyria.  His father was Belus or Bel, also called Ba'al.  The Bible says Cush was his father.  Evidently, Cush was Belus, aka Bel, aka Ba'al.  Ninus was first identified in the Recognitions with the biblical Nimrod, who, the author says, taught the Persians to worship fire.

The Jewish historian, Josephus, further describes Nimrod:

Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to reach. And that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers.

There are numerous legends and traditions about Nimrod in various cultures and languages.  The general consensus is that he was a giant of a man who was the first world ruler.

As legend goes, Ninus took Semiramis, the wife of one of his commanders, and married her.  They are several accounts of this marriage.  One says they had a son who was more wicked than Ninus.  Another says that Ninus died and Semiramis afterward became pregnant, which she attributed to the rays of the sun, as though Ninus had become the sun god and thus had impregnated her.  That son was Tammuz spoken of in the Bible.  Tammuz, son of the mighty hunter, died at the age of 40 while hunting.  He was gored by a wild bore.  This was the basis for a tradition which was begun in his honor to fast for 40 days - a day for each year of his life - for Tammuz.

This is only one way the story has been told.  As the years moved on, the story of Ninus became legendary in many cultures and in many languages.  The myths and legends were sometimes a little different, and other details were added and twisted, so that now, there are many stories told about Ninus.  One thing is for sure; the Babylonian system condemned throughout the Bible and whose end is prophesied in Revelation is based on Nimrod's rebellion against the Creator and the subsequent false worship practices his life spawned.  Lent, Good Friday and Easter are all part of that ignoble and wretched system.

The Easter Egg

Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.  Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.  You must not worship Yahuwah your Elohim in their way (Deuteronomy 12:1-4, mine).

You must not worship Yahuwah your Elohim in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things Yahuwah hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.  See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it(Deuteronomy 12:31,32).

Yahuwah has made it simple to understand that he does not accept worship done the way that unbelievers worship their gods.  He does not want his worshipers to add to or take away from his own prescribed way of worship.  He must be worshiped in the way that he has revealed in his word.

Nevertheless, the practice of Christians who think they are honoring Christ is to observe the pagan day of honoring the fish god Dagan, which is Friday.  And they tell you that Christ has changed the meaning of that day although there is not a shred of evidence in the Bible that he did.  And Christians fast for forty days because they say they are doing it like their Master Jesus did.  Yet, what they are doing is actually at the time and in the manner that the pagans wept for forty days for the pagan sun god Tammuz.

Then Christians celebrate Easter Sunday as the time of the resurrection, with Easter Eggs, sunrise services and eating ham for dinner.  All of these disgusting customs are borrowed from the pagan worship of the sun god.  And Christians ignore the clear instruction of Scripture that the pig carcass is not to be touched or eaten, because it is an abomination to do so.

Let's leave all these pagan ritualistic practices, customs and traditions behind us.  Let's worship our Creator the way He instructs us to worship Him.  Say "goodbye" to the Easter bunny, colored Easter eggs, so-called good Friday, fascination with "the fish," eating of the ham that slew Tammuz and all other such nonsense.  Let's worship the true and living Elohim by keeping His holidays, which are listed in Leviticus 23.

END