SALVATION ACCORDING TO SPIRIT AND TRUTH
There are things acceptable to the Lord our Savior, and there are things not acceptable. Christ said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). Christians would agree that pagans walked in darkness. So why take on pagan practices? Why do we pretend to our children that rabbits lay colored eggs and that a man in a red suit flies in the air within a slide pulled by flying reindeer giving gifts? Do these myths and customs originally practiced by Pagans make any sense? Christmas and Easter origins are explained in encyclopedias, and these pagan practices were passed down to us through the centuries, however, these customs are not of Christ. Would it please our Savior to mix that which is holy with that which is unholy paganism? Of course not, and so as we read in 1 Chronicles 16:29, therefore, “Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!”
“Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested” (Revelation 15:4). “All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name” (Psalm 86:9).
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). Therefore, what truth is there in Easter, which is the name of the pagan fertility goddess, who according to pagan religion came in a giant red egg, which was laid by a bunny rabbit? Pagans taught their children to go on Easter egg hunts, and pagans gathered for sun rise services, which have nothing to do with Christ, the Bible, or worship in spirit and truth.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, “As at Christmas, so also at Easter, popular customs reflect many ancient pagan festivals—in this instance, connected with spring fertility rites, such as the symbols of the Easter egg and the Easter hare or rabbit” (15th ed., micropaedia, Vol. 4, p. 605).
The word Easter erroneously appears in the King James Version (Acts 12:4). This is a mistranslated verse. The early church called the time of “The Passion of our Lord,” the Lord’s Passover, however, despite the mistranslation, many scholars have erroneously tied the word Easter to the actual name in the early Christian church that referred to this time as Passover. Even in the King James Version, our Savior is quoted in Matthew 26:2, as saying, “Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.” And in Matthew 26:17 (KJV), the disciples ask the Lord where they should prepare for the Passover. The apostle Paul said, “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us...” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The term Easter is not of Christian origin. It relates to the goddess of fertility, and as pagans believe “the queen of heaven.” This pagan title for the goddess was later attributed to Mary, the mother of our Lord and Savior. The Christian Apostolic Church of the first century practiced Passover, as Christ did. Easter, on the other hand, was quite distinct from Passover and was introduced to the Roman Catholic Church in the west as a tactic to win pagans by adapting pagan festivals to Christianity. The Eastern Orthodox Church to this day still refers to the time as Passover, which is Pascha, and the lamb as the Paschal Lamb, or lamb of Passover. “The Easter bunny had its origin in pre-Christian pagan fertility lore. Hare and rabbit were the most fertile animals our forefathers knew, serving as symbols of abundant new life in the spring season” (Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, 1958, pp. 233-236). Easter is a name for the queen of heaven, the fertility goddess known by many names. “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger” (Jeremiah 7:18). If God’s people provoked God to anger because of mixing worship from a pagan source, how much more in these latter days will He be angry with Christians who do the same thing?
The Christian practice of having the Easter Ham also predates Christian origins, “Also popular among Europeans and Americans on Easter is ham, because the pig was considered a symbol of luck in pre-Christian European Culture” (The Encyclopedia of Religion, 1987, p. 558, “Easter”).
Easter, the goddess, was also known in Babylon as Ashtoreth, which evolved to Eostre, the goddess of spring in western culture, and from Eostre, we get Easter. The God of the Bible showed anger to those who worshiped the gods or goddesses of pagan origin, and to mix the truth of our God with the falsity of pagan religion is tantamount to abandoning God, and we read, “They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies” (Judges 2:13-14).
Some people wrongly assume that Old Testament prohibitions against mixing paganism with godly worship were annulled during the apostolic times. Nothing could be further from the truth. “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore come out from among them and be separate,’ says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,’ Says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
To those who claim to be Christian and practice fertility rites of the goddess Easter in the guise of Christianity and in His name, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:3-6).
In Matthew 7:21-23, our Lord warns: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Therefore, we implore you, our brothers and sisters in Christ to: “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
CELEBRATE THE PASSOVER OF CHRIST, AND PUT AWAY ALL PAGAN PRACTICES FROM YOUR WORSHIP, SO YOU TOO CAN WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH.
