Image from wikipedia.org

This is a post I requested that my friend Angie write for us.  A few weeks ago I had received an email inquiring about the historical roots of “Easter” including the bunnies, eggs, and the other trappings we are familiar with.  I have written related posts regarding Easter – you can find them listed here.

Just like dealing with Halloween, my purpose is not to cause division or encourage legalism.  While I don’t plan egg hunts for my children and we don’t talk about the Easter bunny, I think what your family does is something you alone need to decide.  However, I do think that we need to be very careful as believers not to confuse the Truth of Christ’s resurrection with the traditions rooted in lies that our larger culture gladly embraces.

Quoting from “Navigating through Halloween,”

Christians are split on this and our goal is not to be hateful and condemning to one another, but to spur one another on to think and act in a way that honors our Lord. Quoting Paul as he dealt with believer’s disagreement over a “gray area,”

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31

So without further adieu, here are some thoughts and research from my friend Angie King.

What do a pagan fertility goddess, bunnies and the resurrection of Christ have in common? Waiting for a punch line? I have none, for this is no joke. Those things have nothing in common although history and skewed tradition have intertwined pagan practices with the hope followers of Christ have in Resurrection Sunday.  It’s time believers separate the truth from the lies.

Why “Easter”?

To search out the origins of the term “Easter” we must step back into Genesis, the beginning. In Genesis, we are introduced to Noah, the one righteous person who God saved from destruction. If Noah embodies righteousness, his great-grandson Nimrod is his antithesis—a wicked man who propagated evil ways.

Nimrod founded the notoriously wicked cities of Babel and Nineveh and was married to Semiramis—also called Ishtar or “Easter.” Together, this wicked pair created a mystery religion—an occult rooted in lies and backed by Satan. Upon Nimrod’s death, Semiramis (Ishtar/Easter) spread the word that Nimrod was now a sun-god named Baal.

She became pregnant and claimed the child she carried was created by supernatural means. Ishtar also claimed that the child she bore—Tammuz—was the fulfillment of the seed promise God gave after the fall of Adam and Eve. (We, as believers in Christ, realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of the seed promise!) After these lies took root among the idolatrous nations that continually spurned God, Ishtar was worshipped, especially by those who sought fertility.

Ishtar was a true woman of folly. She skewed sensuality and sexuality to lead fools down wicked paths and to their ultimate demise. In her temples, harlots prostituted themselves and were praised for this behavior. Where purity did not exist, blatant idolatry and adultery were glorified.  Are these the ideas we want to associate with Resurrection Sunday, the day we set aside to remember that Jesus conquered death so that we could conquer death, too?

Zola Levitt, who was a Jewish believer in Jesus Christ, called the Easter celebrations “First Fruits” and explained the biblical reasons behind this in his booklet titled “The Seven Feasts of Israel.” As Zola explained:

“We have come to call this feast Easter, after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the pagan goddess of fertility. We even continue to worship the objects of fertility—the rabbit, the egg, new costumes, etc., but the celebration was to be over God’s replanting of the earth in the spring. We miss a very important biblical truth by not using the term “First Fruits” as the name of this feast, because “first” implies a second, a third, and so on, and that is the real meaning of the feast. We do not merely celebrate the resurrection of the Lord on First Fruits, on which it indeed occurred, but even more so, the resurrection of the entire Church!”

Jesus was first, but we believers of Christ will follow! Amen!

Satan has found great success at distorting the truths of Resurrection Sunday with the occult practices of the pagan goddess Ishtar. He has disguised the lies within innocent symbols such as bunnies and eggs. Commercially, the symbols of Easter overshadow the truths of First Fruits and society has embraced this wholeheartedly. We, as followers of Christ, don’t have to be chained to these traditions embedded in the occult. Now that you know the background of Easter, how will you choose to celebrate First Fruits in your home?  How will you give God the glory due to Him alone? [Let's discuss our celebrations in light of Truth!  Come join the discussion on the fan page!]

Angie is a Christian wife, mother and freelance writer who has a background in history and research. She has a renewed love for the Old Testament–the Bible Jesus used–and strives to become a lady of wisdom to those around her.

Sources consulted:

• Levitt, Zola. The Seven Feasts of Israel. Great Impressions Printing & Graphics, 1979.
• Christiananswers.net
• Lasttrumpetministries.org
• The Book of Genesis, New International Version.