Page 128 - Prophetic Word Newsletter Archive 2010

Again, I am going to extensively quote from this old classic work of authority on pagan-
based holidays, “The Two Babylons” by Alexander Hislop. This ancient Holiday is NOT the
story about the resurrection of Jesus Christ as readily accepted by modern-day
Christianity. This sacred event of Scripture (the resurrection) has been added to this
pagan-based worldly holiday by the “king of tradition,” the Roman Catholic Church. The
biblical name for the Holy Day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is “Firstfruits,” the third
Feast of the Lord spelled out in Leviticus 23. Even the apostle Paul taught Gentile
believers in the church of Corinth that this event was “Firstfruits” (see 1 Cor.15:20-23).
The word “Easter” appears only in the King James Bible in Acts 12:4. This is a blatant mistranslation of
the Greek word “Pascha” (3957 Strongs) which in every other place is translated as “Passover”,the first
Feast of Leviticus 23. Passover is the death of Christ, not His resurrection! “Easter” is a purposeful
mistranslation of this Greek word to lend support to the concept of Easter as “resurrection Sunday.” It was
the Roman Catholic Church who selected this pagan holiday as being the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Roman Catholic Church has a history of mixing the pagan with the pure. They take an existing
popular pagan Holiday and “Christianize” it by adding something religious that pertains to Christ. It was
true of Christmas and it is true of Easter. Let us consider its true origin:

“Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean
origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, the queen of heaven, whose name, as
pronounced by the people Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country.
That name, is Ishtar…. Ishtar, the religious solemnities of April, as now practised, are called by the name
of Easter--that month, among our Pagan ancestors, having been called Easter-monath. The festival, of
which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter, in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a
different festival from that now observed in the Romish Church, and at that time was not known by any
such name as Easter. It was called Pasch, or the Passover… and was very early observed by many
professing Christians, in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ…Thus much already laid
down may seem a sufficient treatise to prove that the celebration of the feast of Easter began everywhere
more of custom than by any commandment either of Christ or any Apostle." (Hist. Ecclesiast.) Every one
knows that the name "Easter," used in our translation of Acts 12:4, refers not to any Christian festival, but
to the Jewish Passover. This is one of the few places in our version where the translators show an undue
bias…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…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…Such is the history of Easter. The popular observances that still attend the period of its
celebration amply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. 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…the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter; and accordingly, in Cyprus, one
of the chosen seats of the worship of Venus, or Astarte, the egg of wondrous size was represented on a
grand scale…Now the Romish Church adopted this mystic egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol
of Christ's resurrection. A form of prayer was even appointed to be used in connection with it, Pope Paul
V teaching his superstitious votaries thus to pray at Easter: "Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this thy
creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in
remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c" (Scottish Guardian, April, 1844).”