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A Pastor’s Perspective
“Easter
or Resurrection Celebration?”
by Mike Hill, pastor of Calvary Chapel Aberdeen (mjhill@ida.net)
Listen to CALVARY RADIO 90.3 FM
“What do colored eggs
have to do with bunnies?” As a
child, I didn’t care about historical information
concerning the origin of current Easter traditions.
Just pass me the basket full of goodies and let
me eat! But
have you ever stopped to think of why we participate in
the worldwide ritual of coloring eggs and hiding them? When did this practice begin, anyway?
Soon after the Flood, King Nimrod (Genesis
10:6-10), a great-grandson of Noah, and his wife Queen
Semiramis bought into the satanic lie that they were
gods (Genesis 3:5) and sought the worship of the people.
Following Nimrod’s death, Queen Semiramis
continued the spread of their false religion which
originated in Babylon.
Nimrod was deified as the Sun-god, and she
claimed that her illegitimate son Tammuz was actually
Nimrod re-born (for further study see http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html).
She was worshiped as the “Queen of Heaven”
and had a variety of names depending upon the culture.
In Hebrew, she is Ashtoreth, the mother of Tammuz, Astarte to the Semites, Aphrodite
to the Greeks, and Ishtar
to the Babylonians.
Did you notice how a couple of those names
sounded a lot like “Easter”?
Semiramis (Easter) was the goddess of fertility
and worshipers participated in certain rituals related
to fertility. For
example, rabbits and eggs were considered symbols of
fertility and therefore were interwoven into their pagan
festivals.
Easter has nothing to do with what Christians
consider their most holy holiday to commemorate the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In fact, you will not find the word “Easter”
anywhere in the Bible in connection with Christ.
With this in mind, how should we respond?
Do we stop eating boiled eggs and chocolate?
No. It’s
a matter of focus.
Let us not lose sight of the greatest event that
ever took place: “…how
that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day according to the scriptures”
(1Corinthians 15:3b-4).
He is risen!
What is your focus:
the full basket or the empty tomb?
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