Easter, What Does That Word Mean? | Part 2: Pagan Roots Revealed

In Part 2 of this series, we continue examining the history and origins behind many Easter traditions that are widely practiced today. From the Easter rabbit and eggs to hot cross buns and Easter Sunday itself, we take a historical and biblical look at where these customs originated and how they became associated with Christianity.

This episode explores:
• The legends surrounding Ostara and Eostre
• The symbolism of the rabbit and egg
• Ancient fertility traditions and pagan mythology
• The origins of the hot cross bun
• The establishment of Easter Sunday through church history
• Scriptures related to truth, worship, and turning away from pagan practices

Referenced scriptures include:
Isaiah 59:14, Matthew 12:40, Ezekiel 8:10-18, Ezekiel 33:11, Jeremiah 7:18, Jeremiah 44:19, Matthew 10:26, Mark 4:22, Luke 8:17, 1 Corinthians 10:28, and John 6:44.

This podcast is intended to encourage listeners to research, study scripture, and seek truth for themselves.

Thank you for listening to Tomorrow’s Truth Found Today.

If you enjoy this content, please consider following the podcast and sharing the episode with others.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello, my friends. Mark Long here again with another episode of Tomorrow's Truth Found Today. This is episode 19 and part two of Easter. What does that word mean? Now, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I'm again asking you to please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel and share this information with anybody that'll listen. Our world very much needs this truth. The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 59, 14, Justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off, for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. The question that comes to mind, knowing that much of what he wrote about pertains to the end times, I have to ask, is it possible that that scripture is describing much of what's taking place today? My friends, just look around. It truly does appear the truth is indeed fallen in the street, and not many want to know it today. Now, before we jump into today's episode, I want to briefly recap part one. We started by looking at Matthew 12, 40, where Jesus gave the only sign of his Messiahship to the scribes and Pharisees, in that he would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. I stated that you can easily check all this information out about Easter by Googling the history of Easter. We learned that in Acts 12.4, the translators incorrectly used the word Easter in place of the original word pasca, meaning Passover. I highlighted that the word Easter is a corruption of the word astarte, or ostara, meaning female goddess of fertility. We also briefly looked at the Easter sunrise service and learned that God calls it an abomination in Ezekiel 8, 10 through 18. Please take a moment and review part one for a better understanding about these and other facts about Easter. Now let's jump into part two. Remember, in part one, I also told you that the best way to discover the truth about Easter is to look at each individual part and learn the truth about where it came from. So we're going to do just that. We're going to start with the rabbit and the egg and learn how they both became associated with Easter. I found that there's much information printed about the rabbit and the egg and their relationship to Easter. And it does, in fact, come from several sources. But unfortunately, much of what I found was nonsensical and it pretty much should be avoided. However, there are a few reports out there that give credence to this strange history. One's called Amidius Botlight, with a special report about the facts and fallacy about the resurrection, or the facts and fallacies of the resurrection. The other is found on the website rightdivision.com and under the title Easter, you'll get some useful information. Both of these reports shed a lot of light on the history of the rabbit and the egg. Let's start with the rabbit. This history goes about the rabbit, goes way back to the time of the Norse goddess Ostara or Iostre, and it speaks of the rabbit, which at the time was used as a symbol of fertility because of its ability to rapidly reproduce. It was actually believed that this Anglo-Saxon goddess of the spring equinox transformed her pet bird, get this, into a hare or a rabbit, which of course had the ability to lay eggs. This nonsense, as laughable as that sounds, it was actually believed. It seems that this rabbit would then take the eggs it laid, hide them, and children would hunt for them. There's another myth about Easter and the Easter bunny that comes from pre-Christian Europeans, and it states that during the 17th century, from a German Lutheran folklore, that this rabbit, which was known as the Osterhaus or the Easter hare, would bring guests to good children. That myth eventually spread to the U.S., where it became the modern-day candy delivering rabbit. It's unfortunate that this pagan custom is still, in fact, practiced today. There's much more you can learn about the rabbit, but I think you get the picture. Please take some time and look into this. You're going to be amazed. Now, let's look at the egg. There is, in fact, a great deal of information about the egg, and it has a strange history attached to it. But we're only going to touch on a couple of them. To start with, let's check out a quote from an article about the egg written by Anna Bissett back in 1897. She stated this: every element and principle that will ever be used in the eternity of cosmic birth, such as growth and decay, is found to be within the transparent substance of this intangible sphere, the globe or egg, whatever that means. Basically, she's saying that mankind, along with everything else, came from an egg, which of course is preposterous at best. Then there's the pagan idea of a cosmic egg that is supposed to have sprung from the mystery religion of Babylon. Along with that came the belief from the same mystery religion that an egg of wondrous size fell into the Euphrates River, where fish rolled it to the bank, doves settled on it, hatched it, and of course out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian goddess. This Syrian goddess is none other than the pagan goddess Astarte, which is the same as the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Side note. And for millennia, she was the most revered deity. And here's a little tidbit I find interesting. Notice the similarity between the word Ishtar and the word Easter, but with a silent age. If you check out the cult of Ishtar and you compare with what was believed as far back as 3500 to 3000 BCE, and you compare with what's taking place today, you'll quickly learn that it was then believed that a boy could become a girl and a girl could become a boy. Does that sound familiar? It seems history's repeating, doesn't it? One last thing about the egg. There's a painting by Pedro della Francesca in from the year 1472 that depicts the Madonna and child beneath a suspended egg. And the caption under the painting, it states this the symbol in the painting is apparent. The egg is representative of regeneration, which imparts its power to the Madonna, who, receiving veneration, much as her pagan counterparts, has brought forth the sun. In ancient Babylon and Egypt, the mother goddess and her son were depicted in the same manner. Understand this, my friends. The sun spoken of here is the sun in the sky, not the son of God. It appears that learning about the rabbit and the egg, it does in fact give us another piece of the puzzle about Easter and why it is we do the things we do today. My friends, these things need to change. The prophet Ezekiel, he wrote in Ezekiel 33, 11, say to them, as I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel? Please know this. There's nothing hidden from God. Read Matthew 10, 26, Mark 4, 22, and Luke 8, 17, and learn that everything we think, do, and say will one day be revealed. And trust me, our Father pleads with us to turn from all pagan practices. And yes, my friends, that includes Easter. Now, let's go on to the hot cross bun. It's hard to imagine that something as simple as a hot cross bun could have its beginning in paganism, but it does. The prophet Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 7.18, the children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and women need dough to make cakes or buns for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Now, if that's not bad enough, trust me, it gets worse. Turn and read Jeremiah 44, 19, which says this. The women also said, And when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her to worship her and to pour out drink offerings to her? Guess what? Without our husband's permission. Please understand, this imaginary queen of heaven and who the people claimed she was back then depended on the time in which you lived and your location. She might be the false goddess Astarte or Astaroth, or any number of pagan goddesses. She could be a Philistine, a Phoenician, or even a Zedonian. You can verify that information in Strong's exhaustive concordance. Now to continue, I want to give a couple excerpts from the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica that has this to say about the bun. It says this. These cakes, which are now solely associated with the Christian Good Friday, are traceable to the remotest period of pagan history. Cakes were offered by ancient Egyptians to their moon goddess and had imprinted on them a pair of horns, symbolic of the ox, the equivalent of Ishtar of the Assyro-Babylonians. Greeks offered such sacred cakes to Astarte, Easter, and other divinities. Like the Greeks, the Romans eat crossbread at public sacrifices, a custom alluded to by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, 28, that says this. But if anyone says to you, this was offered to idols, do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience' sake, for the earth is the Lord's and its fullness, all its fullness. Again, remember Jeremiah 7:18 and 44.19. This custom, in fact, was practically universal, and the early church adroitly adopted the pagan practice, grafting it into the Eucharist. The bun with its Greek cross became akin to the Eucharist bread or the cross-marked wafers mentioned in St. Christendom's liturgy. In the Middle Evil Church, buns made from the dough for the consecrated host were to be distributed to the communicants after Mass on Easter Sunday. My friends, from paganism, the hot cross bun came, and in paganism it remains today. This bread, it continues to be given out today during the Catholic Mass of Communion, in which they believe it becomes the actual body of Christ and not the representation of the body or his body that was broken for us. Now let's move on and let's learn how Sunday was named for Easter. It was back in the year A.D. 325 where we find the ecumenical church being responsible for this misguided idea that Sunday should be the day to celebrate Christ's resurrection. According to an article written in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology under the term Easter, it states: despite the efforts in Asia Minor to maintain the Jewish Passover date of 14 Nicen for Easter, hence the name Quotodecimans, or 14thers, the Council of Nicaea adopted the annual Sunday following the full moon after the verno equinox, March 21, that gave us the day of his resurrection or Easter. Therefore, Easter Sunday was implemented by the professing church, meaning a Catholic. That adoption was not sanctioned by the authority of God anywhere in the Bible but by man. In the ecclesiastical history, book 5, chapter 23, it states that it was in the second century that the emphasis began to change from the commemoration of Christ's death at the Passover to the celebration of his resurrection. At the same time, Eusebius, a church historian, who wrote in the 4th century A.D., states the following. There was a considerable discussion raised about this time, in consequence of a difference of opinion respecting the observance of the Passover season. The churches of all Asia, guided by a remoter tradition, supposed that they ought to keep the 14th day of the moon for the festival of the Savior's Passover, in which the day the Jews killed the Paschal Lamb. It was not the custom to celebrate it in this manner in the churches throughout the rest of the world. Hence, there were sonades and convocations of the bishops on this question, and all unanimously communicated to all the churches in all places that the mystery of the Lord's resurrection should be celebrated on no other day than Sunday. There you have it, my friends. It's short, but not so sweet. This was commanded by man and not by Christ. Remember, it was also the Catholics who changed God's Sabbath day and replaced it with Sunday or the day of the sun. Remember, if you remember that, it's not hard to understand that they've done the same thing with the resurrection of Christ, which in truth took place on Saturday, the Sabbath of that week. But they changed it to reflect the day of the sun or Sunday. And man, unfortunately, has followed that corruption ever since. At this point, pretty sure I've given you enough information in this second part. But hold on, because there's more to come in part three. We still have to talk about the preparation day, the high day of John 1931, his last week before his passion, and the women who were there and their involvement that leaves no doubt as to when he was crucified and when he was resurrected. All of which is going to demonstrate that the Easter as we know it today is a farce and it should be avoided. But as I'll always say, you'll have to decide that for yourself. In closing, I want to quickly share something that happened when I shared this truth about Easter with a lady that I used to work with. She openly listened and she looked up all I told her and she agreed it was true. And then she turned right around and went right back to celebrating Easter as before. I guess Jesus was right when he told us in John 6.44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up the last day. Some people, it appears, aren't ready for the truth. But for now, my friends, I'm going to say, may God bless you, each and every one. And please, for your own sakes, look into this and pray that God's truth permeates your life. Take care and always remember, my friends, you are worth it. Bye for now. And I'll see you in part three.