What’s the Connection Between Easter and Christ’s Resurrection?

What do popular Easter symbols like rabbits and colored eggs have to do with Christ’s resurrection? Does God have anything to say about the Easter sunrise service?

Easter is one of the most popular among traditional Christian celebrations. It’s supposed to commemorate Christ’s resurrection.

But since Easter is just the culmination of the 40-day period called Lent, we have to ask the question: Where did this entire tradition originate?

The Lenten season is preceded by Ash Wednesday, which is likewise preceded by the raucous Mardi Gras celebration, which literally means “fat Tuesday.”

Where did these strange customs come from? And WHY is fish and its popular symbol also associated with Christ?

These are very interesting and intriguing questions. They need answers, especially because they very obviously have NOTHING to do with Christ or His glorious resurrection!

WHO OR WHAT IS EASTER?

The Wikipedia traces its roots to the ancient name Ishtar (almost the same pronunciation as “Easter”). Among the Assyrians, she is known as “Astarte” while other cultures call her as “Cybele.”

With all her various names, she is commonly identified as the goddess of fertility, love, sex, and power; she is prominent among the Akkadian, Sumerian, Mesopotamian Assyrian, Babylonian, and East Semitic cultures.

Such worship existed from about 3,500 B.C.E. until its gradual decline between the 1st and 5th centuries C.E. when popular Christianity spread over Europe.

[NOTE: Rather than eradicating the pagan cultural celebrations and myths, popular Christianity simply absorbed and adopted them into its own religion.]

Ishtar

The Akkadian Ishtar is also, to a greater extent, an astral deity … As goddess of Venus, delighting in bodily love, Ishtar was the protectress of prostitutes and the patroness of the alehouse.

Part of her cult worship probably included temple prostitution. Her popularity was universal … and in many centers of worship, she probably subsumed numerous local goddesses. In later myth, she was known as Queen of the Universe [Queen of Heaven] …

According to history.com, Easter is also a celebration that is called Pascha (Greek, Latin) or Resurrection Sunday, a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

“The exact origins of this religious feast day’s name are unknown. Some sources claim the word Easter is derived from Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility … In Spanish, Easter is known as Pascua; in French, Paques.These words are derived from the Greek and Latin Pascha or Pasch, for Passover … (History.com)

[NOTE: “Pascha” is derived from the word “Paschal” which originally referred to the Passover event celebrated on the 14th day of the first month of the Sacred Calendar among the Israelites.

However, there is now a massive corruption from its original meaning because, at present, it refers to the resurrection, rather than the killing of the Passover lambs (symbolic of the death of the Messiah). When compared to Christ’s resurrection, it is actually three days away from the time of the actual Passover celebration.]

EASTER COUNTERPARTS IN OTHER CULTURES

“Like Ishtar, the Greek Aphrodite and the Aramean Northwestern Semitic Astarte were love goddesses.

Donald A. Mackenzie, an early popularizer of mythology, draws a parallel between the love goddess Aphrodite and her “dying god” lover Adonis on one hand, and the love goddess Ishtar and her “dying god” lover/son Tammuz on the other (Wikipedia: Ishtar).

Joseph Campbell, a more recent scholar of comparative mythology, equates Ishtar, Inanna, and Aphrodite, and he draws a parallel between the Egyptian goddess Isis, who nurses Horus, and the Assyrian-Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who nurses the god Tammuz (Wikipedia: Ishtar).

DURATION OF EASTER CELEBRATION

“Easter is really an entire season of the [traditional] Christian church year, as opposed to a single-day observance.

Lent, the 40-day period leading up to Easter Sunday … represents the 40 days that Jesus spent alone in the wilderness before starting his ministry …

The day before Lent, known as Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, is a last hurrah of food and fun before the fasting begins.

The week preceding Easter is called Holy Week … ” (Wikipedia: Ishtar)

DOES THE BIBLE MENTION THE WORD “EASTER”?

“And when he [Herod] had apprehended him [Peter], he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people” (Acts 12:4).

[NOTE: This word “Easter” (found only in this verse) is a mistranslation by the King James translators, who perhaps were somewhat influenced by the Easter tradition at that time. Please note, however, that apart the KJV, all other translations have properly translated that word into “Passover” (G3957 Pascha {pas’-khah}), which is correct.]

DOES THE BIBLE CONDEMN EASTER RITUALS?

And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:13-14).

Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east (Ezekiel 8:15-16).

[NOTE: This is an ancient pagan Easter sunrise service!]

And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? … to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them” (Ezekiel 8:17-18).

[NOTE: Some commentators believe that the branch is in the form a letter “T” to symbolize the name of Tammuz, while some think it is even in the form of a cross?]

DOES THE BIBLE CONDEMN PAGAN TRADITIONS?

Beware of False Gods

“When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it” (Deuteronomy 12:29-32).

WHY THE SYMBOLS OF RABBITS, EGGS, AND FISH FOR EASTER?

We need to remember that Easter (Ishtar or Astarte) and Aphrodite were both sex goddesses.

While they were both considered to be promiscuous, each had their own favorite sex partners.

Easter’s main partner was son/lover Tammuz, while Greek Aphrodite’s was Adonis.

In ancient paganism (and without knowledge of God’s moral laws), their natural and primary focus was on sex.

No wonder, the pagans chose the symbols of sex and fertility: rabbits (among the fastest breeders); eggs (symbol of life and fertility), and fish (each can produce hundreds of thousands of eggs).

In other words, the main focus of Easter was sex, promiscuity, and immorality. Such spirit was adopted by the traditional Christian churches. What a shame!

The apostle Paul testified about this factual and common problem of the Gentiles [pagans] to the believers in Thessalonica when he wrote: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5).

WHAT SHOULD A TRUE CHRISTIAN DO?

“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons [or pagans]” (1 Corinthians 10:21).

Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17).

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).

“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her [this Babylonish, corrupted world system] my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).

CONCLUSION

There is NO connection whatsoever between the popular Easter celebration and the resurrection of Christ.

Traditional Easter symbols as rabbits, eggs, and fish do NOT celebrate nor commemorate the glorious resurrection of Christ. Rather, this pagan and immoral celebration is another major deception foisted upon gullible traditional Christianity to mislead them into gross religious error.

God commands His true and faithful followers to have no part in such Easter celebrations.