This holy holiday is in remembrance of Christ’s selfless sacrifice on the cross for our sins. He provided the whole world with the opportunity for salvation, if they so choose, with this one act. Our sins are forgiven when true repentance is demonstrated. By resurrecting three days after His crucifixion at Calvary by the Romans, He also defeated death, that is to say Satan, by fulfilling prophecy.
We get the name “Easter” from Acts 12:4. However, when we look this word up in the Strong’s Concordance, we find the word is actually “pascha” in the Greek. It may be found under #3957 in the Greek Dictionary of the Strong’s. Pascha means Passover, not Easter.
Pascha is used over 25 times in the New Testament, and each time it is correctly translated Passover. The word Easter is actually derived from the pagan goddess Ishtar. Sometimes referred to as the “queen of heaven” in the Bible. She was the goddess of fertility that the heathens would worship; especially in the spring time, to bring fertility to the land for the coming harvest months.
The queen of heaven is denounced by God in Jeremiah 7:17 – 20.
Jeremiah 7:17 – Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?
18- The children gather wood, and the father’s kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.
19- Do they provoke Me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20- Therefore thus saith the LORD GOD; Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.”
God is not happy with his children for adopting the traditions of pagans into their lives. He is a jealous God and is greatly displeased with idol worship and false gods. The queen of heaven is also mentioned in Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings.
The pagan worship event of Easter would include a large orgy meant to impregnate women to keep up the births in the coming year as well. Symbols of this idolatry were the egg and the rabbit; both symbolizing fertility.
It is believed by many scholars that this terminology was chosen as to broaden the base for Christianity by appealing to the pagans by adopting their holidays and traditions into the religion.
Many Christians consider Passover to be a Jewish holiday today, but Christ became the Passover lamb when He was crucified. In the Old Testament the blood of the lamb was smeared on the door frame so the angel of death would pass over the house. Christ spilled his blood so that we may be passed over from the angel of death today.
We should not celebrate Easter; but instead Passover as Christians. The actual day of Passover is 15 days after the spring equinox. On this day, holy communion should be taken in remembrance of our Lord and Savior.
Teach your children of Psalm 22, which Christ quoted on the cross when He said, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me.” He was not talking to God; Jesus always referred to God in prayer as, “Father.” He was quoting Psalms 22, which predicted His fate on the cross with staggering detail, right down to the Roman soldiers gambling for His clothes; written hundreds of years before the crucifixion at Calvary. This is undeniable evidence of the truth written of in the Bible.
In truth, Passover is the holiest of all days of the year, and we, as Christians, need to observe it properly.